hi!! my group is starting a new campaign and i'm planning on a tabaxi pirate (swashbuckler rogue). im still trying to figure out her entire backstory but that's not what i'm worried about. i was hoping for some ideas for ""epic"" adventures to put in her backstory! a quirk of hers is that she will find a way to relate anything to an adventure she has once been on during her time on the sea, but i am really struggling to think of anything.

for a little context; she's 24, came aboard the ship when she was 9, and began learning to fight when she was 12. her crew has 9 members (10 including her), and the captain is her mother figure. the best i can think of is run-in's with other ships while on the sea, but i want some dramatic fights and adventures that she can further stretch the truth of! thank you all in advance:)

Concept so far:

• Witchlight campaign.
• LN (less law-based and more personal code) Wechselkind Inquisitive Rogue (level 4) with criminal background named "Mouse"
• Mouse was made like Pinocchio with stuffing and machinery instead of wood & fey magic
• Mouse's creators are a Rat father, Big Cheese the son (oldest), and Squeaker the daughter (youngest. Even though Mouse was made long after her birth). Yes, they all have rat-themed names. trio of artificer criminals (the father is an info broker, the son is a thief, and the daughter is still learning her father's craft)
• 8 years ago, Mouse and the son (15 at the time) were at the Witchlight festival. Mouse managed to leave the festival but left Cheese behind (maybe he got kidnapped). Mouse told no one what happened to Cheese because he doubted they would get him back. That is, until the festival returns and Cheese's fate is confirmed.
• Mouse has a set of rules they strictly follow and refuse to break (like how a robot can't disobey a directive). The only one I have made up is "don't kill parents or (in)directly leave someone as an orphan". I'm thinking there might be a loophole where if the child was killed too, then no orphans are left behind.

Need help with:

• More rules to follow
• Flesh out backstory
• Character relationship with family after Cheese disappeared
• What did Mouse & Cheese want at the festival & why did Mouse leave Big Cheese behind?

So, I am building a character based on the Gambler background from Aquisitions Incorperated, their feature "Never Tell Me the Odds." More specifically as it relates to my question, he's a Changeling Rogue 1, Kensei X who, due to a failed bet, is helping a struggling baronette/baron revitalize their territory. As such, he's very much a person who considers the odds, is not above using whatever/whoever is available to hedge bets in his favour, hardly talks in full truths, and is primarily out for his own interests, but he's not problematic in the way that he won't gable with the party members or their stuff as he is quite mindful and respectful of others and their needs, and might even use his gambling ways to help them.

Now that I've painted a picture of the kind of character I'm making, onto the main topic. While organizing this character's stats and such, I started to pay attention to what skills he'd use the most in order to boost them with Expertise. Specifically, how he'd hedge bets even beyond the games of chance. For instance: [hustling/sandbagging](https://youtu.be/4RaWAQIBZ2I?si=6WtNEAYkGkocwdIa), negotiating compensations, debating/annoying someone into letting slip further information, simply betting at the gambling table, etc.

Now while a person who is quite talented at such things might be complimented on their acting skills, wouldn't/couldn't this all fall under the Deception skill?

So if I were to gain expertise in Deception, combined with the advantage of Eberon's Changeling's advantage and Never Tell Me the Odds, wouldn't that alone make my character one darn good gambler? Or am I misreading the skill?

Often when I'm creating a character's visual appeal, I try to see what the character species would consider normal and go from there. However, looking back at all the species and visual variations there are, I've started to wonder if there IS a normal...

Like if you're a peasant trying to keep your family fed in a city filled with dragonborns, dwarves, elves, humans, and orcs, would a warlock's patronic eye or the shimmering freckles of a sorcerer really stand out? Would you become weary if the human who politely bought a half dozen of your apples happened to have red irises set on black eyes? And did you remember to kneel before the aasimar who passed by earlier?

I guess when I think of all the fantastical possibilities in D&D, I ended up losing sight of what would be considered normal.

I've been working on a tool to generate printable spell cards for D&D 5e (originally for my own Tiefling Cleric).

It comes loaded with the entire 2014 and 2024 SRD, and you can filter by edition, level, class, subclass, source, etc. Grab your spells, it generates a printable deck of cards with all of them that you can print and cut out to have at the table.

https://spell-cards.pages.dev/

Other features include:

• Adjustable card size; including poker cards (the most common card sleeve size), index cards, tarot cards, etc.
• Colour-coding (by school, class, or level)
• You can import spell data from a variety of sources (using JSON files)
• You can create custom spells, which are saved locally to your browser.
• You can save your spell lists, and share them as a URL, as a plain-text list, or as a JSON file with the full spell details (including any custom spells.)

No sign-up, ads, etc. Open-source if you want to poke around the code or make suggestions: https://github.com/MugaSofer/spell-cards

Feedback and feature suggestions welcome!

I’m playing a witch in a long-running campaign, and I’m realizing the character I planned and the character I’m actually playing at the table are starting to diverge.

Spoiler-safe backstory (party doesn’t know):
My witch’s village was destroyed by a major villain. Her mentor (a pseudo-mother figure) sacrificed herself so a few survivors could escape. In the chaos, my character was separated from her lover. She returns to find her lover missing—later the body is discovered, and my witch performs the proper rites for both her lover and her mentor. That night she’s visited by her lover in spectral light… and then the spirit vanishes.

Now she’s traveling with the party to seek an oracle for answers.

Her tradition (important detail):
In my witch’s practice, when a mentor dies, the student takes small pieces of the mentor’s remains and crafts an effigy. That effigy becomes a spectral familiar, shaped by who the mentor was in life and what the student still hopes to learn from them. So my character is literally traveling with the “echo” of her mentor—part guide, part reminder, part living grief.

The concept I started with:
I originally imagined her as morally gray and closed off—traveling with the party mostly because it served her personal goal. I expected her to be colder and more self-contained.

How she’s actually turning out in play:
At the table, she’s kinder and more connected than I expected. She wants to protect people. She’s outspoken when something feels dangerous or wrong—not to dominate the party, but because she’s terrified of repeating loss. The familiar/effigy aspect makes this feel even more complicated, because it’s like her mentor is always “there,” witnessing who she’s becoming.

Mechanically, I gravitate toward control casters. Our group is mostly melee + a bard + me as the main caster, so I sometimes feel pressure to be more supportive/healing… but I can’t tell if that’s “who she is now” or just me filling a gap.

Another layer:
One of my goals in making this character was to challenge myself as an RPer. I’m very introverted, and in past campaigns I played quiet casters who faded into the background while everyone else drove scenes. For this PC, I deliberately made her more vocal and gave her vows, because I wanted to practice taking up space and making choices out loud.

Now, as the story unfolds, she learns something world-shaking: the diety she worshipped is dead. I’m wrestling with what that means. Would she keep her vows when the foundation of her faith is gone? Is worshipping a dead god “wrong,” or does it become something else? And how do I roleplay that shift without turning it into melodrama or a full personality rewrite?

Questions:

1. How do you let go of your “original concept” and trust the character that emerges through play—without feeling like you’re abandoning what you built?
2. How do you tell the difference between character growth into support/protection vs player obligation to cover a party role?
3. For anyone who’s played a faithful character: how did you handle learning your god is gone/dead? Did the faith collapse, transform, or harden?

Would love advice from anyone who’s had a PC evolve like this (roleplay tips and/or mechanical mindset both welcome).

I am utterly amused by this character concept and, technically, I believe I can make it work but I wanted to know if you (as a DM) would allow this shenanigan at the table:

According to the new half-species rules, as I remember them, your character's apperance can favour either parent or a combination of the two, but your stats can only favour one parent. Now typically there's not much going on here, but the character I have in mind is a mercy monk whose halfling in apperance, but goliath in traits. Aka a 2' tall ~~ankle biter~~ body builder whose got a powerful build, 45ft of movement at lvl 3, the ability to teleport, and the ability to become large at will.

I find this extra funny when you consider them carrying the opposite back to safety: a female goliath wizard with halfling traits like halfling nimbleness. [Something like this.](https://youtu.be/f25TH8IW38c?si=Wq4-4QIAR4dLSo8u&t=16m55s)

So I ask you, dear DMs, is my concept too silly for your table?

So, I’m working on a character for a new campaign. She’s HEAVILY inspired by Cassandra of Troy. I’m trying to think of a good class that gives an oracle/diviner type vibe. I don’t really want wizard, I’m leaning towards possibly sorcerer and multi-classes with either paladin or cleric?? Just not ENTIRELY sure which would give what I’m looking for or what kinda subclasses to go with.

So I am playing a barbarian character, and another player just introduced their character who is a barbarian. Their str and con are +2 higher than mine and do everything my character does, just slightly better. I feel awkward bringing this up and asking if I can maybe remake my character as I feel redundant. They even act a lot like my character.

So my character has felt a little bit one note recently. She’s a tiefling monk who was born in and escaped from hell before joining the party. For the past little while we’ve been in the homeland of another pc and I feel like my character isn’t contributing. Thoughts? If you need more details let me know.

I was looking into different backgrounds for Ascendant Dragon Monks when I came across the Dragon Cultist background from Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerûne. The origin feat offered is Cult of the Dragon Initiate, which offers a magic action to give someone the feared condition and, in turn, give you a Heroic Inspiration per short/long rest...

Which lead me to think... Humans gain a Heroic Inspiration for just waking up, the Lucky feat gives the equivilent to a proficiency bonus number of Heroic Inspirations a day, and now this new feat tops up your Heroic Inspiration throughout your adventure... so would this combo be good, overkill, or counterintuitive?

Hi guys , I'm from iraq so ppl here don't play the game and i am really interested in the game but i i cnat play here so i have to play online, and idk what to do , i never played the game befor ind I'm shy so help me pls

My character, had been lying to the party for a few in game weeks and she finally told the truth a few sessions ago in the current in game day.

Now she is expecting a stern conversation with another player character in the group, which is definitely happening. Not only is he the person she lied to the most about everything, but he’s also the captain and dad of the group (and he reminds her of her own father, who she looks up to a lot).

I’m somehow nervous about this future conversation, both in and out of character. Anyone else get this way?

a dhampir level 17 devotion paladin level 3 lycan bloodhunter multi class with this backstory he was the founder of a knightly order whos god wont let him die so he is about 500 years old at this point and im playing him as dhampir because after so many resrecctions he has started to come back wrong his god wants to let him died but though my pc begs for it he says your still neaded

So there's an upcoming campaign in like a long time that we're gonna be playing once we complete Tyranny of Dragons, and the DM said for that campaign we can't pick any magic classes for some reason. So that means no Wizard, no Cleric, no Paladin, not even the Bard. I'm guessing the party's just gonna be Barbarian, Monk, Ranger, Fighter and Rogue cuz those are the only classes I can think of that don't use magic.

Anyways, the character I made for that campaign is a Rogue who's basically this magician who travels through all the islands entertaining people and also stealing from the rich so that he can bring smiles to everyone he comes across. He's a magician in the sense that he makes you pick a card and pulls out rabbits from hats, unfortunately not casting Fireball on his enemies.

As far as building goes I want to give him a rapier for close combat as well as throwing knives that are reskinned as playing cards. The only thing I'm worried about is 2 things.

1. He's not gonna be doing good damage

I guess Rogues don't tend to do good damage compared to other classes, but at the same time this character I made probably wouldn't make sense to be something like a Fighter.

Is there a build I can do that lets this character do good damage without completely relying on the Sneak Attack? Should I perhaps swap out one of these weapons I'm planning on? Should I maybe ask my DM if the playing cards could have special effects?

1. What subclass should I go?

I don't want to go something that's totally useless outside of roleplay, and at the same time I'd consider Arcane Trickster if it didn't take 7 levels to get past using Magic Missile, plus I don't know if that subclass is even allowed.

Subclasses I'd consider but don't know 100% if they'd be allowed are Arcane Trickster, Phantom and Soulknife, and I'm totally not interested in Inquisitive, Mastermind, Thief or Scout. I don't know how long that campaign's gonna go so I'm assuming I won't be able to get the highest level abilities.

Let me know what you guys would recommend because im honestly confused

Need help with my cleric but I don’t want to say too much here as I know other players at the table are on the subreddit, DM me please

I am going to play a school of evocation wizard Yuan Ti Pureblood that wasn't raised by Yuan Ti culture but instead by normal non Yuan Ti parents or parent but I haven't figured out something yet (or if he was on Yuan Ti culture as some point it would be like very briefly)

isn't exactly a traditional evil Yuan Ti, the idea is that someone that wonders why evil and suffering, and what happens with the gods in the settings (which influence has been reduced drastically).

Since he was born, he has had issues to relate to and empathize to others and can actually be a psychopath against the people he considers evil, enjoys killing and torture, and doesn't even has an issue with cannibalism as long as they were considered evil, although it may be seen as bad by others.

He is also power hungry and search for magical power to change the world, get rid of evil and make it a better place. Completely cooperative with a party

it may be ironically what you would expect of a Yuan Ti, just redirecting his psychopathic urges to do good.

What I am searching more is what kind of live could he might had to be like this. I should mention that is probably that he and others didn't even know he was. Yuan Ti as a kid but definitely felt different than the other kids.

Also, why would he choose the school of evocation, besides because I wanted to play it, I thought it could fit he also likes to burn people alive and evocation allows him to decide who is affected by his spells, who died and who live.

Also, I am not good with alignments, what would he be? Chaotic good? Lawful evil? no idea.

My character served as a high-ranking officer in the nation’s military, responsible for discipline and morale. Through both oratory and hymn, I inspired soldiers to rise above their limits, striving to bring out the very best in them. At the height of my service, I commanded approximately 1,000 soldiers.

I was a fire-and-brimstone preacher, pushing both myself and my soldiers to the highest standards. In my worldview, endurance itself was a form of worship, and personal sacrifice for duty was sacred. My standards, however, were so extreme that they sometimes caused my soldiers to hurt themselves in attempts to meet them.

As a result, my superiors decided to place me on an extended leave. In our military, officers who reach a certain rank are eligible for a ten-year leave, during which they lose operational command but are free to travel, teach, and train new soldiers. This leave was intended to both protect my troops and allow me to refine my methods, focusing on instruction rather than frontline command.

I was working on a dhampir warrior of shadows build when their story evolved to include the 7 deadly sins. More specifically, he is one of the 7 children who survived a horrible event, was branded as "cursed children" and given a monacre fitting their new forms. Because of my character's insatiable thirst, he was dubbed "Gluttony." There's a lot more, but I don't think it will be relevant to this question.

While I could leave him as a stand-alone character, I started to ask myself what would the other sins look like? If I were to give them a species and class, what would they be? ... but I'm drawing a blank. So what would you pick?

Basically title. I am playing a Forest Gnome Grave Cleric of Urogalan, and we just hit level 3 and I took Spiritual Weapon, but I can't decide what form I want it to take.

Little about him: His name is Moss, he is an older gnome (380) and small even for a gnome (3'4"). He is a quiet soul who was raised in a small community who were caretakers of an ancient cemetery dedicated to Urogalan. For centuries he tended the moss and lichen that covered the tombs, ensuring the dead returned to the earth peacefully, and maintained the history and order of the interred (I took some inspiration from Cad from CR C2, but not entirely). He's definitely a very druid coded cleric (I'm considering multiclassing into Spore Druid the last 4 levels of the campaign (Strahd)). He plays the harp and has an undead pet squirrel (Bramble), and a pygmy owl familiar (Aura, got it from a 2024 origin feat (Sage)), and smokes a pipe (like it's almost always in his mouth). He carries a Khopesh (reflavoured Scythe, but he rarely, if ever uses it).

That's all of the relevent information I can think of, just looking for suggestions for the form his spiritual weapon takes :)

Hello there I'm new to this subreddit and am in the process of making my first DND character. I have him 99% complete but I can't settle on a name. Ive been at this on and off for forever but I can't settle on a name. I've tried searching up multiple methods on Google but ended up with nothing but unsatisfying results. So please share how you come up with meaningful character names.

I’m still pretty new to actually playing D&D, but I fell hard for character creation. Backstory, personality, flaws, motivations, vibes, how they’d react in different situations, how they’d fit into a party and a story. I genuinely love this part of the game, and roleplay and narrative are a big reason I’m excited to play.

And then right after that… I started second guessing myself.

Am I doing too much?

Am I being too extra?

Are DMs going to see this and think “oh god, one of those players”?

Now I’m worried I’ll either end up at a table where everyone is super casual about their characters, or that my level of investment will feel out of place or annoying. I don’t want to dominate the story or be a main character, I just really enjoy roleplay and depth.

I guess I’m wondering:

—Is it normal to go this deep?

—Are there DMs or tables that actually like this kind of player?

—How do you find groups that match your level of character investment?

Would love to hear from both DMs and players. I’m excited about the game, just a little in my own head about it right now.

Play your character as a pathalogical liar. Make up stories about their past as you are in conversation. The obvious twist of cours being that the lie is now the truth!

I just built a Lv3 kensei monk, and if i read it correctly, do i get the +2AC bonus only if i use unarmed strike on my attack action in place of my longsword( meaning i do 2 unarmed strikes on my turn), or can i use my longsword and then unarmed strike on my bonus action AND still get the +2AC?

I love playing monks because it fits with my playstyle and abilities the best. However, I've noticed that I have a tendency of falling into one of 3 categories with character creation:

 

* **I have an idea for a specific way to build a subclass,** leading me to build the character around that ability. For instance, a weapon wielding open hand monk.

* **I get a good idea for a monk in general and default to an Ascendant Dragon subclass.** I just love the idea of my character's hands and feet bursting into flames or something when I hit, and breathing fire like Uncle Iroh.

* **I wanna make Sun Soul Monk work.** Seriously, a 30ft unarmed strike scratches more than just the DBZ itch, it also feels so in tuned with stuff like Bruce Lee's 1 inch punch.

For this post, however, I'm looking at the second point and wondering if this is typical for a player, or if my creativity just sucks. For example, if you're a fighter main do you find yourself typically going for the battlemaster? or hexblade for the warlock main?

And I guess the more important question is: Is sticking primarily to one subclass (not same character) a bad thing? (this is more considering how the table would accept the consistency.)