D&D 4E My Proposed 4e House Rules (so far)

[Lucky Marlboro]

Why not give elves the benefit of the alertness feat without the +2 perception.

 

[pukunui]

Dragonborn have a +2 bonus to Charisma because they are descended from Dragons (possibly the most majestic mortal creatures). Right?

I don't think they are descended from dragons. They were created alongside dragons as their servants and the like, I think.

Half-elves have a +2 bonus to Constitution and Charisma because the life of a half-breed weeds out the weak and unremarkable.

This would make sense if you subscribe to my opinion of what half-elves should be like but it doesn't make sense according to WotC's vision (everybody loves half-elves, they all get along famously with everyone, they're everyone's friends, you can do no wrong by placing your trust in a half-elf, etc etc etc).

Why not give elves the benefit of the alertness feat without the +2 perception.

Hmm. I think I like my latest "Group Stealth" thing a bit better. The elf write-up talks about their stealthiness, but the only mechanical thing to back it up is their bonus to Dex. I also think having a group bonus to something like Stealth makes more logical sense than a group bonus to Perception.

Now if only I could think of something to give the half-elf. Would a free multiclass feat be too much? What about that Jack of All Trades feat? Would that be ok? A +2 to all untrained skills sounds nice.


I've actually decided I'm not going to change the Dragonborn's stats. (Nor am I going to do the choice of stats thing, other than for humans and half-elves, but that's beside the point.) Here's why: downplaying intelligence and emphasizing charisma with this edition actually does make some sense. My theory may not be what WotC was thinking, but it seems to work: in a world where empires fall and the darkness encroaches on the light, the people who are more likely to survive are those who are physically hardy (strength and constitution) and personable (you can talk people into helping you survive). Sure, intelligence and insightfulness and quick reflexes are all useful survival skills as well. But sheer brute force and slick charm can go a long way to not only surviving but to making other people want to help you survive.

You could probably argue that that's still true today. Athletes and entertainers are admired in modern society.

Anyway ...

Another house rule of mine is going to be:

PCs are only literate if they are trained in at least one of the following skills: Arcana, Dungeoneering, History, Religion. This is to reflect the "dark ages" concept -- most people are too busy just trying to survive to bother with reading and writing. It's only those who are lucky enough to get formal schooling (represented by the above skills) who learn to read and write.

 

[megasycophant]

I see one major problem with magic items: Holy Symbols.
....
Any thoughts on how to fix this? Fluff-wise, even a ritual to recycle or re-purpose an evil holy symbol seems wrong; good characters should be very firm about wanting them destroyed.

Crunch-wise, just factor them into treasure at one fifth their value (the "meltdown" value).

Fluff-wise, either:

• Are you sure the recycling philosophy isn't just fine? Once it's been turned into magic dust, the magic dust is not tainted; seems like using it for good would be just the thing. Especially if your cosomological view is that there is a discrete amount of magic in the world, you've just shifted that balance. I think one could make an argument that this is a DESIRED outcome.
• The bounty: gain a monetary and/or rp boon from the appropriate temple for destroying/handing over such items. This could also apply to holy symbols for sympathetic deities. (Although in the case of evil holy symbols, you've pretty much come full circle -- what will the temple do with them?)

Of course, if you introduce the concept that the resultant "magic dust" from disenchantment will always be tainted and taint whatever it's used for, things get more interesting!

 

[Lucky Marlboro]

I'm not a fan of constant aura buffs either (especially ones that affect passive abilities like insight); because they are harder to run and the benefit is negated by the fact that higher insight characters will still sense the best passively. Why not give half elves the ability to make other characters re-roll one insight check per day? That way they could use the benefit when it really matters and try to bail out less insightful characters (with the added bonus of letting the less insightful still get it right every once in a while).

 

[pukunui]

I'm not a fan of constant aura buffs either (especially ones that affect passive abilities like insight); because they are harder to run and the benefit is negated by the fact that higher insight characters will still sense the best passively. Why not give half elves the ability to make other characters re-roll one insight check per day? That way they could use the benefit when it really matters and try to bail out less insightful characters (with the added bonus of letting the less insightful still get it right every once in a while).

Better yet, why not give half-elves the ability to reroll their own insight checks? Something akin to elven accuracy ...

 

[deleteme123456]

I know someone had an idea on this forum for fixing holy symbols, but I don't remember who or where. I came up with these mechanics:

Sanctify Holy Symbol
"With intensive prayer and (un)holy fire, you purify the divine power in an icon."
Level 1 ritual. Component cost: see text.
Category: Creation. Market price: 50gp
Time: 1 hour. Key skill: Religion (no check)
Duration: permanent.

Sanctify a holy symbol you possess to be aligned a deity you serve. The result of the ritual is a holy symbol that for all effects and purposes is aligned to that deity; all previous traces/ties to the old deity are removed.

There is no cost to perform the ritual yourself, or you can take it to any temple of a compatible-aligned deity, defined as follows:

If your character AND deity are both Good or Lawful Good, you must use a Good or Lawful Good deity's temple. Pay normal cost (10gp) for materials.
If your character is Good or Lawful Good but your deity is Unaligned, you may use a Good temple at double cost (20gp), a lawful good temple at triple cost (30gp), or an Unaligned temple at normal cost.
If your character and deity are Unaligned, you may use any temple, paying 3x for Good/Evil, or 10x for LG/CE, or normal at U.
The top two cases scale to Evil / LE as well.