'Critical Role' Has an Awesome New Character

Critical Role introduced Taliesin Jaffe's amazing new character last night, the Firbolg Cleric [...]

By Christian Hoffer

Critical Role introduced Taliesin Jaffe's amazing new character last night, the Firbolg Cleric Caduceus Clay.

Critical Role is a popular webshow in which a bunch of voice actors play Dungeons & Dragons. The current campaign follows the misadventures of the Mighty Nein, a diverse group of adventurers working for a crime boss on the continent of Wildemont. Earlier in the campaign, about half of the group's party were captured by slavers, and an attempted rescue attempt ended with one of the party members (Mollymauk, played by Taliesin Jaffe) dead.

Mollymauk was a popular character and his death shook both the cast and fans of the show. But with a player character death comes new opportunity in the form of a new player character. In this week's episode, Jaffe revealed his new character, a firbolg Grave Domain Cleric named Caduceus Clay.

Although not quite as flamboyant as Mollymauk, Caduceus retains a little bit of Jaffe's character. The firlbog has a bright pink mohawk, not dissimilar to Jaffe's occasional hairstyle. The Grave Domain also seems to sync up with Jaffe's personality perfectly.

Here's a look at Caduceus, courtesy of Critical Role DM Matthew Mercer.Note that Caduceus is wearing beetle armor, which is awesome on so many levels.

Firbolgs are an interesting race, guardians of nature that can turn invisible and can communicate with plants and animals. Interestingly, Caduceus was introduced as a guardian of the Bone Orchard, an ancient grave site in the middle of a corrupted forest. Clay's family had protected the temple for generations, but various family members had left to find the source of the corruption and fight it.

A Grave Domain Cleric is also an interesting choice, able to cancel out critical hits on allies or themselves, curse opponents to cause them to be vulnerable to the next attack that hits it, and bring their allies back to life (or prevent them from dying) with a variety of powerful healing spells. While Grave Domain Clerics believe that death is part of the natural order, they can delay it for a time in order for their allies to complete some sort of great work in the world.

Caduceus already looks to be a great addition to the Mighty Nein and will provide them with a true healer, something that had been missing since their previous cleric had been captured by the slavers. Caduceus should also prevent any more permanent character deaths, which is a bit ironic since he only came into being because of Jaffe's last character dying a few weeks ago.

What do you think about Jaffe's new character? Let us know in the comment section or shoot me a message at @CHofferCbus on Twitter!

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