Pathfinder 1E What are your Pathfinder houserules?

[Abciximab]

We have borrowed "Bloodied" and "Shift" from 4E.

Hero Points - step 'em up a bit, more like 4E. So award more, and encourage their use a bit more. 4E used the "milestone" trigger to award an action point. I like the slight narrative control they hand to the player and the slight increase in flexibility/swinginess they offer.

I like Hero Points and give them out fairly frequently (RP awards and at each level).

Standing from Prone - I always hated that in any edition. Making it hard to stand from prone may be realistic, but I feel it locks combats down and reduces mobility, which are fun. So I might consider dropping the attack of opportunity triggered by that action.

I wouldn't change it, but changing to the "Full Round Action to Stand doesn't provoke" is an interesting idea.

Wizard at-will - I never liked the low-level wizard resorting to a crossbow. So I might consider giving wizards an ability mechanically identical to a crossbow (roll to hit, 1d8 damage) but it's an at-will blast of magic instead. Perhaps choose the damage type at creation.

They do have plenty of additional stuff in Pathfinders for Arcane Casters. Having played a Wizard for the first time since AD&D days, I found the Spell-like abilities x+int/day more than enough.

The cleric in our party feels that having the healer use all his standard actions to heal isn't ideal. Perhaps allow some healing as a swift action, instead?

Our Oracle doesn't do much healing in combat and Channneling Energy lets him use his spells for other things. I don't think I would change it.

We run with very few house rules and I think it works well. I have made a weaker version of Breath of Life as a 2nd level spell to offset player death. I call it Cure Deadly Wounds and allow clerics to cast it spontaneously.

We use NPC Boons which I think are a cool element. Oh, and no Leadership Feat.

 

[Systole]

Removed the trait categories and added the following traits:

Knowlegeable
Choose two Knowledge skills. You gain a +1 trait bonus to both of those skills, and make one of those two Knowledge skills a permanent class skill. You can choose this trait multiple times, although you must select different Knowledge skills each time.

Capable
Choose any skill other than Perception. You gain a +1 trait bonus to that skill and it becomes a permanent class skill. You can choose this trait multiple times, although you must select a different skill each time.

Astute
Perception becomes a permanent class skill for you.

Resilient
Choose either Fortitude, Reflex, or Will. You gain a +1 trait bonus to that type of save. You can choose this trait multiple times, although you must select a different save category each time.



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A roll of natural 1 on the first attack of a round is a possible fumble, but must be confirmed with a reroll that is a miss (in the same way that a natural 20 must be confirmed with a reroll that is a hit). A confirmed fumble generally applies an effect along the lines of something from Dirty Trick. The effect persists until it's removed with a move action.

 

[N'raac]

A roll of natural 1 on the first attack of a round is a possible fumble, but must be confirmed with a reroll that is a miss (in the same way that a natural 20 must be confirmed with a reroll that is a hit). A confirmed fumble generally applies an effect along the lines of something from Dirty Trick. The effect persists until it's removed with a move action.

I see why a critical confirmation is a to hit roll - it assesses the skill of the attacker against the defenses of the defender. How does the fact the defender is in full plate rather than a loincloth make it more likely the attacker will fumble?

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Removed the trait categories and added the following traits:

Knowlegeable
Choose two Knowledge skills. You gain a +1 trait bonus to both of those skills, and make one of those two Knowledge skills a permanent class skill. You can choose this trait multiple times, although you must select different Knowledge skills each time.

Capable
Choose any skill other than Perception. You gain a +1 trait bonus to that skill and it becomes a permanent class skill. You can choose this trait multiple times, although you must select a different skill each time.

Astute
Perception becomes a permanent class skill for you.

Resilient
Choose either Fortitude, Reflex, or Will. You gain a +1 trait bonus to that type of save. You can choose this trait multiple times, although you must select a different save category each time..​

Yes, I like this.

A roll of natural 1 on the first attack of a round is a possible fumble, but must be confirmed with a reroll that is a miss (in the same way that a natural 20 must be confirmed with a reroll that is a hit). A confirmed fumble generally applies an effect along the lines of something from Dirty Trick. The effect persists until it's removed with a move action.

EWWW! No! God, no.

Also, dirty trick only lasts for 1 round + 1 round per 5 you win by, so why do yours last indefinitely until removed? Bah, nevermind. Fumble bad! Fumble rules very bad! Must smite with fire!​

 

[1Mac]

My Pathfinder houserules have pretty much crossed the point where it's a new game system. But here are some basic rules I like:

Exploding criticals: Roll a natural 20, then roll another d20 and add the result. Roll a natural 1, then roll another d20 and subtract the result. Whether you roll a 20 or not, if your result is twice the DC (or AC) you need, you get a critical success, which for attacks includes critical hit damage. If you get half the DC (or AC) you need, it's a critical failure and may include fumbles and the like. It renders mooks more mookable while also getting rid of the strangeness of auto-hitting 5% of the time.

PCs roll everything: Including AC and casting DCs, which are modifiers only and not "10 +". Opposed checks vs. NPCs are always 10 + NPC's modifier (like how AC and casting DCs are RAW), tie goes to the NPC. Makes GMing easier, encourages attention from players, and works better with the exploding critical rule than RAW.

Limited iterative attacks: You only ever get two. At BAB +6, you can make two attacks as a full-round action, equal to your BAB -2. At BAB +11 this penalty become -1. At BAB +16 it becomes -0. You get about as many successful attacks each round, with less wonkiness. You'd have to adjust or eliminate Vital Strike to make it work.

Edit for one more: I'm considering having Combat Maneuvers provoke AoO only after a failed attempt and getting rid of all the "Improved" combat maneuver feats. The "Greater" feats would still exist and obviously wouldn't need the "Improved" feats as a prerequisite. I'm thinking that they'd also get rid of the +2 bonus in favor of never provoking AoO, even on a failed attempt. Boo boring bonuses, yay enhanced tactical options!

 

[Systole]

I see why a critical confirmation is a to hit roll - it assesses the skill of the attacker against the defenses of the defender. How does the fact the defender is in full plate rather than a loincloth make it more likely the attacker will fumble?

Because if the attacker is working harder to make an attack, he's more likely to overextend himself. Are you more like to pull a muscle shooting a foul shot or trying to make a basket from half-court at the buzzer?

EWWW! No! God, no.

Also, dirty trick only lasts for 1 round + 1 round per 5 you win by, so why do yours last indefinitely until removed? Bah, nevermind. Fumble bad! Fumble rules very bad! Must smite with fire!

Yep. At low levels, you're not making full attacks often, so blowing a move action does not invalidate your round. (Also note, if you attack first, you can use your move action that round to kill the penalty.) At higher levels, the fumble is not likely to be confirmed. All in all, there's a confirmed fumble maybe once every other combat.

To be honest, I could take or leave fumbles, but my players actually seem to prefer the randomness. I'd also like to point out that there are far, far worse ways to handle fumbles. One of the aforementioned players in my game GM's a game in which every single natural 1 is a fumble, no matter what, and the penalties are worse than a Dirty Trick. My way adds a minor edge makes players sweat a bit, and occasionally messes up the perfect execution of a combat plan, but it rarely ruins anyone's day.

 

[Adimus]

I'm tempted to remove the critical hit confirmation roll; but worry it would make combat too lethal, especially at low level. I like 4e's approach (max damage on a 20, +1d6 per weapon '+'); but it would be tough to retro-fit it into PF where some 3e weapons are designed/balanced around low base damage but crit on an 18 (eg scimitar).

I haven't come across that problem thus far, as even the wizard in pathfinder isn't very squishy anymore (with d6 hp), for me its the other way around, with a spurt of lucky rolls splattering the villain I spent an hour rolling up :/ still, I hate the feeling of rolling a crit, only to fail that second roll.

 

[Rhenny]

I love the idea about getting rid of confirming critical hits and exploding critical attack rolls, but instead of rolling a d20 again, I'd just roll a d10 and add the damage. If a 10 is rolled, roll again and add the damage, and so on. This would make a critical attack with a dagger as deadly as a crit attack with a longsword. I like that.

I'd also consider taking away attacks of opportunity, but maybe add a feat that monsters or PCs could take that would give them the ability to make an attack of opportunity against a moving opponent. If it is an exception rather than the rule, perhaps combats will move faster. I'm all for faster combats.

 

[ren1999]

I'm learning how to DM Pathfinder now and have just finished "Everflame". That provided some great instructions but a few things I'm still unclear about. I found quite a few mistakes such as Perception being listed twice with different skill ranks.

1st, I used the 4E rule to give more hit points to the 1st level characters. The "boss" at the end of the module can kill with just one longsword attack. It really hurts the promotion of the game to have a newbie's character die at the very end after several game sessions.

Constitution + 12 for fighter types, +10 for rogue types, +8 for cleric types, +6 for wizard types.

I also introduced "healing surges" as a way to track cure wound scrolls, potions, prayers, etc.. If I didn't, the characters would just take an extended rest after each encounter.

All characters are assumed to have maximum hit points at the start of a new encounter.

One ability becomes 18 for each character.

House rules were mostly about beefing up 1st level hit points.

In order to protect the characters, I eliminated critical hits and fumbles for now.

I also did away with most opportunity or trigger attacks unless the character stepped away from an opponent.

I had to alter some of the monster traits. The Plague Zombies could only infect the characters with zombie rot on death, not by scratch. I also lowered the DC so that characters could fortitude save. But one character still got Zombie Rot.

 

[SteelDraco]

We use bloodied as a condition. It doesn't do anything by itself, but it does give the GM a good way of telling people how hurt the enemies are - you can tell if somebody is bloodied at a glance without an action of any kind. The guy who normally runs the game has suggested that he'd be open to using bloodied as a triggering condition for other stuff (like class/racial powers or feats) that trigger off of either you or your opponent being bloodied, but we haven't done anything like that yet - nobody's looked inquired further.

We use luck rolls, but we've been doing that for ages. They're for things that don't actually have anything to do with your character's skills, but rather the world around you, like say if you wanted to find a particular item in a shop. You roll 3d6. Sixes are good, ones are bad. No other rolls matter, so you just end up from "three up" (all three sixes, a moment of great luck) to "three down" (all three ones, terrible misfortune). I think there's at least one feat that modifies this (you roll an extra d6 and pick the three you like the best, as well as some other luck-related thing it does).