Your D&D Character Builds SUCK. This is why.

there are five reasons player character builds undermine the whole point of tabletop RPGs and it's your fault my fault their fault and everyone else's fault that it's gotten so bad okay everyone good and ticked off all right let me cook listen this will be a bit of a satirical rant cranked up to 11 to appease our 8sec attention spans if you're having a jolly old time with your coffee locks or your p locks or your sniper locks or rolling up a dozen different character builds by yourself which never see the faux mahogany surface of your game table sounds like a worthwhile Pastime this video isn't going to convince you otherwise your fun is valid you play however you want and if you're a D and D tuber that's ever uttered anything in the ballpark of uh these top five D and D builds are absolutely brok just know that I bear you no ill will this is YouTube it's not that serious you keep getting that paper girlfriend y look at them views this video is for the few who were like me once upon a time Haggard blur eyed broken wondering why don't these games feel like they used to why does D and D feel like a video game with extra steps why does 60 seconds of combat Take 6 years on a good day why am I bored of a game system where I can literally do anything except that I can't and I'll tell you why but first we got to go back back to the beginning Dungeons and drons G GX and David arnison are nerds I'm talking basement dwelling lead paint sniffing War Gamers and together together they wrote Three Little Brown books called Dungeons and Dragons game products of your imagination inspired by their experience from war gaming except this time you don't get an army you play as one guy who can choose between a whopping three classes fighting men magic users and clerics a year later your grandpa was already getting DLC in the form of 1975's greyhawk supplement where Gary added the Paladin and the thief class but the thief class had these things called skills skills like open locks pick pockets and putting your ear up to the door this was weird because the other classes were already doing most of what the thief now apparently does but now there's these abilities that only apply to the thief before the DLC everyone was disarming traps and sneaking around things so can only thieves do this stuff now Gary if not then why would I ever want to play a thief Gary make it make sense Gary Brooks daily in his article the danger of skills from knock issue one makes a fantastic case that in tabletop RPGs when a rule system had no mechanic for a specific ability or skill you just did it there was no horse riding skill in the Brown books there was no rules on how to ride your horsey you just did it fast forward to Third Edition and now you're locked behind the ride skill now we objectively know you're bad at riding and you've got to invest your precious points into ride if you want to settle up partner but you play however you want when a rule system makes something a mechanic it codifies it blocking it off from what Brooks calls the common domain of play you can't do the thingy unless you pick the thingy at character creation or level up why is this a bad thing in tabletop RPGs well we got to jump forward forward to my first exper experience playing tabletop roleplay games this 18-year-old high school graduate is a nerd I'm talking video gaming peaked in high school theater kid nerd I played the Phantom in my high school's Phantom of the Opera that's great kid my first time playing a tabletop RPG was in a Star Wars saga game as a gungan Jedi named mean mean nups and yes I played him exactly how you think but I distinctly remember several minutes into my first game thinking wow I can do anything or in character oh Lisa can't do anything and I've been trying to chase that same sense of autonomy and agency in every game since some of my favorite memories in this hobby is when I'm dming a brand new player and I see that spark in their eye just after a few minutes of awkward bewilderment that in these games the only limit that what they can do it's limited only by their creativity but spend a few more sessions in a perusal of the player handbook maybe watch a YouTube video or two about their class and now they start to see the code within the Matrix and that's not a good thing reason why these games play so much better at lower levels and then unravel at high level is because you're equally bad at almost everything at low level therefore nearly any option could be a viable option but get a few levels invest a few skills pick up a feed or two and now your level six character is down to about oh three good options at least back then the Grog nards had a chance most of the early tabletop RPG fans were coming from old war game when they brought their strategizing experience and compressed it into a single character they used tactics to overcome obstacles and monsters in the dungeon every item spell ability their character possessed was seen as a tool beyond what was written on the block of text Wizards were using the light spell as flashbangs 10-ft poles were the S tier trap finders your skill at playing D and D wasn't what you chose at character creation but rather how creatively you could use the tools at your disposal today most players myself included come into the hobby from a video gaming background and the additions have been codified to represent features and abilities like you'd see in a video game it's not as bad in fifth edition as it was compared to like oh I don't know fourth but the build mentality is still there but it's not your fault that you do this guess what I don't hate optimizers because I'm an Optimizer I played my fair share of these games I dabbled in Pathfinder we as human beings have this natural tendency to want to make the optimized Choice whether it's deciding between a great sword or a great Axe or how I can get the best bang on my last five bucks on a McDonald's menu when we're presented a choice We tend to look for the best one and when you put a bunch of codified features behind Feats or sub classes we start seeing ways to make those features built off of one another but in doing so we actually narrow our options into a creative bundle and while this works fine for video games or board games where there's a set number of things one can really do on one's turn this doesn't play out as well as when Misa can do anything Pop Quiz silver the wood elf Ranger over here spent six levels and three feets around her crossbow if eight Undead zombies were to pop out of the ground should she a pull out a flask of holy water she's had in her backpack since Session One B reach over and pull her wizard friend out of the zombie melee range or C crossbow oh no silver walked into a room full of cultist about to lower a puppy into a pool of lava should she a convince the the cult leader that orcus is more of a cat guy than a dog guy B sneak behind the orcus statue and pretend to be a orc for crossbow uh-oh silver played Dota 2 for 6 hours straight and forgot to Tha the chicken for tonight's dinner her mother is pulling in the driveway as we speak should she a try to crossb I once had a player willingly jump down a bottomless pit to his potential death because his plus three great sword fell down said bottomless pit and God forbid he p a backup weapon that he didn't invest his entire character and personality around the problem is that pretty much every build is using the same measuring stick po that how quick can you un alive the other guy before he unives you that's the value of your worth in this game but hey you play however you want you've built a hammer and now everything in my world looks a little nailly and if I create a game world that doesn't Focus around a go mentality you're going to feel left out but hey if you're just here for the combat system well I've got some great news for you buddy hey I know scheduling's been real tough lately but guess what you can have just as much fun with your Optimizer mentality without us where everything is automated the math is perfect every time you don't even need to use your imagination it's called video games what you want is a f game reason number two why character builds suck is because other mediums do it better so why are we flipping through rules arguing with our friends over the grapple rules I'm looking at you mathf finder when we could all go play Diablo instead it's quicker it's easier it's flashier I play tabletop RPGs because they can offer strengths no video game or board game or Choose Your Own Adventure book can emulate and the combat system is not one of those strengths so forgive me if I don't want to play through 30 minutes of fun crammed between 4 hours of tedious brain dead tactics you call Dynamic where everyone's nose is buried in their character sheet pressing paper buttons that the game allows them to push well you play them but fact is it'll never change within the mainstream tabletop Community because of bro and Wizards of the Coast and P and tabletop RPG businesses in general they figured it out guys they figured it out for years builds and sub classes and ancestry traits and feeds will be here to stay because it makes money I get it tabletop RPGs aren't exactly a great product to get rich off of but of course there are some exceptions because once you've purchased the core rules of a game system you're good you're great you don't need anything heck these rules are free online you don't need to spend a dime on this hobby what's a company to do DLC expansion books more classes more Feats more spells more game yay but they have to be a little better than what you can get in the core rules because why would someone buy them otherwise look at all these combinations you can try look at all the builds we can do I can be a bird person I never wanted to be a bird person adult this very second look at how much freedom and character expression in these mechanical options that I can only get in Al sto's book of weeabo fighting magic but hey you that's just business baby that's just business and you keep buying it and L and behold your game becomes a bloated mess you've got rules for things you didn't even know you needed rules for players bringing in builds that let them roll 3D 20s for attack rolls they saw on a YouTube short and you get Shenanigans like silvery barbs slipping through the cracks now you're Banning books spell lists sub classes just so your game is tolerable and where did it all go wrong how could this have possibly happened how could they ruin Dungeons and Dragons oh look a new addition is coming why do people build out their characters from Level 1 through 12 before even the first game when you build your character eight levels out what's the point in even playing that character how does there two level dip in warlock makes sense oh it doesn't you just wanted agonizing blast as a decent range option got it oh and let me just chase this multiclassing rabbit for a bit that's the cutest thing I've ever seen in my you want to open up a cane of worms allow multi class pass in it's not like role playing games are about playing a role in a team dynamic or anything just let the players cherry-pick their favorite features from each class so they don't have to rely on others to cover their weaknesses you don't want to gut your rule system just don't allow multiclassing and it'll solve a good chunk of your problems but hey don't listen to me you to me as a game master I want the character's abilities to reflect on the choices they make in the game World rather than because they followed a flowchart that they bookmarked on rpgbot oh look they all picked one of the blue ones I think Feats specific subass abilities and even class dips are more interesting when it's GM facing rather than player facing using them as Quest Rewards or accomplishments made within the game world what's more interesting you deciding whether to take the poar master feed at level four or at level eight or you earning polar master by finding the legendary monk of the four wins and defeating him in a one-on-one sparring match this touches on the last problem with builds in that it's now become this fourth pillar in the tabletop RPG sphere but it's the least interesting because it's a game problem to be solved away from the game table alone rather than at the game table with your friends congratulations you beat D and D you can kill anything in two rounds you have an AC of 30 now what don't worry I've been down this road before and I'll tell you where it leads you solved the problem that was character creation your build encourages you to use the same tactics every fight creativity goes out the window you're bored three sessions in you blame the GM for making the game too easy your fellow players feel useless because they keep going down in all these amped up fights made to keep you playing you find a new build idea while scrolling through shorts in between your combat turn you buy the supplemental book look you guilt trip your DM to allow it in her game it's an official Source book after all those Wizards of the Coast know exactly what they're doing after all you have fun for three more sessions you get bored you complain your group can't seem to schedule a session all of the sudden weeks go by you build three more characters just in case why does nobody want to play with me you ask what could I have possibly done wrong you question the void I'm only doing what the game tells me to do I'm only following the rules after all well you play however you want I had my fun with builds when I was a college freshman with nothing but time on my hands but after a job a life these things called responsibilities I don't have time to build the perfect character I don't have the desire to playr and experience I can get from my untouched steam Library I want to spend my limited free time playing tabletop RPGs that simulate a Fantastical world that me and three to five other nerds have created together using rules that give me a sense of that Misa can really do anything I'm not telling you to trash a rule set I'm not telling you that your fun is bad I don't care what you play but I wasn't having fun and this was why so what's the solution you ain't going to like it but if you want to encourage players to play more creatively Beyond what's written on their character sheet or on a splash book you need a rule system that's a bit more uh lighter in nature I'll let my YouTube friends who share my frustrations give some recommendations in the comments below and sure there's a bunch of hacks and home brw you can tack on your game but there comes a point when you got to ask yourself how much more duct tape should I wrap this in before it's better off to start over with a better core system for my game but hey you play however you want right

Channel: Deficient Master

Views: 137,163

Keywords: dnd, dungeons and dragons, d&d, ttrpg, pathfinder, rpg, game master, dungeon master, dm

Id: QSceUoEHfOU

Length: 17min 6sec (1026 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 19 2024