D&D 5E What House Rules Can You NOT Live Without?

[Ath-kethin]

Off the top of my head: we do max hit points every level and we use side initiative, rolled every round.

I run very deadly campaigns, I like small groups (max 3 PCs), and the extra padding from max hit points really up the survival rate.

 

[JimmyG]

We don't use any house rules I know of right now, but we are just learning the game.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Funny, I am the opposite. I never bothered to check, b/c I can't imagine it not costing (in my group's language) 1.5 boxes of movement to move diagonally.

EDIT: That is to say, I find the language of "alternating" confusing and prefer measuring distances in boxes anyway. So 1 box horizontal, 1.5 boxes diagonal is nice and easy to remember.

Sure it's easy to remember, but just slightly more irritating to add and occasionally leaves remainders. None of which are "difficult" to deal with by any stretch, don't get me wrong... but counting every square of movement the same regardless of direction is just easi-er.

Now the difference in ease between the two will probably be the thinnest of hairs for some people... but I know for me I care so little about true measurement and the like on the grid that I never saw the need to bother with the knowledge that a hypotenuse is longer than either leg. If worrying about true distances really mattered, we wouldn't be using a grid at all, we'd use tape measures like the Warhammer folks do. So once we handwaved true distances by using a grid, handwaving all the nitpicky distance details to make it as simple as possible was just the sensible thing for us.

 

[el-remmen]

we'd use tape measures like the Warhammer folks do.

HA! And when a distance is in doubt I break out a tape measure I keep in my gaming room! (though usually eyeballing is close enough)

You can use a bonus action as a standard action.

I wouldn't call this "can't live without" but we use this too.

 

[Laurefindel]

I'm a rule-tinkerer and houseruler by heart, and to my own surprise, I found myself using using very few houserules in 5e, even though it's probably the easiest edition to tinker with and create houserules. Every campaign usually have one "big" houserule setting the tone of the campaign, but otherwise there's only a few I can't DM without. I always use these however:

1) Skills are dissociated from their governing ability.

2) I use my own Wild Surge chart which has more to do with the spell that was cast rather than amusing effects such as skin turning blue or breathing butterflies.

3) Initial Ability Scores generation. My group and I prefer rolling but I dislike big discrepancies (without having each player roll 15 series until one is "good enough"). So everyone roll one series of 4k3 (including DM). Then all series can be selected by all players. Each effectively become a "standard array" for this campaign. Custom NPCs are generated using these series as well. Out of four players + DM, there's typically two series than stand out, usually one with a single high score and one with a lot of 14-15s.

 

[Stormonu]

HA! And when a distance is in doubt I break out a tape measure I keep in my gaming room! (though usually eyeballing is close enough)



I wouldn't call this "can't live without" but we use this too.

Yeah, mine aren't "can't live without", but I like them very, very much.

 

[loverdrive]

Hero points

Failing all death saves means being "taken out" (bad things, but not death, unless clearly stated otherwise when the swords were drawn), and you can concede (the character can't suffer any more harm, but can't do anything useful either) to receive a hero point

 

[Argyle King]

Regarding squares vs hexes:

My preference is to not use a grid at all.
1 inch = 5ft*; after a while, eyeballing it is pretty easy

Cons: It occasionally requires the DM to make a few judgement calls concerning whether or not someone is in melee.
(I typically rule in favor of the PCs, unless it appears that they're attempt to use some obvious cheese and be funny with positioning.)

Pros: The game world isn't required to fit into specific shapes.

(*I prefer 3ft increments.)

 

[Inchoroi]

Oh! You know what’s an absolute must-have for me, both as a DM and as a player? Experience. Not technically a house rule, but story-based advancement is such a common house-rule that I think it’s worth noting here. No, I won’t accept leveling up whenever the octopus in your brain decides it’s time for me to, I prefer to have a measurable indication of my progress towards leveling up, thank you very much.

Oh, God, yes. I ran my first campaign for 5e using milestones, and we all hated it. I use XP now, including the characters having different XP totals. That being said, I allow players that miss a session to get half XP if I have their character sheet, and if there's a new player, they start at the lowest level of the group, at whatever XP that is.

Never want to go back to milestones.

 

[Charlaquin]

Oh, God, yes. I ran my first campaign for 5e using milestones, and we all hated it. I use XP now, including the characters having different XP totals. That being said, I allow players that miss a session to get half XP if I have their character sheet, and if there's a new player, they start at the lowest level of the group, at whatever XP that is.

Never want to go back to milestones.

Minor nitpick: While Rise of Tiamat erroneously referred to story-based advancement as “milestone leveling,” it is not consistent with how the DMG describes milestone XP, which is essentially just XP awards for stuff other than encounters. I actually think milestone XP as described in the DMG is great, and award it for completing quest objectives.

Unfortunately, nobody reads the DMG and Rise of Tiamat’s misuse of the term “milestones” has become standard in common parlance. I try to use the terms the way the DMG does to set an example, but at the end of the day I’m probably just yelling at clouds.