D&D 5E Fun & Engaging House Rules

[hawkeyefan]

I quite like this rule, but how do you account for the possibility of a natural 20 roll that might give the character back a hit point? If you didn't roll until someone came to his aide, he/she might have rolled that nat 20 and got up to take an action.

The player would make all rolls at once when someone got to his character to administer healing, etc. So the possibility of getting to 1 HP by rolling a natural 20 is removed. Or at least delayed. Kind of a drawback to doing it this way, but in our experience, a nat 20 restoring 1 HP usually wound up being a bad thing for a PC....very often they would get to their feet, take one action, and then immediately get knocked back down again.

We found a lot of "whack a mole" situations would come up in play given how 5E handles the 0 HP thing, and that phenomenon seems to be an unfortunate side-effect of the game mechanics that none of us like. I've never seen a movie or read a book where a character was unconscious in a fight, then got up and got knocked out again, then got up and knocked out again, then got up.....it just seems ridiculous and breaks our immersion a bit, so we decided it was not a bad thing for this to go away.

So now, if they roll the natural 20 when the other party member reaches them, then that party member finds them conscious and not in danger of dying.

The alternative would be for me as DM to make the rolls for them in secret. Which seems a good option....but my players tend to like to make their own rolls for such things, and I think it also removes any doubt about my impartiality on the matter. Although to be honest, if I ever did fudge such a roll, it would be far more likely to be in the PC's favor than against it. But they like to make the rolls....it puts their fate in their own hands, so to speak, so I'm fine with the rule working that way. But I'd say this is a decent option for others who don't have players like mine.

 

[Stalker0]

The player would make all rolls at once when someone got to his character to administer healing, etc. So the possibility of getting to 1 HP by rolling a natural 20 is removed. Or at least delayed. Kind of a drawback to doing it this way, but in our experience, a nat 20 restoring 1 HP usually wound up being a bad thing for a PC....very often they would get to their feet, take one action, and then immediately get knocked back down again.

We found a lot of "whack a mole" situations would come up in play given how 5E handles the 0 HP thing, and that phenomenon seems to be an unfortunate side-effect of the game mechanics that none of us like. I've never seen a movie or read a book where a character was unconscious in a fight, then got up and got knocked out again, then got up and knocked out again, then got up.....it just seems ridiculous and breaks our immersion a bit, so we decided it was not a bad thing for this to go away.

So now, if they roll the natural 20 when the other party member reaches them, then that party member finds them conscious and not in danger of dying.

The alternative would be for me as DM to make the rolls for them in secret. Which seems a good option....but my players tend to like to make their own rolls for such things, and I think it also removes any doubt about my impartiality on the matter. Although to be honest, if I ever did fudge such a roll, it would be far more likely to be in the PC's favor than against it. But they like to make the rolls....it puts their fate in their own hands, so to speak, so I'm fine with the rule working that way. But I'd say this is a decent option for others who don't have players like mine.

I really like the this houserule idea, so I would say if they happen to roll a 20 give them some extra healing or something. They still don't get the "come back in the middle of the fight" benefit of the original system, but it gives them something for getting that 20.

If you use any other death save variants you could combine them. So for example, I use the "death save failures last until a short rest", but I could allow a nat 20 here to cancel one of those failures. Or for those who use the "gain a level of exhaustion when a player goes unconscious" could remove that exhaustion on the nat 20.

So there are a few other ways to reward the nat 20. As a note, I am totally using the roll them all at once for my next game.

 

[habahnow]

What you could do is just have the player remain unconscious on a nat 20, but they still have the 1 HP and they do not have to wait out the 1d4 hours to regain consciousness.

 

[hawkeyefan]

I really like the this houserule idea, so I would say if they happen to roll a 20 give them some extra healing or something. They still don't get the "come back in the middle of the fight" benefit of the original system, but it gives them something for getting that 20.

If you use any other death save variants you could combine them. So for example, I use the "death save failures last until a short rest", but I could allow a nat 20 here to cancel one of those failures. Or for those who use the "gain a level of exhaustion when a player goes unconscious" could remove that exhaustion on the nat 20.

So there are a few other ways to reward the nat 20. As a note, I am totally using the roll them all at once for my next game.

Good calls. In fact, I think the one time it came up I did negate the level of exhaustion....I think this only came up once, so I totally forgot.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

We steal Star Wars Saga Edition's Force Points in place of Inspiration. You get 5+1/2 level, rounded down, per level. You can use it to add 1d6 to any one d20 roll.

I'm considering the Condition Track as something to combine with the Exhaustion system. Basically it's just a chart for Exhaustion, converted into 5e mechanics, so this isn't so much a houserule.

All characters get a "bonus feat" at 1st, 11th, and 17th character level. Cannot be a directly combat related feat.

All characters gain +1 to 1 stat of their choice every time they get an ASI or feat. at my table, this makes people feel less like they have to take ASIs. Hasn't actually had much impact on balance, so far. I'm ready to adjust to any problems that arise, but so far it's fine.

All characters that normally only get 2 skill proficiencies from class instead get 3. Class skill list remains unchanged.

Add the Riddle skill, which is based on and similar to the oen from Cubicle7's Adventurer's Guide to Middle Earth. Speaking in code, deciphering linguistic codes or riddles, and figuring out what the heck some esoteric codex is talking about are all Riddle challenges. Usually an Int skill, but occasionally Wis or Cha apply.

I use Skill Challenges per the 4e Rules COmpendium.

Not so much a houserule: Most magic items that aren't made by the PCs or their allies are used against the PCs by their enemies, first. Humanoid enemies stay dangerous a lot longer when they can have wands of fireball, and wands of fireball are more exciting when you pick them up from the dead hands of an enemy rogue who used them against you.

Also, in the Xanathar's Guide rules for crafting magic items, a rogue3/wizard1 like my Gnome swashbuckler/tinker/mage slayer could make a magic item that casts 3rd level spells as long as his team is good and creative, and the GM isn't trying to stop it, because they just have to overcome a CR 1-4 (IIRC) critter to get the rare materials.

As much as I think that "deal with a CR x monster to get the rare materials magic items always need" thing is trite and gamist in the most lame way possible, it also forces the DM to come up with quests just to make an item, and creates the weird possibility of a DM having to either retcon something, fudge something, or allow a magic item that is way over level into the campaign. For DMs that view that level of DM control over what can even be tried as bad DMing, that doesn't work. IT also doesn't work in any world where magic items aren't super rare.

So, we don't require getting around a monster/NPC of a given CR. We do use the CR chart as a gauge of how hard it should be to find/negotiate for/whatever the materials, and we keep the costs pretty much in place, but we also want to use character level as a limiting factor.

There are two ideas we are discussing.

1. If the spell is higher than your caster level would be as a full caster, you have to make a crafting check, using Arcana or the tool proficiency, as part of crafting the item. DC is 10+spell level, and the check must be made once per workweek. If you fail a check, you lose that week's work, including an amount of gold equal to cost/number of workweeks. If you fail 2 checks, or half the checks needed (whichever is higher) to craft the item, you must start from scratch, and you waste the rare ingredient.

2. If the Spell is higher [same as above] you must make 1 crafting check with either Arcana or the tools used in crafting, DC as above. If you fail, you waste the rare ingredient, but can salvage the other materials and components, and waste half the time it would have taken to craft the item.
2a. If you roll a 1, you also waste half the mundane materials and magical components (ie, the gold).

If you can't tell, we also don't like that crafting requires no checks. We're also open to DC 15+spell level, but we want people who don't have expertise and maxed stat to have some chance to succeed.

In either case, you don't have to make the checks if it's a spell level you would have access to as a full caster of your level.

 

[Wulffolk]

I have always had an issue with the lack of realism when it comes to Hit Points. What I have done in the past has been to consider HP to be a measure of the character's ability to avoid damage, and their Constitution score to be an actual measure of their actual injuries. Basically a Vitality/Wounds system. Any damage that a character takes come from their HP, and this represents them narrowly dodging or parrying or otherwise escaping the effects of something.

When their HP are depleted they have run out of luck or are too exhausted to adequately defend themselves. At that point all damage is subtracted from their Constitution score. Those with high Constitutions can carry on with little effect, ignoring the pain of lesser wounds. Once a character's Constitution drops below 10 then they start applying negative modifiers to all of their abilities. Example: CON drops to 7 the character now has a -2 to all rolls.

Character's that drop to Zero Constitution are dead. Characters that drop below 10 Constitution must make a d20 + CON modifyer roll to remain conscious. The target of this roll is 10 + the negative modifier of the wound. Example: A Character with 16 CON takes 7 points of wounds, leaving him at 9 CON, now needs to make a roll of 11 to stay conscious, and has only a +2 bonus to the roll because of the -1 from the wound penalty.

On occasion, when a critical hit does maximum damage I apply the damage modifier directly to the victim's Constitution score. Example: a Fighter with a 16 STR scores a max damage critical hit on a foe, the victim takes 3 wounds to their Constitution even if they still have HP left.

The Vitality of HP can be restored by any normal means of resting or healing. The Wounds done to Constitution can be recovered naturally at a rate of only 1 per Long Rest. Successful use of a healing kit may double this. I use gritty realism rest variant, so a long rest is 7 full days. The Cure Wounds spell will restore 1 point of Constitution damage per level of the spell cast. Greater Restoration heals all Constitution damage. Most other magical healing only works on HP.

The end result is that when a character pushes too far and takes real wounds they tend to have a lingering effect. Characters are tougher at early levels, but with the trade off of lingering wounds. This also eliminates the whack-a-mole effect and seems more realistic to me.

I also use this same system for monsters and other enemies. While weak creatures such as Koblods or Goblins might be wounded in one hit, few are outright killed in one hit without receiving a critical hit. Every foes becomes a threat, especially when you are outnumbered.

 

[Wulffolk]

A short list of some of the more noticeable house rules that we use:

1 - Roll for Abilities. Roll 3d6 (replace one die with a 4). This generates scores between 6-16 and honors the legacy of rolling 3d6 from the beginning of D&D. Characters do not need to be equally powerful, but somebody that has absolutely terrible luck and is convinced that they can't have fun usually gets a chance to re-roll. In my games a +1 is above average, +2 is exceptional, +3 is professional, +4 is legendary and +5 is almost supernatural.

2 - Ability Score Improvement. There are only two options: either choose +1 in two abilities, or pick a Feat. There is no option to gain a +2 to one ability. Also, a character may only gain a total of 2 points from ASI's. Only through a combination of 2 points from ASI's, racial bonuses and bonuses from Feats can a character reach a 20 in an ability, and it will be much later in their career and more significant when they finally do. Not every character will reach that point.

3 - Gritty Realism Rest Variant. Long Rests = 7 full days and Short Rests = 8 hours.

4 - Vitality and Wounds. As described in my previous post.

5 - Milestone Levelling. We prefer to play at low to mid levels much longer, and the challenges tend to be much greater when monsters have Vitality and Wounds too, so standard CR and XP doesn't really work for us.

6 - Bonus Skills. At 1st level a character gains one extra skill per Intelligence modifier point.

7 - Stacking Advatage/Disadvatage. These conditions stack multiple times when applicable. When there are opposing conditions applied they do not cancel out completely. 1 disadvantage does not cancel 2 advantages, it just reduces it to 1 advantage.

8 - Wealth. This is not so much a house rule as it is an outlook. Wealth has weight and consequences . . . LITERALLY! GP is not just a score on your character sheet. They are real coins that effect emcumberance. Wealth is quite often a "use it or lose it" proposition. Either you do something with it or it tends to draw the attention of those that want to take it from you in one way or another. Wealth very rarely remains idle or stagnant unless you have the power to sit on your hoard like a dragon.

There are MANY others that I have used in the past, but I don't want to be writing all night.

 

[Blue]

2 - Ability Score Improvement. There are only two options: either choose +1 in two abilities, or pick a Feat. There is no option to gain a +2 to one ability. Also, a character may only gain a total of 2 points from ASI's. Only through a combination of 2 points from ASI's, racial bonuses and bonuses from Feats can a character reach a 20 in an ability, and it will be much later in their career and more significant when they finally do. Not every character will reach that point.

This is really intriguing. With the burst of "a whole +1 each time", the race to a 20 in their attack/casting ability score can be pursued just as easily with half-feats, which also give other engaging features that make characters more interesting as opposed to just numerically better.

My only hesitation is if it will encourage my players, most whom do enjoy creating "efficient" (*cough*) characters, to only play maximal race/class combos in order to start with a 17 in their prime ability score so they still hit it only one ASI delayed.

 

[Wulffolk]

My only hesitation is if it will encourage my players, most whom do enjoy creating "efficient" (*cough*) characters, to only play maximal race/class combos in order to start with a 17 in their prime ability score so they still hit it only one ASI delayed.

Maybe, but that can also be mitigated by the style of game you run. As you might expect when taking into account the rest of the house rules that I mentioned, mostly due to the gritty realism resting and healing, my games are less combat heavy than most. I do my best to help players understand right from session zero that some diversity in how their character is built might be more valuable than super specialization.

However, if they are absolutely determined to be the optimal combat machine I let them, and just challenge them other ways. Fighting is not always the best solution. Being a master with a Great Axe does little good again distant foes. Offensive magic doesn't do a lot of good against the unseen blade. Getting delayed by killing everything you encounter might slow you down and let time run out. Etc. All of which I am sure that you already understand.

 

[cbwjm]

Turns out I've been playing with a house rule that I never realised. When multiclassing, I round up third and half caster levels for determining spell slots. This is how the slots are determined for single classed third/half casters so that flows over into multiclassing. That means that an eldritch knight 4/wizard 1 would have the spell slots of a 3rd level caster instead of a second level caster.