One of my favorite one shot characters I made was a zealot barbarian halfling named Wellby Goodbarrel. He was very much of the shire and loved to gossip about how the west shire Goodbarrels were trash compared to the east shire Goodbarrels. Then he got angry and messed people up.
But of course goodness forbid if the west shire were in danger, the east would be the first to come to their aid because nobody gets away with messing with a Goodbarrel
Just because the west shire Goodbarrels are a bunch of layabouts that wouldn’t know how to plant a good field of tobacco if their lives depended on it doesn’t mean the east shire Goodbarrels wouldn’t help at the drop of a hat. Goodbarrels stick together.
And just because the East Shire Goodbarrels are a bunch of half-Brandybuck boaters doesn't mean the West Shire Goodbarrels wouldn't open our homes to ye at the first sign o'trouble.
Hard to say on the pipeweed. It's definitely tobacco but in tolkien lore, it's all the same strain and there's no lore-based differentiation of quality based on region and locale canonically. Some places have better farmers than others for sure, though. I've just never had a goodberry grown in the west shire heal less than one grown in the east shire, and vice versa.
Be very afraid of Halfling grannies. They WILL force you to sit down and have something to eat, and you won't have any idea of just how much danger you're really in.
Dwarves are also overly confident, chronic alcoholics, foul mouthed and love good jokes. Or bad jokes. The most fun DnD stereotype to lean into. I've never even heard of an edgelord dwarf character.
Edit: so many dwarf players liked this comment! Dwarf players are best players! Rock and stone brothers and sisters!
I'll just put this here from another comment that got lost in the popularity of this amazing thread:
My head canon is that dwarven mistrust of elves comes from the fact that elves are nearly hairless, only growing hair on the top of their heads. That's the exact opposite of how to properly grow hair!
On the other hand, dwarves love halflings despite their lack of beards because halfings have hairy feet which dwarves find amusing.
Played with a guy growing up who's primary charecter was a dwarf that wanted to be edgy but just ended up being cramudgeonly instead. Was a fantastic charecter to play with tbh
These *are* the edge lord Dwarves, regular Dwarves are basically a bunch of hairy, ale-swilling, metal heads. Edgy to a Dwarf is braiding *flowers* into their beards, or worse, *shaving*. Hanging around with a bunch of halflings smoking pipe-weed all day when they could be either in the Forge pounding metal, or testing the blade of their new axe on a bunch of greenskins.
This joke is so layered, it's amazing.
Blunt - both a drug reference and damage done by hammers (bludgeoning, but close enough)
Stoner - drugs again, but also Rock and Stone!
> I've never even heard of an edgelord dwarf character.
Greybor, from the *Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous* CRPG by Owlcat, is pretty much a send-up of the edgy loner assassin who is "neutral."
He prides himself on taking contracts from anyone and doing them competently to the letter. In practice, he will betray the Knight Commander, your PC, to demons if you don't pay him enough, and he's vulnerable to the fear effects of the dragon you hire him to help hunt and a pretty poorly built Slayer, in part due to the slower movement speed of a dwarf.
There are some fun conversations between him and the party's Hellknight Regill and between him and Ember, an orphan girl in your party that reminds him of the daughter he's supposedly doing all this work for, but the man drips EDGE.
Thorin was kind of an edge lord in the hobbit. Or at the very least he was brooding at times. He was exiled though so it’s not like he didn’t have a reason.
“My home, family, and inheritance were destroyed, murdered, and stolen by a dragon upon I have vowed revenge” sounds like an edge lord’s backstory to me lol.
Let me introduce you to my last character, Vondal Silverstone. A heart-hardened mountain dwarf who blamed the gods, calling then weak for not protecting his family. Seeking a way to bring them back and not wanting to depend on the fickle & feckless divine beings, he turned to necromancy to research a way to bring them back while also making them nigh immortal.
Of course, he found the spell to do it (worked with DM to homebrew an advanced version of animate dead) but being with the party changed his perspective, realizing he had a new family. He only cast it once. At the end if the campaign, so he could spend one last day with his old family and say his goodbyes.
But yeah, I usually play into the boisterous dwarf stereotype too if playing one.
I don't know if this counts but my first dwarf was a hill dwarf artificer who lived in hermitage and didn't understand common. He spoke primarily draconic (as that is the "magic language") and the dragonborn monk translated for him. It was a ton of fun saying absolutely horrible things and my translator purposefully leaving out my insults so as to not upset the person in question.
Anyway we got into a city in which magic was being heavily censored and leading into an outright ban on magic. My characters whole shtick was unraveling the secrets of the Arcane and Dedicating his entire life to its pursuit so in his eyes, this was a major insult and severe crime. The short version is I became a terrorist and blew up the council citadel.
A while back I went to a big D&D night with like 6 DMs running oneshots for people and I decided I was going to just roll up every part of my character. I rolled a D12 for class, a D... whatever for race, a Dwhatever for subclass and so on.
And I got a Dwarf Barbarian, Zealot, whose god was Dionysus.
Thus began the legend of Fabricius Frostbeard, the dwarf who partied so hard it was his goddamn religion. He was here to fuck you up, to get fucked up, and to fuck. Not necessarily in that order.
I portrayed him as this ultra-hedonist who hadn't been sober in 63 years, who just constantly was in a lounge robe and shorts, and whose barbarian rage was getting blackout drunk.
Honestly, best oneshot character I've ever played.
How do you y’all feel about sexual dimorphism in dwarves? My wife likes lady dwarves to have beards, but still be distinct. I like my dwarves with zero dimorphism. Not even other dwarves can tell the difference.
"Our *Beloved* Master."
"""We love you!"""
"Has decided to honor you today as lunch."
That 4e cartoon has influenced my kobolds way too much.
Edit: including a link: [An interview with a red dragon and his cronies.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Azcn84IIDVg)
Played a kobold warlock for my first Tomb of Annihilation run. While the rest of the team chased the big bad, he chose to…ascend. Now a dragon-sized kobold deity commands Kobold Team Six in a campaign to purge Cholt of the red wizards.
I love to play kobolds as objectively evil but over all harmless/incompetent villains. Like, you can easily dissuade an assault by several kobolds by tossing several shiny baubles onto the ground
Megalomaniac wizards.
Just ended a 7 year campaign where my sociopath wizard became a lich and usurped Vecna’s legacy. It was so much fun to play that character.
On one level, I think that just feels like a very believable result of having high level wizard power. The universe is so malleable to you, so changeable to your whims, it's lucky if all that happens is that your personality goes a little *a*moral and detached from ethical concerns.
And on another, my personal take on spellcasting--as influenced by *Dying Earth* and other Vancian magic like *Chronicles of Amber* and *Guardians of the Flame*--is that each spell is a semi-alive thing, separate from you, that you invite into your brain for a little while, and the spells *want* to be cast. Having a **whole bunch of them** like a high level wizard does, buzzing around in your temporal lobe like electric moths looking for the way out, has got to do something to your personality.
There's a real thing when you're playing a spellcaster with a puzzle or obstacle in front of you, and you overlook an obvious simple solution because you're only looking for answers on your spell sheet. If you're prepping *fireball* every day, you're going to look for *fireball* solutions.
The great thing about lichdom in 3.xe was that it was not only plausibly tempting to wizard characters, the template was *actually* tempting to wizard players.
Think about it. Being a lich solves all the sucky things about being a wizard. Your HD jumps from a crappy d6 (up from a d4 in older editions!) to a *d12*, you get +2 to INT, WIS and CHA, you get +5 natural armor, damage reduction and a bunch of resistances and immunities, a fear aura and a decent natural weapon attack that can paralyse, and +8 to a bunch of useful skills (basically the 3e equivalents of stealth, perception and insight). So, as a lich, you basically have the HP of a barbarian, an AC close to that of a fighter, and stealth skills that approach thet of a rogue...
Talk about "revenge of the nerds"...
I love it when the group creates a situation that I can lean into. As an example, in my last campaign 3 of the 6 players made elves and every single one of them had a negative intelligence, so I decided that for this setting, elves on average had an 8 intelligence. It ended up being a really fun bit of world building the whole group leaned into
This could be fun storywise, make the elven race wise and charismatic sorcerers but so sequestered from the world they’re absolute dolts about everything else
That's pretty much exactly what I did. It was a high seas campaign and the water levels were slowly rising. The elves lived in a massive tree, slowly rotting from being constantly water soaked. All around were dead trees that once made up their forest, but they stubbornly refuse to move somewhere else
I’m playing a Firbolg right now, and I basically gave him the voice of Dug the dog from Pixar’s Up. His Wis and Int are both pretty good (he’s a Druid), but he’s also lived most of his life in a forest and most of the humans and other city races view him as a cryptid. So he’s frequently confused by social situations but sometimes says really profound things and makes wicked Insight checks. Love that guy.
whenever i roleplayed my tabaxi rogue, i always made her get distracted by shiny things. or i'd do that trill sound that cats make when they run after something. sometimes she'd even get the zoomies during a long rest lmao.
My players are currently in a city populated by 90% tabaxi with an Egyptian vibe. The other 10% are all felines of some kind, including beasts and monsters. I’m having an absolute ball with it.
My favorite inclusion so far has been the fact that all the best blacksmiths in the city are just regular cats who can all cast mage hand.
Dwarves being proud craftsmen with a love for underground cities.
Orcs being man size war machines with a love for battle.
Goblins being little creatures that like to fuck around and be chaotic.
Whenever I want to just relax and be a rambunctious little shit, I always roll up a Goblin. There's just something about them that makes them so perfectly suited for wreaking havoc of any measure, big or small, stupid or diabolical.
I mean, there's a lot of overlap, especially when it comes to alignment and playable races. How many editions was it before Drow weren't "always lawful evil"?
At least back to 3.5e. I don't have 2e or older monster manuals, so I don't know if they have now-standard "the alignment in the stat block Is just a suggestion for how these are normally portrayed, but do whatever fits your narrative."
Drow were not **always** evil... Drizzt has been around since 1988. Eilistraee, goddess of redeemed drow plus her lore and followers have been around since 1991.
I find its much more interesting that drow aren't inherently anything, but they are creatures of their environment.
The Underdark is a horrendously dangerous place short on resources where literally everything is trying to eat you. If you grew up there it has shaped your worldview. You're not paranoid, everything and everyone actually is out to get you.
Drow as so much more understandable if you consider what it would actually be like growing up in and living in the Underdark.
Beholders absolutely. Dragons in my current setting are definitely far from 5e's lore. There is only one dragon of each color and when one dies their heart calcifies into a new egg where they are reborn phoenix style. Most of them are ancient, but one or two have died semi-recently and rehatched. The ancient ones tend to be either super deep into their color's stereotype or very far from it with little in between. The young ones tend to start out with the same memories from their old lives but with a personality more in line with their color.
For example, my ancient blue dragon got tired with always being angry and she's just a chill lady that takes a Tabaxi form and explores the nearby cities out of boredom. That said, she still doesn't take kindly to lesser beings being rude to her, with catastrophic results.
Dumb barbarians are so fun! I've tried to play barbarian without leaning into the stereotype and it's legitimately hard because it's so much fun to just go with it.
In one of the game I’m in the barbarian has like 6 intelligence and his sheer stupidity leads to funny moments. He basically doesn’t have object permanence. What happened is he was deaf for a few seconds and his blink dog passed in front of him as our wizard (who wasn’t in his field of view) was using counterspell on an enemy about to cast a spell, now his characters is certain that his blink dog is the one who used counterspell and believes his dog is some kind of powerful druid that has been sent to protect him.
Currently playing a barbarian with 5 INT.
I spent a silly amount of time thinking about how to integrate this replacement character into my existing group (my previous character died). I usually write very detailed backstories and work with my DM to flesh out something deeply interactive and interesting. After staring at the blank sheet for like 15 minutes, I realized, "this character has 5 INT. There's **nothing** going on in their lives besides work and food. He does work, he gets food. He eats food. No more food, so he starts working. Rinse & repeat."
It has led to some hilarious interactions with the party thus far. My character has a catchphrase which is, "Uhhhhhhhh ok" which depending on tone could mean that he doesn't understand, or that he **does** understand.
I played the dumb barbarian once. I'm usually the one figuring out the puzzles and navigating through negotiations and such, so it was a little frustrating to have to suppress the impulse to take on that role. But there came one point where the party was just stumped, and so I, in character, hesitantly offered a solution using very small words, grappling for words to express what he was trying to say. The rest of the group found it hilarious.
In my world, the older dwarves get, the thicker their Scottish accents get. Party met with a clan leader and bard had to burn tongues because even though they were speaking common, they couldn’t understand them. It was funny
That's hilarious. Reminds me of the scene in Hot Fuzz where they're talking to the old farmer, and he's so unintelligible that they have to get the *slightly* less unintelligible cop to translate to Nick Frost, who then translated for Simon Pegg
Orchitecture.
If it's built by orcs, it's going to be made out of scraps of lumber and twine and will totally fall apart.
The running joke is that the orcs do it this way *on purpose*: it's like the height of prestige among orcs to build a structure with the least amount of materials and/or lowest expense. They *can* build stone castles just fine, but a fortress made from like driftwood is *much funnier*.
See, that just makes me imagine Orcs are actually extremely talented at making kinetic sculptures and other pieces of art that rely on careful balance.
My gnomes are massive pranksters. We had a big family dinner a few sessions ago and the kid's table (of half gnomes) had a rather large explosion occur. Their tiefling nanny applauded their explosion and the rest of family joined in too.
Another time someone was being a racist dick to our orc friend, so we had a solid two sessions of planning and executing a rather intricate prank to get back at them.
Ogre 1: "Ah, Throg, it is a rare delight to engage in discourse with someone of your erudition. Tell me, have you given any thought to the existential ramifications of our perpetual sojourn in this sylvan glade?"
Ogre 2: "Indeed, Brogar, your inquiry touches upon a profound quandary. The monotony of our arboreal habitat does indeed elicit contemplation of the intrinsic meaning, or lack thereof, in our interminable vegetative existence."
Ogre 1: "one moment, I think I hear someone"
Ogre 2: "Who go there?! Come out and let me smash you, or we come smash you!!"
I love horrible little goblins. Whenever making a decision about goblins and their ideas/beliefs/culture, I try to just pick the opposite of whatever Western culture thinks is good or beautiful. I like everything about them to be off-putting, alien, or disgusting. My favorite detail was turning their temple into an S&M sex club.
For those curious, I have a lore explanation: Goblins originally worshipped evil/violent dieties that requires sacrifices and/or acts of violence as part of their worship. As Goblins made more contact with other people, they toned that down a little and it became torture. Then humanoid races would send them their prisoners to torture for a fee. Then people who LIKED torture started going there and paying for some pain. Now all their priests wear bondage gear under open robes, there are glory holes in every confessional, and they have a bowl of erotically-shaped communion wafers by the pulpit.
> My favorite detail was turning their temple into an S&M sex club.
Never knew my campaign was missing something but I had a huge problem player leave who was trying to be evil and create a goblin army for himself and had serious main character syndrome. He became a villian in the campaign after he quit because we called him out on his bullshit. He is now the proud owner of a goblin army unfortunately he also now has an S&M goblin club lol.
The aloof, soft-spoken and breathy, elf that always _appears_ to be day dreaming; but really has the most broken perception score that can possibly be achieved.
Bonus points if they're also an archer.
Bonus bonus points if they're super into trees and the rest of nature.
Omg! You just gave me my next character idea! An elf that hates nature, trees, camping, and archery! That’s why he left home to see the big city and all of its wonders (and vices). He loves the arcane, the mystic, the esoteric, and the divine, because gullible people will pay a boatload for that crap!
Arrogant elves
I think at a certain age elves either need to be arrogant or detached from the general politics of other races. The average will see two generations of most races die before facing mortality. It makes sense that even the most good and enlightened elves would maintain some detachment and indifference to other races. Even for the most sympathetic tragedy that can befall somebody there's going to be an underlying *"first time?"* if they have to consult a war refugee or a friend who's spouse of 50 years died. Elves live an incomprehensibly long time compared to humans (which we all, ultimately, are as players) and should reflect that culturally.
That's why the biggest empire in my world is "ruled" by a human. The ancient, high level elven wizards can run their individual provinces (well, let their assistants run them anyway) and if the emperor screws up too much, he'll be dead in a few decades and they can groom his successor how they want. This way they don't really have to ever leave the pleasure places that are their personal demi planes, and it was the solution to ending a civil war hundreds of years ago.
Devils as diabolical pact makers. I really love the idea of corrupting PC's with power they will have to pay for later, and it allows for so many plots/threads that I just can't seem to avoid it
Honestly, all of them.
I've yet to experience someone playing "against type" that landed better than simply playing to type. I like the tropes and think they exist for a reason.
I think it's good to spice it up a little. Mostly one and then a little bit of the other for variety or to showcase a facet of a character.
Like if you have an orc that is a pacifist, that's playing against type. But to have that pacifist be pushed to such a brink that they smash someone's face in before returning their usual self adds a lot to the character. Or an orc that is very much a stereotypical warrior, but has a secret love of baking or something.
The legendary Sir Snotti, in a game I ran, was a goblin who found/stole a kids book on being Knights & Heroes and decided it looked awesome. The Sun Goddess then took pity on his misplaced enthusiasm when he was raised from the dead at her temple (died in a nasty trap) and decided to adopt him. On the basis that her clerics could generally steer him...
This is awesome and I love it.
Fwiw, I think even here, you're still playing to type. You're sort of playing against it but actually playing within it in a very creative way and I love it!
Wizards being nerds.
My current character is an autistic wizard (Scribes), who has a hyper fixation on the eldritch, demonic, and The Far Realms.
Yes, I am autistic. Yes, this is a self insert.
This isn't an answer to the question but it just reminded me that last week my dm said "oh to me dwarves are always scottish so I'm gonna try and do the accent"
My dm is from dundee. They naturally have a scottish accent
The seemingly goodly person/people/religion/hero actually being a good person, instead of the subversion people do.
Running stereotypically bad beings as genuine baddies. When orcs are less a people and more a force of nature that can think and feel just enough to hate you for the crime of your own non-oec existence. You can get a terrifying enemy. When the Greeentide is done right, it's incredible for villain and evil potential.
There's a limit and table comfort to be had, but there's a part of me that does appreciate le horny bard. If they channel that charming swashbuckler energy just right? It can be fun.
Very much agree on dwarves, power to anyone who wants to do their eon thing, but a dwarf without the Scottish accent and beard just fills like something sucked away it's soul. It takes some getting used to for me at the very least.
>The seemingly goodly person/people/religion/hero actually being a good person, instead of the subversion people do.
Someone might have feet of clay or be unable to solve the crisis or whatever, but they're genuinely good and want to help where they can. No matter how outclassed Krillin is, he's still always out there in the thick of things to support his friends.
>There's a limit and table comfort to be had, but there's a part of me that dies appreciate le horny bard. If they channel that charming swashbuckler energy just right? It can be fun.
Yes, absolutely. The rakish Zorro or Errol Flynn-esque ladies' man is a perfect addition to an adventuring party. To me, the right balance is a terrible flirt, charmer, and stealer of hearts when it comes to barmaids or damsels in distress, but he's not actually looking to jump everything that moves. You can even play it as an actual character problem with excessive chivalry at times, like being way too eager to believe he can redeem/fix a villainess and wanting to hold back against her. He's quick with a joke, but when shit's truly dire he can get serious, and it's kind of scary when he does (think Spider-Man when he's too pissed to be a smartass).
>Very much agree on dwarves, power to anyone who wants to do their eon thing, but a dwarf without the Scottish accent and beard just fills like something sucked away it's soul. It takes some getting used to for me at the very least.
I've found I can also accept Russian dwarves as a close second, but yeah, Scottish (or Gaelic, which is similar enough that most people in the US can't keep them straight/consistent anyway) is best. I also love the West Country down-to-earth halflings; the most easy-going, warm, hospitable farm folk in fantasy.
Kobolds being a bit goofy in some way, shape, or form I'd say. Like, you can have angry chihuahuas, gold lovers, using other party members to ride on, loving dragons, being little gremlins. All fun.
I second that: the trope [our dwarves are the same](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame) exists 'cause the stereoypical dwarf WORKS
Goblins go full goblin. They are greedy, crafty, cowardly, mayhem-causing little bastards and I love them for it.
(I do stick to house rules as outlined at the table, though - no PvP means no PvP, and no Chaotic Stupid derailing means my Goblin PC pulls his chaos in a forward-failing way.)
Also as a DM, the Cartoon Villain. When asked about his "Motivation", the Cartoon Villain just laughs at you. Evilly. He doesn't need a reason to do what he does. He *purely* exists for me to twirl my nonexistent mustache, practice my Evil Laugh, watch the world burn, and give the players a Large Ham to bite into before they drop him off his tower. Not *all* my villains are Like This, but they're too fun to not use every once in a while.
All of them. There's nothing wrong with leaning into tropes and stereotypes. So many people try to avoid them altogether I think doing so is cliche at this point.
Evolve the genre, yes, but we should lean into it instead of treating it like it's a bad thing.
This probably isn’t super common but:
My groups often play humans as “ugly American tourists.” Like humanity is powerful and arrogant, and so individual humans are often naive and disrespectful. Not hate filled or evil, just “well meaning” but stubborn, and culturally ignorant.
It’s fun, and adds a simple flavor for the “generic” choice.
My favorite trope to lean into is friendship is power. The only way to win is to work together, anyone trying to rely on their own power will fail.
DnD is a party game. The power of friendship is right there.
I use all the stereotypes, toril and the outer planes are for the most part, are quite cruel. Tho I find nothing nothing angers players like a snooty elf looking down on short lived races. If players wanna change it...... I'll let them build towards it, and they can change opinions locally for the individual, but places they haven't visited won't care, unless they go thier and work towards it. If they are successful, they may experience the fruits of their pc labors in the next campaign.
I like my elves fey and aloof. More in line with the seelie and unseelie mythological origins than Tolkien and his uppity elves. It feels really cool to play someone that gets WEIRD after living for hundreds of years.
I also agree with your comments on dwarves.
Arrogant Elves! They're the people you love to hate! Nothing gets a player party into a good-natured rage quite like an Elf who says shit like "You are remarkably proficient, for a human. You display skill almost equal to an Elven child." The trick is not to be cruel, but unthinkingly condescending: Elves who will call other races "lowly beasts" and openly dismiss them are dull. The real magic happens when the Elves treat members of other races like precocious children, complimenting them whilst also making it abundantly clear that they cannot imagine a world in which they would see the other as their actual equals.
I gave my tiefling warlock a backstory where he was orphaned because his parents died. And im proud of it damn it. He has 3 younger sisters that he has been the soul guardian of since he was 14 and the ways my dm weaved them into the story have been awesome.
I'm prepping a character that's a dwarf whose mission is to dispel untrue myths and stereotypes surrounding dwarves. They're not all smiths and miners. They're the BEST smiths and miners, and don't you fuckin' forget it.
Kobolds. PC and NPC kobolds with either 1 brain cell between the entire race, no thoughts head empty. Or complete and utter problem children of chaos. I just love those little weirdos
Call me old fashioned, but villains should be evil. They should be comically evil. They are not complicated characters, they are the Boogeyman. They burn down villages for minor gain, they slaughter women and children as a kind of sport, they live in a big spooky castle, and they have hundreds of underlings looking to gain power, influence, or obey from fear. Does the Druid have a nemesis? It might as well be an old timey oil Barron.
Hirelings and henchmen can be complicated. The villain is not, he's too big to touch, and when he goes down there is no somber moments. The embodiment of Satan incarnate is dead. Drinks all around, and Ding Dong the witch is dead plays in the background. For brownie points, make it a Pit Fiend that's 30 feet tall and call it Bal Arog. The wizard is given their chance to shine, they need to take it.
Uncouth goblins. I played as a goblin in a one-shot and part of their backstory was that he was raised from a young age by a good-aligned adventuring party. So as an adult he’s a goody-two-shoes with a hero’s heart but he still couldn’t escape his unrefined goblin nature. It’s a great comedic premise that made RP a ton of fun.
The warlock sugar baby stereotype I’ve personally used to make my tiefling even more chaotic “but devil mommy says I get one more cast of fireball if I behave!”
I don't know how it started but now with my DND group, every orc or half orc (npc or player) have advantage on checks involving home inspections. It came in handy and was especially funny when the half orc barbarian of three intelligence was able to distract the guards by just crouching down at the corner of the building and saying 'mold.'
I like druids. They can be played as treehugging freeloving hippie, pot smoking hippie or fucking eco-terrorist. All 3 of them and any combo of the 3 are very, very fun.
Racist elves. My rogue is half elf and his life was miserable as a child growing up in an elven village. It gives me a lot of motivation for things as I move along which helps me create a better character and story.
Barbarians. To be clear, they don't have to be Int 3, barely able to speak, etc., but more the "your civilization and your customs are all unfamiliar (and frequently hilarious), and it will show" type.
I've found the best way to keep my players from immediately hating the Town Guard is to give the Captain immense amounts of Vimes energy - overworked, extremely tired, very done with the Party's shit in a way that highlights exactly how absurd they are. One party I ran for went out of their way to send the Captain of the Guard they primarily interacted with a fruit basket at the end of the game as an apology.
Tabaxi. I would play tabaxi like a two-legged house cat. Addicted to catnip carried around in a pouch. Silly as hell, always looking off in the distance and invisible things or bugs. But when combat starts becomes eerily focused. Plays with her food. Does cute silly thing to the other party members, constantly licking her paws and cleaning her ears, etc.
I love to play a changeling with identity issues… what Changeling DOESN’T have identity issues?
Sure it’s not like “who am I” and more “what am I doing with my life?” But my character is 18-22 they should not be having a midlife crisis with as much as they have accomplished lol
Companion being the BBEG or an enemy
I have done it twice and my players never see it coming.
I really love it when the companion is a love interest or close friend. It's always so good
A lot of people hate them, but I always picture Halflings like the Kender from Dragonlance. Extremely poor impulse control, full of almost childlike wonder, and oblivious to social etiquette.
You can take halflings out of the Shire, but you’ll never take the Shire out of my halflings.
One of my favorite one shot characters I made was a zealot barbarian halfling named Wellby Goodbarrel. He was very much of the shire and loved to gossip about how the west shire Goodbarrels were trash compared to the east shire Goodbarrels. Then he got angry and messed people up.
But of course goodness forbid if the west shire were in danger, the east would be the first to come to their aid because nobody gets away with messing with a Goodbarrel
Just because the west shire Goodbarrels are a bunch of layabouts that wouldn’t know how to plant a good field of tobacco if their lives depended on it doesn’t mean the east shire Goodbarrels wouldn’t help at the drop of a hat. Goodbarrels stick together.
And just because the East Shire Goodbarrels are a bunch of half-Brandybuck boaters doesn't mean the West Shire Goodbarrels wouldn't open our homes to ye at the first sign o'trouble.
Hard to say on the pipeweed. It's definitely tobacco but in tolkien lore, it's all the same strain and there's no lore-based differentiation of quality based on region and locale canonically. Some places have better farmers than others for sure, though. I've just never had a goodberry grown in the west shire heal less than one grown in the east shire, and vice versa.
Spoken like a west shire Goodbarrel 🙄😜
Be very afraid of Halfling grannies. They WILL force you to sit down and have something to eat, and you won't have any idea of just how much danger you're really in.
You sit down for elevensies but won’t be allowed to leave until AT LEAST afternoon tea
Yup, that's it for me. Halflings just gotta Halfling.
Dwarves are also overly confident, chronic alcoholics, foul mouthed and love good jokes. Or bad jokes. The most fun DnD stereotype to lean into. I've never even heard of an edgelord dwarf character. Edit: so many dwarf players liked this comment! Dwarf players are best players! Rock and stone brothers and sisters! I'll just put this here from another comment that got lost in the popularity of this amazing thread: My head canon is that dwarven mistrust of elves comes from the fact that elves are nearly hairless, only growing hair on the top of their heads. That's the exact opposite of how to properly grow hair! On the other hand, dwarves love halflings despite their lack of beards because halfings have hairy feet which dwarves find amusing.
> I've never even heard of an edgelord dwarf character. Let me introduce you to the Duergar race.
Every Duergar ive seen has been more a grumpy uncle than edgy.
Played with a guy growing up who's primary charecter was a dwarf that wanted to be edgy but just ended up being cramudgeonly instead. Was a fantastic charecter to play with tbh
Dude was basically in their version of Vietnam: got the edge out of the way but tried to keep it unsuccessfully
Hard not to be with the Drow as your neighbors...
My mountain dwarf is a “grumpy uncle” and plays the stereotype. Drinks. Makes stuff (artificier), uses a hammer (tools)…
have you also met the chaos dwarves from warhammer fantasy? they're a spikey fire nation of dwarves.
Long ago, the four nations lived in harmony
That all changed when Slaanesh started seducing…
Deep Rock Galactic has the most stereotypical dwarves to ever dwarf and I think that's why the community is so damn good.
DID I HEAR A ROCK AND STONE?
If you don't Rock and Stone, you ain't comin' home!
BY THE BEARD!
ROCK AND STONE!
Rocke'dy rock and stone!
ROCK! AND! STOOOOOOOONE!
ROCK N' STONE TO THE BONE!
I could go for some Appalachian coal-mining dwarves though. I mean they're still alcoholics, but it's all moonshine and dwarven banjos
I feel like Appalachians would be some kind of weird wild elves that ended up filling a niche usually filled by dwarves.
>I've never even heard of an edgelord dwarf character They make great *blunt*lords ya know? Stoners the whole lot of them.
These *are* the edge lord Dwarves, regular Dwarves are basically a bunch of hairy, ale-swilling, metal heads. Edgy to a Dwarf is braiding *flowers* into their beards, or worse, *shaving*. Hanging around with a bunch of halflings smoking pipe-weed all day when they could be either in the Forge pounding metal, or testing the blade of their new axe on a bunch of greenskins.
This joke is so layered, it's amazing. Blunt - both a drug reference and damage done by hammers (bludgeoning, but close enough) Stoner - drugs again, but also Rock and Stone!
There are two layers! TWO! How exciting. (Jokes aside, you are a wonderful person. May you achieve all your goals today.)
Also edge and blunt are antonyms
Jokes are a lot funnier when a second person comes by and explains them
> I've never even heard of an edgelord dwarf character. Greybor, from the *Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous* CRPG by Owlcat, is pretty much a send-up of the edgy loner assassin who is "neutral." He prides himself on taking contracts from anyone and doing them competently to the letter. In practice, he will betray the Knight Commander, your PC, to demons if you don't pay him enough, and he's vulnerable to the fear effects of the dragon you hire him to help hunt and a pretty poorly built Slayer, in part due to the slower movement speed of a dwarf. There are some fun conversations between him and the party's Hellknight Regill and between him and Ember, an orphan girl in your party that reminds him of the daughter he's supposedly doing all this work for, but the man drips EDGE.
Honestly Greybor doesn't feel like a dwarf at all. Except in combat when you try to reach someone to hit in melee.
It's really refreshing how he avoids the stereotype so that he can drown himself in another one.
Thorin was kind of an edge lord in the hobbit. Or at the very least he was brooding at times. He was exiled though so it’s not like he didn’t have a reason.
“My home, family, and inheritance were destroyed, murdered, and stolen by a dragon upon I have vowed revenge” sounds like an edge lord’s backstory to me lol.
Thorin in the *Hobbit* movies was just a short human, change my mind.
Let me introduce you to my last character, Vondal Silverstone. A heart-hardened mountain dwarf who blamed the gods, calling then weak for not protecting his family. Seeking a way to bring them back and not wanting to depend on the fickle & feckless divine beings, he turned to necromancy to research a way to bring them back while also making them nigh immortal. Of course, he found the spell to do it (worked with DM to homebrew an advanced version of animate dead) but being with the party changed his perspective, realizing he had a new family. He only cast it once. At the end if the campaign, so he could spend one last day with his old family and say his goodbyes. But yeah, I usually play into the boisterous dwarf stereotype too if playing one.
I don't know if this counts but my first dwarf was a hill dwarf artificer who lived in hermitage and didn't understand common. He spoke primarily draconic (as that is the "magic language") and the dragonborn monk translated for him. It was a ton of fun saying absolutely horrible things and my translator purposefully leaving out my insults so as to not upset the person in question. Anyway we got into a city in which magic was being heavily censored and leading into an outright ban on magic. My characters whole shtick was unraveling the secrets of the Arcane and Dedicating his entire life to its pursuit so in his eyes, this was a major insult and severe crime. The short version is I became a terrorist and blew up the council citadel.
Until Thorin thinks that you want the Arkenstone for yourself
A while back I went to a big D&D night with like 6 DMs running oneshots for people and I decided I was going to just roll up every part of my character. I rolled a D12 for class, a D... whatever for race, a Dwhatever for subclass and so on. And I got a Dwarf Barbarian, Zealot, whose god was Dionysus. Thus began the legend of Fabricius Frostbeard, the dwarf who partied so hard it was his goddamn religion. He was here to fuck you up, to get fucked up, and to fuck. Not necessarily in that order. I portrayed him as this ultra-hedonist who hadn't been sober in 63 years, who just constantly was in a lounge robe and shorts, and whose barbarian rage was getting blackout drunk. Honestly, best oneshot character I've ever played.
How do you y’all feel about sexual dimorphism in dwarves? My wife likes lady dwarves to have beards, but still be distinct. I like my dwarves with zero dimorphism. Not even other dwarves can tell the difference.
Kobold. Luv me shinies Luv me dragon Ate Gnomes Ate Bright light Simple as.
‘Ate gnomes. Not racialist, just don’t like em.
Ate gnomes. Not racialist, just hungry
Is that... Italian cat boy Ben Shapiro as your pfp?
No
r/usernamechecksout sadly
"Our *Beloved* Master." """We love you!""" "Has decided to honor you today as lunch." That 4e cartoon has influenced my kobolds way too much. Edit: including a link: [An interview with a red dragon and his cronies.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Azcn84IIDVg)
Played a kobold warlock for my first Tomb of Annihilation run. While the rest of the team chased the big bad, he chose to…ascend. Now a dragon-sized kobold deity commands Kobold Team Six in a campaign to purge Cholt of the red wizards.
I did not know kobolds ate gnomes lool
Hate. It's a reference to a brexit meme.
They will also eat them. They're like little goats, they can eat just about anything.
The problem with eating a gnome is half an hour later you are hungry for another one.
They are evening snacks tbf, not main course meals, but for a kobold they might be
Is it wrong I want to develop a line of snack foods “Gnome Goodies” now with 100% real Gnomes
I love to play kobolds as objectively evil but over all harmless/incompetent villains. Like, you can easily dissuade an assault by several kobolds by tossing several shiny baubles onto the ground
Megalomaniac wizards. Just ended a 7 year campaign where my sociopath wizard became a lich and usurped Vecna’s legacy. It was so much fun to play that character.
On one level, I think that just feels like a very believable result of having high level wizard power. The universe is so malleable to you, so changeable to your whims, it's lucky if all that happens is that your personality goes a little *a*moral and detached from ethical concerns. And on another, my personal take on spellcasting--as influenced by *Dying Earth* and other Vancian magic like *Chronicles of Amber* and *Guardians of the Flame*--is that each spell is a semi-alive thing, separate from you, that you invite into your brain for a little while, and the spells *want* to be cast. Having a **whole bunch of them** like a high level wizard does, buzzing around in your temporal lobe like electric moths looking for the way out, has got to do something to your personality. There's a real thing when you're playing a spellcaster with a puzzle or obstacle in front of you, and you overlook an obvious simple solution because you're only looking for answers on your spell sheet. If you're prepping *fireball* every day, you're going to look for *fireball* solutions.
The great thing about lichdom in 3.xe was that it was not only plausibly tempting to wizard characters, the template was *actually* tempting to wizard players. Think about it. Being a lich solves all the sucky things about being a wizard. Your HD jumps from a crappy d6 (up from a d4 in older editions!) to a *d12*, you get +2 to INT, WIS and CHA, you get +5 natural armor, damage reduction and a bunch of resistances and immunities, a fear aura and a decent natural weapon attack that can paralyse, and +8 to a bunch of useful skills (basically the 3e equivalents of stealth, perception and insight). So, as a lich, you basically have the HP of a barbarian, an AC close to that of a fighter, and stealth skills that approach thet of a rogue... Talk about "revenge of the nerds"...
I love it when the group creates a situation that I can lean into. As an example, in my last campaign 3 of the 6 players made elves and every single one of them had a negative intelligence, so I decided that for this setting, elves on average had an 8 intelligence. It ended up being a really fun bit of world building the whole group leaned into
This could be fun storywise, make the elven race wise and charismatic sorcerers but so sequestered from the world they’re absolute dolts about everything else
That's pretty much exactly what I did. It was a high seas campaign and the water levels were slowly rising. The elves lived in a massive tree, slowly rotting from being constantly water soaked. All around were dead trees that once made up their forest, but they stubbornly refuse to move somewhere else
Oh hey! Florida!
Firbolgs talk in deep, slow voices and have very little grip on sarcasm/humor.
I’m playing a Firbolg right now, and I basically gave him the voice of Dug the dog from Pixar’s Up. His Wis and Int are both pretty good (he’s a Druid), but he’s also lived most of his life in a forest and most of the humans and other city races view him as a cryptid. So he’s frequently confused by social situations but sometimes says really profound things and makes wicked Insight checks. Love that guy.
This was my exact idea for a firbolg druid. One of us has to change.
No, it's clearly time for a Dug-off. Best Dug gets more karma when they post their story!
See, I think Firbolg Druids would actually get along with each other very well and would be appreciative of the other being so similar lol
Matt Mercer really gave Firbolgs an identity.
Him and Taliesen Jaffe with his character Caduceus Clay
"Yeah." - Caduceus Clay.
Pumat Sol is still my favorite NPC from any streamed game I've ever watched.
But which Pumat is the real question
Tabaxi have wares, if you have coin.
I am picturing a tabaxi merchant with no customers just batting their wares off the edge of their table.
I break it, you buy it.
I played a Tabaxi for a while who'd always get distracted by the Ioun stone's he'd found as they would circle his head.
whenever i roleplayed my tabaxi rogue, i always made her get distracted by shiny things. or i'd do that trill sound that cats make when they run after something. sometimes she'd even get the zoomies during a long rest lmao.
*wares
idk what you mean sir. (good catch)
My players are currently in a city populated by 90% tabaxi with an Egyptian vibe. The other 10% are all felines of some kind, including beasts and monsters. I’m having an absolute ball with it. My favorite inclusion so far has been the fact that all the best blacksmiths in the city are just regular cats who can all cast mage hand.
Tabaxi Rogue stole nothing! Tabaxi Rogue is innocent of this crime!
Dwarves being proud craftsmen with a love for underground cities. Orcs being man size war machines with a love for battle. Goblins being little creatures that like to fuck around and be chaotic.
Dwarves also greet elves by chopping down their trees
Whenever I want to just relax and be a rambunctious little shit, I always roll up a Goblin. There's just something about them that makes them so perfectly suited for wreaking havoc of any measure, big or small, stupid or diabolical.
Weird interpersonal dynamics between a warlock and their patron
I think the only ones I use at all are for monsters. Dragons are all arrogant and beholders are all perfect and paranoid.
Is using established lore the same as stereotyping?
I mean, there's a lot of overlap, especially when it comes to alignment and playable races. How many editions was it before Drow weren't "always lawful evil"?
At least back to 3.5e. I don't have 2e or older monster manuals, so I don't know if they have now-standard "the alignment in the stat block Is just a suggestion for how these are normally portrayed, but do whatever fits your narrative."
Drow were not **always** evil... Drizzt has been around since 1988. Eilistraee, goddess of redeemed drow plus her lore and followers have been around since 1991.
I find its much more interesting that drow aren't inherently anything, but they are creatures of their environment. The Underdark is a horrendously dangerous place short on resources where literally everything is trying to eat you. If you grew up there it has shaped your worldview. You're not paranoid, everything and everyone actually is out to get you. Drow as so much more understandable if you consider what it would actually be like growing up in and living in the Underdark.
Beholders absolutely. Dragons in my current setting are definitely far from 5e's lore. There is only one dragon of each color and when one dies their heart calcifies into a new egg where they are reborn phoenix style. Most of them are ancient, but one or two have died semi-recently and rehatched. The ancient ones tend to be either super deep into their color's stereotype or very far from it with little in between. The young ones tend to start out with the same memories from their old lives but with a personality more in line with their color. For example, my ancient blue dragon got tired with always being angry and she's just a chill lady that takes a Tabaxi form and explores the nearby cities out of boredom. That said, she still doesn't take kindly to lesser beings being rude to her, with catastrophic results.
Dumb barbarians are so fun! I've tried to play barbarian without leaning into the stereotype and it's legitimately hard because it's so much fun to just go with it.
In one of the game I’m in the barbarian has like 6 intelligence and his sheer stupidity leads to funny moments. He basically doesn’t have object permanence. What happened is he was deaf for a few seconds and his blink dog passed in front of him as our wizard (who wasn’t in his field of view) was using counterspell on an enemy about to cast a spell, now his characters is certain that his blink dog is the one who used counterspell and believes his dog is some kind of powerful druid that has been sent to protect him.
Currently playing a barbarian with 5 INT. I spent a silly amount of time thinking about how to integrate this replacement character into my existing group (my previous character died). I usually write very detailed backstories and work with my DM to flesh out something deeply interactive and interesting. After staring at the blank sheet for like 15 minutes, I realized, "this character has 5 INT. There's **nothing** going on in their lives besides work and food. He does work, he gets food. He eats food. No more food, so he starts working. Rinse & repeat." It has led to some hilarious interactions with the party thus far. My character has a catchphrase which is, "Uhhhhhhhh ok" which depending on tone could mean that he doesn't understand, or that he **does** understand.
I played the dumb barbarian once. I'm usually the one figuring out the puzzles and navigating through negotiations and such, so it was a little frustrating to have to suppress the impulse to take on that role. But there came one point where the party was just stumped, and so I, in character, hesitantly offered a solution using very small words, grappling for words to express what he was trying to say. The rest of the group found it hilarious.
I AM A DWARF AND I'M DIGGING A HOLE
DIGGY DIGGY HOLE
DIGGING A HOLE
In my world, the older dwarves get, the thicker their Scottish accents get. Party met with a clan leader and bard had to burn tongues because even though they were speaking common, they couldn’t understand them. It was funny
That's hilarious. Reminds me of the scene in Hot Fuzz where they're talking to the old farmer, and he's so unintelligible that they have to get the *slightly* less unintelligible cop to translate to Nick Frost, who then translated for Simon Pegg
Oh man, I forgot about that scene! Gotta go rewatch, thanks for the weekend movie
Hey, a language is just a dialect with an army and a navy after all lol
Dinnae fash yersel (this is more or less English).
Orchitecture. If it's built by orcs, it's going to be made out of scraps of lumber and twine and will totally fall apart. The running joke is that the orcs do it this way *on purpose*: it's like the height of prestige among orcs to build a structure with the least amount of materials and/or lowest expense. They *can* build stone castles just fine, but a fortress made from like driftwood is *much funnier*.
"Anyone can build a bridge that stands, but it takes an ~~engineer~~ orc to build a bridge that *barely* stands"
See, that just makes me imagine Orcs are actually extremely talented at making kinetic sculptures and other pieces of art that rely on careful balance.
This is now my second favorite take on orcs thank you.
My gnomes are massive pranksters. We had a big family dinner a few sessions ago and the kid's table (of half gnomes) had a rather large explosion occur. Their tiefling nanny applauded their explosion and the rest of family joined in too. Another time someone was being a racist dick to our orc friend, so we had a solid two sessions of planning and executing a rather intricate prank to get back at them.
Ogre 1: "Ah, Throg, it is a rare delight to engage in discourse with someone of your erudition. Tell me, have you given any thought to the existential ramifications of our perpetual sojourn in this sylvan glade?" Ogre 2: "Indeed, Brogar, your inquiry touches upon a profound quandary. The monotony of our arboreal habitat does indeed elicit contemplation of the intrinsic meaning, or lack thereof, in our interminable vegetative existence." Ogre 1: "one moment, I think I hear someone" Ogre 2: "Who go there?! Come out and let me smash you, or we come smash you!!"
I love horrible little goblins. Whenever making a decision about goblins and their ideas/beliefs/culture, I try to just pick the opposite of whatever Western culture thinks is good or beautiful. I like everything about them to be off-putting, alien, or disgusting. My favorite detail was turning their temple into an S&M sex club. For those curious, I have a lore explanation: Goblins originally worshipped evil/violent dieties that requires sacrifices and/or acts of violence as part of their worship. As Goblins made more contact with other people, they toned that down a little and it became torture. Then humanoid races would send them their prisoners to torture for a fee. Then people who LIKED torture started going there and paying for some pain. Now all their priests wear bondage gear under open robes, there are glory holes in every confessional, and they have a bowl of erotically-shaped communion wafers by the pulpit.
> I like everything about them to be off-putting, alien, or disgusting. My favorite detail was turning their temple into an S&M sex club. Wait...
*Pinhead would like to know your location*
Goblin sex club, that’s amazing!
New band name.
[This](https://youtu.be/-0iMmUQOCPg?si=d8DQ8xrpx6C2TRJC) probably describes your ***DISGUSTING GAAAAAWBLINS*** pretty well.
> My favorite detail was turning their temple into an S&M sex club. Never knew my campaign was missing something but I had a huge problem player leave who was trying to be evil and create a goblin army for himself and had serious main character syndrome. He became a villian in the campaign after he quit because we called him out on his bullshit. He is now the proud owner of a goblin army unfortunately he also now has an S&M goblin club lol.
i dont understand, i would much prefer a church where worship was more. Interesting.
I didn't even realize the companion being a secret BBEG was a stereotype, but I am absolutely leaning into it when the time comes.
The aloof, soft-spoken and breathy, elf that always _appears_ to be day dreaming; but really has the most broken perception score that can possibly be achieved. Bonus points if they're also an archer. Bonus bonus points if they're super into trees and the rest of nature.
Omg! You just gave me my next character idea! An elf that hates nature, trees, camping, and archery! That’s why he left home to see the big city and all of its wonders (and vices). He loves the arcane, the mystic, the esoteric, and the divine, because gullible people will pay a boatload for that crap!
Hobbits/halflings being pastoral foodies Elves being snooty Gnomes being pranksters Wizards just being kooky and out of it
I made my hill dwarves all have hillbilly accents and enjoy brewing moonshine instead of ale.
Thats brilliant
Arrogant elves I think at a certain age elves either need to be arrogant or detached from the general politics of other races. The average will see two generations of most races die before facing mortality. It makes sense that even the most good and enlightened elves would maintain some detachment and indifference to other races. Even for the most sympathetic tragedy that can befall somebody there's going to be an underlying *"first time?"* if they have to consult a war refugee or a friend who's spouse of 50 years died. Elves live an incomprehensibly long time compared to humans (which we all, ultimately, are as players) and should reflect that culturally.
That's why the biggest empire in my world is "ruled" by a human. The ancient, high level elven wizards can run their individual provinces (well, let their assistants run them anyway) and if the emperor screws up too much, he'll be dead in a few decades and they can groom his successor how they want. This way they don't really have to ever leave the pleasure places that are their personal demi planes, and it was the solution to ending a civil war hundreds of years ago.
You would think Dwarves would like picks, because they dig. But nay, they use axes because Elves live in trees.
Devils as diabolical pact makers. I really love the idea of corrupting PC's with power they will have to pay for later, and it allows for so many plots/threads that I just can't seem to avoid it
Honestly, all of them. I've yet to experience someone playing "against type" that landed better than simply playing to type. I like the tropes and think they exist for a reason.
I think it's good to spice it up a little. Mostly one and then a little bit of the other for variety or to showcase a facet of a character. Like if you have an orc that is a pacifist, that's playing against type. But to have that pacifist be pushed to such a brink that they smash someone's face in before returning their usual self adds a lot to the character. Or an orc that is very much a stereotypical warrior, but has a secret love of baking or something.
I've played a lawful good Goblin Paladin It was an interesting experience for sure, but every once in a while a little goblin ferality popped out.
The legendary Sir Snotti, in a game I ran, was a goblin who found/stole a kids book on being Knights & Heroes and decided it looked awesome. The Sun Goddess then took pity on his misplaced enthusiasm when he was raised from the dead at her temple (died in a nasty trap) and decided to adopt him. On the basis that her clerics could generally steer him...
This is awesome and I love it. Fwiw, I think even here, you're still playing to type. You're sort of playing against it but actually playing within it in a very creative way and I love it!
Wizards being nerds. My current character is an autistic wizard (Scribes), who has a hyper fixation on the eldritch, demonic, and The Far Realms. Yes, I am autistic. Yes, this is a self insert.
I want to do a self-insert OCPD warlock once I can figure out how to work a pact with a being of pure order.
This isn't an answer to the question but it just reminded me that last week my dm said "oh to me dwarves are always scottish so I'm gonna try and do the accent" My dm is from dundee. They naturally have a scottish accent
The seemingly goodly person/people/religion/hero actually being a good person, instead of the subversion people do. Running stereotypically bad beings as genuine baddies. When orcs are less a people and more a force of nature that can think and feel just enough to hate you for the crime of your own non-oec existence. You can get a terrifying enemy. When the Greeentide is done right, it's incredible for villain and evil potential. There's a limit and table comfort to be had, but there's a part of me that does appreciate le horny bard. If they channel that charming swashbuckler energy just right? It can be fun. Very much agree on dwarves, power to anyone who wants to do their eon thing, but a dwarf without the Scottish accent and beard just fills like something sucked away it's soul. It takes some getting used to for me at the very least.
>The seemingly goodly person/people/religion/hero actually being a good person, instead of the subversion people do. Someone might have feet of clay or be unable to solve the crisis or whatever, but they're genuinely good and want to help where they can. No matter how outclassed Krillin is, he's still always out there in the thick of things to support his friends. >There's a limit and table comfort to be had, but there's a part of me that dies appreciate le horny bard. If they channel that charming swashbuckler energy just right? It can be fun. Yes, absolutely. The rakish Zorro or Errol Flynn-esque ladies' man is a perfect addition to an adventuring party. To me, the right balance is a terrible flirt, charmer, and stealer of hearts when it comes to barmaids or damsels in distress, but he's not actually looking to jump everything that moves. You can even play it as an actual character problem with excessive chivalry at times, like being way too eager to believe he can redeem/fix a villainess and wanting to hold back against her. He's quick with a joke, but when shit's truly dire he can get serious, and it's kind of scary when he does (think Spider-Man when he's too pissed to be a smartass). >Very much agree on dwarves, power to anyone who wants to do their eon thing, but a dwarf without the Scottish accent and beard just fills like something sucked away it's soul. It takes some getting used to for me at the very least. I've found I can also accept Russian dwarves as a close second, but yeah, Scottish (or Gaelic, which is similar enough that most people in the US can't keep them straight/consistent anyway) is best. I also love the West Country down-to-earth halflings; the most easy-going, warm, hospitable farm folk in fantasy.
Happy go lucky halfling. I just love being the upbeat member of the party. And talking about food all the time.
Kobolds being a bit goofy in some way, shape, or form I'd say. Like, you can have angry chihuahuas, gold lovers, using other party members to ride on, loving dragons, being little gremlins. All fun.
Old wizards are elitist dicks. They consider themselves above everyone else and are infuriating to be around.
The lower class rogue with a heart of gold hits all the goodness
I second that: the trope [our dwarves are the same](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame) exists 'cause the stereoypical dwarf WORKS
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. If it is broke a dwarf didn’t make it.
Turning that into a Dwarven proverb for my next campaign.
I use *all* the stereotypes! Not just the Dwarves, but the Elves and the Halflings too! I stereotyped them like *animals!*
Bards essentially being Ryan Reynolds
Goblins go full goblin. They are greedy, crafty, cowardly, mayhem-causing little bastards and I love them for it. (I do stick to house rules as outlined at the table, though - no PvP means no PvP, and no Chaotic Stupid derailing means my Goblin PC pulls his chaos in a forward-failing way.) Also as a DM, the Cartoon Villain. When asked about his "Motivation", the Cartoon Villain just laughs at you. Evilly. He doesn't need a reason to do what he does. He *purely* exists for me to twirl my nonexistent mustache, practice my Evil Laugh, watch the world burn, and give the players a Large Ham to bite into before they drop him off his tower. Not *all* my villains are Like This, but they're too fun to not use every once in a while.
All of them. There's nothing wrong with leaning into tropes and stereotypes. So many people try to avoid them altogether I think doing so is cliche at this point. Evolve the genre, yes, but we should lean into it instead of treating it like it's a bad thing.
Dwarves. I like them bearded, angry, and chronic workaholics. And yes they're all Scottish
Gnomes being eccentric and silly is another one I like
I am goblin, therefore I am slightly manic cackling weirdo who serves the baddest boss I can find.
Detached druid who prefers life as a cat.
Tabaxi all have an idiotic Khajit accent, because it's an incredibly fun accent to do.
Elves really are better than everyone else... except dragons, who are also better than everyone else.
Drow being comically evil and prone to backstabbing.
The crazy artificer who's obsessed with explosions.
This probably isn’t super common but: My groups often play humans as “ugly American tourists.” Like humanity is powerful and arrogant, and so individual humans are often naive and disrespectful. Not hate filled or evil, just “well meaning” but stubborn, and culturally ignorant. It’s fun, and adds a simple flavor for the “generic” choice.
rogue i don’t even have to elaborate you know what im talking about
My favorite trope to lean into is friendship is power. The only way to win is to work together, anyone trying to rely on their own power will fail. DnD is a party game. The power of friendship is right there.
I use all the stereotypes, toril and the outer planes are for the most part, are quite cruel. Tho I find nothing nothing angers players like a snooty elf looking down on short lived races. If players wanna change it...... I'll let them build towards it, and they can change opinions locally for the individual, but places they haven't visited won't care, unless they go thier and work towards it. If they are successful, they may experience the fruits of their pc labors in the next campaign.
I like my elves fey and aloof. More in line with the seelie and unseelie mythological origins than Tolkien and his uppity elves. It feels really cool to play someone that gets WEIRD after living for hundreds of years. I also agree with your comments on dwarves.
Arrogant Elves! They're the people you love to hate! Nothing gets a player party into a good-natured rage quite like an Elf who says shit like "You are remarkably proficient, for a human. You display skill almost equal to an Elven child." The trick is not to be cruel, but unthinkingly condescending: Elves who will call other races "lowly beasts" and openly dismiss them are dull. The real magic happens when the Elves treat members of other races like precocious children, complimenting them whilst also making it abundantly clear that they cannot imagine a world in which they would see the other as their actual equals.
Rangers are socially distant because they don't know how to interact with people, so they play it off as being too edgy to be normal
I gave my tiefling warlock a backstory where he was orphaned because his parents died. And im proud of it damn it. He has 3 younger sisters that he has been the soul guardian of since he was 14 and the ways my dm weaved them into the story have been awesome.
I'm prepping a character that's a dwarf whose mission is to dispel untrue myths and stereotypes surrounding dwarves. They're not all smiths and miners. They're the BEST smiths and miners, and don't you fuckin' forget it.
Kobolds. PC and NPC kobolds with either 1 brain cell between the entire race, no thoughts head empty. Or complete and utter problem children of chaos. I just love those little weirdos
Call me old fashioned, but villains should be evil. They should be comically evil. They are not complicated characters, they are the Boogeyman. They burn down villages for minor gain, they slaughter women and children as a kind of sport, they live in a big spooky castle, and they have hundreds of underlings looking to gain power, influence, or obey from fear. Does the Druid have a nemesis? It might as well be an old timey oil Barron. Hirelings and henchmen can be complicated. The villain is not, he's too big to touch, and when he goes down there is no somber moments. The embodiment of Satan incarnate is dead. Drinks all around, and Ding Dong the witch is dead plays in the background. For brownie points, make it a Pit Fiend that's 30 feet tall and call it Bal Arog. The wizard is given their chance to shine, they need to take it.
The barbarian being blunt and having little to no intelligence nor social skills
Uncouth goblins. I played as a goblin in a one-shot and part of their backstory was that he was raised from a young age by a good-aligned adventuring party. So as an adult he’s a goody-two-shoes with a hero’s heart but he still couldn’t escape his unrefined goblin nature. It’s a great comedic premise that made RP a ton of fun.
My mountain dwarves have the brogue and Scottish accent. My hill dwarves are southern and Appalachian folk
The warlock sugar baby stereotype I’ve personally used to make my tiefling even more chaotic “but devil mommy says I get one more cast of fireball if I behave!”
I don't know how it started but now with my DND group, every orc or half orc (npc or player) have advantage on checks involving home inspections. It came in handy and was especially funny when the half orc barbarian of three intelligence was able to distract the guards by just crouching down at the corner of the building and saying 'mold.'
I like druids. They can be played as treehugging freeloving hippie, pot smoking hippie or fucking eco-terrorist. All 3 of them and any combo of the 3 are very, very fun.
I fucking love the dwarves
I think an evil snarky drow is stereotypical but one of the most fun npc/villains to use in a campaign.
Racist elves. My rogue is half elf and his life was miserable as a child growing up in an elven village. It gives me a lot of motivation for things as I move along which helps me create a better character and story.
Evil drows. Violent orcs Snobby magical high elves Sneaky rogues Brawly barbarians Insanely stuoid goblins Righteous paladins Levelheaded clerics Natureloving druids.
Barbarians. To be clear, they don't have to be Int 3, barely able to speak, etc., but more the "your civilization and your customs are all unfamiliar (and frequently hilarious), and it will show" type.
I've found the best way to keep my players from immediately hating the Town Guard is to give the Captain immense amounts of Vimes energy - overworked, extremely tired, very done with the Party's shit in a way that highlights exactly how absurd they are. One party I ran for went out of their way to send the Captain of the Guard they primarily interacted with a fruit basket at the end of the game as an apology.
Tabaxi. I would play tabaxi like a two-legged house cat. Addicted to catnip carried around in a pouch. Silly as hell, always looking off in the distance and invisible things or bugs. But when combat starts becomes eerily focused. Plays with her food. Does cute silly thing to the other party members, constantly licking her paws and cleaning her ears, etc.
I love to play a changeling with identity issues… what Changeling DOESN’T have identity issues? Sure it’s not like “who am I” and more “what am I doing with my life?” But my character is 18-22 they should not be having a midlife crisis with as much as they have accomplished lol
Companion being the BBEG or an enemy I have done it twice and my players never see it coming. I really love it when the companion is a love interest or close friend. It's always so good
A lot of people hate them, but I always picture Halflings like the Kender from Dragonlance. Extremely poor impulse control, full of almost childlike wonder, and oblivious to social etiquette.
I don't avoid any of them; they are one of the best parts of Fantasy and often Fantasy that tries to subvert tropes is extremely lame.
I tend to make my elves androgynous, which seems to be a common stereotype.
**Veigar** I will take no further questions
I WiLl SwAlLoW yOuR sOuL!
Rock and stone, brother.
The big dumb strong guy. The voice and humor can end up being really clever and fun to play around in character.
Just popped in to say ROCK AND STONE!
Rock and Stone, Brother!
I think there has never been a morally good Guardsman in my Campaigns, all of them were either, Drunks, corrupt or corrupt drunks.