Deadmanshand
Explorer
House rules? Oh my! Far too many to list here. I have two full documents of house rules or home brew if you prefer. One is on character generation and general gameplay, the other is on combat.
Some of the major ones:
Some of the major ones:
- I allow six methods of generating stats. These are all from earlier editions of D&D/AD&D.
- I have a list of Flaws inspired by WoD that characters may take to receive up to 3 extra points to use with the Point Buy method.
- I give bonus low level spell slots/points for higher ability scores like in 3.5e
- I still give a +1 to a set ability score based on heritage (ie. +1 Dex for elves, +1 Str for orcs) because I think the heritages should be different and not reskinned humans with dark vision. OK that is an exaggeration, but I still like the heritage bonus. This is in addition to the ability increases from backgrounds.
- Humans don’t get the heritage bonus but instead get to choose a starting feat. They may select from a list I made of the feats few people ever take.
- To learn, prepare, or cast a levelled spell, characters must have an ability for the appropriate casting type equal to at least 9 + the spell level.
- I have tweaked far too many feats to get into. I have made some of the Feats nobody ever takes a little better and have nerfed a few others.
- I have changed how starting funds work. Characters receive set amounts based upon both background and culture rather than class.
- I have dumped the base 10 monetary system in favour of a Romanesque pre-decimal system. Obviously that means I had to reprice everything in the game. I have different coin systems for different economic regions. For example the Kingdom of Karn has the farthing (copper), half penny (copper), penny (copper), groat (bronze), shilling (billon), crown (silver), tri-crown (electrum), sovereign (gold) and royale (platinum).
- I have largely removed gold coins. They exist but are quite rare. The penny is the main coin of trade, with the average labourer earning 3-4d̶ (pence) per day. I also use symbols for the coins rather than cp, sp, gp, etc. A character knows that if a sign says a gallon of ale is 1d̶, that it is 1 penny in Karn, 1 dirham in Freeport or 1 pfennig in Vestfold. Also pc’s and npc’s never use the terms cp, sp, gp. They might say an arcane focus ring costs one crown (£1) or more likely use a slang term like punt, belira or thaler, depending on the region.
- I have massively expanded the number of weapons and have added new weapon properties. Like I have a spreadsheet with 4 pages of weapons.
- I have added historical arrow/arrow head types with different modifiers.
- We had used the crit rule where damage is max of one die plus the roll of the second. It gets a bit out of control when sneak attack or divine smite is factored in however. Now I am testing normal crit rules with additional multipliers with certain weapons similar to 3.5e. For instance gunpowder weapons may add two extra damage dice. Not sure if I will keep this one.
- I have added a few more armours and have realistic armour combinations. For example, hauberk over brigandine or breast plate over maille.
- Lest you think I have made the game too heroic for characters with some of the above rules, I use an expanded system shock table for massive damage and have incorporated a chance of lingering injuries any time a character is reduced to 0 HP. I use injury tables for each damage type.
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