Bauta's 5th Edition Homebrew Rules

Rules and Mechanics used in Games

Major Changes to the Rules

This section are for rules that change what is written in the rule books or implement mechanics that have a larger role.

Alternating Initiative

Innate 5e initiative risks clumps of either the antagonists or the party going at the other. So, to avoid possible scenarios such as this, I alternate between characters in the initiative order.

For example, we have the party of 4 (labeled as A1-4), the baddies of 2 (labeled as B1-2), and the neutrals of 3 (Labeled as C1-3). The party rolls 6a, 7a, 17a, and 19a. The Baddies roll 16b and 14b. The neutrals roll 6c, 8c, and 13c. So, the turn order would go as follows: 19A, 16B, 13C, 17A, 14B, 8C, 7A, 6C, and 6A. Once the turns are organized, the initiative order numbers are adjusted relatively accordingly to factor in mechanics like lair actions.

Explained by, and adapted from, Taking20’s video as seen here:

Beginning Inspiration

At the start of a session, each player begins with inspiration. If a player leaves a session early, that inspiration may still be used if needed.

Critical Rewrite

When you roll damage for a critical hit, instead of rolling both damage dice, you max out one and roll the other. This is to keep critical hits powerful. For example, critical hit with a light crossbow: you max out the critical dice (getting an 8) and rolling the damage dice, then adding relevant modifiers. For multiple hit dice, like a fifth level character casting the likes of a Fire Bolt cantrip (2d10 damage dice) maxes out the damage dice, getting 20 + 2d10

Reroll the Double!

In the instance of an advantage or disadvantage roll, should both d20’s roll the same number (besides double nat 1 or double nat 20), reroll one d20 to determine a different higher or lower value to make outcomes more interesting.

Injuries

Receiving Injuries

Inspired by the Dragon Age franchise, a character that drops to 0 hit points as a result from taking damage will acquire an injury, which inflicts a minor penalty.

A character (or creature) that rolls a natural 20 can forfeit the additional damage (though, the base damage dice will still max out) and inflict an injury.

Injuries last indefinitely until the character seeks out some form of treatment. Each injury a creature has incurs a -1 penalty to a death saving throw.

Removing Injuries

One injury can be removed by a Lesser Restoration spell while Greater Restoration can remove three of them. One use of a healing kit can remove one injury.

The table below are some examples of random injuries that can be gained. Acquiring the same injury will accumulate the penalty, suggesting the injury has worsened and requiring more intensive care.

1d12	Injury
1 - Leg Injury	-5 to Movement Speed
2 - Hand Injury	-2 penalty on Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) checks
3 - Arm Injury	-2 penalty on melee attack rolls
4 - Leg Injury	-2 on Dexterity (Stealth) checks
5 - Head Injury	-2 on Wisdom (Perception) checks
6 - Chest Injury	-2 penalty on Strength (Athletics) checks
7 - Head Injury	-2 penalty on Concentration saves or Wisdom Saves
8 - Leg Injury	-2 penalty on Dexterity saving throws
9 - Arm Injury	-2 penalty on Strength checks
10 - Scar	-2 penalty on Charisma (Persuasion) and Charisma (Deception) checks
11 - Internal Injury	-2 penalty on Constitution saving throws
12 - Internal Injury	Hit point maximum reduced by a max roll of your class’s hit die

Minor Rulings

These are tedious and unspecified rulings you normally don’t find in the rule books or are minor alterations to the mechanics to add a bit of sensibility.

Chunking

Chunking get involved as an optional thing in a physical session to help reduce the tediousness of counting up all the dice that get rolled. Chunking is rolling two of the damage dice while averaging out the rest. For example, a wizard casting the famous Fireball spell (8d6 Fire damage) would roll 2d6 and just add it to the average of 6d6, which is 21. This way, there’s still a range of damage variability without counting up too much tedious die rolls.

Damage Once Overtime

Players and DMs are sometimes eager to inflict damage when it comes to recurring effects. To keep pace and simplify the effects to be on par with creature CR damage output, damage overtime effects inflict their damage or effect once per turn. When it occurs is based on the spell or feature being used, but if not specified, is to default to the start of a creature’s turn.

A great example is when a creature walks into a fiery floor. Some would be eager to say “They walked in it and are ending their turn! That’s two damage instances there!” I insist otherwise or they’ll be taking 4d6 one turn then 2d6 after that each turn, which breaks the consistency of the damage output.

Drunk Condition

Drunk creatures have disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks. To become drunk, you must drink a number of heavy drinks equal to your Constitution modifier (minimum of 1) or light drinks equal to double your Constitution modifier (minimum of 2).

Fall Damage Tweaks

When a creature is falling and lands on another creature, both will split the fall damage, rounding down. Using an action to “brace” and fall ten feet will cause half damage. Should a creature catch you when falling 10 feet, no damage is dealt.

The Huge and the Prone

If a target is two sizes larger than you, and it is prone, ranged attack rolls will not have disadvantage.

Magic Item Scaling

In the event that a magic item has a DC or attack roll that isn't specified, or the DM decides to override it, the DC and attack roll scales accordingly to the following:

The DC equals 11 + your proficiency bonus. Attack rolls equal to 3 + your proficiency bonus.

Multiple Advantage and Disadvantage Boost

When there’s a moment where you get multiple sources of advantage, you’ll still roll advantage and with a +1 modifier for each additional advantage source. Same applies to disadvantage but with a -1 penalty.

Opportunity Attacks for What?

Sometimes it’s confusing and uncertain to discern what qualifies for an attack of opportunity with things likes summoned creatures or the Spiritual Weapon spell. To clear the fog on the matter, only if the creature or summon has an initiative does it gain the ability to use an attack of opportunity.

Pushed Against a Wall

Should a creature be pushed into a wall or some other barrier, that isn’t from the Shove action, that creature will take 1d6 bludgeoning damage for every 10 feet of force. For example, if a creature stands next to a wall and a Gust of Wind spell is cast, a creature that fails the Strength saving throw is pushed 15 feet. The target cannot move further back so it would take 1d6 bludgeoning damage.

Originally, it was for every 5 feet pushed, a creature takes 1d6. Then I realized it could be greatly abused with Shield Master. “If you take the Attack action on your turn, you can use a bonus action to try to shove a creature within 5 feet of you with your shield.”

— MrBauta

D.A. Injuries Table Simplified

1d12	Injury
1 - Ability Penalty	-2 penalty on Strength or Dexterity checks
2 - Attack Penalty	-2 penalty on attack rolls
3 - Saving Throw Penalty	-2 penalty on saving throws
4 - Misc Penalty	-10 Movement speed penalty
5 - Ability Penalty	-2 penalty on Constitution or Intelligence checks
6 - Attack Penalty	-2 penalty on attack rolls
7 - Saving Throw Penalty	-2 penalty on saving throws
8 - Misc Penalty	-2 penalty on any save DC
9 - Ability Penalty	-2 penalty on Wisdom or Charisma checks
10 - Attack Penalty	-2 penalty on attack rolls
11 - Saving Throw Penalty	-2 penalty on saving throws
12 - Internal Injury	Hit point maximum reduced by a max roll of your class’s hit die

Additional Homebrew