One thing I want to play with going forward with the new wider exhaustion, is allowing players to trade exhaustion for... Anything. A player can give themselves advantage on an ability check or attack roll if they take a level of exhaustion after the roll. Monk out of ki mid battle? 1 exhaustion per point. Wizard out of spell slots? 1 exhaustion per level of spell cast. Advantage on an attack roll? Take an exhaustion. Let the players feel like their characters are pushing their limits, knowing there is a -1 or more penalty waiting for them afterwards. With only recovering 1 point a night, they will have to meter out how hard they want to go. Using it once won't be bad. But if you go too hard in battle one day, you could be screwed for a week
I have a house rule with an expanded exhaustion table called sprint where a player can take a point of exhaustion and spend an action to move 5x their movement speed
unfortunately, it seems the playtest is not quite accurate to the final exhaustion, instead of up to level 10 (then dying on level 11) and -1 per level, it's up to level 5 (then dying on level 6) and -2 per level
Degrees of success actually exist in 5E, they're just extremely rarely used in official material. But I remember RotF having at least one check/save that has a worse result if the DC is failed by 5 or more.
PHB, p. 175 - Working Together "A character can only provide help if the task is one that he or she could attempt alone. For example, trying to open a lock requires proficiency with thieves' tools, so a character who lacks that proficiency can't help another character in that task." 👀
@@arwo1143it doesn’t make sense for there to be two people to be unlocking a a door at once though, or if a person doesn’t really know how to unlock doors they wouldn’t be of any help to someone that is currently trying to open one and knows how.
I love the homebrew exhaustion rules. It seems like a good balanced way to incentivize healing before unconsciousness (or in this case, dying). If you find it begins adding death spirals to your game, you could add a rule that receiving healing for a certain amount, or being healed to max, reduces one point of exhaustion.
@@powerwordspill A key decision point with the non-unconscious dying condition is whether a character can drink their own healing potion (an exception to "can't take actions"). We've played it this way and it's done a lot to 1) make healing potions more valuable and 2) save the characters with healing magic from always having to save their teammates.
At my table we use the Dying/Last Stand condition but allow an Action at a cost of 3 exhaustion or a bonus action for one exhaustion. Pairs well with the home brew potions as action or bonus rule you presented. Still roll death saves as usual.
If I may offer a rule of sorts I’ve been using to great effect. It’s called the cup of doom, and is based off of the Modipheus Conan 2D20 rules. Have a cup filled with about 10-12 D6’s. If you can find a cool skull chalice, even better. The players can use the D6’s and add them to any roll they make. A result of 1 doesn’t count and the die is forfeited. Players can choose to use as many or little as they want, and can keep rolling until they get the result they want. The catch? When all of the dice have been used something bad happens based on the circumstances of when the cup was emptied. Twice now, the fighter has found himself dangling above a perilous drop after using the last dice in the cup to try and finish off a bad guy. As the DM I also get to use the expended D6’s when I feel it is appropriate. Like when I roll a natty 20.
I love the combo of the videogame-y “downed” mechanic and the going-down-causes-exhaustion idea. It keeps going to 0hp punishing, but doesn’t remove as much player agency. Stealing that for sure.
This is how the Nimble rules work. When you go down to 0HP you take on the 'Dying' condition. At that point you take on 1 level of Exhaustion (i.e. -1 to all d20 rolls outside combat). While Dying you have just 1 action, bonus action or movement per turn. While Dying: - attacking or casting a spell with your action requires a DC 12 STR save or +1 level of Exhaustion. - taking any damage while Dying causes +2 levels of Exhaustion. - taking a critical hit while Dying causes +3 levels of Exhaustion. At Lvl 6 Exhaustion, you die. So far it's worked really nicely in keeping people engaged in combat and still feeling like they can be useful and involved but also raising challenging questions about if/when they should risk further Exhaustion. Also means that after an epic battle someone might need to genuinely recuperate from several levels of Exhaustion which can be interesting depending on the structure of your game.
How many homebrew rules does it take to make D&D a good game? I find it really interesting how stuck some people are on D&D without wanting to try other systems, yet they change the game so much it's not even the same system anymore.
Well, our favorite homebrew is Battle Maneuvers for Martial Characters. That HB allow Fighters, Barbarians, Rangers, Paladins, Rouges, Monks and Blood Hunters to have a supiority dice and battle maneuvers. Of course, Battle Master Fighters get a buff, but other Martial Classes have a more variation of "What to do?" other than "I make a bonk".
I do like the update to the long rest vs comfy long rest. Always thought there should be some added benefit to paying to sleep in an Inn vs just camping out. Maybe temp HP if they dont have exhaustion
Can't remember which youtuber suggested it, but I love the idea that a character who makes a roll for a death save has a moment to describe a significant scene from their past life that is flashing before their eyes. it helps them build more back story and it helps their death (if it happens) feel significant.
Hard disagree on “we shouldn’t apply real world logic to game mechanics”. Expecting DND to be a simulation is unreasonable, but having mechanics that are logically consistent helps players make good decisions
Depends on the type of game. "Real world" logic doesn't always work for D&D depending on the level of accessible magic in your world. Do gods exist? Is the game in the fea wild or in another realm away from Toril? Why are there other playable lineages? Why can't all characters rage? Or we can chalk it up to it's a game to have fun not a simulator.
With degrees of success one you're basically just using an alt rule from DMG (page 242) to reframe crits on ability checks and saves. For proper degrees of success you need partial results too - success at a cost and failure with opportunity. Basically you did the "yes and" and "no and", but you're missing "yes but" and "no but" results. Which, btw, are also suggested in DMG.
The new PHB Exhaustion rules ended up a little different from the play test. The official rule is now per exhaustion point -2 on each D20 test and -5 feet movement. At 6 points the character dies.
You need a red cup that says heat metal! I really dislike the potion as a bonus action. Especially administering it to another player. I have a hard enough time telling them they need to dig the potion out first, and that it requires a free hand. I'd much rather see a minor healing item that replaces the potion, that once attuned allows you to heal as a bonus action, maybe a couple or three times a day - or you refill it with a potion. No, it's not the beer hat.
I'm not a fan of potions as a bonus action either, though my party did vote to play with the rule for this campaign (I'm pretty sure it hasn't even come into play). As for other ways to heal up quickly, I think I'll like to introduce more ways to use Hit Dice besides short rests, something along the lines of "once per turn you can use your action or bonus action to expend one hit die and recover HP equal to the amount rolled + CON mod." Depending on the game, it could be an innate feature or it could come from an attuned item, and it could work once a day or their proficiency bonus number of times a day. But I'm just spit balling, I don't know if GMing another 5e game will come up in my future for me to try something like this out.
We play with potions taking a full action, but granting max healing (rather than rolled). This has worked out well and you never have the bad feels of a character spending 50gp for a measly 4 hp.
When you hit 0hp, roll a d4/d6/d8/d10/d20 depending on the lethality of your game. Maybe even tie the dice to your Constitution somehow. Anyway. If you roll a 1, you die. If you roll the highest number on the dice, you're back up at 1hp. Anything else, you wake up in an hour. Now here comes the fun part: Each time you survive, increase the death threshold by 1. If you want to be nice, then maybe rolling the highest number doesn't increase the threshold.
For extra damage on crits in my games it only applies to weapon damage rolls and only to the extra damage of the weapon. We use roll20 so I just put +8 to the crit of a rapier. I don't do this for extra damage like smites, sneak attack, or spells, because we found it to get busted really fast. This has allowed martials to shine in combat especially those with lower crit ranges like the often overlooked Champion subclass.
I'm currently trying out a variation of the critical hit rule mentioned in this video. If my players roll a crit, they have two choices: 1. The additional crit dice get maxed, just like explained in the video OR 2. Instead of getting additional damage dice, you get to roll a hit-zone dice to cripple a random body part of the enemy, with varying effects depending on where they hit. For example, recently a player destroyed one of two tentacle arms of my boss monster, disabling its multi-attack. I also threw in some "bleeding profusely" damage each round. Similarly, a hit to the head might blind/deafen/confuse/stun an enemy depending on weapon, type of enemy and situation. A crit to the legs might half movement speed, or one to the torso might damage the armor and thus reduce AC. The sky is the limit when coming up with effects from that. The concept of "crippled body parts" is btw entirely ̶s̶t̶o̶l̶e̶n̶ ̶f̶r̶o̶m̶ inspired by how Fallout handles separate body parts being disabled. This requires some tuning and it's easy to make the effect to powerful in the moment, but I think the core concept is good and my players seem to like it so far. Also, I don't think it's not necessarily bad for a crit to feel really powerful sometimes.
many of those are quite reasonable. Like healing potions, exhaustion, crits - i've been running with them from my very first oneshot last year because they are very reasonable and easy to understand. But I also balance these buffs with some debuffs, like flanking is just +2 to attack and only if target don't have high perception and resurrection is always a roll so death is always possible. AND any buffs or debuffs are also applied to npc's, еще just players.
I use a similar rule for exhaustion, fatigue. If you go unconscious you gain 1 level of fatigue (-1 to all d20 rolls). This only kicks in after combat to simulate adrenaline. You die once you pass +10 fatigue. Also made this as an item in d&d beyond so they can equip it an it adds the negative effect. You recover 1 level per long rest but there are also potions they can buy/find which remove 1 level of fatigue. Makes the party a lot more wary/tactical after a few rough fights
@gizmo7396 yeah it's a -1 to all rolls, so a lot of set up on the item. When they equip it the negative effect kicks in. So 2nd level of fatigue add a 2nd item and equip. There is probably a better way to do it
@@MarSara1 Yeah after playing around with it, I configured the -1 penalty, then added a pouch to the inventory and stored the fatigue items in that so it doesn't clutter the main inventory and is easily found. I just renamed the pouch
Allow players to stack creatures up on each other with any action or spell especially if they are prone. There could be a heap of monsters after a Wave of Force, you can do bar fights with creatures turning out to be under tables, chairs, on tables. YOu can use tables to shove creatures or squeeze them to the wall etc. I used this all over the place but not in DND. With every obstackle being a potential weapon and things+NPC flying in all direction bar fights turn out as 10/10 for me EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
Can you do a video on downtime? It's referenced a lot but I don't get it. I hear shopping is "downtime" a lot but, isn't going to shops and talking to shopkeepers and stuff normal gameplay? What does it mean by downtime and how is it different to normal play?
Downtime is when the characters aren't on a time crunch or aren't actively pursuing a quest. For example, the party heads into town after clearing a dungeon. They plan to travel to the next town but they don't need to leave right away. This is downtime. The party is free to do whatever in the meantime. This could be ask you said, shopping, or it could be crafting items, doing menial work, research in a library perhaps, checking in on NPCs in the area. That kind of thing. A good way to look at it is treat downtime like you would a day off from work.
6:15 Power Word Chill? lol (stealing that spell now) Also, I would say have you seen Nimble, but it appears to be blowing up now so you probably have. If not, check it out. It's a kind of ultimate 5e homebrew. And I don't really like the last one, except maybe for children. The pc's are already way op, and the monsters don't need to be nerfed more. We all have to grow up sometime. I grew up a lot when I started playing D&D because it *challenged* me. It's not *supposed* to be easy and keep getting easier, but the exact opposite. Like all truly good stories.
Sweeet! Gonna steal those fully or in part, when we got some more time under our collected belts in this little campaign. Happy wizard hunting and looking forward to the next video. 🤗🤗
I’m on a quest to collect every house rule on CZcams - I’ve got a playlist of over 2100 videos and added yours to the list - keep a lookout for some stuff coming out about house rules soon 👋🏿
I think I heard that D&D are changing exhaustion to -2 for all d20 rolls per level and -5 feet movement per level and dying at 6 levels of exhaustion. I think (i could be wrong) the help action only if you have proficiency in a skill is being added to the new rules.
The help action thing... It's not even homebrew, it's just buried in the regular rules of 5E Someone else already posted it, but chapter 7 of the Basic Rules, under "Ability Checks" This has existed in the rules since 2014. Working Together Sometimes two or more characters team up to attempt a task. The character who's leading the effort--or the one with the highest ability modifier--can make an ability check with advantage, reflecting the help provided by the other characters. In combat, this requires the Help action. **A character can only provide help if the task is one that he or she could attempt alone. For example, trying to open a lock requires proficiency with thieves' tools, so a character who lacks that proficiency can't help another character in that task.** Moreover, a character can help only when two or more individuals working together would actually be productive. Some tasks, such as threading a needle, are no easier with help.
With the initiative rule couldn't your team have one member go twice in a row(assuming they won the initiative) by having one dude go last in the first round and then swapping that dude to first in the second round?
I'm not sure I get the initiative rule. If you just wind up alternating, doesn't the only thing that it changes is which team goes first? The options are only ABABAB or BABAB etc.
I use the same exhaustion rules that you’re using plus any failed death saving throws or level of exhaustion and anytime you lose 50% of your HP with one hit is a level of exhaustion
I have one homerule, that I'm always using at the table. There is no permadeath unless everybody dies. TPK or immortals. Here is why: - I feel a little cringe when a character dies, and we have to make a pause, roll another character, than, introduce them to party etc. etc. - Often, when a single character dies in a capmaign it can be frustrating for a player - I feel another little cringe, while other people are playing and we have to find a good moment to introduce a new character - This rule can force player to use some of their gold for a little break. Character that was hit to 0hp, and failed 3 death saving throws are deadly injured. It needs to be taken to a safle place, and spend a week or a few weeks under a medical cover. Players have to think, plan, they have to use their supplies to pay for medic, or for other suplies like bandages, herbs etc. - Players still feel danger, becouse, one is dead - now what? They have to clear the way, and pick up a body, maybe try to finish the fight, but if all dies, the story ends. This solution has a little cons, like for example, it destroys a little world concept - like, you have potions that can save you after reciving 10 heavy sword hits. And now suddenly it doesn't work. But we can always expand it to - yeah, potions heals tiredness of battle and open wounds, but broken bones, skulls etc. not, so. Woah, he - But there is the only exception for this rule: IT DOESN"T APPLY IF WE PLAY DUNCEON CRAWL CLASSICS of couse xD
Stagger until one side runs out. Then all remaining units go in any particular order. One might choose to use their Dex (personally Wis, unless 0. Then they lose ties) unless there is a tactician. I stole this idea from Infinity: The Game (not the 2d20 rpg, it the war game) and the idea of a Lieutenant unit. If there is a tactician (not necessarily a 'leader,' but someone smart enough to organize the effort) then the remaining enemies go in whatever order you want. You might also thus tie in things like the morale variant rule or let the players use social actions to influence initiative or even skip units entirely. I particularly enjoy making situations where a PC could replace an enemy in initiative- thus gaining an extra turn and shutting down the target. Also I treat action surge as an extra turn without a BA that is declared at the end of any turn. I also work in the concept of slow and fast turns. I don't use the speed dice from past versions, it's rather very arbitrary; but skills can be used to create slow or fast turns. What this means is that a slow turn is merely a turn whose actions take such considerable effort or focus that you cannot take any physical action or one that manifests spell components. Some things also then related to this, such as getting adv/dadv on logically affected checks or something gaining a logical bonus to their's regarding a Slow/Fast character. For instance fast turn could give you an extra turn under special conditions, or let your Ready/Reaction action resolve before the trigger. And so on. Like adv/dadv these don't stack and merely cancel eachother out. Extra turns as a whole are like extra weapon attacks. Technically there is no limit, and it does what it says on the tin. It does not stop you from gaining more extra turns, but obviously that isn't easy anyway. Some tacticians, like various Fighter subclasses, also have the ability to actively command units. This not only could be an extra turn 1/round but they can give out buffs/debuffs too. This is independent of other abilities like Commanding Strike, and so stacks. Non-fighters could be considered a tactician. But that is up to GM discretion before the encounter. I like to tie it into backstory/background related things. Like if only one player has Sailor and you're doing things on a boat out on the water, then they get to be a tactician. Or if someone takes a Tactician type background then they are the defacto, unless they relinquish it for an encounter. You can have more than one tactician for either the party or the enemies, but never more than 1 active tactician. Non-active tacticians will assume control if they notice the break in Chain Of Command, and can aid the active tactician in many situations. More over, I do personally have a write-up of tactician's "additional subclass" and I borrow much from the abandoned Warlord fighter subclass. My other inspirations are drawn from Fire Emblem and Total War games (especially Warhammer) And for sake of the 3 Pillars I should note that tacticians aren't necessarily just for combat encounters.
Inspiration rule was originally to roll another d20 and take the result if it would be higher, it was not granting advantage in the normal sense of a reroll, at advantage, to be clear. A homebrew variant is to just use inspiration to reroll at advantage.
7:55 Im not an expert on this, but from what I've read of people who have fencing or weapon fighting training is that its actually quite easy to retreat from melee. Something about having to stay at range with weapons to avoid getting stabbed allowing easier retreats. I think those people tend to have no OAs in their games. Each ti their own of course.
8:45 This was the playtest rule, and what I use too. But the official 2024 rules I think keep only 6 levels of exhaustion with -2 at each level. More aggressive and more painful than our homebrew.
I also use the free weapon swap rules. I also allow shield don/doff as a BA, because then you can either start OR end a turn with a shield and do something else, but not both. That said I'm very hesitant to continue with this homebrew if I start using the weapon mastery rules because it incentivises the golf bag approach too much and will slow gameplay a lot. The official rules are bad enough for this in 2024.
I'm a professional DM and I use any player can make any check. Players with the skill roll as normal, players without roll at disadvantage. We use a similar initiative but use average for the initiative roller and each 5 points one group beats the other by equals another consecutive group member that group gets to use. That way great rolls and terrible rolls still have consequences. For crits we use the option you gave (we call it crunchy crits) OR allow the player to choose exploding crits (each max value on a die gets counted and rolled again). Been playing potions this way forever and the degrees of success just seem like common sense to me.
@@powerwordspill we had a kid yesterday who rolled 4 sixes in a row and did 40 pts of damage at lvl 3. It can be very fun. Plus it helps those low damage (d4s and d6s) weapons to spike on occasion.
One thing I'd like to add, the help action doesn't require proficiency with the chosen skill anyway. It always leaves a bad taste in my mouth when people make a "homebrew" rule to fix issues with dnd when the issues weren't there in the first place. For example people that "homebrew" their ability checks so that you can roll intimidation with strength, or roll medicine with intelligence act like geniuses for fixing ability checks but like... that's just a thing you can do... the player's handbook says you can do it and even encourages it. Great video though.👍
Yea he knows. He is talking about how it already is a common homebrew rule that you have to be proficient with the skill, but he adjusts that a bit more.
I started with a ton of homebrew changes and additions, and then I just made my own system entirely from the ground up... At this point, even with the 2024 changes, D&D is just not good enough.
Same. The OGL debacle was my breaking point. Prior, I had a little homebrew and a lot of adapted content from older editions. Now I've almost finished building an entirely revised system that addresses all of my issues.
The new PHB Exhaustion rules ended up a little different from the play test. The official rule is now per exhaustion point -2 on each D20 test and -5 feet movement. At 6 points the character dies.
One thing I want to play with going forward with the new wider exhaustion, is allowing players to trade exhaustion for... Anything. A player can give themselves advantage on an ability check or attack roll if they take a level of exhaustion after the roll. Monk out of ki mid battle? 1 exhaustion per point. Wizard out of spell slots? 1 exhaustion per level of spell cast. Advantage on an attack roll? Take an exhaustion. Let the players feel like their characters are pushing their limits, knowing there is a -1 or more penalty waiting for them afterwards. With only recovering 1 point a night, they will have to meter out how hard they want to go. Using it once won't be bad. But if you go too hard in battle one day, you could be screwed for a week
I have a house rule with an expanded exhaustion table called sprint where a player can take a point of exhaustion and spend an action to move 5x their movement speed
unfortunately, it seems the playtest is not quite accurate to the final exhaustion, instead of up to level 10 (then dying on level 11) and -1 per level, it's up to level 5 (then dying on level 6) and -2 per level
I’m going to steal these ideas and call them mine because *ownership is just an illusion.*
Degrees of success actually exist in 5E, they're just extremely rarely used in official material. But I remember RotF having at least one check/save that has a worse result if the DC is failed by 5 or more.
It's an optional rule in DMG, page 242.
PHB, p. 175 - Working Together
"A character can only provide help if the task is one that he or she could attempt alone. For example, trying to open a lock requires proficiency with thieves' tools, so a character who lacks that proficiency can't help another character in that task." 👀
That makes no sense
Just cause you don’t have proficiency doesn’t mean you can’t attempt to open that door
@@arwo1143it doesn’t make sense for there to be two people to be unlocking a a door at once though, or if a person doesn’t really know how to unlock doors they wouldn’t be of any help to someone that is currently trying to open one and knows how.
@@hkaden6815 In my head I picture one person picking the lock while the other aggressively cheerleads for them and it makes me laugh.
@@wanderer202 True!! I like imagining guidance like that too.
Door lock example: Rogue attempts to pick a lock, Cleric casts Light to light up the area Rogue is working on.
I love the homebrew exhaustion rules. It seems like a good balanced way to incentivize healing before unconsciousness (or in this case, dying). If you find it begins adding death spirals to your game, you could add a rule that receiving healing for a certain amount, or being healed to max, reduces one point of exhaustion.
Love that idea!
@@powerwordspill A key decision point with the non-unconscious dying condition is whether a character can drink their own healing potion (an exception to "can't take actions"). We've played it this way and it's done a lot to 1) make healing potions more valuable and 2) save the characters with healing magic from always having to save their teammates.
At my table we use the Dying/Last Stand condition but allow an Action at a cost of 3 exhaustion or a bonus action for one exhaustion. Pairs well with the home brew potions as action or bonus rule you presented. Still roll death saves as usual.
If I may offer a rule of sorts I’ve been using to great effect. It’s called the cup of doom, and is based off of the Modipheus Conan 2D20 rules.
Have a cup filled with about 10-12 D6’s. If you can find a cool skull chalice, even better. The players can use the D6’s and add them to any roll they make. A result of 1 doesn’t count and the die is forfeited. Players can choose to use as many or little as they want, and can keep rolling until they get the result they want.
The catch? When all of the dice have been used something bad happens based on the circumstances of when the cup was emptied. Twice now, the fighter has found himself dangling above a perilous drop after using the last dice in the cup to try and finish off a bad guy.
As the DM I also get to use the expended D6’s when I feel it is appropriate. Like when I roll a natty 20.
I love the combo of the videogame-y “downed” mechanic and the going-down-causes-exhaustion idea.
It keeps going to 0hp punishing, but doesn’t remove as much player agency.
Stealing that for sure.
This is how the Nimble rules work. When you go down to 0HP you take on the 'Dying' condition. At that point you take on 1 level of Exhaustion (i.e. -1 to all d20 rolls outside combat). While Dying you have just 1 action, bonus action or movement per turn.
While Dying:
- attacking or casting a spell with your action requires a DC 12 STR save or +1 level of Exhaustion.
- taking any damage while Dying causes +2 levels of Exhaustion.
- taking a critical hit while Dying causes +3 levels of Exhaustion.
At Lvl 6 Exhaustion, you die.
So far it's worked really nicely in keeping people engaged in combat and still feeling like they can be useful and involved but also raising challenging questions about if/when they should risk further Exhaustion. Also means that after an epic battle someone might need to genuinely recuperate from several levels of Exhaustion which can be interesting depending on the structure of your game.
How many homebrew rules does it take to make D&D a good game? I find it really interesting how stuck some people are on D&D without wanting to try other systems, yet they change the game so much it's not even the same system anymore.
Well, our favorite homebrew is Battle Maneuvers for Martial Characters.
That HB allow Fighters, Barbarians, Rangers, Paladins, Rouges, Monks and Blood Hunters to have a supiority dice and battle maneuvers.
Of course, Battle Master Fighters get a buff, but other Martial Classes have a more variation of "What to do?" other than "I make a bonk".
I do like the update to the long rest vs comfy long rest. Always thought there should be some added benefit to paying to sleep in an Inn vs just camping out.
Maybe temp HP if they dont have exhaustion
I don't know how it would mess with game balance, but maybe they could also lose an extra lvl of exhaustion.
Can't remember which youtuber suggested it, but I love the idea that a character who makes a roll for a death save has a moment to describe a significant scene from their past life that is flashing before their eyes. it helps them build more back story and it helps their death (if it happens) feel significant.
Yeah we used to use that, it was cool! Definitely impactful
Hard disagree on “we shouldn’t apply real world logic to game mechanics”. Expecting DND to be a simulation is unreasonable, but having mechanics that are logically consistent helps players make good decisions
Depends on the type of game. "Real world" logic doesn't always work for D&D depending on the level of accessible magic in your world.
Do gods exist? Is the game in the fea wild or in another realm away from Toril?
Why are there other playable lineages?
Why can't all characters rage?
Or we can chalk it up to it's a game to have fun not a simulator.
With degrees of success one you're basically just using an alt rule from DMG (page 242) to reframe crits on ability checks and saves. For proper degrees of success you need partial results too - success at a cost and failure with opportunity.
Basically you did the "yes and" and "no and", but you're missing "yes but" and "no but" results. Which, btw, are also suggested in DMG.
Again, players granting inspiration to other players is in DMG too, variant rule on page 241.
The new PHB Exhaustion rules ended up a little different from the play test. The official rule is now per exhaustion point -2 on each D20 test and -5 feet movement. At 6 points the character dies.
I got curious and checked the world record and with that being 11 days I think it makes sense for it to be 6 tbh
You need a red cup that says heat metal!
I really dislike the potion as a bonus action. Especially administering it to another player. I have a hard enough time telling them they need to dig the potion out first, and that it requires a free hand. I'd much rather see a minor healing item that replaces the potion, that once attuned allows you to heal as a bonus action, maybe a couple or three times a day - or you refill it with a potion. No, it's not the beer hat.
I'm not a fan of potions as a bonus action either, though my party did vote to play with the rule for this campaign (I'm pretty sure it hasn't even come into play).
As for other ways to heal up quickly, I think I'll like to introduce more ways to use Hit Dice besides short rests, something along the lines of "once per turn you can use your action or bonus action to expend one hit die and recover HP equal to the amount rolled + CON mod." Depending on the game, it could be an innate feature or it could come from an attuned item, and it could work once a day or their proficiency bonus number of times a day. But I'm just spit balling, I don't know if GMing another 5e game will come up in my future for me to try something like this out.
We play with potions taking a full action, but granting max healing (rather than rolled). This has worked out well and you never have the bad feels of a character spending 50gp for a measly 4 hp.
When you hit 0hp, roll a d4/d6/d8/d10/d20 depending on the lethality of your game. Maybe even tie the dice to your Constitution somehow. Anyway.
If you roll a 1, you die. If you roll the highest number on the dice, you're back up at 1hp. Anything else, you wake up in an hour.
Now here comes the fun part: Each time you survive, increase the death threshold by 1.
If you want to be nice, then maybe rolling the highest number doesn't increase the threshold.
For extra damage on crits in my games it only applies to weapon damage rolls and only to the extra damage of the weapon. We use roll20 so I just put +8 to the crit of a rapier. I don't do this for extra damage like smites, sneak attack, or spells, because we found it to get busted really fast. This has allowed martials to shine in combat especially those with lower crit ranges like the often overlooked Champion subclass.
I'm currently trying out a variation of the critical hit rule mentioned in this video. If my players roll a crit, they have two choices:
1. The additional crit dice get maxed, just like explained in the video
OR
2. Instead of getting additional damage dice, you get to roll a hit-zone dice to cripple a random body part of the enemy, with varying effects depending on where they hit. For example, recently a player destroyed one of two tentacle arms of my boss monster, disabling its multi-attack. I also threw in some "bleeding profusely" damage each round.
Similarly, a hit to the head might blind/deafen/confuse/stun an enemy depending on weapon, type of enemy and situation. A crit to the legs might half movement speed, or one to the torso might damage the armor and thus reduce AC. The sky is the limit when coming up with effects from that. The concept of "crippled body parts" is btw entirely ̶s̶t̶o̶l̶e̶n̶ ̶f̶r̶o̶m̶ inspired by how Fallout handles separate body parts being disabled.
This requires some tuning and it's easy to make the effect to powerful in the moment, but I think the core concept is good and my players seem to like it so far. Also, I don't think it's not necessarily bad for a crit to feel really powerful sometimes.
many of those are quite reasonable. Like healing potions, exhaustion, crits - i've been running with them from my very first oneshot last year because they are very reasonable and easy to understand. But I also balance these buffs with some debuffs, like flanking is just +2 to attack and only if target don't have high perception and resurrection is always a roll so death is always possible. AND any buffs or debuffs are also applied to npc's, еще just players.
I use a similar rule for exhaustion, fatigue.
If you go unconscious you gain 1 level of fatigue (-1 to all d20 rolls). This only kicks in after combat to simulate adrenaline. You die once you pass +10 fatigue. Also made this as an item in d&d beyond so they can equip it an it adds the negative effect.
You recover 1 level per long rest but there are also potions they can buy/find which remove 1 level of fatigue.
Makes the party a lot more wary/tactical after a few rough fights
How have you set up the item? Is it just a flat -1 that stacks if you add more than one of it?
@gizmo7396 yeah it's a -1 to all rolls, so a lot of set up on the item. When they equip it the negative effect kicks in.
So 2nd level of fatigue add a 2nd item and equip. There is probably a better way to do it
@@MarSara1 Yeah after playing around with it, I configured the -1 penalty, then added a pouch to the inventory and stored the fatigue items in that so it doesn't clutter the main inventory and is easily found. I just renamed the pouch
@gizmo7396 great idea, hope it works out for you
Allow players to stack creatures up on each other with any action or spell especially if they are prone. There could be a heap of monsters after a Wave of Force, you can do bar fights with creatures turning out to be under tables, chairs, on tables. YOu can use tables to shove creatures or squeeze them to the wall etc. I used this all over the place but not in DND. With every obstackle being a potential weapon and things+NPC flying in all direction bar fights turn out as 10/10 for me EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
Can you do a video on downtime? It's referenced a lot but I don't get it. I hear shopping is "downtime" a lot but, isn't going to shops and talking to shopkeepers and stuff normal gameplay? What does it mean by downtime and how is it different to normal play?
Downtime is when the characters aren't on a time crunch or aren't actively pursuing a quest.
For example, the party heads into town after clearing a dungeon. They plan to travel to the next town but they don't need to leave right away. This is downtime. The party is free to do whatever in the meantime. This could be ask you said, shopping, or it could be crafting items, doing menial work, research in a library perhaps, checking in on NPCs in the area. That kind of thing.
A good way to look at it is treat downtime like you would a day off from work.
6:15 Power Word Chill? lol (stealing that spell now) Also, I would say have you seen Nimble, but it appears to be blowing up now so you probably have. If not, check it out. It's a kind of ultimate 5e homebrew. And I don't really like the last one, except maybe for children. The pc's are already way op, and the monsters don't need to be nerfed more. We all have to grow up sometime. I grew up a lot when I started playing D&D because it *challenged* me. It's not *supposed* to be easy and keep getting easier, but the exact opposite. Like all truly good stories.
Sweeet! Gonna steal those fully or in part, when we got some more time under our collected belts in this little campaign. Happy wizard hunting and looking forward to the next video. 🤗🤗
Good info... a fun video... It's always time well spent watching your channel! Thank you, Kelly!
Thank you so much!
That’s the way Wizards&Wordslingers does helping on skill checks 👍🏿
I’m on a quest to collect every house rule on CZcams - I’ve got a playlist of over 2100 videos and added yours to the list - keep a lookout for some stuff coming out about house rules soon 👋🏿
For the " they alternate " ruling i feel like it's super illogical and weird.
Like what would you do if the players are super outnumberd? 😊
Video was great, but the wizard side plot had me cackling 😂
I like all of these. Thanks for this!
I think I heard that D&D are changing exhaustion to -2 for all d20 rolls per level and -5 feet movement per level and dying at 6 levels of exhaustion.
I think (i could be wrong) the help action only if you have proficiency in a skill is being added to the new rules.
The help action thing... It's not even homebrew, it's just buried in the regular rules of 5E
Someone else already posted it, but chapter 7 of the Basic Rules, under "Ability Checks" This has existed in the rules since 2014.
Working Together
Sometimes two or more characters team up to attempt a task. The character who's leading the effort--or the one with the highest ability modifier--can make an ability check with advantage, reflecting the help provided by the other characters. In combat, this requires the Help action.
**A character can only provide help if the task is one that he or she could attempt alone. For example, trying to open a lock requires proficiency with thieves' tools, so a character who lacks that proficiency can't help another character in that task.**
Moreover, a character can help only when two or more individuals working together would actually be productive. Some tasks, such as threading a needle, are no easier with help.
With the initiative rule couldn't your team have one member go twice in a row(assuming they won the initiative) by having one dude go last in the first round and then swapping that dude to first in the second round?
I'm not sure I get the initiative rule. If you just wind up alternating, doesn't the only thing that it changes is which team goes first? The options are only ABABAB or BABAB etc.
I use the same exhaustion rules that you’re using plus any failed death saving throws or level of exhaustion and anytime you lose 50% of your HP with one hit is a level of exhaustion
those rules are great but i wish i had that mustache
love your channel man! thank you!
My rule is: if you can't take a long hot bath at a location, then you can't long rest there.
I have one homerule, that I'm always using at the table. There is no permadeath unless everybody dies. TPK or immortals. Here is why:
- I feel a little cringe when a character dies, and we have to make a pause, roll another character, than, introduce them to party etc. etc.
- Often, when a single character dies in a capmaign it can be frustrating for a player
- I feel another little cringe, while other people are playing and we have to find a good moment to introduce a new character
- This rule can force player to use some of their gold for a little break. Character that was hit to 0hp, and failed 3 death saving throws are deadly injured. It needs to be taken to a safle place, and spend a week or a few weeks under a medical cover. Players have to think, plan, they have to use their supplies to pay for medic, or for other suplies like bandages, herbs etc.
- Players still feel danger, becouse, one is dead - now what? They have to clear the way, and pick up a body, maybe try to finish the fight, but if all dies, the story ends.
This solution has a little cons, like for example, it destroys a little world concept - like, you have potions that can save you after reciving 10 heavy sword hits. And now suddenly it doesn't work. But we can always expand it to - yeah, potions heals tiredness of battle and open wounds, but broken bones, skulls etc. not, so.
Woah, he - But there is the only exception for this rule: IT DOESN"T APPLY IF WE PLAY DUNCEON CRAWL CLASSICS of couse xD
Initiative. You did not discuss how you work it with different numbers on each side. 5v2 etc
Stagger until one side runs out. Then all remaining units go in any particular order.
One might choose to use their Dex (personally Wis, unless 0. Then they lose ties) unless there is a tactician. I stole this idea from Infinity: The Game (not the 2d20 rpg, it the war game) and the idea of a Lieutenant unit. If there is a tactician (not necessarily a 'leader,' but someone smart enough to organize the effort) then the remaining enemies go in whatever order you want.
You might also thus tie in things like the morale variant rule or let the players use social actions to influence initiative or even skip units entirely. I particularly enjoy making situations where a PC could replace an enemy in initiative- thus gaining an extra turn and shutting down the target. Also I treat action surge as an extra turn without a BA that is declared at the end of any turn.
I also work in the concept of slow and fast turns. I don't use the speed dice from past versions, it's rather very arbitrary; but skills can be used to create slow or fast turns. What this means is that a slow turn is merely a turn whose actions take such considerable effort or focus that you cannot take any physical action or one that manifests spell components. Some things also then related to this, such as getting adv/dadv on logically affected checks or something gaining a logical bonus to their's regarding a Slow/Fast character. For instance fast turn could give you an extra turn under special conditions, or let your Ready/Reaction action resolve before the trigger. And so on. Like adv/dadv these don't stack and merely cancel eachother out.
Extra turns as a whole are like extra weapon attacks. Technically there is no limit, and it does what it says on the tin. It does not stop you from gaining more extra turns, but obviously that isn't easy anyway.
Some tacticians, like various Fighter subclasses, also have the ability to actively command units. This not only could be an extra turn 1/round but they can give out buffs/debuffs too. This is independent of other abilities like Commanding Strike, and so stacks.
Non-fighters could be considered a tactician. But that is up to GM discretion before the encounter. I like to tie it into backstory/background related things. Like if only one player has Sailor and you're doing things on a boat out on the water, then they get to be a tactician. Or if someone takes a Tactician type background then they are the defacto, unless they relinquish it for an encounter. You can have more than one tactician for either the party or the enemies, but never more than 1 active tactician. Non-active tacticians will assume control if they notice the break in Chain Of Command, and can aid the active tactician in many situations. More over, I do personally have a write-up of tactician's "additional subclass" and I borrow much from the abandoned Warlord fighter subclass. My other inspirations are drawn from Fire Emblem and Total War games (especially Warhammer)
And for sake of the 3 Pillars I should note that tacticians aren't necessarily just for combat encounters.
Inspiration rule was originally to roll another d20 and take the result if it would be higher, it was not granting advantage in the normal sense of a reroll, at advantage, to be clear. A homebrew variant is to just use inspiration to reroll at advantage.
7:55 Im not an expert on this, but from what I've read of people who have fencing or weapon fighting training is that its actually quite easy to retreat from melee. Something about having to stay at range with weapons to avoid getting stabbed allowing easier retreats. I think those people tend to have no OAs in their games.
Each ti their own of course.
for how long would you leave the -2 penalty for monsters in place with new/inexperienced players?
Dude you’re awesome lmao this video is so cozy
8:45 This was the playtest rule, and what I use too. But the official 2024 rules I think keep only 6 levels of exhaustion with -2 at each level. More aggressive and more painful than our homebrew.
Oh interesting, I think I'll still with the play test version then!
I also use the free weapon swap rules. I also allow shield don/doff as a BA, because then you can either start OR end a turn with a shield and do something else, but not both.
That said I'm very hesitant to continue with this homebrew if I start using the weapon mastery rules because it incentivises the golf bag approach too much and will slow gameplay a lot. The official rules are bad enough for this in 2024.
I'm a professional DM and I use any player can make any check. Players with the skill roll as normal, players without roll at disadvantage. We use a similar initiative but use average for the initiative roller and each 5 points one group beats the other by equals another consecutive group member that group gets to use. That way great rolls and terrible rolls still have consequences. For crits we use the option you gave (we call it crunchy crits) OR allow the player to choose exploding crits (each max value on a die gets counted and rolled again). Been playing potions this way forever and the degrees of success just seem like common sense to me.
Exploding crits sounds fun!
@@powerwordspill we had a kid yesterday who rolled 4 sixes in a row and did 40 pts of damage at lvl 3. It can be very fun. Plus it helps those low damage (d4s and d6s) weapons to spike on occasion.
Good stuff here.
NADDPOD MENTIONED
What is the difference between dying and stabilized?
stabilized doesnt roll death saves
One thing I'd like to add, the help action doesn't require proficiency with the chosen skill anyway. It always leaves a bad taste in my mouth when people make a "homebrew" rule to fix issues with dnd when the issues weren't there in the first place. For example people that "homebrew" their ability checks so that you can roll intimidation with strength, or roll medicine with intelligence act like geniuses for fixing ability checks but like... that's just a thing you can do... the player's handbook says you can do it and even encourages it. Great video though.👍
Yea he knows. He is talking about how it already is a common homebrew rule that you have to be proficient with the skill, but he adjusts that a bit more.
The Boromir rule
I started with a ton of homebrew changes and additions, and then I just made my own system entirely from the ground up...
At this point, even with the 2024 changes, D&D is just not good enough.
Same. The OGL debacle was my breaking point. Prior, I had a little homebrew and a lot of adapted content from older editions. Now I've almost finished building an entirely revised system that addresses all of my issues.
crazy how 5e still needs homebrew to be playable
I coined a word for this, plagiarism.
He never claimed ownership.
The new PHB Exhaustion rules ended up a little different from the play test. The official rule is now per exhaustion point -2 on each D20 test and -5 feet movement. At 6 points the character dies.