House rules

Differences between 5e D&D and Dungeon Crawl Classics

You start off at zero level with 3 characters. Zero level characters die immediately if they hit zero hit points.

For each stat you roll 3d6 in order. Your characters are ordinary people who become extraordinary by what they do.

The character classes and races are from 1978 basic D&D. You roll your background and this also indicates your race. Non human races are classes. If you're human you choose your class at first level.

This is a game about low level play. The rulebook states reaching 5th level is a significant achievement.

Advantage or disadvantage means you roll a bigger or smaller dice, not roll additional dice. Advantage and disadvantage stack.

If a character is dying they need a healing potion or spell to save them.

You can burn luck to affect your die rolls.

There are critical and fumble tables.

There's no such thing as a bonus action. It takes time to draw weapons, search for items in your pack, and drink potions.
You need to roll to cast a spell. Not making the DC means the spell didn't go off. High rolls have greater effects.
Wizard spell duels are a thing and have their own rules.

House rules

All house rules can be rescinded or iterated on by the GM as play progresses. This will only be done between sessions and notification of updates will be given.

General play

1. In combat you start speaking immediately when it's your turn. Otherwise you are doing nothing but defending that round. Speaking means you're either talking to me stating what your character is doing or you're asking me for a clarification about what's happening on the battle field. Conversation with other players is not allowed when it's your turn.
2. You start with 3 zero level characters. Beyond zero level a maximum of 10 characters can be in play at any one time
3. If you get down to your last character, you can roll up a new 0 level character.
4. When you hit first level any negative fleeting luck you have is restored.
5. In order to recover HP, spells, disapproval and luck, you must rest and have rations to eat overnight. The only exception to this is hobbits, they recover luck even with no rest. They're good in a tight spot.
6. Every time you get a critical you gain a point of fleeting luck.
7. Every time you fumble any positive fleeting luck vanishes. You can use any vanished luck to minimise the effects of the fumble.

Movement

1. You can only move orthogonally.
2. You can only move and take an action. You can't take an action and move.
3. You can't convert actions into movement.
4. You can buy an extra point of movement by burning a luck point. Hobbit and thief luck bonuses apply to this. I.e. a hobbit could burn a point of luck and move 2 extra spaces.
5. There's no zone of control. You can move freely around monsters. You can move freely through allies.
6. You can move through monsters but it counts as difficult terrain and provokes an opportunity attack.

Missile fire and magic

1. You can't move and make a ranged attack. You can't make a ranged attack against somebody standing next to you. However the first friendly between you and a target doesnot count as blocking line of sight and if they're in combat then you have no chance of hitting the friendly. You can burn a point of luck to move and make a ranged attack at disadvantage or attack somebody standing next to you. All touch spells you can move and cast without disadvantage. 
2. You need one hand free to cast a spell.
3. We don’t recover ammo after combat. If you miss with a bow etc that ammo is lost permanently. If you hit you don’t mark off ammo.

Turn unholy table has been updated to make it easier to turn higher level undead.

Check	Turn range	Holy smite	1 HD	2 HD	3-4 HD	5-6 HD	7-8 HD	9-10 HD	11-12 HD
1 - 11	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
12 - 13	30	-	T1	-	-	-	-	-	-
14 - 17	30	-	T1d3+CL	T1	-	-	-	-	-
18 - 19	30	-	T1d4+CL	T1d3+CL	T1	-	-	-	-
20 - 23	60	-	T1d6+CL	T1d4+CL	T1d3+CL	T1	-	-	-
24 - 27	60	Beam, 60, 1d3 dmg	T1d8+CL, D1d4 (no save)	T1d6+CL	T1d4+CL	T1d3+CL	T1	-	-
28 - 29	60	Cone, 30, 1d4 dmg	T2d6+CL, D1d4 (no save)	T1d8+CL, D1d4 (no save)	T1d6+CL	T1d4+CL	T1d3+CL	T1	-
30 - 31	120	Cone, 60, 1d5 dmg	K1d8+CL (no save)	T2d6+CL, D1d4 (no save)	T1d8+CL, D1d4 (no save)	T1d6+CL	T1d4+CL	T1d3+CL	T1
32+	240	Cone, 120, 1d6 dmg	K2d6+CL (no save)	K1d8+CL (no save)	T2d6+CL, D1d4 (no save)	T1d8+CL, D1d4 (no save)	T1d6+CL	T1d4+CL	T1d3+CL

Combat

1. You can defend as your action or use a future action to avoid an attack. You roll your normal attack dice and if the result is higher than the enemy’s roll then the attack does not hit, even if the attack roll is higher than your AC. Attacks against you are at disadvantage. Defending only applies to missile attacks if you are facing your attacker and have a shield.
2. At first level and above, if you hit zero hit points then you can only take defensive actions. In the hit that took you to zero any additional damage beyond that that takes the character to 0 hit points comes off a random statistic as temporary damage. If this takes the stat to zero you are immediately dropped. While you're on zero hit points any further hits will drop the character.

3. Heroic last action. If you are on zero hit points then you can take a final offensive action at advantage. After the action is resolved the character drops.
4. At any point in a combat you can declare you're legging it. Even if it's not your turn. You get an extra free move. Once you've decided to leg it you need to make a DC15 will check to stop retreating and take further part in the combat.
5. Facing matters. If someone attacks you from behind then they get advantage on the attack roll. If you're aware of them and are not already engaged then you can turn to face them.

6. Hobbits can burn luck on attack, spells and damage cast against them.

7. If an action doesn't require a die roll to complete, you can rush the action. Succeed on a DC10 agility check and the action takes no time. Fail and you've wasted your action.
8. We roll for initiative at the start of each session.
9. You can use up a future action to react to an enemy taking an action against you. The highest die roll goes first. The deeper you go into action debt the more difficult this becomes. You can only cast 1 spell per round. If you’re using from this round then no penalty but for each future round you’re burning then it’s -1 to the die roll. If you end a combat in more than 1 action debt then you need to consume rations equal to the debt to recover from the exertion. Otherwise you to take temporary damage to your strength or constitution for number of rations missed.

10. Shield sacrifice. You can declare a shield shattered to avoid damage from any 1 attack, including magical. 

Misc

1. It takes time to acquire goods in ancient fantasy setting. If you want to get the prices in the book then you need spend a day shopping. You can reduce this down to an hour if you’re willing to pay double.