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Entessa
2022-03-10, 01:25 PM
Been playing dnd 5 with my companions and I'm a bit undecided on how to describe the stuff my character does. I'm an oathbreaker paladin.

1) Example 1: I cast spell. Do you make sounds or describe the way you cast spells to your companions? If yes, please describe one spell.

Note: I thought about using Baldur's gate 1 sound: https://www.reddit.com/r/baldursgate/comments/2l4fcd/comment/clrg56b/ but I'm not totally sold on doing that because my DM knows about them and I would not surprise him.




2) Oathbreaker paladin has a aura that causes fear on his enemies. How would I describe to my companion what is happening? I feel like the monstruous visage of my character would still be shown, but they wouldn't be affected by it. But I would still need to describe it. I'm really undecided on how to do that.

Abracadangit
2022-03-10, 01:54 PM
Great question! Is this a real-life game, or a play-by-post game online or on Discord? In my experience, describing spells/abilities with cool fluff is weightier in play-by-post games, as opposed to real-life. Since the words and descriptions sit there like part of a story in play-by-post, it adds texture and a nice personal touch to your character. In real-life, I've discovered that people want the game to keep moving (especially in combat) at a pretty quick clip, so cool descriptions tend to get lost in the shuffle and/or hurried along because players want this combat to be done before Greg has to pick up the kids, etc. And who can blame them.

Regardless of which kind of game it is, I think the deeper question here is how does one "fluff" their spells/abilities, right. The short answer is it really depends on the character concept. Take Fire Bolt, for instance. On the tin, it's just "a mote of fire" in the spell description. But if your character was a sorcerer who descended from a phoenix bloodline, their Fire Bolt might take the shape of a fluttering bird in their palm, which emits a shrill cry as it zooms towards an enemy. Or maybe your character has an ash thing going on, and their Fire Bolt is a glob of burning, shifting cinders, which detonates on impact into a black, sooty cloud. Or your character might be a maniacal pumpkin-headed scarecrow wizard, whose Fire Bolts look like grinning jack-o-lanterns that make impish snickering noises as they let fly.

So to answer your question, you'd need to answer mine -- what's your Oathbreaker paladin like? What's their character about, what do they look like, what drove them to be an Oathbreaker, what are their thematic elements? Then I could help guide you to fluff that makes sense and feels right.

Entessa
2022-03-11, 03:49 PM
First of all, thanks for the reply and for your help ! Now the explanation:


Great question! Is this a real-life game, or a play-by-post game online or on Discord? In my experience, describing spells/abilities with cool fluff is weightier in play-by-post games, as opposed to real-life. Since the words and descriptions sit there like part of a story in play-by-post, it adds texture and a nice personal touch to your character. In real-life, I've discovered that people want the game to keep moving (especially in combat) at a pretty quick clip, so cool descriptions tend to get lost in the shuffle and/or hurried along because players want this combat to be done before Greg has to pick up the kids, etc. And who can blame them.
Regardless of which kind of game it is, I think the deeper question here is how does one "fluff" their spells/abilities, right. The short answer is it really depends on the character concept. Take Fire Bolt, for instance. On the tin, it's just "a mote of fire" in the spell description. But if your character was a sorcerer who descended from a phoenix bloodline, their Fire Bolt might take the shape of a fluttering bird in their palm, which emits a shrill cry as it zooms towards an enemy. Or maybe your character has an ash thing going on, and their Fire Bolt is a glob of burning, shifting cinders, which detonates on impact into a black, sooty cloud. Or your character might be a maniacal pumpkin-headed scarecrow wizard, whose Fire Bolts look like grinning jack-o-lanterns that make impish snickering noises as they let fly.

So to answer your question, you'd need to answer mine -- what's your Oathbreaker paladin like? What's their character about, what do they look like, what drove them to be an Oathbreaker, what are their thematic elements? Then I could help guide you to fluff that makes sense and feels right.
We have been in discord for a bit, I would say 6-8 months, so no real life haste.

1) My character is a variant human paladin that has served his king for a long time, until the king turned crazy and in an act of extreme malevolence the king asked him and other paladins to burn the whole city during a revolt.
My paladin has denied the king wish, only to get imprisoned. Even if my paladin thought otherwise, the revolution didn't succeed and the king didn't lose the grip over the city.
While in the prison, I was fred by the (rebels? It’s not clear yet, I left the details to my DM – It seems I’m probably being helped only because I've lost the King's favour: even my family has been beheaded) but they couldn’t let me get out of the prison easily, and so I was sent into a pocket plane inhabitated by many creatures and I’m trying to find a way out.
Right now my character has broken his oath and has no intent to keep serving his king – he serves only himself.

My character values his life a lot. He won’t risk it unless it’s absolutely necessary – deception and diplomacy are his best allies and for this reason I have a very high charisma (20).
He is not afraid to risk his life, but he enjoys more “manipulating” - I have the actor feat too and it is embedded in my background: I was a headhunter for my king.
So what to say. My human is young: 29 years old, with little to no equipment. You can find a photo of him here: https://imgur.com/a/PxYag2l

Stats: 16/12/18/10/12/20 – level 7 oathbreaker.


Spells he uses:
[1]bless, command, divine favor, heroism, sanctuary, ceremony
[2] aid, lesser restoration, Darkness, find steed, Zone of truth


He has an undead warsteed as mount – no name for her, yet.


As for the aura – I only used it once to save the life of a high ranked noble inside a city (a noble with leadership of the whole city). Rather than following my party, that didn’t listen to me, I thought about the fact that the king of a city should be protected and I did it. There was an assassin near him in the darkness, waiting for me and he stabbed me, but after activating the aura and telling him some scary words the enemy fled. The king saw me and asked for explanation, but was too tired because he had just been stabbed and lost a lot of blood and I didn't explain him.

I didn’t use the aura in front of my party, only the king knows of it. But there will be a time I will have to, and honestly I feel like it warrants a cool explanation.

Abracadangit
2022-03-11, 05:03 PM
I didn’t use the aura in front of my party, only the king knows of it. But there will be a time I will have to, and honestly I feel like it warrants a cool explanation.

Oh, I totally agree, 100%.

From reading your backstory and your description, it sounds like your Oathbreaker is less of a stereotypical spooky-looking death knight (excepting the undead warsteed) and more of a merc, let's say. Some of his big character notes are I'm Looking Out For Number One, I Manipulate People To Get My Way Sometimes, and I Used To Literally Hunt People For My King. So even before his Oathbreaker turn, he was less of a sparkly knight paladin and more of a sellsword/bounty hunter paladin. Which is a very fresh take! I like it.

So then the question is where do the fluff thematics come from. I mean, sure, you could go the classic route with a supernaturally spooky aura of menace. Something like (pardon the made-up name):

Sellsword made a strange sort of noise -- something between a hiss and a snarl -- as his eyes glistened coldly in the torchlight. He brought his free hand to his face for a moment, which prompted the bandit to advance, eager to score an easy blow. But then Sellsword moved his hand away, to reveal that his eyes had become empty, like tunnels reaching into the dark. The bandit froze in place, transfixed. As he met Sellsword's hollow gaze, horrifying thoughts flickered through his mind like half-remembered dreams, thoughts of how Sellsword would catch him, kill him, eviscerate him, a hundred different thoughts of how he would die. But unlike other thoughts, the bandit couldn't will these thoughts away; they kept rushing across his eyes over and over, like a terrible river of visions that had escaped its dam.

That's not terrible, but it also feels kind of like the default fluff, right. Spooky visions and such. For your character, I kinda want it to be more... bounty huntery. So let's play with that a little.

As Sellsword shifted in his stance, the bandit noticed a change come over his opponent, especially in his eyes. They were no longer merely looking at the bandit -- they were fixed on him with eerie, unwavering precision, the way a wolf watches a limping deer, the way a spider watches a fly wrestle in its web. Sellsword was the predator, and the bandit was the prey. And like any prey staring its death in the face, there was only one thought screaming in the bandit's mind: run.

Less fanciful, but I feel like the "Kraven the Hunter" theme fits your character more. And if he faces off against a dragon or giant creature that wouldn't normally be scared of him, you can fluff it as Sellsword fixing his gaze on their throat/heart/other weak spot, so it can still be unsettling.

Of course, these are just ideas, and maybe both of these don't quite hit the mark for you. In which case, that's the magic of workshopping! Keep going until you find the one that feels right for your character, and then it'll never be a chore to write.

Calen
2022-03-15, 02:57 PM
In addition to the great advice from Abracadangit which is more about the look of the spell, you may also like to think about how you cast it.
What does your character do?
For an elven wizard I played I jotted down the elven casting word for all my vocal component spells and wrote down a little hand gesture for the somatic components. (This was a live game)
So if wizard was casting Mold Earth I would hold up my hand and make a little 3-fingered claw and say "Calurus Nar".

For a fey-lock I am playing now I try to put the name of the spell or some variation of it in a comment I make towards the target.
"Ooh hey there big guy...you look like an Enthralling companion."

I would follow up that with descriptions as necessary, usually when I first use a spell or effect I give it a couple sentences and then when I do it later I just give one or two words of flavor to make sure the game stays moving.

So to pick one of your spells at random you could do something like...
I take a small chunk of coal and crush it between my fingers while staring the [Random enemy] in the eye and growling "Your heart is dark but the Darkness is my ally."
The dust from the coal starts to swirl and grow, spreading around the room in a small maelstrom. The light fades and in a scant second the room is plunged into utter darkness.

Also you say Discord but not whether that is text/video/voice. I use it for all 3 in different games. Might make a difference in how you approach things.

RedMage125
2022-03-15, 03:45 PM
Been playing dnd 5 with my companions and I'm a bit undecided on how to describe the stuff my character does. I'm an oathbreaker paladin.

1) Example 1: I cast spell. Do you make sounds or describe the way you cast spells to your companions? If yes, please describe one spell.
Most Verbal components I see as chanting mystic incantations (like the Baldurs Gate example). In most cases of Arcane magic, this are words drawn from Draconic.
Somatic components are sometimes complex hand gestures.

I sometimes put more description into my spells, depending on the character and the situation. I have one elf wizard, for example, whose theme with his magic is that he favors purple. His magic missiles are purple. His fireball is purple flame. His Bigby's Hand is a purple hand, etc.

Hypnotic Pattern, for example, is a spell with no verbal components. I describe weaving my fingers through the air, leaving traces of light (kind of like Dr Strange), this pattern then flies forward and expands in the AoE of the spell.



2) Oathbreaker paladin has a aura that causes fear on his enemies. How would I describe to my companion what is happening? I feel like the monstruous visage of my character would still be shown, but they wouldn't be affected by it. But I would still need to describe it. I'm really undecided on how to do that.

I assume you mean the "Dreadful Aspect" channel divinity option?

Since that's activated by choice, I would describe it as a barely visible darkness or dimming of the light as a wave of intangible, unnamed dread washes over the creatures in the area. What grips them is an intangible fear of the unknown. Like their darkest fears from their childhood. To quote Thulsa Doom, "Now they will know why they are afraid of the dark. Now they will learn why they fear the night". Even the bravest enemies feel the grip of this fear around their heart.

Those that succeed on their save still feel the dread, but are able to brush it aside before it truly grips them.

Shpadoinkle
2022-03-16, 11:41 AM
Depends on the character. I recall a discussion, I'm pretty sure it was a thread on /tg/, where people were discussing a "muscle wizard" build that involved a character who looked like a bodybuilder, but he was an evoker (or maybe a sorcerer) who had a very high Strength and cast his spells by doing stuff like posing in ways that showed off his physique, flexing his biceps, making his pecs dance, and pelvic thrusting. He was kind of a missionary whose entire message was dedicated to enlightening people on the ways of GLORIOUS MUSCLE! Basically he was a Cho Aniki character.

Not the kind of thing you'd want to play in a serious campaign, but in a lighthearted game he could be a blast.

animorte
2022-03-18, 09:28 PM
If there is a verbal component, I like to choose a specific word. If there is a somatic component, I like to choose a specific gesture. If there is a material component I might work that in as well. I read through the spell and think about what my character likes to do, what the focus is I'm going for. I imagine where would be a cool spot to hit them with the attack? What other themes does my class have and are there any bonuses relevant?

Example: I'm currently playing a level 7 Warlock with a Genie patron (efreeti: fire). I try to work it all in, which really takes some getting used to, especially if you cast a lot of different spells.
When it's my first turn of the combat, it looks kind of like this:
Bonus action, I would like to cast Hex. I roll the eye of newt between my fingers and flick it in the direction of the goblin and say, "I curse you!" The eye turns purple and blinks to the goblin, giving his skin a purple hue for just a brief instant before absorbing into his body. The goblin now has disadvantage on Dexterity ability checks. As my attack action, I cast Eldritch Blast with Repelling Blast. I point directly at the goblin and command, "Back off!" Two crimson orbs surrounded by what looks like black lightning form and fly toward the goblin leaving behind a trail of sparks. (make attack roll) The orbs hit him square in the chest and seem to force him back 20 feet. When he comes to a stop, the orbs continue straight through him and pull away a purple silhouette of his body before dissipating into thin air. (roll for damage) There is a burn mark where the orbs made contact.

That's very detailed, but I've also played a lot with that and had plenty of time to work on it.

I like a Ranger so here's another example for a level 5 Ranger with Crossbow Expert:
Bonus action, I cast Hunter's Mark. I look at the goblin and threaten him, "I dare you to run." I small red bullseye only visible to me immediately appears over his head. I hold two hand crossbows up with my arms extended and pull the triggers. (make attack roll) One bolt strikes him in the shoulder and the other pierces into his leg right above the knee. On contact the bullseye pulses and the goblin seems to recoil at the same time. (roll for damage)
Second turn: I step 10 feet over next to the wall, then aim my hand crossbows at the goblin again. I pull the trigger of the first one instantly. As I'm pulling the trigger of the second one, I use my Bonus action to swiftly slip the crossbow against my thigh pouch, reloading the first and aim it again, pulling the trigger. (make attack roll) All three bolts are flying through the air and slam into the goblin's chest in rapid succession. Immediately the bullseye pulses again. (roll for damage)

Of course if one or more of the attacks rolls miss, that's where the DM can give a pretty cool description. I like to modify this by how close the attack roll was to the AC, like if it misses by only a couple then maybe it was blocked. If the attack roll was very low and misses by a lot maybe you bumped into something or stumbled. Say on the second round two of the crossbow bolts missed but the third one landed: An outcropping of the wall catches your shoulder and the first shot goes a bit wide alerting the goblin of incoming fire. The second shot is true but the goblin was prepared and raises his shield just in time to deflect it, but that bolt knocks his shield aside. The third bolt flies just under the goblin's shield that was just hit and pierces directly into his chest. The bullseye pulses as he gets hit.

It could also be simpler; here's a Fighter with extra attack: I close the distance to the goblin and raise my sword high in both hands. Just as I'm almost within in reach I swing the blade down at his shoulder. (make attack roll) I keep my momentum and swing the blade around this time going for swipe across his chest. (make attack roll) (roll for damage)

You can definitely get more detailed or less detailed depending on how much time you want to put into it, how much you have to do during a round, and what the DM (or other players) can play off of to elaborate more.