5 Most Common Character Creation MISTAKES In D&D

here are the five most common mistakes beginners make when building their characters in D and D 5. the bad backstory now you've probably heard that your backstory shouldn't be too long and this is true the best backstories are simple your uncle is shot boom Spider-Man your parents are shot boom Batman someone makes the worst quesadilla in the world boom you got Taco Bell but there's more here than just keeping it simple in truth a good backstory needs to do two things one give you a reason to go adventuring with the party two give you a name any name it doesn't matter so your backstory could be that you are a chef who wants to eat every type of food on the planet you are friendly and trusting and terrified of vegans and your name is Charles and that's it great backstory I've seen players create huge backstories family trees maps of places that they've been but never actually given themselves a motivation all all players make a simple backstory about their childhood but they don't give themselves a reason to Adventure with the party you know an in-character excuse to play the game if you have those two things literally anything else can work you can even be evil if you want but you absolutely must have a reason to work with and cooperate with the other player characters you're an evil demon who tries to kill everyone they see that's a bad character you're an evil demon who wants to kill everyone they see at first but has the emotional intelligence to form bonds of friendship that's an awesome concept with some real potential for character growth and cool storytelling remember backstories are there to help you they are not a 300 page homework assignment you need to complete before you even get to play the game which actually brings us to the next point 4. the locked in fallacy we all know that realistic characters grow and change over time but also so do you after a few sessions of hand hanging out as your character you will naturally start to imagine their history and their future in your spare time you'll realize it makes sense that your father was a sailor and your mother was an eagle charging five gold a pop for a sexy message via the sending spell your character and backstory will naturally grow as you play people forget this but you can change stuff it's completely allowed just mention it to your DM just say hey I think I want to go in a different direction instead new players might be more used to games like Mass Effect where once you've chosen your class at the start of the game you're locked in for the rest of the journey if you get to level three and you're not connecting with your subclass or class or even your race just change it I knew a guy who was playing a fighter who eventually got bored so he and the DM cooked up this epic twist we're in a fight with a Vampire he killed it absorbed its Soul which withered his body and gave him magic powers boom he swapped his strength and Charisma scores and became a explain Warlock and another option you always have is to swap out your characters temporarily send your main character on holiday while they're on holiday replace them with another character for three months to stretch your legs with a different play style the beauty of this game is you are never locked in not even to your stats oh God we've got to talk about stats yes I am naked but naked the Celts were so badass they fought naked and I'm into that body positive genital power but why Celts you ask oh only because of vagabond's guide to Dariana it's a DND 5e Celtic inspired setting packed with subclasses spells magic items deities Maps NPCs law locations monsters and more we're talking leprechauns banshees bagpipes and shenanigans out now on Kickstarter every backer gets a free copy of the battle of karagarth Adventure and if you pledge in the first 48 Hours you also get the three look coins and emerald Heist Adventures for free it's everything you need to run and play epic games in a beautiful setting link below so get your genitals out or don't whatever and grab vagabonds going to Dariana out now on Kickstarter link below right where my balls are 3. the ability score myth we all know there are six stats in d d strength dexterity wisdom intelligence Charisma and thickness luckily for new players the guides to the class you choose will tell you which stats you should prioritize but the big mistake a lot of new players make is taking their stats literally and this is going to blow your mind a lot of experienced players do this too let's say you play a wizard Wizards need High Intelligence to function their attack rolls and saving throws are all based off intelligence it might sound really funny to play a wizard with low intelligence but in terms of actual gameplay that would suck because your character couldn't do anything unfortunately you need High Intelligence it's a hard lesson to learn but beginners you just have to role play Wizards who are smart except of course you don't that's dumb this is d d if you want to be a stupid wizard be one I mean I mean sure invest highly in intelligence so mechanically speaking you can still play the game game but in terms of role play honey you role play the stupidest goddamn wizard you dare I have a master's degree I spent six years in higher education some of my best friends are high intelligence people who I swear to God are some of the dumbest [ __ ] you'd ever meet if you want to be an intelligent Barbarian despite dumping your intelligent stats go for it you can still be knowledgeable insightful and eloquent the intelligent score is there to tell you how good your character is at Arcana checks but playing an intelligent character well that's completely up to how you want to play two worrying about role play okay time for the sappy music role play can be scary acting is not something most of us are used to sometimes we play D D with people we don't know too well and that can bring up very understandable anxieties around performing okay now time for a slap of reality this is your game you can role play as much or as little as you like ignore every Reddit thread you've ever seen praising DMS who force people to role play new players can get really caught up on accents or not knowing what to say and that's totally normal role play is not something you can force it's got to be something you want to do and that means it has to be optional any anxiety you feel about performing or role playing I want you to stop and leave it behind d d is a complicated game so start off by making it as simple as you can don't worry about your accent don't worry about speaking in character if you find that intimidating instead speak in third person just say my character asks the merchant if he's heard any rumors that's totally fine nobody is going to judge you as you get more comfortable with the game and your character you will naturally start to unlock their voice remember that critical role in dimension 20 these are entertainment shows although it is still D and D these people are performers first and their job is to entertain us and they're really good at it but you're playing d d for yourself not to entertain an audience so let go of any pressure to perform your character you deserve to come to a session excited and happy to play not feeling stressed out this is a really common mistake and something that can even frighten new players off trying D and D altogether role play skills are learned you're not born with them maybe your 95 year old bisexual Cobalt Bard picks up an accent across the campaign but he doesn't have to it's your choice one building in secret this is maybe the biggest mistake in d d and a lot of experienced players do this too this all comes from a simple misunderstanding new players see that the DM is controlling the monsters and well the monsters are the bad guys right so they think well I'm Gonna Keep a few tricks up my sleeve no need to tell the DMO about this epic 420 combo I'm planning because then the monsters will know about it and maybe they'll be prepared but there are two main problems here firstly if you prepare a powerful combo to war crime Slaughter all your enemies it might catch the DM off guard worst case scenario if you have a bad or an anxious DM they might actually get angry they might instantly ban the combo which is boring for everyone they might even get vengeful and try to punish you for trying it which is terrible dming but sadly it can happen you probably have an awesome DM who wouldn't react in those ways but even if you do you're still putting them in a more challenging situation than if you'd told them about the combat we're all friends at the table we want everyone to have the most fun possible instead of keeping it secret say to your DM hey this build is a cool idea and I want to do it that lets them understand what you're aiming to do so they can set you up for your heroic moments and also lets them prepare some challenges for you so it doesn't get too easy even better if the DM knows what you're trying to achieve they can help you achieve it if your dream is to pull off a badass Paladin xplay sorcerer who multi-attacks and then Quicken casts green flame blade for massive damage well that kind of requires you to be at least level 11. but if you told your DM hey this is my dream they can say [ __ ] yeah let's Homebrew you up a magic item that lets you quick and cast can trips and get you there five levels sooner the DM's job is to make sure everyone including themselves is having fun and you can only help them by communicating your aspirations for your character remember powerful builds and combos have nothing to do with player versus DM philosophy but if you try to sneak these into games to beat your DM you are running the risk of transforming it into more of a toxic antagonistic relationship which is no fun for anyone communication is King and it makes the game and you're already awesome character even more awesome remember to check out the DM secret weapon on patreon it's got a ton of new races subclasses Maps adventures and loads more join today to get four full magazines and a bonus Adventure right away that is 60 worth of content for just 10 bucks also remember to like And subscribe check out other videos on the channel and I'll see you next time

Channel: DnD Shorts

Views: 326,110

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Id: BRml8JywieY

Length: 10min 44sec (644 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 15 2023