So I'm an avid homebrewer--which is to say I've proably spent roughly a total of 29-ish hours developing homebrew for my campaigns alone--and I am going to include a class and a few subclasses that have really, really strong setups in comparison to other classes at similar stages. While my players are not the brightest or outright chaos gremlins (most of the time) I don't want them to feel punished for not taking the subclasses or the class that I made even though the things I make often have what I would describe as an extreme learning curve to use all of the class features. While I could fix the subclass issue I need some help on managing to find ways to make the gameplay equally enjoyable for the other players. What should I do?
Even without allowing homebrew character creation options, you'd still potentially run into scenarios where one build is vastly stronger than others. I typically address this disparity with magic items and feats I grant to weaker builds as they progress through the campaign. Feels more organic when it's tied to the plot or it's a special reward after a significant encounter, quest, or character moment.
I had mature players, for the most part, so nobody really minded when one PC got a cool new MacGuffin and no one else did. I also made a point to ensure that all my players got a visit from the Shiny New Thing fairy.
(I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention the classic options of beta testing your homebrew, keeping open communication with your players about potential balancing/adjustments, and managing player expectations.)
So I'm an avid homebrewer--which is to say I've proably spent roughly a total of 29-ish hours developing homebrew for my campaigns alone--and I am going to include a class and a few subclasses that have really, really strong setups in comparison to other classes at similar stages. While my players are not the brightest or outright chaos gremlins (most of the time) I don't want them to feel punished for not taking the subclasses or the class that I made even though the things I make often have what I would describe as an extreme learning curve to use all of the class features. While I could fix the subclass issue I need some help on managing to find ways to make the gameplay equally enjoyable for the other players. What should I do?
Not to be mean, but FYI your HB class is not over the top strong, quite the opposite. I'd say it is massively underpowered due to lack of scaling of abilities & resources, and lack of sustainable combat option. The class neither gets damage-dealing cantrips, nor does it get Extra Attack to be able to deal sustained damage with a weapon. It's support abilities are barely better than cantrips and most of the special abilities are roughly equivalent to mediocre-poor spells with much more limited uses, and no upcasting ability. And nearly everyting requires an extremely limited long-rest recharge resource.
Not to be mean, but FYI your HB class is not over the top strong, quite the opposite. I'd say it is massively underpowered due to lack of scaling of abilities & resources, and lack of sustainable combat option. The class neither gets damage-dealing cantrips, nor does it get Extra Attack to be able to deal sustained damage with a weapon. It's support abilities are barely better than cantrips and most of the special abilities are roughly equivalent to mediocre-poor spells with much more limited uses, and no upcasting ability. And nearly everyting requires an extremely limited long-rest recharge resource.
I probably should've added a tiny bit more scaling but seeing as all the features I put into the Soulfont I was very scared that there would be some sort of gamebreaking exponential damage increase but I probably should've adjusted the sots of the soulburst at later levels to be free to cast with the ability to use more soul points to power it up. Also originally the Soulfont had the ability to activate two of the "ultimate spells" in one turn (I think chronoveil and the chaining one) and that's excluding the casting overclock or whatever it was called. Though I feel that If I added too many soul points players would just completely nuke their way through the early and late games. Should I go with my original idea of adding a feat that adds +WIS modifier soul points to the max of the Soulbinder's spirit well?
Not to be mean, but FYI your HB class is not over the top strong, quite the opposite. I'd say it is massively underpowered due to lack of scaling of abilities & resources, and lack of sustainable combat option. The class neither gets damage-dealing cantrips, nor does it get Extra Attack to be able to deal sustained damage with a weapon. It's support abilities are barely better than cantrips and most of the special abilities are roughly equivalent to mediocre-poor spells with much more limited uses, and no upcasting ability. And nearly everyting requires an extremely limited long-rest recharge resource.
I probably should've added a tiny bit more scaling but seeing as all the features I put into the Soulfont I was very scared that there would be some sort of gamebreaking exponential damage increase but I probably should've adjusted the sots of the soulburst at later levels to be free to cast with the ability to use more soul points to power it up. Also originally the Soulfont had the ability to activate two of the "ultimate spells" in one turn (I think chronoveil and the chaining one) and that's excluding the casting overclock or whatever it was called. Though I feel that If I added too many soul points players would just completely nuke their way through the early and late games. Should I go with my original idea of adding a feat that adds +WIS modifier soul points to the max of the Soulbinder's spirit well?
(P.S Thanks for the feedback)
I'd suggest first start with what the "default" option is for this class to deal damage. It doesn't need to be super potent but it needs to exist, this could be a magical effect like a cantrip that can do stuff other than purely damage, or a weapon attack-like thing, or there could be an option to choose between the two like the 2024 warlock has. Whatever this is, it must cost 0 resources to do it, and it should increase in damage at 5th, 11th, and 17th level -> this scaling can be by extra bonuses on top of it, or it can be just adding a die of damage, or it could be adding additional uses of it per turn. In addition, whatever this default thing is should be substantially less powerful than the special abilities that cost Soul Points, so don't make it too potent - also I'd recommend ensuring it doesn't "stack" with other stuff in multiclassing, so if it is a unique ability for this class it should always cost a full action to perform so it can't be combined with cantrips / Attack action if they multiclass.
Once you are happy with the "default" option, you can go over the special abilities and see if it makes sense for any of them to interact with the default action, or if they should be completely separate from the default action. E.g. martial classes usually get special abilities that add to their Attack action, whereas spellcasting classes get special abilities that are an alternative to their cantrips. Both options are totally fine, but they do affect how you do the scaling for the default action, if other abilities add to it, the default action itself doesn't need to scale as much, if other abilities are an alternative to it then the default action should inherently scale more.
Lastly, you should count up how much all the special abilities cost in terms of Soul Points. In general, a player probably wants the ability to use all of their class features at least once per day. So you should rebalance the Soul Point pool / cost so that the total Soul Points roughly approximates the total Soul Point cost of all the abilities they have access to, and also consider whether all the abilities should be available at all times, or whether they should choose which abilities to have available each day (similar to prepping spells), or choose which abilities their character has at all (similar to warlock invocations). You could even have more ties between abilities at different levels so that rather than adding more and more powerful abilities that make the lower level ones redundant - so the player never uses them anymore once they reach higher levels b/c their limited Soul Points are better spent on other things - whether you could instead have higher level features enhance or improve the lower level abilities.
PS I'll give more specific suggestions on your other thread.
So I'm an avid homebrewer--which is to say I've proably spent roughly a total of 29-ish hours developing homebrew for my campaigns alone--and I am going to include a class and a few subclasses that have really, really strong setups in comparison to other classes at similar stages. While my players are not the brightest or outright chaos gremlins (most of the time) I don't want them to feel punished for not taking the subclasses or the class that I made even though the things I make often have what I would describe as an extreme learning curve to use all of the class features. While I could fix the subclass issue I need some help on managing to find ways to make the gameplay equally enjoyable for the other players. What should I do?
D&D is a very esoteric experience, and the weird way the game is balanced through design and equally through individual perception of the design is one of the many odd things that drives people to play the game. I think as long as you're in the general ballpark of balance and aren't doing something extreme, it's better to focus on new content and new homebrew (pushing forward constantly) than trying to go back and perfect this or that class, rule, or whatever.
Generally, I find players care a lot less about it (balance) than you think or might perceive based on the reading of the forum. Unless something is blatantly terrible (which notably we often get even in official content) they tend to overlook it once the initial eyebrows twitching settle.
I would also consider math to be a firm thing. 2024 edition breaks down "damage at level" pretty good and really shows you how much X damage a Y level thing should be doing. Stick to that and you will be more or less in the ball park. Most balance issues that people complain about are things that do way too little or way too much damage at X level compared to everything else and that usually means you aren't using those DMG guidelines. In my opinion, the new 2024 DMG's is probably one of the best actual guides for DM's since the original 1st edition AD&D DMG. Its a really great book that shows you how the inner parts of the game work. If you really read it and allow it to guide you, all of your homebrew stuff will be balanced so far as the word the word applies to D&D.
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So I'm an avid homebrewer--which is to say I've proably spent roughly a total of 29-ish hours developing homebrew for my campaigns alone--and I am going to include a class and a few subclasses that have really, really strong setups in comparison to other classes at similar stages. While my players are not the brightest or outright chaos gremlins (most of the time) I don't want them to feel punished for not taking the subclasses or the class that I made even though the things I make often have what I would describe as an extreme learning curve to use all of the class features. While I could fix the subclass issue I need some help on managing to find ways to make the gameplay equally enjoyable for the other players. What should I do?
Link if you want to give specific suggestions: https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/dungeons-dragons-discussion/homebrew-house-rules/226135-soulbinder-my-first-ever-abomination-of-a-homebrew
Even without allowing homebrew character creation options, you'd still potentially run into scenarios where one build is vastly stronger than others. I typically address this disparity with magic items and feats I grant to weaker builds as they progress through the campaign. Feels more organic when it's tied to the plot or it's a special reward after a significant encounter, quest, or character moment.
I had mature players, for the most part, so nobody really minded when one PC got a cool new MacGuffin and no one else did. I also made a point to ensure that all my players got a visit from the Shiny New Thing fairy.
(I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention the classic options of beta testing your homebrew, keeping open communication with your players about potential balancing/adjustments, and managing player expectations.)
Not to be mean, but FYI your HB class is not over the top strong, quite the opposite. I'd say it is massively underpowered due to lack of scaling of abilities & resources, and lack of sustainable combat option. The class neither gets damage-dealing cantrips, nor does it get Extra Attack to be able to deal sustained damage with a weapon. It's support abilities are barely better than cantrips and most of the special abilities are roughly equivalent to mediocre-poor spells with much more limited uses, and no upcasting ability. And nearly everyting requires an extremely limited long-rest recharge resource.
I probably should've added a tiny bit more scaling but seeing as all the features I put into the Soulfont I was very scared that there would be some sort of gamebreaking exponential damage increase but I probably should've adjusted the sots of the soulburst at later levels to be free to cast with the ability to use more soul points to power it up. Also originally the Soulfont had the ability to activate two of the "ultimate spells" in one turn (I think chronoveil and the chaining one) and that's excluding the casting overclock or whatever it was called. Though I feel that If I added too many soul points players would just completely nuke their way through the early and late games. Should I go with my original idea of adding a feat that adds +WIS modifier soul points to the max of the Soulbinder's spirit well?
(P.S Thanks for the feedback)
I'd suggest first start with what the "default" option is for this class to deal damage. It doesn't need to be super potent but it needs to exist, this could be a magical effect like a cantrip that can do stuff other than purely damage, or a weapon attack-like thing, or there could be an option to choose between the two like the 2024 warlock has. Whatever this is, it must cost 0 resources to do it, and it should increase in damage at 5th, 11th, and 17th level -> this scaling can be by extra bonuses on top of it, or it can be just adding a die of damage, or it could be adding additional uses of it per turn. In addition, whatever this default thing is should be substantially less powerful than the special abilities that cost Soul Points, so don't make it too potent - also I'd recommend ensuring it doesn't "stack" with other stuff in multiclassing, so if it is a unique ability for this class it should always cost a full action to perform so it can't be combined with cantrips / Attack action if they multiclass.
Once you are happy with the "default" option, you can go over the special abilities and see if it makes sense for any of them to interact with the default action, or if they should be completely separate from the default action. E.g. martial classes usually get special abilities that add to their Attack action, whereas spellcasting classes get special abilities that are an alternative to their cantrips. Both options are totally fine, but they do affect how you do the scaling for the default action, if other abilities add to it, the default action itself doesn't need to scale as much, if other abilities are an alternative to it then the default action should inherently scale more.
Lastly, you should count up how much all the special abilities cost in terms of Soul Points. In general, a player probably wants the ability to use all of their class features at least once per day. So you should rebalance the Soul Point pool / cost so that the total Soul Points roughly approximates the total Soul Point cost of all the abilities they have access to, and also consider whether all the abilities should be available at all times, or whether they should choose which abilities to have available each day (similar to prepping spells), or choose which abilities their character has at all (similar to warlock invocations). You could even have more ties between abilities at different levels so that rather than adding more and more powerful abilities that make the lower level ones redundant - so the player never uses them anymore once they reach higher levels b/c their limited Soul Points are better spent on other things - whether you could instead have higher level features enhance or improve the lower level abilities.
PS I'll give more specific suggestions on your other thread.
D&D is a very esoteric experience, and the weird way the game is balanced through design and equally through individual perception of the design is one of the many odd things that drives people to play the game. I think as long as you're in the general ballpark of balance and aren't doing something extreme, it's better to focus on new content and new homebrew (pushing forward constantly) than trying to go back and perfect this or that class, rule, or whatever.
Generally, I find players care a lot less about it (balance) than you think or might perceive based on the reading of the forum. Unless something is blatantly terrible (which notably we often get even in official content) they tend to overlook it once the initial eyebrows twitching settle.
I would also consider math to be a firm thing. 2024 edition breaks down "damage at level" pretty good and really shows you how much X damage a Y level thing should be doing. Stick to that and you will be more or less in the ball park. Most balance issues that people complain about are things that do way too little or way too much damage at X level compared to everything else and that usually means you aren't using those DMG guidelines. In my opinion, the new 2024 DMG's is probably one of the best actual guides for DM's since the original 1st edition AD&D DMG. Its a really great book that shows you how the inner parts of the game work. If you really read it and allow it to guide you, all of your homebrew stuff will be balanced so far as the word the word applies to D&D.