Honestly, I might swap it out that ranged attacks have disadvantage if fired at a target within 5ft, and that if you do finish your turn without attacking a creature within 5ft. of you, it gets an opportunity attack.
Makes a swarm of kobolds actually threatening if you get swarmed, like it should!
Sure, that will definitely make hordes more dangerous (and make the PCs more dangerous when they have a numbers advantage). I would definitely think about whether you need to adjust spells and abilities that bring lots of critters to the fight, especially literal swarms that can stack up in the same spot. Don't be surprised if your PCs start focusing on mobility and area-of-effect abilities over traditional defense and single-target attacks. That's not a bad thing, just what I'd expect to see them do.
Honestly, I might swap it out that ranged attacks have disadvantage if fired at a target within 5ft, and that if you do finish your turn without attacking a creature within 5ft. of you, it gets an opportunity attack.
Makes a swarm of kobolds actually threatening if you get swarmed, like it should!
Sure, that will definitely make hordes more dangerous (and make the PCs more dangerous when they have a numbers advantage). I would definitely think about whether you need to adjust spells and abilities that bring lots of critters to the fight, especially literal swarms that can stack up in the same spot. Don't be surprised if your PCs start focusing on mobility and area-of-effect abilities over traditional defense and single-target attacks. That's not a bad thing, just what I'd expect to see them do.
Good point, in my last game the druid summoned 16 giant wolf spiders!
but then, a big swarm of spiders should be powerful, really. One fireball or other AOE will generally wipe them out.
Not only does it make hordes actually scary, but it stops you standing next to someone and shooting an arrow at someone else whilst they wait patiently
That last example is already represented by disadvantage on the attack (any hostile in melee range causes all ranged weapon attacks to be made at disadvantage). Doesn't seem ideal to double up on penalties.
Honestly, I might swap it out that ranged attacks have disadvantage if fired at a target within 5ft, and that if you do finish your turn without attacking a creature within 5ft. of you, it gets an opportunity attack.
Makes a swarm of kobolds actually threatening if you get swarmed, like it should!
Personally, I find that the disadvantage on ALL ranged attacks caused by having an opponent within 5' (which is RAW - unless a character has the crossbow expert feat) does tend to discourage the use of ranged weapons when an enemy is adjacent. Most characters pull out a melee weapon or take an opportunity attack when moving away so that they can use their ranged attack without disadvantage.
However, your suggestion of giving every creature within 5' an opportunity attack if the character doesn't attack them is really brutal since it will (in the case of kobolds) almost double the number of attacks they take each turn if they outnumber the opponents. It will make ANY 2:1 or worse situation much more dangerous and since front liners are often outnumbered, the melee characters will die much faster and no one will want to play a melee character in that game world.
Anyway, personally, I don't think it would be a good house rule.
Not only does it make hordes actually scary, but it stops you standing next to someone and shooting an arrow at someone else whilst they wait patiently
That last example is already represented by disadvantage on the attack (any hostile in melee range causes all ranged weapon attacks to be made at disadvantage). Doesn't seem ideal to double up on penalties.
Honestly, I might swap it out that ranged attacks have disadvantage if fired at a target within 5ft, and that if you do finish your turn without attacking a creature within 5ft. of you, it gets an opportunity attack.
Makes a swarm of kobolds actually threatening if you get swarmed, like it should!
Personally, I find that the disadvantage on ALL ranged attacks caused by having an opponent within 5' (which is RAW - unless a character has the crossbow expert feat) does tend to discourage the use of ranged weapons when an enemy is adjacent. Most characters pull out a melee weapon or take an opportunity attack when moving away so that they can use their ranged attack without disadvantage.
However, your suggestion of giving every creature within 5' an opportunity attack if the character doesn't attack them is really brutal since it will (in the case of kobolds) almost double the number of attacks they take each turn if they outnumber the opponents. It will make ANY 2:1 or worse situation much more dangerous and since front liners are often outnumbered, the melee characters will die much faster and no one will want to play a melee character in that game world.
Anyway, personally, I don't think it would be a good house rule.
I see what you're saying, but it's also worth noting that 2:1 is only an issue until that 1 has 2 attacks. If someone has multiattack and 2 weapons (a common tactic) then they have 3 attacks, which logically implies that they can fight 3 enemies at once safely.
I agree that the implications make for more danger (can't focus on one target whilst in combat with more than one without getting attacked), and would only use it in a campaign from the start - no way I'm introducing this rule this far in! Definitely considering it as a grittier houserule.
If you roll a 1 on a critical, you can reroll that die one time. Any subsequent 1s rolled become '2'.
Beasts that IRL have strong sense of smell or hearing all have advantage on perception checks with that particular sense whether or not the PHB says so. See Boar, for example.
Bonus action to drink a potion, but an action to feed a potion to someone else.
No feats that do damage and have the word "Master" in them until at least 6th level. The same goes for Sharpshooter.
Inspiration must be used before the end of the next long rest.
Creatures without organs or whose anatomy has no apparent weak spot cannot crit-ed. This applies to animated objects, most plants, oozes, and certain aberrations and undead.
A non-dead creature brought back to positive hit points rolls a CON save, starting at DC 8. Each successive "revival" before a long rest increase that DC by 4. A failed CON save results in that PC gaining 1 level of Exhaustion.
Less of a common sense homebrew, but I'm introducing the following to my games in order to make relatively weak creatures that usually attack in large numbers useful in combat (such as Giant Ants or Kobolds):
"If 3 or more creatures are attempting to grapple the same creature during a given round, each third and subsequent attacking creatures get advantage on their STR (Athletics) check to attempt the grapple. During the contested check to escape a grapple by 3 or more creatures, the grappled creature has disadvantage if it is prone."
When my players roll for their character stats, they'll roll per norm. However, should they have a result that they'd just not rather have, I'll allow a re-roll on the stat, but their character has to take on an additional negative trait. (Afraid of Spiders, bad hygene, suffers severe acne etc). Nothing game breaking...but something that could come back and affect their character later on.
The compromise worked well...and was a good contrast against one player who mentioned their previous DM allowed them to roll for each stat four times picking the highest roll result for each stat...no friggin way.
Instead of only using advantage/disadvantage for rolls, award + or - 1d4 to 1d12.
This just gives the DM more control over how much of a bonus to give and allows you to award smaller bonuses or bonuses to rolls they PC already has advantage on for good RP, or other clever things you players might come up with that should give me a boost to their roll.
For me, the biggest common sense homebrew rule I've implemented is my long rest variant. It doesn't matter which one you use, as long as it enables the DM to better deliver a proper adventuring day.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Sure, that will definitely make hordes more dangerous (and make the PCs more dangerous when they have a numbers advantage). I would definitely think about whether you need to adjust spells and abilities that bring lots of critters to the fight, especially literal swarms that can stack up in the same spot. Don't be surprised if your PCs start focusing on mobility and area-of-effect abilities over traditional defense and single-target attacks. That's not a bad thing, just what I'd expect to see them do.
Good point, in my last game the druid summoned 16 giant wolf spiders!
but then, a big swarm of spiders should be powerful, really. One fireball or other AOE will generally wipe them out.
I will ponder this...
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
Personally, I find that the disadvantage on ALL ranged attacks caused by having an opponent within 5' (which is RAW - unless a character has the crossbow expert feat) does tend to discourage the use of ranged weapons when an enemy is adjacent. Most characters pull out a melee weapon or take an opportunity attack when moving away so that they can use their ranged attack without disadvantage.
However, your suggestion of giving every creature within 5' an opportunity attack if the character doesn't attack them is really brutal since it will (in the case of kobolds) almost double the number of attacks they take each turn if they outnumber the opponents. It will make ANY 2:1 or worse situation much more dangerous and since front liners are often outnumbered, the melee characters will die much faster and no one will want to play a melee character in that game world.
Anyway, personally, I don't think it would be a good house rule.
I see what you're saying, but it's also worth noting that 2:1 is only an issue until that 1 has 2 attacks. If someone has multiattack and 2 weapons (a common tactic) then they have 3 attacks, which logically implies that they can fight 3 enemies at once safely.
I agree that the implications make for more danger (can't focus on one target whilst in combat with more than one without getting attacked), and would only use it in a campaign from the start - no way I'm introducing this rule this far in! Definitely considering it as a grittier houserule.
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
If you roll a 1 on a critical, you can reroll that die one time. Any subsequent 1s rolled become '2'.
Beasts that IRL have strong sense of smell or hearing all have advantage on perception checks with that particular sense whether or not the PHB says so. See Boar, for example.
Bonus action to drink a potion, but an action to feed a potion to someone else.
No feats that do damage and have the word "Master" in them until at least 6th level. The same goes for Sharpshooter.
Inspiration must be used before the end of the next long rest.
Creatures without organs or whose anatomy has no apparent weak spot cannot crit-ed. This applies to animated objects, most plants, oozes, and certain aberrations and undead.
A non-dead creature brought back to positive hit points rolls a CON save, starting at DC 8. Each successive "revival" before a long rest increase that DC by 4. A failed CON save results in that PC gaining 1 level of Exhaustion.
Less of a common sense homebrew, but I'm introducing the following to my games in order to make relatively weak creatures that usually attack in large numbers useful in combat (such as Giant Ants or Kobolds):
"If 3 or more creatures are attempting to grapple the same creature during a given round, each third and subsequent attacking creatures get advantage on their STR (Athletics) check to attempt the grapple. During the contested check to escape a grapple by 3 or more creatures, the grappled creature has disadvantage if it is prone."
In future you don’t need to make a comment for that, you can simply “subscribe” to a thread if you want to:
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Not so much a homebrew as a houserule but I have started to make assumptions if the players don't describe their actions thoroughly.
"I walk down the corridor"
"ok, you make a fair amount of noise..."
"Oh no, I was sneaking"
"that's not what you said!"
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
Ope thanks!
When my players roll for their character stats, they'll roll per norm. However, should they have a result that they'd just not rather have, I'll allow a re-roll on the stat, but their character has to take on an additional negative trait. (Afraid of Spiders, bad hygene, suffers severe acne etc). Nothing game breaking...but something that could come back and affect their character later on.
The compromise worked well...and was a good contrast against one player who mentioned their previous DM allowed them to roll for each stat four times picking the highest roll result for each stat...no friggin way.
Aut viam inveniam aut faciam
Instead of only using advantage/disadvantage for rolls, award + or - 1d4 to 1d12.
This just gives the DM more control over how much of a bonus to give and allows you to award smaller bonuses or bonuses to rolls they PC already has advantage on for good RP, or other clever things you players might come up with that should give me a boost to their roll.
For me, the biggest common sense homebrew rule I've implemented is my long rest variant. It doesn't matter which one you use, as long as it enables the DM to better deliver a proper adventuring day.