How To Make Your Own DND Homebrew
After reading this article, you’ll know how to make homebrew DnD creations!
Plenty of players have gone beyond the limits of the official books and created their own Dungeons & Dragons homebrew. With homebrewing, you can custom-build elements and craft exactly the kind of game you want to play in exactly the kind of world you want to play it in. Not only can players make a D&D homebrew class, wield homebrew items, and take homebrew feats, but Dungeon Masters can create D&D homebrew races for their world alongside homebrew monsters, NPCs, or even an entire universe! It’s a lot to think about, but we’re here to give you the basics for how to get started creating your very own Dungeons & Dragons homebrew creations.
Creating Dungeons & Dragons Homebrew
You’ll need to understand the material that already exists in the game in order to make your own DnD homebrew
Put simply, D&D homebrew is any element added into a D&D game that wasn’t taken from the official rules and materials. This can be anything from a house rule to a full D&D monster stat block with attacks, ability scores, and special moves. We’ve gone into more detail about how homebrew does (and sometimes doesn’t) work well in our posts for D&D players and Dungeon Masters, but here, we’ll assume you’re already on board. In general, the best way to start out with homebrew is to familiarize yourself with the already-existing ruleset and materials. From the components of a character sheet to the actions in combat, you’ll need to know the terms, rules, and how they interact with one another in order to be able to make something fit into that framework.
How To Make Homebrew Classes For D&D
You could play as a Jedi if you make a DnD homebrew class
Creating a D&D homebrew class is an ambitious start indeed, but it’s a worthy one to perfectly express your character concept! Put simply, a character’s class is a collection of abilities they gain as they level up; a cleric has healing spells and can swing a mace, while a druid has nature spells and can transform into animals. Making a D&D homebrew class is ideal when you have ideas for a character’s abilities that aren’t represented by existing classes. Many homebrew classes are inspired by existing tropes and stories, like a magical girl, a Jedi, or a dragon rider.
But how to make a D&D homebrew class? Start with the basics. Think about one or two main abilities of your chosen class and build around that, using the class features from the books as a baseline. For a magical girl, you’ll definitely want to feature a transformation and some spells; a Jedi should have both Force and lightsaber abilities, while a dragon rider will probably involve a dragon familiar (and mounted combat). Then, consider how these could be represented in the rules of D&D as they exist. For your magical girl, you could create a limited–use move for their transformation (perhaps based on the barbarian’s Rage ability) and pick some thematically-appropriate spells for casting, like Charm Person or Dancing Lights. You might give your Jedi Force Points (similar to Ki/Focus Points or Sorcery Points) that they can spend on special maneuvers like Force Jump or Jedi Mind Trick and physical abilities based around lightsaber combat (taking the Kensei Monk as inspiration). And if you’re making a dragon rider, you’ll definitely want to create a statblock for the dragon and some mechanics around how and when it can be summoned (perhaps use the Battle Smith Artificer’s Steel Defender or the Paladin’s Find Steed as a starting point). You get the idea — choose some key abilities for your class, and find ways to fit them into the rules of Dungeons & Dragons without breaking the game.
Creating Homebrew Monsters in D&D 5e
What new Dungeon Master hasn’t wanted to make a homebrew DnD monster?
Making 5e homebrew monsters is a bit of a rite of passage for beginner Dungeon Masters – who hasn’t come up with a brilliant battle idea to throw at their players? If you’ve got an idea for a monster that’s pretty close to something that already exists in the Monster Manual, you may want to consider just reskinning an existing monster - it’s a lot less work, and it’s much more likely to be balanced in the end. But if you really want to make a D&D stat block of your own, we’re here to tell you how to create homebrew D&D monsters.
You’ll probably want to start with some attacks; think about how your monster will damage the player characters. Will they fight with melee weapons like a longsword or great axe? Natural weapons like beaks and talons? Perhaps some kind of special ability like a spore cloud or a breath weapon? Or even particular spells like Fly or Cloud of Daggers? Look for monsters with similar attacks in the Monster Manual and reflavor them to fit your homebrew monster idea (don’t forget to include limitations like a recharge or spell slots – you’re not aiming for a TPK)! Once you’ve got those out of the way, you can consider other traits that affect how your monster moves, senses, and acts. They might be amphibious, incorporeal, or even telepathic! And if you’re going for a true big bad, you’ll definitely want to include Legendary Actions; these can be used after other creatures’ turns to turn the tide of the battle. These are usually frightening or surprising abilities your monster has that, if your campaign were a movie, would come out of nowhere right when the heroes think that their victory is assured.
How To Make A Homebrew D&D Race
You can play as a creature from your favorite video game by making a homebrew DnD race!
In Dungeons & Dragons, races, now called ancestries or species, are the different kinds of physical beings in the world (think elves, humans, or dwarves). Creating a homebrew D&D race is one of the best ways to bring a character from your favorite fiction to life: you could end up playing a Crystal Gem, a Pikmin or an Inkling! D&D homebrew races don’t have quite the variety of abilities of a homebrew D&D class, but ancestries do give inherent abilities that a character has from level 1 (plus a ton of interesting story and flavor options).
If you want to know how to create a homebrew D&D race, you’ll have to consider what things are true for every being of this species. All Crystal Gems, for example, are capable of Fusion with another Crystal Gem, and they can pull spectral weapons from their gems. You could give your homebrew Crystal Gems the power to become a single being with combined Hit Point, abilities, and actions, or allow them to summon a weapon, like a lighter version of the Shadow Blade spell. All colorful Pikmin have particular elemental abilities — you could take inspiration from the Dragonborn ancestry and give them Damage Resistance and an attack based on their respective element (then throw in an ability to reflect their plant nature, like the Wood Elf’s Mask of the Wild ability). All Inklings can hide and swim in ink; you could double an Inkling’s movement speed and give them advantage on all Hide checks while standing in ink. If you’re using the 2014 rules to create D&D homebrew races, you’ll also want to choose one ability score to increase by 2 and one ability score to increase by 1. Think about what inherent physical and mental abilities people of this ancestry might have, and choose the closest representative ability score: for example, a Pikmin would likely increase their Dexterity, as they are tiny and agile, and their Wisdom, as they work well in groups.
Tools To Make D&D Homebrew Look Official
The Homebrewery is a fantastic tool to make DnD homebrew look official
As a D&D homebrew creator, you may be content to make a D&D stat block on a sheet of paper or a Google Doc and leave it at that. But other homebrew D&D creators want their creations to look as official (and fancy) as possible. Luckily, there are plenty of tools out there to help you do just that! Perhaps the most elaborate of these options is The Homebrewery. This tool lets you paste in your creations, do a little bit of code-tinkering, and generate a pdf that looks like it came straight from the Player’s Handbook! If you’d rather not mess with code, you can always add your homebrew D&D creations to the D&D Wiki right alongside the official content. This is quick and handy way to be able to share your homebrew D&D creations with your Dungeon Master or players – who knows, maybe someone else will find it and use it in their adventure!
Create Homebrew On D&D Beyond
There are a few extra steps to creating homebrew on DnD beyond, but it’s well worth it if your players are using it already
Making homebrew on D&D Beyond is another solid option for sharing homebrew. It’s particularly handy if you or your players are already using D&D Beyond to create their own character sheet for D&D games; they can easily add the homebrew options to the character sheet as they would any other content on D&D Beyond. (Pro tip: make sure that the character and campaign both have homebrew content enabled – it’ll save you a lot of headache)!
To create homebrew on D&D Beyond, make an account, log in, go to “My Homebrew Creations” on the “Collections” tab and click “Create A …” to make your homebrew. You’ll be able to choose between a background, a feat, a magic item, a monster, a species (ancestry, race, ect), a spell, or a subclass (unfortunately D&D Beyond doesn’t support full homebrew classes at this time). If you’re creating homebrew for your own character, this should be enough to let you add it to your character sheet. If you’re a Dungeon Master creating homebrew for your players, you’ll need to create a campaign, make sure content sharing is turned on, and have your players join the campaign on D&D Beyond.
Play Your D&D Homebrew Creations
At its best, homebrew lets you play out exactly the kind of Dungeons & Dragons game that you want, with exactly the characters, abilities, and game elements you’ve imagined! That’s what we’re all about. Here at Young Dragonslayers, we run D&D games online for tweens and teens, customizing each one to their interests, helping players create their perfect character, and, more often than not, adding a bit of homebrew to the mix once the adventure gets started. If you’d like us to help you homebrew the character in your head or take you on adventures fit to your fandoms and interests, give our games a try!
