How to design clothes for your D&D character
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- čas přidán 14. 06. 2024
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► INDEX
0:00 Intro
1:31 Enter World Anvil's costume challenge!
2:38 How to design clothes
3:54 #1: Story
5:39 #2: Aesthetic
7:32 #3: Utility
9:44 #4: History
11:19 How to bring your ideas to life
13:52 Outro
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A fun little detail of my character is that he's a street-urchin-pickpocket-type, and his background gave him a tool proficiency. I decided to give him proficiency with weaver's tools, so his clothes are very practical street clothes, with a bunch of secret pockets and pouches, made from the finest silks and fabrics stolen from rich people's houses.
I love that!! What a fun detail!!
I got Carol Burnet wearing a window curtain vibe from the "silks stolen from rich people's houses" part.
Cool! Great plan!
That being said- It drives me kind of crazy, as a hand spinner and weaver IRL, that the so-called Weaver’s Tools… are for hand sewing, and have *nothing* to do with weaving. Arrgh.
(A loom can be a index-card-sized heddle and some string; weaving for thousands of years has been done with nothing more than sticks and string. It doesn’t require a big heavy piece of equipment.)
@@RKHageman In Tales of the Valiant, the relevant tool set and proficiency is called Clothier's Tools, which is a great improvement to my mind. I interpret that to cover knitting, crochet, embroidery and beading as well as spinning, weaving and sewing. (I'm not sure how I feel about Cobbler's Tools being folded into that as well, however. Leather is not textile, and the skill set of working it is *quite* a different skill set, to the best of my understanding.)
Me, a historical clothing enthusiast: it is my time to shine
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Me, a fully clothed human being: WTF do people wear? Are you some kind of wizard for knowing?
Yo same. Whenever I draw my characters I try to
A) be historically accurate with clothings to the time period and region in which the game is inspired (currently playing a campaign that has an empire based on a mix of Italian and Spanish culture in the 14th century, where my character is from)
B) be somewhat historically accurate and faithfully portray practical armour from said period (lost my armour on my way to a region of the world that is inspired by Turkish culture with elements of East African, adopted a typical scale armour from the bronze age but made with steel)
Nice! Same here! Also an aspiring costume designer. I start studying at UCLA TFT this fall.
Me and my Dm too do a entire search for all weapons, armor, and dress for the 1600 secol for 5 different country it was hard but now our campaign is 100% historical accurate
Ginny: What does your D&D character wear ?
Me an artist who changes designs for his characters every day: YES
Same, my characters have loads of outfits too... and then I went so far as to design their relatives ... that are now new characters.
@@jacobyspurnger8488 I think you've confused Glammerweave with Shiftweave. A suit of Shiftweave can store up to five outfits in it. Glammerweave allows the wearer to create moving illusory pattern on one piece of clothing or have it rise from the cloth.
And on the other side of the spectrum, we have me: "Uhhmm... Pants and ... probably a shirt? Of some kind. Oh, and shoes! Yeah, definitely shoes."
I admit, I am guilty of trawling pinterest fringe fashion boards for character clothing ideas. And I have written down detailed clothing descriptions on the backs of more than a few character sheets.
ok so changing character designs all the time is normal? good to know
Your character does not need a strength score of 14 to go shirtless.
but charisma 14+ IS required to go pantsless :P
@@FluxDeimos not if you're a satyr
@@trueaidooo If you are joking about satyrs does that make it satyrical?
@@FluxDeimos WELL. PLAYED, good sir!
I like using male figure skaters who compete in pair competitions as a reference for body and clothes. Because while they are very acrobatic and flexible to do the jumps and tricks, they also lift like a damn forklift when they lift their partner.
My character is a bard with a disfigured face. She wears a half mask to hide her face and wears showy performance type dresses to blend with her mask so that people assume it's part of her stage persona rather than hiding her half melted face.
So she’s The Phantom? Fashion wise anyway.
@@dubbingsync Yes, I definitely stole that whole aesthetic.
She's also a scourge aasimar so her angelic power explodes out the damaged half of her face. Has a nice "remove the mask and angelic light fills the battlefield" thing going on.
@@quinnsinclair7028 That sounds like such a cool character!
She's here, the Phantom of the Opera!
@@quinnsinclair7028 Badass!
As a fashion designer, I feel validated. I legit designed an outfit for my fashionista bard, Stella, to fit her personality and the place she came from, and i have a pinterest board just for outfits to put on special occasions! Unfortunately the other players couldn't care less about clothing so they just think it's superficial girly nonsense, but I still gag everyone with my looks bc that's what Stella would do anyway...
Superficial girly nonsense = "See, girls do it, so it sucks". Don't get discouraged!
Superficial girly nonsense? Designing outfits for characters is one of my favorite things.
I'm a 6foot 3, 220 pound construction worker that lifts materials heavier than myself on a regular basis.
Your friends is dumbdums. Don't listen to them.
As the only girl in an all-guys group who's also playing a fashionista, I feel this in my SOUL
@@Anvandiel I'm sorry to hear that, it really sucks. I gladly left that group to find people who are not mysoginists, I totally recomend
Your group lacks culture. Keep being you
My character for an upcoming campaign is a cleric whose goddess has a lot of bee symbolism. Medieval beekeepers basically wore baskets over their faces to protect themselves from the bees, so I decided all of my character's armor would all be woven out of wicker. It also really helped to brighten up her color palate when I was drawing her.
that's such a cool idea! I like how its translating the historical clothing into a different piece of fantasy clothing
That’s so fun!
Would that make her vulnerable to fire? Or is it magic wicker?
I love that idea so much!
My rogue wearing bright pink, but with a +19 to stealth. "Get on my level, honeybuns"
Edit: For those asking, she's actually a Pathfinder character (an offshoot of 3.5e not 5e) so a +19 isn't actually that hard to achieve with a dex-based character.
I like to imagine their type of stealth is more distracting than actually sneaking.
Like here let me just throw something down the hall and then slip on by.
XD My arcane trickster rogue wears mostly white but she's not on that level of stealth yet. She's actually /trying/ to be flashy because I built her as being a street performer that used to be nobility.
Nobody’s eva’ seen a purple ork
How'd you get a +19? Highest I could think of was a +17 with advantage on checks relying on hearing or sight
Magnificent
My friends and I have just started a brand new campaign where all the characters woke up naked in a mud pit. Right now we are all wearing either potato sacs or scraps of mismatched clothes.
I'll definitely be keeping these tips in mind when it comes time for my character to pick proper clothes.
"My friends and I have just started a brand new campaign where all the characters woke up naked in a mud pit." That sounds like the end to an interesting weekend :D
I....as someone who doesn’t play but watches a lot of campaigns,I’m honestly not surprised that’s how the adventure started
Wouldn’t put it past a DM
Ahh the old naked in a mud pit start, brings back fond memories.
Chelsea Barrett: that's hysterical!
My character wears a human sized coat (they’re a goblin), a cooking pot full of random stuff on her head, and a whole bunch of dirt
absolutely adorable
Absolutely love this one. I can imagine it.
No, they're not dirty. They're WEARING THE DIRT!
Bless her
i love her
someone was recently mocking the effort I put into dressing my characters and the amount of time spent on their appearance and personality... THANK YOU FOR VINDICATING ME! XD
@@jacobyspurnger8488 I GM pathfinder and I started requiring people at my table produce or find a picture that at least somewhat visualises their character (we play online) I framed it as use for the token to begin with. I've found since doing that, that cross table roleplaying between characters has grown greatly while cross table off topic chatter has diminished proportionally. Certain members have been offput by this but overall MOST of my players have found it to make the game a lot more fun. They actually CARE about who their character is more now than ever before. It's not just an extension to beat up mobs with anymore heh.
@@jacobyspurnger8488 As someone artisticly impaired I know exactly what you mean lol
Someone who understands! I'm very critical about not just my character's appearance, but everything about them! I feel the necessity for stats such as Strength, Constitution to match well with their build, Wisdom, Charisma with their personality, etc. Character appearance and backstory are the two things I get stuck on the longest! When describing my character's main outfit, it's second nature for me to try and include as many details about an outfit as I can. It becomes demoralizing for me when I'm not able to create an outfit that's both unique enough and one that I'm truly satisfied with. XD
As a character designer, I super appreciate this video. When people send me the description "they wear leather armour" I must use every last brain cell to design yet another set of original leather armour. I loooove when I get detailed descriptions, especially when they describe the overall color pallet. Makes my job so much easier!
On the other hand you could meet a history nerd that would send you a name and a picture of all the armour pieces the character is wearing.
@@annasolovyeva1013 Is that supposed to be like a bad thing? I love it when they do that
@@scrabs4855 often people don't like the meticulousness of the historical reenactor-style approach. Artists I know even post "I don't draw armour" because they don't enjoy drawing THAT much complex details. Especially - if they are traditional artists and drawing all the details and texture of an historically accurate armour in detail is difficult to them (or they request several times more money for an armoured character then for a said caster). A late medieval knight's armour is a lot of details, decorated and layered in an elaborate way. There are also all the ties with pointy hanging eglets and buckles that hold them in place and douplet or chainmail peaking from underneath. There's also such a thing as mail with flat big rings, that are clearly visible from distance, but still a lot of very small things. And there are armour gauntlets - they're often x3 difficulty to drawing hands. Also remember the volume that armour adds to a figure, it should be correct - not too thin, like in Hollywood, not too thick, like in Warhammer. Armour pieces may be each also be shiny and reflecting light of different colours, and metals also have their own shade undertone like purple for silver.
For a tank character their armour is a lot of their personality, it's what they are and how they want others too see them in the battle. people who do reenactment tournaments, basically say "your armour is your face, it's what people see". I have three tank characters of my own (one dnd palladin and two fictional war caster knights), and you can easily tell who is who without looking at their faces.
In fantasy an armour may be enchanted, it can also add a lot of details. Especially if you bother with a systematic approach to magical artifacts like I do. (I prefer considering that a long-term enchanted artifact is like a computer - it has a physical structure of mana baterries, rune enchantment modules and wires mostly on the inside of the armour, but not 100% inside).
To summarize, realistic armour is a complex thing difficult to draw
@@annasolovyeva1013 You touched on some really good points! As a character designer I’d also add that for most figurative artists, complex, inorganic forms (such as plate armor) are so much harder and less intuitive to draw than organic forms (such as the human body). It’s very easy to tell when armor looks wonky in perspective because it’s usually hard, symmetrical, and overall just not malleable in the way that most living creatures are. (Also, I personally would love if someone commissioned me with detailed images and historically accurate names for costume pieces they wanted, it makes my job easier and I get to learn something new)
@@annasolovyeva1013 I had this request once and i was so excited- they nailed everythin down and gave me so mamy references
Lol "A rogue might not ever wear yellow." Hahaha that might 'Nott' be true.
Your rouge reminds me of that one person who wears yellow in blood borne
Eyyyyy
She's defiantly the 'confident in their skills they can wear that they want' lol
@@proffesornugget1613 "Your rogue"
Uh, no, pretty sure they're talking about Nott, Sam Riegel's character in Critical Role's 2nd campaign
@@reptiliannoizezz.413 i wouldnt know I dont watch critical role
When Kelsey said "a belt thats got a lot of trinkets on it" my mind instantly went "belt stuffed with bears"
What… what is that a reference to? Do I want to know?
@@deinogreenstreet8631 My best guess is that the bear from Critical role is named Trinket
Vox Machina probably
Just a shit ton of those things Vex keeps Trinket in strapped onto the belt. Would actually look pretty cool... And then you'd pull all of them off and bears spawn out of them
@@deinogreenstreet8631 a character from campaign one of critical role (Vex) has a familiar which is a bear named trinket, hence the many a stuffed bear on a belt reference! Hope this helps!
The thing i like most about my character's style is that she's a hyper person, so when traveling she tends to get so bored because she can't run around freely. But she is skilled in sewing! So when on long trips, she'll start sewing random patterns on anything she can get her hands on, and it most of the time ends up unfinished. She started a snowflake embroidery on the hem of her dress, flowers on the cloth parts of her boots. She even made personalized handkerchiefs for her party members
Thanks for sharing, I can totally picture this.
Ginny: You can lose hours on online dollmakers.
Me: Yes, this is information I am just learning right now and did not learn myself in any way, shape or form.
Ginny Di is def my comfort channel lol. No stress at all, and she has such a friendly vibe that makes me comfortable. I tend to click before I even think about it lmao
Dont check out her twitter than xd
@@kaades_ what? her twitter has the same energy
@Hawks16 I don't vent here because I'm not gonna make a 15 minute video about being depressed, but it's very easy to be honest about my feelings on twitter, and unfortunately I am human and not always happy. 🤷♀️ But I'm glad to have the opportunity to share and spread happiness here! That's important to me.
@@GinnyDi I totally understand it. But still, venting on twitter achieves nothing, and ventig about trolls or the like will only make more of them
@@GinnyDi Checked Twitter. Encountered no problems whatsoever
"Thinking about your character's outfit can add _layers_ to your role-playing." I see what you did there.
I literally got my D&D to let me buy a half size bag of holding just to hold my noble sorcerer's closet. He then face palmed when I showed him the list of pictures for each dress stuffed in the bag. 😁
That's amazing omg
I'd be more likely to give that bag if you actually went to that much trouble to think about what it is going to have in it!
That is awesome dude
I mean, what else would a noble do?
reminds me of how great the Cast of Critical Role has gotten at describing their out fits especially Laura Bailey. They do have the knowledge that artist and cosplayers will construct these outfits. thanks for the tips
I did try to get a cosplay friend of mine into critical role by showing them spectacle of Laura and Talison describing the formal wear they bought for all the rest of the party.
Ginny: if you aren't sure how to answer that question, then today's video is for you
Me: not only do I know the answer to all of those questions for my character, but I know for all of my party because I basically designed their outfits. But I'm going to watch this video anyway, because, y'know, Ginny.
I recently made a new college of swords bard, an Aasimar. And i wanted to give him an owl for a familiar. So i thought "why not make him night related". so i did. He is generally night and moon themed. Studs on his armor are stars, guards on his swords are crescent moons, lots of black, grey, blue and silver.
Tbh I only have one character i ever really thought about that, they are a Kobold Glamor Bard named Gillie who almost exclusively wears Hawaiian T-shirts and Cargo Shorts.
I made them as a gimmick because I thought the concept was so wild.
This character sounds incredibly chaotic and I love it
My barbarian tiefling sews all of her clothes bc her birth mom was a seamstress and she picked up her talents. She’s also a performer, so she wears comfy, flexible clothes that show enough so that she still has room for looking sexy and showing off battle scars.
The most I have probably thought about a character's clothes was with my warlock Valentine. I wanted him to, at first glance, look like what you would typically expect from a cliché warlock - dark clothes, most likely a cloak etc.
But he grew up in a noble family and is therefore dressing accordingly whenever he can. So his black and dark green clothes are made from fine materials, his cloaks can be worn on two sides (one with intricate patterns, the other plain for stealth purposes), and he loves wearing jewelry. Makes for really nice scenes in rp.
For example, like his familiar (a raven), he is fond of shiny things. Found a nice ring surrounded by icky goo? It would look great with a certain outfit, though, so get it. The pact is connected to a bracelet he can't take off? Well, now every outfit needs to work with it, it shouldn't clash.
Or, something that happened was that his clothes were torn while the party was traveling. No place to get new ones. Cue Valentine being cranky because he had to wear cheap furs for a while that didn't fit his aesthetic.
Another time he actually gave a party member a makeover, because who would wear iffy clothes to a social gathering? Didn't go well in the end though, since most of us didn't wear armor because of it and we got into a fight.
So yeah, I really think it can make for great rp opportunities. 😅
My First character had a full bloodborne aesthetic going on. It fit her very well, her patron was the raven queen.
I'm thinking about a Raven Queen Warlock all the time and right now, my idea actually is like a hooded cloak. One that would make every bard go green with envy for its vibrant weird chaotic color mix scheme thing - and a hood that's like coated in vbx2 (the new vantablack... y'know, the blackest black ever but this one is the new version that even hides wrinkles in tin foil due to its darkness xD)
Really? How Vaxing- in mean Vexing.
aaaaaand now I'm inspired for a Grave Cleric build. halp
@@LucRio448 I’m thinking of making a bard/warlock based off of the violin fencer from Tuba Boss. I was thinking of having the Raven Queen be his patron.
When designing characters I like to imagine a layer of "character clothes" with a layer of "class clothes" added. Of course, not necesarily in a very strict layered fashion, but for instance a happy-go-lucky warrior can have a big, sturdy, all-utility-no-style armor, while wearing bright and stylish clothes underneath, or a rogue can have a dark cloak used for stealth, but wear it as a sort of cape to reveal some more personal and intimate clothing underneath when not in mission
And one of my favorite way to figure out how the different clothing elements are displayed, I try to do a "morning routine" exercise. Your character get up out of bed, wearing nothing but underwear. What do they put on? In what order? Do they casually pur their cloaks and armor on, or do they keep it in the side and wait to go out before? That would allow for some evolutive clothing, as character may wear their outfit differently regarding where and when they are
Both of those ideas are really smart! The second one is like those historic getting dressed videos I like to watch.
Plot twist, the character doesn't wear underwear
yesss I absolutely love dressing my characters! Clothing can tell so much about them without you having to outright state "they are rich, they are shy, they want to be center of attention," etc.
They want to be the center of attention? *cough cough* who's character could that be
Gotta say, "shopping episodes" before going to meet someone in power are my favourite. My friends and I all dive onto pinterest and cobble together our characters new outfit they're getting to meet someone fancy.
My current character is a circle of the Stars Druid who has an embroidery hoop as her star map. Since she uses embroidery, she has started to make a more creative star design on the bottom of her cloak.
That's so cool that I'm mad I didn't think of it first!!! /lh
A detail that I put on my Human Storm sorcerer is that they come from a place where rains are incredibly common, and as such almost always wear a wide brimmed hat, somewhat like a rain hat, along with a large cloak dipped in a sort of waterproof wax over fairly standard clothes underneath. The hat and the cloak are both blue as that is the color of the wax that is embedded into them. They also have runic symbols adorning them, marked in orange. They glow when she uses her lightning magic, a sort of symbol of her rage.
I literally designed my character's entire wardrobe and hair based around fashion at the time period we're playing in and her backstory before i even knew her name. It's the 1940s so she has a sort of Peggy Carter hairstyle but with straight bangs and she wears a military jacket from her brother and his dog tags over a yellow dress that has seen better days.
honestly, as an artist, sketching and drawing out a characters face and clothing style is one of the first things I do when I make a character- it just helps form them so much in my head. Everything from personality to background is figured out through those sketches for me. It's so nice to see others give characters clothing style the attention it deserves! It really gives a character so much life and definition!
Making a custom mini from a place like Hero Forge can also bring a character's look to life. 👍
And once you get it designed you can save it, and more importantly right click and save the picture. That way you have what it looks like without having to buy the figure. But definitely save the design so you can buy it later you'll probably want to.
Fun fact a few studies were conducted and when you wear red you are seen as more attractive and the color draws attention to you. Color symbolism and color theory is pretty cool.
Unless youre in star trek... Then you are guaranteed to die
@@MystraRavenwind Well, you are more attractive... to disrupter fire?
Ginny: What does your D&D character wear?
The horny bard: If I’m doing it right, nothing.
I used to be a forever dm, but now that I've escaped that I'm the forever character artist for all my parties
My daughter's mother styled herself as a textile engineer and her knowledge spanned the art/science of turning fibers into garments from lost antiquity to the present and around the world. She was also a costumer and historical re-enactor. All of this combined to make "what does your character wear" an important part of our roleplaying character creation process. Thank you for this.
"I wanna get everyone into critical role" is an admirable goal. Every DnD player or aspiring player should definitely get into critical role.I love their playstyle
It's actually because of her I got into it. So fun!
My character recently needed a full clothing makeover, so they're now looking awesome
My satyr grew up in the middle class of a city but it was always difficult to find clothing that would accommodate her lower body. Eventually, she learned to sew her own clothing and she found a way to work some of the nearby wildflowers into dyes. Her abilities really started to come in handy when she began to learn to fight in her dresses. And if it became easier to patch other people up when our healer is "dead," well, nobody needs to mention it.
I love designing clothes for my characters a little bit too much, and this is helpful. One time, I had been designing a character for *weeks*, and then the DM immediately transported us to a tropical climate and told us "oh you may have to go clothes-shopping to adjust to the temperature". He could not look me in the eye after. It's very funny in hindsight.
I think about this alot. For example my wizard Armando is a chubby guy who comes from money, due to backstory he's on his own. He dresses simply, a collared beige shirt with the chest open a tad and the sleeves rolled up, showing glimpses of his tattoos and the lightning scar on his right forearm. Dark blue Jeans and black boots. He's comfortable as he is but also doesnt care much for fashion, but he is presentable. He has nice black slacks and dress shoes, a white collared shirt and a purple sweater vest if he feels like he needs to gussy up.
My latest character is from a race that can’t permanently be killed and loves fighting. His regular clothes are simple, rough hewn, and cheap because he doesn’t care about them. But his armor is decorated with runes from his language, it gleams with polish, and is both well worn and well repaired. Almost all of it is by himself since he prefers being self sufficient.
Love self sufficient characters 🥰
Nothing better than dressing your fiendishly werewolf-looking Shifter in a fancy, tailored suit :) never a bad time to “Werewolves of London”
His hair was perfect!!
I think I love the idea of the fastenings - maybe buttons or toggles that have a link to one of my character's background. The only thing she keeps to help her remember memories - so every wooden toggle is whittled to depict something - a leaf, a face, an animal, etc - Cool!
What's funny is I have a Kobold Bard who wears Hawaiian T-shirts and Cargo Shorts and this video was like, could I reflavor the handy haversack to be Cargo Shorts?
Like don't mind me casually pulling a a ridiculous amount of things even for cargo shorts.
And i love it
Me after months of attempting to make a tribal clothing design for my centaur character: “KILTS! Why didn’t I think of them before! That’s brilliant! Of course centaurs could use kilts! They’d be so useful!”
Yesssssss
I also like to think of how my character's clothes change as they level up. It can tell a cool story if you're character makes the choice to buy more expensive and showy clothes, or if they shift to more sublte fashion choices.
I already know what my character is wearing I spent the Last hour searching for 19th century men's fashion along with boots and clothes scientists would use then
I was in the middle of drawing my Sorcerer when this was uploaded.
Imagine styling you character based off their stats instead of only vibe. Could not be me.
One of my most-played characters is a Waterdhavian noble. She started out in expensive looking clothes sporting a lot of blue and red because those are her family's colours. Over time she changed into more incospicuous (not less expensive, but less expensive looking and flashy) clothes. I love thinking about things like that ^^
When drawing people's characters, I always try to include some of their more mundane gear, even if they aren't wearing it. A backpack with some rope on the side does a lot of work suggesting all the adventurer gear people will be carting around.
Just wanted to say, that I haven't even started playing RPGs yet, but THIS is the best YT channel I found this year. You're doing such a great job, hope you stay here for long!
Thank you for briefly touching on illustration vs design for characters. As an artist who has done a fair share of commissions, clients normally just toss all of it into one category so it is nice to see it touched on.
We need to petition to have you be a guest on CR
I came to this video two seconds after it was uploaded, and I wish I had done so sooner.
Additionally, my current character, Professor Abdullah Kiln is a Fire Genasi rogue, and a member of the clandestine “Brotherhood of the Smoking Glass”.
He is one part archeological professor, one part ninja, one part tomb raider, and AAAAAAAAAAALL Indiana Jones. (Seriously, I’ve made a joke of making Kiln say “it belongs in a museum” as often as possible).
The setting of my campaign is heavily Arabic coded, and Kiln himself was born of a genie, so all his clothes are meant to be evocative of the garb of Baghdadi academics in the Islamic Golden Age, but exceptionally more tactically-minded.
These clothes are all black, and serve as the uniform worn by a Brother of the Smoking Glass. They are designed not only to be formal, but to be worn during combat, stealth, lectures, and casual time.
This versatility of dress not only reflects a great deal about the Brotherhood Kiln is a part of, but also of his own personality. He strives to be meticulous, efficient, and practical.
The color is also important, as the Professor seems to be incredibly hesitant to wear anything else. As a Fire Genasi he obviously has a very distinct look to him, and is somewhat self-conscious about it. When he was forced to wear white nearly-translucent white robes in order to hold audience with the Emperor-of-sorts he felt tremendously insecure.
...
Man, I sure did ramble about my OC, didn’t I? God, I’m such a dork. Especially since I’m probably NEVER gonna cosplay as this guy, considering that he’s Arabic-coded, and I’m porcelain-white.
You’re timing is impeccable. I’ve been working on the appearance of my character’s clothes for my first dnd campaign that is going to start up soon where each race has a specific theme for their culture and architecture. So this helps a lot.
Me when drawing and designing outfits for girls: Perfection.
Me when designing and drawing outfits for guys: Uh.... shorts....and a...shirt.
This hits too close to home
SAME
Yeah. I play a lot of young male characters because they’re fun and stranger DMs are less likely to sexually assault them than they are a female player-character combo. However, I have no idea how to design them. I usually end up playing with colors, but I’ve also used scarves and tattoos for designs if I think it’d fit.
capes, shoes, boots, hair and acessories are all stuff you can play with. There's a lot of good references, and a whole lot of variety if you know where to look. (different sleeve shapes and shirt cuts. Collars, high-waisted vs low waisted. buttons, buckles and bags) i still struggle with designing male outfits, but I've improved greatly by finding more reference and practicing.
Oh god the male one is literally my character's outfit
A longtime fan of dollmakers, when I designed my first D&D character last year, I think I spent an entire day using every fantasy dollmaker I could find. I created a color palette and had a few non-negotiables like hairstyle and needing the clothing to be more functional than fashionable, and went from there. It obviously took a while, but I did find a couple that portrayed my character exactly as I thought she should be!
This is a wonderful video, but all I really want to say is that I never thought someone could wear a red lip with non-natural colored hair and I absolutely love the way it looks on you. You are such a style icon.
Hi friends! If your character is wearing full plate but you don't want a metallic colour, try Brigandine!
As someone new to D&D im loving all these videos validating my extremely detailed character. Her clothing is suited to living in the forest but dont forget accessories! Shiny beads..shiny rocks..shiny random pieces found in random places....all the shinys!
It's interesting that I first heard about and was interested in D&D in 1979 but never played until my grown children started a family campaign a couple months ago! This series you're doing is very helpful!
I recently made a monk character who hates wearing shirts (no reason, he just doesn't like them) So I decided to give him a cloak to wear instead, so he doesn't get kicked out of places for not wearing a shirt.
My character is a water genasi who trained as a monk in an underwater monastery for the majority of his current life. Therefore, many of his street/casual clothes are as skintight or as short as possible (tight-fitting t-shirts, shorts for example). This is to keep him streamlined, with the robes given to him by the monastery being enchanted so that they are always dry even after being submerged, and so that they straighten and stiffen underwater, allowing him to use the two ends like rudders to have more control. Also all of his clothes have a blue-green theme, because obviously.
What I liked about your channel is that so many DnD channels focus on stats and doing the most damage, but you're over here making the game feel more lively and full. Like, I don't care about maxing-out my cleric, I just want to look fabulous while I do it.
We're playing in the Ravnica setting in an upcoming game, and I'm playing an engineer. I decided her hobby was weaving, so she weaves some of her own clothes. Her boots and overalls are patched up/made better (read: more pockets) with swatches of colorful cloth that she made herself, and part of her 'scale mail' armor is a woven sleeve that has tons of varying gears stitched on for easy access while she does repairs around town. Useful, and looks pretty!
Yay weaving!
My heavy armor wearing Light Domain cleric is mostly in very well polished armor, but when wearing actual clothes is stylish af. Nice dress clothes with a sleek vest and tailored undershirts. He a sleek boy
Fits his clerical domain too--Kind of like my Trickery Domain boy and his glitzy scalemail armor, and his loose and flowy stuff that just screams whimsical like a trickster. High five for clerics (and Cure Wounds)!
@@magenstaffarts That's brilliant design choice, I like the sound of your decorum! High five!
I always have my players describe new outfits when I have them travel to new environments or send them to a fancy party or whatever. They don't all participate, but some of them just go nuts. And of course I am always conscious about how I dress my NPCs
I had some clear ideas, but this video is helping me develop them!
My Tiefling Barbarian wears an entire bear for a pelt that drapes down over his enormous shoulders like a vest. The pelt was black when he first ripped the insides outside of the bear, but with time it's turned more of a dull brown and the fur isn't as thick in some places. It is also his backpack. As in, he keeps his gear _inside_ the carcass. Yeah, he's kind of terrifying.
Besides the pelt, he wears a lot of items he knits himself. He works on these during pretty much all of our party's downtime or meetings with important NPCs because....well, it's probably for the best that he doesn't talk with them. Various christmas-themed scarves, hats, and mittens. His own hat is very reminiscent of Santa Claus, but with holes for his horns. These items are usually very new until he's "broken" them in during combat, at which point they usually get torn up from the excessive violence he employs. He also offers them to the rest of the party, our Ranger's pet Wyvern, and any other NPCs he engages in conversation with.
He wears a pair of dwarven boots that were a gift from his human wife. She noticed how hard it was for him to find boots up the the task of surviving his often extremely violent lifestyle, so she had a pair commissioned for him by a friend of her family. They are warm, comfortable, and, most importantly, *durable.*
You give great advice. I love to dress up my characters, because it gives them a more personal feel. I’ve had a wizard urchin with many layers of cheap robes in different colors, a cleric who was Greek inspired and wore a toga, a teifling fighter who wore her active duty uniform around, but kept her formal uniform for fancy occasions. It makes them feel more like actual characters and less like 90’s video game avatars.
Me, trying to come up with unique and varied outfits for my characters while having aphantasia: ......
Something that can help with that is Pinterest or moodboards! There are lots of great, unique places to start, and they can help you piece together a much clearer image of your character's details without having to imagine it all in your head
@@artbysamc I do have Pinterest boards for a couple of my characters, though I usually end up making them into mood/aesthetic boards instead of clothing inspiration haha. It's definitely a good idea though!
I designed my entire current character around a hairstyle! A friend who can draw (fellow party member) keeps encouraging me to try and I guess this is another sign I should! Only problem with layers is I'll have to do a few 😂
A few characters back, I had a Tiefling Wizard who really wanted to move from her Criminal Background to someone who was magically inclined and worldly enough to advise nobles. She started to pick up several sets of Fine Clothes and I started thinking about what she might like. I ended up thinking of several different outfits and colors for her. Since then, all my characters have some kind of fashion choices.
This video is super inspiring for that. Gotta adventure while looking AESTHETIC
I actually had a lot of fun drawing all the weapons my cleric carries because it made such a fun contrast between his innocent, kind, "I want to help and heal people!" image, that he's just casually carrying a staff, mace, and daggers all over his person
> "What do your D&D characters wear?"
A shiftweave with a mending enchantment of course!
The outfit my character is wearing is mainly thanks to the artist I commissioned for her, I told them a basic idea I had and they gave her a really cool monk outfit and a sash like thing that I love as her little trademark accessory through different outfits and such lol
I’m a fashion design major so clothes are always on the mind when I create my characters! All of my characters usually start as an aesthetic idea, and then most times I pick a clothing related quirk that’s aesthetically relevant and kind of run with it. Florin has a Howl Pendragon kind of style in more muted colors, Rel ALWAYS wears a cropped shirt or no shirt (draconic sorcerers and their crazy natural AC... it enables me) and Echo almost always has huge sleeves and he likes to embroider his own clothes. Or I pick a motif, easy especially bc I play a lot of clerics, and that at least gives me ideas for details and colors of not the whole vibe. I also love to personalize their armor as much as possible so it’s very much part of the design process and even works into their backstories at times.
This video actually helped a lot with the clothing design of my Air Genasi Barbarian who's also a noble. Like you said, i mixed Story (noble so expensive clothes, from a warrior family so easy to manouver in and not easily damaged), Aesthetic (calm and sky themes so light blue, likes his freedom so flowy), Utility (minimalistic so not many extra things, his greatsword and greataxe are most important to him), and History (going with the vibe of an ancient greek or roman hero).
In the end i got a faily simple set of clothes. He wears a light blue greek exomis tunic (with cloth over both shoulders) with a long and flowy bottem, simular to a robe. Under that he wears pants so his, ahem, "noble parts" don't get showed whenever he uses his wind powers. All of this is made from a silk from the elemental plane of air, created from clouds by a storm or cloud giant. Because of this, it forms back together when damaged, and it's pretty expensive. Lastly he has a diagonal belt across his chest and back, which his Greatsword and Greataxe are on. No shoes to show the barbarian training he got from his mom.
All and all, they're actually quite simple clothes, but they make perfect sense for him, so i'm happy with it.
me watching them talk about wearing cat ear headphones while also wearing cat ear headphones: oh.
Catheadphone-ception
I'm not an artist, but I've noticed that drawing really helps flesh out the outfit of a character. Especially things that should have been really obvious. Example: She wears a fancy coat, then I go to draw it "Oh wait, what is she wearing under the coat!?" Like shirts and pants are totally crazy ideas. **facepalm at own stupidity**
Dont forget to tell the DM what you look like! Firstly it helps us know how NPCs might react to seeing you the first time, and second, it helps out those of us who decide to use minis at the table (or who use digital minis and maps online). I could probably get a generic halfling rogue or human bard, but it's a lot more fun to see your character the way you picture them.
After buying my 3d printer, I went on Hero Forge and spent like 12 hours putting together minis for my players. Thank goodness that they had given me really good descriptions of their characters and I was able to find stuff that worked. I ran the designs by everyone, and the only change anyone wanted was one player wanted a slightly different hair style.
Most DMs probably know this already, but if you're a new DM, don't forget to figure out what NPCs are wearing, at least the ones that appear a lot. Players react very differently to "an old woman" than to "a frizzled mass of grey curls sitting atop a faded purple robe, two sizes too big, with odd bottles suspended from the rope knotted at her waist and a thin nose peeking out above her tattered pink scarf".
I am a bit late to this but an outfit that I designed for a set of NPCs in my world are the Violet Archive Scholars! They are a group of monks, mages, students, professors, etc who work tirelessly in the chain of libraries around the world known as the Violet Archive. They were deep violet robes with gold accents, and on their left sleave there are pink and gold silk bands sewn into them. Depending on their ranking the more bands are added to their robes. Additionally all members of the archive have a purple gemstone embedded in their forehead and cannot be removed (without it being violently ripped from their heads) and act as their arcane focus. This is to show their dedication to the archive, the Goddess of Knowledge and is supposed to resemble the wisdom and intelligence given to them by the Ioun's third eye. This is also to demonstrate trust in Ioun as it is believed she can peer through these gems to gain perspective however she chooses not to.
I really need to think more about this, thank you! :D
You and ToughTink make extremely adorable cat girls 🥺🥺🥺 alsoooooo WORLD ANVIL COSTUME CONTEST YES PLEASE!!!!!!!
I love to use The Sims to visualize my characters and especially their clothing! There's so much custom content out there that you can practically find anything you want. It also helps me because then I can design their home - I just made a cute little hut for my Circle of Spores druid, and it wakes up my imagination so much seeing her move around in there. It also helps visualize different outfits for them because you can set up everyday wear, formal, cold weather, etc.
I have just started out with a character and haven’t even drew her yet but I know a bit about her personality, clothing, house/setting , and job. I’m not super into dnd but I love her tips on role playing, creating a story (etc). So she’s a cute mushroom girl that forages and works on a farm in the woods. Some of her clothes she finds on foraging trips like her leather corset while some were left behind from her parents who both died of natural death and became lifeless mushrooms! The rest she made herself using fabric she weaving from the wool of her sheep that she inherited from her parents
wow its so funny listening to this as an ilustrator/dnd player/designer bc its of course true what you say, but it was also just so natural for me to design every piece of looks of my character while making it, that its just hilarious. I think that you should honestly just go after your heart, but if someone does have a problem with some sort of fashion intuition i think this video can be very helpful
I usually just draw basic armour and go all in on the details. If it has adornments, than you can bet it has either fictional, cultural, or personal significance for either me or the character.
My clothing default for characters is one of those white shirts with larger sleeve ends, a colored vest, pants, boots
My favorite character outfit I've ever come up with was for my rogue, Fiera, who normally wears something akin to camouflage-a patchwork shirt and breeches, with different shapes and shades of gray and beige and faded blue to break up her outline, while also making her look very poor so people will more readily overlook her.
However on the occasion in question she got to wear something nice. Something fancy. And she got herself a shiny, slinky red dress.
Which she then wore. Over. The patchwork outfit.
I am awful at figuring out what my characters are wearing. I typically use the mood board method to try and piece something together when commissioning art. Otherwise it's like "What is your character wearing?" *shrug* "Clothes." *looks at character sheet* "Common clothes."
My character was holed up for most of her life, so as soon as she got out, she immediately went to stores and just picked out what she liked, maybe a little out of her budget lmaoo.
I just started watching your videos and subscribed very recently. I don't get enough TRPGs experiences in my life and these videos have helped me fill that void quite a lot. One of my favorite things about your channel is that it also focuses on cosplay, I love seeing you bringing your TRPG characters to life!
I also got a lot of enjoyment out of your PoV roleplay videos. They allowed me to analyze myself as a roleplayer while also having a lot of fun in the process!
This video in particular had me hooked the moment I saw the title. I'm obsessive about giving an accurate and satisfying physical description for my character.
Didn't take long for me to subscribe, and I don't intend to unsubscribe anytime soon! Hopefully that'll never change. I love your videos, and thank you for making content for us all!
As I've been using your character building videos I came up with ideas about what he wears as well back story stuff I wouldn't have thought of. Thank you.
My character wears normal pretty much small town boi clothes, when he’s not in armor. Minus the full head mask. And the red leather cloak. And the colorful socks.
Gimli do you play dwarf or other races
@@proffesornugget1613 haha good question. My first character was a dwarf, but this guy is a half orc.
I have a cat character, yes a cat. She wears a little wizard robe and a wizard crown.
Like a tabaxi or just a regular cat that has somehow learned to speak like Meowth?
I'm in the process of writing a Book based off a four year + 2 years of one shots campaign I ran and while I ran the campaign several of my players got a special surprise related to their clothing. I asked them if I could design outfits for them. My main NPC turned DM controlled Party character and the campaign's Villian his outfit is entirely based off of a Peacock and a siren. His boyfriend who was a party character his outfit allowed him to melt into the starry skies. Dietre could become smoke when wearing his cloak, Kristian had a belt that when worn would allow him to sing every word. And Meolah's cape allowed her to blend in with any surface. Ame (one of my villians) their outfit was entirely made of dried blood and skin 💜 I loved this video and I wish I saw it back when I ran this campaign
ginny thank you for separating your videos by topic it makes them super accessible to me and i really appreciate it 🥺