Homebrew Rules

[wezzyfish]

Here is a place where I can post and share the homebrew rules we will be playing with. I can add to this at any time a ruling is made.


Weapon Feats: We will play with the Weapon Group rules. So rather than having weapon focus longsword, you can have weapon focus swords and it will work with every sword you pick up, regardless of type.


Dodge Feat: This grants a permanent +1 on AC as long as you aren't flat-footed. No declaration or target necessary.


Polearm Finesse Feat: Your weapon finesse ability works with polearms. (pre-requisite: combat reflexes, weapon finesse)


Exp Costs: There will be no exp cost in this game. For purposes of crafting magic stuff, 1/5 of the original gold cost will be additional gold instead, making it more expensive to do. For purposes of EXP loss due to magical effects and negative energy drain, I will be using alternative rules depending on the creature/situation involved.


Identify Spell: Identify takes a full hour to cast but you may identify a number of items in one cast equal to your effective caster level. The 100gp pearl is still required.


Healing Effects: All healing dice are rounded up to at least the halfway number (typically 4) if it falls below that. This works for the enemy as well, but nothing worse than rolling 1s on an important heal.


Material Components: Let's face it, this is mostly just fluff. It is required, but feel free to change up the components used to fit your particular casting style or w/e. The exception is any that costs money, such as the pearl in "identify".


Cleric Domains: A cleric gains access to an additional domain of their deity at level 10, including the special ability. They would get a 4th at level 20, but this adventure very likely will end around level 15 or 16.


Familiars: Feel free to choose a small animal not on the PHB list if you wish, and attach one of the bonuses there that makes sense for the animal.

Learning a Language: It takes 4 skill points to know a language fluently. You are not allowed to put more than 1 point in any language each level and you have to be actively practicing and learning the language in game to do it. 1 point is like as much Spanish as I speak in real life, enough to know some words, but not enough to actually talk to someone. 2 points would be basic conversation type of stuff. 3 is nearing fluency but limited with reading/writing or more advanced terminology or turns-of-phrase. 4 is fluent. Considering this could be a matter of months in game, I feel this is still really fast, but a far improvement over RAW, which makes no sense at all.

 

Critical Checks:. For the most part, a natural 1 on any skill check is an automatic fail just as a natural 20 is success. I realize this is not RAW and the reasons why. Obviously if I consider such a thing impossible, I won't ask for a roll and if you give one anyway, it won't be successful (though close). Basically the rule of thumb I tend to use is to add +10 to the result of the natural 20 roll and if that is enough, then it works. 1s are just failures.

Critical Damage: To roll for critical damage, just roll a normal damage roll and then add that to the max amount possible. For instance, say you roll a 1d6+2 for damage and get a x2 crit. It will be 8 (max possible) + 1d6+2. This prevents criticals from being completely lackluster. If it is a x3 in the above example, then it would still just be 8 + 2d6+4.

 

Racial Changes

Kuo-toa: These creatures are generally regarded as neutral and their goddess, Blipdoolpoolp is not an evil demoness. They are just fish-like people who live in the Underdark and some remote locations on the surface.

Quaggoth: These creatures are as described normally but tend to have more bear-like facial features, making them look like large humanoid polar bears.

 

Class Changes:

Cleric: At level 10, you gain access to a third domain aligned with your deity, including special ability tied to it. Level 20 gains access to a 4th domain. (Yes, I know clerics are OP anyway, but I've always found it lame that they get NOTHING other than spells as they increase in levels and this seems like something they should get anyway).

Sorcerer: With DM permission, at 1st level and every 5 levels, a sorcerer may have 1 spell known not normally found on the wizard/sorcerer list IF it aligns with the catalyst that makes the character a sorcerer and it is of a level they can cast. For instance, fey blood might give them access to some druidic type spells while celestial blood might grant some access to a bit of healing. Maybe it was exposure to large amounts of magic as a child, like a resurrection spell cast on their mother while they are being born, and so that gives some healing type of magic as well. All spells are still considered arcane and all armor penalties and w/e involved apply. Any components required for the spell are also still required.

Druids/Rangers: Animal companions may be as written in the 3.5 PHB, or they may be more in line with 3.0 animal companions (choose upon creating your character). This means you get "animal friendship" added to your spell list and that you may befriend up to twice your druid level (or half that if ranger) worth of HD in animals. No 1 animal can be more than your caster level, but you may have more than 1 animal. You may also teach them 3 tricks per point of intelligence they have. You get no other bonuses to the animal that a 3.5 druid typically gets, such as HD and natural armor growth, bonus tricks, link, evasion and all the other stuff. You may increase the HD of a current pet to make it stronger/bigger if it has advancement HD listed in its description and it doesn't exceed your max HD for 1 companion. Nobody is a druid this game, but if someone dies and rerolls one, I want them to be aware of this option.