D&D 5E What House / 3rd Party / Optional Rule changed your game the most?

[BookTenTiger]

I have a lot of little house rules in the 5e Game (drinking a potion is a bonus action, flanking increases the chance to Crit by 1, etc.), but the house rule that changed my game the most was at request of the players. They really enjoyed fighting enemies with vulnerabilities and resistances, so I wound up making a bunch of templates I could apply to every enemy to give them damage immunities, vulnerabilities, and resistances! This house rule really worked for this group because they enjoy the puzzle aspect of combat, figuring out which enemies are vulnerable to which spells, getting surprised by resistances and immunities, and making ability checks to learn about enemy weaknesses. It transformed every combat in exciting ways.

What House Rule, 3rd Party Rule, or Optional Rule had the biggest impact on your game?

 

[Bitbrain]

1). All weapons are based on strength except those with the finesse weapon property.

2). Making an ability/skill check to escape from being grappled or restrained doesn’t cost you your action.

 

[Greg Benage]

Incapacitated instead of unconscious at 0 hp.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Dropping XP/Milestone leveling.

 

[Blue]

Inspiration can be nominated by other players, and is a reroll instead of advantage so it's never "oh I forgot about it".

 

[payn]

Dropping XP/Milestone leveling.

What do you use in their place?

 

[GMforPowergamers]

precovid we added the Escalation die...

tthe only reason we didn't keep it is we can't code roll20 to do it

 

[payn]

Short rest is 10 min instead of an hour.

 

[Jer]

I'd probably say using "elective order" initiative (where instead of going down the rolled initiative line the current player "throws" the action to another character - PC or GM controlled - at the end of their action) is probably the one with the biggest impact. My players won't play any other way now tbh and we use it in any system where it makes sense to do so.

But a close second is probably changing inspiration to "roll again" instead of having to declare that you're using it before you roll as @Blue said. That also has a big impact.

(I'd say using the more heroic resting and healing options from the DMG, but we've been using those since 4e so it didn't really change how we were playing 5e...)

 

[Seramus]

Everyone gets a Feat at 1st Level, but no Variant Human.

The sheer amount of generalized happiness this seems to create across multiple tables has made it a permanent feature in my own games. And I got the idea right here on the EN Forums! (though I don't remember who to credit)

Short rest is 10 min instead of an hour.

I haven't used this in every game, but this is really beloved by my players when I do use it.