Min/Max Boards

Well, the unarmed strikes are odd enough I figure an interpretation like that can't be too far off.  I mean, it's a light weapon that acts as a 1-hander (it is also said somewhere that you can use your full UA if you only have one hand, so....).  Anyways, I agree with that "meld into torso" thing, it's that once that happens, your arm now ends in the weapon: your body (which has an arm that ends in your body that has an arm that ends in your body etc), and is...not melded into your torso, while also being melded into your torso (depending on how you interpret the weapon thing and the placement of it)...This thing does rely on an iffy interpretation of the rules, which is why it's going here, rather than a more rules-centric board.  More of an amusing anecdote if you will.

reserved for any additional information I might add later

Also, I have not proof-read this one since I posted it on the original forum all those months ago (I think it's been two-three years), so some information is almost certainly inacurate currently.  I will work on making this guide better in the future, with input welcome.

On the list of changes needed/debates needed: Fist of the Forest unarmed damage increase.  I believe I misread it the first time, and then unconsiously misread it the same way every other time, I honestly thought it was just a dice size increase, not a monk level increase.  If it is a monk level increase, it just lowers the max base damage, but frees up other stuff (don't need a Monk's Belt, for instance)

As a monk, you need to multiclass to be effective, especially at the high levels.  There are many paths you can take, including an arcane twist, cleric casting, and even a healbot.  A healbot that’s better at healing than the Healer and can still do other things.  Yeah.

Swordsage: This multi-class is great with the unarmed substitution if you need maneuvers and stances as prereqs.  The class can stand on its own, but if you don’t want to focus on maneuvers, and want to focus elsewhere (unarmed damage, for instance) a few levels are really nice if taken in the right spots.

Fighter: Bonus feats.  You likely need more feats, especially early on.  Decent for this fact.  And the full BAB and higher HD don’t hurt, and if you need those proficiencies for some reason, there you go.

Psychic Warrior: Possibly the single best class to multiclass into for monks.  Thanks to Tashalatora it increases you unarmed damage as well.  And gives you bonus feats.  That right there already trumps the fighter.  And then you get powers.  Juicy powers like Expansion.  That’s really all you care about power-wise.  There are some more good ones, but this one is awesome.

Arcanist: Enlightened fist allows this gish to work well.  And thanks to that proficiency with the hand axe, you qualify for Abjurant Champion, the king of gish PrCs.  A really rewarding path, as it can get you near full (16 levels) casting, and the ability to channel ranged spells through unarmed strikes.  Enter with either wizard or sorcerer.  Wizard has better spell casting (prepared casters usually are) and you don’t need to devote precious spells known to spells used 1/day like Greater Mighty Whallop.

Divine: Ironically, the cleric/monk doesn’t work as well.  Because divine casting is better for melee (all those delicious buffs), you’d think it would be great, and the wis synergy is awesome.  But the PrC is so-so.  You’re almost better off just straight cleric with PrCs and taking Superior Unarmed Strike and having a Monk’s Belt.  If you don’t have the feats to spare, then it can be alright.  Definitely worse ways to go.

Paladin: Yeah, you heard me right.  Want insane saves?  Or wisx2 to AC?  Two levels here get you wis to either saves or AC.  Wait, but I thought it was cha to saves?  Dragon Compendium has a feat called Serenity.  It keys your paladin abilities off of wisdom.  There is an alternate class feature that subs the save boost for an AC boost.  Coupled with full BAB and an alright spell list it’s not the worst dip for monks.


These are the back bones of monk builds.  Without them, you won’t be as effective.  Except maybe a psychic warrior build.

Fist of the Forest-CC: This is hands down the best monk PrC out there.  Adds con to AC and increases your unarmed damage by a dice size with only one level.  And there are three levels.  Take all three.  I use this in almost all of my monk builds.  The only three types I don’t: near full psychic warrior, enlightened fist, and sacred fist.  Fluff can be changed remember.

Initiate of Draconic Mysteries-Drac: This is another great PrC for monks.  The unarmed damage boosts are spread out more, but at level 9 this class gains a x3 crit on unarmed strikes.  The entry requirements are a pain though, just because of the skills.  And the PrC doesn’t lend much besides these things, spell resistance that’s negligible, evasion (which you already have), and darkvision.  You can scare really low level things!

Enlightened Fist-CArc: For gishes, there are many worse PrCs than this one.  The ability to channel touch spells, and eventually rays, is amazing.  Combine with Abjurant Champion for fun.  Enter with wizard or sorcerer, wizard is obviously more powerful, but either one works fine.

Sacred Fist-CD: Full casting means there’s little reason to not take it as a cleric/monk.  I say take SUS and forget monk levels entirely, but some say otherwise.  You could definitely do worse.

Shou Disciple-UE: I don’t find this class to be all that good.  I feel it’s worth mentioning because some people seem to love it.  I honestly don’t know why.  The ability to flurry with any melee weapon, a couple bonus feats from a very limited list, full BAB, and unarmed strike progression.  That’s about all worth mentioning.  The ability to flurry with any melee weapon (at the cost of 5 levels, mind you) isn’t so hot if you’re only using unarmed strikes anyway.  And if you aren’t using unarmed strikes, why are you a monk?  Go find flurry somewhere else, like Exotic Weapon Master.

Bear Warrior-CW: A barbarian PrC, but so fun.  Who doesn’t want to be a crazy kung-fu bear?  Note: I do not use alignment restrictions on most base classes, but even if you do, this is still easy to enter: start monk, after 2 to 6 levels start barbarian and don’t look back.  You lose nothing.  Anyways, the extra size makes tripping/grappling easier, and increases damage.  Not as good as Expansion.

Shiba Protector-OA: One level is how long this class is.  Okay, it’s 10, but you only care about that first level: +wis to attack and damage.  Yeah, you read that right, it’s just +wis.  So that’s in addition to any other stat, like str, dex, or, oh yeah, wis.  Take this and Intuitive Attack and that’s wisx2 to attack.

Shadow Sun Ninja-ToB: This allows you to heal at will, and thus lets you heal better even in combat than the Healer.  With unarmed damage average of 162+wis, that’s better than a heal cast by a healer with Augment Healing and the same-1 in cha as you have wis.  Oh, it also has some other great abilities, this just lets you do one more thing.  It advances initiator level and grants maneuvers and stances, so that’s nice, but it uses most likely the swordsage mechanic, which sucks.  It does advance monk abilities and it has all good saves though.  I can see up to level 8 being useful, and maybe level 10.

Drunken Master-CW: People love this PrC.  Why?  I don’t know.  Its main class feature makes you worse.  Improvised Weapons aren’t as damaging as unarmed strikes can get without these levels (and +1d12 is nothing compared to +16d8) and aren’t as easy to get enchanted (you have to have VoPov).

Kensai-CW: Get a Necklace of Natural Attacks.  But the move action to gain +8 strength is nice.  This can be a good PrC to take, probably for Enlightened Fists who take VoPov and don’t care about caster levels after they get level 9 spells.  Not entirely a bad decision, but it’s epic.  If the NoNA isn’t allowed, this can be a substitute, but it’s a very poor substitute.

Reaping Mauler-CW: In order to take this PrC focused on grappling, you first need to make yourself worse at grappling.  Do not take this PrC under any circumstances.  But what if…NO!.

Tattooed Monk-CW: It’s a monk but better!  If only other PrCs weren’t as good, then this prC might get some screen time.  But when it comes down to it, this PrC is only good for making pun-Pun have infinite stats.  I’ve tried forever to make this PrC viable, but to no avail.  There are some nice tattoos, but when it all comes down to it, items and or spells do it better, and getting other PrCs are worth more.

Warshaper-CW: You must be able to shapeshift, but the benefits are well worth it.  Extra reach, more damage, more str/con, immune to crits, and fast healing.

Monk of the Enabled Hand-drg 299: A 3.0 class that is worth 3 levels: make an AoO against someone who hits you in combat.  Also stacks for just about everything important with monk levels.

Psionic Fist-SRD (Fist of Zuoken-XPH): Go psychic warrior/tashalatora instead.  If that feat’s not open, this is an adequate substitute.

I’m not going through all of the feats obviously, just some traps and some of the better feats.  This section needs a lot of help.  They are arranged in the order that I thought of them in, except for the obvious red/black/blue arrangement.

Any +2/+2 skill feat, and Skill Focus: As a monk, you don’t need these.  As anyone, you don’t need these.  Except maybe a diplomonster.  Unless it’s a prereq, don’t take it.

Deflect Arrows: Unless you plan on going epic, or can take epic feats early, and are taking Infinite Deflection, Reflect Arrows, and Exceptional Deflection, not worth it.

Power Attack: Yes, for a primary melee I said PA was a bad thing to take.  The reason: you get no bonus damage with light weapons.  You’d be lowering your attack modifier and getting very little in return.  See below though.

Fist of Iron: Seriously, a stunning attempt for +1d6 damage 1/round at the most?  Come on!

Fiery Fist: It’s better than Fists of Iron, but still not worth what you’re giving up.

Fiery Ki Defense: It’s better than Fiery Fist (slightly) but also very situational.  Still a waste of a feat compared to most any other feat out there.

Dodge: +1 AC vs. one opponent.  Wouldn’t be worth anything ever if there weren’t some great feats and PrCs that require it.

Mobility: See Dodge.  Also, you have tumble.  You won’t provoke anyways.

Eagle Claw Attack: 1) requires Improved Sunder.  2) Is only against objects.

Water Splitting Stone: No.  +4 situational damage is not a good feat.  You shouldn’t even be suffering from DR anyways.

Distant Touch: Instantly becomes a black feat if you’re not allowed to get throwing put on your Necklace of Natural Attacks.  Point is, that item does this better.

Vow of Poverty: Monks are extremely item dependant.  This feat is a major trap.

All other vows: Way too limiting for their bonus.  Sure having all of the vows would be great thematically, but not in your typical campaign.  It’s a shame that they don’t work for monks.

Ki Blast: Other than making you a super saiyan, this feat is worthless.  The damage is so low as to be worthless, even by the time you can take the feat.

Versatile Unarmed Strike: Feats that are made obsolete by an item are not good.  Just get Transmuting put on your unarmed strike and you’re fine.

Improved Sunder: No!  Bad!  No destroying your own loot before you get it!

Stunning Fist: It’s decent, I guess.  There are some stunning feats worth taking, but on its own, the DC+times per day+miscellaneous factors mean it’s not actually all that great.  Because it’s nice it’s not red, stunning means they can’t do anything for a round.

Extra Stunning: Since it’s a whole feat, don’t take it until you don’t have anything else to spend it on, but since some stunning feats are nice, it can be a good feat.

Pain Touch: Great if you focus on stunning.  In fact, not taking this if focused on stunning would be irresponsible.

Weakening Touch: A penalty to enemy’s strength is nice, but -6 isn’t overwhelming.

Ability Focus (stunning fist): See Pain Touch.

Mage Slayer: Aside from the required CC skill ranks, it’s a pretty good feat if you don’t cast spells.  There are better, and if you’re focusing on AoOs, then this is almost a must have.

Kung Fu Genius/Carmedine Monk: Take the second one if possible.  They make you int based instead of wis based.  More for wizard/monk gishes than anything else.  Makes skills useful, and that’s of note, but wis powers quite a few other things (stunning fist, listen/spot, etc.) so it’s an even trade off, maybe a little less since it costs a feat.

Ascetic Mage: for sorcerer/monk gishes, it’s a requirement.  Not much more than that.

Intuitive Attack: Reduces MAD considerably, but without dex/str (whichever one you were going to use) you aren’t as effective at ____, _____ being battle field control, not being exalted, etc.  Mainly the whole trip being str checks thing.

Weapon Finesse: See Intuitive Attack.  If you can focus on strength and not care so much about AC, don’t use this, and have a token amount of dex, for Combat Reflexes.

Improved Initiative: If you have nothing else to spend the feat on, this is never a waste of a feat.

Quick Reconnoiter: on the same vein as Improved Initiative, this is helpful for scouts.  And it gives you an initiative boost, and that’s always a good thing.

Rapid Stunning: Not as useful for stun based builds as you’d think, but still pretty useful.

Improved Grapple: If grapple wasn’t simultaneously so bad and good, then it might be better or worse.  But grappling is weird.  Good way to round off your combat maneuver based monk though.

Serpent Fang: Useful, but get that extra reach somehow and take a 5’ step.  Generally not worth the stunning attempt.

Sun School:  This feat has some decent options with it.

Improved Natural Attack: Why when I have been so adamant about increasing unarmed damage, have I placed so little value on this feat?  Because items can do it better, of course.  And so can spells.  Sure, if you don’t have access to any other way to increase unarmed damage (except Warshaper, it stacks with that) then take this feat.

Improved Bull Rush: It’s alright at combat control, but not as good as tripping, so it goes here.

Cobalt Expertise: Bonus to trips is always a welcome thing.  Unfortunately a +1 bonus isn’t worth a feat slot, so unless you have more essentia than this gives you, don’t bother.

Saphire Fist: bonus to the DC for stunning fist is nice, and it may apply to all those awesome stunning feats, depending on your interpretation, but it’s only +1 without more essentia.

Pharaoh’s Fist: For a stunning fist user, this is nice to have, but very situational.

Snap Kick: It’s an extra attack, what more need I say?

Pierce Magical Protection/Concealment: If facing mages these are niiiice.

Inhuman Reach: It’s an extra 5’ reach.  At the cost of -1 attack.  Though it does require Aberrant Blood.

Broken Fist Mastery I and II: Massive bonuses to trip.

Knock-Down: Whenever you deal more than a low amount of damage, you get a free trip attempt (and if you trip, a free attack thanks to Improved Trip).  These last three are 3.0, and thus of dubious quality, but if you can get them allowed, whoo-boy will you be awesome with the trips.  Very feat intensive though, be prepared to multiclass into psychic warrior and/or fighter.

Dark Stalker: All stealth builds must have this feat.  Period.

Combat Reflexes: As a monk, you are likely to utilize many things that rely on attacks of opportunities.  More of them=more chances to shine.

Superior Unarmed Strike: While it may seem that +1 or 2 average damage isn’t all that much, consider that with only 7 monk levels, this feat, a monk’s belt, and a monk’s tattoo, that’s +6.5, and then with all the ways to increase damage, you’re at an average of +30 or so with this one feat.  It adds up.

Law Devotion: A pretty significant boost to either AC or attack.  Not bad.  Better with a cleric dip, grabbing Knowledge Devotion and Air Devotion as well.  Or travel devotion.  Or animal devotion.  Mmm, animal devotion.  Consider this a review of all domain feats.  Those not mentioned=not worth it.  So they get mentioned: protection is decent, and trickery is abusable.  Not as much for you as a monk, but still abusable.

Elusive Target: I mean, who doesn’t want to negate power attack?  Also, see if you can get it to work with Expeditious Dodge, to be able to negate PA from all enemies.  Catch is you have to move 10 feet every round, but not something so hard with a DC 40 tumble check.

Freezing the Lifeblood: Better than Stunning Fist.  Paralyzed for more than one round.  Can you say Coup de grace?

Karmic Strike: For a decisive strike AoO focusing build, this feat is key.

Robilar’s ambit: See Karmic Strike.

Improved Trip: This is a great feat.  If you can get the reach, even better.

Improved Disarm: If you can get your bonus up high enough, this is almost as good as tripping.  Combine with tripping for fun.

Tashalatora: One of the best feats for monks to take for one reason: Psychic Warrior.


Your skill list is pretty nice, but you don’t care about int and you have few skills/level.  This will help you figure out where to put those few skill points you do get.

Balance: 5 ranks is good, otherwise this skill isn’t so hot.  It helps you balance.  Woohoo.  At epic levels you can walk on air, but that’s not too helpful.
Climb: Flight makes this obsolete.  At low levels it’s not going to matter much because half the party won’t be able to climb anyways, and this is all around a pretty dumb skill.  Is sometimes necessary.
Concentration: Why do monks even have this?  Is a prerequisite for a few nice things though.
Craft: It’s craft.  Big whoop.
Diplomacy: You lack the charisma synergy to make good use of this skill.  If you really want to you could, but it’s best left alone.
Escape Artist: Good as an anti-grapple measure, but you know what’s better?  Close Quarters Fighting.  And a high grapple check, not something too far fetched for you.
Hide: A good stealth skill.  Consider this.
Jump: Flight makes you obsolete!  And doesn’t get much use anyways.  A prereq for some nice things though.
Knowledge (arcana): Only useful as a prereq.
Knowledge (religion): Ditto.
Listen: Good detection skill.  Consider taking.
Move Silently: Same as hide.
Perform: It’s perform.  You aren’t a bard and likely aren’t a Dervish.
Profession: Profession: craft but weaker.
Sense Motive: Decent skill, but made obsolete by some low level spells.  Consider having though, I’ve been in way too many instances where it’s needed.
Spot: See listen.  More important than listen, arguably.
Swim: Spells can take care of this, but this is better than climb or jump.
Tumble: All of my monks have this skill.  It is nice for getting in there and not suffering AoOs on the way.

str: Since strength is an off/on stat for monks, it deserves two entries.  This one is for pure damage builds and defense builds.  Since you can get your unarmed base damage so high, you actually don’t need this stat very much to deal damage, and can use the focus on dexterity or wisdom to supply a higher AC and the use of Weapon Finesse or Intuitive Attack for your attack bonus.

str: This is the most important stat by far for most monks, those who focus on damage as a secondary goal and trip/grapple/disarm/ etc. as a primary fighting method.  It boosts your ability to hinder opponents and provides a small amount of extra damage (small compared to your base damage, that is).

dex: Dexterity is one of the most important stats for monks for three reasons: 1: AC.  2: Combat Reflexes.  3: Reflex saves.  Yeah, I know it’s one of the least important saves as direct damage isn’t all that hot, but I’d rather take no damage thanks to evasion than some damage or even full damage.  It goes a long way to making you unkillable.

con: Probably a more important stat than dexterity, con gets you more HP, boosts your fort save, and can give you more AC.  Con is always important, unless you’re undead.  Or a construct.

int: Finally a bad stat!  But, it’s still slightly important due to skills.  You have a nice skill list, but other stats come first.  You can switch the importance of this stat with wisdom with Kung Fu Genius or Carmedine Monk.

wis: Wisdom is probably the defining stat for monks.  It makes you that wise old man with crazy kung fu skills.  It can be your most important stat with Intuitive Attack.

cha: You don’t need this.  Unless you’re an Ascetic Mage, dump this all to Baator and back.  Sure Diplomacy is a class skill, but I have NEVER needed charisma.


LA+0

LA+1

LA+2

Templates

It's the wording "your hand is replaced by a weapon" that does it for me.  It says "You attach any melee weapon you can use in one hand—mundane, psionic, or magical—onto the end of one of your arms. The weapon becomes a natural extension of your arm, and that hand blends seamlessly into the shaft, hilt, or head of the weapon."  Going with the loosest interpretation I can think of, your body being the weapon, your arm (the side away from your body) will end in your body.  This can be interpreted in at least two ways: your body has a smaller "you" on the end of your arm, or you form some sort of infinite loop that ends with your body giving way to your body, without actually doing that, if that makes sense at all.

Of course, I wrote this over a year ago, and even by then had lost a good portion of my talent for finding things....

The school is partly why you haven't.  But i've been "alright" bhu, I have missed you.  For the record, I have been lurking a tad bit, but haven't checked since shortly after the board change (and didn't because of the change)

Everyone wants to play their character and game their own way, but sometimes inspirations strikes in the form of an idea for a new feat, class, prestige class, monster, etc.  If you feel the call of homebrewing, this guide is intended to help you achieve a good, well designed and nicely balanced ability.

THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF HOMEBREWS

Before you begin, there are a few things you must, absolutely must keep in mind while creating your new whatever.  They are as follows.

1: THOU SHALT NOT CREATE AN ABILITY THAT ALREADY EXISTS

One of the most important, if not the most important, commandment that must be followed is this one.  Any new ability you create must be unique in some way.  And actually, there's not too many ways something can be unique.  In order to justify being created, the new ability, be it a base class, prestige class, feat, skill, spell, maneuver, whatever, it must either fill a new niche, have a new mechanic, or do something different.  Changing bonus types is not a new ability.  Changing spell source is not a new ability.  Changing bonus numbers is not a new ability.  This is more drastic for smaller things like feats or spells, but classes do fall into this from time to time.  Take the CW Samurai for example.  Its main class feature is two weapon fighting.  This is something that was exactly covered by the Fighter or Ranger, and the only difference was flavor.  This class should not have been made.  As an alternative, take the Fighter to the Barbarian.  Both hit the thing until it falls down, filling the same niche, but one does it with feats, and the other does it with a new mechanic, Rage.  These classes deserve to exist by this merit.

2: THOU SHALT NOT OVER SPECIFY

Another common error that happens, and I see way too much of (although thankfully not as much anymore) is the specific character ability.  This is when someone makes a base or prestige class based off of a specific character, rather than making a specific character from the class.  A good example of this is the CW Samurai.  It is a Japanese swordsman who uses a stereotypical Samurai fighting style.  That's not a class, that's a character.  It's not as specific as some I see get though.  I've seen a class that gets a named companion.  A freaking named companion. It was a joke class, made specifically to illustrate this horrible flaw.

3: THOU SHALT CREATE INTERESTING FLAVOR

Often overlooked, a key component of homebrew is the flavor of the class.  Believe it or not, this is actually important to the mechanics.  As the flavor dictates the mechanics, poorly thought out flavor is very bad for a class.  See the Monk for when this did not happen, or the CW Samurai.  This also ties into the above commandment, as the flavor must be generic enough to justify a class/feat/whatever, but must still be specific enough to be interesting enough to justify existing.  Another important thing to keep in mind with this commandment is the type of thing you are creating.  The more specific the flavor, the more specific the ability.  Ignoring this leads to feats creating whole base classes (like the CW Samurai).  If something should be a feat, it should be a feat.  If it should be a prestige class, it should not be a base class.

4: THOU SHALT NOT MAKE A PRESTIGE CLASS INTO A BASE CLASS

This is actually important and common enough to merit its own commandment.  Seriously.  Do not make a base class with the specificity of a prestige class.  Again, the CW Samurai takes this one.    As does the Warmage.  The Warmage is merely a Sorcerer with a more restrictive list, more spells known, and a focus on damage.  That's what a sorcerer PrC should be, not a base class.  Alternatively, make sure that a prestige class actually deserves to be a prestige class instead of a base class.  This is much less common, but still deserves mentioning.

5: THOU SHALT NOT ALLOW DEAD LEVELS TO EXIST

Except possibly at the 3 “sweet spots”, but never, ever, evereverever, at the 3 “doom spots”.  These spots are 6, 12, and 18 for “sweet”, and 5, 13, and 17 for “doom”.  They are so called because the sweet spots advance every chassis number (BAB and all saves), and the doom spots advance none of those, except BAB on full BAB classes.  You should still have something additional granted at sweet spots, but it can be a dead level.  Now, what makes a level not a dead level (or a “living level”)?  Simple: class features.  You must grant some class feature at every level of your class.  Otherwise, you create break points, which are very, very, very bad for design.  A great example of this is the CW Samurai.  It has abilities fairly regularly, but only has class features a a couple levels.  An even better example is the Sorcerer, which has one class feature.  Well, two, but nobody cares about the familiar, and the point is it only gets a class feature at level 1.  What's that you say?  Spellcasting is a class feature?  Well, yes, it is.  It's granted at level 1, and there's no new class features granted after that.  More spells per day is an ability, not a feature.  More spells known is an ability, not a feature.  Features grant you new abilities.  Abilities enhance existing features, and count as only a partial feature, and the amount depends on how good the ability is, on both a power and flavor level.  They can zombify dead levels, but not bring them to life.  For this reason, you can avoid dead levels at the “sweet spots” with a new level of casting, and can mostly eliminate dead levels on their own, so you would need some small ability to finish the revivification.

Of special note here: capstone.  It's a unique class feature in that you get it at the end of a class.  It is as its name implies: the endpoint.  This feature should, oddly enough, not be powerful.  It should not be what the class is all about.  It should be the culmination of everything else in the class.  The Monk did this perfectly, with becoming an outsider.  The rest of the class works its way up to that point, where you say “I am no longer truly human”.  Far too often have I seen abilities come out of no where in the final levels of the class, that drastically change how you play the thing.  Or alternatively, the Rogue.  The freaking Rogue.

6: THOU SHALT BALANCE YOUR ABILITY INTERNALLY

Finally back to commandments that apply to all homebrews, you must make sure that you take care of internal balance before external balance.  Take the Monk for instance.  Early on, it's pretty sweet.  You get a feat in each of the first two levels, nice unarmed damage that only gets better when you branch off, an AC bonus that's pretty good I guess, some more abilities, and then level 7 hits.  You get: nothing.  Level 8?  Nothing.  Level 9?  Nothing.  It rapidly becomes a tax to stay in the class because the later levels (everything after 6, except two or three levels) end up having terribly low power compared to the first few.  I can't believe I'm going to use this, but the CW Samurai has a nice internal balance.  Of course, this is because it sucks throughout the class.  Ooh!  Here: Druid.  It's got great internal balance.  It is consistently growing in power from start to finish, at a nice rate.  Notice how this ignores external balance?  The Druid is on the opposite side of things from the CW Samurai, but they both have internal balance.  This does apply to all abilities, as with a feat, you must allow it to be useful at all levels, even if it's a static bonus, such as Improved Trip's extra attack on a trip, with the counter example of Weapon Focus getting progressively worse as you level.

Also important under this one: you must make sure your abilities actually work.  See: Truenamer.  It is literally broken.  As in it does not function.

7: THOU SHALT BALANCE YOUR ABILITY EXTERNALLY

The CW samurai is (reassuringly) back in the “example of bad” camp here.  Polymorph/Shapechange (pre-errata) is another good example from the “overpowered” camp.  Or the Big 6 being overpowered.  This isn't so much about where the power of the entire game should be though.  This is more about how you balance the ability to other expected abilities.  So if you want your ability to stand up with the Big 6, Gate, or Divine Metamagic, then you'll need to make it overpowered compared to the other classes/spells/whatever.  Alternatively, if you wanted to make it more on par with Weapon Focus, then it'll need to be underpowered compared to other stuff.  It will be assumed that your ability is targeting an average power level automatically, so if you wish it to be more or less powerful, I suggest you state your power level somewhere.  The classes/PrCs actually have a section for that in the templates.

8: THOU SHALT MAKE IT LOOK NICE

Nobody wants to read a block of text.  We have templates here for a reason, use them.  If you need help, ask.  There are also tables that look freaking amazing on these boards, look around, ask if you need help, otherwise, use a template.  This serves two purposes.  One: it makes it look nicer and more professional.  Two: it makes it easier to not only read, but edit.  This is more important than most people realize.  Presentation is indeed key to so many things.

9: THOU SHALT NOT TAKE CRITICISM POORLY

You posted it on a message board.  You automatically have asked for feedback.  And if it's bad?  Well, you won't like the feedback.  Just accept it.  Use the things you hear to help grow your creative muscles, allowing you to come back and post the single greatest feat anyone has ever seen.  Then you'll show them.  You'll show them all.  Criticism is supposed to be constructive, to give helpful advice and suggestions to make a better ability.  If you plug your ears and shout louder and louder until you can't hear anyone, then your design abilities will stagnate or deteriorate.  And your ability will still suck.

On the flipside, anyone who critiques a homebrew?  Don't be a douchebag.  It's that simple.  Be constructive with your criticism.  Don't just say that something is bad.  Say why it's bad and give advice on how to fix it.  Help them write a better ability.

10: THOU SHALT BE OVERLY DESCRIPTIVE

Be very descriptive.  You must convey accurately what everything in your homebrew does.  This is why feats are among the easiest things to homebrew, while base classes are probably the hardest.  If there's any confusion, clear it up.  Find out where the confusion comes from, and add words or take words away until there is no confusion.  This also applies to external rules.  Your homebrew is homebrew.  Your houserules are houserules.  Nobody is required to use them.  Not even you.  This extends to the following rule: link, describe, and post every houserule that is required to play with your homebrew.  Otherwise, your homebrew is completely useless.  If you have a class that refers to a homebrew feat, you must include that feat somewhere, whether it be via link or actually in the same thread.  Although, if it's not in the same post, you should link to it anyways.

Well, there you have it.  These rules will help you on your way to creating a fun new ability that works well and is balanced.  It does take a lot of skill to get really good at designing things, but you must actually work at it in order to become good at this.

The following is a compilation of templates for homebrewed material for these boards.

Templates
note: don't use a heading for something it does not get.  For example, if the template doesn't adjust the AC of the creature (no NA or such increase/decrease) do not include that heading.  Headings marked with a * must remain (type in "Any" or something).

monsters

Items

Weapons
Note: Do not use values that are not a part of the weapon. So do not use range increment for melee weapons.  The damage listed is the amount of damage that weapon deal when used, so the damage listed for ammunition is the damage it deals in melee, and the damage listed for ranged weapons is the damage it deals when fired.

Armor
Note: Do not use values that the armor or shield does not need, so for example do not use Shield Type for armor and Armor Type for shields.

feats

spells/powers/maneuvers

Classes

PrCs

Soulmelds

Vestiges

Many of you probably recognize me from the old boards.  I'm back!  ish.  I'm a lot busier than I used to be (re: less to say), but, and this is going to excite some people, although they might not even be here, I'm finishing my Avatar project.  Only have a few PrCs to go, and then I can post it.

I go by dman, live in Indiana for those who do not know yet, and mostly play D&D 3.5, although have not had a game in years (no, Bauglir, I'm not counting those short ones where barely anything happened and I had to leave my favorite character behind).