I am DM'ing LMOP now at my table-group who are fairly new to D&D and i am picking up Storm King's Thunder after, from level 1 as their first big campaign. It has been a while since i played D&D (3th edition was last edition) so i am still grasping some rules/changes.
What house rules do you use to smooth up 5th Edition? I do like rules/statistics and the likes but while playing at the table, calculating your weight and stuff like that can slow down a lot (as example). Some mechanics are not fun for all players so maybe you changed something...
To be honest, we don't use house rules. You'll find 5e is much more streamlined with regard to rules and the Advantage / Disadvantage system covers a lot of woes that invoked a lot of specific rules in previous editions. I'm sure people use their own house rules (look up drinking potions as a bonus action), but none are in play on any of my 4 campaigns that I am currently playing in or DMing.
Something that came up specifically with my group playing through LMoP... if your players gain enough experience to level up mid-adventuring day, I allowed them to level up during a short rest and also recover all spell slots/abilities that normally require a long rest to recover, mostly so they could get a chance to use their fun new abilities as soon as possible.
Here's another one that I haven't used much, but can help a lot: "Taking 20". Essentially, the idea is that, if the players are attempting to accomplish something like... pick a lock or push aside a heavy statue or something and they fail the initial roll... but it seems like something that they should reasonably be able to succeed at if they just had more time, the players can spend 20 minutes of time to represent them just working at it over-and-over until they finally succeed. It's a risky task to take on in the middle of a dungeon, and it requires you to adjudicate exactly when it's applicable (for example, if a character fails a History check to remember a detail about the city they're traveling to, they can't just think harder about it for 20 minutes. But if they have access to a history book or library or something, they can spend 20 minutes looking it up and get some basic details).
drinking a potion is a bonus action, feeding it to someone else is an action. Other uses of potions (coating weapons, etc) take their normal durations
Critical hits are max dice damage + normal roll (so a normal 4d6 attack that crits does 24+4d6 rather than 8d6. It saves on time for finding/rolling more dice and keeps crits feeling powerful)
monsters use straight rolls on initiative (not sure if this is house rule or RAW, but players use roll + dex so I'm assuming its a house rule). I also roll once for all monsters of a type or use groups rather than each individually (works a lot better for mobs and 'cannon fodder' enemies)
I make general assumptions on food/water and carrying capacity rather than calculate for every player, unless they tell me an ability allows them to do otherwise
Also, not a house rule per se, but if we are in a hurry, I use average damage for all enemy attacks rather than rolled damage. Players can do either at their discretion regardless, but they have to choose before they roll damage.
The Dungeon Dudes have a nice video on their Session 0 house rules and I used most of them. A better starting stat array... "I know a guy" (aka the "Lando rule")... and "everyone has to know at least one other person from before the game started" being 3 off the top of my head.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Actually, something I'd like to bring up is a house rule that's so common that a lot of people don't realize it's a house rule...
A Natural 20 on an attack roll results in a critical-damage attack that always hits, regardless of the opponent's AC.
A Natural 1 on an attack roll always misses, even if the character's modifiers would still beat the target's AC.
That's it. Getting a Nat 1 doesn't cause your weapon to break, doesn't cause you to hurt yourself, fall prone, or anything else. And honestly... that can be fun, occasionally, to have something wacky happen as a result of a terrible failure, but it loses its fun if a character starts to knock themselves unconscious at early levels because they keep getting bad rolls on attacks.
Similarly, a Nat 1 or Nat 20 don't have any special significance in ability checks. If a character with, say... expertise rolls a 1 on their stealth, they don't automatically fail their stealth check, it's just reduced to a 14 or something. If knocking down a wall requires a DC25 Athletics check, and someone with only a +2 to Athletics gets a Nat 20, they don't automatically succeed.
That said... as DM, if one of your players comes across a challenge where they would succeed even if they roll a 1, then you shouldn't even make them roll for it. As well, if a nat 20 isn't enough to accomplish the task, then you shouldn't even let them roll for it.
same here. a Nat 20 on opening that mechanically trapped sarcaphogus... didn't open it at all. the DC was not met.
As for a Nat20 in combat. I too rule that as automatically hitting regardless. But that's just normal. Because 20+ attack bonus is a safe assumption you met that AC. I mean... who the hell has 28AC or higher in the monster manual? Not many, if any. I don't do Nat 1's beyond the occasional narrative thing of how the weapon slips out of your hand. However it stays within reach so as a free action you simply pick it up again. Meaning that mechanically it had 0 impact and it is more of a flavor thing.
At my table we found the critical damage often very underwhelming and anti-climactic. So we tried a few methods and eventually kept using the following. You use the same rules of rolling double the dice. However you do not add up both dice. You simply take the highest value of the two and double that instead. It isn't a huge difference compared to the default rules, but just enough to make it more fun. Also fits with the whole advantage mechanic 5e seems to love. we tried the automatic max damage on the base die and add another rolled die on top of that. However that value is so high it really ruined the flow of many encounters.
We also found the healing jojo-effect to be very annoying. So we added a fairly simple Injury table. You roll a constitution save in the same way that a spellcaster has to do when taking a hit as they're concentrating on a spell. On a fail I then roll a d20 to determine the severity of the injury and a d6 on which body part. We also adjusted the function of Lesser and Greater Restoration. For example Lesser Restoration can be used once a day to reduce 1 week of heal time in case of a broken limb. So at the expense of 1 spell slot for 6 days they can be up and running in no time again. However depending on the limb there are other penalties at play. A leg reduces movement speed and disadvantage on dex saves. Broken arm means no usage of 2h weapons, or being able to use only 1 weapon or shield and not both. etc etc. And this is applied surprisingly rarely. In about 40 sessions there was a cleric with a broken arm so he couldn't use his shield and thus had reduced AC. A barbarian with a flesh wound that healed over a short rest. A druid that slipped on the dragon's hoard and its slippery coins while fighting the dragon. Breaking her leg.
In the length of that rule... I also told my players. If you get back up for the third time. The NPC's will have had enough of your bullshit. So when you go down again. They will keep hitting you till you're truly dead. making sure you won't get back up and cause problems for them. This is outside the potential regular motivation an NPC might have to do that prior. my players just know that if the NPC didn't go for the kill before... then they will do at that specific trigger point. Adding tension and since my players know. They can take action as they see fit.
We also adjusted the cover values. quarter cover is +3, half +5, three quarter is +7. on top of that people in the line of attack also function as such cover. Making things more tactically interesting, especially early on, during combat. More so when you have them fight a horde of undead in a narrow crypt as example. It also gives more value to those people deciding too pick up Sharpshooter that ignores three quarter cover entirely.
Using spells/rituals to revive someone are turned into skill checks in the same way Matt Mercer does that. I really like that set up and my players were the ones suggesting it.
We use flanking rules. However you do not gain advantage on attack. You only gain a +2 on attack. and in 5e that means the +2 stacks with other means that grant advantage. So if someone casts Faery Fire on a flanked target they also get a +2 on it when flanking that target. Too avoid a Flank-Train I rule that the 2nd flank only gets a +1. and beyond that there is no additional bonus to be gained.
We also allow everyone to be able to use spell scrolls. Even that dumb barbarian. However it requires a check depending on the type of spell that is being attempted. If the spell is on your class list you can read the scroll without issue and use it. Everyone else either needs to make a religion check, nature check, arcane check etc. the DC is 10+ the scroll spell level. this way we can have more variety and options instead of the rigidness as is. While still having some sort of a trade off. Because if the spell check fails the scroll is still used up and can't be used again.
I also adjusted the Crossbow Expert Feat slightly. When shooting it in a Prone position you still have a regular roll instead of one at disadvantage. It really makes no sense otherwise. And this way we have some really cool sniper builds. Especially when using it against the PC's as well ;)
Still trying to find an acceptable way to deal with inventory. Keeping track of encumbrance is a pain. I thought perhaps keeping it simple by using the PC's strength value + str mod to determine the amount of items a character can keep on them. An 18str barbarian would have 18+4=22 lines on a sheet of paper that they can fill in with stuff. Their regular gear and what they find. A mage would probably just have 10 lines, but they don't carry all that much stuff with them in general. However I noticed the cleric at the table still running around with 2 tridents, a pole arm, 2 different swords, a mace etc. Which in-game I find annoying, but has to be accepted I guess. I do something similar with Bags or Chests of Holding. They don't have limited carry capacity. I give the players a single sheet of paper with 50-75 lines on which they can write down something. That way there is still some inventory management and some decision making of what items to carry around/harvest. And what has to be left behind. Or like the old days where parties hire additional NPC's to mine, torch bearers, hound masters etc. Meaning those NPC's have to be hired through social interactions. Perhaps leading to some side adventures. Needing to pay those people making money having some worth again. Keeping those people safe or dealing with the outcome of it when the towns people back home chase the PC's out due to treating the NPC hirelings badly etc etc. Options are plenty this way. ---also on top of that. When the PC's enter town they just subtract 2gp and have all their rations, arrows and small stuff re-filled. saves some of the hassle as well.
The potion house rule is pretty common. I believe Mercer only uses it to speed up the game when there are more players. I think it is a good idea all round. The lack of bonus actions for a lot of classes is quite disturbing. So giving such PC's something to actually do without having to give up their usual stuff is just fair. On top of that the healing is often so weak that it is far from game breaking. Bonus action to drink one yourself. Action to feed it to someone else. might as well be a standard rule in the official book at this point.
Due to the lack of healing power a lot of potions have. I also homebrew the occasional item that lets a PC trigger the Hit Die(s) of another PC. The fey barbarian from the Unearthed Arcana at my table. I've made her an item of wondrous power that allows her to trigger 2HD per day. Especially since there are 0 healers in that party. The cleric died last week when a hell hound tore him apart in the Ambush encounter at the start of Red Hand of Doom. Avandra revived him once and won't keep doing it every damn time he dies. I also like adding Homebrew elements to monsters that drain PC's. Not of xp/levels like they used to. Instead drain Exhaustion Points. Adding some tension to traveling especially. Because at the 5th or 6th drain that PC will die. Less severe than the insta-kill stuff from the olden days, but still very nice and cool to use this way.
ps. Dungeon dudes don't get near the attention they deserve. They make good informative content imo.
1. if players are all new, don’t allow feats or multiclassing. Those two optional rules introduce extra features and complicated mechanics that slows down the gameplay dramatically for new players.
if players are all new, don’t allow feats or multiclassing. Those two optional rules introduce extra features and complicated mechanics that slows down the gameplay dramatically for new players.
I completely agree with this.
I would say that, at least at first, until everyone is comfortable, try not to use most of the extra optional rules in the PHB or DMG. That is to say, if they provide you with "you can do this or optionally that," pick whatever you want. An example would be XP. You can do regular per-encounter XP, or you can do milestone XP, or you can do story-based leveling. And none of these things is necessarily going to make your game harder or easier for players. (It may make it harder or easier for you, though.)
But in particular things that add options for players -- although these sound great, and as a generous DM we want to add options -- the reality is that even a first level human fighter, which is about as basic as you can get, can do a tremendous number of things already in a given situation, and this will only compound level by level. You don't want the players to have so many options and variables to think about that they are deer-in-the-headlights.
So... things like feats and multi-classing, I would not allow. Also, you might want to steer away from the non-PHB races. There is nothing wrong with these races. I have one in my campaign -- an Aarakocra. But the other races often can do extra, unusual things (like flying for Aarakocra) that complicate the tactical or social situation for the players, and you really don't need that the first few sessions. Tell them, next campaign, we'll add the options and you can go hog wild on races. But for this first campaign, let's stick to the basics.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
We use point buy for our character generation rather than rolling stats. We don't track rations and ammunition. We don't worry about encumbrance. There are probably some house rules that we use that are carry overs from 4e that we don't think about being technically a house rule; we're just doing it wrong out of habit.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
the only things I copy from 4e are the Skill Challenges and I liked that you could make enemies move through skills. In 5e only Eldritch Blast with some upgrades can do that to a lesser extent. So adding some of that to homebrew items is nice.
Not sure I agree with banning Feats if the players are new. The game is made in such a way that you can ignore Feats, magical items and more. So having a Feat and forgetting how to use the skill it provides isn't a big thing. Most of them don't have anything that great anyhow. So what if you forget to use Warcaster or Sentinel OA. Won't impact the game. With new players I'd be more worried when someone picks Druid. That is a fairly complex class and I've seen plenty of people struggle with it as their first characters. I'd ban that instead for a completely new player.
On that I haven't tried, but would very much like to experiment with to see if it sped up combat, even if it's just with some throw away Characters in a one shot "battle royale", is initiative-less combat, as one does in Dungeon World.
It would not suit a Table where there were one-or-more crunchy tactical war-gamer style Players, but I think it could really speed up combat.
I've heard good things about it being effective and fast, even if some people don't like the change of the flavor of Combat.
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0KhW9LBYAQ This video summarized it pretty well. I added it to my campaign as side plot, which worked well, and I'm fairly familiar with that module. I just don't see it an easy module to run without a lot of homebrew.
My recommendation for any DM trying to run Storm King's Thunder: don't use it as main plot. It does have a lot of interesting encounters in a lot of places in the North. If your players happen to be there, run those small encounters as flavors, or adapt those encounters to fit in your campaign.
You have to read the entire post. Those first two lines are just the set up to explain that there are no additional effects tied to natural 1s or natural 20s (except for death saves, which I forgot to mention).
I think Star Wars: Edge of the Empire had a nice inventory solution that could maybe be translated to D&D.
The idea is that instead of measuring everything in pounds or fractions of pounds, a character has an abstract "load" that they can carry. For D&D that could be something like "10 + Str mod". The items then have an abstract "weight" based on their type. E.g. heavy armor is 5, medium armor is 3, Light armor is 1, heavy weapon is 3, normal weapon is 2, light weapon is 1 etc. The smaller things (rations / soap / grappling hooks / tools...) just don't count against that limit as long as it remains somewhat reasonable (i.e. the player can explain how they transport it. No "portable smithy" in a normal backpack or stuff like this).
This way you can avoid characters carrying an unreasonable amount of stuff with them without worrying about whether the waterskin is filled or not. By sorting stuff into broad categories it's also kind of easy to remember and track.
I would probably count consumables (potions / scrolls) as having a weight of 1 as well, to limit the amount of in-combat supplies a character can carry.
The numbers above are just conjured from thin air, though. I didn't try that approach yet and it's been more than a year since I read the Star Wars rules, so I might be mistaken about the values they used.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I am DM'ing LMOP now at my table-group who are fairly new to D&D and i am picking up Storm King's Thunder after, from level 1 as their first big campaign. It has been a while since i played D&D (3th edition was last edition) so i am still grasping some rules/changes.
What house rules do you use to smooth up 5th Edition? I do like rules/statistics and the likes but while playing at the table, calculating your weight and stuff like that can slow down a lot (as example). Some mechanics are not fun for all players so maybe you changed something...
I am curious :)
To be honest, we don't use house rules. You'll find 5e is much more streamlined with regard to rules and the Advantage / Disadvantage system covers a lot of woes that invoked a lot of specific rules in previous editions. I'm sure people use their own house rules (look up drinking potions as a bonus action), but none are in play on any of my 4 campaigns that I am currently playing in or DMing.
Something that came up specifically with my group playing through LMoP... if your players gain enough experience to level up mid-adventuring day, I allowed them to level up during a short rest and also recover all spell slots/abilities that normally require a long rest to recover, mostly so they could get a chance to use their fun new abilities as soon as possible.
Here's another one that I haven't used much, but can help a lot: "Taking 20". Essentially, the idea is that, if the players are attempting to accomplish something like... pick a lock or push aside a heavy statue or something and they fail the initial roll... but it seems like something that they should reasonably be able to succeed at if they just had more time, the players can spend 20 minutes of time to represent them just working at it over-and-over until they finally succeed. It's a risky task to take on in the middle of a dungeon, and it requires you to adjudicate exactly when it's applicable (for example, if a character fails a History check to remember a detail about the city they're traveling to, they can't just think harder about it for 20 minutes. But if they have access to a history book or library or something, they can spend 20 minutes looking it up and get some basic details).
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
Some that I use:
Also, not a house rule per se, but if we are in a hurry, I use average damage for all enemy attacks rather than rolled damage. Players can do either at their discretion regardless, but they have to choose before they roll damage.
Lemmie just drop this here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2CsyF5-H7k&t=866s
The Dungeon Dudes have a nice video on their Session 0 house rules and I used most of them. A better starting stat array... "I know a guy" (aka the "Lando rule")... and "everyone has to know at least one other person from before the game started" being 3 off the top of my head.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Actually, something I'd like to bring up is a house rule that's so common that a lot of people don't realize it's a house rule...
A Natural 20 on an attack roll results in a critical-damage attack that always hits, regardless of the opponent's AC.
A Natural 1 on an attack roll always misses, even if the character's modifiers would still beat the target's AC.
That's it. Getting a Nat 1 doesn't cause your weapon to break, doesn't cause you to hurt yourself, fall prone, or anything else. And honestly... that can be fun, occasionally, to have something wacky happen as a result of a terrible failure, but it loses its fun if a character starts to knock themselves unconscious at early levels because they keep getting bad rolls on attacks.
Similarly, a Nat 1 or Nat 20 don't have any special significance in ability checks. If a character with, say... expertise rolls a 1 on their stealth, they don't automatically fail their stealth check, it's just reduced to a 14 or something. If knocking down a wall requires a DC25 Athletics check, and someone with only a +2 to Athletics gets a Nat 20, they don't automatically succeed.
That said... as DM, if one of your players comes across a challenge where they would succeed even if they roll a 1, then you shouldn't even make them roll for it. As well, if a nat 20 isn't enough to accomplish the task, then you shouldn't even let them roll for it.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
Yup, I reminded my players a couple of weeks ago that a Nat 20 on a skill check is just a 20, nothing special.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
same here. a Nat 20 on opening that mechanically trapped sarcaphogus... didn't open it at all. the DC was not met.
As for a Nat20 in combat. I too rule that as automatically hitting regardless. But that's just normal. Because 20+ attack bonus is a safe assumption you met that AC. I mean... who the hell has 28AC or higher in the monster manual? Not many, if any. I don't do Nat 1's beyond the occasional narrative thing of how the weapon slips out of your hand. However it stays within reach so as a free action you simply pick it up again. Meaning that mechanically it had 0 impact and it is more of a flavor thing.
At my table we found the critical damage often very underwhelming and anti-climactic. So we tried a few methods and eventually kept using the following. You use the same rules of rolling double the dice. However you do not add up both dice. You simply take the highest value of the two and double that instead. It isn't a huge difference compared to the default rules, but just enough to make it more fun. Also fits with the whole advantage mechanic 5e seems to love. we tried the automatic max damage on the base die and add another rolled die on top of that. However that value is so high it really ruined the flow of many encounters.
We also found the healing jojo-effect to be very annoying. So we added a fairly simple Injury table. You roll a constitution save in the same way that a spellcaster has to do when taking a hit as they're concentrating on a spell. On a fail I then roll a d20 to determine the severity of the injury and a d6 on which body part. We also adjusted the function of Lesser and Greater Restoration. For example Lesser Restoration can be used once a day to reduce 1 week of heal time in case of a broken limb. So at the expense of 1 spell slot for 6 days they can be up and running in no time again. However depending on the limb there are other penalties at play. A leg reduces movement speed and disadvantage on dex saves. Broken arm means no usage of 2h weapons, or being able to use only 1 weapon or shield and not both. etc etc. And this is applied surprisingly rarely. In about 40 sessions there was a cleric with a broken arm so he couldn't use his shield and thus had reduced AC. A barbarian with a flesh wound that healed over a short rest. A druid that slipped on the dragon's hoard and its slippery coins while fighting the dragon. Breaking her leg.
In the length of that rule... I also told my players. If you get back up for the third time. The NPC's will have had enough of your bullshit. So when you go down again. They will keep hitting you till you're truly dead. making sure you won't get back up and cause problems for them. This is outside the potential regular motivation an NPC might have to do that prior. my players just know that if the NPC didn't go for the kill before... then they will do at that specific trigger point. Adding tension and since my players know. They can take action as they see fit.
We also adjusted the cover values. quarter cover is +3, half +5, three quarter is +7. on top of that people in the line of attack also function as such cover. Making things more tactically interesting, especially early on, during combat. More so when you have them fight a horde of undead in a narrow crypt as example. It also gives more value to those people deciding too pick up Sharpshooter that ignores three quarter cover entirely.
Using spells/rituals to revive someone are turned into skill checks in the same way Matt Mercer does that. I really like that set up and my players were the ones suggesting it.
We use flanking rules. However you do not gain advantage on attack. You only gain a +2 on attack. and in 5e that means the +2 stacks with other means that grant advantage. So if someone casts Faery Fire on a flanked target they also get a +2 on it when flanking that target. Too avoid a Flank-Train I rule that the 2nd flank only gets a +1. and beyond that there is no additional bonus to be gained.
We also allow everyone to be able to use spell scrolls. Even that dumb barbarian. However it requires a check depending on the type of spell that is being attempted. If the spell is on your class list you can read the scroll without issue and use it. Everyone else either needs to make a religion check, nature check, arcane check etc. the DC is 10+ the scroll spell level. this way we can have more variety and options instead of the rigidness as is. While still having some sort of a trade off. Because if the spell check fails the scroll is still used up and can't be used again.
I also adjusted the Crossbow Expert Feat slightly. When shooting it in a Prone position you still have a regular roll instead of one at disadvantage. It really makes no sense otherwise. And this way we have some really cool sniper builds. Especially when using it against the PC's as well ;)
Still trying to find an acceptable way to deal with inventory. Keeping track of encumbrance is a pain. I thought perhaps keeping it simple by using the PC's strength value + str mod to determine the amount of items a character can keep on them. An 18str barbarian would have 18+4=22 lines on a sheet of paper that they can fill in with stuff. Their regular gear and what they find. A mage would probably just have 10 lines, but they don't carry all that much stuff with them in general. However I noticed the cleric at the table still running around with 2 tridents, a pole arm, 2 different swords, a mace etc. Which in-game I find annoying, but has to be accepted I guess. I do something similar with Bags or Chests of Holding. They don't have limited carry capacity. I give the players a single sheet of paper with 50-75 lines on which they can write down something. That way there is still some inventory management and some decision making of what items to carry around/harvest. And what has to be left behind. Or like the old days where parties hire additional NPC's to mine, torch bearers, hound masters etc. Meaning those NPC's have to be hired through social interactions. Perhaps leading to some side adventures. Needing to pay those people making money having some worth again. Keeping those people safe or dealing with the outcome of it when the towns people back home chase the PC's out due to treating the NPC hirelings badly etc etc. Options are plenty this way.
---also on top of that. When the PC's enter town they just subtract 2gp and have all their rations, arrows and small stuff re-filled. saves some of the hassle as well.
The potion house rule is pretty common. I believe Mercer only uses it to speed up the game when there are more players. I think it is a good idea all round. The lack of bonus actions for a lot of classes is quite disturbing. So giving such PC's something to actually do without having to give up their usual stuff is just fair. On top of that the healing is often so weak that it is far from game breaking. Bonus action to drink one yourself. Action to feed it to someone else. might as well be a standard rule in the official book at this point.
Due to the lack of healing power a lot of potions have. I also homebrew the occasional item that lets a PC trigger the Hit Die(s) of another PC. The fey barbarian from the Unearthed Arcana at my table. I've made her an item of wondrous power that allows her to trigger 2HD per day. Especially since there are 0 healers in that party. The cleric died last week when a hell hound tore him apart in the Ambush encounter at the start of Red Hand of Doom. Avandra revived him once and won't keep doing it every damn time he dies. I also like adding Homebrew elements to monsters that drain PC's. Not of xp/levels like they used to. Instead drain Exhaustion Points. Adding some tension to traveling especially. Because at the 5th or 6th drain that PC will die. Less severe than the insta-kill stuff from the olden days, but still very nice and cool to use this way.
ps.
Dungeon dudes don't get near the attention they deserve. They make good informative content imo.
Two recommendations
1. if players are all new, don’t allow feats or multiclassing. Those two optional rules introduce extra features and complicated mechanics that slows down the gameplay dramatically for new players.
2. Don’t run Storm King’s Thunder.
Why not run Storm King's Thunder?
I completely agree with this.
I would say that, at least at first, until everyone is comfortable, try not to use most of the extra optional rules in the PHB or DMG. That is to say, if they provide you with "you can do this or optionally that," pick whatever you want. An example would be XP. You can do regular per-encounter XP, or you can do milestone XP, or you can do story-based leveling. And none of these things is necessarily going to make your game harder or easier for players. (It may make it harder or easier for you, though.)
But in particular things that add options for players -- although these sound great, and as a generous DM we want to add options -- the reality is that even a first level human fighter, which is about as basic as you can get, can do a tremendous number of things already in a given situation, and this will only compound level by level. You don't want the players to have so many options and variables to think about that they are deer-in-the-headlights.
So... things like feats and multi-classing, I would not allow. Also, you might want to steer away from the non-PHB races. There is nothing wrong with these races. I have one in my campaign -- an Aarakocra. But the other races often can do extra, unusual things (like flying for Aarakocra) that complicate the tactical or social situation for the players, and you really don't need that the first few sessions. Tell them, next campaign, we'll add the options and you can go hog wild on races. But for this first campaign, let's stick to the basics.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
We use point buy for our character generation rather than rolling stats. We don't track rations and ammunition. We don't worry about encumbrance. There are probably some house rules that we use that are carry overs from 4e that we don't think about being technically a house rule; we're just doing it wrong out of habit.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
the only things I copy from 4e are the Skill Challenges and I liked that you could make enemies move through skills. In 5e only Eldritch Blast with some upgrades can do that to a lesser extent. So adding some of that to homebrew items is nice.
Not sure I agree with banning Feats if the players are new. The game is made in such a way that you can ignore Feats, magical items and more. So having a Feat and forgetting how to use the skill it provides isn't a big thing. Most of them don't have anything that great anyhow. So what if you forget to use Warcaster or Sentinel OA. Won't impact the game. With new players I'd be more worried when someone picks Druid. That is a fairly complex class and I've seen plenty of people struggle with it as their first characters. I'd ban that instead for a completely new player.
This is standard rules, as per https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/phb/combat#Rolling1or20.
On that I haven't tried, but would very much like to experiment with to see if it sped up combat, even if it's just with some throw away Characters in a one shot "battle royale", is initiative-less combat, as one does in Dungeon World.
It would not suit a Table where there were one-or-more crunchy tactical war-gamer style Players, but I think it could really speed up combat.
I've heard good things about it being effective and fast, even if some people don't like the change of the flavor of Combat.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0KhW9LBYAQ This video summarized it pretty well. I added it to my campaign as side plot, which worked well, and I'm fairly familiar with that module. I just don't see it an easy module to run without a lot of homebrew.
My recommendation for any DM trying to run Storm King's Thunder: don't use it as main plot. It does have a lot of interesting encounters in a lot of places in the North. If your players happen to be there, run those small encounters as flavors, or adapt those encounters to fit in your campaign.
You have to read the entire post. Those first two lines are just the set up to explain that there are no additional effects tied to natural 1s or natural 20s (except for death saves, which I forgot to mention).
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
I think Star Wars: Edge of the Empire had a nice inventory solution that could maybe be translated to D&D.
The idea is that instead of measuring everything in pounds or fractions of pounds, a character has an abstract "load" that they can carry. For D&D that could be something like "10 + Str mod". The items then have an abstract "weight" based on their type. E.g. heavy armor is 5, medium armor is 3, Light armor is 1, heavy weapon is 3, normal weapon is 2, light weapon is 1 etc. The smaller things (rations / soap / grappling hooks / tools...) just don't count against that limit as long as it remains somewhat reasonable (i.e. the player can explain how they transport it. No "portable smithy" in a normal backpack or stuff like this).
This way you can avoid characters carrying an unreasonable amount of stuff with them without worrying about whether the waterskin is filled or not. By sorting stuff into broad categories it's also kind of easy to remember and track.
I would probably count consumables (potions / scrolls) as having a weight of 1 as well, to limit the amount of in-combat supplies a character can carry.
The numbers above are just conjured from thin air, though. I didn't try that approach yet and it's been more than a year since I read the Star Wars rules, so I might be mistaken about the values they used.