D&D 5E What are your 5e houserules

[cbwjm]

Nice, I always like seeing other's houserules as they help me come up with ideas. Just responding to some highlights below.

9) Attacking while jumping/falling from height: Make an acrobatics check and an attack roll, both against the target's AC.
If both hit, the target takes damage from the attack, and half the falling damage.
If the acrobatics check hits but the attack roll doesn't, they split falling damage but the attack misses.
If the acrobatics check misses but the attack roll hits, the attacker takes the falling damage but manages to stab(slash/bludgeon) his opponent right before hitting the ground.

11) Eldritch Knights may change the Evocation school out for one other school of their choice. (Notable picks: Necromancy for debuffs, Illusion for miss chances, Transmutation for self-buffs)

No9 is actually a cool way of resolving that. I haven't had this come up in my games bit I like the way you resolved it.

I think no11 is a good rule, I think I've seen it before but what I like about it is that it gives the player some more customisation and it can be used to create different orders of eldritch knights.

• Altered: Stoneskin requires no concentration.
• Altered: Tiny Hut creates a weather-resistant bubble that creatures and items can pass, not a force field.
• Altered: Goodberry requires real berries as a component and transmutes up to 8 berries. Eating one provides the equivalent of 1 pound of food for nourishment.

Tiny hut hasn't been used yet in my games, but I have also considered changing the spell in the same way. The changes to stoneskin and goodberry are probably needed. I'm also considering making the component for force cage be consumed. 1500gp of ruby dust (I think that's the amount) is nothing to sneeze at, even at high level.

Wild magic sorcerers get to roll on the Wild Magic Surge table if the number they roll on the d20 is equal to or less than the level of the spell slot they used to cast the spell.

Nice change for wild magic. I haven't had one, but if someone wanted to play one, I think I'd say that they roll for a surge for every spell cast of level 1+ rather than me as DM deciding when to roll. I did create a 5e version of Nahal's reckless dweomer that scaled in a similar way.

 

[Stormonu]

1) Exploding d20 rolls; if you roll a nat 20, roll again for additional success (which can chain if another nat 20 comes up); on nat 1 roll again; if you fail again, suffer a critical fumble. Also removed crit hit is x2 damage with this.

2) Invoking your Flaw and choosing to automatically fail in a significant matter give you an Inspiration point. An Inspiration point can be used for an automatic success (as if a 20 had been rolled), or to make a story modification in your favor, as long as it is in line with your Ideal.

3) Ditched Eldritch Knight for a custom F/M-U class called Battlemage

4) Feats Great Weapon Master and Sharpshooter; lose PB to hit to add PBx2 to damage.

5) No multiclassing allowed.

I have a whole document of additions and changes I'd like to make to the game, but they haven't been tested yet.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Allegiance (religion, country, race, tribe, brotherhood, guild..) added to aligment. Spells and powers can hurt enemies with the same aligment but different allegiance, for example drow cleric vs orc shaman.

Chaotic means attuned with Nature or Primal Forces.

Added three abilities scores: Accuracy (Perception and astuteness), Spirit (Courage and Fate/Karma/Luck/Divine Grace) and Technique(martial maneuvers, martial arts, dance, playing music, crafting, disarming traps, shooting, actions where speed is not necessary).

 

[pukunui]

An Inspiration point can be used for an automatic success (as if a 20 had been rolled), or to make a story modification in your favor, as long as it is in line with your Ideal.

For my Odyssey of the Dragonlords campaign, I briefly changed inspiration to be an automatic success on a d20 roll, but the players only ever seemed to use it in ways that I found annoying and/or cheapened the action, so I ended up dropping it.

 

[James Gasik]

I've given this some thought, but I'm not ready to set any of these in stone until I have a new group and I can pol their thoughts. What I've considered, however, is:

1) 1 (or 2) + proficiency bonus for attunement slots.
2) starting at level 3.
7) bonus action required to use potions.

Some optional idea I'm toying with:

3) removing the need for attunement from some items, or having attunement provide a small additional benefit just for having "mastered" a powerful item (an example of this is comes from Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, where there's an axe you gain 5 hit points just for being attuned to it).

4) fiddling with short rest mechanics. It's hard to imagine parties being always able to stop and take an hour short rest. But if they can't short rest, some classes become a lot worse. On the other hand, if they can short rest often, then classes balanced around long resting become a lot worse. I may adopt what seems to be WotC's new direction going forward, having recharge be based on proficiency and not actual resting.

5) doing something about the Sorcerer. Not sure what, but the Wizard seems largely superior in many respects.

6) looking into creating boons, especially for non-casters, that allow them to do extraordinary things.

8) removing variant humans and giving all players a Feat at start.

9) finding a patch for drawing/stowing hand-held items for characters who need to do this multiple times in a turn.

 

[delericho]

I'm having a hard time keeping track of the house rules I'm actually using versus those I've considered but discarded.

1. All characters must use fixed hit points per level.
2. Feats are allowed. Multiclassing is not.
3. Ignore Alignment, Traits, Ideal, Bond, Flaw, and Inspiration. Instead each character has a token for a single reroll per level (on a use it or lose it basis!). This can be used even after success/failure has been determined, but not after we've moved on.
4. Ignore encumbrance.
5. Don't track mundane ammunition. Special ammunition must be tracked - and is always expended once used.
6. XP is awarded differently:

• Each encounter completed gives a fixed award (based on PC level), regardless of difficulty. Partial success gives a half award.
• Each quest completed likewise gives a fixed award.
• For each campaign I run I define a "side dish" (to go with the Orc&Pie), which will have some task associated with it (solve a mystery, find a treasure, etc). Interacting with that "side dish" gives a one-quarter award.
• Completely expending any consumable magic item (except potions of healing) gives a one-quarter award.

I think that's it.

 

[Seramus]

I try different things during different games, but the two that are now in every game are:

Feat at 1st Level (But no Variant Human) - What it says on the tin. Everyone gets a free feat at 1st level. Leads to some fairly exotic racial choices, as opposed to half the party being variant humans, but that's fine with me. The important thing is the sheer joy on their faces.

Bonus Action Potions - Blatantly stolen from these forums. If you drink your own potion, it's a bonus action. Giving other people your potion is still a standard action. I enjoy handing out fun consumables.

 

[James Gasik]

I try different things during different games, but the two that are now in every game are:

Feat at 1st Level (But no Variant Human) - What it says on the tin. Everyone gets a free feat at 1st level. Leads to some fairly exotic racial choices, as opposed to half the party being variant humans, but that's fine with me. The important thing is the sheer joy on their faces.

Bonus Action Potions - Blatantly stolen from these forums. If you drink your own potion, it's a bonus action. Giving other people your potion is still a standard action. I enjoy handing out fun consumables.

Stealing that one about potions. Feats at 1st level could be fun, and yeah, let's get rid of Vumans.

 

[delericho]

Bonus Action Potions - Blatantly stolen from these forums. If you drink your own potion, it's a bonus action. Giving other people your potion is still a standard action. I enjoy handing out fun consumables.

Ah, yes, I forgot that one - we use it too.

 

[pukunui]

Re: potions - I don't house rule the drinking of a potion but I think I sort of unofficially house rule the retrieval of a stowed potion. IIRC both are supposed to require an action, but I tend to just treat the latter as no action. So you can grab a potion from wherever it is on your person (even if it's in your bag of holding) and drink it all as a single action.