House Rules for D&D 5e

version: 1.2

Maurício Reis

December 6, 2023
 E XPECTED C ONTENT H ANDLING M OBS
For the handling mobs optional rule, there will
Players should be aware of the purposes and be the following additional tables:
boundaries of the game. The following
summarizes expected etiquette: Mob Attacks - Normal
• The table is meant for mild content. Don’t go d20 Needed Number of Attacks for 1 hit
murderhobo; 1-5 1
6-12 2
• Be friendly to other PC’s. No PvP;
13-14 3
• Be nice, be respectful.
15-16 4
The game is meant to be a media upon which a 17-18 5
story is set on a scenario by the DM and 19 10
resolved by player decisions. Choices have 20 20
consequences. It is intended to have space for
the three ’axis’ of the game: Social interaction,
Combat and Exploration. Mob Attacks - Advantage
d20 Needed Number of Attacks for 1 hit

S PECIFIC R ULES AND 1-10

11-16
1
2

G UIDELINES 17
18
3
4
19 5
20 10
E NCUMBRANCE
The variant rules for encumbrance, PHB pp.
176, will be used. In addition, the following Mob Attacks - Disadvantage
changes will be made: d20 Needed Number of Attacks for 1 hit
• The Powerful Build feature, the Bear Aspect
1-3 1
4-7 2
level 6 barbarian totem warrior feature or any
8-9 3
other feats of the like allows for the character 10-11 4
to use a backpack which carries twice the 12 5
normal weight capacity, i.e., can carry 60 lb. 13 6
(27Kg). 14 8
• Characters with at least one of the above 15 11
features and a height of 6 ft. (1,80m) or more 16 16
can carry a backpack with twice the volume 17 - 20 20
space of the ordinary one;
• For practical reasons, the waterskin carries
To determine d20 Needed, subtract the
enough water for one day, which is 2 litres. attacker’s ATT bonus from the AC of surrounded
target.
E XPANDED M ECHANICS
R EST VARIANT
The following optional rules from DMG will be
used: In the DMG pp. 84 there is a guideline for the so
called “Adventure Day”:
Optional Rules Used
Assuming typical adventuring conditions
Name DMG and average luck, most adventuring
Loyalty pg. 93
parties can handle about six to eight
Handling Mobs pg. 250
Flanking pg. 251
medium or hard encounters in a day.
Diagonals pg. 251
This guideline is directly related to the balance
Diseases pg. 256
Poisons pg. 257
of a number of things in the game, for example,
Madness pg. 258 hit points and hit dice recovery as well as spell
Action Options pg. 271 slots, item charges and abilities usages. To
conciliate the flow of the story telling with the
management of character resources, there will
be special rules for long rest recovery:

1. There are two types of long rests: with and

without recovery;

2
2. Long rests without recovery can happen once
in a day, as standard rules for 5e. They give
the PCs the following benefits:
• Any benefit of a short rest;
• Exhaustion recovery at the end of the long
rest;
• Spell casting preparation.
3. Long rests with recovery can only happen in
special places or moments allowed by the
general development of the adventure.
Expĺoring areas where PCs take more risks or
face more danger make long rests with
recovery to happen more frequently. This type
of long rest provides what is stated in the PHB
pp. 186;
4. Whenever an item has a magical property
which ’recharges at dawn’ or any specific time
of the day, the recharge only happens in first
time the marked event occurs after a long rest
with recovery.
For example: if the party is exploring or traveling
along the regional map, long rests with recovery
only happens once, just before the party leaves
the safe haven. Inside dungeons, however, the
perils and threats to the PCs are more common
and more harsh, which allows for one long rest
with recovery once in a day.
R EGIONAL E XPLORATION R ULES
First and foremost, these rules will be applied
only when travel and regional exploration are
embedded in the story telling. If they are not
relevant, travel will be solved by simple fast
travel. When it is relevant though, the core rules
of the travel in PHB pp. 181-183 and DMG pp.
109-112 are to be followed. The course of action
is the following:
1. The players declare: party formation: front,
middle and back ranks, party navigator and
other roles as per PHB pp. 183;
2. The players declare intended arrival location.
It must be a geographic feature pointed in the
map or a direction and a declared travel time
duration;
3. The DM checks if a navigation test is needed,
making it in secret using the party’s navigator
WIS (Survival) bonuses to see if the party
arrived at the destiny;
4. The DM solves any other activity from the
party roles, like foraging or tracking and any
complications according to the places they
would have been and narrate the results;
5. Succeeding or not, the DM asks for a group
perception check. If the party succeeds, they
are aware of the arrival or at least where they
are. If they fail, they are lost and can spend
one hour trying to relocate themselves and
repeat the test.
Also, a longer trip is usually split in several
pieces according to storytelling needs and
complications are run trying to follow the
adventure day guideline.
S WIMMING
If a creature does not have an explicit swimming
speed, the basic mechanics for swimming
requires an STR Athletics test to be made
whenever a creature is in a body of water where
it can drown. The difficult varies according to
the PC’s encumbrance:
Swimming Test
Encumbrance DC
Not encumbered 10
Encumbered 15
Heavy encumbered 20
If the creature is carrying more than its
maximum capacity, the test automatically fails.
If the creature is wearing medium or heavy
armor, it has disadvantage in the test.
D ROWNING
If a creature fails the Swimming test in a turn,
it will drown 3 (1d6)×5 feet or 3 (1d6)×10 feet if
it is carrying more than its maximum capacity.
L OCKPICKING
The 5e rules are not clear enough about
lockpicking, so a clarification will be provided
here. To pick a lock:
1. Thieves’ tools are required;
2. Proficiency with thieves’ tools is required.
The bonus or penalties to the ability test roll is
DEX mod + proficiency in thieves’s tools.
H IDING
The hiding action can also use some clarification.
According to PHB, pp 177:
You can’t hide from a creature that can
see you clearly, and you give away your
position if you make noise, such as
shouting a warning or knocking over a
vase.
3
 Whenever a creature within sight of another tries
to hide or stay hidden, the following table will be
applied:

Hiding Action
Obscurement Can stay hidden Can try to hide
Not obscured No No
Lightly obscured Yes No
Heavily obscured Yes Yes

It is worth mentioning there are 2 features and

one feat which allow the character to use the
hide action whilst lightly obscured:
• Skulker: You can try to hide when you are
lightly obscured from the creature from which
you are hiding.
• Mask of the Wild: You can attempt to hide
even when you are only lightly obscured by
foliage, heavy rain, falling snow, mist, and
other natural phenomena.
• Naturally Stealthy: You can attempt to hide
even when you are obscured only by a
creature that is at least one size larger than
you.

F IND F AMILIAR SPELL

COMPONENTS
The components for casting Find Familiar are
described as:

10 gp worth of charcoal, incense, and

herbs that must be consumed by fire in
a brass brazier.
However, these components are nowhere to be
found in D&D 5ed published books. One of the
questions which can arise is about the feasibility
of casting the spell in remote places. For this to
be possible, the caster must be able to carry
those components. To clarify this question, the
following clarification will be provided:

1. A portable brass brazier suitable for the caster

can be bought for 5gp, weights 3lb, and can be
assembled in 1 minute. It is composed of 6
iron bars of 8 inches each and 2 rings and a
round brass pyre with diameters of 8 inches
(20cm). When disassembled, it occupies the
volume of 0,5 litre. When assembled, it is
cylindrical with the 6 iron bars tied together
by the rings to stay in vertical position and the
pyre coming over it. It can be found in
standard blacksmith stores;
2. The charcoal, incense and herbs can be
bought for 10gp, weights 1lb and occupy the
volume of 1 litre. They can be found in
standard apothecary stores.