Homebrew Class Design For Dummies: Part 1: The Foundation

Homebrew Class design For Dummies: Part 1: The Foundation

Hey you~! Have you ever wanted to make a homebrew class for Dungeons and Dragons fifth-edition? Perhaps you wanted to recreate a character from a book or movie, maybe you want to recreate a class from older editions? Or maybe you just have a really strong concept in mind but struggle to put words to document, well have you come to the right place. This blog is meant to serve as a guide for those wishing to make their own class, starting from a simple concept to a finalized product.

This first part of the series will go over the conception of a homebrew class, talking about the concept, role and other relating topics. Over the course of this series you'll also see the live development of a homebrew class "The Avatar" inspired by Hercules and Maui, the avatars are warriors that wield the powers of god, empowered by the legends that surround them.

When making a homebrew class, the first thing you should have in mind is a concept. Maybe you want to play a certain archetype you want to play that isn't possible, maybe you have a mechanic in mind that wouldn't fit as a subclass feature, or you want to expand on more forgotten aspects of DnD like tattoo magic. Whatever your starting point may be, make sure to jot down other themes and ideas you want to present. Given the themes of the avatar I can already jot down some ideas

Martial Class

Customizable blessings from their legends

Likely charisma focused

Buffs via dealing damage

I will preface that, when making the concept for your class, keep these things in mind.

1 Can you make the same type of character with existing options (Not including reflavoring/reskinning) admittedly the avatar class concept could leans into themes touched-on divine soul and oath of glory, however I feel that the herculean archetype is flexible enough to warrant its own class.

Is my concept flexible enough to make subclasses? For instance, say you want to make a caster that steals its opponents powers, cool...But what do you do for subclasses? In this case the avatars sub classes-their divine exemplar can come from which god empowers them, one subclass for example could be the exemplar of light, the exemplar of war, exemplar of death, etc.

Okay so, got all of that concept stuff down? Good, now is time to get some gameplay details down, nothing concrete just yet, but rather basic ideas of how and where your class is fighting. Now would be the time to bust out a writing program, such as google docs, notes, or anything alike.

Class Role

Your classes role is what they do in combat, do they want to deal damage? Heal? Defend? While this might simplify each type of role I listed some examples bellow:

Brawler: Brawlers want to get up close and personal, dealing high singe target damage. Most martial classes fall under this archetype, along with Hexblade Warlocks or College of Swords Bards.

Blaster: Blasters focused on dealing AOE damage, examples include Evocation Wizard and Light domain Cleric.

Buffers: Buffers focus on provided positive effects to enhance their teams performance, some healers also have support/buffing features. Buffers include most Bards, Clerics and Druids.

Controller: Controllers focus on impeding their enemies, limiting their options in combat. Controllers include Druids, Monks (Via stunning strike) and Undead Warlocks.

Debuffer: Similar to controllers, debuffers focus on weakening their opponents abilities. Debuffers include College of Eloquence Bards and Divination Wizards.

Healer: Healers do exactly what their name implies, keeping their party at well healed and removing negative effects. Healers include Life domain Clerics, Celestial Warlocks and Way of Mercy Monks.

Skirmisher: Skirmishers focus on getting in, dealing damage and getting out: Skirmisher include Rogues, Monks and any character with the Mobile feat.

Tank: Tanks focus on drawing enemy fire away from their allies and towards themselves. Tanks include Armorer (Guardian) Artificers, Barbarian and Oath of Redemption Paladins.

Keep in mind that some classes can fill multiple of these rolls through subclasses, feats, etc. Cleric immediately comes to mind thanks to their varied spell list and all of the divine domains present to them. For our avatar class I think a mix of striker and buffer could be interesting, where your goal is to deal damage, but also help your allies deal more damage and stay in battle.

Area

Also referred to as a characters "zone" a characters preferred area is where they'll be hanging out in combat, this information is usually indicated by things such as hit die, proficiency, etc. The obvious example is barbarian, who with their d12 hit die and martial weapon proficiency are designed to be up in the thick of things, meanwhile a wizard with their measly d6 hit die and no armor proficiency are best set for the backline, sure there may be ways to alter your zone, but having a concrete "My character is best at this area" can help defining their role in combat.

For the avatar, I will settle on it having a d10 hit die, both cause I imagine a demigod archetype would be rather tanky, but also since I imagine the class largely staying in front lines of combat, with them potentially being able to do range combat similarly to a fighter.

Out of Combat Role

While DnD combat is fun (depending on who you ask) it is equally as important your class to think about your classes role out of combat, will they attempt to persuade the king to aid the party? Will they be lurking in the shadows, setting a deadly ambush? A classes out of combat roll is supported by particular ability scores, proficiency and even class abilities. Going back to barbarian, due to their strength focus and proficiency in athletics are going to be the teams brawn, rogues thanks to expertise and natural affinity for thieves tools are likely to scout out ahead, disarming traps. To give some more concrete examples of roles, the list includes: Brawn: Brawns use their strength to break doors, push away obstacles and grapple. They use strength and prefer athletics, acrobatics and sometimes intimidation.

Brain: Brains are the thinking men, they use their mind to solve problems and decipher mysteries. Brains use intelligence and wisdom, preferring arcana, investigation, history, nature and religion.

Face: Probably the most infamous DnD archetype, the face uses honeyed words to help their team. Faces use charisma and wisdom and prefer deception, persuasion, performance, intimidation and insight.

Heart: The heart is like the party glue, their job is to keep everyone healed up and ready for the day ahead. Hearts prefer wisdom and charisma, preferring animal handing and medicine.

Scout: Scouts gather information and disarmed traps, laying the path for their team to follow and take advantage on. Scouts use dexterity and either wisdom or intelligence, preferring stealth, sleight of hand, investigation, perception and nature.

Keep in mind that a class can have multiple of these rolls present at once, just cause you're a paladin doesn't mean you always have to do the convincing. In our case the avatar will serve primarily as a brawn and face, it feels like a natural given the concept.

Summary

To summarize all of the points made within this document, when you're designing a homebrew class you should:

Start with a strong concept.

Jot down your initial ideas.

Think about your classes role in and out of combat, as well as their area of play.

Get to work.

Final Notes

Before closing out this first part, I want to go over some terminology you might hear floating around that I want to clarify before moving on.

A martial class refers to a class that doesn't have spellcasting as a core feature, while DnD's official martial are mostly warrior types (Minus subclass-related ability's.) A martial class can still be magical in nature, so go nuts with it!

Full casters are classes that focus on casing spells (duh) full casters possess a certain number of spell slots to cast increasingly powerful spells. Warlock is the one outlier since they work on their own system (Being pact magic)

Half-Casters are a mix between the two, while they can only cast up to 5th-level spells, they make up for it with martial ability built into their base kit (fighting styles and extra attack) they're great fun I'll tell ya!

I'll also recommend two resources for class design, the first is Indestructoboys homebrew design masterclass series, where I get many of my concepts from, alongside the guide to balancing classes on the Unearthed Arcana subreddit, which provides a good framework for future entries into this. Otherwise if you've made it this far, thank you for reading, and I wish you good luck in your homebrew creation. Tune in next week where we begin to put mechanics to document, but until then, see you around.

D&D Homebrew Class Design Masterclass | Before 1st-Level

Guide to Balancing Classes