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As to the original post, I've got an awful lot of house-rules written up (mainly tinkering with feats, classes, and spells), but after running a one-shot last weekend, with players I hadn't gamed with before, I realized (when ease of mastery of the rules was paramount, and extensive house rules...

Speaking of that, are "fixed" artifacts like the Sword of Power somehow harder to find than the "unrandom" artifacts like Cekugob or the Armor of Zin? I had a period of shameful savescumming in the bottom of the Tomb, and I managed to see pretty much all of the unrandoms, but none of the fixed ones.

Appealing at first blush, but it wouldn't work, because characters really need the option to take their step before they make a melee full attack. If Smith and Jones are fighters, Smith has the initiative, and Smith begins his action adjacent to Jones, he can make a melee attack and then step...

Their LA is a bit low, because size and strength matter more in D&D. They're probably balanced at LA +2, though.

Mindblades that acquire the "adamantine" special material quality provide a decent but imperfect approximation.

Both funny and balanced. Well done.

Both right on target (as usual, for you). I agree with you about restricting the targeting, both for the reason you give and because it seems worthwhile to keep revised turning rules as close to the original rules as possible, and my original system deviated from them unnecessary. On the other...

It wouldn't at all surprise me if something very close to this has been posted already. Turning Undead Ignore the standard turning check and turning damage rules. Instead, clerics turn undead according to the following procedure. Turning remains a standard action.Choose a single undead creature...

Already modeled by the rules. Raistlin's Intelligence is, like, way higher, plus he probably has a bunch of feats.

Also consider the interesting and underrecognized fact that if you have Power Attack, elemental bonuses are very rarely worthwhile for two-handed weapons, since a Power Attack character can convert the marginal +1 attack bonus from the weapon's increased enhancement bonus to a +2 damage bonus...

I think it's supposed to apply before improved critical (remember, it enhances a weapon's base critical), such that a scimitar with both this feat and Improved Critical has a total crit of 17-20/x3. This means that the feat always increases expected damage from critical hits by 5%, or by 10% if...

This is a really simple house rule: see the subject line. Suppose duskblades (a PHBII warrior-mage class) only gain proficiency with simple weapons. This has two game effects:Elves make really good duskblades, because they're the only duskblades who can use swords and bows without taking levels...

Think you might ever do the magic system? (Though perhaps that would only be the sort of thing one has time for after one gets tenure...)

You know, a slightly tweaked and renamed CW "kensai" makes a fine samurai. He gets a close equivalent to an ancestral katana, a restrictive implementation of an oath of service, great social skills, an old-school, AD&D-style Strength boost, and even the chance to be a daimyo at 10th level.

It's a good feat -- compare it to Weapon Specialization, and assume (conservatively) Strength 18 and two attacks with each weapon. Two Weapon Rend gives you an average of 9.5 points of extra damage if you hit at least once with each weapon; Specialization, on the other hand (for which fighting...

But nobles who want to be like Humperdinck can opt to choose tracking as an optional special a ability! In any case, though, you're absolutely right about Humperdinck's knowledge about Buttercup's path, though I'd still give him decent tracking abilities. You could use this noble class to...

If Humperdinck could do it (and he could, give him that!), you should, too.

No. I think it's actually a really clever way to implement the ability, and way better than the dervish dance.

Here is an interesting and little-known limitation to the way sorcerers acquire spells. There's certainly room for interpretation, but my reading of this rule is that a sorcerer needs to find a scroll or spellbook if he wants to learn a spell not on the Player's Handbook spell list. I think this...

Neat. Consider adding a first-level ability that allowed mindcutter levels to stack with monk levels (for unarmed damage and unarmored AC and speed) and soulknife levels (for mindblade enhancement bonus, or, possibly, mindblade special abilities). I'm tempted to go further, too, and suggest...