I'm going to be running a new campaign for my table shortly, and have developing significantly more original material for this game than I have in the past. I've put together this document for the player's as a campaign guide and to put down all the house rules I'll be using for this particular game. This was put together from combing more "best house rules" threads than I can count, along with my own preferences, so I want to thank the whole community for their help in advance. Because of the crunch work involved I still have to include a custom race and the E6 feats I'll be allowing, but I would request feedback on the other house rules herein. I apologize for the redacted entries, this is only fluff information specific to the setting. The document can be found here:
Siege of Scholdenholm house rules
Thank you!
Is it an E6 campaign?
Nevermind...
It took a little while to open the file. Over all that is pretty interesting... I like the adventurers kit... not much else to say... you have everything wrapped up in a fairly nice bow... at least to me...
Everything else can be handled ad-hoc from where you are at.
(Saying this from being the GM/co-GM of 50 campaigns in 2 years)
Thank you!
Naturally, immediately after posting this I realized what else I needed to include here. I've hashed out a fair amount of fluff information for the setting, but don't have a good way of conveying it to the players. Basic things, that the characters would know automatically, like the length of a day, week, month and year (they're not the same as Earth's), or important people, organizations or common superstitions? I will be including a timeline of both historic and recent events, but what about other topics? Can anyone suggest a good way to arrange a sort of "Welcome to..." primer?
Potions
A potion can only be drunk by bearer. A salve is available for the same price as a potion.
This doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
Why can't you feed other people potions?Why is a salve that replicates a potion available? After all, salves can be applied to yourself or to another individual.
Why are salves the same price as potions?
I usually look at the Inner Sea Guide and such books for inspiration.
The order is usually:
Table of Contents
Races(including ethnicities)
Classes
Nations/Organizations/Nobility
Homebrew Rules
Index
(If you want a more detailed breakdown of what I include in each section just ask)
Now you by no means have to get this deep into it... after all I only do it because i am planning on doing this kinda thing for a living ;P
Potions
A potion can only be drunk by bearer. A salve is available for the same price as a potion.This doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
Why can't you feed other people potions?
Why is a salve that replicates a potion available? After all, salves can be applied to yourself or to another individual.
Why are salves the same price as potions?
I missed that... they are right it doesn't make sense. About as much sense as a player arguing about dropping a potion mid-fall that way it hits them right after they hit the ground and it healing them as it crashes into them... (8-bit theatre actually inspired my Alchemist player to do this only his was a needle to inject the potion into him)
Resources
Any Pathfinder source book is legal, any Pathfinder SRD entry from a Paizo source is
permitted until declared otherwise. Any other published source is allowed pending
approval. Homebrew material may be permitted after peer review by the Paizo forums.
It is my opinion this is a bad idea, specifically the first sentence. There are a few of the books that introduce potentially problematic material to a game, the synthesist summoner archetype being a perfect example.I recommend allowing anything from the Core Rulebook, with approval required for anything else.
Party Composition and Character Generation
The party consists of 11 player characters, one main character per player and communal
alternates. To reflect the circumstances, 8 of the characters must be dwarves (up to 2 may
be halfdwarves), and 3 of any other race (including halfdwarves), any character may be a
main or alternate character.
If your players agree to this an seem excited, kudos and ignore the rest of this paragraph. If not, it has been my experience that limitations placed on race, as in you must play X or Y race (with the exception of saying you can only play core races), have met with a lot of resistance. Choice is a big deal for my group, though it may not be for others.
Linguistics
Linguistics does not teach an additional language with each rank. Instead, a
character may learn an additional language as a trait.
Great rule! I may adopt it. We've had plausability issues with the linguistics rule for some time now.
Feats
Exotic Weapon Proficiency is a trait
Out of curiosity, why?
Potions
A potion can only be drunk by bearer. A salve is available for the same price as a
potion.
Covered by other's inquiry.
Damage Reduction
Magic
Creatures and effects which grant DR X/magic is instead only overcome by
special materials or an enhancement bonus of +1 per five hit dice of the target.
I love this. Very old-school. I use something similar which is DR x/magic is overcome by an enhancement bonus of +(CR/4).
The one thing I'd remove from your house rule document.
The part about "peer review from the Paizo message board."
It's YOUR campaign. Take the responsibility. You decide on the house rules you use or allow. You don't need our blessing to do so.
Also, this message board should not become the place of an appeals board on your decisions as GM.
This!.
you are opening yourself up to every decision being brought here for a ruling.
The one thing I'd remove from your house rule document.
The part about "peer review from the Paizo message board."
It's YOUR campaign. Take the responsibility. You decide on the house rules you use or allow. You don't need our blessing to do so.
Also, this message board should not become the place of an appeals board on your decisions as GM.
This!.
you are opening yourself up to every decision being brought here for a ruling.
I don't often agree with LazarX's posts, but this is definitely a "keeper."
Acrobatics may be used to jump up from prone without provoking an Attack of
Opportunity. The DC for this is equal to the threatening enemy’s CMD, failing
this check by 5 or more provokes an Attack of Opportunity.
I like the idea, but I think it needs a little work...
Is this done as a standard action or a move action?
If it is a standard action it is very situational (underpowered). If it is a move action I think it is overpowered and will lead to unnecessary dice-rolling -- all players should always roll, since they might get lucky and there's no downside to trying. It should be balanced by a penalty for failing by five or more that is worse than what would have happened if they just took the ordinary, provoking move action.
Also, there may be more than one threatening enemy, and they might not have the same CMD.
I would say something like
As a move action, you can attempt to bounce up from prone without provoking opportunity attacks. Make an Acrobatics check; you do not provoke attacks of opportunity from those opponents that threaten you whose CMD your check result equals or exceeds. You provoke opportunity attacks as normal from those opponents whose CMD exceeds your check result by less than 5. Opponents whose CMD is 5 or more above your check result gain a +2 circumstance bonus to attack and damage with their opportunity attack.
(and polish the language so it becomes readable 8-/)
Alternatively, the penalty for failing by 5 or more could be:
- you stand up, but action converted to standard action (if so, obviously must have standard action available to be allowed to try in first place)
- Gain staggered condition for one round (or perhaps until end of next rnd)
- you do not stand up from prone (but you still provoke and you still spent a move action trying)
Exactly what the penalty is isn't important, only that it adds some spice and makes players think twice about trying to stand up w/o provoking.
Ooor... are you trying to make the Trip maneuver less powerful by an indirect route? If so your rule works as intended, I guess.
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I like your rules on potions/oils on other characters.
I also like the Treat Deadly Wounds rule, though I would allow characters to treat themselves with a -5 penalty (say) for unfavorable circumstances.
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Also, what LazarX said.
Potions
This is just a personal pet peeve of mine that, in the middle of frenetic combat it's sound tactics to force feed your buddy a five hour energy. Similarly, pouring that down the throat of an unconscious, grievously injured person is more likely to make them choke on the fluid than swallow it. Just as an example, Pokemon depicts it's potions as coming in spray bottles to address this. I didn't, however, want to add too much complication so, keeping it in line with my change to the heal skill seemed like a consistent route.
Materials
Asking for peer review is an effort for fairness, one of my player's asked if he could use some personally written material. I told him that it would be fair to use if it was double checked by a third party. What he wrote was fine after some editing, and it seemed appropriate to extend the same to the table as a whole. But I do agree with the boards that this shouldn't be an appeals court and don't want to impose on the board. This will be changed to allow material cleared before character creation, but not after.
Party Composition
This game is about a party of dwarves preparing an abandoned stronghold for a siege. I'm letting three of my five regulars play other races if they want to, with the rest just being sort of semi-NPCs. But I will take it into consideration and clear it with the party.
Exotic Weapon Proficiency
This is really expensive as a feat, but as a trait it offers the player some incentive to use a peculiar weapon.
Acrobatics
This is an extrapolation of the "move through threatened spaces without provoking," there's also precedence for a character leaping up from being knocked down in every action medium. I'll clarify it to make it clear this is a move action. On a failure of less than 5, the character stands up but provokes, on more than 5, the move action is taken, provokes an attack, but the character doesn't stand up.
Treat Deadly Wounds
Allowing this to be used on oneself at -5 is reasonable, agreed.
Thank you for all the support and please let me know if I should have other concerns. Last, with regards to the basic setting information; what would be considered the most important things to be included if you were given a one page "Welcome to Earth" pamphlet?
Hmm... not much to say on most things...
On the Welcome to Earth pamphlet:
General overview of the world. What the top 3 common languages being (in our case this is in order: Mandarin, Latin(basis for most languages), and English. Who are the 5 major political players in the world. Finally, general cultural information for the regions of the world.