Actions Homebrew Rules

This article outlines numerous homebrew rules for actions and activities players can make during encounter or exploration. Some of these are new actions, others are altered versions of pre-existing DnD actions.

Assist

Reaction
You attempt to help an ally with a skill check or attack roll they are about to make. Before you use this reaction, you must first take time and prepare how you will assist in your ally's skill check. During encounters, this typically involves an action. You must first explain to the GM exactly how you are trying to help, and they determine whether you can Aid your ally.
When you use your reaction to Assist, you make a skill check or attack roll of your own, of a type determined by the GM. The GM sets the DC, which is usually 12, but it might be adjusted for particularly easy or difficult tasks.
If you succeed, your ally gains advantage on their skill check or attack roll. If you critically fail, your fumbling attempts to aid them give them disadvantage instead.

Bide Time

Free action
At the beginning of your turn, you can choose to hold back, waiting for the right moment to act. If you do so, the rest of your turn doesn't occur and you are removed from the initiative order. You can choose to return to the initiative order at any time after another creature's turn ends. This permanently changes your initiative to the new position. You can’t use reactions until you return to the initiative order.
If you wait an entire round without returning to the initiative order, the actions from the previous turn are lost, your initiative doesn’t change, and your next turn occurs at your original position in the initiative order.
Any persistent damage or other negative effects that normally occur at the start or end of your turn occur immediately when you use Bide Time. Any beneficial effects that would end at any point during your turn also end. The GM might determine that other effects end when you Bide Time as well. Essentially, you can’t Bide Time to avoid negative consequences that would happen on your turn or to extend beneficial effects that would end on your turn.

Counteract Poison

Medicine; Action
You must have a healer's kit in order to use this action. You attempt to stem the progress of a poison affecting another creature. Attempt a Medicine check against the poison’s DC. After you attempt to Counteract Poison for a creature, you can’t try again until after the next time that creature attempts a save against the poison.
On a success, the creature gains a +2 bonus to it's next saving throw against the poison. On a critical success, they also gain advantage on the saving throw.
On a critical failure, you accidentally weaken the patient's ability to fight the poison, giving them a -2 penalty to their next saving throw against the poison.

Deft Roll

Acrobatics; Movement
If you want to move through the space of an unwilling creature, you must attempt an Acrobatics check against their Dexterity saving throw DC as soon as you are about to enter their space. You can also use your fly, swim or climb speed if the environment is appropriate.
On a success, you move through the creature's space as though it were difficult terrain. If you did not have enough movement left to move through all of the creature's space, you treat your roll as a failure. On a failure, you cannot pass through the creatures space and it may take an attack of opportunity against you if it still has it's reaction.

Demoralize

Intimidation; Bonus action (auditory, emotion, fear, mental)
With a shout, cutting insult or taunt, you can make your enemy's resolve waver. Choose a creature within 30 feet of you and that you are aware of. Attempt an Intimidation check against the target's Wisdom save DC. You have disadvantage on the check if you do not share a language with the target. Regardless of the result, the target is immune to your Demoralize attempts for 10 minutes.
On a success, the target is Frightened 1. On a critical success (Succeeding by 10 or more or by rolling a natural 20), the target is Frightened 2.

Distract

Deception; Bonus action (mental)
You attempt to divert attention away from you with a quick gesture, trick, or some distracting words. However you frame your distraction, make a single Deception check. The GM compares your total to the Perception DC of the creatures you are trying to distract. On a success or a failure, creatures gain a +5 bonus to their Perception DCs against your attempts to Distract them again for 1 minute.
You become hidden to each creature whose Perception DC is less than or equal to your result. This allows you to Slip away. You remain hidden until the end of your turn, or if you move or perform any action other than Hide or Slip. If you are somehow able to make an attack action, you gain advantage on your first attack roll against a creature you are hidden from and then become observed.
On a failure, you do not become hidden from the creature and they are aware that you tried to trick them.

Emergency Aid

Medicine; Action
You must have a healer's kit in order to use this action. You can use this action in one of two ways; to stabalize a dying creature or to staunch persistent bleeding.

• Stabalize: Attempt a Medicine check on a creature that has 0 hitpoints and is dying against a DC of 15.
• Staunch Bleeding: Attempt a Medicine check on a creature that is taking persistent bleed damage, giving them a chance to attempt another check to remove the persistent damage. The DC is typically the DC of the effect that caused the bleed.

On a success, if you’re trying to stabilize, the creature is no longer dying (but remains unconscious). If you’re trying to stop bleeding, the creature immediately attempts a flat check to try and end the bleeding.
On a critical failure, if you were trying to stabilize, the creature immediately fails a death saving throw. If you were trying to stop bleeding, it immediately takes an amount of damage equal to its persistent bleed damage.

Escape

Action
You attempt to escape from being grabbed, immobilized, or restrained. Choose one creature, object, spell effect, hazard, or other impediment imposing any of those conditions on you. Attempt a check using either an unarmed attack, Acrobatics or Athletics check. against the DC of the effect. This is typically the Athletics DC of a creature grabbing you, the Sleight of Hand DC of a creature who tied you up, the spell DC for a spell effect, or the listed Escape DC of an object, hazard, or other impediment.
On a success, you get free and remove the grabbed, immobilized, and restrained conditions imposed by your chosen target.
On a critical success, you get free and remove the grabbed, immobilized, and restrained conditions imposed by your chosen target, and can move 5 feet without triggering attacks of opportunity against you.

Gain Insight

Insight; Bonus action
You try to tell whether a creature's behavior is abnormal. Choose one creature, and assess it for odd body language, signs of nervousness, and other indicators that it might be trying to deceive someone. The GM attempts a single secret Insight check for you and compares the result to the Deception DC of the creature, the DC of a spell affecting the creature's mental state, or another appropriate DC determined by the GM. You typically can't try to Gain Insight of the same creature again until the situation changes significantly.
On a success, you can tell whether the creature is behaving normally, but you don’t know its exact intentions or what magic might be affecting it. If you critically succeed, you determine the creature’s true intentions and get a solid idea of any mental magic affecting it.
On a failure, you understand only what a deceptive creature wants you to believe. If they’re not being deceptive, you believe they’re behaving normally. If you critically fail, you get a false sense of the creature’s intentions.

Hide

Stealth; Action
You huddle behind cover or deeper into concealment to become hidden. When you attempt to hide, you roll a Stealth check and the GM compares your result to the Perception DC (10+Perception bonus) of all creatures that you are observed by but that you have cover against, or are concealed from. You gain the bonus of either light cover or greater cover to your stealth check. The GM might decide to roll your check for you in secret in order for the results to remain immediately unknown.
On a success, if the creature could see you, you become hidden from it instead of observed. If you were already hidden or undetected by the creature, you remain so.
You become observed by a creature again if you cease to have light cover or greater cover against it or be concealed from it. You also cease to be hidden if you take any action other than to Slip or Hide. If you attempt to Attack a creature, you gain advantage on that attack, and you then become observed. If you do anything else, you become observed just before you act unless the GM determines otherwise. The GM might allow you to perform a particularly unobtrusive action without being noticed, possibly requiring another Stealth check.
If a creature uses Seek to make you observed by it, you must successfully Hide to become hidden from it again.

Recall Knowledge

Multiple skills; Bonus Action
You make a skill check to quickly scan your memories to try and recall useful information about a topic related to that skill. The GM determines which skills would apply and rolls for you in secret, comparing the result against an appropraite DC.
On a success, you recall accurate knowledge or gain a useful clue about your current situation. On a critical success, you learn an additional piece of information or context.
On a critical failure, you recall faulty or misleading information but believe it to be correct.
The following skills can be used to Recall Knowledge, getting information about the listed topics. In some cases, you can get the GM's permission to use a different but related skill, usually against a higher DC than normal. Some topics might appear on multiple lists, but the skills could give different information. For example, Arcana might tell you about the magical defenses of a golem, whereas Crafting could tell you about its sturdy resistance to physical attacks.

• Arcana: Arcane theories, magical traditions, creatures of arcane significance, and arcane planes.
• History: Local histories, key figures, legal institutions, societal structure, and humanoid creatures and cultures.
• Crafting: Alchemical substances and creatures, an items value, engineering, unusual materials, constructed creatures.
• Medicine: Diseases, poisons, wounds, and forensics.
• Nature: The environment, flora, geography, weather, creatures of natural origin, and natural planes.
• Religion: Divine agents, divine planes, theology, obscure myths, and creatures of religious significance.

Seek

Bonus Action
You cast about for signs of creatures or objects. If you're looking for creatures, choose an area you're scanning. If precision is necessary, the GM can have you select a 30-foot cone or a 15-foot burst within line of sight. You might take a penalty if you choose an area that's far away.
If you're using Seek to search for objects (including secret doors and hazards), you search up to a 10-foot square adjacent to you. The GM might determine you need to Seek as an activity, taking more actions or even minutes or hours if you're searching a particularly cluttered area.
In order to maintain a sense of uncertainty, the GM attempts a single secret Perception check for you and compares the result to the Stealth DCs of any undetected or hidden creatures in the area or the DC to detect each object in the area (as determined by the GM or by someone Concealing the Object).
On a success, if you were searching for creatures, any undetected creature you succeeded against becomes hidden from you instead of undetected, and any hidden creature you succeeded against becomes observed by you. If you were searching for an object, you learn its location or get a clue to its whereabouts, as determined by the GM.
On a critical success, if you were searching for creatures, any undetected or hidden creature becomes observed by you. If you were searching for an object, you learn its location. A creature you detect might remain hidden, rather than becoming observed, if you're using an imprecise sense or if an effect (such as invisibility) prevents the subject from being observed.

Slip

Stealth; Movement
You attempt to move carefully and quietly in order to become or remain undetected. When you Slip, you can move up to half of your speed (this can also be burrowing, flying, swimming etc if you have the appropriate movement type).
At the end of your movement, you roll a Stealth check and compare the result to the Perception DC of each creature you were hidden from or undetected by at the start of your movement. If you have either light cover or greater cover from a creature throughout your movement, you gain the appropriate bonus to your check (+2 for light cover and +5 for greater cover). You don’t get to roll against a creature if, at the end of your movement, you are neither concealed from it nor have light cover or greater cover against it. You automatically become observed by such a creature. The GM might decide to roll your check for you in secret in order for the results to remain immediately unknown.
If you’re undetected by a creature and it’s impossible for that creature to observe you (for a typical creature, this includes when you’re invisible, the observer is blinded, or you’re in darkness and the creature can’t see in darkness), for any critical failure you roll on a check to Slip, you get a failure instead. You also continue to be undetected if you lose cover or greater cover against or are no longer concealed from such a creature.
On a success, you are undetected by the creature during your movement and remain undetected by the creature at the end of it.
On a failure, some tell-tale noise or other sign has given away your position. You remain hidden from the creature throughout your movement and and at the end of it.
If you critically fail, you’re spotted! You are observed by the creature throughout your movement and remain so.