House Rules (Lost Lands)

This page exists to catalog specific house rules for the Lost Lands campaign, set in the world of Izaria, for future reference. For all other rules, we will be using the standard Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition ruleset found in the 2014 Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual (see here for a summary).

This page is the official determinant of house rules and is the ultimate authority when resolving disputes. Feel free to propose new rules to the DM during or outside of a session. Additional house rules, or changes to existing house rules, must first be agreed upon by the whole party and the DM before being enacted.

Leveling Up

Milestone leveling will be used for the Lost Lands campaign. This means that the players will not accumulate experience points (XP), but will level up at specific intervals determined by the DM. Between these intervals, players will periodically receive magic items, allies, and bonuses to reward their efforts.

Session Log Bonus

Every player who writes a recap of the previous game session and sends it to the DM gets an additional Inspiration point for their player character. Players can choose to write the recap as an objective retelling of events, or in-character as their player character.

Critical Hits

When a player rolls a critical hit (20) on an attack roll (1d20), they can choose to either:

1. Double the total amount of damage after all modifiers have been applied. This is still a standard attack, and doesn't do anything "extra" besides applying more damage.
   1. If the attack roll doesn't deal damage, then any bonuses are at the DM's discretion.
2. OR describe how you would like to attack your enemy in a cool and novel way. The DM will then roll for an additional negative effect, or prompt the player for an additional roll for this effect.
   1. For example, Roderick rolls a 20 on his attack roll against a velociraptor. He says he wants to use his warhammer to putt the small dinosaur like a golf ball. The DM then prompts Roderick to roll a Strength or Dexterity check (player's choice). If he rolls high enough, after sending the dinosaur into the air with a golf club, he hits a nearby assassin on the head with this dinosaur.

Permanent Injuries

When a character drops to 0 hit points but isn't killed outright, they must roll a d20 on the Lingering Injuries Table in the 2014 5e Dungeon Master's Guide to determine the nature of a permanent injury to their character.

Taking 10

If a player doesn't want to roll an ability check requested by the DM, and they are not under time constraints or highly stressed (such as during combat, a chase, etc.), they can elect to instead add 10 to their ability modifier. This does not guarantee a success, but can make the outcome more predictable if a player has a high skill.