House Rules: Choose Em, Don't Use Em, or Abuse Em?

[Buttercup]

We play 3.0 with a few 3.5 rules updates and one or two other tweaks.

• I use the 3.5 skills.
• I use all the 3.5 +2 to two skills feats.
• Craft, Profession and Knowledge (local) are class skills for everyone.
• I use a custom sorcerer.
• I use a custom method of ability score generation.
• Haste and Harm are 3.5.
• Timestop is banned.
• I give max hit points for second level as well as first.
• No resurection--dead is dead.
• No monks.
• No elves, no half-orcs and usually no gnomes, but I slipped up this time.

 

[Fenes]

Most of my house rules are more setting-background related than mechanics related, but sometimes they tie in together.

I use core 3.0E as base.

Spells are banned or limited so I get the game I want:
- Teleport spells are only accessible to a NPC prestige class like the wayfarer. Dimension door, which is available, requires line of sight to the destination. If a party needs to travel great distances in a short time they can use portals, but those are often in remote and dangerous locations, and not always working - basically, DM controls when such portals can be used.
- Raise dead and similar spells are banned. Though players can expect that their PC will not get killed without a warning and a way out (even if that way out may be "surrender and get captured".)
- Divine Power and other spells that make a cleric a better melee fighter than a fighter are banned or reduced in power.
- Haste is banned.

Some feats are banned as well.

Anything (spells, feats, prestige classes) from splatbooks and other books gets approved on a case by case ruling - what is ok for one PC might end up unbalanced with another PC, or party.

Setting-wise, I play in the Forgotten Realms, but they are darker than the book version.

There are much less magic items around. There are no magic item shops, and magic items tend to be powerful, and with their own history and plot hooks, and growing in power/unlocking their true power through quests or other adventure-related processes as their wielder grows in power. No "I commission a +3 flaming shock longsword and have my plus 2 armor upgraded". So, PCs tend to have few, but powerful magic items, not a plethora of utility items. Scrolls and potions (low-level ones) are fairly common though, but usually not sold to just anyone, but hoarded for allies and members of the church who made them.

There is less treasure to be had by adventuring. Orcs, bandits and monsters haven't hordes of gold around, and an average adventurer does not make more gold than an average mercenary. Real money is made by nobles (through land and taxes) and merchants, not killing creatures and taking their stuff. In fact, I don't bother with exact gold and treasure amounts anymore - PCs can afford a certain lifestyle, with all it entails, or not. Since you can't order magic items, most of the reason to require a detailed amount of treasure is already gone anyway. Rewards like lands, titles, trade rights/monopolies are used to grant "lifestyle upgrades".

The realms are far less egalitarian than their official versions. If you are not a noble (or a filthy rich merchant in a land without a strong aristocracy) you are not worth much in lands with nobilty in charge. Serfs are slaves in all but name, and their use is widespread in the north, and in the heartlands. Slavery is common in all southern countries from Calimshan to Semphar.

There are few if any good rulers - most have to compromise their morals to rule a country.

There are few if any evil or good people - most are neutral. Good/evil people are usually religiously motivated. A bit of altruism alone does not make anyone good, nor does killing someone make anyone evil. There are no "good races" - only neutral ones. Same goes for evil races, but those are usually under the thumb of evil priests and traditions.

The humans are the dominant race. Elves and dwarves are on the decline. No thundertwin event, no "return from retreat".

Elves have a stagnant culture, rooted in age old traditions, unable to change fast enough to keep up with human innovation. Their items are still some of the most beautiful, but their magic has been surpassed by human zeal for innovation and risk taking, especially in Halrua, who added 1500 years of arcane research to the 3000 years of magical research of ther Netherese ancestors, and in Thay. Elves still have the reputation to be the realms' best and most powerful mages, but that is not true anymore (and part of the reason they hole up in Evermeet, and keep non elves out).

Dwarves are dwindling in number through low birth, and high losses in wars. They are the best metal and stone workers - elven steel may be prettier, but not better, and elven smiths never really went beyond chainmail and longswords - but again, humans are catching up.

 

[GlassJaw]

I ran a 3.5 game about a year ago and I made a website with a lot of my house rules. I started to realize I was spending more time tweaking the house rules than actually working on the campaign. I also realized that the house rules I was making had a mininal, if any, effect on actual game-play.

I'm running a different 3.5 campaign now (Dungeon Adventure Path) that's pretty much as core as you can get and having a blast. I might tweak a couple of things here and there (roll twice for hp's, take max, etc) but it's so much more fun just playing and not worrying about making the game "better".

I'm not even sure I would play in a game that has drastic rules unless it was a highly unique homebrew.

The next campaign I'm working on will be a low-magic campaign using Grim Tales only. The only house rules will be campaign-specific. I love Grim Tales because it's one of the most "complete" rulebooks I've seen and requires very little tweaking from a mechanical standpoint (it does require you to mold it to your world, however).

 

[Wombat]

Each time I set up a campaign, no matter what ruleset I am using, I tweak the rules to fit the campaign tone. As such, I find very few "sacred cow" rules to any given set of rules.

In my current campaign we have about 30 pages of house rules, varying from AU, rather than 3.x, with additions from Skull & Bones, Swashbuckling Adventures, and our own imaginations. Most of the rule changes have to do with character creation, specific weapons, and allowable Feats, but some also change combat, tweak specific spells, etc. And then there is the general prohibition against intelligent monsters (other than undead), which strips away 95% of most monster manuals...

Anyway, if I were to run a different campaign, I would come up with a different set of house rules (though there might well be some carry-over). The point for my group is that we want the rules to aid the world, thus a change in world means a change in rules.

 

[Klaus]

I change very minor things, like:

- Sorcerers get Eschew Materials for free at 1st level
- Animal Companion for Rangers is at Level-3, not Level/2.

I am considering ejecting the Improved Familiar feat and instead using the same mechanic that druids use (advanced familiars at higher levels, but at at a lower class level).

 

[JackGiantkiller]

I run a lot of games. i use different house rules in each one, depending on the feel I'm going for. World background and credibility are far more impiortant to me than rules, or even game balance.

 

[Mark]

I'm finding it very interesting which rules people change to suit certain settings. I wonder how many rules people have to change to help shore up a difference in the game due to another rules they have already changed?