Alignment The alignment of a PC is determined by his actions, not the other way around. Characters declare their moral alignments (good, neutral, or evil) at the beginning of the campaign. A typical creature in the game world has an alignment, which broadly describes its moral and personal attitudes. Alignment is a combination of two factors: one identifies morality (good, evil, or neutral), and the other describes attitudes toward society and order (lawful, chaotic, or neutral). Thus, nine distinct alignments define the possible combinations. These brief summaries of the nine alignments describe the typical behavior of a creature with that alignment. Individuals might vary significantly from that typical behavior, and few people are perfectly and consistently faithful to the precepts of their alignment. Lawful good (LG) creatures can be counted on to do the right thing as expected by society. Gold dragons, paladins, and most dwarves are lawful good. Neutral good (NG) folk do the best they can to help others according to their needs. Many celestials, some cloud giants, and most gnomes are neutral good. Chaotic good (CG) creatures act as their conscience directs, with little regard for what others expect. Copper dragons, many elves, and unicorns are chaotic good. Lawful neutral (LN) individuals act in accordance with law, tradition, or personal codes. Many monks and some wizards are lawful neutral. Neutral (N) is the alignment of those who prefer to steer clear of moral questions and don’t take sides, doing what seems best at the time. Lizardfolk, most druids, and many humans are neutral. Chaotic neutral (CN) creatures follow their whims, holding their personal freedom above all else. Many barbarians and rogues, and some bards, are chaotic neutral. Lawful evil (LE) creatures methodically take what they want, within the limits of a code of tradition, loyalty, or order. Devils, blue dragons, and hobgoblins are lawful evil. Neutral evil (NE) is the alignment of those who do whatever they can get away with, without compassion or qualms. Many drow, some cloud giants, and goblins are neutral evil. Chaotic evil (CE) creatures act with arbitrary violence, spurred by their greed, hatred, or bloodlust. Demons, red dragons, and orcs are chaotic evil. The DM will use the Character Alignment Tracking chart to keep track of each PC's moral alignment as it changes according to the PC's actions. Each PC's moral alignment starts at the midpoint of his chosen alignment on the chart. Each time the PC performs an action that the DM decides is outside the bounds of the PC's current alignment, the DM marks the PC's new alignment position on the chart from 1 to 3 points in the direction of the action performed. As a character shifts alignment, he passes into a grey area between the alignments. This area warns the PC that his actions are not in line with the beliefs of his alignment. A character who enters a grey area incurs the following effects: (Due to the moral conflict within, you begin to doubt the conviction to make sound judgements and decisions in your life) You have 2 unlucky points. Whenever you make an attack roll, an ability check, or a saving throw, the DM can force you to re-roll using one unlucky point. The DM can choose to spend this point after you roll the die, but before the outcome is determined. The DM chooses which of the d20s is used for the attack roll, ability check, or saving throw. You regain the expended unlucky points when you finish a long rest. When a PC's alignment passes from the grey area into another alignment, shift the character's alignment to the midpoint of the new alignment. (The penalties for being in the transition area between alignments go away, but now the PC is subject to the strictures of his new alignment.) For example. if a character's alignment just passed from the grey area between good and neutral into the area of neutral, mark his alignment in the middle of the neutral area. This prevents a PC from bouncing back and forth between alignments too easily. It also makes the character work hard if he wants to regain his old alignment. When a change in alignment occurs, the DM will inform the player that his PC has just changed alignment. It's up to the player to realize how it happened and how to fix it. Bloodied The “bloodied” condition, is used to signify how a creature is faring in a combat scenario. A creature becomes bloodied when it reaches half of its hit point maximum (rounded down), which acts as a way of communicating the state of an opponent in a fight. Telling the players the creature they are fighting is bloodied shows them how far along in the fight they are and whether they should be planning a retreat or going in for the kill. Some creatures gain new abilities when they become bloodied, making them fight harder or more desperately than before. Some abilities can only be triggered once during an encounter, while others persist for as long as the creature is bloodied. While Bloodied… Traits that have this or similar text in the opening, persist for as long as the creature is bloodied. When First Bloodied… Traits that have this text in the opening this text are only triggered when the creature is first bloodied in an encounter. If the creature is healed out of its bloodied state and then made bloodied again later during the same encounter, this ability doesn’t trigger again. Player characters can become bloodied as well. This information can be useful for the party’s opponents, as they can see who among the party is closest to falling unconscious and target them accordingly. Some characters, like lycanthropes, even get abilities that make them extra deadly against bloodied characters. Disarm A creature can use a weapon attack to knock a weapon or another item from a target’s grasp. The attacker makes an attack roll contested by the target’s Strength (Athletics) check or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check. If the attacker wins the contest, the attack causes no damage or other ill effect, but the defender drops the item. The attacker has disadvantage on its attack roll if the target is holding the item with two or more hands. The target has advantage on its ability check if it is larger than the attacking creature, or disadvantage if it is smaller. Death Throes Death Throes is a new effect, meant to make the defeat of an enemy stand out as it makes a final show of defiance when slain. It’s a unique effect triggered when certain creatures reach 0 hit points and die. Some creatures, like the Balor demon and Mephits, already have a Death Throes trait written into their stat block. This new homebrew rule adds new Death Throes to several other creatures that the DM can use to make an encounter more destructive or unique. Depending on the nature of the creature’s death, the Death Throes might not activate. For instance, if the creature dies from fall damage, is obliterated such as with the disintegrate spell, or suffers instant death, it’s up to the DM whether the Death Throes occur or not. Encumbrance The rules for lifting and carrying are intentionally simple. Here is a variant if you are looking for more detailed rules for determining how a character is hindered by the weight of equipment. If you carry weight in excess of 10 times your Strength score, you are encumbered, which means your speed drops by 10 feet. If you carry weight in excess of 20 times your Strength score, up to your maximum carrying capacity, you are instead heavily encumbered, which means your speed drops by 20 feet and you have disadvantage on ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws that use Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution. Flanking Flanking gives combatants a simple way to gain +2 on attack rolls against a common enemy. A creature can’t flank an enemy that it can’t see. A creature also can’t flank while it is incapacitated. A Large or larger creature is flanking as long as at least one square or hex of its space qualifies for flanking. When a creature and at least one of its allies are adjacent to an enemy and on opposite sides or corners of the enemy’s space, they flank that enemy, and each of them has advantage on melee attack rolls against that enemy. When in doubt about whether two creatures flank an enemy on a grid, trace an imaginary line between the centers of the creatures’ spaces. If the line passes through opposite sides or corners of the enemy’s space, the enemy is flanked. Milestones This rule is designed to encourage and reward characters for continuity to adventure rather than stopping to rest overnight. After every two encounters, the party reaches a milestone and gains a milestone die, which is a d4. During a battle, a player can spend the milestone die, rolling the dice and adding the result to an attack roll, saving throw, or ability check. Once used, the milestone die cannot be used again until the party rolls initiative. Each additional time the party gains a milestone, the size of the milestone die increases. On the second milestone it becomes a d6, and after three milestones it becomes a d8, and so on. When the party takes a long rest the milestone die resets and the party must reach a milestone to use it again. Monster Lore When a party encounters a monster, players often want to know what their character knows about the monster. This may be because the player has no idea what the monster may be, and wants to leverage any information their character might have, so the player may seek guidance on how to inform their character choices. This will be resolved with an intelligence check and adding the appropriate skill such as Arcana, History, Nature, or Religion. The DC modifiers to gain knowledge on the monster increase or decrease based on several variables such as: monster rarity, challenge rating, character selected background, character class, etc... BASE DIFFICULTY CHARACTER KNOWLEDGE 5 Number of Hit Dice 10 Senses 15 Type of Attack Actions 20 Resistances and Immunities 25 Weaknesses 30 Everything The Dungeon Master will deliver this information through whisper to the player and it will always be kept simple with no details. He will just tell the number of hit dice. Tell the type of senses, but not how far. Give the name of attack actions, but not the damage. The following skills are associated to the type of monster. Arcana: Aberration, Elemental, Fey, Monstrosity. History: Construct, Dragon, Giant, Humanoid. Nature: Beast, Ooze, Plant Religion: Celestial, Fiend, Undead Personal Goals In addition to quests awarded to the party by the Dungeon Master, this rule allows players to have some agency for their character's quests and goals. Players can choose to give their characters self motivated quests, known as goals. Goals are tasks a character wants to accomplish, a place they want to visit, an item, they wish to acquire, or an individual they want to kill. Goals are side-quests the player decides upon, missions they assign to their character. Ideally, you should work with your players when they decide on a goal. As a general rule, goals should be secondary to the story, personal side-quests unrelated to the main adventure or related quests. A goal to slay the villain or an adventure or even her bodyguard makes a poor goal as the character will likely be in a position to achieve that goal without extra work. However, trying to take the bodyguard alive to stand trial in another city or redeem them would be a more interesting goal. Short-Term Goal. Immediate plans that can be accomplished in TWO CHAPTERS are good short term goals. They shouldn't involve much travelling, and the character should have a good idea of how to accomplish the task. When a character completes a short term goal they gain inspiration. Long-Term Goal. Long-term goals take an indefinite amount of time, and how to accomplish the task may not be readily immediately. They should take several sessions to complete, with a character finishing only one or two long-term goals over the course of a campaign. When a character accomplishes a long-term, they gain inspiration, as well as additional second instance of inspiration. Additionally, if the character uses their inspiration to gain advantage, they can use this second inspiration to reroll one of their d20s and take the preferred result. Once this bonus inspiration is used, it cannot be regained. Shove Aside With this option, a creature uses the special shove attack from the Player’s Handbook to force a target to the side, rather than away. The attacker has disadvantage on its Strength (Athletics) check when it does so. If that check is successful, the attacker moves the target 5 feet to a different space within its reach. Stress Charging headlong into terrifying situations is the stock in trade for adventurers. Among the Domains of Dread, though, periods of respite between harrowing experiences can be rare. Even the hardiest adventurers find themselves worn down over time, their performance suffering as they struggle to cope with the dread and despair. Various circumstances might cause a character stress. Stress can be tracked numerically as a Stress Score, increasing in trying situations and decreasing with care. At your discretion, a character’s Stress Score might increase by 1 when one of the following situations occurs: A tense, dramatic moment, especially one involving one of a character’s backstory. Every 24 hours the character goes without finishing a long rest. Witnessing the death of a loved one. A nightmare or darkest fear made real. Shattering the character’s fundamental understanding of reality. Witnessing a person transform into a horrid or unnatural creature. When a character makes an attack roll, an ability check, or a saving throw, they must apply their current Stress Score as a penalty to the roll. Reducing Stress A character who spends an entire day relaxing or in otherwise calm circumstances reduces their Stress Score by 1 when they finish their next long rest. The calm emotions spell effect used to suppress the charmed and frightened conditions also suppresses the effects of one’s Stress Score for the spell’s duration. A lesser restoration spell reduces the target’s Stress Score by 1, and a greater restoration spell reduces a character’s Stress Score to 0. Tumble A creature can try to tumble through a hostile creature’s space, ducking and weaving past the opponent. As an action or a bonus action, the tumbler makes a Dexterity (Acrobatics) check contested by the hostile creature’s Dexterity (Acrobatics) check. If the tumbler wins the contest, it can move through the hostile creature’s space once this turn. (You're still subject to the opportunity attack ) Lingering Injuries Damage normally leaves no lingering effects. This option introduces the potential for long-term injuries. A creature will only sustain a lingering injury under the following circumstances: When you fail a death saving throw by 5 or more. When rolling a natural 1 on a saving throw against a trap (magical or mundane) that warrants it (bear trap, punji sticks, swinging log, etc...) effect that deals damage to the creature. To determine the nature of the injury, roll on the Lingering Injuries table. This table assumes a typical humanoid physiology, but you can adapt the results for creatures with different body types. 1 Lose an Eye. You have disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight and on ranged attack rolls. Magic such as the regenerate spell can restore the lost eye. If you have no eyes left after sustaining this injury, you’re blinded. 2 Lose an Arm or a Hand. You can no longer hold anything with two hands, and you can hold only a single object at a time. Magic such as the regenerate spell can restore the lost appendage. 3 Lose a Foot or Leg. Your speed on foot is halved, and you must use a cane or crutch to move unless you have a peg leg or other prosthesis. You fall prone after using the Dash action. You have disadvantage on Dexterity checks made to balance. Magic such as the regenerate spell can restore the lost appendage. 4 Limp. Your speed on foot is reduced by 5 feet. You must make a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw after using the Dash action. If you fail the save, you fall prone. Magical healing removes the limp. 5-7 Internal Injury. Whenever you attempt an action in combat, you must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, you lose your action and can’t use reactions until the start of your next turn. The injury heals if you receive magical healing or if you spend ten days doing nothing but resting. 8-10 Broken Ribs. This has the same effect as Internal Injury above, except that the DC is 12. 11-13 Horrible Scar. You are disfigured to the extent that the wound can’t be easily concealed. You have disadvantage on Charisma (Persuasion) checks and advantage on Charisma (Intimidation) checks. Magical healing of 6th level of higher, such as heal and regenerate, removes the scar. 14-16 Festering Wound. Your hit point maximum is reduced by 1 for every 24 hours the wound persists. If your hit point maximum drops to 0, you die. The wound heals if you receive magical healing. Alternatively, someone can tend to the wound and make a DC 15 Wisdom (Medicine) check once every 24 hours. After ten successes, the wound heals. 17-20 Minor Scar. The scar doesn’t have any adverse effect. Magical healing of 6th level or higher, such as heal or regenerate, removes the scar. Healer’s Kit Dependency A character can’t spend any Hit Dice after finishing a short rest until someone expends one use of a healer’s kit to bandage and treat the character’s wounds. Peace Bonds Persons legally bearing weapons must wear peacestrings about their sword hilts (to prevent quick unsheathing). These strings are colored and tasseled cords, and it is an art to tie them in ornate knots. You lock a weapon in place on its owner’s body, or within the weapon’s sheath or holster. Anyone who then tries to draw the weapon must spend an action to do so, provoking an attack of opportunity. Faction Renown Renown is an optional rule you can use to track an adventurer’s standing within a particular faction or organization. Renown is a numerical value that starts at 0, then increases as a character earns favor and reputation within a particular organization. You can tie benefits to a character’s renown, including ranks and titles within the organization and access to resources. Gaining Renown a character earns renown by completing missions or quests that serve an organization’s interests or involve the organization directly. You award renown at your discretion as characters complete these missions or quests, typically at the same time you award experience points. Advancing an organization’s interests increases a character’s renown within that organization by 1. Completing a mission specifically assigned by that organization, or which directly benefits the organization, increases the character’s renown by 2 instead. Skill Challenges Skill challenges can be used when a party are attempting to accomplish something during a scene that requires several subsequent and related skill checks from each of the players. Most players are used to succeeding or failing single skill checks with defined and immediate goals, what makes a skill challenge different is that behind the scenes, the Dungeon Master is keeping track of the player’s successes and failures which in turn dictate the overall outcome for the players. A skill challenge can enable the Dungeon Master to inject urgency and/or drama into the game where the players are aware of the overall success or failure of what they are trying to accomplish. As the players take their actions to contribute to a skill challenge, the DM will do one or more of the following: Involve a party check where all party members make the same/similar skill check and a single success or failure is gained when the majority of the party succeed or fail. Involve a sustained action like running that calls for periodic skill checks with an increasing DC Involve a risk to the player’s progress and call for a skill check Provide an opportunity to the players and call for a skill check Act upon a challenge presented by the player’s actions and call for a skill check. The difficulty of a skill challenge needs to be decided at the offset. Easy – The party should gain a victory or partial victory most of the time. Moderate – The party have better odds of success than failure but the challenge should result in a partial victory or partial failure. Hard – The party are unlikely to succeed in the challenge as the odds are against them the most likely outcomes are partial failure or failure. It is important to note that in 5E a single skill check with a DC of 10 ignoring advantage or any bonuses has a 50% chance of success this is why the recommended DC for a Moderate Skill Challenge has been set at 10. A skill challenge will end when the players have accumulated the number of successes set by the Dungeon Master, or when they have failed the same number of skill checks. Victory - If the players have more than double the number of successes than failures the skill challenge results in a victory. Partial Victory - If the players have more successes than failures but the failures amount to 50% or more of the total successes the skill challenge results in a partial victory. Partial Failure - If the players have more failures than successes but the successes amount to 50% or more of the total failures the skill challenge results in a partial failure. Failure - If the players have more than double the number of failures than successes the skill challenge results in a failure; 20 or 1 count as two successes or failures towards the skill challenge. Victory: 100% of total XP is awarded. Partial Victory: 75% of total XP is awarded. Partial Failure: 50% of total XP is awarded. Failure: 25% of total XP is awarded. Example of a Skill Challenge The party consists of James playing Faen the High Elf Thief; Mark playing Ronan the Half Orc Barbarian; Emma playing Airkana the Teifling Warlock and Richard playing Lao-Sun the Human Monk. The party are shopping for potions and magic items, which Ronan hates with a passion resulting an argument in the street between himself and Airkana. Whilst the party are distracted a passing thief takes advantage of the situation and steals the party’s bag of holding. The DM has prepared this encounter as an Easy skill challenge requiring either 8 successes or failures. As the players are only level 3 the average bonus on skills they are proficient in is around +3 so he sets the difficulty classes as 7 for Easy skill checks and 12 for Moderate skill checks. The DM has decided upon the following outcomes: Total Victory – The party catches the thief and recovers what they stole. Partial Victory – The party recovers the stolen property or catches the thief but not both. Partial Failure – The party lose sight of the thief but know where she went. Failure – The party take a wrong turn and lose the thief with no sure way of finding them or what they stole. As this skill challenge involves continual running The DM has decided that all party members will need to make regular athletics checks with a DC that starts at 7 and increases by one for each check. The DM is also using the double success/failure rule on a natural 20 or 1. DM – Faen and Lao-Sun roll perception. Emma – Do we roll perception too? DM – No you and Ronan are too busy arguing, you just get passive perception for this. James – I got a total of 18. Richard – I got 5. DM – Faen, out of the corner of your eye you notice a blur of motion as hooded figure cuts the strap on Ronan’s bag of holding and runs off with it. James – I give chase shouting stop thief. Mark – Upon hearing this I’m following Faen, shouting “no more shopping today.” Richard – I’m chasing the thief too and going to use step of the wind. Emma – I’m chasing too and shouting to Ronan “if he gets away we’ll have to go shopping to replace the bag and its contents.” Mark – That thief is mine! DM – Everyone roll an athletics check, Lao-Sun, you have advantage due to step of the wind; Ronan, you have advantage because you really don’t want to go shopping to replace the bag of holding. The party rolls and adds their skill bonuses Faen gets 8, Ronan gets 20, Airkana gets 6 and Lao-Sun gets 15. The DC is 7 so the majority of the party succeed and the DM checks off one success. DM – Faen you are leading the chase and have gained some ground on the thief but he turns into an alleyway, Lao- Sun as you catch up to Faen you are surprised to see a determined looking Ronan keeping step behind you, Airkana you are struggling to keep up with the rest of the party. Faen as you turn into the back alley you see the thief knock over some crates and barrels into your path as he goes, James make either an athletics or an acrobatics check. James – I’m better at acrobatics so I’ll use that, I rolled a 13 so that’s 16 overall. DM – Checking of another success. You easily jump and kick off the wall clearing the sudden obstruction, the rest of the party have a bit more time to react and avoid the obstacle. Richard – Can I take to the rooftops to see if I can cut him off? DM – That’s going to be tricky without loosing a lot of ground make an acrobatics or athletics check to get onto the roof. The DM sets this check at the Moderate DC of 12. Richard – I’m better at acrobatics too, 17 total. DM – Another success is marked off. OK you vault from wall to wall and make it onto the roof as Ronan passes under you and Airkana catches up. Emma what do you want to do? Emma – I don’t think I can catch him just by running but this is my home town and I should know these back alleys well is there any way I can figure out where he’s going and find a shortcut? DM – That’s interesting but difficult I’ll say that’s an Insight or Investigation check with disadvantage. The DM sets this check at the Moderate DC of 12. Richard – I’ll call out his movements from the rooftop as I go to help. DM – OK that cancels out the disadvantage Emma – OK I’ll roll against Investigation that’s a 17 giving me a total of 21. DM – Marking off another success, wow your pretty sure you know exactly where the thief’s heading and know a shorter route to get there. Everyone except Richard make another Athletics check. The party rolls and adds their skill bonuses Faen gets 10, Ronan gets 18, Airkana gets 8. The DC is 8 so all of the party have succeeded and the DM checks off their fifth success. Richard roll an acrobatics check to follow across the rooftops. Richard – Nooo I rolled a 1. DM – Marks off two failures. Ronan, you catch up level with Faen still desperate not to do any more shopping with both of you gaining ground on the thief, overhead you hear the sliding of slates followed by the sounds of crashing as Lao-Sun falls from the rooftops to the ground taking 3 points of damage from the fall. Airkana you are making good progress on your alternate route you don’t know what’s happened but you heard a crash in a nearby alleyway. As you are gaining the thief is beginning to panic and scatters a bag of ball bearings behind him both Mark and James you need to make dexterity saving throws. James – A total of 10 Mark – I rolled a natural 20 DM – Marks off 2 successes. Faen you skid a bit on the ball bearings but maintain the chase Ronan you leap clear over them gaining more ground on the thief, the thief’s hood falls back and you can see a shock of red hair, they look back in panick and you can see it’s a human female. Mark – I’m gonna shout at the thief “You better stop and give that back or I’m going to tear your head off.” DM – OK that’s a contested Intimidation check. The DM rolls insight for the thief to see whether she believes the threat getting a 13 which becomes the DC for this test. Mark – I rolled 15 so 19 total. DM – Not like a half orc barbarian to be scary marking off the final success and noting that there were 2 failures and 8 successes indicating a total victory Airkana you emerge from the side alley ahead of the thief, you can see her running towards you and hear Ronan shouting about tearing her head off, in panic she throws the bag of holding into Ronan’s face but continues running she is checking behind her and hasn’t noticed you. She’s not getting away how do you want to stop her. The party have recovered the slightly damaged bag of holding and caught the thief and are awarded 400XP split between them for the challenge. Had the party suffered one more failure then this skill challenge would have resulted in a partial victory reducing the experience award to 300XP. The DM would also alter the outcome accordingly, either having the thief stash the bag on route or having Airkana arrive a few seconds too late enabling the thief to escape. Campaign Benefits Cormyr The Forest Kingdom emerged from the Spellplague largely unscathed but threatened from the north by the resurrected Empire of Netheril, whose agents (called the Shadovar) are suspected to lurk in every shadow, and from the east by their Sembian clients. In the past century, House Obarskyr has reclaimed its strong authority and reluctantly become an imperial power, conquering cities to the east and west. The populace has gained new freedoms and forms the backbone of the region's strength. Armed adventurers are still required to carry a written charter, but such charters are now granted by any registered herald upon request. You have advantage on Wisdom (Insight) checks when determining the true intentions of a creature, such as when searching out a lie or predicting someone's next move. You have advantage on saving throws made against fear effects. Dalelands The northern Dales have largely prospered over the last century, thanks to a strong alliance with elf-ruled Myth Drannor and close ties with the kingdom of Cormyr to the south and west. The southern Dales have fallen under the sway of Sembia as that merchant kingdom continues its gradual, yet relentless, expansion northward, granting you the following benefits: You gain proficiency in Nature. You gain fluency in Sylvan. Sembia Many Sembians focus on maintaining appearances. Others remain watchful for weakness or signs of anti-Netherese or anti-Shar sympathies, and Netheril keeps it own eyes upon the populace. In a land bursting with façade and falsehood, the nobles of Selgaunt have more reason to lie than most—for before the Spellplague, Selgaunt's blue blood acquired a lycanthropic taint. Rumor lays the fault at the feet of the ruling Uskevrens, but no noble mentions that suspicion aloud. One need only touch finger to nose and talk of “hot blood” to indicate that a noble son or daughter carries “the curse.” You gain the following benefits: You gain proficiency in Deception. You gain fluency in one language. Vesperin While Ravens Bluff is the largest and most influential of the independent cities known collectively as Vesperin, the others are prosperous bastions of commerce and havens for those who wish to live free of oppressive rule. You gain the following benefits: You gain one tool proficiency of your choice. You gain fluency in one language of your choice.