So what refluffs sound cool to you?

[Rfkannen]

Fluff is always a great way to create concepts, from makeing character concepts not supported to creating horrible monstrosities that stat wise are the same as a goblin. So what refluffings have you thought of this edition?

[Mikeavelli]

In my campaign, we've refluffed Dragonborn as Genasi; because the Elemental planes became relevant to the plot, Dragonborn already have a variety of elemental-based powers, and we didn't like Dragonborn anyways.

[Graustein]

I love love love reimagining classes for fluff while making minimal changes to the mechanics. Icebending Barbarians, tattooed Wizards, Blade Pact Warlocks who function more like Soulknives, an Evoking blaster whose spell effects all come from song, etc. etc. It's great fun.

From a DM perspective, whenever I'm behind the wheel my dwarves always seem to end up more or less identical to Terry Pratchett's imagining of them.

[edge2054]

I was playing a game last night with ratmen in it and thought, these guys are way cooler than halflings.

So there you go, ratmen halflings.

[Balyano]

My character Liriodendron the Summer Knight is a devout worshiper of the archfey Titannia. He is a courageous champion of the people, prone to giving speeches about justice and opposing evil. With his trusty blade he fells murderers, tyrants, monsters, especially undead, and is a staunch opponent of slash and burn agriculture. With his noble background he gains the service of his faithful butler Scheffield, who cooks, cleans, runs errands for him and manages his appointments. His faithful squire Junior, who maintains his gear and cares for the horses and mules. And most important of all his troubadour Jon Bovi, who goes ahead to the next town and begins spreading tales and songs of his brave deeds and accomplishments, then when he arrives plays the part of a star struck fan amazed at his luck in crossing paths with such a renowned paladin. Sir Lirio channels the power of his goddess to smite the wicked...alot. So much so that he finds himself having to take breaks mid day to pray for her favor so that she might grant him more miracles. Of course given all of this he is obviously a blade pact warlock who dishes out spells and invocations (miracles) granted by his arch fey patron.

[Grayson01]

Refluffing a Ranger/Wizard or more likely a Ranger/Bard as an Arcane archer. A mage who specializes in "Arrow Magic" with a bit of other arcane spells not revolving around Arrows and bows. I think a few Ranger levels max 6 and all Bard would be my best bet for it.

[mabriss lethe]

I've been toying with Way of Shadow/Elements monks refluffed into horrifying experimental test subjects artificially infused with extraplanar energies.

[Naanomi]

I've been toying with Way of Shadow/Elements monks refluffed into horrifying experimental test subjects artificially infused with extraplanar energies.
Funny, my campaign world has 'Elemental Monks' as a sub-type of Warlock (empowered by Djinn, which are a active and mostly malicious presence in the setting)

[archaeo]

The MM has so many dragons, but to be perfectly honest, in a custom campaign setting, I have no real interest in them. They're a bit overdone!

Instead, I'll be using the dragons' stat blocks to model what happens when you use the powerful magical artifacts the setting revolves around. If you pick one up, you can use it to gain all the powers of a dragon, gently refluffed (breath becomes more generic elemental energy, for example) and with severe drawbacks (two levels of exhaustion, perhaps).

Generally, I really like the stat and fluff separation in the MM. It certainly feels like a lot of monsters' stat blocks can easily be refluffed into whatever you like. The same isn't necessarily true of the PHB, where the classes and subclasses feel like the fluff and mechanics are very closely tied together, but I don't think it would be very hard to handle that. Refluffing races, for example, should be child's play.

[mephnick]

RE-fluffed the dragonborn to be other races that devoted themselves to dragons and were reborn, like they originally were, and made them extremely rare.

Having a dragonborn common race has always been the stupidest decision, they essentially turned them into boring lizardfolk.

[Rfkannen]

RE-fluffed the dragonborn to be other races that devoted themselves to dragons and were reborn, like they originally were, and made them extremely rare.

Having a dragonborn common race has always been the stupidest decision, they essentially turned them into boring lizardfolk.


Yeah, I realy would have prefered lizard folk in the phb. Lizardfolk are awesome.

[Cambrian]

For my homebrew I'm looking to refluff Drow rules to albino elves of another culture.

Makes sense for the Sunlight Sensitivity, increased Darkvision, and the Darkness SLA.


In my campaign, we've refluffed Dragonborn as Genasi.
That's really awesome-- I will likely steal this idea!

[Balyano]

The MM has so many dragons, but to be perfectly honest, in a custom campaign setting, I have no real interest in them. They're a bit overdone!

Instead, I'll be using the dragons' stat blocks to model what happens when you use the powerful magical artifacts the setting revolves around. If you pick one up, you can use it to gain all the powers of a dragon, gently refluffed (breath becomes more generic elemental energy, for example) and with severe drawbacks (two levels of exhaustion, perhaps).

Generally, I really like the stat and fluff separation in the MM. It certainly feels like a lot of monsters' stat blocks can easily be refluffed into whatever you like. The same isn't necessarily true of the PHB, where the classes and subclasses feel like the fluff and mechanics are very closely tied together, but I don't think it would be very hard to handle that. Refluffing races, for example, should be child's play.

Sounds like Legend of Dragoon. May I steal this idea for home play?

[archaeo]

Sounds like Legend of Dragoon. May I steal this idea for home play?

Absolutely! Personally, I'll be running this with absolutely zero "dragon" flavor; the artifacts in the setting are the tools the "gods" left behind when creating the world, so using one is more like being a demigod. But leaving the dragon flavor behind also totally works, and I kind of like the idea of a world where the dragons have all disappeared but have left behind these legendary magical items.

My plan was to have the players strongly discouraged from using them (both mechanically through exhaustion and narratively through their mission), but present opportunities for dragon-esque antics via big set piece encounters. Let me know how it goes if you end up trying this in your campaign!

[Sizzlefoot]

My tabaxi arcane trickster coughs up his spells like hairballs. He once vomited a Color Spray on some firenewts to zero effect.

[Wildarm]

Warforged Cleric who has re-fluffed all his spells as technomancy. Bless/Guidance is a little targeting overlay over their eyes giving probability/predictive possibilities. Mending/Healing spells are a bunch of mini-spider-drones he releases to repair stuff and knit together tissue. Sanctuary/Sacred Weapon are a bunch of point defense drones. Mechanics all all the same as spells. It's a lot of fun making up visualizations for the spells.

[solidork]

When my Barbarian multiclassed into Scout Rogue, I explained his sudden ability to be great at wilderness stuff and lockpicking as him finding an extraplanar tome known as the "Boy Scout Handbook" and a "Lockpicking Merit Badge Book". They were an obscure dialect that only he could read (Sage background) and he took them out and referenced them when he used those skills.

[Misterwhisper]

I refluffed a Raven Queen Pact of the Chain as:

An old west gunslinger

1. Eldritch blast from his rod/wand was using the rod as his revolver and shooting things.
2. Darkness was a bottle of black smoke that he threw to a certain range.
3. His pet raven was, well a raven blessed by a higher power.
4. Devil's sight was a pair of goggles he wore.
5. The rest of his spells were things he either threw or with gear.

He was very "Roland"

[mephnick]

Dang, a 4 year necro. That's pretty good.