House Rules - Your Opinion?

joela · Dec 18, 2010

I'm thinking of trying out a couple of houserules for my TB arc. They are:

1) Spell casters regain spell slots as per the 10 minute day as per TB. However, all spells cast are at minimum caster level for all level-based effects. Thus, a 10th level wizard casting a 3rd level fireball would inflict only 5d6 of damage instead of 10d6. (5th level, or +5 in TB, is the minimum level necessary for wizards to cast 3rd level spells). To get the full level effect of the spell, the caster must expend an additional spell slot.

2) For solo monsters, instead of having a "pool" of hitpoints equal to the monster's hp times the number of PCs, the monster has a number of attacks equal to the number of PCs.

Thoughts?

ValhallaGH · Dec 19, 2010

#1 is double cost for mages. Fireball is Restricted alread (AP to recover all of them in a short rest), and they have to burn two slots to get their full level.
Long live the charging, full power attacking barbarians, because they're obviously your only beloved class.

(Seriously, major caster nerf, and in a way that doesn't really fix anything.)

#2 Seems like it's meant to beat PCs to death unless they "win initiative". Give it the HP it needs to survive long enough to be interesting and memorable. Then use AP liberally to take a standard action in between PC turns, so that it's "turn" is the entire freaking round. That's Solo.
Don't give the dragon four attacks (what do you mean dragons already have six attacks!?).

joela · Dec 19, 2010

ValhallaGH said:
#1 is double cost for mages. Fireball is Restricted alread (AP to recover all of them in a short rest), and they have to burn two slots to get their full level.
Long live the charging, full power attacking barbarians, because they're obviously your only beloved class.
(Seriously, major caster nerf, and in a way that doesn't really fix anything.)

#2 Seems like it's meant to beat PCs to death unless they "win initiative". Give it the HP it needs to survive long enough to be interesting and memorable. Then use AP liberally to take a standard action in between PC turns, so that it's "turn" is the entire freaking round. That's Solo.
Don't give the dragon four attacks (what do you mean dragons already have six attacks!?).

Thanks for the response, ValhallaGH. Regarding #1: Spell slot recovery will be same as other special abilities, not as per TB. Thus, MUs get all their spell slots back after a 10 minute rest.

As for #2: I'll let you know how it goes. And thanks for the reminder about the AP. Hmmm. Party of six equals six attacks (or 36 for dragons

) AND an extra action via an AP. That...is gonna hurt.

Wulf Ratbane · Dec 19, 2010

What Valhalla said.

(VGH groks TB better than any customer I've seen yet.)

ValhallaGH · Dec 19, 2010

joela said:
Regarding #1: Spell slot recovery will be same as other special abilities, not as per TB. Thus, MUs get all their spell slots back after a 10 minute rest.

... Then just cut available spell slots in half (round up). Same effect, and it's so very simpler to implement and explain.

(Oh, and it throws the spell re-balance of Trailblazer right out a window to land on it's face in a pile of dog droppings. TB assumes that certain spells are powerful enough that they shouldn't be always available, but cool and useful enough that they shouldn't be banned outright. That's where the current system came from.
Your system assumes that all spells are fine, it's just the automatic Caster Level increase that's a problem, and that it is only a problem when a caster has as many spells as they get. If they had half that number then it wouldn't be an issue. Or they could have the same number of spells but they don't get any benefit from caster levels beyond the minimum. Which is a false assumption.)

joela said:
As for #2: I'll let you know how it goes. And thanks for the reminder about the AP. Hmmm. Party of six equals six attacks (or 36 for dragons ) AND an extra action via an AP. That...is gonna hurt.

Scariest. Hydras. Since mythology.
7+ attacks against every member of the party. Or 7+ against everyone except the Wizards, and a breath weapon for everyone. (Assuming a 7-head cryo-/pyro-hydra; but anything less isn't really challenging enough to use at any level.)
Plus their standard "all-in" attacks of opportunity.

Still squishy enough to kill in the surprise round (poor hydras, not being tough) but if they live past that, and get into melee, then a PC (or two) is going to die.

@Wulf Ratbane - Blame Iron Heroes. I loved that system, and grok it fully. (It's terribly flawed and wildly complicated or I'd still be playing it.) Trailblazer is a spiritual successor, if not a mechanical one. That's a good thing.

joela · Dec 21, 2010

ValhallaGH said:
... Then just cut available spell slots in half (round up). Same effect, and it's so very simpler to implement and explain.

(Oh, and it throws the spell re-balance of Trailblazer right out a window to land on it's face in a pile of dog droppings. TB assumes that certain spells are powerful enough that they shouldn't be always available, but cool and useful enough that they shouldn't be banned outright. That's where the current system came from.
Your system assumes that all spells are fine, it's just the automatic Caster Level increase that's a problem, and that it is only a problem when a caster has as many spells as they get. If they had half that number then it wouldn't be an issue. Or they could have the same number of spells but they don't get any benefit from caster levels beyond the minimum. Which is a false assumption.)

Scariest. Hydras. Since mythology.
7+ attacks against every member of the party. Or 7+ against everyone except the Wizards, and a breath weapon for everyone. (Assuming a 7-head cryo-/pyro-hydra; but anything less isn't really challenging enough to use at any level.)
Plus their standard "all-in" attacks of opportunity.

Still squishy enough to kill in the surprise round (poor hydras, not being tough) but if they live past that, and get into melee, then a PC (or two) is going to die.