BEST house rules you have played with

[EggKookoo]

A clear path for low level teleports feels like a bit much to me. I don't see a problem with say teleporting past some iron bars or through a window.

It turned out not to be a factor in practice. However, I'm considering keeping it for an upcoming new campaign. I suppose I should go through the various teleportation spells and feats and make sure that such a limitation doesn't make them useless. It wouldn't apply to Teleport or Teleportation Circle.

[Cluedrew]

Well my favourite system is a homebrew game my friend made, so I guess that system, might actually be my favourite house rules.

I am still waiting for the day it gets published and I can make thread for it.

[Xuc Xac]

In my previous campaign I ruled that short-distance teleports (Misty Step and the like) require a clear path that the character could fit through. So no Misty Stepping through a keyhole (or out of jail). The creature can bypass such a barrier if there's a "clear" path around it, but at the cost of the distance.

I can already do that without magic. It's called "walking".

[EggKookoo]

I can already do that without magic. It's called "walking".

No, it's not that you have to have a walkable path. I mean for example you can't Misty Step through a keyhole. You can still go across chasms or up to a ledge or something.

Basically, if there's no route you could take that you can physically fit through, with an overall distance no greater than the teleport range, you can't do it. I don't make the player waste the spell/feature, they gain an intuitive understanding if it will work before they execute it (kind of like feeling for a landing spot).

[Quertus]

I can already do that without magic. It's called "walking".

Yes, it's very important for game balance that magic can't do anything that can't be done mundanely. Magic should just be reskinned realism.

[Xuc Xac]

No, it's not that you have to have a walkable path. I mean for example you can't Misty Step through a keyhole. You can still go across chasms or up to a ledge or something.

So it's not "walking", it's "jumping". There's already a level 1 spell that does that. What do you gain with Misty Step to justify the higher level?

[EggKookoo]

So it's not "walking", it's "jumping". There's already a level 1 spell that does that. What do you gain with Misty Step to justify the higher level?

It's a 2nd level spell, not all that high.

So how else do you move/jump 30' (without consuming any movement) without being concerned about opportunity attacks and without opponents automatically knowing where you ended up? Sure, it uses your bonus action but the RAW version does that anyway.

Having a 2nd level spell allow you to bypass just about any restriction seemed a bit potent to me. I also rule you can't use it to get out of shackles (they come with you) and if you're shackled to the wall you can't use it. I'm a fairly lenient DM overall but MS is a tad OP. The campaign ended before we got too far with it but I could see lifting those restrictions when cast with a higher level slot (say 5th).

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Most of my houserules are pretty large overhauls so listing the best parts here would probably overflow the character count, but here are two interrelated houserules that have been particular favorites of my current group:

1) Consolidating various mechanics into a single Proficiencies system (quoting myself from a previous thread on the subject, and spoilered for length):

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So, the basic goals of the system are (A) to fold in the boring-but-useful feats into things you get for free at starting levels, (B) to add "hooks" for downtime activities like training and crafting, and (C) to provide a way for low-level characters to be very good smiths, sages, guards, and so forth without requiring them to have lots of HD for the feats or skill ranks they'd otherwise require to fill those roles.

There are six proficiency categories and three proficiency ranks. The categories are Weapon, Armor, Knowledge, Profession, Region, and Faction. The first two map to weapon and armor proficiencies, the second two map to Knowledge and Profession/Perform subskills, and the last two sorta kinda map to affiliation rules and the variant Knowledge (Local) rules for Forgotten Realms. The proficiency ranks are Basic, Expert, and Master. Basic proficiency removes nonproficiency penalties and Expert and Master each grant a general benefit by category, and each proficiency has its own Basic/Expert/Master perks as well that are roughly on the scale of a feat.

Various other parts of the rules are modified to use proficiencies as prerequisites as much as possible, such as shortening feat trees and taking feat and skill taxes out of PrC prerequisites. They can also be used numerically for certain things (Basic = 1, Expert = 2, Master = 3), like multiplying crafting progress or adding to a weapon's threat range and other things that would be nice to scale to a small degree.

Weapon Proficiencies
These are by weapon type and fighting style: Axes, Crossbows, Dual Weapons, Mobile Fighting, Natural Weapons, etc. The general Expert perk is to not provoke AoOs when making combat maneuvers with associated weapons and the general Master perk is to reduce iterative or multiattack penalties with associated weapons; specific perks include things like Reflexive Toss for Master Thrown Weapons (threaten an area and make AoOs with thrown weapons) or Never Surrounded for Expert Dual Weapons (negate flanking bonuses while wielding two weapons).

Armor Proficiencies
These are by weight and material: Light Armor, Light Shields, Hide Armor, Scale Armor, Unarmored, etc. The general Expert perk is to increase AC by +1 and the general Master perk is to decrease ASF and effective armor weight for encumbrance; specific perks include things like Duck and Cover for Master Heavy Shields (take a move action to gain cover or improved cover) or Scorn Blows for Expert Heavy Armor (adds DR).

Because weapons and armor use a build-your-own system in conjunction to these rules, weapon and armor proficiencies are used to determine whether you can use common/rare/exotic armors and wield simple/martial/exotic weapons, and they also replace "boring" feats like Shield Specialization or Two-Weapon Defense.

Knowledge Proficiencies
These are by knowledge category: Outer Planes, Fey, Ancient History, Warfare, Commerce, etc. The general Expert perk is +5 to Knowledge checks in a sub-field like Outer Planes (Upper Planes) and the ability to take 10 on all such checks even under pressure and the general Master perk is +10 in a sub-sub-field like Outer Planes (Lower Planes [Gehenna]) and the ability to take 15 on those checks; specific perks include Art of War for Master Warfare (predict enemies' mass combat maneuvers) and Portal Hound for Expert Outer Planes (sense nearby portals and gain some idea of how to activate them).

Profession Proficiencies
These are by profession: Craftsman, Sailor, Barrister, Steward, Herbalist, etc. The general Expert perk is +5 to Profession checks in a sub-field like Craftsman (Blacksmithing) and the ability to roll Profession in place of other skill checks in a limited fashion (e.g. Expert Sailor could let you roll Profession instead of Climb to climb a ship's rigging, instead of Use Rope to tie up a ship, and so on) and the general Master perk is +10 in a sub-sub-field like Craftsman (Blacksmithing [Swords]) and a large reduction in the time required for relevant long-term tasks like crafting or researching things; specific perks include Common Language Families for Master Linguist (be able to speak and understand unknown languages at a basic level) and Pack Mule for Expert Laborer (increase encumbrance limits and reduce speed penalties for being encumbered).

Knowledge and profession proficiencies are used to replace Knowledge and Profession subskills in the core rules or to augment the skill tasks in the revised skill system posted earlier, and to replace "boring" feats like Skill Focus. The sub-field/sub-sub-field thing lets you have, say, a sage who's an expert on famous red dragons during the Third Suloise Dynasty or a blacksmith capable of reforging that broken legendary dwarven hammer without needing them to be ~12th level to let them reliably make DC 30 checks.

Region Proficiencies
These are by political region or natural region: Cormyr, The Sword Coast, North Underdark, The Sea of Swords, The Plane Of Fire, etc. Each rank gives you some knowledge of the area in all categories as a Knowledge proficiency one rank lower (so e.g. Basic Cormyr would give a Thayan the kind of common knowledge known by anyone who grew up in Cormyr, Expert Cormyr would give him Basic Politics, Basic Geography, Basic History, etc. knowledge strictly as it relates to Cormyr, and Master Cormyr would give him Expert Politics, Expert Geography, Expert History, etc. knowledge) and lets you speak some of the dominant languages of the region with varying levels of fluency (including things like local accents, handy for rogueish or diplomatic types).

Faction Proficiencies
These are by group: Cormyrean Nobility, Waterdeep Thieves Guild, Suel Arcanamachs, House Cannith, The Athar, etc. Each rank gives you some insider knowledge relevant to the faction in all categories as a Knowledge proficiency one rank lower, as Region proficiencies do, and gives you appropriate social benefits (and drawbacks) when your allegiance is known.

There are no specific perks for Region or Faction proficiencies, as they're very setting-specific and there are a bazillion regions and factions that would need to be filled out, but each rank gives a character a benefit of the player's choice from a short list of perks, including things like taking a regional feat after 1st level, meeting a race or affiliation PrC prereq despite not being that race or a member of that organization, gaining a big bonus to a certain Affiliation score, making a local contacts in a new area, and the like.

These proficiencies are used to address some rules quirks like "commoners can't make the Knowledge DC to identify a cow" or "this elf grew up in a forbidding forest but can't navigate it because the Survival DCs are too high," and to give mechanical weight to flavor/background things like an elf who grew up among dwarves or an orphan taken in by the Assassin's Guild so players and DMs don't have to have "But my character would know/have X!" conversations.


Each class and each race grants a fixed set weapon and armor proficiencies at the Basic level; (sub)races grant certain region proficiencies (often some fixed and some player-selectable from a certain) set, and (sub)classes grant fixed and selectable knowledge proficiencies. Characters can start with N profession and faction proficiencies of their choice (where N is higher if you start at higher levels). Multiple granted proficiencies stack to increase their rank, and each character gains bonus proficiency ranks like they gain bonus skill ranks from Int which may be spent to increase any proficiencies they like or to gain Basic proficiencies they weren't granted through their race or class.

For a very basic example, let's say elf grants Basic Swords and Basic Bows, fighter grants Basic proficiency with all weapon and armor proficiencies, wood elf lets you choose between Basic Dalelands and Basic High Forest, and fighter lets you choose between Basic History and Basic Warfare. A wood elf fighter would start with Expert Bows, Expert Swords, Basic High Forest, and Basic Warfare, and could pick any Profession or Faction proficiency desired; if the character has bonus proficiency ranks from Int, he could increase Expert Bows to Master Bows, increase Basic Warfare to Expert Warfare, or pick up, say, Basic Fey.

2) Adding a Downtime Training system for gaining capabilities between levels.

Whenever a character has at least 4 hours of downtime in a quiet and safe environment, they can spend time training to gain or improve all sorts of capabilities, both generic ones (gain skill ranks, gain feats, improve proficiencies, learn languages, retrain things, etc.) and class-specific ones (add spells known and spell slots, gain essentia and unlock chakra binds, etc.). The base unit of work is the "workday" (a continuous 8-hour period), and usually 1 workday = 8 hours of training but characters can roll Int and Con checks to train longer or more effectively to speed up the training and make more than one workday's worth of progress per day.

Training times for things are generally measured in weeks, with some modifiers like gaining ranks in cross-class skills taking more time and training with someone who already has the skill/feat/spell/etc. desired taking less time. There are of course limits in place so e.g. a wizard can't just gain more skill ranks than the rogue or more combat feats than the fighter through training, either hard limits like "you can only gain one extra domain through training" or soft limits like a cumulative increase in training time every time you choose the same option again.

This houserule has three major consequences. First, it gives noncasters and partial casters a lot of versatility and breadth that they would otherwise lack; given enough downtime, a fighter can train up more than one fighting style and avoid becoming a one-trick pony, a ranger can train up all sorts of Knowledge and Region proficiencies so he's as comfortable tracking dragons through the mountains as he is tracking drow through the Underdark or undead through the swamps, a shadowcaster can improve upon his painfully low number of mysteries per day, and so on.

Second, it leads to more organic or stress-free builds for players who don't like to spend time dumpster-diving. Figuring out just the right multiclass combination and feat selection to make it into your PrC on time is less pressing when you can pick up a lot of useless-except-for-meeting-prerequisites abilities during downtime. Otherwise-undesirable skills and feats are suddenly worth taking when a niche feat requires an investment of just 2-3 in-game weeks rather than 1 out of the only 7 feat slots you'll get in your entire career.

Third, it encourages taking breathers between adventures and adventuring days instead of going all-out all the time. If spending 4 hours per night for a month working on your swordplay around the campfire has tangible benefits, and there are mechanical incentives for the wizard and ranger to spend several weekends in the library while the rogue and bard go carousing through the city, the party is less likely to go from encounter to encounter to encounter and gain 10 levels in a month. This allows things to happen on a more sensible timescale (it's hard to do things like "the evil army is attacking when the snow melts in a month, time to training-montage the villagers into a standing militia" or "...and then you hop on a ship for the three-week voyage to the New World" when any downtime between adventures feels like wasted time) and encourages roleplaying during the breathers (the party spends time talking about what they're doing between adventuring days instead of just "okay, we sleep and prepare spells, on to day 2" so inter-character scenes tend to naturally follow).

Using the downtime system effectively does require avoiding an end-of-the-world plot with a short and fixed deadline, but when you can use it it works very well. In my current campaign, over two and a half in-game years have passed, with long enough stretches between offensives against (and counterattacks by) the three major antagonist factions that my party has had plenty of downtime to work with. They look forward to the long overland and sea voyages and the resulting training and roleplaying time; I can throw in encounters/plot hooks like "you've ticked off the Winter Court elves and they plan to interfere with the harvest next season" and "the Wild Hunt will ride on the winter solstice and you need to be prepared" and "the Alþthing meets in two months, you need to pick some representatives, gather some tribute, and set sail for the homeland soon"; the PCs can craft lots of magic items, ward the heck out of their settlement, train their followers in phalanx tactics, and so forth in relative comfort; and by this point I'm pretty sure the party fighter has more [Fighter] feats than the party wizard has spells known. Thanks to the slower in-game pace, the campaign has the kind of verisimilitude and emotional heft that the standard fast-paced "start off slaying goblins today, stop the world-eating BBEG next month" plotline lacks.

[Maat Mons]

I used to have to DM who would sometimes point to one of the players, and say a number. The first person to physically strike that player got an amount of bonus xp equal to the number stated. It was loads of fun... for everyone but Phil.