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walked into the library the other day. Me:"do you have any books on Turtles" Librarian: "Hardback?" Me: "Yeah and little heads"

A warforged tortle... Don't you mean a Wartortle?.

"Oh, it's just another edited thumbnail to make it seem like they wear weird cost... OMG"

Wise DMs say: Never pay full price for late pizza.

I work with Galápagos Tortoises at a zoo, and I can confirm that they really enjoy human interaction. I can also confirm that hanging out with them will make you want to play a Tortle. (They live up to 250 years. 50 years is crazy pants.)

My tortle crush is a druid he just got timeless body and had a great rp moment when he realized he was going to outlive the next 10 generations of tortles

Here is my interpretation of the age of Tortles: It says the AVERAGE age of Tortles is 50 years. This could reflect the true fact that there is a very high infant mortality rate of real world turtles. If 5/6 Tortles die at birth and 1/6 Tortles lives 300 years, that would be an average lifespan of 50 years. I think people tend to think "median" when they read or hear "average". This also (in my experience) gives the character a little more... character. It survived when so many of it's brothers and sisters did not. Certainly that is knowledge which would effect the growth of a sentient being as well as a race of sentient beings in which this is a norm. I see it as conflicting emotions similar to that of Spartans where one would be proud to be among the few who were strong enough to be allowed to live at birth, but also a gripping sadness and probably guilt for those that weren't. My wife wrote this into her "flaws" in her traits and brought it out in the story to great effect.

D&D with Jim and Pruitt! D&D with Jim and Pruitt! D&D with Jim and Pruitt! Making videos to please! WebDM power!

I wrote tortles for my world that they live 50 years then go into their shells in an underground place to sleep for 50 years and become young again. They are like cicadas

I see the Tortles as being like the Mondoshawans from the Fifth Element: "Time is not important, only life is important."

"Children's cartoons are fertile grounds for D&D adventures" I have used the the cartoon "Hilda" as inspiration for multiple Monster of the Week hunts with zero shame.

You guys are the weird uncles that play D&D that I wish I had.

Tortle Warlock in a pact with Great A'tuin the World Turtle as his patron.

You guys have really been cranking the weird on these intros up to 11. Love it.

Turtle head boops = reason to live.

Pruitt's Turtle story is worth the watch! Take my like, sirs!

My favorite tortle homebrew that I've seen was for a Sand/Desert Tortle. They drew a lot of inspiration from the Fremen from Dune by giving them immunity to Poison and giving the lore of "riders of the purple worms".

My ideas for Tortle variants: First off, all my tortles are much longer lived than 50 years. Sea Tortle: Very much like Crush from Finding Nemo. They are extremely friendly and almost universally talk like surfer dudes. Despite how chill they are, they are still absolute tanks and should not be trifled with. They often act as guides through the underwater regions, the oldest and strongest among them even entering the underwater regions of the Underdark without fear. They as a whole tend towards being good, and are usually neutral in regards to matters of law and chaos. Make good bards. Snapping Tortles: They’re essentially the evil version of tortles, but rather than being as extreme as other evil splinter races like drow, these guys are just all about being pricks. They’re like cantankerous old men, always finding something to be upset about. They resent other races, especially mammals, who they view as having “usurped” the prestige and glory reptiles once held, and avians, who they see as traitors to the true reptilian bloodline. Most of all they hate other tortle variants for not being as miserable and resentful as they are. Snapping tortles love to harass others, especially those that are weaker than them like children. It’s not uncommon for a snapping tortle to start a long and involved diatribe about how live birth is inferior to egg laying, often getting into graphic detail in order to make their audience as uncomfortable as possible. When a snapping Tortle sees someone who is happy, they will stop at nothing until that person is as miserable as they are. Sometimes large groups of them will come together and harass a family of community for months, years, or even decades. They are evil beings through and through, and definitely chaotic.

played some short adventures with a dude who played a tortle paladin, best memory i have about the whole ordeal was a succeful intimidate check against a goliath giving us some problems, the dude just streched his neck a full 2 feets to look down on the massive goliath

Playing a tortle rogue was the best D&D decision I ever made. Melzi (named after a Renaissance artist, of course) has been through drug deals, hag covens, undead dragons, and the apocalypse, and along the way he has become the fastest thing on two legs and sold his immortal soul. It's never not fun playing him. I do agree that tortles should have longer lifespans, but I also really appreciate their lore. The entire cycle of "spend about 35 years as an adventurer, come home, pass what they learned on to the next generation" is really interesting, and that desire to get all the experience he can has been the driving force behind Melzi's character development, devil pact and all. So while I'm all for changing it in other settings, I'm glad it was written the way it was.

Only tortle I've built was a fey princess's pet turtle who she turned into a bodyguard and then accidentally left him in Ravenloft

My tortle is actually an Arcana Cleric w/ Ritual Caster (wizard). 19 AC with a shield, 19 Str, 18 Wis... hearty and resourceful. He's like a Swiss Army knife and I love the situational adaptability. He can heal, be a bruiser, nuke, control, or just provide convenience and utility.

I'm just waiting for the episode when they talk about eastern fantasy settings and incorporating anime style themes into games titled "Weeb DM". I'll just see myself out.

"Please tell me they're wearing TMNT outfits for the intro" *clicks video* "...COWABUNGA!"

Pruitt was fully enlightened by petting that turtle

The idea of a cynical tortle in power reminds me of the Mayor from Rango (a desert tortoise voiced by Ned Beatty).

The shell defense is also great for while resting, short or long.

Hands down the best channel for advice on everything DM-related

"See the TURTLE of enormous girth! On his shell he holds the earth. His thought is slow but always kind; He holds us all within his mind. On his back all vows are made; He sees the truth but may'nt aid. He loves the land and loves the sea, And even loves a child like me."

My tortle Druid thought it was a hoot to misty step above an opponent and then “turtle up”

In my homebrew world I upgraded the lifespan to 500 years. And every 85 years all the Tortles are irresistibly drawn out to sea to seak the great mother to find mates and commune with their past. The great mother is a giant turtle island that drifts the great oceans. Sadly the trip is often hazardous and some never return from the great pilgrimage.

Lmao in my tropical Age of Sail themed campaign one of the Oldest members of our crew is the Tortle Spirit Shaman; his name is Oogway Dagobah

My Tortle Barbarian has a sailor background and I modelled him around Polynesian cultures. When he adventures underground, or at a time when there is no sun or moon, he retells his story in front of the moon by performing a dance. Literally a turtle-haka. It's also how tortles tell each other stories when they meet.

I came up with these same 4 TMNT character concepts the day before this video was released, while I was brainstorming a new character. Thanks for the validation, it now feels like I was able to bounce my ideas off of you guys.

They maintain the Tortallity of all knowledge and discoveries in their great libraries.

The Galapagos Tortoise has a super long lifespan! What's up with Tortles being so short-lived?!? Who greenlighted this?!? Also, could you make a Tortle that is a ninja using some sort of East Asian style expansion class?!? Then you could actually play a Ninja Turtle in a D&D medieval campaign!

Great Tortle breakdown! The emotion in Pruitt's Galapagos turtle/zoo story is what's real and pure in the world. Well done sir, thank you for sharing this clearly impactful moment of animal connection!

I‘ll be playing a tortle cleric in a one shot this weekend. This is the perfect prep video for this

I still think it was a typo and they meant 500 years... at least. would always DM them like that. I Also think WoW hit the nail on the head with their Tortollans they are how I always envisioned Tortels

12:20 I really like that Druid tortle idea I have an NPC in my game known as Mountain back and he is a monitor lizard, lizard-folk and I have him kinetically having a mini ecosystem growing on his shoulders as a blooming shawl of purple and green moss I also spin the goodberry spell into spawning mushrooms

Actually, the Tortle shell archive isn't a bad idea. *Some of the oldest intact writing we have IRL were carved into pieces of turtle plastron and ox scapula.* They're called the "oracle bones".

No phones, just Pruitt vibing in the moment with a turtle.

I like making my Tortle characters a quarter dragon for some reason. It's purely cosmetic, but I like doing it anyways. I did have one that was a barbarian looked like more or less like Tokka (Phill Gonzo's version). His grandmother was a red dragon and his clan name was Wyrmtail. Tato Po was pretty fun to play.

I appreciate you mentioning Kappa

Now I'm tempted to have my players meet a Tortle next time we play. Maybe as a prisoner in the dungeon of the cultists, or else a traveler moving through the area.

Tortle mystic in shell with clairvoyance and levitation...

I have a tortle barbarian, totem warrior, that's actually inspired by the kojin of final fantasy xiv. In his first adventure he got aged 40 years by a ghost, and ended the adventure as the oldest living title in recent history. It was pretty amusing. I actually really like the character. Whenever I run into battle, I rage and shout "let the revel begin!" a quote from his deity.

I played a spore druid turtle named Papa Nurgle and his shell was a massive fungal e ecosystem.

Tortals are a BECMI creature and more information for them can be found in the Mystara setting. They are prevalent in the Savage Coast.

The TMNT series from 2012 is fairly good, and also implies that Leo's got some Paladin in him with Lay On Hands, and a few other bits and pieces floating around. Plus, they also LARP at one point, so there's that.

Here is an intresting question. How would you make a Tortle as a villian. I probably might have one be a warlord who takes his time for the perfect moment to strike and has their shell etched with arcane runes that give him magic protection and Powers

What might be a fun twist on the age limit of tortles, is that 50 years is the lifespan of an active tortle. Say, if a tortle actually moves at turtle speed, and spends more time in meditation/sleeping, they don't wear their bodies out and can actually outlive elves. It would make sense that not all tortles in society could afford, or would choose to live more passively. But those that do would become record keepers, and wise aesetics.

I recently played a Open Hand Monk Tortle that was great fun. Played him slow and ponderous.

I have a Tortle transmutation wizard in one campaign & he has been one of my all time favorite characters to play.

The Tortollan's in WoW's most recent expansion have a lot of those sort of themes. Sages, warriors, historians, collectors, etc. The 5th expansion, Pandaria, was heavily flavoured with Asiatic story themes and art styles. The giant turtle island was the most obvious example of what you're talking about from a lore perspective. This was pretty interesting to hear so much overlap between D&D and WoW (not surprising given the fantasy genre, but still neat).

I’ve started a campaign for a couple of friends who haven’t played using the Ixalan planeshift world as a blank canvas. Using the sandbox approach, I’ve been using the freedom to introduce them to all sorts of classes and races through npc interaction either at the pub or during exploration. As a hook, a lot of the class/race combos have been used to reference things we share mutual interest in. Just so happens that I’m trying to flesh out some tortles that are definitely not TMNT. Not at all. Why would you suggest that the monk/artificer is Donny?

Turtle island, cool, cool... How did you forget the biggest turtle though? The Great A'Tuin.

I think in the 4e Gnoll handout they say that the Gnolls' average lifespan was impacted by the fact that most of them died young in battles. So naturally I think Tortles have a short average lifespan because most may actually die on their adventures. If I recall correctly, Chult is also Dino land also...

So from somewhere, (maybe an OSR blog?) I got this idea about these little birds that live in Tortle shells, and whole generations of them live there (I obviously think Tortles live longer than most) the benefits are that the swarm can and will defend their tortle. They can do things like grant advantage on perception checks, or prevent the tortle from being surprised (or a bonus to passive perception) or they can act as temporary hit points when they swarm. In order to restore them they have to use the PC's hit dice to replenish their numbers.

I have a policy of only writing lore for beast races if a player wants to play one (beast folk are one of my fantasy pet peeves) so when a player wanted to play a tortle pirate, tortles suddenly became a loose collection of pirate crews

That story about the zoo is pretty darn awesome. Maybe going on that theme Tortles could be practitioners of some D&D equivalent of Zen Buddhism - would go with the poetry interests perhaps. I think extending their lifespans to particularly long lived - not like elves, but a good while - might also provide good fodder for the Zen type focus, something really old and wise. Maybe they spend extended portions of their lives in meditation in solitude - as they try to make sense of their extended lives. But they could also be adventuring as well - you spend time in solitude for part of your life, but then you also need life experiences to meditate on. So they spend maybe 100 years out traveling and living the peripatetic thing, and then ritually they go into this meditation/hibernation afterword. Sort of like some of the dragon types do as well I think. And so Tortles can still be fighters and such, or maybe they are wizards as part of their intellectual theme. Or pushing it a bit maybe, they are clerics of some type of " living force" deity. Or maybe they even worship the "dragon turtles," if those still exist. Didn't think about it - for whatever reason b/c it should have smacked me in the face - but you mentioned monk as a class, which duh could along with the Zen theme. Though maybe you're not quite as combat focused as a monk - or one who favors non-lethal damage personally. So maybe you're a stun machine, or extracting essences or whichever that skill is that gives you some of the enemies' stats. Yeah, any class that doesn't favor armor would seriously benefit from having natural armor 17 AC - yup, you just mentioned wizard or druid. Could help keep you alive at lower levels until you have other ways of boosting AC above that number.

I created my own version of Tortles that I love - Tortles that ages ago ended up in the Feywild, and with time the magic of the nature itself in their new home changed them into a people living in village groves, following a druid-like way of life. Took a lot of inspiration from the ogier from the wheel of time series (along with the steddings), mixed with the samurai from the movie "the last samurai" and the ents of the lord of the rings - and yes these faeshells get so old they tell ancient elven rules "Ah, young master elf", and "don't be hasty". Also threw in some of the appearance inspiration from Lionhead studios old games of black and white and black and white 2 battle of the gods. And some master Oogway is a must from Kung Fu Panda. Love em'. Along side this I also created a new Druid circle of the land version - Feywild (even if i still prefer Faewild spelling).

By far one of the funniest intros of Web DM to date. ROFL

Tortles in my world are Dragonborn - only descended from Dragon Turtles

I always to make my Tortle with a culture similarly to Pacific islanders on earth, meaning Hawaiian, Tongan, Fiji. Ect and I make their homes like Galapagos Tortoises.

Tortle Druid of Circle the Spores growing his own spores and ecosystem on his caraprace? Sweeeeet. Gotta play one of those

Have a war between Tortles and Myconids; then baby, you got yourself a Super Mario Campaign going.

I lost it with the twirling of the mini nunchucks 😆

The 50 years bugs me. I had to mentally justify it that it was at that time where they were call to the sea and no one knows how long sea tortals live.

Man that intro upset me greatly. Keep up the great work.

Franklin is a Bard, Gamera is a Paladin. I'm currently playing a Razorback Tortle Assassin/Totem Barbarian. Modeled after Slash. Leonardo is a Samurai, Raphael is a Barbarian, Michaelangelo is a straight up Ninja, and Donatello is obviously an artificer. And Splinter is a Shadow Monk

I was just looking for an ancient wise character to send my players to next week. That character is now going to be a Tortle who much consult the carvings on his ancestor's shells. Shells that he must maintain by apply Tortle Wax every week. Thanks for the inspiration.

Okay, that haiku was tight... Adventurer's League Masters Candlekeep Mysteries Inspector Shorloq, Retired Tortle Inquisitive Rogue Custom Origin Stats: +2 DEX / +1 WIS Languages: Common & Halfling Proficiency: Stealth City Watch / Investigator Background Proficiency: Insight & Investigation Languages: Dwarvish & Elvish

In comic issue number one the TMNT crew appear to be level 2 ninja, later in the series they begin to multi class, but the base ninja remains for each of them.

P.R.I.C.E.L.E.S.S. Just priceless.

You can also add a bite for the snapping turtle, and take away the natural AC for the soft shell turtle

The tortle is the first time they have genuinely explored a different reproductive strategy to humans. The spawn once and die is common in a lot of fish and insects. While it might not be common in turtles and tortoises, tortles aren't cold blooded and just happen to look like them. The RP opportunities for a creature who doesn't have sex or intimate relationships as a motivator, or have what we would consided parent/offspring connections are huge!

Tortles should come with Charm

I love the Druid Tortle idea. Edit: Kasey Jones is definitely a Variant Human Fighter who took the Tavern Brawler feat.

Just pointing out in the original illustration. Shredder was always threatening to eat the turtles. "Tonight I feast on turtle soup".

You guys are amazing. I now want to run an entire campaign featuring elements of the game I previously didn't care about at all. Nice work!

This is why I like the variant options. Tortles should have traits befitting to Turtles and Tortoises.

If you want to read the best source on Tortles go look at Dungeon magazine #6: Tortles of the Purple Sage. They are a Mystara race that never appeared outside that setting until much later, but almost all the information you will find on them is from the Creature Catalog and the Dungeon magazine.

"They only live 50 years!" Man, fuckin' tell that to the Nezumi.

The ninja turtles I'd say all have two classes, all have afew levels of shadow monk then a second classed. Leonardo is battle master, Raphael is berserker, mikey is champion fighter, Donatello is artificer. They are all competent at hand to hand and some sneaking and such. So background urchin. They know how to get around there town. Just my thoughts.

I had a Tortle Sorcerer in a homebrew campaign who regarded all scaled creatures and humanoids as cousins. Let's just say that dragon encounters were very interesting.

Holy shit I was not expecting those tiny nunchucks. I'm losin it right now.

I always thought i'd be cool to combine tortles with something like a Trill symbiont, or a Goa'uld parasite. They only live 50 years, but their memories live on.

My friend and I are about to join a campaign as two tortles, a paladin and a wizard. Brothers named Plet and Plot Tengo. Super pumped

Raphael is definitely a ranger. Under favored enemy in bold it just says shredder, Leonardo, pizza

i am doing my first campaign as a tortle monk

These intros are just getting better and better.

From what I remember, tortis cells don't age like ours do. Ours start having difficulty dividing after a certain point, but theirs don't which is why they live so long, if I remember correctly. You could easily argue that tortles saying they only live till 50 could be interpreted as they only age till 50, and then don't really die unless killed or they get a disease or something.

Best intro yet. The dumbass look to the camera followed by the nunchucks got me good

Just played my first session with my Path of the Astral Self tortle, and had a blast, and it blended in well with the rest of the party.

This video is strong on the pun game - even more so than usual! "Tortality"... Love it!

So we roll up a Tortle that is a Teenager, once experimented on by a mad mage so they are a Mutant now. Once the Tortle finally gets free he becomes parts of the underground eventually is being trained as a Ninja. That sounds like a good time.

if I think of a tortle, I either envision Oogway or Mathew Mercer's Tortle from campaign 2.

I feel like the Tortle's Shell (and other natural armors) should stack with the Monk's Unarmored Defense. The Tortle's shell isn't an alternative calculation for AC, it just sets the *base* AC to 17. Just because you learn some fancy martial arts doesn't mean you suddenly *aren't* a living fortress.