D&D 5E Houserules Feedback

[doctorbadwolf]

My group has recently adopted a new house rule, and are discussing some others (and some DMG optional rules), and I’d love some feedback on what y’all think.

So, starting with those already in place.

*1st level bonus Feat. At first level, every character (including most of my NPCs/monsters) receives a feat of their choice. (Yes, including SS and GWM, and including humans)

*Bonus ASIs. When you take a feat from your class, you gain +1 to any stat of your choice.

These help us play the game the way we want, with a lot of customization, without sacrificing the ability to improve our basic math.

*Multiclassing and feat prerequisites are mostly null. Especially the ones clearly there to enforce default flavor.

Newer:

*Critical hits apply maximum damage on the damage die, and then you roll the dice again. So, your minimum crit damage increases, but the max remains the same, and you never have a crit that does less than the average non-crit.

Being considered:

*All combatants can trade an attack as part of the attack action to do one of the following. Edit: These work like Battlemaster maneuvers, except you don’t get any extra bonus (obv) and you trade an attack for the special action, while a BM maneuver lets you add to an attack.

+Trip an opponent
+Shove an opponent
+Distract someone concentrating on a spell
+Goad someone into focusing on you
+Provide an opportunity for an ally to move without OAs/impose disadvantage on an enemy’s OAs
+Possibly trade an action to give an ally an attack against a target you could hit as a reaction.

So, what y’all think?


Edit: I also forgot: trade an attack to make a feint or other move against a target that allows a Reaction Attack if they cast a spell. If it hits, they have to make a Concentration check. They know what you’re doing, and can plan their turn accordingly

 

[Salthorae]

*1st level bonus Feat. At first level, every character (including most of my NPCs/monsters) receives a feat of their choice. (Yes, including SS and GWM, and including humans)

*Bonus ASIs. When you take a feat from your class, you gain +1 to any stat of your choice.

These help us play the game the way we want, with a lot of customization, without sacrificing the ability to improve our basic math.

*Multiclassing and feat prerequisites are mostly null. Especially the ones clearly there to enforce default flavor.

I've played in some PBP games that do the bonus 1st level feat and it really helps accelerate concept/builds into the earlier levels for some concepts. For others it just makes them more powerful more quickly.

If that is what you want for your table, this is a great way to do that.

Newer:

*Critical hits apply maximum damage on the damage die, and then you roll the dice again. So, your minimum crit damage increases, but the max remains the same, and you never have a crit that does less than the average non-crit.

We do this at our table because we were tired of rolling crits that only dealt 4 damage or something piddly like that. I know mathematically crits over time deal their boosted damage on average. But the FEELing at our table was that we often rolled the same or lesser damage on crits than we would have otherwise, so we adopted this rule.

It's been great, though it certainly hurts when the monsters do it to us!

Being considered:

*All combatants can trade an attack as part of the attack action to do one of the following.

+Trip an opponent
+Shove an opponent
+Distract someone concentrating on a spell
+Goad someone into focusing on you
+Provide an opportunity for an ally to move without OAs/impose disadvantage on an enemy’s OAs
+Possibly trade an action to give an ally an attack against a target you could hit as a reaction.

So, what y’all think?

I saw a proposal earlier today... somewhere, can't remember honestly that proposed allowing anyone to use the Combat maneuvers of the Battlemaster in combat, but they would have to trade their attack(s) to do so.

The battle master's difference was that they could do them as part fo their attacks and also get the Superiority Dice as the extra bonuses on to hit/damage/etc as they do normally.

I thought that was an interesting option that had potential and would probably be ok with it.

Specific thoughts...

• Trip: This is fine as noted
• Shove: Anyone can... already do this? It's in the PHB as an attack option...knock them prone too
• Distract caster: would this force them to make a concentration check? what would the DC of that be? I think this probably shouldn't work. You should have to hit them or do some other effect that says it forces a concentration check
• Goad: this is another battlemaster maneuver, though all it does is give the enemy disadvantage to attack anyone else, but only after a Wis save vs. your Battlemaster DC.
  • The only reason I'd be against this one is because it normally requires a save even as a battlemaster maneuver. If you make it something anyone can always do and doesn't require a save, it eats pretty heavily into part of the battlemaster's niche, more than other of these ideas.
• ally move w/o OA or dis adv. on OA's - these are interesting. I like the first one, effectively stepping in front of/between the enemy & ally to let your friend duck out. Or from range "lay down covering fire" with a bow or something.
• Trade attack for friend to attack: this is Commander's strike, so I'd be fine with it as noted above.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I've played in some PBP games that do the bonus 1st level feat and it really helps accelerate concept/builds into the earlier levels for some concepts. For others it just makes them more powerful more quickly.

If that is what you want for your table, this is a great way to do that.



We do this at our table because we were tired of rolling crits that only dealt 4 damage or something piddly like that. I know mathematically crits over time deal their boosted damage on average. But the FEELing at our table was that we often rolled the same or lesser damage on crits than we would have otherwise, so we adopted this rule.

It's been great, though it certainly hurts when the monsters do it to us!



I saw a proposal earlier today... somewhere, can't remember honestly that proposed allowing anyone to use the Combat maneuvers of the Battlemaster in combat, but they would have to trade their attack(s) to do so.

The battle master's difference was that they could do them as part fo their attacks and also get the Superiority Dice as the extra bonuses on to hit/damage/etc as they do normally.

I thought that was an interesting option that had potential and would probably be ok with it.

Specific thoughts...

• Trip: This is fine as noted
• Shove: Anyone can... already do this? It's in the PHB as an attack option...knock them prone too
• Distract caster: would this force them to make a concentration check? what would the DC of that be? I think this probably shouldn't work. You should have to hit them or do some other effect that says it forces a concentration check
• Goad: this is another battlemaster maneuver, though all it does is give the enemy disadvantage to attack anyone else, but only after a Wis save vs. your Battlemaster DC.
  • The only reason I'd be against this one is because it normally requires a save even as a battlemaster maneuver. If you make it something anyone can always do and doesn't require a save, it eats pretty heavily into part of the battlemaster's niche, more than other of these ideas.
• ally move w/o OA or dis adv. on OA's - these are interesting. I like the first one, effectively stepping in front of/between the enemy & ally to let your friend duck out. Or from range "lay down covering fire" with a bow or something.
• Trade attack for friend to attack: this is Commander's strike, so I'd be fine with it as noted above.

It was probably me in another thread proposing that. This is basically the same idea, but curated a bit.

All these would either require making a successful attack, opposed check, or the target making a save, except for granting a reaction attack and maybe the maneuvering one.

Forcing a concentration save would be less useful than just attacking most of the time, but allow for an attempt to stop a spell when you can’t land a hit on the caster.


I also forgot: trade an attack to make a feint or other move against a target that allows a Reaction Attack if they cast a spell. If it hits, they have to make a Concentration check. They know what you’re doing, and can plan their turn accordingly.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

I generally add the Help action to those that you can trade for an attack.
What is the difference between Trip, and just Shoving an opponent prone (which, as Salthorae noted, already just takes an attack from the attack action.)

How about give an opponent disadvantage on their next attack?

 

[dave2008]

I think @Salthorae said as good or better than I can. General fine with accepted house rules and i have the same comments regarding the proposed house rules

 

[Fanaelialae]

I grant a bonus feat if the player writes a background, and I haven't had any issues with it.

The only thing that looks like it could be a problem is the +1 ASI when you take a feat. Does no one in your group ever just want to take the ASI? I have at least one player like that, but if you don't it's clearly a non-issue for you. Otherwise, you might need to boost pure ASI to +3, or something like that, to balance the fact that other players could already get a +2 by taking a +1 feat.

 

[dave2008]

I grant a bonus feat if the player writes a background, and I haven't had any issues with it.

The only thing that looks like it could be a problem is the +1 ASI when you take a feat. Does no one in your group ever just want to take the ASI? I have at least one player like that, but if you don't it's clearly a non-issue for you. Otherwise, you might need to boost pure ASI to +3, or something like that, to balance the fact that other players could already get a +2 by taking a +1 feat.

He is essentially getting rid of pure ASI I think.

 

[Oofta]

My group has recently adopted a new house rule, and are discussing some others (and some DMG optional rules), and I’d love some feedback on what y’all think.

So, starting with those already in place.

*1st level bonus Feat. At first level, every character (including most of my NPCs/monsters) receives a feat of their choice. (Yes, including SS and GWM, and including humans)

*Bonus ASIs. When you take a feat from your class, you gain +1 to any stat of your choice.

These help us play the game the way we want, with a lot of customization, without sacrificing the ability to improve our basic math.

*Multiclassing and feat prerequisites are mostly null. Especially the ones clearly there to enforce default flavor.

Makes PCs a little more powerful, but not necessarily a bad thing. Does steal a tiny bit of thunder from human fighters/rogues but not a big deal.

Newer:

*Critical hits apply maximum damage on the damage die, and then you roll the dice again. So, your minimum crit damage increases, but the max remains the same, and you never have a crit that does less than the average non-crit.

Tends to help monsters more than PCs in the long run since on average there are more monsters than PCs in most games. Still might do this in my own game.

Do you max out sneak attack damage?

Being considered:

*All combatants can trade an attack as part of the attack action to do one of the following.

+Trip an opponent
+Shove an opponent

You can already do a shove as an attack, a shove can push someone around or knock them prone. Not sure what you're trying to do.

+Distract someone concentrating on a spell
+Goad someone into focusing on you

Again, not sure how these would work. What does "distract" mean and does goading an enemy have a cost? Does it take an entire action?

+Provide an opportunity for an ally to move without OAs/impose disadvantage on an enemy’s OAs

How? Step in the way and take the attack yourself? Is it a reaction? How does this not stomp on the Protection fighting style or are you just giving that to everyone?

+Possibly trade an action to give an ally an attack against a target you could hit as a reaction.

So, what y’all think?

Rogues would love that.

 

[Oofta]

Missed this one.

*Bonus ASIs. When you take a feat from your class, you gain +1 to any stat of your choice.

I'd rather not limit people's abilities to add to ability scores directly. For some builds there just aren't that many feats that make sense and personally I like the tradeoff. I guess that would mean some feats we never actually see could see the light of day which wouldn't be a bad thing.

Does this apply to the extra feat at first level?

 

[DND_Reborn]

My group has recently adopted a new house rule, and are discussing some others (and some DMG optional rules), and I’d love some feedback on what y’all think.

So, starting with those already in place.

*1st level bonus Feat. At first level, every character (including most of my NPCs/monsters) receives a feat of their choice. (Yes, including SS and GWM, and including humans) - We do this already.

*Bonus ASIs. When you take a feat from your class, you gain +1 to any stat of your choice. - We considered this as well, but if you don't take a feat do you get three +1's?

These help us play the game the way we want, with a lot of customization, without sacrificing the ability to improve our basic math.

*Multiclassing and feat prerequisites are mostly null. Especially the ones clearly there to enforce default flavor.
We still use the prerequisites although we considered removing the prerequisite in the original class at one point.

Newer:

*Critical hits apply maximum damage on the damage die, and then you roll the dice again. So, your minimum crit damage increases, but the max remains the same, and you never have a crit that does less than the average non-crit. We did this for a while as well. Now critical hits simply do maximum damage (no rolling) which is about the same as double the dice anyway.

Being considered:

*All combatants can trade an attack as part of the attack action to do one of the following.

+Trip an opponent
+Shove an opponent (already in the game as an attack action)
+Distract someone concentrating on a spell
+Goad someone into focusing on you
+Provide an opportunity for an ally to move without OAs/impose disadvantage on an enemy’s OAs
+Possibly trade an action to give an ally an attack against a target you could hit as a reaction.
Most of these are fine but I would make them features for different classes or something and not for anyone to use.

So, what y’all think?

Comments are bolded in the quote. Nothing is horrible as house-rules go if they work for your table.