Questions tagged [house-rules]
House rules are small fan-created additions and replacements to core rules in a rules set, and this tag should be used when there are locally-created rules at the core of the question. In most cases, they are not officially sanctioned by the designer, in contrast to optional rules (see the [optional-rules] tag). For creation of substantial new content or rules subsystems, use the [homebrew] tag instead.
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What effects would allowing to flank with reach have on game balance?
One of my players asked me recently if I would allow their character, who has 10ft. reach, gain advantage from flanking while still using their reach.
I am aware that RAW this would not work since you ...
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Will anything break if prone crossbow-wielders get advantage instead of disadvantage?
Being prone imposes disadvantage on attacks, which makes sense for melee weapons and traditional bows. However, for things like crossbows and firearms, laying prone seems like it should have the ...
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Would it harm game balance to allow potions to be self-administered with a bonus action?
Potion usage costs an action according to RAW, as stated in the DMG on page 139:
Drinking or administering a potion takes an action.
However, I have heard of GM's house-ruling that PC's may use a ...
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Gestalt caster balance: what price should allow multiple casting classes to share a spellbook?
I'm planning on running a P6 (tl,dr: stop leveling at 6, keep getting feats every 5k XP) campaign wherein the PCs are all gestalt characters, one "side" of which needs to be a full caster. ...
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Does Tiamat's Breath Weapon Circumvent Circle of Power?
Tiamat has the Limited Magic Immunity trait, I know that much.
Unless she wishes to be affected, Tiamat is immune to spells of 6th level or lower. [...]
However, the last portion of the 5th level ...
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9
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Does the DM need to declare a Natural 20?
I see a lot of D&D content out there and when combat starts eventually someone gets a roll of 20, a so-called Natural 20, shouts out "Nat 20" and everyone cheers. The DM then does some ...
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House ruling Darkness Blindnes and Obscured [closed]
Background
I am DMing Curse Of Stradh - and there is a lot of Fog in Barovia. The party have characters with and without dark-vision. I am not really happy with how light, darkness and obscurement ...
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Are my house rules good to make it easier to run away from combat in 5E?
I want a house rule to make it easier for either side to run away from combat.
My main gripe with the standard rule is running away from combat devolving into:
A dashes + moves away from B (provokes ...
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1
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Is this homebrew tweak to the Druid class balanced?
Druids are great, but Wild Shape has some subtle frustrations.
I'm near the end of a mid-level (5–12) campaign in which I played as a Circle of the Moon Druid, and our group may continue on to a high-...
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Making Mountain Stance interact with the Knockdown monster ability not frustrating
Mountain Stance gives, among other things:
you gain a +4 item bonus to AC and a +2 circumstance bonus to any
defenses against being Shoved or Tripped.
Some creatures, like a wolf, have the knockdown ...
- 20.4k
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What are the consequences of changing the rule for casting multiple spells in a turn to "You can spend no more than one spell-slot each turn"?
The D&D 5e rules for casting multiple spells in one round are a frequent source of confusion across tables in my experience. While the rule is just a line of text
You can’t cast another spell ...
- 2,437
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Would it be unbalanced to allow Extra Attack on a ready action?
The rules for D&D 5e clearly state that Extra Attack can only be used on the character's turn:
Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action ...
- 2,437
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Flying sidecar mechanics [closed]
So here's the deal. Currently I'm playing a level 8 goliath, barb 6/fighter 2. Totem barbarian, 2nd totem is bear. Str 18. We also have a homebrew rule that allows my character to increase by a size ...
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Review a mechanic for allowing weaker Spell Scrolls even if not on class spell list
I am a new GM so I would like to get some feedback on me "relaxing" the Spell Scroll class requirements. Basically if it makes sense and is not something I might regret in the long run.
The ...
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Is Heightened(4th) Silence spell balanced?
The second level spell Silence can be heightened to 4th level, when its description is as follows:
Heightened (4th) The spell effect emanates from the touched creature, silencing all sound in or ...
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Would Find (Greater) Steed summoning a construct be gamebreaking?
My warforged bard has the Find Greater Steed spell. As a reflavouring, the steed is created from animating scrap and nearby objects.
Would giving it the construct type instead of celestial/fey/fiend ...
- 1,785
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How will this static Initiative houserule affect game balance?
In my current D&D group all the PCs have a static Initiative (8 + Proficiency + Dex + any other bonuses) while enemies and NPCs keep rolling the original way (d20 dice roll + Dex). This enables us ...
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House Rules: Exploding dice for damage in 5e
My players and myself feel the "wear down" mechanic of hit points in 5e considerably subtract from the fun of the game and the strategy.
I've been considering introducing a exploding dice ...
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Will this Ritual Caster house rule break the game?
The House Rule
The prerequisite for the Ritual Caster feat changes to “Trained in
Arcana, Heal, Nature, or Religion”.
In order to master a ritual, a player must be trained in the relevant skill (e.g. ...
- 10.2k
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How to run an encounter against a sleeping party, utilising a homebrew system
I'm currently working on a personal revision to traveling in the wilderness in Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition, and I've hit a roadblock with encounter design. Let me summarize my system and the ...
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What would be the impact if I allowed Barbarian's Unarmored Defense to stack with Lizardfolk's Natural Armor?
I am going to preface this question with the fact that yes, I am well aware they are separate AC calculations that you choose between. I am simply posing a theoretical question that warrants deeper ...
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Why does increasing or shade-shifting a root stat not do so for skills?
Intuitively, if you learn a skill that's based on your physical strength, or your reflexes, or your ability to spot things, then if you get better at those things you would likewise get better at the ...
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When would I give a checkpoint to my D&D party that they can return to if they die?
My sister said she didn't like how in D&D you can die, and suggested checkpoints, what would be the best way to do that, should I have them save whenever they want, or just after major bosses?
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How would a house-rule allowing a person attacking a Device to target only part of it work?
Within M&M 3E, there's the Removable Flaw for powers that turns them into items that are worn or carried that can be damaged or removed. The following rule states how the Toughness is calculated:
...
- 10.3k
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What would be the impact if I let Hand of Harm be used more than once, like Hand of Healing?
In Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, the Way of Mercy Monastic Tradition grants both Hand of Healing and Hand of Harm at 3rd level. Hand of Healing/Harm describe their effects as using 1 ki point to ...
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3
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Potential complications from allowing Arms of the Astral Self to interact with Grapple Rules via feats?
Preface
My earlier question led to a definitive RAW answer proving that Arms of the Astral Self can't be used for grappling, even if a feat like Tavern Brawler gave you a grapple check bonus action ...
- 3,566
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Do any odd complications arise when I houserule that you can recover a single arrow fired into battle?
Refer to: Is ammunition recoverable and reusable?
You can't recover a single valuable magic arrow fired into battle due to the general rule of rounding down applying to the weapon property that lets ...
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How can I allow my player to be a Doppelganger without excessive HD/LA?
A player character who is a Doppelganger has four levels of Monstrous Humanoid and LA +4:
Racial Hit Dice: A doppelganger begins with four levels of monstrous humanoid, which provide 4d8 Hit Dice, a ...
- 7,853
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Can a Doppelganger buy Changeling racial feats?
The Changeling race in D&D 3.5 has a history defined as
They evolved through the union of doppelgangers and humans, eventually becoming a separate race distinct from either ancestral tree.
In D&...
- 7,853
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2
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Is it balanced with other races to give Dragonborn short-range blindsight as an additional racial trait?
I use this homebrew rule for darkvision and add a new racial trait called low-light vision in my games:
Darkvision: The following player races have darkvision to a range of 60ft; Drow, Half-Drow, ...
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How can I create a mechanic for players to evolve the relationship with their deity?
For context: recently one of my players asked me if a mechanic could be created to evolve his relationship with his deity (Eldath), like he had seen in another game.
I suspect this request was made ...
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2
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Can you point out recommendations for building, managing, upgrading and running player's base? [closed]
In my campaign, recently two players started laying plans to buy a part of land not too far away from city in hopes of building the base of operations for the team, or buy an already existing building ...
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In Pathfinder 2e, what would be the effects of making Fortitude, Reflex, and Will static defenses like D&D 4e?
I am a longtime 4e player who has been running a PF2 game for about 8 levels now. One of my biggest frustrations with it is that Fortitude, Reflex, and Will are sometimes used as saving throws and ...
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Is making all Opportunity Attacks have disadvantage game breaking in any way?
To try and promote more movement in my game I'm considering a ruling where all Opportunity Attacks have disadvantage. Are there any ways this would significantly change the game? Party consists of two ...
- 507
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How does a creature counter the Frightened condition? [closed]
Some conditions have obvious counters—-for example, if prone, a creature can stand. But how does a creature counter being frightened of another who has successfully intimidated it into being ...
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Making decapitation work [closed]
Often it comes up where a PC has knocked a NPC (for this question, call them Random Grunt) down, and is threatening them, with decapitation or some similar threat of imminent mortal peril. Let's ...
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Would allowing barbarians to maintain rage as an action be unbalanced or permit shenanigans?
A barbarian's Rage ends early
if your turn ends and you haven't attacked a hostile creature since your last turn or taken damage since then.
Players of barbarians, including those in my own play ...
- 43.2k
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Are spot enhancements inferior to hide enhancements?
I have been searching ways (with spells and items) to enhance the spot check and ways to enhance the hide check (with spells and items). We have a PC in our campaign maxing out his spot and another ...
- 2,225
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Hide in Plain sight (HiPs) - does it work if I cast light on myself?
Could a rogue with Hide in Plain sight (SP- e.g. shadowdancer) (HiPs) cast on themselves the spell light just to create shadows to hide in?
Reading "light and darkness" in the rule ...
- 2,225
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How does class balance change when I remove spellcasting?
Let's say I want to DM a hypothetical, low-magic, homebrew D&D 5e game, that pits weapon-wielding heroes against supernatural foes and evil sorcerers. Think Conan the Barbarian or Game of Thrones ...
- 1,169
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What if the rules for corporeal creatures and incorporeal were symmetrical?
I previously asked this question in regards to the asymmetry between corporeals attacking incorporeals (having a miss chance of 50%) and incorporeals attacking corporeals (no miss chance) as per the ...
- 2,225
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Does this nerf to the Sharpshooter Feat make it too weak or unbalanced?
I'm getting pretty close to wrapping up a campaign where the highest damage dealing character in the party was a Sharpshooting Fighter, who in combination with the Crossbow Expert feat, was regularly ...
- 52.3k
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1
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What combat implications has this proposed alternative initiative rundown?
Combat in the WoD is notoriously lengthy. The git rundown is about this:
Roll initiative
Sort high to low
Combat Round Start
Announce spending of rage for extra actions & handle "pre round&...
- 40.1k
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How strong is this stat generation method? Roll 20d6, drop 2 lowest, assign groups of 3 dice for stats
Is this imbalanced for character generation?
Roll 20d6, drop 2 lowest, assign groups of 3 dice for stats.
Context:
We have tried multiple character generation methods in our group and I have come up ...
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Our GM has us roll new initiative every round. Just how broad of a change is this?
I am playing in a campaign based on Pathfinder 2nd edition rules. My GM decided to introduce the house rule of rolling initiative every round, basically altering one of the base concept of the game.
...
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1
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511
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Experiment with Two-Weapon Fighting Alteration: Is it Balanced?
I've been working on an alteration to how one engages in Two-Weapon Fighting, which I've disliked the vanilla version due to various well known, or at least heard, problems.
Here are a couple spots ...
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Is there any reason Temporal Shunt couldn't be house ruled to cover Grapple, Shove, Arcane Shots etc.?
The reaction for Temporal Shunt is taken:
when a creature you can see makes an attack roll or starts to cast a spell
But Grapples, Shoves and some Arcane Shot options of the Arcane Archer don't make ...
- 13.3k
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Does this tweak to Jumping rules have any pitfalls or problematic interactions?
My players and I were long ago accustomed to the D&D 3.5e ruleset, but now comfortably enjoy 5e's simplicity. Still, there are some rules that we preferred from the previous system that we felt ...
- 2,137
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Does adding "+1 Str" to the "Medium Armor Master" feat break the balance?
There are 5 "armor" feats in PHB: Lightly/Moderately/Heavily Armored, Medium Armor Master, and Heavy Armor Master. Four of them add +1 Str, of those some allow +1 Dex instead; Medium Armor ...
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Champion Subclass Alteration
I'm here today because I was wanting to get feedback on a few adjustments I've done to the Fighter subclass: Champion.
Intent
The motivation behind these alterations is to streamline some clunky text ...
- 445