Taliesin Jaffe Talks Asha Of Critical Role Downfall, Monk Builds, And What Ashton Thinks

Critical Role Campaign 3 has begun airing its three-episode prequel special titled Critical Role Downfall. Set in the far past this adventure is the memories of the city of Aeor before it's fall. We had a chance to talk with Taliesin Jaffe earlier this week to learn about his character Asha, her role in Downfall, and how the events of this prequel could affect Ashton of Bells Hells.

Critical Role Downfall covers episodes 99-101 of Campaign 3. The game is being DM'd by Brennan Lee Mulligan (Dimension 20, Game Changer) who previously worked with Critical Role for Calamity. Joining Jaffe at the table are fellow co-creators of Critical Role Laura Bailey (Critical Role, The Last of Us: Part II) and Ashley Johnson (Critical Role, The Last of Us: Part II), as well as Noshir Dalal (Star Wars: The Bad Batch, Mortal Kombat 1), Nick Marina (Cobra Kai, Chicago Med), and Abubakar Salim (House of the Dragon, Tales of Kenzera).

As someone who absolutely loved but was scarred by the events of Critical Role Calamity I first wanted to know how Jaffe had felt knowing that he was entering a similar kind of situation with Brennan Lee Mulligan helming the story. "Boy, I was really excited"

"I'm full enough of myself that I'm very rarely intimidated by other human beings [...] so I knew he was going to bring something very challenging and I was really glad that I was picked for this," Jaffe continued to explain "This kind of thing is my jam"

Later on in our discussion Jaffe hoped that viewers of episode 2 will realise that "Brennan is so cruel and mean, but in a good way. He's very good at finding the specific aspects of our characters that matter to us and really hurting us with that, on a fundamental level"

Asha, Mortal Aspect Of The Wild Mother

In talking about Asha Jaffe revealed that playing as a mortal aspect of the Wild Mother wasn't his first choice. "At one point I asked if I could be a Betrayer God because I've got a great idea"

After pitching some of those ideas to Matthew Mercer, the creator of the world of Critical Role, Mercer explained that there were a lot of 'lore things' that were unknown to Jaffe.

"I had a Moonweaver idea and just seeing the way the cast was coming together, and Brennen was very much like 'can you find a different opinion going into it?', especially with Noshir coming in with [The Emissary] it was great because it was essentially the same opinion from two very different vantage points. My take on the Wild Mother has always been a little weird"

"I was glad to come in and take the essential philosophy I had been putting forward with Caduceus and make a version of what I call 'Perhaps I didn't make myself clear'"

Seeing the animalistic take on the Wild Mother I noted that the performance Jaffe was giving was accentuating the 'Wild' whereas previous times we've been given a glimpse of the power of the Wild Mother - Especially for Campaign 2 characters Fjord (Travis Willingham) and Caduceus (Jaffe) - she has seemed more mothering.

The quick and simple response I received was that she is nurturing "when things are better"

Talking about what Asha and the Wild Mother were doing prior to the events of Downfall Jaffe revealed "Things are not great, she doens't have a lot of followers and even the natural world [...] is kind of gone or dead"

"Backstory that doesn't really get hit up [Asha] found herself a little patch of forest, hidden away. It is the 100 Acre Woods or the 'Mad Max Thunderdome' little chunk of forest and that's where the food that they're bringing in is from. She's basically started up a cult and that's where those people are. People who wander in are like Tthis is what I want' and she's like 'Great, you live by my rules and if you fuck up I kill you."

Taking on the form of the Wolf was also a deliberate result of the kind of world that the Gods are facing pre-Downfall. As a Wolf Asha is able to take action and it serves to remove that level of compassion and empathy for the human world.

What Is Asha's Dungeons & Dragons Build?

Wanting to know a bit more about how Asha was built mechanically I wanted to hear from Jaffe what type of elf she was, being a wolf normally but Wild Shaping into an Elf. Asking whether she was a Lythari Elf Jaffe clarified "No, her actual incarnated for is basically a wolf or direwolf. I essentially dropped one of the feat options of my level 20 build and took what was a Wild Shape but could only do one thing which was to Wild Shape into an Elven form at will as a matter of convenience."

Jaffe began to describe the different situations where Asha would be aware that being humanoid would be easier to get by in comparison to a Wolf. He also revealed that when Asha does "talk it is slow and broken. It's not a muscle that works very well. I don't know if that reads as often as I like but it's almost entirely telepathic. 

"I essentially dropped one of the feat options of my level 20 build and took what was a Wild Shape"

As regular listener of Critical Role I had remembered Jaffe in the past stating that they had a Monk cooked up for the next EXU. I only got part way into my question before Jaffe cut in to let me know that while Asha is a Monk, Asha isn't the Monk he'd been thinking about.

"That was one of my pitches, that Monk, but I was given a lot of reasons not to do that. I'm going to save them for a future game. That Monk is still going to come along but this was definitely 'I wanted to, but no'"

Wanting to dive more into the mechanics of Asha's build Jaffe played his explanation very close to the chest. He decided that he didn't want to reveal which subclass she was a part of, and not remembering whether her very specific weapon was revealed in Episode 2 or 3 he didn't touch on that either.

"Other than a weapon, that I kind of homebrewed, and not even a very complex one the whole notion [of Asha] was somebody who is very grounded."

Where other gods in the party would be able to show off divine powers for Asha he wanted to make a character that was "cool, not necessarily in a God-level way, but more in a Jackie Chan or Stephen Chow way. It's really being more grounded that anyone else in the group."

"It's nothing anyone on the outside would see and say 'What is that?' It's like 'oh, this is a very dangerous woman'"

A Short Story With A Definitive End

Stepping away from a character that he's been playing since October 2021 Jaffe and I discussed the differences in making a character for such a short adventure. Discussing this we talked about how there isn't room for events to occur and for them to grow with your character Jaffe also added that "Gods don't change really. They are what they are."

"Giant archetype characters, I really love, just because they're immutable. It's hard to change a fundamental notion of the universe but figuring out how to make sure I wasn't always going to be on the same path and could be swayed one way or the other was hard"

There was a definite appeal for Jaffe in just the experience of playing a character at Level 20, something very rare in most Dungeons & Dragons games.

What Of Taliesin Can Fans Find In Asha

Jaffe is known to put aspects that are true to him into his characters. For Ashton, it is his character's chronic pain and how that's shaped him, for Asha I wanted to know what part of him was most true within.

"It's a chunk of what Caduceus was, and perhaps it's a bit of a teenage reaction to being raised by hippies" Jaffe explained "That soft Earth Mother archetype is wonderful, don't get me wrong, but not necessarily my experience of nature."

He then paraphrased a quote from Stephen Fry "People seem to forget that it is in nature without human intervention, nature in it's purest form is all life on Earth leaves a life of starvation and dies violently and that is Nature."

Taking that mentality Jaffe joked that "Caduceus was his nice way of explaining that, and Asha is his mean way of saying it."

A Family Of Gods

Having spoken about Asha for some time I wanted to dive into the relationship that she has with others at the table. Talking specifically about the meeting between the Prime Deities and the Betrayer Gods at the end of episode 1 I commended everyone on their ability to play such a convincing family. 

When asked what kind of prep work was done to establish these relations I once again got a short but sweet answer, "none."

Jaffe continued "Roleplayers roleplaying and I can see what Brennan didn't want us to play Betrayer Gods. Honestly, all of us did the 'Can we be a Betrayer God?' but that was quickly squashed."

"I had never really given much thought on the gods as people in Exandria, and treating them more as a family, I don't know how it hadn't occurred to me that they have personality, that they are more of a roman/greecian pantheon."

"Years of D&D have numbed me to the notion that Gods are just engines for Paladin"

While he's been playing D&D since High School Jaffe explained that Gods in the games have always felt just like additional rules and that he never really enjoyed the way that they interfaced into the game. "This is the first time I'm going 'Oh wow, these guys are actually cool. How have I not known this for over a decade?"

"I realized also that Asha had a favorite sibling and that they were a Betrayer God and I was like 'oh my god, this is weird that I'm suddenly having this very intense love for one of the characters.'"

"Honestly, I wish we'd had nine more episodes. This is three episodes and I want to spend more time with each character including the NPC"

Active Listening Makes A Good D&D Player

Noticing Jaffe moving as Asha even when the audience might not notice amid other conversations I asked how he feels remaining in character enhances his performance.

"It's Active Listening, there's nothing worse for a D&D game that people who don't listen," Jaffe talked on experiences of poetry readings in coffee houses where poets would leave as soon as their part was over. "You're supposed to be participating. You should be the audience you want. 90% of being a player at a D&D table is being the audience for your friends and that's more important, at least for me."

"90% of being a player at a D&D table is being the audience for your friends"

Jaffe continued to explain that the importance of engaging when you're part of the audience isn't just to show interest but without paying attention "you're not going to be as interesting, you're not going to have enough to say, you're not going to be able to relate to these people"

"I also love physicality for characters, being in that mindspace means you're sitting there forming opinions, forming notions of the things you want to do with the other players, the things you want to say."

Joking about his specific situation at the Critical Role table Jaffe also added "Especially when you're at a table with people who are really talented it's really easy to look like an idiot"

What Does Ashton of Bells Hells Think Of Downfall?

Ashton, one of Bells Hells most cynical critics of the Gods, is another active viewer of the events of Downfall. Talking on how Ashton might be processing the revelations of this three episode event Jaffe admitted "I didn't know until we actually got there, it was such an intense experience for me that relating it to [Ashton] is hard"

"Ashton has been really trying to fix the things that are fucking up their life because there's not enough time left to blow up [his] life three more times."

"I don't even know how to answer that because I'm still working it out myself"

Having to decide on some semblance of an answer Jaffe remarked "It definitely both made things worse and better. [...] Is it better that you know the Gods are people or is it worse?"

While not revealing much for the conclusion of Downfall Jaffe did simply state that there will be some "interesting moments" before bursting out into laughter that he simply didn't know how else to put it.