D&D 5E "House" Rules

FXR · Mar 26, 2019

I tailor rules to the specificities of the campaign I'm running, which is presently a sword and sorcery world. If I was running a standard D&D game, I wouldn't necessary use them.

i) Initiative works differently. Specific events during the combat can raise or lower your initiative score, so even if you initially went first during the 1st round doesn't mean you will go first all rounds ;

ii) 1st-level and higher spells take effect later in the round. So if you cast a fireball on initiative count 13, your spell will take effect on initiative count 10. Meanwhile, if you take damage and fail a concentration check, your spell will fizzle ;

iii) the armor and weapon list is reworked to fit the genre ;

iv) long rests can only be taken in a safe place, such as a inn but not in the wilderness ;

v) I use the massive damage rule featured in the DMG guide ;

vi) wizards double their proficiency bonus on Intelligence (Arcana) checks while sorcerers can regain a single sorcery slot during a short rests (this is a modest way to balance the rule on long rests.

As magical weapons are rare (the characters are now level 6th and only one has a magical weapon), very few monsters have an immunity to damage from nonmagical weapons. For instance, I use the werewolf described in AIME instead of the one featured in the MM.

Blue · Mar 26, 2019

Four of the saves are untrained for any creature and it is simple to chose a spell to go against poor saves. That's part of being a caster - chosing the right spell for the situation.

Your rule makes that any caster can brute force it, and smart casters are unstoppable.

5e does have a save problem, which is that it's too easy to fail saves, especially at higher levels. You rule exasperates the issue.

GlassJaw · Mar 26, 2019

Symmetry != good game design

collin · Mar 26, 2019

The only house rules my group is using that I can think of are:
1) You can add your Constitution bonus to a Death saving roll
2) Rogues get advantage in finding traps.

We used to use things like "critical fail/fumble", but that has tended to go by the wayside for reasons already mentioned here.

LuisCarlos17f · Mar 26, 2019

* Chaotic alignment doesn't mean pro-anarchy but to be attuned to Nature or Primal forces. Added allegiance (tribe, religion, country, race, brotherhood, family..) and powers with alignment key can hurt enemies with same alignment but different allegiance (for example a drow cleric vs a orc shaman). Allowed allegiances with opposite alignment (for example a sheriff who breaks rules to defend Law or a evil zealot who tries to promote goodness).

* More abilities scores: Astuteness(improvisation, social manipulation and fast thoughts), Courage (resistance to mental stress), Grace ( = divine blessing/karma/luck/fate) and technique (pre-learnt or "slow" actions what need a good coordination but not fast agility playing music, dance, martial arts maneuvers, crafting, art, repairing machines).

* Troops as monster subtype. It is as swarn but for bigger creatures, humanoids or beast packs.

* In a shooting or ranged combat the challenge rating is different. If the enemies are too far for melee fight then their stats are like minions from 4th Ed rules, or like surviving a trap with ranged attack.

* Special leveling up in some different genres. Two branches, level of power and level of ego. Level of power is like the stats by a character from a videogame or wargame. Level of ego is all her memory knows. Like this a character as a superhero or a transformers can improve his level of ego, learning more things, but not his level of power because it just too powerful. In transhuman sci-fi settings with digital immortality and mind transfer the level of power would be for the "body", and the level of ego would be all the memory loaded in the cortical stack.

* Consumption of Con by undead attacks is replaced by levels of health, harder to be lost, but also to be healed, like the vitality (green pool) from Fortnite.

The Crimson Binome · Mar 26, 2019

ParanoydStyle said:
(And in case "a natural 20 always makes a saving throw" is one of those things that I think is RAW but actually isn't, I'd put that in there as a house rule anyway. Even if I wasn't bumping up the save DCs. Which I am.)

If you house rule that a natural 20 is always a successful save, then the math works out better for everyone, even if you also increase save DCs by +2.

ParanoydStyle said:
Save DCs "max out" at 20? Does anything else in the game max out like that?

It's not that save DCs max out. It's that ability scores max out at 20, barring a few exceptions. A level 20 wizard is going to have DC 19 for their spells, because they will have an Intelligence score of exactly 20 and a proficiency bonus of exactly +6, and the only way to tweak that is with magic items. You can get another +2 if you have Robes of the Archmagi, and potentially another +2 or +3 if you find a magic rod or something (the specifics are up to interpretation), but that's pretty much it.

ParanoydStyle said:
I also just noticed (wow am I slow on the uptake sometimes) that apparently all items that granted enhancement bonuses to ability scores have been removed from the game? So cloak of charisma, gloves of dexterity et al are gone?

There are some items which set your relevant stat to 19. It's the traditional approach to how these things works, which coincidentally means they're no longer mandatory, even if it means the Gauntlets of Ogre Power do more good for the wizard than they do for the fighter. (There are also some belts which can set your Strength much higher than that, which makes no sense in the context of how the system was designed, but that's also tradition.)

Arvok · Mar 26, 2019

I like critical misses. I have a table I use that leads to some interesting results at times (like when my players were on a combat on a ship and the fighter threw his sword overboard).

As for save DCs, 8+2 = 10 for low level characters. I don't see the need to change it, but that's just my opinion.

I like making identify necessary for figuring out the special features of some magical items and not necessarily sufficient for figuring out very powerful magical items. Then again, I'm a fatbeard who still has a fondness for the quirkiness of AD&D. GET OFF MY LAWN!!!

One house rule I like is that the limit of 20 for ability scores is applied BEFORE ability modifiers. That means races that have a +2 bonus to an ability score can raise it to 22. It just makes sense to me that the strongest half-orc should be stronger than the strongest elf (and the heartiest dwarf, etc.).

Graylion2018 · Mar 27, 2019

Immortal Sun said:
I'm kinda indifferent to the save issue. For me, it's about the math. Working from 10 is IMO, simpler than working from 8. Everyone knows what 10+X is, it's X with a 1 in front of it. But I just find working from 8 requires more thought, even for only a second, and that adds up over a 4+hour session.

I'm not a fan of fumble rules. They're usually over-punishing on melee types while they leave casters completely alone. Rules that punish melee while ignoring casters really need to go the way of the dodo.

I run spell resistance as dealing half damage. Just like all the other resistances or vulnerabilities. It's odd to me to use the word "resistance" to develop two different things. Attack rolls are the same, save rolls are the same. Effects are halved.

To echo [MENTION=22103]GlassJaw[/MENTION] my issue with Identify in older editions was that it was tedious. If you had time, a character could basically say "I cast Identify until I identify it!" but they still had to go through the motions, which I mostly ignored. It was also one of those "class taxes" or if we had an arcane caster, a spell tax. I'd rather not tell my players "Hey, you need to have XYZ spell because I'm going to have you sitting around for hours casting it on end to figure out what every magic item does." I like that characters have at least chance to identify an item without Identify, but I do agree it sometimes feels too easy.

In response to the Magic Resistance portion of your post, how do you handle non-damaging spells like charm person which are usually save based?

Best regards

Graylion2018 · Mar 27, 2019

House Rules

First let me say I have never met a game system I didn't tweak or edit. And I really enjoy 5E, but there are tweaks.

Bard ability that let's you gain any class spell, is limited to full casters, not paladins, rangers, etc. Because they can gain spells earlier than say a paladin who owns the spell and become a better healer than a cleric.

I give out an inspiration card a the start of every session. Turn it in to use. I also award an extra or return for exception roleplaying, strategy, etc. It is not unknown for me to accept their inspiration for a spell slot or other emergency. Also my Inspiration acts more as Lucky feat (self or party member).

I also use a "Ready" card and a concentration card, it is quick and easy and helps with flow.

Short rest heals 25% of max hp and a long rest heals 50%. Managing and spending Hit Dice seems an odd mechanic for 5E. Abilities that add to a short rest (Bards song of rest and the periapt of would closure have been adapted to work with this)

Healer feat takes 1min to return HP, thux making it not during combat. Magic needs to be tye best healers.

Goliath's endure or reduce damage does not work on Psychic.

Dragonborn have dark vision and breath weapon is a bonus action.

I use the Pathfinder Critical and Fumble decks and have used them for 3.5, Pathfinder, 4.0, 5.0 and VtE2e. Any bonus or penalty is advantage or disadvantage. In 4.0 it was combat advantage or combat disadvantage. Also when in dought use levels of fatigue.

OH I run group xp and individual bonus xp. I use a character brag summary sheet.

Bonus for player attendance, exceptional roleplaying, strategy,

New character receive bonus xp for backstory, character clipping art image, character name, etc.

I'm sure there us more but thats it for now.

aco175 · Mar 27, 2019

I used to play with critical misses and we had a chart like we did for critical hits. We got away from it with 4e and 5e because it added more complexity and seemed to slow things down. I like [MENTION=6803664]ccs[/MENTION] said about a simple idea of just monsters having advantage to hit you if you roll a 1. It is easy to play and understand. It does not allow for things like bows breaking or magic item blows up, but makes it streamlined.

One point to think about is how halflings re-roll 1s and how they would never fumble in 5e.