User:ZarHakkar
From D&D Wiki
Hi, my name is ZarHakkar, or simply Zar for short. I make things sometimes.
I regularly check the Discord server, so you can @ me there if you want to converse about anything in particular. Alternatively, if I'm not there, edit one of my talk pages; I watch my watchlist like a hawk (on the up cycle). Large queries might take a while for me to respond to, however.
I tend to have a wandering focus, sometimes leaving large projects incomplete for indefinite periods of time as my interest and energy travels elsewhere. Rest assured, I've never fully forgotten or abandoned any of them, and always plan to finish everything I start.
I used to have the powerful ability to visualize and manipulate complex systems in my head, viewing each piece holistically in both its most intricate functions and how it contributed to the larger whole. This made me very good at system design and analysis. However, due to chronic brain inflammation caused by a certain virus, I am no longer able to use this ability to the degree I once could. :(
Stuff[edit]
Once this gets big enough I'll add a proper DPL or something to sort it. Let me know if you've used anything I've worked on in your games- I'd love to hear about it.
I'll be honest, I dunno what "big enough" is. Ideally this list should be so big I'll start being surprised by things I don't recognize on it.
Things I've created so far on this wiki:[edit]
- LASER (old)
- Portals! (old)
- The fun
- Crutches
- Da bomb (old)
- Sharkbait (incomplete)
- Door pain
- Sandblast (old)
- A dead boi (old)
- Sword split
- Fist casting
- Dyer's tools
- Automatons (incomplete)
- Living curse (incomplete)
- Port-a-Potty (old)
- Furry charm
- Rude potion (old)
- Pocket sand (old)
- Safety stone (old)
- A stun baton
- A stub baton
- Amogus pun
- Court mages
- The Mangled
- Curse Expert
- Magic monks
- Upgrade orbs
- Random walk
- Actual cancer
- A shitty mage (very old)
- Fortun cookis
- Danger stone (old)
- Arcane Spear
- Sniper arrows
- Swordbreaker
- Laser puppies
- The best spell
- Heroic leveling
- Conjure Object (old)
- Unarmed smite
- Antimagic blast
- Everfull purses!
- Bad nappy hats
- Wizard scissors (old)
- Rage mage feat
- Good nappy hat
- Plane shift boon
- Playable dragon (incomplete)
- Detect elements
- Fantasy science (old)
- Chasedown feat
- A Discworldy boi
- A healing cantrip
- bad fortun cookis
- Dangerous grass
- Immortality sucks
- Vampiric fog spell
- Whip mastery feat
- Pokey potion pack
- Powered weapons
- Realistic explosion
- Touch spell master (old)
- Ending them rightly
- Combat Momentum
- Elemental weapons (old)
- Fantasy sunglasses
- A feat for jump good
- Monk-barbarian feat
- Stinky swamp spirits
- 5e numerology guide
- Gust of wind but cold
- Crappy cursed armor
- Metal-eating bacteria (incomplete)
- Booming words curse
- A tech-priest from 40k (incomplete, old)
- Immortality sucks less
- Portable battering ram
- Improved second wind
- An interesting ice spell
- Magic Stone but better (old)
- Meteor swarm but cold
- Magical safety goggles
- The ultimate multiclass (old, incomplete)
- Light sorcerer subclass
- Enhanced sneak attack
- Time loop dagger throw (old)
- Bionicle timey hunty boi
- Modular spell upcasting
- A great wand for pranks
- A useful pen for wizards
- A fighting style as a feat (old, redundant)
- Speedy attunement feat
- Nuke the Earth: the spell
- The other chain lightning (old)
- A basic modular ice spell
- Groups for damage types
- A great item for engineers
- Additional spell properties (old)
- The best gloves for a thief
- A spell that creates money
- Square-cube law: the spell
- The armor to end all armor
- The charger feat but better
- Wizard copy-machine spell
- A great feat for gunslingers
- Become feared by dragons
- Cool prosthetic metal wings
- An amazing shrinking chest
- Wizard scissors' big brother (old)
- A sword that is also a shield
- A net that catches monsters
- Sneak attack but with spells
- Wild Shape but into swarms
- Pens of literacy and illiteracy
- A weapon that culls the weak
- Favored technique for monks
- Additional creature properties
- Glyph of warding for warlocks
- Aoe healing for nature casters
- A basic modular lightning spell
- A great feat for tactical casters
- Maddening winds in spell form
- Big wizard copy-machine spell
- Ball lightning area control spell
- A feat for using ki with strength
- General weapon specialization
- A great feat to round out a gish
- Handbook that gives you a feat
- Cure Wounds but for constructs
- Everyone's favorite Bonkle boys
- Wild Shape but for da fish peepol
- A feat for being a wizard-sorcerer
- Extremely portable warlock patron (incomplete)
- Armor and weapons that don't rust
- Ultimate "done with your crap" spell (old)
- Warforged Death Beam Laser Eyes (warforged death beam laser eyes)
- The wavebuster from Metroid Prime
- That phlebotinum stuff from Amnesia
- Different variations of pearls of power
- Those strong evil guys from Invincible
- Improvised spellcasting combat action
- A boring but effective axe throwing feat
- A cool gauntlet that electrocutes people
- A useful item for camping and exploring
- Discount astral projection, but not really
- A candle that's great for secret meetings
- Literally just 10 feet of adamantine chain
- A more temporary version of simulacrum
- A simple boon that gives you more spells
- Magical shrapnel shotgun crossbow bolts
- The chemical warfare equivalent of fireball
- A chart that attempts to demystify alignment
- Extremely cursed duergar battlerager armor (incomplete)
- Some weird ice spell I found in my old notes (very old)
- A modular spell that summons a helpful wisp
- A feat for always being prepared like Batman
- A magic sword that duplicates other weapons
- A Collected History of Accounting - Volume III
- A feat that allows for even better dual-wielding
- A page for homebrew battlemaster maneuvers
- A cool maul created to break the forces of Law
- A feat that gives you an innately magical talent
- A sentient collection of magical floating crystals (very old)
- A sorcerer ripoff that can't control magic directly (very old, incomplete)
- A spell that stores sunlight in a weapon for later
- Multiclassing without multiclassing for monsters
- A feat that's useful for taking watch while resting
- A feature for barbarians who are reluctant to rage
- A bard-only spell that requires a partner to pull off
- A strict requirement feat that improves indomitable
- Arrows that turn into object-piercing beams of light
- A cube that creates a battlefield where you throw it
- A feat for using dynamic weapons better in combat
- Something I made for a friend a very long time ago
- A rule for multiple players playing a single character
- A bag of holding equivalent but specifically for liquids
- Sharkbait but less furry and more edgy and kinda cool
- Wild shape but you can turn into more than just beasts
- A strict requirement feat that improves arcane recovery
- A bag of tricks variant that makes Frankenstein animals (incomplete)
- A different take on one of those level 1 movement spells
- A spell that brings the law of Mechanus to another plane
- Conveniently alter the cosmetics and usability of an item
- Be anyone from steampunk Samus to Guts from Berserk
- Wild Shape but you can expend spell slots for more uses
- The effects that reckless usage of magic has on the world (old, incomplete)
- A fighter-barbarian feat that connects action surge and rage
- A barbarian-fighter feat that connects second wind and rage
- A cool prosthetic eye that has a little blue fire spirit inside of it
- Both the anti-"split the party" spell and the inversion of Scatter
- A generic weapon that adds expended hit points to its damage
- A race of creatures that eat other creatures and take their traits (old)
- A clockwork staff created from an axle of the plane of Mechanus
- A spell that stores moonlight in a weapon or ammunition for later
- A counterpart to Leomund's Tiny Hut that focuses on misdirection
- A way for fighters and rangers to quickly switch out fighting styles
- A powered artisan engineering sled that runs on fantasy superfuel
- A healing spell that converts temporary hit points into real hit points
- A magical ring that allows you to instantly swap outfits and equipment
- A spell that's like glyph of warding but more intelligent but it's also you
- A strict requirement feat that mechanically links superiority dice and ki
- Blessed mercury, a poison that only affects unnatural or evil creatures
- A nice little feat that combines defensive duelist and the parry maneuver
- An interesting lightning spell that turns you into a plasma globe/tesla coil (old)
- Rules for an additional type of spell component based on time and place
- A temporary movement speed bonus from second wind and action surge
- Hot potato, or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Da bomb 2.0
- A modular mechanical lantern that mimics the iconic abilities of a beholder
- Funky armor that does a mini wild magic surge when you get crit by magic
- A feat that interchanges bardic inspiration and superiority dice, to a degree
- Feats of strength/other things you can perform to get stronger without ASIs
- My take on the feat that lets you maintain concentration on two spells at once
- The perfect fantasy superfuel to kickstart the industrial revolution of your game
- A ranger subclass that waxes and wanes in power with the phases of the moon
- A smite spell that places a curse upon a creature that makes them bleed to death
- A spell for high level play that allows you to summon an army of terracotta warriors
- A magic earring that sucks but is kinda good if you don't mind being a glass cannon
- A modular casting spell for reinforcing the structural integrity of objects and buildings
- A feat that turns your book of shadows into a spellbook if you're a multiclassed wizlock
- A spell that disrupts the casting of magic in a wide area without being completely anti-magic
- A complete rework of a homebrew class one of my players showed me that I thought was cool
- A magical bracer that allows you to do what every big sword-wielding martial player fantasizes
- Those magical acupuncture wedges from Made in Abyss that enhance your physical capabilities
- A spell that summons a spirit of the moon, with properties based on the current phase of the moon
- A fighting style that has a similar premise to favored enemy but it actually helps you fight the enemy
- Downtime activity for researching spells as a wizard, something that should have been vanilla in some form
- A great utility+ spell for travel in extreme environments that I'm surprised didn't already exist in some capacity
- An alternative to the feat one feat below but without the cool mental spellbook that you can have in your head
- A feat that's like the Telekinetic and Telepathic feats from TCE but for precognition. Now you can be Sam Winchester
- A feat that expands Keen Mind and allows you to do the thing that wizards on forums have been talking about for ages
- Conjure Object but more specific so it actually does what I want it to do, that being an infinite supply of thrown daggers (old)
- A strict requirement feat that lets you regain superiority dice from second wind (should've honestly been a base battlemaster feature)
- A versatile adult theme spell intended to ease the woes of conception and childbirth that might logically exist in a medieval fantasy setting
Tweaked vanilla content:[edit]
- True Strike but better
- Weapon Master but better
- Keen Mind but it's actually useful (not really, this is bad gonna fix later)
- Crossbow Expert but slightly better
- Blade Mastery but with proficiencies
- Shield Master but with better shield bash
- Combat superiority but scaling with int and proficiency
- Flurry of Blows that scales roughly with monk DPS dips
- Polearm Master but you're actually a master of the polearm
- Sending stones that work how people usually homebrew them to work
Things I've helped out with:[edit]
- Blue bois
- Bandages
- Stormy bois
- Wolf-Man Greg
- Brelon Murderfistkiller
- Ring of Dark Vision (remade it)
- Short Warp (reworded the spell)
- 5e Metamagics (added multimagic)
- Doomcannon (saved it from deletion)
- Dragon powers (made the page look nicer)
- 20 or More Questions For Character Development
- Fell rider (Gave the primary contributor some advice)
- Stricter Requirement Feats (started the discussion that lead to this page being created)
- Firefox, Variant (5e Creature) (saved it from deletion by converting it from a race into a creature)
- More status conditions (changed berserk, added bloodlust, hallucinating, inebriated, near-death state, and bleeding)
- Deletion Candidates (did a quick fix to the dpl, files were causing the table broke. not much i can do about the other page though.)
- The race design guide (I figured out you could reference skills and added that to the table, added the section about monsters as races)
- 5e_Races (I added a description for each race type on their distinctive pages. Ex: aberration, monstrosity, celestial, etc. now have definitions that describe them.)
How I Currently Approach Homebrew Design[edit]
Perhaps this stems from a personal growing disatisfaction with 5E, but I find myself creating more and more content that pushes the bounds and limits of the system. Not necessarily in power, but in terms of mechanical depth and interaction. The oft-discussed-here premise of balance is third in line in priority when it comes to my contributions. First priority is a focus on "complete" mechanics, that is mechanics that are interesting, fun, and maintain narrative verisimilitude. Second priority is sophistication of presentation, wording, formatting, and legibility. Thus, of the types of content on the wiki, my content is primarily experimental in nature.
Ultimately though, my goal is to make interesting and well-thought-out content that inspires creativity in others
Ideas and To-Dos[edit]
- rework tavern brawler i think
- multi-weapon fighting
- fix up and rework my old incomplete things
- shaman class - based around spirits, respect and secrets - witch doctor
- advanced weapon techniques page
- murderstroke
- pommel throw
- alternative damage types
- 5e other guides
- ship crews and contents
- shop contents (general store, pharmaceuticals, etc)
- restrictive dungeon design
- biomes, including flora and fauna (types of trees, anyone?)
- convert Magic Numbers of 5e (5e Guideline) into 5e General Design Guide
Something I'm Working On[edit]
- 1: Corpse
- 2: Dimute (legacy), Dirt
- 3: Awakened Shrub
- 4: Dragonborn, true strike
- 5: Human fighter
- 6: Variant human
- 7: Vihar (version with constant +1d4 Storm Conduit)
- 8: Assimilitant
- 9: God
- 10: ???
The DanDWiki is a Bit of a Mess[edit]
And that's putting it very politely. There are enough issues with it that I'm going to start cataloging them here so I can remember them and hopefully eventually address them.
- There are two pages for deletion candidates. One is linked from the {{delete}} template while the other is linked from the Meta Pages list.
- Preloads and templates for various things are incredibly inconsistent in formatting. One example is the cursed item preload, which not only has a broken breadcrumb, but is also way too different from the wonderous item preload, even though they're basically interchangeable with a few modifications.
- April Fools pages need to be playable in order to remain existing. I'll be fair, this is opinion-based, but I find this really dumb. There are many popular and long-time existing april fools pages that do not possess anything in the way of playable statistics, some even made by admins themselves. Yet they remain, and they should remain because they have good comedic value. I don't wish to explain the mechanics of how they have comedic value by their virtue of being meta-referential, because that's way too much energy for this short bullet summary, but trust me, they do.
- There's the obvious point of how DanDwiki struggles with "unbalanced" content. There's a lot of different opinions on what "balance" is and how to approach it, and it just leads to fights or unreasonably nerfed content. Yes, the standard power level of D&D 5e should be something to be aimed for in order to understand good content design, but the DanDwiki has hardly any acceptable protocols for content that intentionally falls outside of that spectrum. Sure, there's lore, and there's fluff, and there's good mechanics, and there's the design disclaimer, but where's the section informing the DM to the scope of the homebrew content and advice on how to go about implementing it in a concise way? DanDwiki assumes that all content exists in a vacuum when in practice it really does not.
- The spell lists in the 5e SRD are formatted very unpleasantly to the eye. Example: 5e_SRD:Bard_Spell_List
- 5e_Futuristic_Weapons vs 5e_Magical_Weapons? (Huge discussion over on the discord server, currently evaluating opinion)
- Category:Racial Class vs Category:Composite Character. What's the functional difference?
- 5e Statblocks inserted into pages mess with the table of contents of that page.
- Inserting bullet points into the 5e race template causes ugly spacing issues.
- The For DMs section of the 5e homebrew page could use some long overdue improvements, as it lacks support for puzzles and encounters.
- DPLs that use the createdby criteria are just straight-up broken (view page source)
Homebrew I've Used[edit]
This is a non-exhaustive list of various homebrew content I've either been allowed to use as a player or have used in my games as a DM.
See Also: User:ZarHakkar/Characters
Classes[edit]
Most of the time I only play a homebrew class if there's a really specific concept I'm going for. Otherwise, I try to construct that concept with as much vanilla content as possible.
- Commander (5e Class)
- Scholar (Kyle Grant)
- Guardian Knight (5e Class)
- Deceiver (5e Class)
- Elemental Assassin (5e Class)
- Living Curse (5e Class)
Subclasses[edit]
Subclasses are usually a cleaner option for a concept than a whole class, but it's very difficult to find one that fits the exact concept you're looking for sometimes.
Races[edit]
Homebrew races are a dime a dozen I feel, but some are cooler than others, especially those that adapt actual monsters into a race.
- Wendigo (5e Race)
- Monrel (5e Race)
- Roba (5e Race)
- Gnoll (5e Race)
- Automaton (5e Race)
- Clockwork Man (5e Race)
Feats[edit]
A good homebrew feat can open up whole exciting new dynamics to a build or playstyle.
- Aggressive Melee Mastery (5e Feat)
- Reaction Master (5e Feat) — while I never used this as a player, I do like occasionally giving it to NPCs or bosses in games.
Spells[edit]
I don't actually like a lot of the spells on the wiki. There are some cool ones, but in the sea of anime moves and elemental homebrews of existing spells, it's honestly easier to just work with the DM to create a homebrew spell my character can use than it is to search through the wiki to find one.
Rules[edit]
- Thieves can use Fast Hands to drink a potion or activate a magic item.
- Battlemasters can add the magical to-hit bonus of one magic weapon they're wielding to their battlemaster save DC.
Useful Resources[edit]
- https://anydice.com/ Good tool for visualising dice probability ranges
- https://www.youtube.com/@HookandChance A D&D podcast about enriching the content of your games
- https://www.thinklikeagamedesigner.com/podcast A podcast about game design that focuses around but is not limited to TTRPGs
Other[edit]
Subpages:
- ZarHakkar/Assimilitant (5e Race)
- ZarHakkar/Battlefield Trickster (5e Class)
- ZarHakkar/Case of Vials (5e Equipment)
- ZarHakkar/Characters
- ZarHakkar/D&D Wiki (5e Creature)
- ZarHakkar/Dimute, legacy (5e Race)
- ZarHakkar/Folk Deity (5e Class)
- ZarHakkar/Hakkar's Power Scale
- ZarHakkar/Numerology Stone: Fibonacci Sequence
- ZarHakkar/Omniclass (5e Class)
- ZarHakkar/Sandbox1
- ZarHakkar/Sandbox2
- ZarHakkar/Sandbox3
- ZarHakkar/Siphoner, legacy (5e Class)