Do Abserd Characters Belong in D&D

[@Nerdarchy]

Links from Video **************************************** 20% OFF from Nord Games Until the end of December Promo Code "Nordarchy20" bit.ly/NordGames D&D Story: A Most Abserd Character - kzbin.info/www/bejne/aoumepuVaMdogZo

[@Wizardbeard91]

Hey could you guys do a blood hunter video I've found some but your videos always seem to help the most

[@Nerdarchy]

@@Wizardbeard91 shot one the other day. It'll be up some time in the new year. Nerdarchist Dave

[@Wizardbeard91]

@@Nerdarchy thanks so much guys I'm super psyched keep up what your doing yall we need more nerds like you guys

[@stormcrowlegendary3512]

I don't know why Ben said Bardbarians when he could have just said skalds. The multiclass thing, I don't think I would do that ever,

[@patriousthefallenknight3185]

hey can Goblins be a playable character? i honestly wanna get into D&D and i wanna start out as a goblin rogue.

[@MoonbornUwU]

I’m a simple person. I see Puffin in the thumbnail and the glorious Abserd I click

[@janmantsch6675]

Same

[@JustSomeGuy71]

You uncultured swine. His name is Abserd.

[@dalewilson2416]

Same

[@johnmabe3496]

A character that multi classes in every class is like a substitute kindergarten teacher for a school where player's go to learn about classes on their world. They could get every hero started on their path into adventure but cannot go further.

[@Jimalcoatl]

As a kindergarten teacher, I approve this message.

[@zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba0]

They work okay for caster builds. Since Cantrips are tied to character level. Theres a table for spell slots when you multiclass a caster. Only thing 'a fully dipped character' misses out on is Extra attack as a class feature, And this can be fixed by things like a War Clerics War Priest Ability or a Scimitar of Speed if you live that long. And ASIs you'll miss out on, unless if you have a good roll or stat block through point by. You might not even need those extra modifiers. But its KZbin Fandom. No one ever made a character that was a Dip in All Levels until Puffin Forest told the story last year? Totally conceivable. Just like KZbins D&D fandoms reaction to Joe Mangeljello, whatever, his charcter being a red dragon born pally with a barb dip. Revolutionary. No one had ever done 'That' before lol. Honestly the internet makes me hate things, cause I'm old enough to still have an attention span, long term memory and an internet connection lol. Fuckin Boomers Eh?

[@DeathsHood]

@@zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba0 I don't think anyone is pretending that *_"no one_* ever did X until Y" It's just a funny story that spread quickly because we have the internet. Quit being pretentious and let people enjoy things.

[@drigondii]

The Professor Oak of DnD

[@MinimalxEffort]

This is the cutest idea I've ever heard and is totally inspiring an NPC in my future games!

[@narwhalsincorporated1181]

I have a gnome named “Multiple Classington” that is multiclassed into every class

[@shawnmarcucci6657]

NarwhalsIncorporated what’s their back story? Also, what was your progression?

[@Battleguild]

@@shawnmarcucci6657 Sounds like his progression, was all over the place.

[@screwtapee]

No.

[@joehensman2572]

isn’t a character that multiclass basically a bard

[@LupineShadowOmega]

@@joehensman2572 agreed. You'd just be a person interested in learning for the sake of learning. If anything the only outlier there would be Warlock, but even that works because you'd just have read a book you weren't supposed to. Now you're a Great Old One's Warlock. Congrats. Your knowledge might lead you to a bad end.

[@BrainPurple2]

Let's not forget that now there's the Artificer (for those games that allow it). That's 13 classes now.

[@foofoothegreat]

And if playing with UA, Mystic class as well

[@YooranKujara]

@@foofoothegreat don't forget Bloodhunter

[@kevinerose]

If you have a human character level 5, is it possible for them to self-identify as an elf and start taking on elf traits?

[@BrainPurple2]

@@kevinerose that sounds like an opportunity for some creative homebrew. Back in 4e. I played a female Elf Avenger raised by dwarves. She had a lot of dwarven personality traits, but mechanically, we just switched out her "Elven Weapon Proficiency" for "Dwarven Weapon Proficiency". My suggestion is to switch out traits rather than add them. That way the character won't get too overpowered.

[@ZacharyEntenman]

@@kevinerose I don't see why not, in a world where magic exists Its surely possible.

[@Alphadog2064]

ITS ME ABSEEEEEEERRRRRRRRD.

[@thrpins8430]

That is my favorite video he ever made I still go back and watch it because it just makes me smile

[@whiterabbit75]

I WAAARRRNNNED YOOOUUU!!!

[@clericofchaos1]

Well, considering that's one of ben's most popular videos, i'd say that there's definitely a place for Abserd and his people in D&D. People obviously like the character and like the concept. It's a perfect build for a game you don't want to take seriously and more of a pain for the player than the dm. The most classes I've had in any character was 3, and back when prestige classes were a thing I seem to remember making a character who had like 5 of them. Including the tarrasque one, "waker of the beast" I think it was called. Like enough levels in fighter, I think it was, to meet the prerequisites and then just taking prestige classes. Ofcourse it's been years since then, I can't remember all of them. Plus i'm sure that was homebrew because I don't think any character was allowed to have levels in more than one prestige class.

[@matthewgagnon9426]

Nah, there's no rule against stacking as many prestige classes as you want, so long as you fit the prerequisites for them.

[@unmotivatedcomedy]

I once made a ranger called Rusty Shackleford. Had him act like Dale Gribble from king of the hill. Got an orange hat and his signature glasses. Even did the voice. Also made a mage that was a magical chicken. It was a joke race with very little practical stuff. Still fun for one shots. Edit: Shortly after I made the chicken our DM made a magical cat support character so I guess i was inspirational.

[@twilightgardenspresentatio6384]

Invoi Able “you don’t know who I am, but I know where you live” I had a buddy who mimed that message for everything!

[@jordandavenport5784]

Invoi Able That’s funny. My friend made a Rusty Shackleford as an Arcane Trickster and mainly used scattered (disengage) and pocket sand (color spray). Shi-shi-sha!

[@phorewhoresman1897]

That makes a lot of sense...a lot of nonsense!

[@kyleward3914]

My group has a holiday tradition, three years running now. We do a Secret Santa game in which each player builds a character for another player, and strange builds are encouraged. This year, builds included a character with one level in ten different classes, a centaur with four classes, and a Christmas elf who attacks with exploding presents. Together, we're fighting Santa. I think. We didn't get all the way through yet.

[@twilightgardenspresentatio6384]

Kyle Ward wow

[@kylethomas9130]

Idk if whoever got my characters would love it or hate it. I have a few ideas that are so bad they just might work. (As written)

[@wordforger]

lol. Ok... This sounds like fun.

[@luminousdemoncracy445]

I have loved building flawed, or unoptimized characters for awhile now. I have a character in mind for a new campaign coming up- We start as a Phoenix Sorcerer but quickly class into Paladin. The catch- his main weapon is a torch. While torches only deal 1 fire damage on hit, the Phoenix sorcere Mantle of Flame allows all instances of fire damage to gain a damage bonus equivalent to your charisma mod. Multiclass Paladin for Divine Smite, bigger hit die, and Extra attack, and Ive got a heckin hard hitting 1 damage attack.

[@broke_af_games9661]

In all fairness, training: there is a lot of blend between classes... Fighter, barbarian and ranger are All variations of the same thing. Rogue is a natural offshoot of the ranger abilities mixed with the experience of urban environments. Sorcerer, just happens They learn magic and to read magic... This they delve too deep into a library and accidentally pick up warlock. Keep playing with magic and become an apprentice wizard. Experiment with it more and be artificer. Your entertainer background with magic leads to bard God of bards bless you Becomes a cleric Lost his faith, picked up by nature God, nature God leads them to Druidism. Becomes a paladin in service. What did I miss? It's not an awesome build... As you only have 1st level spells and cantrips. Seems fun though.

[@twilightgardenspresentatio6384]

broke_AF_ Games fukinluvit

[@broke_af_games9661]

Twilight Gardens presentations in all fairness.... It's almost a perfect example of my career choices in real life lol But yeah, thanks. :)

[@broke_af_games9661]

Brian Hensley hey that's funny, I did the same thing pretty much in two different games I made. The 5e players guide really is just 3 core class concepts. Anyway, cool. Good job

[@The_Real_DCT]

@@broke_af_games9661 that's pretty much been how classes are in D&D since OD&D. Hell even the Demi Human races which were classes were just variations of Thief, Magic user and Fighter a Elf was a Magic using Fighter, Halfling was a variation of a rouge and Dwarf was basically a tanking fighter.

[@broke_af_games9661]

DCT simpler times, my friend.

[@grandaidthebandaid6307]

I once had a character called ‘Astro-Chadd (double D)’. They were an astronaut with a full space suit, but his arms were so buff they had broken through the suit. He also wore a t shirt that said ‘I ❤️ space’. I didn’t really play weirdly though.

[@PartialDemon]

I love PuffinForrest, (Still need to know how the Turtle "Friends" got their name). When I first heard of Abserd I couldn't help but think of Pauly Shores character from the movie 'Son In Law', "Majored in Karate, two semesters!" I believe absurd characters do have a niche place in D&D, maybe not at every table or session, but definitely in one shots or short campaigns or even as reoccurring NPC's in longer campaigns. D&D is all about telling a story and making memories (both good and "bad") so if a player is committed to playing an absurd character (within the rules) I say go for it.

[@cynicalswordmage6699]

I think he answered that in a Q&A that’s on his channel now

[@whealler100]

I think we all know how they got their name xD Poor Oogway got on a train if you know what i mean.

[@twilightgardenspresentatio6384]

PartialResident that poor turtle

[@kylethomas9130]

@@twilightgardenspresentatio6384 no wonder he betrayed them.

[@LakeVermilionDreams]

@@cynicalswordmage6699 they friended turtles. Isn't something I care to know the details about, personally...

[@thevoidcritter]

I don't see the point in making a joke character when stupid shenanigans happen in D&D organically already. That said, I think it's important to bring up that Abserd was a oneshot character, and I give my players a lot more leeway there with joke characters.

[@twilightgardenspresentatio6384]

voidcritter I don’t see the point of designing a character based only in the combat aspect of the game that only comes up 1-3times in a three hour session and with a good gm combat is over in just a couple minutes and under four rounds. Gotta play up social differences or one guy is just gonna try to screw everything, get drunk for “fun” or try to seduce the globe. Min maxers get little additional or extraordinary social stories (ime)

[@sweetrollcultists1317]

I think absurd characters bring an element of surprise especially if the player is creative you'll never know how they handle combat or social interactions I say just let them play what they want to

[@rokkfel4999]

No no...your wrong....it happens because that joke character becomes tye straight man of the party real real fast its actually amazing to see it happen

[@tennesseeponderer3146]

What combat lasts only a couple minutes? The only combat like that I can think of is fireballing a bunch of kobolds or something similar

[@conradkorbol]

Twilight Gardens presentations wow your combat sounds incredibly boring.

[@MartyrPandaGaming]

The Martyr is an absurd cross class I concocted back in the days of 3.5 and comes online at Lv 13 (Wiz 5/Psion (Egoist) 8). Ideally you're going to want more Wizard levels for higher Spell DCs, but 5 is the minimum you need in order to get Dominate Person. This stunt will usually only work on your DM once and will probably come with some heavy repercussions, but it is so worth it in the moment to see theirs and the other players reactions. First, you want to be an Enchantment Wizard and spend your Feats on making your Enchantment DC as high as you can. Spell Focus at Lv 4, Greater Spell Focus at Lv 8 and Spell Penetration at 12, just in case your DM has started throwing things with SR at you. If you started as a Human, taking Skill Focus Concentration or Improved Initiative can also help you to pull off this, truly, epic achievement once you hit Lv 13 and get to Lv 8 Egoist. Now, you want to wait for the right time to do this, as your DM will probably only give you one chance at it. Once they understand how it works, expect them to have all of their major combat encounters to have the major targets to have immunity to mind affecting spells and effects. Also, don't be that guy and do it to their BBEG, because your DM probably worked the hardest on that and it would be a real dick move. Okay, so what do you do? Simple. Dominate Person and then just touch them... Oh and then kill yourself. And it was at this moment all the Egoist Players remember Lv 8 and started laughing. See, Egoist gets this wonderful class skill at Lv 8 called Fusion. Yes. It is exactly what it sounds like and what you're thinking of. Yes, it is obligatory that you do the dance as well. You and the dominated person will fuse in to a single being. As this doesn't put the dominated persons life at risk, they would have no reason to refuse the command to fuse with you, due to the spell. After that, as Fusion states, you have full autonomy of the new body, unless you cede control to the other, for the duration of the fusion. Since both individual consciousness remakn intact and separate, you will not be affected by the Dominate Person spell, if it remains active. Regardless of if it doesn't, the fusion will persist, since it only ends when the time expires or the dominate consciousness undoes it. You are now free to kill yourself. This will cause the fusion to end. You will separate and you will both be dead. Now prepare to face your DMs ire, probably roll a new character and be banned from ever playing a Psion at their table again.

[@cobaltburn]

I have a tiefling bard divine soul sorcerer warlock cleric, who goes around trying to get people to sign pacts or find a new god. She gets a cut of every soul

[@badpunking1883]

Hehe. I made an Abserd build in D&D Beyond a couple weeks ago. Called him Jack Afeltreds (of all trades). It really does get wild, he has 16 cantrips and 19 1st level spells at exactly 1 level in each class, not to mention he has half the proficencies and 7 languages he speaks (aided by being a human and a custome background for 2 skills and 2 languages). For an in story reason to be like that, I gave him Indecisive as a background, in that he has trouble deciding things for himself. His backstory began when he awakened his sorcery at a relatively young age, but when he searched for someone to train him to master it he wound up in Fighter training instead of Sorcerer training. After he realized this, he tried to persist but his anger started getting the better of him, and he became a Barbarian. After some drama there, he went to a magic school in hopes they could teach him, and they conveniently left out they can only train Bards and Wizards, fooling him into becoming both of those too. After he ran out of money to pay off the school to live in the dorms he was kicked out, and his first thoughts were trying to learn to live on the streets instead of adventuring so he became a Rogue. After awhile, an acolyte convinced him he could get by at the Life church, so he became a Cleric there and when he thought he made their get decision he began training to undertake a Paladin Oath. However, his indecisive tendencies began interfering with that training, and he wound up being sent to a dojo in exchange for a student there who also wanted to become a Paladin. At the dojo he trained to become a Monk, and finally gave up on ever mastering his sorcery...until a cunning Fiend fooled him into taking a deal and becoming a Warlock. When the sensi discovered this, he banished Jack to live in the forests away from the town he'd stayed in up to this point, and so since he still didn't have money to survive in society he instead decided to learn to survive in nature, becoming a Ranger and after enough time a Druid. Once I add Artificer I'll alter the backstory to the magic school training them as well, and if Mystic ever becomes official I'll add that to part of his Dojo training. But despite me making up all of that, I have no plans to ever actually use him. Not when I plan on having character expys of Ruckus & Bolt, Bomb King, and Evie from Paladins and a Big Daddy from Bioshock, as well as a warforged programmed to get the highest AC possible, an alcoholic tiefling/aasimar hybrid, and a transmutation wizard who is the result of a failed Clone spell by a chaotic evil wkzard As far as ridiculous characters I've already used, I have 4: Grohk, a Wild Magic Sorcerer Orc who is an expy of Grohk from Paladins, The Mash, a barbarian spuddle (my DM had a one-shot with his homebrew race of potato people), Chao Verba, a Halfling Bard, and JOJ-0 a warforged monk. Grohk suffered a wild magic blow to the head, so anything in him that would've made him the same bloodthirsty orc as the rest of his tribe was converted into friendliness and a desire to seek out friends. The Mash ripped teeth out a rat he killed and stuck them in his own mouth. That was a hell of a con save. Chao Verba is a Lore Bard with the personality of a Satire Bard, and enough body hair that he's often described as more of a bush than a halfling. JOJ-0 is both a Jojo a reference as an Astral Self monk and a "robot haunted by faeries". He came across a mischievous group of sprites and pixies that messed with his programming and now when he dies he's going to become one of them.

[@athonkiller2980]

Aasimar, sage Start: Wizard, artificier, bard: school oriented beginnings Mid: Cleric, warlock, Paladin, sorcerer, druid: heavenly nature based hidden origin revealed Present: fighter, rogue, ranger, monk, barbarian: adventuring party or angelic guide teaches young chosen one how to survive and fight in the “real world” Chosen one story line with rp based on learning and experiencing the world outside of school and books

[@JohnDickinson]

Logisticly, the character could have been part of an army unit that was cross trained for full versatility. My craziest character build came from a pre gen that my DM made as a birthday gift. I asked him to run "Murder at the Magefair" for my birthday. He asked where he could get that module...I told him he hadn't written it yet. He went to an amazing place and made non-human wizard retinue. My character selected was an awakened accended octopus, who was a rogue. Among our crew we had a griffin paladin mount PC, an umberhulk bench specialist (don't ask) and a lillind bard. This intended birthday one shot lasted 3 years and my octopus ended up married to a maralith and had a brood of the cutest cambion babies...

[@twilightgardenspresentatio6384]

John Dickinson I like the idea he’s been fired from a thousand jobs

[@JohnDickinson]

Oddly enough, I did have an issue of excessive multiclass...rogue, octopus paragon (created to let me use cepholopod powers) psionicist, and others I can't remember.

[@O4C209]

Abserd is just what happens when a DM finally gets to play a character.

[@zephyrstrife4668]

I actually had Abserd cameo in one of my games... though it wasn't the actual character, only someone who was brought on to honor the tradition. He was a Divine bloodline sorcerer that his hometown was all too happy to foist onto the PC's because he was simply annoying despite being so damn helpful. I added him to the game because at the time, the group had no healers and they were all a fairly low level, I built him at half of their level so he wouldn't outshine the group but would be able to provide a small pool of after-battle healing.

[@SerithValComnion]

Simple answer, yes. Ubserd characters do have a place in RPGs so long as they don't ruin the game for the rest of the table. A character who has every class isn't going to great statistically but can be really interesting to play.

[@MonkeyJedi99]

This is the right answer, and didn't take 15 minutes.

[@essejay7952]

I came up with a build with my brother so you get level five paladin level five rogue level four warlock and level six wizard, you may not have many high level spells but in terms of first and second level spells you have a very nice amount, in terms of subclasses oath breaker paladin, Necromancer wizard, fiend pact of the blade, and assassin rogue for a great amount of melee and magic damage

[@kylapinto4276]

Dave: I'm nerdarchist dave Subtitles: I'm nerve-wracking Save

[@Druidoftheyew]

My favorite character was a jester bard that had a ring of animal friendship. He then made a chicken his friend and name him the cernel and because no one had picked a military background my bard said the chicken made all decisions in which direction we went down dungeons or roads because he out ranked us. It was silly but we had fun with it

[@Deltajugg]

One good way to explain the Abserd levels of multiclass training in your backstory is to simply pick a 4th edition Deva for your race, which reincarnate infinitely and remember their past experiences from previous lifetimes. Your level 12 Abserd character is literally three campaigns' worth of TPKs accumulated over time into one body.

[@TerrariaGolem]

The D&D Cinematic Universe Expands...

[@RuneGM]

One of my favorite characters that I’ve played was a gnome battle master named Hugh Mongoose Hawk

[@nedhunter4444]

For a while I've wanted to play an awakened mourning gecko "lizard wizard" in 3.5e.

[@TKS_Adam]

Some good absurd stuff from my current 3rd edition games; Players got really into 'lost tradition' to change the spellcasting stat for their custom clerics, or mages, etc. So now we have the epic rivalry between the Clerics of strength (The Flexorcists) and the Psychics of Constitution (Thighons). When the two orders meet there is much boasting, feats of strength, endurance, and a mighty squat-thrust competition.

[@Mr911superstar]

Concept, kenku with ADHD that gets board of his class and starts to mimic the partys classes (for the classes that require training like monk etc)

[@Starman_45]

Life from the Loamly I have ADHD and multi class with almost all of my characters so this build seems perfect for me

[@awesomechainsaw]

Brad Is multiclassing an ADHD thing cause unless I’m playing a spell-caster I must multi-class, and even then it’s very hard to resist the temptation to Min Max the hell out of my character.

[@passonthestar3689]

@@awesomechainsaw who needs minmaxing when you can go all in on cleric and be beyond insane without trying

[@awesomechainsaw]

Passonthestar Because 8d6 damage With sneak attack alone, and advantage on almost every attack roll. Resistance to most physical forms of damage, and the ability to ignore opportunity attacks on anything you attack with your 3 attacks. Hell you can drop an attack and just dash in and out of the enemy’s melee range. While dodging everything else with Danger sense, uncanny dodge, and evasion. In addition to the fact that if you die cause your levels in rouge make you squishy your party can revive you at no cost.

[@Daltygaming2]

John Smith that sounds insane

[@AnimeVampire234]

never played a joke character just... did alot of silly stuff with my characters

[@MonkeyJedi99]

I see Abserd, I click the video.

[@lordnul1708]

I can probably RP an abserd character as being (or planning to be) an entry level teacher of some sort of adventuring guild. For such a character's ending (assuming they live long enough to reach an ending), a few sayings could eventually come about, such as: 1) "Don't know what you want to do with your life? Ask (professor), s/he will help you figure it out." 2) "Want to try your hand at being a (class) but don't know where to start? (Professor) will point ya in the right direction." Of course, he would still be comic relief due to the sheer impractically of the combination for that character level, but it can be done right, (being done closer to C3PO than to Jar Jar Binks, for example). Edit: The first reply to this comment...I like that idea. In fact it does indeed make it seem more complete.

[@lordnul1708]

@@underthedice1231 it's perfect... I need to make him now.

[@PixelLighthouse]

When the DM gets to be a player character DM: let’s get SILLY

[@freman007]

I'm going to do a 2 level dip into Hexblade for my Lore Bard. That'll give me two level 1 spell slots that recharge on a short rest, so I can cure wounds for my party, and give me the ever handy Agonizing Blast Eldritch Blast along with the armour and weapon proficiencies. It'll delay some of the power options for Bard, but my guy tends to be the Gish who can fill in for any character in the party.

[@shawnmarcucci6657]

Jason Clark Such is the burden for so many Bards. See if you can have the Hexblade be your instrument. Ie: Due to your musical loyalty to your instrument of magic a part of your desired soul lies within it and thus acts as a precious hold to the blade like ankles to a ball and chain.

[@dragonmaster613]

I knew a Goliath Barbarian that after success with a -2 stealth check, ever since then he would proclaim "ME BEST THIEF!"

[@Comrade2261]

I absolutely love Abserd. I remember laughing like a crazy person when I watched it when he made the vid. Haha.

[@kyledoesken7425]

I love pun names. One of my AL characters is a life cleric named Lester Restoration.

[@discipleofthevoid7248]

See, pun names are fine. One of my friends is running a ratfolk monk named "Splinter." He's level 10 now, able to start taking on students who call him "Master." But his character is otherwise serious.

[@mattg9884]

Puffin forest and nerdarchy my two favorite D&D KZbin channels. Ben has a lot you could talk about and Visa versa.

[@connormalone]

My most absurd character was in 2nd Edition. He was a Hengeyokai white wolf Paladin/Wizard (necromancy specialization)

[@OminousPinapple]

I have a player who made an Aarakocra Bard called Quack Effron.. Likes to play skyball and sing..

[@thehulkster9434]

1 - no one should ever bad-mouth Abserd. He is amazing. 2 - I don't like joke characters in a long-running game. Gimmicks get old pretty quickly. But for a one-shot or mini-campaign? That's fine by me. I wouldn't want to play with a joke character or a multi-multi-class character from level 1-20, but I can put up with anything for one session.

[@VeganStories]

thehulkster94 there’s a guy who plays abserb in AL. Every table. Does the voice too. Quite annoying after awhile

[@Nathan-zc4db]

One funny thing my group did for a one shot once was we made fully random characters. We rolled 3d6 down the list for stats, we rolled for race, class, feats, backgrounds, used a random name generator for our names, I mean EVERYTHING. We had some hilarious characters. I think my favorite was the monk who was a 5'0" like 250lbs alcoholic. Or maybe the Tiefling, Cleric, heretic.

[@zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba0]

Do Abserd Characters Belong in D&D ? Yes. Did this question even needed to be asked? No. The fact this question even had to be asked made me suspect that this was a commercial for something.

[@bharl7226]

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba like 90% all of their videos are. Unnecessary and uninteresting conversation to help deliver an ad.

[@johnhughes9253]

And you’re watching them....why?

[@bharl7226]

@@johnhughes9253 90% for the cringe and 10% for the rare occasion of interesting content. The title of this video in particular made it obvious that this one was going to be all cringe and stupid unnecessary commentary on a stupid and pointless question.

[@IrvingIV]

@@bharl7226 Stupid unnecessary commentary on a stupid and pointless question is pretty much half the Game Grumps business model.

[@discipleofthevoid7248]

I disagree. As a frequent GM, if you're not taking the game seriously by building something like this, why should I? Abserd-style characters don't belong in D&D, because the game isn't just about you. It's a group contract with your DM and your fellow players.

[@capterson4]

Abserd totally belongs in D&D. Bar none.

[@daviddaspit4166]

Halfling Fighter named Thaco Burrahobbit :-)

[@Nasha842]

The American Beard sounds like an awesome character.

[@Ichthyodactyl]

I once rolled a Half-Orc Swashbuckler in a polynesian-themed homebrew Pathfinder game. He was dumb as rocks but he was obsessed with nobility and 'fanciness' and saw himself as the pinnacle of both of these attributes. His name was Potatau and every time he accomplished something he deemed significant, he increased the numerical value of his suffix to indicate a larger stature, because that's what the purpose of numerical suffixes are. He started the game as Potatau VII and ended as Potatau XIII. He was so cocksure about his choices that the rest of the party humored him and basically made him the defacto leader of the party. Once we accidentally back-doored a volcano dungeon because Potatau thought the rumbling and smoke could only be some great beast worthy of his blade. He was an extremely effective TWF build but he regularly did really reckless things like jump off a 30ft. platform to land on a wizard that had just teleported down below us or refuse to abandon his duel to the death with a Lich, needing to be dragged away by the rest of the party. We all had pretty great fun with the campaign (sadly never got to see it to the end though). I really think even in a more serious campaign, there can be room for silliness, it has more to do with the players and the DM. If they don't mind some silliness, it can be a nice change of pace sometimes. I don't think i'd enjoy playing with someone who multiclassed into everything unless the game was intentionally ridiculous by design though. I don't really care if a character is silly as long as they can contribute mechanically, otherwise it's just burdensome.

[@DuskyPredator]

Depends if they want everyone to be viable characters for the mechanic of combat, right? There is nothing stopping someone from deciding they want to use a Mimic or a Flumph if everyone agrees that it could be in service to their fun.

[@FecklessSpoon]

I once made a human wizard named Boris Borisovitch Borislav. He was the grandson of Baba Yaga (constantly referred to as Babushka), default standing position was a squat, and only wore Adidas tracksuits. Made him school of Conjuration so he could use minor conjuration to create a cigarette. When I roleplayed him, it was in an incredibly heavy Russian accent. A bit absurd, but he was one of the most fun characters I ever had the pleasure of playing.

[@charlescomeau6930]

i played an orphan kobold who was raised in a secluded temple. he was a fighter who became knowned for his charging skills. he would used the charge attack often and got really good rolls. he also really liked the attention so he would staged representation in cities. he ended up becoming a palladin and later an "avatar" for his god and is still referred to in our worlds and campaigns as the tiny dragon

[@thedragonflyers6184]

Start with two levels of warlock, get agonizing blast, say your pact was to learn all of the abilities in the world and rather than your patron giving them all at once, they make you learn them one at a time

[@golvic1436]

Joke characters have their place. It all depends on the game being played.

[@zachmullen2310]

I played one of these in a one shot. When someone asked, I told them I went to school and got a master's in General Studies

[@shawnmarcucci6657]

The Lumber Wolf ahem bachelors in liberal arts. Cheaper and a lot more life proficiencies.

[@slashandbones13]

If you do it without ruining the flow of the game, you could do anything.

[@Thekowaikaiju]

I really like that you guys discuss this fairly and realistically to the initial video prompted by Puffin, instead of shitting on it.

[@jerlaine1638]

Fairly positive as a Paladin you will need training in martial forms and how to use you know heavy armors...

[@ThreeSkullOrthodox]

I once played with a group that had an albino Drow bard named Marshal Mathers. He was fun.

[@The482075]

Depends on the setting. Absurd characters can work in comedy settings. Sometimes they can work in a serious setting for comedic relief as long as they don't ruin the intensity of the campaign. It depends on the group, the game master, setting, system and player. Absurd characters have a few problems. They are either too silly or not silly enough to work. Too silly for the game being run can just stall the game as they hog all the limelight being daft and ruin the tone of the game. Not silly enough can lead to a boring gimmicky character. You have to commit with the absurd character. Comedic timing. You need to be a comedian. When is it appropriate to be silly? When is it not? How do you organically be comedic with the right comic timing? These characters require skill and are improve and role play heavy. Avoid "just because I can". They make for great one shot characters but cannot last the campaigns. Make a character. Strengths, flaws, bonds, traits and ideals are central to any characters. Flesh out the personality and develop your character over time in response to the situation. Comedy isn't just about cracking jokes. Comedy comes from your character acting and reacting in the world as a citizen of the world. A clumsy Dwarf with a speech impediment is great, but what is your character's place in Dwarven society and how do they feel about that? Avoid broken characters. Let's say you nail the role play aspect. Remember the game aspect too. You want a playable character who will help the party overcome the challenges that come their way. Be absurdly awesome not absurdly terrible. Remember, if the character doesn't fit the campaign, save it for another game.

[@naezjinra]

This is very true and along the lines of what I was going to say. You don't want to be annoying and that's exactly how you can come off playing this type of character. You will absolutely be useless except in a very limited capacity, I hope you're funny or have some fantastic ideas while playing this type of character.

[@angrytheclown801]

I'm currently playing an Orc artificer that was raised by Gnomes. And while he's being played for comedy at times I'm largely using humor to emphasize the tragedy his life has become.

[@The482075]

@@angrytheclown801 Tragi-comic. I love it.

[@kevinerose]

All characters are absurd to begin with. The amount of absurdity you can use depends on the amount that your group is willing to accept. I was once in a group and the rogue player surrounded by 10 goblins proceeded to kill them all in one round using synergy. When he did that, I found it was too absurd for me and had to leave the group.

[@dracone4370]

I'm also running a comedic D&D campaign over on Role Gate, Dungeons and Jests, all inspired by the Disney series from the early 2000s known as Dave the Barbarian. I recently went back and watched the series, you can find almost the whole series on KZbin and likely find it in its entirety on Disney + if you have that service, and came to a realization, the entire series is basically a 5e campaign with a strong comedic slant. The series has 4 main characters, 5 if you include Dave's talking sword, and three of them are siblings (1 is the uncle of the siblings). And the whole series parodies and lampoons the Fantasy genre and pop culture as it existed at the time but when it ribs that stuff it feels very much in line with what you would see around the game table, there are even a few episodes where characters actually fight the narrator, which seems a bit too in line with what happens in some games. While none of the characters are outright absurd, aside from the main characters having a pet lightning breathing dragon that looks more like flying potato and one of the characters being a literal talking sword that everyone can hear, the rest is absolutely in line with D&D shenanigans. The title character, Dave, is stated quite clearly to be a Barbarian (and the way they talk about barbarians is like you do as a D&D class), there are even stated "Barbarian Heroes" and we meet one of them in an episode, "Strom the Slayer" and he is stated to have slain just about everything in-universe, he's even treated as a big celebrity, complete with him going on tour and selling stupid junk. The ridiculousness really shows itself with the main antagonist, the villain known as "The Dark Lord Chuckles the Silly Piggy" who happens to be a literal pig that talks fluently and walks on just two feet (he also has an artifact of an immense magical capability called "The Mystic Amulet of Hogswineborg"). Most of the cast look like they could be pretty straightforward in what their class and background are. Go check out the series, and maybe you could talk about the character builds for several of the characters. And seriously, go give the show some love, it's underappreciated now, but hopefully, we can get it to be a bit more loved moving forward.

[@stevenpeven258]

I remember watching a video about trying to make an abserd build useable, but it was before the artificer became official

[@bryansmith844]

You have to also play this will drinking a cup full of a combination of all flavors of soda - and munching on a bowl of mixed nuts.

[@aarongrant5367]

My wife and I played Racket and Broot, an anthro-racoon rogue/artificer and a wood-forged druid/barbarian that only spoke in a variation of Druidic. Lots of fun for simple 3.5 characters.

[@jackbuck6773]

I was one of those who were " Hey it's Abserd!".

[@mikeyb6859]

Almost all of my characters had some silly aspect to them. Among my favorites was Cyragnome, a gnome cavalier. Obviously Cyragnome had a more than generous proboscis that would not fit into any normal helm, so he had an iron cage made that would bolt-on around his nose. Being a gnome (and taking after his theatrical namesake), he was very good at poetry and performance and would of course be right there to aid any lady in distress. As a show of his chivalry, he would take his cape and place it over the muddy walkways for the lovely damsels, except that his cape was made of a bolt of cloth rolled up at his neck that was perforated every 2 1/2 feet, so he just pulled out a section, tore it off to lay in the mud, and still had instant cape flowing at the same time.

[@sporf_sporf]

My silliest character was a Fremlin mage/thief in 2nd ed using the Book of Humanoids rules. I didn't want to use the double xp to level rule for him since he was already multiclass in the only two classes available to him, so I opted to give a very big superstition from the book to balance out the weapon resistance the tiny gremlinkin had. I gave him a bestial fear of magic. Every time a spell with an obvious visual effect was cast near him, including ones cast by him, would force him to make a save vs fear or he would run away in terror. Fremlins are only about a foot and a half tall, so eventually the party bought a war dog and tied the Fremlin (whose name I cannot remember) to the dog so he would not be able to flee very far after he cast his spells.

[@SageofCancer]

So long as it's in good fun? Absurdlutely If it's not working out though it's cool to change tactics.

[@harutakami1313]

I have one character I do a lot of multiclassing in, and they're a holdover from 3.5. Her name is Paige Blanche and she was a Factotum in 3.5. She was essentially what would happen if Indiana Jones and Lara Croft had a child and that child was raised by Steve Irwin. She was an animal loving tomb raiding dungeoneer who just picked up all of these skills as needed in her adventures and dungeon crawls. Needed a wizard to get past this puzzle? Studied arcane knowledges and figured out how to use magic, needed to be sneaky to get past traps, became a rogue to evade traps, needed healing in a dungeon, prayed to whatever deity would listen and was able to heal herself. She ended up with levels in Rogue, Wizard, Artificer, Cleric, Bard, and Fighter. (And yes, her name is a pun on "Blank Page". She's whatever you need whenever you need it.)

[@lockwoan01]

I actually have an idea about such a character - bored noble, who gets interested, and then bored, in/of the various classes.

[@SolarFlairIsBestPony]

I find it hard not to eyeroll at this one fellas. Yes, if you absolutely insist on taking every class things may be a bit rough. But to act like it isn't viable... nah. All it requires is smart choices. Level 1- Rogue, get those bonus skills and expertise. Congratulations, you're competent even if you have mediocre rogue stats, add 1d6 to attacks when convenient. Level 2- Bard, pick up another skill and start grabbing utility magic, you can now boost rolls by 1d6 a few times a day. Level 3 lets say Wizard. Hey look, Magic Missile, we can scale that and do damage with no chance of missing, add in more utility and defense spells too. Next up? Cleric and Warlock are really customizable. You can make it fit. You get the point. And really... that's assuming you feel you must absolutely get every class and also that you can't take 2-3 of a class clustered together. Consider for a second dropping classes that require strength- look at those points you can pump into another stat or two! Grab Cunning Action and some Invocations, now you're really slippery at 4th level as you move into other classes. You may never obtain the highest skills, but you'll also never lack some option. You're a solid complement to anyone in any situation. As long as you're not bogging yourself down with I NEED TO GO FULL TILT TAKE EVERYTHING you can absolutely do a great fairly Abserd character. Really I've had a great character in mind for just this sort of build. Think of all the shenanigans of a Changeling pretending to be an entire Guild or Adventuring Party. Great with deception and forgery kit. As for getting the training...? Almost any fighter could teach you enough to get a level or two. Read a few books? Sure, you can do basic wizardry. If you're fussy get a tutorial from someone who gave you a quest. It's only as hard as you demand it be to get a rudimentary grasp. If the character knows it's not a life changing devotion which they will dive deep into do they really NEED a high tier master of the art? Do they need to constantly be researching wizardry after they've got that level or two or is it more fitting that they're using wizardry while reading up on religious texts or learning to play the lute? You can do it seriously without doing it a pain in the ass. A class can be considered a vague concept anyway. I made a detective out of a mostly Bard character, you'd never say 'that is an entertainer'.

[@immortified]

One of my pathfinder characters is a half-orc witchdoctor whose daily spells are granted from "the inscrutable" an unknown and possibly intelligent entity who feeds him compressed youtube stream. His clothing, powers and actions are almost entirely informed by pop culture references. He wears a coat like Colin Baker Doctor Who and shoes like Marty McFly. He has a buckler painted to resemble Captain America's shield and a MIB noisy cricket as a side arm.

[@shinjofox]

I once ran a Mutants and Masterminds campaign based on the movie Mystery Men. My players created character that had been at the pool party membership drive and been turned down. It was a campaign that was posted on the M&M forums for a while. One of my players recorded each session to post it.

[@merendell]

I've got one I've always wanted to play but haven't had a good opportunity. A great old one warlock that thinks he's a priest of his patron. He was shipwrecked and left floating in a barrel till he had an encounter with a terror from the deep themed patron. This drove him slightly nuts and now he wanders around trying to convert people and generally drive them just as nuts as he is. Appearance wise he looks like a fat friar tuck. Brown robe, reverse bowl cut hair. He is actually rail thin and he's wearing the barrel he was stranded in under the robe (look up man wearing barrel to get the idea) the barrel was also effected by the encounter makeing it slightly larger on the inside. The warlock instead of getting a room like a normal person will just hike up his robe, duck inside and close the lid. The inside isn't any taller than the outside, just wide enough to lay down in. Generally acts like a batty old street preacher who is trying to be solemn but often fails. Few themed reskins of spells as well. For example Eldritch blast looks like a tentacle reaching out of a tare in reality to strike it's target. Spell picks tend to revolve around makeing the target think they are going crazy.

[@ethanpeterson5640]

I always liked the idea of a plank of wood who had been imbued by magical powers and become a warlock, who just got carried around by the other members of the party. Never got around to playing it, though. Someday...

[@millermagic686]

I built a warlock and he had 8 cantrips at lvl 3 and could learn any ritual cast, extremely fun to play because of his variety, and RP him as a power hungry warlock was super fun too

[@kurtoogle4576]

I'd play this as a chaotic good Changeling Bard Enterainer under a faerie curse that makes him mimic others to extremes - the result of giving an unflattering impression of a fey lord.

[@Cxdfc]

I mean, As a DM it is totally possible to make the BBEG a Level 260 character from being 20 in all 13 classes. We can stop the proficiency at +10 and then just cherry pick around favorite high tier abilities from there

[@screamingblue7]

In DC Heroes, we created a Tick style game. The Brown Fog was the most notable. Everything you expect. Pun characters have run rampant at our table. The most recent was a kenku monk riffing on Darkwing Duck.

[@x3ic2126]

Played a one-shot for Halloween, played Rune Sampler, a Frankenstein multiclassed into each spell casting class, was a lot of fun

[@gr33nmachine3000]

Protector Aaimar Inquisitive Rogue / Monster Slayer Ranger is a pretty fun build. In backstory, he went from being a Judge Dredd as a City Watch with events that lead him to become something closer to a Van Helsing.

[@bobbucker5891]

5th Ed, was a warforged, named PEBKAC (Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair) and was the only person in party without darkvision. this meant I needed to either carry a torch in a hand or have another light source. Multiclasses into Wizard, got the cantrip light, and a familiar (requested and got a spider monkey). Enter PICNIC (Problem in Chair, Not in Computer). I also had the ghost sound cantrip. We became PEBKAC and PICNIC, the only tank with a disco theme song and a disco ball wielding monkey raver.

[@proxxyBean]

Jarlcrod Loreaxe the Druid Dwarf was one of my favorites.

[@EasyPhil]

In a one shot, a friend played a Loxodon swashbuckler rogue and named him (former) Captain Eli Fant who got courtmarshalled because of gross incompetence and leading an entire platoon to thier deaths, while my character, a Rock gnome Gunslinger fighter/ Rogue Scout mix (basically a sniper), (former) Liutenant Lorilla Groskovich who mostly spoke Gnomish (Russian) and broken Common was courtmarshalled because her commanding officer, the previously mentioned Eli Fant, name-dropped her during his hearing. We played it off as a Zap Brannigan and Kif (from futurama) kind of relationship, where Eli would just drag Lorilla everywhere, misunderstand/ ignore Lorilla's suggestions, act really patronising towards her and just for flavour have this super stealthy vicious character fail miserably every time she tried to get away/ cause him harm.

[@southron_d1349]

I love Toon. It's a favourite game and it's trotted out once in a blue moon.

[@Closer2Zero]

Recently, in my game, a party member decided they wanted to make a new character, so after their original one was captured, murder, and stuffed like a trophy animal, then appeared 'Chairlos' a warlock whose specialty is 'chair whispering' by which he can talk to chairs. In reality he's just insane and thinks he can talk to chairs, and his little chair 'familiar' that flys around his head is actually just a fancy stool he's moving with Mage Hand. Honestly im jealous and wish i thought of it.

[@harutakami1313]

I have one character I do a lot of multiclassing in, and they're a holdover from 3.5. Her name is Paige Blanche and she was a Factotum in 3.5. She was essentially what would happen if Indiana Jones and Lara Croft had a child and that child was raised by Steve Irwin. She was an animal loving tomb raiding dungeoneer who just picked up all of these skills as needed in her adventures and dungeon crawls. Needed a wizard to get past this puzzle? Studied arcane knowledges and figured out how to use magic, needed to be sneaky to get past traps, became a rogue to evade traps, needed healing in a dungeon, prayed to whatever deity would listen and was able to heal herself. She ended up with levels in Rogue, Wizard, Artificer, Cleric, Bard, and Fighter.

[@BlockTechGold]

I have been thinking about this lately with a "Pretender" "Crazy Jane" "Dollhouse" type chracter

[@PandaJohn71]

I've most worked with silly NPCs. Like I had a villain organization in one campaign where they were all rogues and bards but based loosely on Saturday morning cartoon villains or animated movie villains and characters. Like I had a vizier to the king of based on the Miserable, Wicked Wazir from Mr. Magoo's 1001 Arabian Nights film. I had a fence rogue (one who was selling stolen goods) based on Dishonest John from Beany and Cecil. I had a trio of highwaymen based on Texas Pete and his two croonies from The New Adventures of SuperTed. It was fun watching them trying to figure out what was being referenced or see the groans as I introduced the characters and they could tell how thick I was slicing the ham.

[@wolfore]

I have a warforged swashbuckler I have played twice now who is basically robot Zorro. Made a custom vigilante background for him too. And made his integrated tool a disguise kit

[@benleyland8829]

My current fifth edition character is just the worst. He's a UA Warforged, with a UA artillerist artificer and forge cleric multiclass. His AC, when using shield of faith, shield, his cloak of protection, his bracers of protection (Technically he doesn't wear armor), his magical shield, and his heavy armor configuration, give him a total AC of around 32. He's level 8. And people say that warforged didn't need nerfing as hard as they did. Oh yeah, and his saves are great thanks to the Resilient feat, and he has no shame in casting Rope trick and escaping up there using a winch while the fighting is going on. Anyway, my DM is really trying to kill him without making his monsters overpowered for the rest of the party. It's led to some really interesting boss battles.

[@shadowmancer99]

Why? Because they find it fun? Let em. The DM doesnt need to gate keep them on this.

[@shawnmarcucci6657]

I’m gonna comment some interesting truth. This is a joke at my table (I’m not a DM) and is always funny to me. My first character was a Ranger when I was learning and studying DND and I immediately turned it into a Ranger/Bard. My first ever MOC charecter was a pun Bardbarian who was origined as a musician and became enraged due to an orc band killing his father in his town where he performed and grew up (this never was played) I have not made a single class character ever and I’ve never played anything below 4 classes in multiclass. I additionally, am currently playing an all class all damage type build. I’ll send it if you are interested in discussing that. PS it only took me three hours to build and plan he also has a story. Love your videos and Nerd for Life!

[@meridock]

We once made a surprise party for our DM. The key was one of the roommates of our host. The roommate was a drop dead gorgeous red head. So for the next campaign we started we all played red headed female characters. Everything was a play on "red" as we played. The party was named the "Order of the Red Hand." My Character was named "Dizzy" (after the red headed character in Starship troopers.) We had a Crim (as in Crimson,) a Lachica Roja, a Cial (as in Cialis - how the roommate impacted the player,) etc. the party was a serious party so no Abserd's but we only revealed the sexes of the characters and the rest of the joke at the first night of play. so the jovial nature of the game played out over 15 levels... The party concept was joke, but the play was serious :)

[@katherineminor3402]

Just magic missile everything

[@screamingblue7]

I am currently playing a dwarf that started as a sorcerer, has a whole guilt complex about not being a proper dwarf, wrestling with his wild magic. A few levels in, he switches to bard - gaining more reliable control over his magic but still focusing on 'dwarf style magic' (fire, fixing, thunder). About to hit 10th and the DM and I have been talking about investing into warlock / hexblade with a magic hammer given to him by an dwarven king as the focus / connection with his ancestors who have laid an oath upon him to fix the quest that the party just failed at. Not a hard hitter, but has managed to be useful and still following the character arc.

[@Pyrela]

I'd disagree with paladins not needing training. I was always under the impression they trained a lot, much like fighters. Not quite as much, but still a lot. They're the more martial arm of a religion as opposed to clerics. They still get much of their abilities just given to them, but they have to spend a lot of time training for their skills with weapons. Hence why they get more weapon options, heavy armor prof, weapon styles, and an extra attack.

[@lootedcorpse]

Pyrela, lvl 3 you just become a paladin tho. training isn't needed in your backstory.

[@TaberIV]

I think Druids too are not just gifted powers, but are trained by the other druids. And Cleric's powers are a gift, but they still have to do something to deserve them I'd think.

[@paulcoy9060]

In my world, Paladins are chosen by the Gods, so you can have a real badass starting at first level. Clerics chose their own faith, and need training.

[@Pyrela]

@@lootedcorpse Then Ted's point is totally moot really as one can say that any class can just be given their abilities by the gods. If a paladin can just be given the ability to swing a sword really well, then why not a fighter? Why's that rogue good at disarming traps? Divine given skill.

[@TapDat52K]

I think its more of a personality alignment thing for me. I cant imagine rogues and sorcerers not being neutral, where as I can't imagine paladins and clerics being anything but lawful. I am for multi-classing though, and most people would not care about allignment. Though i think as a druid, you prefer not to us metal weapons correct? And Monks don't really wear armour? I feel like you stab yourself in the foot there...

[@DracosDiabolis]

I did something like a "absurd" character back in 3.5, a 70 year old elf and basically was all prestige classes. Most players whittle down and focus in on something. This guy. A ADHD 12ish year old with no guidance. I wanted to see from one single class how far I could dabble in others. By 12 level I could cast arcane and devine spells, And was one of the best at forging documents and signatures He started out as a clown. Think slapstick humor and the like. After a few attempts on his life for being too good at his crafts. The humor left. And this amalgamation of Jokerness came into being. To were now at 20+ levels. RUNS... the only single thieves guild in Waterdeep. I retired him at that point. He also became the "dark lord of Waterdeep" He's the guy the Lords of Waterdeep need things done. But their morals or honor. Don't need to get their hands dirty with such things. They call him. Think a Nightwing infected with the Joker toxin and that's his normal. Totally insane, and unpredictable.

[@XSanctusMalumX]

I am making a grung enchantment wizard with the entertainer background because all glory to the hypnotoad.

[@Eladdan]

I think my most successful absurd character was a Kobold Warlord played in the first 4th Ed. Encounter of the Week program named Jez'miz'nii the Bronze. She was paired off with a somewhat less eclectic group, a barbarian specializing in unarmed attacks, an edgey rogue, a dwarf ax battler and one other who's failing me at the moment but definitely wasn't a healer. We were one of three groups in the store running through the adventures yet despite the half-arsed nature of our party we were the only one that somehow managed to never lose a character, not even my kobold! And to say my kobold was the laziest member would be an understatement, rarely acting on their own, content to hand out her actions to others while barking orders in that special kobold way. Even spent one battle riding on the barbarian's back just pointing where to punch. The other tables were not as successful, one even suffering a TPK... twice. I've since retired that crazy kobold from my roster of active character ideas. There's just no robbing her of her happy ending on a pile of loot gained from doing absolutely nothing.