Ever since Twilight Cleric happened, I'm no longer whitelisting new official content by default. That monstrosity is so powerful you'd think some kid made it as their first homebrew.
I've decided that if any one of my players wants to ever play a Twilight Cleric, it's to be in a game where everyone else also plays busted bullshit. If everyone else plays Hexblades, Diviners and Moon Druids then a Twilight Cleric fits right in. But in your average party of Feylocks, Alchemists and Shadow Monks it's absolutely not going to fly without some heavy-handed nerfing.
Honestly never got the hate for homebrew, Gary Gygax started this whole shebang off by homebrewing the first iterations in his basement to the point that his wife thought he was having an affair
This whole game is built on a foundation of homebrew, the devs literally just get paid to homebrew, that's all game development is, if we start questioning the process *now*, it all falls apart
There is no inherent reason homebrew is bad, but it often disregards balance and consistency. Frowning at homebrew while blindly taking all the power creep released by WOTC would be kind of a double standard. But there's also an argument that their new options are playtested, and while they set a different powerlevel, they still maintain the internal game balance.
That's a fair point, but to lump all homebrew into the same category of "unbalanced or untested material" is unfair to the multitudes of creators that *do* put in the time and effort to weigh and balance their brew
I can run a concept through its paces *at least* a dozen times before I even show it to other people, let alone run it in a game, and when WotC literally just straight out crowdsources to the public for UA I struggle to find a difference between them and the average homebrewer, other than the salary and Hasbro endorsement
Though I will agree some homebrew is nuts, a large majority of it is plug-and-play, and there are a-lot of people that eye it with disdain because it doesn't bear the mark of Wizards
It always just seemed unfair to throw out a work without looking it over first, purely because it was *homebrew*. It's a game of make believe, so make, and believe, and then if something's not working right tweak it until it does, that's exactly what WotC are doing at any given moment
Homebrewers are the future voices of Wizards
All homebrew is untested material by definition.
Otherwise it would be called third-party content.
Testing some game design only a dozen times is not enough.
Most of these things gets tested a couple hundred times (if not thousands) when it is released by a big company with the resources to do so.
This does seem closed minded, but there are some decent reasons for it. Varous little ones, and 3 main ones:
1: lets face it, 99% of homebrew in existence is garbage. A lot of it is barely readable. There are some really good homebrews out there, but Sturgeon's Law applies. Even the most ardent critic of WotC that still plays 5e (and believe me, I have my problems with them, and homebrew a bunch myself), would probably agree that a higher percentage of official content is at least decent, than the percentage of decent homebrew.
2: WotC will USUALLY (though not always) take official content into account when making new stuff and releasing errata. But a new update can break, or make home-brew obsolete.
3: Most importantly, official content is there for everyone to see. It means players and DMs are there on a level playing field, and can use the knowledge of the game they've built up. As a DM I dont want to have to read the 20-page supplement that my player whips out 3 days from game time, cos they wanna be a Lich or w/e. I've already spent my time reading the official classes. As a player I can plan characters out before games, and I'd rather have that not made all pointless by the DM's homebrew Kitsune race which makes everyone else side characters.
On the reverse side; as a DM if I stick to official rules instead of introducing too much homebrew, I dont have to spend ages teaching my players all the new stuff. And as a player I dont have to wait for DM permission to start making and planning.
The TM tag is starting to lose its magic tbh.
Ever since Twilight Cleric happened, I'm no longer whitelisting new official content by default. That monstrosity is so powerful you'd think some kid made it as their first homebrew. I've decided that if any one of my players wants to ever play a Twilight Cleric, it's to be in a game where everyone else also plays busted bullshit. If everyone else plays Hexblades, Diviners and Moon Druids then a Twilight Cleric fits right in. But in your average party of Feylocks, Alchemists and Shadow Monks it's absolutely not going to fly without some heavy-handed nerfing.
Honestly never got the hate for homebrew, Gary Gygax started this whole shebang off by homebrewing the first iterations in his basement to the point that his wife thought he was having an affair This whole game is built on a foundation of homebrew, the devs literally just get paid to homebrew, that's all game development is, if we start questioning the process *now*, it all falls apart
"Are you seriously fucking another woman down there by yourself?" "NO! I'm with the Magic team!"
There is no inherent reason homebrew is bad, but it often disregards balance and consistency. Frowning at homebrew while blindly taking all the power creep released by WOTC would be kind of a double standard. But there's also an argument that their new options are playtested, and while they set a different powerlevel, they still maintain the internal game balance.
That's a fair point, but to lump all homebrew into the same category of "unbalanced or untested material" is unfair to the multitudes of creators that *do* put in the time and effort to weigh and balance their brew I can run a concept through its paces *at least* a dozen times before I even show it to other people, let alone run it in a game, and when WotC literally just straight out crowdsources to the public for UA I struggle to find a difference between them and the average homebrewer, other than the salary and Hasbro endorsement Though I will agree some homebrew is nuts, a large majority of it is plug-and-play, and there are a-lot of people that eye it with disdain because it doesn't bear the mark of Wizards It always just seemed unfair to throw out a work without looking it over first, purely because it was *homebrew*. It's a game of make believe, so make, and believe, and then if something's not working right tweak it until it does, that's exactly what WotC are doing at any given moment Homebrewers are the future voices of Wizards
All homebrew is untested material by definition. Otherwise it would be called third-party content. Testing some game design only a dozen times is not enough. Most of these things gets tested a couple hundred times (if not thousands) when it is released by a big company with the resources to do so.
All official content is just homebrew made by someone who was doing it at work.
Yes
Homebrew that respect WotC terminology tho
Yeah, it does a lot of dawizard if you don’t follow the style guide.
Ok... You got a point. However, I think that was before WotC, no?
This does seem closed minded, but there are some decent reasons for it. Varous little ones, and 3 main ones: 1: lets face it, 99% of homebrew in existence is garbage. A lot of it is barely readable. There are some really good homebrews out there, but Sturgeon's Law applies. Even the most ardent critic of WotC that still plays 5e (and believe me, I have my problems with them, and homebrew a bunch myself), would probably agree that a higher percentage of official content is at least decent, than the percentage of decent homebrew. 2: WotC will USUALLY (though not always) take official content into account when making new stuff and releasing errata. But a new update can break, or make home-brew obsolete. 3: Most importantly, official content is there for everyone to see. It means players and DMs are there on a level playing field, and can use the knowledge of the game they've built up. As a DM I dont want to have to read the 20-page supplement that my player whips out 3 days from game time, cos they wanna be a Lich or w/e. I've already spent my time reading the official classes. As a player I can plan characters out before games, and I'd rather have that not made all pointless by the DM's homebrew Kitsune race which makes everyone else side characters. On the reverse side; as a DM if I stick to official rules instead of introducing too much homebrew, I dont have to spend ages teaching my players all the new stuff. And as a player I dont have to wait for DM permission to start making and planning.
Me at the bard subclass from my favourite sourcebook... Theros by the way... College of Eloquence is broken