D&D&Gender

Just so that y’all are aware: D&D is queer af.  Sometimes, the cis and straights don’t really play around with the idea of gender as much as us more queer people are apt to do.  That’s fine. Not really, but it’s fine. The thing is, it’s so limiting, and in a fantasy world of dragons, curses, hags, magic and more, if you’re keeping your NPCs strictly male or female and not having any representation for the rest of the spectrum, you’re missing out on excellent components of storytelling.  

One thing to note though: D&D is fantasy, but the gender spectrum very much isn’t.  Relying on fantastical elements to explain away gender identity makes it seem like it’s something that only exists in fantasy.  So, even though I have the Unseelie Queen having shifted to the feminine side of the gender spectrum despite centuries of being a King because she was “bored”, that’s not quite true representation.  Thus, I have a non-binary gnome named Golly who runs a magical pet shop. The gender is not tied with the character’s magical essence, it’s just innately who they are.  

Having a character that started female but transitioned to male, or vice versa, or transitioned out of a gender into the non-binary spectrum, not through some magical act, but through their own personal expression, choices and innate qualities, is important for representation.  And if you hope to have a group or organization that really embraces representation, it’s important as a DM to have NPCs that show off the spectrum of gender. It’ll inspire your players to play around with gender in their characters as well. And ultimately, this will improve upon the player’s own internal concepts for gender.

“And if you hope to have a group or organization that really embraces representation, it’s important as a DM to have NPCs that show off the spectrum of gender. It’ll inspire your players to play around with gender in their characters as well. And ultimately, this will improve upon the player’s own internal concepts for gender.”

However, it’s important that you monitor how they treat these characters and how they play them.  As a DM, it’s important to referee, or have someone you trust in the group, to make sure that people aren’t misrepresenting.  Having characters fall into tropes or stereotypes or misconceptions can moreso damage what you’re attempting to do with gender in your groups or sessions.  A character’s gender identity should never be the butt of a joke or done at the expense of humour. A non-binary character should explain their preferred pronouns, and players should be corrected if they misgender, but not chastised.  Make it in-character, too, to make it seem like almost a real-life scenario.  

What’s also cool about D&D is that there are specific races and groups that already play around with the concept of gender.  The Verdan and Kobold can change gender AND sex depending on circumstances, Changelings are genderless, as are Warforged. There are already options for races that players can use to play with the concept of gender.  But even with all of the other races, gender should be an open concept that people are able to work with, and as a DM, giving players free reign to choose their character’s gender expression and to make sure that people are staying up with the genders of other characters can be an important factor in any session that gives depth to the theater of mind that we all partake in.  

As a DM, if a character was one that was born one sex but wanted to transition, I would provide ways that they could do that – magic make all things possible, and as a DM, you can create things to help players sculpt these characters into how they want them to be.

D&D is a wonderful game.  Having a fantastical world within the theater of the mind means that anything and everything is possible, and allowing yourself as a player or as a DM to play around with societal structures like gender and expression and deepen the game, deepen your NPCs, and create a more realized, full world and/or story that people can truly invest in.  Not only that, but D&D sessions can be the perfect place to practice proper gendering, proper pronoun usage, and more. It truly is a magical game, and embracing the empowerment that it can hold can make ripples in your life and the world around you in ways that can really make a difference.

Dungeon Masters: It’s Not You vs. The Players

Imagine this: You’re a Dungeon Master.  You have your Big Bad facing the party in the climactic battle when, lo and behold, you have your Big Bad use an attack..only to roll a 1.  Then, the players retaliate with a spell and…you roll another 1. You keep rolling low, and the players roll well, and now your battle is much easier than it should have been all because of luck.

If you’ve ever been a Dungeon Master, this probably sounds familiar, and you know how frustrating it can be.  But here’s the thing: You’re supposed to be neutral as the Dungeon Master.

“The point of the DM is not to “win.”  The point of the DM is to create an engaging, immersive session and world that gets the players hooked. “

Something I’ve noticed while playing with Dungeon Masters but also being a Dungeon Master myself is that certain DMs really act as though it’s very much the DM vs. the Players.  While it’s always fun to promote the “evil DM” facade that is hyperbolic for effect, I personally believe that neutrality as the DM is an important aspect of the whole dynamic between the DM and the players.  Here’s why:

The point of the DM is not to “win.”  The point of the DM is to create an engaging, immersive session and world that gets the players hooked.  But the DM should also not root for the players. Being indifferent, being neutral, is really what will lend DMs towards a better balance with difficulty.  If you’re trying to win, trying to get the big bad or whatever the monster of the week is to take down the players, to force them into a hole or to run away, you are risking a railroaded session.  Now, if the players make stupid decisions while fighting the big bad, that’s on them. You’re not supposed to make it easy on them either. Rooting for one side or the other is the first step in tipping the scales towards one side without realizing it.  

As the DM, you are not playing chess – you’re getting into these figurative minds of this imaginative creatures and monsters and bad guys and interpreting how they would play the game.  And if the players do something clever, or roll really well, you as the DM should just let it happen and let it play out.

I honestly love it when players do something clever or really get a stroke of dumb luck that leads to their victory.  And if they keep having wins that are too easy, it’s okay to ramp it up a bit. If your bard keeps messing your guys up with the Confusion spell, and you’re fully aware of it, it’s okay to throw in creatures that have ranged attacks outside of the casting range.  But this shouldn’t be done to have a “win” mindset, it should be done to really increase the difficulty to make your players have to come up with something new, something clever, and for the most part increase the enjoyment they have in the session. Or let another player shine, the Warlock who never gets to have a ranged standoff with creatures because the Bard keeps just doing the crowd control nonsense and doesn’t leave anything for the rest of the part.

The “You vs. the Players” mindset (which reminds me of the Mario Party or Nintendoland for the Wii U where you could have a 1 vs 4 battle) doesn’t really work well with Dungeons and Dragons, or at least it’s not the most effective way to play the game.

The best strategy, if you ask me, is to present an intriguing hook or premise to them, and have kind of the “answer” to that hook or premise, and then let the players choose how they proceed towards that answer.  So, if your hook is that all of the fish in a lake have disappeared and it’s crippling the fishing industry, your “answer” to that mystery is that they’ve all been teleported away by a fish-obsessed hag, how your players make moves to determine that answer is up to them.  If there’s a long-running plot, that’s the hook: the Big Bad is planning to destroy the capital city. The “answer” is that the Big Bad must be stopped or his plan will be seen through. The beginning and the end are up to the DM, but the middle part is up to the players and their choices, and the DM is merely the neutral overseer of whatever happens.

So, there’s no winning, there’s no losing.  But you can definitely fuck with the players if you want, that’s pretty entertaining.  If you’re ever feeling unfulfilled in your sessions, maybe try this idea of the Neutral DM and roll with it.  Good luck!

“Underrated” of the Week: The Trickery Domain

When I first started playing D&D, I was really all about the spellcasting.  I loved me some sorcerer power, and that’s typically all I played until my first sorcerer for my current group (Detroit LFG) got torn in half by a tree.  

When trying to pick a new character to play, I had no idea what to pick.  I wanted to stray away from what I always went with and wanted to move in a direction I had never done before.  For me, that would be the Cleric. But Clerics seemed so boring. When people are looking at cleric domains to choose from for their D&D campaign, they typically lean more towards the types of domains that deal a lot of damage or heal a lot of hit points all in one go.  However, these domains seem to be pretty limited, and pretty cliche. I mean, I’m not one to talk about cliche for starting with a human sorcerer every single time I start a new campaign.

But one domain really caught my eye – the Trickery Domain.  That Invoke Duplicity – creating a perfect illusion at Level 2 and being able to cast from it, move it around as if it were your own self – that was super dope.  So I made Shander – a Human Trickery Cleric. Not going to lie, I was hooked from the start just based on that ability alone. However, it really is just an in-combat ability since it lasts for a minute.  Also, as a Cleric, you are really limited when your concentration is taken up by something. But hear me out – RANGED Inflict Wounds. RANGED Cure Wounds. RANGED Spare the Dying (up to 120 feet – suck it, Grave Cleric.)  All of a sudden, all of these touch spells become ranged spells, because my Trickery Cleric can just stay behind a wall while he lets his illusion (aka Shander 2) go out to 120 feet to do all of the spell shenanigans. Not only that, but it extends the range of spells like Toll the Dead, Guiding Bolt, Healing Word, and other ranged spells that are so vital.  And if you Sanctuary yourself, or Blink, or do anything that protects you against attacks to keep yourself safe while your illusion goes out to be the source from which you cast spells, your utility all of a sudden increases dramatically. And, just a cherry on the top – if the illusion is within 5 feet of a creature you’re attack, that gives you advantage on your attacks.  That can mean a 5th Level Inflict Wounds at Advantage. Don’t fuck with the Trickery Cleric.

Also, if your DM is playing it right, this illusion is a PERFECT illusion.  It looks like you. The only time that a creature would know it’s an illusion from the get-go is if it has tremorsense, blindsight, true sight, etc, which aren’t too common until you get to higher levels.  The illusion can’t be destroyed, but a creature can attempt to attack it. It would be presumed that attacks automatically would just go through it – you can’t actively move the image unless you use your bonus action, so it’s assumed you wouldn’t have the control to make it “dodge” an oncoming attack.  Once the attack goes through, the creature may realize this isn’t a real person, but they may get confused when that illusion then does an Inflict Wounds on it. So it can be a good distraction or gimmick in battle to confuse your enemy for a turn.

“That’s what the Trickery Cleric is supposed to run as – utility, with a side of roleplay badassery.“

That’s what the Trickery Cleric is supposed to run as – utility, with a side of roleplay badassery.  Not to mention those Domain Spells and some very useful Channel Divinities. If you have a Paladin who doesn’t know how to be stealthy, all you need to do is give him Blessing of the Trickster, then cast Pass Without a Trace, and suddenly the Paladin isn’t fucking up any stealth mission and you have a tank who can get the drop on enemies without problem.  Being able to use the Cloak of Shadows CD to get out of a sticky situation (because, really, as a Trickery Cleric you’re going to want to stay away from combat while you have your illusion up) is incredibly useful, if somewhat niche (and limited since it’s only for one turn), and also crumbles when you get to the true sight levels with your enemies. But whatever, it’s gotten me out of sticky situations before, and I’m sure it’ll keep helping out just the same.

But let me be clear – the Trickery Cleric gets the BEST domain spells of all domains.  Charm Person and Disguise Self for infiltration and espionage? The Trickery Cleric can keep up with the best of them.  Mirror Image and Blink for defense in combat? The Trickery Cleric makes it so difficult to be hit. Pass Without Trace and Dimension Door?  No one can keep up. Dominate Person? Polymorph? Dispel Magic? Modify Memory? Holy hell. You could not have created a better set of spells for a utility caster.  The Trickery Cleric offers so much in the way of stealth missions, combat, support, roleplay, intel, espionage, etc. If you want a character ready for anything, the Trickery Cleric is just the domain for you.

Trust me, it’s so satisfying to cast Polymorph to turn your barbarian who was getting low on health into a T-Rex, and then you Dimension Door to a safe location to let the T-Rex do its thing, or you cast Sanctuary, Blur and/or Mirror Image to sit back and watch the T-Rex do its thing while you prep any healing spells to keep the T-Rex your vicious, reptilian tank.  Or even casting Dominate Person on, well, anybody and then having total control over this person and making them do whatever you desire.

I only have two qualms with this class that I wish weren’t as…lame.  First of all, having a Poison Divine Strike sucks. So many things resist or are immune to poison, so it’s the weakest of the Divine Strikes.  However, this is okay, because you’re not going to be within attacking distance anyway if you’re playing the class right. You should not be a frontliner as a Trickery Cleric, not at all.

My other qualm is the fact that it really takes a lot of setup to really do the class right.  Action economy is not your friend in this instance, and it will take a few turns to really get the setup right.  However, if you play it right and you stay out of your enemy’s range or stay hidden until the time is right, then you will be a powerhouse!  It just takes a little bit, and you have to be clever. There are multiple in-combat combos with this domain that work very well. Mirror Image + Spirit Guardians.  Invoke Duplicity + Sanctuary while you play Healer. Polymorph + Dimension Door. Ranged Inflict Wounds with Invoke Duplicity. Advantage Inflict Wounds with Invoke Duplicity.  Mirror Image + Beacon of Hope.

I feel as though the Trickery Cleric was intentionally limited in all regards to keep it from being OP.  The Invoke Duplicity ability was made concentration and given a time limit to prevent it from being way too powerful and prevented epic combos with other concentration spells, the Cloak of Shadows was made to be a one-turn invisibility, the Blessing of the Trickster is only able to be used on other characters, the Divine Strike sucks because advantage with an illusion at your side is powerful, so on and so forth.  It’s not the best at healing, it’s not the best at combat, it’s not the best at support – but the Trickery Cleric does it ALL. That’s why this class is underrated – people are drawn to the subclasses and domains and such that offer a one-trick pony, but they do that one trick VERY well. The Trickery Cleric can handle any mission, any situation, with above average utility. That’s why I love this domain, and why Shander and Shander 2 will forever be one of my favorite characters I’ve ever played.