Get Up Stand Up

Continuing the probably hopeless goal of posting something every day: let's try some House Rules.

There are a few things that annoy me about D&D 5 - some of which I have theories about how to fix. (Mostly, though, I have to say the 5E rules work pretty well. I generally get them.) One that bugs me is the way opportunity attacks work. I have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that as long as you are adjacent to someone you can move around at will. I don;t see why the 3x version wasn't kept - you get an opportunity attack whenever anyone moves in your threatened space. That worked fine - it an't even confusing - I don't quite know why they changed.

Still - I can talk myself into the current system, and it works fine. (As long as you maintain contact with your foe, why can't you spin all around? unless they have an ability to hold you in place. So all right...) But one thing I can't accept: how can they let someone stand up from prone without incurring an opportunity attack? I am trying to even imagine that, as a real thing: how can you stand up and protect yourself at the same time? unless you have some special ability to do so? or you devote your action (and all the real world actions that implies) to defending yourself? I can't believe it - and think it would be fat better to adopt a house rule like this:

Ane movement that costs more than 5 feet for a single square (using squares as the measure - I know, theater of the mind! - well, wait for it) incurs an opportunity attack for an adjacent foe. So - standing up normally costs half your movement - opportunity attack. So would difficult terrain - but that makes sense too. Imagine you are fighting in brush - on ice - perched on a roof - in mud or running water - moving and fighting at the same time can't be easy. OAs are a fine way to reflect that difficulty. (And since these rules are made irrespective of whether you are making a grid, they work - difficult terrain is always double movement; standing up is always half your movement. So it still works.) And, of course, feats work - agile lets you stand for 5 feet - eliminating the OA - which makes sense. Or you can use your disengage action - or some of the other feats that suppress OAs. All fits nicely with what is in the books, I think. So I say - do it.