Omfgg we hit 1 million views!!! I now need to apologise to a Million viewers that I got the colour of the text WRONG in this edit, It seemed fine when I was editing but in hindsight, it was a mistake. So my sincere apologies, but thanks for watching, May all your days be Thursdays:)
No need to apologize, thanks so much for making the effort and putting it up. 😁Everything is a learning curve. Now you know for you next edit that becomes a viral hit. 😉I come back every so often and watch this, such a great cut. Love when Liam says "Now I am the Master!"
@@bambilicous9008 I know isnt it amazing! I really enjoyed editing this one and conjuring the titles and adding them was a real easy edit. I am sure you can do it too if you try:)
Thanks to this comment, I will never not see this fight as everyone else beating the crap out of Vecna while Scanlan is just in the background spitting out rhymes and wearing a ridiculously big golden necklace.
Matt heard "But I Counterspelled it" *immediately* glances at the minis, does a quick and dirty visual measure, realizes Scanlan is *very much* in range for Counterspell, looks back at Sam with a look of "you...Magnificent bastard"
@@zach1972 To be fair, Laura didn't have to argue against her friends about any "bad" decisions, so I still think Sam takes the cake. (by an extremely slim margin tho)
@@dandini0698 Nah, not overpowered at all. He sacrificed higher level spell slots to counter lower level spell slots, with the exception of once...where he got a lucky roll, and luck isn't OP, it's just luck.
@@penguin12902 you can auto-succeed on cs when it is cast from same level. Basically you trade your reaction for the boss's action. Hows that balanced.
@@sensen9900 I mean, yeah look at yourself, the fact that you can't accept that other people potentially behave differently than what you believe happens in your own cynical world is pretty sad. Go to a therapist and unfuck yourself.
Frustrated and proud. The cocktail of emotions for a DM... I love the realization on everyone's faces, especially the ones who were worried about the held turn... they all accepted the fate of facing banishment of two very important allies and then suddenly Scanlan saved their butts.
it happens quite often where Sam plans furthur ahead then the group. WIth the group typically casting doubt on his actions, when they are the actual niave and impulsive ones
@@MisfitSass to be fair, he was the biggest support role. It was his job. Healer, or not. I say this from a position of praise, not the typical "dps needs their @#$% sucked" mentality.
I remember back when Sam and Liam told the story about how Sam made Scanlan. Asked for the "worst" race and class, and used a D&D name generator. And ended up playing the game like a master. He pretended he didn't know how to play only to save the day "accidentally" every time. Then even fooled Matt, his teacher, the ultimate Dungeon Master.
and he keeps doing it. Sam can't keep getting away with the "I don't know how to play" excuse because he seemingly always knows just enough to make extremely clutch plays.
It’s funny because Sam was actually the first HDYWTDT on stream, and it was the first time he killed anything in TWO YEARS of the house game. Dude’s come a long way
Can someone please do a compilation of Scanlan's counterspells during the Vecna fight? He was playing defense all night, and it was just a MASTERCLASS in giving Vecna the middle finger. Also one of the most emotional uses of a spell I've ever seen.
gcollins1992 as a GM of 15 years I can say though he didn't power play the best he could have he played well above great and had flawless timing with his counter spells. Give him like 3 more years and some power gaming lessons and he would be a true force to be reckoned with
Why would he need it though? It's about playing a fun game, not biting down on every number you can squeeze out of your statblock. Sam plays it smart, he doesn't really need more.
Hunterfalke I can see your perspective and I totally agree but you have to understand that if he would have cranked every last number he may have succeeded in what he was going for
Hunterfalke you don't have to power play for the entire game but when you have something this crazy going on it's definitely a time to Crunch every f****** number in the game you can to save your best friend. And to be honest I think he did in that moment I think he just came unprepared in that style
Angelus Fallox I always get confused when people say that power gaming or minmaxing is metagaming and out of character. Like, obviously your character wants to survive and protect the people they care about. You think they aren't going to put everything they have into doing that?
The best part in my opinion was in an earlier episode Travis said “yea we’re gonna pull an old fast one on Vecna” then Sam actually did it and out smarted the god of secrets
I bet it felt so immersive actually pulling that off, fooling everyone including his friends into thinking he had thrown the fight with that action, only to reveal his genius plan at the perfect moment. He truly became his character for a few monents
Sam is straight up the best D&D player I've ever seen. He's been such a good sport through the whole campaign, and that Wish save for Vax was so good!! Can't wait to see what he'll be playing next.
That wish to save him was stupid. A god gave him a 2nd chance, and to repay her, they betrayed her. Do you really think that god is going to be merciful when he actually does die? There's serious consequences to what that wish did.
As far as I know, Scanlan never ended up using the Wish spell to save Vax (he instead used it on the 9th level counterspell for the Teleport Vecna was going to use). So unless they had another episode I wasn't aware of or something, Vax is still on the way to the Raven Queen (unless they remember that they can just long rest and use Wish, which then we can watch that can of worms being opened xD). Regardless, I'm excited for the next episode :D
Antrix While that is inevitable, don't forget that Wish could theoretically still work, because as far as I recall about the spell, it can rewrite events that have happened before (unless that was just someone's custom wish spell or something), among many other abilities.
Yep!!! By the end, Scanlan was no longer just an annoyance, he was a clear threat and Vecna was totally trying to off him through any means necessary by the end.
I wonder how many people fail to realize that had they not gotten Scanlan to return when he came to them disguised, they would've TPK'd in that first fight with Vecna. Had Tary stayed with them, they would've been fucked. Scanlan Shorthalt single handedly set forth the chain of events that would lead to them saving the world.
They also later said on an episode of Talks Machina that if they hadn't seen through the Aeus Adon disguise, Scanlan would have come and gone. That would've been their one chance. And it was all foiled by Jon Heder using the Meat Man nickname, which he wasn't supposed to.
Vex spotting the shadow length of Aeus being shorter than it should be was what sealed the deal. Yeah Jon messed up, but Chod screwing up like that made sense character wise. This is why its a good idea to play dumb characters from time to time. You can play off your fuck ups as being in character!
I love ashley’s reaction to the counterspell. She’s like “oh dammit no” and then as sOON as she hears just does this double take and slowly opens her mouth in shock, and then she’s jumping all over the place! Liam is hilarious as well, just the “oooohhhh oohhhhh” its fantastic. He’s always to emotive and lively at the table, it inspires me to become a better actress. And lets not forget sam, like thats just fucking incredible. “Oh but i counterspelled it at eighth level, oooo” Just, fucking brilliant! I love these guys.
DwarfBeard TheDungeonMaster played it perfectly...I've played with players who played bards that didn't know how to play them. All I'm saying is he did great.
this is top quality gaming! to be able to read the DM like that and knowingly couter something matt hasnt even done yet, and i know them being friends may make it easier, but Matts mind is like a rubix cube from hell. no one should be able to guess what he has in store. what a play scan the man, bravo
I mean, counterspell is a pretty important spell and matt is planning something something and vecna is a spell caster so it only makes sense for Scanlan, the most versatile magic user of the group (no tiberius present) to prepare for worst case scenario
Yeah you can see him calculating, I never noticed that. He definitely knew what was up at the table. He does say to Marisha, "We've got 5 more spells to live through" which is enough for her to put it together, but maybe not enough to tip Matt off to the ultimate scheme. This is appropriate meta, because concealing a plan from a DM is totally acceptable behavior.
Liams' thought processes from 3:11: "Um, doesn't he need to be within a certain distance for that spell to work? Why isn't Matt calli-holy crap he's in range! That sneaky bastard!"
I noticed Liam also immediately looked at the minis too alongside Matt and just… both their reactions when they realized that YES Scanlan WAS in range. Just love it.
You have to give it to Sam. For being this his first ever D&D game. He had play this game beautifully. From the acting, which was to be expected since being a professional actor, to the decision making on the battlefield. He had really became quite a very impressive player. Well done sir well done.👏👏👏👏👏👏
The subtext is badly done; I can barely read it at all. It would have been better to go with white on dark color, rather than black on dark color. As an aside, could somebody get me a read-out of the subtext, because I really can't read most of the lines?
"I hate you Vecna, stop hurting my friends!" - "I need to get in range, what transport does Scanlan have?" - "I can't fly like Vax or Vex" - "I could use Bigby's hand to lift me up" - "I need to be within 60ft of Vecna" - "But I don't want the GM to realise!" - "For this to work, I need the others to be duped too" - "Sorry friends, it's for the greater good!" - "My go is after Percy, what else could I do?" - "Good work, Percy!" - "This is risky, what else have I got?" - "Hmm, nothing better" - "This is such a hard fight!" - "The fate of Exandria rests on this battle!" - "I will not let Vox Machina die this day!" - "Okay, time to save the world AND Vox Machina!" - (then after his turn, when it comes to the song) - "Sh*t, what do I sing!? This needs to be distracting for Matt!" - "Think think, a song of inspiration and distraction..." - "Anything! Sing anything! Now!"
The subtitles are great, but as was mentioned before, they are barely readable. A good way to fix this, if you are going to add them in a future videos, is to add white outline to them, even 1 pixel width will make them 100% readable. Thank you for your content!
This was beautiful. After all the dirty tricks that Matt pulled (in character of course), it must have been the best feeling for Sam to drop this 900 IQ move and see the look on the face of a DM who just got PLAYED.
Love coming back to this video. The growth of Sam Riegel playing as Scanlan the Bard feels so good. From barely understanding how D&D works, to rampaging through Whitestone as a Triceratops, becoming a reluctant father, mansion owner, the next wielder of the Whiteduke's Blade, Slayer of Ghurrix the Pitfiend, the Meatman of Ank'Harel, Champion of Ioun, and finally the Arch-Bane of the Undead God Vecna.
Vegas242 sorry for this late comment but, by this point 115 episodes of sam been clutch, its true he tried to deceive everyone on the table and he did it successfully. but after the first vecna fight, after scanlan saved everyone by counterspelling the counterspell of the plane shift, and the fact that sam never alongside travis they never get in some1 else's turn unless they are asked about it. they should realize sam is always thinking ahead.
I find it ironic that Marisha consistently did the dumbest things, forgot about how spells work, etc, all while had the audacity to be pesky at Sam thinking he forgot about the main goal as why he is there.
She was incapable of thinking like that in season one, she veiwed herself as the best of them all in nearly every way so if it didnt the way she wanted she got pissy, just look at her expression after shes told sam cant take his turn back.
Part of it is Sam is playing a bit of a con. He could have said, "I am getting close for counterspell, because we won't have time this round to get in there without it" buuuuut. Subtly he doesn't want to clue Matt in about his ultimate plan, because Matt might use a juicier spell for him to counter. So, as much as Marisha is freaking out, she's a bit in the dark because Sam's playing some mind games. As much as I wanna say Matt is impartial and wouldn't have changed his plan.... Matt's a little opportunistic when it comes to his villains sometimes. Even the best DM's at times get "invested" and can be biased. In this case, Sam's enforcing a bias that's good meta, but at the cost of leaving Marisha to waffle openly.
Scanlan, a being of vast arcane knowledge, worlds of experience throughout the multiverse, connections all across Exandria, blessed by the goddess of knowledge and feared by Vecna himself; also, a 4 foot tall gnome who looks silly. also, the subtext really adds humorous context, and is designed well, without being distracting.
A. I legit NEVER noticed Ashley get up and run around. That was amazing. B. Never has Liam been more in love with Sam than at that moment watch his face unfold what just happened.
One thing I loved about sam's character is everytime he would do something and no one believed it would work even before he rolled I'd say It's Scanlan! And he roll a million.
Yeah your right, good insight check, a GM thwarted portrays NPCs as themselves for a little while, a bit like Players who put a lot of themselves into their character
I love how Matt's reaction goes from "Damn you fucked my plans." when Sam counterspells him, but at the revelation that that was why he moved closer, he smiles and applaudes Sam for the great play.
So, I originally watched this video when I was in the early 30s (I’d already been spoiled, no worries) and back then I didn’t see the captions fitting Sam’s gaming. But I just finished 102 and WOW, the difference in Sam’s playing of Scanlan over the years and more knowledge of his gameplay, I think you pretty much nailed the internal monologue he was probably going through!
Sam is honestly my D&D inspiration. I'm a new player and I just took his approach as a great guide to things. And also to be creative and willing to make moves like this. my character at one point used a joke gag magic item (ring of forgetfulness) to make a Stone Titan forget and give the gang a second chance at a conversation and some convincing. it saved us having to fight a Titan and even the DM forgot about the ring.(running gag about the item is my character forgets about it every now and then and even all of us the players forget about the thing frequently) and just the fact that he has fun and lets himself be the butt of jokes, that's a great comedian there.
I always imagined whatever arcane glyphs appeared in the air for the two big counterspells in this fight just ended with an image of Bigby's Hand giving the middle finger
Sam Riegal, he inspired me to make my first bard as I thought they...while not useless, were not as good as other classes. But this campaign showed me that with a little creativity in the use of spells, knowing your role and sticking to it, can turn the once thought as less-than-useful bard class into one I'm genuinely excited to play. Especially that Duke Vedmeyer fight when it was Scanlan going all Rambo on one of the Whitestone houses.
Sam: What's like, the WORST thing I can play? Liam: I don't know, a gnooooome..... bard? Sam: I'll be THAT. REMEMBER THAT THIS CONVERSATION BIRTHED SCANLAN SHORTHALT.
The subtitles are hard to read but this is such a great moment. Dark outline to light text or light outline to dark text is advice I've learned in the past for image macros. Such an amazing moment, thank you for the memory.
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Omfgg we hit 1 million views!!! I now need to apologise to a Million viewers that I got the colour of the text WRONG in this edit, It seemed fine when I was editing but in hindsight, it was a mistake. So my sincere apologies, but thanks for watching, May all your days be Thursdays:)
No need to apologize, thanks so much for making the effort and putting it up. 😁Everything is a learning curve. Now you know for you next edit that becomes a viral hit. 😉I come back every so often and watch this, such a great cut. Love when Liam says "Now I am the Master!"
Do you have a time stamp for that last "how long will the luck last?"
Tight you got a million views on content you had nothing to do with
@@bambilicous9008 I know isnt it amazing! I really enjoyed editing this one and conjuring the titles and adding them was a real easy edit. I am sure you can do it too if you try:)
Nah I’m not interested in being a useless leach
Vecna: tries to do literally anything
Scanlan: *aggressively rapping*
Thanks to this comment, I will never not see this fight as everyone else beating the crap out of Vecna while Scanlan is just in the background spitting out rhymes and wearing a ridiculously big golden necklace.
Vecna: I-
Scanlan: *Let me show you how to scratch it*
scanlan is now that guy from Friday night funkin'
Scanlan's spitting venom cause he got that adrenaline momentum
Scanlan: *breathes*
Vecna: "something's wrong I can feel it"
Matt heard "But I Counterspelled it" *immediately* glances at the minis, does a quick and dirty visual measure, realizes Scanlan is *very much* in range for Counterspell, looks back at Sam with a look of "you...Magnificent bastard"
"To fool your enemies, first you must fool your friends". A tactic that only Sam Riegel could pull off so masterfully
Laura Bailey has entered the Chat
Laura Bailey used Blueberry Cupcake
@@zach1972 It's super effective!
@@zach1972 To be fair, Laura didn't have to argue against her friends about any "bad" decisions, so I still think Sam takes the cake. (by an extremely slim margin tho)
@@zach1972 that has nothing to do with fooling friends
@@Axeloy She did have to trick Matt.
Vecna: *about to yeet Grog and Pike to another plane of existence*
Scanlan: “I’m about to end this mans whole career.”
I'm about to end this god's whole apotheosis
Mordirit I’m about to foil this pseudo divine being’s entire machination
I’m about to yee his last haw!
I will terminate the totality of his trajectory (Yes, I love aliteration)
Vecna: I’m gonna…
Scanlan: Nope
This was Sam's first D&D campaign ever, and he becomes *the* clutch player. I love it.
And his original intention with Scanlan was to create the biggest joke, or worst character.
Larry Berry yet the joke became our savior of the campaign
@@WingZX1103 thanks to how op counterspell is
@@dandini0698 Nah, not overpowered at all. He sacrificed higher level spell slots to counter lower level spell slots, with the exception of once...where he got a lucky roll, and luck isn't OP, it's just luck.
@@penguin12902 you can auto-succeed on cs when it is cast from same level. Basically you trade your reaction for the boss's action. Hows that balanced.
1:45
Matt and that small grin saying "It's too late now."
Heh. Little did he know. All according to keikaku."
[Translators note: Keikaku means plan]
@@TenThousandAnts extra note: [in japanese]
I get this DBZA reference and I endorse it.
All according to cake !
@@RoxyGotMoxy. what does this have to do with dragon ball?
Just noticed Ashley getting up and running round in celebration.
ME TOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! my girl :)
That was so cute!
She's so adorable. I wish we got to see more of her. She adds so much to the party.
Her reactions to the whole thing gets me every time.
DrLipkin Thanks for pointing this out. Adds so much.
That inner monologue was probably so close to reality, you could just see it in his eyes. Well done!!
I don’t think sensen9900 actually read the captions.
@@sensen9900 Are you ok? Do you need a hug?
@@sensen9900 Who hurt you?
@@sensen9900 I mean, yeah look at yourself, the fact that you can't accept that other people potentially behave differently than what you believe happens in your own cynical world is pretty sad. Go to a therapist and unfuck yourself.
@@Lenaseymour4323 I dont think he was the only one they are so hard to read XD.
Great! But so hard!
Frustrated and proud. The cocktail of emotions for a DM...
I love the realization on everyone's faces, especially the ones who were worried about the held turn... they all accepted the fate of facing banishment of two very important allies and then suddenly Scanlan saved their butts.
he does this pretty often even in camp #2
I love how shocked Ashley looked and that she literally got out of her chair to do a victory dance when Sam dropped it on them 😄
it happens quite often where Sam plans furthur ahead then the group. WIth the group typically casting doubt on his actions, when they are the actual niave and impulsive ones
And then in the epilogue Vex went with his Queen of Spades and Grog, y’know... pulled the joker 🃏
@@MisfitSass to be fair, he was the biggest support role. It was his job. Healer, or not.
I say this from a position of praise, not the typical "dps needs their @#$% sucked" mentality.
Even gods cast only when Burt Reynolds tell them to cast.
First comment here to make me crack up xD
same
Burt Reynolds Esquire: Attorney at large and master of the counterspell
I don't get it
@@brokenvow8700 Sam/Scanlan called himself Burt Reynolds anytime he did lawyer-type things
When the DM makes that face, that "you magnificent bastard" face, you know you're playing right.
I remember back when Sam and Liam told the story about how Sam made Scanlan. Asked for the "worst" race and class, and used a D&D name generator. And ended up playing the game like a master. He pretended he didn't know how to play only to save the day "accidentally" every time. Then even fooled Matt, his teacher, the ultimate Dungeon Master.
*"Now I have become the master."*
and he keeps doing it. Sam can't keep getting away with the "I don't know how to play" excuse because he seemingly always knows just enough to make extremely clutch plays.
It’s funny because Sam was actually the first HDYWTDT on stream, and it was the first time he killed anything in TWO YEARS of the house game. Dude’s come a long way
This is giving Sam a lot of credit lol. He's a fantastic player but he never pretended to not know how to play so he could surprise his friends, lmao.
It was WORST class and WEAKEST race. Next campaign he went for the WORST race and the... class
Can someone please do a compilation of Scanlan's counterspells during the Vecna fight? He was playing defense all night, and it was just a MASTERCLASS in giving Vecna the middle finger. Also one of the most emotional uses of a spell I've ever seen.
gcollins1992 as a GM of 15 years I can say though he didn't power play the best he could have he played well above great and had flawless timing with his counter spells. Give him like 3 more years and some power gaming lessons and he would be a true force to be reckoned with
Why would he need it though? It's about playing a fun game, not biting down on every number you can squeeze out of your statblock. Sam plays it smart, he doesn't really need more.
Hunterfalke I can see your perspective and I totally agree but you have to understand that if he would have cranked every last number he may have succeeded in what he was going for
Hunterfalke you don't have to power play for the entire game but when you have something this crazy going on it's definitely a time to Crunch every f****** number in the game you can to save your best friend. And to be honest I think he did in that moment I think he just came unprepared in that style
Angelus Fallox I always get confused when people say that power gaming or minmaxing is metagaming and out of character. Like, obviously your character wants to survive and protect the people they care about. You think they aren't going to put everything they have into doing that?
The best part in my opinion was in an earlier episode Travis said “yea we’re gonna pull an old fast one on Vecna” then Sam actually did it and out smarted the god of secrets
I bet it felt so immersive actually pulling that off, fooling everyone including his friends into thinking he had thrown the fight with that action, only to reveal his genius plan at the perfect moment. He truly became his character for a few monents
@@eragonawesome and then what came after with the hand of vekna
Sam is straight up the best D&D player I've ever seen. He's been such a good sport through the whole campaign, and that Wish save for Vax was so good!! Can't wait to see what he'll be playing next.
I hope a Mage, Sorcerer, Wizard or a Druid, or anything that has more choices than dagger-dagger-dagger, because he is also a very-very smart dude.
That wish to save him was stupid. A god gave him a 2nd chance, and to repay her, they betrayed her. Do you really think that god is going to be merciful when he actually does die? There's serious consequences to what that wish did.
As far as I know, Scanlan never ended up using the Wish spell to save Vax (he instead used it on the 9th level counterspell for the Teleport Vecna was going to use). So unless they had another episode I wasn't aware of or something, Vax is still on the way to the Raven Queen (unless they remember that they can just long rest and use Wish, which then we can watch that can of worms being opened xD).
Regardless, I'm excited for the next episode :D
Yes, your correct. You should watch Matt Colville's video on it: ua-cam.com/video/Nz8EoyXTHV8/v-deo.html
Antrix While that is inevitable, don't forget that Wish could theoretically still work, because as far as I recall about the spell, it can rewrite events that have happened before (unless that was just someone's custom wish spell or something), among many other abilities.
A prime example of why The Knowing Mistress chose him.
Ay 420.
I have this headcanon that this fight made Vecna *really* hate Bards, and from now on all his followers target any Bard adventurers aggressively.
SAME
Yep!!! By the end, Scanlan was no longer just an annoyance, he was a clear threat and Vecna was totally trying to off him through any means necessary by the end.
I don't think that seething hatred is from Vecna
Scanlan was so clutch. Not just this episode, but throughout the Campaign. For being his first time playing D&D, Sam picked it up pretty well.
I wonder how many people fail to realize that had they not gotten Scanlan to return when he came to them disguised, they would've TPK'd in that first fight with Vecna. Had Tary stayed with them, they would've been fucked. Scanlan Shorthalt single handedly set forth the chain of events that would lead to them saving the world.
They also later said on an episode of Talks Machina that if they hadn't seen through the Aeus Adon disguise, Scanlan would have come and gone. That would've been their one chance. And it was all foiled by Jon Heder using the Meat Man nickname, which he wasn't supposed to.
Though Aeus Adon means the meat man in elfish
Vex spotting the shadow length of Aeus being shorter than it should be was what sealed the deal. Yeah Jon messed up, but Chod screwing up like that made sense character wise. This is why its a good idea to play dumb characters from time to time. You can play off your fuck ups as being in character!
Remember when Scanlan saved everybody with that perfectly executed Modify Memory spell in the Fire Plane?
He's truly Vox Machina's MVP.
Sam: Counterspell 8th level
"Taylor swift look what you made me do plays in the background"
matt and sam have bad blood now
Sam used that song as a taunt in the game.
"Ooh look what you made me do!
You made me screw up you and now
you have to do brand new!"
I died there.
I love ashley’s reaction to the counterspell. She’s like “oh dammit no” and then as sOON as she hears just does this double take and slowly opens her mouth in shock, and then she’s jumping all over the place!
Liam is hilarious as well, just the “oooohhhh oohhhhh” its fantastic. He’s always to emotive and lively at the table, it inspires me to become a better actress.
And lets not forget sam, like thats just fucking incredible. “Oh but i counterspelled it at eighth level, oooo”
Just, fucking brilliant! I love these guys.
Overwatch Announcer: "Play of the Game"
Taliesin, as Percy.
what!
Close, I mean Matt is McCree and the guest to the game, Darin DePaul is Reinhardt, so yeah that work.
ua-cam.com/video/41LRTWJttts/v-deo.html
"It's high noo-" "¡APAGANDO LAS LUCES!"
Actually think the play of the game would go to the 9th level counterspell at the end. This is still up there, though. :D
Pikes reaction wins the internet forever. From desperation to Elation in 0.01 seconds
Clerics have good charisma saves, but with her charisma score it would have been pretty risky. Grog would have been gone forever lol
No doubt, Pike was in-game very attracted to that gnome in those moments.
@@BlueVortecz only in those moments
Sam was the MVP in this session. He might not have done much damage-wise but he really screwed up Vecna's day through the whole fight.
didn't do much damage but messed up the enemy and bolstered his friends...so ...your saying he, played a Bard?
DwarfBeard TheDungeonMaster played it perfectly...I've played with players who played bards that didn't know how to play them. All I'm saying is he did great.
You misspelled season.
Just being a complete pain in the ass.
In other words, just a bard doing bard shit.
Play with a valor bard that only ever attacks + healing word... oh how I long for someone with half the game sense of Sam.
Ashley's dance of victory. XD
this is top quality gaming! to be able to read the DM like that and knowingly couter something matt hasnt even done yet, and i know them being friends may make it easier, but Matts mind is like a rubix cube from hell. no one should be able to guess what he has in store. what a play scan the man, bravo
I mean, counterspell is a pretty important spell and matt is planning something something and vecna is a spell caster so it only makes sense for Scanlan, the most versatile magic user of the group (no tiberius present) to prepare for worst case scenario
I think Marisha's annoyance sold the whole thing with Matt.
Not too hard to figure he was probably going to have the spell caster cast a spell.
I love how Talisen almost spilled the beans when he saw him get close, and then immediately went to "aren't you holding your turn?" Lol. GG Sam, GG.
Yeah you can see him calculating, I never noticed that. He definitely knew what was up at the table.
He does say to Marisha, "We've got 5 more spells to live through" which is enough for her to put it together, but maybe not enough to tip Matt off to the ultimate scheme. This is appropriate meta, because concealing a plan from a DM is totally acceptable behavior.
meanwhile Joe is concerned for the stability of the platforms and has no idea!
Let's be honest, if anyone is gonna catch Sam doing that play, It's Taliesin
@@GodBear97 I dont think Taliesin caught shit, as evidenced by his reaction when Sam actually revealed his play. None of them caught on.
@@johanlassen6448 calm down there Johan
Liams' thought processes from 3:11:
"Um, doesn't he need to be within a certain distance for that spell to work? Why isn't Matt calli-holy crap he's in range! That sneaky bastard!"
I noticed Liam also immediately looked at the minis too alongside Matt and just… both their reactions when they realized that YES Scanlan WAS in range. Just love it.
I love Sams reaction when he realizes that his master plan has worked.
Yeah, its a slightly nonplussed attitude of laissez-faire "Oh by the way Mr GM, I have this spell for you"
You have to give it to Sam. For being this his first ever D&D game. He had play this game beautifully. From the acting, which was to be expected since being a professional actor, to the decision making on the battlefield. He had really became quite a very impressive player. Well done sir well done.👏👏👏👏👏👏
Whoever you are, running this channel, you have a high insight score
@Eli That is the nicest compliment I have ever had on UA-cam, thank you:)
TP Burrow :)
I would love to see the clip of Sam breaking down after burning his 9th level spell. That was such a sweet moment.
It's at the end of this:
ua-cam.com/video/Nz8EoyXTHV8/v-deo.html
Hey, sweet moment and all but I don't want Sam to break down like that. Ever.
To me it just showed how invested Sam was in the story. Its great to see that much commitment, making it all that much more real.
3 years: hundreds of hours of investment led into this finale. It felt very much real indeed.
you realize he was saving that 9th level spell so he could use a wish spell to keep Vax alive right? that's why he was upset
The Subtext on this is really well done :D
agreed but color was a lil difficult to read but besides that it was great
The subtext is badly done; I can barely read it at all. It would have been better to go with white on dark color, rather than black on dark color. As an aside, could somebody get me a read-out of the subtext, because I really can't read most of the lines?
"I hate you Vecna, stop hurting my friends!" - "I need to get in range, what transport does Scanlan have?" - "I can't fly like Vax or Vex" - "I could use Bigby's hand to lift me up" - "I need to be within 60ft of Vecna" - "But I don't want the GM to realise!" - "For this to work, I need the others to be duped too" - "Sorry friends, it's for the greater good!" - "My go is after Percy, what else could I do?" - "Good work, Percy!" - "This is risky, what else have I got?" - "Hmm, nothing better" - "This is such a hard fight!" - "The fate of Exandria rests on this battle!" - "I will not let Vox Machina die this day!" - "Okay, time to save the world AND Vox Machina!" - (then after his turn, when it comes to the song) - "Sh*t, what do I sing!? This needs to be distracting for Matt!" - "Think think, a song of inspiration and distraction..." - "Anything! Sing anything! Now!"
thanks
The subtitles are great, but as was mentioned before, they are barely readable. A good way to fix this, if you are going to add them in a future videos, is to add white outline to them, even 1 pixel width will make them 100% readable. Thank you for your content!
This was beautiful. After all the dirty tricks that Matt pulled (in character of course), it must have been the best feeling for Sam to drop this 900 IQ move and see the look on the face of a DM who just got PLAYED.
I love how half the people checked if he was close enough and THEN started celebratiing
Sam is a literal genius. It's pretty clear at this point.
Love coming back to this video. The growth of Sam Riegel playing as Scanlan the Bard feels so good. From barely understanding how D&D works, to rampaging through Whitestone as a Triceratops, becoming a reluctant father, mansion owner, the next wielder of the Whiteduke's Blade, Slayer of Ghurrix the Pitfiend, the Meatman of Ank'Harel, Champion of Ioun, and finally the Arch-Bane of the Undead God Vecna.
1:55 when he realised they had all bought it.
I love how everyone was like "but you were supposed to hold your turn right?" and just got blown away
Lol I just noticed Ashley dancing around her room after Sam counters the spell! Too adorable!
Love Ashley getting up out of her chair to celebrate lol.
can always tell when Sam is super stressed.. he starts chewing on his nails.
You think Marisha would have learned to trust the Eternal MVP by now
Gilgamesh Prime Well the plan also definitely counted on people at the table not noticing or saying anything, so it's a good thing she didn't lol
Vegas242 sorry for this late comment but, by this point 115 episodes of sam been clutch, its true he tried to deceive everyone on the table and he did it successfully. but after the first vecna fight, after scanlan saved everyone by counterspelling the counterspell of the plane shift, and the fact that sam never alongside travis they never get in some1 else's turn unless they are asked about it. they should realize sam is always thinking ahead.
I find it ironic that Marisha consistently did the dumbest things, forgot about how spells work, etc, all while had the audacity to be pesky at Sam thinking he forgot about the main goal as why he is there.
She was incapable of thinking like that in season one, she veiwed herself as the best of them all in nearly every way so if it didnt the way she wanted she got pissy, just look at her expression after shes told sam cant take his turn back.
Part of it is Sam is playing a bit of a con.
He could have said, "I am getting close for counterspell, because we won't have time this round to get in there without it" buuuuut.
Subtly he doesn't want to clue Matt in about his ultimate plan, because Matt might use a juicier spell for him to counter.
So, as much as Marisha is freaking out, she's a bit in the dark because Sam's playing some mind games. As much as I wanna say Matt is impartial and wouldn't have changed his plan.... Matt's a little opportunistic when it comes to his villains sometimes. Even the best DM's at times get "invested" and can be biased.
In this case, Sam's enforcing a bias that's good meta, but at the cost of leaving Marisha to waffle openly.
Vecna:
Scanlan: Oops counterspell At 8th Level my bad
But that's not how the meme works. Vecna literally said that he was casting a spell. He didn't say nothing.
You can see Joe Manginellos face go from “fuck we might be screwed” to “holy shit this dude is a genius who likely just saved our asses”
that inner monologue tho
Sam is a MAD genius when he is paying attention. 🤣
Jester lavorre: Hold my cupcake
Nah, cupcake thing isn't that impressive.
The anime monologue to end all anime monologues.
The only thing it lacked was at 2:59
"Katta. Keikaku doori!"
thumbnail caption: "Oh, I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am"
Scanlan, a being of vast arcane knowledge, worlds of experience throughout the multiverse, connections all across Exandria, blessed by the goddess of knowledge and feared by Vecna himself; also, a 4 foot tall gnome who looks silly.
also, the subtext really adds humorous context, and is designed well, without being distracting.
A. I legit NEVER noticed Ashley get up and run around. That was amazing.
B. Never has Liam been more in love with Sam than at that moment watch his face unfold what just happened.
The inner monologue or whatever you wanna call it was really well done man! Synced perfectly with his expressions. I hope he sees this!
When Sam is quiet and has his thinking face on biting his fingers you know somethings about to go go down!
I should make a vid on everyone's "tell" so we know when they are planning something:)
Everytime i watch this; it amazes me just how brilliant Sam is at this game. What an amazing play
One thing I loved about sam's character is everytime he would do something and no one believed it would work even before he rolled I'd say It's Scanlan! And he roll a million.
"No words. Just seathing hatred in your path."
That wasn't Vecna. That was Matt speaking. 🤣
Yeah your right, good insight check, a GM thwarted portrays NPCs as themselves for a little while, a bit like Players who put a lot of themselves into their character
This was an amazing moment. I watched it back 9 times to watch each persons reaction in turn
I love how Marisha was the first person to doubt Sams decision but was also the first to applaud his brilliance
I love the pain on Sam's face as everyone is like "what the fuck are you doing?" And he just can't tell them.
Kind of like how the character group treats Scanlan.
It took everyone a solid 3 seconds to fully realize what Sam said.
This is thematic considering scanlans is the champion of ion and therefore is the direct enemy of vecna from a divine and philosophical aspect
black text over a dark background might not be the best.
“No words, just seething hatred”
“Okay”
“Vecna on the other hand…”
“Wait…”
I love Ashley’s little dance on the tv
I love how Matt's reaction goes from "Damn you fucked my plans." when Sam counterspells him, but at the revelation that that was why he moved closer, he smiles and applaudes Sam for the great play.
i cant tell if vecna is mad or matt lol
mr Crab both? Both. Both is good.
Sam is playing f*cking 4D chess all the time, not just for this fight. The biggest of brains and the most respect for this man.
3:26 no one is talking about ashley jumping in her room when Sam counterspell vecna?
Sam Riegel: I don't know how to play D&D..
Also Sam Riegel: *this bullshit*
No doubt he is a master mind.
Credit to Joe for being on top of the clapping during the inspiration.
The real show is on Pikes screen when the counterspell goes off.
So, I originally watched this video when I was in the early 30s (I’d already been spoiled, no worries) and back then I didn’t see the captions fitting Sam’s gaming. But I just finished 102 and WOW, the difference in Sam’s playing of Scanlan over the years and more knowledge of his gameplay, I think you pretty much nailed the internal monologue he was probably going through!
Yeah he had an amazing journey from ep 30 to ep 100 and beyond,
Oh man, you can see how the INSTANT he says "Counterspell" Matt jumps to stare straight at him.
Like, "Oh shit, he's really doing it!"
Sam is honestly my D&D inspiration. I'm a new player and I just took his approach as a great guide to things. And also to be creative and willing to make moves like this. my character at one point used a joke gag magic item (ring of forgetfulness) to make a Stone Titan forget and give the gang a second chance at a conversation and some convincing. it saved us having to fight a Titan and even the DM forgot about the ring.(running gag about the item is my character forgets about it every now and then and even all of us the players forget about the thing frequently) and just the fact that he has fun and lets himself be the butt of jokes, that's a great comedian there.
I always imagined whatever arcane glyphs appeared in the air for the two big counterspells in this fight just ended with an image of Bigby's Hand giving the middle finger
Sam Riegal, he inspired me to make my first bard as I thought they...while not useless, were not as good as other classes. But this campaign showed me that with a little creativity in the use of spells, knowing your role and sticking to it, can turn the once thought as less-than-useful bard class into one I'm genuinely excited to play.
Especially that Duke Vedmeyer fight when it was Scanlan going all Rambo on one of the Whitestone houses.
I will never get over Ashley breaking it down after Scanlan drops his epic line!
I love how Matt Mercer, and Joe Manganiello (2 big D&D boys) both give this man a clap for that play.
Sam: What's like, the WORST thing I can play?
Liam: I don't know, a gnooooome..... bard?
Sam: I'll be THAT.
REMEMBER THAT THIS CONVERSATION BIRTHED SCANLAN SHORTHALT.
Scanlan Shorthalt, the Bard and total bane of Vecna’s existence.
Super cool that they use the Nagash model for Vecna.
I wish I saw the Twitch chat go fucking ballistic after Sam's stunt.
I love how Liam is so proud of his husband
I love how Ashley gets up and does a little lap around her room. XD
I miss scanlan so much, Sam’s brilliant decisions between the conclave and vecna saved them so many times
Sam grinning like a hungry lion looking at a ribeye after Matt announces to the table what level spell Vecna is casting is hilarious to me
And since then... So the tale tells...
Gnome Bards were the new arch enemys of the God of Whispers Vecna. 😂
The subtitles are hard to read but this is such a great moment. Dark outline to light text or light outline to dark text is advice I've learned in the past for image macros. Such an amazing moment, thank you for the memory.
Look at liam smile the while damn time he caught onto what sam was doing. Love how proud liam is of sam and live how mixed feelings matt has for sam.
2:38 Sam, playing the clever and distracting bard in and out of game
first of all, this video would be nothing without the added subtitles to his self inner thoughts. I commend you sir.
Thanks, I am not sure I have been commended before, I just wish I had learned how to put an outline on text when I made this.
I cant wait to see this in The Legend of Vox Machina.
You and the rest of us.
Sam’s “that’s why I got closer, motherf*cker” BETTER be included.
Sam and Travis are so committed to their characters. They are my inspiration for dnd game play.
I waited for a long time to watch this. Has been appearing in my youtube feed for so long. Finally finished 114- it was well worth the wait
Thanks for watching, enjoy 115:)
Love Ashley dancing on screen after the counterspell.
And in that moment, Sam Riegel became the Ryan Reynolds of D&D.
I invite you all to watch closely every reaction, its worth the back arrow multiple taps
I just love how Ashley got up to dance in celebration. Makes my heart all warm and fuzzy.