Combat House Rules

Critical Hits

On a natural 20 in combat two things happen. You have the chance to slay your target or cascade damage:

• Slay: First, roll 1d20. If on this second roll you roll another natural 20 and if the target is not more than double your own hit points, it is slain outright. If the target is more than double your HP, it losses half its HP.
• Cascade: If you do not roll another natural 20, the first dice is max damage, and you roll the second dice for damage. Example: weapon does 1d8 damage, you would get 1d8 + 8 on the critical hit. When you roll the second dice for damage, if you roll the highest number for damage on that dice, you get to roll again as well. This continues until you don’t roll the highest number on your dice. Example: Rolling 1d8, you roll an 8 the first time, and a 4 the second, then stop. Your total damage would be 8 (Max) + 8 + 4 (Cascade) for 20 points of damage.
  

Nat 20 or Nat 1

The following rules apply to a d20 result of 20 or 1:

• 20: Inspired by your heroic actions, the next party player rolls at an advantage for their next dice roll.
• 1: Demoralized by your epic failure, the next party player rolls at a disadvantage for their next dice roll.

18 or 19 on a d20

If you Roll an 18 or 19 for attack (and hit):

• 19: +1d6 damage.
• 18: +1d4 damage.

Slots for initiative.

• “First through the door” or “Closest to the Monster” goes first, then nearest monster (depending on surprise state), then roll initiative for slots.
• Everyone rolls, DM for monsters. That gives an order for play, but any player can be in the slot. Allows the party to decide what order they go in. This order does not have to remain the same every round, and can change as players decide.
• Say the slots look like this:

1. Player
2. Player
3. Monster
4. Player
5. Monster
6. Player

• In the above, two PC’s go before a monster goes. I don’t care what order, you decide. You can only fill one slot per round.

Unnatural Critical Hits

Attacks that hit with 10 or more above the targets AC are critical hits. I will tell you when this is the case.

Spell-casting

I do it different, see the spell casting sheet. I like this method because it is more dynamic. It’s much more “rule of cool” to me than the current system.

Death Saves

DM rolls death saves. I won’t tell you how many succeed and how many fail. I will only let you know if you have stabilized or…unfortunately passed on.

Have a drink...or two.

Drinking a potion (health, spell, magical, whatever) is a bonus action (for you) a full action to feed it to someone else.