I’ve never made any actual fleshed out homebrew before, I was listening to the Total Party Skill podcast and they touched on a Musician Class, that actual makes instruments not useless.

I’m no pro but think I know music and theory pretty well, and want to try my hand at making this class. I really liked their idea for another intelligence based caster. Still can’t decide if it should be a full or half caster.

Ideas for the class:
- INT spellcaster
- D8 hit die
- INT and DEX saves (finger dexterity)
- Lethal Musicality: Ability to deal damage with instruments, special effects based on percussion, strings, or woodwind
- Expertise in performance, and can use INT mod for it charisma checks made with music
- Aura style thing that can give close teammates a benefit, or enemies debuff
- Bard spell list
- Conductor Subclass (support for team), Soloist subclass (more single target damage), operatic (voice based balance), Symphonic? (More wizard leaning)
- Instrument Mastery
- Level 6 tempo control (Slow and Haste)

Anyways these are just my thoughts. Curious if anyone else has any insights or ideas for this type of class. LMK!

Our Wild Magic sorcerer died, another character made a clone using some of his blood and didn’t remove the BBEG DNA from the machine effectively mixing them together. I’m looking to make a new wild magic surge table for his return. The BBEG is a Deathlock that has a lot of dream/sleep related magic and themes. I’m looking for a mix of good and inconvenient outcomes. The character is from a noble family in the class of the BBEGs noble family. So he has never adventured until falling in with this party. The player plays it that all of his magic is accidental, like a defense mechanism he doesn’t realize he’s controlling. His body is overcome with some strange ill side effect and magic just bursts from him.

In my setting, Laangthoz, all magic works only because someone believes it will. Here's the core of the Doubt track from my adventure, free to use:

Everyone with Spellcasting (or features like Channel Divinity or Wild Shape) starts with 1 Doubt.

Conviction check: d20 + spellcasting modifier (or Wisdom) + Clash mod.

Gain 1 Doubt (at most 1 per trigger type per scene) when you lose a Clash, fail a save against a demon's Doubt effect, see something directly contradict your school's teaching, knowingly break your tenets, or have a spell gutter.

Shed Doubt: a short rest spent on your Rite of Return removes 1, a long rest removes 2, Testimony (once per session, say in character why you believe) removes 1, and spending Inspiration removes 1.

GM note: a demon's best weapon against a knight isn't a claw. It's doubt.

How would you break this?

(AI disclosure: the rules text was drafted and edited with AI assistance (Grok) under my direction. No images in this post.)

In my homebrew world, Paladins who take the Oath of the Home are vanguards that are masters at keeping themselves and their fellow frontliners standing. Enjoy! :D

[EDIT] Projected Shelter is supposed to say Quarter Cover at the end lol.

Spell inspired by u/AnchoRunes original post

The PDF version is available for free on Patreon

Hello, fellow adventurers :)

Today, I'm excited to share the entry for Army of the Dead, a 9th-level Necromancy spell that lets you summon an entire undead army!

This entry comes from the Tome of Summoning. The full compendium features over 60 pages on the theme of summoning and planar magic, offering new options for players who want to command powerful entities in battle. At its core is the Summoner, a unique class built around a lasting bond with a Summon - a companion that grows stronger alongside its master. Unlike temporary conjurations, a Summon is a permanent ally, highly customizable through a list of almost 145 Enhancements, allowing players to shape its abilities and role to fit their playstyle. The class also comes with a 8 subclasses, each proficient at summoning a specific type of creatures. Some forge pacts with celestial or fiendish entities, while others call forth spirits, elemental forces, or creatures born of pure magic. Each subclass grants a unique Summon, further expanding the possibilities for customization.

Beyond the Summoner, the manual includes over 35 spells, 15 feats, and 4 subclasses, all designed to enhance summoning magic for spellcasters. Whether you seek a loyal companion, a strategic battlefield presence, or the means to command otherworldly forces, the Tome of Summoning is the right tool for the job.

This manual just received a v2.0 update, including updated layout, illustrations, rules, balance adjustments, a brand-new subclass, and much more. For the occasion, you can find it discounted either on DriveThruRPG or my Patreon, alongside a vast collection of previews for this and all my other titles! I'm currently working on updated version of all my older manuals, so there's a lot to uncover :)

You can also find this manual (and many more) discounted on my 300+ Mythological Items for 5E and 5.5E Kickstarter! This project brings weapons, treasures, and relics from Greek, Norse, Egyptian, Asian, Mesoamerican, and many other mythologies to 5E and 5.5E, including scaling items that grow alongside your characters. If you’d like to bring a piece of these legends to your table, check out the campaign!

I'm trying to make an illusiony, light-themed subclass for Artificer for the campaign I'm next playing in, and I had a good go. Truthfully, I borrowed basically everything from Artillerist and just reflavoured it around illusions and light, with a few changes to make it distinct.

My main concern is balance; it theoretically has the same damage numbers as Artillerist (technically a bit lower) but because it's spread out over multiple objects I'm worried it might be a bit broken.

Also, I'm a big fan of the spell relay idea, but it admittedly doesn't really work well with this spell list + the Artificer's default spell list. Any ideas on what I can do to make this any better?

I'm trying to come up with a Halloween one shot but I'm stumped on what else to have them do. Basic outline is wander through the haunted forest, get through the corn maze, boss fight. I want to have more Halloween activities between the maze and the boss, but I can't come up with anything that would make sense.

After watching Pointy Hat’s video on plant monsters, I decided to create a few of my own. I’m trying to vary the mechanics of each plant monster a little, so I don’t just end up with a plant that bites (Ok this one bites but hear me out !). This time, I wanted to create a creature that was a bit more ‘repulsive’, based on the idea of parasitism and blood-sucking. This concept is reflected in the mechanics through ‘resource absorption’. Get too close and this plant drains your maximum HP; stay at a distance and it forces you to use actions to stop the passive loss of health.

I wanted to be a sorcerer related to the elemental plane of earth for an upcoming campaign. I found the stone sorcerer after doing some research. The problem was that it was only for 2014 instead of 2024, and I felt it leaned too much into controlling metal instead of controlling the earth. It was also too similar to the Draconic Bloodline sorcerer, which did not make it feel unique, so I rebuilt it from the ground up. Let me know what you think!

'Identify' is a common spell. And it just works.

If the object is a magic item or some other magical object, you learn its properties and how to use them, whether it requires Attunement, and how many charges it has, if any. You learn whether any ongoing spells are affecting the item and what they are. If the item was created by a spell, you learn that spell’s name.

Someone posted some cursed items, and required identify be cast at a certain level to detect the curse. And it got me thinking.

Why does the barely 1st-level hedge wizard get the same information from identify that a high-level master wizard gets? I mean you have a couple of spells that mess with it, and a curse is usually not detected, but beyond that it's all a given.

I like the idea of a curse being detected if the caster is high enough level. I'd probably make it based on level, not how you cast it. I could see doing the same thing for more powerful effects, and the object can perform.

This could add some mystery and surprises to the game.