For Context: I am not a big fan of 5e, so I don't have the same level of in-depth experience I have with, say, 3.5 or PF1. I'm pretty much ripping out all of the content of 5e to upholster its structure with content I like better. Which is to say, nothing I am proposing here should be construed as an attempt to fix any specific problem-- real or imagined-- with the existing 5e rules so much as an attempt to deliver a more tailored... 5e-adjacent gaming experience for my table.
There's a whole lot more going on under the hood here, but I'm only presenting the stuff that might be relevant to people playing something closer to legitimate 5e.
Critical Hits: Only mentioning this because of the Extra Attack rule below. On a critical hit, maximize the normal weapon damage, then roll it once and add it to the total. If any bonus dice apply to the attack, you can do the same thing with one die per source of bonus damage dice.
Extra Attack: Collapse multiple attacks against a single target into a single die roll. If you have Extra Attack, roll a single attack against a single target with a critical range of 19-20. If the attack misses, deal damage as if you hit with a single attack. If the attack hits, deal damage as if you'd hit with both attacks. On a 19, one attack is critical; on a 20, both attacks are critical.
If you have Extra Attack II or Extra Attack III, a miss still counts as one hit and a hit counts as all hits. Critical range is 18-20 or 17-20, with a 20 being a critical on all attacks and each lower result reduces that by one attack. Multiple critical hits allow you to include more bonus damage dice as part of the critical.
If you have Extra Attack, you can use it to attack two separate targets normally. If you have Extra Attack II or III, don't divide the number of "attacks" by the number of targets; Extra Attack II can attack 2x2 or 3x1 and Extra Attack III can attack 2x3, 3x2, or 4x1.
This is a significant boost to the frequency and severity of critical hits. This is intentional, but it's also partially mitigated by the armor rules below; attack cantrips are not a factor in the rules these rules apply to. Classes that gain Extra Attack also have access to other multiple-target or area-of-effect attacks. That's TBD and also probably not relevant to anyone but me.
Hit Points & Hit Dice: No CON bonus, step Hit Dice down. Start with 1.5x max. At level up, roll level x HD and reroll a number of dice equal to CON bonus if positive. If that's bigger than your old HP total, that becomes your new HP total. If it's not, increase your old HP total by +1 or 1/2 your CON bonus.
You have Hit Dice equal to your level + your CON mod + half/full/double your Proficiency Bonus, depending on class/race/feats. You can spend one HD in combat per short rest as the Fighter's Second Wind ability. Healing spells/effects enable you to spend HD faster and more efficiently, but there's no healing without someone spending a Hit Die.
Short Rest healing works normally, but you maximize the first Hit Die you spend. On a Long Rest, you recover some of your Hit Dice first, and then roll all of your remaining Hit Dice (without CON bonuses) to recover that many hit points.
Death & Dying: You're not automatically incapacitated at 0 hit points. There's a new condition track called Mortality. When you are reduced to 0 hit points by an attack, or you take further damage while at 0 hit points, either allow yourself to be incapacitated or increase your Mortality by +1 (per "attack") and roll a CON Save (DC 10 + Mortality) to keep fighting. Special attacks or critical hits might count as more than one attack.
Once you're incapacitated, you're incapacitated until you take a short rest or you get hit with revivify, which also allows you to spend a single Hit Die. Other healing spells can allow you to spend HD/restore hit points as normal, but they don't remove the incapacitated condition.
After any combat in which you've been reduced to 0 hit points, roll a CON Save (DC 10 + Mortality) or die. If you are not incapacitated, or you have a positive hit point total, you may roll this Save at Advantage.
Reduce your maximum hit point total by your Mortality. Reduce your Mortality by 1 for every Hit Die you spend healing while resting.
Ability Score Generation: I'm using an alternate system for ASIs and feats and abilities aren't capped at 20, so the uncapped abilities aren't depriving players of more interesting choices.
At character creation, after choosing your basic concept-- origin/class, but not specifics-- assign your ability scores using the standard array or 27 point buy.
For every ability score, rolling in order, roll 6d4 and record each individual die from highest to lowest. You may choose one ability score to keep all six dice, two ability scores to keep the highest five, and the other three may keep the highest four. Use the higher of the assigned or rolled value for each ability.
Technically, this means a character can start with a score of 19-24 in an ability, but the player does not have control over which ability this is. The average of 6d4 is 15. Statistically, this system increases average ability scores but disproportionately affects the scores the player is neglecting.
Anyway. These are for a specific game, not general recommendations for universal houserules. Curious what other people think.
There's a whole lot more going on under the hood here, but I'm only presenting the stuff that might be relevant to people playing something closer to legitimate 5e.
Critical Hits: Only mentioning this because of the Extra Attack rule below. On a critical hit, maximize the normal weapon damage, then roll it once and add it to the total. If any bonus dice apply to the attack, you can do the same thing with one die per source of bonus damage dice.
Extra Attack: Collapse multiple attacks against a single target into a single die roll. If you have Extra Attack, roll a single attack against a single target with a critical range of 19-20. If the attack misses, deal damage as if you hit with a single attack. If the attack hits, deal damage as if you'd hit with both attacks. On a 19, one attack is critical; on a 20, both attacks are critical.
If you have Extra Attack II or Extra Attack III, a miss still counts as one hit and a hit counts as all hits. Critical range is 18-20 or 17-20, with a 20 being a critical on all attacks and each lower result reduces that by one attack. Multiple critical hits allow you to include more bonus damage dice as part of the critical.
If you have Extra Attack, you can use it to attack two separate targets normally. If you have Extra Attack II or III, don't divide the number of "attacks" by the number of targets; Extra Attack II can attack 2x2 or 3x1 and Extra Attack III can attack 2x3, 3x2, or 4x1.
This is a significant boost to the frequency and severity of critical hits. This is intentional, but it's also partially mitigated by the armor rules below; attack cantrips are not a factor in the rules these rules apply to. Classes that gain Extra Attack also have access to other multiple-target or area-of-effect attacks. That's TBD and also probably not relevant to anyone but me.
Hit Points & Hit Dice: No CON bonus, step Hit Dice down. Start with 1.5x max. At level up, roll level x HD and reroll a number of dice equal to CON bonus if positive. If that's bigger than your old HP total, that becomes your new HP total. If it's not, increase your old HP total by +1 or 1/2 your CON bonus.
You have Hit Dice equal to your level + your CON mod + half/full/double your Proficiency Bonus, depending on class/race/feats. You can spend one HD in combat per short rest as the Fighter's Second Wind ability. Healing spells/effects enable you to spend HD faster and more efficiently, but there's no healing without someone spending a Hit Die.
Short Rest healing works normally, but you maximize the first Hit Die you spend. On a Long Rest, you recover some of your Hit Dice first, and then roll all of your remaining Hit Dice (without CON bonuses) to recover that many hit points.
Death & Dying: You're not automatically incapacitated at 0 hit points. There's a new condition track called Mortality. When you are reduced to 0 hit points by an attack, or you take further damage while at 0 hit points, either allow yourself to be incapacitated or increase your Mortality by +1 (per "attack") and roll a CON Save (DC 10 + Mortality) to keep fighting. Special attacks or critical hits might count as more than one attack.
Once you're incapacitated, you're incapacitated until you take a short rest or you get hit with revivify, which also allows you to spend a single Hit Die. Other healing spells can allow you to spend HD/restore hit points as normal, but they don't remove the incapacitated condition.
After any combat in which you've been reduced to 0 hit points, roll a CON Save (DC 10 + Mortality) or die. If you are not incapacitated, or you have a positive hit point total, you may roll this Save at Advantage.
Reduce your maximum hit point total by your Mortality. Reduce your Mortality by 1 for every Hit Die you spend healing while resting.
Ability Score Generation: I'm using an alternate system for ASIs and feats and abilities aren't capped at 20, so the uncapped abilities aren't depriving players of more interesting choices.
At character creation, after choosing your basic concept-- origin/class, but not specifics-- assign your ability scores using the standard array or 27 point buy.
For every ability score, rolling in order, roll 6d4 and record each individual die from highest to lowest. You may choose one ability score to keep all six dice, two ability scores to keep the highest five, and the other three may keep the highest four. Use the higher of the assigned or rolled value for each ability.
Technically, this means a character can start with a score of 19-24 in an ability, but the player does not have control over which ability this is. The average of 6d4 is 15. Statistically, this system increases average ability scores but disproportionately affects the scores the player is neglecting.
Anyway. These are for a specific game, not general recommendations for universal houserules. Curious what other people think.
