The following is a variant rule to modify Advantage and Disadvantage for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, part of the larger Reborn World campaign setting. This work-in-progress playtest content is compatible with current 5e rules.

Using Advantage Levels for d20 rolls

Your Advantage Level for a particular attack roll, ability check, or saving throw will determine how many d20’s you roll and whether you take the highest or lowest value rolled.

By default, all rolls normally have an Advantage Level of 0 before taking into account any instances of Advantage or Disadvantage.

When an effect gives you Advantage on a roll or increases your Advantage Level, you increase your Advantage Level for that roll by 1.

When an effect gives you Disadvantage on a roll or decreases your Advantage Level, you decrease your Advantage Level for that roll by 1.

The highest your Advantage Level can be for a single role is +3 and the lowest is -3.

Author’s Notes

I’m pretty sure a lot of people play like this already but I feel it’s worth spelling the option out in full. The normal rule of Advantage and Disadvantage canceling out makes plenty sense to me, if there’s only one instance of each. What doesn’t make sense is having two effects giving Advantage and only one giving Disadvantage, and still having to make a straight roll. If I build a grappling barbarian with three different ways to have Advantage on Athletics checks and my opponent only has one way to impose Disadvantage, I should not lose all of my benefits.

I currently have the Advantage Level cap set at 4 dice. I’m not even sure if someone can reasonably get more instances of Advantage or Disadvantage than that at once. This almost guarantees a high roll at +3, while not guaranteeing absolute failure at -3. Modifiers would still play a huge part. Having Advantage +3 will only make you more consistent at something, you wouldn’t be able to make a DC 25 check if your modifier for that skill is only +2. Meanwhile high power enemies still have crazy high attack roll modifiers, so they’re still quite likely to land hits even at Disadvantage -3.

DM’s, please note that this system is not intended for you to punish your players with multiple levels of Disadvantage. I have mainly included the negative ranks as a way to reward players for working together to debuff big enemies.

Playtest data and feedback is always appreciated!