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Dusk Eclipse
2010-09-01, 09:03 PM
I just got my grubby mits on a copy of Expedition to Castle Ravenloft and I am dying to run it; but before that I want to ask the playground to peruse some houserules that I am thinking on implementing.

Right now the list is not complete (as I left my notebook with the notes at school) and I will edit this post when I can.

Please note that many of them might increase the power level of the game, as a rule of thumb assume that is the purpose but if something feels REALLY of, please tell me.

Skill Related:

All classes get an extra 2 skill points (2+int becomes 4+int, 4+int becomes 6 +int and so on)
Skill tricks in complete scoundrel can be used at willl with a cooldown of 1d3 rounds
Move silenty and Hide Rolled into stealth
Listen and spot rolled into perception
Disable Device and Open lock rolled into Disable device
Use of The Giant's Diplomacy rules



Classes:

Martial Adept classes (both official and homebrewed) are recomended
Ranger is separated into two classes, Sublime Way Ranger(using normal FE progression) (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19519074/Sublime_Way_Variant_Ranger), Mystic Ranger from Dragon
Fighters Full atack routine penalties caps at BAB -5 (if fighter had bab 20 his itteratives would look like this: +20/+15/+15/+15
Warblade can select fighter only bonus feats with his own bonues feats
Specialist Casters (Beguiler, Dread Necromancer, Warmage) are encouraged instead of normal wizards (BTW I need suggestions for the magic schools that arent covered here)
Sorcerers get eschew materials as a bonus feat at level 1 and rapid metamagic as a bonus feat at level 5
Monk is banned use unarmed swordsage instead (if you MUST play a monk I will try to track down a good fix for you)



Feats:

Feats like stealthy, nimble fingers et al, now make the skill a class skill for all levels
TWF tree is rolled into one scaling feat, ditto for TWD
Non spellcasters can use Devotion feats 3/day (and can take extra turning to increase the number of uses per day)
Feats are gained at level 1 and at every even level (2,4,6....)


Sources

All official WotC books allowe
3rth party allowed on case by case basis (though Hyperconcious has green light from the start)
Setting specific stuff in other setting will be considered
Dragon Magazine on case by case basis



Variants Used:

Weapon Groups are used
Chain Variant is allowed (for example a feat rogue trading his 2 and 6 level feats for dungeoncrasher)
Lay Buy off
Non standard environmental variants and races of elemental plane will be considered on case by case basis
Spell touched feats allowed
Traits allowed
Due the increased number of feats flaws are banned


And that is all for now, I may come up with more later or on the subsequent days.
So thoughts on them?

herrhauptmann
2010-09-01, 10:53 PM
As a general rule to any ravenloft game, I'd say Radiant Servant and other super-turners should be banned. Really loses the 'horror' feel of the game when your cleric in the middle of castle ravenloft, can make even Lord Strahd turn and run like a chicken on fire.

Everybody getting a dozen feats, I think that really ruins the fighter, even with the attack sequence changes.
Perhaps for a partial monk change (not near enough), let his fists scale at the same rate as weapon enlargements. d6, 2d6, 3d6, 4d6, etc.

Kylarra
2010-09-01, 11:02 PM
I really think you mean spot+listen -> perception and/or move silently + hide -> stealth, not move silently + hide -> perception.

Dusk Eclipse
2010-09-01, 11:07 PM
As a general rule to any ravenloft game, I'd say Radiant Servant and other super-turners should be banned. Really loses the 'horror' feel of the game when your cleric in the middle of castle ravenloft, can make even Lord Strahd turn and run like a chicken on fire.

Everybody getting a dozen feats, I think that really ruins the fighter, even with the attack sequence changes.
Perhaps for a partial monk change (not near enough), let his fists scale at the same rate as weapon enlargements. d6, 2d6, 3d6, 4d6, etc.

I am trying to discourage playing core melee classes so the increased numbers of feats kinda works the way I want to.

As for the monk, as I said Unarmed Swordsage is much more stronger and I don't think I will have to track down one of the inumerable monk fixes, or at least I hope that


I really think you mean spot+listen -> perception and/or move silently + hide -> stealth, not move silently + hide -> perception.

:facepalm: you are right, thanks for the heads up, editing in a moment

Curmudgeon
2010-09-08, 09:24 AM
You've just roughly doubled skills at the low end, but only boosted them 25% for Rogues/Scouts/other skill-focused classes. So what you've done is taken away much of the advantage of the skillful classes.

I suggest instead a 50% increase over the standard number. 2 + INT becomes 3 + INT, and 8 + INT becomes 12 + INT. It gives everybody more skill points but preserves the balance.

Tyndmyr
2010-09-08, 11:43 AM
I like them. I don't say this often for house rules, but most of those are balanced, clean up minor annoying issues, and just make sense.