#homebrew rules

[dungeonmalcontent]

New and simplified way to roll for initiative: everyone at the table must point towards another player or the GM. Only the GM is allowed to point at themselves.

The player with the most people pointing to them goes first and so on. Ties are settled by Dex score, with the higher score going first. If Dex scores tie in a tied initiative, the players have ten seconds to punch the other in the shoulder, first to land a punch wins and if neither can in ten seconds both of their characters become evil radishes. If no one pointed at a player, that player's character becomes an evil radish until the end of combat. Players may not coordinate pointing targets before initiative. Both hands may be used simultaneously to point.

Evil radishes have an armor class of 25 and 1 hit point and regain 1 hit point at the beginning of each round unless eaten. As an action evil radishes can cast fireball centered on themselves. Every time an evil radish gains a hit point--including any hit points it would regain beyond its hit point maximum--it can move 5 feet in any direction, including through difficult terrain, water, or through the air (hovering). Evil radishes must cause as much chaos as possible or their character dies permanently at the end of combat. If an evil radish is eaten, it is neutralized until the end of combat.

At the end of combat, evil radishes (including neutralized evil radishes) return to their original form if they were originally player characters (if one was consumed it appears in the nearest open space to the creature that consumed it). If an evil radish was not a player character and remains un-neutralized at the end of combat it becomes a jolly good turnip for the next 24 hours, after which point in returns to its original form. If a non-plater character becomes an evil radish and is eaten, it dies permanently at the end of combat unless the creature that ate it regurgitates it before the end of combat.

If initiative is rolled within 30 feet of a gourd of ill omen, refer to Appendix C, sub-heading 5: "Jackin the Lantern."

#d&d #dnd #dungeons and dragons #homebrew #5e #ttrpg #fantasy #writing #homebrew rules #optional rules

[another-rpg-sideblog]

Dungeon exploration by O-kra on reddit

#rpg #dungeons and dragons #dnd #homebrew rules #dm advice #dungeon design

[galahadwilder]

Homebrew rules for my D&D games that my players will never discover: if you cast 9th-level Aid on a creature with only 1 hit die, they explode.

#original content #D&D #dungeons and dragons #dungeons & dragons #dnd #homebrew rules #5e homebrew

[mmeveronica]

Okay poison in dnd kinda sucks, but not for the reasons you think.

Yes the most common damage immunity is poison, but if you're in a campaign fighting Fey, Monstrosities, Aberrations, Beasts, and most Humanoids, instead of Constructs, Elementals, Fiends, and Undead, it actually isn't that common. (This reddit post has the stats)

No, poison kinda sucks because it is so expensive and takes so long to craft. Let's just look at the basic poison given in the Player's Handbook. It costs 100gp, so using the crafting rules in the PHB it would take 50gp of materials, and then a number of days equal to its market value divided by 5, which is 20. It takes most of a month to craft a basic vial of poison that adds the possibility of an extra 1d4 damage to attacks for 1 minute.

Now the rules in Xanathars Guide shorten the crafting time to two weeks, as they let you craft 50gp of market value during one week, but it's still not great.

Trying to expand this to the more interesting poisons like burnt othur fumes, malice, and oil of Taggit would have you take months to craft a single dose of a poison. These poisons can be incredibly useful, but the cost is just too much and the crafting time too long.

So, I propose the following homebrew rule to make crafting poisons take less time in DnD 5e. Base the crafting time of a poison off the crafting time of a spell scroll in Xanathar's Guide with a similar cost to the materials needed to craft it. Both poisons and spell scrolls are consumable items that let a character deal more damage or apply a unique status effect so I don't think it's a big leap to allow.

Returning to the basic poison, it requires 50gp of raw materials to craft and the closest spell scroll to that cost is a 1st level spell scroll with 25gp. Double the cost of materials means that double the time to craft isn't unreasonable so it would take 2 days to craft this basic poison. An example of a more advanced poison is burnt othur fumes, the material cost is 250gp for crafting which is the cost to craft a 2nd level spell scroll. A 2nd level spell scroll takes 3 days to craft so burnt othur fumes would as well.

These new crafting times would allow players much more opportunity to actually use these frankly somewhat overpriced poisons. If you as a DM feel these are too fast, you could always slow them down or limit the use of these crafting times to characters with the Poisoner feat. which already lets them craft mutliple doses of a unique potent poison using 50gp of materials in an hour.

#dnd #dnd 5e #dnd 5e mechanics #dnd 5e homebrew #dnd homebrew #homebrew rules #poison #tw poison #d&d #dungeons and dragons

[flightyquinn]

Not-so-random D&D thought: Was talking with one of my mutuals about this, and I think that quivers/ammo pouches ought to work kind of like spell component pouches. You buy one, and as long as you have it on you, it is considered to have all the ammo you need inside of it. No need to track individual pieces of ammunition.

Think about it. Casters get unlimited use cantrips that they can attack at range with, right? And they don't have to keep track of consumed spell components to cast them over and over. So if the main advantage of martial characters over casters is supposed to be that they're less dependant on limited resources, they should also have an unlimited supply of their ranged options.

Sure, special ammunition could still be tracked separately, but when it comes to mundane ammo? Most people don't like tracking it anyway, and making it something you buy once and if you have it you have it would just be giving everyone a convenience that some characters already enjoy.

#tabletop roleplaying #ttrpg #pathfinder #dungeons & dragons #game design #house rules #game mastery #dming #homebrew rules

[dndwithray]

Exhausted Spellcasting aka Chaos Magic

After using all their mana on prior encounters, the artificer scrounges up what bits of scrap she can, the warlock sells a bit more of his life force to his patron, and the cleric pleads to their goddess for just one last chance. What comes of this, is Chaos Magic.

When a spellcaster attempts to cast a spell while out of spell slots, they must make a Constitution saving throw. The DC equals 10 + the spell's level. On a failure, the caster suffers a number of levels of exhaustion equal to double the spell's level. On a success, the caster suffers half as many levels of exhaustion, rounded down (minimum of 1). [ Note this ruleset is to be used with OneDnD's version of Exhaustion rules. ]

Then, roll a D6 to see how your spell comes out. You must roll on this table regardless of the outcome of your CON save. Your spell will always hit when casting using Exhausted Spellcasting.

1. Your spell backfires giving the opposite-desired effect. If it were to harm an enemy, instead, it heals them. If it were to heal an ally, it instead harms them.

2. The spell overcharges and blows up, causing the effect of said spell to apply to all creatures with 15 feet of it.

3. This really takes a lot out of you. You take an additional point of exhaustion from casting.

4. Something odd happens in addition to the spell you cast. Roll on the Wild Magic table (D100).

5. You cast the spell successfully with no additional effects. Thank the gods.

6. Your adrenaline causes the spell to come out much more powerful than usual. Double the damage, healing, or other effects of the spell.

#dnd #dungeons and dragons #ttrpg #homebrew #homebrew rules #dnd 5e homebrew #5e #d&d 5e #dnd 5e #one dnd #artificer #cleric #warlock #spellcasting #spells #magic #wild magic #wild magic table #oc #original content #sorcerer

[worstcompanylive]

The Rules So Far

Wonder how Project Shinobi works mechanically? What custom rulings were made for a Naruto themed campaign? Well here is what we have thus far:

SUBSTITUTION: You get 1 substitution per combat that causes an attack to automatically miss and you teleport up to 10 in any direction. You can increase this range by spending 4 chakra per 5ft.

Simple Transformation: There is no chakra cost to use this skill, but you must have at least one Chakra Point. Upon activating the skill, you don an illusory disguise. Make a Deception/Performance check to determine how effective your disguise is. The DC to see through the illusion is based on said roll. To see through a Simple Transformation, you must make a Perception/Insight check. If you succeed, you determine that it is an illusion, though you cannot see the true form of the transformation user.

True Transformation (5 Chakra): You can transform into something else as long as it is of the same size category. You can give yourself natural weapons, however, your stats remain the same. You can also spend additional Chakra points to become something of a different size category. This cost is equal to 10*the size category difference.

Clone Jutsu (3 Chakra per): You create up to three illusion clones within 5ft of you. while these clones exist attacks made against you is made with disadvantage, dispelling a clone if it misses you. People that can sense which you is real do not have disadvantage on attacks.

Quick draw duel- Leaf style A partial contact duel that test's each person's agility. Practice blades are used to reduce undue maiming. Each round players make two dex checks, one for reaction speed, one for attack speed, The winner of the round is decided by the higher total. The victor is decided by who ever reaches 5 points first.

Quick draw duel- Rain style A full contact duel enjoyed by cutthroats, missing nin, and bandits, originating from rain country. Each round players make two dex checks, one for reaction speed, one for attack speed. who ever rolls the higher total is the victor, and deals damage. The victor is either whoever get's 5 points first, who ever causes their opponent to pass out from blood loss, or who ever removes the opponent's arm.

Wounds and Bleed When hit by certain Jutsu’s or serrated weapons you must make a pass a con save or gain a stack of wound. At the beginning of your turn you take 1d4 bleed damage for every wound you have. you can use your action to attempt a dc15 med check, stopping the bleeding on a success. Certain Jutsu's or weapons cause you to bleed but don't wound you, instead giving you a stack of Bleed. At the beginning of your turn you take 1 bleed damage for every stack of Bleed you have. you can use your action to attempt a dc10 med check, stopping the bleeding on a success.

Limb Lost In rare situations you may lose a limb. If this happens you will not be able to use two handed items, and will have two stacks of wounded until someone else treats the wound with a dc 18 med check.

Dynamic Movement As a reaction, you can choose to move up to your movement speed. However, you will lose the movement spent on your next turn.

Shonen's Rule When you drop to 0HP, you can, instead, regain 1HP at the cost of one failed death save. This failed death save lasts until you spend at least 2 weeks in the hospital. While in the hospital, you cannot partake in any strenuous activities.

#worst companylive #Naruto #homebrew campaign #homebrew system #custom system #ttrpg #ttrpg campaign #homebrew rules #D&D #dnd #tabletop #dungeons and dragons #twitch.tv #group effort group approved

[herearedragons]

...so I came up with a fun mechanic for my D&D group's current adventure.

This adventure is going to be investigation-based (they're Solving A Mystery and there won't be a lot of fighting), and the players have been given cards with clues to the mystery written on them. They can then choose to "play" those cards in what I decided to call a hunch roll.

A hunch roll goes like this: a player can try to gain advantage in any roll (ability check, attack roll, saving throw, anything) by presenting an interpretation of a clue they have and explaining how it helps them in this situation.

For example: if a character is questioning the cook of an inn, and the character has a clue card that says "I found poisonous herbs stashed in the inn's kitchen", the player can declare a hunch roll: "I think that the cook is planning to poison one of the inn's patrons, and I'm going to use this knowledge to help my persuasion/insight/intimidation roll".

And then comes the fun part: on a declared hunch roll, instead of the player rolling, I (the DM) roll 2D20 behind the screen and give them the result. If the player's interpretation of the clue is correct, the roll is made with advantage; if it's incorrect, the roll is made with disadvantage. The player can't know for sure if their hunch was correct, but if it is, it will help them (and if it isn't, it will hinder them).

It sounds complicated when I actually type it out, but it was pretty easy to explain in conversation and to integrate into the game (when a player wanted to make a roll and I knew they had a relevant clue, I'd ask them whether they wanted to make a hunch roll with any of their clue cards, and they almost always took the offer). We've only played one session with this so far, but I think it's a fun way to reward player intuition without actually revealing the Correct Answer - and if the players are horribly wrong, this can help make it more apparent.

#herearedragons speaks #herearedragons... meta? what do I call this kind of post #herearedragons homebrew #<- this sounds nice. I'll go with this one #dnd #d&d #dungeons and dragons #dming #homebrew rules #ttrpg #project: askarum

[lodane]

5e: My take on the 'Invisible' condition, advantages thereof, etc.

'Conditions' are rulesets applied to characters in the form of buffs and debuffs.

These conditions tend to come from external sources: combat against a Medusa can easily make a character 'Petrified.'

Conditions can be removed by external sources as well: 'Blinded' can be cleared by another character casting 'Lesser Restoration' on them.

A character can have objective conditions: any observer will perceive that character as having the 'Incapacitated' or 'Poisoned') as such. (The character is 'Stunned.' They are not stunned according to one character, not stunned for another.)

Some conditions are more subjective, applying to one other character, such as 'Charmed' or 'Frightened.' (The character is 'Charmed' by you, you are 'Frightened' by them, etc.)

The 'Invisible' condition is subjective, just as opposed 'Stealth' vs. 'Perception' skill tests are subjective, and is dependent on the 'Unseen Attackers and Targets' combat rules. (The character is 'Invisible' to you, you are 'Invisible' to your opponent, etc.)

If a character is visible to you, even by "special means" or "special senses" ('Blindsight,' 'Truesight'), they cannot benefit from the 'Invisible' condition during your interactions. They are not heavily obscured when hiding, have no advantages in combat, etc.

Objectively, a character can remove 'Invisible' by magical means (the 'Faerie Fire' spell, 'See Invisibility') or mundane (coated in paint, covered in flour).

#5e #Dungeons & Dragons #Conditions #Homebrew Rules #Rules Rulings #Crawford is wrong and just doubling down like a wenis #lodane #i made this #mine

[ashes2caches]

me and my friends have this cool homebrew for dnd 5e where we don’t actually use dice and we also don’t wear clothes and we mostly just slam into each other’s prostates with out girldicks.

#196 #rule #196 campfire #r196 #queer #trans #transfem #t4t #hornyposting #dnd #dnd 5e #homebrew #dnd homebrew

[totesmgoats01-published-author]

D&D homebrew idea: passing along bardic inspiration.

When a bard does something which inspires you to do better on a roll, you can pass that inspiration you feel along to someone else by telling them the story of what they said, summarizing the situation, explaining the joke, attempting to recreate the song, etc. However it never makes as good of a story in retelling, and you always get that one line mixed up, as a result of this the power of the inspiration is diminished by one dice level (d20->d12->d10->d8->d6->d4->d2).

However someone with bardic training knows the elements which make a story or song inspiring, even if they don't yet know how to give their own bardic inspiration. If a bard of level 1 or higher wants to pass inspiration along to someone else they must make a performance check where the DC is decided by rolling whatever die of inspiration they're trying to convey. On a success they cleverly fill in the gaps of the story or song and the dice level stays the same. Otherwise, some degradation occurs.

Note: if you want you can do this was regular inspiration too (though some people don’t really use regular inspiration so that’s why I focused on bardic inspiration specifically).

#D&D #D&D 5e #DnD #DnD 5e #Dungeons and Dragons #dungeons and dragons 5th edition #dnd homebrew #homebrew rules #d&d homebrew rules

[dungeonmalcontent]

This is a chonker of a post (more like a document) about creating unique anime-like powers in TTRPG games.

No way to really rules this (I mean, you can and some simple TTRPGs have done it, but it has to be super narrowed down when they do), but ask your GM about building a character with an oath-based unique ability. Not like a paladin or champion. Just keep reading.

You take an oath that includes a restriction of your choice, and in return you request an ability. The bigger the restriction, the better type of ability you can get. The more consequential breaking it is, the more powerful your ability is.

Ex: you swear to never willfully cause harm to a creature with lesser intelligence than you. In return, you desire the ability to alter the memories of creatures. As a binding consequence to this oath and exchange, you put up your own memories of your childhood as collateral. So, should you break your oath, you lose those memories.

That's super hard to balance for a ttrpg, and you definitely can't create a universal rule set. You can request any boon, offer any restriction, and assign yourself any penalty. But let's try to get this mechanic a little closer to the likes of a d20 game system.

Let's say your requested abilities are "magical". You don't need to specify a spell from your system, because frankly that's not worth it if just anyone can level up and get it. Let's say you either get a version of the closest matching spell that you can cast at will or that you gain a spell like ability that has your desired effect. You can perform this ability as long as you remain conscious. But... This sets the price for your ability.

Since we're comparing your oath's boon to a spell, your restriction should compensate for that. So, let's classify some degrees of price (even those many of these may be hugely subjected, we'll assume genuine character investment from the part of the player). Let's say we're going of the level of a comfortable spell and the restriction appropriate for each increasing level would look like this:

1 - the most trivial restriction. Doesn't change the way you live or act, but could be used against you if you aren't paying attention. Ex: can't eat pomegranates.

2 - still not hard to do, but you do have to be careful of your choices. Ex: can't say a specific word or phrase.

3 - starting to become difficult. Your restriction is still somewhat arbitrary but now something you must actively avoid and change about your life. Ex: you cannot spend more than 5 hrs a day with any of your skin exposed to sunlight.

4 - Moderate difficulty. Actually restricts the use of the ability. Ex: must participate in a certain ritual when using the ability, like closing your eyes and counting to 10 (this can be variable as well depending on how elaborate of a ritual you choose).

5 - beginning to become a more precise ability restriction. Often a more specific restraint of the ability. Ex: can't use the ability on one specific set of things that you could reasonably encounter.

6 - the level where normal people usually don't go past. Usually restricts yourself, rather than your ability. Ex: you can never run from a fight.

7 - a more complicated sort of difficulty. You set more intense restrictions on the ability or on yourself. Ex: When you fight, you must always fight to the death.

8 - probably as difficult as most normal people are willing to make their lives be in an extreme circumstance. Ex: You designate the ability to be for a sole purpose and for nothing else.

9 - The greatest level of restriction possible. Significantly alters or restricts the way in which you live your life. Ex: you can only use this boon and your life to pursue a lifelong endeavor, such as protecting another specific creature.

Once you have given a price (restriction) that matches the degree of potential power you want from your boon, you can set a consequence. The consequence determines the actual potency of the ability.

Let's classify potency into, simultaneously, dice size for the ability OR duration of the ability OR range of the ability. Depending on the ability you choose these factors could change it's effective potency. Following our example of the ability to alter memories, you might only be able to alter a certain number of memories determined by random dice roll, or you might only be able to alter someone's memory for a specific period of time, or you might have to be within a certain distance to alter someone's memories. These could also coincide with your restriction to create a more stable ability.

But let's break the rough outline of these degrees of potency here as:

Tier 1: 1d4 impact; shortest effective duration (1 "round"); touch or self range.

Tier 2: 1d6 impact; 1 minute; immediate range (~5-10 feet).

Tier 3: 1d8 impact; 10 minutes; ~20-30 feet.

Tier 4: 1d10 impact; 30 minutes; normal line of sight (~60-80 feet).

Tier 5: 1d12 impact; 1 hour; ~120-180 feet.

Tier 6: 1d20 impact; 3 hours; on the same plane of existence.

Now... Those are some numbers. But they aren't combined. You're getting one of those, not all of a set. So, mind controlling 1d8 people OR mind controlling a person for 10 minutes OR mind controlling people from ~20-30 feet away. Whatever makes your ability the most powerful TO YOU (the player/character) is how you determine which metric you go by and what tier it is.

To match these ranks of potency, we have ranks of suffering. If you break your restriction, the consequences match your desired potency.

Tier 1: least consequential, more like an inconvenience. Ex: you are weakened but can be healed -OR- must pay a fine (money, power, time) that matches your failure.

Tier 2: significantly consequential but limited in scope. Ex - your restriction grows larger (or you lose the ability but keep the restriction with a new consequence)

Tier 3: personal and significant. Ex - something important and meaningful to you, like a family heirloom or powerful item, is lost to you forever.

Tier 4: consequential but can be lived with. Ex - your health is permanently reduced or you permanently lose a limb (or limbs).

Tier 5: irreversible and significantly life altering. Ex - loss of your identity.

Tier 6: death

You can also bake in that in the case of any significant or intentional breach, the character loses their ability afterwards.

Also, don't stick too closely to these examples. Some of them can be used in lots of different ways and creativity can make you incredibly powerful.

But this is, as far as I can tell, a pretty decent frame of reference for these sorts of abilities. You still need to hash out a lot of details with your GM, but this helps you approach an even footing without getting sidelined.

I also wouldn't suggest using this kind of system if you want to surprise other players (and definitely not your GM) with what your character is capable of. This is a meticulous strategy sort of power game, and works best when everyone is on the same page. It can also be fun for enemies, as it can make an encounter more about figuring out how to beat an opponent instead of figuring out how many arrows your need to shoot at them.

This system is modeled more after JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and HunterXHunter. So for further reference and inspiration, watch/read those. Stand and Nen are great systems. I love them a lot and I wish they were more conducive to ttrpg play styles.

#ttrpg #game system #jjba #hunter x hunter #d&d #pathfinder #homebrew rules #character building

[another-rpg-sideblog]

Advanced Weapon Wield by Raccoomph on reddit

#rpg #dungeons and dragons #dnd #homebrew rules #equipment #weapons #combat #feats

[apply-republican]

#tweets #@na rules #g eazy #astrophysics #Movie Gifs #sweet #gojo x reader #phrases #homebrew #one ok rock

[nite0304]

A Project I've been working on for a while now, a guide to creating custom spells for D&D In-Game!

It has things such as recommended time for research and development, possible cost of materials, and of course rules for all kinds of effects for your spells.

And best of all, its free for everyone up on DMs Guild!

If you like things like these, I have a patreon! You can support me over there, and every cent gives me motivation to continue doing this. Thank you very much :)

#dnd #d&d #d&d 5e #dnd 5e homebrew #homebrew #d&d 5e homebrew #dnd5e #dungeons and dragons #dungeon master #video games #spells #wizard #custom rules

[flightyquinn]

Letting Players Feel Smart in Combat

or, "Running Encounters with an Information Economy"

PREAMBLE: Something that frustrated me for a long time as a player in TTRPGs was how hard it could be to guess enemy tactics. There are a lot of things that you can do with good tactics, but a lot of the time you lack the information to use those tactics. For example, setting up a prepared action to counterspell just wastes your turn if nobody tries to cast anything. This can be especially frustrating when you're up first in the initiative, and don't have much more than just a description of who/what you're fighting to go off of.

AN ANECDOTE: One day I decided to try an experiment. Each round of combat was supposed to be happening in the same six seconds of elapsed time, right? So, the next time I went first, I asked my GM if I could see what the enemies were doing - everything was happening at the same time, so I should be able to read their body language, the directions they were starting to move, and where they were looking to get an idea of how they were going to act, right?

As I honestly had been expecting, my GM said no. It wasn't their turn yet, so they weren't doing anything yet. I resolved that I did not want to run my own games that way, so I came up with some ways that when I ran a game, I could help my players to not be going into battle completely blind.

THE POINT: Tipping players off to enemy tactics is just good GMing. When they get a "read" on an enemy, they'll feel like an absolute genius. When the party plans for what the enemy will do and uses tactics to put the odds in their favor, they will lose their minds over how cool they feel. Here's a couple things I do to make that happen.

The first is giving enemies tells for what they're planning, which sounds simple, but actually requires a change to how encounters are typically run. Basically, you should know what an enemy will do before their turn, and typically at the end of the last one. Then you narrate them doing something to hint at that as part of their action. For example, a dragon might inhale deeply before using its breath weapon, or a manticore might slowly go from lashing its tail from side to side to holding it stiff as it prepares to launch a volley of spikes.

You don't have to stay committed to a course of action once you've given a tell, but if the players do something that would cause an enemy to reconsider its tactics (or determine them, if you hadn't decided anything for it yet), that's another time to give a tell. For instance, you might have already described a dire wolf lowering on its haunches as it starts stalking toward the ranger, ready to pounce, when the halfling rogue stops taking cover behind the fighter. In that case, you might describe the dire wolf shifting its stance, licking its lips as it turns its attention to this weaker-looking prey.

There's no need to give a tell for every action, of course. That would get taxing for you, and tedious for the party. Generously sprinkling in clues as to key things enemies want to do can keep players engaged, and help them break through the indecision about what to do with their own turns, though.

That brings me to my other trick. If you read the anecdote section above, this is something I came up with as a direct result of that. I decided to add a special action type that is just for the players, the "Observe Action". Every player gets one Observe Action on each of their turns that they can use in a number of ways to get more information about the conditions on the battlefield, or to gain an advantage.

The first use is just applying their skills in the normal way. If they could use a skill to recall information about a particular creature, they now do this as an Observe Action. This one is technically an explicit nerf in Pathfinder, since recalling is stated to be no action, but I find that most groups only check on one monster at a time anyway, and on the occasions when they don't, starting combat with check spam just slows the action down, so I include it. It usually doesn't hurt anything, and having it on the list can actually remind players that doing this is a thing they can do in the first place.

The second is also more or less a bookkeeping task, and that's using informational magic, like the Detect spells. It doesn't change the cast time, but once the spell is up, any further focus to gain more information uses their Observe Action. This is mostly just to remind players they can have these going while they fight, but I do also make any part of using the spell once cast that would normally be a Standard Action into an Observe instead, as a small bonus.

The third use, and the first truly new option, is to "read" a group. This is similar to recalling information, but allows for some different questions to be asked. Use these as a baseline.

Who has the highest/lowest HP?

Who can deal the most damage with physical attacks.

Who has the highest bonus to hit?

General "lean" of the group's alignment. (Most common alignment component on a single axis.)

How challenging does this fight look? (General CR range of the encounter, described as Easy, Average, Challenging, etc...)

Individual with the highest/lowest value in a particular ability score.

Highest/lowest value in a particular saving throw.

Basically, this option is there to help players decide who to focus their attention on. Let them use it for whatever will help them get a better idea of who or what they're facing. Let them ask their main question up-front before rolling to establish the check (whatever skill and DC seems appropriate), but let them ask additional questions after if they get a high roll.

It goes hand in hand with the last option, which is gauging intent. This one should probably be done with Insight/Sense Motive, and it just comes down to that original question. What's going to happen next?

The first way this can work is that the player focuses on a specific enemy, and gets a sense of what that enemy specifically intends to do. In other words, the player tells you who they want to get a "tell" for, and if they succeed, you give it to them.

Alternatively, the player might ask if anyone in the enemy group is about to take a specific action. For example, "Is the cleric about to get targeted." or "Does anyone look like they're going to call for backup?" So basically, instead of focusing on the behavior of one individual, the player is staying alert for a particular situation. Don't let the players get too broad with this one, of course, but it's okay to be a little generous with what they can ask about.

Even more than when I advised it above, if someone successfully gauges the intent of their enemy, and that intent changes, let them know. You should treat a success as them continuing to be alert to what they were observing for until their next turn.

I also toyed with the idea of letting players use their Observation to look for openings to improve their chance of hitting, or for a weak spot to do more damage. I like the idea of this, but felt like it stepped on the toes of other, existing options too much, and would be too tempting to players over the other uses. So I decided to keep Observation Actions as purely a source of information, and not directly pumping numbers. Still, if it sounds like it would work for you, try it out.

For everyone who read this incredibly long post of mine, I hope it helps you out. I haven't done a post like this in a long time, and I really appreciate you taking the time to read it. If these rules improve anyone else's games, hearing that would really make my day.

#ttrpg #tabletop roleplaying #dungeons & dragons #pathfinder #game mastery #running the game #encounter design #roleplaying games #game master advice #house rules #long post #essay #homebrew #this is just what works for me