nnms
First Post
So I've been pretty inspired by what's going on at the Save Versus Death blog and I've been thinking of integrating various house rules I've tried into a cohesive attempt to make 4E work better for a campaign dungeon exploration type game (a campaign dungeon being distinct from a monster lair in both size and purpose).
Quotes from my house rules document will be in orange. My commentary on what I'm hoping to accomplish will follow.
In Saveversusdeath.com's Whitebox 4E mod, there's the idea of "dungeon rest" where the party only gets 2 healing surges back for resting in the dungeon. I wanted to do the same sort of thing, but also wanted to have a codified result for any lengths the players might go to in order to make their night in the dungeon more like a stay at a bed and breakfast. The three healing surges for the first night and full for the second for being back in town is to make time pass as part of going back to town to rest up. One of my players has always had issues with healing totally and completely in one night without some magical aid and while two nights isn't any more realistic, it is throwing him a bone.
Two things are going on here. One is part of the removal of the pacing mechanic that 4E has in the form of gaining levels. In previous versions of the game, gaining levels made your character's objectively more powerful. But in 4E, the monsters and skill DCs often just scale up with the characters as they level, so the target numbers on the d20 don't actually change very much. Leveling in 4E is more about the pacing through the various tiers of the character's heroic journey. There's more on this later.
The second thing is that I find items that have an enhancement bonus and nothing else to be very, very boring. I found that the instant a +2 sword becomes available, a character will dump a +1 sword that also has an interesting effect because the math of the game assumes a certain enhancement bonuses at certain levels (see the inherent bonus system in DMG2 and Darksun).
If healing surges are going to be at a premium because resting doesn't just give you back all of them, things like healing potions should give you an option for not burning a healing surge. Part of me wants to make them just heal a flat amount with no rolling, but I have a couple players who will enjoy rolling for potions like they did in previous editions.
I find rituals to end up either being utterly neglected and when they are used, tracking components is pointless and tedious and we often just end up paying gold on the spot and assuming the character has the right type of components.
I decided to give a small number of free ritual performances (equal to the character's level). Going beyond that costs those valuable healing surges. And spamming the same ritual again and again will also cost valuable healing surges. And to make the rituals more useful in an emergency, they can be sped up to a standard action, but it's taxing on the caster.
There are also some rituals that will be changed to make them fit with this campaign a bit better.
Since I'm pulling out the pacing function of leveling to have it be more about power accumulation, the monsters will need some adjusting. As well, I want some tangible benefit for leveling up in terms of skills. So a single point added on to a skill each level. Not huge, but enough to make a difference over the long haul. I suppose I should probably add that all skills go up by one at 11th and 21st levels.
I've been having a bit of an issue with nova-ing and single encounter adventure days and then I noticed something. The refresh on a day as a period of time is not a system beat. Encounters are system beats. Milestones are system beats. Levels are system beats. But for days, you need to look at the narrative to see when they begin and when they end. I don't know if I'm explaining this very well, but basically I wanted a rate of daily recharge that roughly equals a bit more than you'd have if you used no more than a daily per encounter and had atleast three encounters before an extended rest. And since the monster recharge mechanic already exists, I figured I'd just extrapolate it to encounters instead of rounds. I do get that I still have healing surges refreshing to the narrative non-system beat of a daily rest. I'm open to ideas about that.
It's basically a version of the Dark Sun inherent bonus critical hits with an option to choose to use magic item criticals on a case by case basis. I am aware that some magic items (like challenge seeking weapons) becomes more powerful when their mediocre critical damage is replaced by a flat number of d6s.
One of the characteristics of older editions of the game that handle dungeon exploration quite well is that monsters are not necessarily the greatest source of XP. In older editions, it was treasure that got you levels.
This brings back the danger of wondering monsters when combined with the changes to extended rests and healing surge refreshes. If you make a bunch of noise in the dungeon and a monster shows up, even if it's a very quick and easy encounter, every HP of damage is going to be keenly felt and the lowered XP means that wondering monsters don't just serve as XP farming that makes 4E characters level up even faster.
I've always been a fan of goals for characters and encourage players to have specific and group goals. A mega dungeon campaign is largely about exploration and identification of possible goals and the means of their accomplishment. Since you can't craft magic items, gold pieces are no longer a points-buy system of character advancement. In previous editions gold was used to build castles, expand influence and a variety of other things. I've been doing that in my current sand-box empire building campaign and would like to carry the idea through to this campaign.
House rules for tougher minions have been the subject of many threads. My main goal to include them is to have a type of monster that is perfect for descriptive and quick skirmishes where the maps/dungeon tiles may not be involved. And to provide a range of monster power levels in an encounter instead of one hit nobodies and multi-hit full monsters.
This is pretty much direct inspiration from saveversusdeath.com. As it stands, a lot of 4E characters are nigh-invulnerable. PCs are very rarely reduced to negative bloodied and when they are dying, the three death save count down clock gives anyone interested in healing them ample time to do so. Level appropriate traps are pretty gutless and various save ends effects often don't do too much.
The vast majority of PC deaths at my table have been the result of going below 0 HP while within a damage aura and taking ongoing damage. While these deaths are still good, I want poison to be poisonous, crushing stone to squish flesh and death traps to be deadly.
As always, when you grant someone a free saving throw, if they fail it, it doesn't contribute towards any effect on a failed save.
When 4E first came out, my group misread the death saving throw text and thought you died when you failed three death saves before you take an extended rest. The game had a higher rate of character death, but we enjoyed it immensely. This is an adaptation of that idea using the same recharge mechanic as the daily power recharge.
So that's what I have so far. Do you think it will accomplish my goals of making 4E more suitable to a campaign/mega dungeon exploration type game in the vein of saveversusdeath.com's Fourthcore approach?
Thanks for reading!
Quotes from my house rules document will be in orange. My commentary on what I'm hoping to accomplish will follow.
Extended Rests
Whenever you rest in an unsafe area like a dungeon, each character regains only one healing surge. Each character also only regains one healing surge worth of hit points from resting. If the characters go to lengths to make their place of rest safe, comfortable and quiet, they can regain an additional healing surge. If they can rest in an area that is completely safe, comfortable and quiet (like back at the inn in town), they regain three healing surges per extended rest. The second consecutive day of rest in a completely safe area refills all healing surges.
Extended Rest do not refresh used daily powers. See below for more information.
Whenever you rest in an unsafe area like a dungeon, each character regains only one healing surge. Each character also only regains one healing surge worth of hit points from resting. If the characters go to lengths to make their place of rest safe, comfortable and quiet, they can regain an additional healing surge. If they can rest in an area that is completely safe, comfortable and quiet (like back at the inn in town), they regain three healing surges per extended rest. The second consecutive day of rest in a completely safe area refills all healing surges.
Extended Rest do not refresh used daily powers. See below for more information.
In Saveversusdeath.com's Whitebox 4E mod, there's the idea of "dungeon rest" where the party only gets 2 healing surges back for resting in the dungeon. I wanted to do the same sort of thing, but also wanted to have a codified result for any lengths the players might go to in order to make their night in the dungeon more like a stay at a bed and breakfast. The three healing surges for the first night and full for the second for being back in town is to make time pass as part of going back to town to rest up. One of my players has always had issues with healing totally and completely in one night without some magical aid and while two nights isn't any more realistic, it is throwing him a bone.
Magic Items
Permanent magic items cannot be created by player characters except in very specific story related circumstances. Characters can create potions and other consumables if they have the proper abilities to do so, ingredients and an appropriate laboratory or workshop.
Magic items don’t necessarily have Enhancement bonuses. Magic items that only have enhancement bonuses do not exist. So there’s no such thing suit of Magical Leather Armour +1. Magic weapons, implements, armour and neck slot items (and any other magic item that has enhancement bonuses in the normal rules) will always have either a property, a unique critical effect, or a power.
Example
Flaming Hand Crossbow
You can will this weapon to burst into flame.
Critical: +2d6 fire damage
Power (At-Will • Fire): Free Action. All damage dealt by this weapon is fire damage. Another free action returns the damage to normal.
Power (Daily • Fire): Free Action. Use this power when you hit with the weapon. Deal 1d6 fire damage, and the target takes ongoing 5 fire damage (save ends).
Permanent magic items cannot be created by player characters except in very specific story related circumstances. Characters can create potions and other consumables if they have the proper abilities to do so, ingredients and an appropriate laboratory or workshop.
Magic items don’t necessarily have Enhancement bonuses. Magic items that only have enhancement bonuses do not exist. So there’s no such thing suit of Magical Leather Armour +1. Magic weapons, implements, armour and neck slot items (and any other magic item that has enhancement bonuses in the normal rules) will always have either a property, a unique critical effect, or a power.
Example
Flaming Hand Crossbow
You can will this weapon to burst into flame.
Critical: +2d6 fire damage
Power (At-Will • Fire): Free Action. All damage dealt by this weapon is fire damage. Another free action returns the damage to normal.
Power (Daily • Fire): Free Action. Use this power when you hit with the weapon. Deal 1d6 fire damage, and the target takes ongoing 5 fire damage (save ends).
Two things are going on here. One is part of the removal of the pacing mechanic that 4E has in the form of gaining levels. In previous versions of the game, gaining levels made your character's objectively more powerful. But in 4E, the monsters and skill DCs often just scale up with the characters as they level, so the target numbers on the d20 don't actually change very much. Leveling in 4E is more about the pacing through the various tiers of the character's heroic journey. There's more on this later.
The second thing is that I find items that have an enhancement bonus and nothing else to be very, very boring. I found that the instant a +2 sword becomes available, a character will dump a +1 sword that also has an interesting effect because the math of the game assumes a certain enhancement bonuses at certain levels (see the inherent bonus system in DMG2 and Darksun).
Potions of Healing/Vitality/Recovery
You can elect not to spend a healing surge and instead gain back a randomly determined number of hit points. For a Potion of Healing: 2d4 hit points. If you spend a healing surge, you regain the full 10. For a Potion of Vitality: 3d8. If you spend a healing surge, you regain the full 25. For a Potion of Recovery, 6d8 hit points. If you spend a healing surge, you regain the full 50.
You can elect not to spend a healing surge and instead gain back a randomly determined number of hit points. For a Potion of Healing: 2d4 hit points. If you spend a healing surge, you regain the full 10. For a Potion of Vitality: 3d8. If you spend a healing surge, you regain the full 25. For a Potion of Recovery, 6d8 hit points. If you spend a healing surge, you regain the full 50.
If healing surges are going to be at a premium because resting doesn't just give you back all of them, things like healing potions should give you an option for not burning a healing surge. Part of me wants to make them just heal a flat amount with no rolling, but I have a couple players who will enjoy rolling for potions like they did in previous editions.
Rituals
Rituals no longer require gold pieces worth of components or residuum.
Each level a character with the ability to perform rituals gains one ritual of a level equal to or lower than their current level. This is in addition to any rituals a character might gain from a class feature or by adventuring.
A character may perform a number of rituals at no cost equal to their current level. So a 7th level character can cast 7 rituals at no cost. When a character gains a level, this recharges to equal their new level. Each ritual performed above this amount costs a healing surge.
If a character perform a ritual they have already performed since they last increased in level, they must spend one healing surge.
A character can cast a ritual as a standard action rather than performing it over the normal amount of time for that ritual. Doing so costs the caster one healing surge. A ritual that requires more than an hour to perform cannot be cast as a standard action.
Rituals that take greater than one hour to perform can only be performed at a site appropriate to the ritual. For example, a ritual that takes 8 hours to cast and is based off the skill Religion would been to be cast at a temple. A similar Nature based ritual would need a druidic stone circle (or something like it). An arcane ritual of that length would likely need a prepared wizard’s laboratory. Rituals with the key skill of Heal can be performed at any site appropriate to any other key skill as those sites are often conducive to medicinal magic.
Rituals no longer require gold pieces worth of components or residuum.
Each level a character with the ability to perform rituals gains one ritual of a level equal to or lower than their current level. This is in addition to any rituals a character might gain from a class feature or by adventuring.
A character may perform a number of rituals at no cost equal to their current level. So a 7th level character can cast 7 rituals at no cost. When a character gains a level, this recharges to equal their new level. Each ritual performed above this amount costs a healing surge.
If a character perform a ritual they have already performed since they last increased in level, they must spend one healing surge.
A character can cast a ritual as a standard action rather than performing it over the normal amount of time for that ritual. Doing so costs the caster one healing surge. A ritual that requires more than an hour to perform cannot be cast as a standard action.
Rituals that take greater than one hour to perform can only be performed at a site appropriate to the ritual. For example, a ritual that takes 8 hours to cast and is based off the skill Religion would been to be cast at a temple. A similar Nature based ritual would need a druidic stone circle (or something like it). An arcane ritual of that length would likely need a prepared wizard’s laboratory. Rituals with the key skill of Heal can be performed at any site appropriate to any other key skill as those sites are often conducive to medicinal magic.
I find rituals to end up either being utterly neglected and when they are used, tracking components is pointless and tedious and we often just end up paying gold on the spot and assuming the character has the right type of components.
I decided to give a small number of free ritual performances (equal to the character's level). Going beyond that costs those valuable healing surges. And spamming the same ritual again and again will also cost valuable healing surges. And to make the rituals more useful in an emergency, they can be sped up to a standard action, but it's taxing on the caster.
There are also some rituals that will be changed to make them fit with this campaign a bit better.
No half level bonus.
Characters do not add half their level to their AC, defenses, skills, attach rolls, etc.,. Monsters and skill DCs will be adjusted appropriately.
Skill bonus when you level up
When a character levels up, they may improve one skill of their choice by one point. Players need to record which skill is chosen at each level to ensure that no confusion results if they ever need to recalculate the PC’s skills.
Characters do not add half their level to their AC, defenses, skills, attach rolls, etc.,. Monsters and skill DCs will be adjusted appropriately.
Skill bonus when you level up
When a character levels up, they may improve one skill of their choice by one point. Players need to record which skill is chosen at each level to ensure that no confusion results if they ever need to recalculate the PC’s skills.
Since I'm pulling out the pacing function of leveling to have it be more about power accumulation, the monsters will need some adjusting. As well, I want some tangible benefit for leveling up in terms of skills. So a single point added on to a skill each level. Not huge, but enough to make a difference over the long haul. I suppose I should probably add that all skills go up by one at 11th and 21st levels.
Daily Powers
Daily powers now recharge much like monster recharge abilities. When you expend a daily ability, it remains unusable until you successfully recharge it at the beginning of an encounter or gain a level. At the beginning of every encounter roll a six sided die (d6) for each expended daily power (including utility powers, item powers, attack powers and any other daily power you might have which is expended). On a 5 or a 6, you regain the use of that power.
Daily powers now recharge much like monster recharge abilities. When you expend a daily ability, it remains unusable until you successfully recharge it at the beginning of an encounter or gain a level. At the beginning of every encounter roll a six sided die (d6) for each expended daily power (including utility powers, item powers, attack powers and any other daily power you might have which is expended). On a 5 or a 6, you regain the use of that power.
I've been having a bit of an issue with nova-ing and single encounter adventure days and then I noticed something. The refresh on a day as a period of time is not a system beat. Encounters are system beats. Milestones are system beats. Levels are system beats. But for days, you need to look at the narrative to see when they begin and when they end. I don't know if I'm explaining this very well, but basically I wanted a rate of daily recharge that roughly equals a bit more than you'd have if you used no more than a daily per encounter and had atleast three encounters before an extended rest. And since the monster recharge mechanic already exists, I figured I'd just extrapolate it to encounters instead of rounds. I do get that I still have healing surges refreshing to the narrative non-system beat of a daily rest. I'm open to ideas about that.
Critical hits
Critical hits do maximum damage and an additional bonus equal to the character’s level:
1-5: 1d6
6-10: 2d6
11-15:3d6
16-20:4d6
21-25:5d6
26-30: 6d6
If a magic item has a critical effect, the player can choose which to apply on any critical hit. Either the above bonus or the critical effect of the item can be applied, but not both.
Critical hits do maximum damage and an additional bonus equal to the character’s level:
1-5: 1d6
6-10: 2d6
11-15:3d6
16-20:4d6
21-25:5d6
26-30: 6d6
If a magic item has a critical effect, the player can choose which to apply on any critical hit. Either the above bonus or the critical effect of the item can be applied, but not both.
It's basically a version of the Dark Sun inherent bonus critical hits with an option to choose to use magic item criticals on a case by case basis. I am aware that some magic items (like challenge seeking weapons) becomes more powerful when their mediocre critical damage is replaced by a flat number of d6s.
Experience Points
Monsters will only give one quarter of their XP value for defeating them. Skill Challenges also give one quarter of the normal XP for their difficulty and complexity.
Monsters will only give one quarter of their XP value for defeating them. Skill Challenges also give one quarter of the normal XP for their difficulty and complexity.
One of the characteristics of older editions of the game that handle dungeon exploration quite well is that monsters are not necessarily the greatest source of XP. In older editions, it was treasure that got you levels.
This brings back the danger of wondering monsters when combined with the changes to extended rests and healing surge refreshes. If you make a bunch of noise in the dungeon and a monster shows up, even if it's a very quick and easy encounter, every HP of damage is going to be keenly felt and the lowered XP means that wondering monsters don't just serve as XP farming that makes 4E characters level up even faster.
Quests
Quests will be the greatest source of XP. As well as quests given by NPCs, players are free to define their own quests, with an XP value being given by the DM depending on the nature of the quest. Quests can include the slaying of specific creatures as well as groups of creatures, interrupting a dark ritual, solving mysteries, saving a hostage, recovering an item or any other appropriate goal. Personal and social goals are also appropriate for a quest. Marrying the princess, proving an imprisoned person is actually innocent, overcoming a dark secret, building a temple, etc.,.
Quests will be the greatest source of XP. As well as quests given by NPCs, players are free to define their own quests, with an XP value being given by the DM depending on the nature of the quest. Quests can include the slaying of specific creatures as well as groups of creatures, interrupting a dark ritual, solving mysteries, saving a hostage, recovering an item or any other appropriate goal. Personal and social goals are also appropriate for a quest. Marrying the princess, proving an imprisoned person is actually innocent, overcoming a dark secret, building a temple, etc.,.
I've always been a fan of goals for characters and encourage players to have specific and group goals. A mega dungeon campaign is largely about exploration and identification of possible goals and the means of their accomplishment. Since you can't craft magic items, gold pieces are no longer a points-buy system of character advancement. In previous editions gold was used to build castles, expand influence and a variety of other things. I've been doing that in my current sand-box empire building campaign and would like to carry the idea through to this campaign.
Minions
Minions now come in two varieties: Minions and Elite Minions. Elite Minions are bloodied the first time they take damage and are killed the second time they take damage. Each elite minion will also have a threshold where a single attack that does that amount of damage will kill them. A critical hit also kills an elite minion in one hit. Elite minions also do an average of 50% more damage than a regular minion.
Minions now come in two varieties: Minions and Elite Minions. Elite Minions are bloodied the first time they take damage and are killed the second time they take damage. Each elite minion will also have a threshold where a single attack that does that amount of damage will kill them. A critical hit also kills an elite minion in one hit. Elite minions also do an average of 50% more damage than a regular minion.
House rules for tougher minions have been the subject of many threads. My main goal to include them is to have a type of monster that is perfect for descriptive and quick skirmishes where the maps/dungeon tiles may not be involved. And to provide a range of monster power levels in an encounter instead of one hit nobodies and multi-hit full monsters.
Save Versus Death
Adventuring can be lethal. In a normal game of D&D, effects that can kill, petrify or otherwise permanently damage a PC are exceedingly rare and often only begin to appear in the Paragon tier. These effects will be present through all levels of play. However the principle of it taking multiple failed saves will be upkept. If a player character is subject to an effect that could be lethal upon enough failed saves, the player will be told that it is a lethal situation.
Adventuring can be lethal. In a normal game of D&D, effects that can kill, petrify or otherwise permanently damage a PC are exceedingly rare and often only begin to appear in the Paragon tier. These effects will be present through all levels of play. However the principle of it taking multiple failed saves will be upkept. If a player character is subject to an effect that could be lethal upon enough failed saves, the player will be told that it is a lethal situation.
This is pretty much direct inspiration from saveversusdeath.com. As it stands, a lot of 4E characters are nigh-invulnerable. PCs are very rarely reduced to negative bloodied and when they are dying, the three death save count down clock gives anyone interested in healing them ample time to do so. Level appropriate traps are pretty gutless and various save ends effects often don't do too much.
The vast majority of PC deaths at my table have been the result of going below 0 HP while within a damage aura and taking ongoing damage. While these deaths are still good, I want poison to be poisonous, crushing stone to squish flesh and death traps to be deadly.
As always, when you grant someone a free saving throw, if they fail it, it doesn't contribute towards any effect on a failed save.
Death and Dying
Each time a PC fails a death saving throw, it should be marked on the character sheet. If at any time you have three death saving throw marks on your character sheet, your character has died. At the beginning of each Encounter, roll 1d6 per death saving throw failure. On a 5 or 6, remove the mark. As well, a PC may spend a healing surge to remove a Death Saving Throw failure mark.
Each time a PC fails a death saving throw, it should be marked on the character sheet. If at any time you have three death saving throw marks on your character sheet, your character has died. At the beginning of each Encounter, roll 1d6 per death saving throw failure. On a 5 or 6, remove the mark. As well, a PC may spend a healing surge to remove a Death Saving Throw failure mark.
When 4E first came out, my group misread the death saving throw text and thought you died when you failed three death saves before you take an extended rest. The game had a higher rate of character death, but we enjoyed it immensely. This is an adaptation of that idea using the same recharge mechanic as the daily power recharge.
So that's what I have so far. Do you think it will accomplish my goals of making 4E more suitable to a campaign/mega dungeon exploration type game in the vein of saveversusdeath.com's Fourthcore approach?
Thanks for reading!
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