Summary
WhileDungeons & Dragonsis a game with a complex ruleset, there are also dozens of different ways you may tweak these rules to your liking. After all, none of these rules are set in stone. Creating homebrew rules that your table uses can prove extremely useful or extremely detrimental, depending on your playstyle and your campaign setting.
However, if you have a table of expert or extremely high-level players, you might want to consider using some special homebrew rules that can turn your table’s playstyle on its head. Here are the best homebrewed rules for you to use for your expert Dungeons & Dragons players.
10Recap Inspiration
Reward Good Memories
One very common homebrew rule that a lot of Dungeon Masters employ is rewarding inspiration to playerswho can successfully recap elementsof the previous session. Some DMs prefer to do the recaps themselves, but if you’re a bit tired of recapping every game, why not ask the players to do it for you?
You can, of course, always fill in the gaps that players leave out. But, for every time a player can recall a major plot point and recap it for the group, you can award them a d12 of DM inspiration for remembering and taking diligent notes. This helps keep players engaged.
9Bonus Action Spells
Only Breaks The Game A Little Bit
One rule that can frustrate a lot of experienced and new players alike is the restriction placed on bonus action spells. Once per round, you’re able to only expend one spell slot, meaning, even if you have a bonus action available, you can’t expend a bonus action spell if you’ve already used your action to cast a spell that requires a slot.
However, if you’re playing at an extremely high level and feel comfortable adjusting your combat encounters to match this degree of difficulty, you may do away with this rule. This makes combat and action economy a lot freer, but also empowers the players quite a bit, so be careful when invoking this rule.
8Roleplay Experience
Not Just For Combat Anymore
The 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide has rules on how to award XP to players for non-combat scenarios, like accomplishing certain tasks and goals. However, you may take this even further as a DM by awarding certain amounts of XP for good roleplay of their character.
A great way to judge this is to look at players' alignments. If you feel that a character is roleplaying in line with their alignment, then you can award them XP. However, if they’re breaking their alignment, you can either have them shift their alignment or dock them XP. This can prove to be an interesting mechanic to employ for high-level play.
7Trading Powers For Boons
Adjust Your Build
Sometimes, the best homebrew rules are rules that nerf players. High-level DnD players can often feel like they can break the game too easily. As a DM, it’s your job to make sure the challenge of the game still feels fresh and potent.
Consider offering players magical methods to tweak their character builds, or even offer specific rewards for employing certain restrictions. For example, let characters know that, if they defeat an enemy by only using level four spells and lower, they may get extra XP. This can help keep the challenge of combat encounters feel more engaging, without totally breaking the game.
6Learning Feats
Practice Makes Perfect
At certain levels, players have the option to learn feats or take ability score improvements. If they choose a feat, you can simply award it to them. Or, you can have players spend some of their downtime in between adventures during level-ups, learning the feat they’ve chosen.
Have players make a certain number of checks in a skill that pertains to the feat. Should they succeed, they learn the feat. However, if they don’t succeed, perhaps they’ll have to simply take the ability score improvement instead. Alternatively, you’re able to let players learn feats at any level in this way, but raise the DC for the corresponding check when they do.
5Altering Weapon Stats
Put Your Custom Weapon In A Cutscene
Customizing and homebrewing weapons is an interesting way to shake things up in a long-running Dungeons & Dragons campaign. For example, a player-character playing a ranger in an urban-sprawl style campaign may feel that they don’t have that much need for their superior range on their longbow.
Talk to your players about implementing a rule system in which they can alter their weapons stats and trade them out for others. As long as there’s a decent ratio of swap-outs, allowing players to customize their weapons to suit certain situations can prove highly engaging.
4Perks On Criticals
Beyond Just Damage
When a player rolls a natural 20 on the d20, they can do critical damage to enemies. This is, of course, a fantastic boon already. But, it’s worth considering if, perhaps, there are more engaging ways to use natural 20s in Dungeons & Dragons.
Let players know that, if they choose to waive the critical hit damage, they might be able to do something different with their crit should they choose to. Perhaps, if they waive the damage, they can forcibly break an enemy’s concentration on a spell, without them having to roll for it. Or, perhaps they can use their crit to steal an important item from their person.
3Banes On Natural Ones
Even Worse Than Before
Similarly, if you use the above rule, consider warning players that you, as a DM, will be implementing harsher banes for natural ones. Rather than just having the character fail their check or attack, whenever a player rolls a natural one, they will incur a penalty of some kind.
You can let players choose from various options to maintain some player agency. But, consider having players who roll natural ones be forced to pick whether they want to reduce their max HP for the rest of the day, take a level of exhaustion, or any other nerfs you can think of.
2Throwable Potions
Duck!
Some potions and elixirs have throwable qualities already built into them. This mostly works for explosions and other substances. Modules likeObojima: Tales From The Tall Grasshave this mechanic built in through their potion system. However, you can also create homebrew rules for throwing potions.
For example, say a player wants to throw a potion of healing near an unconscious player, hoping that the elixir will seep in through osmosis. You can allow players to do this, meaning the range for healing potions is no longer an issue. However, warn them that they’ll have to make a check; they could fail, thus wasting the potion.
1Resurrection Restrictions
To The Nine Hells And Back Again
A lot of Dungeon Masters put restrictions on resurrection rules, as many resurrection spells are simply too easy to use over and over again, especially at higher levels. One easy example of this to reference is the method by whichCritical Role runs resurrection.
However, you can also put any number of restrictions you choose on resurrection spells in your campaign. For example, you could restrict the number of times players can be resurrected before perma-death. Or, you can force players to have to sacrifice powers or abilities for the rest of the campaign should they be brought back from the dead.
