The small crop of "house rules" grew as I began to put them down on paper for edification and clarification purposes. That said they aren't so much house rules, as drawing my Players attention to the rules within the books we would be adhering to.
In no particular order
I have always hated how hand-wavy 5e is with the identification of magic items; this may also be one of the area's I disagree with Gygax over the implementation of something from AD&D.
Though I will admit this may just be due to my own ignorance.
Thus we will be using a stricter version of the DMG variant - More Difficult Identification.
Discovering the properties of a Magic Item: (this includes potions) requires the use of the Identify spell; a service which can be sought in the city, for a fee. With regards to Potions; a little taste is not enough to tell the taster what the potion does. Especially given the anecdotal tales of Potions of Poison, and the ill advised action of mixing potions.
Potion Miscibility is an underutilised table in its own right.
Coin Weight: A standard coin weighs about a third of an ounce, so fifty coins weigh a pound.
There's no surprise I am implementing this rule when there's 1000's of lbs of gold coins up for grabs.
Encumbrance: If you carry weight in excess of 5 times your Strength score, you are Encumbered, which means your speed drops by 10ft. If you carry weight in excess of 10 times your Strength score, up to your maximum carrying capacity, you are instead Heavily Encumbered, which means your speed drops by 20ft and you have disadvantage on ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws that use Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution. When using this rule you ignore the Strength column of Armour.
Pairs perfectly with the ruling above it, and is part of cultivating the correct mindset.
Equipment Sizes: A suit of plate armour made for one human might not fit another one without significant alterations, and a guard’s uniform might be visibly ill-fitting when an adventurer tries to wear it as a disguise. They might need to visit an armour smith, tailor, leatherworker, or similar expert to make the item wearable. The cost for such work varies from (1d4 x 10)% of the market price of the item. The increase in cost based on the extent of the alterations required.
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Another area I feel often gets hand-waved, is sleeping in armour. Most of the times the DM asks if you've set a watch and then if anything happens during it the other party members spring up fully ready for action.
Hence my feeling the need to clarify:
Sleeping in Armor: Sleeping in light armour has no adverse effect on the wearer, but sleeping in medium or heavy armour makes it difficult to recover fully during a long rest. When you finish a long rest* during which you slept in medium or heavy armour, you regain only one quarter of your spent Hit Dice (minimum of one die). If you have any levels of exhaustion, the rest doesn’t reduce your exhaustion level.
- Don. This is the time it takes to put on the item. You benefit from its AC only if you take the full time to don it.
- Doff. This is the time it takes to take off the item. If you have help removing armour, reduce this time by half.
*Reminder: If the rest is interrupted by a period of strenuous activity — at least 1 hour of walking, fighting, casting spells, or similar adventuring activity — the characters must begin the rest again to gain any benefit from it. And a character can't benefit from more than one long rest in a 24-hour period, and a character must have at least 1 hit point at the start of the rest to gain its benefits.
Which dove tails nicely with a clarification on.
Waking Someone: A creature that is naturally sleeping, as opposed to being in a magically or chemically induced sleep, wakes up if it takes any damage or if someone else uses an Action to shake or slap the creature awake. A sudden loud noise — such as yelling, thunder, or a ringing bell — also awakens someone that is sleeping naturally.
Whispers don’t disturb sleep, unless a sleeper’s passive Wisdom (Perception) score is 20 or higher and the whispers are within 10ft of the sleeper. Speech at a normal volume awakens a sleeper if the environment is otherwise silent (no wind, birdsong, crickets, street sounds, or the like) and the sleeper has a passive Wisdom (Perception) score of 15 or higher.
And then this whole adjudication is continued with.
Going without a Long Rest: A long rest is never mandatory, but going without sleep does have its consequences. If you want to account for the effects of sleep deprivation on characters and creatures, use these rules.
Whenever you end a 24-hour period without finishing a long rest, you must succeed on a DC10 Constitution saving throw or suffer one level of Exhaustion*.
It becomes harder to fight off exhaustion if you stay awake for multiple days. After the first 24 hours, the DC increases by 5 for each consecutive 24-hour period without a long rest. The DC resets to 10 when you finish a long rest.
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Now while we wont be using the Gritty Realism rules (Short rest = 8hrs, Long rest = 1 week), I will be rolling more encounter checks if the Party attempt to rest in an actively hostile area, like a dungeon.
And coupled with the Healer’s Kit Dependency - A character can’t spend any Hit Dice after finishing a short rest until someone expends one use of a healer’s kit to bandage and treat the character’s wounds.
Should curtail their desire to Short Rest after every encounter.
Failing that, not every monster is out to get them and I will be using the Social Interaction rules to give the setting a more organic feel, and to relieve myself of some of the cognitive load. I will be using Reaction Rolls to determine how the majority of NPC's first treat the PCs (this includes monsters). A 2d6 roll modified by the Charisma Mod of the "lead" character (applying any penalties) - since updated.
Which pairs nicely with the Monster's Desires from Tashas - Parlaying with Monsters.
We will also be using Material Components - Some Material components must be sought after from rarer high end venders or crafted separately, requiring time and additional expenses. Which I feel often gets hand-waved in most games.
And a small change to the Wizards Class Feature: Savant - The Savant 2nd level class feature now extends to Scribing Scrolls of your chosen School. As given the encouragement of Downtime Activities, I feel this should encourage spellcasters to interact with another underutilised system of the game.
Copying Spells from Scrolls: Given the fact Waterdeep has several Wizard schools and Magic Towers, Wizards will find expanding their initial spell selection easier. Especially given that as a Downtime activity Scribing a 1st level spellscroll takes a single day and a material cost of 25gp, but retails for an average of 50gp (per the Selling a Magic Item downtime rules).
Or a scroll of a 1st level spell could be found on the market for anywhere between 10 - 35gp (as per the Buying a Magic Item downtime rules). And copying them into your spellbook takes only 2 hours and 50gp of materials per spell level. (Scrolls can also appear in the Treasure Hoards of CR 0 - 4 Creatures)
However, there is a complication:
"When a spell is copied from a scroll the copier must succeed on a DC10 + spell level Arcana (Int) check."
Failing which they lose the scroll and must make a DC10 Int Save or suffer a Mishap!!
This also applies to the Warlock Invocation: Book of Ancient Secrets, and the Ritual Caster feat.
Because I feel that magic should be mysterious and dangerous for the uninitiated. Copying from a Wizards spell book is like transcribing a technical manual. With all the workings clearly shown.
Whereas, copying a spell from a scroll is like assembling Ikea furniture. You have the instructions to hand, but you can't make heads nor tails of the short hand or jargon.
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Tools: Using your proficiency in the Tool to perform the associated Skill will grant the check Advantage. See the Tool Proficiencies in Xanathars for further clarification, to hopefully encourage more interaction with this system of the game as well.
And finally a couple of Addendums to previous rulings:
Training (Addendum): Any character of Higher level, of specific Class or Background, can serve as an Instructor to a lower level character. Training them up to their current Level or Competency (in a language or tool proficiency).
Lifestyle (Addendum): Living a Wretched, Squalid or Poor lifestyle within the city brings with it additional ills. Group Penalties to Social Interactions, and an increased % chance of Disease, Theft, Violence or Restlessness, per workweek spent living in these conditions.
While living a Comfortable, Wealthy or Aristocratic lifestyle will bring you increased success when mingling with your peers. There is a risk, % chance per workweek spent living this way, that you will be the target of Blackmail or Burglary. Worse still, one might find themselves embroiled in some sinister intrigue or plot.
As Wealth and Fame have their own pitfalls.
This is how I am gamifying the implications in the text of the Lifestyles in the PHB. Drawing inspiration from AD&D's monthly disease and parasite check.
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