Post/Author/DateTime	Post
qlawdat 08-23-07, 12:44 PM	I have stolen all of this from a previous thread found here http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=761425&page=2 .. This is more so that I can have a place to link to then for people to add to. But if you have any suggestions feel free to add. And yes I know there are duplicates, and some ideas that dont work, or overlap with others, but thanks for pointing it out anyway. Races: Half-Orcs Half-Orcs receive an extra feat at first level and a +2 racial bonus on Survival checks. They inherit some of the talent of their human ancenstry, and as they are often outcasts in both societies they have learn to rely on their own wits. Reason: There seems to be a consensus that half-orcs are the weakest race in the PHB (in spite of their +2 Str). The bonus feat actually makes them a good choice for many classes, on par with the human (who still has a better attribute average and bonus skill points). Half-Elves Half-Elves receive +4 extra skill points at first level and +1 extra skill points at each level after that. This reflects their inherited talent from the human side. Reason: Half-Elves need a little bump if the XP-penalty for multiclassing is gone Replace the Half-Elf +2 to Gather Info/ Diplomacy with a bonus feat chosen from any of the +2/+2 skill enhancing feats. This better reflects the versatility of the human side. (Note: This was borrowed from someone on the races board. My apologies but I don't remember whom.) For human's I swapped them for their abilities, at first level they have a +2 and a -2 to assign to their stats (and they could also put them in the same stat to cancle themselves out) and every 4 levels they get an additional feat instead of an increase to their stats. This way they get smarter but not stronger (i leave that to the classes they choose) Classes: Ranger animal companion The ranger’s effective druid level is his ranger level -3. Normal: The ranger’s effective druid level is one-half his ranger level. Reason: Make sure the critter still survives higher level play. Divine Grace (Paladin) and Dark Blessing (Blackguard) don't stack. Normal: Both are unnamed abilities, so one might argue they do stack. Reason: With the UA Paladin variants it is possible for an evil Paladin to take Blackguard levels without losing his abilities. This creates an unintendet rules loophole. Fighter: Gain Spot and Listen as class skills. Starting from 11th level, fighters gain a bonus feat every level. Reason: Silence the whining about the fighter. Knights: Gain Diplomacy as a class skill Reason: Why that one was left out is a mystery to me. Clerics: Gain Sense Motive as a class skill Reason: Clerics should be able to pinpoint liars and sinners. Familiars: The familiar's hit point total is either their own or half their master's hp. Reason: It makes Improved Familiars die less often. Sorcerer gains a bonus Metamagic or Heritage Feat at levels 11, 15 and 19. At 20th level a Sorcerer can replace any known spell for another arcane spell read in a magic scroll or a wizard's spellbook by succeeding a Spellcraft check (DC 20 + spell level), doing so takes an hour. To help Sorcerers stand a chance against PrCs. No XP-penalty There are no XP penalties for multiclassing. The whole chapter on page 60 of the PHB is ignored. Reason: The XP penalties were introduced way back in the first playtesting, to keep the spirit of AD&D multiclassing: Either advance in a single class or keep up two classes evenly. Now, in 2007, nobody really cares about AD&D multiclassing anymore. What's worse, Prestige classes changed the whole system, and now the multiclassing penalty is more or less a "No-Prestige-class-penalty". It is clunky and useless. Monks and Paladins Monks and Paladins can reenter their class freely after multiclassing. The respective passages are ignored. Favored Class Without the XP penalty, the favored class of the individual races is reduced to a flavor thing, without any rules effect. This is a good thing. Some of the many reasons are: * no more stereotyping * no more elf = ranger or elf = wizard discussion, as well as gnome = illusionist vs. gnome = bard * classes introduced in splatbooks are not disadvantaged All classes get +2 skill points per level. Two skill points plus int sucks no matter what class so to be fair I bumped them all up. Clerics get access to 3 Doamins while Rangers, Paladins and Druids get acess to 1 Domain Wizards get 4+Int skills per level; Sorcerers have d6 for HP. Even with Int being their high stat, I don't feel that Wizards have enough skill points to go around. Max ranks in Concentration, Spellcraft, Knowledge: Arcana, and Craft Alchemy; you barely have points for Kn: Planes and Religion, let alone the interesting stuff. And I thought the justification for the d4 was that wizards don't do calisthenics, which is fine; but Sorcerers aren't cooped up in towers so why should they suffer? Rangers who have a +6 or higher in their favored enemy should be able to crit the creature type even if they are not normaly able to be crited, these guys spend their entire lives chaseing these creatures, they should know a faster and more effective way of getting them where it hurts. Assassin's can be good, but only in the most holistic of the thoughts, they should consider themselves more favored by god than even palidins.(had players who actualy wanted to do this with a group and i allowed it under these rules and it ended up being a great campaign) Unusual alignment The DM should allow a player to build characters with nonstandard alignments for their class if he can come up with a sound, playable and interesting concept. For example, I could see a wonderful concept for a noble tribal protector, who takes his strength through the spiritual guidance of his ancestors. Perfect for a lawful good barbarian. (Why should rage always involve screaming madly and whacking aimlessly?) Save for clerics, your alignment does not need to be the same or similar to that of your god. What the god represents is the prime reason for worship, not similarities of behaviour or ethics. For example, sailors revere the god of the sea and warriors revere the god of battle irrespective of the gods' or the worshippers' alignmen Everyone, including clerics and other divine casters, may be of any alignment, reguardless of the alignment of the god they worship. That's more or less Eberron's rule. It makes it harder to just say, "Well that cleric is obviuosly corrupt. He can't cast spells." or to use the holy symbol as an excuse for slaughter, "Of course he's evil, he worships [evil god]!" Sorcerer's gain 4 skill points per level (to limit the disadvantage they have vs. a wizard) Clerics may take Weapon Specialization and Greater Weapon Specialization for their deity's favored weapon as if they were a fighter of the same level. Any racial or class feature that grants immunity to a specific effect (poison, disease, fear, spell effects, etc.) now grants a +10 bonus to any saving throw against the effect. Paladins can now Smite Evil a number of times per day equal to 3 + Cha modifier. Sorcerers and bards may swap out previously known spells for new ones at every level. The 3.5 revision allows sorcerers to do this every two levels. I have yet to hear a convincing explanation as to why they shouldn't be allowed to do it at every level up. There are no experience point penalties for multiclassing. Favored classes by race does not apply, and characters may multiclass freely without suffering experience point penalties. Monks and paladins also have no restrictions in their multiclassing. One of the best things that the third edition introduced was the multiclassing system. I prefer to free things up a bit more and give the players as much freedom as possible to pursue their character concept. Skills Cross-class skills do not cost double points. Since the max ranks in a skill get set once it's a class skill for any class, getting the full value out of your skill points is just a matter of careful planning and Retraining. Single-class characters are still limited by max ranks so it's not terribly abusive. This does make the Human Paragon's Adaptive Learning ability obsolete, but the fact that they can choose their own Class Skills more than makes up for it. Apply extra skills from Int bonuses retroactively. If you're making a character above first level, I don't like having to go through all his levels to hit the end product. Granted, this only applies to Wizards most of the time, but it bothers me. Since this means re-adjusting sample characters from books on the fly, I'm considering replacing this with: Repair magic items With a +10 to the DC of the repair (Craft) check, you can restore the magic properties of a broken item. Totally destroyed (disintegrated, molten down, burned to ash, rustmonstered,...) items still can't be repaired, though. Makes sundering less scary and Craft more useful. All characters start with 4 skill points that must be spent in Craft(any), Knowledge(any), Perform(any), Profession(any), any skill in wich those points are spent becomes a class skill for the character. You can spend 2 of this skill points to learn a new language. Great idea to add background mechanics, not every player use it but there are those who enjoy the extra fluff. The cap for all skills is 3+HD. Cross-class skills simply cost 1 point per half rank. Background Skills: pick 2 skills, that will have 2 ranks each at first level. {modified from Conan OGL} Two bonus Knowledge skill points are awarded each time a character advances to another level. However, the area of knowledge is chosen by the DM based on the experiences of the character. For example, a first level party clears out a dungeon full of Goblins and levels up. The DM may choose to award 1 skill point of Knowledge (Dungeonering) and 1 skill point of Knowledge (Local) to each player. All skills ranks are purchased on a 1-to-1 basis, regardless of whether they are Class or Cross-Class skills, but Maximum Ranks are still in force for Class and Cross-Class skills. Skill Synergy: In addition to a +2 Synergy bonus at 5 ranks, for each additional 5 ranks increase the Synergy bonus by +1. (e.g.: at 15 ranks the Synergy bonus would be +4). Certain Skills are combined into one skill for the purpouse of taking ranks. This includes... Open Lock + Disable Device = Disable Device --(Disable Device can already, technically, disable locks, as they are a device. Jamming a lock's even given as an example action Open Lock is something of a legacy skill that no longer really fits, and many d20 system games have done away with the skill for a good reason. Way back, Rogues used to have a "Find/disable traps" skill and an "Open Lock" skill. Now, however, Find/Disable traps has been split into Search and Disable Device, and Disable Device has been expanded to include much more than traps (Really any mechanical or magical device). Open Lock just doesn't make sense anymore.) (only if you don't use the above rule) -Open Lock gains the new ability to "scrub" a lock open as a standard action (as opposed to a Full Round Action), at a -10 to the roll. This is a real ability skilled lockpicks can use to open locks in about 1 second, but it takes a good deal of skill. Cross-class skills do not exist. A fighter gets 2 lonely skill points per level. If he wants to spend those skill points on Craft: Cheesemaking, then I say let him. Every five ranks in tumble give your character a +1 dodge bonus to AC. you loose this bonus if you are flat footed. Feats: Dodge feat If your base attack bonus is +4 or higher, you no longer need to pick a target for this feat. You gain a flat +1 dodge bonus to AC. For the effects of feats and abilities based on dodge, such as Elusive Target, you still need to pick a target. If your base attack bonus is +12 or higher, the dodge bonus is increased to +2. Reason: Speeds up game play because there is one less feat to worry about every round. Weapon Focus The attack bonus from weapon focus is increased by +1 for every 8 points of base attack bonus you have. You may use this feat (and every other feat in the WF chain) with an additional weapon if you train with that weapon for 1 hour a day. Reason: Makes this feat still somewhat worth it at higher levels, makes Greater Weapon Focus superfluous (take a useful feat instead) Weapon Specialization (rewrite) Prerequisite: Weapon Focus with weapon Benefit: The damage you deal with your chosen weapon is increased by +1, +1 for every 4 points of base attack bonus you have. Reason: Makes this feat still somewhat worth it at higher levels, makes Greater Weapon Specialization superfluous (take a useful feat instead) Weapon Proficiency (feat rewrite) Prerequisite: none Benefit: You gain proficiency with one weapon of choice for each point of base attack bonus that you have, at least one. Reason: Make sure the feat is more useful compared to other feats, so it's not just taken by spiked chain trippers. Merge 3 feats into one (simple, martial, exotic) Divine Metamagic (rewrite) Prerequisite: Turn or Rebuke Undead Benefit: By spending some of your daily Turn/Rebuke Undead attempts as a swift action, you can spontaneously apply a metamagic feat that you possess to a spell you cast. You need to spend a number of attempts equal to the spell level increase. You may not boost spells higher than the maximum spell level you are able to cast. Reason: While this reduces the Quicken and Persistant cheese to low-level spells, the added flexibility makes this still a worthwile feat. The feat Skill Focus make the chosen skill a class skill for all the levels the character gains. Toughness The toughness feat grants one bonus hit point per class level / HD, with a minimum of three. (This rolls Toughness and Improved Toughness into one feat, to make it useful at both low and high levels.) If you have selected a feat and later gain that feat as a class feature, you may retrain the original feat without XP cost. Think about a character with the Combat Finesse feat who wants to multiclass into Swashbuckler... If you employ this as a general rule it removes some headache about planning ahead, like discovering some great PrC for an existing character but it gives stuff you already have. Get rid of Martial Weapon Proficiency. If you can swing a longspear or quarterstaff use can use a polearm. same goes for mace and warhammer. Long bows and shortbows are a lot simpler than crossbows. Weapon Finesse: change prerequisite to 'Base Attack Bonus +1 or Sneak Attack 1d6'. It's always bothered me that Rogues can't take this at first level. Improved Critical: The weapon threat range doubles OR the multiplier increases by 1. Additionally, criticals are automatically confirmed. School Focus: You get +1 DC of your chosen school per 5 caster levels to a minimum of one. For the purpose of this bonus, temporary enhancements to caster level, such as an orange ioun stone, don't count. School Focus, Greater: This functions as School Focus but you instead get +1 DC per 2 caster levels. Weapon Focus: You gain +1 accuracy with your chosen weapon per 4 points of base attack bonus to a minimum of one. Weapon Focus, Greater: This functions as Weapon Focus but you instead get +1 accuracy per 2 points of BAB. Weapon Specialization: You gain +1 damage and an additional +1 damage per 3 fighter levels. Weapon Specialization, Greater: This functions as Weapon Specialization, but instead grants +4 damage and an additional +1 damage per fighter level. Weapon Finesse now has no prerequisites. Feats gained every odd level instead of every 3rd level. Haven't used this, but has been proposed for Conan. Instead of Multiclass penalty, reward staying in Favored class by giving a bonus feat for 1,5, and 10 levels of Favored class. {Conan OGL} Power Attack This is not a feat, it's a feature. Everybody can do it as a standard combat maneuver, including all NPCs and monsters. If this feat is a prerequisite, it is automaticly fulfilled. Reason: I never understood why they didn't make this a standard maneuver. I played other RPGs where that's the case for years and I really wondered why D&D characters are unable to do it unless they pay a feat. Note that this actually helps fighters, as they get to the interesting feats faster. Heighten Spell Removed. Instead, adopt the following rule: The spell level of a spell is the level of the slot where it is cast. Examples: Cast Magic Missile as usual, it's a first level spell. Cast Magic Missile in a 3rd level slot, it's a 3rd level spell. Cast Empowered Magic Missile in a 3rd level slot, it's also a 3rd level spell. Cast a Sudden Maximized Fireball from a 3rd level slot, it's a third level spell. Reason: First, this removes a feat that nobody ever takes. Second, it clears up a lot of confusion about metamagic and spell level, level slots etc. Eschew Materials Another feat that should be default. Really. The idea that bat guano is necessary for a fireball is stupid. And yes, material components do serve to balance the wizard, but honestly: If the game balance depends on a character to throw bat guano or eat living spiders, something is wrong. Very wrong. It's unbelievable D&D made it to 3.5th edition without getting rid of this. Combat: Scimitar and Longsword are finessable weapons Reason: Help the elven sword dancer / swashbuckler / pirate archetype Shortsword and longsword deal slashing and piercing damage (note: dagger already does) Reason: While a longsword is usually used for slashing and a shortsword for piercing, it's at least possible to use the weapon the other way. Also, you could bash with the hilt for 1d4 bludgeoning damage Use Reflex Save for Initiative checks; applying Improved Initiative normally. This got dropped rather quickly, since there's so many ways to increase Reflex Saves that shouldn't affect initiative (Cloak of Resistance, anyone?); I do like the idea that a 12th-level fighter should go faster than a 1st-level one, but in practice it added too much complexity, because I had to classify each Reflex bonus as 'Initiative Applicable' or not. Unarmed Damage Decrease: Unarmed attacks now deal damage equal to strength modifier. Old: Unarmed attacks would deal damage based on size, (small=1d4, medium=1d6, large=1d8, etc.) plus strength modifier as with all melee weapons. Reason: Weapons cost money, therefore should logicaly be better then your fists. Why would someone use a weapon when thier fists could do just as good? At the mere cost of a feat damage becomes lethal. Also this makes the monk a more reasonable class. Monk Weapons: Several weapons are now classified under thier own feat, monk weapons. Suchweapons inlcude shuriken, sai, quarterstaff, etc. Reason: It's a differant flavor, therefore they should have thier own weapon category. Bonus rule: Sai's now posess the added bonus of increasing your AC by +1 for every sai you wield on hand. The reasoningis simple, sai were designed to be defensive weapons. That's why they're shaped the way they are to block blades and things. For a measly 1d3 damage, you better believe it's going to do something awesome like increase your AC. Two-Weapon Defense AC bonuses doubled Two-Weapon Defense stinks, exp. compared to Improved Buckler Defense (or whatever that feat is called: they're all in CW). I doubled the bonuses for all the feats in the TWD tree. This makes them - at least sometimes - useful feats. Feint use BAB + Cha or Bluff to perform, suffer -5 penalty after each attempt against same opponent during the battle. This only applies to standard use of Feint, dirty tricks like playing dead, dirt in the eyes are handled normally. Crit threats are removed. If you roll in the crit range, its a crit -quickens things. Spells The spell Keen Edge and the Weapon Enhancement Keen Edge now increase the threat range of the weapon by 1 and stacks with the feat Improved Critical. All classes get Listen, Spot and Knowledge: Monster as class skills. (unless they are blind or deaf or something?) Magic Resistance: All characters gain damage reduction towards magic based attacks equal to thier wisdom modifier. (For example, the cleric with an 18 wisdom reduces all magic damage done to him by -4.) Reason: To bring magic down a notch. Return haste it's old glory to provide extra standard action- haste was horribly raped when they made it a melee focused spell.... why would a wizard use this on himself? i hope not to run into the thick of battle with his +2 to stomp some arse. 0 level spells can be spontaneously cast. No memorization or preparation required. 0 level spells gain a bonus equal to 1st level bonus spells for high attribute. The spell compendium institutes a vast boost to the powers of spellcasting classes. To reduce this effect somewhat, and support characters really "flavoring" their choices, these spells are initially unavailable. Researching a new spell, whether by study, method or meditation, costs 100XP per spell level. This cost applies to all classes, not just the wizard. Only the wizard may choose to use normal spell-research methods instead. The only spells exempt from this are those encountered in-game and for which the character succeeds in tricky skill checks to memorize as much detail about the spell cast as possible, in which case the XP cost is reduced. Other: At first level all characters have 2 feats (instead of 1) and 2 extra skill points, they can spend this skill points on Craft, Perform, Profession or Knowledge (any). To add some background mechanics. Scimitar = light weapon Max hp at all levels for PCs and Villains, average for critters Two weapon fighting feat includes effect of improved and greater two weapon fighting Shortsword, longsword and dagger dealing slashing OR piercing damage. I also got rid of multiclassing penalties, so to keep the flavor of Favored Classes I ruled that the first time a character takes a level in his favored class he gets a bonus feat, which should related to that class. Humans & Half-Elves get a bonus feat the first time they take a level in a second base class. Characters do not have 'negative HP', instead, damage after a character is reduce to 0 HP is applied to Con. I like the idea of this because it clarifies that 'Dead = 0 Con', not 'Dead = 0 Con OR -10 HP', and also because it solves the problem of people taking mortal wounds (-9 HP), getting hit with a Cure Serious, and popping back up. I ran a game with a Drow Cleric with Leadership, who just stood behind her minions whipping out CLWs as appropriate. It was like whack-a-mole. Still, this is a lot of bookkeeping, and it really hurts the PCs a lot more than the NPCs. In addition to +1 to a single attribute every 4 levels, characters can +1 to ALL attributes every 5 levels. I ripped this off (from Conan) and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I think that a 20th level fighter should be SOMEWHAT more Charismatic than when he started; you could argue that's what Belts of Magnificence are for, but I think <b>that</b> particular item has started enough fights for now, don't you? In the end this was too much complexity, as it meant re-adjusting every single monster on the fly; a simple idea in practice (for every 10 HD, get +1 to all attacks, damages, saves, AC, and increase HP by the HD) but that's more work than you'd think, and that's without taking multiple natural weapons into account. Yechhh. Revamped Damage Threshold: Whenever you are dealt damage equal to or more then your constitution score, you must make a fortitude save equal to the damage dealt. Failure results in immideate death. Old version: You had to make a fortitude save of 15 whenever you were dealt 50 or more damage. Reason: To bring higher level characters back to mortal level, to make combat more gritty, and to make players realize being a brute doesn't solve everything. Full Plate Improved Full plate grants DR 2/- and light fortification. This only applies to armor that actually counts as heavy armor - mithril full plate, for example, doesn't grant this bonus. Reason: Flavor, increase the use of heavy armor at high levels, make people in full plate actually somewhat scary. Anything can be enchanted Want a +2 flaming rusty old pitchfork? Go for it; it's your XP! Revamped crafting so that if you have a workshop and all the goodies, you can automaticly craft 2000g worth of stuff during 8 hours of work, if your in the field and have the basic of tools, (i.e. traveling alchemist kit, you can craft up to 500g for standard tools and 800g for masterwork stuff. the support liking people perfer to make their own stuff so they can give it their own flair but what adventure party wishes to stay in a town in the middle of a fast paced campaign while he crafts. now of course those who are crafting stuff in the field do tend to make a lot of noise and attract a lot of unwanted attention so thats the sacrifice for it. Variant for stat rolling 4d6, drop lowest, as normal. Before assigning your stats, check them: 1. If you have no score above 13 and/or the total of your modifiers are +0 or below, you can roll again (as usual). If you want to keep them for some reason, look 2.. 2. If the total of the modifiers is +4 or lower, get a bonus feat at level 1. 3. If the total of modifiers is +5 to +9, nothing changes. 4. If the total of modifiers is +10 or more, you are "highly giftet". You may keep the stats, but you don't get the feat you normally receive at level 1 (your stats rock, shut up). For those who don't like point buy but want a little more balance for ext All characters (PCs, Monsters and NPCs) start the game with 2 feats instead of 1. Already play tested and not game breaking at all. All medium size characters (PCs, Monsters and NPCs) have 10 Base Hit Points (at level 1), for each size over medium the character has 2 more hit points (12 HP for Large, 14 HP for Huge, and so on), for each size below medium the character has 2 less hit points (8 HP for Small, 6 hp for Tiny, and so on). First Hit Die is not maximized, must be rolled. If the character changes his size be any means this hit points changes as well. Characters start out with more HP at low levels, but they don't die in one critical hit... already play tested, not game breaking. About 6th level the extra HP is barely noticed... around 12th level it's insignificant. Recharging items: You may recharge an item with a total number of charges, such as a staff, so long as it has at least 1 charge remaining and you have the appropriate item creation feat. The cost per charge is half the cost to create the item. You may not, however, recharge something that has a certain number of daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly uses. For example, a wand of cure light wounds with 1 charge remaining could be recharged for 3.75 gold 0.15 EX per charge and fully recharging the wand would cost 183.75G & 7.35EX. (Keep a total of fractional EX for this purpose.) Add Base Reflex Save to Initiative. Feats/bonuses that improve initiative or Reflex saves only apply to relavent feature. This way higher level characters are more apt to go first, yet removes confusion of bonuses applying where. {from Conan OGL} Add Cha Bonus to starting wealth roll. i.e. 6d4 + Cha x 10 for Paladin. When using Class Defense Rule, Class Defense does not apply when Flat-Footed or denied Dex/Dodge bonuses. When wearing Armor apply best AC, so when Flat-footed you get AC from Armor (unless Class is better and have Uncanny Dodge), and Class vs. Touch. When using Armor as DR and Class Defense at the same time, increase the weapon damages by one die-step, include Natural attacks, but not unarmed attacks. When DR reduces Damage to 0, take 1pt of Non-Lethal Damage. This only applies if you can take non-lethal damage and critical blows. Death & Dying Instead of dying at -10 hp and dropping at -1, players must make a fortitude save DC 1/2 their negative hp as soon as they drop and again at the same initiative count in each of the following four rounds. Failure means instant death. Success means they take 2 points of "dying" damage. If the character survives 5 successive saving throws, she stabilizes. The normal rules concerning automatic success and failure apply The purpose of this rule is to reduce metagaming (gee he dropped after receiving 2 damage and can be left dying for at least a few more rounds), since even a saving throw you can only fail on a 1, if performed 5 times, has a 22% chance of killing you. The second purpose is to reduce lethality on serious hits, as long as your allies can heal you extremely quickly. Thirdly, the variant should scale as the characters level and favor those who are hardier such as the fighter. Finally, the rule is extremely simple (five fort save s vs. DC 1/2 neg hitpoints, lose 2 on success, death on failure) compared to alternative implementations I've considered. Simplicity is important. Permit buying and creating odd-bonus magic item stat enhancers (to increase the availability of cheap but very useful items, and to increase fine-grainedness, and to slightly reduce the nastiness of MAD) To reduce the harshness of starting a new character, or the pain of being resurrected and losing a level, and to further simplify the determination of XP gain of a party of level N with a few individuals at level N-1 for the DM, instead of using the normal XP gain tables, simply calculate for the highest level and mulitply by 1.5 for all characters a level lower. This is slightly faster than the DMG rules, and might be explained away that you learn even faster when watching those more experiences than you handling real challenges. It, as a side effect I quite encourage, reduces the relevance of other XP costs such as those inherent in item creation. Action Points. We use action points as per the Eberron Campaign Setting. However, to increase speed of play and remove the incentive to metagame in the current rules (normally you choose after you roll but before you hear the consequence of that roll - except that players actually paying attention to rolls can often easily determine what they need), we roll the action point die TOGETHER with the d20 roll it improves. To compensate for their admitted reduced utility because of this change, action points are increased to d8 (and feats further improving an action point instead of improving from d6 to d8 now improve from d8 to d10). Alignments are not set. they are values. ex1. Max is Chaotic 4, lawful 3, good 7, evil 1... so he is chaotic good. If a PC does a strong act towards any of the alignments he gains point(s) in that alignment. Ex2. Zack is chaotic 3, lawful 3, evil 2, good 8. Because chaotic and lawful are equal, they cancel. Zack is neutral good. -makes alignment more interesting. All stats start at 10 +/- racial modifiers. Maximum stats are 18 +/- racial modifiers. Characters may assign up to 20pts to their stats or may sacrifice 4pts for an additional starting feat or bonus +4 skill points ( bonus skill points are not multiplied). To get an 18 would require spending 8 points, two 18s would require 16. Charisma now has a use other than giving bonuses to skills! Action points at each level are now 4 + 1/2 character level + Cha modifier. This only uses your *inherent* charisma, much like the skill bonus from int only uses your inherent intelligence. Thus, a Cloak of Charisma won't give you more AP. This finally gives Charisma some use for everyone, and prevents its use as a dump stat. The guy with the greater force of personality is more likely to be pulling the heroic stunts than the guy who can't work up the courage to talk to a girl or who nobody notices walking onto a stage who goes "testing, 1, 2, 3..." that no one ever notices is there. It's the guy with the heroic personality who everyone takes notice of who is more likely to jump towards the dragon's maw and throw a grenadelike weapon down its throat Natural attacks can now do 0 damage, instead of minimum 1. This means that rats can no longer kill commoners unless someone gives them some serious buffs. Hurrah for common sense! All spellcasting classes that need to memorize spells may memorize a number of spells equal to their spells per day, and may cast spontaneously from that pool of spells. Clerics and Druids can also use their spontaneous casting ability, as long as they have a spell slot of appropriate level to burn. To maintain the uniqueness of their class, sorcerers can cast one extra spell per day of each level, except for the highest level spell they know. This is a rule borrowed from Unearthed Arcana. It's designed for those who don't like the "fire and forget" style of magic that most spellcasters are bound by. All PCs and important NPCs gain a Defense Bonus equal to ½ their Base Attack Bonus. This defense bonus is lost whenever a character loses his Dexterity bonus to Armor Class. The defense bonus cannot exceed the maximum Dexterity bonus allowed by a character’s armor. Another rule modified from Unearthed Arcana. Defense bonus allows characters to avoid getting hit as they improve without having to load up on extra armor and magical items. It's best used in lower magic or swashbuckling-style campaigns. Heavy armor takes at least one person helping out to equip. I would also like to see heavy armor mean something more then +8 to your AC. Needing a squire to equip it makes it a bit more special (it also slows things down, so I would say that it should also add a good deal of damage reduction, maybe 4/-) (works with the above rule) Medium armor provides DR 1/-, Heavy armor provides DR 2/- (in addition to it's normal AC bonus). Multiple DRs stack; a barbarian with DR 1/- from his class wearing a breastplate has a DR 2/-. Cast stoneskin on him, and damage first goes through the 10/adamantine of the stoneskin, with any extra being applied against the DR 2/- from class and armor. Downtime rules. Two of my DMs use similar rules: One downtime action is equal to a week, or a month (by DM). Spend one action to: * Learn 1 rank in a skill in which you have less than 4 ranks. Whether the skill is cross-class or not is irrelevant. * Change out a feat you already have for a feat you want; you still have to qualify of course. * Swap out a spell known if you are a spontaneous spellcaster like a Sorcerer Shield bonuses stack From Iron Heroes: Hit points are 1D4+remainder of die (so, d8 is d4+4, d12 is d4+8, etc.) I think this is my favorite house rule. It makes sense that a barbarian should get more hit points then a wizard. So this way there is still some randomness to leveling, and a reason to roll. And yeah I know melee types tend to have a higher CON, but so what? No fighter type wants to roll lower then the wizard.
koiulpoi 08-23-07, 01:52 PM	I suggest getting your own free webspace rather than using the Wizards boards and taking up public viewing space. I suggest GooglePages.com. PM me if it needs an invite.