A spell, a subclass, a feature, etc...or all combined! What have been some of the most memorable or craziest reflavoring you've seen or done? Our DM lets us reflavor abilities and things as long as its justified in the world and it's made for some pretty unique and crazy combinations in the games I've played.
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.
Related question: When creating a character, do you lean more towards considering the mechanics side first and then fleshing out the rest to make what you want, or have a strong idea of who the character is and try to choose and reflavor abilities and the like based on that idea?
My current character is a Swords Bard 5/Swashbuckler 5/Hexblade 1 and I've done some reflavoring for thematic purposes. None of them are dramatic, but they do all contribute to the overall flavor of my character.
I reflavored the Hexblade Patron to be EIlistraee's Moonblade for story reasons. Because Eilistraee's power is behind his warlock levels I describe his Eldritch Blasts as daggers made of silvery moonlight. I describe his Booming Blade as blasts from Eilistraee's hunting horns. I also describe his use of the Shield spell as his sword taking on a dim glow and leaping to parry whatever it was that attacked him.
I also use a cloak wrapped around one arm as a reflavored shield because I really wanted him to fight using the cloak and rapier style of fencing.
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Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
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...
Our Thief has the Urchin background and when he uses Fast Hands, it's his little rat buddy doing stuff. I was genuinely dumbstruck that I'd never heard or considered such a thing. It's so perfect.
I really dig the way the College of Spirits gets Guidance to represent the ghosts providing help from beyond. And how the Swarmkeeper gets Arcane Eye to represent the bugs going out and spying for you. It's cool to see official material reflavoring things.
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.
I've reflavored many artificer spells for my Armorer Artificer as him using different functions of his suit, but that's probably the largest one. I usually just homebrew.
For your second question, almost always character first. I come up with an intriguing backstory and figure out what class and subclass might suit them.
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All stars fade. Some stars forever fall. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Homebrew (Mostly Outdated):Magic Items,Monsters,Spells,Subclasses ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.
I had a graviturgist gnome who'd invented most of his spells while working as a health & safety inspector in the family mines. Some were successful experiments (Immovable Object) and others were less successful - Pulse Wave was meant to be used as a conditional spell to move people to safety, but he couldn't figure out how to make the spell work without causing so much damage.
I also reflavored my Life Cleric as a Fertility Cleric, giving him spells like Plant Growth, so that it wasn't just the life of sentient creatures that his deity blessed, but any life, down to bacteria, so a fungal infestation or overabundance of predators would be less black and white moral issues for the campaign. We also reflavored some of the spellcasting elements because we wanted the religion to be incorrectly stereotyped as exactly what you'd think it'd be when you hear 'fertility god.' That one was a lot of fun.
My Goblin Armorer didn't so much wear armor as climb into it. The armor was a normal person sized suit of armor that was basically a robot that he rode around in. Basically all his spells were flavored as a silly gadget (which is encouraged anyway). Enlarge reduce became a shrink ray with an unshrink setting. Fiery Fire was just glitter that shot out of his mouth. Heat Metal was laser eyes. Invisibility was a cloaking device. Guidance was him just telling everyone how to do things. "So if you bend at the knees and throw your arms up you'll be able to jump higher!." Same with Flash of Genius. "Hey, move over there and that fireball won't hurt so bad!" Super fun character to be sure.
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.
Well, they sure did...
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.
OK, so let me explain to you. Yggdrasil had nothing to do with religion and everything to do with geography. It was the world tree were people believed we lived, it's not something you worship or that is part of the religion any more than the Via Appia outside of Rome is. Now, if the character was a worshipper of Idun and apple blossoms would appear over the Blessed characters, or a follower of Heimdall who made rainbows appear, that would make sense from a religious point of view.
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.
Well, they sure did...
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.
OK, so let me explain to you. Yggdrasil had nothing to do with religion and everything to do with geography. It was the world tree were people believed we lived, it's not something you worship or that is part of the religion any more than the Via Appia outside of Rome is. Now, if the character was a worshipper of Idun and apple blossoms would appear over the Blessed characters, or a follower of Heimdall who made rainbows appear, that would make sense from a religious point of view.
You are literally questioning the validity of somebody else's fun when discussing how an imaginary rune empowered warrior priest casts a magic spell that makes an image of a mythical tree appear, which may have a theme associated with Norse mythology but isn't part of Norse mythology.
I think it sounds like a great idea and I'm glad the OP has fun with it.
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.
Well, they sure did...
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.
OK, so let me explain to you. Yggdrasil had nothing to do with religion and everything to do with geography. It was the world tree were people believed we lived, it's not something you worship or that is part of the religion any more than the Via Appia outside of Rome is. Now, if the character was a worshipper of Idun and apple blossoms would appear over the Blessed characters, or a follower of Heimdall who made rainbows appear, that would make sense from a religious point of view.
You are literally questioning the validity of somebody else's fun when discussing how an imaginary rune empowered warrior priest casts a magic spell that makes an image of a mythical tree appear, which may have a theme associated with Norse mythology but isn't part of Norse mythology.
I think it sounds like a great idea and I'm glad the OP has fun with it.
No, I was asking a question about a choice of aesthetics. No need to be rude and judgemental.
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...
In a world when you make shit up - which is exactly the case here - the rule of cool and fun stands FAR above everything else.
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...
In a world when you make shit up - which is exactly the case here - the rule of cool and fun stands FAR above everything else.
Nice strawman, never said that it didn't. I was just asking about the rather illogical choice of aesthetics.
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...
In a world when you make shit up - which is exactly the case here - the rule of cool and fun stands FAR above everything else.
If you are going to use an existing historical faith, one you can actually look up easily, it is reasonable to expect being called out if you get it wrong.
If you are going to make up your own world and own religion properly, then yes, fair game.
This might be the stupidest argument I've ever seen on the internet.
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...
In a world when you make shit up - which is exactly the case here - the rule of cool and fun stands FAR above everything else.
If you are going to use an existing historical faith, one you can actually look up easily, it is reasonable to expect being called out if you get it wrong.
If you are going to make up your own world and own religion properly, then yes, fair game.
This might be the stupidest argument I've ever seen on the internet.
Cant imagine you've been on the internet very long then
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You're right, I should stick to historical accuracy when it comes to Norse themes. I just need to convince the other members of my party to roll up Tony Stark and Steve Rodgers. /s
Never thought people sharing their reflavorings could result in gatekeeping, but there you go.
The imagery of Yggrasil is iconic both as a concept and an ideal to Norse themes and religion, in much the same way the cross is with Christianity. Yes, it can represent a physical object or place, but there's a lot more to it than that. Instead of a map of Italy, a more apt comparison would be a catholic priest causing a cross to appear on the ground and having each point of it branch off to touch the party members affected.
The cleric dip is only for two levels anyway. Mechanically she has Magic Initiate to get Booming Blade and Blade Ward, and everything is flavored as her unlocking and learning more about runic power. The two levels of cleric are flavored as her learning from the orcish shamans who in turn learned it from giants. She'll end up a Fighter/Cleric/Barb by the end of the campaign.
Here's the character and what she looks like casting it.
You're right, I should stick to historical accuracy when it comes to Norse themes. I just need to convince the other members of my party to roll up Tony Stark and Steve Rodgers.
Yggdrasil doesn't appear whenever Marvel's Thor uses his powers either, though. Nor does any image or map of Asgard.
You're right, I should stick to historical accuracy when it comes to Norse themes. I just need to convince the other members of my party to roll up Tony Stark and Steve Rodgers.
Yggdrasil doesn't appear whenever Marvel's Thor uses his powers either, though. Nor does any image or map of Asgard.
The point is that Marvel's Thor is not "historically accurate" to Norse mythology in his portrayal either, but we all enjoy it nonetheless
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A spell, a subclass, a feature, etc...or all combined! What have been some of the most memorable or craziest reflavoring you've seen or done? Our DM lets us reflavor abilities and things as long as its justified in the world and it's made for some pretty unique and crazy combinations in the games I've played.
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.
Related question: When creating a character, do you lean more towards considering the mechanics side first and then fleshing out the rest to make what you want, or have a strong idea of who the character is and try to choose and reflavor abilities and the like based on that idea?
My current character is a Swords Bard 5/Swashbuckler 5/Hexblade 1 and I've done some reflavoring for thematic purposes. None of them are dramatic, but they do all contribute to the overall flavor of my character.
I reflavored the Hexblade Patron to be EIlistraee's Moonblade for story reasons. Because Eilistraee's power is behind his warlock levels I describe his Eldritch Blasts as daggers made of silvery moonlight. I describe his Booming Blade as blasts from Eilistraee's hunting horns. I also describe his use of the Shield spell as his sword taking on a dim glow and leaping to parry whatever it was that attacked him.
I also use a cloak wrapped around one arm as a reflavored shield because I really wanted him to fight using the cloak and rapier style of fencing.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
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...
Didn't get to see it in play, but helped rework a barbarian as a magical girl, transforming instead of raging.
Our Thief has the Urchin background and when he uses Fast Hands, it's his little rat buddy doing stuff. I was genuinely dumbstruck that I'd never heard or considered such a thing. It's so perfect.
I really dig the way the College of Spirits gets Guidance to represent the ghosts providing help from beyond. And how the Swarmkeeper gets Arcane Eye to represent the bugs going out and spying for you. It's cool to see official material reflavoring things.
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.
I've reflavored many artificer spells for my Armorer Artificer as him using different functions of his suit, but that's probably the largest one. I usually just homebrew.
For your second question, almost always character first. I come up with an intriguing backstory and figure out what class and subclass might suit them.
All stars fade. Some stars forever fall.
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Homebrew (Mostly Outdated): Magic Items, Monsters, Spells, Subclasses
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If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.
I had a graviturgist gnome who'd invented most of his spells while working as a health & safety inspector in the family mines. Some were successful experiments (Immovable Object) and others were less successful - Pulse Wave was meant to be used as a conditional spell to move people to safety, but he couldn't figure out how to make the spell work without causing so much damage.
I also reflavored my Life Cleric as a Fertility Cleric, giving him spells like Plant Growth, so that it wasn't just the life of sentient creatures that his deity blessed, but any life, down to bacteria, so a fungal infestation or overabundance of predators would be less black and white moral issues for the campaign. We also reflavored some of the spellcasting elements because we wanted the religion to be incorrectly stereotyped as exactly what you'd think it'd be when you hear 'fertility god.' That one was a lot of fun.
Birgit | Shifter | Sorcerer | Dragonlords
Shayone | Hobgoblin | Sorcerer | Netherdeep
My Goblin Armorer didn't so much wear armor as climb into it. The armor was a normal person sized suit of armor that was basically a robot that he rode around in. Basically all his spells were flavored as a silly gadget (which is encouraged anyway). Enlarge reduce became a shrink ray with an unshrink setting. Fiery Fire was just glitter that shot out of his mouth. Heat Metal was laser eyes. Invisibility was a cloaking device. Guidance was him just telling everyone how to do things. "So if you bend at the knees and throw your arms up you'll be able to jump higher!." Same with Flash of Genius. "Hey, move over there and that fireball won't hurt so bad!" Super fun character to be sure.
Well, they sure did...
OK, so let me explain to you. Yggdrasil had nothing to do with religion and everything to do with geography. It was the world tree were people believed we lived, it's not something you worship or that is part of the religion any more than the Via Appia outside of Rome is. Now, if the character was a worshipper of Idun and apple blossoms would appear over the Blessed characters, or a follower of Heimdall who made rainbows appear, that would make sense from a religious point of view.
You are literally questioning the validity of somebody else's fun when discussing how an imaginary rune empowered warrior priest casts a magic spell that makes an image of a mythical tree appear, which may have a theme associated with Norse mythology but isn't part of Norse mythology.
I think it sounds like a great idea and I'm glad the OP has fun with it.
No, I was asking a question about a choice of aesthetics. No need to be rude and judgemental.
In a world when you make shit up - which is exactly the case here - the rule of cool and fun stands FAR above everything else.
All things Lich - DM tips, tricks, and other creative shenanigans
Nice strawman, never said that it didn't. I was just asking about the rather illogical choice of aesthetics.
This might be the stupidest argument I've ever seen on the internet.
Cant imagine you've been on the internet very long then
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
You're right, I should stick to historical accuracy when it comes to Norse themes. I just need to convince the other members of my party to roll up Tony Stark and Steve Rodgers. /s
Never thought people sharing their reflavorings could result in gatekeeping, but there you go.
The imagery of Yggrasil is iconic both as a concept and an ideal to Norse themes and religion, in much the same way the cross is with Christianity. Yes, it can represent a physical object or place, but there's a lot more to it than that. Instead of a map of Italy, a more apt comparison would be a catholic priest causing a cross to appear on the ground and having each point of it branch off to touch the party members affected.
The cleric dip is only for two levels anyway. Mechanically she has Magic Initiate to get Booming Blade and Blade Ward, and everything is flavored as her unlocking and learning more about runic power. The two levels of cleric are flavored as her learning from the orcish shamans who in turn learned it from giants. She'll end up a Fighter/Cleric/Barb by the end of the campaign.
Here's the character and what she looks like casting it.
And?
Gunslinger character with magic six shooter....the ACTUAL character was a celestial warlock with Eldritch Blast reflavored as a gun.
Their healing pool was them tossing whiskey to someone to get them some health.
I also do the character generation one way or another....if I like the mechanics of a class/subclass a lot I will find a character that I enjoy there.
Or I will start with a concept and go from there....very character specific.
The point is that Marvel's Thor is not "historically accurate" to Norse mythology in his portrayal either, but we all enjoy it nonetheless
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!