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View Full Version : Report back on house rules (4E), moving beyond a thought experiment



Galdor Miriel
2010-08-09, 01:24 PM
I recently implemented the house rules below in my campaign to move away from a few things I disliked in 4E. The intention was to not have the money and ridiculous wbl mechanic in 4E, make magic items more interesting and powerful and bring the magic back into ritual use.


Use inherent bonuses built in to Character builder (used so monster levels still appropriate).
One free weapon/implement specialisation
Dex or Int for initiative
New magic item system, using fewer magic items close in spirit to 1st edition
Money is really for plot, bribes, castles, boat trips, rituals and consumables, not magic items as there will be no magic item shop. If you want to get something specific lets try and work it into the story with a side quest or similar. I will ignore the money levels of the books and come up with something that is not exponentially ridiculous. Stuff will not be astronomically expensive, just demand you go somewhere else to get it, if it is very high level.
I plan on using the temporary boons that work until your next extended rest, such as recharge a daily, use encounter twice etc. It made for a fun fast paced game.
Detect Magic and Identify are both now rituals, wizards get detect magic at level 1.
Rituals cost in hit points, leaving the caster weakened. The hit point cost is 5 +3/level of the ritual, though I might adjust this. It is hard to get hold of rituals though they may be found in treasure. Durable and toughness become a good feat for a wizard.
Cursed magic items exist
An ambush gives +15 on initiative. If an ambusher beats some of the opposition by 15 they get an extra standard action to use in the first round. And as a special case, sneak attack damage can be applied again with this second attack. It is considered a surprise round until you act if taken by surprise for sneak attack damage etc.


So far everything is going swimmingly, the heroes have acquired a couple of magic swords, a robe of many things and some cursed potions. They seem to be engaged and like the simplicity of the magic items (I am using old school items adapted to 4E, rather than the number stacker items of 4E)

The ambush mechanic works quite well and the ritual mechanic works quite well, though they are still coming up to speed with it. My player really like the hp cost, as it holds a lot of the flavour you get in literature and has a built in scaling. To a high level caster the low level rituals become a no brainer, while they might have to think twice about a high level one. Identify as a ritual involves an opposed check. So if you fail to beat the dc of the item manufacturers arcana/religion check etc, you get misinformation and may well don the belt of weakness by mistake.

So in play I actually really like these changes, there are no balance issues coming up and the players are having fun without having to do all the wealth calculations, or even having to work with astral diamonds as a currency.

In case you are interested.

iDM
2010-08-09, 01:43 PM
Robe of Many Things was my favorite magic item in 2e! Does it work the same, or are the ways it is used changed?

Oracle_Hunter
2010-08-09, 01:49 PM
I presume you got rid of all the Creation Rituals then?

Galdor Miriel
2010-08-09, 01:52 PM
Robe of Many Things was my favorite magic item in 2e! Does it work the same, or are the ways it is used changed?

Robe of many things is the same, as a standard action they can throw down a pit patch, or pull out a fire. It is up to their imagination.

Galdor Miriel
2010-08-09, 01:54 PM
I presume you got rid of all the Creation Rituals then?

I will cross that bridge when I come to it. I think it is more fun to have the heroes find magic items, or even have people they get in with gift them. If someone wants to make them I will come up with a mechanic for it.

I might start thinking now though rather than leaving it.

Oracle_Hunter
2010-08-09, 02:01 PM
I will cross that bridge when I come to it. I think it is more fun to have the heroes find magic items, or even have people they get in with gift them. If someone wants to make them I will come up with a mechanic for it.

I might start thinking now though rather than leaving it.
You might as well - you need to explain where all these magic items come from, and how some of them are cursed.

As for the "money" rule, how about this alternate I stole from a far better DM than I: The Beer Money Rule.

PCs are always assumed to have enough money to cover basic expenses - food, drink, inn lodging, Lightning Rail tickets, etc. - but anything else requires money. So you can tip with Beer Money but you can't bribe with it.

It simplifies book-keeping and keeps money as being important.

Also: if PCs can't make magic items, can't buy them, and can't disenchant them for residuum, why bother fiddling with the internal pricing mechanisms at all? :smallconfused:

Galdor Miriel
2010-08-09, 02:11 PM
You might as well - you need to explain where all these magic items come from, and how some of them are cursed.

As for the "money" rule, how about this alternate I stole from a far better DM than I: The Beer Money Rule.

PCs are always assumed to have enough money to cover basic expenses - food, drink, inn lodging, Lightning Rail tickets, etc. - but anything else requires money. So you can tip with Beer Money but you can't bribe with it.

It simplifies book-keeping and keeps money as being important.

Also: if PCs can't make magic items, can't buy them, and can't disenchant them for residuum, why bother fiddling with the internal pricing mechanisms at all? :smallconfused:

I like the beer money idea, I will only ask them to knock off their wealth when they need to. Not for a meal.

I just ignore the internal price mechanism. Money is for building castles, ships and wooing damsels. If there are cool magical items from 4E I will still use them , but modify them a wee bit to take into account I am giving the characters the enhancement bonus, which is +2 at their current level.

Oracle_Hunter
2010-08-09, 02:16 PM
I just ignore the internal price mechanism. Money is for building castles, ships and wooing damsels. If there are cool magical items from 4E I will still use them , but modify them a wee bit to take into account I am giving the characters the enhancement bonus, which is +2 at their current level.
The classic way to do this is to remove the +'s but to maintain the Properties. So a Flaming Sword +1 is just a Flaming Sword.

Galdor Miriel
2010-08-09, 02:21 PM
The classic way to do this is to remove the +'s but to maintain the Properties. So a Flaming Sword +1 is just a Flaming Sword.

I do things like that. One of the current magic sword is an artifact that gives +1 on attack/damage, but is more powerful against dragons. I have yet to give out a flaming whip though....