my bard believed that everyone she got close to would suffer a gruesome death bc of how her parents passed. she actively tried not to get to know the people in her party beyond the surface level. it amplified when her best friend of the party presumably died, and her crush actually died in combat. she was extremely charismatic with strangers and loved spinning webs wherever they went, but within the party she struggled letting anyone in and was awkward
I thought this was gonna be something like "Your characters are like rocks and minerals. If you want to see what they're really made of, you have to break them open" and talk about how relentlessly traumatizing a character affects their development, especially with Percy in the thumbnail.
I played a Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer once. As a child and teen she got bullied for her white dragon scales by the other kids in her town. When the town got attacked by a troll she tried to flee like everybody else yet casting an ice spell out of desperation. The troll slipped and impaled his throat on a tree, dying in the process (my DM was fine with this since we started at level 5). Now the hero of her town, she pretended that this was her plan all along. She used that incident to forge a persona for herself "Harlow - The Platinum Daughter, Descendant of Bahamut himself" which would be the way she introduced herself from thereon out. Fake it 'til you make it was the way to go. So she had the persona in which she was confident, nearly arrogant while it was impossible for her to believe that people would like her for whom she actually was. Of course the group found out eventually which led to some of the most heartfelt conversations at the table I have ever been a part of.
I like the example of batman's inability to get over his trauma. There's an issue where batman gets a green lantern ring and proves that he can't wield such a thing specifically because he's just too damn vengeful.
Glad you enjoyed the lycanthrope fight! I honestly waffled on the numbers quite a lot during the prep time, i really didn't want you to risk getting stuck as a were-octopus but in hindsight I think the tentacle attacks could have been a little stronger. Glad it made for a cool moment even so!
This ties in well with writing advice I've seen about making character flaws a reflection of their strengths. One could go even further by not even thinking about it as a binary of "strengths" and "flaws," but traits that can cause different outcomes based on the circumstances--like Jay's example of his own character's recklessness being advantageous in previous fights but a detriment in the recent fight.
Next character coming up is a typical rich kid and another character in the party is his bodyguard/attendant. His flaw is dependency. If his bodyguard isn't there but other party members are, that's rough but doable. But if he's ever left completely alone, to his own devices? Reality sets in. And so does the panic attack!
Excellent stuff as always! I love how you are able to seamlessly take topics a level or 2 beneath the surface after going through (topic) 101. Stories that involve flaws as sources of power and coming to grips with how to incorporate those flaws into a more complete hero are some of the best ones out there.
My current character is a Ranger/Paladin. Started off as a Ranger but wanted more options because (at the time) the party had no healing options whatsoever (story explanation, I really just wanted Smites). But after a few more levels into Paladin, his mentor asked him what his future plans are outside of adventuring and helping others and he kind of freaked out because he became a Paladin to help others. Basically, his flaw was always acting for others and never for himself.
My character changed so much over the course of our campaign she wears her heart on her sleeve and cry’s a lot more than you think a battle master would
From my experience, every campaign will end up like this, characters are fun and superficial at the beginning but with time they will all have something wrong with them, it happens every time we write a backstory, and we are better for it given that it gives development and opportunities for character interaction, my current eladrin is just straight up cursed with not being able to feel magic, which for an elf in my gm's world is horrible, and the guy is just procrastinating the problem as much as possible to help the band of weirdos they are accompanying they are essentially constantly searching for other stuff to do to avoid helping themselves they tried to search for help and that cursed them farther so now they are more scared at finding a solution than the current problem and have become a faithful defendant of the status quo, even when it means stagnation help others as long as no important changes happen, change is scary, that will clearly break at some point and it will be the time for spotlight, when a character breaks is usually when the dm goes "now is your turn to be sad and search for help in your friends"
My favorite weaknesses for my characters are a major personality flaw and a major trauma. I played a Beast Master Ranger that took a lot of inspiration from Megumi from Jujutsu Kaisen (he had to undertake trials to upgrade his beast summons). His tragic event was starting the trial for his strongest beast as a teenager and it ended up killing his best friend. So now he walks around thoroughly convinced he's a liability and he has to make a Wisdom Saving Throw every time that specific beast summons itself to clutch up a fight (it's the only one that might just show up). He's also terrified to make judgement calls because he doesn't think he should be trusted to. Which caused a lot of problems when the party needed him to solve a puzzle because he was the only one on the other side of it. Also led to a great RP moment where the Barbarian in our party acted as the therapist to help him calm down to trust himself then.
Your idea at 14:01is very similar to the Japanese art of kintsugi, where cracks in pottery are highlighted by (traditionally) golden metal. Becoming more beautiful by its broken nature. Really cool read if you ever wanna look at some cool stuff!
That seems like a great video I'm looking forward to watching - though for now I'm just putting it in a playlist. I do hope this meager offer will be enough to feed the machine of UA-cam.
i have a ice genasie wizard named kyro he lost his mom and turned to necromancy to try to revive her he is UBER paranoid spends every night setting traps at the door he has a note book on how to take out everyone in the party if need be he dose all of this cause he ran when his village was destroyed he thinks he's a coward so he refuses to back down refuses to run and that plus his past leads him to be fearful of everyone he loves his few friends but if h has to he's willing to take them out its another sin on the pile in his mind
Playing same cleric over two campaigns fist campaign was brutal towards her family massacred, civil war with uncle to reclaim her lands, kaiju monsters running around, time travel cleric order destroyed it was wild. Died 5 times, unconscious 8, kidnapped 3, party was Chaotic Nuetral. Second campaign lot better with new people so taking that time to help her heal through everything.
Im playing a pretty strong character right now. Divine soul / tempest cleric blaster caster, you know the drill. Big damage, plus healing and a bit of utility. However, I gave her a backstory reason to be fearful of her magic. She doesn't like using it for destruction, because she was groomed by a temple of Talos to be a conduit of destruction since she was young, and she realized what was happening, and ran away. Using her magic's full capacity for destruction feels like a relapse to those teachings, and she doesn't want to be a force for destruction.
I have to agree. Based on the title alone I know I disagree. I think it's reductive to say that your characters needs flaws or traumas to be great. Dale Cooper, Twin Peaks, at most he's a little too nice, but he's a fun, engaging, quirky character. Natalia Luzu Kimlasca Lanvaldear. She's a bit haughty but otherwise champions the people she is princess for, selflessly throwing herself into combat and political turmoil to benefit Kimlasca and save the world. She's so inspiring she has become my benchmark for princesses in fiction. Ciel, Mega Man Zero. She basically MADE story impactful in Mega Man. She made a big mistake in her past but isn't broken or flawed because of it - she was literally a child at the time. She's a pacifist saint who stands for the liberty of Reploids and ends up being the greatest professor to ever grace earth. Her courage and integrity are what makes Mega Man Zero gripping.
my bard believed that everyone she got close to would suffer a gruesome death bc of how her parents passed. she actively tried not to get to know the people in her party beyond the surface level. it amplified when her best friend of the party presumably died, and her crush actually died in combat. she was extremely charismatic with strangers and loved spinning webs wherever they went, but within the party she struggled letting anyone in and was awkward
I thought this was gonna be something like "Your characters are like rocks and minerals. If you want to see what they're really made of, you have to break them open" and talk about how relentlessly traumatizing a character affects their development, especially with Percy in the thumbnail.
I played a Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer once. As a child and teen she got bullied for her white dragon scales by the other kids in her town. When the town got attacked by a troll she tried to flee like everybody else yet casting an ice spell out of desperation. The troll slipped and impaled his throat on a tree, dying in the process (my DM was fine with this since we started at level 5). Now the hero of her town, she pretended that this was her plan all along. She used that incident to forge a persona for herself "Harlow - The Platinum Daughter, Descendant of Bahamut himself" which would be the way she introduced herself from thereon out. Fake it 'til you make it was the way to go.
So she had the persona in which she was confident, nearly arrogant while it was impossible for her to believe that people would like her for whom she actually was. Of course the group found out eventually which led to some of the most heartfelt conversations at the table I have ever been a part of.
I like the example of batman's inability to get over his trauma. There's an issue where batman gets a green lantern ring and proves that he can't wield such a thing specifically because he's just too damn vengeful.
Glad you enjoyed the lycanthrope fight! I honestly waffled on the numbers quite a lot during the prep time, i really didn't want you to risk getting stuck as a were-octopus but in hindsight I think the tentacle attacks could have been a little stronger. Glad it made for a cool moment even so!
shell yeah
This ties in well with writing advice I've seen about making character flaws a reflection of their strengths. One could go even further by not even thinking about it as a binary of "strengths" and "flaws," but traits that can cause different outcomes based on the circumstances--like Jay's example of his own character's recklessness being advantageous in previous fights but a detriment in the recent fight.
Next character coming up is a typical rich kid and another character in the party is his bodyguard/attendant. His flaw is dependency. If his bodyguard isn't there but other party members are, that's rough but doable. But if he's ever left completely alone, to his own devices? Reality sets in. And so does the panic attack!
Excellent stuff as always! I love how you are able to seamlessly take topics a level or 2 beneath the surface after going through (topic) 101. Stories that involve flaws as sources of power and coming to grips with how to incorporate those flaws into a more complete hero are some of the best ones out there.
My current character is a Ranger/Paladin. Started off as a Ranger but wanted more options because (at the time) the party had no healing options whatsoever (story explanation, I really just wanted Smites). But after a few more levels into Paladin, his mentor asked him what his future plans are outside of adventuring and helping others and he kind of freaked out because he became a Paladin to help others. Basically, his flaw was always acting for others and never for himself.
My character changed so much over the course of our campaign she wears her heart on her sleeve and cry’s a lot more than you think a battle master would
From my experience, every campaign will end up like this, characters are fun and superficial at the beginning but with time they will all have something wrong with them, it happens every time we write a backstory, and we are better for it given that it gives development and opportunities for character interaction, my current eladrin is just straight up cursed with not being able to feel magic, which for an elf in my gm's world is horrible, and the guy is just procrastinating the problem as much as possible to help the band of weirdos they are accompanying they are essentially constantly searching for other stuff to do to avoid helping themselves they tried to search for help and that cursed them farther so now they are more scared at finding a solution than the current problem and have become a faithful defendant of the status quo, even when it means stagnation help others as long as no important changes happen, change is scary, that will clearly break at some point and it will be the time for spotlight, when a character breaks is usually when the dm goes "now is your turn to be sad and search for help in your friends"
My favorite weaknesses for my characters are a major personality flaw and a major trauma. I played a Beast Master Ranger that took a lot of inspiration from Megumi from Jujutsu Kaisen (he had to undertake trials to upgrade his beast summons). His tragic event was starting the trial for his strongest beast as a teenager and it ended up killing his best friend. So now he walks around thoroughly convinced he's a liability and he has to make a Wisdom Saving Throw every time that specific beast summons itself to clutch up a fight (it's the only one that might just show up).
He's also terrified to make judgement calls because he doesn't think he should be trusted to. Which caused a lot of problems when the party needed him to solve a puzzle because he was the only one on the other side of it. Also led to a great RP moment where the Barbarian in our party acted as the therapist to help him calm down to trust himself then.
12:19 I love this moment.
Your idea at 14:01is very similar to the Japanese art of kintsugi, where cracks in pottery are highlighted by (traditionally) golden metal. Becoming more beautiful by its broken nature. Really cool read if you ever wanna look at some cool stuff!
That seems like a great video I'm looking forward to watching - though for now I'm just putting it in a playlist. I do hope this meager offer will be enough to feed the machine of UA-cam.
i have a ice genasie wizard named kyro he lost his mom and turned to necromancy to try to revive her he is UBER paranoid spends every night setting traps at the door he has a note book on how to take out everyone in the party if need be he dose all of this cause he ran when his village was destroyed he thinks he's a coward so he refuses to back down refuses to run and that plus his past leads him to be fearful of everyone he loves his few friends but if h has to he's willing to take them out its another sin on the pile in his mind
Playing same cleric over two campaigns fist campaign was brutal towards her family massacred, civil war with uncle to reclaim her lands, kaiju monsters running around, time travel cleric order destroyed it was wild. Died 5 times, unconscious 8, kidnapped 3, party was Chaotic Nuetral. Second campaign lot better with new people so taking that time to help her heal through everything.
1:53 I dont need more d6s! I need more d8s or d10s depending on the character! 😢
Pretty devious showing your D&D audience a whole bunch of shiny dice to add to the collection of too many sets to use in a lifetime /j
Im playing a pretty strong character right now. Divine soul / tempest cleric blaster caster, you know the drill. Big damage, plus healing and a bit of utility.
However, I gave her a backstory reason to be fearful of her magic. She doesn't like using it for destruction, because she was groomed by a temple of Talos to be a conduit of destruction since she was young, and she realized what was happening, and ran away. Using her magic's full capacity for destruction feels like a relapse to those teachings, and she doesn't want to be a force for destruction.
First time in a while I got a notif for you. Sooooo glad I did.
Speak the truth brother!
Dropping a quick word to help spread the vid
Great video
Well said good sir 🫡🫡🫡
Incorrect.
Why do you think and post this before you've even watched the video? It hasn't been out for long enough for you to watch it...
@@jeohranalfhir8366 Incorrect.
I have to agree. Based on the title alone I know I disagree. I think it's reductive to say that your characters needs flaws or traumas to be great.
Dale Cooper, Twin Peaks, at most he's a little too nice, but he's a fun, engaging, quirky character.
Natalia Luzu Kimlasca Lanvaldear. She's a bit haughty but otherwise champions the people she is princess for, selflessly throwing herself into combat and political turmoil to benefit Kimlasca and save the world. She's so inspiring she has become my benchmark for princesses in fiction.
Ciel, Mega Man Zero. She basically MADE story impactful in Mega Man. She made a big mistake in her past but isn't broken or flawed because of it - she was literally a child at the time. She's a pacifist saint who stands for the liberty of Reploids and ends up being the greatest professor to ever grace earth. Her courage and integrity are what makes Mega Man Zero gripping.