Characters and Clothes: your take?

[Unoriginal]

In fiction, clothes can be an important part of the character, mainly by helping asserting their identity via their look. However, when you play the game, well, you often have other concerns in mind than doing fashion shopping.

Do you care about the different characters' clothes? Do your adventurers wear the same outfit from level 1 to 20 aside from the occasional upgrade of equipment and addition of magic item? Does your outfit even get damaged during the rough life of adventuring?

[VoxRationis]

My current character uses mending liberally during her downtime in order to keep her outfit (originally her mother's dress) in good repair, in spite of being pierced with arrows and bullets and such things on an all-too-frequent basis. Being a wizard helps with that kind of maintenance.

[Drascin]

I like to give characters their own style. I don't change complete outfits much, outside of specific scenes (given the people I play with, there is always at least one fancy party where the entire group has to suit up in fancy dress in every campaign), but that's because often the clothing style is kind of part of the character, like a costume, and thus largely changes mostly at important points of character development.

This, incidentally, can sometimes make me somewhat reluctant to use magic items that don't fit the aesthetic.

"But's it's +2 full plate!"
"Yeah but it's full of spikes! I refuse to go around looking like Abaddon the Despoiler's younger cousin!"

[Joe the Rat]

My current character uses mending liberally during her downtime in order to keep her outfit (originally her mother's dress) in good repair, in spite of being pierced with arrows and bullets and such things on an all-too-frequent basis. Being a wizard helps with that kind of maintenance.

Mending and Prestidigitation for my crew, though I do make mention of how particularly worn or manky things get over time.

Where it comes up most is when it's time to dress up for social engagement. Old battered armor and travel-work clothes are not the fashion in court this season. ( Which makes a nice gold sink)

This is how we ended up with a purple velvet pimp gnome, so caveat DM-tor.

[kardar233]

My party had a clothes shopping excursion just recently, as our Tiefling nun of the Silver Flame was finally persuaded that she needed her own civilian clothes (rather than wearing my paladin’s spare travelling stuff). It resulted in about an hour of googling early Renaissance clothing styles, discussion on what tones match tiefling blue, and a party-wide desire to have a session at a fancy ball. Plus, there was character development as our dear Cleric is starting to turn away from her unpleasant church, something my misotheist Blood of Vol Paladin is happy to hear.

I like to give characters their own style. I don't change complete outfits much, outside of specific scenes (given the people I play with, there is always at least one fancy party where the entire group has to suit up in fancy dress in every campaign), but that's because often the clothing style is kind of part of the character, like a costume, and thus largely changes mostly at important points of character development.

This, incidentally, can sometimes make me somewhat reluctant to use magic items that don't fit the aesthetic.

"But's it's +2 full plate!"
"Yeah but it's full of spikes! I refuse to go around looking like Abaddon the Despoiler's younger cousin!"

All of this. Especially not wanting to look like Abaddon. (topknots are so last millennium)

We actually just updated our look as a party by crafting a whole bunch of scales that we got from a giant half-dragon Blackscale into acid-resistant “dragonhide” cloaks.

[JeenLeen]

Usually my character is trying is to be nondescript and avoid notice, so replacing clothes is helpful, and I generally explicitly try NOT to have a given fashion or style. Prestigidation, Mending, and such to remove blood stains and fix rips is very helpful and appreciated.

I never had a D&D 5e character get to high level, but I did like shelling out the extra gold in 3.5 to get the enchantment that the armor can be glamoured to look as whatever you want. In one 5th edition game I was in, I was hoping to get a Hat of Disguise for similar effect. With that, when I don't want to be incognito, I can have a stylish dress appropriate and thematic for the character.

[the_brazenburn]

I don't give a damn about what my characters wear.

Then again, I don't care about my clothes in real life, either.

[PhoenixPhyre]

It depends on the character.

My current character (a celestial warlock 2/bard 1) started out wearing really baggy, poorly-fitting clothes and always covered up with a cloak pulled tight. She spent a lot of cash on a set of fine clothes (as part of getting a tailor to talk) that are a lot more, well, feminine.

This has coincided with her acceptance of her new gender. Turns out that when you make a deal for "the voice of the best singer" and the other partner is a chaotic being with a bit of a sense of humor, one should check to make sure the best singer is of the appropriate gender. He (now she) got the voice...and the body to go with it. By now she's accepted that fact and is learning to use it to her advantage.

My previous character (a dwarven knowledge cleric) didn't care, as long as it had pockets for books. Big pockets of sturdy material, because books are heavy.

[Lombra]

I just tell the tier (like lifestyles expenses) of clothing and weather-dependant changes, but since it's just fluff that nobody will remember except when it's brought up, at our table nobody really cares. I think about it mainly because I like to draw my characters.

[strangebloke]

Got one player who obsessively describes his character's gear. "I wear the pelt of a bear I slew when I had only barely become a man. A great red bear with onyx-black claws." He also likes to do things like add fur trim to the +1 leather armor he just picked up. I love screwing with him by giving him nice gear that messes with his aesthetic.

Got a fastidious noble who traveled with several different fancy suits in addition to his adventuring gear. He would frequently make trips to the tailor. I was always sure to narrate how utterly disgusting everything that hit him was.

[JeffreyGator]

Certain characters this matters much more. Spies and such will have many outfits often including changing genders. A character in a current campaign is a fop that looks for good tailors. I played a character obsessed with being clean.

I also like to give characters choices between good roleplaying and optimizing.

They chose to destroy the magical mace built from bones and consecrated to a murder god, and multiple magical shields with evil symbols and drow armor with spider stuff (even before I would have disintegrated it in sunlight).


My awakened trash panda monk doesn't wear many clothes at all - because trash panda.

[Pex]

I played a sorcerer in a game where the DM gave everyone a free artistic tool use. I chose weaving. He cared about fashion. He eventually opened his own clothing store which also served as a base of operations for the party.

In a more recent game while serious about the play of the game I went silly on character concept. I had two characters, a Monk and Sorcerer named Chip & Dale. Clothing was optional for them. At campaign retirement they opened their own burlesque theater. 5E providing for the ability to have a decent AC without armor has inspired me to be a bit naughty once in a while.

[GlenSmash!]

I play to many Outlanders that don't put stock in Well-mannered people to care about their clothes.

Now when somebody walks into the room wearing the hide of a particularly nasty beat, that gets attention.

[JackPhoenix]

I have a tendency to have multiple outfits on my characters, with various degree of detailed description written up.

Of course, one of my current characters is at the moment completely naked and armed only with stolen bow and few arrows. In the middle of enemy lair. It was a stupid plan even before the whole group got ambushed and captured.

[strangebloke]

I mean, good or bad, your clothes are basically free design space. Want to have a really cool hat? Go for it! Want to be a smelly peasant with a troll skull on one shoulder? Why not!

I'll never understand why people fail to use the tools available to them to make their character fun. I currently have a frenzy barbarian in one of my groups who goes into combat in a full dress.

[bc56]

I don't normally give much thought to clothes. My characters are either the "holy warrior" or "mysterious stranger" types, so they end up in tunics and armor or dark cloaks, respectively. The one time I played a female character, she dressed comfortably and for adventuring, with the exception that she had high heels because she was a shrimpy goblin who wanted to be more imposing, and could hide a secret compartment for an extra set of thieves tools in the heel.

[GlenSmash!]

I mean, good or bad, your clothes are basically free design space. Want to have a really cool hat? Go for it! Want to be a smelly peasant with a troll skull on one shoulder? Why not!

I'll never understand why people fail to use the tools available to them to make their character fun. I currently have a frenzy barbarian in one of my groups who goes into combat in a full dress.

"In battle, we donned a full-length ballgown covered in sequins. The idea was to blind you opponent with luxury."

[strangebloke]

"In battle, we donned a full-length ballgown covered in sequins. The idea was to blind you opponent with luxury."

Pretty much.

though in this case, the berserker is a dwarf merchant's daughter who has the rage in her blood, but didn't know about it until recently. She's utterly psychotic when she's raging, and awfully prissy when she comes to her senses. "WHICH ONE OF YOU GOT ALL THIS BLOOD ON MY DRESS??"

She's best friends with the wizard who casts prestidigitation/mending, and she calls dibs on any perfume/jewelry we find. When we went through Lost Mines of Phandelvr, she tried to arrange an engagement for herself with Gundren Rockseeker, since he seems rich and in need of some management.

She's a riot and I adore her.

[smcmike]

Clothes are one of the best ways to establish character quickly, but it’s not always easy to do well in this format, partially because efficient description is hard, and partly because players may lack a detailed system of reference in which to place their character’s appearance. You’re stuck with general adjectives, like shabby or fancy or practical, rather than specific contextual fashion, like a preppy bow tie, or loosely fitting sweats and sneakers, or flannel with a camouflage trucker’s hat and light-washed Levis.

Still, it’s worth doing. The classics that I’ve used are The Practical, meant to demonstrate that my character was serious and unpretentious, The Shabby Noble, meant to demonstrate a character flaw such as carelessness, absentmindedness, or downward mobility, and the Attempted Peacock, meant to demonstrate that the character is striving to stand out with ostentatious dress, not necessarily successfully.

[krazedkoi]

Clothes (and manners) maketh the man!
As a player I enjoy giving my characters a little flair, for example my Tabaxi folk hero wears clothes she has sewn from silk curtains and other 'liberated' fine fabrics (I've accepted a penalty to hiding unless I'm wearing my reversible cloak because of how brightly coloured I am).

As a DM, I love it even more. It makes me genuinely happy when my players excited describe their characters. Trophy hunters, making shields and armor out of fallen monsters (or people in my Monsters game), or refusing to wear magical gear because it doesn't fit the character aesthetic all make the characters more alive and brings more depth to the game.

My current party is fantastic.
They recently killed a giant crocodile and the lizardman barbarian (who refuses to wear anything he hasn't crafted himself) made some gear out of it for various party members including a leather biker jacket and boots for the goblin warlock with "MINION" etched into the back of it. They also fashioned the upper jaw into a headpiece and the lower jaw into a platform for a war drum then attached it to a backpack. So now Minion rides one of the larger party members into combat, pounding the war drum and zotting away with eldritch blasts from within the skeletal maw of a giant crocodile. The gnoll took the heads of a family they killed and is making a flail from them (he's treating the faces so that when he bronzes them he can capture their tortured expressions forever).

[A Fat Dragon]

If my character has a specific outfit/feel, then I’d have them keep and maintain their outfit, and attempt to always have them wear that outfit, or something as close to that as possible.

If I’m feeling a bit more liberal, then I’d make my character’s outfit based on whatever would be found in the nearby village, or what can be tanned/collected from the things they hunt/kill/gather.

[QuickLyRaiNbow]

I don't think about what my character wears unless it's part of a very specific concept.

[Dr. Cliché]

Honestly, I rarely think much about my character's clothes beyond the basics.

[Dudewithknives]

Usually I don't really worry about it other than a brief description of style. However if I am playing a character where style matters like the face, a bard, a Nobel or the like, I will be very exact and update it in character often.

My current character is a swashbuckler rogue who's is the face of the group and a noble. I have a high elf servant who follows me around and constantly casts prestidigitation on me to keep me clean and smelling nice. I have a detailed wardrobe and everything.

[DarkKnightJin]

My Fighter has Chainmail, with his clothes on top of it. Think Roose Bolton at the Red Wedding.

My Dragonborn Death Cleric has Chainmail, with now an Owlbear Cloak, that he skinned himself after it ambushed the party.

That's about as much fashion as my characters worry about, really.

The Cleric will keep the Owlbear Cloak if and when he upgrades to better armor.

The Fighter can't wear his clothes over anything above Chainmail, so he'll have to fond a new fashion sense when that happens.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

My character is a female elf Bard and I can only think of twice we described clothing besides the obvious "you got knocked off your horse in the mud" moments.

The first time was when she got the "fly" spell. Then I felt the need to look at the mini and picture in my book and remind the boys she was wearing pants.

The second was when we infiltrated a group of demented human supremacists. Our Drow Rogue used a Hat of Disguise well. Our male human wizard got himself branded as part of the group and "captured" us fairly convincingly. My character polymorphed our dwarf party member who had all our weapons into some harmless looking parrot companion. The wizard then delivered my character and our male dragonborn monk in "Princess Leia in chains" style.

A discussion about dragonborn parts being internal or external slowed things down a bit but the DM let us in, the big bad guy got divided from his minions and all went well.

[SiCK_Boy]

As a DM, I only care that the players have at least one set of clothes. Repairing, upgrading, or replacing said set of clothes is considered to be done as part of the lifestyle expenses and downtime activities, so unless a player wants to bring this up as a topic, I don't bring it up myself.

As a player, I usually don't give too much attention to my character's clothing. The fact that I have no artistic talent whatsoever, so I would never "draw" my characters, probably accounts for how little importance I give to this facet of the game.

[Atalas]

As a DM, I only care that the players have at least one set of clothes. Repairing, upgrading, or replacing said set of clothes is considered to be done as part of the lifestyle expenses and downtime activities, so unless a player wants to bring this up as a topic, I don't bring it up myself.

As a player, I usually don't give too much attention to my character's clothing. The fact that I have no artistic talent whatsoever, so I would never "draw" my characters, probably accounts for how little importance I give to this facet of the game.

my group typically doesn't worry about clothes except when the Rogue in one campaign is going around in disguise. For myself, well, in the other campaign I don't care about clothing as I am a construct. and a Barbarian. I just put more stock in the description of my characters looks.

[kardar233]

Oh, speaking of clothes made from the corpses of your enemies, my Druid in my previous game wore an assortment of furs and hides from every animal hey had killed in the past while. By the end of the game this included a large shoulder-piece of sabre-toothed tiger pelt, a large belt of allosaurus hide, and a group of feathers from an owlbear.

My current character (a Karrnathi Paladin) has the fortune of coming from a culture where wearing your plate to an occasion is, if not accepted, at least not frowned upon. It also helps that she’s “one of those crazy Halikars” and that her unfeasibly large halberd can teleport to her hand whenever needed.

[EvilAnagram]

You know, I've always been very clear about my characters' clothing. My foppish, gender-bending sorcerer has a deep purple tunic and lovely brown leather boots, while my goliath warlock wears less than the appropriate amount of loincloth. My halfling ranger wore faded and torn clothes, but his boots were fine leather, much more expensive than anything else on his person.

I've always found it a good way to explore what people find important.