Houserules: What works, what doesn't, what do you want to try?

[Seerow]

A house rule my group implemented to help skill monkeys was to combine several skills:

Spot + Listen = Perception (thanks 4ed!)
Hide + Move Silently = Stealth (2 rolls every time is lame)
Disable Device + Open Lock = Disable Device (locks are devices right?)

I do this + give more skill points out in general.

-Knowledge, Profession, Craft, and Perform are now "Background Skills". Everybody gets 2+int background skills per level.
-You no longer gain int mod in extra regular skill points per level, but normal skills are multiplied by 1.5. (so someone with 4 skills per level gains 6 skills per level)
-Anyone with 2 skills per level without full casting progression gets a boost to 4 skills per level before the above mentioned modifier.
-You can trade out one normal skill point for 2 background skill points if desired.
-No more x4 multiplier at level 1. Adding 1 rank to a trained skill gives a +3 bonus with that skill (basically the Pathfinder rule).
-Bonus skill points (such as from human) apply to normal skills.

So a Fighter, Barbarian, Monk, Druid, or Paladin all get 6 skill points per level. A Wizard, Sorcerer, or Cleric gets 3 per level. A Ranger or Bard gets 9 per level. A Rogue gets 12 per level. All of them gain 2+int background skills on top of their "real" skills.

And when rolling for HP roll again if under half cause don't you hate your lvl 3 barbarian who rolls two 1's?

One thing I've done for this is every level reroll all hit dice. If the result is greater, use that. If the result is lower, use your old result + 1. It tends to push everyone towards average after a few levels, though a really great roll can carry someone for a few levels. I do like the suggestion from Big Teej of "if you don't like your hit die roll, drop the die one and roll again"


Oh and one other thing we do to avoid accidental "oops didn't mean to kill that character like that" crits:

When a character is reduced below 0 hp, they are treated as dying. The character takes a -1 penalty to stabilization rolls for every 10 points below 0 they are. Your stabilization roll is d20+con mod. This is rolled on the dying character's turn every round. A 19 or higher means the character is stable. A roll resulting in less than 5 causes the character's condition to worsen, giving a -2 penalty to future stabilization checks. After 3 total rolls resulting in less than 5 the character dies.

[Anachronity]

Adding a few more class skills to Sorcerer is fine, but frankly I'm against the general idea of buffing up other classes to be closer to wizard. I think a good baseline of power is tier 3 or thereabouts, maybe tier 4 if you want a low-magic gritty campaign. Coincidentally Warlock and Binder (without Zercyll) are my favorite classes.

I've always wanted to try E6, but that's a pretty big house rule that you need to build the whole game around.

[Tvtyrant]

Something I do is I allow players to take their turns in any order, as long as their initiatives are all ahead of the monsters. It helps them coordinate tactics more easily.

That's not actually a houserule, though--it's natively accounted for in the initiative system, with delaying.

This seems like a good system to me. I love threads like this because they give me lots of stuff I can use for my own campaigns.

[Segev]

Something I do is I allow players to take their turns in any order, as long as their initiatives are all ahead of the monsters. It helps them coordinate tactics more easily.

That's not actually a houserule, though--it's natively accounted for in the initiative system, with delaying.

Yeah, the init system as written handles this through delaying. You're just letting them work it out less formally. The point of most initiative systems being granular enough to intersperse enemies between the PCs is that this isn't always the best tactical option.

Also, a watched a GM, once, kill a PC because he decided to just roll all the NPCs' inits on a single roll...and they all attacked one PC because he'd done something impressive.

Even if he'd been all of their target, if they'd been interspersed with the rest of the PCs, the shugenja would've had a chance to cast some healing magic in the midst of that damage. He might've lived.


Anyway, the idea behind the "bidding" system is to allow players to decide to hold back or push for initiative, to react to actions by trying to out-bid the person who declared them, and to generally keep everybody involved and interested every turn no matter whose turn it is, because they might want to react to it.

I know I've seen players, in normal initiative systems, try to react to something on another's turn. "Can I get in the way of that?" "Can I disarm him?" or the like. If the bidding system could be made to work properly, people declare intentions and start declaring reactions and try to bid for priority over the guy who's doing something objectionable to stop him.

[Coidzor]

Should that not be average not totals

Err, no. The Skills were combined. You don't add someone's ranks in Hide and someone's ranks in Move Silently to get their ranks in Stealth.

[Vegan Zombie]

Should that not be average not totals


Otherwise e.g.

Hide - 5
Move Silently - 5
(so sneak of 10)
And a DC of say 15

So to stand still I need to roll 10+
To move quietly but be spotted I need to roll 10+
But
To sneak along I only need to roll 5

I will therefore hop on one foot when I want to hide as I am “sneaking” (*i.e. hiding and moving)

Unless the DC for sneaking is much higher than the DC for Hiding

We removed Listen, Move Silently & Open Lock altogether. Cross them right off the sheet. 3 less skills the skill monkeys need to max. Lets them rank some less important skills without falling behind.

edited because iPad autocorrect sucks

[illyahr]

Fighters get 4/3 BAB. Cuz, you know, they need to fight.

They also get one of each Weapon Focus/Weapon Specialization, as soon as they qualify for them, as bonus feats.

[Ferronach]

I love threads like this because they give me lots of stuff I can use for my own campaigns.

Same here!
Another house rule I like to use is one I call "Pay attention or DIE!" (most of groups have short attention spans and are easily "oh look! shiny!" distracted...
The rule is as follows (during combat): If you don’t respond within a reasonable amount of time, you turn will be skipped. The second time, your turn will be skipped and the nearest enemy will get an attack of opportunity against you. Third time, you miss a turn an all enemies get an attack of opportunity against whoever they are currently fighting (even if it isn’t you).

The last part is to get the party to essentially keep eachother in line so I am not always the bad guy in the room XD

[Honest Tiefling]

What's a reasonable amount of time for you, and how often does this occur?

[gawwy]

Im in need of some turn time limiter.

In order to start the process i started using popcorn inititive and my groups are starting to get the hang of passing the initiative along side a rp style sentance like "x back me up here" or "y look out for that orc" one group loves it the others grumble every time a bigbad gets two turns in a row.

[Der_DWSage]

Another common houserule is condensing some of the more common feats-Power Attack is now given to anyone with strength of 13 or higher, Weapon Finesse is automatic with light weapons, Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot are wrapped up into one feat, Dodge and Mobility are wrapped up into one feat, that sort of thing.

Another one I'd like to try out is putting all spontaneous casters on the Spell Point system, so they legitimately feel different from prepared casters. And I've never actually used Vitality Points, but I've heard good things.

[Ferronach]

What's a reasonable amount of time for you, and how often does this occur?

reasonable is situational. If they are just flat out not paying attention despite me telling them it is their turn i make the call. If the player is clearly thinking their actions through I give them more time. Reasonable is just my way of saying DM's prerogative.
As for how often, I wish I could say not very but some days we honestly spend more time B.Sing than playing but hey DnD is about hanging out and having fun so it isn't that bad unless it is just 1 or 2 players.

[Alent]

Something I'm going to be trying out when my I finally get my next campaign kicked off is dropping the +stats enhancement items and spells, and increasing the stat gains from +1 every 4 levels to +1 to two different stats of your choice every two levels. The idea is to hit a max of +10 to two stats instead of +11 to one stat and +6 to the rest.

The hope is that it will smooth out the power curve and generate some variety in magic item purchases rather than everyone gunning straight for the same +2, +4, and +6 to (primary stat) items.

Popcorn initiative looks interesting, I might try that this sunday. I'd be curious in seeing if it can create some teamwork and strategy building in an ordinarily chaotic-selfish group of murderhobos.

[Vhaidara]

Something I'm going to be trying out when my I finally get my next campaign kicked off is dropping the +stats enhancement items and spells, and increasing the stat gains from +1 every 4 levels to +1 to two different stats of your choice every two levels. The idea is to hit a max of +10 to two stats instead of +11 to one stat and +6 to the rest.

If you're completely removing +Stat items, I might even up it to two stats every level, but no stat can be more than 1/2 level higher than the starting point. As it stands, you normally end up with +41 across the board. In yours, you get +20 split between 2 stats. By making it every level, you still get +40, and it allows a good bit of spreading and padding.

I'm a bit biased in this because I favor high power PCs so that they can get away with low optimization builds.

[jedipotter]

Another house rule I like to use is one I call "Pay attention or DIE!" (most of groups have short attention spans and are easily "oh look! shiny!" distracted...
The rule is as follows (during combat): If you don’t respond within a reasonable amount of time, you turn will be skipped.

Same here! I have this as a House Rule.

The first part is you must pay attention. If you meet to gnomes, Mope and Meep and one is an alchemist and one is a thief, the player must remember this information. Or write it down. Later where the player says ''oh we go talk to that gnome alchemist'' is not good enough...that equals your character forgot the name. And no ''roll to remember''.

In combat it even more harsh: You have six seconds, from the time the DM says It is Meep's turn to act Anything, except an action, has the character confused and standing still as an easy target for that round.

[Seerow]

If you're completely removing +Stat items, I might even up it to two stats every level, but no stat can be more than 1/2 level higher than the starting point. As it stands, you normally end up with +41 across the board. In yours, you get +20 split between 2 stats. By making it every level, you still get +40, and it allows a good bit of spreading and padding.

I'm a bit biased in this because I favor high power PCs so that they can get away with low optimization builds.

As far as stats go, what I did for a long period of time was two things:
1) Increasing point buy as you level up. By level 20 characters had something like a 100 bonus to their point buy. This replaced standard level up ability score bonuses and inherent bonuses.

2) A scaling enhancement bonus to all ability scores as you level. This is a flat bonus added to scores, starting at a +1 to 1 score at level 4, and eventually scaling up to +8/+6/+6/+4/+4/+4 to various scores by level 20. Since it's an enhancement bonus it overlaps with any items, buffs, etc, that you might pick up, so those things still exist, but aren't mandatory and gradually become pretty useless to high level adventurers.


I eventually dropped it because the scaling point buy was causing confusion among a few players, but I still think the concept is sound.

[Alent]

If you're completely removing +Stat items, I might even up it to two stats every level, but no stat can be more than 1/2 level higher than the starting point. As it stands, you normally end up with +41 across the board. In yours, you get +20 split between 2 stats. By making it every level, you still get +40, and it allows a good bit of spreading and padding.

I'm a bit biased in this because I favor high power PCs so that they can get away with low optimization builds.

Hmm. Hmmmmmm.

I'll talk to my co-conspirator about that one this weekend. We're trying to hit a healthy medium on power levels, but I am using 3.5e 25 point buy instead of 32 point buy and encouraging MAD via homebrew, so going the +40/4 route might be more on target than +20/2.

[Vhaidara]

I'll talk to my co-conspirator about that one this weekend. We're trying to hit a healthy medium on power levels, but I am using 3.5e 25 point buy instead of 32 point buy and encouraging MAD via homebrew, so going the +40/4 route might be more on target than +20/2.

That's evil. I used 30 point buy, but also started everyone at 10s and allowed buying all the way down to 3 (NWN style). So it was effectively 42 point buy with a lot of dumping potential.

[atemu1234]

That's evil. I used 30 point buy, but also started everyone at 10s and allowed buying all the way down to 3 (NWN style). So it was effectively 42 point buy with a lot of dumping potential.

I used to use 25 pb for NPCs. And I thought that that was restrictive...

[Coidzor]

Hmm. Hmmmmmm.

I'll talk to my co-conspirator about that one this weekend. We're trying to hit a healthy medium on power levels, but I am using 3.5e 25 point buy instead of 32 point buy and encouraging MAD via homebrew, so going the +40/4 route might be more on target than +20/2.

So everyone's MAD and everyone has basically **** for ability scores for levels 1-3 but their ability scores increase a bit faster than the default starting at 4th level in order to (partially?) make up for the lack of stat boosting spells and items?

It seems like Yakkety Sax will be playing a lot for the first half of the campaign, then.

Edit: Ah, I misread it about starting at 4th instead of at 2nd. Still, if they're starting with **** ability scores then they're going to take until about level 6 or level 8 to catch up to where they would've been at 1st level for their primary ability scores.

[Alent]

That's evil. I used 30 point buy, but also started everyone at 10s and allowed buying all the way down to 3 (NWN style). So it was effectively 42 point buy with a lot of dumping potential.

Going down to 14 point buy or whatever the low power/common array is would be evil, I see this more as "iffy but well meaning" given my group is in one of those awkward early skill plateaus where the challenges we've had aren't working, and just adding to the CR isn't doing anything but bringing on the lightning tag phase earlier.

It may not work out, but we're curious to see how turning the power level down slightly affects things. We'll probably do it wrong a few times before we get it right, part of learning.

@Coldzor: For what it's worth, we usually start at level 3 or level 5, level 3 is the target this time around. I'm also limiting the MAD to 3~4 stats. Actually, is that even MAD? or do you have to hit 5~6 stats for the term to apply?

[Flickerdart]

Ability scores are more important in the first few levels than during any other time, so why is that when they should be lowest? Raise PB, bump off a few of the stat-boosting items, and off you go.

[Vhaidara]

@Coldzor: For what it's worth, we usually start at level 3 or level 5, level 3 is the target this time around. I'm also limiting the MAD to 3~4 stats. Actually, is that even MAD? or do you have to hit 5~6 stats for the term to apply?

MAD starts at 2 (Con is generally ignored, since everyone needs that).

[Flickerdart]

MAD starts at 2 (Con is generally ignored, since everyone needs that).

Not the undead, nor characters with Faerie Mysteries Initiate.

[Vhaidara]

Not the undead

Well, then it's ignored because they don't have it

nor characters with Faerie Mysteries Initiate.

Doesn't that only apply to level 1?

[Flickerdart]

Doesn't that only apply to level 1?

Nope! Shag an elf for 15 minutes and from then on you derive HP from INT.

[Alent]

Nope! Shag an elf for 15 minutes and from then on you derive HP from CON.

Do you mean CHA? I think you mean CHA.

[Vhaidara]

Nope! Shag an elf for 15 minutes and from then on you derive HP from CON.

Wait a minute...

[Troacctid]

One houserule I've been wanting to try: making a full attack is a standard action. That should give martial characters a nice boost. Casters can move and attack, so why not fighters? It's pretty dumb to force everyone and their brother to dip Barbarian just to get the basic functionality of walking and fighting at the same time.

[Alent]

One houserule I've been wanting to try: making a full attack is a standard action. That should give martial characters a nice boost. Casters can move and attack, so why not fighters? It's pretty dumb to force everyone and their brother to dip Barbarian just to get the basic functionality of walking and fighting at the same time.

Have you considered backporting the 5e rules for attacking? They're actually better than getting to full attack as standard.