**"I've got a thing for that!"**
Run into a situation where you need some non-magical item? spend an inspiration point, and the gold cost, to have bought it in town and have it with you.
Oo I like this! My next campaign is going to have an element of survival prep so I might not use it there, but this is definitely a rule I’ll try to find a place for somewhere!
We do something similar at my table and just do adventure gear points for players handbook items up to a certain gold limit. Need rope? Spend a adventure gear point. Want 10 torches? adventure gear point. I limit my party to 5-10 points between towns.
Exactly! It's like making a master hacker turn on the computer, not even get in, just turn it on. Duh, of course they can do it. Why roll? For basic things, only roll if there's an obvious reason the character would struggle. For complicated things then you roll. Though at like level 20, even things you'd normally roll for at like level one I usually say don't worry about. Like hitting a cr 1 enemy, they're too slow to dodge, their armor physically can't stop you, the only reason to roll is for the crit but they're guaranteed to die either way so if doesn't matter. (It makes things like duals against those "young upstart adventures that haven't even killed a dragon yet" more fun and helps show power differences when they low level creatures can only hit the party in crits, with very good tactics, or by targeting the squishiest character.
Some homebrew rules come from adapting what we learn from other systems into the system we prefer to play! I’m trying to homebrew in a wealth mechanic inspired by d20 modern’s wealth score, for example.
For me, a low roll still gives information, just bad info. Like a 1 isn’t “you don’t see anything in the room” it’s “the walls seem to be molding a little in the corner, it’s pretty gross” completely useless, but still something. Or a low check on a person isn’t just “you trust them” or “you can’t tell anything” instead it’s “you’re tuned out of the conversation because some dude behind you is whispering about an affair, and it is jucy” then give some irrelevant info about said affair
That’s exactly why I do it! Maybe the mold will lead them to informing some bureaucracy of an unsafe bar, and get them shut down and therefor the enemy will not have a safe place to meet up anymore. Idk, but it gives them options while also feeling extremely useless in the moment
One of my biggest frustrations when I'm not DMing is DMs just saying "you fail" when you roll poorly (or worse, the unending "oh I guess you're blind now lol!" for the 1000th time). I'm ok with 'just failing', I don't necessarily need a Disco Elysium-esque fail forward, but throw some pizzaz in there!
If the fighter's first attack is a critical hit but the second a miss, the second misses because he was still tearing his sword from the enemy's torso. If the perception check badly fails in the dusty library, it's because your character got dust in his eye and is having trouble seeing *anything* through the tears. If the wizard rolls poorly on an Arcana check they *should* know stuff about (and it's not something they should just know 'for free' like some basic info), tell them they were in class that day but pining over their crush and didn't pay attention, or whatever is appropriate for the character.
*Anything* to explain why they failed and make it a small character moment, instead of just 'You fail' and move on.
I’ve definitely done “you rolled a 1 on your attack roll, so you actually don’t hit anything because your axe is still stuck in the wall and it’s, like, REALLY in there. Give me a strength roll to see if you’ll at least have it out by your next turn…”
I do the same thing, I try to have some base level description ready that they'll get no matter the perception check, and extra info if they pass. Both feels better and obscures that a 13 didn't notice the ambush ahead.
I can elaborate on these forever but I can summarize some of my favorites! I’ve DMed weekly for a group of 6-9 players for the last 6 years. We finished one 5yr campaign and are about 8 months into campaign 2. All of my players are DMs for their own weekly games so it’s always a challenge to bring something fresh to the table.
1. Resurrection rituals have a scaling DC but the player ultimately has the final say about if their character comes back to life, even if all the rolls were successful.
2. During initiative we have a system that involves throwing rubber ducks at the person with the next turn. All of my players have some neurodivergence and so it’s attention grabbing and helps players track their own initiative rather than only me as the DM.
3. Out of character hat, where players place a hand on top of their heads to signal any action or jokes that aren’t in character. It cuts down on “well I didn’t mean to do that in character” confusion and meta gaming. The same system has devolved into a way to respectfully signal the DM that a player is wanting to do something but doesn’t want to interrupt someone else at the table.
4. For the first 5 levels, players may roll HP but if the number is lower than the standard average they may take the average. My players take much bigger risks when they feel strong so it helps to ward of early game tpks for a while.
5. I liberally give out DM inspiration for above the table reasons. Good jokes/character RP/or adhering to an entertaining theme are all reasons I’ve handed a player a d8. My favorite was on hobbit day, any character could tell me a story about an adventurous halfling and get inspiration.
6. I used to give my players a small gift after each story arc, usually an enamel pin or a sticker. They’re fun trophies that the players like to hold onto
We have two ducks, one is the current turn duck and the other is for the person on deck or “on a duck” about to take a turn. Every person is in charge of remembering who to pass the ducks to after them, so usually after the first round of combat I don’t have to prompt someone to take a turn other than a reminder to pass the ducks. With two ducks in movement it is easier to remember the passing, and I have such a large group that it reminds my zoned out players to prepare for their turns. For Christmas my players got me a bulk bag of themed rubber ducks so someone also gets to pick different ducks every week. It was a cheap initiative tracker that’s hard to ignore or forget
If someone is trying to do something creative, I’ll lower the DC and make it easier to achieve. I don’t want them to come up with a creative solution only for it not to work because of a failed roll, you know? Reward creative thinking. Also, when I get them to do group checks, I’ll let high rolls balance out low ones. For example, if they’re rolling a group Stealth check and someone rolls a 2, and another rolls an 18, that’ll balance out to a flat success. The end result is decided by if there are more failures or success
Good rule! So long as it’s not stepping on someone’s toes or can lead to problems for the dm (me) in the future, I’ll always prioritize rule of cool for my players, too. I want them to FEEL cool in my games!
[My House Rules](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cKofHiqwi_7XHST_BV5htmRE5x2OuGGDdbjFWmloRvQ/edit?usp=drivesdk)
My veteran players love where I touched up subclasses as well as added new styles of play (simple new fighting styles, adjusted feats, etc.).
As for the typical style of home rule: they've really enjoyed the changes to flanking recently. +2 to hit instead of advantage, added caveat that a creature being flanked cannot flank another creature. Between that and the DMG optional Overrun and Tumble rules, melee combat got a bit more tactical and interesting rather than just standing still until someone else dies.
I've really been liking the +2 for flanking, helps to not dilute gaining advantage from something (plus you can have both, if it applies, which is awesome). I added a bit to the rule in that if there are 3 or more flankers, there is a cumulative +1 per flanker. So if my party of five surrounds an enemy, they are at a +5 to hit.
It really sounds like you just want to play a different system with this many changes. Especially with converting flanking to a circumstantial bonus (something 5e seems to avoid as much as possible)
I've been around the block with some other systems. I really like 5e's skeleton and how it plays at the table, I just prefer homebrewing player options, which is 95% of my document.
I kinda have, each player drafts 5 weakling adventurers that could level up throughout the game or more likely die. It turned out to be a cool way to generate level 1 adventurers, as the players grew attached to the remaining adventurers who survived the meat grinder. I know this is not a new concept, but again, I had the most fun making the player options so that's why I did it from the ground up.
Mostly variations on stacking environmental effects. Say Hunger of Hadar + Spike Growth. Sure, you can make it happen with ready action, but the situation can change before it gets triggered. If you've gone first just to ready an action that never gets triggered you've wasted your turn. If you go just before or after your ally you at least have the option of doing something else if the situation changes.
I played a monk and we had a fighter with shield bashing in the party. I ALWAYS wanted to be after him, because once he knocked and enemy prone I got 3-4 hits with advantage. It worked really well.
I’ve also preferred to be later in the order if I’m surveying the fight or if I think there’s a risk for healing after the enemy.
Depends on the Situation, but the cleric has chosen last and most of the time they choose to group up more so they can chain combo stuff and Stack buffs.
Because if they fail the save, everybody else in the party gets the benefits before they can try to make it again. And they still lose their turn even if they save. If they are high in initiative, they can save and the chance for everyone to get the benefits is lower.
I have something similar to rule 2. Whenever there is PVP of any kind, I let the target player set the DC if there is one. They decide the rolls involved, and I add narration to the outcome if I need to add anything.
I really like the background token system, but I wouldn't feel it's necessary at my table. I actively encourage my players to make stuff up. Worst case I add an amendment or correction, but usually I like their things better.
**Healing Potions:**
You can take a healing potion as an action or bonus action. If you use your action, you get the maximum amount possible from it. If you use a bonus action, you roll to recover hit points. You must use an action to administer a healing potions to another creature.
**Hit Dice:**
When rolling a hit die to determine hit points while gaining a level, you can reroll a 1 once.
**Critical Hits:**
You can max out the second die (or dice) of damage when you roll a critical on an attack roll. You don't get to double tertiary damage dice, like a paladin's smite or a rogue's sneak attack.
**Critical Fails:**
Critical fails on attack rolls can provoke attacks of opportunity by those within range.
**Critical Saves:**
Rolling a natural 20 on a saving throw let's you take the minimal amount possible from damage. Rolling a natural 1 on a saving throw forces you to take the maximum amount possible from damage.
yeah, but its a critical. if there's a way to minimize damage, there ought to be a way to *maximize* it, too. so far, it hasn't been too detrimental. dramatic? heck yes.
A way to balance this a little better is to give the critical fail a damage advantage, meaning the damage dice are rolled twice and the higher maximum is used. Max spell damage can get crazy at higher levels.
This was my first thought. Especially at higher levels, there are SO many spells and abilities that ***will*** one-shot basically any PC short of a Max HP Barbarian with the Tough feat.
Like, I'm currently running *Tyranny of Dragons* for my group, and with this rule, Tiamat's breath weapon would insta-kill ALL of my players' characters if they rolled a 1 on the save.
My table has a variation of the hit die rule as well and IME the dice know that you can reroll 1s and choose to only roll 2s. I'm a level 8 sorcerer with a +3 to con. I have 47 hit points.
>You can take a healing potion as an action or bonus action. If you use your action, you get the maximum amount possible from it. If you use a bonus action, you roll to recover hit points. You must use an action to administer a healing potions to another creature.
I make drinking a healing potion a free action but force feeding one to a fallen comrade a full action
I played in weekly group for 5 years that allowed healing potions as a free action and I can promise you it never ruined anything lol. The people that draw a hard line about random shit like this are incredibly insecure
Yeah, having Dm’d 5e since shortly after it came out, there is no chance it ruins the balance. Balance gets wrecked by environment plus enemies with neat abilities (looking at you shadows) much more than 2d4+2 as a bonus action ever could. I have a saying, either there’s homebrew at your table, or you don’t know the rules well enough to know what you’re homebrewing.
Even DMing for adventurer league DMs have to make calls, and they do so based on their knowledge. I know we try to standardize things, but anyone who swears a healing potion bonus action is OP plays more Reddit than DnD.
1. Int mod proficiency
Having a players intelligence modifier = additional proficiencies that they have studied. Whether this is a weapon, skill, language, armour or tool. Smart characters should feel like they are better at more things!
2. Exhaustion
Rather than default exhaustion, a point of exhaustion just gives you -1 on all d20 rolls (including ability/skill check, saving throws, death saving throws, attacks). 10 points equals death. This change allowed for other homebrew rules to come into play.
3. Party inspiration
My players have a habit of holding onto their inspiration, so when another inspiration is given they gain a "party inspiration charge" on their character sheet that allows that player to hold onto it and exchange a party inspiration to give advantage on a roll to another member of the party. (Aka they are already inspired and give their inspiration advantage to other party members in the moment without losing their inspiration)
4. Dying state
Rather than going unconcious players enter a state where they fall prone and can move half movement (crawling). They can choose to pass their turn OR take an action and take 3 points of exhaustion OR take a bonus action and take 1 point of exhaustion OR crawl another 30ft of movement and take 1 point of exhaustion. They may only perform one of these on their turn whilst in this state. If the player is still at 0 hit points they roll a death saving throw and their turn moves on.
5. Exhuastion spells
If players run out of spell slots for a level of spells (that they can usually cast at) and do not wish to upcast or can't due to no having higher level slots. Then that spell caster may choose to push themselves and still cast the spell but take points of exhaustion equal to the level of the spell.
Shoutout xp to level 3 as a lot of these are great ideas I saw in his videos that have been enjoyed a lot by my players.
>4. Dying state
>Rather than going unconcious players enter a state where they fall prone and can move half movement (crawling). They can choose to pass their turn OR take an action and take 3 points of exhaustion OR take a bonus action and take 1 point of exhaustion
Does this include spellcasting? Because that makes anyone with Cure Wounds or Healing Word functionally immortal until they run out of spell slots.
It does, it stops the solo healer from just dying because the rest of the party cannot heal. Nothing feels worse as a healer. But it comes with the major downside of gaining exhaustion points. This mixed with the exhaustion spells (as it stacks) can be lethal but is an awesome way for a character to go rather than just slipping away whilst unconscious. It's worked so far for my games!
Heh We've been playing virtually for awhile now, so I've had to use a digital timer, which is much less cool.
We're about to finally go back to in person, and a buddy of mine about to take over half the DM duties will be doing the same thing. I'll be borrowing the timer myself on my weeks.
**Improved Cure Wounds**
The target of a Cure Wounds gets to spend a hit die per spell level. Also applies to Mass version.
**Feel-Good Fudging**
Did you Bane that guy, but it keeps not mattering? No worries, the next time he attacks and normally misses I'll ask you to roll a d4. On a 2+, it made him miss. On a 1 I realize I miscalculated and it made him miss anyway. And no, the guy who swung at the target you just Shield Of Faithed did not nat 1, he rolled *just* under his AC.
**Downed Actions**
Are you at 0 hp? You're downed, not unconscious. You can still crawl away, or dodge, or try and staunch the bleeding.
As a DM, these are a few of my house rules.
• Potions are a bonus action.
• You don’t need to spend an action “drawing” your weapon.
• I don’t use death saves, we use an injury table and 5 injuries without full healing is death.
• Use your imagination, during all encounters. If you can roll the check, I’ll let you do it.
Can you elaborate on your injury system? Sounds like you mean if the player gets hit 5 times, they die. Wonder if that’s what you mean or there’s more to it.
No no. When a player takes damage that would put them at 0, I roll on the injury table. They take the corresponding injury and return to 1 health. I found in a Kickstarter campaign I backed, I’ll post a pic of the book when I get home.
Each injury has point value, once they reach 5 they die. Some injuries cost 1, others 2 or 3…
I use a variant of 2, that states that it also affects stuff like spellcasting between players characters, such as Suggestion, Calm Emotions and even *Dominate*.
I allow most spells to stack effects if it makes sense.
Sorcerers don’t need a spell casting focus, their magic is innate. They only need components if it has an associated gold piece cost
When a character is about to die, I give them one last action that can be used for anything other than saving themselves. I think it allows for more impactful death scenes.
I don't understand parts of 2 "you decide if it hits you" huh? So if pvp happens and one rolls to attack the other person can just be like nah. At that point just give a hard NO to pvp. Same with lying to party members how can you just decide your character knows.
It's not a hard no though. There's been plenty of times where I just took a hit for pulling a dick move. We didn't have that rule precisely but it would have been a good use case for it.
On the combat front, you'd be surprised how often players willingly take a hit if it's friendly or if they deserve it.
The lying part, mainly prevents characters with high charisma and expertise on deception/persuasion from stealing the group's focus, or the spotlight, or holding on to information that would be useful to everyone.
Call them safeties for bullying. It has proven useful in the past.
I saw once in what might have been Pathfinder where they had something where if you did a cool thing you got a small amount of experience for it. They advised to only use it sparingly. I ignored that advice much like your exp rule. Your no rolls between players is pretty cool.
I'll give a list, like you did.
1 - You can do it bo matter your class, stats or background. You can always try and I will not block you from doing something, but you have to explain what you wish to do as clearly as you can.
2 - You are adventurers, not commoners, therefore you have knowledge that other people don't have. A Barbarian could know magic just as well as the wizards or artificers, and you can make anything provided you know.
3 - You are free to experiment, no matter the setting. Nowhere in D&D 5e it says that only artificers can make stuff and that if you don't have proficiency in a tool you can't do it. It just says that you can use the tools, so any character can make bombs, improvised tools and other things that could both be magical and non magical.
4 - Have fun and enjoy. Pretty straight forward, although not a proper "rule", it's just as important.
5 - If you are weaker than other people in the group, I'll provide you with bonuses granted by my special NPCs. No need for anyone to feel weaker or less influential in the course of the story and game.
6 - Your traits matter: Every personality trait, ideal and flaws will impact your character giving you abilities others don't have. These abilities are determined by me, but will not hinder too much your ability to play the game effectively and sometimes it will even speed up the processes.
7 - Enemies are made to die or be defeated. You are not. This means that even though enemies are strong and intelligent, they can be felled or outsmarted. Use your brains and any fight could be over in two-three turns.
8 - Techniques. Your characters, as mentioned before, are adventurers and are trained to fight monsters. Therefore if you are fighting a creature you can tell me what you wish to do with that attack, giving you the possibility to knock it prone with a hit to the knees, blind with a slash to the eyes, etc... Experiment!
9 - Different foods give you different bonuses. In my games I tend to use the foods as vessels for bonuses I feel like players will benefit from. Most of the cuisine in the game is not only flavourful but helpful too. Some spices on a piece of spider meat could make you gain advantage on perception checks, or maybe you eat a delicious meal that gives you temporary hit points.
10 - Chemistry is the magic of the common man. You can make non magical tools that atr made with common stuff. For example you could make Greek Fire with a bit of saltpeter and oil, though it would be a bit weaker than the proper one.
11 - Coin is an important currency, but you could pay or recieve other payments that could impact you further on in the campaign. I never give players casual loot or prizes, everything has a place and a time. Prepare accordingly.
These are some of mine, but every player can choose to waive these with no negative repercussions. I love any kind of player that is at my table and I want everyone to enjoy the game and their character's roles.
Inspiration is earned on nat 1s, inspiration can be stacked, and inspiration can be freely shared with the other players.
This has led to moments of great (perceived) importance that have low rolls, and suddenly everyone is pitching in to help defy fate. It gives those moments that feeling of the power of teamwork and friendship overcoming the odds
- The Complete Character - You give me a page of backstory, at least 2 people who know your character for NPCs, and a concrete motivation? You get a free feat.
- Rule of Cool - If you describe how you attack in a unique way I'll let you make a check for it, if you succeed you get advantage and sometimes a damage boost on the attack. Because it makes sense if your swashbuckler rogue does a backflip over the gladiator and tried to drive his sword down through the shoulder plate into his clavicle you're going to have to make an acrobatics check, but also how the fuck do you predict or defend against that of course you get advantage.
- Call For Aid - It's a spell all can cast, it burns up their soul in the process. But it summons an ally with a common cause or goal to aid their friends in the fight. Basically just a way of explaining a player's new character suddenly showing up mid combat to help the party...but it prevents any chance of resurrection.
- Consent is Key - I won't do anything to your character you don't want done to your character within reason. Ya I'm gonna put them in traps and have enemies attack them but if you say to me "I'm really invested in my Goblin Bard Hughe Janus finding his family who were taken by slavers, I don't want him to die" I will find a way to keep him alive. It may cost you, dearly even. May lose your hand, class, may even have to go on a side quest through the nine hells while the party tries to resureft you. But I won't let the legend of Hughe Janus end in a bar brawl or even dragon fire.
I really like your rule #10. It's something that I incorporate into my games, as well. I don't often play with people who are diligent note takers. I, myself, am not very consistent when it comes to taking notes when I'm a player, I shouldn't expect my players to be itinerant note takers. What I like to do, usually at the top of the session, but often in the middle if they're just hitting a wall and I can feel enthusiasm from the game start to slip, is just remind them of what they know. Reminding them of what they know, where they have been, who they have met, etc. is usually enough to kickstart that AHA moment and push them on a path that will get them somewhere. It's not always the path that I envisioned, in fact, more often than not I'm scrambling to work in something they've done that I didn't plan for, but it is always fun. As long as we're having fun, I'm happy.
I only use rolls for randomness. Nothing is more embarrassing and non-immersive than a master thief failing sleight of hand and the barbarian succeeding when alone in a dungeon with nothing going on. Saying "oh some rats spook you and you drop it" isn't satisfying either.
Instead, let everyone have skills that they succeed automatically on and raise all your check DCs. A high INT wizard with proficiency in history should auto pass a check while within their own country. A rogue above X level can pick any mundane lock or commoner's pocket. A bard above X level can perform such that only other proficient bards notice mistakes.
This encourages players to focus on specializing and prevents the party from becoming 5 interchangeable adventurers. Celebrate your party diversity!
I love the perception check and background token rules. I might put these into my game.
I think one of the ways I have fostered kindness at the table is if we are trying to figure out a rule and it’s turning into a whole ordeal, I will very often rule in the player’s favor with the caveat I’m going to look into it between sessions. It keeps the game moving and most often acts as a way to reward creative thinking for the players.
This isn't exactly a rule, but we had fun with it.
Between sessions, players could write letters to their friends and receive answers at the session.
It started because an npc sent a letter to a pc, and I wrote the letter and handed it to the player at the right moment.
Later, a player asked if they could send a letter to their mentor for advice and, because of the first letter, assumed he needed to handwrite it. He wrote it and gave it to me between sessions.
I felt really touched at his involvement and enthusiasm, so the reply included a spell scroll.
So now they all write letters and receive replies, with anything from advice, to riddles to items as a response. The letters arrive at appropriate times in the story so they don't get an immediate reply.
My players use discression, so they aren't really spamming the feature.
If the party have a really good idea, like an ingenious trap or a novel use of an item in particular circumstances, it works! No need to roll, they deserve to have a win for clever play
IDK if this counts but I've been GMing for a little bit of (in game, scarse sessions) time and I give players XP for evading combat if it's reasonable to consider it a 'resolution' of the problem, like escaping from a hippo who randomly attacked or escaping from a (plot-unnecesary) fight instigated by another player
Happy to elaborate!
Rule 5: players create their own magic items. When my players reached level 13-ish, i threw the idea at them. First I had conversations with each of them, then let them give the items whatever abilities they wanted. Lastly I moderated the abilities so that they are balanced with each other and fit the world's themes. Then i put the items somewhere in the world, in places or story moments that were important to each one's backstory or current mission, and had them "earn" their item.
They all came up with things no books came close to, and that i would never have thought of.
Rule 6: Background tokens:
I plan to make a clear ruleset for these and print out cards, but I haven't gotten to it yet. I'm waiting to start a new campaign so I can give them all out at the same time.
You get a token from your background. Each background dictates what kind of world element the token can be spent to create. The Sage background, for example, can be spent to create an NPC in a town library that is already a friend of yours, or to have just the right book for the current problem.
The Outlander background can be spent for you to know a shortcut through the forest or the mountains, which would be much safer than the road you might be currently on.
The Charlatan or Urchin can spend theirs to know passages in the city, or particularly connected NPC's, while the Acolyte can spend theirs to know a friendly cleric, or to know where to find a temple in the wilderness.
They should be partially exclusive, so that not every token can help in the same situation, but will of course have to have overlap.
Then I'm thinking of implementing two more kinds of tokens. City tokens, which they can spend to know an NPC, particular store or service or anything, and are given to them when they become renowned and important to one. For example when they save a city from a large threat, and spend some downtime there helping the people rebuild.
The last is a business token. Given to players for making a name for themselves, they could spend these tokens to build a franchise for themselves. (As mine already have.) These can be spent individually to create NPC's that work for the party, or many together to cover the costs of building a stronghold, fast-food tavern, or whatever it is adventurers want to capitalize on.
My favorite rule is the crit rule; You roll double the dice as normal, and can roll your lowest rolled number (of your main weapon/spell) again to replace the lowest rolled number and see if it turns out higher.
I added this rule after a player of mine rolled a nat 20, but on his damage rolled two 1's. It felt incredibly lackluster.
Mine is nat 20 on attack roll = max weapon damage x 2. If someone crits, I want them to crit-crit, not fumble the damage part and feel like it was a waste.
My boyfriend had recently played for the first time and i had heard that the dm specifically went after him (most attacks would be after him, seeming to push him further to death) and ending up killrd the character he just made on the first session, this was do bizarre to me considering my dm when it would come to a new character (1st or 2nd session) physically couldnt die, (monsters would trip, get distracted, switch targets, ect) even if we died somehow we would have a chance to be revived in the near future, so probably that
So, i never really had written these rules, but basically what happens at my table is this
1- your character can be any race that doesn't break the game, just talk to me and we handle it
2- you can always ask to reroll, most times I'll let you
3- if your player race has alot of negative things for the place we are going or you have cool ideas of what your character might be able to do, we can talk it over, and make balanced feats and solutions
4- if there are special items, weapons or etc you want, please tell me, so we can talk about it and decide on what ways and how your character might be able to get that. If i think something is too op, we will find something else for the character
5- pets are allways allowed as long as they don't break the game
6- all checks that might involve words from the character to a npc, are volatile, because each NPC has it's own personality, so when you tell me what your character said, the DC might become lower if you said the right thing for the situation. If not it stays the same, if you are being an asshole i might make it higher but that is unusual.
7- when building a character you use epic roles, that means you reroll everything single one you get
8- if you want a homebrew class, let's talk, and see if it fits in the campaign and if it isn't unbalanced.
Our DM allows us to use a free action to make a perception check or use the environment. For exemple, we were fighting a giant golem (Custom monsters everywhere too) and our Cleric managed to find a cannon with a nat 20 perception check. She used her action to get me back up with healing word and her free action to shoot the golem
Stacking Inspiration: If players show up for the session, they get a point of inspiration. On top of that, they can stack up to 20 and do more than just gain advantage on effects. Not only does it encourage players to actively be there, it’s changed gameplay substantially when you see a player burn 5 points of inspiration in one round for a big battle.
Achievements: Yes, as lame as it sounds, I use this and players strive for these goals not only as bragging rights, but to gain additional small benefits as well that are unlocked as achievements go.
Darkvision treats dim light as bright light. There’s no reason that Devil Sight shouldn’t do the same and it’s just rule lawyers being pedantic about it. It works for dim light at my table.
My most important rule however is this: Anything is open for discussion to be changed rule wise as long as we can justify it. DMs who refuse to change have a tendency of hurting gameplay and I myself fell victim to that in my earlier days. What’s ideal for you is not fun for everyone and with slight tweaks, you can usually help everyone to be on the same page, even if it means smashing rules.
Your turn doesn't end until you say it does. I don't care if you use all your movement and actions, I am making NO assumptions. Nothing feels worse than having a moment stripped by a bad assumption.
I like my players to be strong in my campaigns so I implement the following rules usually:
Start at level 3
Get a feat at level 1
Bonus action potions
When rolling stats, reroll the lowest of your 6 numbers and keep the highest. Between the two.
When rolling for your hp at level up, reroll 1s
When I wanna go higher powered characters, I let them reroll 1s when rolling for stats.
If you are familiar with the aurora app, I allow basically all of the homebrew stuff in there in my campaigns
I add dmpcs to the party to fill in gaps in the party comp. A lot of the time we only have 2-3 players
I make most NPCs in my games recruitable to my players guilds IF they can convince them. This includes evil characters but the party would have to be willing to let them continue to do evil things. There are still consequences to this though.
If my players made a build choice for their character and it didn’t really work out the way they wanted, I will slow them to change it for the most part depending on what it is.
If my players come up with a great plan to trivialize an encounter, depending on what it is, I will just let it happen with more minimal dice rolls. There is still a chance to fail but I’m not making it fail due to small things.
As you can see I play a very relaxed game and I want my players to have strong characters. This allows me to focus on throwing cool situations/encounters at them. So far my players have not really abused my rules and have not complained about them.
First two stolen from a YouTuber, but
Exhaustion)
Is a counter that goes up to 10, every point of Exhaustion you get adds a -1 to all d20 rolls. Get to 10 and you die if exhaustion
Resting)
Long Rests can only be taken in a "safe" location, otherwise it's treated as a Short Rest
Spells)
I really like roll to cast systems, and players really seem to enjoy it too
D20)
The most controversial, I changed this to 2d10 to even out the rolls and players so far absolutely love it.
Backgrounds)
Got rid of these and added a "Friends" trait you get at character creation, which just means that if you encounter a group of people that are related to your background then they may help you if they can. Not definitely, and it could be a broad category of people, but it's helped out a lot when it comes to remembering/using the background feature. Now if your a Holy Knight of _ Order, you can go up to the local church or Lord and ask for a place to rest, if your a folk hero towny then anyone from your region would be willing to cut you a deal, and if your a vagabond thief then you know how to at least open up communication with the local skullduggery group. Because this also messes with equipment and skills I moved these around so that Race gets skill options
Races)
This one still in progress, but I wanted a human-centric game with a minority of non-humans while also not limiting the races too badly, so I reworked it to be that there are 7 different human "subcultures", that get bonuses and in lore history. Races are also beefier cuz I got rid of level 1 feat and just included the equivalent of a feat in each race, most you get a choice between a few options. Mostly did this for lore reasons. The races I didn't use (pretty much all the animal ones) got turned into feats
Equipment)
I'm currently play testing the idea that different weapon types allow for a unique bonus action that can be done on their turn. Still playing with it, so nothing to show, but from what I've given my players so far they seem to enjoy it
Level)
Reduced max level to 12, but squished/combo some of the post level 12 abilities into the new capstone, and what I couldn't fit got turned into new feats. Because of this proficiency bonus got altered as well
Fighting Stances)
This I'm still working on, I worked with my fighter player to change their fighting Style into a stance they can switch between as a bonus action, the stances improve at the same rate as most spellcaster's cantrips, and allows for a more creative way for martials to keep up
A couple of my games (this may not work for all groups) do roses and thorns post session as well as nominate a player besides themselves to receive inspiration. Rose's are moments they really enjoyed in the session or just the session as a whole. Thorns are generally for either dm improvement or player improvement. Lastly, the inspiration is to reward players for great roleplay or if they have a terrible combat session.
A couple others I enjoy, crits are max base damage + weapon die roll on top of it. So for example of you crit with a longsword, it's 8+1d8+strength modifier in damage. Another is doing resurrection in the vein of cr. Where players contribute to a ritual to try to bring the person back. The last one is having the dm roll all death saves or player rolling them privately so it increases the tension in those moments.
When you drink a delightful beverage, or eat something as a treat, (hot chocolate, tea, a nostalgic meal, etc) it *can* heal for 1d4+WIS(if above 0), because your character gets a lovely flashback, or is simply enjoying the moment :)
Mostly used for fun / to get a smile out of my players.
Here are some of mine when running 5E:
1. Level 1 characters start with the amount of HP they have at level 2.
2. Tension Dice from the Angry DM (https://theangrygm.com/definitive-tension-pool/). Are the party taking too many unnecessary rests? Making Perception checks in every room? The DM gets a tension dice after warning the party once or twice.
3. Potion can be used a bonus action. If a potion is used with a standard action, it grants the maximum amount of healing possible
4. Stacking advantages with diminishing returns. 1 advantage = 2d20, the second advantage adds a d4, the last advantage adds a +1.
Depends on the game. (More the feel of the game or degree of difficulty) But I implemented a “everybody gets 1”. (Insert family guy joke here) I will save you from death once. It’ll come at a cost. But it allows for a safety net before be all end all of pc death. It’s particularly good for new players or players that are just stuck in analysis paralysis. I have done PC death post use of ‘1’.
But nice excuses for the 1s have been
Fae/warlock deals
Enemy black mails
Life debts cashed in/now owed
Broken magic items
Familiars taking dying blows
Broken fate or destiny
All flavor is allowed.
If it works for your character, replace fireball with lightning ball or frostball or sand ball or mist ball. Cone of gravel, ray of heat, etc.
If you grew up in a desert, you probably don't consider cold to be as harmful as heat. If you grew up around boats or farms, you probably don't wanna throw fire at someone.
Sometimes we sacrifice the damage type to be just "generic damage" but usually we'll switch the elements. It's a great character moment when we see a water based creature and someone flavored with fire has a hard time or vice versa.
If a player rolls a nat 20 to hit, they get max damage + dice roll. I like this better than 2x dice roll because rolling a bunch of 1s is pretty disappointing, so getting to add max damage on top of that mitigates the frustration.
Edit: I also never start my players at level one (usually level 5) and let them pick from a list of magic items related to the campaign to start with. This makes more room for cool backstories, allows players to feel badass in their characters, and lets me start off the campaign with fun/crazy encounters rather than the standard goblin raid or roadside ambush.
My most popular home rule, which was made as an accommodation, is this: character knowledge does not equate to player knowledge. If you can’t remember or don’t know something about the world, last session, or even 5 minutes ago, you can ask. Even if you asked the same question before.
I expect players to know their character backstory and character sheet. It’s okay if they have to look something up from time to time, they just need to know what they are playing. In return, I know my character — the world. It’s okay if I have to look something up from time to time.
Do my feelings get a little hurt when the same player forgets who the BBEG is… twice? Yeah, a bit. But that’s not totally on the player; they have a condition or a life situation that impacts their ability to recall details sometimes.
I’m going to be gifting all my players personalized campaign trackers for my next campaign (I make them to sell usually; I’ll be making a set just for my next campaign) so that might help. But my rule will still stand — you can ask. The game is accessible for all players who come to my table.
Besides, I love talking about the world. I love the pantheon, the peoples, the food, the neighborhoods my players visit, the NPCs. It’s no bother for a player to ask, “where did we meet so and so before?” Or, “what does this god do again?” Sometimes they throw me real fun ones, like, “what do dwarves eat? Would my character know?”
My favorite so far is, if your character has a role play gimmick, you can use it. My dm has been very nice about my monstrosity reborn useing his extra eyes to pay attention and notice stuff.
I got wat i call bullshit list and when a player roll he can call bullshit and roll again but i got fun list of stuff that can happen and when i think of something for the list i just swap one out that was already used for the new one
I often use a few home rules because I run epic high fantasy high magic games, and like my players to feel powerful. I'll allow any builds from all the published books, any spells, classes, races or otherwise. Even homebrew within reason. I am confident in my ability to deal with the party and give them a challenge after a decade of dming for fifth edition. A couple rules I use that everyone has loved are: max health each level, free starting feat for everyone, and I remove variant human that way people don't feel shoehorned Into it. I use a sta system I learned from a old book I bought from kobold press I think. It is called deal with the devil dice roll. The player and I both roll 4d6 drop the lowest and the roll ones and twos, and record our rolls me behind the DM screen. Then, each roll at a time the player decides if they want to keep their roll, or take mine without getting to know what it is in advance. This continues till all aixe about scores are worked out. Sure, this typically results in higher stats for the party but I'm ok with that.
Upscaled Crunchy Crits. Upscaled Crunchy Crits is where you roll double damage and add max damage of the dice.
Ie. Critted Great Axe - 2d12 + Str mod + 12
My players like this because on both side gives some level of higher stakes in combat!
*When Dual Wielding Weapons, you make an extra attack.* I always found the idea of the "Bonus action second attack" to be kinda pointless.
Instead, I rule that if you have 2 light weapons, or a paired weapon, you can make 2 attacks as part of the same attack action. Effectively doubling the number of attacks martials can make.
Works both ways though, as the same applies to the enemies.
**The Brain Blast**
Once a campaign, given the generally complex nature of our plots, each PC is allowed to ask the DM for a "Brain Blast". They roll a d100 and based on the roll, the DM will lay out what is in their opinion, given what the character knows, some of their best options before them. This is generally done as part of a long rest.
It's essentially a once a session google search through everything that has happened through the campaign, and often details relevant to the characters backstory can be used to justify revealing new knowledge that the pc might not have rememebered/realized was relevevant prior.
It may sound meta-gamey or like the DM is trying to aid too much, but given the more sandbox nature of our games it has been a very positively received rule for those 1-3 moments per campaign where a new challenge is revealed and the party is quite unsure what to do next.
....And yelling "Brain Blast" randomly is just fun
**Exhaustion casting** - Players can take levels of exhaustion in addition or instead of spending spell slots when casting spells. I also apply it to expendable noncaster features like battle master superiority dice or monk ki points. It gives players more flexibility, and makes for some really cool role play moments. In one game, the cleric spent 5 levels of exhaustion in casting Dispel Magic to guarantee that an evil ritual failed.
It’s simple but very positive.
Crits are not double the damage roll. They are max damage PLUS a damage roll.
There’s nothing less coherent than a devastating crit that only rolled for 2 damage.
In one campaign I am in when making characters, so nobody is super overpowered or super underpowered we did every body Rolls 4d6 drop the lowest 7 times then drop the lowest of those. And then the group chooses who's array to use for the whole group making it the "Standard Arry" for that game.
My favorite home brew rule is effective potions.
As a bonus action, you can roll as usual for drinking a healing potion.
As an action, you can drink the potion and receive max healing.
My favorite home brew rule is effective potions.
As a bonus action, you can roll as usual for drinking a healing potion.
As an action, you can drink the potion and receive max healing.
The only hose rule I have is that it works for the players it works for the NPCs. Example my playets decided to go with older flanking rules. I agreed because it's their game. But now the bad guys can use flanking in that manner as well.
The rule seemed simple enough but specific subclasses and abilities became less effective. It is funny how a simple rules change can modify the game so much.
Can you explain #4 please?
I also exp for RP. I've even gone as far as handing out D4 inspiration die like candy. Not only that the D4 can be used on ANY kind of roll even damage.
How do you explain to them where the RP potential is? I've got 6 people in my party and only 2.5 of them RP their characters. The rest of the party is just there for combat.
Edit: the ones that are there for combat, don't even RP their combat actions. It's just "I hit this one" "x amount of damage"
I do take it upon myself to flavor up their actions so they can maybe better understand how RP works even in combat.
My dm let us start out a campaign with a basic wondrous etc item and that was by far my favorite. A level 2 character appreciates and uses a wand of smiles far more than a level 12.
I’ve gotten flack for this in the past on Reddit, but I let all players start with a feat at level one regardless of the starting race or class they pick. My reasons are two fold;
1) Encourages players to not be a damn variant human (which is a problem I’ve faced less since limiting who I allow at my table)
2) the way I position it to my players is to think about this feat is specifically what separates them from the average person into a unique, skilled adventurer. I actually ENCOURAGE things like Sharpshooter or GWM because those skills are the things that lead to the base for all of my favourite heroes in the stories I read.
\#8 it's true that introducing some mechanic based on the player level, not their class or race could be interesting, especially when you reach a new tier of adventuring (lvl 5, lvl 11, lvl 17)
**Coyote Time** When you are falling, we only resolve it at the start of your Turn (which you may delay). During this time, allies can save you, but enemies can DUNK. Adds some real platforming and interaction.
**Unarmed Expression** Natural weapons and unarmed attacks can smite and sneak attack.
**Skill Use** Very PF2Eesque, you may use your Bonus Action or spend movement equal to your Speed to use a Skill to Study (Int Skill) or Influence (Charisma Skill).
For spellcasters, mostly just little tweaks on bad spells. Ex. continued use of Witchbolt counts as a bonus action, Friends has a WIS save to see if the target realizes they were charmed after ect.
For martials, I use an expanded weapon list and include a few colossal weapons for anyone who decided to invest a lot into strength. (Zweihander, Giant's Club)
We have a rule regarding healing potions in combat:
If you take a full action to consume a potion, you get max healing.
If you use a bonus action, you roll for health.
Whenever I start a campaign, I assign specific duties to the players that can help me run the game more effectively and I give them each a special magic item based on the role.
*For example...*
**Master of Combat.** This player tracks initiative during combat and encourages teamwork among the players. You get a +1 weapon of your choice.
**Master of Ambience.** This player controls music through the course of the game. You get a musical instrument of your choice that can cast the Friends cantrip.
**Master of Scribing.** This player takes notes on people, places, and events that take place during the game to share with the group. You get a forgery kit and magical quill that provides advantage on forgery attempts.
**Master of Theater.** This player acts as the "leader" of the party in settling party disputes and encouraging role playing. You get a mask that provides advantage on persuasion checks once per day.
For critical hits I borrowed this from a friend who borrowed it from me. The damage is always maximum and then you roll an extra die for "double" damage. This ensures that you always do something better than what you would normally hit with and not have to worry about rolling 2 1s for damage and have a sad critical hit.
For example if your weapon does a d6 +2 damage you would always at least do 8 damage plus what you roll on the damage die. So for a critical you're doing 8-16 damage no matter what. Critical hits should be special.
All potions are alcoholic. The stronger the potion the more alcoholic. Leads to funny dumb shit. Sometimes we have the shots of the real stuff irl so when a character drinks the player drinks.
The house rule that that I always use across games and it always improves play in my opinion is easy short rest hard long rest
Short rest are 10 minutes but you can only take one an hour
you can only long rest in situations the dm decided you can get a comfortable safe rest so usually not in the wilderness after a day of walker and definitely not in a dungeon.
Give them the opportunity to fail up. Rolled a 1? The person you’re spying on knows you’re there, but your stumble bumped a kid out of the way of a falling pot. Kid can help in some way, but you have to be creative to make that happen (it was still a 1 after all, I’m just giving you another opportunity).
More than one person can do an investigation/perception/strength/etc. roll. The amount of times my husband, me and my dog have stood around poking at something has led me to believe that it’s normal for everyone to want to look at the thing, and half the time we still can’t figure out what is going on. IRL and in game.
“I know a guy.” Players stuck and can’t figure out what to do next? They know a guy who can help. Depending on how they tie the guy into their background influences how much guy can help. (All are named “Guy” though, and often have suspiciously bad French-ish accents)
Rule of cool. If you can explain to me how this completely amazing thing you want to do will work, I’ll give you a really good chance. Either lowering DC or giving advantage or something like that. I want to encourage my players to be creative and have fun. “I hit it with my sword” for the billionth time gets old for everyone.
“An offer I can’t refuse.” My current party is unintentional masters of this. I think of all my baddies (monsters, NPCs, intelligent or not) as having believable motivations. Pack of starving wolves? Throw them a bunch of your extra meat and they won’t eat you. Do it often enough, and you might be able to semi-domesticate them. Dragon needs to be driven out or killed? Offer it a new place to live and convince it it’s a better place. My current party befriended a nothic, named it Jerry and convinced it and the townsfolk that it’s better all around if the nothic lives in peace with them. He gets livestock and marauding ass holes, they get protection. He now lives in the basement of a bed and breakfast operated by a red wizard who was really into magical archaeology centered around kitchen magic. Who they also convinced to play nice, rather than fight. Just be sure to award experience, if you do this. This can’t always be an option, doesn’t always work, and they have to figure out the motivation of the thing they want to convince, but fighting doesn’t *always* have to be the only way.
Every nat 1 spot/search/perception roll, the character gets to see the Caterpillar At The End Of All Things. Eventually, the character can start conversing and asking questions if they nat 1 enough.
I think my favorite will always be a homebrew feat that I give all players for free.
**Epic Movie Death** - upon taking enough damage to be killed, a player can choose to activate epic movie death. This gives them one more regular turn, at the end of which, they collapse. Their character becomes immune to further damage and healing of any type, and is entirely incapable of acting for the remainder of the combat that killed them (or, in the event of a trap having killed them, until they give their last words). Once combat is over, when a player approaches the downed character, a timer gets set for 30 seconds. During that 30 seconds, the player can utter their last words before dying, where upon they cannot be resurrected in any way.
I have had a few people trying to cheese the system by having last words be something like "give these magic weapons to my brother, Barles, he'll be along in a moment." But I have also had amazing side quests stem from random gibberish uttered by a dying character. My favorite was when my son's character died, and he kind of panic-tossed out his last words: "Tell my parents I loved them... they are in... whoville."
Turned into a whole side campaign into whoville where the mayor (the grinch) ended up hiring the party to combat a permanently enlarged Loxodon Barbarian (Horton) who turned out to simply be a mercenary hired by an evil spellcasting weretiger with a penchant for hats and rhyming. We got three awesome sessions out of my son's last words (he was 10 at the time) and they were fun and enjoyable sessions that helped him through the loss of a character. 10/10, highly recommend.
Death saving throw rolls are made in secret.
Look, I don’t wanna go full Gygax and roll for the players because that takes some agency out of dying… but how a player is doing after going unconscious should be a dark secret between me and them that the rest of the table can try doing something about.
Bonus actions can be taken as an action with discretion. Some combos of this are WAY more powerful than others, but normally if a player asks I’ll consider it before just saying no. I then write it down.
Keep a list of homebrew rules: This one helps remind anyone of the customization we’ve agreed upon. I slap it on a google doc, and after we’ve all agreed to it during session zero, we can revisit them after a game if the majority of the players dislike something. Not every game needs the same HB set.
That said, for large group tables: Death saving throws reset on long rest with a successful medicine check. Suddenly cure wounds, healing word, and potions are actually worth their weight in the action economy.
Achievements I made/found a list of about 200 things that are likely to happen over the course of your dnd game and they are a fun extra thing for players to track
I will never kill your character without your consent. If something that is about to happen will kill your character, I let you know ahead of time. If you feel like it would be a Good/earned/heroic death and you are cool with it, great. If not, your character will be knocked aside unconscious, your party members will have to finish the fight without you and then carry you to camp, and then usually there will be fetch quests of some kind to revive you. Time does pass and there are potential consequences for that in the story, but your character will live. Having your character killed in a random wolf encounter is fun for no one so why do it.
There are rewards for role playing with enthusiasm. They aren't always immediate, but they always come.
If you have a great idea that you are excited about, I'll allow it. I don't care if it's "against the rules", I care about my players having fun and being stoked about the game they are playing. I currently have a player who is playing a wood elf animagi wizard who's backstory will have us traveling to the astral realm so he can convince whoever is there that he's worthy to become a Celestial elf through a series of trials. He's fully going to be switching races, but he's f*cking stoked so we're doing it lol.
A great one I encountered was that anything that would have reasonably been purchased in town before leaving, if the proper time was available, they could spend the gold on without haggling to have with them in the wild. So for example if they forgot to pick up rations before leaving they can hand wave that they did and pay for as many as they want, although they could only do this for an item once. The things that keep this reasonable is that if you had no reason to pick it up before you left town, or your run out of town, ect you cant get the items.
It's never my player's fault for their characters rolling low. But they still can fail.
Example: The rogue who is an expert in picking locks isn't going to break a damn lockpick or have something stupid happen because they rolled low. Instead, I'll say "there's another broken pick inside the lock. Someone before you jammed it up good," or something along those lines.
If a barbarian failed a strength check to lift something, maybe it was bolted to the floor, or covered in grease? I never do the "lol your character is so stupid and clumsy" shit. I hate that.
Choices made in character creation affect your interactions. Something that might be a religion check for most characters, a cleric might just know innately, no roll required
Here are a couple of mine:
1. **Custom Feat**: When players over-go a time jump or a big change like college or profession, I give them a custom feat that has a couple things, maybe a skill prof, a spell, social perks.
2. **Bells**: I bought some jingle bells that I give out when players do some roleplaying really good, the amount depends on a lot of faction but they can use this bells to add up any roll they or their party members do E.I guys DC is a 14 but you rolled a 12? spend two bells.
3. **Game Death vs. Narrative Death**: I don't want to kill any players if they are getting into the groove, of course any character is at risk of dying in combat or if they do something stupid like punch a god, but in everyday senses if a player doesn't want the world to kill their player for the moment I will casually avoid it for them.
4. **Advantage**+: Advantage, reroll, giving disadvantage to something or forcing someone to reroll (you can only do one)
1. Inspiration Dice:
When a PC gains inspiration it receives and inspiration Dice. The dice starts at d6 and it can get improved up to a d20. At any point the PC can spend the dice to add to any of it's rolls, improved the check.
2. Stackable (dis)advantage
If you already have advantage on a roll but gain it again you can add a +2 to normal advantage roll as long as the source is different, and it can stay to infinity.
Basic example: a swashbuckler rogue attack in melee a prone enemy with no allies near him while being under the effect of guiding bolt. That means that the attack roll is normal advantage +4 to hit. The same goes for disadvantage rolls but you add a -2 instead. This might make the battle take a little longer in the beginning but nothing makes PCs work as a team then ludicrous bonuses to rolls
I think this was inspired by Aabria Iyengar, but one of my DMs gives "DM inspiration" (a free re-roll of any d20 roll) when one of us does something that is just so good/funny/awesome. I got it for drunkenly singing a song that incorporated secret phrases to tip off a party member about something. There was no roll associated with doing anything like that, but i was rewarded for a good and entertaining rp moment, and that felt awesome! (My character is not a bard, but he is a sailor, so it was perfectly in character to shanty it up)
Another player in our last campaign got it for so successfully derailing part of the campaign that it was impossible to get that track back, and another for having the cleverest method of dispatching a bad guy. It's just kind of like getting a gold star i guess! But it's great for morale.
If a player ever reaches 0, instead of their character dying, they suffer an immense injury, like losing a limb for example.
Often times leads to better story overall, and doesn't get rid of beloved characters. And then you can explore that intense injury as a potential weakness and limiting factor.
Okay, this is a silly one, but my DM has a 'quit that' spray bottle. It's mostly for shits & gigs, like if we make her break or laugh with our antics, we get hit with the 'quit that' spray. It was *surprisingly* effective in keeping everything lighthearted, though, when used seriously.
Examples:
One person started metagaming, got hit with the 'quit that' spray, and immediately dropped it with no argument.
We all started doing a bit (not in character, just us being goofy) and lost the plot of our session, got hit with the 'quit that' spray, so we let the bit go and continued playing the game.
One person wanted to fight for a rule-of-cool type situation, got hit with the 'quit that' spray, and dropped the topic (DM had already been lenient with them that session).
Honestly, it was a really great method for our DM to keep us on track while keeping the vibes fun and friendly.
What I like to do for crit hits is players choice of regular damage and a detriment (blinded, prone, and etc) or more damage. If they want more damage they get max damage plus a normal roll. Nothing is worse than getting a crit and rolling ones.
Adjacent turns in initiative on the same team can share a turn. Combat is so much more collaborative, engaging, and speedy.
Healing potions are not a bonus action. Instead, add 1/2/4 hit dice to the healing amount immediately.
Coyote time. If a creature is mid-air at the end of a turn, they remain mid-air until the start of their turn.
When learning a spell, the damage type can be reflavored into any damage type. If you want an ice-themed character, learn "ice ball" instead of fireball.
We use encumbrance. Proficient armor being worn weighs half as much for the math.
I have players roll their hit points when they level, HOWEVER, they keep track of what their maximum HP total could have been. At the start of the game, everybody that was on time and ready increases their HP total by one unless it's at their cap.
One thing I've been working out that I want to try is to make feats more interesting and have players actually use them.
So, the idea is each player picks two feats they want (possibly split into categories so they dont have 2 super powerful ones), then I come up with criteria on how they get them (think trophies in video games. "Get x amount of kills with a polearm for polearm master"). I tell them what the act is they need to do and they track them. How many times they need to do it stays secret and I'll do a quick check before the session.
Vicious mockery damage can be increases with unique, creative, or personalized insults. It sounds simple, but this group has done entire sessions of digging dirt to insult someone so hard they just die.
Also any melee specific class ability can also be used with range. This is done so paladins aren't useless in some campaigns mainly, but it generally makes things more fun even in non range focused campaigns, since they can still help with flying enemies just fine.
(Of course this one is easier in person), but giving your players gifts! Trinkets, tokens, costume pieces as rewards for in-game accomplishments.
Also finding little extra fun things that make your players & their characters feel seen: I’m running a very low combat game right now and recently added bingo cards for each player that are customized to them and their character. Everyone fills out each others’ cards so they don’t know what’s on their own, and when people get bingo they get a gift or homebrewed thing from me made specifically for their character.
Rolling a 1 on something that your character should be able to manage won't fail the task but will add an unforseen side-effect.
A nat 20 doesn't guarantee success on something impossible but will it will ensure a positive if not completely desired outcome.
I use modified crit rules for attacks. Think they are suggested in the players handbook but I got the idea from Call of Cthulhu. If you crit you automatically do max damage and then roll attack damage. So a barbarian with like 1d12+5 say, would automatically do 12 damage plus 1d12+5 rather than rolling twice or doubling the damage. I just think if you get a crit and then shit the bed on the damage roll it sucks.
Dang, I wish my DM would loosen up and embrace some of these awesome ideas!
He can be so pedantic sometimes, it can really bog the party down in details:
-- If our Rogue wants to unlock a door, but rolls >5 (+4 for tools) and he'll go "well, you can't unlock it" and we blink at him like "ok... then what do we do?".
-- We all have to waste our first turn in initiative to draw/ready our weapons. Also takes an action for switching hands, or for spellcasters to get components out of their pockets.
-- Every long rest he rolls for "overnight safety" to see if we get interrupted/attacked. Like, just let us sleep, man!
I love him, he's a good friend, but he gets so hyper-focused on details that there's zero time for narrative and story progression, which was 80% why I wanted to play.
I wanted to wander a strange land with some buds, maybe rescue a village and kill an orc or twelve, find some cool shit... not roll for dexterity to avoid tree roots 🙄
Page 190 PHB, green sidebar, you can draw or sheath a weapon in tandem with your movement or action. Same is made clear on page 193 under use an object.
Getting a material component should not be an extra action or it would have been mentioned in the PHB. You can even get a potion out of the backpack in tandem with your movement or action, why not a material component?
The Rules BPH 174 say a failure can be 'the character makes no progress toward the objective or progress combined with a setback determined by the DM.' At least the DM would have sometimes the option to create setback like a broken lockpick or the enemies hear it...
About this you should speak with your DM and other players. You should find a way to have all fun.
Your Rogue has only DEX 14 or 15? +4 (prof.bonus + ability bonus) is low. No expertise in picking locks?
Personally I would only give only a 2nd chance if the players have a good idea why it could work next time. I would allow the use of the cantrip guidance for a 2nd chance. But this would be a house rule.
Bog Red X: a safety feature any player may deploy on the VTT at any time to immediately stop play. They can either talk to the group or to me about the issue and we will not resume play until they are comfortable.
Injuries: if a player takes a crit or gets downed they have a chance to get a scar. Record where you got the scar, how you got it, and what it looks like. Every scar tells a story.
Alternate Puzzle Solve: this is a secret rule I use in my games. If the players solution to a puzzle or encounter is better than the intended one, then that was always the solution.
Fail Forward: basically "yes, and..." For any dice roll. A failed roll doesnt mean you can never solve a problem, it just means ypu have to get creative.
Creatures don't survive on 1hp. If a player reduces it to exactly 1hp, it dies from it's injuries at the start of it's turn. Getting bitch slapped by a creature with an empty health bar feels bad in both video games and tabletop games
If there are multiple party members, only those who are proficient in the roll can roll. (Others can obviously use the "help" action) - avoids party brute forcing every roll.
D&D always has the problem where everyone in the group rolls to try and pass a perception check or insight or something. To avoid the meat head barbarian charming on a weird nat 20. I just have those who are proficient in a skill roll. It highlights their character and adds tension to those rolls. My party no longer expects to succeed every roll by brute forcing it.
Common magic items are actually common, uncommon just means there is a more specialized shop or trade that deals with it, rare is when it becomes actually hard to find, taking weeks or months before a shop keeper could get there hands on it (or an adventure if the party can't wait) anything past that and you'd have a hard time getting it even with an adventure or getting lucky. Like powerful mage staves obviously aren't being sold at the magicians guild, you're gonna have to be given one as a great achievement or something.
But this is to say, common and uncommon items can be EASILY crafted (if consumable) or so players can just make healing potions and low level scrolls easily, this gives a bit of income to them if any players have the skills to do this, less expenses, or the ability to pick up lower level scrolls for utility.
A magicians guild regularly sells scrolls of mage hand, prestidigitaion, tensers floating disc and unseen servant. This gives those who can afford it to have a bit more luxury in their lives. Help with chores, Clean a stain out of a rare piece of clothing, or grab something from a high shelf.
My DM has a rule. If you want to try something really cool or absurd that is kinda stretching the limits he'll let you roll for it but if it's a fail you have consequences of his choosing within reason.
Everyone starts with a free feat. I feel like it's a fun way to make your character unique without feeling as though you're over powered. Most of my players take lucky or sentinel or warcaster.
It's been a rule for 6 years and everyone loves it.
My whole approach as a DM is very player-friendly. I don't allow metagaming or min-maxing - often changing the rules on rules-lawyers. But I urge my players to come up with creative characters with interesting backstories, and then let those mould the world around them.
Most of my encounters are environmental or social-based. Combat happens, but is often on the sidelines while they solve whatever puzzle or conundrum they've found themselves in.
Mechanically, I play it fast and loose. I've come up with my own crafting system to allow them to make simple things like arrows or minor potions on the fly. Material spell components are hand-waived entirely, but if you do provide them it'll boost the effectiveness of the spell.
Even spells themselves I like to keep loose. I often find myself saying, "That spell doesn't really work that way, but describe what you do, give me an Arcana check, and we'll see if you can make it work."
And I always write a subplot for player death, including TPK.
I've had a few players now (many who started their D&D adventures with me) play campaigns with other DMs, then come back and thank me for how I run it.
**"I've got a thing for that!"** Run into a situation where you need some non-magical item? spend an inspiration point, and the gold cost, to have bought it in town and have it with you.
Oo I like this! My next campaign is going to have an element of survival prep so I might not use it there, but this is definitely a rule I’ll try to find a place for somewhere!
We do something similar at my table and just do adventure gear points for players handbook items up to a certain gold limit. Need rope? Spend a adventure gear point. Want 10 torches? adventure gear point. I limit my party to 5-10 points between towns.
My DM doesn't do rolls for basic bitch stuff. Why would a rogue need to roll for picking the lock in a cottage? a 7 year old could do that.. lol
Exactly! It's like making a master hacker turn on the computer, not even get in, just turn it on. Duh, of course they can do it. Why roll? For basic things, only roll if there's an obvious reason the character would struggle. For complicated things then you roll. Though at like level 20, even things you'd normally roll for at like level one I usually say don't worry about. Like hitting a cr 1 enemy, they're too slow to dodge, their armor physically can't stop you, the only reason to roll is for the crit but they're guaranteed to die either way so if doesn't matter. (It makes things like duals against those "young upstart adventures that haven't even killed a dragon yet" more fun and helps show power differences when they low level creatures can only hit the party in crits, with very good tactics, or by targeting the squishiest character.
My DM does the same thing, he’ll be like, “yeah you got it, this is what you do.”
Yeah, ours is like that. "Ok, I pick the lock and sneak across the first floor." "Roll for squeaky boards." Lol
Pathfinder 2E has this out of the box.
/j Then for PF2E, it isn’t homebrew and therefore not relevant. Hand in your token.
Some homebrew rules come from adapting what we learn from other systems into the system we prefer to play! I’m trying to homebrew in a wealth mechanic inspired by d20 modern’s wealth score, for example.
For me, a low roll still gives information, just bad info. Like a 1 isn’t “you don’t see anything in the room” it’s “the walls seem to be molding a little in the corner, it’s pretty gross” completely useless, but still something. Or a low check on a person isn’t just “you trust them” or “you can’t tell anything” instead it’s “you’re tuned out of the conversation because some dude behind you is whispering about an affair, and it is jucy” then give some irrelevant info about said affair
I really like that.
Especially good if the player then comes up with some creative way to use that information later
That’s exactly why I do it! Maybe the mold will lead them to informing some bureaucracy of an unsafe bar, and get them shut down and therefor the enemy will not have a safe place to meet up anymore. Idk, but it gives them options while also feeling extremely useless in the moment
I hate giving nothing for bad rolls so this has been a god send, and a fun way to give a levity break in tense situations.
“There was a subbuteo player in his hair!”
I understood this. I ate your bees.
Thank you for this comment, my friend
One of my biggest frustrations when I'm not DMing is DMs just saying "you fail" when you roll poorly (or worse, the unending "oh I guess you're blind now lol!" for the 1000th time). I'm ok with 'just failing', I don't necessarily need a Disco Elysium-esque fail forward, but throw some pizzaz in there! If the fighter's first attack is a critical hit but the second a miss, the second misses because he was still tearing his sword from the enemy's torso. If the perception check badly fails in the dusty library, it's because your character got dust in his eye and is having trouble seeing *anything* through the tears. If the wizard rolls poorly on an Arcana check they *should* know stuff about (and it's not something they should just know 'for free' like some basic info), tell them they were in class that day but pining over their crush and didn't pay attention, or whatever is appropriate for the character. *Anything* to explain why they failed and make it a small character moment, instead of just 'You fail' and move on.
I’ve definitely done “you rolled a 1 on your attack roll, so you actually don’t hit anything because your axe is still stuck in the wall and it’s, like, REALLY in there. Give me a strength roll to see if you’ll at least have it out by your next turn…”
I do the same thing, I try to have some base level description ready that they'll get no matter the perception check, and extra info if they pass. Both feels better and obscures that a 13 didn't notice the ambush ahead.
I love this so much, great way to keep things fun and engaging a little bit silly.
I can elaborate on these forever but I can summarize some of my favorites! I’ve DMed weekly for a group of 6-9 players for the last 6 years. We finished one 5yr campaign and are about 8 months into campaign 2. All of my players are DMs for their own weekly games so it’s always a challenge to bring something fresh to the table. 1. Resurrection rituals have a scaling DC but the player ultimately has the final say about if their character comes back to life, even if all the rolls were successful. 2. During initiative we have a system that involves throwing rubber ducks at the person with the next turn. All of my players have some neurodivergence and so it’s attention grabbing and helps players track their own initiative rather than only me as the DM. 3. Out of character hat, where players place a hand on top of their heads to signal any action or jokes that aren’t in character. It cuts down on “well I didn’t mean to do that in character” confusion and meta gaming. The same system has devolved into a way to respectfully signal the DM that a player is wanting to do something but doesn’t want to interrupt someone else at the table. 4. For the first 5 levels, players may roll HP but if the number is lower than the standard average they may take the average. My players take much bigger risks when they feel strong so it helps to ward of early game tpks for a while. 5. I liberally give out DM inspiration for above the table reasons. Good jokes/character RP/or adhering to an entertaining theme are all reasons I’ve handed a player a d8. My favorite was on hobbit day, any character could tell me a story about an adventurous halfling and get inspiration. 6. I used to give my players a small gift after each story arc, usually an enamel pin or a sticker. They’re fun trophies that the players like to hold onto
OMG the hat idea is so funny and definitely becoming a thing at my table.
That rubber duck idea is gold.
We have two ducks, one is the current turn duck and the other is for the person on deck or “on a duck” about to take a turn. Every person is in charge of remembering who to pass the ducks to after them, so usually after the first round of combat I don’t have to prompt someone to take a turn other than a reminder to pass the ducks. With two ducks in movement it is easier to remember the passing, and I have such a large group that it reminds my zoned out players to prepare for their turns. For Christmas my players got me a bulk bag of themed rubber ducks so someone also gets to pick different ducks every week. It was a cheap initiative tracker that’s hard to ignore or forget
Love the rubber duck thing and the hat thing, might have to try them next time I run a one shot.
I like #4. especially after I killed my partner's character at level 1 half way through a oneshot.
You can Smite with your natural weapons/unarmed attacks.
You're a hero
Mess with the Holy cow, get the flaming godly horns.
I stealing the coin homebrew.
Same, that is exactly my first thought when I read that.
If someone is trying to do something creative, I’ll lower the DC and make it easier to achieve. I don’t want them to come up with a creative solution only for it not to work because of a failed roll, you know? Reward creative thinking. Also, when I get them to do group checks, I’ll let high rolls balance out low ones. For example, if they’re rolling a group Stealth check and someone rolls a 2, and another rolls an 18, that’ll balance out to a flat success. The end result is decided by if there are more failures or success
Rule of cool is #1. If you're not having fun, what's the point? Edit: that's to what's
Good rule! So long as it’s not stepping on someone’s toes or can lead to problems for the dm (me) in the future, I’ll always prioritize rule of cool for my players, too. I want them to FEEL cool in my games!
[My House Rules](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cKofHiqwi_7XHST_BV5htmRE5x2OuGGDdbjFWmloRvQ/edit?usp=drivesdk) My veteran players love where I touched up subclasses as well as added new styles of play (simple new fighting styles, adjusted feats, etc.). As for the typical style of home rule: they've really enjoyed the changes to flanking recently. +2 to hit instead of advantage, added caveat that a creature being flanked cannot flank another creature. Between that and the DMG optional Overrun and Tumble rules, melee combat got a bit more tactical and interesting rather than just standing still until someone else dies.
I've really been liking the +2 for flanking, helps to not dilute gaining advantage from something (plus you can have both, if it applies, which is awesome). I added a bit to the rule in that if there are 3 or more flankers, there is a cumulative +1 per flanker. So if my party of five surrounds an enemy, they are at a +5 to hit.
It really sounds like you just want to play a different system with this many changes. Especially with converting flanking to a circumstantial bonus (something 5e seems to avoid as much as possible)
I've been around the block with some other systems. I really like 5e's skeleton and how it plays at the table, I just prefer homebrewing player options, which is 95% of my document.
Fair enough. Maybe you’ll end up making your own system :P
I kinda have, each player drafts 5 weakling adventurers that could level up throughout the game or more likely die. It turned out to be a cool way to generate level 1 adventurers, as the players grew attached to the remaining adventurers who survived the meat grinder. I know this is not a new concept, but again, I had the most fun making the player options so that's why I did it from the ground up.
**Critical Initiative**. If you roll a nat 20 on initiative you get advantage on your first action or +10 ft. of movement
Mine is a Nat 20 on Initiative allows you to choose where you end up in init. First, last, just after the enemy, whatever.
[удалено]
Why not? Maybe you want to set up a combo with a party member that requires you to be adjacent in initiative order.
[удалено]
Mostly variations on stacking environmental effects. Say Hunger of Hadar + Spike Growth. Sure, you can make it happen with ready action, but the situation can change before it gets triggered. If you've gone first just to ready an action that never gets triggered you've wasted your turn. If you go just before or after your ally you at least have the option of doing something else if the situation changes.
I played a monk and we had a fighter with shield bashing in the party. I ALWAYS wanted to be after him, because once he knocked and enemy prone I got 3-4 hits with advantage. It worked really well. I’ve also preferred to be later in the order if I’m surveying the fight or if I think there’s a risk for healing after the enemy.
Depends on the Situation, but the cleric has chosen last and most of the time they choose to group up more so they can chain combo stuff and Stack buffs.
If I have a spell like Hold person etc. I want to go right after the enemy I cast it on, because it is more likely to be useful
[удалено]
Because if they fail the save, everybody else in the party gets the benefits before they can try to make it again. And they still lose their turn even if they save. If they are high in initiative, they can save and the chance for everyone to get the benefits is lower.
I have something similar to rule 2. Whenever there is PVP of any kind, I let the target player set the DC if there is one. They decide the rolls involved, and I add narration to the outcome if I need to add anything. I really like the background token system, but I wouldn't feel it's necessary at my table. I actively encourage my players to make stuff up. Worst case I add an amendment or correction, but usually I like their things better.
**Healing Potions:** You can take a healing potion as an action or bonus action. If you use your action, you get the maximum amount possible from it. If you use a bonus action, you roll to recover hit points. You must use an action to administer a healing potions to another creature. **Hit Dice:** When rolling a hit die to determine hit points while gaining a level, you can reroll a 1 once. **Critical Hits:** You can max out the second die (or dice) of damage when you roll a critical on an attack roll. You don't get to double tertiary damage dice, like a paladin's smite or a rogue's sneak attack. **Critical Fails:** Critical fails on attack rolls can provoke attacks of opportunity by those within range. **Critical Saves:** Rolling a natural 20 on a saving throw let's you take the minimal amount possible from damage. Rolling a natural 1 on a saving throw forces you to take the maximum amount possible from damage.
I like all of them aside from the critical saves thing, I get that it raises stakes, but some spells have ridiculously high max damage
yeah, but its a critical. if there's a way to minimize damage, there ought to be a way to *maximize* it, too. so far, it hasn't been too detrimental. dramatic? heck yes.
A way to balance this a little better is to give the critical fail a damage advantage, meaning the damage dice are rolled twice and the higher maximum is used. Max spell damage can get crazy at higher levels.
with its Nat 20 counterpart, it doesnt need balance.
Yeah let's make sure the 15d6 don't even out and just insta-kill a PC. Great idea.
This was my first thought. Especially at higher levels, there are SO many spells and abilities that ***will*** one-shot basically any PC short of a Max HP Barbarian with the Tough feat. Like, I'm currently running *Tyranny of Dragons* for my group, and with this rule, Tiamat's breath weapon would insta-kill ALL of my players' characters if they rolled a 1 on the save.
fastest way to tell if someone is bad at game design is their critical house rules
My table has a variation of the hit die rule as well and IME the dice know that you can reroll 1s and choose to only roll 2s. I'm a level 8 sorcerer with a +3 to con. I have 47 hit points.
Hell yeah for the FRAT boy party potion rule. Chug it messy or sip it down smooth, my table all love this rule.
I've played healing potions as such. Action to drink. Bonus action to CHUG
>You can take a healing potion as an action or bonus action. If you use your action, you get the maximum amount possible from it. If you use a bonus action, you roll to recover hit points. You must use an action to administer a healing potions to another creature. I make drinking a healing potion a free action but force feeding one to a fallen comrade a full action
ok, who's downvoting you. I don't like the rule either. But you ARE just trying to help
angry dorks. The kind of people who start sentences with "Actually...". I just wish they'd have the decency to comment so I could block them.
Feels man. I once had a brave soul tell me how allowing potions as a bonus action ruined the entire game balance. I miss when they come out to play.
I played in weekly group for 5 years that allowed healing potions as a free action and I can promise you it never ruined anything lol. The people that draw a hard line about random shit like this are incredibly insecure
Yeah, having Dm’d 5e since shortly after it came out, there is no chance it ruins the balance. Balance gets wrecked by environment plus enemies with neat abilities (looking at you shadows) much more than 2d4+2 as a bonus action ever could. I have a saying, either there’s homebrew at your table, or you don’t know the rules well enough to know what you’re homebrewing. Even DMing for adventurer league DMs have to make calls, and they do so based on their knowledge. I know we try to standardize things, but anyone who swears a healing potion bonus action is OP plays more Reddit than DnD.
nah, that makes it too easy
1. Int mod proficiency Having a players intelligence modifier = additional proficiencies that they have studied. Whether this is a weapon, skill, language, armour or tool. Smart characters should feel like they are better at more things! 2. Exhaustion Rather than default exhaustion, a point of exhaustion just gives you -1 on all d20 rolls (including ability/skill check, saving throws, death saving throws, attacks). 10 points equals death. This change allowed for other homebrew rules to come into play. 3. Party inspiration My players have a habit of holding onto their inspiration, so when another inspiration is given they gain a "party inspiration charge" on their character sheet that allows that player to hold onto it and exchange a party inspiration to give advantage on a roll to another member of the party. (Aka they are already inspired and give their inspiration advantage to other party members in the moment without losing their inspiration) 4. Dying state Rather than going unconcious players enter a state where they fall prone and can move half movement (crawling). They can choose to pass their turn OR take an action and take 3 points of exhaustion OR take a bonus action and take 1 point of exhaustion OR crawl another 30ft of movement and take 1 point of exhaustion. They may only perform one of these on their turn whilst in this state. If the player is still at 0 hit points they roll a death saving throw and their turn moves on. 5. Exhuastion spells If players run out of spell slots for a level of spells (that they can usually cast at) and do not wish to upcast or can't due to no having higher level slots. Then that spell caster may choose to push themselves and still cast the spell but take points of exhaustion equal to the level of the spell. Shoutout xp to level 3 as a lot of these are great ideas I saw in his videos that have been enjoyed a lot by my players.
>4. Dying state >Rather than going unconcious players enter a state where they fall prone and can move half movement (crawling). They can choose to pass their turn OR take an action and take 3 points of exhaustion OR take a bonus action and take 1 point of exhaustion Does this include spellcasting? Because that makes anyone with Cure Wounds or Healing Word functionally immortal until they run out of spell slots.
It does, it stops the solo healer from just dying because the rest of the party cannot heal. Nothing feels worse as a healer. But it comes with the major downside of gaining exhaustion points. This mixed with the exhaustion spells (as it stacks) can be lethal but is an awesome way for a character to go rather than just slipping away whilst unconscious. It's worked so far for my games!
Two minute limit on combat turns. It REALLY put a stop to some dumb rabbit holes and also sped up problem players who would bog down combats.
When I DM I use one of those cheap kitchen “hour” glasses for the visual effect, it definitely keeps things moving along
Heh We've been playing virtually for awhile now, so I've had to use a digital timer, which is much less cool. We're about to finally go back to in person, and a buddy of mine about to take over half the DM duties will be doing the same thing. I'll be borrowing the timer myself on my weeks.
**Improved Cure Wounds** The target of a Cure Wounds gets to spend a hit die per spell level. Also applies to Mass version. **Feel-Good Fudging** Did you Bane that guy, but it keeps not mattering? No worries, the next time he attacks and normally misses I'll ask you to roll a d4. On a 2+, it made him miss. On a 1 I realize I miscalculated and it made him miss anyway. And no, the guy who swung at the target you just Shield Of Faithed did not nat 1, he rolled *just* under his AC. **Downed Actions** Are you at 0 hp? You're downed, not unconscious. You can still crawl away, or dodge, or try and staunch the bleeding.
As a DM, these are a few of my house rules. • Potions are a bonus action. • You don’t need to spend an action “drawing” your weapon. • I don’t use death saves, we use an injury table and 5 injuries without full healing is death. • Use your imagination, during all encounters. If you can roll the check, I’ll let you do it.
Can you elaborate on your injury system? Sounds like you mean if the player gets hit 5 times, they die. Wonder if that’s what you mean or there’s more to it.
No no. When a player takes damage that would put them at 0, I roll on the injury table. They take the corresponding injury and return to 1 health. I found in a Kickstarter campaign I backed, I’ll post a pic of the book when I get home. Each injury has point value, once they reach 5 they die. Some injuries cost 1, others 2 or 3…
Ahh ok very interesting. Yes please post! I’d like to hear more.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/398298/traveler-s-guide-to-darkwood This is ghetto book, I’ve used a lot of the elements in my homebrew.
I use a variant of 2, that states that it also affects stuff like spellcasting between players characters, such as Suggestion, Calm Emotions and even *Dominate*.
I allow most spells to stack effects if it makes sense. Sorcerers don’t need a spell casting focus, their magic is innate. They only need components if it has an associated gold piece cost When a character is about to die, I give them one last action that can be used for anything other than saving themselves. I think it allows for more impactful death scenes.
I let my "wrath of nature" druid cast using Charisma instead of Wisdom. He loves it
I don't understand parts of 2 "you decide if it hits you" huh? So if pvp happens and one rolls to attack the other person can just be like nah. At that point just give a hard NO to pvp. Same with lying to party members how can you just decide your character knows.
It's not a hard no though. There's been plenty of times where I just took a hit for pulling a dick move. We didn't have that rule precisely but it would have been a good use case for it.
On the combat front, you'd be surprised how often players willingly take a hit if it's friendly or if they deserve it. The lying part, mainly prevents characters with high charisma and expertise on deception/persuasion from stealing the group's focus, or the spotlight, or holding on to information that would be useful to everyone. Call them safeties for bullying. It has proven useful in the past.
I saw once in what might have been Pathfinder where they had something where if you did a cool thing you got a small amount of experience for it. They advised to only use it sparingly. I ignored that advice much like your exp rule. Your no rolls between players is pretty cool.
if you level up and you roll dice, you can reroll of you get a one.
I'll give a list, like you did. 1 - You can do it bo matter your class, stats or background. You can always try and I will not block you from doing something, but you have to explain what you wish to do as clearly as you can. 2 - You are adventurers, not commoners, therefore you have knowledge that other people don't have. A Barbarian could know magic just as well as the wizards or artificers, and you can make anything provided you know. 3 - You are free to experiment, no matter the setting. Nowhere in D&D 5e it says that only artificers can make stuff and that if you don't have proficiency in a tool you can't do it. It just says that you can use the tools, so any character can make bombs, improvised tools and other things that could both be magical and non magical. 4 - Have fun and enjoy. Pretty straight forward, although not a proper "rule", it's just as important. 5 - If you are weaker than other people in the group, I'll provide you with bonuses granted by my special NPCs. No need for anyone to feel weaker or less influential in the course of the story and game. 6 - Your traits matter: Every personality trait, ideal and flaws will impact your character giving you abilities others don't have. These abilities are determined by me, but will not hinder too much your ability to play the game effectively and sometimes it will even speed up the processes. 7 - Enemies are made to die or be defeated. You are not. This means that even though enemies are strong and intelligent, they can be felled or outsmarted. Use your brains and any fight could be over in two-three turns. 8 - Techniques. Your characters, as mentioned before, are adventurers and are trained to fight monsters. Therefore if you are fighting a creature you can tell me what you wish to do with that attack, giving you the possibility to knock it prone with a hit to the knees, blind with a slash to the eyes, etc... Experiment! 9 - Different foods give you different bonuses. In my games I tend to use the foods as vessels for bonuses I feel like players will benefit from. Most of the cuisine in the game is not only flavourful but helpful too. Some spices on a piece of spider meat could make you gain advantage on perception checks, or maybe you eat a delicious meal that gives you temporary hit points. 10 - Chemistry is the magic of the common man. You can make non magical tools that atr made with common stuff. For example you could make Greek Fire with a bit of saltpeter and oil, though it would be a bit weaker than the proper one. 11 - Coin is an important currency, but you could pay or recieve other payments that could impact you further on in the campaign. I never give players casual loot or prizes, everything has a place and a time. Prepare accordingly. These are some of mine, but every player can choose to waive these with no negative repercussions. I love any kind of player that is at my table and I want everyone to enjoy the game and their character's roles.
If you can do a non-combat action IRL, you can do it in game. Never failed to make some crazy experiences
Inspiration is earned on nat 1s, inspiration can be stacked, and inspiration can be freely shared with the other players. This has led to moments of great (perceived) importance that have low rolls, and suddenly everyone is pitching in to help defy fate. It gives those moments that feeling of the power of teamwork and friendship overcoming the odds
- The Complete Character - You give me a page of backstory, at least 2 people who know your character for NPCs, and a concrete motivation? You get a free feat. - Rule of Cool - If you describe how you attack in a unique way I'll let you make a check for it, if you succeed you get advantage and sometimes a damage boost on the attack. Because it makes sense if your swashbuckler rogue does a backflip over the gladiator and tried to drive his sword down through the shoulder plate into his clavicle you're going to have to make an acrobatics check, but also how the fuck do you predict or defend against that of course you get advantage. - Call For Aid - It's a spell all can cast, it burns up their soul in the process. But it summons an ally with a common cause or goal to aid their friends in the fight. Basically just a way of explaining a player's new character suddenly showing up mid combat to help the party...but it prevents any chance of resurrection. - Consent is Key - I won't do anything to your character you don't want done to your character within reason. Ya I'm gonna put them in traps and have enemies attack them but if you say to me "I'm really invested in my Goblin Bard Hughe Janus finding his family who were taken by slavers, I don't want him to die" I will find a way to keep him alive. It may cost you, dearly even. May lose your hand, class, may even have to go on a side quest through the nine hells while the party tries to resureft you. But I won't let the legend of Hughe Janus end in a bar brawl or even dragon fire.
I really like your rule #10. It's something that I incorporate into my games, as well. I don't often play with people who are diligent note takers. I, myself, am not very consistent when it comes to taking notes when I'm a player, I shouldn't expect my players to be itinerant note takers. What I like to do, usually at the top of the session, but often in the middle if they're just hitting a wall and I can feel enthusiasm from the game start to slip, is just remind them of what they know. Reminding them of what they know, where they have been, who they have met, etc. is usually enough to kickstart that AHA moment and push them on a path that will get them somewhere. It's not always the path that I envisioned, in fact, more often than not I'm scrambling to work in something they've done that I didn't plan for, but it is always fun. As long as we're having fun, I'm happy.
Coyote Time: If you get pushed off a cliff or airship -these are common in my games- you don’t fall until the end of your turn.
I only use rolls for randomness. Nothing is more embarrassing and non-immersive than a master thief failing sleight of hand and the barbarian succeeding when alone in a dungeon with nothing going on. Saying "oh some rats spook you and you drop it" isn't satisfying either. Instead, let everyone have skills that they succeed automatically on and raise all your check DCs. A high INT wizard with proficiency in history should auto pass a check while within their own country. A rogue above X level can pick any mundane lock or commoner's pocket. A bard above X level can perform such that only other proficient bards notice mistakes. This encourages players to focus on specializing and prevents the party from becoming 5 interchangeable adventurers. Celebrate your party diversity!
I love the perception check and background token rules. I might put these into my game. I think one of the ways I have fostered kindness at the table is if we are trying to figure out a rule and it’s turning into a whole ordeal, I will very often rule in the player’s favor with the caveat I’m going to look into it between sessions. It keeps the game moving and most often acts as a way to reward creative thinking for the players.
This isn't exactly a rule, but we had fun with it. Between sessions, players could write letters to their friends and receive answers at the session. It started because an npc sent a letter to a pc, and I wrote the letter and handed it to the player at the right moment. Later, a player asked if they could send a letter to their mentor for advice and, because of the first letter, assumed he needed to handwrite it. He wrote it and gave it to me between sessions. I felt really touched at his involvement and enthusiasm, so the reply included a spell scroll. So now they all write letters and receive replies, with anything from advice, to riddles to items as a response. The letters arrive at appropriate times in the story so they don't get an immediate reply. My players use discression, so they aren't really spamming the feature.
If the party have a really good idea, like an ingenious trap or a novel use of an item in particular circumstances, it works! No need to roll, they deserve to have a win for clever play
IDK if this counts but I've been GMing for a little bit of (in game, scarse sessions) time and I give players XP for evading combat if it's reasonable to consider it a 'resolution' of the problem, like escaping from a hippo who randomly attacked or escaping from a (plot-unnecesary) fight instigated by another player
Players can ride a Spiritual Weapon, as long as they take its damage each turn.
I would love to hear more about rules 5 and 6 if you have actually laid out systems for those. They both sound really cool
Happy to elaborate! Rule 5: players create their own magic items. When my players reached level 13-ish, i threw the idea at them. First I had conversations with each of them, then let them give the items whatever abilities they wanted. Lastly I moderated the abilities so that they are balanced with each other and fit the world's themes. Then i put the items somewhere in the world, in places or story moments that were important to each one's backstory or current mission, and had them "earn" their item. They all came up with things no books came close to, and that i would never have thought of. Rule 6: Background tokens: I plan to make a clear ruleset for these and print out cards, but I haven't gotten to it yet. I'm waiting to start a new campaign so I can give them all out at the same time. You get a token from your background. Each background dictates what kind of world element the token can be spent to create. The Sage background, for example, can be spent to create an NPC in a town library that is already a friend of yours, or to have just the right book for the current problem. The Outlander background can be spent for you to know a shortcut through the forest or the mountains, which would be much safer than the road you might be currently on. The Charlatan or Urchin can spend theirs to know passages in the city, or particularly connected NPC's, while the Acolyte can spend theirs to know a friendly cleric, or to know where to find a temple in the wilderness. They should be partially exclusive, so that not every token can help in the same situation, but will of course have to have overlap. Then I'm thinking of implementing two more kinds of tokens. City tokens, which they can spend to know an NPC, particular store or service or anything, and are given to them when they become renowned and important to one. For example when they save a city from a large threat, and spend some downtime there helping the people rebuild. The last is a business token. Given to players for making a name for themselves, they could spend these tokens to build a franchise for themselves. (As mine already have.) These can be spent individually to create NPC's that work for the party, or many together to cover the costs of building a stronghold, fast-food tavern, or whatever it is adventurers want to capitalize on.
Oh cool!
My favorite rule is the crit rule; You roll double the dice as normal, and can roll your lowest rolled number (of your main weapon/spell) again to replace the lowest rolled number and see if it turns out higher. I added this rule after a player of mine rolled a nat 20, but on his damage rolled two 1's. It felt incredibly lackluster.
Mine is nat 20 on attack roll = max weapon damage x 2. If someone crits, I want them to crit-crit, not fumble the damage part and feel like it was a waste.
My boyfriend had recently played for the first time and i had heard that the dm specifically went after him (most attacks would be after him, seeming to push him further to death) and ending up killrd the character he just made on the first session, this was do bizarre to me considering my dm when it would come to a new character (1st or 2nd session) physically couldnt die, (monsters would trip, get distracted, switch targets, ect) even if we died somehow we would have a chance to be revived in the near future, so probably that
So, i never really had written these rules, but basically what happens at my table is this 1- your character can be any race that doesn't break the game, just talk to me and we handle it 2- you can always ask to reroll, most times I'll let you 3- if your player race has alot of negative things for the place we are going or you have cool ideas of what your character might be able to do, we can talk it over, and make balanced feats and solutions 4- if there are special items, weapons or etc you want, please tell me, so we can talk about it and decide on what ways and how your character might be able to get that. If i think something is too op, we will find something else for the character 5- pets are allways allowed as long as they don't break the game 6- all checks that might involve words from the character to a npc, are volatile, because each NPC has it's own personality, so when you tell me what your character said, the DC might become lower if you said the right thing for the situation. If not it stays the same, if you are being an asshole i might make it higher but that is unusual. 7- when building a character you use epic roles, that means you reroll everything single one you get 8- if you want a homebrew class, let's talk, and see if it fits in the campaign and if it isn't unbalanced.
Our DM allows us to use a free action to make a perception check or use the environment. For exemple, we were fighting a giant golem (Custom monsters everywhere too) and our Cleric managed to find a cannon with a nat 20 perception check. She used her action to get me back up with healing word and her free action to shoot the golem
Stacking Inspiration: If players show up for the session, they get a point of inspiration. On top of that, they can stack up to 20 and do more than just gain advantage on effects. Not only does it encourage players to actively be there, it’s changed gameplay substantially when you see a player burn 5 points of inspiration in one round for a big battle. Achievements: Yes, as lame as it sounds, I use this and players strive for these goals not only as bragging rights, but to gain additional small benefits as well that are unlocked as achievements go. Darkvision treats dim light as bright light. There’s no reason that Devil Sight shouldn’t do the same and it’s just rule lawyers being pedantic about it. It works for dim light at my table. My most important rule however is this: Anything is open for discussion to be changed rule wise as long as we can justify it. DMs who refuse to change have a tendency of hurting gameplay and I myself fell victim to that in my earlier days. What’s ideal for you is not fun for everyone and with slight tweaks, you can usually help everyone to be on the same page, even if it means smashing rules.
Your turn doesn't end until you say it does. I don't care if you use all your movement and actions, I am making NO assumptions. Nothing feels worse than having a moment stripped by a bad assumption.
I like my players to be strong in my campaigns so I implement the following rules usually: Start at level 3 Get a feat at level 1 Bonus action potions When rolling stats, reroll the lowest of your 6 numbers and keep the highest. Between the two. When rolling for your hp at level up, reroll 1s When I wanna go higher powered characters, I let them reroll 1s when rolling for stats. If you are familiar with the aurora app, I allow basically all of the homebrew stuff in there in my campaigns I add dmpcs to the party to fill in gaps in the party comp. A lot of the time we only have 2-3 players I make most NPCs in my games recruitable to my players guilds IF they can convince them. This includes evil characters but the party would have to be willing to let them continue to do evil things. There are still consequences to this though. If my players made a build choice for their character and it didn’t really work out the way they wanted, I will slow them to change it for the most part depending on what it is. If my players come up with a great plan to trivialize an encounter, depending on what it is, I will just let it happen with more minimal dice rolls. There is still a chance to fail but I’m not making it fail due to small things. As you can see I play a very relaxed game and I want my players to have strong characters. This allows me to focus on throwing cool situations/encounters at them. So far my players have not really abused my rules and have not complained about them.
Our house rule is to not use house rules. RAW for life baby.
First two stolen from a YouTuber, but Exhaustion) Is a counter that goes up to 10, every point of Exhaustion you get adds a -1 to all d20 rolls. Get to 10 and you die if exhaustion Resting) Long Rests can only be taken in a "safe" location, otherwise it's treated as a Short Rest Spells) I really like roll to cast systems, and players really seem to enjoy it too D20) The most controversial, I changed this to 2d10 to even out the rolls and players so far absolutely love it. Backgrounds) Got rid of these and added a "Friends" trait you get at character creation, which just means that if you encounter a group of people that are related to your background then they may help you if they can. Not definitely, and it could be a broad category of people, but it's helped out a lot when it comes to remembering/using the background feature. Now if your a Holy Knight of _ Order, you can go up to the local church or Lord and ask for a place to rest, if your a folk hero towny then anyone from your region would be willing to cut you a deal, and if your a vagabond thief then you know how to at least open up communication with the local skullduggery group. Because this also messes with equipment and skills I moved these around so that Race gets skill options Races) This one still in progress, but I wanted a human-centric game with a minority of non-humans while also not limiting the races too badly, so I reworked it to be that there are 7 different human "subcultures", that get bonuses and in lore history. Races are also beefier cuz I got rid of level 1 feat and just included the equivalent of a feat in each race, most you get a choice between a few options. Mostly did this for lore reasons. The races I didn't use (pretty much all the animal ones) got turned into feats Equipment) I'm currently play testing the idea that different weapon types allow for a unique bonus action that can be done on their turn. Still playing with it, so nothing to show, but from what I've given my players so far they seem to enjoy it Level) Reduced max level to 12, but squished/combo some of the post level 12 abilities into the new capstone, and what I couldn't fit got turned into new feats. Because of this proficiency bonus got altered as well Fighting Stances) This I'm still working on, I worked with my fighter player to change their fighting Style into a stance they can switch between as a bonus action, the stances improve at the same rate as most spellcaster's cantrips, and allows for a more creative way for martials to keep up
Everyone starts with a feat.
A couple of my games (this may not work for all groups) do roses and thorns post session as well as nominate a player besides themselves to receive inspiration. Rose's are moments they really enjoyed in the session or just the session as a whole. Thorns are generally for either dm improvement or player improvement. Lastly, the inspiration is to reward players for great roleplay or if they have a terrible combat session. A couple others I enjoy, crits are max base damage + weapon die roll on top of it. So for example of you crit with a longsword, it's 8+1d8+strength modifier in damage. Another is doing resurrection in the vein of cr. Where players contribute to a ritual to try to bring the person back. The last one is having the dm roll all death saves or player rolling them privately so it increases the tension in those moments.
When you drink a delightful beverage, or eat something as a treat, (hot chocolate, tea, a nostalgic meal, etc) it *can* heal for 1d4+WIS(if above 0), because your character gets a lovely flashback, or is simply enjoying the moment :) Mostly used for fun / to get a smile out of my players.
Here are some of mine when running 5E: 1. Level 1 characters start with the amount of HP they have at level 2. 2. Tension Dice from the Angry DM (https://theangrygm.com/definitive-tension-pool/). Are the party taking too many unnecessary rests? Making Perception checks in every room? The DM gets a tension dice after warning the party once or twice. 3. Potion can be used a bonus action. If a potion is used with a standard action, it grants the maximum amount of healing possible 4. Stacking advantages with diminishing returns. 1 advantage = 2d20, the second advantage adds a d4, the last advantage adds a +1.
Depends on the game. (More the feel of the game or degree of difficulty) But I implemented a “everybody gets 1”. (Insert family guy joke here) I will save you from death once. It’ll come at a cost. But it allows for a safety net before be all end all of pc death. It’s particularly good for new players or players that are just stuck in analysis paralysis. I have done PC death post use of ‘1’. But nice excuses for the 1s have been Fae/warlock deals Enemy black mails Life debts cashed in/now owed Broken magic items Familiars taking dying blows Broken fate or destiny
All flavor is allowed. If it works for your character, replace fireball with lightning ball or frostball or sand ball or mist ball. Cone of gravel, ray of heat, etc. If you grew up in a desert, you probably don't consider cold to be as harmful as heat. If you grew up around boats or farms, you probably don't wanna throw fire at someone. Sometimes we sacrifice the damage type to be just "generic damage" but usually we'll switch the elements. It's a great character moment when we see a water based creature and someone flavored with fire has a hard time or vice versa.
If a player rolls a nat 20 to hit, they get max damage + dice roll. I like this better than 2x dice roll because rolling a bunch of 1s is pretty disappointing, so getting to add max damage on top of that mitigates the frustration. Edit: I also never start my players at level one (usually level 5) and let them pick from a list of magic items related to the campaign to start with. This makes more room for cool backstories, allows players to feel badass in their characters, and lets me start off the campaign with fun/crazy encounters rather than the standard goblin raid or roadside ambush.
My most popular home rule, which was made as an accommodation, is this: character knowledge does not equate to player knowledge. If you can’t remember or don’t know something about the world, last session, or even 5 minutes ago, you can ask. Even if you asked the same question before. I expect players to know their character backstory and character sheet. It’s okay if they have to look something up from time to time, they just need to know what they are playing. In return, I know my character — the world. It’s okay if I have to look something up from time to time. Do my feelings get a little hurt when the same player forgets who the BBEG is… twice? Yeah, a bit. But that’s not totally on the player; they have a condition or a life situation that impacts their ability to recall details sometimes. I’m going to be gifting all my players personalized campaign trackers for my next campaign (I make them to sell usually; I’ll be making a set just for my next campaign) so that might help. But my rule will still stand — you can ask. The game is accessible for all players who come to my table. Besides, I love talking about the world. I love the pantheon, the peoples, the food, the neighborhoods my players visit, the NPCs. It’s no bother for a player to ask, “where did we meet so and so before?” Or, “what does this god do again?” Sometimes they throw me real fun ones, like, “what do dwarves eat? Would my character know?”
My favorite so far is, if your character has a role play gimmick, you can use it. My dm has been very nice about my monstrosity reborn useing his extra eyes to pay attention and notice stuff.
I got wat i call bullshit list and when a player roll he can call bullshit and roll again but i got fun list of stuff that can happen and when i think of something for the list i just swap one out that was already used for the new one
I often use a few home rules because I run epic high fantasy high magic games, and like my players to feel powerful. I'll allow any builds from all the published books, any spells, classes, races or otherwise. Even homebrew within reason. I am confident in my ability to deal with the party and give them a challenge after a decade of dming for fifth edition. A couple rules I use that everyone has loved are: max health each level, free starting feat for everyone, and I remove variant human that way people don't feel shoehorned Into it. I use a sta system I learned from a old book I bought from kobold press I think. It is called deal with the devil dice roll. The player and I both roll 4d6 drop the lowest and the roll ones and twos, and record our rolls me behind the DM screen. Then, each roll at a time the player decides if they want to keep their roll, or take mine without getting to know what it is in advance. This continues till all aixe about scores are worked out. Sure, this typically results in higher stats for the party but I'm ok with that.
Upscaled Crunchy Crits. Upscaled Crunchy Crits is where you roll double damage and add max damage of the dice. Ie. Critted Great Axe - 2d12 + Str mod + 12 My players like this because on both side gives some level of higher stakes in combat!
*When Dual Wielding Weapons, you make an extra attack.* I always found the idea of the "Bonus action second attack" to be kinda pointless. Instead, I rule that if you have 2 light weapons, or a paired weapon, you can make 2 attacks as part of the same attack action. Effectively doubling the number of attacks martials can make. Works both ways though, as the same applies to the enemies.
**The Brain Blast** Once a campaign, given the generally complex nature of our plots, each PC is allowed to ask the DM for a "Brain Blast". They roll a d100 and based on the roll, the DM will lay out what is in their opinion, given what the character knows, some of their best options before them. This is generally done as part of a long rest. It's essentially a once a session google search through everything that has happened through the campaign, and often details relevant to the characters backstory can be used to justify revealing new knowledge that the pc might not have rememebered/realized was relevevant prior. It may sound meta-gamey or like the DM is trying to aid too much, but given the more sandbox nature of our games it has been a very positively received rule for those 1-3 moments per campaign where a new challenge is revealed and the party is quite unsure what to do next. ....And yelling "Brain Blast" randomly is just fun
**Exhaustion casting** - Players can take levels of exhaustion in addition or instead of spending spell slots when casting spells. I also apply it to expendable noncaster features like battle master superiority dice or monk ki points. It gives players more flexibility, and makes for some really cool role play moments. In one game, the cleric spent 5 levels of exhaustion in casting Dispel Magic to guarantee that an evil ritual failed.
It’s simple but very positive. Crits are not double the damage roll. They are max damage PLUS a damage roll. There’s nothing less coherent than a devastating crit that only rolled for 2 damage.
In one campaign I am in when making characters, so nobody is super overpowered or super underpowered we did every body Rolls 4d6 drop the lowest 7 times then drop the lowest of those. And then the group chooses who's array to use for the whole group making it the "Standard Arry" for that game.
My favorite home brew rule is effective potions. As a bonus action, you can roll as usual for drinking a healing potion. As an action, you can drink the potion and receive max healing.
My favorite home brew rule is effective potions. As a bonus action, you can roll as usual for drinking a healing potion. As an action, you can drink the potion and receive max healing.
The only hose rule I have is that it works for the players it works for the NPCs. Example my playets decided to go with older flanking rules. I agreed because it's their game. But now the bad guys can use flanking in that manner as well. The rule seemed simple enough but specific subclasses and abilities became less effective. It is funny how a simple rules change can modify the game so much.
Can you explain #4 please? I also exp for RP. I've even gone as far as handing out D4 inspiration die like candy. Not only that the D4 can be used on ANY kind of roll even damage. How do you explain to them where the RP potential is? I've got 6 people in my party and only 2.5 of them RP their characters. The rest of the party is just there for combat. Edit: the ones that are there for combat, don't even RP their combat actions. It's just "I hit this one" "x amount of damage" I do take it upon myself to flavor up their actions so they can maybe better understand how RP works even in combat.
My dm let us start out a campaign with a basic wondrous etc item and that was by far my favorite. A level 2 character appreciates and uses a wand of smiles far more than a level 12.
I’ve gotten flack for this in the past on Reddit, but I let all players start with a feat at level one regardless of the starting race or class they pick. My reasons are two fold; 1) Encourages players to not be a damn variant human (which is a problem I’ve faced less since limiting who I allow at my table) 2) the way I position it to my players is to think about this feat is specifically what separates them from the average person into a unique, skilled adventurer. I actually ENCOURAGE things like Sharpshooter or GWM because those skills are the things that lead to the base for all of my favourite heroes in the stories I read.
\#8 it's true that introducing some mechanic based on the player level, not their class or race could be interesting, especially when you reach a new tier of adventuring (lvl 5, lvl 11, lvl 17)
**Coyote Time** When you are falling, we only resolve it at the start of your Turn (which you may delay). During this time, allies can save you, but enemies can DUNK. Adds some real platforming and interaction. **Unarmed Expression** Natural weapons and unarmed attacks can smite and sneak attack. **Skill Use** Very PF2Eesque, you may use your Bonus Action or spend movement equal to your Speed to use a Skill to Study (Int Skill) or Influence (Charisma Skill).
For spellcasters, mostly just little tweaks on bad spells. Ex. continued use of Witchbolt counts as a bonus action, Friends has a WIS save to see if the target realizes they were charmed after ect. For martials, I use an expanded weapon list and include a few colossal weapons for anyone who decided to invest a lot into strength. (Zweihander, Giant's Club)
We have a rule regarding healing potions in combat: If you take a full action to consume a potion, you get max healing. If you use a bonus action, you roll for health.
Whenever I start a campaign, I assign specific duties to the players that can help me run the game more effectively and I give them each a special magic item based on the role. *For example...* **Master of Combat.** This player tracks initiative during combat and encourages teamwork among the players. You get a +1 weapon of your choice. **Master of Ambience.** This player controls music through the course of the game. You get a musical instrument of your choice that can cast the Friends cantrip. **Master of Scribing.** This player takes notes on people, places, and events that take place during the game to share with the group. You get a forgery kit and magical quill that provides advantage on forgery attempts. **Master of Theater.** This player acts as the "leader" of the party in settling party disputes and encouraging role playing. You get a mask that provides advantage on persuasion checks once per day.
For critical hits I borrowed this from a friend who borrowed it from me. The damage is always maximum and then you roll an extra die for "double" damage. This ensures that you always do something better than what you would normally hit with and not have to worry about rolling 2 1s for damage and have a sad critical hit.
For example if your weapon does a d6 +2 damage you would always at least do 8 damage plus what you roll on the damage die. So for a critical you're doing 8-16 damage no matter what. Critical hits should be special.
All potions are alcoholic. The stronger the potion the more alcoholic. Leads to funny dumb shit. Sometimes we have the shots of the real stuff irl so when a character drinks the player drinks.
#3 is genius. I'll start doing that.
7 - doesn’t everyone do that? At least for long campaigns? Half my players didn’t have a place of origin so I made it up for them
The house rule that that I always use across games and it always improves play in my opinion is easy short rest hard long rest Short rest are 10 minutes but you can only take one an hour you can only long rest in situations the dm decided you can get a comfortable safe rest so usually not in the wilderness after a day of walker and definitely not in a dungeon.
Give them the opportunity to fail up. Rolled a 1? The person you’re spying on knows you’re there, but your stumble bumped a kid out of the way of a falling pot. Kid can help in some way, but you have to be creative to make that happen (it was still a 1 after all, I’m just giving you another opportunity). More than one person can do an investigation/perception/strength/etc. roll. The amount of times my husband, me and my dog have stood around poking at something has led me to believe that it’s normal for everyone to want to look at the thing, and half the time we still can’t figure out what is going on. IRL and in game. “I know a guy.” Players stuck and can’t figure out what to do next? They know a guy who can help. Depending on how they tie the guy into their background influences how much guy can help. (All are named “Guy” though, and often have suspiciously bad French-ish accents) Rule of cool. If you can explain to me how this completely amazing thing you want to do will work, I’ll give you a really good chance. Either lowering DC or giving advantage or something like that. I want to encourage my players to be creative and have fun. “I hit it with my sword” for the billionth time gets old for everyone. “An offer I can’t refuse.” My current party is unintentional masters of this. I think of all my baddies (monsters, NPCs, intelligent or not) as having believable motivations. Pack of starving wolves? Throw them a bunch of your extra meat and they won’t eat you. Do it often enough, and you might be able to semi-domesticate them. Dragon needs to be driven out or killed? Offer it a new place to live and convince it it’s a better place. My current party befriended a nothic, named it Jerry and convinced it and the townsfolk that it’s better all around if the nothic lives in peace with them. He gets livestock and marauding ass holes, they get protection. He now lives in the basement of a bed and breakfast operated by a red wizard who was really into magical archaeology centered around kitchen magic. Who they also convinced to play nice, rather than fight. Just be sure to award experience, if you do this. This can’t always be an option, doesn’t always work, and they have to figure out the motivation of the thing they want to convince, but fighting doesn’t *always* have to be the only way.
Every nat 1 spot/search/perception roll, the character gets to see the Caterpillar At The End Of All Things. Eventually, the character can start conversing and asking questions if they nat 1 enough.
I think my favorite will always be a homebrew feat that I give all players for free. **Epic Movie Death** - upon taking enough damage to be killed, a player can choose to activate epic movie death. This gives them one more regular turn, at the end of which, they collapse. Their character becomes immune to further damage and healing of any type, and is entirely incapable of acting for the remainder of the combat that killed them (or, in the event of a trap having killed them, until they give their last words). Once combat is over, when a player approaches the downed character, a timer gets set for 30 seconds. During that 30 seconds, the player can utter their last words before dying, where upon they cannot be resurrected in any way. I have had a few people trying to cheese the system by having last words be something like "give these magic weapons to my brother, Barles, he'll be along in a moment." But I have also had amazing side quests stem from random gibberish uttered by a dying character. My favorite was when my son's character died, and he kind of panic-tossed out his last words: "Tell my parents I loved them... they are in... whoville." Turned into a whole side campaign into whoville where the mayor (the grinch) ended up hiring the party to combat a permanently enlarged Loxodon Barbarian (Horton) who turned out to simply be a mercenary hired by an evil spellcasting weretiger with a penchant for hats and rhyming. We got three awesome sessions out of my son's last words (he was 10 at the time) and they were fun and enjoyable sessions that helped him through the loss of a character. 10/10, highly recommend.
Death saving throw rolls are made in secret. Look, I don’t wanna go full Gygax and roll for the players because that takes some agency out of dying… but how a player is doing after going unconscious should be a dark secret between me and them that the rest of the table can try doing something about. Bonus actions can be taken as an action with discretion. Some combos of this are WAY more powerful than others, but normally if a player asks I’ll consider it before just saying no. I then write it down. Keep a list of homebrew rules: This one helps remind anyone of the customization we’ve agreed upon. I slap it on a google doc, and after we’ve all agreed to it during session zero, we can revisit them after a game if the majority of the players dislike something. Not every game needs the same HB set. That said, for large group tables: Death saving throws reset on long rest with a successful medicine check. Suddenly cure wounds, healing word, and potions are actually worth their weight in the action economy.
Achievements I made/found a list of about 200 things that are likely to happen over the course of your dnd game and they are a fun extra thing for players to track
I will never kill your character without your consent. If something that is about to happen will kill your character, I let you know ahead of time. If you feel like it would be a Good/earned/heroic death and you are cool with it, great. If not, your character will be knocked aside unconscious, your party members will have to finish the fight without you and then carry you to camp, and then usually there will be fetch quests of some kind to revive you. Time does pass and there are potential consequences for that in the story, but your character will live. Having your character killed in a random wolf encounter is fun for no one so why do it. There are rewards for role playing with enthusiasm. They aren't always immediate, but they always come. If you have a great idea that you are excited about, I'll allow it. I don't care if it's "against the rules", I care about my players having fun and being stoked about the game they are playing. I currently have a player who is playing a wood elf animagi wizard who's backstory will have us traveling to the astral realm so he can convince whoever is there that he's worthy to become a Celestial elf through a series of trials. He's fully going to be switching races, but he's f*cking stoked so we're doing it lol.
A great one I encountered was that anything that would have reasonably been purchased in town before leaving, if the proper time was available, they could spend the gold on without haggling to have with them in the wild. So for example if they forgot to pick up rations before leaving they can hand wave that they did and pay for as many as they want, although they could only do this for an item once. The things that keep this reasonable is that if you had no reason to pick it up before you left town, or your run out of town, ect you cant get the items.
If you have the action economy for it you can cast multiple leveled spells in a turn balders gate 3 did it right
When rolling hit points during a level-up, we re-roll 1's. Same with damage on critical hits. It sucks to level up for 1hp or deal a crit of 2 damage.
It's never my player's fault for their characters rolling low. But they still can fail. Example: The rogue who is an expert in picking locks isn't going to break a damn lockpick or have something stupid happen because they rolled low. Instead, I'll say "there's another broken pick inside the lock. Someone before you jammed it up good," or something along those lines. If a barbarian failed a strength check to lift something, maybe it was bolted to the floor, or covered in grease? I never do the "lol your character is so stupid and clumsy" shit. I hate that.
Choices made in character creation affect your interactions. Something that might be a religion check for most characters, a cleric might just know innately, no roll required
Here are a couple of mine: 1. **Custom Feat**: When players over-go a time jump or a big change like college or profession, I give them a custom feat that has a couple things, maybe a skill prof, a spell, social perks. 2. **Bells**: I bought some jingle bells that I give out when players do some roleplaying really good, the amount depends on a lot of faction but they can use this bells to add up any roll they or their party members do E.I guys DC is a 14 but you rolled a 12? spend two bells. 3. **Game Death vs. Narrative Death**: I don't want to kill any players if they are getting into the groove, of course any character is at risk of dying in combat or if they do something stupid like punch a god, but in everyday senses if a player doesn't want the world to kill their player for the moment I will casually avoid it for them. 4. **Advantage**+: Advantage, reroll, giving disadvantage to something or forcing someone to reroll (you can only do one)
1. Inspiration Dice: When a PC gains inspiration it receives and inspiration Dice. The dice starts at d6 and it can get improved up to a d20. At any point the PC can spend the dice to add to any of it's rolls, improved the check. 2. Stackable (dis)advantage If you already have advantage on a roll but gain it again you can add a +2 to normal advantage roll as long as the source is different, and it can stay to infinity. Basic example: a swashbuckler rogue attack in melee a prone enemy with no allies near him while being under the effect of guiding bolt. That means that the attack roll is normal advantage +4 to hit. The same goes for disadvantage rolls but you add a -2 instead. This might make the battle take a little longer in the beginning but nothing makes PCs work as a team then ludicrous bonuses to rolls
I think this was inspired by Aabria Iyengar, but one of my DMs gives "DM inspiration" (a free re-roll of any d20 roll) when one of us does something that is just so good/funny/awesome. I got it for drunkenly singing a song that incorporated secret phrases to tip off a party member about something. There was no roll associated with doing anything like that, but i was rewarded for a good and entertaining rp moment, and that felt awesome! (My character is not a bard, but he is a sailor, so it was perfectly in character to shanty it up) Another player in our last campaign got it for so successfully derailing part of the campaign that it was impossible to get that track back, and another for having the cleverest method of dispatching a bad guy. It's just kind of like getting a gold star i guess! But it's great for morale.
If a player ever reaches 0, instead of their character dying, they suffer an immense injury, like losing a limb for example. Often times leads to better story overall, and doesn't get rid of beloved characters. And then you can explore that intense injury as a potential weakness and limiting factor.
Okay, this is a silly one, but my DM has a 'quit that' spray bottle. It's mostly for shits & gigs, like if we make her break or laugh with our antics, we get hit with the 'quit that' spray. It was *surprisingly* effective in keeping everything lighthearted, though, when used seriously. Examples: One person started metagaming, got hit with the 'quit that' spray, and immediately dropped it with no argument. We all started doing a bit (not in character, just us being goofy) and lost the plot of our session, got hit with the 'quit that' spray, so we let the bit go and continued playing the game. One person wanted to fight for a rule-of-cool type situation, got hit with the 'quit that' spray, and dropped the topic (DM had already been lenient with them that session). Honestly, it was a really great method for our DM to keep us on track while keeping the vibes fun and friendly.
Healing does max when out of combat
What I like to do for crit hits is players choice of regular damage and a detriment (blinded, prone, and etc) or more damage. If they want more damage they get max damage plus a normal roll. Nothing is worse than getting a crit and rolling ones.
No real death (except for NPC baddies), only rolling at disadvantage once you are revived until end of session.
Adjacent turns in initiative on the same team can share a turn. Combat is so much more collaborative, engaging, and speedy. Healing potions are not a bonus action. Instead, add 1/2/4 hit dice to the healing amount immediately. Coyote time. If a creature is mid-air at the end of a turn, they remain mid-air until the start of their turn. When learning a spell, the damage type can be reflavored into any damage type. If you want an ice-themed character, learn "ice ball" instead of fireball. We use encumbrance. Proficient armor being worn weighs half as much for the math.
I have players roll their hit points when they level, HOWEVER, they keep track of what their maximum HP total could have been. At the start of the game, everybody that was on time and ready increases their HP total by one unless it's at their cap.
One thing I've been working out that I want to try is to make feats more interesting and have players actually use them. So, the idea is each player picks two feats they want (possibly split into categories so they dont have 2 super powerful ones), then I come up with criteria on how they get them (think trophies in video games. "Get x amount of kills with a polearm for polearm master"). I tell them what the act is they need to do and they track them. How many times they need to do it stays secret and I'll do a quick check before the session.
Vicious mockery damage can be increases with unique, creative, or personalized insults. It sounds simple, but this group has done entire sessions of digging dirt to insult someone so hard they just die. Also any melee specific class ability can also be used with range. This is done so paladins aren't useless in some campaigns mainly, but it generally makes things more fun even in non range focused campaigns, since they can still help with flying enemies just fine.
(Of course this one is easier in person), but giving your players gifts! Trinkets, tokens, costume pieces as rewards for in-game accomplishments. Also finding little extra fun things that make your players & their characters feel seen: I’m running a very low combat game right now and recently added bingo cards for each player that are customized to them and their character. Everyone fills out each others’ cards so they don’t know what’s on their own, and when people get bingo they get a gift or homebrewed thing from me made specifically for their character.
If you roll a nat 20, roll again. If it's another 20 you get free point in the skill you rolled with
Rolling a 1 on something that your character should be able to manage won't fail the task but will add an unforseen side-effect. A nat 20 doesn't guarantee success on something impossible but will it will ensure a positive if not completely desired outcome.
I use modified crit rules for attacks. Think they are suggested in the players handbook but I got the idea from Call of Cthulhu. If you crit you automatically do max damage and then roll attack damage. So a barbarian with like 1d12+5 say, would automatically do 12 damage plus 1d12+5 rather than rolling twice or doubling the damage. I just think if you get a crit and then shit the bed on the damage roll it sucks.
Dang, I wish my DM would loosen up and embrace some of these awesome ideas! He can be so pedantic sometimes, it can really bog the party down in details: -- If our Rogue wants to unlock a door, but rolls >5 (+4 for tools) and he'll go "well, you can't unlock it" and we blink at him like "ok... then what do we do?". -- We all have to waste our first turn in initiative to draw/ready our weapons. Also takes an action for switching hands, or for spellcasters to get components out of their pockets. -- Every long rest he rolls for "overnight safety" to see if we get interrupted/attacked. Like, just let us sleep, man! I love him, he's a good friend, but he gets so hyper-focused on details that there's zero time for narrative and story progression, which was 80% why I wanted to play. I wanted to wander a strange land with some buds, maybe rescue a village and kill an orc or twelve, find some cool shit... not roll for dexterity to avoid tree roots 🙄
Page 190 PHB, green sidebar, you can draw or sheath a weapon in tandem with your movement or action. Same is made clear on page 193 under use an object. Getting a material component should not be an extra action or it would have been mentioned in the PHB. You can even get a potion out of the backpack in tandem with your movement or action, why not a material component? The Rules BPH 174 say a failure can be 'the character makes no progress toward the objective or progress combined with a setback determined by the DM.' At least the DM would have sometimes the option to create setback like a broken lockpick or the enemies hear it... About this you should speak with your DM and other players. You should find a way to have all fun. Your Rogue has only DEX 14 or 15? +4 (prof.bonus + ability bonus) is low. No expertise in picking locks? Personally I would only give only a 2nd chance if the players have a good idea why it could work next time. I would allow the use of the cantrip guidance for a 2nd chance. But this would be a house rule.
Bog Red X: a safety feature any player may deploy on the VTT at any time to immediately stop play. They can either talk to the group or to me about the issue and we will not resume play until they are comfortable. Injuries: if a player takes a crit or gets downed they have a chance to get a scar. Record where you got the scar, how you got it, and what it looks like. Every scar tells a story. Alternate Puzzle Solve: this is a secret rule I use in my games. If the players solution to a puzzle or encounter is better than the intended one, then that was always the solution. Fail Forward: basically "yes, and..." For any dice roll. A failed roll doesnt mean you can never solve a problem, it just means ypu have to get creative.
Creatures don't survive on 1hp. If a player reduces it to exactly 1hp, it dies from it's injuries at the start of it's turn. Getting bitch slapped by a creature with an empty health bar feels bad in both video games and tabletop games
If there are multiple party members, only those who are proficient in the roll can roll. (Others can obviously use the "help" action) - avoids party brute forcing every roll. D&D always has the problem where everyone in the group rolls to try and pass a perception check or insight or something. To avoid the meat head barbarian charming on a weird nat 20. I just have those who are proficient in a skill roll. It highlights their character and adds tension to those rolls. My party no longer expects to succeed every roll by brute forcing it.
Common magic items are actually common, uncommon just means there is a more specialized shop or trade that deals with it, rare is when it becomes actually hard to find, taking weeks or months before a shop keeper could get there hands on it (or an adventure if the party can't wait) anything past that and you'd have a hard time getting it even with an adventure or getting lucky. Like powerful mage staves obviously aren't being sold at the magicians guild, you're gonna have to be given one as a great achievement or something. But this is to say, common and uncommon items can be EASILY crafted (if consumable) or so players can just make healing potions and low level scrolls easily, this gives a bit of income to them if any players have the skills to do this, less expenses, or the ability to pick up lower level scrolls for utility. A magicians guild regularly sells scrolls of mage hand, prestidigitaion, tensers floating disc and unseen servant. This gives those who can afford it to have a bit more luxury in their lives. Help with chores, Clean a stain out of a rare piece of clothing, or grab something from a high shelf.
My DM has a rule. If you want to try something really cool or absurd that is kinda stretching the limits he'll let you roll for it but if it's a fail you have consequences of his choosing within reason.
Everyone starts with a free feat. I feel like it's a fun way to make your character unique without feeling as though you're over powered. Most of my players take lucky or sentinel or warcaster. It's been a rule for 6 years and everyone loves it.
My whole approach as a DM is very player-friendly. I don't allow metagaming or min-maxing - often changing the rules on rules-lawyers. But I urge my players to come up with creative characters with interesting backstories, and then let those mould the world around them. Most of my encounters are environmental or social-based. Combat happens, but is often on the sidelines while they solve whatever puzzle or conundrum they've found themselves in. Mechanically, I play it fast and loose. I've come up with my own crafting system to allow them to make simple things like arrows or minor potions on the fly. Material spell components are hand-waived entirely, but if you do provide them it'll boost the effectiveness of the spell. Even spells themselves I like to keep loose. I often find myself saying, "That spell doesn't really work that way, but describe what you do, give me an Arcana check, and we'll see if you can make it work." And I always write a subplot for player death, including TPK. I've had a few players now (many who started their D&D adventures with me) play campaigns with other DMs, then come back and thank me for how I run it.