Homebrew
Over the years playing I've created a bunch of homebrew for my games, and it is my intention to begin creating a lot more. This page is will serve as a compilation of rules, enemy stat blocks, spells, items, etc.
Table of Contents
Rules
- Downed Condition
- Exhaustion points to affect Spell Save DC
- Resting in the Wild
- Fall Damage Increase
- Throwing a Creature
- Push Through
- Drinking Healing Potions
- Spell Scroll Rules
- Flanking
- Advantage & Disadvantage Stacking
- Heroic Inspiration Tweaks
Rules
Downed Condition
When damage drops your Hit Points to 0, you must make a Constitution Saving Throw with a DC of 10 or half the damage you took, whichever is higher. If you have exhaustion, you automatically fail this Saving Throw.
On a success, instead of falling unconscious you gain the Downed condition:
- Your AC is reduced by 2.
- Your movement speed is halved.
- You can’t take reactions.
- You can only take an action or a bonus action on your turn, not both. If you use the attack action you’re limited to only one attack.
- If you cast a spell with a casting time of one action, you have to roll a d20. On a 10 or higher you’re able to cast it as normal. If you roll below a 10, you finish casting the spell at the start of your next turn.
While Downed, you must roll Death Saving Throws at the start of each of your turns as if you were unconscious, and receiving healing will end the condition as normal.
When you fail three Death Saving Throws while Downed, you go unconscious, and must keep rolling Death Saving Throws at the start of each of your turns. On your next failure, you're dead.
Why use this rule?
Have you ever gone unconscious on the first round of combat, before you even got a chance to attack an enemy, and then had to wait half an hour for someone to heal you so you could get back into the fry, only to go unconscious again? Have you ever DMd for a group where people went unconscious and had to watch them sit there bored while waiting for the chance to play, while you're cringing because you know they're not having a good time?
This rule is an aid for this kind of situations. It aims to keep people playing if they pass the save while not trivializing combat. A death does become harder when a player can heal themselves out of Downed, but smart enemies are also incentivized to keep attacking those that are Downed because they still represent a threat in the battlefield.
It can also lead to some interesting situations: Does the Barbarian spend their turn healing themselves out of Downed, or do they keep cleaving at the enemy in order to kill it knowing they can be yo-yo'd back to Downed, or worse: Unconcsiousness and possibly death? Does the sorcerer still try to cast Fireball on a group of enemies, knowing the spell could be delayed to their next turn, giving them time to finish them off or get out of the way?
It's definitely not a rule for every group and it's very wordy. I tried to keep it as simple as I could, but that's a challenge I'm not sure I succeeded in. At least, the Downed penalties are the same as those from the Slow spell, so if you're familiar with it it will be more intuitive for you.
Exhaustion points to affect Spell Save DC
While you’re subjected to the Exhausted Condition you experience the following additional effect:
- Spell Save DC. When you cast a spell its Spell Save DC is decreased by 2 for each exhaustion point you have.
Why use this rule?
Because currently, in both 5e or 5.5e a caster can avoid most of the exhaustion penalties by simply casting spells that require the target to pass a Saving Throw. A wizard doesn't care much for one or two points of exhaustion when they can just fireball
If you think lowering the Spell Save DC by 2 for each point of exhaustion is too much, then simply lower it by 1.
Exhaustion doesn't feel like a real word anymore...
Resting in the Wild
Resting in the wild or inside of a dungeon will not provide you the same benefits as resting on a soft bed, inside the warmth of a tavern.
When you take a Long Rest in the wilds or inside adungeon, you have to spend your Hit Dice to regain Hit Points. If you're able to regain all your Hit Points, you manage to gain the benefits of a Long Rest, including getting half of your Hit Dice total back.
If you fail to recover all your Hit Points, you instead only gain the benefits of a Short Rest.
If you have exhaustion you can only gain the benefit sof a Short Rest, after which you lose a point of exhaustion.
Why use this rule?
This is a rule for more gritty, low power campaigns. Its purpose is to make adventuring excursions more dangerous, making you plan ahead. If you're forced to sleep in the wild or in a dangerous area, your character will be more alert, uncomfortable, restless and prone to waking up at the slightest sound, and this is represented by the difficulty in getting a proper rest requiring you to fully heal.
Over multiple adventuring days if you have a lot of combat scenarios and your character keeps getting hurt, your Hit Dice will begin to dwindle, and it will become harder and harder to get that Long Rest until you return to a truly safe place.
Will you be able to recover all your Hit Points during this rest, or will you have to drink some healing potions? Will the healer have to save some spells so they can treat your wounds before it's time to sleep?
Fall Damage Increase
Fall damage is increased to 1d10 bludgeoning per 10 feet fallen, up to 50d10 (Instead of 50d6).
Why use this rule?
Honestly it's just a personal preference of mine. Fall damage becomes more and more ignorable as you level up in D&D. A fall of 100 feet deals an average of only 35 damage, which is perfectly survivable after level 5, and trivial after level 10. With this rule that suddenly becomes an average damage of 55, which is a lot less ignorable, and a lot scarier.
And even with this rule, average damage after 500 feet becomes 275, which might be enough to instantly kill some of the squishy casters if they don't feather fall, but it won't be killing the raging barbarian.
Throwing a Creature
Courtesy of my friend Xormak!
Whenever you’re grappling a creature you can use your action to throw it.
Multiply your Strength Score with the value on the table, the vertical axis corresponding to your character and the horizontal to the creature you’re throwing. The value is then rounded down to the closest multiple of 5, so that it works on a 5-foot grid.
Throwing Table
| Tiny | Small | Medium | Large | Huge | Gargantuan | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tiny | 1/2 | 1/4 | 1/8 | -- | -- | -- |
| Small | 1 | 1/2 | 1/4 | 1/8 | -- | -- |
| Medium | 2 | 1 | 1/2 | 1/4 | 1/8 | -- |
| Large | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1/2 | 1/4 | 1/8 |
| Huge | 8 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1/2 | 1/4 |
| Gargantuan | 16 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1/2 |
For example: If your character is a medium creature with a Strength Score of 16 and they’re throwing a small creature, they can throw it 16 feet away, rounded down to 15 feet.
A huge creature with a strength score of 20 would be able to throw a small creature 80 feet.
A medium creature with a strength score of 10 would be able to throw another medium creature 5 feet.
Why use this rule?
Are you kidding? Who doesn't like throwing creatures! I don't think that needs an explanation.
The rule is a little more complicated than the standard 5th edition rules, but once you start using it it becomes more intuitive.
If you know you're going to be throwing creatures a lot, it's easy to simply write down which values matter for you on your sheet. Something like throw tiny: 60 feet, small: 30 feet, medium: 15 feet, large: 5 feet.
Push Through
When you’re being affected by the Paralyzed and Stunned conditions you can choose to take a turn as normal in exchange for gaining a point of exhaustion at the start of your turn.
Why use this rule?
To keep people playing. Nobody wants to sit on the sidelines while their friends wait for half an hour. Their turn comes around and they fail their save? Another half an hour looking at the ceiling.
It has the added benefit of making exhaustion more common, as well. What's not to love?
Drinking Healing Potions
If you're playing fifth edition, you can drink a potion with your Bonus Action.
On either 5e or 5.5e you may choose to drink a healing potion using your full action. Drinking a potion this way will heal you for the maximum amount of Hit Points it can recover.
I know, a lot of people use some variant of it but I might as well write it down. This one is personal preference. I believe healing potions are rather underwhelimg for their recommended prices. I also greatly value choice, and choosing whether to heal less using a bonus action and more using an action is appealing to me. Why use this rule?
Spell Scroll Rules
You can use the Magic Action to use Spell Scrolls from your class' spell list as normal.
If the spell is of a level higher than you can normally cast, you must succeed a DC 10 + spell level Arcana Check to be able to cast it.
If the Spell is not on your class' spell list, you must succeed a DC 10 + spell level Arcana Check to be able to cast it.
If you successfuly cast the spell, the Spell Scroll becomes a blank scroll, its magic spent.
If you fail to cast the spell, nothing happens. You keep the scroll, and you may try again on your next turn.
If the check to cast the spell is a Natural 1, the Spell Scroll's magic is spent in a volatile way, and you must roll on the Wild Magic table.
Why use this rule?
When I started playing fifth edition I and many others believes that the purpose of spell scrolls was so anyone could cast spells. It just makes sense: A caster makes a spell scroll, hands it to the fighter, and the fighter can read it to cast themselves.
Sadly that's not how it actually works. This rule works to amend that, while also having a possibility of failure. A fighter in combat might fail at casting a spell, thus wasting their turn.
This is a very permissive rule. If you want it to be more punishing, you can make it so any failure destroys the scroll, and/or having to roll on the Wild Magic table.
I also toyed with the idea of allowing nature and religion checks to cast from spell scrolls instead of arcana. Nature if the spell is on the Druid/Ranger spell lists, and religion if it's on the Cleric/Paladin spell lists. It does overcomplicate it, which isn't the goal, but it's flavorful. If you fancy the idea, give it a try!
Stealth with Armor
If you're wearing an armor that gives you disadvantage on stealth checks, and you must make a stealth check while you're standing still, you do not have disadvantage on the check.
Why use this rule?
Honestly I just think it makes sense. Armor gives you disadvantage on stealth because of the noise it makes when you move with it. If you're standing still you're not making said noise, and there's plenty of reasons why a DM might make you make a stealth check while you're standing still, like whispering.
Flanking
When you’re in melee range of an enemy and one of your allies is also in melee range of that enemy, you’re considered to be flanking it, as long as you’re not also being flanked.
Flanking gives you a +2 to melee attack rolls.
Why use this rule?
Like the flanking optional rule except instead of advantage, you get a +2 to melee attack rolls, and you can't flank if you're also flanked. This is meant to give melee combatants a little extra thought on their positioning and to reward players for working together.
Advantage & Disadvantage Stacking
If you have multiple sources of advantage, each source of advantage beyond the first grants you a +2 to your roll.
For example, if you’re attacking an enemy that’s just been hit by Guiding Bolt and you’re hidden, you have Advantage and a +2 modifier on the attack roll.
This also applies to disadvantage. If you have multiple sources of disadvantage, each one after the first gives you a -2 modifier.
Advantage and Disadvantage still can still cancel out, but if you have multiple sources of each, you're still affected by +2 or -2 modifiers unless you have an equal amount of Advantage and Disadvantages.
Why use this rule?
5e's design philosophy is basically Keep It Simple Stupid, and that's great, but I think they went too far with the way Advantage and Disadvantage works. So, you can be blind, poisoned, prone, and grappled, but one guiding bolt on the enemy and you're attacking them normally? I don't think that makes much sense! With this rule, guiding bolt neutralizes the disadvantage, but that'd still be a -6 to the attack roll. It's an extreme example, though.
A more benefitial example is that if you already have advantage on a roll, you can expend your inspiration to give yourself another source of advantage for a +2. In 5.5e where you can use inspiration after seeing the result of the roll, you can use this to guarantee a hit.
Heroic Inspiration Tweak
Inspiration is now divided into two types:
Inspiration. Which you obtain from your own features. For example, the human Resourceful feature, the Musician feat, the Champion subclass.
Heroic Inspiration. Which is awarded by the Dungeon Master.
You can only have one Inspiration point at a time, but you can hold as many Heroic Inspiration as your proficiency modifier.
Why use this rule?
I'm sure you think this looks weird, but I promise it'll make sense.
Firstly this is aimed at those groups that enjoy using inspiration and would like to have more uses: It is painful to have your only inspiration overwritten because you hadn't used it yet before you got a new one.
This is also aimed at DMs that like to award their players with inspiration, but might be miffed that there's multiple ways for the players to grant themselves inspiration.
Hence, we separate the resources into two. Their function is the same, but one is stackable and the other isn't. This is so that a player can't use the musician feat to say, get 4 points of Heroic Inspiration. They can only have one Inspiration, and the rest comes from their DM.
These cute dividers are made by saradika-graphics on Tumblr!