1. Notes

Homebrew Rules

Rules

The following homebrew rules apply to the main D&D 5e Iralas campaign.
Update: Januari 2022

Equipment & Resting Rules

Short Rest: A character must consume 1 ration to be able to hold a Short Rest in the wilderness. This ration can come from an Equipment Pack. Resting in extreme environments requires proper shelter, or you cannot roll hit dice to recover health.

Long Rest: A character must consume 1 ration and sleep somewhere comfortable (such as a tavern or campsite) to benefit (recover spell slots, Hit Die, HP) from a Long Rest. Camping supplies and rations can be found in an Equipment Pack.

Stress & Scary Stuff

Hit Points can be considered an abstract representation of life force, health, endurance, luck, and will to live/fight.

Hence, psychological stress and damage can be represented as 'psychic damage'.

When facing intense, scary or stressful situations, the DM might call for a Stress Save. You can choose how you want to make it:

  • INT Save: Explain how you try to rationalize what you're seeing.
  • WIS Save: Explain how your senses might have tricked you, or how the thing you are perceiving can be interpreted.
  • CHA Save: Explain how you lie to yourself, laugh it off, or pull yourself together.

On a failure, you take 1, 1d4, 1d6, 1d8 or 1d10 psychic damage, depending on the situation.

This type of damage cannot drop you below 1 HP. If it does bring you down to 1 HP, it means you are basically so stressed out, you can barely defend yourself. 

Defense Rolls

The players roll their characters’ attacks as normal, but you don’t roll for their opponents.
Instead, when a character is targeted by an attack, the player makes a
n Armor Save.

An Armor Save has a bonus equal to the character’s AC − 10.
The DC for the roll equals the attacker’s attack bonus + 12.

On a successful defense roll, the attack misses because it was dodged, absorbed by the character’s armor, and so on.
If a character fails a defense roll, the attack hits.
If the attacker would normally have advantage on the attack roll, you instead apply disadvantage to the defense roll, and vice versa if the attacker would have disadvantage.
If the defense roll comes up as a 1 on the d20, then the attack is a critical hit.
If the attacker would normally score a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20, then the attack is a critical hit on a 1 or 2, and so forth for broader critical ranges.

Skill Checks

Skill checks in skills you are proficient in, will be made at Advantage. Particular skill checks made in skills you are not proficient in, will be made at Disadvantage.

Hit Die when Levelling Up

When leveling up, you can roll your Hit Die. If you don't like the result, the DM will roll behind their screen. You can pick his roll, instead.

Critical Hit

On a critical hit, you can choose to either roll twice the dice, or deal maximum damage for your attack. For example: A damage roll of 1d6+3 can turn into 2d6+3 or 6+3.

New Actions for Combat

Stunt

Particularly fancy or spectacular actions are rolled as stunts. This foregoes your regular attack action(s) this turn. Roll twice; the DM will determine DC and which skills. If you succeed twice, it goes off as planned. Failing once and failing twice is a partial success; failing twice means things go not as planned.

Skill Checks & Social Checks

Open Skills

With Open Skills, your skills are no longer tied to a single ability—instead, you may apply your skill bonus to any ability check that feels appropriate.

When you are taking an action, try to consider which ability and skill pairing is the best fit for your situation. You may only use one ability and one skill per check.

For instance, you can make a Charisma (Religion) check, using your Charisma bonus and Religion proficiency.

Social Interaction

There's more to social interaction than just charisma—intelligence and wisdom are just as important, and each has their own role to play in conversation.

When you interact with an NPC, the context of your action determines which ability you are using: smarts (intelligence), feelings (wisdom), or presence (charisma).

  • Intelligence: You're trying to be clever. Debate, reason, negotiate, lie, manipulate, wit, and threaten.
  • Wisdom: You're trying to soothe or connect feelings. Rapport, empathize, calm, discretion, and tact.
  • Charisma: You're trying to be likeable or dominating. Charm, bluff, banter, incite, command, and intimidate.