HOT D&D TAKES

[@KomodoCondo]

POV: you’re fishing and it seems you’ve caught Merman Jacob in your net. You don’t know what these Heated Retrievals he reads off his wooden scroll are, but you listen anyways.

[@gizgunnar5167]

Heated Retrievals is such a good phrase

[@wert1234576]

Explanation squid

[@Ginger_bit]

That is SO well written, thank you! :)

[@Mr.Ford3350]

That is hilarious, thank you so much

[@Eric_The_Cleric]

As you listen, you look in bewilderment at his garb that reads "What doesn't kill you gives you XP." It seems to be a phrase from a foreign land, the likes of which you believe you have heard somewhere but cannot pinpoint. As you stare, entranced by his strange tunic and the wisdom this merman Jacob is imparting upon you, you don't notice the passage of time. Soon, Jacob is finishing his reading of these Heated Retrievals and bids you adieu, so you go to the Discussion Department to investigate what others have thought of this odd occurence. You hope, desperately, that once again you may catch this elusive merman in your net to hear more fascinating Retrievals in the future as he promised.

[@michaelswift9209]

Hot Take: Appreciate DM burnout, missing a session or replacing it with a one-shot where the usual DM can play can allowing them to refresh and recharge and is better than burning out and not finishing the campaign.

[@shadosnake]

until the dm starts a new campaign, stops that one, then holds the old one hostage until someone else runs a game

[@marjoriecruz8977]

Thanks man, ive been burnin out a lot on my campaigns

[@sirornstein]

I'm a little glad that this while Coronacation thing because I'm getting burntout but when we come back shits gonna hit the fan, I recently finished the last touches on the campaign.

[@plooply]

Fugg I wish my players would understand that it's a thing. The burnout is so real I'm staring to hate the game...

[@Shywarlikegirl]

My pathfinder DM got a little burnt out and also had school and life stuff come up and we were all fine with him taking a break. In fact really soon we're be doing oneshots until we can get back into our normal campaign. I'm super excited! I'm honestly just glad to be back in a session with my friends. Campaign or Not. Its going to be so much fun.

[@moshimeshowu747]

Conspiracy theory: He's not actually laying on the floor, he's just smushing himself against a wall.

[@حَسن-م3ه9ظ]

I though he was just standing the whole time...

[@Arkansan_Rebel]

NO, He'S gLuEd To ThE cEiLiNg!!

[@Ajehy]

This gives me strange vertigo.

[@dj_1831]

5:24 Guys he glued his Phone to the wall

[@skarlock5257]

@@Arkansan_Rebel No, he is falling up into the floor after casting reverse gravity and using a levitation spell.

[@sorufa888]

Hot Take: evil characters can be great, and there are too many chaotic evil characters that are branded chaotic neutral that are way worse

[@muffinman2143]

Hot take: those characters aren't even playing chaotic evil, they're just dicks. Chaotic evil does not force you in any way to perform dickish acts, people just use it as a safety net for such

[@Percival7116]

This. This is true. I once worked with my DM to play a chaotic evil Rakshasa wizard who used to be a wealthy lord and slaver of humans back in his home country. He was socially powerful and never had to work for anything, holding many underground businessmen under his thumb and reveling in his wealth earned from the slave trade, but eventually his hubris caught up to him and at the beginning of the campaign he had practically nothing. Forced to flee from his country, he had to hide away his true self in the form of the humans which he so despised. Chaotic evil's can be great. It's just a shame most people play them as either chaotic stupid or chaotic mega-stupid.

[@datalysjr3339]

I’m new to dnd and I must ask, how do you play chaotic anything? I tried looking at some characters in fiction but doesn’t give me a full grasp so why not ask but a player their definition of one

[@muffinman2143]

@@datalysjr3339 Chaotic as an alignment shows that you simply hold rules and laws to have very little value. If you need something done, you will do it by any means necessary, even if that means breaking the law

[@crotchwhistlepurple4046]

Well, the big thing I think to realize is that your evil character is EVIL. Evil people still have things they won't do, and they definitely don't care about other evil things. Generally, in my campaigns, I think of the good/evil system as a rough measure of selfishness. A rogue who steals from the party, others, tends more toward evil than neutrality to me.

[@Kugo]

Hot Take: Stealing a freshly baked bread out of the oven

[@RoninCatholic]

I see your rogue is packing Mittens of Fire Resistance!

[@OTKok]

Kugo the Mighty funny critical role moment

[@anthonytorres-cruz1598]

"Somebody steal your sweetroll?"

[@OTKok]

Anthony Torres-Cruz no, at one point in critical role, the wizard Caleb used a warm loaf of baguette as a hand warmer by placing his hands within the bread

[@viggo8213]

Very hot

[@gracefully_falling]

Our bard is an nice old man who sings songs to people and trys to make people happy

[@gabirivero1304]

Tries

[@professeurgideere5856]

Grandpa bard ?

[@SoySolSolecito]

Wholesome dad bard

[@thebutterscotchkid2481]

A character concept I have for a Bard is this kid that goes around playing music and is really god damn gullible. Just an overall kid stereotype, lol.

[@primetime429]

I'm an 80s hair metal bard. He has a wizard father that had glimpses into the future and told him about it and he based it off the stories

[@Aaron-dw4fr]

There is a wrong way of playing D&D: Being rude and disrespectful to everyone at the table

[@railguy2518]

Every "wrong way" I can think of to play d&d involves differing expectations between people at the table. If everyone is on board with something, it's hard to say it's "wrong".

[@XPtoLevel3]

okay that’s maybe the only one unless the group really enjoys being dicks to each other

[@aformofmatter8913]

@@XPtoLevel3 If everyone enjoys being dicks, & everyone's being dicks, nobody is really being a dick, because a dick wouldn't go along with what everyone enjoys.

[@BigPNG9]

I guess this is less a wrong way to play d&d and more a wrong way to live life in general

[@MrAndersonMusic056]

Try talking to that individual about keeping their comments to themselves and if it doesn’t have to do with the game then it can hold off till afterwards. I spoke to a buddy of mine who would often interject as an “unofficial/uninvited” DM that would “help me” describe areas and things while I DM’d and I got annoyed and said “dude you don’t even go that descripted in your games 🙄” I mean as a DM you get asked to describe what your players see in an area you didn’t actually expect to describe and obviously have to come up with something off the top of the head lol idk. There’s definitely a time for a group or open effort in describing but i think it has to be invited by the DM. What do y’all think?

[@foxblaze2965]

The main way to play DnD wrong is to shout “Yahtzee!” Whenever you roll your dice That’s a different game

[@foxblaze2965]

Jess Little Please don’t Think about your dm, your party members -Or if you’re a dm- Think about your players

[@5-Volt]

What if you're proficient in Yahtzee dice tho?

[@CaptainOrlax]

But that’s my verbal component to cast the spell “Make the Dice Behave” They usually pass the save anyways.

[@foxblaze2965]

5 Volt You play Yahtzee!

[@absolutepineapple4115]

What if you play yahtzee in the game.

[@peaceandloveusa6656]

"There are wrong ways to play D&D" Agreed. If at any point you begin eating the table IRL, you are playing it wrong. Otherwise, you should be fine.

[@echofoxtrotwhiskey1595]

LOL

[@Petes_Curious_Compass]

@@echofoxtrotwhiskey1595 If your character is a evil rapist murder-hobo that is making the other players not want to play anymore, then you are playing D&D wrong. If you are ruining D&D for everyone else, then you are playing D&D wrong.

[@willmcgonigle3107]

but eating the table is what my character would do!

[@echofoxtrotwhiskey1595]

@@Petes_Curious_Compass Uh, are you sure that’s for me and not the OP?

[@stumbling_]

@@willmcgonigle3107 My termite druid would totally eat the table

[@pubcle]

"Wizards only cast fireball is an overdone meme" BigdickWizard6969: Bold talk for someone in fireball distance

[@user2C47]

Meet the wizard that casts fire _bolt._ It's basically fireball, but you can cast it as many times as you want.

[@TheBioMaterial]

My mildly hot take: While DM's should obviously not railroad their players, DMs come to the table with something prepared, if the players choose to not follow it, then they can't complain about the DM seeming like they are making it up as they go. That's like agreeing to play Chess, and just after someone sets up the pieces, everyone says, "Nah, let's play Monopoly."

[@hasix404]

Dawe YES THANK YOU

[@MrAndersonMusic056]

Agreed 🙌 some players I’ve had just love to stir the pot and “see what happens “ then get upset when their character takes damage lol there is usually a goal in mind and the DM needs to make that goal known to the Players.

[@RunningWithRoses]

Good DMs railroad the party without them even realizing it. the trick is to make them think it's THEIR choice. while stories without direction can be fun, they get boring after a while.

[@Matthew-ye1qm]

I feel like sometimes this can get really muddy though with players finding interesting ways to solve problems that the dm didn't think of. Obviously players just ignoring plot hooks to be quirky is stupid and annoying. But if they find their own way solve a problem that happens to ruin the dms plot I don't think the players can really be blamed.

[@RunningWithRoses]

@@Matthew-ye1qm no absolutely and if you railroad in that instance you are literally tripping your players over with the tracks.

[@Ajehy]

Hot Take: it’s ok for the DM to ask the players to reconsider a course of action. It should be done rarely, and politely, but sometimes there’s just no way the DM can figure out how to make something fun for everyone.

[@quinloomis2729]

Hot take: the players still have to listen to the DM… speaking from experience…

[@beardiemom]

Not a hot take. Players have ideas that can quickly end in disaster for them and the rest of the group. I will never force a player to not do something, but when they are about to make a dangerous move, I will politely point out that they might want to reconsider.

[@henrymalinowski5125]

This is important when it seems like a disconnect has formed between the character and the player. For example, it's generally safe to assume that the character has better immediate knowledge of their surrounding than the player. This is because scene knowledge is fed from the character, as it were, through the DM to the player. If the player asks to do something nonsensical, it could be because he doesn't understand the consequences of the action, but his player would. In this case the DM intervening before allowing the action is helping the player to roleplay better by bringing the player back to his character’s level.

[@NotEpimethean]

also sometimes players are stupid and might need someone to say out loud that jumping into a well while wearing plate armor is a bad idea... I only did it the one time though!

[@jayspeidell]

In my current campaign my players set themselves up for a brutal session 1 TPK. This happened in a cathedral immediately after a very ominous event. "Okay, we three will go upstairs and you two investigate downstairs." "Sounds good, let's do it!" Me: "Just a heads up, this is a deadly area. Encounters here and many others throughout the campaign will not likely be survivable with a partial party. Are you sure you want to continue this course of action?" Their characters would not have split the party just to explore ground in half the time because the setting as described was terrifying.

[@supersmily5811]

Hote taki: Having a min-maxed character doesn't mean you can't have weaknesses or roleplay. Not everything about your character is related to stats or abilities.

[@emc246]

Min-maxing can actually help to encourage group play. One character is really bad at a skill, so they have to rely on another party member to do certain things instead of just doing everything themselves.

[@ismaashawsome4685]

The thing that most people don't like is Maxed-Maxed characters. Not Min-Maxed. Min-max by definition is a very volatile as the minimums are as low as they can be while the maximums are as high as they can be.

[@emc246]

I usually go somewhere in the middle, so nothing is below 8, but nothing is above 14 before racial bonuses.

[@hatefulvengeance]

Hot take on a hot take, a min-maxed character is still good with role-play if you put the effort into it. But if you character is just an online meta-build with a lazy, cliche background, then yeah he's going to be boring.

[@AstridCeleste96]

We have a bard whose whole thing is being God awful at their instrument, but having a whimsical charm that has people like them anyways.

[@lorenzolazzaris8950]

Paladins already have cantrips: it is called "greatsword"

[@numen7778]

Lorenzo Lazzaris greatswords and Smite slots

[@mistermegalo]

"I cast Sword!"

[@deathcompanybattlebrother]

"I cast eldritch blast" *proceeds to decapitate enemy with a 1.5 m sword*

[@anthonynorman7545]

I spit out my toothpaste laughing!

[@UmekCrafter]

@@deathcompanybattlebrother No one said Eldritch Blast can't be shaped like a spectral sword

[@tatersalad76]

Tasha: "What's that, you wanted Paladin Cantrips?" Jacob: "NO!" Tasha: "I didn't hear that."

[@arian512]

I mean, people could take magic initiate right???? Right????!!!!! I have a warlock with 9 cantrips, a monk way of shadows with 6 cantrips. And a paladin can have guidance and other cantrips with a simple feat

[@hipopotamodata9932]

To be fair we have some cantrips to hand to hand fights and the paladin knowing that makes sense

[@morrigankasa570]

Also, High Elves starts with 1 Wizard Cantrip of choice. Additionally, certain Backgrounds also grant a Cantrip.

[@zacharypreble6406]

Hot Take: There's a really easy way to deal with meme seduction bards - play seduction realistically. You're not going to be able to make best friends with, well, anyone sane if you've just showed up at their front door. If you're the DM, you have the power to deal with these problems.

[@johnstarinieri7360]

I had a friend with a seduction meme bard and I offered an easy solution: the oblex. Go to do the dirty and suddenly you’re being melted and memory drained by a mind flayer ooze

[@CappuccinoSquid]

Big Bad Evil Guy: _after successfully seduced_ "...heh. Charming. Throw them in the brig, but be _polite_ about it. We're civilized here, after all." Like, just 'cause the antagonist _likes_ you doesn't mean you're gonna undo all their convictions, their seven year plan etc. just by making googly eyes at them. Hell, could make it a thing later on: Big Bad Evil Guy: _during insurrection_ "Aha!" _dramatic weapon clash/lock_ "My _favorite_ rebel scum! Shall we banter wittily at each other now, while fighting to the death?"

[@VestedUTuber]

Reminds me of that story about a Kobold bard that seduced a dragon and subsequently became the most prized part of that dragon's hoard. This is what's called "gone horribly right".

[@kriegscommissarmccraw4205]

"I seduce the dragon" "I roll a nat 20, 28" The dragon gets a 12 "You seduce the dragon, you take 4d8 bludgeoning damage"

[@lithreeum]

@@kriegscommissarmccraw4205 "I seduce the dragon" "Nat 20, you succeed" "Great, then I-" *"ROLL FOR C I R C U M F E R E C E"*

[@ACreacher]

7:41 there are already Clerics that can fight. They're called Clerics.

[@Dracomandriuthus]

This.

[@deathwrow9652]

Paladins should get limited cantrip availability. No ranged damage cantrips, but also maybe cantrips that don't allow smite on them in some way.

[@Yawyna124]

@@deathwrow9652 Paladin having guidance/resistance really does make sense, doesn't it?

[@camedialdamage8180]

We do a little trolling, it’s called we do a little trolling

[@Technotoadnotafrog]

clerics that can multiattack, then

[@AngelicEra]

"Gatekeeping can be good" Of course it is! You can't just let EVERYONE in the city, you need someone manning the gates!

[@jacobb5484]

Similarly, a player who actively tries to screw over other players for no good reason, purposely derails the campaign, refuses to put any effort into learning the most BASIC rules after several reminders, or behaves inappropriately when clear rules and expectations are established should be given a warning then be excluded if they intentionally misbehave again.

[@zakpodo]

Of course gatekeeping can be good. It can also be bad. It's really such an air-headed take based more on a virtue-signal rather than any critical thought.

[@CMTechnica]

@@zakpodo it's 2022, critical thinking went out the window years ago

[@HaydenX]

@@zakpodo Name a single good example of gatekeeping. I feel that your comment was based more on being hateful and exclusionary rather than any rational thought...prove me wrong.

[@zakpodo]

@@HaydenX Sure can. I will speak in general terms because it's a very general concept that has become a buzzword with political and insulting connotations that it really shouldn't have.. then I will give a couple examples. Beyond the basic fact that for any thing to have a definition, meaning or existence it must have defined boundaries. That is, a place where x ends and not-x begins. People willingly associate themselves into groups based on common interest (among other things like shared belief). Of course they have the right to define that group based around that shared interest. If my DnD table likes to play DnD in a particular way, and has a particular view on culture and etiquette on the tabletop, it would not only be OK, but would be appropriate to exclude somebody who doesn't fit into our paradigm (even if they also enjoy fantasy roleplaying). Likewise a group of motorcycle enthusiasts wouldn't be remiss in turning away a guy with a scooter, and a group promoting advancement of LGBTQ issues could be well advised to exclude objectophiles or polygamists. Despite the degree of overlap, these groups are well defined by their members and their members interests: they have the obligation to protect that and exclude things that are counter to those interests and those things that are irrelevant to those interests (lest their well defined group become so bloated as to not really stand for anything anymore.) This is all doubly so today (with social media and the politicization of everything) where people external to a given community seek to influence the identity and otherwise pressure some of those voluntary associations of interest. Edit: I've given this due consideration and it's not something motivated by hate despite your assumption. Gatekeeping can be motivated by hate but just about anything can be. Let's not throw out basic things like voluntary associations and basic definitions because some idiots at some time behaved poorly.

[@CatCheshire]

Wrong way to play D&D ---> Not having fun

[@megashark1013]

Nah, DnD isn't about having fun. It's about beating the DM, which is why I always play human fighter.

[@sharkoj]

Megashark 101 who hurt you poor thing

[@BayBerry1337]

Megashark 101 I play pathfinder, and I theory crafted a character who can crit on a 13. Another character, by lvl 15, can do 175 damage with one attack. The difference is: I’m the GM

[@JagEterCoola]

@@BayBerry1337 I do this often. Not to fuck with my players later, but because I want to see the limitations of the system. How were you able to make a character crit on a 13 though? Critical feats and Keen specifically does not stack with any effect that increases your crit range. (I've theorycrafted a level 10 inquisitor/paladin multiclass that, using a bow and arrow, can 1shot any mob on the Monster Manual.)

[@Eric_The_Cleric]

@@JagEterCoola I know it's possible since an old friend who dives deep into the rules did it once. Sadly, I don't remember the exact way. It had something to do with stackable abilities and Keen, though. I also believe he did it with a class that you can't find in the main books. It was still Paizo official though. He has a LOT of the official 1e books. He also made a Kitsune rogue that was so good at disguising himself he convinced literally everyone in a large city he was human at level 1. That's just how deep he delved into the crazy, supposedly non-intractable, official Paizo rules he went.

[@jhopkins1515]

9:17 "It's their game of make believe, who cares." This is both the hottest take and most accurate!

[@PrestonWillis]

Justin Hopkins I honestly felt offended by that hot take and I’m not sure why because it’s true

[@NoActuallyGo-KCUF-Yourself]

I think the reason some people (like me) care about that is we might otherwise want to join that group to play, but the way they play sucks, so now I can't play my favorite game anymore.

[@milotkristiansen963]

"Cleric who can fight" So... like, a cleric?

[@tylerp5259]

A year late, but I think it’s the difference in time / quality and type of training. Paladins are clerics specifically trained in physical combat (hence the Fighting Style) while Clerics are trained more in the aspect of spells and stuff (hence the ability to cast cantrips that you’d be able to use in your everyday life AND higher level spell slots)

[@GrandGoblin]

Hot Take: Chaotic alignments have been boiled down to "LOL RANDOMNESS!" It's supposed to mean your character is willing to do anything to achieve their goals, not insanity.

[@DHTheAlaskan]

Yeah chaotic neutral more about what benefits you the most and acting upon it or just a pure expression of freedom. While it isn't a GOOD thing to beat down the priest who got handsy with the altar boy, he was getting handsy with the altar boy and and should be dealt with.

[@NoActuallyGo-KCUF-Yourself]

Original D&D alignments were about actually being aligned to cosmic forces in the game universe. If you were chaotic it was because you were driven to advance the aims of chaos philosophy - knowingly or not. There were even aligned languages. Now it's so watered down that it might as well not even be part of the game anymore.

[@commandercaptain4664]

@@NoActuallyGo-KCUF-Yourself True, there were initially meant to be personalities/flaws when the concept was young, now they're antiquated. Chaotic should've been named "Individual" and Lawful as "Societal".

[@troodon1096]

It CAN mean insanity, but does not necessarily mean that, yes.

[@oblivious2052]

I like chaotic good characters, willing to do bad things for the sake of your personal good. Would Thanos be chaotic good?

[@Egalia_1]

Hot Take: Warlocks are a super creative class but a vast majority of players feel like they have to play an evil demon worshipping cultist. Have some fun with it y’all

[@riptide3340]

Exactly! Warlocks can be evil alien worshipping cultists too :) I know what you’re saying though. My first character is a warlock who has no cult ties. He’s just a regular smuggler who wanted money lol

[@The_Scryer]

My first warlock was a Triton that had a patron that was obsessed with fish hooks, and would grant him boons depending on how many fish hooks he collected. Who ever said they had to be malicious

[@thepbrit]

My warlock was a dude who got drunk in the presence of an archfey and accidently made a deal which took his eyes, so now my poor boi just wants out of this deal with the obnoxious archfey...

[@Kokoroku_]

Good point! The character I'm playing the most right now and my most favourite is going to multiclass into Warlock soon, but I plan on making him very confused with his pact and unwilling to follow up with it. He doesn't blindly follow orders and sacrifice the blood of puppies, but he instead struggles to understand his pact and what that would mean for his future and his goals.

[@itzplant3196]

My Tiefling Feylock, Alastaire only made his pact to save hia sister from dying because of an illness he couldn't cure even with his knowledge of herbology so his pactron is preserving her for my charcater until he finds the herb. This is a great example as he doesnt make the pact because he's evil. It give him a nice grey area as a person. Which would explain why he's very defensive of people but also if I wanted to play him w/ low-self esteem because he couldn't save his sister even with his knowledge of many herbs he'd feel like "Can i truly save anyone?"

[@Walrus-nd9bv]

Hot take: The kobold race should of had an ability that allowed them to build traps rather than grovel and beg.

[@drakegrandx5914]

That's not an hot take. "Crowler and begging" is just such a stupid ability, especially when you think that it doesn't make any sense for it to only work once per rest.

[@PotofGlue]

@@drakegrandx5914 greetings. How odd, finding a comment from the current month on a nearly 2 year old video

[@yee7218]

@@PotofGlue right?!

[@Dragonmoon98]

Call Wizards! Tell them we don't want to play pansy-ass Kobolds!

[@PotofGlue]

@@yee7218 funnily enough it was actually about 7 minutes

[@All4Tanuki]

Hot take: the gravity on your hair makes you look like the Adoring Fan from oblivion :3

[@beyblademoses5379]

My brain exploded after reading this

[@All4Tanuki]

@@beyblademoses5379 My condolences

[@KillerBot5100]

Go search on YT Straight Outta Cyrodiil, and listen to the whole thing

[@DanCoutoS]

The wrong way to play D&D: Being abusive with other people. A lot of people leave the hobby because of abusive DMs or Players.

[@roar104]

Playing something so far removed from any edition of dnd and still calling it dnd is another wrong way

[@davveds145]

The wrong way to play D&D: Doing a handstand (in real life) while beatboxing in a dungeon mid BBEG summoning. While pissin on the dm and rolling the dice with ur feet.

[@Nackeroo]

My first dm was an asshole. My first 30 minutes of playing dnd I rolled a Nat 1 shooting a Crossbow, and he said I lost my eye. I can understand if it's a really hardcore game, but still he was a complete asshat

[@That80sGuy1972]

Unfortunately, that is sad but true. I DM'd many games where my players had friends that left the game and mocked by players. They eventually became players and distracted the sessions with horror stories that made them leave the hobby for a bit while showering me with praise as if, by being a normal (I repeat a *NORMAL*) DM, was the Jesus Christ of AD&D. WTF role-play a$$holes? Edit: spelling corrections

[@isamuddin1]

Nah You only need one abbreviate. TPK

[@theryderwriter]

Can we just address that Jacob’s edgelord character name was “Bone D’Arkness Ravenway Dimentia”

[@salvadorelastname9095]

I think he said Ebony but pronounced it wrong.

[@avocado4620]

Do you get the reference?

[@kholtonthebarbarian2590]

*Bone’E

[@nyarlat8455]

It got me to irrational levels of anger that he swapped the Ravenway and Dementia on accident

[@Technotoadnotafrog]

"Yes, DeMentia. I'm from the town of Mentia."

[@T1J]

Stunning strike fails like 50% of the time, and it costs a ki point every time. Your monk is going to have zero ki points by round three if they're spamming that much

[@johnteixeira6405]

Yeah but Ki comes back on a short rest unlike Sorcery Points, so that is less of an issue imo.

[@koolgool]

@@johnteixeira6405 Assuming that encounter is their only fight before the next short rest, even at a high level they're going to be pretty drained before the fight's over. Like... if a level 8 monk does a flurry of blows and tries stunning with every attack, that's already 5 ki spent, leaving them with 3 for the rest of the encounter. Hopefully they don't need to use step of the wind, patient defense, or flurry of blows again after that single turn that the monster is stunned is over. Knowing my DM, there would probably be a second monster in the other room that's now been stirred by the commotion, and the monk is already half-empty.

[@johnteixeira6405]

@@koolgool It's extremely unlikely you would stunning strike all 4 attacks in a real scenario at those levels, additionally there would be no point to keep stunning a target already stunned, so you're describing a scenario in which they are stunning multiple targets in a round, effectively winning the fight for the team... Yeah, that's going to take a lot of resources, and considering they come back on just a short rest? Not a problem, whatsoever. Also the whole "it fails 50% of the time" thing is bull anyways, you're going to have a 16 wis in a point buy so you're only going to have, at max, a -2 difference to your DC than someone with a max score, just 10% less chance to land.

[@koolgool]

@@johnteixeira6405 Yeah, most monks I've seen played don't stunning strike all of their attacks. If they fail the first one or two, unless they're really desperate, they're not spending any more ki on that move. Successful stuns are not common, and meaningful ones are rare, and I've been a part of multiple full campaigns with players playing monks. Usually, they save their ki for patient defense, flurry of blows, and step of the wind. Unless you made wisdom your main stat and not dex, like most monks I've seen, you're not going to waste your ki on stunning strike as much as you may think. I'm sure we've both played a lot of DnD. You should know as well as I do that a 2 point difference in AC, an attack, a skill check, a saving throw, or whatever, is a HUGE deal. That's why shields are a thing. That's why +2 magic weapons are rare magic items. That's why the archery fighting style gives you +2 to attacks. If a player dumps all of their ASI's into pumping up their dex AND their wisdom to their maximum, then they've earned that stunning strike that actually sometimes works. As a final side note, most of the HP-heavy monsters (as well as powerful spell casters) generally have pretty decent con saves. Even if they fail... it's one fuckin' turn man, it's no "Hold Monster". If a boss is stunned for one turn and they have no minions to back them up, then they were a bad boss anyway and need to find a new job.

[@johnteixeira6405]

@@koolgool Statistically it isn't a big deal though. It's 10%. The only reason people consider it a "big deal" in 5e is because of the relative lack of bonuses to rolls available, not because it's super powerful statistically. At the end of the day, you're only 10% less likely to get the stun off if you have a -2. About the con saves, the monsters that have good con saves are mostly "boss like" or are undead. It's just a matter of balance, you aren't really meant to stunning strike the adult red dragon. The extreme majority of monsters you commonly fight have middling con saves. Con being a bad save to target is more of a meme than reality, so long as you aren't trying to cast blindness on a vampire for instance, you're likely fine. You just gotta know when NOT to stunning strike, at the end of the day. I've played many monks and played with many, I feel like they're fine outside of the Four Elements. Not the best class, sure, but quite strong. I never really had a problem with Ki, yeah of course it runs out, but that's what a resource is supposed to do, be used for power. Maybe it's just because I really like the flavor of Sorcerers and so force myself to play them and work with the much more frustratingly limited pool of sorcery points, so I just don't mind the Ki costs? To each their own, I suppose.

[@scrapyarddragon]

Hot take: every damage type should have at least a few GOOD damaging spells. They don't all have to be on the same level as fireball but black dragon sorcerers should still have decent options.

[@MN-ce7ec]

I saw this dnd tiktok where it proposed an acidball, and I think that it was a pretty good idea

[@elgatochurro]

Avoid blast

[@demi-femme4821]

@@MN-ce7ec That's called Vitriolic Sphere. It basically trades the immediate power and consistency of a Fireball for MUCH higher overall damage. Though, it is a 4th level spell, which makes it less of an immediate, dependable burst of damage that you can keep using for a good bit and more of an emergency option that you whip out when you need as much damage as you can muster.

[@elf-lordsfriarofthemeadowl2039]

yeah, 3.5 had evocation spells of every type for every level

[@BramLastname]

If you want to make a good acid spell, You could take fire ball, And make it into Acid pit, Which requires a Con save instead of Dex, Deals less damage, but leaves a terrain that deals Acid damage at the start of a turn.

[@stevenoneil8563]

4:30 Once had an AMAZING session of Iron Kingdoms RPG where the player who kept all the notes looked at the game calendar (yes, really) and noticed it was another PC's birthday. Since we were between mercenary jobs we dropped EVERYTHING to have a four-hour session devoted purely to shopping for the supplies and gifts to throw that one PC an absolutely amazing birthday party. Like, we had observed a while back that the PC's boots were a bit worn out. We checked the loot table for how much a pair of finely made long-lasting boots would cost, then pooled money for ones that cost ten times that. These boots had zero mechanical impact on any characters. Like, they're just really nice. On top of that, we had a bunch of our subordinates arranging all sorts of crazy party games and procuring drinks. One of the most fun and memorable sessions I've done of any RPG, for all the right reasons, and mechanically all we did was waste some money on a super fancy pair of boots.

[@Awesomeasumpta13]

That's the cutest thing ever! I hope i get to have an experience like that someday.

[@TLhikan]

Hot take: "Find a different group" doesn't work for everyone. A lot of people have a tough time finding any group in the first place, much less one that works with their schedule and location, even if you factor in online play.

[@ismaashawsome4685]

I spent a solid 7 months responding to LFG and only ever got 2 responses. 1 of them never turned out because we had a 9 hour time difference b3cause they never said their timezone in their lfg and the other ended up falling through because daylight savings time made it so that I was out of schedule for the rest of the group.

[@Business_Skeleton]

No dnd is better than bad dnd

[@ismaashawsome4685]

@@Business_Skeleton But that's the thing. Some people just can't find any kind of D&D to play.

[@Business_Skeleton]

@@ismaashawsome4685 well yes and that's a shame but isn't it better to mot play at all than to be stuck with a group in which you have no fun.

[@leftistadvocate9718]

then don't play dnd. bad dnd is worse than no dnd

[@patdav56]

"Theres no such thing as a bad character" I once saw a guy who walked up to adventure league saying he only plays "evil" characters, and he said "I'll be fine in a group of good characters" He used "evil" as more an excuse for "I'm an asshole and no one can do anything" until the gm yelled at him for asking the question of "can I sneak into the druid's tent and 'soil her holy grove'?" And the store owner agreed to never let him back at that AL game Idk whether that falls under bad character or bad player, but that is stuff you just dont do either way

[@megamudkip5913]

Think that factors into a bad player, and bad character, since their only motivation was to be "evil"

[@CitanulsPumpkin]

It seems like once any player brings the prospect of a PC raping any other character into the game you've entered entirely into "bad player" territory. It doesn't matter what character that player brought to the table. Eventually they were going to use some mental gymnastics to justify derailing and traumatizing everyone else at the table.

[@Sxionix]

Yo what the hell that's insane.

[@patdav56]

@@Sxionix it's an rpghorrorstory. I didnt see this in person, it was from a loading crew reddit video I believe

[@futzlol]

That’s the player

[@isthisajojoreference]

"Paladins are fighters, they don't need cantrips." *Laughs in Eldritch Knight

[@thatlonewolfguy2878]

Eldritch Knight is the best, most fun and can also be the most OP fighter, that's my hot take

[@Aj-crazy1906]

@@thatlonewolfguy2878 I like echo knight

[@CypherDND]

@@thatlonewolfguy2878 it doesn't come online till level 7 / 9 though :/

[@thewanderer5506]

Just woke up, and I misread the title as "How to D&D taxes." Time to overthrown the government

[@Pyreleaf]

The Wanderer do you hear the people sing?

[@happyhaunt6659]

Singing the song of angry men

[@sirreginaldfishingtonxvii6149]

Rouges get superior tax evasion.

[@onesaltydoge3105]

I did as well! Hilarious coincidence!

[@Pyreleaf]

Happy Haunt IT IS THE MUSIC OF A PEOPLE WHO WILL NOT BE SLAVES AGAIN!

[@matthewcoyle4131]

How dare you! BigDickWizard69 is a meme that never gets old! Mostly because he has extended his own life with magic.

[@SodaPopBarbecue]

That's not the only thing he's extended...

[@matthewcoyle4131]

@@SodaPopBarbecue 🙄🙄🙄

[@matthewcoyle4131]

@SoupMan Jones The human condition is a curse upon those who are mortal. *And curses are a type of MAGIC! I CAST COUNTER SPELL!*

[@epileum67]

I was genuinely annoyed at the ‘It’s the player’s story not the DM’s story’. Like seriously, it’s everyone’s story, not specifically the Players’ or the DM’s

[@reaperleviathan4726]

Especially since the dm takes their Time to organise and play the game, which takes a lot of time

[@epileum67]

Reaper Leviathan exactly! I’m a forever DM, and it usually takes me about 2 weeks to prepare for session 1 because of all the stuff I have to write

[@reaperleviathan4726]

@@epileum67 Im a forever Dm too and altough I only Played pre written adventures so far (im relativly NEW to DnD), it still takes time to learn how they function and what happens when, encounters and so on

[@DustySquitoNM]

Also, if it's their story, maybe they can write some of it for me. I'm almost always the DM, and it is certainly the DM doing the heavy lifting of the story writing homework. I should be allowed to have some fun with it

[@dedotrongames6402]

The whole point of DnD is to put the characters into the world, and act out the story of the characters.

[@KumoKumiko]

Hot take: 'playing DnD' is a purely conceptual exercise, because who actually has time to put a group together with people whose schedules all align at the same time

[@emberhermin52]

It's true but you shouldn't say it

[@obi-wankommo-obi6880]

"It's the player's story, not the DM's." "Well yes but actually no."

[@Einherjar212]

I'd say it's slightly more the DM's story, because they have the final word, but it's obviously an excercise in collective storytelling.

[@chazzle3459]

It should be everyones story. Nobody participating should get to ruin another participants fun.

[@janelantestaverde2018]

I'd say the DM sets the scene, the players are the protagonists.

[@GhoulSlayer_]

It’s the DM’s story, they make the setting and plot points, but the players decide how it occurs and how it ends.

[@UmekCrafter]

Problem is not everyone recognize its asymerltric storytelling, but still co-operative storytelling. GM is more than provider od adventures for players AND players are not actors, that have to follow a script.

[@TheZedman5000]

Paladin’s cantrip is “weapon attack”. It synergizes really well with their class abilities, and they don’t even need to use an Invocation to make it add their main stat to its damage, unlike Warlocks.

[@itslexactually]

Goddammit 🤣 truly the spiciest take

[@DellikkilleD]

I cast 'strike' It's super effective.

[@ChaosFanGal]

Hot Take: Charisma isn't just displayed in how friendly and attractive you are to others, nor does it have to mean that characters with high Charisma are all sociable. Charisma can also be displayed through being intimidating, or just downright irritating if they choose to be, because they know how to get under your skin. It's force of personality.

[@MayHugger]

I define Charisma as your character's ability to make others do/react the way they want, plus spellcasting.

[@jossebrodeur6033]

This is why I homebrew a Taunt skill, because there are really three ways of getting information. Persuasion (good cop), Intimidation (bad cop), and Taunt (asshole cop). Series irritating the shit out of someone is far more effective for getting them to do what you want than intimidating or persuading them.

[@zagzig3734]

Charisma is just how strong of a personality [they] are. Be that through intimidation and fear, or sleight and persuasion

[@MayHugger]

@@zagzig3734 But like, shy nervous people can be very good at persuading others or deceiving them.

[@zagzig3734]

@@MayHugger then that's still a strong personality

[@Zedrinbot]

9:00 I'd say the wrong way to play DND is more "not really playing DND" Like how my first 3.5 session went, or as I like to call it: "we pretended to play 3.5" :v I had some homebrew alchemist class that had no progression / made no sense (at one point my DM gave me bannanas? and expected me to make potions? Like he would occasionally have me discover random items as reagents but I had no list on how to use them.) We were all level 5 and our second encounter was fighting an ancient white dragon (who was actually good aligned and intelligent?) And when we got frustrated the DM ruled that a 17 beat its AC (it didn't) and killed it and then the world was ending for some reason. It was goofy but I don't think anyone knew what we were actually playing, if anything.

[@masterboa6321]

white dragons are still intelligent, just not as much as the other chromatic dragons.

[@Zedrinbot]

@@masterboa6321 oh when I mean intelligent, I mean like, genius-level, analytical. Normal white dragons kinda have lizard-brain going on. They act before they think, usually.

[@masterboa6321]

@@Zedrinbot ah normally its just the green/gold ones that are geniuses

[@LazyDev27]

@@Zedrinbot In the basically dragons video I think I heard they said theyre basically feral smaller desert dragons. But I guess its in proper DnD fashion that nothing is limited to the rules.

[@Yawyna124]

@@LazyDev27 **Arctic. White dragons hate the desert. Unless you're referring to one of the secondary chromatic dragons, brown dragons, I think. The other desert dragons are pretty smart.

[@thajocoth]

The wrong way to play D&D: Step 1: Set up a game of Monopoly instead

[@genericname2747]

Imagine a dnd game themed after monopoly

[@funnyvideoguy3216]

You are right and I don't like it

[@MaindexOmega]

dammit, not again

[@erikhermansen3431]

Rolling dice from your nether regions..... in most games...... in my experience.

[@apollyon1]

It is role-play. You pretend to be wealthy.

[@josephercanbrack8393]

Hot Take: Lawful Evil characters can be a great addition to a party, as they tend to be loyal to their allies and/or cause, while merely willing to use dubious methods to achieve their goals.

[@5-Volt]

IMO Lawful Evil is the hardest alignment to play properly.

[@ElizaE-y5k]

@@5-Volt I'd say it's not so much hard to play properly as easy to play badly. I've played lawful evil characters plenty of times, only I never openly told the party or DM that they were LE and everyone was cool with it. Bit scared by some of the actions, but it was never directed at the party, so it was fine. I think CN, True Neutral and LN are the real hard ones to play, since most people can't get CN, LN tend towards LE or LG over a longer time-frame and I'm not even sure how you'd play True Neutral.

[@ferociousmaliciousghost]

@@ElizaE-y5k I feel like you'd play True Neutral as the golden rule. If someone is good to you, then you would be good to them as well and vice versa.

[@shrexican4413]

I players a LE character, he was good to the party (he was playing a long con, to gain information for the BBEG) and I didn’t play him like an asshole, but the party slaughtered him for being “suspicious”, he wasnt caught doing anything, just didn’t have an excuse for leaving the party for a bit. Protip: Theres a right time and place for every character, but not every time and place is right for every character

[@tyrusdalet]

MrNozza123 for True Neutral; set yourself a goal, and have your character set a goal, and work towards it. They work towards it in the best way possible, whether it be following or breaking rules. Monks, Rangers, Fighters, and Druids can pull it off fairly easily, other classes might struggle with how it interacts with their class

[@BlackMew13]

"its the players story, not the DMs", this can be perfectly answered with my own hot take: the DM is a player too!

[@avian972]

Yo I was the one that submitted that so I thought I should elaborate. What I meant is that the DM should base their world around the players and the players should be the ones shaping everything that happens. As a DM i feel like when showing up to a session you shouldn’t be thinking about having fun with your friends, you should be thinking about how to make the game as enjoyable as possible for all the players.

[@kingcrimson4133]

@@avian972 But if it's not enjoyable for the DM as well, then you're just selling your own happiness for other peoples', and that's not a tradeoff that should be made if there is a way for everyone to be happy instead.

[@shadowflamegaming5598]

DM: So what are you playing? Player: I wanted to make the most interesting character possible so I have a half-tiefling, half-dragonborn warlock Paladin. DM: What is their personality and backstory? Player: What personality or backstory?

[@apollyon1]

This is why I play human whenever possible. :)

[@sawyersmith9670]

Hot Take: Stunning Strike is already limited by the fact that you have to spend a ki point to use it. As a level 5 monk, you can use it max 5 times in an encounter, and that's assuming you don't use your ki points for anything else.

[@unwithering5313]

I know right

[@koolgool]

Monks already suffer for how quickly they go through ki, since they use it for nearly everything. Stunning Strike and flurry of blows are the two things that keep them from feeling underpowered to me. Nerf either of them and something else will need to get buffed. I think it's fine as-is.

[@brainnotdetectedhurdedur]

As A Monk User I agree heavily with you here, monks have to manage their Ki Carefully or they’ll run out, and if they do they’re gonna get fucked. Saving Ki points for things like Step of the wind or patient defense is just as important as putting someone down asap.

[@if7723]

@@brainnotdetectedhurdedur It's almost like the other classes are mad that others can do things.

[@BramLastname]

@@koolgool yeah, I'm DMing for a party who has a Monk as frontliner, Our Paladin is surprisingly frail, But the Cleric is usually the one to spend their resources first, Because Ki points are much more valuable. At least in the party dynamic we have.

[@CasualEnjoyerofMostManyThings]

If you're boss fight got cheesed by STUNNING STRIKE, a CONSTITUTION saving throw, either their Con just wasn't their strong point and they found a weakness, you didn't plan around the party, or luck was just not on your side. Stunning Strike at higher levels especially RARELY works, in my experience. Plus, it's like one of the Monks few abilities that help the whole party, and it helps the out BIG time. If they wanna burn 5 key points in one turn to multi attack, flurry of blows, and make them all stunning? That's on them to burn that resource in one turn

[@cleanseroftheworld]

More minions as well! And don't let the boss get into melee of the melee fighters until after the backliners are KO'd

[@Dinawartotem]

Or in other words, if your big bad evil guy doesn't have freedom of movement precast on him when the party shows up or immunity to stuns to negate stunning strike that's your own damn fault.

[@gavinphillips9367]

post level 8 i've pretty much stopped using it, as its far too easy to resist as most monsters have high CON saves. Why waste the Ki, when you could spend 1 ki point on flurry? Two extra attacks and the option to remove reactions, knockdown or push on each hit? Also, stunning strike is NOT a magical effect....none of the open hand monk abilities are classed as magical.

[@VestedUTuber]

*Ki But yeah. It's a powerful effect but it's balanced by how expensive it is to use. If your BBEG is getting cheesed then the issue is with the BBEG.

[@BramLastname]

A boss fight with low Con, Always consists of multiple monsters for me.

[@ghostleemann955]

"bad characters aren't a thing" what about my first character, "himbo stabsmuch" a goblin outlander cleric, who had taken all their points from strenth charisma and intelligence to have high dexterity, too bad I was using heavy armor, and brought a spear instead of a light crossbow, also he has like 6 max health, and died from 2 goblins armed with shanks because he hit himself in the foot with his mace.

[@edmdotmp3]

You're character was named Himbo Stabsmuch Himbo Stabs Much I can't decide whether I love or hate this

[@connorpratt8364]

no this is the best character

[@genericname2747]

He's perfect

[@Ailieorz]

This is amazing. The better example of a bad character is one that has been min/maxed to the nth degree so they're good at everything and basically make the other people in the group feel useless.

[@toe_sucker_4165]

That's the best character.

[@mcswaggerduff8946]

"This thread is a nightmare" *sees first take* Oh... Oh no....

[@QT-JME]

Regarding the rogue bit: I played a Lawful Good Rogue with the Knight of the Order background recently. He was a knight who firmly believed in the people and had an attitude to match, but OOC people were always like, "Okay but yeah, he's a rogue though. What kind of knight knows how to pick locks?" A skit about someone like that, a Rogue whose genuinely a nice guy while everyone keeps trying to paint him as this terrible person (because stereotypes) could be pretty funny.

[@RoninCatholic]

"What kind of knight knows how to pick locks?" Not knowing locksmithing was a popular hobby with French noblemen, including at least one of their (last) kings.

[@troodon1096]

An inquisitive rogue could quite easily be a lawful good detective. And maybe he was a locksmith before he began adventuring.

[@QT-JME]

True enough! Mine was an Arcane Trickster, owing to his order having ties to arcane teachings unlike others in the kingdom.

[@n.m.dimmick194]

I had a similar thing where I made an intelligent barbarian but she consistently got painted as a dumb meathead barbarian because barbarian. And granted, part of that is probably on me, as I haven't really played up her intelligence as much as I could have, and despite being intelligent her methods of dealing with most problems are quite simple (mostly because simple works quite well and we have enough party members who lean towards over-complicating things). Hopefully though, in the upcoming story arc she'll be able to show off more of her intelligence since canonically she'd been doing research and tactical prep for weeks because ancient dragons are powerful but forethought is stronger.

[@blazaybla22]

I mean make him a spy in an evil kingdom or something… boom, lawful good knight of the order rogue. Like, take the characters from the show The Americans and remove all the moral shades of grey and nuance so it fits into the reductive paradigm of D&D alignments, and voila.

[@theuzzlepuzzle2656]

Man, some of the best character backstories I've ever seen have come from minmaxing. First you build a character really good at one thing, but then you've got to explain why he has 4 multiclasses or whatever in his backstory. And just about every one of those I've seen has taken on a life of their own.

[@Demicaster11]

jjjo 12:04 huh😊

[@Demicaster11]

uu😊uu

[@WalkinStereotype]

I wanna say on “Ice character with Fireball”, that UA alter elemental damage metamagic works wonders

[@ANDELE3025]

I mean, for most damage types swapping around between them isnt a issue/not a problem even without resource cost. A weapon dealing bludgeoning might be slighty better than slashing on average just as lighting is compared to fire, but as long as its within group (physical, elementals and "other" of force, psych, radiant and necrotic) it makes very little net difference.

[@WalkinStereotype]

ANDELE3025 Mostly, but its fantastic for flavoring, and sometimes the elemental issue can be resolved. Chances are that, as long as its not all fiends, not all enemies will have most elemental resistances

[@troodon1096]

I CAST ICEBALL!!!

[@WalkinStereotype]

Troodon Precisely, my personal favorite elemental change is how storm sorcerers can cast Lightning Ball. How badass is that?

[@insanimegamer]

"Weird race/class doesn't make your character interesting" *sweating because I am most definitely guilty of this*

[@an8strengthkobold360]

Also doesn't make your character bad though. As long as the characterization doesn't end at ork wizard.

[@VestedUTuber]

Weird class/race combination doesn't make your character bad either. If anything, it gives you a bit of a head start, at the expense of being more of a letdown if you end up making a bad character anyway.

[@Eliezar18]

Weird race/class gives you tools to paint your canvas of a character that are different. It is always up to the player to fill that canvas with interesting art. Great art can be made with a traditional color palate (human fighter) as easily as with an exotic palate, but the same can be said for bad art, if in hands that aren't skilled. A character that begins and ends with human fighter, and never grows from there is like a stick figure, and a character that begins and ends with drow paladin is no better. But a tiefling storm harald barbarian who loves to make new friends, give out hugs, and is the group's mama bear figure, despite rarely actually knowing what is going on, could be interesting in the right hands. ^_^

[@skycastrum5803]

@@Eliezar18 One slight issue. A “human fighter that remains a human fighter” may not be the best way to phrase it. If a human fighter is played well, embodying how a human fighter would act, even if it seems like the most stereotypical character ever, it is a good character (especially given that there are enough wild combinations thrown around that “generic” can almost be unique). The issue is if the human fighter never leaves the paper, if it’s only a stand in for a clump of numbers. Not that you’re wrong. It’s totally an issue of the characteristics being tools to paint a character with. But a simple fighter can also be a work of art, even if it remains so to the very end.

[@skycastrum5803]

@Mr. Fake How is that working RP-wise? Who is the deity, and what’s the character’s personality and values?

[@sparkselm173]

11:24 "Homebrew can be very annoying. There is so much in the books already why can't you *flavour stuff to make it your own.*" That just sounds like homebrew with extra steps.

[@asrieldreemurr1988]

They mean like keep the abilteys but say this is something else

[@seigeengine]

I miss 3.5e where there was so much zany offshoot BS produced at an at-least semi-professional level, since they actually needed to print physical copies.

[@itslexactually]

Eek barba durkel, SOMEone got laid in college

[@JD-xz1mx]

That's not homebrew at all. In the old days, the entire game worked this way. The rules for a class were not your characterization, but the mechanics that sat underneath your characterization. That's why "Fighter" is so generic by today's class design standards. It wasn't supposed to be the fantasy element, it was supposed to be the meat and bones of any weapons oriented character, who's true flavor you would invent for yourself.

[@kentsilvain7329]

12:52 This is a solid take that I feel is often overlooked. We’ve all heard complaints about power gamers, but at least they can also be good at RP. I’ve had more problems with what I’ll call anti-power gamers, people who’ve gotten into their head that all powerful characters are bad, and that flaws automatically make them more interesting. Making interesting, flawed characters is all well and good, but when you reach the point where you’re making flaws for the sake of flaws, and characters that just don’t function on a mechanical level, I think that’s a problem. Especially since they tend to complain that people playing functional characters are “OP”. I’ve legitimately had a player show me a character that I told them wouldn’t work well. Then after two sessions, they wanted me to nerf the other three PCs to be at their level (despite me offering them a free reroll). TLDR: Having flaws that make provide depth and insight into your character is good. Having flaws for their own sake is not.

[@ratman505]

I wanna add to the paladin-cantrip thingy: Paladins have proficiency with ALL weapons. Why would you not carry javelins or handaxes?

[@luigifan4585]

because those means of ranged damage are pitiful compared to your melee once you reach higher levels. And you can only get off one ranged attack due to taking out one and throwing it using up your free interaction. And you also can't smite(whether divine or spell ones) with ranged attacks on a Paladin either. Bows that aren't loading based are better, but would still suffer from the latter drawback of not being able to use your main shtick on them. A ranged damage cantrip can at least scale with you as your character progress once melee becomes not an option for certain situations, and a support one to help out your fellow allies in a pinch.

[@cinnabunz1532]

@@luigifan4585 I wish you could do a paladin with a bow. I've always wanted a holy archer type character and I can't really make it happen, I don't think a cleric with a bow would be good either but I haven't experimented with it yet

[@BramLastname]

@@cinnabunz1532 you could try ranger, It's not really a symbol of holiness, But they do get abilities that for the idea

[@KaitouKaiju]

@@luigifan4585 paladins should buy a gun

[@cinnabunz1532]

@@BramLastname maybe like an acolyte ranger or something? Could probably flavor some of the elemental arrows as like holy or something and do radiant damage

[@SpookGod]

After watching this, I'm getting the impression that too many people see horny bard memes and automatically assume that's how all bard players are.

[@terrabite87]

I've been playing D&D for years and never actually encountered a "horny bard", as a matter of fact the bard in my current campaign is asexual

[@seigeengine]

In my experience, only twats play bards, regardless of how they play bards.

[@thatlonewolfguy2878]

Its a stereotype for a reason...

[@SpookGod]

@@thatlonewolfguy2878 Stereotype =/= all players.

[@CypherDND]

If they aren't playing the horny bard stereotype, they aren't playing their bard right lol.

[@esperthebard]

I also give monsters with magic resistance advantage against monks' stunning strike. Literally the first page of the monk class has a section called "The Magic of Ki."

[@chrismanuel9768]

And monk fists count as magic weapons. It's magic.

[@masonfoster151]

2 things you guys may enjoy from my game. 1) DM: "you walk into a dim lit room with a fountain in the middle. Across the room is a door, it is ajar." Player: "woah woah woah, wait sec. Is it a door or is it a jar?" DM: "I hate you." 2) DM: "On the corpse you find a ring of keys." Every player at the table: "that's sounds cool, what does it do." DM: "it's a ring of keys." Player: "I've been looking in the magic items and I can't find the ring of keys." DM: "No it is a literal key ring with keys hanging off of it."

[@if7723]

I would definitely make a magic item that is the Ring of Keys. Gets 1d6 charges a day to generate keys that will fit the first lock they are placed into.

[@noahdukat1968]

It is both a door and a jar. However, that means it is both a door and jar mimic now. Roll for initiative.

[@oz_jones]

I would totally be the player in the first one

[@GeneralWarburg]

In regards to stunning strike, the fact that you have to use ki points every time you use it already balances out the ability. I've never been in a fight where I had no use for patient defense or step of the wind or flurry of blows. They're all useful abilities that are limited by the number of ki points you have in a combat, you don't need to neuter Stunning Strike when its resource cost already balances it out for pretty much whatever level your monk is at.

[@BillyBob-lt5zm]

There is no such thing as a bad character. My players’ characters: allow us to introduce our selves

[@onatkalkan4907]

elliott Towe how is your group?

[@BillyBob-lt5zm]

Onat KALKAN my groups is fine... it is the characters they choose to play, and how they choose to play them that is problematic. One of my players plays a human polymorphed into a mouse. This is a cool concept, I thought. He is an outcast so he gets a small beast. Since he is a tiny creature I let him ride it. He plays with a crippling cheese addiction so much that he would let the world burn if it meant he can have a bit more cheese. He plays lawful good mind you.

[@jarnivanwaesberge3984]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/aoumepuVaMdogZo

[@onatkalkan4907]

I have a character in my game who has a crippling reviving addiction and has to revive everything including dead evil liches, an adult black dragon who just burned the town and the party managed to kill him by the skin of their teeth and last but not least the murderer who killed his whife and kids.

[@BillyBob-lt5zm]

Jarni Van Waesberge but you see he can role play well with that character my players well...

[@ckcrusty1952]

Hot Take: Playing an evil character is okay if your character doesn’t hate the party. By limiting your players to “no evil characters” you get rid of a lot of creative character options and needlessly remove 1/3 of the alignment chart.

[@RoninCatholic]

Hot take: Limiting a party to only Lawful Good, Lawful Neutral, and Chaotic Good will also work very well.

[@schluebenschlaucher1130]

I think this still depends on the type of story you are willing to tell. If you are going for something more grounded,it might even make sense for a pc to secretly be working against the party or even hate them,and it can be a great source of drama once the betrayal is revealed.

[@-d_9894]

@@RoninCatholic True Neutral too spicy for you?

[@RoninCatholic]

@@-d_9894 Yes. I hate True Neutral because when there's such things as objective good and evil in the setting one of the absolute worst things you can be is a fence-sitter. The four corners of the alignment chart, Lawful Neutral for those focused on order at all costs, and Unaligned for NPCs unimportant or unintelligent enough to pick a side are where it's at. I find True Neutral boring at its best possible and _infuriating_ the way it's presented in like, Greyhawk and Dragonlance flavor text. I find Neutral Good and Neutral Evil incomprehensible and poorly defined.

[@Thunder-bw9xm]

@@RoninCatholic I see true neutral as a "everything must be balanced" type of thing. I think a well-played true neutral is interesting

[@briar-x-rose]

“All wizards do is cast fireball” KZbin: *proceeds to give me a water filter ad*

[@MayHugger]

Counter argument: All fighters do is swing their weapon. All Paladins do is use their Smites. All Rogues do is Sneak Attack. Gee, it's almost like players are inclined to do what's most efficient and their character would do.

[@funnyvideoguy3216]

I mean, you're gonna need water to defend yourself

[@potatotaxi]

@@MayHugger mayhugger likes DnD too? Based, I see you everywhere

[@MayHugger]

@@potatotaxi I see you are a person of culture as well.

[@potatotaxi]

@@MayHugger I'm trying to get into DnD, but the curse of the schedule is abusing me I have a CN Halfling Bard planned out

[@connorhennessey1316]

Q: "There are wrong ways to play DnD." A: No there aren't. r/rpghorrostories: Are we a joke to you!

[@Ento2012]

Some people love the feelings you get from horror. That does not mean that they are wrong.

[@KiskeFriedChicken]

Elias Olofsson That Reddit isn’t for the “horror genre”. It’s for people to talk about there worst table top experiences. Like “My DM Ruined the Campaign with Shitty Self Inserts.” Stuff like that.

[@michaelshuey7020]

@@Ento2012 No, not "Horror RP", horror stories of players/DMs that are just plain awful. Like the things that CritCrab narrates

[@Ento2012]

@@michaelshuey7020 I know but a lot of it is just horror or kink related stories that some say are to dark or that they did not tell a player how they play.

[@TheBayzent]

"Your Paladin goes to pee and a troll dressed as raisins, comes and rapes him in the mouth. He says he is the grapist" does have kinks and does have horror, but this is not why this would be called a horror story...the fact that the DM is screwing with a character for his personal gratification at the expense of the player is why it would be there. The subreddit is filled with stories about DM's and players being total cunts to the point entire games are ruined, this is the commonality between all stories, not kinks and Ravenloft.

[@GamingRabbit17]

His shirt says "What doesn't kill you gives you xp". How much xp is surviving a virus?

[@wayfaringmoth3899]

About 900.

[@APerson-ws4cw]

depends on the virus

[@itzplant3196]

Black Plague during the Dark Ages? All the way level 20

[@UmekCrafter]

Enouth to advance from level 0 npc to level 1 pc.

[@isamuddin1]

Idk Free pass to all around the world?

[@x0Vinny0x]

The dynamic of story creation between the DM and players is like paint is to an artist. I supply the materials, but you paint the picture.

[@TenBigHotMen]

"Clerics are always goody two shoes" I have a cleric who literally has a crippling drug addiction

[@dysfunctionalcaterpillar790]

More information please

[@dasmause5682]

Being a drug addict and goody two shoes is not necessarily related tho, especially if said drug addiction is “crippling”

[@joshuaford6700]

My cleric has emotional issues and deals with many problems with explosive anger and by pushing people away. He is lawful good and wants to just help everyone but grew up in an abusive household and was originally groomed to be an evil cult leader. So he cant articulate his emotions properly and has a tendency to be prideful and arrogant. He is a good person. He is just not good at being a person.

[@TenBigHotMen]

@@dysfunctionalcaterpillar790 they're a trickery cleric and they can barely go a few days without taking something. They once blatantly asked a lawful figure what the town's situation on drugs was, to which the figure said "no drugs, you can be prosecuted" to which my character responded by trying to by drugs as soon as they left and then got in trouble with a guard and then started a mini revolution.

[@TenBigHotMen]

@@joshuaford6700 that's a really interesting character

[@Spyger9]

Starting at 5th level, you can interfere with the flow of ki in an opponent's body. When you hit another creature with a melee weapon attack, you can spend 1 ki point to attempt a stunning strike, *and you can spend 1 additional ki point to give the creature disadvantage on its saving throw.* The target must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or be stunned until the end of your next turn. *If a creature's saving throw is successful, then the creature is immune to your stunning strike for the remainder of the turn.*

[@maxb2244]

Perfect homebrew fix.

[@rowanmurray2842]

Thank you

[@andtyldai]

I had the same idea of making the creature immune for the rest of the turn, but I didn't think about the disadvantage part. Good thinking

[@Spyger9]

@@andtyldai Yeah, the idea is to make it less spammy without nerfing it too hard. A lot of monsters have high CON, and monks don't usually have high WIS, so the disadvantage option really helps.

[@MrSilentfire11]

Best nerf I've seen for it yet. Gives you the sorcerers meta magic for the cost of more resources. At the drawback of making an enemy immune to it for the rest of the round on a failed attempt. If you are repeatedly trying stun the same enemy which you only tend to do to high priority targets and it's important enough for you to be dumping all of your resource into it making them immune is the worst possible thing you could do to yourself short of giving them resistance or immunity to your attacks and not even close to worth the disadvantage against their save. Against groups of weak opponents you would never notice this nerf but against anyone stronger it would actually hurt you. Or encourage not making sure one creature is stunned by instead attacking every creature within reach attempting a separate stun on all of them. This is a much more unhealthy and unfun playstyle as it requires monks to suicide dive into multiple enemies to make their class feature worth using. While having the side effect of instead of the monk harassing one enemy and stunning them you would have to deal with him trying to stun everyone nearby to make the nerfed feature worth it. And still nowhere near good enough for me to wilingly take it as it still neuters one of the class's main features. And arguably it's most important one. if forced to choose between playing monk but forced to take this or just playing a fighter I would just play a fighter as it would be better. Yes monks stunning strike is no fun for dms because he takes your ability to do anything away for a round at a time. But if you mess with it at all it can very quickly force shitty playstyles and suicidal monks

[@enzodeganiarantes2968]

I believe that playing a "rare" race makes the character just a little more interesting, but is not in any way a substitute for a well-rounded backstory.

[@thatlonewolfguy2878]

Agreed tbh

[@nessa-parmentier]

I'd personally say it gives a good hook to actually make a character interesting, but doesn't by itself. Like, it's a good (potentially very good) tool to create an interesting character. But that tool can be ignored or used badly by the player and still make a character uninteresting.

[@RevanReborn3950BBY]

I play a wildfire Druid Firbolg who has a whole backstory with a human artificer destroying his village when he was realy young causing him to be taken in by a nearby wolf pack that the tribe had good relations with

[@offspringfan100]

I feel like it is just a larger challenge for the DM to take most games and find creative ways to tie their weird character into it and make those special character moments. If you know your DM is running a campaign/adventure in a specific area, go easy on your DM and try to tie them to the setting and theme the best you can do they can riff off of your backstory better. I told my player they couldn't run a Blood Hunter because it didn't really fit the campaign premise and told him we could run a character in a one-shot or after this adventure and he was cool with it. It takes two to tango

[@JD-xz1mx]

Its a crutch. Being a rare, one in a billion identity is the fast track to an interesting character without requiring any effort.

[@Clubbingclown]

Hot take: Drow should have cold resistance. Caves are friggin cold man, I've seen snow in em in the middle of summer. Drow have been shown to wear rather open clothing so they're clearly not bothered by the temperatures.

[@RoninCatholic]

Go deep enough and caves are instead FRIGGIN HOT AND HUMID.

[@robynthethird4776]

More like-- M- M. MORE LIKE COLD TA---

[@twichay1889]

Goliaths should also! They live on mountains!

[@Thunder-bw9xm]

neither should have cold resistance imo, as living in a 50 degree cave doesn't mean you're take less damage from a dragon ice breath. also, goliaths already have protection against cold climates.

[@butcanyoudothis3320]

Agree kinda, but it should be fire resistance. Sure, some caves are cold bc no heat from the surface can touch them, but since Drow live deep in the earth, it would be hella hot more often than not.

[@doorslammer633]

Hot take: Inverting stereotypes isn't inherently fun or interesting. If the orc is a well-read academic then he's just that: a well-read academic. If there aren't any layers to his personality other than "orc not do orc things" then it doesn't matter if he's an orc, elf, human, dwarf or whatever. You can add reasons for the inversions like "everyone assumed i was stupid just because i was an orc so i decided to study arcano-physics and become a respected researcher in my field to prove them wrong" or adding aspects that are typical of orcs that make the inversions more interesting like having the intellectual orc like giving him anger management issues that relate to his life as a student like being angry at people saying stupid things or assuming hes stupid just because he's an orc. Replacing one cliche with another cliche in a different package just means you've still got the exact same amount of cliches you had from the start.

[@ChexMexLex4929]

0:53 on kzbin.info/www/bejne/gYCxoJh-rNplpsk

[@skycastrum5803]

The anger management stuff can work well, but it’s almost a cliche in itself. Another twist might be in mixing a natural aggressiveness with more academic pursuits. Perhaps it could display itself as a tendency to get a bit too competitive, or maybe a more thought out personal philosophy on why “fire ball is the best spell.”

[@glowcloudwheatproducts495]

This is a damn good literary hot take imo. I feel like inversion of stereotypes is a super well-worn trope in of itself

[@sta._rina]

Valid take. I love subverted characters but to each their own 💫

[@benjaminjane93]

This. So much this.

[@zinkpieco]

3:50 It is the Player's story in that it is about the players and their influence in it. It is the DM's story in that they should respond to this influence with how the world they created would respond. So really it is a 50/50

[@kendaar9002]

Just want to talk about the bad stats hot take: I played a game where a friends character used to take drugs and had a extremely low constitution to reflect this, he always died as soon as he was hit and it just sucked to be around. The character was good rp wise (one of the best in the group) but since it was made of tissue paper it became difficult to do anything.

[@commandercaptain4664]

Perhaps design encounters that don't primarily depend on combat alone.

[@kendaar9002]

@@commandercaptain4664 I wasnt the Dm, I was playing the only support. As we got further and further into the campaign combat slowly became the only option

[@levigriffin5553]

1:15 Bumbumbumbumbumbum Bumbumbumbumbumbum bum Mr. Stibbles, bring me a fiend Make him the cutest that I've ever seen Give two feats like Great Weapon Master Tell him that it's adventure we're after

[@memedealer2018]

XD nice

[@r_kayne]

Stibbles, I'm so alone Don't got a pet to call my own Stibbles, with Druid magic, please Mr. Stibbles, bring me a fiend!

[@rh3280]

14:48 this is true, I have a character that my friends keep getting frustrated with because he's too powerful, now despite the fact I built him to not die because all my other characters die comically early his character and background had genuinely good reasons for him to be as strong as he was

[@afont13]

The wrong way to play D&D is when Players aren’t having fun and the dm isn’t either

[@dagbackerud7316]

Aaron No. That is the intended outcome. Read the players hand book.🦄

[@martingammill-beck5846]

@@dagbackerud7316 Wtf are you talking about? The players handbook has almost 300 pages (i think), can you be more specific?

[@0RM99]

I’m sure somebody has already typed this but this is my very mild hot take: There has to be a balance between DM railroading, and players doing what they want. Of course players should have a lot of free will to be able to work in the bounds of your campaign. But when the DM becomes reactionary to the players and doesn’t ever really take control of the story at any point, it gets really boring for the DM and the players as well. I’ve played in a few sessions of D&D that really had no DM direction and it was just us wandering around killing tiny monsters for gold. And it really just got boring. Then I was the DM for like an 8 man party, I took control of the reigns a bit more and everyone had fun. It’s honestly much more fun to be apart of an epic story than to just mill about “realistically.” Also brings me to another point, don’t be the DM who ignores the rule of cool. If I wanted to play D&D with real life physical limitations, I’d go larping 😂. But for real I could have been at my MMA gym or chilling at home and not at the campaign if I knew it was gonna be that boring. (I’m gonna stop here so I don’t rant forever 😂)

[@elf-lordsfriarofthemeadowl2039]

I think that 1st point depends on how the Players and DM run it. In my experience players who take the reigns of the game is rare (in my small town) as they usually shrug and ask the DM "what're we supposed to do next?". I think it's like an improv Jazz group where the PC do what they want so long as they obey the start, stop, and rhythm that the DM sets within the right parameters.

[@0RM99]

Elf-lord's Friar of the Meadowlands Yea, my point stems from a few games that I’ve played in the last year. So it’s more just a personal rant about a specific group 😂, and it really kind of divided that group. It was more on the DMs than the players, as in one game it was beyond railroaded where it felt like a cutscene in a video game. The other one where the DM let the players just go with no story direction, and that became boring very quickly. Mostly because the freedom we had wasn’t actually real as at many times we just couldn’t do something we wanted to do, and they weren’t unreasonable requests. Plus the whole campaign made our characters feel completely insignificant, which is honestly a big turn off when playing D&D. Cause in my mind it should be about epic adventure, granted some dull points, but overall have some sort of direction that takes the players seriously enough. I don’t really care to spend 3-4 sessions in a mining town, each time just doing the same kill quest just re-skinned with the most common monsters ever.

[@Spencer_Thatcher]

As a forever DM I'll always stick up for DM rights. It's hard being a husband and father who works fulltime AND still has time to make a quest for the next session. I'm sacrificing my limited me time to make a fun game and I expect my players to just play along to a reasonable amount. I expect them to go off script, improve of new people and situations is what makes the game fun. That said if they go out of the way to be chaotic murderhobos and kleptomaniacs then I'll throw my hands up and be done. I want to have fun too and just as much as I try to make NPCs and Antagonists who relate to my characters and their backstories I expect them to help me move the story along. Respect is 50/50, its half the players and half the DMs. If both add their halfs then it's a fun session. If either try's to take away their half or steal the others then it's just a mess.

[@an8strengthkobold360]

I think the fun of playing a weird race class combo is making it not feel weird. Turning a strange concept into a coherent character which feels natural is an intresting challenge.

[@wren_.]

I love making race/class combos that don’t seem to make any sense. I’ve played both a rogue/fairy and a druid/half-orc before, it’s fun

[@TheReZisTLust]

I reccomend Megaraptor and Ninja​@@wren_.

[@blazaybla22]

@@wren_.Those both make total sense to me idk

[@TitanBait]

"Boney Darkness Ravenway Dementia" is gonna be the name of my lawful good acolyte cleric.

[@stingray2305]

The name he was referring to was “Eboney D’arkness Dimentia Ravenway”

[@salvadorelastname9095]

I think he said Ebony but pronounced it wrong.

[@funnyvideoguy3216]

I guess you could say that subverted my expectations!

[@jakestavinsky3480]

Hot take: Dms need to spam more weak, additional monsters. 1 big bad monster has too many issues in every edition of DnD. Also DMs need to punish players for spamming all their resources at once (at least sometimes). Because that rewards the short rest classes like Warlock and Rogues, and because that is the check to things like Paladins.

[@elgatochurro]

The cr systems for 6-8 combats before characters try a long rest. Many people do not play that out right... in fact they seem to only have 4 combats a dungeon it seems so short rest classes will not shine while everyone else gets to shine more because they dont have to really suffer having wasted their resources.

[@ladaboy3507]

Add fighters to the list of good characters for short rests! Action surge and second wind recharge on a short rest, and half of the subclasses regain their abilities on one too.

[@1subwithnovidomgwediditguy702]

In my 3 years of playing dnd i have used hit dice like twice. The dm's always like, "oh you're at 1/2 hp and 3 of your spell slots are used? take a long rest the villager hostages are ok with being tortured another 8 hours yea man."

[@ryanhoward8694]

I tend to DM for groups that enjoy combat and RP equally, so “shopping episodes” are great to have occasionally. One of the most fun sessions I had with my last group involved our Ranger suddenly deciding to ask this random clerk chick out on a date. I had the idea of having this girl actually be an identity shared by two very different Changelings, the date was hilarious, and we had an NPC Changeling join and become a beloved part of the party. None of that had been planned by me.

[@onesaltydoge3105]

I read this as “Hot DnD Taxes”

[@packrat6196]

There's nothing better to do during your game session then burning taxes as environmental props

[@NxAllie]

I think that says something about you but i'm afraid to think of what

[@matthewcoyle4131]

It's perfectly normal for people to have to pay a table taxes and I won't have you telling my marks- uh.... I mean *players* otherwise.

[@SoulSlugArts]

What an exciting video

[@iridium6714]

And I read your comment as "Hot DnD Texas"

[@X3._.n3]

Having all low stats is as bad as having all high ones. A variety of scores means you're good at some things but not others, which is more interesting than being bad at everything.

[@chrismanuel9768]

Being great at everything can be good too. Ever heard of Superheroes? Superman is still one of the best selling heroes of all time. Sometimes players wanna be heroes, not adventurers.

[@williamlee7482]

Try rolling 3d6 down the line to see what you get because that was the original way to roll for stats in d&d back in the 70s when it first came out plus certain classes like the Paladin had special requirements like they must be lawful good and have at lest a 17 in cha

[@williamlee7482]

@@chrismanuel9768 Then why start at 1st level if the want their character to be a superhero ? Players need to work their way to being superhero types of else there's no fulfillment in creating that character because they didn't work for it it was just given to them

[@weniswarrior666]

Basically the difference between an edgelord and a dark character is the dark character had a fully fleshed out personality before their tragic backstory happened to them rather than being entirely defined by it.

[@seigeengine]

The difference between dark and edgy, is whether the point of the darkness is just to be dark.

[@Demadragon]

Hot Take: You can spice it up with a detective background any race and class combo. Detective barbarian goblin? Shine on, you crazy diamond.

[@justinpriebe6737]

wrong way to play D&D: "i'm not having fun until YOU'RE NOT HAVING FUN!" the rest of the party and DM: -_-

[@fenixmeaney6170]

Might be a good story arc for the ice magus to go on a quest to try and find a way for their fireball to deal cold damage

[@digitaldevil696]

"Clerics are goody two-shoes" Oh, yes, certainly. Kind sir, can I politely and softly talk to you about our lord and saviour Talos? All while I'm making the whole "sacrifice a sentient being via a lightning bolt" thing. Or maybe our honourable lady Umberllee is more of your kind of thing? Perhaps, you prefer the whole douchebagger... Trickery domain?

[@troodon1096]

Yeah, it's wrong for two reasons: Not everybody is a perfect paragon of the religion they follow, and non-good deities do in fact exist.

[@hellfire286]

I mean freaking Asmodeus is a god.

[@Don_Ratski]

"There's no such thing as a bad character" Meme seduction bards exists

[@havokmusicinc]

Even memey 32 charisma "uwu i fuck the dragon" bards can be fun and interesting if played right... But the player needs to be on point with their roleplay

[@stijndevries6175]

@@havokmusicinc how the hell does one get 32 charisma

[@mikhailthegreatestdragon3627]

@@stijndevries6175 magic items

[@commissardaniel9500]

@@stijndevries6175 Play 3.5e

[@snaffu1]

Character with 6 in every stat and no equipment. Objectively bad.

[@wipifire3244]

I love min maxing just because I love making intricate backstories as to why they are so strong and stuff. I love it when my friends also do this and we make the most intricate stories to tell it’s the best.

[@pikagammerpluspizza7478]

Jacob: There is no wrong way to play DnD My Murder Hobo Party: Well yes, but no.

[@cractor6307]

me thinking about FATAL and how there are racist caricatures as armor: YES

[@digitaldevil696]

@@cractor6307 the next time a bard would try to seduce a dragon, I would ask them to roll for anal circumference

[@NoActuallyGo-KCUF-Yourself]

As a veteran DM of over 30 years experience, I would love a game full of murder-hobo players. At least there would be some interesting action and player-driven motivation. So many recent games I've tried to run have had boring players who don't want to do _anything._

[@commandercaptain4664]

@@NoActuallyGo-KCUF-Yourself That's going from one extreme to another. Be careful what you wish for.

[@hannesnilsson3897]

Hot take: monks doesn’t have to be selfless good guys living in tranquility

[@troodon1096]

Be a lawful evil monk; basically look at any martial arts movie ever, the main antagonist usually is one. Or be a lawful neutral one that cares primarily about perfecting your art for its own sake. You could still easily find reasons to be part of a group's goal that aligns with yours.

[@defeatstatistics7413]

chaotic good monk with the urchin background who beats up bullies.

[@VestedUTuber]

@@defeatstatistics7413 Add in Astral Self and you basically have Jotaro.

[@skycastrum5803]

Be a random peasant who happened to take some self defense classes. Next thing he knows, he’s doubled his speed, walking on water, and can punch out large fire breathing lizards.

[@IfIHadMyTimeAgain]

I feel like drunken master proves that. When have you ever met a selfless drunk?

[@daxdleader719]

I think what the person meant by "gatekeeping can be good" is that there are some genuinely awful people who want to use this game to hurt others. I've seen to many r/rpghorrorstories

[@sandyholmerin2925]

Maybe. But there is no way to know what they meant when they just typed "Gatekeeping can be good." So the response is valid since gatekeeping in most cases is an incredibly toxic behaviour and shouldn't be encouraged.

[@masonmiller5394]

Same thing with the bad DND or bad character stuff. It's hard to know what was meant by a vague internet comment but some of the stuff on rpghorrorstories is just aweful

[@ZekeFreek]

Agreed. Gatekeeping is necessary to maintain a subculture's integrity. Not everyone who comes into a subculture has that subculture's interests at heart. Some people are chasing clout, forcing others out for unrelated drama, forcing an agenda or just don't respect the customs of that subculture. In the case of DnD, I think it's perfectly fine to not want people in your groups that don't take the game seriously, don't respect their fellow players, or act flippant about the community. That's not welcomed, we don't want those people in our subculture. That's good gatekeeping.

[@ravenfrancis1476]

@@ZekeFreek The problem is though who decides what our community's best interests are? We're not a fucking hivemind, man, you ask 10 players what they think is in D&D's best interests you're probably going to get 10 completely different answers. Some people want a purely roleplaying experience where the dice rolling is only used is absolutely necessary, some people want number crunching dice rolling simulators, some people want a place to force their weird kinks or fetishes onto people consequence free, some people think we'd be better off sticking to lighter more inviting stuff, others think we should be moving towrds the edgy fanfic garbage that GoT has popularized. Everyone has different ideas of what "good" D&D is, and what our best interests as a subculture are.

[@elgatochurro]

@@sandyholmerin2925 Gate keeping wouldve saved the comics industry from becoming what it is today

[@Kay-im6ht]

Imagine not having online classes and not being able to watch this video during class. Stay in school kids

[@lambdatan5605]

Watching this in between classes lol

[@thepineappleyempireofsuper9612]

Actually school's online for a lot of people in Florida Edit: because of the *Censor provided by KZbin, KZbin: we hate people talking about current events* virus I meant

[@isamuddin1]

Or your country in quarantine....

[@johnmcguire4570]

Can’t my schools been cancelled

[@lambdatan5605]

@@thepineappleyempireofsuper9612 yeah, same in Sweden. Classes are online now through Microsoft team

[@alpharius3661]

Here’s my hot take, the players should not leave an obvious plot hook and ignore it. If they just don’t follow the plot on purpose especially to mess with the DMs story, it’s not the DM railroading them, it’s the players trying to unrailroad the story, and at that point the players are being toxic, not the DM

[@polygon2745]

1:40 "I'm running out of video ideas" *disgruntled Big Dick Wizard 6969 noises*

[@rhysofsneezingdragon1758]

Hot take: an edgy character isn't inheritly a bad one

[@jimothyfakeson5288]

Depends on how well written it is. I think a character takes themselves too seriously to the point you can't imagine them doing normal activities like using a restroom.

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

No, but edgy players are quite often pains in the arse.

[@SingingToast652]

That's why Im a wisecracking rogue instead of an edgy one

[@allenbackbone]

Especially if you play (once in a while) my personal favorite edgy character subtype, the edgy character who's world around them doesn't take them seriously in the slightest. Think Aiden Pierce or some other character that I can't think of right now.

[@ethanmontgomery6099]

Nah, I like playing polyhedral mfs

[@paleking2710]

I agree with "gatekeeping can be good sometimes". It's the worst thing in the world when you decide to let some new people in on something you enjoy, only for them to take over and completely ruin it or turn it into something else entirely.

[@OftheBriar]

Hot Take: Death is easily avoided in D&D and becomes more of an inconvenience than a meaningful, feared thing.

[@johnstarinieri7360]

I’m in a 16th level campaign right now and I have to agree. We’re pretty much invincible, our Cleric, Bard, and Paladin (me) can raise people from the dead

[@note4note804]

If you're playing a lvl 16 campaign and things aren't either trying to disintegrate you, steal your soul, or other such gruesome forms of death that a "raise dead" isn't enough for, you're DM is taking it easy on you. This is especially true if your team is just stumbling across the material components for those spells.

[@Thunder-bw9xm]

matt mercers resurrection spells. check them out

[@commandercaptain4664]

@@note4note804 This aligns with my Hot Take. Where did these soul sucking, death saving, level dropping Boba Fetts come from? Pretty convenient at higher levels, ain't it?

[@note4note804]

@@commandercaptain4664 Eh, if you read through a good portion of D&D adventures, you find a pretty strong trope of most of these creatures being either apathetic, hermit-like, or working on machinations of such grand scale that they'd never bother anything that would cross paths with a low level adventuring party. It's almost a rule that the second you learn a save or die spell or ability, you wall yourself into a building to either go mad, sleep, or plot the destruction of the multiverse.

[@yoni10014]

My group and I are relatively new to D&D and we're deep into the "DRAGON OF ICESPIRE PEAK" campaign, now it's not exactly a problem but two of the players (one of the pc and the dm) both watched Critical Role and in their eyes the most important aspect of D&D is the roleplay. Now I like roleplay, and I have watched CR so I know where they are coming from, what I didn't appreciate is the raised eyebrows I got when I chose to play a high-elf fighter. Yes, I know that elf fighter is not a rare combination, and yes, I know that fighters are all about fighting, but what I like the most is combat. Honestly, I'd rather have a classic dungeon crawl than a political dispute or whatever. What really irked me is when we were approaching level 6 (I was rogue 1/ fighter 4) and I got excited that I was going to get the extra attack feature of the fighter, and how it synergieses well with the action surge ability and they called me a min-maxer, like it was a bad word or something. They said it in jest, of course, but it still got under my skin, both because I get called out for how I like to play the game and being called a min-maxer for just playing the fighter. ACTION SURGE AND EXTRA ATTACK ARE MEANT TO BE PLAYED LIKE THIS, IT'S NOT LIKE I CAREFULLY PLANNED EVERY ASPECT OF THE RULES TO CHEESE THEM!

[@mata218]

It's a class ability, that's like saying smite is min-maxing for a paladin.

[@yoni10014]

@@mata218 And since I'm playing a paladin next, I gurantee they'll say that as well

[@mata218]

@@yoni10014 I feel for ya man, I had a max dexterity rogue and got called a min maxer since I had around +13 stealth. That's kinda the point of a rogue, we were level 10 anyway.

[@digitaldevil696]

Your point is totally valid, and even if your group had said it jokingly, it still comes off as mean and offensive. It just feels like they're trying to project their own expectations on you, and it's simply wrong. Here's the point I usually use to confront such way of thinking: since when min-maxing your stats and being a "powergamer" instantly makes you a bad roleplayer? Just because you care for your character to do his shit effectively, doesn't mean you don't care about RP. Also, Half-elf fighter is a valid thing too, why do your players even have the issue with it in the first place? There's no such shit as "favoured class" anymore, we're way past 3.5

[@elgatochurro]

roleplaying can be as simple as just... doing what the character would do... some CR fans seem to think you have to go above and beyond with voices and more. Elf and half elf fighters are great archers but really you can make great use of that dex. idk why thats controversial... They dont know what a min maxer is... you're going for a build you desire and i can respect that. In fact EVERY fighter loves action surge + extra attack, its like these features were put together for what very combination in the core fighter class for a reason... like the barbarians unarmored AC, high health, and rage resistance. No one likes bad builds on their team tbh...