Nemesis Destiny
Adventurer
At the request of @Storminator , I am starting this thread to post about the houserules I am experimenting with in my current games of 4th edition. Comments, constructive criticisms, and suggestions are welcome 
This is something that arose out of the excellent thread on Pemertonian Scene Framing started by @S'mon .
Where to begin? Probably Healing Surges is a good place to start.
Healing Surges
I really loved the idea of surges, as it makes the idea of hit points easier than ever to swallow, and the surge mechanics allow them to become unobtrusive in between encounters (no more bundles of Wands of CLW!), makes having a healer around not strictly necessary, and makes gameplay feel more cinematic - all of those things I like.
However, I also saw them as something that could be leveraged to do a lot more in the game. Here you have a recharging player-controlled resource that somewhat represents their vitality (something D&D has long been missing in its core). How could I put them to work in other ways?
When running vanilla 4e, the groups I played in found that we seldom ran out of surges, and it was always the squishiest of the group that ran out first, and then we would stop so that they wouldn't end up dead. Essentially, the one with the fewest surges would determine the length of the "adventuring day". Rituals came along later that fixed this somewhat, allowing the group to spend one surge to redistribute the remaining ones throughout the group, but my tinkering began before that.
Rituals
Speaking of Rituals, that was the first change. We all agreed (within my group) that the monetary cost of rituals was flat out stopping us from using them at low levels. Every coin spent on a ritual for mostly flavour purposes now was one less to spend on magic items later for mostly mechanical purposes. It felt wrong.
Keep in mind that all these alterations are works-in-progress, and constantly subject to reworking if and when a problem comes up, but here is how they stand now.
* Rituals cost 2 healing surges to cast, in addition to any specific healing surge cost they already have. Any focus a ritual requires is still mandatory. Ritual casters must purchase and maintain a Ritual Kit, whose cost is equal to the cost of their most expensive ritual.
[sblock=Commentary]This served to immediately cause rituals to start seeing use. Nearly every group in my games now has at least one ritual caster, and they use rituals all the time. It makes for great flavour, and their costs are such that they don't get overused or abused.
The cost reductions are not set in stone, however, and are subject to further revision. They have so far not been an issue, but I am open to the possibility that this change may have "broken" something.
It has also not been tested above level 10.[/sblock]
Recharging Powers
Power recharging was the next fundamental change implemented with Healing Surges. This change was implemented because due to the way our games seem to be paced, we were finding that players were meeting every encounter outside of a dungeon environment at full strength, so they'd blow all their Daily powers and walk all over even higher-level encounters. To try to get the PC resource economy back into line with the assumed "adventuring day" I decided to try a few tweaks.
Encounter powers still recharge at each short rest, but one of the most fundamental changes I made to game pacing and "feel" was to have characters spend surges to get their hit points back even during extended rests, and that they do not get all their spent surges back during extended rests (I'm still playing with the rate they return at).
I suppose you could call this a nod to "realism" and you could argue that it can get in the way of some kinds of scene framing, but in practice, I have not found this to be the case. The result I found from this, is that it feels "believable" that after your character blows every daily power they have and get the living tar kicked out of them, it takes a while to recover to full strength. It also gives players a degree of meaningful choice in what powers to recharge and when to do it.
Here is how it breaks down:
* Recover an Item Encounter Power - 1 surge
* Recover an Encounter Attack Power - 2 surges
* Recover an Item Daily Power - 3 surges
* Recover highest level Daily Attack Power - 4 surges
All Daily Utility powers and Daily Item powers recover each "day" as usual, which I consider separate from each extended rest. To do otherwise would de-emphasize the use of Utility powers in a way that I find undesirable.
[sblock=Commentary]This has largely had the effect I intended - players often think before spending Daily powers and seldom enter any fight at full strength. What I find happening is that the characters in the front who take the most damage are the most strapped for healing surges, often because they end up recharging their Daily attack powers as often as they have the healing surges to do so.
I like the added level of resource management and choices that this gives players, but I feel like this needs to be further tested before I decide to keep this or not.[/sblock]
Surge Recovery
Extended Rests recover a large number of Healing Surges (typically 4), but can only occur in a place of relative safety and/or comfort, such as in a town or roadside inn, camping while traveling at a leisurely pace (when does that ever happen?), or rarely, if the characters manage to make a fairly secure spot within a "dungeon" by whatever means. In my games this has included barricading themselves in a portion of a dungeon they've cleared of hostiles, but can also include temporary expeditionary base-camps and the like.
A more typical rest occurs during stressful times, a "daily" rest. This is enough rest to recharge Item Dailies and Daily Utility powers automatically, and may result in the recovery of 1 or 2 healing surges, to be spent however the character wishes. This is typical while traveling overland at a brisk pace (assumed 10-hour travel days), sleeping in "unsafe" locations, or similar.
I also give out ad hoc healing surges as a reward for clever solutions, wise decisions in character, for thoroughly exploring, to represent good fortune, or a much-needed moment of respite. This often ties in to Milestones.
[sblock=Commentary]The rate of recovery is something I'm constantly tinkering with. I find that I need to award surges on an ad hoc basis a lot, because the players burn through their resources quickly, but I also want to encourage them to press on when it makes in-character sense to do so, thus I don't feel that it's a bad thing to have to do. Overly cautious play with 5- or 15-minute adventuring days is a thing of the distant past in my campaigns. The "trick" seems to be in rewarding the players with just enough healing surges for them to feel that they can press on, but not enough that they enter every fight at full strength.
They still have the option to break off and rest, most of the time, but they no longer feel like they have to, and are able to press on with the story with more limited resources when they would otherwise quit to recover. I find this really helps with scene framed play.[/sblock]
Miscellaneous Uses
Two further uses of healing surges in my game include adding bonuses to dice rolls, and Action Point recovery.
The option to gain +2 to Any Roll must be declared before the roll is made, but any number of surges may be spent in this way, even after finding out the result of the roll. For example, a player could declare their intent to use the Gain +2 option on an attack roll. They are at this point committed to spending at least one healing surge on the attack, even if they roll well enough to hit without modifiers, but if they roll horribly, at that point can declare that they are spending more surges to ensure a hit.
At a cost of 3 Healing Surges, a player may recover one Action Point, provided they are completely out. This ties in to changes I made to Action Points, which I will detail below.
[sblock=Commentary]I am considering allowing the bonus to count towards a Natural 20 so that it doesn’t feel "wasted," even if the roll hits without modifiers, but I have not done this yet. In fact, my players never use this option because they already have lots to spend surges on.
I can see the greatest benefit to this variant being for Essentials characters, allowing them to create a "pseudo-Daily" power at a similar surge cost. The thing I have noticed is with these rules, Essentials characters seldom spend all their Healing Surges, as they have far fewer powers to recharge, and generally stronger At-wills due to baked-in damage bonuses. Nobody playing an Essentials character has taken advantage of this, perhaps due to not knowing about it. I will try to make it more clear next time it comes up.[/sblock]
Action Points
I made the following changes to the way Action Points work in my game.
* Action points do not reset to 1 after an extended rest.
* You may accumulate action points indefinitely and without limit.
* Action Points no longer reset after an extended rest, even when none remain.
* Gain Action Point(s) each time you gain a level, at a rate of one per tier.
* You still earn an action point for achieving a milestone.
* You may spend 3 Healing Surges to recover an AP, provided you have none left.
In order to compensate for the likely stockpiling of action points, there are two new ways to spend them which do not count against the limit of spending one action point per encounter.
You may spend an action point to recharge an item daily power as though you’d achieved a milestone. You may not spend an action point in this way if you have already achieved a milestone since your last extended rest.
You may spend action points in lieu of healing surges when a power, ritual (including alchemy and martial practices), or situation allows you to do so. You can only spend action points in this way if you have no healing surges remaining, or if the power, ritual, or situation requires you to spend more surges than you currently have left. You must spend all remaining surges first, before making up the difference in action points.
The Death Flag
I have instituted a Death Flag mechanic. I've done this for two reasons: (i) it allows the players to individually control the level of lethality, even game-to-game, that they want to experience, and (ii) it fosters player agency in both mechanical and narrative terms by allowing players to declare when something is particularly important to them or their character and giving them the tools to leverage that.
I find this avoids player drama at the table, and adds to character drama in-game. Here is how I work it;
Players may "burn" Death Saves for Action Points. Death Saves burned in this way only recover by spending Action Points to refresh them (at a conversion cost of 3 Healing Surges during rests).
To clarify: a player may voluntarily trade (spend, burn, whatever you want to call it - I use "burn" because I find it evocative), a Death Save for an Action Point at any time on a one-for-one basis. This gives an immediate AP, and they tick off the box as though they'd "failed" a death save. They're voluntarily reducing their resilience and built-in "plot protection" for extra actions.
What this means is that if they'd burned, say, two of their Death Saves for Action Points, and they then get dropped to 0hp or less and become "dying," the first time they fail a death save, they die. If they're feeling really brash and burn all three, the first time that they become "dying" and their turn comes up again, they die.
[sblock=Commentary]One of the big criticisms I hear from players all the time is that it's far too hard to die in 4e, or even that it's "impossible" to die. I don't feel that this is the case; I think those players underestimate their own tactical and resource-management abilities, even in bone stock 4e games.
Characters rarely die in my games, but it has happened, and often rather abruptly.
I also have players of differing levels of comfort with the game, character death, and with managing risk versus reward. This solution can accomodate them all at the same table, as it is an opt-in mechanic.
I have had this posted as a houserule for quite some time, but my players only recently became aware of it. Since then about half of them fairly quickly burned up their Death Saves in this manner and are sitting on one left each.[/sblock]
Critical Hits and Reckless Breakage
I've been fond of the idea of critical hits providing more than just added damage for a long time. I used the ridiculous charts from 2e's Player's Option series since they were released, even continuing to use them in 3.x by adding a third 'confirm' stage; if the first confirmation scored a 'threat' again, then we'd 'confirm' for a 'charted crit.' It was ridiculous and provided for some amusing times and some broken results, but hey, that's just part of the fun of 'random' in a process-sim game, I guess. Eventually, we decided that the story concerns made it more troublesome than it was worth, and so stopped using it.
When 4e rolled around, I tried to come up with something to give that effect again. I still wanted criticals (and fumbles) to mean something more than 'numbers.' Fourth edition's metagame-friendly mechanics also provided another opportunity to make it work that I'd not had before: player agency.
I made up an encounter power that everyone would have:
Enhanced Critical Hit
Encounter
No Action - Personal
Trigger: You score a critical hit with a power, or you are subjected to a critical hit
Effect: The critical hit is enhanced by additional effects, based on the effect, keyword(s), or target of the triggering power. Select one keyword or effect from the triggering attack, and the DM will apply an added effect to the triggering attack.
Special: If you are the target of the triggering attack, you gain an Action Point after the effects of the attack are resolved.
Special: You can use an Action Point to recharge this power.
My favourite part about this is the first 'special' condition - the player, when hit by a crit, can choose to take a risk, spend their crit card, and gain an AP for doing so. Risk vs reward, 100% player-initiated. This further allows me to do fun things like this at a table with vastly mixed preferences (as mine usually is); the risk-averse can save their crit card for when they're doing the hitting, and those who like a greater degree of risk can take a chance and be rewarded if they survive.
[sblock=Commentary]I have a list of sample effects that I've kept somewhat conservative since this applies to both players and monsters. It's full of mostly save-ends effects like ongoing damage, conditions, and penalties, as well as forced movement and short duration stuns, dominates, etc.
The list is constantly being revised and added to, as situations come up. I also use the Injury Deck from Dragon (expanded, of course), as a possible outcome. I will go over my changes to that system below as well.[/sblock]
Reckless Breakage
I lifted this rule from Dark Sun (p122, IIRC), and modified it to suit my game in several ways.
The gist is that when you roll a natural 1, you may opt to take a reroll on the flubbed roll - resolve the attack using the second result. Hit or miss, now the attacker's weapon or implement must make an item saving throw, with a bonus for each "plus" it has. I usually make this roll behind the screen.
Any weapon or implement broken in this manner is simply rendered unusable until repaired, either with sufficient time and resources, or with rituals that can accomplish the same result.
I use this for monsters as well, and in the case of monsters without weapons, I usually resolve it by having the reroll trigger an opportunity action from the target. This also applies to PCs using "natural" weapons, unarmed attacks, and the like.
[sblock=Commentary]This has proven to be a popular addition to the game, as it produces some dramatic moments and is just generally fun, but remains opt-in for those who aren't willing to risk the loss of a favourite weapon/implement, even temporarily. It helps that I use a modified version of Inherent Bonuses as well, such that even without a weapon or implement with magical plusses, PCs are still baseline effective.
Several times now though, it has resulted in lower-level characters being left weaponless for extended periods (i.e. in the wilderness or dungeon). My group seems to enjoy this, but it may not be to everyone's taste.[/sblock]
Injury Deck
I basically took the Injury Deck idea from a recent Dragon and expanded on it. Besides expanding the size of the deck with more different injuries, I also felt that I should be keeping what little " deadliness" 4e has, so rather than using permanent injuries in lieu of death, I have instead changed the conditions met to acquire them.
I've keept the first condition - if you drop below 1hp, you make a save at the end of the combat to see if you get a pull from the deck.
I'm replacing the condition where you get an injury in lieu of death by failing death saves, with a minor injury for your first failed death save, and either a second one or one major injury for your second failed death save. Third failed death save, you still die. If you die and get brought back, you have a chance to come back with an injury.
I've also replaced the "death by negative bloodied" injury, because I want to keep that as a way to die. Instead, if you ever take damage equal to your bloodied value in one hit, you make an injury save at the end of the combat, or you get an injury.
[sblock=Commentary]Having one every time you get bloodied seems excessive to me, but if these don't see enough use, I may tinker with it further. Maybe make a save the first time you are bloodied in a fight? I dunno. I am going to play with it some more, as it is one of my more recent additions.[/sblock]
Inherent Bonuses
I use the Inherent Bonus rules from Dark Sun as well, because I dislike the item treadmill and the baked-in reliance on every character having to have "the big 3" all the time to keep up with "The Math." That said, I still like using magical items, including weapons, implements, armour, and jewelry, and wanted to find a way to make them "compatible" with Inherent Bonuses without breaking the game, while also reflecting the idea that possessing such an item would still serve to enhance PC ability even if it were an item below character level.
So, to that end, what I do is have the "plus" of an item add to the PC's effective level on the Inherent Bonus chart, rather than act as a strict plus. This way, I can drop powerful artifacts even at low-level and they won't break the game. Worst case scenario is that a PC will be +1 ahead of where they "should be." Hardly game-breaking, especially as half the players don't give a hoot about the "feat tax" math fixes.
For example, I recently allowed a PC to start with an heirloom weapon, in this case an "indestructible" +5 Halberd that could "cut through anything." All this did was advance him one place on the Inherent Bonus chart, such that at Level 1, he counted as though he were Level 6 (equivalent to a +1 weapon), and when he hit level 2, he counted as Level 7 (equivalent to a +2 weapon).
[sblock=Commentary]There are a couple of potential pitfalls in this method, which I have patched. First, Critical effects of weapons now references the character's total Inherent plusses, rather than the actual plus count of the weapon. In the example above, the halberd +5 in the hands of that 1st level PC only does +1d10 damage on a critical, and when he hit level 2 and improved his effective bonus with the weapon to +2, his critical dice improved to +2d10, rather than the full +5d10.
The same applies in reverse, such that even a 12th level PC with a +1 dagger counts as Level 13 on the IB chart, and gets a +3 enhancement bonus, and +3d6 critical damage.
The second concern would be that the magical item economy would make it really powerful to spend next to no money on cheap +1 weapons even at high level just to take advantage of things like +1 vicious weapons and the like. For me that is not a concern, since I've scrapped/ignored the default economy since, well, basically forever.[/sblock]
The "Do Something Cool" Card
I have added a universal "plot coupon" card for every PC. I did this because of some of the criticism aimed at 4e that indicated players were less likely to think outside the box than they were to just look at their sheet for an answer. I found that this had more to do with individual players than it did with the game itself, but nonetheless, I figured it couldn't hurt.
This was actually an addition that someone else has suggested on this very forum, and several other ENWorlders use in varying degrees of complexity. I have also integrated some ideas published in an article on DDI. Here is my own take on it:
Do Something Cool
Encounter
No Action - Personal
Trigger: You decide that it's time for your character to do something cool
Effect: You do something cool. Even if the rules do not explicitly allow it. You can bend, and sometimes break, the rules that govern reality. You gain some narrative control, subject to DM approval, but whatever the outcome, things should go your way (or not, if that's your choice).
This card is obviously very loose with "rules" text, and this is deliberate, as the intent was to get players to make decisions based more on "the rule of cool" than on in-game constructs. That said, I still wanted to have some guidelines.
Wizards of the Coast published an article that detailed the kinds of things that a character using a Terrain Power could accomplish at a given level of play and the associated action cost. This will be used as a rough guide for what can be accomplished with the Do Something Cool encounter power:
In addition to these effects, the Do Something Cool encounter power may allow a player to alter the attack parameters of one use of a power. This includes the Attack, Range, Target, and even the Requirement lines (if present), but should not provide numerical bonuses to hit or damage under most circumstances.
For example, a player may wish to turn a “Melee weapon” attack into a “Close burst”, “Ranged weapon” attack, or even a “Close blast”. The range of such a substitution would vary by tier; in Heroic, burst 1, Ranged 3/6, and blast 1 or 2 would be an appropriate baseline.
Other possibilities may include (but are not necessarily limited to):
Unlike the first list, the above uses of Do Something Cool are not based on any sort of playtested material, and should be considered rough guidelines only. Any and all of the options presented are subject to DM approval and may be revoked, toned-down, or vetoed at any time.
It should further be noted that the above lists only cover combat applications of the power. Do Something Cool is intended to also be used outside of combat, and as such there are other guidelines for integrating their use in skill challenges, roleplaying scenarios, and even in shaping the course of the plot (within reason). You can, subject to DM approval, use Do Something Cool to:
Summary
This covers all the changes I have made which affect game pacing and narrative control. I have many, many more specific and smaller houserules adding equipment, powers, feats, etc, etc, but I will only get into those if anyone cares to ask, and might be better off in its own thread.
This is something that arose out of the excellent thread on Pemertonian Scene Framing started by @S'mon .
Where to begin? Probably Healing Surges is a good place to start.
Healing Surges
I really loved the idea of surges, as it makes the idea of hit points easier than ever to swallow, and the surge mechanics allow them to become unobtrusive in between encounters (no more bundles of Wands of CLW!), makes having a healer around not strictly necessary, and makes gameplay feel more cinematic - all of those things I like.
However, I also saw them as something that could be leveraged to do a lot more in the game. Here you have a recharging player-controlled resource that somewhat represents their vitality (something D&D has long been missing in its core). How could I put them to work in other ways?
When running vanilla 4e, the groups I played in found that we seldom ran out of surges, and it was always the squishiest of the group that ran out first, and then we would stop so that they wouldn't end up dead. Essentially, the one with the fewest surges would determine the length of the "adventuring day". Rituals came along later that fixed this somewhat, allowing the group to spend one surge to redistribute the remaining ones throughout the group, but my tinkering began before that.
Rituals
Speaking of Rituals, that was the first change. We all agreed (within my group) that the monetary cost of rituals was flat out stopping us from using them at low levels. Every coin spent on a ritual for mostly flavour purposes now was one less to spend on magic items later for mostly mechanical purposes. It felt wrong.
Keep in mind that all these alterations are works-in-progress, and constantly subject to reworking if and when a problem comes up, but here is how they stand now.
* Rituals cost 2 healing surges to cast, in addition to any specific healing surge cost they already have. Any focus a ritual requires is still mandatory. Ritual casters must purchase and maintain a Ritual Kit, whose cost is equal to the cost of their most expensive ritual.
* Heroic Tier rituals of Level -3 cost one fewer surge, and Level -6 cost two fewer (essentially free).
* Paragon Tier rituals of Level -4 cost one fewer surge, and those of Level -8 cost two fewer.
*Epic Tier rituals of Level -5 cost one fewer surge, and those of Level -10 cost two fewer.
* Paragon Tier rituals of Level -4 cost one fewer surge, and those of Level -8 cost two fewer.
*Epic Tier rituals of Level -5 cost one fewer surge, and those of Level -10 cost two fewer.
[sblock=Commentary]This served to immediately cause rituals to start seeing use. Nearly every group in my games now has at least one ritual caster, and they use rituals all the time. It makes for great flavour, and their costs are such that they don't get overused or abused.
The cost reductions are not set in stone, however, and are subject to further revision. They have so far not been an issue, but I am open to the possibility that this change may have "broken" something.
It has also not been tested above level 10.[/sblock]
Recharging Powers
Power recharging was the next fundamental change implemented with Healing Surges. This change was implemented because due to the way our games seem to be paced, we were finding that players were meeting every encounter outside of a dungeon environment at full strength, so they'd blow all their Daily powers and walk all over even higher-level encounters. To try to get the PC resource economy back into line with the assumed "adventuring day" I decided to try a few tweaks.
Encounter powers still recharge at each short rest, but one of the most fundamental changes I made to game pacing and "feel" was to have characters spend surges to get their hit points back even during extended rests, and that they do not get all their spent surges back during extended rests (I'm still playing with the rate they return at).
I suppose you could call this a nod to "realism" and you could argue that it can get in the way of some kinds of scene framing, but in practice, I have not found this to be the case. The result I found from this, is that it feels "believable" that after your character blows every daily power they have and get the living tar kicked out of them, it takes a while to recover to full strength. It also gives players a degree of meaningful choice in what powers to recharge and when to do it.
Here is how it breaks down:
* Recover an Item Encounter Power - 1 surge
* Recover an Encounter Attack Power - 2 surges
* Recover an Item Daily Power - 3 surges
* Recover highest level Daily Attack Power - 4 surges
* Recover second-highest Daily Attack power - 3 surges
* Recover third-highest Daily Attack power - 2 surges
* Recover fourth-highest Daily Attack power - 1 surge
* Recover third-highest Daily Attack power - 2 surges
* Recover fourth-highest Daily Attack power - 1 surge
All Daily Utility powers and Daily Item powers recover each "day" as usual, which I consider separate from each extended rest. To do otherwise would de-emphasize the use of Utility powers in a way that I find undesirable.
[sblock=Commentary]This has largely had the effect I intended - players often think before spending Daily powers and seldom enter any fight at full strength. What I find happening is that the characters in the front who take the most damage are the most strapped for healing surges, often because they end up recharging their Daily attack powers as often as they have the healing surges to do so.
I like the added level of resource management and choices that this gives players, but I feel like this needs to be further tested before I decide to keep this or not.[/sblock]
Surge Recovery
Extended Rests recover a large number of Healing Surges (typically 4), but can only occur in a place of relative safety and/or comfort, such as in a town or roadside inn, camping while traveling at a leisurely pace (when does that ever happen?), or rarely, if the characters manage to make a fairly secure spot within a "dungeon" by whatever means. In my games this has included barricading themselves in a portion of a dungeon they've cleared of hostiles, but can also include temporary expeditionary base-camps and the like.
A more typical rest occurs during stressful times, a "daily" rest. This is enough rest to recharge Item Dailies and Daily Utility powers automatically, and may result in the recovery of 1 or 2 healing surges, to be spent however the character wishes. This is typical while traveling overland at a brisk pace (assumed 10-hour travel days), sleeping in "unsafe" locations, or similar.
I also give out ad hoc healing surges as a reward for clever solutions, wise decisions in character, for thoroughly exploring, to represent good fortune, or a much-needed moment of respite. This often ties in to Milestones.
[sblock=Commentary]The rate of recovery is something I'm constantly tinkering with. I find that I need to award surges on an ad hoc basis a lot, because the players burn through their resources quickly, but I also want to encourage them to press on when it makes in-character sense to do so, thus I don't feel that it's a bad thing to have to do. Overly cautious play with 5- or 15-minute adventuring days is a thing of the distant past in my campaigns. The "trick" seems to be in rewarding the players with just enough healing surges for them to feel that they can press on, but not enough that they enter every fight at full strength.
They still have the option to break off and rest, most of the time, but they no longer feel like they have to, and are able to press on with the story with more limited resources when they would otherwise quit to recover. I find this really helps with scene framed play.[/sblock]
Miscellaneous Uses
Two further uses of healing surges in my game include adding bonuses to dice rolls, and Action Point recovery.
The option to gain +2 to Any Roll must be declared before the roll is made, but any number of surges may be spent in this way, even after finding out the result of the roll. For example, a player could declare their intent to use the Gain +2 option on an attack roll. They are at this point committed to spending at least one healing surge on the attack, even if they roll well enough to hit without modifiers, but if they roll horribly, at that point can declare that they are spending more surges to ensure a hit.
At a cost of 3 Healing Surges, a player may recover one Action Point, provided they are completely out. This ties in to changes I made to Action Points, which I will detail below.
[sblock=Commentary]I am considering allowing the bonus to count towards a Natural 20 so that it doesn’t feel "wasted," even if the roll hits without modifiers, but I have not done this yet. In fact, my players never use this option because they already have lots to spend surges on.
I can see the greatest benefit to this variant being for Essentials characters, allowing them to create a "pseudo-Daily" power at a similar surge cost. The thing I have noticed is with these rules, Essentials characters seldom spend all their Healing Surges, as they have far fewer powers to recharge, and generally stronger At-wills due to baked-in damage bonuses. Nobody playing an Essentials character has taken advantage of this, perhaps due to not knowing about it. I will try to make it more clear next time it comes up.[/sblock]
Action Points
I made the following changes to the way Action Points work in my game.
* Action points do not reset to 1 after an extended rest.
* You may accumulate action points indefinitely and without limit.
* Action Points no longer reset after an extended rest, even when none remain.
* Gain Action Point(s) each time you gain a level, at a rate of one per tier.
* You still earn an action point for achieving a milestone.
* You may spend 3 Healing Surges to recover an AP, provided you have none left.
In order to compensate for the likely stockpiling of action points, there are two new ways to spend them which do not count against the limit of spending one action point per encounter.
You may spend an action point to recharge an item daily power as though you’d achieved a milestone. You may not spend an action point in this way if you have already achieved a milestone since your last extended rest.
You may spend action points in lieu of healing surges when a power, ritual (including alchemy and martial practices), or situation allows you to do so. You can only spend action points in this way if you have no healing surges remaining, or if the power, ritual, or situation requires you to spend more surges than you currently have left. You must spend all remaining surges first, before making up the difference in action points.
The Death Flag
I have instituted a Death Flag mechanic. I've done this for two reasons: (i) it allows the players to individually control the level of lethality, even game-to-game, that they want to experience, and (ii) it fosters player agency in both mechanical and narrative terms by allowing players to declare when something is particularly important to them or their character and giving them the tools to leverage that.
I find this avoids player drama at the table, and adds to character drama in-game. Here is how I work it;
Players may "burn" Death Saves for Action Points. Death Saves burned in this way only recover by spending Action Points to refresh them (at a conversion cost of 3 Healing Surges during rests).
To clarify: a player may voluntarily trade (spend, burn, whatever you want to call it - I use "burn" because I find it evocative), a Death Save for an Action Point at any time on a one-for-one basis. This gives an immediate AP, and they tick off the box as though they'd "failed" a death save. They're voluntarily reducing their resilience and built-in "plot protection" for extra actions.
What this means is that if they'd burned, say, two of their Death Saves for Action Points, and they then get dropped to 0hp or less and become "dying," the first time they fail a death save, they die. If they're feeling really brash and burn all three, the first time that they become "dying" and their turn comes up again, they die.
[sblock=Commentary]One of the big criticisms I hear from players all the time is that it's far too hard to die in 4e, or even that it's "impossible" to die. I don't feel that this is the case; I think those players underestimate their own tactical and resource-management abilities, even in bone stock 4e games.
Characters rarely die in my games, but it has happened, and often rather abruptly.
I also have players of differing levels of comfort with the game, character death, and with managing risk versus reward. This solution can accomodate them all at the same table, as it is an opt-in mechanic.
I have had this posted as a houserule for quite some time, but my players only recently became aware of it. Since then about half of them fairly quickly burned up their Death Saves in this manner and are sitting on one left each.[/sblock]
Critical Hits and Reckless Breakage
I've been fond of the idea of critical hits providing more than just added damage for a long time. I used the ridiculous charts from 2e's Player's Option series since they were released, even continuing to use them in 3.x by adding a third 'confirm' stage; if the first confirmation scored a 'threat' again, then we'd 'confirm' for a 'charted crit.' It was ridiculous and provided for some amusing times and some broken results, but hey, that's just part of the fun of 'random' in a process-sim game, I guess. Eventually, we decided that the story concerns made it more troublesome than it was worth, and so stopped using it.
When 4e rolled around, I tried to come up with something to give that effect again. I still wanted criticals (and fumbles) to mean something more than 'numbers.' Fourth edition's metagame-friendly mechanics also provided another opportunity to make it work that I'd not had before: player agency.
I made up an encounter power that everyone would have:
Enhanced Critical Hit
Encounter
No Action - Personal
Trigger: You score a critical hit with a power, or you are subjected to a critical hit
Effect: The critical hit is enhanced by additional effects, based on the effect, keyword(s), or target of the triggering power. Select one keyword or effect from the triggering attack, and the DM will apply an added effect to the triggering attack.
Special: If you are the target of the triggering attack, you gain an Action Point after the effects of the attack are resolved.
Special: You can use an Action Point to recharge this power.
My favourite part about this is the first 'special' condition - the player, when hit by a crit, can choose to take a risk, spend their crit card, and gain an AP for doing so. Risk vs reward, 100% player-initiated. This further allows me to do fun things like this at a table with vastly mixed preferences (as mine usually is); the risk-averse can save their crit card for when they're doing the hitting, and those who like a greater degree of risk can take a chance and be rewarded if they survive.
[sblock=Commentary]I have a list of sample effects that I've kept somewhat conservative since this applies to both players and monsters. It's full of mostly save-ends effects like ongoing damage, conditions, and penalties, as well as forced movement and short duration stuns, dominates, etc.
The list is constantly being revised and added to, as situations come up. I also use the Injury Deck from Dragon (expanded, of course), as a possible outcome. I will go over my changes to that system below as well.[/sblock]
Reckless Breakage
I lifted this rule from Dark Sun (p122, IIRC), and modified it to suit my game in several ways.
The gist is that when you roll a natural 1, you may opt to take a reroll on the flubbed roll - resolve the attack using the second result. Hit or miss, now the attacker's weapon or implement must make an item saving throw, with a bonus for each "plus" it has. I usually make this roll behind the screen.
Any weapon or implement broken in this manner is simply rendered unusable until repaired, either with sufficient time and resources, or with rituals that can accomplish the same result.
I use this for monsters as well, and in the case of monsters without weapons, I usually resolve it by having the reroll trigger an opportunity action from the target. This also applies to PCs using "natural" weapons, unarmed attacks, and the like.
[sblock=Commentary]This has proven to be a popular addition to the game, as it produces some dramatic moments and is just generally fun, but remains opt-in for those who aren't willing to risk the loss of a favourite weapon/implement, even temporarily. It helps that I use a modified version of Inherent Bonuses as well, such that even without a weapon or implement with magical plusses, PCs are still baseline effective.
Several times now though, it has resulted in lower-level characters being left weaponless for extended periods (i.e. in the wilderness or dungeon). My group seems to enjoy this, but it may not be to everyone's taste.[/sblock]
Injury Deck
I basically took the Injury Deck idea from a recent Dragon and expanded on it. Besides expanding the size of the deck with more different injuries, I also felt that I should be keeping what little " deadliness" 4e has, so rather than using permanent injuries in lieu of death, I have instead changed the conditions met to acquire them.
I've keept the first condition - if you drop below 1hp, you make a save at the end of the combat to see if you get a pull from the deck.
I'm replacing the condition where you get an injury in lieu of death by failing death saves, with a minor injury for your first failed death save, and either a second one or one major injury for your second failed death save. Third failed death save, you still die. If you die and get brought back, you have a chance to come back with an injury.
I've also replaced the "death by negative bloodied" injury, because I want to keep that as a way to die. Instead, if you ever take damage equal to your bloodied value in one hit, you make an injury save at the end of the combat, or you get an injury.
[sblock=Commentary]Having one every time you get bloodied seems excessive to me, but if these don't see enough use, I may tinker with it further. Maybe make a save the first time you are bloodied in a fight? I dunno. I am going to play with it some more, as it is one of my more recent additions.[/sblock]
Inherent Bonuses
I use the Inherent Bonus rules from Dark Sun as well, because I dislike the item treadmill and the baked-in reliance on every character having to have "the big 3" all the time to keep up with "The Math." That said, I still like using magical items, including weapons, implements, armour, and jewelry, and wanted to find a way to make them "compatible" with Inherent Bonuses without breaking the game, while also reflecting the idea that possessing such an item would still serve to enhance PC ability even if it were an item below character level.
So, to that end, what I do is have the "plus" of an item add to the PC's effective level on the Inherent Bonus chart, rather than act as a strict plus. This way, I can drop powerful artifacts even at low-level and they won't break the game. Worst case scenario is that a PC will be +1 ahead of where they "should be." Hardly game-breaking, especially as half the players don't give a hoot about the "feat tax" math fixes.
For example, I recently allowed a PC to start with an heirloom weapon, in this case an "indestructible" +5 Halberd that could "cut through anything." All this did was advance him one place on the Inherent Bonus chart, such that at Level 1, he counted as though he were Level 6 (equivalent to a +1 weapon), and when he hit level 2, he counted as Level 7 (equivalent to a +2 weapon).
[sblock=Commentary]There are a couple of potential pitfalls in this method, which I have patched. First, Critical effects of weapons now references the character's total Inherent plusses, rather than the actual plus count of the weapon. In the example above, the halberd +5 in the hands of that 1st level PC only does +1d10 damage on a critical, and when he hit level 2 and improved his effective bonus with the weapon to +2, his critical dice improved to +2d10, rather than the full +5d10.
The same applies in reverse, such that even a 12th level PC with a +1 dagger counts as Level 13 on the IB chart, and gets a +3 enhancement bonus, and +3d6 critical damage.
The second concern would be that the magical item economy would make it really powerful to spend next to no money on cheap +1 weapons even at high level just to take advantage of things like +1 vicious weapons and the like. For me that is not a concern, since I've scrapped/ignored the default economy since, well, basically forever.[/sblock]
The "Do Something Cool" Card
I have added a universal "plot coupon" card for every PC. I did this because of some of the criticism aimed at 4e that indicated players were less likely to think outside the box than they were to just look at their sheet for an answer. I found that this had more to do with individual players than it did with the game itself, but nonetheless, I figured it couldn't hurt.
This was actually an addition that someone else has suggested on this very forum, and several other ENWorlders use in varying degrees of complexity. I have also integrated some ideas published in an article on DDI. Here is my own take on it:
Do Something Cool
Encounter
No Action - Personal
Trigger: You decide that it's time for your character to do something cool
Effect: You do something cool. Even if the rules do not explicitly allow it. You can bend, and sometimes break, the rules that govern reality. You gain some narrative control, subject to DM approval, but whatever the outcome, things should go your way (or not, if that's your choice).
This card is obviously very loose with "rules" text, and this is deliberate, as the intent was to get players to make decisions based more on "the rule of cool" than on in-game constructs. That said, I still wanted to have some guidelines.
Wizards of the Coast published an article that detailed the kinds of things that a character using a Terrain Power could accomplish at a given level of play and the associated action cost. This will be used as a rough guide for what can be accomplished with the Do Something Cool encounter power:
- Heroic, Paragon, and Epic Minor: Add a damage type to an attack or allow a 1-square shift
- Heroic Move, or Paragon and Epic Minor: Avoid intervening obstacles during a move; grant concealment and/or cover; knock prone; push, pull, or slide enemy up to 4 squares; deafen; or deal level-appropriate ongoing damage
- Heroic Standard, Paragon Move, or Epic Minor: Grant combat advantage, allow a mark, or penalize a defense by up to –2
- Paragon Standard or Epic Move: Blind, daze, immobilize, restrain, or weaken
- Epic Standard: Dominate, stun, or petrify
In addition to these effects, the Do Something Cool encounter power may allow a player to alter the attack parameters of one use of a power. This includes the Attack, Range, Target, and even the Requirement lines (if present), but should not provide numerical bonuses to hit or damage under most circumstances.
For example, a player may wish to turn a “Melee weapon” attack into a “Close burst”, “Ranged weapon” attack, or even a “Close blast”. The range of such a substitution would vary by tier; in Heroic, burst 1, Ranged 3/6, and blast 1 or 2 would be an appropriate baseline.
Other possibilities may include (but are not necessarily limited to):
- turning a burst into an equivalent or perhaps slightly larger size blast (and vice-versa)
- changing the targeting parameters to include/exclude allies or enemies
- allowing an attack where it would not normally be allowed (for example substituting it when a basic attack is called for, such as when charging)
- negating the Opportunity Action granted by moving or making a ranged attack in melee
- granting yourself an Opportunity Action when not normally allowed
- causing an enemy to make a tactical blunder
- allowing a Second Wind or Basic Attack as a move or even a minor action (be careful with this one)
- or even duplicating the effects of another class’ At-will powers or class features (if appropriate, and very subject to DM discretion).
Unlike the first list, the above uses of Do Something Cool are not based on any sort of playtested material, and should be considered rough guidelines only. Any and all of the options presented are subject to DM approval and may be revoked, toned-down, or vetoed at any time.
It should further be noted that the above lists only cover combat applications of the power. Do Something Cool is intended to also be used outside of combat, and as such there are other guidelines for integrating their use in skill challenges, roleplaying scenarios, and even in shaping the course of the plot (within reason). You can, subject to DM approval, use Do Something Cool to:
- Automatically succeed on a skill check with an Easy or Moderate DC, or reroll a failed check on a Hard DC.
- Buy an Advantage in a Skill Challenge
- Automatically fail on a skill check, and claim an Advantage and an Action Point.
- Insert your character or background into the narrative in an advantageous way
- Insert your character or background into the narrative in a disadvantageous way, and claim an Action Point
- other suggestions?
Summary
This covers all the changes I have made which affect game pacing and narrative control. I have many, many more specific and smaller houserules adding equipment, powers, feats, etc, etc, but I will only get into those if anyone cares to ask, and might be better off in its own thread.
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