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Even something as simple as deciding that your spells have a colour palette can go a long way. Works for DM's too, if you have an NPC always casts silver spells, you only need to describe a ray of silver light streaking across the battlefield for them to know who's arrived to help them.
I was playing as a Warforged Druid/Fighter character and his wild shapes were reflavored as things like motorcycles and small jets, I was basically playing as a Transformer
YES, I've always wanted to play a Moon Druid he is a bit more like Vixen or Animal Man from DC comics. They dont turn into animals, the just get all of their powers. So my Druid would grow or shrink when turning into something that isn't the same size as them but other than that they would still look like themselves. Maybe just grow claws, a tail, fangs, gills, fins or wings depending on which Beast I am using. This could also work well for an Ant-Man type build with the growing and shrinking powers
It doesn't have to be limited to flavoring spells, can be moves and weapons. My most recent PC is a Monk who is a con man in his 40s going through a mid life crisis after being evicted from his home. He's totally lying about being a Monk and uses a broom stick as a quarter staff. His Stunning Strike is him punching people in the throat.
My favorite spell flavor is a shepherd druid I played some years ago where every spell they cast was a manifestation of a spirit animal. Hold Person was a spiritual python that wrapped itself around the target, squeezing it into paralysis. Healing Word was a dove that flew from my hand into the target to refresh their spirit. I continue this tradition to this day when I play a druid.
I love this! Recently started playing (1st Time Player, session 2) as a Warforged Bard. My Light Cantrip has been reflavoured so that it's like headlights from my eyes whenever I cast it instead of a sphere - which does mean I can only cast it on myself - and any Bard Spell I cast is essentially a soundboard from my character. For example, my Dissonant Whispers is actually the sound of microphone feedback, and Cutting Words is the Sad Trombone SFX
My favorite flavors usually fall in fitting spells to your theme- even if it’s just a color that matches that of your character’s magic. Eldritch Blast is a really good one for this, since you can match it to the patron and the style of the caster. There’s plenty of ways to make interesting themes. I had a character themed around swords, an Eldritch knight. Everything she did was swords. Sword Burst was literal, but her scorching rays were literally blades of fire she threw. Enjoyed that a lot. I have a monk Paladin in 3.5 who, due to his connection to bahamut, his various spells are draconically themed. Like his ‘silver beard’ spell that conjured dragon scales to protect him. Or ‘silvered weapon’ that covered his hand in a silver dragon claw. There was also my mute warlock who casted spells by speaking with her patrons’s voice. She also, due to her patron being associated with eyes, launched eldritch blasts as eyebeams.
I feel like adding personal touches to spells goes a long way to make casters feel less generic . My necromancer has a bunch of spells i have entirely rethemed to fit better with an undead theme..
I have an artificer cleric build that I do alot of this creative mechanics when I use the spells. Cure wounds is either an injection I give or a host of mechanical spiders that operate in a downed player.
I actually do this as a DM, when my players cast a spell and they just say they cast it on who I'll stop them before I roll the check and ask ok paint a picture for me how your casting this spell? It helps encourage this sort of creativity your talking about and makes moments more memorable both for the success and fails at the table. Absolutely love this coach keep up the good work!
We play a different game than d&d. In it, certain spells colors are based on eye color. (Think spells like shield and magic missiles). Can't wait for the the mystery where that comes into play.
Hey nice video as always. Sorry for my bad English, here my contribution : Once I made a Dwarf Paladin of Bahamut, and his holy symbol was a silver dragon tattooed on his arm. When he cast Shield of Faith, the tattoo grew on all his skin and the Divine SMite was the Dragon Breath. Obviously, Find Steed was a Drake (we used the Ambush Drake stats, even if it wasn't really necessary) and the objective was to make him a real dragon !
I remember that when I was playing a wizard, I literally started having phrases, mostly in gibberish XD, for each spell that I was gonna cast with a little description on how I cast the spell. And I got to say it was fun.
I’ve had fun with my Izzit League Artificer. His spells have all come from his armor and are treated as more weapon mechanics that focus the magic. Example: When I cast Chaos Bolt, lights on the finger tips of his gauntlets light up and rotate between colors that match the different elemental colors. When I decide the element based on the roll, that’s the color that it stops on before the spell fires off.
Reminds me of my favorite character, an eldritch knight/artificer, he was actually quite weak magically so he channeled the little magic he had onto objects he created, as well as his martial feats. Firebolt? That's him firing his hand cannon. Thorn whip? He has a wrist-mounted grappling hook. Shield? Infusing magic into his sword to move in for a parry. Absorb Elements? Channeling the bad guy's magic into his weapon. Catapult and Booming blade are pretty much the only two that I didn't change, their flavor was already on point.
My group has the habit of making rather ridiculous characters for One-Shots. So, I made a Wizard whose spellbook is composed of figurines from popular stories and who casts his spells by holding up said figurines and shouting out the name of the characters these figurines represent. Talked about this with the DM and we agreed that pulling out the figurine and presenting it is a Somatic component, the shouting of names is a Verbal component and the figurines/ pages of his spellbook are material components (with gp components being part of the figurine e.g. the pearl for Identify is held by the figurine). Effectively, this means that we changed all of his spells to have S, V, M components without changing any of the other mechanics.
Flavoring spells is never bad. Keeps players guessing what spell was cast without saying "I cast X, Y, Z spell" Probably need to tell the DM specifically, but with a twist. I had a Warforged Hexblade Warlock villain have the given sword stuck in his body that granted the powers. Using the lore of Warforged and mix of magical weapons from Hexblade. Thought that was a cool idea.
I love Hexblade Warlocks. Whenever I'm playing one, I always flavor my Eldritch Blast as originating from my weapon either as a beam of energy being emitted from the tip of the blade or creating an orb of Eldritch energy that I toss into the air and smack towards my target like a baseball.
my wizard Nadoen has a notable quirk, whenever she casts a spell that involves fire, the flames are blue. this trait is a trademark of her family in Evermeet, all wizards in her family produce blue flames when they cast spells.
I have a druid I made recently who’s spells I flavored to be like threads. Like as in sewing thread. This is because fabric is a huge theme in the campaign and my character has proficiency in weaver’s tools. Also it felt very dream like, especially for a character who is supposed to be dream themed and it’s a fey themed campaign too. I also have my druid transform into a spider a lot to further sell this theme. For another character I flavored a lot around their swarm as a swarmkeeper, which was that their swarm is a bunch of fragmented souls that have a difficult time moving on but that my character tries to help them in her own way. The souls are what enhance my character’s abilities and “cast” the spells. It’s why I took a lot of necrotic and cold spells if they have a damage type. The party adores this one quite a bit. I mean heck, I have a samurai fighter who’s moves and magic sword are all lightning based. I even put in their design that they have scars that are the distinctive kind you get from being struck by lightning, implying that happened to my fighter (it did, lol).
I always pictured my bladesinging wizard drawing runes to get their spells (either a shorthand for combat or more detailed for ritual spells) (for mechanical purposes the other hand was always left empty for M/S components). So a fireball rune would be drawn with the sword and then “batted” by the blade at the target.
I made a wizard bladesinger who is a magizoologist (backround i made which studies magical creatures) who's spells take a form of a magical creatures when cast and when she uses a bladesong, various magical creatures fly around her protecting from attacks.
I've been tossing around the idea of an incredibly chill bard who's a painter (inspired by Bob Ross, of course) who casts all of his spells by painting symbols that hover in the air and manifest the spell's effects. The neat twist I though of to tie in components is that he mixes the spell components with his pigments into special paint jars for each of his spells (rose petals and bat guano to make his fireball paint, lightning bug innards and marigolds for his dancing lights paint, etc.). He'll use his special paints to paint a group portrait at the start of the day to cast Aid on the party, or quickly paint 4 burning torches in the air to cast Dancing Lights, or paint a flame on the blade of someone's sword to cast Light on it and cause it to glow, or painting images of what his illusion spells will be.
I played a lurker of the deep Warlock. He carried around a sturdy fishing pole which was his staff--both as a weapon and a casting focus. Whenever he cast any of this spells it would always be in the context of fishing. Lightning Lure - was him casting out his fishing line a short distance hooking the person and reeling them in before the line electrified. His ability to summon tendrils of the deep as a bonus action from the subclass - I would throw out a bag of chum and the tentacles would emerge from where the chum was thrown. Mage Hand - was him animating the hook and a little bit of excess line and then cast it out the distance to where I wanted the Mage Hand.
And the story of my Patron, was that I once hooked a kraken, and out of curiosity the Kraken surface to see who had hooked him rather than immediately destroy them. And then out of the amusement of him not seeing the line leading to some rural fisherman having successfully hooked him, the Kraken offered a pact to the fisherman rather than destroy him.
Im currently playing a warforged/artificer and, oh boy! you can flavor the fo of the spells: he's an ex soldier that after the war was repurpose as a cop. His most used cantrip is shocking grasp, referencing a tazer, that is simply an electric gauntlet, in that gauntlet he has a hook shot that works for thorn whip. This tank with legs has something like an energy core in his chest (like iron man) from where he cast scorching ray, shatter is just a flashbang. Some round clockwork mechanism from his belt can float and creata a force field for casting shield, but this same mechanism can grow little razors and spin around him to cast sword burst. Referencing her past as a soldier his turrets are small tanks, wall of fire is a small wwii airplane that throws napalm all over the field and fireball is a orbital laser from a magical machine abandoned since the war but he still has the code to comunicate with it. Im having so much fun with character and flavoring the spells is a lot of fun.
I have an idea for a blade singer wizard in an urban fantasy (like modern day) setting who uses genres of music to flavor their spells, they would be a bard except they’re super socially awkward, so instead they’re just the quiet nerdy guy who’s really good with sound equipment, their headphones are their casting focus, and depending on the spell they create music of various genres.
I used your point buy character creation system to create, Freak. He's a creation of a wizard who makes creatures and sells them to carnivals. He's a barbarian/druid. His shape-shifting is a byproduct if his creation. The spells he uses are more like latent innate abilities that he discovers as he goes. I describe myself digging around and scrounging up goodberries. His legs grow in musculature as he gains the ability to "jump" further. He vomits acid on everything before he eats it. And my favorite reskinned thunderwave where he generates the electricity inside himself and unleashes it Blanka style. Everything is themed around this amalgam of creatures that make up "The Freak" also he understands common but doesn't have the vocal capacity to speak it.. he speaks primordial
My elven bladesinger had mostly lightning and thunder reflavored spells because in his past lives he'd been the in world equivalent to a metagamer and the enemies in those previous lives weren't generally resistant to his theme
Next mage I make will cast magic missile in the form of chickens who run around until they hit their target, and fireball? A giant flaming Pultra hatches out of a parrotmon sized egg in the sky, landing right on top of the designated area. (I'm hungry, alright?)
I know a bunch of people have probably done this one before but I had a Warforged druid and he was just a transformer LOL. Every single Beast form was a robot and I had to make the cartoon changing sound when I changed into it haha.
my light cleric's powers all manifest as her gathering up the ambient heat around her in the form of purple flame - so Guiding Bolt and Burning Hands and Faerie Fire and her Radiance of the Dawn are all just different shapes for her to form that purple flame into and direct it. her Spiritual Weapon will be a floating buzzsaw-ring of flame, her Spirit Guardians will be rings of purple flame centered around her, leaping and orbiting.
Played a spores druid one. He wore a hat (giant capmushroom of some sort) ontop of this hat all kinds of mushrooms grew. When he would cast a spell he would release spores, throw mushrooms or grow them on this target directly. Fearie Fire were glowing spores, charm person was a parisitic fungus growing out of there ear that would mind control them (this is a Real existing fungus btw, it targets ants!). Because of the heavy restrictions I got on the spells i could cast the DM gave me some additional ones not on the druid spell list, you wont beleve the smile I got on my face when i got hypnotic paterns ;)!!!! Hop on everybody we are going on a psychedelic trip!
My celestial Warlock was a half elf from the high North who's patron was Saint of gifts and giving, Dede Cole. My eldritch blast was snowballs filled with coal. My celestial heal was a magic candy cane I gave people. I was a trusting babe in the woods, along to spread the Cheer of Juultude! His Book of Magical secrets is a long scroll where his patron can help him add spells, AND where he takes down the names of people he meets, naughty or nice, to be reported back to Dede Cole. He's BASICALLY Buddy the Elf. As the campaign progressed, he slowly became Wetworks operative for Santa, and was introduced to the darker side of Juletide, enlisting Santa's cousin Krampus to aid in giving the naughty their just deserts.
I've made an "artificer" using a wizard transmutation school (artificer was not allowed) to cast his spells he created potions on the fly, so for example to cast firebolt he got a vial with some sort of red liquid, put in the vial some sulfur and then threw the potion to his enemy
Example: when you cast firebolt, a handcrossbow of pure flame appears in your hand, that shoots the firebolt. A more concrete example: I didn't have the chance to play him yet, but a human pastamancer. In this case, a normal transmutation (feels closer to cooking) wizard, that is just food flavoured, like, his Shield Spell looks like a transluzent dinner plate, or his firebolt looks like a Peperoni, or Evards Black Tentacles (at least I think it was on the wizard list) looks like black spaghetti.
I made a bard who could only cast enchantment spells and i an so proud of it 😌 all there spells are them using the school of magic out put in him and making whistles to cast instead of using instruments
One of my characters that I transitioned to 5e was able to make clones of himself. He ended up being a Hexblade Warlock and all of his spells involve his clones buffing him or distracting his opponents in some way. For example, Fly was a clone that would carry him up in the air by grabbing onto his back.
My “twilight” cleric manipulates the shadows like Shikamaru from Naruto. The temp HP from Twilight Sanctuary is described as darkness clinging to allies and protecting them from attacks. Combined with Spirit Guardians, the shadows lash out against enemies, consuming them as they fall. My Rune Knight is a werewolf and Giant’s Might is turning into the beast version.
I am playing a bladesinger, but his wedding ring is his arcane focus. The way I have his spells come about is like Dr. Strange, where you see the arcane circle and symbols before he casts the spells. But, since he's a dual wielding wizard, I try to have the magic appear on his arm and then it comes off the blade, or it appears in front of him For example: Scorching Ray: I explain that from his elbow, across his forearm, a "scroll" (think of like a snake wrapping around something) which is the actual arcane circle, filled with the symbols, wrap around his arm, coloured red, and end at his wrist, suddenly, the scroll shoots up rapidly to his wrist, and red crackling energy race across the blade until it reaches the tip, where three small fireballs shoot out from it. Haste: My character stands, blades pointed down, as four yellow circles appear. One at the front, back, left and right. Suddenly they spark with electricity and the faces of a clock appear, spinning slowly until they pick up speed, then the three faces, except the one at the front, move to stack on top at the one left over, which then I grab with my blade, and either flick it at someone and cast the spell on them, or it gets absorbed into my body and I cast it on myself. Those are some of the ways I flavour my spell casting.
I got a conjuration wizard, so I flavor spells as if I create components or focuses to conjure, hah, different effects. Like a glass sphere that expands into resilient sphere, powder to cast invisibility etc
Playing a homebrew class called an Incarcerer which is essentially a reverse Warlock. You get your magic power from a patron sealed inside of you. For my character I have an Archmage. Although most notably.... THE Archmage. As in Karsus the strongest wizard of dnd history. History wise. Karsus was cursed into becoming a bleeding rock and is known as the god of hubris. Because of this. A lot of my character's spells have a blood or gore element to them.
In my brother-in-law's campaign I play a wizard who is the villain In my campaign But in my campaign he is a paladin So as the wizard I flavor his mage armor as looking at like full plate mail armor Is in a ethereal way It's also when he casts suggestion his eyes glow and he moves his hands around like hes trying to hypnotize you as he talks
I am playing a Celestial Warlock with one level of Divine Soul Sorcerer so he is HOLY. And obviously all of his spells look like solid light, a bit like a Green Lantern. Hold Person summons glowing white shackles that bind the opponent. My Eldritch Blasts are just beams of light. Sacred Flame already looks like holy fire in most people's mind but I just extend that to the rest of my fire spells and even my buff spells. Basically my allies look like Super Saians when I cast spells on them. And then another player is a Barbarian with one level of Hexblade Warlock. He has a supercool greataxe that looks like it has veins running trough it and when he casts Eldritch Blast it looks like streaks of blood shooting from the axe into the enemies. And when he casts Armor of Agathys on himself it's blood slithering from his axe and covering his torso like Venom from Marvel comics. And when enemies take cold damage from hitting it it's actually blood spurting over them and them getting "chills" from the grossness
@@KnicKnac And any spellcaster could be a "Lantern" if you are creative with your spell descriptions. The mind altering spells are a bit tricky but summoning hard light constructs that look like something that would frighten or charm your opponent could be a workaround.
Not something I've done yet since the character (tiefling ranger with silver eyes) hasn't gotten to the level needed for her to learn lightning arrow, but: After casting the spell, her eyes spark with yellow lighting. When she draws an arrow, it too sparks with power, and when she fires it becomes engulfed as the lighting takes on a serpentine appearance. Just before contact is made, the head splits off and continues flying at the target, meanwhile the stump grows a multitude of heads that each strike at any creature within 10 feet of the original target
Side notes: I like to think lighting arrow is effectively the ranger's exclusive smite that deals AoE, also if there was a room densely packed with mimics I think it would be funny if you only found out everything was a mimic when you shot one with lighting arrow and the AoE effect turned every other "object" into smoldering goo
I haven't read Tasha's nor have I heard of the stuff it suggests spell casters. However, I'm currently playing a silenced Wizard. He cannot speak, so he uses Minor Illusion to give a voice to his performances. We're in a war campaign so I designed him to be a song and dance man to keep up morale. That part fell through, but it's forced me to think tactically on the 24 total spells that are nonverbal. And I can only use 14 of them due to my level.
Not so much custom description of spells, my Eldritch Knight had an arcane focus, a ring made from the scales of each type of dragon he had slain (this was on a westmarch Discord server) and the ring would flare with magic whenever he cast a corresponding spell, The red scale would shine and flare if he casted a fire spell
I personally wish spells and Wizards in particular were designed a bit more open-ended and focused in order to facilitate that more, but otherwise it's a good idea. Several rules-light and/or setting-agnostic games are designed from the ground up to customize descriptions like that. I have a Wizard character on standby who is an insightful diviner but also uses ice-based magic. For her, I had a number of ideas if I get to play her longer: Fog Cloud - a swirling cloud of snow drifting in the area. Grease - a patch of ice freezing over the targeted surface. Hold Person - the person's mind is convinced they are frozen solid and can't move. Hypnotic Pattern - Aurora Borealis, at this time of the day, at this time of the year, in this part of the realms, localized entirely within your dungeon. Polymorph - many of the forms have thick, white fur, pale skin or any other sign of living in cold climates. I still don't like spell scribing
I played a super flamboyant noble half ling bard who had three servants from the knight background but I instead I made them these apprentices who were only fallowing me because I was the best pianist in the multiverse and it was just so funny in the first fight I had them carry me and a piano around for the whole fight while I just cast spells
I’m creating a new fresh magic system for d&d that builds on the magic system of 5e. It’s called the Elements of Reality. Why don’t we have variety in magic in 5e. Magic examples: metal, ooze, dream, cosmic, chaos, ying yang, shadow, tech, light, spirit, blood, etc. I actually like the ideas you’re talking about. Maybe different magic types are good or weak against other magic types ( Pokémon inspired this aspect of this ).
My wizard is lightning/ thunder based. Soo most of his spells cause a spark or something. For example when he haste’s someone they are surrounded by cracking energy
Vedalken artificer 1/wizard 1/Life Domain cleric 1/Clockwork soul sorcerer 1 DM PC (only 2 PCs for a curse of Strahd campaign), When they cast a spell time seems to stop and only the ticking of a clock can be heard, then it is cast with no one knowing how.
My Palladin is a Drow and when he cast spell his eyes become blind Silver. When he cast Misty Step his person desapear in mist end the last thing you see is his gloving silver eyes 👻
I had a devine sorcerer whos spells was always seemed around bugs and plants Jim Magic Missle was bees apperes and shoot toword my enemies or with a nat one start targeting me XD scorching rays were wasps stricking my enmies. spirit gardians were pollins taht caused alergyes and sleep was pollin that made people sleepy XD My dragonborn druid uses thier spells in a more elemental manner healing spirit was a water elemental that heals
My artificer doesn't use any magic at all for spells. Every spell he casts is reskinned as science i.e. Lesser Restoration is a syringe of a fast-acting general purpose antidote.
But... spending twenty minutes listening to someone describe their magic missile is tedious and boring. Yer special effects description should only take as long as declaring yer spell. And yer fancy schmancy spell description does NOT give you bonus damage or effects, ever.
Let me know what COOL Custom Casting you've used for your Characters!
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Even something as simple as deciding that your spells have a colour palette can go a long way. Works for DM's too, if you have an NPC always casts silver spells, you only need to describe a ray of silver light streaking across the battlefield for them to know who's arrived to help them.
Similar: Fire spells change colors based on damage rolled (red->orange->yellow->white -- crits are blue).
I was playing as a Warforged Druid/Fighter character and his wild shapes were reflavored as things like motorcycles and small jets, I was basically playing as a Transformer
YES, I've always wanted to play a Moon Druid he is a bit more like Vixen or Animal Man from DC comics. They dont turn into animals, the just get all of their powers. So my Druid would grow or shrink when turning into something that isn't the same size as them but other than that they would still look like themselves. Maybe just grow claws, a tail, fangs, gills, fins or wings depending on which Beast I am using. This could also work well for an Ant-Man type build with the growing and shrinking powers
It doesn't have to be limited to flavoring spells, can be moves and weapons.
My most recent PC is a Monk who is a con man in his 40s going through a mid life crisis after being evicted from his home. He's totally lying about being a Monk and uses a broom stick as a quarter staff. His Stunning Strike is him punching people in the throat.
When my Eldritch Knight casts Lightning Lure, he throws his spear at the target and shouts "Get over here!"
My favorite spell flavor is a shepherd druid I played some years ago where every spell they cast was a manifestation of a spirit animal. Hold Person was a spiritual python that wrapped itself around the target, squeezing it into paralysis. Healing Word was a dove that flew from my hand into the target to refresh their spirit. I continue this tradition to this day when I play a druid.
I love this! Recently started playing (1st Time Player, session 2) as a Warforged Bard. My Light Cantrip has been reflavoured so that it's like headlights from my eyes whenever I cast it instead of a sphere - which does mean I can only cast it on myself - and any Bard Spell I cast is essentially a soundboard from my character. For example, my Dissonant Whispers is actually the sound of microphone feedback, and Cutting Words is the Sad Trombone SFX
My favorite flavors usually fall in fitting spells to your theme- even if it’s just a color that matches that of your character’s magic. Eldritch Blast is a really good one for this, since you can match it to the patron and the style of the caster. There’s plenty of ways to make interesting themes. I had a character themed around swords, an Eldritch knight. Everything she did was swords. Sword Burst was literal, but her scorching rays were literally blades of fire she threw. Enjoyed that a lot. I have a monk Paladin in 3.5 who, due to his connection to bahamut, his various spells are draconically themed. Like his ‘silver beard’ spell that conjured dragon scales to protect him. Or ‘silvered weapon’ that covered his hand in a silver dragon claw. There was also my mute warlock who casted spells by speaking with her patrons’s voice. She also, due to her patron being associated with eyes, launched eldritch blasts as eyebeams.
I feel like adding personal touches to spells goes a long way to make casters feel less generic .
My necromancer has a bunch of spells i have entirely rethemed to fit better with an undead theme..
YES re-themeing is HUGE!
I have an artificer cleric build that I do alot of this creative mechanics when I use the spells. Cure wounds is either an injection I give or a host of mechanical spiders that operate in a downed player.
I actually do this as a DM, when my players cast a spell and they just say they cast it on who I'll stop them before I roll the check and ask ok paint a picture for me how your casting this spell? It helps encourage this sort of creativity your talking about and makes moments more memorable both for the success and fails at the table. Absolutely love this coach keep up the good work!
The Critical Role phrase: "Paint me a word picture" comes to mind.
We play a different game than d&d.
In it, certain spells colors are based on eye color. (Think spells like shield and magic missiles).
Can't wait for the the mystery where that comes into play.
Hey nice video as always.
Sorry for my bad English, here my contribution :
Once I made a Dwarf Paladin of Bahamut, and his holy symbol was a silver dragon tattooed on his arm. When he cast Shield of Faith, the tattoo grew on all his skin and the Divine SMite was the Dragon Breath.
Obviously, Find Steed was a Drake (we used the Ambush Drake stats, even if it wasn't really necessary) and the objective was to make him a real dragon !
I remember that when I was playing a wizard, I literally started having phrases, mostly in gibberish XD, for each spell that I was gonna cast with a little description on how I cast the spell.
And I got to say it was fun.
The rito sorcerer in my game uses a bow as his magical focus and flavors his spells as arrows of magic
Zelda D&D sounds cool af
I’ve had fun with my Izzit League Artificer. His spells have all come from his armor and are treated as more weapon mechanics that focus the magic. Example: When I cast Chaos Bolt, lights on the finger tips of his gauntlets light up and rotate between colors that match the different elemental colors. When I decide the element based on the roll, that’s the color that it stops on before the spell fires off.
I used magic missiles as a icicles that i did throw at my enemy and scorching ray was blue energy that was so cold that it started to burn xD.
Reminds me of my favorite character, an eldritch knight/artificer, he was actually quite weak magically so he channeled the little magic he had onto objects he created, as well as his martial feats.
Firebolt? That's him firing his hand cannon. Thorn whip? He has a wrist-mounted grappling hook. Shield? Infusing magic into his sword to move in for a parry. Absorb Elements? Channeling the bad guy's magic into his weapon. Catapult and Booming blade are pretty much the only two that I didn't change, their flavor was already on point.
My group has the habit of making rather ridiculous characters for One-Shots. So, I made a Wizard whose spellbook is composed of figurines from popular stories and who casts his spells by holding up said figurines and shouting out the name of the characters these figurines represent. Talked about this with the DM and we agreed that pulling out the figurine and presenting it is a Somatic component, the shouting of names is a Verbal component and the figurines/ pages of his spellbook are material components (with gp components being part of the figurine e.g. the pearl for Identify is held by the figurine). Effectively, this means that we changed all of his spells to have S, V, M components without changing any of the other mechanics.
You got the ref outfit 😂
Flavoring spells is never bad. Keeps players guessing what spell was cast without saying "I cast X, Y, Z spell" Probably need to tell the DM specifically, but with a twist.
I had a Warforged Hexblade Warlock villain have the given sword stuck in his body that granted the powers. Using the lore of Warforged and mix of magical weapons from Hexblade. Thought that was a cool idea.
Hahaha the ref's shirt is a nice touch. I love how evocative this video and simple non mechanical things can freshen up the game
I love Hexblade Warlocks. Whenever I'm playing one, I always flavor my Eldritch Blast as originating from my weapon either as a beam of energy being emitted from the tip of the blade or creating an orb of Eldritch energy that I toss into the air and smack towards my target like a baseball.
This is honestly so important when playing an artificer! You can just say "I cast fire bolt"
Or be throwing around bottles of alchemist fire!
my wizard Nadoen has a notable quirk, whenever she casts a spell that involves fire, the flames are blue. this trait is a trademark of her family in Evermeet, all wizards in her family produce blue flames when they cast spells.
I have a druid I made recently who’s spells I flavored to be like threads. Like as in sewing thread. This is because fabric is a huge theme in the campaign and my character has proficiency in weaver’s tools. Also it felt very dream like, especially for a character who is supposed to be dream themed and it’s a fey themed campaign too. I also have my druid transform into a spider a lot to further sell this theme.
For another character I flavored a lot around their swarm as a swarmkeeper, which was that their swarm is a bunch of fragmented souls that have a difficult time moving on but that my character tries to help them in her own way. The souls are what enhance my character’s abilities and “cast” the spells. It’s why I took a lot of necrotic and cold spells if they have a damage type. The party adores this one quite a bit.
I mean heck, I have a samurai fighter who’s moves and magic sword are all lightning based. I even put in their design that they have scars that are the distinctive kind you get from being struck by lightning, implying that happened to my fighter (it did, lol).
I always pictured my bladesinging wizard drawing runes to get their spells (either a shorthand for combat or more detailed for ritual spells) (for mechanical purposes the other hand was always left empty for M/S components). So a fireball rune would be drawn with the sword and then “batted” by the blade at the target.
Amazing!!!
I made a wizard bladesinger who is a magizoologist (backround i made which studies magical creatures) who's spells take a form of a magical creatures when cast and when she uses a bladesong, various magical creatures fly around her protecting from attacks.
I've been tossing around the idea of an incredibly chill bard who's a painter (inspired by Bob Ross, of course) who casts all of his spells by painting symbols that hover in the air and manifest the spell's effects. The neat twist I though of to tie in components is that he mixes the spell components with his pigments into special paint jars for each of his spells (rose petals and bat guano to make his fireball paint, lightning bug innards and marigolds for his dancing lights paint, etc.). He'll use his special paints to paint a group portrait at the start of the day to cast Aid on the party, or quickly paint 4 burning torches in the air to cast Dancing Lights, or paint a flame on the blade of someone's sword to cast Light on it and cause it to glow, or painting images of what his illusion spells will be.
I played a lurker of the deep Warlock. He carried around a sturdy fishing pole which was his staff--both as a weapon and a casting focus.
Whenever he cast any of this spells it would always be in the context of fishing.
Lightning Lure - was him casting out his fishing line a short distance hooking the person and reeling them in before the line electrified.
His ability to summon tendrils of the deep as a bonus action from the subclass - I would throw out a bag of chum and the tentacles would emerge from where the chum was thrown.
Mage Hand - was him animating the hook and a little bit of excess line and then cast it out the distance to where I wanted the Mage Hand.
And the story of my Patron, was that I once hooked a kraken, and out of curiosity the Kraken surface to see who had hooked him rather than immediately destroy them. And then out of the amusement of him not seeing the line leading to some rural fisherman having successfully hooked him, the Kraken offered a pact to the fisherman rather than destroy him.
I just made an Order of Scribes wizard, so this video is good for such a customizable subclass!
Im currently playing a warforged/artificer and, oh boy! you can flavor the fo of the spells: he's an ex soldier that after the war was repurpose as a cop. His most used cantrip is shocking grasp, referencing a tazer, that is simply an electric gauntlet, in that gauntlet he has a hook shot that works for thorn whip. This tank with legs has something like an energy core in his chest (like iron man) from where he cast scorching ray, shatter is just a flashbang. Some round clockwork mechanism from his belt can float and creata a force field for casting shield, but this same mechanism can grow little razors and spin around him to cast sword burst. Referencing her past as a soldier his turrets are small tanks, wall of fire is a small wwii airplane that throws napalm all over the field and fireball is a orbital laser from a magical machine abandoned since the war but he still has the code to comunicate with it. Im having so much fun with character and flavoring the spells is a lot of fun.
Yes! YES! And MORE flavor flav on how Mages should be casting
I have an idea for a blade singer wizard in an urban fantasy (like modern day) setting who uses genres of music to flavor their spells, they would be a bard except they’re super socially awkward, so instead they’re just the quiet nerdy guy who’s really good with sound equipment, their headphones are their casting focus, and depending on the spell they create music of various genres.
I used your point buy character creation system to create, Freak. He's a creation of a wizard who makes creatures and sells them to carnivals. He's a barbarian/druid.
His shape-shifting is a byproduct if his creation. The spells he uses are more like latent innate abilities that he discovers as he goes. I describe myself digging around and scrounging up goodberries. His legs grow in musculature as he gains the ability to "jump" further. He vomits acid on everything before he eats it. And my favorite reskinned thunderwave where he generates the electricity inside himself and unleashes it Blanka style. Everything is themed around this amalgam of creatures that make up "The Freak" also he understands common but doesn't have the vocal capacity to speak it.. he speaks primordial
My elven bladesinger had mostly lightning and thunder reflavored spells because in his past lives he'd been the in world equivalent to a metagamer and the enemies in those previous lives weren't generally resistant to his theme
You've given some ideas for my new character.Thank you
Next mage I make will cast magic missile in the form of chickens who run around until they hit their target, and fireball? A giant flaming Pultra hatches out of a parrotmon sized egg in the sky, landing right on top of the designated area. (I'm hungry, alright?)
I know a bunch of people have probably done this one before but I had a Warforged druid and he was just a transformer LOL. Every single Beast form was a robot and I had to make the cartoon changing sound when I changed into it haha.
Omg!! I PERSONALLY DID THIS!!! Yes!! Love it! Someone else in the party was an artificer and would tinker on me to give me upgrades!
my light cleric's powers all manifest as her gathering up the ambient heat around her in the form of purple flame - so Guiding Bolt and Burning Hands and Faerie Fire and her Radiance of the Dawn are all just different shapes for her to form that purple flame into and direct it. her Spiritual Weapon will be a floating buzzsaw-ring of flame, her Spirit Guardians will be rings of purple flame centered around her, leaping and orbiting.
Played a spores druid one. He wore a hat (giant capmushroom of some sort) ontop of this hat all kinds of mushrooms grew. When he would cast a spell he would release spores, throw mushrooms or grow them on this target directly. Fearie Fire were glowing spores, charm person was a parisitic fungus growing out of there ear that would mind control them (this is a Real existing fungus btw, it targets ants!). Because of the heavy restrictions I got on the spells i could cast the DM gave me some additional ones not on the druid spell list, you wont beleve the smile I got on my face when i got hypnotic paterns ;)!!!! Hop on everybody we are going on a psychedelic trip!
Wasnt expecting the refree uniform
The problem here is dealing with some resistances and immunities, but i agree 100%.
A drake scaled wolf sounds so cool!
So, with my Death Domain Cleric, my favorite spell to flavor is Guardian of Faith. With it, I create a large, floating Grim Reaper!
My celestial Warlock was a half elf from the high North who's patron was Saint of gifts and giving, Dede Cole. My eldritch blast was snowballs filled with coal. My celestial heal was a magic candy cane I gave people. I was a trusting babe in the woods, along to spread the Cheer of Juultude! His Book of Magical secrets is a long scroll where his patron can help him add spells, AND where he takes down the names of people he meets, naughty or nice, to be reported back to Dede Cole.
He's BASICALLY Buddy the Elf.
As the campaign progressed, he slowly became Wetworks operative for Santa, and was introduced to the darker side of Juletide, enlisting Santa's cousin Krampus to aid in giving the naughty their just deserts.
I've made an "artificer" using a wizard transmutation school (artificer was not allowed)
to cast his spells he created potions on the fly, so for example to cast firebolt he got a vial with some sort of red liquid, put in the vial some sulfur and then threw the potion to his enemy
Example: when you cast firebolt, a handcrossbow of pure flame appears in your hand, that shoots the firebolt.
A more concrete example: I didn't have the chance to play him yet, but a human pastamancer. In this case, a normal transmutation (feels closer to cooking) wizard, that is just food flavoured, like, his Shield Spell looks like a transluzent dinner plate, or his firebolt looks like a Peperoni, or Evards Black Tentacles (at least I think it was on the wizard list) looks like black spaghetti.
I made a bard who could only cast enchantment spells and i an so proud of it 😌 all there spells are them using the school of magic out put in him and making whistles to cast instead of using instruments
One of my characters that I transitioned to 5e was able to make clones of himself. He ended up being a Hexblade Warlock and all of his spells involve his clones buffing him or distracting his opponents in some way. For example, Fly was a clone that would carry him up in the air by grabbing onto his back.
My “twilight” cleric manipulates the shadows like Shikamaru from Naruto. The temp HP from Twilight Sanctuary is described as darkness clinging to allies and protecting them from attacks. Combined with Spirit Guardians, the shadows lash out against enemies, consuming them as they fall.
My Rune Knight is a werewolf and Giant’s Might is turning into the beast version.
I am playing a bladesinger, but his wedding ring is his arcane focus. The way I have his spells come about is like Dr. Strange, where you see the arcane circle and symbols before he casts the spells. But, since he's a dual wielding wizard, I try to have the magic appear on his arm and then it comes off the blade, or it appears in front of him For example:
Scorching Ray: I explain that from his elbow, across his forearm, a "scroll" (think of like a snake wrapping around something) which is the actual arcane circle, filled with the symbols, wrap around his arm, coloured red, and end at his wrist, suddenly, the scroll shoots up rapidly to his wrist, and red crackling energy race across the blade until it reaches the tip, where three small fireballs shoot out from it.
Haste: My character stands, blades pointed down, as four yellow circles appear. One at the front, back, left and right. Suddenly they spark with electricity and the faces of a clock appear, spinning slowly until they pick up speed, then the three faces, except the one at the front, move to stack on top at the one left over, which then I grab with my blade, and either flick it at someone and cast the spell on them, or it gets absorbed into my body and I cast it on myself.
Those are some of the ways I flavour my spell casting.
Coach ! Make sure you check out the spell tables in Dungeon Crawl Classics for inspiration for making casting more individualized
I got a conjuration wizard, so I flavor spells as if I create components or focuses to conjure, hah, different effects. Like a glass sphere that expands into resilient sphere, powder to cast invisibility etc
Every psychic damage spell . Character does the one closed , looking through the fingers, I'm crushing your head motion .
Playing a homebrew class called an Incarcerer which is essentially a reverse Warlock. You get your magic power from a patron sealed inside of you. For my character I have an Archmage. Although most notably.... THE Archmage. As in Karsus the strongest wizard of dnd history. History wise. Karsus was cursed into becoming a bleeding rock and is known as the god of hubris. Because of this. A lot of my character's spells have a blood or gore element to them.
@@reverie02 So I've been trying to send the link but TH-cam refuses to let me comment it.
@@reverie02 Is there any way that I can send the link elsewhere to you? Cause I would love to share it. But TH-cam is being very stubborn.
In my brother-in-law's campaign I play a wizard who is the villain In my campaign But in my campaign he is a paladin So as the wizard I flavor his mage armor as looking at like full plate mail armor Is in a ethereal way It's also when he casts suggestion his eyes glow and he moves his hands around like hes trying to hypnotize you as he talks
Time to spice up some spells!
I am playing a Celestial Warlock with one level of Divine Soul Sorcerer so he is HOLY. And obviously all of his spells look like solid light, a bit like a Green Lantern. Hold Person summons glowing white shackles that bind the opponent. My Eldritch Blasts are just beams of light. Sacred Flame already looks like holy fire in most people's mind but I just extend that to the rest of my fire spells and even my buff spells. Basically my allies look like Super Saians when I cast spells on them.
And then another player is a Barbarian with one level of Hexblade Warlock. He has a supercool greataxe that looks like it has veins running trough it and when he casts Eldritch Blast it looks like streaks of blood shooting from the axe into the enemies. And when he casts Armor of Agathys on himself it's blood slithering from his axe and covering his torso like Venom from Marvel comics. And when enemies take cold damage from hitting it it's actually blood spurting over them and them getting "chills" from the grossness
The Green Lantern idea is awesome. Just borrow from the entire spectrum of Lanterns
@@KnicKnac And any spellcaster could be a "Lantern" if you are creative with your spell descriptions. The mind altering spells are a bit tricky but summoning hard light constructs that look like something that would frighten or charm your opponent could be a workaround.
Played a Warforged: great AXe was my chest, quarter staff was in my spine
Make all the ray spells look like mantarays
Not something I've done yet since the character (tiefling ranger with silver eyes) hasn't gotten to the level needed for her to learn lightning arrow, but:
After casting the spell, her eyes spark with yellow lighting.
When she draws an arrow, it too sparks with power, and when she fires it becomes engulfed as the lighting takes on a serpentine appearance. Just before contact is made, the head splits off and continues flying at the target, meanwhile the stump grows a multitude of heads that each strike at any creature within 10 feet of the original target
Side notes: I like to think lighting arrow is effectively the ranger's exclusive smite that deals AoE, also if there was a room densely packed with mimics I think it would be funny if you only found out everything was a mimic when you shot one with lighting arrow and the AoE effect turned every other "object" into smoldering goo
I haven't read Tasha's nor have I heard of the stuff it suggests spell casters. However, I'm currently playing a silenced Wizard. He cannot speak, so he uses Minor Illusion to give a voice to his performances. We're in a war campaign so I designed him to be a song and dance man to keep up morale. That part fell through, but it's forced me to think tactically on the 24 total spells that are nonverbal. And I can only use 14 of them due to my level.
Not so much custom description of spells, my Eldritch Knight had an arcane focus, a ring made from the scales of each type of dragon he had slain (this was on a westmarch Discord server) and the ring would flare with magic whenever he cast a corresponding spell, The red scale would shine and flare if he casted a fire spell
I've been doing this for some time with my Gnome Wizard and his spells, many of which are very inappropriate to leave as a comment 😅
I mean gnomes are pranksters
I personally wish spells and Wizards in particular were designed a bit more open-ended and focused in order to facilitate that more, but otherwise it's a good idea. Several rules-light and/or setting-agnostic games are designed from the ground up to customize descriptions like that. I have a Wizard character on standby who is an insightful diviner but also uses ice-based magic. For her, I had a number of ideas if I get to play her longer:
Fog Cloud - a swirling cloud of snow drifting in the area.
Grease - a patch of ice freezing over the targeted surface.
Hold Person - the person's mind is convinced they are frozen solid and can't move.
Hypnotic Pattern - Aurora Borealis, at this time of the day, at this time of the year, in this part of the realms, localized entirely within your dungeon.
Polymorph - many of the forms have thick, white fur, pale skin or any other sign of living in cold climates.
I still don't like spell scribing
I played a super flamboyant noble half ling bard who had three servants from the knight background but I instead I made them these apprentices who were only fallowing me because I was the best pianist in the multiverse and it was just so funny in the first fight I had them carry me and a piano around for the whole fight while I just cast spells
I’m creating a new fresh magic system for d&d that builds on the magic system of 5e. It’s called the Elements of Reality. Why don’t we have variety in magic in 5e. Magic examples: metal, ooze, dream, cosmic, chaos, ying yang, shadow, tech, light, spirit, blood, etc. I actually like the ideas you’re talking about. Maybe different magic types are good or weak against other magic types ( Pokémon inspired this aspect of this ).
My wizard is lightning/ thunder based. Soo most of his spells cause a spark or something. For example when he haste’s someone they are surrounded by cracking energy
Vedalken artificer 1/wizard 1/Life Domain cleric 1/Clockwork soul sorcerer 1 DM PC (only 2 PCs for a curse of Strahd campaign), When they cast a spell time seems to stop and only the ticking of a clock can be heard, then it is cast with no one knowing how.
It is in the works, I am thinking as he levels up, he increases in steampunk
Hi, How u handle Banishment Spell in your table ?
My Palladin is a Drow and when he cast spell his eyes become blind Silver. When he cast Misty Step his person desapear in mist end the last thing you see is his gloving silver eyes 👻
Damn that’s sick!!!
Is there a way for me to get a hold of the almanac even after the kickstarter? 😥
Hey! Only 2 days late on that notification TH-cam!
Farmer Sorcerer with Magic Missile Chickens 🤣🤣🤣
It is actually in the book
@@KnicKnac what book?
I played a necromancer that had a bag of bones belonging to a squirrel friend that died when I cast find familiar I get a undead squirrel
Would love to hear the normal guy paladin story
I had a devine sorcerer whos spells was always seemed around bugs and plants
Jim Magic Missle was bees apperes and shoot toword my enemies or with a nat one start targeting me XD scorching rays were wasps stricking my enmies. spirit gardians were pollins taht caused alergyes and sleep was pollin that made people sleepy XD
My dragonborn druid uses thier spells in a more elemental manner healing spirit was a water elemental that heals
💜💜💜
My artificer doesn't use any magic at all for spells. Every spell he casts is reskinned as science i.e. Lesser Restoration is a syringe of a fast-acting general purpose antidote.
Good video, coach! But update your google chrome!
Too much trouble. For a damage spell just spit in the direction of the target. Very unhygienic!
But... spending twenty minutes listening to someone describe their magic missile is tedious and boring.
Yer special effects description should only take as long as declaring yer spell.
And yer fancy schmancy spell description does NOT give you bonus damage or effects, ever.