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[pabelfly]

Are you sure this is house rules? I think it's standard rules.

I've always thought the rules here were not clear. For the sake of a couple of lines I was happy to clarify those two points.

[Darg]

The only complaint the monk has had so far is that their play feels a little plain (this is someone who usually plays casters), and many of Fizbans fixes would remedy this.

Oh, this reminded me of another houserule I implemented to fix this issue. Disarm, grapple, and trip attempts on failure do not give the opponent a free attempt in return; however that effect was added to the improved feats for them. Makes these special attacks much less dangerous to attempt and players are much more likely to make use of them. Grapple monk is really fearsome, disarming with a staff or tripping is an incredible debuff. Personally I think there is a lot to do as a martial, the game just makes them hard to take advantage of.

Monks are kind of in a strange place base monk out of the gate is pretty bad and yet some super unoptimized groups will swear its the most broken class and not allow it in their games. Yet in a group with decent optimization standard monk tends to fall behind pretty quick. With that said even in the standard game, gishing with kung fu genius wizard enlightened fist and abjurant champion is pretty powerful, so is tashalatora into psychic warrior or other psionic classes, going cleric/monk/sacred fist or fist of the forest are other good choices, the real issue is base monk is a bit derpy and dysfunctional.

I think it's really that monk is different from the other martials. It relies a lot on party support and consumables to really shine and making use of its many attacks is also a bit harder to take advantage of. Monk is just not as intuitive and so seems weak in comparison to other classes. At levels 1 and 2 especially so. After that though it starts scaling exceptionally well. In my opinion it's a lot like the wizard of martials. You need to think outside of the box to really leverage your strengths. When you do, monk starts feeling overpowered compared to the other martials because they have so many avenues of scaling.

If you are wanting to play around with more AC I would suggest using the defense bonus and armor to DR alternate rules. across the board I think that is a better system than standard armor.

I really like the armor as damage reduction rules. It baseline allows DR/- to stack and it also provides provides a mechanical expression of monk being more "dodgey."

I suppose I could try to add a note regarding that to the Monk section, since I have nerfed both Mage Armor and Shield (by a mere -1 or 2 each but oh boy did people rage in the thread where I brought it up), and Animated Shields are mega-banned for violating the entire concept of shields. Wording the Monk's AC bonus to explicitly never stack with any sort of armor or AC bonus is easy enough, I don't recall if I avoided doing so to keep it short, or because I thought that was a bit extreme and wanted to allow some cross-play.

As for Monk+Polymorph, I'd put that under Polymorph problems to deal with as needed. I'm entirely cool with ruling that your humanoid kung-fu does not in fact work in bodies outside of your own, the fact that it doesn't is really a massive oversight (for that matter, another option would be shutting down feats!). I can add that to the Polymorph section.

The numbers assume that characters eventually gain access to shield AC. While bucklers are an option for non-monks, monks need the animated quality or their consumption of consumables can get a little out of hand. Maybe a feature that lets them use their UAS as a shield to represent their ability to deflect blows with their body. They already get access to deflect arrows. Give it the ability to be considered a shield for spells and effects. Level 7 seems like a good time for a +1 shield AC bonus.

Polymorph is definitely something that can get out of hand. However at the same time it's an enabler for some cool combos and one of the only ways a martial can keep ahead of a permissive planar binding. It's basically the not selfish version of divine power. It is weird that a creature would be proficient in the new "random" form, but I look at it similarly to how tensor's transformation can grant proficiency with weapons. "Magic" explains all the loopholes away. Then again, outside of pounce, increased base speed, natural armor, and the ability to get to huge size I guess it really isn't necessary if you could get access to these another way.

[Jay R]

Most of my "Rules for DMs" document isn't house rules; it's just my approach. But the rule for wishes certainly is. I've honed it for decades, starting with original D&D in the 1970s. It's general enough to apply to any edition, and it's the document my players have on how wishes work in my world.

Spoiler: Jay R's approach to wishes

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53. Wishes ought to be a social contract between the players and the DM. Don’t try to screw up the game, and I won’t try to screw up your character.

a. If a game system has clear, unambiguous limits for wishes, and a wish falls within the limits, then it should work as intended.

b. Wishes should rarely go wrong.

i. The best way for a wish to fail is to have no meaningful effect at all. Wasting a wish is well-attested in fantasy literature. It doesn’t hurt the game or the PC.
ii. When a wish actually goes bad, it should not cripple or destroy the PC, but at worst put the character in a difficult and threatening situation. Difficult and threatening situations are a DM’s stock in trade.
iii. When a wish has an actual negative effect on a PC, it should be a challenging obstacle, not a character-destroying tragedy. And it should end before it stops being challenging and becomes merely a boring weakness.

c. There is no sentient entity processing the wish (other than the DM). It is a pure magical effect – akin to programming a computer. There is neither benevolence nor malevolence involved. The risk of a wish is the same as the risk of a car or a power saw; it goes where you steer it, not where you intended to steer it.

i. If somebody else is phrasing the wish for you, there could be malevolence (or benevolence) in that action. Efreeti can be malevolent because they are phrasing the actual wish.
ii. But after the wish has been phrased, it remains a pure magical effect with no sentient entity processing the wish.

d. Unless it will screw up the game, the DM should follow the exact wording of the wish. This is usually, but not always, the same as the intent.

i. Following the exact wording of the wish does not mean abusing homonyms. If they ask for an extra feat, they don’t get extra feet.
ii. Following the exact meaning of the wish does not mean a bizarre, unlikely meaning. It means the most reasonable meaning of those exact words.
iii. If it took the DM more than a few seconds to come up with that interpretation, then it isn’t the obvious meaning of those words.

e. A wish will be fulfilled in the simplest manner possible. If a player wishes to have the only sword in the world, it is easier for the magic to put him and his sword on a separate world than to find and destroy every other sword on the primary gameworld.

f. An unselfish wish is always much safer. Wish for bumper crops near the village, or for the plague to end, and the magic flows much more smoothly.

g. A wish grants one effect. If the PC wishes for a sword and a shield, then he gets a sword. The shield is another wish. If he has two wishes, he gets the first two effects requested. If he wishes to travel to another continent to be introduced to the king and marry the princess, then he gets the travel and to meet the king, and his wishes are done.

i. Among other things, this means that long contract-like texts of legalese won’t work. Only the first clause is enacted.

h. The primary principle remains this: Don’t try to screw up the game, and I won’t try to screw up your character.

[GameMaster_Phil]

Dammit, I got the threats all mixed up. Here is my stuff:

This is for Pathfinder 1E primarily, but it is also basically a list of allowed material combined with house rules.

Allowed Races:
Core races,
Aasimar (variant aasimar heritages allowed)
Dhampir
Drow (care for reactions from surface-dwellers)
Goblin
Ifrit (known as fire genasi in the Realms, same rules)
Kobold
Orc
Oread (earth genasi)
Sylph (air genasi)
Tiefling (variant tiefling heritages allowed)
Undine (water genasi)

Concerning Hit Dice /Attributes:
First level HD max as standard, second HD maximum, after that it's rolling normally. No Point buy buydown below 8.

Allowed Material:
Pathfinder Core Rulebook
Advanced Players Guide
DSP Path of War and Path of War Expanded. Use only the errata parts which benefit you. But no extra material through web enhancements or articles.
The Magus Class, its feats, spells and archetypes from Ultimate Magic (not from other sources). The rest of Ultimate Magic is not allowed.
Tome of Battle from 3.5. For the usual suspects, my rulings apply (no IHS on the sun...). If in doubt, ask. See house rules. If a feat or other object is very similar to a PoW-object, use the PoW object instead.
Psion and Psychic Warrior from Dreamscarred Press with their psionic feats and powers from Ultimate Psionics
The book restrictions apply to races (The Alternate Racial Traits are allowed for all allowed races, though.)
Firearms do not exist in Faerûn
No traits, no drawbacks.

House rules:

XP is only given for treasure found and brought back to civilization (not for killing, but rewards for jobs done in the wilderness or dungeon give XP, too). 1 GP = 1 XP. Loot items which are worth less than 1GP do not give XP.
Leadership is not allowed.
The only allowed item creation feats are:
Brew Potion
Craft Wand
Scribe Scroll
If your character would get another item creation feat, substitute with a normal bonus feat instead.
All classes without spell progression, extract progression or psionic power progression get +2 skill points per level
All full BAB classes get knowledge(martial lore) as class skill
All classes with knowledge(arcana) get knowledge(psionics) as class skill and vice versa
Most (not the big 6, rather the more useless) magic items have their prices reduced.

Use PoW errata.
Crusader: HD are d12. Crusader gets new stances on the same levels like a Warder.
Warblade: Has heavy armor proficiency.
All three ToB base classes can freely add one discipline from all three books (ToB, PoW, PoWE) to their disciplines known at first level.
For more details regarding ToB porting, ask me.
If it comes up: no off-screen crafting before campaign start. Crafting in downtime is fine, obviously.

Feat Tax rules apply: http://michaeliantorno.com/feat-taxes-in-pathfinder/ Only use the blog post, that should be reasonably simple and effective.

Fighter: At level 1, gets weapon aptitude like a warblade. This can only be used to change feats gained while taking fighter levels, but it can also be used to change weapon groups of the fighters' class features.

Every character gets one of my fate points at creation. This fate point can be spent to either change one saving throw into a natural 20 after rolling, or stave off death once (the character ends up at -1 and stable and is unconscious from the trauma for several minutes instead of dying. This unconsciousness cannot be prematurely ended by any means. You almost died, received horrible trauma and are out for ~5 Minutes flat.)

You can have a maximum of 2 fate points, and you only get them at DM's discretion (usually after a major achievement).
If you, for whatever reason, run into the XP cutoff (if you would get 2 levelups or more at once, you stay 1 XP short of the second level up and all extra XP is discarded), you get a fate point. Because that is a major achievement.

Martial Traditions are changed: They do not exist. All initiating classes can, on their first level, trade one of their disciplines known for another from PoW or PoWE. This choice is permanent for this character and class and can not be changed. Basically, you can still do the same school switching, but it is permanent.

Expect homebrew, and ported 3.5 material if it catches my fancy. You may or may not be able to use that material for yourself (depends on your ability to loot it). I reserve the right to change stuff like switch from normal summoner to unchained summoner, or allow unchained rogues etc. If it starts breaking the game, I need to change it. If that happens to one of your characters, you can rebuild, of course. I consider it improbable to come up, however.

I will be using AngryDMs Tension Pool mechanic.

[Mordante]

I have a houserules document. It used to be longer and more complex, but I've found that simpler is generally better and less prone to unintended consequences, ie, stuff that needs to be fixed because of the house rules.

---

Note: You may choose to use the default rules for DnD 3.5 and ignore all changes here.

Levelling Changes
Starting characters get one stat at 18 for free. All other stats are 4d6 drop lowest.

Players get three ability score boosts every fourth level. These stat boosts must be spent on three different ability scores. If an ability score is below 16, the ability score is boosted by 2. If the ability score is 16 or more, it is boosted by 1.

General Feat Changes and Additions
Changes to existing feats are in addition to the rules the feats originally have.

Adept Learner (New Feat): You gain 1 extra skill point per level. You spend these skill points as normal. You cannot exceed the normal maximum point for your level in any skill. You cannot have both this feat and “Nymph’s Kiss”.

Alertness, etc (Changed Feat): If you have 13 or more ranks in one of the skills that are part of the feat, the bonus increases to +4 for that skill.

Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes (Changed Feat): The bonus to saves is 2 and +1 for every five character levels (maximum of +6 at level 20).

Pounce (New Feat): When a character charges a foe, it can follow with a full attack. A fighter may select Pounce as one of his fighter bonus feats.

Skill Focus (Changed Feat): The bonus from Skill Focus increases to +6 when 13 ranks are invested in said skill.

Spellcaster Changes
There are no limits to the use of level 0 spells.

Lost Traditions (New feat) (modified from 3rd Party)
Choose one spellcasting class. You may change which ability score governs spellcasting (both the casting stat and the stat used for save DCs). You may only choose from INT, WIS, or CHA for your casting stat. You may take this feat multiple times, but each time it applies to a different spellcasting class.


Martial Changes
Unarmed Combat
Unarmed strikes get extra attacks due to a character’s base attack bonus

A Monk’s Flurry of Blows can be combined with Two-Weapon Fighting. The negative attack roll penalties for both are combined.

Martial Feat Changes

Ignored Feats
These feats are ignored should they be required for other feats, prestige classes, etc. These feats can still be taken should the player want the benefits of these feats.

Dodge, Point-Blank Shot, Toughness, Combat Expertise

Example – Rapid Shot normally requires the player to take Point-Blank shot as a feat beforehand. With this rule, the player can take Rapid Shot without taking Point-Blank Shot first.

Feat Changes
Two-Weapon Fighting:
A player with the Two-Weapon Fighting feat automatically receives the feats Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, Greater Two-Weapon Fighting and Perfect Two-Weapon Fighting. They need to meet BAB and ability score requirements for said feats before receiving them.

Two-Weapon Defense
A player with the Two-Weapon Defense feat automatically receives the feats Improved Two-Weapon Defense and Greater Two-Weapon Defense. They need to meet BAB and ability score requirements for said feats before receiving them.

Weapon Finesse
Weapon Finesse is a free option and doesn’t cost a feat. When Weapon Finesse is applied to a weapon, players calculate bonus damage using the dexterity stat instead of the strength stat (you cannot add both STR and DEX without the use of class features and/or feats). The bonus damage is halved for offhand weapons. Weapon Finesse only applies to light weapons, the rapier, whip, or spiked chain.

Why so many changes?
What is the point of so many ability score increases? Last campaign we started some people did points buy, some made up stat (between 8 and 16) and some just rolled. It doesn't really impact the game much.

With my group I don't think we have any written house rules. We don't use XP once in a while the DM says " you all gained a level" and then we level. If I want to play something custom or outside of the rules I discuss it with the DM f2f while drinking a beer or whisky.

[Biggus]

Why so many changes?

Dude, this is NOT a lot of changes. My houserule document is 38 pages long and still not finished, Fizban's is over 200 pages long. And the reason to make a lot of changes is that 3.5 has lots of stuff which is badly designed, PF is better but still has plenty.

What is the point of so many ability score increases? Last campaign we started some people did points buy, some made up stat (between 8 and 16) and some just rolled. It doesn't really impact the game much.

It can make a big difference if the scores are extreme enough. I played in a game with a Rogue who was unlucky enough to roll really bad stats (I calculated it at about the bottom 1% level) and the DM wouldn't let him reroll, and he sucked. Really struggled to keep up with the rest of the party.

As for the multiple increases, one benefit of giving multiple increases which must be for different stats is that it helps out MAD classes compared to SAD classes; the worst offenders who need 4 or 5 stats high to really shine can find it really difficult to keep them all where they need them to be.

[Ozreth]

My houserule document is 38 pages long and still not finished, Fizban's is over 200 pages long. And the reason to make a lot of changes is that 3.5 has lots of stuff which is badly designed, PF is better but still has plenty.

Fizban's is actually over 300

However, it is worth noting that a lot of peoples house rules are also implemented not to fix design issues or balance etc, but to keep with a certain tone and aesthetic of game. I think a lot of Fizban's changes are in line with this and it is also why I often make house rules. In Fizban's case, he makes it clear that there is a cutoff point where 3.5 starts diverging from the design philosophy of 3.0 and many of his changes are an attempt to keep the game in line with playstyle and tone expectations of early 3e and 3.5.

I recommend everyone who makes house rules for similar reasons peruse his document as much as you can. I read around 100 pages of it (some parts just weren't relevant enough for me to read, but I skimmed those parts at least) and it is one of the more interesting 3.5 and D&D in general projects I've read in some time.

[glass]

I have a houserules document. It used to be longer and more complex, but I've found that simpler is generally better and less prone to unintended consequences, ie, stuff that needs to be fixed because of the house rules.

Mine was more complicated, and then I decided it was too much and started over, and now it has grown to being pretty complicated again (although still probably less so than its peak).

Here's mine. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

Interesting stuff there, I like the way you think. Some things there are pretty similar to mine, and others I hadn't thought of but am now considering (although I start from PF1 as the base rather than 3.5).

Are you sure this is house rules? I think it's standard rules.

Unarmed Strikes getting iteratives just is definitely not a houserule, but not a bad idea to add a clarifications if people are getting confused by it. TWF working with Flurry is a houserule IMO, but I have seen people argue otherwise - either way, best to indicate which way you come down on that also.

Why so many changes?

I agree with Biggus; that's not a lot of changes in the grand scheme of things. Most of the people in the thread have more (including me).

---

My houserule document is 16 pages, although the format is fairly verbose, so it might not be as quite as many changes as that page count implies: Some things (for example, Knowledge Skill categories and their uses) are reproduced in full modified form instead of or as well as bullet point changes) - since the site I used to use became to add infested that include a full (modified) representation of the gestalt rules. There are a bunch of guidelines on adapting 3.0 and 3.5 stuff such that in most cases it can be done automatically (as mentioned above, we use PF1 as the main system, but we still use 3.5 content extensively). There is a ToC, and Introduction, a fairly extensive index, and a change log.

Obviously, I am not going to reproduce the whole thing here, but section 1 is the big ticket items: The things that effect all characters, or at least a significant majority.

Spoiler: Section 1

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1.1 There is no required randomness in character creation and advancement:

• Starting gold is 150 gp for all characters (regardless of class) starting at first level (characters starting at higher level get wealth as per Table 12-4 on page 399 of the CRB).
• Hit points after first level are the average for the hit die rounded up, not rolled randomly.
• Players may roll for height and/or weight starting age if they wish, but are not bound by the results and may reroll or simply choose a result. However, the chosen height and weight must be within the range that could be rolled for their species.
• Similarly, players may roll for starting age or simply choose. In this case, if they choose they must respect the minimum for their initial class, but otherwise may select any age below venerable for their species. However, if they are middle-aged or old, they must apply the appropriate ability-score modifiers.
• This does not apply to skill checks (such as Spellcraft to learn spells), which must be rolled normally.

1.2 Ability score point buy depends on class (and possibly archetype, if it changes spellcasting):

• 9-level casters get 20 points.
• 6-level casters get 25 points.
• 4-level and non-casters get 30 points.

After first level, you can multiclass freely between classes at the same or higher point-buy value, but cannot multiclass into a class that would have given a lower point-buy total until you have at least three levels in appropriate classes. Classes that do not technically cast spells but have abilities that closely resemble them (such as Investigators and Alchemists) count as spellcasters for this purpose, as do manifesters (but not martial initiators or meldshapers/veilweavers, unless they also have casting).

1.3 As a partial exception to 1.2, a character who intends to multiclass can select a select a 6- or 9-level caster class at first level and still claim the higher point buy. However, if they do so they cannot take any further levels in that class until they have at least three levels in a suitable class, and until that point they gain no spellcasting from the first class other than cantrips (although they still have the spell list for the purposes of spell trigger and spell completion items).

1.4 All classes that are not Int-based 9-level characters get a minimum of 4 skill ranks per level (before Int modifier, and favoured class bonus or species bonuses where applicable). If an archetype for such a class would increase skill ranks from 2 to 4, it instead increases them from 4 to 6. Archetypes which change the spellcasting ability score or progression may change whether a class qualifies for the 4-rank minimum (in either direction).

1.5 The essence, primal, and occult magical traditions exist (with occult being distinct from psychic, although some classes are assigned to both). Appropriate classes are assigned to one of more of these, and sometimes the player can choose – in that case the choice should be made when the first magical ability is received, and is thereafter treated as a class feature for the purposes of retraining. See Appendix 3 for class/tradition assignments.

1.6 The skill list is tweaked to better integrate certain variants, improve balance, and reflect actual play and common sense. In particular, the Appraise skill is deleted, the third-party Knowledge (Martial) and Knowledge (Psionics) skills are included (with the latter being renamed Occult), and other Knowledge skills are tweaked. See Skill Changes below for details.

1.7 Non-broken third-party & D&D 3.5/3.0 content is available, subject to GM approval - a “3.P” environment. See “Using D&D 3.5 & 3.0 Content”, below.

1.8 Using a swift action on your turn does not impact your ability to use immediate actions (and vice versa).
 
1.9 Creatures can charge as a standard action, even if they have a full round’s worth of actions available. They may move (or take a different move action) before, but not after the charge – only a swift action can be taken after the charge. Each space moved when charging must be closer to the target than the previous square, but otherwise chargers may move as they wish. They may stop in any square from which they can make an attack, as long as they can reach it without violating the above rule. Charging as a standard action never allows more than a single attack at the end, regardless of abilities such as pounce that would normally allow more.

1.10 The core monk and rogue are considered NPC classes and are not available to players. Use the unchained monk or legendary monk, and the unchained rogue, swashbuckler, investigator, slayer, ninja or legendary ninja respectively, instead.

Annoyingly, they don't quite fit on one A4 page. Section 2 is rather longer, but is reserved for things that don't affect many characters, or things that are how you'd expect it to work anyway if you weren't the sort of person who has spent the last 20 years talking about game rules on forums! Section 3 spells out in more details the Skill changes mentioned in item 1.6.

[pabelfly]

Why so many changes?

As other people have said, it's not many changes at all, especially compared to what other people have done.

The intent of my quick list of house rules:
1) fix what I think are the worst problems and biggest deficiencies of the game at my table in a way that's simple and easy to communicate.
2) Steal some of the more fun improvements from later 3e-derived games

What is the point of so many ability score increases? Last campaign we started some people did points buy, some made up stat (between 8 and 16) and some just rolled. It doesn't really impact the game much.

That's some of the most popular changes.

Having one score automatically be 18 means that players don't feel so bad about bad ability score rolls. You feel good about having an 18 in your ability score set to allocate, even if that 18 is automatically included.

Using PF2e's ability score increase rules means that players will spend some time thinking about where to put ability score increases. I find 3e's way of doing ability score increases quite uninteresting by comparison, since very little changes every four levels.

Mechanically, there's not a major difference: besides boosting their preferred casting/combat stat, maybe a character gets a slight boost to stuff like CON, DEX, or WIS, etc. Still, I think it's a fun change, that's why it made it in and hasn't left the document.

[Fizban]

Fizban's is actually over 300

However, it is worth noting that a lot of peoples house rules are also implemented not to fix design issues or balance etc, but to keep with a certain tone and aesthetic of game. I think a lot of Fizban's changes are in line with this and it is also why I often make house rules. In Fizban's case, he makes it clear that there is a cutoff point where 3.5 starts diverging from the design philosophy of 3.0 and many of his changes are an attempt to keep the game in line with playstyle and tone expectations of early 3e and 3.5.

I recommend everyone who makes house rules for similar reasons peruse his document as much as you can. I read around 100 pages of it (some parts just weren't relevant enough for me to read, but I skimmed those parts at least) and it is one of the more interesting 3.5 and D&D in general projects I've read in some time.

I'd guess much of the "supplementary" section, the longer class overhauls, and warlock content are the most skippable as being both longer reads and easily parsed as relevant or not for a given game?

[Ozreth]

I'd guess much of the "supplementary" section, the longer class overhauls, and warlock content are the most skippable as being both longer reads and easily parsed as relevant or not for a given game?

I actually read the supplementary section I believe. I did skip most of the classes but will be re-visiting them as they come in my game, also skipped most of the spell stuff but plan to keep referencing the whole document as my campaign progresses and these things come up.

[Jay R]

My house rules are different in every game I've run. Giving you a specific set is probably meaningless. But here's how I approach house rules, as described in my "Rules for DMs" document. [Yes, there's some redundancy here. I wrote a couple of these this morning, after reading this thread. Editing will come later.]

Spoiler: Jay R on House Rules and DM Rulings

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11. The DM can change, annul, or overrule any rule in the rulebook. This is not a toy or free privilege to change the game at whim. It’s a heavy responsibility to make the game go right, and to be fair to the players, even when the rules aren’t right for a specific moment.

a. Printed rules should be the standard. Rules changes should be the exception.
b. Never ignore the rules. When you change or make exceptions to the rules you should be most focused on the written rule, its intent, and its effects.
c. Applying the published rules is like eating food. That should always happen. Changing the rules is like taking medicine; it's only a good idea if something is wrong, you know how it’s wrong, and you know how to fix it.
d. Never change a rule unless you know why it was written.

12. The more completely you know the rules, the better you can be at disregarding them when necessary.

a. "When necessary" means it should be rare, forced by an unusual situation, and non-intrusive. [And some people believe it should not happen even then.]

13. Do not confuse house rules with rulings that overrule the book. House rules are the conditions that make your world distinct. Overruling the rulebook is preventing a rule from messing up the game. They require different approaches.

a. House rules are conditions of the world. They should be planned in advance. You can do it just to explore a new idea, or to create a unique situation.
b. Overruling the rulebook is fixing an immediate problem. You should do it when the rules give an unfair or otherwise bad answer.

14. House rules are ways to create a new, exciting, unique world, with new concepts for the PCs to explore. They are not merely tools to stop standard tactics from working.

a. When you introduce a house rule, ask yourself “Why?” Will this make the game better for the players?
b. They should almost always be introduced before the game starts. It’s fine for your goblins to have deadly fangs; it’s not fine for your goblins to suddenly develop deadly fangs halfway through the game, after the PCs have faced them and learned about them.
c. Tell the players any house rule that is a generally well-known fact in the world. If necromancy is more powerful when the second moon is up, then anyone with necromancy spells will no that. But if hippogriffs can be tamed with their addiction to coffee beans, then maybe nobody has learned that yet.
d. Most especially, tell them any house rule that might affect character creation.

15. There must be enough rules consistency, and world consistency, that the players know what they can count on.

a. They should also know what they cannot count on. It’s OK for your goblins to be different from the goblins in the rules. It’s OK for them to not know what goblins are like. But it’s not OK for them to believe that goblins will be rules-goblins.

16. When you change rules, you don’t necessarily have to tell the players the new rules, if it is something that their characters wouldn’t know. But you should tell them not to assume all D&D rules apply.

a. If you changed dragons because most people in that world don’t know details about dragons, you don’t have to tell them those details. But you should tell them that dragons aren’t color-coded for their benefit.
b. Not knowing about the monster is a challenging adventure of discovery. Knowing things that are false is just a failure mode. No resemblance.
c. Changing rules has consequences elsewhere. Think them through in advance. If dragons aren’t color-coded, what does Tiamat look like?

...

56. No matter what the game rules say, no matter what this document says, don’t do nothin’ stupid.

a. Exceptions exist. They do not invalidate general rules; they modify and limit them.
b. Some of these rules obviously don’t apply to certain games, or certain tables. Don’t apply them in those games.

[StreamOfTheSky]

I don't have a google document, but I have a forum page with various topics for Classes, Spells, etc...

https://torchofspirit.proboards.com/...es-information

[loky1109]

My HR are mostly on Russian. Do you need it?

[RedMage125]

A rule that I thought would be common, but actually turns out isn't from my interactions on this board, would be that rules that can conflict only in part do so only in so far as they have to conflict. An example would be that you can't cast spells of a certain level unless you reach a level in the class that would allow you to cast the spell. The versatile spellcaster feat allows you to cast spells of a higher level. The way this rule would work is versatile spellcaster can fully function without violating the first rule and does not specifically mention it does. Therefore it does not violate the rule. Versatile spellcaster cannot let you cast spells of a higher level than your class level allows.

That's not a house rule. Page 7 of the PHB is quite explicit that spells of a certain level require a high enough class level in order to cast, and one is then referred to Chapter 3 for details.

For my part, while I *do* use some house rules, they're all very player-friendly, and can be printed out on one sheet of paper, which I hand out to my players during character creation, as all rule changes should be. For the most part, if the RAW cover it, I rule that way, because I want my players to be able to read the books on their own and have a reasonable expectation of how something will work.

Regrettably, my computer died, and the Geek Squad is currently attempting data retrieval on it, but I will post as many as I can remember.

• Maximum HP at first AND second level. After that, a player may roll for HP, but take the average (rounded up) if they roll lower than that. HP are a metagame concept anyway, and it's not fun to have a 5th level fighter with under 30 HP. And yes, this means d4 HD classes will only ever get 3 or 4 plus CON modifier.
  
• Healing a character in negative HP sets the target's HP to 0 and then applies healing (this was a 4e rule I adopted). So if the barbarian is at -7, and the cleric heals him for 5, the barbarian has 5 HP. This allows the downed player to act on their turn, and ensures the cleric player doesn't feel like their turn was wasted due to an unlucky roll.
  
• Dodge is a flat +1 AC, and Toughness grants 3 HP, and one additional HP per Hit Die over 3 (so 1 HP per level if you take it over level 2). I also allow all Improved/Greater iterations of TWF for the cost of the one TWF feat.
  
• Hide and Move Silently are one skill, Stealth. Having different skills for each may be more accurate simulation, but this is a game, not a simulation, and a single roll makes play go smoother. Related to that, Spot and Listen are one skill, Perception. This is to make sure NPCs dont get 2 chances to notice a character attempting to Stealth. Search remains a distinct, INT-based skill, as it represents actively looking, as opposed to noticing something. This has cascading effects, so anything that provides a bonus to one of those skills boosts the merged skill instead. If something boosts BOTH of the "pre merge" skills (like Alertness), it grants a +3 to the merged skill (just like Skill Focus).
  
• Piggybacking on that, a nat 20 or 1 on a Skill roll are treated as a "die roll" of 30 and -10, respectively. Then modifiers are applied. This allows characters with insanely high skill modifiers to still have a chance of success, even when they're at their worst (a rogue with a +28 to Stealth gets a nat 1, for a total of 18, still enough to bypass most guards' Perception mod of +2 at best). Contrary wise, a low level Ranger with a Survival mod of +7 wants to track a single goblin over hard terrain, 24 hours later, after 12 hours of rain, at full speed, at night. That's a DC of 40, and he's taking a -5 to the check. A natural 20 only gets him a 32. With his level of skill, such is quite simply beyond his ability, no matter what.
  
• Some checks I make for the player, specifically searching for traps. This is to assist roleplaying. I've seen players react drastically different when they don't find traps if they saw the die roll was low vis a high die roll. I make the roll behind the screen and simply tell them if they did or didn't find traps.
  
• Similar to that, is that I will always roll a Bluff check if players ask to make a Sense Motive roll. My hpuse rule is "Any character who believes they are telling the truth gets a +30 circumstance bonus to this roll". And if the NPC wins the contested roll (regardless if they're telling the truth or not), my verbal response to the players is "you trust him/her implicitly".
  
• I think Read Magic is a stupid spell. It's gone, and its effects are folded into Detect Magic. Furthermore, the ability to detect magic is kind of key for the primary arcane spellcasters. Sorcerers get Detect Magic as a bonus cantrip known, but still must spend a 0 level slot to cast it. Wizards treat it like the spontaneous healing of clerics. A wizard can prepare other cantrips, and then spend one 0 level spell slot to cast Detect Magic instead. I figure wizards studied hard to learn magic, that most basic function should be the easiest to do. It also keeps the warlock's ability to do it at-will unique.
  
• I allow my players to decide whether or not we use confirmation rolls for critical hits. But monsters will use the same rules. However, statistically, PCs have higher AC than monsters, and confirmation rolls mean the party receives less critical hits. If they vote to do away with them, they may, at any point in the campaign, return to using them if they unanimously agree. But once confirmation rolls are back, they stay.
  
• Critical misses use confirmation rolls even if hits do not. If a nat 1 is rolled, a "confirmation roll" is made. If that is a "hit", then it's just a regular miss. Missing the confirmation roll means it's a critical failure. This allows for the fun of critical misses, but softens them a bit. Of note is that natural weapons and unarmed strikes cannot "critically" miss.
  

I've had people ask about the "healing from 0" rule and how it interacts with the Diehard feat and the Deathless Frenzy of the Frenzied Berserker. Diehard still works with the rule, and I've had a player play a FB with these rules in play. A FB must be healed through negative HP normally if below -10 until they get above that threshold before their frenzy ends, or they die. My player had no problem with this dynamic, and said it was entirely fair.

As with anything I post, I encourage people to cherry pick or yoink wholesale anything they like.

[rel]

Interesting to see so many changes to classes and similar home brew built directly into campaign house rules. Not how I normally do things.

Each game I run has its own house rule document. Some elements are common to all or most games I run, but each new campaign will have a custom ruleset constructed alongside the custom campaign setting.

Further, house rules tend to get added in response to what the players end up doing and how the campaign progresses.

Here are a few examples from my games.

From my current 3.5 campaign (narrative, mission focused, very custom setting):
Rules Document 2022

From a short lived campaign from 2017 (exploration and resource management focused):
Rules Document 2017

from a 2012 campaign (player driven, magic focused, sandbox):
Rules Document 2012

from a 2009 campaign (high lethality, combat focused, ad hoc player formed parties)
Rules Document 2009

[Eladrinblade]

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