What is your favorite way of reflavoring abilities?

[UnwiseAlistair]

I love re flavoring abilities, ranging from describing a spell in a unique way to refluffing the Phoenix sorcerer to be an infernal bloodline, and I'm wondering what ideas others have come up with?
What is your favorite way to re flavor class abilities or spells?

[Laurefindel]

What is your favorite way to re flavor class abilities or spells?

I play a smug, roguish fighter à la Madmartigan in Willow. High charisma, deems himself as classy etc.

He has a special combat technique that allows him to parry and riposte with more momentum. That technique makes him hard to grievously harm or dislodge, but it requires a lot of concentration, he can't keep at it for long and if he doesn't have anyone to parry or attack back, he loses momentum and falls out of rhythm.

in-game: he's a fighter who dipped in barbarian and uses "rage" in combat.

I also played a "bard" in a 5e Prince of the Apocalypse game set in Athas (Dark Sun) to emulate a psionicist. Reflavoured mage hand, vicious mockery, dissonant whisper, suggestion and crown of madness made good "psionic" powers.

[JAL_1138]

I typically don't. But it could be nifty for my Milil-worshipping Paladin 2/ Valor Bard 12 for Spirit Guardians to manifest as a spectral stampede of hollyphants and swarm of songbirds (which are sacred to Milil).

EDIT: I forgot that I do a bit of refluffing on that very character, flavoring a halberd as a poleaxe and the Bludgeoning damage from Polearm Master as coming from the hammer-face of the poleaxe.

[Magic Myrmidon]

My main source of refluffing comes from weapons and other equipment. Saying a dagger is a pair of scissors for example. I actually wrote an article on it recently.

http://stuffershack.com/when-is-a-pair-of-scissors-a-dagger/

Rage is another one that I find pretty easy to refluff.

I often seek to refluff at least one aspect of every one of my characters.

[Hrugner]

I like flopping the divine/arcane descriptor as that opens up a lot of options. Natural versus studied is also a good one.

[GlenSmash!]

I've refluffed the Barbarian Totems to be a form of Lycanthrope.

[Âmesang]

I think my only bought of full-on reflavoring was having a drow wield the katana from the D&D Next playtest but, due to being a drow and due to matching its stats, referring to it in-game as an "elven curve blade."

[Pikkle]

I just pick a concept I like along with a rough mechanical representation and then chop and change to fit both the world and the character, The rules may be the rules but the fluff is only limited by imagination and the GM.

[lunaticfringe]

My Moon Druid Wildshape forms ripped out my druid like he was a sack, he would cut himself out of animal forms with his dagger. The empty "skins" would shrivel up and dissolve into nothing.

Thorn whip was just stretchy arms with claws

I mostly just reskin weapons, change spell visuals, X Race is really this (Lightfoot = Monkey, Wood Elf = Half Satyr, Tons of Not Tiefling as Tieflings), and fluff classes like Bard into a Witch.

[DragonSorcererX]

Some examples I can think of:

Dragon Sorcerer: All blasty spells are BREATH WEAPONS! All other spells somehow come from inside of you, Shocking Grasp is basically slashing someone with electrified claws, Charm Person is looking someone deep into their eyes or saying magically charged words, etc...

Archfey Warlock, Elven Wizard/Sorcerer, any "generic" Fey related creature that casts spells: All your spells look glamorous and glorious, fire burns in the color of the eternal twilght of the Feywild, cold spells like Ray of Frost look like blue comets or "diamond dust", radiant damage spells look like a blast of moonlight/rainbow, etc...

Barbarian - Path of the Totem Warrior: If you are a Dragonborn you can simply call it Path of the Totem Dragon, and refluff the totem animals to inexistent (or at least not updated to 5e) dragon types, for example: Bear becomes Adamantine Dragon, Eagle becomes Mithral Dragon, Wolf becomes Quicksilver Dragon, etc...

[Draco4472]

Most of the reflavoring I do regards spells. For a paladin/sorcerer I play AL I describe the use of 'hold person' as conjuring chains made of fire to bind the target, and Divine Smite as using sorcererous magic to enhance the blows of my weapon (Green-Flame blade helps in this regard). I'm also found of reflavoring Spirit Guardians to better fit the deity my cleric worships, such as skeletal soldiers for Kelemvor, or sharks for Umberlee. It's also a running joke with my group to reflavor spiritual weapon as something related to Abraham Lincoln wielding a gavel, due to our original use of a penny to represent the spell on grids.

Recently, I've also reflavored a few hand crossbows as one repeating crossbow wielded in two hands.

[JackPhoenix]

Let's see... just what I can remember:

Changeling GOO warlock was some weird, shapechanging aberration with psionic abilities. Pact of the Blade wasn't summoning weapons, it was manifesting claws, spikes and tentacles.

GOO bladelock also makes for a good Sith. Especially if you can get a lightsaber Sunblade

Fiendlock for a gunmage... Eldritch Blast is now a pistol shot, Fireball, etc. is a special magic ammo.

Revenant (from UA) ended up as immortality-granting aberrant dragonmark (while other characters got more usual "you can cast few spells 1/day" marks). Needed slight modification of crunch, though (no goal, but need another dragonmarked individual within a mile of a site of death to possess (and reform in your image) if the body gets destroyed).

Bard? What bard? She's a noblewoman, thank you very much, and her proficiency with weapons, magic powers and skills are a result of good, well-rounded education. Again, some crunch changes (normal arcane focus instead of musical instrument, poisoner's kit proficiency (yeah, THAT kind of noblewoman) instead of 2 musical instrument proficiencies (she got to keep the third one)).

Refluffing spells is simple: Obscuring Mist is smoke cloud for a pyromancer, Stinking Cloud is the same, except the smoke is worse, Grease is ice patch for an ice mage.

If you give Oathbreaker an oath and remove the alignment requirement, you'll end up with a good Bone Knight replacement

There was much more, this is just what comes to mind right now.

[Dudewithknives]

Played a walk from level 1 to 15.
My spell focus was in the shape of a pistol.
My eldritch blasts looked like energy based gunshots.
My spells were either special ammo that I fired from the gun if they were attacks, a slug from a my whiskey flask if it was a buff or a thrown bottle if an aoe.
I wore a studded leather in the form of a thick old duster.
I was Raven Queen patron with my pet raven, Pact of the blade because my dm let me bond my spell focus as the weapon.
It was great.

[Desteplo]

Most of my spells as a wizard manifest from animal summons
-grease summons a giant snail that wiggles through a different plane leaves its slime and immediately leaving the plane
-magic missile are a flock of birds that fly to each of their targets.
-melfs acid arrow are acidic bunnies that hop and explode

[Laserlight]

About three months ago, I saw a posting here: "I'm the guy who let a player replace their spellbook with a herd of kittens so they could be a cat lady where each of their spells is encoded into a cat, preparing the spells by petting, playing with, and feeding each cat in turn."

[mephnick]

Magic in my setting is ripped from the Malazan books and is siphoned from the planes themselves, so I allow characters to form a connection to a plane or two when they create a character. So Ice "Fireballs", Fire Smites and those kinds of things are common.

Otherwise, my favorite player reflavor is making all spells tinkerer abilities. Like Burning Hands as a flamethrower, shocking grasp as a taser, darkvision as goggles etc. It was basically a wizard but with the new fluff a completely different character.

[MustacheManny]

I once saw an interesting post where someone daughter refluffed her sorcerer into a candy mage. So instead of magic missile it was magic infused gum drops, instead of mage armor it was a thick candy coating.

[RedMage125]

I played a Dragonborn Valor Bard. His musical Instrument (one of many, since out of combat he played bagpipes) was a hunting horn which was on a thong around his neck. When I cast Sleep, I was blowing a low, deep note. When I cast Thunderwave, it was an intense horn blast that struck enemies.

In that same party, my brother in law had a GOO-lock, pact of the Tome. He took Thorn Whip as one of his extra cantrips, reflavored it as a tentacle, and changed the damage to bludgeoning. That got real fun when we fought a kobold mounted on a raptor who had surrounded us with Stone Spikes. The lock grabbed him with the whip, pulled him off his mount, through his own stone spikes, and the melee beaters beat the crap out of him.

[ThurlRavenscrof]

Bard? What bard? She's a noblewoman, thank you very much, and her proficiency with weapons, magic powers and skills are a result of good, well-rounded education. Again, some crunch changes (normal arcane focus instead of musical instrument, poisoner's kit proficiency (yeah, THAT kind of noblewoman) instead of 2 musical instrument proficiencies (she got to keep the third one))

I've played this before! Very fun! And inspiration was her pointing out a strategic opportunity or pointing out an opponents weakness

[ghost_warlock]

Magic in my setting is ripped from the Malazan books and is siphoned from the planes themselves, so I allow characters to form a connection to a plane or two when they create a character. So Ice "Fireballs", Fire Smites and those kinds of things are common.

Otherwise, my favorite player reflavor is making all spells tinkerer abilities. Like Burning Hands as a flamethrower, shocking grasp as a taser, darkvision as goggles etc. It was basically a wizard but with the new fluff a completely different character.

rant:
I kind of hate how dedicated 5e is to energy types for spells. That is, I really wish they were more fluid. It should absolutely not be a balance concern what kind of damage the various spells do. Fireballs that do thunder damage. Scorching rays that deal acid damage. Incendiary clouds that deal lightning damage. I really feel that the game would benefit a lot from disconnecting the damage types from the spells and just let players deal whatever type of damage they feel is thematic for their characters. And it would cut down on the kind of metagaming that leads to almost all dragon sorcerers being focused on fire simply because there's twice (or more) as many fire spells as there are any other energy type.
/rant

So far as the OP goes, I'm of the school that likes to treat classes and abilities as mental constructs rather than specific in-game things. So, a character I build that might, mechanically, be a tiefling sorcerer/warlock with the tome pact to pick up shillelagh and primal savagery is actually a juvenile red dragon. I use the cantrips to emulate the claw/bite attacks and the character's various fire spells to be different ways of manipulating their breath weapon. The character spent years practicing "throat singing" (training in Performance) and has learned how to project her flaming breath in a cone (burning hands), a line (Agannazar's scorcher), or even hurling a scatter-gun-like spray of flames (scorching ray). And, now, she's using these skills like any other murderhobo because momma needs a bigger hoard!

[Hellstick]

I haven't had the chance to try it in game yet, but I play a rock gnome wizard at the moment and I just got the find familiar spell. He's obsessed with dragons and really likes tinkering, so I'm gonna make a small clockwork toy in the shape of a wyvern and infuse it with magic from the spell. It'll also feature the fire starter contraption which will be placed in its mouth (It probably won't work for dealing damage). Usually the clockwork toys only works for 24 hours but my idea is, that the magic is holding the contraption together to make it a permanent thing, so for all intended purposes it works just like the normal spell (with the exception of maybe being able to light a bonfire with the breath thing) :)

[JackPhoenix]

rant:
I kind of hate how dedicated 5e is to energy types for spells. That is, I really wish they were more fluid. It should absolutely not be a balance concern what kind of damage the various spells do. Fireballs that do thunder damage. Scorching rays that deal acid damage. Incendiary clouds that deal lightning damage. I really feel that the game would benefit a lot from disconnecting the damage types from the spells and just let players deal whatever type of damage they feel is thematic for their characters. And it would cut down on the kind of metagaming that leads to almost all dragon sorcerers being focused on fire simply because there's twice (or more) as many fire spells as there are any other energy type.
/rant

I think that the current way is more flavorful, not to mention traditional, though 3e psionics did it the way you suggest. Fireball or Lightning Bolt are more evocative (pun not intended) than "Energy Burst, 20' radius" or "Energy Line 3". When the player says "I cast Fireball", everyone at the game will instantly imagine fiery explosion amongst the enemies... it's just not the same when the player has conversation with a GM to determine what the spell does first.

"I cast Energy Burst, level 3"
"Ok. What type of damage was your character using again?"
"Um...Fire"

Changing damage types to create new spells is propably the easiest form of homebrewing. Caustic Blast, Fireball, Ball Lightning, Sonic Boom and Frost Nova all bring out different image of what's going on, even if they are basically the same spell. But you should be careful, not all damage types are equal: Fireball doing thunder damage (or Sonic Boom) is better than the standard fire damage one, because fire resistance is common, and barely anything is resistant or immune to thunder damage.

[Âmesang]

That, and a 3e archmage of mine, is why I've considered at least giving sorcerers an "Elemental Spell" Metamagic—spend a sorcery point to cast an acid/cold/fire/lighting/thunder spell as a spell of a different element from that list.

Or you could do what Keraptis' did and just invent alternative-elemental spells, like his fire-based flaming missiles (magic missiles) and flamecone (cone of cold). :smallbiggrin:

[90sMusic]

Reflavored Great Old One patron for warlocks to be something of a Succubus/Infernal influence. Makes sense because they all have telepathy and mind reading and charming and other manipulations were staples of Succubi.

When I used the Huntsman patron for warlock, I also reflavored Eldritch Blast to instead be a bow made out of energy that fired magical arrows. Used same mechanics and everything, just looked cooler in the mind.

Had a succubus-like character as a bard who used dancing instead of playing instruments to use magic, give inspiration, and as her performing skill as part of her entertainer background to stay for free at places.

Had a tiefling warlock/sorcerer multiclass that I basically reflavored all of the sorcerer abilities as stemming from the warlock patron as well. Took Draconic bloodline so when I got the wings eventually, they were devil-like bat wings instead of dragon wings.

YEAH I LIKE SUCCUBI, SO SUE ME. It's because i'm a very convincing liar when I speak, a good manipulator, and female. Makes it so easy as well as fun.

Other than that, i've done a couple of minor things like played an Eldritch Fighter who was a dragonborn and just flavored their powers stemming from that draconic lineage.

I don't know if this counts, but I also played a dragonborn warlock one time whose backstory was basically they were a true dragon once and was cursed into the significantly weaker form of a dragonborn to teach them humility. And their goal was basically to hit level 17 for true polymorph to become a real dragon again.

I've played Oathbreaker paladins a couple of times. Once I used a Warhorse Skeleton as my mount, once I used a standard warhorse stats and features but pinged as undead instead of the standard fey/fiend/celestial.

I'm sure there is more, just can't think of anything else at the moment. :P

[AttilatheYeon]

Salt, pepper and garlic 🤣

[UnwiseAlistair]

Salt, pepper and garlic 🤣

Hahaha clever. Thank you for that I needed a good laugh

[AttilatheYeon]

Hahaha clever. Thank you for that I needed a good laugh

U're welcome.

[Balyano]

Well my elven paladin in service of queen titania is in fact an archfey bladelock. Not really much of a refluff though.

[GorinichSerpant]

Somewhere on this forum is a person who reflavored several subclasses ability by ability. I remember their avatar being a beholder but nothing else.

One of these reflavorings was changing the Monk abilities from being gained via training and enlightenment to becoming more and more monstrous.

On a similar note I once had a player have his character be a Windigo with the Monk mechanics. Reasoning being that unarmed attacks can become claws with teeth and the Monk's focus on mobility fits with the Windigo's association with winter winds.

[Vaz]

There's a Hexblade in my party who has his blade look like a Spear; his Cursebringer is fluffed to look like that and his Eldritch Blasts are thrown Javelins of light, rather than Laser Beams or Magic Missiles. A few other spells he has are refluffed around the Spear also.

[Moosoculars]

I find that the most simple twist to the flavour of a spell (as a DM) can really confuse players, especially experienced players who have digested the PHB, DMG and MM.

For example an Goblin Shaman who cast a spell at a PC while slashing his knife in the air and opening up a gash automatically on the PC's body seems really powerful and gets a lot of respect. But in reality it is just a worse version of magic missile. Goblin need a Material Component (Knife) and does Slashing damage rather than Force (Still blocked by Shield)

I fluffed the Shield spell in a similar way as the Goblin's knife whirled around him knocking away swords and even magical attacks.

Suddenly my little CR1/2 1st level wizard is a powerhouse of unique spells and feared.

Do this all the way through the game to keep PC's on their toes.

[Laserlight]

rant:
I kind of hate how dedicated 5e is to energy types for spells. That is, I really wish they were more fluid. It should absolutely not be a balance concern what kind of damage the various spells do. Fireballs that do thunder damage. Scorching rays that deal acid damage. Incendiary clouds that deal lightning damage. I really feel that the game would benefit a lot from disconnecting the damage types from the spells and just let players deal whatever type of damage they feel is thematic for their characters. And it would cut down on the kind of metagaming that leads to almost all dragon sorcerers being focused on fire simply because there's twice (or more) as many fire spells as there are any other energy type.
/rant

I concur. The Champions superhero RPG explicitly divorced mechanical effect from fluff. You paid points for something like "ranged AoE attack, 20ft radius, 8d6 damage" but you were free to call it "fireball" or "sonic boom" or "hammer of Moradin" or "seven thousand obsidian butterflies with razor wings" or "I cause my spirit form to magically leap to the area, punching and kicking everyone in it with rapid ghost attacks" or whatever you decided when you built your character. Occasionally you'd run into a situation where your "special effects" might help or hinder you a bit--the sonomancer might find his sonic boom was a bit less powerful at higher altitudes, or a bit more powerful underwater.

It'd be freeing to have D&D effects work that way too. "I cast Chains of Despair" instead of. yawn, Booming Blade Just Like Everyone Else.

[Creyzi4j]

Once refluffed a Pact of Blade Warlock Tiefling as that Devil unit in Heroes 3.

His greataxe is changed to a scythe. And he teleports to the battlefield (Misty Step) just like how the Devil does it on Heroes 3

[Joe the Rat]

It'd be freeing to have D&D effects work that way too. "I cast Chains of Despair" instead of. yawn, Booming Blade Just Like Everyone Else.Other than flipping Thunder to Psychic, that's a name change. That's easy. But if you really want to make that "+Xd8 HTH, Energy, Persistent -conditional on target moving"... It's not hard to work out. And then you make it a new spell - Galvanic Explosion, Cone of Thunder, Vitriolic Ray, etc.


My wife has no idea what half of her Warlock spells are called in the book, because I renamed them to better fit her Patron (Archfey). Armor of Agathys is Armor of Winter's Embrace, Hunger of Hadar is Void Between the Worlds, etc. Eldritch Blast is "The Finger" - but that's her thing. I actively encourage players to give their magics and tricks more personal names.

I briefly had a Barbarian Noble in my party - He was a Samurai (hence the Noble) warrior. Rage = Battle Focus. His greatsword was a No-Dachi.

Warlock and Sorcerer fluff is very interchangeable. When your Patron is literally your Pater (or Mater), it's in the blood. Sorcerer Magic gained through deals and strange encounters, Both of them can mimic psychic powers... it all comes down to what mechanic you want, and how much you want DM intrusions in the form of annoying relatives and celestial collection agencies.

[DivisibleByZero]

I like to add a pinch of nutmeg.

[tkuremento]

A bard as an entertainer chef because don't tell me Ramsey doesn't use Vicious Mockery!

[Creyzi4j]

Monk (Way of the ELements) = A CIA Agent...or a techy dude, similar to that yordle from League of Legends (Heimerdinger)

Unarmored Movement = Roller Skates
Deflect Missiles = Bullet Proof Vest
Slow Fall = Parachute
Ki-Empowered Strikes and Stunning Strike = Tasers
Evasion = Just Evasion
Stillness of the Mind = Pull a Valium out of your pocket and inject yourself with it
Tongue of Sun and Moon = Cellphone (translator)/Or you could have a mic on your earphone with a translator on the line
Diamond Soul = Lots of Ideas (depending on the spell)
Timeless Body = Plastic Surgery/Vitamins
Empty Body = Special Suit

Way of Four Elements
1.) ELemental Attunement = Sonar device, heater, gadget that freezes stuff (freeze gun)
2.) Eternal Mt. Defense = Full Ballistic Gear
3.) Fist of Four Thunders = Flashbang Grenade
4.) Fist of Unbroken Air = Electric Fan?
5.) Flames of the Phoenix = Grenade Launcher/Bazooka
6.) Gong of the SUmmit = That Gadget thieves use to break glass
7.) Ride of the WInd = Jetpack
8.) Sweeping Cinder Strike = Flamethrower
9.) Breathe of Winter = Freeze Gun