Homebrew

A series of things custom made for the Realm of Alera campaigns

Favor
A characters unparalleled luck, the favor of a god, eligible divine intervention, a momentary unexplainable factor of the likes that allows one to beat the odds.

Favor can affect the world in mysterious ways, but is elusive, and is lost upon a wish.
 * Push the limit: Get advantage or remove disadvantage on a roll


 * Second chance: Succeed at a saving throw with a DC of 20 or below


 * Seize the initiative: Move to the top of the initiative order


 * Close call: Dodge an attack that would otherwise have hit – has to be called before damage is dealt

Gaining favor:
 * Dead mans trigger: If about to fall unconscious, take an action, reaction or bonus action before doing so. If an action is taken this way, do so at a disadvantage.
 * Great roleplaying
 * Heroic acts of unsolicited self-sacrifice
 * Achievement of important personal goals
 * Succeeding in an important objective (e.g. saving the princess)

Strangling/suffocating: (untested)
Raw: (Suffocating rules are PHB pg. 183.) It takes 1+Con mod minutes to go unconscious from loss of air.

House rule: If someone is strangling you, it is counted as 4+Con mod turns instead, before going unconscious.

How to strangle a target:
 * 1) On the strangler's turn, as an action he can attempt to strangle a target with a contested strength (athletics) or dexterity (acrobatics) check. The initial check has a base modifier based on the situation:
 * 2) * If the target is grappled by another friendly character, the check is carried out with no base dis-/advantages.
 * 3) * If the target is sleeping, has their back turned and is heavily occupied or similar, it is made with disadvantage.
 * 4) * If the victim is not already grappled and aware of you as anything but a friend, this check is made with a -5 modifier and disadvantage.
 * 5) If successful, the target has 4+Con Mod turns of air left. Each action costs an additional turn of air, resulting in a minimum of two turns if one tries to break free or attack on each turn (and has a Con mod. of 0). Note: prone modifiers still apply (dis. to attack rolls, +2 ac from ranged attacks, attacks within 5ft has adv. to hit).
 * 6) * On the target's turn, as an action, a strength (athletics) or dexterity (acrobatics) contest can be made to break free. If successful in breaking free, the target is prone but has escaped both the grapple and the strangling.
 * 7) If unsuccessful, the target gets free from the strangling but is prone.

Feats - revisions and homebrew
See the Feats section

Races:
See Homebrew Races

Materials and customization
The continent of Alera holds a plethora of different materials for crafting or general ingenuity. Some more exotic and magical in nature than others. Some purchased or traded from other continents, other's stolen or mined in the Underdark or worse places, while others again originate from foreign planes entirely.

These materials and their uses stretches as far as the imagination allows - some suck the very magic from the bones of a spellcaster or charge up electrical energy as you use them, discharging the energy upon contact, while others burn your very lungs from the heated air by just being near them or changes your weapon into a spellcasting focus.

In addition, the choice of material is only scratching the surface of what can be done to customize a weapon or armor.

Ranged weapon alterations
Crossbows are more powerful than bows, but needs a full round to be rearmed (6 sec.), therefore they are most often used as an initial shock attack option in battle, where they are seen in the hands of melee soldiers before the clash, or by assassins, relying on a quick execution in the case of discovery. In addition, some crossbows are capable of piercing armor, lowering the AC of the target by a few points if said is based on armor and not dexterity.

Socketing
Not tested yet.

Sorcerer - additional metamagics:
In addition to the metamagics available in the PHB the ones below can be chosen as well.

Maximized Spell:
When you cast a single target spell, you can spend a number of sorcery points equal to the spell's level+1 to treat all damage dice as at maximum value. In the case of AOE or multi target spells, the sorcery points required is double the spell's level. Saves still apply.

This cannot be used in combination with any other metamagics.

Piercing Spell:
When a spell deals damage, you can spend 3 sorcery points to make the spell ignore resistance to its damage type (if the spell deals damage in more than one damage types, choose one). In case of immunity, treat it as resistance instead.

Delayed Spell:
When you cast a spell that has a casting time of 1 action you may spend 2 sorcery points to delay the spell effects until a time of the caster’s choosing*. To activate the spells effect expends a bonus action, but does not count towards the 'spell per turn economy'. The activation is not subtle, as much of the incantation used to create the spell, is repeated to activate it from its dormant state - this can be suppressed using the Subtle Spell metamagic by paying the required 1 sorcery point.

* The spell duration is counted from the moment of activation. Delayed spells require concentration to maintain and cannot be delayed longer than 24 hours, nor during a rest.

Exhausted Spellcasting:
Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Sometimes a spellcaster may be out of the spell slots needed to cast a certain spell. A spell caster has the option to use a part of their own life force to power their spells instead of spell slots.

When a caster attempts to cast a spell without expending a spell slot, they must make a Constitution saving throw. The DC equals 12+ the spell's level. On a failure, the caster suffers a number of levels of exhaustion equal to the spell's level and permanently loses the spell's level in max HP. On a success, the caster suffers half as many levels of exhaustion rounded up (minimum of 1).

This effect can only be used to cast spells that the character is already able to cast and ignores exhaustion immunity/resistance.

Divination
* (a sphere of glass, crystal or mineral)

This spell makes your eyes glow luminescent blue and allows you to see creatures innate magical auras within your natural field of view.

You know the location of all creatures' magical aura within your sight of up to 120ft away - size of the aura is determined by the number and level of available spell slots (or a similar analogy in the other schools, indicating a reservoir of power).

If the creature is within 30ft, you can make an Arcana skill check to determine if it has any spellcasting or spell-like abilities and the school of magic involved (make one check per creature).