• NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.

Extensive HR Document: Mostly new feats, plus several system-mods.

Siberys

Adventurer
Table of Contents and Feat Table

House Rules

Note: Most of the house rules in this document are NOT mine; I shopped about the interwebs for house rules I liked, and incorporated or maybe modified them. If you see something you made, tell me. I'll start a list of contributors.

It's a bit much, clocking in at 19 pages / Arial 9, I know. Any comments?
 
Last edited:

log in or register to remove this ad

Table of Contents and Feat Table

House Rules

Note: Most of the house rules in this document are NOT mine; I shopped about the interwebs for house rules I liked, and incorporated or maybe modified them. If you see something you made, tell me. I'll start a list of contributors.

It's a bit much, clocking in at 19 pages / Arial 9, I know. Any comments?

First comment is that this is ridiculous:

Earning Action Points
Replace the fist bullet-point with the following:
 You start a session with action points equal to your Charisma modifier
(minimum 1)

Charisma is a very powerful attribute in 4E, there is absolutely no need to make it broken. Do you really think Dragonborn paladins need to be made MORE powerful? :)

Seriously . . . when you have classes that can use their Charisma modifier to affect to-hit and damage rolls, what's the point of a rule like this?
 

Hmm... Very persuasive :lol:

Consider the advice taken. I was probably thinking of them in terms of 3.x, where this would not have been out of line at all.

Keep in mind, most of these (the feats, especially) were rather off-the-cuff. I'd like special attention paid to the Domain feat; how are the Domain Powers? I have a feeling a few are unbalanced, but I'd like input.

Edit: Lord, I hate these new smilies. They seem... Unnatural...

Edit, again: PDF updated.

Bugbear Assassin, Goblinoid Gambit, Goblin Hamstringing updated due to balance comments on another thread.
 
Last edited:

I really like the deity-based damage types.

As for your Domain powers:
Autumn- balanced
Civilization- a little weak, and doesn't feel very Civilization-y to me.
Creation- I think its balanced, though I would format it a little different for clarity:

You create a medium size avatar of your deity. It has the following properties:
Radiant Aura: Aura 1, creatures beginning their turns in the aura take 1d4+cha mod damage.
Standard: As a standard action, you may direct the avatar to attack a creature adjacent to it. Attack: Wis vs AC. Hit: 2d4+cha mod damage.
Damage increases to 4d4 at 21st level.
Move: As a move action you may move the avatar with speed 6.
Sustain Minor: You may sustain the avatar with a minor action up to twice.

Death- A little powerful. I would have this trigger and expend the Cleric's healing word power, myself. I also wouldn't theme this as a Death power, as most death gods seem to encourage more death, rather than last second rescue from death.

Destruction- seems really powerful to me. This would make every cleric worship destruction so they could crit with all their dailies. I would instead do something like: "Trigger: you roll a 19 on an attack" "Effect: the attack is a crit", making crits easier but not automatic. Or "Trigger: you roll a crit" "Effect: you do an additional +1d6 damage. Increases to +2d6 at 5th, 3d6 at 11th, 4d6 at 15th, 5d6 at 21st, and 6d6 at 25th."

Elements- seems alright
Knowledge- Very overpowered. This allows you to replace your +2 or +3 weapon proficiency, or +0 if its a spell, with a +5 skill training, +8 if you have skill focus. I would recommend doing something more like:

Make a monster knowledge check appropriate to a target creature. You gain a bonus on attack and damage rolls against that type of creature until the end of the encounter based on the result of your check.

DC 15: +1
DC 20: +2
DC 25: +3
DC 30: +4
DC 35: +5
DC 40: +6

Magic- seems okay
Nature- also seems okay
Shadow- also probably okay
Spring- This is really powerful, especially since it does not use anyone's healing surges. I would either make it temporary hp, or lower the healing a little (drop it to d6es or key off cha mod) and make it use one of the cleric's healing surges.

Storms- seems okay
Summer- seems okay
Trickery- might be a little overpowered, might be okay, not sure.
Winter- seems okay

Hope that's useful,
-Unlogic
 

Canny Defense - do you really think that cloth should be better than leather armor?

Rogue Weapon Training - Spiked chain with rogue powers at the cost of one feat???? Overkill... This also probably includes attacks from cover with CA which do not expose you because of having cover in between.

Disarm - you are going to be in big trouble when people will start disarming Pit Fiend. How do you want to recount all the attacks and powers on the fly? Anyway, even at -2 to hit, it is an overkill (imagine 4 minions disarming party's defender).

Just from the things which came to my attention after brief reading.


BTW, why do you try to houserule 4e so heavily? I understand that you have already run 20 sessions and those changes come from the frustrations you had with game balance?
 

Canny Defense - do you really think that cloth should be better than leather armor?

Rogue Weapon Training - Spiked chain with rogue powers at the cost of one feat???? Overkill... This also probably includes attacks from cover with CA which do not expose you because of having cover in between.

I got these feats from this thread - as for Canny defense, it's got steep requirements and gives bonus that makes cloth equal to leather; it's only better in terms of weight and cost (and you're spending a feat to get this, so the cost bit is up in the air). Rogue weapon training was taken because I could see the need for it, with my current group. A player wanted a Shadar-Kai rogue with their signature (ironically) Spiked Chain, but that would be mechanically difficult in 4e. Maybe add to it; "You cannot use the Reach property of the Spiked Chain with a Rogue power or Sneak Attack."?

Disarm - you are going to be in big trouble when people will start disarming Pit Fiend. How do you want to recount all the attacks and powers on the fly? Anyway, even at -2 to hit, it is an overkill (imagine 4 minions disarming party's defender).

Noted, advice taken; power removed.

BTW, why do you try to houserule 4e so heavily? I understand that you have already run 20 sessions and those changes come from the frustrations you had with game balance?

I find it fun ;) I haven't played many sessions, but I love fiddling with rules. Also, you'll not that most of my doc is additions in the form of feats and races.

I really like the deity-based damage types.

Thanks! I thought it rather elegant myself.

As for your Domain powers:
Autumn- balanced
Civilization- a little weak, and doesn't feel very Civilization-y to me.

I couldn't really think of something that was civilization-y, though. I made the connection of Civilization -> Law -> Control, and it was the best I could come up with. Any suggestions?

Creation- I think its balanced, though I would format it a little different for clarity:

You create a medium size avatar of your deity. It has the following properties:
Radiant Aura: Aura 1, creatures beginning their turns in the aura take 1d4+cha mod damage.
Standard: As a standard action, you may direct the avatar to attack a creature adjacent to it. Attack: Wis vs AC. Hit: 2d4+cha mod damage.
Damage increases to 4d4 at 21st level.
Move: As a move action you may move the avatar with speed 6.
Sustain Minor: You may sustain the avatar with a minor action up to twice.

Advice noted and taken.

Death- A little powerful. I would have this trigger and expend the Cleric's healing word power, myself. I also wouldn't theme this as a Death power, as most death gods seem to encourage more death, rather than last second rescue from death.

I was looking at this as you suck the soul out of the triggerer and force it into the target, rejuvenating them. Note that the triggerer is NOT the target. Still, a more deathy suggestion is welcome.

Destruction- seems really powerful to me. This would make every cleric worship destruction so they could crit with all their dailies. I would instead do something like: "Trigger: you roll a 19 on an attack" "Effect: the attack is a crit", making crits easier but not automatic. Or "Trigger: you roll a crit" "Effect: you do an additional +1d6 damage. Increases to +2d6 at 5th, 3d6 at 11th, 4d6 at 15th, 5d6 at 21st, and 6d6 at 25th."

Alrighty. I like the former, so I'll use it.

Elements- seems alright
Knowledge- Very overpowered. This allows you to replace your +2 or +3 weapon proficiency, or +0 if its a spell, with a +5 skill training, +8 if you have skill focus. I would recommend doing something more like:

Make a monster knowledge check appropriate to a target creature. You gain a bonus on attack and damage rolls against that type of creature until the end of the encounter based on the result of your check.

DC 15: +1
DC 20: +2
DC 25: +3
DC 30: +4
DC 35: +5
DC 40: +6

Advice noted and taken

Magic- seems okay
Nature- also seems okay
Shadow- also probably okay
Spring- This is really powerful, especially since it does not use anyone's healing surges. I would either make it temporary hp, or lower the healing a little (drop it to d6es or key off cha mod) and make it use one of the cleric's healing surges.

I think I'll change it to d6s AND Cha, as Cha seems more spring-y to me. Using a cleric's healing surge works well too. EDIT: I'm taking out the "An ally may shift one square" bit, too.

Storms- seems okay
Summer- seems okay
Trickery- might be a little overpowered, might be okay, not sure.
Winter- seems okay

Hope that's useful,
-Unlogic

I really like the trickery power. It sounds like fun.

From here on out, I suggest that we discuss items a bit page by page, allowing for a more structured critiquing. So for first page:

With the Elf and the Half-Elf, I did NOT like the Group Skill abilities. So I removed them. I added Trance to elves, to fit with previous versions. Alright there.

The half-elf is what's worrying me. I gave them a variable stat bonus (any one except charisma), which is powerful, and worth more than the Group Diplomacy was, that's for sure. However, I replaced Dilettante with a Bonus Multiclass feat of their choice, which doesn't have as much utility as gaining an at-will power as an encounter, so I think it's balanced. I'd like confirmation on my train of thought, though.

Skills are pretty straightforward. I wanted to increase the utility of Intelligence, and the most obvious way is to bring back part of what made it rock in 3.x; a say in how many skills you got.

With the Implement change, I wanted spellcasters to be nerfed without their implement just as weapon-users would be without their weapons. I even made a feat tree to parallel my unarmed fighting tree, but for implementless casters.

I saw lots of people complaining about the uncustomizability of the cleric and paladin, deity-wise, so I sought to fix that, especially in regards to power damage. A cleric of the RQ would not use Fire, for example. This was built off of a statement in the DMG about customizing powers for villains; I took it a step farther and codified it.
 
Last edited:

Into the Woods

Remove ads

Top