Why Class Tropes Mean Nothing | The Mindset of Creativity in D&D
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- Опубликовано: 14 июл 2024
- What if your Druid studied books like a wizard, or your rogue was never proficient in stealth? What if Warlocks got their magic like sorcerers? When it comes to artistic license and personal creative freedom, ANYTHING is possible, and that is OK.
Classes, in this case, are descriptive, not prescriptive. Expand your creativity, and don't' let other people's perimeters limit your possibilities!
Whether it be Homebrew, Worldbuilding, World Setting, Roleplay, Narrative, Character Building, or other elements of Dungeons and Dragons, let's all strive to create stories that we will carry with us for years to come!
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0:00 The Two DMs
1:42 Druids can be Wizards too
3:36 Descriptive, not Prescriptive
6:05 Cultivating Creative Freedom
7:33 How I Reflavor
9:29 The Start of a Conversation
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Graphics with: canva.com
Music: Voyage
Musician: @iksonmusic
#dnd #dnd5e #dungeonsanddragons #ttrpg 
Игры
How do you view creativity in D&D?
I view it as you do!
Very much the same as yourself, a trope is fun but it can go only so far. This is what has had me really become a DM to really REALLY bring out creative ideas from my players and to not have them be restricted by it!
@@mslabo102s2 Be the DM you wanna be, and you'll attract the right players :)
I see the game as a malleable framework in which create stories together. If a rule helps then that is great, if it gets in the way I ignore or change it.
Honestly a druid swapping out wisdom for intelligence might be a more interesting transmutation wizard than the one we got given by WotC. People in these worlds shouldn't know the difference between a druid, a wizard and a warlock, so why do we act like they have to be set in stone?
YES! you get it 🙌
Labels can be silly sometimes
that's.... a good point....
Flavor is free! I agree!
I watched your video on that just yesterday! You couldn't be more right! 😊
Your opening bit is literally the reason for me learning to become a DM. Couldn't stand hearing people shut down all those awesome idea's just because it wasn't how things were 'historically'. Awesome vid
Bingo. This video goes out to players and DMs like you! Great thing is, you probably create a great creative atmosphere for your players now! 😊
I played a bard as a magical researcher. Expertise in arcana really helps, Jack of all trades makes you a better counterspeller, and magical secrets is such a flavorful thing for a researcher. I reflavored cutting words as a divination ability, and handing out inspiration as an abjuration ward.
This is what I am talking about! While I may understand the desire to have some consistency for say Adventures League play, or to avoid analysis paralysis, being this creative and flexible is part of the joy of TTRPGs. This is a refreshing outlook and one that I will certainly try to take to heart.
I'm glad you like it Classes!! And your right, just knowing that the options are out there and your not limited 😊
I L♥️OVE the Druid idea! I could see it thematically, a person who studies nature in an academic way. Druids can be good blasters like a Wizards and excellent controllers like Wizards. Heck even Land Druids get Natural Recovery so they can clearly play like a Wizard.
Absolutely! If you like that, you'd love my full better druids video 😂
That's why I refer to Land Druids as "Nature Wizards".
@@ericpeterson8732 bingo 🙌
"The Two DMs" part of this video is a pure masterpiece. I am obsessed with it. Incredibly committed and very good content. I am so glad there are people like you out there. Keep going!
So kind! Thank you!
Your ideas are exactly that 'Your Ideas' and there is no rule of life that says your ideas and thoughts have to match those of all others. I love the quirky ideas you come up with, they make me think about my characters in new and exciting ways.
Thank you! And your exactly right! If people take my ideas and make it better or do different things to make their table more fun. Then mission accomplished 😊
I freaking love this outlook
Thank you! Always nice to hear that people share that mindset 😊 thanks for commenting!
That's true. If you look at Ged (Sparrow Hawk from "A Wizard of Earthsea"), when he was apprenticed to Ogion, his training involved learning all about plants and animals. You could argue that he was a druid until he went to Roke.
This reminds me of a video I made a while back where I tried to make a Dad character for every class in D&D. It was a lot of fun and allowed me to stretch my imagination. The Paladin Dad swore an oath to protect his family, no matter the cost.
Oh no way! Did you post about it anywhere? My dad would get a kick out of that!
@@TheClericCorner there's all 3 parts on this channel ruclips.net/channel/UCva70tTYj4_44AFcuPE17Xw and on my Facebook page. I was going to make another one where I do every class as a Princess character but I want to team up with another artist for that idea
I made a Fighter Dad in the vein of Flint Marko. His daughter got sick, he broke the law to get her treatment, he lost his job as a City Watch officer, his wife divorced him and took his daughter to another town while he was in jail. He carried a flagon with the words "World's Best Dad" painted on it from his daughter in better times. He adventures to make enough money to hire a wizard to use magic to locate his daughter. Whenever he's tempted to break the law or do something bad, he handles the flagon like a talisman.
here's a play on warlock with a real world spin: their patron is their imagination. i call it the pact of chaos warlock (based on chaos magic from real world theology). basically, their pact is that their belief in their magic is what causes it to be real. there's a species in dnd already that operates on a similar function, but i can't remember their name. all i remember is that their encounters with adventurers usually result in a demi-god clone of one of the player characters that turns out to be much stronger than the original. this demigod clone is basically the conjuration of how members of that species perceive others (since they're weak, they tend to exaggerate the difference in their minds).
hell, in 5e, this would even make a fantastic sorcerer since metamagic is basically a reimagining of spells
OMG this works so well!! Like some people even say they are a prisoner in their own mind. If you figure out what that creature is, you have to share!
@@TheClericCorner found it. they're called kuo-tao. they're fish people
@@funkyfox7996 oh YES!! How can I forget the God creators!
Thank you! A couple of weeks ago I commented on your wizard video about my wizard who used his magic like a rule exploitation of the rules of nature. Your druid idea reminds me so much of that character and I'm glad to see you post a video on this subject because it some time and effort to get my DM to okay the character because it felt so weird to her and we've been enjoying it ever since.
I'm so glad!! I've come to find many are hesitant about the idea of changing up class tropes and inverted creativity, which is bizarre to me. But hopefully this helps the conversation! 😊 Thanks for thinking outside the box!
The DM is a player as well and having consistent methods of how powers come about can be very useful for world building.
I'm glad to watch a video like this, I have a hard time coming up with characters that don't fit a class trope of some kind since it just feels "wrong" to me. I find this especially difficult to do with Barbarians, Paladins, Clerics, and Monks.
Reminds me of my scholar/librarian that learned his magic from books and studies, and knew a bit of everything because of how much he had read in his lifetime.
Lore Bard is crazy :)
Then there is my time manipulator, able to look into the future or even rewind time to avoid an outcome.
Battlemaster Fighter is chock full of flavor potential.
Yes to All of that 😂
I haven't watched the video yet, but the thumbnail speaks to me. I have a Tortle Circle of Land (Coast) Druid in my campaign right now, and he's more wizardy than our actual Wizard.
He goes by Gramps, and he's long been fascinated by magic and theology, and how to sort of better line these things up with his traditional, Druidic understanding of the world. For the bulk of his life, however, he was the leader of his village, and in his culture, this isn't just a political office, but also one of spiritual guidance and education for the youth. This position is granted by seabirds who pick out a Tortle to use as a netting site each spring, and Gramps was chosen for more than 30 consecutive years-- longer than anyone else his village history. This previous year though, the birds finally allowed him to retire, and he's taking the opportunity to leave his island home and go on a bucket list trip around the world to finally explore and investigate some of the questions he's long had, and to find a specific book he's long suspected to hold the key to uniting the different perspectives living in his head.
Meanwhile, Norman, our Conjuration Wizard grew up a prince of a magically-driven Elven nation and studied magic growing up because he was simply expected to. Being the youngest of his siblings, he had no real chance of being an heir, but he never really felt the royal life anyways. So, one day he just took off and became a traveling problem solver for the common folk, sometimes using his magic to help them, but mostly using it to entertain children. Now, having stumbled into the war that's central to the campaign while just trying to help a small village innkeeper, he's learning that his magical skills were never meant for this type of shit.
Lol! That quote, at the end. DMG pg 6.!
I use it a see a "that's not RAW or RAI" argument. Every change to the game is Raw if the DM says so,
funny thing about druids is that if I remember right is that in older editions, Druids were simply Nature Clerics, aka specialized Clerics, and I find that niffy
Absolutely!! And weirdly closer to real history 😂
Suck a breath of fresh air. I do this type of thing all the time. think of character consepts and mess around, putting them into different classes. Or taking a classes mechanics and reflavoring it. I have not done it to the extent that you have in your videos, well, not often at least. I love what you said about classes/ races/ what ever, being descriptive not prescriptive. Looking at it that way, you could make just about anything and wrap it around the rules.
I have so many ideas now. Thanks
I love this idea and it's something I've been actively trying to do when I make a character to add a "spin" to the character. I recently played with a straight class Samurai Fighter who I introduced to the table as a "non-magical Bard who just happens to be really good at shooting arrows".
He's a typical sharpshooter build but by mixing and matching class features, backgrounds, and flavor, I was able to give him proficiency in a musical instrument, Persuasion and Performance, and decent bonuses to Charisma checks.
I then asked the DM to give me a free ribbon feature that allows me to modify any bow I have so I can use it as my instrument. No real mechanical benefit, but I love the idea of having a harpbow / lyrebow.
I hope 2022 brings you much more success with your amazing channel and less interference from gate keepers!
Gate keepers definitely keep the blood pumping 😂
Thank you so much! 💛
"Set in stone" when discussing terrestrial vs aquatic goblins... my pun-loving self approves!
oh holy crap i just had a great idea: a mad scientist who injects themselves to cause rapid and temporary mutations that greatly enhance certain characteristics such as strength or speed. this one's a druid
This made me so happy!! Fantastic reflavor! 🙌
Or, on top of that, consider the following: it could be a druid, but if you just want an alchemist who injects themselves with experimental serums and hulks out, allowing themselves to transcend their naturally weak and frail form, that is essentially a barbarian rage.
For me the rule that is kinda set in stone regarding classes is: the core mechanics of a class (regardless of how we call them) must be in (table's) world justified.
He's my general, incomplete and non-completely-binding list:
Warlock: has neither training not instinct/talent for magic but is empowered by a powerful source.
Sorcerer: gains or inherits powers and has instinct/talent for it.
Barbarian: a champion, good at bringing the enemies down
Wizard: vast and ever expending knowledge, trained in magical abilities.
Rogue: the professional, expert/better than anyone at a set of skills and abilities.
Some are fluid of cours, some subclase wouldn't fit such descriptions, and that's fine, you'll have to find the core of that particular subclass.
I encourage creativity but I'm a generally a stickler to the "the exploration has to make sense" rule.
i am so on board with this! Your character doesn’t need to know what’s in the handbook or the character sheet.
I have a Genie:Djinn Patron Warlock completely reskinned into one of those famed Star Fleet engineers who can turn rocks into replicators. He was transported to the D&D world by his "patron" Q. All of his invocations and spells are reskinned into various Star Trek technologies. For instance Eldritch Blast makes and easy Phaser and Misty Step is just his short-range site-to-site transporter, etc.
great stuff! Monks in my mind are the 4th half-casting magus/gish class that just default to spell points instead of pact magic spell slots.
Yeah! Aren't you working on a 4 elements outlook on spells right now?
I'm here from the Dungeon Coach, and I'm already glad to be here! Time to start binge-watching
Glad to have you!! Hope you find value! 😊
Im actually playing a Circle of stars druid, that fit more into a Wizard stereotype. She is an astronomy nerd, and studied the stars for many years now. I love her story and the relationship she have with her master, who teach her everything he knows. Fuck stereotypes (excuse my english, im not a native speaker).
I had an idea for a Warlock where their patron is madly in love with them, and the power they give are gifts of love and have very lovey-dovey designs and cute soft colors
So good!!
this inspired me to make a warlock whose patron views them as their child, maybe even fully believing them to be so...I think that could be both humorous and interesting for character development
Solid video. Creativity is key.
Thank you, thank you, thank you so much ❤️ Loved the video, love the idea behind it. There will always be conservative side or more strong-headed one and some of them will be heard loud no matter what we do. So just know, that there are many people who received the message and couldn't agree more. Much love and success ❤️
So kind!! Thank you!! 💛💛
I use the lore as a jumping off point, Wizard of the coast isn't looking over my table, it a player had a cool idea I believe if it enhances their enjoyment and doesn't detriment another player I will find a way to let them do it as I see it as "this is creative and this game is meant to be creative for all players
YES!! 🙌🙌🙌
There is no WOTC police! 😂
Love this! Yes to everything you said!
Thank you! I'm so happy so many people resonate with it!
Great video! And I’m a big fan of you alternative class origins series! I’d love to see you do a blood hunter episode, even though it’s not technically “official” yet
That's actually a really good idea! I might send out a pole towards the end of the series and if there is enough hype for it, absolutely! 😊
Dungeon coach gave you a shout out and i watched a few of your awesome vids. Keep going
I was so thankful!! A fantastic friend of the channel. And I will, thank you! 😊💛
I don't know whether I like this or not, but I definitely want to review some of these ideas to see if the rules-as-written "crunch" can support these ideas.
Go for it! See how they come out for you!
I love Druid with bunch wizard tropes idea. I’ve made that exact character years ago except they had a more medical gothic literature mad scientist spin. They studied natural philosophy or natural sciences. The wild shapes being a result of science experimentation on themselves that went wrong. Basically a Dr. Frankenstein & Dr Jekyll hybrid except with idea what if my mad scientist defining trait was kindness. So in short, I love this sort idea playing against trope is so fun for me!
You would resonate really well with my druid video if you haven't already. I think this is a prime example! Thanks for sharing!! 😊
@@TheClericCorner Thank you! That's kind of you to comment.🙂
@@LibraryOfAlexandira of course! Have to acknowledge a creative mind when I see one!
My second character is a musician and a craftsman. He is a lvl 4 artificer
A musician artificer? I love that!
This reminds me of my lore bard charachter. Who I played more similar to a wizard RP wise, as a scholar wanting to collect stories and other lore on her travels. So instead of bluff persuasion etc I took a bunch of knowledge skills.
Awesome Channel!!!!
The first dnd character i made was a death domain cleric who was forced to serve an undead god(?) after their forces laid waste to her hometown. Now she is working under him to gain enough power to bring back her dead fiance and family who were killed by this undead god.
I have another character that is a warlock by class but actually doesnt serve a higher power but rather has trapped a celestial and is using its power for himself.
I really like dancing around class tropes and build characters around that.
Ooh! I think you would enjoy my warlock video! Love the ideas!! Keep it up!
@@TheClericCorner Oh boy, time to go check that one out! Binging all your videos hehe
@@cardboardcreationsart no complaints here! 😂
The one Druid I ever played was a party animal to his core, and a god in mortal form. I was heavily inspired by Bacchae Dionysus and chose satyr for that fey/not human vibe.
Spells I chose were the following: charm person, call lightning, polymorph, sleep (fey touched feat), heat metal, and detect thoughts (telepathic feat, which allowed me to communicate silently in and out of wildshape)
Yes I used the traditional stats (although he heavily leaned on all mental stats) he was mischievous, would absolutely ruin some random person’s life for his amusement (telepathic feat communication is NASTY. My DM ruled it that you can change the sound of your inner voice)
Always remember: flavor is FREE
I dub thee "Trope Slayer"!
Words to live by :)
You said it!
Great vid found this channel Through The Dungeon Coach referring you.
I admire that man alot! Great friend of the channel. Hope you got some value from it! 😊
Its a good conversation. Something I think about is how can the experience of a game be enriched by having abilities have a deeper connection with the lore of the setting, not just the "flavor" but the meaning and themes and drama of a game.
For instance, in the Dark Sun setting it is very important that defiling magic sucks the life out of the world and preserving magic tends to be weaker but is more ecologically sustainable. Also there are no gods in Dark Sun. That is consistent with the themes, meaning and stakes of the world and games in it. If we are playing a Dark Sun game then I expect everyone to share that understanding. I think if someone changed defiling magic and reflavored it as coming from a good god, then that would actually reduce the meaning and themes of the world by working against them. In Dark Sun the nature and sources of magic is a core theme and part of the drama of the world. Dark Sun is an example of a setting that a DM could make with deep themes that the magic system and abilities of characters is built around. And if the players agreed to play in that game and with its themes there are many ways to be creative within restriction (most artists will say that restrictions are an important prompt for creativity). The Exalted game is similar in a way - the nature of different kinds of magic are tied to the history of the world in a pretty tight way and engaging with the themes of different kinds of characters is a very rich kind of play and the restrictions can be a source of creativity. And agreeing to restrictions and shared rules is also a part of a game. That game can deviate from the PHB or any rulebook in every imaginable way, but there are big benefits in sharing meanings and the restrictions that can come with them within a group.
But most D&D games aren't like that and don't have such tight themes and meanings, so in those games its less important if the group shares an idea of how magic works or what its limits are or where it comes from. So in these cases the players can each go in their own different direction as far as assigning meaning. Its sort of magical and thematic anarchy.
So that is a distinction that I think is important in applying what you are saying. Is experimentation with overall themes and meanings happening at the group/shared setting level or at the individual player level?
I absolutely agree with you and think that was well put!
This can obviously come from session 0 about the type of game your playing, and there is a certain social contract if you all chose to play a dark sun campaign. Reflavoring should be collaborative between DM and player and not the DM allowing player flavor to disrupt how other players interact with the game.
Thats what i awas telling my friends for years! Now i have a video so that i can link it
Yay!! Hope for the best! 😊
My first character didn't speak, he could only growl or bark. He was a blue dragonborn barbarian raised by wolves. Since he never communicated a name the party referred to him as "nameless." When the DM first introduced him she describing him charging out of woods, half-naked, howling, and carrying a great axe pillaged off some bandits. The other party members were surrounded by cultists and the wild magic sorcerer had just cast confusion on himself and the party got hyped up thinking my big tanky character would save the day. The first roll I ever made was a nat one. The rusty great axe's immediately imbedded itself deep in the ground. So deciding to roleplay my character starting to fight like a wolf, biting the cultists, and with some high rolls (no nat twenties though) I managed to rescue the party after releasing my blast of lightning breath with a few hit points left. Nameless never "raged" he just got hungry. I think I'd like to play him again in a future campaign, now that I have more experience with DnD, and more books with interesting feats and the updated chromatic dragonborn have been released.
I love it! I hope you can too!
Doctor Strange is essentially a wizard even though he's called the Sorcerer Supreme, judging by how he learned magic. (Maybe even a Warlock multiclass because of the Darkhold stuff)
Id be happy to join a session where it's a-okay to swap spellcasting abilities without any problems.
Oh like a wizard that casts with charisma or a cleric casting with intelligence??
@@TheClericCorner tbh cha's overrated. Cleric casting w/ int would be nice especially for arcana and knowledge domains.
@@rpgchronicler I absolutely agree, not to mention religion is an int stat
FINALLY!!! This is what I have been saying for years!
People should learn to separate what I have always called Flavour and Mechanic. The way class mechanics are written are full of flavour along with the mechanics. I always disregard the flavour of a class and work with the player to Crete their own flavour and lore.
For example with the Warlock spell casting. The flavour of the pact magic is that they get their magic by making a deal with their patron, that I in no way the mechanic. The mechanic of their spell casting is that they have 1 spell slot at 1st level which come back on a short rest with X amount of known spells and cantrips.
I boil all the classes down to their bare mechanics and then work with my players who want to play those classes and build up their own lore and reasons behind how and why they have those abilities and what they look like when used.
A warlock of the Arch Fae may have a forest look to their spells with leaves roots and fire flies with neon vibrant colours, like their Eldritch Blast looking vibrant green with buzzing bees and leaves trailing it. But a warlock of the Great Old Ones may have all their magics looks like darkness and black smoke or sickly energy so their Eldritch Blast might look all black trailing whips of shadow.
Sounds like you get it!! Your players should feel so lucky! I've come to find that it's less common than I thought
@@TheClericCorner yeah I have also noticed that. I can understand people being stuck to the given WotC flavour of classes and such when running games set in their world's like Ferun or Dragon Lance. But I don't understand why people get so stuck to it when they build their own homebrew worlds.
I only ever run games in my own worlds as I a compulsive world builder (it's an unhealthy observation). So give all the character creativity to my players lets them get fully involved in the lore of my world's which makes them feel heavily involved in the world (as some of it is literally build around their character ideas) and it is less work I have to do since I am giving them the job of building the world as well.
@@rothiirluciusmagus3851 I think that's a fantastic way to do it! I personally don't create my homebrew world until after they create their characters and backstory. Then I can create the world around them! 😊
Again for those in the back "CLASSES ARE DESCRIPTIVE NOT PRESCRIPTIVE" Reapeat after me "YES DESCRIPTIVE, NOT PRESCRIPTIVE" good job!
Haha thanks kuraido! 😂
All I'll say to this one is an Amen
Amen 🙌😊
8:14 - that clairsentient ranger could swap out the 50ish Red/Green spells for White/Blue spells instead from the wizard spell list to add some unique spell offers to compliment the creative flavor, like arcane eye, actual clairvoyance, etc. I would actually love building that out.
And I would LOVE to see that a reality! 😍
@@TheClericCorner aight. As soon as my current character commission is done I'll stream building it.
red/green?
@@GoblinLord he's talking about Magic the Gathering :) he's been doing some fun livestreams about the above topic!
@@TheClericCorner ah okay, I know very little about MTG other than it's settings for 5e are beyond rad
Every Class as an Alchemist: Quick warning, certain spells are harder to justify such as summoning creatures. However, as a creative player, you might find an inventive workaround.
All Casters: Grab Alchemist Supplies and Tinker Tools from the background. Poisoner's Kit and Herbalism kit are also useful. Grabbing Medicine is useful too. Now for Artificers, Bards, Clerics, Druids, Paladins, Rangers, Sorcerers, Wizards, and Warlocks, you flavor your spell casting as chucking grenades. Some spells might be flavored as poisons and potions you administer. Some spells will be easier to re-flavour than others. For spell slots, these are the concoctions you prepared in advance. For concentration checks, you have a sprinkler (like that used in churches) to sprinkle fluid onto an alchemical effect. Let's say a creature is under the effects of Haste. This will ware off, however by flicking small amounts of fluid you can prolonge the effect. If your concentration is broken, you flick an imprecise amount of fluid or miss the target altogether causing the effect to end.
All Casters Modifiers: Intelligence represents the knowledge of different alchemical ingredients and recipes for crafting them. Wisdom represents you intuitively knowing how to mix ingredients, however, you would have a hard time explaining how you did it, kind of like you being able to run, but not understanding how running works. Charisma represents creativity, performance, and flair. You are flashy and experimental but don't really have a firm grasp of what you're doing.
Bardic Inspiration: A potion that assists allies. Certain Bard subclass features might have the feature be used offensively (such as cutting words), in which case this is a poison you throw at your enemies.
Blood Hunter: All of the classes and subclasses are the result of using blood as an alchemical ingredient. This class has an alchemical vibe about it anyway, so using blood alchemy isn't too far of a stretch. If you want to take out the edge you could do the alchemy without the blood, but why did you pick the Blood Hunter if you are squeamish about blood?
Channel Divinity (Bards and Paladins): For Clerics and Paladins, you use your Alchemist Supplies to craft special explosives. Divine Favour could be flavored as an experimental alchemical concoction that you craft but cannot reliably replicate.
Infusions (Artificers): This is a tough one. Some infusions such as Googles of Night (a night vision potion) or Alchemical Jug (you're just performing alchemy) are easy to justify. However, a Bag of Holding for example is a tough one.
Smites and Auras (Paladins): For casting see All Casters. Smites are interesting. Hopefully, you can change the damage type because there are so many flavoring opportunities. With Poison or Necrotic Smites, you have poisoned your weapon. If the game master insists on Smites being Radiant, then maybe you are throwing a fire flask at the target whilst hitting them. Your auras could be you throwing an explosive that enhances your allies.
Warriors (All Martial Classes): Barbarians, Fighters, Monks, and Rogues all have features that can be explained by drinking potions. Instead of grabbing Alchemist Supplies gab Herbalism Kit proficiency instead. Barbarian Rages, Fighter's Second Wind and Action Surges, Monk's Ki abilities, and Rogue's Sneak Attack can all be explained by drinking potions that enhance your body. Some features might be justified by poisoning a target. Examples include Sneak Attack being a poisoned weapon and Stunning Strike being a poison blast. If you choose Battlemaster Fighter you could use poisons and potions to mimic the tactics.
Wild Shape (Druids): You drink a potion and transform. You might not necessarily transform into a beast. Maybe you mutate into some hideous monster. You can have a lot of fun with this one.
This is why my classes are always *mechanically* distinct, not lore abiding.
As long as it's congruent with the setting I'm running.
I'm digging this concept and I'm an old school DM. There has been a shift with Wizards in the most recent years to allow for a more generic "skeleton" for classes (and to an extent race), and I have a feeling that it's to specifically cater to the freedom explored in your video. With just the skeletal frame defined, it allows players (and DMs) the ability to get VERY crafty. My question is... while players have been doing custom builds for their characters, what custom builds are you Dungeon Masters putting into your game for your players to encounter?
Thank you! And your right, there is limitless possibilities in homebrew worlds 😊
I have a divine soul sorcerer/celestial warlock and played as a cleric (that worships his matron - deathpact angel).
🙌🙌🙌
i had a backup character i was planning out yesterday/today and i was wanting to play a way of the elements monk (the homebrew subclass seen in high rollers campaign 1) but monks have been said to be devout followers of a monastic tradition and my character i had planned up was anything but that, the origin i chose was the haunted one because it gave a bit of a warlock patron flavor just for a background, and a fallen aasimar but after this, i realize i could still play that character how i wanted to roleplay wise and have that event be what has awoken this latent power within them even tho thats not exactly how its supposed to be
This is exactly what I'm talking about! A great class that you decided not to prescribe yourself to the prewritten trope. That character sounds awesome!!
7:40 It sounds like you start with the mechanics before working out the concept. I have recently been working opposite that, where I begin with a concept and work out the mechanics that work with it. In case it comes off this way, not saying there's anything wrong with your way, just wanted to share the apparent difference in how we create characters.
Oh no I do it the same way too 8:31 :) the spot your mentioning is with the intention of reflavoring something for the purpose of reflavoring. But there are many ways to get to a concept!
That exact concept of a Druid was my former Circle of Stars Druid with the Sage Background for a Wildemount Campaign and backstory elements that had to be removed for the “lore” for it. Seeing this video I feel so utterly vindicated from it. As well as excited to remake this character once more for a possible future Netherdeep game! Just found the channel and this video is my dnd philosophy through and through!
Yay!! So glad you agree!
I think maybe the reason you get that "negative" reaction might be because of the "Better [Class]" phrase in the thumbnail, so people jump in to defend the classical concept of the respective class
It drives me crazy when I see comments of people complaining how other people play. Honestly, if people are having fun, let them play however they like. The rules are meant to be guidelines and not set in stone.
You said it!
When I was a younger DM, I just was so desperate to have the "traditional" D&D experience... To recreate the first couple of games I ever played. My players absolutely wanted nothing to do with it. They wanted to build bonkers out of the box builds. When I finally gave up and accepted my fate (and the fact that it genuinely became more interesting to me for them to be outside the box)... they collectively came together to decide "Hey! This box is pretty nice, I like it, I think all of my future characters are going to be in it". lol. Its not bad though... the ultimate take away from those early experiences is to let go of the illusion that I have any control over what those idiots are doing
Lol great testimony, thank you! 🙏
Depends on your world lore, maybe a druid can only become beast like by giving in to their nature, not by intellectual understanding.
Real creativity is what you do with the rules given to you, boundaries challenge creativity and make everything come together in a grounded way.
I love boundaries, it's the best way to force me to find creative solutions, especially in a world that is already as open as dnd.
To just change the way a class work and invent a note that's never been played before is pretty low level creativity anyway, it's the way the character play and interact, the way you tie everything together, that's where the real creativity come in.
Hot Take/ Unpopular opinion: Mage, Priest, Rogue and Warrior are the only "base" classes everything else can be accomplished via subclasses (some of which should be available to more than one base class along the lines of the Strixhaven UA) or prestige classes.
There are many who would agree with you! 😊
I currently have a modern game running and pretty soon my fighter player who uses a gun is going to multiclass into chronurgy wizard and flavor it more as artificeresqe
I'm also eventually going to give them a special sniper rifle (named Spell Sniper and this one specifically has the name Hecate one because that's the greek god of magic and spells and two because well spoilers for a later arc in my game if you know anything about guns and their names you can take a guess for that) with this special sniper rifle you can load the spell beads you can make from a class feature from chronurgy wizard into the gun and fire it at someone if the attack misses the bead is wasted but if it hits the stored spell activates on the creature hit. Is it broken probably but that doesn't really matter when the whole party has homebrew stuff and would be stronger than most normal adventurers because of the world they're in
My cleric had her powers gifted to her by her god, knows close to nothing about him and is not proficient in religion
Oh that's such a cool narrative!!
@@TheClericCorner She's a nature domain cleric with a bag of tricks, so basically an accidental disney princess (she was planned to be super edgy xD). I'm currently trying to figure out how I am going to multiclass her into druid to just embrace the theme
Awesome video, I love it!
I've tried this, but sadly most of my previous DM's didn't like reflavouring or found it too complicated.
My current DM is awesome though, allowing us to go wild with roleplay and did allow an idea of mine, but he didn't really understand what I was going for and I eventually just gave up trying to roleplay it. But with all the DM's plot twists and diologue referring to my character as a dragonborn, I can't help but feel a little disappointed.
I was trying to run a bronze dragonborn path of the beast barbarian, who was actially a true dragon cast into a mortal body by Bahamut as a punishment for his sins. When the path of the beast traits activate, he tries to shapeshift back into his dragon form, but cannot manage it, becoming more like a bipedal guard drake, swiping foes with his tail or crushing them in his jaws. Despite being cast out, he reveres Bahamut and prays daily for forgiveness, trying with all his might to do better, and to learn to respect the mortals he previously so callously disregarded.
I can understand his hesitancy though, it is an interesting concept to incorporate to say the least 😭
I personally don't see how that's complicated at all! It's a great explanation for your abilities! I imagine their hesitancy comes from you being a type of 'god'? I know many DMs come to fear being taken advantage of by their players. Hopefully it gets better for you!
@@TheClericCorner Mhmm, that's true! But I was thinking he was more of a young dragon anyway, not entirely grown up, but just large and strong enough to feel arrogant, self-righteous and superior to mortals. What powers he did have, he was basically locked out of using when he fell however.
I'm glad you like my idea! It was a lot of fun to come up with! I've been starting to feel like it's a little bit of silly thing to try and roleplay in person, so I haven't really come out of my shell with this character, but maybe I'll try to share my idea with my DM again politely 😊
@@somerton4383 go for it!! I've played with a player who was a sentient hat. So play your fallen dragon dreams 😂
@@TheClericCorner That's hilarious! I don't think I would have thought of that. I can't imagine how he'd interact with the world as a hat 😆
@@somerton4383 basically controlled a mannequin that was wearing it. Had wizard capabilities because of all the magic pumped into it
The lore more often than not gets in the way of interesting characters and concepts.
Sit down and look at wizards in some of the most popular book series about wizards. Particularly Lord of the Rings and Earthsea. The wizards in those worlds are druids. All the spells they cast are Druid spells and class features in D&D game mechanics.
You want to play a Summoner in D&D? Your best bet is to go Echo Knight fighter with sage, scholar, or hermit background, and take 2 to 5 levels of war wizard.
BOOM. you said it!
And because echo knight is just so awesome 😂
Loved the intro, now to Wattpad
Wattpad?
@@TheClericCorner You have great chemistry with your glasses version. Made me think of some fanfics that are out there Uwu
One day I will play a class straight. One day
Haha what are you talking about? Your playing YOUR class straight 😉
@@TheClericCorner yeah. So far I've been a skinny barb, a beekeeper wizard and a druid who is a bar brawler with a frog god inside her.
@@Domina7ion all of that Is incredible! I love the beekeeper wizard! How did you flavor the spells?
@@TheClericCorner it was a abjurer. From a monistary that kept archane bees. The temp hp were guardian bees that tanked damage and died . She had various breeds of bees to do different types of magic. Eg fire bees to deal damage directly, and invisibees that could do illusions. Web was royal jelly or something. Most spell effects were pretty easy to think of bee flavouring. She multi classed into warlock for armour of agathis so the bees swarmed around her and did damage.
@@Domina7ion INVISIBEES?? ok love this 🙌
I would just do what the glasses guy in the skit is doing but still call them what they should be
like, the smart studious caster who uses nature magic? use the progression of druid but call him a nature wizard in game (maybe he wanted to polymorph himself and focused on that for a while and that focus on nature magic limited his versatility)
And a very valid way of doing it!! :)
I can see reflavoring for some purposes
But theres some things you are expected to follow by, as a barbarian you are expected to be a savant of combat, sturdy and have a powerful ability to imbue yourself with in order to enhance yourseld
I constantly reflavor the barbarian somce ive played them from the basic hulk out mode, to a focused battle mantra that only designates ally and enemy, not worrying about wounds or harm to ones self, then theres a rage driven by a demonic posession or what have you
But a cleric whowas forced to worship a devil just sounds like you wanna play a warlock, clerics are devout channelers and worshippers of a god, the learn and adapt to cast these holy spells they are given, where as worlocks dont get anything they can really control and thats why they get such a different casting
So many of these things atleast pre determine atleast a part of your character
But im going to be honest about the druid bit, i like it since they werent some swampy hermits but rather respected shamans, religious leaders, teachers, diviners and peacemakers
I love reflavoring druids a lot but not to the extent they take away from the core of the class
Wanna play a knight in shinning armor? Paladin or Fighter
Wanna play an armorless whirlwond of steel and death, barbarian
Wanna play a character with an inborn ability to mold and customize their abilities as they see fit? Sorcerer
I agree when the narrative of the class doesn't fit the trope, that you do have to turn to other classes. It's just when you find rules that explain your concept better. For example, if I wanted to play a druid that got it's power from a dryad, do I have to play a warlock because that's the 'designated' pact class? To me, a druid gives you nature magic that would fit that relationship much better. Warlocks are just spellcasters that have limited spell slots and invocation choices. There are lots of ways to explain why the magic works that way outside of a sugar daddy :)
As for all clerics are worshippers of a god, here are things to consider:
"In certain campaigns, a cleric might instead serve a cosmic force, such as life or death, or a philosophy or concept, such as love, peace, or one of the nine alignments."- XGtE
"Not all divine powers need to be derived from deities. In some campaigns, believers hold enough conviction in their ideas about the universe that they gain magical power from that conviction. In other campaigns, impersonal forces of nature or magic replace the gods by granting power to mortals attuned to them. Just as druids and rangers can gain their spell ability from the force of nature rather than from a specific nature deity, some clerics devote themselves to ideals rather than to a god." -DMG
"As a referee, the DM interprets the rules, decides when to abide by them, and when to change them." -DMG
@@TheClericCorner even if those are the rules, i dont like them as they are said, the way that a cleric can just not have a god, in my setting i dont allow a godless paladin or cleric, there has to be logic and a source for such powerful divine magic
While druids are a lot more flexible, id allow a druid who got magic from a dryad, id allow them to get their powers from a god, sheerwisdom and meditation, an innate connection to the elements or what have you, they are in their base a very flexible class, but cleric and paladin in my eyes obide by someone, they harness their divine magics from a powerful source that has bestowed them with such a gift sue to their hard work, dedication and ethics, a god
@@lukaarsovski2279 if you don't allow certain things at your table, great! That's totally up to you. In that case, if your going to ignore some aspects of the game and interpret things one way because it makes more sense to you, please allow others the same creative license :)
@@TheClericCorner sure, but as long as im the DM, they eitehr follow my rules or they find another game
but my limitatations almost end there, i jsut dont allow things that dont make sense in my games, like artificers and guns/Warforged and such in my games
But the only things i dont allow just because i dont like them is Warlock and Evil characters cus in my experience they just ruine games so im saving myself the heartburn
I wonder what is your opinion on my concept of drow who creates a pact with the goddess Eilistraee (goddess of the moon and good drow) but is neither warlock nor cleric but a moon druid, is this a creative concept you had in mind? It seems to me it is withing working of D&D rules, without any homebrew of modification and yet is not as intended.
I think that's fantastic! PCs don't need to be a cleric to worship something :)
Druids don't "wear" metal armor
Warforged incorporate armor into themselves sl they don't "wear" them as it's their "skin"
Warforged are basically "magically animated wooden/stone/metal statues" so they can look anyway
So I wanted to play a warforged as a cyborg. My DM is new so he was "unsure" about the idea. I told him then I'll just play armorer, the armor replaces missing limbs. He said ok. So I asked him why can't I play a warforged as a cyborg but cam play any character as an armorer cyborg?
He was now convinced and he said sure. Now, from that it turns out we're playing a post Mass Effect Reaper invasion on Earth with DnD in a Horizon: Zero Dawn style just because I convinced my DM to let me play a cyborg and from there his fantasy went wild🤷♂️
A character idea might shape an entire setting😉 I'm now a cyborg warforged twilight cleric wildfire druid that has a dragonborn-like appearance summoning beasts of metal and having a "in life" appearance mini-bot wildfire spirit with a jetpack.
My artificer builds are just az sci-fantasy😁
I don't think it's fair to say that good DM should always allow anything that doesn't mess with mechanics, no matter what else. They may want some consistency to the game world, and it's also OK. With that being said, I guess in most cases it's totally fine and may be really interesting.
Allowing your players to redefine where their powers come from opens the door to allowing them to have powers the book does not grant. An example in the video is a ranger who can view into the future to navigate. Your flavor suggestion has now created a potential disappointment situation when the ranger's player wants to look into the future for reasons other than navigation and can't actually do that.
Thank you for your concern! While I agree that changing mechanics would definitely change the game, I did mention to NOT do that in the video. Reflavoring should help not hinder your gameplay.
Picture this: if I was a player at your table who wanted to play a druid that got their power from making a pact with a dryad (because the nature magic would explain that relationship WAY better than any warlock subclass), would you still force me to play a warlock anyways because it is technically the 'pact' class?
Love this. Personally I hate the classic bard trope, it seems weird and musical magic doesn't make sense to me. However there are a lot of interesting bard mechanics that I reflavored into a 'mage' for myself.
Bard's aren't my favorite either, but they have a place. Mages, scholars, or military personnel are all great! :)
I cover a lot of them in my better Bards video
I wanted to play bard w/ int for spellcasting but i keep hearing (from reddit) that its gonna make it weaker.
@@rpgchronicler I say play it and prove them wrong with how much fun your gonna have :)
@@rpgchronicler they probably say that cause CHA tends to have more useful skills.
@@kmgenius Yeah that's what im aware of but itd be nice to have the bard be scholar guy instead of nookie guy or singer.
Yes frigging yes I have a character called myngs who’s a monk but he is stupid and is drunk as hell
I think you got the prescription description mixed up in a way that is confusing, as your talking about the background and lore of the class, and not the mechanics of how it works. You could say "follow the prescription of the class but go wild in the description." Like how artificer encourages the flavor description of devices used to cast your spells you can do the same for other classes. I'd say try to do stuff in a way that makes sense to the flavor of the mechanics. Like a cyborg/warforged that uses the warlock class would be quite thematic to the mechanics of invocations being physical augmentations and has limited potent energy for bigger things(spells). would have to ditch the idea of the patron. But tbh I try to ditch that anyway.
Oh interesting, this is the first comment like this! It may be a mix up of personal connotation vs denotation. But either way, love the warforged warlock Idea!! 😊
@@TheClericCorner yea its pretty hard if not impossible to speak in a concise manner when new ideas meet connotation. I think often in discussions people hear connotation over all qualifiers and explanations set out to describe what you are actually saying. Correct me if I'm wrong. I think the artificer description freedom parallels a lot of what you are talking about.
they use spell slots, they cast spells, but the flavor of how that happens in the game world is different.
@@matthewnewman3724 I absolutely think it parallels! I think you understood very well :)
Warlock mechanics may describe how your magic works in the game, but you didn't have to prescribe to the exact idea of a sugar daddy :)
Making it look like everyone who wants to play another way is not cool.
Especially if its a DM friendly trying to keep his worlds lore or the vanilla rules intact.
Its already hard enough without players getting more and more the idea they should be allowed to do whatever at every table. No matter the kind of game.
Oh I agree with you! Playing however way you want is great. The point of the video is to separate class tropes from mechanics with just reskinning. Meaning that your lore should be untouched. But if either party plays different, then the player or DM should find another table that they are more comfortable with :) the DM in the video is not cool because they are the ones not accepting how others play and squashing creativity, even the other DM coming in halfway.
U tell people to find a new group but don’t offer any tools or resources to do so. Thanks
A quick Google search should do the trick :)
@@TheClericCorner it doesnt, step into others shoes before giving advice
@@zakcat5175 funnily enough, I too on e was looking for a new group :) didn't come out of the womb playing lol
@@TheClericCorner ya no shit, but it was likely awhile ago and u probably havent had to be stuck of r/lfg for months on end
u probably have irl friends to play with
@@zakcat5175 Well maybe if you were a bit nicer, people might want to help you out more! Good luck out there! :)