My 16 (new) Homebrew Rules for D&D 5e

When Jack said "How many Paladin levels do I have to give up..." I shot up in alarm. In 40 years of roleplaying, I have never heard a player be so selfless, and sacrifice so much for another player. This is a man that you really want running on your team. Well played Jack, well played.

Sacrificing your paladin powers to save someone is the most paladin thing I have ever heard. Mad Respect.

"If you're below half hp, you're considered bloody. If you're below 10hp, you're considered mortal." The level 20 wizard: They're the same picture.

My favorite homebrew rule that I've done is Druids can change into Chalenge rating zero creatures for free. It encourages them to get creative and it doesnt give them an advantage in combat. Also you can talk to animals regardless of what kind of druid you are but only if you can turn into it. So a level 3 Druid can't talk to fish, but a level 10 Druid can

Hey y’all, I’m Jack, Jacob’s friend from the last part of the video. Some of you guys were asking what the full consequences of my sacrifice were, and I’m here to deliver answers! For context, Laslow was a Vengeance Paladin 6/Echo Knight Fighter 4. I was completely out of spell slots, but even if I had any, I wouldn’t be able to save Kia. The rest of the party was out of reach. I had to do something, or she would die. So I offered up class levels in exchange for the ability to save Kia’s life. Jacob said he cut my levels in half, but I actually lost two levels in each class. I was reduced to Vengeance Paladin 4/Fighter 2 (that’s right, no more subclass). Laslow had expended so much of his power to save Kia that he was now weakened. We leveled up at the end of the session, and I put another level into fighter to get another subclass. But to further lean into the idea that Laslow sacrificed so much to bring Kia back from the brink, I went into Champion instead of Echo Knight, suggesting that he is no longer able to manifest echoes as a result of his sacrifice. Anyway, go check out Arcane Arcade if you haven’t already. This moment with Laslow is just one of many insane situations that has occurred across the many games/campaigns that the crew has played over the last several years!

One of my favorite rules is, “I know a guy.”basically once per level you may state the phrase above and quickly sketch out an npc that your character knows who may be able to help. I use this rule so that my players can feel invested in the world and help develop their backstory as we play.

We've always allowed Strength to be used as a modifier for Intimidation checks. An Ogre isn't necessarily charismatic, but it certainly has the ability to terrify the crap out of someone through sheer force. That a charismatic Halfling Bard could severely outperform some hulking monstrosity because of this has always felt a little wrong.

Me and my DM worked on a concept similar to "something lost something gained." The idea was that a player can access an ability from a higher level in their class that they currently are... for a price. I was playing a shadow monk, level 3, with plans to subclass into warlock at the next level. However, when the party was kidnapped, attached to ball and chains and taken to a lake to be drowned with nothing we could do about it, time froze. I heard a voice ask me if I wanted to make a deal to save everyone, and I agreed. Suddenly, about 7 different eldritch blasts fired out of me, freeing my friends and damaging the kidnappers, and a fight ensued, in which I was even permitted to use hexblades curse. . I had officially made my warlock pact in order to get us out of a sticky situation, however, I didn't get to learn the details of my pact. It was such a cool moment!!

My brother's game has a rule he's tooling as he goes, which is "going to 0hp does not mean you're unconscious". You fall prone, and you are stunned, but you can crawl 10ft on your turn, and can make one action while you are dying. You still roll death saves, but it can give you the scene where the man you thought you killed manages to drag themselves to the MacGuffin and activate it. But, if you attack the enemy, don't be surprised if they attempt to finish you off for good.

My absolute favorite piece of Homebrew I've cooked up is the Narrative Imperative Roll. It started when the party split for logistical reasons at the end of a major encounter. The Artificer teleported back to the party's base of operations, leaving the Rogue, Wizard and Duskblade to head back to the mainland by boat. Now the boat suffered some damage on the journey and the seagoing half of the party had no way of affecting repairs, so the Rogue asked if maybe he could have thought ahead and pickpocketed the Artificer's magical repair hammer before he left. The Artificer was all for it, and hadn't used his repair hammer since splitting from the party, so it wouldn't break continuity if it turned out that the Rogue had stolen the hammer before the journey. This seemed to me like a very sensible solution to the problem that would keep us from getting bogged down in inconvenient non-plot, so I decided to let the Rogue roll a flat D20 against me, in the open, to see if he had thought ahead. He rolled higher than me, and turned out to have had the hammer all along, saving us about an hour of bullsh*t. We cut briefly to the Artificer in a humorous situation involving a damaged tavern wall, suddenly finding his prized hammer to be missing. From there on out, we've used the Narrative Imperative Roll to make small changes to past events and rules, so long as the changes result in a better game experience and don't break continuity. Most recently, we had a roll to determine whether creatures and items inside an inactive Portable Hole are held in stasis; they aren't.

My favorite Homebrew rule is having players describe a moment of their life flashing Before Their Eyes before each death save. Just a brief flashback to a random point in their life either from the adventure or before.

Little homebrew rule I saw on my fyp once, healing potions can be either an action or a bonus action. If you use a bonus action, roll the dice as per normal. If you use an action, you heal the maximum amount instead.

Jacob rocking the Critical Role 9 Eyes sweatshirt and looking good it. Also congrats on you and Spencer for having a baby

A homebrew rule I have is what I call the “I know a guy” rule. Basically, what it is, is if the party is really stumped/stuck, I will let them create an NPC that they know of that they can get help from. I have final say on whether or not they can come in based on the circumstances, but it gives them a chance to bring something to the world to help them out.

In my campaign we have a “maguffin button” that’s a real button the player presses whenever they want to know there they should go. They’re allowed to press it once per session, and the dm gives them every narrative option that makes sense for the situation.

Jack just freaking gave me chills when I heard him say how many paladin levels do I have to give up. Holy hell that’s a sacrifice play for the ages

I have a rule in my game called "Routing" where if you're facing off against a large group of enemies that have self preservation instincts and you land a critical hit or roll max damage on a big spell they roll for a fear affect where they run to live another day. It works because the players trigger it by being successful in combat and its just a cool concept to grow their notoriety in the world

My personal favorite homebrew rules: "Erm Actually" - To avoid Rules Lawyer-ing stopping us, we take a break half way through sessions so people can grab drinks or food, and if a player reaches out to me about a ruling that I got wrong (and I agree that I got it wrong) they get an extra 1d6 they can add to any d20 role for the session. Birthday Bonus! - if we play a session on the week of or the week after your birthday you gain 1D10 that you can add to any role at any time during the session regaurdless of what it is, Had a Level 1 Fighter deal 30 damage in 1 round because of it. 100% Worth it!

My homebrew rule: if you have resistance to a damage type that comes from two or more different sources, you gain advantage on saving throws against taking that damage type. So now if you’re a tiefling, and find a cool item that gives also fire resistance, you still get some use from that extra resistance

A friend of mine invented me to play D&D and I was worried about the language barrier (I speek Spanish, I'm from Mexico) but when I see that last sacrifice and the reaction, my heart melted and now I'm not only I'm going to play D&D for first time in my life, I'm going to start learning English more professionally for be able to have a bunch of experience like that one you're amazing dude, I'm not going to lie, that moment almost makes me cry a little ❤️