Ralif Redhammer
Legend
When I see something patentably absurd and broken in D&D Beyond's homebrew section, I frequently try to think about what I would've added to it, had it been around when I was younger. I remember my first attempt at creating an artifact, the Dragonsword. I'd love to find that writeup again.
XP to Level 3 always makes me laugh:
I just remembered the worst homebrew I made in recent years. It was as simple +1 shortbow, with one added property: you could attack recklessly with it. Very soon in play I realized the big balance issue that should've been obvious from the get-go. The wielder, provided no enemies had ranged attacks or had enough movement to close, could essentially avoid the main drawback of reckless attack. I nerfed that a few months after I introduced it into the campaign.
Oh so this right here ^!
I see out of balance, poorly thought out and offensive stuff all the time when I dredge through D&DBeyond Homebrew or other free resources to see if someone already built something I want to add to my setting (or to give me a starting point on updating something I had years ago in a prior edition). In the end, the worst of those are the ones that are almost good because I spend more effort to determine whether to use them or not - and get no benefit from it. But still - just a few moments of my time are lost.
On the other hand, there are decisions I made when I was very young that highly influenced my campaign world in ways that would persist for DECADES and brought nothing but frustration, and sometimes well deserved mockery. Some of them were whimsical attempts at humor. Some of them were my implementation of things that looked cool on film. Some of them were me thinking I was sooooooo clever - but wasn't. Some of it was a real balance issue. It wasn't all bad - but DANG IT some of it was icky. And, because I built it, implemented it and worked it into my campaign in a meaningful way, I was stuck with it and had to live with it because I've always considered it unfair to pull the rug out on players - once I add it, it stays unless the story takes it out.
There is no pain like self inflicted pain.
XP to Level 3 always makes me laugh:
Nah.
Exhibit 1:
I just remembered the worst homebrew I made in recent years. It was as simple +1 shortbow, with one added property: you could attack recklessly with it. Very soon in play I realized the big balance issue that should've been obvious from the get-go. The wielder, provided no enemies had ranged attacks or had enough movement to close, could essentially avoid the main drawback of reckless attack. I nerfed that a few months after I introduced it into the campaign.