What house rules do you regularly use?
The most common one I feel I've come across is lessening hit point pools (or increasing damage) to hasten combat.
We have nerfed two fighter abilites.
BRV only generates THP from being hit with melee attacks when the fighter is bloodied.
Dual strike must target 2 separate creatures.
House rules I am considering...
1. Turning Daily Powers into uses per Level. This would be to prevent the 5 minute work day phenomena. I might rename them infrequent powers or just not worry about it.
2. Removing all pluses from magic items and then going through the older editions of the game and making equivalents in 4e at the level they appeared in earlier editions. I think 4e removed much of the magic in magic items. But something needed to be done so I am agreeing they need refactoring some of those oldies. I just think they took the nerf bat a little much to heart. I'd of course give the players pluses to compensate for the losses due to magic items not having them.
3. I reflavored the Dragonborn. (not sure this is a houserule). Dragonborn are magical abberations born randomly to human parents. Most die at birth. Those that survive all have memorable tales to tell. There are 3 dragonborn living in my city of 100000 people. 2 players and 1 npc.
4. I reflavored the Tiefling. Tiefling are a subrace of humans. They have no tails or horns. Although if you feel around in their hair they have bumps where horns might be. Otherwise they have a few minor features that are noticeable if you look closely.
5. I reflavored the Deva. Deva are a subrace of humans. They have human coloring. A sect of Deva though are known to tatoo themselves all over with blue tatoos.
6. I reflavored Goliath. Goliath are a subrace of humans. They are just tough people from back in the mountains. Same background just not a new race.
7. I reflavored Shifters. They didn't change in appearance. They are just a savage subrace of humans who live in the cold lands to the north. Kinda like cave men who just never got civilized or wiped out.
Now on my racial reflavorings the feat system stays the same. If your playing essentially a Goliath you interact in the world as human but your feats are Goliath only feats NOT human only feats.
My players could handle full monster hit point pools but combats were taking a little longer than we liked. As I recall most of our encounters were taking at least 45 minutes. Considering that we like to have three or four good combats in our sessions we were having to either skip on combat or scrunch our outside roleplay/story into the small bits in between.
Once I made the HP cuts our combats moved down to about 30 minutes which felt a lot more comfortable and let us spend the extra time we wanted on roleplay and story.
Also - in my prep time for almost every monster that has a recharge power I roll the recharge during prep and just make a note of how many roles it took me to recharge. It A) makes sure I remember to recharge said powers and B) speeds up combat with a few less dice rolls.
One DM also limited BRV to temp HPs can only be gained once per round and have to be used up before you get more. No one picked a BRV so I don't know how well it would have worked.
No save-locking (prevented by item restriction mostly).
No Expertise Feats (factored in either automatically, or monsters adjusted accordingly. Feat taxes are stupid.)
Occasionally allow members of new classes to qualify for old EDs (and some random PPs) that required certain classes. Example: We allow swordmages and Bards to take planeshifter if they want.
That's about it, other than random on-the-spot house rulings that enhance flavor and/or epicness.
- Powers can be divided up. What this means is, if someone wishes to only perform one aspect of a Power they can. Or, if they wish to *Use Power: Shifts, Move Action: Moves, Rest of Power: Attack* they can. I find this is really good at mixing things up and making fighting and other scenarios really cinematic. They use pg. 42, acrobatic stunts, etc. all the time now thanks to this.
- Powers are fully usable in any context. So be it out-of-combat, a Skill Challenge, etc. This is already sorta a official rule, with Powers made for creatures being able to attack objects, etc. But I spell it out fully.
- My Skill Challenges are handled with different mechanics for different events (though not too different).
- XP is handled much differently, relying on not combat but character events to give out XP. When the character grows, you grow in Power.
- Encounters become Per Scene and Dailies become Per Chapter. My games are more combat light, so this works to even it out.
- I am very loose on Feats and requirements, such as non-Arcane taking Familiars.
- Everyone receives a free Weapon/Implement Expertise Feat at Level 1 for free.
As well as the usual reflavouring per whatever campaign setting I am running.
Class based temp hit points even those that say they stack with other reasons for getting temp hit points do not stack with themselves.
Meaning if you've got 3 and get 6 more due to a class ability you have 6 not 9.
Its kinda like damage reduction that only works once a round.
What house rules do you regularly use?
1. The Kobold Victory Table in Draconomicon is mandatory.
2. Power cards are mandatory.
3. Roll a critical failure with a daily power and you become the Drink Fairy.
4. Always go LEFT
5. Push, Pull and Slide must be in a straight line, or at least as straight a line as you can manage.
This next one is the interesting one.
6. For burst and blast attacks, the player may defer to the DM to decide which attack rolls correspond to which targets. The DM may rearrange attack rolls so that the player hits as many targets as his rolls would have allowed had they been rolled against those targets.
Here's how this works. Brian casts Scorching Burst on three enemies. Monster A has a reflex defense of 12. Monster B has a reflex defense of 14. Monster C has a reflex defense of 16. Mike tells the DM to sort his attacks for him. Mike rolls a 16, 14, and a 12, respectively.
If Mike had called his targets in order and rolled those numbers, he would have hit two out of three monsters.
16 hits 12,
14 hits 14,
12 misses 16.
At the DM's discretion, Mike's attack rolls may be reorganized so that Mike gets the most bang for his buck. So the DM switches the first and third attack rolls. Now, Mike hits all three targets.
12 hits 12,
14 hits 14,
16 hits 16.
The DM may refuse to rearrange the attack rolls at his discretion. Situations where a DM might refuse to rearrange attack rolls include hard and difficult encounters, attacks where a player character or npc is a target, and attacks with burst 2 or greater areas or blast 5 and greater areas.
The point is to just speed up the game a little bit. Overuse of this house rule would be somewhat game-breaking.
4. Always go LEFT
Oddly enough we have the same rule, after I played a superstitious dwarf who insisted "thats how to get to the treasure". Sort of stuck around for future adventures. Is this some sort of internet/nerd joke I don't get?
Our big two are bonus languages based on INT mod. 1 per point. If it increases you get more.
As many item powers per encounter as you want.
Other than that not much, mostly just minor things here and there.
Wizard orb penalties only last for one round (like the other implement abilities)
We're also experimenting with more uses for Action Points and adding a mechanic to give players more GM like powers.
No expertise feats, I'll either adjust the monsters or add +1 at paragon and +2at epic(aren't there yet so I haven't decided yet).
Add 1/2 level to damage(players and monsters too) is something I will be adding both to speed up combat and make it a little grittier.
May be revising rituals to make them more useable(adjusting costs and time) and instead of ritual components players can just strike off gold, I can't be bothered with such minute detail.
No raise dead (dead = dead) and no magic item creation rituals.
Magic items scale with the wielder (so a flame sword is +1 for a 5th level character but +6 for a 30th level one), which allows me to remove the magic items are everywhere feel from the default assumption of the last two editions.
Magic items scale with the wielder (so a flame sword is +1 for a 5th level character but +6 for a 30th level one), which allows me to remove the magic items are everywhere feel from the default assumption of the last two editions.
I REALLY like this idea. I've always hated the "time to upgrade my weapon" mentality. Gandalf didn't get a new staff in Moria! He used his staff. I'd prefer characters to keep the same weapon from day one and have it become more epic as they become more epic.
Magic items scale with the wielder (so a flame sword is +1 for a 5th level character but +6 for a 30th level one), which allows me to remove the magic items are everywhere feel from the default assumption of the last two editions.
I kinda like that idea too, but I did it by making a 'Item Bonding' ritual that allows the item to level up with the character, otherwise, they could go looking to buy low level stuff just so it would magically jump up to their level. I also get around that 'Magic items everywhere' problem with them finding less magic items, and more Residuum and Mastercraft stuff to make their own items of choice.
In my home version of the PoL setting, Residuum 'bubbles' up from the Elemental Chaos and pools into natural physical objects in certain places of power, called Dross. Refining Dross into Residuum so you can work with it takes an Arcana roll of DC 25.
Otherwise, my house rules are;
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Blasts/Bursts/Area attacks: At the attacker option (usually NPCs to speed up combat), only roll to hit once per attack, compare result to each creature, and apply same damage as usual. Does not apply to powers with primary/secondary targets or attacks.
Viper's Strike (Warlord at-will): Change text to include self in Opportunity Attack on shifting foe. This allows a Warlord to better serve the secondary Defender role without marking.
Action Points: You can also gain an action point the first time you are bloodied in an encounter. Extra action points can be used to add +1d6 to a d20 roll (skill, attack roll, etc), but only one can be used for an extra action per encounter.
Grabs: An attacker can also render a grabbed opponent prone. This is a STR attack vs. Reflex or Fortitude, whichever is greater. Damage for this throw attack is 1d4 + STR mod, and counts as a Standard Action.
Healing and Extended Rests: After an extended rest;
● Any character at negative HP goes to 0 HP.
● Any character at 0 HP regains one healing surge, which can be spent if a Heal check is made by an ally, or an endurance check is made by the character.
● Any character at 1+ HP regains all healing surges. As many as wanted can be spent to recover HP. Also, a character can spend remaining healing surges before an extended rest to start the next day with full HP and Healing Surges.
'Small' Characters: Any Versatile weapon used by a small character counts as a two-handed weapon for the purposes of feats, powers, and class features. As usual, they do not gain the +1 damage for using the weapon with two hands.
Tough Minions: Rather than die in one hit, some minions might have a 'Bloodied/Dead' status, which means they get bloodied in the first hit, and die on the second. A critical hit always kills a minion in one hit, regardless of type.
Levels and Experience Points: For the sake of simplicity and less bookkeeping, we will not track XP for levels in this game. I will be using the variant rule from the DMG (pg 121) for simpler XP. On average, the characters will gain a level every 8 to 10 encounters, or about 2-3
game sessions.
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The HP recovery stuff is mostly to ensure that if someone is really beaten down, it takes time or magic to get back to full power. Bloodied Minions was as idea I got off this board, cause it was a good way to have something in between minions and full HP critters without playing with HP totals. Levels is cause I hate the bookkeeping (do the same thing in v3.5 and Star Wars), and the Grabs bonus is just so you have an option other than drag and drop.
1) Mundanized "magic" items. A +1 magic sword is a Orc Steel sword. Same cost, same parcel placement, just not "magic". Did this as often as possible - poison weapon=mundane, it's poison that's why it works. Etc . . .
2) Power fonts and stuff(not really a house rule I guess but it goes with #1). PCs find pools and elemental faults and stuff that improve their treasured gear. "Your father's sword vibrates as you enter the ancient temple of [god x]. It draws strength from the sacredness of the place like a child at a mother's teat." Weapon goes to +2, or something.
3) Speed up Rituals. Most rituals cast at 1/10th the time. There are a few exceptions.
4) Scavange ritual compontents. I give the players 'bonus treasure' in the form of special items that can only be used in rituals. Troll's blood can be used in brew potion (healing potion), lodestone in detect object. Once the player's got the idea they started looking for stuff, "Can I use mindflayer brain in a discern lies ritual?" I love to reward this kind of thinking with YES.
5) Expertise standard free give away. each class gets onefor free.
6) Ranged Warlord. We reworked the worlord for a ranged version (pretty easy actually.) Not a house rule as much as a specific request for a certain type of character.
Tough Minions: Rather than die in one hit, some minions might have a 'Bloodied/Dead' status, which means they get bloodied in the first hit, and die on the second. A critical hit always kills a minion in one hit, regardless of type.
This is gold! I offer . . .
In my home version of the PoL setting, Residuum 'bubbles' up from the Elemental Chaos and pools into natural physical objects in certain places of power, called Dross. Refining Dross into Residuum so you can work with it takes an Arcana roll of DC 25.
Blasts/Bursts/Area attacks: At the attacker option (usually NPCs to speed up combat), only roll to hit once per attack, compare result to each creature, and apply same damage as usual. Does not apply to powers with primary/secondary targets or attacks.
I looove your bubbling residuum pool dealies. That sort of thing adds SO much flavor to a campaign world.
As for the one-roll area attacks.. I like it! Adds a fun choice that speeds up combat, too! I can imagine that critically hitting every single enemy in the area must be great.
I, generally speaking, cut most monster HP down by 1/4 to to 1/2 depending on the importance of the fight.
Yup, I did this too. Cut Monster HP by 20-50%, and I also doubled XP gain. But, I prefer the "You level when I say so" method a lot more, so I'll be returning to that. Levelling twice in one session is a pain in the ass, so I can keep it down to once per session. ^^
2) Power fonts and stuff(not really a house rule I guess but it goes with #1). PCs find pools and elemental faults and stuff that improve their treasured gear. "Your father's sword vibrates as you enter the ancient temple of [god x]. It draws strength from the sacredness of the place like a child at a mother's teat." Weapon goes to +2, or something.
3) Speed up Rituals. Most rituals cast at 1/10th the time. There are a few exceptions.
4) Scavange ritual compontents. I give the players 'bonus treasure' in the form of special items that can only be used in rituals. Troll's blood can be used in brew potion (healing potion), lodestone in detect object. Once the player's got the idea they started looking for stuff, "Can I use mindflayer brain in a discern lies ritual?" I love to reward this kind of thinking with YES.
I've used and loved the Power Fonts a few times, but my players tend to really enjoy hunting down magic items and getting new ones and all that, so the power fonts thing is just an option I keep open.
Speeding up rituals is hell yes. Especially Knock, that needs to be faster. And as for scavenging ritual components.. even more of a hell yes! The little perks and immersion from those are just wonderful.
Implement Focus replaces Dark Fury, Astral Fire, and similar feats. Implement Focus works like Weapon Focus, except for certain Implements.
Cloaks of Distortion grant a +5 item bonus instead of penalizing attack rolls.
Free actions do not stack. You can't use Bloodclaw Weapon twice when using a basic melee attack to get double the bonus. I have also determined that free actions (other than rerolls) during other actions require a trigger. Otherwise they are actions that you can do between other actions (on anyone's turn) Persistent effects (Flaming/Frost weapon for example) grant their keywords to the attack. If the power affects the attack, the attack has the keyword.
Generic Songblades are a 6/11/16/21/26 item and work exactly like Songblades do.
Bards get free rapier proficiency because longswords aren't quite as classy.
Alchemical items made into ammunition are the same level as their non-ammunition counterparts.
Double weapons, are for the most part, banned.
I, generally speaking, cut most monster HP down by 1/4 to to 1/2 depending on the importance of the fight.
My players could handle full monster hit point pools but combats were taking a little longer than we liked. As I recall most of our encounters were taking at least 45 minutes. Considering that we like to have three or four good combats in our sessions we were having to either skip on combat or scrunch our outside roleplay/story into the small bits in between.
Once I made the HP cuts our combats moved down to about 30 minutes which felt a lot more comfortable and let us spend the extra time we wanted on roleplay and story.
Also - in my prep time for almost every monster that has a recharge power I roll the recharge during prep and just make a note of how many roles it took me to recharge. It A) makes sure I remember to recharge said powers and B) speeds up combat with a few less dice rolls.
Wow, those sound like some excellent ideas! I've had the same issue in our group and with our limited rping time I was thinking about how I could cut time down on the encounters and they were taking up almost the entire group time.
Though I haven't told the group, I've also house ruled that if during a skill challenge you beat the DC by 10 or more it counts as two successes.
The previous session's new house rule was that I won't kill PC's during the first round of combat. Negative HP is okay, but death is too harsh, even for the rogue. ;) Second round all bets are off. :D
I've made others, but they are mainly to fill gaps in the rules.
It keeps combat from devolving into mindless rounds of using At-Wills to slowly whittle enemies down and shaves at least a turn or two off of each combat.
This is gold! I offer . . .
I looove your bubbling residuum pool dealies. That sort of thing adds SO much flavor to a campaign world.
As for the one-roll area attacks.. I like it! Adds a fun choice that speeds up combat, too! I can imagine that critically hitting every single enemy in the area must be great.
Thanks guys. That minion idea was not originally mine, I just refined it. Can't for the life of me remember who started it, but if s/he sees it, speak up, OK?
And yes, they love one roll crit area attacks. It's why they take the gamble.
Racial Demographics: The players are encouraged, but not required, to keep the demographics of the campaign's starting area in mind when creating their characters in order to keep a sense of verisimilitude. This is not an absolute requirement; however, should the players choose to follow the local demographic percentages, the party will be made up of three humans, one dwarf, and two "others" (who could be either single members of their individual races, or else additional humans or dwarfs).
Restricted Races: Devas, Drow, Genasi, and Tieflings are not a part of the campaign gameworld and thus are not available as Player Characters.
Magic Items: "Over the counter" magic items do not exist in this campaign; other than potions, the players will never find magic items on sale in any shop in the entire gameworld. All enchanted items are unique, with their own histories, names, and powers shared by no other magic item. They are exceedingly rare, and should be held in a bit of awe by the player characters as creating powerful magical items is a lost art in the modern day of the campaign world.
I only have one: at the start of each player's turn, he can roll 1d20. On a 19 he can recharge any spent encounter power; on a 20 he can recharge ANY spent power.
It keeps combat from devolving into mindless rounds of using At-Wills to slowly whittle enemies down and shaves at least a turn or two off of each combat.
I do something similar. I let my players roll a red d6 and a black d6 at the top of the combat round. Red on a 5 or 6 refresh Encounter, Black on a 6 refresh Daily. They may substitute refreshing a Healing surge for a power. The players all love rolling at the top of the round, but they are refreshing a bit too often for my tastes, so I may change this a bit. I just liked the flavor of the one red die/one black die thing.
When Enc and Daily Attack powers are depleted, At-Wills do one addl die of dmg.
Finally, my players add one half their level to damage.
All the issues with HP on monsters seem to be a scaling problem in upper tier play in each tier. Basically the HP keeps going up at each level, but the damage output stays the same within each tier, and only gradually increases when progressing to the subsequent tier. Adding 1/2 lv to dmg fixes this issue in the best possible way, IMO. I find it easier than going through and altering the hp of every monster they encounter, but then again, I use clipped jpgs of the MM stat blocks for my encounter worksheets so it would be a significant issue for me.
Its a simple rule that prevent cheesy things like epic warlocks running around with a +1 rod of reaving in their off hand, or WIS 12 wizards using cloud of daggers to drop lvl 26 minions; without breaking items (like rod of reaving)/powerrs/... who are specifically meant to kill minions.
no weapon expertise feat
Instead, I give a campaign-based bonus +X to all attacks. (my lvl 6 party has receive a blessing from a god). Weapon expertise is not fair for classes that use both implements and weapons, or for racial abilities (like dragons breath weapon)
Due to this, we've made a custom god tables. When you make a character, you have to choose if you believe in a god or not. If you do, then choose which one...as most players would do. BUT, what happens here, based on your race/class, you can get different ability modifiers/powers (and some drawbacks) based on all that and which god you choose. Example: anyone worshipping Asmodeus, gains the ability to channel hellfire but at a weaker level and at the cost of having to make a DC con check due to the shock to their body. If you are already a warlock though, your existing powers get converted to hellfire. If a fighter worships Bahamut...hmm..i forgot what the table says. it's at home...hehe it's not complete yet, but over time we'll flesh it out more. right now it's geared more towards the players in my campaign.
2) at the request of my players, at lvl 11, you can shift 1 daily power to an encounter, and get a new daily in it's place. Also, your amount of powers increases total. At lvl 21, this happens again. The lack of overall diversity, and the similarity between all players really started to **** them off.
3) custom magic systems...we never liked the magic systems in 2e, 3e OR 4e, so we'd done our own. You can choose the wizards in teh book (with the above house rule) or use the custom one. The idea is that magic is the essence within the multiverse. casting is just being able to focus and channel that energy, but similar to Warhammer, there is a risk. You could cause some problems (burn yourself out, etc), similar to the Warhammer miscast system. Essentially, spells are created out of components based on what you want to do...the more powerful you want it, the harder to cast it. You have to roll, and if you fail the calculated value, the spell doesn't go off.
This came out of our custom wild mage rules...not as powerful as what the wild mage can do, but not as random and less drawbacks.
We are still tweaking this as we play and observe. What we are finding; we have 1 wizard of each style in the game (by the book, with the extra house rule above) and 1 custom. The custom wizard generally sticks with lower overall powered effects so that he doesn't fail much. Only a couple times, has he tried to do something truly epic to save people's hides!! For those, it was pure luck (ie. need a 15+, and he rolls it).
Players seem to enjoy it since it adds that fantastic imaginative approach to magic...but again, we're still tweaking it. the risk is there of the player overshadowing everyone else (if he constantly rolls 15+), but this hasn't happened. Also, in my style of game, few combats unless the players cause them specifically, but when their is a combat, the difficulties are generally quite high...everyone alwasy gets involved unless it makes sense not too. So they have never felt like someone was hogging the show.
Regards,
Sanjay
One rule we ignore that comes to my mind right now is the limit on action points and item powers per encounter / day. Who cares, 4th edition heroes shouldn't run around like Christmas trees anyway. There might be more but I probably just don't know about them.
I've also adopted the tough minions rule (Had the idea myself and then decided to give it a try after I saw someone on the board had it too. Worked great in several encounters by now!)
Back in 3rd edition, I used "you level up when I tell you", because my time is too precious to do CR calculations, but in 4th I find calculating XP takes less than 5 minutes so I just do it. Wait, not true, the session 2 weeks ago I just eyeballed it anyway.
All characters start with the standard array (16, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10) for their ability scores (pre-racial mod, of course). This prevents characters with two very high scores and a bunch of 10s, and it also keeps that Level 1 18/20 out of reach, so the characters aren't too optimized.
XP is gone (as I have always done) - I use the "you level up when I tell you to" method.
Milestones are not handed out after two encounters in a day, since that almost never happens in my campaigns. They are usually handed out after rolling initiative for important story/boss battles.
My only house rules so far:
All characters start with the standard array (16, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10) for their ability scores (pre-racial mod, of course). This prevents characters with two very high scores and a bunch of 10s, and it also keeps that Level 1 18/20 out of reach, so the characters aren't too optimized.
I am curious how you balance this out with the difficulty a lot of players have with hitting monsters regularly.
All characters start with the standard array (16, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10) for their ability scores (pre-racial mod, of course). This prevents characters with two very high scores and a bunch of 10s, and it also keeps that Level 1 18/20 out of reach, so the characters aren't too optimized.
You nerfed first-level characters? How sad... It's hard enough to make sure they all come out of the adventure alive... What do you throw at them? Blind orc grannies?
No seriously, the standard array screws a lot of characters over, especially if you try to play some non-perfect combination like a Tiefling Ranger or a Dragonborn Invoker.
You nerfed first-level characters? How sad... It's hard enough to make sure they all come out of the adventure alive... What do you throw at them? Blind orc grannies?
No seriously, the standard array screws a lot of characters over, especially if you try to play some non-perfect combination like a Tiefling Ranger or a Dragonborn Invoker.
I hate this argument. A 16 in your primary stat does not mean you are totally worthless.
The standard array makes a balanced character. Just because some one in the group has made a character who is completely lopsided so they have two high stats does not mean the standard array character is "bad".
There is more that rolling to hit and rolling damage. Skill checks, defenses and ability checks are just scratching the surface. If the DM does his/her job and has the player do things other than use their combat powers the benefits of a balanced character should become evident.
2. You get Int-mod bonus languages at first level and 1+Int-mod bonus languages for the Linguist feat.
3. The old alignments are still in place and so is the Great Wheel.
I hate this argument. A 16 in your primary stat does not mean you are totally worthless.
The standard array makes a balanced character. Just because some one in the group has made a character who is completely lopsided so they have two high stats does not mean the standard array character is "bad".
There is more that rolling to hit and rolling damage. Skill checks, defenses and ability checks are just scratching the surface. If the DM does his/her job and has the player do things other than use their combat powers the benefits of a balanced character should become evident.
Problem with this rebuttal is that 4e penalizes characters for being balanced versus being focused or dedicated. The whole 4e concept is based on each party member being dedicated to a role within the party dynamic to work AS a party to defeat and overcome enemies and conflicts.
I hate this argument. A 16 in your primary stat does not mean you are totally worthless.
The standard array makes a balanced character. Just because some one in the group has made a character who is completely lopsided so they have two high stats does not mean the standard array character is "bad".
There is more that rolling to hit and rolling damage. Skill checks, defenses and ability checks are just scratching the surface. If the DM does his/her job and has the player do things other than use their combat powers the benefits of a balanced character should become evident.
If the standard array is that awesome as you claim than players will pick it all on their own, and there is no need for DMs to enforce it at all.
Problem with this rebuttal is that 4e penalizes characters for being balanced versus being focused or dedicated. The whole 4e concept is based on each party member being dedicated to a role within the party dynamic to work AS a party to defeat and overcome enemies and conflicts.
If the standard array is that awesome as you claim than players will pick it all on their own, and there is no need for DMs to enforce it at all.
Sigh. Look at skill challenges. If you have a party composed entirely of members who have 18/20 in their primary stat, and 14/16 in the secondary your group will in all likelihood fail skill challenges.
Yes your striker will hit 5% of the time more often, but your striker's glass jaw will be that much more apparent. The trade offs are very real, and thoroughly min maxed characters are very exaggerated in their weaknesses and strengths. Some PCs like that, some don't.
The "use a standard array" rule has a couple of reasons behind it. 1- It saves the DM work, you don't have to check math and you know that you can send at the party. That is even if no-one is trained in a skill that won't be a giant problem for the party because of basically reasonable scores all around. (because you know, the standard array isn't what everything was balanced against or anything like that :rolleyes
2- Consistency. You don't have the player that tries to be "super balanced" and you don't have the player who is two stats and failure everywhere else.
3- To beat the "party can do it" fallacy. This is very much akin to the first point, but still needs to be mentioned. Many times one player will get stuck with the "fill in the gaps" role. This really isn't fun for that player. Allow me to explain what I mean here- The savvy party will realize when they get to the last PC's character that there are some big holes in the parties skill selection and tactical options, so the last player's character is basically dictated by those who "optimized" first.
Now the common argument is "Well the optimized characters are more effective! Why play a gimped character?!" To that I say, The optimized characters are not more effective, they merely force others to take care of their weaknesses. It is not fun to play a crutch, it is not fun to play a step stool. Standard array helps keep that from being as much of a problem.
This being said I don't use that rule, but it bothers me deeply when people claim that you cannot make an effective character using the default option.
You may use the old spell system if you like.
Scrolls are useable only by casters. It takes more than mere dabbling to learn how to read and use that stuff.
DO NOT TOUCH WILL'S DICE!
Action points can be saved. They don't go away after a rest.
You may not agree with these houserules, but I don't have the issue of powergamers at my table, or of people out to exploit every little loophole to make sure they 'win'. Things balance out from a sense of fair play, and I can trust these guys to check their egos at the door.
You nerfed first-level characters? How sad... It's hard enough to make sure they all come out of the adventure alive... What do you throw at them? Blind orc grannies?
No seriously, the standard array screws a lot of characters over, especially if you try to play some non-perfect combination like a Tiefling Ranger or a Dragonborn Invoker.
I haven't had any trouble using challenges as presented in the DMG/MM. That said, we don't do combat all that often, average about 1 encounter per session. Perhaps if we regularly had multiple encounters in a day, the extra 1 miss out of every 20 swings would add up to be trouble, but so far that has been more than made up for by the extra 2 skill successes out of every 20 attempts.
My simple solution : The total of the your ability bonuses, before class and race bonuses, is +8. Negative score DO NOT give you extra positive bonuses.
1. No double weapons.
2. Free Weapon/Implement Expertise
3. You must use point buy.
4. If you roleplay an action in combat, you can receive a +1 to the attack roll(or amount healed in case of healing word, etc.). This is to keep players creative. As a DM, I want to hear my players say, "I'll swing one blade at his face, and draw the other across his stomach!" not "I use twin strike."
Now the common argument is "Well the optimized characters are more effective! Why play a gimped character?!" To that I say, The optimized characters are not more effective, they merely force others to take care of their weaknesses. It is not fun to play a crutch, it is not fun to play a step stool. Standard array helps keep that from being as much of a problem.
Class features and powers do that already. You can't get away from it in 4e. The whole concept of a prime stat being used for ALL of your attacks and damage bonuses gears the entirety of the game towards team play with one party member filling in the deficiencies of another. That's why you pretty much can't run a game with 4-5 characters of the same role.
This being said I don't use that rule, but it bothers me deeply when people claim that you cannot make an effective character using the default option.
I don't buy for a second that it's the default option - it's one of 3 methods sanctioned by the PHB, one of two sanctioned by the RPGA. Difference of opinion, I guess, but there's obviously balance issues otherwise there wouldn't be so many people with the same kinds of house rules (atk bonuses and creature hp decreases) and the expertise feats.
Character Construction: The most important consideration ...
Character Goals: In terms of the Fortune and Glory!...
Character Morality: No evil-natured or malicious characters will be accepted....
Ah i love these rules, would like to play in such a campaign or master one, but i won't find players for such a RP-heavy campaign. ;(
Ah i love these rules, would like to play in such a campaign or master one, but i won't find players for such a RP-heavy campaign. ;(
I've had fantastic results with them. At this point, after so many years, I only keep those rules written down for new players, as my old hands already know what to expect.
2. Changed the duration on extended rest to one hour.
3. Reflavoured dragonborn to be reptiles/lizards.
4. Changed Eldarin fey step to ghost step(ethereal instead of teleporting).
5. All monsters encounter powers recharge on a six.