[Guide]Pyromancer999's Homebrew Guide to Balancing Power and Getting What You Want

[Pyromancer999]

Intro-So, many people seem to get caught up on tiers and power levels of classes that exist, and rightfully so. After all, how are you supposed to be a fighter(tier 4) if your party wizard(tier 1) keeps Planar Binding tons of Outsiders and destroying all your opponents while you just get a measly little melee attack per turn? It's unfair.

Now let's take a look at Homebrew: Odds are, if you want it, there's something homebrewed for it. Want a good fighter fix that makes you feel relevant? Take a look at one of Ziegander's or someone else's stuff. Want a balanced caster? That's there too. Most homebrew is interesting and is usually(although there are exceptions) more balanced overall than most of the stuff that Wizards of the Coast put out, not to knock that. However, not everyone likes to have an entirely new class in order to get what they want or to have to make a new class in order to satisfy themselves. This is perfectly fine. This guide(although more of a mini-guide) is aimed at offering relatively effortless solutions to being able to play what you want and also be relevant to the party. While not an end-all/be-all sort of deal, this guide is aimed at offering a few new options of what to do with homebrew and how to homebrew, with not necessarily a lot of effort.

Pyromancer999's Guide to Balancing Power and Getting What You Want

House Rules

House rules are often the most simple methods of evening power levels, although not necessarily getting what you want. Still, it can do a lot for making everyone relevant, if all members of the group are fine with it.

Tier-Banning

This is recommended in the same space as the guide that lists tiers, but let's take this with a little grain of salt. You don't necessarily have to ban all classes Tier X and up, although some groups may like it. However, simply banning Tier 1 classes can work. Tier 2 classes may be overpowering at times, but usually can allow for the other members of the party to shine.

Limiting Optimization

Even tier 1 classes can be okay with limited optimization. Not an outright ban on it, but a limit on how much a certain character or party may optimize. A Wizard played casually with only a little optimization can be as low as tier 2, or even high tier 3 in some cases. Granted, if you're playing with a group of pretty casual gamers, this may be done anyways, but some groups will agree if asked.

Limiting Which Spells Can be Learned

Most people have house-ruled that casters can't learn Polymorph, Alter Self, or other Shenanigan-able spells, but a spell doesn't have to be broken to be powerful. In actuality, limiting spells can even the power difference between a caster and their party, as well as being flavorful. Take a look at spells. Some are fairly okay(such as spells that deal 1 die of damage per two caster levels), while others are more powerful(such as spells that deal 1 die of damage per caster level). While the examples included are just a couple of the cases of powerful spells, you get the idea. Simply limit the number of powerful spells a caster may learn. By making such spells more rare, this can add to flavor and plotline by making getting a certain spell part of a quest, plus it makes the character more special for knowing such a spell, which is nice.

How to use Homebrew

Homebrew exists for a reason. Not everything that everyone wants to play has been made by Wizards or any third-party source, so people decide to make it themselves. This section covers how to use existing homebrew to give your characters a little boost while not having to really change what class you want to play because it's a little underpowered.

Find An Existing Piece of Homebrew

Odds are, this is the first thing a lot of people do anyway, but since so many people do it, it does warrant a little discussion. If you want to play an existing class that's already out there(ex. The Fighter), odds are you can find a "fix" out there for the class(especially the Fighter). For those who don't know what a fix is, a fix is essentially a homebrew re-make of an existing class to make it more playable. Thus, if you want to play, say a Warlock, you can find a good homebrew fix that satisfies you while keeping your class flavor and concept.

Also, sometimes an odd or unusual or otherwise different concept you want or might not have thought of before can pop up in homebrew stuff, like the Ozodrin. Not many people think to play aberrant monstrosities, but it's pretty fun when it's presented as a possibility, and the class itself is pretty flavorful and has nice mechanics.

A Little Boost

Some classes, especially most classes marked as tier 4, just need a little boost to become tier 3. My personal favorite way to do this is to give out a free Major bloodline. These bloodlines can not only add flavor to a character("Yeah, my great-grandaddy was a dragon and my grandad was part giant"), but can also provide that little boost in power and versatility to bring a class up a tier.

Also a good boost is to give a free association from the Trissociate. This also provides some flavor, and a healthy power boost as well. Whether the association progresses as a primary association or secondary association is up to the DM. If used, I'd recommend giving Tier 4 classes no Mastery Points, Tier 5 Mastery Points equal to half their level, and Tier 6 classes Mastery Points equal to their level. The class itself is also good if you want to be more than a couple things at once.

In case this is not already apparent, bloodline and association progression should only progress so long as a character is in a class that need the power boost. If a Titankith Healer decides to take a level or two in Fighter, by all means, keep progressing the bloodline. But say an Rogue with an Artificier association decides to take a level in Wizard, the association probably shouldn't progress another level. Also, how well a class meshes with a bloodline or association can affect how much they're boosted by. A Fighter with an Inherent(Bladesworn) bloodline is going to be more powerful in its role than an Adept with the Weapon Master Association, although that doesn't necessarily mean the Adept should not be welcome to choose such an association.

How to Homebrew Easy Solutions

Homebrewing an entirely new class, feat, or other idea can take a lot of time. However, sometimes making use of existing material can lead to a homebrewed solution to getting what you want.

Mix 'n Match

Exactly what it sounds like. Sometimes people are torn between two classes, if only because one class has a pretty cool class feature. Solution: Transplant the one class feature from the one class to the other. This can be done in three ways:

1) Swap out one class feature for another. The two features should probably be equivalent if that's the case, although sometimes it is acceptable to swap out for a more powerful class feature if the class needs a power boost and it meets the DM's approval.

2) Fill in dead levels. Some classes have a lot of dead levels and need a power boost(Hey there, Fighter). Give it to them, within reasonable limits.

3) Just add a class feature in general. This should only be done if a class is pretty lacking in power, in other words, probably tier 5 or 6.

Granted, balance should be taken into account, and any transplanted class feature probably shouldn't progress fully, but it's a good thing to do. Even a reduced Flurry of Blows would be good for a Fighter, and swapping out a thing or two for Lay on Hands would probably get Healer into the Tier 4 range, even if it's only the lower end. It's also worth note that if one wants to swap out more than a few class features, they might want to take a look at Baron Corm's Generic Class, as it provides a good spread of abilities, as well as a decent enough way to compare the relative worth of some class features, and additionally may have some class features you may want to swap or add, if you only want one or two from it.

Creating a New Class

Everyone knows what you're thinking upon reading the bit above: "Pyro! You lied to me! I thought this was supposed to be a guide involving pretty easy stuff! You lied to me! Hand over your Cool Kid Card!". But hold on a bit. The Cool Kid Card in question is locked away in a secure, remote, undisclosed location, so this guy couldn't hand it over if he wanted to. And, of course, just wait a moment. I'll show you that making your own class isn't that hard.

Granted, if you want a new class with a bunch of awesome new class features and its own subsystem, you're probably going to spend a lot of time working on it. But if you're willing to use an existing class as a template, you can make your own homebrew class in no time.

1) Figure out what kind of class you're looking for. For the purposes of this example, say I want a cool undead warrior class.

2) See what kind of chassis would suit it. I want this guy to be a warrior-type, so the Fighter chassis would probably be good.

3) Use an existing class's class feature progression as a template. The fighter's progression of its only class feature isn't that bad, if some stuff is added on, so I'll choose to have one class feature be progressed as a fighter.

Note: The fighter chassis and progression is good for nigh any quick warrior-type class using this method.

3a) See if you want to fill in dead levels and/or if you want to add stuff in. Heck yeah. The fighter's got 9 dead levels. I'm going to pick another class feature to progress in those dead levels, and probably add on something to give it a little more kick.

4) Select which things you want to use as class features, and which class feature progression they will use. Alright, so since I want undeadness in there, I'll give it somewhat limited progression in Undead Monster classes, and because they're sexy on undead creatures, Corpsecrafter traits. I'll also give it a damage bonus so that it's not lacking on dealing damage. I'll put the undead levels in the fighter bonus feat progression, the Corpsecrafter traits in the dead levels, and I'll have the damage bonus be progressed every even level.

Now, let's see what we've got:

Spoiler

Show

Cryptbound

Cryptbound are warriors who emulate undead in their fighting styles, and become more like them as they become more powerful.


HD:d10
Skill Points: 2 + Int Skill Points(x4 at 1st)
Skills:Bluff(Cha), Climb (Str), Concentration(Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy(Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge(Arcana)(Int), Knowledge(Planes)(Int), Knowledge(Religion)(Int), Ride (Dex), Spellcraft(Int), Swim (Str), and Use Magic Device(Cha).

Cryptbound
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special

1st|

+1

|

+2

|

+0

|

+0

|Grave Guardian, Crypt Conduit

2nd|

+2

|

+3

|

+0

|

+0

|Grave Guardian, Sepulcher Strike +1d6

3rd|

+3

|

+3

|

+1

|

+1

|Crypt-Changed Combatant(Basic)

4th|

+4

|

+4

|

+1

|

+1

|Grave Guardian, Sepulcher Strike +2d6

5th|

+5

|

+4

|

+1

|

+1

|Crypt-Changed Combatant

6th|

+6

|

+5

|

+2

|

+2

|Grave Guardian, Sepulcher Strike +3d6

7th|

+7

|

+5

|

+2

|

+2

|Crypt-Changed Combatant

8th|

+8

|

+6

|

+2

|

+2

|Grave Guardian, Sepulcher Strike +4d6

9th|

+9

|

+6

|

+3

|

+3

|Crypt-Changed Combatant

10th|

+10

|

+7

|

+3

|

+3

|Grave Guardian, Sepulcher Strike +5d6

11th|

+11

|

+7

|

+3

|

+3

|Crypt-Changed Combatant(Specialist)

12th|

+12

|

+8

|

+4

|

+4

|Grave Guardian, Sepulcher Strike +6d6

13th|

+13

|

+8

|

+4

|

+4

|Crypt-Changed Combatant

14th|

+14

|

+9

|

+4

|

+4

|Grave Guardian, Sepulcher Strike +7d6

15th|

+15

|

+9

|

+5

|

+5

|Crypt-Changed Combatant

16th|

+16

|

+10

|

+5

|

+5

|Grave Guardian, Sepulcher Strike +8d6

17th|

+17

|

+10

|

+5

|

+5

|Crypt-Changed Combatant

18th|

+18

|

+11

|

+6

|

+6

|Grave Guardian, Sepulcher Strike +9d6

19th|

+19

|

+11

|

+6

|

+6

|Crypt-Changed Combatant

20th|

+20

|

+12

|

+6

|

+6

|Grave Guardian, Sepulcher Strike +10d6[/table]

Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: Cryptbound are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, and are proficient with light, medium, and heavy armor, as well as all shields(except tower shields).

Grave Guardian: Cryptbound become more like the undead creatures they attempt to emulate as they gain in power. At 1st, 2nd, and every even class level after, the Cryptbound may be treated as though they have gained a level in any monster class for an Undead type creature, with the same restrictions in advancing as Student of the Weird, except that they do not have any restrictions on the number of levels that may be advanced through this class. Also, if using the Community Monster classes, the Cryptbound does not have their racial stats replaced.

Crypt Conduit: The Cryptbound uses their melee weapon in place of an Undead class's natural attacks to channel effects that are normally conveyed by natural weapons. Only one such effect may channeled at a time.

Sepulcher Strike: The force of a blow from beyond the grave is hard indeed. At 2nd level, the Cryptbound adds 1d6 damage to all their melee attacks. This bonus increases by one die every two levels after.

Corpse-Altered Combatant:The Cryptbound has the capability to become....enchanced...in ways normally only available to the undead. They gain the basic benefit of one Corpsecrafter trait of their choice at 3rd level and every two levels after.

At 11th level, the Cryptbound may choose to enhance an existing trait to gain the specialist benefit of that trait instead of selecting a new one. In the case of traits such as Sorcerous and Cerebral and the like, the benefit is added on top of the basic benefit.

Notes: Added in Crypt Conduit to make natural attack effects still usable, as most of the natural attacks in the Community monster classes are part of the racial features, which the class doesn't gain. Also added in a few skills. Otherwise, this class is exactly as described above. So, while lacking a capstone, this class turned out relatively well for the little amount of time spent on it.

Conclusion

So, you can use the stuff above to help balance out your party. Not everything will be of use to everyone, but hopefully some people get some use out of this. Even with usage, odds are there will be maybe one, or if all tiers are allowed two, tiers of difference between the most powerful and least powerful in the party, but at least, or so I hope, using this mini-guide, even that least powerful character should be able to contribute on a regular basis.

So, I guess that's it for now, folks. Take a look and let me know what you think.

[Morph Bark]

Relevant to my interests, this is.

So the aim here isn't a guide to how to balance homebrew, but how to use homebrew to balance official classes, correct?

[Pyromancer999]

Relevant to my interests, this is.

So the aim here isn't a guide to how to balance homebrew, but how to use homebrew to balance official classes, correct?

While definitely more aimed at official classes, it can definitely also be used with homebrew. It's just that official classes tend to have more of a gap in power and balance, plus they're good for examples since everyone knows what a wizard or fighter is as opposed to some pieces of homebrew.

[Pyromancer999]

Anyone else have comments?

[Pyromancer999]

Updated the Generic Class link to link to Baron Corm's Generic Class 2.0.