This is basically my bare minimum for backstory.
- why are you an adventurer?
- how did you gain the skills and abilities of your class?
Then in session zero, we all try to determine why everyone is working together. Session zero can't end with lone wolves.
Lone wolfs should be treated the same way as a lone deer away from the protection of the group: mercilessly getting pounced on by a horde of goblins
A single target is a good target
Lmao, I've been told that when I make evil guys I always end up making them tsundere cuz they are like "what? No I don't think I'm part of your team, I'm not your friend, I just help you becouse it helps me in the future.... When?... I can live for thousands of years, you won't see it, so why tell you, here, keep this legendary +3 sword of absolute demise, it'll be useful for me, so don't lose it"
I'm fine with a character that doesn't want to adventure but has some sort of reason that they are forced into it. It can make for a lot of fun RP of them grumbling.
I think by "wants to adventure" they broadly mean "has motivation to adventure." E.g. they are forced into because of a worse alternative still counts.
There's also the corollary that if the reason for adventuring or joining the party is something that is expected to be only temporary, it is the player's job to explain why their character continues adventuring with the party (or roll a new character), not the DM's. For example, if the reason your character joins the party is just the circumstances of an initial plot hook for a small first adventure, it's your job to figure out why the character will stick with the party after that plot hook is resolved, not your DM's job to make sure the next plot hook gives your character a reason to stay with the party.
This may be a hot take, but I'd be disappointed to have an entire session spent SOLELY on the idea of playing like a session 0 suggests. As a busy adult with kids, my free time is more valuable than that.
I think the broadest aspects of a 'session 0' can be addressed in the game's pitch, the rest can be dialogue before/shortly at the beginning, and we can make course corrections as we go.
Far better, IMO, is to spend a session doing a throwaway one-shot of just whatever to see if everyone is vibing. A group tryout as it were.
Most of my session 0s have been just talking through what the characters know, and how they know each other and any ground rules before entering a mini combat. A lot of discussion will occur online before the game even starts.
pretty much this - there's generally a lot of setting and tone stuff to go through, world-notes, bits and pieces of collaborative world-building ("I want to be from a kingdom recently destroyed!" "Hmm, OK, I can add something like this in, how does it sound?"), character generation (which should be done in a group, not independently!), how people first met, the runup to the campaign start proper, reminders of the rules and all that stuff. Spending 2-3 hours on that is pretty standard and reasonable, rather than everyone making their characters separately, some of them requiring reworking because they don't jive in whatever way, or rely on something not present, or being too similar to each other.
My "session zero" rarely ever takes a full session. I usually send out a Session Zero packet weeks in advance, and the actual session zero is maybe 30 minutes tops, and then we jump straight into session 1.
imo a one-shot is a poor substitute for session zero. There are lots of things that are difficult of not impossible to gauge without actually talking about it, like attendance policy, campaign difficulty, linearity vs open-ended, campaign structure, etc.
I know what you mean, and many many small adventures can be run without a S0.
But any adventure that requires characters to have a backstory to tie into the campaign that will run a year or so… yeah, S0 will be a time saver in the long run.
It‘s normally just an hour where the DM shows the setting and expectations are shared so that 10 sessions down the line you don‘t suddenly realise it‘s all shit.
I don't think it is a hot take personally. Depending on the campaign and how it begins session 0 and session 1 can be combined. Or atleast do half of session 1 that way some actual dnd was able to be played.
Session 0 doesn't have to be a full-length session lined up with whatever regular schedule is intended to sustain the campaign proper. It *does* have to generate a groupwide commitment to the terms of that campaign. I hear what you're saying about dabbling just to see if a group is viable before considering a long term effort. Yet I believe, if you do embark on that long term effort, even a session 0 that does fully displace the first proper session of the campaign is likely to be worthwhile.
A lot of those same discussions would have come up during play anyway -- and not always in moments best-suited to clear calm deliberation. Front-loading talk about rules in use, the setting, general campaign themes, individual squicks, etc. creates the space to forge practical compromises through abstract discussion rather than disagreement in the thick of an encounter. Also, a serious conversation about the general tone of the campaign can be hugely helpful to DMs improvising content, which almost all of us do to one degree or another.
When I DM, I always go with 'Figure out why you're travelling together before the game starts'.
I'm sure there are stories to tell about groups coming together, but I find that having them all be an established team ahead of time solves 95% of issues with player buy-in and party infighting.
Amusingly the Dungeon Dudes put out a video talking about this topic. Having the players start with some sort of ties to each other benefit the game. A paladin escorting the rogue to trial before needing to work together, survivors of a goblin attack that hadn't met before the event.
My group had to add C) is someone others would work with.
Our old rule was all characters like each other and will work with each other. Then someone created a PC who betrayed the party once, and then continuously did the equivalent of pointing an empty gun at people an pulling the trigger. That and a bad DM caused our group to almost break up.
This 10000%. I’ve started framing it with an added: “You love the party, and the party loves you”. Even if some PCs _think_ they don’t get along, we as players must know they’re in this together no matter what.
Nips any Lone Wolf nonsense in the bud.
Bonus feat at 1st level. No restrictions beyond prereqs. Yes even for V.human
**Runner ups**
Inspiration is a reroll and not a source of advantage
Healing potions are a bonus action for rolled healing. An action for max healing. Giving another character a potion is an action, but thus max healing. Fast hands feature allows bonus action but still grants max healing.
I've got a lot of tweaks like this to my home games.
A lot of people disagree and think variant human should be banned if you do this, but honestly, you're experiencing diminishing returns, your second feat won't be your top priority because you already took it. Some character builds like polearm sentinel fighter rely on the interaction between two feats to work, yes, but they tend to be in the more underwhelming classes. You're taking your assets from feats because the class doesn't offer them.
I know a lot of people disagree, but I have more fun as a DM when I allow this, and as a player when it's allowed, and there is that part way diminishing return you mention..
It makes the game more fun for us, so I'm generous with it.
Then you can focus on your ability scores. A lot of people get frustrated by the limitations of martial characters yet fight against the idea that ~~decent~~ superhumanly high (18-20) ability scores in more than one stat would go a long way toward making them more competitive.
90% of the time they're rolling either Strength or Dexterity. A slightly higher save is not a significant competitive edge.
And no matter how high the stats go, "swing sword, deal damage, pass turn" is boring. People want options.
Ranged builds are typically better than melee builds because there's less pressure on them for personal defense, Archery Fighting Style exists, and Sharpshooter backs up any ranged weapon build.
Meanwhile a melee character has to hit (typically Str or Dex) while also having the HP to back up their frontline position (Con).
If you're using 27 point buy, which many *many* tables use, you typically end up with two scores with a +3 modifier. You can get 3 if you choose a race that can add +1 to three scores (16/16/16/8/8/8).
Now, let's say you're a GWM fighter. Your two highest scores go into Str and Con. That covers exactly 1 Skill - Athletics. Take your final stat and build the rest of your functionality outside of combat with it. Do you want to be good at Perception - the most commonly rolled skill in the game? Or do you want to be a paladin or Eldritch Knight? Maybe you were hoping to be charming and intelligent. Sure you can RP that way, but it's rough when you know you'll eventually have to make skill checks and they won't back up what you've got in mind.
Having a reliable social stat can also become one of your combat options. I allow my players to talk to their enemies during combat. They're much more willing to take me up on that when they have a 14 Charisma than they are with an 8. Having decent information gathering skills lets you mechanically contribute to the game in a way other than attack and damage.
I'm not really addressing whether martial actions turn by turn are boring. Some players enjoy having a rhythm to their actions. Others enjoy spontaneity. I like Warlocks. I spend most of my turns using Eldritch Blast. I pay attention to what my teammates are doing and help them look stuff up for their turns. Having a ton of options every turn doesn't appeal to me as much as a decent and reliable action to fall back on every round.
As of TCE, every race can add +1 to three scores.
I don't mean to take from your other points, you make light of very valid issues, just wanted to add that tidbit in case it helps others reading this
I use all these. Just makes everyone feel a bit more powerful, and more useful as many of my players took something utility rather than power-centered for their free feat. And it's not really much for me to balance for either. Except for Observant. That one drives me nuts!
Bonus feat at character creation is my favorite house rule now that my whole group are experienced players. We still tend to start new campaigns in the 3-5 range for levels and it helps keep the early levels from feeling overly boring and usually ends up adding some fun flavor to a new character.
It made Human a race worth playing for 3/3.5
They don't get an ASI they get a feat, sounds balanced since they're considered equal in terms of character progress.
I’m neurotically at my DMs house fifteen minutes before the game starts every time because If I leave with the intention of showing up right on time i spend the entire drive worrying that I’ll be late and being late to something is the worst possible thing anyone could ever do and I’ll literally die
I have to pick *one*? Hmmm.
> When making an opportunity attack, one may elect to Grapple or Shove instead of performing a melee weapon attack.
This little guy does an impressive amount of work in making otherwise basic monsters/encounters more interesting, and giving melee combatants actual advantages.
The one dnd play test had an option. If you succeed on a melee weapon attack, you can choose to shove or grapple instead of doing damage. It essentially changes a contested skill challenge to an attack.
Grappling is an unusual action in 5e, in that it does not consider armor class or saves.
Yeah. Pretty much everything surrounding Athletics is weird in 5e.
Perhaps the most common change I apply to monster statblocks is giving them proficiency in Athletics because they *should* be good at manhandling people
If Athletics loses its combat utility though, then it becomes pretty worthless. IIRC, jumping distance is determined by Strength alone. Climbing and swimming are often irrelevant thanks to magic that grants swimming, climbing, or even flying speeds.
Oh good! I’m not alone; I do this too (where appropriate)!
Edit: give (some) monsters the athletic skill. I can’t fathom for the life of me why dragons — the epitome of power and physical prowess — don’t have it.
Great strenght does not equal training or natural prowess in hand to hand combat with said strenght, and dragons normally don't really have to overcome a lot of grappling or shoving most of the time, they are too big and deadly, and the ocasional magically enlarged warrior or rival giant are far and few between to consider.
dragons would be less likely to have it than a lot of other beasties - they're not exactly hitting the gym to get swole! There's not much in their lives that's going to push them to their limits, and they're not learning how to wrestle or anything, so most aren't going to have specific training in such things (it's the same as "just because they're old, doesn't mean they have _history_ proficiency" - there's likely entire centuries that, from a dragon's PoV, were "I raided some towns, looted some gold. Looked like the empire was having a bad time, IDK, wasn't really paying attention")
[No.](https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/sac/sage-advice-compendium#SA133) RAW you can only shove / grapple (without any other features ) by using Attack action. OA is not Attack action.
Also FYI, Monster's [multiattack](https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/sac/sage-advice-compendium#SA137) is also a "Multiattack Action" and not "Attack Action", so they also couldn't be replaced with Shove or Grapple.
This is why monster stat blocks dictate exactly which attacks they have work with multiattack. If they have 3 attacks they can take, usually only the melee options have multiattack.
This is also a GREAT rule for players who don't want to kill their opponents but stop/apprehend them instead. It's weird that RAW D&D doesn't let you try to stop someone from running away 😅
If you're able to do melee attacks, you're also able to do nonlethal damage.
Grappling is great for when you want to stop the BBEG's minions from pressing that button on the doomsday device. It's less great for stopping an enemy from hitting you to death.
In my current game, in order to keep the party from resting between every encounter without having to absolutely stuff their days full of 5-8 encounter or something, I have a house rule about long rests. Long rests require the party to spend 24 hours in a settlement doing essentially nothing beyond general carousing and shopping. I would allow wizards to scribe scrolls, but we don't have a wizard.
This does three things. 1) it let's me have them have days between encounters without them being fresh for everything they do. 2) it encourages them to take time off to just visit cities and explore the cultures that I spent a month and a half building. 3) it let's me set due dates for things in a more abstract way; e.g. they have 3 long rests before a festival they want to go to happens, and it's in the country on the other side of the neighboring country, and with the due date being based on that, I don't need to track down exactly how long things take to do.
So far, my players have really enjoyed it. They were leery of it at first, but it ended up being very healthy for the game.
I like this idea, is the in between the gritty realism rules and the normal ones. Have you tested it at lower levels? was it challenging due to lower counts of spell slots or something?
I've tested it from level 3 to level 6 so far.
They had 7 encounters without a chance to rest at level 4, but only 4 of them were actual combat; two of them were with hostile animals that they managed to talk down, so there could have been up to 6 combats but instead they taught a cave bear how to fish and convinced giant eagles to fly them across a broken bridge in exchnage for not going near their nest. They had to track food and started with 2 days' worth and had to get that to last 2 weeks. They ended up with a 2nd level spell slot on the sorcerer left and a 1st level spell on the bard left. Which they used to cheat at a race against each other on the way to the hero training ground they were supposed to end at. They weren't allowed to use goodberry. But they did have an 8th level Druid with them to keep track of them and mark their progress, but he spent all of his time wildshaped into a bird and following them around.
They've had plenty of adventures. We have played about 15 sessions a year for 3 years so far.
I love doing the "How do you wanna do this?" thing from Matt Mercer. My players get hype every single time. I think in general giving players more agency on the game is better. It also makes my life easier as a DM.
I started doing this and it brought our two shyest players completely out of their shells. I was blown away. It's like that imagination new people sometimes have that then collides with the rules and can dampen down a bit (like improvised equipment, called shots, etc.) just came roaring back in their excitement and creativity on cool "finishing moves."
The variation I picked up from my first DM was "Describe your kill." Different folks have different comfort levels of describing the final blow, but even the most basic "I stab him in the belly" is still able to get everyone hyped up.
I've had more success wording it as "How would you like to finish the fight?"
Had a couple players not understand what I meant when I said Matt Mercer's way lol
My variation on this specifically for boss monsters which my players seem to love, is that i ask how everyone else in the party contributes and then with their help I ask the person who actually got the finishing blow how they finish it off and then narate it
I haaate this!
Don't come after me! I know it can be used for good! 😅
It's my experience, it's usually the DM putting someone on the spot when they don't expect it. "Uhh.. quickly, I guess. Arrow through the eye?" 9 times out of 10. That 1/10 can be amazing, but I didn't feel like it balances out the other 9 unless the whole group is fully into it.
It’s a good change, doesn’t make people as apprehensive about taking short rests, limiting it is also nice as players as then used to managing stuff more
Mathematically this is good but half the fun of a crit is pouring a ridiculous number of dice onto the tray
"Clackkky clack clack click clakciity cicky click clack clackclikx clajcikkit clack!"
It's true rolling a handful of ones on a crit is a real bummer.
Like I said, the math is good. But it's the goblin part of the brain that craves the click clacks
I call that the brutal critical rule, thanks to the dungeon dudes. It gets confusing when our Lv15 half orc barbarian has to round up all his sources of extra damage dice but it makes him feel like a baddass when rolling 4d12+60 lol
Inspiration means drawing a card from a deck and that number is added to whatever roll you do.
Yes, ANY.
Been playing with it for some time and holy fuck it's awesome that sometimes a player just says:
No DM, F U here's a +20. (Ace)
Probably a little too much to call a house rule but I always say that if my player comes to me with an idea for a race or a subclass or a spell or something that doesn't exist n can't really be relplicated by reflavoring other stuff, and they're CERTAIN this is what they wanna do, I will make it for them. Like a cantrip for one of my players who was like a stage magician so I gave him a cantrip to shoot arcane doves from his sleeves at someone within 5ft and they have to make a dex save or be blinded for a turn, it came out pretty balanced and he had fun with it. I've also made races and subclasses before. It's a lot of work which is why I do ask that they be 100% certain it's what they want before I start working on it, but I really love making homebrew so it's a win win most of the time :3
Really nice cantrip idea. Does it scale in some way at higher levels (5/11/17)? I'd personally leave it as it is, though maybe something minor could be added
It was a one shot so I didn't bother to think about it, but it's a status condition so it won't really lose effectiveness as levels go up, since it'll scale with enemy power
Ahaha, one of my players did the same sort of thing and I went and made a whole little hombrew system of like, magical runestones (unrelated to the Rune Knight stuff) and it was a lot of fun making it for her, and she seems to have a ton of fun when she does use them.
Whenever you gain a feat you gain the +2 ability score as well. Doesn't apply to extra feats Fighters and Rogues get.
Feats are fun. High stats are fun. I don't want players to have to choose between them. Enemy balance can be adjusted for the stronger PCs
* Short rests are 5min, you can take them individually and you get 2 per LR.
I wouldn't want to DM without that rule. It makes my life so much easier and fixes many inter party balance issues.
I did 10 minutes just to match rituals, but yea it has def changed how my players think about being able to take short rests between fights and whatnot.
I do 15 minutes without a restriction on number of short rests per long rest. I talked with my group about this being a simplification for narrative purposes, and not an avenue for cheesery. So far it's worked out well.
Anyone can attune to anything provided they have the attunement slot . So yeah you can pass a fighter a wand of fireballs . It kind of makes more sense , like why give the person who can already throw fireballs, a way to throw fireballs? Magic items should grant more options to the weilder
Real answer: The ones that I feel most people use;
- Drinking a Potion of Healing is a bonus action, and giving it to someone else is an action.
- Inspiration is a reroll, no roll with advantage.
Fun answer: The most popular house rule we have developed and has been implemented in a lot of our games at players request (though they have actually yet to utilise it!) is that they can use exhaustion points to cast spells when they have zero spell slots of any level left. 1st level costs 1 point exhaustion, 3rd level costs 3 points of exhaustion etc. The idea is that those who can utilise magic can push their body beyond their limits in exchange to still cast a spell. It's probably unbalanced and a little broken, but we feel it will make for a marvellous RP moment the day it ever gets used in play!
When the times were dire and the rolls catastrophic, we'll all remember when Cory the cleric provided us with a heroes feast to let us push on. Alas, it pushed him a little too far...?
I honestly love this method, even as a player. It prevents meta-gaming around picking up fallen allies when only the DM knows their status.
I know some people hate the notion of not rolling them themselves, but the extra tension is worth the cost, IMHO
> Completely fixes the martial caster divide, at least at the levels I've played at (up to 14).
Is that "no limit to the number of attuned items" or just "ignoring the class requirements"?
If it’s boring, throw it out.
I appreciate rules like encumbrance being there for people who want a more intensive experience, but I don’t feel immersed when my players are counting coppers and using tables to figure out how many make a silver. For the sake of expediency, I’m willing to let a lot of the micromanaging fall by the wayside.
I do actually ask my players whenever they're in a new area how they want to handle the bathroom situation. It's a little gross but it's how I confirm if they're using an outhouse, going into a corner, using indoor plumbing ect.
Same with "oh your finally in a town/city, do any of you find a way to bathe yourselves?"
Why? A little bit of immersion now and then, and also because one day I plan on having a toilet mimic/bathroom assassin encounter. One day...
Yeah, flavour. You don't have to make a big thing of it, but it's character establishing.
We had a long running campaign where the party moved with an army as a kind of spec-ops group. Early on we camped by a river and my character was "kit off, in the river with 50 others, scrub scrub, no body awareness" and another character spent ages finding somewhere private to bathe.
It was completely related to the character backgrounds and contributed to plenty of roleplay moments later on.
It makes sense, for any group. Even between friends, and knowing it's all fake, it could feel awkward to go any more in depth beyond just saying "I love you" to an NPC your character has built a relationship with.
This one time we got back to town, and the DM asks us what we're doing. I didnt have anything I needed, so I just said, "my character just gets hookers & blow," because it was an in-character thing for him to do.
So he goes around the table and everyone else roleplays out their business. He gets to me and starts up the scene in the local brothel, and *I was not prepared for that to happen.*
That makes little sense to me. They have "fights" with you all the time and hopefully they're not sticking a sword in you or fireballing you out of game?
We handle any sort of casual "You're in a bar and you're looking to hook up?" stuff with "Roll... and you do. Roll... and they don't rob you. Next."
Any sort of longer term romance stuff is veiled (eg fade to black, don't bore the rest of the table).
If you find a rule I'm doing wrong you get inspiration, also making revivify work and the usual stuff. I'm a big fan of a free level one feat as well, helps keep the martials relevant and opens up some races besides vuman and clineage.
On character creation, players may choose between 1 Feat or 1 Common/Uncommon magical item. This bonus must be entwined with the characters backstory either as a key element, or defining feature of the character.
Level up hit dice are either whats rolled or they take the average roll. So if for instance a bard rolls they can at minimum get 5, maximum 8.
I have other more important houserules, but they have all been mentioned.
I don't know why but I did the math. Finally figured out the formatting
##Average Health Per Level
|Hit Die|Rolled|Take average (round up)|Reroll 1s|Reroll 1s and 2s|Your method|
|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|
|d6|3.5|4|4|4.5|4.5|
|d8|4.5|5|5|5.5|5.75|
|d10|5.5|6|6|6.5|7|
|d12|6.5|7|7|7.5|8.25|
##Average Hitpoints at Level 11 with Con 14
|Hit Die|Rolled|Take average (round up)|Reroll 1s|Reroll 1s and 2s|Your method|
|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|
|d6|63|67|67|72|72|
|d8|75|80|80|85|87.5|
|d10|87|92|92|97|102|
|d12|99|104|104|109|116.5|
For crits, you roll the crit dice as normal, but you take the maximum value on all other dice.
So a level 5 Rogue with 16 Dex a dagger can't go below 29 on a critical hit.
Kind of boring, but my Rule #1 is “Don’t make me make a rule.” Basically, we’re all mature, we can all stop and think about what we’re about to say or do and make an educated guess about if it’s going to make the game uncomfortable or unfun for someone. We’re all here to have fun, we all know we’re here to have fun, let’s try not to ruin it for anyone.
Rule #2 just has to do with modesty at the table.
But Rule #3 is Alex must be sober while playing.
Go ahead and guess who broke Rule #1 and how.
Of all of the house rules we use, I think the single most important one is that every member of the party must know at least one other member of the party from their backstory, and have a valid reason for adventuring and working as a team. It immediately puts a halt to any of those loner edge lord types, though my groups don't have those kinds of players anymore anyhow.
Any effects players might try to inflict on each other (such as Dragon Fear), charisma checks, or any kind of PvP requires above table consent from the recipient. Keeps creeps from making anyone uncomfortable and prevents unfair character death.
No Conjure Animals or other mass summon spells.
It's not even about how strong those spells are. It's because I prefer running shorter sessions of about 2 hours or so. These spells would absolutely *slaughter* the pacing of the game.
The various Summon X spells are a much healthier alternative.
I personally have found that using minion rules for them works really well, by that I mean you add their health together, and they make one attack at advantage that deals half of their combined damages, for example say you have 6 creatures that do 1d6+3 each, you roll to hit with advantage and deal 3d6+9, it speeds it up a lot for my groups at least
Well no one's mentioned Darkvision, so alongside the usual suspects I'll say-
Regular darkvision only works when there is *some* light. There's a new lighting state called *pitch darkness* which mechanically is like magical darkness except any light source will turn it into regular darkness outside of whatever radius. Anyone with "true Darkvision" or whatever also has sunlight sensitivity.
Combat will be balanced for people who use their wits. I make sure that my encounters are not unbeatable unless that's by design, but my players shouldn't expect to succeed by approaching them on autopilot. There would be no point in having an encounter, then.
We've been running on No Take Backs. If you say that your character tries something, or if you speak in character, that is what happens. Roll the dice. It has saved a huge amount of time where people used to back peddle every time it was revealed that an action might have even a minor consequence.
It's off to a good start on that front actually lol
I don't use that because a potion is a bonus action is really unrealistic, but I buff the healing potions in various other ways to try to make them worth an action. The as-written version of them isn't very great.
All PCs will be someone who wants to adventure, who will work with others, and who others would work with. If your PC is unable to do that, alter them or roll a new PC.
We had a house rule that if you performed an attack while falling on an enemy you would deal damage equal to half the amount of damage you would've taken had you fallen on the ground in addition to whatever your weapon hits for and the fall damage for you is reduced by half on a successful hit. If you miss you just splat, but it led to a few very good moments as a last resort.
It originally came up as one of those one off things someone wanted to try since they had an opportunity to leap off a tower onto a dragon to perform a plunging attack from 300ft in the air and what good DM would say no to letting them attempt it. It felt fair as a ruling so we just ran with it from then on.
1. Critical hits deal 1 roll + 1 max roll, instead of 2 rolls. Worst thing in game to roll a crit and then deal no damage. MUCH more fun with proper crits.
2. Bonus feat at lv1. It’s just more fun fleshing out your builds that way.
3. Player dealing the killing blow gets to act out the finishing move with zero restrictions on its absurdity. One of my players is a hunter and tends to go in-depth on which bones his barbarian cracks first.
**Potions**
You can grab a potion from your inventory and drink it as a BONUS ACTION, normally this takes up a ACTION
If you want to spend an ACTION to drink a healing potion rather than rolling for the amount healed it is the MAXIMUM e.g. a Healing Potion normally heals 2d4+2 it will instead heal 10 health if used as an Action.
Using a potion on another Player is still an ACTION, you have to be next to them and the potion in yours or their possession. Health is ROLLED in this case.
If you want to 'throw a potion', it is done as a roll to hit an AC of 10(+1 for each enemy between you and them and each enemy surrounding the receiver). This takes an ACTION. and it uses up the receivers REACTION. There is a 50% chance of a missed potion being destroyed before being recovered.
Yes, guess who had to write in Baulders Gate III stuff....
tell me your final roll without correcting and adding.
them: “i rolled a 12.”
me: “you missed.” moves to next character.
them: “oh! plus my ability modifier, proficiency bonus, bless, bardic inspiration, some rando add… i got a 25!”
me: sighing as i am partway through the next character’s turn already. “give.me.your.final.answer.the.first.time.” as i slowly grind my teeth.
I have a couple:
- Inspiration works as advantage or reroll.
- bonus action healing potions.
- Flanking (+2 variant).
And an optional addition for dungeon crawls: Quick Rest - party can take 10 minutes to patch themselves up, using a single hit dice to heal.
Character death will always be narratively meaningful. I had a character one time who essentially had a banana peel slip death (the DM did try to find ways to save me, but I rolled 3 d20s all 4 and under), and it was a real bummer for me. I've got no problem with longer term injuries from something like that but never character death
For character creation:
Answer these questions
1. Who are you? And why are you an adventurer willing to travel with a party
2. How, or from whom did you acquire your skills or abilities?
3. What is a person, place, or thing that you do not currently have in your possession (or easy access to), that is important to your character.
I just like to flesh out the PCs a bit.
For actual gameplay:
I have always used grazes. Met the AC? Half damage.
After a fight we had where there was some frustration with how it went down, I sent this in our DnD chat the next day.
"From now on, you will have full discretion as to whether or not your damage is lethal or non-lethal. You can declare it at any point during your turn when you do damage, and you may do it with any spell, attack, or ability that deals damage."
Its pretty simple, if you dont read how your class works and how many spells and spell slots you get and never ask for clarification from me before the game, i am allowed to yell at you.
My time as a DM is very limited and very valuable, as i dont have very many days i can plan or play and i explain things very thoroughly to my players when they ask about it. Anytime i give out a level up, it is done just before a break or the end of the game, allowing the players to get some food and have the time to talk over the level up with me before we play some more.
I give plenty of time and warning before the games, so in the 2 weeks i give you there is definitely enough time to ask me questions or get a character at least playable in combat before we start the game. It takes a lot of effort to get everyones schedule to line up for a night of d&d, so dont waste everyone elses time fumbling with your class for something you could have asked about weeks ago.
I can understand heat of the moment rules interactions that dont come up often, and i can understand not knowing what the different monsters abilities do, but not knowing the basic functions of a class such as how cantrips work (yes, i had a player not ask about this and not know how they worked) is just a waste of everyones time.
Never prevent a player from taking action. I hate any kind of spell or ability that basically skips the player's turn. Nothing will cause a player to lose interest faster.
Crits do double damage. I like big numbers, and if its a boss, i can tweak their hp as needed without players knowing to keep the fight going longer.
also i remove dispell magic and detect magic and make them skill checks instead. I like the idea that spell casters have to actually work for magic. I like to think that they can sense the magic around them and that they can tear spells apart like tearing seams out of a shirt or cutting a tennis racket properly or itll explode
Crunchy crits. On a crit, your damage is the max amount of ALL dic3 involved + the rolls of those dice. Crits should mean something, should have teeth. These rules apply for monsters and PCs, and it does apply to Sneak Attack, Smite, and Spell Attacks
Everyone levels up simultaneously. We track XP separately, but as soon as one character pops, everyone does. 2/3 of our group has young kids, so more missed games, but this helps mitigate the impact of that.
I'm very bad about giving out magic items that are VERY abusable. So with great power comes great responsibility, don't make the game unfun with it or I reserve the right to take it away
During character creation players must make characters that A) Want to adventure and B) Want to work with the party.
This is basically my bare minimum for backstory. - why are you an adventurer? - how did you gain the skills and abilities of your class? Then in session zero, we all try to determine why everyone is working together. Session zero can't end with lone wolves.
Lone wolfs should be treated the same way as a lone deer away from the protection of the group: mercilessly getting pounced on by a horde of goblins A single target is a good target
Lmao, I've been told that when I make evil guys I always end up making them tsundere cuz they are like "what? No I don't think I'm part of your team, I'm not your friend, I just help you becouse it helps me in the future.... When?... I can live for thousands of years, you won't see it, so why tell you, here, keep this legendary +3 sword of absolute demise, it'll be useful for me, so don't lose it"
Whereas my evil guys really love working with the party, otherwise how are they supposed to corrupt them?
I'm fine with a character that doesn't want to adventure but has some sort of reason that they are forced into it. It can make for a lot of fun RP of them grumbling.
I think by "wants to adventure" they broadly mean "has motivation to adventure." E.g. they are forced into because of a worse alternative still counts.
There's also the corollary that if the reason for adventuring or joining the party is something that is expected to be only temporary, it is the player's job to explain why their character continues adventuring with the party (or roll a new character), not the DM's. For example, if the reason your character joins the party is just the circumstances of an initial plot hook for a small first adventure, it's your job to figure out why the character will stick with the party after that plot hook is resolved, not your DM's job to make sure the next plot hook gives your character a reason to stay with the party.
Or put more succinctly: have a session 0.
This may be a hot take, but I'd be disappointed to have an entire session spent SOLELY on the idea of playing like a session 0 suggests. As a busy adult with kids, my free time is more valuable than that. I think the broadest aspects of a 'session 0' can be addressed in the game's pitch, the rest can be dialogue before/shortly at the beginning, and we can make course corrections as we go. Far better, IMO, is to spend a session doing a throwaway one-shot of just whatever to see if everyone is vibing. A group tryout as it were.
Most of my session 0s have been just talking through what the characters know, and how they know each other and any ground rules before entering a mini combat. A lot of discussion will occur online before the game even starts.
pretty much this - there's generally a lot of setting and tone stuff to go through, world-notes, bits and pieces of collaborative world-building ("I want to be from a kingdom recently destroyed!" "Hmm, OK, I can add something like this in, how does it sound?"), character generation (which should be done in a group, not independently!), how people first met, the runup to the campaign start proper, reminders of the rules and all that stuff. Spending 2-3 hours on that is pretty standard and reasonable, rather than everyone making their characters separately, some of them requiring reworking because they don't jive in whatever way, or rely on something not present, or being too similar to each other.
My "session zero" rarely ever takes a full session. I usually send out a Session Zero packet weeks in advance, and the actual session zero is maybe 30 minutes tops, and then we jump straight into session 1. imo a one-shot is a poor substitute for session zero. There are lots of things that are difficult of not impossible to gauge without actually talking about it, like attendance policy, campaign difficulty, linearity vs open-ended, campaign structure, etc.
I get your point, but a good session zero is like an investment, the time spent there helps yield better sessions down the road.
I know what you mean, and many many small adventures can be run without a S0. But any adventure that requires characters to have a backstory to tie into the campaign that will run a year or so… yeah, S0 will be a time saver in the long run. It‘s normally just an hour where the DM shows the setting and expectations are shared so that 10 sessions down the line you don‘t suddenly realise it‘s all shit.
I don't think it is a hot take personally. Depending on the campaign and how it begins session 0 and session 1 can be combined. Or atleast do half of session 1 that way some actual dnd was able to be played.
Session 0 doesn't have to be a full-length session lined up with whatever regular schedule is intended to sustain the campaign proper. It *does* have to generate a groupwide commitment to the terms of that campaign. I hear what you're saying about dabbling just to see if a group is viable before considering a long term effort. Yet I believe, if you do embark on that long term effort, even a session 0 that does fully displace the first proper session of the campaign is likely to be worthwhile. A lot of those same discussions would have come up during play anyway -- and not always in moments best-suited to clear calm deliberation. Front-loading talk about rules in use, the setting, general campaign themes, individual squicks, etc. creates the space to forge practical compromises through abstract discussion rather than disagreement in the thick of an encounter. Also, a serious conversation about the general tone of the campaign can be hugely helpful to DMs improvising content, which almost all of us do to one degree or another.
When I DM, I always go with 'Figure out why you're travelling together before the game starts'. I'm sure there are stories to tell about groups coming together, but I find that having them all be an established team ahead of time solves 95% of issues with player buy-in and party infighting.
Amusingly the Dungeon Dudes put out a video talking about this topic. Having the players start with some sort of ties to each other benefit the game. A paladin escorting the rogue to trial before needing to work together, survivors of a goblin attack that hadn't met before the event.
My group had to add C) is someone others would work with. Our old rule was all characters like each other and will work with each other. Then someone created a PC who betrayed the party once, and then continuously did the equivalent of pointing an empty gun at people an pulling the trigger. That and a bad DM caused our group to almost break up.
I'm pretty sure it even says that in the PHB or the DMG. Our group has had this problem in the past.
This 10000%. I’ve started framing it with an added: “You love the party, and the party loves you”. Even if some PCs _think_ they don’t get along, we as players must know they’re in this together no matter what. Nips any Lone Wolf nonsense in the bud.
Bonus feat at 1st level. No restrictions beyond prereqs. Yes even for V.human **Runner ups** Inspiration is a reroll and not a source of advantage Healing potions are a bonus action for rolled healing. An action for max healing. Giving another character a potion is an action, but thus max healing. Fast hands feature allows bonus action but still grants max healing. I've got a lot of tweaks like this to my home games.
A lot of people disagree and think variant human should be banned if you do this, but honestly, you're experiencing diminishing returns, your second feat won't be your top priority because you already took it. Some character builds like polearm sentinel fighter rely on the interaction between two feats to work, yes, but they tend to be in the more underwhelming classes. You're taking your assets from feats because the class doesn't offer them.
I know a lot of people disagree, but I have more fun as a DM when I allow this, and as a player when it's allowed, and there is that part way diminishing return you mention.. It makes the game more fun for us, so I'm generous with it.
Then you can focus on your ability scores. A lot of people get frustrated by the limitations of martial characters yet fight against the idea that ~~decent~~ superhumanly high (18-20) ability scores in more than one stat would go a long way toward making them more competitive.
90% of the time they're rolling either Strength or Dexterity. A slightly higher save is not a significant competitive edge. And no matter how high the stats go, "swing sword, deal damage, pass turn" is boring. People want options.
Ranged builds are typically better than melee builds because there's less pressure on them for personal defense, Archery Fighting Style exists, and Sharpshooter backs up any ranged weapon build. Meanwhile a melee character has to hit (typically Str or Dex) while also having the HP to back up their frontline position (Con). If you're using 27 point buy, which many *many* tables use, you typically end up with two scores with a +3 modifier. You can get 3 if you choose a race that can add +1 to three scores (16/16/16/8/8/8). Now, let's say you're a GWM fighter. Your two highest scores go into Str and Con. That covers exactly 1 Skill - Athletics. Take your final stat and build the rest of your functionality outside of combat with it. Do you want to be good at Perception - the most commonly rolled skill in the game? Or do you want to be a paladin or Eldritch Knight? Maybe you were hoping to be charming and intelligent. Sure you can RP that way, but it's rough when you know you'll eventually have to make skill checks and they won't back up what you've got in mind. Having a reliable social stat can also become one of your combat options. I allow my players to talk to their enemies during combat. They're much more willing to take me up on that when they have a 14 Charisma than they are with an 8. Having decent information gathering skills lets you mechanically contribute to the game in a way other than attack and damage. I'm not really addressing whether martial actions turn by turn are boring. Some players enjoy having a rhythm to their actions. Others enjoy spontaneity. I like Warlocks. I spend most of my turns using Eldritch Blast. I pay attention to what my teammates are doing and help them look stuff up for their turns. Having a ton of options every turn doesn't appeal to me as much as a decent and reliable action to fall back on every round.
As of TCE, every race can add +1 to three scores. I don't mean to take from your other points, you make light of very valid issues, just wanted to add that tidbit in case it helps others reading this
I give VHuman the "skill expert" feat in lieu of their normal racial feat. Then they can can have a bonus feat same as anyone else.
That's actually a pretty neat alternate rule, and I might swipe it.
Hell ya. I use the 1st level feats from One DnD for all my campaigns.
I use all these. Just makes everyone feel a bit more powerful, and more useful as many of my players took something utility rather than power-centered for their free feat. And it's not really much for me to balance for either. Except for Observant. That one drives me nuts!
We use the potion one too I love it
It helps give them so much more worth to their value!
Wait inspiration gives you advantage RAW? Ive never played at a table that has done that. Huh.
I also give out inspiration for free at the top of each game session
I like this healing potion rule. I can’t imagine how frustrating it would be to use up your action to drink a potion and you roll a bunch of ones.
What do you mean with reroll instead of ADV? Isn't it the same? Sorry I didn't get it
Bonus feat at character creation is my favorite house rule now that my whole group are experienced players. We still tend to start new campaigns in the 3-5 range for levels and it helps keep the early levels from feeling overly boring and usually ends up adding some fun flavor to a new character.
I do the bonus feat if they give adequate backstory. I'm not very exacting on that either.
It made Human a race worth playing for 3/3.5 They don't get an ASI they get a feat, sounds balanced since they're considered equal in terms of character progress.
I love this idea of making a thief rogue a nonmagical healer! Thieves are fun to play but don't level well. This is a nice boon.
Show up on time (before posted game start) and gain inspiration.
I’m neurotically at my DMs house fifteen minutes before the game starts every time because If I leave with the intention of showing up right on time i spend the entire drive worrying that I’ll be late and being late to something is the worst possible thing anyone could ever do and I’ll literally die
^^^ this guy ADHD anxiety early arrivals
I would have inspiration at all times, I often am on the discord call well before even the dm is
Inspiration works like the Lucky feat - it's a reroll.
The BG3 way. Honestly such a nice change
Isn't that already how it works? Or has my table been doing it wrong
nope, RAW you declare it before you roll to get advantage
Ahhh, well we homebrew a lot of stuff anyway so I'm not surprised
It's normally roll with advantage I guess in this case they can just save it to be more retroactive? Which kinda works I guess
We have always done this. YOu fail and the group looks for who has an inspiration they can share to give that teammate advantage.
I have to pick *one*? Hmmm. > When making an opportunity attack, one may elect to Grapple or Shove instead of performing a melee weapon attack. This little guy does an impressive amount of work in making otherwise basic monsters/encounters more interesting, and giving melee combatants actual advantages.
The one dnd play test had an option. If you succeed on a melee weapon attack, you can choose to shove or grapple instead of doing damage. It essentially changes a contested skill challenge to an attack. Grappling is an unusual action in 5e, in that it does not consider armor class or saves.
Yeah. Pretty much everything surrounding Athletics is weird in 5e. Perhaps the most common change I apply to monster statblocks is giving them proficiency in Athletics because they *should* be good at manhandling people If Athletics loses its combat utility though, then it becomes pretty worthless. IIRC, jumping distance is determined by Strength alone. Climbing and swimming are often irrelevant thanks to magic that grants swimming, climbing, or even flying speeds.
Oh good! I’m not alone; I do this too (where appropriate)! Edit: give (some) monsters the athletic skill. I can’t fathom for the life of me why dragons — the epitome of power and physical prowess — don’t have it.
Great strenght does not equal training or natural prowess in hand to hand combat with said strenght, and dragons normally don't really have to overcome a lot of grappling or shoving most of the time, they are too big and deadly, and the ocasional magically enlarged warrior or rival giant are far and few between to consider.
dragons would be less likely to have it than a lot of other beasties - they're not exactly hitting the gym to get swole! There's not much in their lives that's going to push them to their limits, and they're not learning how to wrestle or anything, so most aren't going to have specific training in such things (it's the same as "just because they're old, doesn't mean they have _history_ proficiency" - there's likely entire centuries that, from a dragon's PoV, were "I raided some towns, looted some gold. Looked like the empire was having a bad time, IDK, wasn't really paying attention")
I like this. I’m always someone that tries to reward and be more lenient rules-wise about things that are team work or tactical focused decisions.
Wait, this is not RAW?
[No.](https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/sac/sage-advice-compendium#SA133) RAW you can only shove / grapple (without any other features ) by using Attack action. OA is not Attack action.
Hah. Thank you. We decided once that "any attack" could be used to grapple or shove and never bothered to look it up if that's RAW or not.
Also FYI, Monster's [multiattack](https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/sac/sage-advice-compendium#SA137) is also a "Multiattack Action" and not "Attack Action", so they also couldn't be replaced with Shove or Grapple.
This is why monster stat blocks dictate exactly which attacks they have work with multiattack. If they have 3 attacks they can take, usually only the melee options have multiattack.
This is also a GREAT rule for players who don't want to kill their opponents but stop/apprehend them instead. It's weird that RAW D&D doesn't let you try to stop someone from running away 😅
If you're able to do melee attacks, you're also able to do nonlethal damage. Grappling is great for when you want to stop the BBEG's minions from pressing that button on the doomsday device. It's less great for stopping an enemy from hitting you to death.
Doesn't this alternative nerf the Sentinel feat *a little*?
In my current game, in order to keep the party from resting between every encounter without having to absolutely stuff their days full of 5-8 encounter or something, I have a house rule about long rests. Long rests require the party to spend 24 hours in a settlement doing essentially nothing beyond general carousing and shopping. I would allow wizards to scribe scrolls, but we don't have a wizard. This does three things. 1) it let's me have them have days between encounters without them being fresh for everything they do. 2) it encourages them to take time off to just visit cities and explore the cultures that I spent a month and a half building. 3) it let's me set due dates for things in a more abstract way; e.g. they have 3 long rests before a festival they want to go to happens, and it's in the country on the other side of the neighboring country, and with the due date being based on that, I don't need to track down exactly how long things take to do. So far, my players have really enjoyed it. They were leery of it at first, but it ended up being very healthy for the game.
I like this idea, is the in between the gritty realism rules and the normal ones. Have you tested it at lower levels? was it challenging due to lower counts of spell slots or something?
I've tested it from level 3 to level 6 so far. They had 7 encounters without a chance to rest at level 4, but only 4 of them were actual combat; two of them were with hostile animals that they managed to talk down, so there could have been up to 6 combats but instead they taught a cave bear how to fish and convinced giant eagles to fly them across a broken bridge in exchnage for not going near their nest. They had to track food and started with 2 days' worth and had to get that to last 2 weeks. They ended up with a 2nd level spell slot on the sorcerer left and a 1st level spell on the bard left. Which they used to cheat at a race against each other on the way to the hero training ground they were supposed to end at. They weren't allowed to use goodberry. But they did have an 8th level Druid with them to keep track of them and mark their progress, but he spent all of his time wildshaped into a bird and following them around. They've had plenty of adventures. We have played about 15 sessions a year for 3 years so far.
I love doing the "How do you wanna do this?" thing from Matt Mercer. My players get hype every single time. I think in general giving players more agency on the game is better. It also makes my life easier as a DM.
I started doing this and it brought our two shyest players completely out of their shells. I was blown away. It's like that imagination new people sometimes have that then collides with the rules and can dampen down a bit (like improvised equipment, called shots, etc.) just came roaring back in their excitement and creativity on cool "finishing moves."
The variation I picked up from my first DM was "Describe your kill." Different folks have different comfort levels of describing the final blow, but even the most basic "I stab him in the belly" is still able to get everyone hyped up.
I've had more success wording it as "How would you like to finish the fight?" Had a couple players not understand what I meant when I said Matt Mercer's way lol
My variation on this specifically for boss monsters which my players seem to love, is that i ask how everyone else in the party contributes and then with their help I ask the person who actually got the finishing blow how they finish it off and then narate it
I haaate this! Don't come after me! I know it can be used for good! 😅 It's my experience, it's usually the DM putting someone on the spot when they don't expect it. "Uhh.. quickly, I guess. Arrow through the eye?" 9 times out of 10. That 1/10 can be amazing, but I didn't feel like it balances out the other 9 unless the whole group is fully into it.
5-10min short rest. Limit twice per day.
10m? I like this a lot, maybe will implement
It’s a good change, doesn’t make people as apprehensive about taking short rests, limiting it is also nice as players as then used to managing stuff more
Crits deal a max damage die and a rolled damage die.
Mathematically this is good but half the fun of a crit is pouring a ridiculous number of dice onto the tray "Clackkky clack clack click clakciity cicky click clack clackclikx clajcikkit clack!"
But nothing sucks more than rolling a crit and getting regular damage output
It's true rolling a handful of ones on a crit is a real bummer. Like I said, the math is good. But it's the goblin part of the brain that craves the click clacks
As a DM, I don't mind failing to crit kill the level 1 wizard.
"Crit... on... the wizard..." *Roll dice* "Oh, look over there!" *Slide DM screen to hide dice* "Wow, nothing more than a 2!"
I call that the brutal critical rule, thanks to the dungeon dudes. It gets confusing when our Lv15 half orc barbarian has to round up all his sources of extra damage dice but it makes him feel like a baddass when rolling 4d12+60 lol
Just martials or casters too?
Maxed out inflict wounds would be straight up murder 💀. Then again so is a maxed out divine smite
Inspiration means drawing a card from a deck and that number is added to whatever roll you do. Yes, ANY. Been playing with it for some time and holy fuck it's awesome that sometimes a player just says: No DM, F U here's a +20. (Ace)
That sounds really fun actually
Yes! Summarized it here how I use it. https://www.legendkeeper.com/app/clj78118isjk70824tnlk1bj3/clkw81gaw000u033clbk8svbt/
Probably a little too much to call a house rule but I always say that if my player comes to me with an idea for a race or a subclass or a spell or something that doesn't exist n can't really be relplicated by reflavoring other stuff, and they're CERTAIN this is what they wanna do, I will make it for them. Like a cantrip for one of my players who was like a stage magician so I gave him a cantrip to shoot arcane doves from his sleeves at someone within 5ft and they have to make a dex save or be blinded for a turn, it came out pretty balanced and he had fun with it. I've also made races and subclasses before. It's a lot of work which is why I do ask that they be 100% certain it's what they want before I start working on it, but I really love making homebrew so it's a win win most of the time :3
Really nice cantrip idea. Does it scale in some way at higher levels (5/11/17)? I'd personally leave it as it is, though maybe something minor could be added
It was a one shot so I didn't bother to think about it, but it's a status condition so it won't really lose effectiveness as levels go up, since it'll scale with enemy power
Ahaha, one of my players did the same sort of thing and I went and made a whole little hombrew system of like, magical runestones (unrelated to the Rune Knight stuff) and it was a lot of fun making it for her, and she seems to have a ton of fun when she does use them.
Everyone gets a free feat at character creation.
Whenever you gain a feat you gain the +2 ability score as well. Doesn't apply to extra feats Fighters and Rogues get. Feats are fun. High stats are fun. I don't want players to have to choose between them. Enemy balance can be adjusted for the stronger PCs
* Short rests are 5min, you can take them individually and you get 2 per LR. I wouldn't want to DM without that rule. It makes my life so much easier and fixes many inter party balance issues.
I did 10 minutes just to match rituals, but yea it has def changed how my players think about being able to take short rests between fights and whatnot.
I do 15 minutes without a restriction on number of short rests per long rest. I talked with my group about this being a simplification for narrative purposes, and not an avenue for cheesery. So far it's worked out well.
Bg3 short rests really help a lot of 5es balance issues too
How do they do it?
You get 2 short rests per long rest and they don't take up any time, just refreshes you like a short rest would
This is exactly how I handle it.
If I made a mistake earlier that benefited the party I will NOT retcon it. It's my fault for misremembering or misreading.
same
Numerically on my numbered list? Anyone can use any scroll regardless of class
This is a good one, I don't like scrolls just being functionally extra spell slots.
Yeah theyre pointless RAW outside of a wizard learning the spells. Theyre best used as magic for the magicless
Healing potion is a bonus action
Anyone can attune to anything provided they have the attunement slot . So yeah you can pass a fighter a wand of fireballs . It kind of makes more sense , like why give the person who can already throw fireballs, a way to throw fireballs? Magic items should grant more options to the weilder
This seems fun, I may add my own version of this.
Real answer: The ones that I feel most people use; - Drinking a Potion of Healing is a bonus action, and giving it to someone else is an action. - Inspiration is a reroll, no roll with advantage. Fun answer: The most popular house rule we have developed and has been implemented in a lot of our games at players request (though they have actually yet to utilise it!) is that they can use exhaustion points to cast spells when they have zero spell slots of any level left. 1st level costs 1 point exhaustion, 3rd level costs 3 points of exhaustion etc. The idea is that those who can utilise magic can push their body beyond their limits in exchange to still cast a spell. It's probably unbalanced and a little broken, but we feel it will make for a marvellous RP moment the day it ever gets used in play!
When the times were dire and the rolls catastrophic, we'll all remember when Cory the cleric provided us with a heroes feast to let us push on. Alas, it pushed him a little too far...?
Considering how harsh the exhaustion is in 5e, I'd say it balances out
Players roll their death saves behind a little screen, hidden even from me, the DM. They survive or perish on the honour system.
I have my DM roll my death saves in secret from even me
I honestly love this method, even as a player. It prevents meta-gaming around picking up fallen allies when only the DM knows their status. I know some people hate the notion of not rolling them themselves, but the extra tension is worth the cost, IMHO
this is actually hilarious
No attunement limits. Completely fixes the martial caster divide, at least at the levels I've played at (up to 14).
> Completely fixes the martial caster divide, at least at the levels I've played at (up to 14). Is that "no limit to the number of attuned items" or just "ignoring the class requirements"?
If it’s boring, throw it out. I appreciate rules like encumbrance being there for people who want a more intensive experience, but I don’t feel immersed when my players are counting coppers and using tables to figure out how many make a silver. For the sake of expediency, I’m willing to let a lot of the micromanaging fall by the wayside.
We don't do sex or relationships at all, i'm not role playing it. I don't need your half-ass romance novel in my ttrpg.
I get ‘no sex’, that’s like ‘no we don’t rp your bathroom visits either thank you’, but love? No deep feelings allowed?
I do actually ask my players whenever they're in a new area how they want to handle the bathroom situation. It's a little gross but it's how I confirm if they're using an outhouse, going into a corner, using indoor plumbing ect. Same with "oh your finally in a town/city, do any of you find a way to bathe yourselves?" Why? A little bit of immersion now and then, and also because one day I plan on having a toilet mimic/bathroom assassin encounter. One day...
Yeah, flavour. You don't have to make a big thing of it, but it's character establishing. We had a long running campaign where the party moved with an army as a kind of spec-ops group. Early on we camped by a river and my character was "kit off, in the river with 50 others, scrub scrub, no body awareness" and another character spent ages finding somewhere private to bathe. It was completely related to the character backgrounds and contributed to plenty of roleplay moments later on.
It makes sense, for any group. Even between friends, and knowing it's all fake, it could feel awkward to go any more in depth beyond just saying "I love you" to an NPC your character has built a relationship with.
> just saying "I love you" to an NPC Unless you say it à la Patrick Star selling chocolate bars.
This one time we got back to town, and the DM asks us what we're doing. I didnt have anything I needed, so I just said, "my character just gets hookers & blow," because it was an in-character thing for him to do. So he goes around the table and everyone else roleplays out their business. He gets to me and starts up the scene in the local brothel, and *I was not prepared for that to happen.*
This is one of mine too. If one of my players wants to go on a date with me they can ask out of game
But then that would he metagaming!
That makes little sense to me. They have "fights" with you all the time and hopefully they're not sticking a sword in you or fireballing you out of game? We handle any sort of casual "You're in a bar and you're looking to hook up?" stuff with "Roll... and you do. Roll... and they don't rob you. Next." Any sort of longer term romance stuff is veiled (eg fade to black, don't bore the rest of the table).
jeremy crawford is not the dungeon master.
He is at my table but we keep @ing him on twitter and he never acknowledges us or shows up. It's starting to ruin the experience tbh
If you find a rule I'm doing wrong you get inspiration, also making revivify work and the usual stuff. I'm a big fan of a free level one feat as well, helps keep the martials relevant and opens up some races besides vuman and clineage.
On character creation, players may choose between 1 Feat or 1 Common/Uncommon magical item. This bonus must be entwined with the characters backstory either as a key element, or defining feature of the character.
Level up hit dice are either whats rolled or they take the average roll. So if for instance a bard rolls they can at minimum get 5, maximum 8. I have other more important houserules, but they have all been mentioned.
I don't know why but I did the math. Finally figured out the formatting ##Average Health Per Level |Hit Die|Rolled|Take average (round up)|Reroll 1s|Reroll 1s and 2s|Your method| |:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-| |d6|3.5|4|4|4.5|4.5| |d8|4.5|5|5|5.5|5.75| |d10|5.5|6|6|6.5|7| |d12|6.5|7|7|7.5|8.25| ##Average Hitpoints at Level 11 with Con 14 |Hit Die|Rolled|Take average (round up)|Reroll 1s|Reroll 1s and 2s|Your method| |:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-| |d6|63|67|67|72|72| |d8|75|80|80|85|87.5| |d10|87|92|92|97|102| |d12|99|104|104|109|116.5|
Don’t let Greg have cheese after 8 pm.
I wonder what happened that this ended up being a rule lol
Greg is remembred for the one who invented Stinking Cloud
For crits, you roll the crit dice as normal, but you take the maximum value on all other dice. So a level 5 Rogue with 16 Dex a dagger can't go below 29 on a critical hit.
oooh my table do this too!!!
Kind of boring, but my Rule #1 is “Don’t make me make a rule.” Basically, we’re all mature, we can all stop and think about what we’re about to say or do and make an educated guess about if it’s going to make the game uncomfortable or unfun for someone. We’re all here to have fun, we all know we’re here to have fun, let’s try not to ruin it for anyone. Rule #2 just has to do with modesty at the table. But Rule #3 is Alex must be sober while playing. Go ahead and guess who broke Rule #1 and how.
Of all of the house rules we use, I think the single most important one is that every member of the party must know at least one other member of the party from their backstory, and have a valid reason for adventuring and working as a team. It immediately puts a halt to any of those loner edge lord types, though my groups don't have those kinds of players anymore anyhow.
Any effects players might try to inflict on each other (such as Dragon Fear), charisma checks, or any kind of PvP requires above table consent from the recipient. Keeps creeps from making anyone uncomfortable and prevents unfair character death.
Same. I also declare that attempting to steal from other players is PVP which requires enthusiastic above table consent
No Conjure Animals or other mass summon spells. It's not even about how strong those spells are. It's because I prefer running shorter sessions of about 2 hours or so. These spells would absolutely *slaughter* the pacing of the game. The various Summon X spells are a much healthier alternative.
I have a similar rule, which just caps # of minions at 2 per player in combat. Doesn't matter how you got them, just make sure to stay at or under 2.
I personally have found that using minion rules for them works really well, by that I mean you add their health together, and they make one attack at advantage that deals half of their combined damages, for example say you have 6 creatures that do 1d6+3 each, you roll to hit with advantage and deal 3d6+9, it speeds it up a lot for my groups at least
Don't be an ass
I think that's just a regular rule, you know the whole "everyone have fun" part
My favorite house rule as well for any game.
Ours is "Don't be a dick", but close enough.
Well no one's mentioned Darkvision, so alongside the usual suspects I'll say- Regular darkvision only works when there is *some* light. There's a new lighting state called *pitch darkness* which mechanically is like magical darkness except any light source will turn it into regular darkness outside of whatever radius. Anyone with "true Darkvision" or whatever also has sunlight sensitivity.
Combat will not be "balanced". Use your wits.
Combat will be balanced for people who use their wits. I make sure that my encounters are not unbeatable unless that's by design, but my players shouldn't expect to succeed by approaching them on autopilot. There would be no point in having an encounter, then.
The Bad Guys want to win.
Being how much of the game I have homebrewed I really only declare one house rule Don’t be a dick
1. Leave your personal drama at the door
If you are out of combat the health potion that you use heals you to its full amount. If you were in combat you roll.
Spells like Tiny hut, Wall of force, etc have AC and high, but limited hp.
We've been running on No Take Backs. If you say that your character tries something, or if you speak in character, that is what happens. Roll the dice. It has saved a huge amount of time where people used to back peddle every time it was revealed that an action might have even a minor consequence.
Lemme guess: this thread is full of eleventy-six "bonus action to roll HP from potions".
It's off to a good start on that front actually lol I don't use that because a potion is a bonus action is really unrealistic, but I buff the healing potions in various other ways to try to make them worth an action. The as-written version of them isn't very great.
Off topic, but it's pretty absurd that even thieves can't drink potions as a bonus action with fast hands.
“Bribing the DM is a legitimate solution.”
Everyone plays. Nobody quits. We work things out like adults.
Familiars can benefit from spells with range of “Self”
All PCs will be someone who wants to adventure, who will work with others, and who others would work with. If your PC is unable to do that, alter them or roll a new PC.
We had a house rule that if you performed an attack while falling on an enemy you would deal damage equal to half the amount of damage you would've taken had you fallen on the ground in addition to whatever your weapon hits for and the fall damage for you is reduced by half on a successful hit. If you miss you just splat, but it led to a few very good moments as a last resort. It originally came up as one of those one off things someone wanted to try since they had an opportunity to leap off a tower onto a dragon to perform a plunging attack from 300ft in the air and what good DM would say no to letting them attempt it. It felt fair as a ruling so we just ran with it from then on.
1. Critical hits deal 1 roll + 1 max roll, instead of 2 rolls. Worst thing in game to roll a crit and then deal no damage. MUCH more fun with proper crits. 2. Bonus feat at lv1. It’s just more fun fleshing out your builds that way. 3. Player dealing the killing blow gets to act out the finishing move with zero restrictions on its absurdity. One of my players is a hunter and tends to go in-depth on which bones his barbarian cracks first.
First three levels (up to level 4) you take max roll for Hit Dice. 5 and after you start rolling
**Potions** You can grab a potion from your inventory and drink it as a BONUS ACTION, normally this takes up a ACTION If you want to spend an ACTION to drink a healing potion rather than rolling for the amount healed it is the MAXIMUM e.g. a Healing Potion normally heals 2d4+2 it will instead heal 10 health if used as an Action. Using a potion on another Player is still an ACTION, you have to be next to them and the potion in yours or their possession. Health is ROLLED in this case. If you want to 'throw a potion', it is done as a roll to hit an AC of 10(+1 for each enemy between you and them and each enemy surrounding the receiver). This takes an ACTION. and it uses up the receivers REACTION. There is a 50% chance of a missed potion being destroyed before being recovered. Yes, guess who had to write in Baulders Gate III stuff....
tell me your final roll without correcting and adding. them: “i rolled a 12.” me: “you missed.” moves to next character. them: “oh! plus my ability modifier, proficiency bonus, bless, bardic inspiration, some rando add… i got a 25!” me: sighing as i am partway through the next character’s turn already. “give.me.your.final.answer.the.first.time.” as i slowly grind my teeth.
If you say your turn is done then it’s done, your mistake. It slows everything down if not
As someone who maths out loud this would suck
i’m totally okay if they say hey i need a few seconds to add all this up.
I have a couple: - Inspiration works as advantage or reroll. - bonus action healing potions. - Flanking (+2 variant). And an optional addition for dungeon crawls: Quick Rest - party can take 10 minutes to patch themselves up, using a single hit dice to heal.
We do *not* finish sessions mid battle. If it happens, then a stalemate is assumed and all parties still alive get to escape to fight another day.
remember to have fun and try your best!
Not DM yet (soon though!) and my first would be sorcerers get to use spell points + sorcery points combined pool
Character death will always be narratively meaningful. I had a character one time who essentially had a banana peel slip death (the DM did try to find ways to save me, but I rolled 3 d20s all 4 and under), and it was a real bummer for me. I've got no problem with longer term injuries from something like that but never character death
I house ruled that the crit is the full value of the die + a roll. For example if you attack with a long sword it would be 10 + 1d10.
Players bring snacks.
For character creation: Answer these questions 1. Who are you? And why are you an adventurer willing to travel with a party 2. How, or from whom did you acquire your skills or abilities? 3. What is a person, place, or thing that you do not currently have in your possession (or easy access to), that is important to your character. I just like to flesh out the PCs a bit. For actual gameplay: I have always used grazes. Met the AC? Half damage.
After a fight we had where there was some frustration with how it went down, I sent this in our DnD chat the next day. "From now on, you will have full discretion as to whether or not your damage is lethal or non-lethal. You can declare it at any point during your turn when you do damage, and you may do it with any spell, attack, or ability that deals damage."
Its pretty simple, if you dont read how your class works and how many spells and spell slots you get and never ask for clarification from me before the game, i am allowed to yell at you. My time as a DM is very limited and very valuable, as i dont have very many days i can plan or play and i explain things very thoroughly to my players when they ask about it. Anytime i give out a level up, it is done just before a break or the end of the game, allowing the players to get some food and have the time to talk over the level up with me before we play some more. I give plenty of time and warning before the games, so in the 2 weeks i give you there is definitely enough time to ask me questions or get a character at least playable in combat before we start the game. It takes a lot of effort to get everyones schedule to line up for a night of d&d, so dont waste everyone elses time fumbling with your class for something you could have asked about weeks ago. I can understand heat of the moment rules interactions that dont come up often, and i can understand not knowing what the different monsters abilities do, but not knowing the basic functions of a class such as how cantrips work (yes, i had a player not ask about this and not know how they worked) is just a waste of everyones time.
Long rest gives you half your hit dice back and not a full heal. However eating good food in a warm safe bed gives boona to your hti dice rolls
Attunement slots equally 3 or PROFICIENCY whatever higher was a fun one a dm used.
Long rests take one day of rest.
Never prevent a player from taking action. I hate any kind of spell or ability that basically skips the player's turn. Nothing will cause a player to lose interest faster.
Crits do double damage. I like big numbers, and if its a boss, i can tweak their hp as needed without players knowing to keep the fight going longer. also i remove dispell magic and detect magic and make them skill checks instead. I like the idea that spell casters have to actually work for magic. I like to think that they can sense the magic around them and that they can tear spells apart like tearing seams out of a shirt or cutting a tennis racket properly or itll explode
Crits are rolled like normal but you add the maximum possible damage on top of what you roll
Crunchy crits. On a crit, your damage is the max amount of ALL dic3 involved + the rolls of those dice. Crits should mean something, should have teeth. These rules apply for monsters and PCs, and it does apply to Sneak Attack, Smite, and Spell Attacks
Everyone levels up simultaneously. We track XP separately, but as soon as one character pops, everyone does. 2/3 of our group has young kids, so more missed games, but this helps mitigate the impact of that.
I'm very bad about giving out magic items that are VERY abusable. So with great power comes great responsibility, don't make the game unfun with it or I reserve the right to take it away
I drop attunement. I'm the DM, I decide what iteme these chucklefucks get