There are some house rules in these campaigns.

Ability checks

Whenever a player rolls an ability check, I (the GM) also roll a d6 and the same ability check. If the d6 comes up as 6, I use my roll instead for adjudicating the result of the skill check.

This helps avoid metagaming. If you roll a 19 and still fail, was that because it was impossible, or because I rolled a 6 on the d6 and a 3 on the d20?

Healing

You shouldn’t be as blasé as the “long rest heals everything”, but the “a long rest is a week” of the gritty campaign version feels too far the other way. So I’m keeping a short rest as an hour and a long rest as 8 hours, with the following effects

• A long rest (8h) heals 1-3hp + half constitution adjustment and allows learning of spells.
• Additional healing can be achieved by spending hit dice after a short or long rest.
• Hit Dice return at 1HD per long rest.
• Hit Dice healing depends on having a healer’s kit on hand to bind wounds, etc. This does not apply to the overnight healing.

A healer’s kit gives advantage on the Medicine check to stabilise someone on 0hp.

Levelling up

Still under trial…

When a character gets sufficient experience for the next level, they gain things from the new level which could come from just more experience – the additional hit points (since these reflect greater ability at surviving combat), more spell slots of levels already known (since this reflects better experience at using magic).

In order to gain new abilities, additional spells, new spell levels, you need to find training. You need a suitable trainer of the correct class and at least 2 levels higher than your own. If you don’t already have an appropriate trainer, you can search for one in the local area.

To find this trainer, the PC may use any social method you consider appropriate, using an intelligence, wisdom, or charisma check to represent their methods. If your character is proficient in any skill which would be relevant to their methods, you may add their proficiency bonus to the result as well. The DC to find such a person is equal to 10 + the level you will be gaining. (IE: If you are to be gaining 2nd level, the DC is 12.) The PC spends one downtime day to make this check. Each time the check is failed, the character may choose to continue or simply give up.

Once you have found a trainer, training takes 1 week plus 1 day/level, and costs:

• Level 2: 20gp
• Level 3: 40gp
• Level 4: 75gp
• Level 5: 100gp
• Level 6: 150gp
• Level 7: 200gp
• Level 8: 300gp
• Level 9: 400gp
• Level 10: 500gp