Is your D&D character too perfect? 

"Zuko, you have to look within yourself to save yourself from your other self. Only then will your true self reveal itself."

@@LiveGame555 "Damn it! Even when I'm acting as my uncle I still don't understand what he's saying!"

Zuko:why am I so good at being bad! Zuko:pshhhh if I know,

…all of my characters 😬

I would like them all to be from different nations, too. Just imagine 2 Zukos convincing each other that their nations way is flawed and they need to find a better path by thinking for themselves.

I feel like DnD has been a more useful tool for therapy than almost anything else available. Being able to form a narrative about the things that hurt you is basically the end-goal of therapy for trauma, and DnD is perfect for that.

@@Jane-oz7pp yes!! therapy around trauma often works with narratives, and dnd is perfect for creating those narratives.

@@Jane-oz7pp Hi! Licensed therapist here. You are absolutely correct, and there's even a lot of cool research and DnD therapy groups coming out to prove it.

@@gamershrinks5188 ... there's D&D therapy groups? Huh... do they have any idea what kinda things it's good at treating yet?

@@Tomyironmane Definitely! For anyone struggling with social anxiety or autism, it's a great way to learn interactions with others while having some protections since your interacting as an "avatar." It's also been shows to be cathartic for military veterans as a way to explore their reactions to trauma while still flaunting their tactical skills.

Facts -Another Perfectionist

Comment isn't edited after 5 hours, I doubt your perfectionism.

@@Jane-oz7pp When it comes to perfectionism it can take many forms. Dom could have one of the more minor forms. Edit: Also perfectionists aren't a perfectionist about everything. I'm a perfectionist about my schoolwork and art. While others are perfectionists about fashion or organization, it really depends on the person. None of them are any less or any more perfectionist then another.

Perfectionism itself can be a flaw.

I would say I'm a perfectionist about what I am (or can do), not about what I have.

Same tho.... its my only reason for sorceror over wizard

My characters don't have this issue, I think it's just me.

This is a vibe tho

As Tom Mulaney said, "it's like I'm running for the mayor of nothing!"

Knew a girl like that once - very charming and friendly, intelligent, interesting, a social butterfly. But when the cafeteria-cashier didn´t like her she was crushed. It was kinda adorable... but also rediculous. I told her so. She was pouting. Even more adorable, but also laughable. Not everybody will love you no matter how likeable I and most people find you etc, etc.. For this kind of character, though, a nightmare +grin+

Thats literally just Chaotic Good charity, damn good idea!

That is just sublime, I love it!

I have had a similar idea for a while. Cleric to a CN goddess of luck that keeps getting in trouble because of bad luck(deep in debt), to much good luck(broke the house and owners are pissed), or smashing up gambling houses because evidence of the house cheating was found(how dare they defy the will of lady luck)

I like this. Father Mulcahey from MASH....almost. He never cheated

@@evanremillard5640 Or Ted from Father Ted, he's a priest with a gambling problem.

Waaaaait that’s not the only option?

Remind me to tell you about Farron and Juliana D'Aubigny Le Casa De La Vega. Two characters of mine with zero tragedy in their backstories.

@@firestorm165 I want to know about them so badly now lol

@@beepboop2816 Apparently so? Sounds kinda far fetched for me though not gonna lie.

@@firestorm165 I love the names :)

Honor, Honor, Honor

That's rough Buddy.

I fail to see the problem

Could be worse Add too much and you get RaiderDave 👽

Careful...your playing with dangerous magic

Swap love with happiness and you have my character

it a sad truth that so many people fight with this IRL... even me. Thank you Quinn... seeing it in black and white this way... real eye opener.

STOP. _YOU ARE ALLOWED TO CALL ME OUT LIKE THIS_

Ouch!

ok I'm sold that's really good took a little kick for them to notice but it worked out in the end

Bro needs at LEAST 5 years of therapy 😅

What I love about character flaws is that they give us an opportunity to have an 'arc' in the story, whether redemptive or otherwise. Being consumed by your flaws can be just as narratively satisfying as overcoming them.

I love that you responded to realizing you had an un-fun character by giving him an arc that frankly sounds like the kind of story people have been loving for centuries

@@mckayleepugmire9947 honestly i thought about ditching him but I thought nah i was a shithead when I was shis age im gonna make him grow up a little.

@@Siansonea he still by the end was a hothead but he learned when to go off and when to not let your emotions drive you.

@@elib6465 Nice

Their flaw is that they have no life goals. Their lack of purpose causes them over compensate in all aspects of their life. They are indecisive and tend to procrastinate. Their lack of drive causes them to fail frequently in their plans even though they over compensate.

@@singledad1313 didn't know my therapist had a RU-vid account lmao... *sigh* That's a good idea, though! Thanks!

@@singledad1313 damn. That hits hard.

@@tylorclark3520 That is how I build all my BBEG's. The BBEG's flaw is always a weakness, a chink in their armor if the characters can figure it out. Sometimes it is the only weakness. Knowing the flaw and motivations it causes allows me to give cryptic messages and answers to divination and information gathering spells and attempts. A pyromaniac obsessed with watching everything burn to ash also suffers from pyrophobia. He enjoys the spectacle of fire, but is terrified he will be burnt, so has others set the fires so he may watch. His main weakness is his fear of fire. If the players can figure it out, they have an advantage against him. Through divination the players may receive a message like "A fear of fire removed, hell shall reign on earth."

@@singledad1313 can you @ me next time you're gonna call me out like that

DUDE THANKS FOR REMINDING ME OF THIS! I've got a little tabaxi gal living in high north, as-of-yet unexplored-by-many-outsiders mountains, and her pelt is too thick for her to move closer to modern D&D societies. So, all she does is tend to her mountain sheep, hunt and gather, and a lil rudimentary cartography as she explores her dangerous home! I ALREADY wrote in her traits that she's fascinated by exotic buildings and animals, so this is RIGHT UP HER ALLY! Every few months an adventurer will find their way to her corner of the mountains, so she certainly could have been taught how to 'take notes on anatomy,' even though her notes will be useless to anyone but her XD. She's fairly cautious, but honestly, she's met a lot of races and animals that were otherworldly to her, and if she doesn't associate the demon with a cautionary tale from her kittenhood, she'll not even consider that it might want to eat her ears.

You can always contact Fletch if you want to charge it to Mr. Underhill's card. He has the number.

See Shigechi from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable.

This is giving me strong Scrooge Mcduck vibes

Due to personal reasons involving a war art brand America’s got talent but the judges were all self proclaimed diviner’s, my entertainer aasimar bard believes that every diviner is either delusional, intentionally lying , or only telling her parts that they want her to hear. Since she likes her teammates, when they do it she assumes it’s the former.

My character is similar; brutally honest and refuses to lie. To counter, they'd just repetitively say "dontsayitdontsayitdont-" or in an emergency, won't speak at all. I think brutally honest people tend to just..be rude, so I also have them *need* to complement someone if they like their outfit (or something similar).

I like these, especially Farre, Colta and Vasithe. Some of my own favourites: Arlo - Attachment. His ability (and habit) of making incredibly strong emotional bonds very quickly is a double-edged sword, and is essentially a set of puppet strings just begging to be pulled. Shrike - Urge to fix. Their artificer skills are incredibly handy, but they see a broken object or a bad situation and have a compulsion to "fix" it, even if there's no real way to actually fix things. Magnus - An inability to leave something be that goes against his moral compass, even if doing so might help in the long run. Alistair - Lack of finesse. Once you start wielding a giant hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. Do not bring in refined company. Valk - Cynicism. There's always an ulterior motive, and that's never the last of them.

My favorite flaw I ever did for a character was my thief rogue, one Doctor Alexander Hampton. His flaw was “he has to save everyone” He hears screaming of fear and pain in the distance, he’s about to full action and bonus action dash over there. It doesn’t matter if it’s a terrible idea, he can’t stand the thought of losing another patient because he didn’t try hard enough.

#4 reminds me of a Star Wars campaign I was once in where another padawan was on the path to the dark side because she kept having to use it to save my character from her own botched combat rolls.

I’m also playing a character who never kills people, but she’s an aasimar and her angelic patron is a war angel so she’ll constantly argue with her and sometimes a fallen enemy gets the opportunity to escape because of it.

OK, I'd love to play with you!!!! All the others aside, I always had a real problem imagining / mentaly realising netrunners in cyberpunk (or shadowrun)... those "asides" always took up so much time that my fellow players just got bored... and I really didn't get much out of them. Any tips on how to enter "Cyberspace" without disrupting the game? I'm assuming this where Assistant GM's kick in? But I've tried many times... it never feels right. What is essentially a microsecond to you is 4 hours to them (I'm making those figures up) but in real life - you just spent 4 hours hacking a government database and your fellow players have gone to the local bar. I'm great at playing anything "Mage" like in any system, but.... for some reason I trip over everytime I try to play a Tech-anything.

Reminds me of when my aasimar bard dropped because she used life transference on a cultists, all while her war angel angelic patron berates her as she was making her death saving throws. The cultist stabilized her though before running away. I hope we see him again

@@Spiceodog (same person, that's just my deadname account) aww that's nice. After a harrowing battle with several cultists and running out of spell slots, I checked the fallen for any injured that could be saved. The DM said I spotted one, and I performed a medicine check to stabilize him. While I convinced the artificer to carry him for me, a cultist who surrendered said "oh, siegfried? He's an asshole." Immediately splitting the party on the position of if it was the right thing to do. While I went to sleep straight away when we got back, the rest began arguing loudly once he came to and started spouting cultish nonsense. Some said that they should have me kill him because he's my responsibility, some said that that's barbaric but they couldn't deny that he had no reason for being there. I woke up and came into the room as their argument started to circle back. I denied them when they asked for me to do something, and someone said that I shouldn't heal bad people- I denied the concept. The warlock decided to blast them then and there, but he was counter spelled and as the others got ready to hit him back I released my angel wings and shouted STOP. They did and gave up on that for now. I later released that guy and everyone got mad for a moment before I built up the courage to explain it all to them. He helped us kill the doppelgangers in a church. He told us he'd give up and culting and be a priest for that temple. That's the last thing he said to me, and the last thing I did to him was hug him. Aaaaand then we got dropped out of a dragon which the city was housed in. But oh well I'm going to take Sending and Revivify next level at the cost of Chaos Bolt

I'd really like to hear how that went down!

@@cobiebentley9277 it’s a bit of a story, but luckily for you I write the session notes for my group every week, so I can get you that. (They’re more a storybook retelling of the events than normal session notes). In a moment I will post a reply with the story. It will be written from the perspective of my character, Eyeven Swiftorb.

@@cobiebentley9277 (I hope this all makes sense without all the background info) It’s the night after our trip into the astral plane, and we are in the carriage resting from our trip, though Fireball and Mythrillian were outside of the carriage driving it and keeping watch as we traveled because we had to make up for some lost time. I was meditating when the Eye (the deity he worships) came to me in voice once again and said to me “I know what you are working towards, and you have to most degrees earned it through your dedication, but the way of which you are attempting to achieve it will not work. I shall aid you along your path. Open your eyes.” Keep in mind that at this point, I had every night before going to rest been fabricating from gold to the best of my ability upgrades for my staff to replace the bronze components of my staff in order to make it more powerful as a spellcasting focus. I opened my eyes, and I was standing in an Eye shaped room. There with me stood Khoratari and Artaria. In the center of the room there was a beam of light wherein floated a singular copper key. On the opposite wall to where the 3 of us were standing was a heavy wooden door with a lock on it made of copper. Inscribed thrice over in the languages of Elvish, Common, and Infernal were the instructions, “Take a key and proceed forward. Do not backtrack or else your fate will be tainted, and do not lose your key or you will be forever trapped. Be wary for you will be on your own.” I took the key from the beam of light and when I had removed mine, another one appeared in its place, which Artaria took. I went to the door in the room and unlocked it, pulling it open. There was a swirling portal behind it, and I stepped through the portal. I found that when I emerged I was on a cliff ledge with a bottomless pit in front of me. On the other side of the room was another ledge. On the opposite ledge there was a door and behind me was a door the exact same as the one I had originally gone through. So that I wouldn’t lose my key to the pit, I put it safely inside my bag. Also floating in the air above the pit in the center of the room was some sort of disturbance in the wind, which was otherwize still. I cast mage armor on myself just in case, and then cast fly in order to get to the other side of the pit. My wings pulled into existence around me before spreading out, and I used them to fly across the pit. Once on the other side, the disturbance in the air formulated itself into an air elemental and attacked me, ramming toward me. I striked it with lightning, but the elemental seemed hardly phased by my attack. Well, that’s not entirely true. It was a LOT more mad. It caused a whirlwind that threw me twenty feet out from the ledge over the endless pit. I was getting pretty beat up at this point, So I flew back over to the ledge on the side that I wanted to be on and cast arcane fist for the first time ever, summoning up a fist of blue and lilac ethereal energy and punching the air elemental with it, dealing a bunch of force damage in the process. It was so dazed from that blow (get it? Blow? Because air elemental and you blow air? Nevermind.) that it missed on it’s next attempt to attack me. At that point I punched it one final time with my magical fist and it dissipated into smoke. As soon as it dissipated from existence, I pulled out my key and saw it change in my hand from copper to silver. The lock on the door that I needed to go through was silver. I inserted the key and unlocked the door, proceeding into the next room. The next room was simple enough, though there were words on the wall and a door on the far side of the room. A riddle. The riddle said: “You must. You can. You might. You want. Whatever I do, I decide what you don’t. You fight. You cede. You fly. You give. Whatever you try, I decide how you live. A will. A way. A soul. A heart. Whatever you are I control from the start.” when I finished reading it, I felt a sense of urgency to answer it or else fate in this instance would go against me. I thought hard. The Eye, I guessed? But no. The Eye are far too wize to make themselves the solutions to their own riddle. Or are they? Then, as I felt the time limit closing in on me, I spoke the answer. “Fate!” I cried. I felt the time burden lift off of me and the key in my hand turned from silver to gold. I proceeded toward the door on the far side of the room, unlocked the door, stepped in, and that’s when it happened.

@@cobiebentley9277 I saw the fires. Fires. Everywhere. I was in a 70 foot long and 20 feet wide hallway, but the fire made it so there was only about 10 feet for me to walk through. And I couldn’t see a door at the end. The fire overwhelmed my senses. The heat of it caused me to feel like I was shriveling. I fell to the ground, closed my eyes, and crawled forward, not looking up. But I very quickly began to hurt. I was being cooked alive. But I kept going forward. I refused to stop, for Fate had told me at the beginning of all of this that going back would inevitably be the end of myself. So I got to the end of the hallway. I was almost entirely cooked at this point, barely holding onto my own mortality. I managed to open my eyes. The fires showed no signs of dying down. In fact, I could've sworn that it was bigger. I summoned every last ounce of my will to the forefront, and managed to shakely stand up, and attempted to cast ice storm around me in order to calm the fires, but the ice failed to form due to the heat, and I was left without a wit left in my mind. But somehow, I managed to pull myself together. In the midst of something more terrifying than anything I had ever experienced, I held together and I walked forward, directly into the fire in front of me. And then I walked out the other side. Upon leaving the fire, I felt the most overwhelming and powerful sensation of cold that I had ever experienced in my life. I felt better than I ever had since the fire in the library. I felt fully healed. I no longer feared the fire. I looked down to my hands, and saw my golden key turn to platinum. And there was a door in front of me. I opened the door, and there was a portal on the other side of it. I stepped through. We had all just gone through our final portals and were now together in a room only significant in that there was a well in the center of the room, and in that well was what could only be described as liquid light. On the wall were the words, in Elvish, Common, and Infernal, were the instructions “put in your most prized possession in order to proceed forward.” I, after a second of contemplation, walked up to the well and dropped in my staff, my beloved wizard’s staff. It exploded upon contact with the liquid light. I stepped backward from the well, my fingers reaching slightly towards it. Khoratari stepped up next, and like a fool who wishes to deny the bounds of fate, dropped in an empty glass potion bottle. Her hand caught on fire and began spreading up her body. And this wasn’t some measly fire, this was fire made of that same pure light that the liquid in the well was made of. Serves her right for trying to deny fate it’s course. She very dejectedly threw her true most prized possession, her hexblade. As soon as it touched the light in the well, her hair changed from white to black, and she looked visibly weakend. I could tell she was about ready to cry if she wasn’t so stoic with her emotions. After witnessing this, Artaria stepped up to the well looking very solemn. She untied the ribbon from around her neck, and dropped in her raven pendant, her symbol, the very same I had used to recognise this group as the one the Eye had instructed me to join. I saw a look of steely determination on her face like I had never seen before. A portal opened in the room, a swirling mix of 3 different shades of purple, one slightly desaturated looking, one lilac, and one the exact tone of Artaria’s skin. We all stepped through together. Upon emerging, we found ourselves in a place I had never been before, but felt oddly at home in. The room was that of the shape of an Eye, and had sprawling geometric patterns in the floor that said words in a language I couldn’t read, which means they weren’t in celestial, elvish, common, or sylvan. In the center of the room were two statues of the deities that comprise the Eye, one of Zedes Cator and one of Astrala, each with their hand raised toward the very center of the room, where there was floating in the air without any supports a giant stone sigil of the Eye. Also in the center of the room was a literal pillar of light. The Eye spoke in our minds then and gave us our final directive. “You have done well. I congratulate you. Go to the pillar and receive your gift.” I stepped forward to the pillar of light and reached my hand inside and felt the familiar, yet somehow different, hilt of my staff. My fingers wrapped around the handle and I pulled my hand out. In my hand was the most glorious object I had ever seen. (Reference Eyeven’s Thunderous Quarterstaff sheet for a description of appearance). I raised up the staff and stamped it to the ground. All in the same insant as the staff hitting the ground, a ring of multicolored lightning erupted from the bottom of the staff and began traveling upward. The ring of lightning became two rings, three, four, too many to count. They all circled the diamond orb atop the staff before going into it and shooting upward toward the ceiling. Upon the impact of the lightning bolt with the stone ceiling above us, there was a deafening crack of thunder that were we not in the immortal sanctum of the Eye would have surely done damage to us. I stepped back, happy with my gift. I felt a bit of electricity surge through my arm and looked down on it. I had a new tattoo of a bolt of lightning on the inside of my left forearm. I smiled. (My character’s deity has a thing of giving him tattoos for momentous occasions)

@@JustAnotherPerson811 You are an amazing writer!

My character did the same thing for the same reasons, and her sister had been killed because of the family nobility. She doesn’t want to tell anyone information about herself and talk about her family because it reminds her of her sister, one of the only people before she met the party that really cared about her. Her flaw is that she won’t let herself warm up to people in fear of loosing someone else.

Yeah, My current Paladin has this. That and he genuinely does not really identify with his family because he was sent of to join the clergy at an early age and see's the Sisters who more or less raised him as his real family. So it adds an extra layer to all of it.

She's proud of her human side but just doesn't fit in and her heart is elsewhere. If the family doesn't support the decision, which is likely, she intends to renounce her human name and embrace her elf name

Playing a kenku artificer who can do nothing original, but dreams of building a flying machine. He “borrowed” a catalog of gnomish inventions and copies them to work his craft. I really like your idea though. Seems pretty cool to play with.

I actually have an artificer character too, they're a 15 year old water genasi who is pretty small for their age. Zye's flaw is pride. They think they can do anything as long as they have their Steel Defender with them, which often leads to Zye often ignoring the risks and putting themself in trouble multiple times.

My bard thinks that bards , sorcerers, and clerics are all the same , and that they get there powers from the gods.

love that concept

This is hilarious! I really want to do this! Or perhaps a rogue who has bad allergies :)

@@christopherkemsley4758 it is fun! It gives a reason for why they sneak around, and why they use underhanded combat (they are an arcane trickster who loves spells like grease, tasha’s hideous laughter, sleep, etc.

I'll have a dude that just risks his life to help the rest sometimes too much in a way that just is just basically looking to get killed, not because he is brave, but because he has little self worth and is convinced he needs to do everything he can to help his group to be useful even at his own risk

Not to project onto your character but she basically sounds like she has autism. Many people with autism are sensitive to loud noises and in many cases can suffer from sensory overload from excessive loud noises, lots of bright and overwhelming lights, etc and have a meltdown from the experience.

@@camillecolburn9492 hmmm I never thought about that. She's a legacy character. Child of my strahd campaign character. We played a time skip to establish who we were bringing in next and the dm gave us a battle to see us fight to protect our kids. Some of us decided that the experience would traumatize our kids. My girl is also afraid of the dark cus someone in that battle cast darkness. The sensory overload is from the screams, the weapons..the sounds of battle. She was 3 during it and I thought....there's no way she's ok.

@@momosquad23 Well if you're trying to aim more for trauma and less neurodivergent coding then probably give her more specific triggers than loud noises.

@@camillecolburn9492 I've discussed her main triggers with my dm. Like crashes and screams for example. Anything that loudly brings back the battle memory.

@@momosquad23 bit late to this, but wanted to add that the symptoms your talking about can be shared by other diagnoses than autism. General sensitivity to noises and crowds is normal in ptsd, a result of the body constantly being in the fight or flight mode.

I play a wood elf now, but I made a point to play her going against this stereotype and it's a lot of fun.

Who the hell is Zuko?

@@IvoryTowerPodcast Avatar: The Last Airbender. Redeemed antagonist

@@oilandwine8 What is Avatar: The Last Airbender?

@@IvoryTowerPodcast A tv show. Which by the way is broadcasted content on a television.

I always make Azula. My DM complains about murderhoboing a lot. ;-)

Meanwhile I have a character that's too overly confident to a dangerous degree. Her ego is as big as a mountain right now due to her standoffish attitude and dumb plans never backfiring (somehow).

My favorite take on this that I have played with was my wife's "cleric". The Red Wizards of Thay were recruiting foolish rich kids and passing off their necromancy as clerical healing...her character refused to believe that she hadn't actually brought someone back from the dead when she was raising them as a zombie 😄

@@johnathanrhoades7751 oh nice! i’m planning on playing a sorcerer from Thay for my next campaign who got kicked from her academy. yours is such a cool concept!

Why is this me? 😆

Divination Claric that is the town drunk and crier. The old fart with a lot of life lesson stories. Think uncle Iro before finding peace.

I had a character who would often get sick or into coughing fits because of there awful constitution haha. It was pretty fun

That sounds like a really interesting and compelling character both to play and to observe. I hope you'll have a time to play her. I love the slow and in-depth developement you have planned for her.

I'd love to hear more about her, but it's up to you if you want to share that.

@@juliadubaj6558 thanks so much for your kind reply 😁 what do you want to know in particular? ( edit: I have been playing her and she’s really fun to play )

@@mystic499 I'd love to hear anything youd like to share honestly, she feels like such a unique character. I was wondering: how did she leave her family, if she didnt, what's her relationship with them like? what was the story with her brother, why does he want to kill her? And what is the rest of her personality like? You did say it's long to explain, so no pressure, you dont have to if you dont want to. It just sounds really interesting and unique to me. And you're welcome. Glad to see playing her is really fun for you 😁😁

@@juliadubaj6558 Her brother ended up killing 12 high elf men ( they always spoke badly and shamed their family because they were teiflings ) My character found him after the first killing ( a clients that paid well enough for the family to ignore the things he said ) . She thought it would be a one time thing so she forgave him but in the next two days he killed 11 other men so she told their father Her brother got fired and was kicked out of the family legacy so her brother now wants her dead The reason she left was because one night he attacked her giving her a large scar ( she kicked him in the face got her belongings than left ) That’s the basis of the story sorry for the lack of detail when I get the chance I’ll post here what her personality is like and what her relationships with the rest of her family is like 😁 and if you want I’ll describe what she looks like when I get the chance . Her name is Andrea btw

It is!

@@GinnyDi Rad! I knew I'd recognise that hair anywhere! XD

Sorry to hear that. Sounds like you need a new group