One of our most favorite ones is that whenever you take 50% of your current health (rounded up) in damage from a single attack, you are Staggered for 1 round or until healed.
In general:
Then I have a bunch of specific Dark Souls themed stuff for two campaigns I'm running. There's some stuff for large monsters that I haven't gotten to try out (the first table accidentally skipped their "tutorial" boss).
I don't like a lot of paizo's subsystems...
6. Knowing enemy must make knowledge check refering the creature. The dc are up to DM. And you must ask the question refering to monster.(usually 2 question. Sometimes 1)
How is this different than the normal use of the Knowledge skill, other than the GM getting to set arbitrary DCs?
?
The diffrent is. You only got to ask limited question regarding enemy info.
Like I make DC20 knowledge for fire elemental.
Thats mean I got 2 questions.
Be it AC status. Nor enemy skill. Up to us.
Right, that's exactly what the Knoweldge skill already does.
You get some useful information, plus one question/piece of information for every 5 by which you beat the DC.
?
The diffrent is. You only got to ask limited question regarding enemy info.
Like I make DC20 knowledge for fire elemental.
Thats mean I got 2 questions.
Be it AC status. Nor enemy skill. Up to us.
Right, that's exactly what the Knoweldge skill already does.
You get some useful information, plus one question/piece of information for every 5 by which you beat the DC.
Execpt that every 10 grant 1 question.
20 means 2
30 means 3
40 means 4
For civilized creature such as human or npc (knowledge local)
15 for 1
25
30 for 2....
So the DCs are slightly different?
Rule of cool always applies.
But it looks like you just said that the DC of a knowledge check to get 1 piece of information is 10...
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My house rules for the next campaign (Shattered Star).
[technically still work in progress]
Characters
Material from all Paizo sources are allowed, except as noted here.
Select any race from Core Rulebook (may use alternate racial traits).
20 point buy to select ability scores (min 8 before racial adjustment).
Each character may select 2 traits.
Hit points are rolled normally after 1st level (minimum half).
Maximum starting gold as per class.
Magic items may be purchased at crafting cost with appropriate feat/spells.
Recommend using Pathfinder Unchained if selecting Barbarian, Monk, Rogue, or Summoner.
May only use Unchained version of Summoner, and the player is required to have full stats (including any adjustments) readily available for all summoned creatures.
Prohibited
Gunslinger
Clustered Shots, Dazing Spell, Improved Familiar, Leadership, Manyshot (see new feats)
Magical Lineage (Magnus only)
Firearms, Racial Favored Class Bonuses
“Level dipping” into Prestige Classes
Must select minimum 3 levels in Prestige Class before continuing to another class.
Feats
Burning Spell is only +1 spell level increase.
Power Attack bonus is -1/+2 for primary and 2-handed attacks, -1/+1 for secondary attacks.
Abilities / Conditions
Adaptation: Requires a standard action to activate/change, and is a free action to deactivate. Adaptations are selected at 3rd, 8th, 13th, and 18th (same levels as Favored Terrain benefit, which this replaces).
Bleed: Any type of healing (Ex, Sp, or Su) will remove the bleed condition. If both bleed and healing occur at same time (i.e. at start of character’s turn), both effects occur and bleed condition is removed afterwards.
Confusion: A confused character will attack their attacker on the following round only. Unless attacked again, the confused character will roll for the confusion effect as normal on the subsequent rounds.
Debilitating Injury: Bonuses and penalties from this ability are halved, and the movement penalty only prevents the target from taking 5’ step. These abilities don’t scale with level and cannot be extended beyond the beginning of the rogue’s next round.
Life Bubble: This spell will protect against most inhaled poisons and diseases. Please consult with the GM if opting to use this spell.
Life Link: Creating a bond with a target requires a melee touch. Thereafter, the bond does not require line of effect to stay active, though the bonded must be remain on the same plane of existence.
Prestige Classes: Increase to spell casting level adds the appropriate number of new spells with the selected spellcasting class, but does not gain any other benefits that spellcasting class would have gained.
Smite: This ability no longer provides a bonus to AC, damage bonus is +1 per level (does not double vs certain creature types), and the damage reduction component has been changed. Instead, the wielded weapon becomes aligned against the target, matching the alignment of the paladin.
Spellstrike: The touch spell delivered when using this ability will only result in a critical threat with a natural 20 on the attack roll, while the weapon used uses its own critical threat range. Use the same critical threat roll for both weapon and spell.
New Feats
Improved Rapid Shot: Dex 17, Rapid Shot, BAB +6. When making a full-attack action with a ranged weapon, you can fire one additional time this round with a -5 penalty. This stacks with the additional attack and penalty from Rapid Shot. This feat may be selected as a bonus feat for appropriate classes at 6th level.
Greater Rapid Shot: Dex 19, Improved Rapid Shot, BAB +11. When making a full-attack action with a ranged weapon, you can fire one additional time this round with a -10 penalty. This stacks with the additional attacks and penalties from Rapid Shot and Improved Rapid Shot. This feat may be selected as a bonus feat for appropriate classes at 10th level.
Crafting
Up to 1,000 gp of the same potions may be created each day.
Town crafters use accelerated time when crafting magic items.
Characters cannot accelerate crafting while traveling or adventuring.
Combat
Natural 20 on a critical threat roll allows for an additional critical threat roll to confirm an increase to the critical damage multiplier by one.
Attacks of opportunity are not triggered when using a full-round action to stand up from being prone or by involuntary movement, such as being pushed, pulled, or falling, except when an ability indicates otherwise.
Retrieving an item from your backpack is full-round action that provokes an attack of opportunity.
Acrobatics checks to avoid any attacks of opportunity is rolled once during the character’s turn. The result is compared against each opponent’s CMD + modifiers in order as character moves (character determines order when multiple opponents threaten at same time).
Miscellaneous
Each player is allowed one d20 reroll each session, which must be declared before the results are known.
Character levels will be awarded as appropriate during the campaign.
Coins, gems, and potions have no weight.
Potions, scrolls, and spellbooks radiate faint Universal magic.
Cure-based potions and wands replace each d8 with d4+4.
Dissipated magic will not leave lingering auras.
Ioun Stones
Ioun stones no longer orbit a owner’s head. Instead, these stones must be embedded into masterwork items to function as normal.
DC 10 Craft appropriate item is needed to add or remove ioun stones.
There is no cost in gold for this specific “crafting”. No crafting materials are needed when performed by a PC. NPC crafters will not charge for this service when the masterwork item or ioun stone is purchased from them.
Non-magical masterwork items will show the ioun stone’s magical aura. If the item has its own enchantments, only the more powerful magical aura is revealed between two.
It is possible to have multiple ioun stones in a single item.
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If I were guessing - it was to protect the PCs.Oh yes regarding critical.
Roll 20 always critical. Because d20 are rare boy.
Why we must even roll again for crits?
Because one of the biggest complaints regarding crits in 2nd Edition was that there was always a 5% chance to crit, regardless of you actual ability to hit. A commoner could only hit a high-level fighter with a nat 20, and that would also result in a crit. "Dude, I can't touch you but when I do, my dagger is gonna find a vital organ to perforate!" The 3rd Edition / Pathfinder changed this so that now 5% auto hit, but not always a crit.
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One house rule we use which I haven't seen elsewhere was something we implemented to deal with the massive disincentives to making characters like Halfling Barbarians or Dwarven Sorcerers.
--Players can either (i) use a X point buy, and then then apply racial stat modifiers (as usual), or (ii) use a X+10 point buy without racial stat modifiers.
(For us, X=15, but you could make it 20 or 25 if you tend to use higher point buys.)
This has led to a lot more variety in the class/race combos that get played in our game.
One house rule we use which I haven't seen elsewhere was something we implemented to deal with the massive disincentives to making characters like Halfling Barbarians or Dwarven Sorcerers.
--Players can either (i) use a X point buy, and then then apply racial stat modifiers (as usual), or (ii) use a X+10 point buy without racial stat modifiers.
(For us, X=15, but you could make it 20 or 25 if you tend to use higher point buys.)
This has led to a lot more variety in the class/race combos that get played in our game.
In my last two games I've gone the opposite route and said "human only".
My numerous houserules are thoroughly documented and organized in google docs for the convenience of my players, lol. Here are a few of the basics though:
1. The big six magical items have been replaced with a feat-like system that allows players to gain their necessary bonuses without being gear reliant.
2. Various feats, spells, classes, and archetypes surgically banned for game balance including: gunslingers, master summoner, a few archery feats, traits that reduce metamagic costs or give +2 INIT.
3. the 3.5 Two-weapon pounce feat has been added.
4. Two-Weapon Fighting and Vital Strike scale now.
5. Hero Points are a allowed, with an updated action list. They can't be used for offensive actions.
6. Several Unchained rules in effect. Background Skills, Unchained Summoner, Unchained Barbarian.
7. Good will saves for Fighters and Rogues.
8. Currently experimenting with the Spheres of Power 3rd party rules.
8. Currently experimenting with the Spheres of Power 3rd party rules.
I can endorse spheres of power, that stuff's great. The only thing I'd say is be watchful of Incanters since, RAW, you can take a 1-level dip for insane power.
1. The big six magical items have been replaced with a feat-like system that allows players to gain their necessary bonuses without being gear reliant.
Post your "feat-like system for big-6 items" please.
I used to have a public copy of that document that I would share (yes, document... it is several pages long). I have to hold it back at the moment though because I have been polishing and fine tuning the system so much that I am wondering if I could sell it as a 3rd party rules supplement, lol.
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One thing my group does, is when you pick a race, instead of using their ability score modifiers, you get to choose either getting +2 to one stat and a bonus feat (Like a Human) or +2 to 2 scores and a -2 to another. It's to help people pick a race for story/character reasons instead of build reasons.
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I haven't had a list of houserules for a while, not since my last home game. Several ones I used have been mentioned here so I'll just drop my favourite one.
Altering Alignments, building off of Unchained Loyalties system I was able to preserve all existing alignment based mechanics while expanding the overall system.
- Each player has 3 loyalties which are of progressive importance to the PC. The players can have 2 loyalties which are tied in importance (1 and 2 or 2 and 3).
- The first loyalty should be to a concept (Justice, Greed, Love, Family, Community, Self-Perfection, Lust, Chaos, Law, etc etc) and if your first loyalty is something primarily associated with a god then you may exude an aura which matches the alignment of that god and will detect as that alignment (depending on HD, class features, etc).
- All extraplanar outsiders, and bestiary creatures with an alignment subtybe will detect as their alignment. Most bestiary monsters will maintain their listed alignment for mechanical purposes, only NPCs (this includes non-humanoids like Dragons) might be reworked with loyalties (especially if custom).
- Paladins must have their first loyalty to a Lawful Good concept or God. Clerics must have a loyalty to a concept within one step of their god's alignment, or to their specific god. Oracles, Warpriests and Inquisitors have a bit more leeway, depending on their character. Anti-Paladins are the exact opposite of Paladins. Druids must have a loyalty something related to nature. Monks should have loyalties to concepts such as Self-Perfection, Order, Law, Calm, etc. Barbarians shouldn't be loyal to Law concepts, but this isn't a hard requirement.
- If your first loyalty is to a god, your second loyalty should be to one of their associated concepts, and this suggests a high level of a devotion to the god, requiring you to behave as a devout worshiper of that god would (as in, actually follow the teachings). Just saying you're a worshiper of the god isn't enough. If you only serve the god for an ulterior motive, then your loyalty is not truly to that god.
- Other loyalties are totally open and can even contradict each other but have to work within reason. For example a character can't have loyalties to both Law and Chaos (without a really good explanation) and would more likely have a loyalty to Balance. But a character can have a loyalty to Law and Freedom (tied) and battle internally over the concept of Slavery. You can have loyalties to organizations, people, gods, nations, things, ideas, concepts, regions, etc etc.
- The GM is the final arbiter of whether or not a character's loyalties are within reason, whether or not a loyalty fits into a specific alignment for mechanical purposes, and whether their loyalties disqualify them from a certain class choice. The GM is also the final arbiter of whether or not alignment mechanics (such as Detect and Smite Evil) work on a particular character.
*All of this is open to discussion with players, corner cases are considered on an individual basis.
The whole point of this is how few players I've played with (even high-RP players) are able to really avoid the "does my alignment allow this?" type of thinking. They stick themselves in their box and are afraid to venture out at all, even if they aren't bound by a code like a Paladin. Too often I hear "I'm lawful good, so I wouldn't do that" or "I'm chaotic neutral so I wouldn't care" instead of "My character would care about this, so does x." By expanding it into loyalties it allows players to define their characters morality for themselves, it keeps them from falling into the trap of playing their alignment. They may still end up letting themselves be completely defined by their loyalties instead, but it's still better than being defined by 1 of 9 alignments.
Whenever any player does something OOC that impresses the GM(describes a new OP build that I would really rather not have in the game but don't want to ban, buys pizza for everybody at the table, recommends a new subsystem that works great, etc), every player in the party gets one primal point. Whenever a person who has primal points makes a roll(any roll) they can adjust the result by 1 for every primal point they are willing to spend in that case. E.g. if Dan the Barbarian has 3 PP and rolls a 17 on an attack, he can spend all three PP to replace his roll with a "nat 20".
Since this is a resource which is conserved across campaigns, not to mention game days, it doesn't unbalance anything, and lets the GM directly reward players for things they wouldn't usually be able to reward them for(e.g. increasing their system mastery, being considerate to other players, etc) and since every player gets one point whenever any single one of them does something nice, it encourages teamwork and friendships.
8. Currently experimenting with the Spheres of Power 3rd party rules.I can endorse spheres of power, that stuff's great. The only thing I'd say is be watchful of Incanters since, RAW, you can take a 1-level dip for insane power.
Thanks for the tip!
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All characters receive Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat and Deadly Agility from Path of War is available.
Katanas are finesseable weapons.
Firearms use my firearm/gunslinger rework
Combat maneuevers do not provoke attacks of opportunity.
All characters receive a bonus trait later in the game of my invention based on their adventures.
Characters receive max hit points. Major enemies do as well.
Characters in my games are assumed to come with a basic set of clothing. It does not apply against starting funds or encumbrance.
Background skills from unchained
Fighters get 4+int skill points
Clerics get to treat their cleric level as the number of ranks in Knowledge (religion) (ie they don't have to spend ranks on knowledge religion)
Appraise is dead. I don't want to keep track of what you think your gold total is, and what your gold total actually is. I unload keeping track of that stuff to a player that I trust, so that I don't have to keep track of it. It is assumed that one of PCs who has a profession from the background skills section can make the appropriate judgement.
Warpriest's sacred weapon dice doesn't change with size of the warpriest, since if a god wants you to do 1d6 pts of damage, you do 1d6 points of damage.
I'll use the encumberance system in combat if you're picking something up in combat (like a dying party member or a macguffin or something) otherwise I couldn't care less. You're adventurers, you know how to work with your gear that you wear all day enough to not make a huge difference.
Wizards can't prepare spells on the fly, only once per day after they rest for eight hours. It never made sense to me lore-wise why wizards could do this, and I feel like it really overpowers wizards over sorcerors and arcanists.
I don't use xp. Just level when I feel it's proper.
I ban svirfneblin, Noble drow and android.
3pp is allowed on a class by class basis, pending my approval.
Bullrush, drag, reposition and similiar actions have no restriction about the safety of the end space. If you stand next to a cliff, enemies will try to knock you off of it.
There may be races or classes banned from a particular campaign, but that is for setting content, not a mechanical decision.
Mine :
1. Wizard know all the spell.
2. Encumbrance didnt count.
Your GM must REALLY like Wizards. Level 9 spells are worth 50k, and I have only counted 50 or some.
That alone is probably worth 200k gold. LOLAnd no encumbrance? Hello super dumped Str Wizard not caring ever about getting a bag of holding for several levels.
Some key points, though there are more:
I experiment with others (spell point casting, inherent bonuses, armor as DR, class based defense bonus, armor by piece) from game to game, but these are the stable core.
Mine :
1. Wizard know all the spell.
2. Encumbrance didnt count.
Your GM must REALLY like Wizards. Level 9 spells are worth 50k, and I have only counted 50 or some.
That alone is probably worth 200k gold. LOL
And no encumbrance? Hello super dumped Str Wizard not caring ever about getting a bag of holding for several levels.
Where do you get 50k for a ninth level spell? Its 810gp to scribe it, plus 405 to rent an original. Or are you buying scrolls to copy? Those would come to jusr under 4k a piece.
Characters in my games are assumed to come with a basic set of clothing. It does not apply against starting funds or encumbrance.
I thought that was RAW?
Characters in my games are assumed to come with a basic set of clothing. It does not apply against starting funds or encumbrance.I thought that was RAW?
Doesn't cost anything: Yes.
Doesn't apply against encumbrance: No.
Characters in my games are assumed to come with a basic set of clothing. It does not apply against starting funds or encumbrance.I thought that was RAW?Doesn't cost anything: Yes.
Doesn't apply against encumbrance: No.
O, right.