genshou's Universal House Rules

Here I go rewriting this after the crash. These are the rules that I use in every d20 System game, unless I have a very good reason to specifically choose to omit one.

New or updated entries will be marked by red text.

UHR #1: Feats

All characters, and creatures which receive feats based on hit die, will receive one feat per character level (or per straight hit die in the case of monsters and single-class characters). Some feats function differently than before.

Power Attack [Fighter]
Prerequisite: Str 13.
Benefit: On your action, before making attack rolls for a round, you may choose to subtract a number from all melee attack rolls and add the same number to all melee damage rolls. This number may not exceed your base attack bonus. The penalty on attacks and bonus on damage apply until your next turn.
Special: If you attack with a two-handed weapon, or with a one-handed weapon wielded in two hands, instead add one-and-a-half times the number subtracted from your attack rolls. If you use a light weapon, add half the number subtracted from your attack rolls. For the purposes of this feat, unarmed strikes count as a one-handed weapon.

Sniper Shot [Fighter]
Prerequisite: Dex 13.
Benefit: On your action, before making attack rolls for a round, you may choose to subtract a number from Defense [Armour Class] and all ranged attack rolls and add twice that number to all ranged damage rolls. The number subtracted may not exceed 1/2 your base attack bonus, rounded down. The penalty on Defense and attacks and the bonus on damage apply until your next turn.
Special: If you attack with a two-handed weapon (such as a rifle, bow, or crossbow) or with a Small or Medium projectile weapon (such as a Glock 20 or a Desert Eagle) in two hands, instead add three times the number subracted from your Defense and your attack rolls. If you use a Tiny ranged weapon (such as a dagger, hand crossbow, or Derringer), add an amount equal to the number subtracted from your Defense and your attack rolls.

Skill Emphasis [General]
Benefit: Choose one skill or subskill that is used to make skill checks. The skill is always considered a class skill for you, and you gain a +2 bonus to checks with that skill, plus an additional +1 at 4 ranks and every 4 ranks thereafter.
Special: You can take this feat multiple times. Each time, select a different skill or subskill.

Two-skill Feats [General]
Benefit: Choose one of the two skills related to the feat you have chosen. That skill is always considered a class skill for you. You gain a +2 bonus to each of the two skills related to the two-skill feat you have chosen. At 10 ranks and every 5 ranks thereafter, you gain an additional +1 bonus to the skills. [N.B. This feat is a generic description of the new function of all feats like unto Alertness, Stealthy, Trustworthy, etc.]

Toughness [General]
Benefit: You gain a number of extra hit points equal to your current hit dice. Each time you gain another hit die, the number of extra hit points increases by 1 point.
Special: You can take this feat multiple times. Its effects stack. [N.B. This feat replaces both the Toughness and Improved Toughness feats from 3.5e. The reason for the change from my old Toughness format is that I have officially moved, kicking and screaming, fully into the world of 3.5e.]

Weapon Finesse [Fighter]
Prerequisites: Base attack bonus +1 or higher.
Benefit: When you attack with a one-handed or heavy weapon with the finessable quality, you may use your Dexterity modifier instead of your Strength modifier on attack rolls. In all cases, you must also be proficient with the weapon. Since you need your second hand for balance, if you carry a shield, apply the shield’s armor check penalty to your attack rolls.
Normal: You may only use your Dexterity modifier instead of Strength on attack rolls when using light weapons. [N.B. This is due to a house rule that allows all characters to automatically finesse any light weapon]

UHR #2: Skills

Skill points from a character’s Intelligence modifier are assigned retroactively, but the extra points granted by earlier levels are given to a character at a pace dictated by the number of skill points per level they receive in their class at any given level. At any given level, a character may gain “extra” skill points they are owed retroactively at an amount equal to the amount that character class grants before Intelligence modifier is factored in. For example, a 4th-level, nonhuman Mage character with an Intelligence modifier of +1 possesses 35 skill points (20 for the first character level, and 15 for the subsequent 3 levels). Should he permanently increase his Intelligence to a +3 modifier by the time he reaches 5th-level, he will receive 6 skill points that level, and will be retroactively owed 7 additional skill points for the Int modifier factoring into previous levels. However, because the Mage only gains 4 skill points per level before factoring in Int modifiers, only 4 of those 7 points are granted as “extra” points at 5th-level. The rest will have to be obtained at the next level.

The best way to take care of this is to tally a character’s expected skill points and compare it with a tally of their actual skill points. For this purpose, always count skills on a 1-for-1 basis if at least one class has that skill as a class skill. When actually purchasing the skill, it may grant only ½ rank per skill point if it is not a class skill for the character’s current class being increased in level, but during later tallies the character will earn those points back to spend again, effectively negating the need to keep track of how many skill points were spent on certain skills at certain levels in certain classes.

Furthermore, Craft, Knowledge, and Perform shall be treated as Cascade skills. When purchasing ranks in a Cascade skill, a character spends skill points on the base skill of Craft, Knowledge, or Perform, all three of which are class skills for all classes. Each time a character adds a rank in a base cascade skill, they gain a number of points to distribute among the subskills equal to the number of total ranks they have just achieved in the base cascade skill. Thus, buying 1 rank in Knowledge gives 1 point among the subskills, buying a second rank gives 2 more for a total of 3, buying a third rank gives 3 more for a total of 6, buying a fourth rank gives 4 more for a total of 10, and so on. These “subskill points” are spent among the subskills just as normal skill points, and maximum rank and class/cross-class rules apply normally among the subskills. Thus, a Fighter purchases the base Knowledge skill as a class skill, but uses the obtained subskill points to purchase subskill ranks on a 2-for-1 basis, because no Knowledge subskills are class skills for the Fighter.

To illustrate the methodology behind determining the number of subskill points based on the number of actual ranks, see the following fixed-width illustration:
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Code:

1 rank       2 ranks      3 ranks      4 ranks      5 ranks      6 ranks
   *            *            *            *            *            *
               * *          * *          * *          * *          * *
                           * * *        * * *        * * *        * * *
                                       * * * *      * * * *      * * * *
                                                   * * * * *    * * * * *
                                                               * * * * * *
01 sub       03 sub       06 sub       10 sub       15 sub       21 sub

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The following table lists the number of subskill points for each amount of base ranks, for ease of reference:
[sblock]

Code:

Base Ranks    Subskill Points
     1                1
     2                3
     3                6
     4               10
     5               15
     6               21
     7               28
     8               36
     9               45
    10               55
    11               66
    12               78
    13               91
    14              105
    15              120
    16              136
    17              153
    18              171
    19              190
    20              210
    21              231
    22              253
    23              276

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Lastly, a character may purchase no more than 4 skill points in any given skill or subskill in a single level.

UHR #3: Ability Advancement

Each time a character reaches a new character level, compare the point-buy value of their ability scores with the table immediately following this paragraph. If the amount listed for their new character level is above the value of their actual scores, they are immediately granted ability increases to be applied as they see fit, up to the total value listed on the table. A character may not increase a single ability score by more than one point per level. If desired, a character may choose not to spend these points at any given level, in order to save up for a higher-cost increase, or to focus only on certain scores.
[sblock] *I don't know an actual mathematical formula for this, but it increases by one point per level at first, then every eight levels the amount it increases per level increases by one. Thus, one could extend the chart out infinitely.[/sblock]
At 4th-level and every 4 levels thereafter, if a character’s ability scores are still higher than the amount listed on the table above, and their highest ability score (before racial modifiers) is less than 15 plus 1/4 their hit dice, rounded down, they are at least granted the standard +1 to any ability as per the core rules. This increases the value of their actual scores accordingly. The maximum ability score at which a character is entitled to this +1 at each of these levels is laid out in the following table for ease of reference:
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The following is the cost of any ability score from 3 to 45 in these rules (32 being the highest conceivable number that can be gained by 20th-level, and this only if every other score remains a 3). Note that this is both the value of that score and the cost to increase/decrease to this score from a base of 8. Increasing a score from 16 to 17 would only cost 3 points, not 13.
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When calculating the value of a character’s ability scores, include only the base values as modified by level-based increases. Do not factor in racial, age, enhancement, inherent, competence, unnamed, or any other type of modifier to a character’s ability scores (these apply outside of the point-buy values, and are therefore kept separate). When a character loses Constitution due to death, this adjusts the base value of their score, lowering its point value. This allows the Constitution to be recovered eventually.

It has come to my attention that the Dragon Disciple prestige class grants ability bonuses "as if through level advancement". If such is the case with a class ability that grants ability bonuses, do not factor this into the point-buy value of the character's scores. The bonuses apply to the scores themselves, but when calculating the character's point-buy value, they should not be penalized for a class ability. Instead, consider the ability bonuses granted by the class to be entirely separate and different from level-based increase.

Variant 1
This variant progression rate is intended for extremely high-powered games. Characters will end up larger-than-life in a fashion befitting the epic Greek tales. Each PC can have one or more abilities far exceeding those of ordinary humans, lending them legendary status in the campaign world beyond even what their high levels give them.
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Variant 2
This variant is for games in which the desire is for fairly "standard" power levels, especially those who use a lower starting point-buy such as 25, or those who use standard die rolling without any methods to increase the PCs' stats beyond what the Player's Handbook rules intend to give them. They will end up with scores a bit higher than those granted by the core ability advancement rules alone, and this combined with the freedom to optimize those scores a little more may mean a serious advantage over their otherworldly peers chained to the core ability advancement rules.
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Variant 3
This variant rate is designed with hardcore gaming in mind. The ability advancement over the first twenty levels very closely matches with what a character having 25 point-buy would get using the core ability advancement rules. Since these rules allow for a slightly higher level of optimization and help weaker characters to catch up, this is an excellent option for games in which PCs start with lower-than average scores, but it is not desired for them to eventually end up much more powerful than a standard array character.
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UHR #4: Class Defense

Characters receive a bonus to their Defense score equal to two plus one-half their Base Attack bonus derived from class levels. Round down in all cases except characters with Base Attack of +1 at 1st-level, who start with a +3 class defense bonus.

Class defense bonus applies at all times except when the character is flat-footed or immobile. Uncanny Dodge does not affect the ability to retain class defense when flat-footed.

Class defense bonus is limited by the maximum dexterity bonus of armour, but this restriction is applied to Dexterity and class defense bonus separately, not together.

Variant 1
This variant is being used in the Age of Elements II: Shards of Fate campaign. Class defense is instead calculated as two plus three-quarters Base Attack from class levels. A maximum Dexterity bonus of +8 is imposed on characters who have an enhancement bonus to Defense. DR is applied via a separate spell effect, so all enhancement bonuses affect Defense, even those on magic armour.

UHR #5: Armour as Damage Reduction

Armour (but not shields) and effects that duplicate it (such as the mage armour spell) provide their armour bonus (including any enhancement bonuses placed on the armour, if applicable) to damage reduction instead of Armour Class (which is renamed to Defense). This stacks with other forms of damage reduction such as special qualities, spells, or DR-granting magic items, but does not stack with other sources of armour DR (such as a mage armour cast while wearing a chain shirt). Natural armour similarly applies half its bonus (rounded down) as damage reduction rather than Defense. The other half remains a bonus to Defense.

To combat the extraordinarily high DR values that will be derived from the natural armour of some monsters, all characters may benefit from the use of the Power Attack and Sniper Shot feats, but they must sacrifice twice the usual amount of points in order to gain the standard amount of benefit based on the size of their weapon and number of hands wielding it. The feats allow for more efficient use of the ability.

Variant 1
This variant is being used in the Age of Elements II: Shards of Fate campaign. Half the standard armour bonus (round down) is applied as Damage Reduction, and the remainder (half, round up) is applied as damage conversion (these same rules apply to determining the natural armour DR). Damage conversion applies after Damage Reduction, and converts lethal damage up to the amount of conversion into nonlethal damage. This means even though hits may not deal lethal damage, a character in heavy armour can still be worn down by heavy hits that cause bruises and other minor injuries.

UHR #6: Death's Door

Dying (-1 hit points and below)
When your character's current hit points drop below 0, he's dying. A dying character immediately becomes helpless, unable to take any actions. A dying character loses 1 hit point every round. This continues until the character dies or becomes stable (see below).

A successful Fortitude save (DC 15) allows the character to remain conscious for 1 round (but still helpless). The save is repeated each round until the character slips into unconsciousness.

Critical Condition
A character is considered to be in critical condition when they reach or exceed a negative hit point total equal to -10 minus their Fortitude save modifier (thus, a 10th-level Fighter with a Con of 16 would not reach critical condition until reaching -20 hp). This number is known as your Critical Condition Threshold, or CCT. Once you have reached critical condition, you can no longer stabilize on your own or recover hit points naturally, though you continue to take one point of damage each round until you are stabilized. Instead, each round you must make a Fortitude saving throw (DC 15 +1 per point you are below your CCT) or die.

A character who has reached or fallen below their CCT cannot naturally recover hit points, and therefore can only be brought back from the brink of death through fast healing, regeneration, magical healing, or through the Heal or Treat Injury skill.

Stable Characters and Recovery
On the next turn after a character is reduced to below 0 hit points and on all subsequent turns, roll a Constitution check (DC 18, action points cannot be used on this roll) to see whether the dying character becomes stable. If he doesn’t, he loses 1 hit point. (A character who’s unconscious or dying can’t use any special action that changes the initiative count on which his action occurs.)

You can keep a dying character from losing any more hit points and make him stable with a DC 15 Heal or Treat Injury check. This check requires 10 rounds (1 minute). If you have a single assistant, cut this time in half rather than using the Aid Another rules. Up to one additional assistant may use the Aid Another action.

If any sort of healing cures the dying character of even 1 point of damage, he stops losing hit points and becomes stable.

Healing that raises the dying character’s hit points to 0 makes him conscious and disabled. Healing that raises his hit points to 1 or more makes him fully functional again, just as if he’d never been reduced to 0 or lower. A spellcaster retains the spellcasting capability she had before dropping below 0 hit points.

A stable character who has been tended by a healer or who has been magically healed eventually regains consciousness and recovers hit points naturally. If the character has no one to tend him, however, his life is still in danger, and he may yet slip away.

Recovering with Help
One hour after a tended, dying character who has not reached critical condition becomes stable, roll a Constitution check (DC 18, action points cannot be used on this roll). If successful he becomes conscious, at which point he is disabled (as if he had 0 hit points). If he remains unconscious, he has the same chance to revive and become disabled every hour. Even if unconscious, he recovers hit points naturally. He is back to normal when his hit points rise to 1 or higher. Characters who have passed or fallen below their CCT cannot recover hit points this way, and must rely on outside aid to bring them above their CCT so they can heal naturally.

Recovering without Help
A severely wounded character left alone usually dies. He has a small chance, however, of recovering on his own.

A character who becomes stable on his own (by making the Constitution check while dying), who has not reached critical condition, and who has no one to tend to him still loses hit points, just at a slower rate. He rolls a Constitution check (DC 18, action points cannot be used on this roll) each hour; success indicates he regains consciousness. Each time he misses his hourly roll to become conscious, he loses 1 hit point. He also does not recover hit points through natural healing. Characters who have passed or fallen below their CCT cannot recover this way, and must rely on outside aid to bring them above their CCT so they can heal naturally.

Even once he becomes conscious and is disabled, an unaided character still does not recover hit points naturally. Instead, each day he must roll a Constitution check (DC 18, action points cannot be used on this roll) to start recovering hit points naturally (starting with that day); otherwise, he loses 1 hit point.

Once an unaided character starts recovering hit points naturally, he is no longer in danger of naturally losing hit points (even if his current hit point total is negative).

Critical Condition and Life Support
When a character has reached or exceeded his CCT, even if he is stabilized, he is still at high risk of death. Each minute the character is not connected to active life support, he must roll a Fortitude saving throw as if to avoid dying. A failure on this save means the character is no longer stable and begins taking 1 damage each round (along with saving each round vs. death). Connecting the character to active life support increases the interval between saves to remain stable to 1 per hour. A dedicated medic watching over the character may make a Heal or Treat Injury check to assist the dying character on these saves. Use either the save result or the medic’s skill check, whichever is higher. If a stabilized character is dropped below their CCT due to an effect that decreases their Fortitude saving throw modifier (or an effect that increases the modifier ending), they are still stabilized but must make the saves to remain stable every minute or hour depending on whether or not they are connected to active life support.

Heal (Wis)
Action
Providing first aid, treating a wound, or treating poison takes 1 minute. Treating a disease or tending a creature wounded by a spike growth or spike stones spell takes 10 minutes of work. Providing long-term care requires 8 hours of light activity.

Treat Injury (Wis)
Time: For long-term care, the character needs to devote at least 1/2 hour of the day to each patient the character is caring for. Restoring hit points or stabilizing a dying character requires 1 minute of work (an assistant cuts this time in half). Reviving a dazed, stunned, or unconscious character is an attack action. Surgery requires 1d4 hours; if the patient is at negative hit points, add an additional hour for every point below 0 the patient has fallen. Treating disease requires 10 minutes. Treating poison or treating a caltrop or similar wound requires 1 minute.
Fast-use Medkit: Using a fast-use medkit reduces the time needed to make Treat Injury checks as follows. Restoring hit points or stabilizing a dying character can be completed as a full-round action. Reviving a dazed; stunned; or unconscious character, treating disease, or treating poison require a move action.
Chemical, Plastiflesh: Using plastiflesh chemical to restore hit points requires an attack action.
Special:Long-term care, restoring hit points, treating disease, treating poison, or stabilizing a dying character requires a medical kit. Reviving a dazed, stunned, or unconscious character requires either a first aid kit or a medical kit. Surgery requires a surgery kit. If the character does not have the appropriate kit, he or she takes a –4 penalty on the check. If the character has a first aid kit but not a medical kit, they may attempt actions that normally require a medical kit at a -2 penalty.

I really like the idea of the revisionist point buy system. That's very cool. It's a good way to reward balanced design as opposed to the one-trick-spellcasting pony. How well does it work out?

The PA and Toughness changes I like. I've done similar things.

I don't like retroactive skill points, though I understand it makes high-level character generation easier. Is there any other reason for implementing that? Do you run a big skill-based game or have players miscalculate them such that you need to double-check?

Infiniti2000 said:

I really like the idea of the revisionist point buy system. That's very cool. It's a good way to reward balanced design as opposed to the one-trick-spellcasting pony. How well does it work out?

The PA and Toughness changes I like. I've done similar things.

I don't like retroactive skill points, though I understand it makes high-level character generation easier. Is there any other reason for implementing that? Do you run a big skill-based game or have players miscalculate them such that you need to double-check?

Click to expand...

I started doing retroactive skill points when I noticed a tendency for characters to jump on the best available Intelligence boosting tomes as early as possible, as though it were some sort of ability score-based Cold War. They also tended to put higher scores in Intelligence rather than an ability more useful to their class, and then use their ability advancements to increase the other ability. They did this because otherwise they would be gimped on skill points if they placed the lower score in Intelligence and then increased it over time.

Also, it makes buying cross-class skills a little better for multiclass characters, because they'll get back the wasted skill points the next level. This makes the players worry less about optimizing their characters as far as skill points are concerned.

The point-buy ability advancement works great. I use the value listed on the table for most NPCs, so the foes get tougher and more legendary the higher in level the PCs get. Only for special NPCs do I adjust the value of the scores up or down (usually up, since there are few physically/mentally weak high-level NPCs in my games). One thing I and my players really like about it is that we can use random die rolls to determine ability scores, but the guy who rolled lowest doesn't have to be the party nerf bag for all time. When pretty much all the 20th-level NPCs in the world have a point-buy of 60, it lends the feel that only the strong survive to 20th-level, but PCs who don't start out that strong can work their way up to it (though they're less likely to survive in the interrim).

Very very intriguing idea to combine point buy with rolled abilities!

I don't think I've ever heard of such a rule, but I like it a lot. It cleverly combines balance (over time) with a completely organic system. It's much better IMO than some of the matrix-based character ability systems. I'll mention it to my group.

Before I moved, I had a local gaming group of high school and college students that had all grown up together. I noticed a trend in our group to use more and more overpowered die rolling methods in an attempt to avoid someone getting really unlucky rolls and being ridiculously underpowered for the rest of the game. I like PCs starting out with a point-buy of 30 or less, and with those kinds of rolls I would have been the weakling of the party if I'd done so. This mechanic came about as a compromise to starting out with extremely high scores, and being stuck with low scores for all time (when according to probability those at high levels should be extremely likely to have very high ability scores).