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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How do I balance PCs ignoring fluff-only hindrances?
I'm GM'ing a Savage Worlds (Adventure Edition) campaign, where the PCs have hindrances as usual: some directly affect the crunch and some only affect the fluff, e.g. Vengeful.
I don't want my (partly ...
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Would allowing Draconic Sorcerors to be descended from the new dragon types be balanced?
The book Fizban's Treasury of Dragons has been released. While it does contain some player-oriented material (2 new subclasses), something it doesn't do is update the Draconic Sorcerer to have ...
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How should I handle giving a certain player a special ability in order to encourage roleplay?
I have a tiefling bard in one of my campaigns. In the campaign's universe, there is a lot of prejudice against tieflings.
I wanted to encourage some roleplay by adding a homebrew rule that, when she ...
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What is a decent dice rolling strategy for partial/half advantage?
I understand that 5e is all about advantage and cancelling, etc. I understand advantage well, and the statistics. I was hoping there would be a commonly known dice rolling strategy with similar ...
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What balance pitfalls result from permitting an artillerist artificer to use ordinary, non-infused arcane foci for spellcasting?
For reasons of narrative flexibility, my group is considering house-ruling the artificer to permit using ordinary arcane foci (wands, staves, orbs, etc.) in addition to artisan's tools for ...
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Is it unbalanced to allow the protection fighting style to modify an attack roll after it's rolled?
I've just learned that the Protection fighting style is supposed to be used before any attack rolls are made, via this question: Can Protection Fighting Style Be Used After The Roll?
In my group, we'...
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By numbers, is Booming Blade opportunity attack damage unreasonable?
The DM in a campaign where I am playing doesn't want to allow Booming Blade opportunity attacks with the Warcaster feat. Fluff-wise reasoning is, with OA there is not enough time to first "...
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Is it unbalanced to allow a player to move the tiefling's +1 Int bonus to a different ability score?
I'm in the planning phases of a campaign for D&D 5e, but using the Planescape setting. Since this setting is the one which introduced tieflings, I sent the table of potential tiefling traits to my ...
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what are the issues with rolling initiative every round, looking for mechanical reasons rather then opinion [closed]
A friend of mine has mentioned he is thinking of trialing rolling initiative at the start of every round in combat, vs 1 roll at the start of combat for his table.
This sounds like a really bad idea ...
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Would allowing a character to gain bonuses for two shields be unbalanced?
Would allowing a character to gain bonuses for two shields be unbalanced?
I have a character I've been working on who worships a god of protection. The idea is that he will use two shields, but the ...
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Is it imbalanced to change a Warlock Subclasses' Expanded Spell List to Additional Spells Known?
Warlocks have a relatively limited number of spells known, and (in my experience) the fewest uses of spells throughout a given day in a campaign. I feel with these limits, it would not be unfair to ...
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Would allowing the Pact of the Blade warlock feature to hide a non-weapon be overpowered?
I am playing a warlock (Fiend patron, if it matters), and am trying to avoid some of the common min/max-ed stereotypes since they're likely to imbalance my party of beginners with unoptimized builds. ...
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Is this home-rule for adjusting the DC of being tracked balanced?
I have been looking into setting up an adventure in the wilderness for our table, where there is an element of being chased and the party is purposely trying to outrun and outsmart their chasers.
...
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Converting Purify Food and Drink to more useful units [closed]
The Situation:
The party warlock (Pact of the Tome) has recently acquired the Purify Food and Drink spell as a ritual in his Book of Ancient Secrets. The party has just destroyed a hobgoblin base. ...
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Would DnD 5e style heightening unbalance the game?
Non-damaging spells like Fear, Slow and Haste increase the target count when heightened. However, not linearly as Hold Person or Blindness does in DnD 5e (+1 target / level) but quite randomly:
Fear ...
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Are there any mechanical issues with removing the concept of "triggers" for readied actions?
Since I first read the Ready Action rules, the concept of a trigger rubbed me the wrong way. The idea that a character cannot adapt and improvise in the moment seems odd to me, and when I imagine them ...
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Would allowing Shillelagh to transform your staff into another weapon be unbalanced?
I am planning a (not explicitly optimised) Ranger/Monk character, that uses Druidic Warrior to cast Shillelagh:
Druidic Warrior
You learn two cantrips of your choice from the druid spell list. They ...
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Do Player Characters with a powerful build deal more melee damage like a monster would? [duplicate]
I have a player in one of the games I'm running that's a Goliath Paladin. He uses a greataxe and recently asked me if he could deal more damage like a "Large" monster could since he has a ...
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Is this Homebrew Advantage rule broken?
I know about this suggestion. Mine is an even further extension of that, and I'm asking about whether there are any further issues and whether I've fixed Lucky.
I find the way 5e handles multiple ...
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Can "partial" surprise happen? Would it be an acceptable rule?
I'm thinking the "surprise round" rule (PHB page 189) just isn't fair.
It says :
If you're surprised, you can't move or take an action on
your first turn of the combat, and you can't take a ...
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Is this Enhanced Eyebite balanced vs other spells of comparable level and utility?
I consider Eyebite a cool, but mechanically underwhelming spell for its level. I want to turn it into a balanced option. This question does not depend on if the original version is weak or not, I want ...
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Giving NPC Priests Turn Undead
Last night the party was adventuring in Curse of Strahd.
In the previous session they had acquired the module-specific magic item
and given it to an NPC accompanying them,
In last night's session ...
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help with readied action [closed]
We roll a new initiative each turn to make it more random.
The scenario: the fighter readies to attack the creature when it moves into his range. The creature moves but doesn't reach the fighter.
on ...
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Can a high level Archer/Ranger catch an arrow fired at them? [closed]
Let’s say a highly skilled level 15 archer of whatever flavour is shot at by an enemy archer. Without using the gloves of missile snaring, could you have your archer use his reaction to catch the ...
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What would be the ramifications of allowing a Wild Magic Sorcerer's Bend Luck ability to scale with level?
I was wondering why a Wild Magic Sorcerer's Bend Luck ability is always 2 sorcery points and a reaction to increase or reduce another creature's attack roll, ability check or saving throw by 1d4.
I ...
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Impact of Proposed Healing House Rule?
What is the probable impact of the following house rule?
A Wisdom (Medicine) check can be used to restore hit points. This is a DC 0 check; the patient regains 1 HP for each point the result exceeds ...
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Making pit traps more interesting [closed]
I'm currently running the Barrowmaze campaign, which has many 10'x10'x10' pits, often in corridors, so there's no way around them. When reading the campaign, I thought they would be quite interesting, ...
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Good house rules for 1-on-1 game [closed]
I'm DMing a game for my son so this is his solo game, and first D&D game. For any dads or anyone else with 1 on 1 gaming experience, what are some good house rules to add? I was thinking of ...
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Does Wind Walk grant stealth benefits due to gaseous form?
There has already been some helpful discussion about whether wind walk in D&D 5e also gives the extra effects associated with gaseous form (Just how gaseous is the "gaseous form" of the ...
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How can I write a formula for this houseruled roll in AnyDice?
So here it goes:
The roll is a pool of dice of d6s, d8s, and d10s. The minimum dice pool is 1d6 and the maximum dice pool is 10 dice. It could be 2d6 + 2d8 + 1d10, for example.
Rolling 5+ is a ...
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House Rule - Upcasting Enlarge / Reduce to extend duration
The party is deep into my 5e-updated classic Greyhawk Giants series.
The hill giants and their orc and goblin minions have attacked the Sterish city of Headwater and have taken about a quarter of the ...
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One of my players want to carry his familiar on his body and says it should not be targeted by enemies because it can hide on his body? [duplicate]
One of my players (of a rogue) said that he heard of DM's allowing the familiar to be carried on the players body. He use his familiar to help him in combat and get advantage on the attack roll.
I ...
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What balance pitfalls result from this house rule regarding levitating creatures?
My table is considering the following house rule:
A creature suspended above the ground and unable to move on its own
(e.g., under the effect of the levitate spell) is especially
susceptible to ...
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Will it break the game if healing in combat heals the max instead of rolling?
In the next week I will start a new campaign where I will be the DM. The players will be totally new to the DnD World. I want to let them to freely choose the class and race which they want to play, ...
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House rules for Force Fields
We are thinking about changing the rules for Force Fields in our Rogue Trader RPG as we see some problems:
The percentage is rather cumbersome and adds a lot of rolling dices during the combat.
The &...
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How to create a Full Borg Character in Cyberpunk Red?
So I recently got the cyberpunk red core rule book and have been making characters for it. I've been enjoying character creation for it but I do have a question. See I've been wanting to make a solo ...
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Are my weapon damage house rules balanced?
TLDR: In my game, finesse and ranged weapons don't get a stat damage bonus and Dueling gives the damage bonus to 1- and 2- handed weapons. Is this balanced?
Starting running a game for the first time ...
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Would it break things to allow a Barbarian to cast spells in rage?
If I was to make a homebrew barbarian subclass that allows barbarians to cast spells in rage, or allowed a barbarian that multiclassed into a spellcasting class, would it break anything? It doesn’t ...
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In term of game balance, what repercussions should players expect if DM wouldn't count Grapple and Shove as "an attack"?
This is how Player's Handbook (p. 194) describes what counts as an attack:
If there's ever any question whether something you're doing counts as an attack, the rule is simple: if you're making an ...
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Will reducing the cost of Holy Water or improving its effectiveness break things
My L3 LMoP group are planning on picking up some holy water to help with zombies as they’ve heard to tales of undead (old owl well, and thunder tree), but I think they’re going to be very disappointed ...
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Would it be game breaking to allow a player to use Wish to change the functioning Green Flame blade?
Is it in any way game breaking if I let a player use his wish to change the function of the green flame blade cantrip?
As a group of long year friends, we ruled that we always speak about the things ...
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Is this house-rule that has each monster/NPC roll initiative separately (even when there are multiple creatures of the same kind) game-breaking?
The rules for initiative in PHB read (emphasis mine):
Initiative determines the order of turns during combat. When combat starts, every participant makes a Dexterity check to determine their place in ...
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How much damage should a Rogue lvl5/Monk lvl6 be able to do with unarmed strike in 5e?
One of the PC's in my campaign is playing a 5th lvl rogue/6th lvl monk. He uses unarmed strikes but has two magic items to boost his damage a bit: a set of bracers that add 1d6 slashing and a ring ...
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What happens if I let my conjuration wizard be able to target unwilling creatures with Benign Transposition?
The 6th level conjuration wizard feature Benign Transportation says:
Starting at 6th level, you can use your action to teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space that you can see. Alternatively, ...
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How are tamed animals treated in terms of abilities?
In a campaign I am playing in the DM allows the taming of wild animals, but you have to devote time and resources to training them to follow commands after the initial taming.
Would these animals, ...
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Would it be unbalanced to allow non-spellcasters to take the Eldritch Adept feat?
In Tasha's Cauldron of Everything (and the preceding Unearthed Arcana), the Eldritch Adept feat (p. 79) lets the character learn one Eldritch Invocation. However, it has a prerequisite: the ...
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Would there be a problem to incorporate Pathfinder-2e's "Step" action in place of DND 5e's "Disengage" action?
Pathfinder's Step:
You carefully move 5 feet. Unlike most types of movement, Stepping doesn’t trigger reactions, such as Attacks of Opportunity, that can be triggered by move actions or upon leaving ...
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How can I design a magical weapon that grants an advantage against fire-base creatures without using water and choking effects? [closed]
The party I am DM'ing is going for an adventure to the Elemental Plane of Fire. I want to design a magical weapon that can grant an advantage against fire-based creatures. I see that Fire Elementals ...
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What are the consequences if wizards can cast unprepared spells from their spellbooks? [duplicate]
It's a staple of the fantasy genre: faced with an obstacle the barbarian can't punch his way through, the wizard flips through his spellbook until he finds the perfect spell. He reaches into his ...
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My DM wouldn't let my character use Acrobatics to escape an Ankheg's grapple, even after it was asleep. Can my DM do this, or am I overreacting?
Now, I know this sounds like something small, but it did annoy me. We were fighting an Ankheg. We killed one, and after combat ended the DM had another one come up from the ground and grapple me ...
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