Why Homebrew is Awesome
As players, we should all take a moment to thank those DMs that embrace homebrew, creating unique worlds, monsters, systems, and so forth for us to enjoy. Homebrew the engine that drives Dungeons & Dragons, and while there is nothing wrong with playing an adventure such as Curse of Strahd, being able to explore a new and fascinating world we know nothing about is what most of us want.
It hasn’t always been this way. This isn’t to say that we haven’t been creating our own dungeons in the early editions, but it was not always embraced the way it is now. Saying Gygax was a control freak is an understatement, and you can look no further than the 1st edition Dungeon Master’s Guide. Over 150 pages of rules, tables, and charts that you were meant to use, leaving very room for creativity. You had random tables for literally every setting, whether a dungeon, forest, or city. Adventure models were the definition of railroading, so tightly controlled the players had no choice to follow a pre-determined path to reach the big ending boss.
My favorite homebrew experience involved Tiny, my cleric Uther’s shield guardian. If you are unaware of what a shield guardian is, it is a large construct bound to you by an amulet. They are impressed as far as constructs go, with over 140 hit points, an AC 17, and several abilities that are helpful in-game. A shield guardian regenerates 10 hit points every round, allows you to store a spell with it, and can use a reaction to increase your AC when some mean ol’ monster attacks you. I was playing a war cleric and was a tremendous front-line combo.
The description says very little about what other traits apply to the shield guardian. The monster rules for a construct are as follows:
Constructs are made, not born. Some are programmed by their creators to follow a simple set of instructions, while others are imbued with sentience and capable of independent thought. Golems are the iconic constructs. Many creatures native to the outer plane of Mechanus, such as modrons, are constructs shaped from the raw material of the plane by the will of more powerful creatures.
Basic Rules
The ambiguity of the 5th edition of the rules allows the DM to interpret them as they wish. It provides the DM with some basic guidelines to follow but opens the door for them to homebrew a construct however they want.
Tiny started off as a simple shield guardian, wading into battle with me, absorbing blows and storing a heal spell for those deadly encounters. We decided Tiny was a sentient creature since nothing was saying we couldn't. I gave Tiny its own personality, conveyed through goofy facial expressions, wacky body movements, and misinterpretation of my commands. This was fun but fell short of what I wanted it to do. Even though the description of the shield guardian states explicitly that a shield guardian cannot speak, I discussed it with Stephen (the DM), and he allowed him to speak common. So one fatefully morning, we awoke to Tiny asking all sorts of bizarre questions about life.
It was one of the few times I gave one of my 'characters' a funny voice, and I played him as a loveable idiot. The whole thing was an absolute blast. Tiny's personality developed throughout the campaign, and to do so, we homebrewed the crap out of him. So what if the rules said he couldn't wield a weapon. Tiny wielded a few weapons throughout, but I liked playing him as someone who would rather punch the bad guy with its fists. To illustrate how Tiny evolved, I wanted to share a secondary storyline that occurred throughout the campaign, with a twist at the end.
Being a sentient creature, Tiny began to develop emotions. Instead of just being protective of me, Tiny became protective of the entire party, if just for a little while. You see, as he grew emotionally, Tiny fell in love with our party's gnome wizard, Win. Tiny began to identify as he/him. He began to follow her around wherever she went, following her commands more often than Uther's, even though he still possessed the amulet. Tiny was still compelled to obey Uther when push came to shove, but he'd get extremely pissed off. They were a lot of back and forth between the two, and in these situations, Stephen would sometimes take over the role of Tiny to get in on the fun.
The problem was, Win got married in secret to another character, the uber-powerful dwarf named Cursed (don't ask). The marriage was kept secret from the entire party for a while, and when we found out, I made everyone agree not to tell Tiny. That proved to be an untenable goal, and Tiny eventually found out, and, well, all hell broke loose. Tiny's feelings went from puppy love to white-hot jealousy towards Cursed, and his anger at Uther for not telling him reached new heights. Stephen and I discussed handling this since we didn't want the situation to become disruptive, and therefore we added a new layer to the storyline. Tiny challenged Cursed to one-on-one combat, and no matter what Uther commanded, he wouldn't listen. Tiny promptly got his butt kicked. Our angry shield guardian then quietly seethed, trying to find ways to win Win's affections, which included burning down a tavern when she offhandedly said that's what she wished she could do.
Uther realized that Tiny had become fully aware during this time and did not want to keep Tiny bound to him. He unattuned to the amulet and gave it to Tiny. The rules say nothing about what to do now, so we decided that Tiny had free will but was still bound to the amulet. SO long as no one was attuned to the amulet, he was a free individual. Of course, to try and woo Win, Tiny offered the amulet to Win, and she promptly refused. This sideshow played on till the end of the campaign. It wasn't troublemaking; in fact, it provided a lot of laughs and incorporated all the party members into the lunacy.
After we defeated the BBEG, we started wrapping up the campaign. Tiny, realizing Win would never feel the way he felt, grew melancholy and a little bit spiteful. It was the second emotion that led him to steal Win's backpack. A childish move for sure, but Tiny was heartbroken. He planned on leaving the party Uther and walking off into the sunset. You see, Tiny realized, if it genuinely cared for Win, he should value what she wanted, not his. All Tiny wanted was something to remember Win by, and when rummaging through her stuff, he came across a deck of cards.
A quick bit of background. Back when we were 4th or 5th level, we found a deck of cards. Giddy with its prospect being a Deck of Many Things, we fought over who got to draw from it. During our infighting, Win attempted to identify it and discovered it was a Deck of Illusions. Crestfallen, we told Win to keep it. She promptly threw it in her backpack and forgot about it.
Well, it turns out it was actually a Deck of Many Things. Win had failed her check, and Stephen decided to have her misinterpret what the deck was. Tiny didn't want to steal the whole deck; he thought he would be caught if he did that. He muttered to himself that he'd just take one card and drew, you guessed it, the Moon card. Stephen rolled a 3, so there were now three wishes out there. But who got the wishes? While the party questioned the validity of Tiny's ability to cast wishes, I ignored them and immediately yelled out the first three things I, or better yet Tiny, could think of.
Want to be free, bound to no one or nothing.
A castle.
Someone to love who would love him back.
All three wishes were granted. While the rest of the table sat around in shock, the amulet that Tiny had been hiding inside himself shattered, granting Tiny his freedom. A map appeared before Tiny, showing him the route to a castle, and the deed to the property. Finally, as Tiny and Uther set off to find his new home, a shield guardian appeared on the horizon. It was also free from the constraints of its amulet and identified as she/her. Tiny had found his true love.
If I'm being honest, I enjoyed playing Tiny way more than Uther.
None of this would have happened without homebrewing a simple creature into a creature that became more character than construct. By using our creativity and ability to adjust the rules as we saw fit, Tiny became not only a valued member of the party but one who provided comic relief and had a side quest based on him. To date, the 'character' I have enjoyed playing the most.
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Art Credit - Maeeve
