Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Emirikol Aug 28, 2014 7:58:58	I've really only got a few house rules I plan on using for my upcoming campaign.  I've posted them to the Wizards.com blog.   http://community.wizards.com/taxonomy/term/41/blog   Any feedback or troubleshooting is welcome.       I'm sure there will be some things I'll be nerfing in the future, but as I expect any given campaign to probably never rise higher than about 12-14th, I'm  not worrying about high level stuff.         jh
#2 IxidorRS Aug 28, 2014 8:19:10	Only part of this I like is the Extroardinary Moments bit. That's a nice "fan of the party" feature. I like that.
#3 Thoughts_My_Aim Aug 28, 2014 8:21:56	Applying disadvantage to weird-looking races in social situations is, IMO, a setting question rather than a rules question. It's not a houserule, it's an application of the rules in the context of the setting.   I don't much like the two caster-related effects. They seem like a kneejerk response to the idea that magic is too powerful. A bonus Skill Proficiency is mostly flavour, so restriciting it to non-casters feels like you're slapping caster players on the wrists for picking a class you don't like.    The unreliable spellcasting rule is - IMO - even worse. It makes magic more random, but doesn't really make it unpredicatble or mysterious, it just adds an extra die roll. Worse, it penalises casters most at low levels, when they are least powerful and least at high levels when they are most powerful. Not only that, but since you're keying it to Arcana then it massively benefits Wizards (who cast from Int and are likely to have Arcana as a class skill)  relative to other casting classes.   The Extraordinary Moments rule is interesting, but feels incoherent with the way the game works otherwise. It seems like it will mostly incentivise players punting for a 50% chance of using their most powerful class abilities. Depending on how it works, it also favours those classes that have powerful one-shot abilities (like the Monk's Quivering Palm).
#4 Arawn76 Aug 28, 2014 8:26:34	For a Lankhmaar game I'd probably houserule much, much further but they seem ok. Not sure I recall magic being spectacularly unreliable in the books though but my memory sucks.   Don't think the extra skill adds much for non-casters but doesn't break anything either.   Shame 5e doesn't have invokers a decentish parallel for white wizards (I assume they used cleric spells from what I understand).   Hmm may need to dig out my 2e and runequest sourcebooks for comparison to the source material...
#5 IxidorRS Aug 28, 2014 8:55:32	Thoughts_My_Aim wrote:
#6 pmusachia Aug 28, 2014 9:33:27	I really like the Extraordinary Moments idea, but I agree it should scale, maybe 5% chance of succes per level (so 25% at 5th lvl, 50% at 10th), OR maybe it can only be used to jump 2 levels up, not all the way from 1st to 20th. How would you handle casting? Essentially I'd say they can either use a non-magical effect, or get one extra spell slot of the highest level spell they have slots for. They can choose in the moment.   None of the others I like at all. Magic is already unreliable, that's why there's an Atk bonus and DC associated with casting. And there's no reason to mess with proficiencies, except situationally. If your character doesn't have survival as a class skill, but was rasied in a remote cabin in the woods, maybe the DM gives them survival as a bonus proficiency. But not a blanket rule allowing anyone anything, or extras for non-casters   . The races thing, feels like a no brainer, obviously you do that, but situationally. A dragonborn in a dragonborn community has no problem, in an urban setting a little trouble, and in a rural village maybe a lot. It all depends. It may not normally be that hard for a dragonborn in a city, but maybe they go to tavern where the bartender hates dragonborn for some reason, who knows? If you did this, would humans have trouble talking with drow, but tieflings would have no problem? it'd need to work both ways.   -Moose
#7 BoldItalic Aug 28, 2014 11:31:52	Extraordinary Moments - I would make the chance of success depend on the difference in level between the PC's actual level and the level where the feature would be acquired. Perhaps like this:   Roll d20 and add your class level. If the result exceeds the threshold level for the feature, you succeed.   Note that, with this rule, you would automatically succeed on features for which you already qualify anyway, which seems right.
#8 IxidorRS Aug 28, 2014 12:21:22	BoldItalic wrote:
#9 Emirikol Aug 28, 2014 17:18:11	I'm still in need of some balance for the 50/50 chance spells go off which is there for the Lankhmar theme (I never liked the "it takes forever to cast a spell" rule in prior editions..hence why I went with the odd chance that your spell might take longer..or it might not).   Anyways, I'm going to add a house rule that you can exchange a couple lower level spells for a heroic use of a higher level spell (pick one, within reason).      jh
(Reply to #6) Macv12	pmusachia wrote: