Pathfinder 1E What are your Pathfinder houserules?

[Matthias]

So what are your houserules?

This requires some thought...I have thought of many to use, but only implemented a few of them, which follow here.



(1) I've come to grant PCs a free rank in a single profession skill, to represent "non-adventuring knowledge". One of them had Profession (miner)...see #7 below



(2) I tend to explain the use of Strength checks vs. damaging doors/walls/etc. until destruction as an attempt to beat through the obstacle in a single blow, vs. just nickel-and-dime'ing it to death.



(3) To break ties with initiative rolls, I let the character with the higher Dexterity score go first. If those are tied, then the higher Wisdom goes first. Failing that, Intelligence. I don't use total initiative modifier at all.



(4) I worked out my own stats for Craft skill check DC and Craft field for almost all items in the main PF books. In several cases I had to get a little creative and create a few new Craft fields, and in certain situations the item required a Knowledge: Nature or Knowledge:Engineering check in addition to (or instead of) a regular Craft check, such as for astrolabes and magnets. I really hope the upcoming Ultimate Equipment book will be incorporating information like this. (The Paizo people are welcome to have everything I wrote or they can write their own, either is OK with me.)



(5) To start one campaign, I had the PCs play as 0-level minions of an evil wizard who was about to get run out of town. The players created all the stats for the classes they would become, but the PCs did not have access to class features other than weapon proficiencies, spells, skills, and starting equipment. They also had only 1 HP (plus Con Mod too, I think). There was a lot of action going on and most of it was projectiles. I was generous, and only a couple of the PCs were actually hit, and they kept each other alive with Heal checks.



(6) PCs invariably have to loot the bodies of monsters they defeat. I did not want the party rogue (being the Perception specialist) to be able to end up with all the good stuff while everyone else got short-changed, so I implemented the following system:

* Looting bodies is considered part of a combat encounter, which is to say that even if all enemies are dead, the PCs still take turns as per usual.

* Looting a body is considered a full-round action that provokes an attack of opportunity. It consists of taking a move action to come adjacent to the body (if necessary) followed by a Perception skill check (results forthcoming)

* For any monster or enemy NPC of significance, I pre-generate a treasure table either during private prep time or if necessary during combat or immediately prior to the first looting attempt. (Though not intended for it, this system can work for random encounters if you have pre-gen tables for every type of creature on your "random encounter" table which would normally be found with treasure.)

* I make a concealed roll on the treasure table pre-made for the creature. Each looting attempt allows only one item to be retrieved (which can be a single weapon in its sheath, a single scroll in its case, a small container holding two healing potions in it, or perhaps a small bag of various gems--each can be considered one "item"). For convenience I use a table equal to the size of a polyhedron (so 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, or 20 items, depending on the amount of treasure carried) and would only use a distributed percentile table if I really needed to. Each item will have its own Perc skill DC, which is usually between 10 and 15, but can be higher for particular small, well-hidden, or camouflaged items. If your Perception roll doesn't beat the DC, it means you didn't find anything that moment, or you couldn't get your hands on it, or maybe you didn't recognize the significance of what you were looking at. Remember also that deceased persons rarely collapse into a pose that is convenient for looting, so time must be spent undoing buttons, rolling bodies over, wiping blood and gore off objects, etc.

* As items are eliminated from the treasure table, the blank spaces remain. If you get a blank space, then no matter what your Perc roll is, you won't find anything. For example, the rogue acquired item #5 on the list and then the fighter also got item #5, he could roll a natural 20 on his Perception but will find nothing. Moreover, because the treasure table is concealed, some items can be very well concealed, and I allow repetitions to take place, it is impossible for the players to be 100% certain they have found everything of value that can be discovered. They might be willing to spend the time to strip the corpse naked and thoroughly search everything, or they might not have the time or patience for that. At any rate, this system stops one PC from monopolizing all salvaged equipment as a tool of manipulation against the rest of the team.

(7) I allowed a PC to create alchemical Acid from scratch using Knowledge/nature and Profession/miner, using materials scratched off the walls of a mine.



(8) I allowed Survival applying Int modifier to read a map of a dungeon in order to figure out the most efficient path from their present location in it to a section they wanted to visit. The map was fairly old and obsolete, so the DC was 20 or 25 for every attempt to navigate the dungeon by map alone.



(9) This is technically not a house rule but is a useful practice anyway. Whenever I generate a NPC or a monster whose encumbrance I might need to keep track of, I scratch out the light, medium, and heavy load values on the standard character sheet and instead write down "Medium Load", "Heavy Load", and "Max Load". For each I write in the minimum in pounds for each of these. My reasoning is that every creature is under a light load by default, and ideally wants to stay in that range. For this reason, and for simplicity's sake, I see only the need to track of the minimum values (rather than the ranges as given on PSRD's Table for Carrying Capacity) for each load category.



(10) In determining random encounters during an extended travel period, I make up a table of monsters that would fit the environment, and then I figure out a Fifty-Percent table, which is the estimated amount of time that would pass, given the environment and the party's general attempts at stealth, for the odds of a random encounter to reach 50%. The 50% table has different time ratings for different Party behaviors, such as: camped near the road with lit fire, hiding in the bush keeping quiet, etc. I ask the players what their characters will be doing for the time being and then, based on my 50% table, fast forward to the next time interval and make a percentile roll against 50%; a roll of 49 or less results in a random encounter. For example, the PCs are traveling through light forest staying on the path, making a forced march with little noise. I determine these circumstances would add up to a 50% encounter chance at every half-hour interval, so I advance the "campaign clock" a half hour, roll percentile dice, and get a 73, so there's no encounter. Fast forward another 30 minutes, roll for encounter, and so on. The players can always decide to be more stealthy (or less) with their PCs from one interval to the next, but only after I have rolled for a random encounter for the current time interval.



(11) I used something like the following mass combat rules for a large number of combatants:

* All monsters of identical race, HD, and class levels (if any) are combined together into a formation, similar to the rules for a mob or swarm.

* Formations are considered to possess its members' individual attacks, equipment, and special abilities, as well as covering the entire space occupied by its members. Thus a formation with archers, heavy shieldmen, and polearm-wielders have all the attacks given, and in general each such attack originates from the most convenient square occupied. A single opponent adjacent to the formation's front line (assuming it occupies a tight square) can expect to receive three attacks at most from the shieldmen of such a formation, but could receive many more attacks from the formation's polearm-users due to reach, and potentially all the ranged attacks from the formation's bowmen.

* Formations add up all members' HP together into a single HP pool rather than having each members' HP total tracked individually. Every interval of damage taken equal to a member's full HP (whether from the same damage source or different sources) removes one member from the formation. The specific member to be removed can be chosen semi-randomly (from the front line if from a melee attack or from the center if a ballistic attack, etc). For instance, a formation of 100 standard goblins with 600 HP total will lose 1 goblin (and one attack) for every 6 points of damage the formation takes.

* Formations being targeted with area attacks make a separate save for each member targeted. Before rolling any dice, I calculate the minimum number needed to succeed on the save, and then if there are 20 or fewer formation members being targeted then I roll separately for each one. If more than 20, I assume an equal number of members will have rolled for each value from 1 to 20. In the case of the formation of 100 goblins, I will assume five rolled a natural 1, five rolled a 2, five rolled a 3, and so on, and then work out how many failed, and then remove according to damage taken or place effect markers accordingly. Of course, this creates an unintended consequence of "the few dying for the many," where all the damage gets effectively concentrated on as few members as possible--especially when an area damage effect should not have killed any one member at full HP, bear in mind we are having to work on a higher level of abstraction when a large number of creatures are in play, and it's impractical to track whole companies and battalions of creatures fighting each other while also keeping the pace of combat flowing at a rate tolerable for the players.

(12) In some campaigns, I have allowed PCs to simply have max points every level instead of having to roll for them.


(13) In almost all my campaigns, I have used the following system for ability generation: Roll 4d6 drop lowest seven times and then take the six scores you like the best. This has kept players from getting stuck with a negative-modifier to an ability who didn't really want one (and those players who might like the RP opportunity presented by one get an extra chance at having one.)

(14) Probably since mid-last decade I have exclusively used group XP. Which is to say, all PCs earn XP at the same rate. If anyone does something to earn XP, even if its on a side-quest or an activity exclusive to their class, everyone else in the party gets to benefit too. This avoids problems such as:

"So-and-so's PC is a level or two behind everyone else because the GM never gives them any situations to be useful in."
"So-and-so's PC is a level or two ahead of everyone else because they are always hogging the GM's attention."
"So-and-so's PC is a level or two ahead of everyone else because the player is such a class clown or a stupidly awesome character actor, the GM is always giving him bonus XP for his goofiness or natural talent."

Even when I give out bonus XP for good roleplaying or good solutions to problems, _everyone_ benefits, not just the person who earned it for the group.

When it's time to give out XP, I usually ask the players the following after I've given out the normal XP awards for defeating enemies and achieving story goals:

* Did you do anything else that you think you should earn XP for? (and I deal with everyone's answers in turn)
* Did /anyone else/ do anything that you think deserves XP? (this is aimed at rewarding players who might be too timid or humble to boast, and for cases where a person didn't think they did anything exceptional, but everyone else thought it was awesome.)
* Is there anything else you players think you should get XP for? (I usually don't go this far unless they are really getting close to leveling up, and I am just looking for an excuse to put them over the top.)



The following house rules have never come up in play, but given the opportunity, I would use them.

* I allow all of Paizo's classes in my games (and treat Anti-paladin on equal standing with Paladin) and would be willing to allow levels in Anti-Paladin for a PC who is ostensibly ex-evil, even an anti-hero, if I feel I can trust the player to roleplay a character who would not totally nuke the broad storyline that I've been sketching out, or cause in-game strife between PCs that would lead to out-of-game conflict between players.

* I'm also picky about which classes from 3PP I would allow, based on their flavor and the perceived niche they would fill. But I would allow Artificer, Priest, Warlock, Warlord (Adamant), Armiger, and Shaman (Super Genius).

* Lastly, it's never come into play, but I stick to a level limit of 60 for NPCs...I hold to a metaphysical "level barrier" at 20th and 40th levels. To get past 20th level, a character has to accomplish a great quest worthy of an epic level character. To get past 40th level, the character has to achieve immortality (easier with divine consent/promotion, harder without) and thus join their world's pantheon. Within each campaign world's pantheon there are only so many "slots" available for levels beyond 40th level for demigods (immortals without worshippers or the ability to grant spells) and deities. For instance, there can be only one 60th level character, three 59th level characters, and so on, which culminates in a limit of 400 immortals for any given world.

* Related to the above, within my cosmology there are 144,000 worlds (coexistent material planes, each its own campaign setting), within which new worlds are constantly being created and older ones falling under judgment either to pass into glory within the constellation of the upper planes, or cast out into the lower planes in eternal damnation. Within each new world, the mortal races are mostly left to their own devices to figure out how to ascend to immortality, all the time under the perpetual supervision of celestial servants and being vulnerable to the machinations of dark minions. Every world spends a thousand or more generations in the great river being contested by the forces of good and evil, until the end of times when that world has reached its 400-immortal limit. Then the cosmological wheels are set in motion for that world's final judgment and discovery of its ultimate fate--purification and destruction of evil for all time, or else the rapture of the faithful and the rescue of what little virtue remains, before the rest is cast into the great abyss, never to know anything good or decent anymore.

 

[Matthias]

I also wanted to address fumble rules but in a separate post.

In principle I dislike fumble rules on the principle that every system I've seen illogically hurts you more, the better your character is at fighting (more attacks = more opportunities to fumble, in other words). The best fumble system I could think of to avoid this problem was this:

If you roll a natural 1 on your *final attack* (which for BAB's less than +6, means your only attack) then you must make a fumble check, which consists of d20 + base attack bonus + Str or Dex modifier as appropriate, with -4 penalty if non-proficient in the weapon, against DC of 5 (if it's a simple weapon being wielded), 10 (if martial) or 15 (if exotic). If you succeed, your attack is just an automatic miss with no further consequences, but if you fumble then you roll for half base damage from the weapon against yourself, including any magical bonus to damage (but not from Strength). DR (if any) will still apply.

So, a fighter with two attacks has at least one 'safe attack', and a fighter with three attacks has at least one more 'safe' attack than the fighter with only two, and both fighters can always choose to forgo their last (and least effective) attack without sacrificing the ability to attack altogether, unlike a fighter or rogue with only one attack available per round. The negative consequences of a fumble aren't a serious threat but still a threat for characters who try to get out of their "comfort zone" when it comes to trying to use weird weapons. A L1 commoner (BAB +0) with Str 13/+1 who is proficient in only daggers can expect to hurt himself with a sickle (DC 5) for 1-3 points of damage unless he rolls a natural 8 or better on his fumble check (effectively a 1.75% chance every round of accidental self-mutilation, reaching 50/50 chance of self-injury by the 39th or 40th round). But if he tries to fight with an exotic dire flail (DC 15), he needs to roll at least a natural 18 on his fumble check to avoid 1-4 points of self-inflicted damage (odds per round of accidental self-mutilation go up to 4.25%, which rises to a 50/50 chance of hurting oneself after only 15-16 rounds of playing around with the stupid thing).

To rebalance this nerf somewhat, I would modify the Fighter's Weapon Training class feature to make fighters immune to fumble threats with any weapons they have trained in; give Barbarians a Rage Power that granted a +4 bonus on fumble checks; and so on.

 

[blargney the second]

The DM wanted to have weapon breakage in our game. He had images of sword & sorcery running through his head, where the hero smashes his sword on an enemy's shield, so he has to grab the weapon from a fallen foe.

On a fumble, we have to roll a DC 15 saving throw or the weapon acquires the broken condition (or is destroyed if it is already broken). The only bonus applied to the roll is based upon the weapon material: +4 for bone, +2 for obsidian, +6 for stone, +10 for steel.

I thought I was going to hate it, but it actually does evoke the effect that he wanted. There was a memorable fight against a zombie horde where our fighter destroyed what turned out to be the only slashing weapon in the party.

 

[IronWolf]

@IronWolf I plan to do the same in my upcoming Kingmaker, how do you determine when they level though? Where they are in the plot?

Pretty much by where they are in the books. Each book has a suggested level range and I just try to keep within that as they progress. It has worked well so far, we're about to wrap up book 6 whenever my schedule returns to some type of normal!

 

[S'mon]

The DM wanted to have weapon breakage in our game. He had images of sword & sorcery running through his head, where the hero smashes his sword on an enemy's shield, so he has to grab the weapon from a fallen foe.

On a fumble, we have to roll a DC 15 saving throw or the weapon acquires the broken condition (or is destroyed if it is already broken). The only bonus applied to the roll is based upon the weapon material: +4 for bone, +2 for obsidian, +6 for stone, +10 for steel.

I thought I was going to hate it, but it actually does evoke the effect that he wanted. There was a memorable fight against a zombie horde where our fighter destroyed what turned out to be the only slashing weapon in the party.

I generally hate fumble rules - "You always miss on a 1" is quite a heavy enough penalty IMO, and reasonably realistic, whereas most fumble rules are comedically, ridiculously harsh. I remember playing Savage Worlds modern zombie horror, I fumbled a shot with my Glock 9mm - so the pistol exploded! WTF?!?! That might have been acceptable if I were firing a 15th century handgonne, but in a 2012 context is just ridiculously stupid IMO.

However: for a consciously (movie) Conanesque swords & sorcery game, I can see a place for weapon-breakage rules. It's not realistic that swords will shatter against shields (that's one crappy sword!) but at least it's in-genre.

 

[blargney the second]

It's not realistic that swords will shatter against shields (that's one crappy sword!) but at least it's in-genre.

A big part of that is based on our understanding of material properties. I would not expect a fully modern firearm machine-made from high-tech materials to be breaking from normal use. I also agree that a solid steel melee weapon isn't at all prone to shattering. The breakage fumble house rule would not make sense in a traditional D&D game.

However, when we're talking about Dark Sun with POS bone and obsidian weapons... hell yes I expect me some breakage! I could Sunder that by speaking too loudly.
-blarg

 

[S'mon]

However, when we're talking about Dark Sun with POS bone and obsidian weapons... hell yes I expect me some breakage! I could Sunder that by speaking too loudly.
-blarg

I agree that anyone who actually tries to make a sword out of a single piece of obsidian or other stone should not be surprised when it breaks, yup. But the Aztecs made 'swords' that were actually more like clubs, of wood, leather etc but with razor sharp pieces of (AIR) obsidian, quartz etc embedded along the 'blade'. Not prone to break and very effective against unarmoured and lightly-armoured foes, no good against Conquistadores in steel armour.

 

[blargney the second]

I remember macuahuitls with much fondness. I had one of those on one of my more munchkinny characters.

Sidenote: I really enjoy the broken condition that came with Pathfinder, and I'm glad our DM found a way to make it enter play more frequently.

 

[Matthias]

The threat of accidental equipment breakage would be an interesting problem for PCs to solve if superior magical equipment could threaten to break inferior magical equipment once in awhile.

* Magical combat items (that is, anything from the Arms & Armor category and certain Rods) are indestructible versus nonmagical attacks. For example, even a masterwork nonmagical greataxe cannot damage an enchanted +1 wooden shield.

* Magical combat items can sunder other magical items whose attack/damage bonus is equal or lower. For example, a +1 shortsword can be used to sunder any other +1 weapon, +1 set of armor or shield, or any nonmagical combat item, but could not damage a +2 weapon, shield, or set of armor.

* For monsters and characters with natural weapons that are considered magical weapons...? not sure what to do about them.

 

[Wik]

I'm Blarg's GM, and I am finding this thread very interesting. I was a bit nervous to get back into 3.5/Pathfinder, because when I switched over to 4th, I said loudly "Never again!". I had too many bad memories of 3.5E, and so when I realized I hated 4e worse, I was seriously considering switching to another system entirely.

However, I REALLY wanted to run Dark Sun again, and decided to do so using Pathfinder... with changes. It wound up being quite a few changes - some to tweak the rules to better fit the Dark Sun setting, and some just to fix major problems I have with the system. Here are a few of the house rules we have (most were argued over and tweaked by the group before entering play):

* Hit Points: You start with your constitution score in hit points, plus half your class's hit die. No constitution modifier. Every level, you roll just your class hit die for hit points - if you would have a bonus to your hit points from constitution, that will affect your minimum roll, while if you have a con penalty, it will act as a ceiling on your maximum roll, but otherwise, your modifier doesn't affect your hit points. As an example, a rogue with a +2 con modifier would have a hit point total ranging from 3 to 8, while a wizard with a -1 con penalty would have hit points each level ranging from 1 to 5. I love this rule, as it makes constitution much less important for characters.

* The game uses the E6 Variant, and characters only get half XP for killing monsters (but full for completing quests). In addition, PCs can spend money to get XP (hasn't been done yet), and for achieving personal goals. Finally, if a player shows up at a session and was present at the last session, he gets 250 XP, meaning if you miss a session, you wind up functionally losing 500 XP. But the party only gets the "show up" bonus that session if someone updated our campaign wiki that week - which is great, because it gives me an ongoing resource.

* Multiple characters per player, but only one per session. All new PCs start at 1st level. We use an old dragon magazine for stat generation, using red dragon ante cards to determine starting ability scores - this is fun, and it makes players approach their characters in interesting ways. 20% of XP you accrue with your active character is divvied up equally among your inactive characters.

* We have a house-ruled contact system, based a little bit off the shadowrun rules but perhaps a bit more simplified. It works fairly well in our system, which tends to be centred around crime and economics more than a typical D&D setting.

* No 0th level casting. Or, rather, no unlimited 0th level spells. This was done to better convey the "magic is rare" feel of Dark Sun I wanted - I also didn't want my PCs relying on light and message spells constantly, because it just doesn't fit the setting. To stop my players from rioting, I gave them a choice of benefit - an extra spell slot, or the ability to trade in 0th level spell castings for free metamagics. Most of my players so far have taken the extra spell slot, which, in hindsight, I'm okay with - especially in E6, PC resources are an okay thing to dole out.

* Weapon Breakage: if you roll a 1 on a d20, make an item save. You get a bonus depending on the material - and fighters add an additional bonus. Some feats or races add bonuses, too. If you fail the save, the weapon breaks. Blargney has touched upon some of the fun moments - losing a slashing weapon while surrounded by zombies was a lot of fun, and lead to the first PC death in the campaign (if memory serves). It also makes metal weapons (which get a +10 saving throw modifier) incredibly useful - our average 4th level party is now getting super excited to find metal weapons, mostly for just that reason.

* Some houserules for defiling that are in a more or less constant state of flux (but they're getting better!).

* "Action Tokens". Essentially, each player has three. When they spend them, they go to the GM, who can then use them against the player. The player can spend them at any time, to do anything - so long as the GM agrees. And, likewise, the GM can spend them at any time, to do anything - so long as the player agrees. They can also be spent for a +2 modifier to a roll beforehand, or for a re-roll. More often, they're used for things like sundering armour, not dying ("I'll let you survive this attack that should have killed you, but you'll have a permanent limp"), and stuff like that.

* We use Paizo's critical hit deck... though only important or "named" NPCs can use it against players.

* Background skills: Each PC has a few ranks of "background skills" which are player defined. For example, one PC has ranks in "Roads of the Tyr Region", while another is a specialist in "Smuggling Techniques". When a situation comes up, PCs can use their background skills whenever possible. When using a background skill, rolling a natural 20 improves the skill by 1 rank. In addition, I sometimes award background skill ranks in-game - one character wound up getting 2 or 3 ranks in "Nibenese Underworld" after perusing the ledgers of a fence in the city-state of Nibenay.