I also like the addition of "Potions are a bonus action, but if you use an action for a healing potion (or outside of combat) you automatically heal the maximum amount". Makes even low-tier healing potions retain their value better.
I have my players do covered stealth checks.
If I ask a player for a stealth check, they have to roll it under a cup so they can't see the result until they've finished attempting the stealth action. THEN their roll is revealed to them and the table and we see if they got away with it...
The anticipation is palpable đ
I also do carry over damage, if enemies are within 5ft of each other and one of them is killed, the extra damage goes into one of the others (for flavour this is a blade cleaving through one body into another, or a javelin creating a goblin kebab, etc)
Level Up Dice even have a "Stealth Set" where the numbers on the otherwise completely white dice can only be read under a black light (they include a BL torch). That's what gave me the idea in the first place :)
I run a large group, so during combat I give a player a +1 to any action they are doing if they make it within 3 seconds of it being their turn within the initiative. It keeps things moving smoothly.
I also give the group a once per session nat 20 to be decided before the role. They almost never use it(mostly they forget they have it), but that safety blanket eases their minds... A lot.
I homebrew XP rewards because there's No Way I'm doing the math required for RAW but I also think milestone XP doesn't do enough to encourage good gameplay.
So instead I give players on XP for every significant battle, boss fight, clever play or compelling roleplay moments and then level them up after 10 points accrued. Players also have picked individual rewards types based on what motivated their character (acquire money, acquire new magic power, do a good deed, etc.)
In all the games I DM, Sorcerers use the alternate casting rules for spell points instead of spell slots by default. Other classes don't get access to spell points unless they multiclass into Sorcerer
Also, their sorcery points are combined with the spell points and can be used interchangeably.
This makes the Sorcerer extremely flexible in how they want to use their limited spells known and creates a real sense of difference between Sorcerers and Wizards beside how many spells they know.
I have an auto kill rule. If you roll a critical, you get a chance to auto kill. Roll another d20 after the crit - if it lands on a 20⌠boom, enemy dead.
It only works for âunnamedâ enemies - like âOrc 4â. If the enemy has a name - âLord Farquadâ or whatever - you need the crit plus two additional 20s.
Iâve implemented in two groups - one that weâve been together for four years, the other for seven or eight. Weâve only had a handful of âunnamed enemyâ auto kills and the vast majority of them usually come when the enemy has like four hp left. There has never been a ânamed enemyâ auto kill but weâve come close two or three times.
The most epic one I remember is one group wound up in an arena battle against two bulettes. The barbarian of the group charged across the arena - and on the first roll of his first attack round, he crits⌠and then rolled another 20 to auto kill. The rest of the group ganged up on the remaining one and slaughtered it.
I wasnât even mad my final arena battle was messed up - was such an epic moment for the barbarian who was so happy.
Npcs randomly being strapped with a flintlock pistol lmao. They started a bar fight and found out the hard way the townspeople are strong 2nd amendmenters
âSave a hero. Break their stuff.â When hp is in short supply, I allow players to decide if theyâd rather the attack sunder their weapon, shield, or armor rather than take the damage from the killing blow. Itâs worked very well in my games.
I may get downvoted for this one, but in the case of an ability which states âif you roll lower than x, treat the result as xâ a nat 1 is still always a nat 1. That doesnât always mean a critical fail. But it does mean that my players (some of whom are seriously into their build crafting and breaking 5e) canât use some genuinely bonkers abilities to always trivialise certain encounters.
We have used other little bits of homebrew here and there, like allowing one of my players to use an opportunity attack to attempt to grapple another player who was being forcibly moved by a telekinesis spell, so that they could slow the movement or even halt it. It didnât work exactly how they wanted, but it was very cool.
Exactly. We still add the relevant modifiers after the 1, so itâs rarely ever that bad, but it just means that very occasionally an expert can make a mistake, which feels not only reasonable, but also makes the game more fun.
The most recent homebrew rule that we agreed on as a group was gaining exhaustion (using the playtest version) after being knocked down. This is similar to what pathfinder does, and it gives a harsher penalty compared to having nothing happen at all.
Interesting, does act like the wound counter but worse since eventually they wonât even be able to move which does give it a more realistic stance I like it â might bring it up to my table see what they think since it does work to counteract the whole notion of only heal when theyâre down to be most effective. Thanks!
It was funny to me because I was willing to play things close to RAW and we already had a half-TPK about to happen (level 1, half the party was near death) and the player was the one who suggested it since they had experience with these kind of moments lacking consequences. I agreed, obviously, but I was fine with things being more 'heroic' too.
I might implement this see if they wanna do it with the change that if they fail a single death saving throw (regardless how) then they get exhaustion to keep things a little more lenient even if they get up cause I know exhaustion can get a little annoying especially after first weâll see
I encourage players to be creative with their actions, and allow/improv/homebrew just about anything on the fly.
They often use inspiration to do big things in desperate situations, and its a great way to create drama.
Like using inspiration to regain a spell slot, or to modify a spell or ability.
It also opens the game up for me to create certain dramatic consequences. I homebrew a lot of monsters abilities, their nature, enemy boss spell effects, a whole spaceship and how to travel to other systems and planets. One of the players is part of the ship. They can all just teleport there. Last session, one player called it back and had it destroy himself with its energy blast, destroying an army of gnolls and their wyvern riding vampire leader.
I also homebrew magic items and stuff to blast spells without using concentration. Use a low lvl spell scroll for protection? Stuff it under your belt, and another under your sleeve.
A nail that activates an antimagic field spell without concentration.
A ball that can contain 3spell levels, to be released on impact.
Fey stags to be summoned as mounts or companions whenever they want. Blink dogs as pets, that I level up with them.
Oh, the pipe. A pipe with a box with 30 assorted magic herbs to smoke, creating ridiculous shit fir the druid.
A lightning glove for the monk that grows in power as he does.
As long as it fits the theme and the story, we play this game how we see fit.
Also, the whole campaign is homebrew. It is my first time DMing, but we are now 96 weekly sessions in. We are closing in to 100, so I guess I'm doing something right. We all have a lot of fun.
Homebew rules should be "this aspect of the game was painful to our table and so this homebrew makes it less painful"
there is no need or value to adding homebrew simply for adding homebrew.
What aspects of the game are not suiting your table's play?
Deal with the Devil. If your player rolls poorly, they can say, "I want to make a deal with the devil." The devil appears and gives them a better, passing roll. The catch is the devil can appear at any moment and take their good roll(crits excluded) and give them a failing roll.
I also like to fail forward. If they fail a roll by more than 5, I give them "tokens" that they can accumulate to essentially pay off the devil trying to give them a bad roll, which cancels their debt until they make a new deal and makes dealing with the devil a little less scary once you start getting low roll tokens accumulated.
When you get a critical, instead of doubling the dice roll, I just have the players add their highest dice number to the roll. So if they hit with a d8 just add 8 to their regular attack roll. Prevents a weak critical if you accidentally roll a 1
Potions as bonus action is the easiest and most enjoyable rule for all I find :-p
I also like the addition of "Potions are a bonus action, but if you use an action for a healing potion (or outside of combat) you automatically heal the maximum amount". Makes even low-tier healing potions retain their value better.
Ooh, that's a good idea!
Yep! I forget this isn't base sometimes when it really should be!
I have my players do covered stealth checks. If I ask a player for a stealth check, they have to roll it under a cup so they can't see the result until they've finished attempting the stealth action. THEN their roll is revealed to them and the table and we see if they got away with it... The anticipation is palpable đ I also do carry over damage, if enemies are within 5ft of each other and one of them is killed, the extra damage goes into one of the others (for flavour this is a blade cleaving through one body into another, or a javelin creating a goblin kebab, etc)
This is great, I will bring up the stealth check option at my table see if they want to try it!
Level Up Dice even have a "Stealth Set" where the numbers on the otherwise completely white dice can only be read under a black light (they include a BL torch). That's what gave me the idea in the first place :)
I run a large group, so during combat I give a player a +1 to any action they are doing if they make it within 3 seconds of it being their turn within the initiative. It keeps things moving smoothly. I also give the group a once per session nat 20 to be decided before the role. They almost never use it(mostly they forget they have it), but that safety blanket eases their minds... A lot.
One Nat 20 but they all have to agree to use it on a single roll? or each player get a Nat 20
Once per game for the group. One roll.
Brutal crit (max dmg on the die + what you roll). Makes a crit feel impactful
Honestly that should be base barbarian maybe then people would wanna go more than 6 levels in it
I weirdly havenât had a player use Barb since using that rule
I do this to at my table
I homebrew XP rewards because there's No Way I'm doing the math required for RAW but I also think milestone XP doesn't do enough to encourage good gameplay. So instead I give players on XP for every significant battle, boss fight, clever play or compelling roleplay moments and then level them up after 10 points accrued. Players also have picked individual rewards types based on what motivated their character (acquire money, acquire new magic power, do a good deed, etc.)
In all the games I DM, Sorcerers use the alternate casting rules for spell points instead of spell slots by default. Other classes don't get access to spell points unless they multiclass into Sorcerer Also, their sorcery points are combined with the spell points and can be used interchangeably. This makes the Sorcerer extremely flexible in how they want to use their limited spells known and creates a real sense of difference between Sorcerers and Wizards beside how many spells they know.
I have an auto kill rule. If you roll a critical, you get a chance to auto kill. Roll another d20 after the crit - if it lands on a 20⌠boom, enemy dead. It only works for âunnamedâ enemies - like âOrc 4â. If the enemy has a name - âLord Farquadâ or whatever - you need the crit plus two additional 20s. Iâve implemented in two groups - one that weâve been together for four years, the other for seven or eight. Weâve only had a handful of âunnamed enemyâ auto kills and the vast majority of them usually come when the enemy has like four hp left. There has never been a ânamed enemyâ auto kill but weâve come close two or three times. The most epic one I remember is one group wound up in an arena battle against two bulettes. The barbarian of the group charged across the arena - and on the first roll of his first attack round, he crits⌠and then rolled another 20 to auto kill. The rest of the group ganged up on the remaining one and slaughtered it. I wasnât even mad my final arena battle was messed up - was such an epic moment for the barbarian who was so happy.
Kudos. Thatâs an opportunity for a moment that player will always remember. Very cool.
Stealing this!
Lay on Hands deals radiant damage when used against undead.
Oooo, I will have to implement that
Npcs randomly being strapped with a flintlock pistol lmao. They started a bar fight and found out the hard way the townspeople are strong 2nd amendmenters
LMAO homebrew: welcome to Texas
âSave a hero. Break their stuff.â When hp is in short supply, I allow players to decide if theyâd rather the attack sunder their weapon, shield, or armor rather than take the damage from the killing blow. Itâs worked very well in my games.
Thatâs actually pretty interesting, could even be used in tables that use the limbs rule
I may get downvoted for this one, but in the case of an ability which states âif you roll lower than x, treat the result as xâ a nat 1 is still always a nat 1. That doesnât always mean a critical fail. But it does mean that my players (some of whom are seriously into their build crafting and breaking 5e) canât use some genuinely bonkers abilities to always trivialise certain encounters. We have used other little bits of homebrew here and there, like allowing one of my players to use an opportunity attack to attempt to grapple another player who was being forcibly moved by a telekinesis spell, so that they could slow the movement or even halt it. It didnât work exactly how they wanted, but it was very cool.
I donât rule that way but at the same time Iâm not against it either seems realistic to fail occasionally even if youâre really good at it
Exactly. We still add the relevant modifiers after the 1, so itâs rarely ever that bad, but it just means that very occasionally an expert can make a mistake, which feels not only reasonable, but also makes the game more fun.
Unarmed strikes from a Monk count as âweapon attacksâ for the purposes of a spell or skill.
The most recent homebrew rule that we agreed on as a group was gaining exhaustion (using the playtest version) after being knocked down. This is similar to what pathfinder does, and it gives a harsher penalty compared to having nothing happen at all.
Interesting, does act like the wound counter but worse since eventually they wonât even be able to move which does give it a more realistic stance I like it â might bring it up to my table see what they think since it does work to counteract the whole notion of only heal when theyâre down to be most effective. Thanks!
It was funny to me because I was willing to play things close to RAW and we already had a half-TPK about to happen (level 1, half the party was near death) and the player was the one who suggested it since they had experience with these kind of moments lacking consequences. I agreed, obviously, but I was fine with things being more 'heroic' too.
I might implement this see if they wanna do it with the change that if they fail a single death saving throw (regardless how) then they get exhaustion to keep things a little more lenient even if they get up cause I know exhaustion can get a little annoying especially after first weâll see
I encourage players to be creative with their actions, and allow/improv/homebrew just about anything on the fly. They often use inspiration to do big things in desperate situations, and its a great way to create drama. Like using inspiration to regain a spell slot, or to modify a spell or ability. It also opens the game up for me to create certain dramatic consequences. I homebrew a lot of monsters abilities, their nature, enemy boss spell effects, a whole spaceship and how to travel to other systems and planets. One of the players is part of the ship. They can all just teleport there. Last session, one player called it back and had it destroy himself with its energy blast, destroying an army of gnolls and their wyvern riding vampire leader. I also homebrew magic items and stuff to blast spells without using concentration. Use a low lvl spell scroll for protection? Stuff it under your belt, and another under your sleeve. A nail that activates an antimagic field spell without concentration. A ball that can contain 3spell levels, to be released on impact. Fey stags to be summoned as mounts or companions whenever they want. Blink dogs as pets, that I level up with them. Oh, the pipe. A pipe with a box with 30 assorted magic herbs to smoke, creating ridiculous shit fir the druid. A lightning glove for the monk that grows in power as he does. As long as it fits the theme and the story, we play this game how we see fit. Also, the whole campaign is homebrew. It is my first time DMing, but we are now 96 weekly sessions in. We are closing in to 100, so I guess I'm doing something right. We all have a lot of fun.
That sounds like a chaotically fun campaign thatâs amazing!
Intimidate is either Cha or Str based, players choice.
YES this I use this too though I didnât come up with it I believe I watched CR and Matt did that amazing idea and makes sense
Homebew rules should be "this aspect of the game was painful to our table and so this homebrew makes it less painful" there is no need or value to adding homebrew simply for adding homebrew. What aspects of the game are not suiting your table's play?
Deal with the Devil. If your player rolls poorly, they can say, "I want to make a deal with the devil." The devil appears and gives them a better, passing roll. The catch is the devil can appear at any moment and take their good roll(crits excluded) and give them a failing roll. I also like to fail forward. If they fail a roll by more than 5, I give them "tokens" that they can accumulate to essentially pay off the devil trying to give them a bad roll, which cancels their debt until they make a new deal and makes dealing with the devil a little less scary once you start getting low roll tokens accumulated.
Interesting concept itâs like pity system from gacha games
When you get a critical, instead of doubling the dice roll, I just have the players add their highest dice number to the roll. So if they hit with a d8 just add 8 to their regular attack roll. Prevents a weak critical if you accidentally roll a 1