House Rules.

[lumberofdabeast]

Hey, what house rules do you guys use? Do they work out well for you? The big house rule that I enforce is that characters may only have levels in three different classes, to help prevent dipping into eight different classes and whatnot.

EDIT: Oh, and a more interesting one I thought up... Healing is a subschool of Necromancy in games I run.

[Voleta]

I have a ton of house rules that I tweak depending on the campagin. In my homebrew setting, I use one list. For an chat-based game I used others, and for my 'newbie' game, I dumbed it down to just the essentials.

The ones I dislike playing without are (copy and pasting from a file, so forgive setting-related comments):
General knowledge checks When encountering a creature, you may make a 1d20 + level + Int mod check to see if they've run into it before and remember it. Depending on your score, your char may remember some weak points and such.
Knowledge prompts I bring knowledge skills into play a lot.Whenever something remotely tied to a knowledge skill comes up, I call out the name of any knowledge skills related and the players then roll if they have the skill and declare which one they are using.
Background knowledge A lot of profession skills can be used as a knowledge skill, profession skills though always have a narrow scope compared to the broad base of a knowledge skill.
Intimidate You can use strength mod instead of charisma mod, especially when used in combat. You may also receive a circumstance bonus (or penalty) depending on the setting. For example, trying to convince a guard that you were an innocent bystander, while holding a bloody weapon, is not as easy as doing the same while trying to give CPR.
Prestige Class Before taking any pre-reqs for prestige classes, consult me about the PrC itself. This way, you don't end up in a bad spot if I disallow the PrC after you've taken a crappy feat.
Sorcerer Sorc gets as a bonus feat Eschew Materials. Flavor reasons mostly.
Multi Class No multiclass XP penalties, but all cheese builds musts be approved in advance.
Permanent Mounts Paladins get to keep their mount for an unlimited amount of time, but must quest for them once they are eligible. (This is worked through in the storyline).
Medic! Clerics are allowed to add their skill ranks in heal to their cure/inflict spells. i.e. Cure light wounds = 1d8+level+ranks in heal or Inflict light wounds = 1+ranks in heal. This shows that clerics know how the body works better than other classes.
Wizard Healer Disrupt Undead heals living creatures because it is positive Energy. (Makes sense to me)
Bardic Countersong can counter supernatural sonic effects, i.e. a harpy's Captivating Song.
Druid For the purposes of wild shaping a druid is only assumed to be familiar with animals common to the area the PC's live (Dm discretion) and any animals the party has actually fought (Dm discretion again). This really reins in some of the sillier attempts to abuse wild shape
Newbz New characters start one level below the party average. This rewards my other players for keeping their characters alive.
Rock Paper Scissors When enough party members die (three or more in one conflict) they face death together. If they beat death (combat, bluff, diplomacy, poker, blackjack, etc) they come back with 1hp.
Darwin If you die doing something stupid (i.e. taunting a dragon, etc.) you will be resurrected by a kindly druid who uses reincarnation to bring you back as a kobold, Halfling, or a slug.
Experience Whore At the end of the session I run something I like to refer to as Whoring. This idea was taking from another DM who took it from another before his and so on and so forth. When whoring, each player tells me what amazing things that they did that particular session (doesn't count combat). This includes puzzles, role playing, story line things, etc. After everyone has finished whoring, I give out bonus xp based off of what the players whored for that I thought was valid. What it ends up doing is making everyone pay attention and participate in a game.
The "Really?" House Rule Whenever a player does anything in a battle or such, the DM asks them "Really?” If the player responds "Really", the action is set in stone. The only way to change the action is with a wish spell cast soon afterwards.
Bonus Feat Start with a bonus feat from DM. (So, a level 1 human fighter gets 4 feats). The idea is that feats shape a character, and I like to have characters ideas in mind not just generic ranger or something.
Fewer Requirements If a feat other than Power Attack or Combat Expertise has Base Attack Bonus +1 as a prerequisite ignore it. This is a bone I throw to low-level rogues who need to pick up Weapon Finesse as quickly as possible to be viable in combat.
Mounted Combat This feat allows automatic control in combat of a single species of war trained mount.
Armor Class Base armor class sometimes increases when a character gets a level. This number replaces the ‘10’ in your ac calculations. For example, a level 10 fighter with a Dex mod of 2 and no armor would have a total of 16base + 2 Dex = 18 AC. To find the base ac for a multiclass character, take the average. Ie, a 2monk 2fighter would be 11+13/2 or 12 base ac. (Table omitted, because it looks funky and I'm not confident in my table-making skills. However, its basically a scale like BAB)



A good amount of these were respectfully ganked from house rule threads found here, and I don't claim to make them up myself. My most elaborate set of rules can be found [url=http://www.voleta.com/dnd/rules.htm].

[Fax Celestis]

TWF When two-weapon fighting, attacking with both hands is a standard action, as long as you have the Two-Weapon Fighting feat. That is, you can move your speed and then attack with both hands once.
Classes Druids use the shapechange PHB-II variant. Clerics use the Cloistered Cleric UA variant. Sorcerors use the Battle Sorceror UA variant.
Spells Endure Elements acts as the 3.0 version.
Attacks Coup de Graces are made as follows: Roll damage. Multiply for critical. Add in precision damage dice if applicable. Receiving end of the CdG makes a fortitude save vs. half the damage dealt or dies.
Experience Experience will be awarded at specific points in the adventure (usually when you rest). At that point, I will ask for "awards" and set an amount. Each participant gets to award another participant for actions in game since the last experience checkpoint. Anyone receiving such an award will immediately gain the amount of experience I named.
NPCs Commoners use an alternative level system I've come up with.
Gear Masterwork weapons can receive +1 to attack or +1 to damage. Magical properties overwrite this.
Feats All characters receive a nationality feat for free at first level.
Cheese The Spiked Chain, weapon of cheesygoodness, does not exist.

[Grim Greyscale]

Bah. I don't like house rules that much, so I really just have the one: If a skill is a class skill for any of your classes, it's a class skill for all of them. Saves so much paperwork.

[Dhavaer]

Houserules

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Fast Hero defence is lowered. (As now -1)

Archaic Weaponsmaster has 1:1 BAB.

The Multilingual feat is not a bonus feat, can only be taken by natives (Shadow or mundane) and gives up to your Int bonus in languages.

All species have two feats at level one, except moreaus.

Massive damage is equal to Con or half hp, whichever is lower.

The Drive and Pilot skills use the Perform mechanic instead of the Vehicle Operation feats.

Cantrips and Orisons may be cast spontaneously by prepared casters, and spontaneous casters know all 0 level spells on their list. High ability scores give bonus 0 level spells.

Drow racial traits are:
120ft. darkvision + light sensitivity or 60ft. darkvision
+2 Dex +2 Int +2 Cha
6 + HD spell resistance
+2 to saves against spells and spell-likes
+2 to saves against negative energy
+2 to Search, Spot and Listen checks
1/day Prestidigiation, No Light
Archaic Weapons Proficiency
Drow Sign as a bonus language
+2 LA

Tiefling racial traits are:
Outsider type
+2 Dex +2 Int +2 Cha
60ft. Darkvision
Resistance to Cold, Fire and Electricity 5
Archaic Weapons Proficiency
+2 to Bluff and Hide
Infernal as a bonus language
+1 LA

Aasimar racial traits are:
Outsider type
+2 Con +2 Wis +2 Cha
60ft. Darkvision
Acid, Cold and Electricity Resistance 5
Archaic Weapon Proficiency
+2 Spot and Listen
Celestial as a bonus language
+1 LA

Shadowkin racial traits are:
+1 to saves
Shadow heritage as a bonus feat

Half-orc racial traits are:
+2 Str, -2 Int
60ft. Darkvision
-2 saves against light
+2 saves against disease
+1 natural armour
Archaic Weapons Proficiency
Orc as a bonus language

Orc racial traits are:

+4 Str, -2 Int, -2 Wis, -2 Cha
60ft. Darkvision
Light Sensitivity
+4 saves against disease
+2 natural armour
Archaic Weapons Proficiency, Armour Proficiency (Light, Medium)
Orc as sole starting language

There are no Chaos/Evil/Good/Law allegiances.
The is no Abyssal language. Infernal is a the language of all fiends.
Weapon Finesse applies to all appropriate weapons.
Dragonbloods and half-dragons require 6 hours of sleep every 24 hours, and can split this into periods of 2 hours minimum.
Elves and drow trance for 4 hours a night, tieflings and aasimar trance for 8 hours and half-elves sleep for 6 hours but can't split it.
Everyone else needs the full 8.

Other Shadowkin ages:
Dwarves 300
Elves 700
Gnomes 200
Goblins 30
Half-Elves 250
Half-Orcs 60
Halflings 150
Orcs 40
Shadowkin 200
Snakeblooded 120
Aasimar 1000
Bugbear 100
Dragonblooded 300
Drow 550
Gnoll 40
Half-Dragon 800
Half-Ogre 140
Ogre 220
Tiefling 1000

[Khantalas]

House Rules... OK.

Arcane magic doesn't exist. Divine magic is limited to archivists. Casting spells carry the risk of being tainted unless you have a vestige bound. Psionics rule.

[Fax Celestis]

Right, I forgot one: Dromites If you're a Dromite, the DM will love you forever.

[Matthew]

I don't use any House Rules for D&D 3.x, but mainly because once I start, I can't stop. I play D&D 3.x for short, usually prewritten, campaigns and one off adventures. I save my House Rules for my long term (A)D&D 2.x game.

[Khantalas]

Right, I forgot one: Dromites If you're a Dromite, the DM will love you forever.

I do that for gnomes. The world must be all gnomes. Gnomes for the win. I want to be a gnome with purple hair.

...

[silentknight]

I set the DC for Knowledge checks to know stuff about monsters encountered as 10 + CR. If they fail the check, the characters just basically know the description as found in the MM. If they make their check, then they can look in the MM for special abilities, SR, DR, etc...

A character effectively has 1 rank when Knowledge checks about their race are required.

Longswords and scimitars are eligible for weapon finesse.

I used to stack criticals, but no longer....
If you roll a hit that threatens a critical, you then roll to confirm the critical. If THAT roll then threatens a critical, you roll again to confirm that critical, etc..... The effect is that each time the critical is confirmed (except the first time) the damage multiplier increases by 1 (x2 becomes x3, x3 becomes x4...).

[Gnome Barbarian]

My favorite house rule is if you role a nat20 on a skill check you then get to roll another d20 if that beats the total number of ranks you have in that skill+10 then you gain a free rank in that skill.

We us this to show that you did that skill so good that you have learned something new about doing that skill.

Example: Aramil the Elf Ranger rolls a nat20 on a Surivial check. He has 4 ranks in survival. He then rolls another d20 and gets a 15. He now has 4 ranks in surivival and misc. rank of 1. If his second role was a 14 or lower he wouldn't get the bonus misc rank.

[Saph]

Here are the houserules I enforce:

1. If You Said it, You Said It

Everything said by the players is assumed to be in character unless specified otherwise. Yes, this takes up in-game time, and yes, other people can overhear you.

2. Your character is a WHAT?

Everything from non-core books has to be GM-approved. This includes prestige classes. It's recommended to clear a PrC with the GM before building a character, in case the answer turns out to be 'no'.

3. Turns Out Those Skills Were Useful After All

Your characters do NOT know the stats of every enemy in the Monster Manual. When you run into a monster, you'll get a Knowledge (x) check - the higher you roll, the more info you'll get. I know it's hard for experienced players not to metagame at least a little bit, but overdo it and the monsters will start metagaming back with bad consequences.

4. Now Entering a Cheese-Free Zone

Don't make cheesy characters. I'm not going to define what is and isn't a cheesy character, because I think you already know - use your common sense. By the same token, don't exploit loopholes, and try not to take overpowered spells or items. If you're not sure whether something qualifies, ask the GM.

Along the same lines, the GM will very greatly appreciate it if you make some effort to try and balance the relative power levels of the characters in the party. Trying to design a balanced encounter for a monk, a ranger, a ninja, and a Wizard/Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil/Archmage just plain sucks.

5. Play Fast

RPGs are most fun and most exciting when they go at a quick pace. This applies double to combat. Try and help battles go along quickly. This means: know your abilities so you don't have to look things up, decide your action ahead of time so you can announce it fast, and don't have long involved tactical discussions with the other players in the middle of a combat round.

6. Death and Reincarnation

New characters start one level below the average level of the party, rounded down.

7. Law of Balance

I'll adjust CRs and monster stats in general to mirror the party's power level. If your PCs are stronger than average, you'll face stronger enemies; if you're weaker, you'll face weaker ones. Optimising your character is a fun pastime, but it won't make you more likely to win your battles.

8. Miscellaneous

Sorcerers get Eschew Materials for free at 1st-level. Polymorph, Shapechange, etc. do not exist. Ability damage spells like Ray of Stupidity that allow you to one-shot things that you shouldn't be able to one-shot do not exist. Bards and other users of the Perform skill can use the skill to do different kinds of performance, within limits. Falling further than a certain distance kills you, I don't care how many HP you have. You're allowed to make a wisdom check as a common sense roll when you're about to do something stupid. Druids can't talk to other players while wildshaped, including OOC tactics discussions. Wizards are allowed to have conversations while resting to prepare spells. The 8 hour understanding time and 24 hour scribing time for wizards to put a new spell into a spellbook is handwaved to 1 day per spell, because I don't really want to work out exactly how many hours you're sleeping/eating/preparing and the rest of the party is bored and wants to get a move on. Fighters, etc. can figure out the enhancement bonus of a new weapon after one battle or so. It's the responsibility of players to keep track of encumbrance and supplies - failure to do so can lead to the GM enforcing it arbitrarily in the middle of an adventure.

9. And Just Because I Said So

You are not allowed to play any of the following:

- Drizzt
- A clone of Drizzt
- Cloud
- Neo
- Spiderman
- Wolverine
- An Ewok
- Angel

(all actual character concepts I've seen / had described in detail.) Playing any of these makes your character liable to be forbidden, mercilessly mocked, killed by DM fiat, or all three.

- Saph

[MeklorIlavator]

Here are the houserules I enforce:

1. If You Said it, You Said It

Everything said by the players is assumed to be in character unless specified otherwise. Yes, this takes up in-game time, and yes, other people can overhear you.
--snip--
5. Play Fast

RPGs are most fun and most exciting when they go at a quick pace. This applies double to combat. Try and help battles go along quickly. This means: know your abilities so you don't have to look things up, decide your action ahead of time so you can announce it fast, and don't have long involved tactical discussions with the other players in the middle of a combat round.

I strongly support these, as my group can't go 1 round without 15 minutes of chat

9. And Just Because I Said So

You are not allowed to play any of the following:

- Drizzt
- A clone of Drizzt
- Cloud
- Neo
- Spiderman
- Wolverine
- An Ewok
- Angel

(all actual character concepts I've seen / had described in detail.) Playing any of these makes your character liable to be forbidden, mercilessly mocked, killed by DM fiat, or all three.

- Saph

for the last one, do you mean an angel, or the vampire from Buffy?

[TheOOB]

Hmmm, I use a few

-No paladins, play a crusader or dawnblade(homebrewed class) instead
-Use homebrewed rogue, fighter, barbarian, and ranger varients that utilize manuvers, currently working on a sublime monk.
-The healing subschool is in Necromancy
-Deathwatch and Animate Dead are no longer evil spells
-Polymorph, Alter Self, Gate, Shapechange, and Cerelity(all versions) are banned(possibly a few i forgot)
-All druids use the PHBII shapeshift varient
-Bards, monks, and barbarians have no alignment prerequisites
-Skill points from high int are gained retroactivly
-Once a class skill always a class skill
-Use the GitP diplomacy varient
-The two-weapon fighting feat grants you a number of attacks with your off hand equal to the number you have with your primary hand, even with a standard attack action.
-Spellcasters gain bonus 0-level spell slots equal to their spellcasting attribute

[Saph]

for the last one, do you mean an angel, or the vampire from Buffy?

The vampire from Buffy. If the PC I'm thinking of had any more angst, he would have been able to start a new White Wolf game.

- Saph

[Saph]

A few more I forgot:

10. Diplomacy/Bluff

Works more or less as described in the PHB, but common sense applies. I don't care what your check result is, the red dragon is not going to believe you were just taking an inventory of his hoard and were going to put it all back later. Similarly, a good diplomacy check will make angry people listen to you - briefly. If you don't have something good to say as a follow-up they won't carry on listening for very long.

11. Huh? What?

Player attentiveness = character attentiveness. If a player reacts to something instantly, the character does too. If the other two players were talking to each other and weren't paying attention to the GM, then their characters weren't paying attention either.

12. Not Just Pass Or Fail

Skill or ability checks work on a sliding scale. The more you beat the DC by, the better your result is. The worse you miss it by, the worse your result is.

- Saph

[Swordguy]

Please note: I run very Tolkein-esque games. Magic is infrequent (a mage-capable human is roughly 1-100,000).

Spoiler

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D+D House Rules v1.1
RULE ZERO) Common sense applies at my discretion. I don't care what RAW have to say. (see also: drowning, diplomancy cheese)

1) Allowed books for PCs: PHB, DMG PrCs, Complete Arc, War, Adv, Div.
A) Please note: other books, including Exalted Deeds, Vile Darkness, and Erotic Fantasy, may be in play.

2) Barred Races: Gnome (barbarian savages from across the frontier) , ½-orcs (tend to be killed on sight)

3) Barred Classes: Barbarian, Monk
3a) Resticted classes: Wizards, Druids, Sorcerers, Clerics (all require GM permission and a statement of why you're so special - elf wizards, human sorcerers, dwarven clerics are exempt from this)

4) Racial Modifications
A) Elves
1) Favored Class: Wizard
B) Half-Elves
1) +1 Dex, -1 Con
2) Choose one: +1 Feat @ 1st Level OR +4 Skill Points at 1st lvl, +1 point at each higher lvl.
C) Human
1) High Men: Age as Dwarves, can qualify for the Kai Lord Class, no bonus feat at 1st lvl, base Willpower equal to ½ Wisdom score plus their Wisdom modifier; they do gain the standard human skill point bonuses.
2) Man: Age as Human, standard human rules.
D) Dwarves
1) Standard rules: auto-proficient with either the Dwarven Waraxe, Military Pick, or Hammer. In all cases, Dwarves are proficent with all forms of armor (but not Shields). Dwarves lose their “Stability Bonus” unless they gain their racial armor proficiencies from a Class.
E) Halflings
1) Standard rules: Automatic Weapon Proficiency (Improvised Thrown Weapons)

5) Class Modifications
A) All classes gain Perception as a class skill
B) All classes gain +2 skill points per level
C) All classes gain a number of Knowledge skills as class skills equal to their Int modifier (specific skills depended on DM
approval).
D) Wizards automatically know 2 spells per level from the spells they have availible to them at the time. A wizard may not select any spell to be learned automatically from the class lists, but only from scrolls or spellbooks that he has not previously successfully made the roll to learn. In this case, no roll is required; the Wizard automatically understands the spell.
E) Clerics must submit a list of spells they wish to be granted for that day. The God reserves the right to give different spells that requested, based on the needs of the God in question. This will be a rare event, however.
F) Clerics receive a base Hit Die of a d6 and lose their Heavy Armor proficiency.

5) Skill Modifications
A) Listen and Spot are now Perception (Wis)
B) Hide and Move Silently are now Stealth (Dex)

6) Attribute Modifications
A) All PCs gain the attribute “Appearance” (therefore roll x7 4d6 (disc low) at character creation). The following skills may be keyed off Appearance at the discretion of the DM (dependent on situation): Diplomacy, Bluff, Gather Information, Intimidate, and selected Profession skills. In addition, some charm-style effects will key off of Appearance instead of Charisma. For example, a Nymph’s Blinding Beauty ability now keyes off of Appearance.

6) Psionics
A) Psionic Characters are those who receive the Psionic Combatant ability as a class skill, select the Psionic Combatant feat (prereq Int 13+, if selected after character creation Base Will save of 5+). Psionic characters receive Willpower equal to 5+Wisdom modifier unless otherwise stated in class abilities (+Wis modifier per level).
B) Willpower are used in the same manner as Power Points to power psychic abilities. They also exact as extra hit point (lost off the top) against psionic attacks (a PC may always choose not to lose Willpower from a psionic attack, taking the damage to hit points instead, ths choice must be made before the incoming damage is rolled). When Willpower is depleted, the PC is considered to be fatigued until regaining at least 1 point of Willpower.
C) Psionic combat is conducted as found on page XXX of the Lone Wolf RPG book. This includes Psionic Attack bonus and Psionic AC, and the miscellaneous attack and defense forms.
D) In general, monsteres with the telepathy ability will be psionic combatants.
E) Non-psionic characters have an effective psychic AC of 0. However, upon successfully being attack via psychic abilities, they are entitled to a Will Save (DC equal to attacker’s Psychic Attack Roll) for ½-damage.


7) Armor Modifications
A) Light Armor=DR 1/-
B) Medium Armor=DR 2/-
C) Heavy Armor=DR 3/-
D) Special Materials
1) Adamite provides +2 DR
2) Dragonhide provides +1 DR
3) Mithril provides +1 DR
E) Magic Bonuses
1) Add the magic bonus (divided by 2, rounded up) to the armor’s DR.
F) The following damage types are not subject to being reduced from armor-based DR: force damage (magic missile, et al), falling damage, drowning damage, psionic damage, coup de grace damage.
G) Critical Hits bypass armor-based Damage Reduction
H) Magic weapons bypass armor-based DR if the weapon enhancement bonus is greater than the magic enhancement bonus to the armor. Do not apply weapno/armor qualities to this. (eg: a +3 ghost touch longsword will bypass armor-based DR if the armor is a +2 enhancement bonus or less).


8) Religion
A) Standard gods from the PHB are in play. Other, lesser gods from other sources may be in play, but are not commonly encounteres. A player wishing to play a cleric from one of these other gods may petion the DM for permission.
B) In human/High Man lands, the primary gods publicly worshipped are Pelor (NG), Heironeous (LG), St. Cuthbert (LN), Aluraan (BoEF – personal and agricultural fetility and healing goddess). Other gods are worshipped when needed, but these are the dieties with entrenched, established religions.
C) Elves worship Corellon Larethian. They will give blessing when needed to Ehlonna and Pelor as secondary gods. They rarely call upon the others.
D) Dwarves call upon Moradin for pretty much everything.
E) Halflings call upon Yondalla, with secondary gods Pelor, Obad-hai, and Ehlonna.
F) DOMAINS
1) Any given god can have several different domains. Make a case to the DM for permission to have a particular domain while worshipping a particular god.

9) Magic
A) Memorized Arcane Magic: this is an elven racial magic. This is also a Human racial magic, but this is unknown at game on.
B) Spontaneous Arcane Magic: this is a High Man and (very rarely) a Halfling magic
C) Bardic Arcane Magic: any race may cast bardic arcane magic if they are a bard.
D) Barred Schools and Spells at start of play. Some spells may become availible to PC as the campaign continues.
1) Divination is heavily restricted. The following Divination spells are banned: Comprehend Languages; Detect Thoughts, Clairvoyance, Clairaudience, Arcane Eye, Detect Scrying, Scrying, Prying Eyes, Contact Other Plane, Greater Scrying, Discern Location, Greater Prying Eyes.
2) Conjuration is heavily resticted. Any spell that involves travel or summoning from other planes is banned (Summon Monster X, Gate, Planar Shift).
3) Some other schools have lost spells. Spells generally involving other planes are banned (Banishment, Etherealness).
4) The following spells are flat-out banned (this list may be added to depending on what seems broken during play as per a group vote): Polymorph, Time Stop.
5) The fact that spells involving planar travel have been romoved does not infer the elimination of spells and effects that create extra-dimensional space. For example, Rope Trick is still a valid spell, and Bags of Holding still exist.

10) World Notes:
A) Planar Lore: the existence of other planes is not known in this world (as yet). Therefore, Knowledge(the Planes) is not a legal skill.

[Redwizard26]

Please note: I run very Tolkein-esque games. Magic is infrequent (a mage-capable human is roughly 1-100,000).

Spoiler

Show

D+D House Rules v1.1
RULE ZERO) Common sense applies at my discretion. I don't care what RAW have to say. (see also: drowning, diplomancy cheese)

1) Allowed books for PCs: PHB, DMG PrCs, Complete Arc, War, Adv, Div.
A) Please note: other books, including Exalted Deeds, Vile Darkness, and Erotic Fantasy, may be in play.

2) Barred Races: Gnome (barbarian savages from across the frontier) , ½-orcs (tend to be killed on sight)

3) Barred Classes: Barbarian, Monk
3a) Resticted classes: Wizards, Druids, Sorcerers, Clerics (all require GM permission and a statement of why you're so special - elf wizards, human sorcerers, dwarven clerics are exempt from this)

4) Racial Modifications
A) Elves
1) Favored Class: Wizard
B) Half-Elves
1) +1 Dex, -1 Con
2) Choose one: +1 Feat @ 1st Level OR +4 Skill Points at 1st lvl, +1 point at each higher lvl.
C) Human
1) High Men: Age as Dwarves, can qualify for the Kai Lord Class, no bonus feat at 1st lvl, base Willpower equal to ½ Wisdom score plus their Wisdom modifier; they do gain the standard human skill point bonuses.
2) Man: Age as Human, standard human rules.
D) Dwarves
1) Standard rules: auto-proficient with either the Dwarven Waraxe, Military Pick, or Hammer. In all cases, Dwarves are proficent with all forms of armor (but not Shields). Dwarves lose their “Stability Bonus” unless they gain their racial armor proficiencies from a Class.
E) Halflings
1) Standard rules: Automatic Weapon Proficiency (Improvised Thrown Weapons)

5) Class Modifications
A) All classes gain Perception as a class skill
B) All classes gain +2 skill points per level
C) All classes gain a number of Knowledge skills as class skills equal to their Int modifier (specific skills depended on DM
approval).
D) Wizards automatically know 2 spells per level from the spells they have availible to them at the time. A wizard may not select any spell to be learned automatically from the class lists, but only from scrolls or spellbooks that he has not previously successfully made the roll to learn. In this case, no roll is required; the Wizard automatically understands the spell.
E) Clerics must submit a list of spells they wish to be granted for that day. The God reserves the right to give different spells that requested, based on the needs of the God in question. This will be a rare event, however.
F) Clerics receive a base Hit Die of a d6 and lose their Heavy Armor proficiency.

5) Skill Modifications
A) Listen and Spot are now Perception (Wis)
B) Hide and Move Silently are now Stealth (Dex)

6) Attribute Modifications
A) All PCs gain the attribute “Appearance” (therefore roll x7 4d6 (disc low) at character creation). The following skills may be keyed off Appearance at the discretion of the DM (dependent on situation): Diplomacy, Bluff, Gather Information, Intimidate, and selected Profession skills. In addition, some charm-style effects will key off of Appearance instead of Charisma. For example, a Nymph’s Blinding Beauty ability now keyes off of Appearance.

6) Psionics
A) Psionic Characters are those who receive the Psionic Combatant ability as a class skill, select the Psionic Combatant feat (prereq Int 13+, if selected after character creation Base Will save of 5+). Psionic characters receive Willpower equal to 5+Wisdom modifier unless otherwise stated in class abilities (+Wis modifier per level).
B) Willpower are used in the same manner as Power Points to power psychic abilities. They also exact as extra hit point (lost off the top) against psionic attacks (a PC may always choose not to lose Willpower from a psionic attack, taking the damage to hit points instead, ths choice must be made before the incoming damage is rolled). When Willpower is depleted, the PC is considered to be fatigued until regaining at least 1 point of Willpower.
C) Psionic combat is conducted as found on page XXX of the Lone Wolf RPG book. This includes Psionic Attack bonus and Psionic AC, and the miscellaneous attack and defense forms.
D) In general, monsteres with the telepathy ability will be psionic combatants.
E) Non-psionic characters have an effective psychic AC of 0. However, upon successfully being attack via psychic abilities, they are entitled to a Will Save (DC equal to attacker’s Psychic Attack Roll) for ½-damage.


7) Armor Modifications
A) Light Armor=DR 1/-
B) Medium Armor=DR 2/-
C) Heavy Armor=DR 3/-
D) Special Materials
1) Adamite provides +2 DR
2) Dragonhide provides +1 DR
3) Mithril provides +1 DR
E) Magic Bonuses
1) Add the magic bonus (divided by 2, rounded up) to the armor’s DR.
F) The following damage types are not subject to being reduced from armor-based DR: force damage (magic missile, et al), falling damage, drowning damage, psionic damage, coup de grace damage.
G) Critical Hits bypass armor-based Damage Reduction
H) Magic weapons bypass armor-based DR if the weapon enhancement bonus is greater than the magic enhancement bonus to the armor. Do not apply weapno/armor qualities to this. (eg: a +3 ghost touch longsword will bypass armor-based DR if the armor is a +2 enhancement bonus or less).


8) Religion
A) Standard gods from the PHB are in play. Other, lesser gods from other sources may be in play, but are not commonly encounteres. A player wishing to play a cleric from one of these other gods may petion the DM for permission.
B) In human/High Man lands, the primary gods publicly worshipped are Pelor (NG), Heironeous (LG), St. Cuthbert (LN), Aluraan (BoEF – personal and agricultural fetility and healing goddess). Other gods are worshipped when needed, but these are the dieties with entrenched, established religions.
C) Elves worship Corellon Larethian. They will give blessing when needed to Ehlonna and Pelor as secondary gods. They rarely call upon the others.
D) Dwarves call upon Moradin for pretty much everything.
E) Halflings call upon Yondalla, with secondary gods Pelor, Obad-hai, and Ehlonna.
F) DOMAINS
1) Any given god can have several different domains. Make a case to the DM for permission to have a particular domain while worshipping a particular god.

9) Magic
A) Memorized Arcane Magic: this is an elven racial magic. This is also a Human racial magic, but this is unknown at game on.
B) Spontaneous Arcane Magic: this is a High Man and (very rarely) a Halfling magic
C) Bardic Arcane Magic: any race may cast bardic arcane magic if they are a bard.
D) Barred Schools and Spells at start of play. Some spells may become availible to PC as the campaign continues.
1) Divination is heavily restricted. The following Divination spells are banned: Comprehend Languages; Detect Thoughts, Clairvoyance, Clairaudience, Arcane Eye, Detect Scrying, Scrying, Prying Eyes, Contact Other Plane, Greater Scrying, Discern Location, Greater Prying Eyes.
2) Conjuration is heavily resticted. Any spell that involves travel or summoning from other planes is banned (Summon Monster X, Gate, Planar Shift).
3) Some other schools have lost spells. Spells generally involving other planes are banned (Banishment, Etherealness).
4) The following spells are flat-out banned (this list may be added to depending on what seems broken during play as per a group vote): Polymorph, Time Stop.
5) The fact that spells involving planar travel have been romoved does not infer the elimination of spells and effects that create extra-dimensional space. For example, Rope Trick is still a valid spell, and Bags of Holding still exist.

10) World Notes:
A) Planar Lore: the existence of other planes is not known in this world (as yet). Therefore, Knowledge(the Planes) is not a legal skill.

Wow... that scares me... what are the throw backs to divination and conjuration they both seem almost useless now...
Mind you, I restrict the information gained by Divination and have special materials that work as AMF to Sub-Schools of most of the schools for magic. Comprehend Language I can understand and I see that the fluff of the setting would prohibit most of the planar activity but I could see summon creature X still working. (which prevents much cheese and really is just good for flanking)(besides the small fire elemental could be made the same way that that Orb of Fire spell is made) Though I guess due to the lack of magic in your setting it kinda makes sense.

[ken-do-nim]

9. And Just Because I Said So

You are not allowed to play any of the following:

- Drizzt
- A clone of Drizzt
- Cloud
- Neo
- Spiderman
- Wolverine
- An Ewok
- Angel

(all actual character concepts I've seen / had described in detail.) Playing any of these makes your character liable to be forbidden, mercilessly mocked, killed by DM fiat, or all three.

- Saph

One poster on these boards brilliantly came up with a Nightcrawler build using monk/warlock and the Sun School feat. C'mon, you just gotta allow that!

Edit: oh, and he probably used some dark-blue colored race with a tail; I don't remember what.

[Dhavaer]

One poster on these boards brilliantly came up with a Nightcrawler build using monk/warlock and the Sun School feat. C'mon, you just gotta allow that!

Edit: oh, and he probably used some dark-blue colored race with a tail; I don't remember what.

It was Rei Jin, he didn't have any particular way of looking like Nightcrawler, as I recall.

[MeklorIlavator]

It was Rei Jin, he didn't have any particular way of looking like Nightcrawler, as I recall.

A Hat of Disguise, maybe?

[Olethros]

I don't have standing house rules, exept that if I ever feel the need to revamp the way something is written to any substantial degree, that thing is not allowed in my game, if at any point the game needs substantially revamped to be fun, the game is no longer allowed.

Saved printer ink.

[Vodun]

Ive qualified the Scimitar for weapon finesse, simply because its the exact same damn thing as the rapier, just slashing instead of piercing.

Ive made the sap a simple weapon, simply because I cant imagine it being used in any other way than a club.

Ive applied common sense to the polymorph spells and anything like it (if your character has never seen anything but the underground for his entire life, he has no damned idea what wings are.)

Ive given PCs at level one (excluding rogues) 3 extra skill points to put only in class skills.

Ive eliminated the dire flail, due to a horrid experience with a first-time player
(it involved three natural ones in a row, stupid decisions, and nobody uses the dire flail anyways.)

In the Heirophant PrC, Ive made the axis necessary for a few abilities only to be one opposite of the heirophant (for example, a LG heirophant can still consider a NE, LE, or CE villan an infidel.)

If a druid decides to take the natural spell feat, Ive decided to have a time limit for the wild shape trait, thats determined using the specific wildshape and original CON score of the druid.

Ive allowed the shortsword to do slashing or piercing damage.

[Isomenes]

My DM's got very few house rules, actually, but the one that stands out is Full Hit Dice. All characters and monsters have max hit points per hit die. Saves time on the leveling end, and makes things... interesting... in-game.

[PnP Fan]

I usually stay away from house rules as a DM, but one of my groups is very big on them. We use the following house rules:
1. All Characters have a 7th attribute called Luck. The bonus it generates Karma points per level. Karma points (like the old Marvel game) allow the player to re-roll d20's. In my games, since everyone is so attached to the luck attribute, I give extra Action Dice since I run mostly Eberron.
2. Max hp/level.
3. Once a class skill, always a class skill. Additionally, there are a number of skills that fall under an "innate" category (listen, search, spot, for example), that anyone could conceivably practice and improve at, and those are class skills for everyone. This mostly stems from the general dislike of the Rogue class by the folks who wrote the house rules.
4. Generally changing characters costs one level of experience on the new character. Sometimes this gets waived if the death was not expected, or due to some extraordinary bizarre luck. GM fiat. This is mostly because several of us buy splatbooks, and we'd change characters with every new splatbook, given the opportunity to do so.
5. Any third party book is acceptable (I usually nix this one when I'm running. But then, I'm a little more rules-crunchy than most of the folks in the group)
6. Attribute generation tends to be 4d6, re-roll one's, then drop the lowest die. We wind up with some pretty uber characters. On top of this, some game masters will also allow trading of points around. I usually give point buy, and give a high end number of points.

[dorshe1]

Toughness feat is 3 hp when you take it and an additional 1 hp every two levels after that.

Lightning reflexes, iron will, and great fortitude give a +3 instead of a +2.

You have 10 seconds to announce your action and start rolling during combat. If you don't your character 'freezes' and I assume they are refocusing for the next round.

In order to keep the table light and having fun if someone makes a joke or an intuitive observation at the table I give out 'fate points.' Essentially the PCs are fated to do well. Each fate point can be used to re-roll a given roll that didn't go well for the character, or make the DM re-roll. It could also be used for 1d6 of magical healing.

[Iudex Fatarum]

I currently do not use too many house rules, i've changed planetouched to templates cause it seems like there could be a gnome aasimar or a drow tiefling. also I have decided that if the character can give a valid reason they can remove alignment restrictions, (I.e. a paladin that has levels in barbarian, so he rages at the sight of injustice)

[Seatbelt]

House Rules... OK.

Arcane magic doesn't exist. Divine magic is limited to archivists. Casting spells carry the risk of being tainted unless you have a vestige bound. Psionics rule.

Creepy. Do you live in Madison wisconsin, and are you running a game with two creepy Elans, a half-ilithid, a dude with a huge sword and an anime character?

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

We're a very lenient group, one main houserule is almost anything goes. But there are lots of restrictions we put on ourselves due to roleplay reasons. Say there's an evil diety that lives in the positive energy plane, a cleric of that diety cannot take the tomb-tained soul feat unless they had a VERY good reason. But there are some I employ in my campaigns that are a constant.

Retroactive skill points: Skill-points are gained as if it's always been that high the whole time, even with magical enhancements. Although magical enhancments to Intelligence also provide these bonus skill points but the skill points gained through this manner must be recorded and kept track of in case the magic item is removed or destroyed. If they are not kept track of, the DM will decide which skill-points are to be removed...

No generic half-fiends or celestials: They both use the half-fiendish variety variant because it only makes sense. Plus as a DM and a PC, I love making up what a mixed breed fiend/celestial descriptions. There's even a half-succubus in my current party.

Improving Sorcerers: At the cost of a 2,000 gp gemstone, 3 permenant hitpoints and a week-long ritual a sorcerer may increase thier spells known/spells per day as if they were a sorcerer of one level higher, this means they have the same spells at the same level of a wizard, so a sorcerer of 11th level has 6th level spells. Rockin'.

[Ikkitosen]

To all the people offering max hp/level - do you likewise have DD spells do max damage per die? If not you're nerfing them even more than they are already.