Here are my House Rules. Enjoy.
1) Players create their characters using 22 Point Buy. PCs cannot be Evil or Chaotic Evil in alignment.
2) Only dice which can be read from across the table are allowed. If someone (other than the DM) uses a die that cannot be read by others, the roll must be remade. Cocked dice are also re-rolled.
3) Each PC gets two normal powers for every one power they acquire due to levels. One power of each level is prepared, one is unprepared. Out of this pool of two powers for each power acquired, a player can replace an un-used prepared power for an unprepared power. The swap cost is a Healing Surge plus: zero action points for an At Will power, one action point for an Encounter power, and two action points for a Daily power. Note: The number of action points is based on the type of power being swapped in, not the one being swapped out. Wizards can swap in their bonus daily and utility powers at the same level. This only applies to normal powers, not racial, class feature or other powers. Powers of other levels cannot be swapped with each other.
4) An action point can be used instead of a healing surge for a heal power. For example, a Paladin could cast Lay on Hands and not use up a healing surge.
5) Remove the milestone concept for simplicity. Each PC refreshes two Action Points after each short or extended rest (shy of powers that give an additional action point). Each PC can use one or more Action Points for: an extra action (1), or to sustain (the first time) a sustainable attack power (1), or to regain a prepared or item encounter power (1), or to regain a prepared or item daily power (2), or to do #3 or #4 above. Note: The first sustain of an attack power require an action point to use. Only one action point can be used each encounter to gain an extra action as per normal. Other powers such as racial or class feature cannot be regained.
6) Each PC can use magic items exactly as if they were class powers. For example, if a heroic PC has five Daily magic items, he can use each of them once per day. A daily magic item that is already used could be re-used for 2 action points.
7) Left over action points can be used up at the end of an encounter if so desired. They cannot be used during short or extended rests or outside of an encounter. Action points can also be carried over from one encounter to the next if a rest is not done in between.
8) All non-Attack powers / effects that have a Sustain property decrease their sustain requirement. Sustain: minor becomes the longer of “until the end of the encounter” or “5 minutes” (or longer if it could normally be sustained longer). Sustain: move becomes sustain: minor. Sustain: standard becomes sustain: move.
9) Identify is a first level ritual that takes an hour to cast. Items cannot be auto-identified via resting. Any PC that takes the Ritual feat can gain the Identify ritual. The cost is 5% of the worth of the item in Residuum. If the caster does not have enough Residuum to cast the spell, the percentage of Residuum missing is the percentage chance that the ritual fails. The Residuum is automatically used up out of the caster’s store of it. The caster does not need to know ahead of time how much Residuum is required. Identify is used to identify a single potion or power scroll (see below) with no Residuum. This still takes an hour per item.
10) PCs have wound points equal to their Constitution. A PC that gets knocked unconscious is wounded and takes a wound point. Each time he fails a save while unconscious, he takes another wound point. If he fails the three saves while unconscious, he is dead (just like the normal rules). A PC also takes a wound point if an opponent does a critical on him. A PC who is at half or less of his wound points (round down) is at -1 to all D20 rolls. A PC who is at zero wound points is dead.
11) Healing of wound points: An extended rest heals one wound point. A Potion of Vitality heals one wound point (and 1/4 hit points), a Potion of Recovery heals two wound points (and 1/2 hit points) and a Potion of Life heals all wound points (and 50 hit points on a dead person, 3/4 hit points on a living person). Magical healing from an arcane or divine source heals one wound point per day per PC. A maximum of 3 wound point healing sources can be used per day per PC (1 extended rest, 1 potion, 1 spell).
12) The cost basis of magic items and wealth acquired by level in 4E is very very steep. It makes the economy difficult to control when PCs bring in so much wealth. It’s hard to explain why a shop keeper is able to pay 100,000 GP for a magical item that a mid-level PC brings in. The expensive mundane item cost, the magic item cost, and the ritual costs will be modified accordingly (I have an Excel spreadsheet that does this). What this means for the PCs is that they are carrying around less money, but they acquire the exact same magic items, rituals, etc. as they would have using the 4E system. This does not affect normal mundane costs.
13) Clerics gain their deity’s Channel Divinity feat for free.
14) The cost basis for magical items in GP.
15) Coins and commerce (we use physical tokens as coins in our game): The small gold coin is a GP. The large gold coin is 10 GP. The small silver coin is a PP (100 GP). The large silver coin is 10 PP (1000 GP). 4E’s 100 GP = 1 PP combined with the monetary system above works out real well for our coin system. A 30th level item costs 80 large silver coins.
At lower levels when CP and SP are a more significant portion of the game, they will be kept track of via paper instead of coins. After a few levels, CP and SP will not be showing up in the game anymore (we can assume that CP and SP found on foes is absorbed into the amount of wealth the PCs possess). At that point, we no longer need to keep track of CP and SP.
16) Gems: I will be using the quasi-rainbow system of: white gem is worth 100 GP, clear gem is worth 320 GP, yellow gem is worth 1000 GP, green gem is worth 3200 GP, blue gem is worth 100 PP, purple gem is worth 320 PP, black gem is worth 1000 PP.
3 gems of one color are worth 1 gem of the next color up. This allows for 7 different gem colors throughout various levels. When trading gems with merchants, the PCs will get the amounts listed if they sell a gem. If they trade gems however, they will get the 3 white gems for 1 clear gem trade. This means that people could buy 3 of the lesser, trade them for the 1 greater, and then sell the 1 greater to make a slight profit. Please don’t try to go that route. I’m trying for simplicity here and make gems like coins where they are worth what they are worth (approximately).
Because of this, PCs will probably not see their first gem until level 3 or 4 at the earliest.
17) Bloodied creatures are at -1 to all D20 rolls. Creatures that can fight at zero or fewer hit points are at -2.
18) The obtainer of a ritual needs the Key skill of the ritual as a known skill in order to master it.
19) A ritual with a casting time of 10 minutes can be cast from a scroll using one standard action. Other ritual scrolls require the normal time to cast (i.e. half time). Only a creature that can read and with the appropriate key skill can cast a ritual from a scroll.
20) In addition to ritual scrolls, there are now power scrolls. There is a new first level ritual called Craft Scroll that takes an hour to perform. A scroll can be made for all divine and arcane powers. A given creature crafting a scroll must have the arcane or divine power in his class list and must be of the appropriate level, but does not need to know the power. Casting from a scroll takes the same time to cast as the original power, but it requires the user to have the proper power source (arcane for arcane, divine for divine). To craft a scroll costs 1% of the level cost of a same level item (see chart above) for an At Will power, 2% for an Encounter power, and 3% for a Daily power. So, a first level encounter power spell costs 2 GP. A 29th level daily spell costs 1890 GP. Only normal level based arcane or divine powers can be crafted into power scrolls, other powers such as Martial, Racial, Paragon Class, or Class Feature powers cannot be turned into scrolls.
21) Halflings have the same speed as Dwarves: 5 squares.
22) Aid Another. Instead of 10, the DC (or AC) is the DC of what the aided PC is attempting - 10. Easy to help with easy tasks, harder to help with hard tasks, but not guaranteed (or nearly guaranteed) at any level. Only two PCs can Aid Another a third PC at any given time (too many cooks spoil the brew).
23) +2 to hit At Will martial powers such as Sure Strike and Careful Strike add Str modifier damage to the melee attack or Dex modifier damage for ranged attacks. Like most other At Will powers, these are now equal to a basic attack plus some advantage (in this case, +2 to hit). At Wills cannot be weaker than basic attacks.
24) Battle Rage Vigor supplies (CON + 1) / 2 minimum 1 temporary hit points.
25) PCs gain +1 to hit at levels 5, 10, and 15.
26) PCs gain +1 to defenses (except AC) at levels 5, 10, and 15.
27) PCs gain +1 to three ability scores instead of two ability scores at levels 4, 8, 14, 18, 24, and 28.
28) PCs in magical Heavy Armor default the masterwork bonuses for the armor as per pages 197 and 198 in PHB II. Other magical heavy armors which have limited masterwork bonuses such as in the PHB or in Adventurer’s Vault will or will not be allowed on a per item basis.
29) The mega to hit and defense feats in PHB II (and future sources) such as Weapon or Implement Expertise or Epic Lightning Reflexes are not allowed.
Monster Changes:
30) I do not like the concept of minions that always fall on a single successful attack. On the other hand, it’s nice that the DM does not need to keep track of their hit points. So, I am adding a rule that allows for minions to sometimes keep standing after multiple hits. Note: I will be rolling normal damage for minions to obscure that they are minions. I will also be doubling the XP for minions to compensate for increased durability and damage output. The players will often know that there are minions in the group, they just will have a harder time figuring out which ones they are (or are not).
31) Dragons are killing machine brutes in 4E, but they are not dragons. They have no magic. Many dragons now get either an Arcane or Divine class template plus the Ritual Caster feat. Dragons also get an additional two action points (typically for a total of 4) and can perform the same things with them that PCs can, but they are still limited to using only two action points for extra actions per encounter.
32) Paragon level adds a dice of damage for all monsters attacks (D20s become 2D10 first). Epic level adds two dice of damage for all monster attacks.
1) Players create their characters using 22 Point Buy. PCs cannot be Evil or Chaotic Evil in alignment.
2) Only dice which can be read from across the table are allowed. If someone (other than the DM) uses a die that cannot be read by others, the roll must be remade. Cocked dice are also re-rolled.
3) Each PC gets two normal powers for every one power they acquire due to levels. One power of each level is prepared, one is unprepared. Out of this pool of two powers for each power acquired, a player can replace an un-used prepared power for an unprepared power. The swap cost is a Healing Surge plus: zero action points for an At Will power, one action point for an Encounter power, and two action points for a Daily power. Note: The number of action points is based on the type of power being swapped in, not the one being swapped out. Wizards can swap in their bonus daily and utility powers at the same level. This only applies to normal powers, not racial, class feature or other powers. Powers of other levels cannot be swapped with each other.
4) An action point can be used instead of a healing surge for a heal power. For example, a Paladin could cast Lay on Hands and not use up a healing surge.
5) Remove the milestone concept for simplicity. Each PC refreshes two Action Points after each short or extended rest (shy of powers that give an additional action point). Each PC can use one or more Action Points for: an extra action (1), or to sustain (the first time) a sustainable attack power (1), or to regain a prepared or item encounter power (1), or to regain a prepared or item daily power (2), or to do #3 or #4 above. Note: The first sustain of an attack power require an action point to use. Only one action point can be used each encounter to gain an extra action as per normal. Other powers such as racial or class feature cannot be regained.
6) Each PC can use magic items exactly as if they were class powers. For example, if a heroic PC has five Daily magic items, he can use each of them once per day. A daily magic item that is already used could be re-used for 2 action points.
7) Left over action points can be used up at the end of an encounter if so desired. They cannot be used during short or extended rests or outside of an encounter. Action points can also be carried over from one encounter to the next if a rest is not done in between.
8) All non-Attack powers / effects that have a Sustain property decrease their sustain requirement. Sustain: minor becomes the longer of “until the end of the encounter” or “5 minutes” (or longer if it could normally be sustained longer). Sustain: move becomes sustain: minor. Sustain: standard becomes sustain: move.
9) Identify is a first level ritual that takes an hour to cast. Items cannot be auto-identified via resting. Any PC that takes the Ritual feat can gain the Identify ritual. The cost is 5% of the worth of the item in Residuum. If the caster does not have enough Residuum to cast the spell, the percentage of Residuum missing is the percentage chance that the ritual fails. The Residuum is automatically used up out of the caster’s store of it. The caster does not need to know ahead of time how much Residuum is required. Identify is used to identify a single potion or power scroll (see below) with no Residuum. This still takes an hour per item.
10) PCs have wound points equal to their Constitution. A PC that gets knocked unconscious is wounded and takes a wound point. Each time he fails a save while unconscious, he takes another wound point. If he fails the three saves while unconscious, he is dead (just like the normal rules). A PC also takes a wound point if an opponent does a critical on him. A PC who is at half or less of his wound points (round down) is at -1 to all D20 rolls. A PC who is at zero wound points is dead.
11) Healing of wound points: An extended rest heals one wound point. A Potion of Vitality heals one wound point (and 1/4 hit points), a Potion of Recovery heals two wound points (and 1/2 hit points) and a Potion of Life heals all wound points (and 50 hit points on a dead person, 3/4 hit points on a living person). Magical healing from an arcane or divine source heals one wound point per day per PC. A maximum of 3 wound point healing sources can be used per day per PC (1 extended rest, 1 potion, 1 spell).
12) The cost basis of magic items and wealth acquired by level in 4E is very very steep. It makes the economy difficult to control when PCs bring in so much wealth. It’s hard to explain why a shop keeper is able to pay 100,000 GP for a magical item that a mid-level PC brings in. The expensive mundane item cost, the magic item cost, and the ritual costs will be modified accordingly (I have an Excel spreadsheet that does this). What this means for the PCs is that they are carrying around less money, but they acquire the exact same magic items, rituals, etc. as they would have using the 4E system. This does not affect normal mundane costs.
13) Clerics gain their deity’s Channel Divinity feat for free.
14) The cost basis for magical items in GP.
Code:
Level Purchase Sale Price Level Purchase Sale Price
1 100 30 16 3200 960
2 125 37.5 17 4000 1200
3 160 48 18 5000 1500
4 200 60 19 6300 1890
5 250 75 20 8000 2400
6 320 96 21 10000 3000
7 400 120 22 12500 3750
8 500 150 23 16000 4800
9 630 189 24 20000 6000
10 800 240 25 25000 7500
11 1000 300 26 32000 9600
12 1250 375 27 40000 12000
13 1600 480 28 50000 15000
14 2000 600 29 63000 18900
15 2500 750 30 80000 2400015) Coins and commerce (we use physical tokens as coins in our game): The small gold coin is a GP. The large gold coin is 10 GP. The small silver coin is a PP (100 GP). The large silver coin is 10 PP (1000 GP). 4E’s 100 GP = 1 PP combined with the monetary system above works out real well for our coin system. A 30th level item costs 80 large silver coins.
At lower levels when CP and SP are a more significant portion of the game, they will be kept track of via paper instead of coins. After a few levels, CP and SP will not be showing up in the game anymore (we can assume that CP and SP found on foes is absorbed into the amount of wealth the PCs possess). At that point, we no longer need to keep track of CP and SP.
16) Gems: I will be using the quasi-rainbow system of: white gem is worth 100 GP, clear gem is worth 320 GP, yellow gem is worth 1000 GP, green gem is worth 3200 GP, blue gem is worth 100 PP, purple gem is worth 320 PP, black gem is worth 1000 PP.
3 gems of one color are worth 1 gem of the next color up. This allows for 7 different gem colors throughout various levels. When trading gems with merchants, the PCs will get the amounts listed if they sell a gem. If they trade gems however, they will get the 3 white gems for 1 clear gem trade. This means that people could buy 3 of the lesser, trade them for the 1 greater, and then sell the 1 greater to make a slight profit. Please don’t try to go that route. I’m trying for simplicity here and make gems like coins where they are worth what they are worth (approximately).
Because of this, PCs will probably not see their first gem until level 3 or 4 at the earliest.
17) Bloodied creatures are at -1 to all D20 rolls. Creatures that can fight at zero or fewer hit points are at -2.
18) The obtainer of a ritual needs the Key skill of the ritual as a known skill in order to master it.
19) A ritual with a casting time of 10 minutes can be cast from a scroll using one standard action. Other ritual scrolls require the normal time to cast (i.e. half time). Only a creature that can read and with the appropriate key skill can cast a ritual from a scroll.
20) In addition to ritual scrolls, there are now power scrolls. There is a new first level ritual called Craft Scroll that takes an hour to perform. A scroll can be made for all divine and arcane powers. A given creature crafting a scroll must have the arcane or divine power in his class list and must be of the appropriate level, but does not need to know the power. Casting from a scroll takes the same time to cast as the original power, but it requires the user to have the proper power source (arcane for arcane, divine for divine). To craft a scroll costs 1% of the level cost of a same level item (see chart above) for an At Will power, 2% for an Encounter power, and 3% for a Daily power. So, a first level encounter power spell costs 2 GP. A 29th level daily spell costs 1890 GP. Only normal level based arcane or divine powers can be crafted into power scrolls, other powers such as Martial, Racial, Paragon Class, or Class Feature powers cannot be turned into scrolls.
21) Halflings have the same speed as Dwarves: 5 squares.
22) Aid Another. Instead of 10, the DC (or AC) is the DC of what the aided PC is attempting - 10. Easy to help with easy tasks, harder to help with hard tasks, but not guaranteed (or nearly guaranteed) at any level. Only two PCs can Aid Another a third PC at any given time (too many cooks spoil the brew).
23) +2 to hit At Will martial powers such as Sure Strike and Careful Strike add Str modifier damage to the melee attack or Dex modifier damage for ranged attacks. Like most other At Will powers, these are now equal to a basic attack plus some advantage (in this case, +2 to hit). At Wills cannot be weaker than basic attacks.
24) Battle Rage Vigor supplies (CON + 1) / 2 minimum 1 temporary hit points.
25) PCs gain +1 to hit at levels 5, 10, and 15.
26) PCs gain +1 to defenses (except AC) at levels 5, 10, and 15.
27) PCs gain +1 to three ability scores instead of two ability scores at levels 4, 8, 14, 18, 24, and 28.
28) PCs in magical Heavy Armor default the masterwork bonuses for the armor as per pages 197 and 198 in PHB II. Other magical heavy armors which have limited masterwork bonuses such as in the PHB or in Adventurer’s Vault will or will not be allowed on a per item basis.
29) The mega to hit and defense feats in PHB II (and future sources) such as Weapon or Implement Expertise or Epic Lightning Reflexes are not allowed.
Monster Changes:
30) I do not like the concept of minions that always fall on a single successful attack. On the other hand, it’s nice that the DM does not need to keep track of their hit points. So, I am adding a rule that allows for minions to sometimes keep standing after multiple hits. Note: I will be rolling normal damage for minions to obscure that they are minions. I will also be doubling the XP for minions to compensate for increased durability and damage output. The players will often know that there are minions in the group, they just will have a harder time figuring out which ones they are (or are not).
31) Dragons are killing machine brutes in 4E, but they are not dragons. They have no magic. Many dragons now get either an Arcane or Divine class template plus the Ritual Caster feat. Dragons also get an additional two action points (typically for a total of 4) and can perform the same things with them that PCs can, but they are still limited to using only two action points for extra actions per encounter.
32) Paragon level adds a dice of damage for all monsters attacks (D20s become 2D10 first). Epic level adds two dice of damage for all monster attacks.
