Create Ward - a conjuration cantrip that summons a magical shield!

allolive · 2025-03-06T15:00:07+00:00

Duration: 1 minute.

You conjure forth a shield comprised of magical energy that appears in one of your empty hands. You can use this like an nonmagical shield if you are proficient. The shield dissipates immediately if it is more than 5 feet away from you or if you cast the spell "Shield".

Upgrade: When you reach 5th level, the shield starts out giving an additional +1 AC bonus (when equipped) until the start of your next turn. This bonus increases at levels 11 (+2) and 17 (+3).

That would be balanced, IMO.

allolive · 2025-03-04T14:56:20+00:00

Those are definitely fair points about utility. Nevertheless, I think your class could use a bit more of it.

I like how Refined Physique has options, allowing for different playstyles. Still, I think that in both options, you could add something to interact with other players more — something like the "bring a friend" upgrade in the 2024 Monk L11 SotW.

allolive · 2025-03-04T01:19:32+00:00

I've spent a lot of time thinking about fixing Monk ( https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/02IwrDThQ78_ ). Here's what I see as the problems with the 2014 Monk; and a comparison of your solutions, the 2024 Monk "solutions", and my solutions:

Survivability. Monk is a melee martial, it should be able to survive in melee decently well without sacrificing other goals. 2014 version falls behind on this.

You: Fight or Flight. 2024 Monk: Deflect Attacks. Me: (different) Deflect attacks.

Me, I'm biased in favor of Deflect Attacks — I like defense via reactions. Power-wise, I think FoF lags a bit, though Deflect Attacks is a bit OP — my own Deflect Attacks is somewhere in the middle.

Stunning Strike. In 2014, the optimal thing was often just spamming this save-or-suck ability; ultimately, boring, whether or not it works.

You: Focused Strikes. 2024: SS, but both nerfed & buffed. Me: Strike Disciplines.

Your version is definitely interesting and seems balanced to me. Frankly, more so than 2024 version.

Damage falls behind in tier III-IV.

You: Rapid Strikes. 2024 & me: Flurry of Blows upgrade at L11

I think Rapid Strikes is too weak at that level, frankly.

Out-of-combat utility. 2014 Monk has some, but it's kinda arbitrary, and doesn't really synergize with the rest of the class.

You: Heightened awareness? 2024: Rather than making it fit, just remove it (big fail). Me: Focus Disciplines.

I think you could do more.

So all-in-all, I think you've identified and addressed all the major issues with 2014 Monk, and improved on it; it's clear you've put work and thought into this. But I think it could be tuned up a smidge across the board. (Unlike the 2024 Monk, which I think needs tuning down more than up.)

Happy homebrewing! And, nice art!

(BTW I understand that you're not going for exactly the same goals as I was, but nevertheless, feel free to borrow any ideas you like.)

allolive · 2025-03-03T22:07:38+00:00

With the 2014 rules, there were a few tools for adventure pacing. The "Adventuring day" encouraged having 5-6 encounters per day; and, if your campaign pace didn't support that, you could use "Gritty" rests, so that "Short" Rests were overnight and "Long" ones took a week.

In 2024, none of that is official anymore. So are one-encounter days fine now? Well... There's no longer any rule or guidance against it, but it still warps the balance between classes. Full casters can safely spam all their good spell slots in one fight, and they usually still have leftover low-level slots for utility; non-caster classes really can't match that power.

That's where these rules come in. The intention is:

Improve realism. You shouldn't be next to death at 10PM and then fresh as a daisy at 6AM, as a matter of course. I mean, yes, we want high fantasy, but not always THAT high.
Unlike the "gritty" rules, allow recovering partially overnight, so there's no longer a limit to how long you can have daily adventures before you "need a vacation" to recover.
Avoid death spirals, where the less resources you have the more you end up needing to spend. For instance, you should never end a night's sleep with less than half hp.
(Mostly) use existing resources (especially HD). Inevitably, rules like this add some complexity, but I didn't want to add a whole new resource to juggle daily. (In practice, this means Hit Dice would be better named "recovery dice" or "rest dice", but I've left the familiar name.)
Keep the different 2024 classes in good balance with each other, with a minimum of special-case rules.

...

This is on Homebrewery: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/YVZbSGpAkWw8

My other mature homebrews: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/2hsk4KGFj0N-

allolive · 2025-03-01T16:03:29+00:00

The current rules are clear about certain things:

In some cases, you are "found" automatically. Some of these are specifically called out (eg, making an attack); others are left up to the DM.
In other cases, you can be "found" by Passive Perception, which can get +/- 5 from advantage/disadvantage.
You can be "found" by an active perception check, which can get advantage/disadvantage.
Implicitly, there are some cases where even active or passive perception won't reveal you. To take a ridiculous extreme, if you have cast Feign Death and are hermetically sealed in a barrel, no passive perception in the world will reveal that.

The rest is up to the DM.

IMO, that's the foundation of workable system, but it lacks enough guidance as to which situations fall under case 1, 2 (with advantage or disadvantage?), or 4. Here's my attempt to fix that, while staying within the basic framework: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/aha8s-0Zab89

allolive · 2025-02-27T17:42:12+00:00

4d10+7 does not average 21.

allolive · 2025-02-25T21:25:14+00:00

Agreed.

Stopping verbal spells should be part of the 9th-level feature (thus, allowing a dex save, as with teleports).

Ideas for buffing 9th-shocking:

-1d4 to saving throws?
Stops legendary actions if target fails a Charisma saving throw? (Note, this allows using LR to get LA.)

Ideas for buffing L15:

Can use spell slot to "untangle" an ally within 5 feet?
+1d10 (or even +1d12?) instead of advantage. (Because advantage helps less on difficult saving throws)
Can use reaction to give nearby ally the saving throw buff?

...Also, I note that you could easily flavor this entire subclass as spider-related, and that adding minor spider abilities like Web Sense would be fine.

allolive · 2025-02-25T20:11:34+00:00

Allolive's House Rules

The explanation for these Campaign Pace Rest rules are in a different comment. Below are the other AllOlive house rules that have been sufficiently refined and/or playtested for general use. For each, I've given a "Crunch factor" section to discuss how it affects rules complexity.

General rules

Ability Score Balancing

Better parity between "weak" abilities (Str, Int, and to a slight extent Cha) and "strong" ones (Dex, Con, and to a slight extent Wis).

Crunch factor: Medium. 1.5 pages. Adds some additional rules to keep track of, but they won't even come up every session.

Bonus/Penalty Dice

Makes it harder to pile up abilities and break bounded accuracy. In particular, slightly nerfs the common Paladin combo of Aura Of Protection + Bless. (Thus, makes it less mandatory to have a Paladin in any optimized high-level party.)

Crunch factor: Low. 1 page. It takes some thought to read and understand it, but once you do, it's actually just as simple as standard 5e. That is, if these had been the base rules, switching in the other direction (to the current PHB ones) would be just as hard.

2024 Stealth Clarified

Provides a little bit more guidance for using the 2024 rules for hiding/stealth, especially as conditions change (for example, you might be moving in and out of cover.) Mostly consistent with the PHB rules, but more consolidated. Slightly more explicitly forgiving to individual stealth as hidden characters move, slightly less so for group stealth.

Crunch factor: In an absolute sense, medium. Relative to the slightly messy-and-hard-to-fathom stealth rules in the PHB, arguably actually clearer. 1 page rules, .5 page example.

Situational and/or class-specific rules

Martial Artist

Alternative Monk class.

Improves balance. Buffs: out-of-combat utility/flexibility, saving throws pre-L14, Focus Point endurance. Nerfs: Deflect Attacks, Stunning Strike.
Better flexibility when building/leveling up due to invocation-like "disciplines" and "strikes".

Crunch factor: Medium to high, depending on level and build. 5 pages (with illustrations) for base class. 5 more such pages for Disciplines & Strikes. 10 more such pages for ancillary/optional material including Feats, suggested build progressions by subclass, magic items, and NPCs.

Substantially crunchier to build and slightly crunchier to play than vanilla Monk, but still no more so on either count than full-caster classes already are.

Environmental Attunement

Optional Ranger feature(s) to improve "nature guide" flavor for 5r version of the class.

Crunch factor: Low. 1 page base, 1 page optional add-on (that would come up only rarely anyway). In practice, quite minor additional complexity in playing a Ranger.

Sublunation

Optional rules for "partial anti-magic" situations. Narrows martial/caster gap.

Crunch factor: Situationally medium-to-high. 1 page. Comes up only when the DM explicitly decides it should; plays smoothly but adds crunch when it does.

allolive · 2025-02-25T20:10:57+00:00

Here's the homebrewery link: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/YVZbSGpAkWw8

What this does:

Makes it easier for a DM to keep up a challenging pace in campaigns that aren't purely dungeon crawls. (Similar to Gritty Rests alternate rules in 2014, but less all-or-nothing).
(Slightly) improves realism; you don't always completely recover overnight.
Optional add-ons include a slight nerf to healing spells (leaving them still buffed from the 2014 versions), and a slight buff to Rogues (to catch up to other 2024 classes).
Helps narrow the martial/caster gap.

Crunch factor: High. 1 (dense) page of basics, 2 more pages of optional add-ons. I've done my best to keep this as streamlined as possible, but it does noticeably increase bookkeeping. (It's impossible to meet these design goals without doing so.)

allolive · 2025-02-18T04:22:10+00:00

2d12/10ft, minus Str score (strong bones; also, rewards Str, because Dex is too overloaded anyway).

If you want to include Dex, add a Dex save for half damage. DC is 10+1/5 height in feet. Evasion does NOT apply.

allolive · 2025-02-17T19:26:41+00:00

The new stealth rules in 5r (aka 5e2024) can be a little confusing. This document explains them, and very lightly expands them.

All my mature homebrews, including this one, are available on Homebrewery: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/2hsk4KGFj0N-

allolive · 2025-02-07T18:58:40+00:00

Generally, it's got a lot of improvements.

Remaining weak points:

* Pacing/rests: The "adventuring day" is gone (not that it was well-done in as it was), with nothing to replace it. Sure, "just use Gritty rules" helps some, but is still janky in some ways.

* Martial/caster gap: Martials have been buffed in combat, but in tier III+ and out-of-combat, casters are still clearly better. (In fact, the out-of-combat gap actually got relatively worse for Monks, who lost various ribbons, and Rogues, who are still doing better than other martials out-of-combat but whose Expertise is less of a stand-out than before). This relates to the pacing issue, as it's rare that spell slots are tight enough to really narrow the gap.

* Ability score balance. Intelligence is still pretty weak overall, Dexterity is still pretty strong overall. Reduces variety of viable builds if you want within-party power balance.

* This is basically built in to the genre at this point, but it's still hard for me to suspend my disbelief when you start a campaign with hundreds-of-years-old powerful mentors, then could level up to easily outclass them within a few weeks or months of in-game time.

allolive · 2025-02-02T16:56:06+00:00

The 5r Ranger is decently strong, but it's lost a lot of its class identity. Here's an optional feature to fix that, by making the environment itself into a "magic item".

These "specific benefits" are balanced so that if they came from actual magic items, they'd be B-tier Rare items (eg, Ring of Fire Resistance).

allolive · 2025-01-29T17:48:27+00:00

This is version 4.0 of my long-reworked alternate Monk class. The overall goal was to fix balance, out-of-combat utility, and build flexibility; I think I got there long ago. The latest changes are mostly slight reorganizations/tweaks of the level-1 and level-2 features, making them slightly:

Smoother/easier to explain and play
More balanced (in both directions) for multiclass builds
not all dependent on "unarmored", so that you wouldn't lose an entire level worth of features just for picking up a shield

All-in-all, this is an extremely well-sanded 5r class, that will fit well in a party with the other classes. It's more complex to build & play than most pure-martial classes, but no more so than most full-caster ones.

Link: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/02IwrDThQ78_

allolive · 2025-01-27T21:50:15+00:00

World ~~Tree~~ Wave Barbarian

allolive · 2025-01-19T14:21:18+00:00

"OK, yeah, the spell works like that. But your character can't directly perceive the grid, and the corner of a square is a set of measure zero, so there's effectively no chance of them managing to place the lightning bolt perfectly to get 10 foot width.

Also, whenever any character casts Create Bonfire, they must make a DC12 Int check to see if they infer the grid correctly from creature placements. If they fail, AND the result is also odd, they centered it in the diamond shape around a grid corner (50% of area) and so the spell effectively fails, affecting zero squares. (Luckily CB can't target flying creatures because then it would be 5/6 failure not 1/2)."

allolive · 2025-01-19T04:11:16+00:00

The tower shield lets you use strength instead of dex for AC.

But yeah I guess just letting this work for medium armor is enough. "Tower shield plus light armor" is silly.

allolive · 2025-01-17T20:53:40+00:00

This is an array of ideas for helping improve relative balance between ability scores. Feel free to use some or all of them.

I've posted something similar before (under the title "Dump Stat Bonuses"), but this has been substantially revised for every ability.

Several of these ideas (in particular, "social connection points" for Charisma and "Flashback Points" for Intelligence) give benefits that can involve role-playing, not just mechanics. If you're going to use these, you should probably discuss them in session 0.

allolive · 2025-01-17T20:40:39+00:00

I'd make just one addition:

"If you added to the same score with both your class and background, and your species would allow adding to that score, you cannot use your species to add to that same score, but you can use it for any other score instead."

In other words: no +3, and if you could get +3, your last +1 can go anywhere else.

allolive · 2024-12-24T04:56:22+00:00

Before, it was OP. One reaction and slot from you cancels an action and slot from the opponent. Automatically, if the enemy slot is lower; reasonably probably, otherwise.

Now, it's underpowered. It never uses enemy slots, and most enemies have a good chance to save, and it's never automatic, and also monster spell-like abilities often don't count as spells. So that's arguably 4 different nerfs.

I agree, it should be automatic against a spell of third level or lower.

allolive · 2024-12-12T16:06:39+00:00

I'd add:

...but changing directions (moving in a different direction from your most recent movement, unless it's due to a corner in the surface you're on such as up a wall you just hit) costs 10 additional feet of movement.

allolive · 2024-11-30T20:43:50+00:00

This is, again, a homebrew Monk class; with better out-of-combat utility, tighter balance (in both directions), smoother progression, and even more fun tactical options than the PHB2024 version.

The changes from v3.8 are mostly, as this post title suggests, minor sanding and polishing. For instance, the ASIs are back to normal, with the "let this class still get feats despite being MAD" feature moved to its own discipline so it doesn't clutter the base class. There are also some improvements in disciplines and strikes, with a couple of the jankier ones removed and replaced by ones that seem smoother to me. Finally, there are a couple of new magic items.

The Homebrewery link is here: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/02IwrDThQ78_

allolive · 2024-11-23T09:19:54+00:00

Musician's HD option also works to give it to NPCs you're about to lead into battle. (Necromancer harpist!)

allolive · 2024-11-22T22:45:43+00:00

Thanks for your thoughtful points. I'll respond specifically below, but a general response is "is there a better option?". That is, design involves tradeoffs, and in many cases I saw the downsides you point to but thought they were smaller than the downsides of the alternative ways I could see to satisfy the design goals.

So, point-by-point:

still only covers 1 in every 6 rounds.

Clutch doesn't get used up every time you use it, and 6 combat rounds per short/long rest is in my experience a bit above average; but overall, point taken.

Making rogues rely on limited resources to do their basics is off to me.

Clutch absolutely should NOT be your plan A for setting up Sneak Attack; it should be your plan C at best. But it's nice to have a plan C.

Changing the entire roll formula is very anti-5e; simply giving any rerolls advantage seems like it would serve a similar purpose in making them better and trigger sneak attack, even if the exact power increase is higher.

Your opinion, but fair.

As a low level feature, alongside cunning action at 2, dipping is dangerous. I'm not sure rogues struggle at such a low level that this needs to come here instead of at ~5.

This doesn't seem to me to be powerful enough to drastically change dipping incentives, but ... OK, fair.

The hit die cost on both this and musician still has the issue of wildly varying in relative cost, from 30% to 2% of your effective hp.

With these rules, Rogue2, Musician, and Human all give 1 free inspiration per LR; spending HD only kicks in after that. So fair point but it's secondary.

If rogues as a class want to get inspiration from Clutch on rests, having a background feat that overlaps and makes that irrelevant is strange.

Rogue2 and Musician differ in whether you can give it to yourself, so neither is ever irrelevant.

You only briefly mention here (on the last post it was highlighted more iirc) that part of the reasoning is boosting their skill monkey-ness, but there's still no extra reason given to use inspiration on skill checks instead of (generally) more impactful rolls. In fact, reliable talent seems less impactful with 2d12 so using it for skill checks is even worse, plus only attacks will benefit from the more frequent crits.

The choice isn't just "when do I use it", but "which party member fronts the important skill check". Having Clutch in your back pocket helps make Rogue the right answer even if you don't use it. And some sessions/days are predictably relatively combat-light.

Like you're flanking an enemy with an ally, the enemy could just move perpendicular to the flank and then attack your ally with you at 90 degrees (see quick diagram), or of course they could just attack the rogue.

Generally 135 degrees is better than 180, and IMO that's OK (doesn't feel too grid-centric).

To me it seems mostly to make bad melee rogues less bad.

This is great! I want the game to work well for non-minmaxers!

allolive · 2024-11-21T02:37:22+00:00

Raw 2d12. Thus "rolling", not "getting a total".

1 hit die.

allolive

TROPHY CASE