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Homebrew and House Rules (D&D) / My (relatively simple) 5E house rules
« on: July 24, 2022, 10:26:34 AM »
Preface
The idea is that I wanted to make a relatively small amount of changes to 5E to help fix a few things I don't like about 5E. This is meant to be fairly short, so it's not meant to be a wholistic fix to the entire system. Pretty much any version of this game has always involved heavy use of agreement of everyone at the table (whether they realize it or not) and mind caulk.
What I don't like
Quick overview:
So, the biggest thing I did on the martial end was to create an ability under Combat both called Power Attack and Called Shot. It allows you to take a penalty on the attack equal to your proficiency bonus and gain double the bonus to damage rolls. This only applies to attacks taken with the Attack option. This removes the feat tax for Great Weapon Master and Sharpshooter while opening the damage up for other weapons (and unarmed strikes). Not working with bonus attacks means that extra attacks from Polearm Master and Crossbow Expert are far less valuable, making these feats less mandatory.
I made the extra attack on Two Weapon Fighting part of the attack action once you have the Extra Attack class feature or Thirsting Blade invocation. This was based on me looking at the damage outputs compared to fighting with a heavy weapon on their own, with the respective fighting styles, and when using Power Attack. They're pretty well in line this way.
A lot of the weaker feats are now "half feats", granting a single ASI as part of the feat.
As for squishy casters being squishy, I'm taking an idea from Treantmonk's channel, limiting casting in armor to class proficiency. The only change I made to his rule was to exclude ritual casting from the limitation.
I feel most of the absurdity of advantage and disadvantage can be fixed by simply applying whichever of the two has more. They only cancel in equal number.
Moving the armor proficiency and +Charisma to attack and damage rolls from the Hexblade subclass to the Pact of the Blade is mostly a personal choice. It's not that I mind people getting those benefits at level 1, but rather I'd like to be able to see Archfey warlocks and Genie warlocks be able to use those abilities. I feel it being tied to a patron called "the Hexblade" was more of an artifact of how the class was designed several years earlier. I wasn't really fixing a perceived balance issue here.
Thanks
That's the long and the short of it. I'd like your feedback on the ideas. I know I've said a couple times that this is meant to be short and sweet and not fix everything, but I don't want that excuse to shield me from criticism.
The idea is that I wanted to make a relatively small amount of changes to 5E to help fix a few things I don't like about 5E. This is meant to be fairly short, so it's not meant to be a wholistic fix to the entire system. Pretty much any version of this game has always involved heavy use of agreement of everyone at the table (whether they realize it or not) and mind caulk.
What I don't like
- I'm fine with the -5/+10 aspect of Great Weapon Master and Sharpshooter. I don't mind the increased damage it brings to the table. What I don't like is that the only two viable choices of weapons are either great weapons or ranged weapons. This locks small-sized melee characters from contributing and makes many iconic weapon choices terrible. Further, once you throw in Polearm Master or Crossbow Expert, the list of viable weapons drops to just halberd, glaive, or hand crossbow. That's terribly limiting and is a feat tax for martials to contribute.
- Some classes and subclasses are great as an idea, but are just terrible at the table. I wanted to boost some of these.
- There is very little reason to take more than two levels of warlock.
- Squishy casters (sorcerers, wizards, and non-hexblade warlocks) can easily pick up medium armor and shield proficiency and often run around with some of the best armor classes in the game. I'd like them to still feel squishy and have to use their spell slots for those defenses.
- Two Weapon Fighting is pretty weak compared to the other styles.
- Some feats are interesting on paper but not good enough to ever make the cut.
- The simplicity of advantage and disadvantage sometimes lead to absurdity.
Quick overview:
So, the biggest thing I did on the martial end was to create an ability under Combat both called Power Attack and Called Shot. It allows you to take a penalty on the attack equal to your proficiency bonus and gain double the bonus to damage rolls. This only applies to attacks taken with the Attack option. This removes the feat tax for Great Weapon Master and Sharpshooter while opening the damage up for other weapons (and unarmed strikes). Not working with bonus attacks means that extra attacks from Polearm Master and Crossbow Expert are far less valuable, making these feats less mandatory.
I made the extra attack on Two Weapon Fighting part of the attack action once you have the Extra Attack class feature or Thirsting Blade invocation. This was based on me looking at the damage outputs compared to fighting with a heavy weapon on their own, with the respective fighting styles, and when using Power Attack. They're pretty well in line this way.
A lot of the weaker feats are now "half feats", granting a single ASI as part of the feat.
As for squishy casters being squishy, I'm taking an idea from Treantmonk's channel, limiting casting in armor to class proficiency. The only change I made to his rule was to exclude ritual casting from the limitation.
I feel most of the absurdity of advantage and disadvantage can be fixed by simply applying whichever of the two has more. They only cancel in equal number.
Moving the armor proficiency and +Charisma to attack and damage rolls from the Hexblade subclass to the Pact of the Blade is mostly a personal choice. It's not that I mind people getting those benefits at level 1, but rather I'd like to be able to see Archfey warlocks and Genie warlocks be able to use those abilities. I feel it being tied to a patron called "the Hexblade" was more of an artifact of how the class was designed several years earlier. I wasn't really fixing a perceived balance issue here.
Thanks
That's the long and the short of it. I'd like your feedback on the ideas. I know I've said a couple times that this is meant to be short and sweet and not fix everything, but I don't want that excuse to shield me from criticism.