Common 3.25 Rules

[maggot]

Cyberzombie mentioned common 3.25 rules in my thread on Animal buffs. So as DM of a campaign going from 3.0 to 3.5, what are some common house rules?

So far I'm considering using 3.5 with the following added back in from 3.0.

1. Getting up from prone does not provoke an attack of opportunity.
2. 3.0 versions of identify and analyze dweomer (to keep campaign somewhat consistent)
3. Spell focus grants +2, but there is on greater spell focus (this is what the players wanted)
4. Added back in some bard spells such as greater magic weapon.

And some combination rules:

1. Animal buffs are +4 at 10 minutes/level.
2. Power attack is half for off-hand and one-and-a-half for two-hands (just like str bonuses) instead of none and double.
3. Raise dead is 1000gp. (Going to 5000 from 500 was too much for one campaign.)
4. Mass haste is back in as Greater Haste that is basically Haste but as an automatically quickened spell (doesn't require the feat).

Still problem areas:

3.0 Enlarge/Reduce spells used to work on anything living or otherwise, not it only works on people and it rocks.
In 3.5, Resist Energy is now often better than Protection from Energy.

 

[slingbld]

Cyberzombie mentioned common 3.25 rules in my thread on Animal buffs. So as DM of a campaign going from 3.0 to 3.5, what are some common house rules?
<snip>
1. Animal buffs are +4 at 10 minutes/level.
QUOTE]
First I wanted to "Bump" this post in hopes we will get some feedback

Second: What exactly do you mean +4 at 10 minutes/ level? Is that +4 levels? (ie: 2nd level spell becomes 6th level. very steep there)

Thanks & sorry for my ignorance


Slingbld~

 

[maggot]

Second: What exactly do you mean +4 at 10 minutes/ level? Is that +4 levels? (ie: 2nd level spell becomes 6th level. very steep there)

Sorry, that was an incomplete thought. I meant, +4 enhancement bonus for 10 minutes per level instead of 3.0's +(1d4+1) enhancement bonus for 1 hour per level or 3.5's +4 enhancement bonus for 1 minute per level.

But I've actually decided to go with choose either "+2 enhancement bonus for 10 minutes/level" or "+4 enhancement bonus for 1 minute per level".

 

[baradtgnome]

But I've actually decided to go with choose either "+2 enhancement bonus for 10 minutes/level" or "+4 enhancement bonus for 1 minute per level".

So I have agonized over this too... and I have not completely decided what will work best IMC. Other options I considered were:
- break it into different spells so the 2nd level spell does +2 enhancement and higher level spells have greater enhancement
- make the duration 10min/level and make the enhancement level dependent; +2 at 3rd level caster, +4 at 8th, +6 at 14th or something like that.
- take a look at how Monte approached it in AU. It is an interesting way to do it.

I have seen enough discussion on this to believe that there will be a host of varied house rules on this one, not enough concensus on just how powerful these spells are.

 

[DonAdam]

We're pretty much playing 3.25 as well. Here're some of my rulings:

Animal buffs are collapsed into one spell, Enhance Ability (as in d20 Modern); duration is 1 min/level, but this is made up for in that the caster gets to choose the ability to be pumped at the time of casting.

Spider Climb is still 1st level (what were they smoking?)

No AoO for standing up

3.0 equipment chapter, but 3.5 tanglefoot bags (but, to help out the Small guys, hand and a half and double weapons are Medium, but have to be used with two hands by default, so a gnome fighter can use a bastard sword rather than a great sword)

Kept daylight at 2nd level; shades are a major enemy in my campaign, and moving it would have hosed them.

Jump, Endure Elements, Shocking Grasp, Sleep, Invisibility as 3.0

 

[Treebore]

The only things i have adopted from 3.5 is the class alterations, with the exception of Paladins. They only get the extra smite evils from 3.5.

The only things the DM of the group I play in, which is an entirely different group of people from the game I DM, is the class changes, jump, and they changed the duration of the Buff spells to 1 turn/level (10 minutes per level for those of you who never played 1e/2e)

I am considering the duration change for my games as well.

We have not adopted any other changes because we don't have a problem or need for anything else that was changed or added.

 

[trentonjoe]

1. Getting up from prone does not provoke an attack of opportunity.
.

We play pretty much by the book but use this.

We also ignore the weapon size rule penalties.

 

[Felix]

Re: Spell Focus

I'm not suprised your players want to return Spell Focus to its 3.0 +2 to DC. In 3.5, that is the max non-epic bonus you'll get to your DCs and it costs you two feats. You instead give it to them in one feat and remove the Greater version...

Perhaps a better fix, and one that meets halfway between 3.0 and 3.5 is to make these changes to SF and GSF...

Spell Focus grants +1 to DC of chosen school.
Greater Spell Focus grants +2 to DC of chosen school, and stacks with SF.

The result is that you will get a +3 DC bump from the two feats, with an average of +1.5 to DC per feat. This is halfway twixt the 3.0 +2 per feat, and the 3.5 +1 per feat. It also means that the more dedicated mages (those willing to spend two feats) will have the higher DCs for their school. Finally, it means that the power curve of the feats goes up... Greater Spell Focus is a good feat, but to get it you need to take the required, and less powerful, Spell Focus.

This way neither players nor NPCs will increase their save DCs without a signifigant commitment to their specialty vis a vis feat selection, and keeps the higher DCs out of the lower level mages' hands.

I'm all for that, and so should your players be... they wouldn't want 20 kobold sorcs coming at them all having chosen Spell Focus: Evocation for the quick and easy +2 to DC, would they? Heh heh. Works both ways, eh?

 

[Cbas10]

Re: Spell Focus

Perhaps a better fix, and one that meets halfway between 3.0 and 3.5 is to make these changes to SF and GSF...

Spell Focus grants +1 to DC of chosen school.
Greater Spell Focus grants +2 to DC of chosen school, and stacks with SF.

I really like this one. Good idea. Here are a few 3.0/3.5 house rules I use:

Improved Critical & Keen I think these should stack. One is a function of technique and skill, while the other is a fact of a magically sharpened blade. Of course, multiple magical critical range modifiers will not stack, as normal.

Monsters as PCs I don't like the monster hit dice as levels system as presented in Savage Species. Players must take the whole package or nothing. For example, a Doppelganger PC MUST be at least an effectively 9th level character (Doppelganger + 1 class level). However, I DO allow players to advance their character's non-template monster hit dice as a level. In this case, the character advances in Hit Dice, Skills, feats, 1-per-4 level ability point increases, saving throws, and base attack as per the table in the Monster Manual page 290. Should this indicate an increase in Size, the character gains the adjustments as per page 291. Only a single "hit dice level" may be taken in between traditional class level increases. Dragons, of course, must follow the rules for such increases that were presented in the Draconomicon.

WotC vs. "other" publishers At initial character creation, since I run a Greyhawk-based campaign, all characters must be written on WotC-only material (including Dragon & Dungeon). However, once the game progresses, I am willing to open up the game to virtually any sourcebook of the same genre. Sometimes I might add a prerequisite or require that such concepts are to be quested for or something, but I will always at least comprimise at a point. The reason for this is simple: I know I like WotC material and I have a limited budget, so I am not going to spend my money on something that I might like and may very well require some shoehorning into the setting I use. Thus, none of the NPCs or adversaries are written from non-WotC material. It's not a matter of WotC snobbishness or anything; only simple economics (less money required from me) and the desire to have easy book-keeping on my part.

Dragons' Damage Reduction This is the "progression" of DR I use for dragons: 5/magic or Dragoncraft (in place of 5/magic), 5/epic or Dragoncraft (in place of 10/magic), 10/epic or Dragoncraft (in place of 15/magic), and 10/ epic AND Dragoncraft (in place of 20/magic). For those of you who have not read Draconomicon, dragoncraft items are weapons, armor, etc all specially made from dragon body parts. It takes a special feat and process to do this.

 

[Li Shenron]

I will soon DM my first 3.5 campaign. In 3.0 I used to stick to the official rules even when I didn't like them, only to let players study their own PHB and not be surprised when coming to play. This means that more or less I will play by the 3.5 rules altogether. However...

1. Getting up from prone does not provoke an attack of opportunity.

This is by far the only real rule I haven't managed to accept from 3.5, and probably one of the only 2 house rules I will use. I understand it is more realistic to provoke an AoO but it really annoys me in playability, therefore I will use the same as use, which is the 3.0 version.

The second thing is that I will use the 3.0 version of Deflect Arrows. The 3.5 version drops the Reflex save, for a very minor simplification reason which not only makes it less realistic but it definitely brings problems to the DM IMHO.