My Homebrew Rules

For my D&D 5th Edition Saturday campaign, I have a lot of homebrew rules that I use. This is mostly for those of you that play with me every week, but feel free to use these rules and changes for your own campaign.

House Rules for Short or Long Rests:

• Healer’s Kit Dependency: A character can’t spend any Hit Dice after finishing a Short or *Long Rest until someone expends one use of a healer’s kit to bandage and treat that character’s wounds.
• Slow Natural Healing: Characters don’t regain hit points at the end of a long rest. Instead, a character can spend Hit Dice (if someone has used a healer’s kit to bandage that character’s wounds) at the end of a Long Rest, just as with a Short Rest. At the end of the Long Rest, characters regain spent hit dice equal to their character level divided by four (minimum of one die)
• Benefits of a Good Meal: Each character has to consume at least 1 pound of food and 1 gallon of water each day. This can be split into multiple meals or consumed all at once. The quality of the food and healing received, are determined by the quality of the restaurant, tavern, or inn.
  • Consuming Rations does not grant temporary hit points
  • Wretched – No temporary hit points
  • Squalid – No temporary hit points
  • Poor – 1d4 temporary hit points
  • Modest – 1d6 temporary hit points
  • Comfortable – 1d8 temporary hit points
  • Wealthy – 1d10 temporary hit points
  • Aristocratic – 1d12 temporary hit points
• Finding food as a party can be made easier with the help of the “Chef” feat, or a character with proficiency in Cook’s Utensils. A Ranger skilled in survival can hunt or forage for food over the course of 1 to 2 hours depending on available resources determined by the DM.

Add the following effects to the listed spells:

• Lesser Restoration: This spell may be used to remove one level of exhaustion or to cure a minor hangover.
• Greater Restoration: This spell may be used to remove all levels of exhaustion.

Back from Death: Having your soul pulled back into your body is a tryingprocess. Should a creature die by any means and be resurrected through the useof spells such as “Revivify” they come back with 5 levels of exhaustion. Theexceptions to this rule are “Reincarnate” and “True Resurrection”.

Falling Unconscious: Falling unconscious works the same, with the addition of 1 point of exhaustion added when you are stabilized. THIS EFFECTS DEATH SAVING THROWS.

Damage types w/ additional effects:

• Cold Damage: When you take cold damage make a Constitution saving throw equal to half the damage taken, or 10 whichever is higher. On a failure, the target’s movement speed is reduced by 10 feet until the start of the attacker’s next turn, and have disadvantage on saving throws, and ability checks involving Dexterity. Creatures with a resistance to cold damage are only reduced by 5 feet until the start of the casters next turn.
• Fire Damage: Lights flammable non-magical materials worn, carried, or in the radius of the spell on fire. The fire can be put out by using an action to douse the flames with water or pat them out.
• Necrotic Damage: This is by far the most deadly type of damage for living creatures to sustain. When you take Necrotic damage, your hit point maximum is reduced by the amount of damage taken. This reduction in hit points may be removed by the effects of “Greater Restoration” or higher magic. (ie. A 5^th level or higher spell of similar magic) A skilled Cleric of 5th level or higher may also attempt to reduce some of the damage taken by expending a spell slot to cast a healing spell making a spell ability check with a DC equal to half the remaining Necrotic damage or 10 whichever is higher. On a success the dice are rolled for healing and then applied to the Necrotic damage. On a failure the dice are rolled for healing and halved, then applied to the Necrotic damage. If you are reduced to 0 hit points from the effects of Necrotic damage, you die instantly having your body rapidly start to decay. If caught in time, the effects of spells such as “Revivify” can restore your soul to its body. This reduction in hit points does not effect creatures of evil alignment, undead, fiends, and aberrations.
• Radiant Damage: Functions the same way as Necrotic, except on creatures of an evil alignment, undead, fiends, and aberrations.
• Lightning Damage: When you take lightning damage make a Constitution saving throw equal to half the damage taken, or 10 whichever is higher. On a failure, the target begins to spasm and their muscles tense. The target or targets have disadvantage on attacks until the start of the attacker’s next turn and have disadvantage on saving throws and ability checks involving Dexterity. Creatures with a resistance to lightning damage have advantage on the Constitution saving throw to resist these effects.

Advanced Spellcasting: If you are a spellcaster you are no longer limited to onenon-cantrip spell per turn. When you take the spell attack action on your turnto cast a 2^nd level or lower spell, you can use your bonus action tocast a 1^st level or cantrip spell with a casting time of 1 action or1 bonus action. This effect also works in reverse. (ie. Casting a 2nd level Misty Step as a bonus action and then utilizing the spell attack action to casta 1^st level Magic Missile.)

• This advanced spellcasting can be further amplified by the effects of the Feat “Spelldriver”.
  • Add to the “Advance Spellcasting” option: “However, should you cast two or more spells in a single turn, only one of them can be of 3rd level or higher.”

Path of the Berserker Barbarian feature “Frenzy”:

• Add the following to the Path of the Berserker feature “Frenzy”: “You may go into a frenzy on any of your successive turns as long as your rage lasts.”
• All the other effects of “Frenzy” still take effect the same way.

Bard Jack of All Trades: Add the following to the “Jack of All Trades” feature:

• “This feature does not apply to initiative or spell ability checks. Once you reach 10th level remove this restriction.”