I know that there's been tons of threads talking aboutthe rules and alternative rules and etc but there was never a solid argument in these threads.
I have been playing d n d for some 3 years now and although there are some flaws in the game I always disliked the fact of armor NOT giving DR and instead giving "defense" bonus. So what Im tryng to do is create an alternative system for AC and in battle in general- yes I do know that thre's even a website talking about conversions and stuff BUt what I want to see posted hear is : what alternative rules do you guys use(if you use any) and if you don't use any what you don't like about the game and would like to change
Peace
Heh, you asked for it!
Actually, combine the Defense Bonus and Armor as Damage Reduction variants from Unearthed Arcana and that works fine for me. From my House/Variant Rules for my Savage Tides campaign:
Due to the swashbuckling nature of this campaign, all characters receive a Defense Bonus appropriate to their class(es). In addition, the Armor as Damage Reduction are in effect. Characters that chose to wear armor still receive the damage reduction, but use either their Armor Bonus or their Defense Bonus minus the armor check penalty, whichever is higher. Characters may take a feat (Armored Defense, detailed below) in order to wear armor and take full advantage of the Defense Bonus. Encumbrance penalties also reduce a characters Defense Bonus.
Vitality and Wound Points rules are in effect. All races gain Racial Vitality Die when created that determines the character Vitality Points. The standard races have racial Vitality Die as follows: Humans and Half-elves (1d8), Dwarves and Half-Orcs (1d10), Elves, Gnomes, and Halfling (1d6). Racial Vitality Die may be raised or lowered at character creation by one step using the Flaw/Advantage system, but cannot be changed afterward. Characters do not gain additional Vitality Points as they gain levels. A character with a Constitution bonus gains Vitality Points as his or her character level increases equal to the Constitution bonus, adding the Vitality Points to the previous total. The new Toughness feat allows characters to gain more Vitality Points per level. (As a note, characters gain feats every odd level to make up for needing to select Toughness if they want more HP).
Also, Combat Facing rules are in effect.
I've introduced a few house rules to work with this:
Characters may increase the damage reduction of a shield or armor by directly applying the damage to the equipment. This damage automatically bypasses/ignores the armor or shield’s hardness. If the armor or shield is reduced to 0 HP it is destroyed and all remaining damage is applied to the character. Using armor or shields in this way can severely reduced their effectiveness. Every 5 points of damage taken in this manner reduces the armor or shields Armor Class bonus and damage reduction (if appropriate) by 1.
Armor Spell Failure: Armor interferes with the energy that those who use arcane magic must manipulate (for example, the spells cast by a wizard or the songs produced by bardic music), thus they face the possibility of spell failure if they’re wearing armor. A character who uses magic while wearing armor is affected by the listed penalty when casting a spell.
Resisting a Spell in Armor: Just as armor interferes with the flow of energy out of someone using arcane magic, it can also hinder magic coming into another being. Characters wearing armor receive a bonus on saving throws against certain types of magic equal to the armor’s spell failure chance divided by 5 (full plate provides an additional +1 bonus). This bonus applies only to effects that allow a saving throw and directly affect the character, generally including all mind-affecting effects and all effects that directly target a creature (such as baleful polymorph and touch of fatigue but not waves of fatigue or levitate). This can also be a hindrance to the character, as it also forces him to make saving throws against beneficial effects that allow saving throws (such as jump).
What bugs me that I haven't found a variant for? Critical hits/called shots. In the epics, you've got heroes shooting the dragon in the eye, or battling an enemy to a stand-still before finally landing the killing blow. The Critical System as is just doesn't work for this. There's no way I can, for instance, have Hatoi the Phanaton stab a t-rex in the eye to save his new druid friend except having him randomly attack and hop to get lucky with the dice. So, I've made criticals a conscious choice by the character (they can get lucky shots too) as follows:
Critical hits may be scored through luck (by rolling a 20 on the attack roll, then rolling again to confirm a hit) or by purposely taking a -20 penalty on an attack roll to attempt to Wound a character. Weapons receive a bonus on this attempt based on threat range as follows: 20 = +0, 19-20 = +1, 18-20 = +3, 17-20 = +5. Feats are available to turn standard Wounds (simply dealing Wound Points) into specific effects such as blinding, maiming, etc.
And all those new feats I mentioned (unfortunately the tables don't transfer here well):
Armor Focus [General]
Choose one type of armor with which you are proficient.
Prerequisites: Proficiency with selected armor, base attack bonus +1.
Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus to your Armor Class while wearing the selected armor.
Special: You can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new type of armor.
A fighter may select Armor Focus as one of his fighter bonus feats. He must have Armor Focus with a type of armor to gain the Armor Specialization feat for that armor.
Armor Focus, Greater [General]
Choose one type of armor for which you have already selected the Armor Focus feat.
Prerequisites: Proficiency with selected armor, Armor Focus with selected armor, fighter or paladin level 8th.
Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus to your Armor Class while wearing the selected armor. This bonus stacks with other bonuses to Armor Class, including the one from Armor Focus.
Special: You can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new type of armor.
A fighter may select Greater Armor Focus as one of his fighter bonus feats. He must have Greater Armor Focus with a type of armor to gain the Greater Armor Specialization feat for that armor.
Armor Specialization [General]
Choose one type of armor for which you have already selected the Armor Focus feat.
Prerequisites: Proficiency with selected armor, Armor Focus with selected armor, fighter or paladin level 4th.
Benefit: Your damage reduction improves by 2 while wearing the selected armor.
Special: You can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new type of armor.
A fighter may select Armor Specialization as one of his fighter bonus feats.
Armor Specialization, Greater [General]
Choose one type of armor for which you have already selected the Greater Armor Focus feat.
Prerequisites: Proficiency with selected armor, Greater Armor Focus with selected armor, Armor Focus with selected armor, Armor Specialization with selected armor, fighter or paladin level 12th.
Benefit: Your damage reduction improves by 2 while wearing the selected armor. This improvement stacks with others, including the one from Armor Specialization.
Special: You can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new type of armor.
A fighter may select Greater Armor Specialization as one of his fighter bonus feats.
Armored Defense [General]
Choose one type of armor.
Prerequisites: Proficiency with selected armor, defense bonus +1.
Benefit: While wearing the selected armor you no longer apply its armor check penalty to your Defense Bonus. This feat does not negate any penalty from encumbrance.
Normal: Encumbrance and armor may reduce your ability to defend yourself, thus the armor check penalty of any armor worn or the encumbrance check penalty (whichever is higher) is applied to your Defense Bonus.
Called Shot (Melee or Ranged) [General]
Select either melee or ranged attacks.
Prerequisites: Base attack bonus +5.
Benefit: When attempting to make a critical attack, instead of dealing wound points you can target a specific area of your opponents body. The effect of a successful attack varies depending on the targeted area, as in the following table.
Table: Called Shots
Area Targeted (additional check penalty)/Effect/Damage Recovery
Head/Dazed for 1 round per 5 points of damage/1 point of magical curing
Eye or Ear (-20)/Blinded or Deafened in one organ (permanent)/Remove Blindness/Deafness
Torso/Shaken for 1 round per 5 points of damage/1 point of magical curing
Arm/-2 penalty on all checks using affected arm/1 point of magical curing, Treat Injury DC 15, or after 24 hours pass
Hand (-10)/-6 penalty on all checks using affected hand; cannot hold an item/1 point of magical curing, Treat Injury DC 15, or after 24 hours pass
Leg/-5 penalty to movement/1 point of magical curing, Treat Injury DC 15, or after 24 hours pass
Foot (-10)/Speed reduced by one-half; cannot charge or run/1 point of magical curing, Treat Injury DC 15, or after 24 hours pass
Special: You can choose to make both a standard critical (to deal increased damage) and a Called Shot. Doing so doubles the check penalty normally required.
Certain pieces of armor or protection provide specific penalties (equal to the objects hardness—thus a pair of leather gloves provides a -2 bonus, while adamantine gloves provide a -20) against a Called Shot. A helmet provides this protection for the head, gauntlets/bracers provide this protection to hands and arms respectively, and boots/greaves provide this protection to feet and legs respectively.
Called Shot, Improved [General]
Prerequisites: Called Shot, base attack bonus +10.
Benefit: Your Called Shot may have improved results (at your discretion), as in the following table. You may choose this effect or a lesser effect but must do so before making the attack roll.
Table: Called Shots
Area Targeted (additional check penalty)/Effect/Damage Recovery
Head/Confused for 1 round per 5 points of damage/10+ points of magical curing
Eye or Ear (-20)/Blinded or Deafened in one organ (permanent)/Regenerate
Torso/Stunned for 1 round per 5 points of damage/10+ points of magical curing
Arm/-4 penalty on all checks using affected arm/10 points of magical curing, Treat Injury DC 25, or after 24 hours of bed rest
Hand (-10)/-12 penalty on all checks using affected hand; cannot hold an item/10 points of magical curing, Treat Injury DC 25, or after 24 hours of bed rest
Leg/-10 penalty to movement/10 points of magical curing, Treat Injury DC 25, or after 24 hours of bed rest
Foot (-10)/Speed reduced to one-quarter; cannot charge or run/10 points of magical curing, Treat Injury DC 25, or after 24 hours of bed rest
Called Shot, Greater [General]
Prerequisites: Improved Called Shot, base attack bonus +15.
Benefit: Your Called Shot may have improved results (at your discretion), as in the following table. You may choose this effect or a lesser effect but must do so before making the attack roll.
Table: Called Shots
Area Targeted (additional check penalty)/Effect/Damage Recovery
Head/Unconscious (Reduced to -9 HP and Stable)/10+ points of magical curing
Eye or Ear (-20)/Dead/Raise Dead or similar
Torso/Paralyzed/Regenerate
Arm/Appendage severed/Regenerate
Hand (-10)/Appendage severed/Regenerate
Leg/Appendage severed/Regenerate
Foot (-10)/Appendage severed/Regenerate
Improved Critical [General]
Choose one type of weapon.
Prerequisites: Proficient with weapon, base attack bonus +8.
Benefit: When using the weapon you selected, its bonus when used for making a critical improves by one step. A flail, for instance, would gain a +1 bonus, while a dagger would improve to a +3 and a rapier would improve from a +3 to a +5. Weapons that are already at a +5 improve to +7.
Special: You can gain Improved Critical multiple times. The effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new type of weapon.
This effect stacks with keen edge by improving the bonus one step further.
Improved Dodge [General]
Prerequisites: Dex 15, Dodge.
Benefit: The dodge bonus you gain to Armor Class from the Dodge feat applies to all attacks.
Special: A fighter may select Improved Dodge as one of his fighter bonus feats.
Shield Focus [General]
Choose one type of shield with which you are proficient.
Prerequisites: Proficiency with selected shield, base attack bonus +1.
Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus to your Armor Class while wielding the selected shield.
Special: You can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new type of shield.
A fighter may select Shield Focus as one of his fighter bonus feats.
Shield Focus, Greater [General]
Choose one type of shield for which you have already selected the Shield Focus feat.
Prerequisites: Proficiency with selected shield, Shield Focus with selected shield, fighter or paladin level 8th.
Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus to your Armor Class while wielding the selected shield. This bonus stacks with other bonuses to Armor Class, including the one from Shield Focus.
Special: You can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects do not stack. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new type of shield.
A fighter may select Greater Shield Focus as one of his fighter bonus feats.
Toughness [General]
Benefit: You gain bonus hit points per level according to your racial HD. The specific bonus is listed on the following chart:
Table: Toughness
Racial HD/Bonus HP
1d4/1
1d6/1.5
1d8/2
1d10/2.5
1d12/3
In addition, you increase your Wound Points by 1. You also gain a +1 on Fortitude saves made to (1) resist being stunned after receiving a wound, (2) remain conscious/disabled when reduced to 0 wounds, (3) become stable when dying, (4) remain stable after stabilizing, and (5) survive a coup de grace attempt.
Special: You may gain this feat multiple times. Its effects stack. In the event that your bonus hit points come out as a fraction, round down. For instance, if you have 1d6 racial HD and your character is level 3, you would gain 4 bonus hit points.
Holy neverending posts!
Yep, thus the "asking for it" warning at the top... ;^)
Also, I've been toying with a modification to the Improved and Greater Called Shot feats--instead of taking one of the greater effects, one could take a bonus on the attack roll for a lesser effect. So, something like a +5 on the least effective called shots with Improved, and +10 with Greater. Haven't settled on exact bonus values yet.
We've debated a number of house rules-- about XP earning and expenditure, how to roll hit points when we level up, how to handle characters when their players are missing and more. D&D Thoughts are the posts where we've discussed these options.