Pathfinder 1E What are your Pathfinder houserules?

[Mad Hamish]

The alternative class bonuses are highly variable.

For spontaneous casters +1 known spell is a huge benefit, many of the others are very blah

 

[Wik]

Even the worst ones are generally better than +1 skill point or Hit Point. Even the +1/2 ones are generally better, and I dislike them in general, because they make your character better at something his class and race are already good at, as opposed to the skill point or hit point, which are generally not class-related (ie, I use my skill point to have a bit of freedom to branch out from my class, and everyone benefits from HP).

 

[Matthias]

Hm. That's an interesting house rule. I agree that the alternative class bonuses are not very good. But do you have any power creep problems with your decision? How has it affected play?

From the players' side of things, not all that much. From my side, it simplifies calculating NPC skill ranks and hit points very nicely.

 

[Matthias]

This is too much of an interesting thread to let fall off the first page.


There is no 'gambling' skill per se in Pathfinder. When the PCs at the time encountered some NPCs over a few games of poker, I had to improvise skill checks for winning at gambling. We didn't actually play with cards. If I remember right, for each round every character put in some money and then everyone rolled opposed Bluff checks using Wisdom or Intelligence as they desired, and the highest result won the pot for that round. It was ad hoc but it worked and the players enjoyed it.

What would be a good skill check to use for playing a skills-based game such as chess? The nearest I can think of is Knowledge: local since it hinges on Int and includes "culture and tradition", and would probably include rules of the game as well as basic strategies. Intelligence itself carries the character the rest of the way, whether it be veterancy, mastery, or grandmastery.

 

[Wik]

You could use something similar to my "barter" rules for Dark Sun.

In Dark Sun, our barter rules work like this - you set up the items so that they are equal in value, and then each side makes a diplomacy check (no aiding another, and people won't be bartering with you if you buff yourself up in the open, etc). If you win, your asking price goes up by 10%... and if he wins, his asking price goes up by 10%.

You can do this up to three times, if both sides agree to it. At any time, a negotiator can "opt out" and pay the current price - but once you start bartering, you can't back out of the deal without suffering social repercusions. In this system, you can sell your wares at up to 130% of what you'd normally get.

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For gambling, I'd set it up as a background skill (have I mentioned background skills in my campaign in this thread?). What you'd do is have a buy-in amount, and set it up either as a closed game (you play until one guy has all the money), or a set number of rounds of play (you play until x victory condition is achieved, or a certian amount of time has passed).

Tally up all the people that have added to the pot, to get the final pot amount.

Each character would make a gambling check. The highest wins big, the lowest two lose, everyone else breaks even. The high winner is "up" 20%, while each of the losers is down 10%. Repeat as you wish.

To make it a bit more fun, you could add in cheating, perception checks, sense motive checks to gain a +2 bonus on certain checks, intimidate, bluffing.... I think for gambling, a 4e style skill challenge is the way to go, at least as a starting point.

 

[blargney the second]

To simulate a non-random skill-based game like chess, I would use relevant modifiers plus 2d10 or 3d6 to resolve opposed checks. The distribution curves would tend to significantly favour the more skilled player.

 

[NotZenon]

-If i'm playing a full 20 level campaign, i will usually cap players hit dice at 9 (like AD&D) Only gaining 1 or 2 HP per level after that. Hit points represent a characters ability to turn a true hit into a "glancing blow" so while a character might be scratched bloodied bruised and tired, they are not really "physically damaged" - However when a character reaches 0 they do not die or become disabled, rather they begin taking real physical damage, which comes of off the constitution score - if constitution reaches 0 they are disabled and dying, but only unconscious if they fail a fort or will save DC depending on the damage they've taken beyond maximum. "real damage" (con damage) is harder to heal and must be healed by a lesser restore or such type spell (or doctoring and rest).

-I use the 10 min rest rule, players gain back half of their HP after a 10 min rest, and 1/4 of their mana. One of the main reasons i have to use this rule is there are no gods in my campaign world so there are no divine caster's (only bards and witch's can cast heal spells)

-any spell not on your spell list can be learned at the cost of a feat

-players get feats every level (this is a bit crazy but is fun)

-I use the mana rules from unearthed arcana (3.5)

-i use the iterative attacks rule from trailblazer

-i use the multi classing for spell casters rules from trailblazer

-I don't give experience points for killing things unless it furthers the goals of the pc, or moves the stories along, or whatever. I try to give just as much experience for resolving things by trickery, negotiating, planning whatever, as long as it serves the same purpose and works just as well at resolving whatever needs resolving (but lets be honest sometimes i make a fight unavoidable )

 

[Matthias]

Language house rules I have used:

In a real-world version of D&D I ran, outsider languages sounded like instrumental music of different genres. The principle was that outsider speech was not encumbered by mere phonemes or even intonation but was more complex and information-dense than any humanoid tongue.

Celestial: classical music on pipe organs

Abyssal & Infernal: Heavy metal on electric guitars. Different fiendish races had varying "accents" corresponding to different styles of heavy metal: death metal, thrash metal, black metal, etc.

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I have also allowed many languages to grant a +2 circumstance bonus to certain skill checks when the language is spoken or written as part of the skill check. For some languages, the bonus only applies when using it to instruct or explain something to someone else, whether you are using the subject language itself to communicate or whether you are communicating in the speaker's or reader's native language (which can include Common). Either way, fluency in the associated language gives you the ability to better understand the topic at hand and to be more effective at it. Because all these modifiers are of the same type, bonuses granted by different languages to the same skill do not stack.

For example: A character who knows Elven and Orcish can rely on his linguistic experience to either (a) improve his Diplomacy check and make friends with the NPC, or else (b) better Intimidate them into submission.



Originally I had only worked out the bonuses for Elven, Orcish, and the outsider languages, because my players never really found a need to use anything else. But these house rules could be expanded to include almost every language in the core rules. There is certainly a lot of overlap, but maybe these house rules will give your players a reason to take Aklo or Sylvan or even Giant, beyond the unlikely contingency of being able to talk down a hostile monster.



Abyssal, Celestial, and Infernal: +2 to Knowledge/planes and Knowledge/Religion checks.

Aklo: +2 to Knowledge/dungeoneering and Knowledge/planes checks.

Aquan, Auran, Ignan, and Terran: +2 to Knowledge/planes checks. Though it might make sense to do so, I don't feel the need to confine the usefulness of an elemental language to the elemental planes themselves, to its plane of origin, or even restrict its usefulness to non-opposing elemental planes.

Draconic: +2 to Knowledge/Arcana and Use Magic Device checks. Curiously, this even applies to Kobolds...

Druidic: +2 to Knowledge/Nature and Handle Animal checks. Though a secret language, it is well adapted to the agenda and lifestyle of its users.

Dwarven: +2 to Craft, Appraise, and Knowledge/Engineering checks. Dwarves are master craftsmen and have had to develop many technical and scientific terms for all kinds of professions, from mining to gemcutting to blacksmithing.

Elven: +2 to Diplomacy and Sense Motive checks. Elven vocabulary is quite advanced in its grammar and verb tenses, yet very subtle, soothing, and romantic. The language itself is fairly immune to change relative to other languages, due to the longevity of its native speakers. An Elven document written twenty thousand years ago is no more difficult to understand than one written yesterday, which makes the language the ideal medium for treaties and other legal documents. Sense Motive is also included because the well-defined nuance of Elven vocabulary is so precise, any attempt to doublespeak in Elven is easily detectable.

Giant: +2 to Knowledge/geography checks and Knowledge/dungeoneering checks. Giants get around a lot.

Gnoll: +2 to Survival checks.

Gnomish: +2 to all verbal Perform skills (Acting, Comedy, Oratory, and Singing) and +2 to Bluff checks when attempting to deceive the listener or reader or when attempting to pass along a secret message. Verbal artistry is in the blood of every gnome, as is the ability to entertain and confuse their audience (and occasionally both at the same time!) There are few languages whose words carry so many double meanings and vague, almost contradictory connotations.

Goblin: +2 to Intimidate (since it has a lot in common with Orcish) and Knowledge/dungeoneering checks. Although, what could a Goblin hope to Intimidate?

Orcish: +2 to Intimidate checks. The language is filled with all kinds of cutting innuendo and harsh insults, and has all kinds of visceral synonyms for words that have to do with combat, warfare, and torture. It is the extremely rare orc who knows more than half of them, but all dialects taken together orcish is no less hobbled for vocabulary than any other natural tongue.

Sylvan: +2 to Knowledge/nature, Knowledge/geography, and Survival checks.

Undercommon: +2 to Knowledge/arcana and Knowledge/dungeoneering checks.

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[Samurai]

Probably my favorite house rule is that at 1st level only, characters get their max HD + Con SCORE, not bonus. So a character with a d10 HD and a Con of 14 starts with 24 HP. A d6 HD and 9 Con starts with 15. This allows you to throw significantly tougher battles at your low level characters and they can still survive, and it means the Cleric doesn't need to be healing every round because everyone has single digit HPs and are 1-2 hits from dropping.

 

[BriarMonkey]

Aside from changing some of the feats (like reverting Power Attack to its prior form from 3.5), I have a few.

Characters get maximum hit points per level;
Paladins can be of any Good alignment;
Anti-Paladins can be of any Evil alignment;
Racial bonuses (like a Dwarf's Stoncunning) scale with level;
Feat bonuses (like Weapon Focus' bonus to hit) scale with level;
A modified DR system, based on the alternate Ultimate Combat rules;
Within that modified DR system, some weapons are more effective against certain armor types;
A modified dying setup (where you don't start dying until you fail your Fort save to stay up when at negative hit points);
No slot limitations to magic items, common sense is used instead;
Concentration added back to the skill list;
Percentage chance for spell failure due to armor applies to all casters;
Base weapon/attack damage is open ended (if you roll max on a die, you can roll again);
If you crit, and would be able to normally hit the opponent on the roll, you do max damage and can roll for confirmation - which if the roll confirms, you do extra damage based on the attack multiple;

And, I've changed around the Metamagic mechanic so that it's now a pool of uses per day (sorta like one of the options in Unearthed Arcana).

Aside from those, I'm tinkering with changes to Counterspelling so that it is a viable option, vice something that never gets used.

I believe that's them for the time being.