Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

What house rules do you commonly employ?

I play with a bunch of power hungry, fun loving guys, who learned quickly how to max out AC *Koff monk/vow of poverty/ githzerai *Koff

To counter this, AC is now a bonus to a d20 roll, but you no longer add the +10 that you normally do. This makes it so that a 3rd level monk with an AC of +16 (normally 26) can get hit when he rolls a one or something.

Also, I've adapted the ranger in 3.5 so that he can fight... although he no longer gets spells.

(rangers are actually good in my campaigns)

So yeah... There are some of my house rules... what are yours?

One that we do that always makes things fun...

Since a roll of a 20 is a hit with a chance to critical hit them a roll of a 1 is a chance to literally fumble. You reroll to hit and if you manage to hit the second time nothing happens. If you miss by 5 or less you drop your weapon/ the bow string breaks/ etc. You miss by 6 or more....the weapon itself breaks....

Another one is we apply dex modifier to ranged attacks. Since being uber strong does more damage in HtH why cant you be very nimble with a bow and be able to hit at precisely the proper sot???

I am sure we use alot more house rules...just have played with the same group for years so it is all kinda natural.

Nice rules...

Keep it coming please!

Isn't dex always used to hit with ranged?

For 3.5 we've done a couple of things.
We do the "1 is a fumble, 20 is a crit" for everything, even skills. If you crit on a skill you might be able to do something not normally possible at that DC- basically a GM fiat.
Re-roll ones on hit dice.
I often let intimidate work off strength, depending on context.
A big one is the "round's grace" which means that characters reduced below -10 do not die until their action next happens. This leaves time for dramatic last minute saves.

Depending on the setting, we may drastically limit magic item access but then I'll usually rule that armour and weapons can get flat craftmanship bonuses to damage and hit, which are not magical. To make up for the lack of magic items in my ravenloft game I beefed up rifles, shotguns, explosives and blunderbusses a lot. I also made magic cirlce against evil pretty much impassable, but gave lots of nasty powers to evil things too. I'll often come up with esotheric monsters too- one of my mosters was a sentient lunatic asylum that acted through vessels (kinda possessed crazies) but wasn't harmed by their death. The players had to figure out that it was the building that was the problem and burn it down.

Obviously 3.5 ravenloft (the swords and sorcery version) also had the Dark Paths, which generally was a bonus that fitted the sin and the player character with a kicker that meant it was harder for them to achieve their goals in a meaningful way and made it easier for them to sin the same way again. It really wasn't worth it for players to go down the dark paths. Some of the paths in the books are a bit too lenient and make it too attractive for powergamers.

There's probably others too, but I forget them. For 4th, I haven't made any house rules just yet, but I have made all my own monsters for my Iron Kingdoms campaign and let me tell you it is a hell of a lot easier and more elegant than 3.5 monster creation!

We have a whole list of house rules. Alot are tools to 'powergame' but as all our GM's are familiar with them powergaming isn't really an option, we just end up fighting creatures normally above our challenge rating, have super difficult DC for skills etc.

We also do the 1 is a fumble 20 is a crit for everything, but only for combat, and with a few additions:

1: You fumble; lose all remaning actions for the round. Roll again: 1-4 is a critical fumble, roll on chart ( I can post the charts for you if you want.), ROLL AGAIN: 1-4 means modifiers to the chart; this process is repeated until a 1-4 is not rolled.

A threat range roll that crits is double damage as normal, except that we allow double damage against undead and constructs. (Doesn't make sense that a good hit wouldn't do extra damage to a target)

20: Automatic double damage and roll again: If the roll is in your threat range you get to roll on the chart as well as double damage, AND ROLL AGAIN: if this roll is in your threat range again, the chart roll gets a modifier; wash, rinse, repeat.

Obviously constructs and undead are immune to the chart rolls as they are based on bodily functions. (The charts are very similar to the old 2ed. Skills and Powers charts.)

We also give a grace for 'dying' characters:
Starting at 0 HP you must check against your constitution score every round at the beginning of your action. The DC is =/< your constitution score minus how many HP you are negative. If you pass the character stays concious and may act normally. Failure means the character falls unconcious. For example: if the character is at -5 HP, and has a con of 16, the roll must be 11 or less to remain concious.

Starting at -1 HP you lose 1 HP per turn, regardless of Con checks. (Not sure exactly if this is a house rule or not; We've played this way since 2ed. AD&D.)

If your HP's drop to neg = CON, the character is dead, and must be raised etc.
If your HP's drop to neg = Max HP, the character's body is destroyed completely and they can no longer be raised or ressurected, etc. Re-incarnation will still work though.

My favorite was a undead hunter prestige class (otherwise known as the DM encouraged me into a crit-heavy build in an undead heavy game), which actually let you crit undead (and a few other nice tricks).

We also had an all-undead game once. Modified the really dead rules to make it marginally less lethal, and allowed a druid character to trade out cure wounds for inflict wounds to allow for undead healing.

The best, though, was the XP catch-up rule. If you got more than 2 levels behind the group (i.e. you went on hiatus for a bit) you'd come back at 2 levels below the highest-level character in the party. Suitable backstory would follow. This nicely simplified encounter designs and helped out people whenever RL got nasty.

Most of the things I do are little tweaks that just make more sense. I can't really think of them off the top of my head because I'm not playing right now.

The best way to get around the Monk/VoP/Gith problem is REALLY easy. First, don't allow them. If you do allow them, enforce it HARD. They will have nothing. Yeah, you killed that dragon, but you get NOTHING. Keeping anything will elminiate the Vow. Being poor will be looked down on horribly by other Githzerai, as they are all about power and wealth. And congratulations on being a Monk, and having no real ranged combat. Enjoy my FlyBy Attacks with reach weapons you can't do ANYTHING about.

No, it's the Book of Nine Swords that needs to be tossed out.

Ranged Damage =d+Dex modifier + Str ratering (Composite bows only) + magic power.

Mattlov wrote:Most of the things I do are little tweaks that just make more sense. I can't really think of them off the top of my head because I'm not playing right now.

The best way to get around the Monk/VoP/Gith problem is REALLY easy. First, don't allow them. If you do allow them, enforce it HARD. They will have nothing. Yeah, you killed that dragon, but you get NOTHING. Keeping anything will elminiate the Vow. Being poor will be looked down on horribly by other Githzerai, as they are all about power and wealth. And congratulations on being a Monk, and having no real ranged combat. Enjoy my FlyBy Attacks with reach weapons you can't do ANYTHING about.

No, it's the Book of Nine Swords that needs to be tossed out.

I'm playing a Dwarven Cleric/Monk/VOP right now. My defense is disgusting, as are my saves. But my offensive output is pretty low for the level. Fortunately I have a party for that. Strangely enough I WAS intending to pick up the Drunken Master Prestige class. But then Roleplaying got in the way. I had heard of the Vow of Poverty, but I didn't know what it entailed till after I had committed to it, and looked it up after the game session.

Believe me, my character has NOTHING. But then he really needs nothing. Doesn't need to eat or drink, nor worry about thermal clothing, and soon won't need to breathe. Fortunately, as I said in my previous post, our GM is an old hand, and I don't overshadow the rest of the group.

Then There is my Spell Overload rule, which I invented when one of my party discovered Delayed Dissintigrate/Time Stop Spam. (Basically, allowing her to deal about 3000 points of damage before the next guy in line could move). Also, she could do it without loseing any spell slots (Excludeing 1 Epic Spell slot, through time duplicate). The rule Basically goes like this: If a player attemts a stunt like that, they are sucked into the warp (After the actions are resolved), along with anyone else who is under the effects of a Spell. Beleive me, it sounds crude, but you can really get some Gnarly Spam at Epic Levels, so do not have the luxery of tailoting the rule to every incident.

i have changed intimidate from charisma based to strength based because i am not really scared of someone who is good with words but i am kind of scared of someone who is hulking with muscles.

I'd be more scared of the guy who knows how to use his words to deliver a subtle threat than the bulging idiot standing next to him. Always have to watch out for the quiet ones.

However, one of the best rules as a D.M.: The rulebooks [the PHB and things like it] are well-thought out and tried suggestions. In the end, it's up to you when it comes to rule disputes.

I'm not saying completely change the rules, but if you set a precident with one rule, and it comes up again, go with what you have decided before.

Damn double posts....