in this video our protagonist realizes he's actually a That Guy

Just to shed light on it: JoCat is the animator and Twitch Streamer, while JoCrap is the character he plays in his Crap Guides.

"An evil act would be chopping their nipples off." "That is oddly specific,' A reminder that JoCat made this video _way_ before the _Death and Debts_ campaign where this actually happens. A lot.

+10 stat modifiers: For when you actually want to TRY to give Tiamat a swirly.

Step #1 is admitting it, Airier.

i mean personality, ideal, bond, and flaw section isn't that useless if your character is more than just a one dimensional murder hobo meme character

In regards to the ‘Can is use a wand inside a sword’ question, as with most things in DnD, consult your DM. The rules as written are more like suggestions to have a balanced game.

I'm playing a Lawful Evil character in a party with two LG players, three CG characters, two NG characters, and one CN. He is the leader's right hand man. He acts like everyone's demanding but well-meaning stepdad. He constantly tries to get everyone to mind their manners, do their chores, repairs the ever-deteriorating wagon and sews their clothing. He sees his place in life as making sure things run as smoothly as possible for his people. He recently got everyone a bag with a 500 gp diamond and some odd and ends to wear around their neck so that they may be resurrected easier. He also conducted a highly illegal abduction/torture session on a slaver, shot a man in front of his family for dishonoring the character's dead parents, and has taken contracts on relatively innocent people for money. He's intimidated witnesses, used wounded enemies as bait, and has no compunctions at all about using violence on anyone or anything provided they're between the party and it's goals.

AirierGames: Are i the Baddies? Rest of his party: YES! also there are a TON of ways players have mounted wands into other things over the years

22:00 I've never went from "Wow, your DM hates you" to "Wow, your DM loves you guys." This quickly

airier: "am i the bad guy?" me: YES! He said the thing!!!

I Very much Suggest Checking out his "Crap Guide to Dungeon Master" Tis Beautiful

'A barbarian with a bow?' Some of these videos do reference The Unexpectables & Borky is a barbarian with a bow now... admittedly he does forget because it's simpler to just suplex and use the big magic talking sword instead.

I don’t know about putting wands inside of swords, but I do know that a warlock with the pact of the blade can use the eldritch invocation “Improved pact weapon” to allow them to use their pact weapon as an arcane focus. This means that they could cast spells from their pact weapon as if it was a wand. This means that a warlock could point their sword at an enemy as if it was a gun, and shoot eldritch blast out of the tip. Not only that, but thanks to some other eldritch invocations that buff eldritch blast, you could essentially turn your sword into an eldritch blast sniper rifle.

I'm currently playing a LE character... and I'm also the moral compass and leader of the group

As long as everybody has fun, who cares how you play. As long as your memes don't actively cause other players discomfort, you do you.

When I saw the bard in a fur suit I just imagined my rogue character awkwardly walking up to some guards *roll charisma nat 20* "me am guard" and the they like "ok he gotta be I mean he said so"

Hello again, I'm going to support you somehow and you can't stop me.

Yes! Airier said Gobbo! ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US

The ideals bonds and flaws can be very helpful but it depends, mostly it seems to me to be for when you build a character from their backstory up instead of from their class up

Concerning the personality traits, flaws and bonds, I always considered it something meant more for the DM than the user of the character. A bond is a powerful tool for a DM to exploit and pull a player character in a certain direction, while personality traits are used to offer opportunities for the players to easily earn inspiration upon following through with the trait when the DM attempts to railroad characters in a certain situation. Flaws I personally think is a good reminder that your character isn't perfect and that you can't always play for the most meta option, but have to deal with certain things that differ between you and your character. Unless, of course, you share a flaw with your character.

Fun Fact: Originally Alignment was just lawful vs chaotic, good and evil where added later.

30:15 that's called a Ruby of a War Mage. Stick it to a weapon and it becomes your casting tool.

Sword Wand/Staff/Spell Casting Focus: Short answer: depends on DM for most classes. Long(er) answer: when making a character you can choose to have either a casting focus [wand/staff/gem/book/etc.] Or spell components [Bat Sh*t & Sulphur]. Most classss specifically say you can use certain items as your focus [Wizard: spell book, Cleric/Paladin: holy symbol], but depending on your DM you can have say a stick be your focus. As for the sword, the Bard Subclass "College of Swords" has a specific feature that let's you use your weapon as your focus, meaning you'll now be able to use your Scimitar as a wand or a short sword as seen in the Video. And Now you know how to use a sword as a spell gun; you're welcome.

I don't know about putting a wand inside a sword, but in one of our current campaigns, the DM gave my druid a homebrewed staff called the Angels Tear that acts as essentially a spell sniper rifle where it allows me to cast touch spells at a range of 15 ft. and increase the range of all other spells by 1.5x.

A living person can be a random, meme-y weirdo but as the game goes it should be expected for them to change. if they stay the same person the party will get sick of the bit and the character will realized they have nothing but the jokes

1. "OMG! I'm THAT guy" Well, realizing it is a step in the right direction, right? 2. "Personality, Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws just take up space." ...oh, wow, you're THAT guy.

Ranger became playable faster than Airier became self aware.

Airier the Paladin is just vaguely disappointed in her wife dw.

LE is one of my favorite to play honestly; the classic mob boss archetype is REALLY fun to play with a mostly Neutral or Good party lol

Actually Rangers just got a whole new overhaul of abilities and stuff haven't read what they've done to The Beastmaster skill yet but can't wait to read it 😎👍

Two ways to do the Sword thing that I know of: - See if the DM will let you make/buy a wand/staff in the shape of a Sword, just make sure to tell the DM it’s a cosmetic option and won’t be used as a melee weapon. Then it’s just down to the DM to see if they’ll let it through. - Become a class that can use weapons as spellcasting focuses. These usually need a subclass to do so but once gotten, you can use a (usually) melee weapon as your wand/staff. The plus side here is that going into these abilities means you’ll be given some extra abilities on top to make sure you don’t die so easily as a spellcaster with a Longsword.

"Is the bard hiding inside a furniture owlbear?" It's called disguise you uncultured swine! Ja of course, I love your content ❤

Ranger here, got one word: Magic. Seriously there's so much you can do with the kit, especially now. For sure the vanilla PHB version was lackluster, but that's old news. I'm tempted to say Gloomstalkers, Swarmkeepers and the new Beastmasters can overthrow most Fighter builds and a bunch of Rogue builds fairly simply. Also, as for your hidden wand pondering... technically you kind of have to be wielding it in the first place, BUT as most D&D problems can be handled, talk to your DM, maybe you guys can make it work, maybe you won't but at least you have better odds if you talk things out.

JoCrap would be an epic drill sergeant

You are in for a wild ride with JoCat's DM video

Here’s how I make a D&D character: I choose from one of my OCs to become the poor soul under my D&D Beyond wrath (because I’m too lazy to write this all on paper) and then start researching what type of character they should be (the only exception is my first D&D character, Leaf-I didn’t know what an essential kit was so I just trusted all my knowledge to Jocat’s crap guides without research since I was a lazy shmuck 😀)

Alignment matters if you want it to matter. Some people feel like your putting your self in a box but it's just setting your characters mind set.

Airier's 'Learning Face' is cool to look at lol

As far as I know, the only creatures with a stat higher than 24 (which is the max STR for level 20 barbars) are indeed high-end monsters like the Tarrasque, Tiamat's Avatar, Ancient Dragons, some Adult Dragons and certain Giants

30:00 Heya, Dungeon Master here. I would absolutely allow you to do this, if you can modify a sword to attach a wand to it. There's just a couple things to keep in mind. First and foremost, attunement. If the wand requires attunement then you may have trouble justifying your ability to properly wield it if you're not in direct contact with it when you try to use any of it's effects. If it's just a wand that anyone can use then no problem. Second, this will not give you additional actions per turn. Using an object counts as taking an action, and you (normally) get one action per turn in combat. So you will not be able to swing the sword (attack action) and use the wand (use item action) in the same turn.

I'm glad we had this talk too XD

Scoping with your wand(gigity) is flavor. When you make an attack or cast a spell, you describe how ever you like it to happen, hit or miss, succed or fail. Have fun with the results of your roll.

I had a pact of the tome warlock who had the shillelagh cantrip, his club looked like a combination of a cricket bat and LOTR elf sword, with a slot in the back for his tome. The tome had a slot in the spine for a wand of the war mage, which acted as a scope for his ELDRITCH BLAST.

Best part is watching Air get personally attacked over and over and realize he is the bad guy. 29:30. The look of dawning realization his face is so adorable. Also at 4:54 for a single frame he slipped in another disclaimer about not taking it seriously.

I think the wand idea works so long as you find a way to be holding it at the bottom of it. Maybe integrating it into the grip or the hilt.

If you want to shoot magic out of a weapon you should take the warcaster feat. Normally when you cast a spell you need one hand free to hold some kind of spell focus and the other hand to do somatic the component of the spell (AKA fancy magical hand movements). This is why most spell casters can not cast spells and hold weapons or shields at the same time. However if you have the warcaster feat you can do the somatic component (fancy magical hand movements), even with a weapon or shield in your hand. Basically this feat will free up one of your hands to hold other stuff like a weapon or a shield or whatever. It has a couple more really good effects, but I’m not talking about those right now. Plus if your spell doesn’t need a focus even better now you got two free hands to wield a shield AND a weapon, or even join the legendary buff-guys-only club and use a TWO-HANDED weapon! This way you can effectively shoot magic out of your weapons. This is because you can really choose to shoot magic out of any part of your body or things your holding, but now, with this feat, you can also shoot magic from the weapon you can now hold in your newly freed hand if you want. The warcaster feat is great for castors that use a lot of somatic and focus related spells who also want to get in on that weapon action. Also a must-have for eldritch knights (I used this feat along with the spell sniper feat to turn my greatsword into an incredibly effective 240ft range magical sniper rifle). Hope that made sense! I don’t know about putting a focus into a sleeve or imbedding it into a weapon. It sounds cool but I think you might have to be touching the focus in order to be attuned or use it. I think it’s really up to your DM to determine if, and how that could work.

“That is a level of fetish I am not okay with comprehending” Sounds about right

To your wand question, as DM I say it depends on the make, if you're clever, and if the 'holder' has an 'exit' for the spell. Otherwise you're blowing your own spell up inside the cover. My two requirements would be One you must have an area where your hand touches the original item. And the place where the magic bits comes out exposed. Otherwise you'll either not be able to fire it, or blow it up in your hands.

When my fellow DMs and I set out to make our own gaming system for our homebrew campaign setting we based it on AD&D 2nd Edition... First thing we did was chuck alignment straight out the window. LoL :)

So, Airier... Chaotic Stupid or Neutral Stupid?

The only true way to be chaotic is to be chaotic neutral and roll for everything. Are you going to enter the tavern? Flip a coin. What are you going to that turn? Roll a dice

I love how JoCat refers to the ability scores section of the character sheet as a “tower of pimps that dictate everything you do in the game”

“Oh god +10” Me who was allowed to play a class that let me infinitely add asi’s to my str *LAUGHS IN 32 STR*

Airlier: I'm that guy. Everyone: You're the baaad guy..... Duh.

Concerning the question at 30:30. No, you could totally do that if you wanted to. You'd have to okay it with the DM, but there's no hard rule saying you can't try to conceal a wand. You could also use illusions if you wanted.

Concerning covering a magical focus, I believe there are weapons that come with a slot for magical foci in place, so you can place a wand inside of a real sword.

I use that chart as a DM (ideals/flaws, etc.) To guide giving inspiration out. Since players, cant bother and tend to meta, however shortly after forcing the players to think that way, all the meme'ing and murder hobo stopped.

I like the alignment chart, but only because my first exposure to DnD was from the MMO, where your alignment was like a pokemon type and let you use some nifty equipment.

Ive actually played a Lawful Evil character before. Was one of my more fun ones. Was part of an assassin order, and tended more towards "lack of empathy," over "active menace," for flavor of Evil. Played her as a bit of an indoctrinated young idealist who kinda believed she and the order were doing necessary work ("necessary," for a sort of balance. Not necessarily "greater good.") Eventually she started slowly shifting away from the Evil side of things, but she was fun as hell to play, considering i rarely stray from genuinely good/caring characters.

Don't know anything about wand covering, but there is the Ruby of the War Mage, a common magic item that allows you to turn a weapon into a spellcasting focus.

They are now called Gobos

30:30 - Not sure about rules for newer editions but, I've been a DM for over 30 years and I'd say it depends on the spell. Any spell where effects just happen to a target would be fine. But for spells where a power is released from the casting source, the "target" would be whatever is covering your wand. Spells like fireball could be particularly devastating to the group. Really, it also depends on what kind of DM you have too. All of my old DMs I had as a kid would say "Your character doesn't know" if asked this question. So you'd be forced to trial and error your way to an answer. x_x

36:34 I think it’s more of a way to display to the DM how you are going to RP them and give something the DM to use. Plus, it helps flesh out the concept of the character when you are making them, helps you work out how you want to RP them when you first start out, and creates a stronger bond between you and your character since the more you design an character, the more attached you get.

Why do you have 12 Dex, when only the +1 mod is relevant 99% of the time? To quote the musical: TRADITION! Back in yon olde editions, each stat didn't just have one modifier, but rather multiple derived stats: from raw +to hit/damage with missile weapons to more specific cases like 2nd edition's percentile-based "bend bars/lift gates" strength derived stat. the raw stat number was also used if the GM needed to check something that wasn't particularly covered by the derivatives through a roll under system. You want to know if you succeed at that brain puzzle, Mr.Fighterman? well you better roll under your 7int with a d20 to not look like an unpitiable fool, so hope for the best. Another thing to note is that even though rolling was the general method of the time, the modifiers and bonuses weren't linear, but rather more skewerd towards the extremes of a bell curve, with the middle-ish numbers being very workable. the differences between a 7 and a 14 in 2e for example are less pronounced in play then say, a 7(-2) and 14(+2) in 5e. 7 was less of a detriment and more of "not a boon", it's only at the extremes, 16-18 or very low 5-3, you start seeing things like exceptional strength, where upon getting 18str you rolled again to determine how even more badass your strength combat mods were. It's from 3e and forwards, we largely just use the derived mod+skill/attack bonus/whatever and hope you roll good, and honestly, we can do without the base stat since all it does is derive the one number we do use. We still see the base stat used in things like feat requirements or "you must STR this good to not suck with full plate", but that can be simplified again to use the modifier like everything else, truth be told.

There has been talk in Viva la Dirt League D&D game of replacing the barbarian with a sound board. "I hit it with my axe" "Rage" Etc...

Damn it, now I wanna build a Barbarian with a bow who hits people.

OH! also Referring back to my First Comment if pay Attention to the Beginning the little Part where you see all the Figures in the Guide to dungeon Master you can see the Paladin and Bard Holding Hands-

Usually using an item means holding it in your hand. If dm allows it, then sure, this sword will count as both

I think JoCat has joined an online campaign being DM'd by Arcadum.

Don’t worry 😉 I’m that girl too, Ronan my wizard is ummmmm He is a good boy, not a bad boy, 100% not someone who made many situations worse, Definitely not killed an important NPC by mistake and making the GM rip out 10 hole pages in his book

My favorite part of the charisma caster group image is that, while Pally is face palming you can see her smiling behind her hand.

Eldrich knight uses a sword with spells, but cannot use a spellcasting focus, instead requiring a hand free to grab materials. Xanathar's has a magic item called "Ruby of the War Mage" that can be added to a weapon and allows Eldrich knight and arcane tricksters to use it as a casting focus despite not normally being allowed. So you can get the ruby, affix it to a sword and then aim it as you wish... Another idea would be having a wand of (insert spell) made to be a sword hilt grip panel, then having it put onto a custom sword xD

You neglect Flaws? They put spice in your campaign! I had a Wizard who's Flaw was "gain knowledge no matter what", she got gifted a Necronomicon by a 'friend' of the Party, she them MC'd to GOOlock.

The fact that you didn't get the lemon tree joke shows your innocence.

30:30 It really Really depends on your dm and how they will rule it. (and how you pitch it)

In fairness, just because you're That Guy doesn't mean your group is mad about it. Sometimes That Guy energy makes the table more fun for others (yes, even for the DM).

"You're evil." "No, because alignment is subjective. Y O U don't get to decide who is good or evil!" *I do.* "Wha-?" *I do* "...But... You're a god." *Yes... And I get to decide who is good and who is evil. Because that is my job.* "...Oh." There, solved your alignment issues. Nobody gets to decide alignments, except for the Gods.

thanks for point out a loop hole in wand use, all wands in my game will now require somatic components to prevent Concealed Carry wands.

30:10 The War Caster feat allows you to cast spells when your hands are otherwise occupied (by a sword or shield) and there's some class options (cleric, paladin, druid and hexblade warlock) who can cast through a shield or weapon.

The fact you like cheese and mayo explains so much

I have been roleplaying for 3 years and it has been best time ever. I personally just love being DM, because that's a great way to use my creativity. Please try it if you want, because all the viral 5e rule books are free to get as digital versions by now. You just have to teach some smart friends to play, print some character sheets and get something that you can use as figures.

The only way to get a score above 24 is to attune to a belt of giant strength and the hammer of thunderbolts, while wearing gauntlets of ogre power.

Proficiency does not determine tiers. 1-4 is tier one, 5-9 is tier two, 10-14 is tier three, and 15+ is tier four. The proficiency chart has 5 sections.

regarding the 30 min covered wand thing, if you become a hexbalde warlock and take pact of the blade you can use your sword as the wand (you can use your pact weapon as your spell focas)

The character traits and alignment chart are really for the players who actually roleplay in a roleplaying game. Sometimes they develop or change over time, usually gradually or suddenly if a serious event changed you. For example by Tabaxi Monk/Cleric "Plate of Copper (Copper)" wasn't initially enamored by magic, and especially magic *fire* until shortly after the campaign began and used kobold grenades and then later his fireball necklace.

"are there rules against putting a wand or staff inside of a covering?" Boy, do I have a spell for you: Shillelagh!

The Proficiency Bonus part is part of why JoCat hyped up Bard with Jack-of-All-Trades and Expertise, as Proficiency is the "I know what I'm doing, genuinely' bonus to anything you're skilled at doing. Just to break it down and give you an idea: - Jack of all trades (which is at lv2) adds half your proficiency bonus to anything you don't have proficiency in already, so right at lv2, that's +1 to everything that's not already getting +2 - Expertise (at lv3, then again at lv10) lets you pick two skills you're proficient with and double the proficiency bonus, so at lv3 that's two skills going from +2 to +4 instantly, and 4 skills with a whopping +8 at lv10 (assuming your base modifier would be at least +0 before that) - With College of Lore (lv3) you can pick 3 skills to become proficient with, meaning you can gain 3 new proficiencies and immediately super-charge two of them with Expertise. - With College of Eloquence (Silver Tongue, lv3), any Persuasion or Deception check made with Charisma treats any rolls of 9 or below as a 10.

The firt step is realization, it is fine. You learn as you live

30:20 the ruby of the warmage item lets you designate one weapon to use as a wand, and the Improved Pact Weapon eldritch invocation does the same automatically for any weapon summoned with the warlock's Pact Of The Blade pact boon.

As for the covered wand thing. Ask your DM! But generally I'd figure the spell in the wand goes off inside inside covering unless the spell has a specified target (and isn't an attack), so not a good Idea.

This is making me think of something I want brought back in 5E, my favorite class from a 3.5 Kingdoms of Kalamar splatbook: Cleric of Merciful Fate. Comparison between regular clerics. Cons: CoMF cannot use piercing or slashing weapons, they cannot coup de grace, they can’t use medium armor or heavy shields, and they have D6 hit die. Pros: Can use any “Conjuration(Healing)” spells 1Spell level lower than normal. Using Cure Light Wounds as a Cantrip/Orison/Level 0 Spell, use Neutralize Poison as a Level 3 Spell, etc. Domain and unique feat add more to how much a CoMF will heal with Cure spells/healing spells in general. Alternate Channeling: Feat allows a use of “Turn Undead” to be used in a religion specific way. CoMF AC: All allies in 30ft add the CoMF Charisma Modifier to ALL Saves and Skill Checks for 15 minutes. The first is the most important, because in 3.5, it actually makes it reasonable to use Metamagic as a Cleric, because otherwise it’s too expensive. I was able to be EFFECTIVE in battles (my goddamn dice hate me) by becoming LAZER JESUS.

Airier in regards to a +10 modifier: "that is a lot of plus" 3.5e Players: *laughs in Base Attack Bonus* Nerd Info: Attacks in 3.5e are calculated as such: Base Attack Bonus (upwards of a bonus of 20) + Ability Modifier + Size Modifier + Misc Modifier. This basically meant that a character could get a +25 modifier to hit from their BAB and Ability mod alone with the right amount of min-max. Also think of Base Attack Bonus as proficiency but only for combat. Weirdly enough, I really like 3.5e because its complexity in the character sheet made it easier to dictate what skill was necessary for an action.

Airier watching the video: “Maybe I am a Monster”

Currently playing a lvl 4 Devotion Paladin myself. Been playing her for months and I'm still figuring out some features of the roll20 character sheet. I also haven't used the whole bonds, flaws and other trait stuff.

Grabuljean, remember from Druid JoCat vid? "Cool animals, like my OC, Grabuljean, the Nocturnal Giant Toad! DON'T STEAL!"

I like to make my own bad jokes when designing DND characters I'll never play because I have no friends. Like the elf bard who's actually a human pretending to be an elf; an elvish impersonator.

mayo makes the cheese soggy. they can be on the same sandwich, but if they touch it’s game over. Ofc I only barely tolerate mayo in the first place and LOVE cheese with a passion, so I might be a bit biased.

For the wand sword, you can probably ask your DM if you can integrate your arcane focus into the hilt of a sword and then flavor it in a way that has the spells shoot out from the tip. Since it makes no mechanical differences and would make for a good downtime activity (just tell your DM to look up the crafting rules from Xanather´s Guide) and they should most likely be ok with it.

About the wand you can ask your dm about how arcane focuses work. For an old campaign I was in I played a Warlock who wielded a sheild and spear where the spear was carved with arcane runes so with a background idea my weapon turned into an arcane focus at the same time. As long as it isn't op and makes sense why something works the way it will and your dm enjoys player freedom then you'll be fine as long as you talk with them and get permission