House Rules

An archer, low on arrows, walks into a town or city. They don't say they buy arrows....they go back out into the forest and are out of arrows.  Really?! I don't believe a professional ranger or what-have-you is going to walk into a town and pass up the chance to buy/replenish supplies.

Out in the field, you have a finite number of whatever you bought, but as long as you state it on the sheet, I believe you. 7 days of food rations, good, you can last 7 days before we worry.

I allow flanking.  

So how do you flank? Have you and an enemy square off.  Set yourself on the left and the enemy on the right. Now draw the line up-and-down between you two.  You | Enemy.

If an ally is on the other side of the line from you, and you are within threatening distance, typically 5 feet, the target is considered flanked.

You | Enemy | Ally 

What does this mean?  This means advantage for the enemy's attackers. 

So take advantage of party and enemy positioning!

You can use this as a Bonus action for that heroic feel.

"As an action, a character can use a healing surge and spend up to half his or her Hit Dice. For each hit die spent in this way, the player rolls the die and adds the character 's Constitution modifier. The character regains hit points equal to the total. The player can decide to spend an additional Hit Die after each roll."

Each level you get 5 Hero Points plus 1/2 your level, rounded down of course. At level 1 you get 5, at level 2 you get 6, etc. 

The only thing extra I do is take 1  at each new level. In trade, you get a max health die "roll" on your health dice. 1d8 health becomes 8 health as an example. Except for first level, that's automatically a max roll.

Do note:

• These reset/refill each level.
• They do not multiply, build up, add, etc. 
• Cannot use for a friend or enemy roll.
• Does not clear a 1, does not create a 20.
• Adds the max value of the dice for the roll to the existing roll for this one specific roll
• If used in multiples, i.e. 4d6, you get to add ONE max die roll. 

How to use a Hero Point:

Scenario, hitting a target: You roll a 3, plus your 2 to hit, for a 5. This misses the enemy completely. Your friend is about to get walloped good. You can choose to spend a hero point here. That changes your situation: 3 + 2 to hit +20 (Hero Point dice value) for a total of 25 to hit. You can end up winning the fight and saving your friend by using that Hero Point there.

Scenario, damage dice: You have hit your target, you rolled your damage, say a fireball, and did 22 points of damage from 5d6 worth of dice. The enemy is stumbling about, but not quite dead. Go ahead and spend a Hero Point and add another die roll for a max value. So your 22 becomes 28 (22 + 6).

Spell schools have flavors. Some descriptions for casters and those using things like Detect Magic might include an, "It leaves a heavy, dirt-like taste on the tongue" to describe the type of magic you encountered.

Also, I've done away with Comprehend Languages. It's just too convenient and takes away finding a scholar or specialist. I don't find the idea of being able to understand anything you read or hear as intriguing as hunting down the last known speaker of the language or trying to locate the crazy professor who has studied the ancient texts for years.

You players are the heroes. You ever notice when you read books that your hero/heroine has a super nifty ability? Think of using your Hero Points (see above) to do something well beyond the normal capabilities of a person.

To help add some magical empowerment, but without needing to rob a dragon, I say that you are a being so awesome that in your adventures your awesomeness has the ability to transfer to a weapon or armor you possess. This means that at 3rd level, 6th, 9th, and so on, one item in your possession over that time gets a +1 added to it, to a maximum of +2. Now that sword you've been killing with at 3rd level can now be a +1 sword. Sorry, items you just bought or obtained need at least 3 levels of "learning" with you to be able to take advantage of this ability.