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

[MagicSN]

>My "Unearthed Arcana" is, essentially, my Houserule manual for the World of Orea campaign setting.

Proves again that everyone's tastes are different. Dice-on-Character creation we do not use at all. Pure 27-point-system. No gnomes, no Centaurs (or other strange like them). Sprites die on first evening if presented
as character ^^ Winged characters can be done, but should be rarely (most our GMs frown upon them, not out of powergaming-aspects, but as they tend to be "weirder". Drow and Tieflings are allowed, but this also due to that one of the longtime players, he only plays either Drow or Tieflings, also often Evil Chars (sometimes is trouble as some players, myselves included prefer good chars, but sometimes it also leads to funny situations, and the world definitely "reacts" to such characters). Why druids a "organization"? Druids I would say are the archetypical hermits, with no sense for organizations (actually we houseruled out all "worldwide organizations" which WotC had in FR, for us everything is more "local", as this is more typical for a mediavel world I would say... worldwide organizations are - too modern... instead of an "organization of all paladins" for example we have an organization of "all Torm Paladins of the current country"). Why no Sorc's? As to dragonborn we have a houserule-variant who look more like
"scaly humanoids" (with humanoid faces). I even let an artist do a portrait of one such character once. But truth be told not much dragonborn here. And NPC Dragonborn are usually the rulebook kind.

 

[Cyvris]

Currently working on a pair of rules, mostly aimed at making combat a bit meatier. Both are very rough.

Short Rest Casting Variant
Under this variant, characters alter their spells, expanding less energy to cast, but also producing less potent effects. Whenever a character casts a spell using a spell slot of 4th level or lower, they can decide to cast a less powerful version of that spell. If they do so, the spell slot recharges after a short rest instead of a long rest.
• If the spell deals damage, the player still rolls all the dice, but it only inflicts half of the total damage rolled, rounded up.
• Similarly, any healing is only half as effective. Players roll dice normally, but only restore half the total amount of hit points, rounded up.
• The spell deals no damage on a miss or if the target succeeds on its saving throw.
• Any concentration spell lasts until the end of the player’s next turn.
• Likewise, any bonuses, effects, or changes to the environment for the spell also expire at the end of the player’s next turn, even if the spell lacks the concentration keyword.


Fighting Styles-instead of picking a single fighting style, players select two (three if a fighter). The effects of a fighting style are not always "on". Instead, they are triggered by a player making an attack and the effect, if any, lasts until the start of the players next turn. I added a few more, movement or pushing for example, and found it to fill the "At-will" power hole pretty well. The math needs some tweaking (Defensive became +2 against the next attack, Protection I'm still playing with), but it helped make Fighting Styles feel fare more dynamic than something so static.

 

[Fildrigar]

My House Rules:

The Feats Great Weapon Master and Sharpshooter are both only usable once a round.

Add the following feature to the Ranger Class: *See the Unearthed Arcana Ranger*

UA character options usable, but check with me first to make sure.

NO EVIL CHARACTERS! You're supposed to be a force for good.

From the pinned post in my campaign Facebook group.

 

[Quickleaf]

45 --- Decapitated (blinded and deafened; stunned, DC 20 Con save ends)
46 --- Unseamed from nave to crotch (incapacitated and unable to move, DC 20 Con save ends)
47 --- Head pulped (blinded and deafened; stunned, DC 20 Con save ends; hard to find all the bits)

DC 20 Con save ends ? That's one spectacular recovery!

 

[MagicSN]

Currently working on a pair of rules, mostly aimed at making combat a bit meatier. Both are very rough.

Short Rest Casting Variant
Under this variant, characters alter their spells, expanding less energy to cast, but also producing less potent effects. Whenever a character casts a spell using a spell slot of 4th level or lower, they can decide to cast a less powerful version of that spell. If they do so, the spell slot recharges after a short rest instead of a long rest.

I see why you do this, we addressed the same problem (though differently) of casters running OOM. The version you did COULD - depending on playstyle - have the problem to weaken Casters if encounters are
balanced around it (in our group for example we have a Ranger-Barbarian with Strength belt, Beastmaster, he deals LOTS of damage, with 2 Attacks + 1 Beast attack (we houseruled Beastmaster L5 and Extra Attack
from Barbarian don't stack), d8+16+d8+16+2d4+7 every round, with our houserule frenzy if he uses it - which uses up more rages - even more (70 dmg avg then at lvl 13). If caster only deals half dmg he would feel pretty weak. Of course if you do not have such hyperoptimized characters in group it might work ;-) How we fixed the mana problem? We introduced (though rare, hard to get, people never have many) "Manapotions" restoring 2d4+2 spellpoints (we use the optional spellpoint rule). And especially for Wizards the Ice Claw spell from the Thule Campaign book helped a lot (deals 1d10+4d6 dmg initially, then if you use your action for it 4d6 per round, with restrain if the enemy does not manage the DC, half dmg of the 4d6 on a miss - and the ice claw later - concentration - stays around and you can move it to a new target when the first one is killed, is L3, helps a LOT to be mana/spell slot efficient, though of course no "damage wonder", also helps keeping the wizard out of trouble from the big ogre or such and doing some crowd control^^ The "official" one from Elemental evil (meteors) also plays in the same niche, though it only has a few "usages", minor action throw meteors, full action do a cantrip to save spell slots. all depends of course how many fights per RP/Day. We tend to have not so many, due to being pretty "RP-heavy". And nearly no "Dungeons".

I really like your Fighting Styles houserule!

 

[the Jester]

DC 20 Con save ends ? That's one spectacular recovery!

For clarity, things like "decapitated" that have effects listed but are plainly lethal have those effects listed in case the critical effect happens without inflicting lethal damage, and it happens to a creature that can e.g. live without a head (troll, doppelganger, etc).

You can get a high enough severity to do this kind of thing without inflicting lethal damage if you have something that boosts your critical severity, and I offer a ton of things like that in my game, most commonly magic items, but also some spells, feat options, monster types, etc. Conversely, there are also some things that reduce the severity of critical hits on you.

And the save ends (in this case) only applies to the stunned bit. So, chop off a doppelganger's head and, even if it survives, it is momentarily stunned.

 

[Cyvris]

I see why you do this, we addressed the same problem (though differently) of casters running OOM. The version you did COULD - depending on playstyle - have the problem to weaken Casters if encounters are balanced around it....
I really like your Fighting Styles houserule!

I honestly don't know if it is balanced, which is one reason I posted it. I've played with "deals one less dice of damage" but can't tell if that would be too strong then. I like the concept, but it certainly needs a little work.

The Fighting Style houserule was one of those things that just "came" to me. I was tinkering with some 4e stuff and happened to glance at the Essentials books. All the martial classes there essentially (hehe) ended up in a similar circumstance, and there is some good design in some of the fighting styles. They need tweaks of course, defense is pretty weak at +1 AC, but with some proper work I think a sort of "stance dancing" would work really well with the style 5e is going for and bring back the tactical thinking I want to see in my games.

 

[MostlyDm]

Oh! I almost forgot wear points, which are actually written up at various points where there are item-destroying creatures, spells, etc in my game. My wear point system replaces the clunky rust monster damage system and other, similar effects.

Sounds interesting. Got a write up you'd be willing to share? I always kind of want to use a subsystem like this but I inevitably find them too cumbersome to implement at the table.

 

[the Jester]

Sounds interesting. Got a write up you'd be willing to share? I always kind of want to use a subsystem like this but I inevitably find them too cumbersome to implement at the table.

Sure, it's super simple.

1 wear point is cosmetic damage, 2 gives an item a -1 where appropriate, and 3 destroys the item. Typically, a magic item can sustain 1 extra wear point without suffering more than cosmetic damage.

I inflict wear points when I feel it's appropriate. Sometimes, after a long journey, I'll be like, "Everyone put 3 wear points, distributed how you want, on one or more items you have with you." Others, it's, "Everyone put a wear point on your footwear." It's pretty arbitrary.

Item-destroying monsters usually inflict anywhere from 1 to 1d4 wear points at a time.

 

[hawkeyefan]

My list is pretty short. My players are long time players, and very capable, but they don't seek out new material. They aren't even aware of the Unearthed Arcana options....which is fine by me!

We don't roll death saves on a round by round basis. Instead, I track how many rounds pass, and then when another PC reaches the one that's down, or once combat ends, they're rolled at that point. This way my players don't metagame their decision to go help the fallen friend because they know he's made two death saves and failed none. It keeps them in the dark about the PC's actual status until they would actually know.

We also changed Inspiration. I grant it when a player really roleplays well, or when they pull off something truly daring or dangerous. How they use the Inspiration is up to them; they can use it to gain advantage on any die roll, as the rules suggest, or they can use it to try and pull off some near impossible feat. I've left the terms where it can be used intentionally vague because I want them to come up with ideas. Some examples: diving off of an airship to catch a falling comrade and then cast a featherfall, getting an additional attack when a PC was on his last legs, one PC knocking another to safety to replace him as the target of a spell.

I find leaving it vague really gets them thinking creatively, and then rewarding that winds up encouraging further creative play and roleplaying. I find it a lot more rewarding than the simple Advantage granting version from the book.