One of the reasons ttrpgs, like Dungeons and Dragons, are so beloved is that they are flexible enough to be adapted to the needs of any DM or groups of players. While homebrew creations like classes and races are a huge part of this flexibility, the unsung hero of just about every table ever are houserules or table-rules: small changes or additions to the core rules that mean very little on their own, but can add up to create the ideal experience for those playing. Over the years, I have tested out a lot of houserules. Some have worked out well, others... not so much. Still more are great in a tightly-led campaign, but not so much in a large open setting like the Dungeon. The rules below are a mixture of the rules I use at my own table, as well as some designed specifically to keep things fun and balanced within the Dungeon’s open world. Homebrew Content Obviously, we are big fans of homebrew content in the dungeon, but not all homebrew is created equal, and in the interest of making sure things stay balanced, and no one is breaking or abusing the game, we ask that all homebrew be vetted by one of our “Licensed Fucksmiths” We of course allow and encourage the use of the entire Lewd Handbook, as well as Content produced by DMClockwork-Dragon (Who is our Very own Mistress Celia) and you can find more pre-approved homebrew in the #Links and Resources channel of the server. If you have a homebrew character option you want to use, you can submit it to the Fucksmiths for review by creating a thread in the #Fucksmith Forge channel and pinging us, but please be patient, as everyone here is a volunteer. We explicitly do not allow content found on the D&D homebrew Wiki or WotC’s Unearthed Arcana beta content, and will not review them. We also aren’t here to review personal content you create for your own character, and generally don’t review content created by members of the server unless they have a preestablished body of work as a homebrewer. It’s nothing against you personally, we just don’t have time to look at everyone’s custom feats and subclasses. Homebrew Multiclassing Because homebrew content can already be so difficult to keep balanced, we generally ask that if your character is using a full homebrew class, that you don’t also try to multiclass. If you have a really specific idea for a character (not just a build) you can talk to staff about an exception. Multiclassing while using homebrew races or subclasses is fine, just not full classes. A large number of homebrew classes just aren’t well designed for it, and we don’t have time to check every possible combination of classes to check for exploits. Homebrew Feats One of the most common questions we get is “can I use this homebrew feat I made”. As mentioned above, the answer is generally “no”. We have a library of homebrew content, including lots of homebrew feats, for players to choose from, but we just don’t have time to review all of the feats people come up with on their own. Weapons and Equipment Core weapons and equipment in 5e are a little bit lackluster, and often redundant (why are a scimitar and a longsword effectively the same weapon, except for the weight?). Here in the dungeon, we use Clockwork Dragon’s Expanded Armory in place of core equipment. This supplement was written by Celia herself, and adds a whole host of fun weapons and armor with special properties. We do, however, ignore the “Aetheric Weapons” section of this supplement, as it is meant for higher level characters than we allow on this server. Item Crafting No, we do not have a set of crafting rules that your character can use to make their own magical equipment. As much as we think crafting is cool, there’s just no good system we have found for preventing it’s abuse on a large server like this, and we have no intention of adding it at any point in the future. If there is a specific piece of equipment you want to get your hands on, try talking to the shopkeeps or asking a lorekeeper about a special quest. We aren’t opposed to letting you make special equipment as part of an adventure, but a standard set of crafting rules just invites abuse, and destabilizes the server economy. Table Rules of The Lewd Dungeon
Character Creation The Following rules are applied at character creation, or change the way characters are built. Level Cap The level cap for this server is 14 - mainly because at levels higher than that, character become capable of feats that sortof ruin the fun for everyone else. Even if you don’t intend to go into combat, if there are characters running around that can cast wish and resurrection, then it sortof negates the need for lower level characters to go on adventures or quests to overcome obstacles. And that’s no fun for anyone. There are a few exceptions to this rule - primarily NPCs or characters run by trusted Lorekeepers, or characters who were grandfathered in from before we even had character creation rules, but new characters cannot be any higher than 14th level. Ability Scores When rolling to determine ability scores, a player rolls 4d6, and keeps the highest three rolls, totalling them up to determine one of their sex ability scores. In the Dungeon, we allow players to re-roll any 1’s rolled as part of this step. A result of 1 on a dice is always rerolled during ability score determination. Roll 4d6, Reroll 1’s, Drop the Lowest. The effect of this rule is to raise both the average and minimum ability scores a player can expect for their character. This helps to give characters a more even spread of abilities, which is helpful when exploring the world on their own or adventuring with a smaller party. Starting Equipment We aren’t too picky about the mundane equipment your character carries around, but magical equipment can be another story, starting out we ask that your character’s equipment keeps within the following rules, so as to not make them exceedingly powerful for their level: Magic Items by Level Level Magic items 1-5 1-2 common items, or 1 uncommon item 6-10 1-2 uncommon items, or 1 rare item 11-14 1-2 rare items, or 1 very rare item Monstrous Characters We are all monsterfuckers here, and no one will scoff at you for wanting to play a monstrous character, but we do require all players to use actual player races, as opposed to just a Monster Statblock with class levels added. Monster Statblocks are really only designed to be balanced within the scope of a single encounter, and tend to break the game when used for extended play. Imagine having the at will petrifying stare of a medusa, with no limits on how often it could be used. Stuff gets broken fast. If you want to play a monster and are not sure what race to use, ask a lorekeeper. We can generally suggest a couple good races for any idea, or help you reflavor something to fit what you are looking for. ASI and Feat Feats are great, not just because they make your character more powerful, but because they give you a way to represent the unique story and experiences of your character. For this reason, whenever you would normally choose between an Ability Score Increase or a New Feat, we let you have both. Redundant Features and Traits Some of the house rules we use, such as Flanking and Spell Scrolls for Everyone can make certain class features or racial traits redundant. In these cases, we simply let my players pick a feat to replace the redundant trait or feature.
Races With Fly Speed Racial fly speeds are a pet peeve of Celia’s, because at low levels, a flying character can circumvent obstacles, get into places they aren’t meant to, and basically cheat their way through any combat that doesn’t involve ranged combatants (which don’t always make sense to include in every encounter). That said, wings are cool, and we don’t want to just disallow a core race or subrace because of they can be troublesome at low level. Instead, The dungeon rule is that any racial flight speed is treated as a Glide Speed until 7th level. A glide speed allows a player to move 5ft horizontally for every 1 ft they move vertically down. This rule lets a player keep their wings and aerial fun, but, prevents them from abusing it at lower levels where the game just isn’t designed to handle flying characters. Tiny Creatures 5e does not have any official tiny races available for players to choose from, but there are plenty of them in the dungeon. Unlike Large races, which intrinsically break the game for several reasons that can’t easily be rectified, tiny races are, if anything underpowered compared to other races, and can easily be made to work within the game using the following rules Weapons and Damage: The DMG rules that Tiny Creatures have disadvantage on attacks made with weapons designed for larger attackers, but doesn’t give any sort of stats for tiny weapons. By default, we rule that weapons specifically crafted for tiny creatures have their damage dice reduced by 1 step, so a 1d8 longsword would instead deal 1d6, or a 2d6 greatsword would instead deal 2d4. Alternatively, we allow Tiny creatures to wield normally sized weapons, so long as they have with the light property, but do not gain the other benefits of this property. We also rule that Tiny Creatures must wield Versatile weapons not designed for them in two hands, and these weapons only deal their basic damage rather than their versatile damage Grappling: As per the DMG, The target of a grapple must be no more than one size larger than you, and it must be within your reach. This means that tiny creatures cannot grapple Medium creatures. Carrying Capacity: As per the DMG, Tiny creatures can carry less. For each size category Below Medium, halve the creature’s carrying capacity and the amount it can push, drag, or lift. Movement and Space: Tiny creatures may occupy and move through allies spaces with no penalty to their movement, and may use a grapple check to cling onto or climb medium or larger targets. Armor Class: Tiny creatures are difficult to hit, and attacks made against you by medium or larger creatures, or traps not designed for tiny creatures treat you as having half-cover (+2 bonus to AC) Magic Items: Attuning to a magic item causes it to shrink to fit you.
Goblins and Kobolds The core traits for Goblins and Kobolds (especially those in Volo’s Guide to Monsters) are somewhat lackluster. And considering the nature of this server, we like to add a little extra fun to these races as follows Small but Elastic: Everyone loves a shortstack, and all the more when they can take a cock as big as they are. Here in The Dungeon Goblins and Kobolds have the unique perk of following hentai physics. These races ignore penalties or harmful effects caused by sexual over or under-sized penetration. Their bodies can be stretched and distended by up to twice their normal size, allowing them to safely store or transport items of an appropriate size inside of themselves. Dezzie Diet: Another unique feature of these characters is how they interact with our server currency, the Dezzie. Goblins and Kobolds, especially those native to the dungeon, often eat these shiny purple rocks like candy, and since Dezzies are crystallized shards of horny magic, this generally results in rolling on the Lewd Wild Magic Table contained in the Lewd Handbook. Dungeon Natives Most characters in the dungeon are not native to the same universe as our setting, let alone the perverse realm of The Dungeon itself. Those who are however, are born corrupted by The Mistress’s power. Tainted By Lust: Characters conceived or born within the Dungeon, regardless of their race or background, gain the Concubi racial template found alongside the Concubi Race inside the Lewd Handbook: “To create a non-human concubi of any race, start by increasing the character’s charisma score by 2, and reducing their inhibition score by 2, then add the Climactic Feeding, Sexual Stamina, Lustful Hunger, and Lustbranded racial traits.” Note that this only applies to creatures native to The Dungeon Itself not just tot he world the dungeon is set in. Characters native to the world above are usually (but not exclusively) free of this corruption. Lustbrands and Curses Lustbrands are not unique to concubi, and any character in the dungeon can start with a Lustbrand or Curse if you choose to do so. If a brand or curse requires a creature, race, or other target or condition to be chosen as part of it’s effect, It is up to you (and occasionally a lorekeeper depending on the situation) what that condition or target is. Vices and Addictions Similarly, a character is welcome to start their adventures in The Dungeon already addicted to one or more vice, or particularly prone to such vices. But we also know not everyone is comfortable with the subject of addiction. Unless a vice/addiction is specified by a curse or other effect, we mostly leave it up to the player to determine what does or does not count as a vice for their character. It is asked, however, that you don’t abuse this freedom; We won’t force every character to make addiction saves against sex or alcohol addiction. But if your character frequently uses hard drugs or has addiction in their background, we encourage you to make use of the rules provided - both for the sake of balance, and because it can add a fun challenge or roleplay element to your experience.
General Gameplay The rules below modify the general game-play for all characters, and are usually focussed on speeding up combat, or providing greater flexibility in what a character can do. Flanking A common houserule at many tables is to allow what is effectively pack-tactics for the party - meaning that if a creature is within 5 ft of both you and an ally, you have advantage on attack rolls against it. We modify this slightly, making flanking a sortof inverse of cover. If a target is within 5 feet of both you and an ally on opposite sides, it is lightly flanked, and you gain a +2 flanking bonus on attack rolls against the target. If the target is flanked in multiple directions, it is heavily flanked, and you gain a +5 bonus on attack rolls against the target. Charging As far as we am concerned, it doesn’t take any special training to run headlong into something with the full force of your body. We allow creatures without the charger feat to make a charge attack by expending both their movement, and attack actions at once. On a success, a charging creature gains a +5 bonus to attack rolls, or may instead choose to push their target up to 10 ft. On a failure, the charging creature continues 10 ft past the target, and falls prone, or takes 1d10 bludgeoning damage if they strike a wall or other obstacle. Grappling Similarly, a creature without the grappler feat can still attempt to pin a grappled creature, assuming it makes sense for them to do so. The Grappling creature uses it’s action to make a second grapple check, at disadvantage, against the grappled creature. On a success, both creatures are restrained until the grapple ends. This comes into play especially when dealing with the lewd rules, where an unwilling creature must be restrained before certain sexual advances can be made against them. Pets and the Rule of Three People like pets. They just do. So to give my players a bit of fun, and enable the ever foolhardy choice of every DnD party ever to adopt that weirdly named goblin that is just trying so hard, We have what Celia calls the “Rule of Three:” If a Creature critically fails to attack a Character three times in a row, or critically fails a saving throw against three charm effects in a row, the triggering character can make an skill check (usually animal handling, but sometimes diplomacy for more intelligent creatures) to befriend the creature, claiming it as their companion. Now, it’s worth noting that a companion isn’t under the direct control of the player, and often isn’t much use in combat - either having severely reduced stats, or being too cowardly to engage in fighting - but you still get to bring it home, and love it forever. You can also Buy pets at Kitty and Cat’s #Purrfect Petshop, The pets here are just fun companions by default, but if you pay for the familiar ritual, you gain the Arcane Familiar Feat from Celia’s How to Train your Familliar supplement, and the fancy bonuses from your companion that go with. You can purchase this extra bonding ritual even if your character is not a spellcaser or would not normally be able to obtain a familiar - it just costs a little extra for classes without magic. Magic item Attunement DnD has a lot of magic items, especially with all the lewd ones available in our shops, so we alter the way attunement works. Rather than 3 set attunement slots, a player has a number of attunement points equal to their level, which can be spent to attune to whatever combination of items they like, as per the table below Attunement Cost Rarity Attunement Point cost Common 1 Uncommon 2 Rare 4 Very Rare 5 Legendary 7 Artificers and other classes which would normally gain additional attunement slots as they level, instead gain additional attunement points at these levels equal to their proficiency bonus. A character can attune to as many magic items they like, as long as they have enough attunement points to do so. Not only does this system allow character to attune to more items as they level up, it also lets me hand out powerful magic items even at lower levels, with the player having to decide if they would rather attune to that legendary greatsword, or several less powerful items that might be more generally useful. I also tend to ignore or hand-wave racial or class prerequisites on items when it makes sense. As long as the player can make a decent argument and I don’t see any balance issues, I don’t like the idea of limiting magic items like that.
Spellcasting Changes The rules below alter how spellcasting works in 5e, adding more flexibility to the way spells are cast, and even who can cast them. Mana-Based Spellcasting While this rule is not mandatory, and you are still welcome to use standard spell slots if you want, we provide this option for those, who like Mistress Celia, think Vancian spellcasting is stupid. Our Mana system is based heavily on the Alternate Spellcasting Rules found on page 288 of the DMG, but with a drastically simplified explanation, and a few tweaks to allow greater flexibility or make bookeeping less complicated. My mana system works as follows: The Basics: Rather than requiring spell slots, each spell costs an amount of mana, based on the level it is cast at, as shown on the Mana Cost Table Below. To cast a spell, you simply spend the required amount of mana for the spell’s level. To upcast a spell, you spend mana based on the level you are casting the spell at. Spells of 6th level or and higher are especially taxing, and a caster can only cast one spell at each of these levels per day. This system is simple, elegant, and has the benefit of allowing spellcasters more flexibility to choose how they spend their magical reserves: casting lots of smaller spells, or just a few at higher levels. Mana Cost Spell Level Mana 1st 2 2nd 3 3rd 5 4th 6 Spell Level Mana 5th 7 6th 9 7th 10 8th 11 9th 13 Determining your Mana: Spellcasters, rather than gaining spell-slots of specific levels, have a pool of mana based on their class and level, and a maximum level at which they can cast spells, as shown on the “Mana By Level” Table. This table applies to bards, clerics, druids, sorcerers, wizards, and other “full casters.” For half-casters like the paladin or ranger, halve the character’s level in that class and then consult the table. For 1/3rd casters or spellcasting subclasses of non-spellcasting classes, such as the Eldritch Knight or Arcane Trickster, divide the character’s level in that class by three. This determines what we call your “Adjusted Spellcasting level”, as shown on the ASL Calculation table below. ASL Calculation Caster Type modifier Full × 1 Half × 1/2 Caster Type modifier One-Third × 1/3 Subclass × 1/3 Mana by Level Class Level Mana Max Spell level 1st 4 1st 2nd 6 1st 3rd 14 2nd 4th 17 2nd 5th 27 3rd 6th 32 3rd 7th 38 4th 8th 44 4th 9th 57 5th 10th 64 5th 11th 73 6th 12th 73 6th 13th 83 7th 14th 83 7th 15th 94 8th 16th 94 8th 17th 107 9th 18th 114 9th 19th 123 9th 20th 133 9th Warlocks and Other Edge Cases Warlocks are a little odd in all of this, because by core rules, their spellcasting progression is entirely different from anything else. To keep it simple, we just total up the mana value of all the spell slots a warlock would normally have at each level, and use that value as their available mana at that level. The warlock slot level then becomes the maximum spell level that the warlock can cast at, allowing the warlock to downcast spells to their base level, rather than always casting a spell at the maximum level they are capable of. This has the nice benefit of resolving what I consider the biggest issue with the warlock: not being able to downcast forces any warlock worth their salt to pick specific spells that scale with level or remain active across multiple turns (looking at you witchbolt) in order to be effective - a restriction that easily rules out nearly half their spell-list. Sorcerers are the other slight edge case: the DMG Alternate Spellcasting Rules treats “spell points” and “sorcery points” as separate pools. Because sorcery points convert to mana at a 1:1 exchange rate, I just combine the two pools, adding their sorcery points to their total mana pool, and letting sorcerers spend mana to use their metamagic options. This does provide a slight boost to the sorcerer - since, by default, consuming spell-slots to create sorcery points has a diminishing return - but in 7 years of play, with sorcerers (and sor-locks), I’ve never found this to be an actual problem. For homebrew classes you are unsure of, or other spellcasting options like the magic initiate feat, just do the same as with the warlock: total up the mana value of any spell-slots normally provided, and use that. Then use the level of the highest spell slot normally provided at your level as your maximum spell level. It’s worth noting that this tends to give a lower value than using the Mana By Level Table, so if you can easily classify a spellcaster, it’s better to use the table.
Multiclass Spellcasters For Multiclassing, Determine the relative casting level of each class individually, then combine them before consulting the table. So for example, a level 5 wizard with 2 levels in paladin, would be treated as a 6th level caster when consulting the table. When determining your spellcaster level, and thus what level spells and spell slots/Mana you have, you combine the adjusted spellcasting level (or ASL) of any spellcasting classes they have levels in, and then consult the mana by level table. What this means is that multiclassing from one spellcaster to another of the same type wont reduce your overall spellcasting level, or reduce the level of spells you can cast, or the spell slots/mana you have, I also don’t separate spells and spell slots based on which of your classes they come from. Although if a spell only appears on one of your spell-lists, you must use the spellcasting ability of that class when casting it. This is a departure from the Core RAW, which force you to treat each classes spell slots and spell level as separate. I find that the core rule doesn’t preserve balance as much as just make multiclassing between different spellcasting classes painfully underpowered, since you wind up sacrificing your higher level spell slots for a bunch of low level spell slots and spells that are horribly outclassed at higher levels. Under my rules your spellcasting levels stack, and you don’t miss out on spells appropriate to your tier of play, just because you wanted to add a little more versatility. Group Spellcasting If multiple characters (or monsters) know the same spell and can cast it, we allow them to work together while casting it, combining the level that each individual caster is casting the spell at in order to cast spells at a level higher than any of the characters could cast on their own. Each caster must spend the normal casting time of the spell on their turn, and if the spell requires concentration, all casters must maintain concentration for the duration of the spell. If any single caster loses concentration on the spell, it’s level is reduced by the level at which that caster was casting the spell. If this would reduce the level of the spell below the minimum level the spell can be cast at, the spell ends. Normally we limit this mechanic so that spells max out at 9th level, but in certain cases, such as for quests or the breaking of bloodline curses, we might allow characters to spells at 10th level or higher this way Group spellcasting gives players an incentive to learn spells that other members of their party already know, and provides a way for low level players or even monsters to cast more powerful spells if they can gather enough people. Spell-Scrolls for Everyone For some reason, core rules do not allow characters to use spell-scrolls unless they are already a spellcaster, and the spell is on their class’s spell list. To us, this invalidates one of the most important uses of spellscrolls, which is to help martial characters keep up with the power of spellcasters, and generally break up spellcaster supremacy In the Dungeon, we allow any character to use any spell scroll, by making an arcana check with a DC equal to 10 + the spell’s level. Not only does this allow a party to survive without a dedicated spellcaster, but it also makes the arcana skill useful for more than just a knowledge checks Curses and Remove Curse The last change We make to spellcasting is to curses, and the Remove Curse spell. By core rules, all curses are treated the same, and thus all curses can theoretically be removed by a 3rd level spell. Quite frankly, that’s bullshit, and we have never met a DM who didn’t alter those rules in some way, or make specific exceptions for things like vampirism, lycathropy, and other bloodline or plot-relevant curses that never would have survived in a world where a 5th level cleric could just travel the country undoing centuries old curses and curing entire populations of afflicted monsters. Our rule is simple: Curses have levels, just like spells, and Remove Curse just follows the same rules for dealing with different levels of curses that Dispel Magic does for spells. The level of any specific curse depends on how difficult we think it should be to remove, or on the level it was cast at, in the case of Bestow Curse. Ancient bloodline curses and the like are often set as 10th level or higher, making it impossible to remove them without using group spellcasting.