Homebrew Elements

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Homebrew Elements and New Mechanics
This is a collection of the "homebrew" elements that I use in my 5th ed. game, with explanations about what is changed, how it affects the game, and why I changed it. The mechanics themselves are in bold so you don't have to read my essays to get your info.

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Body Points
This is a big one. I changed the normal health system, which is that you're fine at 1 HP, and at 0 HP you fall unconscious and have to make death saves, which are essentially a 55-45 "coin flip." Three successes mean stabilization (but not consciousness). Three failures mean death. Certain spells can "stabilize" you automatically, but in general if you take damage you autofail two death saves, meaning a player who rolls once and takes damage once has about a 45% chance of dying.

The reason I don't like this is twofold. First, it promotes an all-or-nothing attitude, in which players who fall to 0 HP quickly have no chance other than their friends healing them to escape. They literally do nothing but one roll on their turns, and if they take damage, that's the last roll they have before death or stabilization. So rather than "oh shit we got ambushed, let's run," the game generally ends up being "oh shit we got ambushed, let's heal up Tom and since everyone else gets a turn might as well fight, because the game is balanced."

It also means that because you're fine at 1 HP and basically dying at 0 HP, combats become a damage race. If you aren't dealing DPS, you're wasting time, because the game is balanced around that damage race. Any attempt to keep a "buffer" of HP that people run away at is guaranteed to be an endless debate about per-round damage, and whether wizard HP is more precious than barbarian HP, etc.

My solution is also twofold. First is philosophical. I'll run combats to the death, but I'll also make sure that enemies don't just run a damage race. They'll do things that they think are cool, that might not do as much damage. They'll have goals other than getting you to 0 HP, like hit-and-run tactics or capturing one of you and then bolting. They'll also retreat completely if things look to be going south.

My second solution (borrowed from the Angry GM) is mechanical. '''In addition to Hit Points, your characters also have Body Points, which is a buffer between losing all your HP and actually dying. Damage applies to HP first, with no rollover, and at 0 HP, you have disadvantage on attack rolls, enemies have advantage on saving throws against your spells and whatnot, and you have disadvantage on ability checks (skill rolls). At 0 BP, you're dead.'''

You gain BP like HP (based on hit die and Constitution modifier), but instead of increasing every level, it only increases when you get an Ability Score Increase or a Feat. This means that your BP total is roughly one-third of your HP total, so if someone gets you down in two or three hits (which is fast), you know your worst-case scenario is dying in one more hit.

'''Recovering BP is harder than recovering HP, because (most) spells, (most) potions, and hit dice only recover HP. The most reliable way to recover BP is a long rest, when you recover half (of your maximum, not of how much you're missing).''' So two days of total rest is enough to recover your BP fully, which is still more generous than real life, but you can't really recover BP on the fly, so you're incentivized to stay healthy, which means stealth, defensive tactics, and even retreat become actual options in combat.

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Experience Points
In vanilla, XP comes from beating encounters. Period. Harder enemies "drop" more XP when killed, and that XP is split among the party.

In my game, XP comes from creativity, good roleplay, overcoming obstacles (of all kinds), finding treasure or a secret, making friends or enemies, and learning lore. In other words, you get XP for entertaining me and engaging with the things I've created for this world. Specific numbers are below.

250 for overcoming an obstacle

200 for finding a major treasure

75 for uncovering a secret

50 for making an ally or enemy

50 for learning lore

25 for good roleplay/creativity

Each level-up requires another 2500 XP. Last session was 1000 xp, so you're at 9000 something right now. At 10,000 you level up to 6th, at 12,500 you level up to 7th, at 15,000 you level up to 8th, and so on. Another way of looking at it: divide your current XP by 2500, round down to the nearest integer, and add 1. That's your current level.

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Hirelings
There are three types of hirelings, but they all share some common features. '''Loyalty is a rating that starts at the Challenge Rating (CR) of the hireling. Loyalty divided by 2 (rounded down) is their bonus to saves against fear, their initiative roll, and their attack bonus (if higher than what it would be just based on stats). Loyalty increases by 1d4 every time the hireling's pay is doubled and/or the party does something significant for them, and it decreases by 1d4 when the party cuts their pay or fails to pay them and/or when the party puts them in undue danger or otherwise harms or abuses them.'''

'''Hirelings do not have BP. Once a hit reduces their HP to zero, the next hit kills them. The families/organizations of hirelings that die are expected to be compensated with 100x their daily salary, payable ASAP.''' This is a matter of honor, and failing to uphold it can result in a bad reputation and a harder time finding hirelings in the future, potential legal trouble for breaking a contract, or the ire of the organization that contracted them out (e.g. if Luth gets an apprentice cleric who dies, the Church of Asoi may hold a grudge if they are not duly compensated).

Attendants:
Guides, torchbearers, squires, armorers, animal handlers, butlers, cooks, etc. Essentially just a "villager" with maybe one or two skill proficiencies.

Works at a day rate via verbal contract. Earn their CR in gp per day, but will not enter a dungeon or take part in battle. May run at any point if things get too scary. At 10 Loyalty they will risk their lives for the party and will do their best to help in battle, usually in minor ways like tripping, flanking, splashing scalding water, setting fires, and similar non-attack actions. If their Loyalty reaches zero they will immediately flee, taking any valuables they can.

Mercenaries:
Low-level warriors and mages with basic NPC stats, including combat proficiency and a few skills.

Signs a contract (either indefinite or for a certain period) with the party as a whole. Earn 5x their CR in gp per day, and are willing to enter dungeons and take part in battle. In battle they follow sensible orders given by any of the party members, but may run if things get dire. At 10 Loyalty they will take enormous risks for the party. At 11 Loyalty or higher, the party can "spend" 10 Loyalty to level them up, which increases their effectiveness (HP, ability scores, spell slots, skills, maybe a feat) but also increases their CR by 1 (and thus increases their pay by 5gp per day). At zero Loyalty they quit, and may (according to personality) steal from the party, backstab the party (literally), and/or spread rumors about how they were treated, making it harder to hire more mercenaries in the future.

Followers:
Low-ish level NPCs with player stats (class, race, background, feats, etc). These include apprentices, trainees, assigned helpers, family members, friends, etc.

Swears allegiance to a single party member (e.g. Apprentice Wizard would follow Borlin specifically, Paladin-in-Training would follow Ignus, etc). '''That party member also determines their actions in battle. Earn 10x their CR in gp per day and are willing to enter dungeons and take part in battle with a high level of competence.''' Will generally only retreat if the party itself does. At 10 Loyalty they are willing to die for the member of the party they have sworn allegiance to (taking an arrow/poison meant for you, attempting to rescue you at all costs, etc). If Loyalty reaches zero they will generally quit in the most harmful way they can think of, and do their best to besmirch the party's reputation. If a party member dies, his player may choose to switch to the follower and use them as their main character (like if Borlin dies he can take over and play as his apprentice).

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Identification of Magical Artifacts and Effects
In the vanilla game, identifying a magic item means sitting down with it for a while or using a spell. Detecting magic means using the spell. This generally just means you decide to use one resource or the other (time or a spell slot), and we exchange a sentence, and I tell you what you want to know.

In my game, you can detect magic or identify a magic item with a good enough skill roll (Arcana or Religion), and spending time or spell slots is just for when you flub your check and know nothing, or when you need to be absolutely certain. This doesn't do a whole lot of innovating or anything, but it always bugged me that you couldn't Detect Magic unless you were a spellcaster. Magic should be at least a little bit obvious. Identifying exactly how something is magical can sometimes take a little know-how, or the spell, but in general you should know things are magical by close inspection.

Initiative
In the vanilla game, every combat starts with a roll for initiative. If group A surprises group B, then group A gets a round of turns (in initiative order), then everyone gets turns (in initiative order) until the fight is over.

In my game, I generally don't roll initiative. For one thing, none of you have any abilities that give you super special bonuses against surprised creatures or mess with initiative order. Also, I feel it makes combat flow a little better, and feel a little less like a board game, when you get to just act, rather than rolling and seeing who gets to go first, and following a set order, etc.

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Resting
In vanilla, a short rest is 1 hour, and a long rest is 8 hours. This is a little fast for my tastes, because I rarely push you guys into the "vanilla standard" of 8 combat encounters per day, with a short rest every 2-3 encounters. If we enter a dungeon in which that sort of pace starts to happen, then I might switch back, but in the meantime:

'''In my game, a short rest is a night's sleep, and a long rest is a full day of doing nothing strenuous. '''

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Scrolls
The Save DC / Attack Bonus of a scroll's spell, if applicable, is determined at its creation by the skills of its creator (table below).

If the spell is on your class's spell list, you can use an action to read the scroll and cast its spell without having to provide any of the spell's components. Otherwise, the scroll is unintelligible. Once the spell is cast, the words on the scroll fade, and the scroll itself crumbles to dust.

If the spell is on your class's spell list but of a higher level than you can normally cast, you must make an ability check using your spellcasting ability score to determine whether you cast it successfully. The DC is 10 + the spell's level. On a success, you cast the spell normally. On a failed check, the DM reserves the right to have something bad happen.

If the spell is not on your class's spell list (or if your class has no spell list), you can attempt to cast the spell anyway. You must make an Intelligence check to determine whether you cast it successfully. The DC is 10 + the spell's level. On a success, you cast the spell normally. On a failed check, the DM reserves the right to have something bad happen.

A wizard spell on a spell scroll can be copied into a wizard's spellbook. For each level of the spell, the process takes 2 hours and costs 50 gp. The copier must succeed on an Arcana check. The DC equal to 10 + the spell's level. Whether the check succeeds or fails, the spell scroll is destroyed. On a failed check, the DM reserves the right to have something bad happen. -

Training
Vanilla rules: training in a new language or set of tools requires a willing teacher, 250 days (longer if you fuck up, perhaps shorter if i can be convinced), sometimes a check or series of checks, and 1gp per day of training.

My rules: same, except you can also train to gain skill proficiencies or "mini-feats" at my discretion. "Mini-feats" (which you won't find in any book) are spells and abilities that you cannot gain by any other means, which I think could be cool for your characters to have. Whatever teacher you find for will give you a few mini-feat options, of which you can pick one. If you have something in mind, like some ability or spell you think would be fun/cool, let me know and I'll see about providing an opportunity for your character to learn it.