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View Full Version : Houserules - Am I missing any good ones?



Godskook
2010-02-11, 02:20 AM
Alright, I've got a starting module picked out, and now I'm trying to nail down my houserules for my first game as a DM. I know some of these won't matter until after the first module is over, but whatever.

Houserules:

1.Favored Souls are charisma-based casters. Period.
2.Gauntlets are treated as unarmed strikes whenever beneficial to a monk class ability. Additionally, monks select a fighting style from UA at first, and every 6 levels thereafter. Later fighting styles grant their feats at the even levels(So the fighting style selected at 7th level grants feats at 8th, 10th, and 12th level).
3.Additional point-buy may be 'bought' at the rate of current point-buy squared in experience. For example, going from 30 to 31 point-buy costs 900xp. New points must be spent immediately. To increase high ability scores, you must buy all the points at once. Maximum bought point-buy is your current ECL + 30.
4.TBD
5.Additional feats may be bought, at the rate of 1000xp*(# of feats bought this way + 1). A maximum of 1 feat per two levels may be bought this way.
6.All characters get an additional 5 skill points per level. At least two of these should be spent in skills that are entirely fluff based.
7.Paladin's smite ability is per encounter, not per day.
8.Wizards and sorcerers may select one cantrip as their at-will cantrip when preparing spells. This choice persists until changed.
9.With a few exceptions, you must be able to cast a metamagic spell without reducers to be able to cast it with reducers(Exceptions include rods of metamagic and the Sudden feats. DMM is specifically not an exception). DMM(Persist) is allowed, but good luck using it pre-epic.
10.Fractional BAB and Saves.
11.Rich's Polymorph rules
12.I've read the ToS rule-set, and while I'm not explicitily adding it to my houserules, anything that is banned there is probably something you should ask about before planning builds with.

Alright, so, first, any major objections to the above? And second, any decent and simple houserules I can add? Note that ToB material is allowed.

faceroll
2010-02-11, 02:41 AM
Doesn't fix incantatrix.
Doesn't fix horribly problematic conjuration [calling] spells, don't-do-anything-but-you-lose spells, or I-always-go-first spells
Melee classes don't get anything (at least ToB's on the table)
Too many skills (just PF them, give everyone but wizards & archivists 2 more skill points/level).
Rich's polymorph rules don't really fix anything. Polymorph is still horribly broken with his rules- you can use it to fly, burrow, swim, climb, heal, see in the dark, the mud, a pool of lava, and to a very large extent ignore your own physical ability scores. So he breaks it into different spell levels- a wizard capable of casting 7th level spells still gets to prepare the spells "I'm a wizard, bitch," and "I get to do what I want to (did I mention I could cast spells?)".

Nevermind; ToS rules in effect. That takes care of the more egregious stuff.
Still

JaronK
2010-02-11, 03:43 AM
I'll just go over what I think the effects of your houserules are.

1: Favored Souls are already quite strong. They're weak compared to Wizards and the like, but that's probably a good thing. Remember, melee classes often need Str, Dex, and Con... it's not unreasonable for a caster to need three stats. Your house rule is fine if everyone's playing casters, but it's unneeded otherwise.

2: Monks can use all the help they can get, so I see no problem with this. I probably still wouldn't go above 6 levels of Monk though, even with your modifications.

3: Reasonable enough, but are you aware of the "Experience is a River" concept?

5: The extra feats will be VERY powerful for casters, especially people who want to qualify quickly for certain PrCs. It probably won't matter nearly as much for most melees, though Rogues will appreciate it, as will Factotums. But this will benefit Shadowcraft Mages and similar builds a great deal, while Fighters will be even more useless.

6: That's an awful lot of skill points, and for some classes may mean they have to spend points cross class. That's not necessarily a bad thing though.

7: Paladins can use the help.

8: Do Wizards need to be stronger? I know it's not much, but they really need nothing.

9: Honestly, I wouldn't have exceptions. Sudden feats don't have adjustments anyway, so they wouldn't apply.

10: I always do that.

11: Not familiar, but anything helps!

Overall, just make sure you consider the effects on balance of your house rules.

JaronK

Myou
2010-02-11, 04:59 AM
Rich's 'fix' doesn't.

I'd add a rule that spell-like and supernatural abilities based on spells have the same xp and material component requirements.
And that summoned or called creatures cannot be made to expend xp.

Narazil
2010-02-11, 05:22 AM
How would one not be able to get DMM: Persist pre-epic?
Extend Spell, Persist Spell, DMM: Persist Spell.

Base CHA of 16. Extra Turning. Reliquary Amulet. That's 12 turning attempts right there - plenty for Persist Powering the important spells.

Triaxx
2010-02-11, 05:32 AM
My favorite house rule is: Skill Focus, when applied to a Cross-Class skill, makes it a class skill.

It's up to you whether you want to apply the +3 bonus as well if it's Cross-Class or not.

Ernir
2010-02-11, 05:40 AM
How would one not be able to get DMM: Persist pre-epic?
Extend Spell, Persist Spell, DMM: Persist Spell.

Base CHA of 16. Extra Turning. Reliquary Amulet. That's 12 turning attempts right there - plenty for Persist Powering the important spells.

The proposed houserule was "you must be able to cast a metamagic spell without reducers to be able to cast it with reducers". So you could persist things like Divine Favor just fine at the higher levels, but you'd need to get your hands on 10th level slots or more gouda if you're going to persist Divine Power pre-epic.

Harperfan7
2010-02-11, 10:02 AM
I use d12s for initiative. When you roll a d20, a beached whale can beat drizzt in initiative without either rolling a 1 or 20.

When you hit someones AC, roll for half damage.

It's not really a houserule, but I'm a fan of everybody using elite scores (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8). That includes any npcs they encounter.

Doc Roc
2010-02-11, 10:23 AM
We're working on a new skill system that should launch relatively soon, if you want it, GS.

FishAreWet
2010-02-11, 11:17 AM
I use d12s for initiative. When you roll a d20, a beached whale can beat drizzt in initiative without either rolling a 1 or 20.

Wow I like that.

Starscream
2010-02-11, 11:29 AM
Here are mine:

General
* For the most part, any official WOTC sourcebooks are allowed. Setting specific stuff, however, must be approved by DM.
* 32 point character buy.
* Homebrews of any kind must be approved.
* Racial Substitution levels and Monster Classes are typically allowed. In the case of Monster Classes, if the monster in question has multiple "versions", you can stop at a particular version and begin advancing in PC classes. For instance, if you play as a Ghoul, you don't have to advance all the way to a Ghast to begin taking PC levels. You can stop at the point where you have all the powers of a standard Ghoul.
* When rolling HP, roll twice and take the better result.
* LA Buy Off is allowed.

Classes
* Clerics are proficient with the favored weapon of their deity.
* Druids can either have Wild Shape or an animal companion. Not both. If they give up Wild Shape they get the Shapeshift class feature from PHBII instead.
* Monks use Fax Celestis's variant (http://wiki.faxcelestis.net/index.php?title=Monk).
* There are no favored classes. You can have up to 3 classes with no penalty. If you take a fourth you get the 20% xp penalty regardless of your levels.
* Monks and paladins may multiclass freely.
* Base classes mostly do not have alignment restrictions. Some however may not work well with certain alignments; a good Dread Necromancer is improbable as creating undead is an evil act, for instance. This is to allow more freedom for roleplaying. You can be a Barbarian and still have a strict code of honor (meaning you are lawful) without being "civilized" in the traditional sense.
* Paladins are a special case. A paladin can be any of the four "extreme" alignments. The variant paladins from UA are used, depending on which matches your alignment (Paladin of Honor, Freedom, Tyranny, or Slaughter).
* Prestige classes may still have alignment restrictions. There are no good Blackguards for instance. Others will have their restrictions lessened. Assassins can be neutral for example. Only if the theme of the class in inherently tied to a particular alignment will there be a restriction.

Alignment
* Alignments aren't as restrictive as some DMs rule. A good character (even a paladin) can do the occasional bad deed and get away with it, as long as they have a good reason. An evil character can have a decent streak and still be evil. One exception: characters who want to take anything from the Book of Exalted Deeds must be REALLY good. Those who want stuff from Book of Vile Darkness must be REALLY bad.
* Evil characters are discouraged but not banned. You need to come up with a good reason why you would be working with these guys, and more importantly, why they would agree to work with you. If the other players vote that they don't want an evil teammate, or don't think their characters would accept one, you can't play one. Just play neutral with a rotten streak. Don't worry, by the above rule, you can still kick the occasional puppy and get away with it.

Misc.
* As in 4th edition, you add either your STR or CON bonus to fortitude saves, your INT or DEX bonus to reflex saves, and your WIS or CHA bonus to will saves.
* Open Lock and Disable Device are the same skill: Thievery.
* Hide and Move Silently are the same skill: Stealth.
* Spot and Listen are the same skill: Perception.
* Toughness is replaced with Improved Toughness.
* If the caster succeeds on a DC 25 Spellcraft or Knowledge (Arcana or Religion) check, he can cast Identify without the 100gp component.

Spellcasting
* Alter Self, Polymorph, and Polymorph Any Object are banned. There is no way to balance these. To make up for it a little, Disguise Self now has a duration of 1 hour per caster level, and can be used to disguise yourself as another Creature Type. You can't use it to change your size by more than one category, however. It can also be cast on others (changing the name to just "Disguise").
* Shapechange is not banned. Level 9 spells are supposed to be broken. Might as well just ban all of them if you are looking for balance.
* Wraithstrike is banned. It's just too cheesy.
* Shivering Touch: Banned! Also known as the "Defeat any dragon without a save spell".
* Celerity and Greater Celerity: No Bloody Way!
* No Disjunction. Players rejoice, your items are safe. To make up for this, certain spells that could ordinarily only be affected by Disjunction (such as prismatic wall), can now be affected by Greater Dispel Magic.
* Divine Metamagic: Persist is not allowed. It is too powerful.

Prestige Classes
* These are mostly allowed, but please clear them with the DM a few levels ahead of time. This keeps you from wasting feats and such only to have me say "no".
* Non-spellcasting PRCs are almost always allowed. Martial characters lag behind spellcasters in terms of power anyway, so a nice PRC can help to close the gap.
* I particularly don't like PRCs that give full casting progression. As a general rule, if a PRC costs at least one caster level per 5 class levels, it will be acceptable. If you have to multiclass to a non-spellcasting class in order to qualify, that will be taken into consideration. I just don't want players who can cast as a Wizard 20 and get lots of free goodies besides.
* If the Prestige Class doesn't fit the above guidelines, don't lose hope: these things are negotiable. Possible fixes may include toughening the entry requirements or requiring that certain spell slots are permanently used up (such as in the Archmage class) in order to get the PRC's class features.

Notes
* All rules that apply to the player apply to the DM as well. If I say a spell or PRC is banned, then you won't meet any NPCs who have it either.
* I may, very rarely, allow an exception to one of these rules if there is a good reason. If it fits the story, you might find a scroll of Polymorph as treasure for instance. But you won't be able to find them in stores or copy them into your spellbook. If you don't abuse exceptions like this they may become more common.
* Please note that these House Rules are not intended to be a cure-all. Some classes are just naturally more powerful than others. The game will never be perfectly balanced, but with any luck we can close the gap enough that everyone can have fun.
* These rules are not all inclusive. There may be other stuff that is deemed overpowered and requires a fix. Stuff that is very underpowered might also receive a boost.