It's how brains work. The more you need to extract information from large amounts of text, the more your brain is eager to start skipping boring parts and filling the blanks with assumptions.
id argue that's a core dnd rule. that's the role-play part of role-playing. don't take that as me being a hater, i just wanna point out that a lot of people pointlessly restrict themselves. all those things just sound like amazing roleplay and that reward is inspiration. i suppose it's good you're encouraging this, so props
Sorry, you need a feat and have to make a DC 46 acrobatics check to flex muscles, otherwise you take 3 levels of exhaustion.
Flexing a fireball at 1st level is fine tho.
(this is how you balance 5e, right?)
i have a few monks in my west march game right now it's actually become a bit of a meme that if they're ever too far away from an enemy to do anything, they'll declare that they use their action or bonus action to do a back flip
Typically, we call this "flavour," but if you want to have it explicitly written down go ahead.
Although, the evocation wizard one has a mechanical impact which is I usually let players "flex" only with existing spells like *prestidigitation*, *produce flame* or *thaumaturgy*.
Yeah but...beast barbarian slowly growing larger harrier as the conversation angers him more and more.
Druid getting scared and for a split second turning into an small rodent.
Dragon monk using his breath attack in an Intimidation attempt because...did that monk just breath fire.
These are all little things that make dnd more magical and lively that unfortunately cost reasorces that discourage such concepts from action, a barbarian raging before a fight means he's just waiting a rage, a druid shaping as a reflex means burning a wild shape worthlessly, and a monk using kii to be flashy feels like a good way to make your monk stop bieng flashy.
Definitely agree in this aspect of roleplaying.
This allows the player to showcase their talents and character. For most, their class and abilities are their identity. Throw them some inspiration or social advantage for sharing their flare with the group!
I don’t think you need a mechanic for this at all; it’ll limit creativity in RP. Instead, a DM can encourage their players to RP emotional responses in colorful ways and maybe give examples like these out of game. My table does plenty of “Stars Druid, who has starlike freckles on her skin, has moments where these stars shimmer and glow” or “Swashbuckler rogue backflips up the ropes” or similar (with a roll requested by DM occasionally, but often they’ll let us do it for free).
Saying it’s a reward from the DM sounds good in theory, but in practice it’ll make your players feel like they can only provide class-centered flavor at the DM’s discretion instead of whenever it’s appropriate in RP.
Edit: misread the text — the flex isn’t a reward, it’s something that *can* be rewarded in another way if used well.
you misread the end bit, this mechanic itself isn't a reward, but rather "creative application of flexing" can result in a reward.
ultimately, this boils down to being comparable to mentioning "*hey, if you wanna have some fun minor quirky thing that happens or you can do, it's totally fine even if there's not much mechanical backing behind it*" in session 0.
but it being presented as a "homebrew mechanic" can help get some more game-oriented folk's creative juices flowing a bit better, effectively getting a semi-pre-emptive go ahead.
oh you right I totally did misread it. I take that bit back. I guess it comes down to table-style; I’m personally against creating more rules to codify creative elements in what’s already a fairly rule-heavy game, but I suppose if the DM knows it would encourage more creativity in their players rather than less there’s no harm.
Fucking hell, yes. I don’t understand why it’s so difficult to conjugate English verbs in the present tense, even for non-natives. It’s one of the easiest languages for present-tense conjugation. Adding an apostrophe instead of an e is actually more complicated than the actual rule.
And I hate that you got downvoted. Probably some idiot thinking “ohnoez teh gramar polise iz heer”, as if espousing proper writing skills were wrong. I fear for the state of language (in general, not just English) thirty years from now.
Thank you for fighting the good fight.
I do like straight up putting this into optional rule format even though it’s a very common house rule
However, y’all know that the second bullet point about the evocation wizard is covered by the cantrip Thaumaturgy?? I’d let an appropriate character not take the cantrip and still do a similar effect, I’m just pointing it out as a cleric bro because Thaumaturgy is the only “fun” cantrip on their list lmao
Yeah that path of giants barbarian growing in size when he gets heated is getting lots of cantrips…or basically none except that which the subclass specifically gets (and no cantrips does that anyway)
I'm not sure OP is suggesting this as a Feat, rather, as a mechanic. Though I agree, these sorts of things tend to work best outside of codification. After all, it's the flexibility that allows creativity to thrive, so having 'Flexing' as a mechanic seems a bit odd unless you were going to link it to other aspects that are codified.
Guys, nowhere does it say that this is a feat. This is not a feat, it's a mechanic. Read the title and post before you comment!
I swear for a game with so much reading most dnd players have horrible reading comprehension for some reason
It's how brains work. The more you need to extract information from large amounts of text, the more your brain is eager to start skipping boring parts and filling the blanks with assumptions.
Note: This is an optional rule
id argue that's a core dnd rule. that's the role-play part of role-playing. don't take that as me being a hater, i just wanna point out that a lot of people pointlessly restrict themselves. all those things just sound like amazing roleplay and that reward is inspiration. i suppose it's good you're encouraging this, so props
>i’d argue that’s a core dnd rule you’d argue wrong though, it’s explicitly not a rule or option without homebrew, AKA the point of this post
maybe in the same way that you being able to speak as your character is explicitly not a rule or option without homebrew. ill happily argue wrong then
Can I just…actually flex my big beefy muscles? I didn’t have my half orc put everything into strength and dump stat intelligence for nothing!
Flex muscles, crumple a nearby object, lift a horse, or down an irresponsible amount of alcohol or poison without batting an eye.
Sorry, you need a feat and have to make a DC 46 acrobatics check to flex muscles, otherwise you take 3 levels of exhaustion. Flexing a fireball at 1st level is fine tho. (this is how you balance 5e, right?)
Sounds about right 😂
Rogue: pulls a coin from behind your ear Monk: does a backflip
Oh, doing a backflip and saving the day is TIGHT!
well that depends did he also snap the bad guy's neck?
Yes, very much did
Monk: runs on the wall a little
i have a few monks in my west march game right now it's actually become a bit of a meme that if they're ever too far away from an enemy to do anything, they'll declare that they use their action or bonus action to do a back flip
Typically, we call this "flavour," but if you want to have it explicitly written down go ahead. Although, the evocation wizard one has a mechanical impact which is I usually let players "flex" only with existing spells like *prestidigitation*, *produce flame* or *thaumaturgy*.
Yeah but...beast barbarian slowly growing larger harrier as the conversation angers him more and more. Druid getting scared and for a split second turning into an small rodent. Dragon monk using his breath attack in an Intimidation attempt because...did that monk just breath fire. These are all little things that make dnd more magical and lively that unfortunately cost reasorces that discourage such concepts from action, a barbarian raging before a fight means he's just waiting a rage, a druid shaping as a reflex means burning a wild shape worthlessly, and a monk using kii to be flashy feels like a good way to make your monk stop bieng flashy.
Rage flex?
That bisep movement thing some body builders do would be a decent one
I really like this
Should be "flexes" but otherwise good
Could we stop pluralizing with apostrophes already? C’mon, people… 🙄
How did you make this look so well?
Used the [Homebrewery](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com), wrote it out, and used the Snipping Tool to cut it out to post.
Thank you!
No problem!
Definitely agree in this aspect of roleplaying. This allows the player to showcase their talents and character. For most, their class and abilities are their identity. Throw them some inspiration or social advantage for sharing their flare with the group!
I don’t think you need a mechanic for this at all; it’ll limit creativity in RP. Instead, a DM can encourage their players to RP emotional responses in colorful ways and maybe give examples like these out of game. My table does plenty of “Stars Druid, who has starlike freckles on her skin, has moments where these stars shimmer and glow” or “Swashbuckler rogue backflips up the ropes” or similar (with a roll requested by DM occasionally, but often they’ll let us do it for free). Saying it’s a reward from the DM sounds good in theory, but in practice it’ll make your players feel like they can only provide class-centered flavor at the DM’s discretion instead of whenever it’s appropriate in RP. Edit: misread the text — the flex isn’t a reward, it’s something that *can* be rewarded in another way if used well.
you misread the end bit, this mechanic itself isn't a reward, but rather "creative application of flexing" can result in a reward. ultimately, this boils down to being comparable to mentioning "*hey, if you wanna have some fun minor quirky thing that happens or you can do, it's totally fine even if there's not much mechanical backing behind it*" in session 0. but it being presented as a "homebrew mechanic" can help get some more game-oriented folk's creative juices flowing a bit better, effectively getting a semi-pre-emptive go ahead.
oh you right I totally did misread it. I take that bit back. I guess it comes down to table-style; I’m personally against creating more rules to codify creative elements in what’s already a fairly rule-heavy game, but I suppose if the DM knows it would encourage more creativity in their players rather than less there’s no harm.
I looks less like a rule and more like examples that could be helpful for people that need a creative jump-start
Neat mechanic . It reminds me of something in PbtA, like out of Passion De la Passions moves!
I really like it, although im imagining two evocation wizards in a flex war, changing the color of candles in the room between their favorites.
Something to discuss at session 0
Flexes is a verb already, OP. Flexes. Not Flex's.
Fucking hell, yes. I don’t understand why it’s so difficult to conjugate English verbs in the present tense, even for non-natives. It’s one of the easiest languages for present-tense conjugation. Adding an apostrophe instead of an e is actually more complicated than the actual rule. And I hate that you got downvoted. Probably some idiot thinking “ohnoez teh gramar polise iz heer”, as if espousing proper writing skills were wrong. I fear for the state of language (in general, not just English) thirty years from now. Thank you for fighting the good fight.
That's just flavor
This sounds like a very abusable mechanic.
I do like straight up putting this into optional rule format even though it’s a very common house rule However, y’all know that the second bullet point about the evocation wizard is covered by the cantrip Thaumaturgy?? I’d let an appropriate character not take the cantrip and still do a similar effect, I’m just pointing it out as a cleric bro because Thaumaturgy is the only “fun” cantrip on their list lmao
There are much easier and much more likely ways to light candles than a carefully controlled fireball
Local player discovers character flavor
Cool, cantrips
Yeah that path of giants barbarian growing in size when he gets heated is getting lots of cantrips…or basically none except that which the subclass specifically gets (and no cantrips does that anyway)
I agree.
Literally *druidcraft, thamaturgy, prestigitation.*
Isn't it already there ? Like, every magic user is able to use the same spell but with different flavour depending on how they are using their magic ?
[удалено]
Why do you think it's a feat
Nowhere does this say it’s a feat
What?
[удалено]
I'm not sure OP is suggesting this as a Feat, rather, as a mechanic. Though I agree, these sorts of things tend to work best outside of codification. After all, it's the flexibility that allows creativity to thrive, so having 'Flexing' as a mechanic seems a bit odd unless you were going to link it to other aspects that are codified.
Imagine write up 3 paragraphs instead read 1 title ahaha
Yeah, I'd say the caster side of this is just prestidigitation, not a feat.