#5e homebrew

[regal-bones]

Night Flash, a spear of black glass and infernal energy for @rosemary-kitten 🔥⚡️1 of 2 items from this order, excited to share the other one :}!

If you’re interested in getting a commission done yourself, DM me!

Or you can support me on Patreon for £1 and help me keep making art!

[dungeonmastersconsortium]

Limit Break - An Experimental 5e OPTIONAL feature

I posted a while about an experimental feature for 5e that lets players do things not accounted for by the rules, or lets them do Cool Shit™ they wouldn't ordinarily be able to do! This is the VERY rough draft, while I work on tables of consequences for DM's that struggle with improvising or creating such elements off-hand.

Feedback is welcome, but if you're a dick about it, I'll block or ignore you as usual. I know it has been a while since I posted new original content, and this is a new feature/system to tack on to your games, so PLEASE feel free to reblog it for additional exposure so I can get more feedback. More feedback and more exposure means more original content, in the long run!

[marinebiologyshitposts]

I run a dnd group, and I'm a big fan of crabs in particular. The last time I gave my group a giant crab encounter they loved it, and I want to do more, but I need a greater variety of crab species ideas to steal.

What types of crabs do you think are especially cool?? Or would be if they were big enough to ride like a horse? I've already done a fiddler crab and I have a horseshoe crab planned

once i homebrewed a dnd crab monster based on a massive Decorator Crab, where it allowed a massive Roper to grow on its back. it lived in a watery cave. so it looked like a regular stalagmite but was actually a crab. not only did it have a huge reach due to the Roper's tentacles, and some serious AC and resistances, but it could also move around the cave at a much faster pace than any roper alone would be capable of. it was wild and my players just ran away from it because they knew better than to attack it. anyways. use that idea. do that. and tell me about it. ropers are basically cave anemones anyways right? pom pom crab with huge fuckoff Mouth Rocks on its hands. steal this idea and tell them all whose fault it was

[gavamont]

A Wizard that uses a Wii Remote as their wand and can pick people up like they are a Mii in the Mii Plaza Channel.

[dailyadventureprompts]

Drafting the Adventure: Dungeons Without Walls

I love the idea of dungeons, but there was a significant portion of my life as a DM where they didn’t feature in my games. While Pathfinder and 5e provided a great framework for character building and tactical skirmishes that I could build story on top of, neither was really great when it came time to detour into a  dungeon. My players tended to get confused when we headed out to plunder the local ruin or cave system, spending a lot more time figuring out where they were and what they should be doing than actually doing anything. 

The problem as it turned out was limited information.  I had a picture of the dungeon in my head/notes but I couldn’t telepathically infer that to the party, and the back and forth questions where they tried to orient themselves within my mental labyrinth ate up a lot of session time prevented us from attaining that snappy pace that every table needs to keep the players invested.

Recently though I had an epiphany about overhauling exploration in d&d, and wrote up a whole post detailing how you could build and run wilderness adventures the same way you could a heist or a murder mystery. Because I was already writing a series about dungeon design it didn’t take long for me to realize that this exploration overhaul was 100% applicable, and could solve a lot of the delay and confusion my players usually faced on their next trip underground.  Spoilers: it worked amazingly.

 The key to this overhaul was giving my players enough information to see the dungeon as a sort of abstract checklist, and then giving them the power to investigate and check things off that list in whatever order they wished, when they enter a new level of the dungeon they get a new checklist to fill out which still keeps that sense of exploration. Folk love checking things off lists, and I as a dungeonmaster love it when players engage with the content I’ve spent so much energy creating even if it’s only poking their head in the door to realize they want to run away as fast as possible. Likewise, designing the dungeon this way let me tackle much larger concepts without having to sweat the details of filling up every little room as I would have to in map-centric design.

To summarize my exploration mechanic as It applies to dungeons:

During Design: After you’ve got the dungeons’ major concept, you divide it into unique “zones” (essentially what might be levels in a regular dungeon) with an interconnected theme, mechanic, or threat.

Each zone has a number of points of interest, which can be anything from trails to follow, odd sights they might investigate, to full complexes of rooms that you’ve mapped out. You don’t need to map out the points of interest otherwise, they sort of float abstractly within the zone 

When players enter a zone, they become aware of its name and general descriptor, as well as how many total points of interest are in that zone. They also become aware of some points of interest immediately to serve as landmarks and give them a direction for their exploration, but most remain undiscovered until they venture off the path and start checking out their surroundings. Hidden among these points of interest are the doors that lead to zones deeper within the dungeon, encouraging the party to explore in order to progress.

During Play: When the players enter the dungeon, one player is appointed as the surveyor, who’s job it is to keep track of the zones, fill out that checklist, and check things off when the DM tells them that they’ve fully explored a point of interest.

Rather than needing to be aware of the exact room layout, the party just need to know what zone they’re in and what options are available to them, Because this information is delivered in the form of a checklist with empty spaces, the party know exactly how much of the dungeon they’ve explored, what’s left to explore, and when they’ve cleared out an area.

Lets take the image above as inspiration. Say the party is trying to make it up to the tower, you can easily see a progression of zones and maybe imagine a few to go alongside them:

Ruins & Foothills: The first area, filled with the remnants of an ancient civilization. Picked over by looters and now a home to all sorts of wildlife,

Mountainside: The obvious next goal, but locked off behind a challenging climb, Filled with hazards that threaten to knock the party back down to the foothills if they’re not careful

Caverns: Secret area accessible only if the party explore a cave on the mountainside, or make a beeline towards the old aqueduct landmark in the foothills, realizing it might be easier than the climb. 

Spire Foundations: The door connecting to the foothills is guarded by a complex puzzle and arcane ward, but the party might be able to sneak in through the caves where erosion has caused a breakthrough into the cellars.

Spire Peak: High among the clouds, the party’s prize is somewhere here.  Access to the upper sections of the tower are guarded by a territorial sphinx under arcane compulsion, though the party might just be able to skip that fight if they figure out the riddle to make the portal mirrors work in the foundations.

Trying to design all this by pencilling it in on a gridmap would take weeks, to say nothing of the headache it’d cause you trying to make things fit together and fill up empty space with content. Designing it first as a sequence of zones and then filling those out with interesting fights, puzzles, and encounters is the work of an afternoon or two. Likewise, its easy on your players: five zones with six to ten points of interest is far easier to tackle when you can make a checklist and see how much progress you’ve made, despite the fact that the area they’re exploring is quite vast. 

I hope you find this as useful as I have, and if you need a more concrete example of how it might work, don’t worry, I’ll have one of those for you in the coming days.

[psychhound]

5e homebrew for disability pride month

hey yall :D since it's disability pride month and i am a Local Disabled TM i wanted to spotlight the d&d 5e homebrew i've done featuring disability mechanics!! they're all FREE / PWYW and available on itch!!

autism & adhd mechanics

traits for mechanically emphasizing a character's autism and/or adhd!! there's 11 traits total, with 5 shared between them, and 3 each that are specific to autism and adhd. the traits are beneficial, detrimental, and a mix of both, intended for 1-3 to be chosen for a single character. includes traits like sensory processing disorder, time blindness, and rejection sensitive dysphoria

service monsters

service animals - monster edition! you choose a customizable base for your monster, a statblock, and origin, and then get to choose your service type: guiding, hearing, mobility, medical alert, trauma, schizophrenia, or autism! each service type has a unique monster with different abilities, strengths, and magic. service monsters can't be used in combat but they have resistance to all damage and go to a pocket dimension upon dropping to 0hp

trauma mechanics

10 traits for panic disorder, ptsd, and cptsd, with an included definitions section and suggestions for trait application. includes mechanics for triggers, as well as for traits like panic attacks, insomnia, hypervigilance, and trust issues. the traits include different outcomes for meeting the dc or failing by different margins, and the aftereffects of failing a save, as well as ways that allies can help

my inspiration for making these was that i'm an autistic, mentally ill, traumatized disabled person who's been an active and leading disability advocate for the last 9 years and a disability-specialist social worker for 2.5 of those. definitely still room for improvement with my homebrew but i think there always will be when trying to put the incredibly varied human experience of disability into a crunchy numbers&rules format :o)

if you liked them please consider throwing some dollars my way either on itch or on my kofi as i get ready to head to grad school to study gamification in the mental health & disability space!! you can also check out the rest of my 5e homebrew here!

happy disability pride month to all, go run over some toes

[homebrew-a-la-traumaverse]

Objecthead - Homebrew Lineage by Nines, v1.0

Heads will roll... the dice.

Objectheads, as the name implies, have an object for a head. While this allows them to transcend many physical limitations, such as the need for food and sleep, they still need to keep their head on to survive - so maybe don't try replacing your head with a Revivify diamond.

[tarisbackyard]

My very first homebrew! Unicorn foal stat block designed to be used as a 5e Warlock familar. PDF link here.

[5ecardaday]

Commanders of New Capenna

Another weekend, another brand-new release from me. This time it’s back to the schedule as normal, with the results of last month’s Monster Popularity Contest (a monthly patreon poll where supporters vote to see their favorite monsters, NPCs, and other enemies come to life.) These five friendly mugs are the face commanders from the commander decks released alongside Streets of New Cappena. Each one serves a different family, and plays a different role in the glamorous politics of this 30′s-themed fantasy setting.

If you’d like early access to more content like this, the ability to vote in polls like the one mentioned above, and other patron-exclusive releases like monthly subclasses and more, you can sign up to support me for as little as $2/month!

[dungeonmalcontent]

Okay folks.

Happy spooky month.

Happy open your ribcage and devour a victim month.

Happy best time of the year.

Happy Grimdark.

Grimdark & Dangerous 50% off for the entire month of October. Just use this link.

Grimdark & Dangerous 50% off for the entire month of October. Just use this link.

Grimdark & Dangerous 50% off for the entire month of October. Just use this link.

Don't know what Grimdark & Dangerous is? You must be new here. It's my magnum opus of 5e homebrew. Normally it costs $19.99. This month, if you use this link, it costs $9.99. I'll give you a second to wipe up that water you just spit out of your mouth using your excellent comedic timing skills you glorious potential Grimdark player.

Reader for the kicker?

This month, Grimdark & Dangerous gets it's first milestone expansion. Currently we are poised at 49 copies sold (as of writing). The next person that buys a copy triggers a file update. After 50 copies sold, all past and future buyers of G&D get an extra G&D expansion book for free as part of buying G&D. Grimdark & Dangerous: The Living Grimoire Expansion is a whole thing in and of itself, and if I were going to put a price on it, that price would be $8.99. On its own. Buy G&D, get the second book free. In fact, the only way to get The Living Grimoire is as a free expansion. This is content I've never shared before or published elsewhere. And if you wait, after this month, the price goes back up to $19.99.

Is this clicking for you yet? In the spirit of the month of October, I am slashing the price of a massive homebrew book in half so you can play as a horrible dark fantasy monster in your Halloween game. Not planning on doing a Halloween oneshot or mini campaign? Do one anyway, the amount of content in this book could write multiple distinct campaign outlines just from mixing and matching descriptive text.

You do not know how much self control is has taken me not to start this post with a Destiel meme, this is that big of a deal.

→ If it wasn't clear already, this is one of the very few posts of mine that you need to reblog.

[homebrewbydek]

Hey I did a thing and remembered!

Okay, so, here we stand at the first Artificer subclass that I did. This one is all about becoming a cyborg.

This was a fun one to build, and I absolutely had John Silver in mind while I wrote it, as well as some other cyborg/android inspirations, like Android 16 and Mercy Graves.

I also threw in a few Artificer infusions that I felt were fitting for the subclass.

As usual, the homebrewery link to this subclass can be found here and I welcome any feedback, especially if you play it!

Stay fresh, cheesebags!

[regal-bones]

Blinkblades, twin daggers of black glass and loyal enchantment for @rosemary-kitten 🐕🗡️ thank u again for commissioning me !!

If you’re interested in getting a commission done yourself, DM me!

Or you can support me on Patreon for £1 and help me keep making art!

[dungeonmastersconsortium]

Would you use a D&D 5e Homebrew "Heroic Action" System?

The idea is that your players, outside of rolls and hard mechanics can CHOOSE to have a heroic moment and influence the story in a way that they want to. The DM can negotiate what's possible, and offer them something like a Minor, Major, or Grave Consequence. Essentially, it's a player getting to choose a moment to shine in exchange for the DM giving the player a disadvantage or long term consequence.

And please don't comment or tag with systems that have similar mechanics/systems. I'm already aware of them, and yes, they'll have an influence on this.

[madanythinglaboratory]

EDIT: I wasn't happy with this statblock, so I juiced the little storm god a bit, got rid of the errors, and added a description. The previous version will be under the cut.

Behold, an entire statblock for our favorite drama queen, Tynan, Shadow of Thunder from @comicaurora! Also known as "I got wayyy too much excited about the concept of Mythic Traits and what funky thing you might do with them". Enjoy!

[dungeonofthedragon]

I've always wanted to make a playable mind flayer. For day 10: mental, this was the first idea that sprang to mind.

(Just noticed the formatting errors in the Illithid Magic section. Will update the image later!)

[psychhound]

[ID: image 1: a digital painting of a lizard like creature with grey skin that is glowing with blue electricity and surrounded by mushrooms. there is pale yellow text that says "service monsters / non-combat companions / for disabled characters"

images 2 and 3: screenshots from a PHB style formatted PDF showing part of the 'basic traits' section and the 'guide' and 'mobility assistance' sections from the service monsters PDF. end ID]

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D&D 5e Disability Mechanics Series

Service Monsters to aid disabled PCs and NPCs

service monsters are designed to aid disabled characters in D&D 5e without erasing their disabilities. they are non-combat and may not aid in battle, but can help disabled characters navigate the world and interact with parts of it that may not be accessible to them alone

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service monster options:

Guiding, Hearing, Mobility Assistance, Medical Alert, Psychiatric (Trauma), Psychiatric (Autism), Psychiatric (Schizophrenia)

a base monster customizable for things like creature type, size, and shape

three statblock options

origin options for your service monster

each monster has: 

unique physical characteristics for each service type

unique senses, speeds, and abilities

advantage on two skill checks

a small amount of magic

assistance granted with things like saving throws, charisma checks, or difficult terrain

HP and AC that raises with your level

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great for pairing with:

trauma mechanics

autism & adhd mechanics

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download the formatted, plain text, and dyslexia-friendly PDFs for free / pay what you want at:

itch / kofi / dm's guild