Archade's 3.75 Rules

Hey all,

The more I see of 4th edition, the more I realize it's not the game for me -- I like the feel and flavor of 3.5. However, there are some areas that could use improvement, and since everyone is revisiting rules, it gives me a bunch of ideas on what to fix. I'll keep this thread going to formulate what house rules I will incorporate into my game.

Existing Campaign Rules

Rolling a character: When rolling stats (4d6, keep the best 3) all characters must have at least +3 as a total of modifiers, and at least one stat of at least 14. Alternatively, players may create characters with the point buy method (28 pts).

Action Points (UA 122):
v Characters start with 3 AP, +1 per level, they may be banked
v New higher-level characters start with ½ their calculated AP.
v Characters raised from the dead gain +1d6 action points

Craft Points (UA 97):
v Craft points may be used to build magic items
v Craft points and feats for alchemical/masterwork items are optional if the character takes the appropriate Craft feat.

Character Death
v When a character dies, the replacement character must be a level lower than the current character, to a maximum of two levels below the highest level character.
v Characters who die and are raised or resurrected take a negative level (-1 to hit, skill checks, saving throws, -5 hp, and -1 of highest spell slot) and owe a debt of 25% of their current xp. When the debt is paid, the negative level goes away.
v Characters who die and are raised may not come back … untouched.

Levelling Up:
v When a character gains enough xp to level up mid-adventure, they gain a positive level (+1 to hit, skill checks, saves, +5 hp, 1 extra spell slot of highest level), until they have time to reflect, study, and such to gain a proper level.
v If a character gains multiple positive levels, they might be allowed to level up mid-adventure if it is reasonable (a level of fighter or existing class, etc).

House Rule: Characters who study, research, train, or meditate may gain 1d6 x (Int/Wis/Cha) Modifier (whichever is highest) experience points per week.

Sorcerers
v House Rule: Sorcerers start with Eschew Materials as a bonus feat
v House Rule: Sorcerers gain bonus feats every 5 levels as Wizards. These feats must be either metamagic feats or heritage feats.
v Sorcerers may take the alternate familiars listed in DMG 203 (Ferret, Hedgehog, Mouse, Screech Owl, Thrush)

Warlocks
v House Rule: Dimension door ability cannot be shared with others.

Skills
v Craft (Alchemy): Non-spellcasters can use Craft (alchemy), but all DCs are +5

Combat

v Instant Death (UA ??): When rolling a Fortitude save for death from massive damage, for every 10 pts over the threshold, +2 is added to the DC. Therefore, a medium creature taking 60 pts of damage must make a Fortitude save of DC 17.

v Throwing Allies or Enemies: You can throw allies or enemies without the Fling Ally or Fling Enemy feat. See those feats for house rules.

v Unconscious Characters: Administering a potion to an unconscious character requires being in the same square.

v The Phil Athans Rule: If a creature with a Strength penalty to damage makes an attack, and the damage rolled would be adjusted to 0 or because of the creature's Strength penalty if it weren't for the "1 point of damage minimum" rule, the creature's attack deals 1 point of subdual damage instead of normal damage. This rule does not apply if the creature takes a -4 penalty to its attack rolls (just as if it were trying to deal normal damage with a subdual-damage weapon).

Spells

v Ray of Stupidity (SPELL ??): This spell cannot reduce Int below 1.

v Summon Monster: All summon monster spells can summon the standard monsters. To summon specific variant monsters, a Knowledge (the Planes) check of DC 25 + the spell’s level must be rolled, or the spell fails and is wasted. If the summoner is a conjurer they get +2, if the summoner is a cleric with a matching domain (fire, air, etc), they get +2. There is an alternate list of summonable monsters available. Some alternate monsters can be summoned automatically with specific material components, knowledge, or other circumstances.

Magic Items

v Recharging magic items is possible. An initial cost of 10% of the full price magic item must be paid, and then a cost of gp and xp per charge. Recharging is faster – 2,000 gp per day can be recharged.

v Custom magic items (including intelligent items) are not readily available unless the PCs have magic item creation feats, or close allies (helpful attitude) with magic item feats that are willing to assist them.

v Animals such as tigers can wear amulets, rings, and bracelets.

4th edition ideas

Races

IDEA * I like the idea that racial effects are unlocked as the character advances in level so the choice of race is still relevant at higher levels, but I'm not sure how I want to implement this.

Classes

IDEA * Paladin's smite ability is weak, but I don't like the Poke-Power ideas for 4th - need a way to boost this ability or make it more interesting. One idea is to make a smites get the existing bonus to hit, but if they hit are automatically confirmed criticals. That's a useful ability now!

IDEA * Instead of the mount ability, give the Paladin a cohort like Leadership for free. Give them a bonus to their leadership score for taking a horse. Of course, they could have a non-bonus cohort and take a Griffon, Celestial Charger, Lantern Archon, etc.

IDEA * Sorcerers - someone posted that Monte Cook handles sorcerers without material components. If a expensive component is required, instead the sorcerer pays 1/25th of the cost in XP (minimum 1 xp). An interesting idea.

IDEA * Boost up the NPC classes slightly so there is a justifiable reason why someone would want to be an Adept, or an Aristocrat, or an Expert.

IDEA * Multiclassing hampers spellcasters too much. I'm thinking of saying your effective caster level is spellcaster level + 1/2 your other levels, up to double your spellcaster level. Thus, a Fighter 10 / Wizard 2 is effectively a 4th level wizard.

Skills

Hide - all hiding creatures are assumed to take 10. Spot checks are rolled.

Move Silently - all silently moving creatures are assumed to take 10. Listen checks are rolled.

IDEA * Tumble DC 15 becomes way too easy at higher levels - what about making it DC 10 + opposing creature's BAB?

IDEA * I like the 4th edition idea that fighters can pick a signature weapon and have special maneuvers with them. I would love to try skill tricks with the prerequisite of weapon focus that grant some sort of maneuver or bonus to a maneuver.

Feats

* Toughness grants 3 hp + 1 per level, Improved Toughness feat is gone.

IDEA * Create a feat that let's you cast all your 0-level spells at will.

Combat

IDEA * Poison should work every round. My thought is to convert the existing poison table to a save chart that does less damage per effect, but the victim must make a save each round. So a poison that did DC 13 1d6 Str/1d6 Str would work out to a DC 13 1 Str effect each round. If the victim makes their poison save by 5+, they are no longer poisoned. Paralysis poison does -5 ft movement, -1 to AC and +1 to Attack -- if any of these hit 0, the character is paralyzed.

PLAYTEST * Need a better method to turn undead.
* When a cleric presents his holy symbol and turns or rebukes undead, he and any ally within 5 ft are considered to be under a Sanctuary spell for 1 minute, and any undead within 60 ft attempting to attack or target the cleric or his ally must make a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 cleric level + Cha mod) or waste the attempt.
* As well, a cleric turning undead may destroy undead. Roll 1d6 per 2 levels of cleric, and if that result exceeds any undead's current hit points within 60 ft, they are destroyed. If the result is below the undead's hit points, there is no effect or damage.
* Clerics rebuking undead roll 1d6 per 2 levels of cleric, and if that result exceeds any undead's current hit points within 60 ft, they are considered under the effect of a dominate monster spell, and thus can be controlled by the cleric.
* Turn resistance adds a bonus to the save vs Sanctuary, and gives the monster an effective current hit point total bonus of 5 hp per +1 of resistance.

For paladins, I suggest a rethink on the way the class is used. Call the Class "Templar" and allow it for LG LN LE like a knight. Change smite (evil, good or chaos -character chooses at time of creating) to be x times per day plus CHA or Wis modifier.

Replace the special mount rules with a squire (like leadership without the followers) using the leadership table and allow for a tight list of options (creature of same race, limited class options, same alignment).

You should peruse our wiki (see my sig for the link). I've redone several rulesets for d20, including turn undead, paladins, Spot rules, and Crafting. The changes to sorcerers are pretty much standard for most groups, as is the change to Toughness. You posted several things that I like, though... the massive damage check, Craft (alchemy), and the study/research thing.

Okay, here's my thoughts for turning undead

First, turning should keep the creature at bay. So a cleric making a turn attempt creates a Sanctuary effect for 1 minute against undead only. They have to make a Will Save (DC 10 + 1/2 cleric level + Wis mod) to negate the effect each round.

Second, the undead should possibly be destroyed. Roll 1d6 per 2 levels of cleric -- if the damage exceeds their current hit points, they are destroyed, period. If the damage doesn't exceed their hit points, nothing happens.

Lastly, you could say that all undead affected by the turn undead take a 'negative level' to give the turn effect some use otherwise. Not that a uber-vampire is going to care about a -1 to hit and save.

Turn resistance would add to their save vs sanctuary and give them effective hit points for destruction of 5 x their turn resistance.

For rebuking undead, you would want the undead cowering or controlled.

Thoughts?

Well, in my Shazman's v3.7 rules thread, I had the undead take 1d6 holy damage per cleric level with a will save (DC equal to 10 + 1/2 cleric level cha modifier) for half damage. Rebuking should still make them cower, and commanding should still control them. To be honest, I haven't seen a whole lot of rebuking or commanding in my 3.5 games except for my current Ravenloft campaign that has a Dread Necromancer PC in it. She's so good at rebuking undead, that I have reduced the amount of undead opponents I throw at the group. I also have paladins smiting once per encounter increasing to three times per encounter at higher levels. I also got rid of their spellcasting and mount, and gave them some abilities of the knight (PHB II) class. Multi-classed spellcasters add 1/3 of their level in other classes to their caster level. I considered 1/2 of their level, but that seemed too good, since it would let a fighter 10/wizard 10 still get 8th level spells on top of the better saves, extra feats, and superior bab and hit points.

Yeah, I saw your rules, and I'm looking for more of an 'all or nothing' effect, rather than a damage effect -- clerics get lots of those options with searing light, etc.

Turning undead should provide a Sanctuary effect against the cleric as long as they present their holy symbol, and anyone within 5 ft of them. There.

I'm going to make rebuking undead a Sanctuary effect as well. If you get over their hp, they are considered dominated as dominate monster.

Mindless undead automatically suffer the sanctuary effect -- it's powerful, especially considering a 1st level cleric could protect themselves from a fire giant zombie, but they already could do that with Hide from Undead.

Sean K Reynolds has an article on his website that talks about the math of turning undead, and how some undead are impossible to turn ... I'm going to check that out *and* playtest this with my group before solidifying it in my houserules.

The best turn undead variant I've seen are the damage rules from Complete Divine. Easy mechanics, scales nicely with level, on par with caster damaging spells, and doesn't leave the player frustrated.

I do like the variant that turn resistance adds to the undead's Will save rather than granting DR though.

To be honest, some of these seem bizarre. Most are alright though.

Archade said:

Rolling a character: When rolling stats (4d6, keep the best 3) all characters must have at least +3 as a total of modifiers, and at least one stat of at least 14. Alternatively, players may create characters with the point buy method (28 pts).

Click to expand...

I'd rather everyone did point buy, but it's not everyone's cuppa' tea.

Archade said:

Action Points (UA 122):
v Characters start with 3 AP, +1 per level, they may be banked
v New higher-level characters start with ½ their calculated AP.
v Characters raised from the dead gain +1d6 action points

Click to expand...

Not a fan of action points myself, but other people seem to love them.

Archade said:

Craft Points (UA 97):
v Craft points may be used to build magic items
v Craft points and feats for alchemical/masterwork items are optional if the character takes the appropriate Craft feat.

Click to expand...

Sounds alright.

Archade said:

Character Death
v When a character dies, the replacement character must be a level lower than the current character, to a maximum of two levels below the highest level character.
v Characters who die and are raised or resurrected take a negative level (-1 to hit, skill checks, saving throws, -5 hp, and -1 of highest spell slot) and owe a debt of 25% of their current xp. When the debt is paid, the negative level goes away.
v Characters who die and are raised may not come back … untouched.

Click to expand...

Sounds cool...except for that last bullet there. What would be an example of a PC being 'touched' after being raised?

Archade said:

Levelling Up:
v When a character gains enough xp to level up mid-adventure, they gain a positive level (+1 to hit, skill checks, saves, +5 hp, 1 extra spell slot of highest level), until they have time to reflect, study, and such to gain a proper level.
v If a character gains multiple positive levels, they might be allowed to level up mid-adventure if it is reasonable (a level of fighter or existing class, etc).

Click to expand...

Why not simply reward XP at the end of each adventure, or whenever the DM finds it appropriate?

Archade said:

House Rule: Characters who study, research, train, or meditate may gain 1d6 x (Int/Wis/Cha) Modifier (whichever is highest) experience points per week.

Click to expand...

I have to call chenanegens on this one. It's like 2e XP bonuses for high stats but worse, because casters get the most benefit. If you want study and training to give XP, just award a flat rate per week. (As an aside, how would Cha boost XP?)

Archade said:

Sorcerers
v House Rule: Sorcerers start with Eschew Materials as a bonus feat
v House Rule: Sorcerers gain bonus feats every 5 levels as Wizards. These feats must be either metamagic feats or heritage feats.
v Sorcerers may take the alternate familiars listed in DMG 203 (Ferret, Hedgehog, Mouse, Screech Owl, Thrush)

Click to expand...

I like the first one, don't like the second two. If sorcs can get a bonus metamagic feat every 5 levels, suddenly the wizard isn't looking so hot. I know a lot of people like to complain that sorcs suck, but there are better ways of boosting him without stepping on the wizard's toes. Sorcs having more familiar options is cool, but this statement implies that a wizard wouldn't be allowed these same familiars if he asked. As these aren't more powerful familiars, that's just needlessly restrictive.

Archade said:

Warlocks
v House Rule: Dimension door ability cannot be shared with others.

Click to expand...

Obscure, but whatever.

Archade said:

Skills
v Craft (Alchemy): Non-spellcasters can use Craft (alchemy), but all DCs are +5

Click to expand...

Sounds good to me, I just house rule that anyone can use the skill.

Archade said:

v Instant Death (UA ??): When rolling a Fortitude save for death from massive damage, for every 10 pts over the threshold, +2 is added to the DC. Therefore, a medium creature taking 60 pts of damage must make a Fortitude save of DC 17.

Click to expand...

I'd still just rather house rule out massive damage, but if it has to exist it might as well be worth flicking my wrist for.

Archade said:

v Throwing Allies or Enemies: You can throw allies or enemies without the Fling Ally or Fling Enemy feat. See those feats for house rules.

Click to expand...

Obscure, but sounds cool.

Archade said:

v Unconscious Characters: Administering a potion to an unconscious character requires being in the same square.

Click to expand...

Makes perfect sense to me. (this isn't RAW already?)

Archade said:

v The Phil Athans Rule: If a creature with a Strength penalty to damage makes an attack, and the damage rolled would be adjusted to 0 or because of the creature's Strength penalty if it weren't for the "1 point of damage minimum" rule, the creature's attack deals 1 point of subdual damage instead of normal damage. This rule does not apply if the creature takes a -4 penalty to its attack rolls (just as if it were trying to deal normal damage with a subdual-damage weapon).

Click to expand...

Does this really come up often enough to warrant a house rule?

Archade said:

v Ray of Stupidity (SPELL ??): This spell cannot reduce Int below 1.

Click to expand...

Sounds good. Will you be working on other, more broken spells also?

Archade said:

v Summon Monster: All summon monster spells can summon the standard monsters. To summon specific variant monsters, a Knowledge (the Planes) check of DC 25 + the spell’s level must be rolled, or the spell fails and is wasted. If the summoner is a conjurer they get +2, if the summoner is a cleric with a matching domain (fire, air, etc), they get +2. There is an alternate list of summonable monsters available. Some alternate monsters can be summoned automatically with specific material components, knowledge, or other circumstances.

Click to expand...

Yeah those templates are a pain in the ass, but if you disallow them you should boost summons in some small way to compensate.

Archade said:

v Recharging magic items is possible. An initial cost of 10% of the full price magic item must be paid, and then a cost of gp and xp per charge. Recharging is faster – 2,000 gp per day can be recharged.

Click to expand...

Sounds great.

Archade said:

v Custom magic items (including intelligent items) are not readily available unless the PCs have magic item creation feats, or close allies (helpful attitude) with magic item feats that are willing to assist them.

Click to expand...

I wouldn't even call this a house rule, since no magic item is readily available without DM consent anyway.

Archade said:

v Animals such as tigers can wear amulets, rings, and bracelets.

Click to expand...

Animals like tigers? You mean like all cats? All quadrapeds? All mammals? I'm not sure I'd call this a house rule either since it's really a DM call if any animal can wear anything.