D&D 5E DMs: What percentage of your spells in 5E are homebrew?

[Gorg]

Never. Not since the heady days of 2E in the mid 1990's have we used any homebrews. And those were just joke spells we made up on the spot to deal with the DM's little brother's ANNOYING character, lol. The fact that lots of smokeables and sleep deprivation were usually included- had much to do with it, too. Funny Bigsby's variants, mostly. (nostrilific nullifier; Bitch slappin back hand*; Fizban's Ferocious Fart.- like stinking cloud with visual and audible effects!)

Since then? Nope. There are thousands of spells already created- every edition prior to this had many scattered throughout modules, campaign settings, splat books, etc. If we needed something new and interesting, we'd just add a few of those in. Mainly via NPC casters, found spellbooks, scrolls, and wands, etc. But sometimes, if a character really wanted to learn a spell from a source other than the PHB, we'd allow it. (subject to review of course)

Forgotten Realms was a perfect example- and a great source of ideas to glom, even if you didn't play that setting. There are a huge number of FR specific spells- even if you only mined the 3E releases! I liked them for the flavor- having played since the early 80's, some variety to spice up the magic game was very welcome.


* the best part of the bitch slappin' backhand spell was that after the giant hand smacked you onto your butt, an illusory gully dwarf would momentarily appear, glare at you, and call you a bitch. This spell was tailor made to cast on Drew's character Razor Lips- a Goblin fighter, who went out of it's way to make just about all of the other characters hate him. (just a TOUCH of sibling rivalry going on there...) We needed players. That's why.

 

[Eltab]

I pull in 3e spells (and feats) to give powerful bad guys 'something extra' that makes them stand out from the crowd. My current campaign a-building is set in the Frozen North and one spellcaster will have "signature spells" from 3e Frostburn.

Tangent: When I DM'ed Tiamat I found a use for Griffon Gear in 3e City of Splendors: Waterdeep (because the city is going to war, right?) and a side-quest in that book. The players seemed to like the idea of helping the war effort in more ways than just "fight cultists", as a change of pace. Had we completed the AP, they would have been offered a ride to "paratroop" from griffon-back into the Well of Dragons.

 

[Helldritch]

No need to homebrew. Everything is quite ok.

 

[Li Shenron]

None so far in 5e.

 

[jmartkdr2]

Although we get about 3 paragraphs on it in the DMG, we're mostly on our own in 5E - but that is not so different than 3E, 2E or AD&D.

I really think it is the lack of the internet for the first few editions - and then inertia of habit for 3E - that led to more homebrew materials. People didn't have these random sources for everything, or people telling them what to think or believe, so they were just creative out of a desire to interact with their game more. 4E's rigid format and the eventual loss of inertia combined to beat it out of many people, or failed to instill it in newer players, it seems.

I don't quite agree: people use a lot of homebrew content, especially classes and races. (Also magic items and monsters). I don't know if people are as likely to make homebrew given how much easier it is to just find some online and use that, but I don't think this poll can be interpreted as "People use less homebrew."

People don't use a lot of homebrew spells, which is particular to that subset of the game. Wild guess is the existing spell list is pretty complete for the kinds of characters you can make, and the project of making enough spells to fill a whole new niche is daunting to people. Or maybe people are more worried about balancing new spells since there are quite a few broken ones already?

That's why there's so many attempts at a proper gish subclass that fall flat: everyone tries to do it with subclass features, when what you actually need are spells.

 

[Stormonu]

I’ve tweaked a couple of spells whose effect I wasn’t happy with. Things like dropping concentration from Barkskin, adding the ritual tag to a couple spells, expanding the uses of thaumatery, prestidigitation & ceremony, turning True Strike into a bonus action and creating a variant of Shield that lasts for 1 minute, with a lesser bonus to AC.

I have a sizable home brew, with lots of spells culled from prior editions, including custom spells designed by my players, but haven’t tried them in play yet. Should be soon though, as soon as we finish our Saltmarsh campaign.