Handful of New House Rules

[CleverNickName]

Gnomes ought to be tougher, unless you're replacing their Constitution bonus.

Oops, put the halfling in the wrong column. This rule came from the Pathfinder Playtest rules, so I can't really vouch for the whys and how-comes.

What about other sources of Constitution damage? What about other kinds of ability damage, like Strength damage or Wisdom damage?

Hmm...you make a good point. My intent was to put it on par with poison, so I should change the heal rate to 1 point per day. Thanks for the tip.

And what's the bag of rats bug? The only way I can see it being a potential problem would be with Whirlwind Attack or possibly Combat Reflexes, in which case, why not fix those feats instead?

The "bag of rats" bug is an exploitation of the Whirlwind Attack feat combined with Great Cleave. The way it works: suppose your fighter carries a bag of 20 rats around with him. He walks up and stands adjacent to your BBEG, and drops the bag of rats (free action). He uses his Whirlwind attack feat to slaughter all of the rats, and gets to make one free attack against the BBEG for each rat that he kills. Lame and unfair...but possible, according to the RAW. There are similar bugs for Combat Reflexes, the Tempest prestige class, etc.

To answer your question about fixing those other feats instead, it was just easier to fix one feat instead of every single feat that allows multiple attacks. Great Cleave was the problem they all had in common. And why I didn't make it Strength-based instead? I guess it was just a matter of preference, I suppose. Either one works fine for me.

Question: Can Toughness still be taken multiple times?

No.

Thanks for the feedback...you've helped me fix a lot of errors. What are some of the house rules that you use?

 

[Quartz]

The "bag of rats" bug is an exploitation of the Whirlwind Attack feat combined with Great Cleave.

That's been long fixed:

When you use the Whirlwind Attack feat, you also forfeit any bonus or extra attacks granted by other feats, spells, or abilities.

 

[Nifft]

Wow, that was your idea? It's an awesome house rule...our table's new favorite, in fact. Dwarven wizards finally get the respect they deserve.

Yeah... I thought they at least changed most values, but it looks like I posted almost those exact ones recently :\

http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=3683943&postcount=12

My original house rule is older and does use different values:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=85858

Cheers, -- N

 

[KeithCrimson]

Even fixing Dodge so the person taking this feat gets a +1 to their AC still makes it weak. I have house ruled that you can either take the +1 to AC or +2 against a named opponent. I found the players who actually selected this gateway feat got more use out of it.

 

[Folly]

For the neg level -> Con deal, I would suggest that you retain the duration and permanent/temporary mechanics that the negative level of the monster have. So if you get hit by a vampire and take 2 neg level, you instead take a -2 penalty to con. After 24 hours you make a fort save, if you save the penalties go away, if you fail the penalty becomes damage.

Though wording it as a penalty would mean that lesser Restoration would remove it. Might need it to be a special penalty that needs a restoration.

 

[Nifft]

Though wording it as a penalty would mean that lesser Restoration would remove it. Might need it to be a special penalty that needs a restoration.

There's always Ability Burn.

Cheers, -- N