[PF]Preparing some house rules for my next game.

[Tom Foolery]

I'm going to be running a new game come the new year. I play on using pathfinder but my experiences with it, like 3.5, have been....problematic at times. So I want to try some new house rules to iron out the wrinkles as it were and I was hoping the the poster in the play ground my help me with them.

Here are my ideas for the classes.

I'll be giving 4 more skill points to all non-magical classes.

Cleric: I've have a few ideas for them but I'll need a bit more time to flesh them out. So I'll come back later.

Fighter: Most of the changes that will affect fighters will be happening in other parts rather in the class itself.

I'm thinking of giving a bonus to shields for fights to help bring sword and board style closer the two handed weapon user.

Monk: Monks will be able to apply their Dex bonus damage to attacks with the monk's Unarmed Strike and Unarmed Strikes count as an finesse weapon.

Monks get spring attack as a bonus feet a 1st level(Not sure of this one)

Monks lose stunning fist but gets to add a pre-selected condition to an attack if they drop the damage dice by one step. The condition will last 1 + the monk's level/4, to a minimum of 1. So if a medium 1st level monk drops his damage dice to 1d4 he would be able add a condition for 2 turns.

Paladin: I'm not sure what to do about paladins but I do want to help reduce their M.A.D.

Ranger: I'm thinking of giving the ranger a one weapon style to give people a way to do swashbucklers in core.

Rogue: No sure what I need to do here. Any suggestion would be helpful.

Sorcerer: The only real change I'm thinking of is making DC's based on Wis instead of Cha to remove the class's SAD status.

Wizard: I'm thinking of is making DC's based on Wis instead of Int to remove the class's SAD status.

Regular wizard only get up to 8th level spells

I'll be changing how specialist wizards work. They'll be able to use 9th level spells but only of their selected school. Initial opposition school spells can not be memorized at all. They will be given an option ever 4 levels to ban another school in return for a benefit from a list, list currently under construction.

I don't have any major problems with Barbarians, Bard and Druid at the moment.

So any comments?

[Keneth]

Let's see...

The skill point rule is fine, they don't really affect much of anything. I give plenty of skill points to all PCs, really.

If you want to nerf clerics, making them like cloistered clerics from 3.5, without the bonuses, is a good start.

Shield and armor has to be enchanted twice if you want to use either as a weapon. Making enhancement bonuses count for both would be a good start, seeing as mundanes need to be as economic with their resources as possible. I also allow players to apply the shield bonus to touch attacks at the risk of damaging the shield (should the attacker happen to score a critical hit). But to make it worth using, you'd probably need to give shield users easier ways of negating whole attacks, rather than just up the bonuses a bit.

Unarmed strikes are already a finessable weapon. Personally, I'd add weapon finesse as a bonus feat for monks at first level, and change weapon finesse so that you can apply Dex to damage regardless of class. Spring attacks are pretty useless TBH, so you'll need to do a lot more if you want to actually fix the lowly monk.

Paladins aren't really that MAD anymore. Having played quite a few of them, I can guarantee that you can already make very effective builds without removing the necessity for any additional abilities. Certainly not Charisma anyway, we already have stupid and ignorant paladins, making them obnoxious as well would be bad. :smalltongue:

If you want to make life easier for paladins, release their alignment restriction on the ethic axis (law-chaos) and let them smite anything. That makes for some very happy and very powerful paladins.

Give ranger full companion progression and join all humanoids into one favored enemy group. Rangers need nice things, they horribly lacking in every department.

To improve rogues, you need to make SA easier for them and probably change a few of the underwhelming talents.

Changing casters from SAD to slightly MAD won't make one bit of a difference. To even try to attempt balancing casters, you need to look at their spells first. And 9th level spells, while powerful, don't make much of a difference either. Unless you plan on running lvl 15+ games, no one's gonna care anyway.

How can you not have any issues with druids? :smallbiggrin:

Anyway, these are a few of the houserules I use in my games, and I've just scraped the surface here. Hope that helps you a little with your endeavor.

[Ilorin Lorati]

In order to make einhand ranger combat style a thing, you'll need to actually have sufficient einhand feats first and foremost, and PF doesn't really have those, not enough to make the style worthwhile.

I actually think Rogue has the architecture to be really strong and effective without changing their core, but the talents themselves are lackluster and really need a lot of bonus toys to make them worthwhile. If you want something premade that helps them but does change up the, I rather like Lemmy's attempt (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=303572 ) for that purpose.

[anacalgion]

I'm going to be running a new game come the new year. I play on using pathfinder but my experiences with it, like 3.5, have been....problematic at times. So I want to try some new house rules to iron out the wrinkles as it were and I was hoping the the poster in the play ground my help me with them.

Here are my ideas for the classes.

I'll be giving 4 more skill points to all non-magical classes.

Sounds good to me.

Cleric: I've have a few ideas for them but I'll need a bit more time to flesh them out. So I'll come back later.

Just a thought, what if you turn them into a spontaneous caster who doesn't get the cleric list, only their deity's domains? 5 spells per level, every cleric is different, and with sorcerer spells per day they're not overly strong while still being useful.

Fighter: Most of the changes that will affect fighters will be happening in other parts rather in the class itself.

I'd give them the ability to swap around feats too, maybe 1/day starting at 4th level? Good, but not overly good, as long as they make sure they still qualify for all their feats.

I'm thinking of giving a bonus to shields for fights to help bring sword and board style closer the two handed weapon user.
Good plan.

Monk: Monks will be able to apply their Dex bonus damage to attacks with the monk's Unarmed Strike and Unarmed Strikes count as an finesse weapon.

How about just letting them use Wis for attack and damage rolls with unarmed strikes? Tag on d10 hit dice and full BAB and suddenly you have a pretty good class.

Monks get spring attack as a bonus feet a 1st level(Not sure of this one)

Bonus feet? Do they get an extra leg too? Seriously though, I don't see this being super problematic. Up to you.

Monks lose stunning fist but gets to add a pre-selected condition to an attack if they drop the damage dice by one step. The condition will last 1 + the monk's level/4, to a minimum of 1. So if a medium 1st level monk drops his damage dice to 1d4 he would be able add a condition for 2 turns.

Seems kinda specific. Depends on the conditions, but this is either going to be occasionally good or just not worth using.

Paladin: I'm not sure what to do about paladins but I do want to help reduce their M.A.D.

I think they're alright in Pathfinder.

Ranger: I'm thinking of giving the ranger a one weapon style to give people a way to do swashbucklers in core.

Ok.

Rogue: No sure what I need to do here. Any suggestion would be helpful.

I think the rogue is mostly fine. Maybe let them add 1/2 level to a few skills? Just to let them be a bit extra sneaky and stuff.

Sorcerer: The only real change I'm thinking of is making DC's based on Wis instead of Cha to remove the class's SAD status.

Sure. No real problem with that, although it does make the Sorcerer sad instead of SAD.

Wizard: I'm thinking of is making DC's based on Wis instead of Int to remove the class's SAD status.

Well deserved.

Regular wizard only get up to 8th level spells

Ok.

I'll be changing how specialist wizards work. They'll be able to use 9th level spells but only of their selected school. Initial opposition school spells can not be memorized at all. They will be given an option ever 4 levels to ban another school in return for a benefit from a list, list currently under construction.

Sure.

I don't have any major problems with Barbarians, Bard and Druid at the moment.

I'd knock druid down to ranger animal companion level (1/2 character level) and give ranger the full animal companion. Evens things out a little more.

So any comments?

Ideas in BOLD.