Some optional reactions (I still have to test them, but they came to my mind today):
1. Opportunity Grapple: Instead of making an opportunity attack, you can try to grapple a creature that leaves your melee range.
2. Dodge Jump: After dodging an areal effect by rolling a successfull Dexterity Saving Throw such as a “Fireball” or a trap, you can use your reaction to leap up to your standing jump distance away from the center of the effect.
3. Cover Jump: If an ally is targeted by a ranged attack or spell or in range of an areal effect, you can use your reaction and leap up to your standing jump distance to cover them, giving them ¾ cover if you have the same size category, ½ if you are smaller and full cover if you are larger. If it hits your AC but not the original targets AC, you take the damage instead.
Let me know if these rules have a positive effect on your gameplay
Some (more or less) simple house rules of mine concerning falling to 0 Hit Points:
1. Secret Death Saves: If you play online, the players whisper them to you. If you play at the table, they hand you a note. Or you trust them enough to manage it by themselves. Keep also secret if the character made it or not. A successfull DC 10 Medicine Check reveals, if the character is still dying, stable or dead. This leads to RP and to intense fights.
2. Lethargy: Falling to 0 Hit Points gives one level of exhaustion. That prevents the feeling of being an indestructible machine that keeps fighting after being revived several times.
3. Broken armor: Falling to 0 Hit Points gives the characters armor class a permanent and stackable malus of -1. If your armor class falls to 10 because of that, it breaks apart entirely. To repair the armor, it costs 1/10 of the armors original price per point of AC that must be restored.
Each participating player character rolls three Constitution Saving Throws and compare them each. The character that rolls higher at two or all three times, wins the game.
Handle the rolls like Death Saving Throws, DC 10 (or more with stronger alcohol). If a character fails all three (a natural 1 counts as two fails), they suffer a blackout:
The next morning they wake up with 1 level of exhaustion (no long rest) and one additional circumstance, determined by a d8:
They wake up in bed with a stranger of prefered gender (if more than one, let the dice decide).
They wake up in the wilderness one mile apart from where they drank.
They wake up injured (roll a fitting die).
They wake up with a strong headache: 2 more levels of exhaustion.
They wake up naked. Their clothes are scattered around the drinking place.
They wake up in prison because of vandalism and have to stay there 1d4 days (add another d4 each time this happens again) or until someone pays 5gp per days left to get them free.
They wake up outside and robbed.
They wake up at the end of a small dungeon or a bandit’s cave (if this, they are tied up and robbed).
I’ve been struggling to revamp my House Rules and finally was inspired to finalize them. When I first made my House Rules, they were open to loop holes and too vague. Over time, I gained more experience and discovered my limits as well as recognizing problematic phrasing. I’ve found that being blunt and clear in my rules left little to be misunderstood.
What are ‘house rules’?
House Rules are what’s referred to as a set of rules you’ve put into place for entities to follow while working with you or on your property. Depending on your relationship with this spirit can dictate when these rules are in effect and for how long. For example, a companion spirit is expected to follow the rules at all times however a spirit you’ve met off the street goes by their own rules. These rules are put into place to keep yourself safe as well as others within your household.
They’re not a necessity however it’s strongly recommended to have some set up while interacting with spirits. They act as a hard limit for spirits you interact with. House Rules act as a form of protection for yourself as well as others. You’re setting clear boundaries with these spirits to avoid potential problems.
Broken Rules
If your rules are broken, it’s up to you to enforce them. What punishments that may come is very subjective. Punishments can range can range from but not limited to offerings withheld, permanent offerings removed or discontinued, communication limited or withheld, barred from entering your space for a certain period of time, long term banishment, and/or permanent banishment. What you decide to do depends on how severe your rules have been broken and what you personally feel is an appropriate punishment.
Personal House Rules
Do not exploit loopholes in my rules. I am human and can make mistakes. If there’s any loopholes that is concerning to the safety of myself, my spirit family, or any of my loved ones then alert me.
Do not lie, twist my words, or omit the truth for the purposes of misleading me. I value concise and straightforward communication. If I end up not understanding you because you want to get cute with words then that’s your fault. Lying out of some misguided attempt to protect me is removing the choice for me without my consent. Twisting my words is what I consider a manipulation tactic.
Do not pretend to be something or someone you are not.
No spirits are allowed to feed from me without my express consent. My consent must be explicitly stated and must not have been obtained under duress, through manipulation, or deceit. My consent may be revoked at anytime.
Sexual contact is only permitted with myself through my consent and willingness of the act. Sexual contact is not allowed with any other members of my household. My consent must be explicitly stated and must not have been obtained under duress, through manipulation, or deceit. My consent may be revoked at anytime.
No spirit is allowed to invite other spirits into my home without my consent. My consent must be explicitly stated and must not have been obtained under duress, through manipulation, or deceit. My consent may be revoked at anytime.
No one is allowed to interfere with my personal relationships including communication. These relationships include other spirits. If you feel that any of these relationships are detrimental to myself, anyone within my spirit family, the deity(ies) I worship, and/or any of my loved ones then let me know. Do not manipulate myself or any members of my household to get what you want. Do not interfere in communication between myself and other members of this spirit family or other spirits.
Never harm or disrespect myself, my pets, any members of my household, friends, or welcome household guests. The basis for harm is based on my values and point of view. What you may think isn’t harmful I may find to be. If you are unsure, ask.
Protect yourself at all times. While I’ll do my best to protect you in any way I can as well as encourage other members of this spirit family to protect each other, I still expect you to protect yourself to the best of your abilities.
Disarm malicious magic that’s targeting me by someone else or that is around by circumstance. No spirit are allowed to interfere with my work both magical and mundane unless it’s to protect myself or members of my household. All spirits are to inform me of malicious magic sent my way and if any spirit interfered with my work out of protection.
Lack of awareness is no excuse for noncompliance with the House Rules. By joining this spirit family, you’re accepting these House Rules and acknowledge my right to take action, up to and including offerings withheld, permanent offerings removed or discontinued, communication limited or withheld, barred from entering my space for a certain period of time, long term banishment, and/or permanent banishment in response to misconduct.
It is widely used for home decor: kitchen, bathroom room ,Dinning Room, Restaurant or Bar .Decorate your home with this vintage design to add a little character and style
So I was going through the monster manual, trying to plan for upcoming D&D games, and as I was reading the Succubus/Incubus section something suddenly hit me… when they shape change their attributes don’t change at all. Now obviously the mental attributes would remain the same, and I’ve seen good arguments for Con being the same (just makes calculating HP easier, also there’s fun stuff like how in Palladium doppelgangers are super vulnerable to alcohol). But Strength and Dexterity is always the same? Wouldn’t… wouldn’t that make their job needlessly complicated in some situations?
As an example, the Paladin/Bard in my campaign’s adventuring party is into very strong women. He’s show interest in every barbarian and warrior woman he’s encounters (He’s especially fond of the one that put him through a table during a bar fight). Succubi and Incubi have a Strength score of 8… so even if they could look like one of these characters all he has to do is bump into them (with his strength of 20) and they’d probably collapse. Doppengangers are the same with a slightly better default strength of 11. Basically limits both when if they ever want to invade any sort of warrior culture, or powerful monster race, they are limited to taking the form of children and the elderly and sick (which raises all sorts of extra problems for the Succubi and Incubi).
In my mind if taking another form doesn’t change your stats at all that should be more of an illusion (and not a transformation). I can kinda understand this sort of thing in maybe more of a sci-fi setting (the shapeshifter has to keep to the same physical mass), but this is Fantasy and their abilities are magical. Druids don’t keep the same physical attributes when they wildshape, spellcasters don’t keep the same attributes when they polymorph… so Doppelgangers and Succubi/Incubi (and I imagine there’s others) keeping the exact same attributes feels more like… 5th edition overdoing it a little with trying to keep the rules simple.
So here’s just a small adjustment I think, to keep the shapechangers from being found out by something as simple as an arm-wrestling match. (It also gives them extra options for combat, which I think is always good for creative DMs).
Replace the original Shapechanger abilities with these:
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(Doppelganger) Shapechanger. The doppelganger can use its action to polymorph into a Small or Medium humanoid it has seen, or back into its true form. While in this form it has the natural Strength and Dexterity, size, movement speeds, and natural weapon attacks (such as claws or a bite) of the creature. Its other statistics are the same in each form. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying isn’t transformed. It reverts to its true form if it dies.
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(Succubus / Incubus) Shapechanger. The fiend can use its action to polymorph into a Small or Medium humanoid, or back into its true form. While in this form it has the natural Strength and Dexterity, size, movement speeds, and natural weapon attacks of the creature. Its other statistics are the same in each form. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying isn’t transformed. It reverts to its true form if it dies. If the chosen form does not already have wings, or if the chosen form’s flight speed is less than that of the fiend’s, the fiend can sprout the wings of its true form (destroying and replacing any other wings) as a bonus action and may fly with its normal flying speed.
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Obviously it’s up to DM discretion on how they want shapechangers to work, but I think the above gives a little more variety into how they can act and the ability mostly just makes them harder to figure out (combat wise it’s only a small bonus for their Challenge Rating, they now just have the option to use a form with a good strength score. Not like they get any extra attacks, just maybe some claws or a bite to use instead of a weapon).
I think we need “Greater” versions of all the the shapechangers too. Who’s going to seduce and deceive giants if you can only turn into Small or Medium humanoids? (Actually for that matter I still think it’s weird that Giant is a different creature type from Humanoid. An ogre that’s brought down a size category would still be a giant, but a human that’s brought up a size category is still a humanoid.)
ALSO! While we’re at it, up the Strength score of Succubi and Incubi to AT LEAST 10. 8 strength isn’t sexy. I don’t want to swoon and fall into the arms of some seductive Incubus only for him to fall over because he’s built like a twig. The incubus in the picture has way too many abs for a strength of 8!
She closed the door behind her and took a breath, the kind of relaxing, prepare-for-a-big-sigh breath that you take when you finally get home after a long day. And she had. Here, in the foyer, next to the coats and the shoes, she was still a diligent employee, a tired worker. Once she stepped past that door, she’d be his.
She lingered here almost every day, treating it like an airlock, letting it decompress her, prepare her for her life at home after spending the whole day maintaining her façade, the cracked mask of normality that made everyone else think that she was just like them.
She exhaled. Big fucking sigh of relief. She stepped through the door. Her bag hit the floor, and she started to undress. Wriggling out of the pencil skirt, unbuttoning the blouse, shrugging off the jacket. In less than a minute she went from prim and proper to nude and heeled, the only piece of clothing that she was allowed to keep. That and the glasses. He liked those especially.
She always shivered, then, as her body got used to the lack of protection. Goosebumps ran up her arms, and she folded her clothes neatly, setting them on the side table that was left there precisely for that purpose. Heading to the living room, she took her book from her bag, and reclined on the sofa. He’d be home soon, and while she was his now, she also had some time of her own.
And when she heard the crunch of gravel underneath his tyres, her heart would always beat a little faster, skip the odd beat. Hearing his keys in the lock would be fingers running down her spine. Seeing his silhouette in through the door would have her biting her lip.
And seeing him, in the flesh, in that suit, would have her moaning. Every damn time.
