Critique my House Rules

[Einlanzer0]

Please do not waste your energy trying to convince me that any of my concepts are bad, because everyone has their own. I'm simply concerned with corrective balance.

Races
In addition to normal racial bonuses, all small races receive -4 Str and Con, +2 Dex (I know this is a hard sell, but I simply do not like the idea that small races are not disadvantaged in straightforward skirmishes with larger creatures, and should be pushed into playing to their strengths rather than being interchangeable with medium sized races)
All small races can move through spaces with larger creatures, whether hostile or not, and always have advantage on hide checks vs larger races
Halfling Nimbleness imposes disdvantage to opportunity attacks made against them by larger creatures
Gnomes have Fey Ancestry as elves do


Classes
Clerics have an optional variant, the Theologian (I won't post all the deets here, but essentially they sacrifice weapon/armor proficiency for expanded spellcasting)
Rangers use the UA variant (see PDF)
Fighters have a replacement 20th level ability - Veteran Warrior - all weapon attacks gain extra 1d4 damage. Once per turn, you can impose disadvantage on any attack that targets your AC, Str, Dex, or Con


Attributes/Skills
Intelligence and Wisdom have slightly remixed skill lineups
Intelligence - Arcana, Culture, Mechanics, Medicine. Note: Investigation is baked into the individual knowledge skills. Most uses of Investigation in the standard rules fall under Mechanics, but they might apply to the other skills.
Wisdom - Composure, Insight, Nurturing, Perception, Survival. Note: Nurturing includes both animal handling and long-term care of any form. Composure is a new skill used mostly in social interactions and to stave off madness/horror


All three of the mental attributes play somewhat expanded roles to help put them on par with the physical attributes in general usefulness:
Intelligence is used to determine Tactical Points, which are useful for all characters.
Wisdom checks (both as saving throws and skill uses) are easily the most common in the game, which puts Wisdom on par with Constitution as a supporting stat
Charisma is now used as part of the Inspiration mechanic, and will also play some role in factions and piety


Other Mechanics
Falling Damage varies based on factors like ground type, weight, and HD. DM reserves the right to adjudicate on a situation-by-situation basis.
Alternate Encumbrance rule is used. Only 1/2 of the weight of any body armor is applied to encumbrance, since the weight is evenly distributed across the body.
Items sized for small races have 2/3 the listed weight, which means small races should be able to carry about the same amount of gear as medium races even with lower strength.
Inspiriation grants d6 bonus die instead of automatic advantage/disadvantage. Only the DM can award inspiration, however, when Inspiration is used by any player, allies within 30ft can roll d20 + original player's Cha mod at DC 15. On success, they become inspired. Inspiration is still binary. It can be saved, but can only be gained once per day by any individual player.
Hero Points are reflavored into Tactical Points. Characters have 2+int mod TP, which recover at 1/2 per day, like HD. TP grants advantage/disadvantage to any one d20 roll and can be spent as a bonus action or reaction

 

[Corwin]

This is one of the things I love most about 5e. Ifs malleability and that you can make it your own very easily without worrying too much about breaking it. I don't see anything here that's a deal-breaker or makes the game fundamentally unplayable. In fact, I really like some of your ideas. So if you and your players enjoy these changes, that's awesome. More power to you guys.

 

[Satyrn]

it all seems fine to me - with the one obvious exception - and of course I can't comment on your cleric variant without any details (and I really can't be bothered thinking about a 20th level feature).


One comment: Have you considered making tbe Tactical points equal to Proficiency Bonus +Int mod? Oh, I'm guessing that the advantage granted can be to the character spending the point, or to someone else. I think it would be more interesting if the character spending the point grants advantage to someone else only - but in addition, can bestow disadvantage, too.

 

[Einlanzer0]

it all seems fine to me - with the one obvious exception - and of course I can't comment on your cleric variant without any details (and I really can't be bothered thinking about a 20th level feature).


One comment: Have you considered making tbe Tactical points equal to Proficiency Bonus +Int mod? Oh, I'm guessing that the advantage granted can be to the character spending the point, or to someone else. I think it would be more interesting if the character spending the point grants advantage to someone else only - but in addition, can bestow disadvantage, too.

I hadn't, really. It's worth thinking about. I intended to keep the scaling to a minimum on it, with all the other options characters acquire as they gain levels, but I want to prevent it from being too front-loaded also.

I guess it makes sense for me to provide a bit more detail on the Theologian. The changes are fairly small. They have d6 HD, no weapon or armor proficiencies. They have a few more spells on their list of cleric spells, which I'm still finalizing. They always gain bonus cantrip and potent spellcasting in place of bonus proficiencies, regardless of domain choice. Lastly, they have the following new features starting at 1st level:

Epiphany - Once per day during a short rest, you may swap out one prepared cleric spell for another. Upon doing so, you also regain a spent spell slot of a level that the new spell can be cast at. The maximum level of the spell/slot is your maximum spell level -1.

Cloistered Learning - Theologians can apply both their Wisdom and their Intelligence modifier to any skill check made in relation to knowledge of religion, divine secrets or discerning a deity's motives.

 

[Satyrn]

If they still pick domains, what happens at 8th level when the domains give a weapon damage bonus?

 

[Einlanzer0]

If they still pick domains, what happens at 8th level when the domains give a weapon damage bonus?

Only some domains grant Weapon damage bonus. Others grant potent spellcasting. They always gain potent spellcasting in place of weapon damage bonus. I'm sure there are additional tweaks I'll need to make for some individual domains, but I'm trying to cover all the broad strucks with the base features themselves.

edit: there's a chance I'll redesign them to remove the domain choice and grant other features instead. part of the reason I didn't provide all the details in the original post is because I'm still fleshing them out.

 

[Satyrn]

They always gain potent spellcasting in place of weapon damage bonus.

Oh. I see now you said that above. I only remember seeing one domain providing potent spellcasting, and I forgot what it was called, so I didn't click to it.

Anyway, your broad description of the Theolgian sounds cool and it looks like it's coming along fine.

(I still totally wouldn't play it, but because I like melee so it ain't for me.)

 

[aco175]

I may only give a -2 to small characters Con instead of -4. Being small doesn't have to mean being fragile and sickly. The -4 on Str is harsh for players who want to play certain classes without feeling like that are being forced into something, but the new halflings are portrayed not only half as tall, but also half as thick and half as wide, so an additional penalty is warranted.

 

[Croesus]

Please do not waste your energy trying to convince me that any of my concepts are bad, because everyone has their own. I'm simply concerned with corrective balance.

Races
In addition to normal racial bonuses, all small races receive -4 Str and Con, +2 Dex (I know this is a hard sell, but I simply do not like the idea that small races are not disadvantaged in straightforward skirmishes with larger creatures, and should be pushed into playing to their strengths rather than being interchangeable with medium sized races)

I can understand the malus to Strength, but Con? Just because something is small, that doesn't mean it's fragile. Also, 5E uses hit points in place of high AC and/or large save bonuses to keep characters alive (bounded accuracy and all that). Reducing their hit points by 2 per level is a pretty serious drawback. I'd suggest dropping the malus to Con.

 

[Ath-kethin]

Fighters have a replacement 20th level ability - Veteran Warrior - all weapon attacks gain extra 1d4 damage. Once per turn, you can impose disadvantage on any attack that targets your AC, Str, Dex, or Con

This is the only bit that stuck out to me. I haven't played at 20th level before, but this options seems strictly inferior to getting the 4th attack. More options to hit will always result in higher overall damage than a slight increase to the damage dealt on a successful hit.

Imposing disadvantage on an enemy's attack is cool, but even combined with the slight damage boost I'm not sure it's an even trade with the 4th attack.