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Better D&D 5e Backgrounds
Crit Academy . Crit Academy .

Better D&D 5e Backgrounds

Better Backgrounds is a 5e book full of backgrounds that give you fun new things to spend your hit dice on. You could take the ordinary boring Soldier background from the PHB, which gives you two skill proficiencies and a bunch of other junk you'll never use, or you could take the Soldier background from this book, which gives you the same two skills but also lets you spend hit dice on Battlemaster tactics or extra attacks. The noble background can spend hit dice as a reaction to mimic the Leadership ability that you see in NPC stat blocks sometimes, and a folk hero can permanently reduce their hit dice - but not their HP - for additional save proficiencies.

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D&D PVP: 5e Team Deathmatch
Crit Academy . Crit Academy .

D&D PVP: 5e Team Deathmatch

5e Team Deathmatch is a team-based, PvP competitive tabletop arena for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition.

This game is an action RPG about strengthening the bonds you already have with the friends in your gaming group, or forming new bonds of friendship, in the face of shared adversity and the greatest challenge. Nothing beats the thrill of coming together to defeat a seemingly insurmountable foe. 5TDM doesn't throw any punches. It puts you through the wringer and lets your group emerge closer to each other than ever. It is competitive, but not toxic.

Small groups of player characters are pitted against each other in a no-holds-barred frenzy of carnage in a team-based, player-vs-player competition. 5th Edition Team Deathmatch is a contest of skill, wits, and luck. 5TDM is about winning the world's most popular roleplaying game.

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Exotic Equipment Perks | 5e Weapon Options
Crit Academy . Crit Academy .

Exotic Equipment Perks | 5e Weapon Options

In 5e the single largest lackluster choice is the weapon. There isn’t much in the way of uniqueness to separate them, except for maybe the damage die and a few restricting traits. Not to mention, some of the weapons are literally EXACTLY the same (looking at you polearms). Today we discuss Exotic Equipment Perks! Make your choice of weapon and armor matter!

Weapons and equipment should be more than just objects that adventurers carry to slay enemies and protect themselves. In the proper hands of a master, they can be powerful tools to gain the upper hand against an enemy in a myriad of different ways. Let’s delve into the next big choice your characters and monsters have for the fifth edition of the world’s greatest roleplaying game.

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Spelljammer: Adventures in Space
Crit Academy . Crit Academy .

Spelljammer: Adventures in Space

What does spelljamming feel like?

For any spellcaster at the helm, they must deal with two simultaneous realities. The first is the awareness of their body and the events around them. Though they can’t move or cast spells without breaking contact with the spelljamming device.

The second reality is a large expansion of consciousness. The spellcaster “feels” the spelljammer vessel as an extension of their body, even the atmospheric envelope, and gravity plane it creates. If this critical link is broken, the vessel becomes inoperable.

Let's discuss the upcoming Spelljammer Adventures in Space released by Wizards of the Coast through the lens of its original material, 2nd Edition.

In Spelljammer, Everything you Know about Space is Wrong!

“Infinite space; stars as flaming spheres of superheated plasma; movement through space as a balance of scientific forces, thrust providing acceleration and maneuverability; scientific fact backing up natural phenomena; life on other planets built along blocks of carbon or silicon elements.

Forget all that. It’s wrong.”

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Make Monsters Scary Again using Lair Actions!
Crit Academy . Crit Academy .

Make Monsters Scary Again using Lair Actions!

Are you sick of your epic villains dying in just a few turns as the party surrounds and splats them?

Do you get frustrated that your boss fights turn into boring slug fests where everyone involved just stands still and wallops each other?

Do you want to fill your players with dread anticipation with only two words?

“Lair Action. Skeletal hands burst from the floor and walls around you grasping and clawing.”

“Lair Action. The cave ceiling cracks, covering the ground with uneven rubble, it looks like the section above your head is about to collapse.”

“Lair Action. Maddening whispers fill your mind, urging, demanding, screaming that you turn on your allies and kill.”

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Remarkable Cults and their Followers | A MUST HAVE DM TOOL!
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Remarkable Cults and their Followers | A MUST HAVE DM TOOL!

Hidden behind closed doors and lurking in unseen strongholds, dark forces gather. Today we reveal some of their secrets in Loresmyth’s Remarkable Cults and their Followers.

Behind most nefarious organizations looms a mastermind, a puppet master, or a tyrant. Their powers and abilities are whispered of in rumors, and their histories have become dark legends unto themselves.

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