D&D 5E Spells you house rule?

[Tales and Chronicles]

I've a bunch.

- Chill Touch, Shocking Grasp, Frostbite are changed to work like shillelagh, meaning they affect all unarmed attack for 1 minute.

- Spare the Dying gives advantage on the next death save.

- Light, Dancing light use concentration

- True Strike add 2 force damage per tier.

- Goodberry removes the sensation of thirst and hunger but does not remove the need to eat and drink.

- Barkskin gives you +1 AC and a damage reduction of 3 against B/P/S

- Witchbolt grapples the target

- Lesser restoration only cure natural diseases and poisons.

- Remove Curse remove specific things like: hex, bane, bestow curse and any enchantment or necromancy spell affecting a wiling target, and can break cursed attunement of non-artifact items.

- Revivify restores 1d4 + Con Vitality points. (we use the UA alternate rule).

- Enervation causes 1 level of exhaution.

- Stoneskin gives an AC of 17 and 4d10 THP (no component consumed). The AC last until the THP are gone.

- Finger of Death, Circle of Death requires a Con save or fall to 0 HP, on a successful save, take the damage as written in the spell.

- Albi-dalzim Horrid wilting requires automatically kills living creatures of 30 hp or less.

- Storm of Vengeance: All effects happens simultaneously.

- Stinking Cloud (now level 2) and Cloudkill do not move unless asked my the caster. Cloudkill deals acid damage and the poisoned condition.

 

[James Gasik]

I'm not sure how much of an issue that really is in practice, however, I've considered changing the spell in one if two ways (though I'm liking the change already mentioned in this thread):

1. If the target moves out of range, you can move on your next turn to bring them back in range
2. Or, for the duration, you can use your action to change the target of the secondary damage to another target within range of the spell, requiring another attack roll.

My main issue with the spell is the low secondary damage, I think that should increase as well to make the spell worthwhile. If you're 5th level and you cast it with a 3rd level slot, you deal 3d12 initial damage and secondary is still 1d12. At that point, it is more or less just as good as casting two cantrips on each of those turns.

I've only seen the spell cast once- a friend of mine insisted it was a fantastic spell, since it could theoretically do a lot of damage. I had my doubts, based on how short combats tended to be, and the necessity to stay in range. It actually happened that he rolled badly for the initial damage, and the enemy did, in fact, move away, although it was still dead before my friend's next turn.

This is pretty much the perfect storm of what can go wrong with spell, I wouldn't expect things to go this way in most combats, but the fact that it can happen, has kept me from using it, and my friend from ever touching it again.

There are, however, good opportunities to hit someone with it who really can't go anywhere, but I'm not really sure how many rounds you can expect it to deal it's damage, and how may rounds it would need to "tic" to be worth it's spell slot over other spells.

 

[overgeeked]

I'm curious what, if any, spells you house rule?

I don't bother house ruling spells, I just ban them. If something comes up in play that would break the game, I let it happen. But then the spell is banned after that. I really enjoy player shenanigans and weird uses of magic items and spells and exploring the environment. I run sandboxes mostly so when I say "break the game" I don't mean "break the railroad the players are on" or "ruin my story". I mean like logical glitch that would stop the game from producing the effect I'm going for. So in exploration focused games spells like light, leomund's tiny hut, and the food & water creation spells are banned. If the game's supposed to be about resource management and tracking food and torches, anything that breaks that has to go.

 

[Li Shenron]

I’m not even really sure how I’d “fix” it, but I hate the play experience of Guidance. It’s either a constant game of “DM may I” or a shouting match of “Guidance!” After ever check is called for, and I hate it.

I was just about posting that Guidance is the only spell in 5e which I exert some sort of regular control over, though I wouldn't call it house ruled.

First of all, the spell applies to ability checks, and ability checks only exist when the DM grants you one of them ("rule zero"). The way I typically run the game, you don't actually roll ability checks all the time for everything. Instead, the principle for me is that you roll ability checks when I, as a DM, am undecided whether you should succeed or not. That means I am not going to ask you for a damn dice roll every single tree you try to climb or every single door you try to bash. In many cases, I just look at how agile you are or how strong you are, and decide you succeed outright or that you just can't succeed at all unless you add an extra idea about how to do it. That's because my DMing style gives more focus to players' skills than the usual roll-playing. This is not really about house ruling the spell itself.

Another couple of things that make Guidance less terrible in our games, is that a lot of ability checks are reactive and/or group checks*. In theory you could cast the cantrip in advance to cover someone against reactive checks, in practice you won't be doing this unless you expect it will be needed in the next minute. Group checks come up quite often in our games, and Guidance can help you with one of the checks in the group, but not more than one, because of the simultaneity of action.

Finally, I also more directly mitigate the Guidance spell by generally not allowing it to work on any check that represents something being done over the course of a time longer than the spell duration (one minute), or not representing an actual action but rather the results of something done in the past. Typically it means it won't work on Knowledge checks that represent what you happened to have learned previously. I guess you could call this one a house rule, but it's debatable.

*I don't allow shenanigans like "I keep casting Guidance all day long every 59 seconds" or metagaming like "we sneak past the guard one by one specifically to avoid a group check". If you try shenanigans in my games, I'll use shenanigans against your PC, and soon we won't be playing together anymore.

 

[AnotherGuy]

• Lightning Bolt bounces off of unyielding barriers up to the spell’s maximum range. It can be angled.

This may have already been asked, apologies if it has:
1. Can the bolt rebound off the wall and strike the opponent again from the back thus dealing damage again?
2. Is the bolt as potent for the entire range of the spell?
3. If yes to (1), does the opponent gain a saving throw for the rebound hit?

 

[Bitbrain]

Heat metal doesn’t impose disadvantage if the target succeeds on the saving throw.

Enervation is a 3rd level spell, not a 5th.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

- Stoneskin gives an AC of 17 and 4d10 THP (no component consumed). The AC last until the THP are gone.

I love this one

but for my own:
Identify can work like a psychometry and see past events in a location

 

[Umbran]

Charm Person and Charm Monster - the "Charmed" condition holds, but the creature is not automatically considered "friendly" to the caster.

 

[Quickleaf]

This may have already been asked, apologies if it has:
1. Can the bolt rebound off the wall and strike the opponent again from the back thus dealing damage again?
2. Is the bolt as potent for the entire range of the spell?
3. If yes to (1), does the opponent gain a saving throw for the rebound hit?

1. No
2. Yes

 

[Flamestrike]

No "Can I spot the enemy in the alley" followed by "Guidance!". If the person asks for guidance before they look that's fine.

Id ask the player how their cleric knew the dude looking down the alley was about to make a success/ fail skill check (in game).

They wouldnt.

It's only used for obvious clutch skill checks where it can be explained (the Rogue needs to disarm a trap just found, or a Strength check to move a boulder etc.