Generalized Game Notes
Homebrew Rules
I like these rules, and look to use them in the campaign. (The Silver Monetary Standard I will quietly slip in to places.)
Monster Lore
For PCs to know more about a creature, they must make a skill check of the type specified in the below table:
| Monster Type | Skill Check |
|---|---|
| Beasts | Wisdom (Survival) |
| Celestials, Elementals, Fiends, Undead | Intelligence (Religion) |
| Fey, Oozes, Plants | Intelligence (Nature) |
| Aberrations, Constructs, Dragons, Giants, Monstrosities | Intelligence (Arcana) |
| Humanoids | Intelligence (History) |
... and the resulting roll reveals the following:
| DC + CR | Knowledge |
|---|---|
| CR + 5 | attacks, Hit Dice, speed, Armor Class |
| CR + 10 | abilities, bonus attacks, reactions, class (if any) |
| CR + 15 | traits, damage resistances, class levels (if any) |
| CR + 20 | damage immunities, damage vulnerabilities, condition immunities |
| CR + 25 | complete lore (you get the link to the creature page) |
Alternatively, a player making a skill check can ask one specific, targeted (as in, can be answered definitively "yes/no" or with a numeric value or one/two-word answer) question for each "5" of the die roll, such as:
- "What is (the creature)'s strongest attack?"
- "Can (the creature) make ranged attacks?"
- "Can (the creature) be hit by ordinary non-silvered weapons?"
If you are a player, please don't consult the reference page during the game! Browse all you want in between sessions, but let's keep it a little mysterious during the game, yeah?
Magic Item Attunement
You can attune three magic items, or a number equal to your proficiency bonus, whichever is greater.
Decisiveness Bonus (DB)
A player's character receives a +1 bonus to any die roll during the round if they can announce their action within 3 seconds of the start of their turn.
Bonus Action Slots
Each character has three "slots" in which they can store items that can be reached as a bonus action. Potions kept here can be quaffed as a bonus action; scrolls kept here can be pulled out and used immediately as an action (casting time pending), and so on. Includes weapons.
The Silver Monetary Standard
Roughly, one silver is what a day's room and board in a low-quality inn goes for.
100cp = 1sp 100sp = 1gp
Any non-magical gear in the PHB is converted from gp to sp.
Burrow
movement option
A creature that has a burrowing speed can use that speed to move through sand, earth, mud, or ice. Most forms of burrowing (such as the burrow spell) don't allow you to burrow through solid rock.
A creature's reach with melee attacks is not considered to extend into the floor, walls, ceiling, or other obstacles. Thus a creature who burrows into the ground will trigger opportunity attacks before it gains total cover from the ground.
Tremorsense
sense
A creature with tremorsense can detect and pinpoint the origin of vibrations within a specific radius, provided that the creature and the source of the vibrations are in contact with the same ground or substance. Tremorsense can't be used to detect flying or incorporeal creatures.
Game Source Material
Sourcebooks used, all D&D 5th Edition unless noted otherwise:
- Player's Handbook
- Dungeon Master's Guide
- Acquisitions Incorporated (though not much, to be honest)
- Eberron--Rising from the Last War (in particular, dragonmarks)
- Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes
- Xanathar's Guide to Everything
- Volo's Guide to Monsters
- Tasha's Cauldron of Everything
- Blackstaff's Tome of Wizardry (from DMs Guild)
- Elminster's Guide to Magic (from DMs Guild)
- The Book of Dragons (by Conner McCall)
- Disturbed Graves (from DMs Guild)
- Grimlore's Grimoire (from DMs Guild)
- Scarred Lands (from DMs Guild)
- The Elemental Spellbook (from DMs Guild)
- Altered Beasts: Gnolls, Vol I (Brian Berg)
- Arcane Legacy (Jacob S Kellogg)
- Divine Agent (Scott Sampson)
- Shaman (class) (Michael Wolf)
- And a great many of the Unearthed Arcana supplements (where not replaced by released sourcebooks)
All copyrights are held by their respective owners; anyone not a part of my play group should feel obligated to obtain the original materials for any purpose beyond that of playing in my group.
Note that much of this material is moving over into specific entries, so I can better control the customization and application of the material to the world. Not all material from each book is relevant to this world, so I am incorporating and weaving it in as time (and game demand) permits, so as to present a more seamless whole. In time, the goal will be that aside from the basic rules, one would need nothing else but this repository to play within this world. (GM'ing it would be another matter entirely.)