Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Ghenesh 02-10-06, 07:43 AM	I started a gestalt campaign with my friends, and i have been implementing tons of house rules just to try them out, and it's working just fine. There's one particular house rule that i want to describe here. The idea of this rule was born from the need of realism and to balance a bit starting HP, so every character starts out with 10 HP and then gains its Hit Dice... BUT if you get your HP reduced between 0 and 9 you get a penalty for every single throw as if HP has an Ability Modifier. 9-8 -1 7-6 -2 5-4 -3 3-2 -4 1-0 -5 And get her tactical speed reduced by 20% for every negative modifier, so in HP 0 and 1 the player has no movement, only 5' step. Also had to implement that the feat "Die Hard" makes the player ignore all the movement penalties. So a wizard is starting with an average of 15 hp instead of 5 and the Fighter with 22 instead of 12... they are now about levels 5 and 7 and things are starting to get balanced, but i think is a great rule and going to use it in every campaign i DM, it encourage players to roleplay their wounded char and helps a bit with the start.
AT-AT Assault 02-10-06, 08:42 PM	Altough Im a rare poster here, I'll rate this. Thats pretty good, its sound logical lead up to the unconscious state of negative health. I've always thought it odd that a person blinks from good active condition to complete uselessness in the span of one Health Point(I use the term Health as some people use HP and some use WP). So, yeah, this slow addition of penalties shows how people start wearing out. I like, and I think I might use it.
Ghenesh 02-12-06, 08:59 AM	Glad you like it, it really works fine. Anyway there's always the posibility of dying from a massive blow, but the wound level makes it a bit more fun when it happens. Just for clarification when a character has 0 or 1 hp she has no movement so she can't make any kind of move action. There's another house rule i like, and it helps to balance things a bit, it's about Saving Throws, you know there's only two kinds: Good and Poor, so i made up a Normal Saving Bonus and it's obviously between those 2, it helps to nerf a bit some powerful classes (cleric, druid, etc) and boost a bit the weaker classes. So this is the deal: Level Poor Normal Good 1.- +0 +1 +2 2.- +0 +2 +3 3.- +1 +2 +3 4.- +1 +3 +4 5.- +1 +3 +4 6.- +2 +3 +5 7.- +2 +4 +5 8.- +2 +4 +6 9.- +3 +5 +6 10.- +3 +5 +7 11.- +3 +5 +7 12.- +4 +6 +8 13.- +4 +6 +8 14.- +4 +7 +9 15.- +5 +7 +9 16.- +5 +7 +10 17.- +5 +8 +10 18.- +6 +8 +11 19.- +6 +9 +11 20.- +6 +9 +12 And leaving the core classes like this: Class Fort Ref Will Barbarian Good Normal Poor (+Ref) Bard Normal Good Normal (+Fort, -Will) Cleric Normal Poor Good (-Fort) Druid Normal Poor Good (-Fort) Fighter Good Normal Poor (+Ref) Monk Good Good Good (No change) Paladin Good Poor Normal (+Will) Ranger Good Normal Normal (+Ref, -Will) Rogue Normal Good Poor (+Fort) Sorcerer Poor Normal Good (+Ref) Wizard Poor Poor Good (No change) It always sounds rash to house rule something like saving throws, because is something so... core... so basic, but actually the difference is very little, it's only +3 or -3 at level 20. I have already checked out what the numbers are and there is not much of a diference. If you can see i gave Normal Will Save to every late spell caster (Paladin, Ranger and Bard), Normal Reflex save to Mele combatants (and the sorcerer) and Normal Fortitude Save to Supportive Combatants. Another house rule i like is giving Fighter, Sorceror and Paladin a 4+Int bonus skill points per level (instead of 2+Int), and there's no much diference either, because their class skills selection is so limited my players usually tend to spend those 2 extra points in cross class skills or roleplaying skills (profession, craft, knowledge, sense motive, etc). Some of the house rules i have been trying: * Give spellcasters bonus level 0 spells for the significant ability score. * Monk and Barbarian gain only 5' for each speed bonus (it's 10), elves have 35' speed (goes to 30' with light armor and to 20' with something heavier) and dwarves 25' (don't lose their speed). * There's no such thing as material components unless they cost more than 1gp (eschew materials for every spell). * You dont need to confirm a natural 20 attack roll, it's always a critical hit (this is abused a bit with power attack). * Gnomes have scent and they have wizard(ilusionist) as favored class besides bard. * Half Orcs have Fast Healing 1. * If you succesfully grapple or trip someone during their move action (provoking an AoO) that character loses her move action. You can trip someone while she is standing from prone with the AoO it provokes and she looses her move action and falls prone again. * Withdraw is a standard action and you can move your normal speed with it, you still have your move action. * There's no such thing as Skill Synergy. So, what do you say? i haven't seen any problems with these house rules so far, but i'd like some input to prevent some abusing or extreme nerfing. PS: excuse my crappy english.
Rogue Newb 02-12-06, 10:44 AM	scent is fine, but fast healing is a little overpowering. They balance each other but unless every race gets an ability like that, they will be ahead of the curve.
AT-AT Assault 02-12-06, 04:48 PM	Glad you like it, it really works fine. Anyway there's always the posibility of dying from a massive blow, but the wound level makes it a bit more fun when it happens. Just for clarification when a character has 0 or 1 hp she has no movement so she can't make any kind of move action. There's another house rule i like, and it helps to balance things a bit, it's about Saving Throws, you know there's only two kinds: Good and Poor, so i made up a Normal Saving Bonus and it's obviously between those 2, it helps to nerf a bit some powerful classes (cleric, druid, etc) and boost a bit the weaker classes. So this is the deal: Level Poor Normal Good 1.- +0 +1 +2 2.- +0 +2 +3 3.- +1 +2 +3 4.- +1 +3 +4 5.- +1 +3 +4 6.- +2 +3 +5 7.- +2 +4 +5 8.- +2 +4 +6 9.- +3 +5 +6 10.- +3 +5 +7 11.- +3 +5 +7 12.- +4 +6 +8 13.- +4 +6 +8 14.- +4 +7 +9 15.- +5 +7 +9 16.- +5 +7 +10 17.- +5 +8 +10 18.- +6 +8 +11 19.- +6 +9 +11 20.- +6 +9 +12 And leaving the core classes like this: Class Fort Ref Will Barbarian Good Normal Poor (+Ref) Bard Normal Good Normal (+Fort, -Will) Cleric Normal Poor Good (-Fort) Druid Normal Poor Good (-Fort) Fighter Good Normal Poor (+Ref) Monk Good Good Good (No change) Paladin Good Poor Normal (+Will) Ranger Good Normal Normal (+Ref, -Will) Rogue Normal Good Poor (+Fort) Sorcerer Poor Normal Good (+Ref) Wizard Poor Poor Good (No change) It always sounds rash to house rule something like saving throws, because is something so... core... so basic, but actually the difference is very little, it's only +3 or -3 at level 20. I have already checked out what the numbers are and there is not much of a diference. If you can see i gave Normal Will Save to every late spell caster (Paladin, Ranger and Bard), Normal Reflex save to Mele combatants (and the sorcerer) and Normal Fortitude Save to Supportive Combatants. Another house rule i like is giving Fighter, Sorceror and Paladin a 4+Int bonus skill points per level (instead of 2+Int), and there's no much diference either, because their class skills selection is so limited my players usually tend to spend those 2 extra points in cross class skills or roleplaying skills (profession, craft, knowledge, sense motive, etc). Some of the house rules i have been trying: * Give spellcasters bonus level 0 spells for the significant ability score. * Monk and Barbarian gain only 5' for each speed bonus (it's 10), elves have 35' speed (goes to 30' with light armor and to 20' with something heavier) and dwarves 25' (don't lose their speed). * There's no such thing as material components unless they cost more than 1gp (eschew materials for every spell). * You dont need to confirm a natural 20 attack roll, it's always a critical hit (this is abused a bit with power attack). * Gnomes have scent and they have wizard(ilusionist) as favored class besides bard. * Half Orcs have Fast Healing 1. * If you succesfully grapple or trip someone during their move action (provoking an AoO) that character loses her move action. You can trip someone while she is standing from prone with the AoO it provokes and she looses her move action and falls prone again. * Withdraw is a standard action and you can move your normal speed with it, you still have your move action. * There's no such thing as Skill Synergy. So, what do you say? i haven't seen any problems with these house rules so far, but i'd like some input to prevent some abusing or extreme nerfing. PS: excuse my crappy english. Well For one, the Medium Saves as I call em, already exist. They are in the D20M and SW D20 RPGs, so thats cool. Skills, yeah, give 'em skills, its not like its gonna break the game. Dropping the Monk's speed will significantly alter the usefulness of the class(I'd say leave it, but the Barb only gets it once, so no biggie for the Barb). Crits should always be confirmed(though some class features, like the Soldier's Critical Strike from D20M could skip confirmation). Skill synergy isnt a biggie(unless you're using a skill with like 5 synergies), abuse should be left to GM discretion.
Ghenesh 02-13-06, 09:25 AM	* Multiclassing XP penalty is now: 10% , 20% , 40% and 80%; not 20% for every unbalanced class. * You can multiclass however you want, even have 2 PrC at the same time (it's gestalt) but every single class counts to calculate multiclassing exp penalties. * Rolling a natural 1 in an attack roll finishes your turn. * Sorcerers gain Known Spells from it's INT modifier as shown in the table of extra spells per day. Low Int modifier doesn't stop them from knowing their normal Spells Known. * There's no such thing as Psionics. That's pretty much all of it, about giving Fast Healing 1 to half-orcs, Rogue Newb you're right, it's quite an advantage... but Half Orcs are a bit below the other races so i made that to tempt my players to play a half orc, they haven't fall for this yet. Once i've proved in my capaign if it's really unbalancing i'll make a veredict, but thanks for the input i'm now specially aware of this. AT-AT Assault, about monk speed, i have always found stupid a guy running at 60 feet per second, that's a human monk level 18 running (x4) at 72 kmph (30f base + 60f monk)... the fastest human competition (100m dash) has amazingly fast and incredibly specialized and trained people running at 42 kmph. With my house rule the human monk gets at level 18 a tactical speed of 60 feet (30f base + 30f monk), so he can dash (x4) at 48 kmph, that means faster than any olimpic champion but not that much. Besides, we all know that all speed upgrades are made in tenths for a system reason, to play in boards with figurines with both 5' squares or 10' squares (for a larger field), but we always play on a 5' squared board so we don't have that problem. You're right, Monk Speed is one of their most basic skills but it just doesn't feel right, anyway if you want speed you can always get magical enhancement. I didn't know there was already a Medium Save Bonus Progression, if you have it can you post it to compare it with the one i made out, because i made out this one over some numerical basis of the Poor and Good Save. I know you can't demand that much logic on DnD, with magic and stuff... but there are Extraordinary skills way beyond logic. I would also love to play combat on an hexagonal field, but how do you calculate an emanation or explosion? from a joint or from an hexagon?
Esponer 02-13-06, 11:19 AM	1. The HP buffer. Nice idea thematically, and fairly insignificant in terms of balance, though there may be some issues. Do all creatures get this HP buffer? Is it the same size for all creatures, or is it larger/smaller for creatures of different sizes? 2. Medium saves. Yes. I also fully support this, and am entirely in agreement with your changes to class saves. I really think it's insane that there is no Medium save in the core D&D game. Paladins are as lacking in their willpower as barbarians? Fighters are as poor with their reflexes as wizards? 3. More skills! Again, I'm fully in support of this. Personally, I like skills and I'd really love to see them used more. I think I might consider trying out a house rule where everyone has four additional skill points per level. It's a massive boost on how many skills people have, but… I think I'd like to see how it worked. I just want people to use skills, rather than just thwacking things. 4. Bonus cantrips. I'm fine with this really. I'd almost be tempted to allow higher level sorcerers to use their cantrips at will (either all of them, or a few of them). 5. Changes to speed. No chance. Why on earth should elves be faster? Slowing monks is seriously ruining their abilities. Also, I don't think a move action is really one second – more like two, anyway. And this is a fantasy game. 6. No material components. This I'm not really in favour of. I think I'd support giving sorcerers Eschew Materials at first level, as sorcerers could do with a bit more fun stuff, but I'd keep it from wizards as a standard. Material components can be fun, and they're also something of a balancing factor. 7. No confirmation on critical hits. No, I don't really support this one. Changes the mechanics of the game too much and unbalances various things, as well as rendering some spells and abilities useless. 8. Changes to the gnome. Sure. 9. Half-orcs have fast healing. No! Half-orcs need a little bit more, yes, but fast healing is incredibly powerful. Not so much for its effect in the middle of a battle, but because it means you never need to heal. A few minutes, and you're good to go. 10. Tripping and grappling. Fair enough. I think I play like this anyway… 11. Withdraw. No, I'd keep that the same. I don't see a problem with it. 12. No skill synergy. If anything, I'd increase skill synergies. I like skills. Yay skills. Please please please use skills, not just spells and thwacking things with heavy objects. Please? 13 & 14. Multiclassing penalties change. I'd remove the penalties entirely, but that's just me. I don't think it needs a balancing factor. I think I'd allow dual prestige classes in Gestalt, just… because. Some standard classes are more "prestige" than some prestige classes, so it seems like a foolish rule. 15. Natural 1s and ending turns. Nah, I don't like natural rolls. I prefer this house rule: on a natural 20, treat your score as a 20 and roll a 1d10 - 1. Add that score to your 20. If you score a natural 10 on that, repeat as necessary. On a natural 1, treat your score as a 1 and roll a 1d10 - 1. Subtract that score from your 1. If you score a natural 10 on that, repeat as necessary. Fighters of a certain level (say 8th or higher), and anyone with a BAB of 17 or higher, suffer no additional losses on a 1. 16. Sorcerers and known spells. No comment. 17. No psionics. No chance in hell do I agree with removing the most balanced, most interesting, most well-designed system in the entire game. I do think I might use Truenamed Psionics, a homebrew effort on the Psionics boards to alter the flavour a little.
Ghenesh 02-13-06, 08:09 PM	1. The HP buffer. Nice idea thematically, and fairly insignificant in terms of balance, though there may be some issues. Do all creatures get this HP buffer? Is it the same size for all creatures, or is it larger/smaller for creatures of different sizes?It's quite significant, because it can mean life or death al low levels, and yes, every single creature in the game has this boost. 2. Medium saves. Yes. I also fully support this, and am entirely in agreement with your changes to class saves. I really think it's insane that there is no Medium save in the core D&D game. Paladins are as lacking in their willpower as barbarians? Fighters are as poor with their reflexes as wizards?Exactly my thoughts. 3. More skills! Again, I'm fully in support of this. Personally, I like skills and I'd really love to see them used more. I think I might consider trying out a house rule where everyone has four additional skill points per level. It's a massive boost on how many skills people have, but… I think I'd like to see how it worked. I just want people to use skills, rather than just thwacking things.It was more like a balance issue than a role playing one, the idea was to give a hand to those 3 classes. 4. Bonus cantrips. I'm fine with this really. I'd almost be tempted to allow higher level sorcerers to use their cantrips at will (either all of them, or a few of them).I've always found kinda odd that cantrips weren't boosted for the significant ability score, so my reasons have nothing to do with balance, roleplaying or rollplaying, it's just a personal thing. 5. Changes to speed. No chance. Why on earth should elves be faster? Slowing monks is seriously ruining their abilities. Also, I don't think a move action is really one second – more like two, anyway. And this is a fantasy game.I've always thought that elves are underpowered, they have -2 CON, wich i consider the most relevant Ability score since it helps to every character, and +2 DEX wich is the most easy-to-lose ability score (you can see now my fixation with defense in DnD... HP and AC are 2 of the most important balancing things to consider in my hierarchy of comparing chars). So i've always consider elves a weak race... besides they are lighter than humans and more dexterous... so they should be faster (kinda influenced by Legolas in the film). And Dwarves, well i just like them, they are my favorite race... they should have 25' speed. My reasoning for limiting monk speed is pretty much explained in my earlier post, besides i have already proved in-game that it isn't an important factor, i even have a monk player, he claimed at first that this rule was too cripling for the class... now he just doesn't care, he realizaed that his character almost never uses his top speed. 6. No material components. This I'm not really in favour of. I think I'd support giving sorcerers Eschew Materials at first level, as sorcerers could do with a bit more fun stuff, but I'd keep it from wizards as a standard. Material components can be fun, and they're also something of a balancing factor.I was afraid that this would be an important factor... it hasn't been either. 7. No confirmation on critical hits. No, I don't really support this one. Changes the mechanics of the game too much and unbalances various things, as well as rendering some spells and abilities useless.This has been significant. Getting a 20 is becoming part of the battle too often, i'm about to revert critical hist to normal, but things are not totally out of control, since NPCs enemies also have the chance to land critical hits the same way. 8. Changes to the gnome. Sure.The deserve it... it's kinda stupid say that they have such an excelent nose that... it helps them in alchemy checks. 9. Half-orcs have fast healing. No! Half-orcs need a little bit more, yes, but fast healing is incredibly powerful. Not so much for its effect in the middle of a battle, but because it means you never need to heal. A few minutes, and you're good to go.I still haven´t prove this in-game, but i think you guys are pretty much right, i thought of this problem long ago but haven't consider it so unbalancing... what do you think of changing it to DR 1/- ? that would make sense. 10. Tripping and grappling. Fair enough. I think I play like this anyway…It's working ok, not broken, i thought at first that Tripping would become like the ultimate mele tactic but it hasn't. 11. Withdraw. No, I'd keep that the same. I don't see a problem with it.Well, the problem is that i think it's kinda ridiculous (again it's my problem with fixing actions that only fit the system but not common sense (like monk speed)) that you can retreat 60' but you only take good care of not provoking an AoO in the first 5'... withdrawing should let you move a little bit and then move again or do a lot of things more, like a spellsword to charge a weapon, control an active spell, draw a weapon, open a door, etc... it's obviously feasible. 12. No skill synergy. If anything, I'd increase skill synergies. I like skills. Yay skills. Please please please use skills, not just spells and thwacking things with heavy objects. Please?I also like skills... a lot, but i hate skill synergy... how ridiculous is that 5 ranks in one skill (bluff) give you a +8 bonus in other skills (+2 on diplomacy, disguise, intimidate and sleight of hand ¿?), i think skill synergy is accepting the fact that DnD has the skills badly selected, why should a skill help another one, if there were correctly defined they shouldn´t, it's a game failure more than a cute feature. 13 & 14. Multiclassing penalties change. I'd remove the penalties entirely, but that's just me. I don't think it needs a balancing factor. I think I'd allow dual prestige classes in Gestalt, just… because. Some standard classes are more "prestige" than some prestige classes, so it seems like a foolish rule.Well, we have played 3 long years without XP penalties, but i wanted to try out this core rule... well most of them have already 10% penalties, some 20% and it's no big deal yet. 15. Natural 1s and ending turns. Nah, I don't like natural rolls. I prefer this house rule: on a natural 20, treat your score as a 20 and roll a 1d10 - 1. Add that score to your 20. If you score a natural 10 on that, repeat as necessary. On a natural 1, treat your score as a 1 and roll a 1d10 - 1. Subtract that score from your 1. If you score a natural 10 on that, repeat as necessary. Fighters of a certain level (say 8th or higher), and anyone with a BAB of 17 or higher, suffer no additional losses on a 1.Sounds nice... but we're kinda used to celebrate 20s and mourn 1s... so if i implement your rule i would do it with a second d20 roll (substracting for the 1 and adding for the 20). 16. Sorcerers and known spells. No comment.What? i want at least one of them to take Sorcerer, but they are so power hungry that won't take an underpowered roley-dovey class. 17. No psionics. No chance in hell do I agree with removing the most balanced, most interesting, most well-designed system in the entire game. I do think I might use Truenamed Psionics, a homebrew effort on the Psionics boards to alter the flavour a little.I have a personal issue with psionics... psionics have little to do with my notion of fantastic and heroic warfare. Magic and Power are things i like to see and role. I like it a lot when one of my players creates nice rhymes to cast a spell or describes the amazing stunt his character just did... actually i do play like that, some of my friends say that i get myself a bit carried away but is something that i enjoy of this game, this important feature of my view doesn't fit with the psionics... it sounds more like... another way to gain powers, i just say... we don't need another way to get power; arcane, divine and techniques are all i need to enjoy this game.
Ghenesh 02-15-06, 04:02 PM	I have read the DR armor variants, and i'm going to try my own: * Intermediate Armors grant Damage Reduction 1/bludgeoning. Heavy Armors grant Damage Reduction 2/bludgeoning. This DR stacks with any other kind of Damage Reduction. I don't wanna give DR to light armors, cause light armors are too good and too skinny, but on the other hand PHB intermediate armors sux big time, and on the heavy ones only the Full Plate is ok... so you trade movement for a little DR. I considered that this would be bad for the (already nerfed on movement monk), so i made this DR/bludgeoning... with the AD&D flavor it brings. Any comments/experience on this would be most apreciated.