When to use homebrews?

[washi]

This is a subject that I have wanted to discuss for some time. What else we have in the community are new cards, new equipment, new spells, new quests, etc. I always think about what is the best time to insert each of these things in the quests so that they are not unbalanced and I would like to know how you do it.

I understand that each expansion of the game was released considering that your characters played the previous ones so if I finished Kellar's Keep and choose to play some extra adventures, inserting new magic cards and etc., the heroes would be more powerful than expected to play Return of Witch Lord, for example. How do you control new weapons, spells, etc. so that the characters do not become "superheroes" and the challenge continues to exist? Do you play all the official material without changes and only implement them later? Do you implement and adapt the official quests to increase the challenge?

Several questions up there to make it clear what kind of tip I would like from you.

[whitebeard]

A good homebrew expansion finds new ways to make things difficult without simply making the monsters stronger. It should also be possible to avoid any tangible overall buff while still adding useful and cool new items. Nobody complains that the Spirit Blade is OP... The spell ring with 2x Tempest is the real quest breaker and that one is available in the Base Game System!!

And for the record, I loathe the "official" expansions which exist to buff one character into an overpowered state. Honestly, we can do so much better. If you ignore those, I believe "Champions" of the original 14 quests are sufficient to start any expansion quest pack.

[Stig]

I think those of us who extend the game appreciate this is very difficult. I'm of the opinion that homebrewing swings the pendulum more towards RPGs, and the answer lies with Zargon playing it as they see it: adding extra monsters in rooms, declaring a specific monster to be tougher, making up a teleport trap, sneaking in a potion here and there etc. Trying to systemise the difficulty of homebrew combinations seems impossible; I think it's down to Zargon to provide an enjoyable questing experience and play more like a true DM

[wallydubbs]

As much as I appreciate and respect those that create their own homebrew quest, cards, weapons and such; unfortunately some of these quest packs, magic and skill cards I deem unplayable for my groups.

Part of it is due to them throwing the balance off, but sometimes someone makes a new quest pack featuring monster figurines I don't have (I'm kind OCD about that), or sometimes they overuse furniture, like I'm going to need more then 3 chests (I have a similar issue in playing Dark Company because of this).

However, as playing the roll of Zargon I do take certain liberties to make some quests harder if I feel the heroes are too strong. When a hero over utilizes a crossbow to the point that my monsters can't get a hit in, I converted the Twist Wood spell from the EQP and gave it to a spell caster.

Certain connected quest packs, like playing Return of the Witch Lord, the heroes aren't allowed to go to the Armory or Alchemist shops between quests (unless they have a Mystic Portal Scroll). The undead also die too easily and there heroes are progressing without having to use their Healing potions, add more attack dice to the Forgotten Legion (they're supposed to be formidable). I also give Skullmar a set of spells, and when the heroes are fighting the Witch Lord, if Skullmar and/or Kassandra manage to escape, they can stand by the Witch Lord and fight with him. I also gave the Witch Lord the Reanimation Chaos spell from the EQP. So if there heroes manage to defeat his whole Horde of undead, bring 'em back, make them do it again.

When it comes to the WoM quest pack, I find the Chaos Wizards spells to weak and replace some of them with US Chaos spells.

Other things you could add:
1.) There's the Evil Wizard deck you could add to Zargon's capabilities.
2.) Nor is there any harm in giving an evil sorcerer a Potion of Magical Aptitude that allows him to cast 2 spells at the same time.
3.) Add several magically sealed doors that the hero can only open by rolling 1 movement dice, he needs equal to or less then his current mind points, if he fails to open the door the door magically fights back and steals a body point from him.
4.) Add a Tomb the likes you see in the Cold Halls in RotWL, where the hero must discard artifacts or equipment.
5.) Give boss monsters extra abilities or immunity to Magic or skills.
6.) Give certain monsters a set a skills or something like to 1 Black Shield defends all hits thing.

[Azure]

As a DM myself, I can say that when I see that the heroes start to ''one-shot kill'' most enemies, and exit the dungeon with at least 3/4 of their health and all heroes standing up with healing spells remaining unused... that is exactly when you gotta start implementing homebrew content.

When your Dwarf or Barbarian just DECAPITATED the Gargoyle in a single slash, you gotta start putting new stuff in.
My favorites are Evil mages that have elemental spells (Fire Ball, Ice Blast, Chain Lightning) and the ones that do Mind Control/Crowd Control.

Why not have another Evil Witch who can do the following :
- she poisons a hero (Removing any possibility to RECEIVE HEALING/making healing invalid until you use an Antidote potion)
- she leeches life force from a hero (Syphoning a body point and gaining it for herself)
- she spawns 3 arachnids that you have to fight and these arachnids can reduce your movement by 5 points, and your attack by 1 die
if they spit out their cobwebs on you.

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These are very good things I have implemented.

Wallydubbs suggestions are extremely good as well.

Note :: I also allow my Wizard players to Re-Cast a spell if they spend a Mind Point AND Discard another spell.