pukunui
Legend
Hi everyone,
Here's my latest selection of house rules. Please comment and critique.
House Rules
1) Abilities - Players may "buy back" points during ability score generation by lowering the base scores. One point may be bought by lowering the score to 9, two points by lowering it to 8. Lowering a score below 8 may not be done without prior approval from the DM.
2) Literacy - All PCs start are illiterate unless they possess the Linguist feat (see below) or are trained in at least one of the following skills: Arcana, Dungeoneering, History, or Religion.
*This is one of the ways I'm emphasizing the Points of Light theme in my campaign world.
*Also, in case you're wondering, I've included Dungeoneering on the list because it says it requires formal training and I would imagine that a dungeon-delving adventurer would want/need to know how to read so s/he can read the writing on the wall, as it were ... you know, like someone exploring an Egyptian pyramid would want to know how to read the hieroglyphs on the walls. That kind of thing.
2a) Dungeoneering - Dungeoneering is now a class skill for fighters.
*This is to give fighters a fair chance at being literate since every other class has at least one of the "literacy" skills on their class skill list.
3) Linguist Feat - Grants 1 + Int mod (min 1) bonus languages known. In addition, it grants literacy in all known languages.
4) Elf racial features - Change "Group Perception" aura to a "Group Stealth" aura. Flavor: Anyone close enough to view an elf's fluid, graceful movements subconsciously starts to emulate them.
5) Half-elf racial features - I'm giving the half-elf a major overhaul. I've discussed the changes in greater detail in another thread, and I haven't finalized the changes, but the main one is that you can choose to be either a half-elf or a half-eladrin (or, theoretically, a half-drow). Depending on your choice, you get access to the fey parent's racial feats and potentially their racial encounter power/racial features. Am also considering giving them Jack of All Trades as a bonus feat.
6) Unarmed Combat - In an attempt to fill a void, I have come up with two unarmed combat feats.
a) Brawler - Allows a character to treat their unarmed attacks as a light blade or a mace for the purposes of using them with powers. Also grants a +2 proficiency bonus to all unarmed attacks.
b) Dirty Fighting - Increases unarmed attack damage dice by 1 size.
7) Sunrods - No sunrods in my campaign world. They give of thousands of cubic feet of bright light, which is just a bit too silly for me and flies in the face of a "points of light in a world of darkness" theme.
8) Milestones - As I am fairly certain that I won't remember to mark a milestone every other encounter, I've decided to make it so that PCs can choose to either gain 1 action point, regain 1 healing surge, or regain 1 daily use of a magic item after each encounter.
*I got this idea from a different thread, in which someone warned that this method would result in lots of action points. Knowing my players, I think it will be more likely to result in lots of regained healing surges, which is ok by me. If it does end up becoming a problem, I might randomize it with a die roll. Also, as no one in the group will be using magic rings any time soon, I'll leave their milestone activation alone for now.
9) Skill Challenges
a) An action point can be used to reroll a failed skill check during a skill challenge.
b) A natural 20 counts as two successes during a skill challenge.
*I got both of these house rules from Keith Baker.
10) Channel Divinity - Clerics and paladins can choose to swap out one of their default class Channel Divinity encounter powers for their deity's special feat encounter power.
11) Tieflings - Fluff change only. Not all tieflings - in fact, NO tieflings - have enormous horns and ridiculous crocodile tails. A tiefling's appearance depends on the noble house to which s/he belongs (each house that underwent the initial transformation was given a somewhat unique appearance, although individuals even within a particular family vary slightly in appearance). A tiefling's appearance can be more subtle than how WotC's 4e artists depict them.
12) Aasimar - New race. I've got a separate thread for my attempt at making an aasimar. They're fairly similar mechanically to the tieflings and their fluff is also tied into the tieflings (they were humans given angel blood through a ritual similar to the one that created the tieflings. Their original purpose was to hunt down and exterminate the tiefling race but most aasimar have long since forgotten about that and many now live alongside their ancient enemies).
Thanks in advance.
Cheers,
Jonathan
Here's my latest selection of house rules. Please comment and critique.
House Rules
1) Abilities - Players may "buy back" points during ability score generation by lowering the base scores. One point may be bought by lowering the score to 9, two points by lowering it to 8. Lowering a score below 8 may not be done without prior approval from the DM.
2) Literacy - All PCs start are illiterate unless they possess the Linguist feat (see below) or are trained in at least one of the following skills: Arcana, Dungeoneering, History, or Religion.
*This is one of the ways I'm emphasizing the Points of Light theme in my campaign world.
*Also, in case you're wondering, I've included Dungeoneering on the list because it says it requires formal training and I would imagine that a dungeon-delving adventurer would want/need to know how to read so s/he can read the writing on the wall, as it were ... you know, like someone exploring an Egyptian pyramid would want to know how to read the hieroglyphs on the walls. That kind of thing.
2a) Dungeoneering - Dungeoneering is now a class skill for fighters.
*This is to give fighters a fair chance at being literate since every other class has at least one of the "literacy" skills on their class skill list.
3) Linguist Feat - Grants 1 + Int mod (min 1) bonus languages known. In addition, it grants literacy in all known languages.
4) Elf racial features - Change "Group Perception" aura to a "Group Stealth" aura. Flavor: Anyone close enough to view an elf's fluid, graceful movements subconsciously starts to emulate them.
5) Half-elf racial features - I'm giving the half-elf a major overhaul. I've discussed the changes in greater detail in another thread, and I haven't finalized the changes, but the main one is that you can choose to be either a half-elf or a half-eladrin (or, theoretically, a half-drow). Depending on your choice, you get access to the fey parent's racial feats and potentially their racial encounter power/racial features. Am also considering giving them Jack of All Trades as a bonus feat.
6) Unarmed Combat - In an attempt to fill a void, I have come up with two unarmed combat feats.
a) Brawler - Allows a character to treat their unarmed attacks as a light blade or a mace for the purposes of using them with powers. Also grants a +2 proficiency bonus to all unarmed attacks.
b) Dirty Fighting - Increases unarmed attack damage dice by 1 size.
7) Sunrods - No sunrods in my campaign world. They give of thousands of cubic feet of bright light, which is just a bit too silly for me and flies in the face of a "points of light in a world of darkness" theme.
8) Milestones - As I am fairly certain that I won't remember to mark a milestone every other encounter, I've decided to make it so that PCs can choose to either gain 1 action point, regain 1 healing surge, or regain 1 daily use of a magic item after each encounter.
*I got this idea from a different thread, in which someone warned that this method would result in lots of action points. Knowing my players, I think it will be more likely to result in lots of regained healing surges, which is ok by me. If it does end up becoming a problem, I might randomize it with a die roll. Also, as no one in the group will be using magic rings any time soon, I'll leave their milestone activation alone for now.
9) Skill Challenges
a) An action point can be used to reroll a failed skill check during a skill challenge.
b) A natural 20 counts as two successes during a skill challenge.
*I got both of these house rules from Keith Baker.
10) Channel Divinity - Clerics and paladins can choose to swap out one of their default class Channel Divinity encounter powers for their deity's special feat encounter power.
11) Tieflings - Fluff change only. Not all tieflings - in fact, NO tieflings - have enormous horns and ridiculous crocodile tails. A tiefling's appearance depends on the noble house to which s/he belongs (each house that underwent the initial transformation was given a somewhat unique appearance, although individuals even within a particular family vary slightly in appearance). A tiefling's appearance can be more subtle than how WotC's 4e artists depict them.
12) Aasimar - New race. I've got a separate thread for my attempt at making an aasimar. They're fairly similar mechanically to the tieflings and their fluff is also tied into the tieflings (they were humans given angel blood through a ritual similar to the one that created the tieflings. Their original purpose was to hunt down and exterminate the tiefling race but most aasimar have long since forgotten about that and many now live alongside their ancient enemies).
Thanks in advance.
Cheers,
Jonathan
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