D&D 4E My 4e House Rules that have nothing to do with 1-2-1 movement

[BASHMAN]

I ran the game last night, and made the following changes to make things more fun & fast:

Houserules:
Action Points-- if you use your Daily or Encounter power and roll badly, you can use an action point to get a reroll (normally it just lets you take an additional standard).

Rolling attacks that affect multple creatures-- unless the power specifically says you roll separate attacks vs. each foe (like things that hit enemies in sequence, etc), I just roll 1 attack. If your defense is above the roll you saved, if it is below, you failed. So if the dragon rolls a 1 on his breath weapon, it means he sneezed or something and blasted it off the mark, and if he rolls a 20, the crit affects the closest target.

Rolling Initiative for multiplie creatures I just took the lowest init. modiifier and used it for all of the creatures in the fight, under the name "Evil". I do the same thing when a group of baddies is trying to hide, etc.

Healing Magic: I don't limit these to 1/round. If you can use lay on hands 3/day, you can use them all in one action (since each is a minor action).

Note: Please don't start discussing 1-2-1 movement. It isn't at all the point of the thread.

 

[PeelSeel2]

Our first play test was last night with the pre-gen characters (and the Rogue Pre-Gen that can be found here on Enworld), and we had some house rules come up right away. The action point reroll for daily power was one we put in during third combat. Another use for action points was adding to attack roll. If they missed by 1, they could spend an action point to get the extra point. Also, spend an action point to get another second wind. That was pretty much it.

edit: We also modified the death and dying rules. We do not keep track of negatives any more. We call negatives the 'dying' condition. 3 Failed saves and your dead. Rolling a 1 on a save counts as two failed saves. Every time you get hit when you are dying counts as a failed save. It is a bit more vicious, but we tend to go for that style of play.

 

[Generico]

I think the only thing I'll houserule right away is the diagonal movement. There shall be no space warping on my battle mat.

Other than that, I think I'll wait to play the full game for several sessions before I go changing the rules too much.

 

[PeelSeel2]

I think the only thing I'll houserule right away is the diagonal movement. There shall be no space warping on my battle mat.

Other than that, I think I'll wait to play the full game for several sessions before I go changing the rules too much.

That took a little getting use to last night. But afterwards when we where talking we all felt it helped the gameplay to just think in terms of squares, instead of feet, ranges, squares, etc. Not much of a difference, but enough to notice. Which summed our little play test experience. A lot of little things that added up to a lot better flow to a game session. For the most part, 1/2 my players are veteran and half are new. It will be ALOT easier for the new players.

 

[psionotic]

We'll probably try to play it right out of the box for at least the first several sessions.

The diagonal movement thing would bother me more if the 1-2-1-2 movement was itself more mathematically accurate. Since it really isn't (the first step is not enough, the second one is too much), I'm willing to forgo it in favor of faster gameplay and easier counting. This will be especially true with all the 4e movement abilities and powers; counting squares is going to happen for most every character, every turn, I think.

 

[The Little Raven]

We'll probably try to play it right out of the box for at least the first several sessions.

This. The best way to learn how a system works is to play it rigorously, not make changes predicated upon on-paper theory.

 

[Stalker0]

Our first play test was last night with the pre-gen characters (and the Rogue Pre-Gen that can be found here on Enworld), and we had some house rules come up right away. The action point reroll for daily power was one we put in during third combat. Another use for action points was adding to attack roll. If they missed by 1, they could spend an action point to get the extra point. Also, spend an action point to get another second wind. That was pretty much it.

I keep wondering if in the full rules action points will do a little more. But if not, as we are already seeing they are a nice straightforward mechanic that can be enhanced with new rules to spice them up.

 

[Generico]

I'm aware that most people consider 1-1-1 movement to be easier than 1-2-1, but 1-1-1 has a major downfall that I'm personally not ok with. Namely, the fact that if there is a small obstacle between Point A and Point B, there's no penalty for just going around it. For example, if the fighter places himself between the bugbear and the wizard, there's no reason for the bugbear not to just go around the fighter, because it's the same distance as going through him.

In normal 3D space, there is only 1 shortest distance from point A to point B. I like to keep movement on the battle mat as close to that as possible for the sake of believability.

 

[The Little Raven]

For example, if the fighter places himself between the bugbear and the wizard, there's no reason for the bugbear not to just go around the fighter, because it's the same distance as going through him.

Sure, this is a problem... if you ignore the fact that the fighter has abilities specifically to negate this sort of thing. Previously, while this may have resulted in slower movement, the fighter could do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to prevent someone from moving past him, since AoOs didn't stop anyone from continuing to move (unless they died, of course).

 

[Wiman]

I personally have no problem with the 1111 movement as long as both sides get it the odds remain fair. It really dosn't speed up the game at all against 1212 movement so it really comes down to realism vs. gameplay of which I always will be a fan of the later. As for the fighter defending the wizard thing, it will play out the same on the bugbear defending the mage on the bad guys side.....except the fighter will get his bag of attack of opportunity tricks as will any pure defender monster. In my mind it's about time the wizard and the archer have to scramble....monsters are well monsterous

Now I'm not being glib, or I'm not attempting to be...even though after reading up after myself above I could say you would have a point if you said it about me. I know that the fighter defending the wizard thing was a very random example....etc.

As for houserules -

Saves on one roll....if it sucks to be a Player it sucks to be a Monster.......I like to think of it as Fate. The Hobgoblin's racial power is no roll now as the save is decided before the initiative pass. This leads to a lot of "three blind mice" experiences which I personally find hilarious.