one of our characters flavours his barbarian's rage as a barely controlled werebear transformation. mechanically it's the same as normal but it's roleplayed as the rage being a bit more instinctual and animalistic.
I hate the "exotic races decrease creativity" argument, sure maybe some people don't see the need to develop their character if their a minotaur but that can be said about other races too, how many Gimly copies are out there? I'd argue that it can increase creativity since these races don't have that many stereotypes attached to them like elves and dwarves do. I've played a shifter once and ended up developing a whole culture for that character.
Its a dumb argument because it assumes that playing humanoid races requires more creativity as if people dont play them based on stereotypes as well. There are hundreds of Legolases, Aragorns, and Gimlies out there, people play humanoid races based on race stereotypes alone all the time. To the point where playing a none tree hugging elf or alcoholic dwarf is considered uncommon. At worst you'll have people ask you if you weren't gonna play an elf like a stereotypical elf than why didn't you just pick a human?
My first DM gave me this advice when I first started creating a character: Don’t have your race be the most interesting thing about you. This applies both ways, whether you’re a copy-paste Gimli or a vedalkin mystic, that alone shouldn’t define your character.
I usually say the further from the human experience the creature is the more exotic traits there are to keep up with, the argument that you created an entire culture for your shifter is exactly what I'm talking about, we know how feudal humans lived. You had to put in a lot more leg work than someone had to put into how a human would live. It's not that it's a bad thing, it's just more effort that you had to put in figuring out your character, which is always fun. I see it as something for people who are willing to put the effort in. And before you try to argue with me i played a lamp as a serious character and got a whole new race added to the world for me, a race of energy beings that were literally just souls bound together by magic. Seeing things from the perspective of someone who eats nothing but emotional and magical energy is a interesting challenge. And that's how i see exotic races, as a challenge.
My first character was a tiefling. People assume either edgelord or Mollymauk from CR if you play one. I went with exiled royalty who was trying to establish himself in a foreign land. It was a lot of fun, and my friends liked him enough that when he died, they used a wish to bring him back over my replacement character. Race is fun for the racial traits and artistic ideas, but shouldn't constrain your playstyle
if you want to add some "personality" to your character just think about a few things: What do they do in their free time? Who created them (In a parental aspect)? What kind of music they like? What they like to do for fun? Thinking this kinds of things makes me go further in my characters, and actually really help me out about how to interpret them in diferent situations.
I wouldn’t say that the “exotic races decreases creativity” idea is completely wrong, just that it’s a noob mistake. My friends and I would make this mistake starting off, but the different monster characters would get more fleshed out as we got more experienced. Great video btw!
When you want to play something that is out of the norm putting everything into the monterous trait is not a mistake. Completely different moral code and a world that treats you like a wild card at best and an evil force at worst is fine to roleplay and the GM making the world just indifferent to that fact is hurting the roleplay. And look at the "exotic" race of drawves, how many people have put ALL their effort into the pride of being an drawf. You can totaly make a good prideful creature out of every monsterous race.
Being “monstrous” is about how most of society treats you rather than how you treat them. It’s how you react that defines your monstrous character’s personality.
Bestial races are super fun! In a campaign I played years back. I played a bugbear who was raised by chimpanzees. He was (revised beastmaster/newly at the time shepard druid). His whole shtick was learning to quell his rage. He wanted to be true to who he, or at least wanted to be. Not wanting to give in to his more animalistic characteristics and tendencies. Through the story he struggled to control his anger, but he made progress. Eventually, I had to retire the character because the group we had was really big (8 players) so being a summoner and playing a character with a companion who is his brother (chimpanzee named Caesar :) ) plus his summons with such massive group, it was too much. But, the dm worked with me and eventually my. Bugbear (Julius) did control his rage and his aggression . He ended up living in the capital of the elves in the world, and even became the archdruid ( long story there.) . Which later in the campaign, he came back as an npc to help to group with a few events and such.
On the ''Orcs always had to be evil'' part even back in the day when aligment was an integral part of the game it still followed the ''in general'' rule so exceptions were still a thing. EDIT: wow, that's a lot of likes! thank's peps!
I play a high charisma bugbear barbarian in a campaign and I for sure lean away from monstrous type in personality. He's sweet and innocent and hilarious, but at the same time, he's been socialized from a bugbear point of view. He's a fish outta water nearly everywhere he goes. He also lived a good many years in the fey where he learned to grow psychedelics which he peddles without any notion that they may be a restricted drug. He eats halflings. He loves a good orgy. He just discovered what a guitar is. He has goals and fears like anyone else and he's a blast to play
I played a tabaxi once that everyone at the table assumed I was a housecat because my character didn't like water. It wasn't until I blew up at them after throwing a PvP punch and angrily about how as a child I was stuck in a tree for 6 days as my families dead bodies floated below me getting slowly eaten by predators during a flood. Then I left the party to be on my own for awhile and did not interact with them until each one apologized. The barbarian was first. I (the player) was a little taken back by this choice. Great RP moment
One of my favorite characters was a kobold celestial warlock. In a moment of near death, a celestial being came and gave him power, referring to him as "the light in the darkness" and that he would purge evil and "burn them in the light". Being a low intelligence kobold, he took this overly literal, and changed his name to The Light. In his mind he was LG. In reality he was more on the CN side but was slowly guided to being more lawful by his patron.
I've been roleplaying a creature part of an hive mind in a sci-fantasy campaign for an year. It's ridiculously hard to think so differently from a human being but also incredibly satisfying.
I play a Lizardfolk Sword and Board Kensei Monk, Adulese (Draconic for Serpent). I run him mostly according to the forgotten realms lore, filling in the gaps with crocodile habits and trivia since it makes sense with the racial traits. Pragmatic, apathetic, referring to people by a key trait or notable feat, reducing his emotional responses to Acquire/Protect, Avoid, and Remove/Destroy, stuff like that. Hell, he even has a stash of Orc jerky that the party doesn't know about yet. But, despite thinking that emotions are a waste of energy and coming from a culture that demonizes philosophical thought (their creation myth is literally one of their two gods having such intense analysis paralysis they split into the first male and female couple), he's aware that people aren't always going to treat him nicely, and that in order to achieve his goal of being the the best at making magic armaments from creatures, he's going to need to get people to work with him. So, in spite of his negative Cha mod, he has proficiency in Insight and Persuasion in order to try and understand people. And while some more metropolitan areas have been more accepting of Adulese, we have come across people in more rural areas that treat him with suspicion. It's been fun honestly, especially the budding trust interplay between Adulese and our Aarakocra Ranger that's terrified of Lizardfolk.
This is really interesting! I have a Lizardfolk Blood Hunter who was raised in a tribe that is more open to the benefits of civilized trade with a local human village, and have learned to emulate human emotion over several generations to the point that the newest generation expresses emotion near constantly. However, an event caused a slight rift between the tribe and village, so Lizardfolk are now (wrongfully) viewed with disdain from the village once more. They still welcome trade, but all ‘scales’ (as the villagers call them) in the village are forced to live in a shantytown on the outskirts. Potvych (draconic for ‘to forgive’) used to be the kindest child of the village until a black dragon in the swamp took the lives of his parents (cliché, I know) as he watched, having followed them to the dragon’s hunting grounds. He lost the use of his arm for years due to splashes of acid melting the scales around the elbow, until eventually he shattered the fused scales and creating a large scar. He had slowly closed himself off to prevent himself from feeling emotional pain again, changing his name to Dartak (‘to hate’) and remaining carefully neutral around others. His village elder initiated him into the Order of the Mutant to (hopefully) start him on a path towards growing into a confident and capable leader, while his siblings grew to become a top hunter and a pair of eccentric artisans in the village. So essentially, Dartak grew up in a setting where emotion is commonly emulated in Lizardfolk, but willingly regressed as a defense mechanism. The plan was for him to hopefully open up to the group and learn be himself again, but the campaign ended before it could begin.
I'm currently playing as a Troll in a game. Played up the monstrous side with Trogar, background before being introduced to rest of party as that he'd hunted and eaten travelers and traders along the road, and then imprisoned by the nation of Alexandria after they hunted and killed his friends and captured him ~ only sparing him since he could speak "common" Trogar was set alongside the party as a sort of Suicide Squad type situation. He helps this mission, he gets to go free from the prison and be left alone But of course "monster" wasn't everything to the character. They had a deep trauma from a Wizard that had experimented on him and other trolls in horrifying grotesque fashion (Healing Potions had to be invented somehow), he escaped and had a measure of survivors guilt for those he left behind, and was lashing out at the world around him that rejected him So far Trogar has been supported by the party, and is trying to get through his fears, insecurities and PTSD trauma. There was a whole session and a half where Trogar kept encountering his fears, but other people in the party kept supporting him to help him through everything, It was awesome
I do want to comment on the subject of "Evil" races. The rules for fantasy races is VERY different from those for the real world, as long as people are adults and can separate that, the idea of an Evil race is completely valid within the bounds of a fantasy setting. Maybe the Orcs in the setting are literally entities created or corrupted by demonic forces. More akin to demons themselves than a truly sapient being which can see right from wrong and willingly behave in altruistic manner Is this bad for RP? If so, why is it bad? I see no reason to limit my writing to deny this as a possibility. If a person wants to play as an Evil-Only Race, and assuming there truly are no exceptions for this Evil-Race, you do have to be clear as to what 'Evil' means within the context of your setting. Perhaps they can be a Sociopath, but fully functioning within larger society, they value their friends and all, and are co-operating with the party and the nation they live in simply because they prefer a green pasture over fire and brimstone.
Going along with that, "evil" could just mean working in the service of the evil deity which rules/controls them. Your drow, yuan-ti, orc, etc. may act perfectly civil but all their aims are to further the agenda of an evil deity/archfey/demon etc
When talking about evil races, we are talking about averages, with the exceptions of races that embody their alignment, like Demons. Orcs are naturally very aggressive and their society is very "might makes right". Their leaders are in their positions simply because they are the strongest and desire leadership for the benefits it brings. Orcs can still be good, evil, lawful and chaotic relative to Orc society as a whole.
@@schwarzerritter5724 Depends on the setting; we do not need to follow the rules and assumptions of the forgotten realms Maybe we want Orcs to be similar to Lord of the rings, where they are little more than intelligent monsters and servants of evil My point is just that we shouldn't look at "evil-only" as removing RP options. No more so than a race being stronger or comparatively disabled in some fashion (Blind, fewer than 4 limbs, etc) It just means that you have different options for storytelling and RP But yes; within the context of FR setting - Orcs can potentially be any alignment
I greatly appreciate the how you blend practicality and creative insight into your advice. In my experience people tend to either completely ignore or only define their characters by their racial and/or class stereotypes in D&D. I'm glad you brought attention to the fact that we need to consider those preconceived notions in both the game world and IRL when making and playing our characters.
I try to let the monstrous race's behavioral description heavily inform how I roleplay my character, and try to do other things to sort of mask him against society's gaze, for example, I made a thri-kreen and I've gotten myself into that thing's headspace based on its inherently alien mindset, which includes not resonating strongly with human emotional patterns, having hazing tendencies, near toxic levels of familial protectiveness, and limited ability to speak common. As long as I'm playing a game that views fantasy races from a perspective of myth (meaning that they're supernatural creatures with inhuman thought patterns), then I'll shape my character to know how to hide in human society within reason. For a thri-kreen, it'll mean picking up a hat of disguise and being careful not to touch anyone, but still have little to no control over the illusory facial expressions. This tactic kind of teaches me that I am playing a race that is the farthest from human, rather than a human cosplaying as a bug man or elf or an orc who would have more than likely been killed by his parents the moment they noticed him showing compassion during early development.
You need a DM who is on board with the idea. If you care about the whole "story telling" part of character development, then you have to realise that in all the good examples of stories that feature a "Monster" as a main protagonist, from Frankenstein to the X Men, the idea is to play with the notion of what IS monstrosity, and how the "Monster" is inevitably LESS monstrous than the human beings around them. If your DM doesn't want to explore that subtext within their game, then you might be in a tricky position of having cliched "screams from the commoners" type material to work with. But, if the world around you doesn't TREAT you as a monster, then you're not a Monster. Edit to add: What I would also avoid, is playing a "Monster" as "Human" as possible in order to overcome perceptions. The best challenge to take on is to maintain your character's core, while overcoming the preconceptions. As a DM of over 40 years standing, I've found that people who choose Monstrous races but apply the "Has been domesticated to fit in to human society" condition... are generally doing it for the stats.
I have a similar rule, I don't restrict races, spells, archetypes, etc. I LOVE players creativity and as such I don't restrict it. Especially if a player can expand the lore of the setting!
Good on you for being willing to work with your players to let them be whatever they want and allow your world to evolve based on their choices. Many DMs don't want to do that kind of work, so I think it's awesome you're willing to collaborate. I always tell my players, be whatever you want to be (within reason), and we'll make it work. I had players be goblins and half undead, strange mixes like halfling/tiefling and gnome/assimar. I myself have played an orc who was the spiritual leader of his village. It's really cool the characters you can create when you don't limit yourself.
I always thought it would be cool to play a Lizardfolk Monk who is a charming and friendly person, but the moment combat starts he turns into an efficient killer. His claws would be integrated into his martial arts and would allow him to get off some truly brutal and nasty kills. He may even eat some of the meat that used to be his enemy. Afterward, he would go right back to being friendly and approachable with people(despite being covered in blood and gore). This would be due to his lizard brain functioning differently than a normal person's, it would allow him to turn off his empathy to those he deems as a threat and he would no longer see them as people.
I always wanted to play a werewolf. I never did because it's an unbalanced thing compared to normal races (in 3.5 and pathfinder at least, no idea how they are in other versions / systems) but I always found the "humanity vs beast" struggle really interesting, probably my favorite thing about Vampire: The Masquerade. Pathfinder has a race called Skinwalker, which are pretty much people born from lycanthropes but their blood is diluted to the point were they can't shapeshift to their full lycan form instead they can manifest a minor version of that to grow claws, bite attacks, natural armor, etc. Generally they are distrusted because nobody likes lycanthropes and I'm thinking of making my next character using this race and exploring that.
You know, this is advice I didn't know I needed. A friend of mine is planning to DM a campaign with elements from Ravenloft, which means we the players will get to play monstrous characters. I myself will play a reborn human, so your run-of-the-mill zombie, but with a conscience. I've thought about making him mostly human but with a few quirks like groaning often and speaking slowly but I haven't thought of how he would behave towards the people around him, like how much of his undead nature he would conceal or how he might react to prejudiced treatment by others
Me every episode: "Stop calling me a bastard!" 😭😭😭 Haha, great video as always mate! I really appreciate the care and thought that obviously goes into your topics, and they certainly evoke a lot of thought. Of course there is no harm in leaning into the stereotypes too though! I played a bugbear barbarian a couple of years ago and he was one of my favorite characters to date. I roleplayed him as being not that bright, but his tracking skills were excellent. He was an ambusher through and through and fought smart, but he was strong, stealthy and loved breaking things and barrelling into combat with his bare hands. That being said, it made him humorous! He could come to the wrong deductions, thinking a rustle of Xvarts in the bushes were simply rabbits, charge in the opposite direction of an invisible enemy and blindly swinging at the air even as the party deduced with magic where the foe was, or dash into a sphere of darkness only to clonk his head against the wall on the other side. But you can still add to it. They can definitely be more than a stereotypical bugbear. He was sweet at times and knew how to restrain the traits of his aggressive upbringing. He was protective of young children and the healer of the party (having a Hulk-Black Widow relationship with her) and was devoted to the partys patron for giving him a new, meaningful start in life. When some of his tribe showed up later, in service to an evil dragon, blood certainly didn't run thicker than water. He stood by his human friends to take them down and took on his older brother in an unarmed fight to the death. Which he, umm, lost because I forgot to add rage bonus damage 😆 (thankfully the party intervened). He was a blast to play
A race/class is a starting point, a non human gives you stuff to work off of. A character I made (haven't used yet): A kobold swashbuckler tells increadble exaggerated stories of his feats and has granted himself the title of "the dragon of deepburrow". But it's not just the "small creature with big ego" joke. He has reasoning, he comes from a small tribe of kobolds that was recently discovered to be living on human lands. So he's spreading the story of this hyper powerful kobold warrior who defends his tribe as a bluff because if his trive is attacked, they're dead.
I like to make a lot of character builds (heavily inspired by tulok the barbarian's videos) and I've always been detoured from characters like the hulk because he's just a barbarian. Not that I dislike barbarians, I actually think people sleep on the class, but I feel like the hulk is a lot more interesting as a character and a build then just a rage monster. So I've been working on a artificer subclass that lets you transform yourself into a mutant. You can either have a more stable transformation or turn into an absolute monster. This way you can play a scientist trying to cure himself of his lycanthropy or a kobold who uses science and magic to become stronger than the orcs who used to push you around.
One of my favorite characters was a Lizardfolk I made named Warm. The whole purpose of this character was to make a lizardfolk who previously lived a primitive and savage lifestyle but was willingly trying to become civilized after falling out with his tribe. Over the campaign he became less “monstrous” and became more social, logical, and understanding of the larger world around him.
As a player on a West Marches server, I once had a hobgoblin character who joined a mission to fight other hobgoblins. The DM had the elf NPC ask a few pointed questions about where my loyalties lie. We had a great roleplay moment about this. My character should be treated with some level of suspicion by races that have enmity with hobgoblins. One thing I expect from my players who make monstrous characters should inform the personality and mindset. It doesn't have to completely define the character. I would expect an orc character from a raiding clan to be aggressive, confident, or brash. The orc character does not have to be a one note character, they should have depth and complexities beyond NPC orcs. I would expect an elf to take the long view and think about the future before committing to a course of action that will have consequences centuries from now. That does not mean the elf can never take a rash action for survival, but if they do they could be mortified at what they've done.
While Monstrous Races would be more uncommon than the traditional races, they wouldn't be unheard of and just very rare for one to be spotted walking through a city. Most NPCs reaction to seeing the character for the first time should lean towards the stereotypical worldview of said race, but there should also be some NPCs (like children) that are in awe of the character.
current party: -an aasimar in disguise -a plasmoid with pet dragon (that new ranger thing) -a half-harpy (avion, homebrew) -and me, a lizardfolk raised by dwarves, force cleric following moradin
Actually the DM used that for a few scenes in the first session already, first the quest givers were put off when I asked, if I could "loot enemies for their metals and turn their remains into equipment, if we run into monsters" because they thought I intended to turn humanoid attackers into equipment as well and later on the crew of a ship took interest in me because I was essentially wearing dwarfen armour and was very obviously a man of the cloth, they were quite impressed hearing that the armor is self-made and a female dwarf liked that we had the same god Can't wait to bite someone in combat tbh, after all my teeth are natural weapons and there's a skill to heal once per day by taking a bite out of an enemy XD
I'm currently running a minotaur. He is kindly old Druid of the Field (Circle of the Land). He prays to the spirits of the harvest and has left his village on a pilgrimage to help cure the blight that is destroying crops and causing a famine. Despite being big and savage looking at times, he always takes time to heal the wounded and feed the hungry.
I love having characters that have random aspects about them that makes them unique. My current character I’m playing is my Goliath Barbarian Zanak. He’s everything you would expect of a Goliath Barbarian, large, as dumb as he is strong, savage in fights and is always ready to supplex the nearest stone golem because it looked at him funny However, the thing I gave him to set him apart from the other Goliath Barbarians is that he was a good cook. Whenever the party would go hunting, he would insist on making a proper dish instead of “roasting it over a fire” That stuff is fun
I am playing Iron Gods in Pathfinder 1e with some close friends. I am specifically playing a mountainous Lizardfolk Barbarian who is a worshiper of Erastil, but is Chaotic Evil, lusts for battle (like Battle Beast from Invincible) and acts in the party like Drax (GoTG). He has plenty of flavor for his actual identity, but because he is an 8'11" Lizardfolk, he kinda gets the shit end of a lot of situations. So I feel this video's vibe so much because I wanted him to be less "Ah OMG a monstrous enemy!" And more "Ah OMG a powerful opponent/ally" while still having his own identity to him. He never had a family, was raised by a Gith woman who couldn't produce eggs so she found his and raised him when she came to the material plane. This is why he doesn't understand friendship, because family was all he knew outside of battle, but the only "family" he ever had was a battle-driven mother figure who raised him to be a warrior and a protector. And yes, I can still make this work within the realm of being C/E.
I think a good thing to try would be to ask if they want a custom lineage. See the reason alot of ppl do is because like...u waste your stat block on 1d4 claws u will never use? Well if u want to be a catfolk wizard who doesnt leap around and slash ppl with their claws...you just want to be a wizard who happens to be a catfolk u could do custom lineage and pick a feat that gives u an ability more in line with your life than the claws. Oh u have claws and in a weird situation u might try to use em, and your dm would treat it like a human trying to use pressure points or something. Improvised attack or unarmed strike that does slashing dmg. But by making it so you DONT have those weapons u open up opportunities for "ive never learned to use them well, i suck at climbing trees so i just would read books under them. And some of the spells ive learned allow me to do even more amazing things!"
Alot of the players that play monstrous races come up with insane backstories, like being a dude reset to level 1 and forced into a mimic form, some monster that gained sentience and had his family murdered before his eyes, a goblin with a cheese addiction where he would die if he didnt eat cheese once every week (this one was mine)
I’ve got a character who’s a Berserker Barbarian Orc named Bobalor the Destroyer. He’s the kindest, friendliest person ever and he’s trying his best to put his Berserker Barbarian tendencies behind him. He introduces himself as just Bob because he doesn’t want to be the Destroyer anymore, and he struggles to make friends without people immediately being scared of him based on what he is. Even in fights, he tries his best to control his anger and not go Berserk because he doesn’t want his friends to be afraid of him.
Setting does take priority when considering how a character's race affects their relationship with others, and their upbringing. There's a lot of cultural baggage that comes with player race, they would have to be far removed from their own kin to not understand what others think is normal behavior for their group. The less insular a race is, the more diverse of an upbringing you can expect for a player character.
My first character in dnd was a Kobold bounty hunter, do to Kobolds being seen as pests by majority of humans in the setting I had to tred carefully to not be near bar room brawls etc because I'd likely be seen as the instigator
You can separate the conceptualization of human races in the real world from the conceptualization of races in a fantasy world. It’s perfectly valid to have a “race” in a fantasy world being wholly evil. Because what is evil is simpily based on ones point of view. A “race” of beings that craves destruction for destructions sake will be seen as evil in the eyes of humans. The Orks in warhammer fantasy and 40k are an example of this. Making one suddenly good could be interesting but he would only be interesting because he’s an exception to the rule. Races in a fantasy world being evil as a whole depends on the setting. It’s not by any means “problematic” or wrong to write them this way. The term “race” generally means very different things in the real world as compared to a dnd style fantasy settings.
I actually specialize in monstrous/less standard humanoid characters and really I find that probably the advice/viewpoint that gets left out the most is balancing how to display non human tendencies without making those 'non human-esc' tendencies come off as a bad thing/controlling the entire character, most of which I think ends up coming down to forethought. Like for some monstrous races like orcs, they aren't too different from humans beyond how the rest of the rest of the world sees them, but then you have more extreme differences like the Aarakocra with their whole 'is a bird', 'has their own custom language because of how the shapes of their beaks effect how they talk', naturally lean towards living in places with open air because flight gives them crazy advantages, only live for about 30 years tops and are old enough to be considered adults at the age of three... Emotionally and mentally the average aarakocra probably isn't too different from the rest of the party but when you think about how those things would effect their development, there's pretty much always going to be a huge gap in experiences, especially if the aarakocra is on the younger side. -- For example my own aarakocra character, her sheer awareness of her much shorter lifespan and 'otherness' from the rest of her companions was a major source of stress for her and being raised by humans didn't make any of that go away but rather made it much worse (to the point she would amp up some 'birdy habits' specifically because those around her found them cute and that in turn helped her feel more accepted -if also somewhat self conscious/concerned that it was only in the way a pet or cute animal might be). She would also try to downplaying the 'racial claustrophobia' (to be fair she genuinely wasn't bothered by being inside or on the ground much but she spent a good amount of time self justifying her terror of being in submarine that mostly amounted to 'can't fly away) and the occasional hunting with claws and beak (she still did on occasion but well, sling kills don't get her feathers as dirty so). Her actual aarakocra race-based tendencies aside from the playact ones she put on were just clicking her beak and flaring her feathers when upset/nervous, me making sure to avoid terms like smile rather 'her eyes lit up' and her sheer LOVE of flying. Actual personality beyond racial stuff: enthusiastic cheery notetaker of the team who would think long and hard about everything she could while always trying to help everyone around her... Who was also very prone to internal anxiety spirals about possible bad things and repressing the absolute hell out of said anxiety problems until their either exploded or somehow defused before they could go boom and she'd completely lose it. Her race didn't make up her personality in the slightest but it definitely played a role in how she went about expressing it, what stresses she had and how life had shaped her; and it was a ton of fun occasionally reminding the party that their really wise, cheery bird who usually kept everyone around them in 'lets all work together and talk/hug things out' mode was also only about three years old and that all her wisdom in the world wouldn't change the fact she didn't have that life experience (probably why she clicked so much with her kobold monk/barb love interest/'platonic life partner' raised alone in a forest: Consistently very smart/wise little beans but also very much wide eyed in 'first time seeing this' wonder about a ton of things and 'IDK what the @#$# you all are talking about, plz clarify' whenever others started referencing complicated politics or 'the situation back home' or why the heck everyone's so freaked out about 'that nice mr Oberon guy' seems to be interested in what their group is doing)~ XD ---- Then there's the outright 'really different mentally' races like Lizardfolk. Finding the balance between making them 'other' without it being some sort of ugh stereotype/'automatic badguy' is definitely tricky if you go purely by their culture as presented in the books but I found a pretty good balance with my Cobolt Soul Lizardfolk. Had her as a sort of 'in training' wise woman of her desert dwelling tribe (their looks leaning more goanna/komono dragon than heavy set croc) and in presentation she was always nothing but very polite, speaking very 'formal but graciously' as she always made considerable effort to consider everything she learned of and act in the most 'respectful' way possible to her allies... But was also still very much a lizardfolk as well so in battle she would also go straight for the throat with her teeth and claws, let loose all the hissing and snarls, genuinely considering eating any bodies left afterward, and rarely if ever had moments of true empathy despite trying very hard to at least sympathize with 'whatever nonsense' was bothering her 'hunt pack' members/allies were fussing about this time (to the point I gave her a flaw in Insight when used on emotional states; having to be able to smell them for indicators like 'stress scents' to realize they might be anything but perfectly calm right up until they were very clearly breaking down or something). This balance of her of so demure personality contrasting the sheer 'predatory/non-mammalin' mindset of hers was real meat of her character for me and well, it was incredibly flattering how many of the other players at the table seemed to find her a good contrast/foil for their own characters~ That said I did struggle at times to keep in mind that every single one of her actions 100% had to have a practical 'self centered' reasoning to them rather than default to my usual alturistic... But it was rewarded hardcore when she and her greatest foil in the party (the extremely compassionate desert barb human with explosive rage issues who kept idolising my lizard's 'calm and in control' ways) finally got to the point that my lizard could tell her without any cruelty how frustrating she found being praised for 'her calm' when she'd spent literal years straining to feel things 'like fleshies' enough that she could train her tribe to also 'pseudo empathize/sympathize' enough with other races that they would survive when the powerful non-lizardfolk nations inevitably began to encroach upon their territories, and the backstory that had led to her to such a forward thinking approach... Was 100% best moment I've had with her and so very rewarding when she and the barb ended up each nabbing a level of the other's class in a show of how much the other had driven them to grow emotionally in their odd mix of rivalry and constantly flipping teacher/student dynamic~ XD --- Sooo yeah. Making your character a PERSON above all else is just as critical as it would be with any character, but when dealing with non-humans I really would recommend putting some thought not just into how the outer world shapes them (though that IS very important) but also how *who* they are would interact with *what* they are. In a lot of cases its not going to be that different than what you're already doing but stuff like habits of preening fur/feathers and sharpening claws, what kind of body language do they use, preferences in diet, how their species 'quirks' effect how they think of other species who don't share those or how they compare themselves when stacked with others side by side... All of it can really help bring characters like that to life, especially once you think about those things an Aarakocra/Lizardfolk/etc might do in general species wise, then filter through the culture they lived in, and then filter those ideas through the lens of who *your* Aarakocra/Lizardfolk/other wonderful beastie is and which of those they would/wouldn't do and why/why not? Or at least, that's my process and well. Hopefully it can work for you too~
Even with the whole "orcs are always evil" thing I never thought that was supposed to teach people that race determines how you think. If anyone is here to claim that the difference between a human and an orc in D&D and a white person and an African American person in real life is anywhere near similar then I think its safe to say that that is extremely racist. Races in dnd are closer to species, not races. We can see that in that if you choose a different skin tone or ethnicity for a human character you do not get different racial traits, but for example if you choose to be a Aaracokra you get to be bird-like creature with wings. In D&D race is just a name used to simplify things but if WotC was being honest the different "races" are actually different species. For example orcs are generally seen as evil in dnd is because in the Forgotten Realms (its important to remember that this only applys to the Forgotten Realms where most dnd takes place) they are literally under a direct influence of a bloodthirsty warmongering God, Gruumsh, who teaches that all races are inferior to orcs and that the orcs should attack them to take what is theirs. Not to mention that orcs are extremely physically different to humans on many biological and mental levels such as bigger builds, half the lifespan of humans, a diet that can handle much worse food, and although not a physical difference they also have a different afterlife than other humanoids with little hope for them to go anywhere other than Acheron to battle for eternity regardless of their beliefs but simply because they were orcs. This is a far greater degree of difference that just "race". This is not to say that all orcs are evil because obviously some can break free from Gruumsh's influence, but it is to say that the vast majority of them definitely are, this is why before Volos you could only be a half-orc because a full-blooded orc was so unlikely to be able to work with the average party. Here are some more quick examples, all of these are from the forgotten realms where D&D books such as Volos, Mordenkainens, Curse of Strahd, Storm Kings thunder, etc. are entirely based off of: Most yuanti literally became yuanti by murdering snakes and other humanoids in order to transcend in power to usurp their gods, obviously most of them are evil. Most tritons are from another dimension and are only in the material plane because they came there to guard it from the elemental evil they let escape so most of them are lawful good. Goblinoids are mostly evil for exactly the same reason as orcs are except that the god influencing them and forcing them to battle for eternity in the afterlife is Maglubiyet. Aasimar are usually good because they were born with a direct link and influence from the upper planes. Drow get brutally tortured and murdered either by their people or sometimes by their god directly if they don't fully embrace the evil and wicked lifestyle of the drow, hence why so few good ones have ever existed. The list goes on. The reason different races are different in D&D is not because they are in any way different in the ways that a Mexican and a British person are but because they are fundamentally so many ways, from different gods taking direct action in their lives everyday, to people who live only 40 years compared to another who lives 750 years. In other settings anything can be anyway anyone wants but in the Forgotten Realms where most D&D lore and books are set it should be acknowledged that there are real and definite reasons why these "races" are so drastically different, to the point that something like a good orc or a good drow even existing is part of the reason why this character is an adventurer in the first place. And I believe that anyone that after reading this still draws the lines between the differences of real world races and the differences between a person imbued with a divine spark and one who bathed in the cold blood of their fellow humans in order to try to usurp the gods and take their place as a malicious tyrant and is willing to say that the differences are the same is a thorough racist.
I had a lizard man character in Waterdeep Dragonheist. I played it for comic effect because that's how it felt like it would be a good fit with this DM and campaign. If playing Tomb of Annhilation or Rime of the Frostmaiden, maybe a grittier, more bestial character would have worked. I have another character idea that's a minotaur and he too feels like a comical effect character. So maybe I'm stuck on a trope.
We had our first session in a new setting lately...im playing a fire genasi and in this setting they usually keep to themselves on their islands. one of the other players decided that, since we were in a library and he has never seen someone with fire for hair, he had to extinguish me to save the books :D so, first session and im a wizard in a library with burning hair and wet like ive been standing in the rain for an hour :D it was way too funny
I make a barbarian orc with the sage background, called Diogenes. He was a philosopher orc. One time he pluck an aracokra and say: look everyone I make a humie.
@@XxEvilghostxX1 Zakkly. It's our own living world that has made common the misapplication of race. Race has no scientific basis here, but if elves and orcs lived here, then yes it would be the correct distinction.
@@TrueLimeyhoney Agree, but lineage is nor really good either because of the aforementioned Warforged and Shardminds who can't reproduce, but I also can't come up with anything better so meh.
Ive been playing Full Blooded Orc Wrestler. And While he is a big dumb guy he is self aware enough to lean into his stereotype to his advantage. He treats it like a role hes given even though he's pretty nice. Also super talkative.
Hey can you do a character with a hidden agenda? Or tips on how to not meta game knowledge that? In my new campaign I'm playing... basically an android who doesn't know it (for lack of better terms) and any tips to not spoil that surprise or play as if I never knew is cool but, I'm still new to this
Not sure if you've discussed this or not, but how would you suggesting playing some form of construct who is trying to hide that they are a construct? In one of my games, I'm playing a homebrew race called living doll (not the one from The Wild Beyond The Witchlight as this was before that came out). Her thing is that she's on the run from her creator whom she has deemed a bad person due to locking her in a glass case for most of her existence (I don't know if he'll actually be a bad guy as I left that up to my DM) and is now terrified of anyone finding out that she's a doll and will treat her the same as her creator. She desperately wishes to become a real girl, which provides her extra motivation to hide the fact that she's a construct.
U can also assume that the npcs u interact with will start rumours with there npc friends on how animalistic u are or make racist or Stereotypical remarks like for example NPC 1: "I saw that leonin bite a guy" NPC 2: "What can u expect from a wild animal I also heard he likes to drink milk" NPC 1: "Laughter" NPC 2: "Laughter" EDIT: This is really up to the DM on how thought out civilisation is tho
Okay so I agree with stuff in this video, but it wasn't going where I thought. For example, I have a character that is more monstrous. They are a clone of Strahd that was born and bred in tubes and vats. When they finally escaped, they had been taught from their creator everything they might have to know such as reading and basic facts about where they came from and all that. Bu when they finally managed to be freed, they have to deal with the inherent vampiric hungers in their body. They don't fully understand what they are. They've been told what they are supposed to be, but not what any of that means. They fight by giving in to their vampiric side and go slashing away at foes with claws and biting them with their teeth, sucking their blood, and over all using the superior strength they've always had to defend themselves. But they don't have any context for why they are the way they are and why. They don't know what they are supposed to do. I was hoping this video for some reason would talk a little about this, the idea of an inner beast kind of character. But I guess I gotta wait for a different video.
>>I Play a Spider-Humanoid guy who's, by far, the most **HUMAN** person in any party he joins. Don't get me wrong, he's a Nutcase Priest of Lolth, but who he is to the party is, to quote the 12th doctor; "(s)he cares so that I don't have to"
I honestly love the “exotic” races a lot more than the others. Some of my favorites include: Abjuration loxodon bumbling scientist looking for a more affordable way to magically protect cities from invaders. Wild soul bugbear who has enough intelligence to plan elaborate “slapstick” pranks but lacks the wisdom to NOT do it. Lizardfolk rogue-scout raised by a pirate crew until they were defeated by a cargo ship they thought they could take. He is now going through social reform as a member of the “Sunlit Sparrow” as its the most logical course of survival, captain strong, follow captain rules. Fallen Aasimar warlock who made a deal with Nehkbet to one day fly again. (Flying was everything to him before he fell) And my favorite of all time! Sir Pelius the Blue, a Kobold Paladin good boy who believes through devotion to a good cause, will earn the greatest reward and become a dragon.
I’m partial to the Kobold beast barbarian who used to be a dwarf, Kenku horizon walker ranger who seeks a djinn to reverse the curse, Yuan-ti “defect” swashbuckler rogue whose memories are suspicious, and Tiefling shadow monk who seeks to usurp his ancestor as an Archdevil.
I have to lightly disagree with never disallowing anything. Settings are defined as much by what isn't there as what is, otherwise you get "fantasy kitchen sink" and can create a sense of uncertainty in players because literally anything could happen and exist even if every piece of lore they've come across says otherwise. If elves don't exist, it's fine that they don't exist. Because whether they mean to or not, players I feel have a tendency to gravitate towards those "disallowances" to be "special" or because they just want to contradict the DM just to see how they'll react (the classic coming-of-age mentality of doing something because you're told not to that many people never quite fully grow out of). In your example, it may have been one player, but I would not have been surprised if half the party or the whole party decided to play as elves. Why? Because you said they didn't exist. While exceptions can be fertile soil for creativity, if there's always an exception to any rule, then exceptions become the rule to the point where the "rules" don't really have much weight anymore. In a realm where dragons simply aren't a thing, for example, and the crossbow is the cutting edge of weapon technology at a global scale, a dragonborn gunslinger with a musket MIGHT be an interesting element with huge plot implications, or it can just feel drastically out of place and fail to really make sense in the context of the game for the sole reason that it was what the character wanted to play, regardless of whether either of you could really justify their existence. And that's not even because the player is being deliberately obstinate; they may just think it'd be fun to play someone so "unique" to the setting without realizing that the notion is, in a way, undermining the setting.
He... he erased the elves... He's my today world building hero! That's a daring move given they're hugely popular! That being said, if you end up playing an orc in a world where people are convinced orcs are evil, how do you make sure your character isn't JUST that? The good-hearted but misunderstood one?
I don't necessarily agree with your notion about the races. While that may be true for humans, I don't think we can apply that to sentient beings that derive from entirely different genus than us. The genetic make-up of their brains and how they view morality can be totally different from ours. Take lizardfolk, for example, their brains are developed from reptiles which lack that part of the brain that allows for higher thinking beyond basic survival instinct. So naturally, their own philosophies they develop will be fundamentally different from our own and from our perspective can indeed constitute as evil. The same could also be said of Orcs or any other evil races which are prone to this behavior.
Thing is, lore also suggests draconic descent, which would give them the capacity for higher thinking (or else they wouldn’t be able to create tools and such). In 5E, at least, they have the capacity for societal endeavors, worship, and higher thinking, to the point they could theoretically learn to emulate emotion in an effort to facilitate better communication and more advantageous trade.
@@AshtonMonitor Yes, but it would never be done with any sort of altruism or purely good intentions. A lizardfolk would never heroically sacrifice themselves because it goes against their prime directive to survive. Everything a lizardfolk does is based on their instinct. Of course they're capable of all those things. Their brains do not make them primitive, they simply don't value the same things as a human would. They see no qualms with eating a lost child in the woods if no one is there to defend them and if they believe there will be no repercussions. they see nothing wrong with eating the corpse of someone they were friends with for many years of their life. A lot of these sorts of things would certainly be considered evil by our standards. As for the lore, I don't really like 5e making them yet another offshoot of dragons. Dragons have been proven to have the part of the brain lizardfolk lack and are (in my opinion) an entirely different genus. I'm more of a fan of the idea that Lizardfolk are descended from common reptiles and evolved much in the same way humans did from primates.
Had a player that was a really toxic person. Decided to play a Tiefling Monk. I made it very clear that Tieflings were not trusted in the setting I was running. Bartenders charged him more for drinks, a paladin essentially stopped and frisked him. He helped the Paladin and made the paladin realize not everything was black and white. However things got bad when he started antagonizing another party member. A young elf girl. Started a scene , trying to antagonize her in a store at one point and the elderly couple that ran the store threatened to call the guards on him for harassing the elven girl. Player had been calling her names, being sexist and racist. And yet he was surprised that the elderly couple that were very likely old and set in their ways Aidee with the you g elf and not the trifling that was verbally assaulting her nonstop. Player brought it up the next morning at 5 am on a phone call and ranted and demanded an apology from the elf in game, accused me of railroading, being biased, etc. Truth was none of the other players liked him anyway. And as a person he had already had two strikes on my three strike toxic individual policy. This ended up becoming the last strike. My life has been a lot better since that person is out of my life.
Maybe I'm misconstruing your intent for this video, but it feels like you missed the part where you address what was said in the title/ closing statement. This video is less "how to play without letting that trait define them" and more "here's how you will be defined by your monstrous traits." Personally, I expected you to give advice on how to expand on your character's culture, habits, etc. so that they'd be MORE than a cardboard cutout of a scary monster without any distinctive characteristics. You indirectly gave an example that an arachoakra who fights with their bare claws could be a gentleman when not in combat, but that just sounds like a repeat of the 'trap' mentioned at the start wherein people are essentially playing a human character in a costume rather than a person who is part of a monstrous race with its own culture, habits, etc. The claws thing could've been a good thing to expand on here. Rather than "the person is doing non-combat things out of combat," which applies to human characters as well, you could've described how the arachoakra uses those same claws to do something to help a bystander who either directly or indirectly (their belongings) were caught in the crossfire of the earlier fight. Maybe they help sow up a hole in their clothing and their thin claws help with work like this that requires precision. Maybe they dust off the person with their wings as they help them up. Heck, maybe it's the classic example of them grabbing something that got blown away. There are loads of ways to go about it but, honestly? Given your AMAZING track record thus far, this video felt a bit on the empty side. That's just my 2 cents though, it's your video and you're free to do what you want in it. I just wanted to give a bit of constructive criticism since I hope to watch much more of your stuff in the future!
If someone asked me how to make a monstorous character without just being a human in a mask or just their whole gish i'd tell them this. -Ask you DM what said monster race is like. -Ask yourself how monstorous this character is, is it tribal or is it more civilised? Do they know that their kin isn't as trusted as other races? -Write your character behaviour like it's a human. -Look at the art of the race, does it have features of a prey type animal or features from a predatory animal? From there throw in something that they might struggle a little with such as "I'm a predator and the smell of fresh rabbit makes me drool" or "I'm uncomfortable around hunters, the have mistaken me for food before" -Put it together and write a backstory. Or i'll probably ask them "are they more like disney's Robin Hood or Beastar?" But that's just me i enjoy seeing if anthropomorphic or monstorous creatures act like i think they will based on how they look or what animal they are, i'm weird like that.
The only good argument I have heard of for banning a monstrous race, is that race dosn't exist in the dm's world. Balance issues can be fixed by discussing with homebrew nerfs with your players.
*Warning - pointless rant about a most likely irrelevant subject ahead* I honestly don't understand the whole thing with D&D races never being inherently evil. I understand that it supposedly says something about real life race issues, but I don't think that the differences between a human and an orc are analogous to, say, white and black people. It's more analogous to different dog breeds - are border collies more intelligent than pugs? Are beagles more affectionate than rottweilers? These aren't particularly controversial questions, because different breeds of dogs just act differently and we even know why. It doesn't mean that a rottweiler can't be a snuggly baby or that a pug can't be taught anything - they definitely can. And an orc that is treated well can integrate into society, even if in the setting genetics and religion make them inherently aggressive and selfish. A drow can be an honest and honourable person, even if demonic corruption and millennia of harsh living has caused the race as a whole to become treacherous, manipulative slavers. At the end of the day, it's about the setting and up to whoever is doing the worldbuilding. But I think that redoing the lore of established worlds so as to not echo an unrelated issue is just counterproductive.
Orcs are not a race. Elves are not a race. Bears are not a race. High elves are a race of elves. Brown bears are a race of bears. Orcs and dwarves are separate SPECIES in their worlds. Maybe elves, orcs and humans are all races of the same species because they can interbreed I ain’t never seen a brown bear mate with a barn owl and I ain’t never seen a half orc-elf neither!
The bit about racial alignment feels out of place. Every other part of the video puts a strong emphasis on how D&D campaigns take place in fantasy worlds and how you need to talk with your DM about the setting, but as soon as racial alignment comes up we're supposed to interpret first edition orc stat blocks as some kind of concrete philosophical position to be opposed? Saying that racial alignment "teaches" that your race determines how you think is like saying that long rests "teach" that 8 hours of sleep will heal stab wounds. We all show up to the table with the understanding that this is make-believe. If someone reads that all orcs are evil and then tries to apply that line of thinking to a group of real life humans, then the problem is with that person, not the orcs.
The excuse that "exotic races cause no creativity" is as old as time. I cam be an orc, a goblin, a kobold and still create thousand of backstories not mattering that factor. I created a fisherman orc whom was just a retired guard, a goblin who just liked to create explosives, a kobold who was actually a psychopath, not counting some homebrew races I brought to the DMs a mad gnoll desiring revenge for his slayin pack, becoming an adventurer to defeat adventurers, whom's madness became physical and gained form (Echo-knight). An ogre who just loves to smash things but does not have the same thirst for blood as other ogres and wants to protect his comrades whom are just his new family. A grung who has PTSD (yes, i created a grung who has PTSD). A galeb-duhr who wants to be a stunt-rock and tell his mirabolant tales to his old Treant friend when he decides enough is enough (rock and roll dudes!). A mimic who's a carpenter on the run. Now tell me I have put their personality as the only meaning in their backstory. Maybe in 1 or 2 of them. The ogre and the gnoll to a certain extent but I didn't push their characters into I'm a monster and that is all.
one of our characters flavours his barbarian's rage as a barely controlled werebear transformation.
mechanically it's the same as normal but it's roleplayed as the rage being a bit more instinctual and animalistic.
I'm planning to do the same thing, Im going to play a totem wolf barbarian with with the haunted one background that says I used to have lycanthropy
I hate the "exotic races decrease creativity" argument, sure maybe some people don't see the need to develop their character if their a minotaur but that can be said about other races too, how many Gimly copies are out there? I'd argue that it can increase creativity since these races don't have that many stereotypes attached to them like elves and dwarves do. I've played a shifter once and ended up developing a whole culture for that character.
Its a dumb argument because it assumes that playing humanoid races requires more creativity as if people dont play them based on stereotypes as well. There are hundreds of Legolases, Aragorns, and Gimlies out there, people play humanoid races based on race stereotypes alone all the time. To the point where playing a none tree hugging elf or alcoholic dwarf is considered uncommon. At worst you'll have people ask you if you weren't gonna play an elf like a stereotypical elf than why didn't you just pick a human?
My first DM gave me this advice when I first started creating a character:
Don’t have your race be the most interesting thing about you.
This applies both ways, whether you’re a copy-paste Gimli or a vedalkin mystic, that alone shouldn’t define your character.
I usually say the further from the human experience the creature is the more exotic traits there are to keep up with, the argument that you created an entire culture for your shifter is exactly what I'm talking about, we know how feudal humans lived. You had to put in a lot more leg work than someone had to put into how a human would live. It's not that it's a bad thing, it's just more effort that you had to put in figuring out your character, which is always fun. I see it as something for people who are willing to put the effort in. And before you try to argue with me i played a lamp as a serious character and got a whole new race added to the world for me, a race of energy beings that were literally just souls bound together by magic. Seeing things from the perspective of someone who eats nothing but emotional and magical energy is a interesting challenge. And that's how i see exotic races, as a challenge.
This is why I tend towards humans and half elves. You literally can't play them "wrong" 🤣 Tabaxi too since nobody knows anything about them
My first character was a tiefling. People assume either edgelord or Mollymauk from CR if you play one. I went with exiled royalty who was trying to establish himself in a foreign land. It was a lot of fun, and my friends liked him enough that when he died, they used a wish to bring him back over my replacement character. Race is fun for the racial traits and artistic ideas, but shouldn't constrain your playstyle
if you want to add some "personality" to your character just think about a few things: What do they do in their free time? Who created them (In a parental aspect)? What kind of music they like? What they like to do for fun?
Thinking this kinds of things makes me go further in my characters, and actually really help me out about how to interpret them in diferent situations.
I wouldn’t say that the “exotic races decreases creativity” idea is completely wrong, just that it’s a noob mistake. My friends and I would make this mistake starting off, but the different monster characters would get more fleshed out as we got more experienced. Great video btw!
Yup exactly, doesn't decrease simply requires more.
When you want to play something that is out of the norm putting everything into the monterous trait is not a mistake.
Completely different moral code and a world that treats you like a wild card at best and an evil force at worst is fine to roleplay and the GM making the world just indifferent to that fact is hurting the roleplay.
And look at the "exotic" race of drawves, how many people have put ALL their effort into the pride of being an drawf. You can totaly make a good prideful creature out of every monsterous race.
Being “monstrous” is about how most of society treats you rather than how you treat them.
It’s how you react that defines your monstrous character’s personality.
I'm pretty sure it's the claws and tentacles on the face too 🤣
Bestial races are super fun! In a campaign I played years back. I played a bugbear who was raised by chimpanzees. He was (revised beastmaster/newly at the time shepard druid). His whole shtick was learning to quell his rage. He wanted to be true to who he, or at least wanted to be. Not wanting to give in to his more animalistic characteristics and tendencies. Through the story he struggled to control his anger, but he made progress. Eventually, I had to retire the character because the group we had was really big (8 players) so being a summoner and playing a character with a companion who is his brother (chimpanzee named Caesar :) ) plus his summons with such massive group, it was too much. But, the dm worked with me and eventually my. Bugbear (Julius) did control his rage and his aggression . He ended up living in the capital of the elves in the world, and even became the archdruid ( long story there.) . Which later in the campaign, he came back as an npc to help to group with a few events and such.
On the ''Orcs always had to be evil'' part even back in the day when aligment was an integral part of the game it still followed the ''in general'' rule so exceptions were still a thing.
EDIT: wow, that's a lot of likes!
thank's peps!
I play a high charisma bugbear barbarian in a campaign and I for sure lean away from monstrous type in personality. He's sweet and innocent and hilarious, but at the same time, he's been socialized from a bugbear point of view. He's a fish outta water nearly everywhere he goes. He also lived a good many years in the fey where he learned to grow psychedelics which he peddles without any notion that they may be a restricted drug. He eats halflings. He loves a good orgy. He just discovered what a guitar is. He has goals and fears like anyone else and he's a blast to play
Ok how TF does an orgy come up at a table XD. Sounds like an interesting story
@@kelmirosue3251 well, those days were mostly back in the fey, but when u just put out orgy energy, they find u. Like a highlander
@@basementmadetapes lol fair enough XD
I played a tabaxi once that everyone at the table assumed I was a housecat because my character didn't like water. It wasn't until I blew up at them after throwing a PvP punch and angrily about how as a child I was stuck in a tree for 6 days as my families dead bodies floated below me getting slowly eaten by predators during a flood. Then I left the party to be on my own for awhile and did not interact with them until each one apologized. The barbarian was first. I (the player) was a little taken back by this choice. Great RP moment
One of my favorite characters was a kobold celestial warlock. In a moment of near death, a celestial being came and gave him power, referring to him as "the light in the darkness" and that he would purge evil and "burn them in the light". Being a low intelligence kobold, he took this overly literal, and changed his name to The Light. In his mind he was LG. In reality he was more on the CN side but was slowly guided to being more lawful by his patron.
I've been roleplaying a creature part of an hive mind in a sci-fantasy campaign for an year. It's ridiculously hard to think so differently from a human being but also incredibly satisfying.
I play a Lizardfolk Sword and Board Kensei Monk, Adulese (Draconic for Serpent). I run him mostly according to the forgotten realms lore, filling in the gaps with crocodile habits and trivia since it makes sense with the racial traits. Pragmatic, apathetic, referring to people by a key trait or notable feat, reducing his emotional responses to Acquire/Protect, Avoid, and Remove/Destroy, stuff like that. Hell, he even has a stash of Orc jerky that the party doesn't know about yet. But, despite thinking that emotions are a waste of energy and coming from a culture that demonizes philosophical thought (their creation myth is literally one of their two gods having such intense analysis paralysis they split into the first male and female couple), he's aware that people aren't always going to treat him nicely, and that in order to achieve his goal of being the the best at making magic armaments from creatures, he's going to need to get people to work with him. So, in spite of his negative Cha mod, he has proficiency in Insight and Persuasion in order to try and understand people. And while some more metropolitan areas have been more accepting of Adulese, we have come across people in more rural areas that treat him with suspicion. It's been fun honestly, especially the budding trust interplay between Adulese and our Aarakocra Ranger that's terrified of Lizardfolk.
This is really interesting! I have a Lizardfolk Blood Hunter who was raised in a tribe that is more open to the benefits of civilized trade with a local human village, and have learned to emulate human emotion over several generations to the point that the newest generation expresses emotion near constantly. However, an event caused a slight rift between the tribe and village, so Lizardfolk are now (wrongfully) viewed with disdain from the village once more. They still welcome trade, but all ‘scales’ (as the villagers call them) in the village are forced to live in a shantytown on the outskirts. Potvych (draconic for ‘to forgive’) used to be the kindest child of the village until a black dragon in the swamp took the lives of his parents (cliché, I know) as he watched, having followed them to the dragon’s hunting grounds. He lost the use of his arm for years due to splashes of acid melting the scales around the elbow, until eventually he shattered the fused scales and creating a large scar. He had slowly closed himself off to prevent himself from feeling emotional pain again, changing his name to Dartak (‘to hate’) and remaining carefully neutral around others. His village elder initiated him into the Order of the Mutant to (hopefully) start him on a path towards growing into a confident and capable leader, while his siblings grew to become a top hunter and a pair of eccentric artisans in the village.
So essentially, Dartak grew up in a setting where emotion is commonly emulated in Lizardfolk, but willingly regressed as a defense mechanism. The plan was for him to hopefully open up to the group and learn be himself again, but the campaign ended before it could begin.
I'm currently playing as a Troll in a game.
Played up the monstrous side with Trogar, background before being introduced to rest of party as that he'd hunted and eaten travelers and traders along the road, and then imprisoned by the nation of Alexandria after they hunted and killed his friends and captured him ~ only sparing him since he could speak "common"
Trogar was set alongside the party as a sort of Suicide Squad type situation. He helps this mission, he gets to go free from the prison and be left alone
But of course "monster" wasn't everything to the character. They had a deep trauma from a Wizard that had experimented on him and other trolls in horrifying grotesque fashion (Healing Potions had to be invented somehow), he escaped and had a measure of survivors guilt for those he left behind, and was lashing out at the world around him that rejected him
So far Trogar has been supported by the party, and is trying to get through his fears, insecurities and PTSD trauma. There was a whole session and a half where Trogar kept encountering his fears, but other people in the party kept supporting him to help him through everything, It was awesome
My main setting has several common races, humans, dwarves, elves, halflings, gnomes and Keltani, who are my own homebrewed Small sized Minotaur.
I do want to comment on the subject of "Evil" races.
The rules for fantasy races is VERY different from those for the real world, as long as people are adults and can separate that, the idea of an Evil race is completely valid within the bounds of a fantasy setting.
Maybe the Orcs in the setting are literally entities created or corrupted by demonic forces. More akin to demons themselves than a truly sapient being which can see right from wrong and willingly behave in altruistic manner
Is this bad for RP? If so, why is it bad?
I see no reason to limit my writing to deny this as a possibility.
If a person wants to play as an Evil-Only Race, and assuming there truly are no exceptions for this Evil-Race, you do have to be clear as to what 'Evil' means within the context of your setting.
Perhaps they can be a Sociopath, but fully functioning within larger society, they value their friends and all, and are co-operating with the party and the nation they live in simply because they prefer a green pasture over fire and brimstone.
Going along with that, "evil" could just mean working in the service of the evil deity which rules/controls them. Your drow, yuan-ti, orc, etc. may act perfectly civil but all their aims are to further the agenda of an evil deity/archfey/demon etc
When talking about evil races, we are talking about averages, with the exceptions of races that embody their alignment, like Demons.
Orcs are naturally very aggressive and their society is very "might makes right". Their leaders are in their positions simply because they are the strongest and desire leadership for the benefits it brings.
Orcs can still be good, evil, lawful and chaotic relative to Orc society as a whole.
@@schwarzerritter5724 Depends on the setting; we do not need to follow the rules and assumptions of the forgotten realms
Maybe we want Orcs to be similar to Lord of the rings, where they are little more than intelligent monsters and servants of evil
My point is just that we shouldn't look at "evil-only" as removing RP options. No more so than a race being stronger or comparatively disabled in some fashion (Blind, fewer than 4 limbs, etc)
It just means that you have different options for storytelling and RP
But yes; within the context of FR setting - Orcs can potentially be any alignment
I greatly appreciate the how you blend practicality and creative insight into your advice. In my experience people tend to either completely ignore or only define their characters by their racial and/or class stereotypes in D&D. I'm glad you brought attention to the fact that we need to consider those preconceived notions in both the game world and IRL when making and playing our characters.
I try to let the monstrous race's behavioral description heavily inform how I roleplay my character, and try to do other things to sort of mask him against society's gaze, for example, I made a thri-kreen and I've gotten myself into that thing's headspace based on its inherently alien mindset, which includes not resonating strongly with human emotional patterns, having hazing tendencies, near toxic levels of familial protectiveness, and limited ability to speak common. As long as I'm playing a game that views fantasy races from a perspective of myth (meaning that they're supernatural creatures with inhuman thought patterns), then I'll shape my character to know how to hide in human society within reason. For a thri-kreen, it'll mean picking up a hat of disguise and being careful not to touch anyone, but still have little to no control over the illusory facial expressions. This tactic kind of teaches me that I am playing a race that is the farthest from human, rather than a human cosplaying as a bug man or elf or an orc who would have more than likely been killed by his parents the moment they noticed him showing compassion during early development.
You need a DM who is on board with the idea.
If you care about the whole "story telling" part of character development, then you have to realise that in all the good examples of stories that feature a "Monster" as a main protagonist, from Frankenstein to the X Men, the idea is to play with the notion of what IS monstrosity, and how the "Monster" is inevitably LESS monstrous than the human beings around them.
If your DM doesn't want to explore that subtext within their game, then you might be in a tricky position of having cliched "screams from the commoners" type material to work with.
But, if the world around you doesn't TREAT you as a monster, then you're not a Monster.
Edit to add:
What I would also avoid, is playing a "Monster" as "Human" as possible in order to overcome perceptions. The best challenge to take on is to maintain your character's core, while overcoming the preconceptions.
As a DM of over 40 years standing, I've found that people who choose Monstrous races but apply the "Has been domesticated to fit in to human society" condition... are generally doing it for the stats.
I have a similar rule, I don't restrict races, spells, archetypes, etc. I LOVE players creativity and as such I don't restrict it. Especially if a player can expand the lore of the setting!
Good on you for being willing to work with your players to let them be whatever they want and allow your world to evolve based on their choices. Many DMs don't want to do that kind of work, so I think it's awesome you're willing to collaborate. I always tell my players, be whatever you want to be (within reason), and we'll make it work. I had players be goblins and half undead, strange mixes like halfling/tiefling and gnome/assimar. I myself have played an orc who was the spiritual leader of his village. It's really cool the characters you can create when you don't limit yourself.
I really hope they update tieflings, aasimar and genasi turn into lineages like those in ravenloft
I always thought it would be cool to play a Lizardfolk Monk who is a charming and friendly person, but the moment combat starts he turns into an efficient killer. His claws would be integrated into his martial arts and would allow him to get off some truly brutal and nasty kills. He may even eat some of the meat that used to be his enemy. Afterward, he would go right back to being friendly and approachable with people(despite being covered in blood and gore). This would be due to his lizard brain functioning differently than a normal person's, it would allow him to turn off his empathy to those he deems as a threat and he would no longer see them as people.
I always wanted to play a werewolf. I never did because it's an unbalanced thing compared to normal races (in 3.5 and pathfinder at least, no idea how they are in other versions / systems) but I always found the "humanity vs beast" struggle really interesting, probably my favorite thing about Vampire: The Masquerade.
Pathfinder has a race called Skinwalker, which are pretty much people born from lycanthropes but their blood is diluted to the point were they can't shapeshift to their full lycan form instead they can manifest a minor version of that to grow claws, bite attacks, natural armor, etc. Generally they are distrusted because nobody likes lycanthropes and I'm thinking of making my next character using this race and exploring that.
You know, this is advice I didn't know I needed. A friend of mine is planning to DM a campaign with elements from Ravenloft, which means we the players will get to play monstrous characters. I myself will play a reborn human, so your run-of-the-mill zombie, but with a conscience. I've thought about making him mostly human but with a few quirks like groaning often and speaking slowly but I haven't thought of how he would behave towards the people around him, like how much of his undead nature he would conceal or how he might react to prejudiced treatment by others
Me every episode: "Stop calling me a bastard!" 😭😭😭
Haha, great video as always mate! I really appreciate the care and thought that obviously goes into your topics, and they certainly evoke a lot of thought.
Of course there is no harm in leaning into the stereotypes too though! I played a bugbear barbarian a couple of years ago and he was one of my favorite characters to date. I roleplayed him as being not that bright, but his tracking skills were excellent. He was an ambusher through and through and fought smart, but he was strong, stealthy and loved breaking things and barrelling into combat with his bare hands.
That being said, it made him humorous! He could come to the wrong deductions, thinking a rustle of Xvarts in the bushes were simply rabbits, charge in the opposite direction of an invisible enemy and blindly swinging at the air even as the party deduced with magic where the foe was, or dash into a sphere of darkness only to clonk his head against the wall on the other side.
But you can still add to it. They can definitely be more than a stereotypical bugbear. He was sweet at times and knew how to restrain the traits of his aggressive upbringing. He was protective of young children and the healer of the party (having a Hulk-Black Widow relationship with her) and was devoted to the partys patron for giving him a new, meaningful start in life. When some of his tribe showed up later, in service to an evil dragon, blood certainly didn't run thicker than water. He stood by his human friends to take them down and took on his older brother in an unarmed fight to the death. Which he, umm, lost because I forgot to add rage bonus damage 😆 (thankfully the party intervened). He was a blast to play
Hobgoblins/goblins in eberron are one of the more interesting counter beastial race examples.
Man, I love this series
Man I'm enjoying it too! Thanks for watching!
Could you do a video on a “tortured soul” archetype. Someone with tragedy and maybe have made too many bad choices without just being a loner.
A race/class is a starting point, a non human gives you stuff to work off of.
A character I made (haven't used yet):
A kobold swashbuckler tells increadble exaggerated stories of his feats and has granted himself the title of "the dragon of deepburrow".
But it's not just the "small creature with big ego" joke.
He has reasoning, he comes from a small tribe of kobolds that was recently discovered to be living on human lands.
So he's spreading the story of this hyper powerful kobold warrior who defends his tribe as a bluff because if his trive is attacked, they're dead.
I like to make a lot of character builds (heavily inspired by tulok the barbarian's videos) and I've always been detoured from characters like the hulk because he's just a barbarian. Not that I dislike barbarians, I actually think people sleep on the class, but I feel like the hulk is a lot more interesting as a character and a build then just a rage monster. So I've been working on a artificer subclass that lets you transform yourself into a mutant. You can either have a more stable transformation or turn into an absolute monster. This way you can play a scientist trying to cure himself of his lycanthropy or a kobold who uses science and magic to become stronger than the orcs who used to push you around.
One of my favorite characters was a Lizardfolk I made named Warm. The whole purpose of this character was to make a lizardfolk who previously lived a primitive and savage lifestyle but was willingly trying to become civilized after falling out with his tribe. Over the campaign he became less “monstrous” and became more social, logical, and understanding of the larger world around him.
As a player on a West Marches server, I once had a hobgoblin character who joined a mission to fight other hobgoblins. The DM had the elf NPC ask a few pointed questions about where my loyalties lie. We had a great roleplay moment about this. My character should be treated with some level of suspicion by races that have enmity with hobgoblins.
One thing I expect from my players who make monstrous characters should inform the personality and mindset. It doesn't have to completely define the character. I would expect an orc character from a raiding clan to be aggressive, confident, or brash. The orc character does not have to be a one note character, they should have depth and complexities beyond NPC orcs. I would expect an elf to take the long view and think about the future before committing to a course of action that will have consequences centuries from now. That does not mean the elf can never take a rash action for survival, but if they do they could be mortified at what they've done.
While Monstrous Races would be more uncommon than the traditional races, they wouldn't be unheard of and just very rare for one to be spotted walking through a city. Most NPCs reaction to seeing the character for the first time should lean towards the stereotypical worldview of said race, but there should also be some NPCs (like children) that are in awe of the character.
Some tight insights in this series. I hope it gains traction!
current party:
-an aasimar in disguise
-a plasmoid with pet dragon (that new ranger thing)
-a half-harpy (avion, homebrew)
-and me, a lizardfolk raised by dwarves, force cleric following moradin
Actually the DM used that for a few scenes in the first session already, first the quest givers were put off when I asked, if I could "loot enemies for their metals and turn their remains into equipment, if we run into monsters" because they thought I intended to turn humanoid attackers into equipment as well and later on the crew of a ship took interest in me because I was essentially wearing dwarfen armour and was very obviously a man of the cloth, they were quite impressed hearing that the armor is self-made and a female dwarf liked that we had the same god
Can't wait to bite someone in combat tbh, after all my teeth are natural weapons and there's a skill to heal once per day by taking a bite out of an enemy XD
I'm currently running a minotaur. He is kindly old Druid of the Field (Circle of the Land). He prays to the spirits of the harvest and has left his village on a pilgrimage to help cure the blight that is destroying crops and causing a famine. Despite being big and savage looking at times, he always takes time to heal the wounded and feed the hungry.
I love having characters that have random aspects about them that makes them unique. My current character I’m playing is my Goliath Barbarian Zanak. He’s everything you would expect of a Goliath Barbarian, large, as dumb as he is strong, savage in fights and is always ready to supplex the nearest stone golem because it looked at him funny
However, the thing I gave him to set him apart from the other Goliath Barbarians is that he was a good cook. Whenever the party would go hunting, he would insist on making a proper dish instead of “roasting it over a fire”
That stuff is fun
I am playing Iron Gods in Pathfinder 1e with some close friends. I am specifically playing a mountainous Lizardfolk Barbarian who is a worshiper of Erastil, but is Chaotic Evil, lusts for battle (like Battle Beast from Invincible) and acts in the party like Drax (GoTG). He has plenty of flavor for his actual identity, but because he is an 8'11" Lizardfolk, he kinda gets the shit end of a lot of situations. So I feel this video's vibe so much because I wanted him to be less "Ah OMG a monstrous enemy!" And more "Ah OMG a powerful opponent/ally" while still having his own identity to him. He never had a family, was raised by a Gith woman who couldn't produce eggs so she found his and raised him when she came to the material plane. This is why he doesn't understand friendship, because family was all he knew outside of battle, but the only "family" he ever had was a battle-driven mother figure who raised him to be a warrior and a protector. And yes, I can still make this work within the realm of being C/E.
loving the new intro music!
I think a good thing to try would be to ask if they want a custom lineage. See the reason alot of ppl do is because like...u waste your stat block on 1d4 claws u will never use? Well if u want to be a catfolk wizard who doesnt leap around and slash ppl with their claws...you just want to be a wizard who happens to be a catfolk u could do custom lineage and pick a feat that gives u an ability more in line with your life than the claws. Oh u have claws and in a weird situation u might try to use em, and your dm would treat it like a human trying to use pressure points or something. Improvised attack or unarmed strike that does slashing dmg. But by making it so you DONT have those weapons u open up opportunities for "ive never learned to use them well, i suck at climbing trees so i just would read books under them. And some of the spells ive learned allow me to do even more amazing things!"
Alot of the players that play monstrous races come up with insane backstories, like being a dude reset to level 1 and forced into a mimic form, some monster that gained sentience and had his family murdered before his eyes, a goblin with a cheese addiction where he would die if he didnt eat cheese once every week (this one was mine)
I’ve got a character who’s a Berserker Barbarian Orc named Bobalor the Destroyer.
He’s the kindest, friendliest person ever and he’s trying his best to put his Berserker Barbarian tendencies behind him.
He introduces himself as just Bob because he doesn’t want to be the Destroyer anymore, and he struggles to make friends without people immediately being scared of him based on what he is.
Even in fights, he tries his best to control his anger and not go Berserk because he doesn’t want his friends to be afraid of him.
Hey, it would be great if all these "How to Play:" videos into a playlist!
Setting does take priority when considering how a character's race affects their relationship with others, and their upbringing.
There's a lot of cultural baggage that comes with player race, they would have to be far removed from their own kin to not understand what others think is normal behavior for their group.
The less insular a race is, the more diverse of an upbringing you can expect for a player character.
4:41 THANK YOU!
My first character in dnd was a Kobold bounty hunter, do to Kobolds being seen as pests by majority of humans in the setting I had to tred carefully to not be near bar room brawls etc because I'd likely be seen as the instigator
You can separate the conceptualization of human races in the real world from the conceptualization of races in a fantasy world. It’s perfectly valid to have a “race” in a fantasy world being wholly evil. Because what is evil is simpily based on ones point of view. A “race” of beings that craves destruction for destructions sake will be seen as evil in the eyes of humans.
The Orks in warhammer fantasy and 40k are an example of this. Making one suddenly good could be interesting but he would only be interesting because he’s an exception to the rule.
Races in a fantasy world being evil as a whole depends on the setting. It’s not by any means “problematic” or wrong to write them this way. The term “race” generally means very different things in the real world as compared to a dnd style fantasy settings.
I actually specialize in monstrous/less standard humanoid characters and really I find that probably the advice/viewpoint that gets left out the most is balancing how to display non human tendencies without making those 'non human-esc' tendencies come off as a bad thing/controlling the entire character, most of which I think ends up coming down to forethought.
Like for some monstrous races like orcs, they aren't too different from humans beyond how the rest of the rest of the world sees them, but then you have more extreme differences like the Aarakocra with their whole 'is a bird', 'has their own custom language because of how the shapes of their beaks effect how they talk', naturally lean towards living in places with open air because flight gives them crazy advantages, only live for about 30 years tops and are old enough to be considered adults at the age of three...
Emotionally and mentally the average aarakocra probably isn't too different from the rest of the party but when you think about how those things would effect their development, there's pretty much always going to be a huge gap in experiences, especially if the aarakocra is on the younger side.
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For example my own aarakocra character, her sheer awareness of her much shorter lifespan and 'otherness' from the rest of her companions was a major source of stress for her and being raised by humans didn't make any of that go away but rather made it much worse (to the point she would amp up some 'birdy habits' specifically because those around her found them cute and that in turn helped her feel more accepted -if also somewhat self conscious/concerned that it was only in the way a pet or cute animal might be). She would also try to downplaying the 'racial claustrophobia' (to be fair she genuinely wasn't bothered by being inside or on the ground much but she spent a good amount of time self justifying her terror of being in submarine that mostly amounted to 'can't fly away) and the occasional hunting with claws and beak (she still did on occasion but well, sling kills don't get her feathers as dirty so).
Her actual aarakocra race-based tendencies aside from the playact ones she put on were just clicking her beak and flaring her feathers when upset/nervous, me making sure to avoid terms like smile rather 'her eyes lit up' and her sheer LOVE of flying.
Actual personality beyond racial stuff: enthusiastic cheery notetaker of the team who would think long and hard about everything she could while always trying to help everyone around her... Who was also very prone to internal anxiety spirals about possible bad things and repressing the absolute hell out of said anxiety problems until their either exploded or somehow defused before they could go boom and she'd completely lose it.
Her race didn't make up her personality in the slightest but it definitely played a role in how she went about expressing it, what stresses she had and how life had shaped her; and it was a ton of fun occasionally reminding the party that their really wise, cheery bird who usually kept everyone around them in 'lets all work together and talk/hug things out' mode was also only about three years old and that all her wisdom in the world wouldn't change the fact she didn't have that life experience (probably why she clicked so much with her kobold monk/barb love interest/'platonic life partner' raised alone in a forest: Consistently very smart/wise little beans but also very much wide eyed in 'first time seeing this' wonder about a ton of things and 'IDK what the @#$# you all are talking about, plz clarify' whenever others started referencing complicated politics or 'the situation back home' or why the heck everyone's so freaked out about 'that nice mr Oberon guy' seems to be interested in what their group is doing)~ XD
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Then there's the outright 'really different mentally' races like Lizardfolk. Finding the balance between making them 'other' without it being some sort of ugh stereotype/'automatic badguy' is definitely tricky if you go purely by their culture as presented in the books but I found a pretty good balance with my Cobolt Soul Lizardfolk.
Had her as a sort of 'in training' wise woman of her desert dwelling tribe (their looks leaning more goanna/komono dragon than heavy set croc) and in presentation she was always nothing but very polite, speaking very 'formal but graciously' as she always made considerable effort to consider everything she learned of and act in the most 'respectful' way possible to her allies... But was also still very much a lizardfolk as well so in battle she would also go straight for the throat with her teeth and claws, let loose all the hissing and snarls, genuinely considering eating any bodies left afterward, and rarely if ever had moments of true empathy despite trying very hard to at least sympathize with 'whatever nonsense' was bothering her 'hunt pack' members/allies were fussing about this time (to the point I gave her a flaw in Insight when used on emotional states; having to be able to smell them for indicators like 'stress scents' to realize they might be anything but perfectly calm right up until they were very clearly breaking down or something).
This balance of her of so demure personality contrasting the sheer 'predatory/non-mammalin' mindset of hers was real meat of her character for me and well, it was incredibly flattering how many of the other players at the table seemed to find her a good contrast/foil for their own characters~
That said I did struggle at times to keep in mind that every single one of her actions 100% had to have a practical 'self centered' reasoning to them rather than default to my usual alturistic...
But it was rewarded hardcore when she and her greatest foil in the party (the extremely compassionate desert barb human with explosive rage issues who kept idolising my lizard's 'calm and in control' ways) finally got to the point that my lizard could tell her without any cruelty how frustrating she found being praised for 'her calm' when she'd spent literal years straining to feel things 'like fleshies' enough that she could train her tribe to also 'pseudo empathize/sympathize' enough with other races that they would survive when the powerful non-lizardfolk nations inevitably began to encroach upon their territories, and the backstory that had led to her to such a forward thinking approach...
Was 100% best moment I've had with her and so very rewarding when she and the barb ended up each nabbing a level of the other's class in a show of how much the other had driven them to grow emotionally in their odd mix of rivalry and constantly flipping teacher/student dynamic~ XD
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Sooo yeah. Making your character a PERSON above all else is just as critical as it would be with any character, but when dealing with non-humans I really would recommend putting some thought not just into how the outer world shapes them (though that IS very important) but also how *who* they are would interact with *what* they are.
In a lot of cases its not going to be that different than what you're already doing but stuff like habits of preening fur/feathers and sharpening claws, what kind of body language do they use, preferences in diet, how their species 'quirks' effect how they think of other species who don't share those or how they compare themselves when stacked with others side by side... All of it can really help bring characters like that to life, especially once you think about those things an Aarakocra/Lizardfolk/etc might do in general species wise, then filter through the culture they lived in, and then filter those ideas through the lens of who *your* Aarakocra/Lizardfolk/other wonderful beastie is and which of those they would/wouldn't do and why/why not?
Or at least, that's my process and well. Hopefully it can work for you too~
Even with the whole "orcs are always evil" thing I never thought that was supposed to teach people that race determines how you think. If anyone is here to claim that the difference between a human and an orc in D&D and a white person and an African American person in real life is anywhere near similar then I think its safe to say that that is extremely racist. Races in dnd are closer to species, not races. We can see that in that if you choose a different skin tone or ethnicity for a human character you do not get different racial traits, but for example if you choose to be a Aaracokra you get to be bird-like creature with wings.
In D&D race is just a name used to simplify things but if WotC was being honest the different "races" are actually different species. For example orcs are generally seen as evil in dnd is because in the Forgotten Realms (its important to remember that this only applys to the Forgotten Realms where most dnd takes place) they are literally under a direct influence of a bloodthirsty warmongering God, Gruumsh, who teaches that all races are inferior to orcs and that the orcs should attack them to take what is theirs. Not to mention that orcs are extremely physically different to humans on many biological and mental levels such as bigger builds, half the lifespan of humans, a diet that can handle much worse food, and although not a physical difference they also have a different afterlife than other humanoids with little hope for them to go anywhere other than Acheron to battle for eternity regardless of their beliefs but simply because they were orcs. This is a far greater degree of difference that just "race". This is not to say that all orcs are evil because obviously some can break free from Gruumsh's influence, but it is to say that the vast majority of them definitely are, this is why before Volos you could only be a half-orc because a full-blooded orc was so unlikely to be able to work with the average party.
Here are some more quick examples, all of these are from the forgotten realms where D&D books such as Volos, Mordenkainens, Curse of Strahd, Storm Kings thunder, etc. are entirely based off of: Most yuanti literally became yuanti by murdering snakes and other humanoids in order to transcend in power to usurp their gods, obviously most of them are evil. Most tritons are from another dimension and are only in the material plane because they came there to guard it from the elemental evil they let escape so most of them are lawful good. Goblinoids are mostly evil for exactly the same reason as orcs are except that the god influencing them and forcing them to battle for eternity in the afterlife is Maglubiyet. Aasimar are usually good because they were born with a direct link and influence from the upper planes. Drow get brutally tortured and murdered either by their people or sometimes by their god directly if they don't fully embrace the evil and wicked lifestyle of the drow, hence why so few good ones have ever existed. The list goes on.
The reason different races are different in D&D is not because they are in any way different in the ways that a Mexican and a British person are but because they are fundamentally so many ways, from different gods taking direct action in their lives everyday, to people who live only 40 years compared to another who lives 750 years. In other settings anything can be anyway anyone wants but in the Forgotten Realms where most D&D lore and books are set it should be acknowledged that there are real and definite reasons why these "races" are so drastically different, to the point that something like a good orc or a good drow even existing is part of the reason why this character is an adventurer in the first place. And I believe that anyone that after reading this still draws the lines between the differences of real world races and the differences between a person imbued with a divine spark and one who bathed in the cold blood of their fellow humans in order to try to usurp the gods and take their place as a malicious tyrant and is willing to say that the differences are the same is a thorough racist.
I had a lizard man character in Waterdeep Dragonheist. I played it for comic effect because that's how it felt like it would be a good fit with this DM and campaign. If playing Tomb of Annhilation or Rime of the Frostmaiden, maybe a grittier, more bestial character would have worked. I have another character idea that's a minotaur and he too feels like a comical effect character. So maybe I'm stuck on a trope.
We had our first session in a new setting lately...im playing a fire genasi and in this setting they usually keep to themselves on their islands. one of the other players decided that, since we were in a library and he has never seen someone with fire for hair, he had to extinguish me to save the books :D so, first session and im a wizard in a library with burning hair and wet like ive been standing in the rain for an hour :D it was way too funny
I make a barbarian orc with the sage background, called Diogenes. He was a philosopher orc.
One time he pluck an aracokra and say: look everyone I make a humie.
First.
I suggest that two videos ago! Thank you!
Hope you enjoyed!
@@PlayYourRole I did.
I'm pretty new to DnD, but l don't understand why are they called races and not species?
because they could technically reproduce and have fertile children (Half-Elves, Half-Orcs etc)
Because species means an organism witch can make more of itself, witch is also something that Warforged and Shardminds are not.
@@XxEvilghostxX1 Zakkly. It's our own living world that has made common the misapplication of race. Race has no scientific basis here, but if elves and orcs lived here, then yes it would be the correct distinction.
WotC seems to be trying to rename “races” to lineages. The next stage in DnD they said coming out about 2024 will probably fully rename them.
@@TrueLimeyhoney Agree, but lineage is nor really good either because of the aforementioned Warforged and Shardminds who can't reproduce, but I also can't come up with anything better so meh.
I played a bugbear who was rather simpleminded but he wasn't dull he had a clan he missed and peculiar non human habits and other things too
my campaign is ravnica. so many different options. love the diversity
Ive been playing Full Blooded Orc Wrestler. And While he is a big dumb guy he is self aware enough to lean into his stereotype to his advantage. He treats it like a role hes given even though he's pretty nice. Also super talkative.
Hey can you do a character with a hidden agenda? Or tips on how to not meta game knowledge that? In my new campaign I'm playing... basically an android who doesn't know it (for lack of better terms) and any tips to not spoil that surprise or play as if I never knew is cool but, I'm still new to this
Of course Hank McCoy is a great example
Not sure if you've discussed this or not, but how would you suggesting playing some form of construct who is trying to hide that they are a construct?
In one of my games, I'm playing a homebrew race called living doll (not the one from The Wild Beyond The Witchlight as this was before that came out). Her thing is that she's on the run from her creator whom she has deemed a bad person due to locking her in a glass case for most of her existence (I don't know if he'll actually be a bad guy as I left that up to my DM) and is now terrified of anyone finding out that she's a doll and will treat her the same as her creator. She desperately wishes to become a real girl, which provides her extra motivation to hide the fact that she's a construct.
Video description sounds like it came from the Veteran video?
6:40 thank you
U can also assume that the npcs u interact with will start rumours with there npc friends on how animalistic u are or make racist or Stereotypical remarks like for example
NPC 1: "I saw that leonin bite a guy"
NPC 2: "What can u expect from a wild animal I also heard he likes to drink milk"
NPC 1: "Laughter"
NPC 2: "Laughter"
EDIT: This is really up to the DM on how thought out civilisation is tho
Okay so I agree with stuff in this video, but it wasn't going where I thought. For example, I have a character that is more monstrous. They are a clone of Strahd that was born and bred in tubes and vats. When they finally escaped, they had been taught from their creator everything they might have to know such as reading and basic facts about where they came from and all that. Bu when they finally managed to be freed, they have to deal with the inherent vampiric hungers in their body. They don't fully understand what they are. They've been told what they are supposed to be, but not what any of that means. They fight by giving in to their vampiric side and go slashing away at foes with claws and biting them with their teeth, sucking their blood, and over all using the superior strength they've always had to defend themselves. But they don't have any context for why they are the way they are and why. They don't know what they are supposed to do. I was hoping this video for some reason would talk a little about this, the idea of an inner beast kind of character. But I guess I gotta wait for a different video.
comment for the algorithm
>>I Play a Spider-Humanoid guy who's, by far, the most **HUMAN** person in any party he joins. Don't get me wrong, he's a Nutcase Priest of Lolth, but who he is to the party is, to quote the 12th doctor;
"(s)he cares so that I don't have to"
Your description is from the veteran video, friend.
I honestly love the “exotic” races a lot more than the others. Some of my favorites include:
Abjuration loxodon bumbling scientist looking for a more affordable way to magically protect cities from invaders.
Wild soul bugbear who has enough intelligence to plan elaborate “slapstick” pranks but lacks the wisdom to NOT do it.
Lizardfolk rogue-scout raised by a pirate crew until they were defeated by a cargo ship they thought they could take. He is now going through social reform as a member of the “Sunlit Sparrow” as its the most logical course of survival, captain strong, follow captain rules.
Fallen Aasimar warlock who made a deal with Nehkbet to one day fly again. (Flying was everything to him before he fell)
And my favorite of all time!
Sir Pelius the Blue, a Kobold Paladin good boy who believes through devotion to a good cause, will earn the greatest reward and become a dragon.
I’m partial to the Kobold beast barbarian who used to be a dwarf, Kenku horizon walker ranger who seeks a djinn to reverse the curse, Yuan-ti “defect” swashbuckler rogue whose memories are suspicious, and Tiefling shadow monk who seeks to usurp his ancestor as an Archdevil.
I have to lightly disagree with never disallowing anything. Settings are defined as much by what isn't there as what is, otherwise you get "fantasy kitchen sink" and can create a sense of uncertainty in players because literally anything could happen and exist even if every piece of lore they've come across says otherwise. If elves don't exist, it's fine that they don't exist. Because whether they mean to or not, players I feel have a tendency to gravitate towards those "disallowances" to be "special" or because they just want to contradict the DM just to see how they'll react (the classic coming-of-age mentality of doing something because you're told not to that many people never quite fully grow out of). In your example, it may have been one player, but I would not have been surprised if half the party or the whole party decided to play as elves. Why? Because you said they didn't exist. While exceptions can be fertile soil for creativity, if there's always an exception to any rule, then exceptions become the rule to the point where the "rules" don't really have much weight anymore. In a realm where dragons simply aren't a thing, for example, and the crossbow is the cutting edge of weapon technology at a global scale, a dragonborn gunslinger with a musket MIGHT be an interesting element with huge plot implications, or it can just feel drastically out of place and fail to really make sense in the context of the game for the sole reason that it was what the character wanted to play, regardless of whether either of you could really justify their existence. And that's not even because the player is being deliberately obstinate; they may just think it'd be fun to play someone so "unique" to the setting without realizing that the notion is, in a way, undermining the setting.
He... he erased the elves...
He's my today world building hero! That's a daring move given they're hugely popular!
That being said, if you end up playing an orc in a world where people are convinced orcs are evil, how do you make sure your character isn't JUST that? The good-hearted but misunderstood one?
I don't necessarily agree with your notion about the races. While that may be true for humans, I don't think we can apply that to sentient beings that derive from entirely different genus than us. The genetic make-up of their brains and how they view morality can be totally different from ours. Take lizardfolk, for example, their brains are developed from reptiles which lack that part of the brain that allows for higher thinking beyond basic survival instinct. So naturally, their own philosophies they develop will be fundamentally different from our own and from our perspective can indeed constitute as evil. The same could also be said of Orcs or any other evil races which are prone to this behavior.
Thing is, lore also suggests draconic descent, which would give them the capacity for higher thinking (or else they wouldn’t be able to create tools and such). In 5E, at least, they have the capacity for societal endeavors, worship, and higher thinking, to the point they could theoretically learn to emulate emotion in an effort to facilitate better communication and more advantageous trade.
@@AshtonMonitor Yes, but it would never be done with any sort of altruism or purely good intentions. A lizardfolk would never heroically sacrifice themselves because it goes against their prime directive to survive. Everything a lizardfolk does is based on their instinct. Of course they're capable of all those things. Their brains do not make them primitive, they simply don't value the same things as a human would. They see no qualms with eating a lost child in the woods if no one is there to defend them and if they believe there will be no repercussions. they see nothing wrong with eating the corpse of someone they were friends with for many years of their life. A lot of these sorts of things would certainly be considered evil by our standards. As for the lore, I don't really like 5e making them yet another offshoot of dragons. Dragons have been proven to have the part of the brain lizardfolk lack and are (in my opinion) an entirely different genus. I'm more of a fan of the idea that Lizardfolk are descended from common reptiles and evolved much in the same way humans did from primates.
Had a player that was a really toxic person. Decided to play a Tiefling Monk. I made it very clear that Tieflings were not trusted in the setting I was running. Bartenders charged him more for drinks, a paladin essentially stopped and frisked him. He helped the Paladin and made the paladin realize not everything was black and white. However things got bad when he started antagonizing another party member. A young elf girl. Started a scene , trying to antagonize her in a store at one point and the elderly couple that ran the store threatened to call the guards on him for harassing the elven girl. Player had been calling her names, being sexist and racist. And yet he was surprised that the elderly couple that were very likely old and set in their ways Aidee with the you g elf and not the trifling that was verbally assaulting her nonstop. Player brought it up the next morning at 5 am on a phone call and ranted and demanded an apology from the elf in game, accused me of railroading, being biased, etc. Truth was none of the other players liked him anyway. And as a person he had already had two strikes on my three strike toxic individual policy. This ended up becoming the last strike. My life has been a lot better since that person is out of my life.
Maybe I'm misconstruing your intent for this video, but it feels like you missed the part where you address what was said in the title/ closing statement. This video is less "how to play without letting that trait define them" and more "here's how you will be defined by your monstrous traits." Personally, I expected you to give advice on how to expand on your character's culture, habits, etc. so that they'd be MORE than a cardboard cutout of a scary monster without any distinctive characteristics. You indirectly gave an example that an arachoakra who fights with their bare claws could be a gentleman when not in combat, but that just sounds like a repeat of the 'trap' mentioned at the start wherein people are essentially playing a human character in a costume rather than a person who is part of a monstrous race with its own culture, habits, etc. The claws thing could've been a good thing to expand on here. Rather than "the person is doing non-combat things out of combat," which applies to human characters as well, you could've described how the arachoakra uses those same claws to do something to help a bystander who either directly or indirectly (their belongings) were caught in the crossfire of the earlier fight. Maybe they help sow up a hole in their clothing and their thin claws help with work like this that requires precision. Maybe they dust off the person with their wings as they help them up. Heck, maybe it's the classic example of them grabbing something that got blown away. There are loads of ways to go about it but, honestly? Given your AMAZING track record thus far, this video felt a bit on the empty side.
That's just my 2 cents though, it's your video and you're free to do what you want in it. I just wanted to give a bit of constructive criticism since I hope to watch much more of your stuff in the future!
If someone asked me how to make a monstorous character without just being a human in a mask or just their whole gish i'd tell them this.
-Ask you DM what said monster race is like.
-Ask yourself how monstorous this character is, is it tribal or is it more civilised? Do they know that their kin isn't as trusted as other races?
-Write your character behaviour like it's a human.
-Look at the art of the race, does it have features of a prey type animal or features from a predatory animal? From there throw in something that they might struggle a little with such as "I'm a predator and the smell of fresh rabbit makes me drool" or "I'm uncomfortable around hunters, the have mistaken me for food before"
-Put it together and write a backstory.
Or i'll probably ask them "are they more like disney's Robin Hood or Beastar?" But that's just me i enjoy seeing if anthropomorphic or monstorous creatures act like i think they will based on how they look or what animal they are, i'm weird like that.
The only good argument I have heard of for banning a monstrous race, is that race dosn't exist in the dm's world.
Balance issues can be fixed by discussing with homebrew nerfs with your players.
*Warning - pointless rant about a most likely irrelevant subject ahead*
I honestly don't understand the whole thing with D&D races never being inherently evil.
I understand that it supposedly says something about real life race issues, but I don't think that the differences between a human and an orc are analogous to, say, white and black people.
It's more analogous to different dog breeds - are border collies more intelligent than pugs? Are beagles more affectionate than rottweilers? These aren't particularly controversial questions, because different breeds of dogs just act differently and we even know why.
It doesn't mean that a rottweiler can't be a snuggly baby or that a pug can't be taught anything - they definitely can. And an orc that is treated well can integrate into society, even if in the setting genetics and religion make them inherently aggressive and selfish. A drow can be an honest and honourable person, even if demonic corruption and millennia of harsh living has caused the race as a whole to become treacherous, manipulative slavers.
At the end of the day, it's about the setting and up to whoever is doing the worldbuilding. But I think that redoing the lore of established worlds so as to not echo an unrelated issue is just counterproductive.
If you're playing an Orc, be a crazy British stereotype I also suggest basically making them like the Orks from Warhammer 40k
Orcs are not a race. Elves are not a race. Bears are not a race. High elves are a race of elves. Brown bears are a race of bears. Orcs and dwarves are separate SPECIES in their worlds. Maybe elves, orcs and humans are all races of the same species because they can interbreed
I ain’t never seen a brown bear mate with a barn owl and I ain’t never seen a half orc-elf neither!
This is why WotC seem to be renaming “races” to “lineages”
Orcs aren't an oppressed irl minority. Pls stop
The bit about racial alignment feels out of place. Every other part of the video puts a strong emphasis on how D&D campaigns take place in fantasy worlds and how you need to talk with your DM about the setting, but as soon as racial alignment comes up we're supposed to interpret first edition orc stat blocks as some kind of concrete philosophical position to be opposed? Saying that racial alignment "teaches" that your race determines how you think is like saying that long rests "teach" that 8 hours of sleep will heal stab wounds. We all show up to the table with the understanding that this is make-believe. If someone reads that all orcs are evil and then tries to apply that line of thinking to a group of real life humans, then the problem is with that person, not the orcs.
The excuse that "exotic races cause no creativity" is as old as time. I cam be an orc, a goblin, a kobold and still create thousand of backstories not mattering that factor.
I created a fisherman orc whom was just a retired guard, a goblin who just liked to create explosives, a kobold who was actually a psychopath, not counting some homebrew races I brought to the DMs a mad gnoll desiring revenge for his slayin pack, becoming an adventurer to defeat adventurers, whom's madness became physical and gained form (Echo-knight).
An ogre who just loves to smash things but does not have the same thirst for blood as other ogres and wants to protect his comrades whom are just his new family.
A grung who has PTSD (yes, i created a grung who has PTSD).
A galeb-duhr who wants to be a stunt-rock and tell his mirabolant tales to his old Treant friend when he decides enough is enough (rock and roll dudes!).
A mimic who's a carpenter on the run.
Now tell me I have put their personality as the only meaning in their backstory. Maybe in 1 or 2 of them. The ogre and the gnoll to a certain extent but I didn't push their characters into I'm a monster and that is all.