115
votes
I dislike how players accurately place fireballs. Is there an alternative?
Well, I don't think I need to tell you that it's within RAW, per the spell description of Fireball [emphasis mine]:
A bright streak flashes from your pointing finger to a point you choose within ...
- 4,817
95
votes
Accepted
How can I, as DM, avoid the Conga Line of Death occurring when implementing some form of flanking rule?
Negation of Advantage
At our table we use the Variant Flanking rules, however we noticed the same problem as yourself, and added the corollary that you cannot gain Advantage from a Flank if you ...
- 1,317
90
votes
Accepted
I dislike how players accurately place fireballs. Is there an alternative?
Boy, so many people lining up to tell you "don't do it that way it's badwrongfun!" I'll offer a differing perspective, which is yes, absolutely, use a house rule to this effect. It has the ...
- 175k
86
votes
Accepted
Assassin using Arcane Trickster's Mage Hand: Is it Unbalanced?
Although many tables allow some degree of tweaking in order to make a build match a concept, they usually involve some degree of horse trading, i.e. giving up something to get something else. ...
- 31.9k
85
votes
Accepted
Do 10 second turns/60 second rounds make spellcasters horrible?
Yes and No. But mostly Yes.
It makes spellcasters worse, by making some spells worse. In particular, the spells you mentioned, i.e., spells that rely on a Duration. Notably, however, other spells are ...
- 36.8k
79
votes
What are the ramifications of changing Armor Class to be Constitution-based instead of Dexterity-based?
Nerfs dex classes, buffs everyone else
Well, let's start with the obvious. A rogue will usually try to hit 20 dex, so this change will give them -5 AC. Due to bounded accuracy that's a huge nerf. ...
- 21.3k
77
votes
Accepted
Is this houserule preventing effects from dropping creatures to below 1 HP if they make their save exploitable or broken?
This is going to be a poor idea
As other answers point out, this is going to make save-targetting spells significantly weaker, but there's also another problem you might not have thought about.
Being ...
- 36.3k
75
votes
I dislike how players accurately place fireballs. Is there an alternative?
This meta-game accuracy is a purposeful feature of using the optional grid rules — that kind of tactical detail is the whole point of using a grid.
An obvious alternative that eliminates miniatures-...
- 243k
75
votes
Is there a way to make an Invisible Stalker-like player character?
I told him no right off the bat...But he's extremely insistent about
it
Just tell the player "no," again; you are allowed to do that as DM
There are a number of reasons for this.
An invisible ...
- 142k
73
votes
Accepted
Why is allowing players to stack their skill proficiency bonus overpowered?
It leads to "All or Nothing" skill development
This is going to cause exactly the problem that the 'bounded accuracy' philosophy of 5th edition was designed to address: All skill checks ...
- 72.8k
72
votes
Accepted
How do I tweak this crouching rule to balance it?
Crouching is a no-brainer
And no-brainers are bad design --- you've created a new action that has a very negligible downside. No wonder your players are spamming it!
Think about it --- the only ...
- 53.8k
71
votes
Is this house-rule removing the increased effect of cantrips at higher character levels balanced?
No, this makes the current system less balanced.
The current system for cantrips gaining damage at regular intervals is the magic users' equivalent of the "Extra Attack" feature that other ...
- 1,651
70
votes
How should I handle movement when one character isn't engaged in combat yet?
As soon as combat starts, everyone needs to abide by the movement rules
I would suggest telling them that as soon as combat starts, everyone needs to abide by the movement rules, regardless of whether ...
- 2,490
67
votes
Would there be balance issues if I allowed opportunity attacks against any creature, not just hostile ones?
From memory the War Caster feat is the only thing that might work well with this. Its third benefit is:
"When a hostile creature's movement provokes an opportunity attack from you, you can use your ...
- 579
59
votes
Accepted
Will allowing a wizard to cast spell without preparation be unbalanced?
Yes, this is overpowered
Your instinct to suggest the Sorcerer Class was a good one. This ability is going to give the Wizard so much versatility there will be almost no situation he cannot solve ...
- 30.6k
58
votes
Accepted
How do I avoid micromanaging character creation?
I favor very open, liberal character creation rules, in both the games I run and in the games I play. I chafe quickly at too many restrictions, and feel that some DMs who enforce too many are shooting ...
- 345k
57
votes
Accepted
What do I do about a game-breaking ruling on how summoning works?
No, you are not overreacting.
First off, every "Conjure Something" spell I checked specifically calls out that the summoned being appears "in unoccupied space". I'm curious how the DM thought it was ...
- 39.5k
57
votes
How do we deal with my DM's house-rule about critical damage?
Adamantine armor
It has the property:
While you're wearing it, any critical hit against you becomes a normal
hit. (DMG 150)
It is only classified as uncommon, but it is still a magic item. Depending ...
- 61.3k
56
votes
Accepted
Allowing Disengage for free
Disengaging and not provoking opportunity attacks is a big part of some classes, features, abilities and tactics, such as:
Class features like Monks' Step of the Wind & Rogues' Cunning Action
...
- 11.9k
56
votes
Accepted
Is it unbalanced to allow a player to move the tiefling's +1 Int bonus to a different ability score?
This is exactly what is suggested in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything
In the section "Customizing Your Origin" (TCoE, p. 7), there is a subsection on Ability Score Increases:
If you’d like ...
- 143k
54
votes
Is this house rule replacing encumbrance balanced?
I'm going to challenge the frame.
You've said your group finds it boring to compute encumbrance. So to solve that you've... created another system for encumbrance? That just calculates things ...
- 55k
54
votes
Accepted
Is there a D&D 5e equivalent of the e6 variant style?
In a word? No.
There are several people out there who have tried to cap 5e Character progression in differing ways (one such example being here), but there is no 'broadly accepted' system that I have ...
- 64.7k
53
votes
Would this hit/miss houserule be balanced with bounded accuracy?
Is it balanced?
Sure, it's balanced if you apply it to all sides of a combat equally. It's a very minor change. Even taking into account characters with multiple attacks each round, it's a couple of ...
- 48.2k
52
votes
Would this house-rule that treats advantage as a +1 to the roll instead (and disadvantage as -1) and allows them to stack be balanced?
This is going to be difficult to balance
Having advantage on a roll is roughly equal to having +5 to your roll, and having disadvantage is roughly equal to having -5 on your roll, as suggested by ...
- 36.3k
50
votes
Accepted
Would houseruling two or more instances of resistance to the same element as immunity be overly unbalanced?
It allows for some explosive combat options and methods to gain extreme immunities
For example, a Tiefling gains resistance to fire damage, they could walk into a group of enemies and cast fireball ...
- 75.5k
50
votes
How do we deal with my DM's house-rule about critical damage?
Play as a Grave Cleric
The Grave Cleric domain from XGtE (p. 20) has the following ability at level 6:
As a reaction when you or a creature you can see within 30 feet of you suffers a critical hit,...
- 36.3k
49
votes
Accepted
Will anything break if I allow the Warlock pact weapon to be called with a bonus action instead of an action?
There might be some synergy issues with other melee or Warlock abilities- Hex is a nice potential chunk of Warlock DPR and takes a Bonus Action to cast/retarget, while Polearm Mastery's extra attack ...
- 1,538
49
votes
Does limiting Sneak Attack to the Dexterity choice on Finesse Weapons imbalance anything?
Removing balanced player options is unfair (and unfun).
The reason that sneak attack requires finesse (or ranged) weapons is less to do with the Ability (Strength or Dexterity) and more to do with the ...
- 20.9k
48
votes
What are the consequences of removing the potential for critical hit extra damage on spell attacks?
There's a balance problem here, but not the one you think.
To answer the actual in-the-title question first...
Removing crits from spells results in a downturn in a spellcaster's damage potential at ...
- 64.7k
48
votes
What are the impacts of permitting casters to concentrate on 2 spells?
The Dungeon Master's Guide strongly recommends against this.
Dungeon Master's Guide, p.263:
Beware of adding anything to your game that allows a character to concentrate on more than one effect at ...
- 78.9k
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