My Aasimar Paladin's dump stat is Int so I made her a bit of a country bumpkin type, literally raised in a barn...however, she's naturally become the leader of the group (the Paladin curse!!!), so I play to her high Wisdom and Charisma with RP. She's not book-knowledgeable, but she gives sage advice and hella motivational speeches.
Yeah my Aasimar paladin/sorc is the same just, he is raised by his order but the few things he read are military strategy. He literally doesn't even have religion proficiency. Because yeah, he's more warrior than holy warrior. It evrn comes through in his class choice that his holy powers really are more his angelic blood than holyness of his actions. (Totally not because I wanted booming blade, shield and healing word xD) So he has a very typically military style of speaking. Is well liked by all sorts of rough folks that would normally stay as far away from a paladin as possible. Simply because he speaks their language. You'd think, pretty half-angel with long silver hair. Adamantine armor. He's going to be stuck up as hell until he starts swearing like a sailor, telling his tabaxi companion in graphic detail where he (the Tabaxi) can shove his tail if said Tabaxi whacks him over the head with the tail again xD And well he is a leader too. But mostly by charisma and experience (level 15. He just knows what he's doing at that point xD)
@OP That really is exactly how country people are down here in the south. They may not be able to write out mathematical equations on how our why something works, but give them a role of duct tape and an object to fix or improve, and by golly they are going to fix it better than it was before. Same with counseling and therapy. Some country folk don't have any kind of degree in counseling or whatever collages teach, but they will be more than happy to give sound advice and encouragement based on experience and traditions. Anybody can go to a school and learn things about any and all subject matter (Intelligence), but what really matters is street smarts and how to utilize those lessons (Wisdom).
The “My character asks..” or even just “I ask if…” is really good advice for literally everyone! Even DMs, sometimes you wanna cut to the chase and let the players imagine the npc said more fancy stuff. Though of course it depends who’s around the table
Yeah, we have this with one of our party, he's not as involved as in character roleplay as the rest of us and is kind of shy and introverted, well more so than the average D&D player already is lol, so we just allow him to tell us what his character wants to do or what his intention is and as the DM i'll pick up the slack in describing something awesome for him.
Im my current game te DM refuses to cut to the chase. EVERY interaction has to be role played out and its getting tiring on my end, not because i dont enjoy it, but because its dragging the game to a crawl when we only get 3 hours a week to play.
Definitely agree! i've recently wrapped new friend into dnd who is feeling a little embarrassed/insecure about the whole rping thing as he is new to ttrpgs. He confided in me after one session that he was super self-aware of the fact that the other players are roleplaying and he isnt, because he was just narrating what his character did. Had to explain that that was in fact roleplaying, and that if he listened carefully, the other pcs were also narrating their characters actions. They were just also speaking in their characters voice.
For sure is a good one! Been telling that to my friends that are playing for the first time as well. It's not important how you say what your character does, as long as you imagine what your character would do in that moment! Have noticed it time and time again that people start doing the voices along the way if the party is accepting of the baby steps at the beginning.
There's a lot of stuff that a character in the world would know how to ask about, that I as a citizen of the real world don't know how to approach naturally, I love any DM that lets me short cut that by just saying "My character asks the magic sword seller if any of them are +2" even better if they help me fill in those gaps in some way.
Probably one of the most creative character backstories I have seen was a Tabaxi assassin who had been hired to kill the party for a variety of reasons, but was absolutely incompetent about it and kept doing things like giving them hot chocolate, because in that game chocolate made Tabaxis sick. However, the party just took their murder attempts as the character being very helpful and friendly, and eventually the character became attached to the party members.
I unfortunately fell under the ‘bad backstory’ category with a recent character. He was a lizardfolk bard and we are playing in Storm King’s Thunder. His reason for going out was because all of giants thumping around and causing mayhem was interrupting his creating new music and so thought it would be funny for him to want them to shut up so he can get back to work. Basically he was a Dnd version of your typical ‘noise complaint’ neighbour. Unfortunately his personality was bland, just being ‘I like music’ and thats as far I got with his backstory. Both me and my DM struggled to give him a goal that wasn’t just the what the end of the campaign results in, so I retired him and am now playing a Goblin Rogue that I enjoy a hell of alot more
I did a lizardfolk bard too! She was one of my favorites because as a lizardfolk she didn't "understand" art or music, but she knew that musicians could make money playing music. So she made a pair of maracas out of the bones of fallen enemies and went around screaming very literal songs about how townsfolk should give her food.
That's absolutely something you can work with. Flesh him out over time and REALLY play to his love for music. If the giants really make hearing difficult or just disrupt every harmony, go for it. Just while playing to his love for music don't forget a character is meant to be a person
I dnt see the need to have a goal for adventuring outside of adventure itself or the need to have a back story. The man with no name is one of the greatest film characters of all time and he has exactly zero back story. No name, no history, no motivations, no past etc etc etc and he is better for it. It's like this aspect of a character or the game is ignored and we have a bunch of back story police out there.
When creating backstories i usually focus on the 3 W's: 1. Where did my character come from? 2.Where did he learn the skills, he has at the start of the campaign? 3.Why did he start adventuring? So far this checklist has given me rather simple results, and great potentials for my DM's to take something from my backstory and expand from it
My most recent character has a backstory of always wanting to be a monster hunter. But when he finally become adult and saw just how corrupt the guild was he left and decided to a hero on his own, slowly growing attached to other adventurers
The Locked in Fallacy segment is excellent! I did that with a recent DM of mine and it can really refresh your ideas and excitement for the game when you change your play style. Had my Thief Goblin discover an abandoned lab and blueprints for a “Booyahg Bazooka.” After a session I had to miss, he returns as an Artillerist, losing his stealth specialty as he’s a little bit too trigger happy with his new toy.
I will add this as a one of the mistakes some people make (even though it's a not about the characters): *Don't hesitate to leave a game / leave a group of players. Your well-being comes before anyone's game of DnD* If anything in your group makes you feel uncomfortable, be it the game itself or how the actual people behave, if you feel like you're always forced to do things a certain way even though you showed that it wasn't okay for you, if you feel like they don't care about your input, if you can feel that things are building up to be awful because of IRL drama or because one of the people from the group clearly has some issues, anything like that - do speak about it. *If they don't care or don't actually do anything about it, don't EVER hesitate to leave the group.* I know some people don't do it because they're either invested in their characters or they don't like to ever put themselves in awkward situations even to a fault, and I'm socially anxious myself so I know it's often easier said than done, but you really need to try and learn to say "No" and to leave. People who don't dare to say "I'm out" when a game or a group is awful leads to these nightmare stories you can find all over Reddit or TH-cam, where the person ends up in a spiral of even more terrible social situations, or even actual abuse. You should try to recognize these situations early and nip that in the bud. Ofc like I said earlier, do try to talk about it first. A lot of the time people don't realize they're behaving a certain way, and will actually do something about it when told. In my personal experience the vast majority of TTRPG player are good people. But there will always be the occasional garbage...
I like for some of my "evil" characters is to have them convinced that they're using the party to benefit them and that the party is helping them to gain the power to conquest and they're only being nice to manipulate the party but after long enough it ends up that they forget that they had a reason for being with the party and instead just genuinely enjoy going on quests with everyone and want to still take over the realm but take over with their new friends
I love RPing and have RPed before picking up DnD for multiple years and enjoy roleplaying as a part of DnD. But most of my party doesn't RP very often, and that's fine. There are often times when there's a great opportunity to RP, and not only do I ask the DM if it's okay, but I also ask the players. Different people and different tables are okay/comfortable with different things. Ask the table. They'll be accommodating both if you're feeling scared and if you're really into roleplay.
About roleplay i saw a video (from ginny di i think it was) Where if your players dont roleplay a lot you could try to encourage them. I got lucky with mine they already roleplay a lot. Sometimes too much (in battle i cut them off to give the the time pressure of a fight)
My current character is the eldest child. Got tired of babysitting her younger brothers during her teenage years. Became a ranger for some damn peace and quiet. Youngest brother decided to leave one day and joined a troupe of bards. Parents and other brothers are concerned because he hasn't written in a while. My character has been looking for him for a couple of years now because she's the only one in her family with any skills related to tracking someone, and she was following leads about an half-orc bardlock that may be her little shit of a brother when she got entangled with her current party. And now she has to babysit THESE CHAOTIC IDIOTS TOO. Didn't even need to make it super dramatic. Her parents are alive and happily married. Her 3 other brothers got their shit together in adulthood. It's only the youngest one who's being troublesome now.
Letting it all hang out today. Bravo. Playing a 3 sentence backstory (where you are not the king or queen of something) is really liberating. You focus on playing your character and creating cool stories that you actually did.
Frodo: I'm a former adventurer's nephew. He gave me his house and his magic ring just before he went AWOL on his birthday. Sam: I'm his friend and gardener.
I had a dragonborn Paladin Oath of Conquest Whos god told him to go out and gain more power to show his devotion. It started with wanting to fight everything then turned into wanting to protect everyone since true power comes from the people around him and he cant do everything alone. He was really fun and rewarding to play.
Bro, that's so cliché but still so good. I don't know why i never thought of this. It makes me actually want to play a paladin instead of making a Sorcadin with just a dip in Paladin
@@Zelrin04 paladin can use other booster dips than just sorcerer. take 5 levels in warlock, as a different approach the god is giving to granting power
@@mattcurnell2545 Yes, i know that. I meant that i don't particularly like Paladin as a class because i can't think outside the stereotypical self-righteous white knight, and that this guy's comment opened up some paths i could take to enjoy the class. The sorcadin mention was just an example.
@@Zelrin04 Well i am new to DnD so i after i decided to go paladin i found the Oath of Conquest and the Build from RPG Bot. It dips just two Level into warlock for form of dread and goes for the Level 18 capstone from the paladin. I cant wait to get to higher levels with that besides character development ;)
On the note of communicating plans with the DM, I have an example of this. Even something as simple as an individual spell you plan to take on your next levelup as a Wizard, not even for a combo. My Wizard was planning to take the spell "Summon Draconic Spirit", but it has a material requirement that a Spell Focus doesn't remove; an item worth at least 500 gold with the image of a dragon on it. So, I turned it into an RP moment whenever we went shopping, with my character looking for something suitable in various shops, merely commenting that it was for "something I've been working on." Eventually he found a bracelet with a dragon engraved on it, and he turned to the party's coinkeeper (a cleric of a Goddess of Commerce in a custom pantheon) for the funds needed to make the purchase. When he finally got it, it went unused for a little while, until our most recent session, when I finally got a good chance to use the spell... against an Adult Red Dragon. Between that, talking to it in Draconic before the fight, and surviving a full round of melee attacks (though damn did it hurt), I like to think I impressed and irritated that dragon in equal measure. ...I'd say "left an impact", but our Ranger with their renamed version of Critical Role's "Bad News" did that a touch more literally. Though they have very limited ammo, so they only bust it out for special occasions, usually preferring their magic Shortbow. But because I did tell the DM that I would be taking that spell, and made a little mini-sub-plot about Donovan shopping for the material requirement, he was able to have the Draconic Spirit ready for when I did eventually use the spell.
Hey, uhh so half ork Barbarian, muti class druid so bears, and other wild animals you tame, lead an army of savage wild companions and hurle badgers at your foes from afar, (side note uhh the alignment of your nature is very sensitive to this character, as half ork barbs tend to get evil. And druid says no. )
I like keeping my backstory to occupation/social role, family/friends/associates, some personality traits, patron info (I love playing warlocks), and something that sets them out on their adventure. I like giving my DM stuff to work with and leave myself a way to talk with my companions, but still leave it open ended enough that it can adjust within the campaign.
I would note with the idea of a "Stupid Wizard" and more generally the idea of "NEEDING" to play your ability scores somewhat straight... I'd argue a lot of that would have to do with the differences between Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. As a somewhat famous tumblr thread described. Intelligence is knowing a tomato is a fruit, while Wisdom is knowing that you shouldn't put a tomato in a fruit salad... and Charisma is being able to sell someone a tomato based fruit salad.
Speaking on the part of feeling locked into your class and playstyle, I had a neat idea, although I think it might be an obvious one to more seasoned D&D players, for a change in my monk character. Their backstory revolved around multi-classing from Drunk Monk and Knowledge Cleric as she rebelled against her culture of sticking to one discipline. She drank as a means of coping with familial issues and dissent about splitting her responsibilities of martial arts and clergy. Throughout the campaign she becoming friends with the party, and they helped her face her family and their people's traditions to grow as a person, and showed that you can combine martial arts and healing miracles in one, becoming the "first" Way of Mercy Monk in the campaign.
Awesome vid with very good advice :) Glad you mentioned the background, I even helped my players to get a reason to be together at the start of a campaign (such as the shipwreck survivor being saved by another, already more trust there). Just wanna add a lil thing to roleplay: Same goes for DM's, you dont have to do voices and such, saying "... he said with a sinister voice, squinting his right eye" can have the same or better effects then trying to mimic it.
This is one thing I get frustrated with. We were all new players, except my partner the DM & I had played a few games before, and watched D&D be played. Anyhow our mistake in the beginning was that we kept all our characters secret from each other. We made it so that everyone met up & eventually found out things about each other. But now one of my friends thinks that she needs to continue to keep everything about her character as a secret. Stats, how much HP she has, stuff like that... I get backstory being secret but the traits and stuff, that's ok to share lol. But I have mentioned that in the next campaign that we all start again from scratch, we should instead plan it so one or two of us knows each other. Or help build each other's characters so that they fit together. I am trying to explain that in games like D20 and Critical Role they actually do know each other's characters and know the majority of the details about them... Except for hidden back stories or perhaps the class/Race they want everyone to know about them - but whether it's a decoy like with a Changeling for instance, that part is secret. So you can still build parts of it together & work on it together. But still keep things hidden. It frustrates the hell out of me as I don't want to create my character and find out that the other person is the exact same. Technically I don't think this would happen because the DM would talk to us and let us know... But it also creates more of a fun thing to discuss this stuff about with certain things or sell advice if you are stuck with something about your character. There's only so much you can build with the DM. But there other aspects that are better if you build your character with your group of players. Or at least work together on parts of it.
About the last one: It is sometimes ok to brew crazy ideas with the party, like helping the artificer make a tank to surprise the dm, but only if 1) the dm knows you will sometimes do stupid shit like that and 2) IS OK WITH IT. In session zero, always check if shenanigans like that are ok and ok to be secret
One dungeon crawl I had scouted ahead of the party a bit and found a hallway packed with gnolls. I asked the DM if I could cast wall of fire down the hallway. After a few seconds of clarification he congratulated me on my first war crime , "inventing" the spell "Hall of Fire". No need to roll damage; there will be no bodies after the spell ends.
Last point is key. There are a lot of rules/class features/spells that may not necessarily work in the way you imagine or may simply be open to interpretation. By discussing with your DM what you're intent with your character is ahead of time the two of you can iron out any misunderstandings and work to better bring your ideas to life.
This whole video was basically telling you to just be a normal person. Not a fucking weirdo. Can't believe some people actually need to hear these tips
My main character has been going for like 4(?) years now. Life Domain cleric following Boldrei. Started off leaving his home (Mark of Healing) to heal lesser off people. It was a pretty short and simple backstory that has exploded into a pretty complicated character, and has had multiple moments of small shifts, as he went from an idealist to well still an idealist, but one who better understands the world around him and what it means to protect a community and those you love. He's also had the chances to fail and succeed. Definitely grown quite a lot through the campaign.
I’m running a neutral evil gnoll Bloodrager and his backstory was that his pack had captured a cleric and a wizard and he freed them after getting a promise to teach him magic out of the wizard. He got into adventuring when he realized that he’d mostly be doing the same stuff as usual just shifting who he went after. I play him as a very practical person.
I would add one more bit to the backstory part. It needs to build connections between your character and the world. Your character should have npcs they care about. This is something the new version of VTM does really well in their touchstone system.
That's a really good point and a good idea! And as you play, your group companions and how your character feels about them, so that you could potentially start off as untrusting or hating one or all of them, say you are stuck with them for whatever job. And then you get to know them and your opinions/relationships change as your character grows. 😊
I was thinking the same thing, he left out a HUGE part of a backstory. Your backstory should give the dm and even your fellow players stuff to latch onto so they can build connections between your character and theirs.
A good backstory needs at least a couple of plot hooks the GM can catch to create a narrative arc your character would feel and you would enjoy, and some daggers the GM can pick up to hurt your PC and make the plot personal to them. Otherwise it's just begging to be a spectator in somebody else's personal story. Some other good stuff that a backstory should include is a couple or more NPCs that your PC already knows and that can be more or less key in some situations. The GM can embroider them into the setting, so your PC feels part of the starting place, and not a nobody just dropped into an unknown world.
I really like the idea of normalizing the "Stats determine success, not character design" mentality. I play a half-orc barbarian with INT as a dump stat, but I play her more as a seasoned merc with years of combat and tactical experience. Some of my party tried throwing around the "dumb barbarian" jokes at first (one of the party played theirs like that in the past which is fine) but it stopped pretty quick when they realized she's smart enough to actually evenly distribute gold and make tactical decisions that are less suicidal than our wizard.
People think that -1 INT is the same as being the dumbest person ever, because that's the minimum a character can have in most cases. But in reality a -1 is, like... that one guy that never memorized when WW1 started or that still counting in their hands to multiply some times. AKA a lot of the people in the world. Would go as far as saying that a 8INT is the base for the IRL humans, and most people just seem more capable because of Proficiency Bonus aplied to their speciality skill (like... say... A INT8 scientist that has Expertise in Nature, or a Historian with expertise in... History).
My general rule is that your character probably knows thier core skill set. A low int/cha barb I run knows a lot about fighting and performance because he's a gladiator. He can't identify a spell pointed at his head, but he knows his buisness because that's how he gets by
was half expecting "building in secret" was going to be about the players keeping their characters secret from eachother. obviously in everyone wants their characters to be a big reveal session 1 they can be. but it can also be fun to make characters together and establish friendships between some characters beforehand.
One mistake I personally experienced not in build, but in execution: Have Polearm Master/Sentinel combo. Go Bugbear for +5 melee reach and use a Glaive for 15 ft total melee reach. Rush into battle such that enemies never approach you to trigger the attack of opportunity needed to trigger the combo, because your melee reach is insane and it’s tactically disadvantageous to NOT wade into the thick of battle. Why? Because the other party members rush in to attack the enemies, and the enemies just attack them because they are closer. Also, you find out VERY quickly that your reaction is a PRECIOUS resource. Putting yourself in a situation where your reaction is GUARANTEED to trigger… means you don’t have a reaction for some other important tactic or ability. It means you can’t use your awesome combo on every enemy until it’s your next turn, where the enemies have already settled into their positions for the core of combat and no longer move (thus not triggering your precious attack of opportunity). It means your awesome combo is only sorta useful at the start of combat, not at other phases, and you end up saving it ONLY for moments that maximize its usefulness (usually set up by the DM taking pity on you that you built a specific combo only to discover that actually using it plain sucks. Yes I speak from experience 🤣). So even “meta” combos can be character build traps for new players.
My advice for new players trying to come up with a character: 1 ) NO SELF-INSERTION! Anytime I have *ever* encountered someone trying to play a character 'based on themselves' it has *ALWAYS* been a complete disaster. Such players are so heavily invested in their characters that they easily perceive anything from party conflicts to a single bad roll as a personal attack against them. Playing D&D (especially if they try to actually play the role) is a chance to walk in *someone else's* shoes. At least for their first character, prompt them with "What's something you've dreamed of doing but know you'd never actually be good at?" 2 ) The DGR Rule - the "Darned Good Reason." In a world where 99.44% of your character's peers are simple farmers, shopkeepers, tavern wenches, or what have you, what has driven your character to become an adventurer? Maybe they're just really good at one particular skill and have become addicted to finding greater challenges? (Stealing from the locals is just too easy - stealing a sacred object from a fanatical cult right from under the leaders nose? *That's* a challenge worthy of your skills!) 3 ) Embrace your character's flaws and weaknesses. While some players *REALLY* cringe at rolling single-digit stats, they're a wonderful opportunity to have some fun! A character with low Charisma may just be incredibly blunt and/or honest; a character with low Dexterity could be clumsy, or maybe they're just tough enough they don't need to dodge an attack. The above not only encourages actual roleplay, but provides inspiration for fun little character quirks to make sessions worlds more fun for everyone! One of my favorite characters is a half-giant barbarian with really low Intelligence - most often uses names (instead of pronouns) and "only know words of two story" (can't say "syllables" because it has more than two syllables). He's infatuated by "sparklies" and one time attacked a merchant who tried to give him fair value for an enchanted axe he wanted to exchange for a cheap bauble.
Note on the locked in thing: you really need to get the DM on board for this since it is 100% circumventing the actual rules for what you want to do. If the other players aren’t expecting it and the dm has no clue and you show up with your barbarian as a wizard now we’ll yeah that’s definitely gonna be an issue And for the ability score one: it’s an opinion but your ability scored should definitely inform your role play. There’s ways to have a ditzy but still extremely intelligent wizard or a really shy high Cha character but that’s more from multiple ways the abilities can look
Yeah, intelligence doesn't mean they're not an idiot, just that they know a lot. I would especially add that this applies to physical scores to (low dex as clumsy, low Con as being frail or sickly etc)
@@isitnotwrittenthat1680 I just go with low wisdom to make the character an idiot. He knows shit, but definitely an idiot when it comes to interactions and applying what he knows
@@isitnotwrittenthat1680 I think the thing here is that mental stats are a lot closer to your character's personality than physical stats, and for instance being smart or dumb have so many different interpretations and reasons behind them. Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma all play into how smart someone is. But all stats have wiggle room even if you're trying to roleplay within the stat definitions. High Strength means you're strong. That's a fairly clear definition, but can express itself in different ways. Dexterity is less clear and is usually split up into speed and manual dexterity. Constitution can mean a few things, since someone who's obese can be seen as being on either end. Low endurance and not very fit, but very resilient to damage. On the mental side, Charisma can be both physical beauty and social intelligence. Or just one side of them. Intelligence is as mentioned split up into knowledge and reasoning, but those are still very broad categories. Wisdom is probably the oddest one, since it's both about actual wisdom, but also about perception, so there's a lot you can do with those. In the end, it depends on how you view your character. The stats are all abstractions and extremely simplified. People and characters are usually not quite that simple.
my most recent character is a gnome cleric who is a mercenary looking for work when he stumbles upon the party being attacked by undead and decides to help
Just found this channel and I’m sold! I’m a new player who hasn’t found a group yet. Online or in person. That tip about role playing was great! Dimension 20 is how I learned the rules but it’s nice being reminded that they are entertainers first. And that’s not cut job when I play.
I unfortunately don't have a group to play with:( However, I have created 6 different characters. None of them have the stereotypical "Dead Family/Tragedy" backstory, they all actually have at least 1 sibling alive & both parents alive, they all have reasons for adventuring, and they each have 2 pages of backstory minimum. My favorite character is a Drow Death Domain Cleric sworn to the Raven Queen with Feylost background & she has 5 pages of backstory (though most of the first page is actually more about her parents, BUT it's necessary to then give an explanation for being on the surface).
The commitment to the ad though 😂 I had to send this video to my group, featuring a real life chef who wants to eat all the foods whose actual name is Charles
8:59 With the most recent character I created, I was DMing the DM (my brother-in-law) frequently and when I did decide on what to do, I handed him my sheet and asked what he thought. The character before that the DM (best friend of my brother-in-law) had to figure out how to bring my character into an already started campaign. With another campaign (not DnD) I worked with the DM (my sister that time), to figure out how to handle my middle class Naga assassin lack of arms and also how to deal with the fact that she had a day job.
2:55 Once a player of mine had decided to play a psionicist in 3.5e, but they realized they weren't having fun and they were better at playing active combatants at the table, so he came up to me and said that he wanted to have a go at a soulknife character; so I came up with a plot and arranged it with him to have another version of his character that *_was_* a soulknife do a switcheroo with his psionicist, so that the two Spheres on the Material Plane would both benefit from their distinct talents, which all tied to earlier incidents in the campaign. The other characters also got keyed in to the whole ordeal as well a short while prior, but I left it as a surprise for the table, and it was a smashing success. Still proud of that decision.
First, I love your posts. I have been playing D&D since it's publication in 1974, and this is one of the few channels I follow. Please keep up the Great work. I love your enthusiasm! It seems the proper spirit to explore a fantasy world with, or why bother :) SO, many thanks! Btw, what background were you using for this (with what looks like a glowing orrery in the back). I'd love to use this for a teams, etc, background.)
I mean, I think that it's always better to leave most of your backstory blank, like names of places and people's and the things they tell you, if you can. Obviously you can't always but I think it's great. I had an elven Smith character who travelled the world finding rare materials to make magic items with. His goals changed as he found himself feeling weak and unable to feel safe, eventually making items that bind people and steals souls for power, slowly becoming more and more selfish while lying through his teeth to his party.
I do have another tip for players, and it’s also have some sort of story aspect involved in your backstory. Currently, I am playing a reborn Horizon Walker Ranger who was encased in stone for 700 years. Whenever I make a history check and use the “knowledge from a past life” feature reborns get, what DM will give me a memory from 700 years ago about my past. The memories told me what ancient deities my people worshipped and also memories of my home town. In a different campaign, one of my friends played a monk who ran away from his families criminal empire and joined a temple full of other monks, clerics, and paladins. The party eventually helped him overthrow his families empire and free a city. Sometimes, having these aspects in a backstory can be super fun for role play and game play purposes.
I recently had a pre-session talk with all the folks in my Tuesday game about my 6th level warlock spell choice and we started talking about the Investures spells and it dawned on me that by using the spell i gain fire immunity since my character has fire resistance normally due to race, and i have a legendary red dragon mask which i made thru my adventures and it has the unique ability to grant me immunity or if i have immunity 50% absorption effect when taking fire damage. This caught my DM off guard as both myself and another party member already have fire immunity. I can see how Magic Items, Spells, and Class Combos can throw a DM for a twist and agree its something you should talk to your DM about so they are aware of this potential effect. As of now I'm actually looking at a different spell as I am focusing on going down a path of my character arch that intrigues me and i don't see needing the fire absorption effect.
My group does rp like this, if you do a deception or persuasion check, you can choose to do it in 3rd person, doing a normal check, OR you can rp it, and if you do a really good job at it we give you advantage, which means it's optional, but fun to try and branch out and sometimes rewarding if you feel your ready for it
#5 is something I run into all the time on both sides of the screen. There are a lot of builds and character archetypes I've seen, or put together that pretty much require DM cooperation in order to achieve. As example if you want roleplay Joan of Arc or something and lead a squad of NPC followers, that kind of requires the DM to A: Be on board and B: allow you chances to acquire NPC followers. Just siting with that in your back pocket, hoping your DM will happen to bring up that scenario is going to be less fun on all sides.
Awesome video, this is one of my favorite videos of yours yet. Totally applicable information and fantastically encouraging to new and seasoned players alike.
Yeah, the other thing about #5 is that sometimes there is a misunderstanding or some wiggle room in interpretation on how certain features would interact; if you tell your plan for your build ahead of time, they can go over whether or not it would even work with you. I play an Illusionist Wizard in my main campaign, and I've had to hash out how certain edge cases for my illusions/Illusory Reality/etc. would work out of game with my DM a bunch over the course of the three years we've been playing. [But it's also let him set me up to do some crazy stuff with Mirage Arcane a couple times.]
My current Half Orc took to the roads as a merc to try and find his mother who was taken when he was out hunting with her. It left him horribly scarred and so I took the Haunted one background along with it.
9:00 For an example of just how important that is: this is literally how you design new spells for the game. You approach your DM and tell them: here's an idea I have for a new spell I want my character to research; I'd like your feedback on it, see if we can make it work. And you are supposed to give this to your DM *_OUTSIDE_* gaming hours, so they don't have to veto your obnoxious INSTAKILLEVERYTHING spell in front of everybody, nor have to consider whether it is actually an amazing idea because of a built-in set of restrictions, or have to balance it.
4:22 this one is always a lot of fun. I'm currently playing a warforged cleric that has negative charisma. However I still play the character as someone who is very well spoken, kind of posh, charismatic person. The way ive spun it is that his personality is very charismatic, but as a warforged he lacks any facial expressions, hence why he isn't good at talking to people.
With one of my characters i made a huge backstory with a family tree, but that last part was only there to explain how a tiefling bronze draconic bloodline sorceror was descended from an evil red dragon
My favorite characters grow organically. Most recent is a halfling bard. He is adventuring because he wants to tell great tales of the big fighter in the group. Thats it. He has now become a friend to dragons, found his parents killer (yeah dead parents, but had an aunt that took care if him, so not a street rat), and owns an Airship, all while telling the most amazing stories that he has experienced first hand. He's great. Thank you, Garrett Goodbarrel, for being a cool character.
5:09 I've come up with many systems over the decades of me playing D&D to try and marry the forces of RP and Crunch together for maximum immersion and help facilitate people feeling comfortable playing characters that exist outside of their stat blocks. One of my favorites by far is my Free Form Class Competency System. Im sure plenty of other DMs have come up with something similar. I completely change the way people acquire advantage and couple that with each class now granting advantage in its own way for different things based on your level or Stat Bonus. So essentially under this system, you can have a 16 str 10 int wizard, and you can still play that character from level 1 to 20, and not feel the completely and utterly overwhelming sense that you got punished for wanting to make a really unique character. Spitting in the face of god for the sake of bringing your character to life, is encouraged here. lol.
One of my players didn't like the character he was playing so I let him completely swap out characters. You said a player could have a character go on vacation temporarily, but you can also just full on replace your character if you want.
I want to say one thing about keeping things hidden from your DM is that it also can lead to you just not getting to do the thing you wanted to. In a game I was in a player got this really cool sword (that it was quite obvious the DM intended to be used by my character) that he had to jump through hoops to even use. He did something that made the sword (it was sentient) not want him to use her anymore and could not wield it from that point forward. Though the other party member did something that made it seem like it was his fault but that's a whole other can of worms. This made him not want to play the game anymore and just told us to play without him. Turns out he spent many hours researching every possible route he could go down and had an 80 page documenting planing out what he wanted to do with his character all based around using the sword he felt awful and that all his work went down the drain because he couldn't use it anymore. However, the thing is he didn't share this 80 page document with anyone. The DM only learned about it from me who learned about it a little more than half a year after everything had already happened. If he just simply told the DM about this it's very likely that he'd still be able to wield the sword
on point four, I notice that forcing RP can sometimes backfire as players feel pressured to roleplay every single little thing. if this is what your party wants, then go for it. but if it's stemming from a forced obligation to roleplay, then there's no reason to suffer through it.
The example for building in secret is super good. I have practically the same story: we were going to play oneshot and I had a character "on a shelf" that I wanted to play with. It's bladesinder sword's bard, and the idea is using mobile flourish on a booming bladed target. Mechanically speaking (raw) I need 9 lvl character to be able to actually do that but the oneshot we're playing is gonna be for 5lvl. So I told about the combo to the DM and he just said - ok, do the thing. It was cool and super great oneshot, and one of the reason was exactly because I said about my idea beforehand
I agree with giving your characters breaks sometimes. like me and my dm will come up with some narrative reason to have my character step away so I can try someone new, if my new character dies or I miss my old one, we’ll have a reason to bring him back.
The ASI segment is something I wish more people would understand. I have a character with 4 intelligence, because he hasn't been in society his entire life, and has no knowledge of next to anything. But he isn't "dumb". He just doesn't know much information, so being bad at knowledge checks makes sense.
Then you're failing to play the character as it appears on the sheet. Int 4 is two points smarter than a dog, your character is functionally incapable, severely mentally disabled, less cognitively competent than a seven year old child. If you're playing them as 'not dumb' then I'm really sorry, but you're not playing the stats of your character. Your stats are how you interact with the game world, they are your window onto reality, playing your stats is essential to the consistency and verisimilitude of the game world. Play your stats. It really helps make the world a more consistent and rewarding place if the numbers actually mean things?
On that last one, I've had a player completely break several of my encounters and every time it was with something that he's run by me first. As the DM I'm the party's first fan and I've always told them to ask me ahead of time if I'll allow something so that they have time to think about it before the session. I've even given them several pointers such as pointing out to the fighter which maneuvers work with ranged weapons and reminding the cleric that they can use channel divinity to recover spell slots. This is how we ended up with a shadow sorcerer rogue with shadow blade (the spell is compatible with sneak attack and those sorcerers can see through their own darkness spells which you can carry with you by casting it on an item). Talk with your DMs. You'd be surprised.
An additional point about secret building - it was touched on, but the idea that the DM might ban the idea could come from a place of reason, as well, not just anger. For example, if you spend all your time building this amazing 420 combo and arrive at the session to use it without telling the DM, you might find that the DM points at a flaw in your combo and says "this doesn't work because " and you'll have wasted all that time for little or no gain. Just because you heard about the combo on someone's reddit thread or TH-cam video doesn't mean it's necessarily valid or fits the rules of the campaign, or even the core rulebook.
The stats myth part of the video really brings out how I love to play! I play for the game experience and encounters and not a super strategy person that hyper focuses on the PERFECT modifi and stats :/ and the role play part of the video speaks to me too! I started to play dnd outside my mother tongue language which is (SWE) to (Eng) and truthfully I don't know every single English word what it means or how to have a accent in English and I feel like I was shamed a lot for not "Role playing with a voice" or engaging enough all the time... but now I do have better dnd party and new friends to play with who doesn't shame me for how i like to play and i can be myself around them ❤😊
Azir, my eldritch knight fighter was emotionally stunted after all the tragedy in his life. He couldn't really talk about/to the party about things outside of business but he made sure they were fed. He would make breakfast and dinner for them while showing off some flair from his homelands (egyptian-esque), trying to provide healthy but varied meals. His food was showing he cared even if he couldn't say it.
The walking bladder. This magic item allows you to use the gust of wind cantrip to apply INT on strength checks as a ritual. Its three small bladders with nozzles that magically can only be inflated or deflated with the cantrip.
1:05 only one of my characters have a tragic backstory so soon in their life. Vondal get banned from his clan after having joint his friends. Grutok loose his tribe and now track them down. Tes just come with her friends but don’t know anything of her tribe’s fate. Patrin have a normal life as an entertainer for his clan while Mark never have a more complex backstory than being held as a prisoner for making free potions for them. Muted is the only who had a tragic childhood. And he don’t care about it. Because his goal is to survive, so adventurers=easy food. Basically if they have a tragic backstory, they don’t give anything about it.
My group was doing a one-shot, and I told the DM that I wanted to make a Snake character. We homebrewed a sleep gun and I had a barrel to hide in. It was one of the funniest one-shots that I've done
For Background, I like to just have a short story of a mini adventure not huge, a paragraph or two is enough to set up who they are and display their initial motivations. I like to throw in a couple of open hooks that the DM can at their option grab and run with in our campaigns, but are not intrinsic in the campaign. A mysterious stranger you don't expect to see again. Some trivial item you stole just prior to the campaign. If they are never mentioned again, it doesn't impact your character development, if the DM doesn't pick up on them, but adds just a bit of flavour to the campaign.
I've had the last one come up kinda in reverse before, we had this one DM who felt like he had to try and "win" the DnD game. He would always have these way over elaborate traps so when the rogue tried to disarm them they may succeed with the first trap, but that was the trigger for traps 2-8. We did start hiding things we were planning, he was also bad at remembering things he'd given us and would occasionally accuse us of adding things to our inventories so we could, and these are his words, beat him.
I actually really enjoy more fleshed-out and longer backstories so I can use the stories and characters from the past during the game and include it heavily in the plot! But the beauty of the game lies in everyone being allowed to play exactly the way they want! So both simple and elaborate backstories are great!
Agreed! So long as your DM is okay with it, go wild. So long as your character has a purpose for adventuring and your backstory doesn't involve you being super powerful but you're only starting the campaign at level 1...that'd make no sense.
I intentionally keep things vague in my character backstories so the DM can put whatever he or she wants in and it’ll be a neat surprise for me when we get to it in the game
I have a character in the wings who is just waiting for the campaign she is in to start. She is going from a street urchin to an adventurer of necessity trying to survive. She encounters a vampire, and they fall in love, and now she is apart of a noble house that she didn’t know existed. She is known in the hierarchy of the kingdom now, but wants to go off and be an adventurer not of necessity, but to explore the world and make a name of her own that isn’t tied to the family she married into
Haven't even watched the rest yet, but #5 alone makes me love this. 1000x yes, if you don't have an in-character reason to adventure with the party, you're doing a group game wrong.
When it comes to not being locked in, one of the coolest things that any of my DMs did was to facilitate our not being locked eternally into these characters until death or even leaving the story. We had played for roughly two years and most of us had been playing the same character essentially the whole time (there was a near party wipe VERY early on). But we had risen up in acclaim and helped out some big name nobles. Eventually shit went down and in the wake of it all we were made the head of a new organization that was created to essentially do what we had been doing the whole time, plus a little more. Which is already cool and fine and dandy, but what made it extra awesome was that because we were the head of this new organization, we needed new hires. New hires who were supposed to help us toward our main goal. We each got to create several new characters who would be sent out on one-shots or mini campaigns to go grab an item or search for intel that was all relevant to the main story that our main characters were the focus of. So we the players got to taste more than just the one class/build we had been playing for the past two years but we also got to keep the main story that we were so lovingly involved in moving forward at the same time. It was truly a brilliant move and one that I have even implemented myself in my world when I DM.
On the topic of working with the GM on your character progression, build, and abilities: My party all has some special homebrew items that grow with our characters. My Fighter is not getting an upgrade to his magic lightning sword, a +1 longsword with an option to deal 1d8 extra damage up to 4 times (proficiency bonus) per dawn. GM says I deal too much damage and that a pure Fighter build is OP. We just hit LVL 11. All I really wanted was to use up one of the charges (of which there are only 4) to temporarily turn it into a great sword so I can take the Great Weapon Master feat at LVL 12, so that way I have options on if I want to use a shield and be tanky, or use a great sword and deal high damage. Especially since we're going to be fighting demigods and one actual god-level entity shortly within the next four levels or so before the GM wants to end the game. Sometimes the GM doesn't want to play ball on what kinds of builds you're making, even the inefficient ones. Sometimes you have to surprise them with it because otherwise they're going to sit in a comfortable space of throwing low level enemies at the party over and over again and stagnate the game. This forces them to come up with challenges that the players can actually work on before they're hit with things that will potentially one-shot every member of the party... Which already happened, actually. We fought a gang of random bandits, barely anyone took damage, then next thing we know we're taking on a high level homebrew beast that would have killed my Fighter in one hit if I didn't roll so lucky. GM had to throw a MacGuffin character in to save the party.
Regarding your “building in secret” portion: it depends on dm. I have a dm who will actively change encounters if the players create a plan to win efficiently. So, if the party accepts a quest to deal with a hydra and a player comes up with the creative plan to try to bait the chaotic hydra heads into attacking each other using the dodge action and acrobatics checks, but they specify this plan in character or talk with the other players/dm out of character, instead of saying “you can try, that sounds cool” he changed it to be an undead hydra being mind controlled by some npc we never ran into where all the heads attacked at once, and none of them were chaotic like a typical hydra. It ruined the fun for said player, but the gm couldn’t handle the idea of a player creatively beating an encounter without just using some stat-stick. So yea, some gm’s will literally change the encounter or cheat partway through so that intuitive plans fail and can’t be trusted to know your next move
Building in Secret: This is a good point. I had a PC do this once and the PC didn't realize that his combo broke the rules until he tried to pull it off. So when I told him that it broke the rules, the PC became very unhappy. Sometimes DMs interpret rules differently as well, particular darkvision / dim light mechanics.
I think another good thing to mention is when players think they cannot have a high stat in smth bc it isn't the norm. Like if you want to have a high INT Barbarian, keeping high strength and con as well, go for it. My current wizard has his 2nd highest stat in Strength and it is so much fun being able to be the muscle of the party.
Have you ever heard of The Muscle Wizaard? He's a pro-wrestler with a wizard theme. "Special Move: You Shall Not PASS!" Also a good reason to say "I cast Fist!"
3:08 Did that in a campaign i'm in because my chracter didn't tick with tgd party all too well. Got in a wizard instead of my bard and it's been pretty fun.
Thank you for #1. Ultimately, DnD is an exercise in transparent expectations from both sides. If you're going into a player vs. DM type of game where you're expecting to get the slammer thrown at you, both sides need to know what's up. If you're just going on a casual adventure where your DM is just trying to figure out how to keep things intense but not constantly at death's door, work with them!
Dividing statblock from rp was the best decision I ever did for myself, and one major tip I give my players as well. I had a high charisma warlock, however he was a nomad, traveling alone. So he definitely didn't have a silver tongue or even dressed himself like a noble. Definitely was one of my favourite creations.
10:40 Here's a neat little fact: sociability and intuition are forms of intelligence... but they are represented by Charisma and Wisdom. Your character might have Int 18, but that does not mean they will not act stupidly, because stupidity is not merely whether you can recall what is relevant or know it in the first place, it's also saying stupid things and asking stupid questions.
I made an evil character once, it was a kobold dragon warlock (homebrew subclass) that used to be an actual true dragon, a red one at that, who was cursed by Bahamut to be confined into a tiny kobold body with all of his previous power trapped behind a pact after destroying a sacred place of worship connected to the platinum dragon god. The terms of the pact is that he MUST do genuinely good deeds out of the kindness of his heart if he ever wants to have even a chance of returning to his former glory. The idea being that although he'd abhor the idea at first and have to struggle against his nature, eventually it would lead him to discover that he kind of likes being nice.
I was into DND for a long time before I got the chance to play it, so I ended up making a pretty complicated backstory from my first character, but it still ended up working out. Originally my character was a red dragon named Dragnathar. This red dragon started off extremely vain and prideful, but it was also weirdly honorable for a red dragon(in the sense that if you helped it, it wouldn’t kill you). Because of this, it was able to amass a large group of followers and war tribes that would aid it through their conquest, and be given its mercy. Eventually, when the dragon would make its den atop a Cliffside (one end, was jagged rocks, and the other side was a lush rainforest) these war tribes, and various races would gather underneath the den and form a city They named in the dragons honor, Dragtharok. At first, the dragon ruled like a tyrant, and commanded the people to read with it regularly as it tended to be more active and awake than other dragons. However, with each time the dragon rested, the following generations would come to mellow out as existing with so many races at once formed a kind of peace. Due to the Honorable nature of this red dragon, it did not destroy these generations for being more peaceful, but it did eventually Become influenced by them. In between each period of sleep, the dragon would become more and more familiar with the citizens of its city, and turn from a vain tyrant into a stern yet caring ruler. Despite Dragthorok being a peaceful city with open borders(as there were so many diverse races already the stance on other races was pretty positive) other entities still could not stand a red dragon, having such a powerful city under its command. Because of this a gold dragon that was once humiliated by Dragnathar in their younger years, set up a group of adventures with uniquely powerful equipment to find and assassinate the red dragon. Unfortunately, the adventures succeeded and ended up, driving out many of the native civilians of that city. However, the few enclaves that remained would attempt to cast a revival spell that would push the red dragon soul into the body of a red dragon born. Due to the method and the type of creature that they were using this spell on, there were many side effects, including an extremely long duration before completion and significant memory loss. When the dragon would wake up decades, to centuries later, depending on the campaign, it would become rude and arrogant, like it was during the early days of the city, but it maintained its honor. Despite this. Due to the passage of time the city had become unrecognizable from its original appearance and purpose, with it, either becoming ruined, or completely altered with different inhabitants, also depending on the campaign. The memory loss was also so bad that Dragnathar would even forget parts of his name, and call himself Ragathar. With the only other memories being the fact, he used to rule the kingdom, and the fact that he was once a dragon, Ragathar would become an adventure, seeking people to help restore his memories and his original form with its power. There was also the idea that he would become less like the dragon he was during the early days of Dragtharok, and to be more like the benevolent ruler, he became through interactions with the party and growing bonds. Unfortunately, this character never really got much time to grow as after the third session the campaign, I was a part of failed due to scheduling conflicts.
Doing my first Campaign as a Lizardfolk Fighter (Champion) who took on Magic Initiate (Warlock) as his first feat, we've just had our first session with these new feats and my DM and I planned out a strategy for getting a cursed item that will kill whoever removes it from its pedastal (as described in a scroll the party found) by using his Unseen Servant to fetch it while the party waited in the hall outside, and I'm thinking about talking to my DM about having him go on a small study break to switch to bevome an Eldritch Knight after handling magic for the first time His background is that he was raised by and around humans, and served in the military most of his life but had recently-ish (three years ago) left in search of a higher calling, so this could work very well as his reasoning for retraining. The Dm is my brother, we were never close as children so these DnD sessions have been a real bonding experience for us
As a new DM, Ik rp can be hard… and as an anxious teen, I do sometimes speak in third person to the players… depending on how comfortable I am with the character and the representation of the NPC
My Aasimar Paladin's dump stat is Int so I made her a bit of a country bumpkin type, literally raised in a barn...however, she's naturally become the leader of the group (the Paladin curse!!!), so I play to her high Wisdom and Charisma with RP. She's not book-knowledgeable, but she gives sage advice and hella motivational speeches.
Yeah my Aasimar paladin/sorc is the same just, he is raised by his order but the few things he read are military strategy. He literally doesn't even have religion proficiency. Because yeah, he's more warrior than holy warrior.
It evrn comes through in his class choice that his holy powers really are more his angelic blood than holyness of his actions. (Totally not because I wanted booming blade, shield and healing word xD)
So he has a very typically military style of speaking. Is well liked by all sorts of rough folks that would normally stay as far away from a paladin as possible. Simply because he speaks their language.
You'd think, pretty half-angel with long silver hair. Adamantine armor.
He's going to be stuck up as hell until he starts swearing like a sailor, telling his tabaxi companion in graphic detail where he (the Tabaxi) can shove his tail if said Tabaxi whacks him over the head with the tail again xD
And well he is a leader too. But mostly by charisma and experience (level 15. He just knows what he's doing at that point xD)
Low INT, High WIS/CHA is just about my favorite type of character to play!
I love low INT high WIS/CHA characters 😂 I played a Triton Paladin who is completely oblivious of life outside the water
@OP
That really is exactly how country people are down here in the south. They may not be able to write out mathematical equations on how our why something works, but give them a role of duct tape and an object to fix or improve, and by golly they are going to fix it better than it was before. Same with counseling and therapy. Some country folk don't have any kind of degree in counseling or whatever collages teach, but they will be more than happy to give sound advice and encouragement based on experience and traditions.
Anybody can go to a school and learn things about any and all subject matter (Intelligence), but what really matters is street smarts and how to utilize those lessons (Wisdom).
Superman vibes
The “My character asks..” or even just “I ask if…” is really good advice for literally everyone! Even DMs, sometimes you wanna cut to the chase and let the players imagine the npc said more fancy stuff. Though of course it depends who’s around the table
Yeah, we have this with one of our party, he's not as involved as in character roleplay as the rest of us and is kind of shy and introverted, well more so than the average D&D player already is lol, so we just allow him to tell us what his character wants to do or what his intention is and as the DM i'll pick up the slack in describing something awesome for him.
Im my current game te DM refuses to cut to the chase. EVERY interaction has to be role played out and its getting tiring on my end, not because i dont enjoy it, but because its dragging the game to a crawl when we only get 3 hours a week to play.
Definitely agree! i've recently wrapped new friend into dnd who is feeling a little embarrassed/insecure about the whole rping thing as he is new to ttrpgs. He confided in me after one session that he was super self-aware of the fact that the other players are roleplaying and he isnt, because he was just narrating what his character did. Had to explain that that was in fact roleplaying, and that if he listened carefully, the other pcs were also narrating their characters actions. They were just also speaking in their characters voice.
For sure is a good one! Been telling that to my friends that are playing for the first time as well.
It's not important how you say what your character does, as long as you imagine what your character would do in that moment! Have noticed it time and time again that people start doing the voices along the way if the party is accepting of the baby steps at the beginning.
There's a lot of stuff that a character in the world would know how to ask about, that I as a citizen of the real world don't know how to approach naturally, I love any DM that lets me short cut that by just saying "My character asks the magic sword seller if any of them are +2" even better if they help me fill in those gaps in some way.
Probably one of the most creative character backstories I have seen was a Tabaxi assassin who had been hired to kill the party for a variety of reasons, but was absolutely incompetent about it and kept doing things like giving them hot chocolate, because in that game chocolate made Tabaxis sick. However, the party just took their murder attempts as the character being very helpful and friendly, and eventually the character became attached to the party members.
That's hilarious, I love it.
That is the cutest and pretty accurate to cats xD
I unfortunately fell under the ‘bad backstory’ category with a recent character. He was a lizardfolk bard and we are playing in Storm King’s Thunder. His reason for going out was because all of giants thumping around and causing mayhem was interrupting his creating new music and so thought it would be funny for him to want them to shut up so he can get back to work. Basically he was a Dnd version of your typical ‘noise complaint’ neighbour. Unfortunately his personality was bland, just being ‘I like music’ and thats as far I got with his backstory. Both me and my DM struggled to give him a goal that wasn’t just the what the end of the campaign results in, so I retired him and am now playing a Goblin Rogue that I enjoy a hell of alot more
And his backstory is "Me want more shinies! Me down for whatever!!"
I did a lizardfolk bard too! She was one of my favorites because as a lizardfolk she didn't "understand" art or music, but she knew that musicians could make money playing music. So she made a pair of maracas out of the bones of fallen enemies and went around screaming very literal songs about how townsfolk should give her food.
Hey, may I ask who the character in your pp is?
That's absolutely something you can work with. Flesh him out over time and REALLY play to his love for music.
If the giants really make hearing difficult or just disrupt every harmony, go for it. Just while playing to his love for music don't forget a character is meant to be a person
I dnt see the need to have a goal for adventuring outside of adventure itself or the need to have a back story. The man with no name is one of the greatest film characters of all time and he has exactly zero back story. No name, no history, no motivations, no past etc etc etc and he is better for it. It's like this aspect of a character or the game is ignored and we have a bunch of back story police out there.
New kinda video, I want to do more discussion stuff like this in the future. What do you think? More nudity next time?
Do the entire video nude
Roll for intimidation.
when's the OF dropping?
i do enjoy these types of videos where it makes one think about character creation. and yes...roll that high CHA and be proud. lol
@@FallenRingbearer more like a Charisma Savings Roll.
When creating backstories i usually focus on the 3 W's:
1. Where did my character come from?
2.Where did he learn the skills, he has at the start of the campaign?
3.Why did he start adventuring?
So far this checklist has given me rather simple results, and great potentials for my DM's to take something from my backstory and expand from it
My most recent character has a backstory of always wanting to be a monster hunter.
But when he finally become adult and saw just how corrupt the guild was he left and decided to a hero on his own, slowly growing attached to other adventurers
*tosses your character a coin*
@@maxsalmon4980 Geralt reference be like.
as in Monster Hunter from Monster Hunter?
@@GCHumanGuy closer to witcher.
But fueled by childhood Hype for glory
One punch man has no backstory still awesome
The Locked in Fallacy segment is excellent! I did that with a recent DM of mine and it can really refresh your ideas and excitement for the game when you change your play style. Had my Thief Goblin discover an abandoned lab and blueprints for a “Booyahg Bazooka.” After a session I had to miss, he returns as an Artillerist, losing his stealth specialty as he’s a little bit too trigger happy with his new toy.
Having Scanlan statblock immediately after talking about a character going temporarily on holiday was *chef's kiss*
Sometimes you just need to connect with someone else. Even if you're a fictional character.
I will add this as a one of the mistakes some people make (even though it's a not about the characters): *Don't hesitate to leave a game / leave a group of players. Your well-being comes before anyone's game of DnD*
If anything in your group makes you feel uncomfortable, be it the game itself or how the actual people behave, if you feel like you're always forced to do things a certain way even though you showed that it wasn't okay for you, if you feel like they don't care about your input, if you can feel that things are building up to be awful because of IRL drama or because one of the people from the group clearly has some issues, anything like that - do speak about it. *If they don't care or don't actually do anything about it, don't EVER hesitate to leave the group.*
I know some people don't do it because they're either invested in their characters or they don't like to ever put themselves in awkward situations even to a fault, and I'm socially anxious myself so I know it's often easier said than done, but you really need to try and learn to say "No" and to leave.
People who don't dare to say "I'm out" when a game or a group is awful leads to these nightmare stories you can find all over Reddit or TH-cam, where the person ends up in a spiral of even more terrible social situations, or even actual abuse. You should try to recognize these situations early and nip that in the bud.
Ofc like I said earlier, do try to talk about it first. A lot of the time people don't realize they're behaving a certain way, and will actually do something about it when told. In my personal experience the vast majority of TTRPG player are good people. But there will always be the occasional garbage...
I like for some of my "evil" characters is to have them convinced that they're using the party to benefit them and that the party is helping them to gain the power to conquest and they're only being nice to manipulate the party but after long enough it ends up that they forget that they had a reason for being with the party and instead just genuinely enjoy going on quests with everyone and want to still take over the realm but take over with their new friends
So, basically the Laharl approach to being "evil"?
I love RPing and have RPed before picking up DnD for multiple years and enjoy roleplaying as a part of DnD. But most of my party doesn't RP very often, and that's fine. There are often times when there's a great opportunity to RP, and not only do I ask the DM if it's okay, but I also ask the players. Different people and different tables are okay/comfortable with different things. Ask the table. They'll be accommodating both if you're feeling scared and if you're really into roleplay.
About roleplay i saw a video (from ginny di i think it was) Where if your players dont roleplay a lot you could try to encourage them. I got lucky with mine they already roleplay a lot. Sometimes too much (in battle i cut them off to give the the time pressure of a fight)
My current character is the eldest child. Got tired of babysitting her younger brothers during her teenage years. Became a ranger for some damn peace and quiet. Youngest brother decided to leave one day and joined a troupe of bards. Parents and other brothers are concerned because he hasn't written in a while. My character has been looking for him for a couple of years now because she's the only one in her family with any skills related to tracking someone, and she was following leads about an half-orc bardlock that may be her little shit of a brother when she got entangled with her current party.
And now she has to babysit THESE CHAOTIC IDIOTS TOO.
Didn't even need to make it super dramatic. Her parents are alive and happily married. Her 3 other brothers got their shit together in adulthood. It's only the youngest one who's being troublesome now.
Brock from Pokémon?
Letting it all hang out today. Bravo.
Playing a 3 sentence backstory (where you are not the king or queen of something) is really liberating. You focus on playing your character and creating cool stories that you actually did.
sometimes simple goals, make great starts
Frodo: I'm a former adventurer's nephew. He gave me his house and his magic ring just before he went AWOL on his birthday.
Sam: I'm his friend and gardener.
I had a dragonborn Paladin Oath of Conquest Whos god told him to go out and gain more power to show his devotion. It started with wanting to fight everything then turned into wanting to protect everyone since true power comes from the people around him and he cant do everything alone. He was really fun and rewarding to play.
lol .. same happening to my character. Same race and class btw :D
Bro, that's so cliché but still so good. I don't know why i never thought of this. It makes me actually want to play a paladin instead of making a Sorcadin with just a dip in Paladin
@@Zelrin04 paladin can use other booster dips than just sorcerer. take 5 levels in warlock, as a different approach the god is giving to granting power
@@mattcurnell2545 Yes, i know that. I meant that i don't particularly like Paladin as a class because i can't think outside the stereotypical self-righteous white knight, and that this guy's comment opened up some paths i could take to enjoy the class. The sorcadin mention was just an example.
@@Zelrin04 Well i am new to DnD so i after i decided to go paladin i found the Oath of Conquest and the Build from RPG Bot.
It dips just two Level into warlock for form of dread and goes for the Level 18 capstone from the paladin.
I cant wait to get to higher levels with that besides character development ;)
On the note of communicating plans with the DM, I have an example of this. Even something as simple as an individual spell you plan to take on your next levelup as a Wizard, not even for a combo. My Wizard was planning to take the spell "Summon Draconic Spirit", but it has a material requirement that a Spell Focus doesn't remove; an item worth at least 500 gold with the image of a dragon on it. So, I turned it into an RP moment whenever we went shopping, with my character looking for something suitable in various shops, merely commenting that it was for "something I've been working on." Eventually he found a bracelet with a dragon engraved on it, and he turned to the party's coinkeeper (a cleric of a Goddess of Commerce in a custom pantheon) for the funds needed to make the purchase.
When he finally got it, it went unused for a little while, until our most recent session, when I finally got a good chance to use the spell... against an Adult Red Dragon. Between that, talking to it in Draconic before the fight, and surviving a full round of melee attacks (though damn did it hurt), I like to think I impressed and irritated that dragon in equal measure.
...I'd say "left an impact", but our Ranger with their renamed version of Critical Role's "Bad News" did that a touch more literally. Though they have very limited ammo, so they only bust it out for special occasions, usually preferring their magic Shortbow.
But because I did tell the DM that I would be taking that spell, and made a little mini-sub-plot about Donovan shopping for the material requirement, he was able to have the Draconic Spirit ready for when I did eventually use the spell.
Man your sponsorships are ALWAYS the best.
One of the only i actually really enjoy watching
As the person who booked this sponsorship for Penny Dragon, I agree. So many lulz!
Right? Even the commercial is entertaining!
Oh you enjoyed it alright (;
Mistake #0: Not watching DnD Shorts' videos
Total agreement!
Monke: why not pinned
Hey, uhh so half ork Barbarian, muti class druid so bears, and other wild animals you tame, lead an army of savage wild companions and hurle badgers at your foes from afar,
(side note uhh the alignment of your nature is very sensitive to this character, as half ork barbs tend to get evil. And druid says no. )
@@MetheusBatanir cause his simping
Entertaining, sure. Unfortunate history of misinformation on the channel though.
@3:21 Big "Geoffrey Chaucer in A Knight's Tale" Vibes
I like keeping my backstory to occupation/social role, family/friends/associates, some personality traits, patron info (I love playing warlocks), and something that sets them out on their adventure. I like giving my DM stuff to work with and leave myself a way to talk with my companions, but still leave it open ended enough that it can adjust within the campaign.
I would note with the idea of a "Stupid Wizard" and more generally the idea of "NEEDING" to play your ability scores somewhat straight...
I'd argue a lot of that would have to do with the differences between Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. As a somewhat famous tumblr thread described. Intelligence is knowing a tomato is a fruit, while Wisdom is knowing that you shouldn't put a tomato in a fruit salad...
and Charisma is being able to sell someone a tomato based fruit salad.
Speaking on the part of feeling locked into your class and playstyle, I had a neat idea, although I think it might be an obvious one to more seasoned D&D players, for a change in my monk character. Their backstory revolved around multi-classing from Drunk Monk and Knowledge Cleric as she rebelled against her culture of sticking to one discipline. She drank as a means of coping with familial issues and dissent about splitting her responsibilities of martial arts and clergy. Throughout the campaign she becoming friends with the party, and they helped her face her family and their people's traditions to grow as a person, and showed that you can combine martial arts and healing miracles in one, becoming the "first" Way of Mercy Monk in the campaign.
Awesome vid with very good advice :) Glad you mentioned the background, I even helped my players to get a reason to be together at the start of a campaign (such as the shipwreck survivor being saved by another, already more trust there).
Just wanna add a lil thing to roleplay: Same goes for DM's, you dont have to do voices and such, saying "... he said with a sinister voice, squinting his right eye" can have the same or better effects then trying to mimic it.
This is one thing I get frustrated with. We were all new players, except my partner the DM & I had played a few games before, and watched D&D be played.
Anyhow our mistake in the beginning was that we kept all our characters secret from each other. We made it so that everyone met up & eventually found out things about each other. But now one of my friends thinks that she needs to continue to keep everything about her character as a secret.
Stats, how much HP she has, stuff like that... I get backstory being secret but the traits and stuff, that's ok to share lol.
But I have mentioned that in the next campaign that we all start again from scratch, we should instead plan it so one or two of us knows each other. Or help build each other's characters so that they fit together.
I am trying to explain that in games like D20 and Critical Role they actually do know each other's characters and know the majority of the details about them... Except for hidden back stories or perhaps the class/Race they want everyone to know about them - but whether it's a decoy like with a Changeling for instance, that part is secret.
So you can still build parts of it together & work on it together. But still keep things hidden.
It frustrates the hell out of me as I don't want to create my character and find out that the other person is the exact same.
Technically I don't think this would happen because the DM would talk to us and let us know... But it also creates more of a fun thing to discuss this stuff about with certain things or sell advice if you are stuck with something about your character.
There's only so much you can build with the DM. But there other aspects that are better if you build your character with your group of players. Or at least work together on parts of it.
About the last one: It is sometimes ok to brew crazy ideas with the party, like helping the artificer make a tank to surprise the dm, but only if 1) the dm knows you will sometimes do stupid shit like that and 2) IS OK WITH IT. In session zero, always check if shenanigans like that are ok and ok to be secret
One dungeon crawl I had scouted ahead of the party a bit and found a hallway packed with gnolls. I asked the DM if I could cast wall of fire down the hallway. After a few seconds of clarification he congratulated me on my first war crime , "inventing" the spell "Hall of Fire". No need to roll damage; there will be no bodies after the spell ends.
Underrated comment
Last point is key. There are a lot of rules/class features/spells that may not necessarily work in the way you imagine or may simply be open to interpretation. By discussing with your DM what you're intent with your character is ahead of time the two of you can iron out any misunderstandings and work to better bring your ideas to life.
This whole video was basically telling you to just be a normal person. Not a fucking weirdo. Can't believe some people actually need to hear these tips
Imagine not telling your DM what your favored terrain was lol.
Yep, make sure your abilities combine the way you think they do before you invest a bunch of time in a build that simply doesn't function.
My main character has been going for like 4(?) years now. Life Domain cleric following Boldrei. Started off leaving his home (Mark of Healing) to heal lesser off people. It was a pretty short and simple backstory that has exploded into a pretty complicated character, and has had multiple moments of small shifts, as he went from an idealist to well still an idealist, but one who better understands the world around him and what it means to protect a community and those you love. He's also had the chances to fail and succeed. Definitely grown quite a lot through the campaign.
A helpful hint if you ever plan on being a DM in 10+ years. The characters you're playing today, are NPCs in your future game.
I’m running a neutral evil gnoll Bloodrager and his backstory was that his pack had captured a cleric and a wizard and he freed them after getting a promise to teach him magic out of the wizard. He got into adventuring when he realized that he’d mostly be doing the same stuff as usual just shifting who he went after. I play him as a very practical person.
I've been running D&D campaigns since 2001 and some of this is still new information for me. Thanks for the wisdom!
I would add one more bit to the backstory part. It needs to build connections between your character and the world. Your character should have npcs they care about. This is something the new version of VTM does really well in their touchstone system.
That's a really good point and a good idea!
And as you play, your group companions and how your character feels about them, so that you could potentially start off as untrusting or hating one or all of them, say you are stuck with them for whatever job. And then you get to know them and your opinions/relationships change as your character grows. 😊
I was thinking the same thing, he left out a HUGE part of a backstory. Your backstory should give the dm and even your fellow players stuff to latch onto so they can build connections between your character and theirs.
A good backstory needs at least a couple of plot hooks the GM can catch to create a narrative arc your character would feel and you would enjoy, and some daggers the GM can pick up to hurt your PC and make the plot personal to them. Otherwise it's just begging to be a spectator in somebody else's personal story. Some other good stuff that a backstory should include is a couple or more NPCs that your PC already knows and that can be more or less key in some situations. The GM can embroider them into the setting, so your PC feels part of the starting place, and not a nobody just dropped into an unknown world.
I really like the idea of normalizing the "Stats determine success, not character design" mentality. I play a half-orc barbarian with INT as a dump stat, but I play her more as a seasoned merc with years of combat and tactical experience. Some of my party tried throwing around the "dumb barbarian" jokes at first (one of the party played theirs like that in the past which is fine) but it stopped pretty quick when they realized she's smart enough to actually evenly distribute gold and make tactical decisions that are less suicidal than our wizard.
People think that -1 INT is the same as being the dumbest person ever, because that's the minimum a character can have in most cases.
But in reality a -1 is, like... that one guy that never memorized when WW1 started or that still counting in their hands to multiply some times. AKA a lot of the people in the world.
Would go as far as saying that a 8INT is the base for the IRL humans, and most people just seem more capable because of Proficiency Bonus aplied to their speciality skill (like... say... A INT8 scientist that has Expertise in Nature, or a Historian with expertise in... History).
My general rule is that your character probably knows thier core skill set. A low int/cha barb I run knows a lot about fighting and performance because he's a gladiator. He can't identify a spell pointed at his head, but he knows his buisness because that's how he gets by
was half expecting "building in secret" was going to be about the players keeping their characters secret from eachother.
obviously in everyone wants their characters to be a big reveal session 1 they can be. but it can also be fun to make characters together and establish friendships between some characters beforehand.
One mistake I personally experienced not in build, but in execution:
Have Polearm Master/Sentinel combo. Go Bugbear for +5 melee reach and use a Glaive for 15 ft total melee reach.
Rush into battle such that enemies never approach you to trigger the attack of opportunity needed to trigger the combo, because your melee reach is insane and it’s tactically disadvantageous to NOT wade into the thick of battle. Why? Because the other party members rush in to attack the enemies, and the enemies just attack them because they are closer.
Also, you find out VERY quickly that your reaction is a PRECIOUS resource. Putting yourself in a situation where your reaction is GUARANTEED to trigger… means you don’t have a reaction for some other important tactic or ability.
It means you can’t use your awesome combo on every enemy until it’s your next turn, where the enemies have already settled into their positions for the core of combat and no longer move (thus not triggering your precious attack of opportunity). It means your awesome combo is only sorta useful at the start of combat, not at other phases, and you end up saving it ONLY for moments that maximize its usefulness (usually set up by the DM taking pity on you that you built a specific combo only to discover that actually using it plain sucks. Yes I speak from experience 🤣).
So even “meta” combos can be character build traps for new players.
My advice for new players trying to come up with a character:
1 ) NO SELF-INSERTION! Anytime I have *ever* encountered someone trying to play a character 'based on themselves' it has *ALWAYS* been a complete disaster. Such players are so heavily invested in their characters that they easily perceive anything from party conflicts to a single bad roll as a personal attack against them. Playing D&D (especially if they try to actually play the role) is a chance to walk in *someone else's* shoes. At least for their first character, prompt them with "What's something you've dreamed of doing but know you'd never actually be good at?"
2 ) The DGR Rule - the "Darned Good Reason." In a world where 99.44% of your character's peers are simple farmers, shopkeepers, tavern wenches, or what have you, what has driven your character to become an adventurer? Maybe they're just really good at one particular skill and have become addicted to finding greater challenges? (Stealing from the locals is just too easy - stealing a sacred object from a fanatical cult right from under the leaders nose? *That's* a challenge worthy of your skills!)
3 ) Embrace your character's flaws and weaknesses. While some players *REALLY* cringe at rolling single-digit stats, they're a wonderful opportunity to have some fun! A character with low Charisma may just be incredibly blunt and/or honest; a character with low Dexterity could be clumsy, or maybe they're just tough enough they don't need to dodge an attack.
The above not only encourages actual roleplay, but provides inspiration for fun little character quirks to make sessions worlds more fun for everyone! One of my favorite characters is a half-giant barbarian with really low Intelligence - most often uses names (instead of pronouns) and "only know words of two story" (can't say "syllables" because it has more than two syllables). He's infatuated by "sparklies" and one time attacked a merchant who tried to give him fair value for an enchanted axe he wanted to exchange for a cheap bauble.
Note on the locked in thing: you really need to get the DM on board for this since it is 100% circumventing the actual rules for what you want to do. If the other players aren’t expecting it and the dm has no clue and you show up with your barbarian as a wizard now we’ll yeah that’s definitely gonna be an issue
And for the ability score one: it’s an opinion but your ability scored should definitely inform your role play. There’s ways to have a ditzy but still extremely intelligent wizard or a really shy high Cha character but that’s more from multiple ways the abilities can look
Yeah, intelligence doesn't mean they're not an idiot, just that they know a lot. I would especially add that this applies to physical scores to (low dex as clumsy, low Con as being frail or sickly etc)
@@isitnotwrittenthat1680 I just go with low wisdom to make the character an idiot. He knows shit, but definitely an idiot when it comes to interactions and applying what he knows
@@isitnotwrittenthat1680 I think the thing here is that mental stats are a lot closer to your character's personality than physical stats, and for instance being smart or dumb have so many different interpretations and reasons behind them. Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma all play into how smart someone is. But all stats have wiggle room even if you're trying to roleplay within the stat definitions.
High Strength means you're strong. That's a fairly clear definition, but can express itself in different ways. Dexterity is less clear and is usually split up into speed and manual dexterity. Constitution can mean a few things, since someone who's obese can be seen as being on either end. Low endurance and not very fit, but very resilient to damage.
On the mental side, Charisma can be both physical beauty and social intelligence. Or just one side of them. Intelligence is as mentioned split up into knowledge and reasoning, but those are still very broad categories. Wisdom is probably the oddest one, since it's both about actual wisdom, but also about perception, so there's a lot you can do with those.
In the end, it depends on how you view your character. The stats are all abstractions and extremely simplified. People and characters are usually not quite that simple.
You reached a new level with the naked scene
Saving my games one video at a time
Thanks man
my most recent character is a gnome cleric who is a mercenary looking for work when he stumbles upon the party being attacked by undead and decides to help
Just found this channel and I’m sold! I’m a new player who hasn’t found a group yet. Online or in person. That tip about role playing was great! Dimension 20 is how I learned the rules but it’s nice being reminded that they are entertainers first. And that’s not cut job when I play.
I unfortunately don't have a group to play with:(
However, I have created 6 different characters. None of them have the stereotypical "Dead Family/Tragedy" backstory, they all actually have at least 1 sibling alive & both parents alive, they all have reasons for adventuring, and they each have 2 pages of backstory minimum.
My favorite character is a Drow Death Domain Cleric sworn to the Raven Queen with Feylost background & she has 5 pages of backstory (though most of the first page is actually more about her parents, BUT it's necessary to then give an explanation for being on the surface).
I'm going to put the Ability Score Myth at the top of every campaign primer from now on. You put it far more eloquently than I ever could.
The commitment to the ad though 😂 I had to send this video to my group, featuring a real life chef who wants to eat all the foods whose actual name is Charles
8:59 With the most recent character I created, I was DMing the DM (my brother-in-law) frequently and when I did decide on what to do, I handed him my sheet and asked what he thought. The character before that the DM (best friend of my brother-in-law) had to figure out how to bring my character into an already started campaign. With another campaign (not DnD) I worked with the DM (my sister that time), to figure out how to handle my middle class Naga assassin lack of arms and also how to deal with the fact that she had a day job.
2:55 Once a player of mine had decided to play a psionicist in 3.5e, but they realized they weren't having fun and they were better at playing active combatants at the table, so he came up to me and said that he wanted to have a go at a soulknife character; so I came up with a plot and arranged it with him to have another version of his character that *_was_* a soulknife do a switcheroo with his psionicist, so that the two Spheres on the Material Plane would both benefit from their distinct talents, which all tied to earlier incidents in the campaign. The other characters also got keyed in to the whole ordeal as well a short while prior, but I left it as a surprise for the table, and it was a smashing success. Still proud of that decision.
First, I love your posts. I have been playing D&D since it's publication in 1974, and this is one of the few channels I follow. Please keep up the Great work. I love your enthusiasm! It seems the proper spirit to explore a fantasy world with, or why bother :) SO, many thanks! Btw, what background were you using for this (with what looks like a glowing orrery in the back). I'd love to use this for a teams, etc, background.)
I made the background myself, it's custom! One day I'll make a big folder of all my homemade assets and share them!
@@DnDShorts Lemme know when you do that. I'll upgrade my Patreon :)
I mean, I think that it's always better to leave most of your backstory blank, like names of places and people's and the things they tell you, if you can. Obviously you can't always but I think it's great. I had an elven Smith character who travelled the world finding rare materials to make magic items with. His goals changed as he found himself feeling weak and unable to feel safe, eventually making items that bind people and steals souls for power, slowly becoming more and more selfish while lying through his teeth to his party.
I do have another tip for players, and it’s also have some sort of story aspect involved in your backstory. Currently, I am playing a reborn Horizon Walker Ranger who was encased in stone for 700 years. Whenever I make a history check and use the “knowledge from a past life” feature reborns get, what DM will give me a memory from 700 years ago about my past. The memories told me what ancient deities my people worshipped and also memories of my home town. In a different campaign, one of my friends played a monk who ran away from his families criminal empire and joined a temple full of other monks, clerics, and paladins. The party eventually helped him overthrow his families empire and free a city. Sometimes, having these aspects in a backstory can be super fun for role play and game play purposes.
Loved that the IT Crowd episode was referenced. Was perfectly placed in the vid too
I think I learned the most about character creation from this video than any other video I've seen
10 outta 10; best advertisement for a kickstarter i've ever seen.
I recently had a pre-session talk with all the folks in my Tuesday game about my 6th level warlock spell choice and we started talking about the Investures spells and it dawned on me that by using the spell i gain fire immunity since my character has fire resistance normally due to race, and i have a legendary red dragon mask which i made thru my adventures and it has the unique ability to grant me immunity or if i have immunity 50% absorption effect when taking fire damage. This caught my DM off guard as both myself and another party member already have fire immunity.
I can see how Magic Items, Spells, and Class Combos can throw a DM for a twist and agree its something you should talk to your DM about so they are aware of this potential effect. As of now I'm actually looking at a different spell as I am focusing on going down a path of my character arch that intrigues me and i don't see needing the fire absorption effect.
My group does rp like this, if you do a deception or persuasion check, you can choose to do it in 3rd person, doing a normal check, OR you can rp it, and if you do a really good job at it we give you advantage, which means it's optional, but fun to try and branch out and sometimes rewarding if you feel your ready for it
Excellent vid! I'll definitely be considering sending nervous new players this very well composed video!
#5 is something I run into all the time on both sides of the screen. There are a lot of builds and character archetypes I've seen, or put together that pretty much require DM cooperation in order to achieve. As example if you want roleplay Joan of Arc or something and lead a squad of NPC followers, that kind of requires the DM to A: Be on board and B: allow you chances to acquire NPC followers. Just siting with that in your back pocket, hoping your DM will happen to bring up that scenario is going to be less fun on all sides.
Awesome video, this is one of my favorite videos of yours yet. Totally applicable information and fantastically encouraging to new and seasoned players alike.
Yeah, the other thing about #5 is that sometimes there is a misunderstanding or some wiggle room in interpretation on how certain features would interact; if you tell your plan for your build ahead of time, they can go over whether or not it would even work with you.
I play an Illusionist Wizard in my main campaign, and I've had to hash out how certain edge cases for my illusions/Illusory Reality/etc. would work out of game with my DM a bunch over the course of the three years we've been playing. [But it's also let him set me up to do some crazy stuff with Mirage Arcane a couple times.]
My current Half Orc took to the roads as a merc to try and find his mother who was taken when he was out hunting with her. It left him horribly scarred and so I took the Haunted one background along with it.
9:00 For an example of just how important that is: this is literally how you design new spells for the game. You approach your DM and tell them: here's an idea I have for a new spell I want my character to research; I'd like your feedback on it, see if we can make it work. And you are supposed to give this to your DM *_OUTSIDE_* gaming hours, so they don't have to veto your obnoxious INSTAKILLEVERYTHING spell in front of everybody, nor have to consider whether it is actually an amazing idea because of a built-in set of restrictions, or have to balance it.
This might be one of the best video for beginners out there.
4:22 this one is always a lot of fun. I'm currently playing a warforged cleric that has negative charisma. However I still play the character as someone who is very well spoken, kind of posh, charismatic person.
The way ive spun it is that his personality is very charismatic, but as a warforged he lacks any facial expressions, hence why he isn't good at talking to people.
With one of my characters i made a huge backstory with a family tree, but that last part was only there to explain how a tiefling bronze draconic bloodline sorceror was descended from an evil red dragon
My favorite characters grow organically. Most recent is a halfling bard. He is adventuring because he wants to tell great tales of the big fighter in the group. Thats it. He has now become a friend to dragons, found his parents killer (yeah dead parents, but had an aunt that took care if him, so not a street rat), and owns an Airship, all while telling the most amazing stories that he has experienced first hand. He's great. Thank you, Garrett Goodbarrel, for being a cool character.
5:09
I've come up with many systems over the decades of me playing D&D to try and marry the forces of RP and Crunch together for maximum immersion and help facilitate people feeling comfortable playing characters that exist outside of their stat blocks.
One of my favorites by far is my Free Form Class Competency System. Im sure plenty of other DMs have come up with something similar. I completely change the way people acquire advantage and couple that with each class now granting advantage in its own way for different things based on your level or Stat Bonus.
So essentially under this system, you can have a 16 str 10 int wizard, and you can still play that character from level 1 to 20, and not feel the completely and utterly overwhelming sense that you got punished for wanting to make a really unique character.
Spitting in the face of god for the sake of bringing your character to life, is encouraged here. lol.
Im very happy that since im playing pathfinder i dont need to worry about the last part anymore ^^ but the other tips definitely help!
One of my players didn't like the character he was playing so I let him completely swap out characters. You said a player could have a character go on vacation temporarily, but you can also just full on replace your character if you want.
I want to say one thing about keeping things hidden from your DM is that it also can lead to you just not getting to do the thing you wanted to. In a game I was in a player got this really cool sword (that it was quite obvious the DM intended to be used by my character) that he had to jump through hoops to even use. He did something that made the sword (it was sentient) not want him to use her anymore and could not wield it from that point forward. Though the other party member did something that made it seem like it was his fault but that's a whole other can of worms. This made him not want to play the game anymore and just told us to play without him. Turns out he spent many hours researching every possible route he could go down and had an 80 page documenting planing out what he wanted to do with his character all based around using the sword he felt awful and that all his work went down the drain because he couldn't use it anymore. However, the thing is he didn't share this 80 page document with anyone. The DM only learned about it from me who learned about it a little more than half a year after everything had already happened. If he just simply told the DM about this it's very likely that he'd still be able to wield the sword
on point four, I notice that forcing RP can sometimes backfire as players feel pressured to roleplay every single little thing. if this is what your party wants, then go for it. but if it's stemming from a forced obligation to roleplay, then there's no reason to suffer through it.
The example for building in secret is super good. I have practically the same story: we were going to play oneshot and I had a character "on a shelf" that I wanted to play with. It's bladesinder sword's bard, and the idea is using mobile flourish on a booming bladed target. Mechanically speaking (raw) I need 9 lvl character to be able to actually do that but the oneshot we're playing is gonna be for 5lvl. So I told about the combo to the DM and he just said - ok, do the thing. It was cool and super great oneshot, and one of the reason was exactly because I said about my idea beforehand
I agree with giving your characters breaks sometimes.
like me and my dm will come up with some narrative reason to have my character step away so I can try someone new, if my new character dies or I miss my old one, we’ll have a reason to bring him back.
The ASI segment is something I wish more people would understand. I have a character with 4 intelligence, because he hasn't been in society his entire life, and has no knowledge of next to anything. But he isn't "dumb". He just doesn't know much information, so being bad at knowledge checks makes sense.
Then you're failing to play the character as it appears on the sheet. Int 4 is two points smarter than a dog, your character is functionally incapable, severely mentally disabled, less cognitively competent than a seven year old child. If you're playing them as 'not dumb' then I'm really sorry, but you're not playing the stats of your character. Your stats are how you interact with the game world, they are your window onto reality, playing your stats is essential to the consistency and verisimilitude of the game world. Play your stats. It really helps make the world a more consistent and rewarding place if the numbers actually mean things?
On that last one, I've had a player completely break several of my encounters and every time it was with something that he's run by me first. As the DM I'm the party's first fan and I've always told them to ask me ahead of time if I'll allow something so that they have time to think about it before the session. I've even given them several pointers such as pointing out to the fighter which maneuvers work with ranged weapons and reminding the cleric that they can use channel divinity to recover spell slots.
This is how we ended up with a shadow sorcerer rogue with shadow blade (the spell is compatible with sneak attack and those sorcerers can see through their own darkness spells which you can carry with you by casting it on an item).
Talk with your DMs. You'd be surprised.
An additional point about secret building - it was touched on, but the idea that the DM might ban the idea could come from a place of reason, as well, not just anger. For example, if you spend all your time building this amazing 420 combo and arrive at the session to use it without telling the DM, you might find that the DM points at a flaw in your combo and says "this doesn't work because " and you'll have wasted all that time for little or no gain. Just because you heard about the combo on someone's reddit thread or TH-cam video doesn't mean it's necessarily valid or fits the rules of the campaign, or even the core rulebook.
Was expecting a neat video, didn’t expect this adones in their birthday suit, but won’t be mad about it.
Just as I’m making a new character for a campaign, this shows up!
The stats myth part of the video really brings out how I love to play! I play for the game experience and encounters and not a super strategy person that hyper focuses on the PERFECT modifi and stats :/ and the role play part of the video speaks to me too! I started to play dnd outside my mother tongue language which is (SWE) to (Eng) and truthfully I don't know every single English word what it means or how to have a accent in English and I feel like I was shamed a lot for not "Role playing with a voice" or engaging enough all the time... but now I do have better dnd party and new friends to play with who doesn't shame me for how i like to play and i can be myself around them ❤😊
Azir, my eldritch knight fighter was emotionally stunted after all the tragedy in his life.
He couldn't really talk about/to the party about things outside of business but he made sure they were fed. He would make breakfast and dinner for them while showing off some flair from his homelands (egyptian-esque), trying to provide healthy but varied meals.
His food was showing he cared even if he couldn't say it.
The walking bladder. This magic item allows you to use the gust of wind cantrip to apply INT on strength checks as a ritual. Its three small bladders with nozzles that magically can only be inflated or deflated with the cantrip.
1:05 only one of my characters have a tragic backstory so soon in their life. Vondal get banned from his clan after having joint his friends. Grutok loose his tribe and now track them down. Tes just come with her friends but don’t know anything of her tribe’s fate.
Patrin have a normal life as an entertainer for his clan while Mark never have a more complex backstory than being held as a prisoner for making free potions for them.
Muted is the only who had a tragic childhood. And he don’t care about it. Because his goal is to survive, so adventurers=easy food.
Basically if they have a tragic backstory, they don’t give anything about it.
My group was doing a one-shot, and I told the DM that I wanted to make a Snake character. We homebrewed a sleep gun and I had a barrel to hide in. It was one of the funniest one-shots that I've done
For Background, I like to just have a short story of a mini adventure not huge, a paragraph or two is enough to set up who they are and display their initial motivations. I like to throw in a couple of open hooks that the DM can at their option grab and run with in our campaigns, but are not intrinsic in the campaign. A mysterious stranger you don't expect to see again. Some trivial item you stole just prior to the campaign. If they are never mentioned again, it doesn't impact your character development, if the DM doesn't pick up on them, but adds just a bit of flavour to the campaign.
I've had the last one come up kinda in reverse before, we had this one DM who felt like he had to try and "win" the DnD game. He would always have these way over elaborate traps so when the rogue tried to disarm them they may succeed with the first trap, but that was the trigger for traps 2-8. We did start hiding things we were planning, he was also bad at remembering things he'd given us and would occasionally accuse us of adding things to our inventories so we could, and these are his words, beat him.
I actually really enjoy more fleshed-out and longer backstories so I can use the stories and characters from the past during the game and include it heavily in the plot! But the beauty of the game lies in everyone being allowed to play exactly the way they want! So both simple and elaborate backstories are great!
Agreed! So long as your DM is okay with it, go wild. So long as your character has a purpose for adventuring and your backstory doesn't involve you being super powerful but you're only starting the campaign at level 1...that'd make no sense.
I intentionally keep things vague in my character backstories so the DM can put whatever he or she wants in and it’ll be a neat surprise for me when we get to it in the game
I have a character in the wings who is just waiting for the campaign she is in to start. She is going from a street urchin to an adventurer of necessity trying to survive. She encounters a vampire, and they fall in love, and now she is apart of a noble house that she didn’t know existed. She is known in the hierarchy of the kingdom now, but wants to go off and be an adventurer not of necessity, but to explore the world and make a name of her own that isn’t tied to the family she married into
Haven't even watched the rest yet, but #5 alone makes me love this.
1000x yes, if you don't have an in-character reason to adventure with the party, you're doing a group game wrong.
When it comes to not being locked in, one of the coolest things that any of my DMs did was to facilitate our not being locked eternally into these characters until death or even leaving the story. We had played for roughly two years and most of us had been playing the same character essentially the whole time (there was a near party wipe VERY early on). But we had risen up in acclaim and helped out some big name nobles. Eventually shit went down and in the wake of it all we were made the head of a new organization that was created to essentially do what we had been doing the whole time, plus a little more. Which is already cool and fine and dandy, but what made it extra awesome was that because we were the head of this new organization, we needed new hires. New hires who were supposed to help us toward our main goal. We each got to create several new characters who would be sent out on one-shots or mini campaigns to go grab an item or search for intel that was all relevant to the main story that our main characters were the focus of. So we the players got to taste more than just the one class/build we had been playing for the past two years but we also got to keep the main story that we were so lovingly involved in moving forward at the same time. It was truly a brilliant move and one that I have even implemented myself in my world when I DM.
On the topic of working with the GM on your character progression, build, and abilities:
My party all has some special homebrew items that grow with our characters. My Fighter is not getting an upgrade to his magic lightning sword, a +1 longsword with an option to deal 1d8 extra damage up to 4 times (proficiency bonus) per dawn. GM says I deal too much damage and that a pure Fighter build is OP. We just hit LVL 11. All I really wanted was to use up one of the charges (of which there are only 4) to temporarily turn it into a great sword so I can take the Great Weapon Master feat at LVL 12, so that way I have options on if I want to use a shield and be tanky, or use a great sword and deal high damage. Especially since we're going to be fighting demigods and one actual god-level entity shortly within the next four levels or so before the GM wants to end the game.
Sometimes the GM doesn't want to play ball on what kinds of builds you're making, even the inefficient ones. Sometimes you have to surprise them with it because otherwise they're going to sit in a comfortable space of throwing low level enemies at the party over and over again and stagnate the game. This forces them to come up with challenges that the players can actually work on before they're hit with things that will potentially one-shot every member of the party... Which already happened, actually. We fought a gang of random bandits, barely anyone took damage, then next thing we know we're taking on a high level homebrew beast that would have killed my Fighter in one hit if I didn't roll so lucky. GM had to throw a MacGuffin character in to save the party.
Regarding your “building in secret” portion: it depends on dm. I have a dm who will actively change encounters if the players create a plan to win efficiently. So, if the party accepts a quest to deal with a hydra and a player comes up with the creative plan to try to bait the chaotic hydra heads into attacking each other using the dodge action and acrobatics checks, but they specify this plan in character or talk with the other players/dm out of character, instead of saying “you can try, that sounds cool” he changed it to be an undead hydra being mind controlled by some npc we never ran into where all the heads attacked at once, and none of them were chaotic like a typical hydra. It ruined the fun for said player, but the gm couldn’t handle the idea of a player creatively beating an encounter without just using some stat-stick. So yea, some gm’s will literally change the encounter or cheat partway through so that intuitive plans fail and can’t be trusted to know your next move
Building in Secret: This is a good point. I had a PC do this once and the PC didn't realize that his combo broke the rules until he tried to pull it off. So when I told him that it broke the rules, the PC became very unhappy. Sometimes DMs interpret rules differently as well, particular darkvision / dim light mechanics.
I disagree with point number one, at least the part about best backstories being short. I create long ones myself and my DM loves them.
I think his main point wasnt the length of the backstory, it was more on the motivation
I think another good thing to mention is when players think they cannot have a high stat in smth bc it isn't the norm. Like if you want to have a high INT Barbarian, keeping high strength and con as well, go for it. My current wizard has his 2nd highest stat in Strength and it is so much fun being able to be the muscle of the party.
Have you ever heard of The Muscle Wizaard? He's a pro-wrestler with a wizard theme. "Special Move: You Shall Not PASS!" Also a good reason to say "I cast Fist!"
3:08 Did that in a campaign i'm in because my chracter didn't tick with tgd party all too well. Got in a wizard instead of my bard and it's been pretty fun.
Thank you for #1. Ultimately, DnD is an exercise in transparent expectations from both sides.
If you're going into a player vs. DM type of game where you're expecting to get the slammer thrown at you, both sides need to know what's up.
If you're just going on a casual adventure where your DM is just trying to figure out how to keep things intense but not constantly at death's door, work with them!
Dividing statblock from rp was the best decision I ever did for myself, and one major tip I give my players as well.
I had a high charisma warlock, however he was a nomad, traveling alone. So he definitely didn't have a silver tongue or even dressed himself like a noble. Definitely was one of my favourite creations.
10:40 Here's a neat little fact: sociability and intuition are forms of intelligence... but they are represented by Charisma and Wisdom. Your character might have Int 18, but that does not mean they will not act stupidly, because stupidity is not merely whether you can recall what is relevant or know it in the first place, it's also saying stupid things and asking stupid questions.
I love it when I hear Big Blue in your videos!
I made an evil character once, it was a kobold dragon warlock (homebrew subclass) that used to be an actual true dragon, a red one at that, who was cursed by Bahamut to be confined into a tiny kobold body with all of his previous power trapped behind a pact after destroying a sacred place of worship connected to the platinum dragon god. The terms of the pact is that he MUST do genuinely good deeds out of the kindness of his heart if he ever wants to have even a chance of returning to his former glory. The idea being that although he'd abhor the idea at first and have to struggle against his nature, eventually it would lead him to discover that he kind of likes being nice.
I was into DND for a long time before I got the chance to play it, so I ended up making a pretty complicated backstory from my first character, but it still ended up working out. Originally my character was a red dragon named Dragnathar. This red dragon started off extremely vain and prideful, but it was also weirdly honorable for a red dragon(in the sense that if you helped it, it wouldn’t kill you). Because of this, it was able to amass a large group of followers and war tribes that would aid it through their conquest, and be given its mercy. Eventually, when the dragon would make its den atop a Cliffside (one end, was jagged rocks, and the other side was a lush rainforest) these war tribes, and various races would gather underneath the den and form a city They named in the dragons honor, Dragtharok. At first, the dragon ruled like a tyrant, and commanded the people to read with it regularly as it tended to be more active and awake than other dragons. However, with each time the dragon rested, the following generations would come to mellow out as existing with so many races at once formed a kind of peace. Due to the Honorable nature of this red dragon, it did not destroy these generations for being more peaceful, but it did eventually Become influenced by them. In between each period of sleep, the dragon would become more and more familiar with the citizens of its city, and turn from a vain tyrant into a stern yet caring ruler. Despite Dragthorok being a peaceful city with open borders(as there were so many diverse races already the stance on other races was pretty positive) other entities still could not stand a red dragon, having such a powerful city under its command. Because of this a gold dragon that was once humiliated by Dragnathar in their younger years, set up a group of adventures with uniquely powerful equipment to find and assassinate the red dragon. Unfortunately, the adventures succeeded and ended up, driving out many of the native civilians of that city. However, the few enclaves that remained would attempt to cast a revival spell that would push the red dragon soul into the body of a red dragon born. Due to the method and the type of creature that they were using this spell on, there were many side effects, including an extremely long duration before completion and significant memory loss. When the dragon would wake up decades, to centuries later, depending on the campaign, it would become rude and arrogant, like it was during the early days of the city, but it maintained its honor. Despite this. Due to the passage of time the city had become unrecognizable from its original appearance and purpose, with it, either becoming ruined, or completely altered with different inhabitants, also depending on the campaign. The memory loss was also so bad that Dragnathar would even forget parts of his name, and call himself Ragathar. With the only other memories being the fact, he used to rule the kingdom, and the fact that he was once a dragon, Ragathar would become an adventure, seeking people to help restore his memories and his original form with its power. There was also the idea that he would become less like the dragon he was during the early days of Dragtharok, and to be more like the benevolent ruler, he became through interactions with the party and growing bonds. Unfortunately, this character never really got much time to grow as after the third session the campaign, I was a part of failed due to scheduling conflicts.
Doing my first Campaign as a Lizardfolk Fighter (Champion) who took on Magic Initiate (Warlock) as his first feat, we've just had our first session with these new feats and my DM and I planned out a strategy for getting a cursed item that will kill whoever removes it from its pedastal (as described in a scroll the party found) by using his Unseen Servant to fetch it while the party waited in the hall outside, and I'm thinking about talking to my DM about having him go on a small study break to switch to bevome an Eldritch Knight after handling magic for the first time
His background is that he was raised by and around humans, and served in the military most of his life but had recently-ish (three years ago) left in search of a higher calling, so this could work very well as his reasoning for retraining.
The Dm is my brother, we were never close as children so these DnD sessions have been a real bonding experience for us
As a new DM, Ik rp can be hard… and as an anxious teen, I do sometimes speak in third person to the players… depending on how comfortable I am with the character and the representation of the NPC