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So you're playing a D&D class

(had these thoughts while thinking about CR character builds, but relevant to D&D in general).

Here's just a brief list of three questions per class that are intended to be helpful if you're playing that class and are working on fleshing out that aspect of your character. Note that I'm only covering officially published classes for 5e. If you're a blood hunter I am just going to assume you know what you're about, and if you're a mystic then you are beyond help or hope. Also, obviously, there's way more to a character than their class! But understanding why the character is that class is pretty crucial to overall character build.

Artificer:

Did the magic come first or did the tinkering come first?

Did you apprentice or where you self-taught?

What do you dream of creating - or if you don't, what outside goal drives your creations?

Barbarian:

Is rage a cultural or family trait, or is this unique to you?

What do you feel like when you rage?

What do you feel your purpose is, outside of combat? Do you have one or are you not sure? (note - feel free to ask this about other martially focused classes, but barbarians skew especially hard towards combat skills above all others)

Bard:

What led you to be able to tap into the echoes of creation (not guaranteed for all artists!)

What is your medium, and how did you come to it/learn it?

You have a ton of skills - how did you acquire them?

Cleric:

What is your relationship with the deity/entity/concept that grants you your powers?

Since many sources have multiple domains, why this domain specifically?

What does your worship look like?

Druid:

Is your relationship to nature cultural, or personal?

What drew you to your circle?

How do you feel about wildshape? Is it a tool available to you, or an enjoyable experience?

Fighter:

Who trained you or how did you pick up your skills?

What led you to focus on fighting? Is there something you wished to attack or to protect?

Fighter is REALLY modular/subclass dependent, so dig into your subclass; if you're a champion, the 'what is your purpose outside combat' from Barbarian may apply, but if you're say, an eldritch knight or rune knight, you may have had two teachers and should dig into that.

Monk:

Who trained you?

What does Ki feel like for you?

Not a question, but: with the caveat that I know very little about martial arts, I do think that having a concept of the martial art style your monk uses is a huge help in bringing the character to life.

Paladin:

What drew you to this oath?

What continues to motivate you?

You're in a very versatile role; which part speaks to you the most- do you see yourself more as a protector? a healer? is the versatility itself what matters?

Ranger:

How did you learn your nature skills?

What is your relationship to your magic?

Why are your favored terrain and enemy what they are?

Rogue:

How did you learn to pick locks?

Did your thievery/stealth come as a necessity for survival, or was it a choice?

As with bard - what specifically led you to develop the skills you have?

Sorcerer:

When did your powers first manifest? If it was not when you were very young, what were you doing beforehand?

Are you interested in where your powers came from? How far would you go to learn about them? Or do you already know?

What would you do if your powers disappeared?

Warlock:

What led you to make the pact - even if it was accidental or a trick?

How do you feel about your patron generally?

Because warlock is truly very modular - that is, extremely reliant on the boon and evocations for flavor, analyze the choice of evocations and boon. If you picked agonizing blast, why specifically did your warlock want to make eldritch blast stronger? What drew your character to the blade vs. chain vs. tome?

Wizard:

What role do wizards play in your society?

How were you trained?

What do you most desire to learn or achieve?

ifightformyfriends

Good instincts! These are great prompts to get you thinking about your character as a person and how that person plays into the Class that they are. They’re really common in other TTRPGs.

Pathfinder takes a more Examples approach than Questions, providing examples of what a Class can be, and is often assumed to be, in various situations. They have similar information for Ancestries, with “You Might” and “Others probably” for each of those and also every Versatile Heritage (Things like Tiefling that you can slap onto any Ancestry for tons of combinations).

Beacon does go the question route, with 4 questions for each Class. Same for Ancestries here, too, along with an example Worldbuilding for them because there is a lot of worldbuilding you can do in the system. Also worth noting that Beacon has 12 level progression but each Class is only 3 levels, so it’s always worth thinking about the questions for why you take your next Class which keeps them always relevant.

And then there’s Fabula Ultima, which again offers 4 questions Per Class. Nothing for Ancestries since those aren’t mechanically relevant in Fabula Ultima, but there is a TON of group focused collaborative worldbuilding to help get everyone on the same page about the game being played, but that’s a bit out of scope for this. Fabula Ultima is a Tabletop JRPG, and as such you start at level 5 and you HAVE to Multiclass with 2 or 3 Classes for those initial 5. And the levels go up to 50! Though you can only have 3 Classes under level 10 at a time so at most...7 Classes over 50 levels.

They’re a very useful tool, especially for newer players, and their absence from 5e helps to highlight that 5e isn’t actually meant to be easy for new players, it’s meant to be approachable, and those are very different design goals.

innudoggy

Next up on my list is ever so lovely Ashley Johnson with 3 of her characters from the main campaigns of Critical Role.

justalittlebluetiefling

The answer to your question: almonds.

oof-i-did-it-agaaiiin

Let me be clear this was put- this was put into this fuckin questionnaire. To come for me. And I’m gonna explain something:

If you’re at home, and you’re Afraid to tell your gaming group, that you’re a snacker-

I’ve got your back. Okay? -Because its OKAYtofuckinsnack. Alright?

When you’re out there-liSOME OF US

SWEAT

From The

Moment we w-wake up

To The

Moment we go to sleep.

Some of Our

BoOodieeeS

are betraying us Constantly. …i-

wOULD I HAVE CHOSEN?

this

Paper White.

Fur Covered.

Constantly Sweating body?

(cackling)

NO. iwouldn’thave. Does it require

Constant (??)

Almonds?yes.

(guffawing & wheezing)

Almonds All the time. okay?

And I’m not gonna APOLOGIZE becausethesetwofucking

Elevated Beings.

These two. Hovering-uhuh-w-wwhats the wwhatawhatathe Preeeee the:

pre-skeksis

pre-mystic

Light Beings from The Dark Crystal. YOU TWO.

SOME OF US ARE POD PEOPLE. OKAY?

I’m a little

PODLING.

and i NEED to Snack. If I could have

another Mouth. in my back.

(more confused wheezing)

So that I could- the Biggest du-bObsticle in my GMing. Alright? uh huh Is that the same place I

talk from

is where the

food needs to go.

we knowwhattogethim for christmas

a mouth in my back!

a mouth back!

So that I can have a Friend

Shoveling Salami into an open furnace in my torso

while i

Narrate.

…

AND I’M NOT SORRY

I LIKE TO SNACKto answer your question

almonds.

pixie-lated

"video games have buffering"

one of the DMs I play with has, like, 70 slips of paper that say, "Loading," with bits of random D&D mechanics advice ("partial cover grants +2 to AC") that he slots onto his DM screen when he needs to look something up, assemble something, or think up a mechanic for player bullshit.

jinxknight

It's Thursday! And the eclipse is complete AAHHHHHH!!

drawsmaddy

[ID: Image one of two is a digital illustration of Caleb Widogast and Vax'ildan from Critical Role, the image is divided diagonally between them. Caleb is upright, holding up a magical flame in his right hand, Vax'ildan is reversed, holding two daggers and grinning. Behind them is a bisexual pride flag.

Image two of two is identical to the first but Vax'ildan is upright and Caleb is reversed. End description.]

I got a little emotional about how much these two being canonically bi means to me :)

theshipwars

The Ship Wars, The Final Round: Griddlehark (Gideon Nav & Harrowhark Nonagesimus, The Locked Tomb series) VS Spirk (Spock & James Kirk, Star Trek) VS Shadowgast (Caleb Widogast & Essek Thelyss, Critical Role)

Griddlehark

Spirk

Shadowgast

Voting ended onFeb 25, 2023

[Image Description: A competition banner showing Gideon Nav and Harrowhark Nonagesimus, from the book series The Locked Tomb, versus Spock and James Kirk, from the TV series Star Trek, versus Caleb Widowgast and Essek Thelyss, from the Campaign Two: The Mighty Nein of Critical Role. End ID.]

julidiot

The Mightiest of Nein Some of these guys are still available on my store too! My Etsy

sansssins

Caleb: What are you in the mood for?

Essek: World domination

Caleb: That's a bit ambitious

Essek: You are my world

Caleb: Aww...

Essek:

Caleb:

Essek:

Caleb: OH-

redjennies

tbh the Critical Role fandom, along with most fandoms, has a problem with centering easily digestible metaphors for white queer experiences (and even then only those that check all the boxes of the purity list) at the cost of seeing stories through the lens of race, class, mental and physical disabilities and how those can intersect with queer experiences.

for example, putting an unnecessary amount of effort into proving Jester's attraction to Fjord is compulsory heterosexuality while ignoring that Fjord and Jester were both explicitly biracial characters from different class backgrounds and how that class difference intersected with their self image. a general refusal to really interact with Chetney as a character that is heavily coded as mentally ill and uninterested in being "cured." Veth being deemed the token straight Karen despite being a young rural mother of color struggling with addiction and having an arc that was heavily coded as trans, and Ashton, a nonbinary lower class punk with chronic pain, being considered just a man when it comes to ship wars. etc, etc.

redjennies

okay this post is not about just stupid discourse in the fandom and how I should block more people (I do). this is about a continued trend in both this fandom and others to center narratives that are extremely familiar to middle class white queer people at the explicit expense of engaging with narratives that are unfamiliar to us. I do not need to be a young mother of color struggling with alcoholism for Veth's story to matter to me (i am in fact a childless white woman who is decidedly not an alcoholic). while I personally don't see her that way, Veth can be a cisgender heterosexual and still have a story that resonates with young moms, with women of color, with addicts, to trans people regardless if Sam considered her to be trans, and with anyone who may be a combination of those things, and dismissing her complexity as a character in favor of "well she's just some straight suburban mom" is actively shitty to people who see themselves represented in that character.

Fjord, similarily, is another character who canonically grew up in an abusive, impoverished environment and is deeply shaped by that as well as being canonically a biracial man in this setting who is, again, heavily coded as a man of color, and there are white middle class queer people in this fandom who will proudly announce they actually don't have any interest in relating to him if he's cishet. like do you understand what you're saying there to any cishet men of color in this fandom who might relate to Fjord's experiences? do you understand what you're saying to even queer people of color in this fandom when you say a character who was so heavily stigmatized for his race that he engaged in self harm to appear less threatening doesn't matter unless he's relatable to you, a white person?

and I use these two as very specific examples because these are two characters I love who have very different lives than me. I could talk about my experiences with type I bipolar disorder and how I see Chetney's lycanthropy as a metaphor for that, and how only people with physical and mental disabilities are the only people who want to talk about characters through that lens, but that's not really the point. the point here is the continual lack of compassion in regards to oppressed groups that aren't like you that's the problem here. it's preaching intersectionality in only so much as it benefits you. it's about how even though Ashton is an explicitly queer character, the diet terfs in this fandom so very clearly want to call him a cishet man every time he interacts with Laudna because this is the framework that fandom allows for. it's about centering a very narrow and honestly fairly privileged experience within queer spaces and it's frankly fucking exhausting to deal with.

makosgotmoxie

“Makin’ My Way” performed live by Sam Riegel, Ashley Johnson, and the Laura Bailey during tlovm watch party

lappuncheung

Critical Role C2 Fanart (Part VI)

By (terrible) chance, the Nein face a familiar ancient white dragon. Yasha dreams of the platinum great sword. Beau and Yasha have a hot date in Caleb's tower culminating in a ninja fight and a moment in a hot tub...

tacomicfujoshi

I'm in the dimension 20 dome

utilitycaster

OGL misconceptions

Since I am still seeing a lot of misinformation out there, I figured I'd do a fact check post. Note that I do not personally have a copy of the leaked draft; some resources are given at the end of the post. See also the 2000 OGL v1.0a here. This is noncomprehensive, is only touching on some of the things I've seen most commonly in the tags [sidebar: the only tag I check regularly is the Critical Role tag, and much of what I've seen on Tumblr is coming from people spamming that tag for general D&D content that only tangentially mentions CR, so...stop doing that.] Finally, this is based on what is a draft, and there are quite possibly going to be updates to the final document. I would also assume that the January 13th effective date will be changed based on the release date of the finalized OGL.

Free fan content is not affected. That is covered by the Fan Content Policy. Your personal homebrew or the weird-ass build you saw on Reddit or the item you saw in a post last week are all fine.

Actual play shows should be largely affected, and only merchandise containing WoTC IP would be. Shows like Critical Role, NADDPod, and D20 all use homebrew settings, so that's also unaffected (as is any Exandrian content that was published in the Explorer's Guide and Call of the Netherdeep; that is CR's IP that WoTC has license to use). A show might be affected if they've set the game in a WoTC licensed setting or with a WoTC module (eg: Eberron, Ravenloft), but most of the shows that do that are put out by WoTC anyway. Critical Role and TAZ have, notably, already avoided using copyrighted terms for deities, races, etc. in published non-WoTC works (this is why Melora is exclusively the Wildmother in the Tal'Dorei guides, because "Melora" is WoTC IP, but the idea of a nature goddess is obviously not; this is also why Cree in the Nine Eyes is referred to as catfolk and not a tabaxi, or why Phandalin's name in the TAZ graphic novels is changed to Haverdale). The only reason why a show might need to switch game systems would be if they use a system that is not D&D but is based on D&D's SRD and which will be subject to the OGL changes. Most Pathfinder shows I'm aware of use the Pathfinder SRD (ie, free), and SW5e as used in Starstruck Odyssey is also free. This also only affects the future of those shows.

VTTs (Virtual Tabletop Tools) may be affected, but most of their core features aren't. Battle maps and virtual dice rollers are not WoTC IP. Incorporating the mechanics of D&D into the VTT is, but that would mean actively having a character sheet or monster statblock available within the VTT. You could still just have a dice roller that prompts you for a modifier (which is how I always personally used Foundry). D&D Beyond will not be affected, since it is owned by WoTC. Additionally, many VTTs already have existing agreements specifically with WoTC that will take precedence over the OGL, which is a catch-all for companies that do not have specific licensing agreements. See the WoTC/D&D Beyond blog post here.

Only creators making over $750,000 specifically on material licensed under the OGL will be subject to royalties, and only on income in excess of $750,000. This means that if you put something up on DMs Guild and make $500, you are fine and owe nothing. If you make $749,999, you owe nothing. If you make $750,100, you owe the 25% royalty only on the $100 you are making above $750,000. WoTC predicts under two dozen companies will actually be affected by this at this time; they are all fairly big names within the D&D content arena such as Paizo, Darrington Press (CR's imprint), Hit Point Press, Green Ronin, Kobold Press, etc. Royalties also are said to begin in 2024, so companies have a year to decide what to do.

Now for the editorializing part:

Paizo is specifically in the crosshairs and anyone telling you to switch to it is either misinformed at best, or does not have your best interests at heart. Paizo is the main target here. The others are publishing material that serve as supplements to the core WoTC products, but do not replace them. For example: if you have either of the Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting books, you will note that they do not have stats for the races mentioned, nor the core class information. If you want to play a Cobalt Soul Monk, you still need the PHB in addition to the Tal'Dorei setting books. On some level, this is almost certainly due to Paizo being like "look! we're like D&D but we're not! switch to us!" And, understandably, WoTC is saying "hey, you took our SRD game engine and are now our largest competitor", which is also almost certainly why this is overriding the OGL 1.0a under which Pathfinder was originally created. I am not saying not to switch to a different TTRPG if you want to! You should always feel free to switch to a different TTRPG if D&D is not meeting your needs! I am saying that Pathfinder is probably your absolute worst bet in terms of things likely to be affected by the OGL, and anyone telling you to switch to it is telling you to jump from an ocean liner into a slightly smaller ship heading straight for a waterfall solely because the ocean liner stopped serving bottomless brunch.

People throwing this to actual play shows do not know what they are talking about and are just trying to start shit. Self-explanatory; why should Dimension 20 or whatever put out a statement on an unofficial leaked draft that minimally affects them.

Bad faith is common and everpresent. As discussed extensively on this blog in scattered bitchy shitposts, there are a lot of people who hate D&D/WoTC, or Critical Role, or other popular actual play shows. Sometimes their reasons are valid and sometimes their reasons are stupid. It doesn't really matter though; what matters is that their minds are made up and they will be telling you to switch game systems/stop listening or watching pretty much regardless of what the companies do. If you want to switch or stop listening, that's fine! But, as mentioned, I remember a few months ago someone arguing that you should switch from D&D because they were obviously going to start licensing NFTs for profitability reasons, and now the OGL specifically prohibits that. There's a lot being pulled out of thin air to make spurious arguments. In general, it is helpful to ask yourself "is this person recommending a game because they genuinely believe it will improve my life and better fit my individual tastes and needs? Or are they just being a dick about D&D or this specific actual play show and don't give a shit about my happiness, just as long as I'm not playing the game/watching the show that they, an internet stranger with bad vibes to boot, do not personally like."

YouTubers are trying to get views, and that is usually their primary goal. Also self-explanatory. If you're trusting the same people who decided that Silvery Barbs would ruin D&D which had also already been ruined by the chronomancy class, the fact that some sorcerers get more spells than other sorcerers, the fact that healing word exists... to tell you that this has ruined D&D? I don't think I can help you.

Several of the things people are freaking out about are either standard boilerplate now, or were in the original OGL. OGL 1.0a reserves the right to terminate the license with 30 days notice as well (item 13); stating that material you make via an open license can be used freely by the owner of that IP is fairly standard legal practice.

Sources:

OGL v1.0a

WOTC Fan Content Policy

Gizmodo/io9 coverage

D&D Beyond/OneD&D blog post

Screenrant coverage

eldritchblep

I’m not entirely sure when or why I decided to slowly work through stylized cities of Exandria in gold but they’re very soothing to create and I’m slowly but surely developing the style for them as I go.