D&D 5th Edition - Hawke's House Rules

by RPG Research Admin published 2015/04/06 02:30:00 GMT-7, last modified 2022-11-12T08:26:46-08:00
Folks have been asking me repeatedly about how to "fix" D&D 5e to tone it down a bit for their campaigns, especially for long-term campaigns, so I have posted my 5 house rules that so far, since last summer, (4 groups using them now) have helped considerably.

I prefer more toned-down campaigns that can last many years, so I have a few house rules that tone down some key parts of the D&D 5th edition rules. I have been RPGing since 1979, and run all kinds of systems & settings, generally preferring character-driven/story-driven campaigns over hack and slash and power gaming.

Hopefully others find this useful. The critical combat rules modifications are totally my own "thing", so for most groups you can ignore those, the other 4 rules modifications other groups have reported being helpful.

Of course, as with any house rules, they tend to be very individualized to the players and GM tastes, so your mileage may vary. Hopefully it helps some that have concerns similar to mine about the power inflation (though the core rules are much improved over 4th edition).

Some of the modifications have been more controversial based on comments on my youtube.com/rpgresearch channel, especially the cantrips mods. I welcome further friendly dialog.

Here is the relevant information (apologies that the server is acting up, so web page layout is wonky, trying to resolve, but doesn't impact the information itself):

Hawke's 7 House Rules for 5th edition D&D:

http://spokanerpg.com/Members/hawkeold/files/d-d-5th-edition-house-rules-by-hawke-web-page-version-20141005a

Cantrip modification details: http://spokanerpg.com/forum/rules/466725448

Happy Gaming!

-Hawke

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