D&D 5E What are your 5e houserules

[DND_Reborn]

Something a friend of mine pointed out was weapons juggling. Right now, to draw and change weapons quickly is a bit of a mess. You get one free "handle an object" each turn, but if you're a dual wielder or a sword + shield guy, or a someone who has to juggle a weapon, shield, and a focus, the RAW rules are obnoxious any time you don't start the combat with things readied in both hands, or need to change them out.

Switch hitters and anyone thinking to use thrown weapons has to deal with this issue as well. I'm not sure what the answer is, but it's being added to potential house rules for a patch.

Well, drawing and changing weapons IS a mess. I mean, have you tried it? It isn't as easy as you might think and is meant to encourage PCs to be ready if a scene looks potentially dangerous.

Personally, I have never had too much issue with it, with the greatest exception being thrown weapons, which IMO drawing it should be part of the attack, just as drawing an arrow from a quiver is.

Now, you can drop an item without any cost at all. So, drop your current weapon, free interaction to draw a new one, and attack.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Players may choose to multiclass OR take feats, but not both.

Can you elaborate on this a bit since I can see different ways this might work?

 

[Swarmkeeper]

Well, drawing and changing weapons IS a mess. I mean, have you tried it? It isn't as easy as you might think and is meant to encourage PCs to be ready if a scene looks potentially dangerous.

Personally, I have never had too much issue with it, with the greatest exception being thrown weapons, which IMO drawing it should be part of the attack, just as drawing an arrow from a quiver is.

Thrown Weapon fighting style from Tasha's and Dual Wielder Feat get around the "can only draw one weapon freely on your turn" thing.

Now, you can drop an item without any cost at all. So, drop your current weapon, free interaction to draw a new one, and attack.

I like this mechanic. Gets players away from the "endless inventory" video game mindset.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Thrown Weapon fighting style from Tasha's and Dual Wielder Feat get around the "can only draw one weapon freely on your turn" thing.

Precisely why I haven't had too much issue with it...

We have our own "Long Thrower" feat which allows it as well.

I like this mechanic. Gets players away from the "endless inventory" video game mindset.

I don't know it is a mechanic, per se, and frankly don't know if I read it in the PHB or DMG or just use it as a rule because it makes sense.

But yeah, our PCs are dropping weapons when they don't have the time to exchange them. Fortunately, if you are in the same location, you can drop your new weapon (no action at all) and pick up your original (interaction for free) if you need to switch back.

 

[James Gasik]

One of the places it gets weird is with Clerics. The Cleric is pretty much intended to use a shield (they don't have to, of course, but...) since they need to be in melee range to use their better heals. So you have a Cleric with a weapon and a shield. Thankfully, the Cleric is allowed to use have his holy symbol attached to his shield, so that satisfies material components, but he still needs a free hand to cast spells due to any somatic components.

This means in order to cast a spell like spiritual weapon, he has to stow his weapon, leaving him unarmed unless he uses his action to ready it once more. Clerics don't have good attack cantrips, so if he wants to melee and use spiritual weapon, he has to attack first, then stow his weapon in melee, then cast his spell.

If he does it the other way, he has nothing to work with but an unarmed strike. This is one of those strangely fiddly rules like the limits on casting bonus action spells to begin with, that always seems to trip players up.

 

[DND_Reborn]

This means in order to cast a spell like spiritual weapon, he has to stow his weapon, leaving him unarmed unless he uses his action to ready it once more. Clerics don't have good attack cantrips, so if he wants to melee and use spiritual weapon, he has to attack first, then stow his weapon in melee, then cast his spell.

If he does it the other way, he has nothing to work with but an unarmed strike. This is one of those strangely fiddly rules like the limits on casting bonus action spells to begin with, that always seems to trip players up.

This really isn't an issue IME, but YMMV of couse!

Cleric has a weapon and shield. Needs to cast a spell with a somatic component, so stows his weapon.

Next round, cleric needs to make a weapon attack, so draws his weapon.

There are only a handful of cleric spells which are bonus action and have somatic components: Sanctuary, Shield of Faith, Spiritual Weapon, and Holy Weapon.

Now, some of these will want to be cast while the cleric has a weapon drawn, but even then if the weapon is out, the cleric could attack, stow weapon, and cast these as bonus actions; then drawing his weapon again the next round.

Frankly, IMO this is just a hassle anyway and would look a bit silly. We rule the cleric can hold their weapon in their shield hand (assuming the shield is strapped to their wrists or has a hanging strap) while casting such spells.

 

[Rabulias]

Correct. We have found rolling critical "damage" is much more useful than rolling a natural 20. One of my players is now running a more RAW games, but this is one of the rules he adopted for his game as well. Two new players have joined since then, and frankly they both love this rule. IME it is so much better than just rolling a 20...

Thanks for sharing! I have only skimmed through at this point, so I may have missed something.
Doesn't the critical hit being determined by the damage die mean d4 weapons like daggers and clubs will get a critical hit more often (25% of hits) than a d8 battleaxe (12.5% of hits)? And both will crit more often than a d10 greatsword (10% of hits)?

Why do you have "cleave" as a damage type distinct from slashing?

I like this mechanic. Gets players away from the "endless inventory" video game mindset.

As I understand it, this is pretty close to 5e RAW. The only "new" element is dropping your weapon having no action or movement cost specified by the rules as far as I know, but is a reasonable inference since you can drop yourself to the ground for free.

 

[Weiley31]

Off the top of my head so far:
-Rolling Attributes:
Rolling stats straight down. Instead of doing 4D6, it's 4D7. Ones and twos are rerolled. The Seventh roll for a stat is considered a "wild card" type thing. So, if you didn't like a number that you rolled for your stats, you can replace ONLY one of them with the seventh wild card rolled stat. Apply Tasha's +2/+1 afterwords. (My DM does this and was the method we used when I played DND 5E for the very first time ever about two years ago.)

-Backgrounds:
Think it's stupid that a Background can make you "double up" on a Skill making it a waste and don't feel like, for whatever the reason, to replace the skill with something else? Well, if you double up on a skill due to background/class/whatever, you can gain Expertise in the skill if you want. I don't think it's broken if say like, an Elven Fighter chooses Perception as a class skill while already being proficient in Perception and gaining Expertise by doing that. Bards/Rogues can do it and it doesn't break the game into oblivion and back. You'll still get murdered by Demogorgon's force damage attacks, regardless, if some random fighter smuck has Expertise in one skill. (Fun Fact: Everyday Heroes does the same exact thing where doubling up on a skill gives you Expertise in it.)

-Animal Companions:
Animal Companions scale using the Revised Ranger's Companion's Bond feature. This allows Animal Companions/their owners(the PC) to grow in power together and allows the Animal Companion to bump up their Attributes as well whenever the PC gains that option to do so. Feats may only be granted to an Animal Companion via certain tasks/goals/special circumstances/DM fiat/Amazing Achievements. And even then only one Feat would probably be given and that's it. Animal Companions, when gaining the two skills of their choice due to Companion's Bond, may also choose to "double up" on a skill to gain Expertise in a skill if they choose too. To make Barding not completely useless in a situation like that, if the PC's prof score is better than the Barding's AC, I just have Barding count as a +1/+2/ to AC ala shields. (granted your paying more for your pupper/critter to "use a "refluffed shield" but I don't have the time to make a big fuss over a proper work around.)

Sub Animal Compannion Rule: Tasha's *Primal Companions are also allowed to use the Revised Ranger's Companion's Bond to scale up in power too. Also, the traits of the "base form" of the Animal Companion still apply to the Primal Companion. So if a PC managed to somehow gain the trust of a Beast of The Land Primal Companion that was a Wolf: that Primal Companion will ALSO have Pack Tactics and Keen Hearing/Smell along with the Primal Bond and Charge of the Beast of the Land stat block. Sounds crazy, but Primal Companions are seen more as a "end game" type deal or something stronger, Animal Companion wise, compared to say, a random stray mutt that the Bard found at a shelter/pound. In terms of power/strength tiers for Animal Companions it would be: Random Animal(or non pc companion)---->PC Animal Companion----->Primal Companion.

-Rolling for HP on Level-Ups:
Only gaining one HP every time you level up sucks. So, if you roll your HP and roll a 1 or below your class's average HP suggestion/recommendation, according to the PHB, you can choose to reroll. Originally, I thought of allowing unlimited HP rerolls, but I think what I'll do is, you can reroll your HP result, if your unhappy with it upon leveling up, up to your current CON modifier. So, if your CON is a +5, you get five free rerolls if you choose not to go with the average/unhappy with what you got. If your CON is +2, well you only have 2 rerolls.

That's all for now.

 

[Weiley31]

Okay continuing on now that the Turkey is done cooking.

-Character Races during PC creation
Races, if not starting with a Feat via DM fiat, Supernatural Gifts, whatever all start off with a Racial Feat. Races that share/linked by an ancestry, like Elves/Goblinoids, can take a Racial Feat that can apply to them and each other. (So, for example, Goblinoids can, if they want, choose any of the Racial Feats that can apply to Elves/Half Elves because of the fact that they are related by their key link of the Feywild. Or how Giants/Trolls/whatever PCs would be able to pick from any of the Dwarven Racial Feats. (I'll admit that this is more due to the fact of the whole "small vs large" aspect and the fact that in Disciples II for the PC, the Dwarven army could field Giants.) So, this also means that Firbolgs could take Dwarven Racial Feats because of the fact that they are "giants" pretty much. The Satyr would only be able to pick from the Elven feats. Due to the small list of Racial Feats, alternatives can be sub/made. So I'd allow Humblewood feats/backgrounds to be applied to Aaracroka while Tabaxi Characters can use the rules for picking a unique ability as per Animal Adventures/Secrets of Gullet Cove.) Lizard folk could choose any of the Dragonborne racial feats or "Gift of Metallic/Chromatic/Gem Dragon" as a racial feat since Lizardfolk originally could speak Draconic. Same with Kobold/Yuan-Ti. Shadar-Kai can choose from any Human/Elven/Half Elf Racial Feat. Half-Orcs/Orcs(Ogres) can choose any Orc/Half-Orc Racial Feat. Gnolls can take Tiefling Racial Feats. Etc, etc etc.

 

[Musing Mage]

Ouch! That would make Con a pretty useless stat compared to the others, no?

Maybe consider making the CON mod + 1 the minimum amount they get when they roll?

No it's still a consideration. Con saves come up a lot, as two players have learned. Casters especially still need it for conentration checks, and those 1st level hit points are still all important. So far this particular rule is working with expected parameters. The biggest benefit that players have appreciated, is that monsters are also diminished in HP by the rule, which removes the excessive bloat and makes combat faster and deadlier, more akin to old-school. (which is the aim)