Mar 24

Mar 24 Dungeons & Dragons: Honor among Thieves is Great

*** Warning - The following contains major spoilers.

Several reviews are already out, and I'm sure there will be more with the official release of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor among Thieves. I was looking forward to the movie and was able to catch an early showing last Sunday. Surrounding me were groups of people discussing which characters they thought would be the strongest, what they already saw that wasn't "rules as written" in the commercials - the druid wild shape owlbear -and so forth. Unfortunately, most of the conversations were negative, but most were old grognards, going into the movie ready to pick it apart.

There's a lot of hate directed at Wizards and Hasbro right now. Putting that aside, I went into the movie hopeful and excited that it would be worth seeing and appeal to the hardcore player and those who have never played the game before. I grew up with the original movies, so it was hard to trust the new generation movie. Still, given the cast, advances in CGI, and the popularity of Dungeons & Dragons, I was optimistic.

This is not a review of the movie. The original film had a couple of items from the game, with the biggest being the beholder, who was in the film for approximately 1 minute. It had dragons, but they are hardly unique to fantasy movies. It had Jeremy Irons as the villain, whose over-the-top performance made the movie worth watching. The bar was low, so there was nowhere to go but up.

And they knocked it out of the fucking park.

Races & Classes

The party consisted of a human bard and barbarian, a tiefling druid, a half-elf sorcerer, and a human paladin for a brief time. The bard sings, and the barbarian rages (and has a flame tongue axe). I'd argue that she has the Tavern Brawler feat. We know that the sorcerer isn't a wizard, and it's made evident that his magic comes from his bloodline, with flashbacks to his father. The druid uses wild shape freely. Sure, the options list in 5e doesn't include a fly or owlbear, but seriously people, get over yourselves.

The paladin is an Oath of Devotion paladin, or at least I am willing to bet he is. An Oath of Devotion paladin places justice, virtue, and order above all. The movie's paladin checks all the boxes; shiny armor, holding firm to the ideals of justice and order, acting with honor in its pursuit, and holding themselves and others to the same standards. This annoys the bard, who plays the foil to the paladin's holier-than-thou attitude. It makes for some good laughs.

The backstabbing bad guy is likely a thief (sorry, Hugh Grant, but Jeremy Irons' bad guy puts you to shame). The main BBEG, however, is a Red Wizard of Thay. There's little backstory for these wizards, but it isn't needed. There's so much other lore discussed throughout the movie, so forgive the writers if they don't get bogged down by explaining their history. They are obviously the bad guys, turning people into undead armies to help them expand their rule. There's a brief but fantastic nod to the Red Wizard's leader, the lich Szass Tam. Hiding in the shadow, it's made clear the lich is pulling the strings before it fades into the shadows, setting up for a sequel if the movie does well at the box office.

Location, location, location

Using the Forgotten Realms setting, the movie takes place in the Faerun, with much of the film set in Neverwinter. References were made to Baldur's Gate, Waterdeep, and a few minor locations that were surprisingly accurate. The artifact our adventures had to obtain was located in the Underdark. There may not have been any drow or duergar, but it was still creepy.

Those Pesky Monsters

The movie also includes various monsters, most of which are incredibly accurate. There were the obligatory dragons - an incredibly fat red dragon living in a mountain cave. This is where they typically live, according to their description in the MM. There was also a black dragon spitting acid on his flybys. I heard people complain that it usually lives in marshes and bogs. Those people need to relax, as it was obviously helping the bad guys in battle. Maybe it was summoned, bribed, or simply in league with them.

Other creatures included a variety of classic and lesser-known monsters. Herds of axe beaks were paraded through Neverwinter. A displacer beast prowled the labyrinth, using its powers to eat a few unfortunate individuals. Also in this maze of horrors was a mimic - disguised as a treasure chest, of course - and a gelatinous cube, dissolving the flesh from the engulfed poor soul. In the Underdark, the party runs into a group of intellect devourers, who stroll by them, the party's Intelligence not high enough to merit the walking brains to attack them. I get it. Intelligence is my dump stat.

Homage to the Older Editions

Beyond the Red Wizards (and the Harpers - they were a real band of good-doers), There were a few shout-outs to the older editions. Everyone knows about the party from the TV Dungeons & Dragons series making a 'cameo,' but there were other, more subtle nods to classic D&D. One of the less obvious parts of the movie they got right was travel. Taking a page from the LotR movies, our adventurers didn't magically appear somewhere. No matter how short, clips of them traveling from to and fro were scattered throughout the film. If you don't believe travel is important, grab a copy of the AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide and flip to the appendix section. The sheer number of random encounter tables should prove that it took time to reach your destination.

Another was the inclusion of morale. It's brought up twice in the movie, both times in a joking fashion. When our bard references keeping morale up, the sorcerer points out there is no such thing as morale. It's a funny moment. It may go unnoticed by the less hardcore or newer players, but old guys like me laughed. The second mention led to an exasperated response that it didn't exist and was an excellent follow-up.

Other Easter eggs are scattered throughout the movie, but I would have taken notes to catch them all. That wasn't going to happen since I was there to enjoy the film, not try and see every little D&D detail. I'm glad I didn't because it was a thoroughly enjoyable time, and I recommend the movie to everyone, hardcore fans and those who've never played alike.

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