Bad House Rules

[demiurge1138]

Let's see... my worst house rule, which took way too long to get amended, eliminated threats. A 19-20 with a longsword was always a crit, for example. Of course, the next house rule was banning vorpal weapons.

One from my first DM, that was good for players but utterly broken, went something like this: At 1st level, roll a d20. Multiply by 1,000. That's starting gold. So I had a 1st level mage with a +2 weapon and a bunch of wands, and everyone else was equally ridiculous. We were young, we were stupid, what can I say?

Demiurge out.

 

[Terwox]

You cannot attack during a conversation.
Time pauses, during combat, if people want to talk.
For fifteen minutes.
I got chided for saying "ug, I charge the guy."
It was like we were playing dragonball z: the crap-talking.
And to all of you who had low level characters with their matching mahogany and oak sets of staves of the archmagi, I played a rogue/divine champion until level 14, whose only possessions were studded leather armor and a +3 warhammer.
ug... tons of bad stuff, really. oh well.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

I've been tempted, since seeing Hardness in 3.0/3.5, to use that for weapon breakage...like, if my damage from Strength and Power Attack is more than my weapon's hardness, it takes damage. I figure it'd be especially appropriate for Stone/Bronze Age games, but it would probably be too much trouble to bother with.

But it's tons better than "Oh, you rolled a 1? Your weapon breaks!", which I've seen before, too.

Brad

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

Back in the ancient days of 3.0, our DM "nerfed" the buff spells (Bull's Strength, etc.). He changed the duration from hours/level to 10 min/level. We complained mightily at his bad house rule.

And then 3.5 came out--with it's 1 min/level durations.

 

[BlueBlackRed]

I once had a DM that increased or decreased your wisdom stat depending on you did in during the game.
If you did something smart you gained a point of wisdom. If you did something dumb you lost a point of wisdom.
And this was 1st Edition AD&D, so wisdom only matterd to clerics.

AND he was a very biased DM, so his close buddies (one was the DM of another game he played in) got more XP and such while those who weren't his buds were harshly judged.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Amy, this would cause me to sharply and repeatedly kick the DM in the knee while screaming "Bad monkey!"

He's not kidding, either.

Three months of physio.

Prick.

-Hyp.

 

[Alloran]

Hehe. I had a DM that didn't know how the metamagic rules worked. He had it set up so that, as a thirteenth level Sorcerer, I could cast a second level spell (Say Acid Arrow) 27 times in one round with the 'quicken spell' feat. Now, I was useless for the rest of the day, but think about that. 54d4 damage in one round. Followed by an additional four rounds of 54d4 damage. He wouldn't change it either, even after demonstrating to him it's brokenness. I didn't complain too much, mind you, but still. (The game was mostly about roleplaying anyway. I only got to go [pardon the pun] medieval on some creature's ass twice. ^_^)

This is also the DM that gave out the cleric domain ability for 'Luck' out as a feat. That could be taken multiple time. (yes. It's broken. Trust me)

~Alloran

 

[Darklone]

My worst houserule? Power Attack extra damage only applies to crittable monsters (no hacking through city walls). Wait, that wasn't soo bad.

Worst one: sorcerer got his bonus spells as spells known additionally. OMG, he could have rocked.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

Worst one: sorcerer got his bonus spells as spells known additionally. OMG, he could have rocked.

I have to sheepishly admit I tried that one, too.

Oddly, it never showed up as broken in actual game-play, probably because all the sorcerers and bards were multi-classed. I just gave it a real hard think one day, and realized it was way too good, especially considering that I already house-rule the sorcerer fairly extensively.

I used the "roll HP and if you don't like it, you can roll again" rule for quite a while ... but it ended up being too much. I'm all for enhancing PCs' survival, but most of my PCs were only a HP or two per level away from max. Makes it tough to challenge them with normal encounters.


Jeff

 

[Hypersmurf]

Worst one: sorcerer got his bonus spells as spells known additionally. OMG, he could have rocked.

That's nothing. I know a PbEM DM who decided that casters run out of spells too easily, so he threw out the bonus spells table, and just said "Ability modifier as bonus spells at each level. Oh, and as bonus spells known for sorcerers and bards."

In retrospect, I think it was fortunate that he didn't have any openings in his games at the time. I statted out a sorcerer using those rules, and it was hideous.

-Hyp.