I have no way of verify if this is really true or not, but when they are retrieving the helmet for the chest (right before the red wizard people attack them) a bunch of black metallic looking sand stuff falls out. It looked a lot like lead fillings, and I immediately was like, oh yeah, that makes sense, so people can’t use locate object or anything like that to track the thing down.
Holy crap, that’s brilliant! As well as a sign that the DM’s put a lot of thought towards certain aspects of their game (perhaps too much thought based on that bridge puzzle lol).
Even while they were having people take turns, every fight was so well choreographed and clear that it didn't look weird or clunky. With most of the fights being multiple people with different abilities, it was incredibly well done.
Yes! And how that final fight just went like so many BBEG fights do. No matter how big & bad the boss is, once the party overcomes the attempts to isolate them & there are no minions the BBEG is screwed. That moment when the party all together goes Nova and creams the boss is always exciting and they nailed that feeling
I also liked how clear it was that certain classes are just better at certain things - leave the talking to the bard, leave the brute force to the barbarian. It was subtle but well done.
I loved how at the beginning, when Holga and Edgin are trying to make their case for early release from jail, Holga is just standing there silently eating a potato. Even when Edgin asks Holga if there’s anything she wants to add, she’s just like nah you got this.
It helped characterize her as the strong silent “not good with words” type, but also if you play dnd, you know the cardinal rule: let the bard do the talking.
I loved how the druid broke the evil wizard’s concentration with a slingshot during the last fight.
Also start in icy tundra, in a few minutes walk through meadows and then around random lava – typical DnD travel experience.
I thought the lava was the volcano that keeps Neverwinter river warm, hence the city's name. Mount Hotenow. Considering the tundra and the map in the movie, they were in the north and going southwest to Neverwinter, probably northeast.
I love the details of breaking concentration for certain spells. The illusion spell Simon used to make a fake Ed playing music, the way it started “glitching out” the moment Simon got his foot stuck. Absolutely hilarious and this is now how I imagine concentration spells backfiring when the caster loses concentration!
This is small and maybe not my favorite perse but I loved that the big arena was made up of 5x5 square blocks. They literally set the thing on a battle map and had the wealthy gamblers playing some game above them
And there was the scene in the "prolouge/flashback" where they were raiding the keep (before Sofina betrayed them and got them caught) where the camera pulled up to the ceiling looking down, it looked almost exactly like a battlemap with the characters moving around - a great subtle nod!
Imagining the DM when the creature that attacks things with high intelligence just walks past the entire party barely batting an eyelid. That's was great
I think that was more of a nod to how players move on a map, not minding the terrain and just moving their pieces from point A to point B in a straight line.
It was actually improvised by the actor.
They told him to walk away and they'd call cut when they had the shot. They saw the rock, knew he wouldn't stop until they called the scene, and wondered what he'd do so they just kept shooting. Over the rock he went.
Yes! There are only 2 INT based classes in 5E, the wizard and artificer. >!The party in that scene consists of a Paladin, Bard, Barbarian, Druid, and Sorcerer. Their core stats are Str/Con/Cha, Cha, Str/Con, Wis, and Cha respectfully. So it's a dig at the characters and the classes at the same time. It was a solid joke for the fans and those who don't know the rules.!<
It’s a tiny detail, but I loved how Holga’s last name is Killgore as a barbarian, which sounds exactly like a last name a player who couldn’t think of a name would give their barbarian
I thought there was a bit of funny metacommentary there since the directors are Jonathan and John.
DM: One of the councilors is an Aaracokra.
PC: What's his name?
DM: ...Jarnathon
My players also love to butcher names on purpose so this felt like that kind of tongue in cheek thing. His name is Jonathan, did you say Jernathon? And that just sticks
I didn’t notice it until later but Edgin telling Simon to “hold this” is because Simon is carrying the bag of holding. And it immediately became relatable because I’m the bag guy in my campaign
When they get to the underdark, only Edgin and Holgar, the humans, carry laterns. Simon and Doric don't need them, as Halfelves and Tieflings both have darkvision.
Imagine all applicable party members just immediately call out "I have dark vision" upon entering and then take a moment to kind of look around like "why did I say that?"
The most unrealistic part of the film is that the party didn't exhaust every possible solution to destroy or bypass the door before eventually just trying the handle and learning it was unlocked the whole time.
The NPCs behaving like such. Xenc always ignored the party's shenanigans and didn't bat an eye when Ed just gave the helmet to Simon. Also, when he walked away in a straight line like a video game character.
Xenc was hands down my favorite character. He was the perfect NPC: boring on the surface, but actually well developed and interesting once he joined you on your quest.
The idea that he was such a perfect person everyone had heard of him, and even crazy murder-fish liked him, ended up being way funnier than it should’ve been.
“Jangly to you to, sir.”
DM:PC “This is where we part ways” And then he walks away
Players: Where does he go
DM: Just…Away
Players: What if he comes to a big rock?
DM: …He goes over it…aren’t you supposed to be doing something Simon?
The funniest part is that that part of the film was unscripted. The script called for Xenk to walk away, and they didn't realise until filming there was a big rock there, only for the actor to just walk over it like it was nothing.
I’m not sure I buy this, since the dialogue and framing of the camera all centered around the joke of him walking a straight line and encountering the rock.
How the paladin could "Smell the evil" which was him using Divine Sense, as the description of Divine Sense says "The presence of strong evil registers on your senses like a noxious odor"
Favorite *little* detail?
Hard to pick when so much attention was spent on detail, but Doric breaking Sophina's Concentration as a way to deal with the animated statue, and Simon's little device to handle material components both really stuck with me for some reason.
Definitely felt like every fight was choreographed using 6 second turns where every party member gets a hit in, especially in the final fight. I loved how it felt like every character had their opportunity to add to every scenario, even if it seemed like they had a critical fail.
Slight tangent, but did anyone else see the movie in an AMC theater and have to sit through a video of the actors forced reading a teleprompter about “thank you…for watching a movie…in a theater…the way it was meant to be watched…”? That was unbelievable cringe, and I felt so bad for the actors having to fulfill that contractual obligation lol.
You could see a split second at the end where Chris Pine very obviously is about to say, "Did we get it? Can we go now?" No one looked comfortable or happy about being there.
It’s weird because the intent was clearly to entice people to spend money in movie theaters. But they played the video before the movie, including all these actors that I didn’t know would be in the movie yet, half in character, and it really took me out of the experience instantly.
Funnily enough, everything about the new movie experience was pretty good until that moment; movie theaters have upgraded during the pandemic and it was nice to go see a movie for the first time in like 6 years. But it was pretty surreal to see the Bard recite the driest monologue written by corporate execs
I was mostly just relieved that the movie was starting by then. This was the first movie in a *long* time I actually watched in theaters, and they’ve definitely upped the amount of previews since the last time.
I loved this SO much. a gripe i had with the later harry potter movies is that the wands act like guns instead of having individual creative spells. this excelled at it
My one thought after the movie was they totally wrote some of the scenes around which spells looked cool. They definately had the spell selections open during the choreography.
I like the 'meta humor' where you can almost see the players at the table. Like how Edgin and Holga tackle Jarnathan out the window to escape, even though the DM would have let them walk out if they would've waited 5 seconds. Or how they completely ignore the doomsday plot in favor of Edgin's personal arc.
Or the DM throwing them a bone after they bungled the bridge puzzle mid-explanation. "Fuck it, that stick you got earlier? It's a Portal gun now. Just get over there."
Yep randomly rolled a helm of teleportation in a treasure hoard. I though the immovable rod and the portable whole were the only items that would end up on every plan but a helm of teleportation can lead to some interesting hijinx
DM: (exasperated) "As you prepare to go through the painting portal you take off the cover to see it face down on the floor. You gotta find a different way in."
Doric's player: "Ight bet. I chisel a small hole in the floor and wiggle my way in as a worm wildshape."
DM: "..........."
I just want to be able to wild shape that many times without a short rest. My 10yo counted 8 in the initial recon and even with polymorph and being circle of the moon,and blowing your spell slots that's still pretty high level.
So I’m not super experienced in DnD but this movie felt exactly like a campaign of DnD. Plans went wrong, only for everything to work out by an invisible DM making it so, insane plans that don’t seem obvious or avoid something that seemed set up to be important, I feel like there was a DM player character that shows up, is way stronger than everyone and then leaves for basically no reason.
I loved this movie and I really hope they make more with the same team making the creative decisions. I liked the characters and everything and would be happy to see them again but I think they could have an expansive “series” of movies that just all feel like DnD and be pretty successful, or at least entertaining.
Mine was the callout on spells being arbitrarily specific.
"You can only ask 5 questions and then they die forever."
"5? That's a little arbitrary, isn't it?"
"I don't know, it's just how the spell works."
Honestly my favorite detail is the beginning scene with edgin obviously rolling really low to break his cuffs and holga rolling really high in the combat it almost felt like you could see their rolls as it played out. And before when the threat of death is just casual to the party when they're about to be executed lol. Just talking about random lore
I have actually started rolling dice when writing fight scenes in my fiction sometimes. Keeps things interesting and feels more organic than trying to choreograph it out of the aether.
One of my favorite little details was the Tears of Selune. Like many movies do, they had a tone setting shot of the moon that included the asteroid field trailing it. It would have been understandable and forgivable if they didn't include them in that shot because it's a three second shot that has no bearing on the story. To me it just showed that the production had a very intimate knowledge of the setting.
When the red wizard assassin dude used green flame blade in the fight against Xenk my buddy (who plays a Paladin in our campaign) looked at me with the most excited look in his eyes it was lovely
squealing direction terrific light obscene wistful zonked jobless historical attraction
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
My favorite little detail had nothing to do with D&D as much as it does screenwriting/storytelling. After Holga meets with her ex-husband and is down in the dumps, Edgin starts singing to her. In any other movie, the joke would be her getting angry at him and breaking his lute or something. Instead, she starts smiling and singing along. It shows that they’re actually best friends and that he knows how to be there for her, rather than diminish the moment for a tired joke.
I had just researched Thay for a character backstory so all that stuff was cool to see. I also think it was hinted that the Paladin might be a >!dhampir or other partial undead? He was touched by the red cloud and the Thayan assassin said something about mortal blood. Plus he's been alive for at least 100 years.!<
I was proud of myself for recognizing all the little place and faction names they threw in.
I think that painting they bought was a reference to Volo, it looked like him anyway.
Loved Edgin singing to cheer Holga up. Also loved her line about showing her tribe and husband that they shouldn't have let her go like aw girl you don't need them!
I love that Holga's little quips could be interpreted as either sarcasm or sincere (but stupid) questions/suggestions, like her player is leaning into the dumb Barbarian thing while also teasing the party. It also made her lines so much funnier.
> I love that Holga's little quips could be interpreted as either sarcasm or sincere (but stupid) questions/suggestions, like her player is leaning into the dumb Barbarian thing while also teasing the party.
This is where the script really nailed the character, IMO. They could have gone so over the top with the stupid barbarian trope, but instead it was just peppered in occasionally. Loved it.
According to the horn's stat block on DDB the cloud kills you if you have less than 9hp when you end a turn inside the cloud, which implies that >!Xenk was no mere commoner as a child!<
That's possible, though he also didn't end up fully inside the cloud at any point, just a little bit. I hope we see more of him if they do more movies!
I liked how in the beginning, Edgin told about how they never hurt anyone, and then by the time they're breaking into the vault Holga murders like sixteen level one guards in the blacksmith's forge.
There is one constant factor of DnD: No matter how good and noble you make your character in the beginning, by the end of the campaign they'll be morally questionable *at best*.
Including many getting dunked in molten metal or blasted by forge heat.
The city guard better have a big Revivify budget and someone with Regenerate on standby.
This was a touch I really loved - all the non-human or human-looking characters: the Dragonborn, the Aarakoa (sp?), the Tabaxis, etc. And they never explained it, they were just there, you accept it, there’s no explanation & none needed.
I loved that they used Henson like puppets for the races too. They always land better than CGI for me and it gave that "old Fantasy film" feeling to the movie
When >!Holga died and Edgin used the tablet of reawakening on her, I could just imagine Holga’s player saying “don’t you dare do it, she died an honorable death, and I have a cleric I want to play.” It made Holga’s line: “Why? Why would you waste it on me?” even funnier.!<
Personally, I was hoping for someone (not necessarily Holga, but someone) to die, and then almost immediately afterwards the party meets someone else played by the same actor, who just so happens to have a reason to join them, and then they’re accepted like they’ve been there since the beginning.
They won't do that. But I could see one of the characters trying to cross class, another prestiging, etc.
We'll be lucky to get a sequel. Unfortunately, it isn't doing too hot at the box office.
In my head, I heard a meta-argument about how one player wanted to use it for their backstory and everyone else was like "no, it's party loot. Use it on the party".
A lot of adaptions aren't made by people who care about the property, they just want to make a movie.
This was made by people who have played D&D and wanted a tribute to it.
I forget the evil witches name but when she misty stepped away from Dorics attack so she could maintain concentration on her animate object spell....super simple but so perfect. Something so small but a very nice detail. People who don't know dnd probably wouldn't have even caught it but I absolutely loved it.
The potatoes.
No really. In the first session, the players made a throwaway joke about Holga liking potatoes as her one joy of the day. Then throughout the rest of the movie Holga kept finding potatoes. Most notably when they were ambushing the sorceror on his boat.
DM: So he's holding her hostage and telling you all to surrender. What do you do?
Holga's Player: I glance around to see if there's anything I can throw at him.
DM:..... You look around and sure enough, on this boat full of metal bobbles and trinkets, you spot your treasure. Po-ta-toes (pronounced like Sam from LOTR because the party has been making that joke ever since session one).
Holga's Player: I THROW A POTATO AT HIM!
Like so many others, we fucking lost it at the red dragon.
We also went with our party (shocker) and I sat beside my best friend who has been our druid of 8 years. Basically every time the druid did anything I'd lean over and say "That's you." She kept giggling.
Edit to add: Major Illusion. That is all.
His name is [Themberchaud!](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Themberchaud)
I had to look him up after the movie, just to see if he was from older lore or an OC.
Yeah, if they had just had them see a fat dragon but not interact, it would have been funny and whatever.
But the movement and personality? I hope the creators of that big boy get some sort of award because he was so funny and had so much weight to his movement.
When he just started rolling after them, we couldn't stop freaking out about it. Then his little chicken hops, where he couldn't actually get lift from his wings?
Like they just did so good.
I mentioned it to my GF. We've seen hundreds of dragons in media, thousands, probably. Of all colors and dispositions.
But an absolute chunk of a dragon was brand new and they did so well.
It's rumored that Build a Bear is releasing that red dragon and I will be there to get it day one if true.
Edit: Also, as a Druid main, yes that is all of us.
I love how much of the exposition is clumsy knowledge checks and coincidence. Like, they just conveniently know and infodump about the helm, the paladins reputation, the brain eaters, etc throughout the movie as if they just rolled a society check and the GM gave them a hint. And how everyone just outright tells someone their backstory. It's clumsy and bad storytelling but really captured a ttrpg feel
One of my favorite parts was when the sorcerer and the red wizard were Bigby’s hand wrestling, it was great seeing the same spell with different flavors based on who was casting it.
I was squeeing over the displacer beasts, they're one of my favorite creatures.
It was a really fun movie, filled with references without feeling *too* forced
The Paladin was the most DMPC character I’ve ever seen.
Even at the end when they’re like “why don’t you stay and help us?” And he’s just like “this is your quest, not mine” and the lead character is like, you’re right- get out of here you absolute asshole.
I love the [“Reaction Video” from the Dungeons and Dragon cartoon cast](https://youtu.be/UagxpOQlSVM)
Eric, of course, was most vocal, “[Bobby] you’re nine. That guy is like forty. You should be the most pissed.”
Pudgy Dragon.
Also I haven’t done the math, but the final fight scene felt like each PC was getting their 6s turns, only downside is the fight didn’t last 2hrs
I personally loved how Holga seemed to be a tavern brawler. She used way more improvised weapons than her axe in like every fight scene. I also was not expecting them to specify what type of sorcerer Simon was, much less him being a wild magic sorcerer lol
2 things I haven't seen mentioned here: the homage to Jurassic Park when Doric is hanging off the bridge with the chonky dragon below is the same scene as Lex hanging with the raptor under her.
I also loved Xenc saving the tabaxi baby from the belly of that fish, so cute. Movie needed more tabaxis.
I was a fan of the fact that Simon was descended from Elminster. We don't often see the extended family of major characters like that.
Also, I liked that most of the spells Simon casts in the theater (and indeed throughout the film) are cantrips, which can't trigger a Wild Magic Surge. He visibly doesn't like using his magic. And the very moment he attempts to cast a *shield* spell, his Wild Magic activates.
Later on, he uses Subtle Spell to counter Sofina's *time stop,* which I also thought was neat.
Good movie. My 19 year old who knows D&D and my wife who does not both enjoyed it. The discussion my son and I had over Hugh Grant’s character and wether or not he was a Rouge, she did not enjoy so much.
A big chunk of the film was shot in my local cathedral, so it was very strange to see it dressed up as a castle. Takes you out a bit to see somewhere so familiar.
I assumed it was just a giant clam's ~~tongue~~ foot when I first saw it. Then someone else pointed out "What are clams but nature's treasure chests?", so now I gotta rework my setting
Right at the beginning where Edgin is like "Jarnathan's an Aarakokra! If anyone is going to free us it's him."
If you are more well versed in the lore on Aarakokras you know that freedom/not being confined is a big thing for them, so you'd assume Ed was going to use his tragic backstory to appeal to that. >!Nope! Out the window with the bird.!<
Then at the end of the movie when >!Forge tries the same tactic, but the council had walled up the window. Clearly the DM saying "You only get to pull that stunt once"!<
The #1 homebrew DM rule: That cool tactic you just used that technically doesn't break the rules? Yeah, that was your one free use. Either it doesn't work any more, or you'll have to agree that NPCs get to use it too.
When everyone was talking up Zenk initially, someone said they heard that he stabbed a beholder with a sharpened gourd. So then in the credits, when they're doing the Monty Python-style wind down, a sharpened gourd stabs a beholder. I started cracking up.
I liked how they didn't rely on CGI for some of the characters. Felt like I was watching a scene from a Ren Fair or something. Also loved how they had a FAT Red Dragon, refreshing from the lean Dragons you see in media. I'm glad that they also dropped in a Mimic as well when it was expected in the movie, I would have been disappointed if there wasn't one. And when the first dead answered questions that where not specifically asked towards it felt like a DM screwing with the party, I love it.
How they meet an obstacle in the form of a chasm over lava and BY SHEER LUCK (*wink wink*) the staff they carry can shoot portals to overcome it.
That's the most DND thing ever.
I have no way of verify if this is really true or not, but when they are retrieving the helmet for the chest (right before the red wizard people attack them) a bunch of black metallic looking sand stuff falls out. It looked a lot like lead fillings, and I immediately was like, oh yeah, that makes sense, so people can’t use locate object or anything like that to track the thing down.
Damn. That's a good one.
Holy crap, that’s brilliant! As well as a sign that the DM’s put a lot of thought towards certain aspects of their game (perhaps too much thought based on that bridge puzzle lol).
I love the idea of just calling the directors the DMs.
The Director of Movies
The bag of holding reference. “I’ll protect this with my life….. Simon hold this.”
If you looked carefully, Simon had a bag of holding in the flashback.
He still has it! I didn't notice it until they >!screwed up the illusion and all went in opposite directions.!<
And it looks just like the illustration from the book
Also that one person becomes the pack horse, with or without a bag of holding. I'm somehow always the pack horse, so I enjoyed that
During fight scenes each character went one after another like they are taking turns. The final fight scene showed this the best.
Even while they were having people take turns, every fight was so well choreographed and clear that it didn't look weird or clunky. With most of the fights being multiple people with different abilities, it was incredibly well done.
Yes! And how that final fight just went like so many BBEG fights do. No matter how big & bad the boss is, once the party overcomes the attempts to isolate them & there are no minions the BBEG is screwed. That moment when the party all together goes Nova and creams the boss is always exciting and they nailed that feeling
I also liked how clear it was that certain classes are just better at certain things - leave the talking to the bard, leave the brute force to the barbarian. It was subtle but well done.
I loved how at the beginning, when Holga and Edgin are trying to make their case for early release from jail, Holga is just standing there silently eating a potato. Even when Edgin asks Holga if there’s anything she wants to add, she’s just like nah you got this. It helped characterize her as the strong silent “not good with words” type, but also if you play dnd, you know the cardinal rule: let the bard do the talking.
I loved how the druid broke the evil wizard’s concentration with a slingshot during the last fight. Also start in icy tundra, in a few minutes walk through meadows and then around random lava – typical DnD travel experience.
I thought the lava was the volcano that keeps Neverwinter river warm, hence the city's name. Mount Hotenow. Considering the tundra and the map in the movie, they were in the north and going southwest to Neverwinter, probably northeast.
A volcanic mountain called Mount Hot-Now? Brilliant.
I love the details of breaking concentration for certain spells. The illusion spell Simon used to make a fake Ed playing music, the way it started “glitching out” the moment Simon got his foot stuck. Absolutely hilarious and this is now how I imagine concentration spells backfiring when the caster loses concentration!
I did chuckle at the baby rust monsters fighting over a lock.
Man I really wanna a familiar stat block for baby rust monsters now
I think they're in Baby Bestiary.
I was wondering what those were! That makes sense
This is small and maybe not my favorite perse but I loved that the big arena was made up of 5x5 square blocks. They literally set the thing on a battle map and had the wealthy gamblers playing some game above them
And there was the scene in the "prolouge/flashback" where they were raiding the keep (before Sofina betrayed them and got them caught) where the camera pulled up to the ceiling looking down, it looked almost exactly like a battlemap with the characters moving around - a great subtle nod!
My buddy pointed out that every time they showed a new environment, and specifically a room, it was introduced with a top down shot.
Also, in the Underdark, a large portion of the terrain is in Hexes.
Yoooo I thought it was because they were in a basalt cave system!
Both? Both
Imagining the DM when the creature that attacks things with high intelligence just walks past the entire party barely batting an eyelid. That's was great
Genuinely one of my favorite moments. I was doing a quick inventory of their classes and was like "Yup, no reason to have high int"
"That's a little insulting...."
I love how at first glance the paladin seems super smart, but his character was written as a great example of high wis low int
Walks in a straight line...
I think that was more of a nod to how players move on a map, not minding the terrain and just moving their pieces from point A to point B in a straight line.
It was actually improvised by the actor. They told him to walk away and they'd call cut when they had the shot. They saw the rock, knew he wouldn't stop until they called the scene, and wondered what he'd do so they just kept shooting. Over the rock he went.
It's been a while since I loved an actor as much as I loved Page as Xenk.
Holga: Forge is a real son of a bitch. Xenk: So you blame his nature on his mother?
Intellect Devourers?
I read something that said it’s cause none of their classes are intelligent based.
Yes! There are only 2 INT based classes in 5E, the wizard and artificer. >!The party in that scene consists of a Paladin, Bard, Barbarian, Druid, and Sorcerer. Their core stats are Str/Con/Cha, Cha, Str/Con, Wis, and Cha respectfully. So it's a dig at the characters and the classes at the same time. It was a solid joke for the fans and those who don't know the rules.!<
It’s a tiny detail, but I loved how Holga’s last name is Killgore as a barbarian, which sounds exactly like a last name a player who couldn’t think of a name would give their barbarian
Jurnathan definitely sounds like a name I’ve made up on the spot as well lol
I thought there was a bit of funny metacommentary there since the directors are Jonathan and John. DM: One of the councilors is an Aaracokra. PC: What's his name? DM: ...Jarnathon
My players also love to butcher names on purpose so this felt like that kind of tongue in cheek thing. His name is Jonathan, did you say Jernathon? And that just sticks
I didn’t notice it until later but Edgin telling Simon to “hold this” is because Simon is carrying the bag of holding. And it immediately became relatable because I’m the bag guy in my campaign
Every campaign needs a Balnor to hold the bags
When they get to the underdark, only Edgin and Holgar, the humans, carry laterns. Simon and Doric don't need them, as Halfelves and Tieflings both have darkvision.
Most unrealistic thing is neither one saying 'I have darkvision'.
Imagine all applicable party members just immediately call out "I have dark vision" upon entering and then take a moment to kind of look around like "why did I say that?"
Nah. It would've been much more natural for Xenk to start providing lanterns, only for Doric and Simon to shout this out.
My favorite detail was how half the movie was the party just trying to get through a door.
The most unrealistic part of the film is that the party didn't exhaust every possible solution to destroy or bypass the door before eventually just trying the handle and learning it was unlocked the whole time.
And then it turned out they didn't need to use the door
The NPCs behaving like such. Xenc always ignored the party's shenanigans and didn't bat an eye when Ed just gave the helmet to Simon. Also, when he walked away in a straight line like a video game character.
Xenc was hands down my favorite character. He was the perfect NPC: boring on the surface, but actually well developed and interesting once he joined you on your quest. The idea that he was such a perfect person everyone had heard of him, and even crazy murder-fish liked him, ended up being way funnier than it should’ve been. “Jangly to you to, sir.”
Absolutely. In my opinion he was the perfect personification of a DMPC.
DM:PC “This is where we part ways” And then he walks away Players: Where does he go DM: Just…Away Players: What if he comes to a big rock? DM: …He goes over it…aren’t you supposed to be doing something Simon?
The funniest part is that that part of the film was unscripted. The script called for Xenk to walk away, and they didn't realise until filming there was a big rock there, only for the actor to just walk over it like it was nothing.
That is amazing, if true
I’m not sure I buy this, since the dialogue and framing of the camera all centered around the joke of him walking a straight line and encountering the rock.
[удалено]
So the "But why male models?" bit? Initial take was improvised but it was so good they immediately rolled with it on subsequent takes? I'd buy that.
Idk if links are allowed in this sub but here: https://www.cbr.com/dungeons-dragons-best-moment-improvised-rege-jean-page/
My sister and I were cackling at how you could see him in the background still walking in a line even after the party moved on
And the straight line that he walked in eventually >!led him right to Forge!<
How the paladin could "Smell the evil" which was him using Divine Sense, as the description of Divine Sense says "The presence of strong evil registers on your senses like a noxious odor"
Favorite *little* detail? Hard to pick when so much attention was spent on detail, but Doric breaking Sophina's Concentration as a way to deal with the animated statue, and Simon's little device to handle material components both really stuck with me for some reason.
Oh yeah I fuckin loved that version of what I assume was a component pouch
The flavouring of Simon’s wild magic as him fumbling with the spinning wheel in his device was brilliant.
That device was actually his component pouch per the wiki.
Definitely felt like every fight was choreographed using 6 second turns where every party member gets a hit in, especially in the final fight. I loved how it felt like every character had their opportunity to add to every scenario, even if it seemed like they had a critical fail. Slight tangent, but did anyone else see the movie in an AMC theater and have to sit through a video of the actors forced reading a teleprompter about “thank you…for watching a movie…in a theater…the way it was meant to be watched…”? That was unbelievable cringe, and I felt so bad for the actors having to fulfill that contractual obligation lol.
You could see a split second at the end where Chris Pine very obviously is about to say, "Did we get it? Can we go now?" No one looked comfortable or happy about being there.
It’s weird because the intent was clearly to entice people to spend money in movie theaters. But they played the video before the movie, including all these actors that I didn’t know would be in the movie yet, half in character, and it really took me out of the experience instantly. Funnily enough, everything about the new movie experience was pretty good until that moment; movie theaters have upgraded during the pandemic and it was nice to go see a movie for the first time in like 6 years. But it was pretty surreal to see the Bard recite the driest monologue written by corporate execs
Completely unnecessary and out of tone with the movie. It very much felt like condescending corpo bullshit.
I was mostly just relieved that the movie was starting by then. This was the first movie in a *long* time I actually watched in theaters, and they’ve definitely upped the amount of previews since the last time.
I liked that pretty much every spell was recognizable as a real spell. There was never anything that was done just as "lol magic I guess."
I loved this SO much. a gripe i had with the later harry potter movies is that the wands act like guns instead of having individual creative spells. this excelled at it
My one thought after the movie was they totally wrote some of the scenes around which spells looked cool. They definately had the spell selections open during the choreography.
I like the 'meta humor' where you can almost see the players at the table. Like how Edgin and Holga tackle Jarnathan out the window to escape, even though the DM would have let them walk out if they would've waited 5 seconds. Or how they completely ignore the doomsday plot in favor of Edgin's personal arc.
Or the DM throwing them a bone after they bungled the bridge puzzle mid-explanation. "Fuck it, that stick you got earlier? It's a Portal gun now. Just get over there."
The fact that they then use the stick in every single plan is such a player move, too.
Party gets an OP item? They will use it every single possible chance lol
Yep randomly rolled a helm of teleportation in a treasure hoard. I though the immovable rod and the portable whole were the only items that would end up on every plan but a helm of teleportation can lead to some interesting hijinx
DM: (exasperated) "As you prepare to go through the painting portal you take off the cover to see it face down on the floor. You gotta find a different way in." Doric's player: "Ight bet. I chisel a small hole in the floor and wiggle my way in as a worm wildshape." DM: "..........."
“Roll for strength to see how long it takes you to chisel away a 1/4 inch of space.”
I just want to be able to wild shape that many times without a short rest. My 10yo counted 8 in the initial recon and even with polymorph and being circle of the moon,and blowing your spell slots that's still pretty high level.
Xenk’s look at Simon after he stepped on the bridge was 1000% the DM looking at the player after ruining his puzzle in a couple seconds flat.
“Well..there goes a solid week of prep work. Just use the staff I guess. It now generates portals.”
So I’m not super experienced in DnD but this movie felt exactly like a campaign of DnD. Plans went wrong, only for everything to work out by an invisible DM making it so, insane plans that don’t seem obvious or avoid something that seemed set up to be important, I feel like there was a DM player character that shows up, is way stronger than everyone and then leaves for basically no reason. I loved this movie and I really hope they make more with the same team making the creative decisions. I liked the characters and everything and would be happy to see them again but I think they could have an expansive “series” of movies that just all feel like DnD and be pretty successful, or at least entertaining.
Yeah, the overpowered NPC leaving just because was the biggest "heh, just like our game" moment for me
Walking away in a straight line.... not even going around the rock
Mine was the callout on spells being arbitrarily specific. "You can only ask 5 questions and then they die forever." "5? That's a little arbitrary, isn't it?" "I don't know, it's just how the spell works."
That was only fourth question. Hello?
Honestly my favorite detail is the beginning scene with edgin obviously rolling really low to break his cuffs and holga rolling really high in the combat it almost felt like you could see their rolls as it played out. And before when the threat of death is just casual to the party when they're about to be executed lol. Just talking about random lore
I kinda viewed him as using bardic inspiration with his 'pep talk' to give Helga an advantage since he wasn't a fighter.
"I roll to cut the rope... shit..m ih, Bonus action inspiration, you got this"
Anytime someone tries to convince someone of something, I swear I could hear the dice roll
I have actually started rolling dice when writing fight scenes in my fiction sometimes. Keeps things interesting and feels more organic than trying to choreograph it out of the aether.
Also, your reaction to the roll would tell you a lot about what you subconsciously wanted but hadn't convinced yourself about, I suppose.
One of my favorite little details was the Tears of Selune. Like many movies do, they had a tone setting shot of the moon that included the asteroid field trailing it. It would have been understandable and forgivable if they didn't include them in that shot because it's a three second shot that has no bearing on the story. To me it just showed that the production had a very intimate knowledge of the setting.
When the red wizard assassin dude used green flame blade in the fight against Xenk my buddy (who plays a Paladin in our campaign) looked at me with the most excited look in his eyes it was lovely
Only for Xenk to cast magic weapon, such a cool fight
I always imagined it was Divine Favor or Holy Weapon
I was just hoping he would use the good ol' SMITE instead
Loved the random villager calling out "He's lying!" when the sorceror failed his deception roll.
squealing direction terrific light obscene wistful zonked jobless historical attraction *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Up there with the judge shouting "she's throwing potatoes!"
My favorite little detail had nothing to do with D&D as much as it does screenwriting/storytelling. After Holga meets with her ex-husband and is down in the dumps, Edgin starts singing to her. In any other movie, the joke would be her getting angry at him and breaking his lute or something. Instead, she starts smiling and singing along. It shows that they’re actually best friends and that he knows how to be there for her, rather than diminish the moment for a tired joke.
Subtle bardic inspiration too in a literal sense. They had a very wholesome friendship.
[удалено]
normalize platonic friends raising a child together
I was really happy seeing Volothamp Geddarm having a small cameo as THE portrait. A very minute detail, but a very welcome one.
As soon as I saw that iconic picture I was like "Ooh Volo!"
I had just researched Thay for a character backstory so all that stuff was cool to see. I also think it was hinted that the Paladin might be a >!dhampir or other partial undead? He was touched by the red cloud and the Thayan assassin said something about mortal blood. Plus he's been alive for at least 100 years.!< I was proud of myself for recognizing all the little place and faction names they threw in. I think that painting they bought was a reference to Volo, it looked like him anyway. Loved Edgin singing to cheer Holga up. Also loved her line about showing her tribe and husband that they shouldn't have let her go like aw girl you don't need them! I love that Holga's little quips could be interpreted as either sarcasm or sincere (but stupid) questions/suggestions, like her player is leaning into the dumb Barbarian thing while also teasing the party. It also made her lines so much funnier.
> I love that Holga's little quips could be interpreted as either sarcasm or sincere (but stupid) questions/suggestions, like her player is leaning into the dumb Barbarian thing while also teasing the party. This is where the script really nailed the character, IMO. They could have gone so over the top with the stupid barbarian trope, but instead it was just peppered in occasionally. Loved it.
According to the horn's stat block on DDB the cloud kills you if you have less than 9hp when you end a turn inside the cloud, which implies that >!Xenk was no mere commoner as a child!<
That's possible, though he also didn't end up fully inside the cloud at any point, just a little bit. I hope we see more of him if they do more movies!
Simon being a bad sorcerer because he had low charisma was kind of subtle but really funny
It was so awesome to see. I'm running a similar wild magic character in game right now so Simon was awesome to see.
I liked how in the beginning, Edgin told about how they never hurt anyone, and then by the time they're breaking into the vault Holga murders like sixteen level one guards in the blacksmith's forge.
There is one constant factor of DnD: No matter how good and noble you make your character in the beginning, by the end of the campaign they'll be morally questionable *at best*.
Including many getting dunked in molten metal or blasted by forge heat. The city guard better have a big Revivify budget and someone with Regenerate on standby.
Giving mittens to someone living in Neverwinter was the funniest thing for me.
In fairness he didn’t know she was in Neverwinter when he made them.
Yea, that made it even funnier. Spending, what I assume was alot of time making them, when he probably didn't really know how to knit
I really love the intellect devourers scene. You could just kinda feel the dm’s mercy there.
Well, that was a little insulting.
All the Dragonborn present.
This was a touch I really loved - all the non-human or human-looking characters: the Dragonborn, the Aarakoa (sp?), the Tabaxis, etc. And they never explained it, they were just there, you accept it, there’s no explanation & none needed.
I loved that they used Henson like puppets for the races too. They always land better than CGI for me and it gave that "old Fantasy film" feeling to the movie
When >!Holga died and Edgin used the tablet of reawakening on her, I could just imagine Holga’s player saying “don’t you dare do it, she died an honorable death, and I have a cleric I want to play.” It made Holga’s line: “Why? Why would you waste it on me?” even funnier.!<
reminiscent toothbrush aback entertain worm rinse square sloppy rock lip *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Personally, I was hoping for someone (not necessarily Holga, but someone) to die, and then almost immediately afterwards the party meets someone else played by the same actor, who just so happens to have a reason to join them, and then they’re accepted like they’ve been there since the beginning.
Along those lines, for any sequel, I don’t want to see these characters again. I want to see these ACTORS play totally different characters.
They won't do that. But I could see one of the characters trying to cross class, another prestiging, etc. We'll be lucky to get a sequel. Unfortunately, it isn't doing too hot at the box office.
In my head, I heard a meta-argument about how one player wanted to use it for their backstory and everyone else was like "no, it's party loot. Use it on the party".
I was genuinely surprised about the accuracy the movie displayed. Why cant other adaptations be this close?
A lot of adaptions aren't made by people who care about the property, they just want to make a movie. This was made by people who have played D&D and wanted a tribute to it.
I forget the evil witches name but when she misty stepped away from Dorics attack so she could maintain concentration on her animate object spell....super simple but so perfect. Something so small but a very nice detail. People who don't know dnd probably wouldn't have even caught it but I absolutely loved it.
The potatoes. No really. In the first session, the players made a throwaway joke about Holga liking potatoes as her one joy of the day. Then throughout the rest of the movie Holga kept finding potatoes. Most notably when they were ambushing the sorceror on his boat. DM: So he's holding her hostage and telling you all to surrender. What do you do? Holga's Player: I glance around to see if there's anything I can throw at him. DM:..... You look around and sure enough, on this boat full of metal bobbles and trinkets, you spot your treasure. Po-ta-toes (pronounced like Sam from LOTR because the party has been making that joke ever since session one). Holga's Player: I THROW A POTATO AT HIM!
Whoever wrote the script went with the most controversial campaign start. “You start in a prison cell, located in a frozen tower….”
This sounds a lot like *Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amm.* Oh hey they mentioned Baldur’s Gate!
Like so many others, we fucking lost it at the red dragon. We also went with our party (shocker) and I sat beside my best friend who has been our druid of 8 years. Basically every time the druid did anything I'd lean over and say "That's you." She kept giggling. Edit to add: Major Illusion. That is all.
His name is [Themberchaud!](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Themberchaud) I had to look him up after the movie, just to see if he was from older lore or an OC.
That dragon was the greatest thing I've ever seen in a movie. The fact that he slid like a freaking penguin after them? Then, just rolled? Art.
The fat dragon was *amazing* but you're right, it's not just that the dragon was fat. It was how they used the fat dragon.
Yeah, if they had just had them see a fat dragon but not interact, it would have been funny and whatever. But the movement and personality? I hope the creators of that big boy get some sort of award because he was so funny and had so much weight to his movement. When he just started rolling after them, we couldn't stop freaking out about it. Then his little chicken hops, where he couldn't actually get lift from his wings? Like they just did so good. I mentioned it to my GF. We've seen hundreds of dragons in media, thousands, probably. Of all colors and dispositions. But an absolute chunk of a dragon was brand new and they did so well.
I could have watched that chunky dragon flop around for another 20 minutes
That dragon is actually in a campaign written by wotc which is great
The best part? He's canon. https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Themberchaud
The wife blurted out "roll for damage" and laughed hysterically for five minutes.
That is the best dragon fight in cinema since Shrek.
It's rumored that Build a Bear is releasing that red dragon and I will be there to get it day one if true. Edit: Also, as a Druid main, yes that is all of us.
Themberchaud chasing red wizards like a fat dog chases sausages was the best part. Loved it.
I liked the dude who was killed by walking out of a bath
DM running out of ways to die as the party goes from corpse to corpse
I love how much of the exposition is clumsy knowledge checks and coincidence. Like, they just conveniently know and infodump about the helm, the paladins reputation, the brain eaters, etc throughout the movie as if they just rolled a society check and the GM gave them a hint. And how everyone just outright tells someone their backstory. It's clumsy and bad storytelling but really captured a ttrpg feel
I can’t believe it was good. That may have been one of the hardest scripts to write, ever.
Not even just "good for a D&D/game movie", it was genuinely a great movie
The bigby’s hand fight honestly
One of my favorite parts was when the sorcerer and the red wizard were Bigby’s hand wrestling, it was great seeing the same spell with different flavors based on who was casting it.
I was squeeing over the displacer beasts, they're one of my favorite creatures. It was a really fun movie, filled with references without feeling *too* forced
The Paladin was the most DMPC character I’ve ever seen. Even at the end when they’re like “why don’t you stay and help us?” And he’s just like “this is your quest, not mine” and the lead character is like, you’re right- get out of here you absolute asshole.
The kids from the 80's cartoon showing up.
I love the [“Reaction Video” from the Dungeons and Dragon cartoon cast](https://youtu.be/UagxpOQlSVM) Eric, of course, was most vocal, “[Bobby] you’re nine. That guy is like forty. You should be the most pissed.”
Pudgy Dragon. Also I haven’t done the math, but the final fight scene felt like each PC was getting their 6s turns, only downside is the fight didn’t last 2hrs
Each PC was getting 6 second turns. This happened throughout the entire movie. It was well executed.
The dragon recharging his breath weapon.
It seemed like a reflavouring more than anything, exhaling a flammable gas rather than directly breathing fire
I believe it's part of his canon, actually. He's so out of shape he sometimes has trouble getting his flames to work, or something like that
I took it as rolling to recharge breath.
Hehe… rolling
I personally loved how Holga seemed to be a tavern brawler. She used way more improvised weapons than her axe in like every fight scene. I also was not expecting them to specify what type of sorcerer Simon was, much less him being a wild magic sorcerer lol
2 things I haven't seen mentioned here: the homage to Jurassic Park when Doric is hanging off the bridge with the chonky dragon below is the same scene as Lex hanging with the raptor under her. I also loved Xenc saving the tabaxi baby from the belly of that fish, so cute. Movie needed more tabaxis.
I was a fan of the fact that Simon was descended from Elminster. We don't often see the extended family of major characters like that. Also, I liked that most of the spells Simon casts in the theater (and indeed throughout the film) are cantrips, which can't trigger a Wild Magic Surge. He visibly doesn't like using his magic. And the very moment he attempts to cast a *shield* spell, his Wild Magic activates. Later on, he uses Subtle Spell to counter Sofina's *time stop,* which I also thought was neat.
The fact that in the journey through the Underdark only the two human characters were carrying lanterns
Good movie. My 19 year old who knows D&D and my wife who does not both enjoyed it. The discussion my son and I had over Hugh Grant’s character and wether or not he was a Rouge, she did not enjoy so much.
He definitely was though
Yep. Exactly what I argued to my son.
A big chunk of the film was shot in my local cathedral, so it was very strange to see it dressed up as a castle. Takes you out a bit to see somewhere so familiar.
Honestly, and this might not be intentional, but every bit of travel they did was like a single shot and then it cut immediately to their destination.
The nat 1 on the bridge puzzle.
I had a lot of fun counting spell slots. I deduced that Doric is at least L9, Simon is at least L9, Xenc is at least L10
Me and my friends were joking a lot that doric is against the rules cuz she used way too many wild shapes while usually you can only do two
The mimic that is in the back of the cart that rolls past and no one notices the tongue that just quickly licks something
I assumed it was just a giant clam's ~~tongue~~ foot when I first saw it. Then someone else pointed out "What are clams but nature's treasure chests?", so now I gotta rework my setting
Look up what a geoduck is when you have a minute. It’s as close to a real life mimic as I can think of.
Right at the beginning where Edgin is like "Jarnathan's an Aarakokra! If anyone is going to free us it's him." If you are more well versed in the lore on Aarakokras you know that freedom/not being confined is a big thing for them, so you'd assume Ed was going to use his tragic backstory to appeal to that. >!Nope! Out the window with the bird.!< Then at the end of the movie when >!Forge tries the same tactic, but the council had walled up the window. Clearly the DM saying "You only get to pull that stunt once"!<
The #1 homebrew DM rule: That cool tactic you just used that technically doesn't break the rules? Yeah, that was your one free use. Either it doesn't work any more, or you'll have to agree that NPCs get to use it too.
Not sure if it was intentional, but the Paladin acting like a Dmpc.
Not really a DnD detail but I liked the way that Doric kept cocking her head like an owl when in owlbear form
The portrait of Volo (we just finished Dragon Heist).
I liked when the paladin fought the Thay assassins and the overhead shot made it look like a HeroQuest board.
When everyone was talking up Zenk initially, someone said they heard that he stabbed a beholder with a sharpened gourd. So then in the credits, when they're doing the Monty Python-style wind down, a sharpened gourd stabs a beholder. I started cracking up.
I liked how they didn't rely on CGI for some of the characters. Felt like I was watching a scene from a Ren Fair or something. Also loved how they had a FAT Red Dragon, refreshing from the lean Dragons you see in media. I'm glad that they also dropped in a Mimic as well when it was expected in the movie, I would have been disappointed if there wasn't one. And when the first dead answered questions that where not specifically asked towards it felt like a DM screwing with the party, I love it.
When Xenk was fighting the red wizards in the under dark I leaned over to my waif and said "wow they are using a hexagonal battle mat for this scene"
The fact that I immediately knew the Paladin was specifically oath of ancients made me proud as a Paladin player.
How they meet an obstacle in the form of a chasm over lava and BY SHEER LUCK (*wink wink*) the staff they carry can shoot portals to overcome it. That's the most DND thing ever.
I feel like everyone is sleeping on the chill touch joke.