House Rules

Here you can find the collection of House Rules that we have made to bring a little more immersion, excitement, and/or clarity to the rules as written in the D&D 5e system. We will try and keep this updated as best we can with changes and additions!

Critical Hits

  • When a player or DM rolls a critical hit (natural 20) on an attack, the resulting damage should equal the max damage of the damage die + the result of roll from that damage die.
    • For example, if your damage die is a d12, the damage would be 12 + result of 1d12.
    • This is also called a "Perkins Crit."

Death and Dying:

  • When a player is reduced to 0 hit points the following rules apply:
    • All death saving throws are done in secret between the player and the DM.
    • The player may not communicate during this time.

    Resurrection rules:

    • When a creature is resurrected, a roll is made against a DC10. For each time the creature has died their death DC is increased by 1.
    • Rapid resurrection occurs when using a Revivify spell. The caster makes a spellcasting ability check against the target's death DC. On a failure, the creature's DC is increased by 1, and they cannot be resurrected until they are resurrected by a spell with a casting time longer than one action.
    • Resurrection ritual occurs when using a raise spell that is longer than one action. Three creatures can contribute to the DC check by making an ability check that makes sense for the action. On each success the DC is reduced by 3 and for each failure the DC is increased by 1.
    • A player who is target of a revivify spell may only succeed on resurrection a number of times based on their constitution modifier.

Encumbrance

  • When a player is over their carrying capacity the following rules apply:
    • Speed is reduced by 10 feet.
    • Whenever you make a physical ability check, saving throw, attack, or cast a spell, you must roll a DC10 constitution saving throw. If the player fails, they take one level of exhaustion. If they save they do not.

Feat Points

  • Feat Points are obtained when a character successfully completes a Feat book of their chosen ability (Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, Chr).
  • These points can be used to purchase feats from the available feats table.
  • A character may only carry five Feat books at a time.

Meta Points

  • Meta points are used to activate additional abilities within the campaign. They are obtained the following ways:
    • Finding secret codes on the website.
    • Providing something beneficial for the whole group.
    • Extraordinary role-play.
  • A maximum of 10 points can be held at a time.

Resting while in a dangerous area:

  • The party must declare the number of hours they wish to rest (Short Rest 1-7 hours, Long Rest 8+)
  • They must declare who is standing watch, how long, and the order.
  • The DM will roll a d20 and on an 18 or higher a random encounter happens, roll a d6:
    • 1-2: A single monster equal to party level appears
    • 3-4: A group of monsters equal to party level appear.
    • 5-6: A strong foe or large group appears
  • Every shift change the players standing watch will roll a perception check. The average will be taken if multiple players stand watch.
    • 1-7: Ambushed
    • 8-15: Normal
    • 16-22: Party surprise round

Spellcasting and Feature Rules:

  • A player can use one feature or spell they know by taking the number of levels of exhaustion that corresponds to the spell level via the following chart:

Spell/Feature Level
Exhaustion Level
♦ Level 1 - 2 Spell
♦ Feature gained at level 1-3
1 Level of Exhaustion
♦ Level 3 - 4 Spell
♦ Feature gained at level 4-7
♦ Ability gained from Feat
2 Levels of Exhaustion
♦ Level 5 - 6 Spell
♦ Feature gained at level 8-11
3 Levels of Exhaustion
♦ Level 7 - 8 Spell
♦ Feature gained at level 12-15
4 Levels of Exhaustion
♦ Level 9 Spell
♦ Feature gained at level 16-20
5 Levels of Exhaustion

Ties

  • When there is a roll or a save of any kind that results in a tie between the player and the DM, the tie will be decided to the benefit of the player.
    • For example, if the player rolls to attack, and their attack roll (+modifiers) equal the enemy's AC score, resulting in a tie, this will be considered a hit. However, in the reverse situation, if a monster rolls to attack and their roll (+modifiers) equals the player's AC, resulting in a tie, this will be considered a miss.
    • The same general concept applies to saving throws and ability contests.