My houserules until now:

andarilhor · Jul 16, 2008

My houserules until now:

0 - Anything which can be made in the form of a card, so will be it.

1 - Aligment uses the 9 categories of previous editions plus the "unaligned" of 4e. Totalizing 10 aligments.

2 - All players must choose a religion (or a phylosophy) for better define their characteres personality. The DM,as usual keeps the power of veto of any choice of the players.

3 - Races:
3.1 - Elfs dont receive the group awareness ability.
3.2 - Half-elfs dont receive the group diplomacy ability, instead they receive the following ability:
Group Synergy: You can make the "aid other" action as a minor action instead of a standard action.
They also receive the possibility to choose between elf, eladrin or drow as his heritage origin, so gaining the ability to take that race specific feats, along with human ones.

4 - All rangers can use two weapons of its size, one in each hand, not only two-blades rangers.

5 - Wizards can use staff as a implement with one-hand.

6 - DCs for skills will not receive a +5 as the DMG rules.

7 - Aid another has a easy DC.

8 - When using a light blade, all characters can use Dex instead of Str in its basic melee attack rolls. (no feat needed)

9 - Indentifying a magic item properties is limited to arcana trained characters. A Arcana trained character can indentify (mod Int) itens per short rest.

10 - Until make some game tests I would keep the original DCs table of DMG intead of the updated one (but without the 2 mods for skill and weapon DCs).

11 - In the Start of the Turn, before anything else add "Check your conditions".

Any thoughts?

Emirikol · Jul 16, 2008

These all seem reasonable, but "sleight" changes. What I'm really wondering however is what is the context of your changes? Does your campaign world somehow require those changes?

For example: are you playing in a world where Planescape-type alignment importance exists?

Your ranger makes complete sense in ANY world. I'll be stealing this house rule right away

Why do half-elves need a change according to the way things work in your world? Are they a common enough race where it matters?

Why does your world deem that everyone must be so attached to one deity? Are there no other goals in life but to fulfill the religion of your god? This is the one rule that I think means well, but you should expand to include "creeds" or "meanings" in your characters life rather than just basing it on a religion.

Wizards can use a staff in one hand as an implement. Good rule. Just add the bit that they cannot make a physical attack without a stout penalty (not that they ever would..but you never know players

Identifying an item (arcana-trained requirement). This is a sensible rule, however think hard if it is "really" absolutely necessary to improve the fun of the game or to make your world feel more like "your campaign world" should feel..again, ask if it's really that "fun" of a rule. I've done bunches of house rulebooks since 1e (and BD&D), but I've become less concerned with house rules of perfection and more trying to find meaning if they are absolutely necessary.

jh

andarilhor said:
My houserules until now:

1 - Aligment uses the 9 categories of previous editions plus the "unaligned" of 4e

2 - All players must choose a religion for better define their characteres personality.

3 - Races:
3.1 - Elfs dont receive the group awareness ability.
3.2 - Half-elfs dont receive the group diplomacy ability, instead they receive the following ability:
Group Synergy: You can make the "aid other" action as a minor action instead of a standard action.
They also receive the possibility to choose between elf, eladrin or drow as his heritage origin, so gaining the ability to take that race specific feats, along with human ones.

4 - All rangers can use two weapons of its size, one in each hand, not only two-blades rangers.

5 - Wizards can use staff as a implement with one-hand.

6 - DCs for skills will not receive a +5 as the DMG rules.

7 - Aid another has a easy DC.

8 - When using a light blade, all characters can use Dex instead of Str in its basic melee attack rolls. (no feat needed)

9 - Indentifying a magic item properties is limited to arcana trained characters.

Any thoughts?

andarilhor · Jul 16, 2008

Emirikol said:
These all seem reasonable, but "sleight" changes. What I'm really wondering however is what is the context of your changes? Does your campaign world somehow require those changes?

For example: are you playing in a world where Planescape-type alignment importance exists?

Naaahhh...I just hate the new take on aligment, its alll

In the future, I plan to get rid of aligment and use a personality arquetype system, but as I will be DMing to teenagers which never played rpgs before, I think the old law-chaos/good-evil system is just fine.

Your ranger makes complete sense in ANY world. I'll be stealing this house rule right away

Thanks!

Why do half-elves need a change according to the way things work in your world? Are they a common enough race where it matters?

I simply didnt like the aura abilities of elfs and half-elfs. Not make sense to me, simple that.

Why does your world deem that everyone must be so attached to one deity? Are there no other goals in life but to fulfill the religion of your god? This is the one rule that I think means well, but you should expand to include "creeds" or "meanings" in your characters life rather than just basing it on a religion.

Again I am using this as a tool to personality for my group. And I liked the way deities were layed down in 4e, with commandments to each one.

Wizards can use a staff in one hand as an implement. Good rule. Just add the bit that they cannot make a physical attack without a stout penalty (not that they ever would..but you never know players

To use as a weapon, its needs 2-hands, just that.

Identifying an item (arcana-trained requirement). This is a sensible rule, however think hard if it is "really" absolutely necessary to improve the fun of the game or to make your world feel more like "your campaign world" should feel..again, ask if it's really that "fun" of a rule. I've done bunches of house rulebooks since 1e (and BD&D), but I've become less concerned with house rules of perfection and more trying to find meaning if they are absolutely necessary.

I never liked the inditify of previous editions, was too restrictive, but I think the 4e take on this to open, so I tried to find a middle way.

Thanks for your time and opinion, and I agree with you as to make houserules to help make the rules bend to the setting not otherwise.

erik_the_guy · Jul 16, 2008

andarilhor said:
My houserules until now:

0 - Anything which can be taken the form of a power card, so will be it.

1 - Aligment uses the 9 categories of previous editions plus the "unaligned" of 4e

2 - All players must choose a religion for better define their characteres personality.

3 - Races:
3.1 - Elfs dont receive the group awareness ability.
3.2 - Half-elfs dont receive the group diplomacy ability, instead they receive the following ability:
Group Synergy: You can make the "aid other" action as a minor action instead of a standard action.
They also receive the possibility to choose between elf, eladrin or drow as his heritage origin, so gaining the ability to take that race specific feats, along with human ones.

4 - All rangers can use two weapons of its size, one in each hand, not only two-blades rangers.

5 - Wizards can use staff as a implement with one-hand.

6 - DCs for skills will not receive a +5 as the DMG rules.

7 - Aid another has a easy DC.

8 - When using a light blade, all characters can use Dex instead of Str in its basic melee attack rolls. (no feat needed)

9 - Indentifying a magic item properties is limited to arcana trained characters.

Any thoughts?

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9 - I think a character proficient in longswords should be better at identifying one than a wizard. The only problem is that if the party finds 3 magic items and then takes and extended rest (assuming a worst case scenario where only one member has arcana) then the wizard is only going to identify the wand, leaving the dagger and sword unidentified. The current rules for identification exist for
A: simplicity
B: allowing the characters to use magic items without having to take many extended rests (thus speeding up game play)
C: allowing everyone to identify their items, not leaving the choice up to the wizard

If you want to use this rule use a more balanced variant: If the item found is a wand, only characters that can use wands or characters with arcana can identify it. If it is a +1 longsword, characters with longsword proficiency or arcana can identify it. If it is a Holy avenger, characters with religeon, longsword proficiency, or the ability to use holy symbols can identify it etc... Maybe anyone can identify potions. Usually you already know what they are when you find them anyways.
I like your idea, but don't restrict identifying to just one skill (and therefore only a few classes).
I might use this one. Let the fighter identify longswords or axes, but not wands.
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8 - Seems balanced enough, for the most part only rogues use light blades anyways. I might use this one.
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4 - I think this takes away from the two-blade ranger a bit. The two blade ranger can use two longswords, the bow ranger has to use a longsword and a shortsword. It's not a big drawback for the bow ranger, so I don't see the problem.
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0 - Anything which can take the form of a proper grammar, so will not be this sentence.
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1 - I agree with you, I like the old 9 alignments. I would let my players use either alignment system for their characters, as alignment doesn't impact combat as much as it used to.

fissionessence · Jul 16, 2008

Actually, erik_the_guy, I'm pretty sure you can identify a magic item during a short rest, not an extended one. So it doesn't take a week to identify a magic treasure horde, just an hour or so (if the horde is really big).

I am also using this house rule (that only arcana-trained characters can make such identifications); until reading this thread, I had actually assumed this was the rule already!

I guess in one sense it could be easier for a longsword-trained individual to identify a magic longsword, but I think of it more as the arcana-trained character actually investigating the magic of the item and learning about it that way, as opposed to swinging it around and seeing what happens.

~ fissionessence

Crashy75 · Jul 17, 2008

andarilhor said:
...
2 - All players must choose a religion for better define their characteres personality.

What if atheism is part of their characters personality?

erik_the_guy · Jul 17, 2008

Oh, wow, short rest. In that case I don't see the point in the house-rule, it just seems like it forces the players to take more short rests and makes fighters look stupid (which they are).

fissionessence · Jul 17, 2008

What if atheism is part of their characters personality?

I don't want to speak for andarilhor, but I would definitely count atheism as a religion, especially for the purposes of character creation. Perhaps I have a looser definition of 'religion' than others, though. Here are some examples I can think of as religions for a D&D character:
· devout servitor of Pelor
· dedicated atheist
· 'unaligned' agnostic
· lover of no god, but spreader of chaos
· vagrant hedonist who seeks to become the 'Bacchus' of his world

I would define a religion as lens through which one views the world, and the moral parameters set by said lens. Whether this lens is set by a deity or a church or intellectual discourses is irrelevant: it's all religion.

Then again, andarilhor may have meant the characters actually have to worship a god

it just seems like it forces the players to take more short rests

They can just take their short rests back to back and turn it into a fifteen minute rest in order to identify three items. Or else, a party with a Wizard, a Warlock and an Artificer could identify the three items in just the one five minute rest.

and makes fighters look stupid

Well, Fighters don't have to be stupid, but in my opinion they should be able to identify the magical properties of such items, so I have to default to the written rules on this one. But I wouldn't be opposed to the concept that one's ability to identify a magic item depends on his or her proficiency with the item. So, then a Wizard wouldn't be able to figure out a magic sword, but a fighter would. For items where there's no real proficiency (boots, amulets, rings, etc.), the DM could determine the application of the item and choose what type of character would be most attuned to it, or else just say it's identifiable by anyone.

~

andarilhor · Jul 17, 2008

Crashy75 said:
What if atheism is part of their characters personality?

Then atheism will be his religion

Seriously, as a phylosophy teacher of mine said one time: "In Ancient times the concept of atheism (absense of god or gods) was from the god to the men, so the men get the feeling of 'god abandon us'." In those times noone actively believed the gods do not exist (the whole concept of modenr atheism), just because they walked among the mortals.

So, in a ancient or medieval setting I would not allow atheism as a "religion". On top, a unaligned character could just not care about the gods, with "they are so far away", "what a so little creature as me has to do with this forces?", "the gods has nothing to do with my life" kind of belief.

In a most pre or post industrial setting, or a renaiscence setting, or in a most modern themed setting, I would allow atheism, or any other kind of modern phylosophy (existencialism, phenomenology, positivism, pragmatism, etc) as a "religion", without any problem. Even that, only to a more experienced or mature player.

But to conform with your aclaim, I will change the houserule to allow phylosophies along religions, ok?

andarilhor · Jul 17, 2008

erik_the_guy said:
Oh, wow, short rest. In that case I don't see the point in the house-rule, it just seems like it forces the players to take more short rests and makes fighters look stupid (which they are).

The system is focused in players taking short rests after each encounter, so I dont understand your complain.

And about fighters been stupids, they are not. Just have a different focus of knowledge: In physical skills or in tatics and strategies. Lacks to him the basic knowledge of arcane to indentify the properties of a magical item which he can supply taking a Skill Training feat on Arcana.

Your idea of certain characters indentifying certain itens would be great in a setting where magic itens has power sources too. So a martial character would have the expertize to indentify a martial magic item (a magic sword for example), while a divine character would indentify a divine item (a holy symbol). What you think?

For a while I prefer my own houserule, but I may change it to a wizard (or anyone skilled in Arcana) to been capable of indentifying (mod Int) itens per short rest.