I think most DMs have house rules for altering things they find dumb. I know exhaustion and carry weight are often the first to go out of the window in all but the most intense games, but what about more unusual things?
Here's a few I've seen done or done myself:
Drow living on the surface for ten or more years don't get automatic sunlight disadvantage
Don't need a free hand to cast spells, can dual wield weapons (lessens value of Warcaster but meh)
Variations on ration rules (personal preference is to reduce rations by one every long rest and reduce max health every time you fail to do so)
Wild magic spells require a d20 roll to check for a surge every spell, not just at DM discretion
Thirsting Blade is a free invocation and the level requirements on Lifedrinker are lower
(Probable) RAI for GOO's Create Thrall instead of RAW
For my groups it's the usual carry weight thing that you mentioned, to an extent. You won't be able to carry around 5 suits of armor or something ridiculous like that. We also do away with spell components, though there are some exceptions. We figure that if your character needs these things to cast their spells chances are you're going to be carrying a good supply on you. Additionally anything else you might need that you don't already have could probably be obtained fairly easily. The exceptions are the higher level spells where you need components of a certain value and things that aren't quite as common. It works well for us.
My house rules tend to do one of three things: reduce the book-keeping done while playing the game; make it officially okay that we forget some rule that rarely ever comes up because it rarely ever comes up; or add an element to game-play that my group likes and wasn't already present.
To that end, I've house-ruled things like not tracking encumbrance, and any adventuring gear that doesn't have specific mechanics in it's description is covered by the Lifestyle quality the character has paid for (and that is just money that disappear every 30 days, rather than something the players constantly have to remember to role-play going shopping to get), we even don't track mundane ammunition.
The more unusual house-rules we are using right now actually deal with spells, as we have decided to ignore expensive or consumed material components (they are treated like normal non-consumed material components), and are currently seeing if ignoring the restriction on what other spells you can cast in the same turn you cast a spell as a bonus action (which we forget because it rarely comes up that anyone wants to cast two spells in the same turn) will actually disrupt our game-play experience or not (only a few sessions test period so far, but no disruptions noticed).
I don't like Paladin Smite used along side Spell Smites. I get why it's a thing RAW, but I just feel like mechanically it puts Paladins well above any other melee fighting class in terms of damage. I know it costs spell slots, but I feel that after the first 4 levels it's more wise for a Pally player to just save them until the big bad or a tent pole monster shows up and blow through the slots in one go. So I have them pick 1 Smite per round of combat. I wish there was a prettier way to address it.
...currently seeing if ignoring the restriction on what other spells you can cast in the same turn you cast a spell as a bonus action (which we forget because it rarely comes up that anyone wants to cast two spells in the same turn) will actually disrupt our game-play experience or not (only a few sessions test period so far, but no disruptions noticed).
I've house ruled this to be that you can cast one any-level spell and one 1st level spell. The only real usage of this that we see is with Healing Word, and I feel like that spell loses so much of its usefulness if you could only cast it as the single spell you can use on your turn. It's awesome as a bonus action to be able to stabilize a fallen comrade, or throw out a few extra hp in the middle of combat. If it's the only spell you can cast on your turn, it loses its benefit for any caster class (though still good for pally/rangers).
The Wild Magic one is very common, my player who has a Wild Mage argued the point that his abilities would be held back if he couldn't roll for every spell cast. That being said, he's gotten all the way to level 6 in HotDQ and not rolled a 1 yet, so I'm kind of glad he has been rolling.
...currently seeing if ignoring the restriction on what other spells you can cast in the same turn you cast a spell as a bonus action (which we forget because it rarely comes up that anyone wants to cast two spells in the same turn) will actually disrupt our game-play experience or not (only a few sessions test period so far, but no disruptions noticed).
I've house ruled this to be that you can cast one any-level spell and one 1st level spell. The only real usage of this that we see is with Healing Word, and I feel like that spell loses so much of its usefulness if you could only cast it as the single spell you can use on your turn. It's awesome as a bonus action to be able to stabilize a fallen comrade, or throw out a few extra hp in the middle of combat. If it's the only spell you can cast on your turn, it loses its benefit for any caster class (though still good for pally/rangers).
I've toyed with the idea of changing Healing Word to a Cantrip so it can be used as a throw out minor heal or stabilizer.
I have a new Wild Mage in my campaign. I agree that not getting to roll more often kinda hinders the character, especially since not all surges are bad. So I've add the following:
During the surge roll (in addition to the consequences of rolling a 1) if a 20 is rolled on the die, the mage rolls on the wild surge chart and may choose to use the effect or not.
That now makes the wild surge a 1 in 10 chance which seems more fun. I have been toying with the idea of expanding it a bit more to allow the mage to increase the range on both sides (1-2 and 19-20) with the consequence that he will gain a level of exhaustion after.
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"All that is gold does not glitter. Not all those who wander are lost..."- Bilbo Baggins
When I made a wild mage, once, I upped that chance to 10%. didn't see it play, so next time I make one I'll shoot for 20%, because penguins.
When I build a character, I take as many dang Traits, ideals, bonds or flaws as I want. even from other backgrounds, as long as I can play through all of them, why not? :P
I read that I should remove the -5/+10 benefits of Sharpshooter and GWM, but I haven't had the opportunity to see how it plays without them.
That said, One rule I learned I should alter is Inspiration - because for some strange reason my players either forget it exists or don't want it.
I'm still working out how I can make it more beneficial, but I usually start by making them stack. in my currently planned game, I feel like I need to get the edge off of my redundantly paranoid players, so I'm letting them spend it to auto-succeed a roll, survive a lethal blow, narrowly avoid a particular complication, (stolen fromInspired by Numenera) assume they packed something they didn't purchase before going in the dungeon.
I also let them spend more than one point for other benefits, like get a quest lead on an uncommon magic item, get a piece of info that they can plan around, or can spend a whole bunch of them on something big, (i.e. better magic item or ability score improvement).
It's rather generous, but it's because I try to award my players taking risks and being less paranoid.
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During the surge roll (in addition to the consequences of rolling a 1) if a 20 is rolled on the die, the mage rolls on the wild surge chart and may choose to use the effect or not.
I really like this idea. Pity I hadn't heard of it when someone in my group decided to go for Wild Sorcerer.
Yeah, I actually considered this as well, but if you make a heal a cantrip, it can break some other mechanics as well. You'd have to make it combat-only, otherwise they'd be able to just continually cast it and never have to spend a Hit Die to heal up after combat. Also, even if it was a combat-only cantrip, that means that a cleric could potentially cast it every single round, as the only other bonus action spell that they have with much functionality is Spiritual Weapon. Healing roughly 3-8 hp every round has the potential to change a lot of encounter mechanics.
Yeah, we generally let casters with weapons in their hands still cast somatic spells. The only time I wouldn't is if their hands are bound or restrained for some reason.
I'll preface this by saying whatever makes for a more fun experience at your table is the way to go. That said, regarding discarding spell components rule: our DM is a stickler for it, which annoyed me... at first. But he actually made it fun by making a whole mini adventure to find components, including beligerent shopkeepers, shady black market dealers, organized crime, and a crooked city watch. My point is, some things are annoying, like the 'check book balancing' of encumbrance. But if you choose to use them, they CAN provide interesting problems to solve.
Non-lethal damage: attempting to deal non-lethal damage has to be declared before the attack roll is made; attacking using a lethal weapon to deal non-lethal damage is done so with disadvantage. In addition, weapons that deal piercing damage cannot be used to deal non-lethal damage unless the weapon has a mounting pole that can be brought to bear (such as a spear or polearm). An unarmed attack (without a gauntlet), sap, whip, and bola deal non-lethal damage and attacks are resolved normally.
Critical d20 Rolls (Attacks and Ability Checks): While resolving attack results, a natural 1 is always a miss and a 20 is always a hit. To determine if either roll is a critical failure/success, an additional attack roll is made using the same bonuses as the original attack; if the roll would be a hit in the case of a 20-confirmation, it's a critical hit, if the roll is a miss in the case of a 1-confirmation, it's a fumble result. With ability checks, a 1 and 20 is not automatically a failure or success, respectively. Apply ability adjustments and proficiency as normal. But on a 1 or 20, roll a confirmation check. If the DC is achieved with a 20-confirmation, the check is a critical success, if the DC is missed with a 1-confirmation, the check has a critical failure of some sort. Adjudicating the results of attack criticals, use Dragon #39, Critical Hits and Misses, page 34.
Non-lethal damage: attempting to deal non-lethal damage has to be declared before the attack roll is made; attacking using a lethal weapon to deal non-lethal damage is done so with disadvantage. In addition, weapons that deal piercing damage cannot be used to deal non-lethal damage unless the weapon has a mounting pole that can be brought to bear (such as a spear or polearm). An unarmed attack (without a gauntlet), sap, whip, and bola deal non-lethal damage and attacks are resolved normally.
I've found it easy to just treat non-lethal attacks with lethal weapons as improvised weapons. You're using the hilt of your sword or haft of your axe as a club: no proficiency bonus (unless you're a Tavern Brawler) and d4 damage.
Critical d20 Rolls (Attacks and Ability Checks): While resolving attack results, a natural 1 is always a miss and a 20 is always a hit. To determine if either roll is a critical failure/success, an additional attack roll is made using the same bonuses as the original attack; if the roll would be a hit in the case of a 20-confirmation, it's a critical hit, if the roll is a miss in the case of a 1-confirmation, it's a fumble result. With ability checks, a 1 and 20 is not automatically a failure or success, respectively. Apply ability adjustments and proficiency as normal. But on a 1 or 20, roll a confirmation check. If the DC is achieved with a 20-confirmation, the check is a critical success, if the DC is missed with a 1-confirmation, the check has a critical failure of some sort. Adjudicating the results of attack criticals, use Dragon #39, Critical Hits and Misses, page 34.
This seems like a pretty niche rule, considering that bounded accuracy means the vast majority of the time a 1 on the die will be a fail and a 20 will be a success. I understand that people love their 3.5ed holdovers, but that was back when you had enormous ranges for success and variability in modifiers.
We've never tracked food in our games. I don't think tracking food adds anything unless you're in a specific food shortage situation.
Tracking food can be tedious, but skipping it can shortchange characters with abilities associated with food and survival. Clerics with create food spells, druids with purify food spells, rangers with foraging skills. Now, if ur group just doesn't care about this sort of thing, cool. However, foraging and surviving in the wild can help to set the tone or mood for an adventure. It can help to raise the stakes. Verisimilitude can help players with immursion and investment.
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I think most DMs have house rules for altering things they find dumb. I know exhaustion and carry weight are often the first to go out of the window in all but the most intense games, but what about more unusual things?
Here's a few I've seen done or done myself:
For my groups it's the usual carry weight thing that you mentioned, to an extent. You won't be able to carry around 5 suits of armor or something ridiculous like that. We also do away with spell components, though there are some exceptions. We figure that if your character needs these things to cast their spells chances are you're going to be carrying a good supply on you. Additionally anything else you might need that you don't already have could probably be obtained fairly easily. The exceptions are the higher level spells where you need components of a certain value and things that aren't quite as common. It works well for us.
"Let's kill some stuff!"
My house rules tend to do one of three things: reduce the book-keeping done while playing the game; make it officially okay that we forget some rule that rarely ever comes up because it rarely ever comes up; or add an element to game-play that my group likes and wasn't already present.
To that end, I've house-ruled things like not tracking encumbrance, and any adventuring gear that doesn't have specific mechanics in it's description is covered by the Lifestyle quality the character has paid for (and that is just money that disappear every 30 days, rather than something the players constantly have to remember to role-play going shopping to get), we even don't track mundane ammunition.
The more unusual house-rules we are using right now actually deal with spells, as we have decided to ignore expensive or consumed material components (they are treated like normal non-consumed material components), and are currently seeing if ignoring the restriction on what other spells you can cast in the same turn you cast a spell as a bonus action (which we forget because it rarely comes up that anyone wants to cast two spells in the same turn) will actually disrupt our game-play experience or not (only a few sessions test period so far, but no disruptions noticed).
I don't like Paladin Smite used along side Spell Smites. I get why it's a thing RAW, but I just feel like mechanically it puts Paladins well above any other melee fighting class in terms of damage. I know it costs spell slots, but I feel that after the first 4 levels it's more wise for a Pally player to just save them until the big bad or a tent pole monster shows up and blow through the slots in one go. So I have them pick 1 Smite per round of combat. I wish there was a prettier way to address it.
We are trying diferent options for the inspiration mechanic straching 5 traits per character is a lot.
The Wild Magic one is very common, my player who has a Wild Mage argued the point that his abilities would be held back if he couldn't roll for every spell cast. That being said, he's gotten all the way to level 6 in HotDQ and not rolled a 1 yet, so I'm kind of glad he has been rolling.
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I have a new Wild Mage in my campaign. I agree that not getting to roll more often kinda hinders the character, especially since not all surges are bad. So I've add the following:
During the surge roll (in addition to the consequences of rolling a 1) if a 20 is rolled on the die, the mage rolls on the wild surge chart and may choose to use the effect or not.
That now makes the wild surge a 1 in 10 chance which seems more fun. I have been toying with the idea of expanding it a bit more to allow the mage to increase the range on both sides (1-2 and 19-20) with the consequence that he will gain a level of exhaustion after.
"All that is gold does not glitter. Not all those who wander are lost..." - Bilbo Baggins
When I made a wild mage, once, I upped that chance to 10%. didn't see it play, so next time I make one I'll shoot for 20%, because penguins.
When I build a character, I take as many dang Traits, ideals, bonds or flaws as I want. even from other backgrounds, as long as I can play through all of them, why not? :P
I read that I should remove the -5/+10 benefits of Sharpshooter and GWM, but I haven't had the opportunity to see how it plays without them.
That said, One rule I learned I should alter is Inspiration - because for some strange reason my players either forget it exists or don't want it.
I'm still working out how I can make it more beneficial, but I usually start by making them stack. in my currently planned game, I feel like I need to get the edge off of my redundantly paranoid players, so I'm letting them spend it to auto-succeed a roll, survive a lethal blow, narrowly avoid a particular complication, (
stolen fromInspired by Numenera) assume they packed something they didn't purchase before going in the dungeon.I also let them spend more than one point for other benefits, like get a quest lead on an uncommon magic item, get a piece of info that they can plan around, or can spend a whole bunch of them on something big, (i.e. better magic item or ability score improvement).
It's rather generous, but it's because I try to award my players taking risks and being less paranoid.
I'm not - nor was I ever - your "obstacle" until you've deemed me as such, nor am I your wallet, my hard earnt money is not yours by deault.
Je suis Consumer - We are the foundation, the floor beneath your rug. our support is the fate of every retail product, business, and franchise. for success you need support.
I will always miss what you were, but I will never miss what you've become.
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Yeah, I actually considered this as well, but if you make a heal a cantrip, it can break some other mechanics as well. You'd have to make it combat-only, otherwise they'd be able to just continually cast it and never have to spend a Hit Die to heal up after combat. Also, even if it was a combat-only cantrip, that means that a cleric could potentially cast it every single round, as the only other bonus action spell that they have with much functionality is Spiritual Weapon. Healing roughly 3-8 hp every round has the potential to change a lot of encounter mechanics.
Yeah, we generally let casters with weapons in their hands still cast somatic spells. The only time I wouldn't is if their hands are bound or restrained for some reason.
Agree that rules regarding Bonus Action spells need some work.
As a player once said when the RAW were explained, "Well, it's not much of a 'bonus', then, is it?"
I'll preface this by saying whatever makes for a more fun experience at your table is the way to go. That said, regarding discarding spell components rule: our DM is a stickler for it, which annoyed me... at first. But he actually made it fun by making a whole mini adventure to find components, including beligerent shopkeepers, shady black market dealers, organized crime, and a crooked city watch. My point is, some things are annoying, like the 'check book balancing' of encumbrance. But if you choose to use them, they CAN provide interesting problems to solve.
Non-lethal damage: attempting to deal non-lethal damage has to be declared before the attack roll is made; attacking using a lethal weapon to deal non-lethal damage is done so with disadvantage. In addition, weapons that deal piercing damage cannot be used to deal non-lethal damage unless the weapon has a mounting pole that can be brought to bear (such as a spear or polearm). An unarmed attack (without a gauntlet), sap, whip, and bola deal non-lethal damage and attacks are resolved normally.
Critical d20 Rolls (Attacks and Ability Checks): While resolving attack results, a natural 1 is always a miss and a 20 is always a hit. To determine if either roll is a critical failure/success, an additional attack roll is made using the same bonuses as the original attack; if the roll would be a hit in the case of a 20-confirmation, it's a critical hit, if the roll is a miss in the case of a 1-confirmation, it's a fumble result. With ability checks, a 1 and 20 is not automatically a failure or success, respectively. Apply ability adjustments and proficiency as normal. But on a 1 or 20, roll a confirmation check. If the DC is achieved with a 20-confirmation, the check is a critical success, if the DC is missed with a 1-confirmation, the check has a critical failure of some sort. Adjudicating the results of attack criticals, use Dragon #39, Critical Hits and Misses, page 34.
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Unless it's absolutely necessary to the plot, I usually handwave food requirements because I don't want to get bogged down in them.
We've never tracked food in our games. I don't think tracking food adds anything unless you're in a specific food shortage situation.