Homebrew rules

Make Crits Matter

• When you score a critical hit, roll for damage normally. Then determine the maximum damage you can roll with your attack before applying any modifiers. Combine the maximum result with your rolled damage, then add any multipliers. This is your critical hit damage.
• For example: 18 str fighter crits with a longsword. The damage would be d8 roll + 8 (max possible) + 4 (str mod) = MINIMUM 13 damage for crit, compared to double the dice, which, if a 1 is rolled, would only be 6 damage.

The Rule of Cool

• Sometimes you'd like your character to do something in combat that's not necessarily covered in the rules, or, if it is, you're not sure how they apply to what you're trying to accomplish. That's totally fine! While I do try to stick to the ruleset in most situations, which is really just to make sure situations are treated consistently and fairly from one instance to another, I'm a huge fan of seeing things happen just because they sound awesome!
• During combat, or even outside combat for that matter, if you think of something really cool that you'd like to try, don't be afraid to ask if you can do it! The only hard limit on 'Rule of Cool' stuff is that whatever you're trying to do has to be physically plausible, but other than that, I'd love to see your creativity shine! I'll give some examples below.
• The short version is, if it's cool, let it happen, or at least give it a chance, even if it breaks the 'rules' a bit. There may still be some consequences and rolls associated, but it'll still be cool.

For example:

1. A character has a spear thrown at them: It missed, but he wanted to catch it and throw it back because he saw it in a movie and thought it looked cool. There were no rules to cover that, but I know it was an actual feat Norsemen tried to perform, and fuck it, it’s cool, so I had him roll for a counter-attack, with several margins to beat. Low-pass, he just didn’t hurt himself, middle pass he caught the spear but missed the return, high-pass and he nailed the guy who threw it. He nailed the guy who threw it. It was really cool.
Now conversely, if he’d wanted to, say, catch he spear, throw it back, thereby kill all the baddies, “because that would be cool!” would not fly. That gets into breaking the world a bit too much.
2. PC wants to swing on a chandelier over the table and kick the Evil Henchman in the chest, knocking him down, backflipping, and making a three-point landing on the table. - This could be an Athletics check for the swing and kick, opposed by the Henchmen's Athletics (to avoid being knocked over), and an Acrobatics check for the flourishing finish.
3. PC wants to surf on a shield, sliding down a flight of stairs while firing arrows at an oncoming horde of orcs. - Acrobatics again for this one, and a penalty to attack rolls based on the bumpy ride.
4. PC wants to watch a strange group of halflings from a distance while blending in with the crowd at the tavern but subtly pass a message to the halflings that they need to stop downing pints of ale and meet him upstairs. - This probably calls for a Stealth check and a Performance check.

You get the idea.

Cinematic Bonus

• This relies more on RPing how your character reacts in situations. Basically, if you take the effort to describe what your character is doing in a given situation, and it sounds really cool/cinematic, there's a chance you'll be rewarded with a 'Cinematic bonus' (a bonus to a skill/attack roll, a lower DC on a save, or possible advantage for you/disadvantage for an NPC).
• Different than the "Rule of Cool" in that you're not always going to be doing something that might be outside the confines of the rules; however, you could get a cinematic bonus while trying to perform something under the "Rule of Cool".

For example:

1. Instead of just going "My guy swings his sword to attack the monster.", you could say "My character kicks off an adjacent pillar, swinging their mighty greatsword with added momentum."

Bending spell effects

• Similar to the "Rule of Cool", but specifically for spells and casters. If you run into a situation where you'd like to use a spell, not specifically as intended, but it makes sense that you'd have the ability to accomplish that feat with the spells you have, I'd love to see that creativity shine. In a story sense, magic is pretty malleable, so it makes sense that a caster could create a magical effect, on par with their current power level, that might not be outlined in the spell compendium.

For example:

1. You have the 'friends' cantrip and would like to bestow the effect on a food or drink item that would be consumed by someone instead of outright casting it on them. They'll still feel the effects of the spell, good and bad, but you're just changing the delivery.
2. You'd like to use the light cantrip to greater effect and blind a creature with it. In this instance, since you're heightening the effect of the spell, I may require you to burn a 1st level spell slot to accomplish that feat, and the enemy would get a save, but the effect would still definitely be possible.

Combining Spell Effects

• If two fellow casters, or one caster and someone with a scroll or magic item, want to simultaneously unleash magical effects in order to create a combined reaction, I'm all for it. The end result will heavily depend on the effects used (extra damage, more difficult save, longer effect duration, etc.), but I'd love to see what you guys can come up with! This also kind of goes hand-in-hand with the "Rule of Cool"

Better Healing Potions

• When you would normally roll one or more dice to restore hit points with a potion, you instead use the highest number possible for each die.
• For example: instead of regaining 2d4+2 hit points when you consume a healing potion, you regain 10.

Serious Resurrection (Mercer Rule)

If a character is dead, and a resurrection is attempted by a spell or spell effect with a longer than 1 action casting time (not revivify), a resurrection challenge is initiated:

• Up to 3 members of the adventuring party can offer to contribute to the ritual via a contribution skill check
• The DM asks them each to make a skill check based on their form of contribution, with the DC of the check adjusting how helpful/impactful the DM feels the contribution would be
• After all the 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, the 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