D&D 5E House Rules That Make The Game Better

[S_Dalsgaard]

• Firing into melee: If you roll a natural 1 when firing into melee, roll a to hit roll against the ally nearest the original target to see if you hit them instead.
• Polearm Master feat and quarterstaff: A quarterstaff can only take advantage of the Polearm Master feat, if used two-handed.
• Rations: Food rations weigh 1 lb per day, as per PH, p. 185, not 2 lb. per day (as in the list of adventuring gear, PH, p. 150).
• Potions of Healing: Standard potions of healing aren’t magical, but can be crafted by anyone proficient with Herbalism Kit.
• Hit Points per level after 1st: A PC rolls once for hp per level. If the rolled number is lower than average, take average hp.
• Inspiration: Each player has one inspiration point per session, that they can hand out to other players for good roleplaying and general awesomeness.
• Verbal components: Verbal components of a spell can be whispered, but requires a Stealth check opposed to any listeners’ Perception check (or passive Perception), to do it quiet enough not to be heard.
• Death saves: Death saves are not rolled until someone actually gets to the dying character and tries to save him/her. That way no one are aware of how long they have to save the dying character.
• Critical Damage: When rolling critical damage, the original dice is always maxed and you only roll for the additional damage. For example a crit with a longsword deals 8+1d8+modifiers damage.
• Natural healing: A long rest heals a quarter of your maximum HP.

These are still being tested to see if they make the game better for my group.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Perception for finding living/moving/hiding creatures... Investigation for finding traps/secret doors/clues/inanimate objects
WIS used for Passive Perception and Passive Investigation... INT used for active searching with Perception and Investigation

 

[Coredump]

When using proficient skills, add +1 to the base ability before determining bonus: This makes odd ability scores mean something again, and makes proficiency more important.

Crits: Player option of roll twice, or max the dice.

 

[Bupp]

Crits do max damage and advantage on next attack or action.

Fumbles (natural 1) give disadvantage on next attack or action.

Individual initiative rerolled each round.

Escalation Die per 13th Age.

Fighters, rangers, barbarians and paladins do damage equal to their hit die no matter what weapon they are using.

 

[the Jester]

I use colorful critical hits (I've got custom charts for that), fumbles (ditto) and slower healing. So far, I think that's it, unless you count the massive number of custom converted or homebrewed spells, magic items and monsters that I use.

 

[steeldragons]

• Initiative: for group, + individual modifiers, every round.
• Nat' 20's (and/or crit hits): double max damage [all modifiers applicable]/auto-success with some kind of relevant bonus benefit of the DM's making if not an attack roll.
• Nat' 1's: auto-fail = take average unmodified weapon damage (you messed up so badly, you pulled something/hurt yourself, d4 if rolled on a skill check or something that didn't involve a weapon) or take your chances rolling on the "Ye olde Fumble Table"...Player's choice.
• Death at -10. No "death saves."
• Insta-dead: Being brought to -10 or less HP in a single blow = insta-dead. (It is a possibility to be aware of before charging headlong or remaining in stupid/foolish/impossible/losing battles.)
• No Evil PCs.
• Drow are always and only capable of being Evil.
  
• Setting-Specific: No Sorcerers. "Mages" [wizards] gain spontaneous casting in spells two levels lower than their max level. So, at 5th level, a mage need not choose/memorize/prepare their 1st level spells, but can use spells (that they know/are in their spellbook, of course!) as needed/the situation arises. At 7th level, this applies to their 1st and 2nd level spell slots. 1-3rd level spells at 9th. Beyond that, 4th+ level, spells must all be chosen/prepared/memorized each day.
• Setting-specific: No Barbarian class as written. Homebrewed class/culture used. (need an official 5e conversion, I suppose)
• Setting-specific: Raise Dead only available to 3 deities/temples/clerics of those deities. 1 Good (goddess of healing & life, cuz, ya know, Healing and Life!). 1 Neutral (goddess of death, cuz she decides, "You're dead when [I say] your fate's tapestry is done and not before!" Raise Dead through her temple her may or may not come with riders/demands being made/services to be performed upon your return to the mortal realm). 1 Evil (cuz he's an elder god with "tuh powaaah!" like that...that will bring you back to be his slave/lackey for the rest of your, now, unnatural life).

There's probably more, but yeah...all of those definitely "make [my] game better."

 

[Jaelommiss]

1. When reduced to 0HP, gain a level of exhaustion.
2. No automatic healing on a long rest. Hit dice may be spent instead.
3. Do not announce death save results (excluding 20). Not knowing how close to death a comrade is makes choosing to stabilize someone far more interesting.

 

[brehobit]

1. When reduced to 0HP, gain a level of exhaustion.

ooh. I like that one.

 

[Bupp]

I do as well. Consider it stolen.

 

[Rune]

1: Ever since I saw this posted by someone on these boards, I've been having players generate ability scores with four suits of cards numbered 1-6 (each card representing a single d6), instead of the best 3 of 4d6 six times.

2: At level-up, players may choose to roll hp twice and take the best or take the average rounded up.

3: I don't personally think frenzy is unbalanced, but I'm considering replacing the exhaustion cost with the following:

Each round of frenzy costs an unspent Hit Die of the highest available value (so, D12s get spent first), lost at the beginning of the frenzy and the beginning of each of a frenzied barbarian's turns. The frenzy lasts for as long as the HD do, but can be ended early as a bonus action with a successful Wisdom check vs. a DC equal to 5 + the number of HD spent in the current frenzy. While frenzied, a barbarian's rage cannot end. If a barbarian ends a frenzy with 0 HD, s/he gains one level of exhaustion.

4: I allow players to spend and roll any number of available HD to mitigate damage (without adding a constitution bonus). This is intended to make critical hits less automatically lethal, particularly at low levels.

5: Using the hp values for materials in the DMG, I allow players to negate the damage of a hit by taking it on their armor, shield, or weapon. Given the low number of hp involved, this allows for sundering to be a thing, but lets the sunderee decide if it's going to happen, instead of the sunderer. Also, it's a great last-ditch way to avoid the effects of a nasty hit. And it's cinematic as hell.

6: I'm considering having the Sharpshooter feat only work when you aren't in melee, because ya gotta aim. As an added bonus, this will remove some of its synergy with Crossbow Expert, so the combo will no longer deal more damage in melee than actual melee weapons.