Most Common House Rules

[sirwmholder]

Our current House Rules are as follows:

- When you roll hitpoints, every level after first, if the result is less than half the die value you instead gain half. (Example: Fighter rolls a 3 instead gains 5 )

- The 0 level heal spell ( Cure Minor Wounds ) heals 1d4 no bonuses or modifications instead of 1.

- We do not roll for confirmation on critical hits.

- If you critical hit anything that is immune to critical hits you instead deal max damage. ( Fighter crits with a long sword deals 8 + enhancements + strength )

- Keen and improved critical stack as in they both improve the critical range by 1.

- Toughness now gives +1 hitpoint every level. There are no improved versions of this.

- Fighters who take Improved Unarmed Strike at 1st level can increase the damage of their fist the same as a monk as long as their fist are their primary weapons. Furthermore, they must take the appropriate weapon feats for unarmed as soon as they become available (weapon focus, weapon specialization).

- Barbarians are called Berserkers ( per Record of the Lodoss War ).

That's all I can think of right now...

Thanks for your time,
Wm. Holder

 

[GreatLemur]

I'm actually really surprised to see that so many people roll for hit points at all. I'd thought half max HP was almost an unofficial standard.

 

[Priest_Sidran]

Here are some of mine (and their are quite a few)


I Added the following abilities: Appeal, Perception, Luck; Skills; Bargain, Gambling (Cards), Gambling (Dice), Gambling (Other), Investigate, Read/Write Language, Research, Seduction, Silvered Speech, Use Ancient Device, World Mythos Reused Innuendo, Intuit Direction, Read Lips. I am also debating reinstating Wilderness Lore, and keeping Survival (Making Wilderness Lore being Wis based and survival being (Int) based.

Also I am using Reputation, and adding Faith as a virtual Save which allows people with strong faith to simulate the Turn Undead ability of a Cleric if they meet the DC (Always harder than a Cleric)

I also use Devastating Blows, which are a tripple success on a critical hit, and Death blow a quadruple success on the same.

I use also Parry (Like Grapple) based off dexterity. Takes up an attack of opportunity and is only able to be done once per round.

I Use Vitality but it is not the same as the Normal Vitality. This one is rolled like Hit Points and is for Non Lethal, and for use in the Dream plane as hit points their based off perception.

I know that's a lot to take in so I will end there, I just grazed over the rules I use.

 

[J. R. Scherer]

I use a lot of house rules. Off the top of my head:

No AoO
AC bonuses based on class and level
Action Points based on what's used in Spycraft and Adventure!
HP rolls are considered half the die roll if the player rolled under half on the die
Death is at negative Con HP
No favored classes
No restrictions on multiclassing (still needs to make sense storywise, though)

 

[Yair]

My current house rules are

• Action Points (mainly to help prevent PC deaths)
• point-buy ability score (75 points, 1:1 cost), and average hp at levels 1+ (I like to remove the randomness from character builds, letting everyone play on an even playing field)
• Traits at first level (to ingrain the players in the campaign, they're tailored to affect the Shackled City campaign I'm playing)
• No training needed to raise a level, you can raise it instantly (a simplifying interpretation)
• XP granted by me to fit the adventure's needs and expected progress (both simpler for me, and allows a better fit to the adventure)
• Turn Undead variant from CD (way simpler, I found the core mechanic came up so rarely and was so unique that it slowed things down, plus it wasn't much fun - hence the change)
• Diplomacy (and really any skill or other check) is very likely to be set an arbitrary DC by me. (I like Rich's system for Diplomacy, and will probably mostly adopt it.)

I find that I like House Rules too much. I am trying to avoid making loads of small changes that I think will make the game better, but encumber it with too many house rules. House rules I like but didn't include are (in no particular order):

• Dodge provides a blank +1 to hp. [simpler, not too powerful]
• Toughness provides +1 hp/level, minimum 3. [current feat is useless at higher levels]
• Disabled extended to -level, dying extends to -level-10 (standard action while disabled drops you to dying) or some variant thereof. [extends the dramatically interesting disabled state, which otherwise just doesn't see much use]
• Raise dead etc. result in negative level instead of level loss [losing levels isn't fun]
• Not Quite Dead Yet [that's a great idea, I just might adopt it]
• No XP penalties or limitations on multiclassing [who needs them?]
• More feats [there are so many great combos and cool things, it's a shame you can't dip more]
• Defense bonus based on level or Reflex [armors are for mooks, conan doesn't need no armor]
• Stunt and challenge rules from IH
• Keen and Improved Critical stack [they really should]
• Intimidate with Str [another great idea]
• No animated shields [yuck]
• Elf favored class is Bard, Gnomes change back to Illusionist
• Repalce hp system with a wounds system [way too big a change, but I think it would work better]
• Armor as DR [makes much more sense]
• Eschew Materials for free at 1st Sorcerer level; Heritage feats at levels 5,10,15,20. [I'm leery of making the sorcerer stronger, though]
• Ading some Cha-based skills to the Sorcerer (like Bluff, Intimidate, Use Magic Device, perhaps Diplomacy). [having a high Cha but no Cha skills sucks]
• No cross-class skills [simpler, allows for more character diversity and less straighjacketing the PCs by classes]

 

[Thanee]

No cross-class skills

Doesn't that kinda make adding more class skills to the sorcerer redundant?

Bye
Thanee

 

[Yair]

Doesn't that kinda make adding more class skills to the sorcerer redundant?

Yeah, sure does.

 

[GreatLemur]

Doesn't that kinda make adding more class skills to the sorcerer redundant?

Those are just house rules he likes, not ones he's actually using.

 

[Storyteller01]

There is no XP penalty for multi-classing. Instead, creatures taking levels in their favored class gain an extra skill point for that level (4 extra skill points if taken at first level). Creatures (other than human) who have 'Any' listed as their favored class must choose one at first level.

Humans gain an extra skill point regardless of class taken.



Subdual damage carries over into lethal damage, regardless of the source.

 

[Psion]

Wow, guess I am the only one who made the 18-20 x2 crit weapons one step larger damage die and 19-20 x2 crit.

Sure they are balanced at low levels, though once damage bonuses start mattering more than the rolls, the 1 point less damage does not outweight the crits racking up.

I find there are enough creatures immune to crits that it's not really needed.