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A short rest is 8 hours of rest, including reading, a lot of sleep, and an hour or two on watch duties.
One day of downtime in a safe haven — or more explicitly: two consecutive short rests in a safe haven, between which there is a day when no encounters that threaten the characters. You sleep in town, you spend a day relaxing/socializing/learning, you go back out adventuring the next morning.
A safe haven is an environment where characters can rest assured that they don’t need to be on their guard — that threats will not come up, or would be handled by walls, defenses, guards, etc. Towns, fortifications, guarded villas are good. Ruins, huts, or camps in the wilderness are not. This is not just about physical safety, but psychological safety; an environment where vigilance is not necessary. If you are even thinking about setting up guard shifts or taking turns on watch, you’re almost definitely not in a safe haven.
A player with proficiency in Medicine can spend a use of a Healer's kit. For each use spent this way, 5 minutes go by, and one member of the party can spend any number of hit die (as they would during a short rest) equal to the healer's proficiency bonus.
Up to D&D’s third edition, when D&D characters reached level 9 or so, they started gaining hit points at a much slower rate. In Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, fighters rising above 9th level gained 3 hit points per level with no bonus for constitution. Other classes gained even fewer points. Continuing to let characters gain a full hit die plus a constitution bonus at every level defies D&D’s origins.
In a fifth edition version of this rule, after level 10, barbarians that gain d12 hp per level would only gain 3 hp, d10 classes like fighter would gain 2 hp, d8 classes like cleric would gain 1 hp, and wizards would gain 0 hp. High-level wizards get plenty of goodies to make the difference.
All published WoTC material is allowed with the following changes:
Characters follow the standard point buy system from the Players Handbook. You can alternatively use the standard array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8).
Assign stats to the attributes as desired. No starting score can be over 16 even after racial bonuses are applied.
Your skill at anything is 10+ your proficiency bonus + your ability modifier. If a lock has a DC of 15 and you have a Dex of 16 you automatically succeed unless there are conditions that are impacting your ability to do your task. For example: if you were unlocking the lock while underwater holding your breath, I might ask for a roll. The roll represents what is going on around you. A 1 might mean a current slams you into the door and you lose your breath and immediately have to bail on the attempt. A 20 on the other hand might indicate you suddenly realize you can breath underwater and this was not a challenge. Rolls are to determine what is going on around you that might interfere with your ability to handle the task, not to actually do it.
The perception check involves the senses (sight, hearing, smell...) to gain information (thus its based on wisdom). It signals that you can see or note something, but would not include necessary analysis or decision making around it. The investigation check involves the analysis of some details to determine something that is not clear at a first look (thus its an intelligence skill). Noting scuff marks on the floor might be perception to locate a hidden door. However looking and determining a book when pulled opens a door with no visible sign otherwise would be an Investigation check.
Technical skills are skill checks that require real world training in order to perform them properly. For example anyone can try to staunch the bleeding from a wound, however their performing surgery would be at a disadvantage. Therefore, characters performing a "technical skill check" without proficiency operate with disadvantage. This can apply at the DM's discretion to any check in which they feel the performer would need specialized training.
You will be able to roll your own skill checks. We will be using Fantasy Grounds "Dice Tower" feature, which will be demonstrated during the "Zero" game. This allows the GM to see the results of a roll, but not the player.
You can only assist someone with a skill check if you are trained in that skill.
Generally, I am encouraging the use of NO feats.
When you score a critical hit the damage is the max damage the dice can generate, plus a roll of the dice, plus modifiers. For example, a critical with a long sword and a strength of 12 would be 8 (max damage for the sword, +1d8 (rolled damage for sword)+1 (for strength bonus).
That way the minimum damage from a critical is always at LEAST the maximum damage you could roll without a critical. This will prevent rolling a 1 on a critical damage roll and getting a total of 3 damage in the above example on a critical.
The consumption of a potion is a bonus action.
A character gains one level of exhaustion when they suffer an effect that has a lasting impact.
Examples include:
When they take a critical hit
When they drop to 0 hit points.
When they fail a death saving throw by 5 more more. (roll 5 or less)
Magic items are rare and almost never sold.
The followng spells do not exist within my campaign world. The reason for this is that I believe they reduce the mystery of the world and opportunities for roleplaying.
Identify
Comprehend Languages
Detect Magic
Speak with the Dead
The following spells are modified to hopefully make them more interesting.
Remove Curse: Material components are changed to require special items that are unique to each curse and much be determined and acquired to leverage the spells ability. Additionally, when a curse is extracted, it is not unusual for the curse to take physical "form" and need to be vanquished.
Conjure Woodland Creatures: Pixies summoned through this spell do not have their polymorph spell. The summoning process somehow removes that ability from them.