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

[Rpgraccoon]

Have you considered pumping Con on the dragonborn instead of Wisdom. The deserts are harsh and dragons are tough so this could work. Plus it would make them less inclined to be Clerics.

+2 Charisma +2 Physical for half-elves could work. Giving them a choice of Con, Dex, or Str. Wouldn't it make more since to just give them a dex boost. Drow +Dex Elf +Dex Eldarin +Dex.

I still prefer half-elves to get a +2 Mental Stat +2 Con. Half-elves are hardier than their elven parents. They take on the Mental stat of the parent race.

And possibly for the removal of the +1 group diplomacy they could get a free weapon proficiency. Seems like not that big of a power creep.

Thus half-eldarin +2 Int +2 Con May take eldarin/human
feats. free prof: Longsword
Half-Drow +2 Cha +2 Con May take drow/human feats.
feats. free prof: I dunno whatever they use the most
Half-Elf +2 Wis +2 Con May take elf/human feats.
feats free prof: Longbow

 

[Notmousse]

I'm all for getting rid of half elves outright. I mean really, aren't 3 races enough? Plus elves are already tougher than they used to be, I see no reason why half elves are tougher still.

 

[pukunui]

Have you considered pumping Con on the dragonborn instead of Wisdom. The deserts are harsh and dragons are tough so this could work. Plus it would make them less inclined to be Clerics.

So +2 STR / +2 CON? Wouldn't that be throwing them back into the "big dumb ox" category that half-orcs were in?

I'm all for getting rid of half elves outright. I mean really, aren't 3 races enough? Plus elves are already tougher than they used to be, I see no reason why half elves are tougher still.

The reason I'm not getting rid of half-elves is because I like them. Conceptually, at least, they are my favorite race. Torn between two worlds. Don't really feel like they belong anywhere. I really identify with that. So yeah ... besides, there are only two elf races in the PHB. The drow aren't. So I don't know what you mean by "aren't 3 races enough?".

 

[pukunui]

bump

 

[smathis]

I'm *hoping* I read this wrong, but here's my #1 houserule (since it looks like my players are interested in WoW now).

1 roll to hit for AoE abilities/spells/whatnots instead of rolling for *EACH* target! I mean seriously, what sense does it make for Fighter Fred in tank armor being unhurt in the middle when Ronny Rogue gets nuked in his ninja jammies at the edge?

How about something like this?

Anyone caught in the AoE who has a condition or has performed an action that leaves them open to Combat Advantage takes a -2 to their Defense. This includes creatures that are affected by things like Dazed, as well as creatures that are running and just wind up in the AoE.

Anyone in the AoE who is currently marked (by anyone) also is at a -2.

Everyone else uses their full Defense.

Prior to the attack roll, everyone who is not at -2 and who has a move action left to spend in this turn (basically everyone who hasn't gone yet), can spend a move action to get a free +2 to their Defense. This simulates ducking/falling prone and then getting up again.

Then the Wizard rolls a single die and compares it to all the Defenses in the AoE. Not sure if that's any simpler than just rolling for everyone. But it gives a decent amount of variance.

========

At present, the house rules I'm planning on using are...

• Johnathan Tweet's Fair Escape rule: Basically, the PCs can hightail it with no penalty.
• Johnathan Tweet's Kill Shot rule: Players narrate important/dramatic kill shots.
• Mike Mearls' GURPS disads proposal: Each PC gets 10 pts of disads from the GURPS book at character creation.
• Background Keywords: Each PC gets 2 background keywords that each give a +2 to any non-attack or damage roll they make. Basically skill checks and such.
• No full reset: PCs recover their Con Bonus + 1 (but no less than one) Healing Surges and their Bloodied total in Hit Points after an extended rest. A full reset only happens after resting back in town.
• Milestones are abstract: They don't happen after every other encounter. Although they may. They happen after the PCs reach some point in the dungeon/adventure, a.k.a. a Milestone.
• Levels of Success: These apply to all rolls. Basically, rolling the exact target number or one over or below is neither a complete failure nor a complete success. And players can negotiate higher levels of success by taking a condition or a penalty. For example, a PC who gets a minor success on hitting an opponent can grant Combat Advantage until his next turn to boost that minor success to a regular one.
• Goals and Death Flags: At chargen, a PC selects 3 goals. These can change over time and they can even conflict with one another. When a PC dies, the player can check-off one of these goals to instead be captured, left for dead, knocked out, etc. at the DM's discretion. The DM then notes what goal the PC checked off and works that into the campaign. The general tenet will be that by the time the PC reaches the Paragon Tier he will have accomplished at least one of these goals. Example: Bob gives his Dragonborn the following goals at chargen: To be the greatest swordsman in Thislandia, To rebuild the Dragonborn Empire, To sire strong and valiant sons. Bob rolls his third failed death save in Irontooth's lair in KotS. Rather than write up a whole new PC, Bob checks off one of his goals. This means that this is something his Dragonborn will definitely NOT be doing. If he decides to check-off the swordmaster goal, the DM may say that Irontooth lopped off his sword hand and that he will never be as good as he could be because he'll always have to fight with his off-hand. Although he could still be really freaking awesome and it should frequently be noted that he's having to fight with his off-hand. But he'll never be the greatest. Or maybe he checks off the strong and valiant sons. That doesn't mean that the PC won't have any sons. But maybe he'll only have one. And that son will be sickly and craven. Basically, it's a way for the Player to direct the curveballs that the DM will throw at his PC -- while giving him the opportunity to "put in extra tokens in 30 seconds" to keep the character going. But I'd say that even if a PC loses a hand of something, the actual mechanical effect should be a non-issue. Bob's PC fights just as well with his left-hand as his right. It's just that he'll never be the greatest swordsman in Thislandia fighting left-handed. A PC cannot check off his last goal. If he dies while he has only one goal left, then he dies. It's incumbent on the DM to work in all this goal-oriented stuff into the campaign.
• No more magic economy: Residuum is around but it's like Ghost Rock in Deadlands. And magic items grow with their wielder. So a Paladin may earn or inherit a +1 sword at some low level. But by 25th level that sword will have worked it's way up to a Holy Avenger. To make up for the deficit in magic items, I plan to institute the +1 to attacks, damage and defenses every 5 levels.

That's it for now. Very few crunch changes, I'd say. Mostly flavor stuff.

 

[pukunui]

• Johnathan Tweet's Fair Escape rule: Basically, the PCs can hightail it with no penalty.
• Johnathan Tweet's Kill Shot rule: Players narrate important/dramatic kill shots.

Can you go into any detail on these or point to their origin?

• Mike Mearls' GURPS disads proposal: Each PC gets 10 pts of disads from the GURPS book at character creation.

What's "disads"?

• No more magic economy: Residuum is around but it's like Ghost Rock in Deadlands. And magic items grow with their wielder. So a Paladin may earn or inherit a +1 sword at some low level. But by 25th level that sword will have worked it's way up to a Holy Avenger. To make up for the deficit in magic items, I plan to institute the +1 to attacks, damage and defenses every 5 levels.

I like this one. However, I don't have much of an issue with the "magic item economy" thing. In fact, I think putting a gold piece value on everything works well in this edition because they also have a very specific wealth-by-level table. That means that you can easily insert stuff like residuum or even the cost of ritual components as treasure by subtracting their gp cost from the total amount of treasure the PCs are supposed to get for that level. That is, instead of telling a player his PC has to go and buy Xgp of rare oils in order to do his ritual, you can instead either have that gp cost go into finding out where to obtain those oils and then having the player collect them himself or else just quietly subtract the cost from the total treasure amount for that encounter or level and let the player be none the wiser (thinking he's getting them for free or whatever). I hope that makes some sense.

Basically what I'm getting at is that by assigning a gp cost to everything and then creating a very good treasure table, I think it'll be even easier to pull those things out of the economy because you know exactly how much they are "worth" in comparison to other things.



New house rules (both taken from Keith Baker):

1) Action points can be used to reroll failed skill checks during Skill Challenges.
2) Natural 20 on a skill counts as two successes.

New proposed house rule:

Instead of races getting bonuses to static ability scores, I'm considering giving each race a group of abilities that the player can choose from when placing the bonuses. I've gotten this idea from another poster. The idea is that instead of, say, elves getting a +2 Dex / +2 Wis, they get two +2 modifiers to their choice of Str, Dex, or Wis (and possibly Con). This makes races a lot more flexible and doesn't tie them to specific classes as much. If I go with this rule, I might make it so humans can choose their bonus at-will from any class to compensate.

 

[Rhiarion]

Pukunui, maybe limit bonus at-will to same power as the initial class.

 

[pukunui]

Pukunui, maybe limit bonus at-will to same power as the initial class.

Ah yes, I see what you're saying. Makes sense, actually.

 

[Zogmo]

What's "disads"?

Disadvantages

In GURPS you can select numerous Advantages and Disadvantages to
differentiate the characters from each other when they are created.

Disads only, would make a good role-playing situation to add some character to the character I think. I like it.

 

[pukunui]

Disadvantages

In GURPS you can select numerous Advantages and Disadvantages to
differentiate the characters from each other when they are created.

Disads only, would make a good role-playing situation to add some character to the character I think. I like it.

Ah ok. Thanks. Never played GURPS. Sounds interesting, though. Are the Disadvantages anything like 3.5's Flaws?