Hey all, first time DMing and one of my players asked me to run a homebrew character and race which sounded interesting, so I quickly glanced over the first couple pages and judging by stat rolls and it seemed fairly balanced. We procedded to play the session (Spelljammer at LVL 6), and he proceeded to wipe the floor with enemies, doing an average of 20-30 damage per turn, and healing by 8-20 per turn, and having advantage on ability checks because of this.
I'm really nervous as i dont want to come across as rude by asking to modify his homebrew or asking him to tone it down a little, but i also want the encounters to have tension, and avoiding everyone going down whilst he solos. ANy advice for what i should say/do?
You are new at this and you need to make him understand that and you shouldn't be expected to deal with such a wildly broken character. It isn't fair to you or the other players, and I would kindly request that he roll up a traditional character, and by kindly I mean that his OP homebrew isn't allowed in your game.
Honestly I would just say "hey man, I thought that this homebrew was ok but it's clearly way overpowered. I'm happy for you to keep the character but I'll need you to remake them as a standard race/class. Maybe we can do homebrew races once I'm a bit better at judging these things!"
It isn't going to be a big deal. Do you know what the race and class were?
20-30 damage per round at level six is only a little higher than average, especially depending on whether that's the damage they're always doing, or if they're using a consumable resource to get that damage (like paladin smites or superiority dice), but the healing per round is what really sounds broken to me. No race or class in the game has passive healing like that, and that's for a very good reason. You should definitely see that as a red flag when evaluating homebrew going forward.
Custom Race + Custom Class, both of which he created
Do you have more detail on what sort of abilities the race and class have?
As a new DM I would probably suggest just putting a blanket ban on homebrew, just makes it fair for everyone at the table and makes it easier on you as you don't need to worry as much about unbalanced abilities cropping up, I would also argue that you would be within your right to disallow multiclassing as there can be some questionable rules interpretations and bullshit overpowered builds.
Don't think I would do this personally but it is something you would be within your rights to do.
If you do want to allow some level of homebrew I would say it is best to err on the side of keeping it underpowered rather than potentially allowing something overpowered. Weapons and items are usually the easiest to homebrew, races are ok so long as they stick to the standard template, classes and subclasses are a hard no unless it is something that has been thoroughly playtested and peer reviewed like the Blood Hunter or something from a 3rd party but well reviewed sourcebook or something.
In regards to races though I would still be hesitant to include homebrew races unless the player can make a very persuasive argument that makes sense as to why this race suddenly exists within the world, nothing worse then having a group with normal characters and then the special snowflake with their special one of a kind race that only exists for their character, especially if there are races within the official material that would have fit the character concept just as well. If a player tries to come to the table with a homebrew race like "Nephilim" or "Seraphim" or "Fallen Angel" or something like that just tell them "We have Nephilim at home" and give them the stat block for Aasimar.
I would agree with previous posters. I wouldn't allow homebrew as a new DM. You're still learning what it means and how to work the other side of the screen. It's exactly the same reason I limit new players to Player's Handbook content only. They need to get to grips with the game first before they can think about expanding beyond the basics.
If the player in question is comfortable homebrewing a race/class I would guess that they are familiar with the game. In which case being honest and saying you weren't sure about how classes and races should be balanced previously shouldn't be an issue.
I would ask them to either choose a new character (with their existing character heading off on their own for a while) so that you have time to get to grips with DMing. You've always got the opportunity for that character to return when you are more confident with what sorts of homebrew can work and retain balance and parity with official races/classes.
Hey all, first time DMing and one of my players asked me to run a homebrew character and race which sounded interesting, so I quickly glanced over the first couple pages and judging by stat rolls and it seemed fairly balanced.
We procedded to play the session (Spelljammer at LVL 6), and he proceeded to wipe the floor with enemies, doing an average of 20-30 damage per turn, and healing by 8-20 per turn, and having advantage on ability checks because of this.
I'm really nervous as i dont want to come across as rude by asking to modify his homebrew or asking him to tone it down a little, but i also want the encounters to have tension, and avoiding everyone going down whilst he solos. ANy advice for what i should say/do?
You are new at this and you need to make him understand that and you shouldn't be expected to deal with such a wildly broken character. It isn't fair to you or the other players, and I would kindly request that he roll up a traditional character, and by kindly I mean that his OP homebrew isn't allowed in your game.
Honestly I would just say "hey man, I thought that this homebrew was ok but it's clearly way overpowered. I'm happy for you to keep the character but I'll need you to remake them as a standard race/class. Maybe we can do homebrew races once I'm a bit better at judging these things!"
It isn't going to be a big deal. Do you know what the race and class were?
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Custom Race + Custom Class, both of which he created
Also just wanted to thank ou both for your kind replies
20-30 damage per round at level six is only a little higher than average, especially depending on whether that's the damage they're always doing, or if they're using a consumable resource to get that damage (like paladin smites or superiority dice), but the healing per round is what really sounds broken to me. No race or class in the game has passive healing like that, and that's for a very good reason. You should definitely see that as a red flag when evaluating homebrew going forward.
Do you have more detail on what sort of abilities the race and class have?
As a new DM I would probably suggest just putting a blanket ban on homebrew, just makes it fair for everyone at the table and makes it easier on you as you don't need to worry as much about unbalanced abilities cropping up, I would also argue that you would be within your right to disallow multiclassing as there can be some questionable rules interpretations and bullshit overpowered builds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkpa1j1yYqQ
Don't think I would do this personally but it is something you would be within your rights to do.
If you do want to allow some level of homebrew I would say it is best to err on the side of keeping it underpowered rather than potentially allowing something overpowered. Weapons and items are usually the easiest to homebrew, races are ok so long as they stick to the standard template, classes and subclasses are a hard no unless it is something that has been thoroughly playtested and peer reviewed like the Blood Hunter or something from a 3rd party but well reviewed sourcebook or something.
In regards to races though I would still be hesitant to include homebrew races unless the player can make a very persuasive argument that makes sense as to why this race suddenly exists within the world, nothing worse then having a group with normal characters and then the special snowflake with their special one of a kind race that only exists for their character, especially if there are races within the official material that would have fit the character concept just as well. If a player tries to come to the table with a homebrew race like "Nephilim" or "Seraphim" or "Fallen Angel" or something like that just tell them "We have Nephilim at home" and give them the stat block for Aasimar.
I would agree with previous posters. I wouldn't allow homebrew as a new DM. You're still learning what it means and how to work the other side of the screen. It's exactly the same reason I limit new players to Player's Handbook content only. They need to get to grips with the game first before they can think about expanding beyond the basics.
If the player in question is comfortable homebrewing a race/class I would guess that they are familiar with the game. In which case being honest and saying you weren't sure about how classes and races should be balanced previously shouldn't be an issue.
I would ask them to either choose a new character (with their existing character heading off on their own for a while) so that you have time to get to grips with DMing. You've always got the opportunity for that character to return when you are more confident with what sorts of homebrew can work and retain balance and parity with official races/classes.
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