Favorite House/Variant Rules

[Kanegrundar]

Here's some of mine:

Armor as DR. The bonus on magical armor acts as DR against magical attacks. (This is applied both to PC's and NPC's.)

Standard Array for beginning stats.

Spell Point system from UA.

Defense bonuses for all classes.

The big one:
Races that have a Level Adjustment (LA) listed in their entry are considered quite powerful compared to common humans, elves, and dwarves. To handle this discrepancy LA races suffer a -1 penalty to attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks for each adjusted level. Each time that the character gains a level, it drops 1 from the penalty total until there is no longer a penalty. For instance, a Drow Elf has a LA of +2. Therefore a 1st level Drow character would suffer a -2 to all attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks until he reaches level 2. Once the character has reached level 2, the penalties are decreased to -1 and then to no penalty at level 3.
Races that would commonly have Racial Hit Dice ignore those die. The LA may be adjusted from the normal LA to compensate for the loss of the extra Hit Points.
Some races have a racial class (Paragon Classes) that they can take levels in to become the best of their race. A character does not have to complete this entire class before taking levels in other classes, but it is good for them to do so since they will not truly reach their race’s full potential without those levels.

We're playing around with changing the skill system just to save time. Here's what we playing around with:
Skills are handled much differently. At level 1, each class can pick a number of skills depending on the class and the character’s Intelligence. These skills are chosen from the skill list for the class. Thos skills chosen are given a +4 bonus on the rolls. Skill can be used untrained, but the character must rely only on his attribute bonus. Every 3 levels afterward (the same time that a character receives his usual feat) he may pick another skill (plus any others based on the Intelligence modifier) to become a bonus skill. Skills that are not part of the class list can be selected as well, but the bonus is only +2. If a character chooses, he can burn a skill selection on a skill bought via a different class to give that skill a +4 bonus. This can only be done if the character now has a level in a class in which that skill is part of the new class’ skill list. Humans get an extra skill selection at 1st level.

We also use a wide array of classes from various sources, and a wide array of races.

Kane

 

[rushlight]

While I agree with the principle behind this (at least as regards Tumble), it would probably be better to base this purely on the BAB of the opponent. Otherwise, it becomes more difficult to tumble past a 1st level Warrior with 12 Str than past an otherwise identical warrior with 10 Str, which doesn't seem to make sense.

Since STR is the basis for your ability to hit, that factors in. In combat, the 12 STR guy will land more blows and will be superior in combat than the 10 STR guy. Therefore, his ability to land a blow is taken into account.

As regards Concentration checks (presumably for casting defensively?), I disagree. In this case, the character is concentrating on casting his spell without dropping his defences. I fail to see any reason why keeping your defences up against a dragon is any more difficult than keeping those same defences up against a goblin - the character isn't having to do anything different in each case.

It's a measure of experience in fighting. I would think that an ancient dragon would know a thing or two more about stopping a spellcaster from completing a spell than a 1st level commoner. He would also be more adept at the series of attacks, feints, and parries that happen in the backgroud of combat. Basically superior fighting ability should be accounted for whenever your fighting ability is required for something. Where as you see Concentration checks as something that happens in a vaccuum (irrelevant of the enemy's ability to disrupt the spell) I see the check as the character keeping things together dispite the enemy's attempt to disrupt you.

In terms of game design, this is probably a bad house rule - and it's the same mistake that NWN made when it implemented certain skills and feats.

Basically, you are forcing a player to spend resources (skill points in Tumble) to compete against something his opponent gets for free (BAB).

The resource spender will generally lose in this equation.

I DO believe that a character should continue to spend resources to keep up with the enemy. If your enemy's abilities outgrow your own, why should you just be allowed to remain a challenge even if you don't try to keep up? Besides, once you can hit a Tumble check of 20 to 25 with regularity, why bother to continue allocating skill points to it?

Besides, the opponent gets his BAB from his XP - just like the player gets his skill points from his XP. Your choices determine where you go from there. If you want to be the best tumbler, you need to be able to tumble past the best fighters out there!

 

[delericho]

Since STR is the basis for your ability to hit, that factors in. In combat, the 12 STR guy will land more blows and will be superior in combat than the 10 STR guy. Therefore, his ability to land a blow is taken into account.

Sure, and it will - when the character fails the tumble check and the AoO occurs. However, a high strength in no way denotes more skill, and surely it should be skill (alone) that determines how hard it is to tumble past the character? (Of course, there's an argument then that the Weapon Focus feat, for one, should factor in. This is a valid concern, but in the interests of simplicity, I would be inclined to just set the difficulty at 10+BAB to tumble past someone, 20+BAB to tumble through their space.)

It's a measure of experience in fighting. I would think that an ancient dragon would know a thing or two more about stopping a spellcaster from completing a spell than a 1st level commoner. He would also be more adept at the series of attacks, feints, and parries that happen in the backgroud of combat. Basically superior fighting ability should be accounted for whenever your fighting ability is required for something. Where as you see Concentration checks as something that happens in a vaccuum (irrelevant of the enemy's ability to disrupt the spell) I see the check as the character keeping things together dispite the enemy's attempt to disrupt you.

Okay, I'll grant you that one.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

I DO believe that a character should continue to spend resources to keep up with the enemy.

Then turn the equation around. I believe the warrior should spend resources to keep up with the tumbling rogue - except, he doesn't have to. He gets better automatically at stopping the rogue from tumbling.

 

[Storyteller01]

Another one, but it's rarely used:

Fighters can use the skill "Knowledge: Tactics" to oppose Tumble and Feint checks.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Another one, but it's rarely used:

Fighters can use the skill "Knowledge: Tactics" to oppose Tumble and Feint checks.

That's something I would much rather see - something that both parties need to spend resources on in order to compete against someone spending resources.

 

[Storyteller01]

It's a measure of experience in fighting. I would think that an ancient dragon would know a thing or two more about stopping a spellcaster from completing a spell than a 1st level commoner. He would also be more adept at the series of attacks, feints, and parries that happen in the backgroud of combat. Basically superior fighting ability should be accounted for whenever your fighting ability is required for something. Where as you see Concentration checks as something that happens in a vaccuum (irrelevant of the enemy's ability to disrupt the spell) I see the check as the character keeping things together dispite the enemy's attempt to disrupt you.

This is dependant on what said fighters were trained in. Your dragon is naturally knowlegdeable in magic. It's instinct for them. A fighter used to dealing armored engagements may never have fought a tumbler before.

For an extreme example, compare sumo wrestlers to capuara specialists (butchered spelling). Both are effective hand-to-hand styles, but excelling in one field doesn't give automatic knowledge/counters of the other.

 

[Legildur]

We have a few house rules, but our favourite is definately around Tumble and Concentration.

You still have to make the respective DCs, but you draw an AOO. However, success on the skill check means you get to add your ranks (and synergy bonus, if any) in Tumble or Concentration as a Dodge bonus to your AC. Everyone in our group is really happy with it as there are still risks (however small) to attempting inherently risky actions.

 

[rushlight]

Sure, and it will - when the character fails the tumble check and the AoO occurs. However, a high strength in no way denotes more skill, and surely it should be skill (alone) that determines how hard it is to tumble past the character? (Of course, there's an argument then that the Weapon Focus feat, for one, should factor in. This is a valid concern, but in the interests of simplicity, I would be inclined to just set the difficulty at 10+BAB to tumble past someone, 20+BAB to tumble through their space.)

I suppose it simply reflects my view of these skills. To me, these should have been opposed skill checks, rather than flat DCs. Since the enemy makes a difference in how the skill functions (he's trying to hit you, you're trying to avoid it by tumbling) the enemy should be taken into account.

In the end I understand why they used flat DCs. They were looking to create a simple mechanic, and that's what they did. However, I prefer a more natural mechanic - even if it is slightly more complex.

Another option I considered was to replace the DC for Tumble and Concentration with the attack roll made for the AoO. The skill check for Tumble or Concentration would have replaced the character's AC. But in the end, I didn't like that system so much...

This is dependant on what said fighters were trained in. Your dragon is naturally knowlegdeable in magic. It's instinct for them. A fighter used to dealing armored engagements may never have fought a tumbler before.

For an extreme example, compare sumo wrestlers to capuara specialists (butchered spelling). Both are effective hand-to-hand styles, but excelling in one field doesn't give automatic knowledge/counters of the other.

That might make sense in the real world, but it doesn't apply in D&D. Say your two examples are of equivalent fighting skill, but in different styles. Both get a BAB value plus a STR mod to represent their fighting ability. A +15 in one is the exact same as a +15 in the other to the game - so a dragon's ability to hit you in combat is the same as his ability to hit you and screw up your spells.

 

[Elemental]

Silence doesn't actually nullify sound. Being an illusion, sound in the area is still produced, it just can't be heard. As such, spells with verbal components can be used with the 20% failure chance for a deafened caster. (because I really don't like Silence being Antimagic Lite, or a silenced pebble thrown at the feet of a caster as a readied action being able to thwart the mightiest mages in the land)

Action points (ECS) can be used when you take damage that would reduce you to -1 or lower. Spend two and the blow knocks you to -0 unless the player and GM cannot think of any possible way the character could survive. You can only use this once per session. (so as not to kill a character with a greataxe crit in round 1--but if they hang around after the first close call in a fight, they're taking their life in their hands)

Instant death effects knock the character to negative 1d6 hit points. (because losing a character to a badly timed 1 is just irritating)

Cross-class skills cost 1/level, but the threshold remains the same.

Rising from prone provokes an AoO if done as a move action, but not if done as a standard action. (to get rid of cheap "one character trips, then everyone huddles round for the AoO's" tactics)

As per UA, level adjustment can be bought off for a relatively small XP expenditure at certain levels.

Wind Wall and Stormrage impose a penalty of -1 per 2 caster levels to ranged attacks, rather than stopping them cold. (Ever had an epic level Psychic Warrior archer rendered utterly useless by a level 2 spell? I have, and it wasn't fun.)