DigitalMage's 4e House Rules


4th Edition

Liberty's Edge

D&D 4e has a few things about it that I do not really like so I decided to write up some house rules to try to address these. These rules have not yet been playtested and I am still unsure about some of them, but I thought I would share them here for comment.

Heroic Effort
As a Free Action a character can expend three Healing Surges to gain an Action Point that must be used immediately.

Reasoning: This allows PCs to use an Action Point every encounter, rather than every other encounter but at a price. It also complements other house rules, i.e. Sustaining Powers and Wounds.

Light Source Extended Radius
A source of Bright light will create an additional area of Dim light out to a radius double that of the Bright light, e.g. a Torch will produce an area of Bright light with a radius of 5 squares and an area of Dim light beyond this out to a radius of 10 squares.

Source Bright Radius / Dim Radius
Torch 5 / 10
Lantern 10 / 20
Campfire 10 / 20
Sunrod 20 / 40

Reasoning: This smoothes the transition from bright light to full darkness. It also provides more opportunity for Low-light vision to be of benefit (only a candle creates an area of Dim light by default).

Sustaining Powers
With the expenditure of an Action Point a power that would not normally be able to be sustained can have its Effect sustained (and only it’s Effect; a power with only a Hit entry cannot be sustained).

• At Will and Encounter Powers require a Move Action to sustain the Effect
• Daily Powers require a Standard Action to sustain the Effect.

The Effect of the power can be sustained until the end of the encounter or for 5 minutes, whichever comes first.

If the Target of the power’s Effect is a single character or item then that Target cannot be changed while the power is sustained. The Target must remain within the Range of the power; if the Target leaves the Range of the power then the Effect ends, e.g. if the power has a Melee Touch Range, then the character sustaining the power must keep touching the Target in order to sustain the Effect.

If the Effect of the power has the potential to affect several Targets within a Blast or Burst, then the Effect continues to affect all Targets who remain within the Blast or Burst. Unless the Effect is a Zone, the Blast or Burst remains within range of the user of the power.
A power with the Stance keyword cannot be sustained in this manner, the Effect of such a power lasts (as normal) until the end of the encounter, for 5 minutes, or until another stance power is used.

Reasoning: Powers seem to have been designed with a focus on how they will be used in a combat encounter, thus their effects are measured in short durations so as to avoid “instant wins”. However, this limits their usefulness outside of combat; this rule aims to rectify that somewhat.

The Action Point requirement means only one Effect can be sustained per encounter, and likely only every other encounter due to the rate at which Action Points are earned.

The action cost means that for At Will and Encounter powers the player must choose between moving or attacking, and with Daily powers the choice is between sustaining the effect or attacking; this is hoped to balance the extra combat benefits sustaining such Effects will bring.

Concern - certain effects may make no sense to be sustained in this manner and I wonder whether I should exclude triggered effects, but this would then exclude Displacement which is actually a power I could envision being sustained. This is the one house rule I am beginning to consider dumping and accepting that certain powers like Spiderclimb are of much more limited use in 4e.

Wounds
When an attack inflicts damage that equals or exceeds a character’s Healing Surge Value (i.e. one quarter of maximum Hit Points) the victim suffers a Wound.

A Wound can represent a physical injury such as fractured ribs or a bleeding head wound, or it can represent a mental impairment such as a stifling loss of confidence, a temporary phobia or even hallucinations. The difference is purely descriptive; Wounds work in the same manner whether they are physical or mental.

The exact nature of the Wound is determined by the player of the character who has suffered the injury and an appropriate description should be recorded against the Wound. The description should relate to the cause of the damage that resulted in the Wound e.g. an appropriate Wound resulting from a Wailing Ghost’s (MM p117) Death’s Visage power would be “A crippling fear of death”.

Effects of Wounds
From round to round, Wounds do not impose a game mechanical penalty on a character, though the player is encouraged to bear the nature of the Wounds in mind when roleplaying their character. However, for each Wound a character is suffering the Dungeon Master can use the following Encounter Power against them:

Wound Effect
Your injuries take their toll, hindering your ability to function.
Encounter
Immediate Interrupt, when the Dungeon Master feels it is appropriate
Target: The character suffering the Wound
Special: The target may spend an Action Point to negate the Effect of this power, this counts against the limit of one Action Point per encounter.
Effect: The target suffers one of the following conditions, chosen by the Dungeon Master, appropriate to the description of the Wound.
• Grants Combat Advantage until the end of their next turn.
• Deafened until the end of their next turn.
• Slowed until the end of their next turn.
• Weakened until the end of their next turn.
• -5 penalty to a single Ability or Skill check (does not include Attack rolls)

Wounds & Healing
Normally an Extended Rest restores all of a character’s Healing Surges, however if a character is suffering from one or more Wounds then the number of Healing Surges recovered is reduced by the number of Wounds.
Recovering from Wounds

In order to recover from a Wound a character must begin an Extended Rest with full Hit Points. At the end of this Extended Rest (and after Healing Surges, less any Wounds, are restored) one Wound can be removed.

Reasoning: This rule allows for more gritty adventures where the consequences of an encounter last beyond an Extended Rest; this is especially pertinent for campaigns where combat is unlikely to occur more than once a day. This rule both reduces the ability to survive further encounters (by reducing Healing Surges) and also provides consequences in combat at appropriately dramatic moments without requiring constant penalties to be tracked.

* * *

One issue I still have no house rules for are Saves for things where Strength or Dexterity should have some effect on ending the effect, e.g. maybe make an Acrobatics check to prevent being pushed over a cliff rather than a simple Save, my only issue is determining the DC. Still thinking about this.


I'm a bit concerned with the sustaining ability. I keep thinking of this cleric power I had at 5th or some such where I'd banish rthe target to an extra dimensional prison. They'd come back in a few rounds but it was still insanely powerful to banish the Dragon, get a few free rounds on the Dragon's rider and all the Dragon's minions. In theory we even new exactly where the Dragon was coming back and could have turned the point of return into a kill zone but in reality the Dragon always came back before there was ever enough time to totally exploit this. My concern of course is the ability to banish the ancient Red Dragon and then spend 5 minuets making where the dragon returns into a death trap might be rather powerful and its powerful against exactly the wrong monsters. The Solo's which are usually the coolest and most fun monsters while already suffering in terms of the action economy.

the ability to gain Spider Climb for longer is interesting but 4E characters, while not capable of using their movement powers for as long often have a lot of uses for such powers.

I've also got something of a balance concern. Clerics, at least, are balanced by being generally weak (except for good healing) but with outrageous daily powers. I cused to relly relish those end boss type fights. Fighting a Deathnight on a Dracolich? Banish the Dragon and then dominate the Deathnight. If I can sustain those two effects until the encounter is over that's pretty potent. Its not easy but there are ways of getting more action points.

Liberty's Edge

Yes, the Sustaining house rule is the one I have the most doubts about. Out of interest can you remember what that Cleric power was called? I would like to see it to work out how the house rule would affect it.

One key thing to note is that you are still limited to only 1 action point per encounter, so you couldn't sustain both the banishment and the dominate powers via this house rule, just one of them.


Not playing the character anymore but one of the powers I was thinking of was Dismissal. I'm sure there are others.

Liberty's Edge

Jeremy Mac Donald wrote:
Not playing the character anymore but one of the powers I was thinking of was Dismissal. I'm sure there are others.

Just looked at Dismissal in the compendium and I think my house rule would be safe; Dismissal does not have an Effect, just a Hit, Aftereffect and Miss entry - so it couldn't be sustained in the first place.

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