Do these houserules seem balanced to you?

[narelith]

Hello, everyone!

I'd like to get a few comments on some of my houserules for a campaign with two players, a cleric with a fighter dip and a wizard with a rogue dip, using retainers. (One of the players also wants to use some of my houserules for her own campaign, which also centres around three full casters.)

I'd like to know if these seem like sensible houserules that won't break the game -- a modest player advantage is fine, and I like to avoid death but I *love* to expose them to danger.

1. Protection from Energy does not require concentration. A character can only benefit from one instance of Protection from Energy at a time.
Justification: Many comparable or better buffs do not require concentration, and Protection from Energy struggles to compete with other spells at its level even before applying concentration.

2. Inspiration may be used after the roll is made. It allows you to roll three dice and take the best result.
Justification: This is simple. Increase its value and make it more unique. I don't hand it out very often (about once or twice per Long Rest is the intent).

3. If you have Inspiration, you may use it when you fail a death saving throw to instead succeed.
Characters at level 11 or above gain Advantage on death saving throws.
Justification: AoE damage increases at higher levels and characters are in much more danger from dying to it at those levels.

4. Critical hits add twice the attacker’s proficiency bonus to the damage dealt; they do not double the number of dice or static damage.
Justification: Critical hits still have a higher potential damage without being a much greater threat to the player characters overall, particularly where large groups of low-level monsters are concerned.

5. Cantrips never require verbal, somatic or material components.
Justification: This fits the flavour of totally rote magic, fits the campaign, and more importantly, it provides a few options while inside Silence. Silence is already weaker than it used to be, but it's still extremely strong.

Again, it's fine if this creates a modest advantage for full caster PCs; those are the campaigns in which these houserules are used. But are there any overarching balance problems that you, the people of the forum, can spot?

Thank you for reading!

[Jerrykhor]

They seem fine. Though i wonder how no.4 interacts with stuff like half-orc racial or barb's Brutal Critical.

[Garfunion]

1. I would add a material component cost to the spell, probably a gem worth 25gp which the spell consumes.

2,3. Inspiration is a DM role playing tool, do what you thinks is best for your group.

4. Critical hits are not calculated into the math of the game, so when they happen they are a “magical” event. Simplifying and reducing the damage is not a problem.

5. Cantrips should at least have a somatic component to match their weapon user counterpart.

I may actually use your crit rule in my games.

[Garfunion]

They seem fine. Though i wonder how no.4 interacts with stuff like half-orc racial or barb's Brutal Critical.
I would simply have them roll the extra weapon damage die.

[Lunali]

Number 4 is a significant change in balance for any class with extra dice for their attacks or spells with attack rolls, doubly so for paladin who can choose to add extra dice after seeing that they crit.

[narelith]

1. I would add a material component cost to the spell, probably a gem worth 25gp which the spell consumes.

I'll definitely do this! Thank you.


5. Cantrips should at least have a somatic component to match their weapon user counterpart.

I'll consider this, too -- it does resolve my problems with Silence while still providing appropriate flavour.


Number 4 is a significant change in balance for any class with extra dice for their attacks or spells with attack rolls, doubly so for paladin who can choose to add extra dice after seeing that they crit.

This is a fair point, and I'll think about this some more, too. It does lower the overall damage of critical attack spells by a bit, which I don't think is a bad thing. And in general, I have fewer problems with damage spikes that benefit the players.

[Bjarkmundur]

1. I would add a material component cost to the spell, probably a gem worth 25gp which the spell consumes.
2,3. Inspiration is a DM role playing tool, do what you thinks is best for your group.
4. Critical hits are not calculated into the math of the game, so when they happen they are a “magical” event. Simplifying and reducing the damage is not a problem.
5. Cantrips should at least have a somatic component to match their weapon user counterpart.
I may actually use your crit rule in my games.

I second all of these. You can see how I did something similar to your 2. and 4 in my houserule document (see sig).
I also added that a crit can only apply once per action, just so monsters with multiattack won't just eat PCs for breakfast.

[Coffee_Dragon]

As noted, rogues will hate #4.

When you boost the utility of inspiration, other effects or abilities that cheat the probabilities in critical situations are similarly devalued. This may or may not be a problem.

[zinycor]

As noted, rogues will hate #4.

When you boost the utility of inspiration, other effects or abilities that cheat the probabilities in critical situations are similarly devalued. This may or may not be a problem.

well the OP seems to have a full caster team, so rogues hating it wouldn't be a problem