#cr poll

[gaygoetia]

Which CR4 character is the hottest (Female PCs) 🔥

Murray

Thaisha

Thimble

Tyranny

Vaelus

Voting ended onOct 7, 2025

Sorry bisexuals. The poll limit is 12 options so I had to divide them up somehow.

But you can vote on the lads here.

Pictures below for anyone who hasn't seen CR4 that wants to participate:

[thisisnotthenerd]

putting the tl;dr at the top as a poll and the commentary under the cut because it’s quite rambly and it’s also late and i’m tired.

tl;dr: bell’s hells is missing something. what is it?

genuine character interactions that aren’t just the cast being good actors

an even distribution of backstory in a plot-heavy campaign

a session zero with the themes of the campaign laid out

breathing room given the 3-4 months of in-campaign time (3 years out of campaign

the guests who shook up the party dynamics*

FCG

an approach for how they’re dealing with predathos & ludinus

clarity about the gods and the state of the world

decent intelligence stats / less dump stats in general

interesting antagonists that aren’t just a storm of knives/dragon/exaltant magic

i’m bald / nuance

a certain je ne sais quoi / cut of their gib / chutzpah / moxie / etc.

Voting ended onDec 21, 2024

*whether dorian is one of these is up for debate

there’s some discussion of bell’s hells not having the “it” factor for a lot of people. even though it’s my first campaign and the only one i’ve mostly watched live, i kind of have to agree.

there’s a distinctive lack of investment in backstory for the group in terms of what they’ve spent time on in campaign. i think fearne is the only one who’s been done justice, even though we’ve seen other exploration, because they’ve been to her home multiple times, and while her backstory isn’t central to the main plot, it is close. it’s enough distance for her to be able to develop as a character but also for us to see where she came from.

imogen’s is tied directly to the main moon plot, so she’s had screen time aplenty, but less time to develop quietly, as laura does really well. i might argue for orym, but that’s because his is kept simple but with depth. his backstory comes through in the acting because he’s put up against his family members occasionally, but he’s a little guy at root.

for everyone else it’s been short detours. sometimes not even that. the spotlight oscillates between moon plot and god arguments with indecisive wandering in between.

while not everyone in vox machina inherently had a deep personal connection to the big bads of their campaigns, they didn’t need to. they did it for their friends, because they loved and trusted one another deeply. they made decisions about what they were facing and stuck to it, even when it meant sacrifice. they made multiple levels of friendship around and across the table.

at this point bell’s hells has been told a bunch of different things to do. and honestly i don’t know if they ever decided on one.

that’s not the point of this though.

there’s some archetypes or dnd players out there: roleplayers and power gamers. people who are all in it for the story and people who are all in it for the game. and it reflects in the characters they build.

somehow bell’s hells (collectively) is neither.

they don’t have strong investment in the plot collectively. the character concepts range from simple to deeply complex, and i have to say that i think the simpler has worked better for a plot-heavy campaign, because the characters that started simpler had a chance to develop over the campaign rather than competing for time between the plot and their own stories hanging over their heads.

take dorian. he was a humble bard, a former noble, who’s trying to make his way in the world. he refused great power from an evil source and paid the price in the loss of his brother. he fell in love as the world ended, and is still trying to sing the songs of the people he loves because he wants to bring people joy and bring them together. he’s invested in stopping predathos because of his friends, but also to avenge loss, and to protect the people of his homeland and take up his responsibility as heir to the silken squall.

it took a paragraph. but at the table, even when he was with the crown keepers for a few months, he fits right in. he’s had growth while keeping true to his core.

i’m not going to get into the rest now but there’s a definite element of throwing shit at a wall and seeing what sticks.

anyways, beyond the difficulties of backstory, they’re not super optimized. i’m of the belief that optimization works in tandem with roleplay—the characters are growing and changing over the course of the story, and having the mechanics trace that and make choices impactful is a big part of the appeal of the game.

watching vox machina and the mighty nein fight is a treat because not only are they level 20 and therefore godlike in power, their mechanics support interesting combat where failure hits hard because they’re built to succeed. when someone fails a save or misses it means something. they have options in their wheelhouse but they’ve found their niches and know how to play to their strengths.

bell’s hells is playing high level combat right now, but they have middling stats: lots of dump stats, 10-14s in the middle and some attacks/spell saves that aren’t as high as you’d expect of level 15 characters. they have several characters with perhaps too many options, and have made some weird strategic decisions. they’re indecisive. in combination with fluctuating luck from the dice, there’s times where they can wreck house, but also times of them failing saves, missing on full turns, losing resources, and overall failing more than they succeed.

also bell’s hells don’t make big decisions in combat unless they’re absolutely forced to. in the last arc pre-final battle, the big battles were otohan on ruidus, dominox and ludinus in aeor (+delilah), zathuda and the unseelie in the feywild. with otohan, they were dying all around until fcg’s sacrifice. literally end of the line. then in aeor, they fought to end dominox, got whammied with downfall, and then had the delilah fight, but then her sealing came later. they fought in the arch heart’s temple, but the big revelations came on the heels of that, between the arch heart themself and then zathuda being strung up on the loom.

but of a tangent: i don’t think naddpod and critical role can be fairly compared, because they’re different in tone and telling very different stories. i relistened to naddpod c1 recently along with the last few episodes of c3 as we approach the finale, and while they have gotten more creative on the character building side, the story is still well done and combat is fun to listen to. they have had moments of deep tragedy on naddpod. they’ve had cameos of old characters, and even had one of them as a pc for a full arc mid-campaign 3. they’ve explored the future of the world of bahumia after the events of c1.

and while the story is satisfying and fun, the combat is also satisfying and fun. not just because murph is really good at building combats that are interesting in theater of the mind, but because the characters are built to be good at what they do. and when they go down, when they miss, when they fail, it hits harder. but they bounce back and keep going even when the circumstances suck. and they make narratively important decisions during combat.

with bell’s hells, i have often noted a split between their combat and roleplay. i like matt’s combats. i think they’re fun and make good use of a variety of enemies, terrain, and complicating factors. with vm and mn, it makes for really engaging episodes of combat, where they make use of the environment tactically and get to discover elements of how the field is set up as they go. i’m using the recent examples, which are not entirely inclusive but generally reflective of their combat trends.

vox machina fought their way off an airship, onto a chaotic battlefield, and then stealthed up to the malleus key, where they proceeded to defeat ozo cruth, break the bloody bridge, and get vax out of imprisonment. the mighty nein stealthed around kreviris, met with the volition, zip lined to and blew up the arx creonum, and then snuck through to meet the weave mind in combat. i can recall fun details and clutch moves, big risks including characters dying, and overall, battles that had character interaction.

as i’ve talked about before, bell’s hells gets whomped. they swing for the fences on some things, but when it doesn’t pay off it’s not just a missed opportunity, it’s often an active barrier or a loss of valuable resources that drive them closer to crisis.

imogen’s whirlwind, laudna’s disintegrate, and dorian’s forcecage were all great moves this episode. it also means they’re down some of their highest level spells before they actually face ludinus and/or predathos. granted they have the orb. but whether they can use it will be variable.

[critrolepolls]

Favorite recurring cast reference

what's [x] mother's name??

sigle (sigil)

[tiny warhorn]

...do you spice?

it's been awhiiiiiile

makin' my way

AH! (scientists could recreate 1 sound)

shiver and queef

[sneezing] -> STOP IT

we're basically gods

Purvon Sole

[a ref OP didn't list]

Voting ended onSep 15, 2024

I know there were some missed options in the previous 'Matt blooper' poll lol, so I've brought those in along with some other options in a broader category of recurring reference!

[samuraiko]

The Critical Role Heartbreak Prince Battle Royale

Okay, I made this joke over on Twitter and now I'm curious how this would actually shake down.

If you put all of Liam's CANONICAL love interests across all three campaigns in a battle royale, who would win?

(Before anyone gets their knickers in a knot, these are people for whom there was RECIPROCATED AND ACTED-UPON INTEREST.)

For sake of equality, we're gonna level-set EVERYONE at level 20. Let's have the fur REALLY fly!

Also, once you vote, please reblog for a larger sample size? Thanks!

EDIT: I am *LOVING* the commentary in the tags. :D

Who'd win the Battle Royale of Liam's CANONICAL Love Interests?

Keyleth of the Air Ashari (C1)

Shaun Gilmore (C1)

Astrid Beck (C2)

Eadwulf Grieve (C2)

Essek Thelyss (C2)

Will of the Air Ashari (C3)

Dorian Storm (C3)

Voting ended onMay 18, 2024

[could-they-be-a-pro-wrestler]

How successful would Yasha Nydoorin…

…be if they decided to become a pro-wrestler?

Yes on the microphone skills / Yes on the wrestling skills

Yes on the microphone skills / No on the wrestling skills

No on the microphone skills / Yes on the wrestling skills

No on the microphone skills / No on the wrestling skills

Voting ended onJan 10

Would you like to submit a character? Click this link if you do!

[undead-knick-knack]

Thaisha and Julien ship name: Davinlloy

Yay

Nay

Yay, but spell it Davinloy

Might I suggest... (put in tags)

Voting ended onNov 17, 2025

[echo-of-faefal]

boom i literally remembered

FAV CRC4 CHARACTER POST EPISODE 25!!!!!!!

hal

bolaire

murray

azune

teor/wick

kattigan

thimble

tyranny

occtis

sir julien

vaelus

thaisha

Voting ended onMay 22

[fuzzyfrizzlefrack]

Ludinus seems to think that viewing the events of Downfall will change minds. Did it change yours?

For the purposes of this poll I've distilled the positions I saw most frequently into three main camps:

Gods Gotta Go: Ludinus has some valid points. You may or may not be on board with whatever he has planned AFTER getting rid of the gods, but if we lose a few or all of the deities along the way, it's probably a net positive. Bells Hells should ally with Ludinus (for now).

Team SD (Save Divines or Stop Da'leth): Maybe you believe the gods are worth saving, maybe you simply don't trust Ludinus. Either way, Bells Hells should work against Ludinus' plan.

Undecided: There are too many unknowns to make such a weighty decision. Bells Hells needs to gather more information / execute a plan that is somehow different than something outlined above.

How did Downfall affect your perception of Ludinus Da'leth's cause?

Gods Gotta Go, both before and after watching Downfall

Originally anti-God, but now I'm on Team SD

Originally anti-God, but now I'm undecided

Team SD, both before and after watching Downfall

Originally Team SD, but now I think the Gods Gotta Go

Originally Team SD, but now I'm undecided

Undecided, both before and after watching Downfall

Originally undecided, but now I think the Gods Gotta Go

Originally undecided, but now I'm on Team SD

Other / Nuance (reply below)

I haven't seen Downfall (see results)

Voting ended onAug 5, 2024

(please consider reblogging for sample size and all that)