D&D 5E Thread closed, please delete

[Blue]

THREAD CLOSED.

Sorry, wanted to discuss a selection of house rules, and explicitly NOT changing the rest structure. Understood what the rest structure changes would do but that was not the point of the discussion.

Instead, multiple people hijacked the post to talk about rest structure, one with repeated messages even after being told it was not part of this discussion.

 

[DND_Reborn]

First, love the disclaimer!

Second, I think this will help accomplish your goal. By doubling damage you are, in essence, doing the same we do by half HP (more or less), which will make the game more lethal in many ways. The extra HP at lower levels via CON score will help mitigate this, since 5E is most lethal at lower levels as is.

As for the per encounter recovery of features, I've been considering the same thing myself, but I would decrease the uses proportionally so it is a benefit still, but not as much. I do think this will help with making monks (especially) more appealing.

Finally, I am all for granting more spell slots. Our spell point system allows for more casting in general and reduces the reliance on cantrips in combat, which I find annoying personally.

One thing I will suggest is another idea I've considered (you might or might not like it) is to replenish HP per encounter automatically. With this, we are adding a wounding system which does not replenish automatically, but it has been my observation that HP attrition is a bad model since 90% of the time or more, the PCs enter each new battle with full (or near full) HP anyway... So, you are really just reducing other things that are used to restore those lost HP. Hopefully, that makes sense.

 

[Quartz]

For spellcasters, check out this thread, and in particular this post.

For Fighters, consider the following changes: Action Surge lasts a number of rounds equal to your Proficiency Bonus. Gain Indomitable at 4th level or 5th level and make it auto-succeed (q.v Legendary Resistance). Drop the additional feats at levels 6 and 14 and grant an additional Reaction or Bonus Action at each of those levels.

 

[el-remmen]

I run 1 to 3 encounters for my core books only 5E game, with no real house rules to speak of (we use a weaker variant of the hero point option) and the PCs struggle regularly. So don't have any advice or suggestions - just curious about problems I haven't encountered.

(To be Honest, I am guessing about how many encounters per day, because in my style of play, the scenario determines encounters per day, not an abstract rule.

 

[Blue]

I run 1 to 3 encounters for my core books only 5E game, with no real house rules to speak of (we use a weaker variant of the hero point option) and the PCs struggle regularly. So don't have any advice or suggestions - just curious about problems I haven't encountered.

(To be Honest, I am guessing about how many encounters per day, because in my style of play, the scenario determines encounters per day, not an abstract rule.

This problem is something we've noticed after running multiple campaigns - we end up playing mostly a subset of classes: casters and hybrids like paladin and barbarians. The current fighter we have says he doesn't feel like he keeps up. We just had a discussion about that tonight.

 

[Flamestrike]

How would you make it work even better?

If you're only getting 1-3 encounters per day, make overnight rests Short rests, and every third or fourth such rest a Long rest.

 

[Flamestrike]

This problem is something we've noticed after running multiple campaigns - we end up playing mostly a subset of classes: casters and hybrids like paladin and barbarians. The current fighter we have says he doesn't feel like he keeps up. We just had a discussion about that tonight.

Its because your DM isnt policing the adventuring 'day' (not necessarily a day).

It seems like you've identified the cause (we only ever get 1-3 encounters per long rest, and never short rest) and the natural consequence of that meta (Barbarians, Paladins and full casters everywhere, while Fighters, Warlocks and Monks suck).

The natural solution is for the rest meta to change. That decision alone will alter your game drastically.

You could just impose Gritty realism resting (overnights are Short rests, and Long rests are week long affairs back home), but that's possibly too drastic an option. Instead, as DM of this game I would police the adventuring day and do the following:

• No automatic long rests at the end of the session (should you be doing that).
• Players are to record resource use (slots, rages, HP loss, HD used etc) on a sheet of paper (see below), and hand those sheets over to the DM at the end of the session (for occasional auditing, or simply just the fear of such an audit).
• -You get a long rest after 8 hours of uninterrupted rest, and when the DM decides it's an appropriate time for such a rest to replenish resources. Not all Long rests are equal. As a general rule, players can expect long rests not to do anything until they've dealt with around 6 encounters since their last one.
• Short rests are now only a few minutes long (quick map check, swig of water, binding wounds, taking a knee etc) but limited to 2 per long rest (max). Take them whenever you want outside of combat.

That pretty much does it.

----------------------------------
For resource sheets they look something like a sheet of paper with every single long rest/ short rest resource on it, separated by long and short rest (and HP and HD) with check boxes next to them.

For a Paladin 3/ Sorcerer 3/ Hexblade 3/ BM Fighter 3 (to use a complex example), such a sheet would look something like this:

Health:
Current HP: XXX of YYY
HD used (D6): OOO
HD used (D8): OOO
HD used (D10): OOOOOO

Long rest:
LoH: OOOOO OOOOO OOOOO
Slots (1st): OOOO
Slots (2nd): OOO
SP: OOO

Short rest: OO
Channel divinity: O
Warlock slots (2nd): OO
Hexblades curse: O
Action surge: O
Second Wind (d10+3): O
Superiority dice: OOOO
-------------------------------------------------------

As Players use such resources, the Player fills in one of the 'O's next to that ability in pencil. When the Player takes a short rest they fill in a Short Rest 'O' and erase all the filled in 'O's underneath it.

A long rest clears all the boxes (other than HD) and restores HP to full.

 

[Flamestrike]

You can literally prepare those sheets on an A4 bit of paper for each PC (or get them to do so themselves).

Remind them at first to fill it in each time (its literally just coloring in or ticking off a small circle) and evilly suggest failure to fill in a box might even cause the PC a level of exhaustion in addition to losing the resource, because you obviously wore yourself out casting that spell/ action surging/ using a Sorcery point and forgetting to expend that resource in the process.

Once they're recording stuff they're supposed to be recording, and wake up to the fact you're serious about the 'At least 6 encounters between long rest recharges, unless I feel merciful... and I rarely do' rule, you're golden.

 

[Blue]

I am looking on feedback if these work within the given contract. Please don't suggest ways to change the context like the Gritty Rest option, that's not what this thread is about.

Its because your DM isnt policing the adventuring 'day' (not necessarily a day).

It seems like you've identified the cause (we only ever get 1-3 encounters per long rest, and never short rest) and the natural consequence of that meta (Barbarians, Paladins and full casters everywhere, while Fighters, Warlocks and Monks suck).

The natural solution is for the rest meta to change. That decision alone will alter your game drastically.

You could just impose Gritty realism resting (overnights are Short rests, and Long rests are week long affairs back home),

Sorry, I am not looking at changing the context. Your ideas have merit but are out of scope for this discussion.

 

[S'mon]

It looks overall like a hideous mess to me - but if you and your players can keep track of all that in play, great I guess. But I did use "At 1st level, characters receive their CON score as additional HPs in addition to what their class grants" in my Primeval Thule campaign, and found it worked well especially in conjunction with that setting's higher baseline for monster & NPC Challenge & damage.