D&D has been around a good long time now and its official rule book has now gone through five editions, each changing the rules ever so slightly here and there. With its popularity, as well as its length of service, it should not come as a surprise that fans have taken it upon themselves to change, adapt and improve parts of the game. These changes and modifications to the base game are what fans fondly call “Homebrew DND”.
Table of Contents
- What is DND Homebrew?
- When to Use Homebrew Content
- How to Spot Homebrew Content
- Homebrew DND Books
- Examples Content for Players
- Examples Content for DMs
- Homebrew DND: A Welcome Addition To The Series
What is DND Homebrew?
Homebrew DND, in short, is any change to the game that is not in the official rulebook. D&D is essentially a game which is the extension of people’s imagination. This means that Homebrew DND can come in the form of almost anything:
- Backgrounds
- Feats
- Magic items
- Monsters
- Races
- Spells
- Subclasses
As long as the content you are playing is unofficial, i.e. not licenced by Wizards of the Coast, you are playing with homebrew content.
When to Use Homebrew Content
Walk Before You Can Run
We would suggest that Homebrew content is played by slightly more experienced players. The official 5E game has gone through a lot of iterations and a lot of checks and balances to make sure it creates an enjoyable player experience for everyone at all skill levels. Homebrew content, as fun as it is, can be slightly unbalanced if wielded in the wrong hands. For example, you might make an item, by accident, which trivializes the adventure you are on. Or a monster that just cannot be beaten – who does not love a monster with high regeneration? Truly original homebrew content often does not have a second set of eyes looking at it, so it is best to have a good level of experience before trying out your own experiments.
Well, How About A Slow Jog?
That’s not to say we are trying to put you off the concept completely because homebrew content is some of the best Dungeons and Dragons content out there. We would therefore recommend you use some well-established homebrew content. There is plenty of great material out there, for example D&D Beyond. This content has been tried and tested by thousands if not millions of players. Tried and improved is probably a better way of putting it. Similar to official rules, the large player base of D&D can help fix any homebrew issues if they are on a public access forum.
Making My Own Homebrew Content
When making your own Hombrew Content, especially at the start, we recommend starting small and building your way up. Think about things that can affect an entire campaign: classes, races, spells. There are either multi use or integral to the player’s character. If there was a balancing issue with one of these parts, it could influence the whole campaign – potentially negatively. Therefore, we recommend starting with single use items, like a healing potion. Or with a monster in a single encounter. That way, hopefully, if something does go wrong, it will not have major consequences for the players. You could of course try playing Solo D&D to see what works and what does not.
The most important thing with Homebrew content is asking for feedback. Ask your DM if this addition makes sense, ask your close friends and fellow players about it. You can even risk posting it online, the majority of D&D players do this as a hobby and a passion; they are not here to tear anyone down.
How to Spot Homebrew Content
There are a couple of sure fire ways to check if some content is homebrewed or not and some of them relate to things we’ve just discussed:
- Is the monster or Item ridiculously overpowered? Anyone can make homebrew and they can also make the mistakes that we have already discussed above
- Is there limited information on the topic? If one person has invented a monster, for example, it is likely there is very limited lore compared to some of the older creatures in the D&D universe
- Is it similar to some intellectual property that already exists? Such as the Fallout Homebrew Campaign – creators also have hobbies outside of D&D and sometimes they attempt to incorporate them into their creations.
- Have experienced players heard of the topic? If they have not, it is likely Homebrewed. It is far harder to find all the homebrewed content than simply checking the official rule and handbooks. Mostly because there is a lot more unofficial content than there is not.
- Usually joke-like ideas such as the disease “the Soups” which leads to your character forcefully ejecting soup from their body.
In the end, Homebrew is all a little bit of fun. It can be as serious, or as comical, as the creator intends.
Homebrew DND Books
Using Homebrew DND books is a great way to dip your toes into homebrew content without sinking. They are published work that players can look to for inspiration and insight. Some great examples include
- Book Of The Righteous, By Aaron Loeb. This book has one of the most comprehensive pantheon systems in all of Dungeons and Dragons. It gives details and information for a host of Gods, religious framework and church set up for your custom D&D world.
- Arcanis Campaign Setting – there are a couple of books about Arcanis, but the campaign setting book gives you all the information you need. This homebrew focuses on a mechanic change of initiative as well as a theme change to politics and morality.
- Revenge of the Horde by Nord Games is a great RPG book that fleshes out races like Orcs, Trolls, Ogres and their very own rat-person race.
- The Elements and Beyond: A D&D Unleashed Compendium – This is a compilation of knowledge from Home brewery, Paint.NET, and the guides found on /r/homebrewery. A link can be found to it on this google drive
Examples Content for Players
There are of course hundreds of potential homebrew classes out there, we wanted to name a couple we thought had interesting traits and skills, but there are endless resources out there at places like DND Beyond and DandDWiki.
Homebrew DND Classes and Subclasses
- Ghost – Has the ability, after a (fraught) discussion with the DM to bring back slain players as ghosts.
- Pugilist – Characterised by their unbreakable spirits Pugilists never back down from a fight winning with brains, brawn and resilience.
- Lancer – Gifted with the golden armour of your patron God or Goddess, you enjoy 10+ strength or dexterity.
- Blood Hunter – A class that uses the innate magical power of blood to vanquish enemies. Often they will forfeit some of their own health to call down blood curses.
- Merchant – A support role that helps the party stay equipped. Merchants give access to their party the mundane like health potions, to complex magical items
Homebrew DND Races
- Shadar-Kai – Born in the shadows, the Shadar-Kai have proficiency in the stealth skill.
- Mousefolk – Culturally inclined, the mouse folk have a love of all things art, music and song.
- Doppelganger – Shapeshifters that can take on the form other similar sized beings; they can even get an understanding of that being’s mind and thoughts.
- Minotaur – A branch off, more intelligent, species of the Minotaur’s we know from legend. However, they still maintain their brutal kin’s physicality to some degree.
- Dhampir – sharing similar traits to vampires, such as resistance to necrotic damage, Dhampirs are similarly persecuted by the older races.
Examples Content for DMs
It would not be fair just to include 5E Homebrew content for player character. What about the DM who is toiling behind the scenes and needs a bit of inspiration?
Campaign Settings
- Fallout – A campaign setting based on the fallout series, where in 2077 nuclear war has decimated the world and turned it into a world of death and struggle.
- Orizon – The world of Orizon is characterized by its giant floating islands and sky seas.
- Hyrule – A campaign setting based on the Legend of Zelda series
Creatures and Monsters
- Ak’Vanezh the Devourer – A gargantuan aberration of tentacles that lives deep in the sea aligned to chaotic evil.
- Diamond Golem – Rare to find, but incredibly powerful, the Diamond Golem is made from pure diamonds.
- Tressym – A small beast resembling a housecat, aside from the bat wings that sprout from their back.
- Plague Creeper – An unrelenting infection that seeks to spread to as many hosts as it can.
Homebrew DND: A Welcome Addition To The Series
D&D 5E has been around since 2014 and has a great amount of innovation and improvement over previous editions. This does not mean it is perfect though. Since its creation, Dungeons and Dragons has been all about the players’ imagination. The series works so well because of all of the fans who write, make, and create Homebrew DND content. Some of the very best D&D monsters, campaign settings and classes are all fan-made and publically available. As the old saying goes: a million or so heads work better than one.
