I don't know about everyone else, but I'm terribly, terribly, terribly bad for coming on here, and plucking pieces of cool ideas everyone else throws to the table. And I was just thinking... wouldn't it be cool to have everyone showcase a few examples of their favourite creations, or things their gaming group uses?
So, if you've got a cool house rule, or an idea you think just rocks and should be seen by everyone, share it! I'm going to share one of my own;
Warrens of Magic. (Anyone familiar with Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen will be familiar with the general idea.)
In my upcoming campaign that I am DMing, magic is a bit nerfed as compared to what exists in regular D&D. Don't throw stones, I know grim and gritty, low-magic is as overdone ... but the ideas have been collecting in my brain for a long time.
The basic idea is that every arcane spell in D&D is gone over by me, and assigned to one of a number of Warrens (and perhaps a few spells might overlap, especially read and detect magic). Each mage has to take a feat of access to their warren, to be able to cast any spells at all (Technically, one could still use the spellcaster class and gain levels, but they couldn't cast any of the magic withou the feat!). The feat also gives a small ability related to the theme of the Warren (light, shadow, life, death, whatever).
Thing is, with magic rare in this world, and rather lethal... the spells of a mage's warren are the only spells they can cast. So, all mages are instantly specialists, and have class skills based on their warren as much as their class, etc. Granted, my campaign is the sort in which a mage will probably want to multiclass a bit (pure high-level mages are rare, and require more feats for higher-level spell access)... and warrens permit the mage to use a special sort of dimension-door like magic... but that's all a whole other bag of tricks.
So, that's my favourite (for the moment) personal house rule, well-defined yet or not. How about yours?
So, if you've got a cool house rule, or an idea you think just rocks and should be seen by everyone, share it! I'm going to share one of my own;
Warrens of Magic. (Anyone familiar with Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen will be familiar with the general idea.)
In my upcoming campaign that I am DMing, magic is a bit nerfed as compared to what exists in regular D&D. Don't throw stones, I know grim and gritty, low-magic is as overdone ... but the ideas have been collecting in my brain for a long time.
The basic idea is that every arcane spell in D&D is gone over by me, and assigned to one of a number of Warrens (and perhaps a few spells might overlap, especially read and detect magic). Each mage has to take a feat of access to their warren, to be able to cast any spells at all (Technically, one could still use the spellcaster class and gain levels, but they couldn't cast any of the magic withou the feat!). The feat also gives a small ability related to the theme of the Warren (light, shadow, life, death, whatever).
Thing is, with magic rare in this world, and rather lethal... the spells of a mage's warren are the only spells they can cast. So, all mages are instantly specialists, and have class skills based on their warren as much as their class, etc. Granted, my campaign is the sort in which a mage will probably want to multiclass a bit (pure high-level mages are rare, and require more feats for higher-level spell access)... and warrens permit the mage to use a special sort of dimension-door like magic... but that's all a whole other bag of tricks.
So, that's my favourite (for the moment) personal house rule, well-defined yet or not. How about yours?
