Xeviat
Hero
Hi everyone. 5E has been out for 19 months now, pretty close to 2 years. Without getting too detailed, I'm curious what things people have house ruled in their games. I'm also curious about your house rule philosophy: how do you choose rule, what do you desire from house rules, and why do you house rule.
For me, I house rule things to make them more fair. Primarily, this is to bring under-powered or under-chosen options up to the level of other options. This goes back all the way to 2001 when I first started playing (and DMing) pen and paper D&D (3E). Before that, I had played the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale games, so I was familiar with the rules set in theory (and BG2 came with a 3E character builder, which is how I cut my teeth on the rules themselves). In my first game, one player rolled really well for stats and another rolled poorly; this resulted in some fudging because the player with the character with lower stats wasn't enjoying making their character. We quickly turned to point buy after that. In the same game, one player was playing a Half-Orc Barbarian and another was playing an Elf Ranger. Feats were new to us, and the Elf Ranger's player saw Weapon Finesse and thought it would be cool to do a finessing duel short sword wielding Ranger (that's a mouthful). He started with Str 10 and Dex 16, I believe. It seemed reasonable to us. The Str 16 Half-Orc barbarian outshone him in every fight (and this was in 3E, before the Ranger had more skills than a Barbarian). He ended up turning to Improved Trip and Expertise tanking to find a role in the party, but that was when I became sensitive to abilities not doing what they seemed like they should do (and also focused my attention on TWFing till this day). I went from some minor rules additions to crafting homebrewed races and classes to entirely overhauling the spell system back in 3E.
Here's the things I have or am considering house ruling in 5E.
What are your house rules, and a brief why? What do you look for in house rules? If you don't like house rules, I'd like to hear why you don't like house rules, but I don't want this thread to become a fight between house rulers and RAW players.
For me, I house rule things to make them more fair. Primarily, this is to bring under-powered or under-chosen options up to the level of other options. This goes back all the way to 2001 when I first started playing (and DMing) pen and paper D&D (3E). Before that, I had played the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale games, so I was familiar with the rules set in theory (and BG2 came with a 3E character builder, which is how I cut my teeth on the rules themselves). In my first game, one player rolled really well for stats and another rolled poorly; this resulted in some fudging because the player with the character with lower stats wasn't enjoying making their character. We quickly turned to point buy after that. In the same game, one player was playing a Half-Orc Barbarian and another was playing an Elf Ranger. Feats were new to us, and the Elf Ranger's player saw Weapon Finesse and thought it would be cool to do a finessing duel short sword wielding Ranger (that's a mouthful). He started with Str 10 and Dex 16, I believe. It seemed reasonable to us. The Str 16 Half-Orc barbarian outshone him in every fight (and this was in 3E, before the Ranger had more skills than a Barbarian). He ended up turning to Improved Trip and Expertise tanking to find a role in the party, but that was when I became sensitive to abilities not doing what they seemed like they should do (and also focused my attention on TWFing till this day). I went from some minor rules additions to crafting homebrewed races and classes to entirely overhauling the spell system back in 3E.
Here's the things I have or am considering house ruling in 5E.
- No "basic" humans; all humans use the Variant traits. I also give humans 2 free skills instead of one, to bring them closer to the Half-Elf (after I saw two players in the same game choose half-elf over human).
- Saving Throws: Strongly considering applying proficiency bonus to all saves and removing "trained saves" or switching to strict +2s like in 4E; save DCs would become 10+proficiency.
- Starting HP: I grant Con score to starting HP.
- Barbarian: I really want to buff the Berserker, since my current Barbarian player really disliked it (saying "it's really easy to get bonus action attacks"), but I don't know what to do.
- Cleric: I offer a "robed cleric" option, giving the Monk's Wis to AC instead of armor and shield proficiencies.
- Druid: Wildshape has been completely altered, as are the polymorph spells (an ongoing process).
- Fighter: To buff the Fighter's TWFing, I grant an extra TWFing attack at level 11 along with the fighter's 2nd Extra Attack; at this point, when you take a bonus action to make your TWFing attack, you get two. Every other class is reasonably balanced when it comes to TWFing.
- Monk: Working on an altered Four Elements monk, siting the Shadow monk and Sun Soul monk's spells as evidence.
- Ranger: I've tweaked favored enemy (baked hunter's mark into it) and I've tweaked the Beast Master's pet (It's in my signature).
- Paladin: Really considering limiting smite to once per round; I hate novas.
- Warlock: I've altered the Pact of the Blade; it now works as a melee Eldritch Blast. Eldritch Blast is a class ability instead of a cantrip, and it scales with Warlock level not character level. Agonizing Blast is baked in, and the blade pact invocations are being swapped out for something else (still working on it).
- Weapons: Really considering using the 3.5 Weapon table, with some changes. We're finding weapons boring.
- Armor: May add 3rd tier medium armor pair to help out the medium armor wearers.
- Attacks: I'm working on some guidelines for adding effects to attacks instead of just trading attacks for effects; I miss 4E's varied attacks and have already grown tired of "I attack, I attack, I attack" from the martial characters.
- Weapon "styles": Strongly considering giving characters who use a one-handed weapon with nothing in their off-hand (no shield, no second weapon) a +2 bonus to hit; primarily this is to give the rogue a choice over TWFing.
- Rest and Recovery: I allow for short rests under 1 hour when I need to give the characters a breather; I also have all hit dice recover with a long rest.
- Ability Checks: I make ample use of 3E skill check DCs (modified) as I like rules more than guidelines.
- Initiative: I allow for initiative delaying and full actions on readied actions (the former because we're accustomed to it, the latter because readied actions favor spellcasters and rogues over multiattackers).
- My games allow for buying and selling of magic items. There are no "magic item marts" (magic stores are for spell components and common magic items), but traveling merchants and dealers can acquire items. I'm also open to allowing players to craft items.
What are your house rules, and a brief why? What do you look for in house rules? If you don't like house rules, I'd like to hear why you don't like house rules, but I don't want this thread to become a fight between house rulers and RAW players.
)
