Favorite House/Variant Rules

[HellHound]

Just to replicate the actual effects of combat on the humanoid body.

Ah!

Return of the Death Spiral!

In our games we tried death spiral rules, but then ditched it because it suits mecha better than humanoids, as most humanoids are rendered hors-de-combat by a major wound. But then again, I still use death spirals in my Damage Save games, so it can't be THAT bad, can it?

The only house rule I can think of off-hand that we use regularly is that Dodge provides a flat +1 AC.

And for our smaller group games, we run with the Gestalt rules.

 

[Veril]

We play a heroic game, where if you survive a critical you get to increase your lowest rolled HD by 1 (limited by your max HP always).

 

[Reynard]

Some good suggestions in there. Thanks everyone.

Ones I am considering are:

UA action points.
Cross-class skill cap at 3+level (still cost 2 pnts per)
Favored Terrain for rangers.
Wound and Vitality points; NPC classes don't get Vitality (I am real worried about this one -- any experience?)
Legendary Weapons, including the scion weapons.
Arcana Unearthed laden spells *or* spell point system based on psionics.

 

[Demoquin]

My DM uses

Critical Fumbles and Critical Success (I hate this house rule)
Facing for Sneak attack characters (ranged included)
Doesnt really keep track of inn/ meal debts or rations
Critcal 20's for obscure knowledge or abilities ( I rolled a 20 on seeing if i could use the Forest Troll's Blood as a poison ... and rolled a 20 coupled with a Oil of Timlessness }
If you Roll 20 for 2 times and confirm crit then target dies.

Oh and Enemies die at exactly 0 HP where we have up to -10

 

[ThirdWizard]

Mostly lots of minor stuff like rapid reload applying to all crossbows. More major stuff includes:

-Sorcerers can Quicken spells
-Standing from Prone does not provoke an AoO
-Dodge gives a flat +1 dodge bonus to AC at all times
-Command Undead has been changed (1 min/level, Will negates)
-Vorpal is nonexistant

House Rules we've discovered were a Bad Idea

-Power Attack limited to -5
-Critical misses provoke an AoO

There are more, but I can't recall them.

 

[Talmun]

We use:

1) Opposed tumble (Tumble roll opposed by Reflex save)
2) No multiclassing restrictions on Paladin or Monk
3) After rolling up stats using the standard 4d6 drop low, we roll 1d3+1 for bonus points that can be put on any ability, although no ability can be higher than 18 prior to racial bonuses.

 

[JoeBlank]

Getting to make my own house rules for a game starting tonight, and I decided to keep it to a minimum.

- Point buy
- Fixed HP per level
- Dodge gives flat +1
- Half-elves get an extra feat OR 1 extra skill point/level
- Sorcerers may exchange familiar for Eschew Materials
- Death at -CON rather than -10
- Bards add Cure Minor Wounds to their 0-lvl spell list

Hmm, didn't keep it to as much of a minimum as I thought, but most of these are minor changes that don't affect game play often.

 

[Bad Paper]

We dumped the Death by Massive Damage rule. As a DM, I think it's wonderful when the fighter takes 86 points of damage from a trap and then walks away.

I am considering bringing in a gender rule: female characters optionally get -1 Str and +1 Con. Lotsa girls in my game; they're awfully strong and dislike Con damage.

We are about to add psionics to the game; are probably going to use the limited psionix-magic transparency (that is, psionics and magic can affect each other, but in a weaker way). Don't know how this will work out.

For reincarnation we distinguish between traits lost and acquired: http://donkeyshow.org/d20/reincarnate.html

 

[Whimsical]

House Rules we've discovered were a Bad Idea
...
-Critical misses provoke an AoO

Okay, I would like to know why the Critical Miss rule was a bad idea, since I am considering it a house rule. Did you have it so that critical fumble only provoked an AoO from your opponent, or from everyone?

 

[delericho]

I am considering bringing in a gender rule: female characters optionally get -1 Str and +1 Con. Lotsa girls in my game; they're awfully strong and dislike Con damage.

That's probably a bad idea - modifiers of +/-1 don't affect characters equally: a character with a Str of 15 and Con of 17 will gain a lot, while a character with Str 14 and Con 16 will lose a lot. You might argue that making the change optional removes that problem - but really all it does is grant some characters a bonus while others neither gain nor lose, since they'll take the change if and only if it is beneficial to them.

Of course, YMMV.