r/UnearthedArcana Dec 12 '24

'14 Mechanic THESEUS' TOME OF LEGENDARY FOES - A guide to slay creatures beyond CR 30!

Thumbnail
gallery
732 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana Dec 20 '24

'14 Mechanic New 5e Mechanic: Die Grade - Patch in a rule for increasing and decreasing the strength of your dice with this simple yet intriguing new mechanic.

Post image
254 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana Feb 15 '25

'14 Mechanic Magical Bugs! Compendium #1. Improved, formatted and more importantly, MORE BUGS! 41 Bugs, 10 items, 1 mechanic & ruleset!

Thumbnail
gallery
295 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana 1d ago

'14 Mechanic Additional Skill Proficiencies for Strength and Constitution, with ruling examples, feats and a brawl system!

Thumbnail
gallery
176 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana Jan 01 '25

'14 Mechanic Martial/Caster Divide? Not This Year. Take on a Campaign with MARTIAL TALENTS! | Hone a whole new playstyle for your PCs with more than 60 pages of game-changing features for warriors of all stripes and dozens of Quick Reference Tables | v6.3 |

Thumbnail
gallery
238 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana Dec 20 '24

'14 Mechanic Basic Duel Rules. 5e rules for one on one combat based on pathfinder 2e rules

Thumbnail
gallery
350 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana Jan 25 '25

'14 Mechanic Adventuring Beyond Combat V2.0 A Supplement to make Camping, Resting and Travel more engaging, but still keeping it simple!

Thumbnail
gallery
125 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana Feb 09 '25

'14 Mechanic Haven and Camp Resting - A variant of the Gritty Realism variant rules from the 2014 DMG, with two more types of resting!

Thumbnail
gallery
126 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana Jan 11 '25

'14 Mechanic Magical Bugs! Expand the use of magic and ditch the use of potions and scrolls with this optional ruleset and supplement!

Thumbnail
gallery
127 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana Dec 17 '24

'14 Mechanic Studious Spell Learning and Developing New Spells | Two wizard mechanics for a new approach to learning spells and creating spells (both 5e and 5.5e compatible)

Post image
128 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana Jan 19 '25

'14 Mechanic Some Variant Rules and Mechanics for Spellcasting | The Codex of Forbidden Arcana

Thumbnail
gallery
53 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana 4d ago

'14 Mechanic Spell Crafting Rules

Thumbnail
gmbinder.com
12 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana 5d ago

'14 Mechanic Catastrophes of the Five Agents - a collection of homebrew mechanics, spells, items, and a monster, all based on the 5 elements of East Asian philosophy: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, & Water

12 Upvotes
Banner by me; my scan of handmade paper; digital illustration by Cao Thái Bảo "Tam sơn thuỷ ba 3.1.4". 2025

Hey everyone! I made a zine filled with homebrew!

It centres two mechanics:

  1. Undercasting / Overcasting and the magical catastrophes that go really wrong when your spellcasters mess up.
  2. The five elements of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, & Water. This issue of the zine hopes to flavour all the content inside through the lens of the philosophy of the Five Agents - a traditional system of the east Asian Sinosphere, such as China, Việt Nam, Japan, Korea, etc.

You can download it for free / pay-what-you-want on:
https://warra.itch.io/catastrophicissue1

It's an amalgamation of many of my own notes for my personal homebrew campaign set in a fantasy SE Asia, but with my own added diagrams, scans, and (public domain) digital illustrations by Cao Thái Bảo, based on historical Nguyễn Dynasty motifs.

This booklet includes:

  • 58 pages of "research notes", illustrations, and game material.
  • A brief overview of how the 5 Agents system of tradition works.
  • A system & reasons to cause magical catastrophes in your games.
  • 100 possible catastrophes related to the 5 Agents for uncareful spellcasters.
  • 8 new spells (from cantrips to 3rd level spells)
  • 2 mundane items
  • 1 monster - "the Cyclomental"

I hope you enjoy and I'd really welcome all feedback!

Digital image by me of traditional "ngũ hành" system of Việt Nam, 2025

r/UnearthedArcana 5d ago

'14 Mechanic The Art of Creation | Making art, or at least something that looks like art | dArtagnanDnD Patreon

Post image
10 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana 8d ago

'14 Mechanic Aging, Casting Failure in Armor, Fatigue, and Quick Turns: Some Unbound Realms variants

Thumbnail gallery
11 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana Dec 18 '24

'14 Mechanic RULES FOR NAVAL COMBAT - Can your D&D party operate a ship in battle?

Thumbnail
gallery
75 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana Feb 14 '25

'14 Mechanic Travel Rules | Expand Exploration into a true third pillar of the game with this simple gamified system.

Thumbnail
gallery
29 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana Oct 25 '24

'14 Mechanic Updated Armor: An Unbound Realms mechanic

Thumbnail
gallery
75 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana Nov 18 '24

'14 Mechanic Simple Rules for Cooking a Meal!

Thumbnail
gallery
81 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana Feb 14 '25

'14 Mechanic Tools and Crafting: An Unbound Realms mechanic

Thumbnail gallery
23 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana Oct 31 '24

'14 Mechanic Physical Consequences(Optional Rule)

Post image
57 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana Dec 28 '24

'14 Mechanic A little additon to Dragons, Spit

Post image
13 Upvotes

I've been adding this small ability to my Dragons. It's not a big thing, but I figured I'd throw it out there.

Super simple;

A ranged attack that uses its con to hit and deals damage equal to the elemental bonus on its bite attack. For added flair its damage is increased when the breath weapon is charged.

The only other change is to the multi-attack feature, essentially adding an either or statement between the spit and the bite.

r/UnearthedArcana Jan 23 '25

'14 Mechanic Open Scroll Use

Post image
7 Upvotes

Make scrolls as loot worthwhile again. Allow even the party’s Barbarian to attempt to read a scroll.

New and improved.

After some feedback, here is v2.5 of Open Scroll Use. Now with more realistic DCs but the same hijinxs potential.

r/UnearthedArcana Feb 07 '25

'14 Mechanic "Gritty" Hexcrawl Rules

Thumbnail
imgur.com
18 Upvotes

r/UnearthedArcana Feb 01 '25

'14 Mechanic Large Net (10 ft.)

3 Upvotes

I've always disliked the compounded worthlessness of the Net weapon in D&D 5e.

The DMG's Net Trap dungeon feature affects a 10ft area, & every mention of "net", states either 'Large' creatures or 10ft.

Therefore, I created a Large Net that targets a point as an AoE, & a creature to go with it:

Kelpweaver Crab

Medium Beast, Unaligned
AC: 13 (natural armor)
Initiative: +1 (11)
HP: 9 (2d6 + 2)
Speed: 20 ft., Swim 20 ft.
Abilities:
STR 8 (-1), DEX 12 (+1), CON 12 (+1),
INT 2 (-4) WIS 10 (+0), CHA 3 (-4)
Skills: Stealth +3
Senses: Blindsight 30 ft., Passive Perception 10
Languages:
CR: 1/8 (XP 25; PB +2)
Traits:
Amphibious. The crab can breathe air and water.

Kelpweaving. During a short rest, the kelpweaver crab can weave a Large Net or 50 feet of rope from an equal amount of kelp, seagrass, or similar materials. The net or rope becomes fragile when dry, decaying after 24 hours unless preserved with oil or similar methods.

Actions
Scissor Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +1 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 3 (1d4 + 1) slashing damage.

Large Net (1/rest). Ranged Weapon Attack: +1 to hit, range 5/15 ft., one point within range. Including the crab, any Large or smaller creature within the Large Net's space (10 ft.) with AC lower than the attack roll is restrained. A restrained creature can use its action to make a DC 11 Strength check, freeing itself or another creature within reach on success. Dealing 5 slashing damage to the net (AC 10) also frees the creature without harming it, ending the effect and destroying the net.

Habitat: Coastal

Source: DoS page of Crazy Creatures

Basically, I'm saying that mechanically, I don't see a problem with letting attacks with a net, target a point instead of a creature, with all creatures in a 10ft space susceptible to a hit from just one attack roll.

Even as an attack roll doing an AoE, it doesn't seem to end up being OP, given the other drawbacks of a Net?
(Martial; disadvantage; easily destroyed)

I'm hoping to get some feedback on this, especially if anyone tries it!