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The Reckless Charge feat is one of my favorite offsets, giving you an additional +2 to attack when you charge. There are a couple ToB maneuvers that give you nice bonuses: Saphire Diamond Blade makes the opponent flat-footed, Steely Strike gives you a +4 to attack. Light Warhorses only cost 150...

Only a half an hour and so many wonderful ideas! Thank you, thank you and keep them coming. ^_^

Your players can't take 20 on traps, the SRD explicitly says that "[taking 20] can't be used if failure carries negative consequences." Not noticing a trap until it's too late is a negative consequence. Your players can take 20 to find Waldo, but not if Waldo is gunna pop out of the book and...

I'm in a bit of a pinch, here. My fiance wants to play a knight campaign. My first thought: "No problem, you're alignment will start at Lawful Neutral (normally I start everyone at pure neutral) and I'll help you scratch up a Mounted Charger." But now that the campaign has gotten running, I...

I allow all WotC material excluding dragon magazine and campaign setting books (like Oriental Adventures) unless I'm running that campaign setting. Everything else I ban not because I'm worried about my players "breaking the game" and "getting too strong," but rather because I'm worried they...

One thing I'd like to add on how a lich can make constructs without draining experience. In the DMG pg 36, there is a variant called power components. Power components are rare ingredients, an example is the horn of a red minotaur, that can be used to supplement experience costs for casting...

It actually works pretty well. It's a lot of dice rolling, but my players don't complain as high rolls give them advantages that would otherwise be given exclusively by my whim or not at all. Players want to roll high spot/listen checks so they can start combat without surprise rounds and at the...

I don't remind my players to make knowledge checks, I FORCE them to make knowledge checks. Pre-combat in my games comes with a series of dice rolls. Roll spot or listen checks opposed to monster's hide or move silently, roll specified knowledge checks if you have them, then roll initiative.

Effigies are a very powerful, incredibly versitile, and insanely fun. The best character classes to build an effigy army are Artificers and Wizards. Artificers can build effigies at caster level +2 and gain craft points to suppliment experience cost, but wizards have more support spells. The...

The DMG does the same, however. Page 51 illustrates a table where encounters are based on encounter level. My table is just an extension of that table. If you wish to use random treasure, one can build random tables as illustrated on pages 52-53. I admit, I'm not one for the random tables. I...

I'm not fixing anything in this house rule, actually. The only problem I have is with the lack of simplicity. Treasure per experience is far less calculation and guesswork. Rather than calculating an encounter level, referring to a table, and guestimating how much treasure to give due to ad hoc...

Okay, this post borders on the inflammatory. This thread is not about how well I can or cannot run a game. I'm offering a variant to the treasure table that links treasure directly to experience gained. I welcome comments regarding whether or not this is implementable or should be implemented. I...

When a lower level character joins a group, he starts with less wealth than his higher level counterparts have already accumulated. The experience system in DND ensures that the lower level party member shall eventually catch up to the rest of the party. If everyone keeps splitting the treasure...

Jester: Yep, but that's not my problem. I'm suggesting a game mechanic variant, not a role playing one. It's up to the DMs to work this, like every other rule, into their games. Besides, I'm not the kind of DM that is hindered by "the party decides. . ." situations. If the party decides they...

No, I'm not suggesting that AT ALL. Rewarding treasure is still based on the situation and the DM. You aren't going to magically find 500 gold from killing a pack of wild dogs. But when you find the dragon's loot, the DM can hand out your wonderful treasure and say to herself: "I've given them...

Treasure rewards are one of the most aggravating game mechanics to follow. After you've banged your head against the wall figuring out attacks of opportunity, challenge ratings, and the encounter levels, all you have to do is give out experience and treasure. Experience isn't so bad, the table...

I ran a spooky temple recently where every room was identical in dimensions but different in contents and when a monster was slain in one room, identical copies of their corpses remained in each room. That worked very nicely for a series of spooky aberration encounters. Also, add NPCs that have...

I tell my players all the time that the world hasn't changed between 1st level and 15th level. The goblin raiders that tried to rob you at 3rd level still tried to rob you at 13th level, but they were such a ridiculously pathetic challenge against your characters, so I didn't say anything. The...

Not every feat is meant to be taken by players. Players don't need the Run feat, they can buy horses. Horses need the run feat. Players don't need Toughness, their hit points aren't so pathetic that +3 makes a difference. Animals in the wild need Toughness. Players don't need Mobility, there are...

If fighting in an area partially submerged in water, your players could roll a DC 15 swim check to move at normal speed. Failing this check could have penalties like only being able to move at half speed and become automatically flatfooted until the beginning of their next turn. An Earth arena...