D&D 5E What are your 5e houserules

[cbwjm]

Anyway, here is the link to the house rules portal page on my Ghosts of Saltmarsh+ wiki.

I had a read through the portal and the extended rests mentioned something about spending hit dice on domain actions. I know extended rests were used in strongholds and followers, have you built upon these rules?

 

[ART!]

When rolling hit points, you can use the number you rolled on the die or the average roll for that die, whichever is best.

 

[Ayeffkay]

The I can't fix everything rule - I want my players to play as the characters they want. There are lots of illusionary choices in 5e character design, places where you're presented with a host of options but really only a couple are right and all the rest are wrong. I'm just one person and not a team of designers, and can't rewrite the entire book, but if you want to play something that is discouraged by the rules, like a two weapon fighter, talk to me and we'll figure out how to make the 5e system conform to your vision.

Holding Breath - I had an encounter go badly due to the ambiguity and absurdity of the Holding Breath rules, so I tightened them up.

In initiative, the time you can hold your breath is mapped to rounds instead of minutes. You can't fight to the death or run a half mile while holding your breath. 2-4 rounds is much more reasonable than 2-4 minutes and combat could actually last long enough for it to matter.​

If you are suffocating, most offensive actions are at disadvantage, but defensive ones are not, to encourage characters to find air instead of continuing to fight.​

Dodge - In the 5e race to 0 hp, Dodge cannot help you win, it can only make the race take longer. Some classes really only have one action they can take - I attack!

I buffed Dodge by allowing the character to perform a minor action - the kinds of things players often say "can I ___ as a bonus action?" It's not a bonus action in this place, it's part of Dodge.​

Taunt to encourage an opponent to attack you​

Threaten to try and scare them off​

Feign to get an Opportunity Attack if attacked​

Bulwark to gain ProficiencyMod damage reduction from one damage type (B/S/P are three separate types)​

Observe to get some insight into a more effective way to defeat the opponent​

Focus to calculate Concentration checks by Damage/3 instead of Damage/2​

Cantrip to create a space for the host of 5e cantrips that are rarely used because they're not worth an action in combat, like True Strike and Blade Ward. You have to target yourself or an adjacent space in this case.​

My players are much more likely to Dodge when combat isn't going well, but combat hasn't become a Dodge fest, so I'm happy with it. It probably steps on Battlemaster's toes, but a) I don't have anyone playing a Battlemaster, and b) I'm in the camp that most of the things a Battlemaster does should be available to anyone in some way. It also is an indirect buff to Monk, since they can Attack and Dodge at the same time.

Dying - Dying in 5e feels like you have a clock floating above you that says how long your friends can ignore your plight, instead of the tense moment it should be. Also, crit fumble mechanics usually suck, and this is the only place in 5e where a nat 1 is worse than a regular failure.

When you reach 0 hp, you do not fall unconscious, you gain the Injured condition, which includes all the RAW stuff about rolling each turn and what happens when you get hit, but also gives Disadvantage on most offensive actions.​

The Nat 1 double failure is gone​

You die when your Death Save Failures reach twice your Proficiency Modifier​

You stop making Death Save rolls if you gain any HP or the Stable condition (3 successes, Spare the Dying, Healer's Kit, etc), but if you're still at 0 hp you still have disadvantage on offensive options, and attacks against you still inflict Failures.​

Death Save Failures accumulate, and are only removed by healing to full HP, or by a few effects like Restoration.​

​

I have plenty of other minor tweaks to individual classes, weapons, spells, etc., but a lot of them have already been covered here. One I'd really like to implement (next campaign!) is overhauling Constitution to provide more HP up front, less at later levels, and more side benefits, so everyone doesn't take 14+ CON. No one would play Raistlin Majere in 5e.

 

[billd91]

It's funny. Bless used to be a +1. Then the 5e design team said "we're going to do away with lots of little +1 bonuses all over the place, and make a game where attack bonuses scale more slowly, so you can keep fighting low level monsters for longer!".

Same design team: "hey let's change Bless to a +2.5 bonus to attack rolls!"

Works for me. You get rid of a lot of stacking +1s in favor of something that’s a bit more fun to roll. You just scoop a d4 up with your d20! Easy to administer.

 

[TwoSix]

As someone who is now playing a dual-weilder in a game I have to ask why about this one. Do you think two weapon fighting as written is too good? Do you not like the idea of bonus actions? Is there some other reason for it? (And do you do anything to improve the Two Weapon fighting style or is it just "you get to use your stat bonus on the damage").

I certainly don’t think current dual-wielding is too good, that’s why I buffed it.

Bonus actions are too important for so many subclasses and spells and magic items to have your base attack style consume them.

 

[Maxperson]

I am not sure I am following this. Can you elaborate?

It sounds to me like he rolls initiative for the monsters and the players roll theirs. But he doesn't wait for the players to announce what they rolled. He just starts with the highest monster and if a player has a higher initiative and knows what he wants to do, he can interrupt and go, then the monsters continue until the next player knows what he is doing or it reaches the lower players' numbers.

 

[James Gasik]

I certainly don’t think current dual-wielding is too good, that’s why I buffed it.

Bonus actions are too important for so many subclasses and spells and magic items to have your base attack style consume them.

Here's a hot take. Why limit people to one bonus action? It's a bonus action, you can't even take one without being granted the ability. So you could have one bonus action, then two, etc..

 

[Flamestrike]

Dying - Dying in 5e feels like you have a clock floating above you that says how long your friends can ignore your plight, instead of the tense moment it should be.

Roll death saves for them, in private. That way they don't know how long they have left before death.

That stops them metagaming the 3 rounds.

 

[Horwath]

I certainly don’t think current dual-wielding is too good, that’s why I buffed it.

Bonus actions are too important for so many subclasses and spells and magic items to have your base attack style consume them.

if you make 2Handed style +1d6 damage instead of whatever we skip now excuse for a style and change one handed from +2 to +d4.

take greatsword, 2 shortswords and longsword+shield.

5th level, extra attack, 20 STR

greatsword 2×3d6+5, 31pt

shortsword 4×1d6+5, 34pts

longsword 2×1d8+1d4+7, 28pts, if we calculate +2 AC equals +4 damage, we get this at 32pts.

greatsword has lowest base, but has more potential due to GWM usage and strongest AoOs and eventual bonus action attack.

shorsword has highest damage, but lowest AoO damage and eventually you will need 2 magic weapons instead of 1.

Sword and board is in the middle without any clear advantage, but in case you have to close distance to ranged attackers that +2 AC is worth a lot in a round where all deal 0 damage. Also onehanded applies to thrown weapons, so there is small versatility here also.

 

[Azuresun]

Works for me. You get rid of a lot of stacking +1s in favor of something that’s a bit more fun to roll. You just scoop a d4 up with your d20! Easy to administer.

One thing 5e doesn't get enough credit for is changing a lot of bonuses to extra dice. It's so much easier to remember when you can simply put the die in front of the player, and it just feels better to literally hand someone else a dice as a bard.