Are WotC's EE, UA "Homebrew"

[bunnynoah]

As the title says. My DM is new and wants to play a completely non-homebrew game. I was wondering if Unearthed Arcana and Elemental Evil were consider this, as I want to play either a Goliath or an Aarakocra.

[The Glyphstone]

'Homebrew' is anything from a 3rd-party source, i.e. not published by WotC. If it's from a WotC product, it is by definition not homebrew.

[Toadkiller]

EE is about as official as can be. UA is published as work in progress and may well be less balanced than well done fan stuff.

[Connington]

Elemental Evil and the Sword Coast Adventurer's guide are published material from Wizards of the Coast that has seen playtesting. Unearthedd Arcana is basically homebrew, yes. Admittedly it's homebrew from the creators of the system, but it should be looked at carefully before introducing it to your campaign.

With that said, the Aarakocra are specifically called out as something that GMs may want to consider disallowing, as should the Winged variant of Tieflings. Any race that can fly at will from level one can cause problems for a new GM. It bypasses certain plot problems and can trivialize some combat encounters. More experienced GMs know how to mix up encounters so that flight will be effective sometimes, and impossible, dangerous, or counterproductive at others.

Nothing about Goliaths should give your GM a heart attack though.

[Gastronomie]

Variant Ranger.

Do NOT use Variant Ranger.

I've said it.

[BrianDavion]

not having looked at it, whats wrong with the varient ranger?

[Grek]

More practically speaking, just ask your DM. They obviously know whether EE and UA is allowed or not.

[Kane0]

The Core books, Elemental Evil and Sword Coast Adventure Guide are official. Everything else is not.

Unearthed arcana is WotC playtest material, the DMguild is WotC endorsed homebrew, the Middle Finger of Vecna is homebrew, etc.

[Gastronomie]

not having looked at it, whats wrong with the varient ranger?Everything. It gives you a free turn at the start of every single combat (read: action surge every battle), it has higher HP than a Barbarian, it allows you to hide from one creature constantly regardless of what happens, and so on.

It definitely did do its job of "making Rangers stronger". It didn't make it balanced at all, though.

[Ninja_Prawn]

While it's not technically accurate to call either UA or EE 'homebrew', that is a fair assessment of the quality of UA. I stopped reading UA articles a while back; I trust my own homebrewing more than anything they've published under that label.

EE and SCAG, though, are 'published'. I would allow both in a 'no homebrew' campaign.

[Logosloki]

EE and SCAG are published material.

UA is an elevator pitch that has for the most part been neglected as soon as it has been put into playtest. UA is good though as a DM for ideas, though it would be great if those ideas were released one month, surveyed the next month and the iterated upon the next at the very least. Honestly if they want UA to actually work rather than be smoke and mirrors it should be fortnightly.

Zendikar is third party publication (and very good too, I recommend you check it out), as is the DMGuild. The difference between Zendikar and the DMguild is more to do with quality and pedigree. I'm sure though there is some really good stuff in the DMGuild which will be up to a high standard as well as authors who are held in regard.

[dev6500]

Everything. It gives you a free turn at the start of every single combat (read: action surge every battle), it has higher HP than a Barbarian, it allows you to hide from one creature constantly regardless of what happens, and so on.

It definitely did do its job of "making Rangers stronger". It didn't make it balanced at all, though.

I think the variant ranger is only a little over powered. Bring the hp back to standard. Perhaps tone down Ambuscade down to only working when you have surprise and turn skirmisher's stealth into the ability to use a bonus action to hide and I think the class lines up relatively well. It doesn't appear to have spellcasting and at least the current 5 level progression described only lets you summon your animal companion once per day for a minute.

The spirit abilities that use a bonus action are a bit mighty but I am not sure if they can only be used when your animal companion is out. If so, then its ok. If not, then bonus action for 2d6 wisdom mod all day is rather crazy. As is bonus action for advantage all day. As is bonus action for 2d6 + wis mod damage.

[Plaguescarred]

EE and UA are brewed from WoTC's home like the rest of their corebooks :)