Fiddly Bonuses and Penalties

[Grod_The_Giant]

In your experience, what kinds of situational bonuses and penalties tend to slow down gameplay the most? I'm looking for both general and specific-but-common things (like Bardic Music) for the purposes of houserules.

[GilesTheCleric]

1. When the rogue has skirmish, sudden, and sneak attack dice, and they aren't clearly labeled.

2. Lots of attacks/iteratives, particularly with modifiers that get added when you miss, or on a first attack, or on successive attacks.

3. That pesky +1 for being on higher ground.

4. Very specific bonuses, like "+1 vs fear while intoxicated and wielding a guisarme-glaive"

4.1 Any bonus to fear, really. They're all small, and they're all so ineffectual. Why can't they just be to will saves or spells or something?

5. Grappling.

6. Ability drain/damage, negative levels.

7. Things with strange save DCs. 9+CL+mod? 11+CL+mod? Bonus points if it's different between 3.0/3.5/PF.

8. The turn undead table. Even though I play a cleric and turn undead all the time, I still haven't memorized how many +/- higher HD I can affect. It's okay, though, because I memorized the page number for it.

9. Bonus CL to just one school of spells. Especially if it's spells I don't use often, like conj/healing. Even worse if it's a subschool (I keep those hidden on my spell sheets for a reason, because they're never necessary!)

[Mountain]

9. Bonus CL to just one school of spells. Especially if it's spells I don't use often, like conj/healing. Even worse if it's a subschool (I keep those hidden on my spell sheets for a reason, because they're never necessary!)

Better yet, the penalty to CL for particular schools of magic, such as from Unseen Seer.

[Siosilvar]

Any bonus or penalty that's only +1, unless it's something you use all the time - a magic weapon, armor, Cloak of Protection is unlikely to change. But that +1 to hit from Aid? Nobody remembers that. Even fewer remember the +1 bonus to saves against fear.

[BowStreetRunner]

Knowledge Devotion bonuses when there are a dozen different creature-types in a battle. 'Let's see, I'm +3 versus werewolves, +2 versus vampires, +4 versus mummies, +1 versus swamp things, and +2 versus Frankenstein's monsters. Um, which one was I attacking again?'

Favored Enemy bonuses to spot checks and things like that. 'What did you get on your Spot check?' 'Me, oh. I got a 24, not counting favored enemies.' 'Um, what are your favored enemies again, and what is the bonus for each?' 'Ah, let's see. +4 for Undead, +4 for Constructs, +2 for Elementals, and +6 for Arcanists.'

Non-stacking bonuses after a successful Dispel Magic goes off. 'The +4 morale bonus from this spell and +2 competence bonus from this other spell are both gone. Okay, let's see. I have a +2 morale bonus from this effect and a +1 morale bonus from this other effect, so I guess the +2 is the one I have now. And then there was a +3 morale bonus from the bard, so I guess I don't even miss the +1 that was dispelled because the bard's effect was the one I was using anyway.'