Roleplaying Against Type in D&D! (GM Tips w/ Matt Mercer) 

I played an Orc bard... not a half orc either... a full Orc. His Charisma was atrocious but he had high enough intimidation that no one dared tell him otherwise. Gods rest the soul of the man who didn't clap, but why wouldn't you with such classic songs as "Squishy human lady who not too ugly" and "I crush skull if you no clap"

"I love GMing for characters that are useless in one or more things" translation: "I love Grog"

I had a warlock who accidentally got their powers through a one night stand with an archfey after a long night of drinking.

A buddy of mine told me about a rogue who put everything he could into intimidation and would just intimidate people into not seeing him.

I once played a custom class "village idiot" who wielded a two-handed giant spoon. He once tried to escape the pits of hell by flapping his arms. The DM asked me to guess a roll, and my village idiot managed to fly away. For the rest of the campaign, he could still fly by flapping his arms. Basically, he warped reality to his whims simply because he couldn't perceive how stupid his ideas were.

Your first character “I’m a human fighter avenging the death of my father” Your second character “I’m a mountain biking witch from the future!”

I did have an idea for an intelligent Barbarian/Druid, very well spoken and eloquent in speech, with a English accent Until he rages, in which case he: 1. Carefully removes his glasses 2. Shakes violently and foams at the mouth 3. Wild-shapes into a bear 4. Proceeds to _litteraly_ eat the face off the enemy After he turns back, covered in blood and with bits of face still hanging from his mouth, he would go back to the well spoken gentleman he was before, as if nothing happened I tend to like characters that genuinely don't even notice that they are violent, dangerous psychopaths whom everyone is afraid of

One uncommon Concept I really love isa twist on the ranger. Instead of beingcompletely at home in nature, like most rangers, he is utterly terrified of anything involving nature and the Things within said nature, so he learned everything there is to know about his "favoured" Terrain out of sheer Paranoia. And he favours ranged weapons because he is too scared to face even a wasp head on, much less that ork with a battleaxe.

I recently had a character idea in making a wizard, but put the second highest score into strength. Just have this swoll ass wizard who goes around like "the key to a healthy mind *dabs* is a healthy body!"

My current character is actually going to be a Warlock Bard (I've decided that multiclassing allows many roleplay opportunities). Do you know who else has close ties with the devil but is also a charming speaker? A LAWYER. THATS RIGHT, MY CHARACTER IS THE DEVILS ADVOCATE. I'm literally too proud of this lmao

Just rolled up a tiefling bard who is the son of “one of those bards” and must hunt down and stop his father before his family tree gets any weirder

Nott the Brave has a -3 to charisma and Sam Riegel owns it.

I once had a dragonborn bard who played the bagpipes. Whenever he got really into playing he would have fire start shooting out of the bagpipes and I loved it.

I once made a muscular, hairless, oiled up circus strongman half-orc bard. He would show his abs and shout at players to lift weights in order to inspire them. Best bard I ever played.

My favorite character I ever played was Illyasviel Sparklesprocket. She was a Gnome mage when it came to class, but she insisted that she was a warlock. She insisted that her Bunny Familiar, Zhoobie was really a transplanar quasitemporal demonic entity of phenomenal power and menace. when most people were pretty sure she was just a bunny. She was really observant about most of the world, and functioned pretty well in society despite everyone being certain she was utterly insane because of her bunny-relationship. She would often make extremely accurate character assessments of people while conversing with her bunny. I played it so to the hilt that people start wondering whether Zhoobie was just a bunny or actually that demon... IT WAS FUN.

I'm a Minotaur Rogue. He's a detective. His name is Sherlock Horns.

The next character I want to play is a city druid. One that thinks that this whole man vs. nature is rubbish and that cities are just another environment, but he is not the biggest fan of the outlands.

Reminds of someone i read about that played a Orc rogue with horrible dextrerity but really high charisma for Intimidation. Basically, if he got spotted he would roll for Intimidation (and generally succeed) yelling to the poor guard or whatever that spotted him: "You do not see Grog!" and then proceed to infiltrate the place

This reminds me of a character I GM'ed awhile ago, he was a berserker with decent stats in his desired areas, but his intelligence was a 6 and his wisdom a 9. He ended up rolling 2 16's and put them in strength... and charisma. When he was "raging" he played it as being simply very EXCITED he was helping. He was a goodball

A friend of mine made two halflings that stack in top of each other to be a barbarian. Also they where raised by elves and thing they are just abnormally small elves.

So you're saying i should make a dark elf ranger with dual scimitars and a panther? Got it.

A friend of mine is currently playing a Kenku Bard. For those of you unfamiliar with Kenku, they cannot talk. The can only mimic what they have heard. This Kenku was trained as a Bard, so he knows all the Bardy stuff and has a pretty high charisma. Its pretty funny sometimes. She found a sound board to use and likes to play the galloping horses when trying to tell us to leave. lol

One of our players is a Barbarian ... and what started as a joke: "why do I always get stuck with the paperwork?!" ended up becoming a major part of the character. We now jokingly call him Conan the Librarian .. and he is the one who handles all the paperwork , guild interactions, etc

Once tried making a smartbarian but he just ended up as a know-it-all noble with NO CHILL

i once played a warlock who was only a warlock because he was drunk and accidentally got involved with a cult and it was soooooo much fun one of my favorite characters to date

we have a fighter in the party who is also the party chef, he has an int of 7. he was charmed by a vampire, and the effect stated only that he had to treat the vampire as a friend. the vampire looks at him and says "bring me sustenance", implying that he wanted his blood, so he did what he would do for anyone else. he threw a ration at him and walked off to open the shiny chest on the other side of the room. moral of the story: your weaknesses can be your strengths.

I've always wanted to play a super calm, peaceful monk. Always looking to resolve situations peacefully and who doesn't want people to get hurt. But they are a warrior in a garden, and when the time to defend the weak comes... "Zhu Lao walks over to the bandit... and I now have Rage for the next 4 turns" A Barbarian who's 'rage' is a cold calmness as he uses elegant Kong-Fu to smash holes through people's chests!

DM during session 1: In this quiet village in Eberron, you see a dark elf wearing a peculiar outfit. SuperParkourio, describe it for us? Me: It's the uniform for the pizza restaurant I work at. Serious player: ...The what?! Me: My name's Patrick, and I'm a dark elf pizza delivery bard.

I got tired of the dark/brooding warlock, so my current character is a Kenku who accidentally saved an Archfey in disguise. The Archfey offered to grant a wish, but the Kenku didn't really want anything, so the Archfey gave him warlock powers as a "consolation."

How about a team mom Barbarian? like always nice and caring outside of battle, but the moment they see a member of their party get hurt they go full on psycho blood knight ax murderer.

I'm proud of my character :> He's the all-singing, all-dancing, all-ukulele-ing, charismatic, acrobatic, flamboyant, colourful... rogue. With -1 to wisdom.

'Magesplainning' this seems like a skill I need to learn.

Admittedly, I play a warlock who excels at Dex and Cha but is abysmal at Str and Con. She is so much fun to play, because a vast majority of our party's problems stem from her A) hitting on a beautiful lady and B) being knocked on her ass within 30 seconds of that either failing... or succeeding too well. She's been one shot from everything from a single zombie to a Minotaur skeleton to a glass of ale.

I have never realized I wanted to play a mr bean Rogue until now...

Honestly, one of my favorite characters was a wood elf rogue named Flynn (for the actor, Errol Flynn, not the character from "Tangled"), who had the worst luck of any character I ever played. Quite literally, he lived by Murphy's Law. Anything that could go wrong, *did* go wrong, and the results were uproarious.

Hex-blade warlock. The blade is a peace loving celestial imprisoned in an implement of death. You team with them in an effort to free them.

Singing barbarian who desperately wants his songs to be magical and rages when they aren't

I made Sir Sebastian Demonte Bordello of Birnamwood, a human monk who suffers from the delusion that he is actually a knight after protecting his home town, and believes that everyone knows and loves him, and acts thus Enter the charisma score of 6

One of my favourite ideas for a character that ive ever heard would be an angsty teen tiefling who's patron is his doting yet strict mom

i've found sometimes that we are so focused in playing against type we never even try the actual archetype. but this is good advice!

i can listen to Matt talk about anything

I mean... I always liked being special... Which is why I made a human wizard, with a grey cloak and hood. He wields a wooden staff and likes to send halflings to fight his battles. I'm still working on a name for this charachter, but I'm sure it's going to be completely unique.

0:44 I heard of a game were there were not one, not two, but three Drizzt Do'Urden clones in a single party. According to the guy who told he story it was the funniest shit ever watch these three guys trying to out brood each other at every turn.

I love the fact that Matt mentioned the film Falling Down! What a great example of someone losing control of their life and eventually themselves, lashing out at the world :D

Until this day, I never knew that "magesplaining" was a thing, but then realized I've been missing it my whole life! -Nerdarchist Ryan

Paladin with Vow of Poverty. The catch? A smelly hobo whose weapon is a lead pipe. He's never believed to actually be an adventurer and is not allowed in most upper class areas. If lost, the party often found him in jail. Fun toon.

I'm playing as a Catfolk cleric with waaaaaay too much faith in his God. Literally drinking poison to open a door because my God would surely never let anything ever harm me! ...ive had to make a lot of saving throws..

Matt: Play against type! Also Matt: I DM for the horniest Bard of all time.

I'm running storm king's thunder and one of my players is a dwarf barbarian with the noble background - his backstory is that he was a spoiled rich kid who partied too hard and became addicted to "Dwarven Powder," which sends him into his Barbarian rage. He's adventuring because he dad kicked him out out of the house and won't let him back in until he does something with his life. Best character I've DMed for yet.

An overly emotional Barbarian prone not just to rage, but crying about sentimental things, or getting his feelings hurt easily. :P

One of the most important characters I've ever played was a bard with sever anxiety and depression. Helped me work through some of those issues in my own life.

Thanks for this... wanted to make a slightly introverted bard that wants to travel the world to get out of her shell and was told it was a terrible idea b/c bards are charismatic... Now i am ready to jump in with this idea!

Dark elf with duel scimitars and a panther, Stop it, That shit got out of hand in the early nineties. DEAD

re-skins of class abilities/spells can be super fun. For instance i played with a warlock who's patron was the Flying Spaghetti Monster and his eldritch blast was a meatball consumed in scalding hot spaghetti sauce

I played a cleric who got his power through his worship of the gods of Heavy Metal. Ironically, he was my most solid character that I had made.

I'm playing a Paladin with an 8 in constitution, and I love it. I keep trying to find excuses to get a lower constitution score, to the horror of my DM. Eventually we came across an item in a shop that would up con score by 2 (up to a max of 16), and I was hesitant to get it because it would empty a significant chunk of the party gold. The GM and the rest of the party pretty much yelled at me "BUY THE DAMN AMULET" XD

Lawful Evil Tiefling Paladin, A bird thief with no sense of direction, a warlock forced into his pact on threat of death, a warlock who sold her memories to save her daughter, a gnomish barbarian with an inferiority complex, a pretty pretty princess goliath barbarian, a bored bard that everyone is attracted to, a warlock who's pact patron is actually the head of their religion so they think they are doing good, a warlock that wear's their patron around their neck, a druid that got her powers from hallucinogens, a hipster cleric of a nature religion no one has ever heard of, and a bard that sings screemo and inspires allies as they know he'll stop singing when the fight ends

Mageplaining. I'm using this forever now.

One of my favorite characters I've run is a very bubbly half-orc bloodrager. When entering a rage, I flavored it as her entering a very fluid, focused state of mind, gliding across the battlefield instead of flying off the handle furiously. Great video Matt!

These are awesome tips! I once ran a neutral good trollkin sorcerer that had a passion for cooking and quite honestly just wanted to open his own restaurant. His focus was his personal cookbook of spells "frying up the arcane with Tristal"

Reminds me of Kashaw. A cynical cleric who's hiding from his own deity.

Slightly off topic, but still about D&D. I find the most important role in the party is not a caster... healer... fighter... rogue... face... or any such useful actual roles. The most important thing is someone who does something, and that doing something should usually get the party into trouble.

I've had a number of concepts I've be interested in trying, one of my favorites that I haven't gotten a chance to use is pact of the archfey, except instead of a powerful archfey giving a small amount of it's power, a weaker fey is forced into the body of a normal person, the fey would let the person be in control most of the time, but take over when a battle starts.

My character in my group's current campaign is a changeling with DID. I really Love playing him since I get to be so many characters in one, I just can't sellect when he shifts to one of the alters.

💠Hi, everybody!💠 I'm Barbie!💠 💠Barbie the barbarian!💠

Forever my man-crush. A constant inspiration for my writing.

One of my favorite character ideas: A Paladin with the Oath Of Conquest who embraced the life of a pirate to become the mightiest pirate to ever live

Hey, Thank you Mr Mercer for getting me into D&D. I've been having heeps of fun with it.

Embracing the low stat is sometimes that hardest part. I like to problem solve, and if I have a low intelligence or wisdom I feel like I shouldn't know the answer, even tho I know exactly what the answer is. It pains me to break character to give the answer, and it hurts even more to watch my party not figure it out.

I had a warforged who had a charisma of 3. His wood parts were all rotted and his jaw was barly attached. Sparks flew off him and my gm had me roll a d12 every time combat started to see if i went haywire and sparked around me dealing 1d10 electric dmg or if i simply went berserk and attacked anything infront of me. All because of a low stat roll. It was so much fun!

One of my favorite ideas has always been a Ranger who's actually a trained assassin and has demihuman favored enemies with a favored terrain of urban environments

I roleplayed as a former alchemist who accidentally made his fists iron, and became a fist fighter. Now, he wants two opposing things: make those hands stronger with magic gems while trying to get rid of them)

A sorcerer with low Dex and Con. I could be persuasive, I was actually on par with the barbarian in terms of melee skills due to a strength of 15. My whole theme was, oh, I have all these magic powers granted to me by the goddess of death who spared my still-born nature? (undead bloodline) I'm going to spend as much effort as possible to NOT cast spells until forced. Like, say, when a crypt in a noble house decides to attack us. I reveal to the party I'm not actually a spear focused fighter trying to also be the negotiator! And thus a long standing uneasiness between my character and the Paladin who eternally is untrustworthy of me for hiding a useful skill that I use so rarely. Pretty fun for the low levels, and I hope to develop as I get more powers and am forced to use more and more of my magic, meanwhile the goddess plans things in the shadows.

On the "low score" topic... Playing Pathfinder, I ended up in a game where we rolled for stats. I ended up with myself playing an Oread Fighter. (Oreads being humanoids with Earth Elemental blood in their history.) I went with a mix of Tower Shield Specialist with a few levels in the Stalwart Defender prestige class. Plate Armor, Tower Shield, hulking mass of metal and stoneflesh. I believe he used axes for a weapon. anyway. rolled a GREAT strength and constitution. Dexterity ended up being alright, and the specialist archetype mitigated quite a bit of the negatives that his gear gave him to dex stuff. Wisdom was above average. pretty standard "mass of flesh" guy so far. well, to add to that, his Charisma was 6. SIX. Again. Big, bulky, silent type. pretty standard. and, we storied him as the partner of the groups sorcerer as the last two surviving members of their merc band. he was the muscle and shield, she did the talking and magic. here's where it got fun. "Tank," as we decided to nickname him (in character), had a 17 for an Intelligence roll. Highest INT in the party. next highest was either a 14 or 15. Tank could barely hold a conversation with any skill, and was definitely the big, strong, silent type. but he was a GENIUS. Ended up sticking some skill points (for he had many, due to that 17) into some knowledge and INT skills, and he was basically a rock-person Rain Man in the bulkiest, heaviest gear possible.

I actually played a Teifling rogue who was basically a mix between Hawk eye, Robin Hood, and green arrow. His name was Alucard Heartsong, King of thieves, ladies man, a vigilante extraordinaire! Another time I played the same class but with a custom race, the southern Tabaxi aka minibaxi which was based off of the palico from monster hunter, he was named Robin Riverfrost. A very angers Irish cat who will gut you if you call him short.

Watching this reminded me of a couple of my favorite PCs I ever created. One was a Dwarf Barbarian who had a chip on his shoulder at the rest of his kind being "goody two shoes" and the other one was an elf wizard who, for reasons known only to himself lugged around a great axe he could barely carry

I have a Monk character with 7 Strength. He's very dexterous, but he is so weak that he needs to rely on pinpoint precision to do damage and when he tries to jump or lift things he ends up failing miserably and it is so much fun to have that flaw. Listen to Matt and embrace those low stats!

I have a paladin who is a sort of Clone Wars Anakin Skywalker. He's heroic, compassionate and fights for a righteous cause. But he's also headstrong, violent, and easily pushed to darker deeds in a blind rage. He believes he is able to walk the line of morality because his will is strong enough to resist temptation, but time and time again he has been proven wrong. I feel it helps in humanizing him, rather than being an unrealistic token character.

I made a Goliath Cleric (Forge Fomain). The intent was to be the tank of the party with my high AC. When rolling stats I got an 8 so I put it in Charisma. To make it work I informed my DM that my PC has the personality of sandpaper. I hold sermons every day just to spite him.

His Paladin description makes me more understanding towards why Matt created 'Lady' Kima of Vord the way she is.

Warlocks Using Eldritch blasts to save cats from tree's.

I have two characters I'm really having a lot of fun playing right now, and both of them are a bit out of the ordinary as far as archetypes go. Bindi Stomper is a Halfling Barbarian with a tragic past. Once she was a happy tavernkeeper, in a small village along a rarely traveled trade route. Then, one black winter, wolves attacked the village. Family after family slaughtered, only those who took refuge in her well-fortified tavern survived, and mostly thanks to her and her anti-theft device: a large two-handed battleaxe she kept beneath the counter for just such occasions. After that tragic night the people of her small town began to look up to (or down upon, but in an upward-ish fashion) Bindi as a leader and protector, something she didn't want at all, so she upped her roots. Eventually she wants to find another small town and take up residence, somewhere she can go back to her old life, but her fame has spread, and the name of Bindi lies on the lips of farmers and beggars in every town she enters, meaning her journey is going to be a long one, full of adventure and not a few catty remarks about the inability of other tavern owners to properly care for their establishments or brew their own beer. Carmella de Orlok is a sorceress with a dark past I won't spoil here. Rather, a more dry description of her character is that I built her as a bard first and foremost but without the actual class. She's a storyteller, and specializes mostly in illusions, using them to illustrate and embellish the tales she tells as she goes from town to town, fleeing persecution for a crime she didn't commit... and one that she did. I rolled a 4 for her Con, but my DM insisted I not have lower than a 6, which I reluctantly agreed to. She is currently adventuring through the lands of Strahd, where her Hold Person spell has been the bane of the DM's ability to screw with us on more than one occasion.

2 years too late, but I'd like to join in Currently running a Tengu Rogue whom, instead of the traditional crow coloring, has the feathers of a bright macaw. As a result of always feeling different and outcast by her people (despite that not being the case) she developed MASSIVE seperation anxiety to the point of having disadvantage on EVERYTHING when she is alone/separated from friends. Yes, a rogue who hates being alone and with social anxiety. So much fun.

My favourite weird character is Tiefling ghostslaying Bloodhunter who travelled with a circus for years ... wait

LOVE THE DRIZZT JOKE!

I am currently playing a dwarf barbarian that was raised by bards in a local inn. The young dwarf learned to paint at an early age, while being captivated by stories of adventurers staying in for the night. Then one day set off to join in on his own adventures. The other players refer to me as bob Ross the barbarian.

I love the times when the dice rolls somehow sense what my character is good and bad at and act accordingly. I played a paladin and took either wisdom or intelligence as my dump stat. I swear to god every time I tried to look for something or read a book digging for information I rolled a 4 or lower without modifiers. When it came to athletics and charisma rolls though I managed to roll high enough to literally cool aid man myself through a wall with the help of a dresser to create an escape so we could carry out our unconscious party member.

My first character : i'm a jolly gnome bard, telling jokes and playing banjo. My current character : i'm a magical girl flavour barbarian.

My first character was a Bronze Dragonborn Bard. It was great having a maximum Charisma stat, but only using it for social activity. (Honestly wasn't too big of a help in a fight. Kept forgetting to use magic for the first three levels) Everyone was always so worried about how to properly interact with strange NPCs such as Dueregar and Bandits that I'd often have to be the one to just "hurr-durr say something stupid to get things moving." Sometimes it worked out like with appearing charming to a traveling band of mercenaries. Other times, it got us thrown into slavery for a few sessions under some Dueregar. Point is, don't be afraid to do stupid shit. Otherwise, nobody might get anywhere at a decent pace. The best way to see an NPC's intentions is to be honest with them. You'd be surprised how useful it is to start off an encounter by screaming "We are easily intimidated!" - Awsm Chimera

I, too, got tired of smiley bards, so I made a Native American-esque dance leader whose charisma comes from being solemn instead of bombastic. His Vicious Mockery is more like Stern Shaming.

Yes, totally agree with this. I especially like the Warlock suggestion. I have a druid in something close to your wizard suggestion. She was actually raised by the fey and her druid abilities are the same as the game, but our gm describes them like she was gifted with them as a form of fey magic.

Human monk with Entertainer background = fire juggler and fire eater. He was able to use his fire techniques in battle, they were not so efficient but hey, what a show it was.

Fun Fact: not all teiflings have red skin, horns, and a hook tail. You can be like Cuthullu or a chaos marine from any warhammer faction. It's a super cool race and it has no obligation to be evil. I'm excited for my Demodand spawn Inquisitor Neutral good inquisitor!

I read this somewhere: "An atheist paladin/cleric who believes that whenever he does something helped by the gods that it is just by chance"

This has been the most insightful GM tips from Mercer yet!

My girlfriend is currently running a rogue who is actually blind. It has some great story telling potential as well as some great character conflict

i have an senile 80 year old bard

Great video. I remember reading an old Dragon magazine article called "Strong as an owl, wise as an Ox." Basically, it covered playing a character with a 3 in the class's primary stat. (maybe it was back in 2nd or 3rd edition D&D or something? not sure) Anyways, it was a great article & even mapped out how it possible (for some classes) to make it work. (still be effective) For instance, a fighter with a 3 strength (& a good dexterity), could become an (rather effective) elite mounted crossbowman. Overall, I agree, playing against type can be very fulfilling at times. (even when sometimes done to ridiculous extremes)

I have a Half Elf horizon walker ranger who is a son of a noble. Being an outcast he most ly grew up around Half lings. Basically he was Pippin in a half elf's body! He also hated magic so his arc was learning to embrace more of his elven heritage to help his friends. So fun.

I always love going somewhere between playing to and against type.