House Rules and Rule Clarifications

[dmw71]

House Rules and Rule Clarifications
The below list is the current set of house rules, or rule interpretations. It should be considered a work in progress, and is subject to revision:

• Die Rolls
• Initiative (Revision 1: Tuesday, February 19, 2019)
• Switching Weapons
  ---
• Actions: Attack and Cast a Spell (Added: Tuesday, February 19, 2019)
• Mounted Combat (Added: Wednesday, February 27, 2019)

[dmw71]

Die Rolls

• Die Roller Campaign ID: 726;
• Only rolls made in the Unseen Servant die roller will be accepted;
• I do not carry over or "bank" rolls, so any roll made but not used will not carry over to a future round;
• The DM will supply any needed roll not provided by the player.
  • Try to anticipate when a roll might be called for, and provide it.
  • If you're unsure what type of roll to make (e.g. perception or investigation), feel free to make both and the DM will apply whichever one is appropriate.

[dmw71]

Initiative

• Official Rule: Initiative

"If a tie occurs, the DM decides the order among tied DM-controlled creatures, and the players decide the order among their tied characters. The DM can decide the order if the tie is between a monster and a player character. Optionally, the DM can have the tied characters and monsters each roll a d20 to determine the order, highest roll going first."

Unless it's against a major opponent (as determined by the DM), the PCs will be assumed to win all ties.

• (Note: The optional roll-off may be called for break any ties against any aforementioned major opponent.)

---

Update: (Revised: Tuesday, February 19, 2019)
I've been thinking of implementing a bit of a twist for a while now, and think I might implement it now, before things really get going.

Here's where I got the idea: Running Villains.

• There won't be any changes to weaker opponents (e.g. kobolds, goblins; maybe loosely defined as anything CR 1/2 (or 1) or under?), or PCs. Both groups will continue to follow the normal initiative procedure.
• The change I am implementing surrounds "significant" monsters (e.g. the "big boss," or even a lesser leader presiding over a group of weakling minions). The only difference is, these "major" opponents will randomly determine their initiative at the beginning of each of their turns.
  
  • Instead of rolling once and being fixed in the same initiative slot at the start of an encounter, "significant" opponents will re-roll and re-slot at the beginning of each of their turns. I think this can introduce a bit of surprise or tension, and unpredictability... which is good.

If this experimentation is a failure, or causing too many problems, I will certainly be willing to revoke it and go back to normal, but it is something I've been meaning to add for a while now and want to see how it works.

[dmw71]

Switching Weapons
If you're performing a simple weapon switch, it will be considered a free action. Anything more complicated may require the Use an Object action, as determined by the DM.

[dmw71]

Actions: Attack and Cast a Spell

Since I'm still pretty new with 5th ed, I wanted to make sure I was clear on what I can and can't do during a round.

Making an attack - If I have both swords drawn, I make an attack per sword

Casting a spell - I can cast a spell with one hand and attack with the other

The casting thing I'm not sure about and I may need to list my spells and casting times to make sure it's OK to do both, if it's allowed in the first place

Hey, no worries. This is a perfect question to ask.

Let me walk you through it.

There will be things (e.g. feats, features, etc...) that you can use to add to or supplement these, but at a basic level, here is what you can accomplish on your turn, as defined in the 'Your Turn' rules:

• "On your turn, you can move a distance up to your speed and take one action. You decide whether to move first or take your action first."

Movement
This should be pretty straight-forward. On your turn, you can move up to your movement speed -- which, for Tannaris, is 30-feet. The one "thing" worth noting about your movement is that your total movement distance can be broken up within your turn, see: Breaking Up Your Move. Essentially, this just means that you can move 10-feet, attack, then still be able to use your remaining 20-feet of movement if you'd like.

Action
Here is the link of actions you can take on your turn: Actions in Combat. I won't go through them all (but definitely feel free to ask if you have any questions, or are even unsure about something -- I'll gladly help), but let's focus in on two of them: Attack and Cast a Spell.

• An Attack, using a weapon, is an action.
• If you Cast a Spell, it is also (normally) an action.

So, under normal circumstances, since you're only allowed one action per turn, you will be able to do only one, but not both, of the above.

Now, let's introduce a few twists into the status quo:

• All spells will have a Casting Time. This casting time can sometimes be a Bonus Action (e.g. Expeditious Retreat), a Reaction (e.g. Feather Fall), or longer (e.g. Find Familiar; which Tannaris has).
  (I'll ignore Rituals for now).
  A spell with a casting time of bonus action or reaction can be cast alongside an attack or spell that you used with your normal action (the only exception I can think of being, you're only allowed one bonus action per turn, so you can't cast a spell that has a bonus action casting time if you've already used your bonus action to do something else that turn).
• Tannaris is a level 1 Fighter. At 2nd level, a Fighter gets a feature called Action Surge.
  • "On your turn, you can take one additional action."
  This feature can only be used once before needing to rest (short or long), but it's awesome! (hint, hint)
  
  When you use your action surge, you get a second full action.
  
  So, on your turn, you get:
  • Your normal move
  • Your normal action
  • A second full action
  
  
  Remember, from the Actions in Combat section, how you can use your action to Attack or Cast a Spell (or a host of other things)?
  
  Well, you get two of those.
  As confirmed repeatedly:

  • Can an Action Surge be used to cast an additional spell?
  • Can the action surge be used to cast another spell during the same turn one has already been cast?
  • Can the PC use the action surge to cast another spell?
  • If I cast Fireball spell can I use an Action Surge to cast another Fireball spell?
  • Etc...

  
  
  However, you do need to be mindful of the casting times. You can't use an action to cast a spell that has a casting time of bonus action, or reaction.
  • So, yes, you can cast two spells that have an casting time of 1 action (e.g. Charm Person and Magic Missile; or Magic Missile twice) with an Action Surge;
  • Yes, you can use one action to make a melee Attack and use your second action to Cast a Spell with Action Surge.

Hope this helps, but definitely let me know if you have any other questions. I find it helpful to have to dive into the rules since the rules only get reinforced that way... and I'm still learning myself.


P.S. This is a really good question, so I may actually move this out to the 'OOC' topics in both groups for the benefit of all new or unsure players.

It'll also give others more familiar with 5e a chance to spot check my answers.

---

OK, making sure I've got this.
Until I get a second level of fighter and action surge, I'm limited to one action per round which would be an attack OR cast a spell.
And an attack is both weapons since I dual wield ?

Correct.

I realize I kind of forgot the attacking with two weapons part in my response, but I think we've talked about that before?

Actually, this is kind of an important point (so I will revise the answer I posted in general forums to include it). In addition to the type of weapon restriction (e.g. Light property), Two-Weapon Fighting also requires both your Action and your Bonus Action on your turn.

So, assume Tannaris is now a level 2 Fighter and has Action Surge. On his turn, he can:

• Move
• Action + Bonus Action (Two-Weapon Fighting)
• Reaction (if needed)

Then, if he uses his Action Surge, he gets a full additional Action, but not a second Bonus Action.


In other words, he would be able to attack a second time with one of his swords, but not both (resulting in three total melee attacks).

[dmw71]

Mounted Combat
I'm just going to say that you, as a rider, can take a normal action, without penalty.

Some important segments:

• @19:22
  "You're now acting as a unit... It gets a move, and its action options are limited: dash, disengage, dodge... It is fully dedicated to being a mount; moving you around."
• @20:36
  "It is focused entirely... at this point at moving you around, and doing so safely."
• @20:55
  "And, the beauty of it acting on your turn... your movement is still free to use on your own turn, and all your actions are still available."

Notes/Research:

Sage Advice discussion video.

• Official Rules
  • Mounted Combat
  • Mounting and Dismounting
  • Controlling a Mount
  Sage Advice
  • Rider on controlled mount wants to attack mid-move. Do rider and mount share one turn?
  • If a mount takes the Disengage action does the rider provoke opportunity attacks?
  • If a mount uses the Dodge action in combat, does the rider also gain the benefits of the Dodge action?