Stuff Worth Stealing 2 || D&D with Dael Kingsmill

[@Mallory-Malkovich]

You're not an illusionist, you're a _Verisimilimancer._

[@commandercaptain4664]

Try saying that ten times...

[@DesmondDentresti]

That is a very 'prideful wizard' thing to say. It's going in my spell book for later reference

[@blainewheaton9679]

“I am not an *illusionist*! I am a Verisimilimancer. I bring forth Truths, manifestations of reality that lies not within the tangible realm, but the realm of identity, perception, and belief. I reshape The world more firmly than any transmuter, for belief defines reality and I define belief” “So, you make illusions?” “Sigh”

[@DVDMaster2009]

Two language house rules: At character creation, I allow people to leave languages un picked, then during the game I allow them to announce that they know a language if they can give a good reason for how their character acquired it. This solves the problem of people picking languages that never come into play. I use language proficiencies as proficiency in the history/lore/culture of the people who speak that language. i.e., if you speak dwarfish then you know "dwarf" stuff. So I'll allow you make a INT (dwarven) check if you aren't proficient in history or a INT (dwarven) check to know how to behave before dwarven nobility.

[@garrettrobinson3826]

I really like both of these and may steal them.

[@toribiogubert7729]

Remind me the way Starfinder tie language to a Skill named Culture. If you have more ranks (points) in Culture you are allowed to pick more languages.

[@brettmajeske3525]

I tie culture to the History Skill, with language proficiency granting advantage. If they are asking about a culture their background does not justify, disadvantage.

[@Ellanion]

I usually do this with skill points as well (not necessarily DnD), I let people keep (or keep for them) say 5-10% of their skill points to invest in "obvious stuff my character should know but I forgot about" when it comes up. There's always a knight who forgot to learn heraldry, or that hunter who mysteriously doesn't know how to repair their own gear, or a druid who doesn't know which plants are edible. This saves that embarrassment and "but my character should obviously know this!"-arguments :)

[@olivermeloche2042]

Thats the good stuff, fits nicely into an etiquette role for D&D

[@landshark760]

My home rule is I don't like that mundane medicine seems so unimportant since there is magical healing. So if you have proficiency in medicine, during short rests you can use med kit charges and each use grants another player to automatically have the max result of rolling a hit dice. Basically they are being a field medic.

[@pricejac12]

I like this. I steal this. Thank you

[@sagarro5291]

STOLEN! Thank!

[@johnmarkarth2249]

Yoink

[@archaeopteryxish]

OoooOo love this thank you

[@kevingriffith6011]

Couple of thoughts I've had of my own that I felt like sharing: Morale: This one is more of something to tease RP moments out of characters. Essentially it's rewarding players for having characters do things they like and avoid things that are obviously uncomfortable. We've all had those moments in game where you describe how cold and unpleasant it is outside or how hard it's raining and the PCs just kinda shrug it off like it's no big deal, even though the paladin grew up in a lavish castle, the wizard came from a wealthy family and bounced from expensive inn to expensive inn up until this point and the thief spent 90% of their formative years in the desert. Basically whenever a character tends to their creature comforts, they add a 1d6 to their "morale pool" that they can spend, one per check, on any ability check, saving throw or attack roll... and whenever a character has to deal with a highly uncomfortable situation (wading through sewers, keeping watch outside the tent in a downpour, etc) they lose a morale die. They can accumulate negative morale dice that I as a GM can apply in the same way if I'm feeling particularly punishing. Some things will have a pretty universal morale effect, like nice food, a good quality inn stay, etc, but some characters/backgrounds might be unbothered by bad weather and uncomfortable in a classy inn. Pushed Rolls: This is something I hijacked wholesale from Call of Cthulhu, but basically whenever a character attempts a skill and fails they can opt to push the roll on a higher DC with bigger consequences if they fail. The fighter climbing a rough stone cliff fails their athletics check, so they make it up a short distance before hitting a dangerous or uncertain handhold. They can push their roll and try to proceed, but if they fail they fall and take a ton of damage. The rogue is trying to pick a lock, but they fail their check. They hear a guard coming from down the hall, and they've got enough time to make a break for it... but they're very close, they think they've almost go the lock open. Would they like to push their roll?

[@terranovarubacha5473]

Morale dice and pushed rolls are great ideas! Consider them the good kind of stolen :)

[@carsonm7292]

Fantastic ideas. I'm going to see if my players are interested in these.

[@Taven03]

very interesting. so a push roll raises the DC and consequence but you get to reroll and moral Dice are added or subtracted based on background and circumstance? I love the push idea but am a little iffy on the moral dice. I do like the idea of punishing or rewarding them for treating their characters well. So with the moral dice pool. you spend a day in a nice inn you get +1 moral die but the next day you go out in the rain you subtract one moral die? also is the die used up after the skill check or is it reusable?

[@kevingriffith6011]

@@Taven03 There's some noodly bits for the morale rolls that I'd have to iron out before I were to treat it like a real, legitimate mechanic, but essentially you can spend one morale die at a time, and it's lost when you use it. I think it would have to be up to game master adjudication to determine when they're distributed though, as I could see ways people could metagame to exploit it. (If there's a hard cap on morale, I could see characters sleeping in a nice inn until it's full up and then switching to a cheaper inn, for example... but without a cap a character could theoretically spend a month in a nice inn and come out with 30 morale dice.) I'd suggest maybe no more than 5 morale dice in either direction, which will encourage the characters to spend them since they aren't difficult to get in mass if you're not out in the wilderness, but also so they won't build up such a massive morale debt that they're just sad for life and don't care anymore if they don't get any personal time for a while.

[@TheRABIDdude]

@@kevingriffith6011 The 5 dice cap sounds good. Also I don't think it's a problem for them to stay in a nice Inn till it caps out then switch. That's kind of how a lot of people behave, treating themselves when they're feeling depleted, then being more cost effective when they're feeling up.

[@bassett_green]

Timestamps: 1:05 Player-create “rumors” related to their backstory, shuffled and handed to the other players 2:41 Double STR mod on 2-handed weapon damage (PCs and monsters alike) 4:02 Shields can be splintered (sacrifice shield to avoid damage) 4:58 HP “loan” for low-level characters 5:52 Percentile comprehension for languages (instead of just “fluent or not”) 10:08 Give players 3 mins at the start of combat to discuss strategy so each turn is quicker

[@BlueSparrow23]

Thank you for this! It's like the Table of Contents for videos, and makes it super easy to scan when trying to find that video I was looking for that I saw sometime.

[@aceistheplace6215]

aren't there already timestamps in the description?

[@bassett_green]

@@aceistheplace6215 there are now! They weren’t included at first

[@DocDoesGamingTV]

I actually love it when my players are strategizing, I'm always like "I hope your plan works"

[@haruo20101]

Me too! Sometimes when the plan is really good narratively but wouldn't work I bend things a little in favor

[@mathewfinch]

I almost entirely agree. The only exception is when my players stop combat to discuss elaborate strategies that they could not have come up with beforehand. If the strategizing is in relation to things they would have known beforehand it's easy enough to retcon it as a flashback, but some strategizing is so specific to that situation that their elaborate strategies defy believability.

[@jeffreykershner440]

It's nice to be able to toss stuff to the players. Like reminders if they forgot something.

[@scottbrowne9024]

Right its like your own private heist movie

[@fungalmage3336]

I've got a fun little one to give the party a bit of a fighting chance when they're getting owned. Whenever a PC drops to 0 and falls unconcsious, they can choose one party member to grant a d6 of Bardic Inspiration to. This is an easy way to show the whole "I'll avenge my friend" moment while allowing them to have a better chance of bouncing back. In the same vein, if a PC actually dies in combat, EVERYONE gains a d12 of inspiration. Inspiration won't totally derail an encounter, and it only comes up when they're already on the backfoot. I'm not sure what to call it, though...

[@justincatlett56]

Blood Avengeance

[@GregoryVangilbergen]

[Split second decision X seconds]: Let your players roll for initiative. Then tell them what happens. For example; "the roof starts to collapse". Then let them decide what they do in reversed order (Lowest initiative goes first) giving them only X seconds to decide. If they stay silent or try something impossible they freeze. This gives the faster more perceptive players more info and time to decide how they'll react. It's fun, funny and often dramatic :)

[@adahnliegl740]

noice - consider this idea redistributed to me.

[@Roboboy17]

This is AWESOME!!!

[@diogoamerico1029]

Looks like the "click rule" from the AngryGM (mentioned by Dael in her previous video about stolen stuff) in which something happens or is about to happen, so the DM telegraphs it to the players and they have a few seconds to decide what to do. A smart (or lucky) decision could bypass the saving throw entirely (or give advantage) while a not so applicable choice could doom the PC's reaction. This is specifically designed for traps but could easily be adapted to any "quick-time events" you want. Your version seems like how initiative works in World of Darkness, allowing faster and/or more perceptive characters to use their reflexes to predict what other will do by making slower characters in the initiative declare first but act last. But that is how combat works in WoD. Your ideas seems very nice to me, but rolling for initiative could remove the sense of impeding doom and time pressure in a fast-paced decision. It would be less like reflexes and more like "bullet time", when things go into slow motion while characters decide what to do. Both are great ideas with different outcomes.

[@digitaljanus]

I used to do this with World of Darkness games, because combat turns are supposed to be 3 seconds long and usually involve firearms so everything is effectively happening at the same time. So I figured those with the higher initiative we're reading the situation and reacting just a split-second faster.

[@dondumitru7093]

I like the idea of placing time-pressure on the planning portion of combat. But ... I also think that allowing more time is an opportunity for players to inject more role-playing, and having role-playing as part of combat planning is something I want players to try to do. Time-pressure seems like it will just reward those players who already think tactically, and the "regular" players will be left out.

[@dakotarussell3282]

Dael the extra hp for low level players was my suggestion from your last video. I'm so glad you like it.

[@TheNoMoreGamer]

I've created something for a less serious campaign called "The Unreliable Narrator". I haven't come across anything like it so here it is: As a DM I hand out little letter tokens, or word tokens for different reasons, usually if they succeed at something difficult or do something cool, etc. What this allows a player to do is mess with my words when I describe things. For example, if they come around a corner and find themselves face to face with a fiend, one of them could use a token and say "We come face to face with a friend?" Or if they find a settlement of elves, someone could chime in and say "We find a settlement of Elvis?" This could drastically alter what a DM has set up which is why it's used for less serious campaigns or very very sparringly, or if the DM is very careful with their words, but I find it has players engage a bit more and pay attention to things more in case they want to use their token. Pro tip if using this rule: Never describe anything as Ramshackle, cuz your players will want to unshackle the ram.

[@spiritandsteel]

This is hilarious, and I may steal it for a silly one-shot. I love it.

[@TheNoMoreGamer]

@@spiritandsteel I hope it leads to a great funny story!

[@Gleebaer]

This is wonderful. Do you still use inspiration tokens in these kind of games?

[@TheNoMoreGamer]

@@Gleebaer Uhhhh truth be told I've never played a traditional game of DnD, I've just really been into the community for about a year at this point. I've played call of cthulu, pathfinder, lancer, a homebrew jojo and power rangers, and 1 me and a buddy are currently making, so I guess the answer is no, but that shouldn't stop you or anyone from using them if you can, I just don't know what they are lol. Sorry.

[@MorgorDre]

There was something like this, instead of inspiration somebody gave cards out and the cards told what can be changed… but I don‘t know who was it… Not Luke, Not guy, not the Nerds, not the matt and also not the other matt,… damn it

[@seanellis5410]

“They’re based on Aristotle quotes.” YES! “I won’t get into it right now.” DARN IT

[@tasselhoffburfoot3252]

For real though.. I got rather excited

[@charlessmith5465]

Whether or not that part was true, it seemed true enough. Verisimilitude, is it not?

[@WesAllen]

@@tasselhoffburfoot3252 I cheered.

[@corrindon245]

But when ?!

[@johancarlsson1287]

The group I play with agreed to what we call "The spear rule". It states that "If you are proficient with either martial weapons, Glaives, Halberds, Lances, Pikes, or Tridents, then Spears and Tridents gain the reach property for you." This is because we dislike the spear not having reach, since it is the prime feature of a spear (as compared to ex. a javelin). The idea is that if you only have proficiency with simple weapons, you have no real martial training so you can't hold the spear properly to utilize its full length, and your fighting style becomes simplified. However, if you have any of the stated proficiencies, chances are you have martial training and understand how to couch and lunge with your spear for maximum reach. Spears have also been used historically because they were such an easy weapon to teach someone to wield, but even the most base soldier needs instructions in how to do that (hence the martial weapons proficiency) because proper spear fighting is not as intuitive as one might think. I am thinking about adding more of these properties/features to other simple weapons, giving them more versatility for a trained warrior. Ex, even if the sling in D&D is considered a simple weapon, using a sling properly requires hella dedication. Historically, they have seen a wider and more lasting use on the battlefield than almost any other weapon short of the club, dagger, javelin, and spear.

[@dynamicworlds1]

As someone trained in spear, please, please, make spears finesse weapons when used in 2 hands. It's both realistic and opens up the thematic style of the lightly-armored nimble spearman that can be so cool.

[@mme.veronica735]

@@dynamicworlds1 Yes! Give us another finesse reach weapon! The whip is boring, even reducing the two-handed finesse die to 1d6 would still be awesome if t had reach

[@poodychulak]

Ooh, this is such a good base for modification. Locking certain weapon properties behind proficiencies, so intuitive

[@nathanaelpoole1369]

Do something similar, martial weapon users spears are d8, and when used 2 handed have reach.

[@exqueue3813]

@@dynamicworlds1 In the same vein as what Johan did, you could give spears used with martial weapon proficiency the finesse property. Players who only know simple weapons are stuck using STR, as they're not sufficiently trained to use a spear with finesse.

[@HMJ66]

Being a language/linguistics nerd, I'd like to see something like language "family trees" in D&D - like if your character speaks Dwarvish, you have a greater than 0 chance of interpreting Gnomish for example, since the two languages are linguistically similar and in the same language "family". They *kind of* did that with Primordial and Aquan/Terran/Ignan/Auran, but they again just made it so they're all the same language and if you speak one you speak them all, which I think is kind of a crappy way to hand-wave it (though understandable for simplicity's sake). Using your percentile example, I'd say if you speak Dwarvish, you have a 10% proficiency in Gnomish and maybe other related languages like Giant. Also if you fail, it's not a pure black and white pass/fail. I'd say the closer you get to success, the more you're able to interpret. Like if you've got 20% proficiency and you roll a 25, you can get the general gist of what it's saying, but not the whole thing (it could be that you get the literal translation but since it's an idiom/cultural reference you don't have, you don't necessarily understand the intended meaning); roll a 40 and you might be able to pick out one or two words, but that's it (and those words aren't necessarily correct). For a real world example - if an English speaker looks at a paragraph of written German or Dutch, they can probably work out a fair bit of it even without actually speaking that language since the languages are so closely related. Same goes for Slavic or Norse languages - you might not be able to speak multiple languages, but they're close enough to the one you *do* speak that you can make an educated guess as to the meaning, as opposed to an English speaker looking at Chinese or Russian or Arabic without education in those languages, it just looks like complete gibberish and you wouldn't have any idea what it means outside of the context of where you found it.

[@CrimsenOverlordVideos]

I do this. In my campaigns, I call it dialects. If you speak giant for example, you can understand orcish and goblin phrases, and vice versa, but not everything. Or, if you speak elvish you can understand parts of sylvan. And there is a unique version of elvish for each subrace of elf. Which means sometimes you can be an elf talking to another elf and not get the whole picture, but there's always a chance.

[@Digivolution3]

I love this, and I guess I kinda do that, if someone knows like Dwarvish i allow them an INT check to read the base of what something in Giant is saying or something like that.

[@themecoptera9258]

I actually do something like this in my game. The common language in the setting is Ilthean, which is a corrupt form of true northern Ilthean (called high Ilthean) with some grammar stolen Grosvenoren. A person speaking high ilthean will be mostly understandable to a person who speaks ilthean, they’ll just sound like they use a lot of archaic words. A person speaking ilthean will be somewhat understandable to someone who speaks high ilthean, but the strange grammar and weird new words will make it difficult.

[@justincatlett56]

Love this! Then you could also incorporate learning the language differently too, like maybe it takes you less time to learn a related language!

[@GTRichardson7]

"I have many thoughts about this; they are based on Aristotle quotes... we won't get into it right now" has there ever been a more Dael statement?

[@ShakeyBox]

On Languages: I had a similar thought some time ago, but instead of it being percentile, it was a rating between 0 and 20. However, instead of rolling once, one would roll 3d20 to speak or understand a language: 0 successes - Nothing 1 success - Nouns and verbs 2 successes - Most things, but not the subtleties or anything too complex 3 successes - Everything

[@shifttheshaman]

"Now that you've watched this video on language proficiency: why don't you e-mail it to your Grammar?" :P

[@kevintroy8010]

We used to have an idea of "signature moves" that are like once off abilities a character can use by spending inspiration, like an acrobatic performer rogue might use their signature move to get an extra move action and make a performance check to stun nearby enemies who can see them. Of course this only works if you give out inspiration at least semi regularly but it helps martial classes feel special and unique, you can even tie them into that characters specific backstory

[@justincatlett9354]

This is epic. I've done something similar with custom "feats" (stolen from Dawn Forged Cast) but love the idea of them coming up with their own move they can spend inspiration on. Stealing this for sure.

[@soorian6493]

One really cool mechanic my brother came up with was 'Telegraphed.' It's a downside for a powerful monster attack, like recharge. When a monster uses a telegraphed attack, the players that can see it make a survival check. If they succeed they get a description of what the monster is trying to do (e.g. "The monster's six eyes spin independently, locking on to each of you. It's mouth begins to swell. What do you do?") Then every character that noticed can burn their reaction to take a *full action.* They can dodge, dash to reposition, attack again etc. It breaks up the turn order in the favor of the players which keep players engaged off their turn.

[@cabrita309]

How does this channel only have ~85k subs? I doubt people are emailing this to their grandma.

[@Dyanosis]

I doubt most people's grandmas even give a shit about this type of thing.

[@alonzocollins450]

For my house rule, at the beginning of a campaign, I make an npc relating to each character. This NPC could be anywhere from friend to family. Then they will start with some items related to the npc. For example, if there friend is an alchemists, they might get a potion of some type.

[@broceollomon]

In theory this is what the "Bonds" section on your character sheet is for. It makes sense that someone close to a character would see them off with a gift. I like this.

[@Placeholder_Title]

Oooh, this is home brew, I thought this was a “good info for rogue” video.

[@ryuuducat]

Same lol

[@HMJ66]

Rogue*

[@bitchtitchs]

I also thought it was going to be like *10 Items You NEED To Be Stealing In DnD!!!*

[@Placeholder_Title]

Thank you

[@cyrillelibert5236]

I'm not sure where I got it from: When a player has to do a death save, I take him outside the room (or behind my DM screen) and he rolls it in front of me only and can't share the results with anyone else. I find that it increases the pressure of the fight when someone is unconscious and no one know if he's gonna be ok or not. I also keep them rolling once or twice after they had 3 failures or 3 success so that no body know when it's safe.

[@ed-chivers]

Oh my god, I *love* that. I'm running my game online these days, like most folks I guess, so that would be really easy to do. (Not that I hope death saves come up of course!)

[@bitchtitchs]

I love this a ton but i wouldnt be able to bring myself to ask the player with a dead character to keep up the rues by rolling another roll with me. The other players watching the dead character stop rolling death saves would heighten everything to a zenith where the character is either dead or stabilized and no one knows until they check the body.

[@cyrillelibert5236]

Tyler Lewis I see your point, I just feel like they wouldn’t know realistically and it could give away the result if he does a nat 1 and a regular failure.

[@bitchtitchs]

@@cyrillelibert5236 yeah its more or a morals thing for me, like telling my player who is clearly holding back tears to come roll another death save feels like im kinda evil but i can definitely see how it makes suspense during the combat.

[@cyrillelibert5236]

Tyler Lewis if there’s tears of course I wouldn’t be that cruel, it would be on a case to case basis. The goal is always to have an enjoyable time for everyone

[@MumboJ]

"Zone of Truthiness" is now my favourite spell, thank you.

[@Adam-km2vf]

I came across a crit buff that I liked: When you score a crit, you roll your dice as normal, then rather than rolling the crit you take them as having rolled max. Eg: short sword - 1d6 + 6 + mod This way a crit can never deal less damage than a normal hit

[@Somesortadog]

I was really excited to implement this, then my rogue sneak attacked for like 46 damage at level 5.

[@justincatlett9354]

Simple and effective. I am definitely using this.

[@carnivoriousleaf]

@@Somesortadog yep.... I'm still using it and now that rogue is also a paladin

[@Adam-km2vf]

On second thoughts reverse it, take the standard die as max and roll the crit, I remembered some classes can roll extra crit die.

[@carnivoriousleaf]

Yesterday a 5th level character did 150 points of damage due to this kind of crit... And the grave cleric... The character was a rogue paladin smiting a vampire spawn. Pop

[@indeswma4904]

One of my favorite life wisdoms Ive learned is that there is no stealing if you cite your sources. Credit who you steal from as best you can and everyone wins.

[@VaSoapman]

Stuff worth stealing. The Bard: Your heart?

[@MambamboCombo]

A thematic rule I like to use is when a player fails their last death save (don't do this often) they can call upon a devil or God or other powerful being that they've encountered before. Make sure they always know there is a price that they don't know yet but will most likely be worse than death. Players in the material can simultaneously try to resurrect their friend. If they manage to in time, they can even stop the deal. A mortal with a deal like this can't make another and has a curse applied to them in addition to the unknown price (which is most likely going to be working towards freeing or empowering the entity which makes a campaign goal to stop or help the entity. End goals made by the Party itself are the best) Edit: I just realized I described more of a story trick than a rule. Ignore this I guess

[@carsonm7292]

Rules that beget story hooks are the best kind of rules. That's why backgrounds exist in 5e.

[@ВладимирХарченко-з2т]

In my DnD game a DM has decided to put a 1 minute timer on everyone's turn while in combat. I loved it. Instead of giving the players enough time for a perfect move every time everyone now needs to be making on the fly decision and just accept the fact that they might not be the best move available. And that's fine. It builds up pressure and forces the players to be thinking about their strength and synergies in between games. It keeps the players focused and involved. The downside of this approach is that it also.makes the player more tense and the whole party not as powerful as it might be. Also it puts a lot of strain on the DM, because if your rogue keeps forgetting the use the uncanny dodge, the DM needs to remind about those.

[@droidblasta6130]

I have a house rule to help make dying more story climactic, I call it “Die Fighting”- While dying instead of rolling a death save you can choose to take a turn with no reaction and instantly fail a death save afterward and get disadvantage on your next death saving throw. The only thing you are not allowed to do is use any healing abilities or spells that bring you out of your dying state. You can do this as many times as you want until you fill up the death save fails, and die.

[@drekfletch]

This is similar to a spell I have that I call "Final Strike." In a dire situation, a player with the spell can "spend" all death fails and inflict their full hp + whatever they have remaining in unreducible damage. The character dies, but their opponent probably does, too.

[@droidblasta6130]

drekfletch that seems pretty cool, I was actually considering making it a spell or ability but didn’t want any of my dying characters to seem helpless, in a Homebrew Campaign I run my Paladin player was dying, and the BBEG was closing in on my Wizard player that would definitely not be able to survive, the BBEG was a demon, the Paladin hit a critical, and went for the highest level divine smite, he only had one death fail needed to die, so he did this knowing it would be his last, I described at as “You jump into this massive demons mouth, he screams as you wedge your sword deep in his gut, as you do, you and the demon are destroyed in a marvellous burst of flames”

[@tweegerm]

@@droidblasta6130 this is the dream scenario from a rule like this, i am so stealing it

[@droidblasta6130]

@@tweegerm happy to help, tell me how it goes and if there are any problems you encountered with it

[@TwilightObsessed1992]

Our DM has us preroll initiative. So before we even get started, we roll 3-5 initiatives and she records them. Really helps to not have that awkward transition between RP and combat.

[@broke_af_games9661]

What I do is: Shield can be sacrificed to keep a character at 1hp, I also include the Spell Focus:Staff to sacrifice.

[@sputnik90]

Whispered/Secret death saves! Keeps the tension super high not knowing how many saves have been passed or failed, and changes up how the PCs go about saving their downed buddy

[@markadkins1842]

My group has modified the Deck of Cards system for Role Playing inspiration from your old video (A Tale of Love, Pain, Loss, Gain) & turned it into a Random Encounter Generator for our games. I pass out cards & let my players generate random encounter prompts which they write on index cards. When I'm planning a session, if there's space for some random encounters (which there usually is), i use a deck of playing cards to determine which of my player's suggestions I'm going to try & incorporate in that session. Two important notes: First, as the DM, I get to write random encounter prompts too! (They shouldn't know every possibility in the deck!) Second, I stress to my players that the prompts do not need to be automatically positive or negative. A "Tale of Gain" can totally be a cursed item, for example! My players really enjoy the creative outlet - and they love it when one of their ideas suddenly drops into the game. Fair warning though, you may end up needing to figure out how to incorporate a "Dire Corgi" into your next session... My players are weird...

[@AntiCliche]

I like to focus on Spell components! I think they largely get swept under the rug because they're kinda inconvenient and silly to keep track of, but if you remove the "spell component kit" from the available purchases, you make arcane spells more interesting and feel more "earned." I'd allow ppl to use different common components to give their spells meta magic if you do this! For the same reason, I think having divine spells actually come from prayers and having a direct relationship with their gods really adds depth and fun to playing those classes! (The same obviously goes for Warlocks). If you use those systems, you could actually make magic use somewhat "a la carte", meaning the only requirements to cast wizard spells to be locating the written spell research, doing the intelligence work to understand them, and then the collection and use of spell components. Likewise, any god might choose to intervene in behalf of anyone who wisely prays for their aid. Spell slots can be representative of hours spent studying or praying, or me tired to tithes or even acts of service. This functionally changes a LOT of stuff about how the game works, but it's a pretty simple way to totally change the flavor and function of your game

[@terranovarubacha5473]

So with you on this but I've had trouble finding players who want to explore it :(

[@djvecchitto]

When most people try d&d for the very first time, they're disappointed to learn that you can't do anything creative with melee combat rolls; you either hit or you don't. A simple rule we allow is letting fighters to aim for limbs depending on the enemy type. Players can roll with disadvantage to aim for a specific arm (to make the enemy drop whatever they're holding in that hand) or leg (to halve their movement speed). Damage applies as normal. Critical arm hits can dismember, and critical leg hits can knock prone. This works really well for boss battles! A melee fighter might not want to rush up and attack a boss if there's no way they can output enough damage to kill the boss. Way too risky. But if they can land an arm hit and make the boss drop their weapon, that might be worth taking the risk for!

[@exqueue3813]

This unfortunately takes some of the best bits from battlemaster and gives a better version to everyone (as BM maneuvers generally get a saving throw). The real problem is that you can't do anything interesting in melee until you get your subclass.

[@djvecchitto]

​@@exqueue3813 haha, it turns out I never knew the details of what Battle Masters could do because I've never played with a person who stuck with the Fighter long enough to gain a subclass! Looking through the Battle Master rules, here's an alternative homebrew idea: let fighters start with 1 Battle Master maneuver of their choice, and they also gain an extra maneuver of their choice per level. That gives them a little more flexibility right off the bat, and they don't need to wait forever to gain more options.

[@impishDullahan]

I think I've also seen a rule where if you meet the AC you get off a glancing blow dealing probably half damage. It's not much but it adds a little variety and makes barely meeting the AC feel a little more like you in fact just barely hit instead of the all or nothing.

[@a.spirit8408]

Rolling with disadvantage is a good way to go because I think that it doesn't take away that much from the battle master. Battle Master gets bonus damage + their special effect, and without the disadvantage they are much more likely to hit. Your house rule is good for adding variety in those difficult do-or-die moments. Keep at it, as long as your table is having fun!

[@joshuareich580]

@@djvecchitto I think there is actually a feat that lets you gain a battle master maneuver. I would avoid allowing players to ever get to benefit from called shots that are not explicitly part of their class's abilities because such systems will feel like they're taking away from other players who are classes which specialize in the control effects you are looking to give the fighter. Additionally, there is little to no reason that such a system would be available to all PC weapon users but no enemy weapon users, and I doubt that any player would really enjoy getting constantly bonked in the head and falling unconscious or losing limbs or however any specific called shot system works. Combat isn't meant to be super complicated for players at low levels as low levels are there for you to get the basics of your class down. If you feel that fighters are underpowered or uninteresting until third level, then maybe you should consider starting a campaign at third level when playing with players who feel confident enough to do so.

[@kevinkingmaker7395]

House Rule: Characters get advantage on HP rolls when they reach 2nd and 3rd levels. This helps survivability at the squishy lower levels.

[@jeroenimus7528]

I got a similar one, at 2nd and 3rd level they roll, but if they roll under the average they get the minimum result of having rolled the average on that die. (well, the average +0.5 to be exact)

[@davidmc8478]

I do max hp for first level, max hp-1 for second and max hp -2 for third.

[@GreatWhiteElf]

I don't mean to be adversarial, but I don't understand why so many people make house rules for increasing survivability, when one of the DM's most important jobs is to create challenging, but survivable combat encounters.

[@kevinkingmaker7395]

At lower HP totals, the random nature of combat rolls can easily kill low level characters regardless of how balanced the encounter is (unless your are a die fudging DM). Having advantage on HP rolls makes these fluke deaths more rare.

[@GreatWhiteElf]

@@kevinkingmaker7395 I've been DMing for about 8 years now, and I usually have the complete opposite problem, where my players steam roll every encounter I make for low levels. Of course I've had rare exceptions where they almost TKP, but it hasn't happened yet.

[@Saykiata]

The 2h strength rule is actually a derivation of an old 3rd ed rule, where you got 1.5x strength to damage when two-handing a weapon.

[@lucaandrade3434]

I found this somewhere on Reddit: attunement slot change with level, the idea is that the characters grow more accustomed to using magical items as they level up. The system my party uses is: attunement slots = proficiency bonus, so 2 attunement slots at level one, 3 at level 5 and so on

[@commandercaptain4664]

This could work with equipment as well, such as a favored sword or knowing the mobility of one's armor. Characters could grow attachments to what they own.

[@PressEnter42]

Took part of an idea and mixed it with my own. I have a kid's plastic practice clock. (the small circle you can move the minute and hour hands around however you want) Time within a "day" in dnd has always been odd to me. The party wakes up at dawn, visits a few shops, gets a quest, leaves the town, travels for a few hours to a near by cave and it's... What time? Noon? Evening? Night? 🤷‍♂️ So what I do is pretty simple. They are in town. They tell me what they plan to do can take generally 1-3 hours. Travel based on distance can take 1-8 hours in a day. Any more risks levels of exhaustion. While in a dungeon, cave, structure (away from the sun and sky) I set up a d6. Each room the die goes up a number, every 10 rounds of combat the die goes up one, they choose to spend more time in a room investigating it the die goes up one. Each time it gets to 6 and cycles back to 1 I move the clock up an hour. They may enter a cave at 5pm but not leave it until 2-3am and who knows what's out in the dark that late at night

[@boabplz4107]

I did a thing recently that worked really well, but is hard to do because it requires an intimate knowledge of your players and their interests. Blodwyn was a Dwarf, one of the first born to the Baldpeak Halls, and a native of the hold settled less than a century before. She knew the stories of her people, fascinated with their struggles and the tales of mighty battles in their homeland across the sea. It's why she recognised the vibrations she felt in the stone, the sounds of movement she heard through her feet (Stone Sense) - it triggered a primordial fear in her, of a thing that should not be, could not be, not this far from their native ranges... I explained I was going to use a word that the player knew, that would illicit the same response in the player, or just about, as Blodwyn was having at that moment. The word was Shai-Hulud. The player, my partner, made a noise - it was a noise of recognition, and of fear - she's a huge Dune nerd. And then she screamed in a Welsh accent "Fakkin Wurm Innit! Ran!!!" as the reskinned purple worm bored into the tunnel behind them. They only lost one of the dwarves they were escorting, and the Aasimar Warlock managed to cause it to Fear her and bolt the other way - they were hype AF after that. The cofusion of the other players because they didn't know the term was real for their character, Blodwyn\Fuzzy's fear\excitement was real for hers and it added to the verisimilitude of the scenario. But I have no idea how I am going to do it for about half my players...

[@RighBread]

That "Team Instinct" idea is actually so genius that it makes me want to start up a whole new campaign just to use it.

[@564iwjh]

:D I got picked! Here's some more for Round 3! 1. "You Gotta Fight It!" If you're being charmed or mind-controlled, your allies can use an action to plead with you to snap out of it, and you get to make a Wisdom save (or whatever you need to make to resist). 2. Machine Gun Spellcasting! Cast as many spells per turn as you want-bonus action, action, who cares. You’re the one spending the spell slots chief! 3. Radial Ass Kicking! Allies within 5ft can choose to fight back-to-back. While doing this, they can't be flanked.

[@Dyanosis]

#3 is just a common sense thing, not a homebrew thing.

[@scottmcdivitt2187]

My only house rule is that making the entire table laugh gets you a single use of inspiration😁

[@Dicyroller]

One of my favorite house rules I call hobbies and pastimes. They can be anything from knitting to herblore, leatherworking to cooking. When they camp or rest they have a chance to work on their hobby and slowly get better at it. One of my groups gave each other gifts they had made in the newfound real-life hobbies they got from their D&D game. If they role play it well I find a way to make it helpful to them in-game beyond just something to bond over.

[@berkeleyandrus5027]

Great video, thanks for the ideas! I'm definitely going to start using the 3 minutes strategizing time before initiative. Two of my players introduced me to what they call the 'Boromir Health System'. It's a quick way for me to describe an enemy NPC's health during combat. When the players ask how a specific enemy is looking, if it is at 3/4 health I say it's at 1 arrow Boromir, 1/2 health is 2 arrow Boromir, 1/4 health is 3 arrow Boromir, and barely staying on their feet is 4 arrow Boromir. This gives the players a little more detail about an enemy's health than just saying they are bloodied vs not bloodied, and it gives a consistent picture from enemy to enemy.

[@scottreigle1756]

I have a whole raft of house rules I've written up, but since my campaign hasn't started yet, they haven't been play-tested. Anyway, here they are: • DM rolls for players on checks with ambiguous results (Perception, Stealth, Intimidate, Insight, Investigation, etc.), then verbally communicates the result ("you find no traps," "she seems to be honest," "you slip into the shadows," etc.) • Alternate: Player rolls five or six differently colored D20s, DM reads (pre-selected color before roll) • Dexterity bonus to AC: In addition to disadvantage on Dex checks and saves, there is no Dex bonus to AC when Blinded, Grappled, Incapacitated, Paralyzed, Petrified, or Unconscious. • If you're not proficient in something or otherwise have no predilection toward it, you may not get a chance to even try a skill check on it (for instance, a dwarf barbarian probably has no reason to try an Arcana check) • If you roll a natural 1 on a skill check when you're not proficient and/or at disadvantage, there's a possibility of a Bad Thing™ (for instance, the lock pick breaks. Not only is the lock jammed, but your toolkit is partially nerfed.) • To provide Help on a skill check outside of combat, must be proficient (exceptions may occur*) • A character or creature getting up from prone induces Attacks of Opportunity • A character or creature that picks up a weapon uses it at disadvantage that turn (for instance, when disarmed from a battle master) • 1 level of exhaustion gained when PC that has recovered after rolling any Death Saves • DM secretly rolls Death saving throws (this REALLY adds tension) • A successful medicine (skill) check counts as a successful Death save (failed has no penalty); applies only once per "down time" And for initiative, I use one of Luke Hart's (DM Lair) ideas: roll a single initiative for each side, and combat proceeds two (usually) at a time. Players determine their own order; DM matches up logically and fairly. Example: Party of 5 meets up with 6 angry orcs. The orcs have a leader, three swordsmen, and two archers. If the party wins initiative, two players act, then the two orc archers, then two more players, the orc swordsmen, the last player, and finally the orc leader. It sounds a bit complex when written out, but it actually flows pretty well and give the players much more agency.

[@tasselhoffburfoot3252]

While I have to shiver everytime I see the level of exhaustion after going down (trauma from old group where players going down happened probably 2-4 times a session and the DM used that rule) I do love your idea of players rolling several dice where one preselected die is the real result. I think that would really spice things up and I'm totally recommending this to my DM.

[@joshuareich580]

You definitely should allow skill checks on things that you aren't proficient in as sometimes they are necessary parts of the game. Climbing a cliff, breaking out of a grapple, entering a grapple, trying to move quietly through the woods, looking through the shipping crates for loot, catching a goblin sneaking up on the party during your watch, and so on. Having said that, you should be telling which players to roll and when they should roll. If there are players who might have knowledge about a thing, tell them to make the history check or arcana check. The DC also might not be the same for everyone. If your barbarian player asks if the runes mean anything to them, then you as a DM have to decide if you want to let them roll (and maybe give them less information on a success, a different dc for the check, or have them roll a skill other than arcana) or tell them that their experience would not lend itself to knowledge of such arcane objects.

[@Dyanosis]

Your initiative sounds clunky, time consuming and ineffective.

[@ryanbaillie11]

Hi Dael. "Team Instinct" is basically a classic D&D procedure called "Declarations". Essentially: Initiative is about to be rolled for the round (Because Classic D&D = Side-Initiative rolled each round) - so talk about it in the group and make sure you know what your doing -> [initiative rolled] -> People do the thing they said they were gonna do.

[@thastygliax]

I somehow missed the interview you did with MCDM when it came out, and only came across it today. Watching my two favorite KZbinrs having a long, fun, thoughtful chat about games & myths & things was exactly what I needed to brighten up my gloomy, soggy day!

[@TheDanibits]

Oh my god I've been watching this channel for ages and I JUST GOT that MonarchsFactory is a pun on Kingsmill.

[@sadiemcc9363]

My language thing is "broken languages"--if your character's Intelligence is 14+, or, I dunno, you think they likes languages, or they took the Linguist feat, they gain one "broken" language--they can communicate and perceive simple concepts in that language, and translate text with successful Intelligence (History) check. It takes them twice as long to convey a normal idea in a broken language as a normal one, and speaking in one is a bonus action, not a free action. Another thing I'm considering is if your intelligence is 9 or below, you replace one of the languages you know with a broken language (if the player agrees). This isn't a concept I've tried out a lot, but some ideas if you're interested. Feel free to leave suggestions or constructive criticisms about it if you have any :)

[@gmcm2165]

Agreed, race-locking features that aren't physiological (ie. dragonbreath, winged) seems gross. I homebrew race and offer: 1. ASI options (represents individual, not race) 2. Proficiency options (how you were raised) Frankly, even some physiological trends should be optional. It's less derivative.

[@digitalbrentable]

I'm homebrewing a system where cultural and biological racial features are separated into lists, where you pick 2 of each. That way not every member of a biological ancestry have the same traits, likewise with members of a cultural group. Not every elf knows how to use a longbow, but it's on the list if you were raised in an elven cultural contest. Not every gnome has innate spellcasting, but if you're biologically gnomish, it's on the list.

[@gmcm2165]

@@digitalbrentable yeah I like this line of thought much better than the current racial feature system. It's better for making "characters" as opposed to "caracitures."

[@digitalbrentable]

@@gmcm2165 For sure, it also imbues each group with a sense of diversity. Think of the diversity of the actually existing human biological group. It'd be unfeasible to create a fixed list of features for all humans, that'd be OP and unrepresentative of most individual humans, but there's definitely a cluster of things humans are often good at. Skipping culture and focusing on biological potentials, we could imagine a list featuring endurance, aptitude for learning languages, also skills, a good immune system, great eyesight, and a profound sense of individuality. Turn that into a list and a human can pick two from the following: advantage on endurance checks, three bonus proficiencies (skill, tool, or language), expertise in perception, advantage on saves vs disease, and a bonus point in charisma. Alongside that, there'd also be a list of features for each cultural group which'd be much more specific and diverse, from which you'd also pick two. This'd mean 10 different humans are likely to each be very different, whilst collectively being typically human.

[@broceollomon]

Oh boy are you going to love the new rules for character creation in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything.

[@KayttakaaHumehia]

My players lived in a city of lizardmen for couple of months. At the end, they insisted that they all knew atleast the very basics of draconic to which I wholeheartedly agreed. At the end of their stay they also took a language course in "one week later" timeframe that I put there for other plot reasons, so they all also became proficient in it. Player who already knew draconic used the time to learn some other minor proficiency. It was very nice to have players be pro-active like this, their suggestions were far from gamebreaking or overpowered. Ofc it takes longer to learn languages in real life but what the hell.

[@BigMac8000]

I love this. It should be a regular series. It's great. Some house rules: If someone is floundering on a turn, I give them an intelligence saving throw. This, in essence, is your ability to critically think under time pressure. I call this a meta check. Further meta checks: History - Doubles as military strategy. Want some help coming up with a strategy? Roll History and I'll help you identify assets, threats and strategic targets. I won't give away secrets, but based on what they know I will help you strategize. Nature - Doubles as understanding creatures. Insight works great, but Nature will tell them much more about the basic creature itself in a conversation. Religion - Morality. Trying to get an intuition on the right thing to do? Religion check. It can help you figure out a more ethical path, and sometimes even a more moral one for yourself. This is direct DM guidance sometimes, often pushing players towards outcomes they couldn't rationally have come to. It's also subtly a way to beseech a god, so you might pray for guidance, and get it from unexpected inspiration. Typically this is a moral compass for players "lost" on what the right thing to do is. Reverse Social Checks - Players make social checks in lieu of roleplaying, so if they roll poorly it's easier to RP out a bad exchange, if they roll high, I offer them some useful RP and work with them to come up with a clever dialogue or get a little costumed bugs bunny action going. Help them determine a tact - barbarians get to roll to move boulders, bards get to roll to move minds. The player doesn't actually have to LIFT the boulder, and doesn't have to be that suave either. Animal Handling - Just take a look around and familiarize yourself with some animal life. Lots of rats? Dirty city. Lots of cats? Lots of charity. Lots of birds? Maybe they're being fed. I encourage rangers and druids with free time to just do this. Acrobatics - They get to make a save to take half-damage from falls. It's weird Acrobatics has 1-2 raw use (resisting shoves/grapples and evading odd traps). Zone of Truth (spell) - I tend to RP this as weird mouth-changes as players try to bend the truth. I don't stop the RP, so when they try to bend the truth, the truth bends out of their mouth. Think "Liar Liar". They CAN shut up, but most people just wouldn't shut up. This is also a religious spell, so they need decent Int to know what that's about. One other thing - in homebrewing I almost always favors ways to help the players and simplify the game --- but often times instead of homebrewing a rule, it's better to introduce things in world. Like, I like how that "Dm gives you HP early" thing works, but paying it back over time is a slog. Introducing a low cleric willing to cast Aid on the team whenever they come into town? Solves that issue, creates an interesting NPC. Even more interesting? It's the guard to a dangerous area, who doubles as the one who'll protect you if you come running home "hot". A weird necromancer who sends you off with a few extra zombies as pack mules? Trained ones, utterly incapable of harming anyone, and they were criminals who volunteered their bodies post-death. That shattering shield? Cool idea, totally could just be an item in game. How about a mechanized shield built by dwarves, that in response to an attack you can do 2d4 pierce, spitting out blades, but losing further defense until you can manually rig the spring trap back (1 minute, like setting a bear trap). 3-minute strategy when initiative is rolled? If you give players access to Telekinetic Bond, this lets players strategize live, and I love this, because it makes players feel more like their adventurer's. I open the table to full-meta so I can stop worrying about cracking down on communication they wouldn't logically have. When they lose access to say, those rings, it becomes REALLY interesting now to be separated and "on your own", or if a player ditches their ring. It's like dropping those comms or destroying your cellphone, or ripping up your social security card. This makes great combinations too - "True Strike" The most infamously useless cantrip? Now it's a great way for a wizard to get insight and look to the rogue and go, "He overstretched on that attack, his shoulder is open!". Fun teamwork moments for a normally useless spell. My favorite homebrew rule? Recently some players introduced me to a concept. Their DM at the end of their session would let them experience a dream, or a vision, with a different pretext every time. Sometimes it'd be conventional obsessing, sometimes it'd be magical insight, sometimes it would just be fridge-logic. But he'd let them re-rollplay a scene that occurred earlier, except it's in a non-dangerous state. It's a memory, or a dream, or an insight. This way they could do something they WANTED to try, and roleplay it out at the end of the session. It couldn't go longer than a few minutes deviation, but checking doors they ran past or trying a different tact with an NPC helps players to wonder less, explore more, in a safer space. I'm probably going to homebrew a helmet of hindsight just for this.

[@johnobrien7562]

the language thing is interesting - and reminds me of Call of Cthulhu. As a bonus, though, I might think we may add a bonus - if we use the "language family" idea, perhaps give an Intelligence check to get the gist of a related language at a high DC?

[@MonarchsFactory]

Certainly would make the rarer languages actually feel rarer (assuming the languages would be grouped into families based on the script connections in RAW, just seems like an easy way to do it)

[@mme.veronica735]

I feel like you should only be able to do that at >=90% proficiency because that is hard enough as is.

[@carnivoriousleaf]

I made a somewhat complex table of languages that in essence had Elven 1, Elven 2, Elven 3. Where higher levels would give things like advantages with certain groups, about as powerful as like the faction benefits in guild masters guide. Tried to live by give bonuses not penalties. It was imperfect but it was okay. Another benefit is I wanted to help players who weren't the +11 to persuasion Bard to have reasons to be the face even occasionally.

[@douglaslopes191]

you remind me the day my table discuss if a dragon can fly without his tail, everyone was a student of engineering or zoologist

[@Dyanosis]

The tail is actually more for walking than it is for flying. The angle and pitch of the wings is what controls direction.

[@TheNotableNobody]

Alternate suggestion on language. This is my simplifications to what's used at my DM's table. Language Tiers Language proficiencies are now based around tiers of proficiencies. Any instances which you are given a proficiency in a language, you instead gain tier in that language. On character creation, you gain additional tiers of language proficiency equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum of 0) to use in any languages you have proficiency in. Additionally, whenever your Intelligence modifier increases and it is positive, you gain a tier in any language you already have proficiency in. There are 3 tiers of proficiencies, which provide the following: * Tier 1. You have a lopsided understanding of the language. You either speak clear, read clearly, or have a subpar capacity for both. (This creates a world which an all 10s commoner can only speak and can't read, if you want illiteracy to be the default) * Tier 2. You speak and read to the same degree most native speakers do. (About the level of language the default system gives) * Tier 3. You've mastered the language on an academic level. (This might let you understand ancient dialects in tombs)

[@pamarnold9378]

I like it. You could also rule that at tier 3 they would know a lot of jargon. Like if you have an urban background and only tier 2 language you might not know that 'gilt' can be a baby girl pig or 'whether' is a castrated sheep.

[@carnivoriousleaf]

Yeah this is what I did! I made it a bit more rigid, but yeah! Dwarvish was the language you couldn't read until level 2. Level 2 off elvish gave you advantage in high courts in human and elven lands to make a good impression

[@andrewjacobyii2853]

I like the idea of tiered language proficiency but I would go with the following: +4 Basic Understanding +8 Good Understanding +12 Fluent Understanding +16 Academic Level Understanding In my utilization though im using a 20 sided roll with varying difficulty for the character to understand the language being expressed. To be fair however I prefer the Pathfinder system where Linguistics would be the skill rolled with the bonus based on the characters specific grasp of the language. You could allow a +1 to a language at level up which still works out to a +5% effectively but maintains the use of the d20. You could also allow the character to take multiple +1's in their languages based on their INT bonus.

[@Dyanosis]

Can any score increase negatively, or would we call that "decreasing"? Just wondering why you need to specify "increases and it is positive". Unless you mean "increases and the modifier is greater than 0"

[@lx-icon]

I always steal ideas from different things and add my own flair to them! I used your alignment in my campaign and loved it

[@samuelbroad11]

Strength is actually a really versatile stat for both melee and ranged thrown and any weapon. Dex is already restricted to what it can use. However, if you like the idea of adding an additional bonus str to ' heavy' str melee attacks, use prof bonus instead of str stat doubled. A difference at lower levels that taper off better. Prof bonus is a great tool for all sorts of tweaks and homerules and is coming in to design a lot in recent official content for subclasses. I like the idea of area melee attacks for huge foes, rolling separately of course, and allows for party to respond by splitting up and thinking tactically. Rumours is fun and great at multiple campaign stages, esp cities for any length of time.

[@MemphiStig]

Team Instinct is brilliant and spot-on! Steal-worthy for sure!

[@jdrobertson42]

I love the language house rule so much. I’ve always loved the idea of a character who has learned X language, but only through conversation or cramming a test or whatever, so they’re always getting something wrong. It does seem like it puts a strain on the DM, as you don’t want a failed roll to be a full failure, but rather garbled translation so the party ends up with some missing or misleading information or a social roll gets harder. And a wizard with Tongues will take away all the fun.

[@jamesuyt]

"Zone of Truthiness" is my favourite cleric spell

[@stonelane1827]

love the idea of the Shields be splintered. love anything that adds that cinematic feel to combat.

[@gabebaum6527]

One house rule that I play with that I'm honestly a fan of is using advantage and disadvantage in piles, rather than as a checkbox like it usually is. What I mean by this is that while you can't necessarily get super-(dis)advantage, if you have 2 sources of advantage and only one source of disadvantage, you still have advantage on the attack because the disadvantage doesn't totally counteract all of the advantages active. Worth noting is that this does work both ways, and is not exclusive to players, so monsters and NPCs can do so as well. It encourages teamwork from the players, as well as providing an extra layer of thinking when there are multiple enemies on the board. I will note that if you play with advantage flanking this whole rule might break apart a bit.

[@chrisbricky7331]

I have been DM'ing since the late 70's and love the rumor idea for the game. Especially for one offs with random players at a local game store or during a convention. Going to make this a must from now on. Chris

[@bringitonbatman]

Love the great weapon change because they're swing with far less dexterity, you usually don't just hit one person and stop

[@hansolobutimdead]

A rule i've thought of recently is the rest helper rule: On a short rest, you can expend any amount of your hit dice to have another player roll additional hit dice equal to the amount you have expended. The hit dice the player you have helped relates to their own class, not your own, so when a barbarian helps the wizard rest by giving up one of their hit dice, the wizard rolls a d6, not a d12. If the helped player has levels in classes that use different hit dice, it rolls the hit dice of the class they have more levels in. If they have the same level in every class, they take the lowest number die. This rule is made to create a feeling of comradery between the players, but if you feel it could be overused by players, you could make it into a feat

[@Dyanosis]

But what's the narrative behind the barb helping the wizard? Are they clamping the wound shut (which isn't actually healing anything)? Are they giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation? It makes no sense. Comradery comes from ACTUALLY helping, like administering a heal potion/salve or medicine check.

[@toadstoolsiscool6060]

DnD is a game of stealing if you are a: Rogue Dm Edit: spelling

[@HMJ66]

Rogue* unless you're talking about adding colour to your cheeks

[@sethwilliams7311]

Can I be a Rogue DM?

[@dylanflynn1895]

Rogue not Rouge

[@toadstoolsiscool6060]

@@dylanflynn1895 my bad :)

[@toadstoolsiscool6060]

@@HMJ66 yes sorry

[@evandowlingyou]

I also found a language houserule writeup a year or so ago that I geeked right out over. It uses a scale from 0-100 in proficiency or fluency with tiers at the 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 marks. a score of 20 in a language is basic familiarity, can catch words either written or spoken and potentially get the gist of a conversation; 40 is a conversational familiarity allowing a player to comment on condition or ask for directions or whatever, but they stand out like a sore thumb. It goes on in that fashion, and what I enjoy about it is that someone with a ~60 score in a language only then becomes proficient in skill checks relating to that language. I love the idea that an adventurer with a 60 in Fiendish might try to negotiate a devilish contract but try to decipher a legal contract in a foreign language. The DC for negotiating and catching fine print could be ridiculous unless that adventurer has a 90+.... I agree that it is highly beaurocratic and essentially introduces a new mini-game on par with tracking spell components, so it's not for everyone. I wonder if there is a way to make it an optional hassle for those players who want a "hard mode". I've been playing around with a house rule recently to widen the ranger's appeal as both a martial type and roleplay boss by giving them a bonus trait at certain levels reinforced by their backstory. Using Aragorn as a bit of a model, I saw that his experience and time spent with elves endowed him with advanced medicine knowledge and an ability to keep watch similar to trancing. I thought it might encourage my players to delve into rangers a bit more if they were able to learn from civilizations that they'd spent time around. Based on favoured terrain/enemies, it could be interesting to give a ranger resistance to poison damage if they spent a tremendous time around Mountain Dwarves, drinking with them and traversing their mines. A ranger might gain the ability to trance instead of sleeping once every long rest. They might gain a resistance to a different damage type based on if they were exposed to burns or electricity by living amongst dragonborn; or maybe they discovered how to use anger to their advantage while traveling with a barbarian tribe. In the same way that Bards can gain spells from multiple spell lists, I think it would fit a ranger's feel to be able to learn skills exhibited by fellow travelers. Rangers are the watchers, they are students. They might not learn to take on a wild shape, but they certainly could pick up other druidic or fey skills. Edit: I played a game recently where the DM introduced a "know someone" rule, where each player, in each city on the active campaign plane, could claim to "know a blacksmith that could help with that", or "Know a former thief that could get us into x", which is then realized as true or false based on a roll justified by the claim. For example, let's say our party just entered a small village along the coast. As a fighter with a sailor background, I might claim that I know someone in this town that can get us a ship. The DM would decide if this will be decided by a history, charisma, intelligence, or other check and set the dc. In this case they might say, since I was a sailor, there is a very good likelihood that I know someone that can get me a ship, then they get me to roll a history or luck check on a dc 15. If i get it, the person is in the town, if I don't they might not be in town (away on travel, moved, dead, etc.). In another case my halfling monk sage companion might claim that they know a thief that can show us around a large city capital on another continent. Based on the halfling's backstory and years of meditation and study, there's a possibility they are telling the truth, but a real slim one, so the dm sets the dc at 25 and asks for a disadvantaged history check based on the halfling's claim that they were penpals while studying at the monestary. This prompts some fun player-led npc generation as well as encouraging player investment in the world. As soon as an actor claims to already know someone or something about the world they inhabit, they've also decided to have existed in that world for a longer time.

[@lewa705]

An idea for the language percentiles: add the character's int score to the base percentage. So the Wizard with an 18 of int might be completely fluent in a couple languages, basically fluent in another (base 80%+int 18%=98%) etc. Gives people other than wizards a good reason to be intelligent.

[@ZanarkandAce]

I like letting my players drink a potion as a bonus action, or take a full action to drink it and treat all dice as max. Like taking the time to make sure they drink every last drop

[@GrimmSkald]

Shields shall be splintered is one of my all time favorites. Also, I also make a Martial version of a spear with reach, and finesse (when used in two hands).

[@sleepinbelle9627]

I can't think of any house rules off the top of my head, but I do tend to change up monsters a bit. I always give my monsters bonus actions and reactions which aren't usually attacks, but allow them to either position themselves, reposition the players or do some kind of dope combo attack under certain circumstances, with the general idea being to promote movement and tactics from the players, rather than the typically optimal "surround a single target and hit it 'til it dies" approach. I also give all my monsters resistances and immunities, because I think that's fun.

[@banishedpest115]

Yeah, spicing up the monsters really makes them more interesting and makes it more important for the party to gather info before a fight. For example, goblins in my games are notorious for stealing from their foe when they are distracted by more powerful monsters, so if my players let the goblins do their own thing for to long they often find the healing potion they reach for in a few rounds of combat is no longer there.

[@Heevan]

"Zone of Truthiness". LOVE IT

[@theducksarewatching1664]

I have two house rules worth mentioning that I use at the moment. 1 - Each time someone is resurrected, it requires a higher level spell than the last time (eg: first time, any spell can be used, so let’s say it was revivify, second time would at least require raise dead, etc). The point being to limit resurrections without leaving it to chance (like in Matt Mercer’s resurrection rules), or putting a hard limit of say one resurrection, and it also makes higher level spells like resurrection more relevant. As an alternative, you could also say that second res needs raise dead or higher, third needs resurrection or higher, etc, since the party will probably use them in order anyway. 2 - I don’t remember where I saw this, but it basically adds a system called exposure that acts as an inverse of cover. So if a creature is on unsteady footing, or being flanked, or the attacker has the high ground, the attacker gets a +2 to their attack. If a creature is in an even more precarious situation, such and hanging from a ledge or dangling from a rope, the attacker gets +5 to their attack, and this also counts as advantage for things like sneak attack.

[@Dyanosis]

#2 is called being flat-footed and it's been in D&D and Pathfinder for a long time (except 5e got rid of it in favor of advantage and other uses).

[@madocmayhem]

Golly a Carrot reference, taking me way back to my childhood.

[@inappropriateperson6947]

DOOM Points: (Stolen from Conan) When the players role a *Natural 1* they have to choose their own "complication". The other players can help with Idea's but the player who gets it must except it. Maybe they choose to drop their weapon or it could break. They could trip or break their ankle. It should be something appropriate to Natural 1's. Or they can choose that nothing bad happens. If the DM is not satisfied with the quality of the complication, or if the player doesn't choose one, then the DM gets a *DOOM* point. DOOM points can be spent on an advantage for any NPC such as a re-roll of any 1 die roll. Including but not limited to an Attack roll against the player. (This is a watered down version of a Conan rule). "Fate will find those who dare to resist it & in time doom comes for us all"

[@zhuneshai3066]

I was in a game with critical fumble table, but this punishes the players more than a critical success helps the players. Maybe add a second roll to either confirm the fumble or avoid it to lessen the frequency

[@inappropriateperson6947]

@@zhuneshai3066 Naaah, that's not necessary. This actually *is* a critical fumble. You can show them a "fumble table" for an idea if ya want & just let them pick. This is actually giving more power to the players & letting them PICK their own fumble. *PLUS* they get to roleplay & describe their own fumble rather then have the DM do it for them. The DM is literally saying "OK, so tell us what happened". It encourages roleplaying.

[@fistofthe1stben704]

Something that's sort of become a house rule in my campaign is that players whose characters aren't present in the scene can jump in and play a random NPC. It adds a fun, light improv element to the game and helps keep the players involved. One of my favorite examples of this was when one player was speaking to a crime lord another player jumped in as the crime lords beefy bodyguard, who basically just repeated everything the crime lord said in a deep cockney accent. "We have eyes and ears everywhere, my friend." "Roight, 'ave eyes an' ears everywhere, we do, roight." "...yes."

[@christofferhougaard]

That first sentence sounded JUST LIKE Octavia from Pathfinder: Kingmaker! Whenever she fails to disarm a trap she says: "I've broken a nail!" Voice actor reveal!!

[@SamWeltzin]

Some really neat stuff for higher-level players. Newer ones might find it a bit too complicated, but once you've got a group who's really with it and understands how things work, there's some good material to work with in this video.

[@skullsquad900]

So, use the Palladium system for Language, got it! Personally, I bring a lot of mechanics and things over from Pathfinder, cuz they're really cool and help me feel more immersed in the world.

[@aneophyte1199]

I try to use the motivations of the party. When given the choice of two paths, one bright and sunny filled with flowers and pleasant scenery, and one thats dark and foreboding filled with nasty and potential dangers, most times the party will take the dark path avoiding the bright and pleasant one. So giving the proper description of options, you can get the party to go and do exactly what you want.

[@CravenTHC85]

The idea of allowing the PC group time to strategize really interests me as a player. There's a lot of times where another player in my group has commented that they thought my strategic choices were poor, regardless of whether or not they were poor I think this brief pre-combat strategy session would be beneficial to get everyone on the same page.

[@jimmothywells6618]

With languages I've often added that players need to take a dialect of whatever beginning languages they choose. It only affects small modifiers like insight or social checks if they're trying to barter with thieves in the lords common or pass in high society with a gutter district tinge. I've felt that it adds verisimilitude without much extra paperwork.

[@MambamboCombo]

When it comes to the Lucky feat, I (as the DM) make several d20 rolls ahead of time and record them. Someone with the Lucky feat can choose to replace their roll with the next roll on the luck list (which they don't know) and I'll tell them if the roll is Good (11-20) or Bad (1-10) before they decide which to use. They can also instead force someone to replace their roll with one from the list but the player only gets to know if it is a critical (whether 20 or 1, they don't know which) or not instead of good or bad.

[@sawyerjackson3557]

The DC for a Wild Magic Sorcerer's surge goes up by 1 for every time they succeed! The main reason to play wild magic is for the chaos of that surge, and the narrative element of the surges getting easier mimics the bubbling up of chaos with the sorcerer's spells!

[@mechanussunrise]

I love how the language system is the AD&D thief skill mechanic. It's not a bad system!

[@lindsaycastle3735]

I usually give players a chance, if their backstory supports it of being able to understand simplified concepts in another language. I really like the idea of players trying to piece together what someone is saying. For example the players interperate the foreign guard say "Man bring animal" whereas the guard actually said "Hastor Go to the Barn and get the Bloodhounds".

[@chuckmeriam9930]

Been DMing for 15ish years on and off, and my favorite house rules: +Occasional Mad Lib content generated by players, e.g. name a creature--they don't know if they'll fight it, it's an NPC, it's just part of a pub's name, or they'll find a dead one. Lots of fun! +During first round of combat, go in reverse order of initiative and narrate what PCs, NPCs, and baddies' intentions are, and those with higher initiative get to react better to those with lower initiative. +Damage that is a high enough percentage of a creature's (or PC or NPC) HP, special effects happen, such as loss of limb, and it's a fun narrative to give players control over what happens to enemies when this happens

[@supercrem909]

What's funny about watching this video, is half of these are represented in Pathfinder 2e. Like the shield rule for example. A character with a shield gets no AC just for holding it, they have to use the Raise a Shield Action during their turn to get +2 AC until their next turn. When they do this and an attack hits them anyway, they can use their reaction to Shield Block, having the shield take the brunt of the hit. Shields are assigned a Hardness value and a durability, for example a steel shield base has 5 hardness and 20 durability. If you Shield Block, you reduce the damage you are taking by the hardness, so in this case 5 damage, then you and the shield take the remainder of the damage. So an attack deals 12 damage to you, you use Shield Block, reduce it by the 5 hardness so now its 7, and both you and the shield take 7. The other element is the bonus hp at lower levels. When building a lvl 1 character, lets say for example a human Swashbuckler, their ancestry (human) and the Swashbuckler class grants them hp equal to heir hit die, no rolling for it, you always get max, then add con mod. So for this example, 8 hp for being human, 10 hp for Swashbuckler, then a con mod 2 grants this lvl 1 character 20hp, and they will get another 12 hp when they level up (class hit die of 10 + con mod of 2).

[@Rayne_Storms]

YOU'RE A GENIUS! You've seriously revolutionized combat.

[@dillonsiedentopf8889]

Even I have something language-related! This is a house rule I have in my back pocket, inspired from older editions: Bonus proficiencies, based on a character's Intelligence bonus. If their score increases with leveling, they also add the new benefit. For a +1, the PC adds one additional tool set, instrument, or language prof. For a +2, they add one skill from their class list. At +3, they add another tool, instrument, or language. At +4, add any one skill proficiency of their choice. At +5, they gain Expertise in one proficient skill.

[@jrpipik]

I love the idea of letting the players strategize for a minute or two before a battle. I think it might work even better for them if the DM leaves the room so that the player's foes (who the DM plays) don't know what they're planning.

[@redknight808]

- Languages - Another great video! I'm running a globe-trotting pulp-era setting using the Hero System RPG that already has gradations for their languages baked in. I informed the players that languages and literacy were going to be important in the campaign. It's also a Cthulhu horror setting, needing some academically inclined characters, so everyone received extra points for non-combat skills. The players ended up partitioning out all the populated continents and each specialized in the local languages. It kind of puts a realistic spotlight on the local language specialist as they act as interpreter and the "face" for the group for that session or story arc. And when they come across a trove of ancient tomes, they hand them out according to ability. It has created some really interesting situations--sometimes there are benefits to being the reader and other times you go a little mad...

[@IanFay]

I've been toying with this one for awhile. I've been calling it "minimum proficiency" in my head. Basically, I'm trying to combat the problem where people build a character that's good at something on paper, but shit at it in game because poor rolling. So, here it is: Everyone can pick one skill related to their background/concept (GM approval required. I probably wouldn't allow certain combat related skills like Perception and Stealth barring exceptional cases). For that skill, whenever you roll a check for it, your minimum roll for the die is twice your proficiency plus 1. So, at first level, if you pick, say, Arcana, and you roll a 2, that becomes a 5, plus your Int and actual proficiency. 5th Level: 7 9th Level: 9. Etc, etc. It's basically just a modified version of the Rogue Reliable Talent.

[@joshuareich580]

I've seen other people attempting to tackle the same problem in a slightly different way recently. Their system was that if the dc for a check was below 10 + the modifier the character has for any skill the character is proficient in, then the player automatically succeeds without having to roll. Personally I would probably lower this slightly as it takes too much away from reliable talent in my eyes, but I like the idea that characters get so good at certain tasks that the risk of failure is completely handwaved in this fashion. It seems like it would make players *feel* like they are progressing.

[@marcoamaron]

Nice, but you could always use the take 10 mechanics. If the character is not stressed or at risk and has proficiency on something you can treat any roll 2-9 as a 10.

[@Dyanosis]

So you are giving them expertise and a magic +1 bonus? Weird.

[@secondengineer9814]

My homerule for languages separates listening/speaking and reading/writing. Every character gets two extra language proficiencies, and the first time you add a language proficiency you can speak/understand it. The second allows you to write and read it.

[@jeroenimus7528]

Ideas like these are actually why I trawl the interwebs for RPG content. So I can add cool stuff to my table (if the players want it that is)

[@tom3266]

My players' absolute favorite houserule is Snackspiration! Despite being a lightweight rule, it brings the group together, gives players more control over narrative without skewing game balance, increases the power of dramatic moments and it simmers on through the entire session. Basically, everyone gets a d6 at the end of a long rest. It can be added to attack rolls, saving throws or skill checks. This represents a reservoir of energy or willpower the characters have as a result of being well-fed and rested at the inn. The crucial twist is: anyone can give snackspiration to someone in the moment before the outcome of a roll is declared, for free. The ability to give it to others incentivizes watching closely what others do. It becomes this gamble of 'Guys, should I use snackspiration...?'. It's used most often on average rolls when a monsters' AC isn't certain, or when making saves of unknown DC. As a DM I love how it naturally attracts the attention of players outside their turn. However, as the session goes on, this resource runs out. This way, it works in lieu of a fatigue system, yet I find that psychologically, adding something positive works better in the players' minds than punishing players with penalties to rolls, even if mathematically the effect or balance is the same. They still get the thrill of increasingly savoring those last few dice as secret cards up their sleeve. As a DM, you'll find the impact is small enough that balancing for it is hardly necessary. The players quickly learn this is their joker card: there are many like it, but this one is THEIRS, for when THEY need it. It's similar to potions, in a way, but for rolls. The last few snackspirations are almost always saved for crucial, dramatic moments. Finally, it greatly helps to extend dramatic moments by adding an extra step, drawing out the moment when it matters the most, as they consider the use of and observe the almost ritualistic rolling of this sacred resource. It is funny how sometimes they consider it for a longer time when stakes are average, while in other situations it becomes this snap moment decision when a roll NEEDS to succeed. It doesn't stack: only one snackspiration per roll. It can turn around a scary moment, but the RNG keeps it unpredictable. It's already turned around one or two very close death saves, with cheers erupting around the table!

[@oldmanofthemountains3388]

What might be interesting with your combat idea is during their planning stage, after rolling initiative, players can choose to reduce their initiative score to adjust turn order for their plans. They can only do this at the beginning and can only LOWER their initiative. Then, the enemy Initiative is inserted into the turn order. That way they set up specific combos. Say they want the mage to distract an enemy with Color Spray, but the fighter is going before that. The fighter would drop their initiative to 1 point below the Mage's, so they can tag team and combo.

[@carsonm7292]

This is exactly what I do. After initiative is rolled players can elect to permanently knock themselves backwards any number of slots in order to re-order the turns at the potential cost of yielding initiative to the enemies, as I do not reveal the enemies' initiative slots until their turn actually comes up the first time. It works well and gets them thinking about how they want to strategize. I think I will try Dael's "Team Instict" idea in combination with this.

[@oldmanofthemountains3388]

@@carsonm7292 this makes surprise rounds even more deadly since you have to play with the order you roll!

[@leviphipps2462]

Dael: "-in your rpg game... rpg game?" Me: "Oh that reminds me. I gotta stop by an ATM machine later."

[@abelsampaio389]

The HP loan can be implemented without a homebrew. Just have your questgiver cast aid on your characters, or give a scroll containing it. I've used this before and it's great, specially for 1st and 2nd level.