House Rules: If I show you mine, will you show me yours?

[Alisair Longreach]

These are my house rules for the Eberron campaign I start later this summer:

Rulebooks in play:
Eberron Player’s Guide, all Player’s Handbooks, all Adventurer’s Vaults, all Power books.

Ability Scores:
Ability Score Array: 18, 16, 14, 12, 11, 10. Three ability scores increase at 4th, 8th, 14th, 18th, 24th and 28th level.

Races:
Ignore all racial ability score bonuses.
Eladrin Education grants characters skill training in Arcana, History, Nature or Religion.
The Half-Elf Dilletante power has been revised.

Classes:
The PCs also receive extra level bonuses at every level except 1st, 11th and 21st level.
The Level bonus is also applied to the damage of all powers.
All attack powers inflict +1d6 damage on a critical hit at 2nd level, +2d6 at 6th, +3d6 at 11th,
+4d6 at 16th, +5d6 at 21st and +6d6 at 26th level unless modified by magic items.
All Cleric Powers are based on Wisdom.
All Paladin Powers are based on Charisma.
All Ranger powers are based on Dexterity.
All Warlock powers are based on Charisma.
The Fighter At-Will attack Sure Strike adds the Strength modifier to damage.
The Ranger At-Will attack Careful Shot adds the Dexterity modifier to damage.
Two-Weapon Rangers lose Prime Shot but gain Two-Weapon Fighting as a bonus feat.
Rogue Sneak Attack damage dice increases to 4d6 at 11th level and to 6d6 at 21th level.
Warlocks may not choose powers outside of their pact (their patrons are very jealous).
Wizards must choose between either adding two Daily Utility powers to their Spellbook or having one Encounter Utility power. Wizards may not retrain Daily Utility and Daily Attack powers.
Wizard of the Spiral Tower paragon path also has Eladrin as a prerequisite.
Wizards never replace Daily powers but add extra Daily powers at the Paragon and Epic tiers.
The Eternal Seeker Epic Destiny is not allowed.
PCs may choose a power outside of their class if it fits a theme or concept, with the DM’s permission.

Skills:
The level bonus is not added to the skill modifier.

Feats:
Trained skills, Expanded Spellbook, Linguist and Ritual Casting may not be retrained.
The Expanded Spellbook feat also encompasses Daily Utility powers.
The Channel Divinity and Multiclass feats are not allowed. Multiclass feats have been revised into one feat.

Equipment:
Magic items do not provide bonuses to attacks and defenses. The Magic prefix do not exist.
Masterwork Armor rules are ignored.
Heavy armor provides an extra +1 AC bonus at 6th, 11th, 16th, 21st and 26th level.
PCs can use one Magic Item Daily Power per body slot per day.
Magic Items ignore properties and powers and rules dependent on Milestones.
Potion of Healing is a level 1 magic item.
Potions of Healing, Vitality and Recovery don’t cost healing surges.

Adventuring:
Use of an Action Point is redesigned as Character Feature Encounter Power.

Combat:
Group Initiative: Enemies above party level act first. PCs with 20+ DEX and a feat bonus to initiative always act before enemies. PCs act in order by DEX modifier or by agreement.

Rituals:
Ritual casters may replace Component Cost with one healing surge for most Heroic tier Rituals.
The Brew Potion ritual is level 1 and only allows the creation of the Potion of Healing.
The Enchant Magic Item ritual is not available to PCs.
A specific Enchant Magic Item ritual is required for each magic item. The market price of the Enchant [Specific] Magic Item ritual is equal to the market price of a ritual of the same level.
Research time for a Ritual is one day per level of the Ritual.
Ritual research cost is equal to market price plus component cost.

DILLETANTE/MULTICLASS POWER
Prerequisites: Ability score 13+ in the Attack modifier. Half-Elf Racial Feature.
Benefit: Choose an at-will attack power from any class. You can use that power as an encounter power.
Restrictions: You may not choose powers with these keywords: Beast, Beastform, Spirit.
You may not choose powers with the Implement keyword unless your class uses implements.
You may not choose Warlock powers.
Special: This feat replaces all multiclass feats.

 

[KarinsDad]

Sorry, I misread. I don't see anything that requires a Wizard to use his Orb power immediately when he hits an opponent with an attack, though. So unless you also require the wizard to use the orb immediately on a successful attack, or not at all, this implementation won't really work.

You're right. On the other hand, the house rule does nothing for the Orb without doing that. I'll have to add that these conditions cannot be affected by the Orb unless the Wizard does it immediately. Fortunately, we do not have a Wizard in our group.

Daze doesn't strike me as a problematic condition in general, except when used against solos, who tend to have immediate and/or minor action attacks that Daze denies.

Which is why I did not add it to the list.

Huh? You think that even with this change to weaken stun powers in general (since the stun only works 45% of the time), powers that inflict the stunned condition are still too strong?

No. I think that without the house rule that powers that inflict the stunned condition are too strong. They are effectively 50/50 to take away the foe's actions. And Stun until save is worse.

 

[Elric]

Which is why I did not add it [Daze] to the list.

OK, this is rather confusing. You said:

This was my slightly older house rules at work. I actually have a revised one on my laptop at home where I added a recent rule that Stun and Paralyze get an immediate non-modified auto-save (i.e. when Stun hits foe, foe rolls 10 or higher to save, 9 or lower to fail and work as normal). This roll is made after the player decides to use Orb of Imposition or not. It incentivizes the player to not use the Orb with Stun, but with some lesser condition.

I don't care about saves with most conditions. I only care about saves with conditions that totally remove all actions from foes. I could have added Daze to this list, but meh.

To which I responded, referring to the fact (though I didn't spell this out explicitly) that there's no such condition as Paralyzed

Do you mean Immobilized? I'd say that Stunned, Dominated, Unconscious (Sleep), and Petrified all qualify as removing all actions. Against monsters without a ranged attack, Immobilized and Restrained can be similar to stunning.

To which you said

No, I meant Dazed because it definitely removes two actions. Immobilized does not.

I forgot about Sleep. I'll add that to the list."

Unless you thought I was asking if you meant "Immobilized" where you said "Dazed." If that's the case, what did you mean by Paralyzed? Petrified?

 

[KarinsDad]

Unless you thought I was asking if you meant "Immobilized" where you said "Dazed." If that's the case, what did you mean by Paralyzed? Petrified?

Sorry. My misunderstanding stacked on top of your misunderstanding.

I meant petrified. I thought you were asking about why I said meh to Daze since your question was immediately after that sentence.


So, the list should be: Stun, Sleep (unconscious), and Petrified.

I think these "remove all action" conditions are problematic.


I do not think that Immobilize and Daze which typically do not remove all actions are problematic. Immobilize can be an issue if the foe does not have a ranged attack or some other action it can do, but meh. Ditto for Daze. Even if the foe has no ranged attack, it can always move or do something else. An occassional "foe is screwed" in these cases is ok and can actually be a lot of fun for the players.

The foe is always screwed for Stun, Sleep (unconscious), and Petrified. It's almost the equivalent of Save or Die (not quite, but close enough for me to be a problem).

 

[Intense_Interest]

Keepers
1:1 movement on Diagonals! 20% market-rate on exchanges! Treasure Parcels! Milestones! Dragonborn! Tieflings! All that fun stuff.

At-Will attacks
"Careful/Sure Strikes” – the +2 to hit at-will attack powers have the “Takedown” effect: any attack that leaves a monster with only a handful of HPs left automatically kills them, as if they were a minion.

Action Points
“Recharge” – Once per day, you may use an action-point during a short rest to recharge a Daily Power you have used.
“Speed ritual” – Once per day, you may use an action-point during a combat to use a ritual during combat, with time required based on the ritual’s casting time. Only non-attack immediate, free, and minor actions may be used by the character. Critical Failure (1+number of healing surges used during the ritual) results in spectacular failure.
"Super Stunt" - Once per day, you can use an action point to allow greater leeway with the "reasonable" limits on stunting. Critical Failure rules still apply, and effects will be adjudicated.

Acrobatics
"Battle Roll” – While prone, you can use a move action to make a Medium-difficulty Acrobatics check to make a shift while you are standing up from Prone. Critical Failure (1) may result either in simply standing up from Prone or Shifting without standing up, dependent on whichever is least helpful.
“Jackie Chan-ing” – You may try any Athletic s check using your Acrobatics skill. Critical Failure (1) results in hilarious Jackie-Chan out-takes, as determined by GM.

Alignment
I don’t care much, but you might. Instead, answer 4 questions: What kind of adventurer are you? Why did you become an Adventurer? What is your Adventurer’s Goal? What is your Adventurer’s wildest dream/fantasy?

Arcana
“Magic Trick” – You may try any “reasonable” stunt using your Arcana skill. Basing your trick on a magical spell you have available (Acid Arrow to melt a lock et al) alters a Hard DC to Medium or a Medium DC to Easy . Basing your trick on a trained magical spell you have already used alters a Medium DC to Easy. Critical Failure (1) results in a “loss” of the magical ability or a healing surge, depending. Utility Powers used for Magic Tricks get a +2 bonus.

Attack-Math
+1 to-hit for all attacks at levels 5, 15, and 25.

Charisma
“Holy War of the Dwarves” – Dwarves are split into two factions- those that believe in the Divine Regency, (“Moradin was the 1st Dwarven King and the kings & queens after him are elevated to divine after death”) and those that don’t. Dwarf characters must choose between these two factions and suffer a -2 penalty to Charisma checks when interfacing with a Dwarf that actively disagrees with them on the issue and a +1 to Charisma checks when interfacing with a Dwarf that agrees with them on the issue.
“Morale” – Non-fearless enemies that are likely to be killed/defeated suffer a -5 to Will defenses versus parley attempts (Intimidate/Diplomacy/Bluff).

Dexterity
"Disarming" Encounter Melee, Standard & Move: Dex vs AC or Reflex, whichever is higher. Target may not use item in their hand until they spend a minor action on their turn. Two-Handed weapons get a +2 bonus to defenses against this attack. Critical Hits fling weapon to an adjacent square, farther if the player spends an Action Point.

Economy
"Find your Friend" - Finding a fence/seller is not assumed, but there are many ways to find things above or below market price via role-playing.

Feats
Weapon & Implement Expertise (PHB2) is banned.
“Silver Tongued” – Paragon, requires a character trained in Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Insight; character gets a +3 bonus to all checks using those skills.
“Takedown” – Paragon, requires Wisdom 12; a character may kill a single monster (as if they were a minion) with Wis mod or less HP that they have hit during their turn with an attack as a minor action.

Religion
“Portfolio Stunt” – A character may use their Channel Divinity power to make a Religion check to stunt anything that falls within their god(s)’s portfolio. Critical Failure (1) means that you may not recharge your Channel Divinity power until you take an extended rest.

Resting
"Identify & other actions" - You may only do a handful of reasonable actions while resting. Identifying a single item is a entire-rest action. Arcana checks can be used to identify items, and can be done as many times you want until you fail, at which point you stop.
"Lingering Injuries" - If a character has been forced to make a death save, they reduce the amount of healing surges they have the next day by the amount of death saves failed. Heal checks or Endurance checks may be used to regain these healing surges during the extended rest.

Rituals
“Elfish Babies/Children” – All offspring of the Elvish type (Half Elf, Elf, Eladrin, Drow) are considered “blank slates” until they are “baptized” or “mitzvah’ed”, at which point they become Half-Elf, Elf, Eladrin, or Drow. Drow have a habit of kidnapping young Elfish for this reason. Further, Elfish Babies/Children may be used as Ritual components, worth 1000gp on an “open market”.

Notes:
Some of these guys are campaign-specific (Elf babies, Dwarven holy war). I encourage stunting and only see fit to punish players for critical failures because it is usually funny- otherwise they're almost as powerful as using a power, normally, and the randomness is what hurts the PCs over time, not failing to achieve an action. I haven't found a reason to give a bonus to F/R/W defenses yet, because my players are usually more frustrated by missing than by being hit.

 

[Garthanos]

The foe is always screwed for Stun, Sleep (unconscious), and Petrified. It's almost the equivalent of Save or Die (not quite, but close enough for me to be a problem).

I have been considering a way to make certain extreme effects including sleep and transformation attacks tied to current hit points.

Sleep:
This is an attack which deals pacification points. If you have fewer hitpoints+temporary hitpoints than pacification points you fall unconcious. Essentially the subject falls unconscious before there hit points reach zero.

Temporary hitpoints reduce pacification damage as normal. If you recieve healing while influenced by pacification you regain 1 hit point and lose 1 pacification point. Effects which induce temporary hitpoints also undo pacification.
​

I need to simplify that... last part

but Petrification seems easier...

Petrification attacks deliver normal real damage incidental slowing effect , and with a condition on the final attack which reduces the target hitpoints to zero (if the last attack puts you below zero raise there hit points to zero) If you are reduced to zero hitpoints by a petrification attack you cannot be raised from the dead or simply healed you can be affected by transformation rituals and a disenchant ritual to undo the effect.
You are considered living stone/crystal/pillar of salt whatever.

Perhaps the slowing condition could be recurring when you make a bad roll..... as a way to stress you have parts that are freezing up, but that is getting fancy and too complication for certain.

I suppose other transformation attacks could be visualized using a similar technique.... Like your joints fluxuating and trying to change in to a dear on you makes moving difficult.

The idea is with transformation attacks the final condition is a loss of identity complete enough... only a hero with no hitpoints left should be hit by it.

 

[Garthanos]

Dexterity
"Disarming" Encounter Melee, Standard & Move: Dex vs AC or Reflex, whichever is higher. Target may not use item in their hand until they spend a minor action on their turn. Two-Handed weapons get a +2 bonus to defenses against this attack. Critical Hits fling weapon to an adjacent square, farther if the player spends an Action Point.

That's not too bad as disarm rules. The weapon is effectively at there feet allowing a minor action to recover keeps it under control with the critical hit rather interesting but I would want it to be an exceed your attack roll required by 10 or something similar. This would make it "only" fully work against somebody who you outclassed. Does swarming the hero with minions intent on taking his weapon sounds like a scene from a movie?

 

[Ahnirades]

For speeding up combat:

• Damage is no longer rolled, but fixed at 1/2 maximum for each die plus bonuses. Thus 3d6 + 4 = 13 fixed damage. Crits inflict maximum as usual.
• PCs add a +3 bonus per tier todamage that would have been rolled under the old rules. Thus the 13 points of fixed damage cited above becomes 17 at Heroic tier, 21 at Paragon and 24 at epic.
• Previously unrolled damage damage inflicted by PCs - such as that inflicted by misses, ongoing effects or secondary damage - remain unchanged.
• Monsters add a +1 bonus per tier to all damage they inflict, whether it's fixed or unrolled.

Precalculate damage totals for normal hits and crits prior to play and enjoy!

 

[Whimsical]

Thank you for your feedback, and for posting your house rules.

Now that I've finally taken the time to review every response and then update my rules further, here's the rules I added or changed from my original posting:

Action Point
Instead of taking an extra action when you can spend an action point, you can use one of these effects:
ADDITION:
• Edit the story. If you spend your highest Daily attack power without using it along with an action point, you can work with the DM to alter your situation significantly.

Yeah, I'm crazy. I know.

REMOVED:
Weapon & Implement Expertise

As the game progresses, I'll review how it plays at the higher level. If I think it's warranted, I'll make the following adjustments behind the screen:
Apply a penalty to NPC attacks & defenses. -1 from 5th to 14th level, -2 from 15th to 24th level, & -3 at 25th level and higher.

ADDITION:
Multiclass Feats
If the multiclass feat you select grants the benefit of gaining training in a specific skill and you are already trained in that skill, you may instead either select a different skill from that class’s skill list to gain training in or gain the Skill Focus feat for that skill.

ADDITION:
Aid Another
The DC (or AC) used for the Aid Another action is the Moderate DC value from the updated Difficulty Class and Damage By Level table from page 42 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide (Level 1st—3rd: DC 10; Level 4th—6th: DC 12; Level 7th—9th: DC 14; etc.)

ADDITION:
Fighter & Ranger
Sure Strike & Careful Attack: when you hit, add your Wisdom modifier to the damage.
Effect: You gain a +2 power bonus to your next attack roll against the target.

ADDITION:
Paladin
Lay on Hands: you regain a spent daily use of this power each time you reach a milestone.

CLARIFICATION:
Ritual Books & Scrolls
Ritual books as described in the rules don’t exist. A ritual book is simply a binder to compile a collection of ritual scrolls instead, and costs 1 gp. You can use a ritual scroll as you would normally use a ritual book as described in the rules if you have the Ritual Caster feat. For example, performing rituals from a scroll without expending it by providing the necessary component, meeting the caster level requirement, and performing it with specified amount of time. You can also master a ritual from a scroll and make a copy of a ritual scroll. Creating a ritual scroll takes 8 hours. Because ritual scrolls are made with the best papers and inks, ritual books and scrolls are waterproof.

 

[ComputerSherpa]

Action Point
Instead of taking an extra action when you can spend an action point, you can use one of these effects:
• Add 20 to a skill check or ability check you’re making instead of the result of your die roll.
• When you fail a saving throw, change the result of that saving throw to a success. No action.

My original name for this rule was "[Intercourse] that [extreta]! I succeed!" Sure, it means you can go for that nearly impossible move and make it with no issue, but that's OK. I prefer a more romantic/cinematic game. And if that means you can choose to pull off a badass move once every two combats, go right ahead. Otherwise, you can use if you are tired of failing a skill check and you want to put an end to the string of ones you have been rolling. Plus, it provides a way to use action points in skill challenges and non-combat situations.

I like this! I'm toying with the idea of letting my players trade an action point for +10 or something on an attack roll. (They really hate missing on dailies.) They wouldn't be getting an extra action out of their action point if they took this option, just the attack bonus. What do y'all think--overpowered or no? If it is overpowered, what is it about an attack instead of a skill check that needs the randomness more?

BTW, newbie question: what does RAW stand for?