House Rules

There are a few house rules I've introduced to my campaign. They are mainly aimed to deliver a better experience within the game for all players, adding more interesting options and improving on some of the more disappointing mechanics in the game. They are as follows:

## Feat Progression

You'll be getting feats without the need of an ASI depending on certain conditions.

For example, if you spent too much time gambling, you may be given the Gambler feat (at my discretion). Similarly, if you spend some time training under a fighter, you may get the Martial Adept or Fighting Initiate feats. You can still grab those feats through an ASI if you choose, though there are some that will be locked away under conditions, listed below:

* **Artificer Initiate:** Wizard ASI, training under an artificer during downtime, or trying to learn it on your own (will take a lot longer than the former).
* **Eldritch Adept:** Warlock ASI, or forming a pact with an otherworldly being.
* **Fey Touched:** Exposure to Feywild magic.
* **Magic Initiate (Brd, Clrc, Drd, Wiz):** Training under the class chosen for a while, or trying to learn it on your own (will take a lot longer than the former).
* **Magic Initiate (Sorc):** Experience an event related to a sorc subclass (i.e. be affected by Shadowfell for shadow magic, be affected by feywild for wild magic, etc.). If your character is related to one of the possible sources of Sorcery, you may take this feat through ASI.
* **Magic Initiate (Warlock):** Form a pact with an otherworldly being.
* **Ritual Caster:** Training under the chosen class.
* **Shadow Touched:** Exposure to Shadowfell magic.
* **Telekinetic and Telepathic:** Only available to casters (ASI), if specified during character creation (psionic class or race, or backstory reasons. No one just develops this stuff randomly), or through learning it somehow, though this option is the hardest to achieve.

So on, so forth, with more conditions to be added or thought of as the feat list grows.

## Reasonable Multiclassing

If you want to multiclass between martial classes, there are no limitations or conditions required. However, multiclassing into a caster class will require you to have earned or learned its "Initiate" feat. If you've created your character with multiclassing already, you're fine. This isn't retroactive, it's post character introduction. One does not simply gain a caster class's abilities out of nowhere in the middle of the game.

For example, you can't suddenly take Sorcerer for a second class unless you overcame a situation that could lead to it. (i.e. Exposure to planar magic, surviving a natural Lightning Strike or a Phoenix, or making a "pact" with a Celestial or Dragon)

## Sorcerers: Living Foci

As a sorcerer, you are a creature that had either been born with magic flowing within them, or had been affected by an event in your life that caused your body to produce its own magic influenced by the event.

This house rule's purpose is to emphasize the sorcerer's magical situation. Why should they need an item to focus their magic through, when they themselves are the source of their magic?

When casting a spell, Sorcerers can use themselves as an arcane focus, replacing any material component with no cost in their spells. However, until they gain the War Caster feat, they still need to have a free hand to cast their spells from.

## Strengthy Shoving

Normally, when shoving a creature, you choose between knocking them prone or pushing them 5 feet away. The purpose of this rule is to account for the character's strength when shoving to create distance.

If you succeed, you either knock the target prone or push it 5 x half your Strength modifier (rounded down, minimum of 5) feet away from you.

* The Charger feat adds 5 feet to the distance you push them away from you, instead of pushing them 10 feet away.
* Pushing Attack adds 10 feet to the distance you push them away from you, instead of pushing them 15 feet away.

## The Fading Spirit

Character death can often prove to become a minor inconvenience in some campaigns once the adventuring party reaches a certain level, with spells being available to return fallen comrades from the afterlife with temporary setbacks, robbing a small element of danger, and threat to future conflicts and challenges within the story. If you wish to elevate the gravity of character death, you can introduce this optional rule.

If a character is dead, and a resurrection is attempted by a spell or spell effect with longer than a 1 action casting time, a Resurrection Challenge is initiated. Up to 3 members of the adventuring party can offer to contribute to the ritual via a Contribution Skill Check. The DM asks them each to make a skill check based on their form of contribution, with the DC of the check adjusting to how helpful/impactful the DM feels the contribution would be.

For example, praying to the god of the devout, fallen character may require an Intelligence (Religion) check at an easy to medium difficulty, where loudly demanding the soul of the fallen to return from the aether may require a Charisma (Intimidation) check at a very hard or nearly impossible difficulty. Advantage and disadvantage can apply here based on how perfect, or off base, the contribution offered is.

After all contributions are completed, the DM then rolls a single, final Resurrection success check with no modifier. The base DC for the final resurrection check is 10, increasing by 1 for each previous successful resurrection the character has undergone (signifying the slow erosion of the soul’s connection to this world). For each successful contribution skill check, this DC is decreased by 2, whereas each failed contribution skill check increases the DC by 1. A natural 20 would count as a double success, while a natural 1 would count as a double failure.

Upon a successful resurrection check, the player’s soul (should it be willing) will be returned to the body, and the ritual succeeded. On a failed check, the soul does not return and the character is lost.

Only the strongest of magical incantations can bypass this resurrection challenge, in the form of the True Resurrection or Wish spells. These spells can also restore a character to life who was lost due to a failed resurrection ritual.

If a spell with a casting time of 1 action is used to attempt to restore life (via the Revivify spell or similar effects), no contribution skill checks are allowed. The character casting the spell makes a Rapid Resurrection check, rolling a d20 and adding their spellcasting ability modifier. The DC is 10, increasing by 1 for each previous successful resurrection the character has undergone. On a failure, the character’s soul is not lost, but the resurrection fails and increases any future Resurrection checks’ DC by 1. No further attempts can be made to restore this character to life until a resurrection spell with a casting time higher than 1 action is attempted.