D&D 5E Capricious Home Rules and DM Pet Peeves

[transtemporal]

I make my players wear the armor that their characters are wearing and enact all their fights with real weapons. For the dragon I constructed a 20ft tall mechanical dragon with a flamethrower, just to show them how foolish it is to fight a dragon.

 

[Lanliss]

I make my players wear the armor that their characters are wearing and enact all their fights with real weapons. For the dragon I constructed a 20ft tall mechanical dragon with a flamethrower, just to show them how foolish it is to fight a dragon.

Not enough, it needs to be attached to a few helicopters. That way they understand the true terror of a flying beast spewing fire down on them.

 

[Oofta]

Not enough, it needs to be attached to a few helicopters. That way they understand the true terror of a flying beast spewing fire down on them.

You don't have to go that far. I can give you my ex's number ... talk about true terror!

 

[Harzel]

I make my players wear the armor that their characters are wearing and enact all their fights with real weapons. For the dragon I constructed a 20ft tall mechanical dragon with a flamethrower, just to show them how foolish it is to fight a dragon.

If your players nevertheless defeat that, then maybe you can borrow this. http://www.robosaurus.com/

 

[MNblockhead]

Totally unrelated to the OP's question, but I am so excited to learn that Brontosaurus is back! It was my favorite dinosaur in elementary school. When my kids were studying Dinosaurs several years ago, I was so disappointed to discover that Brontosaurus no longer existed. Their teacher didn't even recognize the name. And now they're back!
Crazy how small things can make us happy.

Gives me hope that Pluto may someday be a planet again.

 

[MNblockhead]

As much as I think I like this, I have a question. What about any allies standing next to, but just beyond, a target at the edge of the AoE? Effectively, you "increase" the radius by allowing it to reach past the edge, to get opponents engaged with the target(s). But does that same "increase" apply equally to the target's friends also standing an equal distance beyond?

Regarding AOE spells...is this really much of an issue? I just got some macrame rings (idea from DM David) in various sizes (4, 6, 8 inch diameter) that I can just hold over a battlemap.

I've I'm going to allow the sharpshooter feat, I don't have an issue with a wizard giving precise targeting for the spell.

 

[Mecheon]

Give me hope that Pluto may someday be a planet again.

That though isn't going to happen. The issue there is if you make Pluto a planet, you then have to include Ceres, Haumea, Makemake and Eris as planets. And those are only the definite ones, given its like Sedna, Orcus and Salacia would join the crew

The reason for this is that planets have to clear their orbit and not have a big pile of asteroids and other space debris in it. The eight planets have done this. However Ceres, located in the belt between Mars and Jupiter, and Pluto haven't done this. So they're just dwarf planets

 

[MechaPilot]

Oh, I forgot this one before:

NO long-range teleport!

You will NOT travel more than a few hundred yards in the blink of an eye.

If you want to get somewhere, you have to actually travel there. Travel and meeting people helps build the world and give the players a sense the world exists, with or without them in it. If the travel would be boring, I will hand-wave it. If something interesting happens along the way, you'll get to encounter it instead of immediately BAMF!-ing to your desired location.

Imagine how boring LotR would have been if Gandalf could have just teleported himself and Frodo right to the mountain. Now, I'm not saying I'm a master world-builder with Tolkien-like skills and depth. But, no one would have really given a crap about how much work he put into building his world if we never got to see the heroes navigate it, or learned about any of its important places through their eyes and ears.

 

[corwyn77]

Oh, I forgot this one before:

NO long-range teleport!

You will NOT travel more than a few hundred yards in the blink of an eye.

If you want to get somewhere, you have to actually travel there. Travel and meeting people helps build the world and give the players a sense the world exists, with or without them in it. If the travel would be boring, I will hand-wave it. If something interesting happens along the way, you'll get to encounter it instead of immediately BAMF!-ing to your desired location.

Imagine how boring LotR would have been if Gandalf could have just teleported himself and Frodo right to the mountain. Now, I'm not saying I'm a master world-builder with Tolkien-like skills and depth. But, no one would have really given a crap about how much work he put into building his world if we never got to see the heroes navigate it, or learned about any of its important places through their eyes and ears.

Yeah, that would have been silly. Now if only Gandalf knew some large flying creatures that were friendly to him and the hobbits that could have flown Frodo and the ring to Mount Doom, that would have been much better.

 

[smbakeresq]

Not capricious, but here are changes I use in no order

1. Powerful build trait - weapon size increase by 1 die. Beefs up Goliaths who otherwise are only unique because they can live at 20000 ft or in cold.

2. Critical hits - max damage plus an extra roll of damage dice. It sucks to roll at crit and then get 2 ones, players get disappointed. Applies to monsters too, so they get some crushing blows in, so be careful. Buffs Champions

3. Variant encumbrance - use it. Effectively limits much abuse, tell me how you carry 10 quivers of 20 arrows plus all your other gear and armor with your 10 Str Ranger. Figure out how you are carrying all that treasure out. Makes powerful build trait useful. Limits the 10 Str dwarf cleric from wearing plate mail as the weight gets them. All the CS builders use them so its easy to track.

4. Jump rules - if move 10' then max jump is STR or DEX. For every 5' of movement speed over 30' add 2' to max.

5. Athlete feat - add 5' to jump also

6. The Tempest cleric lvl 6 push feature works with thunder and lightening damage.

7. Savage Attacker - reroll all dice

8. Power Attack - Champions get it a level 3 also, you can take a penalty to hit equal up to proficiency bonus and move it damage. Weapons used in 2 hands get %50 more damage bonus.

9. Power attack for monsters - they get it too, up to their STR bonus. Again be careful, strong monster swinging for the fences can crush players.

10. Observant - how do you passively investigate? The bonus applies to you investigation checks.

11. Crossbow Expert - hand crossbows only. Crossbow of Speed still should be a great weapon find since it uses a larger die. Probably should just get rid of whole feat. It doesn't make any sense

12. Charge - anyone can charge, if you move 10' in a straight line +2 to attack or shove roll. Monsters can also, so be careful.

13 Fighter talent archery - +2 to damage, not + 2 to hit. Same as

14 Witch bolt - deleted in its entirety to avoid confusing players, same with True Strike.

15. Bless spell - flat +2 to hit. Faster at table and in bounded accuracy +2 is plenty for a 1st level spell.

16 Any weapon you can think of - give me a story why and if you commit to using it you can and I will think of something special. A halberd with a maul end instead of slashing, seems fine and worthy of + 2 bonus to shove checks.


more but cant think now.