🔥 LAIRS & LEGENDS 2 - The Definitive 5e Resource Anthology | Embark on 30+ new 5e adventures. Battle over 100 new epic monsters. Overcome mind-bending challenges. Discover hidden treasures. lairs-and-legends-2.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders
Back in AD&D, when I got into the game, I learned of such things as "Tenser's Floating Disk", "Ottiluke's Resilient Sphere", and "Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion" which as it turns out, were "magic user" spells created by great mages that were Players (and sometimes NPCs) in Gygax's home game. Build from the rules and don't try to subvert or diminish the rules, when making homebrew. Nor should one be seeking power above all others, in such a fashion that it would outshine your fellow Players, perhaps leading to them not having fun.
My most successful homebrew item by part in my Pathfinder 2 campaign was a discount magic sword that just dealt 1 fire damage on top of its normal slashing
My favorite creation is the Mug of Maturity. Dwarven mug that puts you to the test. Roll 1d100, on a 100 you gain a permanent +1 to your Constitution to a max 20. On a 1, you gain a permanent -1. My players love it.
@@Krian_The_Demon You're still drinking booze, so yeah they get drunk. You can drink and drink as much as you like, but obviously it's still alcohol. It's mostly meant as a fun gag magic item, but there's still a chance of something happening. A new player joined the game and they gave it to him, and he got a 100 on his first drink. The table cheered and we still talk about it.
Your entire channel is useful. I've been DMing for 25 years (give a few breaks here and there), and I'm learning new things every video. Not only that, I'm discovering things I'm doing right organically ... but also some things I'm doing wrong. Learning, hell yeah!
Speaking of making monsters, the Convenient Creature Codex has modular stat blocks of each CR. It doesn't have deep customization (that's what the DMG is for), but its stat blocks are easily adjustable when you need a certain type of monster. It's on the DM's Guild.
I have a complete homebrewed city filled with characters that date all the way back to AD&D 2E and have been brought forward and adapted into both 5E and PF2RM. Also... rust monsters can swim.
Homebrew, I stick to sub-races. I start by checking what others have created and compare for balance. Many I find OP. Myself I wanted to bring the Goliath Warebear tribe as an option. I took notes on the monster and the NPC from icewind... I also looked at other shape changing races as well as the druid ability to get the feel for balance. Version 1 was just the transformation and basic buff to play level one. During play test input from the players as they advanced in levels pointed out possible improvements to the scaling of the race abilities. Version 2 added tweeks for levels 2-3, Version 3 address changes for 4-6. So every 3 levels we'd have a group forum to continue developing it.
I want to start by saying home brewing is a blast. What I find myself doing more than anything is taking rules I don't like or that don't make sense to me and creating an elegant solution for the problem. Say, like initiative, which is clunky, inelegant, and slows everything down to a crawl. Game Master Stuff--there are a few points to designing monsters. Just to list two---A) this is creating a common monster for your unique world. It gives flavor and richness that players will find no where else. B) Giving the players a challenge they did not expect--for instance a monster that does non-standard damage, draining things like primary stats, or that has defenses that aren't typical. And for player stuff--yes--compare to existing powers within the game system. This will help keep you from breaking your game. As a DM I'm pretty stingy when it comes to magic items because I want my players to work for their victories. Who needs to research how to fight undead when you have a +3 magic sword? Yes, they eventually do come, but there are almost none levels 1-4. And when they do find magic items--it feels like a huge reward for what they have just been through. As far as game balance goes--its possible to achieve game balance within similar types of classes--so a warriors to warriors comparison is very doable. But a Warriors to wizards? Not so much.
One thing I love doing is home brewing magic items tailored to a specific PC. For example, a PC used a heavy crossbow and I home brewed a magical heavy crossbow that could shoot a normal bolt every round or a ballista bolt every other round that used 3x the dice that the normal bolt used. The player outsmarted me, she “set” the ballista bolt between combats and used it the first round of every combat and used normal bolts the rest of the time.
Armors. Mostly people want plate, so some suits that are an ac point or two less but have a few extra resistances or can give a cantrip. Removing the disadvantage to stealth is also a favorite. Latest is a crafting system for spells
I love homebrewing monsters for my homebrew adventure set in a homebrew world with a sprinkling of homebrew magic items and two homebrew subclasses. I've managed to not break anything yet. :)
Hey Luke, could you do a comparison video between Lairs and Legends/ Loot and Lore and the new Dungeon Master’s Guide so I can get an idea if your books would be a full replacement or more of a supplement?
I ditch about 75% of my home brew ideas before even bringing them to the table because they add more complexity than benefit. Also, I think it's important for new DMs to know that even good designers/DMs can have an off session. Sometimes things don't work as expected or the players don't take to something. It's okay. Learn from it, take a breather if needed, and move on.
Within the last year, I have created a set of feats that fix an issue left when Wizards of the Coast tried to make Feats that give proficiency in skills. What I did for the Feats I created is that it would give Proficiency in the skill it was meant to, and it would then give the player an additional bonus that would mostly revolve around being able to use a different attribute in place of the main one when it comes to using the skill naturally. I also made a set of skill+ feats that require Proficiency in a skill as well as level 4 or higher as requirement. These Feats gave additional bonuses when using that skill. One of them was named cats Grace and it would allow a player to ignore fall damage up to a number of feet equal to their passive acrobatics rounded down to the nearest zero. These little changes are also added to help the 2014 backgroynd by giving the skill feats in the background, which gives the proficiencies from them. This small change made background selection not about what works best with their skill section, they did it for what felt best for the character and not what was thebmost powerful to have the most min-maxed character.
I really want to practise improvising more, but since I always DM in Roll20, I find I have to plan more in advance. But what I’m trying to do now, is have a stock list of monsters and encounters ready to go to spruce things up. I love the idea of the giant tearing off the roof and will see what else I can come up with in this vein. Thanks!
I listen to alot of RPG horror stories and podcasts and find that the most common issue is people not knowing the system and creating bad homebrew them blaming the system. Lol. There are a few exceptions with personality conflicts and bad social dynamics, but homebrew seems to be number 1 on that list. This video can't be understated.
I've been playing and running DnD and other role playing Games since '78. Some of my players favorite sessions were on the fly when they'd find the path I'd not thought may happen.This often meant I'd have to call for a break because of "writers block" to continue that days session. When planning, I would takes the notes from the session to outline encounters and possible outcomes with hooks to the next step in the adventure. (I was also writing chronicle of the adventure with the notes). One starting adventure the 1st level characters are ambushed and the trail lead to a town at the crossroad of three trade routes. The town is harassed by the bandit raids. They spent time at the in gathering legends of the area and rumors. Some true and false. This was to lead them to clear the bandit lair. Instead they investigated the ledgens first. By time they followed up on the bandits they were levels above what was planned. 😅
Basically Flubber: Sheets of any size "alchemical" rubber that can be applied to the bottom of shoes for a Jump Spell like effect, wrapped around a mace or club to ad an insane push ability but do half damage Applied to a shield to cause a number of effects including lose a ready action ( GURPS ), disarm ( with some kind of save ) and beef up a shield bash. *Has little or no effect on edged weapons. Be ready to make rulings for this one as the players will likely get creative. I haven't used it yet.
The dagger of drunken fun, this daggers (1d4+DEX) causes the "enemy" to become slightly more drunk if they fail a con save after being hit, for 1 hour being drunk gives the drunk individual +2 STR +2 CON but -2 DEX -2 INT Also yes this can happen multiple times My party was fighting a beholder In my game's buffs don't end early when a beholder looks at them We had the barbarian who activated rage then the wizard stabbed the barbarian 5 times so his STR went from 19 to 29 & con of 20 went to 30 and demolished the beholder in 5 rounds it was awesome that they used the daggers to buff... But with his extremely low Int (he had a 14INT originaly but with the effect currently had 4INT) causing him to lose control and for a few turns almost killing the whole party as he had the intelligence lower then most beasts And after the effect of the alcohol ended got addicted to alcohol The barbarian after seeing what he did looked at his injured party & looked disgusted with himself They haven't talked about what happened, or the dagger yet but i feel the dagger so far is a good item but still could use some tweaking
A Homebrew Hunter Ranger Spell List I'd play. Would you allow it at your table? Hunter Subclass Spell List Ranger Level 3 (Spell Level 1) Chromatic Orb Rationale: Fits well with the Hunter's theme of adaptability and targeting the weaknesses of various enemies. Ranger Level 5 (Spell Level 2) Scorching Ray Rationale: The Hunter’s ability to hit several enemies with precision matches the feel of multiple rays of fire striking enemies. Ranger Level 9 (Spell Level 3) Thunder Step Rationale: The ability to strike fast and then retreat with a burst of thunder is thematically aligned with the Hunter's hit-and-run tactics, allowing repositioning and mobility while still being highly offensive. Ranger Level 13 (Spell Level 4) Fount of Moonlight (from 2024 Druid Spell List) Rationale: The combination of added radiant damage and the ability to blind enemies after taking damage pairs with the Hunter’s attacks, adding an extra layer of battlefield control and damage output. Ranger Level 17 (Spell Level 5) Transmute Rock Rationale: This spell provides control over the battlefield, helping the Hunter funnel enemies into traps, create bottlenecks for optimal Horde Breaker use, or manipulate terrain for tactical advantage. This revised spell list emphasizes battlefield control and mobility, complementing the Hunter’s abilities by adding utility spells that help with repositioning, terrain manipulation, and extra damage. These spells allow the Hunter to be versatile and dangerous in a wide variety of combat scenarios.
Fireball orignally had a risk of the caster being in their own fireball. 3600 cubic feet. 36 10 ft squares in 10 ft tall passageways or rooms. (assumed in a normal dungeon) In a continuous hallway 10 ft tall and 10 ft wide a 5th level caster could not get far enough from their own fireball to not be in the AoE. The caster had to be very careful about where they cast that fireball... or they could TPK their own party. When they changed it to radius and not VOLUME of the radius, they added power by reducing risk.
For me in particular, as a player, I love homebrew monsters, feats, and magic items (basically DM stuff that we face/acquire/learn as we play in the game) just as much as the next person, but whenever it starts going into homebrew races, classes, and spells (basically anything that comes up in character creation and defines the fundamentals of how we play the game), it starts to become too much for me. I'm someone who loves to come up with strategies and battle tactics, for my own character, and with the group; and when there's so much homebrew stuff on the player side of things, I start to not be able to make plans and strategies just because I never fully know how everything works, and I just get mentally checked out after a while, because there's too much new stuff for me to handle all at once.
House/table rules, there's spells that mages need to use for survival. The prime one is mage armor. This hobbles the first level caster. They use 1 to 2 casting slots for 8 hour buffs. I've always felt that a spell that is longer than an hour with out concentration should have a ritual option so that's my rule. My other, since I run youth games to teach, I have them casting with just a focus to level 4. At five, I remove the safety net and introduce the need for components. This gets them more social opportunities since young kids (tweens) focus on encounters over the social.
long spells as a ritual is bonkers. Lots of really good no conc long duration spells, even worse for wizards cuz theyd get to prep all of them for free.
7:20 Yeah, even something as silly as a +1 dagger that can create two portals that last two rounds (like the gun from portal, but you can decide what goes through and what not when you create the portal) two times a day can become extremely broken. I've used that dagger so many times even though my character is a sorcerer, and it does a lot, extends reach for the party, redirects cone and line attacks either for offense or defense (if you prepare action to put the portal in front of a character to avoid them being hurt or to catch more monsters with an area) or even make falls hurt more with the infinite momentum idea for falling objects (or plunging attacks if your DM is ok with it). Portals are cool, but damn are they broken (in our campaign, that magic item is low power level compared to what we have encountered, so it doesn't trivialize combat, but for normal DnD, it would break a lot of encounters). So, that's another important thing, level up your homebrew to your adventure, if you have low power ceiling, the items must also be low power, but once you start bringing the big guns, you can also make big power items.
A heal cantrip that allows a character/target to be healed for 1 HP per long rest would not be imbalanced IMO. Make it touch and it is only slightly better than Spare the Dying, and in some situations arguably worse, as if you aren't packing Spare the Dying or a healing hit, that cantrip won't save the character if they get hit again. I've got an exceedingly animal friendly PC character (warlock with Beast Speech Eldritch Invocation) that is roleplayed as always having small animals hanging around, and often being being brought to injured animals. My GM gave me a cantrip similar to the above, limited to only being usable on small animals (it was a freebee).
Im just throwing it out there, the cantrip shown at the beginning that allows healing does seem to have a limit on it, the characters hit die. So you get to use your hit dice outside of a short rest to fuel the cantrip but you are limited to the amount you have. I could think of much worse things. Although, given the increases listed at the bottom, maybe thats not how its designed. In which case it would be unlimited and then, yeah, thats not good.
Do you have a video with suggestions for forgoing 'balance' for fun? I'm running a Fallout campaign set in Seattle, and have told them if you understand tactics and roll well, you should be fine. If you don't understand tactics but roll well, you just might be okay. If you don't get either of those or try to punch out of your weight class, you'll die. Never GMed before last Saturday, and I'll tell ya; it's exhausting. But can't go back. It's fun having an enthusiastic table. Like to keep it that way.
I run a homebrew system and create my own adventures, etc...been doing that for years. What Im wondering for my next adventure is that I want to write a first chapter that sets up the conditions and situations through a negative event, such as an enemy victory. I want my players to be a part of that instead of it happening "off-screen" to evoke a feeling of "oh crap what do we do now" but I dont want them to feel like the loss was their fault as if they made bad decisions, etc. I wont be putting them in a combat and forcing a loss of course, they will be one part of a larger scenario. Do any DMs have advice on a good way to set up an adventure like that without real railroading or making the players feel like their actions/decisions were meaningless?
Yes I can tell you that cantrip is a solid homebrew right there. An aspect of game design you have missed with mentioning it is that you shouldn't be judging gameplay modifications in a vacuum. Would that cantrip be a good addition for any game? Who cares? It has been made by someone for their specific game, and maybe in the environment of that game it's a perfectly fine addition.
I didn't think the Accelerated Healing Cantrip at the beginning of the video was a good example for something that is "bad homebrew" that could be abused or game-breaking. I actually think it's very well-balanced since it has a range of "Self" it can't be used on anyone but the caster, you have to expend one or more of your available hit dice (i.e. you can't use the spell if you have none available), and the minimum HP recovery is ZERO meaning if you have a negative Constitution modifier the spell is even less effective and you could be wasting your expended hit dice. I would allow it, the spell is actually similar to Dwarven Fortitude in Xanathar's Guide to Everything that allows you to expend hit dice to recover HP in combat and outside the use of a short or long rest.
I find homebrew should always be for the sake of increasing the fun at the table. An "OP" monster that causes the group to struggle and the players to be miserable is an issue. An OP monster that gives the group the challenge they want in a real life/death struggle that they talk about 3 weeks later is perfect. And in terms of player items, the issue is when it becomes lopsided. When the lucky barbarian is steamrolling every encounter and the rest of the party feels worthless/spectators, that's an issue. If they’ve all become mini demi-gods and you’re able to throw more and more powerful monsters at them, that’s perfect.
"Just get resurrected" Pretty soon the game will just give out goodberries that prevent dying. "Sorry DM, I ate a goodberry earlier today, first death I jump back to half hit points and action surge killing everyone"
I homebrewed the Phoenix Sword. Worst mistake I ever made. I got the idea from an animi cartoon. The Phoenix Sword did extra fire damage. However, if you dual wielded it with a flame tongue sword, you could cross the swords together in front of you, say a magic phrase, and it would unleash a torrent of fire that red dragon would be envious of. The player using it took down my BBG in one round. Needless to say, I ended that campaign, and that sword never made an appearance in any other game that I ran after that.
Homebrew settings are great, they allow for collaborative world building. But don’t change the game rules, my only homebrew rule is no multiclassing. Which is necessary because of all the TH-cam channels that tell you how to make game breaking character builds.
@@brianvanwyk9425 IMO, I say "bring it". Largely because "Encounter Balance" is a myth - why make any fight "fair"? The PCs should be able to trounce, but they should also be very trounce-able. The DM should be making the PCs have to work at it, a fair portion of the time, as their struggle in/for/against what is in the setting is the meat of the story. Depleting their resources over the course of the "adventuring day" and all that. Those uber powerful builds become more "normal" when those dailies are expended. It should never be hard for a DM to run/play the game. Set the stage and adjudicate - follow the logical progression. You definitely seem to have it down, with collaborative worldbuilding, just don't let it be a case of minimal resistance to the PCs efforts.
@@orokusaki1243 it’s more about the other players. If one person makes an optimized build everyone has to. If you can’t have fun without doing that then you are not a good fit for my game.
@@brianvanwyk9425 Fair, and I am also not all that favorable to min/maxers and powergamers. Though, not all game systems support optimized builds (where they are far above average and easily outshine the rest - mechanically), and those are the ones I gravitate towards. I''ve been in groups with such players, and they're rather boring with their over-focus on "beating the game" (AKA any challenge in their way), at the expense of all-around roleplaying skills. Gets annoying having to double-check their Character's abilities, which are usually mis-interpreted and even more overpowered.
Thing is most homebrew are fit for their table. My homebrew are either cursed or items that develop abilities while the character levels up. Really unusuable to everyone else and not making so much sence since they are knit to their respective character
While "The rule of cool" might be the best to follow when running an actual play podcast, for a normal home game, "The rule of fun" should be followed above all.
I never liked "the rule of cool", simply because the whole of the game should be cool, baked into the rules, and through the participation of the Players. Here's the parameters....now do cool stuff within them. Bending/nullifying rules and making "cool stuff" happen as a result is really cheap, dirty, and unnecessary.
Simple solultion, next combat it's sentiance awakens and starts to fight against him, declaring him 'not worthy' until he proves himself as a fighter worthy of it. At that point it forcefully unattunes and won't let him reattune until after he's proven himself.
Homebrew is all about... Players wanting more power and DMs wanting challenges the players can't look up in the books to metagame the encounter. With no metagaming, the DMs wouldn't need to make new monsters. And without the DMS making new monsters, the players wouldn't need more power for their PC.
Most of the creatures in the 5E 2014 Monster Manual do not follow the CR rules in the 5E 2014 DMG. The game designers didn't follow their own rules... Either in assigning CR or in creating the creatures. Pick one.
The Pareto rule of game design: 80% is crap. Applies to homebrew on 2nd stage as well. Avoid it unless you absolutely can't help it. It mostly tries to appease your own ego and hardly fall in love with players.
99% of all homebrew is absolute crap. Sure you'll say your players love it but who doesn't love the grandmother how spoils you with treats and toys and attention. That's most people's broken homebrew. I've played in and run mostly RAW and RAI. And have described sessions that seem like more fun than people online stories because we aren't playing God's. We're playing normal heroes that earn their right to be called heroes. Have I homebrewed before, yes. Its always been super balanced and if players want the extra crunch we use them and if not then we don't.
I have never planned a whole session in my life. You just can't. I don't understand people who do. It's all vague ideas until the party makes a decision to do something. You can't plan for everything so there is no reason to try. Just go with the flow and the fun.
I had a player once deconstruct my map saying map A did not match map b. I never had to say a word. The other 4 players told him to GTFO!!!! Never saw him again.
Wait, a cantrip that heals ISNT good homebrew? Why? Cause you dont like it...make healing a little easier...in a game where you want to have more danger in combat but also allow for some very small healing for emergencies, I dont think its a big deal. I gave a Cantrip that does 1 heal at the cost of the caster spending one HP.
That is a weird situation. Outside battle, players can abuse a healing cantrip so they don't have to worry about rests and potions. I think it is reasonable to have a healing cantrip with limitations. This cantrip can be used infinity in battle. In between battles, it can only be used once or twice. When a new battle starts and ends, the healing cantrip can be used again afterwards.
@@c.d.dailey8013 Fuckin' read the cantrip before being a smart ass. The one that's shown in the video uses hit dice to heal. The extent to which you can "abuse it" is limited by your hit dice, and isn't that much greater than what a party can do with Short Rests. If someone wants to run a more fast paced game, that cantrip is a reasonable homebrew.
🔥 LAIRS & LEGENDS 2 - The Definitive 5e Resource Anthology | Embark on 30+ new 5e adventures. Battle over 100 new epic monsters. Overcome mind-bending challenges. Discover hidden treasures. lairs-and-legends-2.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders
Back in AD&D, when I got into the game, I learned of such things as "Tenser's Floating Disk", "Ottiluke's Resilient Sphere", and "Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion" which as it turns out, were "magic user" spells created by great mages that were Players (and sometimes NPCs) in Gygax's home game. Build from the rules and don't try to subvert or diminish the rules, when making homebrew. Nor should one be seeking power above all others, in such a fashion that it would outshine your fellow Players, perhaps leading to them not having fun.
My most successful homebrew item by part in my Pathfinder 2 campaign was a discount magic sword that just dealt 1 fire damage on top of its normal slashing
My favorite creation is the Mug of Maturity. Dwarven mug that puts you to the test. Roll 1d100, on a 100 you gain a permanent +1 to your Constitution to a max 20. On a 1, you gain a permanent -1. My players love it.
@@Zinj1000 so nothing happens 98% of the time? Do they roll several times?
@@EL-os1bx they just get drunk I guess hahah
@@Krian_The_Demon You're still drinking booze, so yeah they get drunk. You can drink and drink as much as you like, but obviously it's still alcohol. It's mostly meant as a fun gag magic item, but there's still a chance of something happening. A new player joined the game and they gave it to him, and he got a 100 on his first drink. The table cheered and we still talk about it.
Luke: "What does the giant want?"
Me: Yolanda obviously
Your entire channel is useful. I've been DMing for 25 years (give a few breaks here and there), and I'm learning new things every video. Not only that, I'm discovering things I'm doing right organically ... but also some things I'm doing wrong. Learning, hell yeah!
Awesome, so happy I can help!!! :D
Hey, it was great to meet you at Gameholecon! Thanks for stopping to chat. :)
Speaking of making monsters, the Convenient Creature Codex has modular stat blocks of each CR. It doesn't have deep customization (that's what the DMG is for), but its stat blocks are easily adjustable when you need a certain type of monster. It's on the DM's Guild.
I have a complete homebrewed city filled with characters that date all the way back to AD&D 2E and have been brought forward and adapted into both 5E and PF2RM.
Also... rust monsters can swim.
Not the information I thought I was gonna get, but even better. Also, appreciate the timestamps king
Homebrew, I stick to sub-races. I start by checking what others have created and compare for balance. Many I find OP. Myself I wanted to bring the Goliath Warebear tribe as an option. I took notes on the monster and the NPC from icewind... I also looked at other shape changing races as well as the druid ability to get the feel for balance. Version 1 was just the transformation and basic buff to play level one. During play test input from the players as they advanced in levels pointed out possible improvements to the scaling of the race abilities. Version 2 added tweeks for levels 2-3, Version 3 address changes for 4-6. So every 3 levels we'd have a group forum to continue developing it.
I want to start by saying home brewing is a blast. What I find myself doing more than anything is taking rules I don't like or that don't make sense to me and creating an elegant solution for the problem. Say, like initiative, which is clunky, inelegant, and slows everything down to a crawl.
Game Master Stuff--there are a few points to designing monsters. Just to list two---A) this is creating a common monster for your unique world. It gives flavor and richness that players will find no where else. B) Giving the players a challenge they did not expect--for instance a monster that does non-standard damage, draining things like primary stats, or that has defenses that aren't typical.
And for player stuff--yes--compare to existing powers within the game system. This will help keep you from breaking your game. As a DM I'm pretty stingy when it comes to magic items because I want my players to work for their victories. Who needs to research how to fight undead when you have a +3 magic sword? Yes, they eventually do come, but there are almost none levels 1-4. And when they do find magic items--it feels like a huge reward for what they have just been through.
As far as game balance goes--its possible to achieve game balance within similar types of classes--so a warriors to warriors comparison is very doable. But a Warriors to wizards? Not so much.
You are my favorite content creator. Thanks to you and your team.
You are a great human being, I have learned so much from your channel. Keep up the great work.
One thing I love doing is home brewing magic items tailored to a specific PC. For example, a PC used a heavy crossbow and I home brewed a magical heavy crossbow that could shoot a normal bolt every round or a ballista bolt every other round that used 3x the dice that the normal bolt used. The player outsmarted me, she “set” the ballista bolt between combats and used it the first round of every combat and used normal bolts the rest of the time.
Armors. Mostly people want plate, so some suits that are an ac point or two less but have a few extra resistances or can give a cantrip. Removing the disadvantage to stealth is also a favorite.
Latest is a crafting system for spells
I love homebrewing monsters for my homebrew adventure set in a homebrew world with a sprinkling of homebrew magic items and two homebrew subclasses. I've managed to not break anything yet. :)
Hey Luke, could you do a comparison video between Lairs and Legends/ Loot and Lore and the new Dungeon Master’s Guide so I can get an idea if your books would be a full replacement or more of a supplement?
I ditch about 75% of my home brew ideas before even bringing them to the table because they add more complexity than benefit.
Also, I think it's important for new DMs to know that even good designers/DMs can have an off session. Sometimes things don't work as expected or the players don't take to something. It's okay. Learn from it, take a breather if needed, and move on.
Within the last year, I have created a set of feats that fix an issue left when Wizards of the Coast tried to make Feats that give proficiency in skills. What I did for the Feats I created is that it would give Proficiency in the skill it was meant to, and it would then give the player an additional bonus that would mostly revolve around being able to use a different attribute in place of the main one when it comes to using the skill naturally. I also made a set of skill+ feats that require Proficiency in a skill as well as level 4 or higher as requirement. These Feats gave additional bonuses when using that skill. One of them was named cats Grace and it would allow a player to ignore fall damage up to a number of feet equal to their passive acrobatics rounded down to the nearest zero. These little changes are also added to help the 2014 backgroynd by giving the skill feats in the background, which gives the proficiencies from them. This small change made background selection not about what works best with their skill section, they did it for what felt best for the character and not what was thebmost powerful to have the most min-maxed character.
Agreed! Fun is the whole point. But it can't come at the expense of other people's fun. The DM's fun is pretty important.
I made a mindflayer and a beholder for the same encounter in a Starfinder rules game for a Pathfinder AP. my party loved the encounter.
I really want to practise improvising more, but since I always DM in Roll20, I find I have to plan more in advance.
But what I’m trying to do now, is have a stock list of monsters and encounters ready to go to spruce things up.
I love the idea of the giant tearing off the roof and will see what else I can come up with in this vein.
Thanks!
I listen to alot of RPG horror stories and podcasts and find that the most common issue is people not knowing the system and creating bad homebrew them blaming the system. Lol. There are a few exceptions with personality conflicts and bad social dynamics, but homebrew seems to be number 1 on that list. This video can't be understated.
I've been playing and running DnD and other role playing Games since '78. Some of my players favorite sessions were on the fly when they'd find the path I'd not thought may happen.This often meant I'd have to call for a break because of "writers block" to continue that days session. When planning, I would takes the notes from the session to outline encounters and possible outcomes with hooks to the next step in the adventure. (I was also writing chronicle of the adventure with the notes). One starting adventure the 1st level characters are ambushed and the trail lead to a town at the crossroad of three trade routes. The town is harassed by the bandit raids. They spent time at the in gathering legends of the area and rumors. Some true and false. This was to lead them to clear the bandit lair. Instead they investigated the ledgens first. By time they followed up on the bandits they were levels above what was planned. 😅
Basically Flubber: Sheets of any size "alchemical" rubber that can be applied to the bottom of shoes for a Jump Spell like effect, wrapped around a mace or club to ad an insane push ability but do half damage Applied to a shield to cause a number of effects including lose a ready action ( GURPS ), disarm ( with some kind of save ) and beef up a shield bash. *Has little or no effect on edged weapons. Be ready to make rulings for this one as the players will likely get creative. I haven't used it yet.
The dagger of drunken fun, this daggers (1d4+DEX) causes the "enemy" to become slightly more drunk if they fail a con save after being hit, for 1 hour being drunk gives the drunk individual +2 STR +2 CON but -2 DEX -2 INT
Also yes this can happen multiple times
My party was fighting a beholder
In my game's buffs don't end early when a beholder looks at them
We had the barbarian who activated rage then the wizard stabbed the barbarian 5 times so his STR went from 19 to 29 & con of 20 went to 30 and demolished the beholder in 5 rounds it was awesome that they used the daggers to buff...
But with his extremely low Int (he had a 14INT originaly but with the effect currently had 4INT) causing him to lose control and for a few turns almost killing the whole party as he had the intelligence lower then most beasts And after the effect of the alcohol ended got addicted to alcohol
The barbarian after seeing what he did looked at his injured party & looked disgusted with himself
They haven't talked about what happened, or the dagger yet but i feel the dagger so far is a good item but still could use some tweaking
A Homebrew Hunter Ranger Spell List I'd play. Would you allow it at your table?
Hunter Subclass Spell List
Ranger Level 3 (Spell Level 1) Chromatic Orb
Rationale: Fits well with the Hunter's theme of adaptability and targeting the weaknesses of various enemies.
Ranger Level 5 (Spell Level 2) Scorching Ray
Rationale: The Hunter’s ability to hit several enemies with precision matches the feel of multiple rays of fire striking enemies.
Ranger Level 9 (Spell Level 3) Thunder Step
Rationale: The ability to strike fast and then retreat with a burst of thunder is thematically aligned with the Hunter's hit-and-run tactics, allowing repositioning and mobility while still being highly offensive.
Ranger Level 13 (Spell Level 4) Fount of Moonlight (from 2024 Druid Spell List)
Rationale: The combination of added radiant damage and the ability to blind enemies after taking damage pairs with the Hunter’s attacks, adding an extra layer of battlefield control and damage output.
Ranger Level 17 (Spell Level 5) Transmute Rock
Rationale: This spell provides control over the battlefield, helping the Hunter funnel enemies into traps, create bottlenecks for optimal Horde Breaker use, or manipulate terrain for tactical advantage.
This revised spell list emphasizes battlefield control and mobility, complementing the Hunter’s abilities by adding utility spells that help with repositioning, terrain manipulation, and extra damage. These spells allow the Hunter to be versatile and dangerous in a wide variety of combat scenarios.
Fireball orignally had a risk of the caster being in their own fireball. 3600 cubic feet. 36 10 ft squares in 10 ft tall passageways or rooms. (assumed in a normal dungeon)
In a continuous hallway 10 ft tall and 10 ft wide a 5th level caster could not get far enough from their own fireball to not be in the AoE.
The caster had to be very careful about where they cast that fireball... or they could TPK their own party.
When they changed it to radius and not VOLUME of the radius, they added power by reducing risk.
Oh yeah, fireballs that "SQUEEZED"!
We play Rolemaster, and our table ruling is that fire squeezes while cold and lightning do not.
@@fhuber7507 10 feet square 10 feet tall is 1000 cubic feet, so there would be 3,6 of those squares, sure you don't forget something?
the "balance element" of fireballi steh fact f colateral damage to your party members...i think
Great video!
Thx for the advices!
Fireball is purposely unbalanced
For me in particular, as a player, I love homebrew monsters, feats, and magic items (basically DM stuff that we face/acquire/learn as we play in the game) just as much as the next person, but whenever it starts going into homebrew races, classes, and spells (basically anything that comes up in character creation and defines the fundamentals of how we play the game), it starts to become too much for me. I'm someone who loves to come up with strategies and battle tactics, for my own character, and with the group; and when there's so much homebrew stuff on the player side of things, I start to not be able to make plans and strategies just because I never fully know how everything works, and I just get mentally checked out after a while, because there's too much new stuff for me to handle all at once.
House/table rules, there's spells that mages need to use for survival. The prime one is mage armor. This hobbles the first level caster. They use 1 to 2 casting slots for 8 hour buffs. I've always felt that a spell that is longer than an hour with out concentration should have a ritual option so that's my rule. My other, since I run youth games to teach, I have them casting with just a focus to level 4. At five, I remove the safety net and introduce the need for components. This gets them more social opportunities since young kids (tweens) focus on encounters over the social.
long spells as a ritual is bonkers. Lots of really good no conc long duration spells, even worse for wizards cuz theyd get to prep all of them for free.
7:20 Yeah, even something as silly as a +1 dagger that can create two portals that last two rounds (like the gun from portal, but you can decide what goes through and what not when you create the portal) two times a day can become extremely broken. I've used that dagger so many times even though my character is a sorcerer, and it does a lot, extends reach for the party, redirects cone and line attacks either for offense or defense (if you prepare action to put the portal in front of a character to avoid them being hurt or to catch more monsters with an area) or even make falls hurt more with the infinite momentum idea for falling objects (or plunging attacks if your DM is ok with it). Portals are cool, but damn are they broken (in our campaign, that magic item is low power level compared to what we have encountered, so it doesn't trivialize combat, but for normal DnD, it would break a lot of encounters). So, that's another important thing, level up your homebrew to your adventure, if you have low power ceiling, the items must also be low power, but once you start bringing the big guns, you can also make big power items.
A heal cantrip that allows a character/target to be healed for 1 HP per long rest would not be imbalanced IMO. Make it touch and it is only slightly better than Spare the Dying, and in some situations arguably worse, as if you aren't packing Spare the Dying or a healing hit, that cantrip won't save the character if they get hit again.
I've got an exceedingly animal friendly PC character (warlock with Beast Speech Eldritch Invocation) that is roleplayed as always having small animals hanging around, and often being being brought to injured animals. My GM gave me a cantrip similar to the above, limited to only being usable on small animals (it was a freebee).
Im just throwing it out there, the cantrip shown at the beginning that allows healing does seem to have a limit on it, the characters hit die. So you get to use your hit dice outside of a short rest to fuel the cantrip but you are limited to the amount you have. I could think of much worse things. Although, given the increases listed at the bottom, maybe thats not how its designed. In which case it would be unlimited and then, yeah, thats not good.
Don’t use your homebrew creation, buy my homebrew creations….
Anything made is brewed in a "home" of sorts.
It just a "well i like this trash more then that trash! Hmpf!"
He does have to eat LOL
Do you have a video with suggestions for forgoing 'balance' for fun? I'm running a Fallout campaign set in Seattle, and have told them if you understand tactics and roll well, you should be fine. If you don't understand tactics but roll well, you just might be okay. If you don't get either of those or try to punch out of your weight class, you'll die.
Never GMed before last Saturday, and I'll tell ya; it's exhausting. But can't go back. It's fun having an enthusiastic table. Like to keep it that way.
Lies lies lies. My magic missile machine gun is great. So what if you can shoot all 50 charges from the wand.
Thats lame. My Wand of Machine Fireballs wand shoots 50 fireballs per turn to multiple targets and it only needs bonus action to activate
Any1 else felt disappointed when they didn't get a perfect example at 8:56 ?
I run a homebrew system and create my own adventures, etc...been doing that for years. What Im wondering for my next adventure is that I want to write a first chapter that sets up the conditions and situations through a negative event, such as an enemy victory. I want my players to be a part of that instead of it happening "off-screen" to evoke a feeling of "oh crap what do we do now" but I dont want them to feel like the loss was their fault as if they made bad decisions, etc. I wont be putting them in a combat and forcing a loss of course, they will be one part of a larger scenario. Do any DMs have advice on a good way to set up an adventure like that without real railroading or making the players feel like their actions/decisions were meaningless?
Great Video, Thank you!!
Yes I can tell you that cantrip is a solid homebrew right there. An aspect of game design you have missed with mentioning it is that you shouldn't be judging gameplay modifications in a vacuum. Would that cantrip be a good addition for any game? Who cares? It has been made by someone for their specific game, and maybe in the environment of that game it's a perfectly fine addition.
I didn't think the Accelerated Healing Cantrip at the beginning of the video was a good example for something that is "bad homebrew" that could be abused or game-breaking. I actually think it's very well-balanced since it has a range of "Self" it can't be used on anyone but the caster, you have to expend one or more of your available hit dice (i.e. you can't use the spell if you have none available), and the minimum HP recovery is ZERO meaning if you have a negative Constitution modifier the spell is even less effective and you could be wasting your expended hit dice. I would allow it, the spell is actually similar to Dwarven Fortitude in Xanathar's Guide to Everything that allows you to expend hit dice to recover HP in combat and outside the use of a short or long rest.
I find homebrew should always be for the sake of increasing the fun at the table. An "OP" monster that causes the group to struggle and the players to be miserable is an issue. An OP monster that gives the group the challenge they want in a real life/death struggle that they talk about 3 weeks later is perfect.
And in terms of player items, the issue is when it becomes lopsided. When the lucky barbarian is steamrolling every encounter and the rest of the party feels worthless/spectators, that's an issue. If they’ve all become mini demi-gods and you’re able to throw more and more powerful monsters at them, that’s perfect.
Only two players? Mooooooreeeee braaaaaaiiiinsssss!
"Just get resurrected" Pretty soon the game will just give out goodberries that prevent dying. "Sorry DM, I ate a goodberry earlier today, first death I jump back to half hit points and action surge killing everyone"
I homebrewed the Phoenix Sword. Worst mistake I ever made. I got the idea from an animi cartoon. The Phoenix Sword did extra fire damage. However, if you dual wielded it with a flame tongue sword, you could cross the swords together in front of you, say a magic phrase, and it would unleash a torrent of fire that red dragon would be envious of. The player using it took down my BBG in one round. Needless to say, I ended that campaign, and that sword never made an appearance in any other game that I ran after that.
My Staff of Goop that does nothing but stun the enemy if under challenge level 1/2 is incredible and it 100% not absolutely scuffed and useless...😅
Please no AI slop. 😢
Homebrew settings are great, they allow for collaborative world building. But don’t change the game rules, my only homebrew rule is no multiclassing. Which is necessary because of all the TH-cam channels that tell you how to make game breaking character builds.
Isn't multi-classing optional? Like feats and some other stuff? So really, disallowing multi-classing is simply not allowing that optional thing.
@@orokusaki1243 yeah and it makes the game much easier on the DM.
@@brianvanwyk9425 IMO, I say "bring it". Largely because "Encounter Balance" is a myth - why make any fight "fair"? The PCs should be able to trounce, but they should also be very trounce-able.
The DM should be making the PCs have to work at it, a fair portion of the time, as their struggle in/for/against what is in the setting is the meat of the story.
Depleting their resources over the course of the "adventuring day" and all that. Those uber powerful builds become more "normal" when those dailies are expended.
It should never be hard for a DM to run/play the game. Set the stage and adjudicate - follow the logical progression.
You definitely seem to have it down, with collaborative worldbuilding, just don't let it be a case of minimal resistance to the PCs efforts.
@@orokusaki1243 it’s more about the other players. If one person makes an optimized build everyone has to. If you can’t have fun without doing that then you are not a good fit for my game.
@@brianvanwyk9425 Fair, and I am also not all that favorable to min/maxers and powergamers. Though, not all game systems support optimized builds (where they are far above average and easily outshine the rest - mechanically), and those are the ones I gravitate towards.
I''ve been in groups with such players, and they're rather boring with their over-focus on "beating the game" (AKA any challenge in their way), at the expense of all-around roleplaying skills. Gets annoying having to double-check their Character's abilities, which are usually mis-interpreted and even more overpowered.
I homebrew to break my game. When the balance is broken I can throw gods at level 15s and see what happens.
Thing is most homebrew are fit for their table. My homebrew are either cursed or items that develop abilities while the character levels up. Really unusuable to everyone else and not making so much sence since they are knit to their respective character
While "The rule of cool" might be the best to follow when running an actual play podcast, for a normal home game, "The rule of fun" should be followed above all.
I never liked "the rule of cool", simply because the whole of the game should be cool, baked into the rules, and through the participation of the Players. Here's the parameters....now do cool stuff within them.
Bending/nullifying rules and making "cool stuff" happen as a result is really cheap, dirty, and unnecessary.
You ain’t wrong.
Meanwhile WotC and almost anything else can be worst. 😂
"With official rules like that, the bad brew of home write themselves."
Im not saying that I gave my party's barbarian an overpowered weapon, just that he received it at least 5 levels earlier than he should...
Simple solultion, next combat it's sentiance awakens and starts to fight against him, declaring him 'not worthy' until he proves himself as a fighter worthy of it. At that point it forcefully unattunes and won't let him reattune until after he's proven himself.
I love ALL the DM Lair videos!!!! ❤
Homebrew is all about... Players wanting more power and DMs wanting challenges the players can't look up in the books to metagame the encounter.
With no metagaming, the DMs wouldn't need to make new monsters. And without the DMS making new monsters, the players wouldn't need more power for their PC.
Most of the creatures in the 5E 2014 Monster Manual do not follow the CR rules in the 5E 2014 DMG.
The game designers didn't follow their own rules... Either in assigning CR or in creating the creatures. Pick one.
The Pareto rule of game design: 80% is crap. Applies to homebrew on 2nd stage as well.
Avoid it unless you absolutely can't help it. It mostly tries to appease your own ego and hardly fall in love with players.
No everything I write is good and I only use AI to help me come up with names
Well ofc there's a lot of bad homebrew. Players HAVE to somehow become gamedesighners because their system is made as poorly as possible
bro... your hair... is killing me right now
also yes a lot of weak homebrew that is made primarly to make one player op.
Hombrew! much better than homebrew....
99% of all homebrew is absolute crap. Sure you'll say your players love it but who doesn't love the grandmother how spoils you with treats and toys and attention. That's most people's broken homebrew. I've played in and run mostly RAW and RAI. And have described sessions that seem like more fun than people online stories because we aren't playing God's. We're playing normal heroes that earn their right to be called heroes. Have I homebrewed before, yes. Its always been super balanced and if players want the extra crunch we use them and if not then we don't.
Oh dear. AI.
First thing I noticed too.
@@BeardyGuitarCovers yep, absolute red line for me unfortunately. Shame.
What are you talking about ?
@@deathzexion the thumbnail is AI generated “art”
The kicker is that he could've easily just gotten a pic of a trash can
I have never planned a whole session in my life. You just can't. I don't understand people who do. It's all vague ideas until the party makes a decision to do something. You can't plan for everything so there is no reason to try. Just go with the flow and the fun.
I had a player once deconstruct my map saying map A did not match map b. I never had to say a word. The other 4 players told him to GTFO!!!! Never saw him again.
Happy you killed your players. Live and learn. 🤣
Google dice que Yolanda es la Vicepresidente de España
Healing Spirit is so bad that it's hard to criticize someone for home brewing a healing cantrip.
Homebrew sucks
Coming from The Guy that uses weight and travel Rules
Why do you always pronounce "lairs" as "layers"?
Wait, a cantrip that heals ISNT good homebrew? Why? Cause you dont like it...make healing a little easier...in a game where you want to have more danger in combat but also allow for some very small healing for emergencies, I dont think its a big deal. I gave a Cantrip that does 1 heal at the cost of the caster spending one HP.
That is a weird situation. Outside battle, players can abuse a healing cantrip so they don't have to worry about rests and potions. I think it is reasonable to have a healing cantrip with limitations. This cantrip can be used infinity in battle. In between battles, it can only be used once or twice. When a new battle starts and ends, the healing cantrip can be used again afterwards.
@@c.d.dailey8013 Fuckin' read the cantrip before being a smart ass. The one that's shown in the video uses hit dice to heal. The extent to which you can "abuse it" is limited by your hit dice, and isn't that much greater than what a party can do with Short Rests. If someone wants to run a more fast paced game, that cantrip is a reasonable homebrew.