D&D 3.x Still playing 3e? Share your 3.0 and/or 3.5 house rules

[haakon1]

Speak of the Devil: Saying the real name of the Old One (Greyhawk’s Iuz) or any devil or demon attracts their attention.

This isn’t specific to 3.5e for me - used it when I first DM’d, which was Oriental Adventures “1.75e” in 1987.

 

[Erekose]

OK so last time we played 3.5E it was heavily modified for the campaign we were playing but the main areas in no particular order were:

• all humans with different cultures taking the place of races (and each culture having a selection of ring fenced cultural feats based off regional feats);
• there were preferred classes but these gained a bonus feat for every 5 levels you took in them; classes were quite heavily changed, e.g. three different version of the Barbarian to suite the appropriate culture, the standard Druid was replaced with a slightly toned down version of the Pathfinder 1E Inquisitor, nonspellcasting version of the Ranger, no full casters - spell progression was based on the standard Bard class with minimum hit points being d6 - the Bard class itself was replaced with a version of the Marshall class, a non-standard Knight class was included, nonspellcasting Paladin, and a variant Fighter class (essentially the standard class with more feats and more skill points);
• Slightly condensed skill list;
• magic item creation rules based on Pathfinder 1E;
• restricted feat list;
• restricted spell list (particularly for Clerics, where each deity only grants spells related to their areas);
• restricted prestige class list to those thematically appropriate to the campaign.

I’m sure there was a lot more and in the end we had the equivalent of a PHB for the campaign. It sounds like a lot of restrictions but in the context of the campaign it worked quite well. And it’s not as if it was the only campaign running at the time.

 

[haakon1]

Today, players in the lower-level part of my email campaign are attending a Midsummer fair (1st Richfest) in Thornward, Bissel in the Greyhawk setting.

First up is an archery competition. Rules:
Blue (AC 10) gets you 1 point.
Red (AC 12) gets you 2 points.
Bullseye (yellow, AC16) gets you 4 points.
You need to earn at least 5 points on 3 shots to stay in.
No magic - checked for in Round 4. You can borrow a longbow, short bow, light crossbow, or heavy crossbow.

Round 1 is 60 ft. Range, so no penalties for any normal weapon.
Round 2 is also 60 ft. Range.
Round 3 is 150 ft. -2 Range increment for everything but a heavy crossbow.
Round 4 is 300 ft. -2 to -8 Range penalty depending on the weapon.

If multiple people pass Round 4, repeat until 1 winner or only 2 left. Final championship round is by points.

Prize: 50 gp, 10 silvered arrows, your choice of loaner bow to keep, and a job offer for the city guard.

 

[_Michael_]

Today, players in the lower-level part of my email campaign are attending a Midsummer fair (1st Richfest) in Thornward, Bissel in the Greyhawk setting.

First up is an archery competition. Rules:
Blue (AC 10) gets you 1 point.
Red (AC 12) gets you 2 points.
Bullseye (yellow, AC16) gets you 4 points.
You need to earn at least 5 points on 3 shots to stay in.
No magic - checked for in Round 4. You can borrow a longbow, short bow, light crossbow, or heavy crossbow.

Round 1 is 60 ft. Range, so no penalties for any normal weapon.
Round 2 is also 60 ft. Range.
Round 3 is 120 ft. -2 Range increment for everything but a heavy crossbow.
Round 4 is 240 ft. -2 to -8 Range penalty depending on the weapon.

If multiple people pass Round 4, repeat until 1 winner or only 2 left. Final championship round is by points.

Prize: 50 gp, 10 silvered arrows, your choice of loaner bow to keep, and a job offer for the city guard.

You may wish to look at Tournaments, Fairs and Taverns as that is an excellent source of fair games and fun, including rules for jousting and archery.

 

[Greg K]

Although, I don't currently run 3e, I could provide many of the house rules used . However, since my my laptop crashed a few weeks ago and my Chromebook will not read LibreOffice files, I can't access my full list of house rules.* What I do have, I was able to put together via an outline and filling in the sections I could. However there are section reading (insert spells here) or otherwise be missing information.
*I thought I had posted many of my house rules on ENWorld in the past, but I can't find them with a google search or links to them in my Chrome bookmarks.

 

[rgard]

Once a class skill, always a class skill.

 

[Edgar Ironpelt]

I run a 3.5e game with every PC being a gestalt-ranger character (fighter-ranger, cleric-ranger, wizard-ranger, etc). No prestige classes, the travel spells are combed out to give a more 'rangerly' feel (so no flight, teleport, etc. And no clerical 'Travel' domain), house rules allowing animal companions and favored enemies to be swapped out for extra feats, and a parallel development to Pathfinder where certain 0-level spells can be cast repeatedly.

Non-core feats, spells, and magic items I treat as "homebrew" - allowed only if I, the GM, approve, and I'll often modify them.

I try to keep the house rules down to a dull roar otherwise, at least for stuff on the player-character sheets, but I am more free about modifying monsters. E.g. I dump the concept of Large and bigger creatures having a natural reach of 10 feet or more. Everything has a 5 ft reach, unless their longer reach is 'special' and not just due to size.

 

[Deset Gled]

I run a 3.5e game with every PC being a gestalt-ranger character (fighter-ranger, cleric-ranger, wizard-ranger, etc).... house rules allowing animal companions and favored enemies to be swapped out for extra feats,...

Non-core feats, spells, and magic items I treat as "homebrew" - allowed only if I, the GM, approve, and I'll often modify them.

With core-only feats, wouldn't a high level fighter-ranger gestalt end up running out of interesting feats to take? There are options in the core, but not that many with great synergy (especially considering they'll get the TWF tree for free).

 

[Zardnaar]

Mostly a ban list. No persistent spell feat, 1 PrC at a time. Banned prc list.

Probably do phb+1.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Haven't played 3E in SO long... However, if I ever run it again as DM it'll be 3.5 with E6 rules, and I have literally 3 pages of house rules to go with that (capstone feat stuff mostly IIRC).