D&D 5E (2014) "You Can Do 3 Things" - My Nephew's D&D Houserule

[CleverNickName]

Last weekend, I sat in on my nephew's D&D game, and noticed they were using a house-rule I've never seen before. I thought I'd share, and see what everyone else thought of it.

First, a bit of background. My nephew and his friends have an after-school game every Friday. He's the DM, and there were four other kids in the group. They are all in 7th grade, so I assume they're between the ages of 12 and 13, and they are playing Curse of Strahd. So:

At some point in the game, the party was attacked by a pack of wolves. Initiative was rolled like normal, but I noticed something weird about the way the characters were calling their actions: they kept referring to The Three Things that they were going to be doing on their turn.

"For my three things, I'd like to swing my sword, swing my sword again, and then swing my sword again."

"For my three things, I'd like to cast firebolt, throw a dagger, and move."

"For my three things, I'd like to drink a potion, move, and move some more."

"For its three things, the wolf will move, bite, and then move."

Eventually I caught on: they had condensed the game's action economy and all of the different types of actions into just three "moves" that everyone could do on their turn. Attacks, movement, bonus actions, spells, potions, whatever--you got to do three of them on your turn. There were a few exceptions: they still only got one reaction, and they still couldn't cast more than one spell on their turn unless one of them was a cantrip. But still, for the most part, everyone in the group got to do three things on their turn. Even the monsters.

I thought it was interesting, so I asked him about it after the game. He said that they got the idea from a different game (he couldn't remember which one) and they liked it so much they kept it in their D&D game. "Nobody cares that much about the different actions and stuff. Just do your three things, then let the next person go."

I'm not saying I'd adopt that house-rule, but I would totally adopt that house rule can totally see the appeal. Maybe I'd tweak it a bit so that it scales with proficiency bonus? And I'm sure it would cause problems with monks (flurry of blows) and fighters (action surge), etc., so it's definitely not suitable for all tables. It works for a bunch of middle-schoolers, tho.

Anyway, I thought it was interesting. Has anyone else seen this house-rule out in the wild?

 

[touc]

Sounds like Pathfinder 2nd Edition's "three action" economy (with 1 reaction).

It's more nuanced such as more attacks = decreased accuracy, and some powerful stuff takes two actions. Haven't tried it since D&D isn't designed that way and I'm not game designer savvy enough to merge systems, but sounds like they're all having fun with their method.

 

[Stalker0]

Last weekend, I sat in on my nephew's D&D game, and noticed they were using a house-rule I've never seen before. I thought I'd share, and see what everyone else thought of it.

First, a bit of background. My nephew and his friends have an after-school game every Friday. He's the DM, and there were four other kids in the group. They are all in 7th grade, so I assume they're between the ages of 12 and 13, and they are playing Curse of Strahd. So:

At some point in the game, the party was attacked by a pack of wolves. Initiative was rolled like normal, but I noticed something weird about the way the characters were calling their actions: they kept referring to The Three Things that they were going to be doing on their turn.

"For my three things, I'd like to swing my sword, swing my sword again, and then swing my sword again."

"For my three things, I'd like to cast firebolt, throw a dagger, and move."

"For my three things, I'd like to drink a potion, move, and move some more."

"For its three things, the wolf will move, bite, and then move."

Eventually I caught on: they had all agreed to condense the game's action economy and all of the different types of actions into just three "moves" that everyone could do on your their turn. Attacks, movement, bonus actions, spells, potions, whatever--you got to do three of them on your turn. There were a few exceptions: they still only got one reaction, and they still couldn't cast more than one spell on their turn unless one of them was a cantrip. But still, for the most part, everyone in the group got to do three things on their turn. Even the monsters.

I thought it was interesting, so I asked him about it after the game. He said that they got the idea from a different game (he couldn't remember which one) and they liked it so much they kept it in their D&D game. "Nobody cares that much about the different actions and stuff. Just do your three things, then let the next person go."

I'm not saying I'd adopt that house-rule, but I would totally adopt that house rule. Maybe tweak it a bit so that it scales with proficiency bonus?

Anyway, I thought it was interesting. Has anyone else seen this house-rule out in the wild?

This is basically what Pathfinder 2e did. You have 3 "actions", whether its a single attack, moving X, casting a spell, etc. Now in that version some things can take 2 actions, certain spells for example. But the jist of 3 actions in a turn is there.

 

[TiQuinn]

Wow, kudos to your nephew and his friends for coming up with a nice, simple way of boiling down action in a way that works for them! I love it!

 

[Charlaquin]

The other game was Pathfinder 2nd edition. This is basically identical to their action economy, though PF2 has certain activities that “cost” multiple actions. Some spells cost variable numbers of actions and get stronger the more actions you spend. For example, the Heal spell lets you heal one creature you touch for one action, one creature within 30 feet for two actions, or each creature within 30 feet for three actions. Metamagic feats allow you to add effects onto any spell by spending extra actions on it.

 

[Charlaquin]

As far as houseruling this into 5e, the problem is it severely nerfs any character that relies on Extra Attack, especially Fighters. Unless you allow them to get two (or three for level 11+ fighters) attacks for one “thing,” in which case it’s a huge buff to them.

EDIT: I suppose you could limit Extra Attack to only being useable once per turn. Something like once per turn, you can attack twice instead of once as a single “thing”

 

[Morrus]

He said that they got the idea from a different game (he couldn't remember which one) and they liked it so much they kept it in their D&D game.

Pathfinder 2E, I imagine.

 

[CleverNickName]

Just spitballing here...

Flurry of Blows: spend all remaining moves to make three unarmed strikes.
Action Surge: once per short rest, you can make 5 moves on your turn instead of 3.
Haste: while this spell is in effect, you can make 4 moves on your turn instead of 3.
Slow: while this spell is in effect, you make 2 moves on your turn instead of 3.
Expeditious Retreat: you can move once for free on your turn while this spell is in effect.

I can't get this house-rule out of my head. It's actually pretty clever.

The kids are alright.

 

[Deadstop]

Just spitballing here...

Flurry of Blows: spend all remaining moves to make three unarmed strikes.
Action Surge: once per short rest, you can make 5 moves on your turn instead of 3.
Haste: while this spell is in effect, you can make 4 moves on your turn instead of 3.
Slow: while this spell is in effect, you make 2 moves on your turn instead of 3.
Expeditious Retreat: you can move once for free on your turn while this spell is in effect.

I can't get this house-rule out of my head. It's actually pretty clever.

The kids are alright.

That is indeed how Haste and Slow work in the PF2e three-action economy the kids are probably riffing on.

Multi-attack abilities are usually something like “use two of your things to make three attacks” or “use all of your things to make one attack against each foe in reach/range.”

 

[CleverNickName]

That is indeed how Haste and Slow work in the PF2e three-action economy the kids are probably riffing on.

Multi-attack abilities are usually something like “use two of your things to make three attacks” or “use all of your things to make one attack against each foe in reach/range.”

Huh. Maybe I should check out PF2 one of these days.