Rules My House Rules

[Thundershield]

Figured I'd put up some of my house rules for perusal and comments. If anyone has suggestions and ideas, feel free to reply to the thread, but keep in mind that these are merely some of the feat-oriented house rules and a single class-oriented.

Racial Weapon Affinity:
The feats Dwarven Weapon Training, Eladrin Soldier, and Goliath Greatweapon Prowess function similarly: Each provides a +2 feat bonus to damage when using the listed weapons, which increases to +3 at 11th level and +4 at 21st. Also, only proficiency with non-Superior weapons is granted.
Reason: This allows for the racial affinity to be apparent at Paragon and Epic tier (being 1 higher than Weapon Focus) and also ensures that superior weapons don't get too prevalent.

Racial Energy Affinity:
The feats Draconic Spellcaster, Feyborn Charm, Gnome Phantasmist, and Hellfire Blood function similarly: Each provides an unnamed +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls for powers with the listed keywords. Feyborn Charm retains its feat bonus to Bluff and Diplomacy, and Gnome Phantasmist gains a +2 feat bonus to Stealth.
Reason: This ensures the racial affinity to also remain apparent throughout the three tiers of play, stack with both the damage boosting feats and circumstantial attack bonus feats, and keeps them from swelling to Expertise proportions.

Expertise:
The feats Focused Expertise, Implement Expertise, and Weapon Expertise are removed. Replacing them is a stacking +1 bonus to all attacks at levels 5, 15, and 25.
Reason: Yes, I'm in the camp that the Expertise feats are an awfully implemented math fix, and players shouldn't be punished for the mistakes of the designers if that can be fixed less taxingly and at a lesser disadvantage to characters using a variety of weapons and/or implements.

Lay on Hands:
The Paladin class feature Lay on Hands is a Daily (Special) power instead of an At-Will (Special).
Reason: This prevents dominating enemies from using the Paladin to heal them and allows for various Daily-restoring effects to replenish Lay on Hands uses.

[eriktheguy]

Nice List. I personally implement the +1 at 5/15/25 (but apply a -1 to enemy defenses instead of players attacks).
I didn't realize that the racial affinity to attack feats were feat bonuses. I would also make them unnamed.
I like your modification to racial weapon feats. The scaling bonus just makes sense, and removing superior weapons from the mix was wise.

[Tequila Sunrise]

Originally Posted by Thundershield

Expertise:
The feats Focused Expertise, Implement Expertise, and Weapon Expertise are removed. Replacing them is a stacking +1 bonus to all attacks at levels 5, 15, and 25.
Reason: Yes, I'm in the camp that the Expertise feats are an awfully implemented math fix, and players shouldn't be punished for the mistakes of the designers if that can be fixed less taxingly and at a lesser disadvantage to characters using a variety of weapons and/or implements.

Good to know that other DMs are in my camp, but I don't think you realize just how poor a fix Expertise is. The missing math is 4 from attacks, 2 from AC and 4 from NADs. So to really fix the math, I ban not only Expertise but all the NAD booster feats. And I give PCs the appropriate bonuses to attacks and defenses.

[Thundershield]

Originally Posted by Tequila Sunrise

Good to know that other DMs are in my camp, but I don't think you realize just how poor a fix Expertise is. The missing math is 4 from attacks, 2 from AC and 4 from NADs. So to really fix the math, I ban not only Expertise but all the NAD booster feats. And I give PCs the appropriate bonuses to attacks and defenses.

Yeah, I know the players are still one point short on attacks, but that is only on the last 2-3 levels of play. As for defenses, I'm still considering how to handle the gap, but so far I've proceeding cautiously and simply reducing the "feat tax feel" of the defense feats with something along the lines of:

Defense-Increasing Feats:
Characters receive a +1 bonus to NADs at 11th and 21st level. In turn, the feats Epic Fortitude, Epic Reflexes, Epic Will, Paragon Defenses, and Robust Defenses are removed.
Reason: This means players can still pick the Great Fortitude, Iron Will, and Lightning Reflexes feats, and the epic equivalents that give +2 to a type of saves.

Mind, I'm still undecided about about an actual solution to the way defenses lag behind, and I might allow the Paragon Defenses feat back in. I like how players can boost their defenses some, allowing them to make it slightly harder for monsters to hit one or two of their defenses, or for them to have a weak spot a few points below the standard - say, a 2-3 point deviation in both directions (rather than the 4-7 point deficit we see now).

What I'm aiming for is that a character has defenses around the baseline and one sagging a bit behind if they haven't picked any feats. Then they can pick feats to cover their weak spot and/or boost their strong points, though not too much or they'll get invulnerable once we take powers into account as well.