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

[Ondo]

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

They're similar to flaws. GURPS Lite is available free here and has a decent sampling of disadvantages, if you're interested.

 

[On Puget Sound]

I see one major problem with magic items: Holy Symbols.

Fighter: "Wow, that was a tough fight, but these pirates will never again threaten our city. And look; I have their chief's flaming longsword!"

Warlock: "Yes, and I'll get plenty of use out of this magical Rod they tried to fry us with."

Cleric: " And I can't wait to try out this magic item I took from their evil priest. It's a +3 holy symbol of Vec....oh, never mind. I guess if I can find 4 more just like it I can trade them for a Pelor one."

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.

 

[pukunui]

They're similar to flaws. GURPS Lite is available free here and has a decent sampling of disadvantages, if you're interested.

Thanks.

I see one major problem with magic items: Holy Symbols.

Fighter: "Wow, that was a tough fight, but these pirates will never again threaten our city. And look; I have their chief's flaming longsword!"

Warlock: "Yes, and I'll get plenty of use out of this magical Rod they tried to fry us with."

Cleric: " And I can't wait to try out this magic item I took from their evil priest. It's a +3 holy symbol of Vec....oh, never mind. I guess if I can find 4 more just like it I can trade them for a Pelor one."

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.

Good point. Will ponder it.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Madness takes its toll. Please have exact change.

What coin do I need to have?

/bookmark

 

[Inf Class]

8) Change the Extended Rest rules to once every 24 hours instead of once every 12 hours and make it so only a certain number of hit points are restored rather than all hit points. This is one I'm going to wait on. I want to see how the default rules play out before changing them. If I do implement this change, I'll leave everything else to do with resting alone.

It's probably been pointed out already, but you don't sleep every 24 hours, you sleep APPROXIMATELY every 15 hours (assuming a good 9 hour's sleep). 24 would be overkill and would screw up your sleep schedule.

 

[pukunui]

It's probably been pointed out already, but you don't sleep every 24 hours, you sleep APPROXIMATELY every 15 hours (assuming a good 9 hour's sleep). 24 would be overkill and would screw up your sleep schedule.

Yeah. I need to scratch that one off the list. Thanks for reminding me.

 

[pukunui]

OK, I've updated my original list.

I'm still looking for something to replace the elf's group perception bonus.

And I'm thinking that the halfling could use something else. Sure, they've got some great feats and a killer racial encounter power, but the sheer number of things the other races get when compared to the halfling makes the latter look a bit unloved or something ...

 

[pukunui]

OK so I'm going to leave the halfling alone for right now.

With regard to the elf, I think I'm going to keep the group bonus but change it to Stealth instead of Perception with a fluff tag along the lines of "Elves are swift and silent hunters. Anyone close enough to observe them for any length of time subconsciously begins to emulate their precise movements ..."

With regard to the half-elf, I'm thinking:
1) +2 Cha, +2 one other
2) +2 to any two skills
3) Half-elf or half-eladrin for racial feat access
4) Dilettante: can choose fey parent's racial encounter power instead of a class at-will.
5) Drop Group Diplomacy. (Potentially replace with feat but this may not be necessary what with all the other changes.)


Thoughts please.

 

[Zarus]

Dragonborn were given a bonus to CHA because STR+CHA makes them good paladins, and their other abilities are balanced with the consideration that their stat mods are already making them exceptional paladins. The breath weapon is essentially a bonus blasting power. Clerics are better at blasto than paladins, so granting an additional blasto power is more advantageous to clerics than paladins.

Stat mods are a pretty big thing to be messing around with for fluff reasons. If you absolutely must make a mechanical change to alter the Dragonborn role in your world consider messing with the skill benefits. +2 Nature instead of +2 History is a bit more powerful, but it's not going to change the classes that the Dragonborn fall into.

I agree and disagree with you. Attributing +2 Charisma to Dragonborn makes them better paladin tanks, warlocks and warlords whereas a +2 to Wisdom makes them more effective warriors, rangers and damage paladins, as well as more versitile clerics. So it seems a fairly good trade-off imo and seems to fit better with the theme that they developed for the dragonborn. I really don't see their being a plethora of dragonborn warlocks and rogues given the ethos that wotc has created for the race, however the current design of the class encourages just that (espcially warlocks when you factor in the DBs other racials). I would venture a guess that the reason that the design team gave the a bump to charisma was so that they wanted another obvious choice for warlords other than humans and tieflings and by bumping charisma they would steer people wanting to play DB into the warlord and paladin classes. However, in the process they steer people away from a range of builds that seem just as suited (to me) as those two.

However, I will agree that the elimination of stat buffs in the game means your beginning stats play a much larger role in determining your characters overall ability throughout progression and that messing with any basic design features such as class and race abilities should really only be done where absolutely necessary to avoid confusion with your players. (Whose version of dragonkin are we playing with this week?)

So yeah, that's my two cents.

 

[Lucky Marlboro]

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

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

Am I crazy? Does this make sense