Adventures in Zin: House Rules
House Rules
- Bloodied -> Upon reaching 1/2 of your HP, you visually show signs of wear and tear. Certain effects can happen when you are bloodied. Like a breath weapon reset for a dragon. This shows the player the damage a creature is taking.
- Critical hits against you or against a named NPC cause levels of exhaustion (More gritty) (p. 291 of the PH for rules on Exhaustion). This rule replaces "lingering wounds". Exhaustion
- Sanity -> just know it exists, and if your sanity is challenged, you might have to make a check, and could enter into madness
- All healing potions heal for max based on their die.
- Rules on critical hits
- Rules on Fate Points
- Rules on Flanking
- Minionizing monsters. If there are a lot of monsters on the battlefield, like say, fighting 100 goblins, they will be represented, but might be MINIONIZED, having all the abilities of that monster, but only have 1 HP. Any saving throw is an autopass (no half dmg). This will help simplify. Also say if you kill the necromancer, any remaining zombie would be minionized to help speed along the story.
- When leveling up you can Take Half (Rounded down) on a d8 it would be 4, but have the option to always roll higher, if you roll lower you can still take half
(Fate points auto roll to max score) Click here to read more
- Just because you are able to roll, does NOT mean success can happen automatically, even on a natural 20. A roll can only be made if it is POSSIBLE to achieve. Something deemed impossible, like swimming up a waterfall, even when a natural 20 is rolled, would be still considered impossible. Meaning, just because a natural 20 is rolled, does not mean 100% success of an action (or even, with two or three natural 20s).
- No called shots to increase damage, unless it really makes sense. You cannot say you are always swinging for the creatures head. This is assumed. Combat is complex, creatures in combat are almost always trying to kill you in the most effective way possible to survive.
- Alignment exists, but can be set by the DM at any time based on the player character's decisions.
- The feat Grappling has been modified and improved
- The feat Dungeon Delver has been REMOVED
- Magic is dangerous to those to push its limits within the void. House rules on Overcasting.
- Inscribing spells into a spellbook have been changed. Click here for the house rule on Inscription.
- PCs are allowed 1 short rests every 24 hour period. (Long rests are once every 24 hours.)
- For roleplay moments the DM may award Inspiration Points
- How rules on basic lock-picking and disarming traps : HERE
- Combat time limits for Player Characters round. A round in D&D is 6 seconds. At the DMs discretion, he can implement a 1 minute time cube countdown at the start of the players round. Any action not completed in 2 minutes is considered LOST, and a player by default uses the DODGE action, and then combat initiative count CONTINUES. The key is to know what your character is going to do while other players are doing their turn, and to know your character sheet and abilities inside and out BEFORE your turn comes up in the initiative count.
- All ability checks are rolled by the DM in D&D Beyond using the characters character sheet. The player does not see the roll, and therefore does not know if the PC rolled good or bad, only the outcome is known. The player can still do passive rolls on perception, investigation, and insight within reason (like taking 10). The DM can also make the character roll this if it is not under a time crunch, say over 1 action or 1 round.
- Taking 20 has been removed (for passive rolls)
- Wizards can have spells tattooed onto their bodies, using special bending ink. This ink and the process of finding a skilled tattooer, who is also a bender themselves, costs x3 the normal inscription cost, and time over spell book inscription. Sometimes powerful wizards do this to show you who they are. The more tattoos they have, the more powerful the wizard typically. Wizards therefore have this as an option instead of inscribing their spells into their spell books which can be stolen. However, they usually need a way to see themselves in a mirror, or two, if say, the the bending inscription is on their back. This is quite common in Zin, because "branding" is so common.
- Any rules lawyer check is at the discretion of the DM. The DM may implement a 2 min time cube. The player has only 2 mins to object to any decision, spell, or roll which might contradict the holy scriptures of the Player's Handbook, DMG, or MM. If the player is found in the wrong during the objection, the player loses his or her next initiative count in combat. Therefore all rules that appear to be "fudged" or "cheesed" simply should be written down by the player and brought up in discord at a later date, or not at all if not considered material to the overall story our outcome. As Darth Vader would say, "I Am Altering the Deal, Pray I Don’t Alter It Any Further."
- Instead of Bards being able to "reset" their spells every level, which doesn't make a lot of sense imo. Bards will be able to carry spellbooks, or have tattoos similar to wizards. They will ONLY be allowed to use spells from the Bard spell list, because their training only allows them to go this far in bending by default. This means that bards can do long rests and reset their spells as long as it is in their spellbook, or have it tattooed.
- Necrotic damage is evil and vile, and its powers mostly drawn from the Shadowfell. It comes from the "reflective" world of the living, the ethereal plane. Often a place where souls are lost on their way to Limbo, or who are able to reject or not given travel by Edysus, God of Travel. We are going to playtest with this concept: All Necrotic damage HEALS undead, tying their body and spirit closer to the Shadowfell. All healing (like healing touch) DAMAGES undead creatures. (In Divinity Original Sin, poison damage actually healed undead, while curing wounds actually hurt them.)
- Massive Damage!! When taking over 50% of damage to your total HP you MUST make a CON saving throw DC 15. Upon failure you take ONE stack of exhaustion. This check cannot be made if a critical hit is scored, which already gives the player or creature a stack of exhaustion.
- The Spell, Healing Spirit, draws on Shirion, God of War, and therefore can only be used IN COMBAT.
- Insight and Deception rolls cannot be used on players, unless they allow it :) (For role play purposes)
- STR, DEX, CON checks can typically be rerolled. While INT, WIS, CHA checks cannot.
- The HELP ACTION can only be used if the helping PC or NPC has proficiency in that ability. This applies to the passive check roll. Half proficiency from a Bard DOES count.
- Countercharm has been changed: It is an action, when used, it breaks all charm and frightened status effects within 30 ft. That's it!
- All death saving throws are now rolled in secret by the DM. The DM keeps track of the death saves, and DOES NOT fudge rolls.
- Characters who have no healing can try to revive a player character at 0 HP. They roll a DC 10 medicine check. This roll is made by the DM in secret. The roll either ADDs (skilled physician) or SUBTRACTS (a person with no medical training) from the death saving throws.
- New action: Sprint. A character may sprint up to 5 times his/her movement. This provoke attacks of opportunity if in the zone of attack of hostile creatures. This can be done up to the CON modifier within 5 min period. This action sacrifices ALL actions, and be the only action done during the creatures turn.
- When players level up, all spell slots are refreshed, however, hit points are NOT.
Entry for WorldEmber 2020
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