Narrated D&D Story: How I Got Banned From Playing A 'Talker' Character In DnD 

Have you ever played a “talker”?

I’ve made my DM shout at me “You’re not talking your way out of this one!”...

i like to say, "The pen is mightier than the sword, but the tongue is quicker and just as sharp!"

This reminded me of us trying to deescalate a conflict with an honest to god child wizard, who was slightly psychotic. And that's when I realized our DM didn't like us solving problems with anything but violence, as after my well-constructed argument to why he shouldn't be doing what he is doing (he caused a territorial war between a druid tribe and a group of azers), backed up by a Persuasion check of 32 (22 CHA + Expertise), he declares that I fail on all fronts and we need to roll Initiative. This story showed me what could've been)

Whats this? Roleplaying in my Tabletop Roleplaying game? Impossible

Okay, so the talker used his charisma to mind control his other party members and the DM gets so angry that he throws an encounter that is meant to kill them at the party? And in the end everybody is happy with the session? weird.

I love your stuff. Its perfect for when I'm doing something boring and just want to go on an adventure. Thank you for your amazing content.

ngl this just sounds like an another "that guy" history, but he is the guy

Rolling Diplomacy against other player characters, having your mount substitute for your terrible Stealth... yeah, those are all not really fair. The DM made some bad ruling choices.

This is a Mary Sue story. They make this special character that everyone hates at first, and the player uses their abilities to force the other players to follow this player's decisions, taking away their agency, then the DM bends over backward for them, by the end everybody loves them. I'm calling bull shit

I am currently playing Allhealus Balmus, Cleric of Helm, and he's a talker. So far because of his diplomacy we've got: -Gratitude from a goblin tribe for not slaughtering their ambush that they were pressured to set up on the road by BBEG -The secret to finding and collecting GoldenLeaf, a herb they collect to use to make Minor Healing Potions. AllHealus has the tools he needs to collect it, therefore he has a steady income of healing potions and doesn't have to save spell slots for healing. -A whole tribe of Orcs that worship Drinkus the homebrew god of alcohol for out-drinking their chiefton. I basically kept talking my way out of a battle with them until they proposed a drinking contest with the strongest booze they've had. DM didn't expect me to win but my rolls were GODLY (thank you, Helm :3) -At least 75 gold pieces EACH from coming back to tavern shitfaced and beating every single person there in a fighting contest. I was still drunk from the drinking game and the rest got drunk just by inhaling fumes i was exhaling (Orcish booze was REALLY strong) It's really hard to play this way though. Gratifying but hard.

OP: *single handedly derails and ruins the DM's plans* DM: "Hey yo WTF"

I play a bard. Specifically a "talker". He tells stories over singing or playing an instrument, but the fun part for me is fast-talking my way out of encounters, insulting foes so bad they step away and take attacks of opportunities, and of course being a pathological lier due to a pact with a God of chaos or something of the like. Moral of the story. I'm not allowed to talk when it isn't my turn...

you’re telling me that six level three characters planned to kill an elemental, but the orca cant defeat it? aight.

I'm totally fine with talkers. They can be a lot of fun for RP and building up allies for the party. Killmongers might not like a peaceful outcome, but if that's how someone wants to have fun, don't mess with it. I, however, am not fine when a paladin tries communicating to someone who only speaks Druidic while the Druid in the party is sitting next to them and attempting to talk. That's a very specific case, though

Ah, a Speech Build, time to boot up New Vegas again.

Never played a "Talker", but i did play a (somewhat) pacifist healer once. She was a divine soul sorcerer, so she had access to both the Cleric and Sorcerer spell lists and had bonuses to healing. DM: And so, snarling and drooling, the massive creature comes lumbering out of the cave, towering over you it lets out a deafening roar and... Me: I polymorph it into a turtle. DM: **rolls, gets a 3** Me: I pick up the turtle and toss it over the cliff. Alright, lets move on now.

My friend was a talker in a campaign. I don't remember what class he was but he was a human with stupid high charisma. He had an alter ego named Duke Wellington the Third. This guy got us 5000gp of enchantments for free, saved a party member from getting publicly executed, kept the party from being arrested and imprisoned for life,, and a bunch of other crazy shit. He was literally dubbed the party bullshitter.

I am too serious a role player and perhaps don't understand why an earth elemental would be sleeping, or have gems encrusted in their outer layer of earth/rock, or how that elemental understood the common tongue, or whatever language the "talker" used when waking it up, or why it did not kill the party as well as the tribe of orcs, or why the elemental would be asleep in a room right outside of a room filled with a tribe of orcs. Orcs not being noted for their respectful ability to be quiet enough not to wake a sleeping elemental in the next room, or why the dire wolf would likewise be in a room right next to a sleeping elemental. So I am not trying to be overly critical here, just suggesting that common sense when creating a dungeon crawl regarding placing obstacles and monsters in a way that makes some logical sense, will enhance party immersion in the experience. That is why I said I am perhaps too serious of a player. I am accustomed to logic existing even in a fantasy setting.

This story really does sounds like it belongs on r/Thathappened

I'm glad the DM was a good sport about it and even allowed OP some bonus rewards for being creative!!!

Easiest way to handle "talker" characters: Talker: I try to persuade the monster. DM: Okay, roll. Talker: *rolls* NAT 20! DM: Nice! It doesn't understand any language you speak and continues to attack.

This is the embodiment of the "It was him, lets get him fellas" meme.

RU-vid very diligently forgot to notify me.

When a player uses persuasion to mind control the party then it is a bad sign

I've played more than my share of "talkers", granted we always called it a 'diplomancer', same concept though. I think my favorite usage was convincing an angry town of the non-existant dragon on a nearby hill. This was back when Bluff was a thing vs Deception, told them it was invisible, and I could see it with magic. They then paid us, to go kill the 'dragon'. So we just left for like 2 weeks, then came back and got paid.

That was funny, but I do object to a player using charisma to control other player characters. I mean, if everyone is friends and is cool with that, it's fine, but generally, players should convince players, not dominate them using stats and rolls.

What surprises me is how they skipped an entire process on animal handling. 1 Steak does not make a capable mount.

As a couple of my DMs like to say, 'violence is not the only option for handling encounters'

A " Talker". This is actually a dedicated role in Shadowrun. That character is called the Face in homage to A-Team, and they are dedicated diplomats. Use animal handling on the critters attacking. Intimidate a goon or two. Convince the boss there's more profit in working together. Every group needs a dedicated Face.

Yeah this is either a thathappened story or at least a distorted one. This guy did nothing but derail the game and force the party to do what he wanted.

"Talker" is such a boring term. I prefer to play a Diplomancer!

Countermanding this story, which while entertaining, clearly shows a player intentionally steamrolling his party. Guy didn't fit the group; oh well, it happens. Should have just left, also "diplomancing" his party? That's just gross, and counter to the spirit of DnD.

Talking your way out of things do require the right time and skill. Amazing to see this person use it so right. Personally I don't think it is just to ban them from being talker, it's kind of stupid. Thanks for the story, All Things Dnd!

Heard this story on another channel, this story makes me laugh at the ridiculousness of the class. I know personally I like roleplaying as much as fighting and I feel like the DM shouldn't have been so desperate to TPK just to kill the talker. Also it sounds like the DM without realizing it decreased the DC to charisma rolls instead of increasing the DC to Charisma rolls, so the talker literally just steam rolled the encounters lol

I actually became the party face by accident with only 10 Charisma because I have such a high diplomacy skill in Pathfinder (2 ranks, Cleric Class Skill, and some fancy jewelry that gives another +2, for +7 at level 4). I have, surprisingly, been able to talk to an entire tribe of goblins and calm them down, even getting them to allow us a safe place to rest from the cultists that had been attacking them. That was a Nat 20, when I had 1 Rank at level 3, and the DM gave me +2 for my Half Orc race (+6 to that roll). Our monk with NO ranks also managed to stop a huge encounter from happening just last noght with a 15, beating the Barbarian’s Intimidation kf 14, and the DM was both laughing and a bit upset because of that encounter being thrown out essentially (it would have been a mini-adventure to occupy the 6 days of In Game travel to the next town)

When I heard the elemental plan I was like, "I could kiss this guy he's so genius."

Never underestimate a talker character. Bard talkers are my favorite archetype.

@All Things DnD Ya missed the epilogue where the Fighter brought his son to the local game store, where he-by chance-found the OP at the table and told his son, "Watch him. You'll learn a lot from him." :)

I kinda want to hear more about his "talker" stories

I've done this sooo many times with a face character. My Star Wars "space bard" and at least a couple D&D Paladins. It's fun to be the talker and handle situations with words rather than weapons.

Quote from OP's character: "your mother was a goblin, and your elf father smelt of elderberries!"

By back up character for a dungeon I am in is a bard, and that is basically what I had them going for. I love it.

"May your sword be sharp. ... And your tongue sharper."

My wizard Delkesh was both a disasterpiece of arcane destruction *and* a high-charisma master of deceptions and speechcraft. In one combat he managed to impersonate a bandit so well that the bandit leader and two of the other bandits not only listened to him, but the bandit that was guarding the treasure horde gave Delkesh the keys to the horde room. He also conjured a fake person named Jerrel who later became a disguise persona for Delkesh, and any time we encountered bandits or rogue merchant guilds or the like, Jerrel would slide in to convince the bandits to let our party pass, or give us the intel we needed without realizing they were doing it, etc. In the second campaign I played him in, his backstory was that he was a former king, but everyone thought he was dead because he'd faked his own death. There were times when the party needed access to certain areas or to get information from certain people that they might not normally be able to speak to, but Delkesh would toss out the royalty card. Once people were able to confirm who he was, people were much more willing to give us extra info they might not have told us otherwise, etc..

I never played a talker, but I played an amazing sneaker. It turns out, Devil's Sight and Darkness, combined with Rogue stealth abilities, makes you damn near invisible no matter where you are with no downsides. I could do whatever I wanted and no one would see me because... no one else could see.

Clever guy, finding solutions that didn't involve needless conflict instead of running in attacking everything that moves.

That was funny as hell, he's too good of a talker.

I have yet to be banned from taming every rat I see in a campaign I'm in... I currently have 37 rats, will I stop, no I won't

On my first DND ever with friends (a one-shot), our characters introduced themselves. One of them, forgot the race but reptilian, put on a raspy voice and did a scary introduction. The DM was so impressed, he had us roll against intimidation at an advantage; he explained it was to see if any characters would fear or distrust this being. It was a little thing, but taught me that DND isn’t a power fantasy of Mary Sue’s. Our characters have limits, and their own personalities and histories. Was it a bit much? Maybe. But it was a great way to have players react to a fellow party member’s skill. I agree to this. If a rogue wanted to steal from an ally, roll for it between both players. The pickpocket doesn’t automatically succeed, and the victim player doesn’t automatically notice. Even if the character does notice, a deception check between them, or diplomacy from a third party, can make him think he left it behind or to let it go. Same here. The noble had the persuasion to convince the party, so why not roll for it? The DM could have given him disadvantage, saying “the barbarian wants blood,” or “the rogue wants those shiny jewels.” But it is still in character to settle impasses with dice. If the fighter took initiative before the nobleman could caution him, then start combat. But the mere conversing between allies opened up this possibility.

D&D (and many other games) is a game about telling a story that the whole party participates in. If the rest of the table wants a fighter for a combat heavy game, someone really should be a fighter. Not necessarily you, you could ask to swap roles with someone.... but if 'your mind is made up' on a 'talker' and you were the one invited to join an already established group that was looking for a combat slog that started at a dungeon... Well lets just say in this situation, if I were that DM when someone proposed a noble I would have just said "Maybe you should sit this campaign out, and when we have a more social roleplay game we will get back to you." Its nice to hear the other players were all happy with the outcome of the session while their characters were pretty much all made irrelevant background in the Talkers story, this is pretty much the opposite side of the coin of a group that wants to role play and someone insists on bringing a min-maxed murder hobo along. I wouldn't be surprised if the talker misread the room (or just lied in his story) when they said they would be glad to have him back and the DM's major life change that prevented the group from getting back together was the group trying to be nice for just not inviting him back to the game so they could play with out him.

I love this story. This guy singlehandedly killed a army and got richer in the process. I will defiantly remember this one. Also nice choice all thing's dnd.

My favorite talker was a gnome paladin of Sarenrae named Chester Rollemoff and he was the first lawful good character I ever played ^_^ he was a literal ray of sunshine in a rough world and believed everyone was capable of redemption. The craziest moment was he paid the big bad to leave town and never come back, and she left and never came back 😆

Hello "Talker guy" here. Im playing right now a full homebrew PC of a class i made with a race we made with my friend for that world. Im a Godian Gambler, basically a merchant who is always looking for business, getting money and resources. I have not been much of a fighter but i have made a ton of deals. Im only Lv 4 but in one week i managed to, get a ton of gold delivering goods without asking, got a goblin employee named Cito, invested in a spa after catching the guy who killed the owner in the middle of the street whil completely naked, got some sweet words with some ladies, stole som treasures as its also a treasure hunter, and befriended the mafia as well as making a helpibg deal with a tribe of orcs. And after that i pull a heist for weird stuff on the spa i invested in with the bank's owner as my associate, got new investmens, im about to make a tour with the bard while also implementing fordism or toyotism in this world, and saved my companion from an execution sentence to a community service sentence during a trail where i also gained some nice shoes (3000 GP worth) and a small piece of land in my hometown as a title. GODDAMN IM A SILVER TONGUED MASTER!!!!

One of my most vivacious 2e Characters was a Rogue/Illusionist... AND one of the few (and I DO mean VERY FEW) Characters where Charisma was NOT a dump-stat... In fact, Strength was the dumper at 8... I researched illusions to manipulate sounds, movements, shadows, and obviously upgraded the Canon "visual" spells as often as I could... AND the antics did fly! From convincing local guards that they'd been robbed in the tavern (merely making their stuff invisible to them)... and escaping the resulting brawl... to getting our Party hired by a Wyrm Red Dragon to hunt ourselves down for stealing certain magical pieces of treasure (so we wouldn't actually have to fight it)... AND buying just enough time to use the magic items for the quest and then returning them for the bounty... It was HILARIOUS some of the "crap" I managed to talk us into... ...and out of. It was the kind of Rogue/Wizard that would've made any Bard jealous... only without the weird sexual crap. ;o)

Right now I am playing in a modern day Persona inspired campaign, and whilst my character in the main campaign is more punch focused, we are doing a one shot from the perspective of a group called The Church, and I am playing the talker of that group, a level 14 commoner, no class abilities, but they do have a Persona and MASSIVE Charisma and Wisdom, +6 each, I can already tell my dm was scared than I instantly jumped on the idea of me playing this kind of character, given the fact that I am, in their words own words, "scarily creative" in my strategies and plans. In fact I may need to share one more recent story of an exploit I did.

I prefer the older "All Things" content, that focused on campaign stories, in game party situations & PC antics. Those vids helped improve my games. I game with cool, respectful, cooperative people, who share similar taste in gaming. I can't relate to the topic of social conflict within the group, or problem players, & I'm grateful for that. It's great these stories have an outlet to reach the public. I guess I'm just looking for stuff I can utilize in my game that's all, & there's plenty of channels dedicated to that very premise, so there's definitely a niche on YT for gaming group conflict & problem player vids. Just not what I'm currently looking for thankfully. Game on!

I feel like playing a “talker” is completely worth it sometimes, since it A) allows you to try the more peaceful route of things, and B) can avoid massive damage and/or party member death with a few well-chosen words.

My favorite "talker" character I ever played was a 5e Half-orc Berserker Barbarian. See I liked the idea of the extra attacks and such so I had made her for all the bonus attacks and high Crit damage. Unfortunately I found out that Exhaustion was crippling if you got more than 1 level, so after one fight she would attempt to talk her way out of situations. She was vary crafty at setting up situations so that even if she failed a check there were other reasons for people to do what she wanted. She would hand out the bulk of these schemes to the rest of the party and then with all the indifference a tired half-orc can muster she would tell people what she wanted and what would happen if she didn't get it. This worked amazingly well when she was telling a tribe of lizardmen that they really actually did want to give her their hostages peaceful. She failed an intimidation check, which was fine because during the laghter one of the lizardmen grew an arrow from his neck as she waved a finger. Suddenly these stopped laughing and gave he the hostages after she explained this wasn't a joke. And that's how Ket Gunt the tired barbarian and her "shadow horde of demon archers" saved some people from being eaten by lizardfolk. Turns out a tired half-orc that makes no effort to hide her exhaustion while telling, "you really don't want to fight me" is just perplexing enough to be the best distraction ever.

Hello ATD&D! Hope you have an awesome day

Back in the days of AD&D I had a Wizard who bluffed his way to the bbeg by telling his followers he had been summoned. The bbeg was so impressed that I was able to broker a truce and convinced him to take his army and attack another country.

Don't usually like to listen to the tales I've heard before. This is one of the ones I always listen to.

The instant everyone thought the talker was weak I knew the talker would be the most important party member.

I think not enough people try having their characters talk their way through situations. I’ve never played a talker specifically, and using your ability scores, skills, or magic/powers to control the action of other PCs is gauche, but talking my way out of fighting has sometimes been some of my favorite role playing experiences, especially in one campaign where our characters were eventually such high level that talking was the much more interesting option, as usually any fight we got into resulted in the DM saying at the start of the fight “okay, what do you do to them?”, and whatever we said happened, happened, unless whatever we were up against were super powerful.

I tried but set it up poorly and failed to deceive a troll. I became swamp paste.....

I have a idea for a "talker" PC for 5e Bard: College of Eloquence 3 levels in order to get Silver Tongue- Starting at 3rd level, you are a master at saying the right thing at the right time. When you make a Charisma (Persuasion) or Charisma (Deception) check, you can treat a d20 roll of 9 or lower as a 10. Expertise At 3rd level, choose two of your skill proficiency. Your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses either of the chosen proficiency. Pick Persuasion and Deception (or another skill) _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Paladin: Oath of Redemption 3 levels Emissary of Peace. You can use your Channel Divinity to augment your presence with divine power. As a bonus action, you grant yourself a +5 bonus to Charisma (Persuasion) checks for the next 10 minutes. So this class concept would make you a persuasion god and a amazing taker. Your lowest role is... 10 (Silver tong) + 4 (Expertise)+ 3 (expected skill bonus) + Oath of redemption (plus 5) = Once a day you can boost your persuasion to a minimum roll of 21 with a chance of higher rolls. In higher levels proficiency and skill bonus grows even more. This would be a sixth level build when complete. (Note best race to play is current Eberon changeling if game legal since it can have plus 4 at level one and combining talking ability with shape changing is cool!)

Well another great story and yet so many stories are untold. But maybe one day I will see them all here.

i tried playing a talker once... my party didn't care and killed all the creatures i wanted to befriend

Yo nice job voicing that Simfort hair growth commercial

I had a small issue with a talkative party in my game. We did a session zero, and towards the end I decided to throw a hill giant at them to add some action to the session. They just tried talking to him at first. It was kind of funny. I do allow them to talk their way out of stuff if they can, though.

im currently playing a talker character as we speak, he is by far my pride and joy. A Divine Soul Sorlock Hexblade with the Diplomat feat. ive done so much purely by Charisma that is almost mind boggling and im not even Lv10 yet. ive already influenced the major reformation and reconstruction to the capital trade city where the campaign is held. i have the Guildmaster of the Merchants guild/ Mayor of the Trade city in my back pocked because i swayed a majority favor for his election. I also got the BBEG to sit down with the party for a Mid afternoon brunch. ive done alot more too but these are by far, my absolute favorite encounters to tell.

Warhammer 40K we had planned out over several real time hours how to besiege a mutant stronghold with backup plans for our backup plans. my charakter made a motivational speech to hour troops and offered the enemy a peace treaty. rolled natural crit succuss. the mutant guards killed their leaders, opened their doors and surrenderd. after that incident i got the nickname silvertongue

"For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill." -Sun Tzu

Wouldn't a noble just be a bard in 5e? Not to mention the College of Eloquence is essentially a talker.

The last part was nice but as a DM I would have never allowed him to tame the dire wolf who had been badly injured by the party.

Alternate titles: Orc tribe mercilessly beaten to paste by angry elemental, Silver tongued elf convinces elemental of theft. The comment section is gold by the way.

DMs, please; Never, ever, EVER allow a diplomacy roll against the party unless the players decide the result of a success. Please. Unless by magic, a player shouldn't be forced to do something if they decide the character has would do something else. It undermines the fundamental concession that justifies the DM having so much power; I can control everything around you, but you have absolute authority over your character's autonomy. Please, DMs.

Wow I just happened to open RU-vid and find this out just 10 minutes ago

Please find and share the story about tricking the lich into destroying his own phylactery.

For my first ever DnD game, I made a charismatic Paladin. Turned out to be the only decent charisma character in the party Now... I play a lot of videogames, and I love making speech-heavy characters in videogame RPGs. What I hadn't taken into account was that in videogames, you get to just click the speech skill check option. In DnD, you have to ACTUALLY DO THE TALKING. So... me with my Social Anxiety and ASD had a very... interesting time during the politics-heavy arc of our campaign.

I almost always play a talker. Hell, by first PC talked his way from being the most wanted person in the city to being a national hero.

I always try to solve the problems by talking before. The problem is, my party begs to differ.

3:02 ECH! I’m under the belief that it was tradition to always start campaigns in a tavern.that being said this man is a genius! YIRBEL LIVES!

My current party uses diplomancy a lot. My ranger being able to speak yeti helps, while our grave cleric feels more like a druid because of all the animals and creatures she befriends. Combat is our last resort. The punchline: Our DM loves it! He DMs for four parties in the same campaign (as a lot of players signed up for his run of ROTFM) and our party is his break from two parties of borderline murderhobos.

Playing as a college of eloquence Bard. I managed to talk my way through an encounter with orcs as well.

Oh the new party I’m in is feeling the power of the all mighty word as we speak in 5e I’m a elequence bard with a 18 minimum on diplomacy and deception and lvl 4 I literally talked my way into a jail break and then talked a character into riding out of town for 8 gours

I have a tendency to gravitate towards classes that have CHA as a key stat. Paladins, Sorcerers, Oracles and the like. And even if a class doesn't have the CHA score as something that influences class abilities/spells, they are still integral to the types of characters you can roleplay from that class. Such as a Rogue or a Slayer.

I enjoyed this one. I thought it was going to be a negative tell but it was great!

I mean, as long as other members get a chance to shine and fight at some point, cause I’d definitely get sick of this after a while.

That was ingenious.

I love that elemental design

I want to hear more of his stories he mentions

There alot of monsters and npcs that can wreck the "talker". Demons, mindless undeads, modrons and the primodials.

Merry christmas guys

A reasonably good example of why I really don't like pure face characters. Either they turn every encounter into a "social encounter", and dominate there because no one else specialized for that, or they are truly useless.

The Hound has entered the chat The Hounds demands every fucking chicken in the internet!

A PLAYER railroading literally all of his fellow players is a jerky move

Dude that is amazing :O I love talkers because I think it’s great to think up solutions to avoid certain fights.

High charisma characters are the best. I love my swashbuckler tabaxi. I have done stuff like become a deputy, break into a prison (yes into), and cause chaotic fun with the barbarian. Life is good.

Omg, that was amazing! Even though the DM was annoyed, it sounds like everyone eventually had a blast!