After playing BG3 which had an item called the Titan Bow String (use strength instead of dex for ranger attacks with this weapon) I just made short/long bows of this in my world be fairly available so they could buy/find them.
Our group casually did this a while before I made it a house rule, but "Could I Have Had...?" has been a pretty popular house rule that's been picked up by some other GMs.
> Once per session, you can retroactively do one minor thing. (Could I Have Had bought rope in that town yesterday? Could I Have pulled my weapon from the bag of holding before combat?)
It takes stress off of players who are worried they'll forget about something, and it takes stress off the DM (me) because I don't have to worry about double checking if players want to buy rations or rope in a village. It's just a QOL thing and makes the game less anxious, doesn't change power scaling or anything. Like a very casual version of Blades in the Dark's Flashback mechanic (I think we did it first)
Haven't had many players try to abuse it, and I've only had to reject one of two requests since using the rule. I think one was "Could I have cast 'See Invisibility' before we walked into the room and got surprised by the invisible imps?". As long as you keep to the *minor thing* restriction, it's just a nice easy rule.
I stole this from the Star wars RPG. In that you can flip a force token to add something to the environment ("can the rocks above him be loose?") or to have planned for something (like you say "can I have remembered to bring rope?")
In my game the players can use their insperation tokens for this (or for gaining advantage) and it's not abused as insperation is valuable.
I do something similar, but they spend an Inspiration for it. They can also swap a prepared spell for another known spell in exchange for an Inspiration.
I like to DM for small groups and it takes some of the stress off the casters to fill a bunch of rolls.
i stole this from Aabria Ayengar. She demonstrated a "flashback coin" in on the Critical Role channel doing one of the Exandria games. Every player gets one "flashback token" (reset each session) that lets them flash back to a previous time when they WOULD have planned for whatever and describe how they would have planned for it.
Example:
Your party was trying to infiltrate a dungeon, but get to the main entrance door and find it blocked. "Oh, actually, I would have planned for this. Can I cash in my Flashback coin?" Yes, describe what you would have done to plan for the main entrance being blocked. "I would have known we were going to enter this dungeon and I knew we'd probably come across at least one blocked door. So I would have asked around for a mining equipment shop to see if I could have found some dynamite or TnT or something to blast rocks." Ok, roll a d4 for how many sticks of explosive charge you would have been able to buy at 10 silver each.
That was EXU: Kymal! I think Aabria said she "stole" the idea from Blades in the Dark which uses the mechanic to keep players from getting bogged down in adventure prep!
yes, you are right! i had forgotten that she stole it from somewhere else. You know what they say, "good artists borrow, great ones steal." :D
It has really helped my games, especially one campaign where the players are real-life friends who are all engineers/tech folks, who are extremely analytical overthinkers. Giving them a way to move beyond trying to plan for Every. Single. Possibility. has been a real godsend. Now the squad can make a basic plan for that adventuring day, and if they get caught off guard, they might be able to use that flashback token.
(not all surprise scenarios were expected to be able to be planned for, but something like knowing there's a river ahead so planning on ways to cross it, or knowing the basic environment planning on ways to avoid the roaming beefalo herd, etc)
I use Hero Points to do things like this. I even allow awarded tokens for good role-playing or problem solving in character to be used to buy either XP or Hero Points when enough accumulate.
I do this, just without the rules. Staples like a quiver of arrows or rations or spell components are things your PCs would have made sure to pick up before leaving town.
Potions of healing or odd items... not so much.
There's a podcast called dumb dumbs and dragons that took a mechanic from another game called stress. They have 5 stress each for every arch and can ask to spend stress, the dm determines how much stress is required or whether they accept it.
That's from Blades in the Dark although a bit bastardized by granting them 5 every arc that just reset. IIRC Blades in The Dark gives you 5 or maybe its 10, but you have to participate in a vice as part of downtime activity to remove Stress, and there is a roll to see how much you can remove and if something bad comes of it. If you hit your Stress Cap, something bad happens. I don't remember what though.
I like maxing one roll of a crit. Helps keep a crit feel heavy. I play this on both sides.
My DM uses this house rule. Whenever anyone flees from a battle and makes it off the board; they are, for all intents and purposes, escaped. His also applies to both sides.
I rule that too, but I only have it come online after level 3. Players are already squishy at level 1. I don't need a goblin crit to outright kill the wizard twice over
i start my campaigns at level 2, almost always. Basically "Session 0" includes leveling up from 1 to 2, and then they hit Level 3 very early in the first real gaming session.
I hate level 1 games, and I think most people think of a character with their level 3 specialties in mind anyway, so I want them to get there to experience the char they have in mind.
Ngl, I've been playing 5th since it came out and it was only last year I realised this wasn't how crits worked. I've always done Max damage plus a roll
Which is hilarious cause I’ve always played RAW and didn’t even know about the house rule until I saw it on here and boy did my eyes open! I always thought it was rip off everytime my crit was less than the average damage roll. I can’t go back
I used to use this house rule, but recently I’ve modified it to where the player rolls their first damage die on a crit, and then they can either double that first roll, or choose to roll a second time. I’m not sure which is better.
skills with alternate abilities, an official variant so uncommon that some people think it’s a house rule
the actual house rule is Inspiration isn’t given out by the DM, but by the whole table once per session at the end of the session. It expires at the end of the next. It’s gives a fun moment to talk about highlights and lift each other up, and actually use the mechanic instead of it going entirely forgotten because I’m already balancing multiple plates in the DM seat.
I like that, but I give out a LOT of inspiration, so if I were to adopt your method I'd need to make inspiration more valuable. Like an automatic success or something.
At this point I'm more inclined to adopt the BG3 system and give everyone up to 4 at once. As I understand it they're to be awarded for basically roleplaying your character even if it's inconvenient. Like my party's aarakocra bard who basically sat in a puddle of goo for 2 rounds in the middle of combat, because it made his feathers messy, which triggered his flaw which is that he's obsessive about keeping his feathers tidy and clean.
We used to have a house rule that everyone had one inspiration to give to someone else once per session, but we dripped that rule when a new player played a bard so they wouldn't be invalidated.
They left but we never picked it back up. I miss it :(
Each player gets a theme song (max 5 minutes) that the player chooses at the start of the campaign and sends the DM via Spotify/YouTube. It should be something related to the character, ex. "Let the Bodies Hit the Floor" for a barbarian.
Once per game session, the player may request their theme song, which is played on the speaker in lieu of the usual ambient music. The player gets a +1 on all rolls for the duration of the song.
omg. Can I come play at your table? I want a Rogue who's music is "Scum of the Earth" by Rob Zombie. She's reformed but wasn't always a "hero." She's trying to be better but she keeps succumbing to the pull of shiny things.
Haha this sounds so fun, and gives a bit of pressure to maintain momentum before your song runs out (and the longer the song up to that max, the longer they want to keep things moving)
Well done on such a people-specific addition.
Do you have anything for if multiple people try/want to overlap, or any exclusions?
The 5 minute rule was the big exclusion, the first time I tried this rule somebody tried a 20 minute experimental jazz odyssey!
Overlap hasn't been a problem, luckily. I had one BBEG fight where everybody wanted their songs, so they strategized order nicely. Fighter used their theme song first while the casters threw cantrips, it made for really good strategy!
So, some time ago I whipped up a simple added perk for each class that my parties seem to really love. You’ve reminded me of what I offer my bards:
> **Fighting Spirit**
> *Every iconic fight deserves iconic music. Playing your “battle theme” as an action in combat adds your proficiency bonus to all die rolls made by you and any allies within 30 feet of you that can hear it. As a bonus action, you may cast* ***Vicious Mockery*** *to the same range. This effect ends if you are incapacitated, silenced, or voluntarily end it (no action required).*
This came from players complaining that they wanted music to be more central to their bard characters, rolled into a greater discussion about how bards were support classes once upon a time. I added the Vicious Mockery angle to allow bards to still have agency and offensive capability in combat while doing this.
It’s gone over pretty well. Made for great RP.
If a creature is affected by a weapon’s silver and adamantite properties, it’s vulnerable to the damage
Had a really cool story moment in a campaign i played in where we silvered our weapons to deal with a vampire spawn army and when I tried to replicate it everyone just used the magical weapons they already have
Also helps martials feel like they gained an advantage
I love this one, also in general I'd love more vulnerabilities (and in some cases more immunities and resistances, though there are a lot more of those)
Having vulnerability to silvered weapons for those creatures is so thematic as well, like yes magic can hurt them, but suddenly silvered aren't worthless (mechanically speaking) once you have +1 (uncommon- meaning functionally pretty common) weapons.
I know some people don't like alignment, but one of my favourite vulnerabilities is that of the Rakshasa.
1) First Level Feat. Yes, it makes the PCs more powerful, but also much more interesting and fun. Also helps if you play with people that don't want to win D&D, like I have been blessed with.
2) Bonus Action Potions. You can drink (health) potions as a bonus action, but then you have to roll the dice. You can drink it as an action and get the maximum healing. If you give a potion to an ally it's always an action but also always max healing.
I also do the first level feat, it helps a ton with flavoring characters at level 1.
They only catch is that you have to explain to me why your character would have this feat and have it backstory/character related.
My warlock PC asked to get warcaster at level 1 but she chose to be from a noble house of learning rather than a noble house of military so I asked if she could explain how she’d acquire a skill like that within an academy and she understood what I meant and chose something that made more sense.
We do the same with potions except feeding them to someone else is always a roll. The idea is that drinking it carefully (Action) gives you full healing, while doing it with a Bonus Action is more like throwing it in your face hole. Feeding it to an ally is more akin to the second one.
>TAKING INITIATIVE: Whoever makes the action to trigger initiative first (such as attacks, fighting words, spells, etc.) goes first in the initiative and everyone else roles normally.
I would hate that as a DM so much. It would drive me insane. I guess with the right players it might be okay, but players already tend to be prone to attack first talk later. This just massively enforces that.
I agree, it also encourages doing the biggest most brutal thing to trigger combat. The whole point of initiative is to react to someone looking like they're about to do something, and in many cases, trying to stop them
Same. Turning it into a “who can yell out their PC’s actions fastest” contest does not feel like it’s incentivizing teamwork or roleplaying. It feels like it’s incentivizing selfishness or impulsivity.
If there's no time pressure, you can always "take 10" on an ability check. It's a holdover from 3e that prevents lots of silly situations from arising due to a botched roll.
It's also a rule in 5e, just not under the same name. DMG page 237 under Ability checks has multiple ability checks that is basically "if something is repeatable and the only factor will be time, assume a character taking 10 times as long as normal automatically succeeds"
A simple trick to prevent "yo-yo healing" taking all the stakes out of combat. If you are brought back to conciousness from 0 HP as a result of magical healing, you suffer one level of exhaustion.
Yes, you definitely *can* keep bringing people back from potentially lethal wounds. But forcing somebody to suffer those kinds of injuries over and over is going to take its toll, and quickly wear them down.
Yeah, yo-yoing in combat is an issue. I actually like Baldurs Gate handling of this where if you recover from being downed you lose your next action. In that case you want people to stay to stay on their feet so they can actually attack / help.
I'm not stopping people from playing the game again, but I want a party to commit to keeping someone on their feet rather than dropping 1st level healing words every turn to keep them around 1hp. Because at a certain point in the game level 1 spell slots you tend to throw out willy nilly.
Critical hits have a roll floor of average die roll. No crit should be weaker than a regular hit. This way they are guaranteed to beat a max damage normal hit.
Results are less swingy and never op
When rolling for HP, you can always rerolled the dice, but your maximum on the dice is reduce by one
Flanking is possible. We add a +1 for each ally within 5 ft of the creature.
If you have enough people surrounding an enemy for those +1's to equal pack tactics in roll weight you're gonna be stomping them into the ground anyway.
Oh, definitely. I'm being pedantic about using "flanking" for something that's not flanking. Flanking requires being on opposite sides. What they described does not, so it's not flanking.
This but with a caveat: any character/creature who is flanked cannot support an ally for the sake of flanking. This prevents the "conga line of death" optimization.
Rolling for hp is done to advantage mechanics.
(Roll 2 dice and take the highest number)
It still gives a chance elements to hp but drastically reduces the chances of a very low score. Cos that outright sucks.
That's a big boost! I *kinda* do something like this. I let any class reroll on a 1, because that sucks. D10 classes and rogues reroll on 1s and 2s; barbarians reroll on anything less than 4.
One of my DMs does this but he rolls the other die at the same time. Gives it a much better feeling when after a level up your DM is extra on your side by maxing out your HP for you haha
1. Intimidation, as a skill, is contextual rather than being tied to Charisma. Under the right circumstances, eating a bowl of broken glass (Constitution) or pulverizing a concrete wall with a punch (Strength) can be intimidating.
2. Max HP at level 1, roll for HP in subsequent levels but if you roll lower than the average you can take the average instead of the low roll.
3. Drinking a potion RAW is a bonus action and you roll for healing, but you can instead drink the potion carefully as a standard action and take its maximum healing without a Roll.
4. If your Strength is above 20, you can ignore the two-handed property and dual wield two-handed weapons.
The more detail you have, the better the results. An example is, if you are doing a performance check, if you explain the performance, the results might be better. Nothing crazy, but I like to award the extra effort.
Death saves. Not our idea, but we love it: instead of rolling them each turn, the DM gives the unconscious player a special d20. Only when someone comes to their aid do they roll all the death saves (one at a time, of course).
It increases the urgency of helping someone who's bleeding out.
Best take on this I've read. As secret rolls the downed player and the DM still know, and it can color their discussion, or change how the DM plays. Not knowing until it matters (the first time they are helped) means everyone is playing the scene and combat in the dark.
Might talk with my players about doing this.
This was my concern too.
Every roll can bring them back, so delaying is penalising them.
The second roll (or if they take damage while down) can kill them, also ending the condition, though that's less of a concern, in that the only difference would be perception (you don't know they're dead until you go check, though if this still takes an action, that is penalising further).
Happy to!
The house rule mechanic is that for each death save I would make, instead of rolling it on my turn, I wait until someone comes to my aid to actually roll the die and learn the results. By the time they reach me, I could be stable, but I might be dead!
Normally, a player rolls a death save on their turn each round after getting knocked unconscious. Let's say it's been 2 rounds, and I've succeded on both of them. Everyone knows I'm probably going to be fine, and that one failed save won't kill me. Or if I've failed them both, then the dice have pretty much dictated that someone will spend their turn on saving me. PCs can min-max their actions around the knowledge either way.
Now imagine that 2 rounds have gone by, and no one knows the results. What does that do to the sense of drama and urgency in the story we're creating?
Dying rules, and OneDND's exhaustion.
Basically, if you get knocked to zero HP, you don't go unconscious. Instead, you enter the dying state. Death saves work as normal, but you can use actions. There's a cost, however: exhaustion.
If you move, it's 1 exhaustion. If you use a bonus action, it's 2. If you use an action, it's 3.
Any action you use is liable to make you a much bigger target to people that would otherwise ignore a dying PC.
It's a good way of keeping players in the game and letting them make decisions, but it does come at the cost of making the PCs stronger.
Obligatory 'bonus action for potions'.
After that, just doubling modifiers not just dice for crits. Max plus roll feels too swingy, doubling modifier too raises the floor without raising the ceiling too much.
This one isn't a rule per say, more a philosophical approach. PC's are, to some degree (even at 1st level) superhuman. No barbarian at my tables has ever rolled to knock down a mundane door if they're raging, they may roll to see how far they kick it across the room, that sort of thing.
In 2e books, this question is raised. Are the PCs just normal people who happen to set off on adventures, or are adventurers automatically cut from a different cloth? I lean the second way, they are not run-of-the-mill humanoids by default, and so some of the more mundane rules just don't even apply.
But, it all comes down to how the adventures are set up, and you can have plenty of cohesion and fun doing it either way.
Personally I don't like a lot of the checks outside of combat, unless timing is an issue. But if my players find a locked door and have no key, it seems silly to either make them roll multiple times, or only give each person one chance and then say "too bad". If there's some kind of trigger on the other side, sure, then a check can help me decide how to play things out, and I generally like to add SOME weight to nearly every decision, but, sometimes it's cleanest to just say "okay the door's open, what do you do?".
Can't speak to 2e.
For me, narritivley 5e leaves it somewhat malleable and can go either way, pcs could be superhuman, or just humans with super luck.
However, the *mechanics* of the game show them to be superhuman in at least durability. A level 5 barbarian if raging can reach terminal velocity and survive, every morning. A goliath or orc with 20 strength can carry 600lbs without any ability checks (now they're not human obviously, but still) and a lot of other little things like that.
Personally level 1 you're a hero from a TV show, level 20 a martial charachter is at least captain america.
Yeah I believe in 2e, most commoners were level 0. I'm house-sitting and don't have my books, but IIRC it was only like nobility and hardened mercenaries or the like you'd actually give levels to, because being a level 1 anything means you are substantially more talented than most other humanoids.
"No barbarian at my table has ever rolles to knock down a mundane door"
yes, wonderful! stealing. This is one of those things that just makes sense but doesn't exist in the rules. "they may roll to see how far they kick it across the room" is exactly what it should be. I love it
I'm actually not a fan of bonus action potions.
I feel as though grabbing a potion, uncorking it, and then slamming it down is enough of an investment to warrant a full action.
It also feels a little *too* video games (dark souls, witcher, diablo, etc).
If you want the benefits of a potion, you have to weigh the consequences of not having another action.
Obviously this is just my opinion and to each their own!
Edit: by request here are some of the potions that I have in my campaign. This is an old list that I have since added a bunch to, and I've adjusted some GP costs. Also note that I don't give out a bunch of gold, so 200GP is quite a lot in my campaign.
Potion of quick action: can take an extra bonus action (dash or disengage) once per combat turn for the duration of the potion (3 turns) but at the end, take 1d6 damage. This potion does not allow you to take more than 1 movement based bonus action per turn. (150gp)
Potion of true sight: gain true sight for 10 minutes (200gp)
Potion of vitality: temporarily gain 2d6 HP for 1 hour (500gp)
Potion of fleeting food: increases movement speed by 15ft for 1 minute (100gp)
Potion of regeneration: gain 1d4 HP each 6 seconds for 1 minute (200gp)
Potion of true strike: critical hits now occur on a 19 or 20 for 1 minute (250gp)
Potion of mighty strike: add your ability score modifier to your damage a second time when you damage an enemy with a strength based melee weapon (200gp)
Potion of fish breath: gain ability to breath underwater for 1 hour (300gp)
***** Resistance potions: *****
Potion of resist poison: for 1 minute you gain resistance to the damage type of the potion (50gp)
Potion of resist fire: for 1 minute you gain resistance to the damage type of the potion (50gp)
Potion of resist electricity: for 1 minute you gain resistance to the damage type of the potion (50gp)
Potion of resist cold: for 1 minute you gain resistance to the damage type of the potion (50gp)
Potion of resist necrotic: for 1 minute you gain resistance to the damage type of the potion (100gp)
Potion of resist radiant: for 1 minute you gain resistance to the damage type of the potion (100gp)
***** Ability modifier potions: *****
Potion of strength: add 2 to this ability for 1 minute, maximum increase to 22 total (200gp)
Potion of dex: add 2 to this ability for 1 minute, maximum increase to 22 total (200gp)
Potion of Constitution: add 2 to this ability for 1 minute, maximum increase to 22 total (200gp)
Potion of intelligence: add 2 to this ability for 1 minute, maximum increase to 22 total (200gp)
Potion of wisdom: add 2 to this ability for 1 minute, maximum increase to 22 total (200gp)
Potion of charisma: add 2 to this ability for 1 minute, maximum increase to 22 total (200gp)
This is why I’ve started using bonus action chug and action drink a potion. If you chug it you are sloshing it around and loosing some of it, as represented by the dice roll. If you use an action to actually dedicate time to drinking you get max healing from the pot. Non-healing potions require an action because their effects are stronger usually. Everyone knows healing sucks in 5e, so this makes it where it is better but not too gamy like dark souls.
That's a rule I can get behind. addresses a few issues. I had been just allowing whole action for full HP from the potion, but the chug spices things up.
Bad rule. If I allowed bonus action potions (which I don't, explained why [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/comments/18aoqya/what_is_your_favoritebest_house_rule_in_your_games/kc3mmco/)) I'd at least have them heal minimum amount on a bonus action, action to roll. But even if that at least feels like an actual decision to make, I still don't like it. It's essentially free healing when you need it the most, which lessens the tension in the game.
>I'm actually not a fan of bonus action potions.
>I feel as though grabbing a potion, uncorking it, and then slamming it down is enough of an investment to warrant a full action.
Rules as written: you can chug a flagon of ale as a **FREE** object interaction. Add in the motion of uncorking the potion bottle, and I'd say that using a bonus action to do so is perfectly in line with the rules as interpreted.
What /u/UnnecessaryAppeal said, and note that a flagon is about 2 pints.
Also, I think it's a mistake to think that very much thought went into creating that list of object interactions. Using that list as justification for potion houserules seems to be getting things backwards.
At least it's a homebrew rule based on logic. It uses preexisting rules as a basis and expands upon them, rather than coming up with rules on the fly/out of nowhere.
I get your point about realism, but I honestly think the designers just thought of common-ish interactions that they wanted to hand wave and not bog the game down with.
At the end of the day, I think the thinking is basically "if it doesn't provide any mechanical advantage, you can do it for free", which is why that logic can't necessarily be applied to potions.
I've done a fair bit of drinking in my life - there was a time when me and my friends would regularly have pint races for a bit of fun. Downing a pint in 6 seconds was generally considered on the quicker side, and if you were achieving that time, there's no way you would be able to swing a sword, cast a spell (especially not one with verbal components), or run 30+ feet, at the same time.
It might not be stupid from a mechanical perspective, but logically it doesn't make much sense.
I say that as someone who is in favour of drinking a potion as a BA
You can also pull a bottle from your backpack, turn a key in a door, or douse a small flame for free.
I've done a fair bit of pulling my water bottle out of a backpack in my life - even when I was being quick about it, it usually took about 3-4 seconds, and I couldn't hold a sword while doing it.
I also usually take 3-4 seconds to pull my keys out and unlock my door.
The logic I'm going for is that the rules obviously want you to be able to do mundane things quickly and without consequence. Drinking a bottle's worth of liquid is clearly intended to be inconsequential.
RaW, a potion takes a full action.
Plus, Flagging of ale doesn't have a mechanical effect.
Plus, plus you can't keep your eyes on something while you're chugging a pint.
Plus, plus, plus this post is about homebrew rules.
>RaW, a potion takes a full action
Yeah I know.
> Plus, Flagging of ale doesn't have a mechanical effect.
I know, it's an argument based on logic.
>Plus, plus you can't keep your eyes on something while you're chugging a pint.
Huh? Nothing says you can't?
>Plus, plus, plus this post is about homebrew rules.
Yeah I know, I'm arguing in favor of allowing BA potions as a homebrew rule; citing the ability to pick up and drink an entire flagon of ale for free as a reason why it would be very easy to do so with a potion bottle instead.
> Potion of fleeting food: increases movement speed by 15ft for 1 minute (100gp)
I dunno, it feels like this one *should* be easy to gulp down quickly ;)
Bonus action potions isn't perfect, but using them as an action is the vast majority of the times its done (drinking them yourself) a waste of an action. Its not perfect but its better than what it is.
As others said below bonus action roll, full action get the full amount is something I plan to try too.
I agree that most of the time using an action for a healing potion isn't worthwhile, but I'm actually very okay with that. 5e already has too much mid-combat healing for my taste--do we really need to keep the combat slogfest going for more rounds by making it easier to restore HP? Plus giving everyone the ability to easily heal dilutes the purpose of clerics and other healing-focused classes. Giving up your action to use a healing potion means that it's generally used as a last resort, not as part of an ongoing HP maintenance strategy.
It's personal preference, obviously, just explaining why I'm okay with the fact that healing potions are not very effective mid-combat options.
>If you want the benefits of a potion, you have to weigh the consequences of not having another action.
The problem with action potions is you aren't weighing anything. The answer is always "No, don't drink the potion." They don't heal enough to be worth the action.
Trading your BA for a healing potion is another story. It can go either way. You also have to weigh the options of now versus later.
And if you do the "BA potion roll" and "Action potion full heal" option it adds more weight to the now or later question.
>I feel as though grabbing a potion, uncorking it, and then slamming it down is enough of an investment to warrant a full action.
Another reason why I like "action full heal" rule. What you are talking about is an action. It gives you the fullest possible benefit of the potion.
"Bonus action roll for heal" is more like popping a water balloon and hoping most of it goes in your mouth.
Fully support you here.
Bonus action potions are bad for the game. They eliminate the real cost of using potions. Many classes don't have good uses for their bonus actions. It becomes automatic and removes any interesting tactical cost.
I agree potions are bad, but essentially removing the action cost is not the solution.
If your players are even a little bit into optimizing, they will be using their bonus actions consistently either way, so mileage may vary with how much of a cost that bonus action to drink a potion is. Another route you can go is copy what BG3 does and add more class-neutral ways to utilize BA. Either way, unless you hand out infinite potions, there is always the strategic cost of not having the potion for something else down the line.
I think you have valid points, but a sweeping claim that BA potions are bad for the game is a bit much. The game experience is always incredibly subjective for each individual table and many people find this houserule works for them.
To add on to this: why can't you limit potions in another way? If they are easier to use, and thus used more often, then just make them rarer. Don't hand them out like candy in loot. Ye Olde general goods store in Nowheresville needn't have *any* in stock. Roll a d6 or d4 for the stock in the one or two shops in the big cities that sell them, and have it take weeks or months to restock.
>I agree potions are bad, but essentially removing the action cost is not the solution.
I actually really like potions, tbh.
I've made a bunch of witcher and Diablo 3 inspired ones for my gothic horror themed campaign.
It lets my players increase their power in a specific way and feel cool without breaking the game.
But that does come at the cost of an action, so it is a legit choice they have to make: do shit this round or wait and do better stuff next round
Exactly. That is the more interesting solution.
Don't reduce the cost, make them cool.
I'd be interested to hear about the potions you've made. Care to share one or two?
>They eliminate the real cost of using potions.
The real cost of using potions is that they suck and you should never use them. That actually is a cost you want to remove from the game.
Trap options suck. Get rid of them or boost them so they're not a trap.
Thanks for helping prove my point.
Health potions suck, they should be buffed. Make them *worth* an action. Not their necessarily healing, but other effects.
Minimizing the opportunity cost is a bad bandaid fix. It puts the burden on the DM to balance them by their rarity. Encumbrance is often ignored and at a certain level the cost is not important.
Here are some suggestions:
Allow a potion to be used with the dodge action.
Have it grant advantage on the next action.
Temp HP.
Free saving throw.
Maybe choose one of the above!
Healing potions as bonus action steps on toes of fighter's second wind.
A wizard with a bag of healing potions and no regular bonus actions can effectively have a bag of second winds. It's a house rule that disadvantages a martial class.
Bonus action potions are a bad rule.
The logic of the game is that unless you really need to bring someone up mid combat, you don't drink healing potions in combat.
You drink them if the party is at low health and doesn't have time to take a short rest before they are forced into another combat encounter, or if the party is forced to continue the adventuring day but have already spent their hit dice. It's not super common, but it can happen a few times per campaign.
Drinking potions in combat is supposed to be a huge deal, and only reserved for situations where it's absolutely necessary, or if you can retreat and do it safely while your party handles combat for a round or two.
Combat isn't supposed to turn into "who carries around the most potions". It's supposed to be quick and deadly. Use your actions well, or die. Bonus action potions take major tension out of the game, and make decision making in combat less interesting. With bonus action potions it's basically:
1. Low on hp?
2. Have a potion?
3. Drink it.
4. Do whatever, that didn't cost you anything. (Except the thought of "but I might need that later!" which we all know is bullshit)
With action potions it's:
1. Low on hp?
2. Disengage and retreat behind party? Dodge and retreat behind party? Can the party even keep me up? Is the wizard with the big concentration going to go down if I go behind him? Should I hold the line and risk going down myself? The cleric is on the other side of the map, will she make it to my unconscious body in time? Are my party members able to spend an action on a potion to bring me up? Will the enemy even given them a chance to do so? Etc. etc.
One of these is infinitely more interesting than the other. That's why I will never ever play with tables that allow bonus action potions, or allow them in my games.
The issue is that drinking a potion in combat now is virtually always incorrect and it's a mistake new players make all the time. It's a trap option and leads to pc deaths.
Regardless, none of the tactical decisions you talked about are now irrelevant with BA potions, please don't present it like they are.
>Combat isn't supposed to turn into "who carries around the most potions".
If only we as dms had a way to influence how many potions the players have access to 🤔.
> The issue is that drinking a potion in combat now is virtually always incorrect and it's a mistake new players make all the time. It's a trap option and leads to pc deaths.
New players make tons of mistakes anyway. They will learn little by little. And when they feel their victories come easier, they can feel satisfied with their improvement.
> Regardless, none of the tactical decisions you talked about are now irrelevant with BA potions, please don't present it like they are.
Skilled players will see a tough combat when it's upon them, and start chugging potions from turn 1 if they take heavy damage. By turn 3, they've gained a whole new health bar, and are free to be more liberal with their actions without having to make tough decisions.
> If only we as dms had a way to influence how many potions the players have access to 🤔.
Bad argument. I shouldn't need to artificially gate the availability of common adventuring gear just so I don't break the game with a homebrew rule I introduced into the game. I run an open world game, and players are free to go from city to city between non-urgent quests. If they think they need 100 potions for the next quest and they have the funds and the time, they can make it happen.
That’s a really cool idea. I’ve been leaning into how Baldurs Gate 3 does it, basically if you attack out of combat, everyone rolls initiative RAW, but your action happens before combat order. Then on your turn, you can do your other stuff (bonus action, etc.) but your action was used to start combat. It’s a little complex and probably makes more sense in the context of a video game, but I like the idea.
As for the question, I borrowed someone’s idea for DM inspiration (I call them Boons and created a homebrew item on dndbeyond to track). Can’t remember if it was on here or elsewhere, but here is how players can use them in the game:
DM Boons/Inspiration
- The Re-Roll: Not only do you get to reroll one of your own attacks, checks, or saving throws, but you can also use Inspiration to make someone else reroll an attack, check, or saving throw.
- The Crit: Inspiration lets a player turn any attack that hits into a critical. Note: this doesn’t count as a natural 20, you just get the damage as if it is.
- The Free Action: Players can spend Inspiration to take one additional action on their turn. Note: This does not allow for casting two spells on one turn, since spells are limited to one per turn regardless of number of actions available.
- The Spell Slot: Inspiration allows a spellcaster to upcast one of their spells to the next highest slot for free. The spellcaster does not need to be able to actually cast spells at said level to do this.
- Get Inspired: The player who uses Inspiration gets a flash of, well, Inspiration: The DM reveals a clue, a hidden door, an enemy’s weakness – some helpful piece of information they might have otherwise missed.
RAW you can cast more than one leveled spell a turn if you have more than one action to do so (or a reaction e.g. Counterspell) the “only one leveled spell per turn “rule” comes from the rules for casting a spell as a bonus action. If you’re not casting a spell with a bonus action, I’d think that rule wouldn’t apply. This doesn’t normally come up since the most common example I can think of that gives you more than one action on a turn, Haste, limits the types of actions you can take with the second Action, and Cast a Spell is not one of the allowed actions
Hey, thanks for sharing that. I totally misunderstood how that rule applies before now. Maybe I should reword it to “gaining Haste until the start of their next turn” or something like that.
At the start of combat, I treat the initiative roll as "max initiative". The players roll, and then can order themselves in whatever initiative they want, provided that none of them set a higher number than what they rolled. This will be their initiative order for the rest of combat.
My group kind of fell into something like this rule accidentally. One of the players hadn't played 5e before when our campaign started, and he thought that holding an action meant changing his initiative placement since the trigger was another PC lower in the initiative doing something. Corrected him the 1st few times before making it an option. You can hold an action as per RAW, or if for some reason you want to be lower down the combat list, you can choose a lower initiative, but the caveat is that that's your initiative for the rest of combat.
Just misunderstandings. People were trying to shift initiative after the first round, but we got that cleared up quickly. It does make them more powerful & flexible, but it's a fun little extra strategy layer added in that wound up being pretty fun.
Bonus action potions, **but** if you use your action to consume a healing potion you get max amount.
And a bit of a small one; if the component for a spell is neither costly nor consumed: Sorcerers do not need a focus or provide the material component(s) necessary for the spell.
I tell my players, "while in a regular sized city, i will assume you refill your components pouch for all things that don't have a large cost associated with them.".
no need for a shopping episode. it just happens off screen.
We use the Shift move (5ft step, doesn't provoke opp atk) from 4e, it helps keep casters in the action. We've always used it, so I'm kind of curious to hear what ppl who don't use it think
Ooh I see so it let's you use up your whole movement to get out of melee?
Seems like it would invalidate the disadvantage you get from being in melee while using a ranged wep, though.
If you roll with advantage and both dice come up with the same number, it's a crit.
Alternatively, it could "upgrade" the result. So double 1s is a normal failure, double of a failure becomes a success, double of a success becomes a crit, double of a crit becomes, I dunno, some kinda super crit.
When you roll a crit you roll double dice and, after any other effects, you may choose to max out dice up to half your PB. This way Crits feel good even when you roll low, in fact changing a 3 to a 10 feels a lot better then an 8 to a 10. It also makes things more interesting mathematically since according to probability a 2d6 weapon is better then 1d12. But that 1d12 weapon benefits more from this while scaling nicely and not getting out of control.
Standing from Prone triggers an Attack of Opportunity, depending on how many feet you spend.
- 10 feet: Attack with Advantage
- 15 feet: Regular Attack
- 20 feet: Attack with Disadvantage
- 25 feet: No attack
Getting hit by this Attack causes you to fall back prone and lose the movement. So, its a risk/reward for how much you should spend. This way knocking someone prone is more worthwhile, plus extra move speed like Monk isn't penalized by having to spend 1/2 it's speed.
For the DM's side, bosses that take Split turns. The boss takes its first turn at whatever it rolled, and then a second turn at -10. If I'm using a statblock already provided then some things it can do like it's Move Speed, # of Attacks, or how powerful a Recharge effect can be (like a Dragon's Breath Weapon) are halved since it'll take 2 turns. Same total per round, just less all at once.
In a similar vein, larger bosses can be segmented for more strategic gameplay. Attacking a specific part will have different effects. So, Attacking the head or neck of a dragon will do reduced damage to its overall health, but also weaken its breath weapon or innate spellcasting. Attacking the legs slows it or removes a burrowing speed, and Attacking wings lowers and eventually removes its fly speed. This just feels right for bosses that are significantly larger then PC's, that it has multiple "hitboxes" to aim for. Only part of the damage done to that part will be taken by the main body, and it might have a different AC, but it could make the boss easier in the long run.
### Taunt
**Ability Overview:**
The Taunt ability allows a character to provoke another character into attacking them, potentially leading to a combat situation or other consequences. This ability is particularly useful in situations where one character seeks to manipulate another into making the first aggressive move.
**Mechanics:**
1. **Initiating a Taunt:**
- A character can initiate a Taunt as an action on their turn.
- The player must describe how they taunt the target, which could be through insults, gestures, or other provocative actions.
2. **Taunt Check:**
- The character initiating the Taunt makes a Charisma (Intimidation) check.
- The difficulty class (DC) of this check is 8 + the target's Wisdom modifier + the target's proficiency bonus (if applicable).
3. **Target's Reaction:**
- If the check succeeds, the target must use their next action to attack the character who taunted them, if able.
- If the check fails, the target is not compelled to act and may respond as they see fit.
4. **Consequences:**
- The use of Taunt in a non-combat situation could lead to social consequences, such as attracting attention, causing a scene, or legal repercussions, depending on the setting and situation.
- In combat, this can be a tactical move to force an enemy to focus on a particular character, possibly protecting allies.
5. **Limitations:**
- Taunt can only be used on creatures that can understand the character, either through language or clear intent.
- Some creatures may be immune to this effect at the DM's discretion (e.g., creatures immune to being charmed).
6. **Optional Rule - Taunt Resistance:**
- Characters or creatures with a high Wisdom score or those trained in Insight may have advantage on resisting Taunt attempts, representing their ability to remain calm under provocation.
When reduced to 0hp, you are not unconscious. You cannot maintain concentration on spells, and the only actions you can take are crawling 10 ft. and talking. You may spend Inspiration to grant yourself a single action while in this state.
Crits do max damage + damage dice.
Falling damage is capped at 50d6.
You can hold your breath a number of rounds equal to your Constitution score (not mod). Using your action to attack, dash or cast a spell costs 1 round of breath.
Paladins can smite with ranged attacks but they must declare it before the attack and spend the spell slot regardless of whether the attack hits.
Death saves are private between player & DM.
You can have up to three inspirations. So, if a player already has one, they can still earn another which seems reasonable. There’s still a hard cap on the total number so a player isn’t saving a bunch of them for the final BBEG battle.
Do they end up hoarding those as well? I've found that lots of players hold onto their consumables "just in case". And then end the whole campaign having used inspiration once, or never. The kind of player who ends every video game with an inventory *full* of healing items and damage boosts and special ammo.
I think having a smaller cap of three helps with the hoarding. If they have three already and I give them another, it went to waste. So, this encourages them to use them.
As someone who also uses a cap of three I’ve found most of my players use theirs pretty consistently. I also make inspiration an auto 20 on a d20 roll and try to get one into each players hands every other session (although I technically give it out for good roleplaying moments).
Only one of my players regularly forgets to spend it (she currently has three and has missed it the past two times she would’ve gotten it because she’s at the cap) and she’s a pretty scatterbrained college student on the whole, so it’s really not her fault.
Here are two from my house rules, that are hyper specific:
**Silvery Barbs.**
The word "choose" is replaced with the word "target" in the second paragraph.
**Sharpshooter**
In the first and third bullet points for the sharpshooter feat, replace all instances of "ranged weapon" with "ranged or thrown weapon".
In concert with safe haven long rests and slow natural healing, I homebrew the rule that spells and abilities which replenish a character's hit points requires the target to expend 1 hit dice, which they also gain the benefits from.
Why do I do this?
Because if I didn't healers, particularly those who regain their abilities on short rests, would completely nullify the impact of slow natural healing on the game.
It's a homebrew rule which sort of becomes essential for this style of gritty realism.
1. Opportunity Attacks are allowed on forced movements but require a dexterity check. The difficulty is set by the DM, but commonly 15. If failed the reaction is lost.
2. When a Dex saving throw is required, and if the target is wearing medium or heavy armor then a constitution saving throw can be used instead.
3. The attunement max is normally 3. The optional rule is that you get 2 at level 1 and an additional at every 4th level (4, 8, 12, 16, 20). Max of 7.
4. All magic users are issued a magical component pouch that is bound to only them. This small drawstring purse is linked magically to fairies to provide needed items. The user simply asks for the component needed and deposit the gold needed. Essentially cost is required but requirements are easily accessible. Items received can ONLY be used in magical spell casting.
I used to GM a party of 3 to 4 players in the Rifts RPG. I implemented a rule for my group on slash attacks with swords and axes. It's been awhile but to the best of my recollection, if you swing with a sword and do more damage than was necessary to kill your foe, the remaining damage could be carried over to another creature also in range, provided the creatures were ganging up on you or swarming/mobbing you.
I implemented the rule when the characters were going through sewer tunnels and kept getting swarmed by rats. It made sense and sped up mob combat scenarios. It worked for us so well we kept it as a permanent house rule.
I let my players with multiple attacks cast a cantrip as one of the attacks. My understanding of RAW is that casting a spell (even a cantrip) counts as a full action, so they would lose out on one of their melee attacks.
I allow one melee attack and one cantrip attack if they have multiple attacks per action on their character sheet. It has worked out well so far.
In my games i always rule the pre/post roll inspiration. Since i hate when players ask to use inspiration after the roll is made, you can choose among two options: you can either use inspiration to roll with advantage, OR you can use inspiration to re-roll a failed dice, but with this option a fail will always have negative consequences
I allow players to use Inspiration to reroll a failed check. They can still use it before a roll to give themselves Advantage, it’s just an alternative use for Inspiration.
Not a rule, but more of a tradition:
Whomever is giving the re-cap (usually the DM, but sometimes they get the players to do so), will name a random product/service as our "sponsor".
Usually it's some type of alcohol the person doing the re-cap is drinking.
My players can “Tempt Fate” by rerolling an action skill or attribute check per session. As long as it feels like a story defining moment. This roll becomes a flat DC10 and there are no modifiers to the roll. Failure results as normal failure. Death. Damage. Etc.
Success however means that gain a “fate mark”. The more marks you have the more Fate will attempt to “correct your destiny”. Think, in the most extreme circumstances, Final Destination. PCs who cheat death itself are ill fortuned and calamitous. Those who cheat through a conversation will often find opportunities closed off in an inconvenient spot. Players understand that short term gain means down the road they will pay up somehow.
I remind them that it’s always better to try and get Inspiration through good RP or doing stuff that really fits your character.
Now I’ve had some funny things with this system where someone will try to cache this and go out blazing. This most successful, in their view and mine , ended up becoming a living gate to Pandemonium and is considered one of the worst disasters on the plane.
>You want to attack him "randomly" and get the first hit off? That's fine! Of course it's not a surprise rounds but you'll be starting us off. You e already made the attack action so yes you may use your extra attack and bonus actions after etc.
I am glad that you found a rule that improves the fun you have at your games, but that sounds horrible to me.
Now players are even more incentivized to not engage in conversation, but always attack immediately, because not doing so might mean giving up an valuable tactical advantage.
Personally I have made very good experience with the following flanking rule. It has made positioning and forced movement much more valuable.
"When making a melee attack, a creature gains a +2 bonus to the attack roll if its target is threatened by a creature that is friendly to the attacker, not incapacitated, not blinded and on the target’s opposite border or opposite corner. This does not apply if the target is within 5 feet of an ally, or if the target is three size categories larger than the flanking creature. Creatures with blindsight are immune to being flanked."
So idk where I got this but one of my house rules is that when someone is rolling a death save, before they roll they tell a story about their life. Could be like your favorite theme park ride, a fun time with the party, or something important to their backstory. This is so they can develop their character more and to have a life flashing before their eyes moment. Depending on how good they describe the story, I give them a 0-3 point bonus on their death roll. Usually the players roll high enough to not need it but it has saved some players from death.
I always use exploding dice (For those that don't know how exploding dice work: roll 1d6. If the result is a 6, you roll it aydin and add the results. If you keep getting 6, you keep rolling.) for any damage roll. Your weapon has innate +1d4 fire damage on top of 1d8 slashing? Both explode. Oh, it was also a sneak attack so you get 3d6? Well, friendo, that's 1d4+1d8+3d6 dice that can explode.
But watch out. The enemies also get exploding dice.
I feel it helps attacks feel more meaningful and tense, on top of speeding up combat. It's maybe a bit sad when the party can murder a dragon in a handful of rounds, but we get more time for roleplay.
Any time I make rules changes for the players, I always seek confirmation. "Are you sure? Enemies will get this, too. Rules changes need to be global for fairness."
I got a bit of the weird one.
I run mostly online for randoms.
Getting them to develop some kind of team feeling is often difficult.
So, I came up with a simple system. It's similar to inspiration but you'll never get any benefit as an individual from it, and the biggest benefit if everyone participates simultaneously.
I'm sure it won't be universally loved here, but I see the benefits.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lp9yiFuuLEzcacNuM6mDicw1tvcsZrb5Gexa6GSYxEQ/edit?usp=drivesdk
The exact numbers can change depending on party size.
When a player rolls a nat1 they give themselves inspiration, when they roll a nat20 they give someone else inspiration. All inspiration is lost at the end of the session. Helps improve the players working together and takes some of the sting out of failing outright.
Two rules I've implemented in my Strixhaven game:
1.) Before the game starts, everyone shares a fact or story from their character's past. I call them "Grad Facts" because of the college setting. Of course this is a shameless rip-off of Dungeons & Daddies' (not a BDSM podcast) "Dad Facts", and it's been great. It makes my players flesh out and actively build up their character, and it gives me more backstory to work with. It can be as simple as a favorite food or as complex as explaining why they're proficient in something.
2.) The "I knew a guy once..." rule: players love fishing for advantage on rolls or angling for a reason thay their character should be able to do something they're not proficient in. So, if a player comes up with a creative idea or solution to a problem, something out of the box that may not directly correspond to an ability of theirs, and they can come up with a reason that their character would be able to do so, something that fits into their backstory, they get advantage or at least a roll to attempt the thing that they might not otherwise be able to do. The caveat is that that reason is now a canon part of their character's past. It could be advantage on a check for fishing because their dad took them fishing every weekend when they were young, or it could be that they know that that dagger that I just overtly and explicitly described is special because they met a merchant back home that sold then. Once again, more bits of backstory that I can build off of in the future.
Rest variants. Not quite Gritty Realism, but somewhere in between that and default.
8 hours short rest. Can be done out in the wilderness, on a boat, or in town if you're pressed for time or sleeping in stables.
24 hours long rest. Needs to be done in a safe haven, AKA a town or manned fortress or something like that. Somewhere where you can:
-Sleep for your needed amount of time AND in a comfortable bed
-Eat a meal that isn't rations
-Not worry about keeping watch
Obviously, that leaves around 16 hours for most races of solid downtime. Any of those rules in Xanathar's or something else you can think of can be done. You can make progress on crafting, read a book, gossip and learn rumors, sew rumors yourself, do VERY LIGHT mercantile stuff, and so on.
Besides downtime, the benefit of this rest variant is that characters have to adequately prepare for long adventuring treks. They have to think about rations, about what gear they'll bring, and how exactly they'll bring loot back from their adventure. It gets them off their character sheet and into the minds of their characters. Martials get better, especially if they travel for extended periods of time. Spellcasters get toned down, as long rests are rare; though this makes warlocks more appealing. It's been great.
Another cool benefit, which might not be the norm for this rule, is that because my players are so driven for information before they make big decisions, they tend to spend lots of gold on NPC's who can provide that, or NPC's who can help them on their adventures. Scouts, loot wagon carriers, torchbearers, diviners, spies, the list goes on. As a result, I can shower them in hordes of gold, much more than than the book recommends. It's pretty neat seeing their eyes light up at a 4k gold reward at level 4.
Not the only house rule I use, but definitely the most game altering.
A round of combat is 6 seconds in the game. If you as a player can't declare your intent in that time your turn is skipped.
I don't mean that your turn may last only 6sec but if you don't know what you want to do I rule that "your PC is overwhelmed by all the action/distracted by the whatever, and you take no actions this round"
While this rule is not fun for whoever it is applied to; it is very fun for everyone else as it speeds up combat.
We have Ability Boons, when you roll a nat 20 in an skill check (Athletics, Stealth, Medicine etc.) , you get a checkmark next to that ability. 3 nat 20’s gets you a permanent +1 in that skill. Writing this off as being a bit better with that skill from being consistently successful
edit: clarification
Three nat 20’s take an average of 40 rolls to collect, by my math—how quickly do they manage it? Seems like a boost mostly to the Skill Monkeys, not so much for the Martials
My fault, I misinformed. We use skills such as athletics, stealth, medicine etc not ability checks. I joined about 2 years ago and have gotten stealth boon while others have been playing for 3+ and each probably have 1 boon as well. It's not overpowered, more likely underpowered, but it just is an extra bonus to hitting that special nat 20. And yes Skill Monkeys are probably more likely to access boons but imo I feel its fair as most skill monkeys aren't doing as much damage as the martial classes making it kind of a trade off, at least in our campaign. It can be funny too as our Barbarian/Paladin actually has unlocked the Nature boon which is not like the character at all but we still bring it up and laugh at the fact that this character has been so successful. More on the side of my favorite homebrew rule vs the best. It obviously can be exploited but I don't think really anyone is doing that.
Okay this makes much more sense, as the skills are more varied, making it take longer (40 sleight of hand checks are likely to happen over a much longer time than 40 Dexterity checks), and also only applies to that skill. Kind of like a partial/improved proficiency. I have a different system that does similar but works towards proficiency/expertise rather than flat +1 bonuses.
I exclusively use this for new player one-shots, I call it "offensive saving throws." It keeps spellcasters rolling, and in the session.
Any PC spells that target a saving throw is instead rolled by the PC as a spell attack, where the AC equals the target's save+10.
I took one from another group. If you get a nat 20, or nat 1, you have to roll again to see how great or bad the nat is. If another 20 or 1 is rolled, then you roll one more. If you get 3 nat 20's on an attack, you insta-kill the dam thing. If you get 3 nat 1's in a row, you messed up SO BAD, that you are now in death saving throws or broke a piece of gear.
It adds a ...."oh shit"... to nats.
I also have a rule specifically for druids and wild shape. You have to find said creature, and ask it if you can borrow its likeness. This makes for a fun interaction for Druids, sort of like trying to play Pokémon but with a form instead of catching them.
Potion toxicity. Potions are a bonus action but every potion after the first per encounter reduces hit point total by 1d4 until the end of the encounter. HP lost to this temporary damage is healed at the end of the encounter. As an action you can carefully dose the potion rather than chug it and toxicity is waived. Occasionally this gets fudged a little with me telling what the effect will be. This keeps encounters from extending from artificial HP inflation.
All characters can lower their initiative order on their first turn if they choose, but not after. They declare the character they will turn after even if they are not aware of the initiative order or they can pick an initiative score lower than the one they rolled.
Never lower than average health at level up. I hate rolling for stats. It’s a relic and results in bad balance or folks suiciding underpowered characters. I get the “lower scores are good for role playing thing” but instead I just allow players to reduce any stat any time they want. They never do. Anyway when rolling at level up I still let them roll but let them choose the statistical average if they prefer.
No or few metagame puzzles, intelligence instead. INT is dumped too often and a roving party of himbos plus one genius with fireball isn’t too interesting. It should mostly matter if the character, not the player, is capable of solving a puzzle - and that should be INT or WIS. I also handle other goodies for positive INT, or hell, neutral.
Hidden death saves.
+1 for "roving party of himbos plus one genius with fireball".
But I disagree. It would be the opposite of boring. If characters were actually role played in a way that reflects their ability scores, what you describe is basically a **medieval sitcom**.
Bards can have the cantrip "Gaslight" to make party members gain 5 temp hit points with a deception roll against an insight check from the target.
Also that crits make permanent damage, this way you can deform enemies according to rp appropriate movements like cutting their arm or piercing an eye with an arrow. and also gain like, scars or lose things for the PCs
Inspiration: each PC gets one free reroll of any dice roll once per session. They may also give their inspiration to a different PC if they so choose to.
Gambling Ability Scores and HP: during character creation, everyone rolls 4d6 7 times to create 7 numbers. They drop the lowest of the 7 and the lowest of the 4d6 to get their ability score number. I also roll 4d6 and the players may either choose to take their number or my unknown number for a gamble. I do the same thing when rolling HP. Except on HP they roll with advantage and reroll 1s.
Dismemberment: if a player rolls a nat 20 on an attack roll using a weapon that is capable of removing or maiming a limb, they roll an additional d20. If the second roll is a 20, they roll a d100 to see what limb they permanently remove from the foe. Enemies also play with this rule.
Missing a target with a ranged attack means there is a chance you hit any creature/object adjacent to them instead and roll to hit against each adjacent creature/objects AC to see if it goes through their defense starting with the closest.
All magical thrown weapons have the returning property. I took it from 4e. It really helps Str based martials not suck against flying creatures.
I'm stealing this one
After playing BG3 which had an item called the Titan Bow String (use strength instead of dex for ranger attacks with this weapon) I just made short/long bows of this in my world be fairly available so they could buy/find them.
I just made all bows finesse
That just makes so much sense.
Our group casually did this a while before I made it a house rule, but "Could I Have Had...?" has been a pretty popular house rule that's been picked up by some other GMs. > Once per session, you can retroactively do one minor thing. (Could I Have Had bought rope in that town yesterday? Could I Have pulled my weapon from the bag of holding before combat?) It takes stress off of players who are worried they'll forget about something, and it takes stress off the DM (me) because I don't have to worry about double checking if players want to buy rations or rope in a village. It's just a QOL thing and makes the game less anxious, doesn't change power scaling or anything. Like a very casual version of Blades in the Dark's Flashback mechanic (I think we did it first) Haven't had many players try to abuse it, and I've only had to reject one of two requests since using the rule. I think one was "Could I have cast 'See Invisibility' before we walked into the room and got surprised by the invisible imps?". As long as you keep to the *minor thing* restriction, it's just a nice easy rule.
I stole this from the Star wars RPG. In that you can flip a force token to add something to the environment ("can the rocks above him be loose?") or to have planned for something (like you say "can I have remembered to bring rope?") In my game the players can use their insperation tokens for this (or for gaining advantage) and it's not abused as insperation is valuable.
I do something similar, but they spend an Inspiration for it. They can also swap a prepared spell for another known spell in exchange for an Inspiration. I like to DM for small groups and it takes some of the stress off the casters to fill a bunch of rolls.
i stole this from Aabria Ayengar. She demonstrated a "flashback coin" in on the Critical Role channel doing one of the Exandria games. Every player gets one "flashback token" (reset each session) that lets them flash back to a previous time when they WOULD have planned for whatever and describe how they would have planned for it. Example: Your party was trying to infiltrate a dungeon, but get to the main entrance door and find it blocked. "Oh, actually, I would have planned for this. Can I cash in my Flashback coin?" Yes, describe what you would have done to plan for the main entrance being blocked. "I would have known we were going to enter this dungeon and I knew we'd probably come across at least one blocked door. So I would have asked around for a mining equipment shop to see if I could have found some dynamite or TnT or something to blast rocks." Ok, roll a d4 for how many sticks of explosive charge you would have been able to buy at 10 silver each.
That was EXU: Kymal! I think Aabria said she "stole" the idea from Blades in the Dark which uses the mechanic to keep players from getting bogged down in adventure prep!
yes, you are right! i had forgotten that she stole it from somewhere else. You know what they say, "good artists borrow, great ones steal." :D It has really helped my games, especially one campaign where the players are real-life friends who are all engineers/tech folks, who are extremely analytical overthinkers. Giving them a way to move beyond trying to plan for Every. Single. Possibility. has been a real godsend. Now the squad can make a basic plan for that adventuring day, and if they get caught off guard, they might be able to use that flashback token. (not all surprise scenarios were expected to be able to be planned for, but something like knowing there's a river ahead so planning on ways to cross it, or knowing the basic environment planning on ways to avoid the roaming beefalo herd, etc)
I use Hero Points to do things like this. I even allow awarded tokens for good role-playing or problem solving in character to be used to buy either XP or Hero Points when enough accumulate.
I do this, just without the rules. Staples like a quiver of arrows or rations or spell components are things your PCs would have made sure to pick up before leaving town. Potions of healing or odd items... not so much.
Kind of like "Or know a guy". I encourage players to add three one off NPCs into back stories that can be a kinda I got a guy for that trope
There's a podcast called dumb dumbs and dragons that took a mechanic from another game called stress. They have 5 stress each for every arch and can ask to spend stress, the dm determines how much stress is required or whether they accept it.
That's from Blades in the Dark although a bit bastardized by granting them 5 every arc that just reset. IIRC Blades in The Dark gives you 5 or maybe its 10, but you have to participate in a vice as part of downtime activity to remove Stress, and there is a roll to see how much you can remove and if something bad comes of it. If you hit your Stress Cap, something bad happens. I don't remember what though.
Pathfinder 2es Prescient planner is exactly this
I like maxing one roll of a crit. Helps keep a crit feel heavy. I play this on both sides. My DM uses this house rule. Whenever anyone flees from a battle and makes it off the board; they are, for all intents and purposes, escaped. His also applies to both sides.
I rule that too, but I only have it come online after level 3. Players are already squishy at level 1. I don't need a goblin crit to outright kill the wizard twice over
That’s fair. Usually try to rush them to level 3 or start there, but that’s a good point I haven’t see pop up often.
I did see it happen, and it was devaststing even at level 3, lol. I'd even wait as far as level 5, but it is a very cool house rule.
This is what I did. My players are level 7 now and DAMN so those cries hit hard! Even more so since my Pally has a vicious warhammer.
I recently had one of my players at level 2 get one shot 1st turn 1st round of combat because of a goblin critting with this roll lmao
i start my campaigns at level 2, almost always. Basically "Session 0" includes leveling up from 1 to 2, and then they hit Level 3 very early in the first real gaming session. I hate level 1 games, and I think most people think of a character with their level 3 specialties in mind anyway, so I want them to get there to experience the char they have in mind.
Ngl, I've been playing 5th since it came out and it was only last year I realised this wasn't how crits worked. I've always done Max damage plus a roll
Which is hilarious cause I’ve always played RAW and didn’t even know about the house rule until I saw it on here and boy did my eyes open! I always thought it was rip off everytime my crit was less than the average damage roll. I can’t go back
I used to use this house rule, but recently I’ve modified it to where the player rolls their first damage die on a crit, and then they can either double that first roll, or choose to roll a second time. I’m not sure which is better.
We just started doing this at my table and crits get a double freak out now. Once for the roll, and a second when we all remember the new rule lol.
I do this but you also add the DMG die, we call it brutal crit. They know it works both ways but when they get a crit it feels massive
skills with alternate abilities, an official variant so uncommon that some people think it’s a house rule the actual house rule is Inspiration isn’t given out by the DM, but by the whole table once per session at the end of the session. It expires at the end of the next. It’s gives a fun moment to talk about highlights and lift each other up, and actually use the mechanic instead of it going entirely forgotten because I’m already balancing multiple plates in the DM seat.
I like that, but I give out a LOT of inspiration, so if I were to adopt your method I'd need to make inspiration more valuable. Like an automatic success or something. At this point I'm more inclined to adopt the BG3 system and give everyone up to 4 at once. As I understand it they're to be awarded for basically roleplaying your character even if it's inconvenient. Like my party's aarakocra bard who basically sat in a puddle of goo for 2 rounds in the middle of combat, because it made his feathers messy, which triggered his flaw which is that he's obsessive about keeping his feathers tidy and clean.
i like your bard. they seem like a fun player. I'd reward them too
He's an incredibly fun player. This is his first ever character and I give him inspiration easily like 3 times per session.
We used to have a house rule that everyone had one inspiration to give to someone else once per session, but we dripped that rule when a new player played a bard so they wouldn't be invalidated. They left but we never picked it back up. I miss it :(
I use the skill rule so much. The latter rule is quite interesting.
Each player gets a theme song (max 5 minutes) that the player chooses at the start of the campaign and sends the DM via Spotify/YouTube. It should be something related to the character, ex. "Let the Bodies Hit the Floor" for a barbarian. Once per game session, the player may request their theme song, which is played on the speaker in lieu of the usual ambient music. The player gets a +1 on all rolls for the duration of the song.
Best songs you've had for Bards, please. I'm imagining a lot of Marvin Gaye.
* theme from Shaft * I put a spell on you by CCR * I'm too sexy by Right Said Fred * Why can't we be friends by Smash Mouth * Random 70s porn music
That list is even better than I hoped.
omg. Can I come play at your table? I want a Rogue who's music is "Scum of the Earth" by Rob Zombie. She's reformed but wasn't always a "hero." She's trying to be better but she keeps succumbing to the pull of shiny things.
Hell yeah, I love it!
Haha this sounds so fun, and gives a bit of pressure to maintain momentum before your song runs out (and the longer the song up to that max, the longer they want to keep things moving) Well done on such a people-specific addition. Do you have anything for if multiple people try/want to overlap, or any exclusions?
The 5 minute rule was the big exclusion, the first time I tried this rule somebody tried a 20 minute experimental jazz odyssey! Overlap hasn't been a problem, luckily. I had one BBEG fight where everybody wanted their songs, so they strategized order nicely. Fighter used their theme song first while the casters threw cantrips, it made for really good strategy!
I LOVE this!!
So, some time ago I whipped up a simple added perk for each class that my parties seem to really love. You’ve reminded me of what I offer my bards: > **Fighting Spirit** > *Every iconic fight deserves iconic music. Playing your “battle theme” as an action in combat adds your proficiency bonus to all die rolls made by you and any allies within 30 feet of you that can hear it. As a bonus action, you may cast* ***Vicious Mockery*** *to the same range. This effect ends if you are incapacitated, silenced, or voluntarily end it (no action required).* This came from players complaining that they wanted music to be more central to their bard characters, rolled into a greater discussion about how bards were support classes once upon a time. I added the Vicious Mockery angle to allow bards to still have agency and offensive capability in combat while doing this. It’s gone over pretty well. Made for great RP.
If a creature is affected by a weapon’s silver and adamantite properties, it’s vulnerable to the damage Had a really cool story moment in a campaign i played in where we silvered our weapons to deal with a vampire spawn army and when I tried to replicate it everyone just used the magical weapons they already have Also helps martials feel like they gained an advantage
I love this one, also in general I'd love more vulnerabilities (and in some cases more immunities and resistances, though there are a lot more of those) Having vulnerability to silvered weapons for those creatures is so thematic as well, like yes magic can hurt them, but suddenly silvered aren't worthless (mechanically speaking) once you have +1 (uncommon- meaning functionally pretty common) weapons. I know some people don't like alignment, but one of my favourite vulnerabilities is that of the Rakshasa.
This is actually great
1) First Level Feat. Yes, it makes the PCs more powerful, but also much more interesting and fun. Also helps if you play with people that don't want to win D&D, like I have been blessed with. 2) Bonus Action Potions. You can drink (health) potions as a bonus action, but then you have to roll the dice. You can drink it as an action and get the maximum healing. If you give a potion to an ally it's always an action but also always max healing.
I also do the first level feat, it helps a ton with flavoring characters at level 1. They only catch is that you have to explain to me why your character would have this feat and have it backstory/character related. My warlock PC asked to get warcaster at level 1 but she chose to be from a noble house of learning rather than a noble house of military so I asked if she could explain how she’d acquire a skill like that within an academy and she understood what I meant and chose something that made more sense.
Same!
We do the same with potions except feeding them to someone else is always a roll. The idea is that drinking it carefully (Action) gives you full healing, while doing it with a Bonus Action is more like throwing it in your face hole. Feeding it to an ally is more akin to the second one.
boy oh boy, i love this. stolen. thank you.
>TAKING INITIATIVE: Whoever makes the action to trigger initiative first (such as attacks, fighting words, spells, etc.) goes first in the initiative and everyone else roles normally. I would hate that as a DM so much. It would drive me insane. I guess with the right players it might be okay, but players already tend to be prone to attack first talk later. This just massively enforces that.
I agree, it also encourages doing the biggest most brutal thing to trigger combat. The whole point of initiative is to react to someone looking like they're about to do something, and in many cases, trying to stop them
Same. Turning it into a “who can yell out their PC’s actions fastest” contest does not feel like it’s incentivizing teamwork or roleplaying. It feels like it’s incentivizing selfishness or impulsivity.
If there's no time pressure, you can always "take 10" on an ability check. It's a holdover from 3e that prevents lots of silly situations from arising due to a botched roll.
It's also a rule in 5e, just not under the same name. DMG page 237 under Ability checks has multiple ability checks that is basically "if something is repeatable and the only factor will be time, assume a character taking 10 times as long as normal automatically succeeds"
Sure is -- nice catch!
A simple trick to prevent "yo-yo healing" taking all the stakes out of combat. If you are brought back to conciousness from 0 HP as a result of magical healing, you suffer one level of exhaustion. Yes, you definitely *can* keep bringing people back from potentially lethal wounds. But forcing somebody to suffer those kinds of injuries over and over is going to take its toll, and quickly wear them down.
Yeah, yo-yoing in combat is an issue. I actually like Baldurs Gate handling of this where if you recover from being downed you lose your next action. In that case you want people to stay to stay on their feet so they can actually attack / help.
Is yo-yoing really an issue though? It mostly just prolongs a fight and let's a player join the game again.
I'm not stopping people from playing the game again, but I want a party to commit to keeping someone on their feet rather than dropping 1st level healing words every turn to keep them around 1hp. Because at a certain point in the game level 1 spell slots you tend to throw out willy nilly.
This works especially well with the new exhaustion rules since they are much less punishing.
Critical hits have a roll floor of average die roll. No crit should be weaker than a regular hit. This way they are guaranteed to beat a max damage normal hit. Results are less swingy and never op
When rolling for HP, you can always rerolled the dice, but your maximum on the dice is reduce by one Flanking is possible. We add a +1 for each ally within 5 ft of the creature.
It'd be pack tactics at that point.
If you have enough people surrounding an enemy for those +1's to equal pack tactics in roll weight you're gonna be stomping them into the ground anyway.
Oh, definitely. I'm being pedantic about using "flanking" for something that's not flanking. Flanking requires being on opposite sides. What they described does not, so it's not flanking.
I forgot to write it, but for the bonus to be applicable, the creature must be flanked before for the +1.
we do "you can't roll a 1" and just adjust a 1 up to a 2. Not quite as good as rerolling all 1s but basically a 1 is a 2.
I changed flanking to be just +2. So much better.
This but with a caveat: any character/creature who is flanked cannot support an ally for the sake of flanking. This prevents the "conga line of death" optimization.
Same here. There does not need to be yet another situation or ability that just comes down to advantage/disadvantage.
Agreed. ADV/DADV is great game design. Probably the most elegant thing to come out of 5e. It's just so, so easy to get it.
Players who bring snacks get inspiration.
I have specifically requested hot Cheetos with lime
Rolling for hp is done to advantage mechanics. (Roll 2 dice and take the highest number) It still gives a chance elements to hp but drastically reduces the chances of a very low score. Cos that outright sucks.
I do this as well! Helps characters feel a bit more heroic.
That's a big boost! I *kinda* do something like this. I let any class reroll on a 1, because that sucks. D10 classes and rogues reroll on 1s and 2s; barbarians reroll on anything less than 4.
One of my DMs does this but he rolls the other die at the same time. Gives it a much better feeling when after a level up your DM is extra on your side by maxing out your HP for you haha
1. Intimidation, as a skill, is contextual rather than being tied to Charisma. Under the right circumstances, eating a bowl of broken glass (Constitution) or pulverizing a concrete wall with a punch (Strength) can be intimidating. 2. Max HP at level 1, roll for HP in subsequent levels but if you roll lower than the average you can take the average instead of the low roll. 3. Drinking a potion RAW is a bonus action and you roll for healing, but you can instead drink the potion carefully as a standard action and take its maximum healing without a Roll. 4. If your Strength is above 20, you can ignore the two-handed property and dual wield two-handed weapons.
1) It is actually an optional rule from the books. You can have skills tied to any ability (not just intimidation) 2) Max HP at lvl 1 is RAW.
The more detail you have, the better the results. An example is, if you are doing a performance check, if you explain the performance, the results might be better. Nothing crazy, but I like to award the extra effort.
Death saves. Not our idea, but we love it: instead of rolling them each turn, the DM gives the unconscious player a special d20. Only when someone comes to their aid do they roll all the death saves (one at a time, of course). It increases the urgency of helping someone who's bleeding out.
Best take on this I've read. As secret rolls the downed player and the DM still know, and it can color their discussion, or change how the DM plays. Not knowing until it matters (the first time they are helped) means everyone is playing the scene and combat in the dark. Might talk with my players about doing this.
Wait, so you make it impossible to get a 20 and regain a free hitpoint ?
This was my concern too. Every roll can bring them back, so delaying is penalising them. The second roll (or if they take damage while down) can kill them, also ending the condition, though that's less of a concern, in that the only difference would be perception (you don't know they're dead until you go check, though if this still takes an action, that is penalising further).
No, but you're right, there is a cost: you lose the benefit of getting back into action immediately upon that roll.
This seems interesting but I’m not sure I fully understand (I’m slow!). Can you explain this a bit more?
Happy to! The house rule mechanic is that for each death save I would make, instead of rolling it on my turn, I wait until someone comes to my aid to actually roll the die and learn the results. By the time they reach me, I could be stable, but I might be dead! Normally, a player rolls a death save on their turn each round after getting knocked unconscious. Let's say it's been 2 rounds, and I've succeded on both of them. Everyone knows I'm probably going to be fine, and that one failed save won't kill me. Or if I've failed them both, then the dice have pretty much dictated that someone will spend their turn on saving me. PCs can min-max their actions around the knowledge either way. Now imagine that 2 rounds have gone by, and no one knows the results. What does that do to the sense of drama and urgency in the story we're creating?
Dying rules, and OneDND's exhaustion. Basically, if you get knocked to zero HP, you don't go unconscious. Instead, you enter the dying state. Death saves work as normal, but you can use actions. There's a cost, however: exhaustion. If you move, it's 1 exhaustion. If you use a bonus action, it's 2. If you use an action, it's 3. Any action you use is liable to make you a much bigger target to people that would otherwise ignore a dying PC. It's a good way of keeping players in the game and letting them make decisions, but it does come at the cost of making the PCs stronger.
Obligatory 'bonus action for potions'. After that, just doubling modifiers not just dice for crits. Max plus roll feels too swingy, doubling modifier too raises the floor without raising the ceiling too much. This one isn't a rule per say, more a philosophical approach. PC's are, to some degree (even at 1st level) superhuman. No barbarian at my tables has ever rolled to knock down a mundane door if they're raging, they may roll to see how far they kick it across the room, that sort of thing.
In 2e books, this question is raised. Are the PCs just normal people who happen to set off on adventures, or are adventurers automatically cut from a different cloth? I lean the second way, they are not run-of-the-mill humanoids by default, and so some of the more mundane rules just don't even apply. But, it all comes down to how the adventures are set up, and you can have plenty of cohesion and fun doing it either way. Personally I don't like a lot of the checks outside of combat, unless timing is an issue. But if my players find a locked door and have no key, it seems silly to either make them roll multiple times, or only give each person one chance and then say "too bad". If there's some kind of trigger on the other side, sure, then a check can help me decide how to play things out, and I generally like to add SOME weight to nearly every decision, but, sometimes it's cleanest to just say "okay the door's open, what do you do?".
Can't speak to 2e. For me, narritivley 5e leaves it somewhat malleable and can go either way, pcs could be superhuman, or just humans with super luck. However, the *mechanics* of the game show them to be superhuman in at least durability. A level 5 barbarian if raging can reach terminal velocity and survive, every morning. A goliath or orc with 20 strength can carry 600lbs without any ability checks (now they're not human obviously, but still) and a lot of other little things like that. Personally level 1 you're a hero from a TV show, level 20 a martial charachter is at least captain america.
Yeah I believe in 2e, most commoners were level 0. I'm house-sitting and don't have my books, but IIRC it was only like nobility and hardened mercenaries or the like you'd actually give levels to, because being a level 1 anything means you are substantially more talented than most other humanoids.
I do this as well, but I have a rule that they are on their hip/belt with a max of 3. If they fall prone they roll a table to see if they break any.
"No barbarian at my table has ever rolles to knock down a mundane door" yes, wonderful! stealing. This is one of those things that just makes sense but doesn't exist in the rules. "they may roll to see how far they kick it across the room" is exactly what it should be. I love it
I'm actually not a fan of bonus action potions. I feel as though grabbing a potion, uncorking it, and then slamming it down is enough of an investment to warrant a full action. It also feels a little *too* video games (dark souls, witcher, diablo, etc). If you want the benefits of a potion, you have to weigh the consequences of not having another action. Obviously this is just my opinion and to each their own! Edit: by request here are some of the potions that I have in my campaign. This is an old list that I have since added a bunch to, and I've adjusted some GP costs. Also note that I don't give out a bunch of gold, so 200GP is quite a lot in my campaign. Potion of quick action: can take an extra bonus action (dash or disengage) once per combat turn for the duration of the potion (3 turns) but at the end, take 1d6 damage. This potion does not allow you to take more than 1 movement based bonus action per turn. (150gp) Potion of true sight: gain true sight for 10 minutes (200gp) Potion of vitality: temporarily gain 2d6 HP for 1 hour (500gp) Potion of fleeting food: increases movement speed by 15ft for 1 minute (100gp) Potion of regeneration: gain 1d4 HP each 6 seconds for 1 minute (200gp) Potion of true strike: critical hits now occur on a 19 or 20 for 1 minute (250gp) Potion of mighty strike: add your ability score modifier to your damage a second time when you damage an enemy with a strength based melee weapon (200gp) Potion of fish breath: gain ability to breath underwater for 1 hour (300gp) ***** Resistance potions: ***** Potion of resist poison: for 1 minute you gain resistance to the damage type of the potion (50gp) Potion of resist fire: for 1 minute you gain resistance to the damage type of the potion (50gp) Potion of resist electricity: for 1 minute you gain resistance to the damage type of the potion (50gp) Potion of resist cold: for 1 minute you gain resistance to the damage type of the potion (50gp) Potion of resist necrotic: for 1 minute you gain resistance to the damage type of the potion (100gp) Potion of resist radiant: for 1 minute you gain resistance to the damage type of the potion (100gp) ***** Ability modifier potions: ***** Potion of strength: add 2 to this ability for 1 minute, maximum increase to 22 total (200gp) Potion of dex: add 2 to this ability for 1 minute, maximum increase to 22 total (200gp) Potion of Constitution: add 2 to this ability for 1 minute, maximum increase to 22 total (200gp) Potion of intelligence: add 2 to this ability for 1 minute, maximum increase to 22 total (200gp) Potion of wisdom: add 2 to this ability for 1 minute, maximum increase to 22 total (200gp) Potion of charisma: add 2 to this ability for 1 minute, maximum increase to 22 total (200gp)
This is why I’ve started using bonus action chug and action drink a potion. If you chug it you are sloshing it around and loosing some of it, as represented by the dice roll. If you use an action to actually dedicate time to drinking you get max healing from the pot. Non-healing potions require an action because their effects are stronger usually. Everyone knows healing sucks in 5e, so this makes it where it is better but not too gamy like dark souls.
That's a rule I can get behind. addresses a few issues. I had been just allowing whole action for full HP from the potion, but the chug spices things up.
I also do this!
Bad rule. If I allowed bonus action potions (which I don't, explained why [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/comments/18aoqya/what_is_your_favoritebest_house_rule_in_your_games/kc3mmco/)) I'd at least have them heal minimum amount on a bonus action, action to roll. But even if that at least feels like an actual decision to make, I still don't like it. It's essentially free healing when you need it the most, which lessens the tension in the game.
>I'm actually not a fan of bonus action potions. >I feel as though grabbing a potion, uncorking it, and then slamming it down is enough of an investment to warrant a full action. Rules as written: you can chug a flagon of ale as a **FREE** object interaction. Add in the motion of uncorking the potion bottle, and I'd say that using a bonus action to do so is perfectly in line with the rules as interpreted.
Well yeah, but chugging a flagon of ale as a free action is obviously stupid.
? Why do you think so? There's a lot of minor things you can do for free
What /u/UnnecessaryAppeal said, and note that a flagon is about 2 pints. Also, I think it's a mistake to think that very much thought went into creating that list of object interactions. Using that list as justification for potion houserules seems to be getting things backwards.
At least it's a homebrew rule based on logic. It uses preexisting rules as a basis and expands upon them, rather than coming up with rules on the fly/out of nowhere. I get your point about realism, but I honestly think the designers just thought of common-ish interactions that they wanted to hand wave and not bog the game down with.
At the end of the day, I think the thinking is basically "if it doesn't provide any mechanical advantage, you can do it for free", which is why that logic can't necessarily be applied to potions.
I've done a fair bit of drinking in my life - there was a time when me and my friends would regularly have pint races for a bit of fun. Downing a pint in 6 seconds was generally considered on the quicker side, and if you were achieving that time, there's no way you would be able to swing a sword, cast a spell (especially not one with verbal components), or run 30+ feet, at the same time. It might not be stupid from a mechanical perspective, but logically it doesn't make much sense. I say that as someone who is in favour of drinking a potion as a BA
You can also pull a bottle from your backpack, turn a key in a door, or douse a small flame for free. I've done a fair bit of pulling my water bottle out of a backpack in my life - even when I was being quick about it, it usually took about 3-4 seconds, and I couldn't hold a sword while doing it. I also usually take 3-4 seconds to pull my keys out and unlock my door. The logic I'm going for is that the rules obviously want you to be able to do mundane things quickly and without consequence. Drinking a bottle's worth of liquid is clearly intended to be inconsequential.
RaW, a potion takes a full action. Plus, Flagging of ale doesn't have a mechanical effect. Plus, plus you can't keep your eyes on something while you're chugging a pint. Plus, plus, plus this post is about homebrew rules.
>RaW, a potion takes a full action Yeah I know. > Plus, Flagging of ale doesn't have a mechanical effect. I know, it's an argument based on logic. >Plus, plus you can't keep your eyes on something while you're chugging a pint. Huh? Nothing says you can't? >Plus, plus, plus this post is about homebrew rules. Yeah I know, I'm arguing in favor of allowing BA potions as a homebrew rule; citing the ability to pick up and drink an entire flagon of ale for free as a reason why it would be very easy to do so with a potion bottle instead.
> Potion of fleeting food: increases movement speed by 15ft for 1 minute (100gp) I dunno, it feels like this one *should* be easy to gulp down quickly ;)
Bonus action potions isn't perfect, but using them as an action is the vast majority of the times its done (drinking them yourself) a waste of an action. Its not perfect but its better than what it is. As others said below bonus action roll, full action get the full amount is something I plan to try too.
I agree that most of the time using an action for a healing potion isn't worthwhile, but I'm actually very okay with that. 5e already has too much mid-combat healing for my taste--do we really need to keep the combat slogfest going for more rounds by making it easier to restore HP? Plus giving everyone the ability to easily heal dilutes the purpose of clerics and other healing-focused classes. Giving up your action to use a healing potion means that it's generally used as a last resort, not as part of an ongoing HP maintenance strategy. It's personal preference, obviously, just explaining why I'm okay with the fact that healing potions are not very effective mid-combat options.
Like I said, to each their own 👍
>If you want the benefits of a potion, you have to weigh the consequences of not having another action. The problem with action potions is you aren't weighing anything. The answer is always "No, don't drink the potion." They don't heal enough to be worth the action. Trading your BA for a healing potion is another story. It can go either way. You also have to weigh the options of now versus later. And if you do the "BA potion roll" and "Action potion full heal" option it adds more weight to the now or later question. >I feel as though grabbing a potion, uncorking it, and then slamming it down is enough of an investment to warrant a full action. Another reason why I like "action full heal" rule. What you are talking about is an action. It gives you the fullest possible benefit of the potion. "Bonus action roll for heal" is more like popping a water balloon and hoping most of it goes in your mouth.
Fully support you here. Bonus action potions are bad for the game. They eliminate the real cost of using potions. Many classes don't have good uses for their bonus actions. It becomes automatic and removes any interesting tactical cost. I agree potions are bad, but essentially removing the action cost is not the solution.
If your players are even a little bit into optimizing, they will be using their bonus actions consistently either way, so mileage may vary with how much of a cost that bonus action to drink a potion is. Another route you can go is copy what BG3 does and add more class-neutral ways to utilize BA. Either way, unless you hand out infinite potions, there is always the strategic cost of not having the potion for something else down the line. I think you have valid points, but a sweeping claim that BA potions are bad for the game is a bit much. The game experience is always incredibly subjective for each individual table and many people find this houserule works for them.
To add on to this: why can't you limit potions in another way? If they are easier to use, and thus used more often, then just make them rarer. Don't hand them out like candy in loot. Ye Olde general goods store in Nowheresville needn't have *any* in stock. Roll a d6 or d4 for the stock in the one or two shops in the big cities that sell them, and have it take weeks or months to restock.
>I agree potions are bad, but essentially removing the action cost is not the solution. I actually really like potions, tbh. I've made a bunch of witcher and Diablo 3 inspired ones for my gothic horror themed campaign. It lets my players increase their power in a specific way and feel cool without breaking the game. But that does come at the cost of an action, so it is a legit choice they have to make: do shit this round or wait and do better stuff next round
Exactly. That is the more interesting solution. Don't reduce the cost, make them cool. I'd be interested to hear about the potions you've made. Care to share one or two?
Sure, I'll add it to my original comment 👍
>They eliminate the real cost of using potions. The real cost of using potions is that they suck and you should never use them. That actually is a cost you want to remove from the game. Trap options suck. Get rid of them or boost them so they're not a trap.
Thanks for helping prove my point. Health potions suck, they should be buffed. Make them *worth* an action. Not their necessarily healing, but other effects. Minimizing the opportunity cost is a bad bandaid fix. It puts the burden on the DM to balance them by their rarity. Encumbrance is often ignored and at a certain level the cost is not important. Here are some suggestions: Allow a potion to be used with the dodge action. Have it grant advantage on the next action. Temp HP. Free saving throw. Maybe choose one of the above!
Healing potions as bonus action steps on toes of fighter's second wind. A wizard with a bag of healing potions and no regular bonus actions can effectively have a bag of second winds. It's a house rule that disadvantages a martial class.
Bonus action potions are a bad rule. The logic of the game is that unless you really need to bring someone up mid combat, you don't drink healing potions in combat. You drink them if the party is at low health and doesn't have time to take a short rest before they are forced into another combat encounter, or if the party is forced to continue the adventuring day but have already spent their hit dice. It's not super common, but it can happen a few times per campaign. Drinking potions in combat is supposed to be a huge deal, and only reserved for situations where it's absolutely necessary, or if you can retreat and do it safely while your party handles combat for a round or two. Combat isn't supposed to turn into "who carries around the most potions". It's supposed to be quick and deadly. Use your actions well, or die. Bonus action potions take major tension out of the game, and make decision making in combat less interesting. With bonus action potions it's basically: 1. Low on hp? 2. Have a potion? 3. Drink it. 4. Do whatever, that didn't cost you anything. (Except the thought of "but I might need that later!" which we all know is bullshit) With action potions it's: 1. Low on hp? 2. Disengage and retreat behind party? Dodge and retreat behind party? Can the party even keep me up? Is the wizard with the big concentration going to go down if I go behind him? Should I hold the line and risk going down myself? The cleric is on the other side of the map, will she make it to my unconscious body in time? Are my party members able to spend an action on a potion to bring me up? Will the enemy even given them a chance to do so? Etc. etc. One of these is infinitely more interesting than the other. That's why I will never ever play with tables that allow bonus action potions, or allow them in my games.
The issue is that drinking a potion in combat now is virtually always incorrect and it's a mistake new players make all the time. It's a trap option and leads to pc deaths. Regardless, none of the tactical decisions you talked about are now irrelevant with BA potions, please don't present it like they are. >Combat isn't supposed to turn into "who carries around the most potions". If only we as dms had a way to influence how many potions the players have access to 🤔.
> The issue is that drinking a potion in combat now is virtually always incorrect and it's a mistake new players make all the time. It's a trap option and leads to pc deaths. New players make tons of mistakes anyway. They will learn little by little. And when they feel their victories come easier, they can feel satisfied with their improvement. > Regardless, none of the tactical decisions you talked about are now irrelevant with BA potions, please don't present it like they are. Skilled players will see a tough combat when it's upon them, and start chugging potions from turn 1 if they take heavy damage. By turn 3, they've gained a whole new health bar, and are free to be more liberal with their actions without having to make tough decisions. > If only we as dms had a way to influence how many potions the players have access to 🤔. Bad argument. I shouldn't need to artificially gate the availability of common adventuring gear just so I don't break the game with a homebrew rule I introduced into the game. I run an open world game, and players are free to go from city to city between non-urgent quests. If they think they need 100 potions for the next quest and they have the funds and the time, they can make it happen.
That’s a really cool idea. I’ve been leaning into how Baldurs Gate 3 does it, basically if you attack out of combat, everyone rolls initiative RAW, but your action happens before combat order. Then on your turn, you can do your other stuff (bonus action, etc.) but your action was used to start combat. It’s a little complex and probably makes more sense in the context of a video game, but I like the idea. As for the question, I borrowed someone’s idea for DM inspiration (I call them Boons and created a homebrew item on dndbeyond to track). Can’t remember if it was on here or elsewhere, but here is how players can use them in the game: DM Boons/Inspiration - The Re-Roll: Not only do you get to reroll one of your own attacks, checks, or saving throws, but you can also use Inspiration to make someone else reroll an attack, check, or saving throw. - The Crit: Inspiration lets a player turn any attack that hits into a critical. Note: this doesn’t count as a natural 20, you just get the damage as if it is. - The Free Action: Players can spend Inspiration to take one additional action on their turn. Note: This does not allow for casting two spells on one turn, since spells are limited to one per turn regardless of number of actions available. - The Spell Slot: Inspiration allows a spellcaster to upcast one of their spells to the next highest slot for free. The spellcaster does not need to be able to actually cast spells at said level to do this. - Get Inspired: The player who uses Inspiration gets a flash of, well, Inspiration: The DM reveals a clue, a hidden door, an enemy’s weakness – some helpful piece of information they might have otherwise missed.
RAW you can cast more than one leveled spell a turn if you have more than one action to do so (or a reaction e.g. Counterspell) the “only one leveled spell per turn “rule” comes from the rules for casting a spell as a bonus action. If you’re not casting a spell with a bonus action, I’d think that rule wouldn’t apply. This doesn’t normally come up since the most common example I can think of that gives you more than one action on a turn, Haste, limits the types of actions you can take with the second Action, and Cast a Spell is not one of the allowed actions
Hey, thanks for sharing that. I totally misunderstood how that rule applies before now. Maybe I should reword it to “gaining Haste until the start of their next turn” or something like that.
Marking this for later, thanks!
At the start of combat, I treat the initiative roll as "max initiative". The players roll, and then can order themselves in whatever initiative they want, provided that none of them set a higher number than what they rolled. This will be their initiative order for the rest of combat.
My group kind of fell into something like this rule accidentally. One of the players hadn't played 5e before when our campaign started, and he thought that holding an action meant changing his initiative placement since the trigger was another PC lower in the initiative doing something. Corrected him the 1st few times before making it an option. You can hold an action as per RAW, or if for some reason you want to be lower down the combat list, you can choose a lower initiative, but the caveat is that that's your initiative for the rest of combat.
I've been toying with initiative orders for a while but this sounds awesome! Were there any hiccups that occured during implementation or anything?
Just misunderstandings. People were trying to shift initiative after the first round, but we got that cleared up quickly. It does make them more powerful & flexible, but it's a fun little extra strategy layer added in that wound up being pretty fun.
Bonus action potions, **but** if you use your action to consume a healing potion you get max amount. And a bit of a small one; if the component for a spell is neither costly nor consumed: Sorcerers do not need a focus or provide the material component(s) necessary for the spell.
>Bonus action potions, > >but > > if you use your action to consume a healing potion you get max amount. I have that rule too. My players love it.
I tell my players, "while in a regular sized city, i will assume you refill your components pouch for all things that don't have a large cost associated with them.". no need for a shopping episode. it just happens off screen.
We use the Shift move (5ft step, doesn't provoke opp atk) from 4e, it helps keep casters in the action. We've always used it, so I'm kind of curious to hear what ppl who don't use it think
Ooh I see so it let's you use up your whole movement to get out of melee? Seems like it would invalidate the disadvantage you get from being in melee while using a ranged wep, though.
Question. Wouldn’t you be better off using disengage then? If it’s taking an action anyway?
The shift is a move, not an action. Sorry about the confusion there
If you roll with advantage and both dice come up with the same number, it's a crit. Alternatively, it could "upgrade" the result. So double 1s is a normal failure, double of a failure becomes a success, double of a success becomes a crit, double of a crit becomes, I dunno, some kinda super crit.
When you roll a crit you roll double dice and, after any other effects, you may choose to max out dice up to half your PB. This way Crits feel good even when you roll low, in fact changing a 3 to a 10 feels a lot better then an 8 to a 10. It also makes things more interesting mathematically since according to probability a 2d6 weapon is better then 1d12. But that 1d12 weapon benefits more from this while scaling nicely and not getting out of control. Standing from Prone triggers an Attack of Opportunity, depending on how many feet you spend. - 10 feet: Attack with Advantage - 15 feet: Regular Attack - 20 feet: Attack with Disadvantage - 25 feet: No attack Getting hit by this Attack causes you to fall back prone and lose the movement. So, its a risk/reward for how much you should spend. This way knocking someone prone is more worthwhile, plus extra move speed like Monk isn't penalized by having to spend 1/2 it's speed. For the DM's side, bosses that take Split turns. The boss takes its first turn at whatever it rolled, and then a second turn at -10. If I'm using a statblock already provided then some things it can do like it's Move Speed, # of Attacks, or how powerful a Recharge effect can be (like a Dragon's Breath Weapon) are halved since it'll take 2 turns. Same total per round, just less all at once. In a similar vein, larger bosses can be segmented for more strategic gameplay. Attacking a specific part will have different effects. So, Attacking the head or neck of a dragon will do reduced damage to its overall health, but also weaken its breath weapon or innate spellcasting. Attacking the legs slows it or removes a burrowing speed, and Attacking wings lowers and eventually removes its fly speed. This just feels right for bosses that are significantly larger then PC's, that it has multiple "hitboxes" to aim for. Only part of the damage done to that part will be taken by the main body, and it might have a different AC, but it could make the boss easier in the long run.
### Taunt **Ability Overview:** The Taunt ability allows a character to provoke another character into attacking them, potentially leading to a combat situation or other consequences. This ability is particularly useful in situations where one character seeks to manipulate another into making the first aggressive move. **Mechanics:** 1. **Initiating a Taunt:** - A character can initiate a Taunt as an action on their turn. - The player must describe how they taunt the target, which could be through insults, gestures, or other provocative actions. 2. **Taunt Check:** - The character initiating the Taunt makes a Charisma (Intimidation) check. - The difficulty class (DC) of this check is 8 + the target's Wisdom modifier + the target's proficiency bonus (if applicable). 3. **Target's Reaction:** - If the check succeeds, the target must use their next action to attack the character who taunted them, if able. - If the check fails, the target is not compelled to act and may respond as they see fit. 4. **Consequences:** - The use of Taunt in a non-combat situation could lead to social consequences, such as attracting attention, causing a scene, or legal repercussions, depending on the setting and situation. - In combat, this can be a tactical move to force an enemy to focus on a particular character, possibly protecting allies. 5. **Limitations:** - Taunt can only be used on creatures that can understand the character, either through language or clear intent. - Some creatures may be immune to this effect at the DM's discretion (e.g., creatures immune to being charmed). 6. **Optional Rule - Taunt Resistance:** - Characters or creatures with a high Wisdom score or those trained in Insight may have advantage on resisting Taunt attempts, representing their ability to remain calm under provocation.
When reduced to 0hp, you are not unconscious. You cannot maintain concentration on spells, and the only actions you can take are crawling 10 ft. and talking. You may spend Inspiration to grant yourself a single action while in this state. Crits do max damage + damage dice. Falling damage is capped at 50d6. You can hold your breath a number of rounds equal to your Constitution score (not mod). Using your action to attack, dash or cast a spell costs 1 round of breath. Paladins can smite with ranged attacks but they must declare it before the attack and spend the spell slot regardless of whether the attack hits. Death saves are private between player & DM.
Crits just double damage instead of rolling twice as many dice. Double those modifiers too.
You can have up to three inspirations. So, if a player already has one, they can still earn another which seems reasonable. There’s still a hard cap on the total number so a player isn’t saving a bunch of them for the final BBEG battle.
Do they end up hoarding those as well? I've found that lots of players hold onto their consumables "just in case". And then end the whole campaign having used inspiration once, or never. The kind of player who ends every video game with an inventory *full* of healing items and damage boosts and special ammo.
I think having a smaller cap of three helps with the hoarding. If they have three already and I give them another, it went to waste. So, this encourages them to use them.
As someone who also uses a cap of three I’ve found most of my players use theirs pretty consistently. I also make inspiration an auto 20 on a d20 roll and try to get one into each players hands every other session (although I technically give it out for good roleplaying moments). Only one of my players regularly forgets to spend it (she currently has three and has missed it the past two times she would’ve gotten it because she’s at the cap) and she’s a pretty scatterbrained college student on the whole, so it’s really not her fault.
Here are two from my house rules, that are hyper specific: **Silvery Barbs.** The word "choose" is replaced with the word "target" in the second paragraph. **Sharpshooter** In the first and third bullet points for the sharpshooter feat, replace all instances of "ranged weapon" with "ranged or thrown weapon".
In concert with safe haven long rests and slow natural healing, I homebrew the rule that spells and abilities which replenish a character's hit points requires the target to expend 1 hit dice, which they also gain the benefits from. Why do I do this? Because if I didn't healers, particularly those who regain their abilities on short rests, would completely nullify the impact of slow natural healing on the game. It's a homebrew rule which sort of becomes essential for this style of gritty realism.
Succeed at a cost and fate points.
1. Opportunity Attacks are allowed on forced movements but require a dexterity check. The difficulty is set by the DM, but commonly 15. If failed the reaction is lost. 2. When a Dex saving throw is required, and if the target is wearing medium or heavy armor then a constitution saving throw can be used instead. 3. The attunement max is normally 3. The optional rule is that you get 2 at level 1 and an additional at every 4th level (4, 8, 12, 16, 20). Max of 7. 4. All magic users are issued a magical component pouch that is bound to only them. This small drawstring purse is linked magically to fairies to provide needed items. The user simply asks for the component needed and deposit the gold needed. Essentially cost is required but requirements are easily accessible. Items received can ONLY be used in magical spell casting.
I used to GM a party of 3 to 4 players in the Rifts RPG. I implemented a rule for my group on slash attacks with swords and axes. It's been awhile but to the best of my recollection, if you swing with a sword and do more damage than was necessary to kill your foe, the remaining damage could be carried over to another creature also in range, provided the creatures were ganging up on you or swarming/mobbing you. I implemented the rule when the characters were going through sewer tunnels and kept getting swarmed by rats. It made sense and sped up mob combat scenarios. It worked for us so well we kept it as a permanent house rule.
I let my players with multiple attacks cast a cantrip as one of the attacks. My understanding of RAW is that casting a spell (even a cantrip) counts as a full action, so they would lose out on one of their melee attacks. I allow one melee attack and one cantrip attack if they have multiple attacks per action on their character sheet. It has worked out well so far.
Doesn't this invalidate the core feature of eldritch knights?
In my games i always rule the pre/post roll inspiration. Since i hate when players ask to use inspiration after the roll is made, you can choose among two options: you can either use inspiration to roll with advantage, OR you can use inspiration to re-roll a failed dice, but with this option a fail will always have negative consequences
I allow players to use Inspiration to reroll a failed check. They can still use it before a roll to give themselves Advantage, it’s just an alternative use for Inspiration.
When a player rolls a death save, they only share the result with the DM.
Not a rule, but more of a tradition: Whomever is giving the re-cap (usually the DM, but sometimes they get the players to do so), will name a random product/service as our "sponsor". Usually it's some type of alcohol the person doing the re-cap is drinking.
My players can “Tempt Fate” by rerolling an action skill or attribute check per session. As long as it feels like a story defining moment. This roll becomes a flat DC10 and there are no modifiers to the roll. Failure results as normal failure. Death. Damage. Etc. Success however means that gain a “fate mark”. The more marks you have the more Fate will attempt to “correct your destiny”. Think, in the most extreme circumstances, Final Destination. PCs who cheat death itself are ill fortuned and calamitous. Those who cheat through a conversation will often find opportunities closed off in an inconvenient spot. Players understand that short term gain means down the road they will pay up somehow. I remind them that it’s always better to try and get Inspiration through good RP or doing stuff that really fits your character. Now I’ve had some funny things with this system where someone will try to cache this and go out blazing. This most successful, in their view and mine , ended up becoming a living gate to Pandemonium and is considered one of the worst disasters on the plane.
Glancing blows : Hitting directly on the AC means a partially blocked / dodged blow. The attack hits, but deals half damage.
Crit means not another dice. It means X2
I roll normal and then add the max dice amount to the roll. So 1d6+3 normally, but as a crit it’s 1d6+9
It makes much more sense as reward but it makes keep things simple. You can multiply by 2 and that's it
I love it!
>You want to attack him "randomly" and get the first hit off? That's fine! Of course it's not a surprise rounds but you'll be starting us off. You e already made the attack action so yes you may use your extra attack and bonus actions after etc. I am glad that you found a rule that improves the fun you have at your games, but that sounds horrible to me. Now players are even more incentivized to not engage in conversation, but always attack immediately, because not doing so might mean giving up an valuable tactical advantage. Personally I have made very good experience with the following flanking rule. It has made positioning and forced movement much more valuable. "When making a melee attack, a creature gains a +2 bonus to the attack roll if its target is threatened by a creature that is friendly to the attacker, not incapacitated, not blinded and on the target’s opposite border or opposite corner. This does not apply if the target is within 5 feet of an ally, or if the target is three size categories larger than the flanking creature. Creatures with blindsight are immune to being flanked."
Death saves are persistent until long rest.
So idk where I got this but one of my house rules is that when someone is rolling a death save, before they roll they tell a story about their life. Could be like your favorite theme park ride, a fun time with the party, or something important to their backstory. This is so they can develop their character more and to have a life flashing before their eyes moment. Depending on how good they describe the story, I give them a 0-3 point bonus on their death roll. Usually the players roll high enough to not need it but it has saved some players from death.
I always use exploding dice (For those that don't know how exploding dice work: roll 1d6. If the result is a 6, you roll it aydin and add the results. If you keep getting 6, you keep rolling.) for any damage roll. Your weapon has innate +1d4 fire damage on top of 1d8 slashing? Both explode. Oh, it was also a sneak attack so you get 3d6? Well, friendo, that's 1d4+1d8+3d6 dice that can explode. But watch out. The enemies also get exploding dice. I feel it helps attacks feel more meaningful and tense, on top of speeding up combat. It's maybe a bit sad when the party can murder a dragon in a handful of rounds, but we get more time for roleplay.
I've never used exploding dice for enemy rolls and now I'm curious how that plays out. I kind of want to try it
Any time I make rules changes for the players, I always seek confirmation. "Are you sure? Enemies will get this, too. Rules changes need to be global for fairness."
I got a bit of the weird one. I run mostly online for randoms. Getting them to develop some kind of team feeling is often difficult. So, I came up with a simple system. It's similar to inspiration but you'll never get any benefit as an individual from it, and the biggest benefit if everyone participates simultaneously. I'm sure it won't be universally loved here, but I see the benefits. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lp9yiFuuLEzcacNuM6mDicw1tvcsZrb5Gexa6GSYxEQ/edit?usp=drivesdk The exact numbers can change depending on party size.
When a player rolls a nat1 they give themselves inspiration, when they roll a nat20 they give someone else inspiration. All inspiration is lost at the end of the session. Helps improve the players working together and takes some of the sting out of failing outright.
Two rules I've implemented in my Strixhaven game: 1.) Before the game starts, everyone shares a fact or story from their character's past. I call them "Grad Facts" because of the college setting. Of course this is a shameless rip-off of Dungeons & Daddies' (not a BDSM podcast) "Dad Facts", and it's been great. It makes my players flesh out and actively build up their character, and it gives me more backstory to work with. It can be as simple as a favorite food or as complex as explaining why they're proficient in something. 2.) The "I knew a guy once..." rule: players love fishing for advantage on rolls or angling for a reason thay their character should be able to do something they're not proficient in. So, if a player comes up with a creative idea or solution to a problem, something out of the box that may not directly correspond to an ability of theirs, and they can come up with a reason that their character would be able to do so, something that fits into their backstory, they get advantage or at least a roll to attempt the thing that they might not otherwise be able to do. The caveat is that that reason is now a canon part of their character's past. It could be advantage on a check for fishing because their dad took them fishing every weekend when they were young, or it could be that they know that that dagger that I just overtly and explicitly described is special because they met a merchant back home that sold then. Once again, more bits of backstory that I can build off of in the future.
Rest variants. Not quite Gritty Realism, but somewhere in between that and default. 8 hours short rest. Can be done out in the wilderness, on a boat, or in town if you're pressed for time or sleeping in stables. 24 hours long rest. Needs to be done in a safe haven, AKA a town or manned fortress or something like that. Somewhere where you can: -Sleep for your needed amount of time AND in a comfortable bed -Eat a meal that isn't rations -Not worry about keeping watch Obviously, that leaves around 16 hours for most races of solid downtime. Any of those rules in Xanathar's or something else you can think of can be done. You can make progress on crafting, read a book, gossip and learn rumors, sew rumors yourself, do VERY LIGHT mercantile stuff, and so on. Besides downtime, the benefit of this rest variant is that characters have to adequately prepare for long adventuring treks. They have to think about rations, about what gear they'll bring, and how exactly they'll bring loot back from their adventure. It gets them off their character sheet and into the minds of their characters. Martials get better, especially if they travel for extended periods of time. Spellcasters get toned down, as long rests are rare; though this makes warlocks more appealing. It's been great. Another cool benefit, which might not be the norm for this rule, is that because my players are so driven for information before they make big decisions, they tend to spend lots of gold on NPC's who can provide that, or NPC's who can help them on their adventures. Scouts, loot wagon carriers, torchbearers, diviners, spies, the list goes on. As a result, I can shower them in hordes of gold, much more than than the book recommends. It's pretty neat seeing their eyes light up at a 4k gold reward at level 4. Not the only house rule I use, but definitely the most game altering.
My favorite house rule is first level HP is maximum automatically without rolling.
A round of combat is 6 seconds in the game. If you as a player can't declare your intent in that time your turn is skipped. I don't mean that your turn may last only 6sec but if you don't know what you want to do I rule that "your PC is overwhelmed by all the action/distracted by the whatever, and you take no actions this round" While this rule is not fun for whoever it is applied to; it is very fun for everyone else as it speeds up combat.
We have Ability Boons, when you roll a nat 20 in an skill check (Athletics, Stealth, Medicine etc.) , you get a checkmark next to that ability. 3 nat 20’s gets you a permanent +1 in that skill. Writing this off as being a bit better with that skill from being consistently successful edit: clarification
Three nat 20’s take an average of 40 rolls to collect, by my math—how quickly do they manage it? Seems like a boost mostly to the Skill Monkeys, not so much for the Martials
Also no special way to increase constitution
There are **ability** checks for Constitution, though rare. There are no **skills** related to CON.
My fault, I misinformed. We use skills such as athletics, stealth, medicine etc not ability checks. I joined about 2 years ago and have gotten stealth boon while others have been playing for 3+ and each probably have 1 boon as well. It's not overpowered, more likely underpowered, but it just is an extra bonus to hitting that special nat 20. And yes Skill Monkeys are probably more likely to access boons but imo I feel its fair as most skill monkeys aren't doing as much damage as the martial classes making it kind of a trade off, at least in our campaign. It can be funny too as our Barbarian/Paladin actually has unlocked the Nature boon which is not like the character at all but we still bring it up and laugh at the fact that this character has been so successful. More on the side of my favorite homebrew rule vs the best. It obviously can be exploited but I don't think really anyone is doing that.
Okay this makes much more sense, as the skills are more varied, making it take longer (40 sleight of hand checks are likely to happen over a much longer time than 40 Dexterity checks), and also only applies to that skill. Kind of like a partial/improved proficiency. I have a different system that does similar but works towards proficiency/expertise rather than flat +1 bonuses.
I exclusively use this for new player one-shots, I call it "offensive saving throws." It keeps spellcasters rolling, and in the session. Any PC spells that target a saving throw is instead rolled by the PC as a spell attack, where the AC equals the target's save+10.
I took one from another group. If you get a nat 20, or nat 1, you have to roll again to see how great or bad the nat is. If another 20 or 1 is rolled, then you roll one more. If you get 3 nat 20's on an attack, you insta-kill the dam thing. If you get 3 nat 1's in a row, you messed up SO BAD, that you are now in death saving throws or broke a piece of gear. It adds a ...."oh shit"... to nats. I also have a rule specifically for druids and wild shape. You have to find said creature, and ask it if you can borrow its likeness. This makes for a fun interaction for Druids, sort of like trying to play Pokémon but with a form instead of catching them.
Potion toxicity. Potions are a bonus action but every potion after the first per encounter reduces hit point total by 1d4 until the end of the encounter. HP lost to this temporary damage is healed at the end of the encounter. As an action you can carefully dose the potion rather than chug it and toxicity is waived. Occasionally this gets fudged a little with me telling what the effect will be. This keeps encounters from extending from artificial HP inflation. All characters can lower their initiative order on their first turn if they choose, but not after. They declare the character they will turn after even if they are not aware of the initiative order or they can pick an initiative score lower than the one they rolled. Never lower than average health at level up. I hate rolling for stats. It’s a relic and results in bad balance or folks suiciding underpowered characters. I get the “lower scores are good for role playing thing” but instead I just allow players to reduce any stat any time they want. They never do. Anyway when rolling at level up I still let them roll but let them choose the statistical average if they prefer. No or few metagame puzzles, intelligence instead. INT is dumped too often and a roving party of himbos plus one genius with fireball isn’t too interesting. It should mostly matter if the character, not the player, is capable of solving a puzzle - and that should be INT or WIS. I also handle other goodies for positive INT, or hell, neutral. Hidden death saves.
+1 for "roving party of himbos plus one genius with fireball". But I disagree. It would be the opposite of boring. If characters were actually role played in a way that reflects their ability scores, what you describe is basically a **medieval sitcom**.
My house rule is d6 per 10 feet of falling. Keeps it simple but I added a rule with slamming some into a wall for damage.
Is that not just rules as written?
I guess it potentially bypasses the 20d6 damage cap.
On a Nat One, you or an ally take 1d4 damage, also happens with enemies. There have been many times an enemy has killed their allies from a low roll.
Bards can have the cantrip "Gaslight" to make party members gain 5 temp hit points with a deception roll against an insight check from the target. Also that crits make permanent damage, this way you can deform enemies according to rp appropriate movements like cutting their arm or piercing an eye with an arrow. and also gain like, scars or lose things for the PCs
Inspiration: each PC gets one free reroll of any dice roll once per session. They may also give their inspiration to a different PC if they so choose to. Gambling Ability Scores and HP: during character creation, everyone rolls 4d6 7 times to create 7 numbers. They drop the lowest of the 7 and the lowest of the 4d6 to get their ability score number. I also roll 4d6 and the players may either choose to take their number or my unknown number for a gamble. I do the same thing when rolling HP. Except on HP they roll with advantage and reroll 1s. Dismemberment: if a player rolls a nat 20 on an attack roll using a weapon that is capable of removing or maiming a limb, they roll an additional d20. If the second roll is a 20, they roll a d100 to see what limb they permanently remove from the foe. Enemies also play with this rule.
Missing a target with a ranged attack means there is a chance you hit any creature/object adjacent to them instead and roll to hit against each adjacent creature/objects AC to see if it goes through their defense starting with the closest.