Hello friends, Ginny Di here And today we are gonna talk about flavor And no, I'm not talking about
the official D&D cookbook Although I do have a cooking
show where I make recipes from it So check it out in the cards I'm talking about narrative flavor Thematic details that don't actually
affect the mechanics of gameplay In my opinion, flavor is one of the best parts of playing an imaginative
role-playing game like D&D And magic is one of the most
fun places to show it off So today I'm gonna walk you through how to come up with your own unique
flavor for your spellcasting character Before we get into the how-to, I just want to
dig a little deeper into what flavor actually is The simplest explanation is that
flavor is any descriptive element that doesn't affect the mechanics of play To be clear, you can flavor a
lot more than just spell-casting You can flavor how your character fights, what their armor or weapons look like, how they perform a check or a save I just want to talk spells today because
I think they're super fun to play with But these suggestions could easily be adapted to flavor other elements of your gameplay Also flavor is already built into some spells For example when you cast Chill Touch It's described right there in the
handbook as a ghostly skeletal hand The way that it looks doesn't have any
effect on how you roll your ranged attack or how much damage you do It's just flavor But where it gets really fun
is creating your own flavor For example, when my warlock Aisling
looks through the eyes of her familiar Nightshade the pseudodragon I describe her own eyes going
full black iris and whites with sort of an oil slick purple
sheen like Nightshade's own scales This is a visual that helps me and the other players at the
table visualize what's happening And just makes this particular
action feel cool and interesting You don't even have to accept the
flavor that the handbook provides But one crucial part of all of this is
that you need to communicate with your DM Some DMs will be really open to flavor and others may prefer you to stick a
little closer to what's in the handbook Some may even allow you to change
mechanics to suit the flavors Such as Matt Mercer in Critical Role allowing Jester's Hellish Rebuke to
deal cold damage instead of fire damage Everything in this video is
predicated on the assumption that you are in communication with your DM Okay? Okay. Let's get started Every spell has components listed which are just the requirements to cast the spell Components can be verbal, somatic, or material These can be a great entry
point for figuring out flavor You might want to describe
how you use these components Or if your spellcaster uses an arcane or
divine focus, what that focus looks like and how they use that Caleb in Critical Role is a great
example of a very literal way to translate the listed
components into flavor description He always describes pulling a specific
material item out of the component pouch like bat guano for Fireball and then doing something with it,
like rolling it in his fingers It's a great narrative reminder that Caleb
as a wizard, is casting magic through study He's practiced and prepared for and
memorized all of the steps to cast a spell Since my character Aisling is a
warlock she has an arcane focus which she can use in place of components So when she casts a spell I often describe her as reaching up to hold
the vial of soil that she wears around her neck and then performing the somatic
gestures with her free hand For verbal components ask yourself what exactly is your
character saying when they cast a spell Maybe Aisling, since her patron is
fae, speaks her spells in Sylvan the language of the fae If you play a bard, you may ask what
verbal component of Hideous Laughter is perceived by the target as being so funny Speaking of which, allow me to shamelessly plug my Tasha's Hideous Laughter video from last week which contains 50 terrible D&D jokes that
would be perfect flavor for casting that spell If a spell does damage you can look to the damaged type for
ideas on how to flavor that damage For example if a spell does fire
damage, where does that fire come from? How does it move? What color is it? Maybe your character speaks a few words of power and their material components ignite in their hand and then they toss it towards their target When it hits it explodes into
a mass of arcane green flames Or maybe they simply extend their
hand to point at their target And the ground beneath them
begins to glimmer with embers before snake-like streams of licking flames
rise up from the earth to circle their body Aisling's patron is a homebrew
archfey called the woman of the soil She has the spell Chill Touch
which deals necrotic damage So to combine that death energy
with the soil theme of her magic I thought of grave dirt, I thought
of people being buried in the ground Instead of one big ghost
hand like the spell describes I imagine lots of crumbling
little hands formed of dirt and rotting bits of plant matter emerging from the ground and clutching
at the target's feet and clothes Like they're trying to drag
them down into the earth If it suits your character This might be a place that your DM could
allow you to make changes to the damage type As long as they don't think that it's going
to seriously skew how effective the spell is But that's starting to get into homebrew
territory which some DMs just may not be into So remember that you can still flavor damage without actually making mechanical changes If you want your multi-class
wizard/cleric to cast a fireball that appears as a glowing golden burst of
divine energy you can still describe it that way even if it deals fire damage If you're feeling like there is a lot
to keep track of while playing D&D I feel you Not only is it hard to take notes while playing But it's even harder to take notes that are
organized enough to go back and reference later That's why 1985 Games has sponsored this video to share their newest Kickstarter: Dungeon Notes These simple little journals are
designed to make it as easy as possible to take and revisit organized notes There's a player's journal for your character
sheet, spells, items, and session notes complete with a customizable index And even a little tracker for
crafting or skill training where you can log how many hours
you've put in towards specific goals For DMs you can use the session notes journal to keep track of your players' AC,
passive perception, and max hit points or to jot down stat blocks and sketch out maps Plus, grab the campaign notes journal
to keep track of larger scale info like your world's deities, and factions, historical timelines, and
important locations and NPCs For more flexible or disposable notes They have also designed
these little sticky note pads So that DMs can keep track of things
like initiative order or last minute NPCs And players can easily keep tabs on hit
points and spell slots session by session Instead of constantly erasing and
rewriting on your character sheet If you've been interested in D&D journals before but found it difficult to justify the price point especially for multiple characters you are going to love how
accessible dungeon notes is Check out their Kickstarter at the
link in the description to learn more and make your own pledge Most spells are available to multiple classes But that doesn't mean the
spell has to look the same when used by casters who draw their
magic from very different sources Thinking about where your class gets their magic can inform how they might
cast each spell differently For example, Pass Without Trace would
probably look very different for a ranger than it looks for a druid For a ranger, Pass Without Trace might mean that they're familiar enough with the land that they can lead their party through
areas that are quieter or darker They have a magically granted understanding of which plants will rustle loudly when disturbed or which types of dirt will
retain clear footprints which animals will cry out when they see a person Meanwhile a druid's version of Pass Without Trace might mean that nature shapes itself around your party as they travel Twigs choosing to snap more
quietly beneath your feet A slight breeze causing the shadows of
leaves to shift to conceal your passage Aisling is a multi-class warlock/druid
but she was a warlock first and her druidic origin is still
tied to her warlock patron So I tend to flavor even her druid spells
with sort of a dark, spooky, warlock-y feel You can also bring elements of your character's personality into how they cast spells Are they really showy and attention seeking? Maybe they speak their verbal
components in a booming voice make grand gestures Maybe there are effects that come alongside the spell that are purely for show Or if they're shy, they might whisper
or mumble their verbal components And perform more subtle gestures If they get angry easily they might
be the type to hurl their spells Or deliver them with martial looking strikes Or maybe the magic itself is red
and orange and aggressive looking If they're a very precise detail-oriented person Their spell casting might be very intricate or the magic might manifest
itself in geometric patterns If you're not sure what your
character's personality is I have a video to help with that,
you can check it out in the cards Aesthetic and theme can come into play here too For example, Aisling has
flowers growing from her hair So when she wildshapes there are also flowers growing from the fur or feathers of whatever creature she's turned into Digging into your character's history
can also inform their spell casting How did they learn these spells? If they learned magic in a school
or in some sort of structured way They might be methodical and
do the same thing every time A spellcaster like that might warm up each morning practice their somatic movements
in the evenings before bed they may even mutter the
memorized steps to themselves or count them as they cast If their spell attack misses it might be described as them forgetting or mispronouncing a word Their community or geographic
location can also have an impact Maybe a caster who was raised
in a sea-faring community sings or chants their verbal components like a sea shanty a work
song to time their rowing to Or maybe a caster raised
by a militant tribe or clan learned to channel their magic through weapons Aisling learned her magic
while living in a community that judged and shunned her adoptive
mother who was labeled as a witch So her magic in some ways
comes from a place of shame She's never going to be a showy caster because she grew up believing that magic
was something to hide and feel guilty about I imagine this means that she
speaks verbal components quietly She probably hunches and turns away from
people while making somatic gestures In the end, as long as the mechanics stay the same you do not have to do the same
things that everyone else is doing Have a perpetually sniffly character
who cast spells by sneezing Cast ranged spells by folding your components into a paper airplane and throwing it Make all of your verbal components worthless yells Cast spells through dance Do whatever sounds fun and interesting to you I feel like I always say this, but it's a game And better yet, it's a game where we
have total control over how it's played So why not do crazy things? D&D is the absolute last place you
should be thinking inside the box I'd love to hear about how you flavor
your spells and actions in the comments And as always if you have any tabletop
gaming or character building questions that you would like me to
answer, please let me know!
