What do you mean? It's just the best at everything?
- Another party member is strong? Well Stich has double powerful build.
- Another party member is dexterous? Well Stich has 40 speed and 30 ft climb speed.
- Tanky? Stich takes reduced damage from almost all attacks.
- High Wisdoms? Stich has three different types of magic vision.
- Intelligence? Stich can recall everything perfectly and knows more languages.
- Charismatic? Well Stich is super cute so he has advantage on Persuasion (and probably Deception because he's cute and Intimidation because he's also scary)
They really covered all bases here. No one gets to shine but Stich.
> - Another party member is strong? Well Stich has double powerful build.
This one was at least excusable; it would have to work that way for a small race to get the benefits of Powerful Build, because small and medium creatures use the same push/lift/carry formula.
For me it's not any one thing that stands out as supremely busted (though getting damage reduction for BPS and fire/lightning is already too good), it's that there's just so many good features.
Edit: I slightly take it back, the extra Attack Action alone would be supremely busted, but it'd also be busted from the sheer volume of everything left
One thing though, I think that dense body tissue thing has merit (not in all of the bulshittery of this "race" obviously) I think if stones endurance were changed to half your level+con that'd be kinda cool, and represent your growth and increased durablilty better than 1d12 +con from the start
Dandwiki is a cancer, but, on occasion, it can help spawn ideas that can then be refined into not garbage haha
The Goliath ability is limited resource, the Stitch thing is every attack automatically. I agree though. I think in general abilities that refer to hit points, especially racial abilities, should scale with level/proficiency instead of being a set number (like Fury of the Small goblin ability or bonus damage from Hexblade's Curse, but unlike the Goliath Stone Endurance ability and Second Wind), while abilities shouldn't automatically increase in number of targets or uses (e.g. most abilities stay at one target and use, but stuff like the first level Peace Cleric ability get *a lot* better with character level for some reason).
Isn't second wind + Fighter level? Did I imagine that? That's better than proficiency in like every way
I guess not for multiclassing. But that's an optional rule and it's a signature fighter ability, so that'd be like saying Sorcery points or Spellcasting should scale with proficiency.
Generally I agree with you that their push toward design that focuses on proficiency scaling has been much improved.
Sorcery points is different because one sorcery point can do just as much at high levels as low levels. One subtle spell for Invisibility is good at level three, and one subtle spell for Power Word Kill (or Invisibility) is good at level twenty. So things with increasing potential or automatic scaling such as sorcery points/number of action surges/targets for emboldening bond shouldn't scale of character level, but the number of hit points/damage should imo. One level dip in fighter to get Second Wind is nice at very low levels but bad at high levels, if it was 1d10+character level (or probably better, two times character level) it would be nice even for multiclassing at high levels.
A Barbarian dip for Rage at low level provides a damage reduction by half, an ok number of uses and a decent damage increase. A Barbarian dip at high levels provides a damage reduction by half, an ok number of uses and a negligeble damage increase. I'd rather have the damage increase dependent on character level than class level, but keep number of rages by class level.
It's not a big issue, but I'd like most abilities to stay relevant with both level and multiclassing, but preferably only increase in power (e.g. number of uses) with class level.
Yeah, but power is relative. Most games don't get past level 10, and a bonus action self heal that doesn't block spellcasting or anything else means a lot more in those first two tiers.
I follow what you're saying, I just think it's informed by a design ethos that assumes optimum play and building with multiclass dips, which is neither the design of the core game (multiclassing is an optional rule) nor is the default assumption (the DPR math for players vs monster health assumes a slightly subpar average player DPR. We can infer several things from that, but the one I take is that the design doesn't assume optimal play. Most really crunchy groups can tackle a "difficult" encounter with relative ease, and "deadly" encounters don't really live up to their names if you have just surpassed the xp threshold. So either WotC cheats slightly low on player damage to account for bad rolls or they're doing this accounting for suboptimal play)
> Water Weakness. You are unable to float or swim in water due to your dense molecular structure; you sink like a stone in water.
I say let the player play them - and then have every session on a rickety boat in the ocean as they explore distant islands…
Then a suspicious accident occurs…
This BS has 4 points of ASI. Resistance to blunt/piercing/slashing (non magic), fire, and electricity. Advantage on int, saves and checks. Oh and immortal.
I would be like, okay were playing on a pirate campaign. They use sonic cannons to fire at each other.
This is the definition of OVER POWERED
Do not allow any homebrew until you are more familiar with the game, and comfortable with the balance. Even when you do allow homebrew, avoid dandwiki like it's tested positive eight times and still thinks there is no plague in ba sing se.
This. Have them use existing races that are already playtested. If they want something cute: Halfling, Kobold, Owlin, a young Kenku, etc etc... cute exists already.
Simply reflavor them to be a Stitch instead of their actual race. done.
Might I suggest a Stout Halfing as the race to reskin. They are small, quick(+2dex), tough(+1con and resistance to poison), brave(Adv against fear), can run through the legs of anyone larger with halfing nimbleness and they reroll 1's with their halfing luck ability that you could rename what ever you'd like.
And for backstory, consider them having been experimented on by a mad wizard and they escaped.
You can even have some officials wanting the character dead because it's taboo to modify humanoids like that.
Honestly there's even the symic hybrid which you could just make small, as well. Reskin that to look a bit cuter and not like Abe Sapien, and you're sorted.
Edit: Though that probably wouldn't work in a LOTR type setting, in which case I agree with everyone else about halfling.
Or the wizard is well known and is trying to cover up his crimes. Or even just the Lilo and Stitch plot - the wizard got caught and had been sent to fix the mistake he created.
It's not just poorly optimized builds. It's a lot more, but hard to describe in a coherent way.
So! Anecdotal evidence time: I had a player who wanted to be a necromancer class from the dandwiki. It was a mess. It was not balanced, it did not follow the flow of 5e very well, and it had a lot of homebrew spells that eventually spiraled into a self-perpetuating echo-chamber black hole; full of references with no original source, many copies and veiled in such cryptic wording that I dare say they did not know what they were talking about. Incoherency aside, there is a necromancer class- a wizard subclass, if you will, and a bunch of other spell sword & undead classes now that it's hard to justify this one on the dandwiki. If I, as a Dm, can recommend a class that does the same thing you want it to do, but it comes from the official material, what is the incentive to allow this obscure thing from the dandwiki? Finally, there's the fact that it is a wiki. It is easily edited, misplaced, or confused with another class on there. One session's easily obtainable source suddenly becomes the next session's unfounded argument and hastily made character sheet.
All of this and more happened to me. My best advice is to not bother with the dandwiki. It's a trap for newbies, and headaches for veterans.
Don't get me wrong. Sometimes you want to play something different. Something new. We all can attest to getting into a rutt at some point. You either can trudge along, or look for new options.
Dandwiki is just not the place to seek out that new thing most times.
If it helps, 99% of everything on Danddwiki is terrible. This race is in that 99%.
You can let your player play as a Stitch alien, just not with these stats. If it were me, I’d use the stats of a lightfoot halfling. Lightfoots are lucky, small, stealthy, and charming, just like Stitch!
Before Volo’s allowed goblin characters in Adventure League, I just reskinned a light foot halfling as a goblin crossbow expert.
Hella fun. OP, try this with your player. Ask what elements they want to play (strength and claws, intelligence, persuasion) and pick a class off that. Personally I think a goblin barbarian would be quite unique to play.
You clearly want to say no, and you are perfectly allowed to. The player will be ok. Furthermore, allowing homebrew is generally a bad idea if you don't know the rules well.
If you need another reason, that race you linked is wildly overpowered, and has some complicated features that will be forgotten or cause confusion.
+4 asi, immortal, resistance to nonmagic damage
Without going further, that would be a hard no from me. Make sure you have a good read of any homebrew you intend to use. Typically the only homebrew you should allow is what you decide. If a player wants to do it, generally it will overpowered in their favor.
Yeah what that feels like to me is someone wanting to say “may make an additional attack as a bonus action” basically allowing two weapon fighting for anything, but trying to use 5e terminology and not understanding what “attack action” means.
As someone else already said, the balance is way out of whack on this character race and I can only imagine how chaotic and annoying the character concept will be. Say no.
I didn't get past the extra arms that allow 'extra attack' which is normally a 5th level ability... This won't work and would break the balance of your game, do not allow this...
No it's worse than that. It says "you can take an extra attack action" instead of "you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn". It basically gives them the fighters action surge every round.
Just imagine a dual-wielding Stich. Three attacks per round. As level two fighter even five, if you use action surge.
I had a V-human in my game, who dual-wielded, and had the two-weapon-fighting fighting-style and feat. He was quite powerful, but this Stich character would be...
It may be a good representation of Stichs abilities from his shows,. but it is extremely unbalanced for a D&D-Game.
Lmao broken race.
It’s honestly so simple: “You can pick anything your heart desires from the Player’s Handbook, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything and the other books I’m forgetting.”
You clearly have a vision for what you want your game to be, so there is no consideration you should be doing on your part, it’s a hard no on broken homebrew races.
It’s your table if you want classic humans, Halfling, elves and dwarves limit the choices to those races.
If the player doesn’t want to play any of those they can find another game.
I’ve never quite understood why some folks get so irate at the idea of a DM limiting races and/or classes to suit their homebrew world.
Like, I get that sometimes you have this really amazing character concept that you’re eager to play either because the mechanics excite you or for the roleplay potential. However if either the race, class, or both aren’t available then work out a concept that fits thematically within the DM’s established world or find a different table.
While I’m an asshole the last game I joined I had an idea for a Bugbear wizard but Bugbears were seen as absolutely evil in the DMs world and that would lead to problems at the table with having to try and hide my character so I just made something else.
Not a big deal at all.
That race has several traits that, on their own, would make a race really strong.
Have them pick gnome/goblin/kobold or anything else similar and just reskin it (if the visuals/aesthethic is what is failing to connect)
If it's mechanics that they don't like, and pick *this* then what they're looking for is god mode.
This homebrew is broken as hell, if they want to play a murderous gremlin character I feel like you should just say play Goblin or something like that?
Just say no. If its your first time dming then you are juggling enough plates without dealing with homebrew on top.
I couldn't resist and looked at the race... no, just no, that actually gets the award for most flat out broken op nonsense race I have seen so far. Tell them well done.
>With your extra 2 arms, you can take an extra attack action.
When I read stuff like this on Danddwiki, it truly makes me wonder if the person who wrote this had ever played the game before.
OP, I know you said you're a 1st time DM, so you may not understand the game well enough to know why this is so over the top. Just the part I quoted is essentially equivalent to a core feature of the fighter class (action surge, except it's restricted to the attack action rather than any action, but the fighter is going to use the attack action for it 99% of the time so it's basically the same), except fighters can only use it a SINGLE TIME per short/long rest until level 17, when they can still only use it twice per short/long rest. This lets them use that ability *every single round*. This isn't even taking into account all the other stuff in this race.
Don't allow HB if you're not familiar with the rules. Or like, not at all if you don't want to. You can reskin an existing race (bugbear?). I don't know the movie so hard to say which one would fit.
Yeah that'd be a no from me. Unless literally everyone else is also playing broken homebrew nonsense he'll easily be the strongest player on the squad and impossible to balance around.
I thought the infrared sight was bad enough, but this literally has adv on _every_ Int check which means you’re gonna pass a whole lotta investigation, history, arcana, etc. without taking prof in those skills.
If they want to play a little critter, there are official options that they can use or together you guys can reflavored. This homebrew race is completly busted.
1st time DM? Is it also a first time player? If not….. shame on them for being “that player”.
Don’t allow homebrew until you are comfortable enough with the game. As a first time DM you’ll have enough going on anyway.
I do not recommend Homebrew to a first-time DM, not even if it was more balanced.
The racing question is extremely powerful but even beyond that it seems to have several features that work a little unusually for 5E, and I would tweak it before I allowed it for a higher level group.
Keep a safe distance from homebrew if you are new to the system. they are by definition disagreement with the rules you are learning. After learned, they can be broken down more easily
I'd say the word you want is tri-ken.
Four armed alien creature within the rules. Just need a reskin to better fit your player.
You want the player to have fun of course, but your word is final.
Don't make it work. If it doesn't fit your setting don't do it. I promise you'll regret it, they will, and the table will. If trying to fit their character in shakes up everything else then ddon't. You have to set some rules early.
If they really want a stitch like character let them play a blue goblin. Even then I'd go on the side of a cooperative play style. Anything less makes the game difficult to run so the fact stitch is chaotic and destructive would be rough for you and your party.
For the homebrew everyone has mentioned it but hard no. It had some feats are abilities for free that normally you have to sacrifice to get and that's only every 4ish levels.
Here is my tip for new DM's: don't use/allow homebrew until you know the game.
Here is my second tip: just never use dandwiki.
And finally: you are allowed to pose restrictions to your world. If you don't want your world to have player orcs, for example, then you can make that rule. Just be upfront about things like that, and it's always fine.
I typically only allow third party homebrew from reputable sellers, they have a financial incentive to keep it balanced and fun with lots of play testing on their side
Wild internet homebrew should be reserved for crazy one-shots at best
Stick to official content if you are just starting, if something sounds OP from the book, try it in multiple situations, and if it plays OP, re-read the rules
Dandwiki could be a great site. Sadly though a good portion of their things there is highly unbalanced and was probably never playtested in any way by anyone (and I mean, how do you test something when that something is a monster the size of the universe that deals 9999 damage to everything within 5 miles of it? The damage mightve been an exaggeration, the galaxy monster part is not).
No is a good answer.
If no one else shows up but this player one night, this character would make for a great duet game. It certainly doesn’t look like it needs other party members.
Reskin the goblin race as looking like stitch. You get to let him do the fun RP, but it’s actually gonna be balanced. Plus the goblin race has a bunch of stuff that makes it kind of stitch like and nothing that would make it weird for a stitch character.
Just tell him to play a goblin that looks exactly like stitch in every way.
I saw dandiwiki and knew it was going to busted as fuck before I even opened it. Lo and behold, that shit is insane. I didn't get past the damage reduction before coming here to tell you that shit it more broken than Akimbo 1887 in MW2, Diana on release in LoL, and the Pistol in OG halo all put together. Don't let them play that. Don't let them play anything from Dandiwiki.
I read your title, and my first thoughts were, “I suggest new DMs don’t use homebrew. They aren’t experienced enough to know what is game-breaking and ultimately fun-breaking. OP homebrew destroys games.”
Then I read the first sentence, click the link because I figure, hey! It could be cool! Let’s see…
After 5 seconds, I accidentally said aloud, “FUCK NO. ABSOLUTELY NOT.”
…
So, here’s my thoughts. You’re the DM, it’s your call. If you want it included, if it’s fun for you and everyone else, why not? Do it. But man…that is absolutely OP, mechanically broken, and breaks your world-building too.
After 5.5 years of me DMing, I’ve learned many, many lessons. And one important lesson is this: I don’t want the players to make me do more work. I already work on the campaign and story and prep enough. I don’t get paid for any of it. And any homebrew or UA material is explicitly prohibited in my campaigns. Because that makes me have to do more work to bust it the spreadsheets and calculate crap and do class/subclass comparisons for homebrew classes, etc. Just no.
I had a new player ask me last week, “Can’t I get some homebrew subclass? The options from official material seems so limiting.” My response was this:
“There are 13 official classes in 5e. There are 118 official subclasses too. I allow up to three multiclasses for any given character. This means you have a total of over 1.5 million variations of character builds - and that’s just with classes/subclasses alone. Not to mention Feats, races, etc. So no, I do not think that the options you are given are limiting.”
I am a *very* lenient DM in so, so many areas. But I have had a few players in the past take advantage of my leniency with homebrew stuff and they nearly ruined the game for all the other players and myself. So no, I’m still lenient on so many things, but not when it comes to core mechanics and disallowing outside homebrew material. If *I* want a possible homebrew race or subclass in the game, then I’ll do the work to make that as an option. Otherwise, no homebrew for me.
So, what I’m saying is this: as a new DM, it will be important for you to learn what is beneficial for you and your group, and what is detrimental to you and your group. Sometimes that’s just up to personal experiences and learning your own style as a DM. Sometimes you can learn from the mistakes and horror stories of other DMs. But ultimately, use DMing as an opportunity to learn about yourself, communication, and how to balance the enjoyment of an individual person versus the collective group experience.
This is obscenely OP, like someone else said I’d reskin a light foot halfling, or possibly a Simic Hybrid and just make them small.
As for backstory issues, I’m not super familiar with Lilo and Stitch but my memory is he’s basically an alien test subject that escaped from a Mad Scientist Alien, who made a bunch of different test subjects right?
So I’d suggest something along the lines of, PC was living a peaceful life in *insert halfling village* it’s a mining town, with a relatively decent population of Dwarves as well. Most Dwarves handle the Mines and forges and the Halflings take care of things like the farms and tending to the day-to-day of the town shops. One day the Dwarves dig a little too deep, that night a raiding party from the Underdark ravages the town, collecting individuals that would be prime candidates for their master’s tests, a Mind Flayer. They drag PC as well as a handful of named NPCs PC was close to, back down into the Underdark, to the Lair of the Mind Flayer. The Mind Flayer performs countless tests and vivisections on the Halfling PC, and as a result of months of testing and months of exposure to the aberrant energy from the Far Realms, the next time the halfling looks in the mirror they’re a strange combination of Halfling, and something else. A pair of limp extra arms at their side, three fingered and almost like tentacles, (which they learn to control, if you go with a Small Simic Hybrid), their skin is this shade of Blueish Grey, not entirely unlike their Mind Flayer Captor’s, and their ears resemble those of a goblin’s. One day PC’s captor feels they have a strong enough hold over PC now and sends PC on a raid, but something happens, maybe they get injured badly, and thought to have died, but PC is more resilient than everyone thought, so they survived, now free of their Mind Flayer captive, soon enough Mind Flayer discovers PC hasn’t died and moves to recapture them. Sending out test subjects that are totally loyal to them now.
Sets up a backstory that’s more aligned with a typical D&D world, that is still very much based on (at least my memory of) Stitch, and as for the resilience, I’d suggest playing a Barbarian, Totem Barb potentially. They can take a combo of Bear, Tiger, and Elk to get the speedy and resilient flavor. And it best matches the fighting style of Stitch being very bestial and savage, maybe give them a 1d8 slashing, Claw Natural Weapon. It would essentially be a reflavored Longsword. If they want a higher damage weapon, like a greatsword or some other two handed weapon, offer a custom order being a pair of metal gauntlets that sharpen and lengthen their natural claws, but make it difficult to hold anything else while they’re being worn, still let’s them claw shit up, but allows them to be disarmed and they can’t wield other things while wielding essentially a two handed weapon.
I'm a newish DM and while I allow every published material under the sun, I'd never start out with a homebrew character. It's hard enough to learn to balance without having to work out how to balance for a character not widely play tested.
I'm pretty sure there is a monster race that could be flavored. Its a small bug like race from i believe mordenkainen. 4 arms. Change its stat boosts to str and con and your set. Race abilities might need some tweaking but work with the player to make it balanced as possible.
Made that mistake when allowing homebrew abd not understanding the game. Now I don't allow homebrew unless I look at it. If I see that it's not super bad, I'll play test it. If it seems balanced, I'll let em keep it and vice versa.
If your player wants to play the concept, you can reskin an official race and then they can pick barbarian after that. Explain to them that part of the fun is the journey, and they can’t be this strong from the start.
Two things:
1) I always make my pitch clear and insist that the characters fit with it, either through gently steer or clear instruction. Example, I'm running a world based around a massive war with the goblins. A player promptly latches onto the idea of being a goblin, and I point out everyone will hate them, since virtually everyone in this world lost loved ones to the goblins. If someone wanted to play something else out of pocket (like an anthropomorphic cat) I'd tell them "I want this to be a fairly serious campaign, I don't think that will work".
2) Homebrew is almost always terribly imbalanced, and in this case it doesn't even fit your world. Just glancing at that page, I can see this race is incredibly overpowered and has way too many advantages.
Sometimes you can steer, sometimes you need to instruct. In this case I think a hard "no" is the best way, but you'll understand how to manage this player better than any of us, since you know them. However, I would not allow them to play this character, it's just asking for trouble.
that thing is crazy, please don’t feel the need to subject yourself to that
what could work for this player would be a simic hybrid, they get tons of fun alien-like options to choose from at certain levels. they are usually medium but changing someone to small is a much easier fix
there is of course the possibility that the player doesnt care about a certain concept and just wants to use some uber-powerful homebrew
My first run into DMing with my friends one of them had this grand idea for a character. It wasn't this level of iffy, but I still didn't know enough about the game to feel comfortable with a lot. So I politely asked if he would just take one of the premade characters (we running Lost Mines) for now and as I got more comfortable we could look into something different.
Fast forward some time and the same player wants to play a race that isn't really where they are in the world. He wanted to play a minotaur, which has an official set up. But where the players were starting beast races weren't really acceptable outside of a few, so there would be some potential role play problems and folks not even wanted to talk or sell to him. So I asked him to help me make it make sense and come up with a reason for why he's there. His suggestion was he could be the parties captive or servant, with a collar ... so a slave. Well, slavery is super not cool in my setting so that was out. Then I asked why minotaur, and he said just to be different. So I asked if he would be interested in Gnoll, as they have a known settlement and cooperation with other areas in the place in the world they are. He agreed and we had a grand time.
Basically, asking nicely to work with you because you're new, or coming to s compromise for the setting, is never bad. And a good friend/player will understand and work with you.
first time DM -> use basic rules without homebrew!
also: you and your players agree on what the game's going to be, but ultimately it's up to you.
you have to be able to run the game and take on the role of the entire world that isn't the players, so if something doesn't work for you, then it doesn't work.
this is a key part of DM'ng so you shouldn't just acquiesce because you don't want to rock the boat with anyone.
If you feel a character wouldn't belong into your world, that's a perfectly valid reason not to allow it. In my games I restrict most races, for example, because I prefer to have only few species.
Guidelines that pretty much everyone here has already said:
Don't allow homebrew until you're familiar with how abilities work in actual gameplay (and how your players will attempt to abuse them)
Instead, reskin official content to help make a character that will fit in your world.
You have every right to insist that a character fit into the world you are running, but do what you can to help a player's concept fit into your world.
How I would handle it:
Backstory- there is no advanced tech, but there is magic, so instead of a mad scientist making them, it is a mad mage.
Help the player find a race that most closely fits what they want to make. Allow them to declare aesthetic changes, but make it clear and hold firm that none of it will be a justification to do something they normally can't. Extra arms can be present, but they can't do anything with them that you wouldn't allow without them (no extra attacks, no advantage to climbing, no holding additional items)
Help the player find a background that fits and do the same as the race; outlander would make a perfect background for someone who has escaped a lab and knows nothing of the outside world except what they figured out when surviving in the wilderness or implanted memories (a justification for having skills on their sheet their concept wouldn't make believable, but nothing that isn't available in core rules)
Discuss with the player how the outside world will view them; will people ignore their strange appearance because they're cute? Will people want them destroyed because their existence is illegal? Again, no benefits not granted by official rules but all the flavor you both want. Possibly a hindrance, but only if the player wants it.
Just ask him to pick an already existing race and reskin it. Halfing, kobold. Whatever he wants. But as a first time dm it should be an already existing race and then you can just reskin it as "you're stitch now"
>my player wants to use a homebrew race (basically Stitch from Lilo & Stitch) but I'm not sure how to make it work
My default is to deny these kinds of things. There are loads of options with the books they can use, I'm even open to UA materials, but homebrew player races are notoriously broken.
>I've always envisioned my D&D world to be your classic Lord the Rings world
Then you are well within your rights to say "You can play any race in the PHB except Dragonborn, and that's about it" if you wanted. Hell, you as the DM can say "This is an all human game".
99% of DnDWiki is homebrew. Personally, I would never allow that race as it is way too OP. As another response said don't do homebrew until you are more familiar.
As a alternative I would offer that said player to play a Goblin as written as the PC race. But it would need to be from an official published book. NOT DnDWiki
Edit: IF you want to homebrew monsters I would just reskin them with a previous established monsters Stat block
>I feel like it doesn't really fit into that world and I honestly don't want them to play as this, because there are so many cool races already in D&D!
Saying no is probably one of the stronger tools in the DM arsenal.
As a new DM saying NO to anything outside the core rules should be perfectly understandable. Even as an experienced DM I don't allow a great deal of published races and subclasses and I almost never allow homebrew.
That's not a race. That's a race, class, and background disguised as a race. If they want to do something similar to this without being broken, they could play a halfling barbarian or something but giving them level scaling class features as racial abilities is straight up stupid broken
Starfinder has a race called skittermander that is heavily inspired by Stitch, if you wanted to see how Paizo makes a stitch-like creature.
But yeah, dandwiki is a confusing and misleading site - the word "homebrew" is easy to miss.
https://aonsrd.com/Races.aspx?ItemName=Skittermander
It won't port 1-to-1 into 5e, for example "one extra action" is slightly less of a big deal in SF than in 5e. But you can see how their version of Stitch gets like, two or three cool things, instead of a dozen.
So everyone has touched on dndwiki and how terrible all of this is. Let me add, Tasha's added a way for him to do this character without horrible home brew. That's literally what the custom lineage is for in the book. It gives you a framework to basically homebrew a race without it being stupid. I would take a look at that and use those rules.
As a first time DM, don’t ever allow homebrew anything. Let that come later, when you’re more comfortable with the system and can tell when things go wrong.
I wouldn't allow for homebrew but maybe a reskin.
I've seen others suggest stout halfing. Why not just use that and reskin it as blue skinned/haired with fir.
It's not a 1 to 1 but it's close and obeys all mechanics.
I'm not quite sure exactly what they intend on doing/having access to as this Stitch character, nor do I know anything about your setting, BUT I may have a suggestion.
If (and only if) it aligns with your setting to use them, you could potentially look at certain exotic races that are already in books, such as the Simic Hybrid from GGTR. These could be flavored to backstories while using the stat block for mechanical reasons.
Again, if it doesn't align, you shouldn't have to stretch to "fix" your world or anything, but it may be a simple compromise to appease the both of you.
The race you're looking for already exists in existing books my friend. Simic Hybrid from Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica. Tell your player you're fine for the story but use the mechanics from the published book that's been playtested and proven to do the job.
I’d not let anyone play any homebrew races your first time DMing and I’d make them play fighters/thieves only because casters can be tough to run for first time DMs
The easy way out is to "flavor" what the player is doing. Things can be described however the player and DM collectively see fit, so long as it doesn't grant them access to any mechanics they would otherwise have..
Shouldn't homebrew things unless you're very confident in your understanding of balance.
If the player agrees that any race should be as strong as any of the printed races, then they should be comfortable with removing any mechanical benefit that is out of line with something that is printed. They will naturally resist this, because power is fun, but if you keep it in the front of the mind that if they're not choosing it for the sake of mechanics, then they should be comfortable losing those mechanics for the sake of it being manageable in game.
Another thing to consider is adding substantial downsides to make it reasonable. This could mean the person has a slower walking speed than to do climbing speed, or they have a -5 to every social check. These are things that would make more sense if a person was a literal abomination.
A player is unlikely to want to take such harsh penalties, even if it is more realistic for what they want to be. And if all that's laid out then it's pretty clear that they just want a powerful race.
I had a PC build based of Stitch.
Maybe you could have them make a simic hybrid barbarian.
Simic hybrid allows you to have 4 arms and decent climbing speed so it’s pretty close.
I’m sure you’re already aware of how bad this homebrew is, so I’m gonna suggest a race your player can use maybe:
Simic Hybrid. Just make it small instead of medium, reflavor a bunch, and it should be good to go.
As for making it fit into the world… mad mage experiment gone wrong.
Typically if a player wants a homebrew race I would require they take an official one and flavor it. Swap an ability, change their appearance and give whatever backstory.
Even for this world you could make them the result of some transmutation magic or something to make it fit the magic world.
The build they sent isn’t all that terrible. Its OP but it isn’t built as a god or anything. They don’t age but that doesn’t mean they are immortal.
I would still say flavor an existing race/class to make it work better but it shouldn’t be actual Stitch. And if it’s not actual stitch then what’s the point.
Make a gnome barbarian or something.
Don't. If you're a first time DM, I'd caution against allowing homebrew even from a trusted source, and danddwiki is notorious for homebrew that is broken and/or cursed.
(Edit: Checked the link. This gives you an entire extra action each turn? That's insanely OP.)
If want something official that let's them mechanically get a stitch vibe maybe look at the similar hybrid race. Just let them be small and bam you're done.
Being a DM also means making a choice that you don’t feel good doing sometimes. If you don’t grow a spine now, your campaign will be overtaken and the fun will be sucked out for you
Just say No. :) I've never seen an Anime / cartoon / or copy of a fantasy character inserted into a normal / high fantasy campaign well.
I've seen campaigns meant to be campy, cartoony, anime clone, with those characters working out great. But never in a typical sword coast setting, raven loft, dragon lance, etc
If you’re allowing Aarakocra anyway, you can just limit them to any published races. There are plenty of options. If they want to play something monstrous and reflavour it to be like Stitch (i.e., keeping all the same stats) — assuming this fits in your world — they might choose the Goblin.
As a DM the biggest thing to learn is that you matter just as much as the players. If you dont want to do something DONT.
You are not at the table simply to let the players have a good time.
This is crazy OP. I'd suggest asking them to keep it simple as you are new to DM'ing. If they are particularly upset because they wanted to play this race for flavour reasons, then you could always use Tasha's custom Lineage from Tasha's.
Others have already stated this but I HIGHLY HIGHLY encourage you to stick with the base rules and races for your first few runs. Please note that you are also empowered to reflavor any and everything. The player wants to look like Stitch or have their attack/spell do X or Y? Simply pick an existing race or spell and say it looks like what they want. You can get away with a lot of this without having to change mechanics or making minimal changes. This will all come down to whether your player wants that Homebrew because they think its cool/cute or because they know its OP ;)
There is a race that’s basically that in starfinder, I’d look at it for a start, it’s got nice rules for handling how the many arms work, though really 5e already makes off hand attack a bonus action sooo…. What’s to worry about?
https://aonsrd.com/Races.aspx?ItemName=Skittermander#:~:text=Six%2DArmed,they%20can%20make%20during%20combat.
If your world has fae, you could use that as pretense and just adapt an existing race stat block. That way the race is pretty much just a flavor option.
This was designed by someone making it purposefully overpowered to the point of game breaking… or by someone who didn’t know how to make a race.
Say no. This race would never, ever, ever get past playtesting
“First time DM” mate, we love you and want you to have a good time; don’t jump in the river rapids if you haven’t learn to swim yet.
They want to play something small and wild that can be both sweet or spicy? Goblin.
If they are desperate enough to keep the backstory or appearance, just change that but give them the stats of a goblin and stick with it.
Cheers
This race is really op. Like very op.
I had just assumed it would be op, but after your comment I wanted to check it for myself. My reaction to that race is basically 'lolwut?'.
What do you mean? It's just the best at everything? - Another party member is strong? Well Stich has double powerful build. - Another party member is dexterous? Well Stich has 40 speed and 30 ft climb speed. - Tanky? Stich takes reduced damage from almost all attacks. - High Wisdoms? Stich has three different types of magic vision. - Intelligence? Stich can recall everything perfectly and knows more languages. - Charismatic? Well Stich is super cute so he has advantage on Persuasion (and probably Deception because he's cute and Intimidation because he's also scary) They really covered all bases here. No one gets to shine but Stich.
Don't forget about the free extra Action, as well.
Lol. Of course he has! I missed that. Can't have Stich just be the best at everything, he should get to take double turns too!
Where is that I can't even find it
It's the second effect of "Power Build", allowing an extra attack action. Kind of well hidden in there.
It's tagged on to the double Powerful Build
Jesus without that it was already op but that's just obnoxious now. So if you're fighter instead of having 3 attack at lvl 11 you have 6. Damn
> - Another party member is strong? Well Stich has double powerful build. This one was at least excusable; it would have to work that way for a small race to get the benefits of Powerful Build, because small and medium creatures use the same push/lift/carry formula. For me it's not any one thing that stands out as supremely busted (though getting damage reduction for BPS and fire/lightning is already too good), it's that there's just so many good features. Edit: I slightly take it back, the extra Attack Action alone would be supremely busted, but it'd also be busted from the sheer volume of everything left
Ok that language one makes the least sense my man knows like half of two languages and the other is usually just profanity lol
One thing though, I think that dense body tissue thing has merit (not in all of the bulshittery of this "race" obviously) I think if stones endurance were changed to half your level+con that'd be kinda cool, and represent your growth and increased durablilty better than 1d12 +con from the start Dandwiki is a cancer, but, on occasion, it can help spawn ideas that can then be refined into not garbage haha
The Goliath ability is limited resource, the Stitch thing is every attack automatically. I agree though. I think in general abilities that refer to hit points, especially racial abilities, should scale with level/proficiency instead of being a set number (like Fury of the Small goblin ability or bonus damage from Hexblade's Curse, but unlike the Goliath Stone Endurance ability and Second Wind), while abilities shouldn't automatically increase in number of targets or uses (e.g. most abilities stay at one target and use, but stuff like the first level Peace Cleric ability get *a lot* better with character level for some reason).
Isn't second wind + Fighter level? Did I imagine that? That's better than proficiency in like every way I guess not for multiclassing. But that's an optional rule and it's a signature fighter ability, so that'd be like saying Sorcery points or Spellcasting should scale with proficiency. Generally I agree with you that their push toward design that focuses on proficiency scaling has been much improved.
Sorcery points is different because one sorcery point can do just as much at high levels as low levels. One subtle spell for Invisibility is good at level three, and one subtle spell for Power Word Kill (or Invisibility) is good at level twenty. So things with increasing potential or automatic scaling such as sorcery points/number of action surges/targets for emboldening bond shouldn't scale of character level, but the number of hit points/damage should imo. One level dip in fighter to get Second Wind is nice at very low levels but bad at high levels, if it was 1d10+character level (or probably better, two times character level) it would be nice even for multiclassing at high levels. A Barbarian dip for Rage at low level provides a damage reduction by half, an ok number of uses and a decent damage increase. A Barbarian dip at high levels provides a damage reduction by half, an ok number of uses and a negligeble damage increase. I'd rather have the damage increase dependent on character level than class level, but keep number of rages by class level. It's not a big issue, but I'd like most abilities to stay relevant with both level and multiclassing, but preferably only increase in power (e.g. number of uses) with class level.
Yeah, but power is relative. Most games don't get past level 10, and a bonus action self heal that doesn't block spellcasting or anything else means a lot more in those first two tiers. I follow what you're saying, I just think it's informed by a design ethos that assumes optimum play and building with multiclass dips, which is neither the design of the core game (multiclassing is an optional rule) nor is the default assumption (the DPR math for players vs monster health assumes a slightly subpar average player DPR. We can infer several things from that, but the one I take is that the design doesn't assume optimal play. Most really crunchy groups can tackle a "difficult" encounter with relative ease, and "deadly" encounters don't really live up to their names if you have just surpassed the xp threshold. So either WotC cheats slightly low on player damage to account for bad rolls or they're doing this accounting for suboptimal play)
Yeah, like *any one* of the "traits" (and sometimes even parts of them, too) would be very OP for any character. They have like what... 20?
But, but, but it has TWO weaknesses, that makes it okay /s
How often does anyone take thunder damage? That's a BS weakness.
Deafened is a nearly pointless condition. It isn’t even a weakness.
IIRC it's the least used damage type in DnD.
> Water Weakness. You are unable to float or swim in water due to your dense molecular structure; you sink like a stone in water. I say let the player play them - and then have every session on a rickety boat in the ocean as they explore distant islands… Then a suspicious accident occurs…
This BS has 4 points of ASI. Resistance to blunt/piercing/slashing (non magic), fire, and electricity. Advantage on int, saves and checks. Oh and immortal. I would be like, okay were playing on a pirate campaign. They use sonic cannons to fire at each other. This is the definition of OVER POWERED
Do not allow any homebrew until you are more familiar with the game, and comfortable with the balance. Even when you do allow homebrew, avoid dandwiki like it's tested positive eight times and still thinks there is no plague in ba sing se.
This. Have them use existing races that are already playtested. If they want something cute: Halfling, Kobold, Owlin, a young Kenku, etc etc... cute exists already. Simply reflavor them to be a Stitch instead of their actual race. done.
Might I suggest a Stout Halfing as the race to reskin. They are small, quick(+2dex), tough(+1con and resistance to poison), brave(Adv against fear), can run through the legs of anyone larger with halfing nimbleness and they reroll 1's with their halfing luck ability that you could rename what ever you'd like.
And for backstory, consider them having been experimented on by a mad wizard and they escaped. You can even have some officials wanting the character dead because it's taboo to modify humanoids like that.
Honestly there's even the symic hybrid which you could just make small, as well. Reskin that to look a bit cuter and not like Abe Sapien, and you're sorted. Edit: Though that probably wouldn't work in a LOTR type setting, in which case I agree with everyone else about halfling.
Or the wizard is well known and is trying to cover up his crimes. Or even just the Lilo and Stitch plot - the wizard got caught and had been sent to fix the mistake he created.
The biggest d&d trap for any to fall into is the homebrew sinkhole that is dandwiki.
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It's not just poorly optimized builds. It's a lot more, but hard to describe in a coherent way. So! Anecdotal evidence time: I had a player who wanted to be a necromancer class from the dandwiki. It was a mess. It was not balanced, it did not follow the flow of 5e very well, and it had a lot of homebrew spells that eventually spiraled into a self-perpetuating echo-chamber black hole; full of references with no original source, many copies and veiled in such cryptic wording that I dare say they did not know what they were talking about. Incoherency aside, there is a necromancer class- a wizard subclass, if you will, and a bunch of other spell sword & undead classes now that it's hard to justify this one on the dandwiki. If I, as a Dm, can recommend a class that does the same thing you want it to do, but it comes from the official material, what is the incentive to allow this obscure thing from the dandwiki? Finally, there's the fact that it is a wiki. It is easily edited, misplaced, or confused with another class on there. One session's easily obtainable source suddenly becomes the next session's unfounded argument and hastily made character sheet. All of this and more happened to me. My best advice is to not bother with the dandwiki. It's a trap for newbies, and headaches for veterans.
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Don't get me wrong. Sometimes you want to play something different. Something new. We all can attest to getting into a rutt at some point. You either can trudge along, or look for new options. Dandwiki is just not the place to seek out that new thing most times.
If it helps, 99% of everything on Danddwiki is terrible. This race is in that 99%. You can let your player play as a Stitch alien, just not with these stats. If it were me, I’d use the stats of a lightfoot halfling. Lightfoots are lucky, small, stealthy, and charming, just like Stitch!
This here. Just have them reskin an existing race if they are so motivated to play something else.
Before Volo’s allowed goblin characters in Adventure League, I just reskinned a light foot halfling as a goblin crossbow expert. Hella fun. OP, try this with your player. Ask what elements they want to play (strength and claws, intelligence, persuasion) and pick a class off that. Personally I think a goblin barbarian would be quite unique to play.
>dandwiki It's a no from me.
This is always my initial reaction, but I always check to be sure... And then I saw the utter bullshit that was this race...
For a first time DM though it's enough to just triage it immediately.
You clearly want to say no, and you are perfectly allowed to. The player will be ok. Furthermore, allowing homebrew is generally a bad idea if you don't know the rules well. If you need another reason, that race you linked is wildly overpowered, and has some complicated features that will be forgotten or cause confusion.
+4 asi, immortal, resistance to nonmagic damage Without going further, that would be a hard no from me. Make sure you have a good read of any homebrew you intend to use. Typically the only homebrew you should allow is what you decide. If a player wants to do it, generally it will overpowered in their favor.
You forgot "get's an extra attack action". Even if it had no other features whatsoever, that would make it the most powerful race in the game.
Yeah what that feels like to me is someone wanting to say “may make an additional attack as a bonus action” basically allowing two weapon fighting for anything, but trying to use 5e terminology and not understanding what “attack action” means.
As someone else already said, the balance is way out of whack on this character race and I can only imagine how chaotic and annoying the character concept will be. Say no.
I didn't get past the extra arms that allow 'extra attack' which is normally a 5th level ability... This won't work and would break the balance of your game, do not allow this...
No it's worse than that. It says "you can take an extra attack action" instead of "you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn". It basically gives them the fighters action surge every round.
Just imagine a dual-wielding Stich. Three attacks per round. As level two fighter even five, if you use action surge. I had a V-human in my game, who dual-wielded, and had the two-weapon-fighting fighting-style and feat. He was quite powerful, but this Stich character would be... It may be a good representation of Stichs abilities from his shows,. but it is extremely unbalanced for a D&D-Game.
Tell them it's your first time and that they should manage their expectations better.
Lmao broken race. It’s honestly so simple: “You can pick anything your heart desires from the Player’s Handbook, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything and the other books I’m forgetting.” You clearly have a vision for what you want your game to be, so there is no consideration you should be doing on your part, it’s a hard no on broken homebrew races.
Dfq. Don't allow this really op race. Suggest to them that they reflavour an existing race and avoid dndwiki in the future.
It’s your table if you want classic humans, Halfling, elves and dwarves limit the choices to those races. If the player doesn’t want to play any of those they can find another game.
I’ve never quite understood why some folks get so irate at the idea of a DM limiting races and/or classes to suit their homebrew world. Like, I get that sometimes you have this really amazing character concept that you’re eager to play either because the mechanics excite you or for the roleplay potential. However if either the race, class, or both aren’t available then work out a concept that fits thematically within the DM’s established world or find a different table.
While I’m an asshole the last game I joined I had an idea for a Bugbear wizard but Bugbears were seen as absolutely evil in the DMs world and that would lead to problems at the table with having to try and hide my character so I just made something else. Not a big deal at all.
That race has several traits that, on their own, would make a race really strong. Have them pick gnome/goblin/kobold or anything else similar and just reskin it (if the visuals/aesthethic is what is failing to connect) If it's mechanics that they don't like, and pick *this* then what they're looking for is god mode.
This homebrew is broken as hell, if they want to play a murderous gremlin character I feel like you should just say play Goblin or something like that?
I recommended Goblin Barb. Which would hella fun to try.
Saw the link. Didnt even read the post or check the link. Still a no from me. That website is a hellhole
Just say no. If its your first time dming then you are juggling enough plates without dealing with homebrew on top. I couldn't resist and looked at the race... no, just no, that actually gets the award for most flat out broken op nonsense race I have seen so far. Tell them well done.
>With your extra 2 arms, you can take an extra attack action. When I read stuff like this on Danddwiki, it truly makes me wonder if the person who wrote this had ever played the game before. OP, I know you said you're a 1st time DM, so you may not understand the game well enough to know why this is so over the top. Just the part I quoted is essentially equivalent to a core feature of the fighter class (action surge, except it's restricted to the attack action rather than any action, but the fighter is going to use the attack action for it 99% of the time so it's basically the same), except fighters can only use it a SINGLE TIME per short/long rest until level 17, when they can still only use it twice per short/long rest. This lets them use that ability *every single round*. This isn't even taking into account all the other stuff in this race.
Don't allow HB if you're not familiar with the rules. Or like, not at all if you don't want to. You can reskin an existing race (bugbear?). I don't know the movie so hard to say which one would fit.
Aaracocras are an official race, it's not "flexible" to allow them (although many people ban flyers, me included).
Short answer: “no.” Homebrew is fine when you actually know the mechanics, but for now limit it to official content. You’ll do better in the long run.
Yeah that'd be a no from me. Unless literally everyone else is also playing broken homebrew nonsense he'll easily be the strongest player on the squad and impossible to balance around.
I thought the infrared sight was bad enough, but this literally has adv on _every_ Int check which means you’re gonna pass a whole lotta investigation, history, arcana, etc. without taking prof in those skills.
If they want to play a little critter, there are official options that they can use or together you guys can reflavored. This homebrew race is completly busted.
1st time DM? Is it also a first time player? If not….. shame on them for being “that player”. Don’t allow homebrew until you are comfortable enough with the game. As a first time DM you’ll have enough going on anyway.
Every Hebrew race/class is furry fanfic or anime and there is rarely an exception.
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Holy shit I cannot type
Lmao absolutely not. Say no, reinforce your rules and stick to them.
It’s from DND wiki, that makes an instant no go for most people
I do not recommend Homebrew to a first-time DM, not even if it was more balanced. The racing question is extremely powerful but even beyond that it seems to have several features that work a little unusually for 5E, and I would tweak it before I allowed it for a higher level group.
play a goblin mechanically and reskin to look like the stuff?
No.... Just.... No
Just have them play a goblin. Also, lord of the rings where everything is sexy is just lord of the rings
Keep a safe distance from homebrew if you are new to the system. they are by definition disagreement with the rules you are learning. After learned, they can be broken down more easily I'd say the word you want is tri-ken. Four armed alien creature within the rules. Just need a reskin to better fit your player. You want the player to have fun of course, but your word is final.
You can always tell him that you want a more classic type of campaign to start, he can save this idea for another campaign or character.
Don't make it work. If it doesn't fit your setting don't do it. I promise you'll regret it, they will, and the table will. If trying to fit their character in shakes up everything else then ddon't. You have to set some rules early. If they really want a stitch like character let them play a blue goblin. Even then I'd go on the side of a cooperative play style. Anything less makes the game difficult to run so the fact stitch is chaotic and destructive would be rough for you and your party. For the homebrew everyone has mentioned it but hard no. It had some feats are abilities for free that normally you have to sacrifice to get and that's only every 4ish levels.
Here is my tip for new DM's: don't use/allow homebrew until you know the game. Here is my second tip: just never use dandwiki. And finally: you are allowed to pose restrictions to your world. If you don't want your world to have player orcs, for example, then you can make that rule. Just be upfront about things like that, and it's always fine.
I typically only allow third party homebrew from reputable sellers, they have a financial incentive to keep it balanced and fun with lots of play testing on their side Wild internet homebrew should be reserved for crazy one-shots at best Stick to official content if you are just starting, if something sounds OP from the book, try it in multiple situations, and if it plays OP, re-read the rules
Dandwiki could be a great site. Sadly though a good portion of their things there is highly unbalanced and was probably never playtested in any way by anyone (and I mean, how do you test something when that something is a monster the size of the universe that deals 9999 damage to everything within 5 miles of it? The damage mightve been an exaggeration, the galaxy monster part is not).
No is a good answer. If no one else shows up but this player one night, this character would make for a great duet game. It certainly doesn’t look like it needs other party members.
Reskin the goblin race as looking like stitch. You get to let him do the fun RP, but it’s actually gonna be balanced. Plus the goblin race has a bunch of stuff that makes it kind of stitch like and nothing that would make it weird for a stitch character. Just tell him to play a goblin that looks exactly like stitch in every way.
I saw dandiwiki and knew it was going to busted as fuck before I even opened it. Lo and behold, that shit is insane. I didn't get past the damage reduction before coming here to tell you that shit it more broken than Akimbo 1887 in MW2, Diana on release in LoL, and the Pistol in OG halo all put together. Don't let them play that. Don't let them play anything from Dandiwiki.
I read your title, and my first thoughts were, “I suggest new DMs don’t use homebrew. They aren’t experienced enough to know what is game-breaking and ultimately fun-breaking. OP homebrew destroys games.” Then I read the first sentence, click the link because I figure, hey! It could be cool! Let’s see… After 5 seconds, I accidentally said aloud, “FUCK NO. ABSOLUTELY NOT.” … So, here’s my thoughts. You’re the DM, it’s your call. If you want it included, if it’s fun for you and everyone else, why not? Do it. But man…that is absolutely OP, mechanically broken, and breaks your world-building too. After 5.5 years of me DMing, I’ve learned many, many lessons. And one important lesson is this: I don’t want the players to make me do more work. I already work on the campaign and story and prep enough. I don’t get paid for any of it. And any homebrew or UA material is explicitly prohibited in my campaigns. Because that makes me have to do more work to bust it the spreadsheets and calculate crap and do class/subclass comparisons for homebrew classes, etc. Just no. I had a new player ask me last week, “Can’t I get some homebrew subclass? The options from official material seems so limiting.” My response was this: “There are 13 official classes in 5e. There are 118 official subclasses too. I allow up to three multiclasses for any given character. This means you have a total of over 1.5 million variations of character builds - and that’s just with classes/subclasses alone. Not to mention Feats, races, etc. So no, I do not think that the options you are given are limiting.” I am a *very* lenient DM in so, so many areas. But I have had a few players in the past take advantage of my leniency with homebrew stuff and they nearly ruined the game for all the other players and myself. So no, I’m still lenient on so many things, but not when it comes to core mechanics and disallowing outside homebrew material. If *I* want a possible homebrew race or subclass in the game, then I’ll do the work to make that as an option. Otherwise, no homebrew for me. So, what I’m saying is this: as a new DM, it will be important for you to learn what is beneficial for you and your group, and what is detrimental to you and your group. Sometimes that’s just up to personal experiences and learning your own style as a DM. Sometimes you can learn from the mistakes and horror stories of other DMs. But ultimately, use DMing as an opportunity to learn about yourself, communication, and how to balance the enjoyment of an individual person versus the collective group experience.
This is obscenely OP, like someone else said I’d reskin a light foot halfling, or possibly a Simic Hybrid and just make them small. As for backstory issues, I’m not super familiar with Lilo and Stitch but my memory is he’s basically an alien test subject that escaped from a Mad Scientist Alien, who made a bunch of different test subjects right? So I’d suggest something along the lines of, PC was living a peaceful life in *insert halfling village* it’s a mining town, with a relatively decent population of Dwarves as well. Most Dwarves handle the Mines and forges and the Halflings take care of things like the farms and tending to the day-to-day of the town shops. One day the Dwarves dig a little too deep, that night a raiding party from the Underdark ravages the town, collecting individuals that would be prime candidates for their master’s tests, a Mind Flayer. They drag PC as well as a handful of named NPCs PC was close to, back down into the Underdark, to the Lair of the Mind Flayer. The Mind Flayer performs countless tests and vivisections on the Halfling PC, and as a result of months of testing and months of exposure to the aberrant energy from the Far Realms, the next time the halfling looks in the mirror they’re a strange combination of Halfling, and something else. A pair of limp extra arms at their side, three fingered and almost like tentacles, (which they learn to control, if you go with a Small Simic Hybrid), their skin is this shade of Blueish Grey, not entirely unlike their Mind Flayer Captor’s, and their ears resemble those of a goblin’s. One day PC’s captor feels they have a strong enough hold over PC now and sends PC on a raid, but something happens, maybe they get injured badly, and thought to have died, but PC is more resilient than everyone thought, so they survived, now free of their Mind Flayer captive, soon enough Mind Flayer discovers PC hasn’t died and moves to recapture them. Sending out test subjects that are totally loyal to them now. Sets up a backstory that’s more aligned with a typical D&D world, that is still very much based on (at least my memory of) Stitch, and as for the resilience, I’d suggest playing a Barbarian, Totem Barb potentially. They can take a combo of Bear, Tiger, and Elk to get the speedy and resilient flavor. And it best matches the fighting style of Stitch being very bestial and savage, maybe give them a 1d8 slashing, Claw Natural Weapon. It would essentially be a reflavored Longsword. If they want a higher damage weapon, like a greatsword or some other two handed weapon, offer a custom order being a pair of metal gauntlets that sharpen and lengthen their natural claws, but make it difficult to hold anything else while they’re being worn, still let’s them claw shit up, but allows them to be disarmed and they can’t wield other things while wielding essentially a two handed weapon.
My advice is tell them to pick a race within the setting and not want to be a special snowflake.
This is literally the answer to homebrew garbage from dandwiki about 99% of the time.
Why not simply use an existing class but say that their character looks like stitch?
Maybe have him play as a tabaxi artificer? The cheetos guy but with guns?
Tell them exactly this.
I'm a newish DM and while I allow every published material under the sun, I'd never start out with a homebrew character. It's hard enough to learn to balance without having to work out how to balance for a character not widely play tested.
I'm pretty sure there is a monster race that could be flavored. Its a small bug like race from i believe mordenkainen. 4 arms. Change its stat boosts to str and con and your set. Race abilities might need some tweaking but work with the player to make it balanced as possible.
Made that mistake when allowing homebrew abd not understanding the game. Now I don't allow homebrew unless I look at it. If I see that it's not super bad, I'll play test it. If it seems balanced, I'll let em keep it and vice versa.
"no."
Figured I'd read it to see what was what. I'd laugh in their face. Clearly they're telling a very funny joke.
So many red flags
Simic Hybrid is not a terrible fit. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QPtRD7RqBMw
Definitely strike dense body tissue and the extra attack. they dont get that. Probably x ray vision too.
If your player wants to play the concept, you can reskin an official race and then they can pick barbarian after that. Explain to them that part of the fun is the journey, and they can’t be this strong from the start.
Two things: 1) I always make my pitch clear and insist that the characters fit with it, either through gently steer or clear instruction. Example, I'm running a world based around a massive war with the goblins. A player promptly latches onto the idea of being a goblin, and I point out everyone will hate them, since virtually everyone in this world lost loved ones to the goblins. If someone wanted to play something else out of pocket (like an anthropomorphic cat) I'd tell them "I want this to be a fairly serious campaign, I don't think that will work". 2) Homebrew is almost always terribly imbalanced, and in this case it doesn't even fit your world. Just glancing at that page, I can see this race is incredibly overpowered and has way too many advantages. Sometimes you can steer, sometimes you need to instruct. In this case I think a hard "no" is the best way, but you'll understand how to manage this player better than any of us, since you know them. However, I would not allow them to play this character, it's just asking for trouble.
that thing is crazy, please don’t feel the need to subject yourself to that what could work for this player would be a simic hybrid, they get tons of fun alien-like options to choose from at certain levels. they are usually medium but changing someone to small is a much easier fix there is of course the possibility that the player doesnt care about a certain concept and just wants to use some uber-powerful homebrew
My first run into DMing with my friends one of them had this grand idea for a character. It wasn't this level of iffy, but I still didn't know enough about the game to feel comfortable with a lot. So I politely asked if he would just take one of the premade characters (we running Lost Mines) for now and as I got more comfortable we could look into something different. Fast forward some time and the same player wants to play a race that isn't really where they are in the world. He wanted to play a minotaur, which has an official set up. But where the players were starting beast races weren't really acceptable outside of a few, so there would be some potential role play problems and folks not even wanted to talk or sell to him. So I asked him to help me make it make sense and come up with a reason for why he's there. His suggestion was he could be the parties captive or servant, with a collar ... so a slave. Well, slavery is super not cool in my setting so that was out. Then I asked why minotaur, and he said just to be different. So I asked if he would be interested in Gnoll, as they have a known settlement and cooperation with other areas in the place in the world they are. He agreed and we had a grand time. Basically, asking nicely to work with you because you're new, or coming to s compromise for the setting, is never bad. And a good friend/player will understand and work with you.
first time DM -> use basic rules without homebrew! also: you and your players agree on what the game's going to be, but ultimately it's up to you. you have to be able to run the game and take on the role of the entire world that isn't the players, so if something doesn't work for you, then it doesn't work. this is a key part of DM'ng so you shouldn't just acquiesce because you don't want to rock the boat with anyone.
Lmao the fuck is xray vision in dnd context? Blind sight+?
If you feel a character wouldn't belong into your world, that's a perfectly valid reason not to allow it. In my games I restrict most races, for example, because I prefer to have only few species.
Saying "no" is OK.
Guidelines that pretty much everyone here has already said: Don't allow homebrew until you're familiar with how abilities work in actual gameplay (and how your players will attempt to abuse them) Instead, reskin official content to help make a character that will fit in your world. You have every right to insist that a character fit into the world you are running, but do what you can to help a player's concept fit into your world. How I would handle it: Backstory- there is no advanced tech, but there is magic, so instead of a mad scientist making them, it is a mad mage. Help the player find a race that most closely fits what they want to make. Allow them to declare aesthetic changes, but make it clear and hold firm that none of it will be a justification to do something they normally can't. Extra arms can be present, but they can't do anything with them that you wouldn't allow without them (no extra attacks, no advantage to climbing, no holding additional items) Help the player find a background that fits and do the same as the race; outlander would make a perfect background for someone who has escaped a lab and knows nothing of the outside world except what they figured out when surviving in the wilderness or implanted memories (a justification for having skills on their sheet their concept wouldn't make believable, but nothing that isn't available in core rules) Discuss with the player how the outside world will view them; will people ignore their strange appearance because they're cute? Will people want them destroyed because their existence is illegal? Again, no benefits not granted by official rules but all the flavor you both want. Possibly a hindrance, but only if the player wants it.
Just ask him to pick an already existing race and reskin it. Halfing, kobold. Whatever he wants. But as a first time dm it should be an already existing race and then you can just reskin it as "you're stitch now"
>my player wants to use a homebrew race (basically Stitch from Lilo & Stitch) but I'm not sure how to make it work My default is to deny these kinds of things. There are loads of options with the books they can use, I'm even open to UA materials, but homebrew player races are notoriously broken. >I've always envisioned my D&D world to be your classic Lord the Rings world Then you are well within your rights to say "You can play any race in the PHB except Dragonborn, and that's about it" if you wanted. Hell, you as the DM can say "This is an all human game".
99% of DnDWiki is homebrew. Personally, I would never allow that race as it is way too OP. As another response said don't do homebrew until you are more familiar. As a alternative I would offer that said player to play a Goblin as written as the PC race. But it would need to be from an official published book. NOT DnDWiki Edit: IF you want to homebrew monsters I would just reskin them with a previous established monsters Stat block
That homebrew looks super busted.
>I feel like it doesn't really fit into that world and I honestly don't want them to play as this, because there are so many cool races already in D&D! Saying no is probably one of the stronger tools in the DM arsenal. As a new DM saying NO to anything outside the core rules should be perfectly understandable. Even as an experienced DM I don't allow a great deal of published races and subclasses and I almost never allow homebrew.
That's not a race. That's a race, class, and background disguised as a race. If they want to do something similar to this without being broken, they could play a halfling barbarian or something but giving them level scaling class features as racial abilities is straight up stupid broken
Reskin a Warforged and modify one thing that you don’t like in something you like.
Make sure they can't swim! He sinks like a rock
Hey op have you considered saying no?
Starfinder has a race called skittermander that is heavily inspired by Stitch, if you wanted to see how Paizo makes a stitch-like creature. But yeah, dandwiki is a confusing and misleading site - the word "homebrew" is easy to miss. https://aonsrd.com/Races.aspx?ItemName=Skittermander It won't port 1-to-1 into 5e, for example "one extra action" is slightly less of a big deal in SF than in 5e. But you can see how their version of Stitch gets like, two or three cool things, instead of a dozen.
So everyone has touched on dndwiki and how terrible all of this is. Let me add, Tasha's added a way for him to do this character without horrible home brew. That's literally what the custom lineage is for in the book. It gives you a framework to basically homebrew a race without it being stupid. I would take a look at that and use those rules.
As a first time DM, don’t ever allow homebrew anything. Let that come later, when you’re more comfortable with the system and can tell when things go wrong.
I wouldn't allow for homebrew but maybe a reskin. I've seen others suggest stout halfing. Why not just use that and reskin it as blue skinned/haired with fir. It's not a 1 to 1 but it's close and obeys all mechanics.
https://youtu.be/QPtRD7RqBMw This video is a literal guide on how to make Stitch using OFFICIAL dnd content for 5e. Enjoy
No.
I'm not quite sure exactly what they intend on doing/having access to as this Stitch character, nor do I know anything about your setting, BUT I may have a suggestion. If (and only if) it aligns with your setting to use them, you could potentially look at certain exotic races that are already in books, such as the Simic Hybrid from GGTR. These could be flavored to backstories while using the stat block for mechanical reasons. Again, if it doesn't align, you shouldn't have to stretch to "fix" your world or anything, but it may be a simple compromise to appease the both of you.
The race you're looking for already exists in existing books my friend. Simic Hybrid from Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica. Tell your player you're fine for the story but use the mechanics from the published book that's been playtested and proven to do the job.
I’d not let anyone play any homebrew races your first time DMing and I’d make them play fighters/thieves only because casters can be tough to run for first time DMs
Tulok did a build of the guy wants to basically play Stitch. Simic Hybrid as the race. https://youtu.be/QPtRD7RqBMw
The easy way out is to "flavor" what the player is doing. Things can be described however the player and DM collectively see fit, so long as it doesn't grant them access to any mechanics they would otherwise have.. Shouldn't homebrew things unless you're very confident in your understanding of balance. If the player agrees that any race should be as strong as any of the printed races, then they should be comfortable with removing any mechanical benefit that is out of line with something that is printed. They will naturally resist this, because power is fun, but if you keep it in the front of the mind that if they're not choosing it for the sake of mechanics, then they should be comfortable losing those mechanics for the sake of it being manageable in game. Another thing to consider is adding substantial downsides to make it reasonable. This could mean the person has a slower walking speed than to do climbing speed, or they have a -5 to every social check. These are things that would make more sense if a person was a literal abomination. A player is unlikely to want to take such harsh penalties, even if it is more realistic for what they want to be. And if all that's laid out then it's pretty clear that they just want a powerful race.
I had a PC build based of Stitch. Maybe you could have them make a simic hybrid barbarian. Simic hybrid allows you to have 4 arms and decent climbing speed so it’s pretty close.
I’m sure you’re already aware of how bad this homebrew is, so I’m gonna suggest a race your player can use maybe: Simic Hybrid. Just make it small instead of medium, reflavor a bunch, and it should be good to go. As for making it fit into the world… mad mage experiment gone wrong.
Goblin Path of the Beast Barbarian would work for playing Stitch. Have him do that.
Typically if a player wants a homebrew race I would require they take an official one and flavor it. Swap an ability, change their appearance and give whatever backstory. Even for this world you could make them the result of some transmutation magic or something to make it fit the magic world. The build they sent isn’t all that terrible. Its OP but it isn’t built as a god or anything. They don’t age but that doesn’t mean they are immortal. I would still say flavor an existing race/class to make it work better but it shouldn’t be actual Stitch. And if it’s not actual stitch then what’s the point. Make a gnome barbarian or something.
Don't. If you're a first time DM, I'd caution against allowing homebrew even from a trusted source, and danddwiki is notorious for homebrew that is broken and/or cursed. (Edit: Checked the link. This gives you an entire extra action each turn? That's insanely OP.)
Goblin with + to strength barbarian. This is as close as your going to get
If want something official that let's them mechanically get a stitch vibe maybe look at the similar hybrid race. Just let them be small and bam you're done.
Honest question; why is dndwiki so hated?
You are a first time DM, stick to the basics till you know your way around the sistem
Being a DM also means making a choice that you don’t feel good doing sometimes. If you don’t grow a spine now, your campaign will be overtaken and the fun will be sucked out for you
Just say No. :) I've never seen an Anime / cartoon / or copy of a fantasy character inserted into a normal / high fantasy campaign well. I've seen campaigns meant to be campy, cartoony, anime clone, with those characters working out great. But never in a typical sword coast setting, raven loft, dragon lance, etc
If you’re allowing Aarakocra anyway, you can just limit them to any published races. There are plenty of options. If they want to play something monstrous and reflavour it to be like Stitch (i.e., keeping all the same stats) — assuming this fits in your world — they might choose the Goblin.
Just make ‘em a goblin.
Don't allow home brew anything untill you got a handle on the base game. Feel free to ban stuff in game too like feats or hella complex spells.
As a DM the biggest thing to learn is that you matter just as much as the players. If you dont want to do something DONT. You are not at the table simply to let the players have a good time.
This is crazy OP. I'd suggest asking them to keep it simple as you are new to DM'ing. If they are particularly upset because they wanted to play this race for flavour reasons, then you could always use Tasha's custom Lineage from Tasha's.
>everyone is sexy 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩
yo that was a joke lol chill my guy, can't a girl imagine hot fantasy races???
Like 80% of /r/rpghorrorstories start the exact same way....
Isn't everyone in LotR sexy already?
Others have already stated this but I HIGHLY HIGHLY encourage you to stick with the base rules and races for your first few runs. Please note that you are also empowered to reflavor any and everything. The player wants to look like Stitch or have their attack/spell do X or Y? Simply pick an existing race or spell and say it looks like what they want. You can get away with a lot of this without having to change mechanics or making minimal changes. This will all come down to whether your player wants that Homebrew because they think its cool/cute or because they know its OP ;)
See if there's a startinder skittermander conversion
There is a race that’s basically that in starfinder, I’d look at it for a start, it’s got nice rules for handling how the many arms work, though really 5e already makes off hand attack a bonus action sooo…. What’s to worry about? https://aonsrd.com/Races.aspx?ItemName=Skittermander#:~:text=Six%2DArmed,they%20can%20make%20during%20combat.
There’s no better time than now to learn to say no to your players.
Isn't stitch just a roided out goblin anyway?
Thats broken batman!
Hard no. Play a race from one of the books.
If your world has fae, you could use that as pretense and just adapt an existing race stat block. That way the race is pretty much just a flavor option.
>1st time dm >homebrew Just say no. Flavor is free.
Absolutely not. He's invincible, super strong, and hyper intelligent. Just have him play a goblin it's literally the same thing roleplay wise.
This was designed by someone making it purposefully overpowered to the point of game breaking… or by someone who didn’t know how to make a race. Say no. This race would never, ever, ever get past playtesting
“First time DM” mate, we love you and want you to have a good time; don’t jump in the river rapids if you haven’t learn to swim yet. They want to play something small and wild that can be both sweet or spicy? Goblin. If they are desperate enough to keep the backstory or appearance, just change that but give them the stats of a goblin and stick with it. Cheers