I'll describe how it looks maybe once an encounter or once a session at most. If I'm using the same thing again and again, it's going to look the same.
I always flavor it as Frieza style Death Beams. Complete with the pointing motion to distinguish who my target or targets are. Then a quick, "Die." Or just saying "Eldritch blast".
We have a druid player that inspired me to homebrew a shaman class. What she was doing is dance and make incoherent noises and screams during the spells. Before that, of course, she was throwing or sticking a totem infront of her - it could be a literal totem she carved while resting/idling, or someones skull, a fresh bodypart from nearest fallen enemy, a cow dung, weird looking stone - anything! Sometimes this was funny af, sometimes it was scary even when she was dancing like lagging irl and smearing blood on her face with crazy smile and chilly gurgling voice. Needless to say our totemic barbarian joined her and they started IC relationship as they are kindred spirits. - Honey, I need this horse skull, pretty please *points at dead warhorse that was left from battle happened before their arrival* - Sure my woman *cuts and tears the horse head off, peels off the skin and flesh with axe blade without care* - No-no-no, cut carefully, there is a chipped jaw already! Chip it more and I will chip yours! - Alright, if I damage it more you can use mine instead *slows down and pays attention still* *Both laugh* Should I say that even though they are weird af they bring a lot of fun into the game.
I had a cleric who was basically a Voodoo priestess/swamp witch. She cast Cure Wounds and Bless by giving the other characters shots of rum, and threw salt in enemies' eyes to cast Bane.
My friend is a half orc battle Smith whenever he casts fire bolt he just takes slingshot load it with a nut or bolt set it on fire and then flings it at the enemy
When I played as a Barbarian, I used Rage as "focus," where instead of becoming overwhelmed with anger, my character would lose all sense of emotion, and focus only on killing efficiently as possible.
The fact that someone can watch this useful video making a great point and get "My human Fighter is actually four Gnomes pulling a Voltron." out of it is a searing indictment of the current state of D&D.
In my campaign (not DnD) one of my players plays two gnomes on top of each other in a trenchcoat, ones a mage and the other a ranger and I love them, their names are Ka and Boom and they have a tedency to light themselvs on fire
Simple ways to flavor for people unfamiliar with it, without taking up too much time: -Instead of "i make a perception check" (good LORD I see this all the time) say "I want to look around for any signs of activity" "I'm trying to listen for footsteps" etc. Instead of "I make a stealth check" say "I want to sneak over to there" -Recoloring your spells is easy. Instead of "I cast Eldritch blast at the boblin" be like "I wildly launch a bolt of purple eldritch force at the boblin." "I shoot out a firebolt, arcing a streak of green flame at the beast" -Sharpshooter? When attacking normally "I let loose a volley of arrows, focusing on that target." When sharpshooting: "I take careful aim at the target, aiming for that critical point, and loose an arrow (using sharpshooter)." -Burning hands: "In my fury I aggressively snap my fingers at the homunculus as a wave of fire rushes forth. As she screams I do it again. And again. This woman killed Maes Hughes, she must die." -Goodberry: one of my players casts goodberry by hacking up on the ground and spitting a bunch up. He offers them to unknowing NPCs all the time.
I created a Wizard Tiefling who specializes in illusion magic. His arcane focus is a smoking pipe, so he blows smoke to create his illusions and create spells. Hows that?
I created Granny Serialmassacre A old human granny knitromancer who uses knitting needles to cast her spells with a knitting them On paper she is a rock gnome necromancer with a wand spell focus and a dagger
I had a player Monk who used burning hands in a very literal way: Hes fist got set on fire and he just kenshiro-d some skeletons and zombies with flaming fists until they desintegrated in a cone
@Alexander Evans By "Kenshiro-d" I meant he punched repeatedly just that it was on fire not that it had burning hands like kenshiro (who as far as I know doesnt have burning hands)
That's short enough to be a mantra for EVERY time you use rage. It conditions your friends to know what is about to go down when you get to eyes glossing part. You could even cancel it early for extra effect! Nasty npc: So what are you gonna do about it, huh? Barbarian: ... Barbarian: *As my eyes gloss over...* Party: !!! Cleric: Wait, dont't! Something like that
I love flavoring sooo much. My warlock with a lava monster patron has all spells volcano-themed, like fireball being a magma explosion, or cloak of flies (a magic poisonous cloud) becoming a sulfur cloud (a magic poisonous cloud. My Warforged Paladin uses fire-based spells and smites with white-hot plasma.
My warlock is a hexblade, and their patron functionally behaves like venom from the movie, (yes, the movie, not the comics), and the pact of the blade is just them making a different weapons, armour of Shadows is them throwing up a goop shield, curse is the weapons growing spiky or blunt or whatever on impact. Eldritch Smite is summoning the wrath of fucking god and hitting them with a massive version of my weapon. Its fuckjnt awesome. I love it.
I've found it's typically good to say "I cast X by doing Y" the GM then knows what you're using, and can prep to make necessary roles, and figure out what they're dealing with while you describe it. Or, if you hit/miss can make something up as the effect. Definitely learned some stuff from this though
I tend to describe after I know the results. That way you don't have an epic buildup description followed by a dud roll. Can kinda takes the wind out of the sails so to speak. That said I describe failures as enthusiastically as successes.
@@jon9828 I will say, that it depends on my player too. As a player my description when I do it I try to be fairly brief. I will let the GM, or as the GM extrapolate something better as I have players who have a little more difficulty doing so. Failures are sometimes just as fun.
I personnaly go : 1. Short description of what the other player or NPC (semantic/flash of color in the eyes, ect.) 2. Mechanics (what I do in game term and save/Dc if required)
@TargetBerry/Karen It depends entirely on how you do it. I prefer the other way because the cold hard fact of what you're casting is done, and then you can elaborate on how you do it instead of having people being confused.
I'm pretty ok with changing the damage type as long as the type is changed when the spell is taken. Like... one of my players has a water themed character so I let him change fireball to be an exploding ball of water instead when he took the spell. He wasn't allowed to change it from that point on but it was just nice to have his sorcerer be i the same theme for his spells.
I mean that's a bad example as you don't need to change the damage type for that. He could just toss a boiling orb of scalding hot water. I mean it even comes with an awesome name (Insert Sorcerers Name Here)'s Boiling Orb. Scalding Sphere works as well... Out of curiosity what kind of damage does it do? Bludgeoning, Cold, or Force?
My Half-Orc Oath of ancients Paladin is blue with silver eyes because his Clan of orcs made a pact with the moon mother. All of his sacred attacks have lunar flavoring. When he uses smite, his war hammer starts to glow with moonlight and he says " by the light of the moon I will punish you!" and when he uses "Moonbeam" his shield with a cresent moon shape lights up and he says "The moon rejects you!" It amuses my DM
0:15 - Ironically enough the running gag with bottom left Wizard (Amadeus from the Trine games) is that he never learned how to cast a Fireball. Even his offspring was quicker than him.
I've been playing a warforged druid of the spores who's body is infested with sentient mushrooms. All the spells are reflavored so as to involve mushrooms, spores, or other fungal phenomena.
My sorcerer was supposed to be a bada** and I flavored my spells accordingly. Shocking grasp was a lightning punch, burning hands was used with a single hand, palm facing forward, and fireball came out in full form. It still technically was a line with a blossom point, but it was still cool.
Reminds me of a bard in one of the OS I DMed. He had a full Dragon costume and used his charisma to convince everyone he was a dragon and he had a bottle of rum and a lighter to breathe fire. It worked wonderfully and it was hilarious
*a small ornament in the room glows in shades of sapphire blue, the starting tune of coffin dance slowly grows louder and louder, as a fiddle ascends to the ornaments sides. suddenly, the ornament in the room grows a two gigantically muscular arms, almost as if they were grown straight out of the jojo bizarre adventure verse* *the coffin dance tune stops, giving moments of silence before the first notes of Despisito play, with the menacing intent as if it was a angry bard casting some sick Vicious Mockery* *roll a will save*
re-elementalizing spells is also good if and only if they can select the spell as the new element only. like firebolt as a ice spell as long as you took that ice version only. really freshens up elementalists.
Preach it. A wizard especially should be able to research spells and come up with interesting effects, including spells that have different elements. I once jokingly made a spell that I called "forkball" which did piercing damage. You can guess what it did.
I have a problem with this. I like it in theory but in play it can make casters even more powerful than they should be. There's a reason most of the highest damage spells are fire damage. It's the most commonly resisted followed by poison and perhaps necrotic. So the game takes into account that that fireball spell is going to do half damage regularly enough even when it hits for full. Changing it to something like force damage makes it way stronger as practically nothing has resistance to force damage.
@@Jhakaro eldritch blast exists and causes the level dipping multiclass abuse partially because of it, but with the exception of changing things to force damage, I think it's pretty fair. Some types are really scarce on spells and while that's sometimes related to relative power/ presence of things resisting it, re-flavouring spells to have different damage types can be really useful for both players and dms. If it's clearly going to cause issues that the altered spell's new element does far above curve damage with few things resistant, it's possible to come to an agreement that the damage dice be scaled down a little to compensate.
I allowed my friend to have an “infinite rage.” Whenever he sees bandits but he passes out after the encounter. The backstory was very interesting so I was cool with it.
5:03 god I hate when players do this, you forgot how they'll usual have a shit eating grin as well while the rest of the table are just as confused as the DM. Your cantrip doesn't need a 2 minute description to deal 2 damage.
To counter that rogue story, I've seen someone ask what their player's doing, does the effect on paper and THEN asks "Ok, so what does that look like?". Saves you the headache ;)
@@heikesiegl2640 It depends. I allow creativity but not "flavor" as it's described in the video. Creativity is using your imagination and the description of the ability you're using to do something special with it. Flavor is abusing that and making things that shouldn't be happening happen, causing additional effects, telling the DM how your ability effects his campaign or villain. Sometimes if you explain your attack and what it does, it completely derails what the DM had planned. Maybe that guy was a lich and you simply killed someone he was possessing, or the evil king had something to say with his last words but now he can't because he exploded from a firebolt that doesn't cause explosions. In my experience I've had to retcon or stop players from continuing their "flavoring" because rather than being creative they began to DM for me. You have control until the attack lands, how an enemy reacts to the blow is up to their player/the DM playing the enemy. That said I allow immense amounts of creativity and, if players have a good explanation, have allowed certain castings of spells or uses of abilities to do additional things. It all depends on context and if it's fair for everyone else at the table, because it's a group thing and not a solo thing. Sometimes the DM knows what's best for the group as a whole and has something planned to ensure things go okay. That's not to say some DMs aren't assholes, but the majority are just trying to make sure everyone is having fun and not just the rogue who always instakills because he "flavors" his sneak attacks to always slit throats.
@@KiwiDragn hmm i guess we mean the same thing, but call it differently. For me, flavor is only cosmetical. The spell still works as intended, it just looks different. (Like in the video) more like re-skinning. The DM always has the last word. If he allowes certain things or not. Creative use of spells/skills is great! My DM isnt a fan of this kind of things. ^^` I do it like this: my players tell me what they want to do, describing their attack etc. Then I alter it so it fits the die roll. If they try cool and creative stuff i try to allow it. Or i give inspiration
@@KiwiDragn That's the thing. Even as he said in the video: the biggest key rule of flavors are 1. Keep it concise so things don't get stupid long And 2. If you're doing something, no matter what you make it look like, you're still only doing that one thing unless it's some weird homebrew game and the ability you're actually using has been approved by the GM
@@KiwiDragn No, flavor is cosmetic. If you use thorn whip to pull someone into a pit between you and them, that's just using the ability in a creative way that works in the rules.
I've been playing D&D for almost a year now. I've only played with one group and I still use the first character I made. (Yes, he's a Human Champion Fighter. Yes, the stereotypical kind.) My character has been known to break the fourth wall at times, but it always has no numeric implications and is just for fun. For example; he was once watching another PC fight their father in a duel, when he suddenly and mysteriously acquired a bucket of popcorn from thin air. But there was one time when I took it to the next level. We got into a fight with a bunch of ghosts, one of which I landed the final hit on. Naturally, the DM asked "How do you wanna do this?" Then I had a bright idea, which I relayed to him. He straight up allowed my character to pull the Poltergust 4000 from Luigi's Mansion 2 out of nowhere and suck up the ghost with it because he thought it was hilarious and fitting. It was one of my favourite moments in the whole campaign so far. I don't know how to top it.
Do what I did with my Paladin that could break the fourth wall. Give him horrific and crippling fear, accented with nihlism because he realizes that he is a small and fragile man that must do grand and heroic deeds lest he be replaced by a cruel and indifferent God. A God that would just remake him, maybe with a different hair color but otherwise exactly the same, or maybe a half-elf this time. Indeed I had a Paladin that was a coward and his driving force was that I his player and the DM could and would replace him for a different version of himself if he didn't continue on or if he died. XD He was actually pretty fun to play.
@@LupineShadowOmega, I like the idea, but my character just keeps starting arguments with me on our group's Discord server. I think he knows I'm a big pushover, so guess who's asking the DM to throw a giant wolf spider at the arachnophobic fighter to assert dominance?
I usually do it like "I do this and this and this as I cast... Magic Missile" so you get the flavor and know what it is, for an actual example I usually say "I conjure up 3 snowballs into my hand and chuck them straight down on the giant crab im standing on as I cast magic missile"
Runesmith: “Make sure to just kinda rip things randomly to make a completely unique monster” Also runesmith: “GET THIS AMAZING BOOK WITH PREMADE ENCOUNTERS SUPER EASY TO JUST PIT INTO YOUR GAME ALL PREMADE AND WELL DESIGNED BY TH...”
I'm always trying to flavour my spells, but the DMs most times are against it, like, I'm not changing anything mechanic wise, what is the problem with me just changing the appearance of the spell?
I love the barbarian's rage exemple. I'v never thought about it. It can really show aspect of a homebrew setting even in the tiniest details. Thank you!
After watching every video on this channel at least 4 times I’m beginning to believe the Runesmith does not actually upload blacksmith tutorial videos for Runescape and that I’ve been mistaken
The thing I love about artificers is that it says, in the class entry, "be creative with your spells' flavoring." It gives you full permission to get creative, and I love it.
I like the idea of thinking of the spell's 'confines' when coming up with a creative flavor. I.E. If a spell has a verbal component, think of what your character says. If a spell has a somatic component, think of what your character does. And keep in mind the effect and saving throw; I.E. if a spell has a dexterity saving throw, think of something that would require them to dodge out of the way to avoid/reduce damage. If a person just spontaneously combusts, that is not going to be a dexterity saving throw, but probably more along the lines of constitution just to take it. The confines create the limit in which your creativity works free.
Not gonna lie, for a second I thought you were going to talk about trade routes or cooking anyway, yeah, flavoring is great, dangerous sometimes but generally great.
In 4e (not a fan of the system, but whatever) I had a character who was a warlord class. ... I played him as a pirate. More specifically a cocky fake captain pirate who was all about showboating. And I renamed all of my abilities from general's-tactics names to swashbuckling-derringdoo names. It was awesome and I got attacked repeatedly by my teammates who realized too late that I was playing as a pirate in their party, and couldn't do anything about it.
My favorite thing to do. I allow my players customize the spells and they just love it. All they need to atleast resemble the spell originally described and make sense. And they are quite creative! Players decided that spells should may reflect personalities. Now our cruel powerhungry wizard throws fireballs that are shaped like skulls. Eldritch blast our ICly caustic and toxic warlock spams is looking like longass scorpion tail that is made of dark energy. Our druid that is like a mom for the whole party calls bees made of mix of moon- and sunlight that heal the wounds. The small treant I homebrewed as a spell she uses adjusts to the environment it is in - cactus in desert, a shroom underground or cluster of corals and seaweed underwater for example. Our eldritch knight fighter that had amnesia forms counterspells as ghostly mirrors with spell consuming void instead of glass. Everyone seldom see a ghostly hands of some dwarven wargod swinging our war cleric’s hammer together with her whenever she smites with it. They even got so far in that that they describe that they dodged, parried or shrugged off the hit should enemy miss their attack, especially our fighter. They asked me to describe the way they kill the creature should they land the finishing blow. (Happy that they are usually into not overly flashy and long ones tho lmao) So yeah flavoring is one of the best stuff and one, if not main, immersion and commitment fuels out there. That made me investing in homebrewing a lot of monsters and creatures with various legendary actions.
My favorite flavouring I did was with a wizard who used tea. I called him a britomancer and all of his spells had to be explained with tea. He's a fun one to play. Best flavor is his firebolt. He summons a teacup, filled with scorching hot tea and chucks the entire cup at the target XD
My favourite flavouring for magic is just straight up Tarantino direction: I just make my sorcerer explode everything, describe the colour and size of the flash and the cloud, after which the fight can go on.
So, I'm sorta a newbie DM and have played at the table for 1, almost 2 years.. What we've done is tell the DM what we wanna do and describe it, then the DM goes into more details of what we do. No one at our table particularly likes having that much time going through 5-10 minutes into detail so thats what we've always done.
I've actually had some cool flavor regarding my current DnD character. She's a necromancer (now a ghost due to an incident involving mind-flayers), and also a Bladesinger who's magic sword has a beholder inside it. Since she's a necromancer I sort of changed the way her 'Bladesong' feature works. She has a choir of ghosts that surround her as sing at her direction. She also summons things via Animate Objects and Animate Dead. This I flavor as her sending the various members of her choir into the objects to possess them and hurl them around like poltergeists. It's really fun being the party's tank indirectly.
I really like changing damage types. It lets me theme my abilities and spells. You have to be careful, but it can be really fun. I could change burning hands to thunder cone, and be the Dragonborn.
I made a character who's whole gimmick was that he was a knife thrower in a circus. (Fighter 2/ war mage 18 split) My advice is that the first time you use something, feel free to go into detail, but after that it's better to keep it short. 1st time: "I snap my fingers, and a blade of fire appears in my grip, I reach back, and throw the dagger at the goblin as I cast firebolt." 2nd time and beyond: "I snap my fingers and throw another firebolt at the wolf."
I had a plant themed barbarian once. Had vine tattoos that reflected his mood. Whenever he raged the vines grew thorns and stretched over his arms and face and when ge ended rages they withdrew and started budding flowers.
I was in an instant where most of the party was down. My character was a sorcerer. I dont remember what invocation I used but it doubled the range of my spell. Used burning hands. I read out the discription to the DM and pointed out that it is discribed as a thin sheet of flame. So my character held their hands above the height of the downed party but low enough to hit enemies and delt damage in a 30ft long and 30ft wide cone. It was a TPK because our DM had us, a party of level 4s, randomly encounter a necromancer, a hoard of undead, and a vampire. But it was cool.
One of my favorite bits of flavoring I have ever come up with is for when one of my wizard characters would cast sleep I would say " as I cast sleep arcane runes whirl around my enemies overloading there brains with so much knowledge they pass out
Eldritch Blast: Magic Gun(s) Water, formed into fish which swim to the target and burst on impact Animated Cole pieces with little wings for a Santa (celestial) warlock A small creature which runs out from your location and attacks Exploding butterflies/birds Small fey that fly little objects into the target and bicker with each other when they miss Spectral chains/ropes that fly out and pull the target (with grasp of hardar) Flesh to Stone: Flesh to coral Flesh to ice Flesh to glass
I made a Hexblade once whose magic was entirely powered by the cursed sword he had. Thus, every single one of his spells took the form of phantasmal swords. Eldritch Blast? Black ghost swords that shoot like missiles. Hellish Rebuke? Spears of flame shaped like swords suddenly burst out from under the attacker's skin. Mirror Image? The shadow clones are holding the funky ghost copies of the sword. Shield? A sword swats the attack out of the air. The only one I could never figure out one for was Shadow Blade. A puzzle for the ages, truly...
I once as DM described that my one player killed elf by that: Elf was running from Kenku Rogue named Sparus, Sparus draw its knife and stuck it into the ass of an elf, elf screaming in pain jumped 50 meters into the air. Kenku jumped to the same altitude as an elf, then he started moving his dagger so fast that the blade of the knife started heating. Sparus cut loaves of elvish meat with his hot dagger thus making Goulash, which was falling from the sky right into the mouths and plates of cheering town people.
I'm kinda on the fence when it comes to this topic. I'm in a group of new players (myself included), where roleplaying things as descriptively as I'd like is quite difficult as-is, and I get the feeling it generally makes people uncomfortable. It's less RP (though it happens!) and more playing a game - and that's what people around my table enjoy. I guess this lack of flavor stems largely from inexperience, and will likely improve once we flesh out the plot and especially our characters a little bit. That said, I guess my point is that being the first person to "hog the spotlight" and start doing a lot of flavor things with things like their combat rolls to the degree demonstrated here is kinda difficult when even social RP interactions are difficult to properly roleplay out, and most definitely a team effort that depends on the atmosphere of the table.
@@GoblinUrNuts I see your point, and I don't necessarily disagree. But - isn't the point too obvious to be a useful thing to bring up? Like, we're playing an RPG, with much more emphasis on the RP than in most games. We should Roleplay. It's a given. See, to me, this video is more like a short heads-up / pointer that tells you to do the Thing, without delving into any of the actual realities of why essentially playing pretend as a grown-ass adult isn't something that comes naturally to people. How it's a skill, and actually somewhat hard to get into. That's not a criticism of the vid btw: It's even described as a "rant" by Runesmith, and I get it wasn't meant to be comprehensive. Just musing to get some discussion going :)
I feel like flavoring doesn't have to really take time or too much spotlight. It can, but it doesn't have to. It can just be quick mentions like a color, a smell, a feeling, a move (are you slashing the monster's face or stabbing his knee). And for class abilities, you don't have to mention it all the time. People are gonna remember that your hair changes color when your barbarian enters his rage after you said it twice, no need to hammer it each time, and it still gives a different "vibe" to your character!
The flavoring examples in the video are ones not many DMs actually allow. They're extreme examples that change how the game works heavily. The best way to start is, as someone above said, simply explain where your character is aiming or what they intend to do with an attack or ability. Always leave what actually happens in the end to the dice and the DM, but giving that extra information can change a certain tpk fight into a fair fight. The best thing to do is ask your DM on the side before doing anything like that, "hey how much creativity are you okay with us using at the table?" Don't feel uncomfortable asking for examples based on their answer, some are more forgiving than others.
Artificer is great for flavouring. Im about to play a Dwarf Artificer and instead of stupid magic, he has... Firebolt: he carries around a massive home made flamethrower Arcane weapon: he has a series of small clockwork drones that can buzz around his head Mage hand: he has a retractable robot hand that comes out of his chest plate, like Data from the Goonies Feather fall: he has a hat that produces helicopter blades, like Inspector Gadget
Bro i have a Divine Soul Sorcerer Earth Genasi who's basicly a sandbender. I just want all of the wind and water spells he has to be reflavored as Sand. Dnd realy has nothing in terms of Earth or Sand spells
There are a few earth themed ones like bones of the earth and earth quake. And there's also magic stones or whatever it's called, and I really like flavoring earthbind as a massive stone hand reaching up to drag things to the ground. But I agree there could be more. Here's an idea; taking the Magicka games as inspiration, we can fling a *big damn rock.*
Literally love this, like honestly adds soooooo much as long as your cool about it and keep it brief. One of my favorite characters was my mercy monk who used needle for ki points and wouldn't reuse them until he could clean them
I always reward creativity when I DM. A guy standing on a ledge 8ft up? Sure you can swing your sword at them, but if the player comes up with a creative lunging attack but then rolls like a 2 for accuracy, I'll reward the good idea by having it work out, but not harm the enemy as much and puts them in a bad situation. This way it adds heat to the battle and keeps it exciting, while also rewarding the players unique ideas. Obviously you can't do this for every bad roll that had a unique idea behind it, but it's definitely something fun to keep your players engaged every once in a while
I remember a friend telling me that a fun idea for a Warforged Monk where they have gadgets integrated into them that allows them to replicate things a normal monk does. They deploy a parachute when they use Slow Fall, activate thrusters when they use Step of the Wind, and a Flurry of Blows is just having their fists become jackhammers. I even had the idea where a Warforged Barbarian's rage is just them overclocking their systems.
Recently a player of mine multiclassed into divine soul sorcerer, and left a lot of room for me to flavor it. So he had a dream sequence that determined his "patron deity", the extra spell dependent on that (bane, for I can't interpret leaving your fate to blind luck other than "chaotic"), and as the booming blade seems to be the latest craze, we tweaked it a bit. It now deals piercing damage for him and is flavored as spectral thorny vines, representing his conection to the fey deity.
I managed to flavor a gnome ranger into an ersatz Napoleonic dragoon. Sometimes, I rode a pig( boar animal companion) into battle, charging with a cavalry saber(Scimitar). Other times, I was on foot, attacking at range with my trusty carbine(+3 Light Crossbow).
One of my favorite characters I've ever played was a Ravnican "wizard" who didn't actually cast spells, but instead was a tinkerer who used gadgets mounted on his person to "cast" spells. For example, firebolt was a wrist mounted "iron Man-esc" arm cannon, and sleep was a hand grenade filled with essentially sleeping gas. Didn't really change anything mechanically but was super fun to play and describe
Your intro is more spot-on than you think... Yours, and one other channel, are the only ones I watch about D&D. The self-important arrogance is strong in almost everyone else.
I once had an idea for a warforged barbarian who would shift gears in order to rage. First gear would be what he was usually using, second gear would be rage, and third gear would be frenzied rage. With each shift, I'd like for there to be a physical gear on his back that retracts into his body and is switched with another. I also like to imagine him being steam powered, so with each gear shift, you would see the fire in his belly glow brighter through grating in his chassis, and steam spout from his mouth and from vents on his back.
One Flavor for each Class Artificer - Each school of magic is tied to a different device the Artificer uses. Abjurations are activated by your armor, Conjurations are cast with a teleportation device, Divinations are achieved through a PDA, Enchantments are special radio frequencies that have different effects, Evocations are all fired out of a gun or cannon, Illusions are projected as holograms, Necromancies are nanobots, and Transmutations are alchemy potions. Obviously this wouldn't work for every spell, so speak with your DM about which spells don't need to be flavored. Barbarian - This is easy. Rage is just your character going Super Saiyan. No, I'm being serious. When your Barbarian rages, something about them physically changes. Maybe their hair and eyes start to glow. Maybe they get new clothes. Maybe they turn into metal. Use your imagination. This also works for if your mage casts Tenser's Transformation. Alternatively, instead of saying "I would like to rage," say "I'm gonna Morb!" Bard - When using Bardic Inspiration, your Bard says "Good luck!" That could be the verbal component, even. Maybe they also flip a coin that they keep as a charm. Make it so the Bard is supernaturally lucky, and they can share that luck with their allies. Maybe they have been blessed by a trickster god or fey. Maybe they have a latent magic ability that protects them from bad luck. Or maybe they're a halfling. Cleric - Channel Divinity is activated with a talisman or charm gifted to you by your god. If you're a Trickster Cleric, your charm could be a dagger or a coin. If you're a Knowledge Cleric, it could be a scale model of a Lamborghini. The charm could also allow you to communicate with your god, assuming the DM is okay with it. Druid - Your Wild Shape is a separate consciousness. Yes, out of character you know what happens when you turn into a beast or tree. Nothing changes mechanically. But your _character,_ your character blacks out whenever you use Wild Shape. Speak to your DM about how to implement this in the campaign. Fighter - Your Extra Attacks? They're a spin attack. You spin. Monk - You could replace "Ki" with any other kind of spiritual energy. Chakra, mana, ley lines, feng shui, maybe even the Weave itself. Paladin - There is a voice in your head. This voice motivates you to do good. It belongs to a supernatural entity that helps you heal your allies, smite foes, and detect evil. Navi, it's like Navi. Ranger - Give the Ranger a gun. This isn't flavoring, this is my idea for making the Ranger class more interesting. Rogue - Thieves' Cant? It's just invisible ink. "Understanding" Thieves' Cant means you have the chemical necessary to reveal the invisible ink. Invisible ink is so advanced, that all non-Rogues assume it's some kind of magic or secret language. Also, smoke bombs for your Sneak Attack. Sorcerer - There is a rune on the back of your hand. Whenever you use Metamagic, the rune glows. See? The Sorcerer is unique! They're not just a weaker Wizard! Warlock - Get creative with how your Patron manifests. Are they your shadow? A voice in your head? A Demilich skull in your pocket? Maybe they just straight up possess your character. If you're a GOOlock, maybe casting black tentacles actually summons one of Cthulhu's tentacles. Maybe Tasha's hideous laughter drives your opponent insane by making them see the true face of your eldritch patron. Wizard - Your spellbook is a Kindle.
I made a coastal Druid that has a pouch full of sea shells that she uses for magic stone, and she also paints the shells pink in her spare time. Also her entangle spells brings up sea weed.
Kobold artificer the one I REALLY love is when I cast fly I use my homonculus servant which looks like a giant (1 foot long) mechanical wasp grabbing my back and extend his wing to make a a dragonfly-like pair of wings His arcana firearm is at core a rod with wooden sculpture of Tiamat heads with her signature poison stinger for a butt stock that I wield as a magic crossbow to shoot firebolt and does not grant me any advantage whatsoever beside being my spellcast focus and my arcana firearm
What one of my players did is he wrote incantations for all the spells that required verbal components and that keeps things interesting. Most are approximately 5 words - 2 sentences so it keeps things interesting without eating up table time
I've flavored one fighter/barbarian's rage as being hyper-focused on their target, and flavored a shatter spell to reverberate and echo endlessly in the ears of targets. Flavor does a LOT for spicing things up.
Flavoring is why I picked up a Lore Master Wizard; the ability to change damage types and even the required saving throw lends itself to flavoring, because eventually someone is going to ask WHY your one fireball required a wisdom saving throw and dealt cold damage. Here's how I would state it: The blue ball comes into existence, and grabs at the attention of those nearby, drawing them in with its almost ethereal appearance. And then, it expands, and those who couldn't tear their eyes away are temporarily filled with a cold that most surely flow from the nine hells.
I think shouting "ELDRITCH BLAST" is enough flavour for an eldritch blast.
Only if done in a texan accent.
I'll describe how it looks maybe once an encounter or once a session at most. If I'm using the same thing again and again, it's going to look the same.
"my eldritch bow swells with bright white light, a five-foot bolt of pure energy catapulting forward toward my foe."
I always flavor it as Frieza style Death Beams. Complete with the pointing motion to distinguish who my target or targets are. Then a quick, "Die." Or just saying "Eldritch blast".
"Eeeeeldeereeeeach bleeesssstttt"
"Go, my four tiny men! Initiate my man-euvers!"
Go up to 6 tiny men, specialize in crossbows, and now you're Mista from Jojo part 5.
@@ArtGuyCharlie yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeèeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeereereeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehah
I have a druid character who casts heal wounds by rubbing dirt on people's wounds.
That's fucking great.
We have a druid player that inspired me to homebrew a shaman class. What she was doing is dance and make incoherent noises and screams during the spells. Before that, of course, she was throwing or sticking a totem infront of her - it could be a literal totem she carved while resting/idling, or someones skull, a fresh bodypart from nearest fallen enemy, a cow dung, weird looking stone - anything! Sometimes this was funny af, sometimes it was scary even when she was dancing like lagging irl and smearing blood on her face with crazy smile and chilly gurgling voice.
Needless to say our totemic barbarian joined her and they started IC relationship as they are kindred spirits.
- Honey, I need this horse skull, pretty please *points at dead warhorse that was left from battle happened before their arrival*
- Sure my woman *cuts and tears the horse head off, peels off the skin and flesh with axe blade without care*
- No-no-no, cut carefully, there is a chipped jaw already! Chip it more and I will chip yours!
- Alright, if I damage it more you can use mine instead *slows down and pays attention still*
*Both laugh*
Should I say that even though they are weird af they bring a lot of fun into the game.
I had a cleric who was basically a Voodoo priestess/swamp witch. She cast Cure Wounds and Bless by giving the other characters shots of rum, and threw salt in enemies' eyes to cast Bane.
I have a sorcerer that uses healing word by saying “walk it off you pussy!”
My friend is a half orc battle Smith whenever he casts fire bolt he just takes slingshot load it with a nut or bolt set it on fire and then flings it at the enemy
When I played as a Barbarian, I used Rage as "focus," where instead of becoming overwhelmed with anger, my character would lose all sense of emotion, and focus only on killing efficiently as possible.
Like that point when you're past being angry and you just have cold killer eyes. That sounds cool.
Wrath from fmab
@@phylippezimmermannpaquin2062 good I wasn't the only one who fought of that.
I had that same idea for a lizardfolk barbarian hunter that is focusing on the hunt
@Hamburglar the exiled I like this one
When your human fighter is just 4 gnome fighters in a human-sized armor.
That would be twice the size of a relatively tall human
The fact that someone can watch this useful video making a great point and get "My human Fighter is actually four Gnomes pulling a Voltron." out of it is a searing indictment of the current state of D&D.
@@nickwilliams8302 you take this comment way to serious, friendo. xD
@@nickwilliams8302 so what is the current state?
In my campaign (not DnD) one of my players plays two gnomes on top of each other in a trenchcoat, ones a mage and the other a ranger and I love them, their names are Ka and Boom and they have a tedency to light themselvs on fire
Simple ways to flavor for people unfamiliar with it, without taking up too much time:
-Instead of "i make a perception check" (good LORD I see this all the time) say "I want to look around for any signs of activity" "I'm trying to listen for footsteps" etc. Instead of "I make a stealth check" say "I want to sneak over to there"
-Recoloring your spells is easy. Instead of "I cast Eldritch blast at the boblin" be like "I wildly launch a bolt of purple eldritch force at the boblin." "I shoot out a firebolt, arcing a streak of green flame at the beast"
-Sharpshooter? When attacking normally "I let loose a volley of arrows, focusing on that target." When sharpshooting: "I take careful aim at the target, aiming for that critical point, and loose an arrow (using sharpshooter)."
-Burning hands: "In my fury I aggressively snap my fingers at the homunculus as a wave of fire rushes forth. As she screams I do it again. And again. This woman killed Maes Hughes, she must die."
-Goodberry: one of my players casts goodberry by hacking up on the ground and spitting a bunch up. He offers them to unknowing NPCs all the time.
Roy mustang is the best
I made a druid who strapped a potted tree to his shoulder and that's how he casted goodberry
The only proper way to cast a firebolt is by making a finger gun and going “pew”
Nah, that should be ray of frost.
Because it's cool.
Ah, as a jojo man you MUST be referencing josuke.
@@ryedj707 when does josuke say pew?
christopher crafte there’s an image of him doing that.
Pow! HaHa!
I created a Wizard Tiefling who specializes in illusion magic. His arcane focus is a smoking pipe, so he blows smoke to create his illusions and create spells.
Hows that?
Morel's nen
Morel? Is that you?
I created Granny Serialmassacre
A old human granny knitromancer who uses knitting needles to cast her spells with a knitting them
On paper she is a rock gnome necromancer with a wand spell focus and a dagger
M. Hunter X Hunter!!
Muy cool
I had a player Monk who used burning hands in a very literal way: Hes fist got set on fire and he just kenshiro-d some skeletons and zombies with flaming fists until they desintegrated in a cone
Sounds epic
@Alexander Evans By "Kenshiro-d" I meant he punched repeatedly just that it was on fire not that it had burning hands like kenshiro (who as far as I know doesnt have burning hands)
Don't be afraid to be that guy.
You're more than welcome to flavor towns, too.
WELCOME TO DUNGEON, DRAGONS & DRIVE-IN!
I reflavored a dungeon as a trek up to the frozen peak of a treacherous mountain.
"As my eyes gloss over and my skin loses its color, the world vanishes, and my enemies are all I see. I use rage"
Sounds good? Too long?
That sounds awesome.
@@rayanderson5797 Ty!
That's short enough to be a mantra for EVERY time you use rage. It conditions your friends to know what is about to go down when you get to eyes glossing part.
You could even cancel it early for extra effect!
Nasty npc: So what are you gonna do about it, huh?
Barbarian: ...
Barbarian: *As my eyes gloss over...*
Party: !!!
Cleric: Wait, dont't!
Something like that
really cool but what if you used "I'm raging" instead for more immersion?
It’s great
When the fighter has 4 tiny men that help him aim
Guido Mista: 😱
Sex Pistols!
OMG!
[ *IKE!* SEXU PISTORUSU ! ]
Runesmith: 4-
Mista: SAY SIKE RIGHT NOW!
@@adamstieber2591 Six Bullets tho
I once blew my dm a kiss as flavor for charm person. It was more me getting in the spirit of the character then me trying to hit on my dm.
Reminder that charm person has verbal and somatic components.
But I mean, also to hit on the DM. #twobirdsonestone
*_HMM_*
@@mordet2 well you blow the kiss and make the smooch sound.
I love flavoring sooo much.
My warlock with a lava monster patron has all spells volcano-themed, like fireball being a magma explosion, or cloak of flies (a magic poisonous cloud) becoming a sulfur cloud (a magic poisonous cloud.
My Warforged Paladin uses fire-based spells and smites with white-hot plasma.
So you're a pyromaniac
The lava fireball somehow reminds me of lavasioth from Monster Hunter. This makes me happy.
My warlock is a hexblade, and their patron functionally behaves like venom from the movie, (yes, the movie, not the comics), and the pact of the blade is just them making a different weapons, armour of Shadows is them throwing up a goop shield, curse is the weapons growing spiky or blunt or whatever on impact. Eldritch Smite is summoning the wrath of fucking god and hitting them with a massive version of my weapon. Its fuckjnt awesome. I love it.
@@silcrow4045
Oh that sounds fun
@@silcrow4045 That's such an engaging idea! Hexblades usually forget that it only takes an action to change the form of your pact weapon. Nice!
I've found it's typically good to say "I cast X by doing Y" the GM then knows what you're using, and can prep to make necessary roles, and figure out what they're dealing with while you describe it. Or, if you hit/miss can make something up as the effect. Definitely learned some stuff from this though
I tend to describe after I know the results. That way you don't have an epic buildup description followed by a dud roll. Can kinda takes the wind out of the sails so to speak. That said I describe failures as enthusiastically as successes.
@@jon9828 I will say, that it depends on my player too. As a player my description when I do it I try to be fairly brief. I will let the GM, or as the GM extrapolate something better as I have players who have a little more difficulty doing so. Failures are sometimes just as fun.
I personnaly go :
1. Short description of what the other player or NPC (semantic/flash of color in the eyes, ect.)
2. Mechanics (what I do in game term and save/Dc if required)
@TargetBerry/Karen It depends entirely on how you do it. I prefer the other way because the cold hard fact of what you're casting is done, and then you can elaborate on how you do it instead of having people being confused.
I'm pretty ok with changing the damage type as long as the type is changed when the spell is taken. Like... one of my players has a water themed character so I let him change fireball to be an exploding ball of water instead when he took the spell. He wasn't allowed to change it from that point on but it was just nice to have his sorcerer be i the same theme for his spells.
This is specially nice to Draconic Sorcerers.
I mean that's a bad example as you don't need to change the damage type for that. He could just toss a boiling orb of scalding hot water.
I mean it even comes with an awesome name (Insert Sorcerers Name Here)'s Boiling Orb. Scalding Sphere works as well...
Out of curiosity what kind of damage does it do? Bludgeoning, Cold, or Force?
I gave my tiefling monk tail spikes because I thought it was cool and fun so their tail hits do piercing damage.
Ohh that's sounds cool like an explosive ball of steam that boils so fast it explodes
@@patrickbuckley7259 probably radiant or necrotic
My Half-Orc Oath of ancients Paladin is blue with silver eyes because his Clan of orcs made a pact with the moon mother. All of his sacred attacks have lunar flavoring. When he uses smite, his war hammer starts to glow with moonlight and he says " by the light of the moon I will punish you!" and when he uses "Moonbeam" his shield with a cresent moon shape lights up and he says "The moon rejects you!"
It amuses my DM
Sailor Orc.
Nice!
Magic boy orc. Love it.
So I shouldn’t just say “I ritual cast detect magic”
Make a 10 minute ritual dance
@@OriginalKasym And if other party members want to do things during those ten minutes, you have to dance the whole time.
With my Warlock's invocation to cast detect magic at will, I always just snap whenever I'm using it.
Jan Elan Testaverde boring
@@OriginalKasym
NAKED!
0:15 - Ironically enough the running gag with bottom left Wizard (Amadeus from the Trine games) is that he never learned how to cast a Fireball. Even his offspring was quicker than him.
I've been playing a warforged druid of the spores who's body is infested with sentient mushrooms. All the spells are reflavored so as to involve mushrooms, spores, or other fungal phenomena.
My sorcerer was supposed to be a bada** and I flavored my spells accordingly. Shocking grasp was a lightning punch, burning hands was used with a single hand, palm facing forward, and fireball came out in full form. It still technically was a line with a blossom point, but it was still cool.
I was really hoping this was a video around spices from the D&D canon
Y'know I have a player who wants to do a bunch of cooking shit so that'd actually be useful
@Lucien Clubb That depends, what are you looking for?
@@cameronscott9399 Alchemy jug will be that player's friend.
I'm playing a Lizard folk Bard that thinks he is a T-Rex and roars to cast spells
you are the best player
Reminds me of a bard in one of the OS I DMed. He had a full Dragon costume and used his charisma to convince everyone he was a dragon and he had a bottle of rum and a lighter to breathe fire.
It worked wonderfully and it was hilarious
I have a monk who knows no martial arts, instead he has robot arms and legs with tiny thrusters
Oml it's a mini Gypsy Danger
That's badass
ROCKETO PUNCH
@@kylestanley7843
I was thinking ingenium but yours is better
I came here to learn about D&D cooking and I ended up learning about how to make my game better
this is so sad
hey runesmith make this video instead please
thats so sad elexa play despisito
*a small ornament in the room glows in shades of sapphire blue, the starting tune of coffin dance slowly grows louder and louder, as a fiddle ascends to the ornaments sides. suddenly, the ornament in the room grows a two gigantically muscular arms, almost as if they were grown straight out of the jojo bizarre adventure verse*
*the coffin dance tune stops, giving moments of silence before the first notes of Despisito play, with the menacing intent as if it was a angry bard casting some sick Vicious Mockery*
*roll a will save*
re-elementalizing spells is also good if and only if they can select the spell as the new element only. like firebolt as a ice spell as long as you took that ice version only. really freshens up elementalists.
Yup, I allow someone to learn a variant if a spell as another element. Mostly so dragon sorcerers have more options but also others as well
@@TheCinderfang exactly! Or if a wizard wants to go more cryomancer, just reskin the fire spells to frost for them
Preach it. A wizard especially should be able to research spells and come up with interesting effects, including spells that have different elements.
I once jokingly made a spell that I called "forkball" which did piercing damage. You can guess what it did.
I have a problem with this. I like it in theory but in play it can make casters even more powerful than they should be. There's a reason most of the highest damage spells are fire damage. It's the most commonly resisted followed by poison and perhaps necrotic. So the game takes into account that that fireball spell is going to do half damage regularly enough even when it hits for full. Changing it to something like force damage makes it way stronger as practically nothing has resistance to force damage.
@@Jhakaro eldritch blast exists and causes the level dipping multiclass abuse partially because of it, but with the exception of changing things to force damage, I think it's pretty fair. Some types are really scarce on spells and while that's sometimes related to relative power/ presence of things resisting it, re-flavouring spells to have different damage types can be really useful for both players and dms. If it's clearly going to cause issues that the altered spell's new element does far above curve damage with few things resistant, it's possible to come to an agreement that the damage dice be scaled down a little to compensate.
A Wizard/Warlock that as a insectoid patreon. When he casts Fireball (or any fire stuff) its actually a mass of Fire Ants.
Arguably more horrifying
I allowed my friend to have an “infinite rage.” Whenever he sees bandits but he passes out after the encounter. The backstory was very interesting so I was cool with it.
5:03 god I hate when players do this, you forgot how they'll usual have a shit eating grin as well while the rest of the table are just as confused as the DM. Your cantrip doesn't need a 2 minute description to deal 2 damage.
To counter that rogue story, I've seen someone ask what their player's doing, does the effect on paper and THEN asks "Ok, so what does that look like?". Saves you the headache ;)
The 1 dislike on this was probably really hoping this would be about food & cooking in D&D. 😂
Flavor is banned by one of my DM's, he's the worst
I dont get DMs like this.. if you dont want to rp or flavor the game, why even bother with a ttrpg? Why not play boardgames like descent..
@@heikesiegl2640 It depends. I allow creativity but not "flavor" as it's described in the video. Creativity is using your imagination and the description of the ability you're using to do something special with it. Flavor is abusing that and making things that shouldn't be happening happen, causing additional effects, telling the DM how your ability effects his campaign or villain. Sometimes if you explain your attack and what it does, it completely derails what the DM had planned. Maybe that guy was a lich and you simply killed someone he was possessing, or the evil king had something to say with his last words but now he can't because he exploded from a firebolt that doesn't cause explosions. In my experience I've had to retcon or stop players from continuing their "flavoring" because rather than being creative they began to DM for me. You have control until the attack lands, how an enemy reacts to the blow is up to their player/the DM playing the enemy.
That said I allow immense amounts of creativity and, if players have a good explanation, have allowed certain castings of spells or uses of abilities to do additional things. It all depends on context and if it's fair for everyone else at the table, because it's a group thing and not a solo thing. Sometimes the DM knows what's best for the group as a whole and has something planned to ensure things go okay. That's not to say some DMs aren't assholes, but the majority are just trying to make sure everyone is having fun and not just the rogue who always instakills because he "flavors" his sneak attacks to always slit throats.
@@KiwiDragn hmm i guess we mean the same thing, but call it differently.
For me, flavor is only cosmetical. The spell still works as intended, it just looks different. (Like in the video) more like re-skinning.
The DM always has the last word. If he allowes certain things or not.
Creative use of spells/skills is great! My DM isnt a fan of this kind of things. ^^`
I do it like this: my players tell me what they want to do, describing their attack etc. Then I alter it so it fits the die roll.
If they try cool and creative stuff i try to allow it. Or i give inspiration
@@KiwiDragn That's the thing. Even as he said in the video: the biggest key rule of flavors are 1. Keep it concise so things don't get stupid long
And 2. If you're doing something, no matter what you make it look like, you're still only doing that one thing unless it's some weird homebrew game and the ability you're actually using has been approved by the GM
@@KiwiDragn No, flavor is cosmetic. If you use thorn whip to pull someone into a pit between you and them, that's just using the ability in a creative way that works in the rules.
I've been playing D&D for almost a year now. I've only played with one group and I still use the first character I made. (Yes, he's a Human Champion Fighter. Yes, the stereotypical kind.)
My character has been known to break the fourth wall at times, but it always has no numeric implications and is just for fun. For example; he was once watching another PC fight their father in a duel, when he suddenly and mysteriously acquired a bucket of popcorn from thin air.
But there was one time when I took it to the next level. We got into a fight with a bunch of ghosts, one of which I landed the final hit on. Naturally, the DM asked "How do you wanna do this?"
Then I had a bright idea, which I relayed to him. He straight up allowed my character to pull the Poltergust 4000 from Luigi's Mansion 2 out of nowhere and suck up the ghost with it because he thought it was hilarious and fitting.
It was one of my favourite moments in the whole campaign so far. I don't know how to top it.
Do what I did with my Paladin that could break the fourth wall.
Give him horrific and crippling fear, accented with nihlism because he realizes that he is a small and fragile man that must do grand and heroic deeds lest he be replaced by a cruel and indifferent God. A God that would just remake him, maybe with a different hair color but otherwise exactly the same, or maybe a half-elf this time. Indeed I had a Paladin that was a coward and his driving force was that I his player and the DM could and would replace him for a different version of himself if he didn't continue on or if he died. XD He was actually pretty fun to play.
@@LupineShadowOmega, I like the idea, but my character just keeps starting arguments with me on our group's Discord server.
I think he knows I'm a big pushover, so guess who's asking the DM to throw a giant wolf spider at the arachnophobic fighter to assert dominance?
@@jamesgibbs6716 lmao Now you're getting into it!
I thought this was going to be about using prestidigitation to flavour food
I usually do it like "I do this and this and this as I cast... Magic Missile" so you get the flavor and know what it is, for an actual example I usually say "I conjure up 3 snowballs into my hand and chuck them straight down on the giant crab im standing on as I cast magic missile"
Runesmith: “Make sure to just kinda rip things randomly to make a completely unique monster”
Also runesmith: “GET THIS AMAZING BOOK WITH PREMADE ENCOUNTERS SUPER EASY TO JUST PIT INTO YOUR GAME ALL PREMADE AND WELL DESIGNED BY TH...”
Yeah you use the encounter and then reskin everything, so even if your players have read the book, they still have no idea what's going on!
Daddy has to eat
I use howards handy spice spouch for all my flavouring needs
Kobolds.
Put kobolds on it
Just do it
@Kathy Kat
It's like the Kobold Dragon Sorcerer in Volo's...
*but just slightly different.*
4:45 goddammit that got me to laugh lol. You were sneaky with that blue eye and Sans chuckle.
I'm always trying to flavour my spells, but the DMs most times are against it, like, I'm not changing anything mechanic wise, what is the problem with me just changing the appearance of the spell?
They are prob not very good dm’s
Wait until they read the spellcasting feature of Artificers. It literally tells you: "Hey, you can flavor all these spells how you want..."
Flavoring is what allowed me to play a Cowboy ranger with a revolver handcross and a pokemon animal companion
I love the barbarian's rage exemple. I'v never thought about it. It can really show aspect of a homebrew setting even in the tiniest details. Thank you!
I flavor *everything* I play with, *_ladies_*
Our group has an Aetheist Cleric
She flavors every. Single. One of her abilities to make it seem as nonmagical as possible
After watching every video on this channel at least 4 times I’m beginning to believe the Runesmith does not actually upload blacksmith tutorial videos for Runescape and that I’ve been mistaken
Runesmith maybe give them a familiar that gives a sudden burst of power
Me DIVINE SOULS
Thank God, someone made a video about this. Time to send this to every person I know.
so basically be Liam Obrien
Yep. Caleb and Nott's spell descriptions are one of my favorite things about that show. Also Caleb and Nott in general.
Jester's Sketchbook basically
Tbf marishas stillness of mind was fucking amazing flavour and storytelling of a monk ability
"Why I flavor my game and NOT my players!"
Last time I was this early, duodrones were long.
fireball, but I cough it up
magic missile, but it's my fingees
truesight but my eyes become crosshairs
For a second there I read that all as one spell and I got really concerned
The thing I love about artificers is that it says, in the class entry, "be creative with your spells' flavoring." It gives you full permission to get creative, and I love it.
I like the idea of thinking of the spell's 'confines' when coming up with a creative flavor.
I.E.
If a spell has a verbal component, think of what your character says.
If a spell has a somatic component, think of what your character does.
And keep in mind the effect and saving throw; I.E. if a spell has a dexterity saving throw, think of something that would require them to dodge out of the way to avoid/reduce damage. If a person just spontaneously combusts, that is not going to be a dexterity saving throw, but probably more along the lines of constitution just to take it.
The confines create the limit in which your creativity works free.
Not gonna lie, for a second I thought you were going to talk about trade routes or cooking
anyway, yeah, flavoring is great, dangerous sometimes but generally great.
My favorite flavor I did was a Horizon Walker that was from the future and his class abilities were gadgets that he used.
In 4e (not a fan of the system, but whatever) I had a character who was a warlord class.
... I played him as a pirate. More specifically a cocky fake captain pirate who was all about showboating. And I renamed all of my abilities from general's-tactics names to swashbuckling-derringdoo names.
It was awesome and I got attacked repeatedly by my teammates who realized too late that I was playing as a pirate in their party, and couldn't do anything about it.
My favorite thing to do. I allow my players customize the spells and they just love it. All they need to atleast resemble the spell originally described and make sense. And they are quite creative! Players decided that spells should may reflect personalities.
Now our cruel powerhungry wizard throws fireballs that are shaped like skulls. Eldritch blast our ICly caustic and toxic warlock spams is looking like longass scorpion tail that is made of dark energy. Our druid that is like a mom for the whole party calls bees made of mix of moon- and sunlight that heal the wounds. The small treant I homebrewed as a spell she uses adjusts to the environment it is in - cactus in desert, a shroom underground or cluster of corals and seaweed underwater for example. Our eldritch knight fighter that had amnesia forms counterspells as ghostly mirrors with spell consuming void instead of glass. Everyone seldom see a ghostly hands of some dwarven wargod swinging our war cleric’s hammer together with her whenever she smites with it.
They even got so far in that that they describe that they dodged, parried or shrugged off the hit should enemy miss their attack, especially our fighter. They asked me to describe the way they kill the creature should they land the finishing blow. (Happy that they are usually into not overly flashy and long ones tho lmao)
So yeah flavoring is one of the best stuff and one, if not main, immersion and commitment fuels out there. That made me investing in homebrewing a lot of monsters and creatures with various legendary actions.
My favorite flavouring I did was with a wizard who used tea. I called him a britomancer and all of his spells had to be explained with tea. He's a fun one to play. Best flavor is his firebolt. He summons a teacup, filled with scorching hot tea and chucks the entire cup at the target XD
“Of course the real question is ‘where’d he get the cup of tea?’ Answer: I’m the Doctor, just accept it”
My favourite flavouring for magic is just straight up Tarantino direction: I just make my sorcerer explode everything, describe the colour and size of the flash and the cloud, after which the fight can go on.
So, I'm sorta a newbie DM and have played at the table for 1, almost 2 years.. What we've done is tell the DM what we wanna do and describe it, then the DM goes into more details of what we do.
No one at our table particularly likes having that much time going through 5-10 minutes into detail so thats what we've always done.
I had a folk hero barbarian who was a wondering ronin.
His rage was a battle meditation of extreme focus
I actually really enjoy this concept. He's not raging; rather the opposite, but it yields very much the same results.
I've actually had some cool flavor regarding my current DnD character. She's a necromancer (now a ghost due to an incident involving mind-flayers), and also a Bladesinger who's magic sword has a beholder inside it.
Since she's a necromancer I sort of changed the way her 'Bladesong' feature works. She has a choir of ghosts that surround her as sing at her direction. She also summons things via Animate Objects and Animate Dead. This I flavor as her sending the various members of her choir into the objects to possess them and hurl them around like poltergeists.
It's really fun being the party's tank indirectly.
3:03
Thank you Logan, very radical!
I really like changing damage types. It lets me theme my abilities and spells. You have to be careful, but it can be really fun. I could change burning hands to thunder cone, and be the Dragonborn.
I made a character who's whole gimmick was that he was a knife thrower in a circus. (Fighter 2/ war mage 18 split)
My advice is that the first time you use something, feel free to go into detail, but after that it's better to keep it short.
1st time: "I snap my fingers, and a blade of fire appears in my grip, I reach back, and throw the dagger at the goblin as I cast firebolt."
2nd time and beyond: "I snap my fingers and throw another firebolt at the wolf."
Wild Magic Barbarian cursed by a hag who turns into stone when they rage: "I got your back, boss... I think."
>bane from batman
>persona 5
>remember ant man and the wasp?
>hit em with the 4:46-4:47
>ebic gamer moment
I had a plant themed barbarian once. Had vine tattoos that reflected his mood. Whenever he raged the vines grew thorns and stretched over his arms and face and when ge ended rages they withdrew and started budding flowers.
I was in an instant where most of the party was down. My character was a sorcerer. I dont remember what invocation I used but it doubled the range of my spell. Used burning hands. I read out the discription to the DM and pointed out that it is discribed as a thin sheet of flame. So my character held their hands above the height of the downed party but low enough to hit enemies and delt damage in a 30ft long and 30ft wide cone.
It was a TPK because our DM had us, a party of level 4s, randomly encounter a necromancer, a hoard of undead, and a vampire. But it was cool.
One of my favorite bits of flavoring I have ever come up with is for when one of my wizard characters would cast sleep I would say " as I cast sleep arcane runes whirl around my enemies overloading there brains with so much knowledge they pass out
Eldritch Blast:
Magic Gun(s)
Water, formed into fish which swim to the target and burst on impact
Animated Cole pieces with little wings for a Santa (celestial) warlock
A small creature which runs out from your location and attacks
Exploding butterflies/birds
Small fey that fly little objects into the target and bicker with each other when they miss
Spectral chains/ropes that fly out and pull the target (with grasp of hardar)
Flesh to Stone:
Flesh to coral
Flesh to ice
Flesh to glass
I made a Hexblade once whose magic was entirely powered by the cursed sword he had. Thus, every single one of his spells took the form of phantasmal swords. Eldritch Blast? Black ghost swords that shoot like missiles. Hellish Rebuke? Spears of flame shaped like swords suddenly burst out from under the attacker's skin. Mirror Image? The shadow clones are holding the funky ghost copies of the sword. Shield? A sword swats the attack out of the air.
The only one I could never figure out one for was Shadow Blade. A puzzle for the ages, truly...
I once as DM described that my one player killed elf by that: Elf was running from Kenku Rogue named Sparus, Sparus draw its knife and stuck it into the ass of an elf, elf screaming in pain jumped 50 meters into the air. Kenku jumped to the same altitude as an elf, then he started moving his dagger so fast that the blade of the knife started heating. Sparus cut loaves of elvish meat with his hot dagger thus making Goulash, which was falling from the sky right into the mouths and plates of cheering town people.
I'm kinda on the fence when it comes to this topic. I'm in a group of new players (myself included), where roleplaying things as descriptively as I'd like is quite difficult as-is, and I get the feeling it generally makes people uncomfortable. It's less RP (though it happens!) and more playing a game - and that's what people around my table enjoy. I guess this lack of flavor stems largely from inexperience, and will likely improve once we flesh out the plot and especially our characters a little bit.
That said, I guess my point is that being the first person to "hog the spotlight" and start doing a lot of flavor things with things like their combat rolls to the degree demonstrated here is kinda difficult when even social RP interactions are difficult to properly roleplay out, and most definitely a team effort that depends on the atmosphere of the table.
@@GoblinUrNuts I see your point, and I don't necessarily disagree. But - isn't the point too obvious to be a useful thing to bring up? Like, we're playing an RPG, with much more emphasis on the RP than in most games. We should Roleplay. It's a given.
See, to me, this video is more like a short heads-up / pointer that tells you to do the Thing, without delving into any of the actual realities of why essentially playing pretend as a grown-ass adult isn't something that comes naturally to people. How it's a skill, and actually somewhat hard to get into. That's not a criticism of the vid btw: It's even described as a "rant" by Runesmith, and I get it wasn't meant to be comprehensive. Just musing to get some discussion going :)
I feel like flavoring doesn't have to really take time or too much spotlight. It can, but it doesn't have to. It can just be quick mentions like a color, a smell, a feeling, a move (are you slashing the monster's face or stabbing his knee). And for class abilities, you don't have to mention it all the time. People are gonna remember that your hair changes color when your barbarian enters his rage after you said it twice, no need to hammer it each time, and it still gives a different "vibe" to your character!
The flavoring examples in the video are ones not many DMs actually allow. They're extreme examples that change how the game works heavily. The best way to start is, as someone above said, simply explain where your character is aiming or what they intend to do with an attack or ability. Always leave what actually happens in the end to the dice and the DM, but giving that extra information can change a certain tpk fight into a fair fight.
The best thing to do is ask your DM on the side before doing anything like that, "hey how much creativity are you okay with us using at the table?" Don't feel uncomfortable asking for examples based on their answer, some are more forgiving than others.
1:48 Zeppeli would be proud
So you're saying I could flavour all my divine spellcasting to be having Apsu (or Bahamut if you're playing dnd) as a stand?
*coughastralmonkcough*
@@kylestanley7843 I'm pretty sure my astral monk player wants to kill himself after all the jojokes we make any time he does anything.
this is amazing. i am used to play like that, but i like the idea that other people want the same.
Artificer is great for flavouring. Im about to play a Dwarf Artificer and instead of stupid magic, he has...
Firebolt: he carries around a massive home made flamethrower
Arcane weapon: he has a series of small clockwork drones that can buzz around his head
Mage hand: he has a retractable robot hand that comes out of his chest plate, like Data from the Goonies
Feather fall: he has a hat that produces helicopter blades, like Inspector Gadget
- What do you do in your turn?
My character says: "I love the smell of bat guano in the morning"
And roll 8d6 fire damage.
Bro i have a Divine Soul Sorcerer Earth Genasi who's basicly a sandbender. I just want all of the wind and water spells he has to be reflavored as Sand. Dnd realy has nothing in terms of Earth or Sand spells
There are a few earth themed ones like bones of the earth and earth quake. And there's also magic stones or whatever it's called, and I really like flavoring earthbind as a massive stone hand reaching up to drag things to the ground. But I agree there could be more.
Here's an idea; taking the Magicka games as inspiration, we can fling a *big damn rock.*
@@kylestanley7843 Unfortunately, Magic Stones isn't on the sorcerer spell list.
Literally love this, like honestly adds soooooo much as long as your cool about it and keep it brief. One of my favorite characters was my mercy monk who used needle for ki points and wouldn't reuse them until he could clean them
I always reward creativity when I DM. A guy standing on a ledge 8ft up? Sure you can swing your sword at them, but if the player comes up with a creative lunging attack but then rolls like a 2 for accuracy, I'll reward the good idea by having it work out, but not harm the enemy as much and puts them in a bad situation. This way it adds heat to the battle and keeps it exciting, while also rewarding the players unique ideas. Obviously you can't do this for every bad roll that had a unique idea behind it, but it's definitely something fun to keep your players engaged every once in a while
gonna be honest, just heard the Wendy's tabletop rpg was a thing, and thought this would be explaining it. You guys have perfect timing
I remember a friend telling me that a fun idea for a Warforged Monk where they have gadgets integrated into them that allows them to replicate things a normal monk does. They deploy a parachute when they use Slow Fall, activate thrusters when they use Step of the Wind, and a Flurry of Blows is just having their fists become jackhammers. I even had the idea where a Warforged Barbarian's rage is just them overclocking their systems.
My session got cancelled today. But Runesmith uploaded too, so I got that going for me.
Recently a player of mine multiclassed into divine soul sorcerer, and left a lot of room for me to flavor it. So he had a dream sequence that determined his "patron deity", the extra spell dependent on that (bane, for I can't interpret leaving your fate to blind luck other than "chaotic"), and as the booming blade seems to be the latest craze, we tweaked it a bit. It now deals piercing damage for him and is flavored as spectral thorny vines, representing his conection to the fey deity.
So I did something like this when I played an artificer as my fire bolt spell was basically a flare gun
Smart!
I managed to flavor a gnome ranger into an ersatz Napoleonic dragoon. Sometimes, I rode a pig( boar animal companion) into battle, charging with a cavalry saber(Scimitar). Other times, I was on foot, attacking at range with my trusty carbine(+3 Light Crossbow).
One of my favorite characters I've ever played was a Ravnican "wizard" who didn't actually cast spells, but instead was a tinkerer who used gadgets mounted on his person to "cast" spells. For example, firebolt was a wrist mounted "iron Man-esc" arm cannon, and sleep was a hand grenade filled with essentially sleeping gas. Didn't really change anything mechanically but was super fun to play and describe
Sounds a bit like the new Artificer class, a caster who tinkers and invents to cast their spells.
Your intro is more spot-on than you think... Yours, and one other channel, are the only ones I watch about D&D. The self-important arrogance is strong in almost everyone else.
Do you spice?
hey, you spice?
I once had an idea for a warforged barbarian who would shift gears in order to rage. First gear would be what he was usually using, second gear would be rage, and third gear would be frenzied rage. With each shift, I'd like for there to be a physical gear on his back that retracts into his body and is switched with another. I also like to imagine him being steam powered, so with each gear shift, you would see the fire in his belly glow brighter through grating in his chassis, and steam spout from his mouth and from vents on his back.
One Flavor for each Class
Artificer - Each school of magic is tied to a different device the Artificer uses. Abjurations are activated by your armor, Conjurations are cast with a teleportation device, Divinations are achieved through a PDA, Enchantments are special radio frequencies that have different effects, Evocations are all fired out of a gun or cannon, Illusions are projected as holograms, Necromancies are nanobots, and Transmutations are alchemy potions. Obviously this wouldn't work for every spell, so speak with your DM about which spells don't need to be flavored.
Barbarian - This is easy. Rage is just your character going Super Saiyan. No, I'm being serious. When your Barbarian rages, something about them physically changes. Maybe their hair and eyes start to glow. Maybe they get new clothes. Maybe they turn into metal. Use your imagination. This also works for if your mage casts Tenser's Transformation. Alternatively, instead of saying "I would like to rage," say "I'm gonna Morb!"
Bard - When using Bardic Inspiration, your Bard says "Good luck!" That could be the verbal component, even. Maybe they also flip a coin that they keep as a charm. Make it so the Bard is supernaturally lucky, and they can share that luck with their allies. Maybe they have been blessed by a trickster god or fey. Maybe they have a latent magic ability that protects them from bad luck. Or maybe they're a halfling.
Cleric - Channel Divinity is activated with a talisman or charm gifted to you by your god. If you're a Trickster Cleric, your charm could be a dagger or a coin. If you're a Knowledge Cleric, it could be a scale model of a Lamborghini. The charm could also allow you to communicate with your god, assuming the DM is okay with it.
Druid - Your Wild Shape is a separate consciousness. Yes, out of character you know what happens when you turn into a beast or tree. Nothing changes mechanically. But your _character,_ your character blacks out whenever you use Wild Shape. Speak to your DM about how to implement this in the campaign.
Fighter - Your Extra Attacks? They're a spin attack. You spin.
Monk - You could replace "Ki" with any other kind of spiritual energy. Chakra, mana, ley lines, feng shui, maybe even the Weave itself.
Paladin - There is a voice in your head. This voice motivates you to do good. It belongs to a supernatural entity that helps you heal your allies, smite foes, and detect evil. Navi, it's like Navi.
Ranger - Give the Ranger a gun. This isn't flavoring, this is my idea for making the Ranger class more interesting.
Rogue - Thieves' Cant? It's just invisible ink. "Understanding" Thieves' Cant means you have the chemical necessary to reveal the invisible ink. Invisible ink is so advanced, that all non-Rogues assume it's some kind of magic or secret language. Also, smoke bombs for your Sneak Attack.
Sorcerer - There is a rune on the back of your hand. Whenever you use Metamagic, the rune glows. See? The Sorcerer is unique! They're not just a weaker Wizard!
Warlock - Get creative with how your Patron manifests. Are they your shadow? A voice in your head? A Demilich skull in your pocket? Maybe they just straight up possess your character. If you're a GOOlock, maybe casting black tentacles actually summons one of Cthulhu's tentacles. Maybe Tasha's hideous laughter drives your opponent insane by making them see the true face of your eldritch patron.
Wizard - Your spellbook is a Kindle.
I made a coastal Druid that has a pouch full of sea shells that she uses for magic stone, and she also paints the shells pink in her spare time. Also her entangle spells brings up sea weed.
I always describe chromatic orb as a disco ball of light that changes colors depending on the damage. It always gets a laugh.
Kobold artificer the one I REALLY love is when I cast fly I use my homonculus servant which looks like a giant (1 foot long) mechanical wasp grabbing my back and extend his wing to make a a dragonfly-like pair of wings
His arcana firearm is at core a rod with wooden sculpture of Tiamat heads with her signature poison stinger for a butt stock that I wield as a magic crossbow to shoot firebolt and does not grant me any advantage whatsoever beside being my spellcast focus and my arcana firearm
runesmith: "demons..." [Shows picture of imp]. devils: "THEM'S FIGHTIN' WORDS!"
What one of my players did is he wrote incantations for all the spells that required verbal components and that keeps things interesting. Most are approximately 5 words - 2 sentences so it keeps things interesting without eating up table time
I've flavored one fighter/barbarian's rage as being hyper-focused on their target, and flavored a shatter spell to reverberate and echo endlessly in the ears of targets. Flavor does a LOT for spicing things up.
Flavoring is why I picked up a Lore Master Wizard; the ability to change damage types and even the required saving throw lends itself to flavoring, because eventually someone is going to ask WHY your one fireball required a wisdom saving throw and dealt cold damage. Here's how I would state it:
The blue ball comes into existence, and grabs at the attention of those nearby, drawing them in with its almost ethereal appearance. And then, it expands, and those who couldn't tear their eyes away are temporarily filled with a cold that most surely flow from the nine hells.
This isn't more dagrons. Where are the Dagrons?