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Oh, one house rule I forgot, mainly because nobody much plays them.
Witches can choose one of 3 aspects to follow :
Maiden (Uses Charisma to cast spells)
Matron (Uses Wisdom to cast spells)
Crone (Uses Intelligence to cast spells)
Let's you basically get the 'flavor' of which you want. Also lessens multiclassing pain for certain builds.
Nice theme of the Morrigan there, mdt. Do you enforce ageing penalties too? :)
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Nice theme of the Morrigan there, mdt. Do you enforce ageing penalties too? :)
Not that it's come up. But yes, if someone wants to play a 60yo human, they get aging penalties.
But I try to discourage it. I have mental image issues of a 60yo man in a robe who's been studying in a tower for 45 years, and is still level 1.
Evil Lincoln: I like your abstract wealth rules. Just to check that I've wrapped my head around them:
- A PC's wealth score starts at 0.
- They increase it by selling loot.
- When they sell something, they get one fifth the difference between the Wealth DC of the sold item and their current wealth score.
- So if a PC with a Wealth of 5 sold an Amulet of Natural Armor +1 (2,000 gp, DC 20), they would get 3 Wealth (20 - 5 = 15 / 5 = 3).
- Stuff that has a purchase DC equal to or lower than the PCs current Wealth score net them zero benefit.
But how does that work with lesser loot? For example, suppose a PC with 5 Wealth sells a masterwork dagger (301 gp, DC 8). 8 - 5 = 3 / 5 = 0.6 wealth rounded down to zero benefit, even though the purchase DC is higher than the PC's current wealth.
Thanks! This is one of the weirder and more unpredictable rules I've made. We only us it in one campaign where the PCs are all filthy rich, so I'm not sure how balanced it is, but it should be usable for a normal type campaign.
1) PCs do start at 0, or I would calculate their starting GP and buy them into the system that way.
2) The score increases by selling loot, or acquiring gold and treasure that just outright raises their score.
3) Yes.
4) Yep.
5) You got it.
Interesting case. At this point, if the players are hard up for cash, I'd give them the +1, but if the players are seeming a little to wealthy, I'd say it does nothing. The objective of this system is to cut down on counting GP, so introducing something like fractional Wealth points is counter to that.
So the ruling is: Round down without exceptions, except for pity.
The PCs receive Leadership for free at 7th level. I might bake the new Squire feat into that at 4th level, but I haven't decided yet.
The reason is that Leadership, as written, is either ridiculously powerful or useless based on how I'm feeling, so I'd rather my PCs not have to spend a feat on something I have complete control over anyway. Not to mention that as you become more powerful, you should be attracted a host of followers and friends anyway.
I got this idea off of a gaming blog a few years ago (RPG Blog II, August 25, 2009). Each game session, a player may roll a d30 instead of any die. Most players save it until they need a really important saving throw. In my current Kingmaker campaign, one player (Wizard) frequently used it at low levels to replace a d4 on a Magic Missile, and at higher levels has used it for caster checks. Another player (Rogue) always uses it to confirm crits. Players have a lot of fun with this--although last session no one rolled above a single digit.
I used to use 3.5 Defense Bonus, but have since abandoned it--creates imbalance, compounded by economic factors.
I occasionally use some 3.5 content--monsters, magic items, spells.
I give starting characters basic, non magical, non-masterwork equipment for free, with the caveat that starting armor is never higher than studded leather. If they want better then they have to pay for it.
We've had a "Last Desperate chance" rule to save dead party memebers
If you get killed (IE: -Con or worse hps) The rest of the group has 1 full round to save you by healing you up to a point where you aren't dead. If you are still at -Con or worse after that 1 round off to the Dead Character Pile you go.
I use this too! Nice to see I'm not the only one who does this.
Ooh, I like that idea, Kelazan. How do you stop players optimising their background to suit their class abilities?
It's simple : I ask them about their character background and assign them an Occupation based on what they said about their story. My players don't know the related skills and feat of each Occupation before I reveal it.
I also use the same «Last Chance» rule that Greylurker, but any additional damage passed this point (bleed, aoe, finishing move)kill the character.
So spell resistance would then be: "If the spell allows no save, you gain a save for half effect. If the spell allows no save, you only take half effect on a failed save and no effect on a successful save."
Not quite, the save is only determining if a non save spell penetrates the spell resistance, if spell resistance would apply. A passed save ignores every effect of the spell as if spell resistance turned it, if it is failed, it takes full effect.
My houserules are:
- Full attacks are a standard action. When using an ability that is normally made with a single attack as a standard action (for example vital strike), you can make that attack as part of your full attack, replacing the full BAB attack at a cumulative -2 penalty (for example for greater vital strike etc.).
You however can't combine an attack that would normally require a single-attack standard action with an attack that would normally require a full attack.
Charges are also full attacks now, but the charge bonus only applies to the first attack, unless you have pounce.
This gives martials an obvious boost, as they are now able to utilize their full potential without having to stand still while doing so, making combats a lot more mobile, but also more deadly. The changes to feats was to not make them
- I adjust animal/vermin/plant companions on a case-by-case basis, for any class that gets the full benefit of the class feature (meaning unrestricted access to animal types). This consists of giving animals that are naturally large a size advancement (including ability and natural armor changes) to large at 7th level, if they don't already have it, and giving them special attacks of their natural version.
This i do simply because I don't want players to lose potential for choosing anything other than a tiger as their companion, which not only is the most powerful available druid companion but also one of the only few that actually can do what their natural counter parts can do.
- Players roll twice for hit points and take the higher result.
I just wanted them to have the ability to take a few extra punches, because i like to use challenging and hard encounters.
- You can't retrain anything that you couldn't possibly have had at that level because of its requirements (for example a rogue can't retrain their first level feat to power attack)
It just doesn't jive with me that you can change your build to something that would be impossible to build form the ground up, through retraining.
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Didn't read all the posts, so hopefully someone who also does this didnt post it;
For natural healing, I use some rules I found in a YouTube video long ago (sorry, I do not remember it and don't really want to search the bowels of the Internet for it.)
Instead of healing your level, you heal your level x HD / 2.
For example, a first level rogue would roll 1d8 an divide by 2. A level 5 fighter would roll 5d10 and divide by two.
In my experience, it doesn't break the game or act as a game changing event in anyway, but now resting for 8 hours actually has some sort of benefit. Healing a max of 20 hp at level 20 is ridiculous and not helping anyone lol.
Interesting case. At this point, if the players are hard up for cash, I'd give them the +1, but if the players are seeming a little to wealthy, I'd say it does nothing. [...] So the ruling is: Round down without exceptions, except for pity.Well, much of GM'ing is like that anyway, so no difference there.
How do you handle group division of loot? For example, with the mwk dagger scenario, assuming that you're giving the +1 out of pity -- does that apply to just one PC, or the whole party? Or is that something the PCs have to hash out among themselves?
Yeah, this has come up a few times. If something's worth 1 wealth and they split it, then the profits are negligible for each individual.
It's pretty rare, though, since most of the time they just split treasure before selling it off now.
It's a weird system, I'm not gonna lie. But if you take it on its own terms, it is fun and different. In practice, it feels sort of like the munchkin card game. Especially if you're generous with the treasure awards, as I am in the one campaign.
In our games, the Barbarian got some "fixes" that many may perceive as "nerfs":
-Pounce only let you to make an attack with every natural weapon you possess. No iteratives there.
We also used the D&D 3.5 feat "Two Weapon Pounce" for pouncers without natural weapons.
-No Spell Sunder. Period.
Also, our GM changed the way Acrobatics works for tumbling. Now is an opposed check against a Reflex save of the target.
I have done 2 monk rewrites, not sure which one I'd rather implement.
the shaolin monk
the zen monk
First off, I make a couple of class edits:
I give Sorcerers 4 + Int for skills because I don't think they should lag behind Wizards in skills.
Paladin alignment corresponds more closely to their deity.
Monks get full BAB.
I give bonus traits for players who make great backstories. Usually one that awards an extra class skill and +1 bonus. Though I really like Kelazan's occupation idea. I might start using that.
I give bonus feats at certain levels:
Level 1 - Choice of Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus or Point Blank Shot.
Level 3 - Choice of Power Attack, Dodge or Spell Focus.
Level 5 - Choice of Toughness, Skill Focus or one of the +2 to two skills feats.
Level 7 - Choice of Iron Will, Great Fortitude or Lightning Reflexes.
Level 10 - Greater version of whatever feat they took at level 7.
This frees up players to make more flavorful feats. It also frees me to make encounters basically as challenging as I want and know they can handle it.
I also use a system to reward players for creative use of skills. I give them points when they use a skill awesomely or roleplaying something out well. Once they have enough points, I give them little bonuses. It usually starts with a +1 bonus for that skill but if they accumulate a lot of points I'll give them something like a free reroll with that skill once per day or a free hero point apart from their regular pool that they can use specifically with that skill.
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for those that use story based leveling, I worked with people on the boards to make this, which allows a reward system in place of extra exp for those that use it.
To reduce magic items I did the following:
Permanent magic items are rare
Spell completion are still common
I created a list of what I called, Training Feats. These mimic most of the magical items that give bonuses.
All characters/NPC's/Monsters etc use the following advancement
Level
1 = 1 Training Feat, 1 General Feat, 1 Combat/Metamagic Feat
2 = 1 Training Feat, 1 General Feat,
3 = 1 Training Feat, 1 Combat/Metamagic Feat
4 = 1 Training Feat, 1 General Feat,+1 to all physical or Mental scores
5 = 1 Training Feat, 1 Combat/Metamagic Feat
6 = 1 Training Feat, 1 General Feat,
7 = 1 Training Feat, 1 Combat/Metamagic Feat
8 = 1 Training Feat, 1 General Feat,+1 to all physical or Mental scores
9 = 1 Training Feat, 1 Combat/Metamagic Feat
10 = 1 Training Feat, 1 General Feat,
11 = 1 Training Feat, 1 Combat/Metamagic Feat
12 = 1 Training Feat, 1 General Feat,+1 to all physical or Mental scores
13 = 1 Training Feat, 1 Combat/Metamagic Feat
14 = 1 Training Feat, 1 General Feat,
15 = 1 Training Feat, 1 Combat/Metamagic Feat
16 = 1 Training Feat, 1 General Feat,+1 to all physical or Mental scores
17 = 1 Training Feat, 1 Combat/Metamagic Feat
18 = 1 Training Feat, 1 General Feat,
19 = 1 Training Feat, 1 Combat/Metamagic Feat
20 = 1 Training Feat, 1 General Feat, 1 Combat/Metamagic Feat, +1 to all physical or Mental scores
Good guys are not quite as good as with the Christmas tree effect. Bad guys are better though, because you do not have to worry about power creep.
Characters end with few magic items.
Spells like Magic weapon become important.
Honestly I vary mine heavily depending on the campaign, the world, and theme I'm trying to achieve. For example, I'm running Wrath of the Righteous almost entirely by the book with the exception of a sprinkling of hero points. For the other campaign I'm working on I'm entirely revising the spellcasting schools into six elements, using gestalt, and a completely different crafting system.
The usual modifications to the rules I almost always run with are:
- 20s are an automatic critical hit (no need to confirm)
- Hero Points with some minor modifications
- Choice of rolling hit points or just taking average (still maxed at first)
- Weapon Finesse, Agile Maneuvers, and Heighten Spell feats are free for all characters
- Fighter/Rogue/Monk replaced with their Talented Versions from SGG/RGG
Fighters, rogues, healers, Samurai and some other things that I can't recall off the top of my head can be gestalted with each other, or an NPC class.
Everything Else can be gestalted with an NPC class.
This is an intriguing approach to balancing the classes, for those who feel that primary casters dominate. Also, in a P6 game it would relieve A LOT of pressure to have "stuff you can do".
I would like to see it in a full level game...
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Most important in mine is some fighter love.
-- 3 Skill Ranks + Int mod per level
-- Bravery is gone. Instead it is a players choice at lvl 2 of a bonus to either Will or Reflex saves.
Wow, lots of good ones here.
I've played with the 1=-10, 20=+30 rule before. It's okay. Not exactly a fan. Yet another thing that doesn't really help caster disparity.
I've got Skill based feats in the own subclass of feats (Skill focus and the feats like Persuasive). IE Fighters get Combat feats, and rogues get bonus Skill feats at 1st, 4th, and every 3rd level thereafter.
(And I've yet to have a non NPC Rogue, ah-well.)
Tactician can be used with any teamwork feat known, not just the tactician feat.
Not exactly a house-rule, but the uncommon knowledges like Nobility and History pop up a lot more often in my games. Knowledges can be mixed, so if you have ranks in both that would be relevant you'll get a +2 bonus on a single roll with the higher.
No Cheese. No Jerks.
Rules lawyering is arbitrated as fast as I can come up with a solution and the reference will be looked up after the session. This is not competitive accounting.
Your character's gender has to match your own.
How would you handle a genderfluid, intergender or agendered player? Or a trans player who transitioned while playing?
I have a few useful house rules.
Weapon proficiency of a class is changed based on where you're from. E.g. a character that is mechanically a ninja from Qadira or Katapesh will know how to use a scimitar instead of a katana.
Arcane/divine scrolls are the same thing. A cleric writing a cure light wounds scroll produces something indistinguishable from a bard doing the same.
Eagles are a valid type of familiar, basically functioning as a small-sized hawk.
Everyone gets an additional skill point per level, that must be put into a profession, perform, or craft skill.
Rogue archetypes can be applied to ninjas; abilities that replace trapfinding and trap sense replace poison use and no trace instead.
Prepared casters get bonus 0-level spells, and these increase at the same rate as spontaneous casters' 0-level spells known.
Your prepared spells and spell slots are not the same thing, although you get the same number of each. If you have three different spells prepared, and three spell slots, you can cast the same spell three times, or the same spell twice and a different one, or all three spells once. Pearls of power work for prepared or spontaneous casters, simply restoring one of your spells per day of the appropriate level. Pages of spell knowledge work for prepared casters, letting them function as additional prepared spells without increasing your spells per day. After you prepare your spells for a day, you can spend the same amount of time to re-prepare them, swapping out a number of spells at each level equal to the number of spells per day you have remaining.
Spontaneous spellcasters get bonus spells known from their casting stat.
NPCs suffer critical fumbles for comedic value only.
1s do not exist when rolling for HP.
I have a homebrew race and some home-brew magic items, but I don't think those quite count as house rules.
So, in my 15th level game -
Vital strike can be used on charges and on spring attacks.
Midgard star and shadow spells in the game (it's on Kobold Press's midgard)
A rogue becoming invisible may make all attacks using sneak attack.
This seems to balance party and monster power well.
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A couple of our houserules off the top of my head:
The minimum number of skill points of any class is 4 rather than 2.
Fighters can apply weapon focus and specialization feats to the weapon training groups they select rather than just individual weapons.
This is a fun thread. Really like reading what others are doing in their games with almost no flaming to speak of.
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It's a valid question...what would you do in such a situation?I believe you are seriously overestimating the sophistication of our house rules.Your character's gender has to match your own.
How would you handle a genderfluid, intergender or agendered player? Or a trans player who transitioned while playing?
This is going to end badly.
I think perhaps it might be better to stay on topic and talk about house rules.
At the beginning of a campaign the group decides whether to go with Point Buy or to Roll an Array (4d6 drop the lowest). Everyone uses the same array for character creation.
It was just an idle question, we can let it go. I'm sure he'd come up with something appropriate to the player, if and when he had such a player (which, percentages suggest, it's likely he will never have).
I like that idea, Dudemeister. Maybe I'll do that next time.
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I don't really have that many, though there are a bunch I'm going to implement for the homebrew I'm going to run to start playtesting my campaign setting.
1. Players may not own businesses. (This was a thing in the DMG2 during 3.5 and it's a pain in the butt if the player knows the math well enough to abuse the heck out of the rules)
2. Players may not be related to the monarchy or the high noble houses because I don't want the name bomb situation. (which I fully explain in my rules set up. again this may involve the same player. he likes playing characters related to powerful NPCs at times)
3. No item creation feats from the players. Just don't want to deal. Buy the items or find them.
4. If something seems broken I'll take a look and make a ruling I think is fair to everyone, including ME. I get to have fun too and if I'm not I get irritable.
5. Everyone gets a time to shine and everyone gets a subplot.
6. Players will not be protected from their own stupid.
7. (the unspoken) I do have a one time only rule that I have yet to have to invoke. If someone thinks I've been supremely unfair, which I'm usually not, if anything I'm way too lenient most of the time, I do have a rule. If you think that I have unfairly killed your character (even if you did something mindbogglingly stupid and I had no recourse but to do so) then you have the following option. If you can sing I'm a Little Tea Pot in perfect Swahili while doing an Irish jig then I will not kill your character and leave them at -9 or something and stable.
(given the odds of this actually coming up I don't think it'll ever happen but I might actually be surprised one day. Stranger things have happened)
Are you fluent in Swahili?
google translate ftw
At the beginning of a campaign the group decides whether to go with Point Buy or to Roll an Array (4d6 drop the lowest). Everyone uses the same array for character creation.
Interesting. Was the point-buy array set-up at the beginning and then available as an alternative to the rolled stats, or could they all make their own point-buy array?
Last campaign (well, the last one that involved more than one player that is), I had all players (including me as the DM) roll a 4d6 drop lowest array each, and have them all available for all players to choose from (no point-buy option).
Most player ended-up using the same series, except for one who selected another array that was a bit more MAD-friendly. I kept those arrays to built NPCs as well.
It was nice to see everyone cheering for the player presently rolling the dice, without resentment if they didn't do so well themselves (actually, they were especially cheerful when they didn't roll so well.
Max HP for players and monsters
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I have never been a huge fan of the crafting rules, and in my latest campaign this particular issue finally reached a head for me. The main concerns for my group are (1) the amount of time required to craft breaks the flow of the game and (2) the number of feats is excessive especially if one character wants to be a "party crafter". These issues were magnified by the lack of available magic item shops appropriate for the needs of the group. In addition, one of the members was more than willing to be a crafter for the group, but was not willing to trade all of his feats in order to meet the various needs of an active adventuring group over an extended period. The nature of the campaign allowed for some minor downtime for crafting, but spending a month or more every level to meet simple needs like weapons and armor was simply not going to work. To address these issues, I created two new feats that consolidate the standard crafting feats and rewrote the rules for determining the amount of time to craft items (both magical and mundane). I did not alter the pricing of magic (or mundane) items, but an option is presented in the closing notes concerning price and availability of crafted items.
- Consolidate Craft Wondrous Item, Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Forge Ring, and Craft Rod into Craft Magic Item. Also, expanded the availability of crafting feats by eliminating the need for Master Craftsman (craft and profession skills are incorporated directly into the new feat).
- Consolidate Scribe Scroll, Brew Potion, Craft Wand, and Craft Staff into Craft Magic-Use Item. Must have a minimum Caster level to craft scrolls, potions, wands, and staves.
- Alter the time to craft magic items. The new time is determined per hour and scales with your Craft Level. Crafting level is either caster level or ranks in craft or profession skill.
- Alter the time to craft mundane items. The new time is determined per hour and scales with your ranks in the craft or profession skill.
Craft Wondrous Item
Minimum Crafting Level: 3
Appropriate Skill: Craft or profession skill is based on the specific item and arbitrated by GM.
Description: You can create a wide variety of magic wondrous items. To create a wondrous item, you must use up raw materials costing half of its base price. You can also mend a broken wondrous item if it is one that you could make. Doing so costs half the raw materials and half the time it would take to craft that item.
Craft Magic Arms and Armor
Minimum Crafting Level: 5
Appropriate Skill: Craft or Profession(armor) (for armor), Craft or Profession(bows) (for magic bows and arrows), or Craft or Profession(weapons) (for all other weapons)
Description: You can create magic weapons, armor, or shields. To enhance a weapon, suit of armor, or shield, you must use up raw materials costing half of this total price. The weapon, armor, or shield to be enhanced must be a masterwork item that you provide. The weapon, armor, or shield's cost is not included in the above cost. You can also mend a broken magic weapon, suit of armor, or shield if it is one that you could make. Doing so costs half the raw materials and half the time it would take to craft that item in the first place.
Forge Ring
Minimum Crafting Level: 7
Appropriate Skill: Craft or Profession(jewelry)
Description: You can create magic rings. To craft a ring, you must use up raw materials costing half of the base price. You can also mend a broken ring if it is one that you could make. Doing so costs half the raw materials and half the time it would take to forge that ring in the first place.
Craft Rod
Minimum Crafting Level: 9
Appropriate Skill: Craft or Profession(jewelry), Craft or Profession(sculptures), or Craft or Profession(weapons) (if the rod is to be a club, quarterstaff, or other rod-like weapon)
Description: You can create magic rods. To craft a rod, you must use up raw materials costing half of its base price.
Scribe Scroll
Minimum Crafting Level: 1
Description: You can create a scroll of any spell that you know. To scribe a scroll, you must use up raw materials costing half of this base price
Brew Potion
Minimum Crafting Level: 3
Description: You can create a potion of any 3rd-level or lower spell that you know and that targets one or more creatures or objects. When you create a potion, you set the caster level, which must be sufficient to cast the spell in question and no higher than your own level. To brew a potion, you must use up raw materials costing one half this base price. When you create a potion, you make any choices that you would normally make when casting the spell.
Craft Wand
Minimum Crafting Level: 5
Description: You can create a wand of any 4th-level or lower spell that you know. To craft a wand, you must use up raw materials costing half of this base price. A newly created wand has 50 charges.
Craft Staff
Minimum Crafting Level: 11
Description: You can create any staff whose prerequisites you meet. To craft a staff, you must use up raw materials costing half of its base price. A newly created staff has 10 charges.
When crafting a magic item, the crafter makes a maximum progress of 125 gp, plus an additional 125 gp per crafting level above the minimum crafting level, per hour. The crafter must provide an amount of materials equal to the progress made during the crafting process before making the check for the crafting process. Once the materials are provided, the crafter makes a single check using an appropriate craft or profession skill. Casters which have a caster level equal to or higher than the minimum crafting level for an item may use spellcraft in place of an appropriate craft skill.
If the crafter fails on the check to craft an item, the crafter regains half of the materials spent at the beginning of the crafting process losing the other half of the materials in the failed process. No progress is made on a failed check.
The progress earned for each hour must applied to a single item. Once a crafter has made enough progress toward an item to equal the cost of the item, the item is complete.
If desired, the crafter may make a single check to determine success or failure for an item. The result of the single check is applied on all checks for the entire period of crafting the item.
A crafter may work up 16 hours per day. Treat working beyond 8 hours as working a separate day at half the normal amount of propress. A crafter must spend a minimum of one hour crafting.
If a crafter has spent any time during the current day adventuring then the crafter may only spend 8 hours crafting and only makes half the normal amount of progress. Adventuring includes unexpected dangers (e.g., an ambush while traveling) as well as expected dangers (e.g., assaulting an enemy stronghold).
Example Scenario: Ezren is a 10th level caster with no ranks in craft. If Ezren wanted to craft a Ring of Counterspells the cost would be 2,000 gp, 4,000 gp price / 2. It would take Ezren 4 hours to craft, 2,000 gp / 500 gp/hr (125 gp base and an additional 375 gp for being 3 levels over the minimum crafting level). Ezren could spend another 4 hours in the same day he crafted the ring to gain 2,000 gp in progress toward another item or he could finish after only spending 4 hours crafting. If Ezren had also been attacked by bandits while traveling or explored a potentially dangerous cave previously that day then he would have needed 8 hours to craft the ring.
When crafting a mundane item, the crafter makes a maximum progress of 1 gp per rank in craft or profession skill per hour as determined by the following formula. The crafter must provide an amount of materials equal to the progress made during the crafting process before making the check for the crafting process. Once the materials are provided, the crafter makes a single check using the appropriate craft or profession skill.
If the crafter fails on the check to craft an item, the crafter regains half of the materials spent at the beginning of the crafting process losing the other half of the materials in the failed process. No progress is made on a failed check.
The progress earned for each hour must applied to a single item. Once a crafter has made enough progress toward an item to equal the cost of the item, the item is complete.
If desired, the crafter may make a single check to determine success or failure for an item. The result of the single check is applied on all checks for the entire period of crafting the item.
A crafter may choose to increase the difficulty of the craft or profession skill check in order to increase the amount of progress made per hour. For every +5 added to the DC of a crafting check, the crafter gains an additional 20% of the base progress. For example, if a character with 5 ranks in a craft skill decided to add +5 to the DC of creating an item and succeeded at the check the crafter would earn 60 gp toward the item.
A crafter may work up 16 hours per day. Treat working beyond 8 hours as working a separate day at half the normal amount of progress. A crafter must spend a minimum of one hour crafting.
If a crafter has spent any time during the current day adventuring then the crafter may only spend 8 hours crafting and only makes half the normal amount of progress.
Example Scenario: Valeros has 3 ranks in craft(weapons). If Valeros wanted to craft a Longsword the cost would be 5 gp, 15 gp price / 3. It would take Valeros 2 hours to craft, 5 gp / 3 gp/hr. Valeros could technically make an additional 1 gp of progress in the second hour of crafting, but it must be used toward crafting the same item. Since Valeros completed the item without needing the extra 1gp he can not use that potential progress. If Valeros had also been attacked by bandits while traveling or explored a potentially dangerous cave previously that day then he would have needed 4 hours to craft the sword (5 gp * 2 / 3 gp/hr).
These rules are presented to provide an alternative which fits neatly on top of the existing rules. I was very careful to only change the rules concerning crafting time and availability of crafting feats. This leaves a few odd edge cases. For example, some classes gain the existing crafting feats as class abilities. If the new rules presented here are applied directly the class might end up gaining too much power as a result. I would rule that the class gains the feat, but only for the purposes of crafting the specific item granted by the class ability. This ruling maintains power balance of the base classes. I would suggest keeping other similar cases to be handled in this manner.
Applying these rules as presented here may increase the attractiveness of crafting items which may result in skewing wealth by level. One of the goals is to see many more players using the crafting rules to create interesting items, but I understand the game is balanced around a certain wealth of items. I intend to monitor the effects of the extra crafting in my game, but if you become concerned about the effect being too great then you can alter these rules to maintain wealth by level. You can have your players pay full price and double the amount of progress for a period when crafting. This would be 2 gp per rank in craft or profession skill per hour for mundane item crafting and 250 gp, plus an additional 250 gp per crafting level above the minimum crafting level, per hour for magic item crafting. This results in the same crafting time decrease without allowing players to get any item they want at half of market value.
Finally, there are a few crafting options which are not addressed here. These options should be incorporated into the feats listed here. Hopefully, the groups are clear enough to make it easy to choose which feat to incorporate these options. The crafting options are not altered in these rules and the aspects are based on corresponding aspect for the existing craft feats (e.g., minimum crafting level is based on the prerequisite caster level).
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No. Dinosaurs.
There multitudes of other prehistoric life to flavor my campaigns with, which is what I've chosen to do. Elephants have been replaced with mastodons, deinotheres, pygmy mammoths, and the four tusked Stegotetrabelodon. Deep deserts are populated by mammal-like reptiles such as dinocephalians, pareisaurs, and gorgonopsids. Most big cat species are saber cats of one type or another. Some nations use the giant rhinoceros relative Indricotherium as war beasts, with howdahs full of archers and specially trained wand users that rain down death on their enemies.
Savannah creatures are replaced with similar mammals from earlier time periods, and the standard gnome and halfling mounts are the small early horse ancestor Mesohippus. Swampy lowlands are where Arsinoitheres and Uintatheres can be found. Land dwelling crocodilians can be found in ancient forests and are just as dangerous as their aquatic cousins.
The oceans team with mosasaurs, ammonites, megalodons, and giant pliosaurs. The deepest swamps and unexplored forests hold giant amphibians of ages past and immense insects and other arthropods. There are just so many creatures that game designers either overlook or pay only passing attention to. I use my love of paleontology to populate and give a slightly different, but vaguely familiar (in some instances) feel to the world.
Perception is a class skill for everyone. It's the most used skill in the game.
I also allow players to decide where to put their saves. A fighter, for instance, can decide to put his +2 beginning base save on Reflex or Wisdom if he so desires. I also use the intermediate save chart, so a +2 beginning base save can be divided into two +1's.
I also allow max hitpoints at levels 1 and 2. We roll dice and use the 4d6 method, but reroll 1's and 2's. It's a little power gamey, but that's how we've done it for 25+ years. Heroes should have heroic abilities, in our opinions.
Someone else had something similar to this, but I thought I'd post it.
Starting Stats :
GM rolls 3 arrays (4d6 drop lowest).
All players choose from those 3 arrays, duplication of choice allowed.
GM then rolls another set of 3 arrays. These are used for backup/secondary characters. When someone dies, another set is rolled for tertiary characters.
This gets the organic feel of 'you were born like this' and gets rid of the 'cookie cutter 1 to 3 7 pt stat' builds that point build encourages. But it prevents one player with bad dice luck from being penalized while another with awesome luck has 2 18's.
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Is it in the SRD somewhere?Giving chocolate to GM results in +2 bonus to next D20 roll.Not a house rule.
No, it isn't part of the SRD, just like how the rule that says "dice fall towards the ground" isn't part of the SRD. You don't need to write a law of nature down for it to be in effect.
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Max HP for players and monsters
I see the Hit Points as a specific component of a character's class design. They get maximum Hit Points because if they did not, their particular class choice would be penalized. Besides, it is also very mean spirited to penalize someone just because they rolled crappy when the character leveled up. They forever bear the mark of that single die roll.
Before someone asks, I prefer point-buy for attributes for the same reasons. A person can either roll really good or really bad, or just plain average, and it has a long-term effect.
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At the beginning of a campaign the group decides whether to go with Point Buy or to Roll an Array (4d6 drop the lowest). Everyone uses the same array for character creation.Interesting. Was the point-buy array set-up at the beginning and then available as an alternative to the rolled stats, or could they all make their own point-buy array?
Last campaign (well, the last one that involved more than one player that is), I had all players (including me as the DM) roll a 4d6 drop lowest array each, and have them all available for all players to choose from (no point-buy option).
Most player ended-up using the same series, except for one who selected another array that was a bit more MAD-friendly. I kept those arrays to built NPCs as well.
It was nice to see everyone cheering for the player presently rolling the dice, without resentment if they didn't do so well themselves (actually, they were especially cheerful when they didn't roll so well.
In a 4 player game they each roll once, and then I as the GM roll the final two numbers.
In a 5 player game I only roll once.
In a 6 player game I don't roll at all.
Once the array is set, I calculate that it's worth at least 15-20 points. Then the players choose their race and class etc based on the array (which they can arrange in any order they choose).
For Skull & Shackles I had them play "Liar's Dice" to put together their stats and determine their starting gold. It was a fun way to do character creation that put them directly into the game world.