homebrew

[torn fjord]

i think it might already have plenty of debuff spells, just not as many as a wizard, bard, or cleric

[native grove]

i think it has 4

which if you ask me is a small amount

[hallow tinsel]

they also get Elemental Bane

though that's incredibly niche

[torn fjord]

the problem seems to be that you want those debuff spells to be much stronger than they are, simply because artificer is at a higher level than other casters when they unlock some of those spells

and that's not how that works

not when artificer is also a fairly competent martial class

[native grove]

alright can you give me a suggestion for a general debuff spell that could be an artificer spell? Im looking for spell concepts that fit the artificers style

[torn fjord]

okay, so you want a second level spell, unique to artificer, that can work on any creature type with or without armor/weapons, and puts a significant penalty on the target

[native grove]

it doesnt have to be 2nd level. Also please dont put words in my mouth

What i want is an artificer spell that causes a debuff that is generally applicable. That is it.

[torn fjord]

i'm not trying to put words in your mouth, I'm just going off of what you've said - you're not satisfied with the existing debuff spells, considering several of them to be not strong enough or too niche, and both of the homebrew examples you've presented have been second level

[native grove]

okay let me try to clear the record, i dont think web or faerie fire are bad spells, infact web has helped me a lot in the past. I just want more options.

im sorry if i acted like a jerk, i just want a debuff artificer spell that is generally useful

[cerulean seal]

We need debuffs?

Give em the good ol’ Hypnotic Pattern and call it a day.

[torn fjord]

sadly artificers can't cast that, I don't think

[native grove]

that wouldnt help, also i dont know if hypnotic pattern fits artificers

[cerulean seal]

I mean, if it’s on the subclass spell list

[cerulean seal]

If it fits your subclass flavor

Wait is this for a subclass

[native grove]

no

[cerulean seal]

I just realized I assumed what I knew what the conversation was about without actually checking

[native grove]

i want a debuff spell for artificers THE CLASS, not a subclass

[cerulean seal]

I am a fool

Yeah artificer spell lists can be a little lacking sometimes compared to other ones

[native grove]

This was my main attempt at making an artificer debuff spell, problem is it only applies if the target uses weapons or armor which isnt always the case

[torn fjord]

quick and barely thought out suggestion, almost certainly needs work

Chainshot

[I don't know what school], ??? level spell

Casting time: One Action

Range: 30ft.

Components: S, M (A length of chain)

Duration: 1 minute

You launch a weighted chain at a creature in range, which must make a dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, the target takes 1d8 bludgeoning damage and falls prone as the chain binds its legs, reducing its movement speed to zero for the duration. The target or any of its allies may use an action make a Strength or Dexterity check against your spell save DC, freeing the target on a success.

knocks a guy prone and makes it impossible for him to stand up for a while

very good debuff in a martial party

[native grove]

problem is i dont know if i can add this spell to my document because i had no part in making it

[torn fjord]

I am going to put no further effort into the spell I just wrote out and give you full permission to do whatever you want with it

i'm likely going to forget this entire conversation before the end of the day

so I'm certainly not going to use it myself

[keen halo]

Me when I want to eat the cake and leave it whole

Sorry but it seems every option that is presented to you you shoot down

If you have a debuff that's not niche. It's most likely super strong

If you have a niche debuff it's either weak or super situational

You can't win them all

What debuff type do you want?
AC reduction? Saving throw reduction?

Start with what the debuff does and then build up on it

Otherwise you're just walking in circles

[native grove]

Actually I do have an idea that might work:lead poisoning

[keen halo]

Kekw?

[native grove]

What?

[torn fjord]

does it just apply the Poisoned condition on a failed save?

or does it do more than that?

[keen halo]

what is it?

Like, you just gave a name lmao

[torn fjord]

even if it is just the Poisoned condition, that actually is a pretty good debuff already

[keen halo]

Again - what do you want your debuff to do?

[torn fjord]

disadvantage on all attacks

[keen halo]

Yeah poisoned is nice

Heck literally just poison dart lol

"you shoot a dart made of heavy metals that inflicts the poisonous condition upon a failed dex save"

Done deal

Deals 1d4 damage, die goes up every spell level to 1d6 1d8 etc

[native grove]

My idea for it is that it would poison the enemy but while poisoned they have a 1D4 penalty on all ability checks an saving throws that use wisdom or intelligence for the duration

[keen halo]

?? Why are you crafting a different poisoned debuff

[torn fjord]

nah, that's way too little for upcasting

[keen halo]

Was just a thought

Might as well be 1d4 to 1d8 to 2d6

Are you trying to home brew A SPELL or A DEBUFF?

They're not the same

Or BOTH?

[native grove]

Okay I should clarify.

It has you fire an attack that on hit deals small amounts of piercing damage and inflicts the poisoned debuff. While poisoned this way the target has a D4 penalty on all ability checks and saving throws that use intelligence or wisdom. They can repeat save at the end of each of their turns, ending the effect on a success.

[torn fjord]

this is actually less of a debuff than the official Poisoned condition, unless you're adding this on top

Poisoned

A poisoned creature has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.

[native grove]

It applies the poisoned condition PLUS the D4 penalty

[torn fjord]

that might be too much for one spell, tbh

also annoying af for a DM to track, speaking as a DM myself

[cerulean seal]

Is there a spell that makes it so people can’t concentrate on spells period?

[torn fjord]

but a 1st level spell that does nothing more than apply the poisoned condition to targets that fail the save is definitely doable

[torn fjord]

not that I know of, but there are numerous spells explicitly designed to break concentration

[native grove]

I personally don’t think it’s that much, that and very few artificer spells require an intelligence or wisdom saving throw, so it is entirely for supporting other characters

[cerulean seal]

I was just thinking like a small emanation that makes anyone in it unable to focus on effects or spells or something

Mosquitos flying around breaking your concentration or something

[torn fjord]

look at Sleet Storm, or whatever the spell is called

breaks concentration instantly on a failed save against the spell, no concentration check allowed (so it bypasses bonuses to concentration)

[cerulean seal]

But what if I don’t want a check. What if it forces an auto fail

[torn fjord]

I'm quite certain nothing, anywhere in the game, forces an automatic loss of concentration with no save, except for being unconscious/incapacitated

because that would be very, very broken

[native grove]

Lead dart

Conjuration 2nd level

Casting time:one action

Range:60 feet

Components:V, S

Duration:1 minute

You create a dart of heavy metals and launch it at an opponent. On hit they take 2D4 piercing damage and become poisoned for one minute. The target suffers a D4 penalty on all saving throws using intelligence or wisdom for the duration. The target can make a constitution saving throw at the end of each of their turns, ending the effect on a success.

Spell lists:artificer

how does this sound?

[torn fjord]

I personally like that one and don't see much wrong with it, deals a small amount of damage and applies a condition for the duration, but can be ended early

[cerulean seal]

Maybe give it a funny material component that you need a rusty metal pipe or something

[native grove]

I think it’s also balanced and gives artificer a method of debuffing enemies consistently

[torn fjord]

I'd maybe reword it a bit though, to say "While poisoned by this effect, the target suffers a 1d4 penalty..."

[native grove]

Fair

Thank you for your help and sorry if I was a jerk

[torn fjord]

np

[fiery moon]

Opinions on my homebrew boss fight?

https://imgur.com/a/aTC8gwn

The lore section is wonky and I have to redo that, im talking just mechanically

[frank leaf]

"While they are Poisoned this way" is generally how it's worded in official stuff.

[native grove]

Thank you I did go with something similar for the final design

[frank leaf]

I have a HB spell that's almost there, since it forces them to Concentrate like on a spell on breathing or they start suffocating, and you can only Concentrate on one thing at a time, but it has an initial save lol.

[brittle bough]

This channel is homebrew of all kind of stuff, like enemies, spells etc? just checking to be sure as I tend to overthink

[sturdy knoll]

Yes it's for anything D&D homebrew

If it's more world/setting stuff, then we have #dm-world-building

[brittle bough]

I mostly just need help with an enemy and how to make him actually defeatable as of currently it is basically impossible

[sturdy knoll]

Feel free to post what you got - folks will respond as they have time, energy and interest.

If it's large amounts of content, consider using a tool like Google Docs and creating a shareable document that you can link to.

[brittle bough]

I can summarize it shortly, I am creating a deity. This deity thrives in pain so I have made it so making him experience pain actually heals him, which also turns into a problem of how would you defeat someone who heals from being attacked

[sturdy knoll]

Usually player characters do not actually fight the actual deity but rather it's avatar, a manifestation of the deity in a specific plane of existence. And perhaps that avatar is powered by magical items or rituals that could be neutralized and thus weaken/banish the avatar.

[brittle bough]

Some context would be needed I see, deities in my world are mortals. Deitys are not gods, they are just people that got granted some power by a god. A god is what they represent, they do not have a body, and majority dont even have a mind.

So this deity is a mortal just more powerful than a normal mortal.

[sturdy knoll]

Okay but what powers their power? Close off the power source, deity/avatar is now vulnerable.

You can make their source of power (or conduit to getting that power) something the player characters can neutralize.

[brittle bough]

The power source is the power granted to them by the god which is in their soul. You cant really turn off god power which is why I have a hard time making this guy defeatable

As of currently only poison works against him when it is a slow poison that kills someone over time

[polar stag]

Why is there slowmode in the homebrew chat?

[native grove]

Lead dart

Conjuration 2nd level

Casting time:one action

Range:60 feet

Components:V, S

Duration:1 minute

You create a dart of heavy metals and launch it at an opponent. On hit they take 2D4 piercing damage and become poisoned for one minute. While the target is poisoned this way, they suffers a D4 penalty on all saving throws using intelligence or wisdom for the duration. The target can make a constitution saving throw at the end of each of their turns, ending the effect on a success.

Spell lists:artificer

Here is the updated version of the spell

[cerulean seal]

Probably to prevent people from spamming walls of homebrew text and such.

[grim lark]

Looking to bounce ideas on an armor my dm is wanting to give me.

What we got so far:
Dormant: x uses per day, give someone a feather from the (bird-like) armor. While they have the feather and are within 30 ft, they get +2 AC.

Awakened: for each featherbarer in 30 ft, the wearer gets +1 to hit and damage.

Exalted: the wearer and featherbarers both get +1 to saves for each featherbarer within 30ft.

We're level 3, going on 4 soon. It feels a little pushed, but it's limited by them needing to be close and the limited uses per day.

[keen halo]

Make it so that heals damage him

The rest of the group can toss healing pots at him, force him into certain conditions such as prone etc or whatever and the main healer will damage him

[brittle bough]

I have thought about that but not sure how much I would like it, if he was undead sure. Healing hurts but he is just humanoid. So to me making healing be what hurts him is kinda eh to me. Ya know what I meant?

[keen halo]

Okay so he's unkillable

He wins

Make his healing factor have a limit lol

If he gets hit by an attack that deals over X damage it won't heal himv

Make it so if the party declares they're tearing him limb from limb he doesn't regenerate from that

So his regeneration is from being hit but if someone outright cuts his arm it's gone

He can heal not regenerate body parts

[wispy oracle]

Hope i can find a campaign that allows the Gunslinger class

[brittle bough]

Yeah I know, which is why I was asking for advice as any type of damage he will gain back that HP. He is the deity of pain so anything that is that he will just heal so it doesnt matter. Aslong as he experiences the pain he wont take that damage.

Poisons though work on him

[rugged cargo]

6 exhaustion levels

[brittle bough]

He cant get exhausted but can get paralysed

[rugged cargo]

Polymorphed and then suffocated

[brittle bough]

Yeah, he would also be into it but could work

[sand peak]

Has anybody made some homebrew backgrounds suitable for martial characters like fighters and barbarians?

5.5e ruleset.

[keen halo]

what's wrong with soldier etc?
or you mean just flavor?

[keen halo]

so you've made a monster that cant be damaged but everything else works, right?

is it specifically him not being able to be HIT or?

fall damage works differently than being hit

the classic conjure animals above his head

[brittle bough]

he cant get charmed, exhausted nor petrified. All other conditions can happen

And it is specifcally him experiencing pain, fall damage makes him feel pain and that heals him

[keen halo]

make it so hes vulnerable to psychic damage (would work thematically)

[brittle bough]

While it is not physical pain it is still pain, he likes being tortured so that counts mental torture aswell

One of the reasons poison (like actual poison not the damage type) works is cause it isnt painful unless it is a poison made to cause pain

[brittle bough]

I have made a deity(not a god, there is a difference in my world) that is the deity of pain. Pain to him is good

[sturdy knoll]

Maybe make healing spells damage them then?

[sand peak]

Savage Attack's not exactly an idea feat for a fighter since they can attack more than twice at higher levels.

And the pugilist class relies more on their fists, which doesn't work with the feat.

[brittle bough]

Already mentioned about that and I just see it as eh, ya know?

[sturdy knoll]

Well ultimately it's your problem to solve as you've made this creature that apparently has no weaknesses or things that it must rely on to have this great power....

I'm just putting out some ideas of potential ways that this creature could be weakened/damaged.

[brittle bough]

I have mentioned a weakness of his, poison

not the damage type but actual poison

[sturdy knoll]

But poisons can cause pain... to me that makes less sense then healing causing them damage/weakness.

[brittle bough]

Well to me it depends on what the poisons job is to do, some poisons cause pain but some make you paralysed aka a conditon he isnt immune to

[sturdy knoll]

Well I guess whatever you decide as ways to weaken this creature, make sure to telegraph that to your players

[brittle bough]

yah

though this creation process is more just for fun worldbuilding for me

I have created another deity before that was way worse to create than this one

Atleast that deity filled its purpose of being chaos

[keen halo]

huh?

that's out of context, is that for #third-party ?

[sand peak]

Fair.

[keen halo]

this threw me off

so you want a homebrew bg for a pugilist?

[sand peak]

Yeah. I was looking at a background with the Tough feat that isn't farmer.

[torn fjord]

i made a thing
https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/Tz-ljybQq99M

[keen halo]

i mean, i'd just allow savage attacker to work on pugilist weapons

[torn fjord]

statblocks for my homebrewed Slimes

[keen halo]

just have brass knuckles

https://www.reddit.com/r/onednd/comments/1quwje6/comment/oaf1bpi/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

sterling vermin confirms that in their concept of pugilist, savage attacker would work

[sand peak]

They're weapons, so they work.

[keen halo]

yeah.

one can argue that your bonus unarmed strikes should function just fine with brass knuckles - since your unarmed strikes are a fisticuffs die, and you turn brass knuckles to fisticuffs die as well

basically your own fists are literally weapons mechanically

[sand peak]

The pugilist class pack has added brass knuckles and the like. Plus, their Fisticuffs feature can affect simple melee weapons and improvised weapons.

[keen halo]

i mean, sterling vermin says it can work with savage attacker

i plan on having it work with half orc savage attacks (im playing 5.5e pugilist in a 2014 setting, yes my dm allowed me to do it)

and he INSISTED that it works

[sand peak]

Wait, what? He did?

[keen halo]

Technically, yes. Any attack that has a damage die counts towards savage attacks. And since your fists counts as melee weapons... If you crit... you'll be extra annoying for me 🙂
Savage Attacks says that when you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one additional damage die. In 5e rules terminology, unarmed strikes count as melee weapon attacks, even though the body part itself isn’t considered a weapon. Your Pugilist replaces the normal unarmed strike damage with the Pugilist damage die, but the attack is still a melee weapon attack. Because of that, if one of your punches crits, Savage Attacks adds one extra roll of your Pugilist damage die. This applies to any punches you make, including bonus action punches from Pugilist features, because they are also melee weapon attacks. If you're using something like brass knuckles or another pugilist weapon, the interaction is even clearer, since you're making a weapon attack that uses your Pugilist damage die, and Savage Attacks simply adds one additional roll of that die on a critical hit.

that's his response

if you're referring to sterling vermin, then yes, i asked him on reddit and he said it does (i sent the link above)

the only "confusion" in order to 100% clarify it is to see if we're allowed to use brass knuckles WHILE doing our "unarmed strike"

as in, instead of - i'll roll my brass knuckles.

if half orc 5e is allowed to work with flurry of blows by mike mearls, to me, that's good enough

i found many places that say it doesnt work and many that says it does work, ive got no clue what's "actually true".

when an official source says it doesnt, and literally another official source says it does - it makes no sense, just let your DM decide

the way i see it - only monks and pugilists can actually use that feature, because they're the only martials who literally use unarmed strikes AS A WEAPON

if you want max damage just play fire goliath

you can still play with Savage Attacker anyways, since you just brass knuckles the first hit - its once per turn so who cares?

although savage attacker is kinda useless if you haymaker tbh

[frank leaf]

Cold damage.

Cold deaths are numbing

Not painful

[brittle bough]

Yeah but if you get hit by a ray of frost that will hurt

[frank leaf]

. . . Would it? Or would it only til after?

[keen halo]

and his suggestion is that thematically the cold doesnt "inflict pain"

so let him be vulnerable to cold damage/or at least take it without healing

the same way you could argue poison damage ticks away at his health but he doesnt "feel" the poison or any pain from it

poison isnt hurtful per se

people get poisoned all the time, they aint in pain they just die

we understand your idea of having the character heal from pain

[brittle bough]

Cantrips and spells that use cold to me hurt. You wouldn’t exactly be painfree after being hit by ray of frost or ice storm

[keen halo]

but it looks like you're forcefully trying to make it impossible to die

also, YOU decide how "pain" and "health" exists. just because you lose health doesnt mean you're inherently taking damage

if i have 100 health and i lose 30 of it, i took damage - but my character moves the same. did i take damage then?

in real life if i take damage it affects me

[bitter whale]

Ink of wonders
Wondrous item, Uncommon

Anything drawn with this ink becomes real for 1 minute. A living creature drawn with this ink is aware of its temporary existance, and thus depressed.

[keen halo]

your character acts perfectly fine until 0 hp

[frank leaf]

. . . You would? Like I said, Cold is numbing, so it would only hurt after you're out of the cold.

If you want that to still count then just say the healing is delayed

[bitter whale]

good item ?

[frank leaf]

Which gives them a way to kill it, but FAR from easy

[keen halo]

yeah cold isnt THAT common

cold + poison, etc, let them put status effects on him

why are u asking us for advice/tips if you're just saying "yeah but itll heal him" or "yeah but it doesnt make sense" and he's immune to like 7/10 status conditions and literally any damage pattern doesnt affect him cuz he's healed?

when we're trying to thematically make it make sense for you

[keen halo]

and thus depressed is wild, i like it - but its too vague

should have limitations i reckon. what if i draw a red dragon?

"this deity is a mortal, but also hes immortal. he's got a lot of hp, hes immune to most status conditions (the important ones), he literally heals instead of taking damage, regardless of how the damage is applied"

????????

do you have a stat block for this dude?

[brittle bough]

Because I was trying to get ideas and inspiration? I am not a creative genius so I can’t come up with everything myself. I am new at creating enemies and this is literally just for fun why are you sounding so mean just because a character I created is made in a specific way?

[keen halo]

because we've given you TENS of ideas

and you've REJECTED every single one

without even trying to work around it

you made a cool concept and you're refusing to make it playable

[brittle bough]

You don’t need to sound so rude about it

[keen halo]

im trying to criticise so it'll help

[bitter whale]

well its gonna be a small red dragon. Not enough ink to draw a big one (will have to write it in the item description)

[keen halo]

by my logic you're rude because every time someone brings up a suggestion you just deny it

so it just makes it tiring/fatigueing trying to come up with solutions to help?

[keen halo]

maybe add a line so it's just a harmless projection of it

[brittle bough]

I don’t just deny it, I give explanations of why it wouldn’t work or make sense to me

[keen halo]

"anything drawn with this ink becomes real for a minute and aware of its existence. it's depressed. if it's a creature, it's harmless and can't be bigger than Tiny in size." maybe?

[keen halo]

and we're giving you examples on how it can still work and you still disagree

"to me, cold damage damages you"
okay, but thematically it doesnt have to work like that

poison damage doesnt also "inflict pain" on you

the pain of cold doesnt actually exist until you stop being cold because your body is numb

that's why when people get frostbitten etc they only discover it after their body adjusts heat levels again

so if he's being spammed with cold damage, he's so numb he doesnt feel the pain - he doesnt know he's being dealt damage

[faint sonnet]

What are your actual "lines" on how you expect this defeat to go? You might have written yourself into a corner and the real solution might require you to "unwrite" something, essentially.

[keen halo]

if he's being poisoned, his health ticks away until it's too low.
have the characters describe the poison as LITERAL poison

[brittle bough]

I wrote how spells and cantrips with cold hurt

[keen halo]

no, you wrote how you interpret them

[brittle bough]

I wrote spells and cantrips

[keen halo]

"cantrips and spells that use cold to me hurt. you wouldn't exactly be painfree after being hit by ray of frost or ice storm"

why not? his health goes down, doesn't mean he feels "the pain of cold".

yeah, you wrote "cantrips and spells that use cold to me hurt"

that doesnt equal "how they hurt"

thats circular logic

"they hurt because they hurt"

again, if im rude im sorry, but you need to see it from an outsiders perspective

[bitter whale]

Trying to make a statblock of a forest troll. Witcher themed. Any suggestions what i could add to the regualr troll statblock to beef it up a bit and make it more exciting to fight ?

[keen halo]

it's been well over an hour or so since you started this question? you've been given multiple answers with thematic reasons on how to make them work and you just decline all of them saying "no but its painful"

[brittle bough]

Ice storm hurts because ice is falling from the sky

[keen halo]

okay, ray of frost freezes your arm. your arm isnt in pain. it's frozen

you'll feel the pain after it defrosts and your body enters shock and you're frostbitten

poison doesnt hurt

but it still damages you

[primal osprey]

I like leaning into bestial movements. Like lunges and rolls. Though mechanically it boils down to moving without triggering opportunity attacks. But it can be fun when paired with giving it the grappler feat

[brittle bough]

Yeah I can agree with that, Ray of frost is an exception. But that can be made with a lot of spells, you have proven your point but I have also as some spells require the wording of how the spell attacks to dictate ”well does it hurt”

[keen halo]

probs more health and armor lol

20 con is kinda hard to add up to, maybe dex? say he's more nimble due to the forest lore

so he's at 14 or possibly 16 dex - higher initiative, higher natural armor possibly

[primal osprey]

If you wanna go extra you could give it some innate casting of Druid spells

[keen halo]

better dex saves

could give it a cantrip yeah

give that troll a shillelagh!!

[glad veldt]

Quick question: I have a BBEG lieutenant that collects souls (humanoid), is it OK for him to deal 1 more necrotic damage on every attack for each soul he collects, and all non-radiant magic damage is reduced by 1 damage for every two souls.

[keen halo]

and a club!!!!!

[primal osprey]

Maybe cutting off its arms can stop the Spellcasting, giving the players a tactic to aim for

[keen halo]

make him smack with a magic forest club!!

[glad veldt]

Is that balanced?

[primal osprey]

I think 1 is a good amount for each soul. Although it does quickly get crazy depending on how efficient he is with soul collecting

[keen halo]

btw, ice storm deals bludgeoning + cold damage.

[primal osprey]

Like if he has 80 souls, it’s gonna be ungodly powerful

[keen halo]

bludgeoning from the hail hitting and cold from the storm

[primal osprey]

Actually, maybe say the damage bonus is equal to a third of the souls he’s collected

[keen halo]

by that logic he can heal from the bludgeoning and take damage from the cold

its 2d10 bludg vs 4d6, it's risky but he can take damage from it

aka if they roll bad on bludg but roll well on cold

[glad veldt]

Players need to be present and he only has 97 hp.

[brittle bough]

Because the main issue with this deity is if it is painful it doesn’t hurt him. I am specific when it comes to things like this otherwise I won’t be happy with the outcome. And at this point I have figured out how he would be defeated so we don’t need to engage any longer in this conversation

[primal osprey]

In that case show no mercy >:D

[keen halo]

great, happy for you that you figured out his defeat.

then continously tackling us has been pointless

[glad veldt]

And again, you can just take a mace to him. He has resistance to non-magic damage, but my players are all martial and half-casters.

[keen halo]

i hope your players will have a good, challenging fight with him. he does sound interesting.

[primal osprey]

Does he have attack legendary actions?

[glad veldt]

No

[faint sonnet]

Honestly, I do think the idea of a deity of pain being defeated by healing is totally on-point. The deity isn't just immune to the actual harm of things that cause pain, but requires that pain. Thus, the removal of pain is actually what weakens this deity.

[keen halo]

how does he collect souls/how many does he have?

[keen halo]

thank you, was my first idea. its thematically great and is fun

[glad veldt]

10, He's running actually because they got help from an efreeti they saved.

[primal osprey]

I’d bring up the possibility of him dying before he can even take a turn, but I’m sure you’re aware and this is an intentional choice

[keen halo]

i think having healing word do damage can go crazy lol

[faint sonnet]

Yeah, I saw that idea and thought it was probably the best one.

[keen halo]

plus it's the most straightforward one

have the deity taunt the players as well

[brittle bough]

What is that suppose to mean?

[keen halo]

so they have to figure it out mid combat

[keen halo]

that if you figured out how to deal with him a while ago, continously saying "no but" to suggestions was pointless and kept a conversation that couldve ended going. if you figured it out JUST NOW, then sure, but by what you wrote "at this point i have figured out how he would be defeated" implying you already figured it out.

Great, happy for you then! i hope your players will enjoy the fight.

[faint sonnet]

It also makes sense that a deity of pain would require almost constant combat, so in reality, the deity has a sort of reverse healthbar situation. Their HP can go lower and lower but can never reach 0, but they die if their HP ever gets to full.

[glad veldt]

Currently the souls of pretty much every major world leader.

[keen halo]

and honestly it's tiring giving out ideas to someone who claims "they are uncreative" but have made a pretty creative boss concept.

[keen halo]

what if they actually have minus HP?

HOLY WAIT

THAT'S SO GOOD

there's a healthbar but it's just a minus! the more you damage him the more he needs to be healed

once he reaches 0, he's basically "dead" since hes reached unconscious

he's basically fighting from beyond the grave

[faint sonnet]

This is basically what I meant, yeah.

[keen halo]

https://klipy.com/gifs/sunnyfication-3

a true chef

[keen halo]

how much is that? XD

[faint sonnet]

The reason I think a negative healthbar isn't necessary too helpful is because it's harder to track than a positive healthbar, and you'd theoretically need to put a cap on how negative the healthbar can go, so it'd be easier to just use a positive healthbar methinks.

[glad veldt]

10

[faint sonnet]

The positive healthbar would just work in reverse, though.

[brittle bough]

Yes I have had ONE WAY of defeating him figured out however it feels more nice if there can be found multiple ways to defeat him so to me this conversation hasn’t been worthless. It made me understand what was being said about cold but also more specifically the wording of each spell is importsnt in a fight against him.

Like ray of frost as an example, it doesn’t hurt, you are just cold but ice storm hurts as it is ice falling on you. I also read your tone through text as rude

[keen halo]

so he does X+10 damage and takes X-5 damage?

[keen halo]

in my book i was being neutral, go ahead though idm

[glad veldt]

10 necrotic, -5 non-radiant magic damage.

[keen halo]

again, i dont really mind or care. as long as you're happy and your players are happy and its challenging and doable, great.

[brittle bough]

Yeah, I can’t read texts as neutral. I always interpret them as to have some kind of emotion behind them which is annoying

[keen halo]

yeah thats what i meant

i think it's balanced? maybe? depends on how often/how hard he hits. -5 to damage isnt THAT bad, esp if hes at 97 hp

at what level do they encounter him?

[keen halo]

🤷like i said, put urself in an outsider perspective

90% of dnd is improvisation and home ruling

rule 0

[primal osprey]

Tone indicators are a life saver /gen

[brittle bough]

Yes

[keen halo]

idk, i stated multiple times im neutral - and when i was annoyed i was annoyed. if im rude, then its probably because im direct but idm it

[primal osprey]

Anyway, if there was no hostile intent, then I’m sure we can move past it and keep homebrewin! /pos

[brittle bough]

I would perish as it would be so hard to understand sarcastic tone to joking tone through text. I take context clues and interpret as what the context says and go with it

I am not even a DM currently, I just like world building and make stat sheets for my deities in my world as it is fun

[keen halo]

theres no saracsm or anger.

no reason to be sarcastic to someone i dont know

[brittle bough]

I was using them as examples as sarcastic and joking are very similar through text to me

[keen halo]

if hes not resistant or immune to sources of damage, the party is level 3-4 i think it's fine

if he's alone hes probably getting murked

[primal osprey]

I should allow players to fight deities more in tier 4 campaigns. So far The only character I have face gods is my setting’s character named the God Defier.

I should stop denying my party the feeling of slaying god 🔥

[brittle bough]

I have a deity killer named Ragnarok. They really dislike the deities

[primal osprey]

Fitting name

[faint sonnet]

This is mostly for posterity, but from having experience with this on both sides, asking for help and attempting to provide help with a difficult problem that uses a lot of hidden assumptions is significantly more unpleasant for everyone involved than if said hidden assumptions were stated clearly.

It can seem rude when people get frustrated that overall unhelpful advice isn't being taken, and it can also seem rude when attempted helpful advice is being discarded for a reason that one couldn't predict when giving the advice.

[primal osprey]

Ragnarok and the God Defier should team up

[scenic urchin]

deities got nearly limitless buy-in for whatever homebrew mechanics you want, its excellent

[brittle bough]

Yeah, though one thing to mention is that in my world deities are not gods. There is a difference between the two which is very important

[primal osprey]

Fortunately my setting uses aspects and take a little inspiration from eastern sources, so I think the party killing a god is very possible

[primal osprey]

Oh I see. Confusing. /lh
I’d love to hear the difference /notsarc

[scenic urchin]

if a dragon casts a spell that swaps everyone's strength and intelligence scores, people raise their eyebrows in doubt ... if a deity does it ... the eyebrows get raised in amazement instead

[brittle bough]

Yeah it is. Gods are what they represent like the goddess of the water and oceans is the oceans and water and etc

Deities are mortals granted some power by gods in unnatural ways. There isn’t a way to garentee you get a power, some people are just special enough to gain it

[primal osprey]

Oh I see. That makes sense /gen
So gods are traditional gods and deities are like gods but they have mortal origins?

[brittle bough]

Yea

Which is also why it is impossible to kill gods. As you can’t exactly kill the ocean or water as to do that you need to erase water from existence and from every living being

Most of the gods don’t have a physical body, majority of them don’t even have a mind. There is only one god that has both a physical body and mind and that is the god of time (and fate)

Anyway if we wanna continue discussing we gotta do that in the world building channel

[fierce dome]

Anyone wanna read my new support class?
https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/MxK6QTqBjE6w

It's called the Prodigy and it's a partial martial lol

Not a half-caster, but a partial martial

It gets cantrips and rituals but no spell slots

It does get the bladesinger/valor bards cantrippy extra attack though

It's pretty wild, I think

[keen halo]

so you cant spam guide?

if you guide turn 1, turn 2u have to play ur turn, and then turn 3 u can guide?

i mean that alone sounds hella OP

[stuck raptor]

for a second i thought this was an MtG chat and we were talking about Simian Guide

[stuck raptor]

ur average encounter is 3 rounds

[keen halo]

it is?

[stuck raptor]

yes.

[keen halo]

hm

i guess giving your nova burster another attack in my head sounds op

[stuck raptor]

3 round set up is essentially doing nothing

[keen halo]

i do like the concept though

just skimmed it for like 5 mins kek

[fierce dome]

Nope, no spam. Every other turn at most

[fierce dome]

It's for 2024/5.5 and there's a ton less nova in 2024/5.5

Like guide wouldn't allow a smite, for instance, because that also requires a BA now

[frank leaf]

(did you include that fix we talked Abt)

[fierce dome]

For the magic action or for BAs?

I haven't done any revision yet today, probably when I get to work later

[rigid matrix]

Currently I'm trying to make some races for my own setting and while it's not finished I would like a bit of feed back on what I've made https://docs.google.com/document/d/1K67uwEsfx7sZ6HrmW4m_z_iVKSuZWngPXLvhbqIMcyg/edit?usp=sharing

[keen halo]

"local racist"

got me good

i take it back

"local racist murderer" is even better

vampires

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

i cant even take this seriously im sorry its so good

[peak inlet]

is there a better way of wording the last part of this? also, is this too much of an upgrade for those feats that no one ever chooses rn

Weapon Master

General Feat (Prerequisite: Level 4+)
You gain the following benefits.
Ability Score Increase. Increase your Strength or Dexterity score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
Mastery Property. Your training with weapons allows you to use the mastery property of one kind of Simple or Martial weapon of your choice, provided you have proficiency with it. Whenever you finish a Long Rest, you can change the kind of weapon to another eligible kind.
Armor Proficiency. You gain proficiency in shields or a type of armor (your choice when you choose the feat). If you choose to gain proficiency in armor, you get proficiency, in the next lowest armor weight that you don’t already have proficiency in.

[scenic urchin]

You gain proficiency in shields or light armor (you choose when you gain this feat). If you already have proficiency in light armor, you can gain proficiency in medium armor instead, or heavy armor if you also already have proficiency with medium armor.

[rigid matrix]

well I like putting a few bits in there cause I'm gonna be actually writing seriously for most of it disregarding a few outliers

[keen halo]

baha thats fine just caught me off guard, its silly

[tame ruin]

Why are the little quotes from racists and murderers?

[rigid matrix]

more views that way silly

[tame ruin]

What do you mean by more views?

[rigid matrix]

I mean that it's just a bit of fun I'm havinh while making this

[amber hollow]

With help, was working on an idea to help "equalize" action economy for a solo or duo (as in, 1 DM, and 1 or 2 PCs)
Here's what we kinda came to after a bit:

Variant Rule: Legendary Initiative / “One Man Army”
This variant rule governs a campaign with one player character.
The character doesn’t roll Initiative, whereas other creatures roll as usual. Then, an extra turn for the character is inserted after every turn an enemy has, allowing the character to take an extra turn each time an enemy ends their turn.
Once combat begins, the character also takes the first turn in combat (regardless of Initiative).
For example, in a combat against three Bandits, the character would take a turn first, and then the following turn order would be used:
Bandit, Character, Bandit, Character, Bandit, Character
Regardless of what happens to the creatures whose turns make up the Initiative order, their Initiative remains, keeping the character’s extra turns.

Legendary Initiative Variant: Heroic Initiative / “Army of Two”
This variant rule governs a campaign with two player characters.
It uses Legendary Initiative as a baseline. The character taking the first turn in combat becomes both of the characters each taking a turn, in either order chosen by the characters.
The additional turns inserted after every enemy turn become alternating. Once one of the characters has had one of the extra turns, the next of those turns is taken by the other character. The characters can still choose who takes the first extra turn, determining the order of the alternation.
For example, this is what a turn order with four Bandits would look like using Heroic Initiative:
Bandit, Character 1, Bandit, Character 2, Bandit, Character 1, Bandit, Character 2

For a combat with an uneven amount of enemies, the alternation carries over between Rounds, effectively switching the characters around in the turn order.

I think one of the first things that would need to be addressed would be "round timers"...

[queen raven]

so when WOTC announced they were going to be opening the guilds to older settings I started converting the greatest D&D setting of Mystara to 5e. We are still waiting for WOTC to open up the guilds but I made the Mystara 5e player's guide anyways. Since I can't sell it, I gave it away. It's 224 full color pages with all custom art representing the nations, races and history of the Known World. Enjoy and tell me what you think.

https://freemystara.com/wp-content/uploads/MPG-PDF-Revised-2.pdf

[fierce dome]

holy crap

224 pages with original art?

thats really impressive

(unless its AI, anyway)

[queen raven]

If I use AI art all my artist friends disown me. Characters were mostly done by Mischa Cel Frumos, cover and chapter art was by Art of Rubus. They did about 70-80% of the art, used several other artists for individual pieces. If you're going to do something, go all in.

[keen halo]

wait so this is a 5e full world

[queen raven]

Got feed back from various people on the subclasses since many of them are based on real world cultures. Husband of a friend translated the Maori for the Toa Makai, he assured me it was accurate and not obscene. One thing I was asked by the various awesomeness editors was don't make their contributions either magical or barbarians.

[keen halo]

that people can use to make campaigns?

[queen raven]

Yes, I'm writing the DMG for it now

[keen halo]

im in

[queen raven]

it's one of the older settings from BECMI & 2nd ed, with some representation in 3rd

[keen halo]

and its repurposed for 5e?

[queen raven]

seventeen nations, with many of them being fantasy versions of real world versions. theme was it was a cold war. the two empires were equally matched, and if war broke out they would destroy themselves in the fight.

[keen halo]

all the classes are their own interpretations? (i see fighter with different subclasses etc)

some tooltips are confusing though

[queen raven]

Yeah, 32 subclasses (no monks unfortunately)

[keen halo]

Properties are cumulative; you can add as many properties to a weapon as allowed. You can only apply a property once to a weapon unless noted; if you select a property again, it must be applied to a different weapon.

can add as many properties as allowed, but im only able to apply a property once to a weapon?

so for example if i read it right, i have dagger A. i give it balanced.
dagger B has balanced because i gave it to dagger A. I give dagger B feint.
Dagger C now has both? i can give dagger C hurler and now my dagger has all 3?

[fierce dome]

why no monks?

[queen raven]

you can apply different properties to a weapon, but can't double up identical properties

[keen halo]

okay so i can apply 3 properties to one dagger

but i cant apply the same property to a dagger and a longsword

[queen raven]

right

[keen halo]

roughly worded, but understood

ill be looking forward to the DMG etc 😄

[queen raven]

it's 160 pages right now, got the demesne (domain) system in playtest, working on mass combat

I wrote this book before they borged the tortles into Forgotten Realms, so that's why we have a different version of the tortle

[keen halo]

are classes based on ABC?

[queen raven]

ABC?

[keen halo]

alphabetical order, mb

it went from Armiger to bounty hunter to Brave

fighter > ranger > fighter

yeah thats alphabetical

centurion is next

[queen raven]

no, they are just alphabetical by subclass. Tried it by class, and the testers didn't like that at all

[keen halo]

yeah, they're alphabetical thats what i mean

[fierce dome]

weird, in my own setting guide that im working on, i arrange the classes alphabetically, then the subclasses alphabetically within the class

[keen halo]

it feels hella disorganized

yeah

[fierce dome]

mines nowhere near as far along as yours though.

[queen raven]

it's also available in Italian. Some fans over there asked to make one minor change to improve it, they translated it and sent it back

[keen halo]

you go from reading about fighter to ranger, to cleric, to bard, back to fighter

[fierce dome]

i think im topping out at about 55-60 pages at the moment

[keen halo]

also would people be able to play regular 5e classes there?

[queen raven]

problem people had was i ported over all of the alternate classes from the setting. So you ended up with 6 fighters, two rogues, 1 barbarian etc

[keen halo]

or is the entire world balanced around the homebrewed classes/subclasses?

[queen raven]

yes, if you scroll up it gives examples of where the classic subclasses fit in

[fierce dome]

"alternate classes?"

[queen raven]

back when mystara was in print they didnt do subclasses. so when they made a similar class, it was its own class

had to fit in the alternates into subclasses

part of the conversion process

[keen halo]

where

i tried to ctrl+f the word class

[queen raven]

page 94-97. look for the gnome bard with the one man band

[keen halo]

yeah i found him

where does it say we can use classic classe

classes

[queen raven]

its woven through out the section. like berserker barbarian tells you work best in the northern reaches

totem warriors are a better fit in Ethengar

only a few subclasses don't work well, like the warlocks, and the setting has its own patrons for the new subclasses

[keen halo]

okay thats

the most obscure way to tell people they can play classic classes

i appreciate all the effort nonetheless

[queen raven]

there are several races missing as well, but there are other races that replace them. tieflings, drow, dragonborn, half-races aren't in Mystara for various reasons. It adds rakasta, phanaton, sidhe (shee), lupin and our tortles

[keen halo]

also you said monks arent included but theres a whole paragraph about monks - implying they are playable as a regular class? they're just very rare?

specifically saying shadow, open hand, etc

[queen raven]

they are completely allowed, issue we had with them is all the varieties fit perfectly in the traditional monk varieties of the setting

so no need for a new subclass.

[keen halo]

yeah i understand they're allowed

[queen raven]

monks weren't broken when slotting them in, so we didn't fix them

[keen halo]

yeah alright i understand now

yeah idk maybe the whole wording of the stuff i see is too vague compared to what i'd expect dnd

maybe it isnt for me then, but i appreciate it

when the DMG is out maybe ill have another look

[queen raven]

there's some new forms of magic, but all of them are dangerous. lots of spells. Most of them are along the what price power theme

[keen halo]

i feel like this is made with a lot of love and you'd have to be very meticulous to go through the 200+ pages and truly understand/grasp the nuances etc

not something for someone unfamiliar with homebrew

[queen raven]

it does help to understand the setting. it was made for the people already familiar with it. WOTC hasn't touched it, except they've taken multiple creatures and characters from it for the new books.

[keen halo]

yeah, as someone whos unfamiliar this seems incredibly hard to decypher

almost feels like i have to understand the way things are written to understand the logic behind them

[queen raven]

it's something you have to read the lore to understand the subclasses and races as they are tied to the nations

[keen halo]

e.g. i'd never be able to follow through going through SUBCLASSES alphabetically

im talking from a logistical standpoint not a thematic standpoint

[queen raven]

one thing that is different is Mystara ties classes to locations or races, it doesn't do a lot of mix and match

Toa Makai are the warriors of the nation of Ierendi, and as such are always human. Merchant Princes are a school of wizards between two rival merchant nations, nobody else trains their wizards like that

[keen halo]

yeah id also not know how to start a campaign if my friend wants to play a monk and he's a rare sight and only found in glantri which could be like.. at the north pole, vs another class that could only be found at the equivalent of australia idk

well, thanks anyway

https://www.enworld.org/threads/revised-mystara-players-guide-free-setting-guide-written-using-the-wotc-fan-creation-license.690286/

found ya! 😄

[queen raven]

this book was an adventure to write. controversy, arguments, a reviewer got in to with my artist, took 5 years to write, mostly saving up money to pay artists

[keen halo]

good on ya, seems impressive

[queen raven]

biggest issue is like i said, it assumes the reader has prior knowledge of the setting

a lot of the special rules never got to see play like the secret crafts, runic magic or radiance magic, but people wanted them anyways

[fierce dome]

anyone feel like reading a partial martial support class?
https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/MxK6QTqBjE6w

its in its third round of revisions and im still taking feedback

[weak hollow]

Privateer(homebrew class)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Uc4xHP0Xbc9fZPVrXQIlaoLNAe54uxQfBam_ouC1VrQ/edit?usp=sharing

please give any feedback you have
side-note: i know the talents can be weird think of them more like perks rather then fighting styles and eldritch invocations

[brittle bough]

I need help with another not as big problem like yesterday, it is with another deity in my world and I need help with wording and defining what things mean. (I dont know how to explain it)

[hasty jay]

i love syntax, i can try to help
(btw, it is better to ask for help than to ask to ask for help)

[brittle bough]

I don’t get what you mean but sure, basically I have a deity that is a deity of murder and everything related to the act of murder and afterlife from it. And one of his special abilities is that if he gets murdered it will go back to how he was before combat, aka he never took a single damage.

What I need help with is figuring out the wording and logic on how to kill a guy that can’t be murdered

A little context is that gods and deities are not the same, deities have been granted some power while gods are what they represent so they can’t get killed. Deities can get killed

[tame ruin]

Resurrection/revivify or healing, the antithesis of murder

[brittle bough]

How would that work?

[tame ruin]

They were not asking if it was okay to ask, they were specifying what they needed help with Lol, think its just a crossed wire situation.

[brittle bough]

Yeah

[tame ruin]

How does killing a diety normally work in your setting?

[hasty jay]

oh my bad i misunderstood i though you were making an ability or statblock or sm lmao

[tame ruin]

No problem, its a blurring of the channels, this could be #dm-world-building potentially, lets see where it goes.

[brittle bough]

To kill a deity you need to get their HP to 0, all deities have one ability that is called ”Leaking divinity”, it is the power that was granted to them leaking out. In this ability they will be resurrected to one hp however none of their abilities will work until it is solved where the leaking power goes

It can go back into the person and make them back to being normal. The player can take the divinity and become a deity themself but of the same area like murder. Or let the divinity go back, the used to be deity would be then back to how they were before being granted power

[brittle bough]

I am making a deity statblock as it motivates me to continue working on my world

[tame ruin]

Do you have to attack or do anything special to these dieties to kill them or is it just ordinary damage i.e water diety has to be damaged with fire.

If this murder diety just pops back up with no damage, that could be a fun WTF moment and then they realise that when they get to 1hp they have to heal or resurrect the diety to actually finish them off? that kind of thing.

[brittle bough]

They can be killed by ordinary attacks, like normal spells etc. Just each deity has one special thing about them like the murder deity can’t be murdered, the deity of pain heals from pain etc

[burnt cipher]

Thinking of reworking Mercy Monk, because I don't want to delete the Subclass, despite it being broken mechanically and thematically. Given the 'Plague Doctor' theme, I'll probably make it a Healer Monk that essentially gains 'Lay-on Hands' points by punching people or expending ki into the pool.

I know that's kind of what Hands of Healing does, but without the need to expend ki.

[cerulean seal]

Reading now

[keen halo]

@weak hollow Shoulder Bash: Once per long rest, as a bonus action rush a creature within 5 ft disrupting their guard (DC = 8 + prof bonus + dex mod). On failure you break through their guard letting you shoot your pistol having advantage to hit, or stunning the target for 1 turn.

I feel like it should say "stunning the target until the end of their next turn."

or maybe until the beginning of their next turn

(would be great if they're last on initiative, but less op if they're first in initiative and you're last etc)

[indigo dune]

https://www.worldanvil.com/w/journey-through-mythos-karried

[cerulean seal]

Sea Legs: Flavorful, I like it. Though 1st level of a class really needs to sell the flavor and gameplay of what the class is bringing to the table. Every class provides a combat focused feature at level 1 asap in order to get a player used to the class. I would probably move this specific feature either to a later level OR give this feature AND another combat focused feature, something active the player can use when they want.

Parry Shot: Similar to Monk's deflect attack feature but with worst scaling and less uses. It's perfectly fine for classes to have similar features, though, i'm not sure if the variation here is enough or not. I think this needs a buff. Might be worth getting additional opinion about. Also doesn't feel like it should be THE defining combat feature for this class. You usually want your defining feature for your class to be active choice driven things the player can use when they want to.

Mad Grit: This feature is going to get worst and worst as you get higher levels. Having a requirement of NEEDING to be 5hp or lower is not only going to be extremly situation but at higher levels probably never happen. I would change this to when you are bloodied potentially. Adding to this though, with only light armor for our defenses and focusing on firearms, this class is not incentivized to be on the front lines or to want to take damage imo. I would consider reworking this. I would maybe move this feature to a different level too since traditionally we only get Extra Attack at 5th level.

Extra attack. Looks good but unsure if giving them a 3rd attack is wise since that's Fighters thing.

Aimed Weakness: This is pretty strong to have unlimited uses. Needs a usage limit.

Privateer Talent: These are probably too much as is? At least they are a bit overwhelming imo. They seemingly come off as a secondary subclass which is a lot to keep track of. I would simplify these probably or have these come online a lot sooner and then grow with your over time.

[cerulean seal]

Shoulder Bash: Probably fine though, remember that ranged weapons in DnD give you disadvantage if used upclose enough, so the advantage this feature is giving you just causes the disadvantage from your range to become a net 0. So you are just doing a normal attack roll here

Bonus Action Surge: Nice to get extra BA's but this class isn't really giving us anything to do with our BA other than the shoulder bash. Would be nice to get a lot more BA options early in the class to make this feature extra spicy.

Advance Target Acquisition: Fine but a bit boring.

Point-Blank Expert: We need this a lot sooner. Especially before Shoulder Bash.

Pressured Reload: Probably fine.

Black Bart: Probably fine.

Planned Failure: This is fine but there are very few things this class does currently to force saving throws outside of shoulder bash. Would be nice to get some extra features which force saving throws earlier on in the base class.

Overall this feels more like a gunslinger class than specifically a naval focused class. Outside of sealegs there isn't a lot of stuff here making me any better at using a ship or living on a ship or running a ship. Would be nice to get some extra naval or boat related abilities or even things to utilize naval combat in regular combat somehow.

Hope this helps

[hybrid elbow]

Does anyone have some good ideas for a Gem Dragonborn subrace, specifically an obsidian Dragonborn? I'm trying to help someone out with a character idea.

[cerulean seal]

Like designing a subrace?

[hybrid elbow]

Yes

[cerulean seal]

I think most of the dragonborns are the same outside of their damage resistance/breath weapon damage.

I know gem dragons tend to be more psionic though right?

From what i'm reading currently, Obsidian Gem dragons breath fire and have some psionic abilities

[hybrid elbow]

That's kind of the issue I'm running into. I'm trying to base the ancestry of an obsidian dragon, but can't quite come up with an idea of the rest of the race, or whether their breath weapon would be the same.

[hybrid elbow]

Lore-wise, Obsidian Dragon have a complex history with other gem dragons and can definitely transfer most stat abilities. Still, for the most part, it looks like a red Dragonborn with psionics.

[cerulean seal]

Yeah I mean, species in general shouldn't be too overly complicated. I would give them a breath attack/damage resistance where they can pick between psychic damage or fire damage maybe?
That or give them the fire breath attack and then a psychic related cantrip

[hybrid elbow]

Good idea thanks

[hybrid elbow]

I might make it a bit more thematic, like the character breathes lava, leaving a 15-foot line of lava that deals fire damage for a certain amount of time.

[cerulean seal]

You could, but again, keep species abilities pretty tame. An aoe lingering effect may be a bit much unless you plan on giving them not much else.

Just because they are an obsidian gem dragonborn doesn't mean they need to be that much stronger unless that's just the type of game you are running

in which case more power to you

[hybrid elbow]

Agreed, that's why I'm making it a line instead of a cone, and at best, I still need to describe how long it lingers. This makes them more careful when using it, turning it into a temporary hazard.

[cerulean seal]

Do a 10ft long, 5ft wide line, until the end start of your next turn, deals like... 1d8 fire damage the first time they touch it or if they start their turn in the area on a failed dex save

[hybrid elbow]

I like it; it's a good starting point. I'm looking back at the standard line square length of a typical Dragonborn, so it might need some adjustment, but I think I have a good idea of how to help this player Thanks again.

[simple tinsel]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DI6zl9nwTdrydlbWbkhSa_vK9AKLCf2UqGk1FX_-WKU/edit?usp=sharing

Would like advice on this, usually i'm good with paladin subclasses but I had a bit of a struggle with this one to theme it around being dedicated to the hells

[cerulean seal]

Reading now

[simple tinsel]

thanks

[cerulean seal]

Infernal Whisper is cool, though, Paladins base class gives them stuff with Abjure Foes to inflict frightened condition as well. This is basically a weaker version of that but at a sooner level but I think the flavor and actual power is clashing it.

Spell list: Mostly fine, a few questionable spells maybe like Modify Memory and Greater invisibility. I know you are going for both hellish damaging and hellish charm sort of mix of flavors but they do feel a little clashing currently. I would stay on theme with strictly enchantment or the evocation stuff.

Fiendish Aura: Aura of Courage is already giving immunity to the frightened condition just 3 levels later so this feature loses a lot of milage.

Infernal Knight: Feels a little weird to be getting strictly damage buffs after getting mostly charm/freighted related features. I think if we want more damage output we should get some stuff a bit sooner to facilitate that.

Fiendish Form: It's fine. In line with other paladin capstones.

[simple tinsel]

the spell list was mostly me just trying to mix and match charm and spells i think fiends would use

[regal wren]

opinions on the balance of <deleted> sorcerer subclass? the idea was to focus more on metamagic, but I worry that it's a bit too plain and there's not enough breadth to the features

Embodiment of Patience is pretty weak for level 18, but I'm unsure of how I would improve it or what I would replace it with

I think the best thing to do is to move Embodiment of Patience to level 14, and then add a level 18 feature that adds another way to use sorcery points, but I'm unsure as to what that would be

also this is my first ever attempt at a homebrew subclass so please let me know if anything immediately strikes you as being off

[quaint granite]

Hey guys, I'm new to homebrew and I'd like some help/advice. I don't have a concept written up yet but this is the situation:

I'm playing CoS as an Aasimar who recently contracted lycantrophy. The backstory goes pretty much that I've had lycantrophy since childhood due to an attack where my uncle, who did contract it died, I survived and didn't show initial signs of lycantrophy. Me and my DM reasoned this is because the divine touch I have as an aasimar would suppress the lycantrophy so no signs are showing.

Now in CoS due to a werewolf attack I've contracted it again and through the procedure my DM has stated would "cure" it I'd like to overcome and control it. Not gain full lycantrophy abilities but rather adapt lycantrophic traits into my aasimar as it'd replace the divine element. I, however, have no idea how to balance that correctly.

An example of an adaptation would be: instead of necrotic and radiant resistance I'd have necrotic and slashing resistance but also a vulnerability to silver.

Can you guys help me make this? While the main traits are pretty okay if I change normal light to moonlight, I have trouble creating a balanced but thematic celestial revelation form.

[queen raven]

after some requests, I fixed up the Mystara Player's Guide. Can't put it on the guilds, so had to use Fan Creation License. 224 full color guide to the Known World, all original art, 30+ subclasses, dozens of spells, 5 new races, 3 new forms of magic, new feats, complete history of Mystara, and everything you need to play in the one classic D&D setting WOTC is hiding from you. Now with clearer instruction on the armiger's abilities.

https://freemystara.com/wp-content/uploads/Mystara-Revised-2.pdf

[icy furnace]

Is there any one that want an new player I have an tin bit of experience but I get confused with the dice so I’m new and I’m up for anything I just need teaching

[regal wren]

I think this is the wrong channel for that. for learning and stuff head to #dnd-newcomers , and for finding a game you can head to #find-a-game

[icy furnace]

Ok thank you

[regal wren]

oh there's also the channel #learn-to-play . you might wanna check that out as well

[shy elm]

[CONCEPT] Ninth level spell, “Alter Momentum”.
-description- The user is granted the ability to completely alter any object or creatures momentum as a reaction. (This includes movements that would normally defy the laws of physics.) For example, a projectile can be altered to fly back to its place of origin. (Or anywhere else the user would like to redirect it to.) Or the user can alter a creatures momentum. For example: a creature jumping over a large chasm or pit can have their momentum redirected downwards causing them to fall in.

The spell cannot redirect anything weighing over 1,000 pounds.

The spell lasts until 4 objects or creatures have their momentum altered, once this condition is met the spell ends.

(Just a concept, just looking for thoughts)

[acoustic jewel]

For my 5.5e game, I'm looking to make a vampiric construct that runs on blood as fuel and is super fast and deadly as a major boss for the next arc of my campaign. Are there any blood themed enemies or fast constructs I could use as a basis that already exist? (this boss concept is inspired by Ultrakill, if that helps those familiar with the game)

I suppose I could just take an existing vampire or some other enemy that heals on hit and turn it into a construct

[shy elm]

I recognized V1 immediately

[acoustic jewel]

Technically I'm basing it on V2, but same difference

[acoustic jewel]

I ended up giving the boss a gargoyle theme and used the stone golem as a basis. However, I'm still struggling to come up with a good way to add the whole "healing from blood" thing without needing to massively increase the CR of this creature

[shy elm]

V2 doesn’t heal with blood though?

[acoustic jewel]

I genuinely forgot, but that's the goal for this boss enemy

[shy elm]

He doesn’t have the plating V1 has

[shy elm]

Oh lol, well it’s rly cool

[acoustic jewel]

Thanks! And I'll probably just have the boss heal every time it hits with an attack

[shy elm]

Nice

It’d be cool if it could use blood for attacks as well like the blood hunters

[vagrant sundial]

Anybody have suggestions for map making tools? Im making maps inspired by GTFO so if anybody has experience with both that would really help

[acoustic jewel]

Personally I really like Dungeon Alchemist and Dungeondraft, but those are primarily made for medieval fantasy. There are more sci-fi/modern maps as well as assets you can get for those programs to work that way, though

[vagrant sundial]

thanks ill check both out, im currently using canva to run my campaign and its lowkey been very effective but lacking in style

[acoustic jewel]

Both of them that I suggested are one time purchases with no subscription service of any kind, by the way

[vagrant sundial]

oooh thats even better

[acoustic jewel]

Also, Dungeon Alchemist is technically "AI-Powered" in the last gen sense of procedurally generated maps that get filled with furniture and such that you can then edit as much as you want yourself or customize manually if you don't care for that stuff. I wanted to clarify ahead of time in case that's an issue, because it doesn't mean "AI-powered" in the modern sense

it's literally only "AI-powered" in the way that Minecraft can procedurally generate a map on its own

[vagrant sundial]

lol gotcha ty

[acoustic jewel]

Anyways, both are pretty good, Dungeon Alchemist can be a bit rough on a weaker device like mine, and has a more realistic artystyle. Dungeondraft is a much more cartoony artstyle and is the cheaper option

Dungeon Alchemist is only a problem because, while all the maps can be turned 2d, the maps are all made and rendered in a 3d space

Just depends on what you're looking for. Hope that's all helpful!

[lethal cedar]

So I always felt Martials in 5e had a bit of a shortcoming since casters have pretty much always outpaced them and I kinda liked the 5.5e addition of weapons getting properties (just not done to how i liked them)

Would you guys say this seems fair to use for my players?
https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-MazNoEpgkFz3bDKyvLs

[maiden marsh]

seems good to me, honestly

[lethal cedar]

thought your pfp was Tails and Shippo fused

[maiden marsh]

its Alternate Universe's tails (from an AU a friend of mine is drawing) and I liked it

[lethal cedar]

Oh

[lethal cedar]

...now I just gotta figure out a good weapon for the paladin

[jaunty belfry]

Sun Soul has some fantastic flavor but really seems like it needs an overhaul. Anyone ever taken a crack at doing a updated version?

[maiden marsh]

I DID

https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/1qfx9iu/oc_i_completely_reworked_sun_soul_monk_art_by/

[lethal cedar]

I remember bone wizard made one

[lethal cedar]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8L8I9IU9VU

[rancid geyser]

Hi, any advice on how to stat 1 single zip tie?

as a mundane item

[lethal cedar]

...what

...I guess the manacles

but lower the str dc to like, 10

[rancid geyser]

trying to basically fill up this supply room the players will come across, wondering what they might do if they use the zip ties

[lethal cedar]

wait why does your players have access to zip ties those are from the 1950s

[rancid geyser]

modern/sci fi homebrew setting

[lethal cedar]

Oh okay

Uh... I guess you can look at rope and the manacles for reference

[rancid geyser]

thanks

(not the usual DM just running a oneshot in the same world soon)

[lethal cedar]

I mean can't see many uses for zip ties past tying peoples hands together or locking a door

[rancid geyser]

...just in case someone somehow gets the idea to "repair" the rickety bridge with it... you never know

[lethal cedar]

also will say sometimes equipment doesn't have the full uses written out. Like rope only has 2 things written on it

• 2 hp
• breaks on a 17 str check

still one of the most useful items

[rancid geyser]

ah ok lol

thanks

[lethal cedar]

I'd say 1 hp and a 15 str dc to break

[graceful tiger]

Hey guys, I had this idea for a DnD homebrew campaign where magic is widely frowned upon and highly illegal. Magic users can’t help who they are in this world, using magic is just a part of them and they can’t push it down or hide it easily.

For context, I look at the real world and how people treat young queer and trans individuals and I hate it. I grew up closeted bc I was scared of how I’d be treated. So I’m very much offloading that onto this campaign.

I was just wondering what people would think of this, like how could magic systems be affected by the way this world works.

[fierce dome]

sounds like x-men but magic

probably a lot of campaigns play with those themes.

probably also better suited for #dm-discussion or #dm-world-building though, this channel is more for cooking up new mechanics than new stories

[graceful tiger]

Yeah I thought that but I kind of want to think about how magic systems could change for roles like wizards who learn magic.

[fierce dome]

narratively or mechanically? because those are different things

(that can be related in some ways but are still fundamentally separate)

[lethal cedar]

For a second thiught it was dark sun

[graceful tiger]

I mean that Wizards magic could be more unstable due to not being learned properly because of it being illegal.

[fierce dome]

you could maybe do something with the wild magic table. every time a spell of 1st level or higher is cast, have them roll a d6 or something, and on a 1 they roll on the wm table

im pretty sure wild magic zones are discussed in the dmg as an environmental hazard

(could be wrong, id have to look it up)

[keen halo]

You can also just say wizards don't exist in this world

Since no one teaches magic

Kapow

[cerulean seal]

Seems like everyone here is inherently a sorcerer

Rather than wizards or clerics

But maybe that doesn’t matter to much to you

[graceful tiger]

Not necessarily, wizards learn but in secrecy, warlocks make deals, but in silence and desperation, clerics vow to become things they fear in the name of helping others, druids seek connection out where no one will hate them for being who they are connecting to nature rather than people.

[graceful tiger]

I aimed my description at sorcerers but it’s different for all magic users

[cerulean seal]

Ah that makes sense

Big ask since I know it would be a lot of reading. I’m looking for feedback on the Subclasses for this homebrew class I’ve been working on.
I’m open to any feedback but I’m primarily looking for help with the subclasses.
This is my class called the Bonded. A half-caster inspired by heroes who get special powers from a magical companion. (Link/midna, Peterpan/Tinkerbell, etc.)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jrVXS-PFn0lv4tJYuS1nSC4SCdK7ksh9N5HBfK04V5A/edit?usp=drivesdk

[deep cedar]

Hello. I don't know why it took so long for me to find this group.

[deep cedar]

I'm double checking...is this the group to discuss the mechanics of creating homebrew in DnD B and making it work in game play? or is it more a sounding board for homebrew in general?

[keen halo]

Yes

[keen halo]

Just kidding, it's for anything player homebrew made

[vagrant egret]

DDB specific questions go to #ddb-support I think

[deep cedar]

seems to make sense but at some point it may me more an issue of user interface, ie my fingers don't know the correct things to do.

[prime cedar]

Made a subclass (debating whether it should be a barbarian or Druid subclass). How broken is it, and how can I tone it down, without losing the core theme of being able to gain any trait of a creature?

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-TOFLwY5RJ2DjpDFt_nwf5IU7r8rFSAk3Pd60iK1WKg/edit?usp=drivesdk

[simple tinsel]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DI6zl9nwTdrydlbWbkhSa_vK9AKLCf2UqGk1FX_-WKU/edit?usp=sharing

Alright i edited this subclass a bit to make it standout more and added some damage at lower levels to make it more fun, take a read if you wanna review it

[tough sorrel]

Ok can yall help me balance an item

So one of my players got the death gods cloak which cost him 6 dexterity to get. The party is level 17 and here are its effects so far

Imunity to necrotic damage, resistance to piercing and slashing damage
And if he kills something equal to or greater then half his level he gets snd extra action

[scenic urchin]

think that's beyond us to balance

[simple tinsel]

so he lost 6 dexterity in exchange for getting immunity to a sort've niche damage type, resistance to piercing and slashing, and if he kills a creature with an equal or above cr rating he gets an extra action

Unless bro has insane AC buffers to boost up his AC, i'd say the item really isn't that much

[tough sorrel]

He mostly rolled horibly on the saves to get the item which made all the flesh on his arms corode

He's a rouge

[simple tinsel]

I would've reduced strength or consitution if that was the case

[simple tinsel]

okay so yeah, that was a terrible trade off

[tough sorrel]

Hey I asked him if he wanted to keep going

[simple tinsel]

6 dexterity is insane

[tough sorrel]

He rolled really poorly

Like 7 8 7 6

[simple tinsel]

That isn't what i'm getting at

this item isn't even that good in the first place

[tough sorrel]

I know that's why I want help balancing it

[simple tinsel]

Okay let's see if I can help

[tough sorrel]

I was thinking giveing it the ability to walk through walls at half speed

[simple tinsel]

okay so like ethereal plane walking

[tough sorrel]

Yeah

Let me toss some ideas up here

[simple tinsel]

In that case look at the aether walk blood hunter ability and take inspiration from there

[tough sorrel]

A revival
Let him summon a syth

More necrotic damage

[tough sorrel]

Ok makes sense

[simple tinsel]

additionally, this is a very big suggestion (give him a "task" or "quest" which lets him restore like at least 2 of his dexterity)

[tough sorrel]

Ohhhhh

I could also split it up too - 2 from strength con and dex

Insted of -6 from dex

[simple tinsel]

I would do -3 strength -3 con if you wanna do something like that

since he is a rogue, I wouldn't make him suffer his main class ability

[tough sorrel]

The only problem i have with that is not feeling the weight of trying to get the item if you know what I mean

[simple tinsel]

instead of the extra action feature, grant him an ability to once per short rest or per long rest double his total sneak attack damage on a particular attack after killing a creature that is equal to or greater than his cr

extra attacks are useless for rogues since their damage comes from sneak attack

[tough sorrel]

I could make it a second turn

[simple tinsel]

all it does really is improve the odds of the sneak attack landing

[simple tinsel]

eh

its just easier to build up his rogue gameplay

and specialize that for his character

[tough sorrel]

Aighty

[simple tinsel]

if your going to give him "a second turn" i would change it to let him sneak attack twice per round a certain amount of times per short or long rest

[simple tinsel]

Dex doesn't really have to do anything with "your skin falls off from your body"

[tough sorrel]

So to sum up
Immunity to necrotic, resistance to slashing and piercing
Walk through things at half speed
Killing a cheater of at least half your level does effect

[simple tinsel]

if you want to make it more brutal do -2 strength and -4 con

con affects everyone and its especially brutal to classes who don't have high hp to begin with

[tough sorrel]

No he has no muscles either

[simple tinsel]

You get what im saying

[tough sorrel]

Yeah yeah yeah

[simple tinsel]

Also if he has no muscles, his body literally couldn't move

[tough sorrel]

It only got his arms

[simple tinsel]

okay then he can't move his arms to attack

[tough sorrel]

death God magic

[simple tinsel]

Make sure to have an ability that states that when he can only walk through objects for a certain amount of activated time (or a certain amount of times per long rest) and that he takes damage whilst continuing to be in those objects at the end of his turn

[tough sorrel]

Yeah

Activated time or amount???

[simple tinsel]

Up to you

if you do activated time let it last like a minute

if you do an amount of times, do like 3 per long rest or once per short rest

[tough sorrel]

Aighty

[forest aspen]

Hey is it allowed to post a dnd homebrew cyberpunk campaign?

[cerulean seal]

If you are looking for feedback on mechanics and such you can post here.
IF you are looking for players to join your campaign check #looking-for-players

[cerulean seal]

Please don't post Ai generated content. Write your own draft of this subclass in your own words and we can assist you. Ai content is banned on this server.

[royal marlin]

Artisan's Tools idea: Pyrotechnic Supplies/Pyrotechnician's kit

[true forge]

just looked at it and yeah, is heavy AI lol

[burnt cipher]

I've got a link for my reworked Mercy Monk Subclass if anyone wants to see.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KPUoVEjscv-7tgOazqUTH5BpA8cLoiSmilKRmqJsq_g/edit?tab=t.99fdx9i0sb4v

[simple gale]

I have a question, what's the best way to test out a homebrew creature to see if it's balanced?

[cobalt bramble]

Hey have a subclass I’ve been working on and wanted some feedback. It’s highly inspiring by Matt Mercers echo knight. I wanted to create the other side of the coin for dunamancy if echo knight is time and reality. This one is space and gravity.

https://www.dndbeyond.com/subclasses/2538835-warp-knight

Please let me know what you guys think and what I can improve.

[cerulean seal]

Compare it to creatures of similar CR or literally draft up generic player characters and run them against each other

[simple gale]

issue with the first one:
gimmicks.
(the unfortunate part is that since i cant send exact images i have no ability to show what i mean)

[cerulean seal]

Either put the imagine in Imgur and post or or paste it into a google doc and post the link here

[simple gale]

https://imgur.com/a/snow-whites-apple-dnd-5e-sheet-N5GvSNv

some grammatical mishaps here and there cause i made this really late at night

[fierce dome]

Why rework the best monk

[hasty rune]

Maybe he doesn't like the way they handled it

Reworks don't necessarily need to be about making things better, they can veery much be about taking the whole subclass in a different direction

[burnt cipher]

Because it's too strong as written and its mechanics don't entirely fit its theme. I reworked it to be more of a Healer Monk without letting it heal more than Cleric or Paladin (It is still a Martial Class first).

[fierce dome]

That is hilarious to me

No monk is "too strong"

It's a bit better in 24 than 14, but they're still a martial in a casters game

I also think it's one of the best themed monks they've ever written. Plague doctors healed when they could, yes, but they also spread the disease

[viral patio]

St Patrick's day coming up. And looking to do a homebrew for it. They still have a pyramid to go through. Im thinking about using that for st Patrick day event.

[burnt cipher]

In comparison to the rest of them, it most certainly was.
It's the same reason I nerfed Star Druid. Don't get me started with the Wild Magic Sorcerer comparison.

[high pendant]

I don't think it was much better or worse than the other monks. For sure gives more versatility than them but i wouldn't say its too powerful

[burnt cipher]

Versatility without a trade-off is still powerful, if not conventionally strong. But again, should a Monk Subclass be doing as much healing as a Paladin or Cleric?
Also, Hand of Ultimate Mercy is essentially Revivify without consuming Material Components.

[desert slate]

2 questions
one, is this balanced?
two, should this stay a racial trait or should it be a spell with a verbal component?

Voice of Reverseal
As a reaction to getting a condition (ex. charmed or poisoned) that doesn't restrict you from speaking, you may make a sound that is imbued with the condition, causing any creature within 30ft of you that can hear to make a DC 14 Charisma saving throw, or inherit the condition from you on a fail.

If no creature fails, you keep the condition and it is lengthened by 1d4 minutes.

If multiple creatures fail, you may choose to either give the condition in full to one creature, or spilt the conditions length by the amount of creatures you wish to affect and pick the aflicted creatures.

there isnt a race its connected to yet, still trying to figure out whatd fit it

[burnt cipher]

How would splitting a Condition work? Also, this is just Verbal Counterspell.

[hasty rune]

You still get the condition at least as written

[desert slate]

splitting a condition would divide its duration by the amount of creatures affected by it and give that divided duration to the selected ones

[burnt cipher]

What would happen with 'until the start/end of their/your next turn'?

[desert slate]

that stays the same, or if wanted by the player they could add up all the turns left in initiative as 6 seconds and divide that

turns left as in until the effect would normally end if it was normally dealt to the creature

[desert slate]

i wasnt intending that but that does seem easier to manage lol

[knotty flower]

what do you guys think of a rule that allows you to once again select CR 1 creatures to be sidekick characters? Except this time, they count as "Level 1 Monsters" and multiclass into sidekick now instead of take it as their first level/class.

[frank leaf]

The strongest martial will never be stronger than a wizard, simply because spells let you do more.

Spells are usually better than features on average with a few exceptions*.

Like Pally Aura

[frank leaf]

Vro, the solution to that is buffing the other Subclasses, not nerfing Mercy Monk imo . . .

The best one is probably Elements, so I don't even particularly agree that Mercy Monk is out of line

[burnt cipher]

When was Elements a strong Subclass?

[hollow siren]

be me
be trying to brew a Psion* subclass that’ll be more castery and generalist
be reading the psion subclasses to ensure I don’t step on the semi-official subclasses’ toes or at least too much
misread warp space from psi warper as warp sauce
laughs uncontrollably at the concept of the psi warper being built around the grease spell instead of misty step

*psion was autocorrected to spoon when I was making this joke

I figured out the best name for it that’ll surely not be super controversial right guys?

Mystic Psion

Anyway jokes aside having issues with this one, because I have a perfect level 3 ability and level 6 ability, but I’m struggling with the rest of them

The flavor and concept of the subclass is that it will be the more arcane magic subclass

However, it frankly is difficult to come up with distinct features that competes with psykinetic and telepath and it may even just be easier frankly to make the subclass a level 2 feature

[hasty rune]

Pretty sure the updated one is good

[hollow siren]

Yes updated elements is decent IIRC

[burnt cipher]

Dang it. And I made my own version too.

[hollow siren]

Hey it could be cool. Feel free to post it

Even if it’s a variant

I actually like variants myself tbh. Homebrew variants of official content are a great way to refine what’s already there

[frank leaf]

None of the Monk Subclasses are out of line in 5.5

Certainly not enough to nerf

But Elements is probably the best with AoE, extended reach, and a Fly Speed.

It just lets you actually do the most new stuff

Which in comparing to spell casters, is the biggest fault of Martials.

[hardy wing]

I’m trying to make a Sheepfolk dnd homebrew but I have no idea what to do with the wool. So far I have

Sure footed
Advantage on saving throws and ability checks to resist being knocked, prone, moved, against your will, shoved or pushed.
Herd Insinct
You gain proficiency in one of the following: animal handling, insite, persuasion.

What do I do with the wool?

I tried un armored defense but it would be too similar to lizard folk and I tried magic resistance but I figure that’s too op with sure footed already in there

[frank leaf]

I think somebody made one round here a while back, lemme see what they had. . .

Ah, right, this was cool

Prey Instinct: You have +1 bonus to initiative rolls and on your first round of combat you can take disengage action as a free action.

Free Disengage action

[hardy wing]

Ohhh fun

[frank leaf]

Also a climb speed and . . .

[hardy wing]

Oh I could just as that to sure footed

[frank leaf]

Goring Rush from Minotaur

"Goring Rush: Immediately after you move at least 20 feet in a straight line, you can make one melee attack with your Horns as a bonus action and add your proficiency bonus to the damage."

[frank leaf]

Resistance to cold damage maybe?

[hardy wing]

It’s small but it counts to something lol

[frank leaf]

So Surefooted, Cold resistance, maybe Prey Instinct if you like it

[hardy wing]

Very good thank you

[frank leaf]

Adding a slightly higher base move speed could be a good idea

35ft

Enough to push it into "safe side of strong" territory imo.

[hardy wing]

I’m making a sheepfolk beast tamer ranger with a swarm of wolfsheep as the flavoring for my partner token lol

So a Shepard sheepfolk

[frank leaf]

ACK BTW, I SUGGESTED BA

For the prey instinct lmao

Fogor I talked Abt with them that "free action" even in idea was busted lmao

[hardy wing]

lol its very rare that anything is a free action so I thought it was a bit op

[frank leaf]

To be clear, not provoking OAs first rounds sounds fine to me (as is BA Disengage Action)

But should prob just be described that way

"Free Action" is very dangerous territory

[hardy wing]

since im playing a ranger with little reason for the charge attack I just went with cold resistance and +1 to AC

now I just need to optimize combos for beast master

making an optimal ranger is a harsh climb my friend

[native quail]

Which of these seems more balanced?

Swift Tongue

General Feat (Prerequisite: Level 4+, Charisma 13+)
You gain the following benefits.
Ability Score Increase. Increase your Charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
Communication Knowledge. Choose one of the following skills: Deception, Intimidation, or Persuasion. If you lack proficiency in the chosen skill, you gain proficiency in it.
Quick Influence. You can take the Influence action as a Bonus Action.
or

Swift Tongue

General Feat (Prerequisite: Level 4+, Charisma 13+)
You gain the following benefits.
Ability Score Increase. Increase your Charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
Communication Knowledge. Choose one of the following skills: Deception, Intimidation, or Persuasion. If you lack proficiency in the chosen skill, you gain proficiency in it, and if you already have proficiency in it, you gain Expertise in it.
Quick Influence. When you take the Influence action, you can use your Bonus Action to make a weapon attack.

[scenic urchin]

first one

[daring gate]

Would I be able to run my (partly) homebrew boss by someone? I'm wondering if it's too strong for its cr.

[cerulean seal]

I’m looking for feedback on the Subclasses for this homebrew class I’ve been working on.
I’m open to any feedback but I’m primarily looking for help with the subclasses.
This is my class called the Bonded. A half-caster inspired by heroes who get special powers from a magical companion. (Link/midna, Peterpan/Tinkerbell, etc.)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jrVXS-PFn0lv4tJYuS1nSC4SCdK7ksh9N5HBfK04V5A/edit?usp=drivesdk

[static maple]

Its usually best to just share your homebrew creation then let people respond to it at their own time. Rather then trying to adresss a single person

[daring gate]

I can't send images here

[static maple]

Use a reputable image sharing site like imgur and share the link

[daring gate]

https://imgur.com/a/GZqKPXu hopefully this works

And thank you

[static maple]

It does yes

[daring gate]

Some of the DCs don't really work but throwing DC 25 saves on everything is diabolical

[daring gate]

Ty

[hasty rune]

So on soul rend you're making 3 constitution saving throws?

[pseudo ferry]

Made this for a player

Requirements: Flammable object
Duration: 30 mins
Rises from the Light (cleric spell)
You can summon 1 to 4 beings made of light.
These beings are essentially glass cannons: a touch causes a small explosion.

Roll 1d4 to bring light to life; each of these summoned creatures takes 2 of your hit points temporarily (+2 per level). If the roll would cause you to die, you will be left with 1 hit point.

Lightbringer:
HP: 2 (+2 per level)
STRENGTH: 10
VS: 10
DEX: 10
WISE: 10
INT: 10
CHAR: 10
AC: 10
Condition Immunities: Charmed, frightened
Actions: Touch of Light: The lightbringer touches a person or creature and upon contact, an explosion occurs, dealing 1d6 damage.
Passive Ability: Luminous Body. the creature’s body has a natural shine allowing vision even in darkness

[hasty rune]

Question, what spell level is this supposed to be

[pseudo ferry]

level 3

idk if its balanced its my first homebrew spell any tips?

[hasty rune]

It's not overpowered by any means, it could potentially be used for initiative bloat at later levels though not to any meaningful degree

Unless I'm missing something

[pseudo ferry]

oh okay thanks a lot thats honestly what i was reaching for!

[hasty rune]

Actually wait

You did not write how long they last

[pseudo ferry]

i added it just after i sent it

i forgot to put it in (its 30minutes)

[hasty rune]

Okay good cause otherwise people could just spam them in their downtime

[pseudo ferry]

yeah i also added a requirement for a flammable object m, but also thanks a lot dude

[thin haven]

Natural padding: when receiving damage, use a reaction to negate up to 1d4 + CON mod. This feature can be used up to a number of time equal to proficiency bonus and all uses are regained after a long rest. Dmg negation is raised to 2d4 + CON when reach player lvl 5 and up to 3d4 + CON at lvl 11

[hardy wing]

That’s brilliant

[thin haven]

Alternatively there is also room for an ally support thing. Remove the scaling and be able to apply it to an ally within 30 ft if they take a hit instead. Basically throw wool at your buddy like a Kevlar fastball

[hardy wing]

That is so hilarious

[rapid urchin]

Can someone explain to me like I'm five how I'm supposed to make subclass feature tables & spell list tables on D&D Beyond?

[cerulean seal]

Check #ddb-support they should be able to help you out

[scarlet coral]

Anyone got a better name for a Druid subclass focused on turning into plants? Originally I was going for Circle of the Gardens but I thought I could do better, went from Circle of the Elder Gardens, Circle of the Glass Gardens, Circle of the Emerald Gardens but I wanna hear what others think. Thoughts?

[daring gate]

Yeaa

One for each condition

It's a little weird I suppose but i didn't want to throw a DC 25 wave for all 3

[frank leaf]

Circle of Glades?

[cerulean seal]

Circle of Gardens is nice tbh.
But if you don’t want that could do something like… Circle of Botany
Circle of Botanical Gardens
Circle of Vegetation
Circle of Shrubbery
Circle of Foliage
Circle of Verdure

[blissful escarp]

Hey, I am a new dm, and I wanted to make an item, a potion to be specific, could would anyone be willing to look at my notes and give some feedback?

[cerulean seal]

Sure just send the details here

[blissful escarp]

Potion of tromtadration
Your body swells and then explodes forcing everyone around you to make a dex saving throw (15)
Each creature takes (4 + your Con mod)d6 damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
The damage type is determined by rolling a die and gives the creature an additional effect on a failed save,
Then your body reconstitutes itself during your next next turn using up all of your base movement speed. Take a constitution saving throw. Failure: you spend your action vomiting
Damage types: cold (+ restrained for 1 turn), fire (placeholder), acid (placeholder), necrotic (placeholder), force (push away 20ft).
Not sure about all of the effects yet

I was hoping for something surprising, with a fun effect, that is also useful

The potion will have a label that will say: "for combat, don't drink near allies"

What do you think?

[keen halo]

So there's the age old thing where martials suck compared to casters.

I want to homebrew a "superhero" system that is available to martials, similarly to spell slots, that scales martials as well.

They'll have access to "Powers" and those powers are inherently "supernatural"

E.g. A fighter has a "inhuman" point he can expend, for a power. The power is sometging along the lines of how he's so martially adept he's able to cross the battlefield quickly - choose up to 3 enemy creatures, quickly dash between them and hit each one with a simple melee strike. Your weapon die and modifiers etc etc."

Just a quick idea of course. Say it's a level 3 inhuman power. (level 3 spell slot)

Etc etc the list goes on.

Could such an extensive list exclusively for martials work to somehow balance them if I run a campaign?

Maybe even throw in ways for them to expend a slot to help mental saves, or give them martial feats for their saves?

"warriors courage" is a half feat for +1 con and proficiency wisdom saving throws - your toughness in battle, bravery and countless enemies faced increase both your physical and mental fortitude.

Possibly even going into powers like gokus instant transmission, kaioken, etc - supernatural "martial" powers

Super speed, where you can concentrate and triple your movement speed and for a 10 minute duration or 1 minute duration you don't provoke AoO while walking out of enemy's range, maybe it's a level 4 martial spell - which would let you move around the battlefield and feel more free

[clear spade]

You could look at just merging the "Ki/Focus Point" mechanics into other martial classes.

[keen halo]

That would make monks feel obsolete

I'd rather give monks straight up kamehamehas in that case lol

These powers are meant to be for everyone, but they're very generalized with only some of them being class specific

The same way almost all spell casters can learn fireball

[keen halo]

Nvm, not almost all, but a majority

Any thoughts?

[bleak bay]

you could do what Windy said but also gives monks a new system to make up for it.

[keen halo]

So everyone has ki and can do what monks do, but monks get an additional layer?

That still sounds like monk would be obsolete

[frank leaf]

Spell-like features are probably the best easiest way to do this. Which I'm always for.

[frank leaf]

The martial caster divide is easier defined than you'd think

Harder to solve.

[analog pine]

every martial brew leads back to 4e :) (this is not quite 4e because spell slots, but giving martials stuff is something 4e does!!!)

[frank leaf]

2 things:

• AOE Spells
• Spells let you do things. Like, without needing to roll checks for DM fiat

[bleak bay]

maybe add proficiency so only monks can use it at 100%? on stop of the new system whatever you decide that to be

[keen halo]

Yeah that's what I had in mind

Ergo being able to slice 3 creatures quickly

Is technically just an aoe spell flavored for a fighter

[keen halo]

Also there's a dm in DM discussion that heavily disagrees with the caster vs martial gap, he runs many sessions and even at high levels to him the martials are doing just fine

He's literally a professional DM so that's quite sick

[frank leaf]

A) Exceptions are not the rule
B) "Fine" does not mean equal

The math in all means speaks for itself

[keen halo]

I'll rephrase

[frank leaf]

AOE multiplies damage by the number of targets, and half on a save gives guaranteed damage

[keen halo]

He said his melees carry
He's done over 7 max level campaigns in the past few years
And his adventuring days go on for multiple sessions

Ergo casters don't keep up during all encounters

You're welcome to challenge him, I'd love to see both perspectives. It was nice to see someone stand up for martials though lol

[keen halo]

Would u like to try working on something like a martial spell list?

Or would anyone like to do it with me?

[analog pine]

💀
either his players have a skill issue or he babies the martials

[frank leaf]

Yup. Exactly as I thought

The exception

[bleak bay]

it sounds fun but I dont have enough knowledge on the topic sadly

[frank leaf]

Average table does. Not. Do that.

[analog pine]

I can give tips on stuff but I'm not really interested in fixing 5e martials

fixing something that broken is just a lot of work compared to switching systems

[frank leaf]

And saying "people should just play the right way" is a joke, when it is far from realistic you can get even a chunk of tables to run that way.

[keen halo]

If he's dmed for over 40 years and does it professionally with fully booked tables surely he's doing sometging correct?

Playing full raw and only published content

[keen halo]

The idea is to just create a very simplified system to support them and bring it up a bit

Like I said I would love to see a debate from both ends

[frank leaf]

Yes, but if it can't be expected the average table will do that, how can we expect to balance martials around a version of the game only the top 1% most experienced or compromising players play?

It's like balancing Valorant around competitive

Which killed the game

[fierce dome]

i mean, my table game often takes 3-5 sessions to go through a single adventuring day, and there's at least an encounter or two a session

i dont think its that uncommon, its just not brought up as much online because people playing that way experience less of a martial/caster gap and have less reason to go online and complain

its definitely uncommon in actual-play podcasts, which sorta set the example for a lot of people, but those are designed as entertainment, not as games

[frank leaf]

That's definitely true, but a number of creator surveys bring up that they aren't the majority

But they def aren't end all be all

Even still, the split I think is common enough there should be an inherent effort to prevent these issues

[keen halo]

I mean, Google and Ai both say the average encounter day is 6-8 encounters

With 2-3 big ones

[frank leaf]

(I'd HEAVILY grain of salt that)

[keen halo]

Idk man it sounds logical

Maybe not 8 every time but

[frank leaf]

Did you at least read it's sources

The engine is designed to sound logical

[keen halo]

I said Google as in my searches across reddit etc

And Ai on top of it

[stuck raptor]

dont trust AI

[analog pine]

Ai

the average amount of encounters at casual tables is much lower, both from my experience and from polls online.

6-8 is just a good amount of encounters because limited resources are an important part of 5e

[stuck raptor]

(6-8 Medium encounters btw though was what the DMG said, less for Deadlier)

[analog pine]

medium encounters are soooo easy
that's the dmg giving bad advice

well maybe the advice is fine with melee party members.

[stuck raptor]

TBF, monsters were built generally like shit in 2014

[keen halo]

If you're making a fully optimized table then you're already playing a different game...

So the whole question is already thrown out the table

Like, wizard said 90% of what she plays now is optimized level 16 one shots

[analog pine]

I mean even at the average table that might be say low-mid optimization

medium is just not medium in 5e. deadly is the actual medium

[keen halo]

And when I asked if she wanted me to DM for her she hesitated under a table that's not at least med-high op

[keen halo]

The average person isn't as well versed and as proficient/going to play as optimally as you

[fierce dome]

I have literally never trusted AI and never will

[keen halo]

Ai makes many mistakes

[analog pine]

yeah ik, that's why I said the average table

[keen halo]

I've never said I trust it blindly

[keen halo]

Yeah so the dm with 40 years of gameplay has probably ran more average tables than not

[stuck raptor]

(the 40 isnt from years)

[frank leaf]

https://scrollforinitiative.com/2024/12/01/encounter-balance-in-2024-better-or-worse/

WoTC has taken to less encounters per day

[keen halo]

Huh

[frank leaf]

It's a fact, and so seeing as they're going that direction, we need to adjust accordingly

[fierce dome]

Personally, I like lots of medium to hard encounters with maybe one or two deadly on top

[frank leaf]

Aaaaand that leans in Caster's favor

[analog pine]

I had forgotten that 5.5 removed the adventuring day 💀

[frank leaf]

Because of half on a save being more consistent damage, plus AOE

[fierce dome]

My weekly table game frequently ends up with the whole party (except the right and fighter) utterly drained of resources and panting and wondering if we'll survive an encounter with like five zombies at level 7

[frank leaf]

Which invalidates the point that people just need to "play right".

Because even WoTC gave up on trying

[fierce dome]

The game is better played that way

[frank leaf]

It's a solution for those who want it

[analog pine]

I'm sorry but who is this dm with 40 years of gameplay

[keen halo]

Idk man

Like, it's your word vs his yknow?

[fierce dome]

It's what it's designed for. Playing a different way is using a hammer to shovel snow

[keen halo]

I know mathematically casters are better

But if a player doesn't do the math to be better, it might not be better in that table

[frank leaf]

. . . What?

[analog pine]

yeah, there isn't a "right" and "wrong" way to play, though playing with fewer encounters further exacerbates the issues with 5e and the martial/caster divide

[frank leaf]

It's the math's word vs his word

[fierce dome]

Now, 24/5.5 took some steps to try to address that not everyone plays that way. And I do think the situations improved

Just...not improved enough for the people who aren't playing the game with longer adventuring days

[keen halo]

I don't think the claim was that casters aren't stronger

Just that martials keep up/thrive in his tables

[frank leaf]

Exactly. That's more reasonable

But definitely not what I wanna settle for

Personally . . .

[fierce dome]

I would say casters aren't stronger. They're stronger when they can nova without consequences

[keen halo]

I also don't think martials are in a horrible space

Since the VAST MAJORITY doesn't optimize - the vast majority doesn't feel the gap as bad

[fierce dome]

Which is a lot of the time, given how a bunch people play the game

[keen halo]

Like let's be honest dnd is about fun and most players don't think about how to squeeze the most out of their class, they want to live their fantasy

[fierce dome]

Yeah, I've never played at an optimized table where people are using simulacrum exploits or whatever

And I don't think I'd want to

[keen halo]

Each time someone brings up an optimized build it's always a

1. Nah this wouldn't even be fun to play/the DM wouldn't even allow this

2. I usually only play it in one shots

[fierce dome]

I gain no joy out of trying to break the game

[keen halo]

So then, it's not even the same game to begin with

[frank leaf]

(Maybe I would too, so only I could have a BBEG outsmart them like faking being their Simulacrum to get in close)

[keen halo]

Also if you can break the game who's to say the DM can't lol

[fierce dome]

Hahahaha that could be awesome

[frank leaf]

When players are power gaming, out power gaming with the antagonist is more mind blowing

If you can do it without being too much cheesier*

[keen halo]

Yeah, so then it's just a who's gonna break the game more..

Would yoy want to play in a table where EVERYONE is optimizing?

[fierce dome]

Like, I wouldn't play at a super un-optimized table where the wizard has -1 INT at level 11, either

That should be said

[keen halo]

That's why I kinda wanted to homebrew the martial spells

Homebrewinf for martial optimization

[keen halo]

Of course

Naturally the average player sinks high stats to their main stats, picks cool spells and calls it a day

That's genuinely the average player

[frank leaf]

I'd absolutely try it. Doesn't seem like smth I would accustom too, but trying smth different would be fun

[fierce dome]

But I also think a level 11 wizard with +3 INT who didn't take fireball because they wanted water breathing is fine

[keen halo]

So encounters end in max 2 turns and then what

You either stomp or get stomped?

[keen halo]

Isn't there a lightning bolt spell which is essentially fireball?

[frank leaf]

. . . Average combat is 2-3 rounds anyway

[analog pine]

back when I was a 5e skrub, it was still pretty easy to notice that there were some pretty major issues with martials vs casters even if the casters aren't very experienced

it's so easy for a casual player to stumble across conjure animals, spirit guardians, fireball, simulacrum, etc

[keen halo]

Again disagree lol

[fierce dome]

A bard that doesn't take silvery barbs is still viable, regardless of what Reddit says lol

[frank leaf]

Like, actually average. This ain't a debate

[keen halo]

Some dms don't even allow it

[frank leaf]

It is usually less than 3 rounds or less

[keen halo]

Okay how many mobs are in those 2 or 3 rounds

How many actions are being taken

[fierce dome]

(I think those DMs are overreacting)

[keen halo]

Well, you can always silvery barbs a silvery barbs

[fierce dome]

(species flight is fine too)

[analog pine]

btw, tabletop builds has a good collection of straight classed 2014 phb only builds meant to not be too powerful for the average table while still being good and effective

[keen halo]

Sounds good to me then

I'll take a well optimized average build over a darn idk

[analog pine]

https://tabletopbuilds.com/basic-build-series-introduction/

[frank leaf]

That's a different point

[keen halo]

Moon knight techo disco bard

[frank leaf]

(Give the guards crossbow, bam.)

[keen halo]

Yeah vuman archery sharpshooter BM fighter

Sounds about right

[analog pine]

oh wait they're not phb only but they only use phb subclasses iirc

[keen halo]

So none of u would be down to make some sort of martial spell list? It wouldn't have to be super deep

[frank leaf]

I mean, I could tomorrow probably. If that isn't too late.

Want a different one for each martial?

Or, like, perhaps you could have a Stat Prequisite?

Like needing high Dex for super speed?

[keen halo]

I think a different one for each martial, where certain spells overlap

[keen halo]

That's cool though! Maybe certain SPELLS require those stats

But those spells are still available to everyone

So you could have either a fighter speed blitz 3 mobs or a monk but if the fighter is playing strength con then they can't

[frank leaf]

Why not have them all have Prequisites? Either stat, or a few select needing a class?

[keen halo]

Yeah sounds good

Some prerequisites would just be very basic

While some a bit more nuanced

[frank leaf]

Like Weapon Mastery, as opposed to smth rare like Evasion

[keen halo]

I reckon all martials get the same points, call it Martial Prowess maybe?

[frank leaf]

"Might Points" maybe?

[keen halo]

And they get Prowess Points they can use to "use" their Martial Powers

[scenic urchin]

shorten it to MP

[keen halo]

Prowess is just the name of the genre

[frank leaf]

Might Points turned to MP is hilarious

Lmfao

[keen halo]

Same way you have Spellcasting - spell slots

[frank leaf]

(PP being like Pokemon is also ironic lol)