My house rules for combat tactics

[blalien]

These are the rules I am considering implementing for the next time I run a playtest game. I am loving the advantage and disadvantage rules, they're so much easier to keep track of than situational modifiers.

Flanking: If you flank, you have advantage. Pretty straightforward, although this might make rogues too powerful. This is an issue in general with optional combat rules and how they might affect game balance. Some optional rules will definitely make some classes more or less powerful.

Opportunity attacks: If you move away from an enemy and move more than five feet, you have disadvantage on all attacks for that round. This means if you run away from an enemy to get into a flanking position, you get no benefit from the flanking. Monsters can still run past the fighter to go after the squishy wizard, but they'll be less likely to hit. It also means you can just run away from an enemy for no penalty, with is analogous to withdrawing in 3rd edition. I can imagine "defender" classes and some monsters having an optional ability that once per turn when a monster moves away from you and moves more than five feet, you deal damage equal to your STR or DEX modifier. A good jab in the side that doesn't cost an action and slow down gameplay.

Charging: As part of your attack, you can move your speed directly towards your enemy and make a melee attack. If you do, you get advantage on this attack. However, until the beginning of your next turn, all enemies have advantage against you. You cannot move after charging. I would consider changing this to just the first enemy has advantage against you if it's too much of a liability.

Let me know what you think. I would imagine somebody on this forum had a similar idea, but I skimmed the forum and didn't see anything.

 

[slobo777]

Advantage and disadvantage are nice tools to play with.

The combination of flanking for advantage, and AoO only for moving away will indeed allow Rogues to get sneak attack a lot more often.

I would consider three interacting rules covering AoO:

1) All movement adjacent to an enemy costs 5' extra per 5' moved.

2) An enemy may attack you as a (free) reaction if you are at any point adjacent to them and then move to another square.

3) You may simply avoid the attack by taking an attack action on your turn before moving. The attack does not have to be against any specific enemy, it just has to use up your action on making an attack.

. . . these 3 options can then each be modified by relevent themes or class features. For instance item 1 could be removed for a theme based on mobility. Item 2 could be extended for guardian types to get better or more AoOs. Item 3 could be extended to cover more action types, such as Dodge for skirmishers.

The combination of 1 to 3 means it is possible, but costly, for e.g. a Rogue to get into a flanking position for advantage each round. But that it is safer to try and set up a flank once every 2 rounds instead.

 

[blalien]

I guess I should have clarified that "moving away" means "moving out of a threatened square." This means a rogue cannot move around or away from an enemy to flank unless they only move one square.

The reason why I used "deal damage equal to your STR or DEX modifier" instead of free attack is because 5e seems really intent on limiting the number of actions you make per turn. I made sure all my house rules did not involve any extra dice rolling because I really like how 5e speeds up combat, and I don't want to take away from that. I do like the third rule because it makes setting up a flank so costly.