What houesrules does your table use?

[krossbow]

Just as the topic says.

What houserules does your D&D table use? any that you've seen used in that past that were specific to certain DMs, ect., and any common ones?

[Starscream]

I've experimented with tons of different house rules over the years. Here's what I have found works well for my groups and our style of play.

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:
* Tier system used, with modifications: A Tier 1 class can gestalt with commoner, expert, aristocrat, or warrior. A Tier 2 class can gestalt with a class of tier 6 or below. A Tier 3 class with one of 5 or below, and a Tier 4 with one of 4 or below.
* If entry into a PrC raises you above Tier 1, you can only gestalt with commoner for those levels (meaning no benefit at all).
* A full casting class cannot get additional spellcasting from a gestalt, even if it would be allowed by the tiers. A partial spellcaster can. So Warmage//Ranger is not allowed, but Paladin//Ranger is.
* 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.
* Monster classes are mostly treated as Tier 4 for the purposes of Gestalt.
* Monks and paladins may multiclass freely.


Alignment:
* 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 is inherently tied to a particular alignment will there be a restriction.
* 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.

Skills and Feats
* 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.
* Speak Language and Decipher Script are the same skill: Linguistics.
* 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, occasionally, 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 will become more common.
* 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.

[Savannah]

My biggest one is critical failures on natural 1s. One of my DMs made up his own table saying what would happen based on a second roll (that was the game that taught me to stock up on bowstrings!).

[theinnerdevil]

this may be a stupid question but what is LA buy off?

[Kylarra]

this may be a stupid question but what is LA buy off?
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/reducingleveladjustments.htm

[jokey665]

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AcAugfauJp7uZGM3amZzNzZfMTIwYzk2Z3djZG0&hl=en

That's the main House Rules document, and there's other supplemental docs explaining weapon groups in detail and stuff like that. That doc has the main changes, though.

[Jack Zander]

We give wizards all spells known on their spell lists. It's only fair, cuz clerics and druids get all of their spells, and those two classes can wear armor and have a higher BAB.

Druids never take any feat other than natural spell at 6th level, so we just give it to them as a bonus feat at level 5 so they can be a bit more diverse and pick something else at level 6.

We've found the entire ToB book to be horribly broken, so it's outright banned.

[Tinydwarfman]

We give wizards all spells known on their spell lists. It's only fair, cuz clerics and druids get all of their spells, and those two classes can wear armor and have a higher BAB.

Druids never take any feat other than natural spell at 6th level, so we just give it to them as a bonus feat at level 5 so they can be a bit more diverse and pick something else at level 6.

We've found the entire ToB book to be horribly broken, so it's outright banned.

Buh, you, wha... :smalleek:

*faints* I dearly hope you are joking

[mabriss lethe]

We give wizards all spells known on their spell lists. It's only fair, cuz clerics and druids get all of their spells, and those two classes can wear armor and have a higher BAB.

Druids never take any feat other than natural spell at 6th level, so we just give it to them as a bonus feat at level 5 so they can be a bit more diverse and pick something else at level 6.

We've found the entire ToB book to be horribly broken, so it's outright banned.

Remember that the internet has a problem translating sarcasm and snark.

On Topic: Make the use of potions and oils a move action instead of a standard action. it actually gives people a reason to use them.

[noiadodh]

We give wizards all spells known on their spell lists. It's only fair, cuz clerics and druids get all of their spells, and those two classes can wear armor and have a higher BAB.

Druids never take any feat other than natural spell at 6th level, so we just give it to them as a bonus feat at level 5 so they can be a bit more diverse and pick something else at level 6.

We've found the entire ToB book to be horribly broken, so it's outright banned.

you doesn't make all wizards domain wizards with 2 extra feats for each selected flaw? nonsense! :smalltongue:

[Tinydwarfman]

Remember that the internet has a problem translating sarcasm and snark.

On Topic: Make the use of potions and oils a move action instead of a standard action. it actually gives people a reason to use them.

I do the same! We thought that potions were move-equivalents to drink in one session after a long break, and said "hey, this is a lot better!"

[Merk]

It's not so much a house rule as it is a direct change of mechanics, but I give out a certain amount of poker chips to the players each session (this is a low-magic game, and there are virtually no spellcasters in the PC party).

Blue chips allow you to take 10 on any d20 roll, or let you heal HP = to your level.

Red chips allow you to take 20 on any d20 roll, or imitate the effects of Diehard for 1 round.

White chips allow you to "purchase" one use of a special form of attack (such as a ToB maneuver) even if you wouldn't normally have access to it.

[Swordgleam]

Criticals are double whatever the dice say or roll twice as many dice, not just auto full damage (we play 4e). 1s are crit fumbles and 20s are crits no matter what you're rolling the d20 for - even if it's just, "does anything eventful happen when I mess around with my magic for a little while." (The two times this was tried, it resulted in natural 1s. Same character. The others don't trust him any more for some reason.)

Everyone gets a form of "drama points" specific to their character that they get for doing plot-related stuff and can redeem to do epic things. These don't come up too often; I think we've had half a dozen used in a year of gaming.

Gods speak directly to their adherents on a daily basis, and anyone who worships a god can take a channel divinity feat even if they aren't a divine class. On the other hand, gods are neither omnipotent nor omniscient, so this is hardly overpowered. The cleric of the Raven Queen is now nicknamed "underworld yellow pages," but he can't raise dead or destroy zombies on a whim.

[Fiery Diamond]

Potions=move action

Skill Check Natural 20= Roll another d20, add 1/2 (round up) result to total. If that was also a 20, additionally roll a third d20 and add 1/4 (round up) result. If...you get the idea. If this happens too much, I'll suspect a loaded die.

Weapon and armor enchantments are cheaper for +1 through +4.

Sorcerer's don't take longer when using metamagic.

Only core, unless the DM okays it. The DM will usually okay it. The DM will use non-core and lots of homebrew. (I'm the DM).

Some broken spells (such as polymorph) are allowed for as long as you don't do cheezy crap on a regular basis with them. If you abuse them, banhammer on the spell.

I'm strict on what evil is (for example, shoplifting is an evil act - except in extreme circumstances); evil characters are not allowed unless you are darn good at roleplaying them.

Loads of other houserules that vary depending on the campaign.

[Superglucose]

It's not so much a house rule as it is a direct change of mechanics, but I give out a certain amount of poker chips to the players each session (this is a low-magic game, and there are virtually no spellcasters in the PC party).

Blue chips allow you to take 10 on any d20 roll, or let you heal HP = to your level.

Red chips allow you to take 20 on any d20 roll, or imitate the effects of Diehard for 1 round.

White chips allow you to "purchase" one use of a special form of attack (such as a ToB maneuver) even if you wouldn't normally have access to it.
One of my favorite systems (BASH!) was designed with that in mind: you get setbacks for the monsters and "Hero Points" for the heroes, and you can spend your hero points to increase your rolls or the GM can use "setback points" to increase monster rolls. It does a pretty good job of making dice-fudging to keep the game cinematic legal and fun. Especially when you have a GM (the writer!) who'll sometimes give them back if things didn't pan out the way you expected.

EDIT: I always do 5d6b3 and am fairly lenient on allowing rerolls. I think point buy lends itself to too much specialization... I understand that Int, Wis, and Cha aren't necessarily linked but an 18 int, 8 wis, 8 cha stretches imagination a bit. Plus D&D is fundamentally about rolling dice, isn't it?

[Yukitsu]

My table has either a lot, or none at all.

A special provision agreed between me and DM, is that I can do my theory shenanigans, but only against encounters I know aren't plot important (technically a gentleman's agreement, as it's never been formalized.) and then the DM will ban it with no hard feelings.

Wizards get 1 and 1/2 of the schools. Specialists get 1 school. Focused specialists get 1/2.

Druids and clerics only get spells from specific domains that they pick as spells known.

People who aren't paying attention during initiative call, lose their turn.

The DM is in charge, but violent bloody revolts are a possibility, as we could always get another.

[Superglucose]

Not really a houserule, it's more mutable fluff that makes it into every game bar none:

Collegiate (and therefore licensed) wizards are awarded robes on graduation which have the special property of being auto-mending. They are also color coded based on school specialization:


Evocation: Red
Abjuration: Silver?
Illusion: Irridecent
Conjuration: Yellow
Enchantment: Blue
Necromancy: Black
Divination: Purple
Transumation: Green
Universal: White

Apprentice: Grey


In addition you get different effects added to your robes (well, you are "granted" the option of wearing them... you could wear an archmage's robe at level 1 if you wanted but it'd have some backlashing) based on what level you are:

Apprentice of the Arcane Order: grey robes, lined with intended specialization at a certain competency level
Journeyman of the Arcane Order: (level 1) robes the color of your specialty
Wizard of the Arcane Order: (level 10) stohl of the color of your specialization
Mage of the Arcane Order: (level 15) stohl of the color of your specialiization is gold trimmed
High Mage of the Arcane Order: (level 20) stohl of the color of your specialization has a decal of your specialization
Archmage of the Arcane Order: (level 1 archmage) robes the color of your specialty trimmed in gold

[CheshireCatAW]

Character Creation, Level Ups, Skills
Usually 32 point buy

Full hit points at first level. Every level thereafter is half the max + rolling the other half. Barbarians, for example, would get 6 + 1D6 hit points per level. Nothing hurts more than a Barbarian rolling a 1 on Hit Points.

Usually we play in published campaign settings, so I allow a free Regional Feat at character creation.

Listen + Spot = Perception
Climb + Swim + Jump = Athletics
Balance + Tumble + Escape Artist = Acrobatics
Unlock melded into Disable Device
Hide + Move Silently = Stealth
Decipher Script + Forgery + Speak Language = Linguistics



Feats:
Two Weapon Fighting line is rolled into one feat. You can use the secondary attack whenever you would be able to make a single attack (IE: Two attacks for a standard action, AOO.) Tends to help DEX fighters and TWF Rangers a good deal.

Two Weapon Defense line gets a similar treatment that scales with level.

Toughness = Greater Toughness in all respects.

Weapon Finesse is a property of weapons and not a feat. I worried a bit before instituting this but it hasn't broken things out of hand yet. Every Rogue player has thanked me by taking something other than Weapon Finesse at 3rd level.

Power Attack is free as well.

Classes
No multiclassing penalties

Monks can use enchanted handwraps

Sorcerers start with Eschew Materials and do not have increased casting time when metamagicing at the expense of the familiar. D6 hit die.

Item Creation:
Magic items do not cost XP. XP is a river, anyhow.


There's a few more but those are the most game changing and important. Also in the process of migrating to Pathfinder, so some of these rules become redundant or obsolete with the new system.

[Nameless Ghost]

This is the incomplete list I'm working on to use in a new campaign:

All sources are allowed, subject to DM approval.

Alignment is more hazy.

Potions are a move action.

Crits and crit-like effects (Sneak Attack, etc) deal half damage to undead, plants and constructs. Critical hits don't need to be confirmed.

No multiclass penalties.

Rule of Cool is in effect.

Roleplaying well results in bonus exp.

Various broken spells and ToB maneuvers are nerfed/banned. As an example, IHS cannot put out the sun and you need to have knowledge of a creature to transform into it.

Level-0 spells are at will.

Casters take damage equal to spell level upon casting a spell, level-0 spells cause 1 point of nonlethal damage. You can't prevent this damage in any way.

Spellcasting in an alternate form is prohibited without a metamagic feat (replaces Natural Spell).

You can also lower the effective level of a spell with Heighten Spell (which is renamed something more appropriate).

All spellcasters are spontaneous, using the UA variants. You can play a wizard if you want, but mechanically he's a sorcerer.

Clerics don't gain heavy armour proficiency, instead they gain proficiency with their deity's weapon and Weapon Focus (that weapon) as a bonus feat. More skill points. Can spontaneously cure or inflict spells as normal.

Druids use the Aspect of Nature (UA) or Shapeshift (PHB2) variant.

Sorcerers have d6 hit dice, only take half damage (minimum 1) from casting spells and can apply metamagic without increasing casting time. They get the wizard's bonus feats and can use Cha or Int as casting stat (this is chosen at first level and cannot be changed afterwards; it's the difference between wizards and sorcerers).

Monk is banned (cue thread derail).

[Curmudgeon]

Level 0 spells are always spontaneously cast.
You can cast Feather Fall (redefined as an immediate action spell) when flat-footed.
Monks are proficient with their unarmed strikes.
If you like slings: apply the Rapid Reload feat to them, just as you would to a crossbow, for free action reloading. You can also use Manyshot with slings, up to a maximum of four bullets in the sling pouch.
Split actual movement around a non-moving move action. Example: move 15' to a door, open it, and then go through the doorway that same round using the rest of your movement.
Make Massive Damage saves only when the damage is 50+ and also exceeds half your remaining hit points.
No ranged full attacks without provoking attacks of opportunity. Going strictly by the letter of the rules full attacks (melee or ranged) never provoke, but this is just sloppy work by the rules authors. Each ranged shot provokes an AoO.
Bonus damage from the Factotum's Cunning Insight is negative energy damage when used with a spell or effect that deals negative levels or ability damage, making it consistent with the treatment of bonus damage from sneak attack when used with weaponlike spells.
Treat great crossbows (Races of Stone) the same as heavy crossbows for feats and other rules that specify heavy crossbows, since

all the crossbow rules use specifics needlessly:
Choose a type of crossbow (hand, light, or heavy). You can reload a crossbow of that type more quickly than normal.
great crossbows were defined later, after these needlessly specific rules.
Great crossbows remain exotic weapons.

[Zanatos777]

One favorite of my players is that I give rangers a full progression for their animal companion.

[Swordgleam]

Full hit points at first level. Every level thereafter is half the max + rolling the other half.

Have you ever played Iron Heroes? It incorporates nearly all of your house rules.

[JaronK]

We've used a bunch of different house rules across many games. The few that seem to stick in all games include:

1) No exp penalties for multiclassing
2) No alignment restrictions for most classes, but you can't mix two classes that have conflicting alignments in any build (so you don't have to be a lawful Monk, but you can't be a Monk/Barbarian).
3) Monks have unarmed strike proficiency (of course)
4) All players work together to have the same basic power level coming into the game (usually by picking a tier to aim for)
5) Most games seem to have far below normal wealth, but we're changing that slowly.

JaronK

[Tinydwarfman]

We've used a bunch of different house rules across many games. The few that seem to stick in all games include:

2) No alignment restrictions for most classes, but you can't mix two classes that have conflicting alignments in any build (so you don't have to be a lawful Monk, but you can't be a Monk/Barbarian).

JaronK

I disagree with that actually. A monk/barbarian/fist of the forest fits quite nicely flavor wise, and so do a fair number of other monk/barbarian concepts. Alignment is just too weird and rigid for many interesting concepts.

[JaronK]

I disagree with that actually. A monk/barbarian/fist of the forest fits quite nicely flavor wise, and so do a fair number of other monk/barbarian concepts. Alignment is just too weird and rigid for many interesting concepts.

Yeah, but it's sort of an attempt at enforcing the intended combinations of classes without restricting everyone to having lawful Monks and such. Honestly, that rule is only a general case rule... if you can convince your DM that the character is a great one, you can get around it. That way the only people who get to play Monk/Barbarians are the ones who have thought out their characters a bunch and can talk them up. Since I like having players do that anyway, the rule works perfectly. We're usually just trying to avoid flurrying charger characters.

JaronK

[Thalnawr]

So here's what I'm used to at the table I play at:

Character Creation
46 Point Buy
Star Wars d20 classes are options as well... (not Saga, but the prior edition)
Gestalt (including the UA generics as options)
Sources = Any the GM's approved that are brought to the game (including 3rd party)
2 Flaws/Traits

Skills
Hide and Move Silently rolled into Stealth
Listen, Spot and Search rolled into Perception
Balance, Tumble, and Escape Artist rolled into Acrobatics
Climb, Jump, and Swim rolled into Athletics
Casting/Manifesting is skill based, off a separate Spellcasting or Manifesting skill, with relevant modifier equal to your casting stat, they get that skill as a class skill and 2 extra skill points per level to pay for that (unless the other side of your gestalt gets the same or more skill points per level)

Combat
We use the spell point system
Vitality and Wound points are used, plus body hit locations when wounded
We also use Reserve points
We use a complex critical and fumble chart
The Spellcasting skill can generate critical/fumble effects on 1s and 20s also
Sanity rules are used, as well as some corruption rules, especially in regard to spellcasting

There are others that I may have forgotten, but these are the major ones

[Calimehter]

E6 is our big houserule.

Some others:

- Spontaneous Metamagic from UA (the extra slot variant). You kind of need something like this in E6 to use metamagic at all. Making it available also makes it easier to put the kibosh on things like DMM since there is an alternative "metamagic tweaker" in play. Sorcerers who use Metamagic do not have the full-round casting time. Incantations from UA are also available, to simulate higher magic effects.

- Expanded Disabled range - you are disabled if at 10% of your HP or lower. I've always used some version of "taking damage makes you less effective" over the years, and this one is working well so far.

- Roleplaying/Story XP is almost always available each session, and on rare occasions equals or exceeds the XP available from combat.

- We tend toward Core only, but other sourcebook material is allowed on a case-by-case basis. When I run, I generally tend to allow extra feats/classes/gear, but generally disallow things with extra rules mechanics like Psionics or ToB . . . and before anyone gets all feisty :smallwink: that 'rule' is more for simplicity and ease of play than it is for balance.

[Kaiyanwang]

(I'm the DM)

Unless I see clear abuses, muliclassing is free of charge.

I decide when PC level up, basing on an proper amount of encounters and quests accomplished.

Spells and Crafts have XP componens retrieved from monsters (suggested in DMG and in one Dragon Magazine).

At epic, meleers are slightly overequipped according to WBL

Feat use is expanded by analogy (quickdra things from the wal as an example).

[Eternal Drifter]

Let me think...

New players start with a 32 point buy, but for every character death beyond the first, without being raised from the dead, they have one less point to spend on abilities. (ex: 0 or 1 previous characters=32 points; 2 previous characters=31 points; 3 previous characters=30 points; 10 previous characters=23 points) I find that this is a good deterent to continually switching characters on a whim. The problem comes when someone actually does have to go through close to ten characters, and the final boss is coming up... (Last year, two different people were on their 6th characters when the final boss finally struck).

Bestow Curse has an additional ability: cursing the ITEMS of the target with a touch attack. The Dwarf Samarai got up in melee against the main villain of my group's campaign. The villain was hastened, so she struck him with three sucessful curses before the Dwarf finally had enough, fleeing with BOTH his weapons at a -2 to attack and damage, one of his weapons looking ridiculous, and his most powerful armor attracting attacks and looking to be made of flowers.:smallbiggrin:

Perhaps I'll recall more later.

[krossbow]

Skills are handled differently.


Each character has their skill points halved (including ones recieved from intelligence); however, each class has a "skill focus" around a single stat; barbarians Strength, rangers dexterity, clerics wisdom, ect. It only costs one skill point to gain a rank in all skills that use that skill, and all other skills cost one point each, no class specific skills. So a barbarian would only have to use 1 skill point to gain a rank in climb, swim, jump, ect., but would have to individually purchase a rank in balance at 1 skill point.

(we got that idea from how iron heroes handled skills; that was something i really liked about the system)


Another houserule we use is that all casters function with 2 casting stats, ala the favored soul; Intelligence for DC, charisma for bonus spells (wisdom/charisma respectively for the cleric).

[Curmudgeon]

Each character has their skill points halved (including ones recieved from intelligence); however, each class has a "skill focus" around a single stat; barbarians Strength, rangers dexterity, clerics wisdom, ect. It only costs one skill point to gain a rank in all skills that use that skill, and all other skills cost one point each, no class specific skills. So a barbarian would only have to use 1 skill point to gain a rank in climb, swim, jump, ect., but would have to individually purchase a rank in balance at 1 skill point.
Can't say I think much of this one. This makes all Rogues pretty much identical, skill-wise, when one of their main distinctions is having lots of options for how each one builds their capabilities. Plus it make INT for most classes only useful in increments of 4: 10, 14, 18 -- again, this encourages characters to end up the same.

[HunterOfJello]

-All dice rolls must be done on the table in plain sight. Rolls that are indeterminate will be rerolled.
-Ability Generation must be done on in front of the DM. Roll 4d6 and choose the highest 3. Reroll 1s.
- Anything used from a sourcebook that is not present at the table must be fully printed out with all the relevant text and brought to the table to be used.
-Characters take 3 hours in game to level up
-Flaws will only be allowed at character creation. Max 2.
-Traits will only be allowed at character creation. Max 2. Traits must fit your character concept and be roleplayed.
-Any source book materials that don't come from the 3.5e Player's Handbook, Spell Compendium, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Tome of Battle will require approval before their use. (All base classes and most character options from all WoTC source books will be allowed, just give me a chance to evaluate whether or not the feat/skill trick/prestige class/whatever is insanely cheesy and overpowered or not. I will most likely approve of anything that isn't ridiculously overpowered.)
-Hit Points at first level = full hit die + con modifier + 1
hit points per level after lvl 1 = 1/2 hit die + con modifier + 1 (minimum of 1)
-All spells must come from the Player's Handbook or Spell Compendium. If your base class was created with the intention of using spells that come from another book, such as the Duskblade, then ask me about the spell list for approval.
-All Skill Tricks from Complete Scoundrel are allowed. They follow the rules as defined in the book and cost 2 skill points each to learn.


Specific Rules

-All clerics are Cloistered Clerics
-Disciple Focus (ToB) includes Proficiency.
-No Nightsticks, Thoughtbottles
-No Divine Metamagic
-No Paladin PCs (unless they aren't lawful stupid)
-No Planar Shepards
-Spontaneous Spellcasters gain Eschew Materials at lvl 1 for spells cast spontaneously from their spell lists.
-Also Banned: shapechange, time stop, disjunction, wish, polymorph
-Once a class skill, always a class skill.
-No multiclass penalties.
-Swordsages gain Adaptive Style at lvl 3
-Dexterity modifier to bow damage
-No alignment restrictions. (But keep things generally realistic.)
-Feats are granted at every odd level. (Levels 1, 3, 5, 7, etc.)
-Wildshape is limited to monsters from sourcebooks owned by the DM. (Currently MM1 3.5e)
-Ranger Animal Companion works the same as a Druid Animal Companion

and a few more i haven't written down

[Greenish]

-Spontaneous Spellcasters gain Eschew Materials at lvl 1 for spells cast spontaneously from their spell lists.
-Also Banned: shapechange, time stop, disjunction, wish, polymorph
-Once a class skill, always a class skill.
-No multiclass penalties.
-Swordsages gain Adaptive Style at lvl 3
-Dexterity modifier to bow damage
-No alignment restrictions. (But keep things generally realistic.)
-Feats are granted at every odd level. (Levels 1, 3, 5, 7, etc.)
-Ranger Animal Companion works the same as a Druid Animal CompanionThose look good.

[qcontinuum]

We use Pathfinder as the base.
The book list consists of anything Paizo has published for Pathfinder, plus pretty much anything published by WotC for D&D 3.5. Anything not explicitly Pathfinder should be run by the DM for approval, but it will most likely be allowed. The only major exception to this is if it requires the DM/players to learn a completely new system (eg Psionics, ToB, ToM, etc...) it probably won't be allowed (for simplicity reasons).

Our current rules include:

Ability Score Generation: Start with 15, 13, 12, 10, 10, 8. You then get 1d4+3 points to add to the base array on a 1:1 basis, max 18 before racial modifiers. If you're gonna be a monk, pick your scores (within reason, DM has final say).
HP: use normal HP generation, except if you roll < 1/2 your hit die, you get 1/2 HD instead. eg: HP for a rogue is max(d8, 4) + CON.
Ability score increases: instead of +1 at every 4 levels, its +1 to two different scores every 4 levels. This is how Star Wars Saga Edition does it, and it really helps out the MAD classes without giving much of a power boost to SAD classes.
Movement along a diagonal is always 1 sq (ala 4e).
There are no law/chaos axis alignment restrictions for classes. Classes with codes of conduct, such as Paladins, are still required to keep to the code, but they can be any of lawful good, neutral good or chaotic good. Alignment restrictions on the good-evil axis remain in effect (no good Assassins or evil clerics of Pelor).
Charging is a standard action that allows you to move up to your speed and attack. Withdrawing is a move action that allows you to move 1/2 your speed without provoking attacks of opportunity from your first square of movement, so long as that square is not threatened. You may not charge then withdraw in the same round, or charge a target you just withdrew from.
When attempting to use a magical item with Use Magic Device, rolling a natural 1 and failing does not prevent you from using the device again for 24 hours. Instead you take 1d6 Force damage per caster level of the item, and if it is a device which uses charges then the number of charges you would have used are expended to no effect.


We've toyed with the idea of implementing the following, but haven't tried it yet:

Ability Score Generation: for each primary stat roll 5d6b3. For each secondary stat roll 4d6b3, and for each tertiary stat roll 3d6. Rearrange as you wish.
Ability Score Increase: at each level you get one point to invest in an ability score, increasing them as though using point buy. Alternately, at every 4th level you get 5-10 points to buy up stats as with point buy.
As a standard action you may do a "half attack", which grants you 1/2 the attacks you would get with a full attack, rounding up.

[HunterOfJello]

Those look good.

thanks, i got most of them from these boards and some other online sources. many of them were from complaints about different things and were designed to add a bit of balance or to just make the game more interesting.

i keep very loose ideas about alignment in play at all times. however, changing a character's alignment does require effort in-game and must be roleplayed properly.

[Piedmon_Sama]

In my Campaign...

-We use homebrewed Orcs and Half-Orcs (I posted them in a thread a few months ago here). They get skill bonuses (survival and intimidate), weapon familiarity, and characterful stuff like DR 2/lethal to represent orc hardiness.

-Racial Favored Class is ignored.

-There is no alignment. Spells and abilities that target certain alignments now specifically target the enemies of your patron deity if you're a cleric, and there are no Wizards/Sorcs in the party so I don't have to worry about them.

-I created a concept called "False Levels" for NPCs that needed to be highly skilled, but not threatening in combat. For example, an Imperial Senator might have 1 actual level in Aristocrat, and 4 False Levels--meaning he has the HD, BaB, Fort and Ref saves of a 1st-level Aristocrat, but has the skills, feats, Will save and ability increase of a 5th-level Aristocrat. This allows for the archetypical skilled orator opponent who's not a threat physically, or for NPC commoners to actually be -good- at their jobs without needing a +4 BaB or something.

-Longbow (M) damage was upgraded to 1d10 1d12. Firearms are available in the setting; wheellock is more common, but has recently been outmoded by flintlocks. Virtually all pistols on the market are handcrafted by master artisans, which is to say that "masterwork pistol" is almost a redundant term. Loading any wheellock or flintlock is a full-round action, while the ancient harquebus (a few are still in use with militias or outlaws) take two rounds. Any character caught flat-footed by a ranged weapon at more than point-blank range (and without cover) takes automatic critical damage (x3 for firearms/crossbows), with an exception for firearms: you can't target that precisely from further than 1/2 the weapon's range increment. Blunderbusses, duck-footed pistols and revolving carbines (a gnomish weapon) can't target precisely at all. All firearms are Simple Weapons. Pistols can be fired in a grapple at a -4 penalty, and the target counts as flat-footed (yes that means tackling someone and then shooting them in the face is a very effective asssassination method).

-Halflings ended up not being included in the setting.

-I fiat injuries. What the effect of an injury will be, such as slowing you down, lowering your saves or attack or whatever, will depend on what I think is appropriate. I don't hand out injuries everytime a character takes a hit. Even if it does a gross amount of damage but leaves them with plenty of HP. I start doling out injuries when the PCs are at 5 HP >, if they just suffered an attack that should injure them (falling a long distance, getting impaled or burned for example), or if they get critted. Of course NPCs take injuries too.

-I allow called shots. How big the penalty is depends on how specific you get. "I go for the legs" might be a -4 penalty. "I aim my rapier for the eyeslit in his face-mask" might be -20.

-I completely ignore the wealth-by-level charts, as part of the verisimilitude of the setting. You're not gonna get 300 gp in goods just for beating up some random goblin or orc raiders.

-For that matter, I only used the price guide for gear and goods during character creation (with the cost of minor magic items doubled); in-game, gold and silver are much more valuable and rare (closer to real-life). Paying 15 gold coins for a simple sword would be ludicrous, for example. 4-5 gold coins would do. This is great because it means treasure hordes can be a lot smaller, and a pouch of gold carries you much further. The barter system is much more common, and things are more typically payed through trade goods than coin.

-Every character can have as many as three traits ( http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/characterTraits.htm), and up to two flaws (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/characterFlaws.htm). One flaw buys one extra feat. You can't wait past character creation to choose more flaws, but you can change your flaws when rebuilding your character.

-And that's a good time to add that I allow character-rebuilding, if you spend a certain amount of time in-game retraining yourself.

-I have a homebrewed skill called Physical Training, which can be taken once for each of the three physical stats (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution). For every 4 ranks you spend, you increase the chosen stat by one. You can only take up to 8 ranks in the skill per stat.

-We use Class Defense Bonus (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/defenseBonus.htm) and Armor Damage Reduction (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/damageConversion.htm) in conjunction. The reduced armor bonus (halved and rounding down) stacks with a class defense bonus. Unlike in the SRD, Monks have the best Class Bonus (equal to Fighter).

-We also use Combat Facing (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/combatFacing.htm), which allows characters to gain the advantage by outflanking or coming from behind. This also gives the rogue a chance to use Sneak Attack in melee without relying on a partner.

-Monks can flurry on a standard attack action. We did it this way for a year before realizing that it didn't go along with RAW, and decided to stick to our way since those extra attacks are the only thing keeping the character somewhat dangerous in melee.

-Because this campaign has been going on for five years (with interruptions), and quite a few players and PCs have come and gone, the stat generation method hasn't been consistent. The first PCs from the game (of which two are left, the Cleric and the Monk) used the standard 4d6 drop lowest method. Later ones were built with 28 point buy.

-Also I changed the Pale Aura ability of the Slaughterchild/Slaymate (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/libris_gallery/84772.jpg) carried around by the Duskblade. Instead of allowing Necromancy spells to be cast with Metamagic feats at their usual level, she grants extra spell-slots of 1st and 3rd level to any caster within 10' and gives the Spell Penetration feat for free.

-I never liked the "effectively mindless" flavor for Red Slaadi (which has been inconsistently applied, anyway). So when the players encountered a Slaadi stronghold in Limbo, the Reds were savage and beast-like but could use weapons and perform tasks consistently under the eye of a Death Slaad, at least.

What's Disallowed: Any Clerics after the first (there are only a handful in existence in the setting), Tome of Battle (though my players have never looked at it and wouldn't ask), monstrous characters except for Ogres/Half-Ogres (and the monk has a draconic template), any more dwarf/elf characters (for setting reasons; the monk is the last living elven exile), the Sorcerer and Wizard classes, any more Druids (a few have been in the party and died, they're supposed to be rare so there's not gonna be more), CW Samurai or Spellthief (I would stop and try to advise anyone who wanted to play one of these)

What's Allowed: Psionics!

[krossbow]

What's Disallowed: Any Clerics after the first (there are only a handful in existence in the setting), Tome of Battle (though my players have never looked at it and wouldn't ask), monstrous characters except for Ogres/Half-Ogres (and the monk has a draconic template), any more dwarf/elf characters (for setting reasons; the monk is the last living elven exile), the Sorcerer and Wizard classes, any more Druids (a few have been in the party and died, they're supposed to be rare so there's not gonna be more), CW Samurai or Spellthief (I would stop and try to advise anyone who wanted to play one of these)

What's Allowed: Psionics!

dang; that really limits the party compostion there; its more or less just going to be beatsticks and rogues:smalltongue:
I guess the psionics kind of pick up the place of magic a bit though.

[Piedmon_Sama]

Yes, but with everybody getting at least three feats at 1st level and as much as five, they're going to be much more varied beatsticks and rogues, with room for personal styles in combat, is the idea. :p

[krossbow]

Yes, but with everybody getting at least three feats at 1st level and as much as five, they're going to be much more varied beatsticks and rogues, with room for personal styles in combat, is the idea. :p

Ahh, LotR style game world then.

[Piedmon_Sama]

To be ridiculously nerdy, I'd say LotR is more of an E6 or E8 game; this is like E10 or so. I'd compare it to, say Berserk (where the heroes eventually become superheroically powerful, but it's in a very mundane medieval setting)

[Swordgleam]

Yes, but with everybody getting at least three feats at 1st level and as much as five, they're going to be much more varied beatsticks and rogues, with room for personal styles in combat, is the idea. :p

Repeating my question to someone else in the thread: Have you tried playing Iron Heroes? It's a 3.5 variant that's low magic but with a ton of different martial beatstick/DPS characters and a lot more feats.

[Piedmon_Sama]

I've heard lots of good things about it, but never shelled out. I play online mostly, so it'd be tough to share the book with my players.

[Ashiel]

I formulated most of our major house rules into a pdf file. It can be found: here (http://www.mediafire.com/file/jmmwluy0iaz/D20%20-%20House%20Rules.pdf).

[Swordgleam]

I've heard lots of good things about it, but never shelled out. I play online mostly, so it'd be tough to share the book with my players.

There's a lot of good fan stuff out there, but probably not enough to run a game off of. You only need one book, though, so it's not a huge investment.

[Telonius]

- No multiclass penalty.
- Remove +1BAB requirement for Weapon Finesse.
- One free "skill improving" feat at 1st level. (i.e. Acrobatic, Agile, Alertness, Animal Affinity, Athletic, Deceitful ...)
- Two-Weapon Fighting scales with level, allowing one extra attack per normal attack. Improved TWF reduces the penalties by 1. Greater TWF reduces it by an additional 1.
- Toughness gives you HP equal to your HD. (That is, Improved Toughness kills it and takes its stuff).
- All Druids are Shapeshifter variant.
- Knowledge (Religion) is added to the Druid skill list.
- The Divine Metamagic feat does not exist.
- Metamagic does not take longer for spontaneous casters.
- Paladins take the alignment of their god or philosophy. (Bonuses changed to suit; ie Neutral paladins get Smite Extremist)
- Paladin's Oath changed; paladins must act as shining examples of their god or philosopy.
- Rogues get an additional ability at level 20.
- Remove alignment restrictions on Bard, Monk, and Barbarian.
- Monks get full BAB and can enchant their body as though it were a magic weapon or armor. Max bonus = level/4 (round down).
- Monks get proficiency in gauntlets.
- All Clerics are cloistered.
- Clerics gain proficiency with their deity's favored weapon.
- Add Sense Motive to the Cleric skill list.
- Sorcerers gain Eschew Materials as a bonus 1st-level feat.
- Sorcerer HD improves to d6.
- Will saves are modified by Charisma bonus.
- Spot and Listen are rolled into one "Perception" skill, based off Wisdom.
- Hide and Move Silently are rolled into one "Sneaking" skill, based off Dexterity.
- Balance and Tumble are rolled into one "Acrobatics" skill.
- Open Lock and Disable Device are rolled into one "Disable Device" skill. (Yes, a lock is a device).
- Remove the following spells: Time Stop, Contingency, Wind Wall, Knock, Polymorph spell line.
- Forcecage gets a reflex save.
- Divine Power is no longer a standard Cleric spell. (It is still on the War Domain list).
- SR does not have to be lowered to receive a beneficial spell.
- Half-Orcs lose the Charisma penalty and get a +4 racial bonus to Intimidate.
- Half-Elves get one extra skill point per level.
- Character creation: One free 18. d8+10, five times. Reroll any 1, once. (If it comes up 1 again, it was meant to be). Arrange as desired. (Note that monster difficulty may be increased to challenge you).
- All adventurers are issued the following items free, not counted against WBL:
1 Handy Haversack, 1 MW armor or MW weapon, 10 trail rations (kept in the haversack), 1 spellbook (if a wizard), 1 holy symbol (if a cleric or paladin)
- There are no Vorpal weapons in my game. If you ever encounter a Vorpal weapon, you can be assured that you will soon be facing a Jabberwocky, which will be an epic-level foe.
- Don’t try to break the game. I reserve the right to say no to any race/feat/class/PrC/equipment/whatever combination. If you’re not sure, ask; I’m willing to work with you if it’s not too ridiculous.
- Add Pun-Pun as an over-deity of Cheese, Exploits, and Metagaming. Pun-Pun is aware that he is a god in a fictional gaming world. Anyone that slips something past me in an attempt to break the game will bring down his wrath. He is jealous of his ultimate power, and will personally act to prevent any player/character from approaching it.

[Kurald Galain]

(1) rule zero
(2) don't be a jerk
(3) any WOTC splatbook is basically fair game, but individual things may be subject to a rare DM veto
(4) rule of Cool goes a long way, so if you want to do something unusual that isn't technically covered by the rules, please do try
(5) don't be a jerk. Worth mentioning again.

[Fallbot]

Man, our rules are really boring compared to most of these. We get one extra feat on creation, which is usually spent on something fluffy and useless, and Rule of funny/awesome > RAW. Leads to some pretty stupid rules, like a warforged being able to do more damage by falling on people than with a weapon, but it's worth it.

[Swordgleam]

Leads to some pretty stupid rules, like a warforged being able to do more damage by falling on people than with a weapon, but it's worth it.

Makes sense to me. Warforged hits you with a mace? Small amount of crushing damage. Warforged falls on you? That's a lot of crushing damage, but also a lot harder to set up, and potentially damaging to the warforged.

[comicshorse]

NO Time Stop's ! ever !

[Lord Vukodlak]

Everyone gains +2 Skill points a level and 8 extra at first.
Flaws are allowed.
SR does no have to be lowered to receive benefit.

Firearms are available, they require the exotic weapon proficiency firearms to use and use my own system
Pistol
———Small/Medium
250gp, 1d8/2d6 Critical x3 (Range Increment 50ft)
1oz of smokepowder to fire(1gp)
3gp for 10 bullets

Long Rifle
———Small/Medium
700gp 2d6/3d6 Critical x3 (Range Increment 100ft)
1oz of smokepowder to fire(1gp)
3gp for 10 bullets
*Firearms deal piercing damage.
A 2 pound Ivory Horn of smokepowder costs 35gp
Smokepowder costs 16gp per pound, (1 gp/ ounce)

Firearms carry only one shot, Reloading takes 3 move actions for a proficient character, each action is a separatestep in the reloading process and could be broken up into several rounds. (or one full-round action+one move)
(this represents the basic three actions involved in reloading early firearms).
It takes three standard actions to reload. (or one full-round action and one standard) For a non-proficient user.


Firearms are deadly against armored targets as the bullets can easily rip straight through most armor and into flesh. The target takes a -4 penalty on its armor class. (this penalty can not exceed the combined shield, armor and natural armor bonuses)

Firearms ability to penetrate armor does not extend to force effects such as those generated from the spell mage armor and shield. (including their psionic equivalents and magic items such as bracers of armor). Armor made from Adamantine similarly is impervious to this penetration unless the bullet is made from adamantine as well

Lastly, firearms are more difficult to enchant as they use an alchemical reaction to propel the projectile in combination with the gun. As such it costs an additional 2,000gp to enchant the firearm.

[Mongoose87]

Your firearms kinda suck. I mean, 1d6 damage per round, on average, is a lot worse than your average bow, and it's more expensive to enchant and the ammo is more expensive.

[Tinydwarfman]

Your firearms kinda suck. I mean, 1d6 damage per round, on average, is a lot worse than your average bow, and it's more expensive to enchant and the ammo is more expensive.

Re-read that. 3d6 for a long rifle.

[JeenLeen]

D&D 3.5
There were very, very many, but here are the ones I remember.

-Anything broken is retroactively banned and the character modified appropriately.

-Many spells banned or modified. For example, Owl's Wisdom gives an enhancement, not insight, bonus to Wisdom. Celerity, Shapechange, etc. banned.
-Incanatrix, Planar Shepherd, Tainted Scholar, and most broken PrC banned, as are double full-spellcasting progression PrC.
-a lawful version of the level 9 conjuration-damage chaotic spell exist
-Alter Self works as Disguise Self
-True Seeing does not see through alternative forms, although it does see through illusion spells or a changeling's ability to alter form.
-DMM: Persist is allowed, but you can only own use one Nightstick/day.
-Cosmopolitan counts as LA .5
-(edit) and ToB was banned, but with the full spellcaster nerfs, it wasn't that unreasonable a decision.

Mage: The Ascension
-You need a good bit of information to successfully scry someone with Correspondence or Dream about someone, more than just a name. (After Dream 4 alone nearly beat an entire story arc.)
-Instead of normal character creation, you start with an array of dots to allocate and at 3 Arete.
-If you lose a stat (physical damage lowers Strength, lose permanent Willpower or a background due to plot), you gain the experience back.
-No Marauders, but we can play Nephandi or Technocrat spies, Orphans, Crafts, etc.
-Most backgrounds do more than the core book says.
-you cannot refill your Avatar just by meditating at a node. If you meditate to restore Quintessence, that decreases the Tass the node generates.
-xp penalty upon dying. The amount of penalty depends on how stupid or avoidable the death was.
-All damage can be soaked.

EDIT: My apologies. By the time I read the thread and got to posting, I forgot it said "D&D" in the OP.

[vartan]

Well since I don't see a 3.5 tag...

For 4e I'm considering a houserule that allows players to spend two healing surges as a standard action to regain a daily (with a cumulative cost like 2,4,6, etc.) and spend one healing surge as a minor action to regain an encounter (similarly 1,2,3, etc.). This would seem to be an effective way to speed up combat and spice things up a little no?

I also give fighters plate proficiency for free and one language per every two points of INT mod.

[Lord Vukodlak]

Your firearms kinda suck. I mean, 1d6 damage per round, on average, is a lot worse than your average bow, and it's more expensive to enchant and the ammo is more expensive.

Wow you really missed a lot of my post didn't you.
You not only missed the damage, 3d6 for a longrifle and 2d6 for a pistol but the fact it ignores the first 4 points of physical armor.
And the reload time means you'd fire every other round

[Mongoose87]

Wow you really missed a lot of my post didn't you.
You not only missed the damage, 3d6 for a longrifle and 2d6 for a pistol but the fact it ignores the first 4 points of physical armor.
And the reload time means you'd fire every other round

Ok, still, 1d6*1.5 per round isn't exactly impressive damage, compared to a Mighty Composite longbow, which will get iteratives.

[Lord Vukodlak]

Ok, still, 1d6*1.5 per round isn't exactly impressive damage, compared to a Mighty Composite longbow, which will get irrelatives.

But many characters won't have decent irrelative attacks for a good long while. They aren't designed as adventuring weapons but weapons of war.
They are quite effective in the hands of NPC's. A medieval government has control of local resources and can conscript craftsmen making weapon production much cheaper then simply buying them on the market.

Normally a 4th level fighter would almost never hit a tenth level fighter, but give him a longrifle and suddenly he can, as the gun will ignore 4 points of armor.

And in theory you could put further enchantments on it to reduce the reloading time, I'm just not prepared to give irrelative attacks to firearms as I'd have to give up what keeps them from being fancy crossbows. The armor penetration.

If you have some suggestions to improve them without having them become crossbows without the bow, I'm open to them.
And the proper comparison would actually be to crossbows as neither weapons benefit from a high strength.

Crossbows and my firearms are limited to enchantments and crossbow sniper[which I also allow on my guns].

[Swordgleam]

Well since I don't see a 3.5 tag...

For 4e I'm considering a houserule that allows players to spend two healing surges as a standard action to regain a daily (with a cumulative cost like 2,4,6, etc.) and spend one healing surge as a minor action to regain an encounter (similarly 1,2,3, etc.). This would seem to be an effective way to speed up combat and spice things up a little no?

I also give fighters plate proficiency for free and one language per every two points of INT mod.

I've seen a lot of alternate uses for healing surges thrown around on blogs, and those with a system similar to your proposed one seem to like it. So I say, go for it.

My house rules are all 4e, since that's what I play. We're just in the minority in this thread. :smallyuk:

[Starscream]

My house rules are all 4e, since that's what I play. We're just in the minority in this thread. :smallyuk:

I've incorporated a couple of 4E style rules into 3.5 games on occasion. In particular I've done games where you can add either str/con to fort savesn int/dex to ref saves and wis/cha to will saves.

Worked alright, though it was tedious to recalculate for every monster the PCs faced. I don't use it anymore because of the Tiered Gestalt system I use instead; if I used both there would be almost no chance of any character having any bad save ever.

[Lord Vukodlak]

Oh yeah I almost forgot,

The healing domain instead grants the augmented healing feat.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Just remembered this one, that one DM plans on using on his next campaing,

you can give enchantments such as keen, splitting, whatever, to a masterwork, weapon. there is no need for the weapon to be a +1 magic weapon before adding enchantments.

(For the record this is a game where the abilty to buy magic items is severly limited, in my DM words "you will start with a slight bonus of mahic items, but apart from that they will be EXTREMELY rare, I suggest you take crafting feats.)

He even allowed item familiar for that game (go inteligent necklace of natural attacks!!!)

[saethone]

Our gm is flexible. No favored class. You can make your own stat, class, whatever up (he just adjusts encounters to match difficulty. Or actually, greatly exceed the difficulty of what we should be able to fight.), and *not* role playing well leads to disastrous in game and out of game consequences (we normally get like 8-10k experience a session, one game we got like 2k because we completely botched a social encounter lol)

Hit points are vitality, and critical hits actually wound and hinder your char.

[CheshireCatAW]

Have you ever played Iron Heroes? It incorporates nearly all of your house rules.

I have, in fact, never heard of it. Though I may look into it now..

[Swordgleam]

I have, in fact, never heard of it. Though I may look into it now..

It's a lot of fun. It's a 3.5 variant with low magic. I think it must not be too well-known, because there's a lot of people who end up pretty much reinventing the wheel in their quest for low-magic 3.5 with more differentiated martial classes.