House Rules

House Rules are the common homebrew rules that are always in place at the campaign table. These should be discussed, debated, and agreed during Session Zero.

• Fractions of ½ always round up, rather than down. (Otherwise, 1d3 from a d6 divided by 2 gives possible results of 0, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3 rather than 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3.)
• You can change your mind, but only until dice have been rolled, or the result of the action (or subsequent action by somebody else) has been announced.
• Retrying a check under pressure (such as in battle or when time is of the essence) once adds a DC penalty of +5. Each subsequent attempt doubles the previous penalty. (First retry: +5, second retry: +10, third retry: +20, etc.)
  • Spending 10x the normal time to accomplish a task does still succeed, in line with DMG rules section on Multiple Ability Checks, given that a failure doesn't invalidate the chance of subsequent success. For example, searching a room in the heat of a battle and thoroughly searching it after there's no direct threat are two very different scenarios, and shouldn't be treated the same.
• Assisting somebody takes the form of two people (only) each rolling their own check with their own bonuses simultaneously (thus must be declared before the first die is rolled). This is basically a split advantage roll, as the best total result will be taken, but each total result has the modifiers of the individuals taking part.
• Re-roll results of 1 when rolling for hit points when gaining a new level.
• Any stat can be used for a skill check as long as there is a compelling reason given for it within the context of the story, the characters, and believability. For example, an Intimidation check can nearly always be made with either Strength or Charisma, as each are components to intimidating someone. But if you're attempting to intimidate somebody by making them look foolish with your superior knowledge of their job (and you have a trained related skill) then maybe Intelligence could be used, such as a Paladin skilled in Religion intimidating a Cleric by pointing out that they've been displaying their holy symbol upside down for years, thus shouldn't be telling the Paladin where she should or shouldn't go in the temple.
  • This rewards players choosing skills that aren't geared to gaming the system (min-maxing), allows for more creative roleplay, and makes encounters more memorable and rewarding.
• This is RAW, but observed: 1s don't always fail, 20s don't always succeed. 20s for attacks only always hit and crit, however, unless superseded by another rule.
  • There are many reasons for this, but chief among them is that it's silly that the impossible can happen (good or bad) 10% of the time.
• Bonuses are awarded for good or fun roleplay. For example, bard players really singing their inspiration or writing a haiku on the spot might give larger inspiration dice, or a player who doesn't use knowledge they have that their character does not (ie metagaming) may be rewarded by an advantage at gaining insight to a situation. But keep in mind the GM is capricious.
• Dexterity bonus does not apply to the AC while someone is affected with a condition that makes them automatically fail a dexterity check.
• Session Zero is an integral part of every campaign.