101 Common Houserules

[Mark Hoover 330]

Mykull wrote:

( 58 ) A giant throwing a rock makes a ranged touch attack instead of a ranged attack.

Here's how bad at this game I am, I thought this was already a rule. That's how a barbarian 2 raged, took the -4 penalty for non-proficiency, and hurled a boulder 20' to utterly destroy a kobold NPC. On the plus side I make it a Ranged Touch for both PCs and villains, so I guess it's fair?

67. Familiars advance in everything "level dependent" per their controller's level, unless that thing is specifically called out (like HP).

I do this b/c I'd like Familiars to be a WORKING resource in the game, not a passive one. Every player in my game that takes one does so to get a minor boost in a skill or ability, Aid Another bonuses on some skill checks, and maybe at high level to have an extra magic device wielder.

I know a Familiar will never surpass an Animal Companion in combat ability but giving it bonuses on a stat every 4 levels, having it's poison or special ability get better over time, or allowing it to gain Feats can go a long way to getting it out of the Familiar Satchel and onto the board somewhere.

I will however note that this is only a recent house rule I've implemented and the only Familiar that benefitted from it was captured in a Grapple then later died along with it's master when the character went to save it. I'd say mixed results so far...

[blahpers]

68. A creature with the Quick Draw feat can sheathe a weapon as a free action.

[blahpers]

69. Soft cover isn't a thing. (Granted, this one often happens because everybody at the table forgets about it or confuses it with the firing into melee penalty....)

[UnArcaneElection]

Now that I have a bit of time, one I haven't actually had the chance to implement yet, but would like to (no idea whether anyone else has done this):

70. Magic item bonuses (usually Enhancement Bonuses), even from attuned items, do not qualify you for feats, give you extra spells per day, qualify you for casting higher level spells, or give you extra skill ranks(*). You need to qualify using your own ability scores before considering the magic item bonuses. They can still boost your attack rolls and damage, boost your spell Save DCs (and other modifiers dependent upon ability score modifiers, when applicable), and make you better at skills. Although it sounds harsh, it would have the upsides of making magic items less critical and of not forcing you to recalculate how many spells you have or what feats you can use or how many skill ranks you have if an item is stolen or destroyed. It would also give me some headroom to let players have 20 point buy in APs designed for 15 point buy (a lot of people do this last part anyway), and the extra point buy points would go towards pumping up ability scores high enough for the PCs to be functional without absolutely depending upon magic items for significant parts of their abilities. Specific artifacts could still exist that would bypass this rule.

(*)Headband of Vast Intelligence, I'm looking at you.

[zza ni]

71. perception distance penalties are not real
- because the sun and moon are not hiding...

72.if it's your turn and you haven't decided what your character is doing, your character also isn't sure what it's doing - a round is only 6 seconds...

73.skill, attribute and initiative rolls that roll a nat 20 get to roll a d20 once more and add it to the roll, this can repeat if another nat 20 is rolled. really amazing rolls receive really amazing results (a high sense motive for example might work close to read thoughts etc)and any that pass a dc 50 also grant extra xp. (usually 50x character's level)

74. if your initiative is so high that it pass 30 then you get another standard action at your initiative order -30 (only in the first round). repeat again if it's over 60, 90 etc. (so if you roll a total of 67 in the initiative you act at 67, and get a standard action at 37 and 7 of the 1st round)

[Polymathis]

75. Skills are not capped. If a hero wants to put 40+ skill points into Escape Artist and take no other skills at all then let them!
76. 1st Edition XP tables.
77. Metamagic Feats affect all spells known/granted that day, but only one can be applied at any time (with the exception of Silent and Still, which can be stacked). This came about because no one ever used them in my game as the thought of burning a feat just to get 50% extra something or other on a single spell just wasn't palatable to anyone, given that certain other feats can get you +5% to hit on every single attack you will ever make etc. Strangely, in practice this has had almost no effect on game balance.

[Soulgear]

Our group uses a few, but I don't know how common they are.

(already listed above) All crits are crits. No confirmation needed.

78. Instead of the x2, x3, etc damage on a crit, we roll a percentile and use a table our GM created.
79. Keen, Improved crit, and anything else that modifies the crit range of a weapon only increases the range by one number. I.E. 18-20x2 with keen/improved crit becomes 17-20x2.
80. Metamagic feats do not increase the level of the spell. A player is allowed to use any metamagic feat 3/day (hardcapped), regardless of the number of metamagic feats.