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Level 7, 10d6 damage slashing, piercing, bludgeoning, duration one action, components somatic, summons forth a weapon of the users desire that can then can be used to make a single magic attack. The user is proficient with the weapon made. This weapon passes through all resistance including magic. After the attack the weapon disappears into a puff of smoke from which is was made of. Hey Pruitt and Jim does that work for the spell you thought of?
I'd allow a fighter to Homebrew a battle maneuver, or what a totem for a barbarian, or a monks of the elements options, or how a rogue can use an item/building a poison.
Individual Retirement Account, Irish Republican Army... six of one, half dozen of the other. These both seem equally valid way for adventurers to invest their hard won treasures.
I know you have an old video on magic items, but could we get a video like this on Homebrew Magic Items and just a polished video on magic items in general?
Agreed I think this would be a fantastic topic. I always feel I don't have the right creative juices flowing to make fun ones. It's easy to take monster abilities and jam them on items but there's always something missing something the players don't latch onto. perhaps more about how you would present them two players more so than just creating them because creating them isn't so hard like you say in this video you just have to do it.
100% agree we need a video on homebrew magic items. I've actually made a lot of them but here's one of my favorites: Luck Potion: (400g if they can find a seller) Usually contained in a small glass bottle the fluid looks like constantly swirling liquid gold. After drinking the player has 3 uses of special luck which go away after 1 hour. At any time within that hour, after the player makes a roll (but before determining the outcome) they can choose to use one of their special luck to roll again. On a 1-9 the player uses the original roll or the new roll whichever is higher, on a 10-20 the roll counts as a natural 20.
@@kyubii972 Let the player create the magic item. Say to them "you find a magic item, it's properties are unknown" and out of character you can ask them "What would you like this item to do?". Balance it for the world you are playing in and go from there. In the game I just started running (starting mid lvl) my wizard PC made their spell book from a device that in our world would be a tablet/ipad/ebook-reader. It's a small flat box enchanted with cantrips (minor illusion, prestidigitation) so It makes an illusionary screen that you can read/write with. It isn't a hugely influential item, but it does add to that character.
Make one property cater to their play style, background, class or maybe it is important to their backstory somehow. If it feels morr personal playerw are more likely to latch onto and want to keep and use said item.
PERFECT timing! I'm playing a Warlock right now whose whole shtick is being a spell-slinging outlaw, finding and dueling wizards to steal their spellbooks and copy their unique spells and variants of spells into the vast magical library of her patron. With all the arcana she's found, she was going to try to make a spell of her own soon-- a special spell, designed to do one thing, and one thing only: Kill. Wizards. I've homebrewed before, but never spells--- so this is just what I needed! Thanks for all your hard work on these guys!
Perhaps look into an invocation to give your Eldritch Blast the ability to either spell steal a slot or maybe works like the war wizard’s surge mechanic where it cancels a spell and then adds an amount of damage onto your next spell?
More of a jest, but a spell that always does fixed damage equal to the max # of spell slots the target can have. Alternatively, and this is super evil, damage equal to the number of spells in the spellbook the target wizard has on them.
@@kylestanley7843 By all means! I don't think people would be commenting if they weren't okay with someone adapting their idea. Personally, I decided to go with a multi-ray attack where each attack you hit has a small chance to remove a spell of your choice on the target (a la Dispel Magic-- a.k.a, so long as it's X level or lower). The chance procs when 2 or more of the damage dice roll the same value, similar to the rules for Chaos Bolt chaining. Additionally, removing a spell causes the spare energies to detonate and unweave themselves violently, dealing some additional force damage to suppliment the otherwise low base piercing damage of the spell. This would have a lot of utility for reducing AC-- for example, if you foe tries to Shield against your shots, you can remove the Shield the first time you hit, with successive hits being able to remove protections like Mage Armor, Barkskin, Stoneskin, Warding Bonds, Shield of Fath, or even fun stuff like dropping them out of a Fly spell or releasing a Planar Binding!
I think I'll be using these ideas to fill out 5e's ignored damage types. I wanted to make a copper dragon sorcerer and there are like 8 acid damage spells, most of which are chromatic spells. Definitely need homebrew to get much use from that in combat.
@@halismeful That's easily the best way, some spells don't require many changes, Burning Hands for example, but Fireball would, as Acid is less commonly resisted.
@@killcat1971 My general rule for DMing is that it's fine, so long as it's not force damage, mostly because that's the least resisted type in the game.
@@killcat1971 Radiant and necrotic it depends for me. For something like a cleric, swapping to radiant is fine. Just needs to fit the thematics of the class.
Had a player once be a Sorcerer that was nature based, so their fireball was instead a earthquake that only hit those on ground, but double damage to burrowing enemies.
In regards to the fighter or barbarian wanting to homebrew spells but "can't" because of the class, have them come up with an ability/spell effect they would like to have on a weapon/armour. Still allows the creativeness on the player without them feeling left out
Bruisedfrog or honestly why not allow them to perform esoteric ‘rites,’ which might mechanically fit as a spell but flavorfully occupy a more traditionally savage or militant place...
Alternatively, let them work out a unique class feature. That _is_ after all what spells essentially are. Work out how many uses of it they might be allowed per short or long rest, what effects it might have, and then figure out at what level it might be suitable for them to gain this ability, as well as or alternatively the possibility of it improving over time as a reflection of the Fighter or Barbarian having more time to practice and perfect their technique.
I recalled one Magwa (I believe it was called Magician) which one of the characters was an insanely strong swordsman who, through sheer talent, could actually cut the air itself and leave what was effectively invisible "slashes" that existed for a time afterwards that could literally cut anything, but it was incapable of travel. Which was a pretty big deal as up to their point, most of the real heavyweights in the world had been spellcasters of some description, with even great martial types usually dabbling in it. Actually served as an example of what one of the protagonists could become with enough time and experience. I'm not saying use that, but there's no reason that really *strong* fighters couldn't develop an ability that was super natural. No idea how it would work mind you, Paladin's kinda gatekeep the DPS angle of fighters.
I've linked this video to my players to encourage more creativity at the table. Especially since two of them are Sorcerer class, this is such a great resource for them. Another hit from WebDM. Thanks lads!
Pathfinder does that, actually. There's a feat called "Eschew Materials" that lets you forgo using material components that are 5 gold or less. Sorcerers just get this feat for free at first level
I want to say thank you very much for this video. In my current homebrew campaign (which is a world that has been built upon over years). Thanks to this video, there are many custom spells that have been brought into that world throughout the creation process, as well as some that are one spell already in game, but in earlier times had a different effect and that version of the spell is "lost to time".
@@TheCinderfang that's some futurama shit lol i love it. I just picture al gores disembodied head in a jar studying a magical tome wearing a cape like dr strange's.
you'll have to home brew a spell that let's you shape change into an aberration first or wait until later levels because all shape change spells specify that you can only turn into beast of certain levels including polymorph and wildshape in fact the only one that would work is "true polymorph" a lvl 9 spell.
@@plotholedetective4166 admittedly its checking via an app not the book, but *Shapechange* Literally states any creature your CR or less. Polymorph is a beast only, that's also only a 4th level spell, vs 9th level *Shapechange*.
justBinia read more carefully all shape change beast shape and polymorph spells specify beast at some point in the text, all of them shape change mentions it about half way through the spell that the creature must be a beast it does this by stating that you retain your int. cha. and Wis. stats but take the physical stats of the "BEAST" in the p.h.b Idk about the free app or what it says, I pay for the real stuff myself because physical books are just better and from what I've seen the app has alot of small errors
Brain in a jar is a magic item that often pops up in my games, it allows you to shunt concentration of a spell to the brain, so you may concentrate on two spells at once.. It's also telepathic and judges the caster constantly "I'd have done X or Y" also the Arcane Lantern is another type of item I use like this (strong winds cuts it off, doesn't work underwater and a free action to blow out)
My dm and I created a bard spell based off of fey magic, that drags a bit of the fey wild into the material plane we are in along with a slow effect. Super cool.
My favourite thing to Homebrew is spells. They just are so easy for me and I can get pretty creative. I remember my first spell, a transmutation spell called Blood Money.
Regarding party jealousy... A "spell" doesn't have to be something on a list that consumes a spell slot. It could be a new WL invocation, a channeled power for an Ancestral Barbarian, or a divinely inspired new form of Channel Divinity. There is no class in the game that doesn't have some magical component.
English fortehwin… You just contradict yourself bro. Barbarians have magic in Zealot, Storm and Ancestors lines. Rogues have the charm feature of Swashbuckler, and obviously Arcane Trickster. Fighters have self-heal and a rerolled save in the baseline, arcane archer, eldritch knight, group heals in dragon knight. These are all class components, and while the AT and EK use traditional spell lists and slots, the rest do not. If you're still confused, I'll give you an example of non-class, and non-list type magic... Racial magical features. In some cases, they give access to a spell that's also on a list. In other cases, they give a spell like feature, but not access to the actual spell, and in other cases it's simply a racial ability to that has the same effect as a spell. But, they're all tied to a race rather than a class.
@@ChristnThms Reading comprehension FTW. Notice how all of those things you listed are subclass features not class features. Show me the rogue and barbarian and fighter CLASS features that give you magic. There arent any. You seem to think that every PC created has magic which isnt the case. Also the swashbucklers Panach, isnt magical its a physical manifestation of your ability to be charming. Zealot doesnt have magic. Ancestral guardian isnt magic either. The only barbarian subclass that gets actual magic is Totem, which grants you access to cast Commune with nature at level 10. And the Storm which lets you create a magical aura. You seem to be implying that every class no matter what subclass is taken has magic which isnt true.
@@caman225 exactly what was the contradiction. You're the only one not making sense. I'm simply stating that you CAN build a character with no magic. You are trying to say you can't that every class has magic no matter what subclass they choose. And that's just not true.
Hey, guys, thank you for seeking sponsorship from and highlighting various Kickstarters. It's a really great idea. In related news, I may never have money again.
Good Topic. In return, I shall gift you with some Eldritch Homebrew knowledge adapted from 3.5. The Ring of Catapult. A crude copper ring that appears to be a cat biting it's own tail. Functions as Wand of Magic Missile, with the following changes: Instead of a magical force, it fires a screaming housecat with 1/2 D8 hp. The cat is real and alive, and native to the Prime Material. The cat takes damage equal to the damage it dealt on impact, cats deal physical damage. Expending more charges fires more cats. Requires Attunement, but doesn't require spellcasting ability as a wand does. Cursed Variant: Cats that die from impact come back to haunt the user with incessant meowing 1d10 days later, appearing at Sunset, vanishing at Dawn. Obviously crafted from a spin on Magic Missile, that requires a cat's whisker to cast.
A lich in my campaign was working to further the school of Necromancy and desease. He created a spell that turns a recently deceased corpse into an acidic bomb by using a decomposing bacteria. It eatch a corpse so quickly when activated, it would burst in a shower of acididc byproduct. That corpse could also be raised as a zombie with the infection.
One spell which I didn't think would be very important and would be just useful for flare and character-building was a "Do Housework" spell which a dude who grew up with a really messy roommate knew. On cast, all basic housework tasks for areas which the caster can see is magically completed. This requires the tools used to clean it normally within a certain range (to sweep a floor you need a broom, to wash the dishes you need a basin of water and a cloth, etc.) and said tools can't disrupt the work of things not under the effects of the spell (a broom will pause its duties and wait patiently if someone walks infront of it). The irony is that it became actually useful when the dude cast it while hiding from an invading assassin who was about to find him. The crooked paintings in the room suddenly correcting themselves, a few open drawers closing, and a book or two flying back into their place on the shelves, all at once gave the guy a shock and distracted him.
When it comes to chronomancy, I've always loved the idea of a spell similar to teleportation circle, where you have to cast it once as an "anchor" in time, and then casting it within a certain amount of time later brings you back to that point. So you can never travel back in time before the point that you learned the spell.
8:40 in other words, all wizards go to a special place when they die where their body undergoes a magic process the wizard needs to sign up for before joining the "Head Museum" from Futurama.
3:45 There is a stone age RPG called "Wolf-Packs & Winter Snow", where your spell book is a cave - Magic-Users record their spells as art, mostly cave paintings...
One of my favourite spell homebrews was changing Bigby's hand to a conjuration spell. We ended up creating an entire plane of Bigby's bodyparts called Bigby's land where we had a few adventures and made spells for conjuring other Bigby parts with odd affects. A lot of fun and definitely worth considering for your own campaigns.
My wizard Mathias eventually found need of a spell more powerful than a simple sending. We worked out Mathias's Ghost Pen. It was a spell that required a fine quality quill worth at least 25 gold. You cast the lengthy spell and say a creature's name. So long as they were on the same plane you effectively text messaged them. Whatever you wrote or drew within a 1 foot square during cast would be transcribed to them on the nearest writeable surface within a few feet. If none were available the spell would hold the message up to a day until the opportunity presented itself. If another message was sent before the first resolved the first one was overwritten. Mathias was an only student of a wizard master who was very busy all of the time and thusly sent Mathias into perils way over his head. It came in handy a few times to relay secret, dangerous, or time critical information.
Spell I made for my setting where a specific type of necromancy is practiced for public good. There's a cult of wizards who worship this flesh god basically, and are weirdly obsessed with recycling. Souls are left alone but bodies are animated, reused, and repurposed to heal the living and keep flesh beautiful. It's a weird place but this medicinal spell was needed for the cultists who kept villagers healthy and gave them a reason to have undead servants following them around. Also, it was really cool seeing the players react to the healing when it was used on them for the first time when one was gravely injured. (This was during a gritty realism variant so resting was difficult and finding a healer was a better option most of the time) Okay but anyway. Flesh Transferal Lv. 2 - Necromancy - Wizard Spell Verbal, Somatic, and Component (Flesh, living or dead equal to 1 oz per d4, consumed on cast, and willow bark) Casting time +5 min, requires concentration to cast. Before casting the target (a living or undead creature), and if using a live donor the donation target, must be prone and must fail a DC5 wisdom save. On a successful save the spell takes 1d4 minutes but fails, materials are not wasted. On a failed save the target(s) is rendered unconscious for xd4 minutes (x being the number of oz of flesh provided for the spell up to the spell's level times 2) The spell is automatically ended if the target moves, the caster moves, or if the flesh is destroyed or moved. As an additional bonus the healing through this spell counts as though it were from a short/long rest for overcoming lost max hp. However, if a living target is used for the donation they have their max hp reduced till a long rest is concluded. While unconscious the target's body is mended and magically reformed using the provided material as components. The material is most commonly dead flesh, but can be from a willing live donor or flesh equivalents. (If using a living or undead source, the donor takes whatever damage is healed to the target!) Additionally the flesh can be from any type of creature as it will be broken down and reformed into the target's body there is no danger of contamination. (maybe) The caster must also maintain concentration during the time the subject is unconscious. If they lose concentration the remaining healing is lost with the components. (for example, after 2 minutes the mage is attacked and loses concentration, the target healed 2 damage but the remaining HP does not apply as the healing is interrupted and components are lost!) When the spell has ended the subject regains consciousness in their prone position. This spell an be cast at higher levels using a higher spell slot for additional possible healing. Any kind of flesh is usable, including deceased flesh, meat (raw), living participants, and the caster's own body (Though very risky!) Lots of specific little rules but in practice it flowed well and was used mostly in downtime. ONCE it was tried in a fight to stabilize someone but the warm up time was really hard to work around (as intended) and they instead opted to skip the time at the beginning and both make concentration checks to rush the spell.
I like the old school rules for creating spells. - Find out what spell level your spell would be by comparing it to other spells. - If its a spell from the opposite type (Arcane/Divine) add a spell level. - If you're a wizard and you specialize in that school decrease a spell level. - If you want a powerful spell to cast at a lower level add materiel components and/or additional spell restrictions / requirements. In AD&D I let my necromancer player start with a first level animate dead because he added some difficult material components and a neat storing their heart in a jar mechanic to bring it down to a first level spell, ontop of specializing in necromancy. Honestly i'd totally allow this in 5e.
I love homebrewing spells and letting my players craft anything that gets them more involved with the world's I work so hard to build. Thank you both for hitting the nail on the head that the best way for this to work is to be cooperative with the party and make a journey out of this. With that said I would like to submit a spell! A spell found in a journal of a siege mechanist. Or to be more accurate: The hypothetical question that would lead my two mages to form a spell. Secret Tunnel Level: 6th Casting Time: 2 Rounds Range/ Area: 1 Mile long Components: V, S, M (An iron shovel, 1000 Gold worth of Emeralds) Ritual: Yes (may ignore Material component cost) Duration: Instantaneous (Concentration) School: Evocation Attack/Save: DEX Save Damage/Effect: Force (...) By channeling raw arcane force into a beam of power you are able to shatter stone and displace earth to create tunnels and breaches in enemy defenses. The Beam may tunnel in a straight line into natural materials at the rate of 25 feet per round. Any tunnels created by this spell will be lined with volcanic glass from the pressure of the spell and measure 5 feet by 5 feet. Natural materials will be displaced and anything that cannot be displaced will take 10D10 Force and Bludgeoning damage until it is destroyed or moves out of the way. The beam may be continually fired as long as the caster concentrates on the spell and does not move from where the spell was cast. A second magic caster may expend a 3rd level spell slot to control the direction the beam travels if the spell was cast as a ritual. Enemies that are within the first 25 ft of the spells range when cast in combat may make a Dex save at disadvantage to avoid half the damage from the beam. All other enemies roll normally to avoid all damage. If an enemy is Large or bigger the spell save is done with disadvantage if within 50ft.
Magical particle accelerators. The CERN of dnd. I had an NPC in my home brew campaign who was essentially a wizard version of Richard Feynman - he had a magical lab where he was trying to discover how the weave worked.
i once made a spell that make a cone of cold that stops the targets from moving, if the targets sucedes in a con trow, the damge is halved (i named it "sweet, opresive wind)", also a potion that allows werewolves and other werecreatures to get full control over the curse, including transform at will, without chaging your allainment (made with Mandrake root, Mountain ash Berry, Willow leaves brewed in water exposed with the light of a new moon)
@@joaocisne556 a new moon rises and sets with the sun. you can't really get new moonlight without also getting direct sunlight. so im imagining a dawn or dusk ritual, maybe a day or two off the actual new moon?
21:18 you can preform somatic components with the same hand used for material components, if the spell requiers both somatic and material components. Unrelated side note: You make greate videos, and I enjoy them a lot!
So my dm let our wizard homebrew a spell, and one thing was eye of a half orc. (This wizard did not like my rogue who was a half orc) the dm not thinking allows this she attempted to rip out his eye, we are down a wizard and a player.
Sometimes you just got to let someone drop. I always hate to see it when people act like that and thinks that it's okay to mess with someone's character and expect there to be no consequences. What did he think you were going to do? Let him kill your character for a spell component? That's just somebody who's looking to cause trouble, and you should be glad to get rid of him.
I wanted to craft a dwarven stonemage. He was a transmutationist wizard with earth-based spells and manipulation. Lorewise they are the runecrafters and magic rune imbuers of the dwarves. They also work in the mines to watch over stonework and prevent accidents and cave-ins. To do this I made a spell Vonlur's Stone toss. Essentially firebolt with bludgeoning damage. I also made Vonlur's sharpen Stone. A 1st level spell. This he could use as a bonus action to use a whetstone material conponent. During the concentration the whetstone flies in the air in front of him automatically sharpening any Stones he throws into piercing spikes. When he used Stone toss, the Stones would do now piercing damage and he added his spellcasting modifier to the damage. The range of Stone toss was also improved from 90 to 120 ft. Also whole concentrating, he could use an action to quickly carve runes into any surface, or sharpen an ally's weapon 30 feet from him. This allows the ally to add the casters spellcasting modifier to the damage of the next attack. Only once. 2nd level spell was Vonlur's Stone manipulation. This could be cast at higher levels and pretty much allowed him to manipulate up to 400 lbs of loose Stone matter. Casting at higher levels increase the weight limit. He could also use this spell as a reaction to catch thrown rocks or stop cave-ins if it was cast high enough level. Of course Casting it as reaction ends the spell immediately. Finally there was 4th level Vonlur's Lance of Stone. It was a 15ft line that comes from the caster diagonally up. Anyone caught in it took a bunch of piercing damage and would be considered grappled by the impalement of the Stone spike. Dex save would halve the damage and avoid the grapple. A str check as an action vs save dc to escape after being grappled. Overall I enjoyed the homebrew spells and it truly made my Stonemage come to life.
I would kill for a DM that would let my Necromancer Wizard gain access to inflict wounds. It boggles my mind that the most powerful lower level necromancy spell (something that is pretty inherently messed up) is inaccessible to Necromancers. Nothing even in the flavor text of this spell screams inherently divine in nature to me and Necromancers get all these extra abilities like healing when killing with a necromancy spell which would pair well if there was a Wizard that trained with clerics to learn how to use this ability but eh thats just me
Zurt that makes more sense to me. The logic being that wizards can't mess with souls. They can only manipulate and augment the physical. So they can keep a corpse on ice with gentle repose to make it easier to raise an undead within the time limit required. It's why my chaotic good necromancy always makes the argument that what they are doing is not inherently evil cause they are just working a meat puppet. But inflict wounds is just causing raw painful damage to a target which screams wizard lol
@@alexiushendrickson7509 then the idea that animate dead messes with the soul is even more annoying, besides, the description says you dont contact the soul i think
This is a really helpful video, I wish I’d found it a few weeks ago. I have an arcane trickster/wizard in my game who wanted to explore creating spells. What they wanted to create was actually fairly close to already existing spells, so it was more of a test of their arcane ability to reshape the spell in a new way than to make something new. Worked it into the story as an entrance exam for a wizarding school. It was essentially the ability to cast shield on an ally within 30ft as a reaction, with a reduced bonus to AC. Worked out quite well.
After watching a D&D campaign with Will Wheaton that had terrible luck rolling dice, I homebrewed a spell for D&D Beyond called Luck of Thorbir, that can seriously debuff your success on a roll.
this is a wonderful episode, thank you so much for making it. i just started playing an inventor-school wizard and this is something my dm & i are both really excited at trying out in-game, because my wizard is very interested in trying to create her own spells.
Homebrewed an abjuration cantrip for my abjurer similar to shield of faith just weaker and for arcane mages. It's called Contend and it grants a +1 to AC as a bonus action with concentration and duration of 1 minute. I also gave it some boosts at 5, 11, and 17. At 5 the +1 can be added to DeX saves, 11 it adds to all mental saving throws, and at 17 the modifier increases to a +2. Its flavored as a sigil that floats around you slowly following hostile actions, and of course you're able to increase its capabilities as you know more about the spell.
The fighter (or other character) could homebrew a custom magic weapon, the party could quest to find a capable weaponsmith and the components needed to craft the item.
Seriously, you guys are both entertaining and informative. You're my D&D teachers; so while I should be working on my actual homework and classes, I'm here taking notes on how to create fictional spells for a make-believe game. Cheers!
Its the first d&d I'm the dm and I'm doing a post-war adventure to find the god that made people born with powers so I'm creating a lot of homebrew spells this video was very helpful thank you.
A player of mine had a homebrew catapult spell in a party that sadly stopped after a few sessions. He was a wizard, who was friends with a battlerager dwarf. His catapult did not have the ability to fling objects but people, thus making him able to fling the barbarian to the front lines. When the barbarian hits the target, both take 1d8 (+1d8 per spell level) bludgeoning damage and the barbarian can make a melee attack as part of the wizard's spell.
My sorcerer (in Pathfinder) has homebrewed two awesome and really fun spells that provide interesting versatility - felt very appropriate for sort of natural experimentation with and honing of aspects other lower-level spells redirected to produce other effects. GM has been very supportive and has had great input. The way I think about it in terms of the metaphysics of the world (similar to what you guys said) is that the canonical spells are the ones that are the most intuitive and established ways for casters to interact with the arcane/divine. Wizards have access to the spells in the spellbook because they're the ones that every wizarding tradition has pretty much nailed down, and sorcerers can select their known spells from that same spell list because they're the spells that come most naturally to an arcane caster instinctively trying to produce a certain effect (e.g. "DO DAMAGE!" makes a magic missile happen). Which is why homebrewing spells is, in my opinion, such an important piece of customizing a casting character: it's an expression of individual interaction - very much in a roleplay sense - with one's magic that transcends the obvious and the established and seeks to produce un-established effects based on the specific way that the character interacts with their own magic and the world. Super glad you guys did this episode - homebrewing spells has been one of my favorite parts of my current character!
One thing I tried that might work is a concentration spell that lets you somewhat enchant a weapon and it let you either being yourself or a target closer to you.
Smoke Weapon: You pick a non-heavy weapon as part of the spell, the spell does that weapon’s dice damage plus an additional 2 dice of the same type. Increase the dice damage by one per higher spell level used to cast. I see that as a nice 3rd level, because in my head I’m seeing this assassin mage relying on this spell to dispatch multiple guards and not just thier intended target
Amazing episode, I love home brewing spells. I am also a big fan of custom classes/subclasses, I once had a PC make a custom warlock patron that was the DM.
I have someone playing a chronomancer wizard in one of my 5e campaigns. For flavor (and because the party lacked healing) I homebrewed a 2 heal spells for him. One basically allows the target to healing surge like from 4e (accelerates the healing, dilates time). The other rewinds wounds on a target within range, and scales with the slot level used. Balanced half way between cure wounds and healing word. Looking forward to being able to play test them more.
Watching this inspired me to ask my DM about homebrewing a "Speed Reading" spell along a similar line of Comprehend Languages. Maybe you have to maintain concentration on the book, or a material component is you need to place a drop of your blood on the book. Not even sure if it's good mechanically but for my ex-librarian turned wizard he would definitely love it.
my druid was chosen by an arch fey to be a champion of the gods, on this happening my Goodberry spell was transformed into Snozzelberry which gives +2 hp per berry and taste like liquid sunshine and rainbows. I make wine out of it
Homebrewed my first spell a month ago called Lucys Phantom Arms: 10 minuet cast 2nd level Conjuration 8 hour duration Touch You select a willing target and they grow 2 spectral arms below their current pair. They gain the following benefits: Advantage on athletics checks You can weild 4 1 handed weapons or 2 2 handed weapons You can benefit from 1 additional shield You can make one additional attack of opportunity per round
That's a fun creation but I think the level is way off. I think it should be at least 6th level or even higher. Especially if you give Str or Dex dmg bonuses for the extra hands.
@@EpifanesEuergetes I agree, the level is too low. That's a "permanent" AC or damage boost with no concentration. At that low a level it's insta-kills from two-handed fighters and impenetrable AC from defensive specialist. Then the extra opportunity attacks...damage per round just shot into space.
I like the idea of reskinning other class spells and abilities for the players. For example, I’ve got a bladesinger in my game that wanted to research and construct his own version of spiritual weapon. His warlock that had died had a similar spell in the shape of the hand of his patron. And so when the warlock died and was a close friend to the bladesinger, it spurred him to join the party. He then began to train to understand that spell and use it himself.
I like my Spells useful and strong, that is why I created a divination Spell that grants the caster an additional reation for as long as he concentrates on the Spell. Especially cool for War Wizards and Abjurers. Hell, every caster could benefit from that. Shield, Counterspell, even Martial Characters that take 3 Levels in Wizard. Monks with two reactions? Hell to the yes!
I love the idea of more reactions! I included a legendary glaive in my campaign that gives the wielder unlimited reactions as long as they attack with it or dodge on their turn. I’m very confident the PCs will never stumble across it, but it’s exciting to me to know it’s there
I was thinking about crafting spells this weekend because I wanted an Earth and lightning themed dwarf draconic sorcerer. There weren't enough damage spells even using both.
Pruitt: I was actually thinking along similar lines recently and most of the foundation is already possible in game with an assassin rogue/conjuration wizard multiclass. With minor conjuration, the character could summon a weapon into their hands, and the weapon would disappear after dealing damage. Possible homebrew tweaks might include synergizing cunning action and minor conjuration, so that the character can summon a disappearing weapon as a bonus action, and allowing the character to sacrifice spell slots for damage like an eldritch smiting warlock or a smiting paladin. Given the nature of assassinate, it would likely take some playtesting to settle on an appropriate damage:spell slot level ratio.
If you read Ghosts of Dragonspear castle from D&D Next, I took the effect Delfen uses to transport the players into his tower into a 5th-level conjuration spell (Delfen's Displacing Smoke). Essentially with 30 feet you target a 10-foot radius sphere and can cast misty step on 3 creatures that with a failed save, and that lets you move them up to 30 feet from you to a space you can see. They have to be on solid ground, and each spell level above lets you add 1 more target.
The wizard brain thing reminded me of a ‘magic item’ in Shadowrun, which is a very different system from DnD. But there are a variant of magic user that channel magic wholly internally, letting them punch through cars and run up walls. But if you take their veins, you can refine them into something that basically lets you cast a spell, scaling it as if you spent a tenth level slot for it. Magic flows through their veins, long after the blood has stopped.
I created a spell that let my character passively throughout the day gathers natural arcane energy and stores it within a designated item (usually a crystal) for storage, due to the extra arcane energy the idea was to let me expend the item (usually a crystal) to increase the casting time of any spell by half (an action becomes a bonus, a bonus becomes a reaction). The DM then gave the limitation that it could only store the energy for 24 hours per crystal after which the arcane energy would just explode in a force energy blast consuming the crystal and dealing 3D8 force damage to everyone in a 15 ft radius from the crystal. this essentially let me create time bombs which could be used for distractions, or infiltration and if I charged multiple crystals still gave me the ability to fast cast
I encourage as much homebrewing in my adventures as possible. We had an adventure with sky ships all the weapons on the ship were home brewed wonders. Anything that the players found they made into weapons and so long AS I could understand the concept I allowed it. Also in our current adventure the party has made their own little tree house that is hidden with a homebred illusion spell. Not sure we even reassemble D&d anymore
Another thing I just thought of to consider on deciding a spell level that isn't just balance oriented is to just let the player decide what level they want it to be and then take that into consideration in the research. If you want to be able to cast fireball like it normally is only using the mental energy (or however you justify spell levels) of a 1st level spell, then you're going to have to work your ass off and even start adding elements of danger to failed research that you said is missing from d&d magic. Let's say a player tries the example above and "prepares" their fireball as a level 1 spell without successful research. As the DM you say "you have it ready to cast but it's going to take your concentration slot to hold it in, and if that's broken then your fireball goes off centered on yourself, damaging yourself (if it doesn't normally can't remember off the top of my head). Maybe for something REALLY crazy it can fail spectacularly giving an mechanical reason for the classic plot device of someone attempting something beyond their ability and it going wrong. Dr. Frankenstein doesn't have 5th level spells so he creates a workaround and it goes wrong. A wizards apprentice gets ahold of his master's spellbook and starts messing around and blows himself up or unleashes a demon. Apply the same thing to making new spells. If they want this effect at a low cost it's going to be dangerous.
I think the "Research" downtime from Xanathar's Guide can be applicable to inventing spells (or, for that matter, magic items), so long as you take a looser interpretation of the mechanic. The point of Research is to spend money, rolls Int, and get some Lore points. The Lore can be spent to answer a question. But that Lore could be used to answer many questions, including "what's Step 1 of casting this spell?", or "what ingredients do I need to make this magic item?". Further, instead of having the character do Research by consulting books or interviewing sages, have it be _original_ Research. Like, in a lab or workshop. And the wealth expenditure comes from procuring materials for testing. So a Wizard might sit in his study, doing the mind-bending calculations to formulate magical theory. Or the blacksmith could attend to his forge, exploring ways to put magic into a blade or breastplate. It takes much the same cost and time as Research as written, but has a different role-playing context. Moreover, opening the mechanic up can lead to varied ways that the process can be expedited. If a character is doing magical research into a spell, they might reference texts that talk about magical theory. But, if the character _owns_ the texts - rather than buying their way into someone's library - that means those same texts might be applicable to multiple different projects. Potentially lowering the gold investment that comes from Research. Creating a situation in which a dedicated researcher character would consider books or scrolls or clay tablets to be Treasure as much as they do gold. When they delve into ancient crypts or the sanctums of evil spellcasters, while every other character is searching for gold or art pieces, the researcher is grabbing as many books and scrolls as they can find. Not because they are inherently of the magical variety, but because they could be just the texts needed to make their research easier. Suddenly, a Wizard establishing their own tower and amassing a library makes a great deal more sense.
Bluecho4 this is Great and I definitely agree with tweaking mechanics to better play the story out. The next game I run is going to have far more exploring and researching aspects to it as well as crafting. This is giving me some good ideas
Had an idea for a variation on the delayed blast fireball. Can only be cast as a ritual but the idea is that the spell components are mixed into something the target(s) consumes. It remains in the targets system for 24 hours. If activated, there is no save. I was thinking 4th or 5th level, but only foes the damage of a 3rd level fireball. You could expend higher slots to increase damage (so 6th equals 4th, etc.) The idea for this came from trying to craft an alternate way for an evil wizard or lich to force a party to do their bidding.
Changing a spell damage type tends to work for my group. I made some homebrew rules for all kinds of casters if they want to change the damage type of a spell. When you learn the spell you want to use you choose if you want to go through this process or not. If you do then you must spend one week having that spell memorize but you are unable to use it. When you finish that week then you can finally unmemorize that spell and it is ready to change its type (you are still unable to use it btw). So basically damage type is divided by tiers: Lowest is poison Then it's fire and cold Then there's acid and lighting Next it's necrotic, psychic and thunder Finally it's force and radiance So you have to calculate where the original damage type is and where the new one will be. Going up it's 100 gold pieces per tier you go up. (this gold pieces represent magical materials that you spend, this materials can be found in almost any magic shop) Going down or staying in the same level is free. The next time you prepare that spell you can spend all the materials in order to change its damage type. Also sidenote. I allow wizards to do this multiple times. They can choose if they want to go through this process every time they prepare their spells. That's basically it. If you find any problems with this homebrew please let me know.
I've always enjoyed a spell from 2e DnD Dragon Magazine. It's called Spectral Farce. Basically, it makes one target look like a badly-crafted illusion (feet may not make a sound when hitting the floor, appendage could appear to bend in an impossible manner, etc). It has a save to negate, but the trick is that if they make the save, they disbelieve it until they're attacked (flat-footed or advantage). I've had so much fun with this little nugget of a spell, it's beautiful. Cast it on a rogue who failed his stealth check, et al. So many beautiful uses. I also saw other spells which I liked, and used to collect such things found online. Again, this is not my spell, but there was one evil spell where you cut the neck of a helpless victim, but he didn't die. From that point, people could clearly see the gruesome wound. He would have to obey your every whim and could not reveal who did it or the spell would immediately take effect and the target would die before revealing it. Such tasty evil inclinations....
Between my different groups we have a bunch of homebrew spells that fill particular niches: Varis's Sleeping Shot. Make a ranged weapon attack, on a hit the target makes a CON save to avoid falling asleep. Also first level. (Basically it's a single target sleep spell) Varis's Likeness, select a humanoid type, for 4 hours you are transformed into a that-type version of you. For the purposes of spells and effects you are considered that type, and racial features adjust for your new type, but ability scores do not. Think I made it 2nd level since it's kind of a better version of disguise self but also can limit you.
I have a homebrew spell for a bard I played. Dargs Ultimate Intoxication (or DUI). Instantaneous, 1 target, concentration, Vocal and Material components (drop of hard spirits). You cast on one target, over the next couple turns, target has to make Cha saves, three success and the effect ends, three fails and it takes hold. Effects don't happen until three fails. On three failures though, the target becomes magically drunk. Target is at disadvantage to hit with a weapon, casting spells with a somatic component require a successful Dex check vs caster DC, vocal components are the same, but a cha check. Caster has to make concentration checks each round for spells that have concentration. Target has disadvantage on insight checks. Adv on strength saving throws but disadvange on Dex saving throws. Dwarves are immune to the spell.
I have a Sorcerer in my campaign who has the blood of copper and bronze dragons. He didn't like the idea of having Fire Based spells, so we changed some of his spells to be acidic based. We made some minor changes from D10 based to D8 based with a single damage to be dealt each round to target from burning acid (Stacking) until the target makes a Constitution save or uses an action to wipe/clean the acid of their face. (Dex save to avoid initial burn.) He loves it, though it might be slightly weaker than the Fire Bolt it is based off of.
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Another great video web dm
We need a new Epic Level Handbook for various reasons but creative spell choices are missing from the source material.
Can we get a sister video about homebrewing nonmagic abilities for fighters, barbs and such? I think your low-magic-loving audience would enjoy that.
Level 7, 10d6 damage slashing, piercing, bludgeoning, duration one action, components somatic, summons forth a weapon of the users desire that can then can be used to make a single magic attack. The user is proficient with the weapon made. This weapon passes through all resistance including magic. After the attack the weapon disappears into a puff of smoke from which is was made of. Hey Pruitt and Jim does that work for the spell you thought of?
I'd allow a fighter to Homebrew a battle maneuver, or what a totem for a barbarian, or a monks of the elements options, or how a rogue can use an item/building a poison.
"the brains of dead wizards" Do you want Mindflayers Jim? Because that's how you get Mindflayers.
Or a Zombie Lich, nasty.
Oh man a zombie lich that lures and kills wizards for their soul, their intelligence, and their braaaaainssss
@@Vegas242 And it builds a trap filled dungeon rumored to be guarding a fabulous treasure to lure victims in.
Zombies ants
I would watch an entire episode of you guys homebrewing and brainstorming new spells.....
Who wouldnt?
edit: auto correct issue
The bit at 3:45 had me remembering Mel Brooks' *History of the World, Part 1* : "I have fifteen!" *Drops one stone tablet* "Ten! Ten spells!"
"Well, start an IRA..."
Me, living in Ireland: "Well that was an unexpected turn."
Just goes to show, in D&D if you've got enough gold you can bankroll anything
Today I learned the importance of context 😂
Individual Retirement Account, Irish Republican Army... six of one, half dozen of the other. These both seem equally valid way for adventurers to invest their hard won treasures.
Now I want to start a group of militant leprechauns seeing to over throw their Gnome oppressors. Thanks!
These days, how unexpected is it, really?
If you can't homebrew your own new spells, storebought is fine
And let's not forget DM's Guild.
Hmmm, do i want Otilukes Resilient Sphere? But its kind of expensive. I should just go for the generic brand.
@@darienb1127 it
@@darienb1127 except it could of been a couple of years since it was roasted, it should be no older than a week old.
Yeah, we're gonna need you to share your Chronomancer creations
He'll be handling that in the video last week.
@@derekburge5294 Damn time mages, always f***ing up the time stream
@@robertmacneish4470 Right? My comment next week was deleted yesterday! If that isn't abuse of power, I don't know what it!
I know you have an old video on magic items, but could we get a video like this on Homebrew Magic Items and just a polished video on magic items in general?
Agreed I think this would be a fantastic topic. I always feel I don't have the right creative juices flowing to make fun ones. It's easy to take monster abilities and jam them on items but there's always something missing something the players don't latch onto.
perhaps more about how you would present them two players more so than just creating them because creating them isn't so hard like you say in this video you just have to do it.
100% agree we need a video on homebrew magic items. I've actually made a lot of them but here's one of my favorites:
Luck Potion: (400g if they can find a seller) Usually contained in a small glass bottle the fluid looks like constantly swirling liquid gold.
After drinking the player has 3 uses of special luck which go away after 1 hour. At any time within that hour, after the player makes a roll (but before determining the outcome) they can choose to use one of their special luck to roll again. On a 1-9 the player uses the original roll or the new roll whichever is higher, on a 10-20 the roll counts as a natural 20.
@@kyubii972 Let the player create the magic item. Say to them "you find a magic item, it's properties are unknown" and out of character you can ask them "What would you like this item to do?". Balance it for the world you are playing in and go from there. In the game I just started running (starting mid lvl) my wizard PC made their spell book from a device that in our world would be a tablet/ipad/ebook-reader. It's a small flat box enchanted with cantrips (minor illusion, prestidigitation) so It makes an illusionary screen that you can read/write with. It isn't a hugely influential item, but it does add to that character.
Make one property cater to their play style, background, class or maybe it is important to their backstory somehow. If it feels morr personal playerw are more likely to latch onto and want to keep and use said item.
PERFECT timing! I'm playing a Warlock right now whose whole shtick is being a spell-slinging outlaw, finding and dueling wizards to steal their spellbooks and copy their unique spells and variants of spells into the vast magical library of her patron. With all the arcana she's found, she was going to try to make a spell of her own soon-- a special spell, designed to do one thing, and one thing only: Kill. Wizards. I've homebrewed before, but never spells--- so this is just what I needed! Thanks for all your hard work on these guys!
Disintegrate is the spell designed to kill wizards. Constitution save which they aren't proficient in, and high baseline damage.
Perhaps look into an invocation to give your Eldritch Blast the ability to either spell steal a slot or maybe works like the war wizard’s surge mechanic where it cancels a spell and then adds an amount of damage onto your next spell?
More of a jest, but a spell that always does fixed damage equal to the max # of spell slots the target can have. Alternatively, and this is super evil, damage equal to the number of spells in the spellbook the target wizard has on them.
I love this entire comment thread, and would like to kindly steal all of it.
@@kylestanley7843 By all means! I don't think people would be commenting if they weren't okay with someone adapting their idea.
Personally, I decided to go with a multi-ray attack where each attack you hit has a small chance to remove a spell of your choice on the target (a la Dispel Magic-- a.k.a, so long as it's X level or lower). The chance procs when 2 or more of the damage dice roll the same value, similar to the rules for Chaos Bolt chaining. Additionally, removing a spell causes the spare energies to detonate and unweave themselves violently, dealing some additional force damage to suppliment the otherwise low base piercing damage of the spell.
This would have a lot of utility for reducing AC-- for example, if you foe tries to Shield against your shots, you can remove the Shield the first time you hit, with successive hits being able to remove protections like Mage Armor, Barkskin, Stoneskin, Warding Bonds, Shield of Fath, or even fun stuff like dropping them out of a Fly spell or releasing a Planar Binding!
I think I'll be using these ideas to fill out 5e's ignored damage types. I wanted to make a copper dragon sorcerer and there are like 8 acid damage spells, most of which are chromatic spells. Definitely need homebrew to get much use from that in combat.
I'd suggest just asking your GM if you could swap other spells to acid damage. E.G Burning Bolt to Corrosive Bolt.
@@halismeful That's easily the best way, some spells don't require many changes, Burning Hands for example, but Fireball would, as Acid is less commonly resisted.
@@killcat1971 My general rule for DMing is that it's fine, so long as it's not force damage, mostly because that's the least resisted type in the game.
@@halismeful Oh sure, same with radiant.
@@killcat1971 Radiant and necrotic it depends for me. For something like a cleric, swapping to radiant is fine. Just needs to fit the thematics of the class.
Had a player once be a Sorcerer that was nature based, so their fireball was instead a earthquake that only hit those on ground, but double damage to burrowing enemies.
Me, a pokemon fan: EARTHQUAKE
In regards to the fighter or barbarian wanting to homebrew spells but "can't" because of the class, have them come up with an ability/spell effect they would like to have on a weapon/armour.
Still allows the creativeness on the player without them feeling left out
Bruisedfrog or honestly why not allow them to perform esoteric ‘rites,’ which might mechanically fit as a spell but flavorfully occupy a more traditionally savage or militant place...
Or a battle master style effect
Alternatively, let them work out a unique class feature. That _is_ after all what spells essentially are. Work out how many uses of it they might be allowed per short or long rest, what effects it might have, and then figure out at what level it might be suitable for them to gain this ability, as well as or alternatively the possibility of it improving over time as a reflection of the Fighter or Barbarian having more time to practice and perfect their technique.
Rouges are also largely non-magical.
I recalled one Magwa (I believe it was called Magician) which one of the characters was an insanely strong swordsman who, through sheer talent, could actually cut the air itself and leave what was effectively invisible "slashes" that existed for a time afterwards that could literally cut anything, but it was incapable of travel. Which was a pretty big deal as up to their point, most of the real heavyweights in the world had been spellcasters of some description, with even great martial types usually dabbling in it. Actually served as an example of what one of the protagonists could become with enough time and experience.
I'm not saying use that, but there's no reason that really *strong* fighters couldn't develop an ability that was super natural. No idea how it would work mind you, Paladin's kinda gatekeep the DPS angle of fighters.
I've linked this video to my players to encourage more creativity at the table. Especially since two of them are Sorcerer class, this is such a great resource for them. Another hit from WebDM. Thanks lads!
Thank you Zack!
I like the idea of giving sorcerers the ability to be their own arcane focus.
Pathfinder does that, actually. There's a feat called "Eschew Materials" that lets you forgo using material components that are 5 gold or less. Sorcerers just get this feat for free at first level
The way Jim was able to instantly say a spell level for Pruitt's stealth attack was really cool.
I did too, and we even seem to agree on it being fourth level. Love this game so much lol
I want to say thank you very much for this video. In my current homebrew campaign (which is a world that has been built upon over years). Thanks to this video, there are many custom spells that have been brought into that world throughout the creation process, as well as some that are one spell already in game, but in earlier times had a different effect and that version of the spell is "lost to time".
Shapechange into a mind flayer, consume the brain of enemy wizard, spell research complete.
What if we make brains in jars and hook them up to study for me? What do you mean they are going to rebel? Nonsense
@@TheCinderfang that's some futurama shit lol i love it. I just picture al gores disembodied head in a jar studying a magical tome wearing a cape like dr strange's.
you'll have to home brew a spell that let's you shape change into an aberration first or wait until later levels because all shape change spells specify that you can only turn into beast of certain levels including polymorph and wildshape in fact the only one that would work is "true polymorph" a lvl 9 spell.
@@plotholedetective4166 admittedly its checking via an app not the book, but *Shapechange* Literally states any creature your CR or less. Polymorph is a beast only, that's also only a 4th level spell, vs 9th level *Shapechange*.
justBinia read more carefully all shape change beast shape and polymorph spells specify beast at some point in the text, all of them shape change mentions it about half way through the spell that the creature must be a beast it does this by stating that you retain your int. cha. and Wis. stats but take the physical stats of the "BEAST" in the p.h.b Idk about the free app or what it says, I pay for the real stuff myself because physical books are just better and from what I've seen the app has alot of small errors
Brain in a jar is a magic item that often pops up in my games, it allows you to shunt concentration of a spell to the brain, so you may concentrate on two spells at once.. It's also telepathic and judges the caster constantly "I'd have done X or Y" also the Arcane Lantern is another type of item I use like this (strong winds cuts it off, doesn't work underwater and a free action to blow out)
My dm and I created a bard spell based off of fey magic, that drags a bit of the fey wild into the material plane we are in along with a slow effect. Super cool.
My favourite thing to Homebrew is spells. They just are so easy for me and I can get pretty creative. I remember my first spell, a transmutation spell called Blood Money.
Fireball
Lightning ball
Acid ball
Lightball
Thunderball
Or my favorite
Snowball
my favourite is the psychic version. Tripping balls.
@@ratholin you just won the internet.
Don't forget Necroball that does neurotic damage.
Fireball
Storm Sphere
Vitriolic Sphere
Sickening Radiance
Shatter
Otiluke's Freezing Sphere
@@ratholin Synaptic Static
Regarding party jealousy...
A "spell" doesn't have to be something on a list that consumes a spell slot. It could be a new WL invocation, a channeled power for an Ancestral Barbarian, or a divinely inspired new form of Channel Divinity.
There is no class in the game that doesn't have some magical component.
There are classes that dont have magical class features. They only have magical subclass features. See Barbarian, Fighter, Rogue
English fortehwin… You just contradict yourself bro. Barbarians have magic in Zealot, Storm and Ancestors lines. Rogues have the charm feature of Swashbuckler, and obviously Arcane Trickster. Fighters have self-heal and a rerolled save in the baseline, arcane archer, eldritch knight, group heals in dragon knight. These are all class components, and while the AT and EK use traditional spell lists and slots, the rest do not.
If you're still confused, I'll give you an example of non-class, and non-list type magic... Racial magical features. In some cases, they give access to a spell that's also on a list. In other cases, they give a spell like feature, but not access to the actual spell, and in other cases it's simply a racial ability to that has the same effect as a spell. But, they're all tied to a race rather than a class.
@@ChristnThms Reading comprehension FTW.
Notice how all of those things you listed are subclass features not class features. Show me the rogue and barbarian and fighter CLASS features that give you magic. There arent any. You seem to think that every PC created has magic which isnt the case. Also the swashbucklers Panach, isnt magical its a physical manifestation of your ability to be charming. Zealot doesnt have magic. Ancestral guardian isnt magic either. The only barbarian subclass that gets actual magic is Totem, which grants you access to cast Commune with nature at level 10. And the Storm which lets you create a magical aura.
You seem to be implying that every class no matter what subclass is taken has magic which isnt true.
Christian Swensen “you just contradict yourself bro”
Yeah this seems like a productive conversation
@@caman225 exactly what was the contradiction. You're the only one not making sense. I'm simply stating that you CAN build a character with no magic. You are trying to say you can't that every class has magic no matter what subclass they choose. And that's just not true.
Hey, guys, thank you for seeking sponsorship from and highlighting various Kickstarters. It's a really great idea. In related news, I may never have money again.
That background is quite stunning.
Have y'all ever thought about adding your videos to SoundCloud? Your video length is perfect for those who have a long commute.
Good Topic. In return, I shall gift you with some Eldritch Homebrew knowledge adapted from 3.5. The Ring of Catapult. A crude copper ring that appears to be a cat biting it's own tail. Functions as Wand of Magic Missile, with the following changes: Instead of a magical force, it fires a screaming housecat with 1/2 D8 hp. The cat is real and alive, and native to the Prime Material. The cat takes damage equal to the damage it dealt on impact, cats deal physical damage. Expending more charges fires more cats. Requires Attunement, but doesn't require spellcasting ability as a wand does. Cursed Variant: Cats that die from impact come back to haunt the user with incessant meowing 1d10 days later, appearing at Sunset, vanishing at Dawn.
Obviously crafted from a spin on Magic Missile, that requires a cat's whisker to cast.
A lich in my campaign was working to further the school of Necromancy and desease. He created a spell that turns a recently deceased corpse into an acidic bomb by using a decomposing bacteria. It eatch a corpse so quickly when activated, it would burst in a shower of acididc byproduct. That corpse could also be raised as a zombie with the infection.
ah, the classic corpse explosion
One spell which I didn't think would be very important and would be just useful for flare and character-building was a "Do Housework" spell which a dude who grew up with a really messy roommate knew.
On cast, all basic housework tasks for areas which the caster can see is magically completed. This requires the tools used to clean it normally within a certain range (to sweep a floor you need a broom, to wash the dishes you need a basin of water and a cloth, etc.) and said tools can't disrupt the work of things not under the effects of the spell (a broom will pause its duties and wait patiently if someone walks infront of it).
The irony is that it became actually useful when the dude cast it while hiding from an invading assassin who was about to find him. The crooked paintings in the room suddenly correcting themselves, a few open drawers closing, and a book or two flying back into their place on the shelves, all at once gave the guy a shock and distracted him.
When it comes to chronomancy, I've always loved the idea of a spell similar to teleportation circle, where you have to cast it once as an "anchor" in time, and then casting it within a certain amount of time later brings you back to that point. So you can never travel back in time before the point that you learned the spell.
oh man what I wouldn’t do to get a whole pdf of jim davis’ homebrew spells
Oh I live this one. Homebrewing spells is something I've been playing around with a lot. Love all your homebrew videos in general.
8:40 in other words, all wizards go to a special place when they die where their body undergoes a magic process the wizard needs to sign up for before joining the "Head Museum" from Futurama.
“Becky with the good spells” lmao
I found myself laughing way too hard at that.
And only partly because I didn't take him as a 'Yonce fan.
Some of the best content on TH-cam in my opinion. You guys are awesome! I wish I could afford to support you more.
3:45 There is a stone age RPG called "Wolf-Packs & Winter Snow", where your spell book is a cave - Magic-Users record their spells as art, mostly cave paintings...
You guys are the John Madden and Pat Summerall of D&D.
Easily one of the best thumbnails I’ve ever seen.
The view out of that window is suitably magical for this episode. Appreciate the insight and suggestions.
One of my favourite spell homebrews was changing Bigby's hand to a conjuration spell. We ended up creating an entire plane of Bigby's bodyparts called Bigby's land where we had a few adventures and made spells for conjuring other Bigby parts with odd affects. A lot of fun and definitely worth considering for your own campaigns.
My wizard Mathias eventually found need of a spell more powerful than a simple sending. We worked out Mathias's Ghost Pen. It was a spell that required a fine quality quill worth at least 25 gold. You cast the lengthy spell and say a creature's name. So long as they were on the same plane you effectively text messaged them. Whatever you wrote or drew within a 1 foot square during cast would be transcribed to them on the nearest writeable surface within a few feet. If none were available the spell would hold the message up to a day until the opportunity presented itself. If another message was sent before the first resolved the first one was overwritten. Mathias was an only student of a wizard master who was very busy all of the time and thusly sent Mathias into perils way over his head. It came in handy a few times to relay secret, dangerous, or time critical information.
Spell I made for my setting where a specific type of necromancy is practiced for public good. There's a cult of wizards who worship this flesh god basically, and are weirdly obsessed with recycling. Souls are left alone but bodies are animated, reused, and repurposed to heal the living and keep flesh beautiful. It's a weird place but this medicinal spell was needed for the cultists who kept villagers healthy and gave them a reason to have undead servants following them around. Also, it was really cool seeing the players react to the healing when it was used on them for the first time when one was gravely injured. (This was during a gritty realism variant so resting was difficult and finding a healer was a better option most of the time) Okay but anyway.
Flesh Transferal Lv. 2 - Necromancy - Wizard Spell
Verbal, Somatic, and Component (Flesh, living or dead equal to 1 oz per d4, consumed on cast, and willow bark)
Casting time +5 min, requires concentration to cast.
Before casting the target (a living or undead creature), and if using a live donor the donation target, must be prone and must fail a DC5 wisdom save. On a successful save the spell takes 1d4 minutes but fails, materials are not wasted. On a failed save the target(s) is rendered unconscious for xd4 minutes (x being the number of oz of flesh provided for the spell up to the spell's level times 2) The spell is automatically ended if the target moves, the caster moves, or if the flesh is destroyed or moved. As an additional bonus the healing through this spell counts as though it were from a short/long rest for overcoming lost max hp. However, if a living target is used for the donation they have their max hp reduced till a long rest is concluded.
While unconscious the target's body is mended and magically reformed using the provided material as components. The material is most commonly dead flesh, but can be from a willing live donor or flesh equivalents. (If using a living or undead source, the donor takes whatever damage is healed to the target!) Additionally the flesh can be from any type of creature as it will be broken down and reformed into the target's body there is no danger of contamination. (maybe)
The caster must also maintain concentration during the time the subject is unconscious. If they lose concentration the remaining healing is lost with the components. (for example, after 2 minutes the mage is attacked and loses concentration, the target healed 2 damage but the remaining HP does not apply as the healing is interrupted and components are lost!) When the spell has ended the subject regains consciousness in their prone position. This spell an be cast at higher levels using a higher spell slot for additional possible healing. Any kind of flesh is usable, including deceased flesh, meat (raw), living participants, and the caster's own body (Though very risky!)
Lots of specific little rules but in practice it flowed well and was used mostly in downtime. ONCE it was tried in a fight to stabilize someone but the warm up time was really hard to work around (as intended) and they instead opted to skip the time at the beginning and both make concentration checks to rush the spell.
I like the old school rules for creating spells.
- Find out what spell level your spell would be by comparing it to other spells.
- If its a spell from the opposite type (Arcane/Divine) add a spell level.
- If you're a wizard and you specialize in that school decrease a spell level.
- If you want a powerful spell to cast at a lower level add materiel components and/or additional spell restrictions / requirements.
In AD&D I let my necromancer player start with a first level animate dead because he added some difficult material components and a neat storing their heart in a jar mechanic to bring it down to a first level spell, ontop of specializing in necromancy. Honestly i'd totally allow this in 5e.
Any chance we could get a similar episode on homebrewing magic items?
I love homebrewing spells and letting my players craft anything that gets them more involved with the world's I work so hard to build. Thank you both for hitting the nail on the head that the best way for this to work is to be cooperative with the party and make a journey out of this. With that said I would like to submit a spell!
A spell found in a journal of a siege mechanist. Or to be more accurate: The hypothetical question that would lead my two mages to form a spell.
Secret Tunnel
Level: 6th
Casting Time: 2 Rounds
Range/ Area: 1 Mile long
Components: V, S, M (An iron shovel, 1000 Gold worth of Emeralds)
Ritual: Yes (may ignore Material component cost)
Duration: Instantaneous (Concentration)
School: Evocation
Attack/Save: DEX Save
Damage/Effect: Force (...)
By channeling raw arcane force into a beam of power you are able to shatter stone and displace earth to create tunnels and breaches in enemy defenses.
The Beam may tunnel in a straight line into natural materials at the rate of 25 feet per round. Any tunnels created by this spell will be lined with volcanic glass from the pressure of the spell and measure 5 feet by 5 feet. Natural materials will be displaced and anything that cannot be displaced will take 10D10 Force and Bludgeoning damage until it is destroyed or moves out of the way. The beam may be continually fired as long as the caster concentrates on the spell and does not move from where the spell was cast.
A second magic caster may expend a 3rd level spell slot to control the direction the beam travels if the spell was cast as a ritual.
Enemies that are within the first 25 ft of the spells range when cast in combat may make a Dex save at disadvantage to avoid half the damage from the beam. All other enemies roll normally to avoid all damage.
If an enemy is Large or bigger the spell save is done with disadvantage if within 50ft.
Magical particle accelerators. The CERN of dnd.
I had an NPC in my home brew campaign who was essentially a wizard version of Richard Feynman - he had a magical lab where he was trying to discover how the weave worked.
i once made a spell that make a cone of cold that stops the targets from moving, if the targets sucedes in a con trow, the damge is halved (i named it "sweet, opresive wind)", also a potion that allows werewolves and other werecreatures to get full control over the curse, including transform at will, without chaging your allainment (made with Mandrake root, Mountain ash Berry, Willow leaves brewed in water exposed with the light of a new moon)
light of a new moon? What light? (but seriously, that's cool)
@@robertmacneish4470 in the tropics (where I live) there is light in the New moon, so I used It, insetad of sunlight
@@joaocisne556 a new moon rises and sets with the sun. you can't really get new moonlight without also getting direct sunlight. so im imagining a dawn or dusk ritual, maybe a day or two off the actual new moon?
21:18 you can preform somatic components with the same hand used for material components, if the spell requiers both somatic and material components.
Unrelated side note: You make greate videos, and I enjoy them a lot!
That statement caught my attention too. I was less sure.
Just discovered your channel a few days ago, you've been a fantastic source for a new DM!
So my dm let our wizard homebrew a spell, and one thing was eye of a half orc. (This wizard did not like my rogue who was a half orc) the dm not thinking allows this she attempted to rip out his eye, we are down a wizard and a player.
That should be a terrible guy to play with
That's the kind of douchey player you and your group are fully in your rights to eject.
Good riddance I say, how can a Wizard be that dumb!
Oh and the player was an ass.
Sometimes you just got to let someone drop. I always hate to see it when people act like that and thinks that it's okay to mess with someone's character and expect there to be no consequences. What did he think you were going to do? Let him kill your character for a spell component? That's just somebody who's looking to cause trouble, and you should be glad to get rid of him.
Doesn't sound like much of a loss.
I wanted to craft a dwarven stonemage. He was a transmutationist wizard with earth-based spells and manipulation. Lorewise they are the runecrafters and magic rune imbuers of the dwarves. They also work in the mines to watch over stonework and prevent accidents and cave-ins. To do this I made a spell Vonlur's Stone toss. Essentially firebolt with bludgeoning damage. I also made Vonlur's sharpen Stone. A 1st level spell. This he could use as a bonus action to use a whetstone material conponent. During the concentration the whetstone flies in the air in front of him automatically sharpening any Stones he throws into piercing spikes. When he used Stone toss, the Stones would do now piercing damage and he added his spellcasting modifier to the damage. The range of Stone toss was also improved from 90 to 120 ft. Also whole concentrating, he could use an action to quickly carve runes into any surface, or sharpen an ally's weapon 30 feet from him. This allows the ally to add the casters spellcasting modifier to the damage of the next attack. Only once.
2nd level spell was Vonlur's Stone manipulation. This could be cast at higher levels and pretty much allowed him to manipulate up to 400 lbs of loose Stone matter. Casting at higher levels increase the weight limit. He could also use this spell as a reaction to catch thrown rocks or stop cave-ins if it was cast high enough level. Of course Casting it as reaction ends the spell immediately. Finally there was 4th level Vonlur's Lance of Stone. It was a 15ft line that comes from the caster diagonally up. Anyone caught in it took a bunch of piercing damage and would be considered grappled by the impalement of the Stone spike. Dex save would halve the damage and avoid the grapple. A str check as an action vs save dc to escape after being grappled.
Overall I enjoyed the homebrew spells and it truly made my Stonemage come to life.
Love the theme!
Excited for this video!! The farthest my group has gone with homebrew spells is making a Create Peanut Butter spell
Important thing to have on hand
Plot twist: The BBEG of the campaign is allergic to peanuts
Someone not like the taste of their goodberry?
I can't get over how absolutely gorgeous the backdrop is!!!
I would kill for a DM that would let my Necromancer Wizard gain access to inflict wounds. It boggles my mind that the most powerful lower level necromancy spell (something that is pretty inherently messed up) is inaccessible to Necromancers. Nothing even in the flavor text of this spell screams inherently divine in nature to me and Necromancers get all these extra abilities like healing when killing with a necromancy spell which would pair well if there was a Wizard that trained with clerics to learn how to use this ability but eh thats just me
Alexius Hendrickson I feel you bro
also speak with dead..... wizards can cast gentle repose, why not speak with dead?
Zurt that makes more sense to me. The logic being that wizards can't mess with souls. They can only manipulate and augment the physical. So they can keep a corpse on ice with gentle repose to make it easier to raise an undead within the time limit required. It's why my chaotic good necromancy always makes the argument that what they are doing is not inherently evil cause they are just working a meat puppet. But inflict wounds is just causing raw painful damage to a target which screams wizard lol
@@alexiushendrickson7509 then the idea that animate dead messes with the soul is even more annoying, besides, the description says you dont contact the soul i think
It doesn't even heal undead anymore, it's just damage
This is a really helpful video, I wish I’d found it a few weeks ago. I have an arcane trickster/wizard in my game who wanted to explore creating spells. What they wanted to create was actually fairly close to already existing spells, so it was more of a test of their arcane ability to reshape the spell in a new way than to make something new. Worked it into the story as an entrance exam for a wizarding school.
It was essentially the ability to cast shield on an ally within 30ft as a reaction, with a reduced bonus to AC. Worked out quite well.
After watching a D&D campaign with Will Wheaton that had terrible luck rolling dice, I homebrewed a spell for D&D Beyond called Luck of Thorbir, that can seriously debuff your success on a roll.
Top tier Aliens joke, eye of hicks. I'm still laughing.
this is a wonderful episode, thank you so much for making it. i just started playing an inventor-school wizard and this is something my dm & i are both really excited at trying out in-game, because my wizard is very interested in trying to create her own spells.
Homebrewed an abjuration cantrip for my abjurer similar to shield of faith just weaker and for arcane mages.
It's called Contend and it grants a +1 to AC as a bonus action with concentration and duration of 1 minute. I also gave it some boosts at 5, 11, and 17. At 5 the +1 can be added to DeX saves, 11 it adds to all mental saving throws, and at 17 the modifier increases to a +2.
Its flavored as a sigil that floats around you slowly following hostile actions, and of course you're able to increase its capabilities as you know more about the spell.
Idk about scaling or balance, but I REALLY like the idea of it.
Awesome video guys, thanks for the advice! *Proceeds to make custom spell school*
Late to the party but that "Smoke Dart" spell could be called the "Subtle Knife". Neat idea!
The fighter (or other character) could homebrew a custom magic weapon, the party could quest to find a capable weaponsmith and the components needed to craft the item.
Seriously, you guys are both entertaining and informative. You're my D&D teachers; so while I should be working on my actual homework and classes, I'm here taking notes on how to create fictional spells for a make-believe game. Cheers!
Its the first d&d I'm the dm and I'm doing a post-war adventure to find the god that made people born with powers so I'm creating a lot of homebrew spells this video was very helpful thank you.
Glad to help!
Very cool. My group is planning a one shot to test out some customer magic inspired by your spell videos.
That's SO COOL!!!!! Let us know how it goes!
A player of mine had a homebrew catapult spell in a party that sadly stopped after a few sessions. He was a wizard, who was friends with a battlerager dwarf. His catapult did not have the ability to fling objects but people, thus making him able to fling the barbarian to the front lines. When the barbarian hits the target, both take 1d8 (+1d8 per spell level) bludgeoning damage and the barbarian can make a melee attack as part of the wizard's spell.
Awesome episode I've been working on homebrewing and tweeking spells for fun lately, you guys brought up a lot of good stuff to consider
That opening was great.
Finally I've been wait for this episode!
My sorcerer (in Pathfinder) has homebrewed two awesome and really fun spells that provide interesting versatility - felt very appropriate for sort of natural experimentation with and honing of aspects other lower-level spells redirected to produce other effects. GM has been very supportive and has had great input.
The way I think about it in terms of the metaphysics of the world (similar to what you guys said) is that the canonical spells are the ones that are the most intuitive and established ways for casters to interact with the arcane/divine. Wizards have access to the spells in the spellbook because they're the ones that every wizarding tradition has pretty much nailed down, and sorcerers can select their known spells from that same spell list because they're the spells that come most naturally to an arcane caster instinctively trying to produce a certain effect (e.g. "DO DAMAGE!" makes a magic missile happen). Which is why homebrewing spells is, in my opinion, such an important piece of customizing a casting character: it's an expression of individual interaction - very much in a roleplay sense - with one's magic that transcends the obvious and the established and seeks to produce un-established effects based on the specific way that the character interacts with their own magic and the world.
Super glad you guys did this episode - homebrewing spells has been one of my favorite parts of my current character!
My current caster is a homebrew warlock subclass with homebrewed spells that basically makes her a Drow version of Silk from Marvel comics
One thing I tried that might work is a concentration spell that lets you somewhat enchant a weapon and it let you either being yourself or a target closer to you.
Smoke Weapon: You pick a non-heavy weapon as part of the spell, the spell does that weapon’s dice damage plus an additional 2 dice of the same type. Increase the dice damage by one per higher spell level used to cast.
I see that as a nice 3rd level, because in my head I’m seeing this assassin mage relying on this spell to dispatch multiple guards and not just thier intended target
But why WOULDN"T you want a Flumph familiar?
My Great Old One Warlock has one and it is great.
Now I want to know more about the Chronomancer, cause I've been wanting to run something like that for a while!
Amazing episode, I love home brewing spells. I am also a big fan of custom classes/subclasses, I once had a PC make a custom warlock patron that was the DM.
I have someone playing a chronomancer wizard in one of my 5e campaigns. For flavor (and because the party lacked healing) I homebrewed a 2 heal spells for him.
One basically allows the target to healing surge like from 4e (accelerates the healing, dilates time).
The other rewinds wounds on a target within range, and scales with the slot level used. Balanced half way between cure wounds and healing word.
Looking forward to being able to play test them more.
Watching this inspired me to ask my DM about homebrewing a "Speed Reading" spell along a similar line of Comprehend Languages. Maybe you have to maintain concentration on the book, or a material component is you need to place a drop of your blood on the book. Not even sure if it's good mechanically but for my ex-librarian turned wizard he would definitely love it.
my druid was chosen by an arch fey to be a champion of the gods, on this happening my Goodberry spell was transformed into Snozzelberry which gives +2 hp per berry and taste like liquid sunshine and rainbows. I make wine out of it
I would love a podcast that's just brainstorming spells (every day, counter craft, just weird stuff).
Homebrewed my first spell a month ago called Lucys Phantom Arms:
10 minuet cast
2nd level
Conjuration
8 hour duration
Touch
You select a willing target and they grow 2 spectral arms below their current pair. They gain the following benefits:
Advantage on athletics checks
You can weild 4 1 handed weapons or 2 2 handed weapons
You can benefit from 1 additional shield
You can make one additional attack of opportunity per round
That's a fun creation but I think the level is way off. I think it should be at least 6th level or even higher. Especially if you give Str or Dex dmg bonuses for the extra hands.
@@EpifanesEuergetes I agree, the level is too low. That's a "permanent" AC or damage boost with no concentration. At that low a level it's insta-kills from two-handed fighters and impenetrable AC from defensive specialist. Then the extra opportunity attacks...damage per round just shot into space.
I like the idea of reskinning other class spells and abilities for the players. For example, I’ve got a bladesinger in my game that wanted to research and construct his own version of spiritual weapon. His warlock that had died had a similar spell in the shape of the hand of his patron. And so when the warlock died and was a close friend to the bladesinger, it spurred him to join the party. He then began to train to understand that spell and use it himself.
I like my Spells useful and strong, that is why I created a divination Spell that grants the caster an additional reation for as long as he concentrates on the Spell. Especially cool for War Wizards and Abjurers. Hell, every caster could benefit from that. Shield, Counterspell, even Martial Characters that take 3 Levels in Wizard. Monks with two reactions? Hell to the yes!
I love the idea of more reactions! I included a legendary glaive in my campaign that gives the wielder unlimited reactions as long as they attack with it or dodge on their turn. I’m very confident the PCs will never stumble across it, but it’s exciting to me to know it’s there
I was thinking about crafting spells this weekend because I wanted an Earth and lightning themed dwarf draconic sorcerer. There weren't enough damage spells even using both.
Pruitt:
I was actually thinking along similar lines recently and most of the foundation is already possible in game with an assassin rogue/conjuration wizard multiclass. With minor conjuration, the character could summon a weapon into their hands, and the weapon would disappear after dealing damage. Possible homebrew tweaks might include synergizing cunning action and minor conjuration, so that the character can summon a disappearing weapon as a bonus action, and allowing the character to sacrifice spell slots for damage like an eldritch smiting warlock or a smiting paladin. Given the nature of assassinate, it would likely take some playtesting to settle on an appropriate damage:spell slot level ratio.
31:43 with substitles "It's technically better than spiritual weapon so it needs to be better than sex"
If you read Ghosts of Dragonspear castle from D&D Next, I took the effect Delfen uses to transport the players into his tower into a 5th-level conjuration spell (Delfen's Displacing Smoke). Essentially with 30 feet you target a 10-foot radius sphere and can cast misty step on 3 creatures that with a failed save, and that lets you move them up to 30 feet from you to a space you can see. They have to be on solid ground, and each spell level above lets you add 1 more target.
God, you have wonderful timing. got the okay to brew up some new necromancy spells for my character.
The wizard brain thing reminded me of a ‘magic item’ in Shadowrun, which is a very different system from DnD. But there are a variant of magic user that channel magic wholly internally, letting them punch through cars and run up walls.
But if you take their veins, you can refine them into something that basically lets you cast a spell, scaling it as if you spent a tenth level slot for it.
Magic flows through their veins, long after the blood has stopped.
3 of my players needed this. Who am I kidding I needed this too. Thanks guys. :)
I created a spell that let my character passively throughout the day gathers natural arcane energy and stores it within a designated item (usually a crystal) for storage, due to the extra arcane energy the idea was to let me expend the item (usually a crystal) to increase the casting time of any spell by half (an action becomes a bonus, a bonus becomes a reaction). The DM then gave the limitation that it could only store the energy for 24 hours per crystal after which the arcane energy would just explode in a force energy blast consuming the crystal and dealing 3D8 force damage to everyone in a 15 ft radius from the crystal. this essentially let me create time bombs which could be used for distractions, or infiltration and if I charged multiple crystals still gave me the ability to fast cast
I encourage as much homebrewing in my adventures as possible. We had an adventure with sky ships all the weapons on the ship were home brewed wonders. Anything that the players found they made into weapons and so long AS I could understand the concept I allowed it. Also in our current adventure the party has made their own little tree house that is hidden with a homebred illusion spell. Not sure we even reassemble D&d anymore
Another thing I just thought of to consider on deciding a spell level that isn't just balance oriented is to just let the player decide what level they want it to be and then take that into consideration in the research. If you want to be able to cast fireball like it normally is only using the mental energy (or however you justify spell levels) of a 1st level spell, then you're going to have to work your ass off and even start adding elements of danger to failed research that you said is missing from d&d magic. Let's say a player tries the example above and "prepares" their fireball as a level 1 spell without successful research. As the DM you say "you have it ready to cast but it's going to take your concentration slot to hold it in, and if that's broken then your fireball goes off centered on yourself, damaging yourself (if it doesn't normally can't remember off the top of my head). Maybe for something REALLY crazy it can fail spectacularly giving an mechanical reason for the classic plot device of someone attempting something beyond their ability and it going wrong. Dr. Frankenstein doesn't have 5th level spells so he creates a workaround and it goes wrong. A wizards apprentice gets ahold of his master's spellbook and starts messing around and blows himself up or unleashes a demon. Apply the same thing to making new spells. If they want this effect at a low cost it's going to be dangerous.
I think the "Research" downtime from Xanathar's Guide can be applicable to inventing spells (or, for that matter, magic items), so long as you take a looser interpretation of the mechanic. The point of Research is to spend money, rolls Int, and get some Lore points. The Lore can be spent to answer a question. But that Lore could be used to answer many questions, including "what's Step 1 of casting this spell?", or "what ingredients do I need to make this magic item?".
Further, instead of having the character do Research by consulting books or interviewing sages, have it be _original_ Research. Like, in a lab or workshop. And the wealth expenditure comes from procuring materials for testing. So a Wizard might sit in his study, doing the mind-bending calculations to formulate magical theory. Or the blacksmith could attend to his forge, exploring ways to put magic into a blade or breastplate. It takes much the same cost and time as Research as written, but has a different role-playing context.
Moreover, opening the mechanic up can lead to varied ways that the process can be expedited. If a character is doing magical research into a spell, they might reference texts that talk about magical theory. But, if the character _owns_ the texts - rather than buying their way into someone's library - that means those same texts might be applicable to multiple different projects. Potentially lowering the gold investment that comes from Research. Creating a situation in which a dedicated researcher character would consider books or scrolls or clay tablets to be Treasure as much as they do gold. When they delve into ancient crypts or the sanctums of evil spellcasters, while every other character is searching for gold or art pieces, the researcher is grabbing as many books and scrolls as they can find. Not because they are inherently of the magical variety, but because they could be just the texts needed to make their research easier.
Suddenly, a Wizard establishing their own tower and amassing a library makes a great deal more sense.
Bluecho4 this is Great and I definitely agree with tweaking mechanics to better play the story out. The next game I run is going to have far more exploring and researching aspects to it as well as crafting. This is giving me some good ideas
Had an idea for a variation on the delayed blast fireball. Can only be cast as a ritual but the idea is that the spell components are mixed into something the target(s) consumes. It remains in the targets system for 24 hours. If activated, there is no save. I was thinking 4th or 5th level, but only foes the damage of a 3rd level fireball. You could expend higher slots to increase damage (so 6th equals 4th, etc.)
The idea for this came from trying to craft an alternate way for an evil wizard or lich to force a party to do their bidding.
Changing a spell damage type tends to work for my group. I made some homebrew rules for all kinds of casters if they want to change the damage type of a spell.
When you learn the spell you want to use you choose if you want to go through this process or not. If you do then you must spend one week having that spell memorize but you are unable to use it. When you finish that week then you can finally unmemorize that spell and it is ready to change its type (you are still unable to use it btw).
So basically damage type is divided by tiers:
Lowest is poison
Then it's fire and cold
Then there's acid and lighting
Next it's necrotic, psychic and thunder
Finally it's force and radiance
So you have to calculate where the original damage type is and where the new one will be.
Going up it's 100 gold pieces per tier you go up. (this gold pieces represent magical materials that you spend, this materials can be found in almost any magic shop)
Going down or staying in the same level is free.
The next time you prepare that spell you can spend all the materials in order to change its damage type.
Also sidenote. I allow wizards to do this multiple times. They can choose if they want to go through this process every time they prepare their spells.
That's basically it. If you find any problems with this homebrew please let me know.
I've always enjoyed a spell from 2e DnD Dragon Magazine. It's called Spectral Farce. Basically, it makes one target look like a badly-crafted illusion (feet may not make a sound when hitting the floor, appendage could appear to bend in an impossible manner, etc). It has a save to negate, but the trick is that if they make the save, they disbelieve it until they're attacked (flat-footed or advantage).
I've had so much fun with this little nugget of a spell, it's beautiful. Cast it on a rogue who failed his stealth check, et al. So many beautiful uses.
I also saw other spells which I liked, and used to collect such things found online. Again, this is not my spell, but there was one evil spell where you cut the neck of a helpless victim, but he didn't die. From that point, people could clearly see the gruesome wound. He would have to obey your every whim and could not reveal who did it or the spell would immediately take effect and the target would die before revealing it. Such tasty evil inclinations....
Swordfall looks pretty interesting. I might have to snag a copy of it.
It's really awesome!!!
Between my different groups we have a bunch of homebrew spells that fill particular niches:
Varis's Sleeping Shot. Make a ranged weapon attack, on a hit the target makes a CON save to avoid falling asleep. Also first level. (Basically it's a single target sleep spell)
Varis's Likeness, select a humanoid type, for 4 hours you are transformed into a that-type version of you. For the purposes of spells and effects you are considered that type, and racial features adjust for your new type, but ability scores do not. Think I made it 2nd level since it's kind of a better version of disguise self but also can limit you.
I absolutely love the wizard brains idea
I have a homebrew spell for a bard I played. Dargs Ultimate Intoxication (or DUI). Instantaneous, 1 target, concentration, Vocal and Material components (drop of hard spirits).
You cast on one target, over the next couple turns, target has to make Cha saves, three success and the effect ends, three fails and it takes hold. Effects don't happen until three fails. On three failures though, the target becomes magically drunk. Target is at disadvantage to hit with a weapon, casting spells with a somatic component require a successful Dex check vs caster DC, vocal components are the same, but a cha check. Caster has to make concentration checks each round for spells that have concentration. Target has disadvantage on insight checks. Adv on strength saving throws but disadvange on Dex saving throws.
Dwarves are immune to the spell.
I have a Sorcerer in my campaign who has the blood of copper and bronze dragons. He didn't like the idea of having Fire Based spells, so we changed some of his spells to be acidic based. We made some minor changes from D10 based to D8 based with a single damage to be dealt each round to target from burning acid (Stacking) until the target makes a Constitution save or uses an action to wipe/clean the acid of their face. (Dex save to avoid initial burn.) He loves it, though it might be slightly weaker than the Fire Bolt it is based off of.