shivamuffin
First Post
I will. Even if it is a farce...I think it looked good.
Core Classes that IMO are lame
- Thread starter shivamuffin
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CRGreathouse
Community Supporter
shivamuffin said:
Hmph. It only has two bonus feats at 4th level... who would take such a class past 3rd level?
shivamuffin
First Post
It's still an improvement, and the stupid spells were removed.
Grayhawk
First Post
Here's my take on the Ranger for my upcomming low-magic campaign:
Rangers get Uncanny Dodge as a Barbarian instead of spells. (Inspired by this thread)
Rangers add a free rank to Wildernes Lore each level. (Max rank is still 3+lvl)
Rangers get Giantkin as only favored enemy. Giantkin are: Bugbears, ettins, giants, gnolls, goblins, hobgoblins, kobolds, ogres, orcs and trolls. Improves every 4 levels.
(Keep in mind that this is for a specific campaign, in which I see Rangers as they were in LotR; protecting people in rural areas from the creatures often encountered there. Is letting it improve every 4 instead of every 5 levels too much?)
Rangers' two-weapon fighting applies to quarterstaves, as well, but when wielding two weapons, both must be light, or one medium and one two sizes smaller (E.g for a medium sized character: Two shortswords or a longsword & a dagger).
(Again, this is for a specific campaign where I don't allow double weapons, plus I feel that the longsword/shortsword combo is a bit cheesy)
Rangers can choose between virtual two-weapon fighting+ambidex or point blank+rapid shot (same restrictions apply).
Rangers gain Fast Track special ability at 5th level, negating the -5 penalty when moving at normal instead of half speed.
And here are my changes to the Bard, so far:
Bards get 6 skill points per level.
Bards get the Ambidexterity feat for free at first level.
(It seems that this could come in handy/be easily developed when juggling or performing various acrobatics. Plus it lets Bards be good at two-weapon fighting for a cost of just one feat, which fits my view of a swashbuckling Bard: Rapier & dagger)
Btw, if anybody's still interested in non class related houserules in this thread, let me know and I'll post some of those as well...
Rangers get Uncanny Dodge as a Barbarian instead of spells. (Inspired by this thread)
Rangers add a free rank to Wildernes Lore each level. (Max rank is still 3+lvl)
Rangers get Giantkin as only favored enemy. Giantkin are: Bugbears, ettins, giants, gnolls, goblins, hobgoblins, kobolds, ogres, orcs and trolls. Improves every 4 levels.
(Keep in mind that this is for a specific campaign, in which I see Rangers as they were in LotR; protecting people in rural areas from the creatures often encountered there. Is letting it improve every 4 instead of every 5 levels too much?)
Rangers' two-weapon fighting applies to quarterstaves, as well, but when wielding two weapons, both must be light, or one medium and one two sizes smaller (E.g for a medium sized character: Two shortswords or a longsword & a dagger).
(Again, this is for a specific campaign where I don't allow double weapons, plus I feel that the longsword/shortsword combo is a bit cheesy)
Rangers can choose between virtual two-weapon fighting+ambidex or point blank+rapid shot (same restrictions apply).
Rangers gain Fast Track special ability at 5th level, negating the -5 penalty when moving at normal instead of half speed.
And here are my changes to the Bard, so far:
Bards get 6 skill points per level.
Bards get the Ambidexterity feat for free at first level.
(It seems that this could come in handy/be easily developed when juggling or performing various acrobatics. Plus it lets Bards be good at two-weapon fighting for a cost of just one feat, which fits my view of a swashbuckling Bard: Rapier & dagger)
Btw, if anybody's still interested in non class related houserules in this thread, let me know and I'll post some of those as well...
shivamuffin
First Post
Go for it!
Grayhawk
First Post
Back again. That was a beautiful movie! And it's about 3:30 AM here now...
Here are some of my house rules for a low magic campaign I'm preparing. In random order:
A succesful Healing check DC 20 Restores 1d4 HP (fresh wounds only).
System Shock Survival: Fort save DC 10. (To survive being raised)
When Raised: Loose 1 point of Con.
Coup de Grace deals double damage (instead of automatic crit).
(As most weapons crit multiplier is balanced against their threat range, I feel that a specific situation that grants you an automatic crit is unbalanced, as it ignores the threat range)
Two natural 1's on an attack roll result in a critical miss (fumble), that makes you drop your weapon.
Two natural 20's on an attack roll prompts a 'save or die' from the target. This check is 1d20 plus the targets character level or CR vs a DC of 11 plus the attackers character level or CR.
(Reason: As a gamemaster rolling two natural 20's, I'd rather put the saving roll in the hands of the player, rather than just confirming the instant kill myself)
All characters start with a free class & background related Skill Focus feat (propably for a craft, profession or knowledge skill).
Skills can be increased by a maximum of 2 ranks per level (beyond first).
Halfelves get bonus skill points as humans.
Prereq. for Scribe Scroll is 2nd level.
Mages get the Decipher Script skill.
Point buy 25, or standard array. (Or maybe 24+d4 points)
Knowledge (Beasts) can be used to gain information about the various monster types. DC starts at 10+CR.
Haflings get +1 to hit with slings as well as with thrown weapons.
No strenght penalty on slings, strenght bonus capped at +1.
(I found it annoying that the MM describes Kobold's tactics as slinging stones, yet having them use crossbows in the statblock, since somebody obviously thought it was too weak to have them deal 1d4 -2 HP with their slings)
Some renaming:
Halfspears are Spears. Shortspears are Greatspears. Longspears are Pikes.
Mithril is also known as Truesilver.
No rapiers, elves uses Elven Blades instead (same stats).
Bless Weapon is renamed to Holy Weapon.
Magic Weapon is renamed to Bless Weapon.
Greater Magic Weapon is renamed to Magic Weapon.
Some changes to haste & slow:
Haste: No extra Magical Partial actions, +2 AC, Attack Rolls & Refl Saves.
Slow: One partial action, -2 AC, Attack Rolls & Refl Saves.
New DR for undead:
Skeletal: Blunt - normal. Piercing & slashing - 0.5xDam/Blessed
Corporeal: Slashing - normal. Piercing & blunt - 0.5xDam/Blessed
Incorporeal: Blessed or magic to hit, 50% miss chance.
Well, that's some of them. Most have not been playtested yet, so please comment or ask for clarifications on the ones you don't get or disagree with (if anybody comes to page 4 of this thread, anyway...)
Here are some of my house rules for a low magic campaign I'm preparing. In random order:
A succesful Healing check DC 20 Restores 1d4 HP (fresh wounds only).
System Shock Survival: Fort save DC 10. (To survive being raised)
When Raised: Loose 1 point of Con.
Coup de Grace deals double damage (instead of automatic crit).
(As most weapons crit multiplier is balanced against their threat range, I feel that a specific situation that grants you an automatic crit is unbalanced, as it ignores the threat range)
Two natural 1's on an attack roll result in a critical miss (fumble), that makes you drop your weapon.
Two natural 20's on an attack roll prompts a 'save or die' from the target. This check is 1d20 plus the targets character level or CR vs a DC of 11 plus the attackers character level or CR.
(Reason: As a gamemaster rolling two natural 20's, I'd rather put the saving roll in the hands of the player, rather than just confirming the instant kill myself)
All characters start with a free class & background related Skill Focus feat (propably for a craft, profession or knowledge skill).
Skills can be increased by a maximum of 2 ranks per level (beyond first).
Halfelves get bonus skill points as humans.
Prereq. for Scribe Scroll is 2nd level.
Mages get the Decipher Script skill.
Point buy 25, or standard array. (Or maybe 24+d4 points)
Knowledge (Beasts) can be used to gain information about the various monster types. DC starts at 10+CR.
Haflings get +1 to hit with slings as well as with thrown weapons.
No strenght penalty on slings, strenght bonus capped at +1.
(I found it annoying that the MM describes Kobold's tactics as slinging stones, yet having them use crossbows in the statblock, since somebody obviously thought it was too weak to have them deal 1d4 -2 HP with their slings)
Some renaming:
Halfspears are Spears. Shortspears are Greatspears. Longspears are Pikes.
Mithril is also known as Truesilver.
No rapiers, elves uses Elven Blades instead (same stats).
Bless Weapon is renamed to Holy Weapon.
Magic Weapon is renamed to Bless Weapon.
Greater Magic Weapon is renamed to Magic Weapon.
Some changes to haste & slow:
Haste: No extra Magical Partial actions, +2 AC, Attack Rolls & Refl Saves.
Slow: One partial action, -2 AC, Attack Rolls & Refl Saves.
New DR for undead:
Skeletal: Blunt - normal. Piercing & slashing - 0.5xDam/Blessed
Corporeal: Slashing - normal. Piercing & blunt - 0.5xDam/Blessed
Incorporeal: Blessed or magic to hit, 50% miss chance.
Well, that's some of them. Most have not been playtested yet, so please comment or ask for clarifications on the ones you don't get or disagree with (if anybody comes to page 4 of this thread, anyway...)
shivamuffin
First Post
Cool, good to see house rules in a D20 system.
Dispater
Explorer
A lot of people try and ad hoc the ranger with bonus feats and a couple of extra skill points or some neat abilities. I necessarily don't see this as any solution. I would... (if I could), scrap the ranger completely, but a lot of my players IMC have always wanted to play it. I have tried "fixing" it, but in the end I have given up. According to my experience the class and the concept (I am thinking Aragorn here) has a lot of appeal among players, but the DMs generally hate it.
If I could do the ranger a different way, I would not name the class "ranger" (its got way too much bad karma tied up in it). Second, I play low magic, so I prefer to see a non-magic ranger, or rather, a ranger with healing and speak with animals abilities, but that are supernatural and gained at higher leves, not spells.
Also I don't like the two-weapon thing or rangers getting any combat feats. Rangers should never try and resemble fighters. They should be masters of the wilderness, friends of animals, best in ambushes, tracking, etc, but never have any more archery or melee feats than a fighter, at any given level. Why? This is f*cking with the versatility of the fighter. Want a Robin Hood archer? Get a fighter. If you want a bit of both, you can still multiclass.
Enough rant. Overall I'd rather see a whole new class replace the ranger than any fixes.
If I could do the ranger a different way, I would not name the class "ranger" (its got way too much bad karma tied up in it). Second, I play low magic, so I prefer to see a non-magic ranger, or rather, a ranger with healing and speak with animals abilities, but that are supernatural and gained at higher leves, not spells.
Also I don't like the two-weapon thing or rangers getting any combat feats. Rangers should never try and resemble fighters. They should be masters of the wilderness, friends of animals, best in ambushes, tracking, etc, but never have any more archery or melee feats than a fighter, at any given level. Why? This is f*cking with the versatility of the fighter. Want a Robin Hood archer? Get a fighter. If you want a bit of both, you can still multiclass.
Enough rant. Overall I'd rather see a whole new class replace the ranger than any fixes.
The way I do it, rangers don't get spells, but get a bonus feat whenever they would gain a new level of spells. In addition, they can sub out Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot for Ambidexterity and 2wf, and instead of Good Fortitude, they have Medium Fortitude and Reflex (+1 to +9, like in Star Wars d20).
I never really considered changing Favored Enemy, although I don't really know where the heck it came from. Maybe drop it entirely, in exchange for +2 skill points, or bumping Fort and Ref up to Good?
I never really considered changing Favored Enemy, although I don't really know where the heck it came from. Maybe drop it entirely, in exchange for +2 skill points, or bumping Fort and Ref up to Good?
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