Clockwork Dragon's

Hoard of Houserules
One of the reasons ttrpgs, like Dungeons and Dragons,
are so beloved is that they are flexible enough to be
adapted to the needs of any DM or groups of players. Redundant Features and Traits
While homebrew creations like classes and races are a Some of the house rules I use, such as Medicine
huge part of this flexibility, the unsung hero of just about Flexibility and Attunement Points can make certain
every table ever are houserules or table-rules: small class features or racial traits redundant. In these
changes or additions to the core rules that mean very cases, I simply let my players pick a feat to replace the
little on their own, but can add up to create the ideal redundant trait or feature.
experience for those playing.
Medicine Flexibility
Over the years, I have tested out a lot of houserules. In most DnD settings, medicine is the sort of thing
Some I have thrown away, others I have kept. In the handled by priests, clerics, and wise old medicine
pages below, you will find a collection of my most men. But I like to play in slightly more modern settings,
successful houserules, and the ones I use at my table to where doctors and physicians make up the predominant
date. They might not be for everyone, but I encourage schools of medicine.
you to try them out, and see how they can put a new spin
on your game As such, I allow players to choose during character
creation if their character will rely on wisdom or
Character Creation intelligence for their medicine skill. This decision
determines the ability they will use for the rest of the
The Following rules are applied at character creation, or campaign, and cannot be changed later.
change the way characters are built.
Nature to Science
Ability Scores Because I like to use a somewhat more modern
When rolling to determine ability scores, a player rolls setting (usually around the level of the industrial
4d6, and keeps the highest three rolls, totalling them up revolution), I find that the nature skill isn’t as relevant
to determine one of their six ability scores. At my table I as it can be in other campaigns. I’ve also always had
allow players to re-roll any 1’s rolled as part of this step. some personal difficulty deciding what fits as a nature
A result of 1 on a dice is always re-rolled during ability check as opposed to a survival check, outside of purely
score determination. knowledge-based things.

Roll 4d6, Reroll 1’s, Drop the Lowest. To this effect, I retool the “nature” skill to be called
“science”, and include in it all manner of natural sciences,
The effect of this rule is to raise the average and from geology and botany, to physics and chemistry. A
minimum ability scores a player can expect for their character attempting to mix two volatile chemicals
character. I like to boost those numbers because it front- together would make a science check, as would a
loads the players with a little more power from the start, character who needs to recall the force multiplication
and lets me throw more diverse challenges at them. properties of a lever or the orbit of planets and other
It also helps when the party is small, since it lets the celestial bodies
characters be slightly more capable at the things they
aren’t particularly good at.
 Tiny Creatures
5e does not have any official tiny races available for
players to choose from, but I have at least one tiny
race of my own design, and frequently allow players
to use other homebrew tiny races. Unlike Large races,
which intrinsically break the game for several reasons
that can’t easily be rectified, tiny races are, if anything
underpowered compared to other races, and can easily
be made to work within the game using the following
rules

Weapons and Damage: The DMG rules that Tiny

Creatures have disadvantage on attacks made with
weapons designed for larger attackers, but doesn’t give
any sort of stats for tiny weapons. By default, I rule that
weapons specifically crafted for tiny creatures have their
damage dice reduced by 1 step, so a 1d8 longsword
would instead deal 1d6, or a 2d6 greatsword would
instead deal 2d4.

Alternatively, I allow Tiny creatures to wield normally

sized weapons, so long as they have with the light
property, but do not gain the other benefits of this
property. I also rule that Tiny Creatures must wield
Versatile weapons not designed for them in two hands,
New Skill: Engineering and these weapons only deal their basic damage rather
Similarly, I find that in a more modern setting there than their versatile damage
are certain tasks that require skills not present in 5e
by default. I lump these sorts of checks into a new skill Grappling: As per the DMG, The target of a grapple
called “Engineering” must be no more than one size larger than you, and
it must be within your reach. This means that tiny
Engineering is an intelligence based skill that reflects creatures cannot grapple Medium creatures.
a creatures ability to understand, build, or operate
complex mechanisms. That could be anything from Carrying Capacity: As per the DMG, Tiny creatures can
McGuyvering together an aircraft, to operating a carry less. For each size category Below Medium, halve
complicated hodge-podge of goblin machinery. the creature’s carrying capacity and the amount it can
push, drag, or lift.
I also allow players to use engineering in place of slight
of hand for things like picking locks or disarming traps., Movement and Space: Tiny creatures may occupy and
Assuming said devices are mechanical in nature. move through allies spaces with no penalty to their
movement, and may use a grapple check to cling onto or
Bonus proficiency: climb medium or larger targets.
Because I add an entirely new skill to the list of things
players can be proficient in, and because i generally rely Armor Class: Tiny creatures are difficult to hit, and
on my own Expanded Armoury supplement to expand attacks made against you by medium or larger creatures,
the breadth of options a player has for weapons, I also or traps not designed for tiny creatures treat you as
generally give my players the choice of one additional having half-cover (+2 bonus to AC)
proficiency when making their character..
Magic Items: Attuning to a magic item causes it to
This proficiency can be in a weapon, a tool, a skill, or a
language; it’s up to the player to decide. shrink to fit you.

Racial Flight
Racial fly speeds are a pet peeve of mine, because at
low levels, a flying character can circumvent obstacles,
get into places they aren’t meant to, and basically cheat
their way through any combat that doesn’t involve
ranged combatants (which don’t always make sense to
include in every encounter).

That said, wings are cool, and I don’t like to just disallow
a core race or subrace because of my pet peeves.
Instead, I rule that any racial flight speed is treated as
a Glide Speed until 7th level. A glide speed allows a
player to move 5ft horizontally for every 1 ft they move
vertically down.

This rule lets a player keep their wings and aerial fun,
but, prevents them from abusing it at lower levels where
the game just isn’t designed to handle flying characters.
General Gameplay Charging
As far as I am concerned, it doesn’t take any special
The rules below modify the general game-play for all training to run headlong into something with the full
characters, and are usually focussed on speeding force of your body. I allow creatures without the charger
up combat, or providing greater flexibility in what a feat to make a charge attack by expending both their
character can do. movement, and attack actions at once. On a success, a
charging creature gains a +5 bonus to attack rolls, or
Double Dice Crits may instead choose to push their target up to 10 ft. On
A simple and fun rule I give use at my table is to a failure, the charging creature continues 10 ft past
treat doubled dice as a critical roll: If a creature has the target, and falls prone, or takes 1d10 bludgeoning
advantage and rolls the same number on both dice, damage if they strike a wall or other obstacle.
the result is considered a critical success, regardless
of the numbers rolled. Similarly, if a creature has Grappling
*disadvantage* and rolls the same number on both dice, Similarly, at my table, a creature without the grappler
the result is considered a critical failure. feat can still attempt to pin a grappled creature,
assuming it makes sense for them to do so. The
This mostly just helps to add an additional bit of Grappling creature uses it’s action to make a second
excitement to rolling dice, but it also increases the value grapple check, at disadvantage, against the grappled
of advantage or disadvantage, because it means that you creature. On a success, both creatures are restrained
are effectively expanding the critical success or failure until the grapple ends.
rates anytime you are rolling double dice.
Pets and the Rule of Three
It also helps balance out elven accuracy a little, since People like pets. They just do. So to give my players a
you need to roll the same number on all three dice to bit of fun, and enable the ever foolhardy choice of every
benefit from this effect with elven accuracy. (By default DnD party ever to adopt that weirdly named goblin that
elven accuracy is one of very few mechanics in 5e that is just trying so hard, I have what I call the Rule of three:
break bounded accuracy altogether, adding what is
statistically a +10 bonus to your roll) If a Creature critically fails to attack a Character three
times in a row, or critically fails a saving throw against
Critical Damage three charm effects in a row, the triggering character
By core rules, rolling a critical hit on an attack roll can make an skill check (usually animal handling, but
allows you to double the number of damage dice you sometimes diplomacy for more intelligent creatures) to
roll when determining the damage done. This is a befriend the creature, claiming it as their companion.
fun rule, but in my experience, it tends to slow down
combat, especially when using my expanded armoury, Now, it’s worth noting that a companion isn’t under the
which includes a number of weapons with multiple direct control of the player, and often isn’t much use in
damage dice. combat - either having severely reduced stats, or being
too cowardly to engage in fighting - but I’ve found that
At my table, I instead just say that any critical hit my players still love the chance to bring home Moon-
automatically deals the maximum damage possible for Moon the wolf. Occasionally, I will even let them make
the attack. Similarly, Crit-Failing on a saving throw will the creature their familiar, using the arcane familiar feat
have you taking maximum damage from the source. in my “how to train your familliar” supplement
This is how it used to work in 4e (the edition I started
in), and while it technically lowers the maximum you Death and Dying
can deal with a crit, the average is the same, and it I don’t allow resurrection spells in my games. If your
drastically speeds up combat, especially with all the character dies, they die, and even the gods themselves
extra ways I provide for people to land critical hits. struggle to truly bring someone back from the grave. A
lot of this has to do with the story and world-building of
Max Damage Crits my setting, but it also helps make death and dying a far
Similarly, I also have a standing rule that rolling more meaningful threat, and encourage players to be
maximum damage on all damage dice during an attack careful about how they approach dangerous situations.
counts as a critical hit. This mostly comes into play
when a creature has a magic item or ability that triggers Besides, RAW, asshat with enough wealth to throw
on a critical hit. away diamonds and keep a cleric on payroll effectively
becomes immortal. And I refuse to give that kind of
Flanking power to Musk and Bezos. Revivify is the closest thing
A common houserule at many tables is to allow what is to resurrection magic I allow; as it effectively works like
effectively pack-tactics for the party - meaning that if a the defibrillator in an ambulance. Anything beyond that
creature is within 5 ft of both you and an ally, you have is a no.
advantage on attack rolls against it. I modify this slightly,
making flanking a sortof inverse of cover. That’s not to say a character can’t return form the dead,
though. I’ve sent more than my fair share of adventurers
If a target is within 5 feet of both you and an ally, it is into the realm of the dead in hopes of reclaiming the
lightly flanked, and you gain a +2 flanking bonus on soul of their lost friend, or bringing back an important
attack rolls against the target. NPC needed to save the kingdom. I just don’t like the
idea that bringing back the dead could be as easy as
If the target is within 5 ft of both you and at least 2 of calling up the local church and paying them with one
your allies, it is heavily flanked, and you gain a +5 bonus of the many big shiny rocks you have found on your
on attack rolls against the target. adventures.
Feats and Multiclassing Spellcasting And Magic
One thing I miss form older edditions ishow common Magic item Attunement
feats were, both for the sake of mechanics, but also DnD has a lot of magic items. It has a lot *more* magic
for the sake of building a Unique feeling character. To items when you throw homebrew into the mix. To that
that effect, I have my own rules regarding feats, which effect I tend to alter the way attunement works, so that
greatly extend their use. my players can have and use more magic items through
the course of a game.
Feat points
At the end of each session, everyone at the table takes Rather than 3 set attunement slots, a player has a
a vote to determine who we feel contributed especially number of attunement points equal to their level, which
well to that session or just gennerally made it the most can be spent to attune to whatever combination of items
fun. Each player (DM included) gets 2 votes, but cannot they like, as per the table below
vote for themselves. Based on the results of this vote, I
hand out 2 “feat points”, usually to the two players with
most votes, although, occasionally both points will go to
one person if the party votes unanimously.
Common 1
Feat points are sort-of a metagame currency, and
Uncommon 2
tracked per-player, rather than per character. As
Rare 4
the name suggests, they are used to buy feats for
your characters. Generally a feat costs 3 to 5 point, Very Rare 5
depending on how often we play, and how powerful Legendary 7
the feat is (Not all feats are created equal, especially
in homebrew). Players also have to provide a viable in-
game reason or justification for the feat, and why it fits Artificers and other classes which would normally gain
their character (and not just their build). additional attunement slots as they level, instead gain
additional attunement points at these levels equal to
Players can still grab feats in place of ASI’s at my table, their proficiency bonus.
but this rule helps to encourage them to think about
feats in a narrative sense, and how they relate to a A character can attune to as many magic items they like,
character’s story. It also helps to build commandery as long as they have enough attunement points to do
between the players at my table, because it’s not whim so. Not only does this system allow character to attune
of the DM giving you perks and bonuses, but your fellow to more items as they level up, it also lets me hand out
players (mind you I will occasionally step in redistribute powerful magic items even at lower levels, with the
points if I feel they aren’t being distributed evenly player having to decide if they would rather attune to
enough). that legendary greatsword, or several less powerful
items that might be more generally useful.
Feat-Based Multiclassing
Not all class features are made equal, and unless you Altered Casting Abilities
plan out a multiclass build from level 1, it can be a hard I’m a Big fan of creativity, and my homebrew setting
sell to give up your higher level class features in one is anything but ordinary. If a player comes tome with
class just to pick up the effectively useless 1st level a particular character idea, but is running into issues
features of another class, even when it would make making it viable because the class they want to use
in-character sense to start multiclassing. That sucks, relies on the wrong casting ability, I will sometimes let
because multiclassing based on your character’s story the player swap that ability to something that better fits
and experiences shouldn’t come at the cost of tanking the idea.
their ability to keep up with the characters around them.
One of the major places this come sup in my games is
To that effect, I allow players to multiclass by spending with warlocks of the Victorian Institute. No longer the
feat points, as per the table below, or by using the feats Nine Hells, the infernal plane has been reforged into
they gain in place of an ASI (which are worth 3 feat a research institute, and so warlocks drawing their
points by default). power from this Institute often rely on Intelligence over
Charisma for their spellcasting ability

Flexible Spell-lists
In addition to retooling the way spells are cast, I also
tend to allow a lot more flexibility with spell-lists.
1-5 3 11-15 5
6-10 4 16-20 6 In my mind, the spells available for a character to learn
should reflect their unique background and training,
Class levels taken in this way still have to be taken not just their class. So if a player can provide me with a
in order, so you can’t just skip to the good stuff and decent reason their character would know a spell, and
ignore the class features that don’t benefit your build. knowing that spell is not in some way horribly broken
But letting my players spend feat points to multiclass in combination with their class, I will generally let them
lets them do so in a way that doesn’t detract from their swap it onto their spell lest by removing another spell
character’s effectiveness at higher levels, which in turn they are less likely to use.
means they can treat multiclassing as a more narrative-
driven experience.
Group Casting
If multiple characters (or monsters) know the same
spell and can cast it, I allow them to work together
while casting it, combining the level that each individual
caster is casting the spell at in order to cast spells at
a level higher than any of the characters could cast on
their own. In my games, I allow any character trained in arcana
to use any spell scroll, by making an arcana check with
Each caster must spend the normal casting time a DC equal to 10 + the spell’s level. Not only does this
of the spell on their turn, and if the spell requires allow a party to survive without a dedicated spellcaster,
concentration, all casters must maintain concentration but it also makes the arcana skill useful for more than
for the duration of the spell. If any single caster loses just a knowledge checks
concentration on the spell, it’s level is reduced by the
level at which that caster was casting the spell. If this Curses and Remove Curse
would reduce the level of the spell below the minimum The last change I make to spellcasting is to curses, and
level the spell can be cast at, the spell ends. the Remove Curse spell. By core rules, all curses are
treated the same, and thus all curses can theoretically
Normally I limit this mechanic so that spells max out be removed by a 3rd level spell. Quite frankly, that’s
at 9th level, but in the right situation, I will sometimes bullshit, and I have never met a DM who didn’t alter
even let spells be cast at 10th level or higher using this those rules in some way, or make specific exceptions for
method, usually only once the party has reached lvl 20. things like vampirism, lycathropy, and other bloodline
or plot-relevant curses that never would have survived
Group spellcasting gives players an incentive to learn in a world where a 5th level cleric could just travel the
spells that other members of their party already country undoing centuries old curses and curing entire
know, and provides a way for low level players or even populations of afflicted monsters.
monsters to cast more powerful spells if they can gather
enough people. My rule is simple: Curses have levels, just like spells,
and Remove Curse just follows the same rules for
Spell-Scrolls for Everyone dealing with different levels of curses that Dispel Magic
Another big pet peeve of mine in 5e, is that for some does for spells. The level of any specific curse depends
reason, core rules do not allow characters to use spell- on how difficult I think it should be to remove, or on the
scrolls unless they are already a spellcaster, and the level it was cast at, in the case of Bestow Curse.
spell is on their class’s spell list. To me, this invalidates
one of the most important uses of spell-scrolls, which I often set the level of ancient bloodline curses and
is to help martial characters keep up with the power the like at 10th level or higher, making it impossible to
of spellcasters, and generally break up spellcaster remove the curse without using group spellcasting.
supremacy
Detect Magic and the Arcana Skill Mana-Based Spellcasting
I started with 4e, and one of the primary uses of the
Arcana skill in that edition was to sense or otherwise I hate Vancian spellcasting. For those of you not aware,
locate magic - something that I think any halfway the reason D&D (and most ttrpgs that followed it) use
trained mage should be able to do without wasting a a slot-based spellcasting system is because Gary Gygax
spell slot. had fascination with the Jack Vance’s Dying Earth
novels, and based the magic system for his game on the
In my games, a player does not need the spell Detect unique laws of magic from those books. It was callback
Magic to locate areas of magic or tell if that sword you to something he loved, and also served to represent the
just picked up is cursed. While a simple arcana check complexities of magic in a strict numerical way
may not give as complete a picture of what is going
on as the aforementioned spell, it will let a character The thing is, since the early days of D&D, we have
trained din arcana sense the general presence of magic, developed better ways of mechanically representing
determine the general direction of large sources of the power of magic, and in my opinion, Vancian style
magic, and get a general idea of how powerful that casting is outdated, over complicated, and restrictive.
magic might be. With a good role, it might even tell you More importantly to me, the idea that magic only exists
the difference between a curse and an enchantment. in discrete, leveled, packets just seems absurd.

On the other hand Detect Magic, as a spell is used to By far the biggest change I make to the core rules of 5e,
determine the nature of magic, such as it’s school, exact is to institute my own mana-based spellcasting system,
spell level, and weather it was cast with malicious in place of the standard Vancian rules.My Mana System
intent. This spell also allows the caster to recognize any is based heavily on the Alternate Spellcasting Rules
spells they themselves know, or have come up against, found on page 288 of the DMG, with some variations to
and with a high enough roll, even pick up the magical help deal with edge cases, and make the whole system a
signature of casters they know., or determine how long littl emore intuitive.
ago the spell was cast.
These rules drastically alter how spellcasting works
Identifying Loot in 5e, adding more flexibility to the way spells are cast,
It has always sortof bugged me that the identify spell and even who can cast them. These rules will probably
can be used to easily tell the party everything they need be an insane departure from the norm for some of you,
to know about a magical object. Instead I limit this spell but I have been using them for going on 7 years now,
to giving out more vague, but still useful information, and find that they make the game significantly more
such as “it is a mighty blade with powerful fire magic”, enjoyable.
or to providing information on an item’s use, such as
the dwarven word used to activate it’s powers. I find the The Basics:
both me and my players tend to enjoy their loot more Rather than requiring spell slots, each spell costs an
when they have to spend a little time learning what it amount of mana, based on the level it is cast at, as
can do. shown on the Mana Cost Table Below.

To cast a spell, you simply spend the required amount of

mana for the spell’s level. To upcast a spell, you spend
mana based on the level you are casting the spell at.

Spells of 6th level or and higher are especially taxing,

and a caster can only cast one spell at each of these
levels per day.

This system is simple, elegant, and has the benefit of

allowing spellcasters more flexibility to choose how they
spend their magical reserves: casting lots of smaller
spells, or just a few at higher levels.

1st 2 5th 7
2nd 3 6th 9
3rd 5 7th 10
4th 6 8th 11
9th 13

Determining your Mana:

Spellcasters, rather than gaining spell-slots of specific
levels, have a pool of mana based on their class and
level, and a maximum level at which they can cast spells,
as shown on the “Mana By Level” Table on the next
page.
 Warlocks and Other Edge Cases
Warlocks are a little odd in all of this, because by core
rules, their spellcasting progression is entirely different
from anything else. To keep it simple, we just total up
1st 4 1st
the mana value of all the spell slots a warlock would
2nd 6 1st normally have at each level, and use that value as their
3rd 14 2nd available mana at that level. The warlock slot level then
4th 17 2nd becomes the maximum spell level that the warlock can
5th 27 3rd cast at, allowing the warlock to downcast spells to their
6th 32 3rd base level, rather than always casting a spell at the
7th 38 4th maximum level they are capable of.
8th 44 4th
This has the nice benefit of resolving what I consider
9th 57 5th the biggest issue with the warlock: not being able to
10th 64 5th downcast forces any warlock worth their salt to pick
11th 73 6th specific spells that scale with level or remain active
12th 73 6th across multiple turns (looking at you witchbolt) in order
13th 83 7th to be effective - a restriction that easily rules out nearly
14th 83 7th half their spell-list.
15th 94 8th
For homebrew classes you are unsure of, or other spell-
16th 94 8th casting options like the magic initiate feat, just do the
17th 107 9th same as with the warlock: total up the mana value of any
18th 114 9th spell-slots normally provided, and use that. Then use the
19th 123 9th level of the highest spell slot normally provided at your
20th 133 9th level as your maximum spell level. It’s worth noting that
this tends to give a lower value than using the Mana By
Level Table, so if you can easily classify a spellcaster, it’s
better to use the table.
This table applies to bards, clerics, druids, sorcerers,
wizards, and other “full casters.” For half-casters like Multiclass Spellcasters
the paladin or ranger, halve the character’s level in that For Multiclassing, Determine the relative casting level
class and then consult the table. For 1/3rd casters or of each class individually, then combine them before
spellcasting subclasses of non-spellcasting classes, such consulting the table. So for example, a level 5 wizard
as the Eldritch Knight or Arcane Trickster, divide the with 2 levels in paladin, would be treated as a 6th level
character’s level in that class by three. This determines caster when consulting the table. When determining
what we call your “Adjusted Spellcasting level”, as your spellcaster level, and thus what level spells and
shown on the ASL Calculation table below. spell slots/Mana you have, you combine the adjusted
spellcasting level (or ASL) of any spellcasting classes
they have levels in, and then consult the mana by level
table.

Full × 1 One-Third × 1/3 What this means is that multiclassing from one
Half × 1/2 Subclass × 1/3 spellcaster to another of the same type wont reduce
your overall spellcasting level, or reduce the level of
spells you can cast, or the spell slots/mana you have, I
Sorcery points and Arcane Recovery
also don’t separate spells and spell slots based on which
Sorcerers are a slight edge case: the DMG Alternate
of your classes they come from. Although if a spell only
Spellcasting Rules treats “spell points” and “sorcery
appears on one of your spell-lists, you must use the
points” as separate pools, despite them converting to
spellcasting ability of that class when casting it.
spell slots at the same rate. I just combine the two
pools, adding any sorcery points to the total mana pool
This is a departure from the Core RAW, which force
of a sorcerer, and letting sorcerers spend mana to use
you to treat each classes spell slots and spell level as
their metamagic options. This does provide a slight
separate. I find that the core rule doesn’t preserve
boost to the sorcerer - since, by default, core rules spell
balance as much as just make multiclassing between
slots dont convert back to sorcery points at the same
different spellcasting classes painfully underpowered,
rate - but in 7 years of play. I’ve never found this to be an
since you wind up sacrificing your higher level spell
actual problem.
slots for a bunch of low level spell slots and spells that
are horribly outclassed at higher levels. Under my rules
Similarly, the Wizard’s arcane recovery feature gets a
your spellcasting levels stack, and you don’t miss out on
little confusing when you take spell slots out of the mix.
spells appropriate to your tier of play, just because you
To keep it simple, a wizard can recover an amount of
wanted to add a little more versatility.
mana equal to their level. Obviously this cannot be used
to “restore” more mana than they started with. This is
basically shorthand for the most efficient way a wizard
can spent their arcane recovery - recovering a number of
lvl 1 spells slots equal to half their level, each of which
would net them 2 mana.