D&D 5E What's up with Vicious Mockery?

[Chaosmancer]

It's been the most popular Bard cantrip in games I've run - and I've had a surprising number of bards, some parties even with two of 'em at a time. You get to insult things to death. It's hard to compete with that on the cantrip end of things. As has been pointed out, it's pretty good on the mechanical side, too.

That's honestly one of my only complaints with the cantrip. How the heck do I work in something literally dying from being insulted. It's hilarious on one hand, but I can't ever come up with a good rationale for it. Except suicide, which tends to be a downer at the table.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

That's honestly one of my only complaints with the cantrip. How the heck do I work in something literally dying from being insulted. It's hilarious on one hand, but I can't ever come up with a good rationale for it. Except suicide, which tends to be a downer at the table.

It isn't dying from being insulted - it's dying from the insult being charged with dangerous magic that has inflicted psychic damage easily represented by whatever internal lethal brain trauma you feel is appropriate, such as an embolism or a disruption of the bio-electric processes.

 

[Inchoroi]

...a 65% chance to mock viciously.

dying send help

I don't know why I found that so funny.

 

[Tony Vargas]

... a 65% chance to mock viciously.

I've often had players declare it as "I mock him viciously!"

That's honestly one of my only complaints with the cantrip. How the heck do I work in something literally dying from being insulted. It's hilarious on one hand, but I can't ever come up with a good rationale for it. Except suicide, which tends to be a downer at the table.

It's psychic damage, not mind control, so, suicide is probably inappropriate (probably).

But, random example I happen to remember from HotDQ (a high point, really), got pretty close: bards insulted an Urd to death. They actually RP'd mocking it's wings. It became so embarrassed that it folded its wing so no one would look at them - and plummeted to it's death.

Psychic damage as a killing blow can seem kinda strange. You can put it down to losing the will to live, being driven into a fatal mistake, or dying of the induced stress if you really need a physiological explanation.

But, yeah, thinking too hard about it'll make your head explode - oh, hey, there's another possibility.

 

[Tormyr]

As a DM, VM gives opportunities like this:

[video=youtube;1GM0Des-hIo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GM0Des-hIo[/video]

As for why a creature would go unconscious after VM, it took most likely took other damage as well. The psychic damage just causes the creature to succumb to its other wounds faster. It fails to hold on to consciousness.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

It isn't dying from being insulted - it's dying from the insult being charged with dangerous magic that has inflicted psychic damage easily represented by whatever internal lethal brain trauma you feel is appropriate, such as an embolism or a disruption of the bio-electric processes.

This. If it were a normal insult, it wouldn't do psychic damage. When damage is attached to an effect, it's pretty clearly intended to have lethal potential. (Exception: harm.)

 

[Chaosmancer]

As a DM, VM gives opportunities like this:

[video=youtube;1GM0Des-hIo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GM0Des-hIo[/video]

As for why a creature would go unconscious after VM, it took most likely took other damage as well. The psychic damage just causes the creature to succumb to its other wounds faster. It fails to hold on to consciousness.

That ghost was a great moment for Scanlan, but Ghosts are the exception in my mind, since they are only bound to the world through their desire to fulfill some task or driven by some grief.

Still, a lot of good ideas I had never considered here. Thanks guys and gals

 

[Tony Vargas]

It's not the words you're saying that do the damage, it's the magically-enforced intentions behind them.

Even if you want to go with the blah "because:magic" explanation, it'd help if the words reflected the intention - afterall, the bard is supposedly using the magic of words. I don't picture bards running around saying "yo mamma wears combat boots..." over and over - I have to imagine the 18 CHA supernatural wordsmith being a tad wittier, somehow.

 

[Caliban]

Even if you want to go with the blah "because:magic" explanation, it'd help if the words reflected the intention - afterall, the bard is supposedly using the magic of words. I don't picture bards running around saying "yo mamma wears combat boots..." over and over - I have to imagine the 18 CHA supernatural wordsmith being a tad wittier, somehow.

Presumably the 18 CHA bard is indeed wittier than the nerd playing him. Our attempts a cutting witticisms are but a poor substitution for what our fantasy avatars are actually saying.

 

[Mistwell]

I have a list of 20 medieval-sounding insults that I take with me when playing my bard character, and read from it most combats. Tons of fun!

I took a level of Cleric, to get Bless (and Guiding Bolt). I love handing people d4s for Bless as a reminder, d6s for inspiration reminders, the DM d20s for disadvantage reminders, and even players d20s when I find ways to give them advantage. I get to hand other players dice constantly! Really fun to do. Particularly when I see my die help someone hit, or prevent someone from being hit. The bard is just a very fun interactive class to play, with something to do in pretty much any challenge.