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Max HP for players and monstersI 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.
Same here..and the fact that combats can last long.
I let my players roll HP for each level twice and take the higher result, but i decided to give them average HP per level (with full at first of course) in the future. I'm not a fan of randomizing something a player has to stick with for an entire game but i also think that full HP is a bit too much, but i guess that is a matter of taste. Personally I don't like it when combat takes very long, i've had enough situations where a battle already took most of a single session.
Also full HP per level has an impact on game balance, as characters that disable enemies with non-damage means become that much more powerful than those relying on damage. The slumber hex witch can still potentially fell an opponent in one action and then let them be finished off with a coup de grace, while the fighter has to take between 30 to 100% more time to take someone down (depending on how much of their HP is actually from the die roll).
I let my players roll HP for each level twice and take the higher result, but i decided to give them average HP per level (with full at first of course) in the future. I'm not a fan of randomizing something a player has to stick with for an entire game but i also think that full HP is a bit too much, but i guess that is a matter of taste. Personally I don't like it when combat takes very long, i've had enough situations where a battle already took most of a single session.
Also full HP per level has an impact on game balance, as characters that disable enemies with non-damage means become that much more powerful than those relying on damage. The slumber hex witch can still potentially fell an opponent in one action and then let them be finished off with a coup de grace, while the fighter has to take between 30 to 100% more time to take someone down (depending on how much of their HP is actually from the die roll).
i make this change because normally a good DPR char needs only 1 Full attack to kill a monster. That way the monster still alive to return the kindness and i have no fear to kill automatically a player when i roll the dices opened
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I have some Natural 20 house rules for skill checks, initiative, saves and combat maneuvers. These are as follows.
Skill Checks: Rolling a natural 20 on a skill check counts your skill as +5 higher on the die. So for instance if you rolled a natural 20 on a 1d20+5 skill check, it counts as a 30 instead of a 25.
Initiative: If you roll a natural 20 on initiative you get a surprise round. If you roll a natural 20 and have surprise you get a full action in the surprise round.
Saves: Rolling a natural 20 on a save has the following effects:
If the save does not require a natural 20 to succeed then you shake off the effect completely. So for instance if you would take a lesser effect on a save you instead take no effect.
If a natural 20 is required to save, rolling a 20 always succeeds.
Combat Maneuvers: If you roll a natural 20 on a combat maneuver check the DM can offer an additional advantage depending on what is done.
Some my group made + some I made:
-Max starting gold.
-Your clothing does not count towards your encumbrance.
-Max hit points at first level plus your Con mod AND score. At every level after, it's 1/2 hit dice + 1 + Con mod (so for a d8 class with a 14 Con, 7 hit points).
-You die at twice the sum of your level + Con score. When you reach negative level + Con, you take a random wound from the Called Shots effects.
-Critical hits cause wounds randomly chosen from the Called Shots effects. They start with the called shots effects, then 50+ damage crits cause critical called shot effects, and 100+ damage crits cause debilitating blow effects.
-You gain two +1 typeless bonuses to your ability scores every 4 levels instead of just one. They have to be to different scores, though.
-Inherent bonuses granted from wishes or reading tomes/manuals stack up to +5 without needing to be cast in rapid succession.
-You can take two traits from the same category, as long as they don't somehow contradict each other thematically.
-Fractional BAB and save bonuses exist and stack. So, 3 levels in fighter and one in barbarian gives you +4 to base Fort save (the initial +2s don't count twice). 3 levels of rogue and one of bard stack to +3 BAB.
-When using the craft skill to create items, you don't convert to silver pieces (you skip the one step).
-Appraise no longer exists, it's various uses of Appraise are all sourced out to other skills.
-Knowledge (Psionics) doesn't exist, it's covered by Knowledge (Arcana).
-The Master Alchemist feat works with ALL alchemical items, not just poisons.
-Touch attacks from physical weapons, like guns, do not ignore AC granted by force effects.
-If at least two allies are flanking an opponent, all allies which attack that opponent get the +2 from flanking.
I'm sure there's others I'm forgetting, too.
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Here are mine for my current campaign (I use "Society" as the default ruleset, since they've already taken care of things like Vivisectors):
*24 point buy, no pre-racial above 16, no pre-racial below 10. Aasimirs and Tieflings can only be the "base type" unless they spend the feat to unlock the other types (I do allow you to pick instead of role though). Pathfinder Society races only; though if you've really, really always wanted to play something else we can try to "work it in" (no guarantees though).
This is because I believe properly built characters should have 1 "dump" stats, but I don't want players to actually have them... which is to say I want players to generally be reasonably socially competent and have skill points. So I give them credit for 1 dump stat, and otherwise make a 20 point buy. The power level actually ends up slightly below 20 point buy, both because you don't end up with 19/20 caster stats and you can't do the "2 stat" dump (Int/Cha for fighters, for instance).
For Aasimar / Tieflings, I can find rare justification to play much else in PFS... they are just too good, since they started being allowed to "choose their stat block" (and 1/day 2nd level spell). I am willing to give it to them if they will burn a feat for it; I begrugingly allow the semi-planars in with their initial stats for anyone.
*Standard PFS bans, with the addition of Summoners and Gunslingers. No crafting (like PFS), no leadership (also like PFS). If there is a specific ban you want to work around, talk to me.
Summoners really do destroy games (I believe this strongly, from actual gameplay. Gunslingers just don't feel like they belong, I know many agree with this.
*I usually allow Lawful Evil, but with a player wanting to play a Paladin this would generally be a bad idea unless you have a heck of a bluff or you work out something before hand where he feels he can tolerate you.
If someone wants to be LE, I let them. I play with a mature group, and LE tends to have good reasons to further power and help the other allies. Most Chelaxians in PFS are LE whether they admit it or not anyway, why not just make it official?
*Magic items are "what you can afford"; Sandpoint (and most other cities) can contact those in distant lands to have items teleported in, as long as they have the gold to pay for them. You can bookkeep these in your downtime if we're near a city (or can "preplan" them if not). I'd like someone to volunteer as treasurer and keep track of the loots you find; I'll give you gold values on any "mundane" items (assuming that if you can't appraise them, the town will); so again, you can sell them in downtime.
This keeps the game flowing by not having "shopping time"; I like players to be prepared with their next-leveled version and all purchases desired.
*2 traits (like PFS)
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this is one I found on the boards a long time ago that I absolutely adore
Halve the # of skill points each class get's per level. So, Fighters/Wizards get 1, Rogues get 4, Bards get 3, etc.
Grant everyone skill points equal to their stat bonuses that can only be spent on skills associated with that stat.
So, someone playing a fighter with the following stats :
Str : 16 (+3)
Dex : 14 (+2)
Con : 16 (+3)
Int : 10 (+0)
Wis : 12 (+1)
Cha : 8 (-1)
Would have the following skill points to distribute :
Class : 1
Str : 3
Dex : 2
Wis : 1
Cha : -1
So they'd be very good at physical stuff, not so good at mental, and awful at charisma things.
You were allowed to trade 2 of one stat skill points to get 1 of another (so 2 str's to get one cha for example) to indicate concentrating more on diplomacy than on climbing or swimming.
Finally, if you had a negative stat, and you wanted to spend points on it, you had to spend enough that level to 'overcome' the negative. So from our example, if you wanted to put a point into diplomacy, you had to put spend your class point (1) to negate the -1 charisma skill level, then trade in two attribute skill points (1 str/1 dex, 2 str, 1 dex/1 wis, etc) to get another Cha skill point.
This worked really well, it gave people more skill ranks overall, but it also meant they usually ended up with skill curves that fit their stats, those who were smart ended up with lots of INT based skills, those who were really strong but not so bright (18 str/8 int) usually ended up with lots of climb and swim and not so many Knowledge skill.
EDIT : Note class skill points were 'unaligned' and could be spent on any skill.
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I have one campaign that's a hodgepodge of 1e-PF w % based skill checks.rules. Pretty much the whole thing is house ruled.. its basically its own system. Also played in a crazy Eberron game with a feat a level.
For PF games
I have a variable table size. 3 dedicated player 8 variable/random players (they may make 10 in a row, miss 4 or come every other.. I cant trust that even one of them will be there a week.. So I have to take that into account.
Classes: whatever if non-paizo its subject to my balancing judgment, before or during game if way over/under powered.
Point buy: all start at 8 + a variable 20-30 buy. 1:1 Cost. Soft limit of 20 before racial adjustments.
HP: Always maxed. Everything.
Leadership: You can have a cohort but I reserve the right to override what you say they do. They generally do not go on adventures, if they do they require a full share of loot and cr of encounters are adjusted as though is another player is at the table.
Followers: You get to come up with a few ideas, I get to pick from them or just decide for you.
Skills: Everyone gets one for free of my choice based on the campaign/AP.
Feats: anything from PF/Eberron allowed/most d20 stuff if player is willing to let me balance it. ( I Like the various dragonmarks)
Reach weapons: if nobody is behind you, you may attack adjacent squares at no penality, if someone is behind you -5 if small, -10 medium -5 per size larger than you.
Movement: all 6 or 8 squares (depending on what type of map I use) around you cost 1 movement, none of that costing 2 or 3 to go kittycorner.
Guns: Generally are common or above.
Trait: 2 or 1:1 gained for disadvantages beyond 1. Any gained via feat or after 1 don't count to the 1 per type limit
magic items; you can enchant say +int onto anything. but anything it isn't allowed by raw is limited to +4 max bonus.
Level 20 is max in any one class.
you may multiclass
there is no max level.
my twist on mythic is available.
Positive energy is good
Negative energy is evil
If something has 4 or higher INT or WIS it can not be true neutral, everyone cares about Something.
Good cares about the greater good/community
Evil cares about itself
all prc's are quested for in game.
all 3p ones are available subject to my approval so I can tie them into the story or nerf/buff as needed.
Intuitive Classes can be spontaneously taken up, no in game anything required to multi-class into them.
Self-Taught Classes require working on them for a level in game without using any class abilities from your current one. such as a rage if you are a barbarian going to fighter.
Trained Classes require finding a trainer to train you (ie quest in game) or an event. Such as going to -con a few times.. you can become a divine type, or you sunder a staff of power and live you can be any arcane type.
Psoinics require surgery or being Awoken somehow to be anything but a wilder.
psionics and arcane and divine all work against each other.
Magic weapon light is shed based on its +.
+1 No light| Each + adds 10' radius of light with +5 or higher being daylight or darkness when drawn
You wont know if a weapon is intelligent by identifying it.. only if IT chooses to tell you.
Crafting is allowed: I go with 1/3 market value for materials, 1/3 for labor, 1/3 for profit.
All my NPCs are made as though they were PCs.
Things are not always what they seems. You may be sailing on the ocean and watch a pair of orca's fighting via their eladalons(or however you spell it). That deer your trying to hunt, just may have some levels as a fighter and be specialized with his antlers or something. Expect the unexpected. Only Dragons and Outsiders are the Alignments they have always been. Heck that deer could be a druid..
Theres more but it really comes down to.. make one roll instead of 10000000, have fun, let the story flow, get lost in a tale for a bit and brings some people with me.
My 3.5 house rules
Those would be my 3.5 house rules
All good stuff
I use something very similar to these. Also I think sorcerers got left behind in pathfinder. Before it was an advantage to being a sorcerer cause of the number of spells you had. At level 6, sorcerers get 3+bonus third level spells while Wizard just gets 2+bonus. Now with prohibited schools not really being a penalty, a wizard would have 3+bonus at third level.
To fix this I gave all sorcerers their bonus spells two levels earlier. And when they get their bonus spell they get 0+bonus spells of that level. This makes the choice of bloodline really important due to spells. At 5th level a sorcerer will most likely have 1 casting of the 3rd level spell of his bloodline. I think this helps mitigate the advantage wizards got.
Also Sorcerers can use Metamagic rods like wizards can. (without increasing the casting time)
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I have two house rules....
1st when rolling hit die when attaining a new level... All 1s are rerolled.. I always hated rolling 1s as a PC and figured no one else enjoyrd it either.
2nd when anyone (PC or NPC) criticaly fumbles they have to roll a confirmation roll. If they het the intedid AC nothing happrns and thier turn is over. If they fail to confirm (miss the AC) bad stuff happens, DM choice. More often than not they do regular damage to a random allie if in reach or other mishap (weapon stuck in wall, fall, drop item, ect)
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its been to long to edit.. I forgot the most important two mechanical changes we do.
If roll a crit hit, and your total is above targets ac you hit. none that confirmation crap 20's a 20. but if you only have +3 hit with your bow and you roll 23 and need 24 you miss.
If roll a 1
Normal - 1 on a d2 drop
masterwrork 1 on ad4 drop
+1, 1 on a d6 drop weapon
+2, 1 on a d8 drop weapon
+3, 1 on a d10 drop weapon
+4, 1 on a d12 drop weapon
+5, 1 on a d20 drop weapon (or higher then +5)
if you don't roll the 1 its just a miss.
In same combat each time you miss with the same weapons add +1 to the dice roll. SO you can miss 1 time with a normal weapon in a combat and 19 times with a +5 in combat before you automatically drop it
d6/d8 direction (depending on tileset) for 1 square per STR bonus you have.
I just looked hrough the thread.. some a few good ones im going to snag :)
Not sure if anyone else does this. But I'm thinking of allowing certain abilities gained by feats as normal manuvers as long as the person qualifies for them and they can make an attack roll at -4. This is if you don't have the feat. But if you do have the feat you don't suffer the -4.
An example feat would be cleave. As I feel someone should not need special training to swing a heavily damaging weapon thru multiple nearby foes.
Oh yeah i also dropped all negative modifiers on races. Will post up my revised point buy values later.
Max HP for players and monstersI 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.
A houserule we use is to re-roll all your Hit Die at the start of a new day, adding bonuses or penalties for things like where you slept, how well you ate last, sleeping in armor, that kind of thing. That way, a low roll doesnt screw you for life, and you can blame it on a bad nights rest.
We use the +10/-10 rule for skill crits.
And the most important house rule we have is the double hackbut fix. First, they have a capacity of 1, not 2 (in real life the "double" refers to size, not number of barrels) and second, we interpreted the vague set up rules as being that it has a stand you need balance it on, and so any movement (even a five foot step) requires taking a full round action to set it up again.
Consequently, hackbuts are used, but not abused in my gun heavy campaign.
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A houserule we use is to re-roll all your Hit Die at the start of a new day, adding bonuses or penalties for things like where you slept, how well you ate last, sleeping in armor, that kind of thing.
A bit heavy on the rest/sleep routine, but this is an interesting way to use hit dice as, well, hit dice.
I like the fact that this can bring a point to good sleep, food and a bit of luxury while adventuring (ye use of profession-cook skill!).
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Still a WIP, but ...
*No alignment.
*Using the Wounds and Vigor system. Max Vigor at 1st level, half-round-up each level after that.
*25 Point Buy
*No racial favored class bonuses (using a lot of 3rd party material, so there are lots of races and classes with no racial options)
*Costless material components do not exist; functionally, every caster gets Eschew Materials.
*Using a scaling bonus system to replace +X items.
*No '1 or 20 automatic result' rule. By extension, no fumbles.
*Ignore racial requirements to game elements unless that element relates directly to that race's mechanics.
*Applying a metamagic feat to a spell does not increase casting time.
*Characters cannot lose class abilities; any repercussions for violation of a code/order/etc will be roleplayed, not mechanical.
*Classes with only 2 skill points per level base get 4 instead.
*No feat taxes. For feats, classes, and class abilties that have undesirable pre-requisites, check with me to see if the pre-requisite can be waived. Generally speaking, if a feat (or other thing) has a pre-req that is not mechanically linked I will remove or replace it.
*No experience points. PCs will level up based on story accomplishments, plot needs, and the like.
*Metamagic Rods do not exist.
*Magical Thrown Weapons immediately return to the thrower and can be used to perform full attacks.
*Dead is dead. No magic or force exists that can restore life to the dead. If your character would die and you don't have two Hero Points to spend to Cheat Death (or choose not to spend them), you can elect to have your character survive with some appropriate form of injury or dismemberment, which can be replaced with mundane or magical prosthetics.
*Additional weapon proficiencies (including Exotic) cost 1 skill point to acquire, instead of a feat.
*You automatically pass Spellcraft checks to identify a spell you know.
*Halve (round up) the armor check penalty for all armors and shields. Medium and Heavy armors do not automatically reduce your speed; only encumbrance does so.
That's the general list; some of the classes have their own houserules, primarily that preparation casters don't exist (not just as PCs, anywhere). 3PP classes added to replace those archetypes where possible. DSP's psionic classes are in.
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My group's major ones:
PCs roll two dice for hit points, take the better result.
Critical fumbles are via a "karma" check. DC 10 Charisma check or draw from the fumble deck.
Removed the caster level of 17 for Pearls of Power. Now to create a level one Pearl of Power you need to be 3rd level. Every odd level after lets you create a higher level Pearl (5th for 2nd, 7th for 3rd, etc)
No longer need "specific" gems as material components. Instead PCs just need the total value of various gems as the component. Example, spell that normally requires a 5000gp diamond, now only needs 5000gp in various gems.
PCs get 1 round to provide cure magic to a character after he has exceed his death threshold.
My major ones:
- The most important rule, and the only one that matters: We're all here to have fun. Don't disrupt the game, whether through your character's behavior or through cheesy tricks (though my cheese tolerance is relatively high). No PvP unless the player (not necessarily the character) consents to it ahead of time. Yes, even if you're Evil.
- 30 point buy, and you can buy a 19 (before racial modifiers) in a stat by spending 22 points, or a 20 by spending 28 points. You can spend 5 attribute points to gain a bonus feat at level 1 instead of increasing your abilities.
- When you gain +1 to an ability score at levels 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20, you gain +1 in two abilities instead (they must be different abilities). At levels 10 and 20, you gain +1 to all ability scores. This really, really helps the MAD classes while providing only marginal benefit to the SAD ones.
- Alignment is (mostly) gone. Alignment can (and should be) fluff. Only outsiders with alignment subtypes and characters with an alignment aura count as having an alignment for the purposes of effects like Detect Evil or Holy Word. A cleric (or paladin's) alignment aura is based on their deity's alignment, and not their own. Alignment requirements are gone (as is the Paladin's code), though servants of a deity (such as clerics and paladins) are expected to further their deity's interests. If I believe a cleric (or paladin) is acting inappropriately, I prefer to talk to the player about it instead of breaking out the Fall card.
- Humans do not gain a bonus feat at 1st level. Everyone gains 2 feats at 1st level (not counting those they gain from spending ability points or from classes). Any race that lets you add +2 to a score of your choice instead lets you add +2 to any two scores of your choice. (I think humans are boring and this encourages people to not play them.)
- Everyone gets 2 additional skill points at each level, that must be spent on Profession, Knowledge, or Craft skills. These points cannot be spent on Craft skills that are used for making magic items, or on Knowledge skills used for identifying monsters. I like these little fluff skills that make your character a little more well-rounded than "Every single one of my skills is devoted to fighting and dungeon-crawling" without being forced to cut into your effectiveness to do so.
- Monsters as PCs are allowed, using the rules in the bestiary, with three exceptions. First, the limit on how many extra levels you gain is equal to the monster's original CR, not half CR (this means that you always eventually catch up). Second, for monsters with inherent spellcasting ability (such as Nymphs or Ghaeles), class levels overlap, not stack, with your inherent spellcasting. For example, a Nymph Druid 1 is an ECL 8 character who casts as a 7th-level druid and the class features of a 1st-level druid. She doesn't gain 8th-level druid casting until she reaches her 8th druid level (at which point she'll be ECL 13). Third, the following feat exists:
Hidden Potential
Requirements: Monstrous Race, at least 1 class level
You gain 1 effective level in a class you already possess, without increasing your Effective Character Level. This effective level only advances your class features, and not your hit dice, BAB, skill points, or saving throws. This cannot give you more effective class levels than your ECL. Special: This feat may be taken more than once.
Effectively, this feat lets you trade feats in order to "buy off" your monster CR more quickly, and the requirement means you can't use your first-level feats, or your racial hit dice feats, to do so. So, a Quasit Ninja 1 (ECL 3) can take this feat and gain the abilities of a Quasit Ninja 2, but still be only ECL 3.
- Custom races made with the Race Builder are allowed, but only if everyone in the party is playing such a custom race (or a monster-as-PC): Custom races and printed races are just too difficult to balance effectively. No more than 20 RP may be spent, and no ability score modifier can exceed +4 or -4 (including size modifiers).
- Fractional BAB and saves are used. For hit points, max hit points at first level, then average hit points (rounding up) every level afterward.
- If you're wearing light or medium armor, add 1/2 your level (rounding down) to your AC. If you're wearing heavy armor, add 3/4 of your level to your AC.
- All spellcasting classes are now SAD: If a class relied on more than one attribute for its spellcasting previously, the player may choose either stat.
- Erudites have their Unique Powers Per Day limitation apply for *all* of their power levels as intended, not for each power level. To compensate for this, their UPPD limitation is increased by 1 (so at level 20 you get 12 UPPD rather than 99). Powers manifested through Metaconcert (and similar effects) apply to this limitation. Convert Spell to Power is banned.
- Archivists can only scribe divine spells from the Cleric, Druid, Bard, Ranger, Paladin, Adept, and Shugenja lists, as well as all domain lists. Spells from the list of a homebrew or third party divine base class allowed by permission. Spells from prestige classes, or spells obtained by methods of converting other spells to divine spells (such as Divine Magician, Hexer, or Favored Soul of Bahamut) can't be scribed into your prayerbook.
- Factotums may only use their Cunning Surge ability once per round. Ruby Knight Vindicators may only use Divine Impetus once per round. Otherwise, these abilities are unchanged.
- Oracles may, alternatively, decide to not have a curse at all. They don't gain the penalty from any curse, but don't gain the benefits of any curse either. An Oracle may not use spells or archetypes that rely on the Oracle's Curse ability if they take this option, such as dual-cursed oracle or Oracle's Burden.
- Oracles gain Channel Energy at level 1, as the Cleric class feature. The Life Oracle revelation that grants channeling instead gives the oracle 4 additional channeling uses per day.
- Spontaneous casters are not required to increase the casting time of their spells when applying metamagic feats.
- Most PrC requirements are waived, and replaced with a minimum entry level, decided by me on a case-by-case basis, but in most cases is equal to the class's highest skill rank requirement (or the highest requirement -3 for 3.5 PrCs). Class features or feats required by PrCs are still required if and only if the PrC advances or utilizes them in a meaningful sense: It wouldn't make much sense to be able to enter Master of Many Forms without Wild Shape, for example. Things like Fochlucan Lyrist requiring Evasion for no reason, though, are waived. If a concept doesn't make sense to me, I reserve the right to require a cool-sounding explanation.
- Fast-progression classes like the Ur-Priest and Divine Crusader are allowed, but with the following rule: You cannot cast a spell unless your ECL is greater than or equal to 1 + twice the spell's unmodified level. So even though you can use Ur-Priest to get a 9th-level spell slot at level 14, you can only use it to prepare metamagic'd versions of lower-level spells.
- Paragon Surge either does not exist, or is usable by anyone (not just half-elves). I keep going back and forth on this one.
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1) Story points. Like hero pints only much harder to get, stack infinatly, are much more potent as they add +20, and can be used to bribe a GM to change a story element or outcome.
2) A natural 20 on attack rolls deals maximum damage on all damage rolls, except sneak attack and the liking. Conforming a critical works as usual, only no additional STR is added.
3) A natural 1 on attack rolls will require a d100 roll to see how bad it goes. The lower - the better. Generally, 1-25 is just a miss and may lower weapon hp by 1. 26-50 is some minor hinder like loose of move action next turn. 51-75, loosing a weapon, throwing it away or getting it stuck. 76-90, may result in damaging yourself, the weapon or another party member. 90-95, bad stuff, like self harm and full damage to adjacent party members and the likes, breaking a weapon. 96-100, worst case, a self-critical, a huge backfire, self-mutilation and the likes.
4) No reagents unless it is a reaaaly expensive spell. A sorcerer gets an extra metamagic or skill-adjusting feat or a trait for free.
5) No NE, CE, and CNm unless GM allows it for a particular character with a good back story.
6) Stat rolling: 4d6, take highest 3 dice, do this 7 times, reroll 1s. The lowest of 7 is thrown out and all other are shifted up. PC then can change attributes places, but only 2 times.
7) HP rolling: full at 1st, as by rules, no less than half for every next level.
8) Paizo core feats and books only. No 3rd party unless GM allows.
9) Most EXP rewards come for roleplaying, finishing quests and socializing.
10) A player can take flaws from 3.5 books, every flaw grants 1-2 traits, in addition to 2 taht are already there, judging by how strong the flaw is.
11) Multiclassing can happen with only strong story or back-story support, and usually in between adventures. A char cannot become a mage during the night stay in an inn.
12) A 20 on a skill check is a +10, a 1 on a skill check is -10.
and some other stuff...
- Erudites have their Unique Powers Per Day limitation apply for *all* of their power levels as intended, not for each power level. To compensate for this, their UPPD limitation is increased by 1 (so at level 20 you get 12 UPPD rather than 99). Powers manifested through Metaconcert (and similar effects) apply to this limitation. Convert Spell to Power is banned.
Why not just ban erudites? That rule should blows them out of the water.
Why not just ban erudites? That rule should blows them out of the water.
Well, an Erudite is to a Psion as a Wizard is to a Sorcerer. I like the idea of a psionic character who goes around collecting and learning every psionic power there is. Their UPPD mechanic also gives them a very different feel from how a prepared caster operates, while still providing a meaningful limitation at lower levels (and my houserule keeps that limitation meaningful at all levels).
I completely disagree. Your ruling makes the Erudite worse and worse as he levels up, which is a sure sign you're doing something wrong. No erudite in his right mind under this ruling would ever expend any power he didn't want to use all day, to the near exclusion of anything else.
Just to take the quoted extreme of this ruling, a 20th-level erudite's unique powers drop by 87.5%, yet his power points and so on all remain the same. You've basically turned him into a psionic warlock with lower BAB, hit points and no cool (but unsatisfying) at-will abilities (and, in case I'm not clear, that is not a good thing).
RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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1) No paladins.
2) No summoners, unless your character is from Sakoris.
3) No gunslingers, unless your character is from Alkenstar.
5) Race selection shall be approved by GM with outlandish (non-Core) races requiring a backstory.
5) Free rank in a Profession of your choice at 1st level. If you RP doing your Profession each level, you get a free rank. Your Profession skill gives you bonuses to other skills checks as appropriate.
My group's house rules for the current campaign include:
1.) The PC group automatically "searches" every area they walk through. This gives them a chance to notice secret doors, etc.
2.) Rogues automatically receive a check to notice any trap they come close to without having to say they want to search for traps.
3.) All enemies defeated are automatically looted - GM presents what was found at the conclusion of the battle (Players kept forgetting to loot corpses).
4.) Instant death system - If you roll threat + confirm threat + hit the enemy, the enemy is slain. If this happens to a PC, they fall to -x+2 where x equals their "death number". This insures that the player always has at least 1 full round for his allies to assist him.
5.) Hit points upon leveling are rolled as such - roll the die, if you get half or less, you can reroll. If you get half or less on the second roll, you get half.
I houseruled the way the ARG works. I have a VERY mini-max happy player who has cooked up some pretty broken homebrew races using the ARG.
The new rule is this: If you want to play an ARG unique race that's fine. You write up a paragraph about their culture and biological features without using any in game crunchy terminology. Then I as the GM create that race using the ARG.
All HP is healed after a full rest.
There is no confirming critical hits. If you crit, you crit. As such, feats/other abilities that affect the confirmation roll (ex: Critical Focus) do not exist.
We use the Critical Hit/Fumble decks.
You get maximum starting gold for your class.
When you roll your HP when leveling, if your roll is lower than average, you get average.
Our usual ability score generation method is 5d6 drop the 2 lowest and reroll any score below 10.
Every class/race must be ok'd by the GM.
And in the current campaign, there is no alignment. This may be changing to players do not get to know/detect alignments as we are starting to come across things where alignment matters.
I use a revised skill point system i found on the boards
Grant everyone skill points equal to their stat bonuses that can only be spent on skills associated with that stat.
So, someone playing a fighter with the following stats :
Str : 16 (+3)
Dex : 14 (+2)
Con : 16 (+3)
Int : 10 (+0)
Wis : 12 (+1)
Cha : 8 (-1)
Would have the following skill points to distribute :
Class : 1
Str : 3
Dex : 2
Wis : 1
Cha : -1
So they'd be very good at physical stuff, not so good at mental, and awful at charisma things.
You were allowed to trade 2 of one stat skill points to get 1 of another (so 2 str's to get one cha for example) to indicate concentrating more on diplomacy than on climbing or swimming.
Finally, if you had a negative stat, and you wanted to spend points on it, you had to spend enough that level to 'overcome' the negative. So from our example, if you wanted to put a point into diplomacy, you had to put spend your class point (1) to negate the -1 charisma skill level, then trade in two attribute skill points (1 str/1 dex, 2 str, 1 dex/1 wis, etc) to get another Cha skill point.
This worked really well, it gave people more skill ranks overall, but it also meant they usually ended up with skill curves that fit their stats, those who were smart ended up with lots of INT based skills, those who were really strong but not so bright (18 str/8 int) usually ended up with lots of climb and swim and not so many Knowledge skill.
EDIT : Note class skill points were 'unaligned' and could be spent on any skill.
and a tweaked point buy
11, 1 point (same as normal)
12, 2 points (same as normal)
13, 3 points (same as normal)
14, 4 points (1 point cheaper)
15, 5 Points (2 points cheaper)
16, 10 Points (same as normal)
17, 15 points (2 points more expensive)
18, 20 points (3 points more expensive)
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It's always a warm fuzzy feeling when I see my homebrew skill point houserule used by other people. :)
I completely disagree. Your ruling makes the Erudite worse and worse as he levels up, which is a sure sign you're doing something wrong. No erudite in his right mind under this ruling would ever expend any power he didn't want to use all day, to the near exclusion of anything else.
Just to take the quoted extreme of this ruling, a 20th-level erudite's unique powers drop by 87.5%, yet his power points and so on all remain the same. You've basically turned him into a psionic warlock with lower BAB, hit points and no cool (but unsatisfying) at-will abilities (and, in case I'm not clear, that is not a good thing).
The strength of the Erudite is that you know (basically) any number of powers you want, and (until you hit your UPPD limit) have access to any power you know at all times. This is kept intact: Arguably, even with this rule, the Erudite is still superior to the Psion.
Have you actually played with this rule or are you just throwing around rules and seeing what you think is cool? I'll tell for nothing - limited options are boring. A Warlock, despite his cool powers, is boring. This version of the Erudite, assuming that you don't have 15-minute work-days and only a couple of encounters before resting, will get more and more uninteresting as he levels up. Nobody wants to be doing the same thing, day in, day out, and it simply makes it a lot worse if you want to do something interesting but don't, because who on earth needs near-unlimited uses of My Light, Sustenance or Detect Psionics on an adventuring day?
Have you actually played with this rule or are you just throwing around rules and seeing what you think is cool? I'll tell for nothing - limited options are boring. A Warlock, despite his cool powers, is boring. This version of the Erudite, assuming that you don't have 15-minute work-days and only a couple of encounters before resting, will get more and more uninteresting as he levels up. Nobody wants to be doing the same thing, day in, day out, and it simply makes it a lot worse if you want to do something interesting but don't, because who on earth needs near-unlimited uses of My Light, Sustenance or Detect Psionics on an adventuring day?
One thing I forgot to mention: Erudites in my games can use Psionic Talents just like Psions can. So that helps with the basic utility abilities somewhat. Also, actually, I like the 15-minute workday: I prefer to have one big APL+4 or APL+5 encounter fought at full power instead of several smaller encounters the PCs fight over the course of the day. If you're doing 10-20 encounters a day, the UPPD limitation is much more restricting (and in that case I'd give them more UPPD, but still make it apply to all of their levels instead of separately for each level).
That sounds a little more reasonable, I agree.
Great thread, will have to ponder many of the things on it for addition to my own campaigns.
I use differing House Rules depending on the campaign, but some of the ones that are currently in use in my 3-tier Forgotten Realms game are…
Rogues & Fighters gain additional advantages (currently being play-tested and likely to be changed).
No Antagonize Feat or Gunslingers. No paladins in the mercenary campaign.
Summoners & PF firearms are not appropriate for the FR campaign I run in and are not allowed (if a player really insists on wanting a converted version of a 2E FR firearm I will accommodate them). Alchemists are discouraged for a similar reason, but may be allowed as a non-native of Faerun for 18+ level play. No psionic PCs.
Playing a gnome is discouraged. It will probably die, and not well in a manner which is not appropriate to a PG-13 description. Other players will likely cheer if you cry, vomit, or have nightmares as a result of the description of your gnomes’ death.
Garrote – is a sore spot for the GM, rules-wise. PCs who ask owe shots.
Skill Checks: A roll of a 1 is a -10, a roll of a 20 is an “exploding” die and the player may roll again and add to the original #, repeating on successive 20’s. This only applies to a “natural 20” (ie when the die physically rolls and lands on a 20), not results of “taking 20”, etc.
Limited Spellcrafting system will be available for characters that want to specialize in research.
Magic Item crafting is a bit different and requires that a crafter know or discover a formulae for any non-standard items. This allows PCs and NPCs to have custom-flavored items which aren’t immediately mass-produced without the need for reverse engineering of the principles involved. Some races / cultures have their own flavors of magic / metaphysics which are difficult to duplicate in a normal magic paradigm and are themselves more challenged when attempting to make certain types of items.
20th Level Clerics gain the ability Apotheosis, choosing from one of the below options.
You gain a number of spell levels per day equal to ½ your level + wisdom modifier that you may use to cast domain spells as spell-like abilities. You must pay still pay any component costs greater than 100 gp, but no focus components are required.
Each time you cast a spell, as an immediate action, you may choose to have you or a single target within 30 feet either be healed or harmed by an amount of energy equal to twice the level of the spell, per your channel energy ability (including save DC).
You gain damage resistance 5/ <Alignment>, where <Alignment> is an alignment in opposition to your alignment. Clerics of neutral deities may choose from any non-neutral alignment. This alignment may be changed each day when you prepare spells.
You may convert domain spells as you would healing or harming spells. If your domain spell is a healing or harming spell which you would normally be able to convert without the use of this ability, you may choose to add the effect of one of the following metamagic feats: Empower Spell, Reach Spell, Silent Spell or Still Spell.
Each time you cast a spell, as an immediate action, you may choose to have you or a single target within 30 feet either be healed or harmed by an amount of energy equal to twice the level of the spell, per your channel energy ability (including save DC).
You gain damage resistance 5/ <Alignment>, where <Alignment> is an alignment in opposition to your alignment. Clerics of neutral deities may choose from any non-neutral alignment. This alignment may be changed each day when you prepare spells.
“Epic” Damage Reduction is only overcome either by a +6 enhancement bonus (not any accumulation of abilities which costs “+6 or more” things - in other words, the weapon has to “break” the standard maximum +5 enhancement bonus) or the natural weapon of a creature or entity which itself has Epic DR. Paladin DR penetration does not break epic DR. (Those who might say “the part before the paladin nerf is not a house rule” may be unaware of the stealth change incorporated into the Mythic Rules.)
-TimD
It's always a warm fuzzy feeling when I see my homebrew skill point houserule used by other people. :)
happy to oblige ;)
It's always a warm fuzzy feeling when I see my homebrew skill point houserule used by other people. :)
It's a really neat idea! I'll have to give it a try.
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-I remade the weapons list so every weapon only crits on a 20 but added different weapon abilities. This prevents powergaming based off weapons. All single weapon bonuses, such as weapon focus and weapons specialization, apply instead to weapon groups.
-Weapon Finesse as written does not exist. Instead certain weapons have the finesse quality, such as a shortsword, meaning you may use either your Strength or Dexterity on attack rolls.
-Using an unarmed strike does not provoke attacks of opportunity unless your opponent has improved unarmed strike.
-Crossbows target touch AC within first range increment but have base cost doubled. Balanced by the fact bows still easily surpass them in damage, this gives the crossbow a needed edge over the bow for unskilled users.
Below are a few weapon related feats.
Improved Unarmed Strike
Prerequisites: none
Benefits: You may deal lethal damage with unarmed strikes. Your unarmed strikes deal damage appropriate of a slam attack for your size character (1d4 for medium). Additionally, unarmed enemies that attack you who do not possess this feat provoke attacks of opportunity.
Power Throw
Prerequisites: Str 13
Benefits: When throwing a weapon, you may use your Str or Dex bonus on attack rolls.
Precise Throw
Prerequisites: Dex 13
Benefits: When throwing a weapon, you may use your Str or Dex bonus on damage rolls.
Weapon Finesse
Prerequisites: none
Benefits: When using a weapon with the finesse property, you may use either your strength or dexterity modifier for damage. However, when wielding a finesse weapon in two hands you do not multiply your dexterity bonus.
Unnatural Finesse
Prerequisites: Weapon Finesse, Proficiency with chosen weapon
Benefits: Choose one weapon that normally does not have the finesse property. When you wield that weapon it gains the finesse property.
4d6 reroll 1s for base stats. You can roll as many sets of 6 as you want, but you have to pull 1 completed set.
Full HP plus CON bonus at 1st level. Some times I've done full plus CON score.
What's good for PCs is good for NPCs. So if you come up with some super awesome combo of things that can potential break encounters, means I as DM can use that combo on NPCs and other critters. (Don't engage me in a power war, you won't win and no one will be happy with the results.) This also goes with any rulings on the fly for situational things. If it favors you today, it could favor me tomorrow.
3PP materials allowed after I read it. If I don't have it, bring it to me so I can read it. If it's allowed in, I reserve the right to disallow it after we've played with it or tweak it somehow. If it's disallowed, you can redo whatever needs to be redone to fill that in, so swapping feats or a dip from a different class.
Created a feat called Improved Weapon Finesse. Allows DEX to be added as damage for Weapon Finesse-able weapons.
Usually PC sells items at 80% of book price. Buying items at like 110% or 120%, depends on the size of the town which also determines what's available. Ask before buying, don't assume you can get anything at any point.
There's some I'm pretty sure I'm missing, but these are the kind of constants in my groups. But we tended to play a bit lighter and went with a lot of it compared to others I've read so far.
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Dotted for interest. The only houserule I have is that the Leadership feat is banned from game.
I've had too many games where the players would take the feat, and do absolutely nothing anymore. Big Bad threatening the town? Send in the troops. Creepy death cave to explore? Send in the troops. Find a holy relic? Send in the troops. They then demand experience for everything their followers do :p.
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Witches that cast slumber hex more than four times in a row get hit by lightning. >_>Hmm. If I'm a player, I'll use any power I damned well please if I possess it.
Removing it from the game? Sure. Limiting the number of times a day I can use it via game mechanic? No problem. Telling me I can't do it because you find it irritating?
Um ... no.
You clearly underestimate how unbalanced slumber hex is. Besides, I was being sarcastic. If I find that a witch is abusing slumber hex to the point of absurdity I'll simply make the party fight more and more things they can't immediately put to sleep. And besides that for all you know I could've meant enemies literally hit them with lightning for it.
I've seen witches (usually ridiculously effective witches) built around nothing but the spamming of fly and slumber hex. More often than not they'll also be carrying a weapon with a times four crit modifier to make sure their coups work. I'm not going to fault someone for creating an effective character; I've made my fair share of borderline unstoppable killing machines. However, I didn't do it using a clearly broken ability that you can, with even a small amount of system mastery, continually retry on the same target until you get it. That is the issue myself and a majority of people that actively GM appear to have with slumber hex. It's absolutely rife with the ability to be abused, abused, and abused s'more.
Copping a bad attitude is liable to get you ejected from lots of tables. You will frequently encounter GMs that simply will not allow certain unbalanced mechanics/classes/abilities (see also: gunslingers and summoners) in their games. As for me, I generally let people use what they want. They just better be aware of the fact that they will encounter enemies on which they are not effective, and they will become target numero uno if their build is drawing as much attention from potential enemies as spamming slumber hex would.
You want an actual house rule of mine? Owlbears automatically win grapple checks against anything whose level is not equal to their CR +3. Why? To remind players of the abject terror those things brought with them in older editions of D&D.
The house rules I use vary depending on the need of the campaign. With one exception: I don't want players getting their characters involved with each other.
The reason why is because of a mistake I made years ago. The characters got together, players thought it would be a nice idea, tried it... turned out not to be compatible. But we were stubborn. In time, fighting in relationship translated into the game and the group broke apart due to the other players not liking the fighting they were watching and disagreeing on what to do about it.
Anyway, that was years ago. But, I have found characters not getting together in-game prevents some problems.
dot
The house rules I use vary depending on the need of the campaign. With one exception: I don't want players getting their characters involved with each other.
The reason why is because of a mistake I made years ago. The characters got together, players thought it would be a nice idea, tried it... turned out not to be compatible. But we were stubborn. In time, fighting in relationship translated into the game and the group broke apart due to the other players not liking the fighting they were watching and disagreeing on what to do about it.
Anyway, that was years ago. But, I have found characters not getting together in-game prevents some problems.
Sometimes it gets worse when you're dating the GM
House rules I use:
Carrying capacity is determined through the method used in Villains & vigilantes game.
When a player's favorite magic item failed a save, he can opt to sacrifice another item in its place (hence how I get rid of redundant magic items or things they don't really use).