- Instead of "Meets it Beats/Fails" for AC for both monsters and players I do "Meets it halves it" so any damage done is halfed.
- If my party starts at Lvl 1 in a campaign I allow them to take either a feat (DM approved) or take a traditional ability score improvement on a skill that isn't already boosted by something else.
- If a player is being especially argumentative or making another player uncomfortable or just generally being disruptive to the game I'll roll on either the wild magic table or this other table I found and if i decide the punishment isn't to severe it'll happen to said player.
They recently took on a Lich and that was all good as he Counterspelled the Counterspell when he needed to, but that's not available for every caster!
I think if you've got counterspell being actively used in game, you suddenly have a lot of motivation to play games with vision, because counterspell requires vision (to be fair, obscuring vision is a really efficient way of hosing a wide variety of spells and a few monsters).
- I was thinking it would be fun to allow players a free feat, but it has to be tied to their backstory: a racial feat, something tied to their background thematically, or something justified by part of their written backstory. Ideally for picking up things like Athlete or Observant rather than Sharpshooter or Heavy Armor Master, but I would be flexible on it if they can justify it.
- I have been playing around with the idea for a sort of restriction on certain spells rather than an outright ban. The idea is that the spell is a kind of forbidden or exotic magic and is not available to you to learn/prepare unless you find a written record of the spell or an instructor who knows the spell. You dont need to spend any time or money (like a wizard who is just adding more spells to their spellbook) but you do have to wait to find something until you "unlock" it. Obviously, to be fair I would not give these spells to my enemies either unless I was also planning on having a written copy thrown into the loot pile for the players. Could also be fun for entire sets of spells if my players are down. Like allowing the party to find the dunamancy spells from Wildemount in a forgotten realms campaign or something.
-Allowing players to use a dagger for TWF even if their other weapon isnt Light. Probably some other buff to TWF, but not sure which one.
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1st) Bring back positioning having meaning again. In 5E, movement has almost no real utility. So I do some changes:
Every second diagonal movement counts as 10 feet
Position behind an attack makes them flatfooted and they lose their shield
If a character is in the back arc and a creature is in their front arc, they are flanked both parties get +1 to hit
Area of opportunity attacks is changed, it goes from your side arch to your front. Meaning if someone gets within 5' of your front and then moves to your rear arc and attack of opportunity is triggered.
2nd) Adjust bad feats
Sentinel is adjusted so that simple stops small, martial one hand stops medium and martial two hand stops large. If you use Enlarge/Shrink it adds one to stopping capability.
Great Weapon Master +10 damage no longer applies to the buttstock of Pole Arm Master
Durable also gives you a zombie type roll to stay up at 0 hit points usable two times per short rest
3rd) Death Rolls are made behind the DM's screen. It prevents the party from metagaming and it ensures that the players don't allow a player to sit out the entire combat because they know he'll make it with that nat 20 on his first death save.
1: Health potions are an action or a bonus action. If you use an action, you get the full HP. If you use a bonus action, you have to roll. Choose wisely!
2: If you want to use a spell differently to its exact wording (EG cast heat metal to heat a pot to cook food) then it's an arcana check (DMs discretion) and if you succeed then the spell not only works, but you've written a new spell which you know and can now cast normally.
1st) Bring back positioning having meaning again. In 5E, movement has almost no real utility. So I do some changes:
Every second diagonal movement counts as 10 feet
Position behind an attack makes them flatfooted and they lose their shield
If a character is in the back arc and a creature is in their front arc, they are flanked both parties get +1 to hit
Area of opportunity attacks is changed, it goes from your side arch to your front. Meaning if someone gets within 5' of your front and then moves to your rear arc and attack of opportunity is triggered.
2nd) Adjust bad feats
Sentinel is adjusted so that simple stops small, martial one hand stops medium and martial two hand stops large. If you use Enlarge/Shrink it adds one to stopping capability.
Great Weapon Master +10 damage no longer applies to the buttstock of Pole Arm Master
Durable also gives you a zombie type roll to stay up at 0 hit points usable two times per short rest
3rd) Death Rolls are made behind the DM's screen. It prevents the party from metagaming and it ensures that the players don't allow a player to sit out the entire combat because they know he'll make it with that nat 20 on his first death save.
1) Have you tried the optional Flanking rules from the DMG? If a creature is flanked on 2 sides the attackers have advantage. I personally find this is way too powerful.
Positioning should have meaning though. Line of sight and distance should really matter. In two fights from our last session my PCs were diving in and out from behind cover against a monster that launched one ranged attack at every creature in sight every turn, and in another a Lich had to Dimension Door (basically wasting its action) because the PCs outranged it.
3) Ouch. I'd talk this one through with your players first to make sure they're ok with it.
At Character creation it is Standard Array + one Feat;
Potions and Elixirs can be consumed as a Bonus Action;
Roll for lingering injuries when you a PC drop to 0 hit points
(1) is because I like to see a range of abilities (not just 8 for all dump stats), I think a free feat allows a character to develop a playstyle early on. (2) Is a personal pain from when I play an Alchemist. (3) is to try and prevent spells like Healing Word being used to bring someone back every round without repercussions.
At Character creation it is Standard Array + one Feat;
Potions and Elixirs can be consumed as a Bonus Action;
Roll for lingering injuries when you a PC drop to 0 hit points
(1) is because I like to see a range of abilities (not just 8 for all dump stats), I think a free feat allows a character to develop a playstyle early on. (2) Is a personal pain from when I play an Alchemist. (3) is to try and prevent spells like Healing Word being used to bring someone back every round without repercussions.
Worth noting for (3) that Healing Word Whack-A-Mole still becomes a problem at higher levels. I have used lingering injuries from level 1 onwards (the barbarian managed to get the worst injury - brain damage - twice) but everything is curable via Greater Restoration, and if it's not then it's going to cause some unresolvable issues that will effectively end the character. Once the party have access to GR, lingering injuries don't do much. Making Death Saving Throw fails reset only on a rest (I am now using 1 resets on a short rest, 2 on a long rest) will make bouncing up and down less problematic.
1st) Bring back positioning having meaning again. In 5E, movement has almost no real utility. So I do some changes:
Every second diagonal movement counts as 10 feet
Position behind an attack makes them flatfooted and they lose their shield
If a character is in the back arc and a creature is in their front arc, they are flanked both parties get +1 to hit
Area of opportunity attacks is changed, it goes from your side arch to your front. Meaning if someone gets within 5' of your front and then moves to your rear arc and attack of opportunity is triggered.
2nd) Adjust bad feats
Sentinel is adjusted so that simple stops small, martial one hand stops medium and martial two hand stops large. If you use Enlarge/Shrink it adds one to stopping capability.
Great Weapon Master +10 damage no longer applies to the buttstock of Pole Arm Master
Durable also gives you a zombie type roll to stay up at 0 hit points usable two times per short rest
3rd) Death Rolls are made behind the DM's screen. It prevents the party from metagaming and it ensures that the players don't allow a player to sit out the entire combat because they know he'll make it with that nat 20 on his first death save.
Most of the 1) are available in the DMG as optional rules:
1st) Bring back positioning having meaning again. In 5E, movement has almost no real utility. So I do some changes:
Every second diagonal movement counts as 10 feet
Position behind an attack makes them flatfooted and they lose their shield
If a character is in the back arc and a creature is in their front arc, they are flanked both parties get +1 to hit
Area of opportunity attacks is changed, it goes from your side arch to your front. Meaning if someone gets within 5' of your front and then moves to your rear arc and attack of opportunity is triggered.
2nd) Adjust bad feats
Sentinel is adjusted so that simple stops small, martial one hand stops medium and martial two hand stops large. If you use Enlarge/Shrink it adds one to stopping capability.
Great Weapon Master +10 damage no longer applies to the buttstock of Pole Arm Master
Durable also gives you a zombie type roll to stay up at 0 hit points usable two times per short rest
3rd) Death Rolls are made behind the DM's screen. It prevents the party from metagaming and it ensures that the players don't allow a player to sit out the entire combat because they know he'll make it with that nat 20 on his first death save.
1) Have you tried the optional Flanking rules from the DMG? If a creature is flanked on 2 sides the attackers have advantage. I personally find this is way too powerful.
Positioning should have meaning though. Line of sight and distance should really matter. In two fights from our last session my PCs were diving in and out from behind cover against a monster that launched one ranged attack at every creature in sight every turn, and in another a Lich had to Dimension Door (basically wasting its action) because the PCs outranged it.
3) Ouch. I'd talk this one through with your players first to make sure they're ok with it.
Advantage on average is a +4.25 to a to hit roll, its really high. I don't like putting it in that much to the game. I like doing smaller changes when it comes to combat rolls. Once you break level 12 in 5E, CR isn't relevant, and making the too hit that much better is going to probably lower it down to level 10 when CR becomes irrelevant, but that's my opinion.
Where do you get that number? Over the 5-95% chance of success range, assuming all difficulties are equally represented, advantage increases the average chance of success from 50% to 67.5% (+3.5).
Where do you get that number? Over the 5-95% chance of success range, assuming all difficulties are equally represented, advantage increases the average chance of success from 50% to 67.5% (+3.5).
If the baseline is 50% of success, advantage brings the number to 75% - +5.
The math to roll equal or above any given number with advantage/disadvantage:
Where do you get that number? Over the 5-95% chance of success range, assuming all difficulties are equally represented, advantage increases the average chance of success from 50% to 67.5% (+3.5).
If the baseline is 50% of success, advantage brings the number to 75% - +5.
The math to roll equal or above any given number with advantage/disadvantage:
Where do you get that number? Over the 5-95% chance of success range, assuming all difficulties are equally represented, advantage increases the average chance of success from 50% to 67.5% (+3.5).
If the baseline is 50% of success, advantage brings the number to 75% - +5.
The math to roll equal or above any given number with advantage/disadvantage:
Yes, but how did you get 4.25 out of that table?
It was not me, Portential used that number, I am just sharing the math. For the average to be +4.25, the baseline of success needs to be 30.7%~.
I think you guys are just using the wrong numbers. Dunno.
Where do you get that number? Over the 5-95% chance of success range, assuming all difficulties are equally represented, advantage increases the average chance of success from 50% to 67.5% (+3.5).
If the baseline is 50% of success, advantage brings the number to 75% - +5.
The math to roll equal or above any given number with advantage/disadvantage:
Yes, but how did you get 4.25 out of that table?
It was not me, Portential used that number, I am just sharing the math. For the average to be +4.25, the baseline of success needs to be 30.7%~.
I think you guys are just using the wrong numbers. Dunno.
If you do the diff of the sum of adv - norm = about 3.326 difference between the two methods.
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- Instead of "Meets it Beats/Fails" for AC for both monsters and players I do "Meets it halves it" so any damage done is halfed.
- If my party starts at Lvl 1 in a campaign I allow them to take either a feat (DM approved) or take a traditional ability score improvement on a skill that isn't already boosted by something else.
- If a player is being especially argumentative or making another player uncomfortable or just generally being disruptive to the game I'll roll on either the wild magic table or this other table I found and if i decide the punishment isn't to severe it'll happen to said player.
I think if you've got counterspell being actively used in game, you suddenly have a lot of motivation to play games with vision, because counterspell requires vision (to be fair, obscuring vision is a really efficient way of hosing a wide variety of spells and a few monsters).
- I was thinking it would be fun to allow players a free feat, but it has to be tied to their backstory: a racial feat, something tied to their background thematically, or something justified by part of their written backstory. Ideally for picking up things like Athlete or Observant rather than Sharpshooter or Heavy Armor Master, but I would be flexible on it if they can justify it.
- I have been playing around with the idea for a sort of restriction on certain spells rather than an outright ban. The idea is that the spell is a kind of forbidden or exotic magic and is not available to you to learn/prepare unless you find a written record of the spell or an instructor who knows the spell. You dont need to spend any time or money (like a wizard who is just adding more spells to their spellbook) but you do have to wait to find something until you "unlock" it. Obviously, to be fair I would not give these spells to my enemies either unless I was also planning on having a written copy thrown into the loot pile for the players. Could also be fun for entire sets of spells if my players are down. Like allowing the party to find the dunamancy spells from Wildemount in a forgotten realms campaign or something.
-Allowing players to use a dagger for TWF even if their other weapon isnt Light. Probably some other buff to TWF, but not sure which one.
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
Re-imagining unpopular subclasses as part of FIFY WotC. Let us know what you think of our changes!
As a house rule, I allow players to use a rapier and a dagger in combination. In part this is because we all train rapier and dagger together.
Three rule changes that I use:
1st) Bring back positioning having meaning again. In 5E, movement has almost no real utility. So I do some changes:
2nd) Adjust bad feats
3rd) Death Rolls are made behind the DM's screen. It prevents the party from metagaming and it ensures that the players don't allow a player to sit out the entire combat because they know he'll make it with that nat 20 on his first death save.
I very much like these.
1) Have you tried the optional Flanking rules from the DMG? If a creature is flanked on 2 sides the attackers have advantage. I personally find this is way too powerful.
Positioning should have meaning though. Line of sight and distance should really matter. In two fights from our last session my PCs were diving in and out from behind cover against a monster that launched one ranged attack at every creature in sight every turn, and in another a Lich had to Dimension Door (basically wasting its action) because the PCs outranged it.
3) Ouch. I'd talk this one through with your players first to make sure they're ok with it.
(1) is because I like to see a range of abilities (not just 8 for all dump stats), I think a free feat allows a character to develop a playstyle early on. (2) Is a personal pain from when I play an Alchemist. (3) is to try and prevent spells like Healing Word being used to bring someone back every round without repercussions.
Worth noting for (3) that Healing Word Whack-A-Mole still becomes a problem at higher levels. I have used lingering injuries from level 1 onwards (the barbarian managed to get the worst injury - brain damage - twice) but everything is curable via Greater Restoration, and if it's not then it's going to cause some unresolvable issues that will effectively end the character. Once the party have access to GR, lingering injuries don't do much. Making Death Saving Throw fails reset only on a rest (I am now using 1 resets on a short rest, 2 on a long rest) will make bouncing up and down less problematic.
Most of the 1) are available in the DMG as optional rules:
Optional Rule: Flanking (https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dmg/running-the-game#OptionalRuleFlanking)
Optional Rule: Facing (https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dmg/running-the-game#OptionalRuleFacing)
Optional Rule: Diagonals (https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dmg/running-the-game#OptionalRuleDiagonals)
Although flanking is powerful, it cuts both ways as you can be flanked as well. It's simpler than I'd like but I really don't want to get into facing.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
Advantage on average is a +4.25 to a to hit roll, its really high. I don't like putting it in that much to the game. I like doing smaller changes when it comes to combat rolls. Once you break level 12 in 5E, CR isn't relevant, and making the too hit that much better is going to probably lower it down to level 10 when CR becomes irrelevant, but that's my opinion.
Where do you get that number? Over the 5-95% chance of success range, assuming all difficulties are equally represented, advantage increases the average chance of success from 50% to 67.5% (+3.5).
If the baseline is 50% of success, advantage brings the number to 75% - +5.
The math to roll equal or above any given number with advantage/disadvantage:
Yes, but how did you get 4.25 out of that table?
It was not me, Portential used that number, I am just sharing the math. For the average to be +4.25, the baseline of success needs to be 30.7%~.
I think you guys are just using the wrong numbers. Dunno.
It's not crazy to say that average hit chance is expected to be 70% (91% with advantage), but that works out as +4.2.
If you do the diff of the sum of adv - norm = about 3.326 difference between the two methods.