Far into the future, when my current campaign ends, me and my group are starting over once again and I already know I'll be playing a somewhat pacifist oriented Abjurer wizard. While the game already has many fantastic spells for such an endeavour, it still tickles my creative gray matter in such a manner that I have simply had to dabble in some homebrew of my own. As many of you fellow brewers know, however, it is way too easy to get carried away and slip into the overpowered (and perhaps even underpowered) side of things, so I humbly ask anyone interested in browsing over what I have already come up with, spells and magic items alike, and tell me if I'm in the ballpark of acceptability or if I need to make changes. And if so, what sort of changes? I am planning on brewing a lot more stuff still, but any comments will help me steer the creations in one way or another!
I'm doing this so that when the time comes to actually play and perhaps to use my own creations, it will be fun not only for me but to the whole group. Thanks in advance to anyone using their precious time for this! Oh, and the links are in the signature, for your convenience.
-Howardyn of Halruaa
P.S.: Ignore the Truehammer in this request! That warhammer is intentionally very powerful, currently in use in the ongoing campaign. Powerful and oh, so fun. For the group and DM too, I assure you!
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Your friendly neighborhood Halruaan Abjurer, at your service.
First piece of advice: players shouldn’t really go about designing magic items for their characters. It puts the DM in an awkward position of either giving said player’s character said magic items and having to deal with that, or not giving said player’s character said items and having to deal with that. It’s a no-win situation almost 86%-90% of the time for the DM. Spells are one thing, even subclasses and races and feats are all things that are at least generally understandable for players to brew up since they are all classified as “players options.” But magic items, monsters, and NPCs are all considered “DM’s Options” and it’s usually best to leave the DM their share of things. Of course, that’s just my opinion, I’m sure others might likely disagree, but I don’t really care. You asked, so I gave you my honest answer.
Deflecting shield is waayyy too powerful for a cantrip. Compare it to blade ward. That’s actually a pretty good second piece of advice, alway check the comps for your ‘brews. Find the most comparable things that have been officially published (at least 1 but preferably 2-3) and compare your work to those. If after comparing them all to each other you would absolutely always choose yours over theirs, then yours is probably too powerful. You here are some exceptions to that general rule, since some of the official stuff is underwhelming and/or underperforming, so you’re might be absolutely balanced and still be the automatic choice simple because the comps aren’t that impressive. Or vice versa too. That’s why I like to use 3 comps whenever possible, or at least 2. It flattens out the curve a bit for any over/underpowered comps in the pool, and gives me a more realistic baseline to measure my work against. Using comps you will be better equipped to get things mostly balanced before you even ask people for feedback.
Already very good advice and criticism! Thank you IamSposta! Honesty is exactly what I asked for!
I should clarify, I'm not brewing the magic items just for myself. I'd be happy if other people used them of course. And also, if I were to use any items I made myself, like in the case of Truehammer currently, of course I run these ideas through the DM first. Ours is a pretty tight knit group and we have no problems saying no to each other. If I were to play with a DM I didn't know, I would definitely let them handle all things related to magic item drops etc.
As for the cantrip... Yes I see your point. At the very least I should lower the bonuses. Thing is, there aren't any really viable Abjuration cantrips to compare to, which makes balancing a bit hard. Blade Ward and Resistance are both cantrips I wouldn't choose and I simply wanted a more usable Abjuration cantrip. Same goes for the other ideas. I'm trying to come up with more spells that have utility as protection and control, rather than damage. The plan is to let the others deal damage while my wizard protects, buffs/debuffs and controls. I have a lot to learn and think about before it happens though.
I will take your advice to heart!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Your friendly neighborhood Halruaan Abjurer, at your service.
Hello friends!
Far into the future, when my current campaign ends, me and my group are starting over once again and I already know I'll be playing a somewhat pacifist oriented Abjurer wizard. While the game already has many fantastic spells for such an endeavour, it still tickles my creative gray matter in such a manner that I have simply had to dabble in some homebrew of my own. As many of you fellow brewers know, however, it is way too easy to get carried away and slip into the overpowered (and perhaps even underpowered) side of things, so I humbly ask anyone interested in browsing over what I have already come up with, spells and magic items alike, and tell me if I'm in the ballpark of acceptability or if I need to make changes. And if so, what sort of changes? I am planning on brewing a lot more stuff still, but any comments will help me steer the creations in one way or another!
I'm doing this so that when the time comes to actually play and perhaps to use my own creations, it will be fun not only for me but to the whole group. Thanks in advance to anyone using their precious time for this! Oh, and the links are in the signature, for your convenience.
-Howardyn of Halruaa
P.S.: Ignore the Truehammer in this request! That warhammer is intentionally very powerful, currently in use in the ongoing campaign. Powerful and oh, so fun. For the group and DM too, I assure you!
Your friendly neighborhood Halruaan Abjurer, at your service.
My Homebrew: | Spells | Magic Items | Subclasses
First piece of advice: players shouldn’t really go about designing magic items for their characters. It puts the DM in an awkward position of either giving said player’s character said magic items and having to deal with that, or not giving said player’s character said items and having to deal with that. It’s a no-win situation almost 86%-90% of the time for the DM. Spells are one thing, even subclasses and races and feats are all things that are at least generally understandable for players to brew up since they are all classified as “players options.” But magic items, monsters, and NPCs are all considered “DM’s Options” and it’s usually best to leave the DM their share of things. Of course, that’s just my opinion, I’m sure others might likely disagree, but I don’t really care. You asked, so I gave you my honest answer.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Deflecting shield is waayyy too powerful for a cantrip. Compare it to blade ward. That’s actually a pretty good second piece of advice, alway check the comps for your ‘brews. Find the most comparable things that have been officially published (at least 1 but preferably 2-3) and compare your work to those. If after comparing them all to each other you would absolutely always choose yours over theirs, then yours is probably too powerful. You here are some exceptions to that general rule, since some of the official stuff is underwhelming and/or underperforming, so you’re might be absolutely balanced and still be the automatic choice simple because the comps aren’t that impressive. Or vice versa too. That’s why I like to use 3 comps whenever possible, or at least 2. It flattens out the curve a bit for any over/underpowered comps in the pool, and gives me a more realistic baseline to measure my work against. Using comps you will be better equipped to get things mostly balanced before you even ask people for feedback.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Already very good advice and criticism! Thank you IamSposta! Honesty is exactly what I asked for!
I should clarify, I'm not brewing the magic items just for myself. I'd be happy if other people used them of course. And also, if I were to use any items I made myself, like in the case of Truehammer currently, of course I run these ideas through the DM first. Ours is a pretty tight knit group and we have no problems saying no to each other. If I were to play with a DM I didn't know, I would definitely let them handle all things related to magic item drops etc.
As for the cantrip... Yes I see your point. At the very least I should lower the bonuses. Thing is, there aren't any really viable Abjuration cantrips to compare to, which makes balancing a bit hard. Blade Ward and Resistance are both cantrips I wouldn't choose and I simply wanted a more usable Abjuration cantrip. Same goes for the other ideas. I'm trying to come up with more spells that have utility as protection and control, rather than damage. The plan is to let the others deal damage while my wizard protects, buffs/debuffs and controls. I have a lot to learn and think about before it happens though.
I will take your advice to heart!
Your friendly neighborhood Halruaan Abjurer, at your service.
My Homebrew: | Spells | Magic Items | Subclasses