Top 10 D&D 5e Homebrew Rules | Nerd Immersion
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ส.ค. 2024
- Taking a break from all things items, let's talk rules...homebrew rules specifically. So I can say that most of these if not all are currently implemented in my current campaigns, and I like the way they work. Are there any additional homebrew/house rules you'd add on your personal top 10? Let me know in the comments!
Top 10 Homebrew Rules:
10. Ability Score Rolling 00:54
9. Pre-roll attack/damage 2:38
8. Exhaustion Death Saves 6:10
7. Feat at 1st level 8:25
6. How do you want to do this? 10:01
5. Need proficiency to help on a skill check 11:15
4. Potions as a bonus action 13:27
3. 2-handed weapon Strength bonus 15:05
2. Extra languages of high Intelligence 17:44
1. Stacking Inspiration 20:03
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Good news folks who wanted Inspiration Cards! I reached out to the creator, he is working on getting them on Amazon and will let me know once they're available. I'll also make a video on it, just to let you know.
That's awesome :) thank you
It would seem fair to give the cards to your villains also. Although I'm not sure when or under what conditions you would do that.
That is awesome...would love to get them. As an alternative, there are some other options out there if you do a quick search for Inspiration Cards 5E
amzn.to/2GEIKMG
@@NerdImmersion Ordered! Thank you for sharing this and prompting the creator
I've heard people like Brian Murphy say "Finish him" instead of "How do you want to do this". I love the idea behind these little catchphrases though. Such an easy way to make memories.
I would probably do on each failed death saving throw and not on every one. It would put a lot more excitement when rolling them
I did my very first How Do You Want to Do This? last night when the Barbarian killed a mimic with a critical hit. He decided he wanted to take out a bottle of wine he'd just bought, break it open, down the whole thing, and then shank the mimic with the broken glass. It was glorious.
Glorious Brutality, this is the beauty of nature
For the second rule, I might add the choice of proficiency with a tool. So a player can choose either a language or tool proficiency per their INT modifier.
I might say for every 2 points of Int modifier you could get a tool proficiency. So 2 languages, or a tool. That's an interesting concept.
@@NerdImmersion Ya I considered something like that for if I made skills also an option. But tools could deserve that treatment too.
Nerd Immersion or an artisan tool. I do like my character being able to cook really well. Or have a chisel
Fun! Hi everybody and thank you Nerd Immersion for the stunning review. I'm Jonathan, owner and creator of Inspiration Cards, nice to meet you! I never thought Inspiration Cards would get so much love, but luckily I had the foresight to put a bar-code on each deck, that makes things easier. I'll see what I can do about getting these decks available for purchase on Amazon.
Hello, is there a way to buy the PDF version nowadays?
That would be awesome as currently they seem to be entirely unavailable.
These are currently unavailable on Amazon. is there any idea on when they might be back in stock?
Hello Tabletop Props. The cards seem incredible and I have multiple guys including myself who want them. They are however unavailable on amazon or your site for some time. Is there some information on when they are available again? I prefer the physical copy but would also buy the PDF version. That option cannot go out of order like the physical one, is there a link or site to buy this PDF?
To help with boomeranging I increase the death saving throw everytime they get knocked out that day. So first time regular death saves, next time bump it to 11
I make them start with 1 death save per time they went down. So if it's their second time going down, they've already failed once, 2 more to go. Add this with the exhaustion rule and ppl start healing more rather than saving it for when they go to zero.
I think a good alternative to bonus action potions is maximum effect potions (2d4+2 healing as always 10). I think this helps to keep consistancy as to what an action is, can stop the cinematic or someone chugging potions whilst locked in combat, and gives players a reliable way to help themselves in combat. I think this was brought up by the Dungeon Dudes, so credit goes to them!
I like potions as a bonus action, but if you use it as an action you don't need to roll, you get full healing from it. This rule works great if you're doing a campaign and they have no healer.
I have only played with one homebrew rule that I absolutely love, and it's something first called "weapon brilliance". In essence, as you use your weapons, they gain experience in the background, and at certain thresholds, they upgrade depending on factors the DM decides. The last time I saw it used, my chaotic good ranger's longbow gained 1d4 radiant damage after about 10k xp, and counted as magical for resistances. It can be applied to magical weapons or not, as the DM decides, but it rewards players who decide to forgo a purely mechanical advantage for roleplaying reasons. Maybe the fighter refuses to use a magic sword because he's always carried the sword he inherited from his father, or the rogue keeps her dagger because that dagger has saved her life and she considers it lucky. It also helps bump up some less powerful weapons like, say, a whip, if you really want to ham up the Belmont thing, for instance.
We recently did rolls for my friends campaign that I'm calling "Matt's Method" (matt is his name, obviously) it works similar to your 4d6 drop the lowest x7, but here's the differences:
1. Do the standard 4d6 drop the lowest 7 times.
2. You CHOOSE which of the 7 ability scores to use, meaning you can pick the lower scores to have weaker stat(s) if you want.
3. Place your chosen scores where you'd like as normal. If you're not happy with the rolls you got, you can instead redo the two above steps once again, but must take the new totals.
4. After you're done, you choose one ability score to reduce by one, then choose two others to increase by one.
5. This could be considered optional, but my friend enforced a rule to have a character flaw on the sheet that has actual in-game ramifications. For example, I made a character who's a coward, therefore if enemies get too close he needs to make a wisdom save or be frightened. Disadvantage on wisdom saves to resist fear from other sources as well.
Me and my friends like characters with flaws more than just strengths, so we lean more into that.
Actually, your method creates character classes which are more powerful than normal.
@@brabra2725 Depends on the stat rolls and also the flaw they choose. It's probably more forgiving than just the standard array, but I prefer higher highs and lower lows.
@@AndrewChumKaser it is not "probably" more forgiving, is a fact that it creates better PCs.
@@brabra2725 How do you know that? Have you done the actual math? Have you used the system to make PC's and actually play with them? Or are you just looking at some averages and smugly declaring something arguably subjective as irrefutable fact?
@@AndrewChumKaser The math is very simple. The standard dice-rolling method requires you to roll 4 dice, drop the lowest, repeat 6 times and assign the results where you like. Your method requires to roll 4 dice, drop the lowest, repeat this 7 times and assign all results but one where you like. Also, your method gives -1 to 1 stats and +1 to 2 stats.
I use a custom array. 17, 16, 15, 12, 10, 8.
It allows my players to be powerful, the reason they want to roll in the first place, AND I don't have an issue with one player being an outlier (way better rolls or way worse rolls).
I allow players to spend 73 points freely on upgrades and/or feats. Allows them to customize their characters a lot.
I am doing something similar: 16, 15, 13, 12, 10, 9
I use a similar array, but with a little more weight towards middle strength:
17, 15, 13, 12, 10, 8.
This way, the highest a given stat can be with a +2/+1 racial bonus at 1st level is a +4, but that can easily round into a +5 at 4th level. It gives players two very strong stats, above average stats across the board, and one weakness. Plus, I feel like having your odd numbered stats be your highest priority and your third priority for 4th level leads to better rounded characters, even though a lot of classes prioritize their main stat (strength, dexterity, charisma, intelligence) and constitution for their second, having a high third (wisdom to supplement dex builds, dexterity to supplement strength builds, etc) leads to healthier characters overall.
Alternatively, I call for 6 sets of 3d6d1+6. This way no stat can be below 8 nor above 18, which I think is a healthy range, and averages out to 15s +/-1 across the board. If someone, against all odds, rolls multiple sets in the single digits, I'll let them take a mulligan.
-4D6, drop lowest for stats.
-For the levels of exhaustion on death saves, I would consider it but only getting levels on failed saves or possibly just one per time you go unconscious.
-Potions to yourself are a bonus action but an action to feed someone else.
My first game used the "1 Exhaustion each time you go unconscious" Homebrew rule, and it was really great. Also, I am working on DMing my first game for my group, and I'm considering using some of these.
A way that my group has made strength a little more useful is by adding the option to use that as the ability modifier for the intimidation skill instead of charisma. The rationale being that the ability to rip a creature limb from limb with pure physical might would be rather intimidating. It seems rather ridiculous to imagine that a massive and powerful half-orc barbarian couldn't intimidate anyone because he lacks charisma.
i always do Intimidation based on the action... if the warrior wants to intimidate a guard, he can but he needs to do something in a physical way for the check to be doable
In our family home game my son is playing a Lizardfolk with a 5 Charisma. I just let him flip the -3 mod to +3 for Intimidation checks.
Yeah, its a variant rule. And its supposed to only work, if your character is going to threaten to beat them up or something. And unless you use the 1.5*strength modifier for damage rule, strength does fall short heavily against dexterity.
Guys, this is in the DMG.
"As described in the Player's Handbook, a skill proficiency represents a character's focus on one aspect of an ability. Among all the things a character's Dexterity score describes, the character might be particularly skilled at sneaking around, reflected in proficiency in the Stealth skill. When that skill is used for an ability check, it is usually used with Dexterity.
Under certain circumstances, you can decide a character's proficiency in a skill can be applied to a different ability check. For example, you might decide that a character forced to swim from an island to the mainland must succeed on a Constitution check (as opposed to a Strength check) because of the distance involved. The character is proficient in the Athletics skill, which covers swimming, so you allow the character's proficiency bonus to apply to this ability check. In effect, you're asking for a Constitution (Athletics) check, instead of a Strength (Athletics) check.
Often, players ask whether they can apply a skill proficiency to an ability check. If a player can provide a good justification for why a character's training and aptitude in a skill should apply to the check, go ahead and allow it, rewarding the player's creative thinking." - DMG (p.239)
For abilities, I do 4d4 drop lowest 5 times, and the sixth ability is such that the total is 72.
Or, I use an array 14, 14, 12, 12, 10, 8, and you may increase any two different ones of choice by +2 each. And then no ability scores from race. Races are rebalanced in powers if they need to be.
If you are a martial class, and don't have int based casting, you gain a maneuver power (like from D&D 4E, as either At-will or Encounter) for each mod of int.
Initiative is done by "sides" and enemies have an initiative DC. Go in any team order you want, but only those who beat the initiative DC act within the first set.
Inspiration can be used to add a d6 that adds to the natural roll of a die, so this increases the crit chance through this use of inspiration.
Lastly, everyone gets a starting Feat of choice or one we homebrew together. If you are a variant human, your inspiration is stronger instead.
I've run into a stat rolling in one of the games which I really liked.
You roll 24d6 and drop 6 lowest. Then combine them in groups of 3 in any way you like. That's your scores.
And Dragonborn XGE feats are baseline.
Ooo I like that! It's sorta like a randomized point buy.
That is REALLY good, gonna try that for the next campaign !
Just tried it, for design and science's sake, and found it to be quite powerful (got 18, 17, 15, 15, 11, 10).
I, for one, like the possibility of getting negative ability scores as I found it helps to give characters some personality.
So I tried it again with 18d6 (got 18, 16, 15, 11, 9, 6) and was very satisfied with the results.
Bulk rolling and combine fells like the player can really flesh out the character the way he she wants.
Want a maximized stat ? Done. Making a MAD character and need decent stat layout ? Done.
Definitely using this from now on !!
@@PocoLocoProductions Just 18d6 and rearrange in the way you like?
it may be hust me but I've tried doing this 3 times and the results are kinda meh.
15 12 10 9 6 4
18 15 12 8 6 4
18 13 9 7 6 5
@@Deathwhisper2 You know what ? I did it a couple more times afterward and results were UNDERpowered.
But my fear is that rolling 24d6 and remove the worst 6 will lead to OVERpowered results.
The Prodigy Feat, mentioned as an example at 7, is actually really great to take on a grapple build that doesn't want to multi-class to get access to expertise in athletics.
I've been granting 1 level of exhaustion on my players each time they fall unconscious due to damage or lethal means, and so far I love it. They said it feels more realistic and it kinda forces them to slow down the pace every so often and focus on recovery after big battles even though their injuries just "magically" go away at the end of each long rest. Really helps incentivize recovery and downtime
The rule we use when rolling for stats is different every time, to suit the campaign.
i play with the exhaustion rule on 0 HP. We changed exhaustion to fatigue and made a different table because we didn't like the exhaustion table for it after a few rounds of playing it like that. we also increase the time we need for a long rest based on our fatigue level. It is great!
Curious, how does the fatigue table work? That sounds interesting to use.
@@sakuratejina Its changed a bit between the last campaigns, the most basic one would looke something like:
every point of fatiue you want to regenerate is 3 more hours of resting.
1st point of fatigue no other mali
2nd fatigue -1 on every roll
3rd fatigue -2 on every roll
4th fatigue -4 on every roll
5th fatigue -8 on every roll
6th fatigue unconscious.
@@dylogysminter thank you so much. I like that you just pass out in the end rather than dying. 6th level fatigue seems like it could lead to a point of exhaustion if you wanted. Tho I’m not sure how it would turn out in game. I’ll bring this up with my GM. Thank you for the inspiration!
2d6+4, reroll snake eyes, add an extra +1 to 3 different scores, ASIs must be used only for feats, gain a +1 ability score at every even character level.
This starts a character out on the weak side but allows for more growth at a more consistent rate.
I’ve heard of an interesting way for ability scores to be determined that I’ll likely use for my game.
So, many people don’t like rolling for ability scores because it can result in certain characters have much lower or higher than average, and this makes discrepancies between the powers of the party members. Therefore, instead of everyone rolling stats for themselves, you take all of the rolls and put them from highest to lowest. Someone picks a number from the list, then the next person picks a number, and so on until all numbers are taken. Then, everyone has a reasonable spread of stats and the party are relatively equal in power. This works better with a group that knows and likes each other, specifically for deciding the order of people who get to pick the numbers, as they’re more likely to be fair to their fellow players with the numbers they choose. It also given the people who want to play a character who is really bad at one stat the chance to snatch up that low number right away.
Logan Sanders I recently tried to counter this by having all 4 players sharing their dice rolls and each player could pick what ever set of 6 scores they want , they could all pick just one set but I found they didn’t because some people wanted to take that 18 where as others wanted the two 16s and didn’t want the 7 etc , but everybody has the same options
That's socialism. Socialism rarely ends well. The person who rolled well resents the players that took their dice.
@@andrewhardenburgh387 this is D&D, not the economy. I play with people I know won’t get angry at each other for something as simple a a lower dice roll, and frankly the fact that someone would actively resent someone for it is silly. The only thing at risk are some dice rolls, not someone’s livelihood. And besides, no one is “taking” anything. I would make it clear that we would pool all dice rolls before the first roll. Everyone would know that they might not get the set they rolled, and no one should get angry.
I like a lot of these rules and have seen about half implemented into various games. I have my own spin on some of these.
1. Ability Scores are rolled as per the rules. If you would like, you can instead choose the Point Buy or Standard Array system afterwards.
2. In combat, when you are brought down to 0 hit points and fall unconscious, but are then brought back up and perform any actions types other than movement and free actions, you will receive one level of exhaustion at the end of combat. This is intended to make the player have some choice in the risk/reward scheme. They can get right back into the fight, but if they're in a dangerous place it may not be worth the hit of exhaustion.
3. A free feat is given at 3rd level as most players gain their class features at that point and really start to feel like adventurers.
A few that I personally use and have enjoyed so far are...
1. Critical Hits do max die damage plus the roll. Nothing feels worse than rolling low on a crit and dealing 1-5 more damage than normal so this makes critical hits feel CRITICAL. Also makes combat far scarier for both sides.
2. A Spellcaster may attempt to cast a spell if they have no slots left of that level. However, they will gain a level of exhaustion equal to the spell’s level. I love the risk/reward concept and this gives casters more flexibility.
3. Death saves are secret and rolled directly to the DM. Oh he's saved twice, he'll be fine. Vs... He's rolled twice, he could die on his next turn if we don't stabilize him.
I like that last one
10. I like roll for 5 stats, and the last one if calculated with point buy.
7. I like extra feat at 1st, especially magic initiate.
5. I like Matt Colvilles recent vid, you can only do a knowledge check if proficient.
4. I really wouldnt like this, but never have.
2. I prefer extra skills for your Int mod, because in games I play languages are just flavour and not any sort of challenge to overcome.
Great vid!
if you want to help, roll a d20, if they pass the dc, the assistee gets advantage. If you are proficient you skip the roll and give advantage.
That's a good rule. The puny wizard rolls high on his str check to help move the rock because he ate his wheaties that day. The barb, with help from the wizard who lifts a surprising amount during his attempt, finally gets the boulder moved out of the way.
I go with a standard array, but 17, 15, 13, 12, 10, 8 instead of what's presented in the books. I also allow a point buy that can create similar results:
35 points.
Score Cost Modifier
3 -5 -4
4 -4 -3
5 -3 -3
6 -2 -2
7 -1 -2
8 0 -1
9 1 -1
10 2 0
11 3 0
12 4 +1
13 5 +1
14 7 +2
15 9 +2
16 12 +3
17 15 +3
18 18 +4
This allows them to get the really high scores or low scores they could roll, but they choose. They can give themselves a flawed low score in order to have more points for a high score in something else.
I've seen another option someone uses where they have Everyone roll 4D6 and drop the lowest 6 times. But then the players can choose ANYONE'S set. So when someone rolls really well they can all use that same set. Or if someone has like an 18 on one, but the rest fairly low, and someone else has 2 16s, the 2 16s could be more enticing to some players, and the single 18 more for others. So it's still balanced among all players, but you still get the excitement of high rolls, and the unpredictability you don't have with point buy.
For exhaustion and death saving throws in my game, I say that a level of exhaustion is gained for every round in combat that the PC is unconscious. That way it is very important to rush to the PC and give health attention. Also the length of being at zero hit points is a sign of how strong the unconsciousness was.
A couple Homebrew I like. Intelligence points: You start with 3 modified by your Int and you can spend it to just know anything you want. Anything that isn't completely secret or privileged is a valid target from places, people, magic, monsters, etc.
Anyone can use spell scrolls: If the spell is anywhere on your list you can cast it period no roll needed. If the spell is not on your list you make a DC 10 + level check as normal but the modifier changes based on who made the scroll. Arcana for Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard. Nature for Druid and Ranger. Religion for Paladin and Cleric. Gives an actual reason to get those mostly useless skills and gives non casters a taste of magic. It's not like players can get scrolls that they can't already make themselves or you specifically gave to them anyway.
I love the concept NR 9 of the "descriptive combat" action for the players. I use this for the "killing blows" or as my NPC's actions routinely (kind like rule 6). I may try this with my group at some point. Thanks.
My group has used two different setups for stat assignment. We used something we called Super standard array, which is basically standard array with much higher numbers (20, 18, 16, 14, 10, 8) for more super heroic kind of games. For horror games we like to roll 4D4 and roll for each stat down the row before we start looking at classes the aim being to make weaker charaters.
All I read was no more ASIs 😁 and I'm okay with that!
Holy moly dude. Take a break from videos. You shooting them out like my grandma cookies.
Nice list overall.
For the exhaustion rule: let them roll a Con save when they go down. If they fail they gain a level of exhaustion. Every subsequent save has a higher DC.
This prevents ppl being a flesh Sack after being downed some times as long as they pass the saves. Otherwise insta kills are get really prevalent in higher levels.
For the help action, I created a rule that says that you can only help if you are proficient, and it’s not advantage, it adds your relevant ability score modifier to the roll, instead.
For character creation, I tell my players to simply add the total skills their class/background offer and allocate to the skills they wish to know. This mitigates limitations for skills in this system and allows more variety as well. Also, if they wish to gain expertise in a particular skill, they must sacrifice another skill in order to do it. This can only be done once during the creation stage.
I agree that the inspiration mechanic isn't very good simply because the Lucky feat is WAY stronger to the point of being OP and doesn't require DM involvement.
So far my best homebrew, or at least what I'm I'm most proud of is my custom healing canteens, basically replacement healing potions. They have a pool of hit points, the player can ration for the amount they need, without depleting the item. I do use bonus action potions, but because of how these work, they have to use an action to ration them, and if they chug it, they get diminished returns, you consume all charges and regain that number of hit points to a maximum of 3/4 of the maximum. So they can heal quick in a pinch, but its not as effective, and it consumes the item. There are also places to refill, I have a spell that can do it 7th level casting takes an hour, can produce up to a medium canteen (basically a greater healing potion) there is also a 9th level spell that creates a spring, and that spell is permanent. The spring is functionally identical to the naturally occurring ones, and both Clerics, Sorcerers, Wizards, and Bards can all cast both
My homebrew Rolling ability scores rule: if its a players first time playing dnd, roll 4D6’s, reroll 1’s and 2’s, drop the lowest number. Do this a total of six times. Roll two more stat blocks, then the player chooses one between the 3 stat blocks, then they apply their stats accordingly.
responding to yours in order
10. as a Dm I have shifted from rolling to the standard array, leaning towards giving it a slight increase, 15 to 17 and 8 to 10, this has helped the one friend that struggles with 4d6 dropping the lowest actually rolling equal to or better than the standard array. Also avoids the I got total stat modifier of 16+ and the other guy going I +2.
9. Prerolling, not sure about that one, will have to think about it
8. Exhaustion/death saves. I find that when someone goes down it is because something is going very wrong, and after that fight, the whole party will be looking to take at least 1 short rest, maybe two
7.Feats at first level, my group is small, so parties of 2-3 aren't uncommon. Getting tough for free at level one and sometimes lucky at level one is more what we do. Not your choice, more of here is something that could help every class. I have been thinking about giving one based on background, Personality trait, Ideal, and flaw. I also have been thinking about giving feats as a reward for quests. The party steps in and saves this battered old man, who was a druid that was out of spells and abilities. He looks over the party sees the one person that has the 13+ wisdom, who seems to respect nature. Hey thanks for helping me, let me teach you something. You get the magic Initiate feat, where the player only picks 1, level 1 spell, I pick the other two.
6. I usually try to make the final blow on the big bad something epic, as the way I see their character would handle it based on the way they have been RPing
5. o.O I thought you needed to be proficient to use the help action, which is how I handle it. Also if it is a task like move the big rock, 1st helper adds advantage, second and up add a + to roll. Also if the 8 str, 20 int wizard goes I am going to use my int to help the fighter make use of leverage and counterbalance and pivot points to help the fighter, the fighter can now roll with advantage. He isn't helping push, but he is helping the fighter apply his strength more effectively.
4. Using potions as an action
3. In 3.5, Strenght + power attack and two-handers got way out of hand. I am not sure about this one. With the changes to power attack, I am not sure, this edition seems to be pushing towards using a one-handed weapon and a shield. Not sure about messing with that, without a lot of thought.
2. Intelligence is currently one of the dump stats. I think something like from an entirely different system where you do something like Initiative is some combination of Dex, Int, and Wis, or the average of Dex, Wis, and Int. And Int giving extra languages might work, now that you don't have skill ranks in a skill to increase the number of languages known.
1. Other than for bardic inspirations we don't really use Inspirations. I really do need to start doing that more often.
Those inspiration cards are neat, I have been thinking about bringing back the pathfinder crit hit/fail cards.
past week I was looking for some homebrew stuff, thanks for this video
I have 3 things I like to do to make final death a little easier to elude but recovery much slower. First, I use the slow healing from the Dungeon Master's Guide. I also do the exhaustion for rolling a death save but you stabilize with one success and have no limit to how many death saves you can roll (assuming exhaustion doesn't kill you.) Third, I record negative hit points with death from massive damage occurring when your negative hit points equal your hit point maximum.
#3 you mentioned carrying capacity. In 10+ years of playing, it has not really come up. Until now, I am paying attention to my players Capacity. The Dungeon years kid and explorers pack alone way quite a bit, and my little halflings can’t carry very much. So if they want to carry around knocked out bodies of people they want detained, it’s going to take them a couple trips..
I started playing/DMing this year and I will definitely keep these in mind
I run a campaign with 2 paladins and a cleric. I was sick of lay on hands for 1 every time pc goes down.
I thought I invented level of exhaustion every time you hit 0... it revolutionized the game. And makes sense.
Also for character creation, I default 3d6 each category- you can either start with a feat, or do 4d6, drop low... makes for a tough but rewarding choice
As far as initiative home brewing rules if you're going to correct it go all the way. Between str, dex, int, wis, and cha as the mods involving initiative. i'll explain my reasoning. In a fight while a dex would be standard mod as a bonus, i think a str based class who's trained their entire life honing their physical body would of course use that mod. Someone who's high in wisdom or intelligence such as a druid, cleric, or wizard would have knowledge or the insight of what's going on around them to give them an edge to have those mods give them a boost. It's a little more tricky with high cha class for bards, warlocks, and sorcerers. perhaps just say their force of will or ability of knowing the reactions of others would allow them to use their Cha mod. that would give characters a choice at character creation to chose a stat mod to boost their initiative Dex, Str, Int, Wis, or Cha.
I used the Matt Colville method of hero builder when I ran Princes of Apocalypse. You roll 4D6 and drop the lowest, if you don't get at least 2 heroic stats (15 or better) you can reroll. optionally with this method, you roll the stats in order and can't move them, which helps nudge people into trying out new classes or new ways to use a class. Most people think this makes completely overpowered players, but I had one player that literally rolled only one other stat over 9, and because of that, he ended up trying out a barbarian, where before he had only ever played a fighter.
20:32. I really like the card idea!
Rolling for your ability scores blindly then selecting class and race to match. Just pre roll damage. We are close to assigning feats to percentile dice just need to add in some homebrew ones. It might be fun to attach skills to bonus action and even reaction item usage. You could also add an intelligence saving throw to surprise. I find that inspiration to be inspired.
Not sure if this is something I read/heard or something I came up with but with going down to zero, getting healed, and popping back up in combat, one optional rule is that popping back up uses a hit die. You don't get healing from the hit die, it's just used up. You can be just stabilized or choose not to return to combat from your healing and not use the hit die...at which point you get back up in narrative time (over a minute?). That way there's a cost but it's not debilitating and you want to consider whether you want to use your resource.
I already implement some of those rules in one way or another, but for number 8 I've made my own rule of Lingering Wounds. When character returns from being unconscious they roll to randomly select an ability score. The Lingering Wound reduces that score by 1+number of failed death saves that character had while unconscious. With each long rest, character gets only one point back, or someone could roll a Medicine check on them with use of healer's kit. If they roll 15+ character gets back two points, but on less than 10 they don't get anything.
I enjoy Matt Mercer's resurrection rules. Matt Colville had a good video about how to prevent skill check dogpiling where only letting people who are proficient or have a narrative reason to be able to check. I also like using critical injury table check on Constitution check then if they fail, they get a critical injury which could affect the combat and also invites cool RP if they lose a limb or something.
Surprisingly good list! Thanks man!
Good stuff, I'll have to consider some of these myself.
For 5e, I do player's choice: 4d6 drop one or standard array; although after two of my players rolled particularly badly in the same campaign, I'm thinking of changing. Maybe I'll go with the roll twice. In previous editions everything below a 15 was worthless, so I used to do roll 4d6, drop one, and the 3 highest rolls need to add up to at least 45.
I don't generally play with a time crunch and we don't play live, so pre-roll is unnecessary.
I like the exhaustion idea with death saves, I tend to run deadly campaigns though. Not impossible, but punishing for bad tactics and I roll the dice in front of the players, so no net. I'll bring it up to the group to see if we want to try it.
Feat at first level... this one requires some thought. I'll have to watch your video on it.
I've always done the PC describes the kill (been playing D&D since the 80s), it gets players fired up to land the killing blow.
I thought the proficiency needed to help someone was standard rules... looks like thats a homebrew of my group as well.
Tried potions as a bonus action, but the group prefers it to be an action for tough decision making.
I never had an issue with players shying from Str builds. Athletics checks can be brutal and come up often enough.
I like the Int, language or tool. More languages and tools means more RP options. I'll probably be adding this one.
For inspiration we have tried different schemes, our current one is everyone gets an inspiration point at the beginning of session. Use it or lose it, however, you must declare its use before rolling.
Modification to rule 8, when a player goes down the overkill damage is the save DC for a con saving throw. If they fail the con save they take a level of exhaustion.
In AD&D there was a table in the back of the unearthed arcane book to power roll stats for character classes where you rolled a different number of six sided dice depending on the stat you were rolling for (back then you rolled straight down the line) but you would roll nine dice for your key stat and keep the highest 3
My favorite ability score rolling method is from pathfinder: 24 dice pool. You have 24 dice to roll in any way for your 6 stats. You have to have 3 dice minimum in each of your stats. Works out to average 4 per stat, but you could do 5 sets of 3 dice and one with 9 dice. Any stats you roll more than 3 dice in you drop the lower dice. Let's you really specialize in the stats you want.
I like the idea of feat at first level to prevent the "5 variant humans and a dwarf" table.
There are two main potions rules I switch between - Either the potion always gives you its top most benefits (like healing potions give the maximum hp they can) or they’re a bonus action. I let the players choose
I like to have "flavor text" explanations for the mechanics. I feel like this works well as, "You can take an action to down the potion and get all of it, or a bonus action to almost throw it at your mouth and hope most of it goes in.
My homebrew death saves rolling rule is that DM does the role and doesn't tell the playeres, gives urgency to the group not know how close to death a fallen player is and generally ups the excitement, also don't ever fudge the rolls
The carrying capacity when I play on r20 is actually really relevant because it does all the math for you. Alot of my charecters have 8 or 10 in str cause there dex based or casters and I meter my carry weight of 150(10) very closely.
An idea to improve Intelligence that I thought of while watching: for every positive point on your ability score gain an additional 1% exp. when earned. So a +1 intelligence character would gain 505 exp when a 0 would gain 500. Could also say that a negative score works the opposite way and adds a -1% to earned exp.
Honeslty I would love it if you went into further detail about that inspiration deck. My group would love to use inspiration but found that if we leave it at 1. It's never used and when we allowed multiple charges, the players would just sandbag the inspiration rolls
My favorite homebrew rule I added made a player (who was a cleric) invent a spell to counteract my homebrew rule it scares the players I DM for so much. I like the death save mechanic alot but after awhile (specially at high levels) it feels underwhelming, however with alittle tweaking it's turned out perfect. Basically death save successes reset whenever you're stabilized however, the failures are permanent and I have the PCs fill in those bubbles really dark. One might ask what happens when you die and you come back to life? (Revivify, Raise Dead) well the PC erases their most recent death save failure and comes back with 5 levels of exhaustion. It's gotten the result I wanted, they don't just brute force their way through problems, there's alot of teamwork and coordination specially when a PC goes down but mainly more planning and tactics to prevent those things from happening, and finally it makes it so death ACTUALLY happens lol.
If you're wondering about the spell it's a 3rd level cleric/paladin spell that removes a death save for the cost of a level of exhaustion that cannot be magically removed, the cool flavor that my player put on it though is that for the time that takes for the cleric/paladin to remove that level of exhaustion, the target that had it's death save removed cannot fail more than 2 death saves when it goes down (unless executed/disintegrated) and goes into an unconscious state when failing more than 2 death saves.
Strength is crazy powerful. Grapple and prone are AMAZING.
When WotC eventually get around to doing Psionics, I feel that Intelligence saving throws are going to be way more abundant.
My favorite way to roll is roll 18d6. You then group them in 6 groups of 3. This makes you actually set that 18 if you want, but you also will probably have a few 1’s you have to deal with. This is great cause you can have the whole party join in with advice. Yes, it takes a LOT longer, but the DM and all players learn your stats and I have a lot more “hey you’re nimble you’d be good at X” interactions with my players.
One of my biggest and most popular House Rules I use (I did not come up with it though). is that Each Class Uses their "Main Stat" as their initiative bonus. To me it made sense, as each class would be trained to react differently in combat situations,IE wizard uses there intelligence to scan the battlefield to react properly, so on and so forth. It never made sense to me (been playing since 2nd edition) that only the people with high DEX MOD got the better initiative most of the time, so almost always the Melee/Physical combat classes would go first.
I have a DM who says we cannot regain hit dice on a long rest (we still get all the other benefits and healing) unless we are actually in a place we feel safe. So if we are raiding a dungeon and take a long rest we can regain hit die unless we can actually convince the DM why we would feel safe.This justification is that we would still be slightly on edge about being attacked in our sleep that we can’t the best type of rest.
We actually all enjoy it. Makes us think more and leads to more ways of dealing with encounters because we may not get healing. I think my favourite was the bard managing to convince a goblin was insulting another via singing in goblin whilst hiding
Rule #2 is amazing. Thank you.
I like to have my players roll 4d6 drop the lowest 6 times, but I allow them to reroll one number, but only if it isn't their lowest. I like players having a low number or two in their Stateline. I think this system makes more interesting and dynamic characters while getting rid of the feel bads of rolling three 6s.
Oh, my GM does 3d6 re-roll first ones. If you don't get a single 15 for any of your six you re-roll them all. One time I needed to roll like six different sets to get a single 15.
For the knockdown, I do 1 point of exhaustion too. Exceptions are abilities that will pop you up automatically, so you don't really hit 0. I also use 2nd edition trauma tables. So you end up with severed fingers, arms, concausions, missing hair, puncture lung, broken ribs.
Feats at first level I give all players a FREE Skill/tool feat. Otherwise no one will ever use them.
Another Homebrew rule that I like to do, only if the party doesn't have a healer, is the max healing potion rule, that instead of rolling for healing you get the max hit points, but it takes an action to use the potion
not needed in the slightest
my partys been just fine without a healer and rollling their potion dice in multiple campaigns without magical healing avaliable
elgatochurro and that’s fine for your games. Just posting a homebrew rule that I use for my particular party
@@arknknucklerpg5205 yeah but it sounds fine for small potions but id really have to limit the amount of higher portions i give out, especially superior potions
The way did did our rolls most recently: Our DM called it "Yahtzee Rules". For each stat, roll 4D6, and ones are auto-rerolled. Then take any number of that 4D6 and you can reroll just those dice and drop the lowest die. Additional rule: if all 4 dice are 6, you get a 20 for the stat.
For example, you roll 2,5,3,1. You reroll the 1, get a 4. You can decide to keep the 4 and 5, reroll the 2 and 3, and then use the 3 highest out of the result.
It's worth mentioning that this is an Isekai campaign, so it was intended to have our characters have higher than normal stats.
A comment/suggestion about #8, I think it was? Or maybe it was #7? Somewhere around there. It's the one about exhaustion upon getting back up from 0 hit points. I'd also think magical healing would help with the exhaustion, since it's an otherworldly external force giving you the vigor to get back up and keep fighting. Maybe magical healing has a chance of negating that exhaustion, with the chance depending on what level it is, each spell having only say, a 10 or 15% chance per level of the spell to negate the exhaustion. Probably working the same when you cast, say, a cure wounds at 5th level: it'd still have a 50% chance of negating that exhaustion.
I added Homebrew rule for characters that go to 0 hp. Each time in combat they go to 0, there is a 15% chance of a lingering wound, using the rules in the dmg. Rolling is done at the end of combat. The chance is cumulative, but there is a max of 1 lingering wound per day. Players kinda like flavor it adds.
10) 3 sets of 6 4d6 rolls drop the lowest. 1/2 set free, if you take the third set roll you MUST take it. (My house rules)
9/8) I’m interested in this and may try it.
7) I offer this IF the players go with point-buy/standard array instead of rolling for stats. I am concerned doing stat rolling w/free feat.
6) I do this. My players LOVE this. It breaks tension, it brings cheers of joy... it’s just... ahhhh ☺️
5) I would use this but my players don’t do that... for some reason
4) I don’t do this because it invalidates the Theif subclass of rogue which can do use a potion (self or feeding) as a bonus action
3) interesting.... although I think they do enough. But I will ponder over this
2) I also use something akin to this
1) I rarely use inspiration at all. Mostly because my players usually downplay role play. But I want that deck now and may use them and the inspiration mechanic more
When I'm not using the standard point buy, I use a roll method from Pathfinder 1e of 2d6 + 6, as it offers the same minimums and maximums. Sometimes I'll let people roll 2 sets, other I'll let them roll seven scores and keep six of them.
I'm also a big fan of brutal critical. Allowing the additional crit dice to deal their maximum in place of rollibg, so a crit always does more than it's regular counterpart.
For deaths saves I've considered exhaustion or other methods to make death more scary, but first I aim on trying a rule where the death saves are rolled secretly between the DM and the player in question (or whispered in roll 20), I think other players not knowing how close their ally is to death is a great tool to make death scarier, without changing the rules much.
I've made use if the bonus action health potion rules a few times, though an alternative I've considered is keeping it an action and letting the potion always heal max. I've also considered combining them at times, but that may be too strong.
I absolutely love the language and intelligence bonus rule, and will probably steal it for my own games. It's a great way of adding some value to Int in a way thats useful, but not game shattering to the degree of extra skills.
Great video my dude, very interesting things to consider.
I use a custom injury table. Injury tables are in the optional rules but just had my own table based on a d20 divided into 5 and have 1 and 20 there own effects. 1 being a loss of a body part and 20 just exhaustion. Have the player or dm roll for it. Each injury has a level of severity based on the d20 scale and needs a certain level of care at a town to fix it
I am a DM with 35+ years exp. I think 5e is the best balanced addition they have ever put out (especially spell casting options), but they streamlined it too much imho. I liked several of your rules, these are some of the ones I use:
1- Strength:
a NEGATIVE Strength modifier is ALWAYS added to a melee/thrown attack (even with finesse/light) and if you have a bonus to Strength (12 or better) and are using a non-finesse/non-light weapon you gain and addition +1 for one handed weapon attacks and +2 for two handed. Bows can be "Built for Strength" and you can replace the dex modifier with your strength modifier on DAMAGE rolls up to the "Strength Rating" of the bow (obviously you need the minimum Strength = to the bows "Strength Rating" to use it).
2- I use the exhaustion at 0 hp, It makes combat way more exciting.
3- Resurrection
:
A resurrected character has their constitution reduced by 2 immediately upon completion of the magic.
A character brought back from death will have no spells memorized and no spell slots available.
A resurrected character comes back to life with 3 levels of exhaustion.
4- Disarmed:
attempting to retrieve an item knocked from your grasp allows any opponent within 5' to make an OA (provided they still have a reaction).
5- Charm Spells:
Certain spells 'as written' say the target KNOWS they have been charmed, this has been adjusted to the following
:
upon completion of/successful save against a charm spell the caster must roll deception vs the target's insight . If the target wins they realize they have been charmed. If the target loses/ties the roll they are not aware they have been the victim of magical manipulation.
6- Ranged 'Sneak Attack' :
If the target is engaged in combat/or moving vigorously the maximum range at which sneak attack damage can be applied with a ranged weapon is 30'
If the target is not engaged in combat, and relatively still, Sneak Attack Damage can be applied at ½ the ranged weapon's short range or 30', which ever is greater.
7- +2 for 'Flanking':
I got grief for this from one player until I ran a mock combat where I used a mass of goblins against his fighter. It changed his mind.
I have several others that I use to make the game more 'gritty' and lethal. My table loves it. I have more rules but didn't want to go crazy. If anyone is interested I will post them.
Something I did in my 1st campaign for strength was to, instead of treating enemy-occupied spaces as difficult terrain, players had to make a strength check to get by them. Also for grappling which came up a lot since I had some grabby monsters like zombies and crawling claws. I would also use it in sword bind contests where the swords are clashing against each other, if a character's hit was the same as the targets AC then they might do this.
I use potions as a you pick. If you use a bonus action you roll the die for the healing (my potions are single die d4,d8,d12,d20) and you get what you roll. If you take an action you get the full amount, draining every drop out if the bottle. Using that bonus action is nice but you might spill some of your precious potion, so taking your time leads to better results.
Totally agree that the help action requires a proficiency... This helps spread proficiencies around better like to knowledge based skills.
Since the release VRGtR, I’ve been using the stress mechanic in place of exhaustion for when a character goes down to later come back up. I find it’s less debilitating, though those stress points can build up fast if they’re careless.
I've started running a more survival/exploration style of game so Carry Capacity is a bigger deal, also to offset the reliance of Dexterity, Intelligence is now used for Initiative modifiers in my campaign (War Wizard subclass gets Dex mod rather than double Int mod), I also use the 1.5x damage for 2 handed weapons with Strength. I also have all of the skills unbound in my campaign, basically the player tells me what they are trying to do and I say 'okay use this ability score modifier plus any proficiency bonus you have in that skill and add it to your d20'. Last bit on Intelligence is, your Intelligence modifier +1 is the maximum number of languages you can know. If you have a negative Int mod then you haven't mastered any languages and the lower it is the more mundane your speech patterns become.
For the last point I allow up to 3 inspiration dice and I hand it out fairly frequently so long as they role play their characters or do something brave. Though I might switch it to your inspiration tracker as that sounds really awesome and engaging.
Some of the Homebrewed Rules that I've incorporated/allowed into my game:
* Given Dragonborn Darkvision whose shades of [Color] is based either on their Draconic Ancestry or on the Element that their Breath Weapons does.
* Slowly introducing Dragonborn that are descendant from "specific" Dragons like Bahamut, Tiamat, Ao, & Shadow; Ao Dragonborn are currently limited to NPC only for the moment. But their Damage Types are Bahamut Dragonborn - Radiant | Tiamat Dragonborn - (Roll 1d6, dealing type of the Chromatic Dragon's type, rerolling on 6's == ex: 1 is Fire, 2 is Cold, etc) | Ao Dragonborn deal Force Damage while Shadow Dragonborn deal Necrotic.
* Con/Rest the Dragonborn can roll 1d6 & regain their Breath Weapon on a 5/6. Expended uses of this are regained at the end of a Long Rest.
* Wild Magic Sorcerer's are given the option of having their Wild Magic Surges happen as written in the PHB or have the Surges trigger every time they cast a Spell, including Cantrips, ala the way Wild Magic Goblins trigger their Surges.
* I treat the Warlock's "Expanded Spell Lists" that they get through their Patrons as if they were Oath Spells or Domain Spells, so that the Warlocks will automatically get those Spells AND they don't count against the # of Known Spells. I also allow Warlocks to exchange their 'Mystic Arcanum' spells at the end of every Long Rest, but its replacement Spell must be of the same Level they're replacing. So if they want to change out their Level 7 Mystic Spell, then the replacement Spell MUST be another Level 7 Spell.
I like the idea of giving warlocks their patron spells for free. I'll probably steal that.
@@tyleremery7088 Yeah, the way I look at it, it's no different then Cleric's & Paladin's getting their Domain & Oath Spells (respectively) from their Deities.
I use 5d6 take the highest 3 , with 2 rerolls taking the new rolls .
I generally run high stake campaigns and expect the party to be hero’s in order to survive difficult encounters. This works nicely giving characters good chance of good stats and allows them to survive significantly more dangerous encounters even at lower levels. Otherwise I do point buy and add options to increase ability scores , either by training to a max of the 16 or buy using magical changes to there physiology.
- 5e is kinda going back towards random character generation, but I'm not sure custom characteristic rolls is better. Frankly, I think just house ruling a less restrictive point buy system will result in more rounded party composition and characters.
-Exhaustion for failed death saves is a good rule, but I wouldn't take it a step further.
-Proficiency on an ability check assist is an ok house rule, but... it might hurt beginners. Mileage may vary.
-I think potion action should be dependent on the potion and be part of the rarity of the potion. There's potions that should be a bonus action, and there's potions that should be a regular action. A super common healing potion might be more common than a bonus action healing potion.
-The changes to strength and intelligence would be ok in 5e. They aren't valued correctly in 5e.
- the inspiration deck is kinda interesting.
I once pondered house rules for intelligence and I think I came across something online. It was a house rule for spending skill points and it went like so:
You gain a number of points equal to your Intelligence Modifier, you can spend either 1, 2 or 3 points for the following benefits.
1 point: Gain proficiency in either 1 common language, 1 simple weapon, 1 musical instrument or 1 gaming set of your choice.
2 points: Gain proficiency in 1 exotic language, 1 artisans tool, 1 Vehicle or 1 martial weapon of your choice.
3 points: Gain proficiency in 1 skill or 2 of the following tools:
Herbalism Kit
Disguise Kit
Poisoner’s Kit
Navigator’s Tools
Forgery Kit
Or Thieves Tools.
I allow up to 7 inspiration points. Each point adds 1 point onto any roll. When a players rolls a natural 20, they get 3 inspiration points. If they roll a natural 20 on an attack roll, they can choose between critical damage or 3 inspiration points.
For ability scores, I do a point buy for ability scores and feats. So a level 1 player has points to buy abilities and certain racial and lineage feats. This keeps each player balanced with the other players.
Homebrew rule 8, i manage it that way, if the player gets up by magical means (which is as far as i recall the only way to be "fight ready" instand) they get exhaustet, they can stableise them no problem, but they will be knocked out. anytime they get up by magical means anytime before the time i called for the regular knock out leads back up to the exhaustion.
4d6 reroll 1's, Apply each individual number to whichever attribute you want, If you didn't roll an 18, drop your highest score and take an 18. Usually works out to most players being able to build however they want and gives them the straight 18 to their primary stat so they're not complaining about being under powered.
Aa a new DM with only a few sessions in, I've been doing the 2nd half of number 9. The "How do you do this?" part. It feels like it gives them a connection to their characters. I got the idea from Cosmonaut Variety Hour.
I do potions as a bonus action but I require a special quick release potion belt case that holds three maximum. These potions are also subject to damage at my (the DMs) option. The purpose is to make my players essentially que no more than 3 for use. That way they can't have nine potions bouncing around their backpack and suddenly fish the one that applies out and drink it with just a bonus action. In Critical Roll Matt often lets his players cast spells and perform actions not really according to rules as written for dramatic storytelling purposes.
Love those cards!
Maybe a barbarian helping a wizard with an arcana check is the barbarian making the wizard a nice cup of tea to sip while he's reading.
i do 2d6+6, six times, everyone can pick from any of the arrays rolled
no variant human, free feat at level one
My brother! Ban the variant humans!! Free feat for all!!
I wish kabold race wasn't so gimped as I love being Scrappy fast dudes. They are to cute.
I'm trying to put together a campaign and thinking of doing this. But why would anyone pick a human than?
@@dirigoallagash3464 they could pick human for rp/story reasons, but on the whole I want to discourage people from picking human just for the feat
@@dirigoallagash3464 personally, i homebrewed cultural subraces for my homebrew setting. Another option is to have the location of the story mostly be in human dominated areas -- if elves or w/e are fairly scarce or dont often travel then the party is more conspicuous
"I want to seduce the dragon"
"Roll persuasion"
*uses confident card*
You are well on your way to being a well dressed pet
I like that STR weapon houserule, but 2-handers are already pretty powerful thanks to polearm master and great weapon master feats.
I think the big breach is between STR dual wielding vs DEX dual wielding and rapier+shield vs longsword+shield. STR d8 light one handers would be pretty nice.
STR weapons are supposed to have bigger die than non-finesse ones, but in practice that is not the case! if you want to use a weapon+shield you can get a d8 with DEX or STR. if you want to dual-wield then you're looking at d6's and d8's with the feat. the only benefit is you can throw some stuff like the handaxe but thrown weapons are already terrible thanks to how they interact with extra attack.
10. my preferred ways is either point buy or 2D6 + 6
8. failed death saves linger till after long rest.
I want those cards
oh my div wizard with the linguist feat and sage background would go wild with that extra language rule. pretty sure he already knows about half the languages with no homebrew