What options have you regreted allowing in your game?

[DeadlyUematsu]

Everything outside of the core and the main campaign setting book (if I'm using a campaign book). The last campaign I ran, after getting comfortable with the players, I thought I could trust them with material outside of the original set of permissible books. Stupid move. It led to the cleric overshadowing the rogue who had been there from the beginning.

 

[dagger]

Persistent Spell. It's from... Um, Complete Arcane, I think, though it might've been Complete Divine.

Looking up and using the errata for this feat is a must.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Oh, to answer the original question...

Celerity and related spells from the Spell Compendium. In addition to the fact that they're easily abusable, they make combat slower (and, therefore, more boring) for everyone but the character casting them.

I've disallowed them from all my games since for precisely that reason.

Oh, and I never actually allowed ravages (Book of Exalted Deeds), so I can't say I "regret" using them. Is it enough to say I regret their existence?

 

[Particle_Man]

Grappling in Iron Heroes. It is just like Grappling in D&D, but without any magic to "get out of a grapple with the big strong guy" for free, the grappled PC is hooped, pure and simple.

I may just ban grappling in all d20 games, or maybe all games period. It doesn't seem to be fun for the dominated pc, and it adds an extra layer of complication to the game that only applies to itself. And realism doesn't matter to me, so that's ok.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Looking up and using the errata for this feat is a must.

You sure you're thinking of Persistent Spell? I don't recall seeing errata for that. The feat that most people point to as having indispensable errata is Divine Metamagic. (Particularly as regards the combination of the two.)

 

[Mort]

You sure you're thinking of Persistent Spell? I don't recall seeing errata for that. The feat that most people point to as having indispensable errata is Divine Metamagic. (Particularly as regards the combination of the two.)

Funny thing is the errata doesn't actually fix the problem - it just makes the cleric a 1 trick pony. The errata forces the cleric to attach divine metamagic to a specific feat (such as persistant spell).

The real problem with the feat is that it allows you to break the level cap (it allows a 9th level cleric to cast the equivalent of a 10th level spell for example), something the errata does not address. If you want divine metamagic to be balanced just houserule that a cleric cannot go above a spell level he can actually cast and the problem is solved (I believe this was the fix added to the incantantrix to curb abuse).

 

[olshanski]

Warforged.

At low-mid levels, they simply nullify most interesting environmental threats.
Got something far underwater? Warforged will walk over there and get it.
Something in a poison-gas filled room? Warforged will get it.
Something defended by cockatrice? Warforged (with Adamantine body) will retrieve it.
Got some vermin with low damage but decent poison? Again warforged is immune.

Not too far in the game, with the right prestige class the warforged basically has all of the immunities of undead, but they get to keep their constitution modifier and they aren't vulnerable to turning. A lot of early DM tricks involve hazards such as poison, disease, suffocation, etcetera... warforged generally ignore all threats exept pure physical attacks.

 

[Nifft]

None.

I've regretted some house-rules, and changed them, but in terms of allowing stuff in, never had a problem (yet).

So far in:
- Warforged
- Some PrCs
- Some feats & new spells
- Vow of Poverty (for a cohort)

Cheers, -- N

 

[Tiberius]

Psionics, for me. I ended up using the "Psionics are different" variant to keep the 2E flavor, but it turned out to be a bad move. I've since decided that psionics have no place in my games because I don't think their flavor fits into my vision of psuedomedieval fantasy, so I won't be making that mistake again.

Also, I don't think spell point systems belong in D&D in the first place, and the psionic focus rules irk me.

 

[ivocaliban]

My first response to this question was allowing the Wanderer*/Swashbuckler/Dread Pirate in my campaign to take the Extra Finesse feat from Swashbucking Adventures (AEG). Essentially this feat allows a character to use their Dexterity modifier for damage with any light weapon (also the rapier and spiked chain). In a normal campaign, I'd certainly say this would be a huge regret, but it wasn't so bad in mine because I had only one player. When you've only got one player I think it's important to allow their character a little edge in the game so it doesn't seem like the npcs are having all the fun.

I also managed to work it into the story a bit as the character's trainer (and grandfather) was an expert swordsman with his own style. So, only individuals trained in that particular style had access to the feat. Not a huge deal when you have only one player, but at least it gave the player a sense that he had a unique talent.


*20-level class from Swashbuckling Adventures