Light Blade Mastery takes Dex 21 and either Str 17 or Cha 17. Reasoning: artful dodger rogues get kind of screwed otherwise unless they go Daggermaster, and it bugs the daylights out of me from a narrative standpoint that a finesse-y ability like increased crit range with light blades requires you to budget a considerable amount for brute force instead, shutting out the accurate, finessed, not-so-strong archetype.
Fighters get four class skills from their list, and Diplomacy and History get added to the class skill list. Reasoning: Fighters should be viable for the knight in shining armour archetype (as opposed to the "play a fighter if this 'roleplaying' thing scares you" stereotype) without dumping feats on Skill Training, and I don't see any particular reason why fighters in particular are singled out for having fewer skills than everybody else. Not adding plate proficiency to their armour list, though; that'd fiddle with actual game balance more than giving them a little more leeway on skills does.
You can take a battleaxe or greataxe and pretend it's just a big honkin' sword, and stick the axe powers and feats and stuff on it. Reasoning: from a mechanical standpoint, it's a PITA to make room for Dexterity if you're trying to play a knight in shining armour (which archetypally tends towards swords). I mean there's a good chance you'll want to budget for decent mental scores with that (especially if you're a paladin), and if you're a fighter you need to budget for Con 15 to get plate too. I think the exception here is a paladin who's not going to have the Str/Con to get stuff like Axe Mastery anyway and so just goes bastard sword-and-board, but why should they get to have all the fun.
Not bad. I'm actually happy to see someone design rules for a reason other than "cuz it needz it!" so I'm not even going to pick all of them to pieces.
Well thought out houserules that aim for a purpose and hit the target.
Not bad. I'm actually happy to see someone design rules for a reason other than "cuz it needz it!" so I'm not even going to pick all of them to pieces.
Hey, thanks.
Any that you'll be using? (Because if so, I may be forced to steal a seat at your table.)
I do have a list of stuff I'm keeping a close eye on though.
whether fighters need more skill options
whether prone is a condition worth inflicting on anyone or not (i have a player that says it's "completely pointless now")
whether rogues of the brutal scoundrel variety are too heavy on the damage.
All of which are probably completely fine, but only time will truly tell.
My first major house-rule project will be bringing Darksun into 4th edition rules.
The skill related houserules... You 18 or so feats in this game, don't you think that a few spent on skills isn't such a bad idea? Keeps them from focusing on combat specific feats.