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

[pukunui]

Clerics, druids, and paladins know their entire list (barring a DM stating otherwise). What they don't have is their entire list prepared. Their number of prepared spells is equal to casting ability modifier + level (half level for paladin).

Is that how it works for them already? They can prepare any spell of the entire list, so long as it's of a level they can cast and they've got slots for it.

I've actually been considering a rule whereby clerics and paladins (not necessarily druids but maybe them too) can cast any spell from their entire list without needing to prepare anything ahead of time. This would reflect the idea that they are praying to their deity for whatever miracle is needed at that time.

An alternative would be that clerics and paladins (and maybe druids) can cast any spell from their list as a ritual.

What got me thinking of this was the idea that the PCs could ride into town, and a diseased beggar could come up to the PC cleric and ask him for help. It would be cool if the cleric could just say, "Sure! I'll just pray to my god to heal you." Instead, he'd most likely have to say, "I can't help you right now, but I'll pray to my god in the morning and come back and find you once I've got the power to heal you ..."

 

[Pickles III]

I don't use house rules that make the game better only those that make it worse.

I don't like to house rule at all - there are always unintended consequences & most of the time I revert to the original rules.
(edit: there are probably loads of little things I do that are so ingrained I forget they are house rules - like ignoring encumbrance)

I did adopt the players control giving out inspiration & also inspiration is a reroll, so can be used retroactively & you only need to remember after the fact, but no-one ever used it anyway. I was playing online so a tactile reminder was out sadly.

I have stopped DMing as I was not enjoying it. The conjure animals spell & also the effect fireball has on ship based adventures (& niggles; it's at least partly because I am making the adventure up & it's probably not very good or at least not working as intended.).

I am open to suggestions on how to address these, without thwarting the players overly.

Conjure lets you pick the best animal - wolves as a default but fliers or swimmers if need be then have 8 of them which take an inordinate amount of time to resolve every round & soak an insane amount of damage & last an hour. Part of the issue is that CR does not scale very well - low CR monsters are better "value" than high.
Fireball on boats it pretty obvious - you can spam as many as you have & will hit everyone on a boat & the boat itself. Boats take a fair while to close on one another especially if they are trying to maintain separation. This must have been an issue for ever...

 

[Grainger]

If Fireballs are an issue in your world (either they're used a lot by NPCs, or PCs use them and then word gets around), ships would likely have measures (magical or otherwise) to fireproof them.

 

[Fion]

...Where? (I am interested.)

In my current campaign, I allowed people to trade 2 ability score points at character creation for 1 feat. It's more powerful than normal feat acquisition because players trade away their dump-stats instead of their best stats (which is what they would be spending ASI on), but it's still not "free." In hindsight, trading away 3 ability score points would be more balanced, and more in line with the human variant (who loses 4 ability score points, but gets a feat plus a skill).

I also allow PCs to spend downtime training to gain skills, feats, weapon and armor proficiencies, and spells. I dramatically reduced training time, but increased cost (especially for feats and spells). Basically it turns training into a money-sink and additional level of character customization.

Sorry, was using reddit code lol.
http://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/2fvjky/5th_edition_drama_cards/

I've considered allowing training in new skills alongside tools & languages, especially in smaller groups playing skill-lite classes. I've also changed up learning time to be based upon gold spent. The more spent, the shorter the learning time.

As to exchanging a feat for starting ability score bonuses, that's one I haven't tried. I'll definitely give it ago.

 

[Gretkatillor]

This one keeps players on their toes and created a number of funny situations over the years:

All players start a session with one "call". Whenever a player as a joke suggests his character will do something outrageously dangerous/silly/stupid, another player can call that player and force him to do precisely that. If all players have used their calls (rarely happens, but it does) everyone receives a new one.

 

[doctorhook]

Let's see:

• Player's Roll All the Dice: My players roll attacks vs. monsters' AC/save scores, and they roll defenses against monsters' attack scores. I've been using this one weekly for almost a year, and I have absolutely no regrets. Players love it, and they never blame me if a monster crits them (because they feel like they're the ones "controlling" the dice). Also, my mind isn't cluttered with simple arithmetic when I'm also trying to run the game, which is a huge help to me mentally by the end of a busy session.
• Blade Ward: Castable as a bonus action, requires concentration, but ends immediately after the spell effect is used to resist one attack. This makes blade ward into a genuinely useful defensive cantrip, which I did not find the original to be.
• Eldritch Blast/Agonizing Blast: Agonizing Blast doesn't exist; eldritch blast deals 1d8 + Charisma modifier force damage, and warlocks gain it for free. This rule is experimental in my current game, but I like it so far.
• Familiars/Pets/Summoned Creatures: They're NPC monsters under the DM's control, and the player can issue commands via bonus action; otherwise, these behave appropriately for the creature-type and bond to their owners (typically fully loyal), and will take actions independently unless the player takes control of them magically (as allowed in the find familiar spell).

I've probably got a bunch more.

 

[Quickleaf]

Multiple Object Interactions: You can sheath two swords, draw a bow, kick open a door, and shoot someone all in one turn. I don't want to waste time saying, "Sorry, you've juggled too many objects this turn, you can attack next round." Players love this rule.

That sounds like a terrific rule!

 

[Murkmoldiev]

I have a few...

What skills cover-

Nature- Humanoids, Fey, Giants, The Underdark, The Wilderness , Vermin, Weather.lands, terrain, climate, people.

Arcana : Ancient mysteries, magic traditions, arcane symbols, cryptic phrases, constructs, dragons, magical beasts, Spells, Magic Items , Planes.

Religeon : Gods and goddesses, mythic history, ecclesiastic tradition, holy symbols, undead.

Lore : ( Replaces History ) royalty, wars, constructions, legends, laws, customs, traditions, lineages, heraldry, family trees, mottoes. Towns, Citys and Countries.




Elves and half elves get advantage on active perception checks- low light Vision but not dark vision.
+4 to passive checks

Firing into combat - disadvantage and on a 2 so 3 if mised to not hit friend ( roll to hit )

Armor. Unless the player has St enough as listed Dis is applied to Strength and dex cheks.

Spells cast within the last 12 hours count against the total for the day.

Only one short rest per day

A caster can try to cast a lower or higher level spell by combining spell slots.
An ability check of 10 + Level of spell trying to make does it.
Failure wastes the slots. This is a free action.
Clerics can change up thier domain spells with no roll.

Any failure to cast a spell triggers a wild surge. A caster must make a Concontration check if damaged within the last round or as damaged a readyied action.

Get con bonus to the Dying saves.

Extravagant Living
Gold may be wasted on senseless activities in exchange for experience points. 100 gp may be wasted for every 1 % of that levels needed x.p. gained. This rule allows encourages players to rid themselves of excess wealth without spending it on character power escalation. Typical activities are,smoking black lotus, gambling, having lavish parties, buying useless trinkets, making bad bargains, destroying evil magic items instead of selling them etc.

The NOOOOOOOOOOO !

Once per game session , a player is allowed to use a NO.
This allows a reroll with 3 d 20 advantage. Or can be used to avoid something horrible by rolling 7 or higher.
this no may be saved up from session to session.

The HERO POINT.

Ths is awarded to players who perform heroic deeds, usually at great personal risk.
These encourage players to take risks often with spectacular results.
They are usually awarded at the end of a massive quest for the side of good, where there have been trials of great magnitude.
A HERO POINT allows the player to accomplish the impossible.
Perform multiple actions at once, dive free of instant death, or break the rules in some way
or automatically hit with a maximum damage critical.
There is always a chance of failure or reward with using up a hero point.
When the Hero point is used a d20 is rolled. On a 1 critical failure occurs.
On a 20 the hero point is not used up.




COMING BACK FROM THE DEATH EXPERIENCE

When a character recovers from having under 0 hit points, that character is exhausted To a certain level depending on how far down he went. only the Heal 5th or up spell or similar powerful magicks, will wipe this out. This repairs at over a peroid of days.
.

1. The character has disadvantage on attacks and checks and saves and cannot maintain concentraion on spells.

2. Speed reduced to half and DC 10 Con check to cast a spell. Hp 3/4 Max

3. Speed 1/4 max Hp max reduced to half. 3 d 20 disadvantage.

4 Speed 0 Max Hp redeced to 1/4 and above.


Also, all memorized Arcane, spells are lost for a Wizard.


Character creation - Min + 5 or re roll.

 

[Fion]

Lol wow, you don't like Warlock's do you Murkmoldiev. 1 short rest per day, an ability check to cast spells using higher level slots (all Warlock spells are cast at their maximum potential level).

I like your gold sink rule. Death penalties seem to also be a pretty common house rule.

 

[Anthony Terry]

Glad you like it. Have fun with it.


Players' side won initiative. I don't care who goes when, because they're all going before any of their enemies.

Your home-brew being so popular in this thread really confuses me due to the particular part i quote. Just because all the pc's go before the enemy should never lead to them getting to choose what order they act in. For starts your instantly letting your characters know that they have won the initiative, a piece of tactical knowledge i would certinally look to abuse i.e say they've walked into a room where they know they've bitten of more than they can chew e.g tactical retreats, if the party are unsure in what order they will act in 1 of the frontline characters may charge into the room whilst the others flee, any reason to do this is removed when you know for a fact your group will act first.

Also by letting them decide what order they act in the mage casting fireball will always get perfect value were as if he acted after the 2 intelligence fighter who's bound to charge into melee with his great axe he would struggle to get the same value.

I can see the time saving values but all your doing is making the game tactically easier and less realistic to how combat would unfold in real life?

I too use a d10 for initiative and will some times say if theres 3 goblins and 3 orcs and a big bad wizard and the pcs, group the orcs and goblins on the same iniaitve for time saving but i would never ever group my main villain with his underlings or the goblins with the orcs for the same reason as above.

Too provide some positive input to the topic my big big house rules are -

1. 1 is always a miss, 2 1s = a critical fumble of some kind (no set chart usually involves your shoe lace being untied and falling over on your face, bow string snapping etc.)
2. -10 and dead.
3. Critcals occur only when crit range is rolled twice in a row, and a death blow occurs when critical threat range is rolled 3 times in a row (very similar to 3.5 but slightly less generous)
4. I strongly discourage players from sharing knowledge about their current hp etc with others, instead i will go to great lengths to try and give some visual description of wound severity so that the cleric isn't just playing a computer game with raid bars.
5. No social skills, were playing a role playing game, if you want to be a master negotiator then i suggest you rehearse that role (within reason i dont expect a 5 year old to be a master diplomat but i do expect them to try before rolling their dice)
6. HP is done off race not class (something i can't believe was not implanted in 5th)
7. If a race receives +2 in a stat then their new maximum for that stat would be 22 opposed to 20.
8. 1st edition rules for non magical hp recovery
9. 2h weapons provide a bonus to initiative in the first round or in large open areas and vice versa daggers and other small weapons provide a bonus in cramped fighting or once the melee has been engaged.
10. Dex provides a small bonus to movement speed at certain points, resulting in a maximum of +15 at 20. It has always annoyed me that it is assumed everyone of a race moves at the same speed, especially with horses and other mounts.