#houserules

[5.5, 5.75, 5.24, OneD&D, 2024 D&D, ugh, I don't care]

Rogue

In the base class, honestly everything's GREAT except stealth rules and damage output. So all I got to add is:

See Invisibility, Trueslight and similar don't let you see creatures that used the hide action successfully

Pending a more comprehensive stealth fix, because dear god these rules suck, and also I won't be sure how they even work until the DMG comes out.

Sneak Attack 1/turn/target

Extra Attack at lvl 5

My old 5e houserule. This may seem too much (with the Nick Weapon Mastery you can have 3 melee attacks/attack action at lvl 5) but remember that it's a much bigger hassle to set up sneak attack for multiple targets (stealth and Steady Aim will only cover one attack), Cunning Strike sacrifices sneak attack dice lowering dmg, and often you'll simply run out of targets. So you won't actually be dealing 3 x sneak attack dmg every round. Also remember that other martials got boosted even more and deal quite a lot of dmg. Needs playtesting, but I'm confident it's gonna be fine, and if it's not, I'll just roll back the extra attack.

Cunning Strike includes Disarm, like in the playtest

Come to think of it, shouldn't that be a Weapon Mastery? Do you think books down the line will introduce alternate weapon masteries, like, rapiers normally get Vex, but alternatively you can pick Disarm or whatever? Cause we can beat them to the punch and homebrew that right now!

Arcane Trickster

you can cast Mage Hand without verbal components

you can cast without verbal components [Proficiency Bonus] times / long rest

Self-explanatory. Sorcerers are the masters of metamagic, but conceptually this subclass needs Subtle Spell.

Mage Hand can be used to pick locks and disarm traps

No idea why they removed this ability, and limited Mage Hand to Sleight of Hand, but that's just silly and we're bringing it back.

you can use scrolls of the spells you know

Just clarifying a little thing here – an unfortunate wording appears to prevent Arcane Tricksters and Eldritch Knights from doing that by RAW, because they choose "Wizard" spells, and you can only use scrolls of your "class's spell list".

Assassin

the extra damage from Surprising Strikes is now twice your Rogue level, and applies only on the first sneak attack that hits in the first round

Assassinate, famously, used to let you crit surprised targets. Surprise rules changed, and now we get instead advantage on initiative (new and cool), advantage vs creatures that haven't acted yet on the first round of combat (as before), and Surprising Strikes: if you sneak attack on the first round, add +rogue lvl to damage. (so like, +3 at lvl 3 and +20 at lvl 20). Although much more reliable, this flat bonus is really underwhelming, and doubling it gets it on par with a crit. I feel that's appropriate. What's the point of being an Assassin if you don't wreck someone once per combat? It's your job!

As for the crit, I will miss it because it was HEAPS of fun, but I'll admit that for multiclass martials the "Assassin 3" dip was simply too good, and anything that's too good is bad design.

And I added the "only on the first sneak attack" clause due to my 1st houserule: now rogues can potentially sneak attack more times per round, and we only want to go nova once.

Soulknife

Psychic Blades can now be used outside your turn

Opportunity Attacks are finally feasible with psychic blades in 5.5, but for example a Commander's Strike from your Fighter buddy gives you an attack as a reaction, not called an Opportunity Attack, so it wouldn't apply. And it's a pointless restriction.

Thief

is perfect 10/10 no notes

Main sources:

2024 DnD 5e Transition Guide and Change Log: Everything That's Different in the new Player's Handbook (RPG Bot)

2024 PHB Rules Changes D&D 5.24 (Treantmonk's Temple video)

2024 Player's Handbook First Look Review (Dungeon Dudes video)

Introdução

Santos e anjos são figuras geralmente descritas em antigos textos ou ilustradas em templos ou em histórias locais. Na aventura de RPG eles servem como recursos narrativos, oportunidades para exposição e NPCs.

Por exemplo, um texto antigo pode descrever um santo e algum artefato que ele teria guardado, apontando os jogadores a um item lendário, que pertenceu a uma figura histórica. Ou um anjo pode ser avistado pelos jogadores e trazer um alerta.

  Irathorunaax, o santo dragão

Um dragão de bronze que havia se apaixonado por uma princesa de um pequeno reino. Esse reino foi acometido por uma doença e seus curandeiros começaram a buscar uma cura. Foi descoberta uma cura do outro lado de um revoltoso rio nas proximidades do reino, mas tão logo foi feita essa descoberta a princesa morreu da doença. Irathorunaax chorou uma noite inteira sua perda, e de suas lágrimas formou-se uma ponte para o outro lado do rio, o que salvou o resto da população do reino, mas Irathorunaax partiu e nunca mais foi visto.

  Jasce Hewards, o confeiteiro

O vilarejo de Whitewall era o próximo na rota da campanha conquistadora de Yulf, o Bruto. Quando as tropas apontaram no alto da colina, prontos para descer e atacar, Jasce Hewards sozinho foi até o meio do campo e montou uma mesa de café da manhã e convidou Yulf e seus generais a compartilhar com ele de seus sonhos confeitados naquela refeição. O vilarejo não foi atacado e Yulf nunca mais voltou a guerrear.

  Palatriel, anja protetora

Palatriel é descrita como uma anja alta e careca, de porte atlético, vestindo um manto dourado e carregando um tridente também dourado. Em várias escrituras antigas ela aparece para mortais e alertando-os sobre algum desastre inevitável do qual devem escapar. Não se sabe ao certo se esses alertas são para salvar alguma figura específica ou simplesmente pela necessidade angelical de fazer o bem.

  Jaardiel, anjo mensageiro

The fluff for Shadowrun frequently mentions "wage mages" (mildly derogatory), but I didn't find any crunch on what it costs to buy the services of such NPCs. So I decided to improvise some houserules which I might use in a later game for PCs who want access to magical buffs without needing to have a mage in the party.

A wagemage is generally willing to sustain the spell for 12 hours after casting. Assume the runners have paid a mage who works the appropriate shift - if they're having spells cast on them before going on a night run, they know not to hire a mage who will go to sleep during the run. No refunds will be provided if the runner is foolish enough to walk through a mana barrier or otherwise lose the spell while on a shadowrun.

Inspired by the classics, the base price for getting a sustained buff cast on you is (Hits * 100 nuyen) + (Hits^2 * 20 nuyen). The first part represents the mage's time and capex, while the second part represents the mage's opex. See Table 1-1 for common values.

Not all spells are equal. Many health spells are respectable and publicly advertised, whereas a mage sustaining an invisibility spell on a client risks getting interrogated if Lone Star notices. Apply the relevant multipliers in Table 1-2 to the base price.

Table 1-1: Base spell costs by hits

1 Hit: 120 nuyen 2 Hits: 280 3 Hits: 480 4 Hits: 720 5 Hits: 1000 6 Hits: 1320 7 Hits: 1680 8 Hits: 2080 9 Hits: 2520 10 Hits: 3000

Table 1-2: Spell cost modifiers

Antidote, Cure Disease, Detox, Oxygenate, Prophylaxis, Resist Pain: x0.3 Increase [Attribute], Increase Reflexes: x1.5 Other Health spells: x0.5 Illusion spells: x1.5 Active Detection spells: x1.2 Mage is using Long Haul and will sustain spell for two days: x2

Long rambling comments below the cut.

Honestly? No.

They basically house-ruled that that spell doesn’t have a material component in their game in campaign 1, and it makes sense to me that they (Matt included) therefore keep forgetting it does in campaign 2. Matt doesn’t seem that interested in enforcing that particular rule - the one time he did seemed more a reaction to The Internet reminding him, and they don’t have that anymore, what with the pre-tapping. 

If it doesn’t exceed human-normal capacity (or the capacity of the character before they got augmented, if they’re like a peak athlete or whatever), then it doesn’t affect you.

Instead, you lose “empathy” when you exceed human-achievable abilities. If your robot arm works just like your regular arm, you don’t lose perspective. If your robot arm can shoot lasers or turn into a sword or whatever, you eventually become used to this, a bit jaded, and you relate a little less to regular people who DON’T have these techno-powers.

If you have bulletproof armor in your skin, you’re gonna get kind of blasé about being shot at… and that’s gonna make it harder to empathize with squishy non-augmented people, because it’s just not on your radar anymore. You don’t have to worry about it, it becomes your new normal, you forget other people have to worry about it… and you “empathize” with them a little less