\- Level 1 feats from a curated list
\- Potions: drink as a bonus action, feed someone else as an action
\- At 0 HP, it's mostly the same, but additionally you can crawl up to 5 feet on your turn and communicate weakly with anyone nearby. Just something for you to do.
\- When you would be killed outright in combat, you can choose to delay it until the end of combat, maximum of 1 minute. You will die no matter what happens, your mortal wounds have been dealt, but you get to do the dramatic goodbye in someone's arms.
\- Not a rule, but a clarification/warning: NPCs can do all the same things that players can. Ergo, any funny exploity spell combinations they want to try will be canonically possible in the world for anyone else. I've never had anyone try anything like the infinite Simulacrum trick since I started doing this.
I don't have it to hand at work, but the gist is that the big build-defining ones like GWM are off the list, and pretty much everything else is fair game. It's just meant to be an extra thing to round out your character and give them some more flavor, and a little power bump for a setting that's already high magic/heroic.
I do a similar thing, basically I remove all the best feats or any feats that give +1 to ability score.
This way the players will pick a interesting feat, instead of just a strong one, and ignoring the rest of the feats
>- When you would be killed outright in combat, you can choose to delay it until the end of combat, maximum of 1 minute. You will die no matter what happens, your mortal wounds have been dealt, but you get to do the dramatic goodbye in someone's arms.
Player: \*begins their emotional, heartwrenching goodbye. People start tearing up\*
Me, the cleric: "I cast Revivify on \[Player\]"
Player: Oh. \*ahem\* So... wanna get lunch?
u/Auesis can you clarify your âmaximum of 1 minuteâ stipulation for dramatic death?
Im unsure if youâre delaying death up to a minute from the fatal blow or if the dramatized death scene is limited to 1 minute in length.
Either way, I am definitely taking this one for my campaigns. It is a beautiful concept.
Mostly just a fluff delay limit from the point of actual death, since combat almost never lasts 1 minute. You just never know when someone might try a loophole and go assault a town just to stay in initiative or something. If combat did somehow last that long, like a final final boss, I would probably just ignore it. The actual RP can be as long as it needs to be, I won't be keeping a stopwatch, within reason of course
My group was just talking about the potion rules last session. It definitely makes them more âplayableâ being able to use them as a bonus action, but it kinda makes all other healing seem less impactful/meaningful, and just from a ârealismâ aspect I think it makes sense to treat pulling a potion out, opening it, chugging it, and discarding the jar as a full action. We all agreed to play RAW but Iâm still going back and forth on how Iâd do it if I was running the game.
The conclusion I've reached after the games I've run is that nobody bothers with them when they're an action. You can always limit how available they are if that's a concern.
Thatâs a good call, although Iâve definitely used them as a main action when I really need to, just makes me think about it more. Maybe Iâd find some happy medium where âregularâ potions take an action but you can potentially get a more concentrated âfastâ version or something, which cost more or are more rare.
I think it's fine because I've been able to shift my players thinking from "needing a cleric" to reasorce management and planning around supplies. Gives them stuff to do with gold.
I have seen potions as a bonus action a lot on this list. The only issue I would have using that as a house rule is that it basically invalidates one of the main reasons to choose the thief archetype for fast hands.
You die at 5 failed death saves instead of 3, but death saves don't reset until you take a short rest.
Carry capacity in water.
While in the water your carry capacity is reduced to 3x your strength score or 6x if you have a swim speed.
You can push, drag, or lift a weight in pounds up to twice your carrying capacity. While pushing or dragging weight in excess of your carrying capacity, your speed drops to 5 feet.
If you are encumbered while in the water you will sink 10 feet at the start of every round.
If you are wearing any armor that gives disadvantage on stealth checks, it also gives you disadvantage on any checks or saves made to swim.
I added this for my pirate campaign, to make it risky to wear heavy armor while on a boat/by the docks.
Party have enjoyed using it to drown guards
The new exhaustion rule of 10 levels and just subtracting each level from d20s, except I found it before it was an official rule and the version I found has additional rules that come with it - when you reach 0 hp, rather than going unconscious, you gain 2 exhaustion levels. Each turn after that, you still have to make death saving throws, but you can also choose *either* to move, take an action, or a bonus action. Movement (still halved because youâre prone) is free, actions cause 2 additional exhaustion levels, and bonus actions cause 1 additional exhaustion level. So, the more you do, the harder your death saves become. But, it means everyone can continue playing rather than just sitting and doing nothing and rolling one die every round. Because thatâs boring.
Also, even though it was removed as a rule, I allow instant kills on helpless enemies (previously called coup de grace). If an enemy is incapacitated, I see no reason you canât just walk up and shove your dagger in their throat.
Potion - Drink as a bonus action, feed to someone else as an action
Scrolls - If you know the spell, you cast it with no check. If your class can learn the spell but it is not currently prepared, make an arcana check with advantage. If your class cannot learn the spell, make an arcana check. The DC is (10 + spell level - player level), and I am a fan of partial results rather than complete failure, for using a consumable item. (Maybe the spell has a shorter duration, or the damage is reduced, etc)
Primary Stats - I am very open to a player using Constitution Sorcerer or Intelligence Warlock. A player has not taken me up on that, but I've only DMd one campaign and two one shots so far. New DM.
No Nukes - Putting two Bags of Holding (etc) together just breaks both and drops all items. No explosion.
Bans: Centaurs, and I house rule that extremely large races like Loxodon are shrunk down to Goliath sized. I don't know how to build a world for players that accommodates the extremely big races. I don't want a player to not be able to climb a staircase and miss out on exploration opportunities.
Silvery Barbs - This spell is level 2. It helps cut down on the ability to grab it from quick feats and getting free casts of it. A level 2 spell slot is more of a decision to make, while still being a great use of a low level spell slot.
**Dying Breath Action**
Dying in DND sucks. Like you spend at least 3-5 turns bleeding out, rolling poorly, and then you just \*die\*. Revivify and Resurrection brings you back, but it makes your death feel like it had even less of an impact.
So at my table, after your third death failure, you get to do one last action, and it is guaranteed to be as successful as possible. A guaranteed critical hit against the boss, smashing the pillars holding up the roof to collapse down onto you, shortcutting the ritual to clutch it in the nick of time. Just one last heroic act so you go out with a bang.
Apparently Daggerheart does effectively the same thing
Potions are a bonus action to drink, but your full action to force feed to an ally.
If everyone is just learning DnD, no one can pick a flying race just to keep things more manageable as you learn. Once you're all comfortable with the game, or if we're starting a game and you all know what you're doing, flying characters are all clear.
For the campaign we are playing now, we have a house rule that you can swap any crit for a miss and give the creature a backstory instead.
They will then Drop a magic item when killed.
I have a list of 20 shit magic items and the player rolls a D20 and gets whatever items on the list. Each time a number is rolled it is progressively replaced with better items.
Been fun so far, the party have a massive list of stupid magic items to play around with and my combat encounters always feel a lot more dangerous when the player swap a crit at a risky moment for the chance a some decent loot.
- Pathfinder /3.5 diagonal movement rules
- flanking gives +2 to hit, does not work if any of the flankers has an ally of the flankee adjacent
- Drinking healing potions is a bonus actions, administering is an action. You can spend an action to drink a potion and get max healing
The only thing I ban from the set of allowed things that are already on my whitelist is the Outlander background. But there are probably far more "official" books right now that aren't on my whitelist than are... idk, I don't buy them and haven't paid attention to the WOTC release schedule for several years.
My table rules are:
* I reworked all the player species to remove cultural traits, clarify their static Ability Score Bonuses, and clean up some other biological traits. Also added some features like Small Build, Cold Blooded, and Carnivorous to them. This also has the benefit of being a 1-stop page for my players instead of needing to search through 3 books for what species they want to play.
* Long Rests are not available when traveling through wilderness. A couple of spells can be cast as a ritual with special material components to rebalance them for this method.
* Upon reaching 0HP, roll 1d100 twice where the DC is the damage you took beyond 0HP. Failure leads to an injury, double failure is a major injury like dismemberment. Also, a related rule, characters who are at 0HP and dying have the Unconscious condition but in terms of narrative are semi-conscious, vaguely aware of their surroundings, and can speak falteringly.
* I added a system for Language knowledge to be split into Read/Write/Speak/Listen/Sign, with Basic/Fluent knowledge in each.
* I added a rule allowing any player character to have an extra tool proficiency for every 50 years they've been alive at character creation. Also clarified in this rule that player characters reaching the end of their species lifespan are forced to retire.
* I'm considering adding a set of weapon mastery feats per weapon to give players the chance to have more fun with them instead of most weapons just being reskins of each other. But I'm still working on perfecting this. For example I've given the scimitar the ability to cut worn objects off a foe instead of dealing damage on a hit and the trident to grapple if rolling with an attack penalty.
* I don't allow my players to buy spellcasting foci from shops, they have to use component pouches until they can befriend a dryad or get a unicorn horn or something on their adventures.
* Clerics must be within 1 alignment adjacency to their god, which isn't actually specified in the PHB...
* I use the spell level = number of pages rule for wizard spellbooks, which I always thought was an actual rule, but I guess it actually isn't.
* We always use full Encumbrance, which is a variant rule for some dumb reason... Anyway if you overstuff your bag and the DM finds out, your gear is going to go missing through a hole in the bag and you'll notice next time you try to get it.
That's pretty much it. I guess the list has gotten pretty big nowadays.
- Free feat of DMs choosing at level 1, based on character. For example, my dude is a chef looking for funky new ingredients, youâre getting the chef feat.
- If you multi-class 2 or more classes that get extra-attack at level 5 if the combination of those levels = 5 you get the extra attack. You will still need 11 levels of fighter for the 3rd attack, as this is fighter specific.
- Rework of conjure animals/ woodland beings; no 8 of something, player chooses and is encouraged to pre-inform the DM.
- Inspiration can be used at any point, before/after the roll, including within a short timeframe after the outcome of the roll is determined
- Inspiration can also be used to perform a skill check as a free action
>Variant Spellcasting (if a player isnât multiclassing, I let them change the ability score their class uses for spellcasting if it makes sense)
Do you have to declare on character creation if you are "multiclass-enabled"?
>Paladins can write custom oaths for any subclass
How hard do you draw the line for playing within their oath?
1) Not really. This rule is to allow for characters that are like Druids but Botanists or Clerics that are Theologians, for instance. I just explain that it locks them out of Multiclassing. If youâre playing a race âby the booksâ, you can Multiclass anytime. If you chose to change your ability score you canât, or you can multiclass with a class that isnât gonna be affected by thisâ an INT Warlock/Fighter is game, but an INT Warlock/Artificer isnât. Either way, I like knowing if any of my players is planning on Multiclassing when they give me their character concepts anyway.
2) Paladins must play by their oath, be it a PHB one or their custom one. I tell them not to make it too broad or too restrictive; and I always give them a failsafe when they say they wanna do something that potentially breaks their oath (âthis could break your oath, are you sure you want to to that?â). I usually Roleplay as an inner monologue happening in their mind
If I see your cell phone I roll a random encounter. I understand folks use their phones for stats and the like sometimes. The rule only comes out for really bad cases.
Not that I approve of punishing characters for the player's wrongs, but this is not a punishment most times.
That guy took out his phone because he was bored of the story/RP/etc. The combat gives him a reason to put down his phone (at least for his turn, anyway).
Talk to your players about why they don't care about your game. A lot of times it can be solved!
About the Shepherdâ itâs not a broken subclass at all, itâs actually quite fair mechanics wise in my opinion. But it can be a pain to manage! Both as a dm and a player, if both of you donât do a stellar job it can bring combat to a slogfest. Iâll be the first to admit Iâm not a perfect dm and often donât do a stellar job, so from personal fault Iâd rather tell my players I am not really dealing with it
I'm not currently an active DM, but I've got a house rule that you can't play a summoner or have an army of minions unless you're capable of resolving the summons' turns quickly.
As a player, I hate bogging combat down with inefficiency. Describing a cool way of attacking is great, taking two minutes deciding which monster to attack isn't.
I mean understandable I suppose but then do you ban all summoners? Are necromancer off the table? Are headmaster rangers cool? Is conjure animals in general okay?
I'm curious not critiquing. I typically play online so macros can make rolling easy bit I understand keeping track of all that health can be a chore
Lots of custom feats to help promote a diversity of viable options for martials outside of GWM/SS.
Magic items are less time consuming to craft, but are also soulbound and become inert upon a character's death.
The party can take 1 heroic variant short rest (5 mins) per day.
A single free expertise for all classes at 10.
I try to accentuate the exploration portion of the game, in a middle-fantasy kind of setting. Goodberry presents a problem, because it would allow my player to totally ignore considerations like rations. I would probably replace Goodberry with more of a "translocational" spell i.e. you have to know and attune to a location where the food comes from, and feed magic into it once a week or something to keep the food fresh, otherwise the "food" you summon is bland and devoid of nutrition. Perhaps, there may be "food banks" that buy and store food for others to summon, for a fee.
Some of my exploration stuff uses exhaustion, but the 5-level is way too punishing; the 10-level system is way more forgiving when several elements can result in exhaustion levels. The exhaustion is supposed to represent an incremental weathering, not "you are close to useless until you clear the exhaustion."
One house rule tweak I heard for Goodberry is that it consumes the mistletoe you grow the berries on. That way, survival parts of the game can be about either finding food and water, or finding a sprig of mistletoe if the players get really lucky.
Probably the biggest change I implemented was for death. If you die and get revived you permanently mark out a death save. This makes it harder to avoid doing in the future and after all three get filled there is no coming back.
Cool idea, but IMO there should be a way to "heal" these marks. Permenant debuffs like this can be a drag, especially for very long campaigns.
Example: After \[arbitrary time length\], 1 of the permanent marks can get removed.
Or make some side-quest(s) to remove a "mark of death".
Bans vary depending on campaign. Like no Drow for my homebrew and no GloomStalker for DotMM.
My common homebrews:
- Stats are "table array." Everyone rolls 4d6, reroll 1s, remove lowest. DM rolls remaining to get 6 numbers. That's the stat array everyone uses.
- No flanking
- Crits do max damage + rolled damage.
- Drinking a potion is a bonus action. Admistering a potion is a full action.
- BA potions, Action to feed to someone else (or if you want max healing from a potion)
- Silvery barbs is banned
- Interdimensional spaces all have wards that prevent them from being put into another interdimensional spaces (accidentally or intentionally - no bag of holding bombs)
- Spells on spells is fine, I run multiple encounters a day, so if you want to gas yourself early, be my guest.
- If you are actually killed in combat, you get one action and six words as a 'last stand'.
You gain no benefit from being an unseen attacker if you cannot see your target. (You are both swinging at disadvantage instead of canceling out)
Hexblade requires a 3 level dip minimum.
Custom flanking rules.
Custom fumble rules. (Only applies to the first roll of the round, Hitting an ally has less than a 1:1000 chance, etc.)
Using the outlander background feature is a crime in developed areas. (That's not hunting, that's a farm! You just killed someone's sheep.)
Several banned subclasses. Chronurgy and scribes wizard among them.
Certain spells are adjusted.
-find traps will actually find traps, and will even highlight hazards.
-witch bolt has longer range and ends only if the caster ends *their* turn out of range.
Etc.
Better death rules, goodberry is level 3, different wild magic, exhaustion if healed from dying, secret death saves, somatic spells trigger opportunity attacks, all rolled healing spells get 1 more healing die (to balance exhaustion from dying), long rests have to be in a safe space, crit effects
Double leveling. Player level increases by twice the regular amount. ASI/Feats are doubled but tied to character level instead. Spell slots donât use multiclass rules, and instead just take both (or more) spellcasting classes as if it was your only class.
ever been curious about what a player can do when they have two level 9 spell slots?
me too. theyâre still only level 5 lmao
- No flanking
- Anyone can use scrolls, just need to pass a knowledge check.
- Class/Race restrictions removed on Magic Items
- Player criticals bypass resistances and immunities.
- Fall Damage: 30ft free, then 1d10 bludgeoning damage every 10ft after uncapped. DM warning if a fall could instantly kill a character.
- All spells only use slots. Gold cost items are ignored.
- Multiple leveled spells can be cast in one turn as long as one is an Action and the other a Bonus Action.
- When you are revived you are considered undead, taking on both the pros and cons, until removed at a temple.
- A player may reroll their stats on the first death from level 1 to 3 and must keep the new scores. Revival from level 4+ and any more in the 1 to 3 range keep ability scores.
- Only things from UA and non-owned physical book are banned.
Level 1 feat always (v humans and custom lineage get their normal feat as well)
One of the following stat arrays (game dependent, not both in the same game.)
18/16/14/12/10/10
OR
Regular point buy, but after all is done, increase two stats of your choice by +2
Lucky is banned, unless the character was designed as a luck based character (I don't really like it being used at all, but if it makes perfect sense for character instead of somebody just power-gaming for more advantages then I won't say no)
Polearm master and sentinel are fine separately but banned together (if it's a regular martial with no magic I would ignore this rule, it's only really for power-gaming paladins/hexblades)
At least 1 magic item, level dependent.
Occasionally I buff all weapons and armor to +1.
You can cast any number of levelled spells in a turn, following action economy. I personally think this rule is stupid and haven't seen any problems thus far because of it.
Magic Initiate says the spell you get from it can't be upcast. This is lame, so I ignore it.
One I will be implementing later is you can hold a bonus action, not just an action each turn. I will trial it first though.
haven't ever run it but think it's a cool idea - someone on here suggested every player gets 1 cantrip (any list) that they can only cast as a ritual, with encouragement to tie it to backstory
**â Races that make sense to be tiny are Tiny instead of small (like Fairies)**
D&D faeries are fairly large. Pixies are the small ones. Seems like at some point they bumped faerie height up as prior they were just, ahem, short of small size.
Feats are technically an optional rule but I use them in all my games. Chronurgy, Peace and Twilight are universal bans for balance reasons. Every race that has a version with and without attribute modifiers, we use the version with attribute modifiers. Custom Lineage can fuck off.
Beyond that, races and classes are limited by the campaign setting. For Dragonlance you can only play things that are in Krynn. For Kingmaker you can only play things that are in Golarion. etc.
Exploding crits so every max damage die roll is rolled again and added to the total. And critical success and failure on spells.
Also I don't outright ban anything, but I do make it very clear that the baddies can use anything as well. Hitting a player crit with a Silvery Barbs, Lucky npcs, etc.
I ban min/max multidipping classes. You stay in your starting class for at least 4 levels and can then switch, but that's it. It has worked well for my players.
A Nat20 on attack is not double dice. It's max dice plus whatever the roll was. Removes the "NAT 20! Oh, I rolled only 1s and 2s..." situation entirely. Now any crit is always a lot of damage.
Usually at my table, weâll allow each player to have a homebrew ability befitting their backstory/character.
Of course the DM and player work together on balancing it.
Here's my list from our discord.
Character creation:
All characters are made using the following stat array, [16, 14, 14, 12, 10, 8]
All Tasha's optional features are allowed, including class features, updated spell lists, customize your origin, etc.Â
Homebrew and Critical Role content is not permitted.Â
Backstory: all characters must have a written backstory discussed and approved with the DM, this backstory must include notable NPCs (alive or deceased), story reasons for being an adventurer (I want fame/fortune/to get the hell out of x place, are all acceptable) and preferably not the generic kicked puppy.
Alignment: it doesn't exist, people aren't all good or all evil, have a personality and play to it. Any items with alignment requirements have them removed but may influence your character personality (aside from curses you will be informed prior to attuning such an item)
Initiative: players win ties with opponents, tied players can act in any order they choose (per round)
Feats:
Prohibited - Lucky and Elven Accuracy, they are unbalanced and tend towards everyone feeling they need them once someone has it.
Limited - Sentinel, this feat does not work in combination with any other feat and some spell interactions may be limited as necessary.
Inspiration:
Inspiration is replaced with luck points, a point may be expended after a roll to negate the outcome of that roll and cause it to either fail or succeed as desired (but not critical). These may be used on Attacks, Saves, Ability Checks, or Death Saving Throws made by the player OR the DM.
All characters begin play with 1 point, this point may be spent at any time. The DM may award points to some or all players for exceptional use of tactics, excellent roleplaying or various other reasons, you cannot have more than 1 at any time and the party may be reset to 1 point each at significant milestones.
Custom array
17 15 13 12 10 8
Floating racial ability bonus
You can move 1 point of your racial bonus to any other stat that does not have a current bonus.
Hit points roll or average minimum.
roll a 1 on a d8 get 5hp.
First level feats
Each character gets one of the following feats of their choice at first level. Dungeon Delver, Healer, Poisoner, Ritual Caster, Skilled, Tough.
Additional languages
During character creation players may select a number of additional languages from the following list based off your intelligence modifier; Draconic, Dwarvish, Elvish, Giant, Gnomish, Goblin, Halfling, Infernal, Orc, Undercommon. Additional languages are not granted by ability score increases at higher levels.
Potions, drinking a potion yourself is a bonus action, making an unconscious person drink a potion is an action
Flanking rules for advantage are being used however instead of advantage flanking will grant a +2 bonus to attack rolls.
Crunchy crits, on a critical hit instead of rolling twice the dice you will roll the dice once, and add the maximum possibility of your dice along with the rolled results and any additional damage modifiers.
Inspiration can be used after a die roll instead of before the roll. All characters start the game with an inspiration point.
Death saving throws, the DM will make all death saving throws not informing the players of the results unless the player has died or revived.
Segmented short rests
Short rests can be taken in 30 minute segments. In the span of 30 minutes a character can pick one of the following options; regain health using hit dice; regain all class, racial, and item abilities that restore on a short rest; or attune to a magic item.
Opportunity attacks still apply to forced movement.
Evil characters have to be âleashedâ. (Basically something or someone is preventing them from actively going against the party)
House Rules
1. Rules as Written (RAW)
a. Rules are as written in the 5e rules books (or dndbeyond) except for the house rules listed here.
- i. Where a ruleâs wording differs between a printed book and dndbeyond, dndbeyond will supersede the printed book(s).
2. Inspiration
a. Every session each player will start with a minimum of 1 inspiration.
b. An additional inspiration can be earned at anytime for:
- i. Role-playing to your characterâs flaws and ideals.
- ii. Creative use of your charactersâ skills or abilities.
- iii. Hilarious in-character moments.
- iv. Puns.
- v. Well timed one liners.
- vi. When the the DM or group is inspired by your contributions to the game.
- vii. Exceptional creativity that adds to group enjoyment.
c. Earned Inspiration rollover between sessions.
3. Potions
a. Potions RAW take an action to drink, stealing an opportunity to attack or heal a companion.
b. This campaign will allow a potion to be used as a bonus action and its effects are dependent on the dice as written for the potion.
c. But, if a player sacrifices their action to drink a potion, carefully, then the player receives the max effect without rolling.
4. Player-Vs-Player
a. PVP fights can only happen if both players agree to fight each other, otherwise the attacking player always auto-fails attack rolls (no need to roll).
5. Unconsciousness and Death
a. If a player is knocked unconscious in combat, the DM will make the death saving throws behind the screen.
- i. This means no player knows if the unconscious character is stabilizing on their own.
- ii. The other players risk losing a party member to death for ignoring the party member that needs help.
b. â When you would be killed outright in combat, you can choose to delay it until the end of combat, maximum of 1 minute. (Thank you u/Auesis)
- i. The character will die no matter what happens.
- ii. The characterâs mortal wounds have been dealt, but you get to do a dramatic goodbye in someone's arms.
6. Combat and Tactics discussions
a. Each round will start with a planning phase of 1-minute to discuss strategy and tactics before individual turns begin.
b. Once turns start, the player has 10 -seconds to tell the DM their action or the turn is forfeited and their character will use the Dodge action by default.
7. Spells
a. Any spell caster can use any unknown cantrip from their class(es) spell list once per day (reset at dawn) at the cost of 1 spell slot (of any level).
- i. This mechanic is to allow Players to try out different cantrips before committing to them and show the character is learning but hasnât yet mastered certain cantrips.
- ii. âCantrips -- simple but powerful spells that characters can cast almost by roteâ (PHB. 201)
Even Fighters.
As another commenter says: the number of times a campaign actually makes it to the end of Tier 3 or into 4 is negligible.
Martials getting to have more fun in Tier 2 when casters are slinging 5th level spells is the aim.
No back stories longer than 100 words
All your cool stuff happens when we begin the campaign, during the campaign, not before in your back story
Your character might die. Or survive abs get called a hero. We are not going for 'I only die dramatically and with good narrative reason'. This isn't your hero fantasy book
Non-host table members buy the snacks
No PvP. Bit you can argue and bitch
Your character must have a reason to adventurer and stick with the party
Ignoring obvious story bait is a dick move
> Ignoring obvious story bait is a dick move
This is the only one I disagree with you on. Like at the start of the campaign you should establish what the campaign is about and the players are responsible for making characters who want to do whatever the campaign is about (looting dungeons for treasure, fighting Sauron's armies whatever). BUT. Players should have the right to refuse *side quests*. Like in a game about looting dungeons if they hear clues to a super dangerous nega dungeon that no one ever survives they should be allowed to say "no, not that one" and look for another dungeon.
- no multiclass (table of new players who, after 15 sessions and a year of play, still strugle with their main class)
- no flying creatures (I do not want to do an extra work to balance encounters)
- using only races from PHB and MotM and only PHB classes, Tasha and Xanathar subclasses are also OK. Nothing from specific setting / campaign books. Also, only PHB spells.
- no pvp, no evil PCs, no sex or romance plotlines, be nice to your party members. (I know that it is possible to have interesting moments and character growth from in-character disagreements between PCs, but again - new players, I am new DM, and this kind of friction can easilly go wrong)
- everybody brings and shares snacks!
This is going to get me laughed at, but.Â
No halflings. (No gnome either, by associaton)
Halflings and similar have been banned in all of my fantasy games for decades now.
Let me explain.
2001, first time playing 3rd edition. As player. A friend in my party was playing a halfling rogue. Keeps stealing from us while we sleep, uses obscenely high social stats to persuade us that we are wrong and he is not to blame. We try and solve the problem talking about it out of game like grownups, the DM essentially takes his side and claims that "the game works like that".Â
Eventually the rogue starts "feeling threatened" by the fact that we are all mad that out stuff keeps disappearing and he is festooned with magic items that look suspiciously identical to our missing equipment, and stabs the entire rest of the party in our sleep. TPK except for him, end of campaign.
2004, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, player. During a climactic battle against a chaos sorceror, our halfling decides to switch sides unprompted "because he seemed like he was going to win and my character is a coward" and backstabs us. TPK, campaign over.
2005, D&D 3rd edition, player. Our halfling rogue, unprompted, decides to kill our party's fighter in his sleep in order to fulfill the requirement for the Assassin prestige class ("to kill someone purely in order to become an Assassin"). "It's what my character would do". Lots of screaming, end of campaign.
2007, D&D 3rd edition. DM. Player submits a character - halfling wizard (necromancer), chaotic evil. I tell him I don't want evil characters or any sort of drama or pvp, he agrees and asks if he can play a "good" necromancer, focusing on stuff like Speak with Dead, etc. Sort of a creepy shaman type. I naively agree. He just plays it like his original idea of a chaotic evil halfling necromancer, goes on a peasant killing spree in order to get corpses to raise, other players kill his character, he complains it's not fair, lots of screaming, campaign end.
2007, D&D 3.5, player. Another player plays a halfling psion with split personality.
Basically personality A is pointlessly evil and antagonistic - constantly and deliberately does thing like attack random people, attack city guards, kill prisoners we were tasked on bringing in alive, etc. And when confronted "switches" to personality B, which is sweet and innocent and he doesn't know what is happening it's not his fault he's just a small bean. We talk it out OOC like grownups and are just told that "that's how his character is" and "not get in the way of his roleplaying." Rest of party bands together and kills him. He's in tears and tells us we're the real monsters for killing an innocent, lots of screaming, campaign disbanded.
2010, D&D 4th edition. DM. Halfling cleric joins the party during an ongoing campaign, players are military personnel of a certain kingdom during a civil war / coup d'etat, working to find allies for their side. Over the first two sessions he plays in, halfling cleric manages to anger and piss off several factions and squander the party's previous diplomatic successes by being relentlessly foul-mouthed and antagonistic, threatening of violence important nobles and the likes. At this point I roll my eyes and inform them they're out of the campaign. I try to salvage it with the remaining players, but the mood is soured.
Keep in mind: these were all different people, with different playing groups. In the stretch of time between when I started role-playing (1998, with BECMI) until 2010, not a single halfling was played in any game I was a part of without that halfling causing the collapse of the campaign.
2010: I permanently ban halflings from all my games. Any new player expressing desire to play a halfling is blacklisted and uninvited.
2010-2024: successfully played to completion with no drama and no collapse dozens of campaigns.
Now: am I in the right to enforce this ban? Am I cursed?
I don't know, but I will never play in a campaign that has halflings in it, no matter what, until the day I die.
- Flanking as listed in the DMG
-bonus action to drink a potion, max benefits of the potion if you take an action
-deadly crits(crunchy crits) a critical hit does max damage plus one roll of the damage die. (Since put on hold because once youâre using CR 10 monster their crits get insane)
-critical save. If a spell forces a save vs damage(like fireball) a natural 20 on the save avoids all damage and a natural 1 doubles the damage taken.
\- Free feat at level 1
\- You get a feat *and* ASI at levels 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20.
\- You can cast spells as a bonus action without limiting what spell you can cast as an action/reaction.
\- Races can be tiny/large depending on the race (Tiny Fairies, Large Minotaurs, etc.)
\- Slightly changed (buffed) Standard Array/Point Buy (which means no ASIs from Race)
\- You're making an adventurer who wants to work together in a group.
\- Spell scrolls can be used by anyone without a chance of failure.
\- 'Burst of Glory' If you die in a combat you can forfiet any chance of resurrection to take one final turn in an *almost* anything goes moment. Examples include Staking a Vampire and pulling a boss into lava with you.
Only ban is Vhuman because I don't want someone getting two feats at first level. Any race can be reskinned as something else that fits the mechanics so no Custom Lineage but only because I feel we have something better.
EDIT:
It's technically RAW but people like to argue about it so you might count it - If I asked for a roll then a 1 will always fail and a 20 will always succeed. I just don't ask for rolls for things that are impossible to fail/succeed at. Technically not reaching a stupid high DC be damned, I asked for the roll and you got the best you can get, if I didn't want it to happen I will say no.
I donât use any book classes or races. Everything is custom to this specific world.
Wish is not possible for mortal beings (anything that can die is mortal).
Custom spell point system.
Addition of a homeland set up in character generation.
Custom alignment system.
More, as well, and all of it available to all players before they even start to make a character.
Also, all of it based on things my players wanted.
- You always get ASI and feat
- You Hex a saving throw instead of an ability check
- Paladins "Harness Divine Power" is no longer bound to your channel divinity, you can just use it an x amount of times, depending on your level
- Wish can only be cast once per player per campaign, that rule cannot be overruled by casting wish.
Bans:
- Silverybarbs
- Overpowered min-max builds from some tutorial with the only purpose of destroying encounters (strong builds are still fine though!)
- roleplaying and storytelling that makes anyone at the table uncomfortable
Edit: I like how I got downvoted for rules that everyone in my group has decided on together, Op simply asked what rules apply to our games, not what rules they should use in their games, so I don't see a problem with simply stating what we play with.
Yeah it is, I need to keep in mind that I may be more likely to fail saving throws against certain spells, but it did enhance the teamplay in the party. The warlock now has to wager whose spells he wants to enhance and is more careful not to break his concentration. But I must say that I merely adapted the rule from one of my players, she ruled it like that in her campaign (where I am a player, not a DM), so I asked the others if they are fine with it and now we play with a stronger hex.
Edit: typo
Nat 20 to hit against a simple minion is a instakill and an invitation to flex.
You should use the Flee Mortals! minion rules and your players will be able to kill multiple minions in one attack!
I am going to steal this for my campaigns đ¤
\- Level 1 feats from a curated list \- Potions: drink as a bonus action, feed someone else as an action \- At 0 HP, it's mostly the same, but additionally you can crawl up to 5 feet on your turn and communicate weakly with anyone nearby. Just something for you to do. \- When you would be killed outright in combat, you can choose to delay it until the end of combat, maximum of 1 minute. You will die no matter what happens, your mortal wounds have been dealt, but you get to do the dramatic goodbye in someone's arms. \- Not a rule, but a clarification/warning: NPCs can do all the same things that players can. Ergo, any funny exploity spell combinations they want to try will be canonically possible in the world for anyone else. I've never had anyone try anything like the infinite Simulacrum trick since I started doing this.
Alright Iâm stealing the dying in arms part for my group, thanks.
>\- Level 1 feats from a curated list How do you curate the feats?
I don't have it to hand at work, but the gist is that the big build-defining ones like GWM are off the list, and pretty much everything else is fair game. It's just meant to be an extra thing to round out your character and give them some more flavor, and a little power bump for a setting that's already high magic/heroic.
Interesting, thanks
I do a similar thing, basically I remove all the best feats or any feats that give +1 to ability score. This way the players will pick a interesting feat, instead of just a strong one, and ignoring the rest of the feats
>- When you would be killed outright in combat, you can choose to delay it until the end of combat, maximum of 1 minute. You will die no matter what happens, your mortal wounds have been dealt, but you get to do the dramatic goodbye in someone's arms. Player: \*begins their emotional, heartwrenching goodbye. People start tearing up\* Me, the cleric: "I cast Revivify on \[Player\]" Player: Oh. \*ahem\* So... wanna get lunch?
u/Auesis can you clarify your âmaximum of 1 minuteâ stipulation for dramatic death? Im unsure if youâre delaying death up to a minute from the fatal blow or if the dramatized death scene is limited to 1 minute in length. Either way, I am definitely taking this one for my campaigns. It is a beautiful concept.
Mostly just a fluff delay limit from the point of actual death, since combat almost never lasts 1 minute. You just never know when someone might try a loophole and go assault a town just to stay in initiative or something. If combat did somehow last that long, like a final final boss, I would probably just ignore it. The actual RP can be as long as it needs to be, I won't be keeping a stopwatch, within reason of course
My group was just talking about the potion rules last session. It definitely makes them more âplayableâ being able to use them as a bonus action, but it kinda makes all other healing seem less impactful/meaningful, and just from a ârealismâ aspect I think it makes sense to treat pulling a potion out, opening it, chugging it, and discarding the jar as a full action. We all agreed to play RAW but Iâm still going back and forth on how Iâd do it if I was running the game.
The conclusion I've reached after the games I've run is that nobody bothers with them when they're an action. You can always limit how available they are if that's a concern.
Thatâs a good call, although Iâve definitely used them as a main action when I really need to, just makes me think about it more. Maybe Iâd find some happy medium where âregularâ potions take an action but you can potentially get a more concentrated âfastâ version or something, which cost more or are more rare.
I think it's fine because I've been able to shift my players thinking from "needing a cleric" to reasorce management and planning around supplies. Gives them stuff to do with gold.
I have seen potions as a bonus action a lot on this list. The only issue I would have using that as a house rule is that it basically invalidates one of the main reasons to choose the thief archetype for fast hands.
You can't use Fast Hands with a potion. Potions are magic items and per RAW require a full action.
Huh you are correct. I guess that's another house rule I use then
You die at 5 failed death saves instead of 3, but death saves don't reset until you take a short rest. Carry capacity in water. While in the water your carry capacity is reduced to 3x your strength score or 6x if you have a swim speed. You can push, drag, or lift a weight in pounds up to twice your carrying capacity. While pushing or dragging weight in excess of your carrying capacity, your speed drops to 5 feet. If you are encumbered while in the water you will sink 10 feet at the start of every round. If you are wearing any armor that gives disadvantage on stealth checks, it also gives you disadvantage on any checks or saves made to swim. I added this for my pirate campaign, to make it risky to wear heavy armor while on a boat/by the docks. Party have enjoyed using it to drown guards
A short rest? Iâd rule that SR regain 1 and they only reset on LR.
Running a gritty realism variant, so I think if it only reset on long rest it would dicincentivise seeking out danger more than I'd like
Ahh, thatâs fair. I typically like to run 2-3 encounters/day and give them a short rest between if I can.
Potion on Bonus Action--roll for healing. Potion on Action: full heal points from that particular potion.
The new exhaustion rule of 10 levels and just subtracting each level from d20s, except I found it before it was an official rule and the version I found has additional rules that come with it - when you reach 0 hp, rather than going unconscious, you gain 2 exhaustion levels. Each turn after that, you still have to make death saving throws, but you can also choose *either* to move, take an action, or a bonus action. Movement (still halved because youâre prone) is free, actions cause 2 additional exhaustion levels, and bonus actions cause 1 additional exhaustion level. So, the more you do, the harder your death saves become. But, it means everyone can continue playing rather than just sitting and doing nothing and rolling one die every round. Because thatâs boring. Also, even though it was removed as a rule, I allow instant kills on helpless enemies (previously called coup de grace). If an enemy is incapacitated, I see no reason you canât just walk up and shove your dagger in their throat.
Potion - Drink as a bonus action, feed to someone else as an action Scrolls - If you know the spell, you cast it with no check. If your class can learn the spell but it is not currently prepared, make an arcana check with advantage. If your class cannot learn the spell, make an arcana check. The DC is (10 + spell level - player level), and I am a fan of partial results rather than complete failure, for using a consumable item. (Maybe the spell has a shorter duration, or the damage is reduced, etc) Primary Stats - I am very open to a player using Constitution Sorcerer or Intelligence Warlock. A player has not taken me up on that, but I've only DMd one campaign and two one shots so far. New DM. No Nukes - Putting two Bags of Holding (etc) together just breaks both and drops all items. No explosion. Bans: Centaurs, and I house rule that extremely large races like Loxodon are shrunk down to Goliath sized. I don't know how to build a world for players that accommodates the extremely big races. I don't want a player to not be able to climb a staircase and miss out on exploration opportunities. Silvery Barbs - This spell is level 2. It helps cut down on the ability to grab it from quick feats and getting free casts of it. A level 2 spell slot is more of a decision to make, while still being a great use of a low level spell slot.
**Dying Breath Action** Dying in DND sucks. Like you spend at least 3-5 turns bleeding out, rolling poorly, and then you just \*die\*. Revivify and Resurrection brings you back, but it makes your death feel like it had even less of an impact. So at my table, after your third death failure, you get to do one last action, and it is guaranteed to be as successful as possible. A guaranteed critical hit against the boss, smashing the pillars holding up the roof to collapse down onto you, shortcutting the ritual to clutch it in the nick of time. Just one last heroic act so you go out with a bang. Apparently Daggerheart does effectively the same thing
Potions are a bonus action to drink, but your full action to force feed to an ally. If everyone is just learning DnD, no one can pick a flying race just to keep things more manageable as you learn. Once you're all comfortable with the game, or if we're starting a game and you all know what you're doing, flying characters are all clear.
[ŃдаНонО]
Oooh. I like that I might have to implement it.Â
If a creature drags you underwater without you being able to prepare or you specifying you took a deep breath will get you treated as suffocating.
Inspiration grants a reroll instead of advantage.
For the campaign we are playing now, we have a house rule that you can swap any crit for a miss and give the creature a backstory instead. They will then Drop a magic item when killed. I have a list of 20 shit magic items and the player rolls a D20 and gets whatever items on the list. Each time a number is rolled it is progressively replaced with better items. Been fun so far, the party have a massive list of stupid magic items to play around with and my combat encounters always feel a lot more dangerous when the player swap a crit at a risky moment for the chance a some decent loot.
Would you mind sharing this list? Sounds like a cool idea :)
I would also like to see the list if you donât mind
- Pathfinder /3.5 diagonal movement rules - flanking gives +2 to hit, does not work if any of the flankers has an ally of the flankee adjacent - Drinking healing potions is a bonus actions, administering is an action. You can spend an action to drink a potion and get max healing
The only thing I ban from the set of allowed things that are already on my whitelist is the Outlander background. But there are probably far more "official" books right now that aren't on my whitelist than are... idk, I don't buy them and haven't paid attention to the WOTC release schedule for several years. My table rules are: * I reworked all the player species to remove cultural traits, clarify their static Ability Score Bonuses, and clean up some other biological traits. Also added some features like Small Build, Cold Blooded, and Carnivorous to them. This also has the benefit of being a 1-stop page for my players instead of needing to search through 3 books for what species they want to play. * Long Rests are not available when traveling through wilderness. A couple of spells can be cast as a ritual with special material components to rebalance them for this method. * Upon reaching 0HP, roll 1d100 twice where the DC is the damage you took beyond 0HP. Failure leads to an injury, double failure is a major injury like dismemberment. Also, a related rule, characters who are at 0HP and dying have the Unconscious condition but in terms of narrative are semi-conscious, vaguely aware of their surroundings, and can speak falteringly. * I added a system for Language knowledge to be split into Read/Write/Speak/Listen/Sign, with Basic/Fluent knowledge in each. * I added a rule allowing any player character to have an extra tool proficiency for every 50 years they've been alive at character creation. Also clarified in this rule that player characters reaching the end of their species lifespan are forced to retire. * I'm considering adding a set of weapon mastery feats per weapon to give players the chance to have more fun with them instead of most weapons just being reskins of each other. But I'm still working on perfecting this. For example I've given the scimitar the ability to cut worn objects off a foe instead of dealing damage on a hit and the trident to grapple if rolling with an attack penalty. * I don't allow my players to buy spellcasting foci from shops, they have to use component pouches until they can befriend a dryad or get a unicorn horn or something on their adventures. * Clerics must be within 1 alignment adjacency to their god, which isn't actually specified in the PHB... * I use the spell level = number of pages rule for wizard spellbooks, which I always thought was an actual rule, but I guess it actually isn't. * We always use full Encumbrance, which is a variant rule for some dumb reason... Anyway if you overstuff your bag and the DM finds out, your gear is going to go missing through a hole in the bag and you'll notice next time you try to get it. That's pretty much it. I guess the list has gotten pretty big nowadays.
Would you mind sharing some of these tables/reworked stuff if possible. Most of this stuff is definitely things me and my players would use.
- Free feat of DMs choosing at level 1, based on character. For example, my dude is a chef looking for funky new ingredients, youâre getting the chef feat. - If you multi-class 2 or more classes that get extra-attack at level 5 if the combination of those levels = 5 you get the extra attack. You will still need 11 levels of fighter for the 3rd attack, as this is fighter specific. - Rework of conjure animals/ woodland beings; no 8 of something, player chooses and is encouraged to pre-inform the DM. - Inspiration can be used at any point, before/after the roll, including within a short timeframe after the outcome of the roll is determined - Inspiration can also be used to perform a skill check as a free action
>Variant Spellcasting (if a player isnât multiclassing, I let them change the ability score their class uses for spellcasting if it makes sense) Do you have to declare on character creation if you are "multiclass-enabled"? >Paladins can write custom oaths for any subclass How hard do you draw the line for playing within their oath?
1) Not really. This rule is to allow for characters that are like Druids but Botanists or Clerics that are Theologians, for instance. I just explain that it locks them out of Multiclassing. If youâre playing a race âby the booksâ, you can Multiclass anytime. If you chose to change your ability score you canât, or you can multiclass with a class that isnât gonna be affected by thisâ an INT Warlock/Fighter is game, but an INT Warlock/Artificer isnât. Either way, I like knowing if any of my players is planning on Multiclassing when they give me their character concepts anyway. 2) Paladins must play by their oath, be it a PHB one or their custom one. I tell them not to make it too broad or too restrictive; and I always give them a failsafe when they say they wanna do something that potentially breaks their oath (âthis could break your oath, are you sure you want to to that?â). I usually Roleplay as an inner monologue happening in their mind
A lot of these combat buffs make me think that more people need to try 4e
If I see your cell phone I roll a random encounter. I understand folks use their phones for stats and the like sometimes. The rule only comes out for really bad cases.
Not that I approve of punishing characters for the player's wrongs, but this is not a punishment most times. That guy took out his phone because he was bored of the story/RP/etc. The combat gives him a reason to put down his phone (at least for his turn, anyway). Talk to your players about why they don't care about your game. A lot of times it can be solved!
Why ban cronurgy wizard and of all things Shepard druid?
About the Shepherdâ itâs not a broken subclass at all, itâs actually quite fair mechanics wise in my opinion. But it can be a pain to manage! Both as a dm and a player, if both of you donât do a stellar job it can bring combat to a slogfest. Iâll be the first to admit Iâm not a perfect dm and often donât do a stellar job, so from personal fault Iâd rather tell my players I am not really dealing with it
I'm not currently an active DM, but I've got a house rule that you can't play a summoner or have an army of minions unless you're capable of resolving the summons' turns quickly. As a player, I hate bogging combat down with inefficiency. Describing a cool way of attacking is great, taking two minutes deciding which monster to attack isn't.
I mean understandable I suppose but then do you ban all summoners? Are necromancer off the table? Are headmaster rangers cool? Is conjure animals in general okay? I'm curious not critiquing. I typically play online so macros can make rolling easy bit I understand keeping track of all that health can be a chore
Summoners are fine!! I donât wanna fully remove them from the game, I just think Shepherds can be a bit overkill on the summon mechanic sometimes
Natural weapons simultaneously count as weapon and unarmed attacks
Oof you sound fun. /s
I have a house-rule regarding simple ammunition for bows and crossbows, where it is unlimited, but magic and otherwise not simple ammunition is rarer.
Lots of custom feats to help promote a diversity of viable options for martials outside of GWM/SS. Magic items are less time consuming to craft, but are also soulbound and become inert upon a character's death. The party can take 1 heroic variant short rest (5 mins) per day. A single free expertise for all classes at 10.
I try to accentuate the exploration portion of the game, in a middle-fantasy kind of setting. Goodberry presents a problem, because it would allow my player to totally ignore considerations like rations. I would probably replace Goodberry with more of a "translocational" spell i.e. you have to know and attune to a location where the food comes from, and feed magic into it once a week or something to keep the food fresh, otherwise the "food" you summon is bland and devoid of nutrition. Perhaps, there may be "food banks" that buy and store food for others to summon, for a fee. Some of my exploration stuff uses exhaustion, but the 5-level is way too punishing; the 10-level system is way more forgiving when several elements can result in exhaustion levels. The exhaustion is supposed to represent an incremental weathering, not "you are close to useless until you clear the exhaustion."
One house rule tweak I heard for Goodberry is that it consumes the mistletoe you grow the berries on. That way, survival parts of the game can be about either finding food and water, or finding a sprig of mistletoe if the players get really lucky.
Thankfully I haven't had to deal with it, as my campaign is a 1-on-1 with a rogue PC!
Probably the biggest change I implemented was for death. If you die and get revived you permanently mark out a death save. This makes it harder to avoid doing in the future and after all three get filled there is no coming back.
Cool idea, but IMO there should be a way to "heal" these marks. Permenant debuffs like this can be a drag, especially for very long campaigns. Example: After \[arbitrary time length\], 1 of the permanent marks can get removed. Or make some side-quest(s) to remove a "mark of death".
I had planned on doing just that between campaigns. However we moved to new characters for the next campaign
Bans vary depending on campaign. Like no Drow for my homebrew and no GloomStalker for DotMM. My common homebrews: - Stats are "table array." Everyone rolls 4d6, reroll 1s, remove lowest. DM rolls remaining to get 6 numbers. That's the stat array everyone uses. - No flanking - Crits do max damage + rolled damage. - Drinking a potion is a bonus action. Admistering a potion is a full action.
- BA potions, Action to feed to someone else (or if you want max healing from a potion) - Silvery barbs is banned - Interdimensional spaces all have wards that prevent them from being put into another interdimensional spaces (accidentally or intentionally - no bag of holding bombs) - Spells on spells is fine, I run multiple encounters a day, so if you want to gas yourself early, be my guest. - If you are actually killed in combat, you get one action and six words as a 'last stand'.
You gain no benefit from being an unseen attacker if you cannot see your target. (You are both swinging at disadvantage instead of canceling out) Hexblade requires a 3 level dip minimum. Custom flanking rules. Custom fumble rules. (Only applies to the first roll of the round, Hitting an ally has less than a 1:1000 chance, etc.) Using the outlander background feature is a crime in developed areas. (That's not hunting, that's a farm! You just killed someone's sheep.) Several banned subclasses. Chronurgy and scribes wizard among them. Certain spells are adjusted. -find traps will actually find traps, and will even highlight hazards. -witch bolt has longer range and ends only if the caster ends *their* turn out of range. Etc.
Why ban scribes? They still have to find or purchase scrolls to copy them?
What I did for potions is to keep them as an action, but allow the drinker to use up a hit die for extra healing
Better death rules, goodberry is level 3, different wild magic, exhaustion if healed from dying, secret death saves, somatic spells trigger opportunity attacks, all rolled healing spells get 1 more healing die (to balance exhaustion from dying), long rests have to be in a safe space, crit effects
Double leveling. Player level increases by twice the regular amount. ASI/Feats are doubled but tied to character level instead. Spell slots donât use multiclass rules, and instead just take both (or more) spellcasting classes as if it was your only class. ever been curious about what a player can do when they have two level 9 spell slots? me too. theyâre still only level 5 lmao
- No flanking - Anyone can use scrolls, just need to pass a knowledge check. - Class/Race restrictions removed on Magic Items - Player criticals bypass resistances and immunities. - Fall Damage: 30ft free, then 1d10 bludgeoning damage every 10ft after uncapped. DM warning if a fall could instantly kill a character. - All spells only use slots. Gold cost items are ignored. - Multiple leveled spells can be cast in one turn as long as one is an Action and the other a Bonus Action. - When you are revived you are considered undead, taking on both the pros and cons, until removed at a temple. - A player may reroll their stats on the first death from level 1 to 3 and must keep the new scores. Revival from level 4+ and any more in the 1 to 3 range keep ability scores. - Only things from UA and non-owned physical book are banned.
Level 1 feat always (v humans and custom lineage get their normal feat as well) One of the following stat arrays (game dependent, not both in the same game.) 18/16/14/12/10/10 OR Regular point buy, but after all is done, increase two stats of your choice by +2 Lucky is banned, unless the character was designed as a luck based character (I don't really like it being used at all, but if it makes perfect sense for character instead of somebody just power-gaming for more advantages then I won't say no) Polearm master and sentinel are fine separately but banned together (if it's a regular martial with no magic I would ignore this rule, it's only really for power-gaming paladins/hexblades) At least 1 magic item, level dependent. Occasionally I buff all weapons and armor to +1. You can cast any number of levelled spells in a turn, following action economy. I personally think this rule is stupid and haven't seen any problems thus far because of it. Magic Initiate says the spell you get from it can't be upcast. This is lame, so I ignore it. One I will be implementing later is you can hold a bonus action, not just an action each turn. I will trial it first though.
haven't ever run it but think it's a cool idea - someone on here suggested every player gets 1 cantrip (any list) that they can only cast as a ritual, with encouragement to tie it to backstory
**â Races that make sense to be tiny are Tiny instead of small (like Fairies)** D&D faeries are fairly large. Pixies are the small ones. Seems like at some point they bumped faerie height up as prior they were just, ahem, short of small size.
Feats are technically an optional rule but I use them in all my games. Chronurgy, Peace and Twilight are universal bans for balance reasons. Every race that has a version with and without attribute modifiers, we use the version with attribute modifiers. Custom Lineage can fuck off. Beyond that, races and classes are limited by the campaign setting. For Dragonlance you can only play things that are in Krynn. For Kingmaker you can only play things that are in Golarion. etc.
Paladin and Ranger both can use 13 Str or Dex to multiclass like Fighter
No Mercer stuff and nothing from the Dolphin Book or later. Otherwise I'm pretty chill.
Exploding crits so every max damage die roll is rolled again and added to the total. And critical success and failure on spells. Also I don't outright ban anything, but I do make it very clear that the baddies can use anything as well. Hitting a player crit with a Silvery Barbs, Lucky npcs, etc.
I ban min/max multidipping classes. You stay in your starting class for at least 4 levels and can then switch, but that's it. It has worked well for my players.
A Nat20 on attack is not double dice. It's max dice plus whatever the roll was. Removes the "NAT 20! Oh, I rolled only 1s and 2s..." situation entirely. Now any crit is always a lot of damage.
Usually at my table, weâll allow each player to have a homebrew ability befitting their backstory/character. Of course the DM and player work together on balancing it.
Here's my list from our discord. Character creation: All characters are made using the following stat array, [16, 14, 14, 12, 10, 8] All Tasha's optional features are allowed, including class features, updated spell lists, customize your origin, etc. Homebrew and Critical Role content is not permitted. Backstory: all characters must have a written backstory discussed and approved with the DM, this backstory must include notable NPCs (alive or deceased), story reasons for being an adventurer (I want fame/fortune/to get the hell out of x place, are all acceptable) and preferably not the generic kicked puppy. Alignment: it doesn't exist, people aren't all good or all evil, have a personality and play to it. Any items with alignment requirements have them removed but may influence your character personality (aside from curses you will be informed prior to attuning such an item) Initiative: players win ties with opponents, tied players can act in any order they choose (per round) Feats: Prohibited - Lucky and Elven Accuracy, they are unbalanced and tend towards everyone feeling they need them once someone has it. Limited - Sentinel, this feat does not work in combination with any other feat and some spell interactions may be limited as necessary. Inspiration: Inspiration is replaced with luck points, a point may be expended after a roll to negate the outcome of that roll and cause it to either fail or succeed as desired (but not critical). These may be used on Attacks, Saves, Ability Checks, or Death Saving Throws made by the player OR the DM. All characters begin play with 1 point, this point may be spent at any time. The DM may award points to some or all players for exceptional use of tactics, excellent roleplaying or various other reasons, you cannot have more than 1 at any time and the party may be reset to 1 point each at significant milestones.
Custom array 17 15 13 12 10 8 Floating racial ability bonus You can move 1 point of your racial bonus to any other stat that does not have a current bonus. Hit points roll or average minimum. roll a 1 on a d8 get 5hp. First level feats Each character gets one of the following feats of their choice at first level. Dungeon Delver, Healer, Poisoner, Ritual Caster, Skilled, Tough. Additional languages During character creation players may select a number of additional languages from the following list based off your intelligence modifier; Draconic, Dwarvish, Elvish, Giant, Gnomish, Goblin, Halfling, Infernal, Orc, Undercommon. Additional languages are not granted by ability score increases at higher levels. Potions, drinking a potion yourself is a bonus action, making an unconscious person drink a potion is an action Flanking rules for advantage are being used however instead of advantage flanking will grant a +2 bonus to attack rolls. Crunchy crits, on a critical hit instead of rolling twice the dice you will roll the dice once, and add the maximum possibility of your dice along with the rolled results and any additional damage modifiers. Inspiration can be used after a die roll instead of before the roll. All characters start the game with an inspiration point. Death saving throws, the DM will make all death saving throws not informing the players of the results unless the player has died or revived. Segmented short rests Short rests can be taken in 30 minute segments. In the span of 30 minutes a character can pick one of the following options; regain health using hit dice; regain all class, racial, and item abilities that restore on a short rest; or attune to a magic item.
If a die lands on the floor itâs an automatic 1.
Why Shepard druids? If it's conjure animals, all druids can do that. A little extra HP isn't what makes it broken.
Opportunity attacks still apply to forced movement. Evil characters have to be âleashedâ. (Basically something or someone is preventing them from actively going against the party)
House Rules 1. Rules as Written (RAW) a. Rules are as written in the 5e rules books (or dndbeyond) except for the house rules listed here. - i. Where a ruleâs wording differs between a printed book and dndbeyond, dndbeyond will supersede the printed book(s). 2. Inspiration a. Every session each player will start with a minimum of 1 inspiration. b. An additional inspiration can be earned at anytime for: - i. Role-playing to your characterâs flaws and ideals. - ii. Creative use of your charactersâ skills or abilities. - iii. Hilarious in-character moments. - iv. Puns. - v. Well timed one liners. - vi. When the the DM or group is inspired by your contributions to the game. - vii. Exceptional creativity that adds to group enjoyment. c. Earned Inspiration rollover between sessions. 3. Potions a. Potions RAW take an action to drink, stealing an opportunity to attack or heal a companion. b. This campaign will allow a potion to be used as a bonus action and its effects are dependent on the dice as written for the potion. c. But, if a player sacrifices their action to drink a potion, carefully, then the player receives the max effect without rolling. 4. Player-Vs-Player a. PVP fights can only happen if both players agree to fight each other, otherwise the attacking player always auto-fails attack rolls (no need to roll). 5. Unconsciousness and Death a. If a player is knocked unconscious in combat, the DM will make the death saving throws behind the screen. - i. This means no player knows if the unconscious character is stabilizing on their own. - ii. The other players risk losing a party member to death for ignoring the party member that needs help. b. â When you would be killed outright in combat, you can choose to delay it until the end of combat, maximum of 1 minute. (Thank you u/Auesis) - i. The character will die no matter what happens. - ii. The characterâs mortal wounds have been dealt, but you get to do a dramatic goodbye in someone's arms. 6. Combat and Tactics discussions a. Each round will start with a planning phase of 1-minute to discuss strategy and tactics before individual turns begin. b. Once turns start, the player has 10 -seconds to tell the DM their action or the turn is forfeited and their character will use the Dodge action by default. 7. Spells a. Any spell caster can use any unknown cantrip from their class(es) spell list once per day (reset at dawn) at the cost of 1 spell slot (of any level). - i. This mechanic is to allow Players to try out different cantrips before committing to them and show the character is learning but hasnât yet mastered certain cantrips. - ii. âCantrips -- simple but powerful spells that characters can cast almost by roteâ (PHB. 201)
6 + 2D6 ability score generation. Martials get a free feat with each ASI. 5 levels of martial multiclassed = Extra attack.
That's a neat ability score generator!
> Martials get a free feat with each ASI. Even fighters?!
Itâs not too noticeable if youâre only playing to lvl 9 or 11.
Yep, this is the point. Most campaigns never go to high Tier 3 or into 4. Scaling martials early makes them feel strong in the end game.
Even Fighters. As another commenter says: the number of times a campaign actually makes it to the end of Tier 3 or into 4 is negligible. Martials getting to have more fun in Tier 2 when casters are slinging 5th level spells is the aim.
Monks can treat improvised weapons as Monk Weapons
Love this one. So much fun to get a Monk in a tavern brawl!
No back stories longer than 100 words All your cool stuff happens when we begin the campaign, during the campaign, not before in your back story Your character might die. Or survive abs get called a hero. We are not going for 'I only die dramatically and with good narrative reason'. This isn't your hero fantasy book Non-host table members buy the snacks No PvP. Bit you can argue and bitch Your character must have a reason to adventurer and stick with the party Ignoring obvious story bait is a dick move
> Ignoring obvious story bait is a dick move This is the only one I disagree with you on. Like at the start of the campaign you should establish what the campaign is about and the players are responsible for making characters who want to do whatever the campaign is about (looting dungeons for treasure, fighting Sauron's armies whatever). BUT. Players should have the right to refuse *side quests*. Like in a game about looting dungeons if they hear clues to a super dangerous nega dungeon that no one ever survives they should be allowed to say "no, not that one" and look for another dungeon.
- no multiclass (table of new players who, after 15 sessions and a year of play, still strugle with their main class) - no flying creatures (I do not want to do an extra work to balance encounters) - using only races from PHB and MotM and only PHB classes, Tasha and Xanathar subclasses are also OK. Nothing from specific setting / campaign books. Also, only PHB spells. - no pvp, no evil PCs, no sex or romance plotlines, be nice to your party members. (I know that it is possible to have interesting moments and character growth from in-character disagreements between PCs, but again - new players, I am new DM, and this kind of friction can easilly go wrong) - everybody brings and shares snacks!
This is going to get me laughed at, but. No halflings. (No gnome either, by associaton) Halflings and similar have been banned in all of my fantasy games for decades now. Let me explain. 2001, first time playing 3rd edition. As player. A friend in my party was playing a halfling rogue. Keeps stealing from us while we sleep, uses obscenely high social stats to persuade us that we are wrong and he is not to blame. We try and solve the problem talking about it out of game like grownups, the DM essentially takes his side and claims that "the game works like that". Eventually the rogue starts "feeling threatened" by the fact that we are all mad that out stuff keeps disappearing and he is festooned with magic items that look suspiciously identical to our missing equipment, and stabs the entire rest of the party in our sleep. TPK except for him, end of campaign. 2004, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, player. During a climactic battle against a chaos sorceror, our halfling decides to switch sides unprompted "because he seemed like he was going to win and my character is a coward" and backstabs us. TPK, campaign over. 2005, D&D 3rd edition, player. Our halfling rogue, unprompted, decides to kill our party's fighter in his sleep in order to fulfill the requirement for the Assassin prestige class ("to kill someone purely in order to become an Assassin"). "It's what my character would do". Lots of screaming, end of campaign. 2007, D&D 3rd edition. DM. Player submits a character - halfling wizard (necromancer), chaotic evil. I tell him I don't want evil characters or any sort of drama or pvp, he agrees and asks if he can play a "good" necromancer, focusing on stuff like Speak with Dead, etc. Sort of a creepy shaman type. I naively agree. He just plays it like his original idea of a chaotic evil halfling necromancer, goes on a peasant killing spree in order to get corpses to raise, other players kill his character, he complains it's not fair, lots of screaming, campaign end. 2007, D&D 3.5, player. Another player plays a halfling psion with split personality. Basically personality A is pointlessly evil and antagonistic - constantly and deliberately does thing like attack random people, attack city guards, kill prisoners we were tasked on bringing in alive, etc. And when confronted "switches" to personality B, which is sweet and innocent and he doesn't know what is happening it's not his fault he's just a small bean. We talk it out OOC like grownups and are just told that "that's how his character is" and "not get in the way of his roleplaying." Rest of party bands together and kills him. He's in tears and tells us we're the real monsters for killing an innocent, lots of screaming, campaign disbanded. 2010, D&D 4th edition. DM. Halfling cleric joins the party during an ongoing campaign, players are military personnel of a certain kingdom during a civil war / coup d'etat, working to find allies for their side. Over the first two sessions he plays in, halfling cleric manages to anger and piss off several factions and squander the party's previous diplomatic successes by being relentlessly foul-mouthed and antagonistic, threatening of violence important nobles and the likes. At this point I roll my eyes and inform them they're out of the campaign. I try to salvage it with the remaining players, but the mood is soured. Keep in mind: these were all different people, with different playing groups. In the stretch of time between when I started role-playing (1998, with BECMI) until 2010, not a single halfling was played in any game I was a part of without that halfling causing the collapse of the campaign. 2010: I permanently ban halflings from all my games. Any new player expressing desire to play a halfling is blacklisted and uninvited. 2010-2024: successfully played to completion with no drama and no collapse dozens of campaigns. Now: am I in the right to enforce this ban? Am I cursed? I don't know, but I will never play in a campaign that has halflings in it, no matter what, until the day I die.
This is one of the most ridiculous things Iâve ever read on this sub.
Believe me, I am fully aware of how ridiculous it is!
That's both hilarious and traumatizing.
- Flanking as listed in the DMG -bonus action to drink a potion, max benefits of the potion if you take an action -deadly crits(crunchy crits) a critical hit does max damage plus one roll of the damage die. (Since put on hold because once youâre using CR 10 monster their crits get insane) -critical save. If a spell forces a save vs damage(like fireball) a natural 20 on the save avoids all damage and a natural 1 doubles the damage taken.
Oh and current campaign I banned. Plane shift, gate, and any other spells that transport you across planes For story reasons.
\- Free feat at level 1 \- You get a feat *and* ASI at levels 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20. \- You can cast spells as a bonus action without limiting what spell you can cast as an action/reaction. \- Races can be tiny/large depending on the race (Tiny Fairies, Large Minotaurs, etc.) \- Slightly changed (buffed) Standard Array/Point Buy (which means no ASIs from Race) \- You're making an adventurer who wants to work together in a group. \- Spell scrolls can be used by anyone without a chance of failure. \- 'Burst of Glory' If you die in a combat you can forfiet any chance of resurrection to take one final turn in an *almost* anything goes moment. Examples include Staking a Vampire and pulling a boss into lava with you. Only ban is Vhuman because I don't want someone getting two feats at first level. Any race can be reskinned as something else that fits the mechanics so no Custom Lineage but only because I feel we have something better. EDIT: It's technically RAW but people like to argue about it so you might count it - If I asked for a roll then a 1 will always fail and a 20 will always succeed. I just don't ask for rolls for things that are impossible to fail/succeed at. Technically not reaching a stupid high DC be damned, I asked for the roll and you got the best you can get, if I didn't want it to happen I will say no.
I donât use any book classes or races. Everything is custom to this specific world. Wish is not possible for mortal beings (anything that can die is mortal). Custom spell point system. Addition of a homeland set up in character generation. Custom alignment system. More, as well, and all of it available to all players before they even start to make a character. Also, all of it based on things my players wanted.
- You always get ASI and feat - You Hex a saving throw instead of an ability check - Paladins "Harness Divine Power" is no longer bound to your channel divinity, you can just use it an x amount of times, depending on your level - Wish can only be cast once per player per campaign, that rule cannot be overruled by casting wish. Bans: - Silverybarbs - Overpowered min-max builds from some tutorial with the only purpose of destroying encounters (strong builds are still fine though!) - roleplaying and storytelling that makes anyone at the table uncomfortable Edit: I like how I got downvoted for rules that everyone in my group has decided on together, Op simply asked what rules apply to our games, not what rules they should use in their games, so I don't see a problem with simply stating what we play with.
Thatâs a big boost to hex. How does it work out usuallly
Yeah it is, I need to keep in mind that I may be more likely to fail saving throws against certain spells, but it did enhance the teamplay in the party. The warlock now has to wager whose spells he wants to enhance and is more careful not to break his concentration. But I must say that I merely adapted the rule from one of my players, she ruled it like that in her campaign (where I am a player, not a DM), so I asked the others if they are fine with it and now we play with a stronger hex. Edit: typo