Variant Rules
- Thread starter Falstaff
- Start date
Zarrock God of Evil
First Post
Falstaff said:
I use Instant Kill, Clobbered and Defense Rolls IMC...
-Zarrock
Zarrock God of Evil
First Post
Re: Re: Re: Variant Rules
Yeah - that's exactly why I included it. My player's liked it instantly as they felt it also gave them a chance to actively avoid being hit (go figure). It can slow combat down a bit, admittedly, but using the "roll all dice at once" suggestion from the 3.0 DMG (or is it PHB) more or less eliminates this.
Definitely makes battles more unpredictable (but not to the point of the ridiculous).
-Zarrock
Falstaff said:
Yeah - that's exactly why I included it. My player's liked it instantly as they felt it also gave them a chance to actively avoid being hit (go figure). It can slow combat down a bit, admittedly, but using the "roll all dice at once" suggestion from the 3.0 DMG (or is it PHB) more or less eliminates this.
Definitely makes battles more unpredictable (but not to the point of the ridiculous).
-Zarrock
Emiricol
Registered User
I often use the Variant: Free-Form Experience on pg 168, except that instead of "per encounter" I do it "per hour of game time" - my sessions being about 3 hours.
It was a compromise because the party after two years of regular play was only level 5
In this way, the party now levels about once per month instead of every 6 months, if they do well and make it to every session.
It was a compromise because the party after two years of regular play was only level 5
In this way, the party now levels about once per month instead of every 6 months, if they do well and make it to every session.
Crothian
First Post
Falstaff said:
Of course, when ruling a d20 for skills, attack, saving throws, or attribute checks a naturral 20 is figured as a 30 and a natural 1 is figured as a -10. Then all bonuses are added it to figure out if the roll was sucessful or not. I don't use 20 as auto success and 1 as auto failure.
jlhorner1974
First Post
Another popular variant on the method Crothian uses is to leave things "open-ended". It's been discussed on the boards before.
On a natural 20 [amazing success], treat it as a 20, but roll again and add the result of the die. Keep rolling and adding if the player continues to roll 20s.
For a roll of 1 [critical failure], treat as 1 (or 0, if you like), but roll again and subtract the value of the die. If a 20 shows up, roll again and keep subtracting.
This allows for a very small chance for an amazingly good or amazingly bad result, to model the situation where everyone is sometimes capable of amazing things (good or bad).
Personally, I just use the rule as-is in the books, but I wouldn't mind playing with the rule Crothian mentioned or the open-ended variant.
On a natural 20 [amazing success], treat it as a 20, but roll again and add the result of the die. Keep rolling and adding if the player continues to roll 20s.
For a roll of 1 [critical failure], treat as 1 (or 0, if you like), but roll again and subtract the value of the die. If a 20 shows up, roll again and keep subtracting.
This allows for a very small chance for an amazingly good or amazingly bad result, to model the situation where everyone is sometimes capable of amazing things (good or bad).
Personally, I just use the rule as-is in the books, but I wouldn't mind playing with the rule Crothian mentioned or the open-ended variant.
Voadam
Legend
In a pre3e game I played in they used open ended d20 rolling but a 1 counted as -20 and your second roll added to that, if you rolled another 1 it went down to -40 and you rolled a third time, etc. This kept 20 good 1 bad no matter when it was rolled.
The best was succeeding on a skill roll after rolling a 1.
The best was succeeding on a skill roll after rolling a 1.
Last edited:
