Questions tagged [balance]
For questions about balance or perceived inequities between characters, classes, subclasses, spells, etc. that should be of roughly equivalent capability with one another.
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Would a magic item that lets you cast a spell (that normally requires concentration) without needing to concentrate on it be unbalanced?
I am designing some magic items and would like to add some abilities like the following to some of the items:
While holding this item you may cast one of the following spells from it, using your ...
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How powerful is the Ioun Stone of Mastery?
The Ioun Stone of Mastery is a legendary item and so far as I know the only feature outside normal level progression that offers an increase in proficiency.
I would like to use one in my game but I am ...
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Would it be unbalanced to allow Extra Attack on a ready action?
The rules for D&D 5e clearly state that Extra Attack can only be used on the character's turn:
Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action ...
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Monk Way of the Iron Body, Homebrewed Subclass Reworked version, please give me some feedback!
This is the follow up from the Homebrew I posted last month, after reading the feedback I received not only here, but also on D&D Beyond, I made some changes to the subclass. Once Again I hope to ...
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Special ability level of semiautomatic feature
Looking for a reasonable estimate of level for a magic item
I am looking to make a gun for one of my players in pathfinder 2e that is essentially the Colt 1911.
The "semi-automatic" special ...
user71562
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Is my alteration to "Fleet of Foot" balanced?
I'm the GM of a Numenera game. The Glaive move Fleet of Foot (Numenera Character Options, pg. 7) says:
Fleet of Foot: If you succeed at a difficulty 2 Speed-based running task, you can move a short ...
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Monk Way of The Iron Body, feedback on the balance of this subclass I made
Preamble: Monks have a contradictory design (in my opinion). Their features and flavor make you want to jump into the frontline of combat and masterfully face off against foes like in Kung Fu movies ...
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Is this homebrew Arcane School of Phantasm (Variant School of Illusion) balanced?
Context: I have a player who is attracted to the "flavor" of being an illusionist, but finds the School of Illusion in the PHB to be rather lackluster, especially before 14th level.
Here is ...
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At what level for a 4/5-player party would a CR 2-3 monster be considered a "miniboss"?
I'm working on a dungeon and I want to have a solo encounter with a single basilisk in the hallway. It isn't the last monster in the dungeon; that I'm going with a surprise, however it shouldn't be a ...
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Is an uncommon magic item that grants +2 to all dexterity checks broken?
I'm really trying to help my friend learn how to balance homebrew magic items and he seems to think that there's absolutely nothing wrong with this. I am doing this to our party's own detriment since ...
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Is this homebrew Bard College of Comedy v4.0 balanced, compared to officially published subclasses?
I haven't updated this in a while so I thought I would post my latest revision. Based on the comments/answers from version 1.0, 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0, I have updated features, dropped some, and moved ...
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Is Heightened(4th) Silence spell balanced?
The second level spell Silence can be heightened to 4th level, when its description is as follows:
Heightened (4th) The spell effect emanates from the touched creature, silencing all sound in or ...
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Is this Oath of Bees Paladin subclass balanced?
Mostly I am looking to see if the damage output Channel Divinity, and Aura are on par with other paladin oaths, and dont break the game.
Oath of Bees
Tenets of the Bees
The tenets of the Oath of Bees ...
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How will this static Initiative houserule affect game balance?
In my current D&D group all the PCs have a static Initiative (8 + Proficiency + Dex + any other bonuses) while enemies and NPCs keep rolling the original way (d20 dice roll + Dex). This enables us ...
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Is this homebrew weapon balanced? [closed]
Im trying to homebrew some new magic items for D&D 5e to add to my groups' sessions. But I'm not sure if this sword is overpowered or underpowered.
The idea is that the item is a "greedy ...
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Can I switch the monk's astral projection spell in the Empty Body feature with something more convenient, like plane shift?
The Monk's 18th level feature Empty Body allows the monk to cast Astral Projection on themselves only:
Additionally, you can spend 8 ki points to cast the astral projection spell, without needing ...
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Would Advantage on Strength Checks and/or Strength Saving Throws as part of Powerful Build be in line with base races point-wise?
I'm trying to homebrew the goliath and orc because Powerful Build is really lackluster in its current iteration. I would like to make these large und muscly races feel more powerful than a gnome of ...
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Is this Control Magic homebrew spell balanced? (Spell-stealing counterspell)
I based this off of Counterspell, with higher level requirement as it seems to me that it is generally a more useful spell.
Control Magic
Fifth level abjuration
Casting Time: 1 reaction, when you see ...
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What would be the impact if I allowed Barbarian's Unarmored Defense to stack with Lizardfolk's Natural Armor?
I am going to preface this question with the fact that yes, I am well aware they are separate AC calculations that you choose between. I am simply posing a theoretical question that warrants deeper ...
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I'm worried about nerfing the Players too much by adding an immunity to Radiant Damage to a monster type
In my setting most of the Outer Planes have individually suffered apocalyptic catastrophes.
The Abyss has been, for several decades before the players even see their first demon, beset by chronic ...
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Are there any balance problems or unintended consequences of allowing a PC to use natural weapons for two-weapon fighting?
I’ll preface this by stating that I do realise that by RAW natural weapons are not compatible with two-weapon fighting.
However, would it significantly unbalance things or break anything to allow it? ...
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What would be the impact if I let Hand of Harm be used more than once, like Hand of Healing?
In Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, the Way of Mercy Monastic Tradition grants both Hand of Healing and Hand of Harm at 3rd level. Hand of Healing/Harm describe their effects as using 1 ki point to ...
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How do I adjust an already easy adventure for a party made of healers and tanks?
I am planning for a campaign I'll start soon, the advice sought here is not system specific but the system is Starfinder and the adventure is the Adeventure Path Drift Crashers.
My party is made out ...
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Do follow-up attacks granted by daily powers count as daily powers for feats?
Some feats affect daily powers, and some daily powers grant extra attacks. For example, Dazing Fist (Psionic Power) is a feat that says:
When you hit an enemy with a daily attack power, you also daze ...
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Balancing implications on allowing "Touched" feats from Tasha's for different schools of magic
In Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything there are 2 so called half-feats Fey Touched and Shadow Touched, which grant an ability score improvement from Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma, one spell and one ...
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Are pixies overpowered for CR 1/4?
There is this question about if Conjure Woodland Beings is broken -- due to the fact that you can possibly summon eight pixies with it and multiply our level four spell slot by a factor of eight for ...
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How to properly boost monster damage?
So here's the situation:
In D&D 4e, I have began to reduce monster's HP by a lot (at least by half or even more than that).
The reason for this, is that I realized the combat encounters can take ...
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What are the strongest uncommon magic items? [closed]
So soon enough I am going to be hosting a level 10 one-shot, and each player gets to start with 1 uncommon magic item. I want to know which ones are strong so I can look over them and make sure they ...
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What level should Mordenkainen's Sword be? [duplicate]
Mordenkainen's Sword is a level 7 concentration spell for bards or wizards that costs an action to cast and summons a blade of force for one minute. It attacks for 3d10 force damage, and you can ...
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Is this homebrew hamadryad race unbalanced?
A player of mine wanted to play a hamadryad based on the old 4e version and this is what I came up with. The lore is that they're dryads who, through falling in love with a mortal or some other means, ...
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Does this Sack of Looting work as a simple replacement for Bag of Holding?
This is the second take on this problem, incorporating feedback from the first round, full background detail can be found there.
In brief, I am looking to create a simple, single focus magic item that ...
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Improved Metamagic feat (epic) clarification
I wonder if I am interpreting this feat wrongly or not. Reading the epic feat "Improved Metamagic" it seems to me that, if taken multiple times it considerably outshines the other epic feats ...
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Is this custom version of the Blink spell balanced? V2
This is an iteration on my previous attempt to create the Shadow Blink spell. after I have taken into consideration feedback and suggestions.
I am currently on a campaign playing a Shadar-Kai ...
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Is this custom version of the Blink spell balanced?
I am currently on a campaign playing a Shadar-Kai bladesinger and I have already reskinned all my spells to appear like shadow magic.
It is really cool and feels great but until now I only reskinned ...
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Would a monster trait-based Kobold race be balanced?
There are playable races for a number of monsters, for example you can play a Bugbear, Duergar, Goblin, Goblin, Hobgoblin, Kenku, Kobold, Lizardfolk, or Orc, and Satyr all of which are directly ...
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Is this companion ability unbalanced?
I have created a bit of a homebrew companion for a Ranger (Beastmaster) PC, using the PHB companion rules. It's a raccoon, based on the Badger stats (with some minor tweaks; like a climb speed instead ...
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Can a player's damage immunity be balanced out when paired with a vulnerability?
Would it be balanced to allow a player to be a race which from 1st level had immunity to an elemental damage type (example: fire), but was paired with a vulnerability to another damage type (example: ...
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What level should Elemental Bane be to be balanced?
Elemental Bane from Xanathar's Guide to Everything seems high to me at fourth level.
For a spell pick, a preparation slot, a fourth level spell slot, a full action and concentration, you get a spell ...
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Does adding an area of effect to Phantasmal Killer really make it a 9th-level spell, or, what level should Weird really be?
Phantasmal killer (4th-level) and weird (9th-level) have the same effect, with the only differences being the level and that weird affects all creatures in a 30 ft sphere, and phantasmal killer ...
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What would be a good way to allow Eladrins to change season once per long rest?
I enjoy the roleplay potential offered by the Eladrin's season mechanics, so I'm considering letting Eladrin characters change season once per long rest (instead of only when finishing the rest), so ...
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Is this Leshen homebrew race balanced?
The Leshen are a race of plant-like fey, born from places over flowing with druidic magic. It is said that when the elves came to the Material Plane from the Feywild, they planted a sacred grove for ...
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Rod of Wonder: Useful or Useless? [closed]
My players recently acquired a rod of wonder. One or two are interested in using it, while others think the risk of a bad random effect is too high. Since the game encourages the DM to change the ...
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Is there any monster with statblock changes during an encounter?
So I've been DMing D&D 5e for quite some time. My table enjoys long, challenging encounters. However many monsters end up repeating the same actions after a few rounds. I usually circumvent this ...
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Unarmed strike with brass knuckles, gauntlets, or bare fists
One of my players wants to buy a set of brass knuckles to keep on him as a low-profile weapon in case he can't bring his giant axe with him into a situation and feels the need to engage in fisticuffs. ...
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Can the Decoy Ring be used multiple times per day?
A while ago we crafted a Decoy ring for someone in our party. The description for it is as follows:
Whenever the wearer of this ring takes the withdraw action or becomes helpless (including falling ...
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Is this Cambion race balanced?
A Cambion is a half-fiend - an offspring of the lilu or lilith demons (known commonly as incubi and succubi respectively) and a mortal. Beings with hollow souls and endless desire for pleasure, ...
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Is this homebrew Rhynkos race balanced?
While playing The Quiet Year as set up, a race of platypus-like people were encountered by the seaside settlers. This homebrew race is intended for the players in the following 5e game as a new race ...
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How can I allow my player to be a Doppelganger without excessive HD/LA?
A player character who is a Doppelganger has four levels of Monstrous Humanoid and LA +4:
Racial Hit Dice: A doppelganger begins with four levels of monstrous humanoid, which provide 4d8 Hit Dice, a ...
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Can a Doppelganger buy Changeling racial feats?
The Changeling race in D&D 3.5 has a history defined as
They evolved through the union of doppelgangers and humans, eventually becoming a separate race distinct from either ancestral tree.
In D&...
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Is it balanced with other races to give Dragonborn short-range blindsight as an additional racial trait?
I use this homebrew rule for darkvision and add a new racial trait called low-light vision in my games:
Darkvision: The following player races have darkvision to a range of 60ft; Drow, Half-Drow, ...
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