Tentacular Aesthetic
The walls between the worlds grow thinner. Horrors beyond our reckoning seep through. Our heroines have been delayed. Judging by those fiendish appendages, Team Bounty Hunter +1 have a pretty good excuse for not rushing directly to Antipaladin’s aid. I just wish for Patches’s sake that one of them had made their save.
It’s been a little while since we talked about reflavoring. The term is a catch-all for the practice of using the same mechanic to represent multiple different concepts. The advantage/disadvantage system from 5e may be the poster child here, with the same “roll two dice and take the better result” standing in for everything from divine road flares to helpful fruit bats. But rather than the game-design side of things, I find myself interested in the player’s side. And particularly in magic users.
In today’s comic, a bunch of fiendish arms reaching through micro-portals is represented mechanically by the black tentacles spell. In practice, that’s a GM creating an encounter with some ready-made rules. But if you happen to have your own spell list, there’s no reason you couldn’t pull the same trick. Describing your own black tentacles as Ghost Rider style chains, animated seaweed, or grabby origami can all work.
The same principle works for nearly any spell in the game. Magic missile can just as easily be miniature meteors falling out the sky (I’m sure Melf would be proud). That spiritual weapon can become a giant spiked lollipop (Jester would be proud). You could even transform booming blade into the five point palm exploding heart technique (Pai Mei would destroy you for stealing his technique). The possibilities are endless! But just as importantly, they aren’t unlimited.
When you reflavor your magic so hard that it begins to behave differently in the game world, you begin to run into problems. For example, would those aforementioned miniature meteor magic missiles still function underground? Could you use that giant lollipop to supplement your provisions on a wilderness trek? Is that weirdly kung-fu version of booming blade something your monk pal can learn? These are the questions that come up when creativity runs amok, and they can quickly turn “cool flavor idea” into “unfair advantage.”
So for today’s discussion, why don’t we talk about the aesthetic modifications we slap onto our spells? What’s the best example from your own game? And have you ever seen one that went too far? Tell us all about your acid splash blood spurts, alcohol-infused dragon’s breaths, and Google-based legend lore searches down in the comments!
ADD SOME NSFW TO YOUR FANTASY! If you’ve ever been curious about that Handbook of Erotic Fantasy banner down at the bottom of the page, then you should check out the “Quest Giver” reward level over on The Handbook of Heroes Patreon. Thrice a month you’ll get to see what the Handbook cast get up to when the lights go out. Adults only, 18+ years of age, etc. etc.
I am reminded of a 3.5 feat, “Spell thematics”.
Basically, at the cost of a +1 slot, you could make your spell effects look like they were … whatever your chosen theme was. Skulls. Flowers. Anything.
It might seem nothing but fluff, but it did increase the Spellcraft DC to identify by 5, so … stylish and somewhat effective, I guess?
I appreciate that they attached an actual rule to the concept:
https://www.realmshelps.net/charbuild/feat/Spell_Thematics
I just wish that the effect did something actually useful. :/
Well… the DC increases and very stupid opponents might be … even more … scared? I guess?
Also, it allows players who always wanted to have a personalized display to have it.
I mean… It is mostly a buff for counterspell battles:
https://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/castingSpells.htm
But counterspelling is so niche in 3.X that it’s barely a consideration.
Pathfinder comes to rescue! (However not allowed in PFS :/ )
Magic Tricks (Prestidigitation)’s Thaumaturgic Aesthetics option let’s you customize your displays and gives Disguise Rank/2 to Spellcraft DC for free! It however also requires Deceptive feat, which may throw a wrench in your build. Some DMs I have played with do remove/lighten these requirements when you ask nice enough though (๑•﹏•)
As this is not it’s only benefit, it feels much better than feat mentioned above 🙂
There are two problems with that feat. First, reskinning spells is already part of the base rules, so it doesn’t actually do anything. From the DMG: “A magic missile could be a dagger-shaped burst of energy that flies through the air. It also could be a fistlike creation of force that bashes into its target…
You can let players describe the spells that their characters cast. Don’t, however, allow a player to use an original description that makes a spell seem more powerful than it is.”
Second, the existence of that feat suggests that refluffing costs a feat. 3.5 has a number of feats like that that allow you to do something that you already could do / should be allowed and resolved ad hoc by the DM. They’re not worth a feat slot and they remove options rather than giving new ones.
It’s the same argument for newfangled classes like “thief.” You’re telling me that I only have a 10% chance to successfully pick a pocket as an Apprentice? We just house ruled it in the last campaign when I played a fighting-man. This whole “Supplement I: Greyhawk” thing should be stricken from the records.
…
Snarky OD&D references notwithstanding, this really is a problem that 3.X exposes. It’s endemic to every system that has to balance power creep with design space: do you codify the thing that you should be able to just *do* as a hero? It’s nice to have a build-around ability, but it sucks when that gets cited as a reason *not* to allow something.
I first became aware of this issue with the body bludgeon rage power over in PF1e:
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/barbarian/rage-powers/paizo-rage-powers/body-bludgeon-ex/
Beating a motherfucker with another motherfucker ought to be something that EVERY barbarian can get behind. But adjudicating that biz will vary wildly from table to table. Write it down and make it a cool optional power at 10th level, and suddenly every strong man who ever wanted to throw a goblin at another goblin back at 1st level is retroactively doing it wrong.
“You’re not supposed to get that option until later, and then only if you take THING.”
Bleh. Such are the ways of complexity and system sprawl. :/
One of the things I don’t really understand, like additional options to existing mechanics will break the game, grrr!
I thought it was a 3.5 disease that would pass after PF2 but no, you still need a Skill Feat to intimidate multiple critters simultaneously (ー_ー゛)
As a consolation it can be said that skill feats being separate makes that a little bit more palatable in PF2.
My solution is except for x per day feats and Style feats (aka Monk feats) letting people use those feats’ effect but impose -4 or -6 penalty (skills do need a little bit more penalty most of the time compared to attack rolls) to checks. If you use Spheres of Guile, spending Skill Leverage is also encouraged for this use by the writers themselves.
> letting people use those feats’ effect but impose -4 or -6 penalty (skills do need a little bit more penalty most of the time compared to attack rolls) to checks
My situation as well. The most common one at my table is “fast crawl.”
https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/fast-crawl/
Rolling out of the way before finding your feat ought to be possible for everyone, not just Rogues who take this one unoptimized talent. Go on and make that Acrobatics check with a -5 penalty!
One of my favourite recent characters was called Susan Oop (Sue to her friends), everything was soup themed- acid splash? Really hot Minestrone. Cure Wounds? Give them some tasty soup.
Some odd glottal stops on “Sue Oop.” Must be on account of all the soup in her esophagus.
How to teach a baby dragon how to use it’s breath weapon.
Get a bag of finely ground pepper, put it over his nose and have inhale sharply…just don’t do it out in the middle of a dry wheat field.
Could… Could dragons use that trick to recharge their breath weapons more quickly?
I mean, that’s the core mechanics behind the Powers in Savage worlds, they just call it Trappings.
You want an eldritch warlock, releasing screaming skulls from their hand that seek out enemies? You are a holy warrior, who releases the divine energy as a ray of light that engulfs the enemy? A wizard throwing a magic missile? A ranger, summoning a magical arrow flying towards the enemy?
Take the Bolt power, and choose your Trappings as your aesthetics dictates.
Love me some savage worlds. But like we discussed back here…
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/reflavoring
…I’ve always had trouble shaking the feeling that leaning to hard on this biz in terms of system yields a “samey” feel.
As the walls between worlds grow thinner, so do those between Handbooks, it seems!
And those between game sessions! Those arms look familiar…
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/side-session
Welcome to Handbook-World! Where the plot is made up and the experience points don’t matter. 😛
https://media.tenor.com/P3KHbX7om4QAAAAC/where-everything-is-made-up-whose-line-is-it-anyway.gif
Either I was unaware of the Spell Thematics feat in 3.5 or I had forgotten it and generalized as basic ability. (I think I tied it to ranks in Spellcraft.)
As DM, I once had the PCs face the undead remnants of a party similar to their own. This “Skeleton Crew” had all the core classes represented, and the Skeletal Mage shot screaming skulls as the visual component for *every* spell. It was all flavor text, as the players could easily figure out what had just hit them by the effect it had, but it added some extra creepy flavor to the encounter.
In a separate campaign, one low-level wizard was given a heart-to-heart by her more image-conscious tenant, an illusionist, concerning her rather generic spell visuals and how to create a more consistent “brand.”
Wasn’t there a dude who shot screaming skulls back in Twisted Metal?
Hmmm…
Found him!
https://twistedmetal.fandom.com/wiki/Mr._Grimm
I’ve always loved flavoring Eldritch Blast and Magic Missile to the specific caster. Heck, one wizard class I use from time to time has this built in to school flavor, with every magic missile listing what this wizardly order shapes their blasts as. My favorite specific example was when I let someone turn Warlock into a kitsune race as class, doing things like changing Armor of Agathys to Foxfire Shroud.
Neat! I quite like magic missile as a sort of secret handshake for a club.
All of my Fiend Warlock’s spells were flavored to be super evil. His *Fireball* por example was a skull-shaped explosion of black fire.
The internet has ruined us, I have never seen *Evard’s Black Tentacles* cast without the obligatory jokes.
Yo… There are A LOT of exploding skulls in this thread, lol.
Well, exploding femurs don’t really have that same oomph in battle.
I wonder if exploding skulls are chordate-specific symbols of evil? Maybe sapient insect races recognize evil mages by their exploding-exoskeleton-themed spells.
And the explosion sounded like an evil cackle. Since he had a bat familiar said familiar would crap in his hand whenever he cast it.
> And the explosion sounded like an evil cackle
I mean, that just goes without saying.
“Magic missile can just as easily be miniature meteors falling out the style […]”
Style? Did you mean “sky” there?
“For example, would those aforementioned miniature meteor magic missiles still function underground?”
I don’t see why not. There’s no real extra advantage to having the spell work this way, since Magic Missile doesn’t normally require access to the open sky to function. Okay, so it strains suspension of disbelief a bit, but what about most RPGs doesn’t?
As for players looking to bleed description into mechanics, I have a very hard-and-fast rule that it doesn’t fly. I specifically tell players “Hey, I don’t care how you describe things, but those descriptions cannot, in any way, alter how the thing operates mechanically.” And I Veto any attempts to work around that.
There are always going to be players who agree at first, and then try to weasel their way out of that agreement later. Three strikes, and they aren’t invited back, my reasoning being that they’re better off in a game that’s going to more closely align to their style of play; some people are completely down with gonzo, over-the-top, rule of cool gameplay, and more power to them. It just clashes with my own style, and when I’m running the game, I have the last word.
What do you mean? It says “sky.”
>_>
Gaslight Gatekeep Gamemaster
The furthest I’ve gone in reflavoring spells was in 5e, at a time where the Alchemist class had not yet been published.
I wanted to play an Alchemist. The class didn’t exist though, so I had to get creative. I did that with the Cleric of Light class/domain. Healing and bolstering spells became elixirs, blasty spells became incendiaries, and the fact that I technically had Cleric requirements in there (worship a God and follow their rules) worked well enough with the character, who considered himself to be favored by a God of good fortune (and also the sun) and so tried to follow that God’s ways. If he ever erred (though I don’t think he ever did), he’d completely understand why the ability to make all his potions, and poisons, and bombs might fly right out of his mind.
When you’re a demolitions expert, you could do a lot worse than worshiping the god of luck. The god of all-my-remaining-fingers might have one up on ’em though.
I love changing the aesthetics of spells. It’s arguably the main reason I usually play casters. Why cast a mere fireball when it could be a dragon’s head that portals in and breathes fire on the enemy? Or a ball of magma that bowls over the enemy?
My most memorable time though was actually while playing a different genre altogether. I was at a con playing the Kyle Rayner Green Lantern. Mechanically, my attacks basically consisted of a simple blast. But the GM challenged me to describe the blasts in a unique way. And so I did just that.
Every time I fired my blast, I described as the something different. One attack would have me swinging a large floating green frying pan, while the next attack would see a transparent train slamming into the enemy. Then I’d follow it up with a giant sized boot.
I had similiar fun time playing in a Feng Shui game where I never described the simple act of firing a gun the same way twice. Basically think of any John Woo movie.
> a dragon’s head that portals in and breathes fire on the enemy
Hey, I know that mage!
https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Sarkhan%27s+Rage
Love the Green Lantern example. That power set is all about creativity. Good on your GM for letting you do the thing!
It is not spells, but the flavor of changing the names of things in a base game that is more “open ended” (like 5e D&D) is something that allows for some neat alterations to weapons and armor. You don’t actually need a katana and the armor you wear to be specifically described as “samurai” or “ninja” (shinobi) in order to HAVE a ninja or samurai in a campaign. Just take that long sword and rename it. Describe your armor as whatever makes it sound cool to you and you have the exact same “stats” for everything (as they work) and yet, you are unique.
An example from an upcoming game I am going to be playing in, the player playing my husband in the game is going to be a halfling cook barbarian, and they have taken all their gear and modified their weapons to reflect cooking tools. Butchers cleavers and knives as axes and short swords, pots as helmets, wok shields (yes I know barbarians don’t use armor or shields, but they have made the items anyway XD ), rolling pins as clubs, etc.
Going to be interesting to go to war with a cook and if they are using all their cooking tools as weapons, I hope they clean them before they use them to cook after a battle!
Hey, battle chefs are no joke!
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/mithril
One of my groups has a thing called the Snowflake tax. There’s a fluff tax and a mechanical tax. Want to call your tiger companion a fox instead? That’s a fluffy snowflake. Want to make a spell key off a different stat? That’s a mechanical snowflake and has to be approved.
Snowflake as in “special and different?”
I suppose. I think they came up with it as a way for the rule of reflavoring to be used without getting out of control. Everyone has to pay the tax if they want to use it.
I played a Bard from the realm of dreams in a game once. I basically described her spellcasting as causing reality to start blending together, diluting slightly and turn water colorlike around her, as she drew power from the dream realm.
I also played a many times widow (She wasn´t a black widow, just cursed so that all her spouses would die on their wedding day). Her spells were flavored as the spirits of her spouses (Whose souls were bound to her, due to the curse) coming to her aid. With them acting as a group in AOE spells, while specific spouses would act for specific spells. Such as the Charm Person spell briefly taking power from the succubus she was married to (For all of 1 minute, before the succubus slipped resulting in a tragic holy water related accident). Or her Shield taking the form of her Knight Husband stepping in front of her.
One of my players played a dwarf monk in a 5e game that fought with a quarterstaff, reflavored as an ale keg. Whenever he hit someone with a crit, he would stop and make sure the keg was okay. Being a Kensei monk also meant the keg counted as magical when it came to damaging creatures.
I think my favorite Official example of this, would be in Tashas Cauldron of Everything, where they show an old hobbit farmer wizard whose magic missile looks like green chickens. Which also serves as their example of how one can re-flavor a spell.
I hope that you named your ultimate attack something suitably ridiculous.
*DEATH-TRANSCENDING POLYCULE PURI-PURI LOVE ATTACK, HYAAAAA!*
I have an arty that casts Catapult via Sans-style grvity manipulation via a gadget in one of his fake arms.
another arty was your classic scrap gremlin, so I had fun with things like fireball being an rpg, the thunder gauntlets from armorer being a bassball bat (no I did not spell that wrong), and magic missile being a swarm of homing rockets. The most hilarious one was probably silence and mending being a roll of duct tape
It’s been years since I paused my pacifist run, figuring I’d pick it back up and figure out how to win without fighting King Asgore eventually. Finally broke down and looked up a walkthrough thanks to your comment. Walkthrough says not fighting isn’t an option.
#rage
My witch that I play in the game I’m in on Mondays uses illusions for everything- her most used spell is Illusory Creature. She’s also a fortune teller, so all of her illusions take the form of Harrow (the in-universe equivalent of Tarot, which has one card per alignment per core stat) cards. Instead of just ‘illusory dragon’ she summons an illusion of The Tyrant, the card associated with Lawful Evil, and Charisma. Instead of an illusory soldier, she conjures The Paladin, the card associated with Lawful Good and Strength. The key note is that in pf2e, illusory creatures can deal damage (purely mental damage), and trigger weaknesses as if they were dealing the damage type that creature would actually inflict
so, for example, the illusion of the Tyrant takes the form of a blue dragon- so its bite does mental damage, but triggers weaknesses as if it dealt Piercing and Electric damage. It turns illusory creature into an incredibly versatile combat spell that is only really held back by the caster’s creativity, which is why she loves the spell so much.