D&D 4E My 4e House Rules - Yours?

[Ferghis]

PCs may expend a standard action to recover any one encounter power. The power is usable immediately if the player has a sufficient action remaining to use it. Yes, this means that encounter powers with a Move or Minor action are useable effectively at will (though you give up a Standard action every round to recharge it). This is by design.

Can you elaborate a bit on the design goal of this, and give an example of a power that might work well with this?

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

Can you elaborate a bit on the design goal of this, and give an example of a power that might work well with this?

The first thing that I thought of was recharging Leader healing powers; giving up a Standard sucks, but if you need to get the defender back on their feet and you're out of healing mojo, it's probably a no-brainer.

It's probably not worth it for most Minor action attack powers, since they tend to be balanced around the fact that they're likely to be used in addition to a Standard action attack. I might be missing some really obvious examples.

 

[Nichwee]

PCs may expend a standard action to recover any one encounter power. The power is usable immediately if the player has a sufficient action remaining to use it. Yes, this means that encounter powers with a Move or Minor action are useable effectively at will (though you give up a Standard action every round to recharge it). This is by design.

It's probably not worth it for most Minor action attack powers, since they tend to be balanced around the fact that they're likely to be used in addition to a Standard action attack. I might be missing some really obvious examples.

Wouldn't this make good II/IR Encounters too good?
You use an At-Will Standard and an II/IR encounter every round (if you can) until you run out of Encounters and then you sacrifice a chance to use an At-Will to gain the ability to do an Encounter (and this assumes you haven't killed everything by having built to do 2 attack powers every turn so far - especially for Strikers who get damage bonuses "per turn" now). Seems a no-brainer to me.

I suppose the II/IR powers may be underpowered for Encounters, but they are still better than an At-Will I find (especially some of the Ranger ones - those are basically just a typical EncPower off-turn).

EDIT:
Never let this rule loose around a high level Wizard. Steal Time (Lvl 27 Enc) becomes perma-stun of a mob as it gives you a StdAction when you hit with it, so you can use that to regain Steal Time and use it again once the stun wears off. Also TimeStop gives non-attack StdActions (2 of them) which would be a bit sick, especially for a Lvl 30 Lorekeeper - who can make TimeStop an Enc, so every turn you use TimeStop to regain an Encounter power and itself for the expenditure of a Minor.
Similar issues hit at Paragon with the Life Singer Bard's Lvl 12 Daily Utility. The Bard spends one StdAction to potentially give the entire party an extra non-attack StdAction. So one Lvl 12 Utility becomes "Every target regains an Encounter Power" which is way too nice.

 

[Estlor]

Not only is it not updated in the compendium but the character builder will not let you use a Tome as an implement if you are playing a mage.

The Character Builder is not a rules source.

Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium is a rules source.

MME says on page 51 in the second paragraph below the "Tomes" header of the implement chapter:

"Wizards are automatically proficient with using tomes as implements."

Wizards = Proficient with tomes.
Mage = Wizard | Mage = Proficient with tomes.

And so forth with Bladesinger, Witch, and Sha'ir.

 

[Arlough]

Not going to list all, but here are a few of the houserules I haven't seen listed yet.

For skill checks, I have my players describe to me what they are trying to do and then I decide the skill and attribute combo that fits their actions.
For example, picking a lock with a classic set of lock picks is a Thievery + Dexterity check (the classic combo.) But causing a giant clockwork machine to explode by finding and jamming the most fatigued cog, that would more frequently land in Thievery + Intelligence.

Also, any item bonuses to skills are instead “brutal” bonus. If you have shoes that give you a +2 to sneak, instead you reroll any 1’s and 2’s when sneaking.

And, I build some skill challenges as “monsters”

• Each skill in the challenge has X points/
• Every round, the skill gets an attack against the players.
• Players can choose to use their round to spend a surge.
• When a player succeeds on a check, they can roll 1d6 “damage” against that part of the challenge plus an additional 1d6 for every five points over the DC they succeeded.

 

[Dragonblade]

Can you elaborate a bit on the design goal of this, and give an example of a power that might work well with this?

I had two primary goals. My first goal was to make 4e feel a bit more free form and flexible in power use. I've always felt like there should be an in combat recovery model for encounter powers. I wanted the players to feel more like the powers system was about cool options, not about limitations.

My second primary goal was to allow more flexibility with movement based powers. Powers like spider climb, for example. A warlock should just be able to do something like that all the time. Especially out of combat. Even in combat they should be able to keep doing it if they are willing to give up their standard action for it every round.

 

[Dragonblade]

The first thing that I thought of was recharging Leader healing powers; giving up a Standard sucks, but if you need to get the defender back on their feet and you're out of healing mojo, it's probably a no-brainer.

It's probably not worth it for most Minor action attack powers, since they tend to be balanced around the fact that they're likely to be used in addition to a Standard action attack. I might be missing some really obvious examples.

Wouldn't this make good II/IR Encounters too good?
You use an At-Will Standard and an II/IR encounter every round (if you can) until you run out of Encounters and then you sacrifice a chance to use an At-Will to gain the ability to do an Encounter (and this assumes you haven't killed everything by having built to do 2 attack powers every turn so far - especially for Strikers who get damage bonuses "per turn" now). Seems a no-brainer to me.

I suppose the II/IR powers may be underpowered for Encounters, but they are still better than an At-Will I find (especially some of the Ranger ones - those are basically just a typical EncPower off-turn).

EDIT:
Never let this rule loose around a high level Wizard. Steal Time (Lvl 27 Enc) becomes perma-stun of a mob as it gives you a StdAction when you hit with it, so you can use that to regain Steal Time and use it again once the stun wears off. Also TimeStop gives non-attack StdActions (2 of them) which would be a bit sick, especially for a Lvl 30 Lorekeeper - who can make TimeStop an Enc, so every turn you use TimeStop to regain an Encounter power and itself for the expenditure of a Minor.
Similar issues hit at Paragon with the Life Singer Bard's Lvl 12 Daily Utility. The Bard spends one StdAction to potentially give the entire party an extra non-attack StdAction. So one Lvl 12 Utility becomes "Every target regains an Encounter Power" which is way too nice.

I should clarify two additional provisions I omitted before:

You cannot recover encounter powers that grant you additional actions. So no infinite Steal Time chain.

And encounter powers with their own special rules on multiple usage per encounter, or special recovery rules, can only be recovered per their rules and not by expending a standard action. So the core leader healing powers are still only usable twice per encounter.

So yes, for minor action attack powers, if giving up a standard and a minor to spam that power is worth it, than go right ahead. Same thing with Immediate action powers. In theory, that would seem powerful, but I have yet to see a player consistently willing to give up their standard action every round just to recharge an immediate interrupt or reaction power when they usually have a lot of other good options to choose from that they can use right now with that standard action.

 

[mr_powerchord]

I've been thinking about character creation and choices lately ; here is what I've come up with :





- powers are organized by "power list" :

• the level 1 power list made of is level 1 encounter powers, level 1 daily powers, and level 2 utility powers ; level 2 power list is level 3 encounter power, level 5 daily power, and level 6 utility powers, etc.
• From PC level 1 to PC level 3, powers gained are choosed in the level 1 power list. From PC level 4 to PC level 6, powers gained are choosed in the level 2 power list.
• PC start with two powers and an at-will power.
• At-will powers are gained through feats.
• martial classes, spontaneous casters (sorcerer, warlock, shaman), and primal warriors (barbarian, and warden) chooses their powers like in vanilla 4E.
• full casters (wizard, cleric, invoker, bard) gains powers slots. They can prepare spells from their spellbook (rituals too).
• hybrids (paladin, avenger, druid) can choose between definitive powers (encounter smite for paladin, encounter prayers for avenger, and beast form powers for druid) and spell slot.

- there is three different kind of rests :

• short rest is a few minutes rest, in an area of danger ; encounter powers are regained, and characters can use their second wind.
• rest correspond to a travel, a night in the wild. Daily powers are regained, and characters can use their healing surges freely.
• extended rest is when characters are completely safe. It's the only way they can regain healing surges.

- multiclassing is more open :

• a character must choose a multiclassing feat in the class he wants to MC.
• a multiclassed character can gain level in its new class. The powers that can be choosed depend on his MC level.
• a MC characters can gain class features from his MC by using feats.

- concerning rituals :

• rituals are free. Their cost is managed by roleplaying. Casting time is the same.
• if a ritual is prepared (with a spell slot), it can be casted in a fight, as a standard action
• PC need to be trained in the skill associated with the ritual to use it.
• controller start with the ritualist feat, but are limited in the rituals they can choose : wizards can use arcana rituals, clerics can use religion and heal, invokers can use religion, and druids can use nature and heal.
• classes from the arcana, divine, and primal source can gain the ritualist feat. They have the same limitations than the controllers.
• martial classes need to MC in a class that has access to rituals.
• Daily spells can be cast as a ritual (casting time is around 10 minutes). If so, it's not expended.

- concerning maths :

• monsters hp and xp is divided by 2
• PC and monsters defenses and AC are rolled instead of being a fixed value.

I'm using those houserules in a sandbox campaign (goodman games point of light) with 1E dungeons (the PC are currently in the dungeon of " the secret of bone hill" module).

Combat is more swingy, but way faster (6 combats in a 4h sessions), and PC are way more cautious.

One of the PC chose to start with two encounter powers, and he doesn't seems to be behind the curve. I'm
eager to see them level up to see how the power houserules works in the game. That way, when a character gains a power, he can chose between encounter and daily power, and also between offensive or defensive powers.

 

[Zaran]

I've made minions on the fly by taking a standard monster and given them 1 hit point and instead of rolling damage when they hit they did the minimum damage I could roll.

 

[Silvarion]

I made multiclassing into a theme, like so:
Multiclassed (insert class name here) Theme
Other Prerequisites: Must qualify for and satisfy all other prerequisites as stated in the original multiclass feat.
Starting Feature: Choose and gain one multiclass feat for free. (For example - Student of the Sword)
Level 2 Feature: Gain as a daily attack power, a level 1 at-will attack from your multiclass.
Level 5 Feature: Gain Novice Power feat.
Level 6 Feature: Gain Acolyte Power feat.
Level 10 Feature: Gain Adept Power feat.