D&D 5E Do you allow third party material in your game...

[BookBarbarian]

Any player at my table can bring any material, published, playtest (UA), or Third Party to me for review. If I don't think it's outright broken they are welcome to try it. We can always review how it's going later.

I do this, because i want my players to be able to play the type of characters they want to play.

 

[Tallifer]

I allow almost anything, but it is my players who are timid about the DMs Guild et alia. We mostly use stuff for races not yet published by WotC, such as pixies.

 

[Greg K]

I am not currently running 5e. However, going back to 2e, I have allowed 3rd party material. In fact, when it it comes to WOTC D&D, I tend to favor third party material as WOTC supplemental material tends to miss the mark for me conceptually and/or mechanically in terms of implementation- especially, player directed material. Now, I am highly selective about the third party material that I do allow and, with some searching, can find material more aligned to my personal aesthetics and gaming style.

By author, here are some examples of third party material that I have lined up to use in 5e:

• bMcDaniel (ENWorld): Witch Class
  
• I Am a Banana (ENWorld):
  • Complete Fighter's Handbook*
  • Complete Rogue's Handbook*
  *with a few personal tweaks to the skill and tool proficiencies and starting equipment of some starting builds.
• I'mNotAFruit (GiantInthePlayGround):
  • Skald Martial Archetype
  • Troubadour Rogue Archetype
• Khaalis (ENWorld):
  • variant: Light Armored Fighter ( I find it a fantasy archetype that falls between the both standard fighter and rogue and deserving of its own class)
  • Brawler Fighting Style
  • Bruiser Martial Archetype
  • Weapon Group: Fist Weapons
• Jester David/David Gibson (ENWorld/5MWD):
  • Commander Martial Archetype
  • Fey Blood Sorcerer
  • some alternate mechanics
• RhaezDaeven (ENWorld): variant: skill points
• SkidAce (ENWorld): Martial Artist Feat

I have also found several backgrounds, archetypes, variant rules, and even a few new base classes that I have at various other forums, blogs, websites and DM's Guild. I am also looking to purchase Connor's As Good As His Blade (EN5ider) and Ari's Combat Maneuvers (EN5sider).

 

[pming]

Hiya!

Goliath monk (probably the most official character in my game),

Tabaxi artificer (Volos guide and Unearthed Arcana),

Human or elf warlock of death pact (from somewhere out there in cyberspace),

and a
human occult class (from ENsider)

let me know what you think.
thanks in advance!

I allow anything...as long as I approve it first. This means that yes, you can play a Goliath...if I get to look over Goliath first, get a copy of it (photo or buy me the book), and it fits all the criteria for my campaign (it "fits" into my world setting). If it needs changes, I'll change it and re-present to the player. If he/she likes it, we're off to the races.

One KEY factor is the question I pose to the player: "Why? And just saying 'I think it would be fun/cool' isn't going to cut it. WHY would it be fun/cool?" I have had a player re-evaluate his/her reasoning for playing it more times than not, and upon reflection, choose to go with some other race/class/whatever.

Goliath Monk? "Why?" If the player is obviously grasping at straws as to why, as in he/she has no background idea, history, goal for the character, etc, then it's usually obvious that they just want it to min/max and are trying to be disruptive to the game as a whole. If the player says "Because I want to do a lot of damage with my fists and I want to smash up". Ok. I'm cool with that. A shallow reason, sure, but at least the player is being honest. I'll reward honesty more times than not...I'll gleefully punish a player who is trying to be "weasle'ly".

Same goes for the other player choices. If it looks like they are trying to "game the system", thinking that if they use X ability from some optional source in combination with Y ability from the core rules, and get something "unbeatable" or "undefendable" or some other such chicanery, they are in for a rude awakening!

So, bottom line...yes, I'll allow it if I think it's worth it to the campaign as a whole. I don't just allow stuff because a player wants. Yeah, yeah, yeah..."Stringent DM!", "Control freak!", "DM can't handle diversity!", "DM's just taking away my fun!" and all that other stuff. Look. I've been at this DM thing for...over 35 years now, and there are two things that ALWAYS bares fruit: (1)It's easier to give to players, than to take away, and (2) One bad player choice can kill a PC...one bad DM choice can kill a campaign. So...ALWAYS err on the side of No, because you an always say Yes later.

That said...just about everything I've seen put out for 5e as 'additional' stuff has been poor to outright crap. I've had ONE Goliath (Barbarian), and ONE Aarakocra. Nobody has asked to play anything else...because, well, see first sentence of this paragraph.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[ccs]

Yes, no, maybe, sometimes.

It just depends upon what it is.
Unless your bringing some kind of psionics, ask & provide me a copy of it & I'll take a look and let you know.

If it's some sort of psionics? Then I'll cut to the chase & just tell you no up front. Because psionics do not exist in games I run.

 

[hejtmane]

This thread is specifically for those DMs who have decided to allow third party source material in their games.

We are starting up Tomb of Annihilation soon, and a few of my players want to be monster races from Volo's Guide (which is fine), and even new classes from Unearthed Arcana (what the hell, i'll try it out, too!)

When news broke, a few others wanted to use some stuff from EN5sider (the Occult class) and some Warlock of Death pact (from who knows where).

I looked much of it over, and it isnt bad, but what i want to know before making a DM decision at my table is, why did you decide to allow third party source material in your game in the first place?

if you dont allow third party material, you can chime in as well, but i really wanted to see how its worked out for those of you who decided to allow things from places like EN5sider, DMGuild, Unearthed Arcana, etc.

So far my players are thinking...

Goliath monk (probably the most official character in my game),

Tabaxi artificer (Volos guide and Unearthed Arcana),

Human or elf warlock of death pact (from somewhere out there in cyberspace),

and a
human occult class (from ENsider)

let me know what you think.
thanks in advance!

I use Elemental Evil, Volvos guide and SCAG all these are official D&D content (I do not do Adventure Leauge so I do not have those constraints) but on 3rd Party, I use Tomb of Beast and I have a printed copy of the Monster of the Day that used to exist. I just recently added 5 sided dices Magic item book (I like new ideas) and I have brought in two unearth arcana pieces as play test to see how it would play out. The modified Kensi from classes and a warforge from race.

 

[Ath-kethin]

I run a Primeval Thule campaign with elements of Talislanta and Conan mixed in. It would be accurate to describe my game as mostly 3rd Party hung on the bones of the "official" content.

I do a fair amount of homebrewing as well, so there's also that. I incorporate concepts and sometimes even mechanics from 3.x and 2e - sometimes even from BECMI and RC era D&D.

I also write and publish material for 5e through a few different companies, so chances are decent that a few people here are using 3rd party stuff I came up with too.

 

[Yaarel]

Do I use third party material? Maybe indirectly? I use homebrew tweaks of D&D SRD material that are sometimes inspired by third party material.

The upcoming Empyrea material looks cool. I might use it as is. But because of the people making it, it is hard to call it ‘third party’. Some are founders of D&D itself.

 

[CrimsonCarcharodon]

I use a ton of third-party stuff. In the Eberron game I've got going, I've got a warforged race I pulled off of DM's Guild, the Unearthed Arcana Eberron article, the UA revised ranger, Kobold Press's Tome of Beasts, a bunch of archetypes from Middle Finger of Vecna (some of the best homebrew stuff out there, in my opinion), and a bunch of custom monsters and magic items.

My criteria for homebrew/third party stuff is that A) I have access to it, B) that it fits into the setting I'm running, and C) that we all agree that if something needs to be altered to make the game better or more balanced, we'll figure out as a group how to change it to make it work better.

 

[Hussar]

Also running a Primeval Thule campaign and playing with a Forge Priest.

So, yup, likes me the 3PP.