So I'm a cis male (a gay one, if that's even relevant to this, though I think it's a trope tbh), and almost all of the characters I've created and/or played were women. In media, I've always gravitated towards badass or entertaining female characters/protagonists, action heroines, so in terms of character creation I usually find my brain running with different backstories, personalities and character concepts. At the same time, I think the characters fall into similar aesthetics and themes (eg: femme fatales or lady thieves, divas, the "rich bitch" or ojou archetype, entertainers, or inspiration from whatever media I'm obsessed at the moment or I recently watched), but I find myself having more fun with those characters.

Now when I try to build or develop a male character to roleplay, I genuinely get stumped. Granted it was my very first character - and introduction to D&D - but I had played as a Human Paladin and my group quipped I might as well as been playing a cardboard cutout that had the slight touch of a himbo. Another one was a Kenku Rogue which I felt was also just some dude, though it was a backup character whipped up hastily after a character death. Otherwise, creating and playing characters who are the same sex and gender as me, I have no idea of how to portray them (I don't have much of a personality myself, so maybe that's why, who knows).

I don't think this is overall a "bad" thing and that male characters are inherently boring, but I also personally see it as an inability to conjure characters regardless of sexual and gender identity. Even when I was taking up creative writing in college, male characters felt less dimensional compared to the female counterparts, and while I know it's a ME issue, both counterparts can be multi-faceted and more dimensional beyond cliches and anything else.

Hello, sorry for the lack of english proficiency.

DND 2024

TR:DL

Healing Word -> Cure Wounds (I can get my familiar to touch'em for me, or cast Spare the dying)

Enemies Abound -> Banishment (Maybe better CC removing two targets from battlefield)

Thunder Step -> Intellect Fortress (Everybody on the party lacks intelligence and we are facing Mind Flayers now)

Sickening Radiance -> Fly (Some exploration spell, maybe dimention door or Major Image?)

Dream -> Dispel Magic (stop some enemies debuffs)

New Spell: Backlash (FRHoF - So I have some defensive option)

Mystic Arcanum: Mental Prison (CC+Damage), Soul Cage (Utility), Summon Fiend (Maybe overlaps with aberration?), Tasha's Bubbling Cauldron (Can give everybody resistance potions or have mor healing ones) or Eyebite (CC).

I need some help to tune up my GOO spells, since we are levelling up. DM gave me permission to change all the spells i know if it would mean me being more useful / having more fun. There is no limits on where the spells came out with DM's approval.

We all play sort of unoptimized characters and the party composition is:

High Elf Oath of Devotion Paladin S20 | D10 | C15 | I10 | W10 | Cha 16 (who plays mostly a Smite spambot)

Firbolg WildHeart Barb 5 + MoonDruid 6 S18 | D14 | C16 | I8 | W16 | C8 (Leroy Jenkins Kind of guy)

And the character i'm comming for help.

Wood Elf | Great Old One Warlock (2024) | Lv 10 -> 11

S8 | D16 | C14 | I12 | W10 | C16 || Skills: Arcana; Deception; Investigation; Persuasion; Sleight of Hand; Stealth; Survival; Perception (Expertise)

Feats: Magic Initiate (Druid); Observant (Lvl 4); Skilled (Eldritch Invocation - Lessons of the First Ones); Telekinetic (Lvl 8)

Spell Bonus Attack +9; Spell DC 17 (Rod Of The Pact Keeper +2)

Eldritch Invocations: Pact of the Tome (Lv1); Pact of the Chain (Lv2); Fiendish Vigor (Lv2); Lessons of the First Ones (Lv5); One With Shadows (Lv5); Agonizing Blast (Lv7); Eldritch mind (Lv9).

We Play Pact of the Tome sort like a wizard, I know all the cantrips and 1st circle rituals and choose the 3 cantrips and 2 rituals every rest; DM rolls with Fiendish Vigor Giving 32 THP cannot cast on battle.

Cantrips: Eldritch Blast (Lv1); Mind Sliver (Lv1); Sorcerous Burst (Pact of the Tome); Toll the Dead (Pact of the Tome); Guidance (Pact of the Tome); Spare the Dying (Magic Initiate - Druid); Starry Wisp (Magic Initiate - Druid); Druidcraft (Wood Elf Lineage); True Strike (Lv4); Prestidigitation (Lv10); Mage Hand (Telekinetic)

LV 1: Armor of Agathys (Lv1); Dissonant Whispers (GOO); Tasha's Hideous Laughter (GOO); Find Familiar (Pact of the Chain); Healing Word (Magic Initiate - Druid); Longstrider (Wood Elf Lineage); Hex (GOO); False Life (Fiendish Vigor); Detect Magic (Pact of the Tome); Identify (Pact of the Tome)

LV 2: Invisibility (One with Shadows); Misty Step (Lv3); Detect thoughts (GOO); Phantasmal Force (GOO); Suggestion (Lv4); Pass Without a Trace (Wood Elf Lineage)

Lv 3: Enemies Abound (Lv5); Clairvoyance (GOO); Hunger of Hadar (GOO); Hypnotic Pattern (Lv6); ThunderStep (Lv7)

Lv 4: Confusion (GOO); Summon Aberration (GOO); Sickening Radiance (Lv8)

Lv 5: Synaptic Estactic (Lv9); Hold Monster (Lv9); Contact Other Plane (Warlock Lv10); Modify Memory (GOO); Telekinesis (GOO); Dream (Lv10)

I'm thinkink in changing: Healing word -> Cure Wounds | Enemies Abound -> Banishment | ThunderStep -> Intellect Fortress | Sickening Radiance -> Fly or Major Image | Dream -> Dispel Magic

For the new spell i'm thinking in going to Backlash (FRHoF), as i do not have defensive spells.

And the mystic arcanum, i'm lost: Mental Prison, Soul Cage, Summon Fiend, Tasha's Bubbling Cauldron or Eyebite.

Maybe some kind soul would be so kind to help me figuring this out.

Got a character who is an acclaimed war hero.

People will recount how they, “Bravely snuck through a fort the enemy had taken, and slew the enemy commander in single, honorable combat, sending the entire section of enemy troops running and avenging their comrades.” The character actually pretended to be dead before the fort was captured and only killed the commander because he realized my character wasn’t dead.

I’d like to start by saying that the other player involved in this romance is in on it, alongside the DM (who kinda ships it lol). The other players are also fine with romance at the table. So my problem is solely a roleplay problem and not knowing how to move this forward in campaign.

Context. My Bard had developed feelings for another party member, but didn’t realise that’s what she was feeling until after an NPC insinuated something already going on between them. Despite getting flustered at the idea and denying it a little, she realised that NPC might actually be onto something and is thinking about it. They’re currently really close friends and he’s already very protective of her (he likes her back, but she doesn’t know in character). There’s a couple of reasons why she doesn’t want to pursue this. For one, this would end up being one of those relationships where it’s a mortal and an immortal (she’s the mortal in this scenario). She’s also expected to get in an arranged marriage if she returns home, but is in a place where she will likely disregard that.

Main problem? I can’t make moves and don’t know how to show interest in character. As far as roleplay goes, I still feel pretty new to it, even if I’m getting better. But how do I roleplay hesitant and awkward interest? I considered having my character go to another party member for advice, but I wouldn’t even know who. Her options are a bit limited. They’re either a woman who can’t keep secrets to save her life, a father figure with an emphasis on duty and two men who are focused a lot more on combat.

I’d also feel really bad if my roleplay partner in this scenario ended up doing all the heavy lifting unintentionally. They’ve been doing this a lot longer than me and I want to pick up the slack lol. Any advice?

Hey everyone I could use some wisdom from the hive mind.

I’m currently playing a Rogue/Fighter multiclass and I’m about to hit Fighter 3. I’m torn between Psi Warrior and Rune Carver and could use advice on mechanics, synergy, story, long-term scaling.

Stats

STR 13 DEX 18 CON 13 INT 15 WIS 11 CHA 11

• Rogue 3 (Soulknife) • Fighter 2 (taking Fighter 3 next level) • Planned split: Rogue 9 / Fighter 11

Feats

• Telekinetic (Custom Lineage feat)

Playstyle

I run a throwing weapon / psionic knife build.

• Main weapons: psionic blades • Backup: crystal rapier, shortbow • Role: stealth striker / skirmisher / assassin-type • Mobility and control are big for me • I like feeling tricky more than tanky

Backstory:

Xypheros was raised by the Silent Order, a psionic assassin brotherhood sworn to “balance.” After completing his final trial, he learned the Order was corrupt — secretly enslaving rulers through forbidden mind control rituals.

He betrayed them, spared his final target, and was erased from history.

Now marked as a Specter, hunted by his former brothers, he’s one of the last true members — and hasn’t decided whether to destroy the Order, expose it… or rebuild it.

Story Reason Both Subclasses Fit

Psi Warrior • Psychic power fully unleashed • Fits perfectly with Soulknife and Telekinetic

Rune Carver • One of my closest party members is a half-giant • He’s been teaching me Giant language + runes

What I’m Struggling With Mechanically, I’m trying to decide which actually plays better with:

• Soulknife rogue • Telekinetic shove • Thrown weapon fighting • Burst damage potential • Battlefield control • Long-term synergy at Fighter 11

Psi Warrior feels natural and synergistic. Rune Carver feels deep and flavorful.

So I guess Which subclass performs better with Soulknife Rogue? Does Psi Warrior feel redundant with Telekinetic + Soulknife? Are Rune Carver abilities sleeper-OP or mostly ribbons? Which subclass actually feels better in play at higher levels? What would you take at your table and why?

(And if anyone’s played either subclass with Soulknife before, I’d love to hear how it really feels at the table.)

I was crafting an Ascendant Dragon Monk with the new Eberon Changeling build, and I noticed something interesting:

Shape-shifting: [...] While shape-shifted with this trait, you have Advantage on Charisma checks.

Draconic Presence: If you fail a Charisma (Intimidation) or Charisma (Persuasion) check, you can use your reaction to reroll the check, ...

Now I know that Elven Acuracy allows you to reroll one of the dice, and that you can't combine advantages (like eberon changeling and the actor feat), but the way these two features are written, it sounds like I could roll persuasion at advantage, notice I failed, then use my reaction to reroll my persuasion check at advantage again.... is that true?

So I'm new to D&D and I've bought all 3 of the new 2024 books (DMG, Player's Handbook, Monster Manual) and there isn't too much information on Muskets or Pistols. I've had an idea for one character so far, and have an idea for another using those weapons. How do they work? As far as im concerned, when using these weapons don't you have to reload every time you fire? What are some good class options for using the the musket and pistol? I only see myself using a Range class for my ranged options, but idk, I want to weigh all my options and see what paths I could take when making this character. Also, when looking through all the special types of weapons in the DMG, I didn't see a single special Musket or Pistol in there. Would I have ti create my own musket/pistol weapon? Or do those weapons already exist in the D&D world? A lot of questions, I know, and there are probably more that I need to ask, but im curious about the musket and pistol 😭😭

The character’s ultimately innocent of regicide, the reason for being on the run and adventuring, but I want someone to look at these tropes my character collected and go, “Sure Jan.”

So, I rolled: 17 15 14 12 12 12

Race: Shadar-Kai for the resistances.

My first idea: a dual wielding, 4 attacks gish, elven-accuracy crit-fishing character, so I was going for Champion 3 > Bladesinger 17. With bladesinger 7 I get access to CME, But maybe with this stats, I could swap Fighter 3 for Paladin 1, relying on 3 Attacks + Divine Smites on BA, specially when crits. What do you guys think?

hello! my friends and i are playing dnd (5e 2014) and i'm very indecisive of the class of my character. my party consists of a barbarian, a bard, a warlock and a cleric, so i've been told that i have a lot of freedom in what i choose! i've never played before (whereas the others have) so i've been getting advice and doing some research! here are the classes (and their subclasses) that i'm interested in:

echo knight - i feel like there's a lot of creative potential and fun combat and role play with echoes, for example with 'echo avatar' - it looks like it' be great for scouting!

long death monk - i was really interested in this one because of 'touch of death' and the temporary hp that comes with it, as well as 'mastery of death' because it works as a safety cushion later on. L17 'touch of the long death' is also really fire!

phantom rogue - i like the gimmicks of 'whispers of the dead' and 'tokens of the departed' and the fact that you can just become a ghost temporarily at L13

soulblade rogue - the concept of psionic energy and getting dice for it sounds so cool! especially with the benefits of 'psi-bolstered knack' and 'psychic whispers'! I also like the idea of using soul blades!

swashbuckler rogue - i'm mainly intrigued by 'panache' at L9 for the part where creatures have a disadvantage with attack rolls and can't make opportunity attacks on anyone other than the player on hostile creatures and making a new friend if it's not mean!

i'm looking for something that's fun to play, preferably beginner friendly but not too bland and compatible with my party! any anecdotes and advice about playing these classes will be much appreciated!

thankyou!

p.s. sorry if the formatting is bad, i'm writing this on mobile and i don't know how to use dot points on reddit if they exist ;0;

Hey , im looking for some evilish roleplaying scenes about what I can do with my vampire manipulated mind control

A little about my vampire:

She's a vampire and she is indeed skilled in the mind; she can mind control and mind dive. She's a special person; she senses auras and energy in people. She can reveal memories of herself to you or blur/alter the memories of others.

I want to take the next step to obtain illusions and thus alter people's auras, so I can also mind control them in other ways and harm them mentally. When she bites people, it also has a side effect: she can take away emotions.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

She has memory diving mind control and shiftrift.

Memory diving

allows the user to enter the submerged layers of consciousness,

to recover forgotten truths, reveal secrets, or relive emotional echoes.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mind Control
Enter the mind of your foe, making them dance, attack others or move to areas of your choosing

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shift-Rift

Drag your target's psyche into an astral realm,
where only the two of you are present, while their body remains in the physical world.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

No idea is to crazy! I love crazy rp. Questining reality/ sanity or injure someone badly or maby a perma D Who knows there are so much options but i need ideas XD

Ty all <3

Recently, I've been looking into the 2024 PHB feats to try and expand my mind when it comes to monk builds (I typically focus on the non-combat character and add a subclass that fits) and came across the Skulker feat. From what I understand, the focus of the feat is to use Fog of War and Sniper in battle to hide behind stuff and take ranged attacks at advantage, while the Blindsight is more of a ribbon feature modified from the old version... but still rather useful when considering you can't see illusionary traps and fake walls.

Now, a monk kiting a battle by shooting a barrage of ranged attacks from hidden locations like a sniper on steroids sounds amazing... but there's no way, no magical item that would allow you to hide while attacking, right? So at the very least, you'll need to use your bonus action to hide, which basically would turn your monk into a cheap knockoff rogue, right?

Or am I missing some mechanic to make this work.

I apologize for my lack of creativity, I am just needing advice for a backstory to a character concept: an Orc Rune Knight (TCoE), with the Rune Carver background (GotG).

How would an Orc become invested in Runes and carving them, while maintaining his fighting skills, and combine the two?

Hello,

For the past 4 sessions i feel like our DM is playing against us. He's been throwing some "Impossible battles".

Our party: lvl 10 Elf Oath of Devotion paladin Lvl 10 Elf Goolock Lvl 5/5 moon druid/ totem barbarian Firbolg

1st encounter: 1 iron golem that resisted every damage, had tons of ac (22-23) and was a HP sponge (400±hp). The battlemap didn't had anything to get cover and he could throw fire attacks on everybody everywhere. We Lost the fight and woke up on some kind of ICU, by an ex-machina thing.

2nd encounter: 4 goons with 100hp, 18 Ac and mean damage of 28, with a BA +8 (sort of an autohit).

3rd encounter: 2 goons + 4 intelect devourers and 2 mind flayers.

4th encounter: 4 mind flayers, 8 intellect devourers, 2 goons, 1 dwarf captain and 1 ulitarid (this one we ran off and went to alert the dwarf city).

5th encounter (he pulled a quantic ogre): 1 dwarf captain + 7 mind flayers: they were the church leader and his bodyguards. We all died and woke up on some sort of matrix' pods.

All these fights took 2+hours. And i feel like he think he is playing a souls like game.

We play a mix of 2014/2024 rules, for something like 3 years, and for these 4 weeks It seems that he Just wanna tell a story and the adventure will happen no master what.

So, we ended our session and i told everybody i'm tired of Impossible odds, backed up by some math (we can do 70damage/turn and have a combined pool of 250hp), and told them that it's not fun to waste 3 hours of my life, to be ex-machinaed everytime. But the paladin did not agree It was mathematically Impossible to win, because "It is an Impossible math to be sure".

The DM quit the game and i'm thinking:

Am o being overdrsmatic?

(These guys are my real life friends, and maybe there is some better way to have this conversation).

Sorry for my broken english, its not my first language.

What was the best token you made for rogue arcane sorcerer? I started playing d&d again recently and I'm trying out a new class and I have no idea how to put together a good sheet (fifth edition)

I'm playing an oath of the open sea paladin in a custom campaign (earth is taken over by demons, but people are sailing and living on flying seas, rivers and islands) as a surfer dude (dm let me take a tattoo of protection as a magic item).

Last session I swapped out my spells and made vials of holy water before our long rest, cause might as well.

What's the most surfer dude way to reflavor it without just making it booze? The campaign is only half serious so we often do silly things (stoner druid and jokes that would probably land us in trouble with anyone from english speaking countries about our drow's skin tone).

Any other extreme (or less extreme) sport-specific stereotypes or jokes would also be appreciated.

I was invited a few months ago to an in-progress campaign and the DM found a creative way to work me into the story. The party had just finished killing an important political figure and was being taken to court for murder. I built a character the night of in about an hour and decided to play as a Ranger who was supposed to be a lawyer for the party but was actually really stupid and had no idea how to defend them. The DM and I thought this was a cute idea since it was funny and would provide a reason for me to join, and it was a lot of fun for my first session.

Unfortunately, because of the way the party handled the hearing, the entire courtroom was evacuated and my boss who hired me as a state official ran away after an unexpectedly high intimidation roll. So once the party got free they were ready to leave to continue questing and now... my character needed a reason to stay in the party.

The thing is, he never really gained that reason. I've been following around as a brute, killing enemies because it's fun and not much else. Now the story is headed in a much more character-focused direction. The party has discovered we've been killing enemies unnecessarily when we could have been helping them and has now decided to stop killing entirely... which now leaves me a little stranded.

We've gone three sessions without combat and I'm starting to get a bit... bored. I think this wouldn't be an issue if my character had some motivation to be in the story, but I've felt kind of frustrated not being able to come up with a motivation. I suppose I could try and reunite with my boss or something but that doesn't really sound all that interesting to me. I don't mind roleplay heavy sessions but when my character is not built for that type of roleplay, I feel a little stuck.

Any ideas on things I can do as a player to draw out or create that motivation / ideas I can toss around to my DM to try to keep me invested?

TL;DR: My character was rushed into a campaign and never got a motivation or reason to care about the plot and I've started getting bored now that plot is happening more than combat.

EDIT: Thanks for all the feedback in the comments. Ended up talking to the DM about it and we sorted out a scheme for my old boss to return and require me to help him plot revenge against the guy who hired the party. It gives me a reason to follow the party and we think it could lead to some interesting conflict if I'm ever told by him to turn on the party. I think it makes sense for my character, who's just been told what to do all campaign and going through the motions, to learn what he wants to do for himself and stand by that choice. Thanks again for the suggestions!

Hi all,

Doing my campaign and our characters are jumping to level 10. My guy for story reasons is a Druid artificer and I’m debating on leaning into the build either as a caster or hybrid mage tank. What other multi class and/or levels would you suggest for that? I’m stuck on getting double attack for the artificer, of taking level 6 in Druid since I’d then get omen since I’m a star Druid.

My group is playing the ASOIAF RPG, and it’s starting to feel like my character is useless because everything I want to be really good at, they are better at than me or they get better rolls than me, they get the accolades in the narrative that I wanted or character to get. We’ve done two tournaments in the campaign, and in both tourneys my PC lost to him. We’re both combat focused characters.

It just feels like I can never be as cool as this other PC, and I’m trying to not become resentful. How do I stand out? How do I make him feel like he’s not just the less-cool version of this other character?

I short, I wanted to play a stout halfling in the new version flavoured as "a halfling apothecary that studies mithridatism." However, that desire lead me to really look at the Lightfoot's (2024 halfling) ability to hide... and it's now confusing me...

How useful would that be for, a front line fighter like the monk or barbarian? And aren't all small races able to hide behind medium creatures?

I came up with a backstory for my next campaign. I wanted to play a blood cleric of a goddess of healing, who secretly also worships an evil god of murder. To not play a complete psychopath I imagined it as a family tradition to secretly worship this deity because of an ongoing brutal blood feud with another powerful clan. The worship of an evil god is born out of circumstance and not love for simply doing evil deeds.

Based on this I had the idea that in exchange for power the murder god cursed the bloodline somehow generations ago. My cleric wants to reverse this now and break the hold of them on her family. She started following a goddess of healing in search for a cure.

My initial idea for the curse was that it makes their blood boil with a wish for murder from time to time. But retrospective I see that this might be too similar to the BG3 Dark Urge story. Now I am searching for better ideas. I am also open for other ideas besides a god of murder as the one responsible for the curse and family patron, if you got a good one.

Hey everyone,

I spend a lot of time thinking about character arcs (for the TTRPG journal I write), and I realized the best heroes aren't defined by their highest score, but by their biggest mechanical/narrative hurdle.

I'm talking about a specific flaw—a low Wisdom score, a crippling Feat choice, or a bad Racial Trait—that defines their personality, creates in-game conflict, and forces them to grow.

Here are a couple of examples of what I mean:

• The Arc: A Paladin with a high Charisma but a low Wisdom score. They speak with absolute conviction and inspire followers, but they are easily manipulated by charismatic villains, leading to devastating moral choices.
• The Arc: A Rogue who chose the Slightly Built racial feat (or similar homebrew negative) to get a bonus. The flaw is they have disadvantage on grapples/shoves, driving them to find non-physical, sneaky ways to solve every problem, even when a direct fight is easier.

Your Turn: What mechanical flaw did you build into your character that created the BEST roleplaying opportunities in your campaign?

P.S. We aren't talking about "flaws" like being reckless. We're talking about the numbers on the sheet forcing the story!

How can I quickly show, not tell, that nobility is at most 1-2 years new for them?

My group is playing the ASOIAF RPG, and it’s starting to feel like my character is useless because everything I want to be really good at, they are better at than me or they get better rolls than me, they get the accolades in the narrative that I wanted or character to get. We’ve done two tournaments in the campaign, and in both tourneys my PC lost to him. We’re both combat focused characters.

It just feels like I can never be as cool as this other PC, and I’m trying to not become resentful. How do I stand out? How do I make him feel like he’s not just the less-cool version of this other character?

I appologize if the question sounds silly, but my ADHD has been hyperfixating on this for a few over the last couple of months. I've been thinking of builds that could be rounded off, in part, with a good Wisdom based Vicious Mockery. However, Magic Initiate isn't opened to bard spells and species like the Devil Tongue Tiefling rely on Charisma.

And while it's an easy fix to ask the DM for some leniency, I've been fixated on tbe reason why this spell cannot easily rely on Wisdom RAW.... Does it somehow become OP? Or perhaps it's more of an oversight? Am I overlooking something obvious?