Summary
Does anyone playDungeons & Dragonswithout altering a single rule from the book? House rules are a very common thing to have in D&D, whether it’s common changes that are so popular that they become ‘rules’ - looking at you, bonus-action potion and tie-breaker dexterity - or your own little tweaks that work specifically for you and your group.
Despite all that, some rules are there for a reason, and changing a detail here and there can cause a ripple effect, creating not-so-great consequences that affect other chunks of the game. Thus, we’re here to talk a bit about popular changes and the impact they can have on the game.
Big disclaimer:We’re (mostly) not going to talk about rules that are famous for being bad. If everyone knows they’re bad, then people are already avoiding them. Our focus here is rules that many people would actually enjoy and add to their table. So, why avoid them?
Though these rules can be fun and make a game better, the DM would have to be careful with their implementation, as improper execution of these rules could potentially ruin everyone’s experience.
5Critical Tables
AKA Martial Nerf
Many people are familiar with the house rule where nat ones and 20s do more than just missing the attack or extra damage. Maybe your failure will make you drop your weapon, get a negative condition, or hit an ally, while your success will push the enemy away, chop a limb off, or double the damage. What’s the problem here?
First, giving martial classes a negative effect when hitting a natural one is a big nerf. Most people are aware thatspellcasters are stronger than martials,and since most spellcasters don’t roll attack rolls often, giving penalties for a martial when they roll a one is a big deal. And, as they level up, they’ll have more attacks per turn, increasing their chances of rolling a nat one.
Second, there are no rules for what these effects are, meaning that they’re all up to the DM’s discretion. If they go too overboard, a critical can be extremely ruthless, resulting in lots of damage, severed limbs, or the eventual death of the character.
What about just keeping the critical successes? It could make the game easier, but the DM can balance things out. However, if these effects are too ruthless to the target taking the hit, and NPCs can also cause that on the PCs, they can punish the players as much as the failures.
4Criticals On Ability Checks
It Barely Changes The Game
Thanks to Baldur’s Gate 3, this rule became even more well-known. Rules as written, critical successes and failures only apply to attacks and nothing else. Thus, rolling a 20 on an ability check is not a guaranteed success. Why is changing that a big deal, then?
It isn’t, which makes this rule nearly irrelevant. Many people argue whether a natural 20 should or shouldn’t apply to ability checks, but the truth is: how often do you fail an ability check despite rolling a 20? These things only tend to happen at high levels of play, but there are ways to go about it, and you’ll be powerful enough to deal with that. And they’re stillverysituational.
Failing an ability check with a natural one, even though your bonus is high enough to beat the DC. High-level characters can have bonuses above ten, meaning that a difficulty check of ten can always be beaten - except if they roll one if you’re considering these rules. Not to mention that this could nerf core features, such as the rogue’s Reliable Talent.
This topic brings unnecessary discussions to the table while barely changing the game. This also won’t affect lower levels, as your bonus won’t be high, and you’ll fail either way.
3Rules That Ban Core Features
Talk About These Beforehand
Banning content is a complicated matter. Sure, it’s more than okay for the DM to ban things, and they can have reasons such as their world’s lore, or they don’t have the expansion book with the species you want to play, among other things.
Bans that are talked about before the game can also be okay if everyone is on board, and sometimes, these can be made just for fun. For instance, you have a mini-campaign where all classes are bannedexcept for bards,so the group can play as a band.
The problem begins if the DM starts to ban stuff because it was stronger than they expected, and their ‘solution’ is to remove it from the game. It’s especially more concerning if they do it right in the middle of the session. Imagine banning the ranger’s amazing skills at traversing certain environments because it makes travel too easy, even though this is one of the core aspects of rangers to begin with. DM banning random things without reason is a big red flag.
2Suffering Exhaustion Whenever You’re Downed
You’ll Make Hard Fights Nearly Impossible
Healing in D&D is pretty weak, and many veteran players are aware of that. So, a common trick is to wait for someone to go down to heal them. Because of that, some DMs try to balance people going up and down multiple times in combat by creating a penalty, such as giving them exhaustion. Not only will that weaken healing even further, but this can make difficult fights impossible.
Sure, the first point of exhaustion is pretty irrelevant in a fight, but if the fight is so hard that people go down often, they’ll get so many exhaustion points that they’ll just become useless in the fight - or just die from reaching level six. Getting rid of these after the fight will take many long rests, too.
1Popcorn Initiative
Great Idea, Complicated Execution
Popcorn initiative is a great idea for synergy. Everyone rolls initiative, and through the average values, you decide which team goes first rather than the players. If the players win, they all go first, so they can choose the order among them. That allows for the supports toproperly buff everyonebefore an attack, for instance, or damaging combos on the enemies.
Then, the enemies do their team turn, where you may also do the same synergy types with them. If properly executed, this can be very fun, but if the players go first, there’s a good chance they’ll destroy enemies with ease, forcing you to balance things out well.
However, if you balanced things out beforehand and go first, then you have a good chance to destroy all your players without giving them a chance. This system gives a big advantage to whoever goes first, and things can go haywire without proper care.
