Sharing my house rules

[OpsKT]

Just sharing what I have as house rules. They are suprisingly short for me, for once (much Like Saga Star Wars or WoD 2.0) I just don't feel I need many more rules to get the game feel I like.

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House Rules v1.0​

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• Blasts/Bursts/Area attacks: Only roll hit and damage once per attack, compare result to each creature, and apply same damage to speed up play. Does not apply to powers with primary/secondary targets or attacks. ​
• Light Blades: In keeping with the line of “reward accuracy as much as force” a character can use the higher of his STR or DEX modifiers on basic attacks with light blades. Damage is still based on STR. ​
• Grabs: An attacker can also render a grabbed opponent prone. This is a STR attack vs. Reflex or Fortitude, whichever is greater.​
• Masterwork Armors: Can occasionally be found in non-enchanted varieties in treasure and for sale (usually found unfinished). If for sale (or selling un-enchanted) they cost as much as a magic armor of their type with their minimum enhancement bonus -1.​
• Action Points: Gain extra ones on a combat roll of 20. Only one per encounter can be used for extra actions. Others can be used for a +1d6 to a d20 roll. ​
• 'Small' Wizards: Gain weapon proficiency in the club instead of the quarterstaff. Staffs (the magic kind) can still be used as implements with the Enchant Magic Item ritual to resize it. ​
• Implements: Non-magic implements provide a +1 to the attack/activation roll only, while magic ones add a +1 (or more) to both attack/activation roll and damage/effects. ​

 

[Kaelkatar]

I myself use the blast/burst one, it just saves too much time.
I like the light blades one.
The prone one doesn't push me in either direction, it could be fun, but my PCs have never grabbed.
I would never deny a halfling wizard 1/3 of his possible implements, seems like a good workaround.

The others I don't care for, as they are strict boosts in power for little flavor reasoning. Armor scales fine as is, crits are powerful enough as is, and the implement feature is so restricting that its not worth it, I mean by level 3 you pretty much better have a +1 implement.

 

[Ferdil]

The blast/burst/close area attack thing is broken, because it means that if you cannot hit a weaker foe, you will not certainly hit a stronger one.

I like the light blades one, but it unbalances the game because Strenght is not as useful as Dexterity anymore. Maybe with a feat like in 3.5?

Grabs: good one.

Masterwork armor: no, the masterwork armor is made for a reason and it should only be enchanted, to keep a curve that is similar to the weapon attack one.

Action points: no, action points are made to make characters want to fight without taking an extended rest. If you give them free action points they will be discouraged to gain them by reaching milestones.

Small wizards: sounds good, I never noticed that because, if there isn't a comparable weapon, I simply make my players resize it with magic or find it already resized for a small character. I think your fix is as good as mine.

Implements: gives a free +1, to balance out you'll need to add a +1 to many defenses and it would be just stupid. Instead, give a -1 when he has got no implement.

 

[Raven Swords]

Just sharing what I have as house rules. They are suprisingly short for me, for once (much Like Saga Star Wars or WoD 2.0) I just don't feel I need many more rules to get the game feel I like.

------------------------------------------------

House Rules v1.0​

​

• Blasts/Bursts/Area attacks: Only roll hit and damage once per attack, compare result to each creature, and apply same damage to speed up play. Does not apply to powers with primary/secondary targets or attacks. ​
• Light Blades: In keeping with the line of “reward accuracy as much as force” a character can use the higher of his STR or DEX modifiers on basic attacks with light blades. Damage is still based on STR. ​
• Grabs: An attacker can also render a grabbed opponent prone. This is a STR attack vs. Reflex or Fortitude, whichever is greater.​
• Masterwork Armors: Can occasionally be found in non-enchanted varieties in treasure and for sale (usually found unfinished). If for sale (or selling un-enchanted) they cost as much as a magic armor of their type with their minimum enhancement bonus -1.​
• Action Points: Gain extra ones on a combat roll of 20. Only one per encounter can be used for extra actions. Others can be used for a +1d6 to a d20 roll. ​
• 'Small' Wizards: Gain weapon proficiency in the club instead of the quarterstaff. Staffs (the magic kind) can still be used as implements with the Enchant Magic Item ritual to resize it. ​
• Implements: Non-magic implements provide a +1 to the attack/activation roll only, while magic ones add a +1 (or more) to both attack/activation roll and damage/effects. ​

I'm not sure if you were after a critique of your rules or not..

I Like the burst idea for the time it'd save but I'd allow players to choose to roll to hit each target as usual if they chose as well.

I'd totally go with the non-magical master-work armour being available at the appropriate level.

I'm planning to house rule the Eladrin's teleport power, but other than that I've kept the rules as core. (at least for now).

 

[Cwheeler]

I'm planning to house rule the Eladrin's teleport power, but other than that I've kept the rules as core. (at least for now).

I'm intrigued.. what where you thinking?

 

[Raven Swords]

Have you ever seen The Chronicles of Riddick?

I'm thinking about how quickly the bad guy moves in the final fight sceen... It eleminates the can't be caged aspect of Eladrin, while maintaining the powers basic use.
Actually I'd like to know if anyone thinks this is to harsh a down grade? I might add an initiative bonus as well.

 

[OpsKT]

Actually Raven Swords, I was hoping to get some house rules being shared (exchange of ideas is good), and critique is never bad.

I'll address the one who had the most concerns below. My comments will be embedded in the quote inside of << >>.

The blast/burst/close area attack thing is broken, because it means that if you cannot hit a weaker foe, you will not certainly hit a stronger one.

<< In my mind, no. If you can't hit a weaker foe, why would you think you can hit a stronger one? Blade or magic, the idea holds true. Blast/Burst effects are the grenades of magic. It's very much a 'spray and pray' concept. Of course, this is also a house rule for my game in which the only controller is a Supporting NPC (only 3 players, I had to play a 4th, and the role they didn't cover was controller. So I made him a halfling so his brains would be offset by his lack of common sense). In a game with more PCs covering the controller role, I might revoke this rule. >>

I like the light blades one, but it unbalances the game because Strenght is not as useful as Dexterity anymore. Maybe with a feat like in 3.5?

<< Not really. It only applies to basic attacks. Powers still use their normal attribute. It will really only come into play on characters using light blades for Opportunity Attacks. >>

Grabs: good one.

<< Thanks. Someone else on this thread said it seemed no one used grabs. I figure the reason might be that there is not much in 4E you can do with one. So I made it do a little more. >>

Masterwork armor: no, the masterwork armor is made for a reason and it should only be enchanted, to keep a curve that is similar to the weapon attack one.

<< It's lesser when not-enchanted. Most PCs will get it enchanted ASAP after finding it anyway. This is more for flavor than mechanics. I see in my minds eye the PCs finding a pre-war workshop, with a few magic items to be in varying states of completion. "Hey, this suit of armor is nice, even if not magic. Better than my basic armor anyway... guess I'll take it for now. We free to stop while I change guys?" >>

Action points: no, action points are made to make characters want to fight without taking an extended rest. If you give them free action points they will be discouraged to gain them by reaching milestones.

<< Which might be more of a concern if they could take more than one extra action a turn. This just gives a small boost to an attack roll if needed. Which might also help them go even further without resting. I'm also the sort of DM that gives players missions and quests that are very time sensitive. Resting is frequently just not an option. This house rule reflects that. >>

Small wizards: sounds good, I never noticed that because, if there isn't a comparable weapon, I simply make my players resize it with magic or find it already resized for a small character. I think your fix is as good as mine.

<< I noticed cause I made a halfling wizard NPC to fill out the roles (as mentioned above) and I realized I could use exactly 1/2 of my proficient weapons. >>

Implements: gives a free +1, to balance out you'll need to add a +1 to many defenses and it would be just stupid. Instead, give a -1 when he has got no implement.

<< Basic Weapons give a 'free' +2 or +3. This 'free' +1 would also quickly be discarded the second the caster finds a magic implement. And it's not free. It costs 7-15 gp. >>

So, anyone else want to add their house rules to our discussion?

 

[Emirikol]

I've got a few actually. I'm big into making house rules ONLY for the sake of the world that we play in. For example, in 3.5, we played in Conan's world, so I made wizards multiclass and did a couple other things that were world-related to races.

Now we're playing in the WARHAMMER world. As you all know, in Warhammer, being a "spellcaster" is dangerous because there's always a small chance that chaos will infect your spell and either cause a miscast (failure) or something abnormal.

That small chance is if you roll a 1 on a d20 during your attack. Then you simply make a second roll. Under 10 then theres an effect. Over 10 it's simply a miscast and the spell fails as normal.

The thing I've not integrated yet however is how to work it for rituals.

Jay H

 

[emerszi]

My house rules

Here are some house rules I use. Most are focused around the warlock.

-I let players use Eldritch Blast and Magic Missile to full-fill the "ranged weapon" requirement for multiclass/dilettante powers. The powers still use Dex to hit and add +dex to damage when applicable, the "W" is just replaced with the appropriate damage dice. I base this on the ranged weap powers still being based upon skill/accuracy, even if you're blasting with a magic laser instead with a bow.

- Added some feats, all heroic level:
- Crippling Curse (requires Warlock's Curse class feature) - Creatures under the effect of your Warlock's Curse class ability recieve -2 to hit.
- Marking Curse (lame name, couldn't come up with something better) - Creatures under the effect of your Warlock's Curse class ability are always eligible for your Prime Shot ability (no matter their relative location).
- Pernicious Magic - A creature under the effect of a Sustained power you used recieve a -1 to their save to remove that power. When you attempt to sustain a power that requires an attack roll to sustain, you gain a +1 to that roll.
Paragon Tier -
I've thought of a series of feats that reduce the defense of a creature under the effect of your Curse by 2. They'd have to be pretty narrow to be balanced, I think:
Curse of Clumsiness - Reduces Reflex by 2
of Enfeeblement - Fort by 2
of Confusion - Will by 2

- I also allowed a player to create a variant on the Tiefling (he didn't want an infernal-based character, but liked the mechanics of the race). We came up with the Feyborn (also called Changlings). Basically, someone in your acenstry was fullblown "from the Feywild", like a satyr or something, and the traits came out in you: your parents could be human, elf or whatever. The guy has little goat-nub type horns, instead of the full demon thing.
Mechanically, the race is the same with the following changes:
- Changed Fire resistance to Cold (a net loss, in my opinion).
- Changed the name of the Infernal Wrath power to Oberon's Whim (lame, again, but the guy's an english major). (also changed the damage type on the fiery rebuke racial feat to cold)
- Added the fey ancenstry trait.
- Removed Bloodhunt (a big loss, I think, but not suitable)
- Added +1 to Will Defense

let me know what you all think, I know this is a lot, and it took me a while

 

[Marius Delphus]

As a concept, I like feyborn vastly better than tieflings. Yoink.