Level Up (A5E) What are your common house rules?

[Deadmanshand]

House rules? Oh my! Far too many to list here. I have two full documents of house rules or home brew if you prefer. One is on character generation and general gameplay, the other is on combat.

Some of the major ones:

• I allow six methods of generating stats. These are all from earlier editions of D&D/AD&D.
• I have a list of Flaws inspired by WoD that characters may take to receive up to 3 extra points to use with the Point Buy method.
• I give bonus low level spell slots/points for higher ability scores like in 3.5e
• I still give a +1 to a set ability score based on heritage (ie. +1 Dex for elves, +1 Str for orcs) because I think the heritages should be different and not reskinned humans with dark vision. OK that is an exaggeration, but I still like the heritage bonus. This is in addition to the ability increases from backgrounds.
• Humans don’t get the heritage bonus but instead get to choose a starting feat. They may select from a list I made of the feats few people ever take.
• To learn, prepare, or cast a levelled spell, characters must have an ability for the appropriate casting type equal to at least 9 + the spell level.
• I have tweaked far too many feats to get into. I have made some of the Feats nobody ever takes a little better and have nerfed a few others.
• I have changed how starting funds work. Characters receive set amounts based upon both background and culture rather than class.
• I have dumped the base 10 monetary system in favour of a Romanesque pre-decimal system. Obviously that means I had to reprice everything in the game. I have different coin systems for different economic regions. For example the Kingdom of Karn has the farthing (copper), half penny (copper), penny (copper), groat (bronze), shilling (billon), crown (silver), tri-crown (electrum), sovereign (gold) and royale (platinum).
• I have largely removed gold coins. They exist but are quite rare. The penny is the main coin of trade, with the average labourer earning 3-4d̶ (pence) per day. I also use symbols for the coins rather than cp, sp, gp, etc. A character knows that if a sign says a gallon of ale is 1d̶, that it is 1 penny in Karn, 1 dirham in Freeport or 1 pfennig in Vestfold. Also pc’s and npc’s never use the terms cp, sp, gp. They might say an arcane focus ring costs one crown (£1) or more likely use a slang term like punt, belira or thaler, depending on the region.
• I have massively expanded the number of weapons and have added new weapon properties. Like I have a spreadsheet with 4 pages of weapons.
• I have added historical arrow/arrow head types with different modifiers.
• We had used the crit rule where damage is max of one die plus the roll of the second. It gets a bit out of control when sneak attack or divine smite is factored in however. Now I am testing normal crit rules with additional multipliers with certain weapons similar to 3.5e. For instance gunpowder weapons may add two extra damage dice. Not sure if I will keep this one.
• I have added a few more armours and have realistic armour combinations. For example, hauberk over brigandine or breast plate over maille.
• Lest you think I have made the game too heroic for characters with some of the above rules, I use an expanded system shock table for massive damage and have incorporated a chance of lingering injuries any time a character is reduced to 0 HP. I use injury tables for each damage type.

Edit: I forgot to mention the nerdiest thing. When I repriced all the equipment, I used as many real world medieval prices that I could find, which is a ton to be honest. I noticed a long time ago that D&D inflated prices were built on Gygaxian 1970’s prices of 1gp = $1. D&D has kept most of the prices through editions and A5E inherited the inflation.

 

[Tessarael]

Another one, probably playing it this way by mistake ... In darkness, within Darkvision range typically 60', no disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) vision checks, and skipping the -5 penalty on passive Perception. I am sure this is a mistake by the rules-as-written, but I don't recall our DMs applying this in play, or if they did so, I don't recall them announcing it or commenting on it. Effectively, the only limitation that we're playing is that you cannot see color without a light source.

 

[lichmaster]

Effectively, the only limitation that we're playing is that you cannot see color without a light source.

But that's the entire point of having Darkvision, no? Otherwise if you get the same disadvantages of not having darkvision, then there's really no point having it...

 

[Tessarael]

But that's the entire point of having Darkvision, no? Otherwise if you get the same disadvantages of not having darkvision, then there's really no point having it...

The way we play it is as follows: If you have Darkvision, you can see stuff within that radius. If you don't have Darkvision, you need a light source, else you are effectively blinded. The difference vs. the rules as written is that we are not applying the disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks and - passive Perception in areas of darkness for those with Darkvision, as it is treated as dim light.

 

[lichmaster]

The way we play it is as follows: If you have Darkvision, you can see stuff within that radius. If you don't have Darkvision, you need a light source, else you are effectively blinded. The difference vs. the rules as written is that we are not applying the disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks and - passive Perception in areas of darkness for those with Darkvision, as it is treated as dim light.

Ok, but that's at your table. It seems like you're skipping the dimly lit area (which is ok if you want to simplify).
RAW there are 2x2 cases: light source available/not available, and characters with/without Darkvision.

Light source available:

• Within brightly lit area, everybody sees well, no issues
• Within dimly lit area (typically 2x brightly lit area), characters w/o darkvision have disadv on perception, while characters w darkvision treat it like bright lit area. Nobody has disadvantage on attacks here.
• Beyond that, characters w/o darkvision are effectively blind, while characters w darkvision have disadv on perception (and can't see colors). This is particularly important because beyond the light's dimly lit area attackers gain advantage on (ranged) attacks against creatures w/o darkvision (and can probably not be targeted or are attacked at disadv anyway)!

Light source not available: as above but without step 1 or 2, depending on the general availability of ambient light.

I guess it's probably not used much (surely not at my table), but snuffing out torches or light sources in dark dungeons should be a primary tactic of attackers with darkvision!

Edit: I see what you meant, now! As a HR you're skipping the dimly lit step. I didn't understand what you meant by "mistakes by RAW". Sorry!

 

[noodohs]

Yeah I think every game I've ever played in everyone forgets about dim light. It's basically just bright or dark.

 

[lichmaster]

Yeah I think every game I've ever played in everyone forgets about dim light. It's basically just bright or dark.

Now that I think about it we haven't really used it much either, simply because many heritages get Darkvision and most characters end up having it. I agree that at this point it's mostly a nitpicky detail (although it makes hiding easier).

 

[Deadmanshand]

Darkvision. Everyone’s favourite. Yeah I use the modified 3.5E ruleset below.

There are two categories of darkvision. The first type is low-light vision and the second is ultra-darkvision or just ultra-vision.

Low-light vision: creatures with low-light vision have eyes that are so sensitive to light, that they can see twice as far as normal in and from dim light (ie. a torch provides bright illumination to a radius of 40 feet, rather than 20 feet, for a character with low-light vision, and it provides shadowy illumination to an additional 40 feet, rather than 20 feet). Low-light vision is colour vision. A spell caster with low-light vision can read a scroll as long as even the tiniest candle flame is next to them as a source of light.

Characters with low-light vision can see outdoors on a full moonlit night as well as they can during the day. Most races that are listed as having darkvision that live on the surface have low-light vision, including elves, gnomes and characters that have gained darkvision from a knack or magic item. A common racial trait is having eyes that are slightly larger in proportion to the head compared to a human or halfling. They also have a tapetum in the back of the eye that reflects more light to the photo receptors. Creatures with low-light vision cannot see without some small light source, like in darkness.

Ultra-vision: the extraordinary ability to see with no light source at all, out to a range specified for the creature. Ultra-vision is black-and-white only (colours cannot be discerned). It does not allow characters to see anything that they could not see otherwise—invisible objects are still invisible, and illusions are still visible as what they seem to be. Likewise, ultra-vision subjects a creature to gaze attacks normally. The presence of light does not spoil this darkvision. Creatures who live under ground most often have ultra-vision, including most dwarves, drow, goblins and orcs, as well as, a few extraordinary races such as some plane-touched. The spell darkvision allows for ultra-vision.

 

[Distracted DM]

Darkvision. Everyone’s favourite. Yeah I use the modified 3.5E ruleset below.

There are two categories of darkvision. The first type is low-light vision and the second is ultra-darkvision or just ultra-vision.

Low-light vision: creatures with low-light vision have eyes that are so sensitive to light, that they can see twice as far as normal in and from dim light (ie. a torch provides bright illumination to a radius of 40 feet, rather than 20 feet, for a character with low-light vision, and it provides shadowy illumination to an additional 40 feet, rather than 20 feet). Low-light vision is colour vision. A spell caster with low-light vision can read a scroll as long as even the tiniest candle flame is next to them as a source of light.

Characters with low-light vision can see outdoors on a full moonlit night as well as they can during the day. Most races that are listed as having darkvision that live on the surface have low-light vision, including elves, gnomes and characters that have gained darkvision from a knack or magic item. A common racial trait is having eyes that are slightly larger in proportion to the head compared to a human or halfling. They also have a tapetum in the back of the eye that reflects more light to the photo receptors. Creatures with low-light vision cannot see without some small light source, like in darkness.

Ultra-vision: the extraordinary ability to see with no light source at all, out to a range specified for the creature. Ultra-vision is black-and-white only (colours cannot be discerned). It does not allow characters to see anything that they could not see otherwise—invisible objects are still invisible, and illusions are still visible as what they seem to be. Likewise, ultra-vision subjects a creature to gaze attacks normally. The presence of light does not spoil this darkvision. Creatures who live under ground most often have ultra-vision, including most dwarves, drow, goblins and orcs, as well as, a few extraordinary races such as some plane-touched. The spell darkvision allows for ultra-vision.

Do you give most ultravision creatures some sort of sun-sickness? I considered doing something similar to what you've done here, but another GM's ideas inspired me to add sun-sickness to said creatures. Basically they get some stacking penalty if they spend too long in the open sun.. the GM's idea I saw was a penalty to their stats, but I thought it'd be simpler to make it Exhaustion/Fatigue.

 

[Deadmanshand]

Do you give most ultravision creatures some sort of sun-sickness? I considered doing something similar to what you've done here, but another GM's ideas inspired me to add sun-sickness to said creatures. Basically they get some stacking penalty if they spend too long in the open sun.. the GM's idea I saw was a penalty to their stats, but I thought it'd be simpler to make it Exhaustion/Fatigue.

To clarify, I am using the name ultravision, but not the rules from 1E. I do not impose a sun-sickness penalty. I assume player characters from an underground culture have adapted to the surface.

A penalty for sun-sickness was used as far back as 1E for drow and duergar when they became playable races. I do not believe that “monsters” had this penalty, ie orcs, goblins, etc. I believe the idea of sun-sickness was taken from LotR where Tolkien imposed such on the orcs.