Hello, welcome back to the Apprentice’s Guide. I noticed that the views for my site have increased in my absence, so I would to thank all of you for your support. Also, I would like to apologize for my absence. I will try to post as often as I can. Now, let’s talk about reskinning.
A word of warning…
Always ask your DM permission to reskin something. Most DMs I know will let you go for it. However, there are some who don’t allow reskins at all and run the game to the very letter. Sometimes, the DM might feel like you’re pushing the envelope of what can be reskinned. So just to avoid a confrontation later, always ask permission first.
What is reskinning?
Reskinning in D&D (or any tabletop rpg for that matter) is taking a feature already in the game and replacing the description of the feature with another. Usually, this doesn’t change the mechanics of the feature (that would be homebrewing, as I discuss later). It just changes the look.
For example, I have a character who is a cleric of Tymora (goddess of luck). As a result, I have reskinned a number of spells. For Spiritual Weapon, the “weapon” takes the form of a coin that skips and bounces around, hitting enemies. For Spirit Guardians, anyone who dies from the spell dies from really unlucky events such as falling to the ground, falling onto a weapon, or a object that just happens to fall on them. I never changed the mechanics of either spell, I just changed the look.
Why should you reskin?
By reskinning, you can make your character’s abilities stand out from other characters. Just having the standard colors of Faerie Fire is fine, but it might be cooler to have your pyromaniac drow wizard to have a flame-colored Faerie Fire.
Reskinning can also make your character’s abilities more consistent. Having your necromancer cast Light as a bright, yellow light makes very little sense if you’re creating undead. A better way is to reskin Light to be a sickly, green light that bends and moves in your hands.
You can also reskin to “create” options that aren’t available in the books. Halflings are just really short people. So logically, you can reskin them to be really short humans (like real life dwarves).
Homebrew vs Reskin
A homebrew is the changing of game mechanics as well as the description. A reskin just changes the description.
If you want your character to have an ability that isn’t in the book, ask yourself this question:Â Can I reskin an existing feature to fit with what I want for my character?Â
If the answer is yes, you can really get creative. You can change a Fireball into a small meteor that crashes into the ground, burning enemies. You can even change longsword into a katana.
If the answer is no, you may need to homebrew something to make it work. Always ask your DM to homebrew something and don’t bring them something that will break the game. If you want your character to have Fireball but want the spell to have a different damage type like cold, you need to homebrew it.
But what if I’m not good at reskinning?
That’s ok, you don’t have to reskin. I’m not saying you need to reskin every little part of your character (that would be a real chore!). I’m just saying that there is an option available if what’s in the books don’t work for your character concept.
But if you want to reskin something and you’re just not good at it, I would recommend looking for inspiration. Look at movies, TV shows, novels, comic books, and anything else you can find to inspire you to reskin something generic into something cool and unique.
So, that’s it. That’s all I have to say on reskinning for now. If you think I missed something or you disagree with me, please write your opinion in the comments below. If you want me to do more posts on reskinning, please give this post a like. If you want to catch up on my posts, just go ahead and follow my site. Until next time, I wish you the happiest of gaming!
Mr Wizard, Lord of Dungeons
The Apprentice's Guide to D&D 