ace rooster
2014-03-15, 07:37 PM
I have come up with a few house rules that I would like some opinion on. I do not have a group to experiment on, and wondered if people more experience than me had thoughts on my solutions to percieved problems.
Motivation:
3.5 strikes me as a very popular system because it has a very well developed magic system, married to a simple combat system. This makes it easy to start, and hard to master. It has the unfortunate down side that mundane combat cannot compete with magic done well. I have seen numerous attempts at fixes for fighter and the like, but they will never work well without changes to the system they work in. Giving mundanes better numbers is useless while casters can shut them down from any position. What mundanes need is some way to shut down enemies, that doesn't also shut themselves down (like grapples or readied actions do). While feats can do some of this, it should not be beyond any decent warrior to be able to disrupt someone spending 3+ seconds casting, from 30ft and a standing start (.3 seconds reaction, 2.7 seconds to reach them is not hard).
Note that what I am doing is not stopping casters from shutting down mundanes. However in my opinion a caster (not built for it) in melee with a melee guy should have pretty much already lost.
What I am trying to do is slightly nerf casting's in combat 'ease of use', while retaining all it's versitility. I am trying to make casting require tactical thought to use, (making the classes harder to play well) while giving mundanes a couple of extra tactical options, raising their ceiling.
Full round casting variant: All spells that normally take a standard action to cast now take a full round, swift action spells now take a move action. Immediate action spells are DM adjudicated (feather fall for example has to be an immediate). A move action can be included with a concentration check, (DC 10 plus spell level, but see later) but the spell still does not take effect until next round.
The thinking behind this is giving enemies time to force a concentration check, or just run away. It makes casting more difficult than just being out of Aoo range, and playing a caster require more thought than just spell selection. It does not lower a casters options, or rate of fire, so casters can't complain too much. Mundanes gain a huge amount from this simple change. A 16th level archer can now shut down 5 low level casters, by interupting their casting. A defensive build can now be viable, as casters find it more difficult to end encounters in a round, and staying alive beside a caster will now generally be enough for a melee character to shut them down, (if they do not already have buffs up).
Caster level based concentration variant 1: When a caster is asked for a concentration check with +spell level, we replace it with +caster level, but a fail does not automatically stop the spell. We assume that the spell was cast at the hightest caster level that would pass the check. The spell only fails if the caster level is reduced below the minimum required to cast the spell.
Caster level based concentration variant 2: When a caster is asked for a concentration check with +spell level, we replace it with +caster level, but a caster can lower the caster level for the check.
These are designed to make the checks asked of casters harder, in line with the rate they get skill ranks, while also applying penalties for lower level spells that do not make casting impossible. For a caster a concentration check should generally come at some cost. The general assumption is that a concentration check is a sign that a caster is having to get themselves out of trouble, rather than routine. Also it is reflection of the fact that high level spells are hard to cast, and any disruption is problematic.
Bab based dodge bonus variant: Every Character gets a dodge bonus to AC or half their Bab, rounding down. Probably reduce dragon natural armour to compensate, but otherwise should be easy enough to implement.
Damage effects by type variant: Different damage types do different effects. bludgeoning damage does half damage, but demands a fort save or be stunned. DC 10 + damage dealt (or possibly half, not sure on balance). A failure by 5 is 2 rounds, 10 is 5 rounds. Slashing does normal damage. Piercing does half damage but asks for a fort save against fatigue, then exaustion, then negative levels, (and yes, they stick).
Shield ability variant: Shields also add an ability modifier to AC, str for a heavy shield, dex for a light shield.
Defensive actions variant: In response to an attack, a character (/enemy) can make attempt to nullify it (in a similar way to mounted combat). They make an roll against the attack roll (D20 +bab + Shield bonus). If a character has multiple attacks they get multiple defensive actions, in a similar way. These work against touch attacks, but requires a magic shield to gain the shield bonus against magic attacks.
These are an attempt to give high level mundanes some way of avoiding attacks, in a way that scales at least to some extent, and benefits the sword and board style (at least to the extent that it is a valid defensive build, independant of class). Together with slowing down casters to the point where a defensive build is workable, this should give mundanes some control over the battlefield beyond the "kill it in one round" that is generally required.
Skill rank modifier variant: Certain checks require a minimum number of skill ranks to achieve, and magic can just boost the likelyhood. If a continuing diplomacy check is required, magic can boost certain conversations, but day to day interactions require a certain level of penach. A search check could require a certain level of experience to know the tricks used to hide somthing, as well as the luck and fine detail that could be granted by magic.
Rules for the telescope: It seems odd, but this item is charged at 1000gp (in the PH no less), and has not RAW function. This item reduces the range penalties for spot checks by a factor of 5, hence from 1000ft a spot check to see through a disguise or see a hiding opponent is 'only' a -20. To see a hiding opponent you need to designate cone that is 100ft wide at 1000ft that is all you can detect. Presumably you can already see the target of a disguise check, so the narrowing of the range of vision is less relevent.
These are a bit sillier than the earlier ones, but give an option for making skill ranks more than +1 to a skill, and highlight the fact that distance rules do not actually exist.
Thanks in advance for reading, and any thoughts. :smallsmile: If this thread becomes a repository for systematic change ideas I would be very happy (and if there is a similar thread already please tell me).
Motivation:
3.5 strikes me as a very popular system because it has a very well developed magic system, married to a simple combat system. This makes it easy to start, and hard to master. It has the unfortunate down side that mundane combat cannot compete with magic done well. I have seen numerous attempts at fixes for fighter and the like, but they will never work well without changes to the system they work in. Giving mundanes better numbers is useless while casters can shut them down from any position. What mundanes need is some way to shut down enemies, that doesn't also shut themselves down (like grapples or readied actions do). While feats can do some of this, it should not be beyond any decent warrior to be able to disrupt someone spending 3+ seconds casting, from 30ft and a standing start (.3 seconds reaction, 2.7 seconds to reach them is not hard).
Note that what I am doing is not stopping casters from shutting down mundanes. However in my opinion a caster (not built for it) in melee with a melee guy should have pretty much already lost.
What I am trying to do is slightly nerf casting's in combat 'ease of use', while retaining all it's versitility. I am trying to make casting require tactical thought to use, (making the classes harder to play well) while giving mundanes a couple of extra tactical options, raising their ceiling.
Full round casting variant: All spells that normally take a standard action to cast now take a full round, swift action spells now take a move action. Immediate action spells are DM adjudicated (feather fall for example has to be an immediate). A move action can be included with a concentration check, (DC 10 plus spell level, but see later) but the spell still does not take effect until next round.
The thinking behind this is giving enemies time to force a concentration check, or just run away. It makes casting more difficult than just being out of Aoo range, and playing a caster require more thought than just spell selection. It does not lower a casters options, or rate of fire, so casters can't complain too much. Mundanes gain a huge amount from this simple change. A 16th level archer can now shut down 5 low level casters, by interupting their casting. A defensive build can now be viable, as casters find it more difficult to end encounters in a round, and staying alive beside a caster will now generally be enough for a melee character to shut them down, (if they do not already have buffs up).
Caster level based concentration variant 1: When a caster is asked for a concentration check with +spell level, we replace it with +caster level, but a fail does not automatically stop the spell. We assume that the spell was cast at the hightest caster level that would pass the check. The spell only fails if the caster level is reduced below the minimum required to cast the spell.
Caster level based concentration variant 2: When a caster is asked for a concentration check with +spell level, we replace it with +caster level, but a caster can lower the caster level for the check.
These are designed to make the checks asked of casters harder, in line with the rate they get skill ranks, while also applying penalties for lower level spells that do not make casting impossible. For a caster a concentration check should generally come at some cost. The general assumption is that a concentration check is a sign that a caster is having to get themselves out of trouble, rather than routine. Also it is reflection of the fact that high level spells are hard to cast, and any disruption is problematic.
Bab based dodge bonus variant: Every Character gets a dodge bonus to AC or half their Bab, rounding down. Probably reduce dragon natural armour to compensate, but otherwise should be easy enough to implement.
Damage effects by type variant: Different damage types do different effects. bludgeoning damage does half damage, but demands a fort save or be stunned. DC 10 + damage dealt (or possibly half, not sure on balance). A failure by 5 is 2 rounds, 10 is 5 rounds. Slashing does normal damage. Piercing does half damage but asks for a fort save against fatigue, then exaustion, then negative levels, (and yes, they stick).
Shield ability variant: Shields also add an ability modifier to AC, str for a heavy shield, dex for a light shield.
Defensive actions variant: In response to an attack, a character (/enemy) can make attempt to nullify it (in a similar way to mounted combat). They make an roll against the attack roll (D20 +bab + Shield bonus). If a character has multiple attacks they get multiple defensive actions, in a similar way. These work against touch attacks, but requires a magic shield to gain the shield bonus against magic attacks.
These are an attempt to give high level mundanes some way of avoiding attacks, in a way that scales at least to some extent, and benefits the sword and board style (at least to the extent that it is a valid defensive build, independant of class). Together with slowing down casters to the point where a defensive build is workable, this should give mundanes some control over the battlefield beyond the "kill it in one round" that is generally required.
Skill rank modifier variant: Certain checks require a minimum number of skill ranks to achieve, and magic can just boost the likelyhood. If a continuing diplomacy check is required, magic can boost certain conversations, but day to day interactions require a certain level of penach. A search check could require a certain level of experience to know the tricks used to hide somthing, as well as the luck and fine detail that could be granted by magic.
Rules for the telescope: It seems odd, but this item is charged at 1000gp (in the PH no less), and has not RAW function. This item reduces the range penalties for spot checks by a factor of 5, hence from 1000ft a spot check to see through a disguise or see a hiding opponent is 'only' a -20. To see a hiding opponent you need to designate cone that is 100ft wide at 1000ft that is all you can detect. Presumably you can already see the target of a disguise check, so the narrowing of the range of vision is less relevent.
These are a bit sillier than the earlier ones, but give an option for making skill ranks more than +1 to a skill, and highlight the fact that distance rules do not actually exist.
Thanks in advance for reading, and any thoughts. :smallsmile: If this thread becomes a repository for systematic change ideas I would be very happy (and if there is a similar thread already please tell me).