Possibly a stupid question, but. . .

[jdrakeh]

How many of you create your own magic items/monsters/spells/feats/PrCs/etc from wholecloth? I seem to see several posts here (and elsewhere) from Dungeon Masters asking what pre-existing feats/skills/PrCs they need to combine/alter to obtain Desired Result X. Are DMs who custom-craft their own campaign-specific crunchy bits from the ground up a dying breed?

Some people, like Eric Noah and John Zinzer are pretty heavily invested in this kind of craft, as is the infamous ooi clan (if you've ever seen hong's Brittannia stuff, Zinzer's Warlords of the Accordlands, or Eric Noah's Western Shore house rules, you know what I'm talking about). That said, the seem to be the exceptions to the rule. Or am I simply up too early in the morning again?

What say you?

 

[Gold Roger]

I'm getting into it. Currently loaded myself with:

Racial classes for all PHB races (except half-races, that get access to both parental classes), orcs, changelings, warforged (just called forged imc), shifter, tieflings and githzerai.

A total rewrite of Tieflings and githzerai at LA 0 and closer to their planescape incarnation as well as my own view of them.

"Dirty Tricks" alternate class features for rogues that can replace sneak attack dice.

A complete reworking of the ToB system so it works without a need for additional base classes, characters generally learn only one school and schools are more balanced.

A complete reworking of psionics so it works without a need for additional base classes (this one has low priority).

Feats that give every weapon in the PHB unique options and make them all viable.

 

[Darklone]

I did this pretty often for a long time... yet the more good 3.5 stuff came out, the more I put away my existing stuff and took the well balanced D&D crunch.

Races, Monsters, some Talent feats and my homebrew setting remained.

 

[EyeontheMountain]

I don't see the need to make lots of custom stuff, actually

The only area I really do custom is Magical Items. I did not buy any of the Encyclopedia Magic books, but I did get the random tables from somewhere(Dragon?) so I roll on those, and then just make up what item they found based on the name, or perhaps two names mixed together. Makes good items.

 

[GQuail]

How many of you create your own magic items/monsters/spells/feats/PrCs/etc from wholecloth?

One of the big advantages of D&D 3.x/D20 is that there's so much pre-existing stuff, that I don't always have to go wholecloth when I can pluck something else that someone has already done the "heavy lifting" and balancing work on. In particular, I find monster templates mean that it's way easier to create a monster by alterations than by starting from scratch.

Having said that, I've stuck in plenty of unique magic items for my players to learn (including two legacy items, one of which very quickly became a PC's defining characteristic) and I have offered on a few occasions to make PrCs for people (I picked up Buy The Numbers primarilly to give me some pointers on how to do that) though in the end they've found a pre-existing one that does the job they're looking for.

 

[Jolly Giant]

I find that making my own crunch is an important part of the fun of DMing. Plus, it helps eliminate meta-thinking if the players don't know everything about the NPCs, items and monsters they come across.

 

[Piratecat]

I make lots of custom items, monsters and spells. I'm much less likely to make feats or PrCs.

 

[hong]

Some people, like Eric Noah and John Zinzer are pretty heavily invested in this kind of craft, as is the infamous ooi clan (if you've ever seen hong's Brittannia stuff, Zinzer's Warlords of the Accordlands, or Eric Noah's Western Shore house rules, you know what I'm talking about). That said, the seem to be the exceptions to the rule. Or am I simply up too early in the morning again?

What say you?

I say, what, I'm a clan now?

 

[Aust Diamondew]

I make some custom stuff. For this reason I tend not to buy too many supplement books since usually only 10% of the stuff in a given book will get used but 95% of the stuff I make up will get used.

To a certain extent though you can't just create something wholecloth, for a spell for instance you should compare it to similar level spells to see if its too weak or powerful.

 

[Piratecat]

I say, what, I'm a clan now?

Congratulations. You've been promoted.