D&D 5E How Close do you stick with the Game As Written?

[Jan van Leyden]

Usually starting out with RAW and making rulings when deemed necessary.

Reals hosue rules are a rare case, because our campaigns tend to be long running (5+ years), nobody really likes to discuss this stuff, and I'm way too lazy to write down and organize lots of house rules. What house rules do exist is mostly on a strategic/meta level: level for new/replacement characters, xp and level progression, and so on.

 

[Ragmon]

Well I house ruled a lot of things, mainly all of the 5E rules, and imported 3.5's rules. Simply put we are playing 3.5 after we tried 5E since it came out.

IMO, just like 4e would have been called D&D: Tactics, 5E should have been called D&D: Lets learn the basics before we move one to something more... interesting.

PS: Yea, yea, I have a negative opinion of 5E.

To normally respond
Functions we added:
- Flanking
- Charge
- No full healing after 8 hour rest.
- We automatically used the customize option for backgrounds, instead of just taking backgrounds, thus creating out own.
- 3.5 magic items.
- Can't think of any other thing ATM.

IMO without house rules 5E is frustrating due to the fact that it lacks a lot of functions that just about every other TTRPG has integrated in their system (see above).

 

[TerraDave]

For this exercise, if its in the PHB, it's available. All monsters in the MM exist somewhere. The default assumptions (planes, magic, backstory) are used.

Almost.

 

[DMZ2112]

For me, as a dungeon master, the name of the game is describing the widest possible field of options while deviating from the core rules as little as possible.

Case in point, my D&D5 Dragonlance conversion. I don't even like calling it a conversion; I'm just adapting the D&D5 rules to fit the setting elements of Dragonlance. Tinkers needed a new background, so I wrote one. The handler needed a new rogue archetype, so I designed one. But the Wizard of High Sorcery is not substantially different than the wizard as described in the D&D5 PHB (nor is it intended to be), so why fudge? Similarly, the Knight of Solamnia is easily represented by existing multiclassing rules and the Krynnish half-ogre fills the same niche as the core half-orc.

This also makes it very easy for my players; fewer things to remember beyond what's in the PHB. I am very excited that D&D5 is flexible enough to let me do these things without tremendous effort. If I am making sweeping changes to the rules I might as well write my own RPG, and if the rules of the RPG are so terrible that I can't make extensive use of them then I need to find another game.

 

[TerraDave]

Through 2E, 3E, 4E....there was a tendency to make the system tighter and tighter, make things feel less optional and present a clearer default to the DM.

5E definitely reverses that, and in some ways does make the question a more interesting one. If I say no dragonborn as PCs, is that not "RAW"? What if I say no feats or multiclassing? If we have a whole "core" rule book about making your own worlds, own cosmos, own adventures, is that D&D as written?

 

[Henrix]

The rules I mostly use as is. A few houserules, rate of healing, traits for other stuff than characters, as well as minor stuff as it comes along and it fits better in the story if it works in a different way just then.

Settingwise, no. I change stuff at will, sometimes to keep my players on their toes.

 

[the Jester]

There's a lot of range between RAW and "No, I make major changes".

I fall into a "RAW with a few house rules and lots of custom options" category not represented by the poll.

 

[Umbran]

I am not running a 5e game right now, but I am considering one in the nearish future. So, my answer is based on my usual approach to games....

If I have to make huge changes to a rule set, I usually go looking for a different rule set. So, the actual rules will stay mostly intact.

However, I don't feel the presence of a particular monster in the world, or PC race, or a class, to be "rules" - they are more setting elements. If no player is interested in a given PHB race at game start, they may not be present in the world. Monsters don't really exist until I use them in an adventure, or mention them in setting.

 

[steeldragons]

There's a lot of range between RAW and "No, I make major changes".

I fall into a "RAW with a few house rules and lots of custom options" category not represented by the poll.

True. I thought so, as well. Probably why the No's are lagging so far behind.

 

[Remathilis]

There's a lot of range between RAW and "No, I make major changes".

I fall into a "RAW with a few house rules and lots of custom options" category not represented by the poll.

I don't consider adding options as a major change; a few new feats our spells doesn't really change the game. A major change is something that replaces, rather than augments, the core game.