Bad House Rules

[diaglo]

3 DMs i gamed with in the last 2 years had similar ideas.

no rolling for stats. use point buy. which isn't too bad.

however, the house rule was 1 for 1. 1 DM started stats at 8 and gave you 74 points to divide. another gave 30 + 2d6. another gave 48 points to divide.

needless to say. everyone was a super duper hero.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Was that the same game where you got an extra free feat at first level, where feats could be traded for levels of experience, and wizards could specialize in multiple schools of magic?

Or the one withthe permanant stat increasing potions?

diaglo's got some great stories

 

[muhcashin]

Listen checks in sleep

Sometimes, while the party is sleeping, monsters attack. My DM doesn't allow PCs to make Listen checks while sleeping, which makes a lot of sense to me. But, characters who are on guard duty, while the other sleep have to wake the sleeping one when monsters attack. To decided whether sleeping characters wake or not, our DM brought up this rule: a PC must succeed at a Constitution check (DC defined by DM) to wake up. This means big healthy individuals like dwarfs or most fighter character have sleep more soundly than frailer characters. In a way, it could make sense, usually, big people seem clumsy, slow and less alert. But still, it's ridiculous.

 

[diaglo]

Was that the same game where you got an extra free feat at first level, where feats could be traded for levels of experience, and wizards could specialize in multiple schools of magic?

Or the one withthe permanant stat increasing potions?

diaglo's got some great stories

i've got a bunch more examples too. but i thought i'd take it easy on the newbies.

 

[Skullfyre]

i've got a bunch more examples too. but i thought i'd take it easy on the newbies.

*waiting for more*

 

[Belen]

Ugh....no listen checks while sleeping? I hope you all never go head to head with an assassin or even a rogue! If a rogue sneak attacks you while sleeping, then you have to make a Fortitude= to damage dealt or die!!!

 

[diaglo]

one of the above mentioned DMs

called shots = critical hits.

penalty to attack for a called shot was -2

damage was an automatic critical, not a threat. even on constructs and undead. but if you did roll a crit with the attack you got extra damage. and you got to roll again.

crit damage wasn't per the multiply rules in the books. but was actual X damage. so a longbow X2 woud do crit damage X2 X2.

so if you did 6 pts with an arrow +2 with a mighty comp = 8 X2 = 16 X 2 = 32

needless to say it was pointless not to be an archer of some kind.

 

[KDLadage]

The Worst House Rule I have had to play under was in AD&D 1e:

+1 Damage for every point you made the To-Hit roll by

It did not take long for that sucker to get out of hand...

 

[S'mon]

Here's a few I managed to beat out of a fellow DM or two...

1) No darkvision. Infravision is back in.

2) Drow equipment is still better than normal but turns to dust on the surface.

3) Any house rule with the word "fumble" in it.

Those are all fine.

 

[Wormwood]

1. Gave spontaneous casting to Wizards. Also, removed *all* costs for scribing spells into spellbooks.

2. Removed AoO's from the game. Entirely. You could stop fighting and make a ham sandwich 5' from a raging troll, and nothing.

3. Roll initiative once. Per night. Keep that number until next week. (okay, this wasn't so bad since it actually saved a lot of time).

4. No Taking Ten. Ever. You wanna make a ham sandwich? Roll.

5. "Hero" Cards. Nothing quite like a stack of "get out of consequences free" cards to bleed all excitement from the game.

6. 42 point buy.