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I've only had two complaints about DMs in the past:

1) In a 2e game, we almost lost the party's healer. She was standing in the doorway to a room when she was horribly injured by a skeleton. I killed the skeleton, and then said, "I'm standing between her and the rest of the skeletons so that nothing can get to her."

The skeletons walked right past me and clobbered her into the negatives (but luckily not fatally). I wasn't allowed to make any attempt to stop this. The skeletons didn't even have to attack me first. (I was uninjured in that fight.)

2) I utterly loathe Point Buy character generation. I have more fun with 3d6 6 times; assign to stats based on the order you rolled. Point Buy is too bland for my taste.

As a DM, I use the following House Rules:

1) Everyone in the party has the same amount of experience, at all times. New players. Rerolled characters. Doesn't matter, all characters have the same XP.

-Some people may object to inconsistent players getting the same reward as regular players, but the flip side is this: if you miss a game, you don't get a share of treasure from that game.

2) HP Rolls: A roll of less than half on a HP roll is considered a roll of half.

-Ex: If a Barbarian rolls a 3 on his d12 HP roll, he treats it as a roll of 6 instead. (I like this rule since it allows for variety, but doesn't screw a character for an entire game over one bad roll.)

-This rule is modified for villains. Meat shields do not get any benefit at all. "Boss Fights" use this rule as normal. Reoccuring villains treat low rolls as 3/4 maximum for their HD. The BBEG either uses the reoccuring villain rules, or (if the party has had particularly high treasure rolls) simply gets maximum HP.

3) Stat Generation: Jason's Evil Little Choice

-While the stat generation varies based on the power level I want to set for the game (typically 4d6, take 3; assign as desired), I always include the opportunity for a bonus to starting stats. You must choose which option you will use before you roll your stats. You have 3 options:

-+3 to a stat of your choice.
-Roll 1d4. You gain that many points to add to your stats, divided however you wish.
-Roll 1d6. As 1d4, but you only get bonus points on a roll of 4-6. Rolls of 1-3 earn no bonus points.

-In no circumstance may a stat start above 18 before racial modifiers. (Thus, if you take the +3 option, and apply it to a score of 16, your stat increases to 18, but you lose the final bonus point.) Interestingly, most players choose the final option, despite the 50% miss chance.

4) Critical Success & Fumbles.

-Yes, I use these rules. Yes, I know they supposedly screw fighters and other combat characters. Yet, for some reason, fate has only ever deemed that the group's casters suffer from these effects. My group has not complained. The general assumption: if you have a 1/20 chance of succeeding wildly, you also have a 1/20 chance of failing miserably.

-I also allow a Ref Save (DC 15) to avoid the effects of a Critical Fumble. Critical Success & Fumble rules apply equally to players and NPC's alike.

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My current campaign is highly experimental & heavily house ruled (but very popular). It includes the following elements.

1) Low magic. Skill based magic system.
2) Class Bonus to Defense. (Unearthed Arcana)
3) Armor as DR (Unearthed Arcana)
4) Weapon Groups (Unearthed Arcana)*
5) Fighters now apply Weapon Focus (and any feat that uses WF as a pre-requisite) to weapon groups, not individual weapons. Other classes use these feats as normal.

*Slightly modified. I don't use the "Exotic Weapons" rules. Instead, the exotic weapons are just added to their lists as normal. Two-Handed Weapons that could be used one-handed (ex: Bastard Sword) via an Exotic Weapon feat now gain that benefit when you apply the Weapon Focus feat to that weapon.

It has been very successful so far, and when we return to D&D, some of these features may be implemented more regularly.

As a DM I don’t think I have any ridiculous rules. I try to go by the book as much as possible. The only variant I use is in character creation. I give my players 16, 14, 14, 12, 12, and 10, to put where ever they want with 2 points to assign where ever they want. This way every one is roughly equal in power and they have the ability to have an 18.

I started this rule after I watched one player roll three 18s with his lowest stat being a 13. The other player rolled a 4 (which I bumped up to an 8) and nothing higher than a 15.

I was in a game once where I my DM said if we didn’t have at least 1 point in a knowledge we didn’t know anything about the subject at all. So if you didn’t have any ranks in knowledge religion you didn’t know anything about undead or you own patron deity. No such thing as common knowledge.

She insisted we all needed to buy at least 2 ranks in knowledge religion because this was going to be a church politics game. She didn’t realize what a huge investment that was for an Int 8 fighter.

My Norm Base Rules as a DM? and that i myself love?

1) 32 Point buy none of this 1 player haveing multibol 18's and another player having the highest stat of 15,

2) Challange Experiance changed. I Dont like the fact players can kill orcs tell there level 11/12, CRAP! I Go with the whole Experiance based on differculty of Battle/Monster/Quest thing. it might provide slower Leveling,

3) Eather Roll for your HP or take the Adverage result each level, choose before you start playing.

4) No Lets kill another Player character when they dont want it.
This is meant to be fun to ALL Players.

5) If your fighting Expect the monsters to be eather weeker on par or more powerful then the player characters.

6) There are such things as level 6 Kobolts.

7) Monsters use Tastics / Siege weapons.

8) NPCS are at least level 1 Commenors. if not higher.

9) I Dont care if your Int is 8, just so long as it remains above 3, and if anything your Wisdom can counter balance it. or w/e, But i dont care all that much.

10) LA 0, None of this Lesser Templates eather. and None of this +1 LA or higher templates.

11) Stick to the rules and try to follow the story plot of the game. None of this "Well i have 5000gp, My character Retires forever!"

12) Note that Skeletons can attack a Cleric standing in the doorway even with a fighter or someone standing in front of her, Why? (Directional pads) Battle Mat, Tho they get a negitive to hit and there dumb for not attacking the Fighter (Inless told so or the Cleric is the main threat) not only that but the fighter can do something about it as well.

13) Yes player Characters will die. I Aim to kill. Just not the whole Group, If the whole group is in danger then i'll try to help the players out. However please note that i said Player Character and not Whole Group. And im not targeting a player out of others. If the Only Cleric Dies. then deal with it. at least the whole group didnt die. Your not immune to death if your the Cleric.

14) Yes I Will use my monsters intelligently. Aka, "Crap super fighter is that way. Hm, Week unarmored wizard that way. I'll attack Week Unarmored Wizard with my Range weapon or Charge him with my melee weapon" This happins. if your dumb enough with the wizard to poke your head out in a battle and be Open with no defence, expect a monster who can choose rather you or a Super Barbian/ Fighter or cleric or someone eles who he has a less chance to hit. To Pick the Wizard. No office to the wizards. but the best way to win a fight? Lower there numbers so less things distract your character.

Aka, I Dont like to go easy on my players. but i dont want to kill off my players. Yes there Adventurers. There not Super heros however. they need to earn that they can become Heros of the town. not expect it to be handed to them.

No i dont care if you decide to bash door with Foot or sword rather then use open lock. Thats good thinking.

Johnathan_Vagabond wrote:

I get really bugged by changes to house rules mid-game. Or new house-rules for that matter.

Last session the party's monk slipped into Neutral Good (the cause was iffy too. It could easily be argued either way). The DM cackled (yes, cackled) and said "You fall unconsious". I looked at him and thought "Oh ****, a disease, a curse, what happened on that monster's dying breath?" The DM said "you are now, neutral good. You lose all your monk abilities." Screeeeeeeeech "What" I said, "thats not right. Monk's don't lose their abilities, they aren't paladins. Becoming neutral doesn't negate years of training." The DM replied "Thats how it works. Monks that violate their alignment lose their powers" I pulled out the PHB and read the section on Ex-Monks (summarized) "Monks that become non-lawful retain their previous monk abilities, but cannot advance in monk levels until they atone." The DM brushed my reasoning aside with "Thats crap." He proceded to tease the player about 'how he loved taking away aligned character's powers.' I hope my warlock never does anything remotely lawful. Maybe I could play "chaotic stupid" to avoid ability loss.

Venting felt good.

I've been in games where the DM gets his rocks off by taking away the PC's abilities, gear, capability to do anything, etc. I quit after the first session. The part where he made me roll to hit with magic missile. That was the breaking point. The point where I just got up and left was at the end of that "fight", where I was given cursed bracers of armor (because ID doesn't show curses! durr). They explode on casting a spell. I later found out that the loot in the session after I left was a +4 flaming shocking burst longsword, a ring of 3 wishes, and a deck of many things.

Also, I had to skip over everything Korgath facerolled onto this thread. Please, learn to spell.

I have quite a few house rules.

For character generation: 4d6 drop the lowest. Roll four sets of 6 numbers. Pick which set you want. This helps avoid characters with 3s and 4s or multiple scores below 10. Can result in some very powerful characters, however.

No more than two core classes per character.

Since I based my setting on medieval Europe, no monks or other Asian-based classes.
No druids (mostly because I don't understand the rules). Harsh, no one wanted to play a druid anyway.

I've never really understood the dying (HP -1 to -10) RAW in D&D. I ported a simplified version from SWRPG. Fortitude save equal to 10+(HP*-1). So a character dropped to -1 has to make a DC 11. At -9, its DC 19. It simple, and very easy to survive. My players hate dying while face down on the ground because they bled to death. In fact, they hate dying at all. And I'm not that big of a fan of killing them. Its not fun for us. But they don't know they're practically immortal.

Before the announcement for 4th ed, I ruled that only books that were physically at the table would be allowed. No PDFs, no scans. If I couldn't read it off paper, I wouldn't even consider it. When 4th was announced, I dropped the rule. But I still had to approve the new added rule. (and i wanted a copy!)

PrCs had to be approved.

Often, I'll require players to put a skill point in one of the parenthetical skills. Craft, Knowledge, Profession, Perform... Adds to the character and 1 point isn't bad for most characters. Even characters with Int < 8 still get 4 points at level 1.

I had more for Star Wars. The biggest one there was changing Armor and Defense for players and ships.

Any thoughts?