Critical Role Campaign 4's new D&D house rules drastically improve combat for the players

Campaign 4 combat just got more interesting

Campaign 4 of Critical Role continues to bring the ingredients that make a Dungeons & Dragons adventure incredible: great roleplay, intriguing characters, and intense combat. The latter played a huge part in the latest episode, with a difficult combat encounter that had Dungeon Master Brennan Lee Mulligan introducing a couple of new homebrew rules for Campaign 4.

[Ed. note: This article contains minor spoilers for episode 8 of Critical Role Campaign 4.]

Homebrew or “house rules” refers to custom modifications or changes that are created by DMs or players to alter the official rules of the game. For example, some homebrew rules add a special effect to critical hits, or alter the initiative order in combat.

Some use these altered rules for narrative flavor, while others include them to reflect the tone of the setting they’re in. For Campaign 4 of Critical Role, Mulligan’s introduction of the Desperate Measure homebrew rules seems like a way to add further drama to combat scenarios. They occur after a player is bloodied — meaning they are at half hit points (HP) or lower. These Desperate Measures were given to the players on sheets, which they briefly looked at during episode 8, "Fanged Revenge." While we don’t know every rule in Desperate Measures, Mulligan introduced one that affects characters dropping to 0 hit points.

Rather than keep rolling death saves until they reach three successes or three failures, if a player has a single death save success and no failures, they can choose to give Heroic Inspiration (the chance to reroll one D20 roll on their turn) to another character who is in initiative with them and in their line of sight.

However, the player can make another choice: to stabilize their dying character as if they had rolled three successful death saves. As Mulligan explains it, this rule gives a dying player character something more to do than just roll death saves on their turn.

On one hand, choosing to stabilize after only one successful death saving throw feels pretty overpowered. The death saves rule already made it pretty hard for characters to fully die in fifth edition, and the 2024 rules make each class perform even better at the table. Coupled with the fact that, as the campaign continues, players grow stronger and gain more money to get healing items, Campaign 4 may just run the risk of combat encounters feeling less deadly.

The most interesting aspect of the “dropping to 0 hit points” rules in D&D 5e is that it puts a measure of burden on the rest of the party. With one of your comrades at the risk of fully dying every round (rolling a 1 means two failed death saves), players are sometimes forced to ignore enemies to rush to the fallen character’s side, exposing themselves to retaliatory hits. Or, at least, they have to burn some healing spells. This house rule, instead, allows the rest of the party to fully focus on the fight, potentially stripping away some truly dramatic moments.

That being said, as explained by Mulligan on episode 8’s Cooldown, it was important for him to really hit home that, as cool as the player characters are, there are plenty of other people within the world of Aramán that are just as experienced, if not more so. Because of that, Mulligan isn’t pulling his punches in the combat encounters, as we've seen with poor Octis in a past episode. The players will often cross blades with people whose lives have been shaped by war and strife. In episode 8, this was represented by the knights of Castle Sloak, who, despite being destitute and wearing rusty armor, still hit pretty damn hard.

This means that, in Mulligan's dastardly vision, his players will go down a lot, especially now that they are just level 3. With that in mind, the new house rules for Campaign 4 don’t feel too drastic after all. Everyone who has played Dungeons & Dragons 5e knows that, while a player character being in the dying stage is nerve-wracking, it can be tedious to wait for your turn only to roll a single death saving throw and pass. With this new rule, combat and dying can feel much more fun and fluid for players and fans watching at home.

We still have yet to find out all the different rules included in Desperate Measures, but it’s great to see that Mulligan isn’t just crafting a brand-new world, he’s also tinkering with the rules of the game. Combat can be a drag in D&D, especially if you’re watching other people play, but these new Critical Role house rules are bound to create some interesting combat encounters during Campaign 4.