I have played a few campaigns with such updated spells and i feel confident that players are actually using them more now. so i decided to share my updated spells with you, mind you i've not gone higher then 1st level for now, since most of the spells from 2nd level and higher seems quite useful in themselves.
but here are cantrips, 1st level spells and paladin smite spells.
Cantrips
Blade Ward Is now a bonus action, as lost concentration i realise it stops all attacks, i thought at first that it was 1 single attack. since then me and my friend realised, it didn't matter if it was all attacks or not. in the end you are losing your bonus action to gain protection. and barbarians can get it at level 1. the fact that barbarian can just use 1 bonus action and gets it for a minute. while this guy has to constantly use the bonus action for it. makes the choice important. also gives eldritch knight a better weapon to be a tank. most fighters also dont have any bonus action use so that could lead to an option for those needing feats that gives magical abilities. in the end, my players all loved the versatility of this and the fact their sorcerer can have that option for defense if they decide not to teleport is also great. sorcerer now has a new weapon in this.
True Strike Is now a bonus action. Is now also, the next attack is made with advantage. Has lost concentration. I also realised that it was making all attacks on the next round with advantage. so this was a reckless attack made for the eldritch knight which can use cantrips as a bonus action. but the problem is that its a problem because of the "next round" that is mentionned. this is not at all great for those without multiattacks. making cantrips a waste on this. by making it a bonus action that can be used right now. my players uses it to make their casters cantrips much better. because cantrips are usually just roll and pray for it to work. yes big damages, if it hits... this really helps against that. and makes things like firebolt much better. but again the real deal here is that sorcerers or wizards or even warlocks. now need to think what they are going to use their bonus action on, their teleports or defensive spells, or use this to push for damage. this has become a really good cantrip for catsers that felt like the melees were doing much more then them. this also gave my casters a better view on casting cantrips instead of wasting all bigger spells for sake of bursting.
Resistance Is now a bonus action, has lost concentration This is one i am wondering still, not much of my players have used this one even with the changes. but i feel like this change makes the cantrip a beast. simply on the fact that one could just recast it before every fights to the whole groups. i'm almost willing to make it a range of self. but im not sure it would help. after all, it is used only 1 single time per user and then the spell ends. so... i'm not sure here. but this versatility of being able to help others with a d4 for saves. is quite good. i mean it is like a smaller bless spell. i dont think it brings it up to bless though. i just like the idea of a cleric or druid able to help others wins their saves.
1st Level
Color Spray Doesn't roll anymore. maxout dice. 6d10 becomes 60 hit points. BG3 made me realise how good this spell can be if it was affecting more hit points from th eget go. but unlike BG3 i'm not using average. i'm maxing it out. so 6d10 becomes 60 base. and every level higher then 1, brings another 20 points which was 2d10. blinding people is incredibly good, but monsters have way higher hit points, so most often then not, this will be used not at the beginning but in the middle of the fight, to swing it in your favors. not much players took it, so there is not much testing on this, but the one player who did. liked the change. said the spell was worth it now.
Sleep Doesn't roll anymore, Maxout Dice. 5d8 becomes 40 hit points. again BG3 solved this one, but i am still thinking 40 isn't a big enough number. i'm thinking of making it like color spray, but im afraid color spray becoming useless. because sleep is much more powerful from the get go. so this is why i kept at this level for now. but overall, the one player who used it said it was better but still only usefull on low level minions. which is the whole problem of it all, at higher level yes you can affect more hit points, but you can never turn a dragon off. overall this spell is a great AoE but players fell like they'd prefer turning dragons off. but that i fear i cannot solve, turning dragons off by level 1 spell would be way too O P.
Witch Bolt Range doubled to 60feet. Line of sight was always a problem with this spell, but the real problem was always the range limit. 30 ft is what most people walk off in a single round. so that is definitely not enough to maintain anything. which scared the shit out of every players who took it to try. i had a player in a sci-fy game where he tryed this. he truly loved it. at first we had removed the limit once the spell is up. i mean he had to be 30 ft to hit, but then could go away. but i still required Line of sight at all times. just like the spell did. it didn'T took us long to see the problem with it. though it was always manageable. so i'm keeping it as is and just changing the range limit to 60 feet. still has to keep the target within the 60 ft. in a 40 inch screen that pretty much always the entire screen. so its good compromise. of course the spell is better in the wilderness where there is room. in close combat its easier to lose line of sight. so thats the compromise. but the player who tryed it, loved it, definitely would take it again.
Paladin Smites Spells
Loses concentrations it is stupidly blatant why those spells were made concentrations even though they specifically say they work only on the next hit. but that level of overpoweredness, is already a thing because of divine smites and it doesn'T have anyhting to do with the other spells the paladin can cast. the paladin also uses his ressources by casting the spell. so thats two spells just to hit hard with divine smite. the need for concentration is useless. nobody uses those spells because they have better things to do with their concentration. so in order to make smite spells worth it, you have to remove concentration. we did, all 3 paladins in those two campaigns never regretted it. me as a DM, i did, not because of the spells... but because paladins are already over powered as it is, with or without those spells. so i preffer to give bonuses to my player instead of making things more balanced.
Other Spells and abilities worth changing for sake of balancing... these spells and abilities are what makes many classes too abusive or much be taken spells or abilities. so heres the intended changes, and why i have semi used them.
Hex / Hunter's Mark problem being that say a wizard with these spells can throw literally desintegrate every single turn. i had a player play a gattling gun, like literally calling his character Miss Gattling Gun. he was a wizard. he would cast hex, then proceed into casting at high level, scorching ray. at level 6 the same as desintegrate... he would have 7 attacks. which would deal 2d6 each, 3d6 if Hex was on. thats 7 times 3d6. he would easily throw 21d6 often. that'S ridiculous. and he could do this all day long. this is insane. thats more attacks then a fighter at 20th level. so the solution was to make those spells hits only once per turn. but doing this literally makes the spells much much less impressive. and it cripples other classes, like monk who actually need the damage boost. so i'm stuck trying to balance this one. this is why i'm not yet putting it into my rules document.
Divine Smite For the same reason hex needs to be nerfed. a paladin with this as well as his divine smite is pretty ridiculous, able to deal over 100 damage in a single round. this is often what kills bosses and makes bbeg too easy. this one i have added into my rule document. divine smite canonly be used once per turn. just like sneak attacks. my two paladin players agree with me, this is needed to make paladins a bit less abusive. so no double divine smites per turn or heck three divine smites for dex paladins and dual wielding. so yeah, divine smite. once per turn.
Divine smite (Javelin, Throwing Axe) hear me out, this is not supposed to work... but on certain strength weapon, it does. so i really suggest to not use RAW for this. just say it can't be used with melee weapons that you throw. now, weapons themselves will say it doesn'T work, but the divine smite ability will proove otherwise. because it only checks for a melee weapon. which javelins and throwing axes are ! throwing it or not doesn't matter, divine smite only checks if its a melee weapon. which they are. so yeah, dont follow RAW here and just dont accept that. don't believe me...
Divine Smite
Starting at 2nd level, when you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you can expend one spell slot to deal radiant damage to the target, in addition to the weapon’s damage. The extra damage is 2d8 for a 1st-level spell slot, plus 1d8 for each spell level higher than 1st, to a maximum of 5d8. The damage increases by 1d8 if the target is an undead or a fiend, to a maximum of 6d8.
by RAW it says Daggers, Javelins, basically any thrown weapons works with divine smite. meaning divine smite works long range. allbecause it says, Melee WEAPON attacks, not Melee attacks. so yeah if a player comes to you with RAW and says "it works", just say no ! because it makes paladins way overpowered and rogues too if they decide to multiclass into 2 levels of paladins.
So yeah thats all i have for you guys/girls today. not sure if i'll ever do more then this, but for now this is what i've done over the last 2 years and it works. if you have other changes that are worth trying or have been tested and working for you, i'm definitely up to hear it. i dont want to change too much of the game, but i'm willing to change things up for sake of Overpoweredness.
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DM of two gaming groups. Likes to create stuff. Check out my homebrew --> Monsters --> Magical Items --> Races --> Subclasses If you like --> Upvote, If you wanna comment --> Comment
Play by Post Games --> One Shot Adventure - House of Artwood (DM) (Completed)
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I have played a few campaigns with such updated spells and i feel confident that players are actually using them more now.
so i decided to share my updated spells with you, mind you i've not gone higher then 1st level for now, since most of the spells from 2nd level and higher seems quite useful in themselves.
but here are cantrips, 1st level spells and paladin smite spells.
Cantrips
Is now a bonus action, as lost concentration
i realise it stops all attacks, i thought at first that it was 1 single attack. since then me and my friend realised, it didn't matter if it was all attacks or not. in the end you are losing your bonus action to gain protection. and barbarians can get it at level 1. the fact that barbarian can just use 1 bonus action and gets it for a minute. while this guy has to constantly use the bonus action for it. makes the choice important. also gives eldritch knight a better weapon to be a tank. most fighters also dont have any bonus action use so that could lead to an option for those needing feats that gives magical abilities. in the end, my players all loved the versatility of this and the fact their sorcerer can have that option for defense if they decide not to teleport is also great. sorcerer now has a new weapon in this.
Is now a bonus action. Is now also, the next attack is made with advantage. Has lost concentration.
I also realised that it was making all attacks on the next round with advantage. so this was a reckless attack made for the eldritch knight which can use cantrips as a bonus action. but the problem is that its a problem because of the "next round" that is mentionned. this is not at all great for those without multiattacks. making cantrips a waste on this. by making it a bonus action that can be used right now. my players uses it to make their casters cantrips much better. because cantrips are usually just roll and pray for it to work. yes big damages, if it hits... this really helps against that. and makes things like firebolt much better. but again the real deal here is that sorcerers or wizards or even warlocks. now need to think what they are going to use their bonus action on, their teleports or defensive spells, or use this to push for damage. this has become a really good cantrip for catsers that felt like the melees were doing much more then them. this also gave my casters a better view on casting cantrips instead of wasting all bigger spells for sake of bursting.
Is now a bonus action, has lost concentration
This is one i am wondering still, not much of my players have used this one even with the changes. but i feel like this change makes the cantrip a beast. simply on the fact that one could just recast it before every fights to the whole groups. i'm almost willing to make it a range of self. but im not sure it would help. after all, it is used only 1 single time per user and then the spell ends. so... i'm not sure here. but this versatility of being able to help others with a d4 for saves. is quite good. i mean it is like a smaller bless spell. i dont think it brings it up to bless though. i just like the idea of a cleric or druid able to help others wins their saves.
1st Level
Doesn't roll anymore. maxout dice. 6d10 becomes 60 hit points.
BG3 made me realise how good this spell can be if it was affecting more hit points from th eget go. but unlike BG3 i'm not using average. i'm maxing it out. so 6d10 becomes 60 base. and every level higher then 1, brings another 20 points which was 2d10. blinding people is incredibly good, but monsters have way higher hit points, so most often then not, this will be used not at the beginning but in the middle of the fight, to swing it in your favors. not much players took it, so there is not much testing on this, but the one player who did. liked the change. said the spell was worth it now.
Doesn't roll anymore, Maxout Dice. 5d8 becomes 40 hit points.
again BG3 solved this one, but i am still thinking 40 isn't a big enough number. i'm thinking of making it like color spray, but im afraid color spray becoming useless. because sleep is much more powerful from the get go. so this is why i kept at this level for now. but overall, the one player who used it said it was better but still only usefull on low level minions. which is the whole problem of it all, at higher level yes you can affect more hit points, but you can never turn a dragon off. overall this spell is a great AoE but players fell like they'd prefer turning dragons off. but that i fear i cannot solve, turning dragons off by level 1 spell would be way too O P.
Range doubled to 60feet.
Line of sight was always a problem with this spell, but the real problem was always the range limit. 30 ft is what most people walk off in a single round. so that is definitely not enough to maintain anything. which scared the shit out of every players who took it to try. i had a player in a sci-fy game where he tryed this. he truly loved it. at first we had removed the limit once the spell is up. i mean he had to be 30 ft to hit, but then could go away. but i still required Line of sight at all times. just like the spell did. it didn'T took us long to see the problem with it. though it was always manageable. so i'm keeping it as is and just changing the range limit to 60 feet. still has to keep the target within the 60 ft. in a 40 inch screen that pretty much always the entire screen. so its good compromise. of course the spell is better in the wilderness where there is room. in close combat its easier to lose line of sight. so thats the compromise. but the player who tryed it, loved it, definitely would take it again.
Paladin Smites Spells
it is stupidly blatant why those spells were made concentrations even though they specifically say they work only on the next hit. but that level of overpoweredness, is already a thing because of divine smites and it doesn'T have anyhting to do with the other spells the paladin can cast. the paladin also uses his ressources by casting the spell. so thats two spells just to hit hard with divine smite. the need for concentration is useless. nobody uses those spells because they have better things to do with their concentration. so in order to make smite spells worth it, you have to remove concentration. we did, all 3 paladins in those two campaigns never regretted it. me as a DM, i did, not because of the spells... but because paladins are already over powered as it is, with or without those spells. so i preffer to give bonuses to my player instead of making things more balanced.
Other Spells and abilities worth changing for sake of balancing...
these spells and abilities are what makes many classes too abusive or much be taken spells or abilities. so heres the intended changes, and why i have semi used them.
problem being that say a wizard with these spells can throw literally desintegrate every single turn. i had a player play a gattling gun, like literally calling his character Miss Gattling Gun. he was a wizard. he would cast hex, then proceed into casting at high level, scorching ray. at level 6 the same as desintegrate... he would have 7 attacks. which would deal 2d6 each, 3d6 if Hex was on. thats 7 times 3d6. he would easily throw 21d6 often. that'S ridiculous. and he could do this all day long. this is insane. thats more attacks then a fighter at 20th level. so the solution was to make those spells hits only once per turn. but doing this literally makes the spells much much less impressive. and it cripples other classes, like monk who actually need the damage boost. so i'm stuck trying to balance this one. this is why i'm not yet putting it into my rules document.
For the same reason hex needs to be nerfed. a paladin with this as well as his divine smite is pretty ridiculous, able to deal over 100 damage in a single round. this is often what kills bosses and makes bbeg too easy. this one i have added into my rule document. divine smite canonly be used once per turn. just like sneak attacks. my two paladin players agree with me, this is needed to make paladins a bit less abusive. so no double divine smites per turn or heck three divine smites for dex paladins and dual wielding. so yeah, divine smite. once per turn.
hear me out, this is not supposed to work... but on certain strength weapon, it does. so i really suggest to not use RAW for this. just say it can't be used with melee weapons that you throw. now, weapons themselves will say it doesn'T work, but the divine smite ability will proove otherwise. because it only checks for a melee weapon. which javelins and throwing axes are ! throwing it or not doesn't matter, divine smite only checks if its a melee weapon. which they are. so yeah, dont follow RAW here and just dont accept that. don't believe me...
by RAW it says Daggers, Javelins, basically any thrown weapons works with divine smite. meaning divine smite works long range. allbecause it says, Melee WEAPON attacks, not Melee attacks. so yeah if a player comes to you with RAW and says "it works", just say no ! because it makes paladins way overpowered and rogues too if they decide to multiclass into 2 levels of paladins.
So yeah thats all i have for you guys/girls today.
not sure if i'll ever do more then this, but for now this is what i've done over the last 2 years and it works.
if you have other changes that are worth trying or have been tested and working for you, i'm definitely up to hear it.
i dont want to change too much of the game, but i'm willing to change things up for sake of Overpoweredness.
DM of two gaming groups.
Likes to create stuff.
Check out my homebrew --> Monsters --> Magical Items --> Races --> Subclasses
If you like --> Upvote, If you wanna comment --> Comment
Play by Post Games
--> One Shot Adventure - House of Artwood (DM) (Completed)