Good news folks who wanted Inspiration Cards! I reached out to the creator, he is working on getting them on Amazon and will let me know once they're available. I'll also make a video on it, just to let you know.
I've heard people like Brian Murphy say "Finish him" instead of "How do you want to do this". I love the idea behind these little catchphrases though. Such an easy way to make memories.
For the second rule, I might add the choice of proficiency with a tool. So a player can choose either a language or tool proficiency per their INT modifier.
I did my very first How Do You Want to Do This? last night when the Barbarian killed a mimic with a critical hit. He decided he wanted to take out a bottle of wine he'd just bought, break it open, down the whole thing, and then shank the mimic with the broken glass. It was glorious.
To help with boomeranging I increase the death saving throw everytime they get knocked out that day. So first time regular death saves, next time bump it to 11
I make them start with 1 death save per time they went down. So if it's their second time going down, they've already failed once, 2 more to go. Add this with the exhaustion rule and ppl start healing more rather than saving it for when they go to zero.
A way that my group has made strength a little more useful is by adding the option to use that as the ability modifier for the intimidation skill instead of charisma. The rationale being that the ability to rip a creature limb from limb with pure physical might would be rather intimidating. It seems rather ridiculous to imagine that a massive and powerful half-orc barbarian couldn't intimidate anyone because he lacks charisma.
i always do Intimidation based on the action... if the warrior wants to intimidate a guard, he can but he needs to do something in a physical way for the check to be doable
Yeah, its a variant rule. And its supposed to only work, if your character is going to threaten to beat them up or something. And unless you use the 1.5*strength modifier for damage rule, strength does fall short heavily against dexterity.
Guys, this is in the DMG. "As described in the Player's Handbook, a skill proficiency represents a character's focus on one aspect of an ability. Among all the things a character's Dexterity score describes, the character might be particularly skilled at sneaking around, reflected in proficiency in the Stealth skill. When that skill is used for an ability check, it is usually used with Dexterity. Under certain circumstances, you can decide a character's proficiency in a skill can be applied to a different ability check. For example, you might decide that a character forced to swim from an island to the mainland must succeed on a Constitution check (as opposed to a Strength check) because of the distance involved. The character is proficient in the Athletics skill, which covers swimming, so you allow the character's proficiency bonus to apply to this ability check. In effect, you're asking for a Constitution (Athletics) check, instead of a Strength (Athletics) check. Often, players ask whether they can apply a skill proficiency to an ability check. If a player can provide a good justification for why a character's training and aptitude in a skill should apply to the check, go ahead and allow it, rewarding the player's creative thinking." - DMG (p.239)
I like potions as a bonus action, but if you use it as an action you don't need to roll, you get full healing from it. This rule works great if you're doing a campaign and they have no healer.
I think a good alternative to bonus action potions is maximum effect potions (2d4+2 healing as always 10). I think this helps to keep consistancy as to what an action is, can stop the cinematic or someone chugging potions whilst locked in combat, and gives players a reliable way to help themselves in combat. I think this was brought up by the Dungeon Dudes, so credit goes to them!
I use a custom array. 17, 16, 15, 12, 10, 8. It allows my players to be powerful, the reason they want to roll in the first place, AND I don't have an issue with one player being an outlier (way better rolls or way worse rolls).
I use a similar array, but with a little more weight towards middle strength: 17, 15, 13, 12, 10, 8. This way, the highest a given stat can be with a +2/+1 racial bonus at 1st level is a +4, but that can easily round into a +5 at 4th level. It gives players two very strong stats, above average stats across the board, and one weakness. Plus, I feel like having your odd numbered stats be your highest priority and your third priority for 4th level leads to better rounded characters, even though a lot of classes prioritize their main stat (strength, dexterity, charisma, intelligence) and constitution for their second, having a high third (wisdom to supplement dex builds, dexterity to supplement strength builds, etc) leads to healthier characters overall. Alternatively, I call for 6 sets of 3d6d1+6. This way no stat can be below 8 nor above 18, which I think is a healthy range, and averages out to 15s +/-1 across the board. If someone, against all odds, rolls multiple sets in the single digits, I'll let them take a mulligan.
Fun! Hi everybody and thank you Nerd Immersion for the stunning review. I'm Jonathan, owner and creator of Inspiration Cards, nice to meet you! I never thought Inspiration Cards would get so much love, but luckily I had the foresight to put a bar-code on each deck, that makes things easier. I'll see what I can do about getting these decks available for purchase on Amazon.
Hello Tabletop Props. The cards seem incredible and I have multiple guys including myself who want them. They are however unavailable on amazon or your site for some time. Is there some information on when they are available again? I prefer the physical copy but would also buy the PDF version. That option cannot go out of order like the physical one, is there a link or site to buy this PDF?
We recently did rolls for my friends campaign that I'm calling "Matt's Method" (matt is his name, obviously) it works similar to your 4d6 drop the lowest x7, but here's the differences: 1. Do the standard 4d6 drop the lowest 7 times. 2. You CHOOSE which of the 7 ability scores to use, meaning you can pick the lower scores to have weaker stat(s) if you want. 3. Place your chosen scores where you'd like as normal. If you're not happy with the rolls you got, you can instead redo the two above steps once again, but must take the new totals. 4. After you're done, you choose one ability score to reduce by one, then choose two others to increase by one. 5. This could be considered optional, but my friend enforced a rule to have a character flaw on the sheet that has actual in-game ramifications. For example, I made a character who's a coward, therefore if enemies get too close he needs to make a wisdom save or be frightened. Disadvantage on wisdom saves to resist fear from other sources as well. Me and my friends like characters with flaws more than just strengths, so we lean more into that.
@@brabra2725 Depends on the stat rolls and also the flaw they choose. It's probably more forgiving than just the standard array, but I prefer higher highs and lower lows.
@@brabra2725 How do you know that? Have you done the actual math? Have you used the system to make PC's and actually play with them? Or are you just looking at some averages and smugly declaring something arguably subjective as irrefutable fact?
@@AndrewChumKaser The math is very simple. The standard dice-rolling method requires you to roll 4 dice, drop the lowest, repeat 6 times and assign the results where you like. Your method requires to roll 4 dice, drop the lowest, repeat this 7 times and assign all results but one where you like. Also, your method gives -1 to 1 stats and +1 to 2 stats.
I've run into a stat rolling in one of the games which I really liked. You roll 24d6 and drop 6 lowest. Then combine them in groups of 3 in any way you like. That's your scores. And Dragonborn XGE feats are baseline.
Just tried it, for design and science's sake, and found it to be quite powerful (got 18, 17, 15, 15, 11, 10). I, for one, like the possibility of getting negative ability scores as I found it helps to give characters some personality. So I tried it again with 18d6 (got 18, 16, 15, 11, 9, 6) and was very satisfied with the results. Bulk rolling and combine fells like the player can really flesh out the character the way he she wants. Want a maximized stat ? Done. Making a MAD character and need decent stat layout ? Done. Definitely using this from now on !!
@@PocoLocoProductions Just 18d6 and rearrange in the way you like? it may be hust me but I've tried doing this 3 times and the results are kinda meh. 15 12 10 9 6 4 18 15 12 8 6 4 18 13 9 7 6 5
@@Deathwhisper2 You know what ? I did it a couple more times afterward and results were UNDERpowered. But my fear is that rolling 24d6 and remove the worst 6 will lead to OVERpowered results.
-4D6, drop lowest for stats. -For the levels of exhaustion on death saves, I would consider it but only getting levels on failed saves or possibly just one per time you go unconscious. -Potions to yourself are a bonus action but an action to feed someone else.
My first game used the "1 Exhaustion each time you go unconscious" Homebrew rule, and it was really great. Also, I am working on DMing my first game for my group, and I'm considering using some of these.
I have only played with one homebrew rule that I absolutely love, and it's something first called "weapon brilliance". In essence, as you use your weapons, they gain experience in the background, and at certain thresholds, they upgrade depending on factors the DM decides. The last time I saw it used, my chaotic good ranger's longbow gained 1d4 radiant damage after about 10k xp, and counted as magical for resistances. It can be applied to magical weapons or not, as the DM decides, but it rewards players who decide to forgo a purely mechanical advantage for roleplaying reasons. Maybe the fighter refuses to use a magic sword because he's always carried the sword he inherited from his father, or the rogue keeps her dagger because that dagger has saved her life and she considers it lucky. It also helps bump up some less powerful weapons like, say, a whip, if you really want to ham up the Belmont thing, for instance.
That's a good rule. The puny wizard rolls high on his str check to help move the rock because he ate his wheaties that day. The barb, with help from the wizard who lifts a surprising amount during his attempt, finally gets the boulder moved out of the way.
i play with the exhaustion rule on 0 HP. We changed exhaustion to fatigue and made a different table because we didn't like the exhaustion table for it after a few rounds of playing it like that. we also increase the time we need for a long rest based on our fatigue level. It is great!
@@sakuratejina Its changed a bit between the last campaigns, the most basic one would looke something like: every point of fatiue you want to regenerate is 3 more hours of resting. 1st point of fatigue no other mali 2nd fatigue -1 on every roll 3rd fatigue -2 on every roll 4th fatigue -4 on every roll 5th fatigue -8 on every roll 6th fatigue unconscious.
@@dylogysminter thank you so much. I like that you just pass out in the end rather than dying. 6th level fatigue seems like it could lead to a point of exhaustion if you wanted. Tho I’m not sure how it would turn out in game. I’ll bring this up with my GM. Thank you for the inspiration!
For abilities, I do 4d4 drop lowest 5 times, and the sixth ability is such that the total is 72. Or, I use an array 14, 14, 12, 12, 10, 8, and you may increase any two different ones of choice by +2 each. And then no ability scores from race. Races are rebalanced in powers if they need to be. If you are a martial class, and don't have int based casting, you gain a maneuver power (like from D&D 4E, as either At-will or Encounter) for each mod of int. Initiative is done by "sides" and enemies have an initiative DC. Go in any team order you want, but only those who beat the initiative DC act within the first set. Inspiration can be used to add a d6 that adds to the natural roll of a die, so this increases the crit chance through this use of inspiration. Lastly, everyone gets a starting Feat of choice or one we homebrew together. If you are a variant human, your inspiration is stronger instead.
2d6+4, reroll snake eyes, add an extra +1 to 3 different scores, ASIs must be used only for feats, gain a +1 ability score at every even character level. This starts a character out on the weak side but allows for more growth at a more consistent rate.
The Prodigy Feat, mentioned as an example at 7, is actually really great to take on a grapple build that doesn't want to multi-class to get access to expertise in athletics.
For exhaustion and death saving throws in my game, I say that a level of exhaustion is gained for every round in combat that the PC is unconscious. That way it is very important to rush to the PC and give health attention. Also the length of being at zero hit points is a sign of how strong the unconsciousness was.
I’ve heard of an interesting way for ability scores to be determined that I’ll likely use for my game. So, many people don’t like rolling for ability scores because it can result in certain characters have much lower or higher than average, and this makes discrepancies between the powers of the party members. Therefore, instead of everyone rolling stats for themselves, you take all of the rolls and put them from highest to lowest. Someone picks a number from the list, then the next person picks a number, and so on until all numbers are taken. Then, everyone has a reasonable spread of stats and the party are relatively equal in power. This works better with a group that knows and likes each other, specifically for deciding the order of people who get to pick the numbers, as they’re more likely to be fair to their fellow players with the numbers they choose. It also given the people who want to play a character who is really bad at one stat the chance to snatch up that low number right away.
Logan Sanders I recently tried to counter this by having all 4 players sharing their dice rolls and each player could pick what ever set of 6 scores they want , they could all pick just one set but I found they didn’t because some people wanted to take that 18 where as others wanted the two 16s and didn’t want the 7 etc , but everybody has the same options
@@andrewhardenburgh387 this is D&D, not the economy. I play with people I know won’t get angry at each other for something as simple a a lower dice roll, and frankly the fact that someone would actively resent someone for it is silly. The only thing at risk are some dice rolls, not someone’s livelihood. And besides, no one is “taking” anything. I would make it clear that we would pool all dice rolls before the first roll. Everyone would know that they might not get the set they rolled, and no one should get angry.
I've been granting 1 level of exhaustion on my players each time they fall unconscious due to damage or lethal means, and so far I love it. They said it feels more realistic and it kinda forces them to slow down the pace every so often and focus on recovery after big battles even though their injuries just "magically" go away at the end of each long rest. Really helps incentivize recovery and downtime
@@dirigoallagash3464 personally, i homebrewed cultural subraces for my homebrew setting. Another option is to have the location of the story mostly be in human dominated areas -- if elves or w/e are fairly scarce or dont often travel then the party is more conspicuous
As far as initiative home brewing rules if you're going to correct it go all the way. Between str, dex, int, wis, and cha as the mods involving initiative. i'll explain my reasoning. In a fight while a dex would be standard mod as a bonus, i think a str based class who's trained their entire life honing their physical body would of course use that mod. Someone who's high in wisdom or intelligence such as a druid, cleric, or wizard would have knowledge or the insight of what's going on around them to give them an edge to have those mods give them a boost. It's a little more tricky with high cha class for bards, warlocks, and sorcerers. perhaps just say their force of will or ability of knowing the reactions of others would allow them to use their Cha mod. that would give characters a choice at character creation to chose a stat mod to boost their initiative Dex, Str, Int, Wis, or Cha.
The carrying capacity when I play on r20 is actually really relevant because it does all the math for you. Alot of my charecters have 8 or 10 in str cause there dex based or casters and I meter my carry weight of 150(10) very closely.
I go with a standard array, but 17, 15, 13, 12, 10, 8 instead of what's presented in the books. I also allow a point buy that can create similar results: 35 points. Score Cost Modifier 3 -5 -4 4 -4 -3 5 -3 -3 6 -2 -2 7 -1 -2 8 0 -1 9 1 -1 10 2 0 11 3 0 12 4 +1 13 5 +1 14 7 +2 15 9 +2 16 12 +3 17 15 +3 18 18 +4 This allows them to get the really high scores or low scores they could roll, but they choose. They can give themselves a flawed low score in order to have more points for a high score in something else. I've seen another option someone uses where they have Everyone roll 4D6 and drop the lowest 6 times. But then the players can choose ANYONE'S set. So when someone rolls really well they can all use that same set. Or if someone has like an 18 on one, but the rest fairly low, and someone else has 2 16s, the 2 16s could be more enticing to some players, and the single 18 more for others. So it's still balanced among all players, but you still get the excitement of high rolls, and the unpredictability you don't have with point buy.
I love the concept NR 9 of the "descriptive combat" action for the players. I use this for the "killing blows" or as my NPC's actions routinely (kind like rule 6). I may try this with my group at some point. Thanks.
My homebrew death saves rolling rule is that DM does the role and doesn't tell the playeres, gives urgency to the group not know how close to death a fallen player is and generally ups the excitement, also don't ever fudge the rolls
My homebrew Rolling ability scores rule: if its a players first time playing dnd, roll 4D6’s, reroll 1’s and 2’s, drop the lowest number. Do this a total of six times. Roll two more stat blocks, then the player chooses one between the 3 stat blocks, then they apply their stats accordingly.
#3 you mentioned carrying capacity. In 10+ years of playing, it has not really come up. Until now, I am paying attention to my players Capacity. The Dungeon years kid and explorers pack alone way quite a bit, and my little halflings can’t carry very much. So if they want to carry around knocked out bodies of people they want detained, it’s going to take them a couple trips..
For the help action, I created a rule that says that you can only help if you are proficient, and it’s not advantage, it adds your relevant ability score modifier to the roll, instead.
For character creation, I tell my players to simply add the total skills their class/background offer and allocate to the skills they wish to know. This mitigates limitations for skills in this system and allows more variety as well. Also, if they wish to gain expertise in a particular skill, they must sacrifice another skill in order to do it. This can only be done once during the creation stage. I agree that the inspiration mechanic isn't very good simply because the Lucky feat is WAY stronger to the point of being OP and doesn't require DM involvement.
I run a campaign with 2 paladins and a cleric. I was sick of lay on hands for 1 every time pc goes down. I thought I invented level of exhaustion every time you hit 0... it revolutionized the game. And makes sense. Also for character creation, I default 3d6 each category- you can either start with a feat, or do 4d6, drop low... makes for a tough but rewarding choice
A couple Homebrew I like. Intelligence points: You start with 3 modified by your Int and you can spend it to just know anything you want. Anything that isn't completely secret or privileged is a valid target from places, people, magic, monsters, etc. Anyone can use spell scrolls: If the spell is anywhere on your list you can cast it period no roll needed. If the spell is not on your list you make a DC 10 + level check as normal but the modifier changes based on who made the scroll. Arcana for Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard. Nature for Druid and Ranger. Religion for Paladin and Cleric. Gives an actual reason to get those mostly useless skills and gives non casters a taste of magic. It's not like players can get scrolls that they can't already make themselves or you specifically gave to them anyway.
I like to have my players roll 4d6 drop the lowest 6 times, but I allow them to reroll one number, but only if it isn't their lowest. I like players having a low number or two in their Stateline. I think this system makes more interesting and dynamic characters while getting rid of the feel bads of rolling three 6s.
I like a lot of these rules and have seen about half implemented into various games. I have my own spin on some of these. 1. Ability Scores are rolled as per the rules. If you would like, you can instead choose the Point Buy or Standard Array system afterwards. 2. In combat, when you are brought down to 0 hit points and fall unconscious, but are then brought back up and perform any actions types other than movement and free actions, you will receive one level of exhaustion at the end of combat. This is intended to make the player have some choice in the risk/reward scheme. They can get right back into the fight, but if they're in a dangerous place it may not be worth the hit of exhaustion. 3. A free feat is given at 3rd level as most players gain their class features at that point and really start to feel like adventurers. A few that I personally use and have enjoyed so far are... 1. Critical Hits do max die damage plus the roll. Nothing feels worse than rolling low on a crit and dealing 1-5 more damage than normal so this makes critical hits feel CRITICAL. Also makes combat far scarier for both sides. 2. A Spellcaster may attempt to cast a spell if they have no slots left of that level. However, they will gain a level of exhaustion equal to the spell’s level. I love the risk/reward concept and this gives casters more flexibility. 3. Death saves are secret and rolled directly to the DM. Oh he's saved twice, he'll be fine. Vs... He's rolled twice, he could die on his next turn if we don't stabilize him.
If I ever do a feat at first level I'll probably do racial feats only, and then if someone plays a race that isn't in the PHB I'll either select a collection of feats they can choose from or have them pitch feats to me and decide off of that. Maybe off the bat restrict them to only feats that give you a plus one and something because those tend to have abilities that are weaker to compensate. I'd also ban variant human not necessarily because I'm too worried about it being overpowered but because the major draw of a variant human is kind of gone when everyone gets a feat. I don't think anyone will complain when they basically get a buffed version of that race if they choose a normal human.
@@dascientist8443 I know but that was released by D&D Beyond and not Wizards. Even so more races have been added since then and I've looked through them and they don't seem entirely balanced. If someone presents me with a homebrew feat and it's one of those I might consider it on a case-by-case basis but I'm not going to automatically allow them. Thanks though.
at the campaigne im at right now we roll 4d6 and you then take the lowest die away. and at the end you full score must be higher or equal than 70 (also you cant roll a 1 on hp when leveling up) (think this is matt mercer rules but it was some of the other guys at the table that bought it up and havent checked if it is from him)
Restricting the bonus damage you give to strength-based damage rolls to only attacks made with a two-handed weapon seems overly specific and punishes the sword and board fighter. Also, it is just simpler to say strength-based damage rolls gain a bonus equal to half of your proficiency bonus. Also, if you want to buff the importance of intelligence a bit, then I would rule that a character gains a number of extra language, skill, or tool proficiencies equal to their intelligence modifier. If you want to make intelligence really important, then you could rule that they loose a number of those proficiencies equal to their intelligence modifier when it is negative, but that would be against the general design philosophy of 5E.
10. I like roll for 5 stats, and the last one if calculated with point buy. 7. I like extra feat at 1st, especially magic initiate. 5. I like Matt Colvilles recent vid, you can only do a knowledge check if proficient. 4. I really wouldnt like this, but never have. 2. I prefer extra skills for your Int mod, because in games I play languages are just flavour and not any sort of challenge to overcome. Great vid!
There are two main potions rules I switch between - Either the potion always gives you its top most benefits (like healing potions give the maximum hp they can) or they’re a bonus action. I let the players choose
I like to have "flavor text" explanations for the mechanics. I feel like this works well as, "You can take an action to down the potion and get all of it, or a bonus action to almost throw it at your mouth and hope most of it goes in.
Oh, my GM does 3d6 re-roll first ones. If you don't get a single 15 for any of your six you re-roll them all. One time I needed to roll like six different sets to get a single 15.
My group has used two different setups for stat assignment. We used something we called Super standard array, which is basically standard array with much higher numbers (20, 18, 16, 14, 10, 8) for more super heroic kind of games. For horror games we like to roll 4D4 and roll for each stat down the row before we start looking at classes the aim being to make weaker charaters.
Holy moly dude. Take a break from videos. You shooting them out like my grandma cookies. Nice list overall. For the exhaustion rule: let them roll a Con save when they go down. If they fail they gain a level of exhaustion. Every subsequent save has a higher DC. This prevents ppl being a flesh Sack after being downed some times as long as they pass the saves. Otherwise insta kills are get really prevalent in higher levels.
Honeslty I would love it if you went into further detail about that inspiration deck. My group would love to use inspiration but found that if we leave it at 1. It's never used and when we allowed multiple charges, the players would just sandbag the inspiration rolls
I already implement some of those rules in one way or another, but for number 8 I've made my own rule of Lingering Wounds. When character returns from being unconscious they roll to randomly select an ability score. The Lingering Wound reduces that score by 1+number of failed death saves that character had while unconscious. With each long rest, character gets only one point back, or someone could roll a Medicine check on them with use of healer's kit. If they roll 15+ character gets back two points, but on less than 10 they don't get anything.
For the knockdown, I do 1 point of exhaustion too. Exceptions are abilities that will pop you up automatically, so you don't really hit 0. I also use 2nd edition trauma tables. So you end up with severed fingers, arms, concausions, missing hair, puncture lung, broken ribs. Feats at first level I give all players a FREE Skill/tool feat. Otherwise no one will ever use them.
I wish there were more application for Intelligence on the battle field. I want to play a warrior/strategist, but aside from Battle Master all the strategic type abilities are Charisma based.
Maybe a group of magic items that increases various class and subclass features based on “non-optimal” stats. - Headband that increases a battle masters total number of superiority die by int mod - Various instruments that increase a bards total inspiration by wis mod. - quarterstaff that gives Druid additional wild shapes by int mod - sash that increases monk ki point total by int or charisma - robes for a sorcerer that increase max spell points or reduce spell point conversions based on int or wisdom - light armor for a rogue that gives extra sneak die by an amount equal to str or dex mod, but must choose the lower of the two mods unless equal.
@@binolombardi those are some good ideas, I've been trying to work out what are currently conundrums in the 5e meta. I mentioned the Int based Fighter that isn't a spell sword. I also want to see a Str based Monk, or Unarmed based Barbarian. I understand the class themes aim for balance and diversity in skill, so that party co-op is encouraged, but I feel like some very broad archetypes are unrepresented.
I used the Matt Colville method of hero builder when I ran Princes of Apocalypse. You roll 4D6 and drop the lowest, if you don't get at least 2 heroic stats (15 or better) you can reroll. optionally with this method, you roll the stats in order and can't move them, which helps nudge people into trying out new classes or new ways to use a class. Most people think this makes completely overpowered players, but I had one player that literally rolled only one other stat over 9, and because of that, he ended up trying out a barbarian, where before he had only ever played a fighter.
Something I like to do to improve intelligence is swap Religion and Insight, making Religion wisdom based, and Insight intelligence based. Insight is used far more often than religion, and I've always gone with the mantra of "Intelligence is what you know, wisdom is what you feel." Religion isn't really about facts and knowledge, but instead faith and feelings, so it makes sense that Religion is a wisdom based skill. Insight, on the other hand, is based off logic and deduction, so it makes sense that Insight is intelligence based.
I get the logic, but always figured that Religion is less a "this is what you feel about/have faith in" and more "having a bunch of knowledge/memorized facts about various religions and their histories", which is more intelligence based, and the insight is, while based on logic and deduction, does have an element of gut feeling/reading a person. Honestly, one could argue that charisma based insight makes sense.
Question about rule #2: what happens when someone's int mod increases from stapoint increase on levelling, or on putting on a magic item that increases your intelligence? Do you just...gain languages for as long as you have that new bonus (and lose them if, for instance, you take off the magic item)? What about characters with low intelligence? If you have an 8 int, do you lose a language?
I don't sock languages did negative modifiers. If someone gains an ability score in Intelligence naturally I let them gain a new language. I feel "instantly" learning a new language isn't any weirder than theoretically "instantly" getting smarter. I know Ability score improvements are supposed to represent training and a natural growth, so I just have my players explain the new language they learn and have it make sense story wise. As for a magic item that increases Intelligence, that hasn't happened but I'd say sure, give them the languages. If they lose or take off the item, I might allow them an Intelligence saving throw to see if they retain it or perhaps let them make a check if trying to understand a language they once knew but have since lost
@@NerdImmersion I'm not sure what you mean about the negative modifiers (I assume autocorrect garbled that lol). I suppose you're right about "instantly" learning languages, considering that's how almost all spells are attained too. As for the magic item though, there's a potential abuse there since someone could learn all languages just by putting it on and taking it off until they make the saves, right? Or I guess maybe you could just essentially "lock them in" as the bonus languages for those specific int modifiers. I miss when int affected your skill points back in 3e; I wish there was a way to incorporate that into 5e somehow, but there doesn't really seem to be a way to the way skills are designed. =(
@@marcusager974 I meant if you had say an 8 Intelligence aka -1 modifier, I wouldn't give you one less language. Again I haven't encountered people getting bonus Int (headband of intellect I assume? ), so I'd deal with it when it happened
Ability score idea: i use this for campaign where the players are specifically CHAMPIONS and they know it. I.e. odyssey of the dragonlords. Where the players start the game knowing they are heroes of prophecy. So they get to be stronger. 4d6 × 6 like normal BUT, one of the dice is a different color. THAT dice gets a +2. :-) its been a blast. That 12 extra ability points across the board lol. You have to be very careful like i said "only for CHAMPION character campaigns" because you could eaaily get multiple 20's in stats due to race bonuses.
Kalashtar wants to play Great Old One? Let the Awakened Mind feature act as a 30ft telepathy booster. (A 1st level Kal/GoO would have a 10ft two-way telepathy but have 40ft one-way telepathy.) At 10th level, since the Psychic damage resistance would be redundant, allow it to become Psychic Immunity instead, but it still reflects only half of what it would have taken.
Modification to rule 8, when a player goes down the overkill damage is the save DC for a con saving throw. If they fail the con save they take a level of exhaustion.
The exhaustion thing is bad. I do if you take damage in a single blow that would drop you below zero and more than your constitution score. For example Bob has a con of 18, he has 5 hp he takes 24 damage from a single blow. This not only drops him to zero, but beyond 18 con. Bob is auto dead no saves it is a brutal shot that kills instantly. This makes the yoyo effect null and void. As far as help action I do Any strength checks anyone can help. Dexterity checks need to be proficient And you can't help with perception but can with investigation and all but strength checks the helper needs to be proficient
I use 4d6 drop lowest or standard 27 point buy or standard array. This way, even if my players roll badly they can still have decent stats via point buy
oh my div wizard with the linguist feat and sage background would go wild with that extra language rule. pretty sure he already knows about half the languages with no homebrew
Definitely adding the exhaustion rule going forward. Those inspiration cards are awesome, would love to get a deck but still unavailable and seems to have been for years according to the comments. Are the spades only for ranger/rogue/warlock? Thanks for sharing your talent!
- 5e is kinda going back towards random character generation, but I'm not sure custom characteristic rolls is better. Frankly, I think just house ruling a less restrictive point buy system will result in more rounded party composition and characters. -Exhaustion for failed death saves is a good rule, but I wouldn't take it a step further. -Proficiency on an ability check assist is an ok house rule, but... it might hurt beginners. Mileage may vary. -I think potion action should be dependent on the potion and be part of the rarity of the potion. There's potions that should be a bonus action, and there's potions that should be a regular action. A super common healing potion might be more common than a bonus action healing potion. -The changes to strength and intelligence would be ok in 5e. They aren't valued correctly in 5e. - the inspiration deck is kinda interesting.
I am new to dnd but i have played a ton of video game that includes rpgs anyways i thought of a alternative point by system it goes something like this > Nothing above 17 > only one stat can have 17 points > only one stat can have 16 points > only one stat can have 15 point >you have 80 points to spend with all stats starting at 0 Example Fighter STR: 16 DEX: 15 CON: 17 INT: 12 WIS: 13 CHR: 7 Math time 15+16+17= 48 12+13+7= 32 32+48= 80 Another rule Better healing potions: healing potions heal in flat numbers but with a twist the appliers medicine modifier so an example Potion of healing: a flat of 10hp+mod so say the mod is 4 but the applier is rouge so 8 10+8= 18 hp healed
I'm late to the party, I know, but . . . At 12:37 a feeble magic-user using the Help Action to assist moving a big rock; that actually came up in a session. And the player had such a clever idea I felt I had to allow it. They said that, as a learned wizard, they would understand the basic laws of physics. So they could suggest how to get maximum *leverage* on the rock (where to grasp it, which direction to shift it, etc.). Thus they could give the strong character (a paladin) *advice* that granted Advantage. Rule Of Cool, etc cetera
When I roll for stats I do 4d6 drop lowest, but if they have anything bellow 10 they can reroll their lowest. Example: if they rolled 10,16,8,7,12,15 they can reroll the 7, but if they rolled 11,15,12,16,10,10 they can’t reroll. (They must keep the new roll)
My TOP 10 homebrew rules: 10. Ability checks: You roll 2d10 instead of 1d20. Advantage/Disadvantage means you 3d10 and take best/worst 2. 9. Critical hits: Maximum weapon damage + rolled weapon dmg + modifiers for players. Monsters get 2x average damage on a critical hit. 8. Hitpoint level-up: For hitpoint increase you roll your hit die. If it's lower than average take average hit hie + Con modifier each level. 7. Flanking: If a creature is within reach of its target, and there's another allied creature on the opposite side of the target, the target gets -1 AC. A flanked creature cannot flank. 6. Hidden rolls: For rolls a player cannot truly know (did Deception work? Am I actually hidden?), hold a tray up out of the players direct sight and they roll. Only the DM sees the result, and adjudicate from there. 5. Drink a Potion: When you drink a potion you automatically use the Dodge action, unless you are a Thief (which can drink a potion using a bonus action). 4. Ability score rolls: Socialist dice rolling = (drop lowest of 3d6) + 4 * (roll 6 * number of players). "group roll" where everyone rolls six times, but rather than assign the results to their attributes, they are pooled, listed from highest to lowest, and then distributed to the players in a serpentine order, where the point allocation reverses each round. For example, if there are 3 player characters (PCs), there are 18 total rolls, listed highest to lowest. PC1 gets the highest, PC2 the 2nd, PC3 the 3rd, The order is then reversed with PC3 getting the 4th highest, PC2 the 5th, etc. until all scores are distributed, with PC1 receiving both the highest and the lowest dice roll. 16 is the highest allowed roll, and 6 is the lowest allowed roll. 3. Strength: There are modified encumbrance rules in play. Item slots are used. 10 strength = 10 slots. Small creatures = -3 slots, Powerful build/Large creatures = +6 slots. 2. Intelligence: -1 negative modifier: You lose one extra language and lose one skill that you would normally have. -2 negative modifier: you have 1 skill, language only. You gain an extra language for each +4 Intelligence stat increase above 10. 1. Zero hitpoints: If you are revived from being unconscious or at 0 hitpoints, you gain an exhaustion level. You die at six Exhaustion levels.
I am a DM with 35+ years exp. I think 5e is the best balanced addition they have ever put out (especially spell casting options), but they streamlined it too much imho. I liked several of your rules, these are some of the ones I use: 1- Strength: a NEGATIVE Strength modifier is ALWAYS added to a melee/thrown attack (even with finesse/light) and if you have a bonus to Strength (12 or better) and are using a non-finesse/non-light weapon you gain and addition +1 for one handed weapon attacks and +2 for two handed. Bows can be "Built for Strength" and you can replace the dex modifier with your strength modifier on DAMAGE rolls up to the "Strength Rating" of the bow (obviously you need the minimum Strength = to the bows "Strength Rating" to use it). 2- I use the exhaustion at 0 hp, It makes combat way more exciting. 3- Resurrection : A resurrected character has their constitution reduced by 2 immediately upon completion of the magic. A character brought back from death will have no spells memorized and no spell slots available. A resurrected character comes back to life with 3 levels of exhaustion. 4- Disarmed: attempting to retrieve an item knocked from your grasp allows any opponent within 5' to make an OA (provided they still have a reaction). 5- Charm Spells: Certain spells 'as written' say the target KNOWS they have been charmed, this has been adjusted to the following : upon completion of/successful save against a charm spell the caster must roll deception vs the target's insight . If the target wins they realize they have been charmed. If the target loses/ties the roll they are not aware they have been the victim of magical manipulation. 6- Ranged 'Sneak Attack' : If the target is engaged in combat/or moving vigorously the maximum range at which sneak attack damage can be applied with a ranged weapon is 30' If the target is not engaged in combat, and relatively still, Sneak Attack Damage can be applied at ½ the ranged weapon's short range or 30', which ever is greater. 7- +2 for 'Flanking': I got grief for this from one player until I ran a mock combat where I used a mass of goblins against his fighter. It changed his mind. I have several others that I use to make the game more 'gritty' and lethal. My table loves it. I have more rules but didn't want to go crazy. If anyone is interested I will post them.
I would like to put my 2 cents in. Would love your thoughts. Ability Score Rolling - I like my heroes to be heroic. I don't like cringing every time I reach for a die. So either point buy or 4d6 drop low x7, drop low. Exhaustion Death Saves - Love it. The whole yo-yo thing makes me want to puke. I'm old school. You hit 0 back in the day, your character sheet went to the DM. Hitting 0 should have SERIOUS consequences. Feat at 1st level - Absofuckinglutely. See above. Need proficiency to help on a skill check - Yup. No brainer, excellent idea. Potions as a bonus action - Oh hells no. A round is 6 seconds. Put a large apple in a pocket or a bag. Take it out, pretend to pull a cork, then 'drink it'. Even if you have the apple set perfectly, that ain't no bonus action. At best, a Dex check with a dc of 15 to see if you can take a bonus action after quaffing. Extra languages of high Intelligence - Brilliant. Pun intended. Stacking Inspiration - love that cards system. Simple, yet completely functional.
10) 3 sets of 6 4d6 rolls drop the lowest. 1/2 set free, if you take the third set roll you MUST take it. (My house rules) 9/8) I’m interested in this and may try it. 7) I offer this IF the players go with point-buy/standard array instead of rolling for stats. I am concerned doing stat rolling w/free feat. 6) I do this. My players LOVE this. It breaks tension, it brings cheers of joy... it’s just... ahhhh ☺️ 5) I would use this but my players don’t do that... for some reason 4) I don’t do this because it invalidates the Theif subclass of rogue which can do use a potion (self or feeding) as a bonus action 3) interesting.... although I think they do enough. But I will ponder over this 2) I also use something akin to this 1) I rarely use inspiration at all. Mostly because my players usually downplay role play. But I want that deck now and may use them and the inspiration mechanic more
Great video. I enjoy your content greatly. Im still waiting for a top 10 silly item list. Like the peanut brittle cans that have fake snakes. I am just curious what youd think of.
I agree "potions as an action" isn't worth an action, but I'd rather solver that by boosting the power of potions. I "maximise" healing potions, so 2d4+2 always heals 10hp. Others can still apply a potion: - mage hand - familiar - unseen servant - helpful NPCs
Aa a new DM with only a few sessions in, I've been doing the 2nd half of number 9. The "How do you do this?" part. It feels like it gives them a connection to their characters. I got the idea from Cosmonaut Variety Hour.
A comment/suggestion about #8, I think it was? Or maybe it was #7? Somewhere around there. It's the one about exhaustion upon getting back up from 0 hit points. I'd also think magical healing would help with the exhaustion, since it's an otherworldly external force giving you the vigor to get back up and keep fighting. Maybe magical healing has a chance of negating that exhaustion, with the chance depending on what level it is, each spell having only say, a 10 or 15% chance per level of the spell to negate the exhaustion. Probably working the same when you cast, say, a cure wounds at 5th level: it'd still have a 50% chance of negating that exhaustion.
We've never rolled for ability scores. We do "COMPLETE Point-Buy" where you are given 72 points (this number comes from the sum of the standard array) and you allocate them however you want. Only rule is no score can be higher than 18 nor lower than 3 unless it is because of your race modifiers. We like this because: - It lets us make characters as powerful as we imagine them to be. - With decent stats in your main abilities, your PC fails less at what they're meant to be good at. - It balances itself so that if you want a high stat then something else is going to have to be low. - It encourages having some low stats which can be fun and allow players who've spec'd into having those as high stats to have their own spotlight. The bard is less likely to accidentally have an equal intelligence to the wizard. - Everyone's on an even playing field. No players start by feeling "meh" about having rolled worse stats than other, luckier players at the table. You may also need to adopt the mindset (if you haven't already) that having a 3 (-4) in intelligence doesn't necessarily make you an idiot. It just means that when the world tests you (making a check), you tend to fail under pressure more than someone else who's more confident in that ability. So you can still RP a PC with decent intelligence.
On strength vs dex and int being bad Dex being a god stat is a really common talking point, but I actually HEAVILY disagree with it. It's just that the majority of classes require you to have high dex, and people don't really understand the limitations of dex. Let me explain. Having dex increases your AC: this is good, yes. However, it's never going to be BETTER than having full plate armor. The reason why only fighters and paladins wear full plate isn't because nobody else can wear it, it's because nobody else CAN. If wizards could wear full plate, you better fucking bet that they would. The other limitation of Dex: dex weapons are not as good as str weapons. If you're doing sword and board, this is less of an issue, but for optimal DPS, a greatsword is always going to beat a rapier full stop. Yes, ranged weapons require dex you've got me there, but that's an exception. For melee damage, strength is always going to be optimal. And that's not even going into the benefits of Great Weapon Master, which require heavy weapons which are ALL strength dependent. The final note on Dex: the dex skills are used more often than they should be allowed to. Specifically, acrobatics is not the be-all-end-all skill a lot of people make it out to be. If you have noodle arms, you aren't going to be a good swimmer. If you have weak legs, you shouldn't be able to jump far. Jump checks should never be able to be replaced with acrobatics unless the difficulty comes from the landing, I don't care how many fancy flips you do in mid-air it's not going to make you travel further. Climbing trees, again, athletics over acrobatics. Again, I don't care that you can flavor it as flipping around on a tree branch like an olympic acrobat, because you know what? That profession is technically an athlete. Those people need hella arm strength to do that shit. You think they can get away without doing basic physical fitness? You thought wrong, bitch. And for all the arguments of "Well, what if you aren't using your raw strength, but using your body in creative ways that apply skill and finesse?" That's why it's a skill check and not a raw strength check. Don't get me wrong, dex is a good stat and there are certainly arguments to be made for dex builds being better than strength builds; particularly that ranged characters can get a similar (if not better) level of DPR than melee while also being ranged, but as a whole it's overrated because even though dex has a larger total number of things it effects, many of the individual things it effects are worse than the options that strength gets access to. On INT; yeah, it kinda sucks. I'd argue that it doesn't matter, and it's actually better than charisma, though. The only skills that charisma effects are social skills, and you don't need more than one party member to be the face. And with the sheer amount of classes that have abilities that scale off of charisma, one of your party members probably already has that avenue covered. On top of that, charisma saving throws are the rarest ones in the game. Knowledge checks can be pretty important, too; it's really handy to have someone that can properly figure out what's going on, what the magic runes say or what suspicious things are hidden in the immediate surroundings. It's good enough of a stat to justify having an extra party member not dumping it. Regardless, both CHA and INT skills are impactful enough to the game that I think it's fine for them to not have that many uses. Stuff like stealth and being able to lift weights are good for individual purposes, but finding a secret door or convincing the guard to look the other way is important for the whole team. Plus, I think it's fine for not all stats being equal. From an optimizing standpoint, it would kinda suck if everything was so important that you would always have a major flaw somewhere. And before I get a wave of people telling me that playing characters with flaws is fun, I get it, but it's not for everyone, and nobody wants to be a detriment to their team.
lol my players hit 0 hit points and then they completely give up! "ok I hit 0? fuck, I'm dead! geuss thats it... geuss I'll go get a drink" DM: wait wait! someone can revive you!" given allot of my players are inexperienced at dnd but it's kind of funny being like "yes seriously your not dead, get back here!"
Proficiency with the check just to help just seems too harsh. Suddenly your higher strength Half Orc Barbarian can't help move that rock because he decided he wanted to put his profiencies into Animal Handling and Survival for roleplay, the super smart Wizard can't help the Rogue solve an investigation, that Ex-cultleader Warlock with 20 charisma can't help the Bard persuade the shopkeeper to get a discount because Warlocks don't get the option to even get a persuasion or intimidation Proficiency. Honestly if you just want to keep the skinny armed wizard from helping the strongman Fighter push a rock just say you need to at least have a +1 or just not a negative to the ability check.
Good stuff, I'll have to consider some of these myself. For 5e, I do player's choice: 4d6 drop one or standard array; although after two of my players rolled particularly badly in the same campaign, I'm thinking of changing. Maybe I'll go with the roll twice. In previous editions everything below a 15 was worthless, so I used to do roll 4d6, drop one, and the 3 highest rolls need to add up to at least 45. I don't generally play with a time crunch and we don't play live, so pre-roll is unnecessary. I like the exhaustion idea with death saves, I tend to run deadly campaigns though. Not impossible, but punishing for bad tactics and I roll the dice in front of the players, so no net. I'll bring it up to the group to see if we want to try it. Feat at first level... this one requires some thought. I'll have to watch your video on it. I've always done the PC describes the kill (been playing D&D since the 80s), it gets players fired up to land the killing blow. I thought the proficiency needed to help someone was standard rules... looks like thats a homebrew of my group as well. Tried potions as a bonus action, but the group prefers it to be an action for tough decision making. I never had an issue with players shying from Str builds. Athletics checks can be brutal and come up often enough. I like the Int, language or tool. More languages and tools means more RP options. I'll probably be adding this one. For inspiration we have tried different schemes, our current one is everyone gets an inspiration point at the beginning of session. Use it or lose it, however, you must declare its use before rolling.
those ability scores rolls are just gettin silly .. why dont you just give your players 1d6 + 12? stop lying to yourself mate :) Or try a Manly grognard method .. 3d6 down the line and then you can swap two. Or why have rules for low scores at all? You may as well just have stats from 1 to 6 and assume the +12 in the engine as it were, build the game like that eh? Do you not realise, or just havnt experienced, the pleasure of playing with a buncha dung covered illiterate peasant suffering from scurvy and starvation .. where are your characters like that? They dont exist .. its Medieval Justice League isnt it lol
10. We roll 3d6 straight down the line and reroll anything less than a 7. It's a roleplaying game. 9. I have grids of random dice rolls for each dice printed out and just go down each column or across each row. As long as the total norms out to the average dice roll and there are no wild clusters of extreme highs and lows, it seems to work fine and it's really fast. Five orcs attack and it's miss, miss, miss, hit, miss as fast and you can tick off the rolls on the grid. 8. Hate HP and boomeranging. We've tried adding corruption (mutation, marks of darkness, etc.) to give near death a RP angle. 7. We don't use feats. Again, it's a roleplaying game. 5. Help action gets abused. If you have time and skill, and what you're attempting is possible, why roll? If you're an armorer, you can bang out a helmet given resources and time without assistance. 4. We use potions as a bonus action. The action economy in 5e already makes no sense with reactions, bonus actions, etc. being pulled out of thin air, so why not. 3. I find 5 Torches Down much more balanced when it comes to stats. 5e compatible and the supply system is really cool. 2. INT in 5 Torches Down ties to the supply system. You remembered to bring that 50 ft of rope when you really need it because you're smart. You cash in your supply points for gear when you need it and how many points you've got is determined by INT.
I like that STR weapon houserule, but 2-handers are already pretty powerful thanks to polearm master and great weapon master feats. I think the big breach is between STR dual wielding vs DEX dual wielding and rapier+shield vs longsword+shield. STR d8 light one handers would be pretty nice. STR weapons are supposed to have bigger die than non-finesse ones, but in practice that is not the case! if you want to use a weapon+shield you can get a d8 with DEX or STR. if you want to dual-wield then you're looking at d6's and d8's with the feat. the only benefit is you can throw some stuff like the handaxe but thrown weapons are already terrible thanks to how they interact with extra attack.
#10 2d6+6 or 18 16 14 12 10 8 array or a modified point buy #9 is nice in close groups but has too many issues #8 i would make it a chance roll #7 i make it the "bad feat" at 1st lvl to add role play and more flavor for the story #6 matt's trash homebrew can rot in the trash #5 i ask them how they help and they have to add description of how they plan to help #4 that isn't CR rule it's a general homebrew rule #3 that sounds very unbalanced str is all ready very useful #2 no int is used a lot for arcana brain checks illithid defences it isn't that under powered but the extra language(s) won't change much so it works #1 i give more minor buffs like a dice increase (funny guidance cast) or a static bonus on a next check (+1 on next Charisma check) this way it cant be horded and
My DM does 4d6 drop lowest with 1 free mulligan, keeping the best out of the two sets, and always rerolling snake eyes. My DM hates snakes, apparently. I personally gravitate towards stricter systems, such as base 5e rules, or rolling all stats in sequence, but when the group plays differently, it's no fun to diverge on some personally enforced hard-mode. So I don't. The one thing I hate is point-buy.
My favorite way to roll is roll 18d6. You then group them in 6 groups of 3. This makes you actually set that 18 if you want, but you also will probably have a few 1’s you have to deal with. This is great cause you can have the whole party join in with advice. Yes, it takes a LOT longer, but the DM and all players learn your stats and I have a lot more “hey you’re nimble you’d be good at X” interactions with my players.
responding to yours in order 10. as a Dm I have shifted from rolling to the standard array, leaning towards giving it a slight increase, 15 to 17 and 8 to 10, this has helped the one friend that struggles with 4d6 dropping the lowest actually rolling equal to or better than the standard array. Also avoids the I got total stat modifier of 16+ and the other guy going I +2. 9. Prerolling, not sure about that one, will have to think about it 8. Exhaustion/death saves. I find that when someone goes down it is because something is going very wrong, and after that fight, the whole party will be looking to take at least 1 short rest, maybe two 7.Feats at first level, my group is small, so parties of 2-3 aren't uncommon. Getting tough for free at level one and sometimes lucky at level one is more what we do. Not your choice, more of here is something that could help every class. I have been thinking about giving one based on background, Personality trait, Ideal, and flaw. I also have been thinking about giving feats as a reward for quests. The party steps in and saves this battered old man, who was a druid that was out of spells and abilities. He looks over the party sees the one person that has the 13+ wisdom, who seems to respect nature. Hey thanks for helping me, let me teach you something. You get the magic Initiate feat, where the player only picks 1, level 1 spell, I pick the other two. 6. I usually try to make the final blow on the big bad something epic, as the way I see their character would handle it based on the way they have been RPing 5. o.O I thought you needed to be proficient to use the help action, which is how I handle it. Also if it is a task like move the big rock, 1st helper adds advantage, second and up add a + to roll. Also if the 8 str, 20 int wizard goes I am going to use my int to help the fighter make use of leverage and counterbalance and pivot points to help the fighter, the fighter can now roll with advantage. He isn't helping push, but he is helping the fighter apply his strength more effectively. 4. Using potions as an action 3. In 3.5, Strenght + power attack and two-handers got way out of hand. I am not sure about this one. With the changes to power attack, I am not sure, this edition seems to be pushing towards using a one-handed weapon and a shield. Not sure about messing with that, without a lot of thought. 2. Intelligence is currently one of the dump stats. I think something like from an entirely different system where you do something like Initiative is some combination of Dex, Int, and Wis, or the average of Dex, Wis, and Int. And Int giving extra languages might work, now that you don't have skill ranks in a skill to increase the number of languages known. 1. Other than for bardic inspirations we don't really use Inspirations. I really do need to start doing that more often. Those inspiration cards are neat, I have been thinking about bringing back the pathfinder crit hit/fail cards.
Good news folks who wanted Inspiration Cards! I reached out to the creator, he is working on getting them on Amazon and will let me know once they're available. I'll also make a video on it, just to let you know.
That's awesome :) thank you
It would seem fair to give the cards to your villains also. Although I'm not sure when or under what conditions you would do that.
That is awesome...would love to get them. As an alternative, there are some other options out there if you do a quick search for Inspiration Cards 5E
amzn.to/2GEIKMG
@@NerdImmersion Ordered! Thank you for sharing this and prompting the creator
I've heard people like Brian Murphy say "Finish him" instead of "How do you want to do this". I love the idea behind these little catchphrases though. Such an easy way to make memories.
I would probably do on each failed death saving throw and not on every one. It would put a lot more excitement when rolling them
For the second rule, I might add the choice of proficiency with a tool. So a player can choose either a language or tool proficiency per their INT modifier.
I might say for every 2 points of Int modifier you could get a tool proficiency. So 2 languages, or a tool. That's an interesting concept.
@@NerdImmersion Ya I considered something like that for if I made skills also an option. But tools could deserve that treatment too.
Nerd Immersion or an artisan tool. I do like my character being able to cook really well. Or have a chisel
I did my very first How Do You Want to Do This? last night when the Barbarian killed a mimic with a critical hit. He decided he wanted to take out a bottle of wine he'd just bought, break it open, down the whole thing, and then shank the mimic with the broken glass. It was glorious.
Glorious Brutality, this is the beauty of nature
To help with boomeranging I increase the death saving throw everytime they get knocked out that day. So first time regular death saves, next time bump it to 11
I make them start with 1 death save per time they went down. So if it's their second time going down, they've already failed once, 2 more to go. Add this with the exhaustion rule and ppl start healing more rather than saving it for when they go to zero.
A way that my group has made strength a little more useful is by adding the option to use that as the ability modifier for the intimidation skill instead of charisma. The rationale being that the ability to rip a creature limb from limb with pure physical might would be rather intimidating. It seems rather ridiculous to imagine that a massive and powerful half-orc barbarian couldn't intimidate anyone because he lacks charisma.
i always do Intimidation based on the action... if the warrior wants to intimidate a guard, he can but he needs to do something in a physical way for the check to be doable
In our family home game my son is playing a Lizardfolk with a 5 Charisma. I just let him flip the -3 mod to +3 for Intimidation checks.
Yeah, its a variant rule. And its supposed to only work, if your character is going to threaten to beat them up or something. And unless you use the 1.5*strength modifier for damage rule, strength does fall short heavily against dexterity.
Guys, this is in the DMG.
"As described in the Player's Handbook, a skill proficiency represents a character's focus on one aspect of an ability. Among all the things a character's Dexterity score describes, the character might be particularly skilled at sneaking around, reflected in proficiency in the Stealth skill. When that skill is used for an ability check, it is usually used with Dexterity.
Under certain circumstances, you can decide a character's proficiency in a skill can be applied to a different ability check. For example, you might decide that a character forced to swim from an island to the mainland must succeed on a Constitution check (as opposed to a Strength check) because of the distance involved. The character is proficient in the Athletics skill, which covers swimming, so you allow the character's proficiency bonus to apply to this ability check. In effect, you're asking for a Constitution (Athletics) check, instead of a Strength (Athletics) check.
Often, players ask whether they can apply a skill proficiency to an ability check. If a player can provide a good justification for why a character's training and aptitude in a skill should apply to the check, go ahead and allow it, rewarding the player's creative thinking." - DMG (p.239)
I like potions as a bonus action, but if you use it as an action you don't need to roll, you get full healing from it. This rule works great if you're doing a campaign and they have no healer.
I think a good alternative to bonus action potions is maximum effect potions (2d4+2 healing as always 10). I think this helps to keep consistancy as to what an action is, can stop the cinematic or someone chugging potions whilst locked in combat, and gives players a reliable way to help themselves in combat. I think this was brought up by the Dungeon Dudes, so credit goes to them!
I use a custom array. 17, 16, 15, 12, 10, 8.
It allows my players to be powerful, the reason they want to roll in the first place, AND I don't have an issue with one player being an outlier (way better rolls or way worse rolls).
I allow players to spend 73 points freely on upgrades and/or feats. Allows them to customize their characters a lot.
I am doing something similar: 16, 15, 13, 12, 10, 9
I use a similar array, but with a little more weight towards middle strength:
17, 15, 13, 12, 10, 8.
This way, the highest a given stat can be with a +2/+1 racial bonus at 1st level is a +4, but that can easily round into a +5 at 4th level. It gives players two very strong stats, above average stats across the board, and one weakness. Plus, I feel like having your odd numbered stats be your highest priority and your third priority for 4th level leads to better rounded characters, even though a lot of classes prioritize their main stat (strength, dexterity, charisma, intelligence) and constitution for their second, having a high third (wisdom to supplement dex builds, dexterity to supplement strength builds, etc) leads to healthier characters overall.
Alternatively, I call for 6 sets of 3d6d1+6. This way no stat can be below 8 nor above 18, which I think is a healthy range, and averages out to 15s +/-1 across the board. If someone, against all odds, rolls multiple sets in the single digits, I'll let them take a mulligan.
Fun! Hi everybody and thank you Nerd Immersion for the stunning review. I'm Jonathan, owner and creator of Inspiration Cards, nice to meet you! I never thought Inspiration Cards would get so much love, but luckily I had the foresight to put a bar-code on each deck, that makes things easier. I'll see what I can do about getting these decks available for purchase on Amazon.
Hello, is there a way to buy the PDF version nowadays?
That would be awesome as currently they seem to be entirely unavailable.
These are currently unavailable on Amazon. is there any idea on when they might be back in stock?
Hello Tabletop Props. The cards seem incredible and I have multiple guys including myself who want them. They are however unavailable on amazon or your site for some time. Is there some information on when they are available again? I prefer the physical copy but would also buy the PDF version. That option cannot go out of order like the physical one, is there a link or site to buy this PDF?
We recently did rolls for my friends campaign that I'm calling "Matt's Method" (matt is his name, obviously) it works similar to your 4d6 drop the lowest x7, but here's the differences:
1. Do the standard 4d6 drop the lowest 7 times.
2. You CHOOSE which of the 7 ability scores to use, meaning you can pick the lower scores to have weaker stat(s) if you want.
3. Place your chosen scores where you'd like as normal. If you're not happy with the rolls you got, you can instead redo the two above steps once again, but must take the new totals.
4. After you're done, you choose one ability score to reduce by one, then choose two others to increase by one.
5. This could be considered optional, but my friend enforced a rule to have a character flaw on the sheet that has actual in-game ramifications. For example, I made a character who's a coward, therefore if enemies get too close he needs to make a wisdom save or be frightened. Disadvantage on wisdom saves to resist fear from other sources as well.
Me and my friends like characters with flaws more than just strengths, so we lean more into that.
Actually, your method creates character classes which are more powerful than normal.
@@brabra2725 Depends on the stat rolls and also the flaw they choose. It's probably more forgiving than just the standard array, but I prefer higher highs and lower lows.
@@AndrewChumKaser it is not "probably" more forgiving, is a fact that it creates better PCs.
@@brabra2725 How do you know that? Have you done the actual math? Have you used the system to make PC's and actually play with them? Or are you just looking at some averages and smugly declaring something arguably subjective as irrefutable fact?
@@AndrewChumKaser The math is very simple. The standard dice-rolling method requires you to roll 4 dice, drop the lowest, repeat 6 times and assign the results where you like. Your method requires to roll 4 dice, drop the lowest, repeat this 7 times and assign all results but one where you like. Also, your method gives -1 to 1 stats and +1 to 2 stats.
I've run into a stat rolling in one of the games which I really liked.
You roll 24d6 and drop 6 lowest. Then combine them in groups of 3 in any way you like. That's your scores.
And Dragonborn XGE feats are baseline.
Ooo I like that! It's sorta like a randomized point buy.
That is REALLY good, gonna try that for the next campaign !
Just tried it, for design and science's sake, and found it to be quite powerful (got 18, 17, 15, 15, 11, 10).
I, for one, like the possibility of getting negative ability scores as I found it helps to give characters some personality.
So I tried it again with 18d6 (got 18, 16, 15, 11, 9, 6) and was very satisfied with the results.
Bulk rolling and combine fells like the player can really flesh out the character the way he she wants.
Want a maximized stat ? Done. Making a MAD character and need decent stat layout ? Done.
Definitely using this from now on !!
@@PocoLocoProductions Just 18d6 and rearrange in the way you like?
it may be hust me but I've tried doing this 3 times and the results are kinda meh.
15 12 10 9 6 4
18 15 12 8 6 4
18 13 9 7 6 5
@@Deathwhisper2 You know what ? I did it a couple more times afterward and results were UNDERpowered.
But my fear is that rolling 24d6 and remove the worst 6 will lead to OVERpowered results.
The rule we use when rolling for stats is different every time, to suit the campaign.
-4D6, drop lowest for stats.
-For the levels of exhaustion on death saves, I would consider it but only getting levels on failed saves or possibly just one per time you go unconscious.
-Potions to yourself are a bonus action but an action to feed someone else.
My first game used the "1 Exhaustion each time you go unconscious" Homebrew rule, and it was really great. Also, I am working on DMing my first game for my group, and I'm considering using some of these.
I have only played with one homebrew rule that I absolutely love, and it's something first called "weapon brilliance". In essence, as you use your weapons, they gain experience in the background, and at certain thresholds, they upgrade depending on factors the DM decides. The last time I saw it used, my chaotic good ranger's longbow gained 1d4 radiant damage after about 10k xp, and counted as magical for resistances. It can be applied to magical weapons or not, as the DM decides, but it rewards players who decide to forgo a purely mechanical advantage for roleplaying reasons. Maybe the fighter refuses to use a magic sword because he's always carried the sword he inherited from his father, or the rogue keeps her dagger because that dagger has saved her life and she considers it lucky. It also helps bump up some less powerful weapons like, say, a whip, if you really want to ham up the Belmont thing, for instance.
if you want to help, roll a d20, if they pass the dc, the assistee gets advantage. If you are proficient you skip the roll and give advantage.
That's a good rule. The puny wizard rolls high on his str check to help move the rock because he ate his wheaties that day. The barb, with help from the wizard who lifts a surprising amount during his attempt, finally gets the boulder moved out of the way.
"I want to seduce the dragon"
"Roll persuasion"
*uses confident card*
You are well on your way to being a well dressed pet
i play with the exhaustion rule on 0 HP. We changed exhaustion to fatigue and made a different table because we didn't like the exhaustion table for it after a few rounds of playing it like that. we also increase the time we need for a long rest based on our fatigue level. It is great!
Curious, how does the fatigue table work? That sounds interesting to use.
@@sakuratejina Its changed a bit between the last campaigns, the most basic one would looke something like:
every point of fatiue you want to regenerate is 3 more hours of resting.
1st point of fatigue no other mali
2nd fatigue -1 on every roll
3rd fatigue -2 on every roll
4th fatigue -4 on every roll
5th fatigue -8 on every roll
6th fatigue unconscious.
@@dylogysminter thank you so much. I like that you just pass out in the end rather than dying. 6th level fatigue seems like it could lead to a point of exhaustion if you wanted. Tho I’m not sure how it would turn out in game. I’ll bring this up with my GM. Thank you for the inspiration!
For abilities, I do 4d4 drop lowest 5 times, and the sixth ability is such that the total is 72.
Or, I use an array 14, 14, 12, 12, 10, 8, and you may increase any two different ones of choice by +2 each. And then no ability scores from race. Races are rebalanced in powers if they need to be.
If you are a martial class, and don't have int based casting, you gain a maneuver power (like from D&D 4E, as either At-will or Encounter) for each mod of int.
Initiative is done by "sides" and enemies have an initiative DC. Go in any team order you want, but only those who beat the initiative DC act within the first set.
Inspiration can be used to add a d6 that adds to the natural roll of a die, so this increases the crit chance through this use of inspiration.
Lastly, everyone gets a starting Feat of choice or one we homebrew together. If you are a variant human, your inspiration is stronger instead.
2d6+4, reroll snake eyes, add an extra +1 to 3 different scores, ASIs must be used only for feats, gain a +1 ability score at every even character level.
This starts a character out on the weak side but allows for more growth at a more consistent rate.
The Prodigy Feat, mentioned as an example at 7, is actually really great to take on a grapple build that doesn't want to multi-class to get access to expertise in athletics.
For exhaustion and death saving throws in my game, I say that a level of exhaustion is gained for every round in combat that the PC is unconscious. That way it is very important to rush to the PC and give health attention. Also the length of being at zero hit points is a sign of how strong the unconsciousness was.
I’ve heard of an interesting way for ability scores to be determined that I’ll likely use for my game.
So, many people don’t like rolling for ability scores because it can result in certain characters have much lower or higher than average, and this makes discrepancies between the powers of the party members. Therefore, instead of everyone rolling stats for themselves, you take all of the rolls and put them from highest to lowest. Someone picks a number from the list, then the next person picks a number, and so on until all numbers are taken. Then, everyone has a reasonable spread of stats and the party are relatively equal in power. This works better with a group that knows and likes each other, specifically for deciding the order of people who get to pick the numbers, as they’re more likely to be fair to their fellow players with the numbers they choose. It also given the people who want to play a character who is really bad at one stat the chance to snatch up that low number right away.
Logan Sanders I recently tried to counter this by having all 4 players sharing their dice rolls and each player could pick what ever set of 6 scores they want , they could all pick just one set but I found they didn’t because some people wanted to take that 18 where as others wanted the two 16s and didn’t want the 7 etc , but everybody has the same options
That's socialism. Socialism rarely ends well. The person who rolled well resents the players that took their dice.
@@andrewhardenburgh387 this is D&D, not the economy. I play with people I know won’t get angry at each other for something as simple a a lower dice roll, and frankly the fact that someone would actively resent someone for it is silly. The only thing at risk are some dice rolls, not someone’s livelihood. And besides, no one is “taking” anything. I would make it clear that we would pool all dice rolls before the first roll. Everyone would know that they might not get the set they rolled, and no one should get angry.
I've been granting 1 level of exhaustion on my players each time they fall unconscious due to damage or lethal means, and so far I love it. They said it feels more realistic and it kinda forces them to slow down the pace every so often and focus on recovery after big battles even though their injuries just "magically" go away at the end of each long rest. Really helps incentivize recovery and downtime
i do 2d6+6, six times, everyone can pick from any of the arrays rolled
no variant human, free feat at level one
My brother! Ban the variant humans!! Free feat for all!!
I wish kabold race wasn't so gimped as I love being Scrappy fast dudes. They are to cute.
I'm trying to put together a campaign and thinking of doing this. But why would anyone pick a human than?
@@dirigoallagash3464 they could pick human for rp/story reasons, but on the whole I want to discourage people from picking human just for the feat
@@dirigoallagash3464 personally, i homebrewed cultural subraces for my homebrew setting. Another option is to have the location of the story mostly be in human dominated areas -- if elves or w/e are fairly scarce or dont often travel then the party is more conspicuous
As far as initiative home brewing rules if you're going to correct it go all the way. Between str, dex, int, wis, and cha as the mods involving initiative. i'll explain my reasoning. In a fight while a dex would be standard mod as a bonus, i think a str based class who's trained their entire life honing their physical body would of course use that mod. Someone who's high in wisdom or intelligence such as a druid, cleric, or wizard would have knowledge or the insight of what's going on around them to give them an edge to have those mods give them a boost. It's a little more tricky with high cha class for bards, warlocks, and sorcerers. perhaps just say their force of will or ability of knowing the reactions of others would allow them to use their Cha mod. that would give characters a choice at character creation to chose a stat mod to boost their initiative Dex, Str, Int, Wis, or Cha.
4d6, 7 times, keep the top 5 and the lowest. It's the low score that provides for rollplay without crippling a character.
The carrying capacity when I play on r20 is actually really relevant because it does all the math for you. Alot of my charecters have 8 or 10 in str cause there dex based or casters and I meter my carry weight of 150(10) very closely.
I go with a standard array, but 17, 15, 13, 12, 10, 8 instead of what's presented in the books. I also allow a point buy that can create similar results:
35 points.
Score Cost Modifier
3 -5 -4
4 -4 -3
5 -3 -3
6 -2 -2
7 -1 -2
8 0 -1
9 1 -1
10 2 0
11 3 0
12 4 +1
13 5 +1
14 7 +2
15 9 +2
16 12 +3
17 15 +3
18 18 +4
This allows them to get the really high scores or low scores they could roll, but they choose. They can give themselves a flawed low score in order to have more points for a high score in something else.
I've seen another option someone uses where they have Everyone roll 4D6 and drop the lowest 6 times. But then the players can choose ANYONE'S set. So when someone rolls really well they can all use that same set. Or if someone has like an 18 on one, but the rest fairly low, and someone else has 2 16s, the 2 16s could be more enticing to some players, and the single 18 more for others. So it's still balanced among all players, but you still get the excitement of high rolls, and the unpredictability you don't have with point buy.
I love the concept NR 9 of the "descriptive combat" action for the players. I use this for the "killing blows" or as my NPC's actions routinely (kind like rule 6). I may try this with my group at some point. Thanks.
My homebrew death saves rolling rule is that DM does the role and doesn't tell the playeres, gives urgency to the group not know how close to death a fallen player is and generally ups the excitement, also don't ever fudge the rolls
My homebrew Rolling ability scores rule: if its a players first time playing dnd, roll 4D6’s, reroll 1’s and 2’s, drop the lowest number. Do this a total of six times. Roll two more stat blocks, then the player chooses one between the 3 stat blocks, then they apply their stats accordingly.
#3 you mentioned carrying capacity. In 10+ years of playing, it has not really come up. Until now, I am paying attention to my players Capacity. The Dungeon years kid and explorers pack alone way quite a bit, and my little halflings can’t carry very much. So if they want to carry around knocked out bodies of people they want detained, it’s going to take them a couple trips..
For the help action, I created a rule that says that you can only help if you are proficient, and it’s not advantage, it adds your relevant ability score modifier to the roll, instead.
For character creation, I tell my players to simply add the total skills their class/background offer and allocate to the skills they wish to know. This mitigates limitations for skills in this system and allows more variety as well. Also, if they wish to gain expertise in a particular skill, they must sacrifice another skill in order to do it. This can only be done once during the creation stage.
I agree that the inspiration mechanic isn't very good simply because the Lucky feat is WAY stronger to the point of being OP and doesn't require DM involvement.
How can I get those inspiration cards? Didn’t see anything through the link you had
They were a Kickstarter from years ago. Let me reach out to the creator and see if they exist anywhere else.
Nerd Immersion Thank you that would be great! Definitely want to add these to my game!!
Same
Same
amzn.to/2GEIKMG
I run a campaign with 2 paladins and a cleric. I was sick of lay on hands for 1 every time pc goes down.
I thought I invented level of exhaustion every time you hit 0... it revolutionized the game. And makes sense.
Also for character creation, I default 3d6 each category- you can either start with a feat, or do 4d6, drop low... makes for a tough but rewarding choice
A couple Homebrew I like. Intelligence points: You start with 3 modified by your Int and you can spend it to just know anything you want. Anything that isn't completely secret or privileged is a valid target from places, people, magic, monsters, etc.
Anyone can use spell scrolls: If the spell is anywhere on your list you can cast it period no roll needed. If the spell is not on your list you make a DC 10 + level check as normal but the modifier changes based on who made the scroll. Arcana for Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard. Nature for Druid and Ranger. Religion for Paladin and Cleric. Gives an actual reason to get those mostly useless skills and gives non casters a taste of magic. It's not like players can get scrolls that they can't already make themselves or you specifically gave to them anyway.
I like to have my players roll 4d6 drop the lowest 6 times, but I allow them to reroll one number, but only if it isn't their lowest. I like players having a low number or two in their Stateline. I think this system makes more interesting and dynamic characters while getting rid of the feel bads of rolling three 6s.
I like a lot of these rules and have seen about half implemented into various games. I have my own spin on some of these.
1. Ability Scores are rolled as per the rules. If you would like, you can instead choose the Point Buy or Standard Array system afterwards.
2. In combat, when you are brought down to 0 hit points and fall unconscious, but are then brought back up and perform any actions types other than movement and free actions, you will receive one level of exhaustion at the end of combat. This is intended to make the player have some choice in the risk/reward scheme. They can get right back into the fight, but if they're in a dangerous place it may not be worth the hit of exhaustion.
3. A free feat is given at 3rd level as most players gain their class features at that point and really start to feel like adventurers.
A few that I personally use and have enjoyed so far are...
1. Critical Hits do max die damage plus the roll. Nothing feels worse than rolling low on a crit and dealing 1-5 more damage than normal so this makes critical hits feel CRITICAL. Also makes combat far scarier for both sides.
2. A Spellcaster may attempt to cast a spell if they have no slots left of that level. However, they will gain a level of exhaustion equal to the spell’s level. I love the risk/reward concept and this gives casters more flexibility.
3. Death saves are secret and rolled directly to the DM. Oh he's saved twice, he'll be fine. Vs... He's rolled twice, he could die on his next turn if we don't stabilize him.
I like that last one
If I ever do a feat at first level I'll probably do racial feats only, and then if someone plays a race that isn't in the PHB I'll either select a collection of feats they can choose from or have them pitch feats to me and decide off of that. Maybe off the bat restrict them to only feats that give you a plus one and something because those tend to have abilities that are weaker to compensate. I'd also ban variant human not necessarily because I'm too worried about it being overpowered but because the major draw of a variant human is kind of gone when everyone gets a feat. I don't think anyone will complain when they basically get a buffed version of that race if they choose a normal human.
They released a PDF with expanded racial feats which has options for all the Volo's races and EEPC races, if you're interested in that.
@@dascientist8443 I know but that was released by D&D Beyond and not Wizards. Even so more races have been added since then and I've looked through them and they don't seem entirely balanced. If someone presents me with a homebrew feat and it's one of those I might consider it on a case-by-case basis but I'm not going to automatically allow them. Thanks though.
at the campaigne im at right now we roll 4d6 and you then take the lowest die away. and at the end you full score must be higher or equal than 70 (also you cant roll a 1 on hp when leveling up) (think this is matt mercer rules but it was some of the other guys at the table that bought it up and havent checked if it is from him)
Restricting the bonus damage you give to strength-based damage rolls to only attacks made with a two-handed weapon seems overly specific and punishes the sword and board fighter. Also, it is just simpler to say strength-based damage rolls gain a bonus equal to half of your proficiency bonus.
Also, if you want to buff the importance of intelligence a bit, then I would rule that a character gains a number of extra language, skill, or tool proficiencies equal to their intelligence modifier. If you want to make intelligence really important, then you could rule that they loose a number of those proficiencies equal to their intelligence modifier when it is negative, but that would be against the general design philosophy of 5E.
Great point. I was thinking only giving a strength boost to those using two-handed weapons was a bit unfair.
10. I like roll for 5 stats, and the last one if calculated with point buy.
7. I like extra feat at 1st, especially magic initiate.
5. I like Matt Colvilles recent vid, you can only do a knowledge check if proficient.
4. I really wouldnt like this, but never have.
2. I prefer extra skills for your Int mod, because in games I play languages are just flavour and not any sort of challenge to overcome.
Great vid!
There are two main potions rules I switch between - Either the potion always gives you its top most benefits (like healing potions give the maximum hp they can) or they’re a bonus action. I let the players choose
I like to have "flavor text" explanations for the mechanics. I feel like this works well as, "You can take an action to down the potion and get all of it, or a bonus action to almost throw it at your mouth and hope most of it goes in.
Oh, my GM does 3d6 re-roll first ones. If you don't get a single 15 for any of your six you re-roll them all. One time I needed to roll like six different sets to get a single 15.
When WotC eventually get around to doing Psionics, I feel that Intelligence saving throws are going to be way more abundant.
My group has used two different setups for stat assignment. We used something we called Super standard array, which is basically standard array with much higher numbers (20, 18, 16, 14, 10, 8) for more super heroic kind of games. For horror games we like to roll 4D4 and roll for each stat down the row before we start looking at classes the aim being to make weaker charaters.
All I read was no more ASIs 😁 and I'm okay with that!
After months we are out of item hell! I liked all the vids but wow, has it been a while.
Hopefully the inspiration cards come back to Amazon
Maybe a barbarian helping a wizard with an arcana check is the barbarian making the wizard a nice cup of tea to sip while he's reading.
Holy moly dude. Take a break from videos. You shooting them out like my grandma cookies.
Nice list overall.
For the exhaustion rule: let them roll a Con save when they go down. If they fail they gain a level of exhaustion. Every subsequent save has a higher DC.
This prevents ppl being a flesh Sack after being downed some times as long as they pass the saves. Otherwise insta kills are get really prevalent in higher levels.
"Players are too powerful"
"I want them to have powerful stats and to have a free feat at first lvl"
Honeslty I would love it if you went into further detail about that inspiration deck. My group would love to use inspiration but found that if we leave it at 1. It's never used and when we allowed multiple charges, the players would just sandbag the inspiration rolls
I already implement some of those rules in one way or another, but for number 8 I've made my own rule of Lingering Wounds. When character returns from being unconscious they roll to randomly select an ability score. The Lingering Wound reduces that score by 1+number of failed death saves that character had while unconscious. With each long rest, character gets only one point back, or someone could roll a Medicine check on them with use of healer's kit. If they roll 15+ character gets back two points, but on less than 10 they don't get anything.
For the knockdown, I do 1 point of exhaustion too. Exceptions are abilities that will pop you up automatically, so you don't really hit 0. I also use 2nd edition trauma tables. So you end up with severed fingers, arms, concausions, missing hair, puncture lung, broken ribs.
Feats at first level I give all players a FREE Skill/tool feat. Otherwise no one will ever use them.
I can’t find a way to purchase the cards through the kickstarter link. Is there somewhere else to look?
Was wondering the same thing.
@@toshomni9478 Ditto
Same
Likewise
I wish there were more application for Intelligence on the battle field. I want to play a warrior/strategist, but aside from Battle Master all the strategic type abilities are Charisma based.
Maybe a group of magic items that increases various class and subclass features based on “non-optimal” stats.
- Headband that increases a battle masters total number of superiority die by int mod
- Various instruments that increase a bards total inspiration by wis mod.
- quarterstaff that gives Druid additional wild shapes by int mod
- sash that increases monk ki point total by int or charisma
- robes for a sorcerer that increase max spell points or reduce spell point conversions based on int or wisdom
- light armor for a rogue that gives extra sneak die by an amount equal to str or dex mod, but must choose the lower of the two mods unless equal.
@@binolombardi those are some good ideas, I've been trying to work out what are currently conundrums in the 5e meta. I mentioned the Int based Fighter that isn't a spell sword.
I also want to see a Str based Monk, or Unarmed based Barbarian.
I understand the class themes aim for balance and diversity in skill, so that party co-op is encouraged, but I feel like some very broad archetypes are unrepresented.
I used the Matt Colville method of hero builder when I ran Princes of Apocalypse. You roll 4D6 and drop the lowest, if you don't get at least 2 heroic stats (15 or better) you can reroll. optionally with this method, you roll the stats in order and can't move them, which helps nudge people into trying out new classes or new ways to use a class. Most people think this makes completely overpowered players, but I had one player that literally rolled only one other stat over 9, and because of that, he ended up trying out a barbarian, where before he had only ever played a fighter.
that kickstarter for those inspiration cards doesn't allow for purchase of PDF or physical deck. Do you know of anyway to get a hold of a copy??
Something I like to do to improve intelligence is swap Religion and Insight, making Religion wisdom based, and Insight intelligence based. Insight is used far more often than religion, and I've always gone with the mantra of "Intelligence is what you know, wisdom is what you feel." Religion isn't really about facts and knowledge, but instead faith and feelings, so it makes sense that Religion is a wisdom based skill. Insight, on the other hand, is based off logic and deduction, so it makes sense that Insight is intelligence based.
I get the logic, but always figured that Religion is less a "this is what you feel about/have faith in" and more "having a bunch of knowledge/memorized facts about various religions and their histories", which is more intelligence based, and the insight is, while based on logic and deduction, does have an element of gut feeling/reading a person.
Honestly, one could argue that charisma based insight makes sense.
@@FFKonoko True. But is also makes very little sense that a Cleric would be bad at Religion and a Wizard is good at it.
Question about rule #2: what happens when someone's int mod increases from stapoint increase on levelling, or on putting on a magic item that increases your intelligence? Do you just...gain languages for as long as you have that new bonus (and lose them if, for instance, you take off the magic item)?
What about characters with low intelligence? If you have an 8 int, do you lose a language?
I don't sock languages did negative modifiers. If someone gains an ability score in Intelligence naturally I let them gain a new language. I feel "instantly" learning a new language isn't any weirder than theoretically "instantly" getting smarter. I know Ability score improvements are supposed to represent training and a natural growth, so I just have my players explain the new language they learn and have it make sense story wise.
As for a magic item that increases Intelligence, that hasn't happened but I'd say sure, give them the languages. If they lose or take off the item, I might allow them an Intelligence saving throw to see if they retain it or perhaps let them make a check if trying to understand a language they once knew but have since lost
@@NerdImmersion I'm not sure what you mean about the negative modifiers (I assume autocorrect garbled that lol).
I suppose you're right about "instantly" learning languages, considering that's how almost all spells are attained too.
As for the magic item though, there's a potential abuse there since someone could learn all languages just by putting it on and taking it off until they make the saves, right? Or I guess maybe you could just essentially "lock them in" as the bonus languages for those specific int modifiers.
I miss when int affected your skill points back in 3e; I wish there was a way to incorporate that into 5e somehow, but there doesn't really seem to be a way to the way skills are designed. =(
@@marcusager974 I meant if you had say an 8 Intelligence aka -1 modifier, I wouldn't give you one less language.
Again I haven't encountered people getting bonus Int (headband of intellect I assume? ), so I'd deal with it when it happened
Ability score idea: i use this for campaign where the players are specifically CHAMPIONS and they know it. I.e. odyssey of the dragonlords. Where the players start the game knowing they are heroes of prophecy. So they get to be stronger.
4d6 × 6 like normal BUT, one of the dice is a different color. THAT dice gets a +2. :-) its been a blast. That 12 extra ability points across the board lol. You have to be very careful like i said "only for CHAMPION character campaigns" because you could eaaily get multiple 20's in stats due to race bonuses.
4d6 6x. Get rid of lowest. reroll 1s
Kalashtar wants to play Great Old One?
Let the Awakened Mind feature act as a 30ft telepathy booster. (A 1st level Kal/GoO would have a 10ft two-way telepathy but have 40ft one-way telepathy.)
At 10th level, since the Psychic damage resistance would be redundant, allow it to become Psychic Immunity instead, but it still reflects only half of what it would have taken.
I like Point Buy or Array. If we roll, then we also do the best 3 of 4d6 7 times with a mulligan.
Could you give an example for a newbie player? How the rolling like this would unfold that is?
I'm experimenting with allowing 2d6 + 6 for people who hate rolling since the latest you can get is an 8 that way.
Modification to rule 8, when a player goes down the overkill damage is the save DC for a con saving throw. If they fail the con save they take a level of exhaustion.
The exhaustion thing is bad.
I do if you take damage in a single blow that would drop you below zero and more than your constitution score.
For example
Bob has a con of 18, he has 5 hp he takes 24 damage from a single blow.
This not only drops him to zero, but beyond 18 con. Bob is auto dead no saves it is a brutal shot that kills instantly. This makes the yoyo effect null and void.
As far as help action I do
Any strength checks anyone can help.
Dexterity checks need to be proficient
And you can't help with perception but can with investigation and all but strength checks the helper needs to be proficient
10. my preferred ways is either point buy or 2D6 + 6
8. failed death saves linger till after long rest.
I want those cards
I use 4d6 drop lowest or standard 27 point buy or standard array. This way, even if my players roll badly they can still have decent stats via point buy
oh my div wizard with the linguist feat and sage background would go wild with that extra language rule. pretty sure he already knows about half the languages with no homebrew
Definitely adding the exhaustion rule going forward. Those inspiration cards are awesome, would love to get a deck but still unavailable and seems to have been for years according to the comments. Are the spades only for ranger/rogue/warlock? Thanks for sharing your talent!
- 5e is kinda going back towards random character generation, but I'm not sure custom characteristic rolls is better. Frankly, I think just house ruling a less restrictive point buy system will result in more rounded party composition and characters.
-Exhaustion for failed death saves is a good rule, but I wouldn't take it a step further.
-Proficiency on an ability check assist is an ok house rule, but... it might hurt beginners. Mileage may vary.
-I think potion action should be dependent on the potion and be part of the rarity of the potion. There's potions that should be a bonus action, and there's potions that should be a regular action. A super common healing potion might be more common than a bonus action healing potion.
-The changes to strength and intelligence would be ok in 5e. They aren't valued correctly in 5e.
- the inspiration deck is kinda interesting.
I am new to dnd but i have played a ton of video game that includes rpgs anyways i thought of a alternative point by system it goes something like this
> Nothing above 17
> only one stat can have 17 points
> only one stat can have 16 points
> only one stat can have 15 point
>you have 80 points to spend with all stats starting at 0
Example
Fighter
STR: 16
DEX: 15
CON: 17
INT: 12
WIS: 13
CHR: 7
Math time
15+16+17= 48
12+13+7= 32
32+48= 80
Another rule
Better healing potions: healing potions heal in flat numbers but with a twist the appliers medicine modifier so an example
Potion of healing: a flat of 10hp+mod so say the mod is 4 but the applier is rouge so 8
10+8= 18 hp healed
I'm late to the party, I know, but . . .
At 12:37 a feeble magic-user using the Help Action to assist moving a big rock; that actually came up in a session. And the player had such a clever idea I felt I had to allow it.
They said that, as a learned wizard, they would understand the basic laws of physics.
So they could suggest how to get maximum *leverage* on the rock (where to grasp it, which direction to shift it, etc.).
Thus they could give the strong character (a paladin) *advice* that granted Advantage.
Rule Of Cool, etc cetera
Where do i het these cards? I loved it
When I roll for stats I do 4d6 drop lowest, but if they have anything bellow 10 they can reroll their lowest.
Example: if they rolled 10,16,8,7,12,15 they can reroll the 7, but if they rolled 11,15,12,16,10,10 they can’t reroll. (They must keep the new roll)
My TOP 10 homebrew rules:
10. Ability checks: You roll 2d10 instead of 1d20. Advantage/Disadvantage means you 3d10 and take best/worst 2.
9. Critical hits: Maximum weapon damage + rolled weapon dmg + modifiers for players. Monsters get 2x average damage on a critical hit.
8. Hitpoint level-up: For hitpoint increase you roll your hit die. If it's lower than average take average hit hie + Con modifier each level.
7. Flanking: If a creature is within reach of its target, and there's another allied creature on the opposite side of the target, the target gets -1 AC. A flanked creature cannot flank.
6. Hidden rolls: For rolls a player cannot truly know (did Deception work? Am I actually hidden?), hold a tray up out of the players direct sight and they roll. Only the DM sees the result, and adjudicate from there.
5. Drink a Potion: When you drink a potion you automatically use the Dodge action, unless you are a Thief (which can drink a potion using a bonus action).
4. Ability score rolls: Socialist dice rolling = (drop lowest of 3d6) + 4 * (roll 6 * number of players). "group roll" where everyone rolls six times, but rather than assign the results to their attributes, they are pooled, listed from highest to lowest, and then distributed to the players in a serpentine order, where the point allocation reverses each round. For example, if there are 3 player characters (PCs), there are 18 total rolls, listed highest to lowest. PC1 gets the highest, PC2 the 2nd, PC3 the 3rd, The order is then reversed with PC3 getting the 4th highest, PC2 the 5th, etc. until all scores are distributed, with PC1 receiving both the highest and the lowest dice roll. 16 is the highest allowed roll, and 6 is the lowest allowed roll.
3. Strength: There are modified encumbrance rules in play. Item slots are used. 10 strength = 10 slots. Small creatures = -3 slots, Powerful build/Large creatures = +6 slots.
2. Intelligence: -1 negative modifier: You lose one extra language and lose one skill that you would normally have. -2 negative modifier: you have 1 skill, language only. You gain an extra language for each +4 Intelligence stat increase above 10.
1. Zero hitpoints: If you are revived from being unconscious or at 0 hitpoints, you gain an exhaustion level. You die at six Exhaustion levels.
I am a DM with 35+ years exp. I think 5e is the best balanced addition they have ever put out (especially spell casting options), but they streamlined it too much imho. I liked several of your rules, these are some of the ones I use:
1- Strength:
a NEGATIVE Strength modifier is ALWAYS added to a melee/thrown attack (even with finesse/light) and if you have a bonus to Strength (12 or better) and are using a non-finesse/non-light weapon you gain and addition +1 for one handed weapon attacks and +2 for two handed. Bows can be "Built for Strength" and you can replace the dex modifier with your strength modifier on DAMAGE rolls up to the "Strength Rating" of the bow (obviously you need the minimum Strength = to the bows "Strength Rating" to use it).
2- I use the exhaustion at 0 hp, It makes combat way more exciting.
3- Resurrection
:
A resurrected character has their constitution reduced by 2 immediately upon completion of the magic.
A character brought back from death will have no spells memorized and no spell slots available.
A resurrected character comes back to life with 3 levels of exhaustion.
4- Disarmed:
attempting to retrieve an item knocked from your grasp allows any opponent within 5' to make an OA (provided they still have a reaction).
5- Charm Spells:
Certain spells 'as written' say the target KNOWS they have been charmed, this has been adjusted to the following
:
upon completion of/successful save against a charm spell the caster must roll deception vs the target's insight . If the target wins they realize they have been charmed. If the target loses/ties the roll they are not aware they have been the victim of magical manipulation.
6- Ranged 'Sneak Attack' :
If the target is engaged in combat/or moving vigorously the maximum range at which sneak attack damage can be applied with a ranged weapon is 30'
If the target is not engaged in combat, and relatively still, Sneak Attack Damage can be applied at ½ the ranged weapon's short range or 30', which ever is greater.
7- +2 for 'Flanking':
I got grief for this from one player until I ran a mock combat where I used a mass of goblins against his fighter. It changed his mind.
I have several others that I use to make the game more 'gritty' and lethal. My table loves it. I have more rules but didn't want to go crazy. If anyone is interested I will post them.
I would like to put my 2 cents in. Would love your thoughts.
Ability Score Rolling - I like my heroes to be heroic. I don't like cringing every time I reach for a die. So either point buy or 4d6 drop low x7, drop low.
Exhaustion Death Saves - Love it. The whole yo-yo thing makes me want to puke. I'm old school. You hit 0 back in the day, your character sheet went to the DM. Hitting 0 should have SERIOUS consequences.
Feat at 1st level - Absofuckinglutely. See above.
Need proficiency to help on a skill check - Yup. No brainer, excellent idea.
Potions as a bonus action - Oh hells no. A round is 6 seconds. Put a large apple in a pocket or a bag. Take it out, pretend to pull a cork, then 'drink it'. Even if you have the apple set perfectly, that ain't no bonus action. At best, a Dex check with a dc of 15 to see if you can take a bonus action after quaffing.
Extra languages of high Intelligence - Brilliant. Pun intended.
Stacking Inspiration - love that cards system. Simple, yet completely functional.
10) 3 sets of 6 4d6 rolls drop the lowest. 1/2 set free, if you take the third set roll you MUST take it. (My house rules)
9/8) I’m interested in this and may try it.
7) I offer this IF the players go with point-buy/standard array instead of rolling for stats. I am concerned doing stat rolling w/free feat.
6) I do this. My players LOVE this. It breaks tension, it brings cheers of joy... it’s just... ahhhh ☺️
5) I would use this but my players don’t do that... for some reason
4) I don’t do this because it invalidates the Theif subclass of rogue which can do use a potion (self or feeding) as a bonus action
3) interesting.... although I think they do enough. But I will ponder over this
2) I also use something akin to this
1) I rarely use inspiration at all. Mostly because my players usually downplay role play. But I want that deck now and may use them and the inspiration mechanic more
As far as he modifier to AC, I take the average between Strength and Dexterity modifiers and round the result. I call it a physicality bonus to AC.
Great video. I enjoy your content greatly. Im still waiting for a top 10 silly item list. Like the peanut brittle cans that have fake snakes. I am just curious what youd think of.
I agree "potions as an action" isn't worth an action, but I'd rather solver that by boosting the power of potions. I "maximise" healing potions, so 2d4+2 always heals 10hp. Others can still apply a potion:
- mage hand
- familiar
- unseen servant
- helpful NPCs
Aa a new DM with only a few sessions in, I've been doing the 2nd half of number 9. The "How do you do this?" part. It feels like it gives them a connection to their characters. I got the idea from Cosmonaut Variety Hour.
A comment/suggestion about #8, I think it was? Or maybe it was #7? Somewhere around there. It's the one about exhaustion upon getting back up from 0 hit points. I'd also think magical healing would help with the exhaustion, since it's an otherworldly external force giving you the vigor to get back up and keep fighting. Maybe magical healing has a chance of negating that exhaustion, with the chance depending on what level it is, each spell having only say, a 10 or 15% chance per level of the spell to negate the exhaustion. Probably working the same when you cast, say, a cure wounds at 5th level: it'd still have a 50% chance of negating that exhaustion.
We've never rolled for ability scores.
We do "COMPLETE Point-Buy" where you are given 72 points (this number comes from the sum of the standard array) and you allocate them however you want. Only rule is no score can be higher than 18 nor lower than 3 unless it is because of your race modifiers.
We like this because:
- It lets us make characters as powerful as we imagine them to be.
- With decent stats in your main abilities, your PC fails less at what they're meant to be good at.
- It balances itself so that if you want a high stat then something else is going to have to be low.
- It encourages having some low stats which can be fun and allow players who've spec'd into having those as high stats to have their own spotlight. The bard is less likely to accidentally have an equal intelligence to the wizard.
- Everyone's on an even playing field. No players start by feeling "meh" about having rolled worse stats than other, luckier players at the table.
You may also need to adopt the mindset (if you haven't already) that having a 3 (-4) in intelligence doesn't necessarily make you an idiot. It just means that when the world tests you (making a check), you tend to fail under pressure more than someone else who's more confident in that ability. So you can still RP a PC with decent intelligence.
On strength vs dex and int being bad
Dex being a god stat is a really common talking point, but I actually HEAVILY disagree with it. It's just that the majority of classes require you to have high dex, and people don't really understand the limitations of dex. Let me explain. Having dex increases your AC: this is good, yes. However, it's never going to be BETTER than having full plate armor. The reason why only fighters and paladins wear full plate isn't because nobody else can wear it, it's because nobody else CAN. If wizards could wear full plate, you better fucking bet that they would.
The other limitation of Dex: dex weapons are not as good as str weapons. If you're doing sword and board, this is less of an issue, but for optimal DPS, a greatsword is always going to beat a rapier full stop. Yes, ranged weapons require dex you've got me there, but that's an exception. For melee damage, strength is always going to be optimal. And that's not even going into the benefits of Great Weapon Master, which require heavy weapons which are ALL strength dependent.
The final note on Dex: the dex skills are used more often than they should be allowed to. Specifically, acrobatics is not the be-all-end-all skill a lot of people make it out to be. If you have noodle arms, you aren't going to be a good swimmer. If you have weak legs, you shouldn't be able to jump far. Jump checks should never be able to be replaced with acrobatics unless the difficulty comes from the landing, I don't care how many fancy flips you do in mid-air it's not going to make you travel further. Climbing trees, again, athletics over acrobatics. Again, I don't care that you can flavor it as flipping around on a tree branch like an olympic acrobat, because you know what? That profession is technically an athlete. Those people need hella arm strength to do that shit. You think they can get away without doing basic physical fitness? You thought wrong, bitch. And for all the arguments of "Well, what if you aren't using your raw strength, but using your body in creative ways that apply skill and finesse?" That's why it's a skill check and not a raw strength check.
Don't get me wrong, dex is a good stat and there are certainly arguments to be made for dex builds being better than strength builds; particularly that ranged characters can get a similar (if not better) level of DPR than melee while also being ranged, but as a whole it's overrated because even though dex has a larger total number of things it effects, many of the individual things it effects are worse than the options that strength gets access to.
On INT; yeah, it kinda sucks. I'd argue that it doesn't matter, and it's actually better than charisma, though. The only skills that charisma effects are social skills, and you don't need more than one party member to be the face. And with the sheer amount of classes that have abilities that scale off of charisma, one of your party members probably already has that avenue covered. On top of that, charisma saving throws are the rarest ones in the game. Knowledge checks can be pretty important, too; it's really handy to have someone that can properly figure out what's going on, what the magic runes say or what suspicious things are hidden in the immediate surroundings. It's good enough of a stat to justify having an extra party member not dumping it.
Regardless, both CHA and INT skills are impactful enough to the game that I think it's fine for them to not have that many uses. Stuff like stealth and being able to lift weights are good for individual purposes, but finding a secret door or convincing the guard to look the other way is important for the whole team. Plus, I think it's fine for not all stats being equal. From an optimizing standpoint, it would kinda suck if everything was so important that you would always have a major flaw somewhere. And before I get a wave of people telling me that playing characters with flaws is fun, I get it, but it's not for everyone, and nobody wants to be a detriment to their team.
lol my players hit 0 hit points and then they completely give up! "ok I hit 0? fuck, I'm dead! geuss thats it... geuss I'll go get a drink" DM: wait wait! someone can revive you!" given allot of my players are inexperienced at dnd but it's kind of funny being like "yes seriously your not dead, get back here!"
Proficiency with the check just to help just seems too harsh. Suddenly your higher strength Half Orc Barbarian can't help move that rock because he decided he wanted to put his profiencies into Animal Handling and Survival for roleplay, the super smart Wizard can't help the Rogue solve an investigation, that Ex-cultleader Warlock with 20 charisma can't help the Bard persuade the shopkeeper to get a discount because Warlocks don't get the option to even get a persuasion or intimidation Proficiency. Honestly if you just want to keep the skinny armed wizard from helping the strongman Fighter push a rock just say you need to at least have a +1 or just not a negative to the ability check.
Good stuff, I'll have to consider some of these myself.
For 5e, I do player's choice: 4d6 drop one or standard array; although after two of my players rolled particularly badly in the same campaign, I'm thinking of changing. Maybe I'll go with the roll twice. In previous editions everything below a 15 was worthless, so I used to do roll 4d6, drop one, and the 3 highest rolls need to add up to at least 45.
I don't generally play with a time crunch and we don't play live, so pre-roll is unnecessary.
I like the exhaustion idea with death saves, I tend to run deadly campaigns though. Not impossible, but punishing for bad tactics and I roll the dice in front of the players, so no net. I'll bring it up to the group to see if we want to try it.
Feat at first level... this one requires some thought. I'll have to watch your video on it.
I've always done the PC describes the kill (been playing D&D since the 80s), it gets players fired up to land the killing blow.
I thought the proficiency needed to help someone was standard rules... looks like thats a homebrew of my group as well.
Tried potions as a bonus action, but the group prefers it to be an action for tough decision making.
I never had an issue with players shying from Str builds. Athletics checks can be brutal and come up often enough.
I like the Int, language or tool. More languages and tools means more RP options. I'll probably be adding this one.
For inspiration we have tried different schemes, our current one is everyone gets an inspiration point at the beginning of session. Use it or lose it, however, you must declare its use before rolling.
those ability scores rolls are just gettin silly .. why dont you just give your players 1d6 + 12? stop lying to yourself mate :) Or try a Manly grognard method .. 3d6 down the line and then you can swap two. Or why have rules for low scores at all? You may as well just have stats from 1 to 6 and assume the +12 in the engine as it were, build the game like that eh? Do you not realise, or just havnt experienced, the pleasure of playing with a buncha dung covered illiterate peasant suffering from scurvy and starvation .. where are your characters like that? They dont exist .. its Medieval Justice League isnt it lol
10. We roll 3d6 straight down the line and reroll anything less than a 7. It's a roleplaying game.
9. I have grids of random dice rolls for each dice printed out and just go down each column or across each row. As long as the total norms out to the average dice roll and there are no wild clusters of extreme highs and lows, it seems to work fine and it's really fast. Five orcs attack and it's miss, miss, miss, hit, miss as fast and you can tick off the rolls on the grid.
8. Hate HP and boomeranging. We've tried adding corruption (mutation, marks of darkness, etc.) to give near death a RP angle.
7. We don't use feats. Again, it's a roleplaying game.
5. Help action gets abused. If you have time and skill, and what you're attempting is possible, why roll? If you're an armorer, you can bang out a helmet given resources and time without assistance.
4. We use potions as a bonus action. The action economy in 5e already makes no sense with reactions, bonus actions, etc. being pulled out of thin air, so why not.
3. I find 5 Torches Down much more balanced when it comes to stats. 5e compatible and the supply system is really cool.
2. INT in 5 Torches Down ties to the supply system. You remembered to bring that 50 ft of rope when you really need it because you're smart. You cash in your supply points for gear when you need it and how many points you've got is determined by INT.
I like that STR weapon houserule, but 2-handers are already pretty powerful thanks to polearm master and great weapon master feats.
I think the big breach is between STR dual wielding vs DEX dual wielding and rapier+shield vs longsword+shield. STR d8 light one handers would be pretty nice.
STR weapons are supposed to have bigger die than non-finesse ones, but in practice that is not the case! if you want to use a weapon+shield you can get a d8 with DEX or STR. if you want to dual-wield then you're looking at d6's and d8's with the feat. the only benefit is you can throw some stuff like the handaxe but thrown weapons are already terrible thanks to how they interact with extra attack.
#10 2d6+6 or 18 16 14 12 10 8 array or a modified point buy
#9 is nice in close groups but has too many issues
#8 i would make it a chance roll
#7 i make it the "bad feat" at 1st lvl to add role play and more flavor for the story
#6 matt's trash homebrew can rot in the trash
#5 i ask them how they help and they have to add description of how they plan to help
#4 that isn't CR rule it's a general homebrew rule
#3 that sounds very unbalanced str is all ready very useful
#2 no int is used a lot for arcana brain checks illithid defences it isn't that under powered but the extra language(s) won't change much so it works
#1 i give more minor buffs like a dice increase (funny guidance cast) or a static bonus on a next check (+1 on next Charisma check) this way it cant be horded and
My DM does 4d6 drop lowest with 1 free mulligan, keeping the best out of the two sets, and always rerolling snake eyes. My DM hates snakes, apparently.
I personally gravitate towards stricter systems, such as base 5e rules, or rolling all stats in sequence, but when the group plays differently, it's no fun to diverge on some personally enforced hard-mode. So I don't. The one thing I hate is point-buy.
My favorite way to roll is roll 18d6. You then group them in 6 groups of 3. This makes you actually set that 18 if you want, but you also will probably have a few 1’s you have to deal with. This is great cause you can have the whole party join in with advice. Yes, it takes a LOT longer, but the DM and all players learn your stats and I have a lot more “hey you’re nimble you’d be good at X” interactions with my players.
responding to yours in order
10. as a Dm I have shifted from rolling to the standard array, leaning towards giving it a slight increase, 15 to 17 and 8 to 10, this has helped the one friend that struggles with 4d6 dropping the lowest actually rolling equal to or better than the standard array. Also avoids the I got total stat modifier of 16+ and the other guy going I +2.
9. Prerolling, not sure about that one, will have to think about it
8. Exhaustion/death saves. I find that when someone goes down it is because something is going very wrong, and after that fight, the whole party will be looking to take at least 1 short rest, maybe two
7.Feats at first level, my group is small, so parties of 2-3 aren't uncommon. Getting tough for free at level one and sometimes lucky at level one is more what we do. Not your choice, more of here is something that could help every class. I have been thinking about giving one based on background, Personality trait, Ideal, and flaw. I also have been thinking about giving feats as a reward for quests. The party steps in and saves this battered old man, who was a druid that was out of spells and abilities. He looks over the party sees the one person that has the 13+ wisdom, who seems to respect nature. Hey thanks for helping me, let me teach you something. You get the magic Initiate feat, where the player only picks 1, level 1 spell, I pick the other two.
6. I usually try to make the final blow on the big bad something epic, as the way I see their character would handle it based on the way they have been RPing
5. o.O I thought you needed to be proficient to use the help action, which is how I handle it. Also if it is a task like move the big rock, 1st helper adds advantage, second and up add a + to roll. Also if the 8 str, 20 int wizard goes I am going to use my int to help the fighter make use of leverage and counterbalance and pivot points to help the fighter, the fighter can now roll with advantage. He isn't helping push, but he is helping the fighter apply his strength more effectively.
4. Using potions as an action
3. In 3.5, Strenght + power attack and two-handers got way out of hand. I am not sure about this one. With the changes to power attack, I am not sure, this edition seems to be pushing towards using a one-handed weapon and a shield. Not sure about messing with that, without a lot of thought.
2. Intelligence is currently one of the dump stats. I think something like from an entirely different system where you do something like Initiative is some combination of Dex, Int, and Wis, or the average of Dex, Wis, and Int. And Int giving extra languages might work, now that you don't have skill ranks in a skill to increase the number of languages known.
1. Other than for bardic inspirations we don't really use Inspirations. I really do need to start doing that more often.
Those inspiration cards are neat, I have been thinking about bringing back the pathfinder crit hit/fail cards.