D&D 5E What's in YOUR house rule document/collection?

[Li Shenron]

Currently empty.

In the past I used some house rules to simplify character creation, both to help beginners and to start the game more quickly. They included simplified races and starting packages.

In the future I might use my multiclassing house rules, but we haven't had any multiclass PC yet.

 

[dregntael]

Here are the house rules I currently use: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uW9X6fi_UFq2F83ZvapUtiMiYvt3XpW-UTMDqaJG0Oo/edit?usp=sharing
I try to keep it to a minimum, but I just can't stop myself from tweaking certain things that just seem broken. There's also links at the bottom to two documents containing new feats and subclasses I found on the internet, although my players haven't used much of it so far (the only exception being a paladin with the Oath of Martyrdom in my current campaign).

 

[Istbor]

I honestly keep most of that stuff in my head. What little houserules I use.

Big ones are:

Rolling a one on an attack leaves the creature open to an attack of opportunity if in melee with an enemy. (players and NPCs)

Shield master feat also turns a shield into a weapon with which you can bash for a d6. (as per some rounds of the old playtest rules)

Any others will be setting specific, or arise from play, where something just doesn't gel with the players and myself.


Also, I will be stealing that Skald Subclass in the OP. I LOVE Skalds.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I use my own split Perception/Investigation rules, and the "assign skills to any abilities as makes sense" variant rule in every 5E game I run.

In my current CoS campaigns, I also have replaced the 3 death saves system with the 6 levels of exhaustion table plus lingering injuries after level 4 exhaustion; added/deleted/changed some skills in the skill list; I use SalmonSquire and Artisan_Mechanicum's Crafting rules; I re-did the assigned Backgrounds skills, tools, and languages to account for the skill changes and new crafting options; I started all PCs at Level 0 (race and Background only, no class selection until they reached level 1); I also merged / re-did / re-balanced many of the feats so that I removed all +1s from the ones I wanted available, and that some but not all could be selected at Level 0.

 

[Charles Rampant]

I try to keep things very simple. I'm very leery of giving the impression that my players' PHBs are useless or outdated, as well as causing confusion when they forgot about some minor rule that I added. So if I houserule something, I tend to just straight up remove it, rather than alter it, as that is easier for everyone involved.

I don't allow Great Weapon Master, Sharpshooter, or multiclassing as character options. Any race nominally 'evil' or 'monstrous', (Kobolds, Orcs, Duergar, Drow, etc) are probably off the table, unless I hear something super convincing, or they actually make sense for the setting or campaign theme. So Drow would be fine in OotA, not so much in SKT.

All other options from published books are fine, however, and I'm open to material from DM's Guild or homebrew sources, with the proviso that the player actually be the one to find and purchase the file themselves. I'm not going to collect material for them, but I will faithfully examine anything that they themselves find, if that makes sense.

More minor tweaks:
- No death from losing total+remaining HP in one hit; I didn't like how it only affected low level characters.
- Spirit Guardians affects bad guys when it is first cast, contra the errata. I don't apply the same logic everywhere though, since the more widely it is applied the more problematic it becomes.
- I'm a bit unsure of how magic items are meant to work with class abilities, but for the moment I've ruled that they cannot use Evocation or Life Cleric abilities on spells coming out of wands and whatnot. Might reverse this though, it feels more petty than anything else.
- Natural 1s and 20s always fail/pass, regardless of the roll type; if I'm not willing to let the player pass or fail even at that rate, I just don't let them roll.

 

[iserith]

Inspiration is claimed by players rather than awarded by the DM. If a player plays to a personality trait, ideal, bond, or flaw, the player points out how he or she did that and then claims Inspiration. The player can only do so once per personal characteristic per session. This means there are four ways per session a player can get that sweet, sweet Inspiration without the DM having to memorize 16+ personal characteristics and watch for times they come up.

 

[Krachek]

I would place a few things in reaction to popular optimization and dip tactics.

Transform SS and GWM into half feat. Removing the -5/+10.

Change Agonizing blast to : +1/2 warlock level up to +5 at level 10.

Change Action surge to : at level 2 allow only an additional attack. Allow a full action at level 6+

 

[Blue]

For the next 5e campaign I start, here's what I'm thinking about:

Players award inspiration to other players. (Which is something I've been doing for well over a decade though the reward has varied.) Limited to each player awarding it twice. (Yes, this is more than the receive 1/session recommended.)

UA classes are generally available, just run it past me. UA races may need a cool backstory(tm) if the races aren't normally found in the world.

Using feats and multiclassing. UA classes haven't all been balanced for multiclassing; if you take one you need to get up to 3rd level in it before you can take levels of anything else.

DMG variant allowing differing ability scores for skill checks.

Fail forward where can. Example: Failing a check to find a secret door needed to move forward may mean it gets opened from the other side by a patrol. Please roll initiative.

Learning tools and languages cut down to 50 downtime days.

Fighting styles are considered one source, so if bonuses overlap use the better not both - Archery and Close Quarters Shooter don't give +3.

I like to say Yes. (Example - if someone has Tavern Brawler and wants to use improvised weapons as monk weapons like Jackie Chan, go for it unless it turn out to be amazingly effective. But that's lots of little things, and more likely a player will think of them than I will.)

GWF and SS are -5 / + 2xProf. They will end up adding even more damage, but they won't dominate low-level play.

No variant Humans.

Rules I'm on the fence about

Add weapon and armor proficiencies to what can be learned during downtime but only one of each per tier of play.

Failed Death saves will have short or long term consequences, which the Medicine skill can help remove. (But some are things like "Interesting Scar" which give a penalty to some Charisma checks and a bonus to others.)

Everyone gets a "half-feat" at first level, but without the +1 to a stat. These usually are less combat-oriented and more character building.

I'd like something about auto-scaling class-granted companions (incl. from the Find Steed and Find Familiar spells) but I don't have mechanics set up. The new US Ranger deals with this but that's more combat focused, I'm thinking more of avoiding 19 HP warhorses for 10th level characters that die to the first AoE.

 

[The-Magic-Sword]

Houserules:

- A Long rest in our setting is 24 hours, and a short rest 8 hours!

- If you would like to use firearms, we utilize the "Renaissance" firearms in the back of the DMG- Proficiency for them is Simple (for historical reasons), be aware of their costs. They are only produced in certain parts of the world. The technology level for our setting is very much "age of sail."

- Our Critical Hits do not deal bonus damage, instead, they deal the most possible damage that the attack can normally deal, and automatically hit the target. Magic Items and other features that deal bonus damage on a critical function as usual.

- When using Customizing Ability Scores (which we always use) for Ability Scores, a score of 16 can be bought with 12 of your 27 points.

- Skills are decoupled from specific ability scores, the DM will situationally determine the ability score used for a given check.

- You recieve 1 feat at first level, the standard human and human variant are both banned, check out the humans in "Approved Homebrew- Races"

- Our rules for Two Weapon Fighting read: When you take the attack action and attack with a light melee weapon that you're holding in one hand, you may make a single attack with a different light melee weapon that you're holding in the other hand as a bonus action. Starting at level 11, if You have the Extra Attack Feature, the number of attacks you can make with a bonus action increases to two. If either weapon has the thrown property, you can throw the weapon, instead of making a melee attack with it.

- Two Weapon Fighting Style now reads: You can use Two Weapon Fighting even when the one one handed melee weapons you are wielding aren't light. You can now draw or stow two one handed weapons when you would normally be able to draw or stow only one.


I'm very into home-brew, so i also curate a substantial collection of extra player options, much of which comes from the Uneathed Arcana subreddit.

 

[Caliban]

I use the 4e 'Bloodied' condition in 5e.
It doesn't do anything*, but announcing it does give the PCs some satisfaction that they finally are making progress against that big bag of HP which keeps lashing out at them.

This isn't actually a house rule - in the "Describing Damage" sidebar in the PHB creatures become visibly wounded at half health (i.e. "bloodied). (I don't have my books with me, but it's in the combat section, on the page with the healing rules.)