New answers tagged homebrew-review
19
Balanced
The big draws of this familiar option are:
Arcana and History proficiency (and decent INT) can be a major boon to a Warlock who is unlikely to put that much into INT.
Incorporeal Movement gives the Will O'Wisp improved utility as a scout and better mobility. It should be noted that, out of combat, when near its summoner, a regular familiar can get ...
5
The item is somewhat overpowered, and can be balanced by reducing the effect or imposing a higher cost.
The item's description is mostly clear, although it has some ambiguities:
In "the highest level of spell slot available to you", the "available to you" clause may have ambiguous interactions with items like a Ring of Spell Storing. It ...
2
It is different rarities at different caster levels
For the following analysis, I will address balance as if it gave you the ability to cast blindness/deafness x times per day, and then I will address action stacking and charge implications.
Comparing magic items that cast spells (or have spell-like effects) to instrument of the bards is helpful. When we do ...
2
Thematically, it's a cool idea. Mechanically, it's... a bit strong.
Here are the issues I see with this.
First, you are effectively granting a number of free castings of Blindness/Deafness (a level 2 spell) a number of times per day, except you can only chooses the blind option (which is by far the stronger option).
The bearer gains a number of charges ...
3
This seems fine at 3rd level
I think the easier feature to compare this to is actually Fist of Four Thunders, which allows you to cast Thunderwave for 2 ki points:
Both effects require 2 ki points, deal some damage and push enemies back on a failed save.
Water Jet uses a Strength save whereas Thunderwave requires a Constitution save. (according to this, on ...
8
I see you have taken inspiration from Dual Wielder for the final point, however I'm not a fan of the wording on this point for three reasons:
You can additionally draw or stow a dagger when you would normally be able to draw or stow any one-handed weapon
I find the sentence to be backward, and so a little difficult to parse.
The timing isn't clear, I begin ...
5
The feat is balanced but can be improved by taking inspiration from Crossbow Expert.
The feat seems balanced, in the sense that Knife Fighter wielding a dagger makes it comparable to Dual Wielder with swords. But, we can take inspiration from Crossbow Expert to make the feat more clear.
The third point of Crossbow Expert says:
When you use the Attack action ...
7
I see two issues with wording.
You can additionally draw or stow a dagger when you would normally be able to draw or stow any one-handed weapon.
So, if character would be able do draw a rapier, but instead they would decide to draw a wand, they still can draw a dagger. Because condition is being able to draw one-handed weapon, not actually drawing it.
I ...
3
Other answers have already covered the important parts of the spell, however there is one outstanding piece that remains to be addressed:
Unwilling creatures should have to make a Charisma save, not Wisdom.
Wisdom Saving Throws are typically reserved for spells that cause the target to do something that they normally wouldn't do. You can see from this ...
1
I think that 3rd level is appropriate, but some possibilities could make it 4th level.
If I read it right, it seems pretty easy to abuse offensively to pull a big enemy to the middle of your party. Pull a boss to a specific spot, Rogue goes sneaky stabby attacky, Barbarian goes nuts, etc. See also: enemies that are otherwise not easily reachable like on ...
4
This is balanced, but the breath weapon has problematic design.
I've input this race into the Detect Balance: a 5e Homebrew Race Guide spreadsheet and come up with a score of 24. It's not a straight conversion, so I'll explain each point.
Ability Score Increases
This is slightly stronger than the original dragonborn by making the +1 a choice instead of fixed....
5
Hard to balance, but 3rd level is closest
For comparison, here are a few abilities that allow repositioning:
[L0 + Hit] Thorn Whip: 10 feet closer
[L0 + Warlock Invocation + Hit] Eldritch Blast + Repelling Blast: 10 feet away
[L1 + Con] Thunderwave: 10 feet away
[L1 + Wis] Command: Their movement in simple direction
[Lightning Damage + Thunder Strike] ...
35
This should be a second-level spell
You've carefully worded this spell so that it's really hard to use it offensively. It's quite difficult to use this to drop someone off a cliff, or into lava, because they get to choose which space they appear in. If you use it on an enemy, you've also placed yourself with melee range of them, and you'll provoke an ...
16
3rd level is appropriate, specifically because of its out of combat utility.
In combat:
I wouldn't say that is has extra utility in comparison to misty step, rather it has different utility, but only in some circumstances. In many conceivable circumstances this spell is going to be mostly geometrically equivalent to misty step, except it has a chance to fail....
12
Probably fine as is
Forced teleportation isn’t a very common effect with existing spells so it’s hard to make direct comparisons, but fundamentally this is a relatively weak control effect due to the short range and only affecting a single target, and the fact the caster is potentially jeopardising their own safety by casting this spell if the target is a ...
3
The first ability, Last Request (replacing Cutting Words from the Lore College), seems too good. Normally a bardic inspiration has a chance to turn a miss into a hit or vice versa. With this ability, instead there's a chance to cause four enemies to get disadvantage, or to lose their action entirely if they can't get within melee range of the party -- all ...
5
Pretty powerful.
The problem with it, compared to other harmful conditions - it doesn't go away without a spell. Most effects that cause stun or paralyze (or most other harmful conditions) have a very limited time (like 'until next turn') or allow a save every round and often have options like 'when you've saved - you are immune'.
And even three levels of ...
3
Dale's answer seems mostly right, although some rounding here and there might have been made. To replicate in a full answer:
The guidelines are in DMG p. 274, but there are lots of more details in p. 275 onwards. Do note that these guidelines are known to be not completely accurate with the CRs from actual published monsters.
For more complicated cases, we ...
5
DMG p.274
Defensive CR
Hit Points = 119.
From Monster Statistics by Challenge Rating Table: CR = 4
AC = 18. Expected AC for a CR 4 monster is 14. This is 4 higher than expected so adjust CR up by 4/2, so CR = 6.
Offensive CR
The best 3 round combination is (other combinations come close and offer more front-loading but I think this is the highest overall ...
7
In practice, this is just adding 1d10 "damage" to eldritch blast
The trouble with this invocation, as I see it, is that it is a free mini sleep spell, and the problem with that is that, unless you are fighting a horde of minions with really low HP, sleep is more often (in my experience) used to put an injured enemy to sleep, whose HP you think is ...
4
It is likely balanced unless you are planning on making giants a common feature of your game. A comparable magic item would be just a +1 sword, which grants a +1 to attack and damage rolls.
The Two-Weapon Fighting section of the PHB (p. 195) states that:
You don't add your ability modifier to the damage of the bonus attack, unless that modifier is negative.
...
4
By the DMG: CR 15
She has 20 offensive and 10 defensive CR for an average of 15.
Damage output: Offensive CR 20
48 damage per turn by legendary actions. For straight damage, reaping scythe is better than cantrips, although their additional properties might make them worthwhile from time to time.
Maximum damage output with first three actions:
Fire Storm ...
5
Ability Breakdown
To start, we have AC 17, 90 hp, +9 to attack/DC 18 saving throws, and roughly 42 damage per round. Let's go through abilities and see how those get modified, using the guidelines on DMG 274-281.
First, her three saving throws increase her effective AC by 2 (19).
Next, we have her damage immunities. Your expected CR of 12-15 means that her ...
3
Probably Uncommon, possibly rare
Ok, standard disclaimer: Magic item rarity and power is in no way precise. It is perhaps most useful as a rough measure to help give evenly to the players, but there's a lot of taking things on the feel on both sides. That said, comparisons:
The obvious comparison for me when looking at a bonus to initiative, is a weapon of ...
3
I would say this item is rare due to the "free" extra attack
Regarding the +5 to initiative part
The obvious comparison is the Alert feat, which gives the following benefits:
You gain a +5 bonus to initiative.
You can't be surprised while you are conscious.
Other creatures don't gain advantage on attack rolls against you as a result of being ...
26
Frame challenge: Find 'whatever' steed is a class feature, not a spell
Attempting to balance this as a spell is a poor idea, because this is just a 5e method of giving a Paladin a steed in a similar way to previous editions. Basically this is cast, then unprepared and never cast again unless your DM decides they want to kill your mount, which is basically ...
14
Pretty weak for 9th level
If you really, really want to ride a Unicorn than this is somewhat better than True Polymorph for that because it doesn't require concentration. That being said, if you can cast True Polymorph and can find a large boulder or a tree you can ride a young dragon of any colour for an hour instead, and that's arguably one of the least ...
8
Yes, these changes to the Way of the Four Elements subclass are balanced, but in my opinion, they don't quite go far enough and they don't help the monk feel like a monk
As it happens, I've finally gotten around to playtesting my own version of the new and improved Way of the Four Elements monk subclass, which is pretty much what this blog suggested but with ...
3
I don't think this is breaking the game, in fact it seems underpowered, and doesn't feel fitting to 5e design principles. Compare it to the Martial Adept feat, which also gives a limited form of a unique class ability (fighter maneouvers) to characters of different classes:
Martial Adept
You have martial training that allows you to perform special combat ...
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