I took some time to compile all of my Homebrew D&D Subclasses and 125+ Magic items (organized by rarity, of course). Click the link and it’ll take you right to my Google Docs Thingy!
I’d be flattered if anyone out there wants copy/paste any of these ideas on their own blog or whatever! Like, if your blog is titled “D&D Homebrew Daily” or somesuch. My only request is that if you do, make sure to include a link to this blog post right here so that more folks will check out my crap!
(Also, feel free to reply to this post if y’all notice any mistakes I made. Like, if something seems Overpowered or Underpowered or too-vaguely-worded for a half-serious game of D&D)
I’ve been No-Lifeing RPGMaker these last few months, but I do have something for you guys:
Take your generic Drow Kingdom, right? They aren’t necessarily All Evil, but say that their economy is based entirely on supplying black markets. An underground kingdom of smugglers.
You get plenty of good with the bad. Through some tunnels, you get refugees, cheap medicine, and outlawed books. Through others, however, you get drugs, spies, and human trafficking. Escaped slaves go one way, kidnapped slaves go the other. The Drow kingdoms are all variations on the theme of laissez faire, but they only exist to support these networks indiscriminately. After all, a spider’s web exists to extend and ensnare.
Consider the combined might of the all the world’s Drow Palaces, ramshackle caravans, and even the depths of Lolth’s Demonweb Pits!
Suppliers of political plots, exotic goods, and demonic magic (respectively).
Refer to it all as “The Dark Web” and go from there.
Some Oaths are passed down from one generation to the next; often times written in ancient languages whose exact translations are lost to time. For example, the oaths taken by the ancient Ritchey cavalrymen are vague as to which oaths relate to the men or their horses. To play it safe, the Paladins of that region are known for keeping their shoes clean and training their horses not to lie.
Rarely oaths seemingly come from nowhere, arriving in the minds of Paladins-to-be like a red-hot arrow between the eyes. These powerful oaths contain everything needed to awaken magic potential -- and can therefore be a bit arcane.
Many an impressive last stand, as the romantic knight steps unto a heap of rubble overlooking the fiery ruins of their hometown and bellows an undeniable promise of vengeance, has been undercut with further promises to “eat fishsticks on Fridays” or “stay a virgin.” The knight usually doesn’t remember making these promises until the morning after.
Below are some 5e subclasses highlighting some of the more “Unique” oaths Paladins have taken throughout history: Neutrality, Paranoia, and Delusion.
Oath of Neutrality
Tenets of Neutrality
Balance: Law cannot exist without chaos, and good cannot exist without evil. The universe is better off with all these opposing forces existing in perpetual conflict. Thesis and Antithesis; Yin and Yang.
Moderation: Maintain the virtuous mean. If you see the world around you has become too melancholy, it’s the time to act buffoonish. If your last action was a kind one, make your next one harsh.
Thoughtfulness: Never let preference and bias cloud your judgement. Think carefully and deliberately about your next move – and if someone reaches a conclusion before you do, it’s likely they did not do the same.
Oath Spells
3 Protection from Evil and Good, Hellish Rebuke
5 Augury, Calm Emotions
9 Slow, Counterspell
13 Divination, Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere
17 Conjure Elemental, Dispel Evil and Good
Channel Divinity: At the 3rd level, you gain the following two options for your Channel Divinity:
The Mediocre Shall Inherit the Earth: For one minute, nonmagical weapons you wield gain a +1 attack/damage modifier for every +0 ability modifier you possess. Your weapon also becomes magical and glows gently – but not especially brightly.
Sterile Hands: A creature you touch must succeed on a charisma saving throw or have their alignment changed to true neutral for one round. That creature also loses all personality traits, flaws, ideals, and bonds. When you reach level 15 in this class, this effect lasts as long as you are holding onto that creature.
Impartial Aura: At the 7th level, you gain a dim grey halo that you can activate/deactivate as an action. While the halo is active, all creatures within 10 feet of you (friend or foe) gain the effects of the Bane or Bless spell (you choose when you activate the halo). When you reach level 18, you can choose to extend the aura up to 30 feet.
Equitable Smite: At the 15th level, your devotion to neutrality shines brighter than any angel and darker than any fiend. Radiant and Necrotic damage you deal ignores all immunities, resistances, and vulnerabilities. Additionally, your smite deals 1d8 extra damage to all non-true-neutral extraplanar entities – not just fiends or undead.
Avatar of Balance: At level 20, you may cast Antimagic Field once per day. Every creature within the field (including yourself) is instantly polymorphed into a CR 0 commoner while within range of the spell. The DM may decide that a different CR 0 statblock is more appropriate, based on the original creature.
Creatures polymorphed in this way retain their languages and closely resemble their original form. For example, a Dragonborn fighter may transform into a commoner with scaly-tattoos and colorful hair, while Lolth, Queen of the Demonweb Pits, may transform into a very rude-mouthed spider. If a creature originally had an INT/WIS/CHA score higher than 10, it is reduced to 10.
Polymorphed creatures who die in the field remain dead until the spell ends, at which point they are revived as you would after a regular Polymorph spell. If you die in your commoner form, the effects of the spell last until you are revived.
Oath of Paranoia Watchers+
Tenants of Paranoia Watchers+
Vigilance: Your enemies knows better than to reveal themselves in plain sight. Secrecy and corruption are their main tools, so you must be on the perpetual lookout for any slips in their façade.
Know Thy Enemy: The full extent of your enemy’s power is nebulous and growing. Undoubtedly, they’re spying on you. You must return the favor.
Hearts and Minds: The battle against your enemies may take generations to win. As such, you must educate allies, children, and random bystanders in the insidious evil you all face. Deprive your enemy of sympathizers.
Oath Spells
3 Disguise Self, Alarm
5 Zone of Truth, See Invisibility
9 Enemies Abound, Nondetection
13 Arcane Eye, Phantasmal Killer
17 Scrying, Hallow
Channel Divinity: At the 3rd level, you gain the following two options for your Channel Divinity:
Inquisition: As a bonus action, you declare a creature you can see within 30 feet of you to be the enemy of all that is good. That creature’s type changes to “Fiend” for ten minutes.
Seeds of Distrust: As a bonus action, you can target one creature you can see within 30 feet of you. Creatures non-hostile to the target must succeed a wisdom saving throw or become frightened of the targeted creature for one minute.
Aura of Paranoia: At level 7, just standing next to you is enough to put people on edge. You and allies within 10 feet of you cannot be surprised and gain a bonus to their initiative equal to your charisma modifier. At level 18, this aura extends to 30 feet.
Judge, Jury... At level 15, you can tell if someone’s guilty – even if they don’t know it yet. If you see a creature within range of a Zone of Truth spell, you can tell if they’re resisting the effects of the spell or not. As an action, you can force said creature to make a Charisma saving throw. If the creature fails, you may telepathically command the creature what to say for one turn.
…and Executioner: When the time comes to face your foes on the battlefield, you will be waiting right up there at level 20. Once per long rest, you can use a bonus action to undergo a terrible transformation for one minute, gaining the following benefits:
Any nonmagical melee weapon you hold becomes a Vorpal version of that weapon, substituting slashing damage for that weapon’s specific damage type.
You can cast “Command” at will.
When you target a creature with your “Inquisition” or “Seeds of Distrust,” you may choose to make that creature either deaf, blind, or mute.
Oath of Delusion
Tenants of Delusion
Your character believes that they follow an honorable path like any other paladin – though their oath may be trickier to pin down. Some suggestions are as follows:
Although you believe otherwise, you’re fundamentally just a bad person. You think of yourself as the shining example of… some other kind of Paladin… but subconsciously, you tweak the wording of your oaths to suit your greed/malice/laziness.
You authored an absurdly long code of conduct that you consider to be the ultimate moral compass. The manifesto seems contradictory and silly at first glance, but absolutely deranged on closer inspection.
You were instructed to take an oath full of words you didn’t understand, with a stack of books far above your reading level. You’ve been told many different things about what “Justice” and “Honor” and “Chastity” mean, and it’s all become very bewildering.
Channel Divinity: At the 3rd level, you gain the following two options for your Channel Divinity:
Soul of Chaos: As a reaction to being subjected to a status condition by another creature (excluding unconscious, but including domination), you can automatically inflict that same status on that creature until you are no longer affected by the condition yourself.
Blessing of Ignorance: If you or an ally within 10 feet of you are subjected to an attack from a hidden source, you can use your reaction to activate this blessing. For one minute, all unseen attacks made against you (and allies within 10 feet) are made with disadvantage.
Aura of Madness: At level 7, you emanate a flickering, fluorescent light that you may dispel/summon as a bonus action. Allies who fail a saving throw within 10 feet of you may instead choose to succeed -- and roll on the Long-Term Madness Table in the DMG. The madness’ duration is only one minute, unless the save DC was higher than 19. In this case, you roll on the “Indefinite Madness” table instead. At level 18, the aura extends to 30 feet.
Too Funny to Die: At level 15, you’ve undoubtedly caught the attention of some extra-planar entity that seems passively interested in keeping you alive for entertainment value. Flip a coin when you suffer a critical hit. On heads, the natural 20 is treated as natural 1.
Hero of Fantasy: Against all odds, you’ve become the hero you’ve always wanted to be. At level 20, you can grant yourself following abilities for one minute per day, as a bonus action:
You can replace the effects of your “Aura of Madness” with the effects of any other paladin’s level 7 feature. Your choice. However, you do not get that paladin’s level 18 aura improvement.
You have advantage on all skill checks.
Enemies who attempt to attack you or target you with a spell must first succeed on a Charisma saving throw or be charmed until the start of their next turn. A creature charmed in this way must use its action to praise you.
Wizards are typically defined by their education and, in days of yore, it was up to the Master Wizard to teach their apprentice the widest spectrum of magic possible so they may choose their own focus of independent study. Times have changed, of course. Now, apprentice wizards enjoy a buyer’s market and may choose from a long list of masters and schools. Below are a few of the more modern environments a Wizard may cut their teeth in.
Medical School: Although priests have cornered the healthcare market, there are mages who wish to study human anatomy from a more secular perspective. Wizard-doctors may fulfil a variety of roles, beyond Curing Wounds:
Diagnosing illnesses (Divination)
Heating or cooling patients to make them more comfortable (Evocation)
Shocking patients to make them less comfortable (Evocation)
Performing transplants (Transmutation)
Analyzing mental illnesses (Enchantment)
Forging hospital paperwork (Illusion)
Assisting in post-mortem reports (Necromancy)
Wizards and Artificers have also been developing “Scroll-Surgery.” To put it simply, a tiny (and waterproof) spell scroll is implanted in a patient’s body to do beneficial things like regulate electricity or pain. Less-beneficial effects are possible too; spies are often found with scrolls of “Fireball” or “Modify Memory” etched in their molars.
Astralspace Engineering: These are Wizards who specialize in studying the countless cosmological planes which appear to be everywhere and a long way off at the same time. If you need a submarine to plunge to the depths of the Elemental Plane of Water, an inflammable suit to trek the expanse of the Nine Hells, or a list of the top ten restaurants in Sigil, these are the Wizards to turn to.
Business School: Business Wizards perform a wide variety of roles in the modern-medieval world despite not knowing much magic. Well, actually just two:
Court Wizardry: Kings are always in need of magical advice, and the same goes for lesser feudal lords, wealthy merchants, military leaders, etc.
Supply-Chain Management: Artificers are the undisputed lords of magical-item manufacturing, but once you’ve got a cursed magical ring, you need someone who can get it on the shelves.
Community College: Certain towns may be too small to support a large University and too big to rely on 1-on-1 apprenticeship. In such cases, a Wizard may come down to the public meeting place and train prospective Wizards en masse.
If a student shows promise, the head wizard may write a letter of recommendation, helping them secure a scholarship to attend a larger university miles away. If a student doesn’t show promise, they may still walk away with a cantrip under their belt. Some accredited Wizards see teaching as merely a way of earning income, while others may see it as a way of earning the respect of their Alma Matter.
With Wizardry becoming more and more specialized over the years, there are a select few who still wish to embrace the full spectrum of magical knowledge. Among these Wizards, there are no master, no arch-mages, grand-chancellors or post-graduates. Every student of studies one topic enough to become a mere dilettante and then moves on to the next.
Below is a description of the 5e homebrew subclass: Liberal Arts School
Liberal Arts School
Wizards who want to study everything. Their skills, proficiencies, and expertise would put your average skill-monkey to shame – and may even multiclass a little without neglecting their Wizardry!
Expert Savant: At level one, you become proficient in one tool of your choice and may also pick one skill you’re proficient with and gain “Expertise” in it. At level 10 you may pick a second tool proficiency and a second “Expertise.”
Integrated Education: At level 2, your education is expansive, all-encompassing, and somewhat muddled in your mind. You may choose three non-intelligence skills and those skills will always be intelligence-based for you – instead of their usual ability.
On top of that, you can pick one spellcasting class that you could normally multiclass into (For example, if you want to choose the Bard class, you’d need a charisma of 13 or higher). Whenever you choose a new spell to learn, you may choose from this class’s spell list. If you come across spell scrolls for this class, you may copy them into your spellbook. These additional spells do not count as Wizard spells for the purposes of calculating spell save DCs and attack bonuses.
Unemployable: By the 6th level, the time you’ve spent below the poverty line has certainly left its mark on you. You only need half as much food, water, and short/long rest time as you normally would.
Performance Enhancer: At level 10, you’ve learned a magical technique that could probably get you expelled from university. As an action, you can make a motion with your hands to send magic coursing through your brain. For the next 5 minutes, you can cast any un-prepared 1st level wizard spell in your spellbook and you may concentrate on two spells at once.
When the minute is over, you can no longer concentrate on spells until you complete a long rest. If you try to use this feature while you are suffering from the aftereffects, there is a 50% chance that you instead gain a level of exhaustion.
Declared Minor: At level 14, you’ve spent so long studying wizardry… it’s gotten pretty dull. You gain the benefits of one level in any other class besides wizard, with the following three catches:
HP maximum only increases by the amount the wizard class would improve normally.
Your number of spell slots only increases by the amount it normally would for a wizard.
Your character level for cantrip scaling (and similar purposes) only increases by one.
For example, if you were a Fighter 6 and Wizard 13, you could effectively become a Fighter 7, Wizard 14. So go nuts!
