+Marcelo Cabral Lima I actually fell into this trap when designing my first character. To make a long story short, I ended up with a level 1 Soulknife with weapon finesse, nightvision and essentially 20 dex. Even as an amateur, I shook my head and started over.
I love that you straight up said, it's better to be interesting than powerful. Sure a powerful character is good in the fights, but the best and most important parts of D&D are outside of combat.
That's why I try to fight well, but constantly bring the party in trouble whenever we're in towns; I like playing socially oblivious characters xD For example, one of my characters is a Tiefling Paladin raised outside of the cities and towns by fae, so she has no clue about how people loath her kind xD
+LaserLance125 GFS Where did OP even mention strength specifically? Also rolling a damage roll has nothing to do with being powerful. A non-powerful character can get angry and attack rocks too.
"make interesting choices, not the best one"... like our mage who decided to try his hand at hunting. He clearly failed his wis check when he decided to shoot a fireball at a deer in the forest during a drought.
Still beats our mage, who decided to use fire magic to liberate our stolen cargo after we had to run for our lives. Unfortunately, our cargo consisted of something best described as the lovechild of firewater and napalm. Two days later, most of the forests on the continent were burned to ashes and several towns had caught fire. Some of those towns had storehouses with more cargo. Those places now have a lot of prime building space in the middle of town.
DM: There is a group of 10 goblins heading in your direction what do you do? Let them pass or attack? Me: *takes the druid who turned into a honey badger off of my back shakes him furiously to piss him off and toss him into the middle of the goblin group like a grenade* Long story short a couple of well place handaxes from me and a pissed of honey badger killed an entire group of 10 goblins without much effort....well from me....druid was covered in blood....
ShadowedSteel I have a friend who had some party members captured by goblins. One of them was a cook and showed them how to make their food taste good, even making ice cream for them. And killed all of them. The goblins were lactose intollerent!!! They all got really sick allowing them to be killed like they were nothing!!! I wasn't there for this, but I laughed my ass off when I heard it though
I tried to get into D&D before, but I never even got a chance to try that play acting Jared yearns for. The older players made me a cleric, not because it was appropriate for a newbie (it isn't) but because nobody in their group ever wanted to be the cleric. I couldn't take the time to try to play act because others gave me death glares on my turn for "being slow" when I had to look up the spells in the book. (This is why only experienced players should ever be the cleric.) I never even got to be a part of the fun since I was told to sit out every battle because "clerics are weak, so sit on the sidelines" but then after the battle was over, I was also told that "you didn't fight, so you get no loot." I tried to fight their stupid system, but in the end they just had me die and ripped up my character sheet so that I couldn't even keep it... never even got to reach the dungeon... If i had gotten to play act my cleric, I think it would have turned into a complete asshole from all the bullshit they put me through. :I
I'm a old school experienced dm, from 2nd edition days. I'm not perfect but I keep players happy and wanting to come back. That said if I was your dm, if the other players were all you need to play a cleric we don't have one or want to play as one. I would of told them to play a cleric them selves or shut up. Every player should play the class that excites the the most. Balancing the adventure for not having a cleric is the dungeon masters job. Also if the party doesn't have a Cleric well that just means they are missing a useful tool. It's something extra to overcome. If every party is the same the game is just boring. It sounds like the people you played with forgot what it's all about. It's about telling a story not killing and leveling up. Its a great game when you have mature dm and players as well.
For my first D&D character, This is what I did. I made my Orc Barbarian, strong as hell. He literally had 20 Strength when I started. You know what his problem was? He was the stupidest. He spoke in broken common and in the 3rd person. All the time. "Grunther want pony! Grunther name pony....Pony! Grunther ride on Pony!" This was how he talked. He interrupted council meetings suggesting stupid things, he crashed down doors instead of opening them, and he used NPCs as weapons. He had an intelligence of SEVEN. I was trying to go for 6, but the DM wasn't having it. I could never tell if the DM was loving my character, or hating him. He called the Druid "Tree man" and he called our Rogue "Thief lady". I caused for some of the most hilarious moments any of us ever had.
I made a Human Warrior, who was a complete psychopath. At first my party and the DM just thought I was just a silent warrior whom wielded a very worn, rusted great sword. After the first battle our party went through my character started taking the teeth, and tongues of the enemies he killed for the "collection." The Elvin Ranger in the party, who was more like the leader started to ask why I was mutilating the corpses of the fallen? to which my character replied not at her but just murmuring out loud ( more like having a conversation to himself); " Little memories upon my belt, ivory, and voice, it keeps the screams inside my skull dormant until the next wave of crimson.....it still won't replace her, will it?....SHUT UP!.....Remember....you did it, no amount of sacrifice will bring back the things you once had....GET OUT OF MY HEAD LITTLE MAN.....we have an agreement....you can bathe in all the gore you want but if that ruined blade touches the innocent again I will end us...." I also RPed the shit out of this character using two voices, due to my chance of psychotic outbursts I was not aloud at any places with important NPCs due to incidents that previously happened , yet in battle I was used as a last resort tactic when shit hit the fan. The mage would often times sit on my shoulders casting spells as my character ran through monsters with his blade. The DM actually liked the unorthodox tactics my character would do and It was some of the most fun being a psychopath with multiple personality disorder and severe PTSD ever.
That last part reminded me of a game story a friend of mine gave. He said that he was in close ties with the DM, who had spent countless hours making a GIGANTIC city, along the same callibur of Minus Tirith. He put in countless NPCs with great character, numerous quests that were all open-ended, and a very big overarching story. He wanted it to be the best experience for when the player characters would walk up to the gates of the city. Too bad he didn't take into account that they decided to turn around at the gates and go elsewhere.
That's where the DM would take fragments of that city and use them in places throughout the world and have the characters interact with those npcs in that manner.
DM: "Your party enters the comment section of UA-cam. What do you do?" Rogue: "I troll." Paladin: "I social justice everyone." Wizard: "I make ASCI gifs." DM: "Does anyone thumbs up the video?" Party: "..." Rogue: "I thumbs down the video."
I used to like to play "D&D" at lunch with my school friends. However, it wasn't really Dungeons and Dragons, but more like a botched version that was refilled with each of our imaginations. We didn't have die, we didn't have a rule book, and no one knew of any of the monsters existent in the D&D universe, so what we did was make up ridiculous monsters and ridiculous rooms, along with ridiculous characters. It was the funnest game ever, and each of us would look forward to school time just to be super wacky and make up this universe.
+coolgabe555 try roll20.net There are groups that allow new players to join and will also teach you the game if you're new to D&D in general. I recommend having a mic, at least, since that tends to be a common requirement
+Tech Priest The Icewind Dale games are pretty good, too. You have to build an entire party, which can be a great way of learning how some of the basics work.
+coolgabe555 me neither... that's the downside, What I did was do an account on roll20.net and Im looking for a DM, if you want, add me there and let's look for games
+Acleus Depends on the DM. Personally I like to keep things simple and focus more on the narrative than the rules. But, eh, different tastes and all that.
Yeah, my group was all kinda 3rd edition rules lawyers (including the DM)...We had a lot of arguments, especially after we ended up playing second edition.
Meta-gaming can result in some hilarious moments when the players underestimate the DM. To use the "Beholder in a cave" example, if I were DM in that game, there would ACTUALLY be a Beholder in the cave and it would probably rip the party to shreds.
I like to metagame and purposely touch suspicious magical items (my character has low wis and would totally do stupid stuff like that). I think it’s a shame gameplay-wise to ignore such obvious traps when those can end up creating side quests (getting rid of curses etc). Last time I did it, I was cursed to have the strong urge to make a suit of armor. Had to go back to the town and have my own blacksmithing montage and became friends with the dwarves there. Made a snazzy breastplate as a result. None of it would’ve happened if we just walked past the hammer giving off a strange aura!
+Wexter0083 If you want more D&D channels, I'd recommend Afistfulofdice, Dawnforgedcast and itstabletoptime. The first two are more stories / help for being a player or running a game, while the last one posts their campaigns.
I played a WoodElf who was sick of living in the forest. He found work on a ship and was able to see the world from the ocean. But the people on the ship were a group of nomads who lived on ships. He fell in love with one of the daughters on the ship and got her father's blessing to marry her. But as tradition, my character needed a ship of his own for them to live on. He joined up with the party so he could get money for a ship of his own. He eventually got one, but discovered that the girl's family was attacked by pirates. So he hired a crew, stormed the pirate's hideout and rescued the girl and her family.
oh, I should mention that the ship was the reason my character wanted a bunch of money. I took a cliche and made it different...it may not have been great, but it was different. We had a lot of fun with that quest line.
I recently played my first game where I played as a Human pirate. He was like a charismatic ladies man who was constantly getting hit by women. He also got frequently drunk. But he was an amazing pickpocket .
I had a friend, who had never played d&d... so we invited him to a session... he was "That guy" and tried to steal a stained glass ceiling... he got a 20 so the dm allowed it, but then he redeemed himself by doing the dumbest thing ever, for laughs... "DM:there is a wardrobe, coated in a reddish slime, in the corner... the room is otherwise empty| Player: I lick the wardrobe| DM:you begin to choke... the red slime is poison| Cleric: I use my last spell to cure him| DM: your allies quick thinking pays off, and you begin to recover| player: I lick it again..." [characters tombstone: he died, but his stupid sacrifice will remain in our memories, and the gold from the sale of his loot and belongings in his friends respective coffers... tombstone text provided by the ranger Eldarrith(ME, at the time, 3.5E)] it was funny, because he acted out his character death scene...
Hey PJ, have you ever played "One Up D&D"? I used to play with my friends and basically every action a person has, has to be even more over the top and ridiculous than what was before. "I swing my +10 astral blade of the storms at the emperor dragon Tilgrasil, shooting energy waves at the many hearts in the dragons chest!" ~Fighter "Well I cast Divine Judgement on the dragon, converting him to our party as a pet!" ~Wizard *Wizard gains level 2334 Emperor Dragon, Tilgrasil!* Etc. It's pretty damn entertaining, but it gets out of control really, REALLY quickly lol
i have a human monk who cant talk because he lost his jaw when orcs raided his village, and he too has a bird to talk for him... but its not magical, its simply a grey parrot that works with command, like scratching the downside of his beak means ´´Introduce us´´ scratching it harder means ´´introduce us all´´ touching the tip of the beak is ´´say:Who are you?´´ petting his beak from above means ´´Remind me/ Help us with this´´ sincemy monk has an INT of 8.
Pathfinder is essentially D&D for Videogamers. It's got advanced customer characterization, an absurd amount of options, and more or less caters to that crowd.
Yeah, thats right Ninja Mato. Pathfinder can be played more relax way, beside what's wrong with customisation? I find it quite nice, that you can fit mechanics to your character concept. Street fighter barbarian dwarf sends everyone his regards :P
Also, can meta-gaming be the player knowing things that the characters don't? For example: if one of your party members steps to the side for a whispered discussion with an NPC. That person and the DM would be talking out loud, and yes, as a player you would hear it. However, because the discussion was whispered (unless you have some sort of skill or action that allows you to eavesdrop), your character would not know that information. Right? :D
Fen Y Yeah. I don't see the need for separating the players. The DM could always punish for meta gaming. Unless the players are new. Warnings work to. Just say, "but does your CHARACTER know that?"
Ugh, we've recently let one of "those guys" into our 5e group... whenever we're in a situation where we have to be stealthy, the guy fucking thunderclaps just to be funny. There were several times where the party was nearly wiped out as a result. I fucking hate that guy.
Basically our response as well whenever anyone tries that nonsense. Have the DM and players follow their acts to their conclusions, and let them feel the consequences. The big, pointy consequences.
Before I ever played, before stranger things, I watched these D&December videos and they entranced me. Now that I have a regular game, I find myself watching these again. I wish you'd do more D&December, but I'm glad this is still here.
+Ringofan19 yeah long story short: shenanigans ensured after rescuing a princess from a bad gur, the party notice the girl is acting SUPER weird and try to figure out what to do with her...Jared's character, being neautral evil and thus prone to using the fastest solution for personal profit in not always the most of moral ways, bgets frustrated with this and throws a knife at said princess. fortuantely, said princess was actually a monster in disguise.
I play a Paladin mainly and whenever we encounter something that is possibly evil I always ask "Are they in favor of the church?" If the dm says no, I just say "Those sons of bitches are gonna die in the name of God!"
LectornAnigame I refer to those types of paladins as "lawful stupid." I have nothing against paladins, or righteous characters in general, but killing just because there's no reason not to would result with the character having a major talk with the deity they follow. Especially if it's a paladin. I can only see characters aligned to "evil" getting off scott-free.
+MLDKF There's nothing wrong with taking inspiration from other sources as long as the finish product has its own unique spin. In fact, some things work better when created off of other ideas as many of their aspects can be implied. For instance, Fireball is always expected be a simple, high damage, elemental spell. It makes no sense to come up with another simple, high damage elemental spell when there already is one. Now, coming up with a spell called Pyrespike, which is casting a fireball with a volleyball serve, would be more interesting, even if it's still a Fireball.
In one of my games, we have a druid who has lived alone, the if not the majority of his life, his entire life, alone in the woods. He doesnt have a name, the party named him Gail. He also can not read or write, and has no idea how to interact in society. He is one of my favorite characters in any of the games I run because of how well he roleplays this. It doesnt matter what he does as a druid, or in combat, or anything, because the way he lets me play off of him, and how he plays off of me, with this massive flaw, just makes every game entertaining. They were in a tavern, working off the debt for staying there for the week since they had no money. He turned into an animal for some reason, and a drunk girl approached, demanding he turn into a platypus, he didn't know what one was, she get annoyed, and attacked. Ended up tackling and knocking over our dwarven barbarian. Soooooooooooo much better then him having min maxed stats.
My character was raised by wolves before being found by a random other druid who lived in a tree house, and thus has a charisma of 8. Also, she occasionally eats food off the floor, and steals things off of dead bodies. And refuses to hurt wolves. Her main Beast Form is a wolf, obviously.
I was playing D&D with my brother and we were solving a mystery of sort and there was a man with LOTS of info for then and down the road but when he rolled he rolled a one so we made up he said "HEY BARTENDER get this guy some apple juice!" And he left...
I will often defend the Lone Wolf character archetype. Don't get me wrong, he's annoying to play around and he's definitely one of the versions of That Guy, but at least it's a _character._ D&D is all about escapism, finding a way to tap into an archetype you can't get away with in the real world, and for some people the brooding, angst-ridden loner is what they need. Getting on their case is kind of like getting on a player's case because they chose to be the bloodthirsty barbarian or wizard who wants to hurl fireballs at the first hint of a fight: those traits are annoying too, and aren't really in the spirit of cooperative play, but they are more accepted just because they're within the spirit of the game... but to some people who have to live in this world of constant interaction, they yearn just to be a little emo and that's their idea of fantasy. If it weren't, the stereotypical version of the Lone Wolf wouldn't be the main protagonist of, like, 90% of all anime ever. Personally, I don't understand why you'd want to do that, play that particular character in such a social game, but hey, I can accept I won't understand every person's main goals in life or in game. ...now, if they're the Lone Wolf who never, ever contributes, then that's totally That Guy and if you're playing one you need to shape up and realize that everyone hates you; but if you're still doing your job in the group, even if it is begrudgingly, then that's fine by me.
one thing i like to do when character creation is use character creation tools from either literature or even other systems. for example: When I create a D&D character i take a look at G.U.R.P.S. character book to help develop their personality. GURPS(Generic Universal RolePlaying System) is a whole separate game like D&D but in character creation you can take what are known as Flaws. these Flaws give you extra points to spend in character creation but you have to take a mental/physical problem. These give characters depth like having kleptomania, loss of body parts, specific rank/honor importance, always required to follow the gentleman's code. and your DM might allow you to adapt those to give you extra points, but I usually don't care, i just like the in depth details of flaws to give your character that GURPS uses.
Fifth edition of D&d actually added personality traits as a part of character creation, including your background before you became your class, your ideals, and your flaws.
Good advice, and that music! It takes me back! All the D&D RPG's on PC. Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights. So many memories. And now, I'm going to play them all. Screw homework and class!
I love playing characters with great strengths and equally terrible flaws! My rogue was such a blast to play. He had such low charisma and wisdom that (despite being a criminal) could not keep a secret to save his life. The main thing that saved him was the dex to get out of trouble and his party members who literally cover his mouth in social situations before he shares too much info to the village guard. The bard would then try to talk the guard into thinking that we had no secrets to hide. Sometimes the bars would also join in the rogue to stir up trouble and give the paladin a headache lol. This was all with PC permission though! Try not to intentionally stir up trouble if your other players want things to go smoothly. Don’t do anything that would piss off a friend. (Only steal from friends if it’s all in good fun, they’re down with it and it’s possibly fun RP).
I recently made a character, named Alain He is a Rogue Duelist He carries a rapier and a slashing sword (renamed long sword) His right arm was injured and he could barely use it. He is grizzled, peppered beard and hair. He is the face of the party, the highest Charisma. His backstory is that he used to use both weapons at once, he was a caravan guard before he settled down in his home town and married his wife and had children. One day the town was attacked, his brother ended up dead, his children missing and his wife in a coma (which ended up killing her). After he is done mourning he sets off on his horse to find his children, which he promised to do to his wife before she died. I think I did pretty good, what do you guys think?
Nelsonionto Maciota Thank you, but as I have been told by my D&d playing friends. It seems too "I am the main character" to fit in with a group of main characters...
Patrick Bever-Chritton Oh my god he does. He needs to pick up a katana and rose petals (closest thing to cherry blossom leaves) at the next town. And I'm gonna have to memorize Dundun's speech that he rails off when doing his special attack. Thank you so much for this.
I love that Jared addressed one of my favorite DnD tricks: making a flawed character. I love rolling my character out and then asking the DM to down some of my stats so I can give them interesting flaws and weaknesses. I played an evil druid recently and I cut my Dex Con and Strength hard on some good rolls so I could give him some stat line justification for his motivations while still building him the way I wanted to play. It's a nice twist to think about when you want to do a thing and want your character to reflect it.
The last Pathfinder game I played, I was an Orc barbarian with a strength of 24, meaning when he raged he got a 28 with a magic greatsword. I literally ended fights in one turn with that character, including once destroying a building and crushing the enemies inside. I asked the DM and other players if they wanted me to nerf him, or change characters, but they all loved that character the way he was. That was kinda a dilemma cause I hate playing OP characters, and it didn't seem fair on the others, but they liked it.
+PaladinGear15 That game ended because the DM was doing everything wrong, mind you... like making every character roll every 30 feet we travelled in a civilian inhabited town for an enemy encounter (like Bugbears, wild boars, a hoard of goblins, or a giant snake...)
+PaladinGear15 Can someone kinda explain to a noob like me what Jared meant with his comment on Pathfinder? How it is more about making the optimal build? I only started Pathfinder half a year ago and never played anything else really, so I don't know the difference. I'd say our characters so far were nowhere near perfect stat-wise and we got through everything very well. So does he criticize the character creation, or high difficulty that can make interesting builds very underpowered, or more focus on combat? I'd really like to know.
TheThoerlChannel honestly it depends on the players and their attitudes from my experience, it seems like kind of a pig-headed thing to say on Jared's part. not liking an edition isn't an excuse to insult anyone who does enjoy it after all.
***** To be fair, he doesn't do that really. More of a little jab at it. I don't see a problem with that, I'd just like to know what exactly he means by it.
TheThoerlChannel yeah, you're right. guess I shouldnt've assumed the worst, really. Spoony's attitude to certain players made me awkwardly sensitive to it I guess.
I played a drow bard named Callimar. He had an 18 in charisma, but a 6 in strength. Needless to say, he got the crap beaten out of him when the situation turned sour
Probably the greatest on the cuff, creative moment between me and a friend in a D&D game; I was playing a Tiefling Assassin Rogue with a couple levels into Infernal Warlock, my friend was an Arcane Trickster. We were partners in crime in game, so we often worked together. One day we as a full party went to go and find a stash of magic items that were stolen by a corrupt family, we get all set up with disguises and magic to keep our identities hidden. Upon sneaking in to get to the carriage that had all the items, one person botches their stealth check. We all immediately get on guard since the sound of footfalls are approaching from a floor above. We expect guards, we get devilkin with huge wings and magic spears. We all panic and hop into the carriage and go darting out the barn. My friend gets an idea, to make an illusion over the entrance, but he thinks it won't work. I tell him, "I've got prestidigitation, I can slam any open door." His eyes light up and we team up together, he makes the illusion that the door is open and we're riding off, the devilkin take flight to come after us at full speed, and I slam the door shut asap. The DM chuckles and describes three loud "Thunk"s as the door buckles and the devilkin all knock themselves senseless against the technically invisible door. We made off like literal bandits and it was awesome. Best moment I've ever participated in.
This is perhaps one of the BEST informative videos for D&D players, new AND old. So many number crunchers and people who wan't to just own everything without faults and/or seek loopholes with spells/abilities. I know of a friend of a friend who plays like that and it's pitiful how much satisfaction he gets from trying to out do DM's and campaigns to basically solo them. *cringes in rage*. The experience, adventure, the ups & downs is what makes these so much more than just playing a numbers game.
Starting a campaign this Saturday (never met the guy who is going to DM, but from our talks he seems to have a lot of great ideas) It feels weird being the most experienced person at the table, but it's good to reinforce good playing habits, so I'm back here
I love it when you make a video on D&D, thanks for D&D december! I'm currently playing as a 4 year old Aarakocra Shaman "witch doctor" (homebrew class and no my character isn't a child, Aarakocra are fully grown up by the age of 3 already), the class is a bit too powerful but we prepared with great care and every player who picked homebrew had a talk with our DM to balance it out and modify it when necessary. Like always there were so many great moments and even "running gags" started to develop like the group trying to convince our Dragonborn reaper (homebrew aswell, it's all from dandwiki) to read a book on propper behaviour since he always seems provicative towards strangers in cities... which might be because he's extremely paranoid since a misterious league of assassins had a hit on his head and he survived... and they can't tolerate him surviving their hit (it's part of his background and my character doesn't know anything detailed about the assassins). I live in Switzerland and because everyone here knows swissgerman but has also learned ordinary-german at school we actually talk normally in swiss german when we talk to eachother out of character but when it's in-character we talk in ordinary-german which really helps us to roleplay (which we love, i even have a personal journal with my characters notes, written fron his perspective. While playing i like to note down some stuff in-character). Anyway i just wanted to tell you how much i love D&D and your videos, you're awesome
I was once DMing a game with a character who was one of those "steal everything" characters. There was one point where the party was dealing with a witch, and so he decided to sneak off and not deal with the boss fight and instead just loot the witch's hut. He wanted to take every single potion off her shelves, so for a while I struggled for a bit thinking "how am I gonna implement this and make it matter." And so I eventually came up with turning all the potions he stole into an item he can use. It was a big ol bag of potions, and at any time, if he wanted to, he could pull out a potion from the bag and throw it at an enemy. He would roll a d20 and I had a list on me of the 20 possible effects it could have on the enemy. It could range anywhere from poisoning the enemy, to setting the enemy on fire, to even healing or powering up the enemy (which meant he could even try gambling with trying to get good potion effects on his own team mates). I admit it definitely encouraged his greedy behavior, but I'm pretty happy with how it ended up making the game much more interesting.
I love my dwarf demolitionist who is stupid and weak, but knows bombs, is very lucky, and can convince you you cut your own arm off lmao Oh and he was a kleptomaniac
AngelicalSebastian sign language or chisel words in stone all the time probably. Or just like make him gesture to everything, sounds super interesting. Would love to play. I don't have a group anymore though :/
I know others have said it before, but I just wanna say thank you, Jared. Your videos got me really interested in D&D and might actually help bring my old group of friends back together. I can't thank you enough.
+GritscanTV Not trying to hand wave you but Jared gave suggestions for this in a previous video in this series, I can't remember them all so you might want to take a look at the "getting started" video
It's been a few rounds bout the block, since I've seen this vid back in the day, and now, I've been a dm for a few years, and that "don't make the best character" tip is overstated. You can absolutely make the best character AND make em interesting. Stats and mechanics aren't the main thing about a character; CHARACTER is important too.
you are a barbarian you sleep at an inn with your party you awaken to a large group of bandits raiding the small town what do you do? you rip the door off of the inn and throw it at the bandits proceed to bandits pick one bandit up start swinging him around, hitting other bandits never use you axe even once
Robert Cop I have a friend who used to play a Barbarian named Gregor. any time we reached a door in a dungeon, instead of opening it the normal way, Gregor would kick the door in, normally knocking it off the hinges and killing any enemies unfortunate enough to be in the trajectory of the door
I just started my first campaign last week, and took a lot of your advice. The experienced players were surprised at how well I did for a newcomer, saying I was more involved and knowledgeable about the game than the usual noobs. Looking forward to our next meet
What if you be a Meta Knight, rather than a meta player?"The DM wouldn't put a beholder in the cave at level 3" Well jokes on you there's 2 beholders now.
in a videogame you're trying to mechanicaly get stronger, to get bigger numbers and stranger items, and its fun!... but DnD its about having fun with interseting situations, having fun failing, having fun discovering something you didnt know the DM was preparing for you, having fun creating and beeing creative
This sounds so right up my alley. But finding a group of strangers, getting invited and communicating with them is harder than fighting an actual dragon :(
Jared, did Tydra ever do "that guy" stuff? Like, when he decided he wanted to catch the ballista shot and obliterate the dwarven army with it, did you think he was being "that guy"?
I only wondered because it seemed like he had completely ruined all the thought you put into how the group would make it to the evil dwarven clan leader and defeat him.
I know this is an old comment, but you have to think of the ballista bat story from a player's perspective, "You're in the middle of two warring armies ready to charge, one shoots a giant arrow at the army directly behind you and you are in the way, but you have enough time to dodge." As a player of a few years my first thought would be to try and stop or redirect it somehow, but most of my characters have some form of hero complex or crazy honor so they/I would be most worried about the people behind the party and the assholes using siege weapons against lines of soldiers. You don't really think at any given moment, "Wow, I bet the DM put hours of work into how we're going to escape this", you think, "Holy crap, what do I do now?" Unless there are explicit instructions on how to get around an issue, (which I personally think only a new or limited DM would do) you think pretty freeform and in the moment, which is the challenge in DMing, trying to predict that kind of thought.
And that's the beauty of DnD, you can't expect anything at all... You just gotta dive in and hope whatever you do works out and having fun with it all.
The other type of "that guy" that gets on my nerves is the copycat who usually sees another player do something really creative to either transverse an area or kill an adversary, then they go and do the exact same thing rather than trying something new and acting like there so creative don't be that guy no one likes that guy great video by the way Projared I'm always impressed with how you can create a professional 20 minute like video or just a long video in general and manage to fit in as much as you can without it being stale its really awesome to watch.
I used to be that guy... I'm not anymore. Fuck, I was the "see these team members?" They're mine. This is my mage, this is my barbarian, this is my cleric, because obviously I'm the main character... took me a while to realize this isn't a fucking video game, the world does not revolve around my character. (One point is i was like 16 when i was like that and I'm 21 now). So ya new players, you do not own the group, these are not your followers, they are your teammates. If you want to say "this is my" then get a pet or familiar.
Darkwolfpocco I don't mean to resurrect this, but I would like to say that as a character that could be a fun characteristic - "this is my party, if you threaten them I will break you." If this is in moderation, it's great and can be a source of hilarity and conflict. It doesn't even have to stop at the big beefy barbarian, either.
The advice of "relax a little bit, it's just a game" is fucking spot on. I haven't been playing through tabletop roleplaying very long, but there's been several times where a player got caught up in arguing with the DM over something they didn't agree with, to the extent of just up and leaving in the middle of the session. At that point you're not only keeping yourself from enjoying the experience, you're keeping everyone else from enjoying it because you're making the game grind to a halt just so you can debate mechanics. It just isn't worth it.
I have a player in my current game who tried to convince me that the lungs of a creature were a container so he could cast Create or Destroy Water and drown them
My elf is going to get interesting in my current game. She wasn't raised by Elves but by Dwarves so I can't wait to bring that up in game. Also she's a sorceress and under 100 years old which makes her young, plus she's a prodigy who has lived a relatively good life, but right now she's something like Indiana Jones but she thinks her intelligence is physical strength.
Under 100 in most games is still a child for an elf. Not even a young adult, like a ten year old. I support the intention, and maybe it’s different in your campaign setting, but unless your 10, maybe age yourself a bit.
I just started playing DND with my friend whose been playing for a while, and I find it super fun. My first (and only) character, Rixiron the Paladin Half-Elf, was a Hermit, and only wants to really help people as much as possible throughout his life, because someone he loved broke his heart (which is *also* why he is a Hermit) so he decided to keep for himself in solitude until now. He wants to be as friendly as possible (his Charisma is his highest) but he doesn't just trust anyone. He's also kind of strong when it comes to combat (2nd highest is Strength). Anyways, this video is pretty helpful for new players like myself. Thanks!
Good advice. With the best moments always being fails. That isn't true always. one time we were in cages and my character stuck a knife into the lock and it unlocked. he didnt do anything else but that
LaserLance125 GFS I have unfortunately played with DMs like that in the past, which is why I'm much more lenient about it now. I do believe that there should be some sort of punishment for death, which is why I make the Resurrection spell available at a steep price (usually complete some quest and it's yours). Each DM is different though and there is no right or wrong way to play.
+GradualGhost I always have a White Mage with Raise when I DM (Deal with the Final Fantasy) Just so this doesn't happen. And I always make sure my players are never Chopped in two, they either "Pass out from the pain" and reawake at the next Inn or "Are suffering from Blood loss and become unconscious". And either wait 15 turns or until the next Inn. If there are no Inns I'll say in a safe zone: "The party rests up. All players are Raised." And I add 2 Items and a skill (consumes 95% of player's MP) to add Reraise every every campaign. With Reraise if you pass out or suffer from Blood loss your character stands back up, as many times as needed for 2 Turns. Very rare, but still there. Just a few solutions for your death problems.
I somehow missed this one last year, but man, what a good video. I like the the fact that your rogue never stole. Doing the unexpected is always a lot of fun. I had a catfolk wizard who had really high dex because he loved to steal things. Well, cheese. He stole cheese, specifically. Cause fancy cheese = prestige to him. He was a lot of fun to play.
9:20 Funnily enough, I'm about to play my first Tabletop RPG (D&D 5e with the Planeshift: Innistrad expansion) and made a Trickster Cleric with the Urchin background and his main goal is: I want money, though at least I have a rather funny reason. He was a street urchin almost ready to kill himself to get some peace before finding Avacyn's (The once archangel of order, now bat shit insane killing machine) teachings and misinterpreting her rule of order as gold because he's noticed that those without gold lack order. So now he proclaims himself a Cleric of Avacyn, and rambles on about his love of/need of/general worship of 'Order' while using 'Order' to gold 90% of the time.
An important thing to remember is: the dm is not your enemy! He is there to form the world but should not be your enemy. Do not try things other people failed at without reason (someone checks for traps and find nothing bcs he only rolled mediocre and you decide (without reason) to check too) Stealing from other players is ok IF you have a reason. Maybe someone else looted a crown and wants to keep it but you (bcs of your own story) are searching for a crown but cannot get it form the other player, then you can try to take it away.
Thanks for the advice :) Just started playing with a bunch of friends and none of us have ever done this before. It's cool to see how passionate you are about the game. Thanks and keep up the good work!
I created a character for a campaign I'm going to host. He's a powerful character, yet is not the noble hero. He's a Han Solo type yet with more attachment. He's the captain of a crew of space pirates and he watches after his crew as if it was a mother looking out for her children, but if anyone else has problems, he will ignore them. I also made him mysterious but I made him light hearted. He's not like the "I have a really tragic backstory that I'll never talk about. Grrrr." He's more like. "Your life was shit. I appeared and made it not shit. You whole heartily agreed and didn't ask any questions. You also don't know what I look like." Which the last part is important since he's a wanted man and if anyone sees his face, he won't have an Identity to return to when all hell breaks loose. He's like the anti-hero x superhero, with a motherly side. I find that interesting.
+U1timate1nferno Hey man, it sounds like you are GMing. Here's a tip for ya: People will most likely not get to know that character, players have a tendency to just treat NPCs as ... well, NPCs. So be prepared to have your players ignore your awesome Han Solo and instead decide to thoroughly interrogate some random farmer they saw, eventually deciding to make him the next king or something. Also, if this NPC is to be a companion to the players' party, ensure that he doesn't end up an a DMPC, because that is rarely fun for anybody.
+Archerion I know. For the first bit he's going to be a companion then as the characters get stronger he's going to move on to other things when everyone can handle themselves, since it's a different story with new mechanics. Besides they also can't ditch him since he's their only way of travel.
+U1timate1nferno I like when I hear about characters without tragic backstories I don't dislike Tragic backstories but I think they are way too over done. Most of my characters still have a mom and dad and home village and all that. unless something happens to them after the game starts they will have a home to got back too.
+U1timate1nferno Be extremely careful about GMNPCs they "cannot ditch" that, on top of it, helps them 'when they can't handle themselves'. A lot of roleplayers get very, very, very annoyed at these. I'd honestly make him an option instead. A good one, certainly- but if you give options, you're making it better for everyone involved. If your players think they'd be stupid not to take his offer, they'll want him. If they feel they must, well...
+LaserLance125 GFS Not like a god powerful. He just has high stats. The statistics of a character all comes down to chance. I just got lucky when creating his and got high rolls.
On the note about describing attacks, my experience as a GM for Star Wars RPG (that edition was heavily based on Pathfinder which was drawn from D&D) has been that I describe half of the attack. Player: "I'm taking cover behind the cantina counter. I pop out to shoot at the trooper that was shooting at me last round." Roll for attack. Roll for damage. Me: "The bolt smacks him in the chest. He stumbles back but he is still standing. Smoke rises from the new mark on his armor past his helmet. You can't see his face, but the soulless eyes of his helmet are fixed on you and you can practically feel his glare." As for the video as a whole, you are making all good points. Most seem to boil down to being interesting. The game is about all the players creating a story together. In all honesty, would you want to see a movie about perfect people doing everything correct? Not really. The best characters have a "but" in their description. "Awesome mage, but he gets sick all the time." Do creative things in fights, work with your teammates, and be interesting characters (not just players). In the end, you should have tons of interesting stories that you just can't wait to share!
actually at 16:02 i disagree. I think being a character who steals a lot of stuff or a lone wolf can be fun, if done correctly. Like if you want to be a lone wolf i think thats fine, but do what your character would do and not just what you think is cool.
6:15 SO true! It's so much for fun to play your characters weaknesses and give them depth, rather than play an invincible tank of a character that does nothing besides grind through enemies. I have a friend who ALWAYS tries to make the best, most well-rounded character. Sure, his characters are well-equipped to deal with any challenge, but they're just not interesting or very fun!
"What does your character want" I was thinking about this question a lot when i made my first character earlier this year, and it all kept coming back to gold, but it was because of the story I wrote for her. She came from a family who took her in and who worked for their wealth, but never did anything with the money. They lived humbly, in an average house on the outskirts of a major city, her father was a fairly successful merchant who died when she was 17, leaving the money to her brother who died under mysterious circumastances. When the money was left to Valkaer, the bank took it, claiming that because she wasn't officially a family member, that the money wasn't hers. That's why she wants money, she's on a rampage to get back whats hers, and that's one of her flaws, too. She immediately distrusts any form of bureaucracy, so much so that our second session ended with her getting thrown in jail for the night for nearly assaulting the mayor after he blamed her for starting a fight with a local gang.
I really haven't played much D&D, but every time I have played there's been that one "lone wolf" player off in the corner brooding. I always wonder why they do it.
You want interesting? Be a fighter multiclass into Barbarian. Roleplay the first time you rage. Attack whoever's closest, even if it's a party member. That's fun, right? Right?
I think that while that is an interesting choice, you would have to tell that to the people you're playing with, because it can be seen as annoying and unhelpful.
I like that you mentioned giving characters weaknesses. For example, I once made a half-elf druid who was born in the desert, so she did well in hot environments but was terrible in the cold.
J hart I guess he is ... Sly as a snake (like creature ) now then lemme just hop on this creature of mine and FUCKING FLEE!!! I KNOW MY MOTHER FUCKIN BOUNDRIES!!!
"Don't make the 'best' character, make an *interesting* character."
Possibly the best advice ever.
Especially when writing.
+Marcelo Cabral Lima Just because you CAN use the amazing stat rolls you got...doesn't mean you should.
I tend to do that for any RPG, what fun is a game if you're the best at everything?
+Marcelo Cabral Lima I actually fell into this trap when designing my first character. To make a long story short, I ended up with a level 1 Soulknife with weapon finesse, nightvision and essentially 20 dex. Even as an amateur, I shook my head and started over.
i have one player who constantly falls into this trap, trying to play the game constantly to win when we're not even playing for srs
I love that you straight up said, it's better to be interesting than powerful. Sure a powerful character is good in the fights, but the best and most important parts of D&D are outside of combat.
+CreepsMcPasta Creeps... every time i see you comment... You get cooler XD
+CreepsMcPasta You? HERE?
wut
+CreepsMcPasta You, sir, are a spectacular human being in a creepy Pikachu/Keaton mask.
That's why I try to fight well, but constantly bring the party in trouble whenever we're in towns; I like playing socially oblivious characters xD For example, one of my characters is a Tiefling Paladin raised outside of the cities and towns by fae, so she has no clue about how people loath her kind xD
+LaserLance125 GFS Where did OP even mention strength specifically? Also rolling a damage roll has nothing to do with being powerful. A non-powerful character can get angry and attack rocks too.
"make interesting choices, not the best one"... like our mage who decided to try his hand at hunting. He clearly failed his wis check when he decided to shoot a fireball at a deer in the forest during a drought.
DarrylCross that is beautiful
Still beats our mage, who decided to use fire magic to liberate our stolen cargo after we had to run for our lives.
Unfortunately, our cargo consisted of something best described as the lovechild of firewater and napalm.
Two days later, most of the forests on the continent were burned to ashes and several towns had caught fire.
Some of those towns had storehouses with more cargo. Those places now have a lot of prime building space in the middle of town.
Or my level 1 goblin arcane archer, who downed a horde by launching his only spell, lightning, into the lake.
awesome
how about the wizard who tried to throw 23 knives, all at once, at an angry orc, but failing and striking an innocent kid in the process
"Don't. Be. That Guy."
*AD*
"... and everybody knows THAT GUY."
Tony Hakston so true, happened to me too
DM: There is a group of 10 goblins heading in your direction what do you do? Let them pass or attack?
Me: *takes the druid who turned into a honey badger off of my back shakes him furiously to piss him off and toss him into the middle of the goblin group like a grenade*
Long story short a couple of well place handaxes from me and a pissed of honey badger killed an entire group of 10 goblins without much effort....well from me....druid was covered in blood....
ShadowedSteel This deserves more likes.
OMFG YES!
Bravo sir, +1 ;)
ShadowedSteel
I am a bit late...
But GOD DAMN THATS HILARIOUS
ShadowedSteel I have a friend who had some party members captured by goblins. One of them was a cook and showed them how to make their food taste good, even making ice cream for them. And killed all of them. The goblins were lactose intollerent!!! They all got really sick allowing them to be killed like they were nothing!!! I wasn't there for this, but I laughed my ass off when I heard it though
I tried to get into D&D before, but I never even got a chance to try that play acting Jared yearns for. The older players made me a cleric, not because it was appropriate for a newbie (it isn't) but because nobody in their group ever wanted to be the cleric. I couldn't take the time to try to play act because others gave me death glares on my turn for "being slow" when I had to look up the spells in the book. (This is why only experienced players should ever be the cleric.)
I never even got to be a part of the fun since I was told to sit out every battle because "clerics are weak, so sit on the sidelines" but then after the battle was over, I was also told that "you didn't fight, so you get no loot." I tried to fight their stupid system, but in the end they just had me die and ripped up my character sheet so that I couldn't even keep it... never even got to reach the dungeon... If i had gotten to play act my cleric, I think it would have turned into a complete asshole from all the bullshit they put me through. :I
I kind of wish that I would have retaliated, but at the time I was trying to make it work. Obviously in retrospect it wasn't worth it.
I'm a old school experienced dm, from 2nd edition days. I'm not perfect but I keep players happy and wanting to come back. That said if I was your dm, if the other players were all you need to play a cleric we don't have one or want to play as one. I would of told them to play a cleric them selves or shut up. Every player should play the class that excites the the most. Balancing the adventure for not having a cleric is the dungeon masters job. Also if the party doesn't have a Cleric well that just means they are missing a useful tool. It's something extra to overcome. If every party is the same the game is just boring. It sounds like the people you played with forgot what it's all about. It's about telling a story not killing and leveling up. Its a great game when you have mature dm and players as well.
+Thomas Phillip *dabs from hearing such an insightful comment*
+Kyle Fields Wow, asterisks didn't even show up on my comment.
Kyle Fields
It's a common boldtext function, but I'd prefer if the asterisks remained visible too.
For my first D&D character, This is what I did.
I made my Orc Barbarian, strong as hell.
He literally had 20 Strength when I started.
You know what his problem was?
He was the stupidest. He spoke in broken common and in the 3rd person. All the time.
"Grunther want pony! Grunther name pony....Pony! Grunther ride on Pony!"
This was how he talked. He interrupted council meetings suggesting stupid things, he crashed down doors instead of opening them, and he used NPCs as weapons.
He had an intelligence of SEVEN. I was trying to go for 6, but the DM wasn't having it. I could never tell if the DM was loving my character, or hating him.
He called the Druid "Tree man" and he called our Rogue "Thief lady". I caused for some of the most hilarious moments any of us ever had.
That. Is. AMAZING.
Sam Geuvenen I had some of the most fun I've ever had
That's called properly RPing your dumb ass Orc Barbarian. That character sounds great! xD
I made a Human Warrior, who was a complete psychopath. At first my party and the DM just thought I was just a silent warrior whom wielded a very worn, rusted great sword. After the first battle our party went through my character started taking the teeth, and tongues of the enemies he killed for the "collection."
The Elvin Ranger in the party, who was more like the leader started to ask why I was mutilating the corpses of the fallen?
to which my character replied not at her but just murmuring out loud ( more like having a conversation to himself); " Little memories upon my belt, ivory, and voice, it keeps the screams inside my skull dormant until the next wave of crimson.....it still won't replace her, will it?....SHUT UP!.....Remember....you did it, no amount of sacrifice will bring back the things you once had....GET OUT OF MY HEAD LITTLE MAN.....we have an agreement....you can bathe in all the gore you want but if that ruined blade touches the innocent again I will end us...."
I also RPed the shit out of this character using two voices, due to my chance of psychotic outbursts I was not aloud at any places with important NPCs due to incidents that previously happened , yet in battle I was used as a last resort tactic when shit hit the fan. The mage would often times sit on my shoulders casting spells as my character ran through monsters with his blade. The DM actually liked the unorthodox tactics my character would do and It was some of the most fun being a psychopath with multiple personality disorder and severe PTSD ever.
i got a goliath with intel 5 :3
That last part reminded me of a game story a friend of mine gave. He said that he was in close ties with the DM, who had spent countless hours making a GIGANTIC city, along the same callibur of Minus Tirith. He put in countless NPCs with great character, numerous quests that were all open-ended, and a very big overarching story. He wanted it to be the best experience for when the player characters would walk up to the gates of the city.
Too bad he didn't take into account that they decided to turn around at the gates and go elsewhere.
That's where the DM would take fragments of that city and use them in places throughout the world and have the characters interact with those npcs in that manner.
"Don't be *that* guy." Ad plays
CaptainPlayguy UA-cam was like "You called."
CaptainPlayguy same
CaptainPlayguy Projared: "don't be that guy" (UA-cam plays add) UA-cam: sorry jarred I can't help myself
"Don't be *that* guy" Ad Plays
After Ad: "be *that* guy
Cliffhanger...
DM: "Your party enters the comment section of UA-cam. What do you do?"
Rogue: "I troll."
Paladin: "I social justice everyone."
Wizard: "I make ASCI gifs."
DM: "Does anyone thumbs up the video?"
Party: "..."
Rogue: "I thumbs down the video."
+Aizen Sama paladins are cool just not the ones who are assholes
Goddamn Paladin!
+Lock Jaw You win the Comments section! XP for everyone!
+Lock Jaw Barbarian: Hw do i tyep?
+Suika Ibuki Needs more CAPS LOCK.
"Don't. Be. That guy." *commercial break*
Dang it, UA-cam, you were that guy.
one of the best ad placements ever. period.
I used to like to play "D&D" at lunch with my school friends. However, it wasn't really Dungeons and Dragons, but more like a botched version that was refilled with each of our imaginations. We didn't have die, we didn't have a rule book, and no one knew of any of the monsters existent in the D&D universe, so what we did was make up ridiculous monsters and ridiculous rooms, along with ridiculous characters. It was the funnest game ever, and each of us would look forward to school time just to be super wacky and make up this universe.
Nin-Zilla I am jealous.
Woah! My friends did that too.
I did that except my brother bought me a set of dice. I still remember that story it was actually pretty cool
D&D one of those games I want to play but I dont have friends that are into it.
+coolgabe555 try roll20.net
There are groups that allow new players to join and will also teach you the game if you're new to D&D in general. I recommend having a mic, at least, since that tends to be a common requirement
+Tech Priest The Icewind Dale games are pretty good, too. You have to build an entire party, which can be a great way of learning how some of the basics work.
+Chuck Connex why not make an online party, Im looking for people to play with, that would be 3 of us :3, we would need someone to teach us though
***** I could join with the party if you want although I dont know much about D&D
+coolgabe555 me neither... that's the downside, What I did was do an account on roll20.net and Im looking for a DM, if you want, add me there and let's look for games
To be fair, when you start naming body parts that you're targeting it becomes a called shot and you get a minus to your roll
+Acleus Only if you want to be a rules lawyer, or use 3.5/PF rulesets.
+Acleus Depends on the DM. Personally I like to keep things simple and focus more on the narrative than the rules. But, eh, different tastes and all that.
+ProJared Point taken.
+Acleus I don't think that 5th has rulings for called shots :/
Yeah, my group was all kinda 3rd edition rules lawyers (including the DM)...We had a lot of arguments, especially after we ended up playing second edition.
Meta-gaming can result in some hilarious moments when the players underestimate the DM. To use the "Beholder in a cave" example, if I were DM in that game, there would ACTUALLY be a Beholder in the cave and it would probably rip the party to shreds.
I like to metagame and purposely touch suspicious magical items (my character has low wis and would totally do stupid stuff like that).
I think it’s a shame gameplay-wise to ignore such obvious traps when those can end up creating side quests (getting rid of curses etc).
Last time I did it, I was cursed to have the strong urge to make a suit of armor. Had to go back to the town and have my own blacksmithing montage and became friends with the dwarves there. Made a snazzy breastplate as a result.
None of it would’ve happened if we just walked past the hammer giving off a strange aura!
The more I watch these the more I wish you had your own D&D focused channel
+xophis2 I give this a thumbs up.
+xophis2 Agreed, Spoony does not upload enough for me to get my silly D&D stories/Actual advice. Please Jared let this become its own thing.
+Wexter0083 If you want more D&D channels, I'd recommend Afistfulofdice, Dawnforgedcast and itstabletoptime. The first two are more stories / help for being a player or running a game, while the last one posts their campaigns.
I'm never going to play D&D in my life but I keep watching these videos and taking notes for some reason!
+DreamcastGuy Projared is subliminally conditioning you.
Ah, you say that now, friend. You'll find an oppertunity to play at some point and the D&D fever is gonna get you.
+Ringofan19 I honestly believe you now. :)
+DreamcastGuy Projared mentioned Roll20 in some other video, you should give it a try.
If your friends are up for it, it's really fun :)
I played a WoodElf who was sick of living in the forest. He found work on a ship and was able to see the world from the ocean. But the people on the ship were a group of nomads who lived on ships.
He fell in love with one of the daughters on the ship and got her father's blessing to marry her. But as tradition, my character needed a ship of his own for them to live on. He joined up with the party so he could get money for a ship of his own. He eventually got one, but discovered that the girl's family was attacked by pirates. So he hired a crew, stormed the pirate's hideout and rescued the girl and her family.
oh, I should mention that the ship was the reason my character wanted a bunch of money. I took a cliche and made it different...it may not have been great, but it was different. We had a lot of fun with that quest line.
That is really cool. Did he have the sailor background?
MrFireCowboy no he didn't. I thought about it, but I thought it would be more fun to have him be a sailing newbie
Ben Walters That's really cool, I should think of a character that has a backstory that spurs its own adventure
Now that's a good backstory. Nice one. :)
I recently played my first game where I played as a Human pirate. He was like a charismatic ladies man who was constantly getting hit by women. He also got frequently drunk. But he was an amazing pickpocket .
But only when drunk, right?
Tony Hakston I guess i worded that really weirdly
Enclave Commander NO.3-117 it was more of a joke borne of wishful thinking
"Then I'd go play a video game... or Pathfinder."
That line still has me rolling XD
Agreed.
Was the rolling part a DnD joke?
I love the lead up to that. We *all* know what the punchline to that whole joke is, we're just waiting for him to say it
I had a friend, who had never played d&d... so we invited him to a session... he was "That guy" and tried to steal a stained glass ceiling... he got a 20 so the dm allowed it, but then he redeemed himself by doing the dumbest thing ever, for laughs... "DM:there is a wardrobe, coated in a reddish slime, in the corner... the room is otherwise empty| Player: I lick the wardrobe| DM:you begin to choke... the red slime is poison| Cleric: I use my last spell to cure him| DM: your allies quick thinking pays off, and you begin to recover| player: I lick it again..." [characters tombstone: he died, but his stupid sacrifice will remain in our memories, and the gold from the sale of his loot and belongings in his friends respective coffers... tombstone text provided by the ranger Eldarrith(ME, at the time, 3.5E)] it was funny, because he acted out his character death scene...
glorious
heres a question.......... where did he put that stainglass ceiling......
Chekhov's gun anybody?
Hey PJ, have you ever played "One Up D&D"? I used to play with my friends and basically every action a person has, has to be even more over the top and ridiculous than what was before.
"I swing my +10 astral blade of the storms at the emperor dragon Tilgrasil, shooting energy waves at the many hearts in the dragons chest!" ~Fighter
"Well I cast Divine Judgement on the dragon, converting him to our party as a pet!" ~Wizard
*Wizard gains level 2334 Emperor Dragon, Tilgrasil!*
Etc. It's pretty damn entertaining, but it gets out of control really, REALLY quickly lol
I play a druid who can't talk, and she has her raven talk for her. So far he's gotten into a bit of a rivalry with my group's sorcerer.
kaelang12 Bahamut knows how she did it.
i have a human monk who cant talk because he lost his jaw when orcs raided his village, and he too has a bird to talk for him... but its not magical, its simply a grey parrot that works with command, like scratching the downside of his beak means ´´Introduce us´´ scratching it harder means ´´introduce us all´´ touching the tip of the beak is ´´say:Who are you?´´ petting his beak from above means ´´Remind me/ Help us with this´´ sincemy monk has an INT of 8.
"Then I would go play a video game...or pathfinder."
I fucking lost it at that point.
well, pathfinder isn't really only about minmaxing. although you certainly can do that.
Pathfinder is essentially D&D for Videogamers. It's got advanced customer characterization, an absurd amount of options, and more or less caters to that crowd.
Calm down dude. Your butthurt is showing. ;)
thats funny considering pathfinder was literally made to counter D&D 4th edition because it got too mmo-y
Yeah, thats right Ninja Mato. Pathfinder can be played more relax way, beside what's wrong with customisation? I find it quite nice, that you can fit mechanics to your character concept. Street fighter barbarian dwarf sends everyone his regards :P
Also, can meta-gaming be the player knowing things that the characters don't? For example: if one of your party members steps to the side for a whispered discussion with an NPC. That person and the DM would be talking out loud, and yes, as a player you would hear it. However, because the discussion was whispered (unless you have some sort of skill or action that allows you to eavesdrop), your character would not know that information. Right? :D
+LightBlade32 Correct!
+LightBlade32 use notes or send players in different rooms along with a DS until your done.
+GLW gameplayer
Or just have mature players.
Fen Y Yeah. I don't see the need for separating the players. The DM could always punish for meta gaming. Unless the players are new. Warnings work to. Just say, "but does your CHARACTER know that?"
+Fen Y In a perfect world, yes. Pick "mature" players-- but from my experience, you can't always choose who you play with.
Ugh, we've recently let one of "those guys" into our 5e group... whenever we're in a situation where we have to be stealthy, the guy fucking thunderclaps just to be funny. There were several times where the party was nearly wiped out as a result. I fucking hate that guy.
We did. The party killed him off and the DM gave him a chance with a new character and said if he did that again, he'd be kicked out of the campaign.
SAVAGE! XD
Basically our response as well whenever anyone tries that nonsense.
Have the DM and players follow their acts to their conclusions, and let them feel the consequences. The big, pointy consequences.
Matt Lothe ew 5e
"He's not a thief, he's a treasure hunter."
Aaaaand immediately my mind goes to Locke from FFVI XD
Baldur's Gate music =)
Why is this not the top comment?
My marathon of rewatching, liking, and commenting on every Jared video continues. Video 57
Before I ever played, before stranger things, I watched these D&December videos and they entranced me. Now that I have a regular game, I find myself watching these again. I wish you'd do more D&December, but I'm glad this is still here.
^How to be a good player: Don't throw a knife at a little girl's face
I really hope there isn't a story behind that.
+Ringofan19 its from the last video
Drew L Ah, didn't see it.
Too late.
+Ringofan19 yeah long story short: shenanigans ensured after rescuing a princess from a bad gur, the party notice the girl is acting SUPER weird and try to figure out what to do with her...Jared's character, being neautral evil and thus prone to using the fastest solution for personal profit in not always the most of moral ways, bgets frustrated with this and throws a knife at said princess. fortuantely, said princess was actually a monster in disguise.
I play a Paladin mainly and whenever we encounter something that is possibly evil I always ask "Are they in favor of the church?" If the dm says no, I just say "Those sons of bitches are gonna die in the name of God!"
honestly... that's the funniest way to play a paladin, whatever that is.
Qualquer gamer
Paladins are basically holy fighters.
ninjacat509 I know, it was a joke. go watch spoony's ultima reviews
THAT is the Paladin, that does good by doing bad to bad people :D and i love it :D
LectornAnigame I refer to those types of paladins as "lawful stupid." I have nothing against paladins, or righteous characters in general, but killing just because there's no reason not to would result with the character having a major talk with the deity they follow. Especially if it's a paladin. I can only see characters aligned to "evil" getting off scott-free.
I once had my wizard use a scroll of lightening bolt to have a tree fall and pin an enemy.
Genius :D
"The tree falls the wrong way and crushes two orphans and their three-legged dog"
"He's more of a Treasure Hunter, not a Thief"
Gee, doesn't THAT sound familiar
+MLDKF I bet he's on a quest to find the four elemental treasures too. :P
+RPGtourguide Never heard that one before.
Call Diath a thief and he'll rip ya lungs out
+MLDKF There's nothing wrong with taking inspiration from other sources as long as the finish product has its own unique spin. In fact, some things work better when created off of other ideas as many of their aspects can be implied. For instance, Fireball is always expected be a simple, high damage, elemental spell. It makes no sense to come up with another simple, high damage elemental spell when there already is one. Now, coming up with a spell called Pyrespike, which is casting a fireball with a volleyball serve, would be more interesting, even if it's still a Fireball.
+Crossplay I know, I'm just trying to poke fun at the fact that Jared's rogue takes inspiration from Locke.
In one of my games, we have a druid who has lived alone, the if not the majority of his life, his entire life, alone in the woods. He doesnt have a name, the party named him Gail. He also can not read or write, and has no idea how to interact in society. He is one of my favorite characters in any of the games I run because of how well he roleplays this. It doesnt matter what he does as a druid, or in combat, or anything, because the way he lets me play off of him, and how he plays off of me, with this massive flaw, just makes every game entertaining.
They were in a tavern, working off the debt for staying there for the week since they had no money. He turned into an animal for some reason, and a drunk girl approached, demanding he turn into a platypus, he didn't know what one was, she get annoyed, and attacked. Ended up tackling and knocking over our dwarven barbarian. Soooooooooooo much better then him having min maxed stats.
My character was raised by wolves before being found by a random other druid who lived in a tree house, and thus has a charisma of 8. Also, she occasionally eats food off the floor, and steals things off of dead bodies. And refuses to hurt wolves. Her main Beast Form is a wolf, obviously.
I was playing D&D with my brother and we were solving a mystery of sort and there was a man with LOTS of info for then and down the road but when he rolled he rolled a one so we made up he said "HEY BARTENDER get this guy some apple juice!" And he left...
I will often defend the Lone Wolf character archetype. Don't get me wrong, he's annoying to play around and he's definitely one of the versions of That Guy, but at least it's a _character._ D&D is all about escapism, finding a way to tap into an archetype you can't get away with in the real world, and for some people the brooding, angst-ridden loner is what they need. Getting on their case is kind of like getting on a player's case because they chose to be the bloodthirsty barbarian or wizard who wants to hurl fireballs at the first hint of a fight: those traits are annoying too, and aren't really in the spirit of cooperative play, but they are more accepted just because they're within the spirit of the game... but to some people who have to live in this world of constant interaction, they yearn just to be a little emo and that's their idea of fantasy. If it weren't, the stereotypical version of the Lone Wolf wouldn't be the main protagonist of, like, 90% of all anime ever. Personally, I don't understand why you'd want to do that, play that particular character in such a social game, but hey, I can accept I won't understand every person's main goals in life or in game.
...now, if they're the Lone Wolf who never, ever contributes, then that's totally That Guy and if you're playing one you need to shape up and realize that everyone hates you; but if you're still doing your job in the group, even if it is begrudgingly, then that's fine by me.
I agree with you
Plot twist, the Lone Wolf guy is secretly just super shy and acts like that because he wants no one to bother him
one thing i like to do when character creation is use character creation tools from either literature or even other systems.
for example: When I create a D&D character i take a look at G.U.R.P.S. character book to help develop their personality. GURPS(Generic Universal RolePlaying System) is a whole separate game like D&D but in character creation you can take what are known as Flaws. these Flaws give you extra points to spend in character creation but you have to take a mental/physical problem. These give characters depth like having kleptomania, loss of body parts, specific rank/honor importance, always required to follow the gentleman's code.
and your DM might allow you to adapt those to give you extra points, but I usually don't care, i just like the in depth details of flaws to give your character that GURPS uses.
Fifth edition of D&d actually added personality traits as a part of character creation, including your background before you became your class, your ideals, and your flaws.
+AdellRedwinters I particularly like that addition, myself.
Good advice, and that music! It takes me back! All the D&D RPG's on PC. Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights. So many memories.
And now, I'm going to play them all. Screw homework and class!
I love playing characters with great strengths and equally terrible flaws!
My rogue was such a blast to play. He had such low charisma and wisdom that (despite being a criminal) could not keep a secret to save his life. The main thing that saved him was the dex to get out of trouble and his party members who literally cover his mouth in social situations before he shares too much info to the village guard. The bard would then try to talk the guard into thinking that we had no secrets to hide.
Sometimes the bars would also join in the rogue to stir up trouble and give the paladin a headache lol.
This was all with PC permission though! Try not to intentionally stir up trouble if your other players want things to go smoothly. Don’t do anything that would piss off a friend. (Only steal from friends if it’s all in good fun, they’re down with it and it’s possibly fun RP).
I recently made a character, named Alain
He is a Rogue Duelist
He carries a rapier and a slashing sword (renamed long sword)
His right arm was injured and he could barely use it.
He is grizzled, peppered beard and hair.
He is the face of the party, the highest Charisma.
His backstory is that he used to use both weapons at once, he was a caravan guard before he settled down in his home town and married his wife and had children.
One day the town was attacked, his brother ended up dead, his children missing and his wife in a coma (which ended up killing her).
After he is done mourning he sets off on his horse to find his children, which he promised to do to his wife before she died.
I think I did pretty good, what do you guys think?
ImTheMarioGuy
Thank you!
it makes a very good game premise if you ask me
Nelsonionto Maciota
Thank you, but as I have been told by my D&d playing friends.
It seems too "I am the main character" to fit in with a group of main characters...
That sound really similar to Dunban from Xenoblade Chronicles. Not a bad thing by any stretch.
Patrick Bever-Chritton
Oh my god he does.
He needs to pick up a katana and rose petals (closest thing to cherry blossom leaves) at the next town.
And I'm gonna have to memorize Dundun's speech that he rails off when doing his special attack.
Thank you so much for this.
I love that Jared addressed one of my favorite DnD tricks: making a flawed character. I love rolling my character out and then asking the DM to down some of my stats so I can give them interesting flaws and weaknesses. I played an evil druid recently and I cut my Dex Con and Strength hard on some good rolls so I could give him some stat line justification for his motivations while still building him the way I wanted to play. It's a nice twist to think about when you want to do a thing and want your character to reflect it.
The last Pathfinder game I played, I was an Orc barbarian with a strength of 24, meaning when he raged he got a 28 with a magic greatsword.
I literally ended fights in one turn with that character, including once destroying a building and crushing the enemies inside.
I asked the DM and other players if they wanted me to nerf him, or change characters, but they all loved that character the way he was.
That was kinda a dilemma cause I hate playing OP characters, and it didn't seem fair on the others, but they liked it.
+PaladinGear15 That game ended because the DM was doing everything wrong, mind you... like making every character roll every 30 feet we travelled in a civilian inhabited town for an enemy encounter (like Bugbears, wild boars, a hoard of goblins, or a giant snake...)
+PaladinGear15 Can someone kinda explain to a noob like me what Jared meant with his comment on Pathfinder? How it is more about making the optimal build? I only started Pathfinder half a year ago and never played anything else really, so I don't know the difference. I'd say our characters so far were nowhere near perfect stat-wise and we got through everything very well. So does he criticize the character creation, or high difficulty that can make interesting builds very underpowered, or more focus on combat? I'd really like to know.
TheThoerlChannel honestly it depends on the players and their attitudes from my experience, it seems like kind of a pig-headed thing to say on Jared's part.
not liking an edition isn't an excuse to insult anyone who does enjoy it after all.
***** To be fair, he doesn't do that really. More of a little jab at it. I don't see a problem with that, I'd just like to know what exactly he means by it.
TheThoerlChannel yeah, you're right.
guess I shouldnt've assumed the worst, really.
Spoony's attitude to certain players made me awkwardly sensitive to it I guess.
I played a drow bard named Callimar. He had an 18 in charisma, but a 6 in strength. Needless to say, he got the crap beaten out of him when the situation turned sour
Probably the greatest on the cuff, creative moment between me and a friend in a D&D game; I was playing a Tiefling Assassin Rogue with a couple levels into Infernal Warlock, my friend was an Arcane Trickster. We were partners in crime in game, so we often worked together. One day we as a full party went to go and find a stash of magic items that were stolen by a corrupt family, we get all set up with disguises and magic to keep our identities hidden. Upon sneaking in to get to the carriage that had all the items, one person botches their stealth check. We all immediately get on guard since the sound of footfalls are approaching from a floor above. We expect guards, we get devilkin with huge wings and magic spears. We all panic and hop into the carriage and go darting out the barn. My friend gets an idea, to make an illusion over the entrance, but he thinks it won't work. I tell him, "I've got prestidigitation, I can slam any open door." His eyes light up and we team up together, he makes the illusion that the door is open and we're riding off, the devilkin take flight to come after us at full speed, and I slam the door shut asap. The DM chuckles and describes three loud "Thunk"s as the door buckles and the devilkin all knock themselves senseless against the technically invisible door. We made off like literal bandits and it was awesome. Best moment I've ever participated in.
"Don't be that guy." And suddenly an ad with a screaming kid running with a toilet paper
can I be a Steve and go right
***** I eat the dragon.
the dragon finds a secret passage.
A-Bomb Mori What do I roll for that?
BigsZone roll 1d20 to dodge the trap door opening
A-Bomb Mori rolls d6 I cast flay and ascend at full speed
This is perhaps one of the BEST informative videos for D&D players, new AND old. So many number crunchers and people who wan't to just own everything without faults and/or seek loopholes with spells/abilities. I know of a friend of a friend who plays like that and it's pitiful how much satisfaction he gets from trying to out do DM's and campaigns to basically solo them. *cringes in rage*. The experience, adventure, the ups & downs is what makes these so much more than just playing a numbers game.
Starting a campaign this Saturday (never met the guy who is going to DM, but from our talks he seems to have a lot of great ideas) It feels weird being the most experienced person at the table, but it's good to reinforce good playing habits, so I'm back here
This what I look forward to every week and just love these tales
I love it when you make a video on D&D, thanks for D&D december! I'm currently playing as a 4 year old Aarakocra Shaman "witch doctor" (homebrew class and no my character isn't a child, Aarakocra are fully grown up by the age of 3 already), the class is a bit too powerful but we prepared with great care and every player who picked homebrew had a talk with our DM to balance it out and modify it when necessary. Like always there were so many great moments and even "running gags" started to develop like the group trying to convince our Dragonborn reaper (homebrew aswell, it's all from dandwiki) to read a book on propper behaviour since he always seems provicative towards strangers in cities... which might be because he's extremely paranoid since a misterious league of assassins had a hit on his head and he survived... and they can't tolerate him surviving their hit (it's part of his background and my character doesn't know anything detailed about the assassins). I live in Switzerland and because everyone here knows swissgerman but has also learned ordinary-german at school we actually talk normally in swiss german when we talk to eachother out of character but when it's in-character we talk in ordinary-german which really helps us to roleplay (which we love, i even have a personal journal with my characters notes, written fron his perspective. While playing i like to note down some stuff in-character). Anyway i just wanted to tell you how much i love D&D and your videos, you're awesome
"Anyone who plays any elder scrolls game steals everything"
Actually i just kill everyone...I'm the OTHER that guy
"I'd just go play a video game. ...Or Pathfinder."
Shots fired.
I was once DMing a game with a character who was one of those "steal everything" characters. There was one point where the party was dealing with a witch, and so he decided to sneak off and not deal with the boss fight and instead just loot the witch's hut. He wanted to take every single potion off her shelves, so for a while I struggled for a bit thinking "how am I gonna implement this and make it matter." And so I eventually came up with turning all the potions he stole into an item he can use. It was a big ol bag of potions, and at any time, if he wanted to, he could pull out a potion from the bag and throw it at an enemy. He would roll a d20 and I had a list on me of the 20 possible effects it could have on the enemy. It could range anywhere from poisoning the enemy, to setting the enemy on fire, to even healing or powering up the enemy (which meant he could even try gambling with trying to get good potion effects on his own team mates). I admit it definitely encouraged his greedy behavior, but I'm pretty happy with how it ended up making the game much more interesting.
Just after he said dont be that guy i got an ad about a guy that lost his legs
oof
I love my dwarf demolitionist who is stupid and weak, but knows bombs, is very lucky, and can convince you you cut your own arm off lmao
Oh and he was a kleptomaniac
I made a halfling paladín...it went as well as you'd expect, but MAN was it a blast! xD
AngelicalSebastian its always those gimped characters that are the most fun.
Felix Iris
I know right?. I´m trying to figure out how to make a mute character but still make it work somehow.
AngelicalSebastian sign language or chisel words in stone all the time probably. Or just like make him gesture to everything, sounds super interesting. Would love to play. I don't have a group anymore though :/
Felix Iris
Yeah, I´m lucky enough to know a bunch of guys who are really into D&D. Actually surprised people from my country even know about it.
I know others have said it before, but I just wanna say thank you, Jared. Your videos got me really interested in D&D and might actually help bring my old group of friends back together. I can't thank you enough.
Your videos and stories made me want to play a lot..
+TheMattychu bro do it!!! its RPG in its purest form!
+Jesse Renick might as well!
its fun im jonesing to play as we speak
+TheMattychu how do i play if i have no friends :c
+GritscanTV Not trying to hand wave you but Jared gave suggestions for this in a previous video in this series, I can't remember them all so you might want to take a look at the "getting started" video
Just thought I'd come around for a refresher :)
Still a great vid :)
It's been a few rounds bout the block, since I've seen this vid back in the day, and now, I've been a dm for a few years, and that "don't make the best character" tip is overstated. You can absolutely make the best character AND make em interesting. Stats and mechanics aren't the main thing about a character; CHARACTER is important too.
The most creative thing I've done is climb inside a giant frog, cast thunderwave, and blow it up.
hint: put your sword in your bow
skry sage So instead of arrows YOU TROW SWORDS.
Sir. I think you found the true meaning of "Destruction"
you are a barbarian
you sleep at an inn with your party
you awaken to a large group of bandits raiding the small town
what do you do?
you rip the door off of the inn and throw it at the bandits
proceed to bandits
pick one bandit up
start swinging him around, hitting other bandits
never use you axe even once
good advice
Robert Cop I have a friend who used to play a Barbarian named Gregor. any time we reached a door in a dungeon, instead of opening it the normal way, Gregor would kick the door in, normally knocking it off the hinges and killing any enemies unfortunate enough to be in the trajectory of the door
I just started my first campaign last week, and took a lot of your advice. The experienced players were surprised at how well I did for a newcomer, saying I was more involved and knowledgeable about the game than the usual noobs. Looking forward to our next meet
What if you be a Meta Knight, rather than a meta player?"The DM wouldn't put a beholder in the cave at level 3" Well jokes on you there's 2 beholders now.
I asked for D&D starter kit for Christmas because of you Jared. Thanks :)
Good luck to you, man! You can't imagine how much fun and adventure awaits you!
+Isaiah Haddock its so fun man i hope u have fun!
I hope you love and enjoy your time in the land of D&D :D
thanks to all.
I got it for Chanukah... Playing with friends tomorrow!
in a videogame you're trying to mechanicaly get stronger, to get bigger numbers and stranger items, and its fun!...
but DnD its about having fun with interseting situations, having fun failing, having fun discovering something you didnt know the DM was preparing for you, having fun creating and beeing creative
This sounds so right up my alley. But finding a group of strangers, getting invited and communicating with them is harder than fighting an actual dragon :(
Check out roll20.net/ you should be able to find a group through there.
Jared, did Tydra ever do "that guy" stuff?
Like, when he decided he wanted to catch the ballista shot and obliterate the dwarven army with it, did you think he was being "that guy"?
+Mash Ketchum Nope. That was him doing something interesting instead of something that's best.
I only wondered because it seemed like he had completely ruined all the thought you put into how the group would make it to the evil dwarven clan leader and defeat him.
I know this is an old comment, but you have to think of the ballista bat story from a player's perspective, "You're in the middle of two warring armies ready to charge, one shoots a giant arrow at the army directly behind you and you are in the way, but you have enough time to dodge." As a player of a few years my first thought would be to try and stop or redirect it somehow, but most of my characters have some form of hero complex or crazy honor so they/I would be most worried about the people behind the party and the assholes using siege weapons against lines of soldiers. You don't really think at any given moment, "Wow, I bet the DM put hours of work into how we're going to escape this", you think, "Holy crap, what do I do now?" Unless there are explicit instructions on how to get around an issue, (which I personally think only a new or limited DM would do) you think pretty freeform and in the moment, which is the challenge in DMing, trying to predict that kind of thought.
Sean H catching a ballista is the one thing you just don't expect to happen
And that's the beauty of DnD, you can't expect anything at all... You just gotta dive in and hope whatever you do works out and having fun with it all.
The other type of "that guy" that gets on my nerves is the copycat who usually sees another player do something really creative to either transverse an area or kill an adversary, then they go and do the exact same thing rather than trying something new and acting like there so creative don't be that guy no one likes that guy great video by the way Projared I'm always impressed with how you can create a professional 20 minute like video or just a long video in general and manage to fit in as much as you can without it being stale its really awesome to watch.
I once played a gnome bard who developed hydrophobia after an incident with a water trap in the sewers.
+Drake Russell i always wanted to play as a Black Gnome Berserker.
I used to be that guy... I'm not anymore.
Fuck, I was the "see these team members?" They're mine. This is my mage, this is my barbarian, this is my cleric, because obviously I'm the main character... took me a while to realize this isn't a fucking video game, the world does not revolve around my character. (One point is i was like 16 when i was like that and I'm 21 now). So ya new players, you do not own the group, these are not your followers, they are your teammates. If you want to say "this is my" then get a pet or familiar.
Darkwolfpocco I don't mean to resurrect this, but I would like to say that as a character that could be a fun characteristic - "this is my party, if you threaten them I will break you." If this is in moderation, it's great and can be a source of hilarity and conflict. It doesn't even have to stop at the big beefy barbarian, either.
The advice of "relax a little bit, it's just a game" is fucking spot on. I haven't been playing through tabletop roleplaying very long, but there's been several times where a player got caught up in arguing with the DM over something they didn't agree with, to the extent of just up and leaving in the middle of the session. At that point you're not only keeping yourself from enjoying the experience, you're keeping everyone else from enjoying it because you're making the game grind to a halt just so you can debate mechanics. It just isn't worth it.
I have a player in my current game who tried to convince me that the lungs of a creature were a container so he could cast Create or Destroy Water and drown them
...Wat.
And you refused?! He could've done it if he rolled well!
So basically a pneumonia spell
My elf is going to get interesting in my current game. She wasn't raised by Elves but by Dwarves so I can't wait to bring that up in game. Also she's a sorceress and under 100 years old which makes her young, plus she's a prodigy who has lived a relatively good life, but right now she's something like Indiana Jones but she thinks her intelligence is physical strength.
Under 100 in most games is still a child for an elf. Not even a young adult, like a ten year old. I support the intention, and maybe it’s different in your campaign setting, but unless your 10, maybe age yourself a bit.
I just started playing DND with my friend whose been playing for a while, and I find it super fun. My first (and only) character, Rixiron the Paladin Half-Elf, was a Hermit, and only wants to really help people as much as possible throughout his life, because someone he loved broke his heart (which is *also* why he is a Hermit) so he decided to keep for himself in solitude until now. He wants to be as friendly as possible (his Charisma is his highest) but he doesn't just trust anyone. He's also kind of strong when it comes to combat (2nd highest is Strength). Anyways, this video is pretty helpful for new players like myself. Thanks!
Something tells me that any theatre or drama kid would love thia game...
I've always wanted to make a guy that's a super good healer, but he's also an alcoholic, smoking, drug addict.
+zempmasterz He should also tell the rest of the party that they should never do drugs as well and is a constant hypocrite.
+zempmasterz like Ben, from Aquatallion (doubt you get that reference)
Chili Hoyer
Pretty much yeah, or be like "i don't mess with magical relics, those things will kill ya." While he is smokeing.
zempmasterz Yeah that sounds pretty good.
+zempmasterz You're making Dr. House?
I love how all these D&December videos are based around D&D but still have a lot of good advice and ideas for other games.
Good advice.
With the best moments always being fails. That isn't true always. one time we were in cages and my character stuck a knife into the lock and it unlocked. he didnt do anything else but that
hey jared you shouldve talked about what happens when a character dies.
Simple, you can't use them ever again.
+U1timate1nferno Well...except for Resurrection and Wish
LaserLance125 GFS I have unfortunately played with DMs like that in the past, which is why I'm much more lenient about it now. I do believe that there should be some sort of punishment for death, which is why I make the Resurrection spell available at a steep price (usually complete some quest and it's yours). Each DM is different though and there is no right or wrong way to play.
+GradualGhost
I always have a White Mage with Raise when I DM
(Deal with the Final Fantasy)
Just so this doesn't happen.
And I always make sure my players are never Chopped in two, they either
"Pass out from the pain" and reawake at the next Inn or
"Are suffering from Blood loss and become unconscious".
And either wait 15 turns or until the next Inn.
If there are no Inns I'll say in a safe zone:
"The party rests up. All players are Raised."
And I add 2 Items and a skill (consumes 95% of player's MP) to add Reraise every every campaign.
With Reraise if you pass out or suffer from Blood loss your character stands back up, as many times as needed for 2 Turns.
Very rare, but still there.
Just a few solutions for your death problems.
Kokiri Kid Well thanks for the advice (I guess). I don't personally need the help but I'm sure some people could use it.
I somehow missed this one last year, but man, what a good video.
I like the the fact that your rogue never stole. Doing the unexpected is always a lot of fun. I had a catfolk wizard who had really high dex because he loved to steal things. Well, cheese. He stole cheese, specifically. Cause fancy cheese = prestige to him. He was a lot of fun to play.
9:20 Funnily enough, I'm about to play my first Tabletop RPG (D&D 5e with the Planeshift: Innistrad expansion) and made a Trickster Cleric with the Urchin background and his main goal is: I want money, though at least I have a rather funny reason. He was a street urchin almost ready to kill himself to get some peace before finding Avacyn's (The once archangel of order, now bat shit insane killing machine) teachings and misinterpreting her rule of order as gold because he's noticed that those without gold lack order. So now he proclaims himself a Cleric of Avacyn, and rambles on about his love of/need of/general worship of 'Order' while using 'Order' to gold 90% of the time.
An important thing to remember is: the dm is not your enemy! He is there to form the world but should not be your enemy.
Do not try things other people failed at without reason (someone checks for traps and find nothing bcs he only rolled mediocre and you decide (without reason) to check too)
Stealing from other players is ok IF you have a reason. Maybe someone else looted a crown and wants to keep it but you (bcs of your own story) are searching for a crown but cannot get it form the other player, then you can try to take it away.
+muligan I salute you sir
Thanks for the advice :) Just started playing with a bunch of friends and none of us have ever done this before. It's cool to see how passionate you are about the game. Thanks and keep up the good work!
Cant wait for the new d&december
I created a character for a campaign I'm going to host. He's a powerful character, yet is not the noble hero. He's a Han Solo type yet with more attachment.
He's the captain of a crew of space pirates and he watches after his crew as if it was a mother looking out for her children, but if anyone else has problems, he will ignore them.
I also made him mysterious but I made him light hearted. He's not like the "I have a really tragic backstory that I'll never talk about. Grrrr."
He's more like. "Your life was shit. I appeared and made it not shit. You whole heartily agreed and didn't ask any questions. You also don't know what I look like."
Which the last part is important since he's a wanted man and if anyone sees his face, he won't have an Identity to return to when all hell breaks loose.
He's like the anti-hero x superhero, with a motherly side.
I find that interesting.
+U1timate1nferno Hey man, it sounds like you are GMing. Here's a tip for ya: People will most likely not get to know that character, players have a tendency to just treat NPCs as ... well, NPCs. So be prepared to have your players ignore your awesome Han Solo and instead decide to thoroughly interrogate some random farmer they saw, eventually deciding to make him the next king or something. Also, if this NPC is to be a companion to the players' party, ensure that he doesn't end up an a DMPC, because that is rarely fun for anybody.
+Archerion I know. For the first bit he's going to be a companion then as the characters get stronger he's going to move on to other things when everyone can handle themselves, since it's a different story with new mechanics.
Besides they also can't ditch him since he's their only way of travel.
+U1timate1nferno I like when I hear about characters without tragic backstories I don't dislike Tragic backstories but I think they are way too over done. Most of my characters still have a mom and dad and home village and all that. unless something happens to them after the game starts they will have a home to got back too.
+U1timate1nferno
Be extremely careful about GMNPCs they "cannot ditch" that, on top of it, helps them 'when they can't handle themselves'. A lot of roleplayers get very, very, very annoyed at these. I'd honestly make him an option instead. A good one, certainly- but if you give options, you're making it better for everyone involved. If your players think they'd be stupid not to take his offer, they'll want him. If they feel they must, well...
+LaserLance125 GFS Not like a god powerful. He just has high stats. The statistics of a character all comes down to chance. I just got lucky when creating his and got high rolls.
On the note about describing attacks, my experience as a GM for Star Wars RPG (that edition was heavily based on Pathfinder which was drawn from D&D) has been that I describe half of the attack. Player: "I'm taking cover behind the cantina counter. I pop out to shoot at the trooper that was shooting at me last round." Roll for attack. Roll for damage. Me: "The bolt smacks him in the chest. He stumbles back but he is still standing. Smoke rises from the new mark on his armor past his helmet. You can't see his face, but the soulless eyes of his helmet are fixed on you and you can practically feel his glare."
As for the video as a whole, you are making all good points. Most seem to boil down to being interesting. The game is about all the players creating a story together. In all honesty, would you want to see a movie about perfect people doing everything correct? Not really. The best characters have a "but" in their description. "Awesome mage, but he gets sick all the time." Do creative things in fights, work with your teammates, and be interesting characters (not just players). In the end, you should have tons of interesting stories that you just can't wait to share!
LOL the add ends it cuts back to "BE THAT GUY!"
actually at 16:02 i disagree. I think being a character who steals a lot of stuff or a lone wolf can be fun, if done correctly. Like if you want to be a lone wolf i think thats fine, but do what your character would do and not just what you think is cool.
6:15 SO true! It's so much for fun to play your characters weaknesses and give them depth, rather than play an invincible tank of a character that does nothing besides grind through enemies. I have a friend who ALWAYS tries to make the best, most well-rounded character. Sure, his characters are well-equipped to deal with any challenge, but they're just not interesting or very fun!
That Baldur's Gate 1 music in the background. Aww yeaaaa.
Jumpayh Bi-Ohmes
You are the first in over two years to recognize it. Well done!
+Ashvoreth BG1 music, then Neverwinter Nights 1 tavern music.
Diath: He's not that kind of thief.
"What does your character want" I was thinking about this question a lot when i made my first character earlier this year, and it all kept coming back to gold, but it was because of the story I wrote for her. She came from a family who took her in and who worked for their wealth, but never did anything with the money. They lived humbly, in an average house on the outskirts of a major city, her father was a fairly successful merchant who died when she was 17, leaving the money to her brother who died under mysterious circumastances. When the money was left to Valkaer, the bank took it, claiming that because she wasn't officially a family member, that the money wasn't hers.
That's why she wants money, she's on a rampage to get back whats hers, and that's one of her flaws, too. She immediately distrusts any form of bureaucracy, so much so that our second session ended with her getting thrown in jail for the night for nearly assaulting the mayor after he blamed her for starting a fight with a local gang.
How to be a good player: Don't be a metagaming murder hobo jerk, and don't be an uninvested potato
I really haven't played much D&D, but every time I have played there's been that one "lone wolf" player off in the corner brooding. I always wonder why they do it.
I really hope DNDcember comes back this year. This was great Jared. As a fellow avid DND fan I love these videos and they bring back great memories.
You want interesting? Be a fighter multiclass into Barbarian. Roleplay the first time you rage. Attack whoever's closest, even if it's a party member.
That's fun, right? Right?
^that guy
I think that while that is an interesting choice, you would have to tell that to the people you're playing with, because it can be seen as annoying and unhelpful.
My brother friend objective was having money to buy beer.
I like that you mentioned giving characters weaknesses. For example, I once made a half-elf druid who was born in the desert, so she did well in hot environments but was terrible in the cold.
Make an interesting character... I may have gone overboard on that one. let's just say I made someone who was raised by basilisks.
J hart I guess he is ... Sly as a snake (like creature ) now then lemme just hop on this creature of mine and FUCKING FLEE!!! I KNOW MY MOTHER FUCKIN BOUNDRIES!!!
J hart in the same vein as that one of my character's mother was a dragon
zachary wilson Dragon Born. Isn't too far fetch as mine in actuality.
I'd do that. 5 more minutes and I would have thought of that! That's awesome!
So...you made a statue?