I'm running my first campaign in a few days, and my friend sent me their character sheet.
They have so much proficiency. Like WAY too much and I can't really tell how their modifiers are so high! Can anyone else? (There's a small amount of homebrew I believe.)
The racial skills seem broken for one... +8 to Jump Checks? +4 to Move Silently? +8 on Balance and Climb? Those are not current Skills, this information is coming from an older version of D&D and that part should be modified. And yes, across the board it looks like the Skills have proficiency added in somehow... As we can't see the background information, I can't tell if there is something in there that is adding it in. It's not Customized for these, so some underlying thing is giving the Proficiency bonus to all skills (which right now is only +2, but will get worse). I would also think it is adding it in to the skills they are actually proficient in so you are seeing much higher than normal numbers. Say Animal Handling at +6, but only has Proficiency +2 and Wisdom +2 so it should only be +4.
i dont have the slightest clue they may have put in the proficiency themselves but best way is to tell them to remake it themselves ive dealt with it two my paladin was way to powerful like fought and beat a death knight by himself we remade the character and all was well so session 0 maybe to try and fix it
Have you checked the skills settings ( gear at the bottom of the skills box ), clicked on a suspicious skill, looked at the customize drop down, and see if the "Skill Override" value is filled in?
It's possible for someone to just overwrite the bonus with their own values.
At least eliminate the possibility that the Player is just making up their own bonuses before you submit it as a bug.
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I'm running my first campaign in a few days, and my friend sent me their character sheet.
They have so much proficiency. Like WAY too much and I can't really tell how their modifiers are so high! Can anyone else? (There's a small amount of homebrew I believe.)
ddb.ac/characters/32538663/mmjWmr
It’s a custom race they’re using so they manually adjusted each skill or they just added a bunch of skill bonuses without indicating them on the racial list.
And two bonus actions after a pounce?
I always recommend no homebrew when playing DnD until you feel WAY more comfortable auditing some of the stuff that people want to play.
I agree -- no homebrew when DMing for the first time ever. I would also say: no optional rules. No, we're not doing this to take away players' fun. We're doing this because the DM needs to learn how to run the basics first. IMO, any player who objects, can be invited to DM instead.
When I learned to play D&D, it was with the "D&D Basic Set." This basic set was conceptually like playing AD&D with most of the options turned off. No multiclasses. No bard prestige class. No complicated mechanics. Once we had played D&D basic for like a year, then we moved on to AD&D, and it was still hard to grasp all of it. And it was just PHB, DMG, and MM. The expanded books like MM2, UA, etc, did not even exist yet.
Starting your first campaign with the proviso, "Just PHB, MM, and DMG, nothing else," is a reasonable facsimile of my group starting with Basic set. It lets you learn the base rules of the game and you get lots of variety. But you won't be overwhelmed. Even within PHB, anything they introduce by saying something like, "As an optional rule the DM may allow," again, I advise, just for this first campaign, not allowing. This includes feats and multiclassing. Learn to play the base game first. Then if you want to do another campaign months from now after you know what you're doing, go ahead and allow the PHB options, include Xanathar's, etc.
And definitely, do not allow homebrew, especially not homebrew your players make up for themselves. As a general rule players are only thinking about how this homebrew will make them happy, and not how it is going to affect balance, the other players, or the potential campaign they are in. And we want players to be happy, but not at the expense of everyone else. An experienced DM can see through this kind of thing right to the heart of the matter, but a new DM won't be able to. And in my experience as hard as it is to say "no" from the start to a player's custom race or class... if it turns out to be overpowered or ridiculous 5 sessions in, you will face even more rebellion trying to take away something that they have had. As a general rule, it's better not to allow it than to allow it and then take it away.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Thank you very much for all the advice! That's what I've done in the end. I stripped it down to what it was, essential a centaur, which already exists. I just made a 'homebrew centaur, which just copied everything and changed attack names from 'hoofs' to 'claws' because they wanted to be a tiger instead and changed the damage type.
I only OWN, the PHB, DMG, and MM anyway, so all is good!
We are starting from 1st level so I can get a feel from the start, so hopefully, everything will be okay!
Thank you very much for all the advice! That's what I've done in the end. I stripped it down to what it was, essential a centaur, which already exists. I just made a 'homebrew centaur, which just copied everything and changed attack names from 'hoofs' to 'claws' because they wanted to be a tiger instead and changed the damage type.
This right here will make almost EVERY player happy and is the mark of a damned good start as a DM. I am going to literally log onto my PC just so I can thank this post. Kudos man.
As the campaign goes on and you become more familiar with the rules, you can start letting more options in. But definitely do not allow players to pick options from sources you don't have direct access to read.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
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I'm running my first campaign in a few days, and my friend sent me their character sheet.
They have so much proficiency. Like WAY too much and I can't really tell how their modifiers are so high! Can anyone else? (There's a small amount of homebrew I believe.)
ddb.ac/characters/32538663/mmjWmr
The racial skills seem broken for one... +8 to Jump Checks? +4 to Move Silently? +8 on Balance and Climb? Those are not current Skills, this information is coming from an older version of D&D and that part should be modified. And yes, across the board it looks like the Skills have proficiency added in somehow... As we can't see the background information, I can't tell if there is something in there that is adding it in. It's not Customized for these, so some underlying thing is giving the Proficiency bonus to all skills (which right now is only +2, but will get worse). I would also think it is adding it in to the skills they are actually proficient in so you are seeing much higher than normal numbers. Say Animal Handling at +6, but only has Proficiency +2 and Wisdom +2 so it should only be +4.
i dont have the slightest clue they may have put in the proficiency themselves but best way is to tell them to remake it themselves ive dealt with it two my paladin was way to powerful like fought and beat a death knight by himself we remade the character and all was well so session 0 maybe to try and fix it
Have you checked the skills settings ( gear at the bottom of the skills box ), clicked on a suspicious skill, looked at the customize drop down, and see if the "Skill Override" value is filled in?
It's possible for someone to just overwrite the bonus with their own values.
At least eliminate the possibility that the Player is just making up their own bonuses before you submit it as a bug.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
It doesn't seem to have an overrides
.
It’s a custom race they’re using so they manually adjusted each skill or they just added a bunch of skill bonuses without indicating them on the racial list.
And two bonus actions after a pounce?
I always recommend no homebrew when playing DnD until you feel WAY more comfortable auditing some of the stuff that people want to play.
Yeah, I've just FINALLY seen all that. I'm fixing it now. xD
going to just make it the normal centaure stats
Thank you very much for the help. c: and I think I might take the homebrew away tbh.
That would be a fair place to start...
I agree -- no homebrew when DMing for the first time ever. I would also say: no optional rules. No, we're not doing this to take away players' fun. We're doing this because the DM needs to learn how to run the basics first. IMO, any player who objects, can be invited to DM instead.
When I learned to play D&D, it was with the "D&D Basic Set." This basic set was conceptually like playing AD&D with most of the options turned off. No multiclasses. No bard prestige class. No complicated mechanics. Once we had played D&D basic for like a year, then we moved on to AD&D, and it was still hard to grasp all of it. And it was just PHB, DMG, and MM. The expanded books like MM2, UA, etc, did not even exist yet.
Starting your first campaign with the proviso, "Just PHB, MM, and DMG, nothing else," is a reasonable facsimile of my group starting with Basic set. It lets you learn the base rules of the game and you get lots of variety. But you won't be overwhelmed. Even within PHB, anything they introduce by saying something like, "As an optional rule the DM may allow," again, I advise, just for this first campaign, not allowing. This includes feats and multiclassing. Learn to play the base game first. Then if you want to do another campaign months from now after you know what you're doing, go ahead and allow the PHB options, include Xanathar's, etc.
And definitely, do not allow homebrew, especially not homebrew your players make up for themselves. As a general rule players are only thinking about how this homebrew will make them happy, and not how it is going to affect balance, the other players, or the potential campaign they are in. And we want players to be happy, but not at the expense of everyone else. An experienced DM can see through this kind of thing right to the heart of the matter, but a new DM won't be able to. And in my experience as hard as it is to say "no" from the start to a player's custom race or class... if it turns out to be overpowered or ridiculous 5 sessions in, you will face even more rebellion trying to take away something that they have had. As a general rule, it's better not to allow it than to allow it and then take it away.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Thank you very much for all the advice! That's what I've done in the end. I stripped it down to what it was, essential a centaur, which already exists. I just made a 'homebrew centaur, which just copied everything and changed attack names from 'hoofs' to 'claws' because they wanted to be a tiger instead and changed the damage type.
I only OWN, the PHB, DMG, and MM anyway, so all is good!
We are starting from 1st level so I can get a feel from the start, so hopefully, everything will be okay!
This right here will make almost EVERY player happy and is the mark of a damned good start as a DM. I am going to literally log onto my PC just so I can thank this post. Kudos man.
Thank you! That honestly makes me so happy to see. <3
As the campaign goes on and you become more familiar with the rules, you can start letting more options in. But definitely do not allow players to pick options from sources you don't have direct access to read.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.