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Ursus Spelaeus
2017-04-22, 02:31 AM
I'm working on a houserule document for an 3.5 E6 campaign. I expect this to have a lot of kinks to work out, so please let me know how I might improve upon this.

STAKES & RAISES
This set of houserules is designed to take some of the sting out of D&D's random lethality by giving players some control over the consequences. Games need fail-states in addition to reward mechanisms in order to be meaningful, but death as the sole fail-state is quite severe for role-playing games. In a game as focused on builds and customization as 3.5 is, changes to a player's character-sheet can be a dreadful enough prospect for players to serve as suitable fail-state.

Stakes
At the beginning of combat during the 'roll initiative' phase, select at least one of the following stakes. You may select up to two additional stakes past the first; if you do, select a Raise for each one.
A stake's effects apply when your character's HP is reduced to -10 or less.

Life
When your character's HP is reduced to -10 or less during this combat, they die. Create a new 1st level character.

Feat
You must have at least one feat to select this stake.
When your character's HP is reduced to -10 or less during this combat, choose one of your non-[Flaw] feats. You lose the chosen feat, and it becomes [Locked] for you (you cannot gain [Locked] feats, even if you meet the prerequisites.) Gain one additional non-[Locked] feat the next time you level-up.

Flaw
You can't select this stake if you already have three [Flaw] feats.
When your character's HP is reduced to -10 or less during this combat, choose one [Flaw] feat you don't have already, and gain that [Flaw]. Gain one additional non-[Locked] feat the next time you level up.

Raises
When you select stakes, select one raise for each stake you select after the first. Your raises come into effect at the end of combat if your HP stayed above -10 for the entire duration of combat, and if you didn't retreat.

Unlock Feat
One feat of your choice that is [Locked] for you is no longer feat. The feat becomes a valid choice (if you meet its prerequisites) the next time you gain a feat.

Remove Flaw
Choose one of your flaws. The next time you level-up, remove that flaw if able (some flaws, such as Maimed, require Restoration or other effects to remove.) The flaw becomes [Locked] for you.

Restore Bonus Feats
You regain all un-[Locked] feats you have lost that are granted to you as bonus-feats by your race, class, or other effects.

Action Point
This raise is special in that its effect applies at the beginning of combat instead of the end.
Gain one action point.

Unlockable Feats
The following feats are treated as [Locked] feats for all characters at character creation, but can be unlocked by using the Unlock Feat raise.

Higher Stakes [Locked]
Prerequisite: None
When you select stakes, you may select up to one additional stake (this allows you to select an additional raise.)

Superhuman Will [Locked]
Prerequisite: None
You gain a +2 bonus to Will saves. In addition, when you roll a natural 1 on a Will saving throw, you may reroll the die instead of automatically failing.
This feat counts as Iron Will for purposes of meeting prerequisites for feats and prestige classes.

Superhuman Dodge [Locked]
Prerequisite: None
You gain a +1 dodge bonus to AC. Whenever an attack misses you, you can make a 5' move as a free action.
This feat counts as Dodge for purposes of meeting prerequisites for feats and prestige classes.

Superhuman Shot [Locked]
Prerequisite: None
You gain the benefits of the Point Blank Shot feat. In addition, you can make ranged attacks as ranged touch attacks against foes within your reach.
This feat counts as Point Blank Shot for purposes of meeting prerequisits for feats and prestige classes.

Superhuman Expertise [Locked]
Prerequisite: None
When you fight defensively, the penalty to your attack is -2 instead of -4, and you gain a +4 deflection bonus to AC instead of a +2 dodge bonus.
This feat counts as Combat Expertise for purposes of meeting prerequisites for feats and prestige classes.

Superhuman Unarmed Strike [Locked]
Prerequisite: None
You gain the benfits of the Improved Unarmed Strike feat. In addition, you can make unarmed strikes as touch attacks.
This feat counts as Improved Unarmed Strike for purposes of meeting prerequisites for feats and prestige classes.

Morphic tide
2017-04-24, 09:38 AM
With the strength of those Raises, I'd say that the condition needs to be more harsh than just not triggering the Stakes. Something like not falling below 80% health or not using some category of ability, like 3/day or something that applies to casters not putting forth serious effort.

Like, the Raises should be a reward for stomping the fight, for utterly dominating the opposition without difficulty. And the Stakes need wording to avert Save-or-Dies making them irrelevant.

There's also the fun fact that the Stakes have an option that makes dying as a Fighter or Magewrite rather difficult, due to their relative abundance of feats.

Ursus Spelaeus
2017-04-30, 07:00 AM
With the strength of those Raises, I'd say that the condition needs to be more harsh than just not triggering the Stakes. Something like not falling below 80% health or not using some category of ability, like 3/day or something that applies to casters not putting forth serious effort.

Like, the Raises should be a reward for stomping the fight, for utterly dominating the opposition without difficulty. And the Stakes need wording to avert Save-or-Dies making them irrelevant.

Makes sense!



There's also the fun fact that the Stakes have an option that makes dying as a Fighter or Magewrite rather difficult, due to their relative abundance of feats.

I don't have a problem with fighters being hard to kill. Might help as a balance mechanism to bump fighters up a tier.
I'm not familiar with magewrites.