5e House Rules

Social Interaction

All social dealings (Persuasion, Deception, Performance, etc...) gains the following...

• +2 when interacting with someone of the same race.
• Just a normal roll when interacting between members of the "preferred races" (i.e. Human, Halfling, Half-Elf, Elf, Gnome, or Dwarf).
• Disadvantage when someone of a non-preferred race interacts with anyone outside their race.
• +2 for Intimidation checks when someone of a non-preferred race interacts with anyone outside their race.
• +2 for Deception checks in DM approved situations when someone of a non-preferred race interacts with anyone outside their race.

Potions

• Quaffing a potion takes a Bonus Action (not an Action)
• Healing Potions always give Max HP (e.g. a Potion of Healing gives 10 pts -- not 2d4+2)
• Crafting a Healing Potion: An Herbalism Kit and Proficiency and the ability to cast the level of cure wounds spell equal to the potion level are required. Also, eight hours a day for one work week plus one spell slot of the appropriate level to produce (1+Casting Ability) potions of the same type for ½ base selling price (ie. 25gp and a level 1 cure wounds spell slot for lowest level potion).
• Players training in Herbalism Kit from another player may attempt to craft Healing Potions during their Downtime Activity. But at the end of each week they must make a DC (15 - 1 per week of previous training) WIS roll to see if the batch is any good.

Healing Kits

• In addition to Stabilizing a creature who has 0 hit points (ie. stopping Death Saves), it may be used by someone with proficiency to heal a person who is Stablized or above 0 HP and heal 1d4 + the healer’s WIS Modifier in HP. This healing uses one charge from the kit, takes 5 minutes, and may only be done on a person once per long rest -- though the same healer and kit may perform heals on multiple people per long rest.

Avoiding Whack-a-Mole

• Whenever healing is performed on an incapacitated person in Death Saves (ie. not yet Stabilized) the person recovers HP and regains consciousness as usual but gains levels of Exhaustion equal to the number of failed Death Saves they had accumulated.
• Exhaustion levels accumulate as a character is incapacitated and healed multiple times.

Camping, Lifestyle, and Long Rests

• Taking a Long Rest in a house or inn at Modest or better level returns all HD & HP.
• Taking a Long Rest in a house or inn at Squalid or Poor level OR when camping with appropriate gear for the weather (sleeping bag and tent/shelter, a fire/heat source if it’s cold, etc...) returns all Hit Dice but does NOT return any Hit Points.
• Taking a Long Rest in Wretched conditions or with inappropriate camping supplies returns ONE Hit Die only.

Warforged Healing

• Recovering health from Hit Dice works as normal.
• All magical healing performed on a Warforged is halved.
• Medicine checks and Healing Kits have no affect on Warforged.
• The Mending cantrip cast on a Warforged heals 1d6 HP. This may only be done once per long rest.
• Someone proficient with Smith Tools may heal a Warforged by makine a d20 roll plus their Wisdom modifier and Proficiency Bonus minus 10 (or 0 if access to an open flame hot enough to make metal pliable). This requires 8 hours and can be done by the Warforged itself in place of a Long Rest.

Immediate Initial Death Saves

• Whenever a character is incapacitated, it must make an immediate Death Save. Then it continues to make Death Saves at the start of each of its turns until death or stabilization.

Ability Score Fixed Array and Fixed Hit Points

• We will use a modified Standard Array of 17, 15, 12, 11, 10, 8. This allows a character to be good from the beginning at something but still to be bad in something which promotes more of a need for team work.
• We will use the Fixed Hit Point system for level up. This makes for a more equitable distribution of hit points between players (i.e. no one gets much better than anyone else).

Session Based Leveling

• You must play your character at its current level for a number of game sessions equal to the next level you want to attain. E.g. you must play a level 4 character in 5 game sessions in order to level up to 5th level.
• The DM may grant ½ session credit if your character was used in a story relevant manner (not just as an extra sword in a fight) by another player while you were absent..
• The DM may grant other amounts of session credit as a reward for good story relevant play (not just a lucky die roll).

No MetaGaming during Fights

• Once the DM calls for Initiative, no player can give tactical advice to another player except In-Character and then only on that player’s turn (as a free action to talk).
• A player may ask In-Character a simple question of another player or group but the others may only reply In-Character and only with a short, concise answer.
• Always remember, a round is only six seconds, total!! And every player is responsible for their own character!

Downtime Lifestyle

• A player must pick a Base Lifestyle Level at character creation.
• Unless they simply can’t afford it, a player may only rent rooms and do Lifestyle activities during Downtime at levels one above or one below their Base Lifestyle Level.
• A player may raise their Base Lifestyle Level at the beginning of any game session by simply notifying the DM.
• A player may only lower their Base Lifestyle Level by petitioning the DM and getting their approval. Approval will only be granted if the DM finds that it is story relevant.

Backstories

• “A character without a Backstory is an Agent of Chaos.” -- GM’s Guild Posting
• At character creation the player should devise a relevant backstory with approval from the DM. It need not be elaborate though it should be detailed enough to allow the DM to understand the character’s goals, motivations, and ideals. The player should always play that character as best fits his or her backstory. The DM will award Inspiration for doing so and penalize for not.

No Evil Allowed Unless Everyone Is

• Player Characters may not be LE, NE, or CE in alignment unless ALL characters are. It causes too much discord within the group.

Skill Challenges

• 3 failures causes a Fail
• 3 (Easy), 6 (Moderate), 9 (Hard), or 12 (Very Hard) successes for a SUCCEED
• Party members must describe how they want to use a skill to make it applicable to the challenge
• A player must be proficient in the skill they want to roll
• A player may only contribute ONE success to the total from any given skill
• DC is set by GM

Minions

• To give Action parity between PC’s and NPC/Monsters
• Minions should be at least 3 to 5 levels below PC’s level
• Every two Minions adds one Action to the bad guys Action Economy (compare total number of Actions, including Legendary Actions on each side)

Resurrection (all are in effect)

A Taxing Return

• This rule calls to the old D&D rules where every time a character is restored to life, the process corrodes a fraction of their vitality, slowly consuming the body until it can no longer sustain life.
• Each time a character is brought back to life via a spell or ritual, that character suffers a permanent loss of 1 point of their Constitution ability score. This loss cannot be restored outside of a carefully worded wish spell. Use of the spell true resurrection to restore a character does not impose this loss of Constitution. Characters that reach a Constitution ability score of 0 are permanently dead and cannot be resurrected.

Didn’t Come Back Right

• Within this rule, the process of dying and being pulled back into your body is a harrowing experience. The magic itself pulls you from beyond the dark veil of death, taking its toll on your body and psyche each time, leaving you less and less the person you were.
• When a character is brought back to life via magic, that character must make a Wisdom saving throw, DC (22 - level of the magic used to return the character to life). A failure on this check inflicts long term madness (see DMG, p260), except that the duration is measured in days rather than hours. A lesser restoration or remove curse will alleviate the madness itself, though it returns any time that character drops to 0 hit points or awakens from sleep, until its full duration has expired.

Didn’t Come Back Right ( advanced )

• For additional consequences and player difficulty, you can implement a further stage of corruption. If a character has died a number of times equal to their Constitution modifier, and they fail their Wisdom saving throw upon being brought back to life, they instead suffer an indefinite madness (see DMG p.260). Any subsequent deaths inflict an additional indefinite madness with each resurrection. A greater restoration spell can temporarily suppress a type of indefinite madness, with it returning anytime that character drops to 0 hit points.

The Fading Spirit

• This resurrection rule set is designed to add an element of party roleplaying and narrative to the resurrection attempt, as well as the creeping threat of permanent death to a character. Any of the following DC modifiers are easily adjusted to fit your campaign needs.

Resurrection Challenge

• If a character is dead, and a return from death is attempted by a spell or spell effect with longer than a one action casting time, a Resurrection Challenge is initiated. Up to 3 members of the adventuring party can offer to contribute to the ritual via skill checks. The DM asks them each to make a skill check based on their form of contribution, with the DC of the check adjusting to how helpful/impactful the DM feels the contribution would be.
• For example, praying to the god of the devout, fallen character may require an Intelligence (Religion) check at an easy to medium difficulty, where loudly demanding the soul of the fallen to return from the aether may require a Charisma (Intimidation) check at a very hard or nearly impossible difficulty. Advantage and disadvantage can apply here based on how perfect, or off base, the contribution offered is.

Resurrection Check

• After all contributions are completed, the DM then rolls a single, final Resurrection success check with no modifier. The base DC for the final resurrection check is 10, increasing by 1 for each previous successful resurrection the character has undergone (signifying the slow erosion of the soul’s connection to this world). For each successful contribution skill check, this DC is decreased by 3, whereas each failed contribution skill check increases the DC by 1. Upon a successful resurrection check, the player’s soul (should it be willing) will be returned to the body, and the ritual succeeded. On a failed check, the soul does not return and the character is lost.
• Only the strongest of magical incantations can bypass this resurrection challenge, in the form of the true resurrection or wish spells. These spells can also restore a character to life who was lost due to a failed resurrection ritual, should you allow it.

Quick Resurrections

• If a spell with a casting time of 1 action is used to attempt to restore life (via the Revivify spell or similar effects), no contribution skill checks are allowed. The character casting the spell makes a Rapid Resurrection check, rolling a d20 and adding their spellcasting ability modifier. The DC is 10, increasing by 1 for each previous successful resurrection the character has undergone. On a failure, the character’s soul is not lost, but the resurrection fails and increases any future Resurrection checks’ DC by 1. No further attempts can be made to restore this character to life until a resurrection spell with a casting time higher than 1 action is attempted.