1. Animal Companions (Rangers) A ranger’s animal companion is a seamless extension of their combat capabilities. An animal companion’s attacks no longer require the ranger to use their bonus action. Instead, companions act independently during the ranger's turn, following commands given as part of the ranger's action economy. Expanded Resistances and Vulnerabilities To enhance tactical gameplay, there are more opportunities for resistances and vulnerabilities in this system. Creatures, spells, and abilities may interact with a broader spectrum of damage types (e.g., slashing from magic weapons, cold vs. radiant, etc.), encouraging creativity and strategy in combat. Critical Rolls on Ability Checks and Saving Throws Ability Checks: A natural 1 or 20 does not guarantee failure or success. For example, a natural 1 might result in a broken tool or additional challenges, while a 20 showcases extraordinary effort but remains subject to the difficulty of the task.

   Saving Throws: A natural 1 causes 1.5x damage or amplifies the effect of the failure. A natural 20 negates all damage or effect, even if the spell or ability would typically allow for a reduced impact on success. For Example, a natural 20 on a Dex Save from Fireball will result in 0 damage (rather than the normal 1/2 damage from a successful save)

   Multiple Sources of Advantage/Disadvantage: Two Advantages and One Disadvantage: The roll has advantage.
   Initiative Ties Dexterity Default: Ties are resolved by comparing Dexterity scores. Tied initiative and tied dexterity results in re-rolls.

   Teammate Flexibility: If tied initiative occurs between allies, they can decide who acts first without using their actions or delays. They may also choose to combine their turns for creative teamwork.

   Spellcasting Risks Natural 1 on a Spell Attack Roll: Has a 10% chance per spell level of causing a wild magic surge. For example, a 3rd-level spell has a 30% chance.

   Wild Surge Effects on Counterspell: Countering a spell introduces volatile energy. (Potentially wild surge table being based on what school of spell is being counterspelled)

   Exhaustion on Revival Each time a character drops to 0 hit points and is revived, they gain one level of exhaustion. This rule emphasizes the physical toll of near-death experiences and adds urgency to avoiding unconsciousness.

   Health Potions and Actions Bonus Action: Roll for healing (standard dice roll). Full Action: Receive the maximum possible healing from the potion.
   “Identify” is accompanied by an investigation or arcana check. This determines how much is known about the item. (whether its cursed or has some negative drawbacks as well as if it can be improved through completing objectives i.e. Kill x amount of goblins with this dagger and it goes from +1 to +2.)

   Combat Response Times (if playing PBP) If you do not respond within 24 hours, your turn is forfeit and the DM will decide your move for the turn (it likely won't be anything that costs resources such as spell slots, but it may be a move from your list, or it might just be the dodge action) 
   Bleeding Out (0 HP) When you are reduced to 0 HP, you are still conscious but gravely wounded. You are actively bleeding out, struggling to survive. While in this state, your actions and mobility are severely restricted.

   Effects of Bleeding Out: Movement: Your movement speed is halved, and you can only crawl. Actions: You cannot take any actions or bonus actions, except for Disengage, Hide, and Dash (with restrictions). Hiding: You have disadvantage on Stealth checks to hide, and creatures gain advantage on Perception checks to find you due to your blood trail. Dashing: If you use the Dash action, you automatically fail one death saving throw. Death Saving Throws: At two failed death saves, you lose consciousness.

I like them. The Bleeding Out rule is great, and I honestly will use it for my own games, if you don't mind.Exhaustion on Revival is great, too. Most of the rules are good, the only really "bad" one (and it's still great) is the Wild Magic Surge on counterpsell. Do you need to create a new table for each magic surge? Because that would be annoying, but apart from that, great!

Thanks, yeah, My idea was to create a table for each school of magic.  and then when a spell is counterspelled, I would go to that table and use that... but I'm kinda iffy on doing that anyway, I like the idea better than I think I can execute it. In theory, it would have been because that magic has been torn asunder or released without anywhere to go, so it'd manifest differently, but I'll probably just end up doing one wild magic table across the board, or just removing the counterspell wild magic all together... I'm still in the world building phase, but I'm getting pretty close I think to running a trial run with PBP (so i have time to think about how I want things to work) Eventually, I'd like to be DMing multiple parties and have their actions effect the world in ways that might effect the other parties. but that's years down the road for me I think. I'm brand new to the whole DMing thing, so I'm trying to take it slowly. (I know I SHOULD just DM RAW modules before trying to come up with my own thing, but this is the fun part for me lol.)

I appreciate the advice and any more you have for me.

Quote from Balkoth10318315 >>

Thanks, yeah, My idea was to create a table for each school of magic.  and then when a spell is counterspelled, I would go to that table and use that... but I'm kinda iffy on doing that anyway, I like the idea better than I think I can execute it. In theory, it would have been because that magic has been torn asunder or released without anywhere to go, so it'd manifest differently, but I'll probably just end up doing one wild magic table across the board, or just removing the counterspell wild magic all together... I'm still in the world building phase, but I'm getting pretty close I think to running a trial run with PBP (so i have time to think about how I want things to work) Eventually, I'd like to be DMing multiple parties and have their actions effect the world in ways that might effect the other parties. but that's years down the road for me I think. I'm brand new to the whole DMing thing, so I'm trying to take it slowly. (I know I SHOULD just DM RAW modules before trying to come up with my own thing, but this is the fun part for me lol.)

I appreciate the advice and any more you have for me.

 Of course! I like the idea of the actions of one party affecting the others. I will say, no. Never DM RAW. Players live for cool (and chaotic) stuff. The best thing you can do is make it fun! These rules will be great for players. I will add, though:

The Rule of Cool: Mechanics are overruled by the coolness of a skill or plan. For example: "I want to backflip onto the monsters back and stab him" Should be given a chance to succeed, even if mechanically it would fail.

I am going to have to work on the wording, but I no longer want it to be exhaustion upon revival. I want it to be exhaustion upon ending your turn with 0 hp. This way it compounds if you are left bleeding out for a while.

The only thing I see with this is, you can still be yo-yo'd without issue as long as they revive you before your turn. Idk if I like this, so I want it to be exhaustion upon going to 0hp and then at the end of your turn, but the first turn is exempt to prevent double exhaustion in one round? Idk I gotta work on that verbage

Maybe something like adding to the Bleeding Out condition 
"Exhaustion from Bleeding Out:
Upon entering the Bleeding Out condition, you gain one level of exhaustion. At the end of each of your turns while in the Bleeding Out condition, you gain an additional level of exhaustion, unless it is your first turn in this state."

Also, I'm thinking of making healing more powerful, perhaps upgrading healing spells' dice (say it says roll 1d4+1, now it's 1d6+1) or I might fully double the dice (making that spell 2d4+1 instead). Would this be too much? I feel like there's currently no reason to heal until the person is down, so I'm instituting things to change this, and allow healers to heal

Quote from Balkoth10318315 >>

I am going to have to work on the wording, but I no longer want it to be exhaustion upon revival. I want it to be exhaustion upon ending your turn with 0 hp. This way it compounds if you are left bleeding out for a while.

The only thing I see with this is, you can still be yo-yo'd without issue as long as they revive you before your turn. Idk if I like this, so I want it to be exhaustion upon going to 0hp and then at the end of your turn, but the first turn is exempt to prevent double exhaustion in one round? Idk I gotta work on that verbage

Maybe something like adding to the Bleeding Out condition 
"Exhaustion from Bleeding Out:
Upon entering the Bleeding Out condition, you gain one level of exhaustion. At the end of each of your turns while in the Bleeding Out condition, you gain an additional level of exhaustion, unless it is your first turn in this state."

Also, I'm thinking of making healing more powerful, perhaps upgrading healing spells' dice (say it says roll 1d4+1, now it's 1d6+1) or I might fully double the dice (making that spell 2d4+1 instead). Would this be too much? I feel like there's currently no reason to heal until the person is down, so I'm instituting things to change this, and allow healers to heal

 The bleeding out is a genius Idea. If your bleeding out, your struggling tokeep concious from the pain. For the upgrades healing spells, maybe make a spell that prevents a person from bleeding out, rather than heal.