D&D 5E House Rules for DnD Next

[heptat]

I know it's a play test, but are people playing DnD Next with their own house rules? If so, what rules changes are you making?

The first thing I would change from the latest packet is skills: I'd make the skill dice progression start at d4, and I'd let characters get a new skill every second level (3rd, 5th, 7th etc.). (I'm not playing Next at the moment so this is just an idea, not play tested.)

 

[Li Shenron]

I won't make any house rule when playtesting because IMO that defies the point of testing... if I'm testing my own version, I'm not testing the real game.

But if were playing rather than playtesting, the first HR I would make is that Humans don't get any ability score increase at all, and get bonus feats or something else instead.

 

[MortalPlague]

In my current campaign ( http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?338066-Playtest-Campaign-Dread-The-Dead-And-The-Downpour ), I'm running with a couple of house rules, purely to set the tone of a gritty horror game.

1) An extended rest doesn't restore any hit points. Instead, you regain your hit dice. You can spend your hit dice to regain some hit points, but this means that a character who is thoroughly taxed in a combat or two will spend a few days recovering fully.

2) Extended rests taken outside of comfortable surroundings (out on the trail, for instance) can't restore the final hit die. So if a 3rd level character takes an extended rest, they only regain up to two hit dice. This drives home the misery of the constant rain and the effect it has on the people who live there.


In addition, we continue to use the 'bloodied' term from 4th edition. I find it a great way to give the players information about how wounded the enemies look, or how wounded other players look. Much less immersion-breaking for someone to say "I'm bloodied" than "I'm below half hit points!".

 

[Paraxis]

The only house rule I have in my current game is critical hits are max damage + one damage die of the weapon type.

That and a few custom made magic items but I normally don't count those as house rules.

But yes if I were to run it and these were the finale rules I would change a lot of stuff starting with humans getting a +1 to all ability scores, or at least give non-humans a +2.

 

[the Jester]

I know it's a play test, but are people playing DnD Next with their own house rules? If so, what rules changes are you making?

No; when playtesting, I don't even use my normal "always-on" house rules (modified crits and fumble options).

 

[heptat]

I won't make any house rule when playtesting because IMO that defies the point of testing... if I'm testing my own version, I'm not testing the real game.

But if were playing rather than playtesting, the first HR I would make is that Humans don't get any ability score increase at all, and get bonus feats or something else instead.

Oh yes, that +1 to all abilities for humans is horrendous. At most I'd give +1 to one ability of choice.

 

[Li Shenron]

Oh yes, that +1 to all abilities for humans is horrendous. At most I'd give +1 to one ability of choice.

I was a bit surprise yesterday to read Mearls say on Twitter that during internal playtest they tried NOT to give those +1 to all, and the idea was immediately rejected by the internal playtesters

 

[Morrus]

Oh yes, that +1 to all abilities for humans is horrendous. At most I'd give +1 to one ability of choice.

I like to think of it as a -1 to all abilities except one for the other races. Dwarves get a -1 to INT, CHA, DEX, and one of WIS or CON.

But players don't like 'penalties'.

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

I like to think of it as a -1 to all abilities except one for the other races. Dwarves get a -1 to INT, CHA, DEX, and one of WIS or CON.

But players don't like 'penalties'.

It seems like the "players don't like penalties" is panning out, and yet it feels like pandering.

Of course nobody wants penalties for their character. Why accept a tradeoff when you can have nothing but benefits. But those tradeoffs are important for the game.

I suggest this is a case where the playtesters should be respectfully ignored in the name of the numbers actually meaning something. Not having racial penalties could be an option, but the default game should reflect the human baseline.

 

[MortalPlague]

I have come to really enjoy the 'humans get +1 to all stats' thing simply because of the simplicity. It makes humans an easy yet potent choice for those who don't want to deal with added complexity on their character. If you change it so they 'get an extra feat', for instance, that does the exact opposite of making things more simple...