House Rules make Games Interesting!
The following house rules are used as part of the Knights of the Crown campaign and will likely be included in the forthcoming Core Compendium, but feel free to plug any or all of these into your own campaign or game world.
Crit Counter
As characters deal critical hits in combat, the crit counter fills up from 0 to 10, giving them opportunities along the way to deal extra damage on their attacks. The counter only fills up on natural d20 results of 20 (a critical hit) during combat and doesn't apply to other skill check, knowledge checks, or other instances where a d20 is rolled. When the crit counter is full, any critical hits achieved while it is full do not get added to the counter for either current nor future use.
At different points on the counter, players can choose to use their accumulated points for special bonuses. If used, the counter is depleted by that number of points (see table below).​
Death & Dying
This house rule changes the way dying works in a couple of ways, as described below. The aim is to make dying more of a danger, thus increasing the actual difficulty of combat. You can use any of these modified rules individually or all together.
- Death by Damage
A character dies if their hp drops to a negative amount equal to 1/2 their hp total instead of their full hp total. For example, a character with 40 hp dies if they reach -20 hp. If an attack deals enough damage to reduce a character to this amount, they die instantly, with no chance to make saving throws.
- Bleeding Out
This rule adds a greater risk of death for characters who are dying and have not been stabilized. For every failed saving throw, the character loses one hit dice's worth of hp until they either fail three saving throws or reach - 1/2 their hp total, whichever comes first. Once stabilized, the character stops losing hp. For example, Magnus's hit dice are 1d10s and his hp total is 60. An attack takes him down to -13 hp. He fails his first death save and rolls a 1d10 for 8, reducing his hp to -21. He succeeds on his next save, but fails the third, rolls another 1d10 for 9, reducing his hp to -30 which kills him.
- Saving Throws
A success on death saves is 11 or higher on a d20 roll, not 10 or higher.
- Injuries
If a character is reduced to 0hp or negative hp by a critical hit, they have a chance of receiving a permanent injury as well. The DM rolls a d20. An even number rolled means no injury, while an odd number means the character receives an injury. The DM then rolls on the Injury Table (DMG p. 272).
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Sample Motive Trait List
Brawn Hammerhand, Lawful Good
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Compassion - 1
Dutiful - 3
Honest - 1
Selfless - 1
Trustworthy - 3
Proud - 3
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Brawn is trustworthy and can always be counted on to do his duty. He has a stubborn proud streak.
Step by Step Guide
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Choose your character's alignment.
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Find your alignment on Table 1.
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Roll (or choose) on the corresponding categories in Tables 2 and 3 for your alignment to come up with your character's six motive traits.
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Assign your 12 motive points to the traits, giving each trait a minimum of 1 point (see sample above).
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Motive traits can be given to NPCs by DMs as well who are looking to flesh them out a little bit. It can be a good help to think, "Why does this character do what they do? What drives them?"
Motive and Traits
This custom game mechanic changes the system of personality traits currently found in the 5E core rules and expands on the system. It's designed to allow a player to flesh out their character a little more and help them think of how their character is going to act in certain situations. The system is based on a character's alignment and allows a player to draw on traits from the five alignment categories: good, evil, lawful, chaotic, and neutral. It uses a system of motive points to determine which trait is a character's strongest (i.e. the one they are most influenced by and likely to act upon).
Characters have six motive traits and twelve motive points, which get divided up between the traits at the player's discretion. The only rule is that each trait must have a minimum of one trait point allotted to it.
When deciding a character's traits, a player can either choose them from the appropriate lists based on alignment, or can roll on the tables for random selections.
The first table below shows which categories traits are to be chosen from according to alignment. The numbers in each column indicate how many choices are to be made from each category. Numbers marked with a '*' indicate that players can roll in either of those categories, while a '-' indicates no choices are to be made from that category (unless the DM allows for it).
For example, a Lawful Good character would have 3 traits from lawful, 2 from good, and 1 from either neutral or chaotic, and none from evil.
See below the following tables for a step by step motive selection guide.
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Exploding Damage Dice
This rule applies to damage rolls in combat only (not to d20 rolls for attack) and applies to any attack that requires dice to be rolled, whether it be melee, ranged, or magical in nature. Whenever a "perfect roll" occurs for any damage dice (that is, when a die rolls its maximum number), that dice 'explodes' and can be re-rolled, with the new result added to the damage total. This process continues for as long as a die comes up with its maximum roll. Both normal damage dice and any bonus dice can explode. Any additional modifiers from proficiency or other sources does not stack on multiple rolls and still only applies once, to the total damage.
Example: Magnus rolls his attack and hits. His Greataxe deals 1d12+9 damage. He rolls a natural 12, which means he gets to 'explode' his d12 and roll it again. This time, he gets a 7. Adding the exploded roll to his original damage, he deals 12+9+7=28 total damage.
Example 2: Kava casts Fireball and rolls 8d6 damage, with the following results: 6,6,6,4,4,3,3,1 (33). Kava re-rolls the three 6's for a result of 6,2,2 (10). She rolls the six a third time, and gets a 4. The total fireball damage is 33+10+4=47 total damage.
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Exploding Criticals
This mechanic applies to critical hits in combat (natural 20s). If a 20 is rolled on an attack roll, two things happen:
1. The damage dice deal maximum damage, and,
2. The damage dice are considered to have exploded and can be rolled again (continued until no max rolls occur).
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Inspiration
The PHB has inspiration as something that grants advantage on rolls and that doesn't stack. This mechanic modifies those rules to make inspiration points something that accumulate and which can be used in a couple of different ways.
Accumulation and Use
Characters still gain inspiration as normal, for example, by acting in a manner that fits their personality traits, ideals, bonds, motives, etc. Inspiration points accumulate as they are acquired, but more than one cannot be used at a time - after all, inspiration should still be seen as something momentous and occasional, not frequently occurring. Only one inspiration point can be used between long rests, and only one inspiration point can be used to give a bonus to one specific check, roll, or character at any given time. For example, if one character uses inspiration to roll with advantage, another character can't use one of their inspiration points to give more advantage.
Inspired Aid
Use an inspiration point to the aid the roll (including saves, but not death saves) of yourself or another. The inspiration must be given or declared used prior to the roll being made and can only be used if a character is able to be inspired (for example, an unconscious player cannot receive inspiration). Aid can be given in one of two ways:
1. Gain/give advantage on the roll
2. Roll 1d8 and add the result to the roll
The character giving inspiration decides how it is used, not the recipient.
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Inspired Reflex
Allows a character to use an inspiration point to re-roll any unfavourable dice roll at any time, including critical fails. Only one point can be used per roll however. In other words, a dice cannot be rolled over and over again indefinitely (see rules on use above).
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Critical Initiative
A natural 20 on a d20 initiative roll guarantees first spot in the initiative order (for characters and creatures). If more than one combat participant rolls a natural 20, whoever has a greater initiative bonus goes first.