Homebrew Challenge - Which is Your Favorite?

[TheWombatOfDoom]

We've all looked at many (some possibly hundreds or more) of Homebrews. Maybe some you have even made yourself. Some "play nicely" with other homebrews and/or the mechanics of the games they are made for. Others go completely against the grain, causing vast sections of mechanics to go up in flames, and be replaced with some other crunchy goodness. Regardless, each Homebrew appeals to different people for different reasons. This could be based on the quality of the Homebrew, but then, that's what PEACH is for, right? Others could be based off a game that does not entertain your interest. Perhaps the concept is too hard to grasp. Maybe you just don't like the idea. Or maybe you do!

I have two challenges for you.

One: List one of your favorite Homebrews (a link to it would be wonderful). It can be yours, it can be someone else's. Heck, it could be something your Grandmother came up with (in which case, you have the best Grandmother in existance). It can be more than one, but only after you've completed the second challenge...

Two: Why? Why is it your favorite? Detail why. Because I don't just want to see good Homebrew. I want to see what qualifies as good Homebrew for you. What appeals to you about this Homebrew?

I look forward to your responce!

[Welknair]

1. Kellus' Xenoalchemy.

2. I'm a big fan of subsystems, and have made tributes to many in the form of my bloodlines. I found Xenoalchemy to be flavorful, broad, balanced, and very well put-together.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

1. Kellus' Xenoalchemy.

2. I'm a big fan of subsystems, and have made tributes to many in the form of my bloodlines. I found Xenoalchemy to be flavorful, broad, balanced, and very well put-together.

I shall have to check this out. I haven't touched your Bloodlines stuff as of yet. Perhaps I should start, being that it keeps coming up...

I should also ask in the questions to link the Homebrew if possible....*goes to do so now*

[Welknair]

I shall have to check this out. I haven't touched your Bloodlines stuff as of yet. Perhaps I should start, being that it keeps coming up...

I should also ask in the questions to link the Homebrew if possible....*goes to do so now*

Link added. And you really ought to check those bloodlines out - they're my most well-known work, assuming Magitech has been entirely forgotten (Poor shunned child of yore).

[TheWombatOfDoom]

I have a great respect for your magitech! Not forgotten at all!

[Network]

1. Project Shadow

2. I rarely saw an homebrew as complete as that one, since I'm still new on this forum. It doesn't change already printed material as well, which I consider make it a bit better.

[nonsi]

.
ATM, my Warrior is by far my favorite.

No. not because it's mine.
I wish I could take credit for everything in it.
As far as originality goes, the idea of customizing the class with Warcraft is purely mine. Everything else is a mash of dozens of previously failed attempts and ideas from hundreds of homebrew Fighter fixes I saw. My homebrew codex started long ago with attempting to fix the Fighter and ended with applying the final finishes to my Warrior.


The reasons I like it so much are:
1. It fixes everything that needs fixing in the core Fighter and doesn't fix anything that doesn't need fixing.
2. It was by far my greatest challenge and I consider it my greatest success. It's powerful, confined to its role, versatile, customizable, it virtually allows a successful creation of any martial character a can think of, and it's better than any core martial class at what it does - and yet, I've managed to keep it mundane in terms of no supernatural or magical powers.
3. It has what almost no other martial class has: mechanics that actually require battle planning, where gaining certain benefits comes at the expense of others. The really cool stuff requires dropping your defenses, so the challenge is when to drop them.

[Kane0]

Hmm. I'd have to say my favorite homebrew is the Ebon Initiate.

The biggest reason is that my first and favorite homebrew was heavily influenced by the Ebon Inititate (The Servitor). The Ebon Initiate proved that a Warlock chassis could be greatly expanded to cover other flavors, which I tried to capture in the Servitor. I also took many other bits and pieces of inspiration from the many other Warlock fixes but the initial design (which has undergone a few changes now) was mostly thanks to the Ebon Initiate.

[Zaydos]

My favorite would be [url=http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=157493]Midnight Occultist[url]

Reasons: I love theurge style classes and find both binders and incarnum interesting and it combines them both in a non-arcane theurge. I also like how the vestige binds had the feeling of taking the vestige into yourself more fully and it seemed to make sense that the two would be synergistic both mechanically and fluff-wise.

[Cipher Stars]

1) Build-A-Char

2) I don't know how to really word it. But Build-A-Char can be used if you just can't find a class you like. So you use Build-A-Char and forget about a class, just customize it to your preference.

I haven't read it all yet. But I gave it a good skimming and remembered this thread. So there ya go.

[Kaje]

I love a good T3 gish or martial character, so here's mine.

T.G. Oskar's Marshal fix - Takes a terrible class and simply made it awesome. This buffer takes the action economy and makes it his *****.

Honorable mention goes to:
Ziegander's Esper Knight - This Jedi-flavored class uses incarnum to power its force powers. A great gishy type class. My only complaint is too many bonus feats.

Ziegander's Mageknight - A great gish-in-a-can with an unusual spellcasting mechanic. Best part: it's an arcane spellcaster that just gets more awesome with armor on.

Realms of Chaos' Fighter fix - Best fighter fix I've seen - a solid tier 3 mundane badass.

DeAnno's Beast - The Incredible Hulk. The Thing. A great way of creating something that you previously had to use templates and mediocre prestige classes for.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

I'm loving this variety of responce! Shows how different people's tastes are. :)

[TuggyNE]

Favorite Item: The Keys (artifact set). The abilities of each Key are inspiring, consistent, well-balanced, and useful; the combination of more than one Key interacts powerfully but without excess.

Favorite Monster: Jadestone Tiger. The design is unique, the abilities well-considered, and the custom art is a nice touch. One would not be surprised to find this in a Monster Manual.

Favorite Template: Beast Shape Construct. This template fills a rather important niche, and does so rather well.

Favorite Spell: This is tougher, but I think my own Buried in History/Lorewhelm. I just have a soft spot for the particular wacky effect these two spells have.

Favorite (Unfinished) New Subsystem: Rules for swearing oaths. Again, this fills a crucial niche, and the possibilities are exciting.

[JoshuaZ]

Favorite PRC: The Deadwood Well-balanced, very flavorful and the method of delivery with the first-person description is amazing. Everything about it is great.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

Well, its time to start this sucker back up! What's your favorite Hombrew folks?

[Jallorn]

Wish I could site one of my own, but it's gotta be Realms of Chaos's Fighter fix.

As Kaje said, best fighter fix I've found.

[Empedocles]

The Giant's homebrew: The Champion base class.

It just feels so...right. And official. And well balanced. And it does something wholly unique without creating an elaborate subsystem. It's simply brilliant!