During character creation, a player doesn't have to accept a total ability combined score of less than 75 unless they want to. Add all six abilities up, before racial bonuses, and if it's less than 75 you can reroll some or all stats. I do this instead of allowing myself to fudge rolls later on. You get a boost up front, but the dice fall where they may once play begins.
For hit point rolls at level-up I let the players take the average or roll, with the ability to reroll any '1' result. I'm playing with the idea of "advantage" on hit point rolls instead, however, but I'm not sure how severely that would affect the curve. On a D20, that's an average of 25% higher, but on smaller dice advantage would probably be more impactful than that, which may be too much.
As a practice, I don't ask for rolls when they don't have a chance to succeed or fail. "I catch the lightning bolt and throw it back at the wizard" Um, no. You don't. But you can stand there and get zotted if you like. Some fluke Nat 20 is not going to bend reality to make the impossible happen. "Are there any Dwarves in the tavern?" Duh. You either see Dwarves or you don't. That's not a roll. If a Dwarf is hiding or disguised, then they won't be noticed by default without asking for a roll to detect someone hidden or disguised. I'm presenting the scene as it appears on the surface. Digging down requires player action.
Called shots have disadvantage and do half-damage, but apply an appropriate status to an enemy . "I throw my dagger into the Cyclops eye to blind him" "You hit. He takes half damage, but is blinded"
Mercer's Resurrection rules are pretty awesome and I plan to use those next time.
I generally use Mercer's Resurrection, but altered to my games. There are ways to get around it, Wish can bring them back once, True Resurrection is a guaranteed resurrection the first time it is used, the others are all more difficult.
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Called shots have disadvantage and do half-damage, but apply an appropriate status to an enemy . "I throw my dagger into the Cyclops eye to blind him" "You hit. He takes half damage, but is blinded"
I hadn't heard of Mercer's resurrection rules before this thread. Pretty cool.
What I've done instead is change the material component of resurrection spells to require the sap from a tree of life. In my old Norse inspired campaign that means tracking down a Yggdrasilbarn: a tree grown from a seed from Yggdrasil, the world tree. According to legend, Frey wandered all around Midgard planting these seeds a long time ago in hard to get to places. They are also often guarded. The sap must be collected during a full moon.
Other homebrew rules I like:
Start at zero-level. Characters don't have a class until they get their first XP. This works especially well with warlocks who are required to draw blood before their patron agrees they are worthy.
Sorcerers use combined spell points + sorcery points. No messing around with slots. If they try to use more high-level spells than would be allowed by using the slots system, they gain a level of exhaustion.
I like the idea that you never regain hit points during a long rest, just half of your hit dice. I don't use it right now because my campaign is all kids.
"The worst spell". My son can really say it well, having seen the Zee Bashew video several times. But yeah, Goodberry consumes the material component.
For my kids' campaign, I had a level-up happen during a fight. My son's bronze dragonborn eldritch knight was slashing some zombies when he all of a sudden gained the ability to cast Blue Lightning Blade (i.e. Green Flame Blade but lightning instead). He thought it was amazing when it happened. Also, the jumping damage from the spell can redirect back to the original target if there are no other possible targets. For adult groups, I agree with most that leveling should at the least require a long rest, but for kids having it happen "live" can make for some memorable moments.
I have always felt that if characters are allowed to try as many times as they want to succeed at a skill check it makes success inevitable and DC's meaningless. To counter this, I allow one roll at the given DC. If it fails and the player wants their character to retry, they must make a DC10 Wis check (this difficulty increases with each successive failure of the original skill check) until they either succeed at the task or fail the Wis check. Failure of the Wis check represents the character giving up at the task because they are now convinced they won't succeed and are wasting their time. Characters with high Wis therefore have an advantage when it comes to repeating skill checks which reflects their will power and patience. Characters with low Wis are impatient and give up more easily.
While I like your use of Wisdom, dice should not be rolled if there there is no cost to failure. AnrgyGM has an excellent write-up about this.
DMs make their players roll too many f$&%ing dice. It’s fun to roll dice, sure. But only when it’s dramatically appropriate. Otherwise, it’s a waste of time and makes die rolling seem trivial, robbing the game of dramatic tension and frustrating the players. Every time a player describes an action, the DM has to decide whether a die roll is called for. And he should do so by asking these questions:
Can the action actually succeed? If the action is impossible, either because its just f$&%ing impossible or because the difficulty is so ridiculously high the player can’t succeed, don’t roll. Either tell the PC that it is impossible or narrate the failure. Done.
Can the action really, truly fail? This is actually trickier to figure out because a lot of actions seem like they can fail, but they really can’t. For example, if the PCs are ransacking a dungeon room, barring anything magically hidden or designed never to be found, they will turn up everything eventually. If they are researching information in the library, they’ll eventually turn it up.The trick is decide whether the PCs are constrained. Assuming a lock is within the PC’s skill level, they will eventually pick the lock and get it open. But if the room is filling with water or monsters are beating the snot out of the PCs, the question is not whether they succeed, but whether they succeed in five rounds. That is something they can fail at.
That is why it is not enough that success and failure are possible. We also have to ask whether failure carries a cost or penalty. In the case of the lock being picked while the room floods, the penalty for failure is death. The party is risking something if the action doesn’t succeed. Searching for a trap and trying to disarm the trap both have a risk: you might blunder into the trap and set it off before you find it or disarm it.
The assumption is that, lacking any constraints, the party will keep trying something over and over until they succeed. The DM should take that into account. When the party attempts an action, assume they mean to keep trying until it succeeds. If the party could freely do so, then it is not worth rolling. They succeed. And beware not to impose constraints that don’t really exist. “Because it will take an hour” is not a constraint. “Because it will take an hour and the place will explode in two hours” is a constraint.
It is also important to note that “missing out on something” is not the same as a risk or cost of failure. If the party is trying to pick a lock on a door that leads to massive treasure, there is nothing that keeps them from trying until they succeed. There is nothing that establishes a failure point. A risk or cost of failure is something that requires the party to decide whether it is worth continuing to try (time is running out to escape from the bomb) or else establishes a point of final failure (the bomb went off, you died). If there is nothing in the scene that would (a) cause the party to stop trying to succeed or (b) keep them from being able to try again and again, just give them the success and call it a day. The roll is a waste of time.
Called shots have disadvantage and do half-damage, but apply an appropriate status to an enemy . "I throw my dagger into the Cyclops eye to blind him" "You hit. He takes half damage, but is blinded"
I like this one
It seems a bit too powerful. Sure, it is disadvantage and does half damage, but what if they say "I aim for the head with my arrow"?
Does that immediately kill them? Are only players allowed to do this, or can NPC's and Monsters as well?
Why would you ever not do this if it has a chance to kill them or blind them instantly?
Also, with the cyclops situation, remember even when Odysseus stabbed Polyphemus with a giant sharpened log it wasn't enough to completely blind him.
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
- Makes it harder to die in combat, while still preserving risk, albeit more granular
- As a drawback, sometimes when you stabilize, you will receive Lingering Injuries (roll table at DMG272)
- An average of 1 injury per stabilization (probabilistically)
- Gives PCs more reaction time by prolonging the average nr of turns for death saving throws (from an average of 4 turns, to about 7 turns)
- Monsters would need more hits to kill you while you are down and unconscious (and the DM won't feel that bad to hit a downed PC)
How it does it:
- Max failures to reach is now 7, instead of 3
- Max successes to reach is now 7, instead of 3
- Each time you roll the d20 death saving die, you also roll a d6 that we shall refer as the Intensity die
- The d20 die has normal rules, what is over 10 is a success, and under is a failure
- For each roll, half the Intensity die rounded down (minimum 1)
E.g:
d6 = 6 -> 3
d6 = 4 or 5 -> 2
d6 = 3 or 2 or 1 -> 1
- When you roll, add the number of Successes/Failures equal to half the Intensity die value (rounded down, min 1)
E.g:
Roll d20=14, d6=2 -> 1 Success
Roll d20=9, d6=1 -> 1 Failure
Roll d20=17,d6=6 -> 3 Successes
Roll d20=3, d6=1 -> 1 Failure
- Rolling a 1 on a d20 (critical failure), you just double the number of Failures
- Rolling a 20 on a d20 (critical success), you just double the number of Successes, and when you finish, you get out at 1HP instead of just stable.
- Injury Rule: If you are to add more than 2 Failures in a turn, add Injuries instead
E.g.
If you roll a d20=8, d6=6, which means to add 3 failure, you instead add 2 failures, and 1 injury
If you roll a d20=1, d6=5, which means to add 2x2=4 failures (due to crit), you instead add 2 failures, and 2 injuries
- When a monster hits you while down, add a death saving Failure and roll a d6. If that d6 is a 6, then also add an injury.
- Tip: Track these using tokens like poker chips (3 colors, like red, black, green)
Simplified Death Saving Throws - Injury Variant
If you want something simpler, you can use the classic system, with the following two rules:
- When you roll a natural 1, instead of adding two failures, add 1 failure and 1 injury
- When a monster attacks you, roll a d6. If it is a 6, add an injury and a failure. If it is 1-5, add only an injury.
Extra recommendations:
Here are some rules that work really well with this advanced death throwing system.
Secret Death Saves Rule:
When a character does death saving throws, it does it in secret with the DM behind his screen, so the other party are in suspense. Rolling the die on these is quite fun for the DM and the player, and all the player needs to know is that the max to reach is 7, and that the red tokens represent injuries.
Resurection Variant: Mercer's Res Rules
This helps make resurections really rare. This is how our party likes to play. The injuries above add the level of risk, that is more gradual.
Injury Variant: Some injuries cannot be healed by simple healing spells
This helps some injuries require long rests, or priest interventions, to increase the stakes.
HP Scrubbing Nerf: When a character drops to 0HP and goes up, he receives 1 level of exhaustion
This is our preferred rule, to prevent 2H fighters charging in to be healed from 0 again and again.
I ran the numbers on this, and the times you get out of combat is similar to the classic system:
Simulation numbers:
- Classic death saving system: 10 times got out, 6 times died, average of 4 rounds
- Advanced death saving system: 10 times got out, 6 times died, average of 7.5 rounds, average of 1 injury
This is quite fun to do, and I recommend adapting the other rules of the game to fit in with these.
It is also quite intense to roll with the unconscious player behind the DM screen, and watch the party in horror.
Early deaths suck, especially for inexperienced players.
Let me know what you think and if you decide using it, follow this post so that you can leave feedback in the future.
Each time a scary or tense situation happens, the DM can ask for a Sanity (Intelligence)check
Each sanity situation will have a DC level determined in the DM's head
Players that fail a sanity check will reduce their sanity by 1
Players that roll nat 20 on sanity checks receive a Moment of Courage : +1 sanity, and roll on the Heroic Courage table
Players that roll nat 1 on sanity checks, receive -2 sanity instead
Intimidation (Charisma) or Intimidation (Strength) can be used on an NPC or monster to force them to do a sanity check
New stat called Sanity (like HP)
Sanity can have values between 0 and 20
Sanity starts at 10+INT
For each even sanity number below 10 (i.e. 8, 6, 4, 2, 0), the character will receive an Insanity debuff for 1 turn (roll Insanity table)
When reaching 0 sanity, a character also receives a permanent Madness (flaw) that doesn't stack
Any failed sanity check at 0 sanity incurs insanity directly
A natural 1 critical fail sanity check while at 0 sanity incurs a Heart Attack (drop to 0 HP)
Sanity checks apply when monsters are afraid also
Sanity flavors:
The world is a dangerous place, and our adventures have to be quite insane and have their share of problems to venture far from civilization
Sanity also roughly represents levels of Morale, Stress and Courage a character has, for roleplaying purposes
Sanity applies to dumb monsters too, you can really scare them if you are creative, since their INT is so low
Monster sanity checks always apply an insanity debuff (instead of tracking their sanity)
Sanity is a buff for the INT stat for non-wizards
Sanity is also a buff for Strength stat for intimidation sanity tactics
Situations where sanity can be restored:
Prayer (or similar activity)before/during/after a short rest
You can now spend 1Inspiration to gain 1 sanity
Bard song (with a Charisma check)
An inspiring sight
A victory (depending how big)
Finding loot
Meeting people and going in civilization
Eating a good meal
Having sex
Drinking booze
Carousing events
Ally reinforcements coming in
Situations where insanity can occur:
A friendly ally was killed DC20
A friendly ally is unconscious DC10
The monster(s) are overwhelmingly powerful DC15
Wolf howls in the distance DC5
A surprise attack DC10
An undead munching on a corpse spotted DC10
Alone in the forest at night DC10 every 1h
Direct contact with a divine being DC15
A banshee scream DC15
Seeing a dragon fly toward you DC20
(many more can be improvised)
Insanity table d20 (all for 1 turn)
Fearful - Freightened by the enemy
Paranoid - No ally can help or buff you.
Selfish - Cannot assist or help any ally
Abusive - Grapple nearest ally, and stay behind him
Hopeless - Drop your weapon (and shield) and back away slowly for half your speed
Stressed - Ability check disadvantage
Antipathy - Apply Antipathy spell effect to source of fear (WIS check when seen, or freightened)
Shaken - Tremors in hand, dex attack disadvantage
Weakened - Half damage attacks and Strength check disadvantage
Terror - Cannot move for one turn
Babble - Intelligible speak, and verbal spells cannot be cast
Confused - The creature uses all its movement to move in a random direction. To determine the direction, roll a d8 and assign a direction to each die face.
Misery - Take 1d4 psychic damage, multiplied by your level
Delusion- Hallucinate apparitions around you (all monsters have a mirror image effect for you)
Amnesic - You forget the class or race abilities you can take and cannot use them
Discouraged - Next attack has disadvantage
Irrational - Lose your turn performing an action that is not rational or useful to the situation at hand
Faint - Become unconscious
Horrified - Fall prone on your back and scream or cry
Fury - Attack the nearest target
Heroic Courage table d8 (all for 1 turn)
Leadership - Entire party receives +1 sanity
Courageous - You go first on the next combat turn
Focused - You have advantage on your next ranged attack
Stalwart - +2 AC temporarily
Powerful - Next melee attack if it hits, you gain critical on it
Vigorous - Double your speed
Bravery - You may choose up to 3 enemies to focus their actions on you
Respite - You may spend one hit dice for healing, due to an adrenaline surge
This is a ton of fun for the group, and we have other house rules that can balance the difficulty spike.
Let me know if you have the chance of playing with it.
Abusive - Grapple nearest ally, and stay behind him
Hopeless - Drop your weapon (and shield) and back away slowly for half your speed
Stressed - Ability check disadvantage
Antipathy - Apply Antipathy spell effect to source of fear (WIS check when seen, or freightened)
Shaken - Tremors in hand, dex attack disadvantage
Weakened - Half damage attacks and Strength check disadvantage
Terror - Cannot move for one turn
Babble - Intelligible speak, and verbal spells cannot be cast
Confused - The creature uses all its movement to move in a random direction. To determine the direction, roll a d8 and assign a direction to each die face.
Misery - Take 1d4 psychic damage, multiplied by your level
Delusion- Hallucinate apparitions around you (all monsters have a mirror image effect for you)
Amnesic - You forget the class or race abilities you can take and cannot use them
Discouraged - Next attack has disadvantage
Irrational - Lose your turn performing an action that is not rational or useful to the situation at hand
Faint - Become unconscious
Horrified - Fall prone on your back and scream or cry
Fury - Attack the nearest target
Heroic Courage table d8 (all for 1 turn)
Leadership - Entire party receives +1 sanity
Courageous - You go first on the next combat turn
Focused - You have advantage on your next ranged attack
Stalwart - +2 AC temporarily
Powerful - Next melee attack if it hits, you gain critical on it
Vigorous - Double your speed
Bravery - You may choose up to 3 enemies to focus their actions on you
Respite - You may spend one hit dice for healing, due to an adrenaline surge
This is a ton of fun for the group, and we have other house rules that can balance the difficulty spike.
Let me know if you have the chance of playing with it.
So basically Darkest Dungeon adapted to D&D.
I don't know if you're playing with all these house rules at the same time, I know it would complicate the hell out of our games and ruin narrative flow!
Called shots have disadvantage and do half-damage, but apply an appropriate status to an enemy . "I throw my dagger into the Cyclops eye to blind him" "You hit. He takes half damage, but is blinded"
I like this one
It seems a bit too powerful. Sure, it is disadvantage and does half damage, but what if they say "I aim for the head with my arrow"?
Does that immediately kill them? Are only players allowed to do this, or can NPC's and Monsters as well?
Why would you ever not do this if it has a chance to kill them or blind them instantly?
Also, with the cyclops situation, remember even when Odysseus stabbed Polyphemus with a giant sharpened log it wasn't enough to completely blind him.
No insta-death. It's not a status effect. That could be a stun. Any of these effects would wear off. For 'blinded' it would be clearing your vision or seeing around the face injury, not gouging out an eye. (A restrained and grappled character could be blinded permanently, but that's the case in base rules too)
I came up with this since i couldnt see any burning rules: suggestions and improvements welcome
Condition - Burning: Any creature that begins its turn on fire from a natural source suffers 1d10 fire damage until another creature spends an action to douse the flames. If a creature begins its turn burning it can drop prone and make a save to roll the flames out (Dex save DC 10+ the damage rolled)
If the fire originates from an unnatural source, such as the breath weapon or effect of a monster below CR 3, roll 1d10 when calculating fire damage taken. If the creature is above CR 3, roll an additional 1d10 with every 3 additional CR when calculating fire damage for example, CR 6 creatures deal 2d10 fire damage per turn when burning, CR 9 creatures 3d10 and so on.
When calculating the Dex save DC for burning against higher CR creatures, use the highest die rolled +10.
Called shots have disadvantage and do half-damage, but apply an appropriate status to an enemy . "I throw my dagger into the Cyclops eye to blind him" "You hit. He takes half damage, but is blinded"
I like this one
It seems a bit too powerful. Sure, it is disadvantage and does half damage, but what if they say "I aim for the head with my arrow"?
Does that immediately kill them? Are only players allowed to do this, or can NPC's and Monsters as well?
Why would you ever not do this if it has a chance to kill them or blind them instantly?
Also, with the cyclops situation, remember even when Odysseus stabbed Polyphemus with a giant sharpened log it wasn't enough to completely blind him.
Our current Called Shot house rule is that you roll with disadvantage, if you hit you deal extra damage (d4 or d6 depending on weapon size) and there is a chance (con save dc 10) to stun, blind, knock prone, or disarm the target depending on what you’ve called. It’s a relatively low DC so it’s a somewhat rare but memorable thing when it actually happens ;)
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I came up with this since i couldnt see any burning rules: suggestions and improvements welcome
Condition - Burning: Any creature that begins its turn on fire from a natural source suffers 1d10 fire damage until another creature spends an action to douse the flames. If a creature begins its turn burning it can drop prone and make a save to roll the flames out (Dex save DC 10+ the damage rolled)
If the fire originates from an unnatural source, such as the breath weapon or effect of a monster below CR 3, roll 1d10 when calculating fire damage taken. If the creature is above CR 3, roll an additional 1d10 with every 3 additional CR when calculating fire damage for example, CR 6 creatures deal 2d10 fire damage per turn when burning, CR 9 creatures 3d10 and so on.
When calculating the Dex save DC for burning against higher CR creatures, use the highest die rolled +10.
Wow, d10 seems kind of harsh, especially for lower level characters.
IIRC (which i probably don’t) In 2nd edition, natural fire did d4 damage per round until the fire was extinguished. I would say it would be a matter of stop drop and roll as an action to end. The player is already having to use a full action (which is big at any level) to end the burning.
I only bring this up because our group normally plays at lower levels. A d10 could easily outright kill a character, and not being a magical fire (which does have rules for continued exposure per spell descriptions) I think it would be just a tad unfair. Again IMHO and YMMV ;)
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We use intervals of 1d6 for unknown/undefined things that damage (acids, Poisoner Kits, falling debris, etc), or heal (Herbalism kit potions, magic fountains, etc), and 1d4 for damage or healing over time effects (like the 5e Alchemist Fire or Sword of Wounding). Keeps it simple and consistent.
In my games I use better crits (max damage then roll crit die) for players and npcs/monsters. To balance that players get max hp, it also makes the barbarian have a large difference to a wizard with high con. I also use glancing blows (hit exactly ac then deals half). Max out healing potions but keep them as an action to use. The click rule (whenever a player triggers a trap say click and then have players decide what they do when the trap triggers. Depending on what they do give the advantage or disadvantage on the check). The save crit rule (If you crit succeed a save you take no damage, but if you crit fail you take double.) And finally the crit initiative rule (If you crit on initiative you get advantage on your first action, but if you crit fail you get disadvantage).
One of my homebrew rules is that if a character/monster is large or bigger (or has the powerful build trait) they can dual wield any weapons even if they have the heavy or two-handed properties and they can take the two-handed damage die if the weapon has the versatile property.
I'm considering giving everyone a feat at character creation, (yes, humans would get a second one)
Also considering tying ASI to total levels not class levels. I know it's to discourage multiclassing but I think it's unreasonable to DND designers to try to oppress a playstyle like that
Another one I might do is allow a player to move one +1 racial bonus to another ability to a max +2. This means that you could switch your +2 and your +1 around, move your +1 over to a different ability score, or have three +1 and no +2. It would not allow a +3 in in any case. Humans could get a +2 in one stat with no bonus to another stat. I did consider forbidding humans from doing this, as they already have that flexibiilty, but I decided that this rule reduced human 'specialness' so letting them specialize a bit more makes up for it..
This would reduce the penalty for playing 'against type' for a race and allow people to play less common combinations without suffering mechanically for it, at minimal impact to 'racial flavor'. I'd rather my players have fun than worry about whether a Goliath Wizard fits someone we've never met's "vision" of what Goliaths should be, for example. Sure, the default is Str and Con, but maybe this guy is brainy instead. People differ from stereotypes after all.
Here are some of mine.
During character creation, a player doesn't have to accept a total ability combined score of less than 75 unless they want to. Add all six abilities up, before racial bonuses, and if it's less than 75 you can reroll some or all stats. I do this instead of allowing myself to fudge rolls later on. You get a boost up front, but the dice fall where they may once play begins.
For hit point rolls at level-up I let the players take the average or roll, with the ability to reroll any '1' result. I'm playing with the idea of "advantage" on hit point rolls instead, however, but I'm not sure how severely that would affect the curve. On a D20, that's an average of 25% higher, but on smaller dice advantage would probably be more impactful than that, which may be too much.
As a practice, I don't ask for rolls when they don't have a chance to succeed or fail. "I catch the lightning bolt and throw it back at the wizard" Um, no. You don't. But you can stand there and get zotted if you like. Some fluke Nat 20 is not going to bend reality to make the impossible happen. "Are there any Dwarves in the tavern?" Duh. You either see Dwarves or you don't. That's not a roll. If a Dwarf is hiding or disguised, then they won't be noticed by default without asking for a roll to detect someone hidden or disguised. I'm presenting the scene as it appears on the surface. Digging down requires player action.
Called shots have disadvantage and do half-damage, but apply an appropriate status to an enemy . "I throw my dagger into the Cyclops eye to blind him" "You hit. He takes half damage, but is blinded"
Mercer's Resurrection rules are pretty awesome and I plan to use those next time.
I generally use Mercer's Resurrection, but altered to my games. There are ways to get around it, Wish can bring them back once, True Resurrection is a guaranteed resurrection the first time it is used, the others are all more difficult.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
I like this one
Darkest Dungeon-like DnD Insanity System
Let's put a meter to that foolish bravery, for both you and the NPCs.
(and help give the INT stat more uses)
I hadn't heard of Mercer's resurrection rules before this thread. Pretty cool.
What I've done instead is change the material component of resurrection spells to require the sap from a tree of life. In my old Norse inspired campaign that means tracking down a Yggdrasilbarn: a tree grown from a seed from Yggdrasil, the world tree. According to legend, Frey wandered all around Midgard planting these seeds a long time ago in hard to get to places. They are also often guarded. The sap must be collected during a full moon.
Other homebrew rules I like:
Start at zero-level. Characters don't have a class until they get their first XP. This works especially well with warlocks who are required to draw blood before their patron agrees they are worthy.
Sorcerers use combined spell points + sorcery points. No messing around with slots. If they try to use more high-level spells than would be allowed by using the slots system, they gain a level of exhaustion.
I like the idea that you never regain hit points during a long rest, just half of your hit dice. I don't use it right now because my campaign is all kids.
"The worst spell". My son can really say it well, having seen the Zee Bashew video several times. But yeah, Goodberry consumes the material component.
For my kids' campaign, I had a level-up happen during a fight. My son's bronze dragonborn eldritch knight was slashing some zombies when he all of a sudden gained the ability to cast Blue Lightning Blade (i.e. Green Flame Blade but lightning instead). He thought it was amazing when it happened. Also, the jumping damage from the spell can redirect back to the original target if there are no other possible targets. For adult groups, I agree with most that leveling should at the least require a long rest, but for kids having it happen "live" can make for some memorable moments.
While I like your use of Wisdom, dice should not be rolled if there there is no cost to failure. AnrgyGM has an excellent write-up about this.
https://theangrygm.com/five-simple-rules-for-dating-my-teenaged-skill-system/
Extract :
It seems a bit too powerful. Sure, it is disadvantage and does half damage, but what if they say "I aim for the head with my arrow"?
Does that immediately kill them? Are only players allowed to do this, or can NPC's and Monsters as well?
Why would you ever not do this if it has a chance to kill them or blind them instantly?
Also, with the cyclops situation, remember even when Odysseus stabbed Polyphemus with a giant sharpened log it wasn't enough to completely blind him.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
If I encountered that, I would just improvise and roll an extra d20 dice along the hit dice and in this case
- a 19-20 basically might kill the guy (if he is medium or under 100hp)
- a 15-18 would just hit the body, do normal damage
- a 1-14 is a miss
This is on top of the normal AC calculations
would be a nice all or nothing shot if a player wants to get creative
Darkest Dungeon-like DnD Insanity System
Let's put a meter to that foolish bravery, for both you and the NPCs.
(and help give the INT stat more uses)
Here is a death saving injury variant system from https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/dungeons-dragons-discussion/homebrew-house-rules/57898-death-saving-injury-variant-rules-more-forgiving
I really love using this.
Advanced Death Saving Throws - Injury Variant
What it achieves:
- Makes it harder to die in combat, while still preserving risk, albeit more granular
- As a drawback, sometimes when you stabilize, you will receive Lingering Injuries (roll table at DMG272)
- An average of 1 injury per stabilization (probabilistically)
- Gives PCs more reaction time by prolonging the average nr of turns for death saving throws (from an average of 4 turns, to about 7 turns)
- Monsters would need more hits to kill you while you are down and unconscious (and the DM won't feel that bad to hit a downed PC)
How it does it:
- Max failures to reach is now 7, instead of 3
- Max successes to reach is now 7, instead of 3
- Each time you roll the d20 death saving die, you also roll a d6 that we shall refer as the Intensity die
- The d20 die has normal rules, what is over 10 is a success, and under is a failure
- For each roll, half the Intensity die rounded down (minimum 1)
- When you roll, add the number of Successes/Failures equal to half the Intensity die value (rounded down, min 1)
- Rolling a 1 on a d20 (critical failure), you just double the number of Failures
- Rolling a 20 on a d20 (critical success), you just double the number of Successes, and when you finish, you get out at 1HP instead of just stable.
- Injury Rule: If you are to add more than 2 Failures in a turn, add Injuries instead
- When a monster hits you while down, add a death saving Failure and roll a d6. If that d6 is a 6, then also add an injury.
- Tip: Track these using tokens like poker chips (3 colors, like red, black, green)
Simplified Death Saving Throws - Injury Variant
If you want something simpler, you can use the classic system, with the following two rules:
- When you roll a natural 1, instead of adding two failures, add 1 failure and 1 injury
- When a monster attacks you, roll a d6. If it is a 6, add an injury and a failure. If it is 1-5, add only an injury.
Extra recommendations:
Here are some rules that work really well with this advanced death throwing system.
Secret Death Saves Rule:
When a character does death saving throws, it does it in secret with the DM behind his screen, so the other party are in suspense. Rolling the die on these is quite fun for the DM and the player, and all the player needs to know is that the max to reach is 7, and that the red tokens represent injuries.
Resurection Variant: Mercer's Res Rules
This helps make resurections really rare. This is how our party likes to play. The injuries above add the level of risk, that is more gradual.
Injury Variant: Some injuries cannot be healed by simple healing spells
This helps some injuries require long rests, or priest interventions, to increase the stakes.
HP Scrubbing Nerf: When a character drops to 0HP and goes up, he receives 1 level of exhaustion
This is our preferred rule, to prevent 2H fighters charging in to be healed from 0 again and again.
I ran the numbers on this, and the times you get out of combat is similar to the classic system:
Simulation numbers:
- Classic death saving system: 10 times got out, 6 times died, average of 4 rounds
- Advanced death saving system: 10 times got out, 6 times died, average of 7.5 rounds, average of 1 injury
This is quite fun to do, and I recommend adapting the other rules of the game to fit in with these.
It is also quite intense to roll with the unconscious player behind the DM screen, and watch the party in horror.
Early deaths suck, especially for inexperienced players.
Let me know what you think and if you decide using it, follow this post so that you can leave feedback in the future.
Loop.
Darkest Dungeon-like DnD Insanity System
Let's put a meter to that foolish bravery, for both you and the NPCs.
(and help give the INT stat more uses)
This is a ton of fun for the group, and we have other house rules that can balance the difficulty spike.
Let me know if you have the chance of playing with it.
Darkest Dungeon-like DnD Insanity System
Let's put a meter to that foolish bravery, for both you and the NPCs.
(and help give the INT stat more uses)
So basically Darkest Dungeon adapted to D&D.
I don't know if you're playing with all these house rules at the same time, I know it would complicate the hell out of our games and ruin narrative flow!
Most things are going to be in the background.
The darkest dungeon system is the biggest change, but it adds to the narrative.
Darkest Dungeon-like DnD Insanity System
Let's put a meter to that foolish bravery, for both you and the NPCs.
(and help give the INT stat more uses)
No insta-death. It's not a status effect. That could be a stun. Any of these effects would wear off. For 'blinded' it would be clearing your vision or seeing around the face injury, not gouging out an eye. (A restrained and grappled character could be blinded permanently, but that's the case in base rules too)
I came up with this since i couldnt see any burning rules: suggestions and improvements welcome
Condition - Burning: Any creature that begins its turn on fire from a natural source suffers 1d10 fire damage until another creature spends an action to douse the flames. If a creature begins its turn burning it can drop prone and make a save to roll the flames out (Dex save DC 10+ the damage rolled)
If the fire originates from an unnatural source, such as the breath weapon or effect of a monster below CR 3, roll 1d10 when calculating fire damage taken. If the creature is above CR 3, roll an additional 1d10 with every 3 additional CR when calculating fire damage for example, CR 6 creatures deal 2d10 fire damage per turn when burning, CR 9 creatures 3d10 and so on.
When calculating the Dex save DC for burning against higher CR creatures, use the highest die rolled +10.
Our current Called Shot house rule is that you roll with disadvantage, if you hit you deal extra damage (d4 or d6 depending on weapon size) and there is a chance (con save dc 10) to stun, blind, knock prone, or disarm the target depending on what you’ve called. It’s a relatively low DC so it’s a somewhat rare but memorable thing when it actually happens ;)
Welcome to the Grand Illusion, come on in and see what's happening, pay the price, get your ticket for the show....
Wow, d10 seems kind of harsh, especially for lower level characters.
IIRC (which i probably don’t) In 2nd edition, natural fire did d4 damage per round until the fire was extinguished. I would say it would be a matter of stop drop and roll as an action to end. The player is already having to use a full action (which is big at any level) to end the burning.
I only bring this up because our group normally plays at lower levels. A d10 could easily outright kill a character, and not being a magical fire (which does have rules for continued exposure per spell descriptions) I think it would be just a tad unfair. Again IMHO and YMMV ;)
Welcome to the Grand Illusion, come on in and see what's happening, pay the price, get your ticket for the show....
We use intervals of 1d6 for unknown/undefined things that damage (acids, Poisoner Kits, falling debris, etc), or heal (Herbalism kit potions, magic fountains, etc), and 1d4 for damage or healing over time effects (like the 5e Alchemist Fire or Sword of Wounding). Keeps it simple and consistent.
One of my house rues is that you can attack twice with light weapons with out using a bonus action
In my games I use better crits (max damage then roll crit die) for players and npcs/monsters. To balance that players get max hp, it also makes the barbarian have a large difference to a wizard with high con. I also use glancing blows (hit exactly ac then deals half). Max out healing potions but keep them as an action to use. The click rule (whenever a player triggers a trap say click and then have players decide what they do when the trap triggers. Depending on what they do give the advantage or disadvantage on the check). The save crit rule (If you crit succeed a save you take no damage, but if you crit fail you take double.) And finally the crit initiative rule (If you crit on initiative you get advantage on your first action, but if you crit fail you get disadvantage).
One of my homebrew rules is that if a character/monster is large or bigger (or has the powerful build trait) they can dual wield any weapons even if they have the heavy or two-handed properties and they can take the two-handed damage die if the weapon has the versatile property.
I'm considering giving everyone a feat at character creation, (yes, humans would get a second one)
Also considering tying ASI to total levels not class levels. I know it's to discourage multiclassing but I think it's unreasonable to DND designers to try to oppress a playstyle like that
Another one I might do is allow a player to move one +1 racial bonus to another ability to a max +2. This means that you could switch your +2 and your +1 around, move your +1 over to a different ability score, or have three +1 and no +2. It would not allow a +3 in in any case. Humans could get a +2 in one stat with no bonus to another stat. I did consider forbidding humans from doing this, as they already have that flexibiilty, but I decided that this rule reduced human 'specialness' so letting them specialize a bit more makes up for it..
This would reduce the penalty for playing 'against type' for a race and allow people to play less common combinations without suffering mechanically for it, at minimal impact to 'racial flavor'. I'd rather my players have fun than worry about whether a Goliath Wizard fits someone we've never met's "vision" of what Goliaths should be, for example. Sure, the default is Str and Con, but maybe this guy is brainy instead. People differ from stereotypes after all.