There are a million videos and resources out there about how to build an effective wizard,
where to put your stats, what subclasses and spells to pick. But I'm not here to
talk about the numbers. I'm here to talk about the character. This video is a guide to
creating your wizard's backstory and personality, so you'll
be equipped for all the hours of gameplay that take place
outside of initiative order. I trust that you've got this part handled. So let's talk about this part. - Hi there! - This is my wizard character. She's gonna be our example today. So you can see these tips in action. Go on, introduce yourself. - Wisteria Skitterquick Appledackle! Yes, those Appledackles. I'm a gnome, a wizard, a Libra, and I enjoy long walks
on the Sword Coa-- - Okay, rein it in. Now, being a wizard doesn't
single-handedly create a character's personality, but
I think it's a great starting point because your class choice
really does inform a huge chunk of what you actually
do during gameplay. So open up a new document
or grab a sheet of paper and let's create your wizard's character, starting with backstory. Now, your background is part
of your character sheet, but a background does
not a backstory make. And since you can customize
which skills, proficiencies and languages are associated
with any given background, I usually find that it's more helpful to match the background to the backstory than
the other way around. What's your background, Wisteria? - Cloistered scholar,
because I'm a student at the Krumbridge Academy for Magic. - That one's pretty obvious, but there are at least
a half-dozen backgrounds that could suit Wisteria, or I could create my own background, 'Krumbridge Academy Student' or 'Heir to Fortune'
or something like that. So my advice is to
figure out the backstory before you lock in the background. Now, every Wizard's origin
story is gonna be different, of course, but they all
have one shared element: Their magic is learned. Unlike sorcerers, who have
natural magical talents, or clerics, who receive
their magic from their god, wizards are scholars. The Player's Handbook states
that they've undergone years of apprenticeship and
countless hours of study. This means that anyone can
become a wizard if they just receive the proper education. Wisteria, why don't you tell
us about your education? - Well, you probably recognize
the Appledackle name. We're a famous Gnomish family who made our fortune on an
enchanted beverage called Appledackle's All-Nighter Cider. We have generations of alumni at the prestigious
Krumbridge Academy for Magic, and I'm following in
those footsteps. - Okay, but tell them how you got in. - Listen, the entrance
exam was really hard. How am I supposed to know all
that stuff already? Anyway, what's wrong with making a
generous donation to the school? I'm sure my parents just
wanted to help fund education. It's probably just a coincidence that they decided to let me in after that. Whatever you wanna tell
yourself. Anyway, going to magic school is one way that
a wizard could learn magic. But even though I adore the
magic boarding school trope and think it's super fun, it's
definitely not the only way. The handbook suggests that wizards could learn their
spells from other wizards, from books, or even from
magical creatures like the Fey. Don't be afraid to think
outside the box about where your character's
education came from. Is magic a skill that's passed
down through their family, taught parent to child? Did they leave their family
to apprentice one-on-one with an experienced wizard, perhaps training in a remote area or shadowing them while
they perform their work? Did they teach themselves
magic by stealing books or sneaking into an arcane library? Did they find or inherit a book of spells, slowly unlocking
its secrets over years of obsessive study? Were they
kidnapped by cloud giants and kept as a pet, learning
the magic of the wind and sky from their towering captors? Or rescued as a child by an ancient dragon who developed a fondness for them and taught them the arcane arts? I could go on, but let's be honest. The idea is the fun part, and you should get to
come up with it yourself. Just ask yourself, what source
did this character learn magic from, and what did that
course of study look like? That's half your wizard's backstory. The other half is why
they stopped doing that and started adventuring. What disrupted the path that they were on? Maybe they learned of a powerful wizard and went to seek them out
and ask for their mentorship. Maybe they heard rumors of a
tome of ancient forgotten power and have made it their
mission to seek it out and master its secrets. Maybe the wizard they were
apprenticed to has disappeared and they aim to find and rescue them. Wisteria usually appears in my
videos in the role of an NPC, and in that context,
she's still in school. But when I bring her to a
table as a player character... well, I'll let her tell you. - Okay. First of all, that damage to the school wasn't my fault. I followed all the
instructions for the ritual, so I don't even know why there
was such a big explosion. Who's to say it was even
related to my spell? I mean, everything in a hundred
foot radius was destroyed, so there certainly wasn't any evidence. The worst part is my parents refused to pay for the repairs. Something about "personal responsibility" whatever that's supposed to mean. So now I have to figure
out how to make some money and pay it all off, or they won't let me come back to school. But how hard can it really be
to make 50,000 gold, right? I'm sure I'll be back by next semester. - Ideally, whatever
motivates your character to adventure will both be open-ended, so your DM has something to work with if they wanna weave
it into the campaign, and will give your character
a good reason to join up with the party and be collaborative. In a wizard's case, the obvious answer is that they need protection, since they're a famously squishy class. But feel free to get
creative with this part too. Maybe they're writing their
dissertation on magic in practical use and want
to observe the party, or one of the party
members saved their life and now they owe them a debt, or whatever. The most important thing is
that it gives them a good reason to 'say yes to the quest', if you will. So that's backstory. And backstory isn't the
same thing as personality, but it is a great foundation for it. Next up, we'll talk about how to use the backstory you've
created to figure out how to actually roleplay as your character, but first: time for a pop quiz. - Psst! Hey, do you get any of this? The first question is,
'what is World Anvil?' Do you think it's A. a rare
breed of flightless gopher, or B. a toolkit for world building? Or I guess it could be C. the
Orcish word for pool party. No, that's silly. You're right. It's definitely... B. a
toolkit for world building. That makes sense. What
about this next one? List three of World Anvil's features. What did you write for that? Wiki-style articles with
templates, cross-linking and indexing, interactive maps and timelines, rollable stat
blocks with digital dice. Wow, those are really good. I'm gonna write down two of those, and then for the third one,
I'll write a new one so that it doesn't look like I copied you. What about 'invigorating citrus scent'? No? Fiddlesparks. I really
should have studied. Okay, last question. The code GINNY gives you
blank percent off any annual membership. You wrote Fifty-one percent. I don't
think that's right. Fifty-one? That's more than half. Are you sure? Huh. Well, if I failed this quiz, I'm sorry, but that's on you. - Great. these will be
30% of your final grade. Anyway. Let's talk personality. There's a section for this
on your character sheet too. I'm talking of course
about traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws. And I am not saying that you
can't just randomize those with dice rolls or choose
your favorites from the tables in the handbook. But while those tables can
be useful for inspiration, I often find that I end
up with a more coherent and unique personality if I start from the character's
history and work backwards. Ask yourself, why did they
pursue magical education and how did that education shape them? Wisteria, why did you go to magic school? - I didn't really have much of a choice. Everybody in my family's
gone to Krumbridge, and it's not just my parents who would be disappointed if I didn't. It would look really bad for the Appledackle name
if I didn't turn out to be a great wizard. - I mean, no offense, but
you're not a great wizard. You're actually kind
of a bad wizard. - That's just not possible! I'm an Appledackle. With the right tutors and the best components and books and arcane focuses that gold can buy, there's no way I could fail. I'm probably right on the
verge of my big breakthrough. And you know, who doesn't cut corners? Sometimes everybody cheats a little. It's just that nobody wants to admit it. - Wisteria went to school not because she dreamed of studying magic, but because her parents expected her to. That is her bond. She wants to make her
parents proud of her. That means that unlike a lot of wizards, she's not really motivated
by a thirst for knowledge. Instead, she's motivated
by how she's perceived. She wants to be seen as a
talented wizard regardless of whether or not she actually is one. This, of course, is her flaw. She's willing to take shortcuts and even cheat as long as
it makes her look good. Her upbringing with her family and her experiences at school
have taught her something that she now holds as an ideal. That weaknesses and mistakes
can all be erased if you only have enough money. I usually find that once the ideal bond and flaw are in place, the personality traits come very easily. For example, Wisteria's traits might be that she's quick to offer bribes. She pretends to know things
even when she doesn't. She brags about her family connections whenever she thinks it'll impress someone, and she's insecure about
performing magic in front of others, especially other spellcasters. - Am I just supposed to
sit here and take this? - Yeah, quietly, if possible. Anyway, have a look at
your character's backstory and see if anything
immediately jumps out at you as their ideal, their bond or their flaw. For example, if your
character was apprenticed to a master wizard who lived
as a hermit in the wild, maybe their flaw is that they're not practiced
at social interactions and often put their foot
in their mouth as a result. Or if your wizard taught themself
magic from an ancient book left to them by a mysterious
ancestor, their ideal might be that the written word is the
most powerful thing we can offer future generations of wizards, and they commit themselves to
keeping a rigorous log of all of their magical explorations. By the way, there's one other thing that all wizards have in
common, and that's intelligence. ...Kind of. Intelligence is a
wizard's spellcasting modifier, so most players will put
their highest ability score into that stat. Obviously, you don't have to, and I do think there's an
argument to be made for playing with "bad" stats if you're at a table where everybody will find that fun. But for most wizard characters,
it's useful to ask yourself how their high intelligence
factors into their personality. The handbook associates intelligence with things like focus, memory,
and the ability to reason. But while those might define the ways that your intelligence
stat applies to rolls, it doesn't necessarily
have to define the way that you roleplay intelligence. There isn't just one way to be smart, so don't feel like you
need to play a character who acts like a know-it-all or crams every sentence
full of SAT vocab words. For example, Wisteria doesn't
exactly come off as a genius. - I'm right here! - But the way I
justify her intelligence score is by applying it to everything but her education. Wisteria
has a very sharp mind, but using it to practice
and study is boring. So instead, she uses her intelligence to figure out workarounds.
Ways that she can cheat or fake her way past the things
that she doesn't wanna do. Plenty of smart people
do terribly in school. Wisteria being an awful student doesn't preclude her from being intelligent. - I can't decide if that makes
me feel better or worse. - Now your wizard has
not just a background, but a backstory, and not
just a list of traits, but a personality. This is the foundation
that you'll build all of your roleplay on, but if you want more guidance
on how to take the backstory and personality we've built together and apply them to your roleplay, I have a playlist that'll really help. It covers everything from coming up with your character's voice to getting into character before sessions. Thanks, Wisteria. Do you need a note or something to excuse your absence? - Nah, I'll just give
the professor 10 gold. Oh, by the way, could I borrow 10 gold?
