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I recently asked this question on what level a homebrew spell/item would be in D&D 5e.

I want to ask a follow up question on how to balance it better and add/remove some of the features that make it so powerful. Before I go to the effort of writing the question up I wanted to check that it is on-topic for RPG.SE.

Here is the structure of the question I would be asking:

  1. The current spell
  2. An overview of the accepted answer from my previous question that summarises the current issues
  3. My desired spell level equivalent, or "fit" into my campaign requirements
  4. My attempt at rebalancing this spell to meet the criteria of 3

with the final question being, "Have I balanced this correctly?"

Are there any meta posts/discussions that I can't find on asking better balance questions?

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2 Answers 2

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Lead with the new, improved version of the spell. Steps 1 and 2 are not really all that necessary.

Structure it like this:

  1. Link back to the previous iteration, i.e. the previous question
  2. The updated version of the spell
  3. Tell us what you're trying to do, such as telling us that desired spell level equivalent
  4. Describe briefly what you've changed in response to feedback
  5. Ask what you want to know: have you balanced it well?

We can see the previous version of the spell and what the feedback was by following the link back, which means we just need to know what you have now and what you're trying to do. If there's things you want to highlight about what you've changed, it doesn't hurt to tell us briefly about that.

Previous meta posts are:

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Homebrew balance is for review, not for development

While Doppelgreener's answer covers the how, I think it's important to note that the review here should be your near final step. While we do have a process in place for iteration, it's not really what the site is best at doing.

What we are good at doing is analyzing the work you've done to find things you might not have. That means you need to put in a fair amount of early work in developing the idea, possibly doing some playtests with it, and have a clear idea of the mechanics before coming to us.

This allows you to potentially discover issues and get a better understanding of the mechanics of your homebrew and provide a much more thought out question/mechanic for us to review.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ That makes sense, my plan was certainly to attempt to balance it into my world first. Looking through the relevant meta posts this seems very relevant. Thanks. \$\endgroup\$
    – GPPK
    Nov 15, 2018 at 14:50
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    \$\begingroup\$ @GPPK No worries! Homebrew is a lot of fun, and we're a great resource to help look at it. It's great that you're venturing into developing things you want for your table to enjoy :) \$\endgroup\$
    – NotArch
    Nov 15, 2018 at 14:52

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