D&D 4E Ideas for 4E tweaks

[Darkthorne]

This is some of the house rules one of my groups will be using. Please comment or add your own ideas and reasons why you are using them

Minions (Due to me not letting the pcs know they are minions, keeps up the scare factor)
Crits: on a crit a minion does an extra D6 per tier.
HP: I think they should be increased by tier but haven’t ironed them out to a specific set of numbers yet.

Powers (The ability to consistently roll garbage when these are about to be used is amazing)
Encounter & Dailies: give the non-reliable, no effect on a miss powers a restricted recharge mechanic based off of tier; once the power is actually used the recharge ability is now defunct.
Heroic 6 for both, Paragon 5-6 for encounters 6 on Dailies, Epic 5-6 for both

Wand Wizard (Oooo I can make one teeny tiny part of my burst/blast a bit more effective!)
Add the Dex bonus for all attack rolls for that on specific use of the spell (Makes this choice more of an option vs Staff or Orb)

Monster HP (help with the grind due to bad die rolling, bad or lack of tactics, someone split up the party etc)
Reduce non-minion HP by 15-20%. I have seen people mentioning cuts of 25 to 30% or just hand waving the remainder hp after a certain point. I think the 15-20% may work well with the recharge mechanic in place.

 

[darjr]

Can I just post some ideas?

Neophyte tier with maybe a few sub levels or 0th levels. Characters start with some racial abilities and only part of their classes abilities, maybe they start with the multiclass feat into their own class. Then add from there until they reach first level.

Model other craft and creation things after alchemy. The scales of war had some neat backgrounds that included an armorer who could build his own armor, maybe add to that so that they could do neat tweaks or tricks, along the lines of what an alchemist could do or rituals. Extend that to other craft like things, a clothier or a silver smyth or some such.

Maybe do this with mulitcass only classes?

Open up the skill system a bit. Spend a feat to get a skill that isn't on the standard list. Like seafaring. You'd get all these naval and shipping and seagoing things out of it. See above for extending even that.

Bring back one of the things I really love about older editions. Large collections of spells. A class that could collect spells and interchange them much more than the wizard could would be very neat.

 

[FireLance]

Here are a couple of tweaks that I plan to playtest in the next campaign I run:

Recharge on a miss: When you use an encounter power and miss with all your attacks, you can recharge that power on a . When you use a non-reliable daily power and miss with all your attacks, you can recharge a spent encounter power on a . Recharge chances stack. If you miss with two encounter powers, you recharge on a , but you only get to recharge one power at a time, and you reduce your recharge rate by 1 when a power is recharged.

Minion hit point pool: Minions have a collective hit point pool equal to 4 hp + 4 hp/level for each minion. Four 1st-level minions would thus have a hit point pool of 32 hp. An attack that hits a minion removes that minion from play, and deals its normal damage to the hit point pool. Effects that deal automatic damage do not immediately kill minions, but they deplete the hit point pool, as do effects that deal damage on a miss. Once the hit point pool is completely depleted, any damage dealt to a minion kills it, even if it was from an attack that missed. This makes minions more durable during the initial stages of combat because only an attack that hits will kill them, and more fragile during the later stages of combat, when the minion hit point pool is depleted, because any effect that deals damage will kill them.

 

[FireLance]

Neophyte tier with maybe a few sub levels or 0th levels. Characters start with some racial abilities and only part of their classes abilities, maybe they start with the multiclass feat into their own class. Then add from there until they reach first level.

If you're interested, I've developed some rules for novice level and apprentice level characters.

 

[Samurai]

Here's the latest version of rules changes for my game. Much of it is taken directly from the errata (most of the power and skill changes, for instance. I figured it was easier to have 1 document of changes, rather than 1 errata sheet and 1 house rules sheet, so I combined them.) But other things are new, including new feats, changes to multiclassing, familiars, skill challenges, etc.

 

[Plane Sailing]

moved to 4e house rules

 

[parra]

Minion hit point pool: Minions have a collective hit point pool equal to 4 hp + 4 hp/level for each minion. Four 1st-level minions would thus have a hit point pool of 32 hp. An attack that hits a minion removes that minion from play, and deals its normal damage to the hit point pool. Effects that deal automatic damage do not immediately kill minions, but they deplete the hit point pool, as do effects that deal damage on a miss. Once the hit point pool is completely depleted, any damage dealt to a minion kills it, even if it was from an attack that missed. This makes minions more durable during the initial stages of combat because only an attack that hits will kill them, and more fragile during the later stages of combat, when the minion hit point pool is depleted, because any effect that deals damage will kill them.

I quite like that idea tbh. give them a little extra live time. Might also trick the PC's into thinking they are not Minions

 

[evilbob]

Recharge on a miss: When you use an encounter power and miss with all your attacks, you can recharge that power on a . When you use a non-reliable daily power and miss with all your attacks, you can recharge a spent encounter power on a .

That's pretty interesting. I had to read it twice to get it, but I like it. I don't think it needs the extra bonuses. Also, I assume this means at the start of your next turn you roll to recharge, right? Oh and what if someone uses a daily first and hasn't got a spent encounter?

Ooo, what about this idea:

Recharge on a miss: When you use an encounter or daily attack power and miss with all your attacks, you can choose to not accept the miss result (if any) and instead roll to recharge that power on subsequent turns on a . A reliable power recharges on a through (change text of reliable so that you have to roll for it). You can only roll to recharge a single power each turn.

It keeps powers flowing more often, which seems like a huge power boost, but it slows down the recharge slightly at least, and you have to account for powers that work on a miss (choosing seems fair). All of this seems so powerful, but then again I can still see the look on my friend's face when he used an action point to blow two dailies in a round and completely missed with both of them. Interesting...

 

[FireLance]

That's pretty interesting. I had to read it twice to get it, but I like it. I don't think it needs the extra bonuses. Also, I assume this means at the start of your next turn you roll to recharge, right? Oh and what if someone uses a daily first and hasn't got a spent encounter?

Yes, roll to recharge at the start of your next turn. If you haven't got a spent encounter power, I suppose you could start making recharge rolls when you do. The basic idea is to mitigate the potential for a grind by giving you a chance to get back your more damaging powers (your encounter powers) when you're behind the damage curve because you missed with an encounter or a daily.

Ooo, what about this idea:

Recharge on a miss: When you use an encounter or daily attack power and miss with all your attacks, you can choose to not accept the miss result (if any) and instead roll to recharge that power on subsequent turns on a . A reliable power recharges on a through (change text of reliable so that you have to roll for it). You can only roll to recharge a single power each turn.

It keeps powers flowing more often, which seems like a huge power boost, but it slows down the recharge slightly at least, and you have to account for powers that work on a miss (choosing seems fair). All of this seems so powerful, but then again I can still see the look on my friend's face when he used an action point to blow two dailies in a round and completely missed with both of them. Interesting...

I think this system works best if you really want your players to hit with their daily powers eventually, instead of mitigating the effect of the missed daily by allowing the recharge of an encounter. I assume that if they end a fight with a missed daily still unrecharged, it recharges after a short rest?

 

[FireLance]

Something I read on the boards today led me to come up with an additional tweak:

Desperate action: If you are bloodied in an encounter, you may spend a maximum of two action points in that encounter, but no more than one per round. If you are reduced to 0 hp or below in an encounter, you may spend a maximum of three action points in that encounter, but no more than one per round.