D&D: Character Creation 

“10, 10, 10... this is just a man.” I remember rolling nearly all tens with the only stat being different was my constitution being a 14. I made him a fighter class, and he was known as Greg the meat shield. He outlived the rest of the party.

*Your 1st pc*: i am a human fighter trying to make a living *Your 46th pc*: i am a penguin sorcerer from the past, who must now save the future to go back to the past and take vengeance on those who banished me.

I need a gif of "I possess the strength of a centaur, the dexterity of an octopus and the constitution of a hedgehog" please

“A character without a back story is like a house without walls” “You’re describing a gazebo” This killed me 😂

CON of six on a Barbarian? They were destined for a quick end, anyway.

I dunno, Dave the average knife-collecting human monk sounds like a pretty cool character to play

Allison just killed it as a newbie D&D player. That first “I’m looking for my dog” bit feels like it’s straight from the table

Four 10s in a row???? BAD DICE BAD DICE BAD DICE

"Your death is fast and violent and no-one else notices" Wow.

I’m mean he was over doing it but he was trying to get her invested in her character and the game and it is more fun when the dm pulls something out of your background and uses it as a part of the story

My DM didn't like it when i made a warrior character "Dave". He likes smashing smashing stuff, that's about it. Edit... what are the odds. I wrote this comment halfway through the vid. At 3:10 "Welcome to the party dave"

#TeamVolhorn Seriously, he seems like a cool barb to have in your party. It's a shame that he had to run into a random CE halfling with a bottle of poison. RIP

Give me 15+ in Charisma and I don't care what my other stats look like, I'm good to go.

I'm conflicted.. cause a dm not encouraging a story is a duck with out water..but then again Greg the.. was he a barbarian? ..did meet an end we all wanted!

2:20 No that actually makes sense since dogs are like horses for halflings.

Behold, all ten human fighter. Name “Generic McGenericson”

!roll Kyle rolls a 20 on a d20 Critical success - You win the lottery despite never even buying a ticket and spend 3 days producing episodes of your pathfinder campaign before putting the rest of the budget into skyvault and Alisson shoves some sleeping potion down your throat and drags you to a spa for you to relax. We love you Kyle. You need to relax

Basically, what happens when only one player is a roleplayer.

"You're describing a gazebo." Wait, _that's_ what a gazebo is? ...So that's why my bow didn't do anything.

Fun Fact: Gazebos can sometimes be mistaken for a Monster in a D&D game session so... does that mean that a character without a backstory can be mistaken as a monster? DUMDUMDUM!

Dave the average human. What a title. Sounds like he has potential to improve to Dependable Dave, or Do-gooder Dave.

It would definitely suck to make a character you put so much effort crafting a backstory for and then being killed instantly, but that guy had it coming.

Guy 1 : Can you help us defeat the Demon King? Guy 2 : Nah, I just wanna kill some Goblins. Guy 1 : But the entire world is at stake... Guy 2 : Is the Demon King a Goblin? Guy 1 : No. Guy 2 : Then his not My Problem. Guy 1 : Wait what? GM : Wait what? Meanwhile Volhorn the Hillblade gets killed by a Halfling Sorcerer

I have this die of solid blue... that consistently rolls well when it doesn't matter/initiative. Then, I miss every single time in combat. I have this other die, this one of black and green... That always rolls bad for imitative and mostly rolls 17s for combat. I have seen the truth. I am ascribing agency to the polyhedron.

Honestly, the way you guys write dialogue is so entertaining, and the delivery is never flat. Keep it up! :)

There are 3 kinds of players... 1 Actor 2 Newb 3 How is this happening! 4 You can't tell me what to do!

Remember how everyone thought Charisma was a dump stat, so then they made Sorcerers use it for spellcasting? "Behold! I am so charming that my fireball is really, really big!!!"

I don't get the people complaining about too much backstory, he doesn't even once talk about any kind of backstory. Here is what the barbarian actually says and how much time it takes him : His name, class, and some brag - 10 Seconds His stats - 4 Seconds "Your stats are good for a sorcerer " - 4 Seconds "Make a backstory" - 6 Seconds "Your background determines details like what equipment fits you" - 9 Seconds "Could you please give a rat's arse about this game we're trying to play?" - 11 seconds So if the joke, as many people read it, is meant to be that he's a blathery overzealous RPer, the video doesn't make a good job of it. I just see it as a video of two horrible people ruining the fun for a normal roleplayer who's excited to play this game.

"As he's bowing i force feed him poison" 0 to 100 in just a second

I love when Ethan is the ridiculous one and when he’s the straight man and when he asks me to donate on patreon..... I should’ve just said I love Ethan

I'll be DMing level 1 modules at pax this coming weekend. Fully expecting at least one table to go exactly like this.

Literally was making a character when I got the notification

How could she afford insta-death poison?

“So, can we take a break, let me roll a new character?” “Welcome to the party, Dave” Best line ever

A barbarian in jeans? Honestly, I have a character a bit like this one in terms of effort put in and being an intelligent barbarian. Great work as always, Door Monster!

I am strongly halfway in between these two when telling new players how to make characters. "When you're creating a character, it's important to know what they would do, and why they would do it. Backstories help in that, and getting practice in making one is always good. But it's equally important to not get caught up in it, and to think of what would be fun and interesting for you to play, before thinking of what would make a cool story."

I had the reverse problem of no one putting thought into their characters

Dave, the Dagger-Wielding human, soon met with an untimely demise through a nearby orc, who stabbed him as he spoke most pretentiously.

I love that they do both sides. I can see myself in both of them.

who rolls and adds stats in the order they rolled? I generally let my players roll and put the stats where they want them to fit the class they want

10/10 Dave will be the greatest hero the world has ever seen

I'm the big rp guy while everyone else is my party LOL

A DOOR MONSTER VIDEO THAT ISNT META AND A SKIT YESSSSSS

The amount of snark implicit in "You're describing a gazebo" is the reason I absolutely love your videos. Good work guys.

This was all very good and funny, but the "zucchini, I hardly even know he!" at the end made me laugh loudest for some reason.

As a DM myself, I have to acknowledge new players may be into video games or fantasy fiction, but they may not have done much character acting. It's cool to create an edgelord warlock with a dark past right out the gate and give them a detailed history, but it can feel awkward and embarrassing to then have to *act* like an edgelord warlock. I prefer to start new players at level one with a pre-generated character that fits their taste and interest because their story develops organically from there. They can spend a session or two learning the base mechanics, and I always give them the option to make a new character if they show an interest in sticking around (that way they have a better idea of how their choices impact their character, rather than scaring them off with a deluge of information they won't remember) or fleshing out the backstory of their pre-gen. The burden rests on me to weave interesting things into the story for them to get excited for, and on the veteran players to show them how to adopt the persona of their character. Doing it this way eases them from the perspective of, "I am this person, and this is who I must be," to, "I **AM** this person, and my choices impact my life and the lives of those around me." I wouldn't even sit down and do stat rolls with a new player: I'd hand them my folder of two dozen or so 1st level templates (standard array) ranging from the effective to the silly to the, "This is Arya Stark from Game of Thrones, isn't it?" People fall in love *playing* D&D or *watching* people play D&D, not stressing over choices that could impede their character several months down the road.

This hurts me, they are destroying the process of becoming attached to a character

I'm sooooo the barbarian maker. I understand he's a bit much, but IT'S D&D!!!

Oh Door Monster, you guys are ****ing fantastic. I’m sick right now, and I don’t care because your videos make me smile so much.

GAZEBO! - I SHOOT A CROSSBOW BOLT AT IT!!!

that's why Backstory is part of the Character creation now. I'm with Mr. Roleplayer. BTW, he should have rolled a save against poison damage.

I saw the thumbnail and thought he was holding a pencil

Uh... shouldn't he get saving throw?

I like the D&D videos by far the most. MORE OF THESE!

As a Dungeon Master who's helped people make dozens of characters, this makes me cringe. Partly because I sometimes do that...and know I shouldn't...

The barbarian player did absolutely *NOTHING* wrong and was *100% RIGHT!*

Allison Edge Meter: 2 We all knew she was going to take that turn. Chaotic Neutral all the way. He bothers her, she makes him dead.

Thumnail looks like he had a giant pencil

I get that this was mostly for laughs, but... It seems to me that the DM is trying to make things as simple as possible for the noob while Hillblight was trying to show them the proper way. Both were trying to maximize the experience, but I'm more ticked off at the DM than I am Hillblight because the DM, for reasons unknown, assumes the noob won't want to or can't handle the full scope of making a detailed character. It's better to take them along the journey of making the character and see which parts of character making they're interested in, then if they start to show signs of disinterest or confusion, help them out or skip the process entirely. And if they just want to jump into the game, then simply give them a premade. Not only that, but the DM then, out of spite, railroads Hillblight's experience. Also, rolling a nat 20 would guaranteed a success in the noob getting the poison down Hillblights throat, but it wouldn't have guaranteed death.

1. A great backstory is very nice. 2. New players will learn the game in their tempo. 3. The DM should not create the players character.

Is it normal to not make a character background? That's honestly my favorite part and makes the party seem like it's, you know, not just a group of friends in a cheap apartment with like twenty Little Caesars pizzas and even cheaper beer late at night.

Tbh. The backstory stuff and roleplayong is like the whole selling point of a roleplaying game of any mind

I missed the part where the barbarian was wrong ... that dm sounded so petty and boring.

Tbh this actually helped me make characters better and more efficiently

I love the haircut. Nitpicking-Dave doesn't have the prerequisites stats for multiclassing, and as a human he has +1 to all ability scores for a total of 11(unless you rolled all 9s).

I think Mr. Hillblight is right, my favorite thing about making a character is always the backstory and that very thing can make a giant twist in how your character acts, character development also walks hand and hand with a backstory like if in the first game he is very shy and introverted but after a year of adventuring he overcomes his fear of talking to people and and becomes a little extroverted and outgoing, or a guy lost his parents when he was young but in his late 20's he has accepted that fact and overcome it. I'm just saying that I think Mr. Hillblight is right and the other guys were a bit to harsh on him :).

"A character without a backstory is like a house without walls!" "You are describing a gazebo." This is why I love this channel 2:33

How it feels to start DnD for the first time, or any roleplaying game for that matter. I've experienced this at least 5 times because my group decides to change games every single campaign I participate in and it's always one I've never played before and they have a lot of experience in. I make a lot of Daves.

I’m brand shanking new to dnd and still in my first campaign. When making my character I litteraly transplanted myself as a person into its personality. And edited and reused some old Minecraft lore I wrote years ago as a backstory and yet I still had the longest and most complex backstory in my group that oddly fits even tho the only things I changed were adding in some side effects to work with dnd

0:46 THE DICE PROBLEM RETURNS!!!!!

Crap DM. No saving throw or opposing check against the poison or a DOT? just an instant kill? If I was the barbarian I would leave after that.

Rolling for individual stats instead of assigning rolls after the fact? Hardcore.

That really is a neat "Sword" And by "Sword" I of course mean "Blunt cutout of sheet-metal", but at least the scabbard and grip/pommel are nice!

I like how it says underneath “shop gazebo”

And that's why you don't annoy the DM. Otherwise he might at least have gotten to roll a fort save. Then again... Constitution of a hedgehog...

Tutorial: How to get someone to quit D&D for the rest of his life

My first character was... kind of broken... 15 Strenght. 18 Dexterity. 14 Constitution. 18 Intelligence. 14 Wisdom. 18 Charisma. The DM was baffled.

My first character was a mad fire priest. He carried the party - through *diplomacy* of all things - but met a premature end when one of his allies accidentally summoned an Sphere of Annihilation.

The human reminds of Puffin Forrest's Chadwick Strongpants

Is it weird I thought he was holding a giant pencil in the thumbnail?

You have to be careful with those gazebos. Never know when they'll strike.

"Rolling" stats? Do you WANT rng to spit in your face? Because that is how you get rng to spit in your face.

I always arrange my stats after I choose my class.

*Nat 20" perfectly describes how "Guy i'm not checking the name of but he had a sword" lived

"-a house without walls!" "That's a gazebo." **flinches from The Flashbacks**

welcome to the party dave. also that is some strange combo for a 10 statsrow. and it is abyssmal if you calculate the point cost. great video nontheless. also long backstories are overrated, although I tend to do them nontheless just for the purpose of worldbuilding. i just love worldbuilding :P

Great DMing 101: Make sure to marginalize and discourage any player trying to engage with your story. Also a nat 20 should totally allow your players to kill each other ten seconds into your first session. Brilliant DMing. Top shelf.

As a DM to some novice players, I deeply appreciate this.

Well, starting with the ability scores before picking a class is something I hadn’t considered.

Shit DM. The barbarian was in the right

Hilarious. For those wondering what the rules would say; 1) not an attack, so critical success isn't a thing* 2) this would be a contested check, so Greg the Drama Queen can attempt to stop the halfling from feeding him poison. 3) since these are starting items it's unlikely to be some super rare and extremely valuable poison, so Greg should be allowed to constitution saving throw so his body can attempt to resist the poinson. 4) again, starting items, so assuming he fails the saving throw it's likely he'd only get the "poisoned" status effect (disadvantage on attack rolls and skill checks) and maybe some minor damage that wouldn't kill a barbarian. Of course, pissing of your DM is grounds for having all those rules thrown out and simply being smote by some long forgotten power. Even then, I'd suggest taking the offending player aside and talk to them first. Then you can always have the ground open up, demons appear, and lighting strike. * When you make an attack roll (melee, ranged, and spell) a 20 on the dice is always a success and you get to roll double the amount of dice for your damage.

Can I have that other player in my game? He sounds like fun.

One time while playing around in DnD beyond, I rolled a character whose stats were all between 10 and 13 (after applying the plus one in all stats that human gives) There was one 13 and two 12's, everything else was 10 or 11 I wish this video had been out at that time, because I thought "this guy is boring" and scrapped everything, but now I see the possibilities

After several rewatches I only now noticed that they are using Neceros' Pathfinder sheet.

Now that is what I call a good Ethan pitch for support!

Characters can be a mixed bag. My campaign has a commando, cyborg biologist, diplomat, ace pilot, engineer, and janitor.

Recently some friends and I were doing a campaign, and I named my character "Steve". After some careful consideration though, I changed his name to Steven (pronounced Stev-en, not Stee-ven), my friend changed his character's name to Stephen (Pronounced Stee-phen) and the other friend named his female Minotaur Stephanie. The DM hates us, and it's beautiful.

adding this to my playlist of videos to show new players

3:01 :'D Door monster never dissapoints. I'm always glad to see a new video. I'm surprised that you have the time for this whilst filming your bigger project.

I gotta side with the Rplayer on this one, while he was a bit mutch, the DM was WAY to cavalier in his approach to the character creation.