D&D 5E (2014) What are your 5e houserules

[Horwath]

forgot to add:

we use delay action also.

 

[Flamestrike]

Not specific enough. Also, out of combat, you don't necessarily have on hand what you need to conduct an attack anyway (weapons out, distance to stike, etc.). Finally, see below for the "hostile creature that I can see".

''Every time we are in a hostile environment, and my Bow is in my hands, I ready an attack with that bow, against the first creature I see that is hostile towards me.'

Is that not specific enough?

 

[Flamestrike]

I hate the Delay action, 'surprise rounds' and misuse of the ready action and wouldnt play in a game with any of them.

That's just me though. It's one of my pet peeves. They're efforts to fix a problem that doesnt actually exist.

 

[Charlaquin]

I use different house rules for different campaigns. I try to limit my house rules to what I can fit on one or two nicely-formatted pages, so the overall experience is never too far removed from familiar 5e. But some of the ones that
commonly show up are:

Ration Weight:
Rations weigh 1lb instead of the listed 2lbs.

Bloodied (Condition):
A creature with fewer than half it’s maximum hit points is Bloodied. A Bloodied creature does not regain hit points after finishing a long rest, and must expend a use of a healer’s kit to regain hit points using hit dice during a short or long rest.

Knocking a Creature Out:*
When you reduce a creature to 0 hit points with a melee attack, you can choose to knock it unconscious instead of killing it outright. A creature knocked unconscious this way is not stable, and must make death saving throws unless another creature stabilizes it.

I have a slightly modified ability score generation system - just slightly higher values, basically imitating floating racial bonuses. I imagine I’ll do away with this to save page space when/if floating racial bonuses become the standard.

Sometimes I use a slight variant o“Grayhawk Initiative.”

 

[James Gasik]

I hate the Delay action, 'surprise rounds' and misuse of the ready action and wouldnt play in a game with any of them.

That's just me though. It's one of my pet peeves. They're efforts to fix a problem that doesnt actually exist.

I allowed readying outside of combat at first, because it made sense to me. But then, as the players kept jockeying for ways to take advantage of ready, the monsters began to do the same thing, and this whole "ready action minigame" started, as the savvier players would put more thought into their triggers (and reap better benefits), the less savvy would not do so well, and it got to the point that players were readying actions to counter possible readied actions of their enemies...

And I realized this whole mess needed to go.

As for the "delay/hold" action, there's a specific reason the 5e team did away with it, and would rather you use ready instead. Ready requires forethought and has a cost (in that you can't take your whole turn in reaction to something happening on the battlefield).

"But James", I hear a figment of my imagination ask, "what if I want to go later in the turn? Why should rolling high on the initiative be a penalty to me?". To which I remind you, early in turn 1 is early in turn 2, which is after everyone acts in turn 1. To be able to precisely time your turn "ok, the Cleric will act right after the Dragon attacks to heal the party before the Dragonrider acts" is a huge advantage and more than the game system intends you to have.

Of course, I'm certain that any DM who allows these things in their game has thought through the consequences and can deal with it. But it was making too many headaches for me and my group.

 

[Horwath]

''Every time we are in a hostile environment, and my Bow is in my hands, I ready an attack with that bow, against the first creature I see that is hostile towards me.'

Is that not specific enough?

that is really gaming in bad faith.

something more likely would be:

We are at some kind of choke point. Goblins are coming our way, we will wait and prepare to shoot at first goblin we see coming around the corner.

Now is some goblin is using stealth and you do not notice him, he might get his surprise out and you cannot use actions when surprised.

 

[Stalker0]

Bloodied (Condition):
A creature with fewer than half it’s maximum hit points is Bloodied. A Bloodied creature does not regain hit points after finishing a long rest, and must expend a use of a healer’s kit to regain hit points using hit dice during a short or long rest.

More a gaming convention than a houserule for me. I also use Blooded like this in my game, but just as a health tracker. I do not call out hitpoints in my game, and neither can my players. Aka the barb can't say "I only have 10 hp left!".

You are either:

100% HP
Taken some HP damage
Bloodied or lower
At 0

 

[Charlaquin]

More a gaming convention than a houserule for me. I also use Blooded like this in my game, but just as a health tracker. I do not call out hitpoints in my game, and neither can my players. Aka the barb can't say "I only have 10 hp left!".

You are either:

100% HP
Taken some HP damage
Bloodied or lower
At 0

Yeah, it’s useful for that too!

 

[Yardiff]

My 5e house rule tis to play Pathfinder 2e.

 

[el-remmen]

More a gaming convention than a houserule for me. I also use Blooded like this in my game, but just as a health tracker. I do not call out hitpoints in my game, and neither can my players. Aka the barb can't say "I only have 10 hp left!".

You are either:

100% HP
Taken some HP damage
Bloodied or lower
At 0

We do this with quarters of hps

1 hp damage to 3/4s max: Light Wounded
1/2 to 3/4s max: Moderately wounded
1/4 to 1/2 max: Seriously wounded
1 hp to 1/4 max: Critically Wounded


0 hps or less: Mortally wounded

Of course, the numbers don't always end up that precise but it is meant as a guideline to suggest degree of injury, not a hard and fast rule.