To be honest, Steve the Cow Farmer sounds like a pretty cool D&D character. In a party full of edge lords and OP wizards, this dude just wants to help his cows. Sounds like could be a very wholesome character and a heart of the party in a way.
In a preindustrial society where >90% of the population is farmers, we shouldn't all be playing farmers necessarily but a lot of characters and everyone you run into would be ex-farmers or non-ex-farmers. And besides, there are a lot of times when a campaign can be described as "wow, this minor situation a few of the local weirdos showed up to solve has gotten completely out of hand" so it tracks
I know a lot of people don't like the "You But Cooler" archetype, but I think it's an easy and simple way to get started with character creation. Starting with yourself (a person you highly understand) and adding small differences to make them more interesting is an easily digestible way of learning the ins and outs of DnD. [Just don't be afraid to try something new for later campaigns!]
It's not a bad starting point, but players often try to make "You But Cooler" characters "perfect" and can be easily upset when anything bad happens to said character. That's a character type I've only really seen veteran players do well because they've changed the character enough to separate themselves from it.
Just about all the characters in the campaign I'm currently in are based on the players to some degree, but it's never really been a problem. I would even argue that a certain amount of self insert is unavoidable as it's much easier to roleplay a character if you can relate to them in some way. My character's personality is by no means the same as mine, but there are still many things about him that remind me of myself, for instance his capability for outside-the-box thinking and his undergoing transition from irresponsible to mature (I'm at the stage in life where this is relevant). I'm thinking about replacing him with a new character, but at the same time I also have to think about how a character fits into the party, and with how the party is currently build, the new character would likely end up filling the spot that the previous character would vacate. And honestly, the character I currently have is also a lot of fun.
thats was exactly what my first char was like... Just me but im a Wood Elf Rogue... i even gave him my first name 😂 After testing that out my next Char was pretty much completely different... A human paladin searching for his disappeared village From an antisocial thief to a overly socialising believer of god...
I made "myself but cooler" completely by accident. Seemingly my ideal version of myself is 40 year old snarky "cool aunt" druid, who lives in a forest and occasionally sets squirrels to terrorize random bandits. She tries to be polite very hard, but has a drowsy sense of humor and little patience for social dancing. She chews snacks all the time, which are hidden all over her clothes. . BBEG was a lich necromancer so I came up with the idea that my apprentice had been turned into a zombie and I intend to finish him off and properly bury him. The basic idea is that I join the group just to travel safer, but I gradually develop a liking for these jerks and decide to help them beat the lich. Not bad for a first character, she was a lot of fun to play
I think that's what most people do when we first play an RPG, especially if we know nothing about the lore/game world. Thats what I did on my first Skyrim character. Same for WoW. When you know nothing about the game world, you dont have much to latch onto and it can be better to just play as yourself and engage with it how you want to in the moment.
About writing a novel length Google doc… I’d say if you have a short summary for your DM, you can have a long Google doc for yourself and anyone else who wants to read it. A friend of mine has a very interesting three dimensional character that she’s been writing the backstory for for a year, and she’s still fantastic at the table!
the backstory's more for the GM han you, mostly, and it's a set of hooks and storylines for them to use. A huge one would need a dot-point list of the point for the GM to refer to--note the GM's going to have to read that at least half a dozen times, and very few of us are good enough writers to make that at all enjoyable....
@@thekaxmax The backstory is both a important tool for the DM, but also a great outlet for the player to get deeper in touch with their character. I'd say that it is equally important to either person, as for the player to know their character so they can roleplay them and draw from their memory, and for the DM to place hooks and hints to draw in the character.
@thorn4833 It does need the GM to read them and the player to follow them. I've seen a 3 page backstory on a murderhobo with no family or past going by how they play. And my D&D GM doesn't read backstories, he expects you to refer to them in play at which point he'll use the info.
@@thekaxmaxfair. I just agree that the backstory is a great outlet for the player. Few of us get to play DND as much as we’d like to, so players like to have some fun with backstories.
One of my favorite parts of the Witcher books is this one scene where Geralt is adventuring with a bunch of people while being a broody-loner, but Dandelion and Regis and the others in the group respond to Geralt's behavior by just straight-up take the piss out of him for "playing Batman" as they make camp.
I'm a DM and I had a player in my group who was a really good at min maxing but was really bad at creating interesting characters. (funnily enough most of his characters died). So after his current character died I sent him this video. And it's helped him a lot, I've only had a single one shot with him since he's watched this video but that one shot was one of the best D&D experiences I've ever had.
@@mrosskne min maxing makes you a target and gives you a false since of security, if your playing the pest possiable thing than theres nothing that can stop you in most games, dnd however is ballanced aginst the existing party by a (potentially amautre) game designer who didn't designer the game. Additonally if your goal for your character is to minmax then you're esintally trying to get the killed in every combat to "test the build" if you're not on the edge of death then it feels like your build didn't get to "stretch its legs". a dm who notices this is gonna try to challange your build so it's only a matter of time before the dice ultimately decide your not as powerful this time as you where last time despite gaining a level. I'm playing a min maxed character concept, but have steered away from that origin goal during the course of the campaign, my sorcerer never picked up warlock like I planned...
My tips for edgy characters (my name is Matthew so my dnd advise is valid): -don't expect to be taken seriously -if your character is a dick let them get their comeupins -make sure they are anchored to the party so they don't run off -use the edge as a source of humor (wether that's have a stoic character play straight man or using the weird loners lack of social skills as a source of comedy)
I think your last point is the most important one. You should always make a character that wants to stick with other party members, for whatever reason you can come up with.
I once had an idea for an "edgy" character Seemingly a brooding edge lord Who's backstory seems to change each time they tell it. When in reality their a noble son of a minor house. Their essentially just playing a character
If you want a genuinely dark experience: -Give your edgelord someone to care for. Something that gets them invested to go out there and interact with the plot. -The requirement to work with the party still applies. -Keep a clear vision of what makes your character dark. Do they not speak much, keeping themselves brief? Do they philosophy about the gloomier aspects of life? Do they get thrill from danger? A consistent image makes your character more believable. -A character arc could help them learn compassion, find a purpose in the world or reflect upon their past properly. You can totally pull off edge without slapstick humor if you know what you're doing
How many emotions the human voice can express regardless of the actual words spoken without any visuals. Great job. Non-native English speaker uses the language better than almost any native speaker I know.
Playing your self insert is always what I tell people to do if they’re about to play their very first character everything. It lessens the divide with the question of “what would my character do?” A new player can focus on the problem solving at hand and not adding in the element of character study
The tip about not figuring out your characters need upfront is GREAT especially for writers like me who need the reminder! I’m so used to planning out character arcs I found myself doing it automatically, but it’s so true that you don’t know where the story will take your character
a character that just figures out what they want during the adventure. after years of aimlessly wandering the world, the campaign finally gives that ma purpose, a goal to strive for. I like the idea.
Same here- I'm so used to having completed the character in its entirety when writing normally that I didn't realize I should leave them somewhat "unfinished" so that part of them can be found in the roleplay.
20:56 If you can't or dont want to pay for comitions, you can also make your character in a page called "Hero Forge", the facial details are not the greatest, but the clothes, equipment and colors helps you to show the mental image you have of your character. (and it doesn't looks as bad as many other online character creators out there)
Yep can confirm Hero Forge is a great tool to get an approximate appearance of your character. If you have Pro and know how to do the merging technique, you can get even more creative with it.
you could also just use Hero Forge to create a solid design(play with colors and details, etc) that you could then pass along to an artist you're commissioning so they can have a solid idea of what the character's supposed to look like
I really like the idea of a character's mechanics changing as a metaphor for their own character development. Like, a paladin being stuck between a moral choice where either option would break their oath, and in their rage against their broken religion, they make a pact as a warlock with some morally neutral patron and continue to fight for the right thing anyway, with the dm converting their character sheet in all their levels, waiving it away as a feat of sheer willpower. That sort of thing really gets my rp bones tingling.
Or in the case of a recent fighter in a humblewood campaign, bandit background and fighter scofflaw... realizing how they have had to fight vs how they were trained to fight do not match, and then putting in the effort to learn a new way to fight to better support their newfound friends. In this case... by smashing, shooting, and otherwise brutalizing anything that could possibly hurt them via enhanced focus in combat. They like being versatile, and the samurai class fits this the best. They are not a tactician, or particularly magically inclined, not in the slightest, which a lot of the other fighter subclasses work around. That and also as a form of prep for killing one of his old bandit "friends" that survived the collapse of a larger bandit coalition, as they were a separate bandit group
I love stuff like that. Right now I'm planning on making a warlock who's a helmet that controls the user and any time the helmet is removed he's just a regular fighter
This helped me round out a character I'm playing in Strixhaven a ton! Thank you so much! Gimmick: A swashbuckling rogue that is secretly an insecure dork Conflict: He's been thrust into the position of heir to his noble family following the disappearance of his older half brother/mentor, and is chafing under the domineering yoke of his parents who despise him. Want: Prove that he deserves the life he has, and is worthy as his brothers successor. His brother was always charming, daring, and smooth, so my character emulates this. However, he's actually TERRIBLE at the smooth part. He's definitely charming, and definitely daring, but the moment he has to flirt he becomes a stuttering mess, only feeding into his insecurities.
Its not often that a new youtube channel never misses. Especially for a DnD Channel. You consistently make good videos that are also entertaining. I cant wait for more videos to come out. Keep up the good work! Truly Revolutionary.
Pirate Samurai Centaur, my first ever character idea and it was just a way to make completely random tropes come together in the most dumb way possible. A horse would never be in water or a boat, so make a centaur a pirate, and samurai just purely for the ridiculousness of the statement. It's my fantasy version of cyborg space ninja. and i love it. do not copy, i will sue.
I've gotten some inspiration from this comment. A more contradictory yet not as weird would be a holy atheist demon, imagine some literal demon who gets help from god somehow and he doesn't believe that it was a god, he thinks he's just awesome enough to do most cleric spells without any sort of preparation. Also, centaurs doing things they shouldn't do has become a small trope in the DnD community, I've heard of multiple ninja centaurs, an aviator centaur, and now a pirate centaur
I love how you pointed out Scanlan from CR1, his character was horny yes, but that developed into a father figure that no one in the party ever really had. He was so heart broken when the party barely knew anything about him (like his last name) that he left for 10 sessions at the end game arc (ep80+), just so he can establish a foundation in his relationship with a daughter that despised him. When the group lost him, they all lost what they really yearned for, and that was a fun father figure of the group.
This advice goes so far beyond D&D. Any character development can benefit from this, be it larping, roleplay, D&D, or even just writing fiction. Thank you.
This is easily one of the most relatable, understandable guides to creating tabletop characters that I've ever seen. This got me subbed and bell'd to you. Thank you so much.
4:03 my mom is making her first dnd character. The personality of this character is her but cooler, but somehow she managed to build a developable person with a really good story. And the charcater is a tortle :)
I played a "Batman" at one point, a vigilante with his own brand of justice. I found that allowing him to do his vigilantism during down time kept it from getting in the way of the story (simply roll and elapsed time in which the DM told me how it occured), and his ultimate arch was learning to trust the aid of others (and even adopted a set of three aasimar orphans in the party)
I have never played DnD, but I was always fascinated by the idea of creating a character and seeing them grow inside an rpg. I am really thankfull for this videos, since it's gonna be a first step on my journey in the Dungeons and Dragons world.
You know, for my first DnD character, I actually did the opposite of the “self insert” while at the same time, completely self inserting. What happened was I made a character that was very different from me, but mostly in the ways that I felt I was lacking in, and consequently, having flaws that were opposed to my own. Like I was a 5’ foot noodle armed girl with 0 social skills but very good grades and good family life, and my character was a 6’6” half orc fighter dude with surprisingly high charisma, low int and was an orphan. He both represented my insecurities AND my strengths by directly opposing them. I unfortunately didn’t get to play him for very long bc it was for a DnD club at school and only joined a semester before I graduated, but he has a very special place in my heart, as I imagine all of our first characters do.
I modelled my first character after a character in a video game I really like, then evolved them a little with the class I picked and imprinted a bit of my personality into them, so that they could be easier to play and such. In the end, they aren’t like me so much, but like a cartoon version of some of my quality’s.
This was clear, concise, and entertaining, the practical example and visuals really helped with that. He didn't invent DnD advice, but he's damn near perfected it Also my gimmick would be overthinker. Maybe an artificer who makes hilariously complex gizmos that do something really simple, or one of those detective rogues that concocts multiple detailed theories on a case after finding a single clue. My want is to discover something amazing and be recognised as a visionary. My flaw is also overthinking, I read too deep into things and often end up making myself anxious, or just wasting time. Wow I really wanna write this as a character now, thanks for the prompt.
The first dnd charcater I ever made was literally just a stronger version of me. That campaign has been going on since 2019 and holy shit how much she has grown is crazy. It’s gotten to the point where I not only diversified her look from mine, but she actually has her own personality and flaws It’s all about time and practice and having a good dm/party willing to let you explore and grow :3
and being willing to have a character based on you diverge from where they started. I think most edgelords are this: they start with themselves, then develop that character as themselves with fewer and fewer restraints as time goes on.
Wow, not only did this video teach me how to make a good D&D character, but it taught me something important about character-based storytelling in general! I never put together the whole need vs. want thing before, thanks for that Mr. Hat!
In a recent Pathfinder campaign, I made a mute character. She speaks through sign language, and it only works because our game moved online during the pandemic. I say what she does, and type what she says. I love the roleplay that is created from only some players and NPC's speaking sign language. It's actually created some fun roleplay, but also accept that sometimes she won't be heard. I usually type out some planned conversations ahead of our sessions, so that I can quickly copy paste, rather than the group waiting for me to type it all. She may be silent, but she isn't the silent strong type; engages actively. My GM was supportive, and my group seems to have really enjoyed the RP.
I feel like for a lot of more experienced players these pillars of character creation are something that we use all the time, but having them all nicely laid out in a chucklesome video like this makes it perfect to help out our rookie friends. Thumbs up from me. A character I'm proud of followed similar guidelines before I found this video, built around the subversion of expectations. Take a Yuan-Ti Pureblood that was abandoned by their fellow snek people because they were born with albinism, and a birth defect is disgusting to them. They were adopted by an old retired master knight and trained to be a Paladin, and to have actual kind emotions unlike his snek brethren. Your first instinct would be edgelord right? Think again. Their gimmick was that they were the nurturing mom-of-the-group kind of person, always wants to help (take that edgelord in the making, and be the opposite of that). Their conflict was that their knightly mentor went missing and they want to find them. Their want was to spread kindness to others like it was provided to themselves by their master, as a show of their appreciation. The motif was a bonsai tree, as they find gardening soothing and often try to leave manicured green spaces in the cities they travel to. They carry a little bonsai tree in a pot hanging from their pack, and tend to it in their downtime. I just loved the image of this huge intimidating snakeman paladin just hunched over a bonsai tree with tiny gardening shears.
I have a similar character type of thing with a backstory and motif that would make you think he would the edgiest of edge lords but in actuality he’s basically just a child that wants to see the world and is fairly optimistic
Oddly I was already following this advice for a current character. Gimmick: A fairy Necromancer I'm going with a circle of the Spore Druid fairy. At a young age she happened to be around when a unicorn had passed away, a very rare event. When she saw the scene she was oddly... entranced by the odd beauty of it all. Colorful mushrooms, beautiful insects, and so much life awakening from this death. As she grew up her obsession with death and finding beauty in all the ugly things made her a bit of an outcast. Not hated just not understood, it didn't help that her parents happened to be nobles that worked below the Seelie Court members. Well one day there is a feast and she brings something to drink. A special honey wine made from a peculiar type of honey. A honey made from vulture bees(real bees that make honey from corpses). Everyone there is mortified, it was a huge embrassing situation for her family. Her mom says some things she shouldn't have and she runs away. Wanting to come back one day to prove to everyone what she knows... there IS beauty in the grotesque.
I will write this for my future self. I got my own idea for a character. I know very little about dnd and never played it. But I got an idea. My character is a human who has a very unique curse. He is basically immortal however every time he dies his mind gets clouded in some sort of darkness and he incinerates into ash. He is alive again in a different location and regroups with the group after a while. He comes from a village and loved a normal life until he turned 16 and his village got raided or something. He got separated from his family and was actually killed twice before meeting the group. So he knows his power. When he was 20 he found out where his family was but they all died. He only had his mom and dad. So now he is trying to understand what the spell/curse he has is. The first time he was killed is when running from the raid and he fell into a very deep hole which killed him and he was severely injured he did not actually die yet but he was not gonna survive and that triggered the spell which combusted him into flames. The spell was casted before he was born just to be clear but activated when he first was killed. The experience horrified him and he died a second time when wandering in the forest and got attacked. He found a village grew up getting wiser than average and is actually speedy. Idk if a wizard rogue is a thing but yeah. He is low in strength and Health. He is average in intelligence and charisma. Now the real part... Immortality works like this: he starts off as a wise calm and moral human. He is then much more nervous after the first death and loses a little intelligence as well as wisdom. He gets more mental unstable with more deaths and less and less moral. He also loses more and more intelligence as well as wisdom until... He reaches his 9th death (including the first 2 lore deaths.) He is much less moral and insane at his 8th death but at his 9th he no longer returns to his party and I play a new character like normal. He is now unable to think and just wanders around. If the main villain of the campaign knows some kind of evil magic or something the evil boss can take control of my character because my character's mind is incredibly weak. And at some point of the campaign which is gonna probably be the end my character will help the villain in battle. The character's intelligence and wisdom will be the same or slightly lower than the villain's intelligence and wisdom. The group members will have to decide whether to fight my former character or to try and stop my character in a non-lethal way. It will also be a cool twist at the end of the game. Of course the group can break the curse if they try hard enough to do so. But it will take a lot of intelligence to do so and would remove the immortality thing. If my character dies for a 10th time he will respawn again but instead will lay on the ground and won't move. He would then become a permanent living corpse for all of eternity. Idk how I did but I like what I did here probably will never use this chapter idea ever though.
My first game of D&D was with this random group with a DM that allowed the entirety of DanDWiki Homebrew, so it was a wild ride with little to no planning or preparation. I ended up playing as a giant crystal golem that had absurd strength and minimum intelligence. He was a construct that was accidentally created by an experiment gone wrong. He was incapable of speech, acted like a toddler, treated one of the other players as his father, and would go ballistic in order to protect him.
I also accidentally made my character Zuko. Like, scarily so. I based him off the Pokémon Infernape and Sun Wukong, so I made him a Fire Genasi Monk who was a prince. Then my DM threw in that my character’s mother was incredibly harsh with him. I can’t believe I tried to make a Sun Wukong analog and made Zuko instead. 😂
My favourite character I made was this Kenku warlock whose whole character gimmick was that he can escape any jail/trap. Whenever he got captured in some way, there would always be a brief period of time where he would tee-hee to himself. He was driven by a single mindedness to be known as a master escape artist. He was also incredibly insecure and had to make sure to let people know that he was infact good at escaping traps. If anyone doubted his ability, he'd distance himself from the person. He was very fun to create
There is an old template for Tauric Creatures that you can find online. Its the same idea, any humanoid and any many legged creature and what stats it should have. Not perfect, but a good place to start.
I kinda threw myself into a pickle almost 2 years ago when I made a character with a random generator before the first session. They started out as the ‘normal person’ in a party of combatants. That has changed over time as they’ve gone from from a motif-less lost do-gooder, to a warlock desperately protective of their party as they sink further into their patron’s goals. This video has given me a lot to think on for my next character as well - especially as an artist!
I really love this Channel. Eventhough there are so many end channels out there, this one stands out to me because you explain things particularly well and the cherry on the top is that every time you talk about something in a video, you put your words to paper for the viewers and give them exactly what you where talking about for free. That extra effort really makes a whole lot of difference to me, even if I don't always use the documents you make. Just the fact that you made them in top of all the work of making the video makes me have a lot of respect for you
I normally don't comment on videos, but the quality, time, and effort you put into all of your stuff is so great that I feel like I need to do my part in making sure that you can keep doing this for as long as you want to! I've actually been watching all of your stuff with a friend that I'm building a new TTRPG system with and we find that a lot of your ideas fall somewhat close to one's we've come up with but always with that nice extra spin on them and it's been great to get some more ideas and thoughts on stuff while we're building things out. Looking forward to see what you come up with next.
I love how the common first characters (aka the first two) were deemed fine, and the criticism of the others are just explaining why it wouldn't be advised for your game. No shaming, just good advice and analysis 😌 pointy hat doesn't miss. Brb gonna go make fanart of a hat.
His main point is that D&D (and other ttrpgs) are fundamentally a group activity so you need a character that will actually fit in with the group, as long as they do that then any mistakes are just "it could be better" instead of "wrong". Its like how the main complaint with "evil" PCs are that they generally don't fit into a party and cause constant drama. (And not the good kind of drama)
I love Tip of the Hat! The name is top notch, and you have some really good advice! As someone who really enjoys diving deep into characters - like, REAL deep - I think this three-pillar method of character creation is fantastic. It’s a great way to build your character up so that they can stand on their own from the get-go!
Currently in a couple campaigns, and for one of them I'm the only person who's played before. Can confirm that every single one is pretty much following the first mistake you mentioned of making themselves but coolTM-like to a tee. I find it very wholesome though and don't hold it against them and I'm loving watching them all develop a love for the game session by session. Now they've started coming up with cool character ideas for our next campaign that are a little more unique :)
You're my favorite D&D content creator on the platform. You've been consistently entertaining and on top of that you've been consistently providing sound advice. I never feel like I wasted my time when I watched your video. So.. thank you!
I’ve sent one of my friends your cowboy ranger, my Friends and I will soon be playing for the first time ever and I’m the DM, I’m pretty scared of making too many unnecessary beginners mistakes, so your advice is very very helpful to me, it’s seriously so amazing, you opened my eyes to all the possibilities out there, still scared but I can’t wait, I’m so excited :D Keep doing what you’re doing, it’s awesome
You’ll make a ton of mistakes. Everyone does, and that’s okay-I’d say it’s even part of the experience. The important thing is just not to make the _wrong_ mistakes. Don’t be mean, listen to others, be forgiving (of others and especially yourself), and try to have a sense of humor about yourself. Mistakes are part of the experience, and can ultimately be a big source of fun & fond memories.
Long time fan; you are a crazy genius, with an entertaining sense of humor. Antonio, you also seem to have a solid core sense of yourself, what you want to do, and stick to that, without losing yourself chasing fame and fortune. Stay brilliant and may your brain always fizz with ideas. (And Revolutionary)
My first character I had was a Warforged that did everything the most optimal way as his part in his body that allowed him to feel feelings was broken. Thus he is always trying to everything the most optimal way. Such as finding weak spots on monsters or throwing away the injured little girl and replacing it with something better that doesn't just lie around and eat food.
One thing I like is having each character have a tie to another of the characters at the table, so they have, from the get go, connections to the others beyond 'we work together'.
My first character was a member of the shadow wizard money gang (yes that’s what it’s called) which was a very rich and powerful organisation of wizards and he got exiled because he pussied out and betrayed his patrol during a goblin raid in order to save himself, now he’s desperately trying to become as powerful as possible no matter the cost (including selling his soul to a demon and multiclassing as a warlock halfway through the campaign) in order to prove himself worthy because he persuaded himself that they would somehow accept him back in the order if he’s strong enough. Honestly really proud of that character, he had multiple clear personality traits (manipulative, scaredy cat, kind of a dick, but a good enough liar to lie about his past so that the party didn’t learn about his backstory so they wouldn’t hate him) and I role played him really well. I also only chose spells and cantrips related to shadows and necromancy to fit the whole shadow wizard thing
Subscribed. Something I started doing recently that has spawned some interesting characters that I would have never thought of myself is randomly generated classes, ancestries, and backgrounds. I’ve come up with a few cool character concepts this way, including a half-orc sorcerer who has a folk hero background. He was a lot of fun. Getting everything to work together makes a great writing prompt, that tends towards being just a little edgelord-y. Or maybe I’m just a little edgelord-y, I haven’t quite figured that out yet.
Thank you so much! I was having so much trouble trying to help my players with their Characters. for me crating one is easy, but It's because it comes naturally to me. I really hope this video helps them. This is my absolutly favorte D&D related channel!! Love you too ❤️
All amazing! Additional point I have learned: Don't create a character based just on a motif and then fail to have the other pillars (i.e. a want linked into the campaign, a compelling conflict). This has happened to me twice where aesthetics definitely came before content and both characters didn't really fit with the party, they didn't feel like they had much drive or investment.
I recently played a rogue that was honestly the first rogue character that I was actually satisfied with. In terms of fitting that rogue feeling and also blending well with the party. It was the Theros setting and I basically made a character that could be described as an edgy version of Phil from Hercules. A rogue that would try to be sort of a manager for heroes and ride their coattails to fame. Had a secret backstory of having offed a few adventurers that tried to leave him. The initial goal of boosting the party fame and assistance made it easy for him to fit in. The party eventually convinced him of his value as a hero in his own right, and he eventually owned up to his shady past and confessed his betrayal to his former heros and help put their souls to rest. A very fun character arc without hitting the usual pitfalls of bad rogue RP.
I’ve been getting deeper and deeper into D&D lately so this video is very helpful especially as I DM a campaign my family is doing. But of course I created characters of my own just for the fun of it so this was like a checklist of sorts to see how good my character making skills are. My first was a half elf (yes I know) bard who sees himself as the best storyteller in the world and deserves to be treated as such (gimmick). But an amazing (arguably the greatest) story he tells about his rogue twin sister escaping death ends up giving his sister more fame then him leading him to leave home to forge a new story with himself at the center so no one can question or undermine his greatest (conflict). His goal now is just to live the greatest story ever and consequently tell it to gain his deserved recognition as the greatest storyteller (want). Sadly though I have yet to get to play him 😭
As someone running a campaign using a modded video game, this video is such a life-saver. I've had it in my watch later for so long, and I'm glad I watched it now. I'll definitely be using that document. Very good video! 👍
I’ve done this as a character concept (for a one shot) his backstory was me who got transported to the dnd world and used my actual real world engineering knowledge to become an artificer with the stats I think I have in real life
This is honestly the most entertaining way of guiding people through DnD. Most videos of the same topic are still useful, but they are so old-school that it just feels like a lecture. Compared to yours, it is both appealing, entertaining, and fresh in this current age. Which makes it feel like a modern tabletop rather than a fossil.
Ah, I still remember my first D&D character, he was a bard fully focused on making and sharing stories, his very reason to join the party was to be part of a legend that would be told for thousands of years, he managed in the end, but set out for another adventure.
I don't even play D&D (I play a different system), and I enjoy your content. I think I've watched all the videos you've made so far, and it's all been insightful, creative and most of all, witty. Your comedic timing is awesome and you have a fun and interesting way at analysis and breaking things down. I'll definitely be home-brewing some of your ideas into my own game, especially the Invoker. That Bard-Lich idea is epic. Keep it up! Oh, and....revolutionary!
I feel like this is a writer/ artist that plays dnd and really expresses the way to best enjoy the game. All dms and players are artists and actors in their own way I feel like pointy has a background in it and picked up dnd because of it. Maybe I’m just crazy. I’m head over heels for this content and can’t wait to learn more and incorporate this into my games!! I’m doing a homebrew world right now maybe do some story/ world building tip of the hat next?
Your content is amazing and Ezekiel is the newest bard in the opera-loving aristocracy of one of my homebrew world's cities. Some of my newbie players have also been enjoying your videos very much - so you're also making my life a bit easier hahaha Sending lots of good vibes!
Lovin' this channel! I'm playing a tortle barbarian path of the ancestors. He's on a spiritual journey to walk in the footsteps of his parents. His "rage" is more like being in "the zone". He basically enters a heightened sense of reality where he begins to see his ancestors around him. Soooooo much fun!
My recent character actually follows these pillars by accident, and I’ve noticed since watching that my three favourite characters so far all follow this trend while my other characters either don’t follow it or only partially follow it. Interesting to think about
I sort of have that "shy" kind of character, except I handle it a little differently. I have a changeling character who isn't all that good at shapeshifting and can get pretty anxious, but is really good at planning and being charismatic. As long as things go according to plan, they're likely to *keep* going according to plan. They're great at disguising, deception, getting people to believe whatever the hell they want, so usually their plans go off without a hitch. But they can't handle those rare occasions when they don't. If shit starts going south, if they can't correct it quickly, all of that charisma and planning goes totally out the window and they can get so nervous they can't even maintain their changeling form sometimes. They snowball both ways. If things are going well, they're going to go better and better and better! But if things start going wrong, be prepared for some serious shit. It's sort of the same reason I like wild magic. Sometimes a little chaos and things going very *very* wrong can be really fun.
Literally the first D&D Video I've ever shared to anyone, since most are easily talked about and filled with just so little useful actually changing information that simply bringing up that one significant fact is all it takes to describe the content of a video. This video however ist so useful and enjoyable and not hideous to follow without getting bored half the way in! I really loved all your work so far and talked with other people about it, but since today was the day i sent your video to someone i decied to give RUclips comments a go ; ) soooooo love you bye byee
EDIT: Funnily enough, I think you _can_ do a Batman- _type_ character well. He's the wizard alchemist constantly making smokebomb "potions" and alchemist's fire/ice/lightning/thunder, the ranger bounty hunter who has a tool for that, the rogue sneaky daredevil who has Expertise in Stealth and has a habit of sneaking in and out of a stronghold without anyone noticing and leaving a feather on the general's pillow while also not taking anything _for fun._ Don't make them a loner and you can do a great Batman-like. I'm not sure what was the best part of that intro: - "Switching it up" with the light-up switches - "Tip of the Hat" as a pun segment name - "M'lady" meme tipping your hat avatar, which has a fedora on it I'd subscribe if I weren't already XD
Batman works with the Justice League, and does have a relationship with its members. He is able to team up with the Bat Family. He's capable of playing with others. Just fucking mingle!
This is such a help to me, this made me think about my character and to discus with my DM a pit deeper about the campaign we are going to start soon. You vids are always so interesting and cool, you're such a positive light in this community. :)
Love Pointy Hat's advice!! In trying to arrange a campaign, I've been sending these videos to my future players so we can define character motivations and build the world around it! Hugely appreciated
I always tell players to not set their alignment before after they made their characters personality. Because a lot of people would make characters based upon alignments which become two dimensional stereotypes of said alignment. Always remember this; your character has an alignment because of their personality, not a personality because of an alignment. This might even lead to a character being technically NG, but still is a rude jerk who broods in every dark corner, or a CE character who still doesnt screw over the party, as they are the few guys the character is buddy-buddy with.
I agree! I had set a base alignment for my character, but as I fleshed out his backstory and personality I realized it didn't fit him and had changed it. It's important for characters to be dynamic
Siempre puedo notar un saborcito hispánico en tus videos y me encanta. Los Matts pueden tener crines majestuosas que ondulan al viento, pero tu tienes SABOR!
This has completely revolutionized my character creation! I tend to lean toward storm, purple, and sparkly as the motifs for my characters. Love to be a shiny and dangerous PC 🖤
Oh as a tip for character building. As a roleplayer, I think it makes your character more fun to give you character an accent. It helps makes them more entertaining to interact with. Giving them a certain way they speak. Fyi, I would do a voice that doesn't hurt your throat. As per DND session, they can get long. So I would do something that you're more comfortable doing for probably a long time.
Cada vez que veo uno de tus vídeos me planteo buscar un grupo de D&D, porque de verdad que este juego me fascina y la única vez que pude jugar me lo pasé de maravilla
Can you do a twist for sorcerers? There is a lot of potential in the class, and I have difficult in differentiate them for other magical classes (and also I have a imaginary cenário in my head with DND theme and I want to make a sorcerer for my fictional party)
I'm going crazy with two characters. One is a angelic succubus cleric of sune. But her father is trying to twist her and some other events causing her succubus side to try and take over. And a ce harpy rogue that mentally is us.
My first character was a female tabaxi monk named Dust in the Ears, short Dusty. All our characters came from the same village, but she was basically just a hobo living on the street and eating leftovers until she was recruited to become an adventurer. I took some of the suggested character traits, so she was a bit kleptomanic and didn't understand the concept of private space or property. Our characters entered an armoury at the start of the campaign and everyone could take whatever armor and weapons they wanted (all normal stuff of course) and she only asked for a dice set which she used during the campaign to lose a lot of gold to the other party members. She also developed a problem with alcohol and had an urge to lick ancient things. For example, we entered a dungeon under a temple and her first thing was to lick the magical lightsource, resulting in a burned tongue. She also licked a rusty ceremonial dagger covered in dried blood and got poisened by it. A god appeared at the end of the dungeon and while everyone got awesome stuff, she just wished to be able to taste again. She also jumped into every source of water she would encounter, because I figured Tabaxi are more based on big cats and those usually love water. The next character will be a low-charisma gnoll bardbarian with a magical shock collar to control him.
My personal method of creating a character is that I come up with an idea, and build a character primarily around that idea. This idea can potentially later become tossed out as the character changes. For example, one of my recent characters started off as a neutral good tiefling who was a divine soul sorcerer, but the magic came from an evil being. This character eventually went crazy in a fun-to-play way that my DM was helping me with in between sessions, and has recently become the main villain of the campaign (although becoming an NPC for this purpose and after agreeing to it with the DM for the sake of the story). The idea was that he was a good person and didn’t care about rules, but that was basically thrown out in favor of a plot that I was directly working on with the DM himself, which was much more fun. This idea was something I only came up with as I was writing the character down on my character sheet, but I’m pretty happy. Charles is a fun villain.
The motif part got me thinking. A physicist wizard would be kinda cool I think. Instead of just explaining your spells with "it's magic" you describe how your character uses magic to use for example electricity or magnetism or something. Magic missile has you channeling electricity through your hands to turn yourself into a railgun launching small iron projectiles. To cast fireball you compress the air until it combusts or even fuses, etc. I think that would a cool concept.
This helps me so much in character development. I naturally usually started with a gimmick but the rest of this absolutely gets me a complete fleshed out character. I had a gimmick of being a grim reaper in an Undead campaign playing a Death Cleric but couldn't think of how does he tie into the party till the Conflict & Want from the video. Conflict: some of his party is half-undead like a Frankenstein's monster so he has to get over his his gimmick to work with and begin to embrace them as sentient. And his Want is to give the Raven Queen memories (Trinkets) of the fallen souls, in essence he was her to love him. He Needs love! Thankyou for this
Good character: fills at least one mechanical niche very well, backstory/personality/alignment that cooperates with the campaign, and sufficient backstory to have interest.
It would be cool te see you put a twist to the Kenku, I heard they are difficult to roleplay and it would be cool to see a way to make it easy for new players
I play a kenku in my game and just didn't bother with the gimmick. Its a cool lore detail, but it would be a complete pain to roleplay, especially for a new player.
I'd love to play a kenku cuz I have an echo stim that has resulted in me being really good at mimicry, I sound exactly like my cat when I mimic her for example, and I feel like with a little bit of practice I could nail the quirk. The best part is, I wouldn't have to come up with an individual character voice, I'd just copy everyone else lol
My first dnd character was a mute (mostly) as I couldn't think of a voice, it was first time playing so I just wanted to be useful to the party so I wanted to fill roles we needed a healer and a tank, so stupidly choose a cleric barbarian (it wasn't good) but balanced out by my lucky roles and my party being incredibly chaotic, I had no idea how to fit in a back story in the world and asked to be written in as a background character at first, in the end it was very fun as I added an interesting dynamic being mostly everyone else was trying to be the main character and I choose to be the help. Tldr: first character was a mute background character.
This video was revolutionary, it changed my life! Also, my hair is so luxurious now, and I lost 20 pounds, and I can now bench-press a truck! Thank you Pointy Hat, I owe it all to you!
My current character's 'gimmick' is a Dragonborn Wizard. The idea of breathing fire as a last ditch "get back" from my squishy wizard seemed like a fun idea (ever since I watched my dad playing Wizardry on the computer as a kid). After causing a magical accident that destroyed his clan's magical library he was exiled. He is on a quest to learn every arcane spell on the material plane in an attempt to rejoin his clan by rebuilding the library. Will he learn to get over himself and respect his fellow party members along the way? We'll see.
With "gimmick" theres a personal gimmick meant, at least how I got it. Things like "always horny", "lies all the time" and "strives to be the most intelligent in the room" are helpful for roleplay when thrown in random scenarious. Breathing fire or doing some magic are no characteristics of that character and most of the time are barely helpful in roleplay.
So anyway my character is a half demon half angel vampire hunter that dual-wields crossbows
Soooo Dan Hellsing?
Alucard Van Helsing
@@VibeBlind nice, ever heard of the abridged version
Sure until you find out one of your great great grandmothers was full demon and it's more like 64% demon.
jackpot
To be honest, Steve the Cow Farmer sounds like a pretty cool D&D character. In a party full of edge lords and OP wizards, this dude just wants to help his cows. Sounds like could be a very wholesome character and a heart of the party in a way.
I had a Cleric of the Forge Gnome single dad character who's kids flew the nest. He helped kill Tiamat so his kids can afford college.
In a preindustrial society where >90% of the population is farmers, we shouldn't all be playing farmers necessarily but a lot of characters and everyone you run into would be ex-farmers or non-ex-farmers. And besides, there are a lot of times when a campaign can be described as "wow, this minor situation a few of the local weirdos showed up to solve has gotten completely out of hand" so it tracks
Yeah, like that one hack&slash game who had the protagonist named Farmer. Made 3 movies out of it. Can't be THAT bad.
steve: huh I thought the god would be a cow
the party: everything for you is cows!
How would you play an evil character who is the heart of the party? Asking for a friend…
This is outstanding, a revolutionary and emotive idea.
It is definitely revolutionary and I feel the need to tell all of my friends about it…
the french is strong in this one
exactly!
I know a lot of people don't like the "You But Cooler" archetype, but I think it's an easy and simple way to get started with character creation. Starting with yourself (a person you highly understand) and adding small differences to make them more interesting is an easily digestible way of learning the ins and outs of DnD. [Just don't be afraid to try something new for later campaigns!]
It's not a bad starting point, but players often try to make "You But Cooler" characters "perfect" and can be easily upset when anything bad happens to said character. That's a character type I've only really seen veteran players do well because they've changed the character enough to separate themselves from it.
Just about all the characters in the campaign I'm currently in are based on the players to some degree, but it's never really been a problem. I would even argue that a certain amount of self insert is unavoidable as it's much easier to roleplay a character if you can relate to them in some way. My character's personality is by no means the same as mine, but there are still many things about him that remind me of myself, for instance his capability for outside-the-box thinking and his undergoing transition from irresponsible to mature (I'm at the stage in life where this is relevant).
I'm thinking about replacing him with a new character, but at the same time I also have to think about how a character fits into the party, and with how the party is currently build, the new character would likely end up filling the spot that the previous character would vacate. And honestly, the character I currently have is also a lot of fun.
thats was exactly what my first char was like...
Just me but im a Wood Elf Rogue...
i even gave him my first name 😂
After testing that out my next Char was pretty much completely different...
A human paladin searching for his disappeared village
From an antisocial thief to a overly socialising believer of god...
I made "myself but cooler" completely by accident.
Seemingly my ideal version of myself is 40 year old snarky "cool aunt" druid, who lives in a forest and occasionally sets squirrels to terrorize random bandits. She tries to be polite very hard, but has a drowsy sense of humor and little patience for social dancing. She chews snacks all the time, which are hidden all over her clothes. .
BBEG was a lich necromancer so I came up with the idea that my apprentice had been turned into a zombie and I intend to finish him off and properly bury him. The basic idea is that I join the group just to travel safer, but I gradually develop a liking for these jerks and decide to help them beat the lich.
Not bad for a first character, she was a lot of fun to play
I think that's what most people do when we first play an RPG, especially if we know nothing about the lore/game world. Thats what I did on my first Skyrim character. Same for WoW. When you know nothing about the game world, you dont have much to latch onto and it can be better to just play as yourself and engage with it how you want to in the moment.
About writing a novel length Google doc… I’d say if you have a short summary for your DM, you can have a long Google doc for yourself and anyone else who wants to read it. A friend of mine has a very interesting three dimensional character that she’s been writing the backstory for for a year, and she’s still fantastic at the table!
the backstory's more for the GM han you, mostly, and it's a set of hooks and storylines for them to use. A huge one would need a dot-point list of the point for the GM to refer to--note the GM's going to have to read that at least half a dozen times, and very few of us are good enough writers to make that at all enjoyable....
@@thekaxmax The backstory is both a important tool for the DM, but also a great outlet for the player to get deeper in touch with their character. I'd say that it is equally important to either person, as for the player to know their character so they can roleplay them and draw from their memory, and for the DM to place hooks and hints to draw in the character.
@thorn4833 It does need the GM to read them and the player to follow them.
I've seen a 3 page backstory on a murderhobo with no family or past going by how they play. And my D&D GM doesn't read backstories, he expects you to refer to them in play at which point he'll use the info.
@@thekaxmaxfair. I just agree that the backstory is a great outlet for the player. Few of us get to play DND as much as we’d like to, so players like to have some fun with backstories.
One of my favorite parts of the Witcher books is this one scene where Geralt is adventuring with a bunch of people while being a broody-loner, but Dandelion and Regis and the others in the group respond to Geralt's behavior by just straight-up take the piss out of him for "playing Batman" as they make camp.
I'm a DM and I had a player in my group who was a really good at min maxing but was really bad at creating interesting characters. (funnily enough most of his characters died). So after his current character died I sent him this video. And it's helped him a lot, I've only had a single one shot with him since he's watched this video but that one shot was one of the best D&D experiences I've ever had.
he wasn't good at min maxing. i bet his casters prepared evocation spells.
@@mrosskne min maxing makes you a target and gives you a false since of security, if your playing the pest possiable thing than theres nothing that can stop you in most games, dnd however is ballanced aginst the existing party by a (potentially amautre) game designer who didn't designer the game. Additonally if your goal for your character is to minmax then you're esintally trying to get the killed in every combat to "test the build" if you're not on the edge of death then it feels like your build didn't get to "stretch its legs". a dm who notices this is gonna try to challange your build so it's only a matter of time before the dice ultimately decide your not as powerful this time as you where last time despite gaining a level.
I'm playing a min maxed character concept, but have steered away from that origin goal during the course of the campaign, my sorcerer never picked up warlock like I planned...
@@mrosskne no he was good at min maxing it's just that his luck with dice isn't the best
@@simic0racle157 your right with the dice, it just seemed whenever there was a really important roll between life and death he'd get really low roll.
@@grahamross889 No. You have never seen a competent caster. Do not argue with me.
My tips for edgy characters (my name is Matthew so my dnd advise is valid):
-don't expect to be taken seriously
-if your character is a dick let them get their comeupins
-make sure they are anchored to the party so they don't run off
-use the edge as a source of humor (wether that's have a stoic character play straight man or using the weird loners lack of social skills as a source of comedy)
I think your last point is the most important one. You should always make a character that wants to stick with other party members, for whatever reason you can come up with.
I once had an idea for an "edgy" character
Seemingly a brooding edge lord
Who's backstory seems to change each time they tell it. When in reality their a noble son of a minor house. Their essentially just playing a character
@@daneiltherat2327 Heh, that's a really fun idea.
Comeuppance.
If you want a genuinely dark experience:
-Give your edgelord someone to care for. Something that gets them invested to go out there and interact with the plot.
-The requirement to work with the party still applies.
-Keep a clear vision of what makes your character dark. Do they not speak much, keeping themselves brief? Do they philosophy about the gloomier aspects of life? Do they get thrill from danger? A consistent image makes your character more believable.
-A character arc could help them learn compassion, find a purpose in the world or reflect upon their past properly.
You can totally pull off edge without slapstick humor if you know what you're doing
I always find it amazing how many emotions a hat with an eye can show.
How many emotions the human voice can express regardless of the actual words spoken without any visuals. Great job. Non-native English speaker uses the language better than almost any native speaker I know.
Playing your self insert is always what I tell people to do if they’re about to play their very first character everything. It lessens the divide with the question of “what would my character do?” A new player can focus on the problem solving at hand and not adding in the element of character study
The tip about not figuring out your characters need upfront is GREAT especially for writers like me who need the reminder! I’m so used to planning out character arcs I found myself doing it automatically, but it’s so true that you don’t know where the story will take your character
a character that just figures out what they want during the adventure.
after years of aimlessly wandering the world, the campaign finally gives that ma purpose, a goal to strive for.
I like the idea.
Same here- I'm so used to having completed the character in its entirety when writing normally that I didn't realize I should leave them somewhat "unfinished" so that part of them can be found in the roleplay.
20:56
If you can't or dont want to pay for comitions, you can also make your character in a page called "Hero Forge", the facial details are not the greatest, but the clothes, equipment and colors helps you to show the mental image you have of your character.
(and it doesn't looks as bad as many other online character creators out there)
Yep can confirm Hero Forge is a great tool to get an approximate appearance of your character. If you have Pro and know how to do the merging technique, you can get even more creative with it.
I can now confirm that the faces are SIGNIFICANTLY better.
you could also just use Hero Forge to create a solid design(play with colors and details, etc) that you could then pass along to an artist you're commissioning so they can have a solid idea of what the character's supposed to look like
Yet another roughly 20 minutes of amazing content.
Definitely one of my top favorite channels, keep up the great work.
I really like the idea of a character's mechanics changing as a metaphor for their own character development. Like, a paladin being stuck between a moral choice where either option would break their oath, and in their rage against their broken religion, they make a pact as a warlock with some morally neutral patron and continue to fight for the right thing anyway, with the dm converting their character sheet in all their levels, waiving it away as a feat of sheer willpower. That sort of thing really gets my rp bones tingling.
Omg but this is almost the exact situation my paladin is in
Or in the case of a recent fighter in a humblewood campaign, bandit background and fighter scofflaw... realizing how they have had to fight vs how they were trained to fight do not match, and then putting in the effort to learn a new way to fight to better support their newfound friends. In this case... by smashing, shooting, and otherwise brutalizing anything that could possibly hurt them via enhanced focus in combat. They like being versatile, and the samurai class fits this the best. They are not a tactician, or particularly magically inclined, not in the slightest, which a lot of the other fighter subclasses work around.
That and also as a form of prep for killing one of his old bandit "friends" that survived the collapse of a larger bandit coalition, as they were a separate bandit group
I came a lil reading that
@@zLeben3 🤨
I love stuff like that. Right now I'm planning on making a warlock who's a helmet that controls the user and any time the helmet is removed he's just a regular fighter
This helped me round out a character I'm playing in Strixhaven a ton! Thank you so much!
Gimmick: A swashbuckling rogue that is secretly an insecure dork
Conflict: He's been thrust into the position of heir to his noble family following the disappearance of his older half brother/mentor, and is chafing under the domineering yoke of his parents who despise him.
Want: Prove that he deserves the life he has, and is worthy as his brothers successor.
His brother was always charming, daring, and smooth, so my character emulates this. However, he's actually TERRIBLE at the smooth part. He's definitely charming, and definitely daring, but the moment he has to flirt he becomes a stuttering mess, only feeding into his insecurities.
Its not often that a new youtube channel never misses. Especially for a DnD Channel.
You consistently make good videos that are also entertaining. I cant wait for more videos to come out. Keep up the good work!
Truly Revolutionary.
Wholly agree. It's the same with Dungeon Mastery, who came out of nowhere with banger takes on every level. Truly inspiring!
I agree :)
@Vickiraytive Games I started doing that to my kids and they hate it so I chase them around the house to land the "Mwah"
Pirate Samurai Centaur, my first ever character idea and it was just a way to make completely random tropes come together in the most dumb way possible. A horse would never be in water or a boat, so make a centaur a pirate, and samurai just purely for the ridiculousness of the statement. It's my fantasy version of cyborg space ninja. and i love it. do not copy, i will sue.
I've gotten some inspiration from this comment.
A more contradictory yet not as weird would be a holy atheist demon, imagine some literal demon who gets help from god somehow and he doesn't believe that it was a god, he thinks he's just awesome enough to do most cleric spells without any sort of preparation.
Also, centaurs doing things they shouldn't do has become a small trope in the DnD community, I've heard of multiple ninja centaurs, an aviator centaur, and now a pirate centaur
I would expect that character to be the machinations of a veteran player who just doesn't care any more and makes the most random stuff XD
So weird. I made a Samurai Centaur Pirate. Almost the same. But different.
Horses are actually pretty decent swimmers
@@ARatherDapperTapir kinda. You won't see them very far from the shores
I love how you pointed out Scanlan from CR1, his character was horny yes, but that developed into a father figure that no one in the party ever really had. He was so heart broken when the party barely knew anything about him (like his last name) that he left for 10 sessions at the end game arc (ep80+), just so he can establish a foundation in his relationship with a daughter that despised him. When the group lost him, they all lost what they really yearned for, and that was a fun father figure of the group.
This advice goes so far beyond D&D. Any character development can benefit from this, be it larping, roleplay, D&D, or even just writing fiction. Thank you.
This is easily one of the most relatable, understandable guides to creating tabletop characters that I've ever seen. This got me subbed and bell'd to you.
Thank you so much.
4:03 my mom is making her first dnd character. The personality of this character is her but cooler, but somehow she managed to build a developable person with a really good story. And the charcater is a tortle :)
i love it
How did you get your mom to play it?
TEAM TORTLE!
TORTLE
I have a tortle named shellben
I love this [revolutionary] and [emotive] idea! Seriously though, can't wait to see more of this new series!
I played a "Batman" at one point, a vigilante with his own brand of justice. I found that allowing him to do his vigilantism during down time kept it from getting in the way of the story (simply roll and elapsed time in which the DM told me how it occured), and his ultimate arch was learning to trust the aid of others (and even adopted a set of three aasimar orphans in the party)
so you diid half the amount of robins also thats batmans arch in a suprising amount of comics
also I love the attention to detail in your hat's animation, the way the little circular reflection stays in the same place even when the eye moves
I have never played DnD, but I was always fascinated by the idea of creating a character and seeing them grow inside an rpg. I am really thankfull for this videos, since it's gonna be a first step on my journey in the Dungeons and Dragons world.
You know, for my first DnD character, I actually did the opposite of the “self insert” while at the same time, completely self inserting. What happened was I made a character that was very different from me, but mostly in the ways that I felt I was lacking in, and consequently, having flaws that were opposed to my own. Like I was a 5’ foot noodle armed girl with 0 social skills but very good grades and good family life, and my character was a 6’6” half orc fighter dude with surprisingly high charisma, low int and was an orphan. He both represented my insecurities AND my strengths by directly opposing them. I unfortunately didn’t get to play him for very long bc it was for a DnD club at school and only joined a semester before I graduated, but he has a very special place in my heart, as I imagine all of our first characters do.
I modelled my first character after a character in a video game I really like, then evolved them a little with the class I picked and imprinted a bit of my personality into them, so that they could be easier to play and such. In the end, they aren’t like me so much, but like a cartoon version of some of my quality’s.
Did you give him one of the MST "Punch BigRock! Butch Deadlift!" kind of names?
@@loadeddice4696 I named him Derrin Dotterson
@@gaybogagins5392 That's also pretty good
I think a lot of people inadvertently do this. Maybe you’ll get the chance to play your character again
This was clear, concise, and entertaining, the practical example and visuals really helped with that. He didn't invent DnD advice, but he's damn near perfected it
Also my gimmick would be overthinker. Maybe an artificer who makes hilariously complex gizmos that do something really simple, or one of those detective rogues that concocts multiple detailed theories on a case after finding a single clue. My want is to discover something amazing and be recognised as a visionary. My flaw is also overthinking, I read too deep into things and often end up making myself anxious, or just wasting time.
Wow I really wanna write this as a character now, thanks for the prompt.
Holy shit it works
The first dnd charcater I ever made was literally just a stronger version of me. That campaign has been going on since 2019 and holy shit how much she has grown is crazy. It’s gotten to the point where I not only diversified her look from mine, but she actually has her own personality and flaws
It’s all about time and practice and having a good dm/party willing to let you explore and grow :3
and being willing to have a character based on you diverge from where they started. I think most edgelords are this: they start with themselves, then develop that character as themselves with fewer and fewer restraints as time goes on.
Wow, not only did this video teach me how to make a good D&D character, but it taught me something important about character-based storytelling in general! I never put together the whole need vs. want thing before, thanks for that Mr. Hat!
In a recent Pathfinder campaign, I made a mute character. She speaks through sign language, and it only works because our game moved online during the pandemic. I say what she does, and type what she says. I love the roleplay that is created from only some players and NPC's speaking sign language. It's actually created some fun roleplay, but also accept that sometimes she won't be heard. I usually type out some planned conversations ahead of our sessions, so that I can quickly copy paste, rather than the group waiting for me to type it all. She may be silent, but she isn't the silent strong type; engages actively. My GM was supportive, and my group seems to have really enjoyed the RP.
I feel like for a lot of more experienced players these pillars of character creation are something that we use all the time, but having them all nicely laid out in a chucklesome video like this makes it perfect to help out our rookie friends. Thumbs up from me.
A character I'm proud of followed similar guidelines before I found this video, built around the subversion of expectations. Take a Yuan-Ti Pureblood that was abandoned by their fellow snek people because they were born with albinism, and a birth defect is disgusting to them. They were adopted by an old retired master knight and trained to be a Paladin, and to have actual kind emotions unlike his snek brethren. Your first instinct would be edgelord right? Think again.
Their gimmick was that they were the nurturing mom-of-the-group kind of person, always wants to help (take that edgelord in the making, and be the opposite of that). Their conflict was that their knightly mentor went missing and they want to find them. Their want was to spread kindness to others like it was provided to themselves by their master, as a show of their appreciation. The motif was a bonsai tree, as they find gardening soothing and often try to leave manicured green spaces in the cities they travel to. They carry a little bonsai tree in a pot hanging from their pack, and tend to it in their downtime. I just loved the image of this huge intimidating snakeman paladin just hunched over a bonsai tree with tiny gardening shears.
I have a similar character type of thing with a backstory and motif that would make you think he would the edgiest of edge lords but in actuality he’s basically just a child that wants to see the world and is fairly optimistic
This sounds so sweet! E-3
Oddly I was already following this advice for a current character.
Gimmick: A fairy Necromancer
I'm going with a circle of the Spore Druid fairy. At a young age she happened to be around when a unicorn had passed away, a very rare event. When she saw the scene she was oddly... entranced by the odd beauty of it all. Colorful mushrooms, beautiful insects, and so much life awakening from this death.
As she grew up her obsession with death and finding beauty in all the ugly things made her a bit of an outcast. Not hated just not understood, it didn't help that her parents happened to be nobles that worked below the Seelie Court members.
Well one day there is a feast and she brings something to drink. A special honey wine made from a peculiar type of honey. A honey made from vulture bees(real bees that make honey from corpses).
Everyone there is mortified, it was a huge embrassing situation for her family. Her mom says some things she shouldn't have and she runs away. Wanting to come back one day to prove to everyone what she knows... there IS beauty in the grotesque.
This is super cool :3
I will write this for my future self. I got my own idea for a character. I know very little about dnd and never played it. But I got an idea.
My character is a human who has a very unique curse. He is basically immortal however every time he dies his mind gets clouded in some sort of darkness and he incinerates into ash. He is alive again in a different location and regroups with the group after a while. He comes from a village and loved a normal life until he turned 16 and his village got raided or something. He got separated from his family and was actually killed twice before meeting the group. So he knows his power. When he was 20 he found out where his family was but they all died. He only had his mom and dad. So now he is trying to understand what the spell/curse he has is. The first time he was killed is when running from the raid and he fell into a very deep hole which killed him and he was severely injured he did not actually die yet but he was not gonna survive and that triggered the spell which combusted him into flames. The spell was casted before he was born just to be clear but activated when he first was killed. The experience horrified him and he died a second time when wandering in the forest and got attacked. He found a village grew up getting wiser than average and is actually speedy. Idk if a wizard rogue is a thing but yeah. He is low in strength and Health. He is average in intelligence and charisma. Now the real part... Immortality works like this: he starts off as a wise calm and moral human. He is then much more nervous after the first death and loses a little intelligence as well as wisdom. He gets more mental unstable with more deaths and less and less moral. He also loses more and more intelligence as well as wisdom until... He reaches his 9th death (including the first 2 lore deaths.) He is much less moral and insane at his 8th death but at his 9th he no longer returns to his party and I play a new character like normal. He is now unable to think and just wanders around. If the main villain of the campaign knows some kind of evil magic or something the evil boss can take control of my character because my character's mind is incredibly weak. And at some point of the campaign which is gonna probably be the end my character will help the villain in battle. The character's intelligence and wisdom will be the same or slightly lower than the villain's intelligence and wisdom. The group members will have to decide whether to fight my former character or to try and stop my character in a non-lethal way. It will also be a cool twist at the end of the game. Of course the group can break the curse if they try hard enough to do so. But it will take a lot of intelligence to do so and would remove the immortality thing. If my character dies for a 10th time he will respawn again but instead will lay on the ground and won't move. He would then become a permanent living corpse for all of eternity. Idk how I did but I like what I did here probably will never use this chapter idea ever though.
HR giger, pocket size edition. Very cool character concept.
That’s an incredibly good backstory!
@@Yaz42886-zzz that sounds extremely cringe. Why does everyone want to make some super speshul OC? Just play a normal character ffs.
My first game of D&D was with this random group with a DM that allowed the entirety of DanDWiki Homebrew, so it was a wild ride with little to no planning or preparation. I ended up playing as a giant crystal golem that had absurd strength and minimum intelligence. He was a construct that was accidentally created by an experiment gone wrong. He was incapable of speech, acted like a toddler, treated one of the other players as his father, and would go ballistic in order to protect him.
This reminds me of Grawp from the Harry Potter Franchise - the "little" brother of Hagrid.
I accidentally gave my character Zuko’s backstory without realizing it
I also accidentally made my character Zuko. Like, scarily so. I based him off the Pokémon Infernape and Sun Wukong, so I made him a Fire Genasi Monk who was a prince. Then my DM threw in that my character’s mother was incredibly harsh with him. I can’t believe I tried to make a Sun Wukong analog and made Zuko instead. 😂
#4 is why a session 0 is so important. Gives everyone a chance to coordinate characters and plot.
My favourite character I made was this Kenku warlock whose whole character gimmick was that he can escape any jail/trap. Whenever he got captured in some way, there would always be a brief period of time where he would tee-hee to himself. He was driven by a single mindedness to be known as a master escape artist. He was also incredibly insecure and had to make sure to let people know that he was infact good at escaping traps. If anyone doubted his ability, he'd distance himself from the person. He was very fun to create
Holy Heck, if you went Fiend he would be a perfectly Lore friendly Warlock of Levistus.
@@jasonfurumetarualkemisto5917 oh yeah!!!
Can you do a twist for centaurs? Like finding a way to make them combine with other animals instead of horses. (*Cough Cough* Like “Centaurworld”)
You know my player helped me make a monster. It’s is a centipede Centaur and it hunts lost travelfolk 😂. I just think this would be great
all i want to add to this suggestion is...spider centaurs
@@andreivlad443 Dryads
@@JulioCesar-ps1ot driders*
There is an old template for Tauric Creatures that you can find online. Its the same idea, any humanoid and any many legged creature and what stats it should have. Not perfect, but a good place to start.
I kinda threw myself into a pickle almost 2 years ago when I made a character with a random generator before the first session. They started out as the ‘normal person’ in a party of combatants. That has changed over time as they’ve gone from from a motif-less lost do-gooder, to a warlock desperately protective of their party as they sink further into their patron’s goals. This video has given me a lot to think on for my next character as well - especially as an artist!
this is my favourite method to make characters, and makes them dense but not overcomplicated, thanks!
I really love this Channel. Eventhough there are so many end channels out there, this one stands out to me because you explain things particularly well and the cherry on the top is that every time you talk about something in a video, you put your words to paper for the viewers and give them exactly what you where talking about for free. That extra effort really makes a whole lot of difference to me, even if I don't always use the documents you make. Just the fact that you made them in top of all the work of making the video makes me have a lot of respect for you
I normally don't comment on videos, but the quality, time, and effort you put into all of your stuff is so great that I feel like I need to do my part in making sure that you can keep doing this for as long as you want to! I've actually been watching all of your stuff with a friend that I'm building a new TTRPG system with and we find that a lot of your ideas fall somewhat close to one's we've come up with but always with that nice extra spin on them and it's been great to get some more ideas and thoughts on stuff while we're building things out. Looking forward to see what you come up with next.
I love how the common first characters (aka the first two) were deemed fine, and the criticism of the others are just explaining why it wouldn't be advised for your game. No shaming, just good advice and analysis 😌 pointy hat doesn't miss. Brb gonna go make fanart of a hat.
His main point is that D&D (and other ttrpgs) are fundamentally a group activity so you need a character that will actually fit in with the group, as long as they do that then any mistakes are just "it could be better" instead of "wrong".
Its like how the main complaint with "evil" PCs are that they generally don't fit into a party and cause constant drama. (And not the good kind of drama)
I love Tip of the Hat! The name is top notch, and you have some really good advice!
As someone who really enjoys diving deep into characters - like, REAL deep - I think this three-pillar method of character creation is fantastic. It’s a great way to build your character up so that they can stand on their own from the get-go!
Currently in a couple campaigns, and for one of them I'm the only person who's played before. Can confirm that every single one is pretty much following the first mistake you mentioned of making themselves but coolTM-like to a tee. I find it very wholesome though and don't hold it against them and I'm loving watching them all develop a love for the game session by session. Now they've started coming up with cool character ideas for our next campaign that are a little more unique :)
You're my favorite D&D content creator on the platform. You've been consistently entertaining and on top of that you've been consistently providing sound advice. I never feel like I wasted my time when I watched your video. So.. thank you!
I’ve sent one of my friends your cowboy ranger, my Friends and I will soon be playing for the first time ever and I’m the DM, I’m pretty scared of making too many unnecessary beginners mistakes, so your advice is very very helpful to me, it’s seriously so amazing, you opened my eyes to all the possibilities out there, still scared but I can’t wait, I’m so excited :D Keep doing what you’re doing, it’s awesome
You’ll make a ton of mistakes. Everyone does, and that’s okay-I’d say it’s even part of the experience. The important thing is just not to make the _wrong_ mistakes.
Don’t be mean, listen to others, be forgiving (of others and especially yourself), and try to have a sense of humor about yourself. Mistakes are part of the experience, and can ultimately be a big source of fun & fond memories.
Dude, you are killing it on your narration and editing, not to mention the subject matter. Very well done sir, keep up the good work!
Wow incredible, revolutionary, thanks for the awesome advice pointy hat, I will be sure to use this in my games
Long time fan; you are a crazy genius, with an entertaining sense of humor. Antonio, you also seem to have a solid core sense of yourself, what you want to do, and stick to that, without losing yourself chasing fame and fortune. Stay brilliant and may your brain always fizz with ideas. (And Revolutionary)
I always struggle with Character Creation - but only the Story/Personality part. This Video really helped me alot, thanks!
My first character I had was a Warforged that did everything the most optimal way as his part in his body that allowed him to feel feelings was broken. Thus he is always trying to everything the most optimal way. Such as finding weak spots on monsters or throwing away the injured little girl and replacing it with something better that doesn't just lie around and eat food.
Ha! Yeet the child!
The fear n hunger 1 protagonists agree
Cant wait to see more of this series! As an aspiring DM, and someone who unfortunately has yet to play D&D, I can tell this will help me out a lot!
One thing I like is having each character have a tie to another of the characters at the table, so they have, from the get go, connections to the others beyond 'we work together'.
My first character was a member of the shadow wizard money gang (yes that’s what it’s called) which was a very rich and powerful organisation of wizards and he got exiled because he pussied out and betrayed his patrol during a goblin raid in order to save himself, now he’s desperately trying to become as powerful as possible no matter the cost (including selling his soul to a demon and multiclassing as a warlock halfway through the campaign) in order to prove himself worthy because he persuaded himself that they would somehow accept him back in the order if he’s strong enough. Honestly really proud of that character, he had multiple clear personality traits (manipulative, scaredy cat, kind of a dick, but a good enough liar to lie about his past so that the party didn’t learn about his backstory so they wouldn’t hate him) and I role played him really well. I also only chose spells and cantrips related to shadows and necromancy to fit the whole shadow wizard thing
Did he love casting spells?
Subscribed. Something I started doing recently that has spawned some interesting characters that I would have never thought of myself is randomly generated classes, ancestries, and backgrounds. I’ve come up with a few cool character concepts this way, including a half-orc sorcerer who has a folk hero background. He was a lot of fun.
Getting everything to work together makes a great writing prompt, that tends towards being just a little edgelord-y. Or maybe I’m just a little edgelord-y, I haven’t quite figured that out yet.
Thank you so much! I was having so much trouble trying to help my players with their Characters. for me crating one is easy, but It's because it comes naturally to me. I really hope this video helps them.
This is my absolutly favorte D&D related channel!! Love you too ❤️
All amazing! Additional point I have learned: Don't create a character based just on a motif and then fail to have the other pillars (i.e. a want linked into the campaign, a compelling conflict). This has happened to me twice where aesthetics definitely came before content and both characters didn't really fit with the party, they didn't feel like they had much drive or investment.
I recently played a rogue that was honestly the first rogue character that I was actually satisfied with. In terms of fitting that rogue feeling and also blending well with the party.
It was the Theros setting and I basically made a character that could be described as an edgy version of Phil from Hercules. A rogue that would try to be sort of a manager for heroes and ride their coattails to fame. Had a secret backstory of having offed a few adventurers that tried to leave him. The initial goal of boosting the party fame and assistance made it easy for him to fit in. The party eventually convinced him of his value as a hero in his own right, and he eventually owned up to his shady past and confessed his betrayal to his former heros and help put their souls to rest. A very fun character arc without hitting the usual pitfalls of bad rogue RP.
I’ve been getting deeper and deeper into D&D lately so this video is very helpful especially as I DM a campaign my family is doing. But of course I created characters of my own just for the fun of it so this was like a checklist of sorts to see how good my character making skills are.
My first was a half elf (yes I know) bard who sees himself as the best storyteller in the world and deserves to be treated as such (gimmick). But an amazing (arguably the greatest) story he tells about his rogue twin sister escaping death ends up giving his sister more fame then him leading him to leave home to forge a new story with himself at the center so no one can question or undermine his greatest (conflict). His goal now is just to live the greatest story ever and consequently tell it to gain his deserved recognition as the greatest storyteller (want).
Sadly though I have yet to get to play him 😭
Wait that's actually a really awesome character. Bravo
@@lynnz7501 Thanks! Just hope I get a chance to play him in the semi-near future 💀
As someone running a campaign using a modded video game, this video is such a life-saver. I've had it in my watch later for so long, and I'm glad I watched it now. I'll definitely be using that document. Very good video! 👍
I’ve done this as a character concept (for a one shot) his backstory was me who got transported to the dnd world and used my actual real world engineering knowledge to become an artificer with the stats I think I have in real life
That's hilarious, really fun idea (though definitely best for a one shot only)
This is honestly the most entertaining way of guiding people through DnD. Most videos of the same topic are still useful, but they are so old-school that it just feels like a lecture. Compared to yours, it is both appealing, entertaining, and fresh in this current age. Which makes it feel like a modern tabletop rather than a fossil.
Ah, I still remember my first D&D character, he was a bard fully focused on making and sharing stories, his very reason to join the party was to be part of a legend that would be told for thousands of years, he managed in the end, but set out for another adventure.
Revisiting from August 2024 to see the hat back when he was just a young revolutionary. It's beautiful
I don't even play D&D (I play a different system), and I enjoy your content. I think I've watched all the videos you've made so far, and it's all been insightful, creative and most of all, witty. Your comedic timing is awesome and you have a fun and interesting way at analysis and breaking things down. I'll definitely be home-brewing some of your ideas into my own game, especially the Invoker. That Bard-Lich idea is epic. Keep it up!
Oh, and....revolutionary!
I feel like this is a writer/ artist that plays dnd and really expresses the way to best enjoy the game. All dms and players are artists and actors in their own way I feel like pointy has a background in it and picked up dnd because of it. Maybe I’m just crazy. I’m head over heels for this content and can’t wait to learn more and incorporate this into my games!! I’m doing a homebrew world right now maybe do some story/ world building tip of the hat next?
Your content is amazing and Ezekiel is the newest bard in the opera-loving aristocracy of one of my homebrew world's cities. Some of my newbie players have also been enjoying your videos very much - so you're also making my life a bit easier hahaha Sending lots of good vibes!
Lovin' this channel!
I'm playing a tortle barbarian path of the ancestors. He's on a spiritual journey to walk in the footsteps of his parents. His "rage" is more like being in "the zone". He basically enters a heightened sense of reality where he begins to see his ancestors around him. Soooooo much fun!
i was not expecting to be violently humbled immediately with the introvert druid first character
My recent character actually follows these pillars by accident, and I’ve noticed since watching that my three favourite characters so far all follow this trend while my other characters either don’t follow it or only partially follow it. Interesting to think about
I sort of have that "shy" kind of character, except I handle it a little differently. I have a changeling character who isn't all that good at shapeshifting and can get pretty anxious, but is really good at planning and being charismatic. As long as things go according to plan, they're likely to *keep* going according to plan. They're great at disguising, deception, getting people to believe whatever the hell they want, so usually their plans go off without a hitch. But they can't handle those rare occasions when they don't. If shit starts going south, if they can't correct it quickly, all of that charisma and planning goes totally out the window and they can get so nervous they can't even maintain their changeling form sometimes. They snowball both ways. If things are going well, they're going to go better and better and better! But if things start going wrong, be prepared for some serious shit. It's sort of the same reason I like wild magic. Sometimes a little chaos and things going very *very* wrong can be really fun.
Literally the first D&D Video I've ever shared to anyone, since most are easily talked about and filled with just so little useful actually changing information that simply bringing up that one significant fact is all it takes to describe the content of a video.
This video however ist so useful and enjoyable and not hideous to follow without getting bored half the way in!
I really loved all your work so far and talked with other people about it, but since today was the day i sent your video to someone i decied to give RUclips comments a go ; )
soooooo
love you
bye byee
EDIT: Funnily enough, I think you _can_ do a Batman- _type_ character well. He's the wizard alchemist constantly making smokebomb "potions" and alchemist's fire/ice/lightning/thunder, the ranger bounty hunter who has a tool for that, the rogue sneaky daredevil who has Expertise in Stealth and has a habit of sneaking in and out of a stronghold without anyone noticing and leaving a feather on the general's pillow while also not taking anything _for fun._ Don't make them a loner and you can do a great Batman-like.
I'm not sure what was the best part of that intro:
- "Switching it up" with the light-up switches
- "Tip of the Hat" as a pun segment name
- "M'lady" meme tipping your hat avatar, which has a fedora on it
I'd subscribe if I weren't already XD
A "Brave and the Bold" Batman would be a delightful template for a Barbarian or Paladin.
You could also try a 1966-style "Bright Knight" Batman.
Batman works with the Justice League, and does have a relationship with its members. He is able to team up with the Bat Family. He's capable of playing with others.
Just fucking mingle!
Yes to all of these, btw :D
This is such a help to me, this made me think about my character and to discus with my DM a pit deeper about the campaign we are going to start soon. You vids are always so interesting and cool, you're such a positive light in this community. :)
Love Pointy Hat's advice!! In trying to arrange a campaign, I've been sending these videos to my future players so we can define character motivations and build the world around it! Hugely appreciated
I always tell players to not set their alignment before after they made their characters personality. Because a lot of people would make characters based upon alignments which become two dimensional stereotypes of said alignment.
Always remember this; your character has an alignment because of their personality, not a personality because of an alignment.
This might even lead to a character being technically NG, but still is a rude jerk who broods in every dark corner, or a CE character who still doesnt screw over the party, as they are the few guys the character is buddy-buddy with.
I as dm said in my first play to ignore allignements, still the best choice I made
I agree! I had set a base alignment for my character, but as I fleshed out his backstory and personality I realized it didn't fit him and had changed it. It's important for characters to be dynamic
Siempre puedo notar un saborcito hispánico en tus videos y me encanta. Los Matts pueden tener crines majestuosas que ondulan al viento, pero tu tienes SABOR!
This has completely revolutionized my character creation!
I tend to lean toward storm, purple, and sparkly as the motifs for my characters. Love to be a shiny and dangerous PC 🖤
Pointy hat is so inventive and creative every video revolutionizes all of D&D
Oh as a tip for character building. As a roleplayer, I think it makes your character more fun to give you character an accent. It helps makes them more entertaining to interact with. Giving them a certain way they speak. Fyi, I would do a voice that doesn't hurt your throat. As per DND session, they can get long. So I would do something that you're more comfortable doing for probably a long time.
Cada vez que veo uno de tus vídeos me planteo buscar un grupo de D&D, porque de verdad que este juego me fascina y la única vez que pude jugar me lo pasé de maravilla
Can you do a twist for sorcerers? There is a lot of potential in the class, and I have difficult in differentiate them for other magical classes (and also I have a imaginary cenário in my head with DND theme and I want to make a sorcerer for my fictional party)
Isn't it scenario?
In a literal way, sorcerers, wizards and warlocks are basically the same
@@schizophrenic_rambler
To my knowledge the main difference is just the source.
@@pineappleudh6561 english is not my first language, my gboard must have wrongly corrected the typo
@@gabrielmartins7887
It's fine I just prefer to point these things out to people.
I'm going crazy with two characters. One is a angelic succubus cleric of sune. But her father is trying to twist her and some other events causing her succubus side to try and take over. And a ce harpy rogue that mentally is us.
Your work is so good, you deserve all this love. Kudos from Brazil. (Brasil!!!)
I LOVE the RuPaul references, really love them and your videos in general. I discovered you 3 days ago and I watch you non stop!
My first character was a female tabaxi monk named Dust in the Ears, short Dusty. All our characters came from the same village, but she was basically just a hobo living on the street and eating leftovers until she was recruited to become an adventurer. I took some of the suggested character traits, so she was a bit kleptomanic and didn't understand the concept of private space or property. Our characters entered an armoury at the start of the campaign and everyone could take whatever armor and weapons they wanted (all normal stuff of course) and she only asked for a dice set which she used during the campaign to lose a lot of gold to the other party members. She also developed a problem with alcohol and had an urge to lick ancient things. For example, we entered a dungeon under a temple and her first thing was to lick the magical lightsource, resulting in a burned tongue. She also licked a rusty ceremonial dagger covered in dried blood and got poisened by it. A god appeared at the end of the dungeon and while everyone got awesome stuff, she just wished to be able to taste again. She also jumped into every source of water she would encounter, because I figured Tabaxi are more based on big cats and those usually love water.
The next character will be a low-charisma gnoll bardbarian with a magical shock collar to control him.
My personal method of creating a character is that I come up with an idea, and build a character primarily around that idea. This idea can potentially later become tossed out as the character changes. For example, one of my recent characters started off as a neutral good tiefling who was a divine soul sorcerer, but the magic came from an evil being. This character eventually went crazy in a fun-to-play way that my DM was helping me with in between sessions, and has recently become the main villain of the campaign (although becoming an NPC for this purpose and after agreeing to it with the DM for the sake of the story). The idea was that he was a good person and didn’t care about rules, but that was basically thrown out in favor of a plot that I was directly working on with the DM himself, which was much more fun. This idea was something I only came up with as I was writing the character down on my character sheet, but I’m pretty happy. Charles is a fun villain.
The motif part got me thinking.
A physicist wizard would be kinda cool I think.
Instead of just explaining your spells with "it's magic" you describe how your character uses magic to use for example electricity or magnetism or something.
Magic missile has you channeling electricity through your hands to turn yourself into a railgun launching small iron projectiles.
To cast fireball you compress the air until it combusts or even fuses, etc.
I think that would a cool concept.
Daylight is just a lil' Hand Fusion, ya know, no biggie.
This helps me so much in character development. I naturally usually started with a gimmick but the rest of this absolutely gets me a complete fleshed out character. I had a gimmick of being a grim reaper in an Undead campaign playing a Death Cleric but couldn't think of how does he tie into the party till the Conflict & Want from the video. Conflict: some of his party is half-undead like a Frankenstein's monster so he has to get over his his gimmick to work with and begin to embrace them as sentient. And his Want is to give the Raven Queen memories (Trinkets) of the fallen souls, in essence he was her to love him. He Needs love!
Thankyou for this
I love this channel. Funny dialog, excellent ideas, great editing and a free gift! I bow to you great hat.
Good character: fills at least one mechanical niche very well, backstory/personality/alignment that cooperates with the campaign, and sufficient backstory to have interest.
It would be cool te see you put a twist to the Kenku, I heard they are difficult to roleplay and it would be cool to see a way to make it easy for new players
oh please god yes, i love kenku but can't do voices for shit
They did remove the Mimicry feature in the MotM race rework, but that would definitely be a cool video.
I play a kenku in my game and just didn't bother with the gimmick. Its a cool lore detail, but it would be a complete pain to roleplay, especially for a new player.
I'd love to play a kenku cuz I have an echo stim that has resulted in me being really good at mimicry, I sound exactly like my cat when I mimic her for example, and I feel like with a little bit of practice I could nail the quirk. The best part is, I wouldn't have to come up with an individual character voice, I'd just copy everyone else lol
My first dnd character was a mute (mostly) as I couldn't think of a voice, it was first time playing so I just wanted to be useful to the party so I wanted to fill roles we needed a healer and a tank, so stupidly choose a cleric barbarian (it wasn't good) but balanced out by my lucky roles and my party being incredibly chaotic, I had no idea how to fit in a back story in the world and asked to be written in as a background character at first, in the end it was very fun as I added an interesting dynamic being mostly everyone else was trying to be the main character and I choose to be the help.
Tldr: first character was a mute background character.
This video is such a gem! To think he came up with this revolutionary concept back as far as 2023!! I am bamboozled.
Wow, I realized only at the end that I was watching a storytelling masterclass very well explained and illustrated
This video was revolutionary, it changed my life! Also, my hair is so luxurious now, and I lost 20 pounds, and I can now bench-press a truck!
Thank you Pointy Hat, I owe it all to you!
My current character's 'gimmick' is a Dragonborn Wizard. The idea of breathing fire as a last ditch "get back" from my squishy wizard seemed like a fun idea (ever since I watched my dad playing Wizardry on the computer as a kid). After causing a magical accident that destroyed his clan's magical library he was exiled. He is on a quest to learn every arcane spell on the material plane in an attempt to rejoin his clan by rebuilding the library. Will he learn to get over himself and respect his fellow party members along the way? We'll see.
With "gimmick" theres a personal gimmick meant, at least how I got it. Things like "always horny", "lies all the time" and "strives to be the most intelligent in the room" are helpful for roleplay when thrown in random scenarious. Breathing fire or doing some magic are no characteristics of that character and most of the time are barely helpful in roleplay.
The flaw of my first character was an irrational phobia of rats
Were there rats in the game?
@Mag3.1415 yes. Giant rats actually
I'm currently making my first DND character a rat 🤣
My so and our friends have started a campaign and I am so excited to really bring my character to life! Thank you!
This video actually helped me a lot in making characters that I'm really satisfied with.