Some feedback on house rules


Homebrew and House Rules


So I've been spending some time here on the forums these past few days, and I've been coming up with some house rules based on common complaints and balance purposes

In no particular order, here they are

-Any class with 2+int skill points per level is now 4+int

-Arcane casters must now choose three schools or elements which become their primary, secondary, and tertiary. They cannot cast spells from any other schools let alone learn them. They can cast spells from their primary school up to 9th level, secondary up to 6th level, and tertiary up to 3rd level. Wizards can choose an additional primary school or raise up the casting limit of their secondary or tertiary school by 3 levels. Arcane casters with only 6th level casting are limited to 6th level, 4th level, and 2nd level by school.

-Divine casters cannot cast any spells that are no in line with their deity or general theme. So if you worship a fire god or have a fire mystery etc, you cannot cast water spells, etc

-Clerics cannot spontaneously cast cure/inflict spells, they can only spontaneously cast domain spells. Channel energy can damage and heal at the same time, and clerics do not need selective channeling to exclude who they harm/heal

-Druids must choose two out of their three main abilities, spellcasting/animal companion/wild shape

-Revised crafting, all progress is now made in gold pieces instead of silver, you can raise the craft DC to whatever you want rather than just +10 for rushed, at 5 ranks in one craft you gain a 25% bonus to the amount of work done per check, at 10 ranks it goes up to 50%, and finally at 15 it becomes 75%

-Any feats that only have stats as their requirements (i.e Dodge, Two-Weapon Fighting, Weapon Finesse, Combat Expertise) are automatically gained when that stat requirement is reached rather than necessitating taking them as a feat

-Feats such as weapon focus that target a single weapon now encompass a fighter weapon group. In addition, the effect of greater weapon focus is automatically gained when you reach 8 fighter levels. Same goes for weapon specialization and 12 fighter levels

-Added Two-Weapon Mastery feat which works like the improved and greater version but scales by BAB instead

-Combat maneuvers only provoke when failed, not attempted

-All Improved/Greater X maneuvers become one scaling feat each and do not provoke at all even when failed.

-Unarmed Strikes are considered martial weapons, so any classes proficient with martial weapons can perform unarmed strikes without provoking. Monks no longer gain the Improved Unarmed Strike feat but are still proficient with unarmed strikes and follow the same rules as before in regards to treating their unarmed strikes like manufactured weapons/natural attacks/scaling. The feat instead increases damage dice for unarmed strikes by one step, at character level 10 you are treated as one size category larger for the purposes of unarmed strike damage.

-Paladins are no longer restricted to LG only, they simply have to match their deities alignment perfectly. See Antipaladin if worshiper of an evil god. Paladins of a neutral god can choose between Paladin and Antipaladin abilities for each class feature, but once it's chosen it cannot be changed. For example, a Neutral Paladin could have Touch of Corruption and Smite Good, or Lay on Hands and Aura of Cowardice. They cannot have opposite abilities from each class, such as having Aura of Courage and Aura of Cowardice, they must choose either or.

That is all I have for now, will probably add more as time goes on, let me know what you think.


I think a lot of these are way crazy. Most of them are just anti caster. Specifically anti wizard with your rules about only allowing them to learn 3 schools(and not even everything outside of a single school).

The rule about clerics unable to cast outside of the deities' spheres of influence: so that means martial deities won't allow their clerics to heal since they want to heart things. Same goes for evil deities. Also super channelling is way too powerful.

Paladin alignment: just have warpriests then if you change the alignment on the paladin class.

Auto gaining feats: not every person that is dexterous is good at weilding two weapons in combat. For instance a wizard with an above average dex, under your system automatically knows how to use two weapons in melee just like a fighter who has a larger dex and may have trained for these tactics.

Overall just no on these things. Across the board.


Opuk0 wrote:

1-Any class with 2+int skill points per level is now 4+int

2-Arcane casters must now choose three schools or elements which become their primary, secondary, and tertiary. They cannot cast spells from any other schools let alone learn them. They can cast spells from their primary school up to 9th level, secondary up to 6th level, and tertiary up to 3rd level. Wizards can choose an additional primary school or raise up the casting limit of their secondary or tertiary school by 3 levels. Arcane casters with only 6th level casting are limited to 6th level, 4th level, and 2nd level by school.

3-Divine casters cannot cast any spells that are no in line with their deity or general theme. So if you worship a fire god or have a fire mystery etc, you cannot cast water spells, etc

4-Clerics cannot spontaneously cast cure/inflict spells, they can only spontaneously cast domain spells. Channel energy can damage and heal at the same time, and clerics do not need selective channeling to exclude who they harm/heal

5-Druids must choose two out of their three main abilities, spellcasting/animal companion/wild shape

6-Revised crafting, all progress is now made in gold pieces instead of silver, you can raise the craft DC to whatever you want rather than just +10 for rushed, at 5 ranks in one craft you gain a 25% bonus to the amount of work done per check, at 10 ranks it goes up to 50%, and finally at 15 it becomes 75%

7-Any feats that only have stats as their requirements (i.e Dodge, Two-Weapon Fighting, Weapon Finesse, Combat Expertise) are automatically gained when that stat requirement is reached rather than necessitating taking them as a feat

8-Feats such as weapon focus that target a single weapon now encompass a fighter weapon group. In addition, the effect of greater weapon focus is automatically gained when you reach 8 fighter levels. Same goes for weapon specialization and 12 fighter levels

9-Added Two-Weapon Mastery feat which works like the improved and greater version but scales by BAB instead

10-Combat maneuvers only provoke when failed, not attempted

11-All Improved/Greater X maneuvers become one scaling feat each and do not provoke at all even when failed.

12-Unarmed Strikes are considered martial weapons, so any classes proficient with martial weapons can perform unarmed strikes without provoking. Monks no longer gain the Improved Unarmed Strike feat but are still proficient with unarmed strikes and follow the same rules as before in regards to treating their unarmed strikes like manufactured weapons/natural attacks/scaling. The feat instead increases damage dice for unarmed strikes by one step, at character level 10 you are treated as one size category larger for the purposes of unarmed strike damage.

13-Paladins are no longer restricted to LG only, they simply have to match their deities alignment perfectly. See Antipaladin if worshiper of an evil god. Paladins of a neutral god can choose between Paladin and Antipaladin abilities for each class feature, but once it's chosen it cannot be changed. For example, a Neutral Paladin could have Touch of Corruption and Smite Good, or Lay on Hands and Aura of Cowardice. They cannot have opposite abilities from each class, such as having Aura of Courage and Aura of Cowardice, they must choose either or.

10 through 12 are pretty cool. 2 and 3 are deal-breakers. 13 would be ok if you added holy warrior as an additional class.


I also find a bunch of these to be over the top. What I would do is go over the list with your gaming group and put each house rule to a vote. In the end, it doesn't matter what the rest of us think of them.


I think the second and third rules are okay, but only if you're trying to go for a grittier, lower magic campaign world sort of like Middle Earth (where we see Gandalf use magic only rarely, and generally some big narrative cost gets paid.) Players who want something like Game of Thrones might be fans of that (though for a real GoT style magic system I'd go even further than you've gone there.)

For the Paladin houserule... I think it's technically okay, but it feels wrong lore-wise to me. Paladins are sort of like prestige classes in my mind, in that they have unusual mechanics that fill a particular lore spot. If your game world has paladins filling a unique spot like that, I'd go against that rule. If paladins are just yet another class that most anyone can take, though, rule thirteen's okay.

Rule 7 is interesting... So, anyone who qualifies for the Dodge feat automatically gains Dodge? I think it's a little overpowered, but I like the basic idea behind it. What if you changed Rule 7 so that you can choose to get just one? A sort of free combat feat? It'd do more to explain the combat-capable wizards of most fantasy literature, while likely not leading to unusual things (like every single Barbarian with high dexterity gaining Weapon Finesse.)

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If you want to nerf a very specific class that you perceive as overpowered, then target that class rather than a blanket rule that affects all classes. #2 is devastating for magi, witches, summoners, bloodragers, bards, and the like that already have more limited spell lists than the wizard. This is also pretty bad for the sorcerer, too. Would this mean they can't cast their bloodline spells if it's not on one of their three schools?

#3 doesn't make much sense, either. Never mind the fact that there's plenty of domains that don't really have "opposites." So this means that if I worship Pharasma, I'm not allowed to cast any fire spells?

Ciaran Barnes wrote:
I also find a bunch of these to be over the top. What I would do is go over the list with your gaming group and put each house rule to a vote. In the end, it doesn't matter what the rest of us think of them.

I feel the same way about any thread that asks for feedback regarding house rules. Ultimately, it's the players that judges whether the rules are fair.


Wouldn't this allow us to polymorph into things for feats?


Cyrad wrote:
I feel the same way about any thread that asks for feedback regarding house rules. Ultimately, it's the players that judges whether the rules are fair.

Years ago I would create house rules for games I ran, thinking they would add realism or fun to the game. However, I came to realise that I was the only one at the table who cared about the house rules I wrote and others were generally unmoved by their existance. So, I stopped.


Of all the arcane casters, only sorcerer and wizard have an expansive enough spell list to actually accommodate number 2. The others would suffer from a lack of spell variety eventually. And even the sorcerer and wizard will likely suffer at some point, or their party will.

Blanket banning with number 3 is something I'd recommend against. Especially in the vague way it's set up. What's "in line?" And do you really expect that the divine spells lists actually have enough spells that are "in line" with all the deities (or themes) for those casters to actually have up to the spells they can cast every day?
As well, rangers, hunters and druids are divine casters; do they have to do the same?

With 13... again the spells restrictions. Opening things up is probably fine, but the spell list (especially with #2) probably won't accommodate everyone.

With 11, just be careful with the phrasing. Even things with the Improved X/Greater X can provoke due to various abilities.


I'd only apply #2 to sorcs, wizards, and arcanists. I'd probably leave witches and others alone because their lists are already trimmed down.

Most others aren't too bad. Not sure why the ban on cure spells, that makes it a lot more painful for divine casters for sure and healing in general. I wouldn't do that one myself, but the rest I could see working with.

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