Loader image
Loader image
Back to Top

Homebrew

Nerdarchy > Homebrew (Page 5)

Building Alternate Rules for Tools in 5E D&D

You heard me say it many times before — Tools are treated poorly in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Before you tool enthusiasts write me off, let me share some ideas for how to make the problem better. I’ve never been much for complaints without solutions. Recently Nerdarchists Dave and Ted touched on the tendency for us to hold onto legacy ideas as 5E D&D players. We do certain things simply because it’s how they’ve always be done.

5E D&D ranger

Best in Show 5E D&D Magic Items for Rangers

Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted naturally explore the best magic items for rangers in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Like previous discussions on top magic items for various character classes in 5E D&D this is an unusual topic because it’s rare for a character to choose magic items. There’s a few cases I can think of off the top of my head. In Adventurers League play items can be traded on a one-for-one basis for items with the same rarity at a cost of 15 downtime days unless they’re playing at the same table. Also games beginning beyond 1st level often allow for players to choose magic items, like in our own monthly fan one shots. Looking at 5E D&D magic items is difficult for an entirely different reason though. The best of anything is subjective if for no other reason than campaigns are as diverse as the people playing them. Once again I’m checking out the homebrew magic items at D&D Beyond to complement the video and leaning into this subjectivity. For each type of magic item (excluding potions and scrolls) I’ll consider the rating, views and adds for each kind and choose the one I think best serves a druid. Let’s get into it.

Skillfully Designing New Skills for 5E D&D

Fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons has taken the world by storm and I contend this is a big factor in the surge of popularity enjoyed by all tabletop roleplaying games of late. As the list of TTRPG options expands seemingly by the day new games offer their own spins on various mechanics and sometimes this leads people to find a new TTRPG option they like even better than the D&D that once held their hearts and minds. In an effort to bring new life to the world’s greatest roleplaying game I’ve devised a series of new homebrew options meant to streamline gameplay and offer some crunch to previously nebulous ideas. In this post I’m adding some crunch to 5E D&D skills.

5E D&D option

Streamline Your 5E D&D Game with Alternate Saving Throws

Many staple mechanics of fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons shape the greater genre of tabletop roleplaying game options. While 5E D&D is my favorite edition I have found myself wondering recently if perhaps this game couldn’t be even better. Is there a way to hack 5E D&D to make it more streamlined? Being the plucky adventurer I fancy myself to be I’m determined to try. In the previous post I wrote about an alternate ability scores and an option to streamline things regarding those. Today I’m taking the next logical option to explore with saving throws. For those of you who don’t know I have a YouTube channel and as part of #DungeonMarch I’m posting exclusively RPG content all month long.

Master Your Coiffure with this New 5E D&D Magic Item

One of my great joys as a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master is creating new magic items to release into my world. Sometimes they provide mechanical buffs to characters’ existing strengths or shore up weaknesses. Other times however I make something ludicrous and see what kind of antics players get up to while using such items. Inspired by the new hairstyles our friends over at Hero Forge recently launched I decided to go ahead and make a new magic item to share with all of you. Hopefully one of the characters in your games will love such a fun and crazy item.

5E D&D option

New Possibilities Abound with 5E D&D Alternate Ability Scores

Fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons has taken the world by storm and it makes a lot of sense. The creation of the Open Game License (lovingly referred to as the OGL) opened the floodgates for creators to use a core set of rules for developing everything from supplementary materials for the tabletop to video games. This popularized many core aspects of the system and created genre staples and today I want to challenge one of those 5E D&D staples and offer my own take.

Channel Your 5E D&D Druid’s Inner Circe with a Wild Shape Optional Class Feature

Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted double, double toil and trouble themselves discussing witches in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Fire burns and caldrons bubble while they go over what it means to be a witch, different approaches to bringing out a character’s witchy nature and the possibilities for new 5E D&D classes and subclasses. Inspiration for the topic comes from the video’s sponsor Hexbound: A Witchy Supplement for 5E from Hit Point Press. One of the ideas they brought up during the video captured my imagination — using the druid Wild Shape feature in a distinctly witchy way. So let’s get into it.

5E D&D plant monster

Getting More from 5E D&D Monsters — Stonesnapper

The semi-sapient stonesnapper plant tends to grow where creatures that petrify like to make their lairs. The stonesnapper is a common fixture in many basilisk caves and there have been stories of medusae cultivating them and keeping them as pets in bygone eras. The flowers grow in vibrant colors, capable of motion and closing their petals around small objects. Their vines are also ambulatory. The stonesnapper doesn’t require much sunlight and in fact gets most of its nutrients by scooping up the leavings of creatures that have been petrified and then devoured — the crumbs left behind by things like gorgons, basilisks and medusae. The acidic fluid built up inside the stonesnapper in order to digest these leavings is a natural remedy for petrification. These plant monsters appear in Garden of Statuary, one of the digital fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons products we create for Patreon supporters and later for Nerdarchy the Store. Here you’ll find expanded 5E D&D content inspired by these opportunistic plant creatures along with the stat block as it appears in the book ready to drop into your games.

Make Flanking More Dynamic in Your 5E D&D Game

Flanking is an optional rule from fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons I’ve heard much debate on. The usefulness and overpoweredness of flanking and lacks thereof emerge in many 5E D&D discussions. Flanking is certainly a strange rule and much as I stated in the D&D Tag about the rules I just don’t get advantage is both generic and complicated — a bizarre duo to say the least. Nerdarchists Dave and Ted address this concern and others in a recent video. After watching I got to thinking about ideas to make 5E D&D combat more dynamic and homebrew rules to make combat faster paced and, well, engaging.

Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as a Way of the Unseen Fist Monk

Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted channel their inner energy to create a new Monastic Tradition for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. They set out to develop an idea for a 5E D&D monk utilizing the ki of their mind to affect the physical world. The concept begins with the mage hand spell and by using ki a Way of the Unseen Fist monk can strike at enemies by channeling their energy through an invisible fist. So let’s get into it.

Top 5 D&D Beyond Homebrew Illusion Spells for 5E D&D

Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted explore the art of misdirection in the context of combat in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Specifically they discuss useful spells from the illusion school of magic to deploy in 5E D&D battles. They identify three terrific illusion spells useful in combat out of 33 total in official 5E D&D sources. Whenever these sorts of videos come up I like to take a look at what the D&D Beyond community offers. There’s over 2,760 homebrew illusion spells in the DDB database so let’s get into it.

Top 5 D&D Beyond Homebrew Monsters for 5E D&D

Every now and again I like to browse through homebrew content at D&D Beyond to see what creative players come up with for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. The homebrew tools at DDB allow players to create their own spells, monsters, magic items, backgrounds, feats, races and subclasses. When it comes to creating 5E D&D homebrew monsters the tools allow users to use an existing monsters as a template or create something new from scratch. At this time there’s about 72,000 homebrew monsters in the DDB database. So let’s get into it.

D&D Ideas — Comedy

Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is comedy, which we discussed in our weekly live chat. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST on Nerdarchy Live to talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up. Speaking of comedy in Wooden Dragon clever kobolds use a quirky magic item and ingenuity to make their way in the world. Kobolds pilot a wooden dragon construct to terrorize travelers and exact a toll to pass along with 54 other dynamic scenarios in Out of the Box. Find out more about it here. You can get the Nerdarchy Newsletter delivered to your inbox each week, along with updates and info on how to game with Nerdarchy plus snag a FREE GIFT by signing up here.

5E D&D Stingy Jack sentient magic item

Taking Stingy Jack from 5E D&D Warlock to Patron to Creature and Beyond

Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted take inspiration from an old Irish story for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Stingy Jack — sometimes called Jack o’ the Lantern — is a mythical character associated with All Hallows Eve and in fact the Jack-o’-lantern may be derived from this story. In the video they discuss the legend and come up with several different ways to incorporate this figure of folklore into 5E D&D games. I came up with another one too. In this scenario Stingy Jack is neither a creature to fight nor an NPC to engage with. Not exactly anyway. So let’s get into it.

Minions of San-Tac-Laus to Help Deliver 5E D&D Holiday Cheer

About this time last year I made a holiday beholder for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons based on the chubby bearded man who is a symbol of the holiday season. But I knew the story would not end there. After all if the jolly man in the red has his staff of elves who really look and act like really short gnomes then San-Tac-Laus should have his own set of 5E D&D minions to work with as well.