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2 years ago ::
Aug 09, 2011 - 7:35PM
#1
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Date Joined:
Aug 26, 2008
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Can't find a thread like this, so here's one.
List your own House Rules in a simple, easy-to-read format!
Important Note: While discussing other people's House Rules is fine (and part of the thread's purpose), try not to bash people's House Rules needlessly. Remember that House Rules are often made to fit the flavor of a specific campaign, and not meant to be a "this should be in the official Erratta" statement.
My House Rules:
1. Orb of Imposition House Rule
Orb of Imposition: For every failed save the monster has had under this power, it gets a cumulative +2 bonus (Example: First Save: +0; Second Save: +2; Third Save: +4; etc.).
Reason: Going by the Player's Handbook, Orb of Imposition was too powerful. Using the Erratta, it was too nerfed. This makes it last only a couple rounds longer than usual, which was it's intent.
2. Raise Dead Ritual
Raise Dead: When a character dies, a Raise Dead ritual must be started within a few hours of the character's death. The spirit of the dead PC has not yet "moved on", but will do so very soon.
Once the spirit has moved on (a few hours after the death), then the Raise Dead ritual can still be cast, but the person casting the ritual basically meets with the diety of the dead PC, and needs to make a case to let him come back to life. This almost always meets with denial.
Reason: It makes death more meaningful.
3. Rituals House Rule
Rituals: In order to obtain the Ritual Casting feat, you must be a spellcasting class (Wizard, Cleric, Warlock, etc) or be multi-classed into such a class. If you are not, Ritual Casting is not available to you.
Reason: The "feel" and "flavor" of casting rituals in our campaign-setting belongs to one devoted to the study of it (a single feat doesn't cut it).
4. Rituals Specific to Class House Rule
Rituals and Class: Some rituals are only avaiable to arcane classes, while others are only available to divine classes. I won't divy up the list completely here, but a few examples: Cure Disease and Raise Dead are only available to divine classes, while Wizard's Sight and Magic Mouth are only available to arcane classes.
Most rituals are available to both.
Reason: Rituals that lean heavily toward divine or arcane origins maintain that flavor by being limited to that class type.
5. Frostcheese and Weapons
Frostcheese with Frost Weapons: It doesn't work. Whatever power you use doesn't gain the cold keyword because of your frost weapon.
Reason: Frostcheese is cheesy.
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2 years ago ::
Aug 09, 2011 - 8:45PM
#2
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Date Joined:
Oct 26, 2008
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Why do you hate the frost combo so much? It's not cheesy at all, it's a good combination of powers, items, and feats. By the logic of that houserule then all the elemental weapons are useless, because none of them should grant their respected element keyword if the frost doesn't. I don't know, maybe you have your reasons but honestly to me it just seems like you just don't like a legitimently nice combo that does take a little time to acquire and all it does is grant the potential to combat advantage(so a +2 to hit), and a little extra damage. The same mechanical benefits can be obtained through different items and such anyway, so why the big beef with this combo(eh, repeating one's self).
But that curiousity aside...lets see...
1. Well, if a party is flanking a target that target grants combat advantage to everyone, not just the people flanking it. So that feat, Vexing Flanker I believe, is useless.
Reason: One, this is how it was for us in 3.5 and we're use to it. Two, we felt that it didn't make sense for the CA to only be granted to the flankers. The whole reasoning for flanking and CA is that the creature's attention is split between the two(or more) flankers and thus his defenses are weakened. Well that doesn't change whether the attacker is flanking the target or not. The creature is still being distracted by the flankers and defense is lowered regardless of where the attack comes from.
2. We play with a Crit chart. Basically, when you crit you roll a percentage and that percentage dictates what happens in addition to the normal crit. So like, 0-67 is just normal crit damage. Then after that is broken bone, loss of limb, lose and eye, then internal bleeding(the target takes their bloodied value in damage, this replaces whatever damage you'd do with the crit), and 100% is instant death. Though the instant death doesn't work for monsters rolling crits on players, just for players. And we have yet to roll a 100...sadly.
Reason: It makes things more interesting and we've been doing it since 3.5, we just modified it a bit when we changed to 4th. And while some people here on the forums express dislike of this, we find it adds for fun and flavor to crits. And while it can suck to lose a limb in combat...we deal and usually there's a way to get it replaced eventually, so it's never really permanent.
Eh, can't really think of any more at the moment though there are probably a couple more that may come to me.
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2 years ago ::
Aug 09, 2011 - 9:01PM
#3
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Date Joined:
Aug 26, 2008
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Why do you hate the frost combo so much? It's not cheesy at all, it's a good combination of powers, items, and feats. By the logic of that houserule then all the elemental weapons are useless.
I just find it cheesy. It's so cheesy, it's actually gotten it's own special name of recognition: "Frostcheese".
It doesn't make them useless, since you still do damage of that element's type, which can affect Vulnerabilities. The only change we made for House Rules was that is doesn't add the keyword to the power, so it doesn't set off Frostcheese.
1. Well, if a party is flanking a target that target grants combat advantage to everyone, not just the people flanking it. So that feat, Vexing Flanker I believe, is useless.
Reason: One, this is how it was for us in 3.5 and we're use to it. Two, we felt that it didn't make sense for the CA to only be granted to the flankers. The whole reasoning for flanking and CA is that the creature's attention is split between the two(or more) flankers and thus his defenses are weakened. Well that doesn't change whether the attacker is flanking the target or not. The creature is still being distracted by the flankers and defense is lowered regardless of where the attack comes from.
Makes good sense, I like it.
2. We play with a Crit chart. Basically, when you crit you roll a percentage and that percentage dictates what happens in addition to the normal crit. So like, 0-67 is just normal crit damage. Then after that is broken bone, loss of limb, lose and eye, then internal bleeding(the target takes their bloodied value in damage, this replaces whatever damage you'd do with the crit), and 100% is instant death. Though the instant death doesn't work for monsters rolling crits on players, just for players. And we have yet to roll a 100...sadly.
Reason: It makes things more interesting and we've been doing it since 3.5, we just modified it a bit when we changed to 4th. And while some people here on the forums express dislike of this, we find it adds for fun and flavor to crits. And while it can suck to lose a limb in combat...we deal and usually there's a way to get it replaced eventually, so it's never really permanent.
That actually sounds like fun, and would add more detail to what's actually happening in the fight.
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2 years ago ::
Aug 10, 2011 - 1:07AM
#4
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Date Joined:
Feb 10, 2011
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I like this houserule that our DM uses.
Two-Weapon Fighting Houserule
Anyone can make an attack using two weapons, but takes a -5 penalty to both attack rolls for doing so. Taking the Two-Weapon Fighting feat eliminates this penalty.
I like this because, suddenly, the ranger just isn't quite as overpowered compared to other classes.
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2 years ago ::
Aug 10, 2011 - 8:14PM
#5
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I have quite a few house rules to balance the game. The biggest are: No feat taxes or math holes. Players get the bonuses they need just for sitting down at the table. My own multiclass feats replace the official MC feats and hybriding. I'm hoping mine are the best of both worlds, with the failings of neither. I fixed a few gimped builds. For example, I made the star pact a purely Con/Int build before this month's errata finally fixed the build officially. Regular saves are rolled at the end of the attacker's turn; bonus saves can end pretty much any condition, even conditions that normally last until the end of someone's turn. My house rule list is massive, and there are others, but nobody wants to read a wall o' text! I like this houserule that our DM uses.
Two-Weapon Fighting Houserule
Anyone can make an attack using two weapons, but takes a -5 penalty to both attack rolls for doing so. Taking the Two-Weapon Fighting feat eliminates this penalty.
I like this because, suddenly, the ranger just isn't quite as overpowered compared to other classes.
Hm, that sounds a lot like burning the village to save it from the dragon. I guess it depends on the details of the rule though.
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2 years ago ::
Aug 10, 2011 - 8:23PM
#6
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Date Joined:
Feb 10, 2011
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The two weapon fighting houserule is nice because it doesn't make much sense that the ranger and a few other classes are the only classes that can really use multi-attacks. I don't imagine my character not being able to attack with both of his weapons in one attack, despite the fact that he's trained in the art of dual-wielding for 10 years.
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2 years ago ::
Aug 10, 2011 - 8:26PM
#7
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Date Joined:
Oct 16, 2009
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The two weapon fighting houserule is nice because it doesn't make much sense that the ranger and a few other classes are the only classes that can really use multi-attacks. I don't imagine my character not being able to attack with both of his weapons in one attack, despite the fact that he's trained in the art of dual-wielding for 10 years.
That would be because dual-wielding, quite simply, does not work. Good look with that suspension of disbelief. 
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2 years ago ::
Aug 10, 2011 - 9:52PM
#8
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Date Joined:
Feb 10, 2011
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A)This is a fantasy game with giant, fire-breathing, winged reptiles. Just about anything is possible. B)Dual-wielding did work, just not in the way that most people today think of. Dual-wielding was traditionally done with a full or mid-length sword in the dominant hand, with a dagger or similarly sized blade in the off hand. The dagger was used mostly for defense, whereas the sword was used mostly for offense. A person that could dual-wield two full length weapons was either extremely skilled, or extremely stupid. If said person was standing in front of you with all of his limbs intact, they were not extremely stupid.
EDIT: Also, this is not the place for such an argument, and, as such, I am going to stop.
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2 years ago ::
Aug 11, 2011 - 2:59AM
#9
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Date Joined:
May 13, 2009
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How does your dual attack work rule work exactly? Does it apply to basic melee attacks, or to any and all powers? The rule sounds incomplete and as such I can't judge if it'd be awesome or broken. And if it were awesome I might copy it  As for my own games, I don't have a lot of houserules. Except in my group of "players whom you can't trust around NPCs" there is a rule of "you cannot be in a city because I do not trust you to not raze it to the ground" but that's not a very mechanical rule.
Epic Dungeon Master Want to give your players a kingdom of their own? I made a 4e rule system to make it happen! Your Kingdom awaits!Update 5th Sep 2011: Added a sample kingdom, as well as sample of play.
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2 years ago ::
Aug 11, 2011 - 11:19AM
#10
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Date Joined:
Feb 10, 2011
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It's tough to say exactly how it works. Since I play as an executioner, I only really make melee basic attacks, but I think it applies to all powers. There could be many ways to interpret it, but what it seems like to me is that it gives you a melee basic attack with your off-hand weapon as a free action every turn. Then again, we can use it for a second chance at getting the effect of an attack, so it's almost halfway between a free action melee basic attack and another attack roll for your next attack. It's tough to explain.
Another houserule that our DM uses, that I absolutely love is that crits are double max damage. He ruled it this way because he wanted the campaign we're running to be epic. And it has been. Our crits rarely fully kill something, and we usually don't hit anything if we don't roll 14 or higher. Our DM is awesome.
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