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kjones
2007-08-16, 12:26 PM
I'm going to be starting a new campaign soon, so I decided to codify all the little lessons I learned from my last campaign into a succinct set of house rules. I'm looking for feedback, both as to whether you think my personal preferences (no psionics, etc.) are reasonable and whether you think my rules changes (monks, druids) are balanced.

1. When wielding a weapon two-handed and Power Attack-ing, the damage dealt increases by 1 for every 1 decrease in the attack bonus.

2. Druids must use the Shapeshifting variant from the PHB II. Natural Spell is banned.

3. Monks have a BAB equal to their Monk levels, and they gain Pounce when using Flurry of Blows.

4. Attempting to disbelieve is a full-round action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity.

5. Paladins cannot multiclass. They can still take prestige classes.

6. Experience for an encounter is received upon the first subsequent full night's rest.

7. The nature of magical items will be withheld (barring identification) until it becomes tedious for the DM to do so.

8. No evil characters.

9. All die rolls will be "called as they lie", regardless of where they end up, unless the DM determines the die to be "on edge" and allows a reroll.

10. All characters, in addition to the skill points gained from their class, receive an additional 4 skill points to be allocated at character generation. All skills are class skills for the purpose of these skill points, but no more than 2 ranks may be purchased in a single skill. The player must come up with a justification within the background of the character as to why he has these skills.

11. Attributes will be generated by rolling 4d6, dropping the lowest, and arranging as desired. Reroll is allowed at DM discretion, or if the total attribute modifier is less than +4.

12. Classes allowed:
All Core classes, Favored Soul, Hexblade, Ninja, Scout, Spellthief, Spirit Shaman, Swashbuckler, Warlock, Warmage, Wu Jen, Factotum, Beguiler, Dragon Shaman, Duskblade, Knight, Crusader, Swordsage, Warblade
Races allowed: All Core races.

13. Any other base classes are subject to DM approval, with the exception of psionic classes or any class that makes use of psionic abilities, which are not allowed.
Other races subject to DM approval, but if it has a LA >+2, you're probably wasting your time, since most of my campaigns start at Level 1-3.

14. At the end of every session, the players will choose among themselves by consensus a Most Valuable Player, who receives an XP award equal to 25 XP * Current Level.

15. Whoever provides dinner for the group gets a 10% XP bonus for the night.

16. If you touch somebody else's dice, the owner is not held responsible for whatever retributive actions he may take.

17. Bull Rushing somebody into a solid object that cannot be pushed back deals up to 1d4 damage per 5 feet of movement, plus your Strength modifier.

There might be more that I don't remember right now.

Morty
2007-08-16, 12:31 PM
Why no evil characters? Also, #11 and #6 aren't really houserules.

Attilargh
2007-08-16, 12:36 PM
I like 1, 2, 10 and 14-17. I might actually yoink the pouncing flurry idea for my game, but am not sure. Probably won't cause any major balance issues, though.

I don't quite understand the idea behind 5. Is the paladin unable to turn her back on her god, or will she just fall? Also, why 6? Tidiness?

RoboticSheeple
2007-08-16, 01:10 PM
There's no reason for someone to use a 2 handed weapon if they are going to make use of power attack. If you're so set on nerfing fighters (they are so over powered after all :smalltongue: ) then perhaps set 2handedpowerattack to -1bab = +1.5dmg Although really, I don't see much need for nerfing power attack

OverdrivePrime
2007-08-16, 01:35 PM
Why no evil characters?
I've regretted all but one evil character I've ever allowed to be played. This goes from D&D to Rifts to Star Wars, all the way on through Gurps. Evil characters have a place in a World of Darkness campaign, and that's about it, in my estimation. Otherwise they are a constant thorn in the side of the party and the DM's sanity. I know this is generalizing, but most people I've come across who play evil characters are constantly trying to justify their actions to the rest of the party with the ol', fallacious, "Hey, I'm just playing in character."

I think it's a perfectly good rule, particularly if he's hoping to achieve any sort of party cohesiveness.

However, I totally agree with the comment about Power Attack. Warriors need *some* way to contribute to a game. If you're so worried about a crit with a maximized power attack taking out your BBEG with one lucky stroke, give said BBEG resistance to criticals through equipment or class.

valadil
2007-08-16, 01:39 PM
I've seen monks with full BAB before and it makes them sick. Pounce is gonna be even nastier. I'd consider letting them gain full BAB and pounce as feats.

I think nerfing power attack is a bad thing. Well, no, it needed a little nerfing, but I think you've gone too far. Maybe giving the first 5 points extra damage on a 2 hander or even limiting how many points you can put towards PA in the first place would work out better. This is an especially harsh nerf given how nasty you've made monks.

I did something similar to the bonus skill points thing, but I didn't tell the players about it till we had the first session. Basically I didn't want them doing anything cheesy, just to have some extra points in random skills for flavor. I'm pretty sure I gave them 6 points and said they can put 1 point in a skill that already has ranks so long as it stays below half max, or they can put 2 points in a skill that has no ranks. One player's selective hearing kicked in and he took that to mean I gave out 6 points that could break max skill limits.

Make sure you make your house rules publicly available before the game starts. I gave each of my players a folder for their character sheets. Folders also included information about the setting (a single page with locales on one side and famous NPCs on the other) maps if knowledge local was high, and a page of house rules. It was extra effort on my part, but very much worth it. I still resent the DM who had his DMPC do more damage than the rest of us because he had taken DM's improved weapon specialization 4 times (it was weapon spec for +3 instead of +2 and could be repeated) without telling us he made such a feat.

Morty
2007-08-16, 01:41 PM
I've regretted all but one evil character I've ever allowed to be played. This goes from D&D to Rifts to Star Wars, all the way on through Gurps. Evil characters have a place in a World of Darkness campaign, and that's about it, in my estimation. Otherwise they are a constant thorn in the side of the party and the DM's sanity. I know this is generalizing, but most people I've come across who play evil characters are constantly trying to justify their actions to the rest of the party with the ol', fallacious, "Hey, I'm just playing in character."

I think it's a perfectly good rule, particularly if he's hoping to achieve any sort of party cohesiveness.


It's not a good rule, because limiting player's freedom just because other players can act stupid is never good.

yango
2007-08-16, 01:47 PM
In general, I like these, but I have a bone to pick with a few:


1. When wielding a weapon two-handed and Power Attack-ing, the damage dealt increases by 1 for every 1 decrease in the attack bonus.

Not sure of the purpose of this. Is it to balance TWF? Because IMO Fighter-types already have enough of a disadvantage that they don't need to be nerfed further. If you want to boost TWF, allow offhand attacks to Power Attack or something.


4. Attempting to disbelieve is a full-round action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity.

In principle, this is a good idea. In practice, IMO you might run into some annoying situations where players attempt to disbelieve nonexistent illusions. Also, if you do this, roll the disbelief roll behind the screen, or they'll keep trying till they roll high.


5. Paladins cannot multiclass. They can still take prestige classes.

Why? It doesn't help game balance, and the lack of fallen paladins in your world is a bit far fetched. (it doesn't even conflict with your no-evil rule).


11. Attributes will be generated by rolling 4d6, dropping the lowest, and arranging as desired. Reroll is allowed at DM discretion, or if the total attribute modifier is less than +4.

I like point buy better but thats just me, since IMO players will work together better if they're on the same power level. This rule makes for a pretty high-powered campaign.


14. At the end of every session, the players will choose among themselves by consensus a Most Valuable Player, who receives an XP award equal to 25 XP * Current Level.

15. Whoever provides dinner for the group gets a 10% XP bonus for the night.

Same issue as in the previous one, where I think players are more likely to cooperate if they are kept at the same power level. If you do RP XP, IMO it should be for the group as a whole (again, this is personal preference).

OverdrivePrime
2007-08-16, 01:51 PM
It's not a good rule, because limiting player's freedom just because other players can act stupid is never good.

Ah, my 14 years of running games tells me that limiting the players' freedom to screw up the campaign and storyline is frequently awesome.

The flat "no evil" rule is a little heavy handed, I'll admit. Personally, I simply require all players to come up with a reasonably detailed character concept and backstory before I allow them into the game. That usually gets rid of most of the munchkins who want to play evil and slaughter half a village for loot and xp when the party's cleric isn't looking. After reviewing the submitted character concepts, I do my best to request changes or just plain send them back to the drawing board where I forsee problems for the game or party unity. So far I've had (mostly) good experience with the two Lawful Evil characters I've allowed into my games. The one was great, and the other didn't start sabotaging the party until near the end of the campaign.

leperkhaun
2007-08-16, 01:59 PM
well it could be that he doesnt trust the gamers to do evil. Really good evil is a bit hard to do. Alot of parties end up just bashing heads and breaking fingers. However, one evil guy who can control himself gives a good party a whole nother set of options if its needed.

Lemur
2007-08-16, 02:00 PM
I'm inclined to say boo to no psionics, but that's just based on my preferences, and thus probably isn't relevant to a game you're running.

Barring evil characters irks me a bit more. Limiting classes is one thing, but limiting roleplaying choices always seemed like bad form to me. I suppose the rule makes sense if your players use evil as an excuse to do whatever they want, but otherwise I don't see why it should be explicitly barred. Maybe just mention that evil characters will have a hard time.

The ones that confuse me are #4 and #5. Paladins already can't go back to being a paladin once they multiclass, so why bar them entirely? It strikes me as going overboard. Forcing that much time to disbelieve something also seems overboard. Unless your players have abused disbelieve in the past to an annoying extent, in which case I won't argue.

For #10, I'd tack on "The player must come up with a justification within the background of the character as to why he has these skills, if the skills taken aren't on his class list."

I'm not overly concerned about the change to power attack, but since others have noted it, you might want to explain the reasoning behind it. If it doesn't sit well with your players, 1 for 1.5 is a decent compromise.

Other than that, the rest seems okay to me.

sikyon
2007-08-16, 02:03 PM
Are you also gonna ban polymorph?

Also, why no psionics? Or is it just a campaign setting thing?

Matthew
2007-08-16, 03:14 PM
Not sure of the purpose of this. Is it to balance TWF? Because IMO Fighter-types already have enough of a disadvantage that they don't need to be nerfed further. If you want to boost TWF, allow offhand attacks to Power Attack or something.

Hmmn, Off Hand Attacks already benefit from Power Attack. Light Weapons don't. I actually quite like the idea of reducing the Power Attack Bonus, though it does mean trouble for Two Weapon Fighting. One thing I have been considering is replacing Power Attack with this:


As a Swift or Immediate Action you may add your Base Attack Bonus to Damage for one successful Attack per Round.

Otherwise these House Rules look okay to me, with probably the exception of Bull Rush, which looks a bit abusable.

Tequila Sunrise
2007-08-16, 05:41 PM
1. When wielding a weapon two-handed and Power Attack-ing, the damage dealt increases by 1 for every 1 decrease in the attack bonus.
What about lowering it to +1.5 damage per -1 AB? That would put it in line with the two-hand Str bonus to damage.


2. Druids must use the Shapeshifting variant from the PHB II. Natural Spell is banned.
Sounds fine.


3. Monks have a BAB equal to their Monk levels, and they gain Pounce when using Flurry of Blows.
Whoa! Full BAB and Flurry and Pounce? That's insane! I think flurry + pounce would work, but definately not full BAB.


4. Attempting to disbelieve is a full-round action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity.
Is this in addition to the interaction requirement, or in place of?


5. Paladins cannot multiclass. They can still take prestige classes.
It looks like you're in the 'paladin = supergood' camp. Not a fan of the idea, but whatever.


6. Experience for an encounter is received upon the first subsequent full night's rest.
Not really a house rule, as someone already pointed out.


7. The nature of magical items will be withheld (barring identification) until it becomes tedious for the DM to do so.
Also not a house rule.


8. No evil characters.
This is typically one of mine as well. If you need to play an evil character to have fun, go find a different game.


9. All die rolls will be "called as they lie", regardless of where they end up, unless the DM determines the die to be "on edge" and allows a reroll.
Not really a house rule either.


10. All characters, in addition to the skill points gained from their class, receive an additional 4 skill points to be allocated at character generation. All skills are class skills for the purpose of these skill points, but no more than 2 ranks may be purchased in a single skill. The player must come up with a justification within the background of the character as to why he has these skills.
Meh, whatever. I think you'll find that a lot of players will just ignore this part of character creation, leaving you to assign those 4 skill points based on their backstories.


11. Attributes will be generated by rolling 4d6, dropping the lowest, and arranging as desired. Reroll is allowed at DM discretion, or if the total attribute modifier is less than +4.
Barely a house rule. Perfectly reasonable.


12. Classes allowed:
All Core classes, Favored Soul, Hexblade, Ninja, Scout, Spellthief, Spirit Shaman, Swashbuckler, Warlock, Warmage, Wu Jen, Factotum, Beguiler, Dragon Shaman, Duskblade, Knight, Crusader, Swordsage, Warblade
Races allowed: All Core races.
Remember, a DM does not house rule out a supplemental class; the DM must house rule in such a class if a player wants to use it. All supplemental material is, by definition, a house rule.


13. Any other base classes are subject to DM approval, with the exception of psionic classes or any class that makes use of psionic abilities, which are not allowed.
Other races subject to DM approval, but if it has a LA >+2, you're probably wasting your time, since most of my campaigns start at Level 1-3.
Also not really house rules; DM approval is required for anything outside of the PHB.


14. At the end of every session, the players will choose among themselves by consensus a Most Valuable Player, who receives an XP award equal to 25 XP * Current Level.
This could easily lead to bad feelings amongst the players, so I'd be careful using it. It could also lead to each player voting for themselves, which will lead to a headache for you.


15. Whoever provides dinner for the group gets a 10% XP bonus for the night.
And what if everyone provides dinner? Then you have a lot of wasted food and bonus XP. All this bonus XP has got to be extra work for you...but maybe you like math?


16. If you touch somebody else's dice, the owner is not held responsible for whatever retributive actions he may take.
This is a joke right? Or is this actually an issue in your group?


17. Bull Rushing somebody into a solid object that cannot be pushed back deals up to 1d4 damage per 5 feet of movement, plus your Strength modifier.
Not really a house rule, just DM judgment. Sounds reasonable.