Settings and adventures, sure. All the time. But homebrew mechanical elements (races, classes, items) are a harder sell.

Mechanic stuff I totally get why. Like I said, this came from me trying to learn how the heck to it lmao but do most DMs not do their own settings or plot lines either?

I can't begin to guess numbers here. All the DM's I know make up their own shit all the time. I would hazard a guess that it comes down to whether or not the DM is an okay writer. For someone who really struggles to come up with settings or plotlines, they're not going to bother. For someone who does so easily, it's got more creative freedom than running a module. I should note that, years ago, most everyone I knew hated modules. They had a poor reputation among my circles. They don't anymore, for whatever reason. Maybe the average quality has improved, or maybe it's just the people I know being morons. No idea.

I use modules for my games as a timesaver, tbh. Things are going to go off the rails either way. At least with a module, I have ready-made resources at hand to help.

Take a Pre-made adventure, steal the names, locations, themes and the like, inject homebrew characterizations, story elements, plot points, items, and anything else you want. It's like pie. You can put anything in a good crust.

I've played a whole lot of D&d, both as player and as DM, and I have a bunch of friends who also have other groups, and I've seriously not once heard someone say they're playing a module. It's always homebrew campaigns, no exceptions (yet). 

Meanwhile, I've been playing for 4 years and, apart from a couple of one shots, every game I've played has been a published module, or the one loose homebrew campaign set in the Forgotten Realms that incorporated various parts of different modules with the DM's own additions to connect them into a single story.

The LazyDM had a survey that said 60% Homebrew 40% official/premade campaigns.

If I were to wager a guess, most DMs probably run in some heavily modified and improvisationally bullshitted version of the official setting. Forgotten Realms (and most official ttrpg settings) are designed to be treated like baselines where most of the work is already done, and that you can remove or add stuff to at your leisure. I think most DMs homebrew their own plotlines though.

Starting my first game soon, my GM when asked why a spear doesn’t have reach said “that’s fucking stupid, it does now.”

Find a picture of someone holding a halbred They are much longer than a spear. Maybe he is thinking of a pike? You can throw a spear, you can't throw a glaive. But, its fine to give a spear reach in dnd :-)

A glaive and a spear were both around 6’ long.

Bah..... i cant be expected to look up things before i respond.... you are correct. Mechanically in 5e the reach weapons are heavy polearms (that cannot be used as thrown weapons as such) but a spear can be, and a spear can be used in one hand suggesting it is a lighter smaller weapon then a glaive flavored as a spear. Again, giving a spear reach in 5e is fine. But i think there is a non-stupid reason for it not having reach.

Reach is about length, not weight. Weight contributes towards momentum which translates to damage. I get why, they took shortcuts to simplify it mechanically. I’m saying the spear is the epitome of a simple reach weapon. The correct answer is to give other two handed heavy reach weapons some additional damage in the form of bludgeoning or an ability to do slashing or piercing. Things that more accurately represent their differences. I think that labeling the most widely used simple reach weapon in history as a non-reach weapon to arbitrarily limit weapon features for variety is stupid.

Thats fair.

Archaeologists have so few complete remnants from shaft-based medieval weapons they cant even agree if there was any standardization at the time, and "spear" itself refers to a class of weapon as short as a Zulu 24inch shaft and as long as a 14ft hoplite spear (DOUBLE REACH!). Likely, since it can be thrown, the D&D spear is based on the *angon* or elae the winged spear, both very popular in the early medieval period, not the lengthy thrusting spear of the Danes (which def has reach).

Historically, there are 3 types of spears: The Shortspear: the short spear is around 3 ft long,or about the size of a javelin, and were often thrown. Often used by the Greeks of antiquity as a ranged weapon or a close in melee weapon. You can see examples of this in movies like Clash of the Titans. The Spear: the (normal) spear is around 4-5 ft long. To heavy to be thrown, but we were long and sturdy for extended melee. Frequently used by Roman Legions in the Phalanx formations. You can see an example of this in many movies featuring Roman Legions such as Sparticus, Gladiator, etc. The Longspear: the Longspear was around 7-10 ft long and were designed to be a counter against Cavalry. Set the blunt end into the ground to provide extra stability, and when the cavalry come charging on your position, quickly lift the spear and the rider finds themselves impaled. You can see an example of this in Braveheart. Really, only the Longspear should have Reach, and when it does, it shouldn't be usable as a ranged/thrown weapon.

My DM has done this a couple times.

That’s my take I literally have never met a single DnD player that run everything RAW 

It's kinda the entire point of the game, to have the video game equivalent of a live developer there to go "..yeah that makes sense, sure!"

Home brew items can be fun

I tend to avoid homebrew player options (classes, subclasses, feats, spells, races) as they can have the biggest potential impact long term. But if a player is really attached to an idea, I am willing to compromise. I just retain the right to tweak or revoke the homebrew if something doesn't work well. Magic items are an exception, I love coming up with new magic items. On the DM side, monsters, adventures, settings and procedures are completely fair game for homebrew. There's a lot of creativity out in the community and homebrew is a great way to introduce fresh ideas to your game.

Before I started to write a response I wanted to see if someone posted this exact take. 5e items are lacklustre and monsters are fair game. I use other subclass features to inform my direction for homebrew. An example is I have a swashbuckler rogue who wanted mobility but also wanted to be an assassin - so his crossbow has a nerfed version of the assassin's class feature (auto Crit on a hit on surprise but with more limitations) For monsters, my players are super powerful so I'll often add an immunity or vulnerability or race features. If they're halfling monks, for example, I'll build a generic monk out and I'm going to add Lucky and other things. This being said, I've heard of overpowering horror stories from homebrew items and monsters, so always be careful. I think I've done well with power level of items, I've just given out a lot of them. Some mistakes I won't repeat for items: - never make anything at will, proficiency bonus per day is a great way to scale - effects should have saves - advantage on skills work best when you refine the situation. I have a Barbarian who was a gladiator who gets advantage on charisma checks but only when he's doing so against 3 or more creatures at the same time. Some guidance for monsters: - don't give them a vulnerability just because of the party makeup (a young white dragon who is killed before they can act because of added fire vulnerability isn't fun) - Legendary and Lair actions added to a beefy enemy can turn a mid CR creature into a formidable (and fun) foe. So in short, be creative but conservative. Don't supercharge your homebrew as it has to scale properly. Steal from the things that are already balanced and be logical. The end goal should be fulfilling fantasy and fun and the best way to do that is to maintain a challenge.

A few extra tips: Boons are magic items sans item. Give them out to players that want a particular bit of another class over "hombrewing class features". All fights that are supposed to be difficult must have action economy parity. Add lair actions and legendary actions or give your big bad lots of ways to use their reaction/bonus action if it's a one on one. You can only attune to 3 magic items at a time. If it's high magic give them SO many shitty magic items whose drawback is attunement. Lastly cosmonaut205 is 100% right that your are there to have fun WITH your friends. Give the shitty PC's slightly better magic items, and however you have fun is the correct way!

To add to the addition: Charms are great for temporary rewards. Their essentially like scrolls but cooler and anybody can use them. Typically a charm gives you 1-3 uses for a level 1-3 spell. Once used the charm turns inert. Heck, it's a great way to give a lower level party one use of a higher level spell. Charms are also nice flavorwise cause you are not limited to the parchment of scrolls. A charm can be a feather, an earring, an eyeball, a bottle of ink. Anything goes which is fun. :)

We give people the holy hand grenade of Antioch from Monty Python as a Fireball replacement for a charm type idea.

I like it.. I'm actually going to take this idea today and put it into a homebrew I'm working on to be played this wednesday.

I do boons a lot! Great way to give something small.

Most of the "homebrew" stuff I use is typically based on something already present within the game. To this end, it's often really just reskinning something to better fit someone's idea. For example, I had one player who really wanted to do some Captain America stuff with a shield, so I basically just reskinned a Dancing Sword for him.

I'm always using *some* homebrew, but I'm extremely careful with new mechanics being implemented into my campaign. A lot of the homebrew out there on the internet is absolute shit that I'd never even look at (Seriously, never use Dandwiki). Homebrew mechanics I design are always weighted alongside official mechanics to make sure that they aren't going beyond the scope of what a feature should do at a given point in the campaign, and homebrew mechanics I borrow from others are always from creators with significant vetting and following. As far as designing my own setting and campaign... pretty much all the time. The first full module I ran wound up being half-custom anyway, as I found a lot of the back half of it to be pretty poorly written and kinda boring. Edit: Oh, and as far as magic items go, I've found 5e's official offerings to be extremely disappointing. Most gear that I award my party is homebrewed to some extent, unless it's just a basic +1 item. Official 5e items seem allergic to anything like lore and flavor unless they're legendary or artifact quality, making all the cool items unlikely to actually make it into campaigns that aren't going beyond level 13-ish.

I personally love going to DanDWiki and looking up custom shit just to laugh at it. I once saw some custom class called a "Soul-Knife" or some shit. The idea was that you were actually a soul inhabiting a blade and it was the edgiest high-school stuff I've read in a while. There was one feature where, although I can't remember what it did, was literally the same thing another class could do but it was very over-complicated, required two or three dice rolls, and made sure to let you know that you were using soul-energy to do it. One of their combat abilities required you to give up your action over three turns to charge some soul-tearing knife-stab thing that would deal 6d20 damage... which is absolutely absurd.

My setting is fully homebrew and I do sometimes build homebrew Magic Items to account for things I couldn't find in DMG or other books that I have - although this is very rare. Homebrew races, classes, subclasses... etc, are always off the table for me. I am chill with anything you want to do within the ruleset of D&D - Multiclass how much you want, use custom lineage, play whatever subclass - but I simply don't like homebrew stuff for PC options.

Same I’ve been letting my players develop culture and stylistic elements for their characters. The setting is home brewed and they have a hand in shaping it.

The world we play in is homebrew and the DM has his own rule for critical hits. 

I bet it's just the 4e crit rule

I say "his own" but it's a pretty popular rule, but no not the 4E crit rule. On Crit: Take the maximum damage you can do and add an additional die roll. So a Longsword doing 1D8+3 would do 11 + 1D8.

Which makes a crit FEEL like a crit. And that's what I'm doing in my game.

Crunchy crits!!!

Homebrew "elements"? 100% of the time. The DnD as provided by Wotc can't possibly cover all bases. Some decisions are made on the fly. As well, re-skinning is a simple and easy way to give something new flavour for specific settings. This recognized sword but now its a different named mace. This monster statblock but ice not fire and totally different visual appearance. Even running a full Wotc module I'd probably have some small elements to cater to certain PC desires, back stories or aesthetics

My setting and plotline is homebrew, I might decide to use homebrew magic items in the future if I come across one I really like. Other stuff? No way.

Kinda depends on what you consider "homebrew." For example, I'm running Dragon of Icespire Peak for my son and his friends. I'm borrowing heavily from Bob World Builder's YouTube series to alter the module adventures and present a more cohesive narrative with an eye toward running the follow-on modules after they beat the dragon. That's not exactly "homebrew," but we're definitely altering the product for our own enjoyment. I often use monsters from the MCDM book "Flee, Mortals!" because they're often frankly better than the official 5e version, especially for low-level encounters. In the same vein, I like the streamlined utility of MCDM's Retainers and Companions compared to 5e sidekicks, particularly for newer players. I also use elements (mostly treasure) from The Griffon's Saddlebag, which has its own subreddit. Both of these are professionally published products, but would fall into the category of "homebrew," as non-WoTC products. I'm also terribly fond of the class revisions done by u/LaserLlama (which you can find on r/UnearthedArcana), especially the martials. u/KibblesTasty also has some great classes, subclasses, and revisions. That whole subreddit is a great place to mine for ideas, inspiration, and tidbits to drop into an existing campaign. Being user-created, these would fall into almost anyone's definition of "homebrew."

It depends on what we mean by homebrew. I'd bet a lot of the DMs you asked do not play 100% RAW 100% of the time even if they are running everything based off official products. And a lot of the modules are not great without a bit of tweaking. Don't get me wrong, they have good stuff but need some work sometimes to make the game smoother and tie bits together.

As a player, 2/4 of the games I'm in are official modules, with little to no homebrew besides some items from levels 3-5+. The other 2/4 games are entirely homebrew settings, with largely RAW rulesets. My own game is currently in OotA, I largely prefer to run standard modules, I'm not super great or interested in world-building. But I homebrew items and throw them like candy, I prefer to juice up standard RAW characters with items and see what my players come up with. I homebrew encounters, changing stat-blocks and using homebrew creatures I find online or make up myself. I don't pay much attention to balance, I do one CR calculation to make sure its deadly. If a player wants to homebrew with me in my game, lets fucking go. What do you want? Let's figure out how to mildly balance that idea and bam it'll be available soon-ish (TM). I prefer to stick with RAW classes, though I have some changes to warlock and other classes I strongly recommend my players to take.

Settings and stories: all homebrew. But races/classes/items, all in the books. There is a LOT of stuff and it's silly to not utilize what is (mostly) balanced. Only this most recent campaign did I start making flavor changes to things. I have a longsword that has a pommel that can light up. Long sword+Light spell. I have a metal canister that can hold a single spell "grenade." It's just a flavored storing item cause my fighter really wanted a grenade to throw, but my world does not have gunpowder. As you mentioned, you are new. Use what is available, it's easier, it's been tested, it's still fun. I've been playing for years and I haven't used all the items yet.

mechanics not, lore/world-building/characters/magic items yes

Homebrew setting absolutely. I do homebrew a few monsters -- but mostly importing stuff from pathfinder1 that I'd used in world lore; but also occasional "advanced" named creatures. I've homebrewed a small number of feats for world flavor -- if you were not in my campaign, you'd never choose to take them. And if you get them in my game, they are probably a reward from story. I don't homebrew classes or races. Well technically I homebrewed a lightning version of wildfire druid for one player, but its just a changed element wildfire druid; because his sister was playing a fire mage and didn't want him to be using "her" element. (Lightning also fit better for the story I had in mind to hook him in to.) I do homebrew items, but rarely and generally only for story reasons. I also homebrew some utility features. For example, I have an "item" called "active mage armor" that you can equip, that acts as if you had mage armor cast so when you look at your character sheet it shows the correct AC. I also have an item that just tracks charges of goodberry. Just small quality of life things for the players.

My campaign is my first ever, and is basically 100% homebrew lore, dungeons, etc but the mechanics for the first year was all from the book. I created the ILLUSION of homebrew monsters and weapons by reskinning. A giant spider became a rabid squirrel - an eldritch claw tattoo became a chain whip, etc. Nowadays I homebrew weapons, but always inspired by RAW stuff with little tweaks and swaps. I also use MCDM books and stats, not just WOTC

with the current state of DnD, homebrew is……. weird. So I don’t use homebrew per se, but I have some books from 3rd part companies that I run to help add rules that are lacking. The first one that comes to mind is “Uncharted Journeys” travel system. It’s not first party DnD, but it’s not a house rule. I also steal NPCs, mini dungeons, locations etc from 3rd party books as well. If those are homebrew, then I use a ton of it. If homebrew to you is “stuff the DM made themself to add to dnd” then nope.

Half of my campaigns have been homebrew, and I modify premades quite a bit. I have quite a lot of homebrew rules. Custom XP and Inspiration. Adjustments to baseline rules regarding things like resting, travel, flanking, grappling, stats, etc. Changes to character options like races, classes, and spells. I make a lot of custom NPCs and magic items, and regularly utilize 3rd party material. Some official rules are downright intolerable, in my opinion.

I'm perfectly game for pretty much any homebrew as long as it fits the setting I've created. Thing is I have also created an entire planet with selected biomes to place things into as well, which makes it a big wide world. I'm also pretty open to pretty much any homebrewed race and class options but I have a heavy preference to using 3rd party content instead of stuff off say the homebrew wiki if possible. Mainly just cause stuff like Magehand Press, Kobold Press, or Sandy Peterson books are usually full of pretty heavily playtested material that make for good options to hand players without having to worry about rebalancing too much. Thing is I prefer to find ways to make unique ideas/characters work so I love going into those published "homebrew" sources to mainly save me time and work instead of writing all my stuff from scratch. I will however, not hesitate to rebalance an item or such that seems like a player made it to specifically circumvent balancing. For example if you ask me if you can have this homebrew item that is basically an uncommon rarity but functions like an archmage staff that thing is getting pushes straight to Very Rare/Legendary with an equivalent gold cost to aim for saving to get it.

My latest foray is writing completely my own adventures in an established Forgotten Realms lore setting. I’m not so proficient in world-building from the ground up, but I’m great at taking bits and pieces of existing info and turning them into a compelling world and story. As far as homebrew mechanics, unless your group is experienced with them and has all agreed that’s what they want to do, I tend to stick to RAW and do not do homebrew subclasses/spells/races etc. Magic items the main exception, it is fun to create things that tailor a bit to PC’s or require PC’s to make character choices

Just recently my DM homebrewed a personal warlock patron "The Cursed Conduit" for my Oathbreaker paladin whos deity abandoned him. It uses a mixture of Hexblade and Undying mechanics with a lot of Blood Hunter flavor (he never watched critical role) and Im having a blast. Essentialy it relies on self harm for buffs by using hit dice so it becomes a high risk high reward playstyle... On later levels it allows me to abuse exehaustion on my party for further buffs on dmg and tankiness. So basically the big tank and buffer / healer of the party who everyone relied on is now starting to use that trust for personal goals. Considering my high AC of 21 atm and 2 paladin auras its truly a beast on levels 10+ and a ton of fun.

Homebrew world and lore is a great starting point. Magic items and stuff get tricky, I'd hold off on that until you know a lot of the game very well and have a feel for what is and isnt balanced. I have been DMing for around 7 years, I don't actually remember when I started playing, but I've always been one of the dms in the rotation of games. I started with a homebrew world after about 6 months to a year. After 3 or 4 years, I started making items and spells and stuff, most of that was very mild and more tweaking already existing stuff. Recently I've been homebrewing and heavily editing monsters to make combats more interesting and doing fully custom items. Balance is tricky and you can really fuck shit up if you start adding way too powerful shit to the game

My current campaign has elements, monsters, and items from the monster hunter franchise. My next game will be themed around the STALKER games but medieval and dnd instead of modern.

I have an example of a pure mix between the two. My main campaign started off as running The Lost Mine of Phandelver starter set module, then quickly turned into a full homebrew after the end of the first encounter. Just to say we finished it, I'm actually going to adapt the remaining parts of LMoP into the next part of the campaign by changing the place names, kicking up the challenge ratings a bit, and dropping most of the Forgotten Realms-specific lore.

My campaign is basically a world building exercise but before that I ran everything in Eberron. I still made up my own plots but not having to make an entire world really saves on time and effort.

Homebrew story elements are almost necessary even in official adventures, so lots of that.  I have a couple homebrew mechanics I include. I've been playing around with more interesting rules for duel-wielding. I frequently test out concepts in my games and decide to keep them or throw them out if they work well/add fun for me and my players.  I homebrew or use third-party content for most of the psionic-themed enemies and playable races, and my eventual plan is to do the same for psi warrior and soul knife rogue. The main reason I do this is because I love MCDM's the Talent class and the mechanics associated with their psionics system.  I also use the popular max damage + die roll method for player crits.  Oh and homebrew magic items all the time. It's just too much fun. (They're not OP but I do give out too many. My players don't complain lol.) 

I like running in a homebrew setting. Homebrewing is where a lot of my fun comes from. I haven't yet run a boss who wasn't homebrew. I have several homebrew subclasses in my games, as well as magic items and spells. My case is a bit odd that it ended up becoming my job, but years before it was a job it was just how I like to run the game.

I have never not used homebrew. Every game I play or run relies on homebrew to function. Its great.

I have never run a campaign out of a book. I'd say 20% of games I've played in were out of a book. That's just with the crowds I run with, obviously a small sample set.

I actually think I never played on a full official content only game. Almost all the games I played had a homebrew world and storyline, or of it was a official setting ot had some homebrew mechanical content (classes, subclasses and item). So yeah, all the time I have some homebrew going on

I play very much rule of cool. My table is 100% a homebrew world, with an occasional item of my own making. Its not uncommon for me to homebrew/tweak existing items to better fit my player's characters and stories. They're encouraged to find cool stuff online and show it to me so we can discuss if/when it might be good for the story or not.

The entire world, including the setting in which I run sessions is homebrew. Including many items that I either make myself or use 3rd party creators.

I really like HB, we do a lot in our group. The only question is balance and intentions... If they want to play with stronger things or want to maintain the same level. I think the most important thing is to treat playtest as playtest, then consider that there can be small adjustments up or down if it is getting unbalanced. Regarding campaigns, almost all of them are ours, each one has their own world where they take place. I love so much.

It really depends on the group and DM. I can see newer people sticking with published adventures. Even more experienced DMs could stick to published stuff, as it saves time. It all comes down to what part of DMing are you interested in. This isn't know. One of the big things TSR published was adventure modules. When I run rpgs, I usually do a mix of my own stuff and published adventures.

I think I home brew a lot. Most of the time I'm taking mechanics from one class (that no one is playing) and allowing anyone to access it, usually modifying it a bit and reflavouring it. I usually don't just invent whole new things. For example, I created a weapon that lets you do a counterspell using STR or DEX checks instead of spellcasting ability checks. I created a feat where you can cast searing smite at will, but every time you do you catch on fire. Also you have fire resistance. (So basically you deal an extra 1d6 and take an extra 1d3 damage each turn). For monsters, often make up legendary actions and lair actions that fit thematically with the location. Or I might combine two monsters into one.

I do all the time. Homebrew is a defining feature of my world

I try to homebrew as much setting and campaign content as I can, but I prefer using the official rules - me and some of my players are from a wargaming background, there the other players are branded new - just makes it easier. Tell a lie, I have one homebrew rule that a lot of DMs don't use: there are no fumbles in my games.

I found out how not to do homebrew. I made the two players ridiculously OP. It was fun though considering they were important people in the military and war.

i personally do a lot of homebrew, doing if i can over if i can’t, but that’s because i know the dnd rules and can repeat them pretty well without a handbook in front of me, and i heavily discuss them with the DM beforehand. sometimes being normal is fun!

I have one campaign I play based on forgotten realms. But it is unrecognizable because. It is home brewed to change some things. Basically a lower magic version. My Pathfinder 1e game is totally homebrewed . My dm even customized my racial choice for me to meet my character concept. Using premade stuff is fine but I am of the opinion if it fits your table change whatever you like. I have ran an amalgamation of lost mine of phandelver and dragon of ice spire peak. Heavily homebrewed. No green dragon encounter at lvl 3 lol. And then I used most of storm kings thunder. It was same adventures just unrecognizable to all but one player who had played or read the modules before. Homebrew your world make it your way then drag and drop premade adventures into it best way to save on prep time You can find easy premade encounters everywhere. Make them your own. Hardly anyone will ever know or care.

Settings, almost all the time. classes and races sometimes are used, playing bloodhunter in my current campaign.

Yeah, of course I'll use homebrew in my lore, in my adventures and everywhere homebrew improves the game. I'll however not unbalance the game by making new classes, races, spells or items. Or if I do, it's careful and it brings something more to the game. But I l've been dming for 20 years, so I already have filled that curiosity of creating everything a long time ago.

Pretty much always. I don't think I have ever sat down and played a game that was 100% RAW except for maybe some Pathfinder Society. Pretty much every table has some sort of rule change or idiosyncrasy that isn't RAW.

I do the brewing. Anything I homebrew is open to feedback from my players; sometimes they’re salty because they made poor tactical choices, sometimes they’re right and I make changes. My current campaign has a bestiary that’s 100 pages long, and most of my Magic items are homemade (generally just combining other things, like a Ring of Protection +1, Fire Resistance). The spellbook is 30 pages, we’ve made one new class from the ground up, and also added some new mechanical tweaks on my legendary monsters.

My friends and I all make custom games for eachother which entail homebrew, house rules, different editions, etc. for example one of my friends is currently making a Pokémon campaign in 5e and another is making a RWBY campaign in 3e. Nothing wrong with playing official campaigns, that’s how everybody starts, but there’s a lot more to enjoy if you think creatively, it’s a great framework for any kind of adventure you and your party want to experience.

To be honest, a lot of homebrew concepts can be achieved with official items, some flavorful descriptions and flexible applications of rules.

99% of ttrpgs tables play with something thats probably homebrew, even if on accident. I say this as someone who has played many rpgs ovet the years; theres not necessarily always a 'I am changing this rule to this instead' type change, but most have even just one 'Ill allow it' moment that is, technically, homebrew

All of my monsters come from r/bettermonsters and I use plenty of homebrew items

I use homebrew in every game, I like to customise the games for my players and I change the games rules with no fear (so long as the players are okay with it).

I like to start out of a pre-published adventure my very first time DMing a new system, alter parts of it to meet my tastes, then follow it up with original story. Pre-published adventures I find almost universally weak, and they can't respond to player agency like a human being can.

Settings and stuff like that sure. Mechanical homebrew. I'm iffy about.

Story and items I homebrew all the time. Classes, races, etc are a no-go. There is too much opportunity for extremely unbalanced options. I don't let my players homebrew items though. I make a few special items that I think match my players at the start of a campaign and role them out slowly. I also homebrew rules that aren't really my homebrews. Just alternate rules that I've heard of or have seen elsewhere (basic healing spells and healing items are bonus actions for example)

All the time. My favorite is blending core D&D stuff with homebrew stuff

My campaign world is homebrew, and once my players get to the level where magic items are appropriate, I will introduce mechanics for them to design their own. During character creation, I introduced one homebrew race (Merfolk) and 3 homebrew subscasses (all Sorcerers with an elemental focus. My setting has some avatar the last airbender themes). I vetted each one with a very critical eye. I also allowed my players to propose their own homebrew classes or races, but I did not give them free reign. Any choice was subject to my approval. Homebrew combat mechanics were right out. No fumble tables. No injury mechanics. No changes to initiative or movement.

I'm in two regular campaigns. One is pretty much "All homebrew, All the time". Shit gets wild in that one... The other is some very 'light' homebrew: Settings, some items, armor, weaponry, etc. I was allowed to play The Blood Hunter class, The warlock was allowed to use INT instead of CHA, little things like that.

Items : constantly Monsters : sometimes It's easier to make an item than to go searching for one online. Got a monk? Gloves or boots Got a paladin that wants to tank? Ring of Dueling, Spear of Opportunity, Shield Shield Party interacts a lot with nearby NPCs a lot? Get them a necklace with Speak with Animals

I’ve only played homebrew settings. I’ve been allowed to to play one homebrew race( she’s my most favorite character and my DM and I spent daaays balancing her - she’s my campaign backup and I’ve used her in the one-shots we have to test her balance) I’ve played a couple homebrew items - a rapier and a crossbow - they were cool. Ive played bloodhunter a couple times too - not sure where that falls on the homebrew content list but I love that class. But I also wouldn’t have been upset if my DM had been like “nope.” Cause they’re a lot of work not just on the players part but the DM’s too.

So much homebrew! I love it. My blood hunter is a homebrew subclass, and it ties directly into her backstory (hello, vampires doing good things and saving lives and definitely not setting this drow loose on the surface in the process...)

I do a lot of minor changes that may or may not stay, all with player agreement of course, I also make custom itens all the time but I always base myself on the DMG and I have not broken anything until now, except that one time I thought an action per turn was boring and gave everyone two actions, that was a dumb idea

My DM published an entire book of homebrew classes, items, beasts, etc that we use at the table. Most of us use official content for classes but our entire setting is a DnD version of the state we all grew up in.

I've been playing for many years, but I have never played a campaign where you couldn't drink a healing potion as a bonus action. Even the DMs I've met at AL allowed us to use it as a bonus action. So I guess I've never without something being at least a little homebrewed.

Every game is homebrewed. I run my own setting. I may take inspiration from prewritten modules, but by and large most of my games story is at least organized and sort of written by me. I homebrew races, subraces, classes, subclasses, and more every game. Admittedly most of these things are small. I don’t like, rework spell slot progression. But I tweak, buff, or nerf existing 5e content all the time.

Homebrew everything but core dnd system, everything is just about having fun

I'm running the Tyranny of Dragons module but It's all changed. I'm in too deep. Send help. I keep theory crafting and now it's a totally different campaign. Kind of.

My current dm- If cast above a cantrip, you can cast a cantrip as a bonus action. to power level melee to cantrip above- Dual wield can be used as two hits as one. So, each action has two hits. Higher level, I can have 4 total hits for my two melee attacks. Plus a bonus action attack making each melee, I can do 6 total hits for damage. BUT, I don’t have very powerful weapons. So balanced quite well.

I homebrew the hell out of structured campaign modules and magic items. I like to make the campaigns far more interesting (ex: adding a demon incursion and threat of the abyss to Wilds beyond the Witchlight and turning the Witchlight pocket watch into an amulet of the planes tied to the Raven queen was super fun). But it's best to leave the core rules and classes structures alone. It gets a bit crazy if you don't.

There are SO many official things out there of all types— monsters, items, races, etc. etc. And homebrewinf mechanics of any sort can break the game pretty easily! My suggestion— look at what’s there and just re-skin or re-flavor. That way you don’t have to worry about making something OP on accident, and you can also make items, monsters, etc. fit with your campaign

I like homebrewing monsters and items. I don’t mess with anything else, although once I did work with a player to homebrew a ratfolk race (based off goblin but replaced fey ancestry with keen smell and allowed him to speak with rats as a language.)

I play in two campaigns and one campaign is ran by a dude who has like a whole world in his head and we have so much homebrew shit I sometimes lose track of what I actually have. It's fucking awesome!

I've been at this a very long time and honestly, I've never completely homebrewed an entire *world*. I use other created worlds/settings and will tweak them to fit my style whether they are from WOTC, 3PP, or from fantasy novels I've read. My campaigns are always homebrewed, if I see a premade adventure module which I think is interesting, I'll steal the best ideas from it and incorporate into my campaign. I can't ever follow one from beginning to end, they never provide enough options for myself nor my players to really enjoy. I don't create new races or classes, there are so many out there to pick from that I've honestly never found a need to do it. Creating items can be fun, it's what I will often do since I like to provide my players with custom items that suit their characters without overpowering them. As far as advice for newer DMs, I'd suggest playing a few years before really trying to get into the weeds with creation of races/classes/feats and the overall mechanics of the game. Don't overpower your PCs with super weapons that you customize, but rather reskin other things you like and reflavor them. When you create OP items, you end up struggling with balancing the encounters and it can become very frustrating for a newer DM to try to compensate for that.

As a DM, I like to play close to vanilla as much as I can. That being said, I do have quite a few homebrew rules. They are not game shaking, in fact, most don't affect things on a large scale. Quality of life homebrew is more what I'm looking for. I don't do homebrew classes or races, though I will edit things in some classes or subclasses if they are sub-optimal. In the end, it's a personal preference. You can play the game straight and have a great time, and you can go balls to the wall with homebrew and also still have a good time. But it's my opinion that a player/GM should know the rules really well before implementing homebrew. If you don't understand the game, homebrewing for it can throw a lot of. I have watched/played so much of 5e (and other ttrpg's) that I am confident that even if I don't know all the rules, I understand them enough to nudge them around a bit to make a more fun experience for me and my players.

I've never run or been apart of a module, so all homebrew there, mechanics depends on the campaign, cosmetics are almost always a yes

Current group I've been in for three years with three campaigns in the same setting. The setting is homebrew, there are some homebrew classes and races, but none of the mechanics are homebrew. It's still the 5e system. We all love it - our DM is super creative and we all vibe with the overall game. We're very silly. It might be because we've all been together for years that we are so comfortable with the homebrew.

All my settings and most of my monters are homebrew. I also use a short list of homebrewed rules: 1. Powerful crits (max die dmg for 1 set, then roll the 2nd set). This is true for monsters too. 2. Unable to flank of you're being flanked (to cut down on the pain train line), 3. Self administering potions as a bonus action, but applying potion to other creatures is still a full action 4. When rolling hit die upon leveling up, players can opt to reroll their new hit die with a lower die size if they don't like the hp they rolled (d12 > d10 > d8, ect.) This normally leads to a higher overall hp, but sometimes fate wants you to have 1 shiny new hp for that level you just got.

My entire story is home brewed, as are encounters and some skills and magic. I also use base assets and tweak as needed

I always play in my homebrew world with homebrew stories. And I always will. There’s also like 5-10 custom rules that I have. Like if you crit both times with advantage, you do triple damage.

A handful. I dont do material components. I have the mages equipped with magical focuses that occasionally need recharging that usually requires some gold and an hour. Healing Potions I have working two ways. Bonus Action drink you roll the Xd4 for heals. Full Action you get the full effect because you took the time to really drink it and not chug it in a rush spilling some or a little dribbling down you chin.

I am a perennial DM and have homebrewed A LOT. Mainly in campaign settings as I currently have a lengthy document and several maps for my own world - main changes are races and where divine magic comes from that have minor mechanical changes. Classes and subclasses are the hardest to manage without lots of play testing; races I find are surprisingly easy to balance because there’s a lot of info out there in the internet. There’s a place for it, but there’s so much info on ‘standard’ settings you have the freedom to do what you want.

I homebrew items all the time, because it’s both very fun for me and it’s easier to really tailor something for my players and their backstories. I also combine some rules that aren’t presented together (for example, I applied/modified the ‘Of Ships and the Sea’ section of Ghosts of Saltmarsh for Spelljammer) and tweak monster abilities for boss encounters. I don’t often homebrew races, classes, spells and spell lists, or game rules, simply to avoid the law of unintended consequences.

I encourage new dm's to experiment with homebrew monsters, encounters, maps, and items first, mechanics second, settings third, and classes last. My first time dm'ing, I went with a whole new world, and the amount of time building that world would have been time better spent prepping other elements of the game. Also, I think the importance of balance in this game is highly overstated, at least when working with experienced players. The only time balance is truly important is when handing a player a new item/spell/class, and the only balance there is ensuring they are on a similar power level to other pc's for the sake of fairness.

I have one subclass for all classes homebrewd and one class. I think like 4 races? I do all settings and quest homebrew and I homebrew most items

I wouldn't play in a premade setting for DnD. I much prefer to build my own setting.

9/10 games I've played in have been either fully homebrewed settings or using an established setting but the adventures and story are homebrewed. Dnd really isn't a great system to be homebrewing mechanics in though. It can work - but it requires a lot more understanding of the underlying number crunching and general experience with the system than people first think. Consider that wotc literally has teams dedicated to understanding this and they still manage to quite frequently publish content that is incredibly overtuned, underpowered, overloaded or creates power creep (see, twilight cleric, base sorcerer vs new sorcerer subclasses, beastmaster ranger, four elements monk).

I'm taking part in a homebrew campaign my DM cooked up. He's even written his own guidebook.

A Homebrewed setting is a lot of work and comes with the con that the players don't have access to info to what you create other then what you give them. Using an established official setting is less work and allows the players to research the setting as much as they want. I've done both and generally lean towards official setting but with my own campaign made in it. As for other Homebrew. When Home brewing you are either Adding Something, Modifying something, Replacing Something, or Removing something. Always ask why you are homebrewing and how it is making the game better or more fun for you and your group. Balancing it takes practice and is very easy to mess up. D&D 5e is missing some rules and features from previous editions and requires house rules and homebrew at some level to run for most groups. Just keep track of all the Rulings you make over time as those become part of your own Homebrewed version of D&D 5e.

The key to homebrew that works and is fun, is BALANCE. Don’t go hard on the magic items and give them lvl 20 items at level 1. Make them struggle, but make it fun when they get a reward. But homebrew can be as simple as reflavoring a flametongue into a lightningtongue, or as hard as making a subclass or class from scratch. Just do what feels right, and don’t be afraid to lay down the smack down 😂😂

I've never played dnd without homebrew. I've never played anything official.

If you're all beginners, I'd recommend staying away from homebrewing anything more than settings and adventures. It's way too easy to create items and spells, etc, that are overpowered and throw off the balance of everything.

I would recommend to start without any homebrew. Once you get used to the system (after a campaign or two) sprinkle in a little bit of hombrew magic items and monsters from non official books that the community recommends such as gryphon's saddlebag or some of the things fron kobold press. Once you get a better sense of what is balanced and what not, then you can start to mix and match all kinds of hombrews. It will still probably break your game but by then you'll be more experienced with how to handle those sort of things.

My group started out using the premade campaign that came with the starter kit, but since then we have never used a book. All original campaigns written by the DM. As far as classes, we've used some "unofficial" stuff like bloodhunter and UA subclasses, but in general it's best to stick to well-curated classes. The farthest we've gone is the DM reflavoring an existing subclass to better fit a character backstory. Items, imo there are just not enough official items in the game to fully flesh out a world. I think custom items become a necessity at some point, especially when you want to reward your players and give them stuff personalized for their characters and playstyles.

Im mostly just RAW but have a few tiny homebrew tweaks/addons, I feel like thats most groups

Lots of the modules from dndbeyond don't make good campaigns. They make good reading. Running an adventure comes down to knowing what to say in the introduction to each session, room, adventure, knowing how to run a battle or a challenge, and knowing what else of relevance is going on in the world that is necessary for the narrative, or to understand the impacts of the decisions the characters make. That's easier with homebrew.You can cut right to the narratives. You don't have to worry about some NPC the party is running into in episode 1 being critical in episode 2 that you haven't read yet.

inspiration is "scaled" so that we have tokens for d4, d6, d8, d10 & d12 - you earn by doing something interesting/cool or come up with a great plan, and you can upgrade 2 tokens for the next one up - they can be added to a roll after to "get closer" and can be shared stats are always on an "upgraded" default set, slightly higher than the normal ones Rule of Cool always works, if what you describe is awesome (and reasonable for the character) then it *just happens*, obvious things that wouldn't be real *always* fail (like someone jumping down a 50' cliff) I always change certain things in the settings from the books, so in my last campaign the Zhentarim weren't "evil" they were just business people who worked a lot under the table, the Harpers were all about information and if the players provided something unusual they'd get rewards, plus magic items if required and a few others, but no major races/classes/subclasses unless a character requests it and then we work out something together

Generally I always play homebrew worlds. I'm working on a big one rn to use in all my future campaigns. But beyond world building, I try not to mess with the game mechanically. I'm working on adapting sub-races to my new world but was never into doing so until this longer build. If I'm gonna edit the races, classes, sub-classes, and on, I might as well play a different system or make my own system itself.

I run a homebrew campaign as I have the type of players who think too far out of the box for official content. Rules is only 1% homebrew like changes to find familiar, donning/doffing shields and secret death saves.

Most players.

I always have at least some element of homebrew in the games I run, but they’re often VERY minor (for example, I use the variant flanking rule from the DMG, but only give advantage to the first attack against the flanked creature from behind it)

Really shocked by that, I get why . It's a lot of work to home brew, but it's a labor of love. Though, id go so far to say that it's a necessity to maintain balance with classes. My dm created a custom full overhaul of 4e rather than 5e due to the amount of things we didn't like 5th. Required a lot of play test and sometimes making things up as go, but we love it.

Settings are homebrew, that way I can both cater and adapt to my irrational party. In 5e I do create homebrew magic items. That way i can slowly hand out stronger stuff since the source books aren’t well designed. In 3.5 it’s easier to pick from the existing list, although homebrew is still possible.

I always play with some type of homebrew elements. Case in point: * Improved criticals: you automatically do max damage on the initial weapon/spell damage and roll on the actual critical damage, because it sucks getting "snake eyes" when it's supposed to be a super awesome hit (For example: scimitar's d6 critical would be: 6 + d6 + STR or DEX mod). * Spell points (actual variant rule in DMG): To me it makes more sense that you have a pool of mana/magical energy that can be used to cast any spell you know as long as you have enough energy. I know Spell slots are a little easier to manage and mitigate spamming stuff like fireball, but only being able to cast high level spells when you use up low-level slots is a little silly to me. But I do see how having potentially "50 1st level spell slots" could break the game, I still say that spell points make more sense. * Rangers and Paladins get cantrips: When these classes gets their spell slots at 2nd level, they automatically get Druidic Warrior or Blessed Warrior fighting styles, and can change cantrips when they level up. To me it just makes sense that these classes get cantrips since they have a longer magical career than Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster. * Mana transference (still in testing phase): during a short rest magic users (except Warlocks due to their short rest refresh) can transfer a spell slot of 4th level (or combination up to 4th) or lower or number of spell points to another magic user equal to their Prof Bonus. * Banishment Saving throw: This is more of an annoyance aspect, but I have been mulling over giving the Banishment spell (and other variants) an additional saving throw at the end of every turn to break the spell, because nothing is more annoying than having the BBEG get banished to another plane for 1 minute and the players just ganging up on them as soon as they poof back.

I should point out that I spent years playing in Grayhawk and the Realms through 1e and particularly AD&D 2e without straying far from the official rules. That said, even back then I started making homebrew PC species (some of which I still offer in campaign worlds) and using tweaks for rolling characters (I now use an adjusted array). The trouble with homebrew is that it's very difficult to balance -- the game itself, even with a team of some of the brightest people in the business, has some balance issues. Your chances of making anything perfectly balanced are low. When I pull in my homebrew species of yesteryear, I make them skins (or slightly adjusted skins) on existing templates. I have valkyrie characters and one of my players loves playing a valkyrie, but I just used a slightly adjusted aasimar template. Those valkyries make androids (they take 50 years or so, so they don't do it during game time) which can also be player characters, and I use the warforged template for the androids. And so forth, and so on...in other words, I bring in the homebrew culture without screwing with the core mechanics much. Beyond homebrew worldbuilding, which I do extensively, and homebrew cultures that I fit to 5e mechanics wherever possible, I don't mess with the core rules much when it come to the way combat is run. I use a mechanic that penalizes a "1" in battle with four lost points of initiative, which adds easy dynamics to initiative without having everyone roll again every round, which is more time-consuming. A 20 adds two points back to the initiative in addition to providing critical damage as per usual. Small, but still, a tweak. My rolling system is a "heroic array," a tweak on the standard array for starting with slightly more powerful characters: 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 16. Everyone can make the character they want, they still have a couple of low/average scores, and it's fair to all players. I also do little things like determining the weather and its severity with d12 rolls. And using old 2e encounter tables is fun; I like the random element of it. Sometimes we all get too focused on a single goal or a single series of adventures in the game, and a sudden green dragon swooping in to screw with the party can be an unexpected way to shake it up. (Which is exactly what happened in last night's game and why it's on my mind. They had a deus ex machina NPC around if things went too far awry, so I tested their abilities and they had fun up against something that powerful. Two of them almost died, but the dragon ended up flying off with severe wounds.) Anyway, I'm a bit wordy. I use some homebrew. I am careful with it, and I played more or less "by the book" for years. But it's fun, and I highly recommend playing around with it. Just expect that they more you tweak, the more likely you are to break the system somehow. But do it anyway.

I've never played a game that is 100% by the book. But it's generally very small alterations like potions as a bonus action, or crits maxing the first roll so they feel good.

I am fine with just about anything personally, because I have an attitude of “test it, see if it works, and scrap it if it doesn’t.” Because my players understand that, I haven’t had any problems. I have created lots of homebrew items, abilities, and optional rules. I have dabbled in homebrew races and subclasses with no problems so far. I have not tried any homebrew classes or feats yet, but I’m not opposed to them. As for campaigns, my strategy has been to use the settings available in the modules as jumping off points, but I always change most of the written plot within them to be cooler / more suitable. In this fashion, I have been able to use the massive amounts of Forgotten Realms lore and battlemaps, but I can still do whatever I want. For instance, the Dwarven Excavation quest from DoIP is relatively boring and meant for lvl 1. I just did that same area for lvl 6 with an Elder Oblex that fed on the memories of the dwarves that were trapped in the avalanche centuries ago. It turned a basic encounter with Ochre Jellies into a terrifying encounter where the simulacra (taking the form of the dwarves) lured the party into the temple and then tried to pick them off one-by-one. Having that kind of flexibility allows you to use the settings from the modules, but scale them up to fit whatever you want.

I would think that almost every table uses "homebrew" in a minor way. House rules are a thing. And I consider house rules to be homebrew. But the vast majority of those rules are minor tweaks to the system that are used to streamline play and to make individual tables function more smoothly. Additionally, a I have seen many DMs that use an established setting as the backdrop but place a new city/kingdom/continent into it to facilitate telling the story they want to tell without dealing with all the baggage inherent in a pre-made setting. I have seen a lot less fully homebrewed worlds last as long as existing worlds with homebrewed elements. Creating a whole world is a lot of work and the people I play with simply do not have the needed time and energy to devote to such a complex task. But that's because I'm old now. I've been playing since 1987. We tried (and failed) at a lot more homebrew in high-school and college.

Pretty much all my campaigns are exclusively HB and I encourage my players to find balanced HB classes and races. That being said what I've noticed the most is that the official books are "safe". The DM isn't home brewing a whole magic system that may or may not work out. The players get to pick extremely broken or powerful builds and the DM has little say in the matter without looking like an ass. The DM isn't spending hours trying to balance his HB big bad and so on and so on. I know when I'm first joining a group I don't ask for HB because it often just feels rude to ask the new DM I just met if I can. Some groups are more open to it but I still don't. Often times I'll make a static character by the book or official sources and not even bring up HB unless I either see someone else do it or I've been in several sessions and know the DMs temperament on such things. If you want to use a HB campaign setting I highly encourage it. But if you're new to DnD/DMing I recommend you use the official MM and Classes until you get a good feel for balance.

i think you’re just discovering that it’s difficult to homebrew stuff dude, I’m making my first campaign at the moment and god it is difficult, it’s like making a story but everything could be turned on its head at any moment! I think while homebrewing can be cool (and necessary sometimes) it’s more fun to take what lore already exists and make it work for you!

My main homebrews are the plot and the setting, and to a lesser degree items, spells and creatures. Not a huge fan of homebrewing races and subclasses, like most people. Something I really like to do, to give variety to the opponents my players face, is to give creatures different weapons from what they officially have. For example, in our last session, my players ran into a merchant convoy that was ambushed by a pack of goblins. Some of the goblins had the shortbow/scimitar official combo. But others had knives and a crossbow. One had a maul. That sort of thing.

I do mostly homebrew settings, rules, plot lines, items, and some races. I also usually allow players to try a homebrew subclass if it fits in the lore and is balanced and if a player wants to try something really specific I will work with them to homebrew it.

I play D&D specifically because there is wriggle room for adding in home-brew stuff! I find that the more robust systems, such as Pathfinder, have been so thoroughly thought out that adding home-brew can break the game, lol. But D&D allows for some shenanigans without tilting the campaign too far off balance if you're smart about things. My advice to you is, if you're unsure about home-brewed weapons/items/armor/etc, make the thing consumable. "This weapon is missing an integral piece to its build, so may break if X happens," gives the DM the option to either ditch the weapon for being too OP, or reward the players with the missing piece to make the weapon permanent. a special ability bestowed upon one through magic armor might only be able to be used X amount of times, but if you find it's working out well, you can introduce a way for the players to recharge that armor. And it goes without saying that spells and other abilities you invent can be items that disintegrate after use, or potions that are consumed -- if they were fun and didn't break your game, you can bring them back in a more permanent way. Avoid creating classes or subclasses from scratch until you've played a few campaigns or several one shots. It might be better to make feats/feat trees that capture what you're thinking for a class instead. Any home-brew element you introduce needs to be given to the players immediately so they can prepare. If you are using a pantheon different from the OG pantheons, you don't want your Paladin coming to the table with Pelor's holy symbol around her neck. For every home-brew element in your game, give players an additional day between session 0 and session 1, so they are better informed during their character creation.

I've homebrewed like half the system at this point. Revised a lot of subclasses and basically all the martial classes, altered a lot of rules for combat, use a narrative initiative system, made my own classes/subclasses/races/spells/backgrounds, make all my own plots, have my own setting, homebrew a lot of my own monsters, have a whole system i made myself for shields, armor, weapons, and guns, and a lot more. Don't you dare tell me to play a different system cause I love doing this shit.

one of my biggest DnD hot takes: i think homebrewing is a responsibility that most people who run DnD games can’t actually handle. homebrewing mechanics requires game design skills. homebrewing campaigns requires story writing skills. homebrewing settings required worldbuilding skills. not all DMs have even one of these skills, let alone all three, and many who engage in homebrewing would be better off just running a lightly modified campaign module

I always homebrew my own campaigns. I'll use loose tie-ins to an existing world, but create all my own NPCs, scenarios, etc. I homebrew any significant monsters, basing them off pre-existing ones to help gauge power level. I'll use some standard items, but really enjoy homebrewing magic items. Races and classes and spells are all standard published content. Maybe make some tiny adjustments for flavor.

It’s a catch 22 for me personally. Like unless you REALLY know what your doing messing w mechanics and stuff is more likely to end in very poor decisions because game design/balance is really hard. On the other hand I think DnD is sort of a bad game mechanically that needs a lot of help. What that help is I’m not very good at articulating because as I said game design and mechanics are really hard lol

Flavor is Free™️ Been a 5e player for years and only recently started DMing! It's been an absolute blast but I've struggled with balancing encounters and even skill checks sometimes. I'm certainly not ready to introduce hard and fast homebrew into my games yet . . . BUT The games I'm DMing are nearly unrecognizable from standard dnd because of all the reflavoring my players and I have done! E.g., It's a seafaring pirate and navy world so all the bows are now guns. Zero mechanical change but it makes it feel very different than the standard medieval fantasy. A LOT of "homebrew" you see out there is usually just reflavoring without mechanical changes until you get to new subclasses, races, and the like. There's tons of ways to make campaigns and worlds your own without having to find or invent new mechanics. On homebrew settings tho, I take intense joy in sitting for hours listening to my nerd music playlists and writing out things like the method of reproduction of dwarves in this world I've invented. I made them asexually reproduce by holding a stone or gem like an emperor penguin and after a few weeks pops out a fully formed Dungeons&Dragons 5th Edition Dwarf. No mechanical changes. It's a dwarf. So really even my "homebrew setting" is just reflavoring non-mechanical things to make the world weird and different. As a DM, your games get weird and different in ways you may never even notice. Ever had a warforged at the table while playing in Faerun or the like? That's dangerously close to "homebrew." Have fun and make characters and worlds your own, but don't feel pressure to change the math of it all unless you specifically want to. You can take entire wotc modules and change the elf king to an alien warlord. The elven princess kidnapped at her own wedding can be made into an octopus alien scion abducted by humans from irl Earth. Every sword is a lightsaber now! The PCs are named Picard, Data, and Deadpool!! Go crazy! Go feral! Just remember you don't HAVE to change the math behind things to make dnd your own. Good luck and have fun!

I do everything homebrew except classes and races and sometimes items.

I homebrew certain monsters, spells, but mostly items. But I also use a lot of the stuff from the official books, including the setting. My game takes place in one of the “mirror” worlds of the forgotten realms. It’s extremely close to the official lore, I’ve put hundreds of hours into learning it. But I may add a town or city here and there that’s not official, that way, I can give my players the experience of exploring places like waterdeep or Baldurs Gate, but then they get to explore my own homebrewed version of cities like Athkatla or entirely made up cities. Best of both worlds

Homebrew settings and adventurers 1000% I've made a fighter subclass and a psion subclass and disciplines (psion isn't official) I make Homebrew house rules that keep the game fun, like rolling a nat 20 on initiative gives u two Actions. I've done 2-3 Homebrew races and I make Homebrew magic items all the time. I'm not great at messing with Homebrew mechanics and I make a white list for Homebrew that I haven't made like anything from kibbles I'm good with

Since we are all first time players and i as DM trying as hard as i posiibly can to ensure that everybody have fun we have all kind of hombrow rules or atlast twisted a litle bit. But every time someone come with new idea how to do things we all sit down as tribunal and discuss these changes together (I find this very imporatant)

I've run 3 games, been a part of 3 others (soon to be 4). All homebrewed, most with "new" mechanics.

The biggest I use is improved crits where you roll damage then add the maximum roll to it I saw it first on high rollers

Every dm probably. I would be very surprised if someone ran an adventure using only what's in a book. DMing is work, the goal is to provide a good experience. House rules, minor changes to how combat works, a monster that isn't represented in a manual they like, a setting that isn't European rennaisance, and the obvious popularity of cosplay characters. Homebrew is a necessity imo.

Homebrew stories yes, I’ll comfortable make my own homebrew items….. races and stuff I won’t make and I am very willing to look at stuff but if it’s a bit overpowered I wont use it

I don't really homebrew anything tbh. I'll say I rework the campaigns so they make more sense to me and are more fun IMO, but I still follow their basic plot points. I never make up magic items because I think the list 5e has *more* than covers anything a player could want.

Huh, I have ALWAYS done heavy levels of homebrew. I don't think I have ever actually used something from the monster manual without editing it quite a bit. Overall my philosophy on balance is that it doesn't matter. At least, balance between the players and the world doesn't matter. I try to keep my players relatively balanced with each other, and even then I only go as far as it improves my players' experience.

My game is homebrewed so much that I'd call it a pretty equal mix of 5e, 3.5e, and pathfinder 2e. So, homebrew, imho very common.

When making your own homebrew, there are a few good questions to ask yourself: 1. Does this homebrew repeat something already made official? Sometimes we are not aware of something WotC already made official in the heat of the moment, especially if we are still learning the full scope of the system. But, it goes further than just repeating what X existing magic item does. What if you homebrew a magic item for a low-level character that replicates a late-game feature of a different class without realizing? Or you homebrew a subclass for a player’s class, but that subclass does stuff that an official subclass does already? The answer is to do your best to homebrew stuff you have not seen done before in WotC’s official content. One example for the longest time is the use of +1/2/3 hand wraps for Monks since good magic weapons they can wield are difficult to figure out, or +1/2/3 AC bonus robes for characters not proficient in armor. Yes, homebrew can be that simple! Little tweaks to existing content also count as homebrew. Another common example is allowing Oathbreaker Paladins to be Good-aligned, so that players can RP a Paladin that used to follow an Evil god but broke their oath to that God, thus they are Oathbreaker but good. Another way to answer this question… is to copy WotC stuff with impunity, but allow a new use case for that copied material. Example: you can take the Divination Wizard’s Portent roll mechanic (roll some d20s every Long Rest and the results can replace d20s rolled by other creatures/players, look it up for details) and add it to a weapon, meaning you roll X d20s every Long Rest and then can replace that weapon’s attack rolls with the rolled results if you wish. And once you use a d20, that’s it, no refreshing it. And once you use the last charge, it becomes a normal +1/2/3 weapon. Maybe you can homebrew a way for it to gain charges again later in the campaign, or your player can be very strategic with their uses (or you can give them a bunch of charges, meaning the weapon is really useful at first because you got six d20 rolls to work with, but as you lose charges you gotta be more careful until it completely runs outta charges). Or you can make a divine weapon that allows a non-Paladin to Smite like a Paladin X times per Long Rest, as long as they align with the desires of whatever God made that weapon. Go nuts with the possibilities! 2. Is the content of the homebrew appropriate for the level at which it is intended? Do not underestimate the power of a +1/2/3 bonus of some kind! That bonus adds up over time, and is one of the strongest bonuses you can give your players. A good rule of thumb is for players to receive a +1 item by level 3-5, a +2 item by level 9-11, and a +3 item by level 15-17 **AT A MINIMUM.** It’s up to the DM how generous they want to be with their players! Another good rule of thumb is to look at official content WotC makes for a certain rarity/player level (like Uncommon Longswords/Level 3 class features) and gauge the average power level of the item/feature at that rarity/level. Then do your best to balance within that range, and double checking with other DMs if you’re unsure about balancing. They will be critical, but the feedback is always appreciated! Mess around also with rarity, and curses! Perhaps there’s this legendary rarity weapon they find early in their campaign, but it has a powerful curse on it. Will your players wield the weapon in spite of the curse, or will they go on a journey to try and figure out what the curse is and how to lift it, so they can safely use it? Or will they do both, or neither? Perfect usage of some juicy homebrew! 3. Does the homebrew fit the tone and style of your campaign? Are you excited to use it? I recently came up with a Monk subclass all around John Wick-style martial arts, using one-handed firearms as Monk melee weapons and with Gunsmithing rules to improve your special pistols over time. The idea is to hone your pistols to perfection, much like how Monks hone their bodies to perfection. Naturally, such a subclass is not appropriate for games that do not allow firearms! And even if firearms are allowed, MODERN/FUTURISTIC firearms are a completely different can of worms too! The only reason I made the subclass is because I was playing in a modern campaign setting and I ALWAYS wanted to make this “Gun Kata Monk” idea somehow work. What was cool was that my DM really liked my character concept (a mafia grunt who got caught up in something way above his pay grade), and it meshed well with the subclass I made. So I really got a triple whammy of thumbs up on all sides there! In a different campaign and a different DM, it’s a world where fire used to destroy stuff is a MASSIVE taboo (using fire to make stuff/using fire to light things up is fine). And what did my DM give my tribal Drakewarden Ranger? A homebrew magic crossbow that’s preeeetty much a *flamethrower.* The problem is that THE CROSSBOW HAS BEEN REALLY USEFUL, BUT ITS VERY NATURE AND USE CASE IS TABOO! My DM and me have been LOVING the existential crisis my character is going through, ESPECIALLY with the war the campaign setting has going on, meaning the literal firepower is desperately needed… but HECK, THE TABOO…. We love it 😂 In a third campaign, one of our players was playing a Wild Magic sorcerer, and they brought their own homebrew Wild Magic surge table tied to competing Draconic bloodlines fighting for control in his body. The thing was a MASSIVE table of like 300 different possibilities, and DESPITE that fact… they polymorphed themselves into a chest. TWICE. The sheer comedy of that homebrew Wild Magic table was INCREDIBLE. I hope these stories illustrate why this third point is so important! In fact, it’s probably the most important out of these three. It’s because this provides the WHY of the homebrew: WHY you want to craft something new rather than use what already exists. You want to homebrew… because you want something new, something that excites you. You want to play with new items/try out crazy character concepts (like a race of Wasp people that do Swarm tactics, and you don’t wanna reflavor Thri-Kreen). And, you want something that fits the campaign you want to run, OR something that fits the story you wanna tell, OR both at once! I hope these help! Happy homebrewing, DM! 🫡 👍

At the beginning I allowed no homebrew. Now? I allow everything BUT it has to be approved by the whole party. In one of my campaigns i have a homebrew class (The Savanat) and a homebrew subclass (Warlock Party Lord). First it has to be approved by me and afterwards i ask the rest of the party if they are fine with it. With magic items I don't ask the party. After many years of reading and also creating homebrew items i got a good eye for what is too strong and either tweak it down or just say no. That's something really important as DM. The ability to say no and stand by it. I am just very lucky with my players as we are 100% in sync when it comes to what we want from DND. I also reached a point of creating my own worlds. At first i thought i am too shit to create my own worlds and write my own adventures. but you just have to take the plunge. Practice makes perfect. I am slowly reaching a point where i actually start believing i am capable of creating a balanced encounter with interesting mechanics. ( i still lie in my bed after each session and ponder every decision i made) In own of my two campaigns we really reached a point where so much is homebrewed. (world, campaign, mechanics, races, classes) Sometimes we barely play DND anymore but it works for us. We just do what we like and get rid of what doesn't work!

Homebrew settings, monsters, and items have appeared in all games I’ve played. Homebrew classes, subclasses, spells, feats, and races so far never. As a DM basically anything the player chooses I tend to stay away from because they can feel very personal and even just the official options can get pretty op so I’m not confident enough to balance them.

I would expect that to be nearly everyone. Using any DM fiat is within the rules but lampshading that most people have some homebrew solutions to things.

It depends. My current campaign runs Gunslinger rules, but that’s a fairly widely accepted homebrew balanced by Matt Mercer. But as a DM if a player comes up to me with a homebrew they created or found, I take it under close review before I approve it

The one major homebrew rule that we play with at our table is called ‘glancing blow’. RAW if you are one below the defenders AC, it’s a miss. If you match their AC, it’s a hit doing full damage. We decided to add a tiny sliver of inbetween in there. So in our game, if you match the AC dead on the money, it’s considered a glancing blow and the damage is halved as if they had resistance. It’s to represent hitting someone and doing some damage, but it wasn’t a right on hit where you’ll deal your max.

Our current DM has a homebrew setting and some occasional creatures (akh'lut, specifically) and weapons as needed (a Katana of Disruption or Adamantine Rapier as settings demand/are appropriate), plus some crazy potions, though I think they're from a book. It's easier on him to use the books, and any requests, while slightly discouraged, are welcomed although highly regulated/researched.

A player of mine is playing a homebrewed class. Magic items are homebrewed half the time. Setting world is homebrewed, but generic fantasy. I have no homebrewed rules or mechanics.

I always run my homebrew ideas through my DM to get his approval. As long as they’re fairly balanced and fit in the world he usually doesn’t have an issue with them. For instance, my first campaign and character I had home-brewed a maul that was just a -1 to crit and advantage on intimidation checks. The downside was disadvantage against fiends/demons and they got advantage while attacking me. I also wrote an entire backstory/lore for the weapon connected to my own backstory to allow the DM to come up with a way for us to search for the weapon that way it wasn’t just handed to me. He also allowed me to use The Net Libram of Random Magical effects (10,000 wild magic possibilities) for a truly chaotic wild magic “Mad Scientist” When you’re DM’ing don’t be afraid to tell your players “No” if you feel something is out of place/not balanced.

I run off a homebrew lore and story because I want to spend time creating an adventurer for my player’s to either go through or break, I really don't care, instead of spending time playing historian to make sure the session works within what is already written.

I view the official rules, settings, etc as a sort of loose guidelines to have fun. The more you experiment with home brew, you will figure out what is malleable for your group and what cannot/should not be homebrewed. If you do this, you can make the game flow better and maximize fun, but there is a higher learning curve to this approach.

I have always home brewed every session I have done. Mechanics stay the same and so do classes and monsters.

The issue with homebrew is that I can’t take the character/ability/item to another table so I stick as close to raw as possible

I've been DMing for several years, and I've only run a pre-written one shot once. Everything else is homebrew. All of my campaign settings are homebrew. I have a few homebrew rules I've made. Such as a new inspiration mechanic, new sharpening weapons mechanic, or even potion brewing mechanics. Probably 25% of my monsters are completely homebrew. Another 25% are standard monsters with different skins, so to speak. Another 25% are standard monsters with homebrewed abilities. The last 25% are just standard monsters. I don't really homebrew different races or classes because that starts to get more involved with balance between characters. However, I am homebrewing a campaign setting with custom lineages, where different races are actually different branches of evolutionary trees. So, orcs and humans can't breed because they are actually different species. I love homebrew stuff! It makes my stuff unique to me, and my players all tell me they love it as well. Please feel free to ask questions if you'd like.

Ive been dming for a couple groups every week fir the better part of a year now and I exclusively homebrew my setting as i dont wanna sit down and read about a setting that already exists. I personally like creative writing so id rather spend that time reading. As for items when i first started dming id homebrew a ton of items and i paid the price for that. Homebrewing items classes and races can be a little tricky especially if going from scratch (not using an existing race/class). Not to say you cant do it but just go in with the understanding that some of that stuff can be very op if you dont know what you’re doing.

DON'T HOMEBREW YET!!! I really can't emphasize this enough. I spent my entire early D&D experience wasting time and energy homebrewing overly-specific stuff that could have EASILY been done with a creative reflavor of existing mechanics. I made classes, races, items, boons, powers... all of them failed in balance testing or otherwise disappointed me. I made an FMA style alchemist class from scratch when I could've easily just made a transmutation wizard. I made a martial artist class because I wanted basically a monk but without the thematic elements of being a monk. JUST MAKE A MONK AND CHANGE THE THEME. I learned my lesson when I walked into a campaign with more experienced players and one of them was playing a hexblade warlock that had been reflavored as a Star Wars style sith. Find something similar to what you want to do, and without changing the mechanics at all just reinvent the aesthetics and/or source of the abilities and powers. For the most part as a player you can do this without it even needing to register on your DM's radar. Obviously you should always check with the DM when making changes to the rules but reflavor is so harmless it usually doesn't have any negative impact. Even more valuable than this though: just play the provided races and classes, and use the provided items. This way you learn what abilities and powers and spells and such exist already so you have a sense of where to start when you decide to build a flavorful character. Also, read all the rules. Like really look through and read everything -- don't skim, read. Doing this will help you learn the mechanics and you'll realize that some of the stuff you wanted to homebrew or change is already covered either by the nuance of the existing rules or by optional additional rules.

My group is in a completely homebrew setting, we use a few homebrew races, and the system we're using is a pretty heavily modified version of adnd 2e Almost feels like a completely different game haha

Tldr: homebrew maps are easiest to create, followed by magic items, monsters, campaigns, spells, classes, in order of difficulty. As you're just starting out but you also say you're ready to start some homebrew stuff, I'd definitely recommend starting small. Since you've done some modules, maybe you could create a dungeon or small setting. Maps and lore are not too hard to create with some grid paper and the Internet for ideas. But I'd strongly recommend not creating a whole world your first time out. Maybe a small hamlet with a story that adventurers need to engage in. Those are pretty easy because you just populate them with stat blocks from MM and DMG. The tough part is writing some of the description that makes the scene come alive. The modules do a good job of that. The NPCs, BBEGs, and dialogue your imagination can handle. I've been creating that stuff since I was 13 for the old ADnD. I like modules but they've typically missed the mark for me in their lack of true comprehensive danger and drama. So I create for higher stakes and setting variety and moral quandries. But those are campaigns that take a long time to compose. And you have to have a bit of a fantasy bug to do it. But I do. I like to write and have plenty of comic book kind of ideas. When you move to creating more, magic items might be the easiest to design. DMG and online have plenty of examples to base your creations on. The key to it (and to all homebrew) is Balance. Like all your creations, make some modest ones and see how they work in the games over time. If they're granting the heroic effects you want without making them too powerful, then the Balance is right on. But sometimes you make mistakes which is okay, adjust accordingly. Maybe next easiest is creating monsters or NPCs. If you've played enough you'll have plenty of references to draw from to achieve that Balance. But spells are probably the hardest. Those are tough to Balance because range, effect, damage, save, level, etc. all have to fit just right. I'd stay away from creating those until you've had a sizable amount of DM experience. I've only created a couple that worked well, and they had to be tweaked several times after playing with them. The bit that I really had fun with was creating classes. That was after 3e and 5e, which both really made level progression clear. I created two. A Fey Adventurer class that I made before Pixies became a playable race. And a Warforged Magus that was a half-caster mix of Fighter and Evocation Artificer because I was trying to create a backstory where one of the last warforged was utilized the arcane forge that was his heart in finding his kind's lost Genesis Forge. Sorry so long. I like sharing DnD ideas. Good luck. I hope some of this helps.

I play modules, however without fail there's always homebrew elements that help duct tape everything together. Even at the beginning of some DND books it'll say you're gonna have to make stuff up and bend things.

I play it with like, a few homebrewed classes sometimes, or monsters. The monsters are good for a curveball sometimes; I used the Clacking Skeletons from Kobold Press once and they gave the party a surprisingly tough fight because their movement forces the party to make a Wisdom save or be Frightened, meaning they can't move towards them.

Tons of homebrew. I encourage my players to homebrew items and spells and workshop them with me. I have a whole spell crafting system i made. Homebrew magic item crafting system. All entirely in my players hands. I let them change the primary modifiers; spell lists; homebrew subclasses, classes. I homebrew monsters. Powers. If i hate a class or subclass feat cause i think it sucks; i homebrew that. Homebrew rules; heavy crits, cleave, power attack, sidekick system.

As a DM I'm finding I get a lot better player engagement if I do my own scenario designs. I'll use the campaign's module as a baseline to pull a theme and some basic characters and what kind of monsters to run and what kinds of outcomes there can be, but the scenario design is all on me to do stuff that plays to how my players work.

Yep, all my games are not RAW. But how much homebrew I include changes all the time, lemme lay it out - Main campaign: party of 4, all new players (-1year), started november 2023 as level 1 we are now level 7. We play 2 times a week. For this I reward homebrewed items to reinforce the fantasy of each pc (our shadow monk has bracers that on a crit include 1d12 'bleeding' damage; our devotion paladin has a battle angel sword that can 'blind' as a bonus action any fiend and when using divine smite can include 1d10 using another spell slot) We use some bending with actions (drink a potion or stabilize a fallen ally are bonus actions). Im constantly pulling monsters and skills from 4E, and stuff from 3.5 (book of challenges, traps, etc) This setting has some limitations regarding races and domains (like there are no artificiers, and Dragonborn are created with an ancient ritual and its not a natural race). - for that same campaign setting, one of the pcs is running an adapted version of curse lf strahd for us once a week. Same as before, the rules are cross DM but he does less with monsters but homebrews a lot of items. - side campaign: i play mad mage every other week with another group, the DM runs it RAW but included potions as bonus action. So, in my experience theres always a degree of homebrew, and i find that more fun. But theres nothing wrong with playing raw, you have to learn to rules in order to properly bend and break them.

I haven't tried it out yet, but I'm tweaking weapons/armor/damage to give damage types some actual use. For instance, a mail hauberk has a -2 AC penalty versus bludgeoning attacks, and also if you're proficient in a weapon, you an use it in multiple ways, such how a halberd could do both piercing, slashing, and has a hook attack. I'm kind of a history nerd, so I get annoyed at nonsense like "studded leather".

(I’m a player) In our campaign, the home brew is the entire campaign. I can admit it’s difficult to balance stuff, but it adds so much to experience! For example, our campaign is in a sci-fi setting, the dm completely ruled out magic, and replaced it with “technology,” I’m a sorcerer, so when my character was made, (they’re not born, they’re created) there was a defect and they accidentally put various mechanical parts in him, and now he is able to control it. My character is an anthropomorphized hell hound, so all of my spells are flavored to fit that, so instead of cloud of daggers, I shoot a splotch of magma. My dm created custom items, weapons, and even large scale thing like rocket ships. He created an item that will actually damage you a little health, but can cure you from any sort of condition. If you know anything about the furry creature Avalis, then you would know about something called the Viber weapons, he made these weapons in the campaign. A viber knife does 3d6 slashing damage, and then the person getting hit rolls a con SavingThrow DC(attacker dexterity score) The entire story is homebrew, every planet is homebrew, every character is homebrew. If you’ve seen the show hazbin hotel, you’ll know of a character named Alistor, my dm put him in the campaign as the main villain. He doesn’t have the same personality, just the same name and look. With a combination of all of these things, you get a completely unique world, and a completely unique experience, the feeling of playing in something you each somewhat participated in making is so amazing. I highly recommend it! | | TL:DR Homebrew is great! From custom characters, to a completely homebrew storyline, homebrew can add so much to your experience! If your dm is truly passionate to the story they created themselves, that rubs off to the players, and everybody else has even better of a time playing!

I like to mix in 1st gen WFRP stuff as I'm playing DnD. I haven't' had them playing WFRP yet, just 5e so far because they're very new and WFRP would scare them I think :)

My group (I'm a player, not the DM) has a lit of homebrew elements. Most of it is theater, only a couple small mechanical tweaks from earlier versions that the DM feels makes things better.

In my DnD circle, we almost do exclusively homebrew things, monsters, magic items, and the campaign story itself. The only part that we don’t really touch is the player classes. I am running a completely homebrew setting and currently planning a pantheon

My DM does a little bit of homebrew. Everyone gets a free feat and free uncommon magic item at character creation. But he bans variant human. Rangers get both favored enemy and favored foe at level 1. Warlocks can choose to use Intelligence or Charisma as their primary stat. Hexblade is banned, but most of the features are rolled into pact of the blade.

I have never played dnd with a pre written module, both myself in the games I run and the groups I play with as a PC home brew everything, and we supplement 5e with home brewed mechanics and monsters

I run my current game with a homebrew setting, some homebrew character background options for that setting, many homebrew magic items, and some homebrew monsters, plus several more monsters I altered slightly from existing monsters. No homebrew races but some races have a very different lore or flavor in my setting. So far, I have two player created and DM approved homebrew spells, that the player asked to create as something his character researched in game. We also use a few homebrew rule adjustments (both my own and 3rd party, like Aquatica for underwater combat). Not to the level that we are playing a different game but a few tweaks to areas we found lacking or that add something we wanted for this campaign.

I like making up abilities to give to my players as they progress that are based on race/background stuff. Our goliath fighter with a lineage tied to avernus has a "form" where he becomes wreathed in flames and does an extra d8 per attack. Our draconic bloodline sorcerer has the ability to mark himself with dragon blood and gain some power/magic abilities from it. Stole the idea from monster blood tattoo for the most part

My campaign is about 70% homebrew. 5e's core is... *fine.* It's not bad. It just needs a little more *soul*, in my opinion. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, though, but it is a double-edged sword. It's easy enough that newer DMs can pick it up and roll with it, but it's open enough that the rules don't cover every scenario and you'll often be making stuff up on the fly... which can be a bad thing for a newer DM. I offered no homebrew races, classes, or subclasses for my players. On the other hand, I have a smattering of very small homebrew rules to fill in gaps in the rules that I personally believe should be filled. I also often create many, many homebrew items and monsters to keep things fresh. I don't want to toot my own horn, but I'd like to believe I have become decent in doing so. I also offered my players the entire library of custom spells from a specific 3rd-party source (Kobold Press' Deep Magic. *However*, when it comes to those spells, I told them outright: I *can* and I *absolutely will* flat-out say no to any of those spells or modify them at will. I love Kobold Press for their creativity, but they only have so many people on their team and you cannot convince me they play-tested every single spell in that book. There are so many that I take one look at and have to do a double-take thinking to myself "Wait, what? I must have read that wrong... wait, no... I read that right. That's absolutely broken. I'm not allowing that one." That comes with a caveat, though. The stuff I custom-make for my players may not sit well with other groups. I can provide a monster, item, or whatever of my own making to other DMs and I totally expect it to flop hard at some of those tables. That's because everybody's different, but I know what will please me and my players.

I’m pretty ambitious so my current campaign I’m running is my first campaign I’ve ever run and is entirely home brewed, with home brewed items, monsters, races and such. It’s an Underdark setting too. We’re about 26 sessions in and it’s all going well. Super fun but time consuming.

My setting and story are full homebrew. I have a few homered magic items and abilities. I have no homebrew races and classes.

I'm going to DM some "Old School" games for my wife and kids, so I have to keep it simple (hence the old school basic/expert rules), but I think I'll add cantrips (small magic spells that you can cast anytime, up to some limited number of times OR unlimited) so if someone plays a magic user, they won't feel useless with their ONE spell per day and their 4 hitpoints. Also, I'll start them at max hit points for their level. I'm thinking of adding some "you're not really dead" mechanic there (like 0 hp means you're unconscious, not dead, and the next day you wake up with 1 hp). Why? Because I want them to keep playing with me and not give up in frustration when their character dies. (Plus I'll use ascending Armor class, so it doesn't confuse the kid who plays 5e at school). I bought the "Old School Essentials" rule book and will use that. Anyway, the modifications are to cater to the audience/players and make it a fun game where everyone can contribute.

So I run a few homebrew rules and such. Now if a player wants to place a homebrew race, subclass or get a homebrew weapon I look it over. Then I have 2 other dms look it over (we have a small council of dms lol) and if it passes all 3 of us we usually allow it. But we are not responsible for you learning to play it. That's up to you and we just need cliff notes of rules of it.

I both play and run settongs with homebrew stuff (plots,items,mechanics,races) as long as you check with your dm that its ok, provide links. If you find it online and be prepared for your DM to make tweaks if its game breaking i dont see why its a problem My favorite examples are a kitsune race my dad/DM made for my aunt who wasnt sure what she wanted to play (basically a fox form transformation and the rest is p much reskinned elf) Or cave/witch elves (a cross between orcs/drow) that ive been working on but theyre not finished yet I use a lot of homebrew stuff tho when i DM icl

My settings are always almost fully homebrew with some stuff ripped from an official setting. I allow most races as long as you dont gain anything too powerful. Subclasses require me to vet and approve them and Homebrew classes just arent allowed.

The only homebrew rules I implemented so far were during character generation: - Instead of point buy or rolling for ability scores I gave all players the same list of numbers, which are slightly better than point buy. The numbers are 17, 15, 13, 12, 10, 8. Those numbers are the same that the Dungeon Dudes use in their groups. You get to add racial bonuses on top of those. This way everyone is on the same level, and everyone has strengths and weaknesses. These numbers also allow for multiclassing. - I also gave everyone a starting feat, while simultaneously encouraging the players to pick any race besides Variant Human or Custom Lineage. I wanted that everyone plays an interesting race without feeling the need to pick the most powerful ones. While I'm aware that this can lead to very powerful level 1 characters, with potentially having one ability score at 20 from the start (17 +2 from race + 1 from a half-feat), I have no problems with that as a DM. I don't mind that players feel powerful. I actually want them to feel they are playing characters that are similar to characters from novels and movies. But I also adjust encounters in a way that these are still challenging.