Buffs and Nerfs to Consider
My time as a DM has taught me that there a definitely some balancing issues in the books, and while some sources attempt to fix it, it ends up WAY too strong. (See UA’s Revised Ranger). Here are a couple nerfs and buffs I’ve implemented into my games.
Human variants are extremely OP – so much so that at my table it would be common for every player to be a human. So, I’ve nerfed human variant, it no longer gives a stat boost, trading it in for the feat you gain and another skill proficiency (2 total). This helps bring a more diverse set of races to the table, and still gives humans that “human will can allow for anything” sort of motif. Remember: nothing is more boring than a table full of humans.
As a DM I’ve always found the “Sculpt spells” ability to be too strong, even though they attempted to tone it down by only allowing a certain number of creatures not take damage from the spells – it’s generally always able to generate a no risk/high reward scenario for an already strong spell like “Fireball”. I change the effect to something similar to the “evasion” skill. In that the creatures selected by the caster must still make a saving throw, taking half damage from a fail, and no damage from a pass – instead of the immunity that’s currently offered by the classes ability.
Warlocks are generally considered to be the worst class, only having a few spell slots and relying on cantrips as their main source of damage. If you’re running a campaign with a Warlock maybe consider giving them an extra spell slot, or giving them an item like “Rod of the Pact Keeper” which increases the number of spell slots Warlocks have. Alternatively, Warlocks regain all of their spell slots on a short rest, so you could try and infuse more short rests into your game, letting those 3 spell slots shine.
