Gameplay at The Tabletop Adventure    

I have the following mechanic house rules in place. The descriptions will be from the player perspective but these rules are here to empower both players and enemies alike and create additional excitement and options within the game:

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• Advantageous Flanking. Advantage can be leveraged if the target creature has already been attacked once by another creature/player (either in the same round or the previous round). This does not stack with other abilities or mechanics that grant Advantage. Instead, if a player already has Advantage (as a result of flanking or a spell/skill effect) that player will get a single point increase to their critical threat range. This effect does not stack with the exception of “Pack Tactics” which will stack twice. The Dungeon Master will track and assist with clarification during combat.
  Example:

  • The fighter attacks an ogre. The ogre has not yet been attacked and so he does not get advantage.

  • The Rogue, not stealthed, attacks the same ogre with her light crossbow. She has advantage because the fighter attacked the ogre before she attacked. She gets to roll her backstab damage if she hits.

  • The Barbarian attacks the same ogre and declares that she is using Reckless attack. Since she already has advantage by the creature being attacked already, she instead gets an increased threat range for using this ability (she will land a critical hit on a natural roll of 19 or 20 instead of just 20).

Note: Players are not getting additional critical threat range simply by “mobbing” and focusing down a single target. Only in instances where a skill or spell specifically would give advantage, when advantage is already present, is the increased threat range coming into play.

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• Massive Damage. If a player (or creature) takes damage past 0 then they are at the risk of suffering failed death saving throws as they fall unconscious. If the damage they take, before falling unconscious, goes into the negatives and that negative amount meets or exceeds their constitution score then as they fall unconscious they will have a failure in their death saving throw (cumulative).
  Examples:

  • Wren, the wizard, has 13 HP remaining and a constitution score of 12. Wren gets shot by an enemy ranger and takes 21 points of damage. This puts Wren at -8 HP and they fall unconscious with no additional effects and the normal mechanics are applicable.

  • O’kile, the rogue, has 5 HP remaining and a constitution score of 13. O’kile gets hit by a stone thrown by a hill giant and it’s a critical hit. O’kile takes 32 points of damage and puts them at -27 HP. As a result, they have 2 failed death saving throws (one at -13 and another at -26) as they fall unconscious. O’kile is now at a high risk of death with only one failure remaining.

  • In the same instance above the critical hit does 47 points of damage. This puts them at -42 HP. As a result, they get 3 failed death saving throws (one at -13, another at -26 and the third at -39) and suffer instant death as a result of massive damage.
     

• Cleave/Pierce. If the player downs their target with a melee attack the player can choose to “spill over” damage to another creature within 5ft of the target creature (directly behind for Piercing and adjacent for Bludgeoning/Slashing) and within range of the player. The original attack roll to hit is used to determine if it would hit the new creature and if so the left-over damage from the previous creature is applied to the new target. This does not apply for ranged, magic or spell-like effects.
   

• Critical Saves and Fails for spells and spell-like abilities. There is the existing rule for handling critical success or failure for melee and ranged attacks. However, there is no such rule for spells or spell-like abilities. This rule adds critical effects to them.

  • If the spell or spell-like ability is single-target against the target’s AC it will follow the normal Critical success/failure rules and double the dice damage upon a critical success or completely miss (or hit the wrong target!) upon a critical failure.

  • If the spell or spell-like ability requires a saving throw it will be an inverse ruling. If the target critically saves they will completely avoid all damage and bad effects. However, if they critically fail the dice damage will be doubled.

Note: This does not apply to skill checks.

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• Healing Spells. At certain levels players with access to healing spells may gain the ability to add a modifier to their healing spell based on their ‘spellcasting ability modifier’. Rather than applying your spell casting ability modifier to a single healing spell you will be able to apply it to each die used for the healing spell instead. This adds value to scaling up healing spells into higher spell slots and creates more versatility for a healer.
  Example:

Alinso, the Cleric, cast ‘Cure Wounds’ as a 3rd level spell with a wisdom modifier of +3. At 3rd level they get to roll 3d8+9 for their spell (a +3 for each of the dice).

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• Curses! Cursed items, and cursed effects, are a lot of fun and add a lot of enjoyability to the game. However, they are rather easy to get around with all of the mechanics in play (and pretty easy to get removed too). I treat curses in a similar way as how I treat traps. There is a DC associated with detecting a curse when you cast identify (or use a similar skill) and the closer you are to the DC the more 'insight' you'll have on whether or not this item is cursed. Beating the DC provides a strong confirmation of a curse being present and beating the DC by a margin might get you more info on what the curse is.
  In addition to detecting the curse a DC is also applied to removing the curse. Remove Curse is a base 3rd level spell and essentially what this means is that some curses will either need to be cast at a higher level spell slot or a DC needs to be met or passed if cast at a lower level.
  Example:

Dinnae, the gnome fighter, has contracted lycanthropy while battling werewolves in a nearby farmstead. She does not want this curse and chooses not to embrace it. While pursuing a cure she is presented with a few options, seek a boon from a deity who will help in exchange for an offering/support or find a powerful mage capable of casting 7th level spells to help cure the ailment. A failed attempt at removing the curse could cause Dinnae to lose herself and transform suddenly!​