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My favorite rule that I've created because of its simplicity is the Battle Move. When a creature becomes Flanked due to a hostile creature moving into a directly opposed space to another hostile creature in melee range, it can use its reaction to make a Battle Move to move 5 ft. in any direction. This is not forced movement and can therefore trigger Attacks of Opportunity if this causes the creature to move out of melee range of either creature. The creature who's turn it is can then complete its movement if it has any remaining, possibly achieving the desired flank from a different position. As a fight science guy, it always bothered me a lot to see creatures just allow themselves to get flanked without trying to reposition. This fixes that, but with the penalty of a reaction.
Great video showing off how easy it is to tweak the rules and adjust as you go. That’s how you end up with great house rules like these! Keep up the good work, coach! Also I didn’t realize holding turns was a house rule! My group has been doing that for a while 😆
I play online in Fantasy Grounds and take advantage of two built in options: 1.) I give my players 3 Inspiration at the beginning of each session that they can use, kind of like Bennies in Savage Worlds or Fate Points in Fate. It allows them to shine during moments that are important to them. 2.) We reroll initiative after each round. Fantasy Grounds does it automatically so it doesn’t slow the game down, and it makes combat a lot more dynamic and interesting.
I LOVE online inititative systems because they can instantly change up initiative order... because doing that at a table... would be awful to re roll every time! But I love your 2 systems!
One of my house rules for 5E actually stems from one of the few things I liked about 4E and that is... action economy. 4E allowed the players to use lesser actions in place of higher level ones if they chose. So if a class is able, they can use 3 Bonus Actions in a turn. This allows more options in battle and minimizes wasted actions. The most common lost action is movement when players are in melee so this rule can offer a wider variety when it is converted into a Bonus Action. The caveat to this is that each Bonus Action must be within already established rules like spellcasting and abilities that require prerequisites such as a Monk must Attack before accessing Flurry of Blows. Also, the same type of action cannot be used twice on the same turn. This prevents possible OP combinations like eldritch blast + double quicken eldritch blast or Attack + double Flurry of Blows.
I quite literally just commented on another video with regards to the brutal critical rule - I like how it is implemented here better. Just the 'base attack' getting that is nifty and keeps big damage spikes in check at the same time. Kudos on that rework.
I love how willing you are to edit your past Homebrews. The biggest quote I got out of this is "You know your players". I definitely have players where if I introduced some of these mechanics (like cumulative +2 advantage), it would clunk down the game something awful. And I know other groups that would be immersed and use it appropriately. Definitely a table by table analysis
The more I see your homebrew ideas, the more I think that you should totally try Pathfinder 2e. But that is just me being a cleric from that system. Great content as always, amazing ideas for inspiration
I love the sentinel fix, because it instantly got me thinking: what if you were fighting a really fast enemy, and your goal was to slow it down. Now say your fighter (with sentinel) is medium sized and the creature is huge. Well now he can't use it right? No, because maybe the party's sorcerer has enlarge/reduce, and they now need to work together to get the fighter to be large enough to reduce that enemy's movement speed.
I've implemented the action point system from one of your videos. I allow my players as their action point to toss a potion to another player, and they can sacrifice their bonus action for that player to immediately use that potion. The movement point may be used to do another attack for base weapon damage/cantrip damage + proficiency bonus
Fiiiiiiiiiiix Dual wielding!!! So many game mechanics are just built around not giving you anything from it. Rangers are literally "supposed" to dual wield but doing so keeps you from using hunters mark? Weird.
I've seen other games that don't give you extra attacks or cost you more actions. They simply roll the off-hands weapon damage into the first attack you make. You could restrict main- and off-hand weapons to finesse until you get the class feature or feat. It is simpler and intuitive enough to not strain credibility. Wether it's balanced or not, I don't know. But it's worth a try 😁
Rangers dual wielding is one of the worst rules in the game. Rangers were originally based off of Aragorn and some fairy tale characters. Then Gygax released rules for Drow, and Salvatore created Drizzt Do'Urden. Next thing you know, all Rangers could wield two weapons. It should not be a class feature.
@@jensjohansen8050 i actually really like this, in which case there isnt much difference in dual wielding, or a greatsword. (At least damage wise) i like where this is going
One thing to be wary of about maxing a die on crits is how much crits demolish players. But you can use your own homebrew to fix that. Maybe a maxed die on crits is a group bonus for the party upon reaching tier 3. Similarly enemies that would be considered third or fourth tier would get the bonus. At that point the party can likely survive a massive damage spike, but it would certainly swing the momentum of the battle.
I personally love the thrill of that one’s in the 20s, so I am all for it! But I feel like this modification will help those crazy spikes. Because I totally see what you’re saying, and agree
Just have to correct something from sentinel. Attack you get from sentinel when they attack someone else is not an opportunity attack. This means that if they attack you they loose there reaction without dropping your movement. Also I have started using shove and dodge actions to get away from them.
Yo, I've been trying to speed up combat and your AoO rules are gonna do just that, plus the holding turns rule gives such a dynamic feel to each combat
The great thing about these ideas is that the Dungeon Coach always says "hey, if your players take advantage/it isn't working like you want/etc., just take it out." This is the true spirit of homebrewing rules and truly old school. When we played from the white box we basically had to make up everything, so we tried things and some worked and some didn't but we learned not to sweat it. Now we have very detailed rules (I know, 5 isn't like 3.5/Pathfinder, but compared to the original sets it's super complete) yet the Coach is always looking to improve and experiment to make it more realistic and fun. Which is all we want as players.
OMG this is so good. I haven’t even finished watching and I’m so inspired. One thing I think I’ll be adding is a (relatively difficult) acrobatics check to stand for less or even no movement. Probably the higher your roll, the less movement it takes.
Stefan Podell awesome! Seriously so glad to hear it!! And yea that’s great! I like the “critical success” from PF2 Basically if you succeed the DC by more than 5 extra cool stuff happens like your saying! I hope that helps too!
Hey Dungeon Coach, Love your channel and your energy! Keep the great home brew ideas coming! I really like your rules for advantage stacking and players using the help action. Another “fix” for Sentinel would be to have the recipient choose whether to take damage from the reaction or to halt their movement (i.e. being kept at bay), but not both. Also congrats on fatherhood!
These are quite nice, I might have to adopt some of them. Another thing you could add to the Sentinel feat is a strength contest to see if the speed reduction is applied.
I like the idea of combos but I think their should be a cost. Or a times per sr etc. I like the idea of the party learning a combo every few levels when they meet an appropriate trainer or see the move done.
Lots of great ideas here. What about if players spend movement to perform an action (such as throwing and catching), it lowers the DC/or makes it automatic. But if they want to keep that movement then the action has is harder (increase the DC/make them roll a check). The one feat that I can't get out of my mind is the Polearm Master feat. I am looking for interesting ways to use it. I'm also trying to figure out some ways to create other (Weapon) Master feats.
I used to rule 15ft to stand up. Then I realized that it is half your movement because it takes about 3 seconds to stand up regardless of how fast you can run.
I've tried both your original crit rule which I heard from a different creator and your most recent one you said in this video and what I find is that players just simply don't remember it I have to constantly remind them. So my very simple modification is double dice, because everybody likes rolling dice and more is better, and reroll ones and if you have a feature that lets you reroll ones you reroll ones and twos. Yes I understand savage attacker and great weapon fighter do stuff like that already but nobody in my group has savage attacker and the guy with great weapon fighter I just make sure he never has a one, just keep on rolling. This works very well for my group because it's the box standard rule that everybody remembers and even if everyone forgets my modification it's easy to just spout it out.
Adam and his Nucleus hey I’m the last person to give you a hard time for using a mechanic from somewhere else, so rock on man! I love it Gotta adjust your rules to your players! 👍🏼👍🏼
Our campaigns - last two years, each - have used "weapon attack is maxed, then roll double the bonus dice". Sneak Attack, Smite, Hex, Curse, Hunter's Mark, etc. The 1st level rogue's shortsword critical (with sneak attack) is thus 6 (maxed weapon) + d6 (critical weapon) + d6 (sneak attack) + d6 (critical sneak attack) = 6+3d6. Heck, since we use Roll20, we just programmed in the critical effect to the weapon damage (that's an option) as maximum damage instead of a die roll - no thinking required. The barbarian, who is using D&D Beyond, with the Beyond20 extension, rolls his critical hit from DNDB as normal (which rolls his greataxe d12+5 damage, and his greataxe critical hit d12 damage), and then just add 12 (because DNDB never remembers his half-orc bonus damage die on critical hits).
Sentinel really didn't need to be nerfed, I get that you don't see how it works in play. But tanking is really hard already, there are a few subclasses that encourages monsters to attack you, but the sentinel feat is one of the few ways to add stickyness to any fighty type character. There is so many creatures that have huge movement speeds through fly or just by being fast, and now you can't protect your allies from them. You want to put a size limitation on it for realism, but honestly, that is a weird standard. You are not questioning how the small sized rogue with his dagger even damages a creature that it just reaches to the ankels. You are not questioning how one swipe of a dragon claw doesn't send you flying 60 feet with every hit. But how you stop the creature from moving for 6 seconds, that you question. Which to me is the easiest one to explain, most monsters have a weak spot that would hurt enough to give it pause. Most monsters of that size wouldn't realistically die from you repeatedly stabbing it in the nostrils, or under the toe nail. Please let melee have nice things. The dude has only got one reaction, he only stops one thing. Yes you can't take the disengage action, but often times you can use the show action, and leave that way. Sometimes if the sentinel user has longer reach than your monster, showing them 5 feet away won't be good enough, but at the very least you can give him disadvantage on the opportunity attack by showing him prone. If you want to make it easier to escape the sentinel user, say that if you win the opposed strength check by 5 or more, you can shove the creature 10 feet away. I guess I will end on this, if I sit down at your table to play a tanky fighter that protects my friends, and you say you run sentinel like this, I am going to change to a cleric, cast spirit guardians and be a better tank than the fighter. Which to me is not how it should be.
Whoa, this felt new. 1) Do I include the potions at the beginning and the end in the final tally? 2) I normally *listen* to you while I take notes to implement in my games... I must say that since I was paying attention to those flasks my Post-It looks terrible. I guess there is no harm in watching again. 3) I still remember when I played 3e and I had to be very careful when casting to not provoke opportunity attacks... My own homebrew with it is for spellcasting to generate such attacks only when there is a specific material component (as the spellcaster needs to find it in a whim which is what actually causes the distraction) and/or the spell requires Concentration. 4) Bring back the "Peace!" at the end of the video. Please.
1. Haha DUDE you are the BEST!! You are the first to even mention the potions!! Yes ANY time you see a bottle that counts!! 2. Love the notes!! That’s why I got you guys the free PDF too! 3. I love that rule! I’d dont know it was in 3e! 4. Apparently PEACE is a “F You” sign in the UK... lol that’s why I tried it out without it! Idk though, maybe I do bring it back!
As a UK resident: yeah, it can mean that... but it’s all about context! You wanna play it extra safe just flip it round and pull a Winston Churchill ✌️
With these rules why role for initiative at all in the first place, the players are able to break-up, go at the same time, or generally go when they want. Just figure out which side goes first, DM's side or players then each side sorts out when each creature or character goes on their sides turn.
One that is commonlly used, but I do slightly different, is potions. I rule it used free+bonus, cause you need a free hand so you might need to drop something, then your free action is gone to pick it back up. This would be a good point to use movement currency to pick it back up 😁👍
@@TheDungeonCoach I think the movement currency works just as well for most and better for some, So I'll offer that when my players have problems with the current rule.
My rule for advantage stacking is just rolling additional d20s. This is still kinda adding +2 or +1 per extra advantage statistically, but there's also the more subtle increased chance of rolling a nat 20. There's also less mental math and rolling a bunch of dice because your group voltron-ing together feels awesome. [I also used the rule for the Lucky Feat or Inspiration to add a d6 to the Natural roll, just to emphasize prepared or desired crits] Stolen from Fate rpg, but when a combat scene starts, I describe envrionmental items or features, or let each player describe one. Each player is allowed once per scene to add a d6 to either damage or natural roll if they used some detail or object creatively that they didn't name. Lastly, my dual wielding rule is just add +1 to natural attack roll (so crit on a 19) and attack damage. If they each have special features attached, pick which one you use for the attack, or take both on a crit.
Jordan Nguyen you are a Homebrew machine! Love it! I like the additive bonus to that the number can get literally higher I’d rather increase the total and not increase the % of a nat 20 But that’s just personal preference!
@@Brandon-zw3hw First advantage is equivalent to about +3 and 10% crit chance. Two bonus dice is about +4.5 and 14% crit chance Three bonus dice is about +5.5 and 18.5% crit chance
Its pertty awesome and allows them to play very cooperative... BUT yes they could break the game if they are smart about it, but my players never did and it was just fun :)
I like to use alternate inspiration rules, more like bennies from savage world's. One thing I use them for is to choose where to take your turn in a combat round, when going sooner. Based on this video, I like the idea of opening up held and cooperate actions at a certain level.
One thing I've been looking for is a "gear progression system" that doesn't rely on just adding additional +1 bonuses to weapons and armor. I know how D&D 5e has been designed to have a more bound accuracy to it, so this might only have to apply to damage. But what is your take on progressive gear upgrades in tabletop RPGs? (doesn't have to be full-on MMO style with Item Level or anything, I'm just curious to hear your thoughts ^_^)
Jens Johansen I would love to put something together and make a video on that! A lot of times as a DM when I hide my players and item that can level... I don’t even plan out what it can do yet/ what unlocks it... I just let it “go with the flow” and see what happens, been some pretty amazing moments from that too!
I was just going through some of the homebrew ideas I've taken from you and others and had an idea. What if in your group challenges when an ally used the "Aid Ally" instead of advantage, now used the new help rules? adds 1d6 + proficiency bonus to their skill check, that way the player feels like they contributed to the roll rather than the one player rolling for both of them. Although in this example the helper i guess rolls the aid roll, so it would look like this; The barbarian rages and attempts to throw a boulder off the Cleric (athletics check) get a 10 total, fails. The fighter sees this and attempts to help rolls athletics as well (I tweaked my rules a little different than yours) for the DC 10 to help and makes it. Fight then rolls his help die 4+2 proficiency for 6, adds 6 to the barbarians 10 for 16, they lift the boulder off the cleric and toss it to the side! *Bonus tip!* I am considering allowing players to attempt to negate certain failures if it seems plausible.
You actually hit on what I was starting to think about as I read your comment, being able to go back in the gate failures. I think that’s definitely something that you could introduce, just off the top my head I would probably make the DC to do that higher if they wanted to try and do that, but that’s pretty awesome sounding! I’m going to write that down and have to play around with it! And I’ve never thought about changing aid Ally within the skilled challenge, but I like the reasoning for the same reason why I change this help action. You really got me thinking! Thank you!!
@@TheDungeonCoach no problem! A higher DC to negate failures makes sense, I didn't think about that. Another addition I might include for the help action would be the double proficiency if they have expertise, unless that was implied in the original idea but I would spell it out to save confusion. The change I made in my group challenge is each player can only use a skill once rather than the group because my table has 7 players and we got up to 13 at one point briefly and a lot of these guys are melee types
@@TheDungeonCoach Ok so back at it, had another idea. Leave the aid ally as it was where it grants advantage, but doesn't give a success either. Add in "Hero's Gamble" Once per Group Challenge a player can attempt to save a failed check by another player if they are in a position to do so, this player could also be someone who has already gone this turn. Describe how you would save the situation, in this event you may use a check you have already used, roll 1d6 + your proficiency modifier (double if you have expertise in the skill), and add it to their total. If the result is still not enough to pass the DC, the check adds an additional failure to the total.
Brandon that’s such a creative way to go about it! I’d like to use that and see what they do with it! This opens things up to even longer skill challenges for a marathon feel, gotta Undo those fails or you’ll run out of time!
@@TheDungeonCoach - Fear not as i am DM first and foremost the few games in which I play I am very cognizant of taking away for the flow of the game and other players. so i find my self holding back on this ability if I thin it will lessen the fun. This fix will five me the ability to go all out without that concern.
@@TheDungeonCoach - No we gotta get you 600 likes so i get see your fix to Grapple. I am thinking along the lines of "until the end of the targets next turn, so it cannot immediately be broken, and thus a wasted action.
The rule about movement got me thinking about nwhat else it could be used for and I came up with a thing thats essentially called "Moving Target". If you use a certain amount of movement, you can gain a bonus to your ac from range attacks(spells or others) ut coyld also be a bonus to ur saving throw if it applies. My thinking is that its the players trying to be a moving target so that its harder for them to get hit. Haven't put this in my game yet, but thought it might be something worth working on. Another thing i thought of is what if you could hold your movement and wait for certain triggers to use it but it would only be half of ur total movement speed. Or you can move your whole movement speed as a reaction. Either way, thanks for the inspiration DC :)
A homebrew Dual Wielding rule would be phenomenal, seeing as how it just becomes super weak after reaching mid-high level play. (Possible video idea here) Do you have any ideas for alternate class features? Let’s say I’m playing a Battlerager Barbarian using medium armour. The Unarmoured AC feature is completely useless to me, and I’m likely going to have less AC than a Barbarian using their CON modifier for their AC (I’m not going to dump CON in favour for DEX as a Barbarian). What kind of features would you homebrew to make this character feel less underpowered? (Other examples for fixing seemingly useless features might include Assassin Rogues having no use for the Infiltration/Imposter features when they just wanna be a good killer, or a Death Domain/similarly evil Cleric having no use for Turn/Destroy Undead.) It always feels bad when a feature your class/subclass gets is something almost useless to you, especially if you want to play against type.
Feodor Romanenkov THAT is exactly why I do the Bonus Perk Level Up system! But the thing about it is nothing I make is pre-made, it’s all custom for the character and what they are laying like/ goals they have. And YES I totally agree that mid level is when it falls off/ becomes a not viable choice anymore
Do you get some of your homebrew ideas from other editions/games? And/or do you recommend other GMs do so? I recognize some of your ideas, like how drinking a potion would provoke an AoO, from Pathfinder.
Whether a player can move 30, 40, 50 or 60 feet in 6 seconds, it takes 3 seconds to stand up. So, it's 1/2 the total movement to stand up. How fast you can run does not impact the amount of time it takes you to stand up... I tried the 15 feet of movement to stand up, but went back to 1/2 movement.
Mr FordF350 if you can move faster, you can stand up faster, it’s the same muscle group. (Thinking with my coaching brain) and 3 seconds to stand up is a looooong time especially when you think about light armored rogues or w/e But to each their own, like you said you tried it out and didn’t like it. All good 👍🏼
It takes just under 2 seconds to stand up from a prone position when laying on my back or stomach. I'm sure a monk with high levels of movement could pull that off much quicker than that.
Thinking about movement speed. What are your thoughts on giving a fighter an extra melee attack if they are already up front and aren’t spending any movement during their turn?
David Rose I in general am hesitant to add extra swings since they slow the game down! So I’d lead towards no, it Pathfinder has a system for that with 3 smaller actions for a turn so if you adapt that. So in general, no because it leads to imbalance and stagnant gameplay. Make them move around the battle field OR if he wants to spend his 30 ft of movement to gain ADV on ONE attack roll made ??
That is totally really you couldn’t tonight, I personally would be very hesitant to add extra rolls into things, so I try and keep things fast and limit the rules unless absolutely necessary. That would be my only concern with that
The way I'd change Sentinel is letting players use their reaction to Grapple the escapee instead of attacking if they want to. This solves the problem of halflings stopping purple worms from moving (you can only grapple creatures 1 size larger than you) but still lets players stop enemies from escaping, as long as they have a free hand and pass on that Athletics Check. If they're holding a sword and shield or two weapons they'll have to drop a weapon. Grappling an enemy is stronger than just dropping it's speed to 0 like RaW Sentinel, but it's also less "free" and doesn't happen on top of the attack's damage.
I give players with Extra Attack advantage if they still want to Ready an attack because they give up one that way. Also let casters be able to cast a spell on their turn if the Ready trigger didn't happen, or use an action to ready it again (as long as concentration is not lost, up to a minute).
Dude can you make a vid on dungeon puzzles, and cool ways we can implement traps? Cuz I really hate always having to put a pit and some spikes somewhere. I really love puzzles but I'm no good at making them
Wasn't Delay Initiative a 3.0/3.5 rule? I remember my players using it. Also my group enjoys the max damage plus dice roll rules for massive critical, we feel it really shows how horrible a wound should be from a critical hit.
Ryan Freeze I do the same! I want those hits to HURT (and that goes both ways lol) I never played any other edition, so that’s awesome of it did, idk why they’d change it! That’s awesome
Regarding the Held Turn rule: I think it goes really well with the players envolved declaring their actions in the inverse order of the initiative order, than resolve the actions in the regular order . The rationale is that the fast witted agile characters get to react and adapt to the situation better than the others. Specially defensive actions like dodge.
@@TheDungeonCoach yes they can. Example: the mage Rolls 16, the dragon Rolls 13. The DM says the dragon is going to multiatack the mage, and the mage says he Will cast invisibility on self. Since the dragon rolled lower on initiative, and the mage is no longer a valid target, the DM gets to decide to do something else when his turn comes.
I like th idea, makes sense, but it seems like this makes combats take longer as you have to (a) hear all actions, then respond, and (b) *re-decide* already declared actions that are no longer valid. How has it played out in your game? Do you have the later characters act at some kind of loss? "You went to attack the mage, but he saw you coming and turned invisible -- you can abort to Dodge, or attack someone else at disadvantage." or something?
How do I as a new player and as a new dm (hopefully), sell some of these changes I want to make before starting to established players? Standing up, fantastic idea. Opportunity attacks, brilliant. Sentinel, cool. I'd love to see some of your clasd combo ideas for same initiative turns.
The sentinel so far as I have seen has been only used on one size bigger and if you include a mount that works and is consonant with what I have seen. D&D 5e is more story reality and less what AD&D was more of a real-ish game simulator but that change is a nice (if desired) middle ground. Those that anted another alternative could just have the effect happen if the target fails a save vs strength. (Though I would point out that by design, feats are meant to be stupid powerful and come up at least once in any session as a game changer. If a Dragon, was subject to this I would 1) were they dropped on their head to get that close and 2) you know a fully armed fighter in plate is about baseball sized to an ancient dragon (snickers). I see your point though. ]
Sentinel is likely to come up every round of every fight, not "once per game session". However, you - and many others - have made a good point about bigger creatures -- just knock the Sentinel out of the way, then move!
Do you have any tips for making combat faster? My group runs dungeon of the mad mage and we are 10+ sessions in on level 2. My group is so slow in combat and wants to search every nook and cranny
Add more dmg for the monsters and lower their hp, group initiative is also nice and there is optional mob rules If it’s alot of enemy’s of the same type.
Also ask your players to plan their turn during the other players or they might have to pass during that round. Think that’s as if you just standing in the heat of the battle and don’t act, you might get the Orcs hammer in the face
I've tried this and it never seems to work, they either have questions or there plans get ruined before there turns, or they are fast but we will have combats that go over 10 rounds because their dps is not great
Hi DC, I just bought a copy of this pdf on DMS Guild and I'm looking forward to trying some of these rules with my campaign. Is there a printer-friendly version available? I find the black text on brown background difficult to read on my screen, and it's gonna suck up a ton of printer ink!
Victor Navone thank you so much man! I appreciate that! I am actually working on a printer friendly version of all my documents too!! I agree it’s a great thing to have! It’ll be updated for you automatically I think once I do it and you can snag it! Should be within the next week or so!
Looks like we haven't managed the 600 likes in 4 days unfortunately, but if you wanted to make another video about more homebrew rules, I'd be interested, either combat or non-combat. A shorter video idea for you: detect magic. My DMs have trouble knowing how to describe the effects and also seem to not like that it makes some traps and hidden objects much more trivial, especially since 2nd level Warlocks can do it basically all the time. Any hacks or tips?
Jason Lee oooo that’s a great video! I always have schools of magic color coded and as a DM understand each schools “domains” and be able to describe what “Vibe” they get from certain trap type objects. Writing that down!
Regarding the Help action revision, it sounds great for players and can inspire some really cool moments. My players (all) have familiars and every turn they have their familiars use the help action for easy advantage. I always have them describe what their familiar does to help, but it still feels kinda broken. I'd absolutely implement your help revision for players but definitely not for familiars. Does anyone have any ideas to help?
Brycen Peacock I would have this be how PC help actions work! And if players were abusing familiars like that, I might nerf/ rework it. But if that doesn’t bother you then I’d just have PC help work this way and familiars still be ADV, they can stack easier!
I actually implemented my own combo attack rules last year. My players really loved the idea, and are always looking forward to getting to pull off their combo attacks. The rules are as follows: Combo Attacks* If two or more characters have the same initiative and dexterity modifier, they may choose to attack one or more targets (if applicable) at the same time. If multiple attacks hit, this is counted as a special attack which deals extra damage to the combined total of both attacks. Combination Multipliers 2-3 Attacks 1.5x damage to combined damage total 4-5 Attacks 2.0x damage to combined damage total 6-7 Attacks 2.5x damage to combined damage total 8-9 Attacks 3.0x damage to combined damage total *These attacks can be named and described however the players/characters want, but it will not have any added bonuses unless the DM agrees.
My favourite verios of the Help action is that you just add the helpers modifiers to the roll as well. So, If my Rogue helps my Barbarian with an attack, the barbarian rolls D20 + Barb mod + Rogue mod and the damage is say 2D6 + Bard mod + Rogue Mod. It's super intuitive and the bonus will be about the same as in your version. And it matters even more who helps. A -3 Intelligence Barbarian won't be able to help the Wizard translate some arcane writing because its modifier is too bad.
If a wizard can cast witch, the fighter can break a dragon's knee caps and stop them from moving. Sentinel is fine, dont bully the fighters even more by getting rid of all their good options because they're slightly annoying. Hypnotic Pattern freezes and entire encounter, sentinel does it to an enemy once, stop this.
I have been looking for a tip of yours but can't seem to find it. Do I remember correctly that you made something along the lines of stacking dice untop of each other for tension building?
For the hold initiative do players get to hold their turn till the middle of an enemy’s turn IE during their movement they could attack similar to a ready action, or is it just moving their initiative down?
If they wanted to do something like what you’re saying then that’s a redied action from RAW, you would take your turn and have a trigger of “if the enemy does ____” THEN you could act on an enemies turn. My held turn rule here is going AFTER someone goes (but can’t go during, that would clutter things up I feel) I hope this helped!
Counterspell is fun, If you use it with flavour, And a bit of homebrew as usual. Also Truestrike is a meme And should be buffed Even if it would just apply to the next 2 attacks It would already be a mathematically viable option (Sometimes, but usually still not).
@@anthonynorman7545 Viable=/= good, Viable means it's not a complete waste of a turn. Tho I agree without Concentration, It's still not that good, So just scrap the concentration too.
@@anthonynorman7545 @Bram Lastname Ok Here is my fix for True Strike (comming up in a future video, so dont spoil it for others lol jk) All it does is make YOUR NEXT attack be an auto hit (no attack roll needed... just like magic missile) I feel that this is the TRUE application of a TRUE STRIKE and I could think of uses for it too (and yea no concentration either)
Here's my fix for grappling. Everyone has the Grappler feat. If you attack a creature you have pinned with a dagger it removes disadvantage from the restrained condition, (so the roll is made with advantage).
@@TheDungeonCoach thanks! This is the first video of yours I have come across and I like a lot of these rules. I think the rules in the Grappler feat are cool, but not nearly good enough to justify it over other feats, and I don't see a reason why these shouldn't just be rules any martial character can use. The way advantage works with these rules is also part of the strange issue you talk about that advantage doesn't stack. It's also true that if you have advantage and disadvantage on a roll you roll one die, even if you had two sources of advantage, RAW. So for the Grappler Feat this means you have advantage on the attack because it's a creature you're grappling, if the creature is pinned you have advantage from their restrained condition, but you also have disadvantage on the roll because you are restrained. This is why I worded my rule about removing disadvantage in that awkward wat. (sorry this comment got so long, but it just shows my point that the rules for Grappler seem not that well designed lol) With your system I don't know how you'd rule the Grappler rules as is, would they roll one die but still have a +2 because of the second source of advantage? How does this all interact with sneak attack which states you need to not have disadvantage on a roll?? WHY ARE THE GRAPPLING RULES SO USELESS???
Taber McFarlin I still have adv and DisADV cancel and only roll 1 d20, and for a rogue to get sneak attack he’d have to have an “advantageous window” or w/e and need 2 adv If he had 1 disadv. But yea I agree with grapple rules! I’ll make sure mine is in the next one!! Been highly requested
Hey dude, awesome video as usual. I have a question for ya. My party harvested a white dragon wyrmling of its scales, rolled a nat 20 on the survival check, so I gave the player a pretty solid amount of scales. They now want to get a smith to make them a piece of armor. I told them it would likely be a small piece, not a full set, due to the size of the wyrmling. I've been doing some searching around, and having a tough time coming up with cost, and crafting time for it. Any suggestions? EDIT: To add, they've found a pretty renowned blacksmith, so that part has been covered. I just need to figure out what to charge them for the service. I'd like it to be a minor buff too, maybe cold resistance or something. I've hinted to the player that its not going to be cheap. I'm a pretty new DM, and while I'm able to get most stuff figured out by way of Google and reading, this is proving to challenge me.. haha
Dylan Ferris THAT is a great question and something I spent a Lot Of time working out myself. So I’d say this, figure out what the cost is of the magic items that these scales would CREATE, and go from there, wether you Homebrew it or not. So is it a +1 +2 AC? Resists? Abilities? So let me know what the stars are and I’d tel you how much that would be in my game, but again, our economy might be different lol
@@TheDungeonCoach thanks man! I was thinking something along the lines of greaves or bracers as they are pretty small. So probably +1 AC, cold resist. Nothing crazy, but something that makes it worth their money and time
Dylan Ferris ol so here’s my 2 cents: +1 AC = 1500g Cold resist = 6000g Total 7500g I’d add something cool tool it like “immune to hot climate effects (Cuz they keep you cool) and immune to cold temps too... so like perfect body temperature regulation, and if they were gauntlets then I’d add 1d4 cold damage to any unarmed strike just for flare So that’s 7500g BUT they provided the materials and the materielas for THAT task are expensive BUT the skill of having the knowledge of crafting it would be expensive too so with parts and labor at 50/50 That’s 3750 for parts and 3750 for labor So I’d charge them 4000g (I always over sell to my players and then haggle like any good sales man) BUT I’d give them options I’d haggle down to 3,000 at lowest BUT if they wanted a crazier version then I’d sell them lowered versions with less perks on it! No cold resist No +1 AC No flavor effects etc And bring the price down accordingly Helpful? 😇
Would be a conversation Id have with the bard honestly. Here are some ideas though off the top of my head - scale up their bardic inspiration - can use insiration as Reaction - can actually hand out ACTUAL inspiration (like the kind the DM can) themselves - give them more charges of it - give them homebrew abilities they can also spend bardic inspiration on - let their bardic inspiration effect things like AC or movement speed Hope that gets the wheels turnin!
12:35 I don't think the Help homebrew steps on Bardic Inspiration at all, if anything it might save them Inspiration Dice. Bardic Inspiration only cost a bonus action, and is way more flexible compared to the revised Help action. Compared to your homebrew, Bardic Inspiration does not require the Bard to be proficient in the skill rolled, can be used against any enemy in the combat (the Help action only works on one enemy within 5 ft of the helper), and has a longer time window of use (10 minutes vs the next roll). Then of course there is the possibility of Bardic Inspiration stacking with the Help action as well.
Would you stack it? The out-of-spells 1st level wizard Helps the fighter, giving him a d6+2 to attack and damage. The 1st level bard then also gives the fighter a d6 Inspiration. The fighter rolls a d20+5 for his proficiency and STR, +d6+2 (wizard help), +d6 inspiration = +9 bonus to hit, and +5 damage. took a limited resource from the bard, and the wizard gave up doing d6 to d10 with a cantrip to give the fighter +5 to hit and damage. My issue is that the fighter's +5 bonus, with Advantage, can't reliably hit an eldritch knight (i.e. Shield spell) with AC 25. Having advantage on the roll gives him a 9% chance instead of a 5%. Having even a true *+1* on the roll gives him a *10%* chance to hit - and that's if the helper has no proficiency, and rolls a 1 on the help die! On average, the fighter is getting a +5, giving him a 30% chance to hit *and* bonus damage. Oof!
Wizards memorize their spells on their long rest, and do not cast spells from their book, so that can't happen except in rare circumstances, but I get your point.
@@TheDungeonCoach you very specifically used an example of a wizard casting a spell from a book as an opportunity for an OA. Wizards rarely if ever cast spells from their books. They memorize them at the beginning of the day, so that in the moment, they have it ready and are not "nose in a book", so to speak. BUT. IF they are caught unprepared, and HAVE to cast a spell from their book (which I think erases the spell in the book similar to the way a scroll gets used up after one use), THEN I suppose an OA would be possible. It's a good homebrew rule, but becomes a lot to keep track of. :-)
James A Olsen I personally was meaning ANY spell caster casts any spell, because the somatic components takes a bit to cast and with someone in your face they could swing at you, so we did that rule for ALL spells he cast. Totally see what you are saying about the out of the book though!
My thoughts on AoO when casting spells: you provoke when you cast a spell that doesn't have a range of self and doesn't involve an attack roll. All combat spells are excluded this way, but Cure Wounds, Toll the Dead etc. not. Plus, ranged attack rolls already get disadvantage so they don't need more debuff. You can remove crits from spells. Props to Zipperon Disney for this one. This can also remove paladin's Divine Smite crits, because these are at will while the rogue's are once per turn.
@@alcatraz7 I personally dont like the way paladins can declare smite after a crit... never made sense from an RP perspective.... BUT i totally understand it helps them out game wise :) #donthateme
@@alcatraz7 I get that, and I would probably also smite while dual wield-critfishing if it was really needed. But I feel like I just don't want a reason to do that. It's even stronger than the rogues. And when other abilities/spells are used you still need to see if you hit as well. With the Battle Master as an exception. I don't want to waste all my DM's precious monsters :P
@@TheDungeonCoach I always saw it as channeling divine will through the blade as you made contact but can defs see where you are coming from. Also I have been doing crits in the exact way you do, damage intrinsic to the weapon itself does an extra max die and the rest (i.e. sneak attack, smite, spells like firebolt and eldritch blast) just get doubled as normal. Makes sense to me rp wise and gives the martials a much needed boost :). Seen good results so far
Indeed. However 3.5 had the "5-foot step" which is sort of a full movement Disengage (only move action). This would be necessary in that case. 5e could benefit from it
As far as opportunity attacks go, people should look at how 5e did it. Now, I don't think a spell that takes a Bonus Action or Reaction to cast should provoke an AOp, as it goes off too fast, and melee-range spells shouldn't either, but c'mon. Hell, even firing a ranged weapon within 5ft of an enemy provoked AOps.
Another combat rule I use from older editions, is when you are for whatever reason immobilized or surprised, you lose your Dexterity modifier to Armor Class. WotC over simplified the game. I get why, but in my opinion 5e is to gamey. It feels like I am playing a cartoon. I also add fumble rules, where on a nat 1, there is a possibility that your armor is damaged, causing -1 to AC etc, or the chance your ( nonmagical ) weapon can break. I like a little realism in my game.
Please, please fix grappling for us. After using your rest system (much, much better than RAW) I'm sure you're the man to make grappling more compelling in game.
Awesome homebrew. You are great. Let me share one with you. I have 2 videos about on youtube. The extended combat zone. It goes like this. The idea is to free up movement. The combat zone extends 5 feet beyond the reach of my weapon. So if an opponent backs away 5 feet beyond my weapon's reach, I don't get an opportunity attack. They are still in my combat zone. But if they step out of the extended zone I have to make a 5 foot move toward them to do the opportunity attack. This rule makes combat more interesting and strategic. There is a lot more movement and the movement has more influence on the battlefield. You can search the videos and see more about it. Extended combat zone for dnd 5e.
@@TheDungeonCoach I totally agree with what you said in your video about one player just sitting in front of another hitting back and forth. I loved the expression on your face of "boring". Search in youtube for "Extended Combat Zones in D&D 5E". There is a part 1 and part 2. Long Live Homebrew!!!
Sylvain Cousineau I’ve even played around with the idea of a extra attack or cantrip for 30ft of movement? Eh? Might be busted though, either way it gets you thinking! 👍🏼
@@TheDungeonCoach a cantrip and extra attack may be a bit OP , this would made the Haste spell even more powerful and realy abusive with rogue cunning action , monk Step of the Wind and barbarian insane mobilities . 🤔
I want to see jumping fixed. Something where I can make a running jump that combines a standing high jump and a standing long jump as a square path. If I can jump really high, why can't I jump over an enemy?
Ok? But if the 15' of movement speed reductions happens at the end of their next turn, then at the start of the next turn, the affected creature tries and move, gets hit by another opportunity attack and take another 15' reduction of movement. So with a creature who moves 30', they still go to zero, just takes 2 turns now?
Most of the suggestions in the video feel opposite of simple in that you are adding layers of complexity over the streamlined approach 5e goes for. For some tables that might be just the thing, but I do feel like many of these suggestions come with the prerequisite that your combat is already running really smoothly and that your players are actually interested in expanding the rules in question. As a player who knows the rules pretty well and acts quickly in combat, but plays in a game where the other players are already somewhat annoyingly slow and incapable of making decisions, I found myself shaking my head at many of the suggested rules. Not because they were necessarily bad as such, but because I didn't see a reason to add further complexity to systems that are already challenging and interesting enough for many players. I'm still stuck dreaming up ways of convincing the DM to push for timed rounds or whatever it takes for a single combat encounter not to eat up 80% of every 4 hour session, sigh :) We do use what you call held turns in that at the start of combat we can decide to permanently lower our initiative to another spot, but it rarely comes up. Tandem turns is an interesting expansion to that though, need to think about that one.
I feel like playing 3.5/PF would be better than adding all the rules headaches of those games on top of the rules headaches of 5e. In fact, I think you would be better off just cherry picking from both editions and making Advanced D&D 5e or something.
Kipex I totally see where you’re coming from, and my group of players are implemented this for were definitely able to handle it, and their place style shirt they wanted it. This is also why I implemented it into the game as the game went and didn’t make it to complex early on, because I feel like that would slow down things. As they were playing I noticed their place style and made a rule to help them embrace it. I definitely have seen a lot of the themes in the comment section hear about speedy and come back and will be making a video on that for sure! I love critical thinking comments like yours!! 💜
I don’t understand what the problem is with maximizing smite or sneak attack criticals. It’s still theoretically possible to roll those numbers on the dice. From what I understand, the maximized critical is just “damage insurance”
DC's updated rule is the way we have always played in my two campaigns (running about 2 years each). The rogue and paladin still get double their dice, just like RAW, but they don't start out with a base damage of +18 (5th level rogue) or +24 (5th level paladin). This rule also apply to Hex, Hunter's Mark, and other "bonus damage" effects. In play, it was just too powerful for the bonus dice to be maximized. (Especially for the paladin, who tended to smite *only* on a critical hit anyway, and got 3d8+24 (37 avg), instead of 6d8 (27 avg).) If it's not too much for your table, do it! As a compromise position, you could do "roll all the dice, but minimum damage is 1pt more than maxing the first dice". So roll 6d6 for the 3d6 SA crit, but the minimum on the 6d6 is 19.
What are YOUR Favorite Combat House Rules? In this video OR of your own!
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My favorite rule that I've created because of its simplicity is the Battle Move.
When a creature becomes Flanked due to a hostile creature moving into a directly opposed space to another hostile creature in melee range, it can use its reaction to make a Battle Move to move 5 ft. in any direction. This is not forced movement and can therefore trigger Attacks of Opportunity if this causes the creature to move out of melee range of either creature. The creature who's turn it is can then complete its movement if it has any remaining, possibly achieving the desired flank from a different position.
As a fight science guy, it always bothered me a lot to see creatures just allow themselves to get flanked without trying to reposition. This fixes that, but with the penalty of a reaction.
Great video showing off how easy it is to tweak the rules and adjust as you go. That’s how you end up with great house rules like these! Keep up the good work, coach! Also I didn’t realize holding turns was a house rule! My group has been doing that for a while 😆
Bob World Builder haha I love that you’ve been naturally doing that too! Thanks man!
I play online in Fantasy Grounds and take advantage of two built in options: 1.) I give my players 3 Inspiration at the beginning of each session that they can use, kind of like Bennies in Savage Worlds or Fate Points in Fate. It allows them to shine during moments that are important to them. 2.) We reroll initiative after each round. Fantasy Grounds does it automatically so it doesn’t slow the game down, and it makes combat a lot more dynamic and interesting.
I LOVE online inititative systems because they can instantly change up initiative order... because doing that at a table... would be awful to re roll every time! But I love your 2 systems!
One of my house rules for 5E actually stems from one of the few things I liked about 4E and that is... action economy. 4E allowed the players to use lesser actions in place of higher level ones if they chose. So if a class is able, they can use 3 Bonus Actions in a turn. This allows more options in battle and minimizes wasted actions. The most common lost action is movement when players are in melee so this rule can offer a wider variety when it is converted into a Bonus Action. The caveat to this is that each Bonus Action must be within already established rules like spellcasting and abilities that require prerequisites such as a Monk must Attack before accessing Flurry of Blows. Also, the same type of action cannot be used twice on the same turn. This prevents possible OP combinations like eldritch blast + double quicken eldritch blast or Attack + double Flurry of Blows.
Vile Kurr wow that is a great mix of PF2 too! Interesting... I might have to mess around with that and put my spin on it!
I quite literally just commented on another video with regards to the brutal critical rule - I like how it is implemented here better. Just the 'base attack' getting that is nifty and keeps big damage spikes in check at the same time.
Kudos on that rework.
I love how willing you are to edit your past Homebrews. The biggest quote I got out of this is "You know your players". I definitely have players where if I introduced some of these mechanics (like cumulative +2 advantage), it would clunk down the game something awful. And I know other groups that would be immersed and use it appropriately. Definitely a table by table analysis
The more I see your homebrew ideas, the more I think that you should totally try Pathfinder 2e. But that is just me being a cleric from that system.
Great content as always, amazing ideas for inspiration
Javier Morales hahah I have thought the same myself! lol! Thank man, for real, that’s what my goal is here!
I love the sentinel fix, because it instantly got me thinking: what if you were fighting a really fast enemy, and your goal was to slow it down. Now say your fighter (with sentinel) is medium sized and the creature is huge. Well now he can't use it right? No, because maybe the party's sorcerer has enlarge/reduce, and they now need to work together to get the fighter to be large enough to reduce that enemy's movement speed.
"Tactical Training gave them Tandem Turns. TERRIFIC" nice
thanks that took time to think through (see what I did there?? Eh eh?)
I've implemented the action point system from one of your videos. I allow my players as their action point to toss a potion to another player, and they can sacrifice their bonus action for that player to immediately use that potion. The movement point may be used to do another attack for base weapon damage/cantrip damage + proficiency bonus
I use the extra advantage rule at my table and I like it. I also use flanking so it comes up a lot
And they are the same system essentially +2 for each good thing happening!
The Dungeon Coach oh I use this bc I saw it previous video.
Fiiiiiiiiiiix Dual wielding!!! So many game mechanics are just built around not giving you anything from it. Rangers are literally "supposed" to dual wield but doing so keeps you from using hunters mark? Weird.
Hahaha I know right, I feel like its so unappealing and not optimized... and doesnt make sense in some ways too, I GOT YOU!
I've seen other games that don't give you extra attacks or cost you more actions. They simply roll the off-hands weapon damage into the first attack you make. You could restrict main- and off-hand weapons to finesse until you get the class feature or feat. It is simpler and intuitive enough to not strain credibility. Wether it's balanced or not, I don't know. But it's worth a try 😁
Rangers dual wielding is one of the worst rules in the game. Rangers were originally based off of Aragorn and some fairy tale characters. Then Gygax released rules for Drow, and Salvatore created Drizzt Do'Urden. Next thing you know, all Rangers could wield two weapons. It should not be a class feature.
Jens Johansen YOU SIR!! Are actually very close to what I do to fix dual wielding!!
@@jensjohansen8050 i actually really like this, in which case there isnt much difference in dual wielding, or a greatsword. (At least damage wise) i like where this is going
One thing to be wary of about maxing a die on crits is how much crits demolish players. But you can use your own homebrew to fix that. Maybe a maxed die on crits is a group bonus for the party upon reaching tier 3. Similarly enemies that would be considered third or fourth tier would get the bonus. At that point the party can likely survive a massive damage spike, but it would certainly swing the momentum of the battle.
I personally love the thrill of that one’s in the 20s, so I am all for it! But I feel like this modification will help those crazy spikes. Because I totally see what you’re saying, and agree
Just have to correct something from sentinel. Attack you get from sentinel when they attack someone else is not an opportunity attack. This means that if they attack you they loose there reaction without dropping your movement. Also I have started using shove and dodge actions to get away from them.
Yo, I've been trying to speed up combat and your AoO rules are gonna do just that, plus the holding turns rule gives such a dynamic feel to each combat
YEEESSS you see the vision! That’s awesome!
The great thing about these ideas is that the Dungeon Coach always says "hey, if your players take advantage/it isn't working like you want/etc., just take it out." This is the true spirit of homebrewing rules and truly old school. When we played from the white box we basically had to make up everything, so we tried things and some worked and some didn't but we learned not to sweat it. Now we have very detailed rules (I know, 5 isn't like 3.5/Pathfinder, but compared to the original sets it's super complete) yet the Coach is always looking to improve and experiment to make it more realistic and fun. Which is all we want as players.
D&D Homebrew you see my vision man! It’s all about customizing! I love that you see my experimental outlook too!
OMG this is so good. I haven’t even finished watching and I’m so inspired. One thing I think I’ll be adding is a (relatively difficult) acrobatics check to stand for less or even no movement. Probably the higher your roll, the less movement it takes.
Stefan Podell awesome! Seriously so glad to hear it!! And yea that’s great! I like the “critical success” from PF2
Basically if you succeed the DC by more than 5 extra cool stuff happens like your saying! I hope that helps too!
You're enthusiasm is contagious.
Lasse thanks! I just love Homebrew dnd stuff!! 😆
Hey Dungeon Coach, Love your channel and your energy! Keep the great home brew ideas coming! I really like your rules for advantage stacking and players using the help action. Another “fix” for Sentinel would be to have the recipient choose whether to take damage from the reaction or to halt their movement (i.e. being kept at bay), but not both. Also congrats on fatherhood!
Nick Rossi Ooooooo what a great fix, they dodge it or take it and run! I totally see that! 👌🏼
And thanks! Been crazy, but I love it!
These are quite nice, I might have to adopt some of them.
Another thing you could add to the Sentinel feat is a strength contest to see if the speed reduction is applied.
Matthew Parker ahh I could see a strength contest, especially with larger monsters? Glad to give ya some ideas!!
I dig these ideas! I think I like the revised Help action as a feat instead of a flat rule change :O
Flutes Loot yea that would be cool too, let people customize a more “helpful” character!
I like the idea of combos but I think their should be a cost. Or a times per sr etc. I like the idea of the party learning a combo every few levels when they meet an appropriate trainer or see the move done.
The casting causes opportunity is appropriate but punishing. Worth some thinking cos I like it.
Lots of great ideas here.
What about if players spend movement to perform an action (such as throwing and catching), it lowers the DC/or makes it automatic. But if they want to keep that movement then the action has is harder (increase the DC/make them roll a check).
The one feat that I can't get out of my mind is the Polearm Master feat. I am looking for interesting ways to use it. I'm also trying to figure out some ways to create other (Weapon) Master feats.
I have a fear video coming up for you then!! And I LOVE the idea of spending movement like a currency to lower DCs! Great idea!
I used to rule 15ft to stand up. Then I realized that it is half your movement because it takes about 3 seconds to stand up regardless of how fast you can run.
Ding! It's not that the monk spent 25' move to get up... it's that he can *still* move 25'! *after* he gets up!
I've tried both your original crit rule which I heard from a different creator and your most recent one you said in this video and what I find is that players just simply don't remember it I have to constantly remind them. So my very simple modification is double dice, because everybody likes rolling dice and more is better, and reroll ones and if you have a feature that lets you reroll ones you reroll ones and twos. Yes I understand savage attacker and great weapon fighter do stuff like that already but nobody in my group has savage attacker and the guy with great weapon fighter I just make sure he never has a one, just keep on rolling. This works very well for my group because it's the box standard rule that everybody remembers and even if everyone forgets my modification it's easy to just spout it out.
Adam and his Nucleus hey I’m the last person to give you a hard time for using a mechanic from somewhere else, so rock on man! I love it
Gotta adjust your rules to your players! 👍🏼👍🏼
Our campaigns - last two years, each - have used "weapon attack is maxed, then roll double the bonus dice". Sneak Attack, Smite, Hex, Curse, Hunter's Mark, etc. The 1st level rogue's shortsword critical (with sneak attack) is thus 6 (maxed weapon) + d6 (critical weapon) + d6 (sneak attack) + d6 (critical sneak attack) = 6+3d6. Heck, since we use Roll20, we just programmed in the critical effect to the weapon damage (that's an option) as maximum damage instead of a die roll - no thinking required. The barbarian, who is using D&D Beyond, with the Beyond20 extension, rolls his critical hit from DNDB as normal (which rolls his greataxe d12+5 damage, and his greataxe critical hit d12 damage), and then just add 12 (because DNDB never remembers his half-orc bonus damage die on critical hits).
Just discovered you today, very impressed! Keep up the great work of thinking outside the box!
Michael Halverson duuuude! You even used my catch phrase! You rock! Haha thank you!
Sentinel really didn't need to be nerfed, I get that you don't see how it works in play. But tanking is really hard already, there are a few subclasses that encourages monsters to attack you, but the sentinel feat is one of the few ways to add stickyness to any fighty type character.
There is so many creatures that have huge movement speeds through fly or just by being fast, and now you can't protect your allies from them.
You want to put a size limitation on it for realism, but honestly, that is a weird standard. You are not questioning how the small sized rogue with his dagger even damages a creature that it just reaches to the ankels. You are not questioning how one swipe of a dragon claw doesn't send you flying 60 feet with every hit. But how you stop the creature from moving for 6 seconds, that you question. Which to me is the easiest one to explain, most monsters have a weak spot that would hurt enough to give it pause. Most monsters of that size wouldn't realistically die from you repeatedly stabbing it in the nostrils, or under the toe nail.
Please let melee have nice things. The dude has only got one reaction, he only stops one thing. Yes you can't take the disengage action, but often times you can use the show action, and leave that way. Sometimes if the sentinel user has longer reach than your monster, showing them 5 feet away won't be good enough, but at the very least you can give him disadvantage on the opportunity attack by showing him prone.
If you want to make it easier to escape the sentinel user, say that if you win the opposed strength check by 5 or more, you can shove the creature 10 feet away.
I guess I will end on this, if I sit down at your table to play a tanky fighter that protects my friends, and you say you run sentinel like this, I am going to change to a cleric, cast spirit guardians and be a better tank than the fighter. Which to me is not how it should be.
I'm gonna be the guy that jumps through all your old content to remind you timestamps are paramount to video longevity.
Creative, fresh ideas presented succinctly. First time visiting this channel and I was pleasantly surprised. Thanks and well done.
Domenick Poster wow, thank you! That’s the goal, efficient/ creative/ outside the box videos! Welcome to the Dungeon Crew!
Whoa, this felt new.
1) Do I include the potions at the beginning and the end in the final tally?
2) I normally *listen* to you while I take notes to implement in my games... I must say that since I was paying attention to those flasks my Post-It looks terrible. I guess there is no harm in watching again.
3) I still remember when I played 3e and I had to be very careful when casting to not provoke opportunity attacks... My own homebrew with it is for spellcasting to generate such attacks only when there is a specific material component (as the spellcaster needs to find it in a whim which is what actually causes the distraction) and/or the spell requires Concentration.
4) Bring back the "Peace!" at the end of the video. Please.
1. Haha DUDE you are the BEST!! You are the first to even mention the potions!!
Yes ANY time you see a bottle that counts!!
2. Love the notes!! That’s why I got you guys the free PDF too!
3. I love that rule! I’d dont know it was in 3e!
4. Apparently PEACE is a “F You” sign in the UK... lol that’s why I tried it out without it! Idk though, maybe I do bring it back!
As a UK resident: yeah, it can mean that... but it’s all about context! You wanna play it extra safe just flip it round and pull a Winston Churchill ✌️
Fushi Con oooooo I didn’t think about that, maybe I’ll try that!
With these rules why role for initiative at all in the first place, the players are able to break-up, go at the same time, or generally go when they want. Just figure out which side goes first, DM's side or players then each side sorts out when each creature or character goes on their sides turn.
Michael G. I have an initiative system like that! It works so good! I use it for skirmish type situations!
One that is commonlly used, but I do slightly different, is potions. I rule it used free+bonus, cause you need a free hand so you might need to drop something, then your free action is gone to pick it back up. This would be a good point to use movement currency to pick it back up 😁👍
Ooooo yea Movement currecy opens up some cool things! I agree with the Free+ BA too!
I rule that it takes an action,
But you can choose to fail saving throws
And healing potions heal maximum amount.
Bram Lastname I’ve heard of that rule too! Makes healing potions more consistent but higher action cost to use, I can see that!
@@TheDungeonCoach I think the movement currency works just as well for most and better for some,
So I'll offer that when my players have problems with the current rule.
Bram Lastname agreed! Just another tool in the good ol DM belt!
Would love to see a video about the mechanics of using downtime to learn a new proficiency
maybe you could apply your dual wielding fix to inspire a fix for Beast Companion attacks too?
Adam Albright ooooooo thatbcould totally work for them too! I could add that in too! Same concept but with your pet!
My rule for advantage stacking is just rolling additional d20s.
This is still kinda adding +2 or +1 per extra advantage statistically, but there's also the more subtle increased chance of rolling a nat 20. There's also less mental math and rolling a bunch of dice because your group voltron-ing together feels awesome.
[I also used the rule for the Lucky Feat or Inspiration to add a d6 to the Natural roll, just to emphasize prepared or desired crits]
Stolen from Fate rpg, but when a combat scene starts, I describe envrionmental items or features, or let each player describe one.
Each player is allowed once per scene to add a d6 to either damage or natural roll if they used some detail or object creatively that they didn't name.
Lastly, my dual wielding rule is just add +1 to natural attack roll (so crit on a 19) and attack damage. If they each have special features attached, pick which one you use for the attack, or take both on a crit.
Jordan Nguyen you are a Homebrew machine! Love it!
I like the additive bonus to that the number can get literally higher
I’d rather increase the total and not increase the % of a nat 20
But that’s just personal preference!
I was considering just allowing the extra 20's myself, although if i understand correctly Wizards assumes advantage to be roughly +4.
@@Brandon-zw3hw First advantage is equivalent to about +3 and 10% crit chance.
Two bonus dice is about +4.5 and 14% crit chance
Three bonus dice is about +5.5 and 18.5% crit chance
Brandon I always treat it like a +5
And some math tests out it at +7 but idk about that
@@TheDungeonCoach sounds like you might really dig Pathfinder 2e.
I love it all, dude! And keep those fixes coming!
Just wait till next week!! Haha! Counter spell is on the chopping block!
The held turns sounds interesting. I might give it a try. Although my group is very tactical so I'll have to see if it becomes broken or not.
Its pertty awesome and allows them to play very cooperative... BUT yes they could break the game if they are smart about it, but my players never did and it was just fun :)
I like to use alternate inspiration rules, more like bennies from savage world's. One thing I use them for is to choose where to take your turn in a combat round, when going sooner.
Based on this video, I like the idea of opening up held and cooperate actions at a certain level.
Joe Gulley yea same! I put it in at later levels for a more epic feel!
Amazing video Coach! I really liked the rule for holding actions
Awesome! Thanks deaf!
One thing I've been looking for is a "gear progression system" that doesn't rely on just adding additional +1 bonuses to weapons and armor. I know how D&D 5e has been designed to have a more bound accuracy to it, so this might only have to apply to damage. But what is your take on progressive gear upgrades in tabletop RPGs? (doesn't have to be full-on MMO style with Item Level or anything, I'm just curious to hear your thoughts ^_^)
Jens Johansen I would love to put something together and make a video on that!
A lot of times as a DM when I hide my players and item that can level... I don’t even plan out what it can do yet/ what unlocks it... I just let it “go with the flow” and see what happens, been some pretty amazing moments from that too!
I was just going through some of the homebrew ideas I've taken from you and others and had an idea. What if in your group challenges when an ally used the "Aid Ally" instead of advantage, now used the new help rules? adds 1d6 + proficiency bonus to their skill check, that way the player feels like they contributed to the roll rather than the one player rolling for both of them. Although in this example the helper i guess rolls the aid roll, so it would look like this; The barbarian rages and attempts to throw a boulder off the Cleric (athletics check) get a 10 total, fails. The fighter sees this and attempts to help rolls athletics as well (I tweaked my rules a little different than yours) for the DC 10 to help and makes it. Fight then rolls his help die 4+2 proficiency for 6, adds 6 to the barbarians 10 for 16, they lift the boulder off the cleric and toss it to the side! *Bonus tip!* I am considering allowing players to attempt to negate certain failures if it seems plausible.
You actually hit on what I was starting to think about as I read your comment, being able to go back in the gate failures. I think that’s definitely something that you could introduce, just off the top my head I would probably make the DC to do that higher if they wanted to try and do that, but that’s pretty awesome sounding! I’m going to write that down and have to play around with it! And I’ve never thought about changing aid Ally within the skilled challenge, but I like the reasoning for the same reason why I change this help action. You really got me thinking! Thank you!!
@@TheDungeonCoach no problem! A higher DC to negate failures makes sense, I didn't think about that. Another addition I might include for the help action would be the double proficiency if they have expertise, unless that was implied in the original idea but I would spell it out to save confusion. The change I made in my group challenge is each player can only use a skill once rather than the group because my table has 7 players and we got up to 13 at one point briefly and a lot of these guys are melee types
@@TheDungeonCoach Ok so back at it, had another idea. Leave the aid ally as it was where it grants advantage, but doesn't give a success either. Add in "Hero's Gamble" Once per Group Challenge a player can attempt to save a failed check by another player if they are in a position to do so, this player could also be someone who has already gone this turn. Describe how you would save the situation, in this event you may use a check you have already used, roll 1d6 + your proficiency modifier (double if you have expertise in the skill), and add it to their total. If the result is still not enough to pass the DC, the check adds an additional failure to the total.
Brandon that’s such a creative way to go about it! I’d like to use that and see what they do with it! This opens things up to even longer skill challenges for a marathon feel, gotta Undo those fails or you’ll run out of time!
As a player that uses Sentinel, I love the fix here. It makes great sense. And yes please fix Grapple
DUDE YES, I was mainly worried about people like you (sentinel PLAYERS) I dont want to destory it, but make it feel... "right"
@@TheDungeonCoach - Fear not as i am DM first and foremost the few games in which I play I am very cognizant of taking away for the flow of the game and other players. so i find my self holding back on this ability if I thin it will lessen the fun. This fix will five me the ability to go all out without that concern.
@@TheDungeonCoach - No we gotta get you 600 likes so i get see your fix to Grapple. I am thinking along the lines of "until the end of the targets next turn, so it cannot immediately be broken, and thus a wasted action.
And where is this in the video? I don't see it anywhere
The rule about movement got me thinking about nwhat else it could be used for and I came up with a thing thats essentially called "Moving Target". If you use a certain amount of movement, you can gain a bonus to your ac from range attacks(spells or others) ut coyld also be a bonus to ur saving throw if it applies. My thinking is that its the players trying to be a moving target so that its harder for them to get hit. Haven't put this in my game yet, but thought it might be something worth working on. Another thing i thought of is what if you could hold your movement and wait for certain triggers to use it but it would only be half of ur total movement speed. Or you can move your whole movement speed as a reaction. Either way, thanks for the inspiration DC :)
A homebrew Dual Wielding rule would be phenomenal, seeing as how it just becomes super weak after reaching mid-high level play.
(Possible video idea here) Do you have any ideas for alternate class features? Let’s say I’m playing a Battlerager Barbarian using medium armour. The Unarmoured AC feature is completely useless to me, and I’m likely going to have less AC than a Barbarian using their CON modifier for their AC (I’m not going to dump CON in favour for DEX as a Barbarian). What kind of features would you homebrew to make this character feel less underpowered? (Other examples for fixing seemingly useless features might include Assassin Rogues having no use for the Infiltration/Imposter features when they just wanna be a good killer, or a Death Domain/similarly evil Cleric having no use for Turn/Destroy Undead.) It always feels bad when a feature your class/subclass gets is something almost useless to you, especially if you want to play against type.
Feodor Romanenkov THAT is exactly why I do the Bonus Perk Level Up system! But the thing about it is nothing I make is pre-made, it’s all custom for the character and what they are laying like/ goals they have.
And YES I totally agree that mid level is when it falls off/ becomes a not viable choice anymore
Do you get some of your homebrew ideas from other editions/games? And/or do you recommend other GMs do so? I recognize some of your ideas, like how drinking a potion would provoke an AoO, from Pathfinder.
YES 100% steal as many things from other systems as you are inspired by
4e
PF2
For sure!
Whether a player can move 30, 40, 50 or 60 feet in 6 seconds, it takes 3 seconds to stand up. So, it's 1/2 the total movement to stand up. How fast you can run does not impact the amount of time it takes you to stand up... I tried the 15 feet of movement to stand up, but went back to 1/2 movement.
Mr FordF350 if you can move faster, you can stand up faster, it’s the same muscle group. (Thinking with my coaching brain) and 3 seconds to stand up is a looooong time especially when you think about light armored rogues or w/e
But to each their own, like you said you tried it out and didn’t like it. All good 👍🏼
@@TheDungeonCoach Yeah, all good. Love your channel and homebrew rules. Keep it going!
It takes just under 2 seconds to stand up from a prone position when laying on my back or stomach. I'm sure a monk with high levels of movement could pull that off much quicker than that.
Indominus Olympus haha I know right?! We’re just level 0 humans here lol
@@indominusolympus8802 Great, now strap on 100lbs of bulky gear including armor, sword and shield and see how long it takes you to stand up.
Thinking about movement speed. What are your thoughts on giving a fighter an extra melee attack if they are already up front and aren’t spending any movement during their turn?
David Rose I in general am hesitant to add extra swings since they slow the game down! So I’d lead towards no, it Pathfinder has a system for that with 3 smaller actions for a turn so if you adapt that. So in general, no because it leads to imbalance and stagnant gameplay. Make them move around the battle field
OR if he wants to spend his 30 ft of movement to gain ADV on ONE attack roll made ??
I'd love to see your homebrew ideas for fixing Counterspell.
Ha! I typed this before I saw the end of the video! Very excited!
Its gonna be HUGE, and I am showcasing a behind the sceneds of HOW to fix something while Im at it!
I am glad I found this video because I did not know hot to put in home brew after session 0 had already took place and we where in campaign
Might I suggest with the sentinel feat a dexterity dc, if the fail the don’t move but if they succeed the most be half the movement
Sorry let me rewrite this. If they fail their save they cannot move if they save they can move half their movement speed
That is totally really you couldn’t tonight, I personally would be very hesitant to add extra rolls into things, so I try and keep things fast and limit the rules unless absolutely necessary. That would be my only concern with that
The way I'd change Sentinel is letting players use their reaction to Grapple the escapee instead of attacking if they want to. This solves the problem of halflings stopping purple worms from moving (you can only grapple creatures 1 size larger than you) but still lets players stop enemies from escaping, as long as they have a free hand and pass on that Athletics Check. If they're holding a sword and shield or two weapons they'll have to drop a weapon. Grappling an enemy is stronger than just dropping it's speed to 0 like RaW Sentinel, but it's also less "free" and doesn't happen on top of the attack's damage.
I give players with Extra Attack advantage if they still want to Ready an attack because they give up one that way. Also let casters be able to cast a spell on their turn if the Ready trigger didn't happen, or use an action to ready it again (as long as concentration is not lost, up to a minute).
Jelte always cool to see how different people run stuff at their table! 👌🏼
Dude can you make a vid on dungeon puzzles, and cool ways we can implement traps? Cuz I really hate always having to put a pit and some spikes somewhere. I really love puzzles but I'm no good at making them
THAT is a great video topic! (writes it down) I would have those be two different videos, they are similar, yet different! Great idea
@@TheDungeonCoach awesome cant wait to see it bro 💪
Wasn't Delay Initiative a 3.0/3.5 rule? I remember my players using it.
Also my group enjoys the max damage plus dice roll rules for massive critical, we feel it really shows how horrible a wound should be from a critical hit.
Ryan Freeze I do the same! I want those hits to HURT (and that goes both ways lol)
I never played any other edition, so that’s awesome of it did, idk why they’d change it! That’s awesome
Love it... "Ninja get up thing" hahaha Kip Up
Ahhhhh ok ok yea Ive heard of that... good lookin out! lol
@@TheDungeonCoach I've got you!
I really like the advantage rules, definitely stealing that lol
And pawning its off as your own right??? 😈👍🏼
The Dungeon Coach Uuhmmm.... nooooooo....
Loving the "quality" puns DC, definitely going to be stealing some of these ideas
Regarding the Held Turn rule: I think it goes really well with the players envolved declaring their actions in the inverse order of the initiative order, than resolve the actions in the regular order . The rationale is that the fast witted agile characters get to react and adapt to the situation better than the others. Specially defensive actions like dodge.
gumed85 ooooo I’ve never heard that, that’s super interesting! Can they change what they were going to do if things change??
@@TheDungeonCoach yes they can. Example: the mage Rolls 16, the dragon Rolls 13. The DM says the dragon is going to multiatack the mage, and the mage says he Will cast invisibility on self. Since the dragon rolled lower on initiative, and the mage is no longer a valid target, the DM gets to decide to do something else when his turn comes.
gumed85 ahhh ok so if what you said is no longer valid, then you switch, got it! Cool!!
I like th idea, makes sense, but it seems like this makes combats take longer as you have to (a) hear all actions, then respond, and (b) *re-decide* already declared actions that are no longer valid. How has it played out in your game? Do you have the later characters act at some kind of loss? "You went to attack the mage, but he saw you coming and turned invisible -- you can abort to Dodge, or attack someone else at disadvantage." or something?
How do I as a new player and as a new dm (hopefully), sell some of these changes I want to make before starting to established players? Standing up, fantastic idea. Opportunity attacks, brilliant. Sentinel, cool. I'd love to see some of your clasd combo ideas for same initiative turns.
The sentinel so far as I have seen has been only used on one size bigger and if you include a mount that works and is consonant with what I have seen. D&D 5e is more story reality and less what AD&D was more of a real-ish game simulator but that change is a nice (if desired) middle ground. Those that anted another alternative could just have the effect happen if the target fails a save vs strength.
(Though I would point out that by design, feats are meant to be stupid powerful and come up at least once in any session as a game changer. If a Dragon, was subject to this I would 1) were they dropped on their head to get that close and 2) you know a fully armed fighter in plate is about baseball sized to an ancient dragon (snickers). I see your point though. ]
Leodous Kyron i totally see your point! I love making players feel epic 👍🏼
Sentinel is likely to come up every round of every fight, not "once per game session". However, you - and many others - have made a good point about bigger creatures -- just knock the Sentinel out of the way, then move!
I like the initiative idea. I'll try it.
PrimaFacie awesome! I’ve loved it! Let me know how it goes!
Do you have any tips for making combat faster? My group runs dungeon of the mad mage and we are 10+ sessions in on level 2.
My group is so slow in combat and wants to search every nook and cranny
Add more dmg for the monsters and lower their hp, group initiative is also nice and there is optional mob rules If it’s alot of enemy’s of the same type.
Also ask your players to plan their turn during the other players or they might have to pass during that round. Think that’s as if you just standing in the heat of the battle and don’t act, you might get the Orcs hammer in the face
@@dannesan94 I implemented that for goblins and bugbears and other mobby creatures thanks
I've tried this and it never seems to work, they either have questions or there plans get ruined before there turns, or they are fast but we will have combats that go over 10 rounds because their dps is not great
@@dannesan94 DUDE your so damn awesome, coming into the comments and helping out! Thanks man! You got some great ideas dude
Hi DC, I just bought a copy of this pdf on DMS Guild and I'm looking forward to trying some of these rules with my campaign. Is there a printer-friendly version available? I find the black text on brown background difficult to read on my screen, and it's gonna suck up a ton of printer ink!
Victor Navone thank you so much man! I appreciate that!
I am actually working on a printer friendly version of all my documents too!! I agree it’s a great thing to have! It’ll be updated for you automatically I think once I do it and you can snag it! Should be within the next week or so!
Looks like we haven't managed the 600 likes in 4 days unfortunately, but if you wanted to make another video about more homebrew rules, I'd be interested, either combat or non-combat.
A shorter video idea for you: detect magic. My DMs have trouble knowing how to describe the effects and also seem to not like that it makes some traps and hidden objects much more trivial, especially since 2nd level Warlocks can do it basically all the time. Any hacks or tips?
Jason Lee oooo that’s a great video! I always have schools of magic color coded and as a DM understand each schools “domains” and be able to describe what “Vibe” they get from certain trap type objects. Writing that down!
Link seems dead, is this pdf available elsewhere?
Regarding the Help action revision, it sounds great for players and can inspire some really cool moments. My players (all) have familiars and every turn they have their familiars use the help action for easy advantage. I always have them describe what their familiar does to help, but it still feels kinda broken. I'd absolutely implement your help revision for players but definitely not for familiars. Does anyone have any ideas to help?
Might remove Flyby and throw some AoE's haha..
Brycen Peacock I would have this be how PC help actions work! And if players were abusing familiars like that, I might nerf/ rework it. But if that doesn’t bother you then I’d just have PC help work this way and familiars still be ADV, they can stack easier!
I actually implemented my own combo attack rules last year. My players really loved the idea, and are always looking forward to getting to pull off their combo attacks. The rules are as follows:
Combo Attacks*
If two or more characters have the same initiative and dexterity modifier, they may choose to attack one or more targets (if applicable) at the same time. If multiple attacks hit, this is counted as a special attack which deals extra damage to the combined total of both attacks.
Combination Multipliers
2-3 Attacks 1.5x damage to combined damage total
4-5 Attacks 2.0x damage to combined damage total
6-7 Attacks 2.5x damage to combined damage total
8-9 Attacks 3.0x damage to combined damage total
*These attacks can be named and described however the players/characters want, but it will not have any added bonuses unless the DM agrees.
Arekkusu666 in 3 weeks I have a video about COMBOS in combat! So that’s awesome that you love em too!! 👍🏼👍🏼
Question about the crit damage rule: do you double the ability modifier as well? or just the dice?
just dice
Yup, just dice 👍🏼 modifiers always stay the same
My favourite verios of the Help action is that you just add the helpers modifiers to the roll as well. So, If my Rogue helps my Barbarian with an attack, the barbarian rolls D20 + Barb mod + Rogue mod and the damage is say 2D6 + Bard mod + Rogue Mod.
It's super intuitive and the bonus will be about the same as in your version. And it matters even more who helps. A -3 Intelligence Barbarian won't be able to help the Wizard translate some arcane writing because its modifier is too bad.
If a wizard can cast witch, the fighter can break a dragon's knee caps and stop them from moving. Sentinel is fine, dont bully the fighters even more by getting rid of all their good options because they're slightly annoying. Hypnotic Pattern freezes and entire encounter, sentinel does it to an enemy once, stop this.
I have been looking for a tip of yours but can't seem to find it. Do I remember correctly that you made something along the lines of stacking dice untop of each other for tension building?
For the hold initiative do players get to hold their turn till the middle of an enemy’s turn IE during their movement they could attack similar to a ready action, or is it just moving their initiative down?
If they wanted to do something like what you’re saying then that’s a redied action from RAW, you would take your turn and have a trigger of “if the enemy does ____” THEN you could act on an enemies turn. My held turn rule here is going AFTER someone goes (but can’t go during, that would clutter things up I feel) I hope this helped!
Counterspell is fun,
If you use it with flavour,
And a bit of homebrew as usual.
Also Truestrike is a meme
And should be buffed
Even if it would just apply to the next 2 attacks
It would already be a mathematically viable option
(Sometimes, but usually still not).
Viable for whom? It takes concentration
@@anthonynorman7545 Viable=/= good,
Viable means it's not a complete waste of a turn.
Tho I agree without Concentration,
It's still not that good,
So just scrap the concentration too.
I will be showcasing a NEW way to fix things so that people can make their own personal fix for it too! Homebrew fix!
@@anthonynorman7545 @Bram Lastname Ok Here is my fix for True Strike (comming up in a future video, so dont spoil it for others lol jk)
All it does is make YOUR NEXT attack be an auto hit (no attack roll needed... just like magic missile) I feel that this is the TRUE application of a TRUE STRIKE and I could think of uses for it too (and yea no concentration either)
@@TheDungeonCoach Read it ;-b
Here's my fix for grappling. Everyone has the Grappler feat. If you attack a creature you have pinned with a dagger it removes disadvantage from the restrained condition, (so the roll is made with advantage).
Taber McFarlin I like where your going with the global feat, that’s where my head is too!!
@@TheDungeonCoach thanks! This is the first video of yours I have come across and I like a lot of these rules. I think the rules in the Grappler feat are cool, but not nearly good enough to justify it over other feats, and I don't see a reason why these shouldn't just be rules any martial character can use.
The way advantage works with these rules is also part of the strange issue you talk about that advantage doesn't stack. It's also true that if you have advantage and disadvantage on a roll you roll one die, even if you had two sources of advantage, RAW. So for the Grappler Feat this means you have advantage on the attack because it's a creature you're grappling, if the creature is pinned you have advantage from their restrained condition, but you also have disadvantage on the roll because you are restrained. This is why I worded my rule about removing disadvantage in that awkward wat. (sorry this comment got so long, but it just shows my point that the rules for Grappler seem not that well designed lol)
With your system I don't know how you'd rule the Grappler rules as is, would they roll one die but still have a +2 because of the second source of advantage? How does this all interact with sneak attack which states you need to not have disadvantage on a roll?? WHY ARE THE GRAPPLING RULES SO USELESS???
Taber McFarlin I still have adv and DisADV cancel and only roll 1 d20, and for a rogue to get sneak attack he’d have to have an “advantageous window” or w/e and need 2 adv If he had 1 disadv.
But yea I agree with grapple rules! I’ll make sure mine is in the next one!! Been highly requested
@@TheDungeonCoach well I will just have to subscribe to see them then haha
Taber McFarlin haha love it!
Hey dude, awesome video as usual. I have a question for ya. My party harvested a white dragon wyrmling of its scales, rolled a nat 20 on the survival check, so I gave the player a pretty solid amount of scales. They now want to get a smith to make them a piece of armor. I told them it would likely be a small piece, not a full set, due to the size of the wyrmling. I've been doing some searching around, and having a tough time coming up with cost, and crafting time for it. Any suggestions?
EDIT: To add, they've found a pretty renowned blacksmith, so that part has been covered. I just need to figure out what to charge them for the service. I'd like it to be a minor buff too, maybe cold resistance or something. I've hinted to the player that its not going to be cheap. I'm a pretty new DM, and while I'm able to get most stuff figured out by way of Google and reading, this is proving to challenge me.. haha
Dylan Ferris THAT is a great question and something I spent a Lot Of time working out myself. So I’d say this, figure out what the cost is of the magic items that these scales would CREATE, and go from there, wether you Homebrew it or not. So is it a +1 +2 AC? Resists? Abilities?
So let me know what the stars are and I’d tel you how much that would be in my game, but again, our economy might be different lol
@@TheDungeonCoach thanks man! I was thinking something along the lines of greaves or bracers as they are pretty small. So probably +1 AC, cold resist. Nothing crazy, but something that makes it worth their money and time
Dylan Ferris ol so here’s my 2 cents:
+1 AC = 1500g
Cold resist = 6000g
Total 7500g
I’d add something cool tool it like “immune to hot climate effects (Cuz they keep you cool) and immune to cold temps too... so like perfect body temperature regulation, and if they were gauntlets then I’d add 1d4 cold damage to any unarmed strike just for flare
So that’s 7500g BUT they provided the materials and the materielas for THAT task are expensive BUT the skill of having the knowledge of crafting it would be expensive too so with parts and labor at 50/50
That’s 3750 for parts and 3750 for labor
So I’d charge them 4000g (I always over sell to my players and then haggle like any good sales man)
BUT I’d give them options
I’d haggle down to 3,000 at lowest
BUT if they wanted a crazier version then I’d sell them lowered versions with less perks on it!
No cold resist
No +1 AC
No flavor effects etc
And bring the price down accordingly
Helpful? 😇
@@TheDungeonCoach very helpful, thanks man :)
I'd like to see how you alter the bard to not steal their thunder due to the new help mechanic
Would be a conversation Id have with the bard honestly. Here are some ideas though off the top of my head
- scale up their bardic inspiration
- can use insiration as Reaction
- can actually hand out ACTUAL inspiration (like the kind the DM can) themselves
- give them more charges of it
- give them homebrew abilities they can also spend bardic inspiration on
- let their bardic inspiration effect things like AC or movement speed
Hope that gets the wheels turnin!
@@TheDungeonCoach thanks
How do you deal with running? Do you just keep it to the 2x dash, or say a 4x movement with no actions or dex mod to AC?
Held initiative is going into my campaign the next session
12:35 I don't think the Help homebrew steps on Bardic Inspiration at all, if anything it might save them Inspiration Dice. Bardic Inspiration only cost a bonus action, and is way more flexible compared to the revised Help action. Compared to your homebrew, Bardic Inspiration does not require the Bard to be proficient in the skill rolled, can be used against any enemy in the combat (the Help action only works on one enemy within 5 ft of the helper), and has a longer time window of use (10 minutes vs the next roll). Then of course there is the possibility of Bardic Inspiration stacking with the Help action as well.
Would you stack it? The out-of-spells 1st level wizard Helps the fighter, giving him a d6+2 to attack and damage. The 1st level bard then also gives the fighter a d6 Inspiration. The fighter rolls a d20+5 for his proficiency and STR, +d6+2 (wizard help), +d6 inspiration = +9 bonus to hit, and +5 damage. took a limited resource from the bard, and the wizard gave up doing d6 to d10 with a cantrip to give the fighter +5 to hit and damage.
My issue is that the fighter's +5 bonus, with Advantage, can't reliably hit an eldritch knight (i.e. Shield spell) with AC 25. Having advantage on the roll gives him a 9% chance instead of a 5%. Having even a true *+1* on the roll gives him a *10%* chance to hit - and that's if the helper has no proficiency, and rolls a 1 on the help die! On average, the fighter is getting a +5, giving him a 30% chance to hit *and* bonus damage. Oof!
Wizards memorize their spells on their long rest, and do not cast spells from their book, so that can't happen except in rare circumstances, but I get your point.
James A Olsen what can’t happen? Wizard casting Counterspell? I would assume they have it prepared for the example 👌🏼
@@TheDungeonCoach you very specifically used an example of a wizard casting a spell from a book as an opportunity for an OA. Wizards rarely if ever cast spells from their books. They memorize them at the beginning of the day, so that in the moment, they have it ready and are not "nose in a book", so to speak. BUT. IF they are caught unprepared, and HAVE to cast a spell from their book (which I think erases the spell in the book similar to the way a scroll gets used up after one use), THEN I suppose an OA would be possible. It's a good homebrew rule, but becomes a lot to keep track of. :-)
James A Olsen I personally was meaning ANY spell caster casts any spell, because the somatic components takes a bit to cast and with someone in your face they could swing at you, so we did that rule for ALL spells he cast. Totally see what you are saying about the out of the book though!
My thoughts on AoO when casting spells: you provoke when you cast a spell that doesn't have a range of self and doesn't involve an attack roll.
All combat spells are excluded this way, but Cure Wounds, Toll the Dead etc. not. Plus, ranged attack rolls already get disadvantage so they don't need more debuff.
You can remove crits from spells. Props to Zipperon Disney for this one. This can also remove paladin's Divine Smite crits, because these are at will while the rogue's are once per turn.
A big part of paladin is crit fishing to use your smite spell slots effectively
I love the distinguishment between what would cause the AoO, he never did anything close up or I totally agree there wouldnt be one. Good call!
@@alcatraz7 I personally dont like the way paladins can declare smite after a crit... never made sense from an RP perspective.... BUT i totally understand it helps them out game wise :) #donthateme
@@alcatraz7 I get that, and I would probably also smite while dual wield-critfishing if it was really needed. But I feel like I just don't want a reason to do that. It's even stronger than the rogues. And when other abilities/spells are used you still need to see if you hit as well. With the Battle Master as an exception. I don't want to waste all my DM's precious monsters :P
@@TheDungeonCoach I always saw it as channeling divine will through the blade as you made contact but can defs see where you are coming from. Also I have been doing crits in the exact way you do, damage intrinsic to the weapon itself does an extra max die and the rest (i.e. sneak attack, smite, spells like firebolt and eldritch blast) just get doubled as normal. Makes sense to me rp wise and gives the martials a much needed boost :). Seen good results so far
Based on the opportunity attack segment, I think you would have liked 3.5 😁
Indeed. However 3.5 had the "5-foot step" which is sort of a full movement Disengage (only move action). This would be necessary in that case. 5e could benefit from it
Stefan Podell I’ve hear that a lot! But never played it! I was late to the party!!
@@TheDungeonCoach I still play in a 3.5 campaign. I'll teach you 🙃(the good parts, anyway)
Stefan Podell yeeeesss!
@@TheDungeonCoach You really ought to try it at least once, it was a game so good, people boycotted 4th to go back and rehash it with Pathfinder.
As far as opportunity attacks go, people should look at how 5e did it. Now, I don't think a spell that takes a Bonus Action or Reaction to cast should provoke an AOp, as it goes off too fast, and melee-range spells shouldn't either, but c'mon. Hell, even firing a ranged weapon within 5ft of an enemy provoked AOps.
Dude your going to love my counter spell video next week because I make that exact point about Reactikns and BA!
Another combat rule I use from older editions, is when you are for whatever reason immobilized or surprised, you lose your Dexterity modifier to Armor Class. WotC over simplified the game. I get why, but in my opinion 5e is to gamey. It feels like I am playing a cartoon. I also add fumble rules, where on a nat 1, there is a possibility that your armor is damaged, causing -1 to AC etc, or the chance your ( nonmagical ) weapon can break. I like a little realism in my game.
Michael Johnson I have totally used this Dex subtraction thing before! 100% agree
And a lot of my rules try and bring that back some!
Please, please fix grappling for us. After using your rest system (much, much better than RAW) I'm sure you're the man to make grappling more compelling in game.
Dude thank you! I’m so inspired now!!
Awesome homebrew. You are great. Let me share one with you. I have 2 videos about on youtube. The extended combat zone. It goes like this. The idea is to free up movement. The combat zone extends 5 feet beyond the reach of my weapon. So if an opponent backs away 5 feet beyond my weapon's reach, I don't get an opportunity attack. They are still in my combat zone. But if they step out of the extended zone I have to make a 5 foot move toward them to do the opportunity attack. This rule makes combat more interesting and strategic. There is a lot more movement and the movement has more influence on the battlefield. You can search the videos and see more about it. Extended combat zone for dnd 5e.
polvotierno I have never heard of that but I already am SUPER INTRIGUED!!!
@@TheDungeonCoach I totally agree with what you said in your video about one player just sitting in front of another hitting back and forth. I loved the expression on your face of "boring". Search in youtube for "Extended Combat Zones in D&D 5E". There is a part 1 and part 2. Long Live Homebrew!!!
Sentinel fix is simply great
Going to apply these Rules 💪🏻
Great tips.
Kaleb Smith thanks man! Glad to help!
The movement trade for action is very interesting .🍺
Sylvain Cousineau I’ve even played around with the idea of a extra attack or cantrip for 30ft of movement? Eh? Might be busted though, either way it gets you thinking! 👍🏼
@@TheDungeonCoach a cantrip and extra attack may be a bit OP , this would made the Haste spell even more powerful and realy abusive with rogue cunning action , monk Step of the Wind and barbarian insane mobilities . 🤔
Sylvain Cousineau ooooooo thinking about a eagle totem barbarian... woah... super broken, youre 100% right lol!
I want to see jumping fixed. Something where I can make a running jump that combines a standing high jump and a standing long jump as a square path. If I can jump really high, why can't I jump over an enemy?
Ok? But if the 15' of movement speed reductions happens at the end of their next turn, then at the start of the next turn, the affected creature tries and move, gets hit by another opportunity attack and take another 15' reduction of movement. So with a creature who moves 30', they still go to zero, just takes 2 turns now?
boyfromoz7 never seen that play out before but it sounds good to me! Beats the 0 speed outright situation 👍🏼
Ya you helped and made me think. SUBBED!!!
Thanks for that!! 👌🏼 welcome to the crew!
Most of the suggestions in the video feel opposite of simple in that you are adding layers of complexity over the streamlined approach 5e goes for. For some tables that might be just the thing, but I do feel like many of these suggestions come with the prerequisite that your combat is already running really smoothly and that your players are actually interested in expanding the rules in question.
As a player who knows the rules pretty well and acts quickly in combat, but plays in a game where the other players are already somewhat annoyingly slow and incapable of making decisions, I found myself shaking my head at many of the suggested rules. Not because they were necessarily bad as such, but because I didn't see a reason to add further complexity to systems that are already challenging and interesting enough for many players. I'm still stuck dreaming up ways of convincing the DM to push for timed rounds or whatever it takes for a single combat encounter not to eat up 80% of every 4 hour session, sigh :)
We do use what you call held turns in that at the start of combat we can decide to permanently lower our initiative to another spot, but it rarely comes up. Tandem turns is an interesting expansion to that though, need to think about that one.
I feel like playing 3.5/PF would be better than adding all the rules headaches of those games on top of the rules headaches of 5e. In fact, I think you would be better off just cherry picking from both editions and making Advanced D&D 5e or something.
Matt Viviani that’s a really what I’m working on dnd 5.5e lol 👍🏼
Kipex
I totally see where you’re coming from, and my group of players are implemented this for were definitely able to handle it, and their place style shirt they wanted it. This is also why I implemented it into the game as the game went and didn’t make it to complex early on, because I feel like that would slow down things. As they were playing I noticed their place style and made a rule to help them embrace it. I definitely have seen a lot of the themes in the comment section hear about speedy and come back and will be making a video on that for sure!
I love critical thinking comments like yours!! 💜
So is this no longer available on DM's Guild?
is the pdf still available? The link doesn't work for me?
I don’t understand what the problem is with maximizing smite or sneak attack criticals. It’s still theoretically possible to roll those numbers on the dice. From what I understand, the maximized critical is just “damage insurance”
DC's updated rule is the way we have always played in my two campaigns (running about 2 years each). The rogue and paladin still get double their dice, just like RAW, but they don't start out with a base damage of +18 (5th level rogue) or +24 (5th level paladin). This rule also apply to Hex, Hunter's Mark, and other "bonus damage" effects. In play, it was just too powerful for the bonus dice to be maximized. (Especially for the paladin, who tended to smite *only* on a critical hit anyway, and got 3d8+24 (37 avg), instead of 6d8 (27 avg).) If it's not too much for your table, do it!
As a compromise position, you could do "roll all the dice, but minimum damage is 1pt more than maxing the first dice". So roll 6d6 for the 3d6 SA crit, but the minimum on the 6d6 is 19.
Sounds interesting but the DMsGuild link is dead. :(
Not gonna lie it's good stuff.
ThatOneGuy thanks for that! I try and bring some different stuff to put out there!
How do you keep yourself from hyperventilating?