I've been playing DnD for over a year at this point, and have DMed several one-shots and a full campaign: W:DH. My group has recently gone through a few changes (dropping a player or two while picking up one or two) and the current DM is one of those leaving. My experience with homebrew has left a bad taste in my mouth, but I'd like to give it another shot. It's likely our group will be heading into Curse of Strahd as our next campaign, and I'd have more fun DMing it than playing. With a new campaign, setting, and level 1 characters, this should be a good time to re-introduce homebrew into our group. I have several questions to ask those of you who have used homebrew content.
1. Is it a good idea to have homebrew content in a published campaign?
2. Will it be a problem to add homebrew if I own all the published 5e books?
My concern is that homebrew might not be needed since we have access to so many classes/races/items as it is.
3. What homebrew should I include? Classes? Races? items only? Even though I've used homebrew before, I haven't really delved into it much.
I'm a newbie DM so take my .02 for what it's worth. In the group I'm DMing, we first played through Lost Mines (I was a player then while my bro DM'd for me and his kids) then we connected that to tyranny of dragons and I'm DMing now. The magic items available in the published adventure were mostly worthless to our party. Probably because our party is really imbalanced. (2 rangers, a rogue, and a paladin.) So going into tyranny of dragons, I knew that we would need to replace those magic items a lot sooner than the published module would allow. And the items given toward the end of the module were too OP (and also impractical for our party, not enough magic users), so I found some homebrew items on here and some official items and made an arcanist's shop available in Baldur's Gate that had some uncommon magic weapons available for purchase. One may have been a rare. (We're all L5, pushing in on L6.)
Currently I'm working on homebrewing some items for the party that will suit their style of play better than the items in the published adventure. I also had to give them a bag of coinage because the party are loot fiends and were all starting to get encumbered with the weight of coins. And a handy haversack because they will pick up anything that isn't nailed down (my rogue may have a hand in that one) and encumbrance was starting to be an issue.
With access to all the official races and classes, you shouldn't need to homebrew that stuff unless one of your players really wants to be something not available. But there's a near-infinite variety with all the extra compendia available.
My advice is to look at what is in the module and decide if it works for your players and the characters they've created. If it doesn't or you want to homebrew something really cool that fits with their backstory or their character choices (thinking of Fjord's pact weapon in CR as an example of one that is probably a homebrew to tie it in more closely to the warlock patron as powers unlock and stuff), then don't be afraid to replace a published reward with a homebrewed one. And if the classes or races don't perfectly fit what you're going for with the adventure, then homebrew that too.
Huge question for you: do you mean re-introducing homebrew by allowing your players to work with you to modify existing, or do you mean telling your players that the homebrew creations on this sight are allowed?
I ask, because you can easily find quality homebrew on here, but also can find some pretty outlandish ones as well. Some of the items and feats I have seen make me wonder if it's just someone having fun, or if their DM actually allowed it.
With that said, I allow homebrew in my campaigns. For items, I create or add items in all the time if it fits or creates an interesting story. Think of the sword and breastplate in LMoP. They were pretty much just +1 items, but had names and a decent backstory in the item description. A lot more fun to find something like that than a basic rare item. I sometimes use homebrew items to help develop the lore by giving them something unique to research. If the players want an item that does certain things, I have a place or two in the big cities where they can commission it.
For feats I tell my players to bring me any that catch their eye. If it isn't balanced, I will work with them on why they want it, what they expect to get out of it, and figure a way to make it happen. Sometimes that means making a similar but properly scaled version of the homebrew feat. Similar process for races and classes, but so far no one in my campaigns have asked to do non official races or classes.
I've been playing DnD for over a year at this point, and have DMed several one-shots and a full campaign: W:DH. My group has recently gone through a few changes (dropping a player or two while picking up one or two) and the current DM is one of those leaving. My experience with homebrew has left a bad taste in my mouth, but I'd like to give it another shot. It's likely our group will be heading into Curse of Strahd as our next campaign, and I'd have more fun DMing it than playing. With a new campaign, setting, and level 1 characters, this should be a good time to re-introduce homebrew into our group. I have several questions to ask those of you who have used homebrew content.
1. Is it a good idea to have homebrew content in a published campaign?
2. Will it be a problem to add homebrew if I own all the published 5e books?
My concern is that homebrew might not be needed since we have access to so many classes/races/items as it is.
3. What homebrew should I include? Classes? Races? items only? Even though I've used homebrew before, I haven't really delved into it much.
4. General tips? Greatly appreciated if so.
I will let you in on a little secret...unless you are in AL and running AL content in a sanctioned AL event, you are likely a DM with at least some "homebrewed" material. The game is in fact predicated upon it. Gygax thought that every DM would have his own dungeon that he was the "master" of, and thus was carefully cultivating and maturing their own special world. Published campaign worlds and adventures still posit that your Troupe occupies a role in the undefined edges of the world. You can of course, say for instance that the Player Characters take the place of the ruling Cormyrian nobles instead of the current canon ones, but that is really just the same thing. PCs are inserted into the world.
Now, I for instance have been running a quasi-persistent campaign set in the forgotten realms since 3.0 shipped. As such the players, old and new, understand that prior events still echo into the present as it were and that known NPCs or places can be relied on to be present. It is an established, published world that I have placed my spin on. For instance, Cyric and Mask never killed Mystra and thus the Spellplague never happened in my world. But it does mean that I can't use the established calendar or years, because my world doesn't have to take in to account the 100 years of hell that the Spellplague and Second Sundering in canon wrought on Toril.
But back to your questions:
Homebrew anything you like, even if you have published stuff. Eliminate published stuff if you want to as well. Just because WotC decided to publish it, does not mean you have to include it. I, for instance, do not have Dragonborn in my world.
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I've been playing DnD for over a year at this point, and have DMed several one-shots and a full campaign: W:DH. My group has recently gone through a few changes (dropping a player or two while picking up one or two) and the current DM is one of those leaving. My experience with homebrew has left a bad taste in my mouth, but I'd like to give it another shot. It's likely our group will be heading into Curse of Strahd as our next campaign, and I'd have more fun DMing it than playing. With a new campaign, setting, and level 1 characters, this should be a good time to re-introduce homebrew into our group. I have several questions to ask those of you who have used homebrew content.
1. Is it a good idea to have homebrew content in a published campaign?
2. Will it be a problem to add homebrew if I own all the published 5e books?
My concern is that homebrew might not be needed since we have access to so many classes/races/items as it is.
3. What homebrew should I include? Classes? Races? items only? Even though I've used homebrew before, I haven't really delved into it much.
4. General tips? Greatly appreciated if so.
I'm a newbie DM so take my .02 for what it's worth. In the group I'm DMing, we first played through Lost Mines (I was a player then while my bro DM'd for me and his kids) then we connected that to tyranny of dragons and I'm DMing now. The magic items available in the published adventure were mostly worthless to our party. Probably because our party is really imbalanced. (2 rangers, a rogue, and a paladin.) So going into tyranny of dragons, I knew that we would need to replace those magic items a lot sooner than the published module would allow. And the items given toward the end of the module were too OP (and also impractical for our party, not enough magic users), so I found some homebrew items on here and some official items and made an arcanist's shop available in Baldur's Gate that had some uncommon magic weapons available for purchase. One may have been a rare. (We're all L5, pushing in on L6.)
Currently I'm working on homebrewing some items for the party that will suit their style of play better than the items in the published adventure. I also had to give them a bag of coinage because the party are loot fiends and were all starting to get encumbered with the weight of coins. And a handy haversack because they will pick up anything that isn't nailed down (my rogue may have a hand in that one) and encumbrance was starting to be an issue.
With access to all the official races and classes, you shouldn't need to homebrew that stuff unless one of your players really wants to be something not available. But there's a near-infinite variety with all the extra compendia available.
My advice is to look at what is in the module and decide if it works for your players and the characters they've created. If it doesn't or you want to homebrew something really cool that fits with their backstory or their character choices (thinking of Fjord's pact weapon in CR as an example of one that is probably a homebrew to tie it in more closely to the warlock patron as powers unlock and stuff), then don't be afraid to replace a published reward with a homebrewed one. And if the classes or races don't perfectly fit what you're going for with the adventure, then homebrew that too.
My Homebrew Backgrounds | Feats | Magic Items | Monsters | Races | Subclasses
Huge question for you: do you mean re-introducing homebrew by allowing your players to work with you to modify existing, or do you mean telling your players that the homebrew creations on this sight are allowed?
I ask, because you can easily find quality homebrew on here, but also can find some pretty outlandish ones as well. Some of the items and feats I have seen make me wonder if it's just someone having fun, or if their DM actually allowed it.
With that said, I allow homebrew in my campaigns. For items, I create or add items in all the time if it fits or creates an interesting story. Think of the sword and breastplate in LMoP. They were pretty much just +1 items, but had names and a decent backstory in the item description. A lot more fun to find something like that than a basic rare item. I sometimes use homebrew items to help develop the lore by giving them something unique to research. If the players want an item that does certain things, I have a place or two in the big cities where they can commission it.
For feats I tell my players to bring me any that catch their eye. If it isn't balanced, I will work with them on why they want it, what they expect to get out of it, and figure a way to make it happen. Sometimes that means making a similar but properly scaled version of the homebrew feat. Similar process for races and classes, but so far no one in my campaigns have asked to do non official races or classes.
I will let you in on a little secret...unless you are in AL and running AL content in a sanctioned AL event, you are likely a DM with at least some "homebrewed" material. The game is in fact predicated upon it. Gygax thought that every DM would have his own dungeon that he was the "master" of, and thus was carefully cultivating and maturing their own special world. Published campaign worlds and adventures still posit that your Troupe occupies a role in the undefined edges of the world. You can of course, say for instance that the Player Characters take the place of the ruling Cormyrian nobles instead of the current canon ones, but that is really just the same thing. PCs are inserted into the world.
Now, I for instance have been running a quasi-persistent campaign set in the forgotten realms since 3.0 shipped. As such the players, old and new, understand that prior events still echo into the present as it were and that known NPCs or places can be relied on to be present. It is an established, published world that I have placed my spin on. For instance, Cyric and Mask never killed Mystra and thus the Spellplague never happened in my world. But it does mean that I can't use the established calendar or years, because my world doesn't have to take in to account the 100 years of hell that the Spellplague and Second Sundering in canon wrought on Toril.
But back to your questions:
Homebrew anything you like, even if you have published stuff. Eliminate published stuff if you want to as well. Just because WotC decided to publish it, does not mean you have to include it. I, for instance, do not have Dragonborn in my world.