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Nerdarchy > Homebrew (Page 16)
necromancy

Creating a Good Necromancer for Fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons

We decided to take a stab at creating a good necromancer for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Nerdarchy has had a cantankerous relationship with our fans when it comes the wizard tradition of necromancy. We are of the philosophy of if you animate dead you are creating evil creatures, which is an evil act.

Free D&D

Enjoy a Free Download For Your D&D Game From Nerdarchy

Nerdarchy has been putting together content for your D&D game via Patreon for several years now. Like with everything we do we constantly strive to improve and get better to provide higher quality value to our fans. To that end we’ve changed our process creating Patreon content. We have enlisted the writer Sean McGovern from the Dungeon Master’s Guild and PowerScore RPG Blog.

D&D party

All The Comforts of Home! Tips and Tricks for D&D Halfling Creature Comforts

The halfling race in Dungeons & Dragons is most often defined by an appreciation for home and a need for the sanctuary of creature comforts. To many other races, even elves, this often lends to halflings being looked upon as soft, needy, or unfit for the world at large. Halflings of course, will tell you this is quite correct and also completely wrong. For this diminutive race home goes well beyond their well appointed under-hill dwellings. A halfling’s home will always be in their heart and no matter where they go the will have a part of it with them. Moreover, these small gregarious folk have the gift of creating a community wherever they may be and, more importantly, with anyone they grow close to. In this regard, an adventuring party can become a surrogate family to a halfling travelling far from home.

warlock

Making a Villain of the Warlock with a Little Help from our Friends

Warlock is probably one of the most popular fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons character classes. It didn’t come into existence as a character class until the later part of 3.5 D&D. Fourth edition D&D made it a core class in the fourth edition Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook. [NERDITOR’S NOTE: According to April’s And Beyond live stream with D&D Beyond lead Adam Bradford, warlocks are the No. 1 most created character class over there.]

D&D dwarves beards

By My Beard! Tricks and Items for D&D Dwarves Beards

Say the word “dwarf” to a fantasy fan and the first thing that likely comes to mind is their opulent beards. Throughout the majority of fantasy literature and roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons, dwarves are immediately identified with the follicle splendor of their facial hair. What follows is a brief collection of ideas for ways in which dwarves might use or augment their beards. While background information and D&D mechanics have been provided this is more to provide easy inclusion in a game. Feel free to alter the game mechanics to suit your style of play.

Infusing Myth and Folklore into D&D Trolls

Trolls as depicted in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons products bear little more than a superficial resemblance to the creature of myth and lore they are based on. Like many creatures from our past they have been compartmentalized and streamlined for the sake of mechanics until they are truly a different creature. While it is in no way meant to be an exhaustive or completely academic article, this exercise attempts to bring back some of the ancient context from whence the troll came.

Unearthed Arcana

Unearthed Arcana Order Domain for D&D Cleric Lays Down the Law

The latest Unearthed Arcana came out so of course we took a close look and weighed in on the new Order Domain for the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons cleric. It was first presented during The Mike Mearls Happy Fun Hour, which streams live every Tuesday at 4 p.m. eastern on the D&D Twitch channel.

Celebrate International Tabletop Day with a Free Download of D&D Stuff

In 2017, some folks on the Nerdarchy team put together a free adventure for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons in recognition of International Tabletop Day. And for 2018 we’re at it again, and stepping up our game! To coincide with the revamp and relaunch of our Patreon rewards, we’re giving away a free download package of special rewards to everyone in the RPG community to help celebrate this most special of days on April 28. Empusia, Curator of Souls is a total package of D&D magic items, monsters, allies, enemies, dynamic and lost lore.

From Hit Dice to Heroics: New Options for Your 5E Characters to be Awesome

Our fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons characters get put through the wringer on the regular during adventures, and pull off incredible acts in pursuit of quest success. And when they get a moment to catch their breath, a pool of resources – Hit Dice – waits to give them enough energy to press on. But what if there were other uses for these sometimes forgotten and often unspent dice? What if your characters could tap into these reserves outside of a short rest to perform amazing stunts? From Hit Dice to Heroics, our latest product in the Nerdarchy store, answers that question!

fighter

D&D Design Diary: Martial Artist martial archetype

Hello! Nerditor Doug here to welcome a new writer to the family. Chris Chupp is part of the awesome Nerdarchy community and recently sent us a copy of his homebrew subclass for the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons fighter – the Martial Artist martial archetype. A couple of our writers gave it the once over and shared their thoughts about the content available over at the Dungeon Master’s Guild. I invited Chris to write a follow up design diary about his work creating the D&D fighter subclass. This is that design diary.

Worldbuilding: Where to Begin with a Homebrew Campaign Setting

You’ve been playing roleplaying games for a bit now. It might be Pathfinder, Dungeons & Dragons, Savage Worlds, or untold countless possibilities. The problem is you don’t like the setting. It almost fits the image in your mind but not quite. You’ve looked around, found some old campaign setting material at secondhand stores or eBay but no luck. So, what do you do? How do you make the world you want too? Don’t worry — Nerdarchy is here to help. Over the past month or so you’ll have seen some changes in the Nerdarchy landscape. We have Nate the Nerdarch and Kienata running the Nerdarchy After Dark late-night build sessions. We’ve posted some articles for items like World Anvil and Realm Works to help you organize things. However, none of these really give a starting point. Why not fix that now? Let’s look at how to start.

The Mike Mearls Happy Fun Hour and What it Means for D&D

If you’re a part of the Dungeons & Dragons community and actively keep up with the content Wizards of the Coast is putting out on YouTube or Twitch, you’re probably aware of the incredibly named Mike Mearls Happy Fun Hour. But if not, you really should be. On a weekly basis over on D&D’s Twitch channel, co-creator of fifth edition D&D and Franchise Creative Director Mike Mearls gets on for an hour or so and just designs stuff for the game.

D&D Martial Artist Fighter Subclass Bare-Knuckle Brawls its Way from Our Community to You

Hello! Nerditor Doug here to introduce this special post based on content straight from the Nerdarchy community, from creator Chris Chupp who sent us his homebrew creation for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons – the Martial Artist fighter martial archetype. Chris put this subclass together specially for one of the players in his D&D game who loves the flavor of unarmed combat monks provide and wants to punch some dragons but isn’t too keen on the ki system.

Chris shared his work with Nerdarchy to show appreciation for what he’s learned and taken from our videos and website to his own gaming table, and wanted to give back to the community.

D&D Spelljammer live stream

D&D Heads to Space with Spelljammer Live!

You’ve heard us talk about it. You’ve read posts here on the website about it. You’ve seen recorded gameplays of it. On Friday, March 16 at 1:30 p.m. eastern you can see us play it live! The premiere of our newest live stream game will take a party of adventurers into fantasy space with Ingest Quest, a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Spelljammer campaign.

Worldbuilding: World Anvil is a Haven for Writers and Homebrew Content

Last month I looked at three realm worldbuilding and homebrew programs and websites and among those was World Anvil. In the article I had looked briefly on the site and looked at it impressed with what was there but said it need a few other options. After the article was posted Dimitris from World Anvil reached out to me and said that those features where there and I had missed them. The reality of it is, that from the time I had sent the article Nerditor Doug to when it was posted the site had doubled in content and functionality. Doubled in less than 2 weeks. I have dealt with campaign software and programs and sites for at least 5 years now in creating homebrew adventures and world settings and never has one expanded this rapidly. Having spoken with Janet and Dimitris from World Anvil and given that they are celebrating World Anvil’s  four month anniversary, I thought it more than fitting we revisit this fantastic site and give the proper attention it deserves. So, sit back, relax, and let’s look at the gasworks that is World Anvil.