It's currently a 7 page supplement for Spelljammer, which is based on the location where everything from an exploding bag of holding (or similar event) ends up when it disappears to the Astral Sea. It has 4 regions, 3 civilisations, and plenty of outline for people to make their own adventures from it!
Please let me know what you think! I will aim to expand on it over time and turn it into something more!
Sorry for the lat reply!
I was reading this for CotFB and let me just say this is absolutely amazing. It's a genius idea with amazing execution. In fact, I may actually use it in my next campaign. (assuming you're fine with it).
If you wanted to expand it further, maybe you could add some creatures that adapted to the Astral sea patch. Maybe some sort of race or group of people that scavenges from it as well.
It's pretty cool but a bit under powered to be honest. I like it makes more sense as a rare item, given that flame tongue can deal 2d6 extra on every hit no questions asked.
It seems slightly over powered, given that mass cure wounds heals a similar amount without the bonus to rolls or the immunity to frightened. It's not super overpowered, but its a bit.
It seems slightly over powered, given that mass cure wounds heals a similar amount without the bonus to rolls or the immunity to frightened. It's not super overpowered, but its a bit.
Clarion 1.1, now a 6th-level spell. Combined with the material component, it should be fairly balanced.
It's currently a 7 page supplement for Spelljammer, which is based on the location where everything from an exploding bag of holding (or similar event) ends up when it disappears to the Astral Sea. It has 4 regions, 3 civilisations, and plenty of outline for people to make their own adventures from it!
Please let me know what you think! I will aim to expand on it over time and turn it into something more!
Sorry for the lat reply!
I was reading this for CotFB and let me just say this is absolutely amazing. It's a genius idea with amazing execution. In fact, I may actually use it in my next campaign. (assuming you're fine with it).
If you wanted to expand it further, maybe you could add some creatures that adapted to the Astral sea patch. Maybe some sort of race or group of people that scavenges from it as well.
Thank you so much! I'm really pleased you enjoyed it :)
I am more than happy for you to use it in your game (that is, after all, what these things are for!)
I intend to expand it a lot, and hopefully release some sort of supplement book with adventures centred on the 3 locations. I have a few ideas for native creatures and the anomaly at the centre is going to get some expanding in due course!
I have brought the perfect tool to lose your humanity, The Gore Rock
I love it!
I would change the Ability Scores to 4 rather than 1, as 1 is the intelligence of an Ooze, whereas beasts tend to be 4, which is the feel I am getting from this!
I have brought the perfect tool to lose your humanity, The Gore Rock
I love it!
I would change the Ability Scores to 4 rather than 1, as 1 is the intelligence of an Ooze, whereas beasts tend to be 4, which is the feel I am getting from this!
I have brought the perfect tool to lose your humanity, The Gore Rock
I love it!
I would change the Ability Scores to 4 rather than 1, as 1 is the intelligence of an Ooze, whereas beasts tend to be 4, which is the feel I am getting from this!
I’m also righting something for a sword that’s max damage increases if you roll max damage
I can tell you like this character! However, from a writing standpoint, it’s a bit… much. A tiefling that can manifest wings, is the queen of a region, wields a dragon-related weapon, is the god of magic, can wild shape, likely is a monk, and has the ability to rage? That’s quite a lot for one character.
From a balance standpoint at CR 21, proficiency in all saves is a lot. Also, making her wild shape have no CR limit or problem with turning into an ancient dragon three times to have three health bars is way too strong. Not to mention… she is able to cast any spell at no cost. Ignoring wish, this statblock could cast meteor swarm every turn to annihilate anything.
As for formatting: DC should be capitalized, her skills are at an improper value, remember to capitalize ability names, and you don’t need to include Opportunity Attack. It’s implied. If you intend on keeping the statblock, you should change the CR. (I would recommend changing it to 30.)
I have brought the perfect tool to lose your humanity, The Gore Rock
I love it!
I would change the Ability Scores to 4 rather than 1, as 1 is the intelligence of an Ooze, whereas beasts tend to be 4, which is the feel I am getting from this!
I’m also righting something for a sword that’s max damage increases if you roll max damage
I can tell you like this character! However, from a writing standpoint, it’s a bit… much. A tiefling that can manifest wings, is the queen of a region, wields a dragon-related weapon, is the god of magic, can wild shape, likely is a monk, and has the ability to rage? That’s quite a lot for one character.
From a balance standpoint at CR 21, proficiency in all saves is a lot. Also, making her wild shape have no CR limit or problem with turning into an ancient dragon three times to have three health bars is way too strong. Not to mention… she is able to cast any spell at no cost. Ignoring wish, this statblock could cast meteor swarm every turn to annihilate anything.
As for formatting: DC should be capitalized, her skills are at an improper value, remember to capitalize ability names, and you don’t need to include Opportunity Attack. It’s implied. If you intend on keeping the statblock, you should change the CR. (I would recommend changing it to 30.)
I would agree with what MilestoGo said. Casting every spell at will is super powerful one its own. For example, Quenthel Baenre (a pretty ubscure NPC from out of the abyss) who can cast cleric spells at will is challenge rating 22 despite having only 19 AC, 132 hit points, and quite limited actions other than her spells. Yet this puts her at a challenge rating already higher than that of Ea. Wild shape with no maximum challenge rating is also quite powerful. She could theoretically transform into tiamat, a greatwyrm, or even just an ancient dragon. And she can do this three times, turning to her original form after being reduced to 0 hits points each time. So lets say she turns into something like an ancient red dragon. That means the total damage needed to do to defeat the monster would be 546*3+229=1867. That's a lot of hit points. Almost triple the hit points of a tarrasque.
I'd advise increase the challenge rating or decrease the power of these abilities, or potentially both. The ideas are creative and could work well, but are currently way too powerful to be balanced or even face-able. Maybe put a maximum challenge rating of 20 to transform into, a maximum spell level of eight, and a maximum uses per day of the ability or something like that. If you wanted, you could do something more creative/fun than just a maximum number of uses, like a maximum of two uses but she regains one when she deals damage without using a spell, or something like that. But the overall power just needs to be decreased. The character is bad per se, the ideas are good and the character themself seems pretty cool, the implementation of the ideas are just currently very powerful compared to the relative power of other statblocks or the PCs.
Cool idea for mob violence, but overall too weak for CR 22. It should be CR 14 by my calculations, or less due to the PB decrease. Consider increasing damage output if you want to keep the CR, and perhaps give it an ability that makes it significantly more unique.
In other news: introducing the greatest (humanoid) villain in the entirety of my D&D world: Razzix Elonias, the Despoiler!
How do you make something that’s overpowered but still balanced?
That in itself is not possible - overpowered means that it is too powerful for its CR. Balanced means that it is as powerful as its CR.
The question is, why do you want something that's overpowered? The main reason is to warn off the players, but an Ancient Dragon is both balanced and can be too much for the players!
What you're aiming to do is make the CR rating high enough that if you make a hard encounter from the creature, then it's doable. If you make an encounter that's "hard" and the creature still wins without issue, then it's overpowered, and the CR rating was wrong. Take the dragon again - If you change it to CR5 and change nothing else, it's overpowered - the players will all die even if it's considered an Easy encounter.
The most important thing to consider is how these things fit into your game - you're the DM, so if you want to make a TPK monster all you have to do is keep saying "It's not dead yet" and you'll win. A goblin with infinite hitpoints and legendary resistances will eventually kill the party. What you need to work out is the role you monster fills:
1: The Slugfest. This monster is bg and slow and hits things or throws things, and it exists to let the melee guys hit things and the spellcasters cast things. Its main goal is to be balancd as a basic on-foot bag of HP to be removed.
2: The Puzzle. This monster can fly, or teleport, or has an area of effect around it that prompts the players to use ranged attacks. Perhaps it uses magical darkness, or it saps their strength. Maybe it's immune to nonmagical effects, or perhaps the opposite? These ones are harder to balance, because some parties will find it easy, and others will really struggle. You need to adapt your CR on the fly for different parties for this (EG a party of barbarians will struggle more against a flying monster than a party of rangers or wizards, because of the lack of range!)
3: The Obstacle. This monster isn't there to kill the party, nor is it there to be killed by them - it exists to be a problem. The Tarrasque falls into this category - it wants t odestroy a city, the party wants it to stop. It's not an arena fight! Other examples are Iron Golems and, at lower levels, Shield Guardians. These monsters tend towards lower damage and higher HP, and rarely have major offensive tricks, only defensive (EG fire healing on golems, magical ricochet on Tarrasque). These can be used at a higher level than in a stright fight, because they are not there to be defeated, and you can still win by getting around them or luring them elsewhere.
4: The Boss. This is the monster who is supposed to be the big finale fight with the players. They lend themselves to several key abilities:
I'm back - regeneration, multi-stage statblocks, phylacteries, clones, being the conduit for a communist tentacle god, and all that jazz. Coming back after the first fight is what makes the boss a boss.
This will take a while - Evading capture, teleporting away, flying, and healing. All the things they can do to prolong the fight, so that it's not over in two rounds. They need time for reverses, monologues, and so on.
Source of their Power - Things like Lairs, Phylacteries, and so forth. Give the players a way to weaken their opponents, aside from targeting them with attacks. Lure them out, destroy the crystals in the cave, submerge them in water, whatever it takes to cut them down a peg or two.
Reserved Hand - the boss should be able to hurt them, or make them dance, or any number of things. They should have ways to deal lower damage, to keep the fight going. They should have ways of manipulating the characters, such as charm, petrification, exhaustion, counterspell, and legendary resistances. And they should have ways of ending the players when they're done toying with them - powerful attacks, deadly spells, and so forth.
Reinforcements - I like to give my Boss Monsters an opportunity to summon minions, so that the longer a fight goes for, the tougher it gets. Zombies, skeletons, elementals, give them lair actions or legendary actions to change the dynamics of the fight and you're golden.
How do you make something that’s overpowered but still balanced?
That in itself is not possible - overpowered means that it is too powerful for its CR. Balanced means that it is as powerful as its CR.
The question is, why do you want something that's overpowered? The main reason is to warn off the players, but an Ancient Dragon is both balanced and can be too much for the players!
What you're aiming to do is make the CR rating high enough that if you make a hard encounter from the creature, then it's doable. If you make an encounter that's "hard" and the creature still wins without issue, then it's overpowered, and the CR rating was wrong. Take the dragon again - If you change it to CR5 and change nothing else, it's overpowered - the players will all die even if it's considered an Easy encounter.
The most important thing to consider is how these things fit into your game - you're the DM, so if you want to make a TPK monster all you have to do is keep saying "It's not dead yet" and you'll win. A goblin with infinite hitpoints and legendary resistances will eventually kill the party. What you need to work out is the role you monster fills:
1: The Slugfest. This monster is bg and slow and hits things or throws things, and it exists to let the melee guys hit things and the spellcasters cast things. Its main goal is to be balancd as a basic on-foot bag of HP to be removed.
2: The Puzzle. This monster can fly, or teleport, or has an area of effect around it that prompts the players to use ranged attacks. Perhaps it uses magical darkness, or it saps their strength. Maybe it's immune to nonmagical effects, or perhaps the opposite? These ones are harder to balance, because some parties will find it easy, and others will really struggle. You need to adapt your CR on the fly for different parties for this (EG a party of barbarians will struggle more against a flying monster than a party of rangers or wizards, because of the lack of range!)
3: The Obstacle. This monster isn't there to kill the party, nor is it there to be killed by them - it exists to be a problem. The Tarrasque falls into this category - it wants t odestroy a city, the party wants it to stop. It's not an arena fight! Other examples are Iron Golems and, at lower levels, Shield Guardians. These monsters tend towards lower damage and higher HP, and rarely have major offensive tricks, only defensive (EG fire healing on golems, magical ricochet on Tarrasque). These can be used at a higher level than in a stright fight, because they are not there to be defeated, and you can still win by getting around them or luring them elsewhere.
4: The Boss. This is the monster who is supposed to be the big finale fight with the players. They lend themselves to several key abilities:
I'm back - regeneration, multi-stage statblocks, phylacteries, clones, being the conduit for a communist tentacle god, and all that jazz. Coming back after the first fight is what makes the boss a boss.
This will take a while - Evading capture, teleporting away, flying, and healing. All the things they can do to prolong the fight, so that it's not over in two rounds. They need time for reverses, monologues, and so on.
Source of their Power - Things like Lairs, Phylacteries, and so forth. Give the players a way to weaken their opponents, aside from targeting them with attacks. Lure them out, destroy the crystals in the cave, submerge them in water, whatever it takes to cut them down a peg or two.
Reserved Hand - the boss should be able to hurt them, or make them dance, or any number of things. They should have ways to deal lower damage, to keep the fight going. They should have ways of manipulating the characters, such as charm, petrification, exhaustion, counterspell, and legendary resistances. And they should have ways of ending the players when they're done toying with them - powerful attacks, deadly spells, and so forth.
Reinforcements - I like to give my Boss Monsters an opportunity to summon minions, so that the longer a fight goes for, the tougher it gets. Zombies, skeletons, elementals, give them lair actions or legendary actions to change the dynamics of the fight and you're golden.
Hope this helps!
Good advice
I also know who you should play in the DM training ground, if you’re still interested. You should play Thoruk’s twin brother, Thoruk.
Sorry for the lat reply!
I was reading this for CotFB and let me just say this is absolutely amazing. It's a genius idea with amazing execution. In fact, I may actually use it in my next campaign. (assuming you're fine with it).
If you wanted to expand it further, maybe you could add some creatures that adapted to the Astral sea patch. Maybe some sort of race or group of people that scavenges from it as well.
I am an average mathematics enjoyer.
>Extended Signature<
It's pretty cool but a bit under powered to be honest. I like it makes more sense as a rare item, given that flame tongue can deal 2d6 extra on every hit no questions asked.
I am an average mathematics enjoyer.
>Extended Signature<
It seems slightly over powered, given that mass cure wounds heals a similar amount without the bonus to rolls or the immunity to frightened. It's not super overpowered, but its a bit.
I am an average mathematics enjoyer.
>Extended Signature<
Clarion 1.1, now a 6th-level spell. Combined with the material component, it should be fairly balanced.
MilestoGo_24's alt.
Come participate in the Competition of the Finest Brews, Edition XXI, and share your work!
Be not afraid.
Wait. Actually, be very afraid.
I would like feedback on this magic item, the Runeplate Buckler.
Come participate in the Competition of the Finest Brews, Edition XXVIII?
My homebrew stuff:
Spells, Monsters, Magic Items, Feats, Subclasses.
I am an Archfey, but nobody seems to notice.
Extended Signature
Thank you so much! I'm really pleased you enjoyed it :)
I am more than happy for you to use it in your game (that is, after all, what these things are for!)
I intend to expand it a lot, and hopefully release some sort of supplement book with adventures centred on the 3 locations. I have a few ideas for native creatures and the anomaly at the centre is going to get some expanding in due course!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
I have returned from the endless void with a terrifiying undead beast the Mummified Hydra
My homebrew content: Monsters, subclasses, Magic items, Feats, spells, races, backgrounds
I have brought the perfect tool to lose your humanity, The Gore Rock
Come participate in the Competition of the Finest Brews, Edition XXVIII?
My homebrew stuff:
Spells, Monsters, Magic Items, Feats, Subclasses.
I am an Archfey, but nobody seems to notice.
Extended Signature
I love it!
I would change the Ability Scores to 4 rather than 1, as 1 is the intelligence of an Ooze, whereas beasts tend to be 4, which is the feel I am getting from this!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
Ea, Queen of the High-Lands
What do you think?
I’m also righting something for a sword that’s max damage increases if you roll max damage
MY INFO
I’ll do that, thanks!
Come participate in the Competition of the Finest Brews, Edition XXVIII?
My homebrew stuff:
Spells, Monsters, Magic Items, Feats, Subclasses.
I am an Archfey, but nobody seems to notice.
Extended Signature
Gore Rock 1.1 if anyone was interested.
I can tell you like this character! However, from a writing standpoint, it’s a bit… much. A tiefling that can manifest wings, is the queen of a region, wields a dragon-related weapon, is the god of magic, can wild shape, likely is a monk, and has the ability to rage? That’s quite a lot for one character.
From a balance standpoint at CR 21, proficiency in all saves is a lot. Also, making her wild shape have no CR limit or problem with turning into an ancient dragon three times to have three health bars is way too strong. Not to mention… she is able to cast any spell at no cost. Ignoring wish, this statblock could cast meteor swarm every turn to annihilate anything.
As for formatting: DC should be capitalized, her skills are at an improper value, remember to capitalize ability names, and you don’t need to include Opportunity Attack. It’s implied. If you intend on keeping the statblock, you should change the CR. (I would recommend changing it to 30.)
Come participate in the Competition of the Finest Brews, Edition XXVIII?
My homebrew stuff:
Spells, Monsters, Magic Items, Feats, Subclasses.
I am an Archfey, but nobody seems to notice.
Extended Signature
What do you other guys or gals think?
MY INFO
I would agree with what MilestoGo said. Casting every spell at will is super powerful one its own. For example, Quenthel Baenre (a pretty ubscure NPC from out of the abyss) who can cast cleric spells at will is challenge rating 22 despite having only 19 AC, 132 hit points, and quite limited actions other than her spells. Yet this puts her at a challenge rating already higher than that of Ea. Wild shape with no maximum challenge rating is also quite powerful. She could theoretically transform into tiamat, a greatwyrm, or even just an ancient dragon. And she can do this three times, turning to her original form after being reduced to 0 hits points each time. So lets say she turns into something like an ancient red dragon. That means the total damage needed to do to defeat the monster would be 546*3+229=1867. That's a lot of hit points. Almost triple the hit points of a tarrasque.
I'd advise increase the challenge rating or decrease the power of these abilities, or potentially both. The ideas are creative and could work well, but are currently way too powerful to be balanced or even face-able. Maybe put a maximum challenge rating of 20 to transform into, a maximum spell level of eight, and a maximum uses per day of the ability or something like that. If you wanted, you could do something more creative/fun than just a maximum number of uses, like a maximum of two uses but she regains one when she deals damage without using a spell, or something like that. But the overall power just needs to be decreased. The character is bad per se, the ideas are good and the character themself seems pretty cool, the implementation of the ideas are just currently very powerful compared to the relative power of other statblocks or the PCs.
I am an average mathematics enjoyer.
>Extended Signature<
What do you guys think of the Gargantuan Treant?
MY INFO
Cool idea for mob violence, but overall too weak for CR 22. It should be CR 14 by my calculations, or less due to the PB decrease. Consider increasing damage output if you want to keep the CR, and perhaps give it an ability that makes it significantly more unique.
In other news: introducing the greatest (humanoid) villain in the entirety of my D&D world: Razzix Elonias, the Despoiler!
The homebrew spells in his statblock:
Call Shadows, Despoil
Come participate in the Competition of the Finest Brews, Edition XXVIII?
My homebrew stuff:
Spells, Monsters, Magic Items, Feats, Subclasses.
I am an Archfey, but nobody seems to notice.
Extended Signature
How do you make something that’s overpowered but still balanced?
MY INFO
That in itself is not possible - overpowered means that it is too powerful for its CR. Balanced means that it is as powerful as its CR.
The question is, why do you want something that's overpowered? The main reason is to warn off the players, but an Ancient Dragon is both balanced and can be too much for the players!
What you're aiming to do is make the CR rating high enough that if you make a hard encounter from the creature, then it's doable. If you make an encounter that's "hard" and the creature still wins without issue, then it's overpowered, and the CR rating was wrong. Take the dragon again - If you change it to CR5 and change nothing else, it's overpowered - the players will all die even if it's considered an Easy encounter.
The most important thing to consider is how these things fit into your game - you're the DM, so if you want to make a TPK monster all you have to do is keep saying "It's not dead yet" and you'll win. A goblin with infinite hitpoints and legendary resistances will eventually kill the party. What you need to work out is the role you monster fills:
1: The Slugfest. This monster is bg and slow and hits things or throws things, and it exists to let the melee guys hit things and the spellcasters cast things. Its main goal is to be balancd as a basic on-foot bag of HP to be removed.
2: The Puzzle. This monster can fly, or teleport, or has an area of effect around it that prompts the players to use ranged attacks. Perhaps it uses magical darkness, or it saps their strength. Maybe it's immune to nonmagical effects, or perhaps the opposite? These ones are harder to balance, because some parties will find it easy, and others will really struggle. You need to adapt your CR on the fly for different parties for this (EG a party of barbarians will struggle more against a flying monster than a party of rangers or wizards, because of the lack of range!)
3: The Obstacle. This monster isn't there to kill the party, nor is it there to be killed by them - it exists to be a problem. The Tarrasque falls into this category - it wants t odestroy a city, the party wants it to stop. It's not an arena fight! Other examples are Iron Golems and, at lower levels, Shield Guardians. These monsters tend towards lower damage and higher HP, and rarely have major offensive tricks, only defensive (EG fire healing on golems, magical ricochet on Tarrasque). These can be used at a higher level than in a stright fight, because they are not there to be defeated, and you can still win by getting around them or luring them elsewhere.
4: The Boss. This is the monster who is supposed to be the big finale fight with the players. They lend themselves to several key abilities:
Hope this helps!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
Good advice
I also know who you should play in the DM training ground, if you’re still interested. You should play Thoruk’s twin brother, Thoruk.
MY INFO
I would like to introduce my new homebrew statblock, the leader of the Autumn Court: Demeter, Queen of the Red Harvest!
I would love feedback!
Come participate in the Competition of the Finest Brews, Edition XXVIII?
My homebrew stuff:
Spells, Monsters, Magic Items, Feats, Subclasses.
I am an Archfey, but nobody seems to notice.
Extended Signature