My 25 house rules

[aboyd]

Here are my house rules. I managed to get each one down to just a sentence or two. You'll see a lot of it is based upon topics here @ EnWorld over the last year. I tried to solve the 15-minute workday by giving casters more low-level spells; I tried to beef up fighters at later levels by giving them a few extra feats; I tried to fix the issues with low-light denying sneak attacks.

1. Players get 3 minutes for their turn, regardless of how many characters/critters they have to play, so consider that before going overboard. Anything you cannot get to within the time limit will delay action until the next round.
2. I'm ruling falling damage to be bludgeoning damage (or piercing, if falling onto spikes). Thus DR does apply.
3. In my game, 24 hours awake = 8 hours forced march. See page 164 of the Player's Handbook.
4. Any dimensional portal inside of another does not cause catastrophe, but does stop working. This means a Handy Haversack will not open while inside a Rope Trick spell.
5. Characters can perform strenuous activity for as many rounds as they have points of Constitution. In other words, someone with a 14 Con can fight/swim/run as normal for 14 rounds. Once you reach your limit, you are temporarily fatigued. If you keep going, you can hit your limit a 2nd time and become temporarily exhausted. These temporary conditions can be reduced (from exhausted to fatigued, or from fatigued to normal) with one minute (10 rounds) of prone rest.
6. Regarding Shield Bash, you cannot disorient a giant by bashing his toe. Bashes need to hit an area responsible for cognition (the brain) or perception (the eyes for most, ears or sonar for some).
7. We do not use the death by massive damage rule (which is, if you take 50+ hit points of damage from a single attack, then you must save or die).
8. Quick Draw applies to anything stored in a container made for ready reach. This includes things like scrolls or flasks. The container cannot be concealed.
9. Acid flasks, smokesticks, holy water, tanglefoot bags, alchemist's fire, and thunderstones can all be thrown without preparation at full BAB. You'll probably need Quick Draw and a bandoleer to pull 'em out fast enough, though.
10. Hiding works like (short-lived) invisibility. A hidden rogue denies the target his Dex Mod to AC (he's flat-footed against the hiding rogue). Thus, a sneak attack is possible. You may try to re-hide after an attack, but it's at -20. See page 76 of the Player's Handbook.
11. In a surprise round, people are flat-footed until they get a chance to attack. Rogues can sneak attack the flat-footed.
12. A bard can only have one song in play at any given time. There are feats in Complete Adventurer & Complete Warrior that allow for songs to be combined.
13. For creating magic items, I disallow the cost reduction rule.
14. Craft (alchemy) can normally only be used by spellcasters, but if you make something that does not radiate magic and in fact is not magical (such as an acid flask), there is no need to be a spellcaster.
15. My game uses revised bonus spell chart which provides extra low-level spells.
16. Wizards and Sorcerers use the Paladin's companion rules for the consequences of the death/dismissal of a familiar. This means no XP loss, but spells have the 30-day attack & damage penalties.
17. With Ebon Eyes, a person in an area of shadowy illumination sees as if it were daylight, which removes the miss chance that low-light conditions normally cause in combat.
18. Barbarians are born, not made. You can't take a level of barbarian unless your first level was in it.
19. As per this thread, when you create a new character, the most you can spend on any one item is half your gold.
20. In my game, the smithing skills (blacksmith, metalworking, armorsmith, weaponsmith) are all rolled into blacksmith.
21. When creating a new character, use the 32 point buy method for your stats. HeroForge shows the point buy value as you assign stats, plus there are online tools to do it also.
22. Critical hits do not require confirmation rolls. Things are just deadly. Watch out.
23. Fighter bonus feats are awarded at any level that a normal feat is not awarded. (Levels 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, 20). By level 20, this gives 3 more feats than normal.
24. Normally, rogues get special abilities at every level except level 14 and 20. I've decided to fill level 14 with low-light vision, which should help their ability to sneak attack.
25. The Dragon Shaman's Fast Healing aura does not auto-stabilize. It's just accelerated natural healing. With natural healing of any speed, if you are bleeding out when you're unconscious, you have to roll a 10% chance to stabilize.

I'm thinking about taking Metalworking out of #20. I think it's more for jewelry, although I'm not clear on all their distinctions.

I have about 5 or 10 other house rules that I could not boil down to a few words. I might post those later.

Let me know if you see any glaring, game-breaking holes.

 

[Khuxan]

I used to house rule a lot, but recently I've started to think "if it's broke, only fix it if someone will notice." A lot of your rules seem to be reactions to perceived problems that will never actually arise in the game.

For example, characters so rarely take Craft, changes to that skill are probably unimportant. Likewise, have any of your players actually selected ebon eyes?

I don't mean to insult your house rules, because they look sensible and measured. I'm just questioning their need.

 

[timbannock]

I also found that houseruling more than a handful of rules usually gets too confusing or is glossed over by my players (especially if any one of them doesn't immediately affect the players...if they read something like "The monster feat Fly-by Attack gives..." they immediately think "I don't need to read any of this junk").

That might just be my players, though. I would recommend getting some kind of "sign-off" (even if it's just verbal) from the Players on these, to ensure they don't conveniently forget any of this stuff when creating a character.

That said, the only rule I see as being an issue is the Shield Bash note. While I understand the logic, IMO fights are far more dynamic than you'd first think, so there's more movement going on than we as players perceived. In other words, when I say "I attempt to Shield Bash the Storm Giant," and my mini is adjacent to said Storm Giant, I don't see it as two creatures standing toe-to-toe and just trading blows. It's more of a constant dodging and weaving, attacks swinging and missing or glancing blows all over the place. So, a Shield Bash might be described as "The Storm Giant swings low to strike you and misses, overextending himself. At the lowest point in his swing, you sidestep inside his reach and jump as high as you can while swinging your shield at the Giant's face."

Something like that, anyway.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

1. Regarding Shield Bash, you cannot disorient a giant by bashing his toe. Bashes need to hit an area responsible for cognition (the brain) or perception (the eyes for most, ears or sonar for some).
2. Wizards and Sorcerers use the Paladin's companion rules for the consequences of the death/dismissal of a familiar. This means no XP loss, but spells have the 30-day attack & damage penalties.
3. Barbarians are born, not made. You can't take a level of barbarian unless your first level was in it.
4. Critical hits do not require confirmation rolls. Things are just deadly. Watch out.
5. Fighter bonus feats are awarded at any level that a normal feat is not awarded. (Levels 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, 20). By level 20, this gives 3 more feats than normal.
6. Normally, rogues get special abilities at every level except level 14 and 20. I've decided to fill level 14 with low-light vision, which should help their ability to sneak attack.
7. The Dragon Shaman's Fast Healing aura does not auto-stabilize. It's just accelerated natural healing. With natural healing of any speed, if you are bleeding out when you're unconscious, you have to roll a 10% chance to stabilize.

Just selecting the ones I have something to say about. The others are all great, though I could see specific situations where the 3 minute strict limit would be really harsh.

1. What is Shield Bash? When I hear that, it sounds like the term for any attack with a shield (ie, the Improved Shield Bash feat).
2. I don't like this. It only really punishes Evoker types, who get hosed compared to the other arcanists enough already. A battlefield controller, save-or-die specialist, or a buffer will not care about this penalty at all. The poor ray-shooter will, though.
3. Also don't like this. There's no good reason I can see for why you couldn't multiclass into Barbarian after level 1, if you say spent some time with guerrilla fighters in the jungle. Certainly seems less ludicrous than studying up on magic enough by looking over Mialee's shoulder at the campfire every night to qualify as a Wizard after level 1.
4. Funny, most people complain combat is too swingy as is in 3E! I'm generally opposed ot more randomness, and auto-confirming crits will be a bigger bonus to the NPCs (who will likely be making more rolls than the party and there's no player out a character if they die) than the PCs. I could also see someone gaming this marvelously by collecting as many abilities that trigger on a crit as possible, and then trying to get the lowest threat range he can.
5. Meh. IMO, Fighters don't need more feats. They need more unique stuff. Some high (and mid-, really) level class features. Some more skill points and skills, some cool tricks. Maybe more stuff to do outside of combat. I guess 3 more feats is better than nothing, though.
6. Similar to Fighter. Meh, better than nothing.
7. I thought this was the rule for all fast healing already?

 

[aboyd]

A lot of your rules seem to be reactions to perceived problems that will never actually arise in the game.

I'm a boy scout. I like to be prepared.

For example, characters so rarely take Craft, changes to that skill are probably unimportant.

Well... we use the Leadership skill, and Craft gets important for followers. But I would concede that we're talking about edge cases.

Likewise, have any of your players actually selected ebon eyes?

We have 3 rogues in the party, out of 8 players. At least one of them had a potion of EE at the most recent game.

I run a rogue-friendly game, use lots of trap-heavy DCC modules from Goodman Games, and I enforce the rule about low-light conditions ruining sneak attacks (not a house rule, btw). In addition, I also enforce the rule that low-light vision merely extends the range of light sources (also not a house rule, btw). Since most people assume low-light vision allows seeing in low-light conditions without penalty (not true) they assume a spell that grants low-light vision will enable sneak attacks, which isn't true (unless there is a light source, but then that may expose the rogue who is hiding or at least lessen his advantage). So Ebon Eyes becomes rather more valuable.

I'm just questioning their need.

OK, noted. The justification for their existence needs to be more compelling. I'll try to beef that up. Thanks.

 

[aboyd]

I also found that houseruling more than a handful of rules usually gets too confusing or is glossed over by my players

I don't know... I was just going over some house rules mentioned in a thread over at rpg.net, and their rules are collected into a 50 page PDF. I guess my thinking is that if all the rules lawyers at my gaming table can read all the core books & splatbooks, they can handle one more page.

I would recommend getting some kind of "sign-off" (even if it's just verbal) from the Players on these, to ensure they don't conveniently forget any of this stuff when creating a character.

Since much of it is intended to be in their favor -- such as extra spells -- I'd let them forget it. My NPCs don't forget, and I'm OK with killing off PCs who cede advantages. Having said that, I also put it on myself to know the negative rules. So for example, I don't blame them if they conveniently forget that they can't be awake forever in my game. When the character has been awake for 24 hours, I just say, "Start the Constitution rolls." So I'll remember those mechanics, no burden on the player.

That said, the only rule I see as being an issue is the Shield Bash note.

Your sample combat scenario is interesting. I'll have to think about it. I don't have my books with me right now, but when I get them I think I'll look at rules for grapple, bull rush, and so on. Those rules seem like they should be in that "size matters" category too. But if their mechanics do not account for size, then probably my rule shouldn't either.

EDIT: StreamOfTheSky helped me realize that my house rule was supposed to be about Shield Slam, not Shield Bash. I agree with you that shield bashes should be entirely appropriate at any time with any size creature. It's the Shield Slam feature of making the enemy dizzy/disoriented that I felt needed to require a hit to the head.

 

[aboyd]

What is Shield Bash? When I hear that, it sounds like the term for any attack with a shield (ie, the Improved Shield Bash feat).

That's a bug. Thanks for flagging the term. It's supposed to refer to Shield Slam, from Complete Warrior. That relies on jarring an opponent to stun them.

It [alternative familiar rules] only really punishes Evoker types, who get hosed compared to the other arcanists enough already. A battlefield controller, save-or-die specialist, or a buffer will not care about this penalty at all. The poor ray-shooter will, though.

OK. Well, this was my attempt to make familiars less lame. No XP loss, no year without the familiar. I thought it was nice that there happened to be a rule system in core that was less harsh. If any of my poor ray-shooters dislike it, I suppose I could allow them to revert to the original rule. I'll add that to the text.

There's no good reason I can see for why you couldn't multiclass into Barbarian after level 1, if you say spent some time with guerrilla fighters in the jungle.

The PHB did -- I thought -- describe barbarians as "born, not made." And so I attached a game mechanic to that. Saying, "Naw, they can be made" isn't really compelling to me. However, in the course of scrutinizing the rule with you, I have to admit that I cannot find any text about barbarians that characterizes their class as innate rather than acquired. If I cannot find the supporting text that originally inspired the house rule, then I'll drop it. It really is dependent upon how the class is described.

I'm generally opposed ot more randomness, and auto-confirming crits will be a bigger bonus to the NPCs (who will likely be making more rolls than the party and there's no player out a character if they die) than the PCs.

The NPCs usually don't get more rolls. There are 8 PCs, if everyone shows up. They get a lot of shots off.

I could also see someone gaming this marvelously by collecting as many abilities that trigger on a crit as possible, and then trying to get the lowest threat range he can.

I would encourage that, so long as they stick with only core + complete books. I wish somebody would. It would be fun to see how effective it could get.

Anyway, this one, at least, is heavily playtested. It started from this house rule which attempted to balance the extra crits with lower damage. However, in practice that just annoyed the heck out of my players, who would forget to change numbers every time they generated a new character sheet. In the end, we dropped the nuances and just said, "no extra die rolls, we'll suck it up."

The goal was faster combat. We got that. I'm not worried about PCs dying. They've died already, it's just how my game goes.

Fighters don't need more feats. They need more unique stuff. Some high (and mid-, really) level class features. Some more skill points and skills, some cool tricks.

I agree... I just think that feats are "cool tricks." Are you thinking of Bo9S or something? I have purchased the Critical Feats PDF, as well as whitelisted about 20 extra fighter feats from NBoF. I thought that would help. Of our 8 characters, nobody wanted to be a fighter, so I guess I still have to work on this one.

I thought this was the rule for all fast healing already?

Yes, actually, I believe 4 or 5 of the house rules are actually just clarifications of how RAW actually works. This was needed, however, as the crew did in fact have a Dragon Shaman, and did in fact insist that it would stabilize someone "like a slow Cure spell, or like Vigor."

And in fact, I'm open to reconsidering this. I recently read another "accelerated natural healing" spell or feat description that said it did stabilize the recipient. I lost where I read it, and it may just be an aspect of the spell. But I can also see where having your body scab over in 10 rounds instead of 1 day might help staunch bleeding out.

So... yeah. Maybe that house rule will reverse itself. In which case, it would become a genuine house rule.

 

[Kask]

The PHB did -- I thought -- describe barbarians as "born, not made." And so I attached a game mechanic to that.

I've had this same house rule since 1st Ed UA.

 

[Nimloth]

Characters can perform strenuous activity for as many rounds as they have points of Constitution. In other words, someone with a 14 Con can fight/swim/run as normal for 14 rounds. Once you reach your limit, you are temporarily fatigued. If you keep going, you can hit your limit a 2nd time and become temporarily exhausted. These temporary conditions can be reduced (from exhausted to fatigued, or from fatigued to normal) with one minute (10 rounds) of prone rest.

While I admit the "I fight all day without getting tired" is unrealistic, IMO this may be a bit harsh. Much depends on what you would define as a "strenuous activity". It's not a bad rule, it just needs a little more definition.

Hiding works like (short-lived) invisibility. A hidden rogue denies the target his Dex Mod to AC (he's flat-footed against the hiding rogue). Thus, a sneak attack is possible. You may try to re-hide after an attack, but it's at -20. See page 76 of the Player's Handbook.

In a surprise round, people are flat-footed until they get a chance to attack. Rogues can sneak attack the flat-footed.

A bard can only have one song in play at any given time. There are feats in Complete Adventurer & Complete Warrior that allow for songs to be combined.

Except for "You may try to re-hide after an attack, but it's at -20" being useable by melee attacks, these are how the rules work anyway.

My game uses revised bonus spell chart which provides extra low-level spells.

IMO, casters are powerful enough.

Wizards and Sorcerers use the Paladin's companion rules for the consequences of the death/dismissal of a familiar. This means no XP loss, but spells have the 30-day attack & damage penalties.

I like this, it would encourage a wiz/sor to actually try to use their little friend, as opposed to keeping it locked away in a dark pocket. Think of the poor familiars, let them out to play...

Barbarians are born, not made. You can't take a level of barbarian unless your first level was in it.

I use this rule for Sor as well. If you want to be a Barb/Sor, I would let you as long as Bar/Sor were your 1st 2 classes.

Critical hits do not require confirmation rolls. Things are just deadly. Watch out.

The NPCs usually don't get more rolls. There are 8 PCs, if everyone shows up. They get a lot of shots off.

Usually, when a mook(low level threat, usually needs a 20 to hit a pc at moderate to high levels) threatens, they fail to confirm. Now they don't need to. And in my experience, there are usually alot more villians who get alot more attacks than pcs. Usually, 1 BIG monster vs a party is a recipe for monster stew.

The Dragon Shaman's Fast Healing aura does not auto-stabilize. It's just accelerated natural healing. With natural healing of any speed, if you are bleeding out when you're unconscious, you have to roll a 10% chance to stabilize.

I do not like this. Dragon Shamans are underpowered enough without nerfing their ability to auto-stabalize with their healing aura.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

That's a bug. Thanks for flagging the term. It's supposed to refer to Shield Slam, from Complete Warrior. That relies on jarring an opponent to stun them.

I thought that was what you meant. I still don't think it's necessary, nor particularly fair. Combat is largely abstracted in D&D, and someone else already gave a good depiction of how you could use this against a giant in the middle of melee combat. In general, if you're able to find a spot to crit the creature, why can't you also Shield Slam it? This makes me think of the sneak attack text about being able to reach vitals. I guess you could assume the giant's chest/head/etc... never comes within reach...but why even bother?

The PHB did -- I thought -- describe barbarians as "born, not made." And so I attached a game mechanic to that. Saying, "Naw, they can be made" isn't really compelling to me. However, in the course of scrutinizing the rule with you, I have to admit that I cannot find any text about barbarians that characterizes their class as innate rather than acquired. If I cannot find the supporting text that originally inspired the house rule, then I'll drop it. It really is dependent upon how the class is described.

I mostly just don't like the term "Barbarian," because I'm fairly new to D&D (only 8 years) and don't come with any prior edition sense of the word/class. To me, the class always represented a type of warrior and fighting style -- hitting hard, entering a frenzied state, literally "toughing out" blows rather than using heavy armor, living off the land -- than a social group. And I don't really think any other base class comes anywhere close to capturing those aspects, so I wouldn't want to leave the Barbarian class so off-limits.

I agree... I just think that feats are "cool tricks." Are you thinking of Bo9S or something? I have purchased the Critical Feats PDF, as well as whitelisted about 20 extra fighter feats from NBoF. I thought that would help. Of our 8 characters, nobody wanted to be a fighter, so I guess I still have to work on this one.

Sort of Tome of Battle. But that would only be a part of it. In my Fighter houserules, I gave a class discipline list (which grants full class level to IL for those disciplines and stacks with any adept classes for them, much as an adept prestige class would), a total of 4 gained maneuvers over the 20 levels (and at each point gaining 1 "readied" maneuver that can be recovered like a Warblade, all the rest can be used 1/encounter), and the ability to take Martial Study with Fighter bonus feats without it counting against the limit of 3 times. So, if you wish to ignore Tome of Battle, the class forces little on you, and if you want ot focus on it, you can have all sorts of maneuvers and stances. I felt it was important to not just make another adept class, but to keep the simplicity and ability to basically build any kind of Fighter you want with any revisions.

I gave 4+ int skills and a better list, including some social skills. Also gave martial lore and Knowledge (history) to all Fighter variations (see below). I gave the Warblade's Weapon Aptitude, because Fighters should have it. Doesn't really require Tome of Battle to understand, of course. It's just the ability to switch around your weapon-based feats.

That was "phase 1." The latter two phases I have been too lazy to implement, and the second a bit apprehensive, because it might be too much. The second is some free feat scaling, similar ot what Arcana Evolved has. In other words, Weapon Focus would self-improve at Fighter 8, no need to take GWF. In general, I wanted to offer some high level feat options in line power-wise for their level, but requiring very few things besides Fighter level. In this way, they would become psuedo-class features. I don't like that many high level Fighter feats require massive chains of prerequisites. Fighters should just be able to get some cool ranged attack feat by being high level, even if they spent most of their feats prior on melee, for example.

Phase 3 is making a subset of the Knowledge (history) skill called "Tactics." Tactics would be a series of DCs to use in small group or large-scale combat to achieve various formations, which give mechanical benefits (or could possibly abstract warfare-level combat entirely). Better tactics would have higher DCs. You would both need to make the fixed DC and have a better check result than the enemy commander to defeat his formation. I want the skill check to include BAB, probably half BAB, so it then relies on 1) having good BAB, 2) having it as a class skil lto put ranks in, and 3) having a good int. Having some combination of those would make you the best at the skill, which would mean (in core) that the Wizard, Bard, and Fighter would be the best at Tactics, which IMHO seems appropriate. Not even started yet, because man it's a lot of work to do!

My Fighter variant and its two "kits" have been used frequently in the two groups they've been adopted by, and seem to be more fun and varied for players using them, even though for the standard Fighter, it's still not much for out-of combat options. They are blatantly better thean core Fighters, but still slightly weaker than adept classes, I'd say. Rules for them, if you want:
[sblock]As in the PHB, except:
• Class Skills: Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (History) (Int), Listen (Wis), Martial Lore (Int), Perform (Weapon Drill) (Cha), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str)
• Skill points = 4 + Int modifier
• Class Disciplines: DM, IH, SS, SD, TC, WR
• Fighter levels count as full initiator levels for determining what stances and maneuvers can be chosen by the character for the above disciplines. Also, Fighter bonus feats spent on Martial Study (as well as maneuvers learned with the Martial Study class feature) do not count against the standard limit of how many times the feat may be taken (3).
• Weapon Aptitude: Fighters can re-designate which weapons their weapons-related feats apply to each morning, see Warblade for more information.
• 5th level – Versatile Learning: Ability scores count as 4 points higher and base save bonuses count as 2 points higher when meeting the prerequisites of a feat on the Fighter bonus feat list. This applies even if not actually acquiring the feat with a bonus feat slot.
• 11th level – Shattering Strike: The Fighter may use a standard action to take a single attack at his highest attack bonus. This attack disregards 1 point of DR of the opponent per Fighter level. The effective DR does not go below zero.
• 17th level – Greater Shattering Strike: Any attack the Fighter makes treats the opponent’s DR as 1 point lower per two Fighter levels, not reducing effective DR below zero. The Fighter may still use a standard action to do a single attack at the higher DR reduction rate.
• Martial Study: At levels 3, 9, 15, and 19 a Fighter may learn one maneuver for which he meets the prerequisites (he may still take Martial Study as a Fighter bonus or regular feat). In addition, at each of these levels, the Fighter gains one maneuver readied. This allows the Fighter to ready maneuvers he has learned through Martial Study, so that he can recover them mid-battle as a swift action followed immediately by a melee attack or as a standard action, following all rules for recovering maneuvers (including the restriction of not using a maneuver that round). Note, for a Fighter with more maneuvers known than he can ready (and assuming no martial adept levels), any maneuvers not readied are available once per encounter, as normal. If the Fighter has actual martial adept levels, he instead adds to his total maneuvers readied, and may select a number of maneuvers to ready from his Martial Study feats equal to the bonus readied maneuvers this feature grants (i.e., 1 at Fighter 3, etc...). In this case, all the multiclassed Fighter’s maneuvers are recovered by whatever method the martial adept class follows. If the Fighter has more than one martial adept class, he must choose which one he will add the extra readied maneuver to each time he gains this feature.
• Advanced Training: At levels 7 and 13 the Fighter learns special tactics and skills. He may choose any one Tactical or Weapon Style feat for which he meets the pre-requisites.

Fighter variants:

“Gladiator” Variant
• d8 HD
• Remove Armor Proficiency: Medium and Heavy, and Tower Shield Proficiency. Gladiators are proficient with the net.
• Class Skills: Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Craft (Int), Escape Artist (Dex), Gather Information (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (History) (Int), Knowledge (Local) (Int), Listen (Wis), Martial Lore (Int), Perform (all) (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spot (Wis), Tumble (Dex), and Swim (Str).
• Skill points = 6 + Int modifier
• Class Disciplines: DW, IH, SS, SH, SD, TC, WR
• Change “good” save from Fortitude to Reflex
• Confident Defense: A gladiator can add his charisma modifier to AC as a dodge bonus while wearing light or no armor, to a maximum amount equal to his class levels. In order to gain this benefit, the gladiator must be fighting within 60 feet of three or more conscious allies whom he has line of effect to. He can also gain this benefit when fighting in front of a crowd or audience if the audience has a status of “Friendly” or better with him (see Diplomacy skill). Improving this status is a use of Perform (Weapon Drill) as normal, in addition to any other conditional effects the DM allows.
• Starting with 2nd level bonus feat, a gladiator may choose to gain +1d6 Sneak Attack instead of a bonus feat at each even level (need not always be sneak attack).
• 5th level – A gladiator gains Evasion, but only while wearing light or no armor. A helpless Gladiator loses the benefit of Evasion. This replaces the standard fighter’s 5th level ability.
• At 11th and 17th levels, a Special Ability is gained from the Rogue Special Ability list. Alternatively, Uncanny Dodge (or Improved Uncanny Dodge if you already have the former) may be chosen. This replaces the standard Fighter’s 11th and 17th level abilities.

“Court Champion” Variant
• Class Skills: Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (History) (Int), Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) (Int), Listen (Wis), Martial Lore (Int), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), and Spot (Wis).
• Change “good” save from Fortitude to Will.
• Class Disciplines: DS, DM, IH, SS, SD, WR
• At 5th level, the Fighter gains an Animal Companion, as a Druid, but any animal he chooses must be suitable as a mount. At levels 11 and 17, the animal companion gains a bonus feat of any kind it can meet the requirements for. The Court Champion variant loses the level 5, 11, and 17 class features.
[/sblock]

I also have really gotten into the idea of "personalized recovery mechanics" to add flavor to a character. In my current game, one PC is a leader type, gestalt Bard/Warchanter // Gladiator variant, so I helped him come up with this for his recovery mechanic:

Maneuver Recovery: "You exert your influence in battle to refresh your mind of spent maneuvers. A Tactician variant Gladiator can recover maneuvers on any round he makes an Intimidate or Diplomacy check for any reason by also expending a swift action. A Gladiator with this variant cannot use any maneuver on his turn that round if he does so, and the Diplomacy or Intimidate check has to be made during his turn, not out of turn via a reaction ability."

Taken alone, it's weaker than standard Warblade. But with feats and tactical feats to get move and even free-action Diplomacy/Intimidate checks, it will eventually be stronger, for him. Currently he is level 6 and uses it most often with Intimidating Strike. Next level, I think he's spending his tactical feat on Clarion Commander, giving another combination.