GM houserules for LoF

[standaloneghost]

As I get ready to pick up the reigns from my current DM (who is running ROTRL for us currently), I am looking as some house rules that I would like to implement. Most / all of these are me making modifications to things that I have identified as a problem and/or hindrance to the campaign. I would appreciate it if you all could take a look at them and offer up some criticism to help me balance them out a bit.

Level up gives back HDdHD for non-casters, and 1/2HDdHD for casters as well as their max spell level back in spells. ((A fighter leveling to 12 would receive a 12d12 heal, while a wizard would receive a 3d6 heal and 6 levels worth of spells.))

Bonus for picking up prestige classes - by prestige class. ((Using this to promote variety/flavor and get them to invest more in their characters.))

Level up once you get the experience to. ((Will only ever be between combats, experience handed out at my discretion.))

20 pt buy - Fast exp track
32 pt buy - Medium exp track

RAW within reason.

No non-core archetypes. ((Non-core archetypes are a problem for us in ROTRL, and have led to some people being seriously underpowered while the people playing core classes spank the baddies. One of my favorite sayings is "learn the rules before you try to break them", and I'm trying to apply that here.))

Magic item loot will be altered if unusable by anyone in the party. ((Hook Mountain pissed me off. I stopped counting how many +1 Large Ogre Hooks we found.))

[blahpers]

1. What's the motivation for the level-immediately and level-up-heal rules? I'm not sure what they're intended to accomplish.

2. The higher point-buy = slower track effectively amounts to the old XP penalty system from past editions. If you have the time, read over Sean K. Reynolds's article on why XP-penalty races don't really work as well as you'd expect. A lot of this will apply to the increased point-buy situation--the increased point buy characters are effectively a stronger "race" of übermensch for this purpose.

3. RAW within reason is a good place to work from. Strict adherence to RAW can and will create some ridiculous situations, but ignoring it too much can leave players unsure what game they're playing.

4. The archetype restriction sounds like a solution to a table-specific problem, so if it fixes the problem, go for it.

5. I've played and GM'd games with suspiciously-always-usable loot and games without it. In the latter, there usually exists some way to transfer the properties of one item to another. One way that exists in Core is to simply have a character with the appropriate crafting feat, sell the loot for half-price, and craft the usable version of it for roughly the same amount. Alternately, some GMs implement some method of transferring magical properties from one item to another for a nominal investment of time and/or coin. If your players don't really care about the probability of finding a +1 flaming meteor hammer in a random non-Eastern treasure horde when one party member just happens to be a specialist in that weapon, then yeah, just alter the loot.

None of these things will make or break your game, of course. If they're appropriate for the table, full speed ahead!

[Craig Frankum]

I've run LoF twice now and here is what I have done in reference to what you have discussed.

1. I allowed my players to gain the additional hp from the level (whatever the increase from leveling up would be). Players still had to rest to regain spells, though I allow the occasional divine intervention if the players are need (i.e. grant an additional use of a spell already cast). The game allows the players to progress at their own pace. There is plenty of time to rest to regain hp or spells. Also, if players make it to Day 6 before entering the Battle Market, then they get the full experience of the game. I also had one party that made forays into the village twice a day, once during the day, and judging the daytime activity of the gnolls, they would return around dusk or after nightfall.

2. Unlike 3.5, Pathfinder gives significant bonuses for players sticking to one class or path. That said, prestige classes or multiclassing are more flair/fluff choices. Let the players figure there own characters out. My second time through, my all my player's were new to the game, so I had them stick to the core classes (no archetypes). Not that I didn't think they could handle any variant, just wanted them to learn the rules before we experimented elsewhere.

3. 25 point buy system or 4d6 (drop the lowest) and reroll anything less than 10, both on the Fast XP track. If the PC's do everything, including the optional set piece, they will be slightly ahead of the game, but will line back up in book 3 or 4. I also give story XP my more roleplaying characters. The criteria is that the encounter has to end where the possible combatant is no longer a threat to the party and the purpose they after (i.e. form an alliance/truce).

4. As said before, RAW within reason is always a key to fun gameplay but most importantly, be consistent.

5. I found that much of the magic items found in LoF fit within the party's wants or needs. Furthermore, I used Almah as the main store for the PC's and based her buy/sell rates based on her attitude towards the party (using the best that any one PC obtain for the entire party unless a PC just went out of their way to make her unfriendly towards them).
- Hostile: No contact with the PC and all contracts and dealings with the PC were null in void.
- Unfriendly: Buy at 50% item value and Sell at 150% item value.
- Indifferent: Buy at 75% item value and Sell at 125% item value.
- Friendly: Buy at 90% item value and Sell at 110% item value.
- Helpful: Buy at 90% item value and Sell 110% item value with a special 1 time gift value at 100 gp per level.