D&D 5E Which Homebrew Rules do you use? Fixes, styles of game, pillars, etc.

[cbwjm]

I actually use Insight for a few things, including "is this combatant feinting?" and "which one of these hobgoblins is the leader?"

My discomfort with Investigation stems from the fact that it has two separate roles:

(1) Discovering physical objects like traps and secret doors, and
(2) Doing deduction on the players' behalf (deducing the location of a hidden object, finding the weak point in a tunnel).

#1 feels like something that should be Perception (or Perception AND Investigation) but was tacked on to Investigation to bulk it out a bit. In practice I often make these gated on both Perception and Investigation, e.g. Perception DC 11 to smell the goat's blood and Investigation DC 18 to realize these funny crenellations are actually booby traps, and that Goatherd Bryan's missing goat must be squished under one of the ones that have already been triggered.

#2 is something that I have trouble reconciling with game flow: I don't really like saying, "Here's a riddle, but if anyone has passive Investigation of 23+ you can flip over this piece of paper and read the answer; or you can give a Schrodinger answer and roll an active Investigation check to see if your answer turns out to be what's written here on this paper." It works okay but it doesn't feel quite right. Now, maybe I just need better game structures to make it flow more smoothly; but maybe I should just abolish the dice-based approach entirely and let a riddle be just a riddle.

How do YOU guys handle riddles and puzzles and traps? Do you give players a dice-based option, and if so how hard do you make it compared to solving the riddle/whatever with your brain?

I don't like providing an ability check to bypass/solve a riddle or puzzle, I prefer that the players solve it regardless of their PCs intelligence or wisdom. However, if I have a puzzle lock that the players have to solve before they can progress in an adventure, then I would make sure to leave clues around the place that they can find which will help them solve it since I also don't want them to get frustrated if they get stuck and can't progress. I guess I could also have them make ability checks similar to a 4e skill challenge to hand out clues, would have think on that though. I don't think most of my riddles/puzzles would be that difficult.

I had a friend who had an effective use of a riddle for our group which explained how to move across platforms. They all had numbers on with only pillars with prime numbers being safe, except for those with a 7 or 3 in them. I thought it was a good use of a riddle, although the riddle made it sound like 7 or 3 were safe so I ended up taking an acid bath, but otherwise, great riddle. We were a little focused though since we figured out which platforms were safe, but didn't figure out that shooting some statues with a ranged attack would let us ignore the slow time field that we were stuck in while trying to cross before a curtain of acid caught up to us. It was definitely a memorable encounter.

 

[cbwjm]

I agree. That was a typo on my part. I meant to say it was a parallel case with the "followed by a spy" case, i.e. dependent on Insight. Somehow that came out as "Perception" on my keyboard.

Everyone's done it. A simple distraction or thought making what you meant to write come out as something else.

 

[machineelf]

Some of these house rules I've swiped from others I've seen posted here. The resurrection house rule is essentially the same as used on Critical Role with one difference.

Slow, Natural Healing: Characters naturally heal for 1 HP per day per character level after a long rest. So if you are 10th level, you will naturally recover 10 hit points at the end of a long rest. Otherwise, characters do not regain all their hit points at the end of a long rest. Characters can use hit dice at the end of a long rest just as they would at the end of a short rest. A character regains all Hit Dice at the end of a long rest instead of half.

Healer’s Kit Dependency: A character can only spend Hit Dice when they apply healer’s kit bandages.

Resurrection: The first time a character dies and magic is used to resurrect her/him, it works as normal. But the more times a character dies, the more difficult it is to tether the soul to the living world, and the more difficult it is for resurrection magic to work. On all subsequent resurrection attempts that take longer than a one-action casting time, there will be a base DC of 10 that the DM will roll for to see if the resurrection is successful.

Up to three other characters can can make a contribution skill check to try to help with the resurrection and lower the DC. Each character makes a skill check based on their form of contribution, with the DC of the check adjusting to how helpful/impacting the DM feels the contribution would be. For example, this could be a religion check to pray to their god for help, or it could be an intimidation check to demand the fallen soul be restored to the body. If they succeed, the resurrection DC is reduced by 3. If they fail, the resurrection DC is increased by 1. Each time a character dies but is resurrected, the base resurrection DC increases by 1 the next time they need to be resurrected. Each time a resurrection attempt fails, 24 hours must pass before another attempt is tried, and the base DC goes up by 3. The Wish spell is immune to these rules.

For example: Sarai the wizard dies for the first time. A cleric casts revivify spell on her. She is revived from the dead as normal according to the spell. The second time Sarai the wizard dies, a cleric casts a revivify spell on her; now the DM has to roll a d20 and get a 10 or better for the character to be resurrected. Three other characters pray or plead to the dead character’s god to bring Sarai back to life, making religion or persuasion checks. Two characters succeed, and one character fails. That’s two -3’s and one +1, for a total DC reduction by 5. So now the base DC is 5. The DM rolls a d20, and if it is 5 or better, Sarai is revived. Otherwise, Sarai remains dead. If the resurrection attempt fails, the characters may try to resurrect Sarai again after 24 hours, but the base DC increases by 3.

Ability Scores: In most campaigns, we use the points-spending option to create ability scores.
Hit Points: In most campaigns, players take the average hit points increase for every level after 1st instead of rolling for them.
Races: Evil races are not allowed for player characters, unless in the rare event we are playing an evil campaign.

Alignment: No evil alignment can be selected unless in the rare event we are playing an evil campaign. And characters in an adventuring group should care about each other to one degree or another, and work to help each other.

Knocking Someone Out and NPC Deaths: Characters must declare that they want to knock out an NPC before a melee attack roll is made. When an NPC is reduced to zero hit points, they are dying and will die in three rounds if they aren’t healed or stabilized. Essentially, they have three death saving throws but will automatically fail each roll.

Crafting Magical Items and Potions: Making magic items and potions takes 1/4 the time as indicated in the PHB and DMG.

Exquisite Weapons: Weapons and armor that are +1 with no other magical benefits are considered non-magical but expertly crafted items that can be made by legendary smiths in Faerun. You can buy them if you go to the right place and find the right person. All weapons and armor that are +2 or greater are considered magic items.

Grappling: When a creature is grappling another creature, the grappling creature can choose to spend the next action they have to try to restrain the grappled creature. It is another strength/athletics contested check.

 

[machineelf]

6) Druids' wildshape share HP with the human form. Temporary hit points may come only when the druid polymorphs in a creature with more HP than him

I like some of your houserules, but this one massively nerfs druids, way more than is necessary in my opinion.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Attribute damage to ranged attacks only in point blank range. (Currently half short range but soon 30 ft no matter what weapon, as that is the easier rule to remeber.)
Most probably druids receiving half the damage dealt to them in animal form.
Long rests only possible if you are in a relatively comfortable and safe place and you didn't travel the wholeday. This prevents too many long rests and trivial encounters in overland adventures.
I am not sure if this is a houserule, but passive perception and passive investigation don't reveal enemies or traps or give the whole information about something. Instead paasive perception only gives away the general presence of something, passive investigation gives away that something is missing that should be there, something is not as it seems to be. An active check is then to be made to really find the hidden thing or the clue. And sometimws both skills can be used for the same goal. Just different aproaches.
I also don't know if this is a house rule, but I will give advantage or disadvantage on initiative checks in ambush situations.

Edit: Sorry for the wall of text and errors. I was in a hurry and on my phone. I will edit it later.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Crafting Magical Items and Potions: Making magic items and potions takes 1/4 the time as indicated in the PHB and DMG.

Funny. Thing: time and cost to craft potions differs between DMG and PHB. Treating them as magic items incresases the cost but decreases the time compared to crafting them as mundane items with the herbalism kit. And I really like it.

 

[Blue]

6) Druids' wildshape share HP with the human form. Temporary hit points may come only when the druid polymorphs in a creature with more HP than him, and it's the difference between the maximum HP of the druid and the beast form HP- injures are carried also from one shape to another (so, if the druid has 10/25 hit points, in dire wolf form it has 22 hit points, and 12 of them are temporary). If the creatures have equal less HP than the druid, then they share HP.
7) Druids may wildshape only on beasts they have studied alive for enough time.

Have you ever had anyone play a Circle of the Moon Druid under these rules?

Druids extra HPs are really powerful at 2nd ... and reasonable to mediocre when you've gained a few more levels. Plus you are actively penalizing the druid if they take a positive CON modifier since they will get less out of the wildshape temp HPs you give them.

The requirement to observe sufficiently before assuming with wildshape ends up in one of two ways. Either the DM nerfs the primary class feature by not putting in the bigger beasts (including dinosaurs), consciously screwing over the player for their choice of class and subclass, or the DM does put in the beasts and it becomes not an issue so why bother to have a rule. So the rule is at best worthless instead of intentionally antagonistic.

 

[KarinsDad]

Our main houserules are:

1) 3 Concentration spells available at a time. This brings the game closer to 3E without really allowing the spell casters to overwhelm (although NPC Greater Invisibility and Fly do cause some PCs to prep See Invisibility and Dispel Magic).

2) + half proficiency round down to non-proficient saving throws (it doesn't make sense that a PC at level 20 is just as crappy as saving vs. spells or poison or some such as he was at level 1, especially since the NPC attacks have higher DCs, the game was never that way)

3) Proficiency level number of attuned magic items. It's fun to be high level with a bunch of stuff.

4) A way to gain 10% or 20% of total hit points with a Medicine check and a healing kit charge during a short rest. This gives a slight incentive for players to not feel it necessary to create healer PCs.

5) A perception roll is used instead of passive perception for surprise. Some PCs are surprised, some are not and it's not always the same ones. And super stealthy foes do not necessarily surprise all of the PCs.

There are others, but they are mostly minor.

 

[S'mon]

The requirement to observe sufficiently before assuming with wildshape ends up in one of two ways. Either the DM nerfs the primary class feature by not putting in the bigger beasts (including dinosaurs), consciously screwing over the player for their choice of class and subclass, or the DM does put in the beasts and it becomes not an issue so why bother to have a rule. So the rule is at best worthless instead of intentionally antagonistic.

Third: I care about setting flavour but don't want to nerf the Druid, so I provide CR-equivalent forms to the ones she can't Wildshape into.

 

[Erechel]

Have you ever had anyone play a Circle of the Moon Druid under these rules?

Druids extra HPs are really powerful at 2nd ... and reasonable to mediocre when you've gained a few more levels. Plus you are actively penalizing the druid if they take a positive CON modifier since they will get less out of the wildshape temp HPs you give them.

The requirement to observe sufficiently before assuming with wildshape ends up in one of two ways. Either the DM nerfs the primary class feature by not putting in the bigger beasts (including dinosaurs), consciously screwing over the player for their choice of class and subclass, or the DM does put in the beasts and it becomes not an issue so why bother to have a rule. So the rule is at best worthless instead of intentionally antagonistic.

Yes, I've DMed a lot of druids. Almost one per table, since I've started playing. And I'm convinced that the utility of wildshaping wildly surpasses the combat utility, because creatures with climbing speed, flying speed, stealth, or swimming speed are always useful. You also avoid the "infinite HP" problem of 20th level. Also, if the character and the beast share HP, the druid don't die because the creature it became has less HP and drops to 0. It only reverts to its true form with injuries. If you change to rat form, you can infiltrate almost everywhere, escape any foe, climb, etc. You don't need also extra HP. If you are a moon druid, you can also change to very powerful monsters (like the Mammoth), which can actually impale foes, carry all the loot and your companions and their mothers too, and withstand harsh winter conditions. 24 Strength is no joke. You don't really need as many as 126 temporary Hit Points as a bonus action at level 18, or 76 at level 12 (elephant).

About the second feature, I guess you are thinking only about combat utility (dinosaurs etc.). I'm thinking about the same things that compels a wizard to go to a library in a big city: observing carefully the beasts and their behavior, studying their reactions, etc. A druid may actually want to go study dinosaurs because he want to go there. Or dolphins, because water speed is fun. Or morsels. I don't believe that your world is actually only populated by MM animals. My druid characters became bulls long prior to the VGTM, or paradise birds, or cockroaches or yararás, or black widows.

Also, studying a creature isn't the same as fighting it. This way, you don't become an axe beak after fighting one, you became one after studying an axe beak moving in nature.