Here are some god awfull houserules

[Trandir]

I quitted so there is no more need to be subject to this bull****

My DM uses weird rules:

Crits do not require a second roll to confirm and are not confirmed to hit, if the roll+bonus is inferior to the enemy AC it still miss, but it doubles just the weapon dice damage;

One sneak attack per round;

No errata or really any game rule that is not included in the DMG or the PHB, but we can take things from all manuals; (this means no swift or immediate actions)

You get a "sixth sense" roll (wisdom roll) to avoid nefarious things like surprise attacks, traps and other things that you can't see coming;

Clerics can get away with almost anything ignoring the allignement and dogma of his diety;

Teleport (of any level) requires a direct knowledge of the place you want to go;

Spell resistance can only negate non-damaging spells and it reduces the damage taken from spells (each point of SR reduces the damage taken by spells that deals damage by 1, SR 15 reduced magic damage by 15);

Taking the first level of any class provides all the benefit of first levels, starting gold, 4 times the skill ranks and max HD;

Skill checks can critical fail on a natural 1 but do not critical succed on a natural 20;

Rolling a 1 on an attack roll end the turn and provokes AoO;


Also he is using monster/npc/enemies from: the 3.0 monster manual, the book of vile darkness and the pathfinder npc codex;

Power attack with a two handed weapon does not increases the bonus damage (this one is completely random and unnecessary);

He can homebrew anything he likes (PrC to make those sweet NPC ex-machina and some broken item he throws at us sometimes) but we players have to stick to the manuals;

Take 10/20 provides a +10/20 circumstance bonus (or untyped since it stacks with anything) to the roll, it takes a couple of minutes/hours to do so, (skill mastery reduces the time of take 10 allowinf to do it in combat);

WBL is completely broken, disregarded and not considered when calculating the CR;

XP is not calculated by any mean. As he wants to enter epic levels to break the game even more;

Also he might or might not change a rule on the flight during a session.



Edit: this rules are fair or interesting at best and nonsensical or terrible at worst and I know it.
But this is more of a mechanical problem than a fun one. The games are still enjoiables but the combat/character creation is really messy.

[Zombimode]

Start with requesting a reasoning for the rules?

They seem to be particularly poorly thought out.

[DeTess]

I do not know how to behave this is weird rules.

Well, there's this simple 4 step plan:

Get up
Walk away from gaming table
Go home
Find new group/DM


It kinda sounds like this DM is on a bit of player vs DM power-trip, or just doesn't understand the game all that well. Some of the house-rules seem reasonable (such as the one on teleporting), but a lot of the others are just really weird, such as the one rewarding 1st level dips. If you feel like you can't play with these rules and won't have fun, you really should leave the group though. No gaming is better than bad gaming after all.

[BWR]

Talk to your GM.

If there is problem in a group, always start by talking to the relevant parties rather than trying to get a magic cureall response from strangers on the internet. Get reasons for the changes, and if you have any particular objections make these known on no uncertain yet polite terms.

If the GM refuses to compromise to mutual (dis)satisfaction, you can either suck it up or leave.

[Kurald Galain]

I do not know how to behave this is weird rules.
Well, rules #1 and #2 mean no critfishers or rogues, respectively. Rule #10 means you shouldn't bother with any character that relies on attack rolls. Rule #4 suggests a wisdom-based caster, and rule #7 improves blasting since it bypasses SR now.

So the obvious answer is to play a cleric :smallbiggrin:

[Quertus]

I agree with those who say to begin by asking "Why?".


Start with requesting a reasoning for the rules?

They seem to be particularly poorly thought out.

Eh, about average, IME.


Well, rules #1 and #2 mean no critfishers or rogues, respectively. Rule #10 means you shouldn't bother with any character that relies on attack rolls. Rule #4 suggests a wisdom-based caster, and rule #7 improves blasting since it bypasses SR now.

So the obvious answer is to play a cleric :smallbiggrin:

That's… pretty much what I was thinking. Have your undead army to attack for you (since attacking is a trap), while you cast spells / hold actions to counterspell (because no Reactive Counterspell, right?). Are there Cleric prestige classes worth dipping in this scenario?

Not so sure that blasting is really worthwhile, though.

[Evil DM Mark3]

On a case by case basis:
Crits do not require a second roll to confirm but it doubles just the weapon dice damage;
Amour is less important, I'd say grab a rapier or similar.

One sneak attack per round;
I, I don't understnad this one. One sneak attack for everyone? One sneak attack for rogues that don't qualify?

No errata or really any game rule that is not included in the DMG or the PHB, but we can take things from all manuals; (this means no swift or immediate actions)
I can understand that. Once errata reaches a certain point it makes playing the game headache inducing

You get a "sixth sense" roll (wisdom roll) to avoid nefarious things like surprise attacks, traps and other things that you can't see coming;
I'm already thinking Cleric of Oildawhatsit, the CN god of thieves.

Clerics can get away with almost anything ignoring the allignement and dogma of his diety;
Well I would just RP properly anyway

Teleport (of any level) requires a direct knowledge of the place you want to go;
That's somewhat of a limitation, but I can understand why, teleporting is a real game breaker, even just dimension door can break encounters.

Spell resistance can only negate non-damaging spells and it reduces the damage taken from spells;
How, on a point by point basis or halved or what? My swachbucking cleric is sounding better.

Taking the first level of any class provides all the benefit of first levels, starting gold, 4 times the skill ranks and max HD;
...cross classing into Rouge

Skill checks can critical fail on a natural 1 but do not critical succed on a natural 20;
Take all the 10s.

Rolling a 1 on an attack roll end the turn and provokes AoO;
Avoid 2 weapon fighting and take combat reflexts

Also he is using monster/npc/enemies from: the 3.0 monster manual, the book of vile darkness and the pathfinder npc codex;
I assume you mean without modification? Urgh.

He can homebrew anything he likes (PrC to make those sweet NPC ex-machina and some broken item he throws at us sometimes) but we players have to stick to the manuals;
Sure he can. DM can do anything. Your issue is 1)that he is and 2)that it is blatant. I could live with this, but I can understand that many wouldn't like it.

WBL is completely broken, disregarded and not considered when calculating the CR;
In whose favour? I think I can guess. In that case, spellcasters and lots of them.

XP is not calculated by any mean. As he wants to enter epic levels to break the game even more;
So he just levels you up whenever? Maybe just try and enjoy the power trip?

Also he might or might not change a rule on the flight during a session.
This is the worst thing on the list, by a long shot. Unless its a rules call to stop the game stalling that turns out to be wrong later you need consistency and notice of changes.

I do not know how to behave this is weird rules.
OK, my comments above aside, if you are not having fun tell the DM and explain why. Do it in private and do it politely. I think I could play in this, but I don't think it would be my favourite group by a wide margin. If you cant, then say so. That last point about the rules changing is the one that really worries me. I can shoot for oddly shaped or annoyingly placed goals, but not ones that move after I kick the ball.

[Trandir]

Start with requesting a reasoning for the rules?

They seem to be particularly poorly thought out.

I'd have a "because I sayed so" as an answer no more no less.



Well, there's this simple 4 step plan:

Get up
Walk away from gaming table
Go home
Find new group/DM


It kinda sounds like this DM is on a bit of player vs DM power-trip, or just doesn't understand the game all that well. Some of the house-rules seem reasonable (such as the one on teleporting), but a lot of the others are just really weird, such as the one rewarding 1st level dips. If you feel like you can't play with these rules and won't have fun, you really should leave the group though. No gaming is better than bad gaming after all.

I can but they throw off most of the usual strategy one find around


Talk to your GM.

If there is problem in a group, always start by talking to the relevant parties rather than trying to get a magic cureall response from strangers on the internet. Get reasons for the changes, and if you have any particular objections make these known on no uncertain yet polite terms.

If the GM refuses to compromise to mutual (dis)satisfaction, you can either suck it up or leave.

This DM is not going to change, so I ask random stranger on the internet how to get along and have more fun if possible.




Well, rules #1 and #2 mean no critfishers or rogues, respectively. Rule #10 means you shouldn't bother with any character that relies on attack rolls. Rule #4 suggests a wisdom-based caster, and rule #7 improves blasting since it bypasses SR now.

So the obvious answer is to play a cleric :smallbiggrin:

Yep cleric are basically untouched and the blasters are litterally untouched if they use SR: no spells otherwise it might be even worst since you would get 30 or more damage cut off from any attack



I agree with those who say to begin by asking "Why?".


I'd like to keep playing but the houserules are kind of clunky, dumb, weird with the only one that kind of makes sense is the teleport one.

But I am rather new to the game so asking here seems the best course of action since this DM do now wants to play by the book

[Trandir]

Ok I forgot some other houserules thanks I' ll answer you and then update the list


On a case by case basis:
Crits do not require a second roll to confirm but it doubles just the weapon dice damage;
Amour is less important, I'd say grab a rapier or similar.

Not only critical also are not confirmed hits you still need to surpass the enemy AC

One sneak attack per round;
I, I don't understnad this one. One sneak attack for everyone? One sneak attack for rogues that don't qualify?

Everyone gets one, even a rogue 20 gets a single SA per round

No errata or really any game rule that is not included in the DMG or the PHB, but we can take things from all manuals; (this means no swift or immediate actions)
I can understand that. Once errata reaches a certain point it makes playing the game headache inducing

Yep it sure is

You get a "sixth sense" roll (wisdom roll) to avoid nefarious things like surprise attacks, traps and other things that you can't see coming;
I'm already thinking Cleric of Oildawhatsit, the CN god of thieves.

Wisdom classes get some more nice things

Clerics can get away with almost anything ignoring the allignement and dogma of his diety;
Well I would just RP properly anyway

True. But still weird to have a chaotic neutral cleric of helm


Teleport (of any level) requires a direct knowledge of the place you want to go;
That's somewhat of a limitation, but I can understand why, teleporting is a real game breaker, even just dimension door can break encounters.

This one of the only rule that makes sense


Spell resistance can only negate non-damaging spells and it reduces the damage taken from spells;
How, on a point by point basis or halved or what? My swachbucking cleric is sounding better.

The damage get reduced by the SR, a maximized fireball that deals 60 damage if hits dragon with SR 34 and it fails the save would take 26 fire damage

Taking the first level of any class provides all the benefit of first levels, starting gold, 4 times the skill ranks and max HD;
...cross classing into Rouge

I like this one it's one of the only things that keeps me here the possibility to multiclass like crazy with the abbundance of skill ranks


Skill checks can critical fail on a natural 1 but do not critical succed on a natural 20;
Take all the 10s.

Take 10 at this table means that you get +10 circumstance bonus to the check, you still get 5% to fail


Rolling a 1 on an attack roll end the turn and provokes AoO;
Avoid 2 weapon fighting and take combat reflexts

Also he is using monster/npc/enemies from: the 3.0 monster manual, the book of vile darkness and the pathfinder npc codex;
I assume you mean without modification? Urgh.

Yep, one time he used a 12 headed hydra against 3 lv 17 PCs since it had cr 17. It got demolished in 2 rounds, (there was something like 60 meters and the sorcerer summoned on the first one but it got melted in 2 attacks)


He can homebrew anything he likes (PrC to make those sweet NPC ex-machina and some broken item he throws at us sometimes) but we players have to stick to the manuals;
Sure he can. DM can do anything. Your issue is 1)that he is and 2)that it is blatant. I could live with this, but I can understand that many wouldn't like it.

Sure he can, but it's a little annoying when the DM kicks you with a class feature broken and you can't have it in any way.

WBL is completely broken, disregarded and not considered when calculating the CR;
In whose favour? I think I can guess. In that case, spellcasters and lots of them.

I have 10 potions of cure light wounds and gloves of dexterity +6 at level 20, and about 900k that I can't spend because "there are no magic item shops here".
The cleric has random itemsbut armor+mace have something like +8 enchantment each, plus other items
The master of many forms had litterally no items and maybe he got something last session but I do not have his sheet so who knows.
The sorcerer has infinite maximize spell as a custom item and a chalice that gives him 5 extra spells per level.

I think broken in any way possible


XP is not calculated by any mean. As he wants to enter epic levels to break the game even more;
So he just levels you up whenever? Maybe just try and enjoy the power trip?

True but a level every session is still weird

Also he might or might not change a rule on the flight during a session.
This is the worst thing on the list, by a long shot. Unless its a rules call to stop the game stalling that turns out to be wrong later you need consistency and notice of changes.

I do not know how to behave this is weird rules.
OK, my comments above aside, if you are not having fun tell the DM and explain why. Do it in private and do it politely. I think I could play in this, but I don't think it would be my favourite group by a wide margin. If you cant, then say so. That last point about the rules changing is the one that really worries me. I can shoot for oddly shaped or annoyingly placed goals, but not ones that move after I kick the ball.

I am having fun but the mechanical part of this game is a nightmare.

[Saintheart]

Taking the first level of any class provides all the benefit of first levels, starting gold, 4 times the skill ranks and max HD;

Welp, guess it's time for that Cloistered Cleric 1/Rogue 1/Bard 1/Ranger 1 build with CON and INT maxed out and just be good at every skill in existence as well as having more hitpoints than God. And for bonus points, worship Pelor and start doing Burning Hate for real casting spells direct from BoVD. If he doesn't like that, demand BoED be opened up. Then take Ancestral Relic and burn that 900k into a magic weapon with about +20 worth of enhancement bonuses or so and go forth for the 20 minutes then remaining in the campaign because the LOLs are now the only reason to be staying in this dumpster fire of a game.

[Trandir]

Welp, guess it's time for that Cloistered Cleric 1/Rogue 1/Bard 1/Ranger 1 build with CON and INT maxed out and just be good at every skill in existence as well as having more hitpoints than God. And for bonus points, worship Pelor and start doing Burning Hate for real casting spells direct from BoVD. If he doesn't like that, demand BoED be opened up. Then take Ancestral Relic and burn that 900k into a magic weapon with about +20 worth of enhancement bonuses or so and go forth for the 20 minutes then remaining in the campaign because the LOLs are now the only reason to be staying in this dumpster fire of a game.

Wait Burning Hate what? Could you be more specific?

Ancestral relic is an interesting talent but
1) it can cost up to 440.000 gp (could still get to +20 if it wans't epic level territory)

2) this PC do not have a year to do nothing but pray at the relic to convert the 440k in enchantments.

3) I fear that I might get mugged, again, and I can't lose both the feat and the gold.

This is weirdly on topic compered to the other answers. Go figure

[Saintheart]

Wait Burning Hate what? Could you be more specific?

Ancestral relic is an interesting talent but
1) it can cost up to 440.000 gp (could still get to +20 if it wans't epic level territory)

2) this PC do not have a year to do nothing but pray at the relic to convert the 440k in enchantments.

3) I fear that I might get mugged, again, and I can't lose both the feat and the gold.

This is weirdly on topic compered to the other answers. Go figure

Pelor the Burning Hate is just an old in-joke. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?443306-quot-Pelor-the-Burning-Hate-quot-(from-Wizards-forum)) Basically, Pelor's a LG god on normal standards, but if you're not restricted to alignment in terms of spells, then there's nothing to stop you casting utterly evil spells in the name of a Good deity, and you should be picking from BoVD for maximum stupidity since that's the sourcebook he's using.

[Trandir]

Pelor the Burning Hate is just an old in-joke. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?443306-quot-Pelor-the-Burning-Hate-quot-(from-Wizards-forum)) Basically, Pelor's a LG god on normal standards, but if you're not restricted to alignment in terms of spells, then there's nothing to stop you casting utterly evil spells in the name of a Good deity, and you should be picking from BoVD for maximum stupidity since that's the sourcebook he's using.

ooooooooooh. I like it. Next PC will be something like that.

[Telonius]

Well, rules #1 and #2 mean no critfishers or rogues, respectively. Rule #10 means you shouldn't bother with any character that relies on attack rolls. Rule #4 suggests a wisdom-based caster, and rule #7 improves blasting since it bypasses SR now.

So the obvious answer is to play a cleric :smallbiggrin:

I don't think that it means *no* rogues precisely. Just a lot of Rogue1 dips in anything melee (since you'd get 4x skill points whenever you do it).

[pabelfly]

No wonder you were having so much difficulty building your thief when the system unnecessarily handicaps martial characters (and rogues particularly) so much.

[Korwin]

My DM uses weird rules:
Crits do not require a second roll to confirm and are not confirmed to hit, if the roll+bonus is inferior to the enemy AC it still miss, but it doubles just the weapon dice damage;

One sneak attack per round;Doesn't really change much, I would expect most enemies to be immune against crits and sneak attack at high levels anyway.


No errata or really any game rule that is not included in the DMG or the PHB, but we can take things from all manuals; (this means no swift or immediate actions) Cant parse this one. Is the meaning: No spells apart from the PHB?


You get a "sixth sense" roll (wisdom roll) to avoid nefarious things like surprise attacks, traps and other things that you can't see coming;Might be useful at low levels?


Clerics can get away with almost anything ignoring the allignement and dogma of his diety;Like in Ebberon? See no problem here.


Teleport (of any level) requires a direct knowledge of the place you want to go;
I would want more specific information about this. Might be an positive change.
If I have specific direct knowledge about an room, but this room is on an ship and this ship is moving. Could I teleport into it?
If not, an ship based Headquarter for the party might be an Option.


Spell resistance can only negate non-damaging spells and it reduces the damage taken from spells (each point of SR reduces the damage taken by spells that deals damage by 1, SR 15 reduced magic damage by 15);
Pretty shure evocation is still an bad School, if it's not an specific optimized build


Taking the first level of any class provides all the benefit of first levels, starting gold, 4 times the skill ranks and max HD;
Any first level in an base class or any first Level in any class (including PRC's)?


Skill checks can critical fail on a natural 1 but do not critical succed on a natural 20;
Might be worth it, to get some rerolls.


Rolling a 1 on an attack roll end the turn and provokes AoO;
Archer?


Also he is using monster/npc/enemies from: the 3.0 monster manual, the book of vile darkness and the pathfinder npc codex;
The only big difference I think, is DR? Is he using 3.0 Damage Reduction.
If yes, that's arguable not that bad.


He can homebrew anything he likes (PrC to make those sweet NPC ex-machina and some broken item he throws at us sometimes) but we players have to stick to the manuals;I personally like same rules for Player and GM's. I am assuming, he using/abusing this regulary?


Take 10/20 provides a +10/20 circumstance bonus (or untyped since it stacks with anything) to the roll, it takes a couple of minutes/hours to do so, (skill mastery reduces the time of take 10 allowinf to do it in combat);Yes, time to get some rerolls.


WBL is completely broken, disregarded and not considered when calculating the CR;More money to loot...


XP is not calculated by any mean. As he wants to enter epic levels to break the game even more;Common around here.


Also he might or might not change a rule on the flight during a session.Sound only barely accectable, IF he manages to keep consistent and it doesn't happen to often.


I do not know how to behave this is weird rules.[/QUOTE]

[pabelfly]

Encouraging rerolling makes me think of binding the vestige Balam. It's a fifth-level vestige, so you can't use it until level 8 Binder or equivalent, but you get a reroll on an attack, skill check or saving throw once every five rounds.

[Trandir]

Doesn't really change much, I would expect most enemies to be immune against crits and sneak attack at high levels anyway.
Doesn't change much but it still kills some already weak classes

Cant parse this one. Is the meaning: No spells apart from the PHB?
[/QUOTE]

Might be useful at low levels?

I feel like it's pretty useless



Like in Ebberon? See no problem here.

THis one is in fact quite nice, but paladins have to stay LG and that is weird



I would want more specific information about this. Might be an positive change.
If I have specific direct knowledge about an room, but this room is on an ship and this ship is moving. Could I teleport into it?
If not, an ship based Headquarter for the party might be an Option.


If you have been to a place and can remember it then you can teleport in it, the ship scenario you'd have to know both the room and the general area where the ship is, if you fail to provide the location of the ship you get teleported to a random room near that point that is similar to the one you wanted to go. Not knowing the place but knowing where it is, intercontinental travel, does not work.



Pretty shure evocation is still an bad School, if it's not an specific optimized build

Yep pretty weird



Any first level in an base class or any first Level in any class (including PRC's)?


Both base and PrC get the full package. Dip extravaganza



Might be worth it, to get some rerolls.

Requiring a reroll to not get screwed doing a ride check with +27 modifier isn't exactly nice



Archer?

They get no AoO



The only big difference I think, is DR? Is he using 3.0 Damage Reduction.
If yes, that's arguable not that bad.


The big difference is that 3.0 had very low AC and HP for his monsters, so they are rather underwelming in fights, the BoVD enemies are rare and usually he takes from that book traps, poisons and spells, and the pathfinder enemies I am not sure how a lv 17 pc compares to a pathfinder npc of the same level





I personally like same rules for Player and GM's. I am assuming, he using/abusing this regulary?


Before I joined this party he put them in a boss fight, they where losing, badly, so he made appear the npc it shot the boss with a single swing. Or that time an assassin decapitated the host, killed the archmage and we could see only a glimpse of him while he was leaving the ballroom. Or that other time an npc stole all our gear, all, while we where sleeping whitout waking us, that thing stole a proestetic arm linked by magic to the sorcerer. how the heck do you justify that?



Yes, time to get some rerolls.





More money to loot...

What I meant with that is that our pc ae fighting CR appropriate monsters with random equipment and worth far less than the wbl. But we get all the llot we could ever want.



Common around here.

Those are all the houserules, some are weird some are normal, but 40k XP in a single session for a duel is probably a tid much for most tables



Sound only barely accectable, IF he manages to keep consistent and it doesn't happen to often.

Somewhat, I got some warblade maneuvers and then earlyer this week i discovered that he do not use swift actions.

[QUOTE=Korwin;24140431]

[Willie the Duck]

My DM uses weird rules:

Crits do not require a second roll to confirm and are not confirmed to hit, if the roll+bonus is inferior to the enemy AC it still miss, but it doubles just the weapon dice damage;

One sneak attack per round;

No errata or really any game rule that is not included in the DMG or the PHB, but we can take things from all manuals; (this means no swift or immediate actions)

You get a "sixth sense" roll (wisdom roll) to avoid nefarious things like surprise attacks, traps and other things that you can't see coming;

Clerics can get away with almost anything ignoring the allignement and dogma of his diety;

Teleport (of any level) requires a direct knowledge of the place you want to go;

Spell resistance can only negate non-damaging spells and it reduces the damage taken from spells (each point of SR reduces the damage taken by spells that deals damage by 1, SR 15 reduced magic damage by 15);

Taking the first level of any class provides all the benefit of first levels, starting gold, 4 times the skill ranks and max HD;

Skill checks can critical fail on a natural 1 but do not critical succed on a natural 20;

Rolling a 1 on an attack roll end the turn and provokes AoO;


Also he is using monster/npc/enemies from: the 3.0 monster manual, the book of vile darkness and the pathfinder npc codex;

Power attack with a two handed weapon does not increases the bonus damage (this one is completely random and unnecessary);

He can homebrew anything he likes (PrC to make those sweet NPC ex-machina and some broken item he throws at us sometimes) but we players have to stick to the manuals;

Take 10/20 provides a +10/20 circumstance bonus (or untyped since it stacks with anything) to the roll, it takes a couple of minutes/hours to do so, (skill mastery reduces the time of take 10 allowinf to do it in combat);

WBL is completely broken, disregarded and not considered when calculating the CR;

XP is not calculated by any mean. As he wants to enter epic levels to break the game even more;

Also he might or might not change a rule on the flight during a session.


I do not know how to behave this is weird rules.


Well honestly, other than being a phenomenal case of rearranging the deck chairs and ignoring the icebergs in the system*, none of this seems specifically extra-out-there except if they decide to curb-stomp you with all the options they are reserving for themselves.
*The one about SR for direct damage spells being converted to damage reduction being a grand case of 'sure there will be winners and losers with this change, but honestly what big picture issue did it address?'

Mind you, a lot of it isn't good, but it's unsurprising. This reminds me a lot of the house rules that people tended to implement right in 2000-2001, when people were just breaking in the system and hadn't 'figured out' all the game-breaks in the system (especially people who were not on the forums and such). If you haven't figured out CoDzilla, or all the ways that a wizard makes others irrelevant, well than things like a rogue getting to super-spam SA damage can seem intimidatingly large. You'd think they'd have figured out that they were wrong, but oftentimes massively houseruled groups like this operate within their own assumptions well enough that they become self sustaining. In my own personal experience, the group I know where this is the case no one ever wanted to play batman wizard or always-bear druid or the like, so, in the end, at least for them, that such things could exist wasn't relevant. Also, it was a very RP heavy group, where actually fighting was a rarity, and the #1 way to resolve a situation was neither strength at combat nor spell loadout, but playing the DM, so to speak.

I would give it a shot. It probably will be a pretty poor 3e experience, but it might be a decent roleplaying experience.

[Quentinas]

My DM uses weird rules:

Crits do not require a second roll to confirm and are not confirmed to hit, if the roll+bonus is inferior to the enemy AC it still miss, but it doubles just the weapon dice damage;

Well so no critical based build , which could be not so bad ,and is more difficult for a big group of critters to take down someone who have


One sneak attack per round;

So if i have a rogue or a similiar class based on the sneak attack i can make only one attack with the sneak attack and the other attacks doing only my normal weapon damage? So basically a rogue can do very little in many fights so avoid that (this apply even to other class who use precision damage for example scout?)



No errata or really any game rule that is not included in the DMG or the PHB, but we can take things from all manuals; (this means no swift or immediate actions)

Well so only the systems presented in DMG or PHB, so no psionics no binders, no incarnum or without any swift actions and other rule presented (like new use of some skills)? For me would be bad in each case, in the first because i could only use prestige classes for the base classes from PHB , while the second would be bad because many of my played characters had a way to use the swift action even only to use some magic items or used a use of a skill not presented in the PHB Maybe someone can get confused with the immediate action , but as concept should be easy.



You get a "sixth sense" roll (wisdom roll) to avoid nefarious things like surprise attacks, traps and other things that you can't see coming;

Not bad for wisdom based class, it can have some use but should be rare as situations, even if this help because for the sneak attack rule he has avoided the rogue and his trapfinding




Clerics can get away with almost anything ignoring the allignement and dogma of his diety;

On one hand this could be reasonable if we think about Eberron but on the roleplaying that would be bad for me (if i choose to venerate Heironeus it sounds strange to me that i could act like Hextor for example) but one can live with this rule at the end



Teleport (of any level) requires a direct knowledge of the place you want to go;

Wait... so if i use benign transposition i have to make a knowledge check for the place where my ally is ??? I can say yes to this rule only if i don't see directly the place , and even in this case i would like which type of knowledge i should do



Spell resistance can only negate non-damaging spells and it reduces the damage taken from spells (each point of SR reduces the damage taken by spells that deals damage by 1, SR 15 reduced magic damage by 15);

So if one could found a spell which do damage only on a failed check that would be not affected by SR? Well another way to make the enemy go down more quickly especially if one can do a caster level check to avoid the reduction of damage, if not some damaging spell will be not useful against enemies with SR (each spell who do multiple damage like magic missile)



Taking the first level of any class provides all the benefit of first levels, starting gold, 4 times the skill ranks and max HD;

DIpping festival ! Well because it apply to prestige class i would like to know the starting gold in that case but the worst thing is the skill ranks because that is too much to be balanced



Skill checks can critical fail on a natural 1 but do not critical succed on a natural 20;

So probably this one is to balance the previous one or to keep out characters that can do a DC 40 with 1 on the roll (i had a character at level 13 that could use a True resurrection from scroll basically each time )... For me is bad because to gain that +39 on the roll you had to used some of your resources but if there is this alone one could still accept for me



Rolling a 1 on an attack roll end the turn and provokes AoO;

So basically the full attack with many natural attacks, two weapon fighting , and in a lesser way the full attack from the BAB is penalized... i would like to know why



Also he is using monster/npc/enemies from: the 3.0 monster manual, the book of vile darkness and the pathfinder npc codex;

Well he is the DM so he can... i had some encounter with monster 3.0 or from older edition but the DM adapted them



Power attack with a two handed weapon does not increases the bonus damage (this one is completely random and unnecessary);

So after he had eliminated two weapon fighting, sneak attack, natural attack,he penalized even power attack... well the melee character will have a bad time .



He can homebrew anything he likes (PrC to make those sweet NPC ex-machina and some broken item he throws at us sometimes) but we players have to stick to the manuals;

He is the DM again and is not prohibited homebrew until he can balance thing and not doing NPC who steal each scene from the PC because one time could happen , but not each time



Take 10/20 provides a +10/20 circumstance bonus (or untyped since it stacks with anything) to the roll, it takes a couple of minutes/hours to do so, (skill mastery reduces the time of take 10 allowinf to do it in combat);

This is for the same reason for the automatic fail on the 1 on the roll he doesn't want that a character could pass a skill check even without rolling the dice



WBL is completely broken, disregarded and not considered when calculating the CR;

Well this can be resolved with a cratfing characters (hoping that you will not have 1 on the roll to craft something because you would fail) but what can be crafted would be on his territory and i don't know from which manual you could craft



XP is not calculated by any mean. As he wants to enter epic levels to break the game even more;

This can be normal on some table even when i was a DM i calculated the XP separately, saying at the end of a session you can level up (but not at each session)



Also he might or might not change a rule on the flight during a session.

Sometimes it have happened to me, especially to simplify some rules, but i have premeditated that ,or I used some particular field to make that if he is clear about the rules this could not be a problem



I do not know how to behave this is weird rules.
Well from what we have seen a spelcasting crafting character could do something with these homerules , because you would have quick XP , many moneys , and spells , without having to use any attacks now for a build i should think about that , the first thing i would ask if i was at that table Why? (especially for the one who penalizes melee characters)

In the group that i played some of these rules could be used , but we all known which big combo one could do especially with casters so the DM only prevented some of these combos , and for magic items he accepted to use something for the melee characters but what used his NPC we knew that we could use .I can suggest to try is different from the classical D&D game, and you probably should adapt to make a character not hindered by these rule

[zlefin]

Playing a full caster seems like the best bet; any of them should work fine enough under those rules.
I'm a little unclear on the actual question though: are you wondering more like what build to take, or how to respond to the dm's nonsense, or something else?

what optimization level is the party at?
and what do you *want* to play?

[DwarvenWarCorgi]

But if all players get is phb mechanics, how could you play a binder?

I'm gonna chime in with the try to get him to listen to reason while looking for another game, while house rules are one thing, and DM fiat is part of any game, this kind of bull is not worth it.

Literally got up and left a table of guys I've been friends with for years because of one DM who acted like this. Total attention hog and "this is the way it works, period" kind of guy. Was playing dead lands 1e and had an above average strength score and plenty of time to do it and was told I wasn't allowed to throw a stick of dynamite THROUGH a glass window I was standing next to. Next session he told us we weren't allowed to have sourcebooks and was collecting them all. I had paid for half of the ones in the room and asked when I'd get them returned. He said maybe at the end of the campaign. I laughed, packed my stuff and left. Took a while, but now I play weekly with all the same dudes except him and we have a good time.

[Buufreak]

Well, there's this simple 4 step plan:

Get up
Walk away from gaming table
Go home
Find new group/DM



I see the blue text, I accept the blue text, but I choose to ignore the blue text. This is honestly the best suggestion I can ever give past any question about a dm with house rules and a "I'm right, deal with it" attitude. If you are having to ask how to enjoy this setup, I think you should already know the answer.

[JNAProductions]

So, I'd recommend one of two things:

1) Talk with your DM. Explain that the rules change a lot, plenty of it for the worse, and ask for an explanation on why they're implementing these rules. Try to work with them to get a better ruleset.

2) Walk away. Even if they're your friend, just say "I'd rather not game under those rules. I'd be happy to hang out outside D&D, but I'm good not playing."

[FaerieGodfather]

I see the blue text, I accept the blue text, but I choose to ignore the blue text. This is honestly the best suggestion I can ever give past any question about a dm with house rules and a "I'm right, deal with it" attitude. If you are having to ask how to enjoy this setup, I think you should already know the answer.

Pretty much this. I mean, the OP knows these rules are bad and everyone here knows these rules are bad, the DM's attitude suggest that they're pathologically incapable of knowing that they're bad and that they are just going to patch over them with arbitrary rulings whenever there's a problem.

It's possible this is still a good game, that the DM is imaginative and otherwise fair to the players.The fact that the rules are a hot mess, always subject to change, and the other players are tolerating it, says by necessity that this game is not going to be a rules-focused game where you need to be optimized-- the OP can just muddle through, like all the other players, and everything is going to be just fine.

But the fact that the OP is here, asking how to play in this hot mess, says that playing a game with this DM under these rules is not going to be fun for them, and they should listen to that voice.

[FearlessGnome]

Well... Let's put it like this. If anyone else in your group has been thinking about running a campaign, you should encourage them to do so.

If you still enjoy these games enough that you actually want to take part in them, then what you want to do depends on how the DM reacts to a few other things. First, if you manage to find something 'too strong' that you are able to pull off within the confines of the custom rules he set, does he get salty and add more rules/accuse you of sabotaging the game? And if he throws something at you and you manage to find a way to turn it to your advantage - stealing a custom item the enemy had, for example, or capturing a homebrew monster with exotic abilities that could be useful if you trained/imprisoned it - does he just refuse to let you benefit in unintended ways?

If he lets you 'win' hard even with the weird rules, there might be room to salvage things and get to a point where things are healthy. You can work with that. If he gets hostile and shuts down creativity, then unfortunately you can't really improve the situation because this guy likes the feeling of control he gets when the players are constantly at a bit of a disadvantage and in his power.

[Faily]

Well, there's this simple 4 step plan:

Get up
Walk away from gaming table
Go home
Find new group/DM




Sarcasm aside, this is still the best advice.

Honestly, I've left a group for way less than these houserules.

[Trandir]

Well... Let's put it like this. If anyone else in your group has been thinking about running a campaign, you should encourage them to do so.

If you still enjoy these games enough that you actually want to take part in them, then what you want to do depends on how the DM reacts to a few other things. First, if you manage to find something 'too strong' that you are able to pull off within the confines of the custom rules he set, does he get salty and add more rules/accuse you of sabotaging the game? And if he throws something at you and you manage to find a way to turn it to your advantage - stealing a custom item the enemy had, for example, or capturing a homebrew monster with exotic abilities that could be useful if you trained/imprisoned it - does he just refuse to let you benefit in unintended ways?

If he lets you 'win' hard even with the weird rules, there might be room to salvage things and get to a point where things are healthy. You can work with that. If he gets hostile and shuts down creativity, then unfortunately you can't really improve the situation because this guy likes the feeling of control he gets when the players are constantly at a bit of a disadvantage and in his power.

Well as a matter of fact thi campaign is near his ending, and the DM do not want to continue after the final quest but we would like to run another campaign once this one is ended (the current DM won't not master again and one of the players would have to do it)



Sarcasm aside, this is still the best advice.

Honestly, I've left a group for way less than these houserules.

Two thing:
1 is the blue the meme or sarcastic color in this forum?
2 really? They aren't that bad

[pabelfly]

Why not take up the GM role yourself?

[Doctor Awkward]

The Natural 1 rule makes all characters that depend on attack rolls a trap. You have a 5% chance every round of doing nothing.

As a cleric, you are relegated to the role of primary spellcaster in this system to have any effectiveness. If you go the summoning or planar binding route you should definitely focus on the creatures with offensive spells. A possible route for blasting as a cleric might involve Domain Spontaneity: War to allow for spontaneous conversion of flame strike and the usual Divine Metamagic shenanigans except instead of Persist, go the Maximize, Empower, Quicken route. Under this plan Ordained Champion might be worthwhile if only for auto-quicken on War Domain spells.

Other than that? Play an enchantment specialist wizard and focus on mind-controlling or dominating enemies that you encounter. Just make every effort to skip combat altogether.

[Trandir]

Why not take up the GM role yourself?

I'd like to try but: I have no experience whatsoever DMing and they probably wouldn't like facing my enemies or my dumb ideas and I got some good ones for PC/boss material.

Anyway this campaign isn't ended yet so I do not have to worry about it now.



The Natural 1 rule makes all characters that depend on attack rolls a trap. You have a 5% chance every round of doing nothing.


The nat 1 rule end your turn but you still get any attacks prior to the 1, if a full attack composed by 7 a 1 on the 3rd roll you still get the first two attacks. Still sucks but you get something.

[Doctor Awkward]

The nat 1 rule end your turn but you still get any attacks prior to the 1, if a full attack composed by 7 a 1 on the 3rd roll you still get the first two attacks. Still sucks but you get something.

Even if that were the case you are also provoking an attack from the enemy in return. With four attacks per round you have an 18% chance of doing this. At seven attacks there is a 30% chance.

...Although that does give me an idea. What happens if the enemy rolls a natural 1 on their AoO? Do you then get one?

Because if so the unluck spell in the SpC would be an auto-win under these rules even more than it usually is. An enemy under the effect of that spell has to roll every die twice and take the worse of the two results. In that instance a hypothetical seven attacks per round would have a 51% chance of provoking every round they full-attacked.

[Trandir]

Even if that were the case you are also provoking an attack from the enemy in return. With four attacks per round you have an 18% chance of doing this. At seven attacks there is a 30% chance.

...Although that does give me an idea. What happens if the enemy rolls a natural 1 on their AoO? Do you then get one?

Because if so the unluck spell in the SpC would be an auto-win under these rules even more than it usually is. An enemy under the effect of that spell has to roll every die twice and take the worse of the two results. In that instance a hypothetical seven attacks per round would have a 51% chance of provoking every round they full-attacked.

Naaaaa you get to do AoO only during the opponents turn.

Unluck spell would work exactly as you say, but more ofthen than not if would just double the chance of a natural 1 form 5% to 10%. But you still get to win a will save with a third level spell

[RNightstalker]

This DM is not going to change, so I ask random stranger on the internet how to get along and have more fun if possible.

If the DM isn't going to change, what is stopping you from changing...your DM? Rule #1 of DnD (or really any game): have fun. You've had a bunch of posts of trying to deal with your DM's nonsense, and you keep coming back with things that are changing on the fly. The DM will keep doing this stupid stuff if you keep sticking around and putting up with it.

This random stranger agrees with other random strangers on this thread:

In your situation, "have more fun" means "find new DM".

[Quertus]

The damage get reduced by the SR, a maximized fireball that deals 60 damage if hits dragon with SR 34 and it fails the save would take 26 fire damage

Out of curiosity, if it failed the save, would it take 13, or 0?


I have 10 potions of cure light wounds and gloves of dexterity +6 at level 20, and about 900k that I can't spend because "there are no magic item shops here".
The cleric has random itemsbut armor+mace have something like +8 enchantment each, plus other items
The master of many forms had litterally no items and maybe he got something last session but I do not have his sheet so who knows.
The sorcerer has infinite maximize spell as a custom item and a chalice that gives him 5 extra spells per level.

I think broken in any way possible

Wow. I was going to ask if the sorcerer was the GM's SO, but then I read this:



Yep, one time he used a 12 headed hydra against 3 lv 17 PCs since it had cr 17. It got demolished in 2 rounds, (there was something like 60 meters and the sorcerer summoned on the first one but it got melted in 2 attacks)

So, I almost hesitate to ask, but is the game… balanced? Does your general lack of items usually balance the terrible monsters and the boosted Sorcerer?

Or is it more "Balance? What's that? I'm just making random rules because I enjoy toying with you"?


Before I joined this party he put them in a boss fight, they where losing, badly, so he made appear the npc it shot the boss with a single swing. Or that time an assassin decapitated the host, killed the archmage and we could see only a glimpse of him while he was leaving the ballroom. Or that other time an npc stole all our gear, all, while we where sleeping whitout waking us, that thing stole a proestetic arm linked by magic to the sorcerer. how the heck do you justify that?

Sounds very much like he wants you to ride the rails. Do you enjoy riding the rails of GM story time? If so, put on your bunny slippers, grab a pillow, snuggle with your teddy bear, and let him read you a story of your adventures. If not, then there probably is no fixing things - walk away. In other words, don't stress the little things, look at the big picture - are your styles compatable? If yes, great; if not, bail. Simple as that.

[Trandir]

Out of curiosity, if it failed the save, would it take 13, or 0?

0 obviusly, it works just like normal resistance

Wow. I was going to ask if the sorcerer was the GM's SO

What's a SO?

So, I almost hesitate to ask, but is the game… balanced? Does your general lack of items usually balance the terrible monsters and the boosted Sorcerer?

The fun part is that I am the more optimised of the 4 players. The sorcerer melted the hydra, at level 17, a 3.0 12 headed hydra with 130 hp, by summoning a dragon ally and using a fireball.

Or is it more "Balance? What's that? I'm just making random rules because I enjoy toying with you"?

I honestly do not know


Sounds very much like he wants you to ride the rails. Do you enjoy riding the rails of GM story time? If so, put on your bunny slippers, grab a pillow, snuggle with your teddy bear, and let him read you a story of your adventures. If not, then there probably is no fixing things - walk away. In other words, don't stress the little things, look at the big picture - are your styles compatable? If yes, great; if not, bail. Simple as that.

My suspect is that he improvises nearly everything. More than railroad for a particular ending he builds the raild on the spot

[EldritchWeaver]

What's a SO?


Significant Other. Like a girlfriend/boyfriend.

[Trandir]

Significant Other. Like a girlfriend/boyfriend.

Oooooooooooh

Man I am bad with acronyms

[Psychoalpha]

2 really? They aren't that bad

Yes, they are. They are objectively so very bad. Leaving aside the Teleport rule, since that's something people have a lot of different feelings about, the rest range from bad because kind of dumb to very, very bad.


Crits do not require a second roll to confirm but it doubles just the weapon dice damage

Bad.

So it doesn't double any static bonuses? i.e. 1d8+10 becomes 2d8+10 not 2d8+20? If so, terrible debuff to martial characters of most types, characters who are already at the bottom of the pile in terms of 'gets nice things'. The whole 'still need to surpass AC' thing is not so much of an issue since you only do that on a natural 20 normally, but whole swaths of character builds have crit ranges larger than just 20.


One sneak attack per round

Very, very, very, very, very bad.

Whatever people might shrug off as "Oh well, lots of stuff is immune to crits at higher level.", this is still completely gutting one of the core features of an entire class. A rogue who pulls off a surprise attack and gets 5 attacks with 5d6 sneak attack is losing out on 20d6 damage in that surprise round. That is just outrageous nonsense.


No errata or really any game rule that is not included in the DMG or the PHB, but we can take things from all manuals; (this means no swift or immediate actions)

Bad? Super bad? Super dumb?

Honestly, I'm confused by this. 'No swift or immediate actions'? It's been a while since I played 3.x, but weren't swift and immediate actions just part of the game? I mean... the SRD for 3.5 says Quicken Spell turns the casting of a spell into a Swift action, so if there are no Swift actions is it just a free action? And since there's no hard limit on free actions can you just cast as many Quickened Spells as you want? :p


You get a "sixth sense" roll (wisdom roll) to avoid nefarious things like surprise attacks, traps and other things that you can't see coming

Bad?

This is mostly bad because Search and Spot are bad skills and 'Perception' used by Pathfinder and other games covers a much wider range of 'notice stuff' that also includes this kind of sixth sense reaction. So maybe the least bad, outside of (maybe) the Teleport rule.


Clerics can get away with almost anything ignoring the allignement and dogma of his diety;

Bad or just dumb.

A Chaotic Evil Cleric of a god of mercy and healing is dumb, and any house rule that encourages or allows it is bad. This is more of a personal preference thing though. :p


Teleport (of any level) requires a direct knowledge of the place you want to go;

Enh. I don't have the issues with Teleport that some people do, but whatever.


Spell resistance can only negate non-damaging spells and it reduces the damage taken from spells;

Bad because of bias.

Seriously, rogues lose out on one of their defining class features and martial types in general have their crit ability neutered, but spellcasters get to partially ignore SR with damage spells? Ridiculous.


Taking the first level of any class provides all the benefit of first levels, starting gold, 4 times the skill ranks and max HD

Bad because it's a trap.

Even with this rule, a 10th level character with 1st level in 10 classes is not going to deal with most CR10 threats very well. :p


Skill checks can critical fail on a natural 1 but do not critical succed on a natural 20

Very bad.

You make a ton of skill checks over the course of a campaign. Adding a 5% critical failure chance to even the most skilled expert in the world is a garbage rule.


Rolling a 1 on an attack roll end the turn and provokes AoO

Very bad.

You have just as much chance of your 1 being on your 1st attack as on your 7th. Garbage rule that once again punishes martials while leaving spellcasters mostly untouched since they either don't require attack rolls or their turn is mostly over by the time they make one anyway.


monster/npc/enemies from: the 3.0 monster manual, the book of vile darkness and the pathfinder npc codex

Only bad if he's not modifying them for 3.5 or whatever you're actually using.


He can homebrew anything he likes (PrC to make those sweet NPC ex-machina and some broken item he throws at us sometimes) but we players have to stick to the manuals

Okay, not bad as a rule, because DMs can pretty much always homebrew anything they like. Given his apparently suuuuper bad understanding of how the game actually works, though, this seems worse than it would otherwise be.


WBL is completely broken, disregarded and not considered when calculating the CR

Bad but just... agh.

It doesn't really matter if he's not using WBL because the CRs you can handle are already totally unknowable given that he's gutting core class features and changing wide swaths of rules interactions with the attack/skill/take 10/etc rules. The sentiment suggests, once again, that he doesn't really understand how the game works at all to begin with.


XP is not calculated by any mean. As he wants to enter epic levels to break the game even more;

Okay, not bad, if it actually means the DM just tells you when to level. But then you said something about 40k xp after a duel or something so I assume you mean his XP awards are just arbitrary rather than based on a system, which is bad because it is dumb.


Also he might or might not change a rule on the flight during a session.

Bad. Just the worst.

DMs who will just change rules on the fly are not DMs I want to play with, period, so... good luck to you, I guess.


I am having fun but the mechanical part of this game is a nightmare.

I mean, I love apple pie but if it's made using poisonous apples I probably won't eat it no matter how much I'd enjoy the taste.

[smetzger]

If you play a caster most of these aren't too bad. So, play a caster.
It is the perceived inconsistency and the possible changing of rules on the fly that can be frustrating.

Here is what I would do...
1) Talk to the DM. Acknowledge that it is his game and he can set the rules. But ask him to be consistent in application of the rules.

2) Ask him to spell out the rules. If he doesn't write them down, do it yourself. As he adds 'new' rules add them to the document.

3) When you go up a level and get new abilities/spells ask him to read the ability and spells and clarify how they work in his game.
Point out particular things which could break his game.

4) Don't try to break his game. That is just rude. If you do it by mistake that's ok, but don't set out to "prove his house rules are garbage by breaking his game"

[Tindragon]

Well, there's this simple 4 step plan:

Get up
Walk away from gaming table
Go home
Find new group/DM




+1

Seriously, this isn't going to go well for anyone who actually likes using RAW as RAF.

[Trandir]

Oh shut here we go again



Bad.

So it doesn't double any static bonuses? i.e. 1d8+10 becomes 2d8+10 not 2d8+20? If so, terrible debuff to martial characters of most types, characters who are already at the bottom of the pile in terms of 'gets nice things'. The whole 'still need to surpass AC' thing is not so much of an issue since you only do that on a natural 20 normally, but whole swaths of character builds have crit ranges larger than just 20.





Yep, statistic bonus are left out of the crit multiplier


Very, very, very, very, very bad.

Whatever people might shrug off as "Oh well, lots of stuff is immune to crits at higher level.", this is still completely gutting one of the core features of an entire class. A rogue who pulls off a surprise attack and gets 5 attacks with 5d6 sneak attack is losing out on 20d6 damage in that surprise round. That is just outrageous nonsense.


About this I am asking him a decent explanation and he doesn't seem to provide one so I might get him to allow multiple SA and maybe even on volleys. Bt then I suspect that we will face only verdant oozing elemental golems with 25 rogue levels and permanent true vision just to avoit SA completely





Bad? Super bad? Super dumb?

Honestly, I'm confused by this. 'No swift or immediate actions'? It's been a while since I played 3.x, but weren't swift and immediate actions just part of the game? I mean... the SRD for 3.5 says Quicken Spell turns the casting of a spell into a Swift action, so if there are no Swift actions is it just a free action? And since there's no hard limit on free actions can you just cast as many Quickened Spells as you want? :p

I am confused too. He do not want to use swift or immediate actions so everything that uses them is banned, but all books are legal soooooooooooooooo it's hard to use most of the material.

Naaaaaa quicken spell in his first form allowed a single spell to be cast as a free action each round. Also he has a strange relation with actions, "you can cast a spell and move in a turn and no more unless you have the feat in that case you can cast two spells". And it throws me off that he doesn't just say that a spell require (in the PHB) a standard action and therefore you can't cast two in a round.





Bad?

This is mostly bad because Search and Spot are bad skills and 'Perception' used by Pathfinder and other games covers a much wider range of 'notice stuff' that also includes this kind of sixth sense reaction. So maybe the least bad, outside of (maybe) the Teleport rule.


It is bad when you have to roll for sixth sense instead of listen for an assassin attacking you from behind




Bad or just dumb.

A Chaotic Evil Cleric of a god of mercy and healing is dumb, and any house rule that encourages or allows it is bad. This is more of a personal preference thing though. :p

This is maybe the least bad to be honest





Bad because of bias.

Seriously, rogues lose out on one of their defining class features and martial types in general have their crit ability neutered, but spellcasters get to partially ignore SR with damage spells? Ridiculous.

This is one of the weird ones introduced to "help defeating higher level monsters"




Bad because it's a trap.

Even with this rule, a 10th level character with 1st level in 10 classes is not going to deal with most CR10 threats very well. :p




Nobody sayes to multilcass at every level but it helps to meet some weird requirement of some PrC like perform or craft or profession



Very bad.

You make a ton of skill checks over the course of a campaign. Adding a 5% critical failure chance to even the most skilled expert in the world is a garbage rule.

I know




Very bad.

You have just as much chance of your 1 being on your 1st attack as on your 7th. Garbage rule that once again punishes martials while leaving spellcasters mostly untouched since they either don't require attack rolls or their turn is mostly over by the time they make one anyway.

You still get the attacks previous to the 1 but our master of many forms suffers from this





Only bad if he's not modifying them for 3.5 or whatever you're actually using.



Nope straight out of the books, so the CR are waked




Okay, not bad as a rule, because DMs can pretty much always homebrew anything they like. Given his apparently suuuuper bad understanding of how the game actually works, though, this seems worse than it would otherwise be.



Well not all of these houserules are bad (most of them are horrible but still), homebrewing is probably a tool of the master by the book but you still get to do it with somewhat balanced, not throwing arbitrary class features, magic items and spells just becouse you can and you need an exmachina




Bad but just... agh.

It doesn't really matter if he's not using WBL because the CRs you can handle are already totally unknowable given that he's gutting core class features and changing wide swaths of rules interactions with the attack/skill/take 10/etc rules. The sentiment suggests, once again, that he doesn't really understand how the game works at all to begin with.


Maybe, but i still I just want some magic items




Okay, not bad, if it actually means the DM just tells you when to level. But then you said something about 40k xp after a duel or something so I assume you mean his XP awards are just arbitrary rather than based on a system, which is bad because it is dumb.


Completely arbitrary and usually one level per session or more if in the last one we gained no levels, in 2 months the party got to lv 20 from 11





Bad. Just the worst.

DMs who will just change rules on the fly are not DMs I want to play with, period, so... good luck to you, I guess.


Thanks




I mean, I love apple pie but if it's made using poisonous apples I probably won't eat it no matter how much I'd enjoy the taste.



Ok this line got me. Really I was dying while writing this.

[Willie the Duck]

Honestly, I'm confused by this. 'No swift or immediate actions'? It's been a while since I played 3.x, but weren't swift and immediate actions just part of the game? I mean... the SRD for 3.5 says Quicken Spell turns the casting of a spell into a Swift action, so if there are no Swift actions is it just a free action? And since there's no hard limit on free actions can you just cast as many Quickened Spells as you want? :p

Swift and immediate actions were introduced partway through the run of the edition, and Quicken Spell was introduced in the PHB, so yes indeed there was a way to use the feat before these new action types were invented. It worked exactly as described in the PHB.


I am confused too. He do not want to use swift or immediate actions so everything that uses them is banned, but all books are legal soooooooooooooooo it's hard to use most of the material.

Naaaaaa quicken spell in his first form allowed a single spell to be cast as a free action each round. Also he has a strange relation with actions, "you can cast a spell and move in a turn and no more unless you have the feat in that case you can cast two spells". And it throws me off that he doesn't just say that a spell require (in the PHB) a standard action and therefore you can't cast two in a round.

That's a poorly worded way of saying what was how one explained swift actions before swift actions actually existed. D&DWiki (btw, not normally a good rules source, but in this case useful) seems to have the old, pre-swift/immediate action wording: "Quicken Spell [Metamagic] Benefit: Casting a quickened spell is a free action. You can perform another action, even casting another spell, in the same round as you cast a quickened spell. You may cast only one quickened spell per round."

[Silvercrys]

Yeah, the original 3.5 rules were that there were only three kinds of actions, Standard, Move, and Free, and Quicken Spell et al. were special free actions that you could only use once per turn.

I believe the rules were officially changed for the Expanded Psionics Handbook, but it was definitely in Complete Arcane.

I think the change was mostly to make it clear that casting a quickened psionic power or using a quickened SLA also prevented you from casting a quickened spell in the same round and clarify the timing on spells like Feather Fall.

[Quertus]

So, I almost hesitate to ask, but is the game… balanced? Does your general lack of items usually balance the terrible monsters and the boosted Sorcerer?

The fun part is that I am the more optimised of the 4 players. The sorcerer melted the hydra, at level 17, a 3.0 12 headed hydra with 130 hp, by summoning a dragon ally and using a fireball.



My suspect is that he improvises nearly everything. More than railroad for a particular ending he builds the raild on the spot

Just because the GM doesn't know the ending doesn't make the rails any less real.

But, if you are running the most optimized character… and have the least gear… your GM may just be railroading balance, because they (foolishly, IMO) believe that maintaining balance is their responsibility.

If you ask me, the strictly superior method for most tables is for game balance to be everyone's responsibility. Balance to the table. And ask the GM to help out if someone falls behind (or pulls ahead) in a way that the players cannot fix.

[PraxisVetli]

Rolling a 1 provokes and ends your turn sounds awesome.
Not sarcastic, I love brutal stuff like that!

[D+1]

Just because the GM doesn't know the ending doesn't make the rails any less real.

But, if you are running the most optimized character… and have the least gear… your GM may just be railroading balance, because they (foolishly, IMO) believe that maintaining balance is their responsibility.

If you ask me, the strictly superior method for most tables is for game balance to be everyone's responsibility. Balance to the table. And ask the GM to help out if someone falls behind (or pulls ahead) in a way that the players cannot fix.
I was thinking that the best way to describe this DM is that it isn't that they dislike fighter types and rogues, or that they really like spellcasters, their issue is that they are afraid to just let the game happen. They look at all the DIRECT attacks and damage that are being done by melee classes and are being cowed by the numbers they see. They don't see the numbers so plainly for spells and spells also SEEM much more constrained simply because they are a limited resource. But fighters get X number of attacks every round and do YdZ damage with each attack and it LOOKS like they're just going to overrun the game.

So they don't understand what's really going on mechanically/statistically. They don't try to work WITHIN the system to keep things from getting out of control - not that they've even actually SEEN their game get out of control. They made unsupported assumptions about what COULD happen and nerf it because they feel like if they don't then it WILL go pear-shaped, not realizing that they're fixing what isn't broken and causing more damage and frustration than their boogeyman fears that they think they're fixing. They're AFRAID of characters that are actually good at the things that they do.

Worst of all, they can't or won't actually identify their own concerns and EXPRESS THOSE CONCERNS to their players. The biggest failure here is, once again, communication. A DM who cannot explain in simple, direct terms WHY they are instituting various house rules has already flat out failed as DM. It should be as simple as, "I've decided to do this because I'm concerned about that. I want to do this other thing in this way because I simply think it will work better. I decided not to do something else because I just don't see how it actually does what it's doing." EVERY rule they come up with... Every ruling they come up with a DM should be willing and able to explain WHY they chose it. Even if they can't put it into words they should be able to say, "I can't put my finger on it but it just feels wrong, or feels better to me to have this happen instead of that."

When a DM can provide players with UNDERSTANDING of the game world they are actually presenting then even otherwise wacky and game-destructive house rules can be more easily dealt with by players. Convincing a DM to remove an undesirable rule is easier when they have communicated what it is they're concerned about and are trying to fix/prevent with that rule.

Something that it took me many, many years to come to grips with as a DM is to learn that the more house rules I DO have, the more difficult I am making it for myself to run the game (even to the point of making it stressful), and the more difficult it is for players to actually provide the kind of gameplay that it is I'm wanting to promote. If players can't (or won't!) follow all the rules I keep coming up with, or keep complaining about them, I am only making things worse for everyone. Players are unhappy with the game. _I_ am unhappy with the game and/or with the players. But rather than COMMUNICATE our issues with each other and seek solutions that will be more fun for all of us I keep all my DMing related thoughts secret and safe behind that Wall of Fear and Ignorance I keep between myself and my players.

Hey, DM's run the game and DM's DO make the rules, that's supposed to be an upside of BEING the DM, but some point a DM who is unable or unwilling to provide a game that players are happy with just has to be abandoned.

[animewatcha]

Here's a thought. Is there a build that can make the enemy ( DM ) reroll as much as possible throughout the adventuring day? Rerolling twice per combat is one thing. Rerolling 20 times in one round is bound to be annoying and wrist-hurtful.

[Buufreak]

Wrap it up kids. OP already ditched the game.

[Quertus]

I was thinking that the best way to describe this DM is that it isn't that they dislike fighter types and rogues, or that they really like spellcasters, their issue is that they are afraid to just let the game happen. They look at all the DIRECT attacks and damage that are being done by melee classes and are being cowed by the numbers they see. They don't see the numbers so plainly for spells and spells also SEEM much more constrained simply because they are a limited resource. But fighters get X number of attacks every round and do YdZ damage with each attack and it LOOKS like they're just going to overrun the game.

So they don't understand what's really going on mechanically/statistically. They don't try to work WITHIN the system to keep things from getting out of control - not that they've even actually SEEN their game get out of control. They made unsupported assumptions about what COULD happen and nerf it because they feel like if they don't then it WILL go pear-shaped, not realizing that they're fixing what isn't broken and causing more damage and frustration than their boogeyman fears that they think they're fixing. They're AFRAID of characters that are actually good at the things that they do.

Worst of all, they can't or won't actually identify their own concerns and EXPRESS THOSE CONCERNS to their players. The biggest failure here is, once again, communication. A DM who cannot explain in simple, direct terms WHY they are instituting various house rules has already flat out failed as DM. It should be as simple as, "I've decided to do this because I'm concerned about that. I want to do this other thing in this way because I simply think it will work better. I decided not to do something else because I just don't see how it actually does what it's doing." EVERY rule they come up with... Every ruling they come up with a DM should be willing and able to explain WHY they chose it. Even if they can't put it into words they should be able to say, "I can't put my finger on it but it just feels wrong, or feels better to me to have this happen instead of that."

When a DM can provide players with UNDERSTANDING of the game world they are actually presenting then even otherwise wacky and game-destructive house rules can be more easily dealt with by players. Convincing a DM to remove an undesirable rule is easier when they have communicated what it is they're concerned about and are trying to fix/prevent with that rule.

Something that it took me many, many years to come to grips with as a DM is to learn that the more house rules I DO have, the more difficult I am making it for myself to run the game (even to the point of making it stressful), and the more difficult it is for players to actually provide the kind of gameplay that it is I'm wanting to promote. If players can't (or won't!) follow all the rules I keep coming up with, or keep complaining about them, I am only making things worse for everyone. Players are unhappy with the game. _I_ am unhappy with the game and/or with the players. But rather than COMMUNICATE our issues with each other and seek solutions that will be more fun for all of us I keep all my DMing related thoughts secret and safe behind that Wall of Fear and Ignorance I keep between myself and my players.

Hey, DM's run the game and DM's DO make the rules, that's supposed to be an upside of BEING the DM, but some point a DM who is unable or unwilling to provide a game that players are happy with just has to be abandoned.

Wow. Pure poetry of understanding. Thank you for that. I've long laughed at just how many house rules some of my GMs have had, and just how silly many of those house rules were. But I never so clearly understood their dysfunction before reading this. "It's all so clear to me now".