Post/Author/DateTime	Post
z00s 11-05-04, 09:04 AM	I don't care about critical miss house rules or the composite sorcerer fix, etc. In my campaign I allow my players at the time of character creation to get rid of two class skills and make a cross-class skill a class skill. Sorcerer's get Eschew Materials at level three. I don't use law and chaos. Good and Evil is a much more abstract idea in my campaign. It isn't in your face like it is in other campaigns. When a character is created they are assumed to have no alignment at all. Their actions determine their alignment on a one hundred point good/evil scale. Only I as the DM know each characters alignment rating. Paladins don't have an alignment requirement. Monks don't exist. Spells from levels one to four that are alignment based work differently: A spell that affects evil instead affects hostiles. A spell that affects good instead affects allies. Level five spells and higher is where good and evil sticks. Something that affects only evil does in fact affect only evil. Detect Evil/Good aren't spells in my campaign. Any creature that is widely known as "evil" in a regular campaign is instead called "hostile" towards the PH races and certain specific MM races. Hostile races might be called evil by Humans, but there is no tangible evidence of this unless there is personal experiences that has caused the person to believe that these creatures are in fact evil. In fact most races aren't. They are simply opposed to humans and vice versa. It forces the players to really think about their actions when dealing with these hostile races. Only certain, specific creatures are ALL evil. Anything such as Orcs, Kobolds, Bugbears, etc. are in the same group as humans. Some can be evil, some can be good, but almost all are hostile towards the PH races. - Z
Lord_Anthrax 11-05-04, 11:18 AM	I don't know about unique, but here's some of what I do. 1)Characters have all stats at base of 10, then have 32 points to distribute on a 1-1 basis into them. Yes, that means you could have 4 18's. I do the same thing for enemies with class levels or monsters with an elite array. 2)PC's get max HP. Always. Standard enemies get average HP. If I make an Elite enemy, they get max HP too. 3)No multiclassing penalties. 4)On epic characters with a LA: LA does not count towards determining if you qualify for Epic feats. Only class levels/HD count. 5)Gestalt characters are in effect. As such, I knock 4 off the CR of everything to determine their XP awards. 6)Alternate XP progression as per Unearthed Arcana. Gives me much more freedom in scripting encounters, and I don't feel like I'm doing scrubwork giving a BBEG a horde of weak underlings for them to chop/blast through to get to him. They still get XP, it just means less and less the higher their level. Sooner or later they're literally going to go into open-field combat against thousands of enemies. It promises to be a lot of fun. 7)LA buyoff as per Unearthed Arcana. 8)All classes get 2 more SP/level than listed. 9)For single/multi/gestalt characters all: If a skill is on a class's list, it's a class skill for you, no matter what level(s) you take in that class. 10)Monk abilities are psionic and not magical in nature. Monks get PR, not SR. Upon gaining Perfect Self, they gain PR and SR in equal measure. 11)Psionics are Different is in effect. 12)Sorcerers get Eschew Materials for free right off the bat, and for spells that have a costly material component, they can choose whatever they want that component to be, but once chosen can't be changed. Also, anyone trying to identify what spell they're casting has the DC of the check increased by 5, because each Sorcerer casts their spells differently. Well-known Sorcerers, or ones studied, can have that bonus reduced with good rolls on Knowledge(Arcana) checks. There's some of it. Have fun calling me names, I'll have fun laughing at people who waste their time doing such things. :D
Finarin Panjoro 11-05-04, 12:53 PM	Here's my current set of house rules: Aralast House Rules: 1. Dodge provides a +1 dodge bonus to AC against all targets. 2. Combat Expertise provides a +2 bonus to AC to anyone wielding a small or large shield per point of BAB sacrificed (to a maximum of +10). This does not apply to bucklers or tower shields. 3. Metamagic feats are applied as a move action by spontaneous casters (bards and sorcerors). A spell that takes more than a standard action to cast requires an additional move action to apply metamagic. 4. Cleave and Great Cleave can be used when an attack of opportunity drops an opponent to attack another opponent, however you may only cleave any single target once per round from an attack of opportunity (you cannot combine great cleave and combat reflexes to land multiple free attacks on a target who did not provoke an attack of opportunity). 5. Readying an action to limited charge may be done as a full-round action as long as you do not take a 5 foot step. If you ready to attack a target the limited charge can be part of the attack so that you may charge OR 5 foot step and attack them depending on their location when they trigger your ready action. 6. Knowledge skills provide an additional +1 bonus to synergistic skills for every 5 additional ranks (+3 at 10 ranks, +4 at 15 ranks, +5 at 20 ranks). 7. Death effects reduce a subject to dying on a failed save rather than dead. They take a number of negative hit points equal to the number by which they failed their save. If they fail their save by 10 or more they are dead. This is real damage and must be healed normally. 8. Raise Dead and similar spells never cause level loss. Instead the raised character gains a special permanent negative level. This negative level can only be removed by gaining experience points equivalent to the total needed to advance to the next level (a 2nd level character would have to acquire 2000 xp to remove 1 negative level and so would lose that negative level sometime during his time at 3rd level) (The PCs xp requirement should be noted on his sheet). 9. Sorcerors gain Diplomacy as a class skill and receive Eschew Materials as a virtual feat at first level. This virtual Eschew Materials applies only to sorcerer spells and no other class spells including prestige classes that grant plus one caster level in a previous class. 10. Fighters have access to two additional fighter-only feats: Skill Emphasis and Weapons Master (see feat descriptions). 11. Half-orcs receive the standard stat modifications and the following additional advantages: +2 racial bonus to move silently checks, +2 bonus on saves vs. non-lethal damage (as the Endurance feat), they may sleep in light or medium armor without penalty, they may take the Diehard feat without meeting the prerequisites, and the may take the Scent ability as a feat. 12. Half-elves receive a +2 bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks rather than a +1. 13. Multi-class Characters may begin play at first level with apprentice levels in two classes. They receive the average of all abilities (BAB, hp, skill points, spells, etc) plus the DM will select half of the appropriate special abilities from each class to give them at first level. They receive the rest of their abilities at 2nd level when they must complete their two partial classes (they may not take a level in a third class at 2nd level). I'm also currently investigating a house rule that would allow bastard swords to apply 2x penalty when using power attack when wielded one handed (thus making EWP: bastard sword the only way to deal 2x power attack with a one handed weapon).
celebrist 11-05-04, 02:26 PM	i allow character to go to con score negative hp and if you are dropped below that in a single roud you get a "last act" to try and bring yourself up to a salvagable level. stabilization is a fort save(DC=10+ your current hp)not %. my world if pretty lethal and these increase survivability. i am also big on healing herbs.
Cymraegmorgan 11-05-04, 10:01 PM	I have added Hobgoblin, Orc, Kobold, Goblin, Half-Dwarf, Bugbear, and Half-Hobgoblin to the character races. We are currently experimenting with removing racial penalties to INT, WIS, and CHA. Love the LA buyout.
rbingham2000 11-05-04, 10:48 PM	Any creature that is widely known as "evil" in a regular campaign is instead called "hostile" towards the PH races and certain specific MM races. Hostile races might be called evil by Humans, but there is no tangible evidence of this unless there is personal experiences that has caused the person to believe that these creatures are in fact evil. In fact most races aren't. They are simply opposed to humans and vice versa. It forces the players to really think about their actions when dealing with these hostile races. Only certain, specific creatures are ALL evil. Anything such as Orcs, Kobolds, Bugbears, etc. are in the same group as humans. Some can be evil, some can be good, but almost all are hostile towards the PH races. I like this variant! So the orcs aren't attacking you because of any kind of alignment differences -- they're attacking you because they DON'T LIKE YOU, for whatever reason. Maybe at the bottom of a monster writeup, you can list what kinds of people that the monster is friendly toward and hostile toward. It can make for very interesting situations where a monster may not like some members of the party, and the members of the party it is friendly toward have to convince the monster to do what the party wants and not bring down its wrath on the whole group. Much more roleplaying potential, and makes Diplomacy a valuable skill. "The Orcs have what we need to bring our prince back to normal. But the thing is, the Shard of Kyrhan is sacred to them. We humans have not been the kindest toward them in the past hundred years, and they have a blood feud with the elves that goes even further back than that. They might be disposed to talk to a gnome, but it will take some doing to convince them to part with the Shard without a bloodbath. Good luck, kid."
Sucineri 11-06-04, 03:16 AM	I personally don't like how the only way to get a magical ability on a weapon is to have it be a +1 weapon (atleast) first. I think a keen or flaming sword should just have that special ability on it without being a purely magical blade..meaning it doesn't bypass the magic damage reduction, but it gives weapons more power without having to be magical.
steenan 11-06-04, 04:31 AM	In my campain, clerics do not spontaneusly convert their prepared spells to cure spells. They, instead, convert prepared spells to their domain spells (there are no additional "domain slots"). I never liked clerics being "walking medikits". Using this houserule, I have them more differentiated, with powers really dependent on which deities they serve. If they want to heal effectively, they nead Healing domain (without that, it was completely useless). It doesn't change class balance too much - clerics gain more spells they can spontaneusly cast, but they lose one slot per level.
Lord_Anthrax 11-06-04, 06:24 AM	That reminds me of another house rule I have for clerics. A cleric who is on the Neutral axis(LN, N, CN)can obtain special feats that allow them to channel both positive and negative energy, so they can cast cure and inflict spells spontaneously, and can also learn to turn/destroy and rebuke/command undead.
celebrist 11-06-04, 03:28 PM	another house rule i use is to add your con modifier to your level when resting for returned hp, to balance this bonus i increase chances of random encounter. i get disgusted by the party always wanting to be full hp/ full spells for EVERY encounter.
Cymraegmorgan 11-06-04, 03:47 PM	That reminds me of another house rule I have for clerics. A cleric who is on the Neutral axis(LN, N, CN)can obtain special feats that allow them to channel both positive and negative energy, so they can cast cure and inflict spells spontaneously, and can also learn to turn/destroy and rebuke/command undead. This makes so much sense! If they are truly on that neutral axis they should, in the course of their PC careers, be accessing both sides of the energy spectrum. Too many people regard this axis as "not evil", rather than "not evil, not good".
Lord_Anthrax 11-06-04, 05:39 PM	The idea for that originally appeared on Sean K. Reynolds' website.
hiryuu 11-06-04, 08:11 PM	In my campain, clerics do not spontaneusly convert their prepared spells to cure spells. They, instead, convert prepared spells to their domain spells (there are no additional "domain slots"). I never liked clerics being "walking medikits". Using this houserule, I have them more differentiated, with powers really dependent on which deities they serve. If they want to heal effectively, they nead Healing domain (without that, it was completely useless). It doesn't change class balance too much - clerics gain more spells they can spontaneusly cast, but they lose one slot per level. Great, now clerics are a walking heal battery again. The spontaneous rule meant that my cleric could prepare other spells as opposed to nothing but healing spells (in fact, this is the meta-reason behind that rule in the first place - it's meant to prevent the cleric from needing to sit down and think about whether or not to worry about preparing cure x wounds spells; with that worry and fear out of the way, the cleric is free to prepare other spells that are probably just as useful).
WihHizwind 11-07-04, 03:17 AM	I'm also currently investigating a house rule that would allow bastard swords to apply 2x penalty when using power attack when wielded one handed (thus making EWP: bastard sword the only way to deal 2x power attack with a one handed weapon). I've been considering this for some time - Bastard Swords are underpowered, so I've been thinking of some ways to get around the issue. The way I see it, there would be two ways to use an unweildy sword - be really strong, or be really smooth in your motions, so it's never offbalance. What I'm thinking is possibly in order to optimally use the bastard sword one handed, you'd need Weapon Finesse or Str 13. The Str 13 lets you use the bastard sword as a two handed weapon in regards to the effects of pwer attack, and the weapon finesse would remove a -2 to all attack rolls made one handed with a bastard sword. The idea I've used is similar to Mercurial weapons, which from memory makes it so you get a x4 crit, but you get a -4 or -8 on the attack roll because of it's unweildyness...I can't remember where I read that one. *shrugs* Also, due to a flippant comment made in PHB in the description of gnomes (how they can monitor alcemy with their sense of smell), I would allow Gnomes to get the Scent feat.
trodaimionn 11-07-04, 01:23 PM	1) Weapon Focus adds to BAB for fighters only(standard bonus for all other classes), and I have expanded the fighter only feats to 20th level. :fight!: 2) Character creation: 4D6, reroll 1's and 2's. Take another 3 D6's and add the results from one of those die's to 3 stats of your choice. 3) Skills that provide synergy bonuses grant an additional bonus for every 5 additional ranks (+3 at 10 ranks, +4 at 15 ranks, +5 at 20 ranks). 4) using UA defense bonus and armor that also provides DR, but they do not stack. I have designed feats to increase the AC value of armor. 5) Everytime someone pisses me off for delay of game :banghead: I give them a 10% Exp penalty. Yes, this stacks.
zambuka 11-07-04, 11:07 PM	Aid another. With the current system anyone who assists automatically gives a +2 to the roll if they make a DC 10 roll. I don't like this because it means you get situations like the following. Say the party comes to a door that is stuck. The fighter (strength 18) makes the roll to open the door. Now the barbarian (strength 18) and gnome (strength 7) assist in opening the door. They both give +2 to the assisted roll if they make the DC 10. Or the party may be putting their heads together to figure out some obscure bit of knowledge. The gnome has +4 stat mod (18 int) and the fighter has +2 while the barbarian has an int of 9 (-1). With the current system the barbarian gives as much to the discussion as the fighter. I don't like the idea that someone with a negative stat modifier can give as much assistance as someone with a high stat modifier. My house rule is as follows. When aiding another with a task, opening a door or using a skill etc, you add the appropriate stat modifier to the aided person's roll. If you have a negative modifier then you are just going to get in the way, give misleading information, sprout some common urban myth as fact, distract or just hinder the attempt in some manner. With the example of the stuck door above, the Barbarian with his strength 18 would give +4 to the strength check to open the door. The gnome with his -2 modifier would just get underfoot, slip on the door or something and put the total assist at +2. they are better off just using the barbarian and fighter's strength here. The same works with any skill that can be assisted, knowledge rolls, healing etc.
Finarin Panjoro 11-08-04, 05:13 PM	zambuka, I see where you're coming from with this, but what do you do in the case of a half-orc with a charisma of 6 (-2 cha penalty), who has 8 ranks in Diplomacy (total +6 modifier) who helps in a diplomatic situation? By your rule, he would actually subtract from the chances of success despite his significant skill in that area.
StormKnight 11-08-04, 05:53 PM	Stray houserules (in digest format, not precise details) 1) Mixed random character generation. Gives consistent point totals, but somewhat unpredictable distribution. Works great. 2) Option for divine casters and wizards to not need to prepare spells, but then to require extra casting time. 3) Drama points - these are one use points that let a character add a D10 to any D20 roll. You get more as you level up, and sometimes through in-alignment or just good roleplaying. But NPCs get some to! 4) Races with a LA gradually gain abilities as racial levels, which count as normal levels for total level and such. Really makes LA races work better. 5) Monks and Paladins can multiclass as long as their total other classes do not exceed their monk/paladin levels. Some orders are very specifically multi-class, such as an order of monk/healers. 6) Hit points are rolled as D6 + bonus, where the bonus is +2 for D8, +4 for D10, +6 for D12. If your hit dice are D4, you still roll a D6, but get at most 4 HP. Your Drama point gain is inversely proportional to your HP roll. 7) Level "buy" system - you spend XP to advance, rather than keeping track of total accumulated XP. Works the same, just requires tracking smaller numbers. 8) Stepped levels - level advancement is done in 4 smaller steps, rather than all at once. Stray things with no game effect but that impact the feel of the game: 1) Alignment represents the karmic and magical forces that an individual is tied to. It is NOT the same as personality, though it frequently is related. You can be good aligned and do evil things. But you'll suffer a karmic backlash for it. Same with if your evil aligned and do good things. 2) No monolithic racial personality! 3) A divine caster who prepares spells does not actually choose what spells she wants; she opens herself to her diety (or the force of nature for druids) and is filled with its power and what it thinks she will need. She may not even know exactly what spells she can cast in a day, but will certainly realize when she can cast one. Game mechanically, the player still decides and all. The only real effect is that a player is free to use meta-game logic when selecting spells; the diety may know more than you after all! 4) All spirits normally reincarnate in time. Sometimes they make stick around as a ghost or be busy in another plane, but natural reincarnation is the normal process. So, wait too long and to resurrect someone and you might not be able to bring them back - they're busy being someone else. Of course, wait longer and maybe they'll be available again. 5) Magic items are normally custom crafted. While general use items (such as healing potions), are widely available, other things must be sought out and specially requested, and you may need a lot more than just money. 6) If you do get a magic item crafted, the mage employs a variety of spells to find out what you want. You don't need to worry about whether or not your character would ask for a flaming longsword of rabbit dicing; your character spends time in trance and such with the crafter and they fit they help fit the item to your personality. 7) Valuable metals and gems are key components to spells that divine casters use to extend their areas of power and of their dieties influence, which is what gives them their value. Frequently, the "cost" for an unusual service or good - such as a magic item - may be paid to a temple, which wants the raw material, and they then use connections to get you what you need.
zambuka 11-08-04, 06:36 PM	Finarin Panjoro, This is just the ruling that my gaming group agreed upon, so it is the house rule we use. Currently in this situation my group would have the half orc do the diplomacy check and the more charismatic party members would back him up. It makes a little more sense, diplomatically, to have this well trained low charisma half-orc as the front man for any negotiations and have the more charismatic party members there to patch up any problems the half-orc may cause. The half-orc may have significant diplomatic skills but his ability to share those skills would be hampered by his generally poor social skills, gruff or crude nature etc. A low charisma may indicate shyness, in which case he would have difficulty sharing his skills regardless, or his nature may be boorish and domineering which would be even worse for negotiations since his advice would probably be destructive criticism or even an attempt to completely take over negotiations. Whatever the reasons, unless he is the point man for negotiation his low charisma is going to interfere with his ability to help in any diplomacy. Whereas, if he was the front man, his methods may be crude, gruff and a little domineering and boorish but because he is the one doing the talking his sound negotiating skills come through clearly and those with better people skills, higher charisma scores, would be better suited to backing him up. The same kind of thinking can be had with all the other skills. eg someone with a low int but a lot of ranks in some knowledge skills may be a font of knowledge but probably has a lot of trouble putting it in a way that can be understood by others. My original idea was to have the skill bonus added but we found that this method and this way of thinking worked better.
Aegis Sol 11-10-04, 01:28 PM	In my campaign, I wanted to balance all of the attributes to a greater degree. After all, not all are created equal. Thus, a high Wisdom modifier allows one to select a number of talents equal to their modifier- a cross-class skill becomes a class skill, and a class skill recieves a +2 misc modifier. The rationale is that a high-Wisdom character would have more of an innate knack to pick things up (as opposed to the faster learning granted by a high Intelligence). Since we use action points, your Charisma modifier is added (or subracted) from action die rolls. This has had the effect of making Charisma a very desirable attribute for all classes, rather than just bards, paladins, and sorcerers. The justification is that Charisma is (at least to a fair degree) a measure of self-confidence, which is key in succeeding where others would falter and fail.
JohnSnow 11-10-04, 05:18 PM	I'm putting together a campaign world which will use a LOT of "house" rules. Most of these are campaign specific, and just about all of them are drawn from other d20 sources, rather than just being "made up." A few examples: 1) Spellcasting is no longer strictly class-based. Magic uses the rules from Fantasy Flight's Midnight campaign setting. Although the dark fantasy aspects of Midnight don't entirely appeal to me, I like the magic system a LOT. 2) Available classes will include the core classes of Rogue, Fighter and Barbarian, Noble (Birthright 3e Playtest variant), Channeler and Defender (both from Midnight) and at least one spell-less ranger type (Midnight's Wildlander and the WoT Game's Woodsman come to mind). I might allow the Swashbuckler from Complete Warrior and a couple of the classes hinted at in the upcoming Complete Adventurer sound good too. Channelers come in three distinct "flavors" (Spiritual, Hermetic, and Charismatic), so this creates a LOT of character options. 3) Healing will use the "slower magical healing variant" from Unearthed Arcana where cure spells convert damage from hit point damage to nonlethal damage. We've been using this in our recent campaign, and it rocks. 4) Certain spells are going bye-bye for flavor reasons. Specifically, the various spells to raise the dead (along with the save-or-die spells) are toast, and teleportation spells will be severely restricted. 5) Cosmological alignment is toast, along with all things (spells included) that reflect that. Detect hostility will replace "detect evil" and I'll probably tap the "Taint" rules as well. The gods that do exist will be more "remote" and morality in shades of grey should make for less cliche stories. Although there will be a looming "evil" that isn't just misunderstood. :devil: Those are my current plans. Keep an eye on the Campaign Workshop boards for future details.
MadBlue 11-11-04, 09:23 AM	House Rules in the campaigns I've run: Character Generation: Generally, I start characters at 3rd level. Powerful enough to allow multiclassing and whatnot required for character concept, but weak enough to still find MM Kobolds, Goblins and Orcs a threat. All ability scores start at 6, and the player gets a pool of numbers to draw from to generate ability scores (1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6 - allot two numbers to each ability). Basically, everyone starts with a character built on 78 ability points, with one minimum 8 and one maximum 18 (before racial adjustments). Hit Points: Max HP at 1st level, 1/2HD + 1 at levels after 1st. (I figure there's enough randomness in the game that chargen and leveling up should be "sure things") Level-based bonuses: +1 Dodge bonus to AC per 3 levels (round down) +1 unnamed bonus to all Saves per 5 levels (round down) (Never liked the fact that Rings of Protection and Cloaks of Resistance were pretty much assumed to take up those slots - that, and the fact that most of the adversaries in the games I run are humanoid - don't want my players to start collecting these things) ;) Improving Intelligence (when levelling up) retroactively increases Skill Points. Races: Half Orcs get a racial bonus of +3 to Intimidate. Like Half Elves, Half Orcs get a skill bonus that neither of the parent races possesses, except in the case of Half Orcs, being outsiders, they tend to get what they want through intimidation, rather than by learning to fit in. Elves and Half Elves use the FR height and weight charts. Grey and Wood Elves get the standard +2 Dex/-2 Con adjustments. PC Drow use the "lesser Drow" stats from Players Guide to Faerun (they're surface dwelling Drow who have been forsaken by Lolth). Hobgoblins are LA +0 (they don't get the Dex bonus) Classes: Paladins can choose a celestial companion instead of a mount. Sorcerers get UMD as a class skill. They can choose one of Bluff, Diplomacy or Intimidate as a class skill. They get a bonus Spontaneous Metamagic (or Draconic) Feat at 5th, 10th, 15th and 20th level. A number of UA classes and options are available (Expert, Paladins of different alignment, Thug, etc). Other: Being raised from the dead grants a "Negative Level" rather than a loss of level, bought off with XP (a la Finarin Panjoro) Something I hadn't considered before, but just read about today, and it sounds kind of neat: Cross-Class Skills cost only 1 Skill Point per Rank, but are still limited to 1/2 of max Class Skill ranks. MadBlue
Lord_Anthrax 11-11-04, 09:50 AM	On the Dodge feat: I use a version I saw in the Mutants & Masterminds game from Green Ronin. When you choose to use Dodge, it either gives a +1 bonus to AC against all opponents, or a +2 against a single opponent. If a feat requires you to choose a person to Dodge to use it, you have to use the focused Dodge or it won't work.
Finarin Panjoro 11-11-04, 04:29 PM	WihHizwind, I've actually reconsidered my bastard sword house rule in light of the new FAQ ruling which designates it as a two-handed weapon (its listed as a one-handed exotic weapon in the PHB). As a two-handed weapon it has 10 hp (rather than 5 as a one-handed), gives a +4 bonus on opposed disarm and sunder checks, and does an average of +1 damage over a longsword. Combined with my house rule on shields/combat expertise, I'm confident that EWP bastard sword is worth it for the right character. zambuka, If you guys are having fun with it by all means continue, I just like playing devil's advocate. I would still have a problem in the scenario that you describe. What if there is a bard or paladin in the group with a higher base diplomacy bonus than the diplomatic half-orc? Lets say the bard has a +15 diplomacy check. Under your system the half-orc is incapable of positively contributing to the negotiation despite having spent significant resources on diplomacy skill and having him conduct the negotiation significantly reduces the party's chance of succeeding. That would bother me more than the system as it stands now. But that's just me and its not my game, so feel free to ignore me.
zambuka 11-15-04, 06:08 PM	Finarin: I know perfectly well what you mean. If you have a better, simple, option than the way I have it then by all means add you suggestion. When you add the skill mod (+6 in the case of the half orc) it tends to really mess with the balance of the system. The whole aid another rule as it stands appears to be just something they tacked on to the system as an after thought, or a quick ruling that happeneed in a play test. The abstract nature of the d20 system kinda reinforces problems like this. Otherwise I very much doubt I will ever see a 6 charisma half orc with that many ranks in a charisma based skill. It has never come up in my games. Hmm just had a quick thought on it. To aid in a skill check. roll a quick contest of skills. Front man rolls for the skill. The DC for the aiding person's roll is now what the front man rolled. If you succeed then you add your skill bonus to the final roll. If you fail then you have nothing useful to add. example. Bard with +15 on diplomacy roll an 8. Total skill check is 23. half orc now puts his 2 bits in, he needs to roll a 15 or better but he adds his total skill modifier (+6) to the Bard's roll making the chek 29. If the bard rolls 14 or better then the half orc has nothing to contribute (unless you play that 20 is always a success on a skill roll). Ideas? Comments?
WunderGoat 11-15-04, 11:22 PM	I use a wide variety of house rules, mostly to adjust the way the PCs interact with the world. 1) I use the vitality/wound point system, with some modifications. A) Crit hits do half damage to wounds, full damage to vit. Weapons have old crit ranges. I did this so the flavor of weapons would be preserved. B) PCs have double wound points, as I use a lot of creatures with high damage potential [PCs will often still go down in one or two crit hits]. C) The feats that give hitpoints, such as the various toughness feats, instead give wound points. This makes the feats more useful, as it becomes a very effective and cheap way to increase wound points and thus resist killer crit hits. D) A stunned creature that is stunned again simply falls unconscious. I have not yet decided to make this rule apply to all kinds of stunning. 2) Arcane casters have to make concentration checks if they took any damage between thier current and last turns. i.e. a fighter hits a wizard during the fighter's turn for 10. During the wizard's turn, he mush make a concentration check to cast any spell, as if he were hit during the casting. This rule was made during the 3.0 days when a wizard could really get that AC up there fast (sheild/mage armor), but I kept the rule. Basicly it makes it harder for a wizard to return damage and serves as a way of keeping the party's damage powerhouse in check. It also makes the wizard a much more protected member of the party and requires NPC wizards to summon or have minions. 3) Taking que from the complete warrior, a few weapons are bunched under racial weapons (i.e. one group has a feat for two exotic cavalry weapons) Helps making NPCs and makes different human races feel different. 4) Longbows can only be fired from standing, and shortbows from a crouch. Niether bow can be fired around a corner for double cover, while crossbows can. This makes crossbows attractive to PCs. 5) I use quite a few exotic weapons of my own design, mostly involving cavalry (a throwable lance, a bastard sword with bonuses while mounted/penalties while not, and a cav polearm, to name a few) 6) Longspears and shortspears can be wielded one-handed with an exotic feat. Compsite Longbows can no longer be fired from horseback without a feat. 7) All social creatures with class levels (like giants, humans, bugbears, etc.) gain some sort of free racial feat. Once again this adds racial flavor. 8) This is not so much a rule as a guideline. I deal with powergaming PCs by making NPCs that also seem to powergame, and justify it as racial tactics/strategy. Like kobolds using massed crossbow fire against the least armored PC (a habit gained from fighting drow arcane spellcasters). 9) Another guideline: Think of magic items a sythetic levels. You can send higher CR creatures against the PCs and make them gain xp much faster, allowing for campaigns where the PCs start from humble origens and end with them being the greatest force the world has ever seen.
Lord_Anthrax 11-16-04, 08:29 AM	I use a wide variety of house rules, mostly to adjust the way the PCs interact with the world. 3) Taking que from the complete warrior, a few weapons are bunched under racial weapons (i.e. one group has a feat for two exotic cavalry weapons) Helps making NPCs and makes different human races feel different. I just give races with racial weapons Weapon Familiarity for free, flat-out. I think it's a waste to make someone take a feat to make racial weapons martial weapons and not exotic weapons if they're a member of said race. 8) This is not so much a rule as a guideline. I deal with powergaming PCs by making NPCs that also seem to powergame, and justify it as racial tactics/strategy. Like kobolds using massed crossbow fire against the least armored PC (a habit gained from fighting drow arcane spellcasters). To me that's just plain common sense and realism. Sentient races survive because they learn and adapt. For example, Kobolds force others to fight on their scale by intentionally making their tunnels and lairs to their scale, they load them with traps at key points, including deadfalls to seal off their tribe from hostiles, and in one tribe's case IMC use a tactic called "The Hall of Doom". IOW, at some point in their lair is a bottlenecked escape route to a prepared bolthole which the tribe funnels noncombatants down and draws persistent enemies towards which is nothing but deathtrap after deathtrap, all based on allowing a Kobold's small size and weight to pass but anything heavier not to, which ends with a massive deadfall to prevent all but the most determined/magically equipped individuals from being able to get to them.
Jeremymc 11-16-04, 10:08 AM	Umm.. As things stand now, you only need to EWP a bastard sword to wield it in one hand. Wielding it in two hands is a boring old martial proficiency. As I understand it. And if you do wield it in one hand, you don't get the +4 on opposed checks. And I also think that the 2-handed is +4 on the check to AVOID being disarmed, I'm not sure if it's also on the check to disarm someone. You should make sure about your base rules before you house rule.
Jeremymc 11-16-04, 10:14 AM	I like to house rule that for each class level a good cleric or good fighter have, they "get one free". They get to brutally murder one peasant per class level. It's a useful house rule when that snotty nobleman is "all up in their grill".
Finarin Panjoro 11-16-04, 10:19 AM	zambuka, I like your new suggestion better than the original one. This has the effect of allowing a secondary character with some skill in an area to "save the day" when the primary character (the face man in your example) goofs up. It means there will be many instances where the secondary characters can't help at all, but when they do help it can make a major difference.
starfire311 11-16-04, 04:30 PM	My house rule is as follows. When aiding another with a task, opening a door or using a skill etc, you add the appropriate stat modifier to the aided person's roll. If you have a negative modifier then you are just going to get in the way, give misleading information, sprout some common urban myth as fact, distract or just hinder the attempt in some manner. So a rogue strength 10 trying to open a door is better off doing it himself than if the Wizard strength 9 were to help him example. Bard with +15 on diplomacy roll an 8. Total skill check is 23. half orc now puts his 2 bits in, he needs to roll a 15 or better but he adds his total skill modifier (+6) to the Bard's roll making the chek 29. So if you have 2 bards with a +21 diplomacy they cant aid each other? What about aiding in combat if you have a fighter +10 BAB aiding a wizard +5 BAB then the wizard can get a +10 to his attack roll if the fighter rolls a 5 or better?
PhaedrusXY 11-16-04, 05:07 PM	I have quite a few house rules. I won't bombard the thread with them, and will instead just post a link to my webpage. ;) https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/jthollan/www/DnD.html
danielinthewolvesden 11-16-04, 05:34 PM	I don't allow Psionics (but that's optional) and I allow some of the Optional rules from UA. And of course, I have my own slightly different way of rolling HP and starting PC's. No Evils. But those are more like Campaign Options as opposed to House Rules. But as for actual House rules? 1.A paladin can use "lay on hands" on herself as a free action. and one 'rule interpretation": When Wizards go into a PrC (that adds caster levels, of course) they get one spell per level of PrC (not two) free to add to their Spellbook. That's just a compromise between the two ways of reading it. That's it.:D I don't much care for House rules, you see. :allalone: However for this thread I do think it is important to differentiate between "Campaign Options" and "House rules".
zambuka 11-16-04, 08:02 PM	Shifted my Aid another ruling to a new thread http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=338809 Since it is generating comment I don't want it to take over this thread. Oh.. a new house rule I will now enforce with my games. Stictly no Mongoose Publishing or AEG source books. Anyone asking to play Gestaslt characters will be seriously laughed at then pointedly ignored. Had a chance to play in a game that used thes and it was just stupidly unbalanced. Things like crits on 13 or better and minimum damage of 30+ (for the wizard character in H2H) are just waay to munchkin for my liking.
starfire311 11-17-04, 08:51 AM	Stictly no Mongoose Publishing or AEG source books. I second this on especially Mongoose...unless it is their Slayers guide to female gamers or their slayers guide to Rules Lawyers
Annaylli 11-17-04, 11:15 AM	MY only truly unique house rule is that magical item creation takes sqr(market cost)/20 in days rounded up. FOr the items on the low end it means they usually take at least a couple days of work and for top end items it brings them into a range where they can be crafted within an acceptable time frame for our campaign. Mostly it came about because of the pre3.5 harsh rules about splitting up creation time. With 3.5 I've occationally considered dropping it but since that kind of time expenditure is outside of play for us it's kind of irrelevant mechanically.