D&D 5E (2014) What are your 5e houserules

[Flamestrike]

I've whittled my HR's down to:

'Rogues can only sneak attack once per round, refreshing at the start of their turn' and
'Short rests are 5 minutes long (or thereabouts), and often handwaved (quick drink, bite to eat, bind wounds, map check, quick breather) - limit of 2 per PC per Long rest.'

 

[Lyxen]

''I ready an attack against any hostile creature I can see. Unless stated otherwise, I do this constantly when not in combat.''

Not specific enough. Also, out of combat, you don't necessarily have on hand what you need to conduct an attack anyway (weapons out, distance to stike, etc.). Finally, see below for the "hostile creature that I can see".

Isnt the assumption in the rules, that basically everyone is readying an action, but the opposed Dexterity ability check at the start of Combat (initiative) determines the sequencing of those actions?

No, it's not the basic assumption. The basic assumption is that "most creatures stay alert for signs of danger all around," which grants them their passive perception to notice hidden threat, it does not mean that they will see them automatically, and it does not mean that they will be ready to react.

 

[James Gasik]

It's funny. Bless used to be a +1. Then the 5e design team said "we're going to do away with lots of little +1 bonuses all over the place, and make a game where attack bonuses scale more slowly, so you can keep fighting low level monsters for longer!".

Same design team: "hey let's change Bless to a +2.5 bonus to attack rolls!"

 

[Lyxen]

Oh one I forgot to mention, which was one of those rules I just assumed was in 5e but was actually a houserule....the ability to delay in combat to a lower initiative.

This is a leftover from 3e that we are so glad was never reinstated. For us, one of the strengths of 5e is that combat is extremely fast and streamlined, but allowing delay is basically reinstating some sort of "free for all" where people are expecting something to happen and will all try to act at the same time when it happens. If this is what you are looking for, the ready action is a much better way to deal with it, one with at least a small cost (compared to delaying which costs nothing) and that corresponds to something specific that you are watching for in combat.

Honestly getting rid of delaying plus a few other streamlining things about not intervening during someone else's turn has at least halved the time needed to run fights.

 

[p_johnston]

Over time I have used (and discarded) a lot of house rules. Many times I've found the mental overhead of having a whole lot of house rules can easily outweigh the benefits. That being said I still like to tinker and see what works.
My current house rules are

1) I have a homebrewed feat system where you get a free feat at 1st level and every even level thereafter along with a +1 ASI. I ended up reworking most of the feats to break up the more powerful ones into multiple feats and then added a bunch of my own to help encourage different playstyles.

2) I use the encumbrance system from Pathfinder 2E.

3) I have a homebrewed injury chart/system for when people fall to 0 hp to make it more terrifying to actually go down.

4) I allow inspiration to be used for a reroll of any dice roll made by a player or the DM.
4A) I also rarely award inspiration. Instead I let the group award 1 inspiration at the end of the session on whatever metric they decide.

5) I reworked the point buy system from the base book for character creation.

 

[James Gasik]

Over time I have used (and discarded) a lot of house rules. Many times I've found the mental overhead of having a whole lot of house rules can easily outweigh the benefits. That being said I still like to tinker and see what works.
My current house rules are

1) I have a homebrewed feat system where you get a free feat at 1st level and every even level thereafter along with a +1 ASI. I ended up reworking most of the feats to break up the more powerful ones into multiple feats and then added a bunch of my own to help encourage different playstyles.

2) I use the encumbrance system from Pathfinder 2E.

3) I have a homebrewed injury chart/system for when people fall to 0 hp to make it more terrifying to actually go down.

4) I allow inspiration to be used for a reroll of any dice roll made by a player or the DM.
4A) I also rarely award inspiration. Instead I let the group award 1 inspiration at the end of the session on whatever metric they decide.

5) I reworked the point buy system from the base book for character creation.

It's true. I used to be one of those guys who made six pages of house rules. Then I realized nobody remembered them, because nobody wants to read about how to play the game, they want to play the game.

And having re-learn how the game works is detrimental to people. I mean, I still sometimes forget what rules 5e changed (especially when it comes to spells) and will reflexively make rulings based on my 3e knowledge...

 

[Stalker0]

It's funny. Bless used to be a +1. Then the 5e design team said "we're going to do away with lots of little +1 bonuses all over the place, and make a game where attack bonuses scale more slowly, so you can keep fighting low level monsters for longer!".

Same design team: "hey let's change Bless to a +2.5 bonus to attack rolls!"

To be fair, bless is now only 3 creatures and uses concentration, so its not quite the fire and forget spell it was in 3.5.

However, the main issue is that:

• As you stated, attack bonuses (and especially save bonuses) are extremely rare. So a bonus to both is really really good.
• Bounded accuracy means that the bonus stays relevant throughout the entire game.

I often found in my 20th level games that the cleric would still cast bless as a spell of choice for their concentration, just because of the power and utility.

 

[Stalker0]

It's true. I used to be one of those guys who made six pages of house rules. Then I realized nobody remembered them, because nobody wants to read about how to play the game, they want to play the game.

I will also echo this. Over time I have streamlined my houserules to focus more on specific classes or feats or spells, and less on general play. I also found that a lot of general houserules get forgotten, where its much easier for the cleric to remember their is a specific tweak to their class.

I also favor houserules that actually remove complexity. For example, my fighting styles houserule is very popular in my group, not just because of the flexibility, but because its fire and forget. A fighter just notes they have +2 damage on their melee weapons...always, they never have to think about specific weapons or if there's a weapon in their other hand for one fight, its just +2 damage always.

I've been considering trying out that same type of things with GWM and SS (which I have seen some people are doing in this thread). While I like my changes, their is an appeal to just add X damage always, and never think about it again. Sometimes people just like being better, and not having to think about when it applies.

 

[RoughCoronet0]

A few house rules I have in place for my campaign coming up.

• Bonus action to use a healing potion on yourself.
• Classes have been divided into Martial/Arcane/Divine/Primal/Psionic power sources. This matters because in my world there are dead magic, overcharged, and wild magic zones that have different effects depending on the power source it affects.
• Adding Harvester’s Tools for gathering creature parts, as crafting is the main way to get magical items in my campaign.
• Tinker’s Tools are called Crafting Tools and can be used to create things like bombs, grenades, mechanical devices and modifications for weapons, armors, and ammunition.
• Everyone uses the Tasha’s ASI rules (except standard human). No Custom Lineage or Variant Human.
• Everyone has the same background, Off-Worlder but can choose their starting skill, tool, and language proficiencies.
• Clerics/Druids/Warlocks gain their powers from the Deity/Primal Spirit/Patron they are connected to and can lose their powers if they stray too far from said being’s goals and morals.
• Failed death saves stay until you finish a long rest.

 

[Jer]

And having re-learn how the game works is detrimental to people. I mean, I still sometimes forget what rules 5e changed (especially when it comes to spells) and will reflexively make rulings based on my 3e knowledge...

This is so true. My kid keeps pointing out to me that I keep miscalculating crits for 5e because I've played so many versions of D&D and D&D-like games that all have subtly different rules on crits.