====== House Rules ======

Unless there are unique circumstances, campaigns run in the world of Kyor rely on these house rules.


===== Alignment =====

Alignment is dead. Unless it is important for your character to have one, please feel free to choose "Unaligned" as your characters' alignment. 

===== Counterspell =====

The text of the Counterspell spell should be changed to this:

You attempt to interrupt a creature in the process of casting a spell that takes an action to cast. 

Make a contested check against the original spellcaster using the spell attack bonus (Spellcasting Ability modifier + Proficiency Bonus) plus the spell level of the original spell or counter spell. If the counterspeller's check is higher the creature’s spell fails, and they lose the spell slot for the failed spell. If a creature's spell is counterspelled, they may only use their action to cast a cantrip instead. 

Spells that take a bonus action or reaction may not be counterspelled.

===== Short and Long Rests =====

Rests shouldn't end the momentum of a game. I've made some changes to the rules for short and long rests to maintain that. Find the updated texts of these rules below:

==== Short Rest ====

A Short Rest is a period of Downtime, at least **ten (10) minutes long**, during which a character does nothing more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading, and tending to wounds.

A character can spend one or more Hit Dice at the end of a Short Rest, up to the character’s maximum number of Hit Dice, which is equal to the character’s level. For each Hit Die spent in this way, the player rolls the die and adds the character’s Constitution modifier to it. The character regains Hit Points equal to the total. The player can decide to spend an additional Hit Die after each roll. A character regains some spent Hit Dice upon finishing a Long Rest, as explained below.

A character can’t benefit from more than one Short Rest in an 4-hour period, and a character must have at least 1 hit point at the start of the rest to gain its benefits.

==== Long Rest ====

A Long Rest is a period of extended Downtime, at least eight (8) hours long, during which a character sleeps or performs light activity: reading, talking, eating, or standing watch for no more than two (2) hours. If the rest is interrupted by a period of strenuous activity—at least 1 hour of walking, Fighting, casting Spells, or similar Adventuring activity—the Characters must begin the rest again to gain any benefit from it.

At the end of a Long Rest, a character regains **half their lost Hit Points**. The character also regains spent Hit Dice, up to a number of dice equal to half of the character’s total number of them (minimum of one die). For example, if a character has eight Hit Dice, he or she can regain four spent Hit Dice upon finishing a Long Rest.

A character can’t benefit from more than one Long Rest in a 24-hour period, and a character must have at least 1 hit point at the start of the rest to gain its benefits.

===== Feats =====

Adventurers in Kyor are all awesome. Please choose from feats and feel free to use the alternate human character heritage as well as the alternate heritage rules from //Tasha's Cauldron of Everything//. 


===== Flanking Bonus =====

This campaign world uses a twist on the flanking variant rules that follows the 3e flanking rules rather than the 5e alternate rule.

When making a melee attack, you get a +2 bonus to hit if your opponent is threatened by a character or creature friendly to you on the opponent’s opposite border or opposite corner.

When in doubt about whether two friendly characters flank an opponent in the middle, trace an imaginary line between the two friendly characters’ centers. If the line passes through opposite borders of the opponent’s space (including corners of those borders), then the opponent is flanked.

Exception: If a flanker takes up more than 1 square, it gets the flanking bonus if any square it occupies counts for flanking.

Only a creature or character that threatens the defender can help an attacker get a flanking bonus.

Creatures with a reach of 0 feet can’t flank an opponent.

===== Cinematic Advantage =====

This campaign world allows creative players to gain advantage through creative storytelling. Injecting cinematic advantage into the game is all about offering deals; trading in-world fiction and a skill check from players for advantage on their next attack or check. This helps draw players out of the mechanics of their characters and into the story of the situation itself. 

A good description that involves interacting with the environment in some beneficial way is the easiest way to do this. Singular acts of epic greatness, stunning bravado, and visual poetry that leave the other players slack-jawed in astonishment could win the player a better bargain up to and including automatically gaining the advantage. 

Most of the time the transactions of cinematic advantage comes down to the following:

  * The player describes how they want to use a feature to get a cinematic advantage.
  * The DM determines what attribute and skill (or skills) might be used to accomplish the feat and how difficult it is and offers a difficulty class. The DM tells the player what the DC is and what penalty they face if they fail so they can make an informed choice.
  * If the player takes the bargain, they rolls the check as part of their move or action. On a success, they get advantage on their next attack or check, which can be taken immediately as a free action. On a failure something bad happens depending on what they tried such as falling prone, losing their reaction, or taking disadvantage instead. 

[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qlvqp5V23tg|View this video for more details on this technique.]] 

===== Dolphin Technique =====

In combat rounds, [[https://theangrygm.com/manage-combat-like-a-dolphin/|just as a dolphin jumps from wave to wave]], we should all endeavor to switch between the technical math of the game and vivid description of the action. Players who aid in the narration before rolling a D20 action die will get a bonus for their trouble. Whether that is a bonus to the attack roll, or a bonus to the DC required for a monster's save, as long as the player gives a sentence or two of narration about what they are doing just before rolling die they get a **+1 bonus**. 

Additionally, any narration that involves the environment in some way gets a **+2 bonus**. Whether that is swinging from a chandelier, jumping off a chair, or knocking down a bookshelf, any interaction in the narrative gives an additional bonus.

Finally, any narration or scheme that makes everyone at the table (and I mean everyone) react at just how awesome and or foolhardy it is receives either a **+3 bonus**, or perhaps **advantage** as well. This only happens in rare occasions, but when it does there shouldn't be any question whether it has happened or not. Everyone at the table already knows.


===== Healing Potions =====

Consuming a healing potion can be done as a bonus action.  Other potions and administering a healing potion to others takes an action. Healing potions consumed as an active action heals the drinker for the maximum amount possible on the roll. For example, a healing potion for 2D4+2 will always heal 10 hit points if consumed as an action but be the variable rolled amount if consumed as a bonus action. 

===== Languages =====

The world of Kyor includes some new languages and removes some canon languages from the basic rules. See the [[languages|language section]] for more details. Players may feel free to choose their languages during play rather than at character creation as long as they narrate an appropriate backstory explaining their proficiency. 
===== Replacement Characters =====

Be warned, player characters die in D&D games. Players of dead characters are welcome to help play monsters or NPCs for the remainder of the session. However, at their first opportunity, the player may choose to create a new player character of the level of the majority of the other still living player characters. In these cases, we'll probably have a cut scene introducing the new player character to explain their arrival.

===== Resurrection =====

These rules aim to make it more flavorful and impactful when player characters are revived from death. This means that characters who are reckless with their lives may find that they are almost impossible to bring back from the dead. Additionally, the rules transform the simple spell cast into a ritual that involves the whole party, with up to three close friends of the dead performing skill checks and in-game offerings that make reviving the dead character easier or harder based on success. If a revival ritual is failed, the character is lost forever, as their soul doesn't return to their body.

**Death DC**
When a creature is resurrected, a roll is made against a DC, which begins at 10. For each time the creature dies, their death DC is increased by 1.


**Rapid Resurrection**
If a player attempts a resurrection spell that only takes 1 action, like revivify, there is no contribution from close friends, and no way to lower the DC of the resurrection check. This means that spells like revivify have a maximum of 75% chance of working, but luckily failing these checks doesn't completely kill the character; it only means that players need to attempt a proper resurrection ritual. However, it still does increase the DC of future resurrection checks.

**Resurrection Ritual**
When a creature is targeted by a resurrection spell with a casting time longer than one action, such as Raise Dead, Reincarnation, or Resurrection, a ritual is initiated in which up to three creatures can contribute in order to call the creature's soul back to their body. The creature makes an ability check with a skill the DM deems appropriate for the action, against a DC that the DM also determines.

For each successful check, the creature's death DC is lowered by 3 for this ritual. For each failure, it increases by 1 for this ritual. The DM makes the final roll against this DC. On a success, the creature is returned to life if its soul is willing. On a failure, the creature's soul is lost, and further resurrection rituals fail automatically.

Only the strongest of magic can bypass this ritual, in the form the True Resurrection or Wish spells. These spells can also return to life a creature whose soul was lost from a failed ritual.