Rate my Houserules

[Alabenson]

Since we've had several threads recently discussing houserules, both good and bad, I thought I would post mine and see what the playground thinks of them.

Banned:
Books:
Weapons of Legacy
Prestige Classes:
Planar Shepard
ACFs:
Cloistered Cleric, Spontaneous Divination, Convert Spell to Power
Spells:
Ice Assassin, Shun the Dark Chaos, Embrace the Dark Chaos
Feats:
Precocious Apprentice

Subject to DM Approval:
Dragon Magazine
Evil Characters
Homebrew
3rd party sources
Unearthed Arcana
Leadership

General Houserules:
Stats are rolled as 5d6, less the lowest 2. (Note that I am very lenient with regards to rerolling stats if the dice decide they hate you)
When rolling Hp, if the die roll is less than half of the average, the player may reroll and take the higher of the two results.
Ability increases now work the following way: At 4th level and every eight levels after that (12th, 20th, etc.), the player increases any two abilities by 1 each. At eighth level and every eight levels after that (16th, etc), the player increases all of their abilities by 1 each.
Fractional BAB and BSB
No Multiclass XP penalties
Any Class with dual-stat casting are changed to single stat casting, using the stat which determined their max spell-level as the primary casting stat
The following mechanics are not used: Action Points, Taint
Attempting to gain wishes from evil outsiders is strongly not recommended.
If a character initiates an infinite loop, they are spontaneously removed from the multiverse. No save. For the purposes of this rule, the Pun Pun Manipulate Form trick is considered an infinite loop.
Players are asked to be able to provide the names of any books used in building their characters, and if possible the page numbers of specific items, if requested.
If a spellcaster leaves spell slots open during spell preparation, he many not fill them until the next time he prepares all of his spells.

Rules Changes / Rulings
Races:
Nonstandard age categories notwithstanding, Dragonwrought Kobolds are not considered True Dragons.

Base Classes:
Dragonfire Adept:
The DFA’s breath weapon is considered to have a recharge time of 0 rounds. Therefore, they do qualify for metabreath feats.
Monk:
A monk is considered proficient with their unarmed strikes.
A monk may enchant their unarmed strikes in the same manner that an OA Samurai may enchant their daisho.
Swordsage:
The Swordsage receives (6+Int)x4 skill points at first level.
A Swordsage receives its Wisdom to AC if they are wearing light or no armor.

Prestige Classes:
The Cancer Mage’s disease host ability negates all mechanical effects of diseases, including beneficial ones.
If a PC enters Unseen Seer without having Sneak Attack, Sudden Strike, or Skirmish, than that PC may treat the Damage Bonus class feature as regular Sneak Attack damage.

Spells:
Shivering Touch allows a Fortitude save to negate.
Constructs created via Simulacrum do not retain the spellcasting, spell-like abilities, or supernatural abilities of the original creature.
Magic items created by Wish may not exceed 25,000 gp in value.
The duration of Polymorph Any Object will be determined by the DM on a case-by-case basis, using the listed table as a guideline.
When the PCs conjure NPC allies with spellcasting via spells such as Gate, the spells prepared/known of those NPC allies shall be determined by the DM, i.e. just because a Solar can have Gate prepared does not mean they actually do have Gate prepared.
You may not make multiple attacks per round with Produce Flame

Maneuvers:
Stone Dragon maneuvers no longer require the initiator to be on solid ground
Stone Dragon stances no longer restrict the movement of the initiator

Feats:
Enhancement bonuses to abilities, such as from bull’s strength or gloves of dexterity, cannot be used to qualify for a feat’s prerequisites. However, once the feat is taken, they may be used to determine whether a character can continue to use said feat.
Versatile Spellcaster does not allow you to cast spells of a higher level than you could cast normally.
Blistering Spell, Flash Frost Spell, and Fell Drain may only be applied to spells that target or have a tangible effect on creatures.
The prerequisites for Weapon Finesse have been changed from BAB +1 to Dex 13

Items:
The armor weight category reduction imparted by mithral applies to proficiency.
The price of the Candle of Invocation has been increased to 25,300 gp.
Metamagic reducers may not be applied to items.
The final cost of magical traps, including beneficial magical traps, will be determined by the DM.

[JusticeZero]

If a spellcaster leaves spell slots open during spell preparation, he many not fill them until the next time he prepares all of his spells.So - you prefer that casters make everybody stop more often? Because that mostly just injures their ability to use utility spells. You should want them using utility spells. The party wants them using utility spells. Utility spelling means they aren't making the party wait for two days while they do some petty little puzzle thing.

[fishyfishyfishy]

Most of it looks good to me. Personally I would take issue with the lack of Cloistered Cleric, I feel that it should be the default for all Clerics. The holy warrior archetype is supposed to be the Paladin and I feel that the standard Cleric steps on it's shoes entirely too much. I would also argue that leaving spell slots open should still be an option. When I play a Wizard, I like having the minor flexibility that leaving a few slots open grants. You can spend another 15 minutes to prep the perfect spell to get past a certain obstacle. As the DM you can make sure that extra 15 minutes ends up biting me in the ass later on.

[Zanos]

Cloistered Cleric ban seems a bit out of place. Were people taking first level dips for skillpoints or something?

This is a personal thing, but I don't really consider precocious apprentice cheese. If you're sacrificing a feat to get into a PrC early, you're giving up a pretty rare resource for some minor advantages. Unless you give out a lot of bonus feats, then that seems like a fair trade to me. I can see the rationale for banning it, though.

Overall I rather like the list, mostly just stuff that should have been like it anyway. Although I dislike rolling for stats, your roll system seems pretty generous.

[Greenish]

General Houserules:
Stats are rolled as 5d6, less the lowest 2. (Note that I am very lenient with regards to rerolling stats if the dice decide they hate you)I don't like rolling personally, and well, "5d6b3 reroll until enough" makes it seem you don't actually like rolling, either, but are doing it just for the form's sake.

A monk may enchant their unarmed strikes in the same manner that an OA Samurai may enchant their daisho.Neat.


All in all, mostly commonsense stuff, or things which probably have a story behind them (like the produce flame nerf). Looks to be intended for fairly high-op what with banning Dark Chaos Shuffle and Spell to Power Erudites.

[JoshuaZ]

Ones that I have not quoted I have no strong opinions on either way.




Banned:
Books:
Weapons of Legacy


Why? Sure, they are weak. But why ban them



Prestige Classes:
Planar Shepard
ACFs:
Cloistered Cleric, Spontaneous Divination, Convert Spell to Power
Spells:
Ice Assassin, Shun the Dark Chaos, Embrace the Dark Chaos
Feats:
Precocious Apprentice

I'm a little confused as to why Spontaneous Divination would get a ban list. Also, Precocious Apprentice is only a problem when used to get into prestige classes early, so it is easier to just say you can't do that. But frankly, most of its use as early entry or the like or things like Mystic Theurge which aren't that strong to start with.



Subject to DM Approval:
Dragon Magazine
Evil Characters
Homebrew
3rd party sources
Unearthed Arcana
Leadership


Seems reasonable.



Stats are rolled as 5d6, less the lowest 2. (Note that I am very lenient with regards to rerolling stats if the dice decide they hate you)

If you are going to be that lenient you might as well you some form of point by.



When rolling Hp, if the die roll is less than half of the average, the player may reroll and take the higher of the two results.

This is in general going to result in characters with slightly more hit points and will actually have some impact on how deadly combat is. In general, it will make combat more deadly for NPCs and monsters and less so for players unless you apply this to them also.



Ability increases now work the following way: At 4th level and every eight levels after that (12th, 20th, etc.), the player increases any two abilities by 1 each. At eighth level and every eight levels after that (16th, etc), the player increases all of their abilities by 1 each.

This seems odd. Can you explain what your logic is behind this rule?



No Multiclass XP penalties

Yes. Very good.



Any Class with dual-stat casting are changed to single stat casting, using the stat which determined their max spell-level as the primary casting stat

I'm not sure why you are doing this. Casters are already top of the heap, and the class this is going to help most is the artificer which is already T1.



Attempting to gain wishes from evil outsiders is strongly not recommended.

This seems common sensinical



If a character initiates an infinite loop, they are spontaneously removed from the multiverse. No save. For the purposes of this rule, the Pun Pun Manipulate Form trick is considered an infinite loop.

Um, I don't know to put this delicately. What kind of players are you playing with that you feel a need to specify this sort of thing?



If a spellcaster leaves spell slots open during spell preparation, he many not fill them until the next time he prepares all of his spells.

So this does reduce spellcaster power somewhat which is arguably a good thing. In practice though this is likely to just lead to even more 15 minute adventuring days, when they need a single spell and then will just hang out until they can cast it.




The DFA’s breath weapon is considered to have a recharge time of 0 rounds. Therefore, they do qualify for metabreath feats.


This may be abuseable but only slightly so.



A monk is considered proficient with their unarmed strikes.
A monk may enchant their unarmed strikes in the same manner that an OA Samurai may enchant their daisho.


Seems reasonable.



The Swordsage receives (6+Int)x4 skill points at first level.
A Swordsage receives its Wisdom to AC if they are wearing light or no armor.


Good.


The Cancer Mage’s disease host ability negates all mechanical effects of diseases, including beneficial ones.
If a PC enters Unseen Seer without having Sneak Attack, Sudden Strike, or Skirmish, than that PC may treat the Damage Bonus class feature as regular Sneak Attack damage.

These both look like reasonable things. The second one is a little worrisome in that if one is dealing with high-op it is abuseable.



Shivering Touch allows a Fortitude save to negate.
Constructs created via Simulacrum do not retain the spellcasting, spell-like abilities, or supernatural abilities of the original creature.
Magic items created by Wish may not exceed 25,000 gp in value.


These all seem like good restrictions.



The duration of Polymorph Any Object will be determined by the DM on a case-by-case basis, using the listed table as a guideline.


Probably better to just remove POA completely.



When the PCs conjure NPC allies with spellcasting via spells such as Gate, the spells prepared/known of those NPC allies shall be determined by the DM, i.e. just because a Solar can have Gate prepared does not mean they actually do have Gate prepared.

This is reasonable.



You may not make multiple attacks per round with Produce Flame

This seems like a minor issue.



Stone Dragon maneuvers no longer require the initiator to be on solid ground
Stone Dragon stances no longer restrict the movement of the initiator


Yes, thank you!



Enhancement bonuses to abilities, such as from bull’s strength or gloves of dexterity, cannot be used to qualify for a feat’s prerequisites. However, once the feat is taken, they may be used to determine whether a character can continue to use said feat.

Seems ok. Does prevent some forms of abuse but shouldn't really matter that much.



Versatile Spellcaster does not allow you to cast spells of a higher level than you could cast normally.

Seems reasonable.


Blistering Spell, Flash Frost Spell, and Fell Drain may only be applied to spells that target or have a tangible effect on creatures.

Probably good. Prevents some of the more ridiculous stunts.



The prerequisites for Weapon Finesse have been changed from BAB +1 to Dex 13

Can you explain your logic?




[quote]
The price of the Candle of Invocation has been increased to 25,300 gp.

Amusing.



Metamagic reducers may not be applied to items.

What do you mean by this?



The final cost of magical traps, including beneficial magical traps, will be determined by the DM.

Probably better to just say no beneficial magic traps.

[Greenish]

I'm not sure why you are doing this. Casters are already top of the heap, and the class this is going to help most is the artificer which is already T1.How is this going to help the Artificer with its single stat casting more than it helps the Spirit Shaman or the Favoured Soul?

[Edit]:
Can you explain your logic? I think the idea is that rogues etc. don't have to wait until 3rd level to be able to hit things.

[Alabenson]

Most of it looks good to me. Personally I would take issue with the lack of Cloistered Cleric, I feel that it should be the default for all Clerics. The holy warrior archetype is supposed to be the Paladin and I feel that the standard Cleric steps on it's shoes entirely too much. I would also argue that leaving spell slots open should still be an option. When I play a Wizard, I like having the minor flexibility that leaving a few slots open grants. You can spend another 15 minutes to prep the perfect spell to get past a certain obstacle. As the DM you can make sure that extra 15 minutes ends up biting me in the ass later on.

I like the concept of Cloistered Cleric, the problem is that it was handled poorly and wound up being essentially a buff to an already powerful class.

As for leaving spell slots open, my major issue with this is that it effectively mitigates one of the very few real downsides to playing a prepared spellcaster, in that order to overcome an obstacle you need to accurately predict that you will encounter said obstacle and plan accordingly. Also, PCs can still compensate for this via scrolls and wands.

[Lateral]

Everything looks fine to me, except for this.

Banned:
ACFs:
Cloistered Cleric
Why would you ban Cloistered Cleric? All you get for it is some bonus skill points and an extra domain, which isn't even all that powerful considering that you still only have one domain slot per level. Really, the best thing you can do with that is trade it for Knowledge Devotion, but even if you do, a Cloistered Cleric still only has 1/2 BAB, and you gave up having all Knowledges as class skills when you traded out that domain in the first place.

Yeah, it's a buff, but it is a tiny buff when you consider what Clerics are already capable of. It doesn't really increase their power in the areas where they're most powerful, and it adds a way to have a skillful, bookish cleric rather than a holy warrior, so why drop it?

[Harrow]

For the most part these all seem like pretty good rules. I do have a couple problems. While Precocious Apprentice is does have its abuses, it is also pretty much much the only way to make a few things viable that I really like, with Geomancer topping the list. If I was in your group, I would request that be filed under "get explicit DM approval for whatever you're doing".

The only other thing I would like to bring up is the DFA thing, which is a minor issue. A cooldown of 0 rounds would mean that, if they had somehow got extra standard actions, a DFA could use their breath weapon multiple times in a round. However, they are banned from doing so. A DFA's breath weapon naturally has a 1 round cooldown, it's just not referred to as such. Any DM that won't let DFAs take and use metabreath feats for their class breath weapon is being pedantic, although there are other reasons a DM might not allow it that I would be ok with.

But that's really just nitpicking, these seem like pretty solid rules to me

[Greenish]

The only other thing I would like to bring up is the DFA thing, which is a minor issue. A cooldown of 0 rounds would mean that, if they had somehow got extra standard actions, a DFA could use their breath weapon multiple times in a round. However, they are banned from doing so. A DFA's breath weapon naturally has a 1 round cooldown, it's just not referred to as such.Where are you getting that? Dragon Magic just says that "you gain a breath weapon you can use at will as a standard action".

[Cheiromancer]

Given the kind of high level exploits you seem to be ruling out, I am surprised that there is not more about metamagic reducers. Arcane thesis (google "stuttercaster"), persistent spell + multiple nightsticks, etc.

[Alabenson]

Why? Sure, they are weak. But why ban them

Not only are they underpowered, the effort required to incorporate them into the game simply isn't worth the tiny smidgeon of flavor they add.


I'm a little confused as to why Spontaneous Divination would get a ban list.

The primary downside to the spells from the Divination school is their high opportunity cost; Spontaneous Divination not only completely removes this, but does so for a class whose primary drawback is supposed to be the opportunity cost involved in spell preparation.


This is in general going to result in characters with slightly more hit points and will actually have some impact on how deadly combat is. In general, it will make combat more deadly for NPCs and monsters and less so for players unless you apply this to them also.

In general, I apply the hp rule to any significant NPC entity, so the PCs aren't the only ones who benefit from this.


This seems odd. Can you explain what your logic is behind this rule?

This is essentially a rule I stole from 4th edition. I particularly liked it because it makes non-SAD classes much more viable.


Um, I don't know to put this delicately. What kind of players are you playing with that you feel a need to specify this sort of thing?

Honestly, I doubt very much that most of these rules would ever come up with my current group, but I operate under the belief that one should always be prepared for these sort of things before they come up.


So this does reduce spellcaster power somewhat which is arguably a good thing. In practice though this is likely to just lead to even more 15 minute adventuring days, when they need a single spell and then will just hang out until they can cast it.

Things like leaving spell slots open infuriate me because they greatly reduce the primary drawback to playing a prepared spellcaster, in that you actually have to predict what spells you need.


Probably better to just remove POA completely.

To be honest I gave that very serious consideration, but I like the concept of POA too much to outright ban it.


Can you explain your logic?

Greenish has it exactly, the idea is to allow classes that don't receive full BAB to take the feat at first level, especially since they're generally the classes that are most likely to take the feat in the first place.


What do you mean by this?

This is to head off attempts to create, for example, Easy Metamagic'd Arcane Thesis wands of whatever.

[JoshuaZ]

How is this going to help the Artificer with its single stat casting more than it helps the Spirit Shaman or the Favoured Soul?


Ugh. Silly typo. Meant archivist. It helps archivists more than Spirit Shaman's or Favored Souls since the archivist can then depend exclusively on int which gives more in game goodies (in terms of skill points).



I think the idea is that rogues etc. don't have to wait until 3rd level to be able to hit things.

Ah, that makes sense.



Not only are they underpowered, the effort required to incorporate them into the game simply isn't worth the tiny smidgeon of flavor they add.

Do they really require that much effort? What am I missing here?



Honestly, I doubt very much that most of these rules would ever come up with my current group, but I operate under the belief that one should always be prepared for these sort of things before they come up.

For some of these that makes sense. But it may help to keep in mind that the number of broken things out there is so large that you aren't going to easily list them all.



Things like leaving spell slots open infuriate me because they greatly reduce the primary drawback to playing a prepared spellcaster, in that you actually have to predict what spells you need.

Do they really though? You can't do it during combat or the like which is where having specific spells prepared on short notice matters most.



This is to head off attempts to create, for example, Easy Metamagic'd Arcane Thesis wands of whatever.

Ah, that makes sense.

[Greenish]

Do they really require that much effort? What am I missing here?The quests you have to do to open or unlock the more powerful abilities. "Oh by the way guys, can we take a break from saving the world, I need go to dip my sword in the freely given blood of a fiendish great wyrm seadragon after saving the Three Daughters of Misty Isles or I can't upgrade it."

[Douglas]

Magic items created by Wish may not exceed 25,000 gp in value.
I think this is unnecessary. A balancing mechanism for Wishing for magic items already exists, the problem is that there are ways to remove it. Simply rule that it can't be removed - a Wish for magic items costs XP no matter what.

[Fyermind]

I would add something about swordsage and ninja/monk wisdom to AC bonuses overlapping.

I'm curious about the story behind produce flame's minor nerf.

Also spot rules probably should get a houserule to make spot checks less impeded by distance.