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thoroughlyS
2021-04-06, 03:21 PM
Index (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?620527-Dungeons-amp-Dragons-5-1E-%97-Houserules-to-Revise-amp-Revamp-the-Game)

I have been playing Dungeons & Dragons for about half of my life, first introduced to the game at the tail end of v3.5. I have been playing 5E since its release, and it is my favorite version of the game. I feel like the rules are simple, elegant, and cohesive... for the most part. But no game is truly perfect, even to an individual, and there are some rules that I feel were suboptimally implemented. Some build options in the game outshine others, leading to an oversaturation in play. Meanwhile, other build options are so underwhelming that they are neglected an are often called for reworks.

In this thread, I present my list of houserules (listed in red) which have the sole purpose of trying to make bad options good, and the best options merely great. In doing so, I hope to allow players at my table a greater breadth of concepts to explore, simply by making everything worth playing. These changes are to the fighter, making the attack routine fit the Tier breaks (like eldritch blast) and condensing Indomitable into a single level to free up some features in the progression.


Fighter (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QVwBgX8CqqAVf-C56UHoikIjnfSkaNk6/view?usp=sharing)
Protection Fighting Style
While you are using a shield and aren’t incapacitated, allies within 5 feet of you have half cover.
The official Protection Fighting Style had a reasonable effect which fell off in Tier 2, mostly because it was only really good against a single attack. I make it a passive benefit (like the other fighting styles), and limit it using the base rules of the game. This is nice, sure, but your allies have to bunch up around you to really get this benefit, and it doesn't really stack with other characters who have it.
Action Surge
Starting at 2nd level, you can push yourself beyond your normal limits for a moment. On your turn, you can take one additional action. Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again.
The thing to notice here is that this doesn't scale at 17th level. This will make sense when you see the other features.
Extra Attack
Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
The number of attacks increases to three when you reach 11th level in this class and to four when you reach 17th level in this class.
I make this scale at the tier breaks like a cantrip. This is a huge boost to the late game fighter, and the reason Action Surge no longer scales at this level.
Fighting Stance
By 5th level, you have learned to quickly adapt to the flow of combat. On your turn, you can use a bonus action to change the Fighting Style that you gained at 2nd level.
Every other martial gets Extra Attack and something else at this level except the fighter. I give them a big heap of versatility. This isn't really as useful as it might seem, because usually a character will take other options to build up their single fighting style. Your fighter won't be the best at every kind of fighting, but at least they'll keep up.
Indomitable
Beginning at 9th level, you can reroll a saving throw that you fail. If you do so, you are considered proficient in that saving throw, and you must use the new roll. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
The official Indomitable is the only feature fighters get which is long rest based. Why? On top of that, it didn't really do much at these levels if you had a pitiful bonus to begin with. Is it really even worth it to retry if I have a +1 and the DC is 17?
Counterstrikes
At 13th level, your offense can become your best defense. When you are attacked by a creature while wielding a weapon, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on their attacks against you until the start of your next turn. Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again.
A new feature to fill in the hole left by Indomitable. The fighter gets a feature that gives an action, a feature that uses a bonus action, and one that happens for free, so I wanted to give them a feature to use with their reaction. This is kind of like getting shield on a short rest, which isn't wild at these levels.
Peerless Combatant
At 20th level, your mastery over the battlefield is astounding. You can use your Second Wind, Action Surge, Indomitable, and Counterstrikes features twice each between rests.
A new capstone to make the fighter feel more powerful. You get to do everything twice a short rest now.




Paladin (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rCH9PywIr0lmCZf7E4WjvjEvVD9dmlR0/view?usp=sharing)
Divine Smite
Starting at 2nd level, when you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you can expend one spell slot to deal extra radiant or necrotic damage to the target. You choose the type of damage when you gain this feature. The extra damage is 2d8 for a 1st-level spell slot, plus 1d8 for each spell level higher than 1st, to a maximum of 5d8. The damage increases by 1d8 if the target is an undead or a fiend, to a maximum of 6d8.
A small change to allow evil paladins to feel suitably edgy.
Protection Fighting Style
While you are using a shield and aren’t incapacitated, allies within 5 feet of you have half cover.
The official Protection Fighting Style had a reasonable effect which fell off in Tier 2, mostly because it was only really good against a single attack. I make it a passive benefit (like the other fighting styles), and limit it using the base rules of the game. This is nice, sure, but your allies have to bunch up around you to really get this benefit, and it doesn't really stack with other characters who have it.
Aura of Protection
Starting at 6th level, whenever you or a friendly creature within 10 feet of you must make a saving throw while you are conscious, the creature can use your Charisma modifier (minimum +1) in place of their own ability modifier for that saving throw. If they are proficient in that saving throw, they add their proficiency modifier, as normal.
At 18th level, the range of this aura increases to 30 feet.
A substantial nerf, but one I don't think is unwarranted. I just don't like that you can make people even better at the thing they are already the best at. This is still really useful for PROTECTING the meek, but not for getting stupid high modifiers.
Aura of Courage
Starting at 10th level, you and friendly creatures within 10 feet of you can’t be frightened while you are conscious. Any effect causing a friendly creature to be frightened is suppressed while they are within your aura.
At 18th level, the range of this aura increases to 30 feet.
Not so much a change as a clarification. I think this is the most reasonable ruling. Creatures are safe while within your aura.

Yakk
2021-04-07, 10:07 AM
Indomitable just make it legendary resist. Keep it on a long rest; having some feature that isn't tied to short rests is good for inter-party politics.

Protection nice, but static numbers tend to be less fun and more powerful than they look.

Extra attack is stronger than a 2nd action surge I'll admit, and lets you play with 4 attacks for more than the adventure capstone encounters.

However, Gloom3/Fighter 17 becomes a bit silly.

Fighting Stance is a bit fiddly. I'd almost rather it be a subclass feature. Moving around static bonuses is a pain once your character sheet is set up.

In my attempts to fix the Champion, one thing I thought about was to let them do a shove for free when they take an attack action.

Another interesting idea is to fold in a pseudo mark mechanic. Like:

Tactical Threat: When you attack a creature you hit on your last turn, if you have not been hit or failed a saving throw since then, you have advantage on your attack on the creature.

This is a pseudo mark. Basically, when you hit something, if something doesn't connect on you, you get deadlier next turn. The monster is still free to ignore you, at their peril.

This works for every kind of fighter. Melee fighters remove heat from their allies. Archer fighters who position themselves not to be reachable become more deadly.

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Finally, I find the fighter has a durability problem, especially compared to the barbarian. Their only durability features are heavy armor and second wind.

To that end, I boosted second wind so it rolls 1/2 of your fighter levels (min 1) d10s, plus your fighter level.

This only changes at level 4, but by level 20 it becomes 10d10+20 HP, which is a huge chunk of change (roughly 1/2 of the fighter's HP).

In comparison, barbarians almost double their HP with rage (especially bear-barians), even before healing.

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We could lean into "more efficient healing" as well, but I wouldn't until I played more with the "bigger second wind". The fighter has fighter level/2 uses of second wind (min 1). You can use as many as you want to heal Xd10+fighter level as a bonus action. When you are healed, you gain back 1 use of second wind for every die of healing granted.

Now a healing potion heals you for 2d4+2 and gives you back up to 2 uses of second wind. Probably too much.

"When you are healed, for every 10 points you are healed you gain back a use of second wind" might work better. It still boosts the efficiency of using healing magic on the fighter significantly to rival the barbarian.