How the D&D Movie Compares to Actual D&D
I didn’t intentionally launch my blog the same weekend as the new D&D movie – Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, but the D&D gods have aligned the stars to work out that way. So to help those that are new to D&D and trying to understand what makes this movie a D&D movie, and not just another action-comedy in a fantasy setting, I’d like to touch on the good and the bad with how the movie stayed true (or not) to actual D&D gameplay.
Before anything else – Good News! This is a spoilers-free post. I will explain some mechanical things that happen in the movie, but will not be giving away any of the plot.
This is not a review of the movie, but in case you’re wondering, I really liked it. Touching story, not terrible/sometimes very funny humor, great action, and lots of little D&D Easter eggs to keep us nerds constantly entertained.
My observations below are predominantly about the characters in the movie and the abilities they showed or didn’t show that you would normally see for similar characters in gameplay.
Druids
The first thing that D&D fans noticed when the movie trailer came out was, gasp, that Doric the Druid turned into an Owlbear. Let me break this down. Druids are one of many classes, or professions of player characters (PCs) in D&D. This is my class of choice when I play. Duh, I named my whole blog after Druids.
One of the unique abilities for Druids is that they can “Wild Shape” or turn into animals. But D&D is a game of very specific rules. So Druids can’t just turn into any animals. They have to level up several times before they can turn into animals that swim or fly and they can only turn into animals that are under a certain “combat rating” which tells you how dangerous they are. And the biggest rule that comes into play here, is that they can only turn into animals that are categorized as “Beasts.” Beasts in D&D are basically most animals that exist in our real world, dinosaurs, and a few enhanced versions of real animals.
Owlbears are categorized as “Monstrosities.” There are magic spells at higher levels that allow you to turn into any kind of creature, but this is not part of a Druid’s innate abilities. Druids are also only able to use their Wild Shape abilities two times per short rest. The movie took liberties here, allowing Doric to Wild shape multiple times in a short span, and not turning back into herself between Wild Shapes, which can’t technically happen. Only at the highest possible level, Level 20, does a Druid gain the Archdruid feature, which allows them to Wild Shape an unlimited number of times. We could say that Doric could have done what she did as an Archdruid, but if she were, she would have had much more powerful spells and abilities than she showed in the action scenes.
One thing they did right, was show how a Druid will revert back to their normal form if they are damaged enough in Wild Shape, so well done there.
Bards
Now let’s talk about Bards. Chris Pine’s Edgin the Bard character was a bit under-powered in my opinion, but maybe that’s because they made his influence less obvious. The trailer features a scene where he talks about being the guy that makes the plan, but it’s never implied at any time that has has any magical abilities. I actually think this is sort of brilliant. While Bards typically do have limited magical abilities, they are not considered one of the big magic-user classes.
Bards are best known for a feature called Bardic Inspiration where they literally inspire the other members of their party to be more likely to succeed on their attacks or other efforts. Bards are also likely to use spells that charm others, easily make friends, and persuade others to take actions they otherwise wouldn’t have. Upon a second viewing of the movie, I will be looking more closely to see if these spells were being subtly used.
Barbarians
Everyone keeps talking about Michelle Rodriguez’s character Holga as a Barbarian. And she certainly fights like one. But just like the subtle charisma of the Bard, Holga’s Barbarian features are not very explicit. Barbarians are usually considered the “tank” of the adventuring party, meaning they have lots of health (called Hit Point) and they don’t go down easily. On top of their insanely high HP, Barbarians have a feature called Rage that is used when entering combat. While the Barbarian is Raging, all piercing or bludgeoning attacks against them only do half-damage.
I didn’t see much in the movie to indicate Holga had such tank-iness as a typical Barbarian does. She was just a kick-ass, tough fighter.
Sorcerers
Simon the Sorcerer was a mixed bag. There’s a lot of in-movie talk about him not being a very good Sorcerer, so perhaps that was to account for the fact that he only had one moderately high level spell that he used, called Bigby’s Hand. Bigby’s Hand is a 5th-level spell. Anyone who can cast 5th-level spells should also be able to cast several spells in levels lower than that, but Simon struggles to cast anything more than 1st or 2nd-level.
However, Simon could cast a few things endlessly due to magical items he possessed. There is an amusing series of interactions involving the Speak with Dead spell, that normally can only be cast a certain number of times per day, but due to Simon’s magical item, he could cast it like a Cantrip, which is a type of spell that can be cast as many times as you want.
I did enjoy the movie’s depiction of the process of attunement. For some high-powered magical items, players are required to “attune” to the item in order to use it, and they may only attune to up to three items total. In the mechanics of gameplay, this means they have to spend about one hour of undisturbed time with the item, but how this plays out is up to the PC and DM of the game being played. Many groups just say if you have an hour, you are attuned.
Without giving too much away, the way the movie depicts Simon having to attune to a magic item put way more realness into the process that I really appreciated.
Wizards
I don’t claim to know a lot specifically about the Red Wizards that are depicted in this movie because I haven’t been around D&D long enough to play a pre-written campaign where they are featured, but I can speak about wizards generally.
Sofina the red wizard is extremely powerful, and as far as I could tell, was able to cast at least one 9th-level spell (the highest level), so that put her leagues above what would have been the main characters’ levels in a real table-top game.
Generally, in a real game, the DM will put a group of players at a certain level up against several enemies at the same or lower levels to fight, or one enemy that is a much higher level (called the Challenge Level). I can also say that monsters, creatures, and BBEGs that players face in-game often do not adhere to the same rules as players of similar classes. So if you’re fighting an evil dude who is obviously a certain class like a Monk, Warlock, or a Rogue, don’t be surprised that they can do things that normal players of those classes cannot. Evil enemies often have things called Legendary Actions, which allow them to take more actions in a round of combat (and often heinously powerful things) than a regular player can. These mechanics are meant to provide balance to encounters.
Conclusion
I know there are loads of things I’ve missed here, but I hope I brought some knowledge that will help you appreciate this movie as an example of the campaigns and fantasy realms that many of use are diving into on weekends. As I’ve said before, D&D allows you to immerse yourself in a world where you are the hero. And I loved this movie because it brings what I love to the masses.
