D&D 5E House Rules

[Dragonsbane]

I am a Forever DM of 30+ years, and I am curious as to how people feel about House Rules, such as changes to healing, resting, race and class choices, nerfs of spells or powers, use of other supplements both "official" and 3rd party, and anything else. Do you avoid these games? Not worry about it? If you do not like House Rules, is it because are you an optimizer (no hate, nothing wrong with this) and it messes with builds? And so on . . . .

Thanks for replies!

 

[prabe]

As a DM, I tend to run a number of houserules, so as a player I mostly just want to know what the houserules are. If something seems ... excessive-ish, I might ask about why that houserule exists/what it's attempting to solve.

 

[TwoSix]

I don't use a ton of house rules to the existing engine of the game. I allow a ton of customization in terms of new races, new classes, new subclasses, new feats, etc.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Honestly, with 5E I've gone back and forth about house-rules. I struggle between playing the game as is and making it into what I want D&D to be. At one point, when I changed races and a bunch of other stuff, I had about 30 pages of house-rules for 5E. Since then, we parsed things down to the absolute essential changes and have only 2 pages. The rest I've basically just accepted that the change I want really wasn't worth having another house-rule to remember. shrug

 

[Shiroiken]

I use quite a bit of houserules, but not because 5E "needs fixing." Instead 5E is perfectly customizable for each table, allowing for different styles and type of enjoyment. My ideal 5E wouldn't be enjoyable for most, as I suspect is the case for most other's ideal 5E would be for me.

 

[Puddles]

I have a fair few house rules, but none of them are massive system changing things (at least in my opinion), just tweaks here and there. I use house rules for the following:

1. Encumbrance (simplified system)
2. Critical hits (players get to roll on an extra table that might blind the enemy or something else dramatic),
3. Initiative (redraw after 3 rounds)
4. injuries (A table of minor things, most recoverable)
5. Resurrection (-1 constitution)
6. Levelling up (get the benefits of a long rest)
7. Waterskins (hold a gallon)
8. Goodberry (need to eat all 10 for it to count as food)
9. Create/Destroy Water (1 gallon)
10. Wanderer (Advantage of Survival checks for tracking, foraging, finding water).
11. Random encounters (a decreasing dice system that starts at d20 and goes down to d4 the longer you are in the wilderness)

And then I cut and splice monster stat blocks on the regular. Almost every monster I use is tweaked in some way. I also have a range of custom animals for my Druid to shapeshift into. The rules for most tiny creatures in the MM are very dull.

Not sure if this is a lot or a little? Doesn’t feel like much when I am playing but looks like a lot all typed out.

 

[cbwjm]

I have a few house rules, happy to play them as a player if I join a game with rules, so long as they are explained at the beginning of the game. I don't want to be surprised in the middle of play by a house rule that wasn't mentioned.

A few of mine are:

If starting 1st level, double hit points before adjusting for constitution modifier (wizard starts with 12 hit points + con mod, fighter starts with 20 + con mod).

A focus can be used even when a spell doesn't have material components. This accounts for focuses that have bonuses when used that otherwise wouldn't be of use if no material component is needed.

You can cast a regular spell and a bonus action spell instead of a cantrip and a bonus action spell. I'm currently trialling this one, might put some sort of limits on it at a later date.

Go ahead and wear metal armour if you're a druid. I might adjust this to wildshape can't be used if wearing armour with metal in it. If they'd used this as the restriction in the first place then I think there'd be less arguments about druids in metal armour.

Just remembered this one: Druids have no restriction on which animals they can transform into as long as the cr is 0. At level 2, a druid can transform into a bird or fish.

 

[Marc_C]

No house rules. Just the official optional rules of the DMG and some restrictions to class and races based on the home-brew setting I created.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

House rules are good, because it shows that the DM is both invested in their campaign, and capable of critical analysis. I won't even look at a 5E campaign unless the DM has a good answer for how they are going to fix the healing rules.

 

[toucanbuzz]

It took years for me to have the comfort level to implement house rules. I worried by implementing them I was saying "I know better than the designers." But, D&D invites them so you can make the game yours. And, the late Gary Gygax commonly shared his house rules, including on Enworld. Like @6ENow!, my list started long and got pared down.

After each campaign, I ask the group if there's any house rules they'd rather not have. After several years, I've gotten it down to 1 page, 10 items. And, I'm happier for it. I feel my house rules make my games with my gamers better than without.