Reflecting on Homebrew Rules for 5E

In my Nentir Vale campaign for 5E, I established a handful of rules we'd be using in our game. Two years into that campaign, I thought it time to reflect back on how these rules actually played out at the table.

Proficiency Dice

An alternative rule in 2014 D&D 5E, proficiency dice replaces static proficiency with an added die roll.

D&D Beyond has all but killed this. We made characters by hand (books, pen, and paper) and I discouraged using D&D Beyond. When we transitioned to online play, most players still stuck their characters in there anyways. Without support, this rule was difficult to implement and ultimately tossed out.

Lingering Injuries

Another alternative rule from 2014 that resulted in rolling an injury when a character takes a critical hit or drop's below one hit die's worth of hit points.

I've used this in previous campaigns and just like those campaigns, I simply forget it more often than not. I don't have a good system as a game master for making critical hits and fumbles more interesting in the moment. I mostly improv. This is an area I'll be exploring more to better be prepared.

Instant Death! (Sort of)

In my attempt to make death meaningful, I opted for the following:

Resurrection magic is only achievable through rare NPCs and often requires entire quests to acquire it.

When a player character reaches 0 hit points, they're dead and the player rolls 1d6. On a 1-5, the character is mortally wounded: they're considered dead but when the battle is done, they still have a moment left to say goodbye. On a 6, the death blow is instant and clean.

Spare the Dying can only save a creature that is mortally wounded before combat ends.

That last bit regarding Spare the Dying was added after a character asked about it in-game. I didn't clarify it ahead of time so I've let them use it and it's been the primary shield for the party avoiding character death. I still enjoy this death variant and it makes the players much more focused on smart fights.

Legend Dice

Inspired by Flex Dice, these allow for players to add some weight to influence the moments that matter to them and their character. We replaced Inspiration with this approach.

You have 1d6 Legend Dice per character level.
Your pool of Legend Dice resets at the beginning of each session of play.
You can spend Legend Dice to:
- Add d6 to any d20 roll.
- Inflict an additional d6 damage on a successful hit.
- Block d6 incoming damage.
You may use multiple Legend Dice at the same time.
Legend Dice cannot be used to alter a Critical Failure.

It took a few sessions for players to remember these but they've been a huge success. The added weight helps offset the higher risk of death from the previous rule. They've not been used to "turn the tide" by any means but do provide some neat moments.

Heroic Initiative

All player characters will act first, in their static initiative order. Ties are determined by the players at the beginning of the campaign (or anytime initiative bonuses change, resulting in a tie)—not after combat begins.

All hostile creatures will then go, in their static initiative order.

Legendary creatures always act before player characters.

While losing the "roll initiative!" to kick off every combat did blunt a bit of excitement at first, it was worth it. It saved time from rolling and back-and-forth sorting. In the rare occurrence where a legendary creature goes first, it really stands out. It's not the only way to approach initiative, but it's worked out well for us.

Additional "Rules/Clarifications" We Used

• The Shield spell cannot take your AC beyond 23. I'll be honest, I forgot this rule more often than not so it was tossed out.
• You can only use the Help action outside of combat if you're proficient in the task or if it's a task that reasonably wouldn't require proficiency (pushing a boulder). I forget this one as well but I think it's a reasonable clarification to make.
• Flanking does not grant Advantage or bonuses to attacks. This one took a session or two for players to remember. But after that, smooth sailing.

Lessons Learned

Looking back on these rules and how they performed in play, here are my takeaways:

• When a rule isn't providing value, it's ok to toss it out.
• Rules that trigger only rarely (criticals, casting a specific spell, etc) need a simple system in place to keep them top of mind. Rather than rolling injuries for characters when they're critically hit, I'd opt for all critical hits triggering a roll on some sort of "effects" table.
• D&D Beyond is a plague that must be killed with fire. I kid. But it does make executing certain homebrew rules nearly impossible. As I shift my players to Foundry for online character management, I hope to solve some of these pains.

Game on.