D&D 5E What Houserules Do You Use?

[CrimsonCarcharodon]

What kind of houserules have you all been using for 5E? One of my favorite parts of D&D is houseruling and customizing the game for my particular group or campaign.

I tend to run Eberron, so I've houseruled that everyone gets a feat at first level, so characters can have a dragonmark from the beginning. I'm also pondering adding in 4E-style action points that can be spent for a second action, once per long rest.

I also use a ton of DM's Guild content for my game: warforged, a revision of the artificer, stuff like that.

 

[Xaelvaen]

1) I created a talent system for my 5E game. Each level, a player can choose a talent from a list of a couple hundred that I made which let's them customize their character outside of being bound by race, class, and ASI choices. One example is 'Catch Your Breath' which allows a character to spend an Action in combat and spend Hit Dice up to one-half their maximum, but they must decide how many to roll ahead of time.

2) I ignore the fact that ranged weapons cannot knock a creature out when they would otherwise strike the deathblow. (More on this topic, I make players declare before the attack they will be attempting to knock a creature unconscious instead of kill it).

3) I stack levels of classes that have the extra attack feature, up to the lowest variant of extra attack between their classes. In example, fighter stacks with Barbarian/Ranger/Paladin for determining the level 5 extra attack feature, but you must be a full-fledged level 11 Fighter to get the third attack.

4) I make ASI character level based instead of class level based. My players really love this one, and 5E is so ridiculously easy to balance monsters to player capacity, who cares right?

5) Proficiency Dice instead of a flat bonus. (More on this one, I also allow for an 'Expert Attack' or 'Expert Defense.' The player can opt out of rolling their proficiency dice on attack rolls to add it to damage instead, or to add one-half of their proficiency result to AC for 1 round).

6) I require each character to make up a custom background (including associated skills, tools/languages, feature, and story). My group loves this of course, but I could definitely see how others might find it tedious or what have you.

That about wraps up all the biggies I can think of immediately - at least my favorite and consistent ones.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

No Hit Dice. Natural healing is 1 point per level at the end of a long rest.

Second Wind provides temporary HP that last until the next short rest.

Changing your weapon counts as a single item interaction, even if you're sheathing or drawing two weapons.

Declare smite and sneak attack ahead of time, but they aren't wasted if the attack misses.

 

[aco175]

I allow an extra magic item attunement slot at levels 8, 12 ,and 16. It is ok since I control the flow of magic items.

HP per level is roll or half class. It skews the PCs up a bit, but is seems fine.

Monsters and NPCs get powers like in 4e instead of like the other classes. An NPC with the close burst 1 attack or a monster with a recharge blast.

 

[pukunui]

For my house rules (and those of many other posters), see here: A Collection of Minor House Rules

 

[Xaelvaen]

Declare smite and sneak attack ahead of time, but they aren't wasted if the attack misses.

I've bandied about with this one in theory, but never tried implementing it - how's it working out for you, Saelorn? Paladin waiting for a crit for smite is a bit explosive in the damage department.

 

[Rhenny]

In my main campaign, strangely, almost none:

1) I just let players spend inspiration after the fact to get another try at the d20 roll they don't have to declare it before they make their roll. Players hate when they roll with advantage and both die rolls are good. They feel like they wasted their inspiration.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I've bandied about with this one in theory, but never tried implementing it - how's it working out for you, Saelorn? Paladin waiting for a crit for smite is a bit explosive in the damage department.

It's fine. The paladin smites when they want to, instead of when they get a crit, so that part of it runs faster at the table. Big monsters still go down plenty quickly when the paladin decides to smite.

 

[hejtmane]

I have critical fail fun on 1's

I have recently taken away twf bonus action and made it attack with the off hand once per turn

I use the Popcorn initiative method I done away with the old system were dex is the only thing that matters; when deciding between the monster or player straight d20 no bonuses

Custom Magic items

 

[Oofta]

I have a few.

Ability Modifying Items: anything that adds to an ability (belts of giant strength, headband of intellect) add to your existing ability score instead of replacing it. It never made sense to me that a 2 year old (or a dex based character that has an 8 strength) could pick up a belt and be stronger than anyone else. To compensate, items that increase ability to a maximum of 20 or less no longer require attunement.

Bows: you can purchase bows that use strength instead of dexterity for attack and damage. If you aren't strong enough to pull it, you're at disadvantage to hit (you do still get your strength mod).

Dead is dead: because I base my world on norse mythology where even the gods can die, ressurection is not as simple as casting a spell and may not be possible after a period of time. Revivify still works as normal because the soul hasn't had a chance to go to it's final resting place.

Heat Metal: cast on armor doesn't cause disadvantage, although it does do and extra die of damage to compensate. There are simply too many instances where I want my BBEG to be a heavy armor type and it was too easy to nerf the BBEG while the caster runs away since there is no save.

Warlock multiclassing: you can't serve two masters, so no warlock/cleric combos.