Houseruling Expertise

[Obryn]

Well, this is my first house rule for 4e, now that the only end-of-round failed saves can hurt you.

I don't hugely object to the various Expertise feats, but I like my players to have their feat slots available for non-boring stuff. So, I'm pondering one of two house rules...

(1) Everyone gets 1 or 2 free Expertise feats at 5th level. This is the easiest to houserule in the Character Builder, so I'm leaning towards it. Characters with 90%+ Weapon-based powers get a free Weapon Expertise. Characters with 90%+ Implement-based powers get a free Implement Expertise. Characters who are 50-50 or so, like clerics, paladins, and swordmages, get 1 of each.

(2) Expertise does not exist. At 5th level, characters gain +1 to all attack rolls. At 15th, this increases to +2; at 25th, +3. If Expertise is, indeed, errata in feat's clothing, this is a more sensible option. Also, importantly, it will help with racial abilities like dragon breath and fireburst. This is tougher to put into Character Builder, but sheets and cards are pretty simple to hand-edit.

Thoughts? I already know I want to do something like this, and if you think it's fine, the Rules Forum discussion is probably a better place for it.

-O

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

#2. Definitely #2.

 

[keterys]

If you're strongly tied to the Character Builder, do it as a penalty to monster AC and defenses I'm guessing.

 

[Obryn]

Yeah, I made an executive decision tonight to go with #2, and my players thought it was Christmas. Then again, as soon as I told them about Expertise, they were scanning their sheets to see what they could re-train.

I was under the impression you could add extra feats in the Builder, but it looks like I was wrong! So, I'm just going to have everyone edit their sheet and their cards. It's not like the math is hard.

-O

 

[keterys]

You can - there's a little house icon you hit to add bonus feats (or powers).

But, editing is good too.

 

[evilbob]

keterys is right: adding extra existing feats is one of the few houseruling options that is simple in the character builder. There's a "house" icon that's extremely easy to miss; when you click (or is it right-click?) it you get a list of options, one of which is to add another feat (slot). This allows you to put in one extra feat, so long as it's on the feat list. However you can also tell it to ignore feat prereqs, so adding ANY feat is not hard.

No idea how to fix breath weapons and other non-weapon, non-implement powers tho.