I like creating homebrew stuff. Most of them aren't supposed to be used in an actual game (although one of my players is playing a koala right now), but I still want to keep it ballanced. I don't want to run entire sessions for these pretty unserious classes/races, but I do want to playtest them. I assume it's pretty difficult for abilities to be compared, especially when they're social or explorational abilities. If you just compare damage, what limitations do you set? How much damage would conditions be worth? I honnestly don't know where to start. Does anyone know what a good way is to playtest?
The general rule of thumb that I use is that race features should provide interesting flavour to the race, along with flexibility, without providing direct combat power.
As an example, if you give a race +1 damage with swords - that instantly makes them better rogues/fighters than the other races - it adds direct power to something that the character would normally do.
A separate example, Tabaxi claws - they provide flexibility and alternative to using a weapon. I feel that's good design. It's then easy to look at adding features that grant something interesting outside of combat, such as the climbing speed.
Thanks! I hadn't thought of it that way. Looking at my fisherman subclass, do you think the points you brought up are present, or would there be something I could improve?
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I like creating homebrew stuff. Most of them aren't supposed to be used in an actual game (although one of my players is playing a koala right now), but I still want to keep it ballanced. I don't want to run entire sessions for these pretty unserious classes/races, but I do want to playtest them. I assume it's pretty difficult for abilities to be compared, especially when they're social or explorational abilities. If you just compare damage, what limitations do you set? How much damage would conditions be worth? I honnestly don't know where to start. Does anyone know what a good way is to playtest?
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D&D Beyond FoundersThe general rule of thumb that I use is that race features should provide interesting flavour to the race, along with flexibility, without providing direct combat power.
As an example, if you give a race +1 damage with swords - that instantly makes them better rogues/fighters than the other races - it adds direct power to something that the character would normally do.
A separate example, Tabaxi claws - they provide flexibility and alternative to using a weapon. I feel that's good design. It's then easy to look at adding features that grant something interesting outside of combat, such as the climbing speed.
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Thanks! I hadn't thought of it that way. Looking at my fisherman subclass, do you think the points you brought up are present, or would there be something I could improve?