What are the house rules at your table?

[napoleon_in_rag]

I am curious what house rules different DMs have at their tables. I will give two I use:

-More than one round of combat interrupts a Long Rest.

-Casting Goodberry consumes the material component (mistletoe). Mistletoe must be reasonably fresh.

[Chronos]

No multiclassing, mostly because there's a wide gulf of optimization ability among the players, and a complication like multiclassing would probably result in even bigger differences in effectiveness. Though we do use feats.

A short rest only takes a few minutes, but it's only possible to take two short rests per day. This one came about because the DM was having a difficult time pacing adventures in such a way that allowed for hour-long short rests.

Guidance, Enhance Ability, and Haste no longer require concentration. I'm not sure what the rationale was for this one: The two guys who take turns DMing just told the rest of us one day, and nobody argued.

No more than one summoned creature at a time, to avoid slowing down play.

[MoiMagnus]

Not at my table, but at some friends table:
1) Rarer long rest (once a month, I think)
2) Nerf to any spell (and other capacities) that would prevent politics from behaving as "normal medieval politics", so mostly resurections and divinations (like zone of truth).
3) Chaotic initiative: initiative is rerolled every turn. Turn actions are anounced by everyone and then resolved (meaning that friendly fire is quite likely with AoE).
4) Additional ability: Influence (and some associated skills), which allows to earn money, win justice trials against ennemies, and defend against them... [3 additional points granted for point-buy creation]
5) Counterspell is banned (which is the only change I really disagree with)

Multiclassing is also implicitly banned in all the tables I know, but probably negotiable without too many problems if you really want to.

[ProsecutorGodot]

Not at my table, but at some friends table:
1) Rarer long rest (once a month, I think)
2) Nerf to any spell (and other capacities) that would prevent politics from behaving as "normal medieval politics", so mostly resurections and divinations (like zone of truth).
3) Chaotic initiative: initiative is rerolled every turn. Turn actions are anounced by everyone and then resolved (meaning that friendly fire is quite likely with AoE).
4) Additional ability: Influence (and some associated skills), which allows to earn money, win justice trials against ennemies, and defend against them... [3 additional points granted for point-buy creation]
5) Counterspell is banned (which is the only change I really disagree with)

Multiclassing is also implicitly banned in all the tables I know, but probably negotiable without too many problems if you really want to.

That game sounds pretty hardcore, especially compared to the houserules at my table:
-Free level 1 feat, yes, even to VHuman
-Passive scores recieve a modifier of -5 when determining a floor for infrequent activities, such as trap detection. It made sense at the time, but now that dungeon delving has become our literal job in game I'm a bit confused why it's still there.
-You can ask to have the damage type changed to personalize most spells (Lightning Lure changed to Radiant Pull, for example). This will usually result in a lower damage die for the spell however.
-Feats can be trained if you've acquired enough favor with an NPC skilled in areas that would apply to the feat, for example, we had earned a favor with Lady Rosznar (The Black Viper) and she trained our Monk to use the Observant feat.

You probably have noticed but we like feats. DM does a pretty solid job at maintaining the idea that we are mortal despite the fact that most of the characters have at least 3 feats currrently, at level 12.

[napoleon_in_rag]

No multiclassing, mostly because there's a wide gulf of optimization ability among the players, and a complication like multiclassing would probably result in even bigger differences in effectiveness.

I thought of banning multi-classing but I decided against it because all my 5e campaigns have started at Level 1. A real cost-benefit analysis is required when choosing between a 5x PC or a 4x/1y PC because the cool class benefits don't usually happen until Level 2 or 3. One thing I like about 5e is that each level increase gets you something cool beyond more hp (class ability, spell level, ASI, extra attack, etc) and this is usually worth more than what a level 1 in a class has to offer. So 5x is usually better than 4y.

At my table, it usually takes 2-3 sessions to gain a level. So a 4x/1y character has to wait to get the benefits at 2y. I also use point buy for ability scores so multi-classing often means using up an ASI.

I think I might ban multiclassing if the we were starting at a higher level. Not sure though. It would depend on the players and the campaign.

[TyGuy]

Potion side effects for repeat healing potion chugging. An increasing con save DC for every healing potion chugged, after the first, before a night's rest. (We also used gritty realism so that's a short rest).

If the DC was met, the healing potion worked as normal. If the DC was exceeded by a lot the healing potion healed at 1.5x. Nat 20 was 2x, nat 1 was zero healing. Failed save was .5x healing, and failed save by a lot was .25x healing.

Come to think of it, it may have been a con check instead of save. It was for sure con though.

[Yora]

General:
- Encumbrance changes to a number of items equal to the characters STR x1, x2, and x3 instead of an amount of pounds equal to STR x5, x10, and x15. (Objects under 1 pound weigh nothing, object over 10 pounds count as two items or more.)
- Spells and effect durations of 1 minute last until the end of the encounter.
- Group Initiative.
- Only 10% of XP for defeating enemies, additional full milestone XP for completing goals and finding magic items.
- Every time you make a death saving throw, you get one level of exhaustion, whether you succeed or fail.
- Random encounter rolls every 10 minutes in dungeons and when the party makes loud noises; every 6 miles and once per night outdoors. Encounter on a 1, how busy the area is determines what size of dice is being rolled.
- Using Morale
- Randomly encountered creatures and NPCs that aren't guards react randomly to the PCs. 2d6: 2 attack, 3-5 threatening, 6-8 guarded, 9-11 indifferent, 12 friendly.
(I really like the procedures of B/X.)

Campaign Specific:
- Maximum level 6th.
- Only Totem Warrior Barbarian, Champion Fighter, Arctic/Coast/Forest/Mountain/Swamp Druid, Thief Rogue, Archfey/Fiend/Old One Warlock, Diviner/Enchanter/Illusionist/Transmuter Wizard, and Lore Bard with Cleric spell list.
- Rogues can start with proficency in Survival.
- No light spells except dancing lights and faerie fire.
- Level up only on the start of a new year and only one level per year.
- Not tested, but I really want to try it: 8 hour short rest, 8 day long rest. All spellcasters recover some spell slots with Arcane Recovery/Natural Recovery at every short rest.

[ImproperJustice]

A few of ours:

If you are a Cleric, Eldritch Knight, Spellsword, Ranger, whatever, you have figured out how to cast spells with weapons and shields in your hand.

Our GM likes the option for flanking and being flanked.

Animal companions or steeds that you invest a certain amount of time, money, and initiative into can gain hit points and improve over time as an NPC companion.

Bonus Actions can be taken at any point in a turn, and a bonus action can be used as an action.
Example: A Shadow Monk / Cleric could cast Spiritual Weapon and Shadow Teleport in the same round, even though these are two bonus actions, and not allowed by RAW.
Rationale: an action is an action, and bonus actions are just quick and easy to perform.
Spell Limitations still apply.

Magic weapons with a +bonus grant you a bonus equal to your proficiency bonus rounded down.
They draw their energy from yourself.

[stoutstien]

I have a ton but the few that tend to be at every table:
No one hand ba attack with PaM
No static ablity increasing magic items
No alignments
Variant ablity/skill rule is always an option
Summoning picks are up to players just no pixie crap.
Just about every npc has some form of resistance/ vulnerable added.
Players can veto a character death if deemed unfair
Prodigy feat is open to all races
NPCs cannot make a critical hit on 1-2 lv characters.
homebrew is allowed after review and table approval.
Inspiration is given with any good pun made.(add 1d4 to any roll made same session)

[stoutstien]

A few of ours:

If you are a Cleric, Eldritch Knight, Spellsword, Ranger, whatever, you have figured out how to cast spells with weapons and shields in your hand.

Our GM likes the option for flanking and being flanked.

Animal companions or steeds that you invest a certain amount of time, money, and initiative into can gain hit points and improve over time as an NPC companion.

Bonus Actions can be taken at any point in a turn, and a bonus action can be used as an action.
Example: A Shadow Monk / Cleric could cast Spiritual Weapon and Shadow Teleport in the same round, even though these are two bonus actions, and not allowed by RAW.
Rationale: an action is an action, and bonus actions are just quick and easy to perform.
Spell Limitations still apply.

Magic weapons with a +bonus grant you a bonus equal to your proficiency bonus rounded down.
They draw their energy from yourself.
On the ba as action idea
Could a cleric activate spiritual weapon twice a turn then? How does this effect spell casting rules regarding no spell above cantrip after using ba spell?

[J-H]

The FLGS has two common house rules, both of which I disagree with.
#1 Critical failures on a 1 when rolling attacks
#2 Flanking gives advantage

Due to #1, all the characters I build to play there will be halflings. The reroll on 1s is like an extra +.25 to +.75 on all rolls over time (depending on what AC/DC I'm up against), and the ability to avoid the 5% bad stuff chance is excellent. I would say especially so for any higher level characters who make multiple attack rolls (Action surging fighter 20 has a 40% chance to drop his sword, stab himself, etc.).

[mephnick]

The FLGS has two common house rules, both of which I disagree with.
#1 Critical failures on a 1 when rolling attacks
#2 Flanking gives advantage


Have you told your FLGS that they are bad and should feel bad?

[Chronos]

Quoth napoleon_in_rag:

I thought of banning multi-classing but I decided against it because all my 5e campaigns have started at Level 1. A real cost-benefit analysis is required when choosing between a 5x PC or a 4x/1y PC because the cool class benefits don't usually happen until Level 2 or 3. One thing I like about 5e is that each level increase gets you something cool beyond more hp (class ability, spell level, ASI, extra attack, etc) and this is usually worth more than what a level 1 in a class has to offer. So 5x is usually better than 4y.
But that's just it: Good optimizers can recognize when the stuff they get by staying in a class is worth more than the first level of a new class, or when one or two more levels will make a new class worthwhile in the long run. But some of the players in my group would, if allowed, pick up a different class at some random level just because they liked the flavor, and end up with something that doesn't work well at all.

[MoiMagnus]

That game sounds pretty hardcore

I think they started at level 4.
And the campaign has a LOT of non-combat plot, so those homerules rules have for goal to push players finding other ways than fighting (for example, making false accusations and put your ennemies in prison, or come with the guard, ...)
The one long rest per month isn't hardcore because the average number of fight per month is lesser than 5.

[stoutstien]

But that's just it: Good optimizers can recognize when the stuff they get by staying in a class is worth more than the first level of a new class, or when one or two more levels will make a new class worthwhile in the long run. But some of the players in my group would, if allowed, pick up a different class at some random level just because they liked the flavor, and end up with something that doesn't work well at all.
I don't the problem is multi-classing itself but rather some classes being so front loaded that 1-2 lv net a huge boost. That combined with the fact that over 1/2 the classes' cap stones are garbage.

[Lunali]

Thrown weapons can be drawn as part of the throw
Can cast bonus action cantrip on same turn as action leveled spell and can use reaction spells on same turn as bonus action spell
Nat 1 on attack rolls have a 1/20 chance of fumbling for a variety of effects
Reroll 1s on HP for level up and on healing effects that don't use d4s

[napoleon_in_rag]

The FLGS has two common house rules, both of which I disagree with.
#1 Critical failures on a 1 when rolling attacks
#2 Flanking gives advantage

Due to #1, all the characters I build to play there will be halflings. The reroll on 1s is like an extra +.25 to +.75 on all rolls over time (depending on what AC/DC I'm up against), and the ability to avoid the 5% bad stuff chance is excellent. I would say especially so for any higher level characters who make multiple attack rolls (Action surging fighter 20 has a 40% chance to drop his sword, stab himself, etc.).

How does the DM determine what a critical failure is. Do they have a table or is it based on a whim?

[J-H]

He has a big table, I think d100-based. I'm told there's a different one for critical misses with spells also.

[ImproperJustice]

On the ba as action idea
Could a cleric activate spiritual weapon twice a turn then? How does this effect spell casting rules regarding no spell above cantrip after using ba spell?

You are still limited to one spell a turn, per the normal rules. You could cast spiritual weapon as a bonus action, then only use a cantrip.


You could cast it, and on following turns attack twice with it, if you use your action and bonus action to do so.

[Malifice]

1: Two short rest per long rest limitation, but they're only a few minutes long (quick breather).
2: Everyone gets a feat at 1st level. Vumans arent used, but Humans get a bonus skill
3: Costly material components are always consumed by spell casting.
4: Natural 1 always fails a save. Natural 20 always passes.
5: Players can nominate each other for inspiration, in addition to the DM awarding it. Any good roleplaying gets it, as does a funny joke, or one liner.
6: Rogues can only sneak attack 1/ turn, on their turn.
7: Witchbolts d12 scales with level on repeating damage. On a hit, it forces a Strength save or be restrained (you repeat the save at the start of each of your turns to break free).
8: Magic missile shenanigans (empowered evocation/ hexblades curse) dont work on more than one missile
9: Martial adept gives 2 dice.
10: Warlocks can use Arcanum 'slots' to upcast Warlock spells known.
11: Healing spirit is banned
12: You cant cast a spell with the extra action granted from Action surge.
13: Barbarians get 1 less rage/ long rest, but gain a Fighting style (Protection, Dueling, TWF, GWS) at 2nd. 1st Frenzy of the day doesnt cost exhaustion for Frenzy Barbs.
14: Stunning fist is 1/ turn and costs 2 Ki. Increase monk MA damage dice by 1 step (1d10 becomes 2d6, increases to 2d8 at 20th)
15: +/- Magic shields and Armor dont stack. +/- Magic Bows only grant bonus to hit; arrows only to damage. Anything that buffs Save DCs or Spell attack rolls doesnt stack.
16: Archery F/S grants 1 free shot as a reaction to a hostile creature you can see starting its turn. No +2 to hit.
17: Sharpshooter treats full cover as half cover and ignores half cover.
18: Superior athlete grants Champions Prof x 1.5 to Str, Dex and Con checks. Survivor adds 1/2 prof to all saves (in addition to its normal benefits).
19: You're dead if damage reduces you to 0 HP, and there is more than (the higher of 10 OR your Max HP x 1/4) left over.
20: Weapon specialization feat: Req: Fighter 6, adds Gain +1 to hit, gain +2 damage with the weapon. Advantage on checks/ saves to be disarmed. Doesnt use your free object interaction to draw/ stow the weapon. Can re-train the weapon selected with downtime.
21: Warrior Born feat: Add +1 to Strength or Dex (Max 20). Gain 1 fighting style from those available to fighters.
22: Channeler feat: You may take a level of Exhaustion to regain an expended spell slot of up to 5th level. You cant use this feat if you have 4 or more levels of Exhaustion already, or are immune to exhaustion.
23: Artificer feat: You gain an extra attunement slot. You learn the Detect magic and Identify spells and can cast either spell as rituals.
24: Medium armor master grants +1 to Str or Dex in addition to its other benefits.
25: Charger feat bonus damage increases to (5+level). If you hit with this attack, a creature that no more than 1 size larger than you must make a Strength save (DC 8+your proficiency+your Strength) or be knocked prone or pushed back 10' (your choice).
26: Observant feat lets you use your Passive Perception or Investigation score instead of rolling a Perception or Investigation check instead of the last benefit (no +5 to passive scores).
27: Simulacra can never have slots higher than 3rd level.
28: Concentration spells cant be cast in Glyphs of Warding.
29: Evilly aligned Paladins and Clerics (and N Paladins and Clerics of Evil gods) deal necrotic damage instead of radiant damage with any class feature or spell that ordinarily deals radiant damage.
30: Reliable talent (Rogue) works on a roll of 2-9.
31: Archdruid grants resistance to Cold, Fire, Acid, Thunder and Lightning damage, and lets you Plane shift (elemental planes only) 1/long rest, targeting only you. No infinite wild shapes.
32: Add Aid, Haste and mirror image to the Bard spell list. Remove the Magical secrets class feature everywhere other than at Lore Bard 6, and replace it with 'Greater inspiration' As a bonus action you can expend one of your bardic inspiration die, and grant a number of creatures that can see or hear you (up to your Charisma modifier) a bardic inspiration die. This die is 2 steps lower than your normal die (d12>d10>d8>d6>d4). At 18th level, it is only 1 step lower.
33: Paladin smite is 1/ turn. +5/-10 feats are 1/turn.

Otherwise, all PHB variant rules are in play (multiclassing, encumbrance, feats etc).

Prett sure thats all of them at the moment.

[Wryte]

Off the top of my head:

Dragonborn get the Dragon Hide racial feat from Xanathar's, minus the ASI, as part of their base racial traits.

Small races are no longer disadvantaged by Heavy Weapons. Instead, Heavy Weapons have minimum Strength requirements to wield without disadvantage, as follows: 1d8 = STR 11, 1d10 = STR 13, 1d2/2d6 = STR 15.

Greatclubs are Heavy weapons with a 1d10 damage die.

All non-Heavy melee weapons can be used with Finesse. All non-Two-Handed melee weapons are Versatile.

Critical failures with a melee attack grant an opportunity attack to anyone standing in melee reach of the creature. Critical failures with ranged weapon attack snap the bow/crossbow string, requiring a bonus action (or expending an Extra Attack if the creature has one) to replace it.

[Malifice]

Forgot to add:

34: Rangers gain an extra Ranger class skill (of choice) at 6th (or expertise if they already know it) and again at 13th level, gain the Eagle eye class feature at 9th (can take the Search action as a bonus action), and gain extra attack [2] at 18th level. At 20th level, Foe Slayer grants advantage to attack rolls against favored enemies instead of its normal benefit.
35: Greatclubs are 1d10 (2 handed, simple, heavy).
36: 'Monk weapons' are 1d6 (versatile 1d8). Your choice of Slashing, Bludgeoning or Piercing. Fluff them accordingly.

Also, for those of you that insist on 'critical fumbles' please (PLEASE) have them only trigger on the first attack roll from a creature during a turn.

Otherwise Fighters get more clumsy as they advance in level. Monks also.

[Malifice]

- Every time you make a death saving throw, you get one level of exhaustion, whether you succeed or fail.

I see this one a lot (single level of exhaustion only), and tried it myself.

I find it pushes the players into the 5MWD. It creates a barrier to them pushing on with the adventure. With at least 3 levels of exhaustion on account of dropping to 0 HP, Players will fall back after a single encounter (making dungeons really difficult).

I nixed the Short rest down to a few minutes (but max 2 per long rest) to remove another barrier.



Campaign Specific:
- Maximum level 6th.

Ouch! That would be a deal breaker for me I reckon.

Why that limit may I ask?

[Particle_Man]

My biggest is divorcing short and long rests from, well, resting time. Rather, it is tied directly to encounters. Players get the benefits of a long rest after encounter number six and the mechanical benefits of a short rest after encounters two and four. Take that, 15 minute adventuring day! :smallbiggrin:

But I also give back inspiration after every encounter, allow hero points and “count near successes as successes with drawbacks” from the dmg, and allow inspiration to be used retroactively.

On the third hand, I use the array for stats, average hp for hp beyond first level, no multi classes and no feats. Class plus background determines starting equipment.

My players are cool with all this so far.

[Jinxed_K]

My group plays via chat online, so there is heavier focus on role play.
- Counterspell needs to be described by the caster on how it counters the target spell
- Multiclass isn’t banned, but the PC must seek a ‘mentor’ rather than just learning the new class at level up

And other misc stuff
- Levels are a partywide level. Makes missing a session not as painful and new players don’t start out lower than the older PCs if one is added mid-game.
- Everyone has the charger feat for free
- Eldrich Knight and Arcane Trickster can learn spells from any school

[Lord Vukodlak]

Winning initiative does not foil surprise. You can still take a reaction after you’re turn has passed. But the surprised condition lasts until the end of the round.

Edit:This is a house rule as some people seem to think I’m posting Otherwise in this topic.

[Misterwhisper]

1 PAM and CBE lose bonus action attack but gain a + 1 to stro or dex.

Max hp each level no roll.

Casting invisibility gives you a bonus action skill check to hide and advantage on hide checks.

[Malifice]

Winning initiative does not foil surprise. You can still take a reaction after you’re turn has passed. But the surprised condition lasts until the end of the round.

No it doesnt.

There is no surprised condition. If you're surprised you cant act or move on your first turn and you cant take reactions till your turn ends.

If Im surprised on round one, and I beat the initiative check of a nearby assassin by 1 or more, he doesnt get to assasinate me (and I get to take an appropriate reaction to his attack if I have one, such as shield).

[MoiMagnus]

Ouch! That would be a deal breaker for me I reckon.

Why that limit may I ask?

I've never played with it, but from what I understand, the point is mainly to build a world were characters and magic beyond level 6 (or level 10) do not exist. So not spell beyond 3rd level (or 5th level).

Which is kind of needed if you want a fully consistent low magic universe where the PCs don't have an exception to the "low magic" rule (though full consistency is far from required to have an interesting game, it is very important to some peoples)

I've also hear of campaigns without level restriction but with fighters only. (or allowing only classes that are at most 1/3 spell-casters, like eldritch knights)

[Malifice]

I've never played with it, but from what I understand, the point is mainly to build a world were characters and magic beyond level 6 (or level 10) do not exist. So not spell beyond 3rd level (or 5th level).

Which is kind of needed if you want a fully consistent low magic universe where the PCs don't have an exception to the "low magic" rule (though full consistency is far from required to have an interesting game, it is very important to some peoples)

I've also hear of campaigns without level restriction but with fighters only. (or allowing only classes that are at most 1/3 spell-casters, like eldritch knights)

Its got me beat why (out of all the systems out there) you would choose DnD - a super high fantasy high magic game with 20 class levels - if you wanted to emulate such a setting or world.

It's kind of like selecting a Supers system, and banning all super-powers.

If I wanted to run a game where everyone is a schmuck and magic is dangerous and rare, I reckon I'd crack out WHFRP. 'Small but angry dog' and all that.

From a personal preference thing, I'd pass on it I reckon. I quite enjoy high level play, and dont get to do it enough. I've played literally hundreds of games in the 1-6 range. It's where most campaigns end. It's a selling point to me a campaign that goes to 20th (and beyond) presuming a skilled DM that can handle high level play, who has run games to those levels before and is experienced with it.

THat's just a personal preference thing. I prefer playing Achillies or Mordenkainen to an average Joe.

[Sigreid]

Powers can be used for power stunts that make sense but are not spelled out in the ability. An example would be a dragonborn using his frost breath to put out a fire.

Revised Ranger.

Party's levels are locked together. This allows for the rotating of DM status without penalty. It also applies to your new PC if your character dies or retires.

Changed the deck of many things. Entire party has to agree that cards will be drawn, how many cards and they all get the benefit/penalty associated with the card. Game/PC ending cards changed to put the characters in a challenging situation rather than removing them from the game. For example if the party is imprisoned by a powerful fiend they are in some sort of actual prison, possibly in Hell, and the new adventure is breaking out. It's THE Deck of Many Things, there's only one. Once the party has drawn, it vanishes to reappear somewhere else. This is all to make it a fun and exciting thing to use if it shows up and not be just something the party is afraid of.

Considering giving the party 1 inspiration each at the start of each session, good only for that session. Mostly because we keep forgetting about it.

[Yora]

I see this one a lot (single level of exhaustion only), and tried it myself.

I find it pushes the players into the 5MWD. It creates a barrier to them pushing on with the adventure. With at least 3 levels of exhaustion on account of dropping to 0 HP, Players will fall back after a single encounter (making dungeons really difficult).
That depends very heavily on the adventures and dungeons that make up the campaign. You certainly can't do this in a campaign where the average dungeon has 10 to 20 rooms with instantly attacking enemies. It's intended for campaigns where even big dungeons may have only 2 or 3 fights in total, and those are all optional.


Ouch! That would be a deal breaker for me I reckon.

Why that limit may I ask?


I've never played with it, but from what I understand, the point is mainly to build a world were characters and magic beyond level 6 (or level 10) do not exist. So not spell beyond 3rd level (or 5th level).

That's the general idea. In the campaigns I run, getting to 6th level would take 20 to 30 sessions of play, though in practice they rarely run anywhere near that long. The main purpose is to limit the power of magic possessed by NPCs, and removing the option to call 15th level heroes for help when the world is threatened. It has to be done by 4th to 6th level PCs because there isn't anyone more powerful than them in the world.
In case a campaign runs so long that PCs pass 6th level, they can always get an Ability Score Improvement in place of 7th and 8th level. (Really can't imagine a campaign ever running that long, though.)

[napoleon_in_rag]

- Randomly encountered creatures and NPCs that aren't guards react randomly to the PCs. 2d6: 2 attack, 3-5 threatening, 6-8 guarded, 9-11 indifferent, 12 friendly.
(I really like the procedures of B/X.)


I love the old BECMI Reaction Tables. I modified it for 5e by using 2d10 instead of 2d6 since in 5e, you can have a +5 on a stat while in BECMI the maximum bonus was +3. The new tables look like this:

2 or less Really bad
3-4 Bad
5-8 Somewhat Bad
9-13 Normal
14-17 Somewhat Good
18-19 Good
20 or more Really Good

[Theodoxus]

I've basically modified my game into "5E with 4E tendancies" (though I do keep it to 20th level and dropped Paragon and Epic paths).

But, the more 5E centric rule changes are:

1) Feats every odd level.
2) Multiclassing only with feats.
3) Return to 3.5 style surprise rounds (the disagreement in this very thread is the #1 reason I did this).
4) Spell Points for clerics and warlocks (gods/patrons can provide quantized spell power)
5) Short rests are 10 minutes, I added breathers in as well.

The 4E stuff:

1) I use Fort, Ref and Will Defenses instead of saving throws.
2) All saves are like death saves - 10 or better saves.
3) Added At-Will, Short Rest (encounter), Long Rest (Daily) and Utility "powers" to every class.
4) Added minor actions. I kept Bonus Actions as well - though a lot of bonus actions became minor actions. Bonus now specifically requires a triggering effect (martial arts, TWF, etc).
5) Incorporated 4E classes like Warlord as a new fighter archetype. Incorporated others, like Swordmage as their own fully developed class complete with archetypes and higher level abilities.
6) Incorporated 4E style movements, Slide, Push, Pull... I've found players grok the difference between using a Shift or Disengage - both getting them out of combat; but they can appreciate sacrificing all but 5' of movement to get out of a bad spot and still being able to attack.

My players really enjoy the more tactical feel of 4E style combat, but still appreciate the more streamlined social interaction and definitely like the Bounded Accuracy aspect of 5E. I'm still working on getting everything to mesh well, but every week is a new chance to work out glitches and to patch the system some more.

[Xetheral]

Here are my main variants/rulings/houserules. I also add campaign-specific rules (especially variant rests and magic item rules) to best fit the format/theme of each campaign and the details of the setting.

Character Creation
Feats allowed Free feat at 1st level UA Skill feats permitted UA Tool feats permitted Variant Human allowed Multiclassing allowed (and encouraged!) No Multiclassing Ability Score Requirements Beastmaster Ranger prohibited
Ability Checks/Dice
For situations where multiple degrees of success or failure are possible, the degree of success or failure will depend on the amount by which the check result differs from the DC (applied on an ad-hoc basis). For situations where success is certain but the degree of success is uncertain, the DM may call for an ability check to determine the degree of success. Characters have advantage on d20 rolls if the number of sources of advantage exceeds the number of sources of disadvantage. Characters have disadvantage on d20 rolls if the number of sources of disadvantage exceeds the number of sources of advantage. Abilities that let characters reroll/replace a d20 apply to the result of a roll made with advantage or disadvantage rather than the individual dice.
Perception/Stealth
No assumption that non-hidden characters are automatically detected. Instead, detection is resolved via standard 5e mechanics: DM adjudicates based on current conditions and determines whether (1) the character is automatically detected, (2) the character is automatically undetected, or (3) uncertainty exists. If there is uncertainty, the DM sets a DC and calls for an ability check (or consults a passive score). Potential observers use the sense with the greatest likelihood of detection. In unusual circumstances (e.g. Cloak of Elvenkind), the DM may need to set different DCs for different senses before determining which is the sense with the greatest likelihood of detection.
Characters can take the hide action (or remain hidden) if either (A) there is at least uncertainty as to whether or not they are detected or (B) they meet the conditions of a special ability or effect (e.g. invisibility, skulker) that permits them to hide. The difficulty to detect a hiding character is the higher of the detection DC set by the DM or the result of the character's Dexterity (Stealth) check. Characters may infer the location of characters they cannot detect and may act on that inference. Unseen attackers only get advantage to attacks against characters that they can see.
Initiative/Surprise
If only one character wants to act first, they automatically win initiative and go first. Everyone else acts in order based on their initiative rolls. Surprise can be gained by means other than stealth (e.g. deception), but always requires an ability check.
Characters with special abilities that depend on surprise may use them upon first joining an ongoing combat if the target is unaware of the character or considers them an ally or non-combatant (ability check required).
Illusions
Most illusions neither create, block, nor reflect light. Instead they magically "paint" ambient light passing through them. The "paint" is preserved though subsequent collisions with reflective or transparent materials, but destroyed by collision with other materials. This framework is used to resolve illusion-interpretation questions on an ad-hoc basis. Character using illusions need to be mindful of the location of ambient light sources. Any character that disbelieves an illusion can see both the "paint" and the original light. Personal physical interaction is required to automatically disbelieve an illusion. Spending an action to investigate an illusion requires describing a test method suitable to the particular circumstance. Characters may infer that an illusion isn't real and act upon that inference even if they don't successfully disbelieve it.
The text of specific illusions may override these rules.
Improved Weapons
Improvised weapons are either Melee or Ranged weapons when used to attack. An improvised weapon being treated as an actual weapon per the rules in the PHB uses the stats and properties of the actual weapon but is still considered an improvised weapon. Characters proficient with either the actual weapon or with improvised weapons are proficient with that improvised weapon.

[Dalebert]

Certain spells aren't concentration such as Dancing Lights, Protection from Energy, and Barkskin.

If you roll a natural one, you can choose to have a critical failure. Describe the bad thing that happens and if I deem it worthy, you'll get inspiration.

Simulacrums can regain their spell slots but the only slots they have are ones you have personally given up for them, which can't grant them slots the original doesn't have, e.g. you make a sim of a 5th level ceric. you can't give that cleric a 4th level slot. When the simulacrum dies, you get those slots back. You can choose to recover them early and the sim then loses them.

Beasts of beastmaster rangers can act without the ranger giving up anything.

Sorcerers get 5 extra spells related to their archetype, one each of levels 1-5 sort of like domain spells.

[Lord Vukodlak]

No it doesnt.

There is no surprised condition. If you're surprised you cant act or move on your first turn and you cant take reactions till your turn ends.

If Im surprised on round one, and I beat the initiative check of a nearby assassin by 1 or more, he doesnt get to assasinate me (and I get to take an appropriate reaction to his attack if I have one, such as shield).
I’m sorry, I guess I posted in this in the wrong topic. I thought this was about “house rules” and not RAW:smallwink:

[zinycor]

Dragonborns get Darkvision and use their breath weapon as a bonus action

GUNS

a race of Ostrich Aaracokra

Allowing giving familiars more mental stats, as well as allowing them to cast more spells.

[Samayu]

We use the optional flanking rule from the DMG.

When someone rolls a 1 on a save to avoid damage, it's treated as a critical hit - double the damage dice.

You can delay your turn. You allow yourself to be skipped, and step back in to take your turn at any point, after someone else's turn is complete.

We ignore material spell components, except where they cost a specific amount of gp.

[Matuka]

1. Max carrying weight is ignored unless it's something big like an axe the size of a person or a cow
2. Alignment is taken seriously
3. Anything is possible if you talk to me about it first
4. Butter is not only flammable, but explosive (a story for another forum)
5. Murder hobos will be hunted down by guards and inquisitors for the rest of there lives
6. There is no such thing as unreformable evil in my world, there's is always good in somewhere deep inside.

[sneakthief]

These are some rules that I'll probably be using, as soon as I can get my players in for a session zero. (It's worse than herding cats in a water park)

1.) Roll for health at level up, but low rolls(less than the average) automatically use average.
2.) Multiclassing has to be explained through rp and/or triaining during downtime.
3.) Revised ranger
4.) Use anything from PHB, XGtE, and volos.
5.) Any other UA, homebrew, or monsterous races at DM discretion.
6.) Flanking rules. (But if PCs can do it, so can enemies)
7.) NO LUCKY FEAT!!!!

Things I'm not so sure about using:
1.) Not going to pay much attention to material components unless there's a price tag attached.
2.) Giving everyone a feat in the beginning of the campaign
3.) Probably gonna start the campaign at level 3 or 4.
4.) Rare renaissance-era gunpowder

[Great Dragon]

I don't allow Chaotic Neutral or True Neutral. Chaotic Evil is discouraged.
I try to run team-minded games.

No Bugbear, Yaun-Ti or Gnoll PCs. All others allowed. PHB, Volo's, Mord's, Tortle.

PHB, Xanathar's, SCAG, and Elemental Evil allowed for Character Creation.
Homebrew needs review and can be subject to playtesting.

Feats allowed.

Multiclassing must make sense for the PC; requires getting a mentor,
and training time is 1 day/level and costs 100 gp/day. This is mostly to not slow play.

Copying and putting in my own versions.
1.) at level up, Either Roll for health or use average.
2.) Downtime can be used for Training new Tools and Languages are as PHB
- 250 days (8 months!!) and 250 gp.
3.) Revised Ranger (including Beastmaster)
4.) Flanking rules. (Only +2 bonus. Stacks with Help. But if PCs can do it, so can enemies)
5.) Murder hobos will be hunted down by guards and inquisitors for the rest of their lives
(Added! Thanks, Matuka!)

Illusions
Personal interaction is required to disbelieve an illusion.

Intelligent Creatures can use the Help Action to give others nearby Advantage to the save to disbelieve.

Spending an action to investigate an illusion - describing a test method suitable to the particular circumstance encouraged. (Lots of new Players, so is not a requirement.)

The text of specific illusions may override these rules.
Higher Level Illusions can be harder to disbelieve. Ad-hoc Rules may apply.

@Theodoxus
Incorporated 4E classes like Warlord as a new fighter archetype. Incorporated others, like Swordmage as their own fully developed class complete with archetypes and higher level abilities.
I'd be interested in seeing your conversions for these.

I do have a few more, but are mostly Campaign specific.

[Lance Tankmen]

i have a session 0 where i break it down sort of

1) if it rolls off the table it doesn't count, reroll it
2) if it rolls and hits something but isnt cocked (you can put a die on it and not have the die fall)its fair
3)don't do both attacks at once, nor roll damage and attack at once.
4)no dice apps
5) dont meta game IE say the creatures HP or CR, idc about AC after a few swings or to hit/damage as your character would get a feel for it.
6)Dont bring OOC problems IC or IC issues OOC
7)If you want to kill an ally just know it ends with your death no revenge characters.
8)Coopers Law:one or two drinks no drunk DnD
9)finally dont cheat/lie(pretty basic)

Character creation rules are
1)any race in the books minus ravinca (magic the gathering races have no place in my world) so no homebrew or UA
2) Guys play guys, Gals play Gals, some exceptions
3)background within reason to your level IE no level one characters that are grand duelists of 100 duels, makes no sense
4)death half Exp, retire half level
5) roll stats 4d6 drop lowest using my D6 for an old superstition. Race class roll as well
6)no muti-classing
7)HP is max level one then roll with a reroll keeping the second
8)roll for starting gold for equipment


otherwise ive some variants i use and homebrew
1)variant encumbrance
2)gritty realism with some homebrewed
3)feats since by RAW they are a variant option.
4)fumble charts
5)some minor class and race changes , only race one is orc get +2 str +2 con to make them a bit less useless than half orc.
6)made a mana and stamina potion
7) reduced to zero causes 1 level of exhaustion
8)changed mounted combat a bit
9)added sinking in heavy armor but with a chance to swim still
10)when knocked down minor chance of lingering injury
11)when knocked down you have the effects of "unconscious" like normal but are able to falteringly speak and stuff , shock but have the ability to express to the party you're dying and be able to say final words or cry out for healing if doing poorly on death saves.

[FabulousFizban]

1 gritty realism

2 paladins, dwarves, & dragonborn use the honor mechanic. starting honor is determined by rolling 3d6

3 homebrew sanity mechanic. each character rolls a percentile to determine their starting sanity. encountering anything eldritch (seeing an aboleth, making mental contact with an illithid, etc), or witnessing something horrific (babies being dunked in acid, a torture chamber, etc) requires a san check. san is lost by the amount the check is failed. if the check is failed by 5 or more, the pc gains an insanity. additionally, san is a finite resource - it can never be restored. if a pc’s san hits 0, the character is driven completely insane and is effectively retired.

However! the lower your san the more difficult it is to lose more san. this is done in brackets of ten below 50. 40-49 grants a +1 to the save, 30-39 a +2, all the way to +5 for 1-9 san. advantage is given against situations that have been previously encountered, or those similar to ones previously encountered - ex. if you’ve seen a gibbering mouther you’d have advantage against a shoggoth. finally, due to their nature, warlocks always have advantage on san saves.

4 dice must roll on table

5 i dont use alignment. it’s dumb

6 UA is generally acceptable, but you have to inform me beforehand what you are using

7 if you crit fail, bad things happen

8 massive damage can result in permanent injury - loss of a limb, reduction in base speed, etc.

9 the players are not informed of 7 & 8

10 my games are gridless. you get 6” on a move. i wont make you measure it out unless you are being a munchkin.

[Wuzza]

Most important, the DM doesn't have to get the drinks. :smallsmile:

[Bjarkmundur]

Seeing I'm never a player, it seems there is a fair number of Houserules I didn't even know I was using. It got me thinking, does ANYONE play the game completely RAW?

I find myself rarely enforcing small flow-disrupting rules. If a rule pulls you out of a story and doesn't heavily impact the results, we usually let it slide without even realising.

Basically, if a player makes a reasonable request, I give a reasonable answer. If a player makes an attempt to abuse a ruling, I usually talk to him after the session.


"Either you calm down on abusing this rule, or I'm gonna have to start enforcing it in all instances, even for players who use it reasonably. This will frustrate and slow down play. Are you cool with toning it down?"


At this point I don't even know what is RAW and what is a Houserule. Whenever we encounter a problem, we either look up or make up a reasonable solution.

Luckily I only have one group, so I don't risk of accidentally carrying unneeded Houserules between groups.

.. Then of course there are my homebrewes ^^

[PhoenixPhyre]

Seeing I'm never a player, it seems there is a fair number of Houserules I didn't even know I was using. It got me thinking, does ANYONE play the game completely RAW?

I find myself rarely enforcing small flow-disrupting rules. If a rule pulls you out of a story and doesn't heavily impact the results, we usually let it slide without even realising.

Basically, if a player makes a reasonable request, I give a reasonable answer. If a player makes an attempt to abuse a ruling, I usually talk to him after the session.


"Either you calm down on abusing this rule, or I'm gonna have to start enforcing it in all instances, even for players who use it reasonably. This will frustrate and slow down play. Are you cool with toning it down?"


At this point I don't even know what is RAW and what is a Houserule. Whenever we encounter a problem, we either look up or make up a reasonable solution.

Luckily I only have one group, so I don't risk of accidentally carrying unneeded Houserules between groups.

.. Then of course there are my homebrewes ^^

This is exactly how the game was designed to be played. "Rulings over rules" is the mantra.

I'm of the opinion that the distinction between RAW and house rules is only useful when you are moving between tables. Within one table (the default setting), they're all just rules, no matter the source.

[Bjarkmundur]

I'm of the opinion that the distinction between RAW and house rules is only useful when you are moving between tables. Within one table (the default setting), they're all just rules, no matter the source.

This is a huge deal for me. I was getting anxious over having to find all the small rulings we've grown a accustomed to <3

[Bjarkmundur]

I guess I can add these things here, just to stay on topic

1. I love to give my players features to really hammer their character archetype home. If a player wants to be an active alchemist I do everything in my power to make him FEEL like an active alchemist, no matter what class he picked. If I can do this within the rules, I do. If not, I try to keep it balanced to the best of my abilities.
2. I love traumatic moments to give life lasting mertis/flaws. A near death encounter with a constrictor snake might give a player phobia of snakes, but an advantage on escaping restraints.
3. Potions and Consumables got an entire overhaul.
4. Each noticeable room in a dungeon takes approx. 10 minutes.
5. Item interactions are not RAW heavy at all.
6. Initiative is rolled once, at the start of each session, then creatures roll initiative as they come into play.
7. Long rests regains you hit dice equal to your proficiency bonus.
8. Short rests are 10 minutes. We only have Warlocks and martial characters, so rests don't need to be restricted. My players have a good sense of whether taking a break is safe or if its completely ridiculous.
9. No backgrounds. I use the lack of backgrounds as design space to grant features that fit for the desired character archetype.

[Wuzza]

1) As my group are running with no healer, I let them use the Healing/Heroic? (AFB's) Surge in combat. Also, all hit die are recovered on a long rest.
2) If they want to perform a specific action in combat, e.g. they recently wanted to charge and push back 2 undead from a doorway, I'll allow it with relevant skill checks. Feats aren't needed.

There's actually quite a few, surprising when I think about it. Anything that makes them feel Heroic I'll try to accommodate.

[PhoenixPhyre]

I don't actually have that many non-setting-based house-rules. I do have a lot of general principles, which are more important to me anyway, since they inform how I rule. Which I do a lot.


* Don’t be a jerk. Repeated evil behavior will get your character exiled or killed.
* Build characters that have a reason to be with the group. This is a group game and there is no room for unhelpful loners.
* Keep things PG. Profanity is discouraged. Sexual content will never be explicit (fade-to-black). Violence should never be graphically described.
* PvP actions are forbidden and will not be allowed. This includes passive-aggressive actions and (non-consensual) theft from party members. Repeated attempts will result in you being asked to leave.



In no particular order:

Rule of Competence: I will assume that the characters are competent and not trying to kill themselves or break the world unless you explicitly say otherwise. I will warn you before taking actions that the character would know would be self-defeating or catastrophic. When your action declaration is ambiguous, I will take the interpretation that works best at accomplishing your intent. Of course, this requires that you tell me your intent. If you keep secrets, I can't help you.

Rule of Leniency: If a rule or situation is truly ambiguous, I will generally take the reading that is in the player's favor.

Rule of Munchkin Opposition: If you're trying to munchkin your way around a rule's clear intent (to abuse the rules above), I will tell you to stop and that "loophole" will not work. If necessary, you will be asked to leave the table.

Rule of Fiction First: If the established fiction would require breaking a rule, then I will happily suspend the rule for that instance. Usually there's another way to describe things that does not cause this conflict, however.

Rule of Setting Adherence: If something doesn't exist in the setting, it doesn't exist. All content must be explicitly white-listed. And anything written in the books is subject to setting-based overrides, especially racial or planar descriptions and behaviors. Expect large variation from those.

Rule of Continuing Effect: Things you do have lasting effects and will be visible to other players in other games. Consider your actions carefully.

Keep the action moving: If two readings have drastically different resolution times (or costs), I will choose the one that keeps things moving forward and is quick to resolve. Only in the most pressing of circumstances will I pause to "get it right", and then it will be a conversation about how (and if!) we want to apply the rule as printed.

Let it Ride: A roll is in effect unless the situation changes materially. This is especially true of Dexterity (Stealth) checks.

More information is better: I will default to giving you more information. Intelligence checks, when possible, will be degrees of success. It is up to you to avoid meta-gaming that information. However, do not assume that printed things are accurate, especially for monsters. Expect deviation from those sources.



* Feats and multiclassing are allowed, under the standard restrictions.
* Standard encumbrance rules (15xSTR mod) are in effect, but ignored unless you're moving something heavy.
* Custom backgrounds are allowed and even encouraged if desired.
* Rest rules will normally be standard, but may vary as needed (generally toward the shorter, rather than longer, end).

* PHB: some setting-dependent edits (see below). Wish-simulacrum loops (or any other kind of looping) are not a thing, ever.
* VGtM: Some of the races are allowed, but essentially all of the fluff is rewritten (see below).
* XGtE. Basically everything is allowed. Tool use is in effect, as is downtime. Spell identification is in use--you do not know what spell is being cast by default.
* MToF: None of the races are currently available for play, although they exist.
* SCAG: Allowed if you personally own a copy. I do not. Non-elf bladesingers and non-dwarf battleragers are OK.

* UA: case by case basis. Pre-clearance required.
* Wayfarer's Guide: Not allowed, although pieces may get stolen. I have a homebrew warforged and am working on a shifter equivalent (or may allow that one wholesale).
* Planeshift or other M:tG crossovers: Not allowed (although again I may elect to steal some content).
* Other homebrew or 3PP: I have tons of my own. I generally will not accept outside player-facing sources, although I will work with you to create something that fits. I do use monsters from some sources, but usually with changes.



These are specific to my Dawn of Hope setting.
* There are a lot of languages (https://www.admiralbenbo.org/index.php/the-council-lands/people-and-places/67-languages-of-western-noefra). For example, yonwatch (high elven) and metsae (wood elven) are separate languages, although they share some words.

* Most, if not all, the races depart from their norms. See the Dawn of Hope Player's Guide for the short version (https://www.admiralbenbo.org/index.php/player-s-guide). Orcs use the half-orc stat block.

* Formal alignment is not in force—this goes for NPCs as well. Not all orcs are evil; neither are chromatic dragons (by default anyway). All mechanical elements that trigger off of formal alignment are removed or altered. For example, Heart Sense now determines your current motives and intent.

* Crossbows are rare outside of one particular region. If you do not come from there, you may replace a crossbow proficiency/starting equipment with a comparable bow (light -> short, heavy -> long). There are no hand crossbows.

* (Optional) Extended Backgrounds (https://www.admiralbenbo.org/index.php/homebrew/98-extended-regional-backgrounds) are available.

* (Optional) Alternate sub-races (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QOKWKsWjBJ_wSSWQYAEIat5Ui5RBqdm0Y4NLvP7OZkU/edit?usp=sharing) are available.

* Creation of undead is outlawed basically everywhere you want to be, on penalty of immediate death. Adventurers have legal immunity from this, but may be exiled or banned if they abuse the privilege, and angry mobs don't care about legal immunity. Tread carefully.

* Fiend pacts are "normal" in many areas, as long as they're with devils, not demons (due to setting-specific re-definitions of those terms). Consorting with demons is a capital offense everywhere, and legal immunity may or may not save you.

* You are all Sanctioned Adventurers, which means you have both privileges and responsibilities. Abuse them and you'll be kicked out of the guild, which will suck. Badly.


* You can completely retcon-rebuild a character up to level 5.

* I don't care about logistics. If you want to track them, go ahead. I will assume you're picking up your weapons and making/buying new ammo. I expect that you'll resupply whenever possible, unless the specific situation makes that infeasable.

* I don't care about the order of operations, essentially at all, unless the second action directly and inherently depends on the first. Go ahead and Shield Master bash before you attack. Heck, you can take the extra flurry of blows attack after you've already taken your regular Martial Arts bonus action unarmed attack. But if you're going to use a Bonus action smite spell, you have to say so ahead of time.

* Unless individual attempts are fictionally meaningful (like with Wisdom (Perception)), no re-rolls without changing the tactic or "me too" rolls. If two people want to attempt the same activity, they are either Helping (both roll, use the main actor's modifier on the higher roll) or they are taking different approaches (one may roll History while another rolls Arcana. Different approaches will result in different DCs and different possible outcomes). If there's no pressure and re-attempting makes sense, you can choose to automatically succeed if you do not do so on the first attempt, at the cost of 10x time spent. This is the default rule, but I'm just re-emphasizing that it is in play.

* In general, tell me what you're doing, not what you're rolling. I usually need an intent (what you want out of the action), an approach (how you're going to do it), and any special circumstances (tools, traits, spells, etc) you're going to use. Sometimes this is obvious, for example in combat you can just say "arrow, that guy" and go ahead and roll the attack. You don't need to tell me everything (such as the exact words you're going to say), but you need to make both your intent and your approach clear. Otherwise I will ask for more details (generally).

* You can pick your summons, but remember that if you slow things down I will start caring. I don't like turn hogs. Same goes for mass minion-mancy. Just don't, please?

[Theodoxus]

@Theodoxus
I'd be interested in seeing your conversions for these.


Here's Warlord (please keep in mind I'm using a lot of 4E mechanics, but I've changed everything for this conversion back to 5E standard, so you can evaluate it on its merits) I also use Action Points, and I'm not sure how I'd change Commanding Presence if I didn't use them...

Warlord
Warlords are accomplished and competent battle leaders. Warlords stand on the front line issuing commands and bolstering their allies while leading the battle with weapon in hand. Warlords know how to rally a team to win a fight.

Commanding Presence
When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, choose one of the following two benefits:
Inspiring Presence: When an ally who can see you spends an action point to take an extra action, that ally also regains hit points equal to one-half your level + your Charisma modifier.
Tactical Presence: When an ally you can see spends an action point to make an attack, the ally gains a bonus to the attack roll equal to one-half your Intelligence modifier.

Inspiring Word
Also at 3rd level, you gain the use of Inspiring Word:
Inspiring Word
You can use this ability twice per short rest, but only once per round. At 16th level, you can use inspiring word three times per short rest.

Use a Bonus Action to let an ally within 30 feet spend a hit die to heal themselves. They regain an additional 1d6 hit points.
The amount of additional hit points regained is 2d6 at 4th level, 3d6 at 8th level, 4d6 at 12th level, 5d6 at 16th level, and 6d6 at 20th level.

Knight Commander
At 7th level, Your path as a warlord has led you to take on the role of a knight commander, an armored paragon of leadership and combat who has no fear of leading from the front—and who has the requisite skills and abilities to handle that role. You inspire by example, you press every attack, and you rally your allies with powerful attacks and amazing tactics.


Allies gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls whenever they are adjacent to you.
When you use your action surge to take an extra action, your allies gain a +1 bonus to AC until the start of your next turn. Your allies need to be able to see and hear you to gain this benefit.


Skewer the Weak
At 10th level, whenever you score a critical hit, you and all your allies gain advantage against the enemy you struck until the end of your next turn.

Unmatched Tactician
At 15th level, you and allies within 30 feet of you gain a +5 bonus to initiative. When you make an attack, you gain a +1 bonus to the attack roll if at least one of your allies is adjacent to the target.

Unyielding Inspiration
At 18th level, whenever you enable an ally to spend a hit die, each ally adjacent to them gains 15 temporary hit points.
Also, whenever an ally within 30 feet of you drops to 0 hit points, you can spend a hit die as an immediate interrupt. You regain no hit points for doing so, but the ally regains the hit points from your roll, and an additional 20 hit points.


Swordmage is a whole class... so I'll just spoiler the main bits. I'm not going to convert it all the 5E though, but it shouldn't be too difficult to reverse engineer if it's something you're interested in. Also, there's a ton of references to my homebrew campaign world of Raeth - you can ignore them :)

Swordmage
“Under the leaves of Caer Darcian I learned the ancient eladrin way of battle. Spells are my armor, and words of ruin are bound to my blade.”


Class Traits
Role: Defender. You are a melee combatant who uses spells to fight better.
Power Source: Arcane. You study ancient magical traditions and practice swordplay, developing arcane powers that work well with your physical attacks.

Armor Proficiencies: Cloth, leather
Weapon Proficiencies: Simple melee, martial swords, simple ranged
Implements: Any sword. Your sword adds its enhancement bonus to attack rolls and damage rolls and any extra damage granted by a property (if applicable) when used as an implement.
Bonus to Defense:+2 Will (I'd say Proficient in Wisdom and Strength saves)


Hit Points at 1st Level: 15 + Constitution score (For 5E, I'd go with a d10 hit die; they're lightly armored but front line skirmishers)
Hit Points per Level Gained: 6
Healing Surges per Day: 8 + Constitution modifier


Trained Skills:** Arcana. From the class skills list below, choose two more trained skills at 1st level.


Class Skills:Athletics (Str), History (Int), Insight (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Persuasion (Cha), Survival (Wis)

Class Features:Swordbond, Swordmage Aegis (aegis of assault or aegis of shielding), Swordmage Warding


Swordmages apply the arcane arts to melee combat. The combat skills they possess are enhanced by the magic they wield. The flourish of a swordmage’s blade not only bites with steel, but also with fire, lightning, or other powerful forces.


You studied and practiced for years to master your skills. You mastered the fundamentals of arcane magic and combined this academic study with endless hours of physical training. You might be a young eladrin in search of your fortune, a stranger to the wider world outside the seclusion of your homeland; the scion of a disgraced noble human family, taught by the finest tutors in your youth but now a footloose expatriate; or a half-elf arcane champion, rigorously trained in a war magic academy to serve in the armies of your homeland.


Magical barriers of force swirl around you, protecting you from harm. The blade you carry is an extension of your being, both body and mind. It pulses with eldritch energy as you prepare to defend your allies and unleash magical fury against your foes.


Creating a Swordmage
The swordmage has two builds: assault swordmage and shielding swordmage. Intelligence plays into all your attacks, but you might emphasize either Strength or Constitution for added benefits.


Assault Swordmage
Your style of combat focuses on flashy attacks that call up elemental forces and throw your opponents around the battlefield. Your attacks use Intelligence, so that should be your primary ability score. Strength should be your second-best ability score, since it enhances your assault powers and keeps your base attack bonus high. Constitution helps your survivability and can be useful if you want to try some shielding swordmage powers. Most assault swordmages use a two-handed weapon (such as a greatsword or a falchion) to deal more damage, though they have a lower AC as a result.


Shielding Swordmage
You protect your allies with magical shields of force—and by keeping enemies away from them. This heritage is embodied by the Coronal Guard tradition, a discipline that can be traced over 200 years to the armathors, the elite guards of the coronal of Caer Darcian. Intelligence powers your attacks, so it should be your highest ability score. Constitution applies added effects to many of your attacks, so it should be your second-highest score. A good Strength lets you take advantage of assault swordmage powers (giving you some added offense) and keeps your basic attack decent. You’ll want to keep a hand free to get your AC bonus from Swordmage Warding class feature, so you should use a one-handed weapon such as a longsword or a scimitar.


Class Features:
Swordmages are smart, strong bastions of defense whose art is embodied by their swords. All swordmages have the class features described below.


Swordbond
By spending 1 hour of meditation with a chosen light or heavy blade, you forge a special bond with the weapon. As a standard action, you can call your bonded weapon to your hand from up to 10 squares away.


You can forge a bond with a different blade using the same meditation process (for instance, if you acquire a new blade that has magical abilities). If you forge a bond with a different blade, the old bond dissipates.


If your bonded weapon is broken or damaged, you can spend 1 hour of meditation to recreate the weapon from a fragment. (This process automatically destroys any other fragments of the weapon in existence, so you can’t use it to create multiple copies of a broken weapon.)


Swordmage Aegis
You can place a magical warding upon a foe, allowing you to respond to the foe’s attacks against your allies with a counterassault or a timely protection.


Choose one of the following Swordmage Aegis cantrips. Once chosen, the choice is permanent. They are described in full below.


Aegis of Assault: You teleport to the side of the attacker and respond with an attack of your own.


Aegis of Shielding: You deflect some of the damage of an incoming attack.

Swordmage Warding
While you are conscious and wielding either a light blade or a heavy blade, you maintain a field of magical force around you. This field provides a +1 bonus to AC, or a +3 bonus if you are wielding a blade in one hand and have your other hand free (not carrying a shield, an off-hand weapon, a two-handed weapon, or anything else).


If you become unconscious, your Swordmage Warding benefit disappears. You can restore it by taking a short rest or long rest.


Spellcasting
You can cast cantrips, incantations and spells. You use your blade as your implement, employing it both as a melee weapon and as a conduit for your arcane magic.


Cantrips are at-will abilities you can cast every round.
Incantations are short rest recharge abilities that you can use once before needing to recharge.
Spells require the use of Spell Slots to cast. You can cast the same spell multiple times, provided you have a spell slot to power it with.


Spell Slots
The Swordmage table describes when you gain access to your cantrips, incantations, spells and utility powers, as well as how many spell slots you have to cast your spells of 1st level and higher. To cast a spell, you must expend a slot of the spell's level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest.


Spells Known of 1st Level and Higher
Starting at 2nd level, you know two 1st-level spells of your choice from the swordmage spell list.


The Spells Known column shows when you learn more spells of your choice. Each of these spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots. Additionally, When you gain a level you can choose one of the swordmage spells you know and replace it with another spell from the swordmage spell list, which also must be of a level for which you have spell slots.


Spellcasting Ability
Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for your swordmage spells.


Some swordmage incantations and spells include a line titled “Aegis of Assault” or “Aegis of Shielding.” You gain this extra benefit only if you selected the *aegis of assault* or *aegis of shielding* cantrip, respectively.


Note: The aegis cantrip does not count against the total number of cantrips known.


Aegis of Assault
You create an arcane link between you and a foe, allowing you to instantly respond to its attacks with a counterassault.
Cantrip ✦ Arcane, Teleportation
Minor Action Close burst 2
Target: One creature in burst


Effect: You mark the target. The target remains marked until you use this power against another target. If you mark other creatures using other powers, the target is still marked. A creature can be subject to only one mark at a time. A new mark supersedes a mark that was already in place.


If your marked target makes an attack that doesn’t include you as a target, it has disadvantage on attack rolls.


If that attack hits and the marked target is within 10 squares of you, you can use an immediate reaction to teleport to a square adjacent to the target and make a melee basic attack against it. If no unoccupied space exists adjacent to the target, you can’t use this immediate reaction.


Aegis of Shielding
You create an arcane link between you and an enemy, allowing you to blunt its attacks against your allies.
Cantrip ✦ Arcane
Minor Action Close burst 2
Target: One creature in burst
Effect: You mark the target. The target remains marked until you use this power against another target. If you mark other creatures using other powers, the target is still marked. A creature can be subject to only one mark at a time. A new mark supersedes a mark that was already in place.


If your marked target makes an attack that doesn’t include you as a target, it has disadvantage on attack
rolls. If that attack hits and the marked target is within 10 squares of you, you can use an immediate interrupt to reduce the damage dealt by that attack to any one creature by an amount equal to 5 + your Constitution modifier.


Scholastic Tradition
When you reach 3rd level, you join a scholastic tradition that emphasizes your aegis and specialization. Up to this time you have been in a preparatory stage, learning how to meld sword and sorcery. Now you choose one of the scholastic traditions detailed at the end of the class description.


Your choice grants you features at 3rd level and again at 7th, 15th, and 20th level.


Extra Attack
Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Basic Attack action on your turn.


Worthy Foe
At 20th level, you gain the ability to mark and track a worthy foe, with the following benefits:


Once per encounter as a minor action, you can designate the enemy nearest to you as a worthy foe until the end of the encounter.


Until the start of your next turn, your attacks against the worthy foe ignore any resistance and the insubstantial quality.


In addition, once per round, you can deal 2d8 extra damage to the worthy foe on a hit. If you can make multiple attacks against the worthy foe during your turn, you decide which attack to apply the extra damage to after all the attacks are rolled.


If you reduce the worthy foe to 0 hit points, you can spend a healing surge as a free action.


Finally, you gain an At-Will ability: Spirit Steed


Spirit Steed
Appearing from nowhere, a winged spirit steed carries you beside your foe.
At-Will
Immediate Reaction Personal
Trigger: The enemy designated as your Worthy Foe ends its movement within 6 squares of you
Effect: You fly and land in a space adjacent to the triggering enemy. This movement doesn't provoke opportunity attacks.


The Swordmage (d10 hd)



Level
Prof Bonus
Features
Cantrips
Incantations
Spells known
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th


1st
+2
Aegis, Feat, Spellcasting
2
1
-
-
-
-
-
-


2nd
+2
Utility (1)
2
1
2
2
-
-
-
-


3rd
+2
Feat, Scholastic Tradition
2
2
3
3
-
-
-
-


4th
+2
Ability Score Improvement
2
2
3
3
-
-
-
-


5th
+3
Extra Attack, Feat
2
2
4
3
2
-
-
-


6th
+3
Utility (2)
2
2
4
3
2
-
-
-


7th
+3
Feat, Scholastic Tradition Feature
2
3
5
3
3
-
-
-


8th
+3
Ability Score Improvement
2
3
5
3
3
-
-
-


9th
+4
Feat
2
3
6
3
3
2
-
-


10th
+4
Utility (3)
2
3
6
3
3
2
-
-


11th
+4
Feat
2
4
7
3
3
3
-
-


12th
+4
Ability Score Improvement, Utility (4)
2
4
7
3
3
3
-
-


13th
+5
Feat
2
4
8
3
3
3
1
-


14th
+5
-
2
4
8
3
3
3
1
-


15th
+5
Feat, Scholastic Tradition Feature
2
4
9
3
3
3
2
-


16th
+5
Ability Score Improvement, Utilty (5)
2
4
9
3
3
3
2
-


17th
+6
Feat
2
4
10
3
3
3
2
1


18th
+6
-
2
4
10
3
3
3
3
1


19th
+6
Ability Score Improvement, Feat
2
4
11
3
3
3
3
2


20th
+6
Worthy Foe
2
4
11
3
3
3
3
2




Anarch
Prerequisite: aegis of assault


You have studied the ways of the anarchs of Raeth, an order of swordmages who developed their arts thousands of years ago. Students of this school harness the power of the Elemental Chaos to unleash devastation against their enemies.


For centuries the anarchs defended Raeth against incursion. They also served to check the power of feudal lords when the rulers veered toward tyranny. The order fell apart when the anarchs lost their way and turned to meddling and kingmaking. A handful of masters who remained true to the order’s ancient purpose preserved the anarch teachings.


Schools devoted to this path can be found in Augranost, Ferrin, and Virunus. The anarchs are no longer a unified society, but a few still honor the old ways.


Lightning Clutch
Starting at 3rd level when you choose this tradition, any time you use *aegis of assault*, all damage you deal until the end of your next turn becomes lightning damage. Also, the target remains marked by your *aegis of assault* for the rest of the encounter, even if you mark a new target.


Empowered Aegis of Assault
Also at 3rd level, when you use your *aegis of assault* immediate reaction, you gain a +2 bonus to your melee basic attack roll.


Extended Aegis
At 7th level the range that the attacker must be within for you to use your *aegis of assault* immediate reaction increases to 20 squares (from the normal 10 squares).

Stance of Chaos
At 15th level, you can enter the Stance of Chaos. Until the stance ends, you take a –2 penalty to attack rolls but your weapon attacks deal an extra 1d12 cold, fire, or lightning damage (your choice). You can end this stance with a minor action. You can’t enter this stance again until you’ve taken a short or long rest.


Elemental Transformation
At 20th level, you can assume the form of an elemental lord. Using a standard action, you undergo a transformation. Choose Air, Earth, Fire or Water. For 1 minute, you gain the following benefits:


• At the start of each of your turns, you regain 10 hit points.
• You have resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage from nonmagical weapons.
• You gain immunity to poison, as well as acid (earth), cold (water), fire (fire) or lightning (air).
• You also gain immunity to the following conditions: exhaustion, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained and unconscious. You also don't need to breathe.
• Your weapon attacks deal an extra 1d10 points of damage that is the same as the damage type you’re immune to.
• You also gain a movement bonus. Air: Gain a fly speed equal to your movement. Earth: Gain the earth glide feature. Fire: Your jump distance is tripled. Water: Gain a swim speed equal to your movement.


Umbriri
Umbral swordmages are masters of shadow and steel, blending the Umbral warrior arts with their wizards’ dark arcana. You have trained in the swordmage arts practiced in Umbras, and you have become one of the deadly umbriri. Your skill with a blade blends darkness, magic, and the subtle techniques of the shadowy masters into the perfect killing art.


The Umbrasal do not appreciate their secrets of combat being turned against them. You are hunted by the Shadows within the shadows. They would see you dead before you pass the fell secrets of your art to outsiders. Umbriri loyal to the Umbrasal wizards despise you, feeling that you dishonor those who spent their lives perfecting this art.


Most umbriri are human, the descendants of those shadowborn humans who were uplifted by Umbras herself over three hundred years ago. They serve as the champions and elite guards of the city of Umbras. Others are Virunians who showed promise enough to warrant instruction and were invited to train in the umbriri art.


The most powerful umbriri are ancient shade swordmasters, native-born Shadovars rewarded with transformation into deathless shadows for their skill and loyalty.


Shadowy Action
Starting at 3rd level, when you spend an action point to take an extra action, you and all adjacent allies gain concealment until the start of your next turn.


Shadow Defense
Also at 3rd level, you gain resistance to necrotic damage. When you use any swordmage aegis power, this resistance becomes immunity and your melee basic attacks deal 5 extra necrotic damage. These benefits last until the end of your next turn.


Shadow Shroud
At 7th level, you gain advantage against an enemy if you also have concealment from that enemy.


Concealing Umbra
At 15th level, you can control the shadows around you. As a standard action, you can cloak everyone in a close burst 5 in inky shadow, causing them to become invisible until they attack, or 10 minutes have transpired, whichever comes first. Once you use this ability, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.


Assassin Shadow
At 20th level, your mastery over the shadows becomes complete. As a standard action, your shadow separates from you. You become a Shadow, and your shadow does as well, acting independently of you, but under your direct control. As a Shadow, you both gain the following benefits for 1 minute.


You can use this ability once per long rest:
• Your speed increases by 2
• Your Stealth increases by 4
• You gain vulnerability to Radiant damage
• You gain resistance to all damage except psychic.
• You gain immunity to poison
• You gain immunity to the following conditions: exhaustion, frightened, grappled, paralyzed, petrified,
poisoned, prone, restrained
• You gain or extend Darkvision to 12 squares.
• You become amorphous, able to more through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing.
• You have sunlight weakness – when in sunlight, you have disadvantage on attack rolls, ability checks and saving throws.
• When you attack, you hits deal an additional 2d6 necrotic damage and reduces the targets strength score by 1d4.
• Both you and your shadow can use any cantrips, incantations or spell slots still available, sharing them as if you were a single organism.


Wandering Swordmage
Though all swordmages are students of both arcane arts and combat, you take this diversity of interest to its ultimate expression. Strict adherence to a single style or formal school of combat doesn’t interest you. Instead, you build an eclectic fighting style from techniques gathered from far corners of every land. Spells created by masters whose styles don’t fit into normal swordmage schools are your best weapons. Your knowledge spans a great number of topics. You
could know ancient tales, recent events, and legends about brave dragonslayers who lived on Raeth long before the gods appeared.


You can learn something new from anyone you talk to. Even conflicting views of the same event show you how peoples’ biases can affect their awareness—a weakness you can exploit when fighting. The folklore of each region carries lessons that any warrior can use. In every fable, bit of trivia, or snippet of news, you learn a philosophical lesson that guides you in battle.


Aegis Insight
Starting at 3rd level, when you use the aegis of assault or aegis of shielding power, you add your Wisdom modifier to the power’s burst radius.


People’s History
Also at 3rd level, you can add your Wisdom modifier to your History checks.


Teleportation Action
Finally, at 3rd level, when you spend an action point to take an extra action, you can teleport 5 squares as a free action before taking the extra action.


Learn from Experience
At 7th level, when an enemy scores a critical hit against you, you gain a bonus equal to your Wisdom modifier on your next attack roll and damage roll against that creature during this encounter.


Arcane Tanglestep
Starting at 15th level, instead of using your normal aegis of assault immediate reaction or aegis of warding immediate interrupt, you teleport yourself to any location within a number of squares equal to 5 + your Wisdom modifier, and you teleport the enemy that triggered the power to a square adjacent to you.


Heritage of Blades
At 20th level, your allies within 2 squares of you gain a +1 power bonus to AC and Reflex defense.


Also, you can use a minor action once on your turn to deal force damage to an enemy of your choice within 5 squares. You deal force damage equal to 2d6 + your Wisdom modifier


Swordmage Spell List



Cantrips (0 Level)



Acid Splash
Blade Ward
Booming Blade
Control Flames
Create Bonfire
Dancing Lights
Fire Bolt
Friends
Frostbite
Green-Flame Blade
Gust
Light
Lightning Lure
Mage Hand
Mending
Message
Mold Raeth
Poison Spray
Prestidigitation
Ray of Frost
Shape Water
Shocking Grasp
Sword Burst
Thunderclap

1st Level



Absorb Elements
Alarm
Burning Hands
Catapult
Charm Person
Chromatic Orb
Expeditious Retreat
Feather Fall
Find Familiar
Floating Disk
Fog Cloud
Frost Blacklash
Grease
Hideous Laughter
Ice Knife
Jump
Longstrider
Mage Armor
Magic Missile
Protection from Evil and Good
Raeth Tremor
Shield
Sleep
Thunderwave
Unseen Servant
Whirling Blade
Witch Bolt

2nd Level



Acid Arrow
Alter Self
Arcane Lock
Be Gone
Beacon Blade
Burning Blade
Cloud of Daggers
Continual Flame
Crown of Madness
Darkness
Darkvision
Deep Freeze
Dust Devil
Elemental Foible
Enlarge/Reduce
Flaming Sphere
Glamor Blade
Gust of Wind
Hold Person
Knock
Levitate
Lingering Lightning
Mage's Scorcher
Magic Weapon
Misty Step
Pyrotechnics
Raethbind
Rope Trick
Scorching Ray
Shatter
Skywrite
Snowball Swarm
Spider Climb
Suggestion
Web

3rd Level



Acid for Blood
Blink
Counterspell
Dispel Magic
Erupting Raeth
Fireball
Flame Arrows
Fly
Free the Storm Within
Gaseous Form
Glyph of Warding
Haste
Inferno's Sword
Lightning Bolt
Magic Circle
Minute Meteors
Nondetection
Protection from Energy
Remove Curse
Sending
Sleet Storm
Slow
Stinking Cloud
Thunder Step
Tidal Wave
Tiny Hut
Wall of Sand
Wall of Water
Water Breathing

4th Level



Bane Blade
Banishment
Black Tentacles
Bounding Lightning
Confusion
Conjure Minor Elementals
Control Water
Dimension Door
Elemental Bane
Fabricate
Faithful Hound
Fire Shield
Hell's Own Blade
Ice Storm
Icy Shackles
Lightning Rod
Polymorph
Private Sanctum
Quicksilver Blade
Resilient Sphere
Secret Chest
Sickening Radiance
Stone Shape
Stoneskin
Storm Sphere
Thundering Heart
Vitriolic Sphere
Wall of Fire
Watery Sphere

5th Level



Animate Objects
Arcane Hand
Astral Thunder Blade
Cloudkill
Cone of Cold
Conjure Elemental
Control Winds
Dominate Person
Geas
Hold Monster
Immolation
Modify Memory
Obliterating Blaze
Passwall
Planar Binding
Telekinesis
Teleportation Circle
Transmute Rock
Vorpal Doom
Wall of Force
Wall of Stone

[Black Jester]

General Rules:
Fortune Favors the Bold If you can roll for it, do so. This counts for Ability Scores, Background details, and Hit Points etc.. Point buy is for NPCs and boring cookie-cutter characters.

Your story matters: Characters with an elaborate and engaging story and concept gain an additional tool or language proficiency if that makes sense, or an additional skill if that makes sense.

Your ideas matter: You, as a player, may make some minor changes to your character class if you like and have a good reason for it. I truast you more than the authors of this game. So, if you want to play a fighter with two combat styles and no proficiency in heavy armor, you can do that. If you want to swapone of your cleric's cantrips with one from the wizard's or sorcerer's list, you can probably do that. If you want to create your own specialisation, background, feat etc. or use one from a different source than what we usually use, present it, say why it matters to you and we'll decide together if it works.

Your hands matter: Grappling and being grappled prevents spellcasting with somatic componenets. I have no idea why this rule was ommited from the actual rules, as it makes sense from an ingame perspective, and greatly improves game balance (and mutual dependency between casters and their bodyguards, which is good for group cohesion).

Your ethics matter: We don't use the good and evil axis of alignment system. I would be deeply embarassed when the politics and ethics of my setting would fit into a childish black and white pattern. The Chaos- Order conflict may play a role when I feel Moorcockian that day.

Campaign-specific Rules:
Technology Level: The current campaign I use is more early modern than medieval so there are some changes to the game due to technology (like blackpowder weapons, clockworks and printing presses) and culture. For instance, Rapiers are more prevalent than other swords, and we use a slightly different table for arms and armor (which includes the actual bucklers needed for an actual swashbuckling campaign, and wearing a helmet actually matters).

Races: The only natural species of sentient life are humans. Every other playable race is either a magic hybrids with mostly human ancestors (Dragonborn, Tiefling, Yuan-Ti), a runaway slave escaping from the (more Pratchettarian than Tolkienian, and more Moorcockian than Prachettarian) Elves (Gnomes) or both (Half-Elves). Most other species (especially Orcs,Halflings and Dwarves) simply don't exist, with maybe a few individual exceptions - it is more likely that the one Genasi PC is a truly unique creature than it is to meet another one just like him.

Classes: Only 'Elf-touched' characters can become druids; only 'chaos-touched' characters can become sorcerers; the gods have abandoned this world in disgust due to the wickedness of the people (or so the clergy says), so there are no clerics any more (if there ever were ones in the first place). Monks don't really fit the tone of the game; they aren't banned or anything like that, but similarly to more exotic races, that PC monk might be the very first of his kind - at least in these barren lands.
We use a special form of Ranger (that is basically a combination of the UA revised Ranger and the UA spell-less Ranger. I like it a lot).

Monsters: Most monsters are as terrified as they are terrifying. They are also strictly speaking, an invasive force that is trying to wipe out humanity, not through active mallice but through sheer basic needs. There are basically nohumanoid antagonists that also could be PCs. Oh, and there is no such thing as a dragon that shouldn't be killed.

[Kiltreiser]

One of our DMs has a fun initiative rule. Every round he rolls d100 to see if we change initiative order. Starts off at 5% chance for round 2, then 10% for round 3, 15% for round 4, and so on. So in a longer fight you always know that chances are you'll be changing at some point, and as a battle really heats up it can make things kinda tense. A sudden change can really turn the tide of battle sometimes.

[napoleon_in_rag]

7 if you crit fail, bad things happen

8 massive damage can result in permanent injury - loss of a limb, reduction in base speed, etc.

9 the players are not informed of 7 & 8

I don't have a major problem with the rules, I do have a major problem not letting players know what rules are in play. That's inherently unfair to players who haven't played at your table before. What do you mean by massive damage? Is that when an opponent Crits or just when a player drops to 0 hp?

[Sigreid]

One of our DMs has a fun initiative rule. Every round he rolls d100 to see if we change initiative order. Starts off at 5% chance for round 2, then 10% for round 3, 15% for round 4, and so on. So in a longer fight you always know that chances are you'll be changing at some point, and as a battle really heats up it can make things kinda tense. A sudden change can really turn the tide of battle sometimes.

This could be huge for characters that get some of their resources back on initiative roll, like the monk getting back 4 ki. Could encourage more single class characters. Neither of these effects are bad.

[Angelalex242]

I like:

For ASIs, you get a feat AND a +2. Yes you can get +3 in one go if you pick a half feat.

And yes, fighters and rogues get a little more out of that.

[Samayu]

Seeing I'm never a player, it seems there is a fair number of Houserules I didn't even know I was using. It got me thinking, does ANYONE play the game completely RAW?

Our group is pretty close to RAW. Or at least our interpretation of it. You know how that goes. Does anyone really play RAW? Only inasfar as the the rules allow us to break the rules. But our group generally plays as closely to the rules as possible. For quite a while we were playing AL-legal. A little ways up the page I mentioned our four house rules. These only started recently, because we're playing Ravnica, which is not AL-legal anyway.

[LudicSavant]

The FLGS has two common house rules, both of which I disagree with.
#1 Critical failures on a 1 when rolling attacks
#2 Flanking gives advantage

I'm so sorry :smallfrown:

[Glorthindel]

Mine:

- Everyone gets a Feat at first level
- No variant Human
- Standard Humans can choose either 6 +1s or 2 +2s and 2 +1s

- Roll hit points at level up, re-rolling 1s
- Only people who attend the session get XP
- New character (either new players or replacement characters) start 1 level below the lowest level character
- 10% bonus xp for each level your character is below the highest level character

- Paladin Oaths are powered by Gods.
- Paladins, Druids, Clerics, and Warlocks have RP obligations that must be observed.
- No multiclassing into classes with a RP obligation unless through a roleplayed event (or through a backstory event approved by the DM).

- A character has Advantage if he has more effects applying Advantage than Disadvantage.
- A character has Disadvantage if he has more effects applying Disadvantage than Advantage.
- In the event of Advantage or Disadvantage applying on a roll, use of the Lucky Feat counts as an instance of Advantage.
- Attacking a Blinded target does not grant an instance of Advantage if the attacker is also Blinded (the attack would occur at Disadvantage unless further effects that incur Advantage apply)

- A character can only attempt to Hide if there is any ambiguity over their location.
- Benefits gained from attacking from Hiding only apply as long as the target is unaware of the characters existence or general location (for example: even if the character is hidden around a corner, if their target knows they are somewhere around that corner, even if they are unaware exactly where around that corner, they gain no benefit of attacking from hiding)

[Keravath]

The FLGS has two common house rules, both of which I disagree with.
#1 Critical failures on a 1 when rolling attacks
#2 Flanking gives advantage

Due to #1, all the characters I build to play there will be halflings. The reroll on 1s is like an extra +.25 to +.75 on all rolls over time (depending on what AC/DC I'm up against), and the ability to avoid the 5% bad stuff chance is excellent. I would say especially so for any higher level characters who make multiple attack rolls (Action surging fighter 20 has a 40% chance to drop his sword, stab himself, etc.).

Interesting. I am guessing that your FLGS doesn't run Adventurer's League then? Neither of those rules are AL legal so any game played there is also not AL legal as a result. It seems pretty unusual to me to find an FLGS not playing using RAW or something close to it.

[BaconAwesome]

1) Matt Mercer ressurection rules.

2) Flying race player characters get 3 rounds flight/short rest plus feather fall if able to move, and can take a half-feat (+1 any ability) for full flight.

3) Evil characters need DM approval.

[Keravath]

i have a session 0 where i break it down sort of

3)don't do both attacks at once, nor roll damage and attack at once.



I was just curious about this rule. Rolling to hit and damage simultaneously can save significant time in a round with a lot of players and doesn't change the outcome so I'm not sure why you'd house rule this as not allowed.

I can see not rolling all the attacks at once if you are concerned that the first or second hit might result in the target being killed though again, depending on the circumstances, this can also make a combat round go by more smoothly. As long as the player designates which dice are the first swing, which second and so on, I'm not sure what the issue might be.

Rolling the dice at once makes the turn go faster but doesn't affect cheating or other unwanted behaviours. Someone who wants to cheat will do so whether they roll the dice individually or as a group.

[J-H]

I was just curious about this rule. Rolling to hit and damage simultaneously can save significant time in a round with a lot of players and doesn't change the outcome so I'm not sure why you'd house rule this as not allowed.

I can see not rolling all the attacks at once if you are concerned that the first or second hit might result in the target being killed though again, depending on the circumstances, this can also make a combat round go by more smoothly. As long as the player designates which dice are the first swing, which second and so on, I'm not sure what the issue might be.

Rolling the dice at once makes the turn go faster but doesn't affect cheating or other unwanted behaviours. Someone who wants to cheat will do so whether they roll the dice individually or as a group.
I prefer to roll my dice all at once, if I can keep them color coded. My wife takes 2-3 times as long to roll attacks because she rolls everything individually.
That said, she does tend to roll higher....


Interesting. I am guessing that your FLGS doesn't run Adventurer's League then? Neither of those rules are AL legal so any game played there is also not AL legal as a result. It seems pretty unusual to me to find an FLGS not playing using RAW or something close to it.
The FLGS is only 4 months old... the guy running it and the established groups have been around longer.

[Mitsu]

I have few:

1. Sorcerers can cast spell after casting another using Quicken and it doesn't have to be cantrip but. Second spell (no matter if action or bonus ation was first) can be no higher than 5th level. This imo balances them vs Wizards while not allowing them to drop 9th and 8th level spell in one turn.

2. Elven Accuracy is balanced vs other racial feats, like Orcish Fury. You can only use it once per short rest same as Half-Orc can only use Orcish Fury once per short rest. This feat is busted and too many players chase it just for numbers.

3. Hexblades get's "Hex Warrior" at 3rd level instead of 1st. This eliminates the problem of "everyone dips 1 level Hexblade"as it's imo too packed on 1st level.

4. Dueling and GWF gives +2 to hit to bring it to Archery level and generally offer "you are trained so your are more precise" feeling. Thanks to that many more actually take Dueling or GWF instead of Defense. Defense is +1 to AC and +1 to saves to compensate.

5. PAM does not work with 1-handed weapons. Period. No Spear or Staff + Shield cheese. I am munchkin myself but this is too much. PAM only works for those weapons if you use 2 hands to wield them.

6. Rogues have procficiency in Whips.

7. Trident is 1d8 instead of 1d6 like Spear, because it's martial weapon as opposed to simple weapon.

8. Dual Wielding feat gives extra attack with off-hand weapon if it's light weapon. This allows someone with Two-Weapon Fighting to have 4 attacks per turn on level 5 fighter but their off-hand weapon is limited to light weapon (like dagger or shortsword). This bring dual wielding closer to GWM, PAM and Shield Master while not making it OP.

9. Shield Master bonus action can be used before attacks but PC must make attack action after shove attempt and can only attack enemy that they tried to shove, unless that enemy dies before they use all their attacks. This is to treat Shield Master shove and attack action rule as "full combo". I think it's nice middle ground between RAW and SA rulling.

10. Paladins can use Smites with range weapons. This is just for flavour if some player wants to make "holy hunter" build or something like that.

11. Xbow Master does not anymore eliminate disadvantage when you attack target withing 5ft from you using crossbow.

Other homerules depend on group. I generally try to limit the need of multiclass and to balance the "meta choices" so players feel like they have more options and they don't "waste ASI if I don't take the best feat"

[KorvinStarmast]

Have you told your FLGS that they are bad and should feel bad? hehe, I felt the same way.

Reroll 1s on HP for level up and on healing effects that don't use d4s I like this one. We might adopt that at our table.
My house rules as a DM:
a. No tiefling PC's, no yuan ti PCs. As to Kenku: No. Never. Stupid idea in terms of how they tried to implement a bird person.
Aarakocra OK only if you can sell how it fits into the game world.

As an aside: any of the Volo's character race options must be vetted by me because it needs to fit into the game world, but Asimar are OK out of the box, as are Triton's as well. Tabaxi ... sell it to me.
b. Greatclubs are 1d10 (2 handed, simple, heavy).(See also Malifice # 35)

c. Crit fails and crit are not a thing based on a die roll. (The only exception is the death saving throw)

I have to keep reminding my players in one campaign of that, all of whom have played since the first D&D ever (other than my nephew). I now and again have something absurd happen if the circumstances suggest it. Not the f&%#@! die roll.

Mal, I think I'll go for your #34. I like that house rule.

34: Rangers gain an extra Ranger class skill (of choice) at 6th (or expertise if they already know it) and again at 13th level, gain the Eagle eye class feature at 9th (can take the Search action as a bonus action), and gain extra attack [2] at 18th level. At 20th level, Foe Slayer grants advantage to attack rolls against favored enemies instead of its normal benefit.

[QUOTE=Jinxed_K;23796217] - Multiclass isn’t banned, but the PC must seek a ‘mentor’ rather than just learning the new class at level up We have in a number of our games, a few alive and a few dead, a similar convention. We like more RP.


free charger feat I like that, but only for martial characters or a goliath PC. I'll discuss with our table.

[Rerem115]

My list isn't that extensive:

Homebrew is tentatively allowed; if you can do it RAW, I'll steer you towards that, BUT if if you absolutely have to do something new, run it past me first, and understand that I have full authority to edit or veto.

Yuan-Ti are bull****, as are low level wings.

Flanking rules and fumbles are decided as a group at session 0; remember whatever applies to you, applies to hostiles! With that in mind, I'm not malevolent; rule of funny is in force with fumbles.

[Isocahedron]

1. Diagonal movement on a square grid alternates between taking 5 feet and 10 feet of movement. (1.5 is close enough to root 2).
2. You may only roll for it if there is a possibility of success -- you can't jump the Grand Canyon. You need not roll for it if there is a negligible probability of failure -- you can jump that crack in the sidewalk.
3. RP rewards are BS, RP should be its own reward. (Not all our players are hardcore RPers, and that's okay).
4. A prepared spellcaster can spend 2d4 minutes to swap out one spell for one of equal level.
5. (depends on the setting) There is no common tongue, there are pidgins (i.e. Northeastern Halfling-Gnommish). Fluency levels are a thing.
6. Social interaction is a big encounter, not one roll.
7. Word gets around of evil deeds committed by the PCs.
8. There is to be no inter-party fighting whatsoever (joking is fine, but when one player says you stop, you stop).
9. Majority rules in party decisions.
10. I will roll Intelligence saves to stop you from doing something really stupid. (or rather, tell you why it's stupid).
11. Many NPCs have PC classes.
12. We use feats. (does anyone not?)
13. The DM is right. You may privately challenge me at the end of the session or during a bathroom break.
14. Metagaming terms is fine. (You can say AC, HP, to-hit bonus, etc.) If you're being ridiculous (looking through the monster manual), I will ask you to cut it out or at least roll for it.
15. It is assumed that the spellcaster knows their spells enough that they can take IRL time to pick one.
15.1. If you're being a temporal vampire, someone will turn a 1.5 minute sand timer over. If you can't make up your mind, you take the Dodge action.
16. RAI (in the eyes of the DM) trumps RAW.
16.1. Clever RAW exploitations might be allowed.
16.2. Game-breaking ones won't be.
17. Alignment is indicative, not prescriptive. Alignment can and will change over time.
18. Neutral is Joe Everyman, not a self-interested game-theoretic individual.

[Man_Over_Game]

I actively use my Prestige Options homebrew in my signature (basically allowing specific classes to use alternate attributes for their abilities, as long as they follow specific multiclassing restrictions).
I also use my Improved Mechanics (Stealth, Initiative, Ability Checks).

I also allow players to play the Superior Fighter instead of the Action Fighter (Replace Action Surge with Superiority Dice, to make them more tactically interesting). I can give more details if this sounds interesting.

I don't use Pain much, as I try to modify monsters to make things tactically interesting, rather than making massive modifications to players. Its' a good choice if you use the default monsters, though.

I do use Adrenaline Surge a decent amount, if I only want 1-2 encounters in a day.

[Danielqueue1]

a lot of the house rules at my table change dependent on the campaign and setting. Gritty realism for gritty campaigns etc. here are the ones that are most common

• any d20 roll against a static DC fails on a 1 and succeeds on a 20 including saving throws. (otherwise what is the point of rolling?)
• most intelligence checks have a spread of successes (DC to know something, DC+5 to know more etc)
• for contested rolls, a natural 20 gets a +5, and a natural 1 gets a -5 to total. makes nat 1 and nat 20 special without negating build investment.
• druids in wildshape (not out of it) count as shapechangers for the purposes of Witch Sight (warlock invocation) and other spells and abilities that make a distinction.
• knowledge checks (not a game term) are not repeatable. if you didn't know something 5 minutes ago, you don't know it now (exceptions can of course be made if reasonable.)
•ability checks against objects (picking a lock, slipping out of ropes, etc) can only be repeated if the situation has changed in some notable way. manacles would be useless if a commoner could break out of them in less than 2 minutes just by making a check every round and waiting for a 20, but if someone pours some oil on those manacles suddenly that is a different situation.

• beast master's companions continue to follow the beast master's most recent order without additional action investment.
• DC 15 con save for Berserker's exhaustion.
• familiars who cannot take the attack action (most of them) cannot take the help action to give advantage on an attack roll. (This unintentionally passively buffs pact of the chain but I feel like that is okay.)

• PC race availability is campaign dependent. (in the campaign I'm setting up for, goblinoids are considered "shoot on sight." so it is inadvisable to play as one)

• cats always detect as evil to features that detect alignment (rarer than some may think) even if they are celestial. NPCs who have those features generally know this.

this isn't really a house rule but I have to reiterate it often enough that it feels like one. your amazing stealth score/roll means absolutely nothing if there is nothing to hide behind or at least something obscuring your position. Also sleight of hand can't be used to wrestle something out of someone's fist.

also not really a house rule but there have been lots of arguements about it so, Alignment describes your caracter and matters about as much as hair color. If a character dies their hair, their hair color changes. if the character murder hobos an orphanage their alignment changes simple as that. no one is restricted by their alignment, but your actions can change your alignment.

[MintyNinja]

In my current campaign:

1. Flanking is a +2 bonus. Applies to enemies, too.
2. Drinking a potion is a Bonus Action, but feeding a potion to a KO'd character is an Action.
3. Silver Standard. 100 cp = 1 sp, 100 sp = 1 gp, 100 gp = 1 pp, 100 pp = [REDACTED]
4. A mass of campaign specific things, like languages, homelands, and available ancestries.
5. A homebrew interrogation chart that isn't used all that often.
6. A campaign specific pantheon with 7 gods and a load of Saints. Clerics are powered by Saints, Paladins by holy Oaths.
7. Encumbrance Variant in the PHB.
8. Potion Miscibility from the DMG. As well as a Narcotic Miscibility table I homebrewed.

[Lance Tankmen]

I was just curious about this rule. Rolling to hit and damage simultaneously can save significant time in a round with a lot of players and doesn't change the outcome so I'm not sure why you'd house rule this as not allowed.

I can see not rolling all the attacks at once if you are concerned that the first or second hit might result in the target being killed though again, depending on the circumstances, this can also make a combat round go by more smoothly. As long as the player designates which dice are the first swing, which second and so on, I'm not sure what the issue might be.

Rolling the dice at once makes the turn go faster but doesn't affect cheating or other unwanted behaviours. Someone who wants to cheat will do so whether they roll the dice individually or as a group.

Its not just the target killed but also fumbles as mentioned. The other reason is I'm Human, even when I DM, some creatures can Parry one attack a round, if i see you rolled minimum damage I likely save the parry for a better hit, or a player has a bardic inspiration he'll not use it for a miss that rolls minimum damage unless Ive described the guy as barely standing i guess. Some effects change when the mystery of damage isn't a mystery.

[Sigreid]

also not really a house rule but there have been lots of arguements about it so, Alignment describes your caracter and matters about as much as hair color. If a character dies their hair, their hair color changes. if the character murder hobos an orphanage their alignment changes simple as that. no one is restricted by their alignment, but your actions can change your alignment.

But that orphanage was coming right at me! I could have been killed! It was self defense I tell you!

[KorvinStarmast]

But that orphanage was coming right at me! I could have been killed! It was self defense I tell you!

I was standing right there, officer. I saw the whole thing.
I felt fear.

[FabulousFizban]

I don't have a major problem with the rules, I do have a major problem not letting players know what rules are in play. That's inherently unfair to players who haven't played at your table before. What do you mean by massive damage? Is that when an opponent Crits or just when a player drops to 0 hp?

massive damage is damage from a single attack in excess of 1/2 your total hit points. the massive damage rule rarely comes up (and i am more passive about it at low levels), so i dont bother mentioning it.

by “bad stuff” i just mean i use the crit fail table. if you use a bow and you crit fail your bowstring snaps, etc. players pick up on it quick.

also, enemies will attack downed players. it is mean, but realistic. enemies have a “kick their head to make sure their dead” mentality. this isn’t ubiquitous, enemies will deal with more pressing threats first, but magic is a real thing and if they are standing next to a downed but breathing barbarian or something they’ll stick him rather than risk him popping back up.

fighting is goddamn dangerous.

[TyGuy]

For leveling up and rolling for HP I set the minimum for each die as:

d6 treat 1s as a 2.
d8 treat 1s & 2s as a 3.
d10 treat 1-3 as a 4.
d12 treat 1-4 as a 5.

This alleviates the perpetual effect of unlucky HP roles without significantly changing the averages.

d6 avg. 3.5 -> 3.7
d8 avg. 4.5 -> 4.9
d10 avg. 5.5 -> 6.1
d12 avg. 6.5 -> 7.3

So for the d6 and d8 the average is still below the no-roll defaults and the d10 & d12 are slightly above, but really close to the no-roll defaults.

[FabulousFizban]

the honor mechanic is just sooo much better than the alignment system. do enough shady ****, and you are an honorless bastard and everyone knows it.

i’ve noticed this actually WORKS to get players to mitigate their murder hoboing. when enough npcs look down their nose at you for having a 2 honor, it gets to you.