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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wik" data-source="post: 5862475" data-attributes="member: 40177">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.</blockquote>

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