Dungeons and Dragonshas changed drastically over the years, with different versions and rulings depending on which one you choose to follow. While the core rules as written are an excellent basis and great for beginners to follow, some of the bestD&Dexperiences often come from homebrew content.
With legendary Dungeon Masters like Matt Mercer and Brennan Lee Mulligan both utilizing homebrew rules of their own,it’s clear that sometimes breaking the rules can make for even more memorable experiences. Aside from the standardD&Drules you might already ignore, like encumbrance or tracking rations, introducing new rules can offer just as much fun depending on your party’s preferences.
10Offering A Free Feat During Character Creation
Bringing Characters To Life With More Originality
Aside from a few notable exceptions, like the variant human,there aren’t many ways to acquire a feat at the first level inD&D, which can often limit the creativity and roleplaying potential of certain characters. While it can be difficult to balance at times, the homebrew rule of introducing a free racial or background feat is an excellent way to make low-level players feel more motivated to start a new campaign.
If you don’t feel like limiting players to racial or class-specific feats, you could also introduce generic first-level feats instead, letting everyone take advantage of the variant human’s ability equally. With how deadly early game encounters can be for low-level player characters, an early feat is a great way to enhance either survivability or roleplay potential, depending on your preference.
9Keeping Death Saving Throws Private For Even More Tension
Making Roleplaying In Combat All The More Engaging
As if life-or-death encounters weren’t scary enough inD&D, one of the easiest ways to keep a party on its toes during combat is by hiding death-saving throws from the party.While the threat of death is more than enough reason to help out a fallen ally, if you know they are safe or will be able to get back up soon, it eliminates much of the tension, which can be thankfully brought back by simply hiding their results.
Simply not knowing how many turns your knocked-down ally has to survive adds even more difficult decision-making to the mix,which can turn an easy victory into a nerve-wracking combat encounter. It’s up to you if you want to have the DM or player roll a character’s death-saving throws, but secrecy is key when it comes to raising the stakes, while letting the DM reveal it at will during a critical moment.
8Incorporating Alternative Resurrection Rituals
Making Death More Than A Simple Inconvenience
While character death can be a game-changing moment for some campaigns, later levels often turn this once-devastating moment into an annoying inconvenience instead. Although there are several ways to spice up the concept of reviving your fallen allies,Matt Mercer’s Fading Spirit resurrection rules offer a much more engaging way to play while offering meaningful consequences of repeated character death.
For player characters that fail to revive with unresolved storylines, you could also implement a grudge-like resurrection mechanic, where the character’s soul is bound to their body until they can complete their specific goal.
Rather than simply casting a spell or using a scroll to instantly revive someone, alternative resurrection rituals like Mercer’s turn the simple action into a roleplay-heavy moment, requiring creative thinking and collaboration to succeed. While the specific rulings and graveness can be up to your preference,having to perform a ritual where several members of the party attempt to bring back the soul of their friend is a surefire way to bring your group even closer together.
7Rules Of Cool Have Plenty Of Roleplay Potential
Rewarding Players For Thinking Outside The Box
The rule of cool has long been a staple ofD&Dtabletops everywhere, but its status as a classic homebrew rule doesn’t mean it’s being used to its full potential. With the rules ofD&Dmerely setting the stage for the story being told,flavorful moments can often warrant breaking the rules if it means elevating the experience to even greater cinematic heights.
To make these moments even more satisfying,you could also incorporate cool points into the mix to encourage the creative thinking that requires the rule of cool, and players who choose to engage with the game world. Rather than granting an advantage like standard inspiration, cool points could be spent for a flat additional bonus to a future roll, both in and outside of combat.
6Utilizing Alternative Rolls In Your Sessions
Not Every Skill Check Needs To Be Rolled As Written
While skill checks like intimidation can come from a variety of charismatic sources, like vague threats or tactful deliveries, it often limits the potential for other classes without the required stat blocks.It makes little sense how a bard can intimidate someone better than a barbarian wielding an axe twice their size inD&D, with homebrew rules helping to fill the gap between official guidelines.
Even if most skill checks are ultimately up to your DM’s discretion, there are still great advantages to be had from allowing strength instead of charisma for intimidation, among other alternative skill checks.Not only do alternative skill checks help sessions come alive, but they also encourage players who would normally be limited by their class to engage with different role-playing mechanics, like using dexterity for an art-related check or charisma instead of stealth to blend into a crowd.
5Exhaustion Spell Slots Provide Meaningful Tradeoffs
Offering A Final Stand In The Face Of Deadly Encounters
Spellcasters can gain access to some of the most powerful abilities you’ll come across inD&D, butpoor resource management or drawn-out adventures can quickly eat away at a player’s spellcasting capability. Rather than finding excuses to give your players a short rest or items to recuperate for lost spell slots, the homebrew mechanic of spellcasting exhaustion adds even more excitement topotentially party-wiping encounters.
For wizards, sorcerers, and other spellcasters who heavily rely on spells, being able to go beyond their limits in exchange for increasing levels of exhaustion tied to a spell’s level is a fantastic way to keep things entertaining, with meaningful consequences. Given how underused exhaustion mechanics are inD&D, this offset is a great way to incorporate them into your session while opening the door for game-changing sacrifices of fatal 6th-level exhaustion spells.
4Rolling With Emphasis For Intense Encounters
A Superb Way To Raise The Stakes For Meaningful Moments
In a game all about dice rolls,sometimes you need a rule like Brennan Lee Mulligan’s Rolling With Emphasis to keep things exciting, letting you raise the stakes compared to a traditional skill check. Using two D20s and taking the furthest result from 10, the action’s result will either be a resounding success or a critical failure, depending on which way the dice rolls.
Rolling with emphasis can also be included if the DM wants to add randomness or drama in a situation where a check would normally be a guaranteed success.
The only downside to rolling with emphasis is that it can only be applied to situations with binary outcomes and ignores modifiers,making the homebrew option a risky move with just as much potential for reward as disaster. Still, there are plenty of situations where a player would benefit from rolling with emphasis, like using a weapon to hold open a monster’s mouth or seeing if a lock breaks after being picked.
3Implementing The ‘How Do You Want To Do This?’ Staple
Ending Encounters With Flavorful Finishers
By far, one of the easiest ways to get players engaged in combat and roleplaying opportunities is by giving them more control over the outcome of an action. Being anotherD&Dstaple created by Matt Mercer,‘How do you want to do this?’ lets players decide how they want to finish off an enemy in a combat encounter, or narrate even more flavor to their roleplaying skill checks.
While it’s far from the most mechanical homebrew ruling, giving players the creative freedom to transform simple attacks or actions into cinematic spectacles is great for party morale, while opening the door for storytelling opportunities.This homebrew rule is also an excellent opportunity to hand out inspiration and other in-character bonuses, letting players show off their personalities or affect the narrative depending on how they go about completing a task.
2Using A Healing Potion As A Bonus Action
Giving Players Even More Options In Combat
Potions inD&Dare already expensive and rare enough on their own, but having them take up an entire action does little to make them an exciting part of combat. Rather than wasting an entire action and interrupting the flow of combat,it makes sense that homebrewing healing potions as a bonus action is by far one of the most common rulings.
To further balance using healing potions as a bonus action, many DMs require using them on allies or to throw them to still take up an action.
Unlike standard buff potions that can be prepared before combat or require careful planning during it, healing potions are purely a reactionary measure, acting as more of a survival necessity than anything else.Out of all ofDungeons & Dragons' rules that work so well, theyshould be official; using healing potions as a bonus action is easily at the top of the list.
1Adding A Final Stand For A Memorable Character Death
Sending Off Player Characters In Style
Dying is meant to be an incredibly powerful and consequential moment inDungeons & Dragons, butplaying byD&D’s official rules, most player characters and NPCs will often go out with an anticlimactic whimper. This is exactly where homebrew rules surrounding a final stand come into play, making character deaths feel all the more meaningful when they do occur.
Rather than having a character simply pass on during a fight,some DMs allow for a final action after their last failed death-saving throw, which can range from a motivational speech, action, or an attack that will automatically crit without needing to roll. To make these moments feel even morelike a blockbuster film, the DM could also incorporate hidden death-saving throws, making life-or-death encounters all the more tense leading up to the emotional moment.
