Fun house rules

[Nosta]

so I am sure that most of us have at least one fun house rules but I am curious as to what others have for them


Two of the ones my group uses Are

A Attack Roll that results in 20 on the die roll and then a 20 on confirmation Allows for a third roll and if that results in 20 its an Auto kill

secondly when rolling HP The player rolls any number on the die under half

so what are some of your own house rules

[Geddy2112]

We don't use the fumble charts or penalize natural 1's in any way, but if somehow, you get a zero or less on any roll(due to modifiers) then the DM can implement a critical failure as they see fit.

[Telok]

The BOOM die.
For a Champions game I took a wooden cube from a craft store, wrote BOOM on one side, and then colored in the edges in a jagged pattern. So it looked like a comic book boom. The other five sides are just the original wood. It's pretty big, about 3 or 3.5 cm on a side. I used it for deciding when stuff that could explode would explode. Cars mostly, but any fuel or volatile equipment qualified.

I've kept it around for other things. Next campaign I run it's going to be the die that chooses which wild magic and teleport mishap tables get used. The normal table, or the explody table.

[T.G. Oskar]

It's both fun and random, but one of my favorite house rules is "Up or Down?"

When I need to figure out something at random, I roll a d%, and determine a success chance from factors (positive ones increase the success chance, negative does the opposite). Then, and only then, I ask the players "Up, or down?" If they say "Up", then the higher the number, the better; if they say "Down", then the lower the number the better.

Let's say for example I have a 50/50 chance that something will happen (for example, that the palace guard heard a rumor that thieves would enter the castle, and thus chose to double the guard). I ask my players "do you want up, or down, for something positive to happen to you?" If they say "Up", then any roll of 51 to 100 means something positive happens (i.e., the guards dismissed the rumor as a rumor); if they say "Down", then the result has to be between 01 and 50. If they do something on town that makes the rumor a bit more unbelievable (say, they spread another rumor that the first rumor was spread out by the local thieves' guild to overtax the guards, thus making them be too tired for when they really have to strike), and that something is successful, I might make it a 60/40 chance; in this case, "Up" for something positive means any roll between 41 and 100, while "Down" means a roll between 01 and 60. It can happen for any reason, but it just makes things even more random. Usually, it goes positive for my players, so they enjoy it (they usually ask for "Up", but the few times it has gone sour for them means they don't always choose "Up" automatically). This also applies for miss chances, even though there's a rule for that. It has also spread to OTHER games, and even has a minor modification - the HIGHER the roll, the better the result (say, a roll of 100 when my players say "Up!" on the previous example means that the guards have totally dismissed that as a fact, and are so relaxed, they are less prone to detect the party, so that might end up with a -2 on their Spot/Perception checks). Of course, a really bad roll (say, a roll of 01 when the party said "Up" on something positive) can make things go haywire (not only does the guard is alert and ready, but it also managed to get the services of a spellcaster to reinforce the castle with wards, making the entry even tougher).

[Venger]

when dealing with negative levels, rather than have them impose permanent level loss and require unmaking your character sheet 24 hours after being inflicted, instead I have them be "sticky"

this means if you don't shake them off a day after, you don't convert it to permanent level loss, but instead you retain it for other 24 hours, at which point you'll get another chance to save.

this means negative levels are still lethal in combat itself, but once combat ends, they don't impose busy work on players, and a party won't necessarily be punished for not having a cleric type in it

[Dagroth]

secondly when rolling HP The player rolls any number on the die under half

My group has a similar one... if your hit point roll is below your Con Bonus, you roll again. Unless your Con Bonus is higher than your Hit Die, in which case you just get max hit points.

[dervin]

one of my favorite is die at CON. which makes you die at your CON score instead of at -10. it gives fighters types a advantage over spell casters which is always good.

[Psyren]

Our group uses these: Feat Tax Reduction (http://michaeliantorno.com/feat-taxes-in-pathfinder/#dw_accordions-3-nav_menu-dw-widget-1)

[Telonius]

Heroes and villains don't use fumbles. Mooks, on the other hand...

On HP at level-up, if you roll a 1, reroll it once. Take the new result. (If it's another 1, sorry, the universe wants you to have lower HP this level).

Multiclass XP penalties are removed. So is favored class.

Half-Elf gets your choice of a bonus feat at 1st, or an extra skill point each level.

Pun-Pun has already ascended, and is the setting's over-deity. Anyone approaching his power will get a dose of his "LOLNOPE" ability. (The offending party will likely be warned by his squirrel minions before any direct action is taken, and he does have a pretty good sense of humor).

[TheTeaMustFlow]

one of my favorite is die at CON. which makes you die at your CON score instead of at -10. it gives fighters types a advantage over spell casters which is always good.

Umm... How?

[Psyren]

Umm... How?

I think he's saying that martials in his games have higher Con than casters and so can go further negative.

[Zancloufer]

Our group uses these: Feat Tax Reduction (http://michaeliantorno.com/feat-taxes-in-pathfinder/#dw_accordions-3-nav_menu-dw-widget-1)

I've made something similar to that. Mostly merges feats and feat chains and reducing the per-requisites on many feats. No reason that Weapon Focus or Rapid shot needs to be 2-4 different feats. I just have them naturally upgrade based of BaB [which gives an edge to full BaB classes].


Umm... How?

I'm guessing your max negative HP is your CON not -10. Most martial characters tend to have more CON that spellcasters. Not a huge buff though mind you.


Also something I've done: Reduce time required to craft items. Magic items take FAR too long at the higher levels unless you dump obscene amounts of down time on the party. It's no fun needing literally MONTHS of in game time to make top tier items for the party.

[Arbane]

On HP at level-up, if you roll a 1, reroll it once. Take the new result. (If it's another 1, sorry, the universe wants you to have lower HP this level).


My GM allows taking average HP. (I've disliked rolling for HP ever since my last barbarian got 4,1, and 2 for three consecutive levels. Why is the most important stat a character has still random when pretty much everything else is point-buy?)
He also allows using Hero Points to boost the hitpoint roll, so it evens out. (Which is how my current character rolled an 11 on a d8 for HP :smallbiggrin: )

There's some OSR game that lets players reroll ALL their hit dice every level - if the new sum is lower, just add one to the old sum. (So even the most disastrous or good rolls will average out as you level.)

[Quertus]

one of my favorite is die at CON. which makes you die at your CON score instead of at -10. it gives fighters types a advantage over spell casters which is always good.


Umm... How?

I'm guessing I'm the only one who's ever built a feral half-ogre spellcaster. Most people reserve the high-con (usually low mental stats) templates for fighter-types

[Stegyre]

There's some OSR game that lets players reroll ALL their hit dice every level - if the new sum is lower, just add one to the old sum. (So even the most disastrous or good rolls will average out as you level.)
It's my understanding the very old CRPG Wizardry games used this mechanic, which is why if you tried holding out for high HP increases in the early levels, in the later levels you tended to get only +1.

[Bucky]

My group just skips the rerolls and uses maximized hit dice for PCs.

[Bavarian itP]

Why is the most important stat a character has still random when pretty much everything else is point-buy?


Since this is the 3.5 board, I have to say that Point-Buy and average hit points are both house rules suggested in the DMG.


A Attack Roll that results in 20 on the die roll and then a 20 on confirmation Allows for a third roll and if that results in 20 its an Auto kill

If you play that often that a rule that only applies once in 8,000 attack rolls makes the game funnier for you, I really envy you.

[Dagroth]

Since this is the 3.5 board, I have to say that Point-Buy and average hit points are both house rules suggested in the DMG.

Personally, I hate point buy. I've never rolled up a character (4d6, re-roll 1's, discard lowest) that could be bought using the suggested point-buy levels.


If you play that often that a rule that only applies once in 8,000 attack rolls makes the game funnier for you, I really envy you.

I've had nights where I confirm-crit'ed 8 or 9 times... with unarmed strikes.

I've also had a night where I rolled 5 1's on attack rolls... 3 1's on skill checks and 3 1's on saves. All on one night.

The so-called Law of Averages only works in a perfect world.

[Bavarian itP]

I've also had a night where I rolled 5 1's on attack rolls


You need, on average, 100 attack rolls for this. He talks about 8000 attack rolls. Your experiences are nearly two orders of magnitude more likely than his.

And confirming criticals shouldn't be a problem at all. He talks about confirming with a natural 20.


Edit: Actually, I'm wrong. Nostas house rule provides an additional thrill of "Am I going to roll instakill" every 400 attack rolls. That's better, and I can see it working.

[martixy]

I too use the exact same link Psyren posted.
But I do it a bit differently. Instead of auto-granting things, BAB allows you to "buy" certain feat taxes in a sense. Like power attack, combat expertise, precise shot, mounted combat, etc. Also any individual improved combat maneuver(otherwise tripper builds become more expensive, since the PF versions of those).

Basic point of all feat-related house-rules I have is to make it easier to take feat taxes, so martials have opportunity to invest in feats that actually let them do interesting things.

Most of what has been said here isn't exactly "fun" house-rules, just common-sense patchwork, back-ports between systems or changes to game style the group has agree on.

Same as with most of mine.

However there are 2 specific bits that are somewhat actually fun:
1. A feat we call "The Harry potter feat". Can you guess what it does? It allows you to discharge wands or dorjes containing weapon-like spells in place of an attack. So you can make iterative attacks with wands.
2. Arcane archers can put almost any spell on their arrows. This allows the entertaining notion of heal by arrow shot. *Thunk* "OWWW.... Ooooohhhhh. Aaaaahhhh." Among other fun things.

Also the Paizo crit deck can be considered somewhat fun. :)

[Arbane]

It's my understanding the very old CRPG Wizardry games used this mechanic, which is why if you tried holding out for high HP increases in the early levels, in the later levels you tended to get only +1.

Never noticed that rule, though, but I wasn't looking.

(I played Wizardry on the Apple II! Good times.



OH GOD I'M OLD.)

[ericgrau]

Each level up you may retrain 1 level and 1 feat. During that level up you must gain something similar for fluff reasons, as decided by a lenient DM. For example you can take skill focus(swim) at low level to prevent drowning, then ditch it at high level as long as you take 1 rank in swim. It's more important fluffwise for skills like knowledge, so your character doesn't strangely forget a subject/talent altogether. You can go wizard 5, cleric 3, then retrain wizard into mystic theurge the next 2 levels. So that you don't have to wait until level 8 to get 3rd level spells. Etc. As you'd expect you can't retrain away something that would make you ineligible for something else you have; e.g., you can't retrain all 5 wizard levels into mystic theurge.

This way you don't have to plan your build 19 levels in advance and you can have fun with short term ideas.

[Dagroth]

Each level up you may retrain 1 level and 1 feat. During that level up you must gain something similar for fluff reasons, as decided by a lenient DM. For example you can take skill focus(swim) at low level to prevent drowning, then ditch it at high level as long as you take 1 rank in swim. It's more important fluffwise for skills like knowledge, so your character doesn't strangely forget a subject/talent altogether. You can go wizard 5, cleric 3, then retrain wizard into mystic theurge the next 2 levels. So that you don't have to wait until level 8 to get 3rd level spells. Etc. As you'd expect you can't retrain away something that would make you ineligible for something else you have; e.g., you can't retrain all 5 wizard levels into mystic theurge.

This way you don't have to plan your build 19 levels in advance and you can have fun with short term ideas.

While you couldn't retrain all 5 wizard levels into mystic theurge, you could conceivably retrain 4 of them and 2 cleric levels. To wit:

Wiz-4/Clr-3. Levels up & adds Mystic Theurge & retrains 1 Wizard Level. Wiz-3/Clr-3/MT-2. Now casting 3rd level Wizard spells & 3rd level Cleric Spells.

Levels up as Mystic Theurge & retrains 1 Wizard Level. Wiz-2/Clr-3/MT-4. Still casting 3rd level Wizard spells & now casting 4th level Cleric spells.

Levels up as Mystic Theurge & retrains 1 Wizard Level. Wiz-1/Clr-3/MT-6. Now casting 4th level Wizard & now casting 5th level Cleric spells.

Levels up as Mystic Theurge & retrains 1 Cleric Level. Wiz-1/Clr-2/MT-8. Now casting 5th level Wizard spells & still casting 5th level Cleric spells.

Levels up as Mystic Theurge & retrains 1 Cleric Level. Wiz-1/Clr-1/MT-10. Now casting 6th level Wizard & Cleric Spells.

You could have crazy-fun if you threw Sorcerer-4 in there to go into Ultimate Magus.

Sor-2/Wiz-3/Clr-3 (terrible build, without retraining!) Levels up in Mystic Theurge & retrains 1 Wizard Level. Sor-2/Wiz-2/Clr-3/MT-2 He declares the 2 levels of MT to split, one affecting Wizard, one affecting Sorcerer. 1st level Sorcerer spells, 2nd level Wizard spells, 3rd level Cleric spells.

Next Level: Sor-2/Wiz-2/Clr-2/MT-4. 2 levels of MT Split again. Casting 2nd level Sorcerer, 2nd level Wizard & 3rd level Cleric spells.

Next Level: Sor-1/Wiz-2/Clr-2/MT-6. 2 levels of MT Split again. Casting 2nd level Sorcerer, 3rd level Wizard & 4th level Cleric spells.

Next Level: Sor-1/Wiz-1/Clr-2/MT-8. 2 levels of MT Split again. Casting 2nd level Sorcerer, 3rd level Wizard & 5th level Cleric Spells.

Next Level: Sor-1/Wiz-1/Clr-1/MT-10. 2 levels of MT Split again. Casting 3rd level Sorcerer, 3rd level Wizard & 6th level Cleric Spells.

Next Level: Sor-1/Wiz-1/Clr-1/MT-10/UM-1 Raise Wizard to gain 4th level spells.
Next Level: UM-2 no new level of spells gained. :(
Next Level: UM-3 4th level Sorcerer spells, 5th level Wizard Spells.
Next Level: UM-4 Must raise Sorcerer.
Next Level: UM-5 5th level Sorcerer spells
Next Level: UM-6 6th level Wizard Spells
Level 20: UM-7. 6th level Sorcerer Spells. Your Caster Levels are 12, 11, 11

If you're really, really crazy... then you used Mystic Ranger instead of Cleric to get into MT... You have to be 4th level MR to get 2nd level spells... but what do you care since you're going to retrain? With Sword of the Arcane Order, this shoots your Wizard caster level up to 22! You can't get the boost from Shooting Star, because you need to keep Ranger 4 for that. Remember that the Improved Spellcasting doesn't actually replace anything. :smallbiggrin:

Of course, Sor-1/Wiz-1/MR-4/MT-10/UM-4 gives: Sorcerer caster level 9, Wizard caster level (base) 9, Mystic Ranger caster level (base) 9 (actual level 14). (Shooting Star hurts caster level for a Mystic Ranger unless you have other Arcane Caster Levels)

Without messing around with double-additives, Wizard caster level goes up to 18 & Ranger caster level shoots up to 27! :smallbiggrin:

[ericgrau]

@^ The idea behind the rule against making yourself ineligible for any part of your build is to give the player freedom without letting him abuse the house-rule. So going below wizard 3 would not be allowed any more than it would be on a regular build. The houserule is so you can start worrying about your level 15 build around level 12 not at level 1. But otherwise your level 15 build is still the same.

[Dagroth]

@^ The idea behind the rule against making yourself ineligible for any part of your build is to give the player freedom without letting him abuse the house-rule. So going below wizard 3 would not be allowed any more than it would be on a regular build. The houserule is so you can start worrying about your level 15 build around level 12 not at level 1. But otherwise your level 15 build is still the same.

But you're not illegible for the class. You still meet the qualification of being able to cast 2nd level Arcane & Divine spells.

[ericgrau]

But you're not illegible for the class. You still meet the qualification of being able to cast 2nd level Arcane & Divine spells.
Your build is still as-if it was made without the rule, but with less planning required. That's what "retrain away something that would make you ineligible" means. The removed level/feat applies to the part of the build where it was gained, not the present level. It is a retcon, nothing more.

[Ualaa]

We use a few house rules.



For hit points, it is like the Iron Gods system.
If your hit die is a d6, you roll d4+2.
If your hit die is a d8, you roll d4+4.
If your hit die is a d10, you roll d4+6.
If your hit die is a d12, you roll d4+8.

There is still some variance, but you're getting at least half of maximum for a caster type and closer to seventy-five percent of maximum for a barbarian type.



In several of our campaigns, we use Gestalt characters, with a few of the accompanying rules.
Fractional BAB and Fractional Saves, being the main ones.

In those games, characters are also Mythic Rank 2, but need to qualify for all of their mythic stuff at first level, which kind of removes a lot of the broken stuff.
We're looking at the three books by Legendary Games, and considering using those (along with anything in Mythic Adventures, which hasn't been 'fixed' by the main Legendary Games epic book).



Spheres of Power is immensely popular with our group; I'm strongly considering outright replacing the traditional vancian casting after this campaign.
There would still be the archetypes for a (sphere) Wizard, (sphere) Oracle, (sphere) Arcanist or whatever, to retain the flavor of the other classes...

[Tiri]

The only house rule I can think of that my group uses is that the characters level up when the DM decides they do, with no attention paid to XP.

It makes it more fun if you want to play a Hobgoblin or something else that's over-LAed.

[digiman619]

The house rules in my game?

* Max 1st level HD, roll for the others (minimum half), so a barbarian that rolls a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 on their HD get 6+CON instead,
* For stats, roll 4d6b3 7 times, arrange as desired. If you don't get something you want with that, 25 point buy.
* Fractional base bonuses, mostly because...
* Path of War and Spheres of Power are allowed sources.

We're also experimenting with Automatic Bonus Progression in the current game, which so far seems to be working.

[ghanjrho]

Some that I use (in Pathfinder)
Full transparency applies to Knowledge skills as well; Knowledge(arcana) can be used as Knowledge(psionics) and vice-versa.
All out of combat healing is automatically maximized
Everybody starts with one rank in all of their class skills, plus half their normal skill ranks in cross-class skills. This replaces the skill ranks normally gained at level 1.
Import the Wild Die from 13th Age. A d6 is placed in the center of the table and starts at "1". At the end of each round, it is advanced to the next number; this continues until it reads "6". All PCs and major NPCs add the current value of the Wild Die to their attack rolls.

[LordOfCain]

Import the Wild Die from 13th Age. A d6 is placed in the center of the table and starts at "1". At the end of each round, it is advanced to the next number; this continues until it reads "6". All PCs and major NPCs add the current value of the Wild Die to their attack rolls.

Would this go down to 1 once it reaches 6?

[Malimar]

Some of these are "fun", others just make the game function better (which is also fun, but in a different way):

Begin with standard WBL or 1000 gp, whichever is higher (makes the lowest levels much less awful if you can afford a wand of CLW/lesser vigor or a Healing Belt)
Epic begins at level 10. Once you are level 10, you can take Epic feats with your regular feat slots, epic prestige classes, and so on. The Skill Focus feat has the additional effect that as long as you have your ranks in the focused skill maximized for your level, you count as fulfilling all prerequisites involving any number of ranks in that skill, so it's possible with this combination to actually pick most Epic things. (Epic spells do not exist.)
Paladins and so on get smite per encounter instead of per day. Hexblade gets hexblade's curse per encounter instead of per day. A few other minor class tweaks like that.
If a PC or a major (e.g., named) NPC confirms a critical hit, they draw from Paizo's critical hit deck. All others simply multiply the damage as usual.
If any character rolls a total of 0 or lower on an attack roll, it is an automatic critical fumble, and they draw from Paizo's critical fumble deck.
The experience of dying and returning to life leaves a person drained of vitality even beyond the loss of a level. Upon resurrection, a character is aged a number of years equal to 1d20 minus their Constitution modifier (minimum 0. A negative Constitution modifier can increase the number of years aged). The true resurrection and true reincarnate spells negate this effect. These years are added to the base adult age in the case of the reincarnate spell.
A character is considered dead if he reaches negative his Constitution score or negative 10 hit points, whichever is further from zero.
You may split actual movement around a non-moving move action. Example: move 15' to a door, open it, and then go through the doorway that same round using the rest of your movement.
All Trained Only skills can be used untrained at a -10 penalty.
Spellcraft may be used in place of Psicraft, and vice versa, at a -10 penalty. Use Magic Device may be used in place of Use Psionic Device, and vice versa, at a -10 penalty.
If a temporary source with a duration grants a Constitution bonus (e.g. Barbarian Rage, bear's endurance, etc., but not Amulet of Health), the extra hit points granted are temporary hit points which expire when the Constitution bonus goes away. They are lost first, and no real hit points are lost when the duration expires.

[johnbragg]

Nothing earth-shakingly original, but

1. PCs are special snowflakes, so max HP at every level. And your starting stats are my Heroic Array, 18 16 14 12 10 8.

2. Pathfinder skill point rules with 3.5 skills. So no cross-class skill penalties, just the in-class skill bonus (you have to spend a rank to "unlock" it though.)

And my favorite, although I'm not using it lately.
"I call for my theme music." When it's your moment of awesome, you can call for your theme music (pre-loaded on GM's laptop) which gives a bonus to your rolls for the next 3-4 minutes or real time.