How to Flavor your D&D Spells
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- čas přidán 23. 07. 2024
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▼ INDEX ▼
0:00 - Intro
0:31 - What is flavor?
2:04 - Look at the components
3:26 - Look at the damage type
4:53 - Sponsored by 1985 Games
6:16 - Look at your class
7:21 - Look at your personality
8:18 - Look at your backstory
9:27 - Outro
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Hey Ginny, what happened to your World Anvil page? I went to go look at Na'karasha from the POV video from two weeks ago so I could use her in a one shot coming up, but it says that it no longer exists
OOP! We changed the URL to be more memorable - forgot I'd have to fix where I'd posted it! It's now located at www.worldanvil.com/w/ginnydi
Thank you Ginny!
Keep up the good work, love what you're coming up with and excited to see what you think of next 💕
I hovered my mouse over to the next section to skip the ad... ... then chose the Lawful Good response and let the whole thing play.
@@GinnyDi you are one of the D&D CZcamsrs that inspired me to become a D&D CZcamsr
my swarmkeeper ranger, Bees, is literally just a colony of bees in a humanoid shaped suit. all of the "spells" they cast are just the bees doing bee things
Three (thousand) bees in a trench coat
NOT THE BEES! NOT THE BEES!!!!
You sound like the kind of person that'd be great to coplay with lol
I love this! Beeees!
“Helloo Beees”
"I'm gonna cast Tasha's Hideous Laughter on the goblin chief"
"What do you say?"
"Goblin deez nuts"
It certainly worked on me!
I failed the check
that's gonna cause psychic damage as well xD
I died of d4 laughing damage
I snort-laughed. Thank you.
I have a wizard who is covered with animal tattoos and every time she casts Find Familiar one of her tattoos literally jumps off her skin.
Yes this is awesome! This is how my druids wildshape and spells work too, every time she sees an animal she adds a tattoo so she can transform into it, same with spells.
Both of these ideas are really cool.
THAT IS THE COOLEST THING EVER OMG
I got some Maui (Moana one, not sure with the original Polynesian demigod) vibes from this :-D.
That sounds epic!
Granny Crackletooth, my Eladrin Storm Sorcerer has a mortar and pestle that she calls her "teacup" for casting spells. She literally brews a storm in a teacup. She also has a components pouch. So when she uses spells with random effects, she just shoves her hand into her pouch, grabs whatever her hand touches, shoves it into the teacup and grinds it up for the spell. Granny's a lot of fun.
That. Is amazing.
Granny Crackletooth and Baba Yaga would get along famously, I feel.
@@Zombiewithabowtie That would be a fun interaction. I can see them both being impeccably, creepily polite in their first meeting, but gradually warming up to each other. They both get quite a bad wrap to be honest. Accusations of stealing children etc. Peasants can be so superstitious.
This is cool!
The farmer wizard, with a chicken familiar
Who's magic missiles look like chickens(the picture in Tasha's cauldron of everything)
@@thornelson1411 Poultry in motion.
I'm having 3.5 chicken infested commoner flashbacks now
PLEASE let the familiar be one of those terrifying Legend of Zelda chickens.
Beware of chicken!
My girlfriend is running a game that skews to the comical side, and my character is a warforged artificer named F.A.T.H.E.R., and all his spells are dad-related. My favorite is Tasha's caustic brew, AKA "crackin' a cold one with the boys" where he pulls a miller light out of his fanny-pack of holding and shakes it up before spraying it everywhere. (also his construct companion is a roomba with googly-eyes named Boomba, and he's the party's mascot)
Please tell me it also has a small blade on it in tribute to Stabby the Roomba, lol.
Oh God, the fanny-pack of Holding made me ROFL
Awe man, missed a real opportunity there to have the Roomba named after the cleaning robot from Wall-E, which was named Mo.
I may or may not be putting a Fanny pack of holding in all my games
As a dad, I highly approve of this flavor!
My cleric is a follower of a hearth and community goddess, similar to Hestia, who carries a lantern with a white flame that burns on his faith. So, usually his spells are fire based.... until he had to cast create water. So I said that a cloud of steam burst from his lantern with the sound of whistling like a tea kettle, then condensed into an orb of water in the air. It can be a lot of fun to think about how some spells would work when you’re dedicated to a certain flavor
@@murderyoutubeworkersandceos wrong comment?
Awesome
I love how Mark Hulmes adds flavor for his players. He'll almost always ask like, "Okay, so you start casting this spell.. What does it look like?" or "how is your character doing this thing?" etc. Prompts the players to make their characters even more unique
That's what I love about him. I don't fully agree with his style, as sometimes I feel it is a little restrictive, but I love how much effort he puts into the visual effects of spells like quill's guiding bolt, and aerois is one of my favourite podcasts, maybe even my favourite.
@@alextowers7564 I don't really have many complaints myself tbh. Yeah, I love Aerois. It's cool how it feels more like a really well done home game than a professional one since obviously none of the cast are actors. Also, I'd say those players are a huge source of inspiration for role playing your character well without necessarily doing a particular voice or accent. Like, Katie and Aila are two very distinctly different personalities
My character is a really shitty wizard so his spells sputter and go flying in random directions before hitting the target. Its a great time every time.
I just simply loved this-
Love it!
it's all fun and games until you kill your party member(s)
Haha, this is SO cool! I love it!
Sounds a bit like my first character’s Wand of Wonder. Never knew what was going to happen.
I’m playing a wizard for the first time, and they’re a tabaxi and their focus is a ball of yarn 🧶 that has colored yarn to represent each school of magic
Sleep can be purring,her familiar can be a small human child who she pets maliciously .
@@Spiceodog They're nonbinary. They've purred a few times, and they dont have a familiar yet but that is a great idea. They also hate water
That is such a cool idea for an arcane focus! Cute too.
That is SO cute!!
Do they knit to create spells that mix the schools of magic?
I’m currently playing an archfey warlock, my patron is the “Mistress of Roses” who is a fey princess cursed to never be able to feel love by herself, so she approached my character to experience as many romantic situations as possible in order to experience them herself, so for example he blows glowing kisses at people as Eldritch Blasts and blows a pink mist as Charm Person.
I had a warlock who was contracted to a river fey who would also preform hidden weddings so she would use ballads to cast eldritch blast which would look like a stream of water at sunset and she also used ego whip which looked like a stream of water gently going into the persons skull
Cool, my current warlock's patron is the Queen of Air and Darkness, which means that every spell is somehow influenced by shadows that either float through the air or kinda zig zag like black lightning. Fire spells are also black fire. I feel like basing your magic on what fits your patron is so much fun
The fine mistress shoulda went for a bard...
@@SpruceBunbo 😂
My warlock's patron is simply called "The Patient One". He is an ancient being who has grown attached to mortals because he finds their Follys humorous. And so he demands that those with evil in their hearts are sacrificed to make him more powerful, so that he may challenge any ancient beings who would doom humanity.
My character, Sadie Mae, is a Hexblade Warlock. She has a sweet Southern demeaner and accent. When she starts casting with verbal components, her voice is her usual sweet accent but as she continues, it gets deeper and darker as her patron asserts itself.
Oh, my. "If she ever ends a spell with 'BLESS THEIR HEART', be elsewhere. Quickly!"
I once played with a guy who flavored his warlock and, with DM permission, would dab to cast eldritch blast. Not only was it one of the more odd things I've seen at a table, at one point my spirit got put into his body so I had to try and imitate it. Easily one of the funniest moments of my D&D career so far!
"So... Ajax, what so you do?
- Are they more than 36 feet from me?
-Yeah, no mid-range spells for you...
-... *dabs*
- *sigh* Okay, roll your attacks."
@@NWolfsson And that's more or less how it went xD
I've built a Starfinder character once that used a full martial art that was incorporating as many dabs as possible. I never got to play him sadly, but I'm sure everyone would have hated him which sounds fun as hell.
Beautiful
*_Eldritch Dab!_*
My newest character is the sweetest necromancer you'll ever meet! She's pretty shy, and her magic ability is kind of a place of shame for her. So she keeps her arcane focus, which is a little wand with a small amethyst at the tip, in her hair--as if it's there to only keep her bun in place like a piece of jewelry. She even wears pastel colors like lavender to offset how morbid her spells tend to be. She tends to mumble a lot, and tries not to be too obvious about casting.
She sounds absolutely lovely I love this whole concept!
@@Bellebelou96 Thank you!!
Always good to see out of the box necromancers, still think my favorite is Claudia, from The Dragon Prince.
@@SH-qs7ee Yes! I love Claudia too! 💕
idk why but i love it
Cheerful Song: "You sing a happy little tune, bolstering the spirits of up to 3 friendly creatures within range. Affected creatures gain 1 temporary hit point, and can add a +1 bonus to their first attack roll, saving throw, or ability check made before the start of your next turn"
My firbolg cowgirl bardbarian: ...IF IT HADN'T BEEN FOR COTTON-EYED JOE-
This is something I started doing with my previous character, a Kobold Druid. The DM let me theme all her spells around fire, and specifically, fire-breathing, as if she was a tiny dragon!
This included healing spells as well! It's super fun seeing the kobold walking up to a wounded NPC that doesn't know her, and see them recoil in panic as she starts breathing fire on them, just to notice the flames aren't burning them, but actually just cauterizing the wounds!
It's super fun! I highly recommend everyone to talk with their DMs to try this at least once!
Flavored my hellish rebuke for my oath breaker as beetles emerging from his wound and flying towards the aggressor, burrowing into their skin and then bursting into flames while inside
Well, that's some nightmare fuel.
Because you spelled it “Beatles” and not “beetles,” all I can think of is the miniature versions of the band coming out of him
@@ChestersonJack well damn, a spelling error. Though, a rather comedic one
That sounds terrifying
Oh wow, wasn't expecting to actually see oil black eyes.
That customization of how Aisling sees through her familiar is freakin' awesome. Like so many of Ginny's ideas. I should steal everything for my stories, it's all incredibly atmospheric. I bet she's a really great DM!
I've been having a ton of fun playing a catfolk bard where the whole concept is that instead of using her charisma for seduction it means she is just the most goddamn adorable thing anyone has ever seen. She has a lot of glitter based spells and things like Terrible Remorse where enemies become so overwhelmed with shame that they threatened such a cute little kitty that they attack themselves. Also her dirge of doom is a distressed cat yowl.
The Puss in Boots eyes
One of my players reads the spell in a deeper, more ethereal voice, and he says the name of the spell backwards.
Magic Missile therefore becomes "ELLISIM CIGAM!"
Another of my players has recently started playing a caster. He's remembered a few of the key words but he's never actually spotted the pattern.
So he reads Ray of Frost as Sor Fire, and there are spells he's never heard my other player say which he's totally lost on.
I cast _ELISSIM CIGAM_ at _SSENKRAD EHT_ 💥
@@valiroime Have you got any Mountain Dew?!?!
Same here! I play ab Artificer and whenever I cast I spell I say the incantation backwards Zatanna style. I like to think he reverse engineers arcane energy with his spells so I decided the incantations should be in reverse too
hey I do that too! I play a homebrew subclass that only casts magic missile (valdas) so I'm using that a lot.
Apprenticeship arc! Apprenticeship arc!
I love my bard, who is not playing an instrument, but painting his spells... he has some kinde of chalkboard with him and I know it is close to impossible to draw a complete picture within 6 seconds or even less, but the possibilites of pictures that channel his magic is incredible and so much fun!
That sounds brilliant
I imagine all your spells are very colorful
It could look like doctor strange in infinity war when he paints, it is magic after all
I dunno if this matters, but in my head when you said this, I imagined your bard *seemingly* drawing the entire picture within less than a second as if their hand is moving too fast to be seen, sorta like an after-image, but the actual drawing is 'finished' when the spell is finished as well/your turn is over!
Luz! From The Owl House! This is a great idea. :D
My girlfriend played a Gnome Druid who spoke in a high-pitched stream-of-consciousness super fast pace, but when she would cast her druid magic, she would slow down, drop half-an-octave from her regular voice and speak her incantations in Swahili... The effect every time was like this little pink-haired troll doll would start negotiating with the Earth in it's own language to have it bestow it's power upon her.
I played a lizardfolk shaman-type character who would chant and dance Polynesian hakas (as verbal and somatic components) and all his material components were attached to his hips or thighs or arms of chest so he could grab them as he was dancing and casting... It also made him look weirder and more tribal-y to outside folk.
When I play a wizard, all the magical auras of his spells match the ink colour from his spellbooks.
holy crap, im playing a gnome druid next and thats so cool... i might try something like that
yo those are awesome
our party have massive found family energy. they cast any touch-based healing magic with kisses - romantic ones for the married couple, or sweet little forehead/cheek ones for the rest of the party. it's the cutest thing 🥺
We had a Wizard ones, who always described his spell in detail. So in time even our dim witted dwarven fighter dived for cover, hearing "out of my bag i produce a piece of metal and some wool...". It was so much more immersive!
I totally do this with my Tortle Druid, who is circle of spores. goodberry actually produces truffles, faerie fire is actually a bunch of Bioluminescence spores. Entangle is mold growths that anchor people in place, etc.
I'm absolutely loving the flavor for my tortle, and because of it, he is probably the character that I love the most, so far.
My circle of stars tortle has the constellations punched into his shell like tattoos. Faerie fire is star motes. Call lighting is plasma stabbing down from a nebula. Stars and the moon pull forth a tide of water for tidal wave.
I love this whole thread
I've been thinking lately about a wizard whose arcane focus is a deck of tarot cards and casts their spells through them. For instance: "The sun" card casts fire-based spells, like firebolt; but if you want something bigger, like fireball, you combine "The sun" with "The strength" when you cast it. It's just choosing cards that fit the spells you cast (even though I'm not taking in count the actual meaning of the cards, I'm not a tarot expert).
I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds fun. And, by the way, you can totally steal this idea if you like it, I would be honored, actually 😄.
Uuuuh I might use this as inspiration for a warlock I’m making! Thanks for sharing, that’s awesome!!
This is a very well-supported archetype in Pathfinder, so you are in good company with this idea!
Google cardcaster to take advantage of those before you. One of my players went the cardcaster route and eventually gave it up due to the uncertainty of meeting spell to situation.
The "actual meaning" of tarot cards is whatever the user says it is. :P There are some cards with more famous meanings - but the entire point of a tarot deck is its ability to be specific and personal to every reading.
So I literally just commented about how I didn't know how to flavor spells like fireball for my divination wizard and you have blessed me on this day because this is freaking *chefs kiss*
Artificers are really fun to flavor spells with. My alchemist artificer, Alvard, likes throwing glass vials filled with all sorts of fluids. Create Bonfire is a Molotov cocktail while Acid Splash is a vial of acid
Ha I got one that does the same! Good show
My black Dragonborn artificer dribbles in a glass vial, gives it a shake, then chucks it :D
artificer reskinned as a cowboy, so spells like Tasha's Caustic Brew would come out of a hip flask, or attack spells in bullet form for their revolver lol
I've had a lot of fun with artificers casting spells in weird ways. I like the idea of them casting magic through gadgets and tools-- using the device to cast the spell, but the magic itself still coming from the artificer themself. Somewhere in between casting a spell entirely from the person, and simply firing a magic gun.
Warforged Runepriest wrote her spells on little sutra slips that she attached to her armor/body. When using one of these spells she'd stick it onto her target before striking it with her maul to activate its effect.
A warlock of the great old one's Hideous Laughter spell was him chucking a rubber chicken at his target. Made it even funnier when the target made their save, like the chicken just bounced off them with a squeak but no effect.
In a Star Wars campaign with a Droid player character. The droid's class is Rogue. Uncanny Dodge was flavored to be its body falling to pieces when used as a reaction (damaged is halved because the entire body does not feel the force of a hit on one part of the body). The DM later used this when putting my character in a jail cell that actually had cell bars be one wall. Ran head first at the front, uncanny dodged the damage I took, and my pieces fell on the other side. I've also used this in deception moments where enemies think the droid is defeated after just one hit when I don't reform immediately.
My DM loves my ways of using the tools he gives me in different/varied ways, so he gets a chance to laugh whenever I come up with something.
As a fellow Star Wars fan and DND player, I'd love to join that campaign! What era is it set in?
@@DJROCKSTAZ 10 years after "Order 66". Another fun thing I did was attack a corrupt sheriff and his deputies in Mos Aisley by looking at my inventory and setting up a carbomb while my party members comforted an NPC about her dead children. Droid can't deal with negative emotions? Droid can deal with the source of those negative emotions! 4 deputies went BOOM!
@@RottenBen YOU CHAOTIC LITTLE- I like you already! So, we're talking Rebellion era, Resistance era?
@@DJROCKSTAZ I'll assume Rebellion era due to Empire enemies constantly referring to us as "Rebels" whenever we don't agree to their demands. I'm one of the people at the table with the least Star Wars knowledge, so I can't say for sure.
Also, forgot to mention that my droid is basically a slightly bigger pitdroid (4.5 ft tall). Had a 1 vs 1 against a Sith Inquisitor, who just so happened to be a Jawa (former PC from the 1 shot we did testing out the system). That fight (and what I stole from him) resulted in my droid having the highest bounty of any droid in the galaxy.
Man, that's cool, can I use something similar for my Cyberpunk campaign?
One of my characters was very annoyed by how idiotic the rest of the party was. Her lay on hands was essentially a slap with her muttering about how she wonders why she’s still helping them.
That is a mood. I’m guessing she was the only logical one?
@@acarnivorouslizardfolk1033 yes. After she died (my dm had a rule where if you’re revived you can only live 5 in game days, so my character died and the campaign ended while I was at my family Christmas party. Still mad at dm for that one because I had a dying days character ark planned) they looted her and kicked her off to the side of the road they were on
Every paladin in my group also does the slap of life
That reminds me of someone else who flavored there bardic inspiration as insults” oh come on, you have to be able to do better then that... incompetent f***”
@@kjpbeauty that isn’t very considerate! Maybe next time they will give every character an honorable end.
My character in curse of strahd is a former sailor on a spelljammer. When he casts moonbeam, he activates one of the ruined vessel's weapons still in orbit around Barovia and aims it at the target. It's awesome :D
Wow, this is SO cool! I love it!
DM: So how are you casting this spell?
You: Orbital bombardment
The (debatably) best D&D 5E spellcaster for flavor is the Artificer. They have to use their tools to cast every single one of their prepared spells, material components or no. And to prepare those spells they have to set up some stuff with those tools. It practically screams opportunity for flavor.
I heavily second this.
I reflavoured my bard's Vicious Mockery since he's far too kind a person to, well, viciously mock people. Since he gets his powers from a fey, I renamed the cantrip to fey dissonance, and reflavoured it so, that he conjures a green energy, whistles to send it to an enemy who then hears a really unpleasant tinnitus-like ringing.
I had a bard who's bardic inspiration was basically a, you really going to let them treat you like that?
They were snarky and a bit mean at times, but meant to spark a fire in my party
@@eveescastle5866 I like that. I might play a bard like this in the future. This would probably work really well when combined with a bard who uses stand-up as his performance.
i have a necromancer who casts hold person as a ghoul clawing the targer.
I as a DM have a general rule, no 2 classes cast the same. I once had a bard and a warlock cast ID on 2 separate chests so i made it a point to describe how they visually and thematically. in the case of identify bard hears a song, warlock gets a whisper in their ear, wizards see a mathmatical problem they fully understand, and sorcerers it depends on how they got magic.
On somatic components specifically: especially powerful NPCs character in my world have glowing eyes when they cast, but they can ignore somatic components. When casting especially powerful spells, they return to using the somatic elements to "maintain better control of the spell". This effects nothing but it adds to the narrative. When effortlessly casting lower level spells with nothing but a glow in their eyes it informs the players that the person in front of them is not to be trifled with; and when the same character starts waving his hands - they know without being told that the fight has gotten serious.
Well, I’m going to steal this, and add in some alterations for different types of casters, (IE: a sorcerer is more likely to be able to do something like this, since their control of the magic is more innate than a wizard or a bard would).
My character grew up in a desert tundra so a lot of his spells have a flavouring of either ice, snow, cold wind or sand.
Cure wounds sends a cold chill through the body that helps to heal faster.
Fairie Fire is basically glowing snow that clings to the body of the enemy hence why they get a dexterity save.
Blindness deafness is either a loud concentrated wind around the head or a burst of sand depending on weather and blinding or deafening them.
And featherfall is a cushion of air below the feet
I think it's pretty cool overall.
Casting blindness is just... pocket sand... and that is incredibly funny 😆
@@mugginsttp1396 But it's magical pocket sand so you can't get out of your eyes easily XD
That's so awesome!
*hits a whip and nae nae as beholder explodes*
Thats disgusting.
That’s wonderful.
Duality of man
One shudders to imagine what inhuman thoughts lie behind that mask... what dreams of chronic and sustained cruelty?
I'm playing a Sorlock who's patron is a Goddess of Storms, Fortune, and Revolutions. My spells tend to have a golden hue to them, or they followed by jolts of electricity. My Darkness spell is quite literally a storm cloud and my Thunderstep is a bolt of lightning striking me to teleport me away.
My favorite aesthetic choice are my eyes though. They were naturally green but now they have flecks of gold throughout. Whenever I cast spells or use Devil's Sight, a gold mist slowly pours out of the sides.
My character is a wizard with mostly ice related spells and her necklace is her focus. I describe her casting ice knife as her pulling water particles from her necklace to form a shard of ice before flinging it out from her chest toward the monster.
Since I’m playing a bard who totally totally loves music, and each of the spells she makes has a distinct sound and color . These descriptions make her combat sound and feel like a song and dance, as does her pose and speech. Since she is a aasimar, she had two personality’s a chaotic good human pacifist named Lindsey who usually has control of the body, and the angel part, that of a merciless lawful good angel of justice named Abigail. What spells they use and how they look and sound change drastically depending on who is in control. As does there stance. Lindsey daintily holds her sword in fools guard, and Abigail switches between ox, wrath, and kando stance. The one sided arguing the other players hear ( they don’t know about Abigail, Lindsey says that she talks to her donkey as a cover up) is hilarious.
They stand stand with there party members over the sacrificial alter, injured but victorious
Abigail “ yes Lindsey, you have defeated these vile worshippers of evil, finish them, and let them be cast down to hell to meet who they so foolishly worship”
Lindsey “ hey guys, we’ve won, you guys can go, just leave your weapons at the door though, I don’t want you hurting anybody else “
Abigail “ wait what!”
Cultist” Mrs..... my friends hurt, do you think you can save him?”
Abigail” Lindsey I swear....”
Lindsey “ it’s the right thing to do”
Abigail “ you can just use bandages don’t...”
Lindsey casts life transference
Abigail “ every f****ing time...”
Lindsey falls unconscious.
hehe
I always enjoy characters with multiple personalities
I'm thinking of doing a Half-Orc Wizard for my first D&D game. My Half-Orc's mother is a half-elf. They would have the background of Folk Hero.
Omg, that’s so original. Watches Doom Patrol and yawns...
@@flyinglowerthanmost never heard of it
I've started to play around with some flavoring for my tempest cleric.
The spell I found easiest to add flavor to was Spiritual Weapon; I describe mine as an angry little storm cloud 🌩
I definitely plan to work in more of my own personal touch in future sessions 😊
ahhh, I love that, that's so cute!!
I'm running a pathfinder Angelic Blood sorcerer with a talking dove for a familiar. His spiritual weapon is a bigger version of the dove.
Spirit guardians is always fun and easy to flavor. My bards are loud base beats accompanied by floating ink sketchings of heroes she grew up learning about, and when someone in the story does something she really appreciates, they can find a sketching of themselves in the spirit guardians. Also her mom, dad, younger brother, and her dead fiancé are all recognizable in there, and when she warms up to her party members, they’ll find themselves in there, except for the artificer, he’s a bit of an A hole. ( in character, the player is nice)
Yours could be a thunderous storm centered on yourself with crackling lightning
@@Spiceodog I haven't had a chance to cast that yet, but I'm definitely giving it some thought.
I think my spirit guardians are probably going to be a swarm of seahorses. My Cleric has a tattoo of a seahorse on the back of her neck that she got after a night of partying with an old friend (he had a matching tattoo). This friend was killed earlier in the campaign, so the seahorses would be an homage to him.
I had a Light Cleric who's spiritual weapon was a lantern that glowed a faint pink.
I play a bard lawyer, and his spell verbal components are all latin phrases. His spiritual weapon is a large gavel.
Had a oneshot character who was a conjuration wizard who's primary job was a costumer/prop's mistress. Setting was roughly modern day, so there was a lot of fun with flavoring. My favorite moment was casting False Life, which gives a boost of temp HP and traditionally uses a bit of alcohol as a component. I had her conjure up a magical Four Loko and shotgun it as the flavor text of the spell.
Playing an Artificer is basically the ultimate gauntlet of spell flavoring. Playing my main Artificer character, I never cast a spell that I haven't thought of a description for, and I've decided that my character should have little to no innate arcane ability. Everything he casts is either purely mechanical and chemical, like his mechanically pressurized potion squirtgun, or magic that's created through the use of magipunk gadgets, like his carved wooden pistol that shoots Firebolts.
I think my favourite way to do artificer spells is through painter's supplies. Their magic is basically cartoons.
@@starsgears9200 oh I love that imagery
I rolled up an Artificer Armorer/Wizard/Fighter just for fun, and I did exactly what you did-except I also renamed EVERY one of his spells to something more mechanical. Fire Bolt? It's called Repulsor Blast. Message? Nah, too magical- it's Integrated Comm Unit. Shocking Grasp? Renamed it Zapper Protocol. Scorching Ray? Melta Volley, and it's fired from the giant minigun on my shoulder. (40K fans, see the reference?)
I've had this idea of creating an Alchemist who's a bartender and all their spells are flavored as various drinks.
@@DJROCKSTAZ
All hail the Omnissiah!
I really love how the D20 players do this, especially on the Unsleeping City, with for example one of Kugrash’s Druid spirit tokens taking the form of a cockroach
The juicy cockroach!!!
@@Whimsicalwoods9 Oh man, when he summoned it that (last?) time and called it the cockrash, I lost it!
My druid of the shepherd is also a woodcarver. She makes individual small wooden carvings of various creatures so that when she casts Conjure Animals she rummages around in her bag for the right animal carving and they form into the full size fey creature/s. All the conjured animals also have names e.g. Chunky (rhino), North (polar bear) Crest and Crown (Giant Eagles) and many more!
I play a changeling wizard and enjoy describing transmutation spells that effect specifically her having some kind of interaction with the fact she can shapeshift. My favorite was casting Fly and describing wings pushing their way out of her back, second favorite was Tenser's Transformation, which was essentially played like a scene out of The Thing.
I love your descriptions of Aisling's use of magic. When you talked how she was taught magic was a thing to be ashamed of and how she tries to hide her magic when she casts spells, I immediately started thinking about how my Firbolg Druid, Scarabée, would react. He would probably be really confused at first, but it would shift to sadness, and he might even take her aside to talk to her on how to be more comfortable with her Druidic magic. Thanks for inspiring me again, Ginny!
For one of my characters their entire thing is that they look opposite of what they cast. Like they're a demonic warlock who mainly uses fire spells, but they look like a cutesy flower druid and i describe their spells as looking like balls of ice....until it gets so close, you realize it's blue _fire_
I have a fun time doing this to my players when I DM :D
My character is an emissary who studied magic through her travels when she picked up spells from different court wizards and magicians. She cast spells through rituals recited in a language she created that way no one could steal the spells she altered to be her own. Thanks for this video, I've been struggling to know how to make my magic stand out when we're fighting and now I know!
Flavor is the best. Like slow falling for a monk being described as them twirling a staff over their head while they fall, etc
Easily one of my favorite things
This is a really good hint for DMs as well. You can use these ideas to describe the outcome of your players spells and abilities to make them feel more invested in their characters. For example, if your Spores Druid casts Detect Magic, describe how they sees spectral mushrooms growing on magical items, the species and color of the fungi denoting the school of magic (maybe some dark poisonous deathcaps for Necromancy or a circle of bioluminescent mushrooms for Evocation). If you have a Paladin who worships the Raven Queen, when they use Divine Sense, describe them seeing a skeletal crow over undead, a beautiful blue jay for celestials and maybe a strangely deformed raven for fiends. They'll appreciate you weaving their character ideas into the story and might even inspire them to do more of that when casting their own spells.
I love your flavour for chill touch, that is really cool! Playing an Aasimar monk I don’t get a lot of flavour opportunities but if I get a “How do you want to do this?” I definitely take that opportunity to describe my kill.
Example: “As he thrusts his short sword at me I roll inside his reach, grasp his arm, break it and as the sword falls I catch it and as I roll under the arm I stab it through his armpit!”
There are quite a few ways to flavor monks; my kensei wore the clothe and tricorn hat of an naval officer, never fought with his face bared (has his own mask), wielded a katana like longsword with 2 hands, and mostly used his knees and to flurry of blows.
@@SH-qs7ee mine was Mr. Albert Walters, Gentleman's gentleman, manservant, and when needed, battle butler of the Sun Soul.
Silk suit, swordcane (shorter quarterstaff that could separate into a club and shortsword), and a boutonniere of three enameled darts custom-designed to look like silk flowers (the blossoms were the fletchings). Trained in Bartitsu, and equally proficient with his fiber-optic style monofilament ki attack. He was basically what happens when the assassin from Johnny Mnemonic and Walter Dornez from Hellsing raise a child together. I miss him, considerably.
I'm playing a monk (drunken master) that mostly fights unarmed. I flavor by describing my attacks as different punches mixed in with kicks. Especially the flurry of blows and stunning strike get a bit more description. For example, if an enemy is starting to run I might describe it as doing a jump kick in their back.
Back when I played my Hobgoblin Paladin, I flavored her holy symbol as a series of runes burned into her arms. Each rune corresponded to a different spell, and whenever she would cast one, the corresponding rune would glow. It was simple, but I really loved how much character that one little touch gave her!
I have a norse-flavored bard (a Skald) who reaches into his bag of runes, draws out a rune and hurls it to cast his spells. The rune becomes imbued with the energy of "the old gods" as it leaves his fingertips. I've even learned some phrases in Icelandic and Finnish to make it more immersive.
Ahh, last time I got inventive with spells, I was running a horror game in a pulp-y system. The baddie was vomiting bugs for the ranged bursts. Oooh, I should have added a swarm! The party improvised a flamethrower. It would have been perfect! They'd have felt really clever, and they'd definitely have run out of fuel then. Aww. When you think of the perfect action to take but years too late. ^^;
As a DM having a player take this much interest in and control over their character would be incredibly pleasing. Sometimes it is like pulling teeth to get players to do anything new or interesting with their characters.
My favorite way to play a low-level sorcerer is to play a person who is not completely in control of their magic. A lot of spells get cast accidentally in moments of duress or strong emotions. The character then learns better to manage this magic that wants to come out at the worst/best moments.
I'm currently making a wizard so thank you for the idea! :)
A really cool example of this I saw was in the Curse of Strahd Twice Bitten (awesome stream - blast to watch) where the high-elf Aerthrandir traces elven runes in the air to cast the spell - whereas the more shy half-elf Lilissen has a gem in her palm which she thrusts forwards to fire out the spells. Amity - the tiefling Bard who loves fables - always links her vicious mockery to a moral in her book of fables.
I just love stuff like this
My Arcane Trickster rogue casts with a flourish of shadow for the more stealthy effects and sparks of lightning for the more damaging ones because she's a blue Dragonborn and that's her breath weapon.
Shadows performing the somatic components of spells is an excellent trope.
@@ms.aelanwyr.ilaicos Yess! I agree
I have a divination wizard who is an astrologer, so her spell book is comprised of star charts and casting spells like Magic Missile are stars flying off the pages and hitting the targets.
I used to play a Bard that didn't know how to play any instrument or sing. Instead, she used card-like paintings she prepared beforehand to cast her spells, and named every card with a poem-like name to say whenever she would've needed to sing. It was just for show, wanted to try an artistic bard in a different field, and our DM had no problem with this. I ended up even painting some of the spells into actual cards i would bring to the games, and acted out the casting of the spells with them. It was so much fun!!
My Sorcerer's focus is a metal bracelet (given to him by his best friend growing up) that glows different colors depending on what spell he's casting.
Sometimes flavor can come from just taking something that seems straightforward and doing the least obvious thing from it. I'm a DM and for my upcoming campaign I plan on doing a lot of these. I've got a whole encounter planned out with this chef who's also a necromancer who brings his food back to life.
Pasta la vista baby!!!! * he kills them*
As a chef I find this deeply disturbing, although barbeque would be a lot simpler; reanimate the animal and make it walk itself through the flames.
One of my favorite Ideas is a bard with magic missile that juggles the missiles before throwing them
Ohhhhh, you can have so much fun with that! Over the shoulder! Behind the back! Through the legs! Off the butt!
I have a Water Genasi Warlock Pact of the Genie who's patron is his father, a Maird crimeboss the warlock is indebted to, so all his spells are 'water marked' by his father. For example, Armor of Agathyst makes him look like his father and Hex comes in the shape of the Marid's face on the target
I have concept of a drow bladesinger who casts closer to a cleric then a wizard. She escaped Loth's cluthes with the help of the godess Eilistraee. She now worships her mostly in gratitude for offering her a better life but instead of using the divine blessing from worshipping her to become a cleric, she uses it to do her own thing and casts arcane spells with it, giving everything she does a silvery starlike shine to it
I have a bard whose has an arcane focus that is a keytar made from the bones out of a lich's arm, so many of his spells have a "from the depths of the crypt" feel to them and the somatic components involve mad shredding on the keys.
I also DM'd a campaign where a player who was a caster wanted to play as a mute, so we replaced her verbal components with a form of sign language that is worked into the spell. To balance the drop of all verbal components mechanically , she had to dance as the somatic component and sign as the verbal, and spells affecting physical capability could have the same effect on her as being silenced.
I think it would make more sense if the verbal components were replaced by some kind of sound like maybe jingling a small bell or strumming something
That's really creative!
My divination wizard has a small scrying mirror as her arcane focus, so I’ve flavored Color Spray as her whispering the spell into her mirror then flashing it at the enemies to blind them like magical glare.
I had a way of the four elements monk who had the spell “earthen grasp” and instead of it being a cats paw it was pillars of stone entrapping someone. I just figured it made more sense because if it were a wizard casting the spell I would understand animating dirt into a paw but if a monk is doing like Kung fu or other martial arts to use these powers then it would make more sense to have it be more archaic and natural
My wizard, Reoánaigh, always has a little flair of ice and frost to any of her spells (except her fire spells, of course). Her Dancing Lights cantrip looks like tiny crystal spheres because they're covered in frost. It does mean her Disguise Self eventually gets frosty, though... She's very shy, so her somatic components for her spells are a lot more unsure because she doesn't want to draw attention to herself, but spellcasting is one of the only things she doesn't stutter over because she's fully confident in what she's saying (Reoánaigh stutters more because she's nervous and thinking a lot about what she's saying than an actual speech impediment). Though unsure of what she's doing, Reoánaigh's gestures are always elegant and graceful. Her spells miss because of her lack of confidence in herself. I've already decided that if she ever ends up possessed or whatever, her somatic casts are a lot more deft and confident and bigger. Like instead of just gesturing with her wrists or her fingers, Dark!Reoánaigh would use her entire arm.
Meanwhile my warlock-who-didn't-wanna-be-a-warlock-but-its-a-punishment-so-deal Eilzorwyn makes a lot of aggressive gestures when casting, and it makes her look like a physical fighter because that is what she used to be before having all of her skills ripped from her for being a horrible, greedy person. I haven't used her yet, but she definitely goes down a lot early on because she insists on getting in the action directly rather than staying back like somone who by the luck of dice rolls is somehow squishier than my wizard. I like Eilzorwyn's concept
Two examples of flavouring (one is not mine)
1. Critical Role: Caleb calling his version of Bigby's Hand by the name of Cat's Ire and having it be a giant cat claw.
2. This one is mine: I had a dragonborn wizard that was a war mage, and had very militaristic/intimidating spells. One example was my flavouring of Agannazar's Scorcher: he peeled off one of his own scales and shot a drgaon made of fire from it, that then flew back to him as a pheonix and reattached his scale.
Holy shit that's fucking badass
Easy! Salt, pepper, and dragon scales!
Congratulations, you were the first to make this joke!! You are cool, and everyone who makes this joke after you is not. (I don't make the rules!! I just follow 'em!)
@@GinnyDi lol thx
love this video! the way you described Aisling's casting of Chill Touch *chefs kiss* My Twilight Cleric of the Raven Queen's verbal components are in [terribly pronounced] Latin and I also changed the spell "leomund's hut" to "Raven's Respite". Adding flavor to spells is such a wonderful way to immerse yourself and this video was so informative!
For my Half-Elf Draconic Sorcerer, Johnny Snowbank I make all of his verbal components either puns, cliches, or one liners.
Warlocks make the best class for easy flavor, in my opinion. I have my hexblade of Desirat, the Twilight Phoenix (from Wildemount). His hexblade's curse is his curved longsword igniting with purple and red flame, and his Armor of Agathys forms out of feathers made of ice that freeze over his upper torso.
I think the same probably applies to clerics, but that’s a good point, since you gain your power from a specific being your magic would reflect them
Ginny: Have a particular sniffly character who casts spells by sneezing.
Me: Mr. Poe from a series of unfortunate events !!!!
That just took me right back to fourth grade. Thank you
Wonder what would happen if I threw pepper into that characters face....
I play a fire genasi (elf background) wizard at work, and I used an Elvish dictionary and some artistic license to make a physical spellbook, making up incantations, gestures based on school and on the spell, and how to hold the focus, and actually learned some of it. She's a conjuration wizard, so all of her conjuration spells are easy, with shortcuts that only she could find (fingers held in a certain way to access the planes required to conjure, and she simply traces a circle in the air). It's a ton of fun for me.
Ginny: you don't need homebrew to flavor damage
my brain: fire bolt = flavor blasted
Acid Splash - Donkey Sauce
I have a Wizard I'm really looking forward to playing because I've been considering many ways to flavor his spells. For example, when casting Fire Bolt I picture him usually snapping his fingers, causing a spark to fly up from the friction. Then he catches that spark as it falls and hurls the now handful of flame. I've also run the names of spells through google translate to find something that sounds good for a verbal component.
Artificer
My guy has a bunch of tiny constructs he bud that help him.
"After pulling two string with his index and thumb, he catches the small wooden ball covered with runes. He presses the small button and throws it up into the air, where a small robot catches it flies at rocket speed towards it target. An explosion of fire swiftly follows. The tiny constructs returns after dropping it's payload."
False life, is literal small tiny constructs sacrificing themselves, up casting it gives them shields. Most spells slots are energy, and material components where the things used in their creation of the gizmo.
Hi Ginny. I am a veteran player that is just getting back into D&D after not playing for over a decade. I stumbled across your videos and I really appreciate your advice, especially as I typically play spellcasters. Thanks for the videos! I hope to see more!
Colors, scent, tactile and auditory themes are all great ideas to color your magics with! One cleric I played was well known for following a deity of knowledge, and every spell cast smelled of old books, and sounds of turning pages were heard!
I have a necromancer that is very cheerful and outgoing, which kind of contrasts with the morbid magic she uses, she doesn't hide the fact that she's a necromancer at all and her magic is as morbid as can be. Her spell casting focus is a pair of bracelets made of bones she never takes off because her teacher gave them to her. So you basically have this very cheerful girl having tea parties with skeletons and zombies (though she is also strongly religious and has a strict code of self conduct when it comes to reanimating corpses).
I've had a Vixen-y "femme fetalle" sorceress who cast most of her blasty spells bad bowing kisses at her victims, Sonya Blade style.
Great advice! I love how Liam describes his spell casting, and I try to incorporate things like that with my fallen aasimar paladin/warlock.
My last campaign I ran a deer centaur druid in the circle of the stars.
His very existence was flavor lol
When my fallen aasimar uses necrotic shroud, her eyes turn black and when the target looks into them it shows them their greatest fear. Her bone wings also give off a purpleish green aura.
One of my favorite characters was an artificer who was from a family of famous wizards, but was personally really bad at magic, so he made all these gadgets to fake spells so he wouldn’t disappoint them.
I'm a big fan of flavoring spells. In the last D&D Campaign I played in, my character Aurelia was a fire Genasi Bard / Rogue (Bard first). She started out as a fairly standard fire genasi with red and orange flames, and a lot of her spells were flavored in that direction, especially utilizing her flaming hair and her white eyes. At one point late in the game, she became a Vampire, and I commissioned a second piece of art to show this change, where her red flames were now a cool bluish white, her eyes pitch black, and her general appearance more feral (as a result of her transformation, she was killed and buried, so I played that up a bit). The flavor of her spells changed accordingly. A lot of what I was doing was color based, and still rooted in flame, but it was cool to see just how different things can feel when starting with a simple base.
"The Woman of the Soil" oooh you really need to listen to season 2 of Old Gods of Appalachia...
*Tries to add flavor*
"That's nice Jimbo but just stick with rolling damage and moving on we have a lot of turns to get through"
That's unfortunate! However, I would recommend talking to your DM and the other players about it. Flavor can enrichen a game's feel significantly, but the whole table must "open themselves up" to it for it to work. New players and Dms might have barriers about roleplaying, thinking too much "in-character" speech or described actions are "cringe", seeing D&D as merely a game rather than a roleplaying experience.
@@murderyoutubeworkersandceos I mean there is nothing wrong with playing Dungeons & Dragons (or any other tactically oriented RPG) for the gameplay rather than the roleplay. D&D 1st edition was based on some sort of miniature war games or something like that after all. My group started playing that way, but eventually evolved to be more RP oriented.
When you described Aisling as casting the verbal components of her spells in Sylvan, that reminded me of my Archfey Warlock, a Warforged named Ti-22.
She also verbalizes the vocal components in Sylvan sometimes, though she has her own unique quirks as a self-described Feywild Magic Unit, Titania-series, 22nd Iteration.
Her material components often involve the amethyst crystal on her forehead glowing or pulsing. The somatic components involve her throwing out a locator beacon for Misty Step, sending out a wire-and-crystal lash for Lightning Lure, or transforming one of her hands into a Samus Aran-style arm cannon. And her vocal components, when not Sylvan incantations, involve her running some kind of magical program.
Examples:
Armor Invocation: "Activating enhanced defensive protocols." She touches her chest as she casts Mage Armor.
Fey Presence: Her gem begins to pulse as she speaks to the targets, then flashes with a bright purple light like a Neuralizer from Men in Black.
Hellish Rebuke: "Activating emergency countermeasures." Magical fire erupts around her in the direction of the offending creature.
Lightning Lure: She throws out a lash of wires and crystals. "I demand your presence at this location." Pulls them in on a failed save; sends an electrical surge through the wires.
HDYWTDT (Kill flavor): The spectral image of a glamorous, regal Archfey appears in glowing light behind her. "Termination protocol activated! Source code: High Queen."
I had an idea for a pirate character, and the idea of spells taking the form of a sea shanty is genius!
I was just going to have them shout curse words for all verbal components, with most hand gestures just flipping people off.
I can't remember if I've said this before, but I deeply appreciate how intentional you are with your sponsorships! I almost always want to buy whatever you plug (and often, I do!!!) - you accept really, genuinely cool things to promote, and I can always trust that you've done your research !!!!
ALSO I loved these suggestions and am excited to share this with my party to see if it inspires anyone the way it inspired me!!
Ahhh, thank you so much, Anna!! I try and only work with companies I'd actually want to buy from myself!
My Bard has an autumn themed aesthetic for his magic, although I never really thought about how it could possibly reflect him as a character
My current character is a cocky draconic sorcerer who constantly gives off a thin trail of smoke. All his spells are smoke themed and usually start with him coughing up a ball of smoke or spitting out a bit of fire onto his fingers. My favorite scene so far is when we were fighting giants and my sorcerer casted a twinned spell Enlarge Person on our fighters. I got to describe how he spit up two balls of black smoke and chucked them at his allies. The smoke balls enveloped the two fighters and morphed them into giant versions of themselves seemingly shaped out of black smoke. My DM even added to this by saying when the spell faded the smoke giants faded as well, leaving the fighters in their place a little singed and covered in soot.
I played a Great Old One Warlock whose patron was Cthulhu himself a while back. She was someone who always wanted to be a wizard, but never managed to cast until making her deal. Also, Cthulhu saved her life when her throat was slit and in that moment her pact was made. As a result, her verbal components were always an attempt to pronounce Lovecraftian words in a raspy, damaged voice, but she did so with pride that she finally was casting magic.
I also tried the components pouch with her, which was difficult but worked. The material component for Hex is "eye of newt." I learned that eye of newt actually was another name for mustard seed. So she would pull out a mustard seed from her pouch, rasp out "Cthulhu fthagn!" and a dark tendril of smoke would appear on my target. Then, I would Eldritch Blast with an "Iä! Iä!"
What made this more interesting (but I didn't really get the chance to explore before we TPK'd) was that she didn't know she was speaking another language than common when she cast. I loved this warlock. She was great.