Trying my hand at DMing. Need some advice

[Hellhound87]

Alright, let me first say that as far as game experience is concerned, I have about two years experience as a player. My DM in my current game has been using me to bounce ideas about upcoming campaigns, plot twists and hooks, etc. and made the suggestion that I should DM my own campaign, insisting that I'd be really good at it. Well, in order to come up with a campaign, I decided to tailor some rules and create my own house rules. The house rules SO FAR are as follows:

Rolling Stats:

When rolling stats, we will be using 4d6, dropping the lowest dice, and re-rolling ones. Everyone will start off with one 18 for free without having to roll for it. Re-rolling all stats is allowed once, and the free 18 is sacrificed on the re-roll. Everyone may pick which set they would rather play with, but there will be no mixing and matching the two sets for optimal stats.
Choosing a Race:

Because I am the DM, and therefore God of this world, I have chosen to be a very generous God. While choosing a race, one level adjustment will be ignored. For example, a Drow Elf with a +2 level adjustment effectively becomes a +1 level adjustment race. If your mind is set on playing a core race or a race with no level adjustments, fear not, those races will receive special bonuses.

The Attributes for the Core Class Elf have been changed. Elves from the core race now have a +2 to Dexterity and Intelligence as well as a -2 to Strength (High Elf) OR +2 to Dexterity and Wisdom and a -2 to Charisma (Dark Elf). As such, no other sub-race of Elf is available for play. (Drow Elves do exist, but they are all evil in this campaign, and therefore unplayable as this is not an evil campaign.)

Half-Elves now add a +2 bonus depending on their upbringing. Half-Elves who were raised by their human parent can add a +2 bonus to their Charisma or Constitution, while Half-Elves who grew up with their Elven parent can add a +2 bonus to either Dexterity or Wisdom. Half-Elves also gain a bonus feat at first level, just like their human relatives. They are eligible for any feat exclusive to either elf or human, but may not take feats from both parentages. A Half Elf either embraces his human heritage or his elf heritage, but not both. Like humans, Half Elves can retrain one feat twice for free, the first time being at 8^th Level and the second time at 16^th Level. See Humans below for more detail. A Half Elf who identifies more with their Elven heritage receive the Weapon proficiencies as their Elven kin, including the ability to treat Elven Weapons as Martial Weapons, and qualify for any prestige class exclusive for elves. All other bonuses from the Player’s Handbook remain unchanged.

Humans now add a +2 to any stat of their choice. Because humans are able to adapt quickly compared to other races, they are able to retrain one feat twice for free: the first being at Level 8, and the second being at Level 16. They cannot however, retrain bonus feats received from their class or retrain the racial bonus feat at 1^st Level. Also, humans must always meet prerequisites for any feat they may have; for example, if a human has Improved Disarm with Combat Expertise as a prerequisite, he or she cannot retrain Combat Expertise and expect to keep the benefit of Improved Disarm.

Halflings are now immune to Fear and Fear based effects rather than simply receiving a bonus to Will Saves against Fear. They have a +2 to Sleight of Hand checks and may treat this skill as a class skill. Once per day, a Halfling may make a Sleight of Hand Check at any time to see if he or she has an item that was in the belongings of another character. The Difficulty Class for this check will be decided by the DM at the time of the check, based on how big the item is, where it was located, etc. Halflings cannot make this check on items that are already in use (such as a longsword currently being wielded by a Fighter). This check does not have to be made at the time of the “discovery (theft)”, only when the item is needed. All Halflings are otherwise treated as Strongheart Halflings from the Forgotten Realms Campaign.

Half Orcs no longer suffer the -2 penalty to Intelligence, and they also gain a +2 to Constitution. Orcs in this world are not dull and therefore would not pass on stupidity to their offspring.

Gnomes have the following stat changes: +2 to Constitution and Dexterity, and a -2 to Strength and Wisdom (Gnome) OR +2 to Constitution and Dexterity, and a -2 to Strength and Charisma (Whisper Gnome). Both sub races of Gnome have a 30 ft. Land Speed despite their size.

Dwarves now have a +2 to Strength (Dwarf) OR Wisdom (Dwarven Sub-race) in addition to their attributes in the Player’s Handbook.

All core races listed above also have a bonus racial feat of their choice selected at 1^ST Level. The DM will have a full list of feats that qualify for each race.
Finally, all exotic weapons that have a racial name (Elven Courtblade, Dwarven Urgosh, etc.) are treated as martial weapons by their corresponding races.

Classes:

All classes listed in Official Wizards of the Coast Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Edition Rulebooks will be allowed with the following exception: The Big Five, otherwise known as the Wizard, Cleric, Druid, Artificer, and Archivist. These classes can, and often do, break the game into tiny pieces with their many spells and versatility of “I win.” However, certain variants, such as the Spontaneous Cleric or Druid variant in Unearthed Arcana, may be acceptable to play as long as they are deemed balanced.
Certain classes that have proficiency with all martial weapons have the option to forsake that proficiency with some or most weapons for enhancement feats such as Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialization for free with a certain kind of weapon. Consult with the DM for more information.

Multi-classing

Multi-classing will not incur any experience penalty. However, alignment restrictions shall be observed, so Barbarian/Paladins would not work. Prestiging is only allowed once. Furthermore, taking on more than three base classes and actively keeping up on the skills is extremely taxing work, and you may lose class abilities from one or more classes if you try.

Feats:

The rule variant in Unearthed Arcana on Flaws will not be observed. If you are playing a core class, you will be receiving at least one free feat anyway (two if you are human, half elf, or Halfling.)

Two Weapon Fighting now allows for one–handed weapons to be wielded in the off-hand for no additional penalty. All other rules still apply.

Ambidextrous Two Weapon Fighting is now a feat that can be taken to allow your off-hand to use your full strength when determining damage. Prerequisites are: Improved Two Weapon Fighting (and any prerequisites for that feat as well.) Ambidextrous Two Weapon Fighting is also a Fighter Bonus Feat.

Pounce (The ability in the Monster Manual) can now be taken as a feat. The prerequisites are: STR 15, Base Attack Bonus +6. This feat is also a Fighter Bonus Feat.

Weapons that are being finessed cannot be used to Power Attack. If you are using Dexterity to attack rather than Strength, then it’s impossible to add more power to said attack. Weapons that can be finessed (other than light weapons, which cannot receive the benefit of Power Attack anyways) but are not under the effects of Weapon Finesse are still able to receive the benefit of Power Attack.

Feats are allowed to be re-trained, but there is an associated cost with them in Gold, experience, and possibly side quests. Humans and Half Elves can do this for free twice.

This campaign is obviously a Tier 2-3 campaign. Now I do have a few questions regarding balance issues.

First, is Wild Shape so powerful that a Spontaneous Druid would still be Tier 1 even without the ability to prepare spells? (I know that Wild Shape Ranger is Tier 3 while Ranger is Tier 4, for example)

Second, I believe access to two domains as a Spontaneous Cleric is still a little much for this campaign (two free spells per spell level). How about lowering it down to one domain?

Third, what are the foreseeable balance issues for these rules? My players aren't experienced in optimizing and think fireball is a wonderful spell *shudders*, and the one or two veterans I have aren't interested in creating a fully optimized character.

I'm sure I'll have many more questions, especially if/when you guys point something out that I didn't think about, but these are all I can think of now.

 

[billd91]

With respect to your class restrictions, have you actually experienced wizards and other classes breaking the game? If your players aren't that interested in optimization, clamping down on the classes may be unnecessary.

 

[Dandu]

You can replace the Cleric with Favored Soul, but you'd best give it Turn Undead and K. Religion.

Druid is easily replaced with Spirit Shaman. The Shapeshifter Druid from the PHB2 is also a decent replacement.

 

[Hellhound87]

With respect to your class restrictions, have you actually experienced wizards and other classes breaking the game? If your players aren't that interested in optimization, clamping down on the classes may be unnecessary.

I've thought about that as well, and while I do have experience with wizards breaking the game, I was usually the cause and not the other players (I was always trying to experience the DMG to the head, and made it my personal goal to frustrate the DM to tears. Sadly that never happened) Maybe I am just a believer in Karma.

 

[Hellhound87]

You can replace the Cleric with Favored Soul, but you'd best give it Turn Undead and K. Religion.

Druid is easily replaced with Spirit Shaman. The Shapeshifter Druid from the PHB2 is also a decent replacement.

I've played a Favored Soul, and that was always my biggest complaint about them: No Turn Undead and no K. Religion, which besides being able to cast Divine Spells, kept the character from receiving the full benefits of a Divine Caster (DMM, Ruby Knight Vindicator, etc.). I hated the flavor of Sacred Exorcist and refused to dip one level for TU. That might actually work though.

 

[Celebrim]

In general I think you are on the right track. I too believe in front loading (though with slightly different choices than you) and then smoothing out later progression some.

Multi-classing will not incur any experience penalty. However, alignment restrictions shall be observed, so Barbarian/Paladins would not work. Prestiging is only allowed once. Furthermore, taking on more than three base classes and actively keeping up on the skills is extremely taxing work, and you may lose class abilities from one or more classes if you try.

As an alternative to this, multi-classing incurs experience penalties as normal, but all races get the 'ignore the class with the highest rank' feature normally available to humans (you've bumped humans in power in other ways). This lets you do away with the 'more than 3 base classes and I'll by fiat punish you' declaration.

As for cleric, my fix on the cleric has been pretty simple:

1) One less spell slot per spell level.
2) Implement a 'spells known list' similar to sorcerer.

This largely brings the cleric down to tier 2 on its own, since the cleric loses the 'I have a solution to every problem' feature.

As for Druid, my fix on the Druid has been to replace it with the Green Ronin Shaman, kill the Druid, and take his spell list and with some tweaking, integrate the two (for example, lose monster summoning, gain summon nature's ally). Otherwise, any problems here are an issue of individual spells, though I should note that the Spirit Familiar for the Shaman will be problematic and should be dropped to a normal familiar if you are using RAW ethereal plane.

For the wizard I agree you can't fix the class without overhauling the spellcasting system and rewriting a couple dozen problematic spells. As a simple suggestion, eliminating the rule that adds the level of the spell to the DC of the save and using a less broken version of the shape changing spells generally reins in spellcasters quite a bit. Otherwise, you are generally safe sticking to the core spells and being very selective about what you allow in from the splatbooks.

The sorcerer in general is not problematic provide you overhaul a couple dozen problematic spells.

I'm not familiar with the archivist, but in general I don't see a pressing need for one.

I should note that I banned all PrC's about 10 years ago. If you don't want to go quite that far, I'd suggest reducing the list down to 20 or so available PrC's for your campaign world, most of which should chosen just as enablers to allow multiclassing with spellcasting classes to 'work right'.

In general, one look at your suggestions and if I'm power gaming I'm opening up the 'Book of Nine Swords' or playing a Psion. That you've banned the big 5 but not addressed that baffles me.

Certain classes that have proficiency with all martial weapons have the option to forsake that proficiency with some or most weapons for enhancement feats such as Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialization for free with a certain kind of weapon. Consult with the DM for more information.

Meh. This is a no brainer. You'd always forsake knowledge of something you're never going to do for greater prowess in something you'd do all the time. Weapon fixation is a problem you should be discouraging, not encouraging.

 

[Hellhound87]

I should note that I banned all PrC's about 10 years ago. If you don't want to go quite that far, I'd suggest reducing the list down to 20 or so available PrC's for your campaign world, most of which should chosen just as enablers to allow multiclassing with spellcasting classes to 'work right'.

I'm not too keen on banning PrC's, as I do like their flavor and without multiple PrC shenanigans on one character, I think that might be enough. But you are right, I might need to comb through the list and get rid of some that might be problematic.

In general, one look at your suggestions and if I'm power gaming I'm opening up the 'Book of Nine Swords' or playing a Psion. That you've banned the big 5 but not addressed that baffles me.

I'm personally a fan of Bo9S and actually encourage the players to play one of the three martial classes there. Other than Wizard and Favored Soul back in the past, I exclusively play ToB, and other than being better at being a Barbarian than a Barbarian, the DM never had a problem with balance on his end. But Psion, that's a different story. I don't have any experience with Psion personally, and I'm toying around with banning Psionics outright if only for flavor reasons.

Otherwise, I do like the other suggestions you've made, and they might work out.

EDIT: I still like the Favored Soul idea though. Where can I find Green Ronin Shaman?

 

[pickin_grinnin]

Sometimes you just have to give things a shot and see how they play out.

With any game system, if I modify things heavily or bring in unusual 3rd party products, I usually run a mini-game by myself. I set up a variety of scenarios (combat, stealth, social, etc.) with some NPCs using the modded rules and some using the modded ones, then run through the scenarios on my own, at a table with some dice. If I don't spot any serious balance issues, I try them out in a one or two-shot game with some willing players. If they still work, I incorporate them into the larger game.

 

[Celebrim]

I'm not too keen on banning PrC's, as I do like their flavor...

My problem with them is that most don't have flavor; they have mechanics. To the extent that some are flavorful, they tend not to be the classes people reach for. And even within that, many are so narrow that really everyone with that class is basically the same character. The whole idea that Monte was trying to encourage of being part of an elite organization that would draw players into RP got thrown out the window in favor of classes that were basically just base class extenders with more bonus feats and class features per level.

I'm personally a fan of Bo9S and actually encourage the players to play one of the three martial classes there.

Ahh.. Well, to each their own. I won't start that argument again.

EDIT: I still like the Favored Soul idea though.

Keep the cleric. Lose the favored soul. Instead of taking a favored soul and kludging on cleric mechanics like turning and such, take the cleric and give it the favored soul's spells known table only with 1 fewer spell known per spell level (plus domain spells). Then drop the number of spells per day by 1 per spell level and you are done. You keep a Wisdom based caster in your game. You keep the awesome 'domain' selection that makes clerics feel different with just a few small choices. And you avoid a class that has 3 good saves, energy resistance, wings, etc. on top of being a full spell caster and which completely lacks in intraclass variation (unlike cleric with its aforementioned domains).

I loath classes lacking in intraclass variety (hence part of my hatred of PrC's). The ideal class in my opinion is one where every member of a 6 person party could play a character of the same class and the could all be different in concept.

Where can I find Green Ronin Shaman?

Green Ronin's The Shaman Handbook. I'm sure there is something with the gist of it around, but the pdf would be worth buying or head down to a used book store and see if you can find a copy. Lovely little customizable class concept - covers every single animistic priest or wizard you can imagine - without adding a bunch of rules. You want to be witch? Play a shaman. Voodoo Man? Shaman. Druid? Shaman. The original book is in 3.0 rules, but if you prefer 3.5 they have a page or two or errata that covers everything.

 

[Hellhound87]

Green Ronin's The Shaman Handbook. I'm sure there is something with the gist of it around, but the pdf would be worth buying or head down to a used book store and see if you can find a copy. Lovely little customizable class concept - covers every single animistic priest or wizard you can imagine - without adding a bunch of rules. You want to be witch? Play a shaman. Voodoo Man? Shaman. Druid? Shaman. The original book is in 3.0 rules, but if you prefer 3.5 they have a page or two or errata that covers everything.

Actually, I don't have any problems from 3.0, so long as mechanically they don't contradict 3.5, so I'll definitely look at the Shaman. It may not even need the errata, depending. Thanks in advance; I'm pretty sure I'll like what I find.