House-Rules!

[jguy]

It's time for another houserule thread! I am making a compilation of mine that I think some of you might like and can find a couple. These are in no particular order, just as I thought of them.

• Half-Orc: +2 strength. +2 to Intimidate, Gather Information, and Sense Motive
• Half-Elf: Gain +1 skill point at each level as human (x4 at first level)
• Full Attack as Standard Action *as PC
• Druids use PHBII shape-shifting variant
• Spot and Listen are always class skills
• Hide and Move Silently are one skill. Stealth
• Disable Device and Open Lock are one skill. A Dex Check
• Tiefling and Aasmir are LA+0 for martial characters but remain +1 for casters
• Paladins are the alignment of their deities
• Clerics gain weapon proficiency of their deities favorite weapon
• All Exotic Weapons are considered Martial Weapons
• Rangers have "Two Handed Technique" which is Power Attack at level 2, Cleave at 6, and Favored Enemy Power Attack at 11th
• Fighter Progression uses the Races of War variant
• Barbarian uses the Races of War variant
• Sorcerers gain Eschew Materials Feat at level 1 and spell casting progression starts from level 2.

Anyway, those are my house rules that I will be using. Attempting to give martial characters a little bit more so they aren't completely overshadowed at higher levels.

[The Pressman]

Interesting. I definitely like the Spot and Listen always class skills part.

[dsmiles]

*as PC

Anyway, those are my house rules that I will be using. Attempting to give martial characters a little bit more so they aren't completely overshadowed at higher levels.

What exactly do you mean by "as PC?" Does that mean that the monsters and NPC can't do that? If so, that seems a little unbalanced in favor of the PCs...

[Aroka]

How do you find combining Hide and Move Silently, but not Spot and Listen, works?

[BobVosh]

•Tiefling and Aasmir are LA+0 for martial characters but remain +1 for casters

How does this work with bards, duskblades, and other halfcasters?

[Mongoose87]

• Pathfinder skills
• Toughness is Improved Toughness
• Others I forget

[Greenish]

Did you push sorcerer casting back another level?

[Greenish]

Looks like he advanced it a level.

Where did you get that? If their spellcasting starts at 2nd level, what are they even supposed to do the first?

[Gray Mage]

•Disable Device and Open Lock are one skill. A Dex Check

By a dex check you mean like a strenght check can break a door? If so they wouldn't be able to put ranks in it, which is not nice.

[dsmiles]

Characters die when their negative hp exceeds (con + lvl).

Hmm...I've gone the opposite way on that one. Everything (except deities and the tarrasque) dies at 0 HP.

[The Rose Dragon]

A few of my house rules.

- Lunar Exalted use these character generation rules.
- Essence 3 (and only Essence 3) costs 5 bonus points for Solars and Abyssals and 7 bonus points for Lunars.
- Solars and Abyssals get 5 free Excellencies chosen from their Caste and Favored Abilities and Lunars get 2 free Excellencies chosen from their Caste and Favored Attributes.
- All Dragon-blooded either get 1 dot of War and 1 dot of either Melee, Martial Arts or Archery OR 1 dot of Socialize and 1 dot of either Presence, Performance or Investigate for free.
- New fields of Craft can be opened by paying the cost of a one-dot Craft specialty. Anyone who buys dots in Craft starts with one free field. This specialty does not add dice to Craft rolls.
- There are only 9 fields of Craft: Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Wood, Glamour, Magitech, Vitriol and Genesis. Any other Craft ability either uses another Craft, the lower of Craft and another ability, or Lore.
- Sorcery and necromancy initiation Charms grant one spell of the appropriate circle for free.
- Flaws and Merits are allowed on a provisional and case-by-case basis. Note that Flaws will give me carte blanche for springing undesirable things on your character and should be carefully taken even when allowed. Past Lives is expressly forbidden.
- Artifact reinforced breastplate costs 2 dots, while artifact articulated plate and superheavy plate cost 3 dots.
- Homebrew Charms are allowed on a case-by-case basis as long as you provide me the source and ask for my approval. Anything not from a printed book is considered homebrew for the purposes of this rule.

[Roderick_BR]

Where did you get that? If their spellcasting starts at 2nd level, what are they even supposed to do the first?

He said progression, as in, he gains more things at 2nd level, although I think he meant 3rd level, that is where he doesn't gain a new spell level, like clerics and wizard does.

•Disable Device and Open Lock are one skill. A Dex Check

By a dex check you mean like a strenght check can break a door? If so they wouldn't be able to put ranks in it, which is not nice.

He means that the new combined skill is Dex based, since Disable Device is originally Int based.

•Tiefling and Aasmir are LA+0 for martial characters but remain +1 for casters

How does this work with bards, duskblades, and other halfcasters?

Better question: what about multiclass? Start as fighter, then you multiclass into wizard for a non-duskblade warrior/mage build.


On full attacks, I'm working on some rules, but will post it later when I get the wording less confusing.

[Greenish]

He said progression, as in, he gains more things at 2nd level, although I think he meant 3rd level, that is where he doesn't gain a new spell level, like clerics and wizard does.

I read the "[sorcerer's] spell casting progression starts from level 2" as meaning that they don't have spellcasting in the first level.

I mean, "spellcasting progression" usually means having a caster level and spells to cast, no? As in "ranger's spellcasting progression starts at 4th level".

[Milskidasith]

Why don't we just agree that the sorcerer thing needs a revision for clarity? Either way, it's bad; sorcerers being worthless at first level and a further level behind after that is very bad, and starting them with a higher caster level is somewhat unbalancing. I'd just give them wizard spell level progression with a couple more spells known on the higher level slots (not because they need the boost, but to make them comparable to wizards; if you don't see them needing the boost, then you may want to drop wizards more).

All exotic weapons being martial makes all martial weapons useless.

Clerics automatically getting weapon proficiency A: makes the war domain power rather bad (IIRC, it grants proficiency, right?) and B: means every cleric gets a free spiked chain (as a cleric of a cause; in some cases, that cause may be "advancing Pelor through use of the freedom domain and liberal spiked chain beatings.")

[Greenish]

A: makes the war domain power rather bad (IIRC, it grants proficiency, right?)

Proficiency and weapon focus. You'd want to give it something more.

[Dogmantra]

I read the "[sorcerer's] spell casting progression starts from level 2" as meaning that they don't have spellcasting in the first level.

I read it to mean that it starts AT level one FROM level 2, that is to say that it starts as if the sorceror was level 2.

[Thefurmonger]

I read it to mean that it starts AT level one FROM level 2, that is to say that it starts as if the sorceror was level 2.

This is what I got out of it, so the Sorc has the same spell level as a Wiz

[Mongoose87]

All exotic weapons being martial makes all martial weapons useless.

That reminds meo f my other one:

Fighters are proficient in exotic weapons.

[Cyphrus]

J, you really gotta be clear on how you word things, Haha.

He's definitely meaning sorcerers begin their progression of spellcasting based as a second level sorcerer at level one, spare caster level, that's normal.

it's just to boot the sorcerer in the right direction and not have them be the complete red-headed stepchild of all full-casters.

Stealing my ideas, J, tsk,tsk...

Speaking of spontaneous casters? Has anyone played with the UA variant that changes clerics and druids into basically sorcerers?

[Tyndmyr]

It always irked me that hp bonuses from con increases are retroactive, but skill points from int are not. I make them both retroactive, to the delight of skillmonkeys everywhere.

[Shademan]

I have some lying around...

Spoiler

Show

Gode husregla å huske på

NEW RULES:
Bows and crossbows gets bonus damage equal to Dex modifier. Meaning that if you have DEX+3 you do 1d6+3 damage with a shortbow, etc etc
you gain two extra attacks when throwing shurikens but they decrease in attack bonus by1. meaning that a lv2 character with +2 in ranged attack can throw three shurikens at +2 +1 +0. This hardly breaks the game and lets shurikens actually be used ;P

{Scrubbed}

Weapons that are within in one size category of you, can be used without penalty as long as you have the required proficiency. Example: a Halfling can wield a medium longsword two-handed or a human can wield a small greataxe one handed. (this rule might change to giving you a mere -1 to attacks)

Alignment restrictons: the paladin which must be any good. chaotic monks and lawful barbarians are A-ok. druids can be whatever

MONKS:
monks have full BaB ! yaaay!
oh, and if you have a good reason to have a skill as class skill I'll allow it. (forexample a fighter who spent his days as a thief guild thug might have bluff, sleight of hand and hide/move silently. and a wizard living alone in the woods may have survival).

you can spend gold in cities to squander it (ie: party like it's 1199). You gain an amount of XP by doing this.
Xp gained= half of sum spent in GP. So partying away 1000gp will net you 500XP


NEW ITEM: Throwing dagger! exactly the same as a normal dagger but with 20 in range! also: it gets -1 to hit when used it melee 8D

And you know the spear? Two-handed simple weapon? Yeah that is one-handed/two-handed now. you choose whether to use one or both hands.

Also: I am very open to weapon customization. if your character want to make a double-spear then go ahead!
certain weapons will also be more realistic, if your warhammer is built more historically accurate then you can choose wether to strike with the hammerhead (normal warhammer damage) or with the pick end (battle pick damage).


maybe Use something like maneuvers from GURPS. No skill tricks or TOB. If you have high enough skill you should be able to do amazing things.
Consider using the hit locations from gurps or similar
Magic has consequences. Polymorph for example may change your mindset…. For better or worse

Races:
Humans as usual
Dwarves does not get racial bonus vs goblins and giants. Dwarves turn to stone when they die
Half-orcs does not have -2 to charisma (making cleric and sorcerer possible classes)
Half elves have +2 to cha and -2 to wis
Gnomes does not get racial bonuses vs kobolds or giants
Elves as usual except: elves can not touch iron without serious discomfort. Weapon familiarity is with spears, bows, javelins and guisarmes instead of usual
Halflings as usual
Half-dwarf, don't know yet
goblins, as usual apart from these additions: +2 wis(they carefully weigh their actions and are always on high alert) +2 to fort vs poison, +2 to ride,animal empathy or diplomacy when used on wolves, worgs, winter wolves or werewolves.
Hobgoblin, oh boy this one is tricky... how to get them down to cr0?
Orcs, as usual, however, I see little reason to dazzle them in sunlight, since they are not subterran and not nocturnal creatures

and I'm still working on it

[Vantharion]

I'm thinking of allowing a player to spend a couple skill points on a skill to allow it to be considered a class skill from that point on. It would work in effect towards what Pathfinder's class skills giving a bonus. (You're slightly penalized for using non class skills, but not as heavily). After all, my wizard knows how to swim because... my wizard knows how swim.

I have some custom built fighter feats (Feats that are more competitive with caster spells).
You get at least half your hit die in hp when you level. The roll must be done in front of the dm and its for the extra 2-6 hp you could get above average.

Ticking off the DM enough to get him to force change your alignment usually causes him to take a point off of an ability score. [I don't have problems with people changing alignments, but not playing their alignment]

Magical items don't have to be masterwork.

Identify gives an additional bonus if cast with pearl juice... It can be cast without for Detect Magic+Bonus on spellcraft checks out of combat.

All forms of divination, detection, masking and identification are based upon caster level or character power. (A strong enough power evil could suppress his evil aura from a level 1 paladin.) In short, you can turn down your aura like you can your air conditioning, its a built in feature and you don't need something to do it for you... things that do it for you, just help you do it better.

You try to break the universe, the universe breaks you. There is a special form of Inevitable for those who try to damage reality. [Physics Golem vs your bag of holding filled with all the chalk on the nation.]

Negative levels are in most cases stupid and won't be used (much).

A few of mine.

[Pechvarry]

The way I'd like to try handling the Sor spell levels: insert a 0 on the odd levels. Meaning, they gain access to 3rd level spells at 5th level instead of 6th, but with only bonus slots from high stat to cast.

[jguy]

For all those who asked, yes, sorcerers spells at level 1 start as if they were level 2. No delay in getting their new spells.

For tieflings and Aasmir who start as fighters and become wizards and multiclass would be LA +1. This is to allow very flavorful characters more easily get into the game (since the stats they don't influence martial characters as much as a caster). Half-Casters such as Hexblades, Bards, Spellswords would still be LA+0 since they are more like gish's. In fact it'd help them more then either martial or full caster since it'd allow the person to focus on other stats.

Exotic Weapons being martial come from this thought. Unless the weapon has absurd abilities or is extremely useful, it's pointless on wasting a valuable feat on it. Problem is, there are so many fun, flavorful weapons out there that no one would ever use since they don't want to waste the feat. At low levels, a 2D6 weapon with reach is very strong. At 10th level you might as well wield any reach weapon since all your damage comes from strength and magic, not weapon dice.

Giving full attack on standards to PC's but not monsters is to keep the PC's alive. A fighter full attacking after a move gives an extra attack or two, depending on level. Giving it to monsters would on average give them 2 or 4 more attacks! It'd be unfair to the PC's. Also, it is not like nearly every martial character tries to get Pounce. A single dip in Barbarian is all anyone needs.

I was tempted to combine Spot/Listen into Perception like in 4th but I kept them separate for a little more flavor. A person could have good eyes but bad ears and vice versa. On the other hand, anyone with any skill who can hide in a corner of darkness and not be seen can control how he sounds. It removes that annoying habit of "Move Silent 40, Hide 10" where it's virtually pointless. It does hurt characters a little since a monster gets effectively 2 checks to spot someone. I'll need test this one out a little more.

[Milskidasith]

The way I'd like to try handling the Sor spell levels: insert a 0 on the odd levels. Meaning, they gain access to 3rd level spells at 5th level instead of 6th, but with only bonus slots from high stat to cast.

The problem is they don't know any spells of that level at that point, either. You can't cast what you don't know.

[Temotei]

It always irked me that hp bonuses from con increases are retroactive, but skill points from int are not. I make them both retroactive, to the delight of skillmonkeys everywhere.

I do the same.

[Marnath]

And you know the spear? Two-handed simple weapon? Yeah that is one-handed/two-handed now. you choose whether to use one or both hands.

...It's called short spear. You don't need to let them use regular spears one handed.

[Mongoose87]

...It's called short spear. You don't need to let them use regular spears one handed.

A. This way, you can switch.

B. One-handed reach weapon for phalanx-style fighting.

[Pechvarry]

The problem is they don't know any spells of that level at that point, either. You can't cast what you don't know.

Obviously, you'd need to fix that, too. Just moving all of the columns for spell levels 2-9 up one spot does the trick. The same is true for anyone who says "use wizard table for what level new spells are learned" so I omitted that detail in my variation on the... variant.

And yes, retroactive skills are very yes. Did I mention? Yes.

[Greenish]

A. This way, you can switch.

B. One-handed reach weapon for phalanx-style fighting.

A. You can use a short spear with two hands.

B. A spear is not a reach weapon. That would be longspear.