Interesting Houserules you've played with

[Naez]

The group I've played with for a long time has so many house rules it almost a completely different system and I feel that tends to be the case with many long term groups.
Some of my favorites are:

The Big Book of Cantrips: We play with nearly every official 3.5 and some 3.0 sourcebooks. This makes spell lists GIGANTIC. But it also takes a toll on your wizard's spellbook space when a wizard "...begins play with a spellbook containing all 0-level wizard spells...". Solution: A free spellbook widely available throughout the world containing all level 0 wizard spells, printed for free by some setting appropriate religious order whose goals include spreading the benefits of magic to everyone.


Gauntlets deal damage equal to your unarmed strike damage and count as unarmed strike. Allowing you to enchant them how you see fit and even get them made of special metals to overcome DR and avoiding the hoops you'd otherwise have to go through.


Anything you can do, so can the enemies. This is mainly to dissuade the players from making overly broken builds and results in a bit of a gentleman's agreement of no instant kills. No one wants to roll a new character because they happened to roll a 1 on a fort save.

I was just wondering if people had some fun or interesting ones they like to play with they'd like to share.

[kuhaica]

One that my old DM used was the ever glorious. 'Oracle' Rule. Which was used as a deterrent to prevent meta gaming. And it worked quite well. Essentially if the players thought of and used ooc methods using mechanics or specific items the characters wouldn't know about to prepare to fight the BBEG. The BBEG would use his or her oracle to see have an idea how the PCs would fight them. Making all our plans worthless. It at first really passed us off. But after the DM explained why he did it. We agreed with it.

Some may not like this. But at the time when we where being pretty scummy players to our DM it was acceptable. Later on it became more of a joke for our party and we even went in search of our own wondrous oracle for a few sessions. But we all knew if we ever meta gamed to defeat an opponent. There would be in game repercussions.

[Darth Ultron]

One of my favorites and most hated and controversial ones:


Magic that summons have as an additional material component a piece of material that was once part of a creature or object of the type to be summoned/polymorphed. Pieces of certain exotic monsters will have a high market value. (So Eschew Materials will be ineffective).


When casting a summoning spell, there is a 1% chance per spell level that the spell goes horribly awry and summons something else entirely. The exact nature of the mistake is left up to the DM, depending on the power of the spell and what the desired result was. Occasionally, this results in something insignificantly weak, such as a celestial chipmunk. Other times, your summon monster II delivers a hezrou. The new creature is not bound by any sort of magic, and may break the summon at any time it wishes and return to its home plane. It cannot be dismissed by dismissing the spell.


And creation magic:


Creation magic:By default, magic that summons or creates objects have as an additional material component a piece of material that was once part of a creature or object of the type to be summoned/polymorphed. Pieces of certain exotic monsters will have a high market value. (So Eschew Materials will be ineffective). Only some divine magic can ignore this.

And teleporting:


Teleportation:Teleportation spells of 4th level or lower (which includes dimension door) can’t transport you further than you can see. The range of these abilities is reduced to line of sight. You can’t use them to transport onto the other side of a closed door, or if you’re blinded, or if it’s too dark to see. You can use them to transport through a window (as you can see what’s on the other side)

You can only teleport a number of miles equal to your caster level. (When teleporting through the use of a racial ability, the distance is limited to a number of miles equal to your total HD.)
Teleporting characters or objects disappear instantly, but teleportation takes a number of rounds equal to the number of miles traveled (minimum of 1 round). During this time, characters at the destination of the teleport can make a Spot check (DC 20). If the check succeeds, they are aware of the incoming teleport. If the distance of the teleport is a mile or less, characters at the receiving end of the teleport will only have a surprise round in which to take actions before the teleport is completed.

If the caster does not have a full hour of study on a location, the chance of the teleportation success is only 20%, plus one percent per caster level.
Teleport Destination: The caster must have a clear mental picture of the teleport destination. For the best results the caster must physically be in the target location for a full hour and make careful notes of the sight, sound, smell and feel of the area. The caster must pick a mostly static location, one that does not change with the passage of time. A destination only remains valid if less then 50% of area remains the same to match the mental picture in the casters mind. Small changes, such as a tree blowing in the wind have no effect, however cutting down the tree makes the destination invalid for a caster that has the tree as part of their mental destination picture.

And magic item creation


All magic items need three components: Mundane, Rare and Exotic.
*The mundane component is simply the physical form of the object. It must be made out of special materials to hold the magic.
*The rare component is something that locks the magic effect into the item. This is most often a creature part, but can be any physical thing.
*The exotic component is not physical thing, it is a process. It is what needs to be done to finish the item. It is a process of what to do at a set time and maybe place.

As the caster level increases, so does the hardness of the components. A 5CL item might only need oak wood, but a 10CL item might need 100 year old oak wood, and a 15CL item might need 100 year old oak wood that has been struck by lightning. A rare component that is a creature part is must be from a creature of HD at least equal to the CL. After 10 CL, many items get extreme rare components, such as a daisy steeped on by a dragon at midnight. Proses get harder as CL's go up. At 5CL the item might just have to be made at night. 10 CL on a high mountain in the winter, and 15CL and above often have a exact location like the ''Fire Pit of Doom''.

Some components are set, but most change depending on the time. A character must research what components are needed, or otherwise gain the information. Or optionally, the character can simply self experiment to know the right components. A set of components only remains valid for roughly three months, then they will change.

A Knowledge(Arcane or Divine, as appropriate) check can be made anywhere the character can do research, with a DC of 10, plus the caster level of the item. Divination magic can also be used. Self Experimentation requires a full hour with the component in question, and a primary spellcasting ability check of 10 plus the caster level of the item(Mundanes use whatever ability of Int, Wis or Chr is highest). Each component, mundane, race and exotic must be checks separately.

[Coretron03]

Define interesting. If its bad but interesting like Eg,I heard their was a DM that randomly had orcus summoned when his players do stuff he doesn't like, now that's "interesting" but of course horrendous.

On the postive one of my Dm's gave fighters a pool of stamina (or something like that) rules that didn't have wholly defined effects but were for allowing him to do something Fiat-y if the situation called for it like gaining a extra burst of speed, bonuses to skills or landing a hit when you really needed it were the more common ones but for other stuff it was powered via the rule of cool which of course lead to some cool novelty things.

[Darth Ultron]

Define interesting. If its bad but interesting like Eg,I heard their was a DM that randomly had orcus summoned when his players do stuff he doesn't like, now that's "interesting" but of course horrendous.

.

Well, for example on my game last weekend a missed summons got a fiendish blink cow.....lots of fun (blink cows teleport above someone and fall on them....Moooo...*blink*...*splat*....lol)

[Deophaun]

Played with a few similar to the OP's. For cantrips, cantrip bloat was solved by just not requiring Wizards to study a spellbook to prepare them; they still needed to be prepared, but the magical "links" or whatever you were forming in your head were simple enough to be reconstructed without consulting the manual. Viola: no need to scribe dozens upon dozens of cantrips in your spellbook!

And not guantlets, but ki-straps/hand wraps for enchanting unarmed attacks, though it did require that hand to be free in combat to make use.

In terms of bad interesting: full attack actions actually gave you additional standard actions (but don't try to use them to move), because "I can't see how it could be any other way." Resulted in banning ToB and even more broken casters.

[SangoProduction]

I used these.
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?506096-Can-I-get-an-opinion-on-these-Dual-Wielding-and-Unarmed-Strikes-homebrews

I made wraps cost the same as gauntlets. It basically solves the fluff problem of using gauntlets.

[Naez]

Define interesting. If its bad but interesting like Eg,I heard their was a DM that randomly had orcus summoned when his players do stuff he doesn't like, now that's "interesting" but of course horrendous.

I mainly meant good interesting but sometimes bad interesting gives you some funny stories. Like a group one of my friends previously played with had 3 balloons every session. Whenever the group went off track (out of game) the DM would pop a balloon. when the third one popped he summoned the Tarrasque. This resulted in the dwarf fighter taking the wizard's staff of power, purposely getting swallowed and snapping it in half inside the Tarrasque.

[Coretron03]

Well, for example on my game last weekend a missed summons got a fiendish blink cow.....lots of fun (blink cows teleport above someone and fall on them....Moooo...*blink*...*splat*....lol)

:smallconfused:

I swear this seems famliar somehow...
But what does this happen to do with my post, in any fashion whatsoever?

[Troacctid]

I have a big list in my signature of all my houserules. There have gotten to be quite a lot of them.

[Coretron03]

Oh. Now it makes sense. Darth Ultrons house rules are so famliar because they are the same as this guys (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=16627157&postcount=22)
To point out some of his house rules in that linked post:
Creation magic:By default, magic that summons creatures or creates objects have as an additional material component a piece of material that was once part of a creature or object of the type to be summoned. Pieces of certain exotic monsters will have a high market value. (So Eschew Materials will be ineffective). Only some divine magic can ignore this

Teleportation:Teleportation spells of 4th level or lower (which includes dimension door) can’t transport you further than you can see. The range of these abilities is reduced to line of sight. You can’t use them to transport onto the other side of a closed door, or if you’re blinded, or if it’s too dark to see. You can use them to transport through a window (as you can see what’s on the other side)

You can only teleport a number of miles equal to your caster level. (When teleporting through the use of a racial ability, the distance is limited to a number of miles equal to your total HD.)

Teleport Destination: The caster must have a clear mental picture of the teleport destination. For the best results the caster must physically be in the target location for a full hour and make careful notes of the sight, sound, smell and feel of the area. The caster must pick a mostly static location, one that does not change with the passage of time. A destination only remains valid if less then 50% of area remains the same to match the mental picture in the casters mind. Small changes, such as a tree blowing in the wind have no effect, however cutting down the tree makes the destination invalid for a caster that has the tree as part of their mental destination picture.

If the caster does not have a full hour of study on a location, the chance of the teleportation success is only 20%, plus one percent per caster level.


When casting a summoning spell, there is a 1% chance per spell level that the spell goes horribly awry and summons something else entirely. The exact nature of the mistake is left up to the DM, depending on the power of the spell and what the desired result was. Occasionally, this results in something insignificantly weak, such as a celestial chipmunk. Other times, your summon monster II delivers a hezrou. The new creature is not bound by any sort of magic, and may break the summon at any time it wishes and return to its home plane. It cannot be dismissed by dismissing the spell.

Ahem. I hope you have a good explanation.

[Ashtagon]

Melee (not ranged) weapons are not affected by size modifiers to attack rolls.

Reason: it doesn't matter that the dragon is colossal. Your sword isn't big enough to even think about hitting the tail end of the dragon. That extra size doesn't make it easier to hit because you were never in a position to hit the rest of it. Conversely, having a ridiculously big sword relative to the pixies body size means that pixie would have to work even harder to move out the way, negating it's nominal size advantage.

[SangoProduction]

Melee (not ranged) weapons are not affected by size modifiers to attack rolls.

Reason: it doesn't matter that the dragon is colossal. Your sword isn't big enough to even think about hitting the tail end of the dragon. That extra size doesn't make it easier to hit because you were never in a position to hit the rest of it. Conversely, having a ridiculously big sword relative to the pixies body size means that pixie would have to work even harder to move out the way, negating it's nominal size advantage.

I personally agree with this ruling for the most part. Although melee always wants to be as big as possible, so kinda buffs them where they didn't need it.

[nettle3305]

I have a big list in my signature of all my houserules. There have gotten to be quite a lot of them.

Well, you've clearly thought this out. Do monsters in your games also lose access to spells above 6th? How do you rule Factotum's Cunning Strike and Cunning Surge? You have no issue with Rashemi Elemental Summoning at all?

You might be interested in (or maybe you already know of) the Test of Spite rules (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=6885281&postcount=2). These are geared towards PvP, but they're pretty thorough, and allow a reasonably high-powered game without venturing too far into broken territory.

[noce]

My DM uses this: when rolling FORT for massive damage, the DC is not always 15, but increases at a rate of 1 each 10 points of damage, resulting in a DC of (damage/10) + 10, e.g. 180 damage results in a FORT DC of 28.

[Troacctid]

Do monsters in your games also lose access to spells above 6th?
Sure. Spellcasting monsters, anyway.


How do you rule Factotum's Cunning Strike and Cunning Surge?
Uh...they do the thing they say they do? Not sure what you mean. :smallconfused:


You have no issue with Rashemi Elemental Summoning at all?
Should I?

[Xaroth]

A rule that I use in relation to criticals: You don't have to roll to confirm criticals unless the threat range of your weapon is greater than 18-20 with a x2 modifier, or greater than 20 with a modifier higher than x2. However, with a Vorpal weapon, you always have to roll one additional time for the effect to take place. Naturally, this applies to the enemies too.

The rule was initially born of my own misunderstanding, as I believed that in order to confirm a critical hit you had to roll an unmodified 20. But as I put it into play, I realised, hey, this is actually kinda nice. The party gets some lucky hits in, but so do the enemies.

The Vorpal section of the rule was added when a party member decided that when their own actions had them faced against an enemy that vastly was way higher than they were meant to be able to handle - and as such I had already nerfed it and given a way for them to defeat it - he would instead take the Vorpal Scythe that he wasn't proficient with and just swing every round until he got a 20. He never did, and the party managed to defeat the thing without him, but I figured it was a bit of an eye opener.

[hifidelity2]

We allowed all MU's 1st level and above to cast cantrips as needed and included Clerics in that

Magic just make the humdrum day to day life easier for a magic user

[Pugwampy]

Well my fave DM always insisted that everyone and any class can wear a helmet . He had a problem with helmets comes with armour standard rules . Who am I to say no to extra free AC ?


Pot helm is 1 AC and fullface helm is 2 AC but -1 perception .

[hifidelity2]

Illusions

Both myself and the DM are keen illusionist players so we used the following

If creating illusion of living creatures (People, dogs etc) then the max you could have and keep them believable was 1 / level (Large counts as 2 etc)

If creating an illusion its appearance must be believable. 5 men at arms just “appearing” to help the party is unbelievable. The sound of 5 men at arms coming from around a corner and then appearing from around the corner a round later is realistic

If you want to disbelieve and illusion (provided the above believable test is met) then you must actively do something – e.g.
- To disbelieve believe the illusionary fighter you must leave yourself open to attack
- To disbelieve the pit you must talk on it
- etc

[Darth Ultron]

Illusions



Oh, Illusion house rules:

No figment can in any way block a creatures sight, so no silent image of ''darkness'' or ''smoke''.
Figments can't create light or block light or air or all most anything else.
Knowledge or lore checks to make something look right. You want a crimson sword guard of Thay, you will need to roll DC20 in knowledge local.
Wisdom or charisma checks to have an illusion ''act'' right and ''seem alive''.
All figment illusions contain small errors that can be see if studied and the save is made.

[Coretron03]

Darth ultron? Can I have a reply to my previous post? The one where you need some explaining to do on how you didn't break forum rules?

[Kelb_Panthera]

Oh, Illusion house rules:

No figment can in any way block a creatures sight, so no silent image of ''darkness'' or ''smoke''.
Figments can't create light or block light or air or all most anything else.

This makes everything below irrelevant since, by that description, all figments are definitionally translucent. An illusion of a wall literally cannot fool anyone because you can't see through walls and the knowledge check for that would have a negative value for its DC.

You can make illusions of very simple glass stuctures and incorporeal creatures and that's pretty much it.


Knowledge or lore checks to make something look right. You want a crimson sword guard of Thay, you will need to roll DC20 in knowledge local.

Of course, if the enemy flanks your illusion, they automatically realize something's wrong since you can't usually see your buddy -through- a crimson sword guard. Bright side, that goes for you flanking enemy illusory creatures.


Wisdom or charisma checks to have an illusion ''act'' right and ''seem alive''.

Wouldn't a perform (acting) or perform (illusion) check be more appropriate? Seems like it would be a thing that could be practiced and developed really.


All figment illusions contain small errors that can be see if studied and the save is made.

If the save is made, the figment becomes a translucent outline of itself to the creature that saved. The little flaws kinda cease to matter at that point. Or are you just saying that careful studying an illusion offers a save? 'cause that's not a houserule, that's right in the figment overview in the PHB.