General House Rules

The following are House Rules for the campaign. Most are borrowed from DnD personalities, including Matt Mercer and XP to Level 3.

Reroll 1's
When rolling to determine hit points after a level up, if a player rolls a natural 1 they may roll again. They can continue to reroll until they roll a higher number.

Vanilla Rules
"Each time you gain a level, you gain 1 additional Hit Die. Roll that Hit Die, add your Constitution modifier to the roll, and add the total (minimum of 1) to your hit point maximum. Alternatively, you can use the fixed value shown in your class entry, which is the average result of the die roll (rounded up)." PH pg 15.

Justification
Rolling a 1 sucks. Under these rules rolling for health is statistically balanced with choosing the fixed value option. ''Note: This section used to have a rule saying health must be rounded down instead of up. This was removed since the reroll rule makes the two options (fixed value or rolling) balanced.''

Attunement
A creature can attune to a magic item as an action and voluntarily ending attunement requires only 10 minutes. An item cannot be attuned if another creature is already attuned to it.

Identification
Most information about a magic item (including the written rules for the item) is learned when the item is attuned. However, some effects may take longer to be fully revealed, including short rests or longer.

Vanilla Rules
"A character can focus on one magic item during a short rest, while being in physical contact with the item. At the end of the rest, the character learns the item’s properties, as well as how to use them." DMG pg 136.

"Attuning to an item requires a creature to spend a short rest focused on only that item while being in physical contact with it (this can’t be the same short rest used to learn the item’s properties).

...

A creature can also voluntarily end attunement by spending another short rest focused on the item, unless the item is cursed." DMG pg 138.

Justification
Magic items that require attunement are almost always meant as a reward that can be used instantly. Making a character wait a full short rest to attune to the item and, potentially, another full short rest to learn all of the properties of the item is no fun.

Skill Points
Whenever a character is created they gain Skill Points equal to their Intelligence modifier. They can spend these points on any of the following effects. If a character's Intelligence modifier increases, they gain the same number of Skill Points and may spend them accordingly. Likewise, if a character's Intelligence modifier decreases, they lose any effects previously gained using Skill Points of the same amount. 1 - Not including Thieve's Tools

2 - A character can gain only one expertise this way

Justification
Intelligence is often a dump stat for characters. This adds an incentive to put a couple of points into it.

Flanking
When a creature and at least one of its allies are adjacent to an enemy and on opposite sides or corners of the enemy’s space, they flank that enemy, and each of them gains a +2 bonus to melee attack rolls against that enemy.

Vanilla Rules
"When a creature and at least one of its allies are adjacent to an enemy and on opposite sides or corners of the enemy’s space, they flank that enemy, and each of them has advantage on melee attack rolls against that enemy." DMG pg 251.

Justification
Flanking can add some fun war game mechanics to table-top gameplay, making combat more exciting. However, advantage on all attack rolls, as defined by the optional rules in the DMG, is a little too strong.

Lingering Injuries
When a creature takes damage from a single source equal to or greater than half its hit point maximum, it must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or suffer a random effect determined by a roll on the System Shock table. If this same damage reduces the creature to 0 hit points, they instead roll on the Lingering Injuries table for the appropriate damage type (tables to be added at a later date, see the Axe Master feat for an example for slashing damage). Note: these rules apply to PCs and NPCs alike.

Vanilla Rules
Basically the same as the optional rules for Injuries and Massive Damage (DMG pg 272-273). The only variation is changing the Linger Injuries table and providing concrete rules for when Lingering Injuries apply.

Justification
System Shock can help characters that deal out massive damage (Sneak Attack) have an added impact, even if the damage doesn't outright kill the enemy. And Lingering Injuries adds a real danger to player characters that isn't outright death.

Secret Death Saves
The DM rolls all Death Saves and reveals them to no one until combat has ended.

Increased DC
A character must roll an 11 or higher to succeed a death saving throw.

Medicine Check
When making a Medicine check to stabilize a creature, the check counts as one death saving throw for the subject. Like a death save, the DC of this check is 11, and regular death save rules for success and failure apply, including those for natural 1's and 20's.

Healer's Kit
This kit is a leather pouch containing bandages, salves, and splints. The kit has one use. Whenever you make a Wisdom (Medicine) check to stabilize a creature at 0 hp, you may choose to use a Healer's Kit. If you do, a successful roll automatically stabilizes the creature.

Vanilla Rules
"Whenever you start your turn with 0 hit points, you must make a special saving throw, called a death saving throw, to determine whether you creep closer to death or hang onto life.

...

Roll a d20. If the roll is 10 or higher, you succeed. Otherwise, you fail.

...

You can use your action to administer first aid to an unconscious creature and attempt to stabilize it, which requires a successful DC 10 Wisdom (Medicine) check." PH pg 197-198.

"Healer's Kit. This kit is a leather pouch containing bandages, salves, and splints. The kit has ten uses. As an action, you can expend one use of the kit to stabilize a creature that has 0 hit points, without needing to make a Wisdom (Medicine) check." PH pg 151.

Justification
Most of the above rules make it just a little harder for a character to be stabilized while making death saves. The raised DC makes the odds of succeeding a save without modifier an even 50/50 (instead of favoring survival) and nerfing Medicine checks and the Healer's Kit incentivized players to take proficiency in Medicine (by vanilla rules even without proficiency a character could still be a strong healer). Finally, making death saves a DM secret adds a sense of urgency to healing a fallen comrade.

Group Skill Checks
When applicable the party can nominate one member to lead the effort in a group skill check, such as intimidating a creature, searching a city for a specific location, or navigating through treacherous terrain. In these situations, only one party member may make the required skill check, determining the entire party's success. If another member of the party has proficiency in the same roll, they may use the Help action to grant advantage on the skill check. In other situations, each party member is required to make their own roll and succeed or fail as individuals, such as sneaking through a location or recalling a piece of lore.

Vanilla Rules
"To make a group ability check, everyone in the group makes the ability check. If at least half the group succeeds, the whole group succeeds. Otherwise, the group fails." PH pg 175.

Justification
The vanilla rules are a little cumbersome and don't make a lot of dramatic sense. The idea is one person must be the one to ultimately make a decision, right or wrong, for the group.

For example, if the entire party is navigating through the woods and everyone made their own Wisdom (Survival) roll to avoid getting lost, some members would invariably fail the roll. In-game this means that the party would disagree on which way to go and be forced to either split up or agree on one direction. Out-of-game, it's hard to roleplay agreeing on a direction without taking into account the very visible rolls you all just made. Instead, the party nominates one character, along with one helper if using the Help action, to lead them through the woods.

Weapon Master Feat
When you take the Weapon Master feat you can choose to forgo the added weapon proficiencies and instead learn one fighting style of your choice from the options in the Fighter class.

Vanilla Rules
You have practiced extensively with a variety of weapons, gaining the following benefits: PH pg 170
 * Increase your Strength or Dexterity score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
 * You gain proficiency with four weapons of your choice. Each one must be a simple or a martial weapon.

Justification
Many characters in classes that don't get a fighting style still focus on martial weapons. This adds an easier option for a character to master their weapon, without being forced to multiclass just for a fighting style.