“Beyond the books” is definitely something that new players usually don’t find out until they play for a while and something that (imo) enhances DND A TON so I’m glad you made a point about it in this video!
Not many players - or GM's - think to strip a class or subclass of its thematic elements and look strictly at their core mechanics - what the action does and how it changes the world. You took the Rune Knight's Chains, took away the giant theme and its fiery nature, and then transformed it into something that wouldn't be out of place in a Lovecraft universe. What's more, I couldn't tell at first whether this character was a rogue, a warlock, or a ranger - imagine my surprise when you revealed it was a Fighter! Interesting! Mysterious! Different! Superb! Please make more character videos like this. Examples like this help inspire us to transform the old into something new and original. Keep it up!
Thanks for the abundantly kind words. Utilising core elements under all the stubborn fluff is absolutely something I'm aiming to explore more in future.
Gotta tell you man, you make some quality content and I’m eager to watch your channel grow. Love the idea and I’m going to use this way of thinking on my next character.
This reminds me of one I made for a game I joined when the rest of the players were fifth level, so I had quite a bit to work with in making a character. The game was Pathfinder in its first edition, so it might not work with other systems. I took a bit of inspiration from the story of the Herla Cynning, which is an English variation of the Wild Hunt and the Ghillie Dhu, which is a Scottish fairy tale. I used the Seelie template for a goblin Druid to make a Squire of the Kennels for an archfey named the Grey King. My idea was to make a goblin that couldn’t be tracked, but was a master of stealth, tracking and survival. Since I had the feats to create magic items, I had a lot more starting money to play with and I spent most of it on a stronghold deep in the forest and a small tribe of goblins that I used wild shape to convince I was a lesser hero-god of hunting, farming and nature, in hope that it would awaken a real god. Thus was born Runt the Ratcatcher. By putting limitations on who could use the magic items I created, it reinforced the belief in the goblin hirelings that I was a god, because things like my Flaming Spear +1 only worked in the hands of a goblin Druid. All of that came from wanting the trackless step ability of a Druid for my character.
I'm a big advocate of exactly this. I reflavor everything. The most interesting characters to me are something that you could not build out of a book. I recently played a kensai monk in Eberron as an inner city gunslinger and thief whose abilities were themed as being from a gauntlet made by her genius kid brother that magically affected local time. She could skip forward in time to dash, speed herself up to dodge, slow down projectiles to catch them, slow herself down when falling, or wind it backwards on herself to heal herself. Stunning strike was essentially her freezing an enemy still for a few seconds. Shame I never got to finish that campaign.
“Beyond the books” is definitely something that new players usually don’t find out until they play for a while and something that (imo) enhances DND A TON so I’m glad you made a point about it in this video!
Not many players - or GM's - think to strip a class or subclass of its thematic elements and look strictly at their core mechanics - what the action does and how it changes the world. You took the Rune Knight's Chains, took away the giant theme and its fiery nature, and then transformed it into something that wouldn't be out of place in a Lovecraft universe. What's more, I couldn't tell at first whether this character was a rogue, a warlock, or a ranger - imagine my surprise when you revealed it was a Fighter! Interesting! Mysterious! Different! Superb!
Please make more character videos like this. Examples like this help inspire us to transform the old into something new and original. Keep it up!
Thanks for the abundantly kind words. Utilising core elements under all the stubborn fluff is absolutely something I'm aiming to explore more in future.
Gotta tell you man, you make some quality content and I’m eager to watch your channel grow. Love the idea and I’m going to use this way of thinking on my next character.
Your channel is so underrated, love your stuff.
This reminds me of one I made for a game I joined when the rest of the players were fifth level, so I had quite a bit to work with in making a character. The game was Pathfinder in its first edition, so it might not work with other systems.
I took a bit of inspiration from the story of the Herla Cynning, which is an English variation of the Wild Hunt and the Ghillie Dhu, which is a Scottish fairy tale. I used the Seelie template for a goblin Druid to make a Squire of the Kennels for an archfey named the Grey King.
My idea was to make a goblin that couldn’t be tracked, but was a master of stealth, tracking and survival. Since I had the feats to create magic items, I had a lot more starting money to play with and I spent most of it on a stronghold deep in the forest and a small tribe of goblins that I used wild shape to convince I was a lesser hero-god of hunting, farming and nature, in hope that it would awaken a real god. Thus was born Runt the Ratcatcher. By putting limitations on who could use the magic items I created, it reinforced the belief in the goblin hirelings that I was a god, because things like my Flaming Spear +1 only worked in the hands of a goblin Druid.
All of that came from wanting the trackless step ability of a Druid for my character.
I'm a big advocate of exactly this. I reflavor everything. The most interesting characters to me are something that you could not build out of a book. I recently played a kensai monk in Eberron as an inner city gunslinger and thief whose abilities were themed as being from a gauntlet made by her genius kid brother that magically affected local time. She could skip forward in time to dash, speed herself up to dodge, slow down projectiles to catch them, slow herself down when falling, or wind it backwards on herself to heal herself. Stunning strike was essentially her freezing an enemy still for a few seconds. Shame I never got to finish that campaign.