Who plays DnD without messing with it?

[Romnipotent]

I PLAY in a Kingdoms of Kalamar game, and we play using the GURPS rules (3rd ed)

Is that messing with it?

 

[KB9JMQ]

Well I have only changed 4 things from RAW.

1. Warforged have Darkvision.
2. When you recieve a critical hit you gain an Action Point
3. When rolling extra HP you reroll ones.
4. All Monsters have Maximum HP.

That is it. I feel this would fall under the Minor Tweaks answer.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

I recently streamlined my house rules from about four pages of 11 point type to four rules, period. Lemme see, I: (1) added hit point minimums at each level, (2) changed dying/disabled rule (basically to match Arcana Unearthed) to make dying more difficult, (3) changed resurrection rules to make coming back from dying more difficult, and (4) added a rule for Hero Points.

It's interesting ... I hadn't noticed before, but as I typed this I realized that three of those rules are intended to promote survivability, because one of them means when you're dead you're pretty much dead for good. That makes sense, because the "respawn" aspect of D&D is one of my two huge pet peeves about the system.

(The other one is the proliferation of magic items and the relative non-importance of a character's abilities to a character's possessions. I used to have house rules dealing with that, but (a) it's much, much harder to change that aspect of D&D and maintain balance, and (b) my players, save one, like having bunches of magic trinkets. I've basically shrugged and accepted the will of the majority in that respect.)

 

[schulerta]

My current campaign uses Favored Class for non-humans as the first class they take. Humans can change theirs as they increase in level.

Half-Elves and Half-Orcs are more cusotmizable. Each gets racial traits (i.e. +2 to Str for Half-Orcs, immunity to sleep for Half-Elves) and they get to select between Human Cultural or Elf/Orc cultural traits (Choose any skill, and that will always be a class skill [Human]; or Elven Weapons [Elf] among others).

We also use quite a lot of features from Unearthed Arcana. Such as, Spell Points, Metamagic Components, Action Points, Racial Paragons, and most of the class variants.

So far the players love the Spell Points, haven't used the Metamagic Components, rarely remember their action points, only the Dwarven Fighter took Racial Paragon levels, and the Cleric is a Cloistered Cleric.

Troy

 

[S'mon]

Magic item overload at high level. Its a vicious cycle. PCs have a ton of magical trinkets from their adventures, and the bad guys have to have them to keep up. It seemed like after every big battle we had to play the magic item shuffle - okay, this guy had a ring of +2 protection, anyone want it? I've already got a +3. Sorry, I've already got two rings. My AC is already 35, we should sell it, and so on. I'd rather not mess with it. Not sure how to fix this one.

You could heavily reduce NPC magic, and reduce their CR appropriately - probably to about 3/4 their level for spellcasters, 2/3 for non-spellcasters. So your high-level party would fight a Ftr-15 with little magic and he'd count as CR 10, while a Wiz-16 would be CR 12. This would be a lot more like 1e-2e, PCs would get to fight high-level foes earlier and less routine magic around.

 

[S'mon]

- Requirement of clerics. Granted this has existed since OD&D, but it bothers me that you need someone to play a cleric. They've given them nine kinds of power, sure. But still, everyone should be able to play the character they want to play. So I'll change how hit points work, stealing a NWN rule. A heal check will recover whatever you roll in hit points, though you can only do one of these per battle, and only for the wounds in that battle, per day.

I've toyed with non-magical healing, but I think the simplest solution is just to let Wizards & Sorcs cast the Cure spells. No balance issue that I can see.

 

[EricNoah]

I've toyed with non-magical healing, but I think the simplest solution is just to let Wizards & Sorcs cast the Cure spells. No balance issue that I can see.

Now that's an interesting idea.... Maybe keep the "cure x wounds" spells as is, pick a few other necessary spells (lesser and regular restoration, neutralize poison) and bump them up a level.

 

[Gothmog]

I'm a tinkerer- I change lots of things to reflect my game world. I run any rules changes past my players to make sure they are cool with it, and for the last 3 years they seem to be enjoying the changes I've made to the RAW. I have 10 pages of house rules for my low magic, mostly changing how magic works, but including other things as well. Here's a list:

* Reduce reliance on items by giving an extra feat every other level, and every class gets 2 extra skill points per level.
* Revised MDT to make it scale with size, Con, and level. This makes large critters terrifying, and makes PCs respect things like giants and dragons.
* Class-based defense bonus- again to reduce reliance on items.
* Revised Tumbling in combat rules- its now an opposed check vs. the attackers BAB + base Reflex save.
* Con check to stabilize equal to DC 10 + amount of negative HP.
* Revised defensive fighting options to allow it to scale with level.
* Added a Terror Rating to many monsters similar to dragonfear.
* Magic is now either formulaic (memorized), spontaneous, or ritual. There are no Sorcerers in the RAW in my world, so spontaneous magic is given to every caster. However, spontaneous casing requires a Spellcraft check to cast, and if failed, the spell slot is lost for the day. Any spell can be made into ritual magic, which increases the save DC and level effect by 1, but also take 5 times as long to cast. Spells above 6th level MUST be cast as rituals.
* Save DCs for spells are now 10 + spell level + 1/2 caster level.
* Added essentia for magic- special components for spells that bump up the effective caster level and DC or act as metamagic, but the component is consumed in the casting. Essentia is keyed to a type of magic, such as divination, elemental water, or necromancy. Spells above 6th level require essentia to cast. Magic item creation also requires essentia.
* Added rules for magical auras. Arcane, divine, infernal, spiritual, and faerie magic don't always play nice together, and sometimes they augment each other or conflict, making spellcasting in some areas much easier or harder.
* All spellcasting classes must learn spells like the wzard of the core rules. Clerics and druids do not automatically know every spell available to them, but instead have a sorcerer-like # spells known table, which can be augmented by research.
* Revised the Domains so they work more like Spheres from 2nd Edition. I got tired of every cleric knowing the same spells (why would the priests of a god of Justice know Death Knell or Meld into Stone?).

 

[Psychic Warrior]

When I started my first campaign, I played it fairly close to the book. Fixed a couple of egregious spells like Harm and Polymorph, but otherwise it was straight 3e. Its a complex system and I wanted to really understand it before I started changing everything. Well, I ran a campaign up to 17th level, so I know what I like about it and what I don't.

I've currently given up the DM reins, but when I pick them back up there will be substantial changes - banning clerics, changing how hit points and injuries work, tweaks to the magic system, and so on. Not all for gameplay, but many just for balance.

What I don't like in 3e

- Requirement of clerics. Granted this has existed since OD&D, but it bothers me that you need someone to play a cleric. They've given them nine kinds of power, sure. But still, everyone should be able to play the character they want to play. So I'll change how hit points work, stealing a NWN rule. A heal check will recover whatever you roll in hit points, though you can only do one of these per battle, and only for the wounds in that battle, per day.

I use sumething similar but have it as a successful Heal check restores a number of hit points equal to how many ranks (not total bonus just ranks) you have in the skill. It ensures the Heal skill classes put a lot of ranks into Heal to give it the most bang for their buck. Otherwise i limit as you describe.

 

[Psychic Warrior]

Nothing major.
My biggest change: no Withdraw option during combat movement. You either take the AoO or you stay and fight.

.

I would call that major. I'm surprised it hasn't resulted in character deaths.