So I'm running a campaign that functions like a dungeon crawler with the players finding secrets and loot, progressing down floors, fighting bosses, etc and homebrew is heavily encouraged in the setting
but one character who is a good friend of mine irl is playing a homebrew class that uses a lot of guns and similar things, hes playing a subclass for it that lets him imbue his weapons with new effects based on certain items he gets as the party explores the dungeon. And it's all fairly balanced but he keeps tacking on new features to all of his existing things, for example he gets a flight speed of 30 at level 6 because of his "nano wings" (hes also playing a homebrew race that's reminiscent of a cyborg).
And I'm fine with most of it but hes getting to the point where its getting broken, for example a bazooka that does 100 damage automatically but can only be used once per floor, and that's really pushing it. Plus I like to have a thing where I have certain types of enemies designed to counter each player, and it works for most of them and incentivizes teamwork amongst the party, but this character just keeps doing new stuff whenever I try and give the enemies the high ground, I make the enemy dodge ranged attacks, he pulls out an energy scythe that's affected by his subclass, and similar things meet with similar results. Combat is one of the more important parts of this campaign and I would like to make it a fair challenge for ALL the players and not just all but one. So any advice for this?
Was all of this pre-cleared with you? Or is he making shit up as he goes?
If the former, it sounds like you should have thought it through more before signing off. You need to go back and read everything you agreed to, and re-balance your encounters accordingly. If he's leaving nothing for anyone else to do, find a reason to split him off from the group so you can balance his encounters differently from everyone else's.
If the latter, you need to nut up and say no. You're the DM. The world needs rules, or its not a game any more - he's just a toddler running around a playground playing make believe and yelling out whatever ridiculous thing comes into his head.
If you can't figure out how to fix it, you need to just tell him it's not working any more. Good chance he's sucking the fun from the game for everyone else.
The simplest answer, to me, is to just nerf his homebrew. It's possible that something that seems balanced on paper ends up being way too generous in gameplay. Homebrew content especially sometimes needs to be tweaked mid-gameplay.
hes getting to the point where its getting broken, for example a bazooka that does 100 damage automatically but can only be used once per floor, and that's really pushing it.
I'm afraid you can't use "it's all farily balanced" and "a bazooka with flat 100 damage" in the same context, I'm afraid. If he's too powerful for his level, he's not balanced.
I would suggest talking to this player and explaining that the combination of homebrew class and race is causing some issues with the balance of the game. If you can give us some direct info about these two homebrews we can probably help to make it more balanced.
It sounds to me like they are some sort of nanobot-driven cyborg, and as such I would consider having their abilities tied to short or long rests to prevent them from overusing them - akin to the paladin's spells, which are changed at a long rest. They might have a bazooka, a rifle and a gatling-pistol, but if they have to pick one to use until their next long rest that makes for a more balanced feature. Perhaps give him two weapon options and one utility option - He might pick nano wings for utility, bazooka ranged and energy scythe for CC, and that's it until the next long rest. He might blow the bazooka early and then find himself wishing he had a gun instead. Make the bazooka regenerate on a long rest not on a floor, and just work it out that the combination of his class and race don't make him overpowered.
I actually really like that idea, thanks for the feedback.
Not a problem. When people want powerful answers to everything, the best way to moderate it is by letting them have access to these things, but not all at once! Imagine if every spellcaster could cast every spell in their class without preparing them first!
All DMs A good rule for homebrew to see if it is balanced. Use the same build/item/spell/etc against the pcs. New DMs when playing with homebrew classes/things, always tell your player you may nerf it with out warning. Yes. Just like a phaser stolen from a space elf which recharges under sunlight. Or a light saber which recharges and acts like a sword of sharpness, wounding, vorpal sword.
All DMs A good rule for homebrew to see if it is balanced. Use the same build/item/spell/etc against the pcs. New DMs when playing with homebrew classes/things, always tell your player you may nerf it with out warning. Yes. Just like a phaser stolen from a space elf which recharges under sunlight. Or a light saber which recharges and acts like a sword of sharpness, wounding, vorpal sword.
Remember DMS will make mistakes, forgive them.
Or, more simply, new DMs should not allow any homebrew, since the DM can't be expected to know if it is balanced with the rest of the game.
All DMs A good rule for homebrew to see if it is balanced. Use the same build/item/spell/etc against the pcs. New DMs when playing with homebrew classes/things, always tell your player you may nerf it with out warning. Yes. Just like a phaser stolen from a space elf which recharges under sunlight. Or a light saber which recharges and acts like a sword of sharpness, wounding, vorpal sword.
Remember DMS will make mistakes, forgive them.
Or, more simply, new DMs should not allow any homebrew, since the DM can't be expected to know if it is balanced with the rest of the game.
This has been my approach. I've told my table absolutely no homebrew because I don't have the experience to tell if it's balanced, I don't want the work of reading through it all and seeking out guidance on DDB, and frankly I don't want the conflict when I tell them no. Saying no up front is a lot easier than saying no to something specific - because specificity invites the player to argue their case, and every time you say yes it sets a precedent that makes it harder to say no. In my opinion the whole damn game is new to them, so I don't see why they need to create something 'new and interesting' when we've yet to see everything standard that's on offer.
I do break my own rules though (DM prerogative, right?). I created a Mjolnir clone (really just a Dwarven Thrower nerfed to level, which this forum helped me create/balance), for a teenage player who needed a boost. Also an on the fly created book of arcana - once per day, up to a maximum of three times total, you can turn a failed arcana check into a pass by referring to this ancient tomb. On the third time, the book crumbles to dust. I created the book because the wizard rolled 26 (nat 20 + 6 modifier) on an investigation check on a pile of dusty 500+ year old books that I'd just placed under a bench in the forge of spells for flavor. I couldn't bring myself to say there was nothing there!
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So I'm running a campaign that functions like a dungeon crawler with the players finding secrets and loot, progressing down floors, fighting bosses, etc and homebrew is heavily encouraged in the setting
but one character who is a good friend of mine irl is playing a homebrew class that uses a lot of guns and similar things, hes playing a subclass for it that lets him imbue his weapons with new effects based on certain items he gets as the party explores the dungeon. And it's all fairly balanced but he keeps tacking on new features to all of his existing things, for example he gets a flight speed of 30 at level 6 because of his "nano wings" (hes also playing a homebrew race that's reminiscent of a cyborg).
And I'm fine with most of it but hes getting to the point where its getting broken, for example a bazooka that does 100 damage automatically but can only be used once per floor, and that's really pushing it. Plus I like to have a thing where I have certain types of enemies designed to counter each player, and it works for most of them and incentivizes teamwork amongst the party, but this character just keeps doing new stuff whenever I try and give the enemies the high ground, I make the enemy dodge ranged attacks, he pulls out an energy scythe that's affected by his subclass, and similar things meet with similar results. Combat is one of the more important parts of this campaign and I would like to make it a fair challenge for ALL the players and not just all but one. So any advice for this?
Was all of this pre-cleared with you? Or is he making shit up as he goes?
If the former, it sounds like you should have thought it through more before signing off. You need to go back and read everything you agreed to, and re-balance your encounters accordingly. If he's leaving nothing for anyone else to do, find a reason to split him off from the group so you can balance his encounters differently from everyone else's.
If the latter, you need to nut up and say no. You're the DM. The world needs rules, or its not a game any more - he's just a toddler running around a playground playing make believe and yelling out whatever ridiculous thing comes into his head.
If you can't figure out how to fix it, you need to just tell him it's not working any more. Good chance he's sucking the fun from the game for everyone else.
The simplest answer, to me, is to just nerf his homebrew. It's possible that something that seems balanced on paper ends up being way too generous in gameplay. Homebrew content especially sometimes needs to be tweaked mid-gameplay.
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Alright, thanks for the help everyone hopefully I can fix the issue now
I'm afraid you can't use "it's all farily balanced" and "a bazooka with flat 100 damage" in the same context, I'm afraid. If he's too powerful for his level, he's not balanced.
I would suggest talking to this player and explaining that the combination of homebrew class and race is causing some issues with the balance of the game. If you can give us some direct info about these two homebrews we can probably help to make it more balanced.
It sounds to me like they are some sort of nanobot-driven cyborg, and as such I would consider having their abilities tied to short or long rests to prevent them from overusing them - akin to the paladin's spells, which are changed at a long rest. They might have a bazooka, a rifle and a gatling-pistol, but if they have to pick one to use until their next long rest that makes for a more balanced feature. Perhaps give him two weapon options and one utility option - He might pick nano wings for utility, bazooka ranged and energy scythe for CC, and that's it until the next long rest. He might blow the bazooka early and then find himself wishing he had a gun instead. Make the bazooka regenerate on a long rest not on a floor, and just work it out that the combination of his class and race don't make him overpowered.
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
I actually really like that idea, thanks for the feedback.
Not a problem. When people want powerful answers to everything, the best way to moderate it is by letting them have access to these things, but not all at once! Imagine if every spellcaster could cast every spell in their class without preparing them first!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
All DMs A good rule for homebrew to see if it is balanced. Use the same build/item/spell/etc against the pcs. New DMs when playing with homebrew classes/things, always tell your player you may nerf it with out warning. Yes. Just like a phaser stolen from a space elf which recharges under sunlight. Or a light saber which recharges and acts like a sword of sharpness, wounding, vorpal sword.
Remember DMS will make mistakes, forgive them.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
Or, more simply, new DMs should not allow any homebrew, since the DM can't be expected to know if it is balanced with the rest of the game.
This has been my approach. I've told my table absolutely no homebrew because I don't have the experience to tell if it's balanced, I don't want the work of reading through it all and seeking out guidance on DDB, and frankly I don't want the conflict when I tell them no. Saying no up front is a lot easier than saying no to something specific - because specificity invites the player to argue their case, and every time you say yes it sets a precedent that makes it harder to say no. In my opinion the whole damn game is new to them, so I don't see why they need to create something 'new and interesting' when we've yet to see everything standard that's on offer.
I do break my own rules though (DM prerogative, right?). I created a Mjolnir clone (really just a Dwarven Thrower nerfed to level, which this forum helped me create/balance), for a teenage player who needed a boost. Also an on the fly created book of arcana - once per day, up to a maximum of three times total, you can turn a failed arcana check into a pass by referring to this ancient tomb. On the third time, the book crumbles to dust. I created the book because the wizard rolled 26 (nat 20 + 6 modifier) on an investigation check on a pile of dusty 500+ year old books that I'd just placed under a bench in the forge of spells for flavor. I couldn't bring myself to say there was nothing there!