Here are some homebrew rules that I like to use in my D&D sessions. If you book a session with me, we can discuss whether or not we use these rules. While it may not seem like it, ALL of these rules are intended to enhance player fun, so I will include an explanation of the rule itself, and also my reason for including it.

The Perkins Critical

The rule

When a player, NPC or monster scores a critical hit, instead of rolling twice the number of damage dice, you roll only once, add your modifiers and then add the maximum value from all damage dice as well. So, for example, if you score a critical hit with a longsword and your usual damage is 1d8+3, your critical hit damage will be 1d8+3+8. If you are a rogue using a sneak attack using a short sword, whose damage is usually (say) 1d6(weapon)+3(modifier)+3d6(sneak attack), your critical hit damage will be 1d6+3+24.

Why?

We all love that epic moment in a game when you roll a natural 20 for your attack roll at a critical moment... you eagerly pick up double your usual dice and roll them, only to find you roll a 1 and a 2 and inflict damage that is less than or comparable to the damage you typically deal on a normal hit. The Perkins Critical ensures your critical hits hit harder and feel like they're making a real impact. Just remember, while the players may love the opportunity to deal out massive damage, it also means they're in for some pain when an enemy crits them back.

Blind Death Saves

The rule

Death saving throws are rolled in such a way that the only people who see the result are the player who is making the save, and the DM. If the player reveals the status of their death saving throws (or even hints at it - for example by saying something like "hey guys, you might want to heal me" or "no, you don't need to rush, deal with the enemy first") then the DM may choose to penalize them by adding an additional death save failure to their tally.

Why?

In a combat situation, if you've just seen your ally go down, you can't tell at a glance if they're dying or stabilizing. If you knew that they were safe and stabilizing, you might choose to act differently. If you don't know whether your companion is safe or on death's door, it adds an element of risk to your decision making, increasing the tension and intensity of the game (do you land the killing blow to an enemy who may be dangerous if they are allowed to take another turn, or do you help your friend and potentially save their life?).

Resting in Danger

The rule

Short and long rests work as described in the rules when players are in safe / secure locations and can rest fully. However, if the players are in insecure locations (a good indicator of this is if they need to keep watch) then short and long rests have reduced benefits:

Short rests in danger

• Players can choose to heal as many hit dice as they like during a short rest, when rolling their hit dice, all rolls higher than a 3 will be taken as a 3 (i.e. if a player rolls three die and rolls 2, 7 and 5, they will only heal hit points as if they had rolled 2, 3 and 3 on their die - you still add your constitution modifier to those rolls).
• All other effects and benefits for short rests are as normal.

Long rests in danger

• Instead of healing all their hit points, characters instead heal a number of hit points equal to half their total hit dice (rounded up) plus their constitution modifier multiplied by half their level (rounded up). For example, a 5th level Fighter with a constitution modifier of +2 would heal 3d10+6 hit points.
• Spellcasters (except for warlocks) recover half of their expended spell slots (rounded down) instead of all of them. These recovered spell slots can be of any level of the player's choice. Warlocks recover all their spell slots during a long rest.
• For any other number-of-uses-based features which are intrinsic to a character, such as barbarian rages, ki points, sorcery points, superiority die etc, a long rest in danger means the character recovers half of these uses / points / die (rounded down).
• Players still recover all of their spent hit dice.

Why?

If you're not careful, D&D can quickly become a game of attrition, where one side tries to knock down the other side's hit points before the other side can do it back. One thing that makes D&D interesting is resource management... should the barbarian rage now, or should they save it for a later encounter? Should the wizard use that 3rd level spell slot, or hold on to it for the boss battle. Making full rests harder to come by means the players need to be more careful and thoughtful when choosing to expend their resources.

Recovering From Exhaustion

The rule

If players are experiencing any levels of exhaustion, then they can not gain any benefits from rests such as healing, spell slot recovery or per-rest features (such as barbarian rage) which are intrinsic to the character (so excluding magic item charge recovery etc), instead, a long rest (including a long rest in danger, see above) only reduces their exhaustion level by 1. Benefits of resting which are intrinsic to a character can only be gained if the character starts the rest with 0 levels of exhaustion.

Why?

As per the resting in danger rule, this encourages the characters to be careful with their resource management. Knowing characters can just long rest and start the next day fresh may cause them to be reckless with their resource usage... but knowing that their resources don't come back so easily will force characters to make value judgements about whether it's best to use that feature / spell etc, or save it.

Almost Dying is Exhausting

The rule

Being killed, or almost killed, takes its toll on a character. A player who recovers from being downed (i.e. making death saving throws) or who is revivified or resurrected, adds a level of exhaustion whenever they recover, regardless of the method (i.e. by healing, by an ally making a medicine check). The only exception to this is if the player is revived using 'True Resurrection'. This ensures players can't be almost killed and then "sleep it off" with a long rest, being fine the next day. At the very least they would require two long rests in order to first recover their level of exhaustion (see recovering from exhaustion above), and only then heal their wounds.

Why?

In addition to adding a level of realism by ensuring players who are nearly killed aren't just one good night's sleep away from being back to 100%, it also adds the level of resource management and value judgment addressed in the previous two rules.

Flanking

The rule

Flanking rules are as follows:

• If one combatant is facing two who are immediately adjacent to each other (i.e. they can be seen by the single combatant when facing one direction), then one of the characters (defender's choice) gains advantage on their attack rolls, while the other rolls normally.
• If the two combatants aren't immediately adjacent to each other (i.e. they can't both be seen by the single combatant when facing one direction), then both of the characters gain advantage on their attack rolls.
• If there are three or more combatants facing a single combatant (regardless of position), all three gain advantage.

Why?

It makes logical sense to me, plus who doesn't like getting advantage... rogues especially can use it to deal massive damage with sneak attacks.

Surprise Rounds

The rule

Surprise rounds were removed from the 2024 rules (surprised enemies now simply have disadvantage on initiative rolls), however I am still including them, however with the following rules:

• All characters still roll initiative before the surprise round (which is treated as round 1), however all participants who are surprised miss their turn for that round.
• The surprise round is a shorter round in which characters, NPCs or enemies who aren't surprised may only take an action and move half of their movement (no bonus actions).

The DM decides which combatants are surprised, this may be a simple decision by the DM, or it may be depending on the results of different skill checks (i.e. an opposed stealth vs. perception roll).

Why?

It rewards players thinking tactically about an upcoming battle, or alternatively it encourages players to move through dangerous spaces with care, to avoid being surprised themselves.

The Lying Game

The rule

Generally, I won't have players roll deception, persuasion or insight checks against each other, as roleplaying is typically the way this is done. Sometimes we need it, however; perhaps the player knows the other player is lying, but their character doesn't... or maybe they're just suspicious. If one player (the "player") asks to make an insight check to determine if another player (the "target") is lying, it will be handled as follows:

• The player makes an in insight check and tells the DM the result.
• The target decides (without telling the other players) whether they are lying or telling the truth, and rolls either or deception or persuasion check respectively. The results of this roll is told to the DM only, and not revealed to any other player.

The outcome of this opposed roll is as follows:

• If the target is telling the truth (they rolled persuasion):
• If the insight check is greater than the persuasion check: If the player has no initial biases (DM's judgment), they think the target is telling the truth, but if they suspected the target of lying then they think the target is lying.
• If the insight check is lower than the persuasion check: The player believes the target is telling the truth.
• If the insight check is equal to the persuasion check: the player can't determine if the target is being truthful.
• If the target is lying (they rolled deception):
• If the insight check is greater than the deception check: The player can sense that the target is being dishonest in some way.
• If the insight check is lower than the deception check: The player believes the target is telling the truth.
• If the insight check is equal to the deception check: The player can't determine if the target is being truthful.

Why?

I've found this to be a fun little mechanic. Having open rolls for such things creates a difficult dynamic where the player may know that they lost the opposed check, so while the target was successfully deceptive, the player is still suspicious, causing a disconnect between what the player knows and what their character knows. By keeping both the roll used by the target, and the results of the rolls secret, and only revealing what the player senses with their insight, it is more likely that player and character knowledge will be aligned, making it easier for players to respond in a consistent way for their character.

Creative Advantage

The rule

I will sometimes grant advantage on an attack roll or skill check as a reward for players being imaginative in the actions they take or the descriptions of their actions. This could be because you've described actions which would genuinely be advantageous to your situation, or it could just be because you've described an action in an interesting or cinematic way. As players get better at this, the bar for gaining creative advantage will be raised, however.

Why?

I want to reward flavorful roleplaying and combat.

No Coffeelock

The rule

Multi-class sorcerers can only convert Sorcerer spell slots into sorcery points, and vice versa.

Why?

There's an exploit where a multi-class Sorcerer/Warlock can take a short rest (regaining all their warlock spell slots), convert those warlock spell slots into sorcery points, and then convert the sorcery points back into sorcerer spell slots, then short rest again. In this way, so long as they don't take a long rest and are able to take as many short rests as they like, the character can gain essentially never-ending spell slots. While this may be a fun little exploit of a game mechanic, it doesn't make any sense and is a bit broken, so to fix it we are making it such that only sorcerer spell slots can be converted into sorcery points, essentially removing this exploit.

No Actions After Revived

The rule

If your character has been revived from being downed (in death saving throws), or even revivified or resurrected during combat, then on their next turn after being revived, they must first stand up from being prone (assuming they want to stand up, they may choose to remain prone. For most characters, standing from prone uses half their movement, but things like the 'mobile' feat can reduce this), then they get only their remaining movement and a bonus action for that turn (they do not get an action).

Why?

This is a realism rule. It's absurd that within a single six-second window of time (the length of a round), a character can be downed (unconscious and fighting for life), then healed/revived by an ally (or a natural 20 on a death saving throw), and then be up and about and able to take a full action.

Secret Spells

When a creature a player can see or hear begins casting a spell with verbal, somatic or material components, the DM will not automatically announce to the players what spell is being cast.

Players may identify the spell being cast by succeeding an arcana check with a DC equal to 8 + the caster's proficiency bonus + the spell's level (ignoring any upcast, i.e. if a 3rd level spell were being upcast to 5th level, the arcana check treats the spell as level 3). Players who can make a reaction in response to spellcasting (i.e. characters who can use 'Counterspell') can complete this check before they decide to take their action or not.

Mechanically, given only players who can make a reaction in response to spellcasting will benefit from knowing the spell, they should be the only ones allowed to make the arcana check. Other characters may succeed in identifying the spell, but being unable to do anything to stop it means it will make no practical difference whether they learn of the spell before, or after it is cast.

If the spell has verbal components then the player must be able to hear them to make the check. If the spell has somatic and/or material components, then the player must be able to see them to make the check. If the spell has verbal and somatic, or verbal and material (or all three) components and the player can only hear OR see the caster (not both), then they can make the arcana check with disadvantage.

The arcana check is made with advantage (or cancelled disadvantage) if:

• The spell is on the player's class spell list AND the player can cast spells of level of the spell being cast (again, ignoring any upcast) - whether or not is is known or prepared, OR
• The player has seen this same enemy cast the same spell before.

On a successful arcana check, the player learns the spell being cast, and the level at which the spell is being cast. On a failure, they learn nothing.

The player can still choose to take their reaction (i.e. Counterspell) even if they fail to identify the spell being cast, they just won't know the spell they are countering (or otherwise reacting to)