Same Vision, New Version: Updating Published Homebrew on D&D Beyond

Tags homebrew ddb-features author-davyd-atkins

You’ve just finished working on your homebrew masterpiece and shared it with the D&D Beyond community after reading the Homebrew Rules & Guidelines. Then, disaster strikes! You notice an error in your homebrew. But it’s too late now, published homebrew can't be edited or deleted! What are you to do?

The solution is rather simple: you publish a new version. Here's a walkthrough of how to do that so you can update your published homebrew!

Quick tip: Do not report your homebrew in the hopes that a moderator will unpublish it. This won’t work and only results in grumpy moderators!

For context: Versions, collections, creations

Before we start with actually revising your homebrew, it’s important to understand how the homebrew database works in regards to versions and the "My Homebrew Collection" and "My Homebrew Creations" pages.

Homebrew versions

Whenever you make homebrew content, you’ll see a "Version" field near the top, usually immediately after the "Name" field. This is an important field because it lets you track your revisions. If you make homebrew and never need to update it again, the version field is irrelevant. But if you need to make adjustments, it can be vital in tracking changes you've made. Doing so also ensures that anyone using your homebrew is using the right version of it.

You can view the current version of your homebrew on the "My Homebrew Collection" and "My Homebrew Creations" pages:

Viewing version of homebrew item on desktop

This information can also be found in character sheets by navigating to the item:

Viewing homebrew version on mobileAlternatively, if your homebrew has previous versions, you can find them in the version history at the bottom of its full description.
Viewing all versions of a homebrew item

My Homebrew Collection vs. My Homebrew Creations

It’s important to note the difference between homebrew found on the "My Homebrew Collection" page and those found on the "My Homebrew Creations" page.

"My Homebrew Creations" lists every piece of homebrew you’ve ever made, including unpublished homebrew you’ve deleted, which can be found by filtering by "Deleted" under status. This is useful if you want to restore unpublished homebrew you’ve previously cast banishment on.

Viewing your homebrew creations

"My Homebrew Collection" lists the homebrew items that you’ve saved using the "Add to Collection" button you can find at the bottom of each homebrew's page.

Adding homebrew to your collection

It’s important to note that while you’ll be able to use this option on your own homebrew to add and remove it from your collection, you’ll need a Hero- or Master-tier subscription to do the same for homebrew published by others. Additionally, any homebrew you make will be automatically added to your collection.

Keep in mind that anything in your collection will be shared with other players you’re in a campaign with, even when content sharing is turned off.

Updating your homebrew

Now that you’re familiar with some of the key details of how homebrew is managed and organized, we can get down to the important bit: updating your homebrew. Recently, I made the Huntress’s Bow for an article about using homebrew tools to make magic items, and it was pointed out that I’d made a small mistake with one of the modifiers. Also, I received three great pieces of feedback:

  1. The weapon was a longbow, a weapon druids don’t get proficiency in
  2. The rarity felt low, even for a class-specific weapon
  3. The bow could justifiably be a ranger weapon

As such, I’m going to update the weapon to grant proficiency in longbows, have a higher rarity, and be usable by rangers.

1. Make a copy of your homebrew

The first thing you’re going to want to do is to navigate to the homebrew you want to update and select "Create New Version."

Creating a new version of a homebrew item

When you do this, you’ll get a confirmation dialogue asking you if you’re sure you want to proceed. Clicking "Create" will add a new, unpublished version of the item to your homebrew collection and creations, but you won’t be immediately taken to that version. You can access this new copy from either section, but if you go to your creations, you’ll see a difference:

List of homebrew creationsThe item that is listed as "Private, Never Submitted" is the copy that you'll want to edit and update. So, select that version and click "Edit."

Edit button on a homebrew creation

2. Make your changes

From there, you’ll be presented with the same tools you used to craft your homebrew. Make any necessary changes, including updating your version number so that you can track your changes. In my case, I made the following changes to my magic weapon:

  • Set the version number to 2.0
  • Increased the rarity to Very Rare
  • Allowed the weapon to be attuned to by druids or rangers
  • The weapon now grants proficiency with longbows
  • Fixed the additional damage to be piercing

With those changes made and modifiers added, I gave the new version a quick test to make sure everything was working. It's wise to test your creations before publishing! With everything double-checked, you can publish your updated version by selecting "Share With Community" and clicking "Submit" on the confirmation message.

3. Do a little bit of housekeeping

Now that you’ve published your update, you might need to do a little bit of a clean-up in your homebrew collection. You see, every time you make new homebrew, it’s added to your collection. This includes new copies:

Different versions of item

This differs from your homebrew creations, which will only list the latest version of anything you’ve published.

My Homebrew Collection, latest version of item

This is a lot like how the public homebrew listings work, where the system groups all versions into a single entry. This is because we don’t allow you to delete published homebrew in case someone else is using it on their character and the deletion would ruin (or worse, break) their character. If you expand any homebrew you’ve updated, you can see the version history at the bottom, and even access the older versions.

Huntress's bow versions

Here, you’ll see how to remove that duplicate from your collection. Even though you’ve made a new version and published it, the previous version is still in your collection. If you click "Remove From Collection," you’ll now only have one listing of the item in your homebrew collection (the latest one) and the same for your homebrew creations.

You can find the revised version of my Huntress’s Bow here.

An important note on templates vs. new versions

There is another way to create a duplicate of a homebrew thing you’ve made, by selecting your homebrew from the drop-down under the "Use an existing item as a template:" option.

Create homebrew item menu(I haven’t removed the old version from my collection, hence why the item is appearing twice.)

However, making a copy this way won’t result in replacing the previous version when you publish it. Instead, you’ll end up with multiple copies of similar magic items. So make sure you only use this option for making brand-new magic items. For updates and edits, use the "Create New Version" option detailed above.

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Davyd is a moderator for D&D Beyond. A Dungeon Master of over fifteen years, he enjoys Marvel movies, writing, and of course running D&D for his friends and family, including his daughter Willow (well, one day). The three of them live with their two cats Asker and Khatleesi in south of England.

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