I have modified a few of my House Rules having seen them, and 5e, in action. Obviously, we all have different styles, but mine leans heavily towards realistic physics if I can make it happen. Here are a few of the recent changes:
MELEE WEAPON vs. RANGED WEAPON vs. THROWN MELEE WEAPON vs. UNARMED STRIKE (HOUSE RULE)
First, there are only two weapon types: melee and ranged; however, some melee weapons, like a dagger, can be thrown. Even if a melee weapon is thrown, it is still considered a melee weapon and, therefore, cannot benefit from any features granting powers or bonuses to ranged weapons.
Second, as a House Rule, an unarmed strike, just like a club or improvised weapon, is now considered a weapon.*
*House Rule Justification. I think the 5e game designers relabeled the unarmed strike as a non-weapon because of their choice to base immunity from non-magical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing attacks on whether or not it was an intentional attack. I have created a new house rule for such immunities that makes a lot more sense and is not based on the intent of the action, but rather on the type of damage. For example, a creature that formerly had immunity to bludgeoning attacks, now has immunity to bludgeoning damage.
This immunity to non-magical, physical harm extends to 50% of the creature's maximum hit points on any given attack. Therefore, "non-maigcal, physical immunity" should more properly be called "physical resilience." To harm a creature with 50 hit points and immunity to non-magical bludgeoning damage, you would have to do more than 25 points of damage from a bludgeoning weapon on any given hit and the creature would reduce the damage done by 25. This allows for creatures with such immunities to potentially still take damage from long falls.
IDENTIFYING MAGIC ITEMS
As a House Rule, the Identify spell or experimentation is the only way to identify a magic item. Additionally, if you have previous experience with a similar item (e.g., a potion of healing), the DM might allow an Intelligence (Arcana) DC 15 check with advantage to identify the item.
House Rule Justification. The RAW allow the identification of magic items during a short rest. This makes no sense to me (especially if the party is a group of barbarians). Therefore, I am instituting the need for the identify spell or very specific experimentation to determine the magical qualities of an item.
IMPROMPTU TRAINING
As a House Rule, if a character has earned enough experience points to gain a level but cannot train, they can make a relevant ability check DC 10 + 1/2 of the new class level (rounded down) whenever they want to use one of the new class features to which they have access. The relevant ability is determined by the class feature and is open to discussion between the player and the DM. Just trying the class feature while outside a stressful (read as, combat) situation does not count.
Each successful use of the class feature during pressured situations reduces the DC by 2. Once the DC reaches a level of 5 or less, the character has successfully trained his- or herself in the class feature. Note: The phrase "during pressured situations" is important!
Failure at a class feature attempt does not use any resources other than the type of action that the class feature would normally take. That is, if the feature you are attempting is a bonus action, it only costs a bonus action to try (whether successful or not). If it normally costs an action, then your character spends his/her action attempting to use that new feature (whether successful or not).
House Rule Justification. It would suck to have a DM say, "You must train to get your new class features no matter what!" What if you're stuck in a dungeon for three levels? This House Rule makes the game a lot more interesting and fun (especially once a player succeeds at a feature attempt). It is very important that the player keeps track of their successes!
Using @RodTheBard's handy chart and @BrotherBock's statistics on probability of surviving a fall, I created my own set of homebrew rules for fall damage. I took into account @DnDPaladin's desire to have heroic feats near impossible in the real world (such as falling from great distances and surviving) still possible, though difficult.
My personal homebrew rule can be found below:
A fall from a great height is one of the most common hazards facing an adventurer.
At the end of a fall, a creature takes Fall Damage from the below cumulative damage column. The creature lands prone, unless it avoids taking damage from the fall. As a reaction to falling, a creature can attempt an Acrobatics check to reduce the Fall Damage, moving from the cumulative damage column to the linear damage column. The DC for reducing the damage can be found in the Acrobatics DC column.
Other mitigating factors can turn the damage linear.
Feet Fallen
Acrobatics DC
Cumulative Damage
Linear Damage
Damage
Average Damage
Damage
Average Damage
10
10
1d6
3
-
0
20
10
3d6
10
2d6
7
30
10
6d6
21
3d6
10
40
15
10d6
35
4d6
14
50
15
15d6
52
5d6
17
60
15
21d6
73
6d6
21
70
15
28d6
98
7d6
24
80
20
35d6
126
8d6
28
90
20
45d6
157
9d6
31
100
20
55d6
192
10d6
35
110
25
55d6
192
11d6
38
120
25
55d6
192
12d6
42
130
25
66d6
231
13d6
45
140
25
66d6
231
14d6
49
150
25
66d6
231
15d6
52
160
30
78d6
273
16d6
56
170
30
78d6
273
17d6
59
180
30
78d6
273
18d6
63
190
30
78d6
273
19d6
66
200
30
78d6
273
20d6
70
200+
30
78d6
273
20d6
70
Thoughts?
You could just say, "Falling n times 10 feet will do n(n + 1)/2 d6 damage." That's how you quickly build your "cumulative" column. Of course, it falls apart once you stop the cumulation. However, you could say, "to a maximum of whateverd6."
You could just say, "Falling n times 10 feet will do n(n + 1)/2 d6 damage." That's how you quickly build your "cumulative" column. Of course, it falls apart once you stop the cumulation. However, you could say, "to a maximum of whateverd6."
I could, but I just wanted to reduce the calculations as much as possible and though that is a rather simple formula, it is still a formula that would need some calculations. It was much easier to merely scroll down a table and find 90 feet and see 45d6.
Short rests take 1 entire round, you lose move, action and bonus action.
You may only take 2 short rests
You regain both short rests when you complete a long rest.
You've reduced a short rest from 1 hour to 1 minute?
6 seconds
Sorry, yep, I just mistyped.
You don't find that unbalances the game significantly? Warlocks would be really, really powerful with a 6 second recovery of all spell slots, for example.
Short rests take 1 entire round, you lose move, action and bonus action.
You may only take 2 short rests
You regain both short rests when you complete a long rest.
You've reduced a short rest from 1 hour to 1 minute?
6 seconds
Sorry, yep, I just mistyped.
You don't find that unbalances the game significantly? Warlocks would be really, really powerful with a 6 second recovery of all spell slots, for example.
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. 5e already feels a bit like a video game to me, I just cannot imagine how "powered-up" a 6-second short rest is.
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. 5e already feels a bit like a video game to me, I just cannot imagine how "powered-up" a 6-second short rest is.
Exactly. Comparing the warlock to the wizard, the warlock gets balanced by only having 2 or 3 non-cantrip spells for much of his adventuring career. An 11th level wizard gets 15 spells per long rest. So 15 spells he could in theory shoot off in one encounter if he needed to. The warlock at 11th level would have 3 spells for that same encounter. With 2 six-second short rests per day, an 11th level warlock would now have access to 9 spells during that same time.
The game is supposed to be balanced with the wizard at 15 spells and the warlock at 3. 15 and 9 seems like it would be hard to re-balance.
To be clear, I'm not claiming this is wrong, just more curious as to what sort of gaming goes on that would make that balanced. I guess it's conceivable that this could be better balanced for some sort of campaign, I just don't know what it is.
Though to be fair a wizard would also get his Arcane Recovery at a 6 second short rest.
True. That's limited in the description to only 1/day. So it would help mitigate the issue, but the warlock gets all slots back with any short rest, or both in this case.
"Moving a Grappled Creature. When you move, you can drag or carry the grappled creature with you, but your speed is halved, unless the creature is two or more sizes smaller than you. As you move, you may reposition the grappled creature into any unoccupied space within your reach that does not contain a hazard."
This allows a grappler to move a grappled creature into any unoccupied adjacent space, while still ensuring that the creature gets some sort of roll to prevent being knocked into a pit.
The other thing to note is that this homebrew deals Fall Damage not Bludgeoning Damage. Meaning Barbarians can't rage to reduce half. Also, at higher falls Druids will think twice of Wildshaping to cushion the blow, considering there is a very high chance that a lot of damage will roll over to their squishy druidic forms.
This conversation has made me think quite a bit about the abstract of Hit Points and how we are reinforcing, along with the designers of 5e (and all previous versions of D&D), a dichotomous, and often conflicting, interpretation of Hit Points as both health and experience.
In all editions of D&D, the designers have continually tried to reinforce the concept that Hit Points are not a reflection of how much damage a character can take, but rather how that character can mitigate efforts in combat (or other situations).
As a simple example, I spent several years in the SCA and did some sword and shield fighting for a few events. I distinctly remember showing up to fighter practice thinking, "Man, this is a bunch of fat dudes. They're big, they'll likely hit hard, but I'll be faster!" I couldn't have been more wrong. Yes, they were fat, but holy crap... those guys could run circles around me in full plate armor. Anyhow, none of that was my point. The deal is, in combat, what takes you down is exhaustion. These big boys who had trained for years took much longer to exhaust - I (the 0-level fighter in this narrative) was exhausted before being hit; however, if one of them was actually stabbed in the gut with a sword, he would likely have the same chance of survival as if I had been stabbed in the gut.
My point is, we place too much emphasis on Hit Points as a reflection of how much damage a character can take. This is wrong, and the designers of all editions have repeatedly told us this interpretation is incorrect; however, they muddy the waters by reinforcing the stigma when they link falling damage to Hit Point loss.
My buddy still fights in the SCA and has, by right of combat, attained prince in our region multiple times. This guy is what I would deem as equivalent to an 8th-level fighter. Yet, if he and I jumped off the roof of my two-story house, we both likely would have the same probability to survive. His "level" plays very little roll in how his bones snap.
Nope... Hit Points (a measure of a person's experience in combat and how they have learned to shrug off exhaustion over extended periods of exertion) and actual "damage" are almost mutually exclusive.
So, what have my ponderings brought me to? I am not certain. I think something along the lines of the following allows for a bit of "easy realism" in our games (warning, as a mathematician, I do not shy away from formulas or numbers):
Avoiding Damage. Dexterity (Acrobatics) check DC 10 + [fall distance] / 10 to avoid taking "damage" (see below) and allowing the character to not be prone. Remember, 1's and 20's are not automatic failures and successes when it comes to skill checks.
Taking Damage. If the character fails this check, they must make a Constitution check, modified by their level (or Hit Dice), DC 10 + [fall distance] / 10. If they succeed on this check, then they suffer no consequences from the fall other than landing prone. Otherwise, they suffer one level of exhaustion for every two points they failed by (fail by 1 or 2 = 1 level of exhaustion, by 3 - 4 = 2 levels of exhaustion, etc.).
EXAMPLE. Your 6th-level fighter (or monster with 6 Hit Dice) and 15 Constitution is thrown from a 30' rooftop. They have to succeed a DC 13 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to "stick the landing" and take no damage. If they don't succeed, they make a Constitution check, modified by their level (or Hit Dice), DC 13. Their total check modifier is 2 (from Constitution) + 6 (from level or Hit Dice) = 8. It is likely that they will succeed this check and only land prone; however, if they roll a 1 + 8 = 9, they fail... by 4! For every two they fail by, they suffer a level of exhaustion. Therefore, they have 2 levels of exhaustion.
How does this scale? Well, a stone giant falling from 30' would need a Dexterity (Acrobatics) check DC 13 to avoid suffering ill effects. So... very little scalability exists for the first condition; however, let's pretend the creature fails this check. It would then need to make a Constitution check, modified by their Hit Dice (11), DC 13. This would be an automatic success.
What about long falls? Say, 150 feet!!! Let's take that 6th-level creature. The Dexterity (Acrobatics) DC is 25. That's a tough DC, but it absolutely should be! What about "damage?" The Constitution check, modified by their level (or Hit Dice), is DC 25. Their total check modifier is 2 (from Constitution) + 6 (from level or Hit Dice) = 8. Thus, they would need 17 or above on a d20. That's a 20% chance of no damage (given that they fail their Dexterity check)!!! What about death? They would have to fail by 11 or more to automatically suffer 6 levels of exhaustion. That means they would need to roll 6 or less. That's a 30% chance of dying... which is good for me.
Now let's turn back to our stone giant. As mentioned earlier, the check to stick the landing doesn't scale (and shouldn't), but the Constitution check, modified by their level (or Hit Dice), is DC 25. Their total check modifier is 5 (from Constitution) + 11 (from level or Hit Dice) = 16. Thus, they would need 9 or above on a d20. That's a 60% chance of no damage!!!
I am just spit-balling here, but would love opinions.
Totally agree about hit points. I spent a lot of years in various martial arts. Conditioning was huge in fighting. I could beat much bigger, stronger, more muscle-bounds dudes, both striking and grappling, because without experience and training (cardio but also neurological), they would tire, not be able to hit hard or defend well, and then they lose. (Not that I was great, just talking in comparison to people less trained.)
And you're right that almost all of us reinforce the "HP loss=bodily damage" error. When we do some damage, all of us describe it by saying "You swing, and you hit the goblin, slicing him in the arm." And if we miss the attack roll, it's described as a miss. No one describes a successful hit and damage by saying "You swing, and the goblin justducks under your sword, but it took a lot out of him." :) No, dangit! I hit him!
The difficulty with falling is that, after a certain height, there's just not a lot you can do to minimize the damage by way of experience, athletics, etc. Take the simple event of someone falling straight down onto flat concrete with nothing closer than 50 feet to them as they fall. Traveling perpendicular to the ground, there's just no rolling or tumbling out of that. At 20 feet, maybe. 80 feet? No :/
Here's the opening of the first Underworld movie. Selene just jumped off of a maybe 50' ledge?
Super cool. But she's a vampire :) Super strong. In game terms, movie vampires like her should be well over 20 in strength. But even then, falling from an airplane and landing like this would make me turn the movie off. Come on! :D
I do think, though, that the DM needs to take into account the exact scenario. Yeah, falling should do a ton more damage than it does in the game. But if I fall from the side of a mountain, it's not likely a straight drop down 300 feet with nothing nearby. Mountains go out :) I'm probably hitting the side of the mountain in no time, and that's going to slow my fall, allow me to tumble, allow me to grab on, etc. Even falling from a building. There is the wall, there can be ledges, balconies, roofs of lower floors, etc. In practice falls will maybe even most of the time give the sort of opportunities for mitigation that you're talking about. :)
Short rests take 1 entire round, you lose move, action and bonus action.
You may only take 2 short rests
You regain both short rests when you complete a long rest.
You've reduced a short rest from 1 hour to 1 minute?
6 seconds
Wtf? WHY!?
Do you DM a campaign full of Warlocks & Monks that just want to blow their load on every damn thing they see? Or is your party struggling so much that they have a need to use their hit dice for healing while in combat?
The only circumstance that I can think of where such a thing would be necessary is if the players (or you as the DM) are so bad that every encounter is almost a TPK...
If the party is struggling because of what you're throwing them against, I'd highly recommend that you either tone down the difficulty or find a suitable way to make the party powerful enough to stand a chance (Magic items, blessings, granting bonus feats in game, etc.). There are better ways of doing that than destroying the "resource economy" balance between classes.
If the party is struggling because they just are... let 'em! If they're actively making bad decisions that can get them killed, okay! If that's the case, then it's their own damn fault (everybody's been there at some point). I think a lot of players/DMs that are new to tabletop games in general have a higher probability of initially viewing the system like a video game; desensitized to the consequences of character actions. People tend to play smarter once they realize that they can't just steamroll (aside from Bear Totem Barbs..) through any situation, and especially once they realize that death is permanent by default, that resurrection is actually pretty prohibitive until at least Tier 2 play, and not easy then either.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
More of my House Rules - this time concerning Rests.
HURT CONDITION
As a House Rule, I am instituting a new condition, called 'Hurt'. This condition is automatically applied to your character if they are at or below their 25% Hit Point maximum. A Hurt creature cannot benefit from Hit Dice expenditure during a short or long rest.
House Rule Justification. The healing mechanics during short and long rests in the RAW is overly ridiculous. I just do not agree with a reality where a person is beaten to within an inch of their life and suddenly, with an hour's rest, are 100%. I arbitrarily chose the 25% Hit Point maximum as the Hurt level because I think it allows the greatest balance between streamlined gameplay for continuous exploration and realism for injury.
SHORT RESTS AND HEALING
To perform a short rest, your character needs at least 1 hour, during which they can't do anything more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading, and tending to wounds.
At the end of the short rest and, as a House Rule, as long as your character doesn't have the Hurt condition, you can spend one or more Hit Dice up to your character's maximum number of Hit Dice. For each Hit Die spent in this way, you roll the die and add your Constitution modifier to it. Your character regains hit points equal to the total (minimum of 0). You can decide to spend an additional Hit Die after each roll.
House Rule Justification. The healing mechanics during short and long rests in the RAW is overly ridiculous. I just do not agree with a reality where a person is beaten to within an inch of their life and suddenly, with an hour's rest, are 100%. I arbitrarily chose the 25% Hit Point maximum as the Hurt level because I think it allows the greatest balance between streamlined gameplay for continuous exploration and realism for injury.
LONG RESTS AND HEALING
To perform a long rest, your character needs at least 8 hours, during which they must sleep for at least 6 hours and they can't do anything more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading, tending to wounds, or standing watch. If the rest is interrupted by a period of strenuous activity — at least 1 hour of walking, fighting, casting spells, or similar adventuring activity — the characters must begin the rest again to gain any benefit from it.
At the end of the long rest and, as a House Rule, as long as your character doesn't have the Hurt condition, you can spend one or more Hit Dice up to your character's maximum number of Hit Dice. For each Hit Die spent in this way, you roll the die and add your Constitution modifier to it. Your character regains hit points equal to the total (minimum of 0). You can decide to spend an additional Hit Die after each roll. The character also regains spent Hit Dice, up to a number of dice equal to half of the character's total number of them (rounded down and a minimum of one die).
If your character has the Hurt condition, they cannot spend Hit Dice to regain Hit Points; however, they will gain back their Consitution modifier in Hit Points and one spent Hit Dice. That is, if a 12th-level fighter character starts the long rest with 10 out of 100 Hit Points and 2 Hit Dice unspent, they cannot spend Hit Dice to regain Hit Points because they are Hurt; however, if the character's Constitution is 14, they will regain 2 Hit Points at the end of the long rest plus on Hit Dice (so they now have 3 Hit Dice).
A character can't benefit from more than one long rest in a 24-hour period, and a character must have at least 1 hit point at the start of the rest to gain its benefits.
As a Variant Rule, sleeping in light armor has no adverse effect on the wearer, but sleeping in medium or heavy armor makes it difficult to recover fully during a long rest. When you finish a long rest during which you slept in medium or heavy armor, you regain only one-quarter of your spent Hit Dice (minimum of one die). If you have any levels of exhaustion, the rest doesn’t reduce your exhaustion level.
As a Variant Rule, whenever you end a 24-hour period without finishing a long rest, you must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or suffer one level of exhaustion. It becomes harder to fight off exhaustion if you stay awake for multiple days. After the first 24 hours, the DC increases by 5 for each consecutive 24-hour period without a long rest. The DC resets to 10 when you finish a long rest.
House Rule and Variant Rule Justification. All of these rules are meant for a little more gritty realism. The healing mechanics during short and long rests in the RAW is overly ridiculous. I just do not agree with a reality where a person is beaten to within an inch of their life and suddenly, with an hour's rest, are 100%. I arbitrarily chose the 25% Hit Point maximum as the Hurt level because I think it allows the greatest balance between streamlined gameplay for continuous exploration and realism for injury.
Short rests take 1 entire round, you lose move, action and bonus action.
You may only take 2 short rests
You regain both short rests when you complete a long rest.
You've reduced a short rest from 1 hour to 1 minute?
6 seconds
Sorry, yep, I just mistyped.
You don't find that unbalances the game significantly? Warlocks would be really, really powerful with a 6 second recovery of all spell slots, for example.
Not really, outside of combat it is really no difference, other than you can only do it 2 times per day. Inside combat it gives you some additional combat options, makes for a much more cinematic experience IMO. You have the option to take a "breather" and catch your wind and get back into combat like in a lot of action movies. You can even have one person covering for another to buy them time to catch their breath, or regain their abilities.
Overall it is a big plus to me, it allows people to take their break when they want to rather than when the rest of the group does.
First off... The guiness do not take highest drop record as it is too dangerous for health. But they do have world records for numbers of different flips in a minute.
Second off... Guiness doesnt alway take the best times or scores. They take the highest recorded by them. Not everyone in this world call them for these things. There are tons of records that are kept by fans and not by the guiness.
Third... I said 45 - 50 because the guy in the video jumped off a 4 story high building. Since we dont know the height of each floors which can range from 8 feet to 10 feet. Plus the 1 or 1 and half feet for each floor. Plus the roof. We calculated around these numbers. Many call the video fake... But thats the nature of mankind. We call everything fake even if its real.
Fourth... Meteor swarm is actual meteors. They do both bludgeoning damage and fire damage as they crush and burn the people in the area of effect.
Now @thedungeonmathster i like the idea... But i dont like charts and really like simple solutions. This is why acrobatics can literally reduce a fall of about 15ft if not proficient and reduce it by 30ft if they are proficient. Aside from that... Fall damage and instant death from anything beyond 300ft. That said... I like the idea of having a condition that grants a speed of half and disadvantage on everything that includes movements like attacking. That way there is still consequences of taking the damage if its high enough.
Short rest for me ranges from 15 minutes to the full 1 hour. Healing is 1 hour while praying for channel divinity or warlock spellslots is about 15 minutes.
DM of two gaming groups. Likes to create stuff. Check out my homebrew --> Monsters --> Magical Items --> Races --> Subclasses If you like --> Upvote, If you wanna comment --> Comment
Play by Post Games --> One Shot Adventure - House of Artwood (DM) (Completed)
First off... The guiness do not take highest drop record as it is too dangerous for health. But they do have world records for numbers of different flips in a minute.
Second off... Guiness doesnt alway take the best times or scores. They take the highest recorded by them. Not everyone in this world call them for these things. There are tons of records that are kept by fans and not by the guiness.
Third... I said 45 - 50 because the guy in the video jumped off a 4 story high building. Since we dont know the height of each floors which can range from 8 feet to 10 feet. Plus the 1 or 1 and half feet for each floor. Plus the roof. We calculated around these numbers. Many call the video fake... But thats the nature of mankind. We call everything fake even if its real.
Fourth... Meteor swarm is actual meteors. They do both bludgeoning damage and fire damage as they crush and burn the people in the area of effect.
None of that gets you anywhere nearer to 100 feet being anything survivable.
Note that it's also the nature of mankind to believe fake things when it helps your narrative. (shrug) Without a link to this video, I don't have an opinion on its veracity. Just that it's still not close to 100 feet.
0 Hit Point Rule Being reduced to zero hit points and render unconscious can have its toll, even if you manage to survive.
When reduced to zero hit points, you gain 1 level of exhaustion.
We started with a similar House Rule, but I scratched it pretty quickly. It's a super attractive rule because it allows for more gritty realism and the players totally reigned in their recklessness, but... it ended up feeling like too much of a punishment and downer. Perhaps it was the situation, but I am still interested in trying it again.
Definitely can seem punishing IMO, but I really hate that the best strategy to healing is to let them get reduced to 0 first. I want the players to avoid getting reduced to 0 like the plague.
One of the reasons for short rest being 6 seconds in my game, it gives a desperate p.c. at low H.P. an option to run for cover and take a short rest to heal up.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I have modified a few of my House Rules having seen them, and 5e, in action. Obviously, we all have different styles, but mine leans heavily towards realistic physics if I can make it happen. Here are a few of the recent changes:
MELEE WEAPON vs. RANGED WEAPON vs. THROWN MELEE WEAPON vs. UNARMED STRIKE (HOUSE RULE)
First, there are only two weapon types: melee and ranged; however, some melee weapons, like a dagger, can be thrown. Even if a melee weapon is thrown, it is still considered a melee weapon and, therefore, cannot benefit from any features granting powers or bonuses to ranged weapons.
Second, as a House Rule, an unarmed strike, just like a club or improvised weapon, is now considered a weapon.*
IDENTIFYING MAGIC ITEMS
As a House Rule, the Identify spell or experimentation is the only way to identify a magic item. Additionally, if you have previous experience with a similar item (e.g., a potion of healing), the DM might allow an Intelligence (Arcana) DC 15 check with advantage to identify the item.
IMPROMPTU TRAINING
As a House Rule, if a character has earned enough experience points to gain a level but cannot train, they can make a relevant ability check DC 10 + 1/2 of the new class level (rounded down) whenever they want to use one of the new class features to which they have access. The relevant ability is determined by the class feature and is open to discussion between the player and the DM. Just trying the class feature while outside a stressful (read as, combat) situation does not count.
Each successful use of the class feature during pressured situations reduces the DC by 2. Once the DC reaches a level of 5 or less, the character has successfully trained his- or herself in the class feature. Note: The phrase "during pressured situations" is important!
Failure at a class feature attempt does not use any resources other than the type of action that the class feature would normally take. That is, if the feature you are attempting is a bonus action, it only costs a bonus action to try (whether successful or not). If it normally costs an action, then your character spends his/her action attempting to use that new feature (whether successful or not).
You could just say, "Falling n times 10 feet will do n(n + 1)/2 d6 damage." That's how you quickly build your "cumulative" column. Of course, it falls apart once you stop the cumulation. However, you could say, "to a maximum of whateverd6."
You've reduced a short rest from 1 hour to 1 minute?
Looking for new subclasses, spells, magic items, feats, and races? Opinions welcome :)
6 seconds
I could, but I just wanted to reduce the calculations as much as possible and though that is a rather simple formula, it is still a formula that would need some calculations. It was much easier to merely scroll down a table and find 90 feet and see 45d6.
Sorry, yep, I just mistyped.
You don't find that unbalances the game significantly? Warlocks would be really, really powerful with a 6 second recovery of all spell slots, for example.
Looking for new subclasses, spells, magic items, feats, and races? Opinions welcome :)
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. 5e already feels a bit like a video game to me, I just cannot imagine how "powered-up" a 6-second short rest is.
Exactly. Comparing the warlock to the wizard, the warlock gets balanced by only having 2 or 3 non-cantrip spells for much of his adventuring career. An 11th level wizard gets 15 spells per long rest. So 15 spells he could in theory shoot off in one encounter if he needed to. The warlock at 11th level would have 3 spells for that same encounter. With 2 six-second short rests per day, an 11th level warlock would now have access to 9 spells during that same time.
The game is supposed to be balanced with the wizard at 15 spells and the warlock at 3. 15 and 9 seems like it would be hard to re-balance.
To be clear, I'm not claiming this is wrong, just more curious as to what sort of gaming goes on that would make that balanced. I guess it's conceivable that this could be better balanced for some sort of campaign, I just don't know what it is.
Looking for new subclasses, spells, magic items, feats, and races? Opinions welcome :)
Though to be fair a wizard would also get his Arcane Recovery at a 6 second short rest.
True. That's limited in the description to only 1/day. So it would help mitigate the issue, but the warlock gets all slots back with any short rest, or both in this case.
Looking for new subclasses, spells, magic items, feats, and races? Opinions welcome :)
This... +1
This conversation has made me think quite a bit about the abstract of Hit Points and how we are reinforcing, along with the designers of 5e (and all previous versions of D&D), a dichotomous, and often conflicting, interpretation of Hit Points as both health and experience.
In all editions of D&D, the designers have continually tried to reinforce the concept that Hit Points are not a reflection of how much damage a character can take, but rather how that character can mitigate efforts in combat (or other situations).
As a simple example, I spent several years in the SCA and did some sword and shield fighting for a few events. I distinctly remember showing up to fighter practice thinking, "Man, this is a bunch of fat dudes. They're big, they'll likely hit hard, but I'll be faster!" I couldn't have been more wrong. Yes, they were fat, but holy crap... those guys could run circles around me in full plate armor. Anyhow, none of that was my point. The deal is, in combat, what takes you down is exhaustion. These big boys who had trained for years took much longer to exhaust - I (the 0-level fighter in this narrative) was exhausted before being hit; however, if one of them was actually stabbed in the gut with a sword, he would likely have the same chance of survival as if I had been stabbed in the gut.
My point is, we place too much emphasis on Hit Points as a reflection of how much damage a character can take. This is wrong, and the designers of all editions have repeatedly told us this interpretation is incorrect; however, they muddy the waters by reinforcing the stigma when they link falling damage to Hit Point loss.
My buddy still fights in the SCA and has, by right of combat, attained prince in our region multiple times. This guy is what I would deem as equivalent to an 8th-level fighter. Yet, if he and I jumped off the roof of my two-story house, we both likely would have the same probability to survive. His "level" plays very little roll in how his bones snap.
Nope... Hit Points (a measure of a person's experience in combat and how they have learned to shrug off exhaustion over extended periods of exertion) and actual "damage" are almost mutually exclusive.
So, what have my ponderings brought me to? I am not certain. I think something along the lines of the following allows for a bit of "easy realism" in our games (warning, as a mathematician, I do not shy away from formulas or numbers):
EXAMPLE. Your 6th-level fighter (or monster with 6 Hit Dice) and 15 Constitution is thrown from a 30' rooftop. They have to succeed a DC 13 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to "stick the landing" and take no damage. If they don't succeed, they make a Constitution check, modified by their level (or Hit Dice), DC 13. Their total check modifier is 2 (from Constitution) + 6 (from level or Hit Dice) = 8. It is likely that they will succeed this check and only land prone; however, if they roll a 1 + 8 = 9, they fail... by 4! For every two they fail by, they suffer a level of exhaustion. Therefore, they have 2 levels of exhaustion.
How does this scale? Well, a stone giant falling from 30' would need a Dexterity (Acrobatics) check DC 13 to avoid suffering ill effects. So... very little scalability exists for the first condition; however, let's pretend the creature fails this check. It would then need to make a Constitution check, modified by their Hit Dice (11), DC 13. This would be an automatic success.
What about long falls? Say, 150 feet!!! Let's take that 6th-level creature. The Dexterity (Acrobatics) DC is 25. That's a tough DC, but it absolutely should be! What about "damage?" The Constitution check, modified by their level (or Hit Dice), is DC 25. Their total check modifier is 2 (from Constitution) + 6 (from level or Hit Dice) = 8. Thus, they would need 17 or above on a d20. That's a 20% chance of no damage (given that they fail their Dexterity check)!!! What about death? They would have to fail by 11 or more to automatically suffer 6 levels of exhaustion. That means they would need to roll 6 or less. That's a 30% chance of dying... which is good for me.
Now let's turn back to our stone giant. As mentioned earlier, the check to stick the landing doesn't scale (and shouldn't), but the Constitution check, modified by their level (or Hit Dice), is DC 25. Their total check modifier is 5 (from Constitution) + 11 (from level or Hit Dice) = 16. Thus, they would need 9 or above on a d20. That's a 60% chance of no damage!!!
I am just spit-balling here, but would love opinions.
EDITED TO CLEAN UP TYPOS
Totally agree about hit points. I spent a lot of years in various martial arts. Conditioning was huge in fighting. I could beat much bigger, stronger, more muscle-bounds dudes, both striking and grappling, because without experience and training (cardio but also neurological), they would tire, not be able to hit hard or defend well, and then they lose. (Not that I was great, just talking in comparison to people less trained.)
And you're right that almost all of us reinforce the "HP loss=bodily damage" error. When we do some damage, all of us describe it by saying "You swing, and you hit the goblin, slicing him in the arm." And if we miss the attack roll, it's described as a miss. No one describes a successful hit and damage by saying "You swing, and the goblin just ducks under your sword, but it took a lot out of him." :) No, dangit! I hit him!
The difficulty with falling is that, after a certain height, there's just not a lot you can do to minimize the damage by way of experience, athletics, etc. Take the simple event of someone falling straight down onto flat concrete with nothing closer than 50 feet to them as they fall. Traveling perpendicular to the ground, there's just no rolling or tumbling out of that. At 20 feet, maybe. 80 feet? No :/
Here's the opening of the first Underworld movie. Selene just jumped off of a maybe 50' ledge?
Super cool. But she's a vampire :) Super strong. In game terms, movie vampires like her should be well over 20 in strength. But even then, falling from an airplane and landing like this would make me turn the movie off. Come on! :D
I do think, though, that the DM needs to take into account the exact scenario. Yeah, falling should do a ton more damage than it does in the game. But if I fall from the side of a mountain, it's not likely a straight drop down 300 feet with nothing nearby. Mountains go out :) I'm probably hitting the side of the mountain in no time, and that's going to slow my fall, allow me to tumble, allow me to grab on, etc. Even falling from a building. There is the wall, there can be ledges, balconies, roofs of lower floors, etc. In practice falls will maybe even most of the time give the sort of opportunities for mitigation that you're talking about. :)
Looking for new subclasses, spells, magic items, feats, and races? Opinions welcome :)
Wtf? WHY!?
Do you DM a campaign full of Warlocks & Monks that just want to blow their load on every damn thing they see? Or is your party struggling so much that they have a need to use their hit dice for healing while in combat?
The only circumstance that I can think of where such a thing would be necessary is if the players (or you as the DM) are so bad that every encounter is almost a TPK...
If the party is struggling because of what you're throwing them against, I'd highly recommend that you either tone down the difficulty or find a suitable way to make the party powerful enough to stand a chance (Magic items, blessings, granting bonus feats in game, etc.). There are better ways of doing that than destroying the "resource economy" balance between classes.
If the party is struggling because they just are... let 'em! If they're actively making bad decisions that can get them killed, okay! If that's the case, then it's their own damn fault (everybody's been there at some point). I think a lot of players/DMs that are new to tabletop games in general have a higher probability of initially viewing the system like a video game; desensitized to the consequences of character actions. People tend to play smarter once they realize that they can't just steamroll (aside from Bear Totem Barbs..) through any situation, and especially once they realize that death is permanent by default, that resurrection is actually pretty prohibitive until at least Tier 2 play, and not easy then either.
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
More of my House Rules - this time concerning Rests.
HURT CONDITION
As a House Rule, I am instituting a new condition, called 'Hurt'. This condition is automatically applied to your character if they are at or below their 25% Hit Point maximum. A Hurt creature cannot benefit from Hit Dice expenditure during a short or long rest.
SHORT RESTS AND HEALING
To perform a short rest, your character needs at least 1 hour, during which they can't do anything more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading, and tending to wounds.
At the end of the short rest and, as a House Rule, as long as your character doesn't have the Hurt condition, you can spend one or more Hit Dice up to your character's maximum number of Hit Dice. For each Hit Die spent in this way, you roll the die and add your Constitution modifier to it. Your character regains hit points equal to the total (minimum of 0). You can decide to spend an additional Hit Die after each roll.
LONG RESTS AND HEALING
To perform a long rest, your character needs at least 8 hours, during which they must sleep for at least 6 hours and they can't do anything more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading, tending to wounds, or standing watch. If the rest is interrupted by a period of strenuous activity — at least 1 hour of walking, fighting, casting spells, or similar adventuring activity — the characters must begin the rest again to gain any benefit from it.
At the end of the long rest and, as a House Rule, as long as your character doesn't have the Hurt condition, you can spend one or more Hit Dice up to your character's maximum number of Hit Dice. For each Hit Die spent in this way, you roll the die and add your Constitution modifier to it. Your character regains hit points equal to the total (minimum of 0). You can decide to spend an additional Hit Die after each roll. The character also regains spent Hit Dice, up to a number of dice equal to half of the character's total number of them (rounded down and a minimum of one die).
If your character has the Hurt condition, they cannot spend Hit Dice to regain Hit Points; however, they will gain back their Consitution modifier in Hit Points and one spent Hit Dice. That is, if a 12th-level fighter character starts the long rest with 10 out of 100 Hit Points and 2 Hit Dice unspent, they cannot spend Hit Dice to regain Hit Points because they are Hurt; however, if the character's Constitution is 14, they will regain 2 Hit Points at the end of the long rest plus on Hit Dice (so they now have 3 Hit Dice).
A character can't benefit from more than one long rest in a 24-hour period, and a character must have at least 1 hit point at the start of the rest to gain its benefits.
As a Variant Rule, sleeping in light armor has no adverse effect on the wearer, but sleeping in medium or heavy armor makes it difficult to recover fully during a long rest. When you finish a long rest during which you slept in medium or heavy armor, you regain only one-quarter of your spent Hit Dice (minimum of one die). If you have any levels of exhaustion, the rest doesn’t reduce your exhaustion level.
As a Variant Rule, whenever you end a 24-hour period without finishing a long rest, you must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or suffer one level of exhaustion. It becomes harder to fight off exhaustion if you stay awake for multiple days. After the first 24 hours, the DC increases by 5 for each consecutive 24-hour period without a long rest. The DC resets to 10 when you finish a long rest.
Not really, outside of combat it is really no difference, other than you can only do it 2 times per day. Inside combat it gives you some additional combat options, makes for a much more cinematic experience IMO. You have the option to take a "breather" and catch your wind and get back into combat like in a lot of action movies. You can even have one person covering for another to buy them time to catch their breath, or regain their abilities.
Overall it is a big plus to me, it allows people to take their break when they want to rather than when the rest of the group does.
First off... The guiness do not take highest drop record as it is too dangerous for health. But they do have world records for numbers of different flips in a minute.
Second off... Guiness doesnt alway take the best times or scores. They take the highest recorded by them. Not everyone in this world call them for these things. There are tons of records that are kept by fans and not by the guiness.
Third... I said 45 - 50 because the guy in the video jumped off a 4 story high building. Since we dont know the height of each floors which can range from 8 feet to 10 feet. Plus the 1 or 1 and half feet for each floor. Plus the roof. We calculated around these numbers. Many call the video fake... But thats the nature of mankind. We call everything fake even if its real.
Fourth... Meteor swarm is actual meteors. They do both bludgeoning damage and fire damage as they crush and burn the people in the area of effect.
Now @thedungeonmathster i like the idea... But i dont like charts and really like simple solutions. This is why acrobatics can literally reduce a fall of about 15ft if not proficient and reduce it by 30ft if they are proficient. Aside from that... Fall damage and instant death from anything beyond 300ft. That said... I like the idea of having a condition that grants a speed of half and disadvantage on everything that includes movements like attacking. That way there is still consequences of taking the damage if its high enough.
Short rest for me ranges from 15 minutes to the full 1 hour. Healing is 1 hour while praying for channel divinity or warlock spellslots is about 15 minutes.
DM of two gaming groups.
Likes to create stuff.
Check out my homebrew --> Monsters --> Magical Items --> Races --> Subclasses
If you like --> Upvote, If you wanna comment --> Comment
Play by Post Games
--> One Shot Adventure - House of Artwood (DM) (Completed)
None of that gets you anywhere nearer to 100 feet being anything survivable.
Note that it's also the nature of mankind to believe fake things when it helps your narrative. (shrug) Without a link to this video, I don't have an opinion on its veracity. Just that it's still not close to 100 feet.
Looking for new subclasses, spells, magic items, feats, and races? Opinions welcome :)
We started with a similar House Rule, but I scratched it pretty quickly. It's a super attractive rule because it allows for more gritty realism and the players totally reigned in their recklessness, but... it ended up feeling like too much of a punishment and downer. Perhaps it was the situation, but I am still interested in trying it again.
Definitely can seem punishing IMO, but I really hate that the best strategy to healing is to let them get reduced to 0 first. I want the players to avoid getting reduced to 0 like the plague.
One of the reasons for short rest being 6 seconds in my game, it gives a desperate p.c. at low H.P. an option to run for cover and take a short rest to heal up.