5e doesn't have in its core rules a "charge" action similar to 3.5e's where you can both dash and attack on the same round, if your movement is in a straight line to a target.
By a charge action I mean any action that allows a melee attacker to move more than his usual move distance toward the target and also make a melee attack. The way I imagine a charge action, there may be some benefit to the attack from the attacker's momentum, and some penalty for the single-mindedness of purpose.
There is now the Charger feat which allows:
When you use your action to Dash, you can use a bonus action to make one melee weapon attack or to shove a creature.
If you move at least 10 feet in a straight line immediately before taking this bonus action, you either gain a +5 bonus to the attack's damage roll (if you choose to make a melee attack and hit) or push the target up to 10 feet away from you (if you choose to shove and you succeed).
Is there a house-rule variant that would allow a charge action without the feat, but that imposes a logical negative consequence for doing it without the feat? If house-ruling in charging without the feat weakens the feat too much, a corresponding house rule to strengthen the feat would also be welcome.
I would like especially to hear from people who have actual experience house-ruling this.
Best Answer
During the playtest, there was a Charge action that all characters could use. What it allowed was that as an action, you could move up to half your speed, and attack any adjacent creature when you finished moving. This effectivley allowed you to have a movement of 1.5 times your normal movement rate, in exchange for losing extra attack etc.
Besides trying to figure out what half of 25" is, and being open to the odd debate about if it counted as an attack action for extra attack or not, it didn't negatively impact our game much. We did not add any bonus to hit, or a penalty to AC, but if worrying about those modifiers is not a concern, or if you enjoy that sort of thing, I think a +1 in either direction would be fine.
Compared to the feat, there is still a reason to take the feat since you gain an extra 10-15 feet of movement, and can also shove and not only attack. However, I would bump up the feat to also give a +1 to str to compensate for the new houserule.