[RPG] Can a player choose to add detail and flavor to their character’s spells and abilities

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I'm not really sure how to word this so I'll detail the situation and hopefully I can not only get an answer but a name for this situation.

I was in a game with a regular group doing a one shot as some of our group wasn't going to be around today. We all had level three characters and I believe one was a Barbarian with the Path of the Totem Warrior which I believe they chose the bear.

So during a moment of combat the person fiddled with a bear amulet they had as they said they're entering a rage. The player described that as they did so a ethereal visage of a bear enshrouded their character.

The GM had immediately said Rage doesn't do that and the player became flustered. After the session, the kettle was still boiling. To the player, the GM was outing them and stopping them from being creative. To the GM, they were confused to what the player was doing and then tried to stop them. Apparently there had been a past with the player flavoring spells and abilities in ways unusual to how they are described as written or to how they can be applied.

Part of me thinks this falls into the "rule of cool" category but it also falls into confusion with mechanics, whether superficial or actually mechanical in nature. That and we had a new player with us, so I'm not sure if it was in attempt to stop potential misleading information.

Can a player choose to add such a description to their ability (and spells)?

Best Answer

This is a matter for your Social Contract

There is no 'Core Rule' which allows the Barbarian to do this.1 As a general principle Spells and Abilities do only what their description says. Therefore the GM is entirely within their right to say no.

That said they would be entirely within their right to say yes and ideally which answer is given should have been made clear before you started playing. But you shouldn't blame your GM, nor any of the players for not clarifying it. There are countless different ways to play and being aware of all those variations it basically impossible. Whichever of these options you use comprise your Style-of-Play and which SoP you use part of your Social Contract. It's also important to remember that all SoP's are valid and fit different people.

For this specific variant there are a couple of things to keep in mind.

  • It adds flavour and customization. This lets a character own the specific spell or ability much more than the vanilla version. This will to many player let their character be more than just a combination of a race and class and can be an important part of the roleplay.

  • It's a creative outlet. And for some players that is great. For others it isn't and while it would be optional (i.e. you can choose to not add anything) a player who can't come up with anything to add to their spells and abilities can feel overshadowed. Both in coolness as another player gets have their thing be more extra, but also in play time as a player who adds stuff will spend more time focusing on their abilities/spells/actions. This will make the game less fun for them and having fun at the expense of others is not gonna make things fun in the long run. (This applies to more than just RPGs.)

  • It takes time. Depending on how much description (and how quickly it is given) it can eat up a lot of table-time. Especially combat which can already be a bit slow and will often have the heaviest ability usage slows down even more as the colour of fireballs thrown and the mane of horses summoned have to be described. This can be solved be only allowing short descriptor or outlawing them/limiting them in combat.

  • You may want to make a distinction between Mundane abilities and magical ones (which includes spells) have a different limits on what kind of flair can be added to each. For some players might find magic-like effects added to otherwise non-magical abilities to break their immersion (or breaking the believability of the world). How and where to put these limits is something your group needs to decide or more likely learn through trial and error.

Long story short, this is a valid way to play but you (as a group) need to agree on it first. Your other player either comes from, or is influenced by,2 a different Style-of-Play and probably wasn't aware of the difference. This is OK. What you (as a group) needs to talk about is which style you want to be using (i.e. whether to allow such 'fluff descriptions' or not) and then get back to having fun. Also, it's OK to try something like this out and if you find it doesn't work drop it.

1: For the specific example the closest is the description of the Path of the Totem Warrior (PHB p. 50) which includes

In battle, your totem spirit fills you with supernatural might, adding magical fuel to your barbarian rage.

and for Bear specifically

The spirit of the bear makes you tough enough to stand up to any punishment.

Neither of these are a description of an effect such as your player described, but are a reasonable base of inspiration for such a feature.

2: Influenced either from either things they have read online, or perhaps more likely from watching/listening to D&D (or other RPG) podcasts. As a general note, if your players do consume such media (particularly if several consume the same), it might be worth familiarizing yourself with the play-style of that podcast as it can influence their expectations.

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