Common Houserules?

Gnome · Jun 14, 2018

5e has been out for a while, but I am new to it. I've played every edition prior starting with 1st, and I was a big fan of 3.0/3.5/Pathfinder. I just picked up the 3 core rulebooks for 5e, and I like what I have seen so far.

Anyway, given that this has been out for some time, I was wondering if there are any generally agreed-upon "fixes" to the core rules that many/most groups make use of?

For now, I'm sticking with the core 3 rulebooks, and not using multiclassing or feats while my players and I adjust to the new system.

DEFCON 1 · Jun 14, 2018

The house rules that I use that seem to appear on other's lists are:

- The Variant Option for skills where there is not a set ability score for each skill but that the ability score used for a check is based upon what you are doing, and then the proficiency bonus can be added if a skill you have applies. So if you try and intimidate someone using your bulk and size, you can make a STR (Intimidation) check. Or if you are a parkour type of character, you can climb walls using DEX (Athletics).

- Investigation takes on half of Perception's gig. Perception checks are used to find people and creatures that are Hiding (anything that can move around), and Investigation checks are to find objects, secret doors, and traps that are hidden (any inanimate object that doesn't move around and is only found through very careful observation.)

aco175 · Jun 14, 2018

We play with flanking rules which is an optional rule, also has several threads about it already.

We also seem to have kept the rogue ability to gain sneak attack if they act before the enemy on the first round of combat.

mrpopstar · Jun 14, 2018

Our only real "house rule" is that players grant each other Inspiration when and where appropriate.

DEFCON 1 said:
- Investigation takes on half of Perception's gig. Perception checks are used to find people and creatures that are Hiding (anything that can move around), and Investigation checks are to find objects, secret doors, and traps that are hidden (any inanimate object that doesn't move around and is only found through very careful observation.)

Interesting. I use passive Wisdom (Perception) checks to spot features in the environment such as trip wires, pressure plates, scorch marks, pits, tiny holes in the walls, etc., and call for Intelligence (Investigation) checks to deduce that these are trap features.

iserith · Jun 14, 2018

My house rules on Inspiration: The Case for Inspiration. Inspiration, in my experience , is highly underutilized in most games and this house rule solves some of the issues for why that is.

Otherwise, I use the rules as is with some amount of interpretation for Activities While Traveling and passive checks. I will at times use variant rules in the PHB or DMG (such as encumbrance) for specific adventures or campaigns if they support the theme and play experience I'm going for.

Wrathamon · Jun 14, 2018

I allow the optional variant human, multi-classing and feats from the PHB

Tony Vargas · Jun 14, 2018

Gnome said:
For now, I'm sticking with the core 3 rulebooks, and not using multiclassing or feats while my players and I adjust to the new system.

It's not like 3e - there's not a lot more than core, this time around, nor is non-core all that toxic, but core-only's certainly fine. Core+1 is a common one, promoted by AL, though, amusingly, my old group had the same policy in 3.0, too.
Not opting into feats & MCing is a good idea - feats are few & uneven, there's the EK & AT for the common old Fighter/magic-user & magic-user/thief, and you can often touch an "MC" concept with the help of a background.

Magic items are a big difference between 3e & 5e. Skipping magic items entirely in 5e isn't meant to hurt, but it can be a good idea to drop a tailored one now and then to bring a lagging PC up to snuff.

Generally, if you can hold 3e together, you should have no trouble keeping the peace in 5e. The same tricks to balance different-resource/Tier classes against eachother & encoutners work - 'living world' style, quashing the 5MWD, &c - though you can probably turn them down from 11, maybe to 8.6 or so....

I was wondering if there are any generally agreed-upon "fixes" to the core rules that many/most groups make use of?

I don't really think so, on-line communities suck pretty hard at building anything resembling a consensus.
The (ok, 'a good') way to fix 5e, IMHO, is not to put on your developer hat and re-design it into a less broken, inevitably different, game and then run that 'Rules As (re-)Written,' but to take full advantage of DM Empowerment and really just take over for the system, any & every time doing so will make your campaign better. Get into the groove and you hardly have to crack a book again...

Oofta · Jun 14, 2018

I don't think there are many "agreed upon" fixes, there are a couple of more-or-less current threads on a pair of feats that shall not be named that some people see as being broken and others look at as features of the game.

Personally I use some of the optional rules like the rest rules from the DMG because it fits the pace of my game better. I use point buy for stat generation because I don't think a 1 time roll should make or break a character concept.

My house rules are pretty minimal. I have bows that people can buy that are reinforced to allow people to add strength to their attack instead of dexterity. I keep tweaking the Heat Metal spell because a lot of my campaign is very human centric which means the big bad in most encounters will be human and frequently in armor. Auto damage is bad enough, auto disadvantage is worse. Raising people from the dead is difficult if not impossible, but that's more of a world-campaign thing.

But really, those are just minor preferences and tweaks. I'd be perfectly happy to run or play in a plain vanilla game. There are a couple of rough edges here and there but I think it works better out of the box than previous editions, and I've played them all.

cooperjer · Jun 14, 2018

I have a list of about 45 house rules; however, about half of them are to address my players concerns with particular sub-classes and weapon damage for fighting styles. The house rule that I use most often is related to critical hits and critical misses. For a critical hit I use max die damage plus one roll of the dice. For instance a dagger in the hand of creature with a +2 dex bonus and a critical hit deals 4+2+1d4 piercing damage. The net result of this change is a slight increase in damage per round for the Champion Fighter subclass, but none of my players are playing that, so it doesn't matter. For the critical miss, I crafted a table that has 21 lines of options and have a player roll 3d8. The options were inspired by Monty Cook's Numenera critical miss cards and shift the game play by adding a complication to the combat. I also grant two inspiration to the PCs (one for the active player and pass one to an ally) if they are willing to roll on the critical fail table.

There are some pet peeve rules in the game that I've adjusted. One is the disadvantage to ranged attacks against prone creatures. In my opinion, a prone giant is still large enough to hit with no disadvantage applied. I've also modified the falling rules because a long fall (greater than 30-ft) is not threatening to medium / high level characters, and barbarians can use rage to prevent the bludgeoning damage.

Li Shenron · Jun 14, 2018

Gnome said:
Anyway, given that this has been out for some time, I was wondering if there are any generally agreed-upon "fixes" to the core rules that many/most groups make use of?

NO, absolutely utterly NO house rule is "agreed upon", and anyone trying to make you believe that is a fraud.

Do yourself a favour and try out the game as-is first, then figure out what YOU would like to change, if anything. Don't start off with the wrong foot of thinking something needs fixing before even trying it.