I've recently scrapped darkvision entirely and replaced it with 2e style infravision for some instances and 3e low-light vision for the rest. I describe it as elves (for example) have eyes similar to cats that can see well in dimness and dwarves (also for example) have the ability to see a wider wavelength of light, seeing into the infrared. This less makes it seem like a different kind of vision that kicks in under certain circumstances and what can and can't be seen that fueled so many childhood debates back in the day
@@MasterGhostf It frustrates me to no end that people decide to just entirely scrap darkvision as a concept when they didn't run it correctly in the first place. Running it raw it is literally only useful for fighting in darkness and sneaking through darkness and still is a penalty in both of those scenarios. I've played a race with darkvision pretty much every time I've played d&d and not once have I just forgone a torch/lantern. Your passive scores for vision are all kicked down by 5 AND you have disadvantage on any seeing check! That's basically asking to be ambushed or to walk straight into a trap plus you're gonna miss secret doors almost every time AND if the players are roleplaying they should be wanting to walk through grayscale dim light. It's so annoying to be walking around in dim light
My favorite house rule is that to rest you have to eat a meal. It’s great for role play. My players cook in the real world and so do I. And it makes rations/taverns important.
One thing to consider with the improved critical is that it will have a much bigger effect on paladins since they decide after they hit if they're going to smite. If a paladin scores a critical hit, they can then use their maximum spell level slot knowing it's going to do full damage plus their roll. As far as the numbers behind the player facing roll math, it's something like this. The d20 is an average of 10.5, so while the the player is subtracting 10 from their AC to get their bonus, they are effectively adding the die to their bonus (+10.5), giving them a net of 0.5 to the total on their side. On the monster's side, they are subtracting 10.5. To cancel out the 0.5 net player bonus and the die you took away from the monster, you add 11 (10.5 for the die plus 0.5 for the net player bonus). The last point comes from the fact that instead of the monster winning in ties, the player now wins in ties. It is equivalent to say that the player roll exceeds the monster attack DC+11 and the player roll meets or exceeds attack DC+12. So to keep the same core mechanic of "meet or exceed target number x", the monster's attack DC is calculated as 12 + attack bonus. Hope I did an okay job of explaining it.
I know what you mean! To help with this, our party also does the improved critical rule, but it only applies to the weapon die rolled. That way, sneak attack and Paladin smites aren’t overpowered.
I know I'm three months late to this comment, but I believe they only max 1 weapon associated die for the crit. Everything else like sneak attacks, elemental damage bonuses, smites, etc are all rolled normally.
A neat twist to the bonus action potion rule. You can have a bonus action be the roll for potion Hp. The roll signifies how much potion you actually got in your mouth. If you take a full action to drink a potion you get the full max amount of the potion. It’s a neat add on and makes them decide wether to chug it fast or take their time.
My concern with group initiative is that you always have some players that have a more dominating personality and this would make it too easy for them to always be trying to jump in first and "do their thing" while the quieter players ending always going last.
That’s a legit concern. I have players who are typically really good about reading the table so it’s not much of an issue. Also, sometimes the quieter players actually prefer to go after the more “dominating personalities” and have no issue with going last. But everyone is different 😉
I really like the ICRPG method...everyone rolls initiative and play goes from the winner around the table clockwise. That way, each round might find different players in the "first action" position.
thats where the dex bonus comes in. the pc order is determined by dex bonus. Also initivative bonus is max( (bonus/party_size), 1) rounded up so someone with alert would give their teammates a +2 on the d20 roll.
I have everybody, monsters included, roll initiative and start with the highest roll as normal, but then just alternate between sides using the next highest total from the other "team" as it were. That avoids dogpiling on either side.
I don't like group initiative because it changes how the same encounter plays out drastically. For instance, if players concentrate fire, that creature which would have had a turn to act is now dead before the shared initiative comes. It also reminds me of old school video game rpgs, like FF.
I can't remember if I came up with it or stole it from someone, but I've recently been using a "killing blow" rule that's made 5e combat much more rewarding and streamlined. In short, when you reduce a creature's HP to a number less than or equal to your proficiency bonus, roll a d20, on a 10+ they're reduced to 0. Especially at high levels, this has the potential to save players from needing to double tap enemies, so they can focus on the fun stuff (killing more bad guys and looking cool while doing it). It also happens just infrequently enough that it feels special when it works.
In my game, we tried the rule where hp doesn't "magically recover" over a long rest, you just get all your HD back and can spend them... It made my players SOOOO Conservative... They were never willing to take risks, and it was slowing down the game too much... So we scrapped it, and went back to the Super Hero rules in the phb.
I like to think of the "hit points" as stamina, you are able to make a "mortal wound" less so by dodging some of the attack and just getting a cut, reaching 0 is you lost too much blood and passed out, then if you get hit while down and reach 3, that wound or attack becomes mortal and you die
Agreed with all of those, even ran some of them myself. Its super important to mold the default rules to fit how your group plays the game and in my experience has always made it way better. I think I will try out the player facing combat idea, it sounds super good and reminds me of G.U.R.P.S.
Hey Falvodor, thanks for commenting. Never played GURPS but let me know if player facing combat works alright at your table. Its definitely kept my players more engaged when it's not their turn. Cheers!
My personal house rule that is going over well in my current game: A combatant rolling a critical failure on a melee attack grants their target an opportunity attack against them. So it's like they botched that attack so badly that not only do they not land a hit, but they left themselves open for a counter-attack. It adds a good counter mechanic to landing a critical success, and helps keep players involved between their turn.
Yeah, this is good one. Melee fighters are not suffer enough already, so adding more damage to their face is really good idea. Can't see how someone would not chose fighter instead of wizard after that.
Something I liked from the Spelljammer Academy module was the very first combat had standard initiative for players while the enemies went at the end. However, at the beginning of each player turn, a random small event happens. Something like a new enemy appears in combat, a hail of arrows hit everyone on the field, an explosion shakes all characters making them make a save to not be knocked over, a rope swings across the battle over one character and lets them make an acrobatics check to move 40 ft for free by swinging on the free moving rope. It made the combat feel dynamic while not worrying too much about enemy initiative. Dex based initiative still worked here, but perhaps you simply sprinkle in the events between the player turns in group initiative. Say, you describe a thing and then any single player who hasn't gone can go. This means you have to add random events that can happen to each encounter, but, I simply think the concept is unique and the random events can be rather mundane for mundane encounters or skipped entirely if it is meant to be a quick battle.
I like group initiative. I try to use the Initiative mechanic as a skill check sometimes instead, so that there is some use for it. Depending on the circumstance, doing an initiaive check higher than X might allow you to take an action before the first combat round begins. Or I might do a contested initiative check to see who springs to action first, if it is between one character and one villain.
Adventuring day doesn't mean session, people confuse those two too often. In a campaign run by my best friend we've been in a single map dungeon for three sessions are are still going, it really makes the rogue look good in comparison to the rest of the party (wizard, sorcerer and druid). So much so that the rogue got nerfed, xd.
"Adventuring day doesn't mean session, people confuse those two too often" It also doesn't mean "Day". The default resting rules are really designed for the situation you saw above - dungeons. You go into the dungeon, do as much as you can, leave, and then the adventure is over so you take a long rest back in town. So much of this could have been avoided if WotC had just said "Adventure" instead of "Adventuring day" when defining things.
My group can never really agree on what happens when a critical failure happens in combat, so I made a more fleshed out crit fail system. Whenever a 1 is rolled on an attack, the player then rolls a d4. If the player rolls a 1, the attack completely misses and their turn is over. If the player rolls a 2, the attack only partially hits and does half damage to the intended target. If the player rolls a 3, the attack is repelled back at the player and they will take half damage. If the player rolls a 4, they then roll a d8. The tiles around the character are numbered 1-8, starting at the tiles to their north and moving around them in clockwise fashion. Whatever the result of the D8 is where the attack lands at full force and whatever creature happens to be there will be hit. My group has really liked this system and I doubt I'll ever stop using it in my campaigns.
For a long term campaign I treat major injuries as long lasting. I roll a d4 to determine how many weeks they are injured. Also what ever I roll for the duration is the hp penalty they take. As they heal a week the penalty drops by 1. It reinforces consequences and glory for heroism. At higher levels I move up in dice faces appropriate to the level.
I always wanted to do opposed rolls for combat. DM rolls for the monster attack, player rolls d20 plus armor bonus (as you stated here). Higher wins, defender wins ties. It would probably be too much, but I like the idea of it.
I do think the slowness and clunkiness of combat is the biggest problem in d&d. I love the group initiative idea, however I don't think it would work in my particular campaign. There are 7 players, so if they all go at once then they can pretty much wipe the floor with whomever they're up against. I'm still trying to figure out a way to make combat run more quickly and smoothly. I love the critical hit idea, anything that makes the game feel more epic is generally a good change imo. Thank you for sharing your ideas, subscribed!
You might want to try the "alternating" method of initiative, where the players roll initiative and you make one monster go in between every player. It balances out encounters pretty well because it eliminates situations where one side is taking multiple turns in a row before the other side has taken a turn. Also it's less work for you, the dm, because you only need to roll intiative once for your highest initiative monster and if you have the highest initiative the monsters take the first turn and if any players beat the number you rolled, then the players take the first turn, but either way, from there it alternates.
@@bonzwah1 I like this idea! How does it work with 1 big monster, though? Does he have multiple turns per round, or does he just go first or second and then the rest of the party takes turns?
@@BGlasnost that's up to you. the system I described only ensures that the 1 big monster will go first or second in the combat. so yeah it will get dogpiled on, but not BEFORE it's first turn, which can often make all the difference. - most officially published monsters in dnd 5e that are designed to be solo bosses have legendary actions which serve to give them, essentially, extra turns every round. They also sometimes get lair actions which also serve this purpose. - but a lot of those monsters are high level monsters that will kill lower level characters very fast, so if your 7 person party is still relatively low level and you can't find reasonable monsters with legendary actions, I highly recommend that you look at those high level monsters and just nerf their damage. - for example, a young white dragon doesn't get legendary actions for some reason. so just take the adult white dragon stat block, which does have legendary actions, and just have it deal half damage on everything. This would allow you to have a really cool monster that does tons of cool stuff during the fight, but it also won't be 1 shotting half the party with it's opening breath weapon attack haha.
I did group combat just the other day on a whim, and it worked great! It was a minor encounter in a foggy room, and to save time on having to go through the whole initiative combat i thought of it and gave it a try. Best decision! The encounter resolved quickly and the rest of the session could proceed.
The long rest rule also makes spells like tiny hut and magic mansion a lot more valuable as well as meaning your warlocks are actually going to be casting spells more because less long rests often equates to more short rests
A house rule that all my players love is glancing blow. Got it from The Dungeon Coach. If someone meets an AC it deals half damage. Say a PC/Monster AC is 12. The opponent rolls to attack and that get 7 plus 5. The creature takes half damage on that hit as if it was resistant to the attack. Makes a barbarian feel even more tanky while giving the fighter/monk/paladin that feel as well. Mix that with improve critical and Monsters feel that much more as a threat. Having the glazing blow have a range adds a little more flare say like 12 to 15 is a glazing blow anything higher is normal damage.
I recently finished playing in a campaign with some of these house rules. Improved crits and bonus action potions are nice quality of life changes that we really liked. Gritty resting rules however were pretty frustrating a lot of the time. I kind of like restricting how easy it is to restore hp but what really hurt was how hard it was to get class resources back
That was my thought too. I'm down for making healing harder, but restricting "all aspects of a long rest" is MUCH more than just healing. Like... what is a spellcaster supposed to do with no long rests?
Maybe you can fix it by changing the long rest in that way: long rest can be done as described in the rule book and the heroes recover as described except the hp. No hp are restored automatically after a long rest but the hero recovered the hit dice.
The player facing combat is the only house rule i'll always use now. it's exactly as you said, easy to implement and makes the combats much more fun and engaging, especially with larger groups! if you like crit hit/fail rules you can do all kind of fun stuff with it like giving the player a free AoO on a crit defense roll.
Yea certainly! All of my monster stat blocks now say Attack DC instead of to-hit bonus, since they are all player facing combat. I find my players have been staying more engaged when it’s not their turn as well. Glad it’s working out in your games!
I am adding maneuvers to combat too. The battle master maneuvers are not exactly what I am looking for but that class will be obsolete, rules as written, when I allow any class to have options to parry, counter, etc. I think we will have to create a different setting and publish it though, because Wizards of the Coast is more focused on PC options than improving mechanics. This mistake was done before in previous editions and it’s because player character flexibility sells more books. But if not balanced it breaks the game. Eventually the many options will start to look the same and players will lose the feeling of wonder about the game. Playing and Orc will feel the same as playing an elf because you can essentially do the same thing if you want to. I like the flexibility but if I want to allow Halfling Barbarians in my settings, I need to make a culture that supports it in game or it just feels like every kingdom and area is the same. Why play in different parts of the world when I can be a Samurai or Gladiator in areas that the DM doesn’t have them. 100% of the world essentially has all cultures and backgrounds intermingled. The tiniest backwater hamlets will have outer planes races like it’s no big deal because that’s what the rules allow. I think this flexibility will speed up boredom. I want to incentivize player’s to explore new areas because when they discover other cultures, they will be able to decide if they want to make a character with new backgrounds the campaign exposes organically. The options still exist but the players are required to discover them instead of having a character in an area of my world that doesn’t make much sense. Off topic I know but this illustrates the importance of home brewing. Big corporate game designers are not incentivized to improve the game mechanics from a wholistic perspective when their profits are from expanding the player experience. This forces DMs to create this part. So let’s keep theory crafting!
@@NexusNetwork55 ehh not too off topic. I think you make some good points here. 5e is certainly great! And with the announcement of One D&D, I think they realize some things in 5e are broken and need fixing. Personally I think there are more than enough “options” for players now at this point and wotc really doesn’t need to keep making books with more options for “character creation mini games”. What I would like to see them incorporate is fixing the mechanical aspects of the game such as rests, light, and hit point bloat.
@@HouseDM I think the fixes might give an illusion of choice and take away from a player’s agency in game , but we will see. For example if a player wants to attempt to disarm an opponent some dms will say you can’t do that because you need this special feat. I will let the player do whatever they want and set a DC and change the feat to reflect mastering the technique instead. When I play I find this the most frustrating thing because in AD&D, Gary’s original version, I could do whatever I wanted to do without needing a feat that says I am now able to do it. Polearms in the Master’s Player’s book or the D&D Rules Cyclopedia allowed a player to use disarm and hook maneuvers just like the those historical weapons were meant to be used. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a step in the right direction that is missing from 5e. With that said 5e is the best base for us to change what we want to create the epic experience for the game. WotC can keep the rules simple and allow us to tweak it. I am motivated to create a PDF of my version when I am done with it but I don’t want to profit from it. I want a streamlined collection of the changes in a book for others to enjoy the hobby we love.
@@HouseDM I have two stat for character health. Body which is 10 + STR modifier and hit points which represents skill, luck, and combat fitness. Hit points are removed first. Then the body gets hit which causes injury. I limit hit points to a maximum and exhaustion is a thing too which makes combat more deadly when it lasts longer. Long combats are boring anyway. Escalation die from 13th Age, I think, and exploding damage give a feeling of we need to do this fast! I also am theory crafting a fatigue stat to allow faster combat. 10 + CON modifier. Then a player can say I spend 2 fatigue point to make another attack or counter etc. Fantasy Flight Star Wars games use a strain mechanic that lets players do things that. Encumbered players get exhausted quicker which incentivizes fully armored knight to dispatch foes quickly as well. The trick is making it feel real without adding too much complexity that turns combat into a slogfest.
For my table, you can roll a healing potion as a bonus action. If you take a full action to drink it or take your time outside of combat, automatically assume max rolls. I see it as you trying to down the drink in combat would be difficult to not splash some, but if you are chilling outside of combat, chances are you are going to take every drop of it.
I've done the group initiative before finding this video. My players did not like it at all across two separate live groups, and another online group was so confused at who should go first they'd trip over each other constantly and took them twice as long to finish a round. This was even worsened when someone thought 'I'll let everyone else go first while I go eat dinner' and took half an hour after it was their turn to get back, expecting the rest of us to still be working on what the first two players are doing. Disasters all around. My workaround was to simply use the average initiative bonus of the enemies and have them be their own turn. This does basically the same thing, because there's no one going between the players, but they have a structured system they can pay attention to and feel like their Initiative stuff matters more.
On the long rest issue, I have a fix. Feel free to criticize. I give my players a hit point/ spell slot gain per hour of rest. Which gives them a choice. Every time they stop to rest, I ask how long they want to do so. Once they've chosen, we both roll a 1 d20. The modifier is the number of hours minus their roll score. They have to beat my roll score, or risk an encounter. So if they choose to rest for two hours, that would be 1 d20 minus two. If they roll a 16, and I roll a 15, they have an encounter. And not all encounters are combat related. I have a little table that I roll. 1-8. 1. Bandits 2. Animal encounter (subsequent roll for animal type) 3. They meet an npc looking for assistance 4. An npc who may potentially join the party, depending on how they react to the encounter 5. Someone with information pertinent to the quest they're currently on Etc, etc, etc. Depending on situational factors.
How I use the house rules you mentioned: 5) I still use individual initiative, but I use slips of paper on my DM screen. Everyone rolls once per combat, I put the slips of paper in order and everyone knows who goes when. I think group initiative gives the party an unfair advantage and erodes some of the excitement of combat. 4) I switch the bonuses of resting mechanics. RAW says gain all of your hit points and half total hit dice. My house rule is on a long rest you roll your hit dice without (con) modifiers. A 5th level fighter gets 5d10 hit points back on a long rest. It makes the weight of combat heavier without demoralizing players. You need more? Go make healing potions! 3) My party is used to the traditional method and don't want more rules to learn. We resolve combat with RAW. 2) Crits are gloriously resolved with no dice rolling. Max damage, doubled. That's why it's critical! No dice rolling, just bask in the glory of it all. Bear in mind, enemies can crit, too. It's never caused a disturbance but they LOVE seeing that 20 staring at them. Watching their eyes glaze over in lust or horror (depending on who rolled the 20) adds a big layer of excitement. 1) Potions are their own action and cannot be used as a bonus action. It's for the realism (in a world of wizards and dragons). Pretend you're in a fight with something, it's your turn. Now, move 30', swing a pretend sword (or cast your pretend fireball, whatever), grab a tube from your belt (or backpack where most characters store them?), pop the cork and drink the whole potion (4oz? 6 oz?), all in 6 seconds. No way. If you want to attack, attack. If you're low on health, drink a potion. It is its own action.
You've created some great fixes. I've used group initiative (re-rolled every round) for the longest time. Group initiative also allows players to choose who goes when (no around the table) However, I used "half turns" to stagger the combat between players and monsters to best simulate everything happening at once. It's a little more work for the DM, but it makes for a more tactical play. E.g. Players win initiative. First player moves. First monster moves. Second player casts spell. Second monster moves. Third players moves. Third monster moves. Back around to first player finishing their turn by attacking. First monsters finishes turn by disengaging, Second player moves to adjusts, finishing their turn. Second monster attacks...etc until all combatants have completed two "half-turns". Bonus actions can be used during either half-turn; players choice. If the PCs are fighting just 1 monster then half of the party takes their half-turns, then the monster takes it's half-turn, followed by the remaining players. As for resting; I was a little more harsh. Players heal their proficiency bonus in hit points on a short rest plus 1 additional hp if tended to by a medic. For a long rest, they receive their character level and prof. bonus in hit points plus their CON modifier and 1 extra if attended by medic. A proper rest can only be found in the comfort of safety (settlement, of the like) over several days. Player facing combat is the best. I was using it for a long time. The more players roll dice, the more exciting it is for them. But alas, I've moved on from D&D. It;s all about Pathfinder now. Cheers.
I proposed to my dm custom improvised weapon mechanic , basicaly damage is proportional to how heavy the object is and how strong is material the object is made out of. its starts from 1d4 and goes up to 6d10, but you have to be able to lift it and you have to use whole action to do the attack (no extra attack). You also have disadvantage if it weights more than your carrying capacity
Something I like on Tale of the Manticore podcast was to randomly roll each day for a wonderous place. If the DM rolls a 20 on a d20, the players do not experience a monster encounter, but stumble across a safe place in the wilderness. I think that would work very well with your House Rule Long Rest. I like it.
Hey thanks Swermie! I’m a slow growing channel since I only have time to post 1 video per month (2 if I’m lucky). Hope you stick around and enjoy my ramblings! Cheers and welcome to the channel!
I’m really intrigued by the Player Facing combat rolls. I’m gonna try it out with my players & see what they think! It SOUNDS like a great way to get them more engaged, which is awesome 😁🤘🏻⚔️
Ill bite on this video. I definitely use the bonus action for pots. The others here would be somewhat superfluous for my tables. Group initiative - my players are thankfully very engaged and have an awesome teamwork dynamic. Player facing combat - interesting but would lead to longer lasting combat. I feel there’s better ways to make combat engaging. Crunchy crits - meh, crits are already crunchy enough but I’m going to play at a table soon that uses this so I guess I’ll find out. Not sure if resting mechanics need fixing. I easily find ways to challenge my players without needing to fix this. Btw there’s already RAW against the kind of long resting you refer to here. Light mechanics as a fog of war mechanic, I’ve never really liked anyway. I think if folks played darkvision RAW it’s fine.
I do the long rest rule where you only recover when you use HD. It isn't that bad or super hard at all. I actually make it even more challenging. 1. On a long rest you heal by rolling HD (just like a short rest) 2. After the long rest is complete you regain 1/2 your HD back 3. If you have less than 1/2 your max HP after a long rest you gain a point of exhaustion (this represents a lingering injury of some kind) 4. If the character has 2 points of exhaustion, they no longer regain HD. I find that this makes healing abilities and spells critical in my games and the players always stock up on potions if they know they are going to leave town for a while.
I'm really enjoying your channel. I particularly enjoyed your "why i stopped using spell slots" video. I'm a first time DM whose currently working on building my own TTRPG for my group who play Pathfinder 2e. Im wanting to build a world in which actions have consequences, and really focusing on that. One idea that I created (maybe it already exists?) is a renown/disdain system. Ex: Lets say a king asks you to clear out a camp of Orc thieves just outside the city. Upon successful completion, you gain +1 renown point for that king/city/inhabitants. But you also gain +1 disdain point for Orcs, and maybe even the local thieves guild. Im thinking making it a 3 point max (maybe 5?) Having Renown points mean that people see you in a more favorable light. With enough points, they hold you in high esteem. You get the renown bonus to any skill checks with actions involving that faction. Society, Diplomacy, Performance... even Thievery and Deception (as they are trusting of you)... however else you can apply those bonuses. Having Disdain points means the exact opposite. In the above example, lets say Orcs despise you now. Skill checks with them become harder(+ level of disdain to skill rolls). With Max disdain, the orcs cannot be deceived by you, diplomacy fails, no stealth once they are aware of your presence, they are not intimidated etc etc. Anyways, good stuff!
A general tip I would give is... The rules can be changed to whatever you may like. I for myself run alot of houserules in my game. some of them are kinda just cosmethic, for example I did changed the value of money a bit and created some lower currencies. I always found it crazy, that players run around with thousands of gold pieces etc. But anyway. You can change things up whatever you like BUT. Understand, what this change does to your game. In the first 2 rules of this video, there can be alot of things that could go wrong when you do this. This doesn't make the houserules bad, but you have to understand, that this will change your balancing a little bit. Here are my examples: 1. Group Initiative While this has almost no effect at all, when you playing against small group of enemies, it becomes more and more critical, the larger the enemy partie is. I like to have encounters with monsters, that are kinda weak, but there are many. Fighting against 10 mobs at a time, even when their CR is way lower, can be another kind of difficulty a group have to prepare for. When you play with group initiative here, the group that moves first has a really big advantage. And if it happens, that the enemy group moves first, the players have to prepare to get 10 attacks in a row without having the ability to reposition, drinking potions, heal themselfes or to try and nuke 1-2 enemies to deny some attacks. You then have to survive 10 hits in a row, which will have a massive impact on the difficulty and can be frustrating for the group. 2. Fix Resting Mechanics I play Pathfinder with my group and not DnD. In Pathfinder you don't heal fully but just a few points. The system wants from you, that you use your remaining healspells at the end of the day, to heal up the group. Otherwise you just heal your hitdice which is really just a d6-d12 which is not alot in a high level group and it can takes weeks or even month to fully recover with natural regeneration alone. I can't explain why but I like this mechanic and my group does to. It feels more natural. After a hard fight, where your party is almost down, its kinda awkward to just take a nap and being fully recovered again. With this mechanic you still have to manage you spell slots a little bit, otherwise the healing at the end of the day won't be that great. BUT... You also mentioned that you're just allowed in a safe haven like a city or an Inn. While this might sound nice and logical, it makes some campaigns unplayable. We played Tomb of Annihilation in another group. I won't spoiler much, but just to say... This adventure is about survival, as you learn in the first few sessions. In our adventure we haven't visited a town in like 60 Ingame days or around 30-40 real life Sessions. Don't even want to begin with the tomb itself. So theoretically you're not allowed to do any long rest ever in this campaign which makes it literally unplayable. So before you invent house rules to your game. Think about how they really change your game. Maybe do a few testsessions first. But some houserules can lead to serious problems. But don't forget. In the end its your game and you and your group are supposed to have fun. So whatever fits your style: just do it.
Love to see a houserule doc although my intent is always to have no more than an a4 in reasonable font of houserule changes, and same for race changes.
I was introduced to your crit roll mechanic at another DM's table and have used it ever since. Awesome way to make the hit feel truly epic. He further has the rule that if you or a monster rolls a crit fail on a saving throw, the spell attack damage has the same effect. Thus the 8D6 fireball when someone crit fails their Dex check automagically does 48 plus an additional 8D6 damage.
Adding 12 is a reflection of an average monster attack roll on a 20-sided die. Average is the middle of the die. On an even number die it has a decimal. For example for a d6 it’s 3.5. On a d20 it’s 10.5 rounded up that’s 11. Where does the extra 1 that moves it up to 12? Easy if the monster rolls the DC to hit you all the have to do is match your AC however in a defense roll you compensate for that by adding 1 to keep the same result when the PCs roll defense. Hope that explains it. Also as a DM you can have conditions that raise or lower the DC for a defense roll. The creature could be very skilled in combat therefore add 5 to the DC, but when it is injured lower it to the original number. When the creature is gravely injured penalize by 5. Hope that helps. This allows for better stories in my opinion.
Thanks Mr Cuddles! This is a great breakdown and explanation of the math there’s been using this system now for almost 2 years and I fricken love it. So much more engaging. Cheers and thanks for watching!
@@HouseDM you have great content. I am theory crafting myself because 5e has some weird rules that take away from player agency that I don’t like. Such as disengage as an action as if a trained soldier can’t tactically give themselves distance without an opportunity attack. This rule really inhibits chase situations common in fantasy tropes. I prefer a more dynamic action economy and historical realism. Then it makes the world feel more real. And when a character is exposed to magic or mythical beasts it feels exciting.
I will be trying the bonus action potion chug and the max crit die. We play with a critical failure/luck die mechanic. Basically i have a bag of 20 d6's. One red, one green, one blue and seventeen white. You roll a critical fail (natural 1) on any attack or save, you draw one die from the bag. That d6 can then be added to any future attack, damage, healing, save or skill check. White die are 1d6, blue 2d6, green 3d6 and the red is 4d6. You can use as many as you have, but they go back into the bag at the end of the session. They cannot be shared or used for initiative. The players love it. Granted they are mostly new to D&D so they need all the help they can get, and i run a pretty bare bones game. Thanks for the great videos.
That’s a really sick idea! I’m weary of critical failure mechanics save for maybe spellcasting but love the draw from a bag bit. And yeah let me know how the max crit die and potion chugging works at your table. I’ve sorta shifted to be more OSR with my campaigns and bonus actions are kinda just gone in my game. I just hand waive and let players do that as there one free action. Glad you enjoy the vids! I’ll keep making them as long as you keep liking them 😉
@@HouseDM Oh they still get a critical failure effect, but this makes it not hurt as bad. And when it comes to caster critical failure we are going to try out your system with a few tweaks here and there. I really like to put the fear of God in them along with a laugh. Death is every present, but he has a great sense of humor.
Similar to the players making a defense check when attacked I have the players roll to make monsters fail saving throws against their spells and such. In that case it's a DC 14+the monsters saving throw modifier. That way they get to roll when casting something like hold person or toll the dead. It's more fun when players roll.
On critical hits, the damage roll is always considered max damage. I then allow the PC or NPC to select one of several effects from a list based on the weapon that they are using. Such effects include... Trip (DEX Save applies), Disarm (STR or DEX [finess] Save applies), Redirect Foe 5ft/Change Foe's Facing (DEX Save), Stun Foe (CON Save applies), Overextend Foe (WIS Save & they have DISADVANTAGE next round), Slash Foe (roll damage again with exploding dice), Impale Foe (roll damage again and the weapon is embedded in the target), Crush Foe (roll damage again and have target make a STR save or be knocked prone), Entangle Foe (DEX Save), Pin Foe or Foe's Weapon (foe must make a STR or DEX Save [based on the finesse trait] or their weapon is pinned), Sunder Shield or Armor (the item must make a Save with a DC of 10+damage rolled/max damage or the shield is destroyed and armor loses 1 AC). I also allow any Fighter with a selection of these moves (a few of which are assigned to each Fighting Style) to use a Special Maneuver which is listed in their Fighting Style IF they roll 5+ over the target's AC/To Hit needed.
In my 5e Darksun game, we have 2 short rests for 1 hour. Roll Hit die to recover HP. Max hit dice you can roll is equal to your proficiency bonus. Some class abilities are restored as normal (action surge, ki, etc.) A long rest of at least 8 hours in a safe/fortified area. Works as normal, but you still roll hit dice to heal, and you do not recover hit dice. Anyone seriously injured (dropped to 0 hit points) also suffers a level of fatigue every time they are dropped to 0. You can only recover 1 fatigue per long rest, and can only long rest once per 24 hours. Spells and class abilities are restored. And finally a Full rest. Can only be done in a village, city, fort, heavily fortified area; and takes a full 24 hours. You heal all HP, get back all your hit dice, and recover 2 fatigue.
I've tried something recently with my party where drinking a potion is a bonus action and giving it to another party member is an action, but they can also drink a potion themselves as an action and if they do they gain the full healing effect without rolling. It's yet another decision for my players in combat to make it more interesting rather than tedious.
I made it so you need sanctuary (reasonably safe, warm, dry), that you need to have had food/drink at least once that day, and that you need to rest for a full 8 hours, and that ONLY fully restores spell slots. As for HP, you only restore a partial amount of HP from rest if you’ve received proper medical care. So you need to have wounds bandaged/sutured/cleaned, and THEN you benefit from healing with rest, but only partially, so it takes more than one long rest to fully heal. Or, you could use magic/potions
I guess I'm already using a few of those, or pretty close. Armor Saves • PC Armor is treated as a saving throw against a static attack DC. • To calculate a PC’s Armor Save, subtract 10 from their AC, and add a d20. • For attacks made by NPCs, subtract the d20 and add 12, forming a static attack DC. • When a PC rolls a natural 1 on an Armor Save, they suffer a critical hit. • NPC advantage to hit is instead disadvantage on the PC's Armor Save. • NPC disadvantage to hit is instead advantage on the PC's Armor Save. • Monster damage is averaged, not rolled. • PC attacks on NPCs are treated normally. Critical Hits • When an attack results in a critical hit, the attacker rolls one set of damage dice normally, and adds the maximum possible for the second set. Healing Potions • A healing potion may be imbibed as a bonus action, rolling its healing effect normally. • A healing potion may be imbibed as a standard action, with its effect maximized. • Administering a healing potion to an incapacitated ally takes a standard action, and its effect is rolled normally. Exhausted [Condition] While Exhausted, you experience the following effects: • Levels of Exhaustion. - This Condition is cumulative. Each time you receive it, you gain 1 level of exhaustion. You die if your exhaustion level exceeds 10. • Incapacitation. - When you are reduced to 0 hit points, you gain one level of exhaustion. You gain one additional level of exhaustion for each death save you fail. • Extra Effort. - When you fail a d20 test, you may try again by taking one level of exhaustion. • d20 Tests Affected. - When you make a d20 Test, you subtract your exhaustion level from the d20 roll. • Spell Save DCs Affected. - Subtract your exhaustion level from the Spell save DC of any Spell you cast. • Speed Affected. - Each exhaustion level reduces your speed by 5 feet, to a minimum of 5 feet per round. • Ending the Condition. - Finishing a Long Rest removes 1 of your levels of exhaustion. When your exhaustion level reaches 0, you are no longer Exhausted. Rest • A short rest requires 1 hour of light activity. • A long rest requires 8 hours of light activity in a safe location, at least 4 of which must include sleep or its equivalent. • “Light activity” means no attack rolls are made nor damage taken, and no spells which require a saving throw may be cast by or against the character. Other strenuous actions may prevent rest, at the DM’s discretion. • During a rest, Hit Dice may be rolled to recover Hit Points,but none are recovered automatically. • Hit Dice are only half as effective while the character has any exhaustion levels.
The armor class modifier is something we introduced in the 1980s playing 1st edition AD&D. We turned THAC0 and AC on their heads. We called it Active Defense, and it was a huge hit with any player we brought into the game, even at conventions
re Initiative; You can also try the "Hi/Lo initvative" method which is really cool. Players that want to go before all others can take a minus -2 to Ac (accending) and go in the "Hi" catagory by initative score order (dice off ties) "Named" NPC's can do this too; everyone else goes in the "Lo" round where you use group d6 iniative. It adds a little decision making which makes combat a little more tense. Resting can only occure in a "Safe" place where they feel truely secure is the best fix for long rest and fits with the OSR you cant rest in the dungeon paradigm.
Making my own system, and getting a lot of good ideas from your channel. Specific numbers will need to change, but it's great to be able to see how 5e can be improved, and what it could mean for my game
something we do at our table to spice up combat scenarios is a sort of "Buffed Actions in Combat" kind of situation where we call for a "Flavor/Flair buff". Things like Grapple, Shove and the like are getting a lot more use now where even if they dont succeed, if they are close enough (1-3 difference) they still have some benefit to them. Example, Trying to grapple an enemy would keep them busy... so the enemy now has to use "Disengage" as an action, allowing the fighter to keep a bandit from targetting a squishier ally. By setting up "combos" where teammates can help each other Succeed, it becomes a lot more strategic than everyone rolling to attack after surrounding one single target. This is specially fun if you throw a variety of creatures or terrain elements that may "nerf" one type of combatant. (The other day i was playing a barbarian against were-monsters. Had no silver so by grappling them, i was able to lower their AC for my magically inclined allies to finish them off. That was a ton of fun!)
At my table, I also do the bonus action on healing potions with one edition. Players can use a bonus action then roll for the results. ie 2d4+2 standard potion of healing, 4d4 +4 greater potion of healing, etc. Or they can take a full action and get the maximum, 10 for a standard potion of healing, 20 for a greater potion of healing.
4:55 "Dungeon graft" is what WOTC/Hasbro does. Also, I think a lot of the problem with short/long rests comes from a general confusion, even on WOTC's part, about the nature of abstract hp. They don't represent physical damage primarily. They're more like a measure of combat fitness. And only a small percentage are actually physical injuries. So even short rests make more sense. And adding wounds or injuries as a condition would require additional healing, rest, etc, depending on severity.
Group initiative makes combat really chaotic. Basically one roll determines which side gets a surprise round. If my players went first in an easy combat, I wouldn't even bother running it, I'd just say they won. But if the bad guys go first in a hard combat, it could easily lead to downed or dead characters before the any player even get a turn. It's certainly easier, but not a fan myself. But you do you.
My dnd is odd as I am about one month back I to it since 1999 and due to where I live and life, I am 90% a solo player. Yes, I am fully aware of everything people think of that but I love everything about dnd and this is all I can do. Anyway, I am learning the game again and as I go there are many aspects that I don’t get to use really due to soloing but also because I don’t like the 5e mechanics on some things and love seeing others options and ideas like these!! Awesome!!
When you consider that Tolkein is usually regarded as High Fantasy, even though we see things like Frodo getting stabbed by a Morgul Knife or getting impaled by Shelob in the Spider's Abode, and is nearly done in, and yet 5e assumes 6 to 8 encounters per adventuring day....
My explanation for potions in my games is "The more you have to do to get rid of it, the more it requires of you" basically, if you drink it its a bonus action, if you feed it to a creature it's an action, and if you pass it to another creature it's a free action
I'm about to implement a rule that when they long rest out of town they will have to start tracking rations and water, and I want to have exhaustion start after some amount of time in the field
A house rule I’ve recently tried out that I haven’t really seen anywhere is converting all of the spell slots to “mana” it might seem really strong at first. Since you’re allowing casters to drop as many high level spells as they have the points for or casting a practically infinite number of silvery barbs and shields. But when you pair it with a longer time between rests and moving shield and SB up a level or two it balances out quite nicely and makes it so your casters think a little more when casting
In Germany we have a very well established game called "das schwarze Auge" (it is translated into English). this system is based on mana for magic classes and feels just like what you described. Your wizard might have 40mana and may throw 2 massive fireballs (one might cost about 20 mana at the beginning if you wish, but that means he might not have the means to do anything from that point on. Only a regular night's rest will give him 1d6 mana back. So let's say he rolls a 4 each night it might take him 10 nights to regain all 40mana points. Depending on the campaign it might be a little bit too slow for my taste.
@@schnittmagier5515 I will certainly check out Das Schwarze Auge. Right now I have spells set to spell level = mana cost and full casters getting a total pool of 50 mp at level 20 regaining 2x proficiency bonus in MP on long rest. I have also implemented a rare consumable resource that is basically a mana potion.
To avoid a little bit of mental maths with the AC change, you could subtract the 12 from the AC modifier so you only have to beat the monster's to-hit bonus. Eg for AC18, your modifier is 18 - 10 - 12 = -4. You subtract -4 from the D20 and try to roll over the +7 to-hit. Less conversions required for each combat
My problem with the long rest mechanic is that I want my players to be doing what they want, so while the fighters and warlocks and monks and rogues are cool with chaining short rest the paladin and barbarian will straight up refuse to do stuff when they gain nothing from a short rest (rage and smite [spell slots] come back over a long rest). Essentially over half the party wants to long rest so that they get their cool class abilities back, while half the party is good to go but wouldn’t mind a rest. And even when a class does gain stuff back on a short rest, wizard sorcerer Druid, they don’t gain all of it back, so a class like fighter who recovers all their features on a short rest will be raring to go but the in between classes won’t like the benefits and the all or nothing classes feel gypt. So with a barbarian I can get 3 combat encounters before they want to sleep, some times less with paladins and rangers and artificers who are generous with the spells, and even the spell casters who get stuff back on a short rest will concede if they used too many spells because they don’t want to go into a fight with only cantrips.
I still use the rule we used 40 years ago: if you roll a Nat 20, roll again; if you roll another Nat 20, it's an instant kill no matter what. Also, if you roll a Nat 1, you roll again, and if you roll another 1, you completely fumble per the DM's decision, like dropping or breaking your weapon.
Definitely going to use player facing combat. You could tweak it by saying anyone can wear any armor but you get to add your proficiency bonus to your armor roll if you're proficient in that type.
I did a homebrew where you dont get hp on a longrest, but there was a druid and a paladin in the party so they just used all their remaining spellslots before a long rest knowing they would get it right back.
My DM lets us drink OR throw potions with bonus actions, and as an alchemist, i love this! I can just ya-yeet a heal pot at my rouge when he gets low, and he can disengage and catch it.
I simplify initiative even further. I assume the PC's always win initiative, except in instances of surprise. PC's go in order of DEXTERITY, highest to lowest. PC's with identical DEX scores have a roll-off to decide who goes first. Players can decide to change the order of who attacks when on their side, if they think it makes more tactical sense. I use OSR rules, not 5E, so YMMV if using the latter (not very familiar with 5E rules).
For the monster attack I am certain that you are supposed to add 11 to the monster’s attack modifier. It is 10+1 because the PCs defense roll has to match the monsters attack, not beat it, as is the case for the traditional AC calculation.
I love this idea but my maths are not seeing the results that 12 is proposing. I agree with Diego here, thanks Emessar Games for the explanation also. Please help me out with what I have missed in my working out? Current Attack Method Exceed AC 14 Mon Att Mod +7 Hits on 8 (=(8+7) 15 to Exceed AC 14) 8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20 (13 chances to hit) 7,6,5,4,3,2,1 (7 chances to miss) Proposed Method Meet or Exceed AC Mod +4 (AC14 -10 = 4) Monster DC 19 (Att Mod 7 + 12 = 19) Saves on 15 (=(4+15)19 to Meet or Exceed DC 19) 15,16,17,18,19,20 (6 chances to save) 14,13,12,11,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 (14 chances to Hit) Current system has 13 success options, proposed has 14? the +12 should be +11. Now my brain hurts. What have I missed?
I had a house rule back in the 90s for healing potions. The rule was they had a terrible taste, and required a Wisdom check (willpower) to take them. Added a bit of a challenge to potions.
13th Age is a great way to deal with rests and recovery. Roughly every 4 battles the characters get a rest and recover their recoveries (hit dice), spells, abilities etc. In between the characters can do a quick rest to spend recoveries and roll to recover some powers that have a recovery check. If the characters run into a combat that they are too drained to handle, they can retreat. They get the benefit of a full rest but suffer some sort of campaign loss - the ritual completes, the mayor dies, the dragon awakens, etc. In my experience part of the appeal of knowing that 4 battles get you a rest pushes the characters forward. They don't get the rest by simply biding their time but they also can't hold back everything for that final battle because the other fights might be tough as well.
House rule that I love...auto-kills in situations where it would be possible. An example of this is when a rogue sneaks into a camp and slits an NPCs throat. Normally this would require a roll to hit and a roll for damage. With rules as they stand, any NPC with any amount of health would likely survive that attack. I make the character roll (just in case they crit fail) and then rule the sleeping NPC murdered in their sleep. There are several other situations this comes into play and adds much more realism to to said situations.
I love this! How cool would your players feel if they snuck into the enemy camp and killed the main boss through skilled stealth checks. If my players pulled it off, legendary. The aftermath of such a feat would be awesome!
An optional rule exists where if you do 50% of their maximum HP they can obtain system shock and die instantly, you're not really house-ruling that scenario.
My biggest concern with group initiative is the weight of action economy, which dnd already has an issue with, becomes alot worse with this. If you have lots of mass fights its fair though even then the novaing set targets to reduce actions enemy have is still an issue, but if it is a boss fight and the player group go first, they have incentive to nova the fight cause if they can deal all the damage at first they reduce the chance of the boss being alive to get to fight. Like I think there are ways of keeping players focused on the fight, I find i you grant players options of ways they can enhance or aid each other when it is not their turn, that immediately increases player attention span as they want to see openings to help each other. With long rest I do think one bit of the rule people seem to ignore is the restriction you have to wait 24 hours between taking long rests, this does sop the we have fought 2 encounters now a long rest, especially with dungeons where encounters are often between multiple rooms. This does drastically also come up when while a fight may take an hour or two IRL they only take a minute in game time wit every round of combat taking 6 seconds total.
"Why do 12 + attack mod for monsters?" is actually pretty easy to answer. Let's imagine instead that both monsters and players swap d20 for a flat 10 - monster turns its d20 into a flat 10, and PC turns 10 points of AC into a d20. First, a d20 roll doesn't average 10, it averages 10.5. So the monster is losing half a point, on average, by switching from d20 to flat 10, while the player is gaining half a point. That's a total swing of +1 in the player's favor, so we can make up for it by adding 1 to the monster. Second, a d20 roll is meet-or-beat, meaning that the roller wins "ties", when the die roll is exactly the DC. If you swap who does the rolling, you swap the outcome of that tie as well. Since it's the player benefiting, you can again compensate by adding 1 to the monster. So with both of those effects factored in, the monster needs to swap its d20 for a flat 12 to produce the same outcomes. But if the above is still a little confusing, you can instead work it out by hand super easy. Just come up with an example attack bonus and AC, and figure out how many faces on the die result in a hit or a miss. Then swap it for an attack DC and armor save, and figure out what DC you need to produce the same number of hit and miss results. The answer turns out to always be 12 + attack bonus. For example, an attack bonus of +5 against an AC of 12 will hit on 14 faces (a natural 7-20) and miss on 6 (1-6). So if we swap to an armor save of +2, what DC do we need to produce the same number? We need to get a miss (a successful save) on 6 of the possible faces, so that'll be a natural 15-20, or a 17-22 after the bonus. For a 17 to be the lowest successful save, the DC needs to be 17, or 12+5. Any other attack bonus + AC combo will give the same result.
I've ran the no hp recovery style before. For us, the way hp was regained was through consumables...food literally. Or more accurately meals. We already had a breadth of meals and snacks that give various bonuses but then we had ones that were specifically meant for 'natural' healing. I saw natural because AGAIN we have a subsystem for consumables like Health Potions that usually had instant short term benefits had tolerances your body could handle. Think like witcher potions, in that a lot of these items are magically toxic but could /bring you from mortal wounds/ in trade. That in itself gave Constitution a bit more weight since better Con meant stronger and/or more frequent instant buffs. But back to the food, this meant our existing consumables also got to heal a little and dedicated healing meals healed a lot. The tactics playing into what you think you needed more at that moment since you couldn't eat multiple meals worth of food without the expense of overeating which required more rest time or the risk of loosing your meal's effect's later from getting sick. All of which came back to our initial question of if we could make rations important rather than just a money sink. We also played around with the idea of your 'taste pallet' and assigning foods/drinks different values like Spicy 5 or Fizzy 3 and how that aligned with your character's tastes would change the benefits of the meal. However, to a degree that ended up being a little too gamey for regular play but it certainly made roleplaying downtime more interesting since the classic drinking contest interacted with those rules extremely directly.
I've tried modified initiative before and most of the time we end up going back to the standard system. When it comes to crit damage at the beginning of the campaign I let the players decide how they want to roll the damage. It usually ends up doubling the amount of dice roll, but they get to re-roll 1s. I also have the house rule of potions being a bonus action for one's self and a action to administer to another player. One house rule I have is I let the players have a bonus feat right from the beginning. I've been doing that for years and I laughed when I saw the announcement that One D&D will have this as well. My players favorite house rule I have is that for every 5 nat 20s they roll they get inspiration. But the other side of that is if I get 10 nat 20s something happens. Depending on the campaign I have a table that I roll to see what happens. Sometimes it is good sometimes not so much. One of my kids today said that I should do that for nat 1s too. I like the idea so I'll probably start doing that as well. To help take the sting out of it.
The ability for a wizard to cast faster, or a barbarian to swing a maul faster isn't dexterity, it's a proficiency bonus. Initiative should run off of this or the bonus from their main stat or even the stat they are using that round. Stopping long rest healing needs an alternative bandage/herb base healing system.
an idea ive had with initiative is each player rolls a "daily initiative" and thats the score they use that day. you can add/subtract based on certain modifiers to vary encounters up tho. such as giving a +/- based on passive perception for an ambush. then the DM can have a list of "prerolled" initiative numbers.
I like the idea of group initiative. There is one player that usually needs a refresh when their turn comes up. My question is what happens when a players turn comes around and their planned action is now moot or useless. eg; Someone said they shoot a magic missile at the enemy leader. But the leader has already died when that players turn to roll dice comes up. So their action is useless, and they have "wasted" a spell slot?
I think what you’re describing is simultaneous initiative. In that style, yes, they would have wasted their attack, or you add up the damage of the person who did enough to kill this enemy leader and your magic missile and say your combined damage was enough to defeat them. If you do traditional group initiative, then the caster wouldn’t have declared who they are attacking until after the prior player has completed their action. Hope this helps to clarify!
I felt the resting mechanic was a little bit harsh, as i love getting my players out in the wilderness. I came up with a compromise. If they rest outside of a fortified protective structure they gain a level of exhaustion at the end of their long rest. I will also add that if they choose to rest in immediate danger i.g. a tomb/dungeon/a hags shed, they cannot.
Tried this. What ended up happening with this was everyone wasted time maximizing the use of their leftover healing spells and the net result was no lost resources and a bunch of wasted time. I liked this idea though.
@@HouseDM the problem we're having with the rule is just remembering to implement it during play. We've become far too comfortable with the standard long rest
Hey Lizle! Thanks for the positive support. I'm trying my best and learning so much. I think as long as I keep learning and having fun with the process, I'll get there one day too. Cheers and happy to have you!
I do like the idea of an AC Roll to block or dodge an attack. I might try that one with my players at some point to see how it goes. I’m not a fan of the Group Initiative idea as much though. Take the hypothetical example if one or more players wanted to take Alert, play any Subclass that gives an extra initiative bonus (like Gloomstalker Ranger, Swashbuckler Rogue, or Chronurgy Wizard), and/or play as the Harengon Lineage. If any of those factors were in play, it would diminish that character’s value. And if the play made a character with any combination of those initiative boosting factors the Group Initiative House Rule would actually be a major nerf to that player character. A Harengon Chronurgy Wizard with Alert (this can easily get a ridiculously high initiative bonus super early) is only made with one specific goal in mind; going first to get an early advantage by dropping a big Damage/Debuff spell on the enemy before they get a turn, and before the other party members walk into your AOE range.
the 12 is simply so the monster has more than a 50% chance to hit. thats about it. imagine if the atk bonus was equal to the pc; with a plus 10 the monster would "miss" half the time. other notes: dex bonus to determine pc order initiative bonus is max( (bonus/party_size), 1) rounded up so someone with alert would give a +2 on the d20 roll.
House rule: Damage advantage: if you rolled an attack with advantage OR you confirmed a critical hit, you roll you damage die with advantage. It works the same with disadvantage. If you hit while rolling with disadvantage, you roll damage with disadvantage.
We made a homebrew rule, you can drink a healing potion as a bonus action, but you have to roll to see how much you heal. However, if you still spend your action to drink potion, you get max healing effect from potion.
The first campaign I ever DM'ed was RAW 5e, and we had 5 players, 4 of whom had darkvision... the cleric kept using a spell slot to allow the human paladin darkvision and it was just getting ridiculous. I've learned a lot since then and now would just implement a house rule such as yours XD
In my game, group initiative will kill one side or the other very quickly. I do not mess around as a DM. If I have 4 baddies all going at the same time without an obvious threat they need to take care of, they will all go at the easiest target, they will swarm and destroy the players. Without interlacing attacks between baddies and players, players can quickly get frustrated. But at the same time, as a DM, if smart creatures (hobgoblins are as intelligence as most PCs) do not use smart tactics so my players can feel better, players have no incentive to be creative in combat. For example, if a fighter is at the mouth of a hall with baddie in the room, I will have the most tanky baddie rush the fighter, to their attacks and move away (usually trigger OA), THEN I will have the others each rush in, take an attack and move away with the fighter's reaction spent. The baddies will move to the walls closest to the mouth, removing ranged attacks from the players behind them, forcing the fighter to enter the room and the players to spill in if they want to attack the baddies. On the next round, my baddies charge the PC. The first one moves to the PC and readies an attack action. The second one moves behind that PC gaining flanking. This triggers the first PC with flanking advantage (possible sneak attack dmg too), then the second one attacks. The third and fourth do the same thing. Now that one PC has just had 4 attacks on them, they are surrounded, and unless they have really high AC, will be forced to disengage. On the flip side, if the PCs win initiative and all work together, they can do the same exact thing, devastating the baddies almost before they get a chance to do anything.
The "a potion takes an action to drink" is based on game mechanics and not how fast someone can drink a potion. Essentially, for many/most potions, it's the equivalent of casting a spell. Pretty much every spell there is a potion for (no, I didn't research this, just making assumptions) takes an action (or longer?) to cast. So, drinking a potion of healing is mechanically considered the same as casting a healing spell. Not saying anyone is wrong for doing it any other way, but that's why it is an action in the rules.
My house rule for potions: you can use a bonus action to take your potion and roll dice or use a full action and get max health provided by that potion.
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We do the potion house rule in our games. If you drink it as a full action, you get the full healing amount, if it’s a bonus action, you have to roll.
Same here. Players like having the option for full heal with an action.
Same
I use the same rule. It adds a nice decision mechanic to combat.
Came here to say that!
Great idea
I've recently scrapped darkvision entirely and replaced it with 2e style infravision for some instances and 3e low-light vision for the rest. I describe it as elves (for example) have eyes similar to cats that can see well in dimness and dwarves (also for example) have the ability to see a wider wavelength of light, seeing into the infrared. This less makes it seem like a different kind of vision that kicks in under certain circumstances and what can and can't be seen that fueled so many childhood debates back in the day
I think that was the intention
I agree, it’s definitely the intention, but RAW darkvision is sort of just an anti-torch mechanic to most players.
@@AAAAA-jm3xn Most people I noticed don't bother with color shit in darkness as its usually not that important.
@@MasterGhostf It frustrates me to no end that people decide to just entirely scrap darkvision as a concept when they didn't run it correctly in the first place. Running it raw it is literally only useful for fighting in darkness and sneaking through darkness and still is a penalty in both of those scenarios. I've played a race with darkvision pretty much every time I've played d&d and not once have I just forgone a torch/lantern. Your passive scores for vision are all kicked down by 5 AND you have disadvantage on any seeing check! That's basically asking to be ambushed or to walk straight into a trap plus you're gonna miss secret doors almost every time AND if the players are roleplaying they should be wanting to walk through grayscale dim light. It's so annoying to be walking around in dim light
My favorite house rule is that to rest you have to eat a meal. It’s great for role play. My players cook in the real world and so do I. And it makes rations/taverns important.
One thing to consider with the improved critical is that it will have a much bigger effect on paladins since they decide after they hit if they're going to smite. If a paladin scores a critical hit, they can then use their maximum spell level slot knowing it's going to do full damage plus their roll.
As far as the numbers behind the player facing roll math, it's something like this. The d20 is an average of 10.5, so while the the player is subtracting 10 from their AC to get their bonus, they are effectively adding the die to their bonus (+10.5), giving them a net of 0.5 to the total on their side. On the monster's side, they are subtracting 10.5. To cancel out the 0.5 net player bonus and the die you took away from the monster, you add 11 (10.5 for the die plus 0.5 for the net player bonus). The last point comes from the fact that instead of the monster winning in ties, the player now wins in ties. It is equivalent to say that the player roll exceeds the monster attack DC+11 and the player roll meets or exceeds attack DC+12. So to keep the same core mechanic of "meet or exceed target number x", the monster's attack DC is calculated as 12 + attack bonus.
Hope I did an okay job of explaining it.
I know what you mean! To help with this, our party also does the improved critical rule, but it only applies to the weapon die rolled. That way, sneak attack and Paladin smites aren’t overpowered.
@@fallingheadphones I was wondering how to handle sneak attacks...they would be so OP lol
I know I'm three months late to this comment, but I believe they only max 1 weapon associated die for the crit. Everything else like sneak attacks, elemental damage bonuses, smites, etc are all rolled normally.
A neat twist to the bonus action potion rule. You can have a bonus action be the roll for potion Hp. The roll signifies how much potion you actually got in your mouth. If you take a full action to drink a potion you get the full max amount of the potion. It’s a neat add on and makes them decide wether to chug it fast or take their time.
My concern with group initiative is that you always have some players that have a more dominating personality and this would make it too easy for them to always be trying to jump in first and "do their thing" while the quieter players ending always going last.
That’s a legit concern. I have players who are typically really good about reading the table so it’s not much of an issue. Also, sometimes the quieter players actually prefer to go after the more “dominating personalities” and have no issue with going last. But everyone is different 😉
I really like the ICRPG method...everyone rolls initiative and play goes from the winner around the table clockwise. That way, each round might find different players in the "first action" position.
thats where the dex bonus comes in. the pc order is determined by dex bonus.
Also initivative bonus is max( (bonus/party_size), 1) rounded up so someone with alert would give their teammates a +2 on the d20 roll.
I have everybody, monsters included, roll initiative and start with the highest roll as normal, but then just alternate between sides using the next highest total from the other "team" as it were. That avoids dogpiling on either side.
I don't like group initiative because it changes how the same encounter plays out drastically. For instance, if players concentrate fire, that creature which would have had a turn to act is now dead before the shared initiative comes. It also reminds me of old school video game rpgs, like FF.
I can't remember if I came up with it or stole it from someone, but I've recently been using a "killing blow" rule that's made 5e combat much more rewarding and streamlined. In short, when you reduce a creature's HP to a number less than or equal to your proficiency bonus, roll a d20, on a 10+ they're reduced to 0. Especially at high levels, this has the potential to save players from needing to double tap enemies, so they can focus on the fun stuff (killing more bad guys and looking cool while doing it). It also happens just infrequently enough that it feels special when it works.
In my game, we tried the rule where hp doesn't "magically recover" over a long rest, you just get all your HD back and can spend them...
It made my players SOOOO Conservative... They were never willing to take risks, and it was slowing down the game too much... So we scrapped it, and went back to the Super Hero rules in the phb.
I like to think of the "hit points" as stamina, you are able to make a "mortal wound" less so by dodging some of the attack and just getting a cut, reaching 0 is you lost too much blood and passed out, then if you get hit while down and reach 3, that wound or attack becomes mortal and you die
Agreed with all of those, even ran some of them myself. Its super important to mold the default rules to fit how your group plays the game and in my experience has always made it way better.
I think I will try out the player facing combat idea, it sounds super good and reminds me of G.U.R.P.S.
Hey Falvodor, thanks for commenting. Never played GURPS but let me know if player facing combat works alright at your table. Its definitely kept my players more engaged when it's not their turn. Cheers!
My personal house rule that is going over well in my current game: A combatant rolling a critical failure on a melee attack grants their target an opportunity attack against them. So it's like they botched that attack so badly that not only do they not land a hit, but they left themselves open for a counter-attack. It adds a good counter mechanic to landing a critical success, and helps keep players involved between their turn.
We use that too
Yeah, this is good one. Melee fighters are not suffer enough already, so adding more damage to their face is really good idea. Can't see how someone would not chose fighter instead of wizard after that.
Something I liked from the Spelljammer Academy module was the very first combat had standard initiative for players while the enemies went at the end. However, at the beginning of each player turn, a random small event happens. Something like a new enemy appears in combat, a hail of arrows hit everyone on the field, an explosion shakes all characters making them make a save to not be knocked over, a rope swings across the battle over one character and lets them make an acrobatics check to move 40 ft for free by swinging on the free moving rope.
It made the combat feel dynamic while not worrying too much about enemy initiative. Dex based initiative still worked here, but perhaps you simply sprinkle in the events between the player turns in group initiative. Say, you describe a thing and then any single player who hasn't gone can go. This means you have to add random events that can happen to each encounter, but, I simply think the concept is unique and the random events can be rather mundane for mundane encounters or skipped entirely if it is meant to be a quick battle.
I like group initiative. I try to use the Initiative mechanic as a skill check sometimes instead, so that there is some use for it. Depending on the circumstance, doing an initiaive check higher than X might allow you to take an action before the first combat round begins. Or I might do a contested initiative check to see who springs to action first, if it is between one character and one villain.
Adventuring day doesn't mean session, people confuse those two too often. In a campaign run by my best friend we've been in a single map dungeon for three sessions are are still going, it really makes the rogue look good in comparison to the rest of the party (wizard, sorcerer and druid). So much so that the rogue got nerfed, xd.
"Adventuring day doesn't mean session, people confuse those two too often"
It also doesn't mean "Day". The default resting rules are really designed for the situation you saw above - dungeons. You go into the dungeon, do as much as you can, leave, and then the adventure is over so you take a long rest back in town.
So much of this could have been avoided if WotC had just said "Adventure" instead of "Adventuring day" when defining things.
My group can never really agree on what happens when a critical failure happens in combat, so I made a more fleshed out crit fail system. Whenever a 1 is rolled on an attack, the player then rolls a d4.
If the player rolls a 1, the attack completely misses and their turn is over.
If the player rolls a 2, the attack only partially hits and does half damage to the intended target.
If the player rolls a 3, the attack is repelled back at the player and they will take half damage.
If the player rolls a 4, they then roll a d8. The tiles around the character are numbered 1-8, starting at the tiles to their north and moving around them in clockwise fashion. Whatever the result of the D8 is where the attack lands at full force and whatever creature happens to be there will be hit.
My group has really liked this system and I doubt I'll ever stop using it in my campaigns.
Okay. That player facing combat with AC mod is awesome. I love it
it really changed my combat runs, exponentially, and immediately. I love it.
tried that once... three round into the first combat my players begged me to revert to the normal AC rules ^^
For a long term campaign I treat major injuries as long lasting. I roll a d4 to determine how many weeks they are injured. Also what ever I roll for the duration is the hp penalty they take. As they heal a week the penalty drops by 1. It reinforces consequences and glory for heroism. At higher levels I move up in dice faces appropriate to the level.
I always wanted to do opposed rolls for combat. DM rolls for the monster attack, player rolls d20 plus armor bonus (as you stated here). Higher wins, defender wins ties. It would probably be too much, but I like the idea of it.
I do think the slowness and clunkiness of combat is the biggest problem in d&d. I love the group initiative idea, however I don't think it would work in my particular campaign. There are 7 players, so if they all go at once then they can pretty much wipe the floor with whomever they're up against. I'm still trying to figure out a way to make combat run more quickly and smoothly.
I love the critical hit idea, anything that makes the game feel more epic is generally a good change imo.
Thank you for sharing your ideas, subscribed!
You might want to try the "alternating" method of initiative, where the players roll initiative and you make one monster go in between every player. It balances out encounters pretty well because it eliminates situations where one side is taking multiple turns in a row before the other side has taken a turn.
Also it's less work for you, the dm, because you only need to roll intiative once for your highest initiative monster and if you have the highest initiative the monsters take the first turn and if any players beat the number you rolled, then the players take the first turn, but either way, from there it alternates.
@@bonzwah1 I like this idea! How does it work with 1 big monster, though? Does he have multiple turns per round, or does he just go first or second and then the rest of the party takes turns?
@@BGlasnost that's up to you. the system I described only ensures that the 1 big monster will go first or second in the combat. so yeah it will get dogpiled on, but not BEFORE it's first turn, which can often make all the difference.
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most officially published monsters in dnd 5e that are designed to be solo bosses have legendary actions which serve to give them, essentially, extra turns every round. They also sometimes get lair actions which also serve this purpose.
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but a lot of those monsters are high level monsters that will kill lower level characters very fast, so if your 7 person party is still relatively low level and you can't find reasonable monsters with legendary actions, I highly recommend that you look at those high level monsters and just nerf their damage.
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for example, a young white dragon doesn't get legendary actions for some reason. so just take the adult white dragon stat block, which does have legendary actions, and just have it deal half damage on everything. This would allow you to have a really cool monster that does tons of cool stuff during the fight, but it also won't be 1 shotting half the party with it's opening breath weapon attack haha.
I did group combat just the other day on a whim, and it worked great! It was a minor encounter in a foggy room, and to save time on having to go through the whole initiative combat i thought of it and gave it a try. Best decision! The encounter resolved quickly and the rest of the session could proceed.
The long rest rule also makes spells like tiny hut and magic mansion a lot more valuable as well as meaning your warlocks are actually going to be casting spells more because less long rests often equates to more short rests
A house rule that all my players love is glancing blow. Got it from The Dungeon Coach. If someone meets an AC it deals half damage.
Say a PC/Monster AC is 12. The opponent rolls to attack and that get 7 plus 5. The creature takes half damage on that hit as if it was resistant to the attack. Makes a barbarian feel even more tanky while giving the fighter/monk/paladin that feel as well.
Mix that with improve critical and Monsters feel that much more as a threat. Having the glazing blow have a range adds a little more flare say like 12 to 15 is a glazing blow anything higher is normal damage.
I recently finished playing in a campaign with some of these house rules. Improved crits and bonus action potions are nice quality of life changes that we really liked. Gritty resting rules however were pretty frustrating a lot of the time. I kind of like restricting how easy it is to restore hp but what really hurt was how hard it was to get class resources back
That was my thought too. I'm down for making healing harder, but restricting "all aspects of a long rest" is MUCH more than just healing. Like... what is a spellcaster supposed to do with no long rests?
Maybe you can fix it by changing the long rest in that way: long rest can be done as described in the rule book and the heroes recover as described except the hp. No hp are restored automatically after a long rest but the hero recovered the hit dice.
Love a good house rule - I’m on a quest to collect all the house rules on TH-cam - if you have any more, I’d love to hear about them - thanks ❤
The player facing combat is the only house rule i'll always use now. it's exactly as you said, easy to implement and makes the combats much more fun and engaging, especially with larger groups! if you like crit hit/fail rules you can do all kind of fun stuff with it like giving the player a free AoO on a crit defense roll.
Yea certainly! All of my monster stat blocks now say Attack DC instead of to-hit bonus, since they are all player facing combat. I find my players have been staying more engaged when it’s not their turn as well. Glad it’s working out in your games!
I am adding maneuvers to combat too. The battle master maneuvers are not exactly what I am looking for but that class will be obsolete, rules as written, when I allow any class to have options to parry, counter, etc. I think we will have to create a different setting and publish it though, because Wizards of the Coast is more focused on PC options than improving mechanics. This mistake was done before in previous editions and it’s because player character flexibility sells more books. But if not balanced it breaks the game. Eventually the many options will start to look the same and players will lose the feeling of wonder about the game. Playing and Orc will feel the same as playing an elf because you can essentially do the same thing if you want to. I like the flexibility but if I want to allow Halfling Barbarians in my settings, I need to make a culture that supports it in game or it just feels like every kingdom and area is the same. Why play in different parts of the world when I can be a Samurai or Gladiator in areas that the DM doesn’t have them. 100% of the world essentially has all cultures and backgrounds intermingled. The tiniest backwater hamlets will have outer planes races like it’s no big deal because that’s what the rules allow. I think this flexibility will speed up boredom. I want to incentivize player’s to explore new areas because when they discover other cultures, they will be able to decide if they want to make a character with new backgrounds the campaign exposes organically. The options still exist but the players are required to discover them instead of having a character in an area of my world that doesn’t make much sense. Off topic I know but this illustrates the importance of home brewing. Big corporate game designers are not incentivized to improve the game mechanics from a wholistic perspective when their profits are from expanding the player experience. This forces DMs to create this part. So let’s keep theory crafting!
@@NexusNetwork55 ehh not too off topic. I think you make some good points here. 5e is certainly great! And with the announcement of One D&D, I think they realize some things in 5e are broken and need fixing. Personally I think there are more than enough “options” for players now at this point and wotc really doesn’t need to keep making books with more options for “character creation mini games”. What I would like to see them incorporate is fixing the mechanical aspects of the game such as rests, light, and hit point bloat.
@@HouseDM I think the fixes might give an illusion of choice and take away from a player’s agency in game , but we will see. For example if a player wants to attempt to disarm an opponent some dms will say you can’t do that because you need this special feat. I will let the player do whatever they want and set a DC and change the feat to reflect mastering the technique instead. When I play I find this the most frustrating thing because in AD&D, Gary’s original version, I could do whatever I wanted to do without needing a feat that says I am now able to do it. Polearms in the Master’s Player’s book or the D&D Rules Cyclopedia allowed a player to use disarm and hook maneuvers just like the those historical weapons were meant to be used. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a step in the right direction that is missing from 5e. With that said 5e is the best base for us to change what we want to create the epic experience for the game. WotC can keep the rules simple and allow us to tweak it. I am motivated to create a PDF of my version when I am done with it but I don’t want to profit from it. I want a streamlined collection of the changes in a book for others to enjoy the hobby we love.
@@HouseDM I have two stat for character health. Body which is 10 + STR modifier and hit points which represents skill, luck, and combat fitness. Hit points are removed first. Then the body gets hit which causes injury. I limit hit points to a maximum and exhaustion is a thing too which makes combat more deadly when it lasts longer. Long combats are boring anyway. Escalation die from 13th Age, I think, and exploding damage give a feeling of we need to do this fast! I also am theory crafting a fatigue stat to allow faster combat. 10 + CON modifier. Then a player can say I spend 2 fatigue point to make another attack or counter etc. Fantasy Flight Star Wars games use a strain mechanic that lets players do things that. Encumbered players get exhausted quicker which incentivizes fully armored knight to dispatch foes quickly as well. The trick is making it feel real without adding too much complexity that turns combat into a slogfest.
For my table, you can roll a healing potion as a bonus action. If you take a full action to drink it or take your time outside of combat, automatically assume max rolls. I see it as you trying to down the drink in combat would be difficult to not splash some, but if you are chilling outside of combat, chances are you are going to take every drop of it.
from one DM to another, I love your channel dude.
I've done the group initiative before finding this video. My players did not like it at all across two separate live groups, and another online group was so confused at who should go first they'd trip over each other constantly and took them twice as long to finish a round. This was even worsened when someone thought 'I'll let everyone else go first while I go eat dinner' and took half an hour after it was their turn to get back, expecting the rest of us to still be working on what the first two players are doing. Disasters all around.
My workaround was to simply use the average initiative bonus of the enemies and have them be their own turn. This does basically the same thing, because there's no one going between the players, but they have a structured system they can pay attention to and feel like their Initiative stuff matters more.
On the long rest issue, I have a fix. Feel free to criticize. I give my players a hit point/ spell slot gain per hour of rest. Which gives them a choice. Every time they stop to rest, I ask how long they want to do so. Once they've chosen, we both roll a 1 d20. The modifier is the number of hours minus their roll score. They have to beat my roll score, or risk an encounter. So if they choose to rest for two hours, that would be 1 d20 minus two. If they roll a 16, and I roll a 15, they have an encounter. And not all encounters are combat related. I have a little table that I roll. 1-8.
1. Bandits
2. Animal encounter (subsequent roll for animal type)
3. They meet an npc looking for assistance
4. An npc who may potentially join the party, depending on how they react to the encounter
5. Someone with information pertinent to the quest they're currently on
Etc, etc, etc. Depending on situational factors.
How I use the house rules you mentioned:
5) I still use individual initiative, but I use slips of paper on my DM screen. Everyone rolls once per combat, I put the slips of paper in order and everyone knows who goes when. I think group initiative gives the party an unfair advantage and erodes some of the excitement of combat.
4) I switch the bonuses of resting mechanics. RAW says gain all of your hit points and half total hit dice. My house rule is on a long rest you roll your hit dice without (con) modifiers. A 5th level fighter gets 5d10 hit points back on a long rest. It makes the weight of combat heavier without demoralizing players. You need more? Go make healing potions!
3) My party is used to the traditional method and don't want more rules to learn. We resolve combat with RAW.
2) Crits are gloriously resolved with no dice rolling. Max damage, doubled. That's why it's critical! No dice rolling, just bask in the glory of it all. Bear in mind, enemies can crit, too. It's never caused a disturbance but they LOVE seeing that 20 staring at them. Watching their eyes glaze over in lust or horror (depending on who rolled the 20) adds a big layer of excitement.
1) Potions are their own action and cannot be used as a bonus action. It's for the realism (in a world of wizards and dragons). Pretend you're in a fight with something, it's your turn. Now, move 30', swing a pretend sword (or cast your pretend fireball, whatever), grab a tube from your belt (or backpack where most characters store them?), pop the cork and drink the whole potion (4oz? 6 oz?), all in 6 seconds. No way. If you want to attack, attack. If you're low on health, drink a potion. It is its own action.
You've created some great fixes.
I've used group initiative (re-rolled every round) for the longest time. Group initiative also allows players to choose who goes when (no around the table) However, I used "half turns" to stagger the combat between players and monsters to best simulate everything happening at once. It's a little more work for the DM, but it makes for a more tactical play. E.g. Players win initiative. First player moves. First monster moves. Second player casts spell. Second monster moves. Third players moves. Third monster moves. Back around to first player finishing their turn by attacking. First monsters finishes turn by disengaging, Second player moves to adjusts, finishing their turn. Second monster attacks...etc until all combatants have completed two "half-turns". Bonus actions can be used during either half-turn; players choice. If the PCs are fighting just 1 monster then half of the party takes their half-turns, then the monster takes it's half-turn, followed by the remaining players.
As for resting; I was a little more harsh. Players heal their proficiency bonus in hit points on a short rest plus 1 additional hp if tended to by a medic. For a long rest, they receive their character level and prof. bonus in hit points plus their CON modifier and 1 extra if attended by medic. A proper rest can only be found in the comfort of safety (settlement, of the like) over several days.
Player facing combat is the best. I was using it for a long time. The more players roll dice, the more exciting it is for them.
But alas, I've moved on from D&D. It;s all about Pathfinder now.
Cheers.
I proposed to my dm custom improvised weapon mechanic , basicaly damage is proportional to how heavy the object is and how strong is material the object is made out of. its starts from 1d4 and goes up to 6d10, but you have to be able to lift it and you have to use whole action to do the attack (no extra attack). You also have disadvantage if it weights more than your carrying capacity
Something I like on Tale of the Manticore podcast was to randomly roll each day for a wonderous place. If the DM rolls a 20 on a d20, the players do not experience a monster encounter, but stumble across a safe place in the wilderness.
I think that would work very well with your House Rule Long Rest. I like it.
Dude how tf do you have 18k? These rules are SO good. I’m excited to see your channel grow and get the recognition it deserves.
Hey thanks Swermie! I’m a slow growing channel since I only have time to post 1 video per month (2 if I’m lucky). Hope you stick around and enjoy my ramblings! Cheers and welcome to the channel!
I’m really intrigued by the Player Facing combat rolls. I’m gonna try it out with my players & see what they think! It SOUNDS like a great way to get them more engaged, which is awesome 😁🤘🏻⚔️
Hell yeah! It works great because then your players won't "check out" while the GM takes their turn. Because you might ask them to roll AC.
Ill bite on this video. I definitely use the bonus action for pots. The others here would be somewhat superfluous for my tables. Group initiative - my players are thankfully very engaged and have an awesome teamwork dynamic.
Player facing combat - interesting but would lead to longer lasting combat. I feel there’s better ways to make combat engaging.
Crunchy crits - meh, crits are already crunchy enough but I’m going to play at a table soon that uses this so I guess I’ll find out.
Not sure if resting mechanics need fixing. I easily find ways to challenge my players without needing to fix this. Btw there’s already RAW against the kind of long resting you refer to here.
Light mechanics as a fog of war mechanic, I’ve never really liked anyway. I think if folks played darkvision RAW it’s fine.
I do the long rest rule where you only recover when you use HD. It isn't that bad or super hard at all.
I actually make it even more challenging.
1. On a long rest you heal by rolling HD (just like a short rest)
2. After the long rest is complete you regain 1/2 your HD back
3. If you have less than 1/2 your max HP after a long rest you gain a point of exhaustion (this represents a lingering injury of some kind)
4. If the character has 2 points of exhaustion, they no longer regain HD.
I find that this makes healing abilities and spells critical in my games and the players always stock up on potions if they know they are going to leave town for a while.
I'm really enjoying your channel. I particularly enjoyed your "why i stopped using spell slots" video. I'm a first time DM whose currently working on building my own TTRPG for my group who play Pathfinder 2e. Im wanting to build a world in which actions have consequences, and really focusing on that. One idea that I created (maybe it already exists?) is a renown/disdain system.
Ex: Lets say a king asks you to clear out a camp of Orc thieves just outside the city. Upon successful completion, you gain +1 renown point for that king/city/inhabitants. But you also gain +1 disdain point for Orcs, and maybe even the local thieves guild. Im thinking making it a 3 point max (maybe 5?)
Having Renown points mean that people see you in a more favorable light. With enough points, they hold you in high esteem. You get the renown bonus to any skill checks with actions involving that faction. Society, Diplomacy, Performance... even Thievery and Deception (as they are trusting of you)... however else you can apply those bonuses.
Having Disdain points means the exact opposite. In the above example, lets say Orcs despise you now. Skill checks with them become harder(+ level of disdain to skill rolls). With Max disdain, the orcs cannot be deceived by you, diplomacy fails, no stealth once they are aware of your presence, they are not intimidated etc etc.
Anyways, good stuff!
A general tip I would give is... The rules can be changed to whatever you may like. I for myself run alot of houserules in my game. some of them are kinda just cosmethic, for example I did changed the value of money a bit and created some lower currencies. I always found it crazy, that players run around with thousands of gold pieces etc. But anyway. You can change things up whatever you like BUT.
Understand, what this change does to your game.
In the first 2 rules of this video, there can be alot of things that could go wrong when you do this. This doesn't make the houserules bad, but you have to understand, that this will change your balancing a little bit. Here are my examples:
1. Group Initiative
While this has almost no effect at all, when you playing against small group of enemies, it becomes more and more critical, the larger the enemy partie is.
I like to have encounters with monsters, that are kinda weak, but there are many. Fighting against 10 mobs at a time, even when their CR is way lower, can be another kind of difficulty a group have to prepare for. When you play with group initiative here, the group that moves first has a really big advantage. And if it happens, that the enemy group moves first, the players have to prepare to get 10 attacks in a row without having the ability to reposition, drinking potions, heal themselfes or to try and nuke 1-2 enemies to deny some attacks. You then have to survive 10 hits in a row, which will have a massive impact on the difficulty and can be frustrating for the group.
2. Fix Resting Mechanics
I play Pathfinder with my group and not DnD. In Pathfinder you don't heal fully but just a few points. The system wants from you, that you use your remaining healspells at the end of the day, to heal up the group. Otherwise you just heal your hitdice which is really just a d6-d12 which is not alot in a high level group and it can takes weeks or even month to fully recover with natural regeneration alone. I can't explain why but I like this mechanic and my group does to. It feels more natural. After a hard fight, where your party is almost down, its kinda awkward to just take a nap and being fully recovered again. With this mechanic you still have to manage you spell slots a little bit, otherwise the healing at the end of the day won't be that great. BUT... You also mentioned that you're just allowed in a safe haven like a city or an Inn. While this might sound nice and logical, it makes some campaigns unplayable.
We played Tomb of Annihilation in another group. I won't spoiler much, but just to say... This adventure is about survival, as you learn in the first few sessions. In our adventure we haven't visited a town in like 60 Ingame days or around 30-40 real life Sessions. Don't even want to begin with the tomb itself. So theoretically you're not allowed to do any long rest ever in this campaign which makes it literally unplayable.
So before you invent house rules to your game. Think about how they really change your game. Maybe do a few testsessions first. But some houserules can lead to serious problems. But don't forget. In the end its your game and you and your group are supposed to have fun. So whatever fits your style: just do it.
Love to see a houserule doc although my intent is always to have no more than an a4 in reasonable font of houserule changes, and same for race changes.
What do you mean by no more than an a4? Tell me more 🤔
@@HouseDM A4 sheet of paper. Else it gets to cumbersome. It's not intended to be a static document either.
I was introduced to your crit roll mechanic at another DM's table and have used it ever since. Awesome way to make the hit feel truly epic. He further has the rule that if you or a monster rolls a crit fail on a saving throw, the spell attack damage has the same effect. Thus the 8D6 fireball when someone crit fails their Dex check automagically does 48 plus an additional 8D6 damage.
Adding 12 is a reflection of an average monster attack roll on a 20-sided die. Average is the middle of the die. On an even number die it has a decimal. For example for a d6 it’s 3.5. On a d20 it’s 10.5 rounded up that’s 11. Where does the extra 1 that moves it up to 12? Easy if the monster rolls the DC to hit you all the have to do is match your AC however in a defense roll you compensate for that by adding 1 to keep the same result when the PCs roll defense. Hope that explains it. Also as a DM you can have conditions that raise or lower the DC for a defense roll. The creature could be very skilled in combat therefore add 5 to the DC, but when it is injured lower it to the original number. When the creature is gravely injured penalize by 5. Hope that helps. This allows for better stories in my opinion.
Thanks Mr Cuddles! This is a great breakdown and explanation of the math there’s been using this system now for almost 2 years and I fricken love it. So much more engaging. Cheers and thanks for watching!
@@HouseDM you have great content. I am theory crafting myself because 5e has some weird rules that take away from player agency that I don’t like. Such as disengage as an action as if a trained soldier can’t tactically give themselves distance without an opportunity attack. This rule really inhibits chase situations common in fantasy tropes. I prefer a more dynamic action economy and historical realism. Then it makes the world feel more real. And when a character is exposed to magic or mythical beasts it feels exciting.
I will be trying the bonus action potion chug and the max crit die. We play with a critical failure/luck die mechanic. Basically i have a bag of 20 d6's. One red, one green, one blue and seventeen white. You roll a critical fail (natural 1) on any attack or save, you draw one die from the bag. That d6 can then be added to any future attack, damage, healing, save or skill check. White die are 1d6, blue 2d6, green 3d6 and the red is 4d6. You can use as many as you have, but they go back into the bag at the end of the session. They cannot be shared or used for initiative. The players love it. Granted they are mostly new to D&D so they need all the help they can get, and i run a pretty bare bones game. Thanks for the great videos.
That’s a really sick idea! I’m weary of critical failure mechanics save for maybe spellcasting but love the draw from a bag bit.
And yeah let me know how the max crit die and potion chugging works at your table. I’ve sorta shifted to be more OSR with my campaigns and bonus actions are kinda just gone in my game. I just hand waive and let players do that as there one free action. Glad you enjoy the vids! I’ll keep making them as long as you keep liking them 😉
@@HouseDM Oh they still get a critical failure effect, but this makes it not hurt as bad. And when it comes to caster critical failure we are going to try out your system with a few tweaks here and there. I really like to put the fear of God in them along with a laugh. Death is every present, but he has a great sense of humor.
Similar to the players making a defense check when attacked I have the players roll to make monsters fail saving throws against their spells and such. In that case it's a DC 14+the monsters saving throw modifier. That way they get to roll when casting something like hold person or toll the dead. It's more fun when players roll.
For darkvision, I really like to use the Low-Light Vision from Giffyglyph's Darker Dungeons.
On critical hits, the damage roll is always considered max damage. I then allow the PC or NPC to select one of several effects from a list based on the weapon that they are using. Such effects include...
Trip (DEX Save applies), Disarm (STR or DEX [finess] Save applies), Redirect Foe 5ft/Change Foe's Facing (DEX Save), Stun Foe (CON Save applies), Overextend Foe (WIS Save & they have DISADVANTAGE next round), Slash Foe (roll damage again with exploding dice), Impale Foe (roll damage again and the weapon is embedded in the target), Crush Foe (roll damage again and have target make a STR save or be knocked prone), Entangle Foe (DEX Save), Pin Foe or Foe's Weapon (foe must make a STR or DEX Save [based on the finesse trait] or their weapon is pinned), Sunder Shield or Armor (the item must make a Save with a DC of 10+damage rolled/max damage or the shield is destroyed and armor loses 1 AC).
I also allow any Fighter with a selection of these moves (a few of which are assigned to each Fighting Style) to use a Special Maneuver which is listed in their Fighting Style IF they roll 5+ over the target's AC/To Hit needed.
Have you had battlemaster fighters at your table? How does this effect them? Or monks with stun?
In my 5e Darksun game, we have 2 short rests for 1 hour. Roll Hit die to recover HP. Max hit dice you can roll is equal to your proficiency bonus. Some class abilities are restored as normal (action surge, ki, etc.)
A long rest of at least 8 hours in a safe/fortified area. Works as normal, but you still roll hit dice to heal, and you do not recover hit dice. Anyone seriously injured (dropped to 0 hit points) also suffers a level of fatigue every time they are dropped to 0. You can only recover 1 fatigue per long rest, and can only long rest once per 24 hours. Spells and class abilities are restored.
And finally a Full rest. Can only be done in a village, city, fort, heavily fortified area; and takes a full 24 hours. You heal all HP, get back all your hit dice, and recover 2 fatigue.
I've tried something recently with my party where drinking a potion is a bonus action and giving it to another party member is an action, but they can also drink a potion themselves as an action and if they do they gain the full healing effect without rolling. It's yet another decision for my players in combat to make it more interesting rather than tedious.
This is the way.
The limit to long rests in sanctuarys is truly game changing, for the better
Agreed! Honestly changed my 5e experience.
I made it so you need sanctuary (reasonably safe, warm, dry), that you need to have had food/drink at least once that day, and that you need to rest for a full 8 hours, and that ONLY fully restores spell slots.
As for HP, you only restore a partial amount of HP from rest if you’ve received proper medical care. So you need to have wounds bandaged/sutured/cleaned, and THEN you benefit from healing with rest, but only partially, so it takes more than one long rest to fully heal. Or, you could use magic/potions
I guess I'm already using a few of those, or pretty close.
Armor Saves
• PC Armor is treated as a saving throw against a static attack DC.
• To calculate a PC’s Armor Save, subtract 10 from their AC, and add a d20.
• For attacks made by NPCs, subtract the d20 and add 12, forming a static attack DC.
• When a PC rolls a natural 1 on an Armor Save, they suffer a critical hit.
• NPC advantage to hit is instead disadvantage on the PC's Armor Save.
• NPC disadvantage to hit is instead advantage on the PC's Armor Save.
• Monster damage is averaged, not rolled.
• PC attacks on NPCs are treated normally.
Critical Hits
• When an attack results in a critical hit, the attacker rolls one set of damage dice normally, and adds the maximum possible for the second set.
Healing Potions
• A healing potion may be imbibed as a bonus action, rolling its healing effect normally.
• A healing potion may be imbibed as a standard action, with its effect maximized.
• Administering a healing potion to an incapacitated ally takes a standard action, and its effect is rolled normally.
Exhausted [Condition]
While Exhausted, you experience the following effects:
• Levels of Exhaustion. - This Condition is cumulative. Each time you receive it, you gain 1 level of exhaustion. You die if your exhaustion level exceeds 10.
• Incapacitation. - When you are reduced to 0 hit points, you gain one level of exhaustion. You gain one additional level of exhaustion for each death save you fail.
• Extra Effort. - When you fail a d20 test, you may try again by taking one level of exhaustion.
• d20 Tests Affected. - When you make a d20 Test, you subtract your exhaustion level from the d20 roll.
• Spell Save DCs Affected. - Subtract your exhaustion level from the Spell save DC of any Spell you cast.
• Speed Affected. - Each exhaustion level reduces your speed by 5 feet, to a minimum of 5 feet per round.
• Ending the Condition. - Finishing a Long Rest removes 1 of your levels of exhaustion. When your exhaustion level reaches 0, you are no longer Exhausted.
Rest
• A short rest requires 1 hour of light activity.
• A long rest requires 8 hours of light activity in a safe location, at least 4 of which must include sleep or its equivalent.
• “Light activity” means no attack rolls are made nor damage taken, and no spells which require a saving throw may be cast by or against the character. Other strenuous actions may prevent rest, at the DM’s discretion.
• During a rest, Hit Dice may be rolled to recover Hit Points,but none are recovered automatically.
• Hit Dice are only half as effective while the character has any exhaustion levels.
The armor class modifier is something we introduced in the 1980s playing 1st edition AD&D. We turned THAC0 and AC on their heads. We called it Active Defense, and it was a huge hit with any player we brought into the game, even at conventions
I'd like to read your complete list. So far, every change you've suggested sound great!
I’ll probably add a link to the google doc next week. Right now it’s only on my Patreon. I’d say check the video notes like Tuesday next week 😉
re Initiative; You can also try the "Hi/Lo initvative" method which is really cool. Players that want to go before all others can take a minus -2 to Ac (accending) and go in the "Hi" catagory by initative score order (dice off ties) "Named" NPC's can do this too; everyone else goes in the "Lo" round where you use group d6 iniative. It adds a little decision making which makes combat a little more tense. Resting can only occure in a "Safe" place where they feel truely secure is the best fix for long rest and fits with the OSR you cant rest in the dungeon paradigm.
Making my own system, and getting a lot of good ideas from your channel. Specific numbers will need to change, but it's great to be able to see how 5e can be improved, and what it could mean for my game
something we do at our table to spice up combat scenarios is a sort of "Buffed Actions in Combat" kind of situation where we call for a "Flavor/Flair buff".
Things like Grapple, Shove and the like are getting a lot more use now where even if they dont succeed, if they are close enough (1-3 difference) they still have some benefit to them.
Example, Trying to grapple an enemy would keep them busy... so the enemy now has to use "Disengage" as an action, allowing the fighter to keep a bandit from targetting a squishier ally.
By setting up "combos" where teammates can help each other Succeed, it becomes a lot more strategic than everyone rolling to attack after surrounding one single target.
This is specially fun if you throw a variety of creatures or terrain elements that may "nerf" one type of combatant. (The other day i was playing a barbarian against were-monsters. Had no silver so by grappling them, i was able to lower their AC for my magically inclined allies to finish them off. That was a ton of fun!)
At my table, I also do the bonus action on healing potions with one edition. Players can use a bonus action then roll for the results. ie 2d4+2 standard potion of healing, 4d4 +4 greater potion of healing, etc. Or they can take a full action and get the maximum, 10 for a standard potion of healing, 20 for a greater potion of healing.
4:55 "Dungeon graft" is what WOTC/Hasbro does.
Also, I think a lot of the problem with short/long rests comes from a general confusion, even on WOTC's part, about the nature of abstract hp. They don't represent physical damage primarily. They're more like a measure of combat fitness. And only a small percentage are actually physical injuries. So even short rests make more sense. And adding wounds or injuries as a condition would require additional healing, rest, etc, depending on severity.
I’m gonna try all of these!
Nice! Keep what works, and scrap what doesn’t 🙂
Group initiative makes combat really chaotic. Basically one roll determines which side gets a surprise round. If my players went first in an easy combat, I wouldn't even bother running it, I'd just say they won. But if the bad guys go first in a hard combat, it could easily lead to downed or dead characters before the any player even get a turn. It's certainly easier, but not a fan myself. But you do you.
My dnd is odd as I am about one month back I to it since 1999 and due to where I live and life, I am 90% a solo player. Yes, I am fully aware of everything people think of that but I love everything about dnd and this is all I can do.
Anyway, I am learning the game again and as I go there are many aspects that I don’t get to use really due to soloing but also because I don’t like the 5e mechanics on some things and love seeing others options and ideas like these!!
Awesome!!
When you consider that Tolkein is usually regarded as High Fantasy, even though we see things like Frodo getting stabbed by a Morgul Knife or getting impaled by Shelob in the Spider's Abode, and is nearly done in, and yet 5e assumes 6 to 8 encounters per adventuring day....
I know right? I don’t consider LotR high fantasy. To me, it’s low fantasy in a high fantasy world.
My explanation for potions in my games is "The more you have to do to get rid of it, the more it requires of you" basically, if you drink it its a bonus action, if you feed it to a creature it's an action, and if you pass it to another creature it's a free action
Critical Hit: Max(die)+ rolled(die) + modifiers is a standard. In RQ we called that an impale.
I'm about to implement a rule that when they long rest out of town they will have to start tracking rations and water, and I want to have exhaustion start after some amount of time in the field
A house rule I’ve recently tried out that I haven’t really seen anywhere is converting all of the spell slots to “mana” it might seem really strong at first. Since you’re allowing casters to drop as many high level spells as they have the points for or casting a practically infinite number of silvery barbs and shields. But when you pair it with a longer time between rests and moving shield and SB up a level or two it balances out quite nicely and makes it so your casters think a little more when casting
In Germany we have a very well established game called "das schwarze Auge" (it is translated into English). this system is based on mana for magic classes and feels just like what you described. Your wizard might have 40mana and may throw 2 massive fireballs (one might cost about 20 mana at the beginning if you wish, but that means he might not have the means to do anything from that point on. Only a regular night's rest will give him 1d6 mana back. So let's say he rolls a 4 each night it might take him 10 nights to regain all 40mana points. Depending on the campaign it might be a little bit too slow for my taste.
@@schnittmagier5515 I will certainly check out Das Schwarze Auge. Right now I have spells set to spell level = mana cost and full casters getting a total pool of 50 mp at level 20 regaining 2x proficiency bonus in MP on long rest. I have also implemented a rare consumable resource that is basically a mana potion.
Agree whole heartedly!! Enhancement is key. I try to use Similar ideas to what Dungeon Coach has and Professor Dungeon Master.
To avoid a little bit of mental maths with the AC change, you could subtract the 12 from the AC modifier so you only have to beat the monster's to-hit bonus. Eg for AC18, your modifier is 18 - 10 - 12 = -4. You subtract -4 from the D20 and try to roll over the +7 to-hit. Less conversions required for each combat
My problem with the long rest mechanic is that I want my players to be doing what they want, so while the fighters and warlocks and monks and rogues are cool with chaining short rest the paladin and barbarian will straight up refuse to do stuff when they gain nothing from a short rest (rage and smite [spell slots] come back over a long rest). Essentially over half the party wants to long rest so that they get their cool class abilities back, while half the party is good to go but wouldn’t mind a rest. And even when a class does gain stuff back on a short rest, wizard sorcerer Druid, they don’t gain all of it back, so a class like fighter who recovers all their features on a short rest will be raring to go but the in between classes won’t like the benefits and the all or nothing classes feel gypt. So with a barbarian I can get 3 combat encounters before they want to sleep, some times less with paladins and rangers and artificers who are generous with the spells, and even the spell casters who get stuff back on a short rest will concede if they used too many spells because they don’t want to go into a fight with only cantrips.
I still use the rule we used 40 years ago: if you roll a Nat 20, roll again; if you roll another Nat 20, it's an instant kill no matter what. Also, if you roll a Nat 1, you roll again, and if you roll another 1, you completely fumble per the DM's decision, like dropping or breaking your weapon.
Definitely going to use player facing combat. You could tweak it by saying anyone can wear any armor but you get to add your proficiency bonus to your armor roll if you're proficient in that type.
I did a homebrew where you dont get hp on a longrest, but there was a druid and a paladin in the party so they just used all their remaining spellslots before a long rest knowing they would get it right back.
This is why I play Shadowdark now.
Anyone that doesn’t house rule crits is committing crimes lol😅
I use the same rule you do !
My DM lets us drink OR throw potions with bonus actions, and as an alchemist, i love this! I can just ya-yeet a heal pot at my rouge when he gets low, and he can disengage and catch it.
I simplify initiative even further. I assume the PC's always win initiative, except in instances of surprise. PC's go in order of DEXTERITY, highest to lowest. PC's with identical DEX scores have a roll-off to decide who goes first. Players can decide to change the order of who attacks when on their side, if they think it makes more tactical sense. I use OSR rules, not 5E, so YMMV if using the latter (not very familiar with 5E rules).
For the monster attack I am certain that you are supposed to add 11 to the monster’s attack modifier.
It is 10+1 because the PCs defense roll has to match the monsters attack, not beat it, as is the case for the traditional AC calculation.
I love this idea but my maths are not seeing the results that 12 is proposing. I agree with Diego here, thanks Emessar Games for the explanation also. Please help me out with what I have missed in my working out?
Current Attack Method Exceed
AC 14
Mon Att Mod +7
Hits on 8 (=(8+7) 15 to Exceed AC 14)
8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20 (13 chances to hit)
7,6,5,4,3,2,1 (7 chances to miss)
Proposed Method Meet or Exceed
AC Mod +4 (AC14 -10 = 4)
Monster DC 19 (Att Mod 7 + 12 = 19)
Saves on 15 (=(4+15)19 to Meet or Exceed DC 19)
15,16,17,18,19,20 (6 chances to save)
14,13,12,11,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 (14 chances to Hit)
Current system has 13 success options, proposed has 14? the +12 should be +11. Now my brain hurts. What have I missed?
I had a house rule back in the 90s for healing potions. The rule was they had a terrible taste, and required a Wisdom check (willpower) to take them. Added a bit of a challenge to potions.
13th Age is a great way to deal with rests and recovery. Roughly every 4 battles the characters get a rest and recover their recoveries (hit dice), spells, abilities etc. In between the characters can do a quick rest to spend recoveries and roll to recover some powers that have a recovery check.
If the characters run into a combat that they are too drained to handle, they can retreat. They get the benefit of a full rest but suffer some sort of campaign loss - the ritual completes, the mayor dies, the dragon awakens, etc.
In my experience part of the appeal of knowing that 4 battles get you a rest pushes the characters forward. They don't get the rest by simply biding their time but they also can't hold back everything for that final battle because the other fights might be tough as well.
House rule that I love...auto-kills in situations where it would be possible. An example of this is when a rogue sneaks into a camp and slits an NPCs throat. Normally this would require a roll to hit and a roll for damage. With rules as they stand, any NPC with any amount of health would likely survive that attack. I make the character roll (just in case they crit fail) and then rule the sleeping NPC murdered in their sleep. There are several other situations this comes into play and adds much more realism to to said situations.
I love this! How cool would your players feel if they snuck into the enemy camp and killed the main boss through skilled stealth checks. If my players pulled it off, legendary. The aftermath of such a feat would be awesome!
@@HouseDM Exactly!
An optional rule exists where if you do 50% of their maximum HP they can obtain system shock and die instantly, you're not really house-ruling that scenario.
My biggest concern with group initiative is the weight of action economy, which dnd already has an issue with, becomes alot worse with this. If you have lots of mass fights its fair though even then the novaing set targets to reduce actions enemy have is still an issue, but if it is a boss fight and the player group go first, they have incentive to nova the fight cause if they can deal all the damage at first they reduce the chance of the boss being alive to get to fight.
Like I think there are ways of keeping players focused on the fight, I find i you grant players options of ways they can enhance or aid each other when it is not their turn, that immediately increases player attention span as they want to see openings to help each other.
With long rest I do think one bit of the rule people seem to ignore is the restriction you have to wait 24 hours between taking long rests, this does sop the we have fought 2 encounters now a long rest, especially with dungeons where encounters are often between multiple rooms. This does drastically also come up when while a fight may take an hour or two IRL they only take a minute in game time wit every round of combat taking 6 seconds total.
"Why do 12 + attack mod for monsters?" is actually pretty easy to answer.
Let's imagine instead that both monsters and players swap d20 for a flat 10 - monster turns its d20 into a flat 10, and PC turns 10 points of AC into a d20. First, a d20 roll doesn't average 10, it averages 10.5. So the monster is losing half a point, on average, by switching from d20 to flat 10, while the player is gaining half a point. That's a total swing of +1 in the player's favor, so we can make up for it by adding 1 to the monster.
Second, a d20 roll is meet-or-beat, meaning that the roller wins "ties", when the die roll is exactly the DC. If you swap who does the rolling, you swap the outcome of that tie as well. Since it's the player benefiting, you can again compensate by adding 1 to the monster.
So with both of those effects factored in, the monster needs to swap its d20 for a flat 12 to produce the same outcomes.
But if the above is still a little confusing, you can instead work it out by hand super easy. Just come up with an example attack bonus and AC, and figure out how many faces on the die result in a hit or a miss. Then swap it for an attack DC and armor save, and figure out what DC you need to produce the same number of hit and miss results. The answer turns out to always be 12 + attack bonus.
For example, an attack bonus of +5 against an AC of 12 will hit on 14 faces (a natural 7-20) and miss on 6 (1-6). So if we swap to an armor save of +2, what DC do we need to produce the same number? We need to get a miss (a successful save) on 6 of the possible faces, so that'll be a natural 15-20, or a 17-22 after the bonus. For a 17 to be the lowest successful save, the DC needs to be 17, or 12+5. Any other attack bonus + AC combo will give the same result.
I've ran the no hp recovery style before. For us, the way hp was regained was through consumables...food literally. Or more accurately meals. We already had a breadth of meals and snacks that give various bonuses but then we had ones that were specifically meant for 'natural' healing. I saw natural because AGAIN we have a subsystem for consumables like Health Potions that usually had instant short term benefits had tolerances your body could handle. Think like witcher potions, in that a lot of these items are magically toxic but could /bring you from mortal wounds/ in trade. That in itself gave Constitution a bit more weight since better Con meant stronger and/or more frequent instant buffs. But back to the food, this meant our existing consumables also got to heal a little and dedicated healing meals healed a lot. The tactics playing into what you think you needed more at that moment since you couldn't eat multiple meals worth of food without the expense of overeating which required more rest time or the risk of loosing your meal's effect's later from getting sick.
All of which came back to our initial question of if we could make rations important rather than just a money sink. We also played around with the idea of your 'taste pallet' and assigning foods/drinks different values like Spicy 5 or Fizzy 3 and how that aligned with your character's tastes would change the benefits of the meal. However, to a degree that ended up being a little too gamey for regular play but it certainly made roleplaying downtime more interesting since the classic drinking contest interacted with those rules extremely directly.
I've tried modified initiative before and most of the time we end up going back to the standard system. When it comes to crit damage at the beginning of the campaign I let the players decide how they want to roll the damage. It usually ends up doubling the amount of dice roll, but they get to re-roll 1s. I also have the house rule of potions being a bonus action for one's self and a action to administer to another player. One house rule I have is I let the players have a bonus feat right from the beginning. I've been doing that for years and I laughed when I saw the announcement that One D&D will have this as well.
My players favorite house rule I have is that for every 5 nat 20s they roll they get inspiration. But the other side of that is if I get 10 nat 20s something happens. Depending on the campaign I have a table that I roll to see what happens. Sometimes it is good sometimes not so much. One of my kids today said that I should do that for nat 1s too. I like the idea so I'll probably start doing that as well. To help take the sting out of it.
The ability for a wizard to cast faster, or a barbarian to swing a maul faster isn't dexterity, it's a proficiency bonus. Initiative should run off of this or the bonus from their main stat or even the stat they are using that round.
Stopping long rest healing needs an alternative bandage/herb base healing system.
an idea ive had with initiative is each player rolls a "daily initiative" and thats the score they use that day. you can add/subtract based on certain modifiers to vary encounters up tho. such as giving a +/- based on passive perception for an ambush. then the DM can have a list of "prerolled" initiative numbers.
I like the idea of group initiative. There is one player that usually needs a refresh when their turn comes up.
My question is what happens when a players turn comes around and their planned action is now moot or useless. eg; Someone said they shoot a magic missile at the enemy leader. But the leader has already died when that players turn to roll dice comes up. So their action is useless, and they have "wasted" a spell slot?
I think what you’re describing is simultaneous initiative. In that style, yes, they would have wasted their attack, or you add up the damage of the person who did enough to kill this enemy leader and your magic missile and say your combined damage was enough to defeat them.
If you do traditional group initiative, then the caster wouldn’t have declared who they are attacking until after the prior player has completed their action. Hope this helps to clarify!
I felt the resting mechanic was a little bit harsh, as i love getting my players out in the wilderness. I came up with a compromise. If they rest outside of a fortified protective structure they gain a level of exhaustion at the end of their long rest. I will also add that if they choose to rest in immediate danger i.g. a tomb/dungeon/a hags shed, they cannot.
There's also the slow healing rule in the DMG. Where you spend HD on all rests to heal.
Tried this. What ended up happening with this was everyone wasted time maximizing the use of their leftover healing spells and the net result was no lost resources and a bunch of wasted time. I liked this idea though.
@@HouseDM the problem we're having with the rule is just remembering to implement it during play. We've become far too comfortable with the standard long rest
@@sentor98 yup. Its too good lol.
Keep up the good work House DM. I think you will be at 100k before you know it.
Hey Lizle! Thanks for the positive support. I'm trying my best and learning so much. I think as long as I keep learning and having fun with the process, I'll get there one day too. Cheers and happy to have you!
I do like the idea of an AC Roll to block or dodge an attack. I might try that one with my players at some point to see how it goes.
I’m not a fan of the Group Initiative idea as much though. Take the hypothetical example if one or more players wanted to take Alert, play any Subclass that gives an extra initiative bonus (like Gloomstalker Ranger, Swashbuckler Rogue, or Chronurgy Wizard), and/or play as the Harengon Lineage. If any of those factors were in play, it would diminish that character’s value. And if the play made a character with any combination of those initiative boosting factors the Group Initiative House Rule would actually be a major nerf to that player character. A Harengon Chronurgy Wizard with Alert (this can easily get a ridiculously high initiative bonus super early) is only made with one specific goal in mind; going first to get an early advantage by dropping a big Damage/Debuff spell on the enemy before they get a turn, and before the other party members walk into your AOE range.
I did that Crit damage rule for a while. It’s great except sneak attack and smite
the 12 is simply so the monster has more than a 50% chance to hit. thats about it.
imagine if the atk bonus was equal to the pc; with a plus 10 the monster would "miss" half the time.
other notes:
dex bonus to determine pc order
initiative bonus is max( (bonus/party_size), 1) rounded up so someone with alert would give a +2 on the d20 roll.
House rule:
Damage advantage: if you rolled an attack with advantage OR you confirmed a critical hit, you roll you damage die with advantage.
It works the same with disadvantage. If you hit while rolling with disadvantage, you roll damage with disadvantage.
We made a homebrew rule, you can drink a healing potion as a bonus action, but you have to roll to see how much you heal. However, if you still spend your action to drink potion, you get max healing effect from potion.
Player facing combat feels a lot like Thac0. :) I love it. NONE of my players wanted to do this, though. LOL
Big fan of your channel.
Thank you! Just a part time side passion 😄
The first campaign I ever DM'ed was RAW 5e, and we had 5 players, 4 of whom had darkvision... the cleric kept using a spell slot to allow the human paladin darkvision and it was just getting ridiculous. I've learned a lot since then and now would just implement a house rule such as yours XD
In my game, group initiative will kill one side or the other very quickly. I do not mess around as a DM. If I have 4 baddies all going at the same time without an obvious threat they need to take care of, they will all go at the easiest target, they will swarm and destroy the players. Without interlacing attacks between baddies and players, players can quickly get frustrated. But at the same time, as a DM, if smart creatures (hobgoblins are as intelligence as most PCs) do not use smart tactics so my players can feel better, players have no incentive to be creative in combat. For example, if a fighter is at the mouth of a hall with baddie in the room, I will have the most tanky baddie rush the fighter, to their attacks and move away (usually trigger OA), THEN I will have the others each rush in, take an attack and move away with the fighter's reaction spent. The baddies will move to the walls closest to the mouth, removing ranged attacks from the players behind them, forcing the fighter to enter the room and the players to spill in if they want to attack the baddies. On the next round, my baddies charge the PC. The first one moves to the PC and readies an attack action. The second one moves behind that PC gaining flanking. This triggers the first PC with flanking advantage (possible sneak attack dmg too), then the second one attacks. The third and fourth do the same thing. Now that one PC has just had 4 attacks on them, they are surrounded, and unless they have really high AC, will be forced to disengage. On the flip side, if the PCs win initiative and all work together, they can do the same exact thing, devastating the baddies almost before they get a chance to do anything.
The "a potion takes an action to drink" is based on game mechanics and not how fast someone can drink a potion. Essentially, for many/most potions, it's the equivalent of casting a spell. Pretty much every spell there is a potion for (no, I didn't research this, just making assumptions) takes an action (or longer?) to cast. So, drinking a potion of healing is mechanically considered the same as casting a healing spell. Not saying anyone is wrong for doing it any other way, but that's why it is an action in the rules.
My house rule for potions: you can use a bonus action to take your potion and roll dice or use a full action and get max health provided by that potion.
That feels really fricken strong.
Or just use the Healing Surge optional rule and role hit dice in combat.