Characters and Clothes: your take?

[Unoriginal]

In fiction, clothes can be an important part of the character, mainly by helping asserting their identity via their look. However, when you play the game, well, you often have other concerns in mind than doing fashion shopping.

Do you care about the different characters' clothes? Do your adventurers wear the same outfit from level 1 to 20 aside from the occasional upgrade of equipment and addition of magic item? Does your outfit even get damaged during the rough life of adventuring?

[VoxRationis]

My current character uses mending liberally during her downtime in order to keep her outfit (originally her mother's dress) in good repair, in spite of being pierced with arrows and bullets and such things on an all-too-frequent basis. Being a wizard helps with that kind of maintenance.

[Drascin]

I like to give characters their own style. I don't change complete outfits much, outside of specific scenes (given the people I play with, there is always at least one fancy party where the entire group has to suit up in fancy dress in every campaign), but that's because often the clothing style is kind of part of the character, like a costume, and thus largely changes mostly at important points of character development.

This, incidentally, can sometimes make me somewhat reluctant to use magic items that don't fit the aesthetic.

"But's it's +2 full plate!"
"Yeah but it's full of spikes! I refuse to go around looking like Abaddon the Despoiler's younger cousin!"

[Joe the Rat]

My current character uses mending liberally during her downtime in order to keep her outfit (originally her mother's dress) in good repair, in spite of being pierced with arrows and bullets and such things on an all-too-frequent basis. Being a wizard helps with that kind of maintenance.
Mending and Prestidigitation for my crew, though I do make mention of how particularly worn or manky things get over time.

Where it comes up most is when it's time to dress up for social engagement. Old battered armor and travel-work clothes are not the fashion in court this season. ( Which makes a nice gold sink)

This is how we ended up with a purple velvet pimp gnome, so caveat DM-tor.

[kardar233]

My party had a clothes shopping excursion just recently, as our Tiefling nun of the Silver Flame was finally persuaded that she needed her own civilian clothes (rather than wearing my paladin’s spare travelling stuff). It resulted in about an hour of googling early Renaissance clothing styles, discussion on what tones match tiefling blue, and a party-wide desire to have a session at a fancy ball. Plus, there was character development as our dear Cleric is starting to turn away from her unpleasant church, something my misotheist Blood of Vol Paladin is happy to hear.


I like to give characters their own style. I don't change complete outfits much, outside of specific scenes (given the people I play with, there is always at least one fancy party where the entire group has to suit up in fancy dress in every campaign), but that's because often the clothing style is kind of part of the character, like a costume, and thus largely changes mostly at important points of character development.

This, incidentally, can sometimes make me somewhat reluctant to use magic items that don't fit the aesthetic.

"But's it's +2 full plate!"
"Yeah but it's full of spikes! I refuse to go around looking like Abaddon the Despoiler's younger cousin!"

All of this. Especially not wanting to look like Abaddon. (topknots are so last millennium)

We actually just updated our look as a party by crafting a whole bunch of scales that we got from a giant half-dragon Blackscale into acid-resistant “dragonhide” cloaks.

[JeenLeen]

Usually my character is trying is to be nondescript and avoid notice, so replacing clothes is helpful, and I generally explicitly try NOT to have a given fashion or style. Prestigidation, Mending, and such to remove blood stains and fix rips is very helpful and appreciated.

I never had a D&D 5e character get to high level, but I did like shelling out the extra gold in 3.5 to get the enchantment that the armor can be glamoured to look as whatever you want. In one 5th edition game I was in, I was hoping to get a Hat of Disguise for similar effect. With that, when I don't want to be incognito, I can have a stylish dress appropriate and thematic for the character.

[the_brazenburn]

I don't give a damn about what my characters wear.

Then again, I don't care about my clothes in real life, either.

[PhoenixPhyre]

It depends on the character.

My current character (a celestial warlock 2/bard 1) started out wearing really baggy, poorly-fitting clothes and always covered up with a cloak pulled tight. She spent a lot of cash on a set of fine clothes (as part of getting a tailor to talk) that are a lot more, well, feminine.

This has coincided with her acceptance of her new gender. Turns out that when you make a deal for "the voice of the best singer" and the other partner is a chaotic being with a bit of a sense of humor, one should check to make sure the best singer is of the appropriate gender. He (now she) got the voice...and the body to go with it. By now she's accepted that fact and is learning to use it to her advantage.

My previous character (a dwarven knowledge cleric) didn't care, as long as it had pockets for books. Big pockets of sturdy material, because books are heavy.

[Lombra]

I just tell the tier (like lifestyles expenses) of clothing and weather-dependant changes, but since it's just fluff that nobody will remember except when it's brought up, at our table nobody really cares. I think about it mainly because I like to draw my characters.

[strangebloke]

Got one player who obsessively describes his character's gear. "I wear the pelt of a bear I slew when I had only barely become a man. A great red bear with onyx-black claws." He also likes to do things like add fur trim to the +1 leather armor he just picked up. I love screwing with him by giving him nice gear that messes with his aesthetic.

Got a fastidious noble who traveled with several different fancy suits in addition to his adventuring gear. He would frequently make trips to the tailor. I was always sure to narrate how utterly disgusting everything that hit him was.

[JeffreyGator]

Certain characters this matters much more. Spies and such will have many outfits often including changing genders. A character in a current campaign is a fop that looks for good tailors. I played a character obsessed with being clean.

I also like to give characters choices between good roleplaying and optimizing.

They chose to destroy the magical mace built from bones and consecrated to a murder god, and multiple magical shields with evil symbols and drow armor with spider stuff (even before I would have disintegrated it in sunlight).


My awakened trash panda monk doesn't wear many clothes at all - because trash panda.

[Pex]

I played a sorcerer in a game where the DM gave everyone a free artistic tool use. I chose weaving. He cared about fashion. He eventually opened his own clothing store which also served as a base of operations for the party.

In a more recent game while serious about the play of the game I went silly on character concept. I had two characters, a Monk and Sorcerer named Chip & Dale. Clothing was optional for them. At campaign retirement they opened their own burlesque theater. 5E providing for the ability to have a decent AC without armor has inspired me to be a bit naughty once in a while.

[GlenSmash!]

I play to many Outlanders that don't put stock in Well-mannered people to care about their clothes.

Now when somebody walks into the room wearing the hide of a particularly nasty beat, that gets attention.

[JackPhoenix]

I have a tendency to have multiple outfits on my characters, with various degree of detailed description written up.

Of course, one of my current characters is at the moment completely naked and armed only with stolen bow and few arrows. In the middle of enemy lair. It was a stupid plan even before the whole group got ambushed and captured.

[strangebloke]

I mean, good or bad, your clothes are basically free design space. Want to have a really cool hat? Go for it! Want to be a smelly peasant with a troll skull on one shoulder? Why not!

I'll never understand why people fail to use the tools available to them to make their character fun. I currently have a frenzy barbarian in one of my groups who goes into combat in a full dress.

[bc56]

I don't normally give much thought to clothes. My characters are either the "holy warrior" or "mysterious stranger" types, so they end up in tunics and armor or dark cloaks, respectively. The one time I played a female character, she dressed comfortably and for adventuring, with the exception that she had high heels because she was a shrimpy goblin who wanted to be more imposing, and could hide a secret compartment for an extra set of thieves tools in the heel.

[GlenSmash!]

I mean, good or bad, your clothes are basically free design space. Want to have a really cool hat? Go for it! Want to be a smelly peasant with a troll skull on one shoulder? Why not!

I'll never understand why people fail to use the tools available to them to make their character fun. I currently have a frenzy barbarian in one of my groups who goes into combat in a full dress.

http://0.media.dorkly.cvcdn.com/20/25/5d287004b58840cc66a3f30501324f66.jpg

"In battle, we donned a full-length ballgown covered in sequins. The idea was to blind you opponent with luxury."

[strangebloke]

"In battle, we donned a full-length ballgown covered in sequins. The idea was to blind you opponent with luxury."

Pretty much.

though in this case, the berserker is a dwarf merchant's daughter who has the rage in her blood, but didn't know about it until recently. She's utterly psychotic when she's raging, and awfully prissy when she comes to her senses. "WHICH ONE OF YOU GOT ALL THIS BLOOD ON MY DRESS??"

She's best friends with the wizard who casts prestidigitation/mending, and she calls dibs on any perfume/jewelry we find. When we went through Lost Mines of Phandelvr, she tried to arrange an engagement for herself with Gundren Rockseeker, since he seems rich and in need of some management.

She's a riot and I adore her.

[smcmike]

Clothes are one of the best ways to establish character quickly, but it’s not always easy to do well in this format, partially because efficient description is hard, and partly because players may lack a detailed system of reference in which to place their character’s appearance. You’re stuck with general adjectives, like shabby or fancy or practical, rather than specific contextual fashion, like a preppy bow tie, or loosely fitting sweats and sneakers, or flannel with a camouflage trucker’s hat and light-washed Levis.

Still, it’s worth doing. The classics that I’ve used are The Practical, meant to demonstrate that my character was serious and unpretentious, The Shabby Noble, meant to demonstrate a character flaw such as carelessness, absentmindedness, or downward mobility, and the Attempted Peacock, meant to demonstrate that the character is striving to stand out with ostentatious dress, not necessarily successfully.

[krazedkoi]

Clothes (and manners) maketh the man!
As a player I enjoy giving my characters a little flair, for example my Tabaxi folk hero wears clothes she has sewn from silk curtains and other 'liberated' fine fabrics (I've accepted a penalty to hiding unless I'm wearing my reversible cloak because of how brightly coloured I am).

As a DM, I love it even more. It makes me genuinely happy when my players excited describe their characters. Trophy hunters, making shields and armor out of fallen monsters (or people in my Monsters game), or refusing to wear magical gear because it doesn't fit the character aesthetic all make the characters more alive and brings more depth to the game.

My current party is fantastic.
They recently killed a giant crocodile and the lizardman barbarian (who refuses to wear anything he hasn't crafted himself) made some gear out of it for various party members including a leather biker jacket and boots for the goblin warlock with "MINION" etched into the back of it. They also fashioned the upper jaw into a headpiece and the lower jaw into a platform for a war drum then attached it to a backpack. So now Minion rides one of the larger party members into combat, pounding the war drum and zotting away with eldritch blasts from within the skeletal maw of a giant crocodile. The gnoll took the heads of a family they killed and is making a flail from them (he's treating the faces so that when he bronzes them he can capture their tortured expressions forever).

[A Fat Dragon]

If my character has a specific outfit/feel, then I’d have them keep and maintain their outfit, and attempt to always have them wear that outfit, or something as close to that as possible.

If I’m feeling a bit more liberal, then I’d make my character’s outfit based on whatever would be found in the nearby village, or what can be tanned/collected from the things they hunt/kill/gather.

[QuickLyRaiNbow]

I don't think about what my character wears unless it's part of a very specific concept.

[Dr. Cliché]

Honestly, I rarely think much about my character's clothes beyond the basics.

[Dudewithknives]

Usually I don't really worry about it other than a brief description of style. However if I am playing a character where style matters like the face, a bard, a Nobel or the like, I will be very exact and update it in character often.

My current character is a swashbuckler rogue who's is the face of the group and a noble. I have a high elf servant who follows me around and constantly casts prestidigitation on me to keep me clean and smelling nice. I have a detailed wardrobe and everything.

[DarkKnightJin]

My Fighter has Chainmail, with his clothes on top of it. Think Roose Bolton at the Red Wedding.

My Dragonborn Death Cleric has Chainmail, with now an Owlbear Cloak, that he skinned himself after it ambushed the party.

That's about as much fashion as my characters worry about, really.

The Cleric will keep the Owlbear Cloak if and when he upgrades to better armor.

The Fighter can't wear his clothes over anything above Chainmail, so he'll have to fond a new fashion sense when that happens.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

My character is a female elf Bard and I can only think of twice we described clothing besides the obvious "you got knocked off your horse in the mud" moments.

The first time was when she got the "fly" spell. Then I felt the need to look at the mini and picture in my book and remind the boys she was wearing pants.

The second was when we infiltrated a group of demented human supremacists. Our Drow Rogue used a Hat of Disguise well. Our male human wizard got himself branded as part of the group and "captured" us fairly convincingly. My character polymorphed our dwarf party member who had all our weapons into some harmless looking parrot companion. The wizard then delivered my character and our male dragonborn monk in "Princess Leia in chains" style.

A discussion about dragonborn parts being internal or external slowed things down a bit but the DM let us in, the big bad guy got divided from his minions and all went well.

[SiCK_Boy]

As a DM, I only care that the players have at least one set of clothes. Repairing, upgrading, or replacing said set of clothes is considered to be done as part of the lifestyle expenses and downtime activities, so unless a player wants to bring this up as a topic, I don't bring it up myself.

As a player, I usually don't give too much attention to my character's clothing. The fact that I have no artistic talent whatsoever, so I would never "draw" my characters, probably accounts for how little importance I give to this facet of the game.

[Atalas]

As a DM, I only care that the players have at least one set of clothes. Repairing, upgrading, or replacing said set of clothes is considered to be done as part of the lifestyle expenses and downtime activities, so unless a player wants to bring this up as a topic, I don't bring it up myself.

As a player, I usually don't give too much attention to my character's clothing. The fact that I have no artistic talent whatsoever, so I would never "draw" my characters, probably accounts for how little importance I give to this facet of the game.

my group typically doesn't worry about clothes except when the Rogue in one campaign is going around in disguise. For myself, well, in the other campaign I don't care about clothing as I am a construct. and a Barbarian. I just put more stock in the description of my characters looks.

[kardar233]

Oh, speaking of clothes made from the corpses of your enemies, my Druid in my previous game wore an assortment of furs and hides from every animal hey had killed in the past while. By the end of the game this included a large shoulder-piece of sabre-toothed tiger pelt, a large belt of allosaurus hide, and a group of feathers from an owlbear.

My current character (a Karrnathi Paladin) has the fortune of coming from a culture where wearing your plate to an occasion is, if not accepted, at least not frowned upon. It also helps that she’s “one of those crazy Halikars” and that her unfeasibly large halberd can teleport to her hand whenever needed.

[EvilAnagram]

You know, I've always been very clear about my characters' clothing. My foppish, gender-bending sorcerer has a deep purple tunic and lovely brown leather boots, while my goliath warlock wears less than the appropriate amount of loincloth. My halfling ranger wore faded and torn clothes, but his boots were fine leather, much more expensive than anything else on his person.

I've always found it a good way to explore what people find important.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

You know, I've always been very clear about my characters' clothing. My foppish, gender-bending sorcerer has a deep purple tunic and lovely brown leather boots, while my goliath warlock wears less than the appropriate amount of loincloth. My halfling ranger wore faded and torn clothes, but his boots were fine leather, much more expensive than anything else on his person.

I've always found it a good way to explore what people find important.

Darn right about having the nicest boots you can afford when you're doing a lot of walking.

In a campaign I run we have a naturally high charisma sorcerer who wears some flamboyant purple and pretends to be a vegetarian but secretly loves eating meet. I have no idea what the fellow is heading towards but it creates some interesting scenes. Maybe someone in his family or past is a secret smoker or something lol.

[Wryte]

I end up drawing all my characters sooner or later, so their clothing comes up then if I haven't already given specific thought to it prior.


I mean, good or bad, your clothes are basically free design space. Want to have a really cool hat? Go for it! Want to be a smelly peasant with a troll skull on one shoulder? Why not!

I'll never understand why people fail to use the tools available to them to make their character fun. I currently have a frenzy barbarian in one of my groups who goes into combat in a full dress.

I played a troll once in a campaign where the party came into possession of a wedding dress around the 3/4 mark of the game. She insisted on wearing it because it made her feel pretty, despite the fact that it was made for a woman roughly 3 feet shorter and 200lbs lighter. She managed to force it on, bursting about 90% of the seams in the process, and wore it under her half plate as it gradually became more and more tattered.

She didn't care. She was the prettiest troll in all of Ravenloft.

The Abbot had opinions about that.

https://78.media.tumblr.com/d9baf624b24113d2561334d8c3eb93d6/tumblr_os2mgkgysf1uvmgdco1_1280.png

[DeadMech]

I quite like thinking about what my characters wear. Undercover noble paladin, yeah he should be deliberately wearing something that lets him blend in with commoners. Maybe he lets his clothes under his armor get a bit discolored from the oil maintaining the straps turning his shirt a bit off white in areas. A secret bundle of clothes in his pack with his signet ring. Maybe those are a military officers dress uniform. Eventually the cat has to get out of the bag, sometimes it's a snoopy party member, sometimes it's a rank pull moment, sometimes its just heading home and visiting family. It'll happen eventually.

I Tend to ask the DM if fashion is notably changing as we traverse the map as well. Picking up outfits in the local styles to either try to blend in while there or to stand out when we travel back elsewhere. I quite like to make sure my characters have a few sets of clothes spare. I know I personally don't enjoy wearing the same thing everyday. Especially traveling and for some reason when you play a painfully bashful dude it seems an invitation for the female npc's and party members to contrive reasons to end up naked as if this were some sorta harem anime.

Recently my characters have had color palettes. The vengeance paladin I choose to dress in red and black because I made up a church for him who's saint was secretly of less than capital G alignment origin. A monotone speaking unemotional wizard wore earth tones and greyscale.

Current wizard wears her school colors. Might have mis-described her outfit though since the artist of our group drew her in a literal schoolgirl uniform. Being the oldest character but the shortest and youngest looking I choose to roll with it. She's currently broke and in debt to the party paladin from buying a cloak of protection but once I pay that off and catch up on duplicating her newest spells she's going to try get that cloak's appearance modified. Change the color so it matches her outfit maybe have a unique design put on it. It would be super cool if at some point I could have a school logo made up. Maybe something like the metal circle the girls on little witch acadamia wear on their hats. Use something like that as the cloak clasp perhaps. She recently acquired a rod of alertness as well. Very powerful item and happy to have it but the way it's described... ick. Doesn't match it's use or my character's aesthetic. Looks more like something a knight should be using to cave someone's skull in than a powerful divination tool.

I'm Haley and this is my lime green boots of speed... Though to be fair this isn't new. Most of the magic swords I'm convinced contain more steel than my car. Allot of magic items are pretty hideous is some way or another. Next time I run a game I'm going to make anything with the attunement tag have a free non-illusion glamour effect so that over time magic items adapt to their owners. Possibly except for artifacts since those are unique and generally crafted by people beyond most parties comprehension. Fashion Souls shall ring out through the lands.

[Protato]

I tend to think of specific outfits (or at least a specific clothing article) for my character ahead of time so that if I get art, the artist knows what to draw. My Bard has a red hat with a feather in it (like a Red Mage in Final Fantasy), my Hexblade has a purple tailcoat, my Forge Cleric Dwarf has a white cloak with a blue collar worn above his heavy armor, and my Earth Genasi Barbarian has a motheaten green scarf and a blue shirt over some ragged pants and worn-out boots. I have other characters and ideas that haven't been put to paper, but in general I like to think about character appearance just for fun.

[Samayu]

I don't usually care about my characters' clothing very much except to specify that my wizards wear trousers, not robes.

My current character is a half-orc barbarian soldier with a thing for fancy clothing. She owns a dress uniform (for making impressions), a regular military uniform (for fighting), a fancy dress (for casual wear around town) and a plain dress (for casual fighting around town).

[Regitnui]

Playing a changeling with two different personas (shifter soldier and elf debutant), I had to be reminded that I need different clothes to not give away my disguise. Since I can't afford a set of clothes of many fashions, I have an Aundair soldier's uniform for the shifter, a set of fancy yet practical clothes for the elf, and a couple of sets of common clothes for either genders. Means I start with half my starting gold, but the fashion is worth it, especially when it'll get to my character being able to change freely in front of the others.

[Daithi]

I think everyone has a vision of what their character looks like, but from a game perspective --- Don't care.

[Pelle]

In Torchbearer, under Raiment on your character sheet you are supposed to fill in something special you wear. I find the description of it funny:

"How do you dress? In the life, we each wear something distinctive so as to add to our reputations. Otherwise, you’re just another filthy scarred face in the crowd."

[Pex]

In Torchbearer, under Raiment on your character sheet you are supposed to fill in something special you wear. I find the description of it funny:

"How do you dress? In the life, we each wear something distinctive so as to add to our reputations. Otherwise, you’re just another filthy scarred face in the crowd."

Can't speak for Torchbearer games, but in D&D many characters want to be just another filthy scarred face in the crowd.

[Pelle]

Can't speak for Torchbearer games, but in D&D many characters want to be just another filthy scarred face in the crowd.

Yeah, no disagreement. I just like the perspective. If you want to be recognized as the hero you are, wear something distinguishable.

[JakOfAllTirades]

Awesome clothes are the reason Noble is my favorite Background.

Also, why isn't there a Goth subclass?

[EvilAnagram]

Also, why isn't there a Goth subclass?

Shadow Sorcerer doesn't work for you? Or Necromancer? Or any Warlock?

[Dr. Cliché]

Awesome clothes are the reason Noble is my favorite Background.

Also, why isn't there a Goth subclass?

Don't Warlocks have proficiency in leather trench coats? :smallwink:

[strangebloke]

I end up drawing all my characters sooner or later, so their clothing comes up then if I haven't already given specific thought to it prior.



I played a troll once in a campaign where the party came into possession of a wedding dress around the 3/4 mark of the game. She insisted on wearing it because it made her feel pretty, despite the fact that it was made for a woman roughly 3 feet shorter and 200lbs lighter. She managed to force it on, bursting about 90% of the seams in the process, and wore it under her half plate as it gradually became more and more tattered.

She didn't care. She was the prettiest troll in all of Ravenloft.

The Abbot had opinions about that.


Nice! She's gorgeous! It's probably good to have that dress on, considering that the coverage of her half-plate is, uh, pretty minimal. Then again, Troll.

So long as we're showing off our art, though I haven't played in a long campaign in nearly five years, this is my latest one:
https://78.media.tumblr.com/27febf032f5833f30b02e63e867b24d7/tumblr_p7f271NNtN1u6dovco1_1280.png

The character is an incredibly arrogant paladin who is nonetheless horribly self-loathing. Something like "I'm the best around, I can kick ass, no-one is smarter than me, I'm the only adult in the room... but I'm a horrible person and insufferable to be around and I know it." The garb plays down the character's pretty looks and plays up the character's strength and no-nonsense capability. So kind of the reverse of your character. Looks like an angel, wants to be a be... not ugly, but pretty much as much of a faceless weapon as possible.

EDIT: fixed the link.

[Rogerdodger557]

The main character that I play is an Order of the Lycan Blood Hunter. Fortunately, the shifting doesn't explicitly destroy my clothing. I mainly see the shift ass affecting the head and arms, so the only piece of clothing my character cares about, his dad's naval jacket, doesn't get damaged.

[Joe the Rat]

Don't Warlocks have proficiency in leather trench coats? :smallwink:
Yes, yes they do.

Far Traveler can be pretty Goth: You have strange manners, music, and way of dress; can be aloof or irritated at the normie folk around you; have social outcast backstory options; somehow still get invited to all the cool kid parties; and are Proficient in the snarky observation skills.

[Monster Manuel]

Not a lot to add here, except that I read the thread title as "Characters take your clothes?" and I had questions...

[Brawndo]

My character is a Tiefling Warlock with at-will Disguise Self and at-will Mage Armor.

She just wears a common barmaid dress most of the time, which can look like anything she wants and Mage Armor has her AC taken care of.

[Beelzebubba]

We hand-wave away the mechanics and make it a player call as to how much they want to emphasize it in their RP.

I personally think about them a lot, but I draw and like to visualize. Some players in our group don't care at all.

[Afrodactyl]

I typically don't pay too much attention to what my characters are wearing unless it's part of the character. So my sorcerer for Out of the Abyss is constantly looking for newer finer clothes, because his other fine clothes keep getting dirty and damaged. And heaven forfend he succumb to living and looking like some sort of beast when he was raised in the lap of luxury.

[Glorthindel]

In my current campaign, while searching through an abandoned estate, our party stumbled into a massive wardrobe including theatrical costumes (no idea why the villain had these). My Bard immediately went full scavenger, filling his bags with all manner of costumes, uniforms, and clothing styles (including matching shoes and hats) to allow him to better blend in in a variety of environments and social situations. The rest of the party thought I had lost my mind :smallbiggrin: