My favorite was from 4th edition. 4e shamans channel many of their powers through a spirit companion; I kind of flipped the concept and made the spirit companion the character. He was the ghost of a dwarf who couldn't rest until wrongs had been righted. He required a medium to physically manifest - this was the actual shaman, who I played more or less like an "I see dead people" NPC that tagged along with the party. It was fun to play a literal spirit and eventually had some fun RP moments with the medium as well.
My favorite from 5e was Rekur Hraunsson, a tiefling Rune Knight/Bladesinger/Swarm Ranger that I reflavored to be a half-fire giant/half-human. The tiefling traits, embiggening, runes, and spells were all effects of his heritage, and his swarm was cinders, smoke, and bits of obsidian. Fire giants played a fairly big role in the campaign, and he was rejected by his clan and thus had a fairly large chip on his shoulder. He had a lot of mechanical goodies too, although it took a couple turns to ramp up to full raging giant mode.
I play a Norse themed Rune Knight fighter with a Cleric multiclass that is flavored as her learning to unlock more runic magic from the sages of her tribe - when she casts Bless, an image of the tree of Yggdrasil appears on the ground and the roots spread out to the affected targets.
Why would Yggdrasil appear just because you bless someone? That would be like a Catholic priest casting bless and a roadmap of Italy appearing on the ground...
I don't think that's an accurate comparison, unless you believe that the ancient Nordic people literally lived on Yggsrasil.
Anyway, it's usually frowned upon to poo-poo someone's fun just because it's not Historically Accurate enough for your own tastes. I think it's a cool image, and Bless is something you'll use for your whole adventuring career so it makes sense to have it be something pretty central to the religion. It's a staple effect and you could easily say your other buff spells are based around it in some way.
This reminded me of a Great Old One Warlock who gained access to guidance and wanted his allies to be blinded by a vision of chaos every time he spammed his cantrip. It's nice to flavor your spells, but fun isn't a zero sum game, everyone at the table has to endure each other's elaborations, and if it's a seven second chant every battle when they cast spiritual weapon as my current Cleric does as a bonus action, it gets obnoxious fast.
Saying a symbol of Ydrisil appears on the ground every time you cast bless its pretty normal though, unless you describe it every time.
I did a giant raptor reflavor of an Aarakocra Monk, and it's weapons were just used by its talons or reflavored as beak attacks, but it was fundamentally reductive of what a flying character already is, roleplaying a sentient animal was curious though, it made the Harengon nervous lol.
The idea of playing the spirit instead of the person who uses it is a fascinating one.
Gotta love playing characters that take a few turns to pump up. We have a few characters in our party like that and our DM set up an encounter where we had to fight (and play as) clones of ourselves. He was watching in pure glee as we were trying to stop "ourselves" from ramping up. Ended up turning into a wonderful PVPfest where we could beat on each other by proxy without having to worry about drama, fallout, etc.
I am working on an idea for a halfling druid who was raised by a bone collector who used them as links to the spirit world. All spells and abilities are reflavored as spirits of various natures assisting him. He has 3 tattoos representing the natural world (tree), man ( a soldier with a bow) and the mystical (dragon). I use the star druid starry forms as these different areas he can tap into. Not a huge stretch but may be a little creepier and mystical. Thinking even the wildshape of animals would be more of a spectral form.
Does... does it count if it's a character you've not played yet?
Because my planned Kobold Ranger (Swarm) - to level 5 - then Rogue (Arcane) from there is all reskin.
He is (much to his horror) infested by tiny feral pixies. The pop in and out of existence all the time. He *hates* them.
He's a bit of an idiot, so the spells are being cast by the pixies. His verbal and somatic components consist of him shouting at and trying to swat the pixie swarm.
They will even use his Mage Hand to pick-pocket ...himself.
One of the players at my table created a Warlock who was a chef. Archfey, I believe.
His Patron allowed him to pick up random objects off the ground, and through illusory magic, disguise them as delectable-looking foods.
He'd break a breadstick (actually a twig) to unleash his Hex..."Magic Stone" was actually rocks, but disguised to look like projectile muffins...spaghetti noodles for "Arms of Hadar"...
Honestly, it would not have been my first choice of class for a "chef" character...but that player made it work spectacularly.
I have a Swarmkeeeper ranger who's swarm is made out of animated books. She was raised in a library by her grandfather, and she grew to love books. Her swarm are her favorite books animated by her aunt as a birthday present.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"I want to lie to the gnomes and try to convince them that my ten year old tabaxi character is actually just a tall gnome with...uh...a skin condition?"
"Let's make a warforged farm!"
"We have decided that in exchange for helping your king, we want a magical wagon made of blankets and pillows."
"Once we take over the world, can the official currency be goats?"
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My favorite was from 4th edition. 4e shamans channel many of their powers through a spirit companion; I kind of flipped the concept and made the spirit companion the character. He was the ghost of a dwarf who couldn't rest until wrongs had been righted. He required a medium to physically manifest - this was the actual shaman, who I played more or less like an "I see dead people" NPC that tagged along with the party. It was fun to play a literal spirit and eventually had some fun RP moments with the medium as well.
My favorite from 5e was Rekur Hraunsson, a tiefling Rune Knight/Bladesinger/Swarm Ranger that I reflavored to be a half-fire giant/half-human. The tiefling traits, embiggening, runes, and spells were all effects of his heritage, and his swarm was cinders, smoke, and bits of obsidian. Fire giants played a fairly big role in the campaign, and he was rejected by his clan and thus had a fairly large chip on his shoulder. He had a lot of mechanical goodies too, although it took a couple turns to ramp up to full raging giant mode.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
This reminded me of a Great Old One Warlock who gained access to guidance and wanted his allies to be blinded by a vision of chaos every time he spammed his cantrip. It's nice to flavor your spells, but fun isn't a zero sum game, everyone at the table has to endure each other's elaborations, and if it's a seven second chant every battle when they cast spiritual weapon as my current Cleric does as a bonus action, it gets obnoxious fast.
Saying a symbol of Ydrisil appears on the ground every time you cast bless its pretty normal though, unless you describe it every time.
I did a giant raptor reflavor of an Aarakocra Monk, and it's weapons were just used by its talons or reflavored as beak attacks, but it was fundamentally reductive of what a flying character already is, roleplaying a sentient animal was curious though, it made the Harengon nervous lol.
The idea of playing the spirit instead of the person who uses it is a fascinating one.
Gotta love playing characters that take a few turns to pump up. We have a few characters in our party like that and our DM set up an encounter where we had to fight (and play as) clones of ourselves. He was watching in pure glee as we were trying to stop "ourselves" from ramping up. Ended up turning into a wonderful PVPfest where we could beat on each other by proxy without having to worry about drama, fallout, etc.
I am working on an idea for a halfling druid who was raised by a bone collector who used them as links to the spirit world. All spells and abilities are reflavored as spirits of various natures assisting him. He has 3 tattoos representing the natural world (tree), man ( a soldier with a bow) and the mystical (dragon). I use the star druid starry forms as these different areas he can tap into. Not a huge stretch but may be a little creepier and mystical. Thinking even the wildshape of animals would be more of a spectral form.
Does... does it count if it's a character you've not played yet?
Because my planned Kobold Ranger (Swarm) - to level 5 - then Rogue (Arcane) from there is all reskin.
He is (much to his horror) infested by tiny feral pixies. The pop in and out of existence all the time. He *hates* them.
He's a bit of an idiot, so the spells are being cast by the pixies. His verbal and somatic components consist of him shouting at and trying to swat the pixie swarm.
They will even use his Mage Hand to pick-pocket ...himself.
One of the players at my table created a Warlock who was a chef. Archfey, I believe.
His Patron allowed him to pick up random objects off the ground, and through illusory magic, disguise them as delectable-looking foods.
He'd break a breadstick (actually a twig) to unleash his Hex..."Magic Stone" was actually rocks, but disguised to look like projectile muffins...spaghetti noodles for "Arms of Hadar"...
Honestly, it would not have been my first choice of class for a "chef" character...but that player made it work spectacularly.
I have a Swarmkeeeper ranger who's swarm is made out of animated books. She was raised in a library by her grandfather, and she grew to love books. Her swarm are her favorite books animated by her aunt as a birthday present.
"I want to lie to the gnomes and try to convince them that my ten year old tabaxi character is actually just a tall gnome with...uh...a skin condition?"
"Let's make a warforged farm!"
"We have decided that in exchange for helping your king, we want a magical wagon made of blankets and pillows."
"Once we take over the world, can the official currency be goats?"