House rules, what has worked for you

[Arcturus]

Not for every campaign, but this is a really interesting one if you want to up the sense of danger in combat.

Hidden HP
The players track damage taken instead of HP remaining. Secretly determine each character’s HP every day by rolling their hit dice (max HP for level 1 as usual).

You might give them a hint as to unusually low or high results by telling them something like “you are feeling a bit under the weather today” or “you wake up feeling bright eyed and bushy tailed!”

Should also give the same sorts of hints as you would for monsters as they fall lower and lower: “you are able to shrug off the blow” or “you are feeling really rough.”

[snickersnax]

All Sorcerer's get Subtle Spell on sorcerer spells as a free metamagic and it doesn't cost sorcery points. This creates the flavor distinction that I want between sorcerers and other spell caster. Other casters are using words and gestures, sorcerers just make the magic happen. If they learn some other class way of doing magic the subtle spell doesn't apply to those spells. Also Sorcerers use spell point variant.

[KyleG]

All Sorcerer's get Subtle Spell on sorcerer spells as a free metamagic and it doesn't cost sorcery points. This creates the flavor distinction that I want between sorcerers and other spell caster. Other casters are using words and gestures, sorcerers just make the magic happen. If they learn some other class way of doing magic the subtle spell doesn't apply to those spells. Also Sorcerers use spell point variant.

Isn't that quite a buff, I like it but I'd probably limit it in some way, like a check to see if you could hide your gestures. Sleight of hand perhaps, performance If they were hiding their movements with other movements perhaps.

[MrStabby]

I house rule that you can eat three meals per day corresponding to rests. Two short rests and one long rest. The long rest must be taken by everyone at the same time but you can break out a snack as an individual whenever you want to.

I run a slight variant initiative system for those entering combat:
1) Keep the initiative scores rolled at the start
2) Is another enemy (or PC) joints the combat and is seen by hostiles, they don't go immediately.
3) Roll their initiative
4) See, in the initiative order how many enemies (that are still surviving) would be ahead of that rolled number
5) Count through hostiles from the current place in initiative order a number of places equal to enemies with higher initiative
6) Add the newcomers to initiative order here, this may involve looping to the top of initiative
7) Proceed as normal

This means that if you are in a fight, someone in the next room hears you and opens the door to fireball the party some of the PCs are likely to get a chance to respond.

[cullynthedwarf]

So, wow. Really some neat stuff in here. I am more interested in the narrative and acting aspects of the hoby, but gladly take it with a side-order of structured play and action following rules. I had not hought about the "hindsite-inspiration", but I am totally gonna steal that. I use a house rule did I did not see anyon else mention. I might have missed it.

Something I had seen but this is a RP thing rather than a house rule is the camp fire rule used sparingly it can help your players flesh out there characters, when your PCs break for the night after the watches are assigned and food prepped you roll a dX x is as close to the number of players. The player roled asked a question of one person from the table. That asked most answer it. Points for creativity are of course encouraged. Read the room though, if they group is just anxious to get to the next part then hold campfire stories in reserve.

[DarknessEternal]

Short rest takes only one minute. You can only take two total short rests per long rest.

The game functionally balances it’s short rest effects on its stated goal of 6 to 8 encounters per day with two short rests.

But no adventure they’ve ever published, nor any gaming I’ve witnessed (which is a thing now with streaming/tubing) ever makes an allotment for two separate hour long breaks where the pc’s can do nothing, not even walk.

I’m not convinced anything else is a systemic problem enough to be houseruled at this time.

[snickersnax]

Isn't that quite a buff, I like it but I'd probably limit it in some way, like a check to see if you could hide your gestures. Sleight of hand perhaps, performance If they were hiding their movements with other movements perhaps.

Sleight of hand is what other casters do to hide gestures. Sorcerer's don't have any in this house rule.

[Damon_Tor]

Not really a "houserule" but once a fight is clearly going one way or another NPCs will usually attempt to surrender or flee, or else will demand the surrender of the PCs. Depending on the encounter, this could take place after just a single round of combat if it's clear who is outmatching who. It would be terrible to have to slog through all the hitpoints every fight.

[etrpgb]

If your character dies at the end of the encounter you can go back to 0 hit points, BUT with a lingering injury. (The DMG table was actually changed a bit, but that is the idea)

[cullynthedwarf]

If your character dies at the end of the encounter you can go back to 0 hit points, BUT with a lingering injury. (The DMG table was actually changed a bit, but that is the idea)

I like the idea of this put I can see it becoming damping quickly. Is you died and are brought back at the end of combat but now have a hideous scar, that scar drops your CHA by X or makes it so you have permanent disadvantage in some area. OR the scarring is a big knot and your muscles don't bend right any more. This results in permanent disadvantage on DEX or a minus to your score.

Now the next fight its even harder to get through with this disadvantage and you die again. Now you have even more disadvantage or a bigger negative.

Like I said it sounds good but I think it would ultimately lead to players being upset in the long run.

But that's just my opinion and I could be wrong

[etrpgb]

I like the idea of this put I can see it becoming damping quickly. Is you died and are brought back at the end of combat but now have a hideous scar, that scar drops your CHA by X or makes it so you have permanent disadvantage in some area. OR the scarring is a big knot and your muscles don't bend right any more. This results in permanent disadvantage on DEX or a minus to your score.

Now the next fight its even harder to get through with this disadvantage and you die again. Now you have even more disadvantage or a bigger negative.

Like I said it sounds good but I think it would ultimately lead to players being upset in the long run.

But that's just my opinion and I could be wrong

I think you missed the keyword "can" in the new rule. Nobody stops your for roiling a new character if you prefer.

Edit: perhaps to explain a bit more how the DM changed the table is a good idea. The new table was similar to the one in the DMG at page 272, but we weaken effects that would make the character heavily non functional (like lose an arm or a foot) and mainly kept disadvantages in some checks.
Since it is meant to help survivability in low level game (at high level "regenerate" basically solves everything and resurrection is very common anyways) quite few players actually liked it. I clearly remember a Fighter that got a terrible scar; when the player smelled he was going to make checks with disadvantage for his deformity he always said something on the lines "I lost an eye in the battle!"

On the other hand, if the die actually hits your character so hard to make it really ineffective... you can just roll another one as earliest convenience and make him retire. "I used to be an adventurer like you, then I took an arrow in the knee."

[cullynthedwarf]

I think you missed the keyword "can" in the new rule. Nobody stops your for roiling a new character if you prefer.

Edit: perhaps to explain a bit more how the DM changed the table is a good idea. The new table was similar to the one in the DMG at page 272, but we weaken effects that would make the character heavily non functional (like lose an arm or a foot) and mainly kept disadvantages in some checks.
Since it is meant to help survivability in low level game (at high level "regenerate" basically solves everything and resurrection is very common anyways) quite few players actually liked it. I clearly remember a Fighter that got a terrible scar; when the player smelled he was going to make checks with disadvantage for his deformity he always said something on the lines "I lost an eye in the battle!"

On the other hand, if the die actually hits your character so hard to make it really ineffective... you can just roll another one as earliest convenience and make him retire. "I used to be an adventurer like you, then I took an arrow in the knee."

I didn't realize this was from the book, thought this was home brewed and most home brewed lists tend toward the painfully imbalanced which is what I was worried about.

[Trask]

- I roll initiative for monster groups, so 5 orcs will roll initiative once for all of them, and their human wizard master will roll initiative for himself.
- You can use your opportunity attack to grapple or shove
- You lose your Dex bonus to AC when unconscious, incapacitated, paralyzed, stunned, or restrained. I think this helps balance dexterity to strength, especially since i dont usually use feats and GWM or PAM doesnt exist.
- When you are grappling a creature you can attempt another grapple check if you have both hands free and cause it to be restrained and reduce your own speed to 0.
- You have advantage to grapple or shove any creatures smaller than you, and disadvantage to grapple or shove and creatures larger than you
- You always have advantage to hit creatures smaller than your mount with melee attacks while mounted
- Two weapon fighting: When you take the Attack action with a light melee weapon, you may make an equal number of attacks at disadvantage with a light melee weapon you are wielding in your other hand. However, you may not add your Strength or Dexterity modifier to the attack rolls made by the offhand weapon.

[crayzz]

- I roll initiative for monster groups, so 5 orcs will roll initiative once for all of them, and their human wizard master will roll initiative for himself.
- You can use your opportunity attack to grapple or shove
- You lose your Dex bonus to AC when unconscious, incapacitated, paralyzed, stunned, or restrained. I think this helps balance dexterity to strength, especially since i dont usually use feats and GWM or PAM doesnt exist.
- When you are grappling a creature you can attempt another grapple check if you have both hands free and cause it to be restrained and reduce your own speed to 0.
- You have advantage to grapple or shove any creatures smaller than you, and disadvantage to grapple or shove and creatures larger than you
- You always have advantage to hit creatures smaller than your mount with melee attacks while mounted
- Two weapon fighting: When you take the Attack action with a light melee weapon, you may make an equal number of attacks at disadvantage with a light melee weapon you are wielding in your other hand. However, you may not add your Strength or Dexterity modifier to the attack rolls made by the offhand weapon.

That first one is RAW.

Whenever I hear people complaining that they dont want to have more fights per day (usually suggested as a balancing fix against PCs unloading all their abilities in a single fight each day) because fights take too long, I wonder how much of that is just because the GM isnt using simple things like this that make the fights much faster.

Though I would suggest breaking up particularly large groups of enemies into subgroups. 1.5×#PCs makes a good max group size imo e.g. if you have 4 PCs, break that group of 12 goblins into 2 groups of 6.

[Trask]

That first one is RAW.

Wait really? I never knew for all this time. Probably because every group I started playing with always rolled it individually and so I never bothered to check

[crayzz]

Wait really? I never knew for all this time. Probably because every group I started playing with always rolled it individually and so I never bothered to check

Everyone seems to. I do it too when I DM most of the time, but I usually prefer 2 or 3 strong enemies to large groups.

But it's a life saver if you have a dozen mobs mixed in with the real threats. "Every goblin and kobold gets their own initiative and turn" grinds the game to a halt.

[blackjack50]

Shared food is shared. But still. Ask permission before eating or drinking anything.

Alcohol is encouraged.

Lol

Oh! You meant in game?

Oh. Um. Nothing consequential.

[TheUser]

Finesse Bows e.g. you can use strength for + to hit and damage instead of dex for a bow.
Works for emersion (draw strength is huge for bows and being stronger means more penetration and steadier aim) and gives strength based characters a solid ranged option.

[Reevh]

That first one is RAW.

Whenever I hear people complaining that they dont want to have more fights per day (usually suggested as a balancing fix against PCs unloading all their abilities in a single fight each day) because fights take too long, I wonder how much of that is just because the GM isnt using simple things like this that make the fights much faster.

Heh, my DM was complaining the other day that if he throws several "normal" encounters at us per day to try to soften us up, we end up spending no resources and murdalizing the fight. So he ends up having multiple 2-5x deadly encounters per day instead, and as a result of that, in every encounter, there's a higher than normal chance that one of us dies. Since rolling up my new character (after my last one's skull was crushed by a Duergar), he has gone unconscious in 7 out of the 8 encounters we've had thus far, and in the 8th, he was down to 3 hit points.

[Zhorn]

When rolling for HP on level up; 1's are treated as the die's average for your class.

Floor dice don't count.

When rolling multiple dice, if order is important; order is highest to lowest.

TWF (baseline) and Frenzy (Berserker Barbarian), at level 11 you can make 2 bonus action attacks instead of 1.

Frenzy (Berserker Barbarian), exhaustion levels caused by using this feature are "Temporary Exhaustion", and fully clear all stacks on a long rest.

Attempting a non-lethal attack is a 1d4 bludgeoning damage attack with the melee weapon. Crits are never non-lethal.

[Whit]

Weapon critical failure.
Rolling a 1 critical failure. Roll again
1-5 weapon breaks 6-10 weapon drops 11-> nothing. Magic items break on 1/1
This gives some laughs and “oh,oh” or cheers when a player or villain breaks, drops a weapon.

[JNAProductions]

Weapon critical failure.
Rolling a 1 critical failure. Roll again
1-5 weapon breaks 6-10 weapon drops 11-> nothing. Magic items break on 1/1
This gives some laughs and “oh,oh” or cheers when a player or villain breaks, drops a weapon.

Because feth martial characters, right? While there's not some vast divide like there was in 3rd, this still punishes a select group of people and leaves others untouched.

[PhantomSoul]

Weapon critical failure.
Rolling a 1 critical failure. Roll again
1-5 weapon breaks 6-10 weapon drops 11-> nothing. Magic items break on 1/1
This gives some laughs and “oh,oh” or cheers when a player or villain breaks, drops a weapon.

Out of curiosity, what levels do you play and is there a counterpart for spellcasting?

[Kane0]

When rolling for HP on level up; 1's are treated as the die's average for your class.

Floor dice don't count.

If you can't hit the table, you can't hit the target.

[airless_wing]

Any player, Before they make an attack with a weapon that they are proficient with, can choose to take a penalty equal to their proficiency bonus to the attack roll. If the attack hits, they add double their proficiency bonus to the attack's damage.
It basically gives everyone a chance to have a well-rounded SS/GWM option, that isnt as powerful as those feats at lower levels.

[Theodoxus]

Weapon critical failure.
Rolling a 1 critical failure. Roll again
1-5 weapon breaks 6-10 weapon drops 11-> nothing. Magic items break on 1/1
This gives some laughs and “oh,oh” or cheers when a player or villain breaks, drops a weapon.

Because feth martial characters, right? While there's not some vast divide like there was in 3rd, this still punishes a select group of people and leaves others untouched.

Halflings, halflings everywhere! I don't play well with critical fumbles...

[DarknessEternal]

Weapon critical failure.
Rolling a 1 critical failure. Roll again
1-5 weapon breaks 6-10 weapon drops 11-> nothing. Magic items break on 1/1
This gives some laughs and “oh,oh” or cheers when a player or villain breaks, drops a weapon.

On A 20 to save against an offensive spell, does the offender lose all of their spell slots half the time?

Critical fumbles of this type are preposterous.

[Hail Tempus]

On A 20 to save against an offensive spell, does the offender lose all of their spell slots half the time?

Critical fumbles of this type are preposterous.

With critical fumble rules, a 20th level fighter is much more likely to break his weapon/injure himself or whatever than a first level wizard with a Strength of 8 swinging a greatsword. As you roll more D20's, you get more chances to screw up.

Basically, critical fumble rules mean that as you gain martial prowess, you also become more likely to hurt yourself with your weapon. That makes no sense. And no one ever thinks to institute a similar system for spellcasters.

[Odessa333]

I've seen several of these work well (flanking, fast potion drinking, etc) though I think the most....unique? rule I've seen was using a system of pun points. You make a joke terrible enough to elicit a laugh/moan/sigh/etc you get a point, and can use them to get boosts from inspiration to a free feat if you save up enough. It sounds bizarre I know, but in the few times I've seen it in play, the players love it, and keep trying to outdo each other with puns.

[etrpgb]

Used only once, but I still think is a good idea. Wisdom-based initiative. The master that suggested it said it was based on the idea that the initiative was more about being quick thinking and having good insight than with a good coordination, but also admitting it was mainly to reduce the "god-stat" status of Dexterity.