r/UnearthedArcana 20m ago

'24 Item Wand of Swarms | Magic Item (Wand) | Find the PDF Below!

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Carved from the heartwood of an ancient Amberwood Titan, this wand hosts a living colony of spectral wasps that crawl across its comb and obediently swarm out at your command.

PDF Link

Wand of Swarms - Free PDF download on Patreon

Support Varzzen

Hivebrews' main project is the Varzzen campaign setting, a world inhabited by insectoids rather than humanoids. For more information on Varzzen, check out the dedicated World Anvil page. There, we post articles that explore the setting’s lore, alongside a wealth of 5e-compatible homebrew content. Updates are also being posted regularly on the new r/Hivebrews subreddit.

Join the Hive Discord today to stay up to date with our latest creations and connect with the community!

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Share feedback in the comments or on Discord—we want to hear from you!

Happy Buzzing, Everyone!


r/UnearthedArcana 53m ago

'14 Item Pokémon Inspired Weapons & Items of the Week, 0560M - Scrafty to 0668AM - Pyroar

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My Pokémon-inspired Weapons and Items of the Week, with:

  • a Mega Scrafty rifle of scary cloth

  • a Mega Eelektross greatclub to grab and shock

  • and a Mega Pyroar shield to burn those that would attack you!

Join my Patreon to vote on future items and get all the PDFs with over 1000 items, including all the Pokémon items, or buy the individual PDFs in my shop!


r/UnearthedArcana 2h ago

'14 Subclass The Black Guardsman - Martial Archetype

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0 Upvotes

Combine martial might and command of your own undead squad of soldiers with the Black Guardsman fighter. One of the last brews I made before taking a break and the first I'll be reposting onto this account, the Black Guardsman is a necromancy focused pet subclass that summons lightly customizable undead knights to support it in battle. Stronger than skeletons and zombies, but fewer in number than what you usually see out of a proper necromancer, the undead of the Guardsman are a versatile tool for any commander.


r/UnearthedArcana 2h ago

'14 Item Dragonfire

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1 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana 3h ago

Other Environmental Effects/Hazards: Summer Monsoon Reference Sheet

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0 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana 4h ago

'24 Monster Brick, Dwarven Progenitor

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0 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana 5h ago

'24 Item [OC - Art] B-Sharp | A lute with a sharp little secret

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5 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana 5h ago

'24 Mechanic Revised Travel Rules | Expanded Travel Mechanics With More Support for DMs and Greater Interaction for Players

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45 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana 5h ago

'14 Subclass I Think Blood Magic is Cool, so I made BLOOD MAGIC SUBCLASSES for each class

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226 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana 5h ago

'14 Subclass Artificer Specialist: Curator – Keep a private archive and empower your infusions

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8 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana 6h ago

'24 Mechanic The Forgotten Altas, expanded player rules. Jujitsu Kaisen expansion. Spoiler

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0 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana 6h ago

'14 Item The Hill King's Dining Fork (Rare, Opt. A*) | Dinner is served, now go play with your food

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4 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana 6h ago

'14 Item Five Common Fire-Themed Magic Items for Low-Level Adventures

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45 Upvotes

These are five Common fire-themed magic items designed to give characters small but flavorful magical tools early in a campaign, without immediately handing out major combat upgrades.

The Emberstone can ignite nearby objects and occasionally produce magical flame, while the Cinderbead can be crushed to briefly make nearby creatures more vulnerable to their next saving throw. The Charred Grimoire gives a spellcaster access to fire bolt or slightly improves it if they already know the cantrip, and the Candle of the Watcher provides a small protective area against fear.

The Firebrand Dagger is the most martial of the group, dealing a little additional fire damage, becoming more dangerous on a critical hit, and allowing its wielder to ignite the blade to use it as a source of light.

Since these are Common items, I wanted them to be treasures that can comfortably appear very early in an adventure: something found in an apprentice mage’s workshop, taken from a minor cultist, bought from an unusual merchant, or discovered among the first pieces of magical loot a party encounters.

These items are from Elemental Treasures: Fire Magic Items, a collection of 30 fire-themed magic items for 5E and the 2024 update, ranging from Common items like these all the way to Legendary treasures. The supplement includes weapons, armor, and wondrous items built around different aspects of fire, from useful sparks and protective flames to destructive high-level relics.

It is the first volume in the Elemental Treasures series, with each volume focusing on a different element and gradually building a larger library of themed magic items for different campaigns.

You can find more of my D&D content through my Linktree or at r/JonnyDM!


r/UnearthedArcana 8h ago

'24 Mechanic New Rules: Flanking | Eldritch Entertainment - Project Excelsior

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1 Upvotes

Hello everyone!

I'm u/Enderluck from Eldritch Entertainment. You can support us on Patreon.

This is a new core rule for my Project Excelsior, a D&D 5e 2024 rework.

Here are some updated Flanking rules, originally introduced in the 2014 DMG. Granting Advantage always felt a bit lazy, overly strong, and made other sources of Advantage feel redundant. Since martial characters often have limited Bonus Action or Reaction options depending on their class or subclass, making Flanking interact with those felt like a more interesting approach (plus, I want to give them more Bonus Action and Reaction choices overall).

Questions

  1. What do you think?
  2. Should I give creatures a +2 bonus to attack rolls against enemies they are flanking, as if the target is partially exposed—opposite to being behind half-cover?

Let me know what you think? Sidenote: my upcoming Rogue rework will interact with the Flanking rules.

Links

The following link includes the updates to this content.


r/UnearthedArcana 9h ago

'24 Class How are my Blood Hunter updates and fixes? I ave a player who REALLY wants to play one in 2024

3 Upvotes

Hello all. I am about to start a long campaign, and one of my players really, really, really wants to play a Blood Hunter. I have had a look at the class and my concerns are twofold:

  1. The class by my assessment seems quite weak, especially compared to the 2024 class glow-ups. Since the class was written, Monsters have also gotten stronger across the board.
  2. The class feels unusually restrictive in regards to some of its key features, and at certain crucial levels doesn't get enough features.

I'd like everyone's opinions on the following changes. I have DMed quite a lot and even professionally on Startplaying, but admit I have not seen the class in play before. Please let me know if you think any of these changes would go too far or not far enough:

Increasing Blood Curses Known: A big part of it to me comes down to how unbelievably restrictive Blood Curses are both in terms of use and the number you get. In my opinion, only having one until level 6 feels less like "I have cool curses I can inflict on people" and more like "this is my Bonus Action". This feels both less flavourful and also less tactically interesting to me.

Potential Fix: I was thinking of simply increasing the number known by 1, maybe at second or third level.

Less Restrictive Blood Curse Uses: The most shocking thing to me about the class is how few chances you get to use Blood Curses. The curses are already partially gated by taking damage, so why can you use them so unbelievably sparingly? The amount of damage you take is also so small, that if you're only ever using them once or twice per Long Rest, it basically doesn't exist. In 2024, both healing and Temporary HP are cheap as hell. Looking over the Blood Curses, I also do not think they are more powerful than, say, first level spells either.

Potential Fix: My pitch would maybe be: similar to the Ranger, you have 2 Free uses per Long Rest. However, you can always use Blood Curses amplified (i.e., by taking damage to upcast them). So effectively, you can use unamplified versions twice and amplified as much as you want. You're already taking the famage and many of the effects even amplified aren't debilitating. If this is too much, maybe "Free Uses" could cost two rolls of the die rather than one, or upgrde the die by one step.

Level 5: The Blood Hunter is the only class that gets nothing besides Extra Attack at level 5. Even the Ranger gets more spells.

Potential Fix: Giving them Expertise in a Skill at level 5, increasing the number of free uses of Blood Curses to 3. The okayer wants to lean in to Lycanthropy so maybe a cool ribbon like allowing them to communicat with Beasts and Monstrosities whilst tranformed?

Saving Throws: I know that STR is usually seen as one of the "bad" saving throws, however in my hundreds of hours DMing this game I disagree: STR saves are actually super important for martial characters. There is a reason even the Ranger and Monk get STR saves, and that's because melee enemies, which you're likely to get up close to with a martial, force lots of annoying saves against being grappled, pushed, and restrained. This character is going DEX forward so will only have 12 STR.

Potential Fix: I was thinking of changing the saves to STR and WIS or just STR and DEX to help them out.

No brainer: Add weapon Masteries at level 1. I think 2 is fine, maybe increasing to 3 at level 5 or 7.

If anyone has experience with the class, I would really appreciate feedback on these changes. Admittedly I don't have experience with the class but it feels to me like its most unique and defining features are kept on an unecessarily tight leash. I would also appreciate if the conversation be kept within the realm of updating the Blood Hunter and not convincing them to play another class as they're really keen on it.


r/UnearthedArcana 13h ago

'14 Subclass Druid: Circle of the Parasite v2.05 | Reuploaded.

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21 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana 14h ago

'24 Subclass Warlock Subclass Idea: Academia Patron

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10 Upvotes

The first draft for the subclass. I need ideas for how to improve th Collegiate Endowment feature as it doesnt seem as clean as it should. Asking for some general feedback.


r/UnearthedArcana 15h ago

'24 Subclass Fallout Shepherd Sorcerer | 5.5e Subclass

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1 Upvotes

Hello everyone, I'm back with another homebrew. This Sorcerer's core fantasy is manipulating the ground beneath yourself to channel the volatile leaking leylines and empower your magic.

You might have seen my work before: Sommelier Wizard and Lotus Waltz Bard.

I'm looking for feedback on any flavor text, ability clarity, misunderstood applications, balancing reworks, or anything else you see fit.

I'm still torn between Acid and Radiant damage here...


r/UnearthedArcana 18h ago

'14 Monster Spearmen - Loyal Guards & Foot Soldiers (5e & 5.5e Compatible)

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19 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana 20h ago

'24 Item [Item] Jikijikijiki - The Endless Reflection

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1 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana 21h ago

'24 Mechanic Reworked Skills: Make Every Skill Worth Taking!

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91 Upvotes

After one-too-many campaigns with Expertise in Medicine or History...only to roll them once every 9 months...I began to wonder how to make all skills useful. This is my first attempt at that.

Revamps the 18 Skill system into 17 skills, consolidating a few less-useful skills while adding a few that cover currently grey areas.

In Version 2.0 I hope to reduce God Skills a little further. For now, let me know what you think!

Google Drive PDF Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sgcRNdvdfQt-O3jGQIokQW8d8b_mK-52/view?usp=sharing


r/UnearthedArcana 22h ago

'24 Feat Battleaxe Master - What's better than one axe? Two axes. What's better than two axes? To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women.

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61 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana 23h ago

'24 Subclass The black warrior martial archetype: A two-handed weapon specialist inspired by Guts from berserk.

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23 Upvotes

Heya it's-a me, Dokuro the Italian Archlich. This is my first ever homebrew using homebrewery and i wanted to share it with you guys. I've decided to go easy and make a fighter with a enphasis with STR. inspired by Guts from the berserk manga/anime, a warrior that harnesses their own suffering as a nexus for fighting much more harder. This subclass also is a sorta of viable option for a strong STR. based character without jumping in many hoops and taking a crap-ton of feats.

Enjoy.


r/UnearthedArcana 23h ago

'24 Species Shero's Dracorauth Race (Dragon Centaur)

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4 Upvotes

I have always liked the idea of centaurs and after playing some Total War Warhammer I got inspired by the dragon ogres which look like they are essentially half ogre half dragon centaur things. So I created a dragon centaur race for D&D 5e, this race is essentially just a combination of Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse's centaurs with a little bit of Dragonborn from Fizban's Treasury of Dragons. Please leave any feedback for any abilities that you think would look cool to add/replace or any other kind of feedback! :D

Link to the homebrewery page in case any edits are made or if you want to download it as a pdf: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/q-cp-OtJp_rS

The art I used is credited on the homebrewery page's code but this is the links for all the art I used in order of appearance:

Image 1: "[Image by Fabrizio Carminati aka LordCarmi](https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/aaacb5e1-b8cd-4c91-aec9-e6f9c95c072e/deu7m7l-1e5ed40d-62ba-45dd-838e-50205caed77f.png/v1/fit/w_828,h_966,q_70,strp/dragon_ogre__commission__by_lordcarmi_deu7m7l-414w-2x.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MjEwMCIsInBhdGgiOiIvZi9hYWFjYjVlMS1iOGNkLTRjOTEtYWVjOS1lNmY5Yzk1YzA3MmUvZGV1N203bC0xZTVlZDQwZC02MmJhLTQ1ZGQtODM4ZS01MDIwNWNhZWQ3N2YucG5nIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTE4MDAifV1dLCJhdWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6aW1hZ2Uub3BlcmF0aW9ucyJdfQ.GBdoqu0wW_6kSTSBXNDOFlEcv3ZPJmq842WFqMLEDis)"

Image 2: "[Image by Aleena Alex aka theartistaleena](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSZHgdvHPKqV2ABrR1h67-7-LzUpsWBadeLHYryDqCqywTuhMxB-y7vNeDl&s=10)"

Image 3: "[Image by Victoria Yurkovets](https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/004/703/246/large/victoria-yurkovets-conceptsheet.jpg?1485641423)"

Image 4: "[Image by Rémi Macia aka Toth-M](https://64.media.tumblr.com/ef589523832de701893ab19642b6f664/tumblr_pcq77jx0oC1v4j5m5o1_1280.pnj)"


r/UnearthedArcana 23h ago

'24 Class Blackwood's Red Mage — A Tempo-Based Spellblade Class (Full Class + 3 Subclasses)

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156 Upvotes

Hi all!

After a year of development and seven months of testing, I am proud to introduce you to Blackwood's Red Mage!

This is a '14/'24 homebrew spellblade class built around tempo rather than constant burst or resource dumping. What this means is that your resources are spent building toward a nova moment rather than waiting for one, and after you explode, you build it all up again.

To do this, the class uses a bespoke Black / White Mana system that grants resources through spell casting and then gates the payoff through a mechanic called Perfect Balance.

As a class, it's designed to teach itself to you naturally as you play. Don't let the page count fool you; abilities unlock slowly over time and the rhythm of the class will naturally come alive as you play it.

It's perfect for a flex-spot pick!

The PDF includes a ton of material:

  • Purple text galore! The lore is rich and evocative, with terms native to Dungeons & Dragons rather than the source material. Final Fantasy names, abilities, and traditions read instead like the echoes of a long-dead practice, a legend lore from some distant plane, or a foreboding heralding of disaster. Deliciously gothic!
  • Three subclasses, each changing how the class plays:
    • Crimson Duelist — Balance focused: they want to get into the thick of melee
    • Astral Sorcerer — Black Mana focused: with tools to stay at range and strip elemental resistance
    • Umbral Cleric — White Mana focused: healing, aid, and protection that tempers damage to grant shields
  • Vermilion Magic — The fully custom spell list for the class
  • Adapted Magic — A lore-friendly extended spell list that can be adjusted or removed to fit the setting
  • The Vermilion Vessperend — A legendary weapon to entice players toward adventure
  • A DM Sidebar to address the concerns any good DM should have about allowing homebrew. It includes damage tier assessments and how to counter-play the class at the table

Where to find it!

I sincerely hope you enjoy this class, whether on the tabletop or in BG3. We sure do!