D&D 5E Weirdest House Rules You've Encountered in the Wild

[Lanefan]

"I'm not sure how this is a house rule... can you elaborate?"

As I recall, In first and second edition, a backstab (that's what it was called) only worked when you actually attacked an opponent from behind who was completely unaware of your presence. So doing it multiple times in a combat was very uncommon without magic items or very special circumstance.

Yes, this is about right; though if the target had other people fighting it a Thief (or Assassin) could spend a round withdrawing from combat and attempting to Hide in Shadows, and if successful come in for another backstrike the following round. Thus, best case scenario would be one backstrike per two rounds.

Give your Thief a device of invisibility and the backstrike-attempt-per-two-rounds was almost guaranteed, unless the Thief was the foe's only opponent. Cast Improved Invisibility - the one that doesn't last long but stays in place even if you attack etc. - on your Thief and the opponent was toast.

 

[glass]

"I'm not sure how this is a house rule... can you elaborate?"

As I recall, In first and second edition, a backstab (that's what it was called) only worked when you actually attacked an opponent from behind who was completely unaware of your presence. So doing it multiple times in a combat was very uncommon without magic items or very special circumstance.

That is true for a Thief using Backstab, but @commandercrud said a Rogue using Sneak Attack and they are considerably less restricted in every edition in which they exist.

Anyway, on the topic of the thread, I have a friend who houseruled that all prepared casters in PF1 did not have to prepare spells and instead could cast any spell they knew (wizards) or on their list (druids and clerics) just like a sorcerer. I never actually played under that rule (since I have only played PFS with the guy), but I can only assume they do not have a lot of actual sorcerers....

_
glass.

 

[Lanefan]

Anyway, on the topic of the thread, I have a friend who houseruled that all prepared casters in PF1 did not have to prepare spells and instead could cast any spell they knew (wizards) or on their list (druids and clerics) just like a sorcerer.

That's exactly what I've done in my 1e-variant game: you've got x-slots per level and if the spell's on your list and you've got a slot left of that level, cast away (there's no up-casting etc., a spell can only ever be cast at its own level). Means I actually get to see some different spells get cast now and then, other than the usual few; never mind that over the years as a player I've come to absolutely loathe spell pre-memorization and thus don't want to inflict it on my players.

 

[commandercrud]

I'm not sure how weird it is, but restricting wizards to spells they find in-game rather than full automatic access to anything in the rulebooks is one I've seen used and often use myself.

 

[jmartkdr2]

I'm not sure how weird it is, but restricting wizards to spells they find in-game rather than full automatic access to anything in the rulebooks is one I've seen used and often use myself.

Note: this only works if they actually find spells in-game.

 

[commandercrud]

Note: this only works if they actually find spells in-game.

Obviously.

 

[Sir Brennen]

I'm not sure how weird it is, but restricting wizards to spells they find in-game rather than full automatic access to anything in the rulebooks is one I've seen used and often use myself.

Pretty much how 1e worked

 

[Sir Brennen]

And for some reason all new characters got to roll for a random magic item (some high-level stuff, too) and a mutant ability. Yep, a mutant ability.

Maybe by "mutant" they meant "psionic", because DMs using those rules in 1E could let players roll to see if their PCs had psionics. It was like a 2 or 3 percent chance you did, but a chance.

Had one DM found of using psionic monsters who would say "Do you get to roll for psionics? In my game, you have to roll for psionics."

 

[jmartkdr2]

Obviously.

I've seen dm's who did not realize this. And wondered why no one wanted to play a wizard.

 

[monsmord]

Maybe by "mutant" they meant "psionic", because DMs using those rules in 1E could let players roll to see if their PCs had psionics. It was like a 2 or 3 percent chance you did, but a chance.

Had one DM found of using psionic monsters who would say "Do you get to roll for psionics? In my game, you have to roll for psionics."

In this case he really meant "mutant," as he was an uber-fan of X-Men. "Mutant abilities" he borrowed from comics and made up himself. Stuff like "You have 1 million hit points, but can never heal by any means," or "You have retractable claws" or "You can fly" and such.

But now that you mention it, I recall rolling for psionics as well, and the chant the DM did when a player got some. It didn't occur to me here because it was RAW.