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Orzel
2010-01-18, 09:29 PM
Lets discuss the failed custom rules and beings we've encountered, created, and facepalmed over.

I'll never forget "unlucky death ray" spell my friend's 7 year old cousin created. Does nothing but drain your own Con unless you roll 3 natural 20s . Sure. So what if deals 13d6 damage, sleep and paralyzes 1 hour/level, he'd never roll it. BBEG's head henchman. The poor guy had an evil wife and evil kids.

Tengu_temp
2010-01-18, 10:01 PM
Two save or lose effects in one spell, at the cost of constitution drain which can be easily healed with Restoration? Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me.

Anyway, the "three natural 20s in a row = instakill" houserule. It's not realistic, it's not heroic, and it hurts the PCs more than NPCs in the long run.

The Glyphstone
2010-01-18, 10:10 PM
There's a homebrew class I've seen a few times bouncing around the net, the Lightning Warrior - it's like a wizard, but it sacrifices power for flavor by giving up the option to take a Familiar.:smallcool:

shadow_archmagi
2010-01-18, 10:20 PM
Anyway, the "three natural 20s in a row = instakill" houserule. It's not realistic, it's not heroic, and it hurts the PCs more than NPCs in the long run.

Oh but the PCs do love it so.

After all, how else can one kill the mayor? And if you don't kill the mayor, how could I ever enter your campaign?

AshDesert
2010-01-18, 10:25 PM
Two save or lose effects in one spell, at the cost of constitution drain which can be easily healed with Restoration? Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me.

Anyway, the "three natural 20s in a row = instakill" houserule. It's not realistic, it's not heroic, and it hurts the PCs more than NPCs in the long run.

I believe he means that the spell only drains your Con unless you roll 3 nat 20s in a row, then it inflicts the SoL effects.

Edit: Anyways, on topic, I once made a PrC called the "Stone Druid" for Dwarven Druids that gave up the ability to turn into an animal to get the elemental wild shape earlier, but it could only be used to become an Earth Elemental. Each level also gave benefits like NA and various save bonuses and attribute bonuses, and I believe the capstone allowed you to tap into your full Dwarven resilience to magic, and get full spell immunity to spells not cast on you by allies if I remember correctly. And it was a full casting PrC. Cool concept, I just made it extremely b0rken (without even realizing it at the time, I still thought magic was balanced, and that Druids were underpowered because they didn't receive nearly as many good blasty spells as Wizards. I used to be a real n00bcake:smallredface:)

Innis Cabal
2010-01-18, 10:32 PM
None of you have seen the Dragoon Class with its Rioutous heart. Clearly. I wish I could find it again, it would stain the pages of Dicefreaks every so often

sonofzeal
2010-01-18, 10:44 PM
My first game with this one DM, there was a homebrew class in play that could deal out massive damage in a wide area every round, as long as he caught himself in the AoE too. Guess which part of the rules the guy "forgot".

Orzel
2010-01-18, 10:45 PM
I believe he means that the spell only drains your Con unless you roll 3 nat 20s in a row, then it inflicts the SoL effects.



Yes. When you cast the spell, you roll 3d20 and refer to a chart. Everything except 60 was Con drain to youself.

Drakevarg
2010-01-18, 10:49 PM
I believe he means that the spell only drains your Con unless you roll 3 nat 20s in a row, then it inflicts the SoL effects.

Edit: Anyways, on topic, I once made a PrC called the "Stone Druid" for Dwarven Druids that gave up the ability to turn into an animal to get the elemental wild shape earlier, but it could only be used to become an Earth Elemental. Each level also gave benefits like NA and various save bonuses and attribute bonuses, and I believe the capstone allowed you to tap into your full Dwarven resilience to magic, and get full spell immunity to spells not cast on you by allies if I remember correctly. And it was a full casting PrC. Cool concept, I just made it extremely b0rken (without even realizing it at the time, I still thought magic was balanced, and that Druids were underpowered because they didn't receive nearly as many good blasty spells as Wizards. I used to be a real n00bcake:smallredface:)

Sounds like an interesting concept at least. You should just un-break it.

Tengu_temp
2010-01-18, 10:52 PM
Yes. When you cast the spell, you roll 3d20 and refer to a chart. Everything except 60 was Con drain to youself.

I see. Yeah, that's pretty horrible then, although at least it goes the other way than broken homebrews usually go.

Boci
2010-01-18, 10:53 PM
My first game with this one DM, there was a homebrew class in play that could deal out massive damage in a wide area every round, as long as he caught himself in the AoE too. Guess which part of the rules the guy "forgot".

Necropolitant grey elf wizard, energy substitution (cold), lord of uttercold + resistence/immunity to cold. I think we have something here.


None of you have seen the Dragoon Class with its Rioutous heart. Clearly. I wish I could find it again, it would stain the pages of Dicefreaks every so often

Try D&D wiki?

Drakevarg
2010-01-18, 10:55 PM
Summon Monster III + Houserule that makes summons always last until the end of combat = Instant Dragon Skeleton of +5 Curb Stomping.

Jarrick
2010-01-18, 11:24 PM
A base class I found that lets you cast any cleric spell in existance spontaneously. Admittedly I was the player, but it didn't take long to figure out that I was a little too useful.

RandomLunatic
2010-01-18, 11:27 PM
Necropolitant grey elf wizard, energy substitution (cold), lord of uttercold + resistence/immunity to cold. I think we have something here.Except it still only works one time in 8,000. The other 7,999 uses are a waste of (presumably) a standard action.

Temotei
2010-01-18, 11:29 PM
My first game with this one DM, there was a homebrew class in play that could deal out massive damage in a wide area every round, as long as he caught himself in the AoE too. Guess which part of the rules the guy "forgot".

Interesting concept. I don't see a person wanting to play this very often, unless the damage was somewhat mitigated against themselves, or if they got energy resistance and their damage was of an energy type.

Kylarra
2010-01-18, 11:37 PM
My first game with this one DM, there was a homebrew class in play that could deal out massive damage in a wide area every round, as long as he caught himself in the AoE too. Guess which part of the rules the guy "forgot".I cast fireball centered on myself. :smallamused:

Temotei
2010-01-18, 11:48 PM
I cast fireball centered on myself. :smallamused:

DM: Alright...roll for damage.
Player: Ha! I have evasion. Win.
DM: ...:smallsigh:

RandomLunatic
2010-01-18, 11:53 PM
Oh, here is one.

The GM for my first DnD camaign homebrewed these elemental gems, and then let our Wizard/Ranger get a hold of a bunch of them for a ludicrously low price (about 9K GP, all told. For what he got...)). The Wiz/Rng then incorporated them into what we dubbed the Staff of Uber. Thanks to the gems, is had something like +20 to hit, and dealt 1d6+5d20 (1d20 of each of the element types)+20-30 per hit. In addition, any spell with the [Fire], [Cold], [Acid], [Electric], or [Sonic] subtype could be cast through the staff, casuing them to be affected as per Empower Spell, with no increase in level or casting time.

The first time it was used, it was in a tavern brawl, and it dealt 100-somethign damage to your MM-standard 4 HP goblin, prompting our DM to quote
And the common room of the inn looks like somebody exploded a vat of beef stroganof in it.

Temotei
2010-01-19, 12:03 AM
Oh, here is one.

The GM for my first DnD camaign homebrewed these elemental gems, and then let our Wizard/Ranger get a hold of a bunch of them for a ludicrously low price (about 9K GP, all told. For what he got...)). The Wiz/Rng then incorporated them into what we dubbed the Staff of Uber. Thanks to the gems, is had something like +20 to hit, and dealt 1d6+5d20 (1d20 of each of the element types)+20-30 per hit. In addition, any spell with the [Fire], [Cold], [Acid], [Electric], or [Sonic] subtype could be cast through the staff, casuing them to be affected as per Empower Spell, with no increase in level or casting time.

The first time it was used, it was in a tavern brawl, and it dealt 100-somethign damage to your MM-standard 4 HP goblin, prompting our DM to quote

Nine thousand for all five, or just one?

Either way, that's really bad. :smalleek:

I can't see how someone could think that's balanced at all.

Mushroom Ninja
2010-01-19, 12:03 AM
Anyway, the "three natural 20s in a row = instakill" houserule. It's not realistic, it's not heroic, and it hurts the PCs more than NPCs in the long run.

My elf wizard almost killed a beholder with a rock while antimagicked thanks to that rule. :smalltongue:

Draz74
2010-01-19, 12:33 AM
My elf wizard almost killed a beholder with a rock while antimagicked thanks to that rule. :smalltongue:

Heh, I speak from experience: nothing makes you feel more heroic than when a Beholder has your Wizard in his antimagic gaze, and your Wizard pulls out a melee weapon and hits him in the face. :smallamused:

Zeta Kai
2010-01-19, 12:48 AM
Yes. When you cast the spell, you roll 3d20 and refer to a chart. Everything except 60 was Con drain to youself.

That's not much of a chart:

{table=head]3d20|Result
3-59|Take 1d4 Con damage
60|Ultimate Attack[/table]

Also, many people emphatically don't like my Bio-Mage class. They're just jealous. :smalltongue:

Tavar
2010-01-19, 01:00 AM
The willshaper (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19520494/The_Pendragon_Dynasty&post_num=5#331701022) by Lord Pendragon is pretty broken. I mean, remember how everyone views the Euridite? This thing follows the same basic idea, but casts of Arcane/divine spell lists. Yes, I believe this includes the half-caster lists. Heal as a 4th level spell? Yes please!

Oh, and due to the wording in the thread, you can cast 9th level spells at level 5!

RandomLunatic
2010-01-19, 01:19 AM
Nine thousand for all five, or just one?

Either way, that's really bad. :smalleek:

I can't see how someone could think that's balanced at all.

Package deal.

And balance was not this guy's forte. At the time this happened (and well afterwards), my straight-classed Ranger had, as his only magical item, a +2 Light Steel Shield. Which he never used because he was a TWFer.

Solaris
2010-01-19, 01:35 AM
Anyway, the "three natural 20s in a row = instakill" houserule. It's not realistic, it's not heroic, and it hurts the PCs more than NPCs in the long run.

Depends on how you view realism. Me? I'm familiar with the concept that a dagger in certain vitals will kill you. Not that sissy maimery from sneak attack, straight up end you. Heroic is up for debate. There have been a couple-three powerful dragons one-shotted by a lucky string of 20s, generally just as the beast was beating them down to a gooey pulp.
It may hurt the PCs more than NPCs in the long run, but some groups like it that way. It's one of the few houserules that someone not me proposed for the gaming group, and we just kinda stuck with it.

Temotei
2010-01-19, 02:45 AM
That's not much of a chart:

{table=head]3d20|Result
3-59|Take 1d4 Con damage
60|Ultimate Attack[/table]

Also, many people emphatically don't like my Bio-Mage class. They're just jealous. :smalltongue:

I personally enjoyed the look at the bio-mage. It was a unique take on casting. While it could probably be abused, as said in the thread, anyone who wanted to play a bio-mage wouldn't do that. Well...not anyone smart. :smalltongue: There's a DM for more than one reason.


Package deal.

And balance was not this guy's forte. At the time this happened (and well afterwards), my straight-classed Ranger had, as his only magical item, a +2 Light Steel Shield. Which he never used because he was a TWFer.

Apparently not. I bet you had a lot of fun with that ranger though. :smallbiggrin:

JaronK
2010-01-19, 03:09 AM
Worst one I saw involved a DMPC who arbitrarily had a sniper rifle with unlimited range that did 4d10 damage (at least... the DM let it kill anything in one hit no matter what) and had unlimited ammo. In a group of level 3s. We didn't know why we were there, as he could handle everything.

And don't get me started on people who nerfed Monks because they were overpowered (they have so many abilities!) or buffed Sorcerers because they were underpowered (Wizards are better)! Heck, stupid house rule nerfings were part of why I made my Tier System in the first place.

JaronK

Longcat
2010-01-19, 03:19 AM
A basic rule of Homebrew: Don't homebrew anything you're going to play yourself. It will almost always end up unbalanced.

That said, I don't allow homebrew in my games. Too many bad experiences.

Solaris
2010-01-19, 03:52 AM
A basic rule of Homebrew: Don't homebrew anything you're going to play yourself. It will almost always end up unbalanced.

That said, I don't allow homebrew in my games. Too many bad experiences.

That's just a basic rule, though, kinda like "The DM shouldn't have a PC" is a basic rule. If you know what you're doing and your DM knows what he's doing, it's certainly possible to make something that doesn't break the game. Peer review helps out a lot with homebrew.

Orzel
2010-01-19, 05:00 AM
That's not much of a chart:

{table=head]3d20|Result
3-59|Take 1d4 Con damage
60|Ultimate Attack[/table]

Also, many people emphatically don't like my Bio-Mage class. They're just jealous. :smalltongue:


{table=head]3d20|Result
3-9|Take 1d4 Con damage
10-49|Take 1d2 Con damage
50-59|Take 1 Con damage
60|Ultimate Attack[/table]

Remember a 7 year old playing a level 2 sorc created a level 1 spell. He just wanted an "ultimate spell". We gave him a HD increase and forced him to do math. ... And he proceeds to spam it and one-shots a boss.

arguskos
2010-01-19, 05:11 AM
That's just a basic rule, though, kinda like "The DM shouldn't have a PC" is a basic rule. If you know what you're doing and your DM knows what he's doing, it's certainly possible to make something that doesn't break the game. Peer review helps out a lot with homebrew.
I give my players access to my 'brew. Really helps me find the kinks in it, and work through it. For example, players have so far used all of my homebrew base classes except one, and they've been big hits. Balanced fairly well too. :smallamused:

"The DM shalt not make brew for themselves" is definitely a mutable rule. Depends on the DM, the game, and the brew.

GoodbyeSoberDay
2010-01-19, 06:16 AM
{table=head]3d20|Result
3-9|Take 1d4 Con damage
10-49|Take 1d2 Con damage
50-59|Take 1 Con damage
60|Ultimate Attack[/table]

Remember a 7 year old playing a level 2 sorc created a level 1 spell. He just wanted an "ultimate spell". We gave him a HD increase and forced him to do math. ... And he proceeds to spam it and one-shots a boss.Somewhat ironically, plinking away with a crossbow is a strictly superior option with the previously mentioned critical insta-kill house rule.