For some heroes from the fourth campaign, the chosen subclasses are still a mystery. Fans believe they have uncovered one.
The first chapter of Critical Role’s fourth and largest campaign is now complete, but the 13 active players and their game master are not taking a break. However, the group is divided into three parties: the Seekers, the Soldiers, and the Conspirators.
The 12th episode has now been released and began with a very emotional look into the past of Halandil Fang, the character played by Liam O’Brian. Some fans noticed an important detail. Minor spoilers up to and including episode 12 follow.
Which bard school does Hal belong to?
The character Hal is a bard. While some of the heroes have already revealed their subclass (or revealed their true main class), Liam O’Brian’s theater-loving orc is one of those who are still keeping their specialization a secret.
Reddit user ErraticNymph believes he has solved the mystery. He suspects that Hal belongs to the School of Eloquence and not, as many assume, the School of Sorrow.
In the flashback mentioned, Hal tries to calm his crying daughter Hero and has to make a Persuasion roll to do so. Since this is a flashback, O’Brian wants to know from the game master whether he is already at level 3 in the past.
ErraticNymph is convinced that he is asking this question because he wants to find out whether he can apply a skill from the School of Eloquence to his roll. The skill is called Silver Tongue and allows the player to treat any Persuasion roll that is a 9 or lower as a 10.
For fans, this bard school is a much better fit anyway, as Hal belongs to the group of conspirators. A school that specializes in social interactions makes much more sense here, according to the argument.
The dice roll could confirm this suspicion
Assuming that the standard DnD rules are followed here, ErraticNymph’s assumption is not so far-fetched. O’Brian rolls a 5 and a 9. He rolls twice because he is rolling with disadvantage and has to take the worse result.
However, his final result is a 15. Assuming he is skilled in persuasion, plus 2 skill bonus is added. Game master Brennan Lee Mulligan wants him to use the Wisdom attribute instead of Charisma for the roll.
Hal’s Wisdom score is 16, which gives him an attribute modifier of +3. The final result of 15 could therefore be achieved if he belongs to the School of Eloquence and uses Silver Tongue to turn his rolled 5 into a 10.
Like almost all DnD groups, Critical Role also plays with some homemade rules. So it’s quite possible that there’s another explanation for this interaction. But since the bard Hal is mainly at home in the theater, the School of Eloquence makes perfect sense for him. Maybe the whole thing will be clarified in the next episode.
