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Hey looters! Flutes here. Today on Flutesloot I want to discuss something a little different
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It is okay to build a character that is powerful. Today on Flutesloot. Here we go
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Prominent Dungeons and Dragons influencers keep saying things like just build whatever character is fun for you and people who optimize are not really playing the
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game because they don't role play there's a few fallacies and truths packed into these statements
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and i want to clarify what the fallacies are versus the truths i hope i can communicate this
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all clearly so that uh no one latches on to like one thing i said that was like not worded the best
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Give me the benefit of the doubt, please, of what I'm trying to say. Yes, you can make an under-optimized or even non-optimized character and have fun in Dungeons & Dragons
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To better understand my point of view, there's many game principles that I live by
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Many of them are based on my improv training and others based on just my experience with Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition
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There's two that I want to focus on for this discussion. The first is that I don't see vices and virtues as opposites
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Over on this end is an extreme. This extreme is a vice, and let's say this is someone who always interrupts the game and only wants to go by the book and they never want to depart from it, to the point of being annoying and being a jerk
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Over here we've got the person who never looks at the rules, and they constantly tax the DM and other players to help them make their decisions
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They don't really know how to make their character, they're just kind of flying by the seat of their pants. In the middle is someone who understands the rules, is also really fun to play with, and likes to roleplay
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it is gonna ruin your fun to start making changes to a game or any sort of system that you do not
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understand. And no, I'm not talking about just like breaking the game like, yeah, DMs, make sure you
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know the rules before you change them. But I'm talking about how disregarding rules isn't a great
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way to start a game. Once you have experience, then you know when to break the rules. This is something
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I learned very well in improv, where a lot of fellow improvisers would be very rigid and they
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They would never want to depart from rules in a certain game or improv rules
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You always say yes. You never say no. But there are times when saying no is better than saying yes
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So it's an exception to the rule. These are guidelines. But guidelines are not meant to be tossed aside either
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They are meant to be a guide. So let me get into the main myth I want to dispel today
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The myth is that role and optimizing are mutually exclusive That just not true the ultimate experience of D when you can balance them When you are an optimizer it does not mean that you don like to roleplay
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If you are a roleplayer, it doesn't mean that you disregard the rules
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The rules are like a box that you can bounce around in
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Every improviser, for example, likes to get a prompt. Rules work the same way for roleplayers
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Your mechanics of your game help you to build how you're going to roleplay a character
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how you're going to behave and act. After all, Dungeons & Dragons is just playing pretend with some math involved
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Now, I don't see a lot of adults going out to say, hey, want to play pretend with me
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And they just go out into the yard like when they were kids and just pretend to be whatever
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There's no rules. If everyone believed in different rules for football, basketball, rugby, chess
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the game would cease to be fun. So to kind of speak to the concern that other people have that made them give this advice that I'm just trying to clarify or sift through
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is that they think people are being jerks and saying you have to play the game a certain way
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And I'm not denying that that happens. I believe most frustrations with optimizers come from out-of-game issues
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People being jerks, people telling each other they need to play a certain way
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Inversely, I believe people who like to optimize and enjoy the game
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get frustrated with people who are actors and role players if those people aren't also learning the rules
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and if they become kind of flippant with the game. So let me get into a few specific claims
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that I've heard from YouTubers and bloggers of D&D to let you know why I think the advice is misleading
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even if it has some truth to it. I'm not going to call anyone out specifically
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because people's opinions change and maybe I misunderstood them. Misleading advice number one
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you should get consent from other players before you create a powerful character
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Now I understand the concept of talking to your group and your DM about characters you're creating
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to make sure they're going to jive with whatever theme or elements the game have to it
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You don't want to make some gritty baby stealer when you're going to play a happy-go-lucky jovial game with your friends
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And you don't want to make Spongebob if you're going to play in Curse of Strahd
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Or do you? But to say that you need to mechanically clear things with your fellow players is very strange to me
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Like, do you have to clear with your fellow players that you're going to have an 18 and a stat that is relevant to your character
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Or are you just saying that you need to clear with everyone that you're going to pick Eldritch Blast as a warlock
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If someone creates a weak character, it's probably because they are new to the game, and they will welcome input from other players who can help them to bring to life their character in a way that they pictured
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Misleading advice number two don create powerful characters or your fellow players will hate you I never seen another player hate another player because of the way their character is built They might be annoyed at how they
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playing that character if they end up in the line of fire of a bunch of fireballs, but they're not
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mad that the character has fireball and because that's a strong spell. That's strange to me
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but verbatim, that's the advice I heard, is that other players will hate you for playing a powerful
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character. I'm going to assume that was hyperbolic. Just in case, I'm going to say it's not good
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advice. Misleading advice number three. Making a powerful character stems from a fear of your
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character dying and a need for security. This just isn't true. A lot of people love to feel powerful
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and they use the rules to understand how they can bring that to life. If anything, a well-balanced
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optimizer who also role plays doesn't mind losing a character because it can be so epic. They've
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probably lost characters before and gotten over those jitters or that apprehension. And people who
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know the rules and want to optimize often theory craft different characters and they can't play
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enough. They can't keep up with all the concepts they invent. If a character dies, they're going to
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have another character that they're excited to play. It's not that they need to be secure or
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they're afraid of failure. Misleading advice number four, and this one is mostly true, but I don't
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think it's always applied correctly. Do what sounds fun to you and to the nine hells with the rules
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Yes, but also no. Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition doesn't have massive power gaps between its
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characters, even if you do optimize. You can be effective without completely optimizing your
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character's stats or the spell choices. All that. You can still feel powerful. Players who self-sabotage
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their characters better do so with a concept that they know they'll enjoy over a long period of time
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Sometimes those concepts can be ephemeral in their novelty. I think this concept is most concerning for the lazy players that use it as a creed to try to tell people to leave them alone
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Again, some players just don't bother to learn the rules, and that's fine if it works for their group
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But it's not the well-balanced D&D that can facilitate any player or DM to work with you
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So don't make this your motto if you're really just lazy about learning the rules
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It comes across as all those people who quote Marilyn Monroe, who say, like, if you can't handle me at my worst, you don't deserve me at my best
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And that's actually like a really horrible attitude to take towards your relationships
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Yes, do what sounds fun, but the rules can help you do that. Last one, misleading advice number five
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Creating a powerful character is an illusion because your DM will just compensate by making the game harder
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It a big assumption to think that every DM is tailoring every encounter to their players power levels skill levels decision making My style is often to create an encounter that I think sounds fun and isn completely impossible
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and then I just want to see how the players will surprise me in handling it. Not every DM is going to compensate for powerful characters
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And most parties have a mix of people who are choosing something powerful they've been looking forward to
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and someone who just picks something that maybe isn't the best class and subclass with the best spells
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but it's something that sounds fun to them. You know, they want to play some anime character concept they came up with
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The other part is even if your DM is making the game more difficult to raise it up with whatever power level your character is at
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that will not make the player not enjoy the game. It will make the player feel epic
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Don't tell your players to not make powerful characters just because you don't want to have to power things up
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If it's not your style to adapt everything to the players and you just want to keep your world pretty intact and however the players interact with it, whatever
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then yeah, your players can make whatever powerful characters they want. So here are some main takeaways
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There is no virtue in playing a weak character and there's no shame in playing a strong character
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Rules are a framework for role playing. The most well-balanced players will understand both
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New players make weak characters because they're learning. Experienced players make weak characters because they know the rules and they are making a conscious choice to explore a concept
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Resentment towards players who create powerful characters is based on an intrapersonal issue
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That player doesn't need to change anything about their character just because they are using the mechanics of the game
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If they're a jerk in some other way, yeah, give them a talking to. So, do you agree with me? Do you think I'm beating a dead horse or preaching to the choir
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Did everyone already understand these nuances and caveats to these concepts and I needlessly made this video
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Or do you think this is something that you should share with other people and get a discussion going
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Cast sending in the comments down below and please subscribe and like this video
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So Opal and I, we're just a husband and wife, Dungeons & Dragons duo, creating content
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We love the hobby, and you should check out her videos as well. We're the founders and main writers for FlutesLute.com, where we write a bunch of articles
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We have over 100 of them now about different Dungeons & Dragons topics
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I highly recommend you go to the article that is related to this video
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and see how I've expounded a lot more in that article than I did in this video
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So again, have fun optimizing and making cool characters while roleplaying your heart out
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Again, this is Flute saying have a good adventure this weekend, and I'll see you in the next video
