Baldur's Gate

House Rules

Character Creation

  • Point Buy

  • Tasha’s Alt Rules

  • No Hexblade available (instead Pact of the Blade grants Charisma as weapon mod on pact weapon and automatically grants 2nd attack on Warlock 5th level, doesn’t stack with other sources of extra attack.)

  • Free Feat to start with

  • No V. Human, Custom Lineage, Flyers (rip). (Very exotic races will be case-by-case.)

  • Multiclassing ignores restrictions

  • May use an Epic Background

Fundamental Changes

  • Rests

    • 3 Short Rests a day, which are instantaneous but must be outside of combat. Short resting does not spend hit die. Instead recover half your HP + con mod.

    • Long Rests cost Supplies. Supplies are generically food/snacks/water/etc. This is just to account for all the eating and drinking you obviously did all day.

    • Not spending supplies on a Long Rest will gain that character a level of Exhaustion the next day, but they still recover all their HP, Spell Slots, and Abilities.

  • Dying

    • Death is possible, but not just anything can kill you.

    • Help Action can bring a player back up to 1, but leaves them prone. (Mastermind Rogue needs to be able to touch the character to bring them back up.)

      • This only works on other player characters. NPCs who get downed are downed or dead, depending.

    • Narratively you are not unconscious, but just completely winded. (Condition wise, you are for the purposes of mechanical stuff.)

    • When you fail death saving throws, you do not die, but are instead completely unable to fight. You regain 1 HP when the fight is over.

    • Every time you are rendered completely unable to fight, you gain a level of exhaustion.

  • Exhaustion

    • Exhaustion will use One D&D rules w/ slight modification.

      • Each level gives -1 to d20 checks and Spell/Ability Save DCs until Level 11, which is death.

      • Some creatures will be able to cause you to suffer a level of exhaustion. (This will be uncommon.)

      • Long Rest w/ supplies spent removes all levels of exhaustion.

  • Inspiration

    • Work with DM to come up with some triggers to earn inspiration based on background/back story/goals of your character. Awarded a point for every time you RP a trigger.

    • Inspiration can pool to 4-5. (Still deciding.)

    • Inspiration is only used outside of combat.

    • (Maybe) Inspiration is pooled between all players.

  • Advantage

    • Any spell, ability, etc that would grant you Advantage can be used as a reaction after you know the result.

      • This is not true of abilities that impose disadvantage.

  • Initiative

    • Rolled with a d4 instead of a d20.

    • Allied creatures sharing initiative means they can post in any order, but they can also collaborate their turn. (IE: mix their movement and actions with one another)

Spellcasting

  • Prepared spellcasters may change their prepared spells at any time out of combat. (Simply include in parenthesis that you did it, maybe even RP it out.)

  • Spellcasting components ignored. (for now, this would be a test)

  • Being silenced prevents all spellcasting.

  • Spellcasting focus no longer required.

  • No limit on how many leveled spells can be cast in a turn.

  • Anyone can cast any spell scroll from any class list and there is no arcana check to cast higher level spells.

    • DC and Attack Bonus will be based on Intelligence or Wisdom, whichever is highest. (Sorry Charisma users, I am buffing the other spell casting stats!)

Action Economy

  • You can freely swap between an equipped ranged weapon and an equipped melee weapon, but to equip from your inventory a weapon other than those 2-types costs an action. (In DDB, only equip the weapons that would be in your "melee slots" and your "ranged slot(s)".)

  • Shove can be used as a bonus action to potentially move someone back 5 ft.

  • Help Action can end the following conditions:

    • Burning

    • Dazed

    • Downed

    • Ensnared

    • Entangled

    • Enwebbed

    • Gaping Wounds

    • Off Balance

    • Prone

    • Sleeping

  • Consuming a potion costs a bonus action.

  • Throwing a potion can cause it to break and affect a small radius (up to 3 adjacent).

  • Bonus Action Attack with Off Hand can be used even w/o taking the Attack Action with your Main Hand.

  • Donning/Doffing armor doesn't take time, but an action.

  • You may throw a grappled enemy on subsequent turns, provided they are either a size below you or your strength score is a 20. (EX: any race that says you are considered Large for the purposes of carrying etc will allow you to throw someone even if you do not meet the Strength requirement to throw a Medium sized humanoid.)

Equipment

  • Attunement

    • There is no attunement limit.

    • To achieve this, if you earn something you must attune to and are "full" on attunement in DDB, simply make a copy of the magic item and remove the attunement, then equip as usual.

  • Weapons all have at least one weapon action attached to it, which can each be used once per short rest.

  • There will be more equipment available with special properties that are not necessarily magical, but are at least helpful. (ex: leather caps that grant + 1 Dex Saves, Rings that give + 2 Persuasion, etc)

  • Limited Equipment Slots

    • 1 Head Gear

    • 1 Chest Piece

    • 1 Pair of Gloves

    • 1 Cloak

    • 1 Pair of Boots/Shoes

    • 1 Necklace

    • 2 Rings

    • 3 "Specials" (things that do not fit into the above slots)

Conditions