Lords of Coromor: House Rules
Rule 1: Can't Rest When You're Starving
Every long rest requires eating a ration or an equivalent, instead of the current rule of one ration a day. A gallon of water must be consumed per day or they will suffer a level of exhaustion. A creature (i.e a construct) that has no dietary requirements can overrule this at DM's discretion.
Rule 2: You First
On the first round of combat, players are allowed to lower their initiative to one point lower than that of an ally, provided their initiative is lower than the player's current initiative.
Rule 3: You're Wide Open!
A critical miss with a melee weapon in combat will leave the unit open, an enemy can immediately use their reaction (only if their reaction hasn't been used that round) to make an attack against the unit if they are within range of any melee weapon they possess, should they choose to.
Rule 4: Drinking Should be Effortless
Drinking a consumable such as a healing potion counts as a bonus action, feeding it to someone else is an action.
Rule 5: Pressuring
You have advantage for any attack rolls on pressured creatures.
Tiny, Small & medium creatures are pressured when engaged by 2+ creatures within 5 ft.
Large & huge creatures are pressured when engaged by 3+ creatures within 5 ft.
Garguantuan creatures are pressured when engaged by 5+ creatures within 5 ft.
Engagement angles can bypass certain restrictions at DM's discretion.
Rule 6: Burst of Speed
At the end of your combat turn, you may announce that you want to rush your next turn. If you do so, raise your Initiative for the duration of the combat by 2 + Dexterity modifier.
On the turn after rushing you experience the following effects for the remainder of combat:
- Your attacks are always at disadvantage.
- Movement speed is halved.
- Bonus actions and class abilities cannot be used.
Rule 7: Ass Pulling
A player can spend a point of inspiration to remember that their character purchased a specific mundane item in the past. Current gold will be deducted and the item will be added to their inventory.
A mundane item does not have magical properties.
Rule 8: Putting your Back into It!
A player character can turn a hit into a critical hit by suffering two Exhaustion levels.
Rule 9: Only if you know what you're doing
When you choose to help others others using the Help action to aid another character in a task, you must have proficiency in that skill.
Rule 10: Non-lethal, But.
Non-lethal damage must be announced before damage is rolled, not after. You may announce that all damage dealt to a specific creature is non-lethal and change your mind at any time. You may choose non-lethal damage only if you can concentrate while dealing damage.
Some weapons, for example a spiked weapon, may be unable to deal non-lethal damage, in this case they will deal 1 + any modifier in damage if you decide to go ahead with it provided you can concentrate.
Critical hits cannot be announced as non-lethal damage and may lead to accidental kills.
Rule 11: Meaningful Critical Hits
Variant rule for critical hits will be used: Double Damage
This applies to enemies as well.
Rule 12: Revised Resting System
A revised resting system is being used for this campaign and the following options are available:
- Short Rest
- Long Rest
- Full Rest
More information is available here: Revised Resting Rules
Rule 13: Death's Door
If an enemy attack or a deadly trap deals a finishing blow that takes your last hit points, you may still rely on your fortitude to avoid immediately losing consciousness.
When a weapon attack, ability, spell or trap that deals damage drops your hit points to 0, you may choose to attempt a CON saving throw at DC equal to the total amount of damage dealt to you.
If you succeed, instead of dropping unconscious you gain the On Death's Door condition.
While On Death's Door, you are still standing and may take actions as normal. However, you gain 3 levels of Exhaustion and you are dying. All rules related to dying apply.
The levels of exhaustion do not apply until after combat due to the effects of adrenaline. If anyone attempts to recognize that you are dying while you are not prone or unconscious, they must roll a DC 10 WIS check. If they fail, they cannot spot the difference meaning that they cannot stabilize you until they have succeeded that check.
Rule 14: Examination
As adventurers, you have learned to scan a target creature in an attempt to spot weaknesses and distinct characteristics by inferring on previous knowledge and your intuition. This is useful if you find yourself fighting a certain enemy very often.
An additional action can be performed during or outside of combat, called Analyze and Scrutinize.
Analyze
As an action, you attempt to analyze a target creature by attempting an Investigation check and upon succeeding, the creature's type and race will be revealed. You are proficient in Analyzing if you are proficient in Investigation. You can choose to use your Wisdom modifier instead when analyzing a creature. Additionally, the creature's name and index number is revealed.
Creatures have a specific flat DC to identify their species name, type and race. The player can then attempt to Scrutinize which is a separate check to obtain further details. A target can only be analyzed and/or scrutinized once in every 24 hour period.
Scrutinize
As an action, you attempt to deeply analyze the creature seeking to identify its immediate strengths and weaknesses. You can scrutinize immediately after analyzing as a free action. The specific check is tied to the creature type in question.
Below are the specific checks associated with each creature type:
| Type | Skill Check |
|---|---|
| Aberrations | Arcana |
| Beasts | Nature |
| Celestials | Religion |
| Constructs | Arcana |
| Dragons | Arcana or Nature |
| Elementals | Arcana |
| Undead | Arcana or Religion |
| Fey | Arcana or Nature |
| Fiends | Religion |
| Giants | Nature or Medicine |
| Humanoids | Medicine |
| Monstrosities | Nature |
| Oozes | Arcana |
| Plant | Nature |
Creatures have several thresholds that will be revealed depending on how well you roll:
Thresholds
First Threshold:
You identify the creature's, conventional name (if any), type, size, typical temperament and behavior.
Second Threshold:
The AC and HP range (i.e. AC is between 10 and 15, HP is between 20 and 35) plus a bit more info about the creature itself (specifically their tactics)
Third Threshold:
Immunities, resistances, vulnerabilities, checks and saving throws.
Final Threshold:
Exact AC, speed, ability scores, abilities and any extra information including lore that may or may not confer an edge in combat.
Rangers can analyze & scrutinize as a bonus action instead. They can choose to use an action to roll with advantage.
A player can immediately choose to scrutinize instead if they are sure of what type of creature they are dealing with, for example they can declare to roll an Arcana check while scrutinizing under the assumption that they are fighting an aberration, however, if they were wrong the check will go to waste, so it is still better to analyze when unsure.
A player can analyze or scrutinize a dead creature provided they can physically interact with the body; as cautionary advice certain creatures especially elementals can disappear upon death!
Change Log
v1.0
- Lords of Coromor House Rules released
v1.1
- Typos fixed overall
- Changed Flanking to Pressuring
- Rule 2, 5, and 7 clarified
- Rule 7 extended
v1.2
- Added Rule 14, Examination
v1.3
- Edited Rule 1 for clarity.
- Added Arcana to Undead under Rule 14: Examination
v1.31
- Reworded some parts of Rule 14 for clarity: Name of creature is revealed on first threshold of Scrutinize and/or upon successfully Analyzing.
- Unlocking T2 for Scrutinize reveals tactics under Bestiary
v1.32
- Removed short rest from Rule 1.