One of the best things about DnD 5e is how simple it is to add your favourite things to the game, whether it’s creating a familiar based on a beloved pet, adding weapons or characters from an amazing video game, or putting a piece of your childhood into your latest campaign.
Charo, a South American DnD fan in his early 20s, is doing the latter, creating DnD races for each of the aliens from the (awesome) children’s cartoon Ben 10. Apparently becoming inspired after falling down a Ben 10 rabbithole on YouTube, Charo began to picture “how the alien species would work if they were fantasy races”, and soon got to work homebrewing each species up.
So far, he’s finished creating DnD species for three Omnitrix denizens from classic (2006) Ben 10; Heatblast, XLR8, and Four Arms; but plans to finish the original 10 and then “see if I still have steam to finish the classic series.”
According to Charo, the most challenging part of homebrewing is making calls on what does and doesn’t make it into the finished product. Charo sees homebrewing as a collaborative process, uploading his creations to Reddit to get feedback. “Some abilities end up being really overpowered when put to the actual test, so the community has been suggesting changes,” he says.
“Of course, everyone has their own take on how they would do certain stuff, but the main goal is for the whole group to have fun, so balancing is the top priority.”
Charo says he’s probably going to skip Celestialsapiens and Alien X, however – which makes sense, it’s hard enough to fit powerful DnD spells like Wish 5e into the game, let alone an alien race that can shape reality at a whim, smash planets or grow the size of a sun.