D&D 5E (2014) What House / 3rd Party / Optional Rule changed your game the most?

[Baron Opal II]

Initiative based off a declared action. It's revolutionized our battles through (now) two groups over a 5-year-and-counting span.

So some actions are inherently faster than others, which governs your place in initiative?

 

[JiffyPopTart]

Each character in my game can be built with multiclassing or feats, but not both.

It has brought the power level of the characters just enough that my monster palette works more in line with how I would expect it to. Far fewer curb stomps of what should be interesting battles.

 

[Shiroiken]

Incapacitated instead of unconscious at 0 hp.

Interesting. Do you only go down at death? Do hits still cause 2 failed death saves?

 

[dave2008]

bloodied hit points and Armor with DR
30 second turn resolution in combat
no ASI - feats only
death at 0

 

[jgsugden]

1.) Pants.

2.) My magic system. Arcane, Divine and Nature Magic are conveyed via the 'Spellweave'. The Nature spells draw magic from the sources of the Weave (the Positive and Negative Energy Planes), the Divine magic is pushed through the weave to spellcasters by the Divine, and the Arcane magic is essentially stolen from the Spellweave. Psionic magic originates from within a creature. Supernatural magic (ghosts, lycanthropic transformations, dragon flight, dragon breath, etc... is drawn from the universe, but not from the Spellweave. I built this into my system in the 1980s and have carried it through each edition. It is really powerful, evocative and inspiring. It is so woven into my setting and how magic works that I consider it the central pillar of my campaign setting.

Bonus.) In AD&D - We used a segmented combat system that broke down actions into half seconds rather than 6 seconds (or 1 minute in AD&D). It was fiddly and took forever as everyone was moving their figures every half second of combat, but it taught me a lot about balance, game design, etc...

 

[LordEntrails]

Inspiration like @Blue does, both as re-rll and it is given to one player by player vote each session.

But, that's not our biggest impact. Ours is re-roll initiative each round. Adds a huge amount of chaos and uncertainty to our combats.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Initiative based off a declared action. It's revolutionized our battles through (now) two groups over a 5-year-and-counting span.

Could you provide some details? This sounds like what one of my friends is trying to create and I would love to hear about your rule.

 

[RoughCoronet0]

1.) Magical powers are separated into Primal, Divine, Arcane, and Psionic. All creatures, non-martial classes/subclasses, magical races, magic items, and anything else that is applicable is tied to one of these power sources. Various creatures have the ability to sense those with sources of specific power types (for example primal spirit animals can sense practitioners of primal magic or magic items powered by primal energy within a distant depending on the spirit). This is also important when encountering suppression, enhanced, or wild zones that cause magic of certain types to behave differently.

2.) Various creatures gain new abilities, actions, and stats when they reach bloodied. Not all creatures of could but those meant to be greater challenges, changing up the dynamic of combat. A spellcaster might gain a reaction to summon minions at half health, or a creature suddenly goes into a frenzy, gaining the benefits of a barbarian’s rage, or a creature might recharge a power and be able to use it again as a reaction to becoming bloodied.

 

[Osgood]

I’ve used the Slow Natural Healing option from the DMG for years now… you regain no hit points from resting, you always spend hit dice. A long rest recovers hit dice. It works well.
For my next campaign I’m toying around with throwing in a cap on how many hit dice you regain based on whether you are at an inn vs roughing it.

 

[Shardstone]

Initiative based off a declared action. It's revolutionized our battles through (now) two groups over a 5-year-and-counting span.

Can I get more detail on this?