In my campaign:
Mechanical changes
-All players select one extra Encounter or Daily power whenever they get to choose powers. They can still only use the same number per encounter/day, they just have more to choose from.
-Nonsupernatural beings do not have alignments
-Taking a multiclass feat enables you to select abilities from your second class freely. Since you get extra abilities, at least one per level has to be from your base class.
-Chuck out the wealth guidelines and let me decide my own treasure plsthx.
-At 4th level, characters gain a new at-will custom designed to suit their character.
-Inspiring Word can generally be used more than 2/encounter (I think it's sitting around 3 right now - this is just because healing potions are not common in my world).
-Characters with a spellbook can switch one memorised spell per milestone reached, after a slightly longer-than-short rest (around half an hour)
Setting changes
-Dragonborn and Tiefling do not exist, and Eladrin are not currently playable.
-The halfling language, Riverfingers, is entirely signed and has no spoken or written component.
-There are no direct-involvement gods, and so:
-The divine power source does not exist as a base class (multiclassing is still possible, but requires GM approval)
-Arcane power source characters require GM approval for storyline before being introduced: magic comes from certain rare sources. They are allowed, though.
-use errata when possible
that is all.
-when using AoE attack you get to choose if you roll separate for each or one roll VS individual defenses.
Nice one. Mind if I steal it?
2. No automatic skills; you add however many automatic skills you would get to the number of skills you pick (so a wizard goes from 'Arcana, pick 3' to 'pick 4'; a rogue goes from 'Stealth, Thievery, pick 4' to 'pick 6'). The rogue is a perfect fit for a swashbuckler, except for requiring Stealth and Thievery, which don't necessarily fit.
3. All MC feats get you any skill off the target class's skill list, rather than a set skill. Alternately, you can take Skill Focus in a skill if it would overlap between two classes (Arcana for Wizard and Swordmage, for example).
4. A racial feat with no foundation in that race's powers can be taken by anybody (Improved Fey Step: Racial. Eladrin Soldier: Not Racial).
5. (Once PHB2 comes out) No divine power source. I'd limit it now, but I like the PCs to have more than once choice for Leader.
Example: A Paladin of the Raven Queen would look kind of weird doing radiant damage; therefore, if desired, said Paladin could change his radiant keyword to something like Cold or Necrotic. Meanwhile, the Fighter, whose powers are all [W] Powers, can not.
When choosing a power with a damage type keyword, you can change its damage type to whatever you prefer.
Example: A Paladin of the Raven Queen would look kind of weird doing radiant damage; therefore, if desired, said Paladin could change his radiant keyword to something like Cold or Necrotic. Meanwhile, the Fighter, whose powers are all [W] Powers, can not.
As a side note, since RQ isn't a big fan of undead, radiant energy makes perfect sense since most of 'em are vulnerable to it. My wife played a cleric of the RQ and described her radiant energy as blood-red rather than golden; it was perfect, I thought.
That said, I'm definitely adopting that rule.
Amaquen (flower fairies)
Cata (my take on cat people)
Trollkin (related to trolls, but closer in flavor to mythology than d&d)
The Amaquen are in my signature, but I haven't posted the other two yet. The Cata aren't being played, but I have an Amaquen Rogue and a Trollkin Warlord in the party.
Some of the House-Rules include:
-Per Encounter becomes "Per Scene". So a Power doesn't recharge till a dramatic scene finishes.
-Daily becomes "Per Chapter". So doesn't recharge till a large milestone, or quest, etc. event occurs that propels the story along.
-Both these are because the games are generally combat-light.
-One can split Power elements up and add aspects of Skill Checks (like Acrobatic Stunts), pg. 42, etc. between them. So a PC could do, for instance a Power that allows them to slide then attack, but instead do a Slide then a Acrobatic Stunt followed by the attack.
-One can choose to simply perform one aspect of a Power.
-Various different styles of Skill Challenges (examples behind the spoiler)
Show
1) Diplomacy/Social Interaction.
Diplomacy begins with ordinary non-rule based roleplaying. With the player (speaking through his character) to an NPC (voiced by the DM). It continues like normal till it reaches the point where some wish to alter the circumstances begin, such as, "wooing the person", "agreeing to something", "lowering the price of something", etc. Your basic tenants of a diplomatic challenge.
This is where mechanics begin, while the player continues the discussion like normal a Skill Challenge begins. After a bout of conversation the player rolls a dice of their choosing, for example Insight. Upon a Insight roll the DM will give information or misinformation (depending on success) or failure that the character would notice. Such as, "you notice he is beginning to sweat", or "you notice nervousness in his voice", if the player wishes to act on this information it may help or hinder his cause. This Skill Challenge has no "failure limit" but does have a limit on the number of tries. This is determined by the DM to determine how long the conversation could last, ie; 10 Skill Challenge Attempts could constitute a carriage ride length of time. At the end it is still up to the Player to get the final result but the Skill Challenges can dramatically help or hinder.
If the DM wishes as well, he can go about doing his own Skill Challenge to do such things as determining the resolve of the person being talked too. Or being bolstered by others around him, this will directly effect how the NPC reacts/acts out toward the PC.
2) A chase or other physical contest.
This is a much more heavily mechanics based example then diplomacy. The example I will use is of a chase scene. While the chase is narrated jointly by the DM and the Players these narrations are influenced by the various Skill Challenges going on.
Each player rolls his own Skill Challenge using whichever Skill he feels is appropriate. At the sametime the DM is rolling his own Skill Challenge representing the NPC running away. Whoever manages to reach the "success" limit first either catches up or manages to run away. At the same time, a PC/NPC can forefeit their own Skill Challenge to give a bonus/or negative to another for their next roll. The amount either above or below the success determines how much of a bonus/negative.
3) A task that would fall under the old 3.5 terminology as "Profession", "Craft" or "Perfume".
The task I will showcase will be a person trying to construct a weapon. This is a almost entirely mechanics based situation. The Skills used in this are influenced by the type of weapon wished to be made. In this case lets make a magically-enchanted sword.
Once the resources are gathered to make the weapon, such as iron, a blacksmith forge, whatever magical property may be needed in that campaign world, etc. The work begins. The player goes through the process of making the weapon using the appropriate skills:
-Forging: Perception (one needs to be able to see changes in the metal)
-Hammering: Athletics (one needs the proper strength to shape the metal)
-Effort Involved: Endurance (it takes time and effort to forge a weapon)
-Knowledge Gained From: Religion, Arcana, History (the source one learnt to forge a weapon)
-Enchanting: Arcana (to know the method to enchant the weapon)
The level of difficulty involved depends on how powerful of a weapon is being crafted. This is a difficult Skill Challenge in general because there is no second-chances each Skill used must succeed. This gives it a slightly more realistic bent too it given how difficult it could be to forge weapons.
4) Investigation or Puzzle Solving.
The investigation example follows very closely to the model laid out in Diplomacy. It involves lots of player skill which is helped or hindered by the mechanics of the Skill Challenge resulting from the level of skill of the character.
The player goes about investigating the scene, item, body, etc. Per normal, asking what he sees, discussing with NPCs and other players ideas and such. Your general brainstorming. However the mechanics come in the form of Skill Challenges that gives clues (either correct or false) when investigating something. So they can be things such as, "the blood splatter suggests a blunt object was used", or "the foot prints are too small for an adult human", such things. The success of failure of a Skill Challenge determines whether or not a "eureka!" happens, essentially a very large clue if you succeed. Obviously if the players figure out things before the end of a Skill Challenge it doesn't happen. A Skill Challenge can happen again if they still wish to investigate more.
Diplomacy begins with ordinary non-rule based roleplaying. With the player (speaking through his character) to an NPC (voiced by the DM). It continues like normal till it reaches the point where some wish to alter the circumstances begin, such as, "wooing the person", "agreeing to something", "lowering the price of something", etc. Your basic tenants of a diplomatic challenge.
This is where mechanics begin, while the player continues the discussion like normal a Skill Challenge begins. After a bout of conversation the player rolls a dice of their choosing, for example Insight. Upon a Insight roll the DM will give information or misinformation (depending on success) or failure that the character would notice. Such as, "you notice he is beginning to sweat", or "you notice nervousness in his voice", if the player wishes to act on this information it may help or hinder his cause. This Skill Challenge has no "failure limit" but does have a limit on the number of tries. This is determined by the DM to determine how long the conversation could last, ie; 10 Skill Challenge Attempts could constitute a carriage ride length of time. At the end it is still up to the Player to get the final result but the Skill Challenges can dramatically help or hinder.
If the DM wishes as well, he can go about doing his own Skill Challenge to do such things as determining the resolve of the person being talked too. Or being bolstered by others around him, this will directly effect how the NPC reacts/acts out toward the PC.
2) A chase or other physical contest.
This is a much more heavily mechanics based example then diplomacy. The example I will use is of a chase scene. While the chase is narrated jointly by the DM and the Players these narrations are influenced by the various Skill Challenges going on.
Each player rolls his own Skill Challenge using whichever Skill he feels is appropriate. At the sametime the DM is rolling his own Skill Challenge representing the NPC running away. Whoever manages to reach the "success" limit first either catches up or manages to run away. At the same time, a PC/NPC can forefeit their own Skill Challenge to give a bonus/or negative to another for their next roll. The amount either above or below the success determines how much of a bonus/negative.
3) A task that would fall under the old 3.5 terminology as "Profession", "Craft" or "Perfume".
The task I will showcase will be a person trying to construct a weapon. This is a almost entirely mechanics based situation. The Skills used in this are influenced by the type of weapon wished to be made. In this case lets make a magically-enchanted sword.
Once the resources are gathered to make the weapon, such as iron, a blacksmith forge, whatever magical property may be needed in that campaign world, etc. The work begins. The player goes through the process of making the weapon using the appropriate skills:
-Forging: Perception (one needs to be able to see changes in the metal)
-Hammering: Athletics (one needs the proper strength to shape the metal)
-Effort Involved: Endurance (it takes time and effort to forge a weapon)
-Knowledge Gained From: Religion, Arcana, History (the source one learnt to forge a weapon)
-Enchanting: Arcana (to know the method to enchant the weapon)
The level of difficulty involved depends on how powerful of a weapon is being crafted. This is a difficult Skill Challenge in general because there is no second-chances each Skill used must succeed. This gives it a slightly more realistic bent too it given how difficult it could be to forge weapons.
4) Investigation or Puzzle Solving.
The investigation example follows very closely to the model laid out in Diplomacy. It involves lots of player skill which is helped or hindered by the mechanics of the Skill Challenge resulting from the level of skill of the character.
The player goes about investigating the scene, item, body, etc. Per normal, asking what he sees, discussing with NPCs and other players ideas and such. Your general brainstorming. However the mechanics come in the form of Skill Challenges that gives clues (either correct or false) when investigating something. So they can be things such as, "the blood splatter suggests a blunt object was used", or "the foot prints are too small for an adult human", such things. The success of failure of a Skill Challenge determines whether or not a "eureka!" happens, essentially a very large clue if you succeed. Obviously if the players figure out things before the end of a Skill Challenge it doesn't happen. A Skill Challenge can happen again if they still wish to investigate more.
-You can use as many item powers as you want each encounter/day/whatever
-You can you as many action points as you want each encounter/turn/day/whatever.
-players that write a journal between sessions gain an extra action point for the session.
1. No tracking of ritual components; if you have the gold, you can cast the ritual. When someone casts a ritual, the cost is split equally between each party member.
2. No secret rolls. All rolls are done in the open. To minimize metagaming, I use passive checks if I want to keep my players in the dark.
3. No secret notes, i.e. no whispering (we use MapTool). If a player whispers something to me, I reply to all players. The team is supposed to work together, so there's no real reason to keep your fellow party members in the dark.
1. A saving throw granted by a power does not count for purposes of effects that trigger on "First Failed Save".
2. There are no gnomes or halflings in my campaign setting, and there never have been.
3. I permit two custom races, the Thriss (tribal wolf-men) and the Belenians (fear-based human subrace).
4. Coup de grace is an automatic kill for most creatures.
5. Completely custom pantheon, featuring 12 major deities, including custom Channel Divinity feats for each. 289 minor deities not established until a player needs a certain type of deity for a character concept.
6. Assumed history of dragonborn and tiefling races are very different, but no mechanical changes.
I am always very wary of overusing house rules, so mine are few and small.
1. A saving throw granted by a power does not count for purposes of effects that trigger on "First Failed Save".
Another good one. *yoink*
1. No alignment.
2. Choose powers from within your power source (Marital, Arcane, or Divine) instead of just class or choose powers from within your class type (Defender, Striker, Controller, Leader) instead of just class.
I also let people retrain more than just one thing from their character at level ups.
*Charging grants the opponent you charged Combat Advantage against you until the start of your next turn.
*When choosing the Novice, Acolyte, or Adept Power MC feats, you get to choose a power in addition to your normal allotment of powers. This power works like Channel Divinity: you may either use the power of your base class or the MC class, but you can't use both in the same encounter/day.
* Currently, no limit on the usage of item daily powers. I may institute a 1 item power per encounter limit if this becomes a problem. But so far it hasn't.
* Action points may be spent to gain a reroll on an action instead of just an extra action, but the player must take the result of the reroll, even if it's worse.
* I have a custom pantheon, but the gods are analogous to most of the PHB gods. I have Channel Divinity feats that I've filed the serial numbers off of. Most of the gods have at least two (thanks, FRPG) to choose from.
.Skills - choose x total skills, based upon however many your class gives. But you can choose anything you like.
.Magical ammunition exists - what moron decided that magic arrows shouldn't exist in this edition?
.Magical shields exist as well - see above comment.
- Alignment is not enforced. No "your character wouldn't do that because he is NG".
- Bonus skills points for INT are doubled.
- DM uses lots of custom monsters.
.Magical shields exist as well - see above comment.
There are magic shields. They are pretty nifty.
*Gestalt: Choose two classes, get the benefits of whichever is better and the normal number of powers from both
*One action point per encounter (milestones come at the RAW rate)
*Half elf dilletante: any "implement" powers use the implement of one of your base classes, if you have the ability to use any implements at all. You may choose the key attribute of your dilletante power when you choose the power.
Gestalting like this has made a 2-character party almost exactly equal to a 4-character party. double-class synergy is stronger in 4e... a ranger/tempest fighter gestalt is a truly terrifying thing to behold (curiously enough one does not want to choose 2weapon style with that build as it clashes with tempest)
My group is brand new to 4E, so I do not want them to feel locked into their choices if they realise later that other options suit them better.
(Sallah) - All MC feats get you...Skill Focus in a skill if it would overlap between two classes (Arcana for Wizard and Swordmage, for example).
(Novacat) - A saving throw granted by a power does not count for purposes of effects that trigger on "First Failed Save".
(Erk_) - Half elf dilletante: any "implement" powers use the implement of one of your base classes, if you have the ability to use any implements at all.
IMO, some really good houserules on this topic so far - I'm totally stealing the ones mentioned above.
The only houserules of my own devising I'd use are:
- No sunrods.
- Every character gets one 'Rebuild.' (In case a book comes along, like 'Arcane/Divine Power,' and they've rethought their build.)
My only house rule is that I am much more flexible when it comes to retraining. I would allow you to retrain any ability as much as you want as long as what you retrain fits your character moreso than you currently have. I also allow players to reorganise their ability scores if needed as well such as when they want to qualify for a feat they didn't notice earlier.
My group is brand new to 4E, so I do not want them to feel locked into their choices if they realise later that other options suit them better.
We do this as well.. Until about level 5, you are free to retrain however each level. Also once a new book comes out, all rules are off as to retraining (doesn't even have to be at a level, unless the changes are really extreme)
We do this as well.. Until about level 5, you are free to retrain however each level. Also once a new book comes out, all rules are off as to retraining (doesn't even have to be at a level, unless the changes are really extreme)
I'm not sure if I'd consider it a houserule, but I'm also fairly open to letting new characters be rebuilt - especially if new material has been released. I have one player running a druid who will be able to retrain fully once the PH2 is released.
1. Floating Racial Bonuses: I like players to feel free to make oddball characters, so players can put their racial bonuses in whichever two stats they want. Humans get a second bonus, and can double-up one of their racial traits.
2. PCs get extra bonuses as they level up, to replace the bonuses they'd normally get via magical items and masterwork armor. I don't like parcel bookkeeping.
3. Power Prep: Wizard spell books mean something again! Actually, PCs of any class can use this option if they choose. In exchange for losing the ability to retrain powers, they gain the ability to retain lower-level powers and to learn new powers from spell- and power-books.
4. I'm also considering a house rule to make potions not suck anymore: Delete the line of each potion entry that reads "Instead of the HP you would normally gain, you gain X amount."
TS
- Critical hit location damage. When any creature/player rolls a crit, I roll a d12 to determine what part of the body was hit. depending on where the creature was hit, it will now take some kind of penalty corresponding to that area (hit on the arm reduces attack rolls, hit on the head knocks mental skills (may cause temporary Int/Wis damage, so on and so forth). I use this for flavor.
- Players roll spellcraft checks to determine magical properties of items (identify adds +20 to this roll). Not sure how they do it in 4e...
- Players can only carry a certain amount of arrows/bolts (40).
- Magic users do not need spell components (too lazy to account for them)
- No multiclassing penalties
-Alignment has no in game effect. The DM won't ask for it, and the players can write whatever they want. Powers that work vs evil creatures wille ffect players as approperiate as deemed by the DM.
-Mul race has been added, dragonborn is a term reserved for [dragonborn]clerics and paladins everyone else uses the term lizardfolk. Halfling is a deragitory term, they prefer riverfolk.
-Pantheon has been rewired, but is basically the same. Clerics can and usually do worship the pantheon, and thus can take multiple channel divinity feats. For every second of these feats taken they gain a second use per encounter. Powers used are still powers used though, so no 2 uses of Corelleons grace, for example.
-paragon and epic tier of play grants an additional known language.
-Alignment has no in game effect. The DM won't ask for it, and the players can write whatever they want. Powers that work vs evil creatures wille ffect players as approperiate as deemed by the DM.
I had that house-rule early on in 3.5, but you really can't consider this a house rule in 4E, since alignment already has no mechanical effect. Awesome, ain't it?
I had that house-rule early on in 3.5, but you really can't consider this a house rule in 4E, since alignment already has no mechanical effect. Awesome, ain't it?
Well, almost no. A few have crept in ... the Angelic Avenger paragon path references evil and chaotic evil, the Righteous Weapon in AV does as well. There's a Warlord paragon path you can only take if you're good or lawful good in MP.
Still, an easy houserule away.
- Half-Elves can choose either the Human Bonus feat or the Bonus Skill points from the race features a human gets.
- Warptouch acts similar to a small time reversal as well as being a disease of pure chaos. Mechanically-wise, my character should be middle aged, but has been hit with so much Warptouch, in one year in-game time he'll go into middle age, assuming Warptouch doesn't hit him again.
- DM custom-made pixie class.
- Nat 20 is auto-hit, nat 1 is auto-fail. Nat 1's also auto-fail on skill checks and saves, while some nat 20's auto-succeed skill checks.
I had that house-rule early on in 3.5, but you really can't consider this a house rule in 4E, since alignment already has no mechanical effect. Awesome, ain't it?
Yeah, I used it back in 3.5 too, and I was so glad 99% of that was cut from 4e.
The houserule is in effect for things like Salla pointed out.
We also group voted yesterday as we started our next game, and decided bonus languages from int are back in.
- No Halflings, for story reasons there are none left in my world.
- Prestidigitation can do what it says it can do, along with any useless interesting thing you can think of.
- Command can do what it says it can do, or you can force the victim to comply with any one word command
- Strength can be used to "aid another" for intimidate, but not as a stand alone intimidate check.
- Flintlock pistols and rifles are available
- You can re-flavor damage at the time of taking a power (Fire becomes lightning or necrotic, radiant could become ice, whatever suits your characters needs)
I have also created about 4 races for my world
Ibixians (3.5 MM 3)
Trolls (Warcraft 2 and 3 style)
Frost Elves (rugged warrior elves from the north)
Forest Dwarves (putting those axes to work)
That's pretty much it. Nothing that too heavily alters mechanics.
- Start with one action point
- Reward action points after every major setting (for instance, we're currently in a small village. After the PCs have done everything they can do there and leave, they will receive another)
- Action points stack and only disappear when used (so a player can have 5 action points saved up to use for the final boss fight at the end of the campaign)
- Alignment is used for both personality traits and creating encounters (ie: setting up a LG character with a LG monster is harder for me to create than LG vs E)
- You can worship whatever deity you want; it's not overly important unless you're the Cleric or Paladin. I know it's 4e, but the Halfling can still worship Dallah Thaun. If you want to worship Rambo or yourself, that's fine too.
- Rolling 1s in combat = fumble sheet (this is a lot of fun, but it might need to be rethought...)
-Gnomes, Goblins (all types), Orcs, Minotaurs, Dopplegangers, Shifters and Kobolds are allowed as PC races. I say this is a house rule, since the Monster Manual says that allowing those races is up to the DM. I don't currently allow Gnolls, either Gith or anything else because I don't have a place for them in the campaign yet.
-I don't care what you write on that Alignment line. In my game, I have an unaligned Wizard, Good Cleric, Lawful Good Fighter, Unaligned Rogue, Good Paladin and a Chaotic Sandwich Warlock. Not kidding.
-I completely disregard the treasure parcel system. I know what levels the players should have an additional +1 to everything, so I make sure they have that by the time they get there. I'm not sure if this is a house rule either, but it isn't following the game by RAW.
-I allow Thievery to stand in for a Mechanics skill and Dungeoneering stands in for Engineering when needed. It's kind of a case by case basis though.
Other than that, I can't think of any. I'll bet I have a bunch that I run with without realizing it. You know, the little changes to the rules that just make the game run smoother without even realizing it's not actually in the RAW.
I've used Heal as Forensic Pathology. Cleric: "While the wolves have scavenged this corpse, they weren't what killed him, it was this hidden dagger wound under his arm." Other players:
.I've expanded History to include things like Naval Intelligence (or "boat-spotting" if you will). "That's a Drake class frigate, used with great success in patrol and support operations by the Corwynnite navy. In private hands she is favoured by privateers and smugglers for her speed, manoeuvrability, and low draft." In this case it was full of Sahuagin pirates.
standing up from prone provokes a OA.
I allow people to heal the normal amount of HP from potions but they get their con mod added to the amount. (so a standard potion would heal 10+con mod)
I allow the shrinking of weapons. so a small characters can wield a small fullblade (it does 1D10 high crit).
countless feats of my making....
I allow some unusual uses for the thievery skill (like to appraise art items, to evaluate security/patrols for weaknesses)
I allow people to wield oversized weapons if they don't mind loosing the proficiency bonus and take a -2 to all attack rolls (I think a -4 to -5 to attack is a big enough penalty)
once I thought about it I don't use that many house rules.
I allow small characters to ride medium animals (small beastmaster rangers love that rule, the animal must still fallow all other rules)
that needs to be errata imo. mounts needing to be large + is just silly as long as the rider is at least a size category smaller.
that needs to be errata imo. mounts needing to be large + is just silly as long as the rider is at least a size category smaller.
but until they do its a house rule for me:D
- No magic. This does not mean magic doesn't exist, but that mortals don't wield it remotely as often as they normally do. This manifests as there being no magical treasure, no access to rituals or alchemy, and no classes that use Arcane or Divine sources. Additionally, there must be made considerable modifications to any race that uses a magic-esque racial power, such as replacing the Drow encounter powers with Elven Precision. Races such as Genasi, part elemental, are outright banned.
- Each character has a super-power. This is the trade-off, and the thematic element of the setting. I made a considerably long chart based on a variety of sources that allows for random determination. Generally, though, I'd let one choose how they would pick their super-power.
- Super powers evolve as a person levels, which means that one acquires more and more powers. This will accumulate as a means to continue to offset lack of magic items. How the powers evolve is up to the imagination of the PC.
- Every PC made for this group has to have motives centered in goodness. While that can be as simple as wanting to protect one's own family (Unaligned), it just needs to be there are as a reason the characters would do heroic things.
Yes, we're doing a campaign with Super-powers. Based somewhat on Heroes but set in a medieval world. It's fun.
No raise dead, no resurrection, none of that. Dead is dead, play accordlingly.
- No smoking in the house.
- If you don't like what I have to eat / drink then bring your own.
- Don't hog the battle grid with your pop cans, pizza plates, laptops, etc.
- If you're more than 30 minutes late we start with out you.
... that's probably not what is being refred to however.
We play Rules As Written. If the game (whatever it may be!) is broken with the rules as written; then the dang game is broken. I really don't see the need for house rules and have yet to encounter a scenario or rule that couldn't be delt with within the rules; to include rule 0. That being said; there are circumstances and good reasons for some house rules however we just haven't ran into those problems yet.
I've read a lot of house rules and some of them stem from people just missinturpereting the actual rules. Others house rule just for the sake of making something different; hope and change for the sake of change and hope
. Some I read and just shake my head; I wouldn't play those games. 
Very few are truly rooted in the fact that the RAW had an inherient flaw that couldn't be overcome in game thus had to be patched with a house rule.-Languages: no Common really beyond a crude number system and basics where Sense Motive takes over. Far more realistic this way given such a wide cross section of races, big chronology, and lands. There would be more than even Earth has if anything. We give a fair nod to Undercommon though given the circumstances and relative isolation of the Underdark.
-Assassins need not start as evil and w/ a guild affiliation. That's retarded and unprofessional and unprofessional hitmen don't last long. It's a business, not a moral platform. However, it goes w/out saying, if you kill indiscriminately for $, you will likely turn evil over time.
-'1' in most melee combat = AoO or random mishap in other venues.
-Free minior/medium regional feat (any Faerun book per our campaign[s]) to help offset houseruled '1' combat rules and firm but fair language provisions.
-Overland Travel: start of each adventuring day I check weather per land & season 'x', roll for encounters every hour per frequency, camping or no.
-Certain deaths/effects affect PCs/environment; ex) extensive slashing damage on smooth marble might make it slippery (bloody) or Difficult Terrain, Fireball near a lake might make brief steam cloud (Concealment), etc.
-Close fighting w/ zombies and the like often provoke Fort/Con checks vs. disease given the extense of their rot and putrefication
Table Rules:
-If DM is talking (in game), PCs should not, or at least at a lesser volume w/ discretion. This isn't so much a power thing as a respect thing, namely for your DM, but also to the other players...who might not hear plot device 'x' otherwise & die cuz' you just had to tell someone about that TV show last night.
-DM eats/drinks for free and usually gets last slice. He's doing most of the work.
-If you are late, you forfeit that % of time in terms of XP. Be accountable.