Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Genevayne 12-12-07, 10:38 AM	Am curious to know what sort of unique character creation rules other DM's have implemented. For myself, unique character creation rules for my current campaign include: 1) Instead of rolling for ability scores, everyone has 75 points to distribute as they see fit. Eliminates the common situation where one character wins big on ability score rolls, while another ends up with a wimpy character. I figured 75 was enough for a 12 in each ability, with 3 left over to distribute. By robbing Peter to pay Paul, it's possible to make some varied characters. No ability can start out any higher than 18 or any lower than 6. Racial bonuses/penalties work by either shifting that maximum down by 2 or the bottom number up by two. For example, an Elf's dexterity can't be any lower than 8 and his constitution can't be any higher than 16. 2) Only basic classes from PHB are available, except for Monks. The class just never seemed to fit with a fantasy campaign, in my opinion. 3) No Gnomes. For one thing, I've never seen them as bringing anything more to the game than halflings. For another, the world I created simply didn't have the race in it. And lastly, to be honest, I just plain don't like the little leprechans. There. I said it. Deal with it. 4) Barbarian and Sorceror classes are only available as initial classes. Just doesn't make sense that you could pick one of them up as a second class. Barbarian is more of a cultural/racial thing, and Sorceror implies an inate magical ability, which I can't see just suddenly coming into existance. 5) Characters must remain single classed at least until they've achieved 5th level in that class. I did this for two reasons. First, it was my first time DM'ing in over a decade and first time with 3.5, and I wanted to keep things simple till we were up to speed. Second, I've always seen rampant multiclassing as muddying a character. I wanted my players to get comfortable with their characters in their first class before they started class hopping. 6) No evil alignments. The game is about heroes, not villains. 7) Characters take their maximum HD for hitpoints initially, then, each level, players have the option of either taking half their HD, or rolling for it. This was particularly amusing since, over many rolls, you're more likely to end up with more HP by rolling, but the reality of the short term is that your Barbarian, with a 12HD can roll a 1 at 2nd level. Have your camera ready - you won't want to miss the look on his face! 8) Dice must be the standard size (1/2 inch across the d6) and clearly readable (no black ink on onyx). I trust my players, but have played with people that others started to mistrust their rolls. Best if everyone can see the results - more exciting too. None of those tiny tiny dice that even the roller has to squint to see the result. So, am I a megalomaniac? What variants are unique to your game?
TwiddleStootch 12-12-07, 11:31 AM	1) Instead of rolling for ability scores, everyone has 75 points to distribute as they see fit. Eliminates the common situation where one character wins big on ability score rolls, while another ends up with a wimpy character. I figured 75 was enough for a 12 in each ability, with 3 left over to distribute. By robbing Peter to pay Paul, it's possible to make some varied characters. No ability can start out any higher than 18 or any lower than 6. Racial bonuses/penalties work by either shifting that maximum down by 2 or the bottom number up by two. For example, an Elf's dexterity can't be any lower than 8 and his constitution can't be any higher than 16. Why not just use the normal Point Buy rules? 2) Only basic classes from PHB are available, except for Monks. The class just never seemed to fit with a fantasy campaign, in my opinion. Well, your call. You should tell your players ahead of time. 3) No Gnomes. For one thing, I've never seen them as bringing anything more to the game than halflings. For another, the world I created simply didn't have the race in it. And lastly, to be honest, I just plain don't like the little leprechans. There. I said it. Deal with it. See above. To be honest, I never used to see the point to them either, but as I have been developing my world they have fit in ways that Halflings couldn't have. 4) Barbarian and Sorceror classes are only available as initial classes. Just doesn't make sense that you could pick one of them up as a second class. Barbarian is more of a cultural/racial thing, and Sorceror implies an inate magical ability, which I can't see just suddenly coming into existance. Reasonable from a flavor stand, but again, tell your players. 5) Characters must remain single classed at least until they've achieved 5th level in that class. I did this for two reasons. First, it was my first time DM'ing in over a decade and first time with 3.5, and I wanted to keep things simple till we were up to speed. Second, I've always seen rampant multiclassing as muddying a character. I wanted my players to get comfortable with their characters in their first class before they started class hopping. Seems ok. Most characters I see are single class except for a PrC, and those can't start before 5th or 6th level. Just warn the players, in case they want to go Gish or something that require Multiclassing like that. 6) No evil alignments. The game is about heroes, not villains. I say the same. If a PC goes evil, he is instantly an NPC. Period. 7) Characters take their maximum HD for hitpoints initially, then, each level, players have the option of either taking half their HD, or rolling for it. This was particularly amusing since, over many rolls, you're more likely to end up with more HP by rolling, but the reality of the short term is that your Barbarian, with a 12HD can roll a 1 at 2nd level. Have your camera ready - you won't want to miss the look on his face! Makes sense and perfectly reasonable. I just use the 1/2 rounded up for everyone, but leaving the option is fine. 8) Dice must be the standard size (1/2 inch across the d6) and clearly readable (no black ink on onyx). I trust my players, but have played with people that others started to mistrust their rolls. Best if everyone can see the results - more exciting too. None of those tiny tiny dice that even the roller has to squint to see the result. Reasonable and sensible. So, am I a megalomaniac? What variants are unique to your game? Nope, just tell the players ahead of time. I follow the standard rules mostly. I have a few tweaks to the classes and use Point Buy and 1/2 HD rounded up for HP. Aside from that pretty standard.
UAMDB 12-12-07, 11:35 AM	I don't like to limit anything that is core. Well for that matter i really don't limit anything. The one thing that I don't like about your rules is the 5th level before multi-classing. If you are using XP-penalties for multiclassing then this can really hurt several character concepts. That and it can delay a character from getting into certain PrC's. For Stat generation I usually use 4d6 reroll 1's and 2's and drop lowest. In the game that is about to start next weekend the players stats will be 18,18,17,16,15,14 that way everyone is even. HP's I allow players to roll twice and take the best. This can create powerful characters but my world is a harshworld, and average people do not become aventurers.
Lord_Varos 12-12-07, 01:29 PM	Sorceror implies an inate magical ability, which I can't see just suddenly coming into existance. I object! Oh, first I would to preface this with: It's your gameworld, and if that is how it works there, that's awesome. I'm speaking only about the Core as written. Now, onto my comment. Character classes do not in any way represent natural talent. That's for Ability Scores to handle. Rather, taking a level in a PC class represents training in a body of knowledge on any adventuring subject, be it mage, warrior, sneakthief, or warpriest. Just because I do not have levels in Rogue, that does not necessarily mean that I don't have an excellent talent for all of the Rogue skills, it just means I haven't taken advantage of this talen by training in those skills. Similarly, sorcerers need training. As any professional actor will tell you, natural talent just means that you have the capacity to learn, not that you are an instant master of your trade. Any character, be it a tough, dedicated priest of Pelor or a happy-go-lucky Halfling Fighter, could happen to be naturally talented at magic. If they discover this power and decide to take advantage of it, they could take levels in Sorcerer to represent the internal reflection and self-teaching necessary to unlock this energy. By this rule, all of the fantasy heroes who had another profession who discovered their magical talent and trained it to become powerful simply are not imaginable. If I wanted to play this character and play out my discovery and kickass newfound abilities, I'd be a little bit put-off by this rule. Not that it really matters, since multiclass full casters are effectively crippled from the moment they take their first level. Oh, and on the barbarian culture thing. What if some trained warrior was cast out by his lord and went to live with nomad-warriors? Is it impossible for him to learn their methods and channel his rage like they can?
Talisman 12-12-07, 02:19 PM	1) Instead of rolling for ability scores, everyone has 75 points to distribute as they see fit... I tried this almost exactly (74 points, not 75). Did not work well. Why? Because it values that +1 from 17 to 18 exactly the same as the +1 from 10 to 11. Also, the racial max/min didn't work, because "-2 to Con" is a far bigger downside than "Con cannot be higher than 16." The former hurts no matter what your Con score is; the latter quite simply doesn't matter at all. 2) Only basic classes from PHB are available, except for Monks. The class just never seemed to fit with a fantasy campaign, in my opinion. I disagree; I like monks, and I like my various weird classes. To each his own. 3) No Gnomes... Agreed. 4) Barbarian and Sorceror classes are only available as initial classes. Just doesn't make sense that you could pick one of them up as a second class. Barbarian is more of a cultural/racial thing, and Sorceror implies an inate magical ability, which I can't see just suddenly coming into existance. For barbarians, I've always hated the barbarian class. "Barbarian" is a culture, not a profession. That being said, there's nothing innately wrong with the "raging berserker warrior" concept, and I can even see it as a learned skill set. For sorcerers...sure, you have to have the innate talent, but does this mean you must manifest it ASAP? I played in a campaign once where a character learned of (and developed) his sorcerous power quite late in his career. Quite cool, it was. 5) Characters must remain single classed at least until they've achieved 5th level in that class. Meh...I can understand the "new to 3.5" reasoning, but beyond that, this makes no sense. Once I've acieved 5th leve and choose to multiclass, am I stuck with that class until I achieve 5th level in it as well? 6) No evil alignments. The game is about heroes, not villains. Agreed. 7) Characters take their maximum HD for hitpoints initially, then, each level, players have the option of either taking half their HD, or rolling for it... Seen this done. No strong feelings either way. My house rule is that, if you roll a 1 for hp, you get a re-roll. If your re-roll is a 1...well, that's too bad. 8) Dice must be the standard size (1/2 inch across the d6) and clearly readable (no black ink on onyx)... Dice must be legible...I agree. This isn't a formal house rule, but if someone insists on rolling microscopic dice, or gold glitter dice with gold letters on a gold book while wearing gold gloves...I will insist that they change their dice. So, am I a megalomaniac? What variants are unique to your game? Yes. Yes, you are. Welcome to GMhood! Now, go practice your maniacal laugh. :evillaugh The main variants I use are: more skill points (+2 to every class that normally gets 4 or less) and races available vary with the specific campaign. I also squish Spot + Listen = Perception, and Hide + Move Silently = Stealth...but that's another thread.
RobbyPants 12-12-07, 02:46 PM	7) Characters take their maximum HD for hitpoints initially, then, each level, players have the option of either taking half their HD, or rolling for it. This was particularly amusing since, over many rolls, you're more likely to end up with more HP by rolling, but the reality of the short term is that your Barbarian, with a 12HD can roll a 1 at 2nd level. Have your camera ready - you won't want to miss the look on his face! I was going to do this once, and someone gave me a better (IMO) idea. Basically, you get to have your cake and eat it too. You roll the die. If you get above the average roll, then you keep the result. If you get lower, then you just keep half of the max instead. So, for example, if I roll an 8 on a d10, I get 8 HP. If I roll a 3, I instead get 5 (10 / 2). What I like about it is that it gives the players the thrill of rolling while preventing them from getting really low rolls. Before you get too excited about it over powering the characters, take a look at the average HP per die with the normal rolling (no rerolls of any sort) vs this method. It actually changes relatively little in terms of average HP, just the minimum. Hit Normal New Avg. Die Roll avg. Method avg. Gain ________________________________________ _____ d4 2.5 2.75 0.25 d6 3.5 4.0 0.5 d8 4.5 5.25 0.75 d10 5.5 6.5 1.0 d12 6.5 7.25 1.25 Just a suggestion. ;)
UAMDB 12-12-07, 03:33 PM	Robby, Do you think your way would be better or my way of having the players roll twice and take the best? I really don't want to do the math, and was wondering if you knew off the top of your head.
Genevayne 12-12-07, 04:42 PM	I was going to do this once, and someone gave me a better (IMO) idea. Basically, you get to have your cake and eat it too. You roll the die. If you get above the average roll, then you keep the result. If you get lower, then you just keep half of the max instead. So, for example, if I roll an 8 on a d10, I get 8 HP. If I roll a 3, I instead get 5 (10 / 2). What I like about it is that it gives the players the thrill of rolling while preventing them from getting really low rolls. Before you get too excited about it over powering the characters, take a look at the average HP per die with the normal rolling (no rerolls of any sort) vs this method. It actually changes relatively little in terms of average HP, just the minimum. Hit Normal New Avg. Die Roll avg. Method avg. Gain ________________________________________ _____ d4 2.5 2.75 0.25 d6 3.5 4.0 0.5 d8 4.5 5.25 0.75 d10 5.5 6.5 1.0 d12 6.5 7.25 1.25 Just a suggestion. ;) Hey, I like it! Still, I'd miss that precious look when the barbarian rolls a one. :)
toucanbuzz 12-12-07, 05:18 PM	Here's how I prefer to roll: 1. Pick your own scores. Too often a PC ends up with 18, 18, 18, 17, 16, 14!!! Who can live with 16s and 14s? Characters should be superheroes, and you can bet Superman doesn't have 16s and 14s. Pshaw. 2. Fighter and Wizard classes only. Healing is for wimps, and traps are meant to wear down your health, not be disarmed. 3. No gnomes, halflings, half-elves, or elves. These froo-froo races are dragging the real backbones of adventuring groups down. Pint sized equipment that does less damage? Lalli-dah frolicking in the forest with your pansy -2 Constitution? No way man. 4. Barbarians? Isn't that just a fighter who can't read? Sorcerer? Poor man's wizard if you ask me. Then again, when did you ever see Gandalf with a spellbook....? 5. No multi-classing? I've got munchkins and min-maxers in my squad, and if they're going to break the house by making the ultimate prestige class, then ya gotta let it in! 6. Evil alignments suck. When's the last time the evil guy saved the day (and I'm not talking the poor misunderstood bad guy who realizes his life's errors in the end)? If you want to go around killing stuff without moral ramifications, go play a paladin on Diablo or hang out with the larvae in the Abyss. 7. Hit points should be maxed at all levels for superhero effectiveness. How many times did Spider Man get slapped into a building and keep coming back? You think he woulda done that if he had rolled 1s for his health? I guaran-darn-tee ya not. 8. I weigh the dice before each session and test 'em. Then I pick them up and toss the d20s out the door. You roll d12s in my house, makes it more of a challenge, and a player who doesn't like a challenge is no player at all! Anyhoo, it's your game, you make it how you will and LET THE PLAYERS KNOW in advance. For those who really think I run my games this way, I've got a great get-rich quick scheme that's foolproof for ya. Just send 500g to find out how. :schemes:
Salla 12-12-07, 05:23 PM	I'm fortunate enough to have players who realize that 'evil' doesn't always mean 'mustache-twirling black-wearing anti-social emo loner backstabbing douchebag', so I don't have to worry about that. I use standard pointbuy, 28 points. At the player's option, he may use the Three Dragon Ante variant from Dragon Magazine to distribute the points. Average HP rule from DMG in use. Random rolls are for in-play, not character creation. :) No banned classes or races, and only a handful of banned Prestige Classes (the two biggies being Planar Shepherd and Frenzied Berserker). No multiclass restrictions (see: Monk, Paladin) or XP penalties or favored classes.
wizarddog 12-13-07, 01:47 AM	Lets see... 28pt Buy. Full Hp at 1st. All races. All classes of books I own. Any alignment. Wait a sec. Isn't that what-them-rules recommend? :thinks:
Ayra 12-13-07, 03:53 AM	I follow the default rules largely, but I make some extra agreements with my players before playing: 1. I tell the players the basics of the world and campaign, so they can create fitting characters and histories. This way the players can object to anything they don't like in the campaign. This step includes telling them their starting level and starting gold, which is usually between level 1 and 5 with the standard starting gold. Depending on what kind of campaign I'm making, it might be lower (or some items might not be available). 2. The players create their characters together and conduct any roll in front of the DM. This way the players are more likely to make characters that cooperate well and prevents parties of strange characters that basically all have the same function within the party. With these two steps done, step 3 largely consists out of checking up the players characters and stories, working a bit together with them to entangle their background stories with my campaign history while finding a suitable role in the campaign itself. This way when the players start, they usually already either know each other, or will easily meet and play together well. In the past I've had enough experiences with players who created conflicting characters. If I'm using any rule variants, I either tell my players beforehand or I discuss implementation with them. Usually variants have a trial period, where either the majority of the players says no, I say no, or we both agree to using it. An example is the recharge magic variant. It sounded nice at first, but it made the players too strong and removed the need for classes such as the warlock. The PC's liked it, but it made DMing a bit harder for me so I forfeited it. We have some minor alterations to characters if they are too weak. If they roll incredibly low on their stats, they can reroll and get a penalty if their reroll is higher than the average party roll. My party prefers rolling over point-buy :)
wonlee76 12-13-07, 11:17 AM	Just as a preface, whenever you're instituting any kind of houserules/restrictions to your game, tell your players up front. This goes for any house rules you may want to implement. 1) Instead of rolling for ability scores, everyone has 75 points to distribute as they see fit. Eliminates the common situation where one character wins big on ability score rolls, while another ends up with a wimpy character. I figured 75 was enough for a 12 in each ability, with 3 left over to distribute. By robbing Peter to pay Paul, it's possible to make some varied characters. No ability can start out any higher than 18 or any lower than 6. Racial bonuses/penalties work by either shifting that maximum down by 2 or the bottom number up by two. For example, an Elf's dexterity can't be any lower than 8 and his constitution can't be any higher than 16. I like point buy in whatever "form" it takes from the recommended 28 point buy to whatever. The perk is, all the PC's are on even footing when it comes to stats. This does not mean that the PCs will be equal because there is an inherent "imbalance" between the power levels of the classes but that has very little to do with the actual starting stats in my experience. In a "superhero" type of game, I've used 84 point buy. What the PCs didn't know was that all bad guy monsters started with the Elite Array with no adjustment to their CRs and NPC humanoids generally used the same point buy as the PCs (at the very least the BBEG definitely used it). Its a "perception" of power. The PCs see super high stats on their sheet but whether that's "too" powerful depends on what they're facing. Just be prepared to compensate for that using this type of point buy system. 2) Only basic classes from PHB are available, except for Monks. The class just never seemed to fit with a fantasy campaign, in my opinion. Perfectly reasonable to restrict a class due to flavor. I agree that is a "standard" fantasy setting, the monk class seems to be the oddball out of the group of base classes in the PHB. Of course if you have some kind of Asian culture type area in your world, the monk class would be a perfect fit. 3) No Gnomes. For one thing, I've never seen them as bringing anything more to the game than halflings. For another, the world I created simply didn't have the race in it. And lastly, to be honest, I just plain don't like the little leprechans. There. I said it. Deal with it. Fully agree. There are 2 "small" races in the books. There's really no need for 2 small races. 4) Barbarian and Sorceror classes are only available as initial classes. Just doesn't make sense that you could pick one of them up as a second class. Barbarian is more of a cultural/racial thing, and Sorceror implies an inate magical ability, which I can't see just suddenly coming into existance. I disagree about the Sorceror and kind of agree about Barbarians depending on your campaign world. If the Barbarian is a "cultural" type of class, then restricting it to be available at level 1 makes some sense but it doesn't take into account that barbarian tribes could induct/befriend outsiders. (See Dances with Wolves as a prime example). I wouldn't make this a hard and fast rule but rather warn the players that you could multi-class into Barbarian at a future date but it has some RP requirements in order to do so instead of flatly preventing players from ever multi-classing into barbarian later. With regard to sorcerors... just because its innate doesn't mean that they "manifest" their abilities at puberty. This isn't the X-men. Different people may manifest their abilities at different times so even though the fluff on sorcerors is that their magic comes from within, this doesn't mean that they automatically have to take their 1st class level in Sorceror or forfeit their rights to their "potential" magical abilities. 5) Characters must remain single classed at least until they've achieved 5th level in that class. I did this for two reasons. First, it was my first time DM'ing in over a decade and first time with 3.5, and I wanted to keep things simple till we were up to speed. Second, I've always seen rampant multiclassing as muddying a character. I wanted my players to get comfortable with their characters in their first class before they started class hopping. In light of your first reason, this restriction makes sense. You're new toi 3.5 so you want to keep your game simple. Your second reason is not as strong unless your DMing a group of newbies. And as someone pointed out earlier, there are "multi-classing" penalties regarding favored classes for certain races. This rule screws over those players unless they are in their favored class or multi-classing into their favored class. 6) No evil alignments. The game is about heroes, not villains. I fully agree though my general rule is PCs must be of the similar alignment. Either all Good/Neutral or all Evil/Neutral. No mixing of Good and Evil PCs... 7) Characters take their maximum HD for hitpoints initially, then, each level, players have the option of either taking half their HD, or rolling for it. This was particularly amusing since, over many rolls, you're more likely to end up with more HP by rolling, but the reality of the short term is that your Barbarian, with a 12HD can roll a 1 at 2nd level. Have your camera ready - you won't want to miss the look on his face! Its a true gamblers pick for a player. Rolling gives the potential of higher HP but with the risks of lower HP. Taking 1/2 HD guarrantees slightly below "average" HP. If you want to make it a "true" average of dice rolls may I suggest 1/2 HD at even levels and 1/2 HD + 1 on odd levels. 8) Dice must be the standard size (1/2 inch across the d6) and clearly readable (no black ink on onyx). I trust my players, but have played with people that others started to mistrust their rolls. Best if everyone can see the results - more exciting too. None of those tiny tiny dice that even the roller has to squint to see the result. Good rules but kind of sad that this actually needs to be said... you must have an odd set of players if you need to tell them this. That or you got players who would want to try to pull a fast one on you by using hard to read dice. So, am I a megalomaniac? What variants are unique to your game? Yes you are but you should be. You're the DM. You set the stage so to speak. My current campaign houserules: 84 point buy (no starting stat higher than an 18 and lower than a 3 prior to racial adjustments). As I mentioned above, since the PCs are on a much higher stat buy then what is recommended, bad guys have been adjusted accordingly to still make the game a challenge. Its more work for me as a DM but that's what E-tools is for. :P Max HD for the first 2 levels of the PC; roll for all other levels. If you roll less than 1/2 your HD, you get to re-roll until you roll 1/2 your HD or higher. Consistent Alignment for the group: Group decides prior to campaign start what "type" of alignment the group will play. I refuse to DM a game with a mix of Good and Evil PCs. Those usually end up with the Evil PC feeling justified in screwing over his fellow PCs because he's evil. At least in an all or mostly Evil group, an Evil PC that does that to his comrades just gets killed. :P Appropriate punishment in an evil campaign. I don't restrict classes or races in general with a rare few exceptions on a case by case basis. Same goes for "new" materials that come out. I allow them into the game on a case by case basis.
RobbyPants 12-13-07, 11:59 AM	Robby, Do you think your way would be better or my way of having the players roll twice and take the best? I really don't want to do the math, and was wondering if you knew off the top of your head. To be honest, I can't think of an easy way to do the math without looking at all the combinations. My inkling is that your way will yield a higher average, but it will have the potential for a lower minimum. The minimum shouldn't come up often, but there's (rougly) a 25% chance of getting lower than the half-way point with your version. Oh what the hell. I'll run the numbers for a d6. The idea is to look at the 36 combinations of the two dice, and report the highest roll. I'll average the results. 1 2 3 4 5 6 ________________________________________ ____________ 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 2 2 2 3 4 5 6 3 3 3 3 4 5 6 4 4 4 4 4 5 6 5 5 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 ________________________________________ ____________ Average: 4.472 Now, I may have a typo in there, but that's what I got summing up all 36 numbers and dividing by 36. So, that 4.472 compared to the normal 3.5 average is much better, and it's still notably better than the 4.0 average from my system. Again, it's still possible to get a 1, but now it's a 1/36 chance instead of 1/6. Your chances of a 2 are 3/36 (1/12) instead of 1/6. Your chances of a 3 are 5/36 instead of 1/6. So, compared to the standard rolling method, you will get far fewer low rolls. Comparing this system to mine, you have a 27/36 (3/4) chance of getting a four or higher, where as it's a 3/6 (1/2) chance in my system. So basically, your version will perform better than mine 75% of the time and it will perform as good or worse 25%. Conclusion: On average, your version of rolling twice and picking the best is better (i.e. higher results on average).
UAMDB 12-13-07, 12:12 PM	Thank you Robby, I really do appreciate the work you did.
RobbyPants 12-13-07, 12:30 PM	No problem. The geeky side of me actually likes doing it. And by geeky side, I mean all of me. :P Sometimes it's nice to put the numbers up there to get a bit of perspective on things. One thing I've liked doing in my games is giving the players some edge on rolling for HP without going overboard. Actually working through the numbers lets me have a good idea of expected results.
Darrett 12-13-07, 12:39 PM	I'll just comment on a few here.. 2) Only basic classes from PHB are available, except for Monks. The class just never seemed to fit with a fantasy campaign, in my opinion. I agree in most cases. I find unarmed combat to be problematic at best, and Monks just don't fit in with my game world design. That said, if a player -really- wanted to try one, I could probably work one in if it's going to make a difference in how much they enjoy the game. 3) No Gnomes. For one thing, I've never seen them as bringing anything more to the game than halflings. For another, the world I created simply didn't have the race in it. And lastly, to be honest, I just plain don't like the little leprechans. There. I said it. Deal with it. This one I don't quite get. If you're trying to downplay any steampunk elements in your game world, then you don't need to remove gnomes entirely to achieve this. It is your world, but make sure you have a reason for not including them other than your personal preference. 4) Barbarian and Sorceror classes are only available as initial classes. Just doesn't make sense that you could pick one of them up as a second class. Barbarian is more of a cultural/racial thing, and Sorceror implies an inate magical ability, which I can't see just suddenly coming into existance. I agree with Barbarian. Sorcerer, as was mentioned above, may just be a latent magical ability that doesn't come into fruition immediately. A character may be 19 or 59 before he discovers this talent. I've set things up before where being a sorcerer was a randomly determined thing; you can choose sorcerer initially, but after that, any sorcerer's abilities you may have (randomly determined at character creation) would simply make themselves known randomly upon reaching a new level or at a particularly stressful moment. I had one of my players, a Rogue, suddenly Feather Fall himself after being thrown off a building. And a 3rd level Rogue/0th level Sorcerer was born. 5) Characters must remain single classed at least until they've achieved 5th level in that class. I did this for two reasons. First, it was my first time DM'ing in over a decade and first time with 3.5, and I wanted to keep things simple till we were up to speed. Second, I've always seen rampant multiclassing as muddying a character. I wanted my players to get comfortable with their characters in their first class before they started class hopping. I never have any problem with multiclassing. There are significant drawbacks to doing so, but also advantages. However, if they start trying to add 3 or more classes, or add a class that makes absolutely no sense (The city-dwelling Rogue suddenly going for a level in Ranger), then I step in. 6) No evil alignments. The game is about heroes, not villains. Agreed; this also tends to cause a certain amount of in-fighting. It's fine to have evil campaigns, but no mixed-alignment parties. 7) Characters take their maximum HD for hitpoints initially, then, each level, players have the option of either taking half their HD, or rolling for it. This was particularly amusing since, over many rolls, you're more likely to end up with more HP by rolling, but the reality of the short term is that your Barbarian, with a 12HD can roll a 1 at 2nd level. Have your camera ready - you won't want to miss the look on his face! You're not particularly more likely to end up with more HP by rolling, you're just introducing the chance that at a particular juncture you'll have more or less HP than the mean. Over an infinite amount of rolls, you'll end up with exactly the same number of HP as the mean, unless you are using dice with painted depressions for each dot... but that's an aside, really. I've got a whole list of various changes I've made over the years. Some small things, some huge things (Like having a world in which all spellcasting was witchcraft, and would get you hunted down if you weren't careful). It'd likely take too long to write them all down.
Praxian 12-13-07, 01:37 PM	1) Instead of rolling for ability scores, everyone has 75 points to distribute as they see fit. Eliminates the common situation where one character wins big on ability score rolls, while another ends up with a wimpy character. I figured 75 was enough for a 12 in each ability, with 3 left over to distribute. By robbing Peter to pay Paul, it's possible to make some varied characters. No ability can start out any higher than 18 or any lower than 6. Racial bonuses/penalties work by either shifting that maximum down by 2 or the bottom number up by two. For example, an Elf's dexterity can't be any lower than 8 and his constitution can't be any higher than 16. I do something similar, but I don't let them do point buys. I give players the option of rolling their stats in front of me, OR using pre-setup stats of 13-18 (which are inevitably better than what most of them would roll). 2) Only basic classes from PHB are available, except for Monks. The class just never seemed to fit with a fantasy campaign, in my opinion. Your world. :) When I started doing D&D I did the same. Now in my world however it's "If it's in a book I have access to, you can play it. If I don't own the book, and you don't bring it to 1 session, you have to remake and play with the remade version because the other char has just become an NPC." 3) No Gnomes. For one thing, I've never seen them as bringing anything more to the game than halflings. For another, the world I created simply didn't have the race in it. And lastly, to be honest, I just plain don't like the little leprechans. There. I said it. Deal with it. What? I thought everyone liked big noses...... 4) Barbarian and Sorceror classes are only available as initial classes. Just doesn't make sense that you could pick one of them up as a second class. Barbarian is more of a cultural/racial thing, and Sorceror implies an inate magical ability, which I can't see just suddenly coming into existance. Yes and no. I like the flavor of that as a setup, but I can also say that, if a char goes and survives in the wilds for x-months that he should be allowed to buy a barbarian level if he wants and go from there. The d12 shows the constitution that the char learned while he was in the wild, and the other benefits show the char learned while living off the land. As for Sorcerer, your logic could be argued as "Well, my magical innate abilities just didn't surface until now..." 5) Characters must remain single classed at least until they've achieved 5th level in that class. I did this for two reasons. First, it was my first time DM'ing in over a decade and first time with 3.5, and I wanted to keep things simple till we were up to speed. Second, I've always seen rampant multiclassing as muddying a character. I wanted my players to get comfortable with their characters in their first class before they started class hopping. Nice house rule. I only restrict this when I have 1 or 2 players specifically in my game that do things. Like in 3rd ed I had a person who would go 1 level of ranger, and then take levels as fighter so that when he got to a +9 bab, he could get "two weapon attack" for free, I made it a house rule that the benefit only applied to 9th level rangers, until 3.5 came out and fixed it for me. :) 6) No evil alignments. The game is about heroes, not villains. True, but sometimes players wanna be villans too. 7) Characters take their maximum HD for hitpoints initially, then, each level, players have the option of either taking half their HD, or rolling for it. This was particularly amusing since, over many rolls, you're more likely to end up with more HP by rolling, but the reality of the short term is that your Barbarian, with a 12HD can roll a 1 at 2nd level. Have your camera ready - you won't want to miss the look on his face! I like, I may incorporate this into my games. 8) Dice must be the standard size (1/2 inch across the d6) and clearly readable (no black ink on onyx). I trust my players, but have played with people that others started to mistrust their rolls. Best if everyone can see the results - more exciting too. None of those tiny tiny dice that even the roller has to squint to see the result. "But... but... I only own these tiny microscopic dice that are black on purple and totally readable to me... except when I need to adjust the light a little." Yea, run into that one too myself. Use this one too. =D So, am I a megalomaniac? What variants are unique to your game? The player complaining wants you to just say "Ok, you win, what're you doing now?". Smile, nod, and keep up whatever you're doing. All in all, you're not overbearing at all.