House Rules and DM Rulings

This thread will be host to various homerules and relevant DM rulings.

1. Particularly outstanding Roleplay, as adjudicated by the DM, will earn your character extra XP.

2. Combat:
- Please roll init and state your first action in your first post of any combat situation.
- You do not need to post in initiative order in the following posts.
- I will post the conclusion of every round and its outcomes after everyone has posted their actions.
- If you take an action that turns out to be futile, I will make an OOC comment and let you alter it before the next round of combat begins so please stay tuned.
- Combat can be the slowest part of a game. I don't want it to bog us down. If you do not post for 2 days (4 over weekends) during a combat situation, I will NPC your character for that round. essentially, they will be considered to have "Delayed" as per the PH. You may resume control of your PC at any point but you may not edit backwards.
- If you have informed me of your absence before hand, we will discuss your preference at that time. I will NPC for you or your character will not participate in any combat situation that comes up while you are gone.

3. If you wish to make a Spot, Listen and/or Sense Motive check, let me know and inform me of all adjustments you have. I will make the roll for you. From time to time, I will make such rolls for you without your knowledge and inform you of positive or negative outcomes privately (I will not tell you of course which of the two outcomes I rolled).

4. Thought in italics, different languages in a different color.

5. Skill Checks - Critical Success and Failure: Regardless of ranks in a given skill, a natural roll of 1 on a skill check results in a -10 penalty to the check and a natural roll of 20 on a skill check results in an additional +10 bonus to the check result.
A character may still Take 10 and/or Take 20 as per the rules in the PH, however, Take 20 does not grant the bonus of a natural rolled 20.

6. Identifying a poison requires either a Heal, Craft (Poisonmaking) or Craft (Alchemy) check with a DC identical to the DC required to craft the poison. A character trying to identify a poison has a 5% chance of poisoning themselves in the act.

7. For the purposes of this game: 1000 coins (any denomination) = 20 lbs. = 1 sq. ft. of volume/space

More to come as the game develops...

As I did not clarify it earlier, I'm making a point of clarifying it now:

No material from Dragon or Dungeon Magazines is approved.

*Exceptions to this ruling might be made if the player can make a convincing argument. A discussion on the matter will NOT ensue if the DM decides the argument made does not convince him. The DM maintains his prerogative to disallow material from these particular sources without "justification".

The following material from APPROVED sources is NOT APPROVED!*

UA. pg. 18 - Reducing Level Adjustments

UA. pg. 76 - Generic Classes (all)

PGtF. pg. 190 - Variants: Races with Level Adjustment

* In general, any variant rule or class/PrC that has only benefits above an existing class/PrC without any drawbacks will not be approved. Save yourself and I the time and don't ask.

The following material from APPROVED sources is ALTERED!

FRCS pg. 96 - Potion Belt/MW Potion Belt - Activation: It is a swift action to retrive 1 potion from either of these in a round.

UA. pg. 57 - Wizard Variant: Domain Wizard - Domain Wizards must select 1 prohibited school. They then suffer all the normal specialist penalties associated with a prohibited school. A Domain Wizard may take the Focused Specialist variant for the same cost as a regular specialist wizard.

DotU pg. 101 - Shadow Cloak - Activation: -- and swift (command)

MoF pg. 108 and SC pg. 7 - Mestil's Acid Breath - Range: 30 ft.

PH pg. 130-131 - Tool, Masterwork: Only applies to skills logically associated with the use of a tool. Excluded skills include (but are not limited to): Autohypnosis, Bluff, Concentration, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Intimidate, Knowledge (Any), Psicraft, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Tumble, Use Magic Device and Use Psionic Device

FC-I pg. 92 & 95 - Embrace/Shun the Dark Chaos: As stated in the description for the spell EtDC, it can be reversed using StDC. Therefore, StDC will only restore the original feat replaced via EtDC. It is not possible to acquire new, non Abyssal, feats vis this spell combo.

Dungeonscape pg. 16 - Factotum - Arcane Dilettante (Sp): This ability works as stated with the following adjustment: The Factotum must keep a spellbook (which he must purchase, he does not get it for free as a wizard does), just as a wizard does and can only select spells from said spellbook to use with this power. The Factotum receives 2 spells each class level, starting at 2nd level, to scribe into this spellbook for free and may otherwise add new spells to the spellbook in the same fashion as a wizard does.
The Factotum does not need 8 hours of rest or 1 hour of studying his spellbook to select the spells he wants to use for the day however.

CC pg. 60 - Knowledge Devotion (Ex) : The knowledge check to gain the bonus to attack and damage must be equal to or higher than the result necessary to recognize a creature in question as described in the PH, pg. 78. A character must have LoS to a creature in order to gain the benefits of the feat vs. that creature. The benefits of the feat are nullified in cases of "mistaken identity", for example, when used to "recognize" a creature that is actually another creature type in disguise. This also applies to shapeshifting creatures who are in an alternative form, unless the character has reason to believe or is sure the creature in question is a shapeshifter.

MIC pg. 198 - Bracers of Blinding Strike - Though the Realms version of these appears in MoF (pg. 155), this version is approved for use in this campaign as it appears in the MIC. This version is now knows as Bracers of Blinding Strike, Lesser.

Please note that when selecting "Go Advanced" or "Preview" after writing a post and entering a die roll(s) in it, the result of the roll will change.

The final result of the die as it appears in the post after your latest edit and before my next post will be the final number that counts towards my post.