My 9 1/2 TOP homebrew rules for D&D

Step up your game with these 9-and-a-half homebrew rules for Dungeons & Dragons!
And please forgive the autofocus screwups.
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[@jessicaclark4544]

For healing potions, I rule that if a player uses an action they get the maximum possible outcome. If they use a bonus action, they roll.

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

That’s great too!

[@janinemaimanakos4250]

I love this idea.

[@PaulGNatkiel]

I use this

[@giannettomichael]

My potion homebrew: Bonus action to drink potion: Players have to roll for the healing done Action to drink potion: you carefully drink down every drop, gaining the maximum amount of possible healing Action to pour a potion down an unconscious players throat: downed player rolls for healing but does not receive the auto +2/4 etc. bonus

[@PeakDnD]

"I gotta guy!" I really dig the inspiration point point. That's a cool and new way to use something that gets forgotten. Nifty with the persuasion checks and the throwback 3.5 flanking rule. Strong work!

[@lxdrpepperxl]

Solid homebrew rules. I actually use all of them myself, except I use a +1 for flanking instead of +2. Been considering bumping it to +2 though. Another point in favor of the hit bonus > advantage that wasn't mentioned in the video is that advantage on flanking kind of steals the thunder from things that normally give advantage RAW, such as being hidden, stunning the target, blinding the target, Guiding Bolt, the Help action, etc etc since advantage doesn't stack.

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Very good points! Wish I had mentioned that.

[@orwin5445]

I use encumbrance but via dndbeyond the weight issues are all taken care of automatically so you don't have to actually do the number crunching. I know I'd leave it behind if I were not playing with a tool that could automate it. However I do like counting ammo, at minimum for special shots like dragon slaying arrows and whatnot. I find the added tension of the Rogue going for another crossbow bolt only to find they just fired their last one can really add drama in the right circumstances and unlike the encumbrance rules it's much easier to keep track of.

[@Zalied]

The only time iv used weight outside of the "alright guys now that's ridiculous" is after a large treasure I'll tell my party alright how much are u really able to carry of this. Mostly to allow larger realistic treasure rooms for older dragons or bosses without the necessary now my party has that much result

[@GuildOfTheBlackCrow]

Great new look. Just NEVER use auto focus.

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Yeah lesson learned. I’ve set the min and max focal distance now and it seems to behave better in tests. We’ll see how the next video turns out!

[@MemphiStig]

One of the sad ways that analog was/is superior to digital.

[@andyk613]

Just as a point of math, I believe advantage gives you an average of about +3 so a +4 would be better than advantage

[@andrewpeli9019]

Advantage’s value actually changes based on how difficult the DC of the attempt is. It can be as large as almost a +5 or as low as a +2

[@Flaraen]

​@@andrewpeli9019Finally, someone gets it right lol

[@sneakybutcher9782]

I created a homebrew belt called Snakoos Belt of Healing, which allows its wearer to chug healing potions as a Bonus Action, and an easy low level magical item to dish out without overpowering the PC’s. I guess items like these can be modified for all sorts of ideas and can overcome setting permanent homebrew rules.

[@geoffreyperrin4347]

I prefer "healing potions heal 10 HP per tier or rarity" instead of the bonus action rule. It also makes the potions a more valuable between fights. By default, the dice equal 10, 20, 30 etc. If they roll max, so basically healing potions heal max on all dice

[@SMTurg]

I sorta do both - max healing if the potion is carefully consumed as an action, roll dice if hastily slugging it down as a bonus action.

[@geoffreyperrin4347]

@@SMTurg I can get behind that

[@arthrez]

@@SMTurg IMMA STEALING THAT

[@coopergraveline4533]

I agree that I think that flanking is too massive of a bonus for forming what will just become a conga-line of people fighting all trying to gain advantage. I was trying a thing where my players could use a bonus action to do a relevant skill check against an enemy to try to gain advantage. They'd tell me the skill they wanted to try - athletics to try and overpower the enemy, or acrobatics to flurry around them, intimidate to throw them off guard, perception or investigation to find a weak spot, history/nature/arcana etc to remember a creature's weak point, stealth or sleight of hand to cover up the incoming attack - stuff like that. And then they'd roll that skill against the creature's AC as the DC. If they pass, they have advantage - if they fail, it's only their bonus action lost. In a smaller, cinematic combat it's pretty neat because it makes my players think about what skill they wanna use or cinematically describe what they're gonna do to really paint a picture. But in larger combats it eats up a little more time. So I might scrap it in favour of something like the +2 rule - maybe +4 if they have three people flanking in a triangle - advantage is just such a huge bonus, and I just really hate the conga-line.

[@rpgladob]

The „healed from 0 hp = +1 exhaustion“ is also an awesome way to make players falling in battle more dramatic.

[@rpgladob]

Bonus tip: add a similar 6 step „madness/emotional stress“ exhaustion that is affected by stuff like horrific moments and that can NOT be recovered through rest only. Horror genre: more fear, more fun.

[@tangenator]

I discovered your videos prepping for my first long run campaign as a DM with Curse of Strahd. You're experience and the way you narrate so beautifully has been immensely helpful. The subreddit has been helpful as well (thanks for steering me there!) I'll definitely be going your patreon to support the wonderful content you have developed! Thank you!!

[@Vaestalol]

What I like to do with potions is giving players both options: They can drink it as an action or a bonus action. The difference is that if they choose to drink their potions as an action, they get to heal the maximum amount per potion, and if they choose to use it as a bonus action, they get to roll for healing instead

[@TheRealDeadRock]

Pretty solid tips. My group uses about half of thses. Also, liking the new camera, especially once the focus issues are sorted out ;)

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Yeah I think I’ve got it dialed in now. We’ll see how the next one turns out!

[@avengingblowfish9653]

I have mixed thoughts about encumbrance, but only because digital character sheets automatically do all the calculations for you. I ran a naval campaign where players had a boat to store equipment. Having to choose what to take for expeditions can make for some interesting choices. This works best in a campaign where you are giving players interesting equipment.

[@paulcoy9060]

Encumbrance: Not by weight, but volume. I give my players a sheet with 30 slots to write down what they can carry, and if they find something better during an adventure, they have to eliminate one to switch it out. Which is why Hirelings are so important. Treasure doesn't count, coins and jewels are on a separate sheet.

[@Athorment]

for the rerolls at the end, at my table we do a simple rule of "no repeats". If the point is to avoid rolling 1s and 2s, by doing this you still get "Punished" with an unlucky roll... but the next time its impossible to accept such numbers if it happens again. It also prevents lucky people from streamrolling with lucky 6s in a row, but at least this feels fair and necessary because it ensures that the DM doesn't have to somehow "balance" a fight for a party with "Superman" and "Unlucky cripple" on it.

[@xaveir7787]

New camera looks incredible!

[@ryanchou2846]

Advantage gives an average of +3 to the roll. 1d20 averages 10.5 where Advantage averages 13.825

[@neversparky]

The second rule actually reminds me quite a bit of the Flashback system from Blades in the Dark! In that system, essentially, you can spend resources to call for a flashback to describe how your character might have prepared for a situation (For example, upon seeing a guard, they might call for a flashback where they elaborate on how they poisoned or bribed the guard last week for just this moment)

[@ddespoth78]

All fantastic homerules, I actually use most of them but all 4 of my players opposed having their death saves hidden.

[@WhamBamTySam]

I agree! Fantastic homebrews, but it's *so* dramatic and tense to see how close your party member is to dying! Are they bleeding out? Having seizures? Oh no, they rolled a Nat 1, looks like they're on death's door. Not seeing the result breaks immersion and disconnects the party from the results. It's pretty unsatisfying to be unconscious for 2 or 3 turns & then without any warning, or build up, or things you could've done: "You're Dead" The rest of the homebrew rules are pretty great though! Was a good video for sure.

[@ddespoth78]

I hope I can convince my players someday on the death saves, their argument is they feel they may have succeeded if they rolled with their dice. Still a ton of fun regardless but when I run curse of strahd it's *definitely* going in

[@eprot6170]

I thought about a Dc that can be rolled as an bonus action to look how your downed party members are doing, either perception or a medicine check

[@TheSteezyCheese]

In CoS I encourage players to track ammunition and use variant encumbrance but do not enforce at all.

[@hades91245]

My DM is good enough to not use spell slots for out of combat, non-significant uses of magic. Using dominate mind on an important NPC? spell slot used up. Use plant growth to casually makes someone's garden a little more lively? Free use. Flavour wise this is essentially because you'll take the time and energy to cast the spell. Whereas in combat or tense situations you won't have time to gather yourself enough.

[@Ramperdos]

I use max healing with potions, but they still cost an action. I actually really like to keep track on encumberance, because that makes STR more useful. So many adventurers are weaker than basic villagers (dumping STR), so it feels rewarding for the STR characters. Roll20 also automatically calculated the weight of your equipments, so it's not even hard to keep in mind. Hidden death saves and getting one point of exhaustion from dropping to 0 stops the Healing Word infinitely reviving everybody.

[@firelordsinger9666]

I actually did notice the second the video popped up good job mane! 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@multiversedm]

I appreciate you and all your videos, MDM addresses solutions for a majority of public concerns about D&D, and its forward and backward compatible with all editions, You'll love it. Cheers.

[@WildVii]

I love the new camera, Steve, but you may want to fiddle with the focus and depth of field a bit. As you moved around the camera would shift what was in focus which was a little distracting. Aside from that, would you apply the critical hit rules to the monsters as well? I do that in my games and the players were more apprehensive when I told them that “whatever they could do, the monsters could do as well.”

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Yes absolutely the monsters crit the same way! And I believe I’ve got the focus issues sorted out now. Facial recognition is off, and the camera has a min and max focal distance. Whatever is in those bounds (me) is what it focuses on.

[@reespewa]

Tell us more about the camera! Loving the upgrade

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Fujifilm XT4 with the 18-55mm f2.8 lens. Three Genaray sunlight LED torpedo lights arrayed around the room. The key light has an Impact Quickbox soft box on it, the full has a golden light gel, and the rim light is just the plain daylight at 27% brightness.

[@reespewa]

@@LunchBreakHeroes *drooling* Good investment! It looks fantastic 😁

[@ferrielmerouane9663]

I personally don't use the Bonus Action POtion rule, as I think it kind of invalidates the "Fast Hands" feature from the Thief subclass, which allows them to use items (including potions) with a Bonus Action. Btw, the new camera looks great, but I think the autofocus has a few issues, just wanted to let you know, and hope you'll keep up with the great content!

[@jesseperry9602]

Our group's healing potion fix works like this....You can A) use a bonus action to drink a healing potion and roll the corresponding dice to receive the healing, or B) use a full action to drink it and you get the MAX hp the potion can deliver. So a regular healing potion as a bonus action would give you what you roll 2d4+4, but if you take your time and use a full action you get the full 12 hp the potion could supply at max. It gives players a choice, do I want to slam the potion while I'm doing other things, or do I take my time and guzzle every drop? Player's love getting choices. :)

[@laughingkoala8623]

Fantastic episode

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Thank you!

[@mandawhy4804]

dang Steve lookin good!

[@Rhiro]

Happy New Year! Is there a chance you'll take certain domains of dread this year in big videos?

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

The Borca videos showed that the audience for domain-centric videos is incredibly small, so probably not. 😟

[@munskinman]

Healing position for a bonus action but takes place of the movement part of your auction

[@KordTheDestroyer]

Dang Steve!

[@BriConRPG]

Huge fan of hidden death saves and flanking becoming a flat bonus (I prefer +1 because of 5E's bounded acuracy) Also rerolling 1's on level up... I would definitely appreciate that rule with my 7th level cleric with fewer than 50 HP The critical hit rule sort of takes the already powerful paladin and makes them into a freaking beast. But I agree with the spirit of the rule. If your group is good at quick math, you can rule that there's a minimum damage your crit will always do which is 2x average dice dmg then add mods. Add in a reroll 1's rule or something. I like the spirit of the persuasion rule, but I don't think I'd remove the check altogether. Maybe if they rp good enough then the DC is decreased, or the NPC starts off with a better than normal demeanor toward them. Great video!

[@edbe2312]

Great work as always. I suggest you to set your new camera in manual focus otherwise while you move you get out of focus. Keep up ! Cheers from italy

[@FrostyTheSnowPickle]

I have one that could be a bit controversial: Nat 20 initiatives give an extra round. Normally that just means the person who rolled a nat 20 can take an extra turn, but if multiple people roll one, it sort of counts as a surprise round. Also, nat 20 initiative means that the player isn’t surprised. Also, in regards to tracking ammunition, I do it in campaigns where resources should be limited, like Out of the Abyss. Everywhere else, I pay it little mins. For the persuasion one, sometimes I do that. However, if it’s somebody that wouldn’t normally agree with what the player is saying, I just decrease the DC. Even if the argument makes sense, if the person doesn’t like them, they still won’t be super inclined to help.

[@H1Guard]

Use a smaller die for hit dice: d4 = d3+1 d6 = d4+2 d8 = d6+2 d10 = d6+4 d11 = d8+4

[@ShenaniGins]

As a point of order: Advantage/Disadvantage is roughly equivalent to +/- 5 to a roll. I think Flanking conferring a +1 to hit is a perfect homebrew, as it takes advantage of design space without breaking the bounded accuracy 5e is built on.

[@Mrryn]

My personal homebrew for flanking is a +1 for every flanking pair. So a +1 if you and an ally are flanking, but +2 if another 2 of your allies are also flanking the same creature, etc. Basically, the more surrounded the enemy is by your party, the easier it gets for any one of your party to hit them.

[@MarshmallowMadnesss]

Any thoughts on taking crits and fumbles to a new level with a few charts for damage type? That's how I roll at my table.

[@janusjanhaar]

My flanking rule (which I never hear people using) is that only the one that flanks from the backside of the enemy gets advantage. The pc that the enemy is focused on (in front of) gets no advantage since he has the enemy's full focus in that moment.

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Yeah I’ve never heard of it being used, either. Likely because facing is difficult to track with circular tokens, which are popular in VTTs.

[@janusjanhaar]

@@LunchBreakHeroes ah yes, I am one of those privilaged few who never had to resort to online play. We've had some breaks due to covid but we filled our time with online videogames instead haha.

[@palmagius]

for rolling hp on a lvl up I do it like this choose between A. the average or B. roll and if you roll lower then the average the roll becomes the average -1. so if a barbarian with a hit die of 12 rolls a 2 it will become 6

[@rodrickneher280]

for flanking, my table does +1 attack bonus per flanking ally. For level ups, we let the players roll then choose to keep it or take the average -1.

[@bakaky0]

Rolling hit die on level up is just ridiculous. Gain half of the maximum roll rounded up everytime

[@TheUsernameFound]

I use a lot of these already. :D

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Good on ya!

[@solahaze8948]

For hit dice, if I let players roll, I usually say "if you roll less than the average number listed on your class' hit dice, you can take average" so, for a paladin, if they roll a 1, they get a 5 instead.

[@sirsmackstrikesback1611]

I disagree with the persuasion rule because the “auto success” is based on the player’s persuasiveness and not the character’s. I think a better approach would be to just use the player’s argument to flavor the success or failure of the persuasion

[@urosmirkovic8353]

advice you probably figured out but still: flick the autofocus off your camera, end set up the focus manuelly

[@ShineyCrow]

New camera’s great but you need to turn off the automatic focus, you keep going in and out of it throughout the video.

[@ivazdranoel4609]

Good rules. Do you think we can expect a write up of them too?

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Do you want one?

[@PerikleZ87]

Somehow I already use most of these house rules, if not all of them :)

[@paulcoy9060]

For flanking: Only one character gets the bonus.

[@Harakiri404]

With your rule for crits how do handle attack add ons like smite and sneak attack, spells and shadow blade crits?

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Full base damage dice, plus another roll of them. All bonuses added as normal.

[@Harakiri404]

@@LunchBreakHeroes I think I would rather enjoy a critfisher build at your table XD

[@shadowbear123]

The DM I play with when I'm a player uses a rule for health potions that I've since started using: When you use a health potion (of any level), you can choose an action or a bonus action to drink it. If you choose to do so as a bonus action, you roll for the healing, but is you do so as a full action, you get the maximum amount of healing it can give you. This counts for any full action to drink a potion, such as feeding to a downed ally (which you can't use a bonus action for). I enjoy having the choice to heal some and still do something, or heal fully because I REALLY needed that

[@harrywompa]

2:18 sounds like plot points

[@VuvuzelaTM]

I don't like critical doing full damage, monsters rolls much more dices per hot than players, if they do max damage my players wouldn't wasted the precious scroll of revivify on the poor Arabele!

[@Harakiri404]

Healing potion cures 2d4+2

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

And typos on a teleprompter are forever

[@benami7777]

Reroll 1 every time reroll 2 only once is our tables rule.

[@korydunalp5041]

With the crit damage do you do that only with melee attacks and not spell attacks or do you do that with both?

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Both

[@korydunalp5041]

@@LunchBreakHeroes cool thanks for the speedy reply, I really enjoy your stuff thanks for the videos.

[@chrisg8989]

Max damage dice crits. 👍 PC buddy NPC... interesting 🤔 Bonus Action Potion. 👍 (I also Max healing Potions if you spend an action to do it) No encumbrance. No Ammunition. 👍 RP Persuasion. 👍 Rule of Cool. 👍 Flanking 👍 (I use the +2 bonus and I have a High Ground bonus thats the same +2) Secret Deathsaves. 🤔 interesting. Re-rolling Level up HP dice. 🤔 Never use this rule. Always just do average HP and call it a day.

[@DianosAbael]

My potion homerule: in combat (adjacent enemy, hit in the last turn by range, continuous dmg, disadvantage) my players roll dices, out of combat they max the result.

[@DianosAbael]

basically under stress you can't drink slowly or pour it perfectly, out of combat they can sip slowly and improve the healing effect

[@AflacMan13]

YourRule1: Soooo... if I have a Battleaxe, that's 1d12, I roll Crit, so now I essentially get THREE D12???!!!?? With one of them guaranteed to be 12 points???!!?? Dude. WTH?

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

No. You get 12, plus your roll, plus any applicable bonuses.

[@paulcoy9060]

Healing potions: A d4? Really? My potions go by the creator's level, rolled randomly. So some potions can heal 20d4, that's a really good potion. And if the creator worships a healing-based God, max out the healing.

[@philiponeill6903]

Someone check my maths here. A basic healing potion does 2d4+2 healing - on average, 7 hp. A cleric with cure wounds at 1st level and a 16 CHA will do 1d8+3, or on average, 7 hp healing. This scales up for the cleric, but it also assumes that higher level characters are going to only ever have a basic potion of healing. At higher levels, being able to heal 10d4 + 20 (45 hp) for a potion of superior healing as a bonus action seems a bit rough on the cleric who, at 17th level, still has to use an action to heal 9d8+5 (46 hp). Also, unless this is *just* for healing potions (which I would find hard to justify: "Yes, you can swallow a healing potion as a bonus action; no, the potion of heroism will take a full action) it means that *all* potions just suddenly got a *lot* more powerful.

[@TwinSteel]

No more decks - restock soon?

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Hopefully around the end of this month or the start of the next. 2,000 copies are on a boat right now.

[@TwinSteel]

@@LunchBreakHeroes awesome

[@TwinSteel]

Ordered mine this week 👍🏿

[@FishofMuu]

8:40 No, your math is extremely wrong 😜

[@LunchBreakHeroes]

Not surprised at all!

[@ifauxq]

do not roll your players death saves for them. everything else in the vid was solid, but taking the last moments of agency from a player is bad advice

[@PhortyThree]

ok sir but is that a hickey