House Rules (5A)

I have annotated copies of the rule books. Check out the PDFs to see my notes.

Combat

Initiative

Delay When using initiative, a character can delay their action, which moves them to a lower position in the initiative order.

Minions Minions (familiars, hirelings, animal companions, summons) never have an initiative of their own. They act on the master's turn, when the master spends the action to control them. This is usually a Bonus Action, but for spells it tends to be a Free Action.

Additional Attacks

Only the Fighter class ever gets more than 2 attacks per round. If you would gain a 3rd attack from a class other than fighter, you instead gain the following ability.

Attack Combination When you take the Attack action, you can use your bonus action to make an additional attack.

Magic

Potions

Taking out and using a potion on yourself is a bonus action. Doing it for someone else is an action, either taking it from their gear, applying it to them, or both.

Using Magic Items

I like it when the user matters more than the item.

A magic item always uses your save DC and Spell Attack Bonus. If you lack such values, use the values listed in the item description.
A magic item cannot do more dice of damage than the user's level.

Other Rules

Proficient Help

If you are proficient with a skill or tool, you can always use the Help action. If you lack proficiency, you need to convince the GM of how you are helping.

Death and Resurrection

Raising the dead is not a matter of a simple spell, it is an epic adventure and most often fails spectacularly, resulting in an undead creature. Normal resurrection abilities only work in the first hour after death.

As a balance against this, death doesn't happen lightly. PCs only die if the player thinks the death makes sense in the story, and even NPCs die more rarely than in other campaigns, that is only if the GM feels it fits the story. There can be other consequences of a near-death experience, such as scars, new personality traits, and such.

Milestone Leveling

We use milestone leveling, that is all PCs level when the GM says they do. All PCs are always of the same level.

Rules not in Use

Options that may have interesting ideas but are not currently used: Unused Optional Rules (5A) - Miscellania off the Net (5A) - Potential Projects (5A)