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View Full Version : How did you explain your character's class features?



Draconi Redfir
2020-04-16, 03:34 PM
Sometimes it doesn't always make a lot of sense at first glance as to why the barbarian has this super-powered rage, why the alchemist can just come up with new concotions on the fly, or why the bard seems to know so much. Have there ever been any situations where you came up with a clever explanation for something like that?


For example; My bard has spent most of her life homeless, up to and including a majority of her adventuring days. So to explain her "Bardic knowledge" ability and the fact that she has ranks in every knowledge skill there is, i came up with the idea that one or more libraries within the city would open their doors to the homeless after closing hours during the cold winter nights. My Bard took advantage of this, and would spend some time reading every book she could get her hands on. This is all to explain how some homeless musician from the big city somehow knows a whole bunch of things from obscure ancient gods, to the mechanics of the undead.


have any of you done anything simmilar?

PopeLinus1
2020-04-16, 05:41 PM
My latest character is a weird mesh of Bard and Paladin. He is a time-traveler, and all of his powers derive from manipulating time itself.

Edit: For example, in the future he is from, his sword exploded when he crossed blades with the god of war. Now, he triggers his divine smite by advancing his sword further in time to the point when it was about to explode, then stabs his opponents.

False God
2020-04-16, 08:29 PM
Yes I do write backstories.

I try to get a feel for why my characters have their abilities, and some are easier to explain than others. Ultimately some abilities are just gamey and defy in-game explanations. If another player or a DM starts pressing you on a clearly meta ability you just gotta give them a deadpan "Seriously?" because they should know as well as you do that some elements of the game are clearly game elements and not intended to be explained by backstory or in-world reasoning.

Draconi Redfir
2020-04-16, 10:44 PM
that's nice and all, but not really the intent of the thread. this is more for sharing fun ideas you had on how to explain things that don't really make sense for your character, like my above homeless bard somehow knowing about ancient gods and the mechanics of various undead, hence the "winter in the library" explanation.

there are no bad DM's here. just (hopefully) people sharing fun fluff explanations they came up with for their mechanical abilities.

Roger_Druid
2020-04-17, 03:04 AM
Hi,

I wanted to play an ‘Arcane Trickster’ (DnD v5.0) and the DM was setting his world in a FR after-the-Weave-sundered era. I wanted my character to have ‘Darkvision’, having played a lot human roles I constantly regretted not having it, though I didn’t want her to be a ‘Dwarf’ since I had just completed another campaign being one. So, the obvious choice was an ‘Elf’. Moreover, I’d like her to have a ‘Cantrip’ more, so that meant her to be a ‘High Elf’. The DM allowed all that but he insisted that I made up a background story. The FR setting and my role being a ‘High Elf’ meant that she had to be a ‘Moon Elf’, destined to be tried to be Queen! Of course, that meant her family had to own both a ‘Moonstone’ and a ‘Moonblade’. Last, but not least, to my way of thinking, remained the thing I had to justify her adventuring knack. So, I spun a tale where her family had her ‘Moonblade’ stolen before her birth, that she was first-born and, thus, had to guard the ‘Moonstone’ almost constantly (when she reached maturity), that she had not yet be tried to get in line to be Queen (due to the lack of the blade), that she resented all that pre-organized life even before her coming to life... That led her to be a ‘Rogue’ and having affinity with ‘Wizard’ spells. Getting to learn the few others of the character, or learning to use weapons and fight, wasn’t a problem due to her family’s wealth. Yet, in order for her to acquire ‘Rogue’ traits, I made her consort with some humans trafficking illicit magical items from decadent ‘Elf’ houses (remember the era), just to get into the ire of her family. The final step was to make her start adventuring; so, I had also the family ‘Moonstone’ get stolen, on her watch!, hence her travels so as to re-acquire it. The DM took all this information and practically ‘enslaved’ her to a ‘Golden Elf’ (what else?), and bid her to do chores (albeit good ones to be sincere) in order to give her now and then bits of info about the location of the ‘Moonstone’. What do you think?

Roger.

OnceIWasABard
2020-04-17, 02:52 PM
My eldritch knight was just a normal fighter who coincidentally inherited a magic weapon granting wizard powers to its wielder right when I hit 3rd level.
Ancestral guardian was easy: tribe was wiped out by the BBEG and their spirits are helping me get revenge.