WARNING: SPOILERS FOR CRITICAL ROLE CAMPAIGN 3
A pair years in the past, I began watching the favored Dungeon & Dragons roleplaying stream Important Function, following the adventures of the ragtag band referred to as Bell’s Hells from the very starting. Numerous my associates are long-time followers of Important Function, notably Marketing campaign 2, “The Mighty Nein,” and I made a decision that this third marketing campaign was a great time to leap in.
I’ve had my ups and downs with Marketing campaign 3, as 1) I felt it couldn’t all the time maintain my consideration, particularly when every season was 3–5 hours lengthy, and a pair of) it drew so much from earlier campaigns that made it exhausting to observe. However, I caught with it. Then got here a turning level that I feel helped lastly get me extra invested: the group’s journey to the purple moon, Ruidus. Not solely was it revealed that this moon is inhabited by all method of heretofore unknown species, however that they lived underneath the tyranny of the Weave Thoughts, 5 historic psychics who’ve mixed their powers to rule as one. And if there’s something I really like in fiction, it’s villainous hive thoughts masters whose very mixed nature are each their best power and their Achilles’ heel.
The Overmind? Hell yeah. Mom Mind? All the time love combating her. Nearly each shmup closing boss? Give me extra. Ougi Ichirou from Kekkaishi? The reveal that he’s really six brothers grotesquely fused collectively is certainly one of my favourite moments in that manga.
A pair weeks in the past, Important Function lastly had the gamers enter into direct battle with the Weave Thoughts. Nonetheless, whereas Bell’s Hells are the primary heroes, they weren’t those to confront the masters of Ruidus. The story had led to the participant teams from every of the three campaigns tackling separate important missions, and this was the Mighty Nein’s. The end result: It was wonderful, and possibly my favourite episode of Marketing campaign 3, tied possibly solely with the pyrrhic victory towards Otohan.
Now, I’ve seen a few of the arguments on-line as to why the Weave Thoughts battle was disappointing for some individuals. “The Mighty Nein don’t have any narrative connection to them.” “They had been solely ever talked about as this nice evil, and by no means had the possibility to actually present it.” However as legitimate and affordable as these opinions are, I can’t resist an superior battle towards a hive thoughts boss, notably when it entails particular mechanics, and these mechanics are key to unraveling the seeming invincibility of the enemy. I’ll eat that stuff up all day lengthy.
The Weave Thoughts was revealed to have a variety of options tied to their distinctive composition and the positioning of battle, their Pentathrone Chamber. A psychic shroud of some form that made them tough to focus on. Harm to any certainly one of them can be divided evenly between all 5, blunting the harm. They may assault in unorthodox methods, like eliminating participant spell slots and forcing exhaustion. Three might work collectively to create a triangle area-of-effect assault. Additionally they had particular shields that granted them extra HP, and which was restored on the high of each flip.
However because the Mighty Nein fought them, the gamers regularly realized methods to tear down the interconnected layers of protection. Smashing the crystalline constructions specifically helped to blunt their capability to regenerate their shields, and when Veth (performed by Sam Riegel) landed a sneak assault on one of many Weave Thoughts, the foe occurred to be able that prevented them from sharing harm with the others, and have become the turning level of the battle. The implied shock at having their weak point uncovered was personally extraordinarily satisfying.
Shortly after, Yasha (Ashley Johnson) landed a blow so robust that even the harm distribution couldn’t save the wounded member from being slain, and the lattice work of defenses really led to the Weave Thoughts’s undoing. With one much less ally to take the ache, it turned more durable for them to climate hits, and when some intelligent teamwork by Beau (Marisha Ray) and Caleb (Liam O’Brien) left certainly one of them shocked and unable to withstand a Disintegration spell, killing one really led to the demise of the collective. The DM, Matt Mercer, described the dying Weave Thoughts as mockingly being defeated by the very fusion of selves that granted them such extraordinary skills, and that their closing moments confirmed how pathetic they and their petty ambitions actually had been regardless of their immense energy.
Wonderful. 10/10.
I feel what made all this particularly interesting to me was that Matt Mercer had particularly set this all up as a novel fight problem for the gamers. Like a great professional wrestling match, the technical side helped to gasoline the story of the battle, however with the added issue that none of this was predetermined. The entire setup jogs my memory of one of many huge dividing strains in battle-oriented anime and manga: whether or not a sequence focuses on mind battles or coronary heart battles. This undoubtedly leans extra into the previous with the earlier battle by Marketing campaign 1’s Vox Machina extra the latter. Making a mind battle emotionally satisfying isn’t all the time straightforward, however I feel the staff pulled it off.
I don’t suppose each battle in an RPG needs to be towards hive minds (it’d in all probability get previous), however pulling one out and making it this thrilling is precisely the form of factor that makes me need to memorialize it on this weblog. Kudos to the Important Function staff.
