What actually good homebrew is on the Dndwiki?

[Protato]

I was thinking about the DnDwiki's bad reputation for homebrew content but surely not all of it is bad, or perhaps it could be made balanced with a few tweaks. I found an "old-school Fighter (https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Fighter_"old_school"_variant_(5e_Class))" class that I thought looked interesting, while I've never played it and therefore don't know if it's at all balanced, it doesn't look so bad to me. Does anyone else know of decent homebrew on there?

[Nifft]

There's good homebrew here and on minmax.

Why would you want to go dumpster-diving in a superfund toxic waste site, when better content exists right in front of you?

[Westhart]

There's good homebrew here and on minmax.

Why would you want to go dumpster-diving in a superfund toxic waste site, when better content exists right in front of you?

He's "living on a razor's edge" obviously :smalltongue:

[Jormengand]

Some of the homebrew on the various D&D wikis is fine. Some of the homebrew here is godawful. But at least here, I know there are some content creatiors whom I can trust to put out consistently good works. On D&D wikis, I have no clue and have to look at everything individually, and there's a lot of crap.

[Aniikinis]

There's good homebrew here and on minmax.

Why would you want to go dumpster-diving in a superfund toxic waste site, when better content exists right in front of you?

I was using Dndwiki way before I found this place and found a surprisingly good amount of homebrew, a lot of trash and stuff that wasn't finished or even played but way too much for me to just write it off.

I have a better opinion of DnD-Wikiand of Eiji-Kun in particular.

[GalacticAxekick]

The Old School Fighter is probably a bit unbalanced. It breaks bounded accuracy—5e's design philosophy—which means the Fighter isn't just hard to hit or accurate, but sometimes untouchable and unerring. 5e's Fighter is already durable and and powerful enough to keep up with other classes by virtue of its four attacks, hit dice and weapon/armour proficiencies, and so these modifiers might push it into overpowered territory.

Bounded accuracy basically says "very few things are impossible: just very difficult. Skill and circumstance should influence the odds of success and failure, but not the range of things you can and can't do. At least, not too much."

Mechanically, this means it's very hard to get a +anything bonus. Ability scores cap at +5 instead of soaring into the double digits. Proficiency bonuses cap at +6 (or +12 with expertise, which is never applied to attacks, saves, AC or DCs). Circumstances offer rerolls instead of numbers.

Thematically, this means that even a commoner can succeed on a saving throw against the most powerful spell cast by the most powerful spellcaster (1d20 against DC 19) or shove the greatest warrior to the floor (1d20 Athletics, max 20, against 1d20+17 Athletics, min 18). And the reverse is true! The world's greatest adventurer can fail a save against a novice spellcaster (1d20+11, min 12, vs DC 13) miss an attack against a novice warrior (1d20+11, min 12, against AC 14). It's unlikely, but possible, meaning that the greatest adventurers and creatures can be overwhelmed by a large mass or long career of people testing the odds.

5e has a few modifiers, but the edition was careful to make them small and rare. No magic item gives more than +3 to a d20, nor does any feature give more than +2 to a d20 roll, a DC or your AC.

[UrielAwakened]

/r/unearthedarcana is probably the best homebrew for 5e anywhere.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Overall, I think there's a lot of crap homebrew everywhere... the advantage that a forum like this, or something like reddit has, is feedback. If you look at an option posted here, you can probably see several people chiming in with "this looks great!" or "this part needs work." It gives an idea of how good the 'brew is before you even read through it.


The Old School Fighter is probably a bit unbalanced. It breaks bounded accuracy—5e's design philosophy—which means the Fighter isn't just hard to hit or accurate, but sometimes untouchable and unerring. 5e's Fighter is already durable and and powerful enough to keep up with other classes by virtue of its four attacks, hit dice and weapon/armour proficiencies, and so these modifiers might push it into overpowered territory.
I dunno how overpowered it is, but it's pretty poorly designed. I mean, it's got no subclass, even, no Action Surge... Damage Bonus is basically useless, AC bonus is basically forced Defense Fighting Style with upgrades, and Hit Point Bonus is basically useless... if we roughly compare it to a subclass, we get something like

Level 1: Defense Fighting Style
Level 3: +1 attack (Compare to: Improved Critical and Action Surge. Probably weaker overall, though I don't care to do the DPR calculations. Certainly no burst potential makes it less useful overall)
Level 6: A skill proficiency or half-stat boost (Compare to: ASI. Straight inferior)
Level 7: +5 HP (Compare to: Remarkable Athlete. Much worse)
Level 10: Half proficiency to mental saves, another +1 AC (Compare to: Additional Fighting Style and Indomitable. I'd call it a wash)
Level 14: Another +1 attack (Compare to: ASI. Probably inferior)
Level 15: Another +1 AC, another proficiency or half-stat boost
Level 17: Another proficiency or half-stat boost (Compare to: another Action Surge. Much worse)

So overall I'd say this weaker than the Champion. And not just weaker, but more boring.

[roko10]

As for 3.5e homebrew, Frank and K's stuff is quite interesting, though YMMV how "good" it is, considering some classes have a nonstandard ending point (as in, they stop at level 10 and then expect you to take a prestige class) and a potato probably has a better sense of balance than I do.

They do have one of my favorite Monk fixes of all time (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Monk,_Tome_(3.5e_Class)), though, so so there's that.