The fact that both of them could be pantsless and we wouldn't know.

This is honestly the best description of these mechanics in the game that I have ever seen. I’m literally going to send this before every single session 0 from now on.

My elf druid character in the current campaign has the unofficial bond to protect our dwarf barbarian whose one goal in life is to die in glorious battle. It's makes fun and interesting conflicts of interests.

I usually number the bonds of my characters from 001 to 007.

That impromptu roleplay between the nervous wreck and the laid back procrastinator was just gravy.

Tip: Make characters that are somewhat self-aware of their flaws. This way you can create interesting flaws without being disruptive at the table.

A good example of a heroic flaw is that Superman only ever loses to Batman because Batman KNOWS he won’t kill

I’ve never played D+D, likely never will, but as an aspiring fantasy writer I find these videos very helpful for thinking about character building and development as I write.

I also really agree with the issue of flaws being the downsides of one's strengths. That makes total sense. Also, don't make the flaw so irritating that it ends up being a spotlight hog.

I played a character with a bond that she and her pet wolf were friends, not master and pet. It lead to some really interesting scenarios where she wouldn't go to a certain place or building unless Rin (the wolf) was aloud also. Also, if Rin and a PC was in danger, she would always save Rin first. Her flaw was that Rin was her last connection to her father and would do anything to keep him safe.

The way I play it is fairly simple, and works well for getting into character. Flaws are the reason for my Bonds, Bonds are the reason for my Ideals, and my Ideals are what make my personality traits. It's sort of a Conscious, subconscious, unconscious relationship over the 'why' of my character. I use that to figure out a few things that happened in the backstory and the reasoning & outcome for the characters actions (the rest of the backstory I leave to the DM).

Hehe catchphrases.. Kelly -as Sebastian Crow- : what’s the worst that can happen? Veo/Pluto: Stop saying that! Shut up!!

Me when I saw the title of this video: YES, YES, YES

I use up to 8 traits in my games, and they are linked in pairs: Personality (what you are) and Vice (how you escape yourself), Ideal (what you believe) and Flaw (what pulls you away from your beliefs), Goal (what you want to do) and Issue (what prevents that), Bond (what you care for) and Fear (what you fear for). I find it very dynamic.

I just started playing an Archfey Warlock who loves to pull pranks and is very fun-loving. Flaw? "What do you mean a joke could go poorly? It's funny!"

* Tags all my players *

This must be one of the oddest thing I didn't know I needed to watch.

Guys, I think this is one of your best videos ever, focused on one of (in my opinion) the best aspects of 5e, and a really fun, but often glossed-over, aspect of character creation. Awesome impromptu roleplay! This will be a must-watch for any new players I DM for.

If you ask me, this is one of your most important videos so far.

Monty talking about himself being a procrastinator while I currently sit here doing a 3 week project I've barely touched due in tomorrow.

My favorite flaw that I've used is having a character that was an anterograde amnesiac. Essentially, every time that we started a new session I'd forget everything that happened in the last session. It helped my party revisit what happened and retraced their steps, while also producing some funny moments while I'm alone at the beginning of a new session

One of my favorite character writing tricks is folding Ideals and Flaws together as two sides of the same coin. Any heroic trait can lead to a natural flaw; if your character is courageous and fearless, they are also reckless and blind to danger. If your character is honorable and oathbound, they can also be rigid, close-minded, or woefully ignorant. If your character is compassionate and selfless, they can also be overprotective, emotionally vulnerable, or self sacrificing to their detriment. And if your character is courageous, honorable, AND compassionate, then they get the WHOLE bundle! Likewise, if a character is more defined by their flaws than by their ideals, then their flaws can also be tipped into positive traits. If a character is cowardly, they are also thoughtful and considerate. If a character is lazy, they might also be tactful and always looking for efficient solutions with the least effort. If a character is quick to anger, they might be the most indignant and passionate when the moment calls for well-guided fury.

I already commented once, but this was an amazing video and it deserves a second comment. Great stuff guys.

One of my players has a very fun flaw that we came up with together during creation. Rather than a standard flaw like "I'm terrible with money" or "I hate social interaction", her character has a tendency to develop phobias easily during stressful situations. After close calls or otherwise traumatic moments, I'll call on her to do a will save. If she fails by a bit, she's got a minor fear, and if it's by 10 or more she'll get a full on phobia. Some examples are: when she was woken up in the middle of the night to undead crows outside the cave they were staying in, just staring at her (fear of birds, specifically undead ones. Kenku necromancer later was a fun encounter.) when she was searching for berries, and found the animated head of a deer, chewing at the bush she was searching (fear of bushes, can never know what's inside them. Same adventure as the birds) when she was swimming alone in an underground river, and the party druid, unknowingly to her, became a shark and full speed swam right towards her to assist in fighting eels (fear of sharks. Should be interesting later, she's a pirate) We don't ever treat these phobias as something detrimental to the point of halting progress, but it's always fun when one of them pops up and she has to react to it.

2 years later yet you guys are still explaining this well. TYSM for the beginner friendly vid!

Another great video. More great advice. Edit: Kelly get affiliate links for your wardrobe. I want that hoodie.

I needed this lol, I always struggle with these. And tend to ignore the entire section on the character sheet

This is probably the most useful video a new player can watch. Before rollong stats, choosing race, class, subclass... There is this. The True core of what a character is and what makes them special. Thank you so much Dungeon Dudes.

5:00 Oooh, I love canned lines! Valanthe always says "What a lovely day for a stroll" when it's fight time

I tend to see ideals/bonds/flaws as an agreement between the player and DM saying basically "here are some opportunities for story development that we'd both be interested in potentially exploring." Sometimes they're details that are baked into the backstory, sometimes they're additional details...I don't always insist on them when I'm a DM (for campaigns rather than one-shots, though, I tend to heavily encourage), but as a player they just make everything more fun.

I'm a Critter and I love the ideal "Only steal from grumpy people."

This video has transformed and fleshed out my current character. I'll be returning to this video for future characters. Thank you for an excellent video

I really appreciated this breakdown. These were never clear to me and now I have saved this video so I can always refer back to it. Also, the term "Actionable" is such a great device to encourage more RP. Thanks you two.

one of the favorite bonds I gave a character was a spirit that was keeping the character alive. a soldier who had wandered the woods for hundreds of years after a war offered to help them stay alive after a sorcerer cut out their heart and in return when the character got their heart back, they would help burn away the chains that kept their soul stuck in the material plane. this spirit had a lot of stuff to do with the RP and the DM had some fun times having the spirit randomly speak through the character and i used it to explain some of my skill master things by tapping into the soldier's memories.

Thank you for this, personality traits, bonds, ideals, and flaws have been the most difficult part of character creation for me, and this video was a very helpful breakdown of how to make them.

Indiana Jones shows he has a heroic procrastination and under pressure personality with his catchphrase: "Dunno, I'll think of something."

really agree with the why question. i had a lawful good tiefling who really emphasised the lawful aspect, it was very un-tiefling like. why? she was born to a human noble family and grew up very affluent. it rounds out your character background if you constantly ask yourself why they think this.

I'm making a Half-Elf Druid for an upcoming game. I wholeheartedly agree with the way you guys explained these. She completely believes that people are a part of nature and therefore subject to Natural Selection. Due to this, she constantly believes in adapting (wild shaping) to the situation so she can be the "Apex Predator" in that situation. She was abandoned by her mother at a young age so she treasures her friends and so she constantly pushes herself to be as strong as she can be so she can protect them.

Omg thank you for explaining these in a way that is actually helpful! I sent this video to my entire group. This is going to make it so much easier to roleplay as my npcs in my campaign!

My Hexblade is based off Giladaroy Lockhart. If he is in a tavern or crowd, he has to roll a dc 12 wisdom check or try to sell copies of his books to everyone in the bar. If he drinks the dc goes up by 2 for each drink. He also gets insulted if people don't k ow who he is. He's also a coward but his sentient Hexblade weapon drags him into battle and rag dolls him around. It's pretty hilarious to RP.

My favorite way of playing a mentally compromised character is to " roll to see if I do stupid" even I do odd I don't. Always a funny moment

Well done guys! To me this is episode was the best and most useful content I've seen for 5e I can think of. I've sharing this with any new players as a primer on Personaility Traits. Thanks for the great content and keep up the good work!

I only discovered you guys like a few days ago and I think I've watched a dozen of your videos at this point... You are absolutely incredible please keep Producing your incredible quality work I love your style I love your interactions and I just want to spend more time hanging out with you metaphorically on KZfaq. You rock incredibly hard & thank you! * Slowly begins watching every video you've ever made*

Watching this two years in the future because it’s still a fantastic resource for character creation ❤

This was a great episode, guys. Nice work. I've found that most players don't really have an understanding of what traits, ideals, bonds and flaws really are. This episode goes well with the episode on how to add depth to your character (add catch phrases, canned sayings, etc.). Great job with this.

My flaw is the every time I smell cheese I become hypnotized and float towards it like Monterey Jack in rescue rangers, but I do often find food and supplies for the company that way. Lol that would be fun to work in some how actually

This is still one of the best guys that ever made, and I constantly come back to it whenever I'm creating a new character! Thank you so much for this video. It's a great resource that I send to my entire group.

I love listening to the two of you talk. Your videos are basically my lunch companions at work

Connecting your ideals to your backstory is a rly good template !!!!

This video is wonderful. I've been playing for a while and though I consider myself a decent roleplayer, its nice to have a bottom-line, succinct evaluation of what each category is and how it relates to your character. I feel like I'll make better characters after viewing this, and that's always a good thing.

Personality traits can be shown by a signature catchphrase: "I'm Sebastion Crowe, and I'm here to save you."

First time 5e PC here, started a campaign about 18 mo ago. Wish I had seen this video explanation before i started, so helpful and well explained! Now I'm going over my character (still alive!) and updating this section to make more sense for my RP.

You guys have really come into your own. Watched you for almost a year now, and I can see some character development and growth and you're now some of my favorite voices in the D&D community.

Well, this was an amazing guide! Now i have more ideas for characters, and basically now i can make more easily "Characters" and not only "Concepts"

This is one of the very best videos you guys have ever uploaded. Nicely done.

Dudes you’ve done it again! I chose all these things for a character I will start playing two days after this video came out. The timing is a nat 20!

In a oneshot I played in a while back, the Bard in the party used a support spell on everyone, then sat out of that entire encounter (was not the final encounter of the oneshot) because his character was busy using a Disguise kit to make themselves appear like the warden of the jail-maze we were trying to escape (his flaws was being brash and narcissistic). One of the players (one of the Monks) was annoyed that he "did nothing" for that entire fight (his spell he cast had thankfully given enough temp hp to everyone so the one player survived long enough to pop a healing potion), but the Bard was confident that his efforts will pay off. Come the final encounter (right before the exit), and the Bard steps forward (disguised as the warden) commanding the potential enemy to stand down. Rolls a nat20 on his Deception check, allowing us all to escape the jail-maze right there and then. He didn't have to do that, but because his character's flaws and ideals aligned with doing that, he did, and it panned out to great surprise around the table. That is how to play with your character's flaws and ideals imo

Loving Kelly’s fashion sense! “Cthulhu Saves...for later!”

Thanks guys. Sometimes I have a hard time wrapping my head around the difference between an ideal and a bond. This is very helpful.

No one: Sebastion Crowe: "What's the worst that could happen?"

All this should be something not only players have, but key NPCs Need, the whole persuasion system in 5e have this concepts as a keystone to get results from social interactions (DMG 244 -245) and it makes so. much. sense. More people need to remember them because out there are a good bunch of players unaware of them.

The ideals section in particular....gold! Thanks for the tips!

This is easily one of your best videos. There are so many good advices here, in fact I'm gonna put them to use already! I'm far more confident on the character I just made now, can't wait to play him!

I think that the word that Kelly may have been searching for in his description of flaws would be 'incidents' :)

Great video! I always considered those traits after writing the backstory but now I may do it the other way, it seems easier and more concise.

This is something that I have always struggled to work with in character development, thank you guys

I've kind of hit a roleplay roadblock for my current character, a halfling evocation wizard, and this video has really helped me think about how I could portray him going forward. His whole deal is that he is a magic school student who is looking for his missing mom, but he also lacks confidence in himself. To explain how he has managed to survive and contribute to combat, I'm going to say that his various missions in the field have helped him build his courage and has shown him that he is not as weak as he thinks he is. However, his new fear is that he won't be strong enough to save his mom and others.

A subject that isn't talked about much, so I appreciate you guys touching on this. I have the same thoughts as Kelly of our passions and flaws seem to coexist within one another. It helps you appreciate people a little more, I just unfortunately came to that conclusion late in life, but it benefits me now which I'm grateful for. These are areas I try to get the players to wait on until we have some things done. Sometime before they even start their character they have a backstory. We edit it together and find all those things within their story about them, you can use the chart but even in the PHB it says you can make your own which encourages players to be their wonderful unique selves. Not sure if anyone has done it for D&D but White Wolf and the WoD system has a flaw and merit system, for how many points of flaws you take (point buy as well as use your XP to buy more or you get more during play) you gain that many points in merits, which would be like additional feats. I love that system because now the players must take flaws if they want some special feat. Brings a lot of interesting moments to the game when they have nightmares and can't fully rest. Or sleep light so they wake up at every little sound. Or have an enemy which could be 1 big bad enemy or a large group coming after you. Being haunted by your foes you have killed can cause substance abuse or neuroticism. Fun stuff.

I think this is a perfect way of getting these ideas across. Thanks again!

Jumping to this video straight from the Armor Class one that was, like, four years ago, showed an impressive quality jump :D That's a good video, Dudes!

This is a great video, I have a lot of trouble coming up with these traits so I'll probably be referring to this video next time I'm making a character!

I’m absolutely in love with this, I feel it’s the most overlooked part in 5e

WHOAAA!!! Awesome look Kelly! Look at these guys! Damn sharp you two. Also wooo! I learned a lot.

I’ve been stuck for ideas for an upcoming avatar TLA campaign and this video just got all the creative juices flowing. This is my new character creation ritual video.

One of the easiest flaws to role play is hubris, which is why half of the parties I've DMd for are full of people playing characters with competing huge egos, regardless of class. A narcissistic rogue/assassin character is also a fun one.

My true neutral firbolg druid, N'Hamashal, was a caretaker. Literally, he was a day-care worker while the other "real druids" of his people went to take care of the local groves. His flaw: "When I’m distracted, I’m liable to talk to adults as if they were children. Particularly if they’re short." The best part was we had a young Kenku monk with us as a player, and so he treated him -- because he was small -- like a little kid. "Now, this isn't something polite to do to people," after to the monk would beat the snot out of someone.

17:08 I think the classic example of a "flaw" that is misunderstood is Tasslehoff from Dragonlance - yes, the character was constantly stealing things. He wasn't stealing *important* things all the time, he certainly wasn't stealing things to sell or profit from, and he was always there WITH the stolen thing when it was needed, with a cheeky "Oh I was just holding it for you!" or "Oh I saw you drop it so I picked it up, I didn't want it to be lost!". Far too often people use a character flaw as an excuse for player selfishness or to "one-up" their fellow players. When you make a flaw, remember we are all here to have fun together, and don't use your flaw as a weapon to ruin the fun of your fellow players.

I've never played D&D and I don't even know how to play but I'm EAGER to learn!!! :D Thank you for making these videos ❤️

This was a great video to expand on what was and still is one of the best bits to help players and dm's loved some ofbthe examples you gave to add relevance as well. It also works well for other systems as well because it has no mechancial ties. These are great bits to just to help you flesh out a persoanilty or if you are looking to break your rp habits and shake things up they offer a good set of guide, ideas and thoughts that will help shape your choices but not outright define how you chose to do them.

Really like this videos that you guys dive in on how to improve the RP element of the game, so many players out there only looking for how to maximize damage

a very important video, which i will henceforward show at all my session 0s. Thank you Dudes

My tiefling barbarian was raised on stories of heroics and good deeds by her father, a retired paladin, and so is so willing to jump in to protect others that she'll believe any claim of danger

I gave my main character a catchphrase and it accidently turned into a huge flaw/emotional payoff. Shes a bull-headed fighter who was raised since childhood to be a fighter. She fights at the drop of a hat and the catchphrase I gave her is "Its what I know" said in like a boastful cocky way. a big emotional moment happened where there were no enemies and I as the player had an epiphany. I made her attack walls, tables, support beams, etc. Finally a party member, the character who has the closes bond with mine, asked "what are you doing? why are you fighting?" I replied "ITS ALL I KNOW!" God I love D and D.

One of your better episodes. Thank you!

When you were talking about flaws I was reminded of a character from the '80s TV show, "The A-Team". Mr. T played the strongman of the group, but was deathly afraid of flying. Of course, they had to fly a lot, so it was always fun when they had to sedate and/or trick him into flying and his reactions afterward were comedy gold.

I think this is perfect. I got everything I need to know. thank you!

Thank you for this video! I got some great ideas for my Monk!

As a DM, one thing I suggest to players is to think of their bonds the way I think of plot hooks. I often look at them for ideas when I feel like a new subplot is needed. (My group plays in a VTT, so I have ready access to everyone's sheets.)

Artistan who adventured for coins and gems, not for monetary use but as raw materials for his artistic creations that he never would sell. He never had coins to pay for rent, meals, equipment, etc , etc and so he was always skipping town.

This is a great episode! Really inspiring

Thanks so much for making this perfect role playing video. Hazah!

My favorite elf wizard, Ellerhel Lothlorean had the intense addiction to Silverthorn Tea. Evertime we had a rest, I broke out the fire and kettle and made my tea. I would suggest we take rests often and even under the most ridiculouse circumstances just so I could drink my tea. People got tired of it, but I just explained "if you've ever tried it, you'd be addicted too!".

This gave me so many ideas thank you!

I played as a Tortle Barbarian - Blood Hunter (Wild Magic, Order of the Lycan). The Tortle was flavored as a snapping turtle, and when he went into Lycan form he was a Wereshark. My bond, flaw, and ideal was that he loved to eat. Whether that was a good thing or not, or just impartial and weird, was determined by the setting. Trying to get a taste of noble we just assassinated and needed to leave, taking a bite out of the minotaur that I'm facing down during battle, or just having a messy meal at a nicer tavern, it let for some goofy roleplay. But that 1 trait filled all 3. Also a fun quirk was that he always referenced himself as a shark in conversation, and it confused those around him till he shape shifted.

This comes at a really good point for me. In the campaign i play my character, a hexblade warlock, has a magic scythe that can use animate dead 3 times a day per day. We have a Paladin in our group who is very much against demons and such. She played it out before but now she's struggling how to approach this ability of my weapon without breaking the group but still staying true to her character.

Brilliant. Sometimes when we think about a character we say "cool!" and suddenly fall onto some sort of "Flux of Consciousness" and we write the strongest ideas about it and it's OK, I mean, spontaneous things are the best. It's also true that sadly most of times the simple inspiration risks to guide you towards confusion or to nowhere at the worst. In this video you re-establish the right order in our mind through the general definition of personality(general disposition indeed), flaws and bonds(that is not just about people). I appreciate this video, it puts my head in ease and order, not the boring one but the kind of order which facilitates creativity. Greetings from a fan from Italy 🇮🇹 and dude, sorry for my English.

Very well put. I love your content, thanks Dudes

My first characters ideal was "I'm not here for a long time, I'm here for a good time," and of course I died gloriously smashed under a giant Avocado that I unintentionally summoned.

This is very good advice. I personally try to make the character's flaws, bonds, and ideals that make sense for the backstory that they have and also their alignment. I don't always use the ones that are given as an option by the backstory options that you give your character, ie Noble or soldier, but they can help. But honestly always have them have something that work for their backstory and alignment that will work.

What a great video, thank you so much, this helps tons