Critical Role Finale

The Vecna fight won't be the last episode. They're going to have a feelgood ending episode where they send it off. And there is also the max level battle royale.

For the epilogue I want Vax to be a psychopomp for the Raven Queen, so he'll see his friends again eventually. Keyleth I want her to basically become immortal and suffer the burden of it. Percy deserves a happy end. Other then that, the possibility of cameos for the next campaign would be neat.

>Percy
The smallest threat to Vecna out of Vox Machina. Big V won't even bother with him. Percy will be on killing minions duty. I predict the last characters standing will be Percy and Grog. Percy will last to the end with the majority of his HP, win or lose.
>Grog
Truly the underdog in this fight. Vec knows Grog has the Sword of Kas and Grog can't fly. Big V will dump all WIS saves on Grog and dance away from him. Grog will last until the end of the fight, as there's no point in Big V blowing him up due to Grog's HP. At least this time they were smart enough to cast Freedom of Movement on him. If Grog can touch Big V even a few times, he'll put in work.
>Vex
Exact same thing will happen to her as the first time. Dead pretty early into the fight. She'll take a hit from one spell, drop below 100 HP, and get a nice Power Word: Kill to put her out of her misery.
>Vax
Hard to say. Last fight he didn't get the chance to do anything. FoM will change that this time, I believe. I think his chances are mostly good but he has incredibly low HP like Vex so I wouldn't be surprised if he gets PW:K'd halfway into the fight.
>Keyleth
I don't expect Vecna to pay much mind to her, honestly. She has some good shit she can do but nothing that's really going to get in his way. There are bigger fish to fry. If Big V is systematically eliminating VM in order of the threat they pose to him, Keyleth will die third.
>Pike
Either the first or second character Vecna will focus down. Killing her will instantly neuter VM and deprive them of heals and resurrections. She's tanky, with a high AC, good WIS saves, and decent HP iirc. Nothing she does can directly give Vec a hard time, but if she dies VM will melt.
>Scanlan
Definitely the biggest threat to Vecna out of VM. If Scanman isn't killed first, he'll be killed after Pike. Out of VM, Scanlan alone is the only one who can actually fuck with Big V and give him a hard time. Scanlan's the only one who can banish Big V for good.

I've been saying it in almost every live thread for weeks hoping it won't come true. I think the real ending would be Vax going quietly and Matt saves this storyline for the new campaign. And Marisha gets to RP two characters at once when it happens

God, I hate Marisha.

I wish that people would talking about Mercer's shitty girlfriend and talk about the other problems that the show has.

We do.

I'm dreading this episode because Matt is truly hit-or-miss when it comes to DMing huge boss fights. Some have been fun, but then you have shit like that absolutely miserable kraken fight that everyone at the table hated, along with half the viewers. It was so bad even Colville felt he had to make a commentary vid to talk about how poorly it was handled.

Jury's out on where this Vecna fight will fall on that scale.

>Jury's out on where this Vecna fight will fall on that scale.
No matter what happens, there will be popcorn to be had as either the tumblrites throw a fit because it's a wipefest, or Veeky Forums whines the Vecna was a HP block instead of an interesting fight.

I wonder if Matt will keep the part of The Sword of Kas from previous editions which makes it completely impotent when actually fighting Vecna. It'd be a hilarious twist if they get all the way there and their secret weapon doesn't even work. Matt has punished them in the past for rushing in and not doing all their research.

Can Percy attempt the Banishing Ritual if Scanlan goes down? Scanlan has already activated the page, so it's readable, and percy can cast arcane spells. I forget if you need to use a high level spell slot to cast the Banishing Spell though. Either way, he doesn't have a magic weapon so that means he's useless against Vecna.

Marisha is going to not read her spells again and waste a turn doing something pointless or less than effective.

>He doesn't have a magical weapon

Wait, what? Are his guns not even +1 or something?

Nope. It has bitten them on the ass in the past because they've gone up against creatures that are immune to non-magical damage and he's always had to resort to using his trickshots.

Here's the RAW from the 5e DMG

The only gun that Percy has that's even remotely magical is the one he got off Ripley's corpse, Animus. If that breaks in the middle of the fight, the only way he'll be able to deal damage to Vecna is by channeling the magical charges from his cloak into his shots when they hit.

Currently, it seems like some of the cast is level 20 (Grog is Barb 17/Fighter 3, Vax might be Rogue 13/Paladin 7) and the others are either level 18 or 19. Keyleth and Pike have spent their 4th level slots to cast Freedom of Movement on people, with Pike spending an extra two 5th level for the last FoM and a Death Ward on Scanlan.

They've got a Simulacrum of Scanlan running around from their last rest, but he's low on HP (roughly 40 or so left on the fake Scanlan). The book has been activated though, so Pike, Keyleth, Vex, or Scanlan can read from it and cast the Binding Spell in it (it needs a 3rd level spell slot to be infused into it to cast the spell).

In terms of large spells, Keyleth burned her 7th level to get them back to the undead city from their emergency exit to the Feywild, and Pike might not have any more 5th level either, using them for Mass Cure Wounds after their run-in with the Briarwoods. The other big things are that Percy is low (or out) of Grit for his trick shots, and Keyleth is out of beast shape charges.

But it's likely going to be just Vecna + a couple Death Knights vs. Vecna + the Briarwoods, which means VM's chances of survival/victory go to around 75%.

Are you fucking serious? It's not like their setting is low fantasy or something, why couldn't they just find a goddamn artificer or something?

In my eyes, here is the following "best case scenario" battleplan for VM's success:

Grog doesn't get CCed or Banishment'ed in the first round and gets into melee with Vecna. Remember, he still has a Haste spell on him thanks to their run-in with Gilmore right at the top of the tower. If Grog gets into melee with Vecna, you bet your ass that Travis will blow EVERYTHING he has on Vecna. That means all his maneuver die, his Action Surge, and going full-on Reckless Attacks for those chances at critical hits.

Keyleth's plan with the stone pillars actually works and provides the group some cover + angles for Grog to get at Vecna from the ground and into the air. After that, she Shapechanges into the highest CR thing she can become (either a Planetar or an Ancient Dragon) and starts flying Grog around for him to get into melee and for her to provide a big old meat shield for the group.

Pike plays healer bot duty, with the option of throwing out a Divine Intervention if things start to go south as Plan B. She might be able to throw things like Guiding Bolt at Vecna, but I think her spell slots will be taxed keeping VM alive. Her other main duty will be guarding Scanlan from any people that are not Vecna, because you can be sure that Scanlan's the #1 target that Vecna will be gunning for.

Vax just goes all-in on Vecna with Vow of Enmity + smites and us hoping that he gets a crit or two with his attacks.

Vex and Percy probably have to resort to run and gun tactics and help ping down the minions on the ground, Vex playing backup healer with her spells and using them for when people get KOed by damage. Percy really can't do much to Vecna without his trick shots, and the best way to get his Grit back will be on taking down the adds.

Scanlan's got the toughest job of them all: staying alive AND knowing when to blow Counterspell. Thankfully there's a Simulacrum of himself, and even if it's at half HP it's still at least one round of 2 Counterspells.

Sam literally played one, and not once during the year timeskip did Percy ever think "Gee, I should have my buddy enhance my stuff!" Actually wait, I take that back. Percy probably went "Waaaa guns are bad only I certain others should ever touch one" like he always does when this shit comes up.

>The book has been activated though, so Pike, Keyleth, Vex, or Scanlan can read from it and cast the Binding Spell in it (it needs a 3rd level spell slot to be infused into it to cast the spell).

Can divine casters use arcane spells? Pike, Keyleth, and Vex are all divine. I'm pretty sure Matt menioned it being an arcane spell.

In-game, Percy doesn't trust magic. Not to mention that the last time he had a magic gun (Pepperbox) it also doubled as a house for a literal demon.

Out-of-game, Taliesin straight up forgot to have Pike enchant his guns with Magic Weapon during the time skip.

I think Matt's said that if a non-arcane user wanted to cast the spell, they'd need to make an Arcana check to do so. Which, if Vex, Keyleth, or Pike have to do that, things have already gone sideways on them and they're scrambling to get a Pyrrhic victory.

Really I understand why Matt has to resort to HP blocks for his boss fights. Anything more and VM would have been wiped long ago because their smartest person is rping a six int Barbarian

> cont.

We don't really know the full extent of Vecna's godly powers, but Matt seemed to imply that most of those divine efforts were being aimed at jaegering the undead primordial and keeping the undead under his control. So it's possible that, for the first round or two, Vecna might be thinking that his mooks + the Briarwoods will be able to deal with them.

It'll probably only be when he can't summon forth the Briarwoods (or a severely weakened Silus, assuming he's reconstituted himself at this point) that he knows some serious shit happened and will divert his full attention to VM.

My guess is that for a stat block, he'll have around 800 HP and be immune to all non-magical damage + poison and resistant to the more basic forms of energy damage (fire, cold, lightning, thunder, acid). We already know his spell DC is a 24, which means his INT is probably a 30. Prior to godhood his worst save might've been STR or CHA, but after his ascension I'm guessing all his stats are at least a 22, and probably has a very high CON score thanks to both lichdom and his divine powers.

In terms of Legendary Actions, my guess is he'll be able to Move via Teleportation as 1 Action, cast a Cantrip as 1 Action, and Cast a Spell as 2 Actions. The main question here is: how many Legendary Actions does he have? We've seen how brutal giving a powerful spellcaster 4 Legendary Actions can be (see the Raishan fights), and I don't think Matt will want to throw that at them again. The other big question is: how many Legendary Resistances? Most up to this point had 3. I suspect given his divine powers he'll have 4 or 5 now.

If it were me running this battle, I'd have Vecna aim all his offensive powers at Scanlan first, blow up their one arcane caster and just tank some damage from Vax and the others. After that, you PW: Kill Pike and then Legendary Action Finger of Death her. After that, play hit and run tactics with the rest of the cast now that their two biggest healers are dead.

There's also the fact that literally half of his players are playing high DPS classes (Assassin + Vengeance Paly, Zerker Barb + Battlemaster, Ranger + Assassin, basically Ranged DEX Fighter w/ some extra bells and whistles).

Pike, Keyleth, and Scanlan can dish out some damage too, but it's not nearly as high as the other three. Pic related for some theoretical damage totals (literally impossible that they'd occur, but it puts it in scale).

Vax pulling out the Haste + Ready action would be an unexpected delight two sneak attacks per round could really upscale his damage and with crits could really hit Vecna and his crew.

Sadly I don't think he will be doing this...

I doubt he'll do it as well, because the longer the fight drags on, the more likely the odds of Vecna winning occur, because VM's biggest weakness - a problem they've had post Briarwood arc - is a lack of Arcane prowess.

Don't get me wrong; Sam is playing Scanlan about as smart as you can play a Lore Bard, but it's pushing the class to the breaking point with how high fantasy they've gotten, and I think this is where we see the little gnome snap. Even with there being two of them now, the moment the fake one goes down Vecna should blow everything on the real one and just overwhelm him with Legendary Actions.

It'd still be a problem even if Sam or someone else was playing a Wizard, but the benefit of the Wizard is a larger spell list for additional forms of protection, which the Lore Bard gives up for Magical Secrets, Cutting Words, healing magic, and a d8 hit die.

Funnily enough, if Orion/Tiberius was still on the cast, the odds of them winning would shoot up dramatically again. Two Counterspell casters vs. an Arcane-focused boss, including Vecna? That's basically cutting his Legendary Actions in half if they played the fight right.

From Tumblr, but accurate.

Does Matt ever make boss NPCs crit fail? I remember times when someone from VM rolls a 1 with an attack and gets their weapon stuck somewhere so they have to spend an action (or bonus was it?) to pull it out with a strenght/athletics check, but I don't remember seeing him do it for enemy NPCs despite having rolled a 1. They just miss.

>their smartest person is rping a six int Barbarian

I don't watch the show, but I keep hearing this in these threads. How the fuck does he stand this happening? From what I've heard he just cringes in the background while all of them come up with retarded goddamn ideas because he's a good roleplayer.

He does get to say one or two really smart things a session, because he follows up said good idea with a literal BSOD, or if it's a REALLY smart idea, literal psychic damage as he strokes out a bit after giving out the idea, "for thinking too hard," as both him and Matt have described it.

I think I'll try and pick it up next game they run and hope to god the motherfucker rolls a Wizard and destroys Matt's game out of vengeance.

I don't think there'll be a next game.

There will be a next campaign, they're already discussing it for a few months now. Probably a 'Next Generation' kind of thing, 30 years timeskip, new chars at level 3, etc.

Personally, I've always hated low INT characters in my games. They're never funny. They're kinda funny for an initial concept, but then it just roadblocks the player because they're forced to pretend to be stupid and having them come up with good plans always feels like a cop out.

Same world and system? Kinda lame. I really wanted to see Matt run a shadowrun campaign or something else.

The idea of a "next game" started popping up around the Thordac fight. Back then Matt made it clear that he was very much intrested in another system. Shadowrun, RIFTS and Deadlands where brought up the most. HOWEVER GnS and by extension Matt and Marisha have a conract with Green Ronin to make more books for his setting, so it would diminish the brand if they did that. If it's any consolation they are going to be running the next game without the ridiculous house rules they have now.

The current plan is: Regardless what the outcome of the Vecna fight is, once it's over, they're rolling a new party of characters in the same world, set 30 years in the future.

The difference is that if Vox Machina TPKs fighting Vecna, then the next party will take place in a Darkest Timeline future where Vecna has completely dominated the world. I kinda want this to happen.

I don't think it will be a literal Next Generation thing, Laura has talked about wanting the party to go meet Vex and Percy's children, which means no one in the party is playing them. Thank god.

If Travis doesn't roll in with an Order of the Lycan blood hunter, I'll be genuinely shocked.

Would love a Shadowrun game but you're right that there's no way he'll drop Tal'Dorei with the books on sale and more on the way.
I'd at least be encouraged to start watching them again if they play something which isn't a Level 17 demigod.

They're starting the next party at baby levels, so that shouldn't be a problem.

God damn, I would love to see them run Deadlands. There's basically no Deadlands streams, and the charity one-shot they did in that setting was bungled by all the audience interaction bullshit.

Be ready to see some lvl3 no good scrubs in their new game in late October - early November then.

I believe Matt has said they'd be starting up the next campaign with it being all new characters around 30 years in the future on a new continent (probably Wildmount, which we only got some hints at there being a very political-heavy atmosphere on the continent), with everyone being about halfway through level 2.

The continent Vasselheim is located on is a bit too high level for a starter campaign (it's great for level 6-11 though), and the desert continent could also work, but it'd be more, "ok, we spend 3 weeks doing Survival checks to not get lost in the desert" for the first few levels until they get a faster mode of transportation.

Marisha and Matt are getting married on the 21st or something like that. I expect they'll wrap up the Vecna fight tomorrow, do an epilogue/post-mortem episode next week, and then break a week or two. Early November is likely.

I don't think they'll pass up on the opportunity to do the Haloween one-shot though. If Matt and Marisha are busy, maybe Liam or some other player might DM though.

It's possible that Taliesin could run a one-shot for the Halloween special, as he's got the most experience with tabletop games in general, combined with the fact that he's the resident expert on all things spooky/creepy due to his interests (he loves horror and eccentric stuff).

If memory serves, he and Matt were on the Dread mini-series that is on Alpha, which I've been told is the best Alpha-exclusive content they've produced to date.

Not that there's anything wrong with Liam or Sam running another game. I just think that I'd like to see Taliesin sit behind the DM screen for a change.

Reminder that Vecna is max lvl wizard and should have access to feeblemind. Dont pussy out on us matt. This fight would be such a joke if he acctually wanted people dead. Oh well still going to be good.

This gets me giggling ever single time. Watching grog have a good idea then them shoot it down for a worse one i feel bad for the guy but still its pretty funny

You know, I think at this point it's fair to say they're going to work out a win tomorrow no matter how things go down. It's hard to really put down a level 18-20 party with six players in it for good, regardless of how dumb they all are.

That's why I'm so excited for the new game, actually. Levels 1-3 in 5e are disprorotionately lethal when compared to high level play, and I suspect we might see a few true, no-take-backsies PC deaths before the group hits that sturdier 5th level range where people stop dying so often. I'm interested in seeing how the CR crew reacts to having their character stories cut short in difinitive, unceremonious ways.

People you'd like to see on crit role?

I'm not quite sure that will happen, Matt has DMed a whole shitload of one-shots with low-level characters that don't matter, and even then, none of them felt like they were in severe danger. If he pulled the punches then, I'm positive he will for the new permanent party, especially since they've been working on these characters for over a month.

I want Darin de Paul to be a permanent cast member.

For voice actor guests, I'd love to see Steve Blum or Crispin Freeman.

Long shot, but it would be fucking amazing if they could get Dee Bradley Baker or Nolan North in there.

Darin was great but isn't his character dead as fuck?

Nolan north would not fit in so much it'd be amazing, everytime I've ever seen him he's been the turbo autist. Also I want Ashley B back

Joe Manganiello was GOAT in the last episode. He not only knows the rules, but he plays extremely intelligently. Plus Jocks Machina needs to endure.

Kevin Michael Richardson.

>isn't his character dead as fuck?
Kinda? I don't think that matters. If they're rolling a new party, it would be an ideal time for him to join as a permanent cast member with a new character as well.

Also, related to that:

Do we think Ashley is going to stay on the show?

I know she's their friend and has been playing with them for years, but she's barely on any episodes now thanks to Blindspot. I wonder if she's going to roll a new character with everyone at all, or just bow out.

Maybe he'll replace Ashley then? I assume she'll come in from time to time. She barely says anything anyway

For Matt to pull his punches and fucking let them win.

Wait Matt DOESN'T have Travis double Brutal critical? Isn't that the fucking point of his build?

Fuck yes. My dream of one day playing with Travis has now extended to include Joe

I'm pretty sure they do generally account for brutal crit, but sometimes they forget

Honestly I'm glad Scanlan shut Keyleth down on her idea to nap in the tower of death right before the end. It was her own fault for once again wasting her main class abilities on trash mobs which ended up having zero impact on the fight.

Percy is going to use his devil contract. Everyone else has forgotten about it but I guarantee he hasn't

Most of them forget adding their stuff, like Vex forgetting to hunters mark.

Does she even know it's a spell and it uses her spell slots?

Simon Templeman, maybe as Briarwood or something.

Pretty sure but just forgets to add it. Who knows why, I think Travis gets on her case about it during the break. Then sometimes she starts adding it and he smirks.

We really need to see Travis doing smart shit. He's a good roleplayer, and I love Grog, but fuck if he could actively command a party of idiots tactically then they could do a lot more with what the have.

It does get pretty ridiculous yeah. They have a party of 7-8 in most cases, while the average party size is 4, they should be steamrolling most things. Instead they've had trouble and almost TPK just handling minor devils.

No I mean she seems to act like its an ability and isn't taking subtracting from her spells slots to do other things

Really? She doesn't cast much else, maybe only as often as Keyleth casts healing.

The way they do it is they double the initial dice roll, then add the brutal critical. As in, instead of a greataxe crit doing 2d12 + 3d12 for brutal, they do 1d12x2, +3d12. Would probably maxe sense to jut do 1d12x5, but could really fuck him if he rolled low.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought of that

The answer to question is barely. Often when I'm doing something mundane I'll put on CR as background noise and if I hear a really stupid plan with a big obvious hole in its middle the person in question is sitting with one arm crossed in front of him and the other over his mouth. There is at least one other DM at the table who could probably point it out, but he is bro-tier and doesn't really meta like that.

Percy has the contract locked away in Whitestone and Matt has stated that the contract would need to be on his person to be invoked, so he can't use it unfortunately.

If I remember correctly he can summon a couple of mid level devils to help or revive one person. I'm not sure that will be too effective in this fight.

i don't know i fell asleep at first half of the first episode and never bothered watching that crap again.

Wow that's so cool, can I be your friend?

Sure. Make a roll, and if you get a super rad Nat 20 you get a BFF who will go on ZANY adventures with you like jumping over buildings and punching gorillas. That sounds like a load of fun, right?

That is EXACTLY what happens.

Replace Marisha with Darin de Paul.

The scribe, IPKESH agrees to immediately impart the recipient with knowledge of ancient power beyond their grasp, enabling the use of divine powers granted under the grace of Lord Dispater that can instantly restore themselves or allies to a healthy state, or rend the lifeforce from their opponents. These powers remain within your possession until death.

Fairly vague

Recap me on last week's episode

I want to watch them all but I can't be fucked to watch 60+ 4 hour episodes

>party rests in the feywild
>planeshifts back to vecnas tower
>oh, there's a random follower of tiamat here, lets befriend him
>surprise briarwoods
>kill briarwoods
>climb a tower
>see three figures in robes
>instantly assasinate two of them
>they were scanlans daughter and percy's sister
>resurrect them np
>Cast buff spells, time to fight vecna

It is but that doesn't mean that it implies the pact can do anything without limit. The trick with both devil pacts and wishes is that you are limited to what the being can grant themselves. They tend to be powerful at low levels and pointless at epic levels.

People watch this on Veeky Forums? It's for normalfucks who think RPGs are all about "le ebin natural 20" and laughing hysterically. Holy fucking shit, the amount of retarded sperg laughter makes me want to drive my fist through the wall whenever I listen to it. If I was in a Liam Neeson situation where there were armed men coming to take me and I needed to get psyched up to kill, I would just watch about 30 minutes of Critical Role and their stupid fucking laughter would be enough to whip me into a blood frenzy. The cunts are the worst, they are airheaded, stupid pieces of shit, lack self-awareness, they are everything that is wrong with women, they are why I gave up on dating because every cunt I met for coffee was so goddamn fucking boring I wanted to kill myself. Left one of them with the check once and just went to my car and drove home and deleted her number and facebook. Also Matt Mercer is hardly a good DM, given the amount of work he has to put into this. For fuck's sake I barely prep sometimes and I DM as well as him, description and everything. The only thing he has is a good voice. He looks like a greasy skater fuck, too. His hair is trash. Marisha whatever-her-name-is is so fucking stupid she's a prime example of why eugenics should make a comeback. And thanks to Critical Roll, I now have to DM for hordes of normoniggers and roasties who come into the store. I wanted to run fucking Curse of Strahd and figured I'd help out the FLGS at the same time and now I'm fucking trapped in hell. These pieces of shit come in two groups: video game autists who treat it all like a video game, and normos who don't even understand what's going on, but they liked a bunch of critical role nat20 pages on Tumblr and upvotes nat20 stories on Reddit so now they're nerds and shit. Fucking hell, this crap has started creeping into my other games, too. I am so sick of players saying "lol I just rolled a CRIT on my spot check" well it's a 23 but it doesn't matter cause I rolled a CRIT.

tl:dr

surprised it took this long for someone to post it

the important part here is that Matt forced them to burn big spells here

things you missed
>one off literal time warp to rest in feywild without much time passing
>when they get back the city is in sight of the death titan, no time to screw around

>during briarwoods others already have Delila knocked prone, bigby's handed, with grog and vex attacking her
>Keyleth decides this is a good time to also entangle the prone Delila, use her cloak to glide, and her elemental shape so she can restrain the already prone dying Delila

>at the base of the tower they need to hurry to save the city before it's too late
>Keyleth whines she needs a short rest to recover her shit
>after arguing they overrule Keyleth because Scanlan says wtf dude this is it no time for rests

this week it will be
>Keyleth dies and complains about not getting the short rest

I really just don't understand the Darin de Paul fanaticism. I mean he was a fine guest, but everyone and their grandmother just creams themselves at the mention of him.

I admit I may have missed something in those episodes, but I just don't see what's supposed to make him so great. He wasn't bad, and he was certainly better than some (Garthok, Gern, etc.) but I just don't know what's so incredible about him.

>what do people expect from the finale of Critical Role?

Honestly?

A TPK.

These guys are fun to watch, but they play so poorly from a tactical perspective.

Add in the Boss Fight mechanics that they need to keep track of, and I honestly expect that we'll have several main character deaths, if not a TPK.

They may still succeed, but I honestly expect them to die to the last man if Matt plays Vecna as ruthlessly as he has been.

If Matt decides to pull his punches, expect several major NPC allies(Jamon, Kima, Alura, the skyship that aided them in the Thordak fight, the Ashari druids, etc) to show up, and the fight to be a bit more fair.

It's not that bad but you didn't even mention the worst thing about it.

Anyone that analyzes the game and the tactics used is instantly timed out, banned, comment deleted, warned or screamed at by the rabid fans. Something about "their fucking character they can play how they like who the fuck do you think you are" if you comment about anything game related.

Good acting and a good voice. It's like why people loved Tony Jay, after all he just read his lines, but the voice and the way it's used commands a presence. Out of all the regular cast I think only Laura Bailey is at that level but she barely ever shows it during the game.

Taliesin Delta Green one shot when?!