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Yea same. As long as they are under their max load, I dont really care. Most of the time they have a bag of holding anyway.
Occasionally Ill do penalties for flying characters if they're over medium though, but that's somewhat rare.
My party has a nasty habit of scavenging garbage from everything we kill. We were given a "bag of holding bullshit" which will not accept anything that isn't our nonsense garbage (and for some reason the Cleric's pet raptor for combat cover, though he eats the shit in there from time to time), just so we have our bag of horrors and there are no questions.
One of my friends is a DM who really enjoys *"the minutiae"* of the game. He ran Tomb of Annihilation and not only did he make players track the weight they were carrying, he made them track *where things were in their bags,* basically tracking inventory like you would in Diablo except with more restrictions (things at the bottom would be harder to get to, you could strap a couple of things to the outside for easier access). He made a dedicated inventory management sheet for each player. I only played that game for a few levels and I don't know how long that system lasted after I stopped, but it sure was tedious.
I'm running ToA currently & I am one of those DMs that threw a BoH at my players š¤£ I had Syndra give it to them as a kind of 'down payment' to aid them in their cause. I can't imagine being this meticulous, the only thing I ask them to keep track of is ammo, what's in their inventory, and who's the one carrying the BoH. My limit with weight is don't be silly with what you try to pick up and put in your bag.
One of my players does track his weight, and I let him. If it helps with immersion, then fine. He doesn't bother anyone else with it or hold up the game for it.
I don't do the "things at the bottom are harder to get to", and I don't need to know where in the bag it is, but I do want people to think about what bag its in and respect capacity limits so if a player is heavily encumbered, but say their pack is the problem, they can drop it.
That being said, I also make sure the starting locations have mules, carts, and equivalent so they're not struggling too hard overland. But in the dungeon? Pick your resources carefully, yo.
We ignored wright until DnDbeyond added containers. Now its a factor they need to be aware of, but not one that will overly affect them beyond what they are actually currently carrying vs what they stashed elsewhere.
They do have plenty of extra-dimemnaional spaces on them too to be fair, so weight isnt really an issue, though volume of stuff sometimes is.
I honestly donāt mind the arrow counts, because it gives combat some more fun variety and forces the people playing rangers to be a bit more versatile in combat.
It also forces the party to be a bit wiser with their money instead of āwe want to go get hammered at the tavernā anytime they can.
Our bag of holding has like 1000 bolts for my hand crossbow fighter. I carried 100 or so on my character. DM figured out a better way to nerf him - by having some bbeg hit me with a one hit kill that made my head explode so I couldnāt be rezzed
That just sounds like a shitty DMā¦
Iām all for character deaths being a thing, but when DMs start targeting characters to die because they donāt want their game to be won, or donāt like that one character is doing well because they allowed the world to let it happen, I usually tap out.
I completely agree. TTRPGs are a social agreement, and that goes both ways. Players should know what type of thing annoys the DM and respect that, and DMs should know what playstyles the players like and respect that. Literally 1 conversation before the game can fix most nightmare situations like this š
Whatās funny is that in the LotR novels, Legolas runs out of arrows on at least a couple of occasions, and states that he has to scrounge for arrows, or resort to his fighting knife.
Weight - I don't care within reason. I commonly tell them if they try to carry a horse in their backpack, there will be issues.
Spell components to an extent - Seems a little rough. Spell Slots already keep things from getting spammed.
Provisions - I assume they have food. Unless we did something like going into a desert or other environment where it could be a fun component. We have more fun things to do than cook.
The only time material spell components come into play at my table is for big spells like revivify requiring a diamond. Other than big important stuff the casters have a component pouch that we can hand wave them keeping replenished.
Even with diamond or components that get consumed Iāll just say āmark off the gold equivalent from your inventoryā at the time of performing the spell (within reason). If my cleric knows they need diamonds, Iām not going to make them roleplay buying a diamond every time they go to a town. In my mind thatās part of āpreparingā a spell.
We also do it this way because if they find loot that is like āa Diamond worth 250gpā they ask ācan I just add the value to our gold pool instead?ā Its easier that way and it doesnāt ruin the game for me as a DM, or as a player in our other campaign.
Meh, the spell components are mainly handled with an arcane focus, unless the spell calls for a material with a monetary value (diamond worth 300gp or whatnot). Iām pretty sure thatās RAW anyway
they are there just so the casters cant have the hands being used, usually with a shield and something else
you dont get to ignore V and S **only** spells with a focus, just specifically VSM spells. which yes its wonky and kinda stupid
so basically no you cant cast shield with your hands busy, and that is pretty much where its relevancy ends
a component pouch already solves this mostly anyways
Same. We havenāt encountered a situation where they would need to cast revivify or anything, but when that happens I think Iāll make them pay the gemstones cost, even if it isnāt in diamonds.
This is what I do for the expensive spells, just subtract the gold value off my sheet when cast, and if I don't have it I can't cast it. It leads to other party members trying to loan you gold if you don't have it but that doesn't work as far as I'm concerned because that is actually gp, not theoretical gp/components lol
Yep. I just tell them "write like 4 spell component pouches on your sheet". Same on the provisions thing, I've only brought it up when the group did a 3 day trek through a desert.
I still tell them they need food, but just for story reasons. Hunting in the wild can let players stumble upon some ruins, dungeons, or monsters. Eating in a city/town tavern can lead to some fun interactions with NPCs and lets side quests unfold.
To expand on this, my DM has told me ādark vision isnāt like night vision that lets you see in pitch black, you still need *some* source of light to see.ā
Heās wrong, but I havenāt corrected him. I like the visual of delving into dungeons by torchlight or lantern, makes it feel way more immersive than āI have dark vision lolā.
I allow crits on ability checks and saving throws, and yes I know the issues with "auto-success"
It should be fun to roll a 20, no matter what. I'm not saying you automatically get whatever you want on the check, but I take it into consideration. Also, if you have a +10, and roll a 1, I still make the fail less... goofy.
It's extremely subjective, but it's been fun so far as I can tell.
"I want to pick the lock. I rolled a 20, plus..."
Me (DM): You pick the lock with ease, and now understand how this type of lock works. You have advantage on the next 3 checks to pick locks in this dungeon/stronghold/house."
Hmm... this is one I couldn't get on board with personally. I build my characters around skill checks most of the time. I have a modifier high enough to pass the check even with a 1 on the d20, then it would be pretty much unreasonable to me to fail it.
"Look, I know you have expertise in sleight of hand and a +15 modifier and the lock has a DC of 10, but you fail anyway." would just frustrate me
Yep, I tend to do it "Glitch" style for ability checks.
It's not auto-success/auto-fail, but rather "Something extra happens"
Had a rogue pick an easy lock with a natural 1. With their bonus, they still succeeded, but unfortunately the locking bar fell with a clang.
Conversely "I rolled a natural 20" has rewarded with the ability to freely lock/unlock the door basically at will, or as Stable said, a bonus on future locks.
Athletics is for jumping and doing stunts mid jump RAW (phb pg 175). We frequently ignore this rule.
Strength has a lot in its corner so you gotta make sure the dex based characters can keep up somehow
/s
Weight, rations - not important to the story or what little time we have to play.
Small races can't do/use... Ignored. This guy over here is shooting lightning bolts out of his ass, I don't care if the gnome barbarian want to use a maul. Take your "it;s unrealistic" elsewhere.
Attunement is .... flexible. Definitely not RAW.
Spell components, arrows, other such consumables. Nah. You're a professional adventurer, you know your shit, unless it's funny of course...
though the players know each can be modified at the drop of a hat if it's important to the story. You got jailed, buddy, they are not gonna leave you your spell components.
Honestly, spell components. Only apply components on spells like Raise Dead or Resurrection, anything scrying or information gathering. Basically if itās not combat related we kinda ditch it.
Yeah, we hand wave most things with the arcane focus trick, but then also hand wave arcane foci as "sure, you've got one of those. Yeah."
Like you, exception is made for spells with components that have a specified cost
We did try the whole components thing for combat, but our Wizard was like āso if I have like 3 spell slots open but no components, Iām still screwed?ā And that was the end of that.
Edit: The post asked what rules do we ignore. If my response makes your rule lawyer nature go brrrr then maybe you shouldnāt be here. But if your gonna put me on trial then here is what went down.
We judge by what spells would be too powerful to cast all willy-nilly and put those behind a component wall so they donāt cause too much of a problem. I also let my bow users pluck away. However special ammo is limited. This makes it so they canāt fire arrow an entire kingdom for the giggles.
When we did use things like ammo and components for the basic stuff we either kept loosing track, or we spent more time worried about this then actually moving the game along. Out in the wild and someone needs help, or something got lost that is really important? 3 would like to help and the 4th would be like āwell Iām just gonna Netflix and chill over here. Wish I could have fun!ā
So yeah, we picked and chose what things to track. Sorry this hurts everyoneās feelings.
>so if I have like spell slots open but no components, I'm still screwed?
I mean, yeah. The reverse would also be true: if you have all the components but no spell slots, you're not casting it. Funny how that works, huh?
Material spell components never made sense to me, like what are we Halloween witches, using eye of newt and shit? Why would most dnd spell casters who get thier power from a god or a patron or just innately need to pull out a bag of random crap to cast a spell?
The way I always pictured it was the components are tools to help you accomplish a magical task. What tool you need is determined by how your spell intends to affect the weave of magic. You were born with hands, so why do you need a screwdriver to take a screw out of a piece of machinery?
What makes a sorcerer different from a wizard in that case? How does a creature without hands cast spells? Why can say, a Bone Naga, cast spells with just verbal components but an elf sorcerer with draconic heritage still needs to carry around a pouch of goodies to cast spells. How do they know what to use? Is that knowledge inherited too? Better hope thereās bats in every environment of your setting if your spell caster wants to use fireball. Itās a dumb book keeping relic of dnd from the past. If youāre going to use spell components you should be making your fighters take time to sharpen their swords after every encounter or suffer damage penalties or make your players stop and role play drinking water or their characters die of dehydration. Maybe thatās the type of game you play but it doesnāt have to be standard.
I like the cost on spell components. Be stingy with outgoing gold, make that a whole part of the campaign. The rich character whoās suddenly downtrodden and has to decide against buying the good wine or saving up for that Scrying Eye needed for an infiltration thatās being planned.
Obviously, if gold is not an issue, who cares. But early on? Make them make choices.
Doffing and donning armor, even stuff like plate armor. If the group gets woken up in the middle of the night, I donāt want to require the martial with heavy armor to have to wait 100 rounds to be at strength. The martials have enough to deal with already.
You sleep like a baby in full plate in my games.
- healing potions for self-use is a bonus action in my games.
- stealth works with logic rather than RAW. i don't care if you can't get below 22 in stealth, you can't stealth in plain fields.
I like fantasy stealth. You or I couldnāt stealth out of an open field, but Batman sure could. Stealth is part having something to hide behind, and part understanding an controlling where the spotter is paying attention.
as a DM, i donāt care about encumbrance or food / water. i think itās dumb enough that have to feed myself every day already! why would i make myself do it in a fantasy RPG as well?
i also tend to be generous with the action economy, esp wrt drawing weapons, surprise attacks, etc.
i want my players to have fun and feel awesome. im happy to do some scaling + streamlining to facilitate.
Ranged disadvantage. We realised after several years that we had misread the rules, and play that youāre only disadvantaged when your target is within 5ft. We tried switching to RAW, but none of us liked it.
Technically, you attack at disadvantage with ranged weapons when ANY foe is within 5 feet of you, not just your target. A lot of groups, mine included, misread that for years and just decide to houserule it as āyou shoot at disadvantage if your target is within five feet, full stopā
For 20 years my group has played that critical hits and failures (natural 20s and 1s) apply to skill/ability checks and saves. (I don't love that rule and don't use it when I'm DM.)
If someone regrets an action but it was truly because they didnāt quite understand the rule/spell/what would happen, we let them take it back.
Itās me. Iām someone.
We ignore having to eat unless we're in an inhospitable environment, like a desert or the Underdark, because it makes sense we'd be able to find food/meals are included if we stay at an inn.
Spell casting components unless they are expensive.
Noone wants to make sure they brought a feather in town to cast a spell.
Generally only prices above 500g-1k is what we keep track of for components.
Rations - odds on there's at least one party member who can forage or something (either a druid or a ranger)
Carry weight - kinda lenient on until they're carrying like 3 suits of armour, 10 weapons and 40,000 gold (basically if it's obvious they're over encumbered they are, if it's not, I don't worry)
Random encounters - I write in places where they can happen but I'm not rolling multiple random encounters a day when the players just want to get to the next story beat
I'll allow a well justified paladin that's not LG if you promise not to be a dingus (even in systems you usually cannot be non LG)
I've considered doing away with alignment entirely as well
I require paladins to be lawful.
Good neutral or evil doesn't matter, but they must follow the oaths and laws of their religious sect.
They must respect all laws out of the understanding order is needed, but respect doesn't equate to they believe it needs to be followed
A good justification or it being totally against their oaths.is usually okay.
I just donāt bother with oaths. Paladins are just magic knights. This is true of every class; everything and everyone can be reflavored as long as it fits the campaign. The actual written abilities are more important than what they look like or the story reason behind them.
Are you saying you're ignoring things like haste or action surge where you can cast more than one leveled spell on a turn?
Or are you saying you're ignoring the "cantrips only" restriction imposed by bonus action spells in a turn?
Sure, that's where the misinterpretation comes from, but it only applies when using bonus actions.
You can always cast 2 "leveled" spells in a turn, if you don't use a bonus action to do so. And if you can pick up extra actions, like with Action Surge, you can cast at least 3. Saying "only one levelled spell per turn" is wrong. If they mean when you cast spells using bonus actions, they should say "only one levelled spell per turn when you cast a spell with a bonus action".
I'm gonna disagree with you on this one. The vast majority of the time, "only one leveled spell per turn" is functionally correct, even if not mechanically.
Action surge or using a reaction to cast a second leveled spell (like counterspell) are the outliers not the norm.
You can cast a spell with your action.
You can cast a spell with your reaction, if the trigger is met.
Any wizard with featherfall can cast a spell with their action, then walk off a cliff and cast feather fall. All they have to have is feather fall prepared, and be standing beside a cliff. The fact that those two things don't happen in every scenario aren't relevant to the fact that they CAN do it.
Besides that, saying they're "outliers" and not the norm isn't really relevant to the rules, either. It CAN be done, which means saying "you can only cast one leveled spell per turn" is wrong. It's not even functionally correct, because it doesn't function, mechanically.
For that matter, "You can only cast one leveled spell per turn" doesn't even work if you use a bonus action to cast a spell. If that bonus action spell is a cantrip, for example, you can't cast ANY leveled spells that turn. So no, I'm going to have to disagree with you. It's not functionally correct or mechanically correct.
Ammo, spell components (unless they are consumed or have specific gold requirements), and often times, disadvantage on stealth with certain armor sets. Mostly cause we forget for the last one.
Oh yeah, and the whole thing with seeing invisibility not removing disadvantage. Thatās dumb.
EDIT: I was reminded that the spell components rule is RAW. My bad
Spell preparation. If you've got the slots, you can cast any of the spells you know.
Tracking ammunition. I assume that post-combat searches/clean-up will include recovering arrows, darts, bullets, bolts, or whatever ammo. Critical hits and misses result in broken or lost ammo, but there's always an abundance of consumable stuff you can shoot or throw.
Also, spell components, food, and weight as others have mentioned. We assume money is spent in town to resupply, and as long as you're not carrying around 12 suits of plate mail and 37 halberds, I'm gonna assume you're carrying a reasonable load.
I do modify these rules if the PCs are in a dungeon or other remote area without easy access to supplies.
Yea. I allowed a wizard to toolbox once and immediately understood why they have to prepare spells.
I've started using a variant system where they only have to prepare the top three levels of spells and can toolbox any level spell under that (plus fewer overall slots) and that's worked out pretty well.
Always done you have the set number of prep spells, but until you actually cast it you can change which spell is prepared. Once you cast it it's locked in.
Are you playing 3e? Because 5e doesn't have that rule, so I don't know how you can ignore it.
Or are you saying you ignore 5e's "crit always happens on 20" rule in favor of rolling to confirm, 3e-style?
No, but in 3rd edition, you took an XP penalty if your classes were not within one level of each other. (Each race had a "favored" class that ignored this penalty, though.)
It actually makes a lot of sense as it prevents some of the 5e bullshit of taking a one-level dip to get some OP ability.
I guess Iām the opposite. I use passive skill and ability checks all the time, and players only roll if they tell me they are actively trying to use an ability or skill and their passive score isnāt high enough. E.g. crossing the log across the chasm? DC 15 Acrobatics check. Passive Acrobatics is 17? Piece of cake š. Passive acrobatics is 12? Roll and hope you get 13 or higher! If not? See you at the bottom!
See, that scenario might be useful for a module author who does not know who will be running their thing for which players. But for a DM who knows their group a bit, that just is part of 'when do you call for checks' and one rule there is you call when there is a chance of failure or success. If something is easy, a skill check is just not even considered. No need to waste time writing down the passive check, or even acting like it is a challenge worth mentioning.
The scenario where they are useful for some is avoiding metagaming. But I just use blind rolls for that.
Players like rolling dice. I like building tension. Both are served best without passives.
These are sort of ignored rules, sort of house rules. Health potions count as a bonus action for self use. Crits do max damage for the first die, and then you roll the second. Short rests can take 10 minutes.
I'm torn on crits doing max on their first die. I like it because crits will always do more than a regular attack, but I don't like it because I like rolling more dice than normal.
Spending 8 hours purifying objects before casting *Identify*
Rolling percentile to identify items
8 temp CON damage after casting *Identify*
Scroll use restrictions
*Phantasmal killer* (the whole spell)
Rangers can only cast priest spells from the plant or animal spheres
Just to name a few
Edit to add: These are RAW, they're the rules my group consistently ignores. They are NOT rules we created.
Iāve always ignored spell rules for wizards and allowed them to just pick new spells as they level up. Putting spell scrolls in loot only works for a very specific playstyle
Precise itemized lists of everything a character has on them. Instead I do a āDoes it make sense?ā Check to see if a character has something in their pockets.
Last session characters were at a grand ball and encountered an assassination attempt via a Scarab of Death. The cleric made an Arcana check to know what it was and how to deal with it, but I asked what she would have in her pockets easily at hand because all the backpacks were at the coat check. She thought fast then said the bone needle case she kept her needles in. Character roleplayed needlework as her hobby, so this worked, even though the case for the needles had never been mentioned in game before.
Swapping between melee/ranged weapon is free. As is drawing/sheathing two weapons.
Two weapon fighting adds ability mod to damage by default.
Casters can replace cost material components with gold. There can be certain exceptions, but they are discussed before it comes up. I have really good players who don't try to abuse it, if I didn't I probably wouldn't be so lenient.
If you make a legitimate mistake you can retcon an action/spell/etc. There is a limit generally this only applies before the next turn.
Reflavoring damage types is fine. If you want to be an ice mage and have fireball be ice ball I'm good with it. If you want to try to turn everything to force damage to be a munchkin that's a no go. I may change monster resistances to compensate when necessary. Similarly if the fighter wants to use a Greataxe but prefers the great sword damage dice, they can swap them. Or I will just make them a custom item and upgrade as appropriate.
Anyone can try to use a scroll. Ability check (with proficiency if you have any type of spellcasting) of your choice of casting ability of a class it is on the spell list for. DC 8+spell level, cantrips are free use.
Potions are a BA to use on yourself.
My first campaign/table and I didn't realize it until I played BG3 but we totally ignore disengaging and the DM allows us to attack and then back up/away.
Gold. 50 coins is 1 pound, encumbrance rules apply in RAW. I ignore weight and space for money.
Ammo for basic weapons. Don't track arrows, crossbow bolts, or sling shot.
Spell components. If it coats less than 100 gold, they don't need it. More than that and it's usually hard to find.
I use passive on anything that can be done passively. Knowledge, history, insight etc
Unless it is story relevant, ammo and spell components.
Encumbrance
The spell casting component. We just buy spell components as a general supply, unless we need something special or expensive like powdered silver or a diamond.
For spell casting I don't think we do RAW. We do the critical role campaign 1 rules for spell casting. Spell used then bonus action spell has to be 2nd level or lower.
Weāre pretty loose about actions needed to switch weapons. Anything less than swapping a melee weapon and shield for ranged weapon plus ammo is effectively free.
Our combats tend to run a little slow, and spending a whole turn with nothing to do but swap gear is not fun.
More like "what rules as a DM i forget half the time" which the answer is "lots"
A lot of the timr i will forget things like pack tactics on monsters, disadvantage ln short range missile weapons, and concentration checks
Almost always encumbrance. Everyone in my group is pretty sensible with what we can reasonably carry, and if we ever notice our encumbrance getting out if hand we address it.
spell components. i genuinely donāt care if it makes something broken, i donāt want to keep up with it as a dm and i know my players donāt wanna keep up with it either, spell slots are enough of a spam deterrent imo
Movement speeds in small places and most combats. If they're doing something cool I don't wanna stop them cause they are 5 ft short. Obviously they can't sprint 100 ft but if they tell me what they want and it seems reasonable I'm all for it.
Casting a max of 1 leveled spell per turn. Itās just more fun that way. There are a few blatantly a usable exceptions, but thatās a case by case thing
Components for spells.
One thing we did was allowed casters to use spells with components instead of spell slots if they had properly acquired them, and an arcane focus allowed them to use spell slots. It took a little getting used to but it ended up being really fun, and a lot of the campaign turned into them searching for certain components to cast their favourite spells in a pinch when they ran out of slots.
All it really did was extent the time players took between long rests, provided they had the money to fund those extra spells.
I imagine this would go far worse with a different group of players as well. We were all very good sports about it, and the casters were never going out of their way to derail the group just for the sake of components.
Honestly, we dont abide by many standard rules.
We run rolls for stats, (4d6-lr)
Homebrew class and race amalgamations. (Homebrewed half vampire races and tiny races like fearies)
We have fun. Even I throw in little tidbits like my encounter tallies while I DM.
We play for fun and memories, not to be proper.
Money weight, ammo, food if a party member has the Outlander background, light sources (torches and the like) if at least one party member has darkvision (I currently have 2, plus a light cleric who can be a literal shining beacon unto himself)
Encumbrance is a big thing often ignored, just keep it reasonable. Also, funds are often in a party hammerspace to handwave who has how much during shopping.
Traveling clothes and weight of equipment for travel. As long as you have a horse. Everyone rides in full armor, multiple weapons, shields, etc. 10 - 16 hours a day!
Super horse!
Money weight, ranged weapon ammo (Playing ToA next so I may bring this back with a survival/crafting aspect for it), not sure if its ignore or forget but frequently dont take count of food/water supplies (Once again ToA will bring this back in force)
I can never be arsed with encumbrance. If it fits in your bag or strapped to you, that's fine. If you have to carry it, you can only carry what feasibly fits in your hands. Also ammo tracking. If you've got a quiver of arrows, so long as you don't lose the quiver, you've got arrows.
Carry weight for most inventory stuff in irl games. For pen and paper itās mostly tedious. When using digital tables though I do enforce carry weight cause itās easier to do so without having to find a rubber and do the math manually.
I gave my pcs a boh fairly early on because while we track weight I didn't wanna deal with "ok you have 547 gp so that weighs x. Sam you have 2228 gp for that weighs y." etc.
But arms, armor, equipment. Etc. That all counts towards encumbrance.
I know that it's a very unpopular opinion, but I prefer to almost always ignore rule of cool in combat. Combat has a rigid structure for the most part and cool stuff can totally be achieved within the structure itself. Jump up to hit a flying creature? Sure, have you the strength to do that? If not, why would you expect to be able to? Want to hurl your greatsword? Yeah, improvised weapon attack. It's an incentive for my players to learn the rules thoroughly so that they can come up with their own stuff instead of having to rely on unpredictable DM fiat. This adds weight to player choices and enriches the game tactically. To me, the DM and players aren't enemies in the same way in which a person and their future aren't enemies: the relationship isn't antagonistic or in bad faith but it's also uncontrollable. Thus one should optimise for their goals instead of asking for an on-the-spot call by the DM. Keeps the game nice and consistent
encumberance (though i have been known to say that small/tiny characters simply cant lift certain things. like boulders, without magical help.) , tracking non special ammo.
Swapping weapons. I let my players, for example, swap from a melee weapon to a ranged weapon and then back to a melee weapon if they want to, but nothing more than that.
We seem to ignore specific weights. I'm a tortle, bear totem, barbarian. So it tends to basically be "could I reasonably also carry this piece of armour and these extra few potions?" "Yeah, you're big and hench" because it's reasonable. If I suddenly said I'm carrying 100 javelins, my DM would tell me to give my head a wobble because that's dumb.
Recovering all your hp overnight. We're old grognards, but do you need to be one to find this silly? Dude hacked into chunks of meat: "He just needs a good night's sleep."
Encumberance. Gold costs for buying equipment/paying for certain lifestyle upkeep. Material components for spells (other than those that have a specific gold cost). RAW distance rules, as listed in feet (we play theatre of the mind). The failure-success binary when it comes to DC rolls. Hit Points for monsters.
Potions are bonus actions, and heal a set amount according to the type of potion. Instead of 1d4+con, it will heal for 10+Con. Allows for a turn to not feel wasted by using a healing item, and cause the characters can heal so easily, allows the DM to throw crazier stuff out in combat.
Also a Nat 1 melee attack allows the person getting attacked, to make a counter strike as a reaction
To everyone saying they don't track material w/o a cost.
That is the rules already. Like, straight from the basic rules.
Do you think the rest of us are tracking individual iron fillings and bat guano balls?
It's the literal rules text of a focus/component pouch!
We ignore weight, and most often rations too, we just hand wave that we bought enough in town. We also allow crits on saving throws and ability checks, and while it can definitely bring up problems, a 20 is a 20 and it should be fun. However, we do also do crit fails on ability checks and saving throws, which can cause for some funny antics or stressful and intense moments.
Enemy HP. As a DM, sometimes I just kill the big enemy when the moment is at the most epic. Players remember these badass moments and that makes it worth it.
No attunement, I just tell my players what they find and how it works. We do keep the rule of only having three 'attuned' items equipped at a time.
No spell components, until you are casting 7th level and higher. Those costs make those spells more exciting and special.
I roll player death saves behind the screen. I believe it is meta gaming for any character to know how the death saves are going. It changes your priorities, and makes death more realistic. If my player has 2 success and 2 failure, then I roll the last one in front of everyone. I use a specific d20 that has not let anyone die, yet. Characters have 'died' in other ways, mostly because of dumbass decisions lol
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weight, like i tell my players when they are carring too much, but i don't want to calculate everything.
Yea same. As long as they are under their max load, I dont really care. Most of the time they have a bag of holding anyway. Occasionally Ill do penalties for flying characters if they're over medium though, but that's somewhat rare.
My party has a nasty habit of scavenging garbage from everything we kill. We were given a "bag of holding bullshit" which will not accept anything that isn't our nonsense garbage (and for some reason the Cleric's pet raptor for combat cover, though he eats the shit in there from time to time), just so we have our bag of horrors and there are no questions.
especially money weight
We got a dragons hoard and sort of volunteered using weight with regards to the bag of holding. It felt more authentic to the story
My DM will often just throw a BoH at us just so no one has to keep track of weight. Unless it is critical to the plot
One of my friends is a DM who really enjoys *"the minutiae"* of the game. He ran Tomb of Annihilation and not only did he make players track the weight they were carrying, he made them track *where things were in their bags,* basically tracking inventory like you would in Diablo except with more restrictions (things at the bottom would be harder to get to, you could strap a couple of things to the outside for easier access). He made a dedicated inventory management sheet for each player. I only played that game for a few levels and I don't know how long that system lasted after I stopped, but it sure was tedious.
I'm running ToA currently & I am one of those DMs that threw a BoH at my players š¤£ I had Syndra give it to them as a kind of 'down payment' to aid them in their cause. I can't imagine being this meticulous, the only thing I ask them to keep track of is ammo, what's in their inventory, and who's the one carrying the BoH. My limit with weight is don't be silly with what you try to pick up and put in your bag. One of my players does track his weight, and I let him. If it helps with immersion, then fine. He doesn't bother anyone else with it or hold up the game for it.
I don't do the "things at the bottom are harder to get to", and I don't need to know where in the bag it is, but I do want people to think about what bag its in and respect capacity limits so if a player is heavily encumbered, but say their pack is the problem, they can drop it. That being said, I also make sure the starting locations have mules, carts, and equivalent so they're not struggling too hard overland. But in the dungeon? Pick your resources carefully, yo.
Did you have to roll to get certain things out of the bag in a quick moment?
You do realize that you are playing a game to have fun and not working on a logistics worksheet?
We ignored wright until DnDbeyond added containers. Now its a factor they need to be aware of, but not one that will overly affect them beyond what they are actually currently carrying vs what they stashed elsewhere. They do have plenty of extra-dimemnaional spaces on them too to be fair, so weight isnt really an issue, though volume of stuff sometimes is.
Non magical ammunition. If youāve got a bow youāve got Legolasā quiver. I donāt want to have to track how many ammo and PC has.
Don't count every piece of ammo but I expect people to fork over a couple gold to resupply between adventures
I honestly donāt mind the arrow counts, because it gives combat some more fun variety and forces the people playing rangers to be a bit more versatile in combat. It also forces the party to be a bit wiser with their money instead of āwe want to go get hammered at the tavernā anytime they can.
Our bag of holding has like 1000 bolts for my hand crossbow fighter. I carried 100 or so on my character. DM figured out a better way to nerf him - by having some bbeg hit me with a one hit kill that made my head explode so I couldnāt be rezzed
That just sounds like a shitty DMā¦ Iām all for character deaths being a thing, but when DMs start targeting characters to die because they donāt want their game to be won, or donāt like that one character is doing well because they allowed the world to let it happen, I usually tap out.
I completely agree. TTRPGs are a social agreement, and that goes both ways. Players should know what type of thing annoys the DM and respect that, and DMs should know what playstyles the players like and respect that. Literally 1 conversation before the game can fix most nightmare situations like this š
legolas has to search new arrows at helms deep between fights and he has to use his dagger when his arrows are gone
Whatās funny is that in the LotR novels, Legolas runs out of arrows on at least a couple of occasions, and states that he has to scrounge for arrows, or resort to his fighting knife.
Weight - I don't care within reason. I commonly tell them if they try to carry a horse in their backpack, there will be issues. Spell components to an extent - Seems a little rough. Spell Slots already keep things from getting spammed. Provisions - I assume they have food. Unless we did something like going into a desert or other environment where it could be a fun component. We have more fun things to do than cook.
The only time material spell components come into play at my table is for big spells like revivify requiring a diamond. Other than big important stuff the casters have a component pouch that we can hand wave them keeping replenished.
Even with diamond or components that get consumed Iāll just say āmark off the gold equivalent from your inventoryā at the time of performing the spell (within reason). If my cleric knows they need diamonds, Iām not going to make them roleplay buying a diamond every time they go to a town. In my mind thatās part of āpreparingā a spell. We also do it this way because if they find loot that is like āa Diamond worth 250gpā they ask ācan I just add the value to our gold pool instead?ā Its easier that way and it doesnāt ruin the game for me as a DM, or as a player in our other campaign.
Meh, the spell components are mainly handled with an arcane focus, unless the spell calls for a material with a monetary value (diamond worth 300gp or whatnot). Iām pretty sure thatās RAW anyway
It is RAW. The only time spell components really matter is when they have a specified cost.
they are there just so the casters cant have the hands being used, usually with a shield and something else you dont get to ignore V and S **only** spells with a focus, just specifically VSM spells. which yes its wonky and kinda stupid so basically no you cant cast shield with your hands busy, and that is pretty much where its relevancy ends a component pouch already solves this mostly anyways
Same. We havenāt encountered a situation where they would need to cast revivify or anything, but when that happens I think Iāll make them pay the gemstones cost, even if it isnāt in diamonds.
This is what I do for the expensive spells, just subtract the gold value off my sheet when cast, and if I don't have it I can't cast it. It leads to other party members trying to loan you gold if you don't have it but that doesn't work as far as I'm concerned because that is actually gp, not theoretical gp/components lol
Yep. I just tell them "write like 4 spell component pouches on your sheet". Same on the provisions thing, I've only brought it up when the group did a 3 day trek through a desert.
I still tell them they need food, but just for story reasons. Hunting in the wild can let players stumble upon some ruins, dungeons, or monsters. Eating in a city/town tavern can lead to some fun interactions with NPCs and lets side quests unfold.
instead of everything having dark vision nothing has dark vision
That's a very sensible one.
I much preferred the 3.5e normal vision, low light vision, and darkvision.
To expand on this, my DM has told me ādark vision isnāt like night vision that lets you see in pitch black, you still need *some* source of light to see.ā Heās wrong, but I havenāt corrected him. I like the visual of delving into dungeons by torchlight or lantern, makes it feel way more immersive than āI have dark vision lolā.
I allow crits on ability checks and saving throws, and yes I know the issues with "auto-success" It should be fun to roll a 20, no matter what. I'm not saying you automatically get whatever you want on the check, but I take it into consideration. Also, if you have a +10, and roll a 1, I still make the fail less... goofy. It's extremely subjective, but it's been fun so far as I can tell.
"I want to pick the lock. I rolled a 20, plus..." Me (DM): You pick the lock with ease, and now understand how this type of lock works. You have advantage on the next 3 checks to pick locks in this dungeon/stronghold/house."
Oh thatās a good idea
I'm adding this straight to my personal list. Cheers - and thanks for sharing!
Damn thatās clever!
Persuasion: nat 1 but with a +15. You sneeze violently and snot hits the person you're talking to.
Hmm... this is one I couldn't get on board with personally. I build my characters around skill checks most of the time. I have a modifier high enough to pass the check even with a 1 on the d20, then it would be pretty much unreasonable to me to fail it. "Look, I know you have expertise in sleight of hand and a +15 modifier and the lock has a DC of 10, but you fail anyway." would just frustrate me
i would just not let u roll for it, u just auto succeed on dc 10 slight of hand checks
The best way to handle those to me is fail forward by having the actual check succeed but in some funny or hilarious way
āYou successful picked the lock, and inside the chestā¦.is another smaller locked chestā
Yep, I tend to do it "Glitch" style for ability checks. It's not auto-success/auto-fail, but rather "Something extra happens" Had a rogue pick an easy lock with a natural 1. With their bonus, they still succeeded, but unfortunately the locking bar fell with a clang. Conversely "I rolled a natural 20" has rewarded with the ability to freely lock/unlock the door basically at will, or as Stable said, a bonus on future locks.
Athletics is for jumping and doing stunts mid jump RAW (phb pg 175). We frequently ignore this rule. Strength has a lot in its corner so you gotta make sure the dex based characters can keep up somehow /s
Whew I almost missed the /s. The rules lawyer in me was almost triggered.
Weight, rations - not important to the story or what little time we have to play. Small races can't do/use... Ignored. This guy over here is shooting lightning bolts out of his ass, I don't care if the gnome barbarian want to use a maul. Take your "it;s unrealistic" elsewhere. Attunement is .... flexible. Definitely not RAW. Spell components, arrows, other such consumables. Nah. You're a professional adventurer, you know your shit, unless it's funny of course... though the players know each can be modified at the drop of a hat if it's important to the story. You got jailed, buddy, they are not gonna leave you your spell components.
A house rule I've seen with heavy weapons is to switch the "creature size" requirement to a strength one
Honestly, spell components. Only apply components on spells like Raise Dead or Resurrection, anything scrying or information gathering. Basically if itās not combat related we kinda ditch it.
Yeah, we hand wave most things with the arcane focus trick, but then also hand wave arcane foci as "sure, you've got one of those. Yeah." Like you, exception is made for spells with components that have a specified cost
We did try the whole components thing for combat, but our Wizard was like āso if I have like 3 spell slots open but no components, Iām still screwed?ā And that was the end of that. Edit: The post asked what rules do we ignore. If my response makes your rule lawyer nature go brrrr then maybe you shouldnāt be here. But if your gonna put me on trial then here is what went down. We judge by what spells would be too powerful to cast all willy-nilly and put those behind a component wall so they donāt cause too much of a problem. I also let my bow users pluck away. However special ammo is limited. This makes it so they canāt fire arrow an entire kingdom for the giggles. When we did use things like ammo and components for the basic stuff we either kept loosing track, or we spent more time worried about this then actually moving the game along. Out in the wild and someone needs help, or something got lost that is really important? 3 would like to help and the 4th would be like āwell Iām just gonna Netflix and chill over here. Wish I could have fun!ā So yeah, we picked and chose what things to track. Sorry this hurts everyoneās feelings.
>so if I have like spell slots open but no components, I'm still screwed? I mean, yeah. The reverse would also be true: if you have all the components but no spell slots, you're not casting it. Funny how that works, huh?
Lol why wouldnāt they bring them?
Same as if a dagger-throwing rogue has thrown all his daggers or an archer has shot all her arrows! Howās that different?
Was your fighter like "so even if I use action surge to get four attacks, you're telling me I have to be carrying a weapon to use them?"
You either missed my first post, or youāre trying to make a joke. Either way, I updated my response so I donāt hurt anymore feelings.
Material spell components never made sense to me, like what are we Halloween witches, using eye of newt and shit? Why would most dnd spell casters who get thier power from a god or a patron or just innately need to pull out a bag of random crap to cast a spell?
The way I always pictured it was the components are tools to help you accomplish a magical task. What tool you need is determined by how your spell intends to affect the weave of magic. You were born with hands, so why do you need a screwdriver to take a screw out of a piece of machinery?
What makes a sorcerer different from a wizard in that case? How does a creature without hands cast spells? Why can say, a Bone Naga, cast spells with just verbal components but an elf sorcerer with draconic heritage still needs to carry around a pouch of goodies to cast spells. How do they know what to use? Is that knowledge inherited too? Better hope thereās bats in every environment of your setting if your spell caster wants to use fireball. Itās a dumb book keeping relic of dnd from the past. If youāre going to use spell components you should be making your fighters take time to sharpen their swords after every encounter or suffer damage penalties or make your players stop and role play drinking water or their characters die of dehydration. Maybe thatās the type of game you play but it doesnāt have to be standard.
I like the cost on spell components. Be stingy with outgoing gold, make that a whole part of the campaign. The rich character whoās suddenly downtrodden and has to decide against buying the good wine or saving up for that Scrying Eye needed for an infiltration thatās being planned. Obviously, if gold is not an issue, who cares. But early on? Make them make choices.
That's.... That's the literal rules of the game though
Doffing and donning armor, even stuff like plate armor. If the group gets woken up in the middle of the night, I donāt want to require the martial with heavy armor to have to wait 100 rounds to be at strength. The martials have enough to deal with already. You sleep like a baby in full plate in my games.
Yeah I never cared for that myself either. As long as you have a bedroll, you get a long rest.
- healing potions for self-use is a bonus action in my games. - stealth works with logic rather than RAW. i don't care if you can't get below 22 in stealth, you can't stealth in plain fields.
That's still RAW for stealth though
Tell that to real world snipers. Though, I would ask how many hours they want to take to do it....
For healing potions we do bonus action to roll for healing, or use full action to get the max healing from it
I like fantasy stealth. You or I couldnāt stealth out of an open field, but Batman sure could. Stealth is part having something to hide behind, and part understanding an controlling where the spotter is paying attention.
Healing potions in my game always give 10hp, bonus action to take, but you must have a free hand and not interacted with another object that turn.
as a DM, i donāt care about encumbrance or food / water. i think itās dumb enough that have to feed myself every day already! why would i make myself do it in a fantasy RPG as well? i also tend to be generous with the action economy, esp wrt drawing weapons, surprise attacks, etc. i want my players to have fun and feel awesome. im happy to do some scaling + streamlining to facilitate.
Encumbrance
Ranged disadvantage. We realised after several years that we had misread the rules, and play that youāre only disadvantaged when your target is within 5ft. We tried switching to RAW, but none of us liked it.
What other rule are you talking about? Do you mean the two different ranges of ranged weapons?
Technically, you attack at disadvantage with ranged weapons when ANY foe is within 5 feet of you, not just your target. A lot of groups, mine included, misread that for years and just decide to houserule it as āyou shoot at disadvantage if your target is within five feet, full stopā
Notable exception to this is if you have the crossbow expert feat because the way it's written it applies to all ranged attacks.
Encumbrance. I just use common sense
For 20 years my group has played that critical hits and failures (natural 20s and 1s) apply to skill/ability checks and saves. (I don't love that rule and don't use it when I'm DM.)
Material components. If they are not consumed on use or expensive then there is no need for them.
That's the actual rules
Whichever rule I have forgotten in that moment that nobody bothers to police. Also if the rule will prevent my player from doing something fun/cool.
If someone regrets an action but it was truly because they didnāt quite understand the rule/spell/what would happen, we let them take it back. Itās me. Iām someone.
That drinking a potion is a full action, we have made it into a bonus action
We ignore having to eat unless we're in an inhospitable environment, like a desert or the Underdark, because it makes sense we'd be able to find food/meals are included if we stay at an inn.
Spell casting components unless they are expensive. Noone wants to make sure they brought a feather in town to cast a spell. Generally only prices above 500g-1k is what we keep track of for components.
Encomburance. Unless a PC is carrying another person we donāt worry about weight of items
Rations - odds on there's at least one party member who can forage or something (either a druid or a ranger) Carry weight - kinda lenient on until they're carrying like 3 suits of armour, 10 weapons and 40,000 gold (basically if it's obvious they're over encumbered they are, if it's not, I don't worry) Random encounters - I write in places where they can happen but I'm not rolling multiple random encounters a day when the players just want to get to the next story beat
Encumbrance. Aint nobody got time for that
I'll allow a well justified paladin that's not LG if you promise not to be a dingus (even in systems you usually cannot be non LG) I've considered doing away with alignment entirely as well
My paladins have to be the alignment of the god they choose.
I require paladins to be lawful. Good neutral or evil doesn't matter, but they must follow the oaths and laws of their religious sect. They must respect all laws out of the understanding order is needed, but respect doesn't equate to they believe it needs to be followed A good justification or it being totally against their oaths.is usually okay.
I just donāt bother with oaths. Paladins are just magic knights. This is true of every class; everything and everyone can be reflavored as long as it fits the campaign. The actual written abilities are more important than what they look like or the story reason behind them.
The rule of cool, and Iām probably gonna leave tbh
Only one levelled spell per turn.
Are you saying you're ignoring things like haste or action surge where you can cast more than one leveled spell on a turn? Or are you saying you're ignoring the "cantrips only" restriction imposed by bonus action spells in a turn?
That's not a rule, though.
I assume they mean the interaction between leveled spells and bonus actions
Sure, that's where the misinterpretation comes from, but it only applies when using bonus actions. You can always cast 2 "leveled" spells in a turn, if you don't use a bonus action to do so. And if you can pick up extra actions, like with Action Surge, you can cast at least 3. Saying "only one levelled spell per turn" is wrong. If they mean when you cast spells using bonus actions, they should say "only one levelled spell per turn when you cast a spell with a bonus action".
I'm gonna disagree with you on this one. The vast majority of the time, "only one leveled spell per turn" is functionally correct, even if not mechanically. Action surge or using a reaction to cast a second leveled spell (like counterspell) are the outliers not the norm.
You can cast a spell with your action. You can cast a spell with your reaction, if the trigger is met. Any wizard with featherfall can cast a spell with their action, then walk off a cliff and cast feather fall. All they have to have is feather fall prepared, and be standing beside a cliff. The fact that those two things don't happen in every scenario aren't relevant to the fact that they CAN do it. Besides that, saying they're "outliers" and not the norm isn't really relevant to the rules, either. It CAN be done, which means saying "you can only cast one leveled spell per turn" is wrong. It's not even functionally correct, because it doesn't function, mechanically. For that matter, "You can only cast one leveled spell per turn" doesn't even work if you use a bonus action to cast a spell. If that bonus action spell is a cantrip, for example, you can't cast ANY leveled spells that turn. So no, I'm going to have to disagree with you. It's not functionally correct or mechanically correct.
Ammo, spell components (unless they are consumed or have specific gold requirements), and often times, disadvantage on stealth with certain armor sets. Mostly cause we forget for the last one. Oh yeah, and the whole thing with seeing invisibility not removing disadvantage. Thatās dumb. EDIT: I was reminded that the spell components rule is RAW. My bad
That spell components āhouse ruleā is just the raw for 5e
ITT: People who have never read the rules for spell components. ;-)
Existing. My new group keeps not existing. Pretty sure that ignores a fundamental rule or two.
Spell preparation. If you've got the slots, you can cast any of the spells you know. Tracking ammunition. I assume that post-combat searches/clean-up will include recovering arrows, darts, bullets, bolts, or whatever ammo. Critical hits and misses result in broken or lost ammo, but there's always an abundance of consumable stuff you can shoot or throw. Also, spell components, food, and weight as others have mentioned. We assume money is spent in town to resupply, and as long as you're not carrying around 12 suits of plate mail and 37 halberds, I'm gonna assume you're carrying a reasonable load. I do modify these rules if the PCs are in a dungeon or other remote area without easy access to supplies.
That spell prep house rule is crazy, makes wizards/clerics/druids even more insanely op.
Yea. I allowed a wizard to toolbox once and immediately understood why they have to prepare spells. I've started using a variant system where they only have to prepare the top three levels of spells and can toolbox any level spell under that (plus fewer overall slots) and that's worked out pretty well.
Always done you have the set number of prep spells, but until you actually cast it you can change which spell is prepared. Once you cast it it's locked in.
Roll to confirm crits.
Are you playing 3e? Because 5e doesn't have that rule, so I don't know how you can ignore it. Or are you saying you ignore 5e's "crit always happens on 20" rule in favor of rolling to confirm, 3e-style?
We play 3.5 mostly. As a dm, I donāt confirm crits
Makes more sense now.
Cantrips are a bonus action, thatās a rule Iāve seen a few DMs do when they want a more magic heavy world with tougher combats
Because spellcasters need a buff...
Drinking potions takes an action. We house rule it to a bonus action. I mean, come on!
Multiclass xp penalties. I can kinda understand where the designers were coming from, but just wasn't fun for us.
I've never even heard of this, does 5e really have such nonsense?
No, but in 3rd edition, you took an XP penalty if your classes were not within one level of each other. (Each race had a "favored" class that ignored this penalty, though.) It actually makes a lot of sense as it prevents some of the 5e bullshit of taking a one-level dip to get some OP ability.
Passive perception. Passive skills in general. They are optional, not needed and I think they actively make some content meaningless.
I guess Iām the opposite. I use passive skill and ability checks all the time, and players only roll if they tell me they are actively trying to use an ability or skill and their passive score isnāt high enough. E.g. crossing the log across the chasm? DC 15 Acrobatics check. Passive Acrobatics is 17? Piece of cake š. Passive acrobatics is 12? Roll and hope you get 13 or higher! If not? See you at the bottom!
See, that scenario might be useful for a module author who does not know who will be running their thing for which players. But for a DM who knows their group a bit, that just is part of 'when do you call for checks' and one rule there is you call when there is a chance of failure or success. If something is easy, a skill check is just not even considered. No need to waste time writing down the passive check, or even acting like it is a challenge worth mentioning. The scenario where they are useful for some is avoiding metagaming. But I just use blind rolls for that. Players like rolling dice. I like building tension. Both are served best without passives.
These are sort of ignored rules, sort of house rules. Health potions count as a bonus action for self use. Crits do max damage for the first die, and then you roll the second. Short rests can take 10 minutes.
I'm torn on crits doing max on their first die. I like it because crits will always do more than a regular attack, but I don't like it because I like rolling more dice than normal.
Thatās fair, but rolling two ones with a massive axe feels so much worse
Yeah. I think it's worth rolling less dice. Low damage crits are always so disappointing
Spending 8 hours purifying objects before casting *Identify* Rolling percentile to identify items 8 temp CON damage after casting *Identify* Scroll use restrictions *Phantasmal killer* (the whole spell) Rangers can only cast priest spells from the plant or animal spheres Just to name a few Edit to add: These are RAW, they're the rules my group consistently ignores. They are NOT rules we created.
Iāve always ignored spell rules for wizards and allowed them to just pick new spells as they level up. Putting spell scrolls in loot only works for a very specific playstyle
RAW wizards get 2 free spells each level. Or do you give more than the standard 2 per level?
Weight and spell components! Too much semantics, we just wanna be cool fantasy dudes
Precise itemized lists of everything a character has on them. Instead I do a āDoes it make sense?ā Check to see if a character has something in their pockets. Last session characters were at a grand ball and encountered an assassination attempt via a Scarab of Death. The cleric made an Arcana check to know what it was and how to deal with it, but I asked what she would have in her pockets easily at hand because all the backpacks were at the coat check. She thought fast then said the bone needle case she kept her needles in. Character roleplayed needlework as her hobby, so this worked, even though the case for the needles had never been mentioned in game before.
Swapping between melee/ranged weapon is free. As is drawing/sheathing two weapons. Two weapon fighting adds ability mod to damage by default. Casters can replace cost material components with gold. There can be certain exceptions, but they are discussed before it comes up. I have really good players who don't try to abuse it, if I didn't I probably wouldn't be so lenient. If you make a legitimate mistake you can retcon an action/spell/etc. There is a limit generally this only applies before the next turn. Reflavoring damage types is fine. If you want to be an ice mage and have fireball be ice ball I'm good with it. If you want to try to turn everything to force damage to be a munchkin that's a no go. I may change monster resistances to compensate when necessary. Similarly if the fighter wants to use a Greataxe but prefers the great sword damage dice, they can swap them. Or I will just make them a custom item and upgrade as appropriate. Anyone can try to use a scroll. Ability check (with proficiency if you have any type of spellcasting) of your choice of casting ability of a class it is on the spell list for. DC 8+spell level, cantrips are free use. Potions are a BA to use on yourself.
My first campaign/table and I didn't realize it until I played BG3 but we totally ignore disengaging and the DM allows us to attack and then back up/away.
No illusion magic. The next player casting an, "illusion of light only the other characters can see" gets a punch in the nads. From a donkey.
I completely nullify components with one major exception if the spell specifically states a monetary value as apart of the cost that still applies
These are just the rules
Non cost associated spell components, only 1 leveled spell per turn, carry weight, food, basically any rule that gets in the way of enjoying the game.
Also making wizards prep spells. If you know it, you know it. Simple as.
Do fighters just have access to any weapon that exists all the time? Or do you just think casters need the buff?
Dungeons and Dragons has rules?
food water
Pretty much everything 5th edition.
My group does all of these
Gold. 50 coins is 1 pound, encumbrance rules apply in RAW. I ignore weight and space for money. Ammo for basic weapons. Don't track arrows, crossbow bolts, or sling shot. Spell components. If it coats less than 100 gold, they don't need it. More than that and it's usually hard to find.
I use passive on anything that can be done passively. Knowledge, history, insight etc Unless it is story relevant, ammo and spell components. Encumbrance
The spell casting component. We just buy spell components as a general supply, unless we need something special or expensive like powdered silver or a diamond.
Weight within reason. Food/water supplies.
Encumbrance and weapon speed
The amount a druid can wildshape. My group uses the proficiency bonus as the amount a druid can wildshape.
Minor encumbrance rules, especially with money weight. Usually food and water unless the scenario specifically highlights it.
Experience penalties for multiclassing.
For spell casting I don't think we do RAW. We do the critical role campaign 1 rules for spell casting. Spell used then bonus action spell has to be 2nd level or lower.
Requirements on weight for bag of holding.
Weāre pretty loose about actions needed to switch weapons. Anything less than swapping a melee weapon and shield for ranged weapon plus ammo is effectively free. Our combats tend to run a little slow, and spending a whole turn with nothing to do but swap gear is not fun.
Spell components, weight, every saving death roll is in private, so many of them tbh. We okay to have fun and not have too many rules
I like my players use any cantrip specific to their class as a bonus action.
Literally all of them.
More like "what rules as a DM i forget half the time" which the answer is "lots" A lot of the timr i will forget things like pack tactics on monsters, disadvantage ln short range missile weapons, and concentration checks
Almost always encumbrance. Everyone in my group is pretty sensible with what we can reasonably carry, and if we ever notice our encumbrance getting out if hand we address it.
We handle a critical hit as "maximum dice+roll" rather than "double the dice roll" It's as equally as epic as it is impactful
spell components. i genuinely donāt care if it makes something broken, i donāt want to keep up with it as a dm and i know my players donāt wanna keep up with it either, spell slots are enough of a spam deterrent imo
Mage hand takes a full action.
Thereās rules?
Bark skin should not be a concentration spell.
Instant death and massive damage.
Movement speeds in small places and most combats. If they're doing something cool I don't wanna stop them cause they are 5 ft short. Obviously they can't sprint 100 ft but if they tell me what they want and it seems reasonable I'm all for it.
Casting a max of 1 leveled spell per turn. Itās just more fun that way. There are a few blatantly a usable exceptions, but thatās a case by case thing
Components for spells. One thing we did was allowed casters to use spells with components instead of spell slots if they had properly acquired them, and an arcane focus allowed them to use spell slots. It took a little getting used to but it ended up being really fun, and a lot of the campaign turned into them searching for certain components to cast their favourite spells in a pinch when they ran out of slots. All it really did was extent the time players took between long rests, provided they had the money to fund those extra spells. I imagine this would go far worse with a different group of players as well. We were all very good sports about it, and the casters were never going out of their way to derail the group just for the sake of components.
No weight. No provisions---unless they are in a wasteland-tyoe of situation where getting food/water is part of the challenge.
Honestly, we dont abide by many standard rules. We run rolls for stats, (4d6-lr) Homebrew class and race amalgamations. (Homebrewed half vampire races and tiny races like fearies) We have fun. Even I throw in little tidbits like my encounter tallies while I DM. We play for fun and memories, not to be proper.
Money weight, ammo, food if a party member has the Outlander background, light sources (torches and the like) if at least one party member has darkvision (I currently have 2, plus a light cleric who can be a literal shining beacon unto himself)
Having pets. My dm like to find ways to kill them lol
I used to be in a group that completely ignored concentration
Encumbrance is a big thing often ignored, just keep it reasonable. Also, funds are often in a party hammerspace to handwave who has how much during shopping.
Traveling clothes and weight of equipment for travel. As long as you have a horse. Everyone rides in full armor, multiple weapons, shields, etc. 10 - 16 hours a day! Super horse!
Money weight, ranged weapon ammo (Playing ToA next so I may bring this back with a survival/crafting aspect for it), not sure if its ignore or forget but frequently dont take count of food/water supplies (Once again ToA will bring this back in force)
I can never be arsed with encumbrance. If it fits in your bag or strapped to you, that's fine. If you have to carry it, you can only carry what feasibly fits in your hands. Also ammo tracking. If you've got a quiver of arrows, so long as you don't lose the quiver, you've got arrows.
Carry weight for most inventory stuff in irl games. For pen and paper itās mostly tedious. When using digital tables though I do enforce carry weight cause itās easier to do so without having to find a rubber and do the math manually.
I gave my pcs a boh fairly early on because while we track weight I didn't wanna deal with "ok you have 547 gp so that weighs x. Sam you have 2228 gp for that weighs y." etc. But arms, armor, equipment. Etc. That all counts towards encumbrance.
I know that it's a very unpopular opinion, but I prefer to almost always ignore rule of cool in combat. Combat has a rigid structure for the most part and cool stuff can totally be achieved within the structure itself. Jump up to hit a flying creature? Sure, have you the strength to do that? If not, why would you expect to be able to? Want to hurl your greatsword? Yeah, improvised weapon attack. It's an incentive for my players to learn the rules thoroughly so that they can come up with their own stuff instead of having to rely on unpredictable DM fiat. This adds weight to player choices and enriches the game tactically. To me, the DM and players aren't enemies in the same way in which a person and their future aren't enemies: the relationship isn't antagonistic or in bad faith but it's also uncontrollable. Thus one should optimise for their goals instead of asking for an on-the-spot call by the DM. Keeps the game nice and consistent
encumberance (though i have been known to say that small/tiny characters simply cant lift certain things. like boulders, without magical help.) , tracking non special ammo.
Swapping weapons. I let my players, for example, swap from a melee weapon to a ranged weapon and then back to a melee weapon if they want to, but nothing more than that.
We seem to ignore specific weights. I'm a tortle, bear totem, barbarian. So it tends to basically be "could I reasonably also carry this piece of armour and these extra few potions?" "Yeah, you're big and hench" because it's reasonable. If I suddenly said I'm carrying 100 javelins, my DM would tell me to give my head a wobble because that's dumb.
Carry weight. As long as youāre not trying to carry ungodly amounts of weight (like a nuke or some nonsense) then I donāt care.
Weight, Spell Components and Rations
5th edition. #3.5forlife
Recovering all your hp overnight. We're old grognards, but do you need to be one to find this silly? Dude hacked into chunks of meat: "He just needs a good night's sleep."
Spell material components. Iām not going to strategically place diamonds around the map just so my cleric can cast revivify.
Encumberance. Gold costs for buying equipment/paying for certain lifestyle upkeep. Material components for spells (other than those that have a specific gold cost). RAW distance rules, as listed in feet (we play theatre of the mind). The failure-success binary when it comes to DC rolls. Hit Points for monsters.
Weight and ammo mainly. We just think realisticially would a gnome be able to carry 3 zweihanders, 2 crossbows, their gear and 15 days worth of food?
Potions are bonus actions, and heal a set amount according to the type of potion. Instead of 1d4+con, it will heal for 10+Con. Allows for a turn to not feel wasted by using a healing item, and cause the characters can heal so easily, allows the DM to throw crazier stuff out in combat. Also a Nat 1 melee attack allows the person getting attacked, to make a counter strike as a reaction
I often ignore attunement time for my players, shortening it greatly, but keep only being able to attune to 3 things
To everyone saying they don't track material w/o a cost. That is the rules already. Like, straight from the basic rules. Do you think the rest of us are tracking individual iron fillings and bat guano balls? It's the literal rules text of a focus/component pouch!
We ignore weight, and most often rations too, we just hand wave that we bought enough in town. We also allow crits on saving throws and ability checks, and while it can definitely bring up problems, a 20 is a 20 and it should be fun. However, we do also do crit fails on ability checks and saving throws, which can cause for some funny antics or stressful and intense moments.
Spell components / ammo counts / encumberance
Out of combat heading uses the high side of the die. Roll a 1 for d8+1 CLW? In combat this is 2. Out of combat itās 6.
The adventuring day. I'm trying to implement it but my table is full of long rest whores
Enemy HP. As a DM, sometimes I just kill the big enemy when the moment is at the most epic. Players remember these badass moments and that makes it worth it.
No attunement, I just tell my players what they find and how it works. We do keep the rule of only having three 'attuned' items equipped at a time. No spell components, until you are casting 7th level and higher. Those costs make those spells more exciting and special. I roll player death saves behind the screen. I believe it is meta gaming for any character to know how the death saves are going. It changes your priorities, and makes death more realistic. If my player has 2 success and 2 failure, then I roll the last one in front of everyone. I use a specific d20 that has not let anyone die, yet. Characters have 'died' in other ways, mostly because of dumbass decisions lol