Variant Rules (JJBA Setting)

Variant Rules

The following are writeups and links to various variant rules this campaign should use.

Alternate Armor and AC

While not wearing any armor, a creature's AC is equal to 10 + their Strength or Dexterity modifier + their proficiency bonus. In this setting, a creature's AC is their ability to dodge. If you have an Unarmored Defense feature, such as from being a monk or barbarian, you gain a +2 bonus to your AC while fulfilling that feature's requirements.

All armor grants a penalty the target's AC, and Strength and Dexterity saving throws. This penalty is referred to as its Armor Penalty. Additionally, armor grants a damage threshold. When a creature takes damage, if the amount of damage is below their damage threshold, they instead take no damage. This is decided after resistances, immunity, and other decreases to damage are calculated. A critical hit ignores the target's damage threshold.

If a creature would gain a bonus to their AC under standard 5e rules, such as by wielding a shield, that does not change how their AC is calculated, like the Unarmored Defense feature, they instead must use their bonus action to defend in order to benefit from it, adding any of these bonuses to what would be their AC under standard 5e rules to their damage threshold until the beginning of their next turn.

Additional Weapon Properties

• Long Reload - Similar to the reload property, a limited number of shots can be made with a weapon that has the long reload property. A character must then reload it using an action, or may use their bonus action to reload a single shot.
• Spread - A weapon with the spread property fires multiple projectiles with a single pull of the trigger. On a hit, roll the die listed in the weapon's spread property. The weapon's damage is dealt to the target a number of times equal to the spread die's roll.
• Stabilizing - In order to attack with a stabilizing weapon, it must first be set up, which can be done as an action and lasts until you move more than 5 ft. on a single round. If you can make multiple attacks on your Attack action, you can forgo one or more attacks to set up the weapon. A stabilizing melee weapon can not be used if your movement speed is 0.

Rarity Instead of Cost

This setting uses rarity instead of cost. Items that players are expected to come across regularly are given a typical rarity (i.e. Common) while items that should be treated as individual rewards, such as magic items, are given a special rarity (i.e. Special Common). If you wish to use cost, consider the following values measured in US dollars:

• Common - >$100
• Uncommon - $1,000
• Rare - $10,000
• Very Rare - $25,000
• Legendary/Special Common - $50,000
• Special Uncommon - $100,000
• Special Rare - $500,000
• Special Very Rare - $1,000,000
• Special Legendary - >$10,000,000

Critical Failure

Using this feature, if a creature rolls a 1 on a saving throw, the source of the saving throw scores a critical hit against the creature, incurring the same effects of a critical hit with an attack roll. This is referred to as a "critical failure". The threshold of a critical failure increases with the critical threshold of the source of the saving throw.

Concentrated Breathing

A creature holding their breath requires concentration.

Optional Rule: Critical Resistance and Vulnerability

Using this optional rule, creatures are immune to the effects of a critical hit if they have resistance to the damage it deals, and the critical threshold of attacks against them is doubled if they are vulnerable to the damage the attack deals.

Optional Rule: Alternate Evasion

Using this feature, when a creature has advantage on a saving throw, they are not affected by it in any way on a success, they gain the effects of a success on a failure, and they gain the effects of a normal failure on a critical failure. If a feature such as Evasion would already grant this effect, they instead gain advantage on saving throws of the chosen ability.

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