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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hashmalum" data-source="post: 1112908" data-attributes="member: 9450">I haven't finished my new (3.5E) house rules, partly because I've been spending my time in other ways and partly because I haven't absorbed all the changes in the base rules (much less decided whether I approve of each of them). The ones I have finished are too long to post here, so I'll just give a summary of all them (finished or not):Classes(Major) Paladin is a PrC.(Minor) Sorcerer gets a few more Charisma-based class skills.(Minor) The limited spells known/spontaneous casters have a different way of swapping spells known (the "forgetting" method I posted to House Rules a while back) and can also buy more spells known with XP (also posted to House Rules a while back).(Minor) Wizards get 8 cantrips (read magic, detect magic, and 6 of their choice) rather than all of the PHB cantrips.(Trivial) You can no longer multiclass into sorcerer without DM approval unless you chose a bloodline feat or Spellcasting Prodigy at 1st level; this is really only a flavor change (I just don't like the idea that suddenly, anyone can "discover" that they have innate magical abilities without regard for past background, etc.).(Trivial) Multiclassing restriction on monk was dropped. It was only ever a flavor thing anyway.(Trivial) Rogue special abilities are feats (of the "special" type, not the "general" type; "special" feats as far as I am concerned are feats that explicitly require levels in a single, specific class and thus are basically class features that cost feats to acquire, much like how the bardic music abilities are effectively class features that cost skill points to acquire).(Trivial) The nature of the familiar bond is explicated a bit further. As a result, soulless creatures can't be familiars anymore, and it is not possible to have a nonconsenting creature as a familiar. Maltreatment of one's familiar can result in familiar alienation, which cuts earned XP in half.Feats(Significant) You can buy feats with XP; I still haven't set XP costs for most feats yet, though.(Minor) I've come up with a few dozen new feats.(Significant) Spell Focus, etc. give the 3.0 bonuses. The designers as much as admitted that Spell Focus was never the  real problem to begin with, but was only abusive with certain magic items and PrC abilities--and I'm picky about the PrCs and magic items I allow.(Major) Many feats now require training to learn. Metamagic and item creation feats can be learned from an appropriate tome or set of notes. Researching a feat indepently (allowing it to be learned without being trained by someone else) is possible but time-consuming.(Major) Item creation feats require the user to have a magical formula for each specific item. Some formulae are gained when you take the feat. More can be acquired by means of purchase or trade with other spellcasters (costs money), independent research (costs time and money), or by gaining levels.(Minor) You can take shortcuts in item creation, making it cheaper (and thus proportionally quicker), but there is a chance that the resulting item will be flawed in some way (this is where many of the cursed items in the DMG come from). If you're cheap and sloppy enough, there's even a chance the creation process will fail altogether.Skills(Significant) There are some new skills. I'm considering giving all classes 1 or 2 more skill points per level because of this, which would bump the change level up to (major).(Significant) Skill ranks can be purchased with XP. Costs still aren't set yet.(Major) As with feats, you need training for most skills. Knowledge skills can be learned from appropriate books and other writings, however.Spells(Minor) Spells have a rating identifying how common they are that affects how easily you can identify them with Spellcraft (all PHB spells have the most common rating). Rare spells are of course more difficult and expensive to acquire. Spells that are less than common are typically either the exclusive property of a particular individual or group, or unusually specialized in their application (the planar spells from Manual of the Planes. for example).(Minor) Spells can be learned with metamagic feats permanently applied. Learning such a spell does not require you to know the metamagic feat, but there is no way to grant the benefit of that feat to other spells, nor can you cast the unmodified version of the spell without learning it seperately.(Minor) Spells with material components can use a focus instead (costing 50 times the price of the component). The focus is different for each spell but is the same as the focus used for Innate Spell.(Minor) The list of subschools and spell descriptors has dramatically increased in size. The rules for assigning spells to schools have been clarified and altered. As a result, some spells have changed schools. Conjuration is the main beneficiary of this, picking up the symbols, power words, wish (and related spells), and bestow curse (and related spells) as Conjuration (Invocation) spells. OTOH it lost mage armor to Evocation. Universal spells no longer exist.(Significant) Summoning spells can summon a much greater variety of creatures, but both summonings and callings require the "magical name" of the type of creature to be summoned--if you want to summon some sort of creature that's been templated up the wazoo, you can do it, but getting that name will be very, very, very tough. It's up to the player to track just what sort of creatures they can summon along with their stats.(Minor) Some spells have been rewritten. Two (foresight and Otiluke's telekinetic sphere) were severely underpowered as originally written; one (silence) was overpowered as originally written; and the others were changed to conform to metaphysical laws specific to my campaign world.Equipment/Magic Items(Major) Various types of instructional (needed for learning skills/feats) and reference manuals (give circumstance bonuses to certain skills) have been added to the mundane equipment list.(Major) The various minor artifact tomes, manuals, etc. that give levels to the reader can be created by PCs (and therefore, aren't considered minor artifacts anymore). However, no such manual can benefit a character of equal or higher ECL or class level (whichever is lower) than the creator. Thus, PCs won't be making them to boost their own prowess (or that of other PCs), but for the purpose of boosting cohorts or followers instead. No one can benefit more than once from such a manual in any single class.Monsters(Minor) Vampires and retrievers got a modified form of regeneration to replace fast healing.(Minor) Varguoilles deal vile damage with their attacks rather than having poison.</blockquote>

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