Homebrew Rules

These homebrew rules and ideas have been blatantly stolen from other DMs. This is the way.  

Campfire Stories

  At some point, when the characters are on the road camped up for the night, or downing ales in a tavern, get them each to draw a card from a tarot deck.   The name and style of the card dictates the nature of the story to be told, for example a a story of love, a story of pain, a story of loss, a story of gain.   Then, one by one, each player tells a story. It can be something planned or something improvised. It can be short, it can be long, sad or happy. It can be something the character experienced themselves or a story they heard.   The best story, or the character who surprises everyone the most with their sharing earns some DM inspiration.

(Magical) Healing

I (as a DM) do not enjoy having fights constantly to "fill the time". My campaigns often feature roleplay or creative solutions to circumvent fights.
If a fight happens, it should feel meaningful and dangerous. Therefor I employ the following tweaks or adjustments to magical healing:   Not all wounds can immediately and completely be healed by (simple) magic. Some require traditional medical care, sometimes over longer periods of time.   Examples:

• Healing a broken arm without resetting it first will heal the bone "wrong".
• Healing a massive wound could trap internal bleeding and only heal the outside tissue.
• Healing a character that was near death will not make them feel "right as rain" again.
  They might gain a level of exhaustion or something similar, according to the DM's discretion.
• Lost bodyparts such as limbs can not be instantly healed / regrown using simple spells. Healing such grave wounds would require high level magic (spells or items).
  Acquiring magical prosthesis is a cheaper alternative.

Major Injuries

  If a player character of level 3 or above takes more than half of their hitpoints worth in one strike of damage, they must make a Constitution saving throw of DC 15 or suffer a potentially mortal wound.  A failed save uses its total result to determine the wound sustained.     All wounds sustained in this manner require extended recovery through non-magical means and are likely to leave permanent markers or scars.

Death Saves

Characters who are reduced to 0 hit points often have nothing to do while waiting for death saving throw rolls or their allies to help them (or the enemies to finish them off). This can lead to some weird disharmony regarding the tension of the scene but the player being both bored and worried. These adjustments to the death saving throw roles should help:

1. A player character reaches 0 hit points. At the beginning of each turn they must make a death saving throw and any damage dealt to them forces another save. 
   They are still conscious and can fight as normal (for now) but every turn could be their last.
2. A player character has failed one death saving throw. They no longer add their Dexterity bonus to their AC or Dexterity saving throws. 
   The character has been gravely wounded. They can still try to fight back but the wounds hinder them.
3. A player character has failed two death saving throws. They immediately fall prone. They can only make one attack on their turn. 
   The character falls to the ground. Their end is near.
4. A player character has failed three death saving throws. They immediately fall prone and are stunned. After one minute, the character dies. 
   The character can use this time to make a dramatic death speech. No healing (magical or otherwise) can save them from death (for example they lost too much blood).

Resurrection

Resurrecting someone in the world of Ecari is not that simple. After a certain amount of time the soul of the lost is called back to Legias. Trying to get that soul back into its owners body is difficult, especially if the process occurs repeatedly.   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 3, whereas each failed contribution skill check increases the DC by 1.   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.

Inventory Weight

  I hate the way you should actually track inventory weight. I found this idea and think it is much simpler and more interesting.   The amount of weight you can carry is based on a simple points system:

• You have X amounts of points available, where X is your Strength attribute (not modifier).
• Every item costs N points to carry, where N is based on the approximate weight of the object (simplified into categories).
• After using all X points you become encumbered (Speed drops by 5ft).
• You can max carry 1.5 times X. If you exceed this amount you can no longer move at all.

Object weights are categorised as follows:

• Worn equipment = 0 points
• 1000 coins = 1 point
• Light items = 1 point (< 3kg)
• Medium items = 2 points (3kg < 10kg)
• Heavy items = 5 points ( 10kg < 40kg)

The ranges are designed to be "eyeballable", that is, you should be able categorise something without having to look it up.    Tiny items (ball bearings and the like) can be grouped into the denominations they're normally purchased in and categorized under "light".