Jinkies! We’re Playing D&D With Velma Dinkley
This week we’re off searching for clues and our missing glasses as we invite Velma Dinkley to join us for some D&D.
Everybody has been talking about Velma Dinkley lately. Unfortunately, it’s because everybody hates the new show, Velma. And the whole situation is such a bummer. Velma and the rest of the Mystery Inc. gang deserve so much better. They’ve been part of all of our childhoods, regardless of age, and have somehow managed to always be fun, relatable, and kindhearted adventuring teens who let us know that the bad guy is usually just the local rich guy in a Halloween mask.
Velma (and Mystery Inc.) are also all basically a perfect D&D party. So let’s pretend that Velma (the show) doesn’t exist and give a little more love to Velma (the real one) by solving some fantasy mysteries with…
Velma Dinkley
There are a few key things that make Velma Velma. She’s a detective and the smartest and most logical member of the Mystery Inc. team by far. If the mystery is getting solved, it’s likely Velma who’s solving it… even if Fred did catch the perp in some sort of trap. Good job, Fred, you did it.
So we needed to lean hard into Velma’s intelligence. There are two classes where that’s the highlighted stat: Wizard and Artificer… And Velma isn’t an Artificer. That would be more of Fred’s purview, what with the aforementioned traps. Wizard can be a very Velma class though, especially with the Order of Scribes subclass. At level two this allows her a Wizardly Quill (for all of the clues she has to jot down) and an Awakened Spellbook.
But I didn’t just want Velma to be bookish, she also has to be a great investigator. Of course, she got an Investigator background, but she also needed practical in-game skills. For this, we went with a duel-class with an Inquisitive Rogue. Known for “rooting out secrets and unraveling mysteries,” this is one of the perfect subclasses for a detective. It’s all about noticing details, knowing your lore, and being uniquely equipped to expose hidden evils.
I kept Velma’s level relatively low because, at the end of the day, she’s just a meddling kid. Which is also why her charisma took a hit. That and in order to duel class with Rogue she needed a slightly higher Dexterity.
She doesn’t use a lot of weapons while she’s working (but you should feel free to take as many as you’d want your character to have), but she did get a selection of Wizard spells to choose from. I opted for the ones focused on uncovering knowledge such as Comprehend Languages or working with your team, like Message and Gift of Alacrity.
Play her as a sweet but sometimes awkward super genius and we have a Velma who’s a little closer to our childhood memories than whatever version we got from HBO.
How would you make Velma for a D&D setting? What classes would you pick for the rest of the Mystery Inc. gang? What movie, show, game, or comic should I make sheets from next time? Let us know in the comments!
Happy Adventuring!
