Variant Rules (Mass Effect Supplement)

Variant Rules

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

Gradual Encumbrance

Inventory management is an involved act of balancing not only physical weight, but accessibility and bulk. How weighed down a creature becomes is measured by their Encumbrance penalty. Each time a creature's total carrying mass exceeds a multiple of twice their Strength modifier in kilograms, their Encumbrance penalty increases by 1.

A creature's Encumbrance penalty is subtracted from their Proficiency bonus. If a creature's Encumbrance penalty would exceed their Proficiency bonus, they gain a penalty to their d20 rolls, AC, and saving throw DCs equal to the difference, and a penalty to their movement speed equal to 5 times as many feet. If this reduces a creature's movement speed to 0, they are restrained until they are no longer exceeding this limit.

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.

All armor increases the wearer's Encumbrance penalty by a certain amount, listed in the AC column of the armor's table. 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, vulnerabilities, immunity, and other decreases to damage are calculated. A critical hit ignores the target's damage threshold.

Shield, Barrier, and Armor Points

Some creatures have access to special protection in the form of shield points, barrier points, or armor points, refereed to universally as defense points. Defense points are not affected by a creature's damage threshold, resistances, vulnerabilities, or immunities, and instead have their own. When a creature takes damage, it is dealt to their defense points first in the following order.

• Shield Points: formally known as "kinetic barriers", shield points are created by artificial mass effect generators, and typically take on a blue or orange coloration. Shield points are vulnerable to acid, lightning, and slashing damage.
• Barrier Points: formally known as "kinetic fields", barrier points are generated by organic biotics, are typically larger and less dense than shields, and typically take on a purple coloration. Barrier points are vulnerable to cold, radiant, and bludgeoning damage.
• Armor Points: heavy armor plating is one of the oldest defenses in history, with modern variants allowing for full flexibility. Armor points are vulnerable to fire, radiant, and piercing damage.

Necrotic, poison, and psychic damage ignore defense points.

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.
• Destructive - A weapon with the destructive property fires a field of projectiles with a single attack. If the wielder is proficient in the weapon, they add their proficiency bonus to the weapon's damage roll instead of their attack roll. Additionally, on a miss, but not a critical miss, the target takes half as much damage.
• 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.
• Very Heavy - Medium creatures have disadvantage on attack rolls with very heavy weapons. Small creatures have disadvantage on attack rolls with very heavy weapons and treat them as if they had the stabilizing property. If the weapon already had the stabilizing property, setting the weapon up must be done as two consecutive actions.
• Heat - A weapon with the heat property gains 1 heat point each time an attack is made with it, or 2 heat if it has the long reload property, and loses 1 heat point at the end of each of the wielder's turns an attack is not made with it. If a weapon with the heat property gains heat points equal to the number listed in weapon's the heat property, attacks can not be made with it until it has 0 heat points. If a weapon with the heat property has the reload or long reload property, it lacks the "X shots" field, reloading the weapon uses a thermal clip instead of traditional ammunition, and reloading the weapon causes it to lose all of its heat points.
• Explosive - A weapon with the explosive property targets every creature and object within a number of feet listed in the weapon's explosive property of the targeted point, making a single attack roll that is compared to every creature and object's AC.

Decryption Skill

The Intelligence (Decryption) skill replaces the Int (Arcana) skill in this setting, as magic is not an aspect of the Mass Effect universe. The Decryption skill allows a creature to manipulate powered devices in unauthorized ways, such as hacking a door open or reverse-engineering an encoded message.

Electronics Skill

The Intelligence (Electronics) skill replaces the Int (Religion) skill in this setting, as religion is a much more minor aspect of this setting than in a setting like base 5e where the existence of gods is undeniable. The Electronics skill can be used to repair or manipulate technology physically, such as powering a broken container to gain access to its contents or hot-wiring a vehicle.

Critical Hits, Misses, Successes, and Failures

If the d20 roll for an attack is a 20, the attack hits regardless of any modifiers or the target's AC and you roll the weapon's damage die twice and add the results together when determining the attack's damage. This is called a critical hit.

If the d20 roll for an attack is a 1, the attack misses regardless of any modifiers or the target's AC and you gain 1 inspiration. This is called a critical miss.

If the d20 roll for a saving throw is a 20, you succeed regardless of the saving throw's DC, and you can make an attack against the source of the attack as a reaction. This is called a critical success.

If the d20 roll for a saving throw is a 1, you fail regardless of the saving throw's DC and you gain 1 inspiration. This is called a critical failure.

More Actions

---

Back to Main Page → 5e Homebrew → Campaign Settings → Mass Effect