I am sure most of you are familiar with house rules, I will place mine for this game here. I will post those I can think of now, and others as they come up.
Multi-class – as you can see I allow humans to multi-class as per the multi-class thread.
Weapon v AC-I like weapon v AC and normally use it, however I think it would be too difficult in a PbP so we will not be using it here.
Specialization – I do not use specialization rules. However, I am allowing something special for the initial characters in this campaign.
Because I gave each of you a free initial weapon proficiency at 0 level once you reach 1st level you can choose to spend one of your normal proficiency slots on the same weapon. This will make it a weapon of choice and give you a +1 to hit with that weapon. This applies to all classes and only to the free proficiency I gave you. This will only be available to these initial characters and starting afterward at 1st level will not gain this benefit.
Unearthed Arcana – I do not own a copy of the UA and will not be using anything from it including weapons and armor.
Magic Items – I can be rather cheap on magic items and I do place them as I see fit rather than random rolls, so no vorpals guarded by kobolds. I am also notorious for creating my own magic items, some weak some a little more powerful, so things may not always be so cut and dry. There are two common ways to identify a magic item
1. testing it – trying something our will let you know what it is for the most part sip a potion, look at a scroll, swing a sword in combat. If done this way and the item is cursed the curse is activated.
2. Identify spell – If a identify spell is successful then you will learn pretty much everything about an item including charges (the only way to know exact charges). The exception may be special purpose items that will not be revealed until later.
Monsters – I am also notorious for creating new monsters and changing written monsters. So if you see and orc, and it turns out not being what you expected you have been warned.
Non-weapon proficiencies – I don’t use them
House Rules
Re: House Rules
Armor
I handle armor a bit different than BtB, below is how the different types of armor are viewed and act in my game.
Note: AC value is without shield
Leather
AC: 8
Common Price: 3-10 gp
Description: Cheap, easily obtained, and non bulky leather is the most common armor seen. It is the common armor of miltia men, scouts, bandits, and foresters. Even many men with little to no weapon training may have a suit of leather to go along with a spear in case they ever have to defend their village. Some people spend more on a higher quality leather with elaborate embroidering, while patch work sets of the armor can be had for as little as 3 gold.
Studded Leather
AC: 7
Common Price: 12-25 gp
Description: Leather armor where the leather worker has hammered in small metal bits to help deflect blades, studded leather offers a bit better defense than regular leather while trading off leathers lack of bulk. Studded Leather is the common armor of light footmen, aspiring warriors, and guards in smaller towns and villages. Studded Leather with bits of what ever spare metal was laying around can be had for as little as 12 gp. The armor made with specific sized and shaped metal studs sometimes in elaborate patterns runs higher.
Ring Mail
AC: 6
Common Price: 45 gp
Description: Heavier and bulkier, but offering better protection than studded leather. Ring mail consists of large iron rings sewn into leather armor backed with thick padding. Unlike leather and studded leather, ring mail does not vary much from suit to suit as it has a standard design and materials. This is the common armor of heavy footman and beginning adventurers. This is the lowest quality armor priests of Odin and Thor may wear. Their ethos requires them to enter battle naked before they would wear lesser armor.
Scale Mail
AC: 5
Common Price: 100 gp
Description: The first type of armor truly needed a skilled armorer to create scale mail consists of rows of overlapping scale shaped plates. This armor offers very good protection, built is also heavy and bulky placing most of its weight on the shoulders. This is the common armor worn by NCO’s, guard in large cities, and seasoned adventurers.
Splint Mail
AC: 4
Common Price: 250 gp
Description: Heavy bands of metal over light chain and leather this armor offers great protection but is very heavy and bulky. Most armorers are able to forge splint mail and it is the armor commonly worn by lower rank officers and somewhat successful adventurers.
Chain mail
AC: 4
Common Price: 500 gp
Description: Considered the best type of armor by some Chain Mail offers great protection but without the bulk and movement restrictions of splint mail. A serious of metal links hammered together it takes highly skilled armorer to be able to create a suit of chain mail. Because of its expense this armor is normally worn by officers and successful adventurers. This is the armor most clerics of Odin and Thor strive to obtain.
Plate Mail
AC: 3
Common Price: 2,000 gp
Description: The pinnacle of armor creation. It offers maximum protection while still allowing critical movement. Only the most skilled of armorers know the techniques to forge a proper suit and they are typically found in larger cities or employed by nobles. This armor is extremely rare and is normally only worn by high ranking officers, nobles, and very successful adventurers.
I handle armor a bit different than BtB, below is how the different types of armor are viewed and act in my game.
Note: AC value is without shield
Leather
AC: 8
Common Price: 3-10 gp
Description: Cheap, easily obtained, and non bulky leather is the most common armor seen. It is the common armor of miltia men, scouts, bandits, and foresters. Even many men with little to no weapon training may have a suit of leather to go along with a spear in case they ever have to defend their village. Some people spend more on a higher quality leather with elaborate embroidering, while patch work sets of the armor can be had for as little as 3 gold.
Studded Leather
AC: 7
Common Price: 12-25 gp
Description: Leather armor where the leather worker has hammered in small metal bits to help deflect blades, studded leather offers a bit better defense than regular leather while trading off leathers lack of bulk. Studded Leather is the common armor of light footmen, aspiring warriors, and guards in smaller towns and villages. Studded Leather with bits of what ever spare metal was laying around can be had for as little as 12 gp. The armor made with specific sized and shaped metal studs sometimes in elaborate patterns runs higher.
Ring Mail
AC: 6
Common Price: 45 gp
Description: Heavier and bulkier, but offering better protection than studded leather. Ring mail consists of large iron rings sewn into leather armor backed with thick padding. Unlike leather and studded leather, ring mail does not vary much from suit to suit as it has a standard design and materials. This is the common armor of heavy footman and beginning adventurers. This is the lowest quality armor priests of Odin and Thor may wear. Their ethos requires them to enter battle naked before they would wear lesser armor.
Scale Mail
AC: 5
Common Price: 100 gp
Description: The first type of armor truly needed a skilled armorer to create scale mail consists of rows of overlapping scale shaped plates. This armor offers very good protection, built is also heavy and bulky placing most of its weight on the shoulders. This is the common armor worn by NCO’s, guard in large cities, and seasoned adventurers.
Splint Mail
AC: 4
Common Price: 250 gp
Description: Heavy bands of metal over light chain and leather this armor offers great protection but is very heavy and bulky. Most armorers are able to forge splint mail and it is the armor commonly worn by lower rank officers and somewhat successful adventurers.
Chain mail
AC: 4
Common Price: 500 gp
Description: Considered the best type of armor by some Chain Mail offers great protection but without the bulk and movement restrictions of splint mail. A serious of metal links hammered together it takes highly skilled armorer to be able to create a suit of chain mail. Because of its expense this armor is normally worn by officers and successful adventurers. This is the armor most clerics of Odin and Thor strive to obtain.
Plate Mail
AC: 3
Common Price: 2,000 gp
Description: The pinnacle of armor creation. It offers maximum protection while still allowing critical movement. Only the most skilled of armorers know the techniques to forge a proper suit and they are typically found in larger cities or employed by nobles. This armor is extremely rare and is normally only worn by high ranking officers, nobles, and very successful adventurers.
Re: House Rules
Missiles into melee (this could come up)
The way I handle this. If you try to fire a missle weapon (dagger, bow, hand axe, etc) at an enemy engaged in melee you roll to hit. I then roll percentage, there is a 70% chance your shot is aimed at your actual target, the other 30% of the time it will be at a random target engaged in the melee. It will then be determined if the "to hit" roll was good enough to hit this new targets AC. In addition rate of fire when firing into melee is always 1, this demonstartes taking time to aim and explains why the hit is only random 30% of the time.
Example: Bob has a short bow and his buddy Tom is engaged in melee with two orcs. Bob takes aims and fires rolling a 18 to hit. I then roll percentage and roll a 75% (1-70 is Bob's target, 71-100 is a random target). I then roll to dteermine who the new target is with each having an equal chance (here we will say orc 1 is 1-2 on d6 orc 2 is 3-4 on d6 and Tom is 5-6 on d6). A d6 is rolled and comes up 5 mak9ing Tom the new target. Checking Bob's to hit roll of 18 versus Tom's AC it is a hit and Bob does his full damage to Tom.
This represents the randomness of melee, Tom was engaged with the two orcs and Bob took careful aim, but as Bob released his arrow Tom dodged to the side to avoid one of the orcs swords and Bob's arrow caught him right in the ass.
Note: The above is when dealing with man sized creatures, when dealing with smaller than man sized the percent to hit your target drops to 50% and when dealing with larger than man size the percent to hit your target goes up to 85%
The way I handle this. If you try to fire a missle weapon (dagger, bow, hand axe, etc) at an enemy engaged in melee you roll to hit. I then roll percentage, there is a 70% chance your shot is aimed at your actual target, the other 30% of the time it will be at a random target engaged in the melee. It will then be determined if the "to hit" roll was good enough to hit this new targets AC. In addition rate of fire when firing into melee is always 1, this demonstartes taking time to aim and explains why the hit is only random 30% of the time.
Example: Bob has a short bow and his buddy Tom is engaged in melee with two orcs. Bob takes aims and fires rolling a 18 to hit. I then roll percentage and roll a 75% (1-70 is Bob's target, 71-100 is a random target). I then roll to dteermine who the new target is with each having an equal chance (here we will say orc 1 is 1-2 on d6 orc 2 is 3-4 on d6 and Tom is 5-6 on d6). A d6 is rolled and comes up 5 mak9ing Tom the new target. Checking Bob's to hit roll of 18 versus Tom's AC it is a hit and Bob does his full damage to Tom.
This represents the randomness of melee, Tom was engaged with the two orcs and Bob took careful aim, but as Bob released his arrow Tom dodged to the side to avoid one of the orcs swords and Bob's arrow caught him right in the ass.
Note: The above is when dealing with man sized creatures, when dealing with smaller than man sized the percent to hit your target drops to 50% and when dealing with larger than man size the percent to hit your target goes up to 85%
Re: House Rules
If the person doing the ranged attack has a modifier to hit from Dex, does that alter the 70/30 chance at all? It seems the likelihood to hit the desired target would be greater (or worse) if a person's general aiming ability is enhanced (or detracted from) by Dex. Or do you not factor that in at all?
Re: House Rules
Teramis wrote:If the person doing the ranged attack has a modifier to hit from Dex, does that alter the 70/30 chance at all? It seems the likelihood to hit the desired target would be greater (or worse) if a person's general aiming ability is enhanced (or detracted from) by Dex. Or do you not factor that in at all?
The modifier for dex is added to the attack roll of 1d20, the 70/30 is simply a percent chance that the target that was aimed at is still in the same position when the arrow leaves the bow and not someone else. Melee is fluid and opponents are constiantly moving back and forth and around each other. The way I do it is better for the players shooting into melee than BtB.
Re: House Rules
Healing and death
Death occurs at -10 HP, and a character falls uncouncious at 0 thru -9.
Because of the rate of PbP and I want to keep it moving I do not require the 1 week rest for people who fall from 0 to -6, however anything past -6 does require a weeks bed rest and will leave some kind of maiming. Any reduction to negative hit points will leave scaring, but that scaring has no impact on the charcater other than a war story.
Death occurs at -10 HP, and a character falls uncouncious at 0 thru -9.
Because of the rate of PbP and I want to keep it moving I do not require the 1 week rest for people who fall from 0 to -6, however anything past -6 does require a weeks bed rest and will leave some kind of maiming. Any reduction to negative hit points will leave scaring, but that scaring has no impact on the charcater other than a war story.
Re: House Rules
In the case here where my character is unconscious from a wound, as you describe it I understand that bandaging only halts the damage at its current negative level (rather than restoring to 0 or 1 point and consciousness). Actual healing to improve negative HP will require either a spell, a potion, or bedrest (if we have no magic to use on an unconscious person). Is that a correct understanding?wolfpack wrote:Healing and death
Death occurs at -10 HP, and a character falls uncouncious at 0 thru -9.
Because of the rate of PbP and I want to keep it moving I do not require the 1 week rest for people who fall from 0 to -6, however anything past -6 does require a weeks bed rest and will leave some kind of maiming. Any reduction to negative hit points will leave scaring, but that scaring has no impact on the charcater other than a war story.
Re: House Rules
correct, after bandages you are at -3, you remain there until some magical healing (potion, spell, scroll) is used or you gain 1 point per day from rest.Teramis wrote:In the case here where my character is unconscious from a wound, as you describe it I understand that bandaging only halts the damage at its current negative level (rather than restoring to 0 or 1 point and consciousness). Actual healing to improve negative HP will require either a spell, a potion, or bedrest (if we have no magic to use on an unconscious person). Is that a correct understanding?wolfpack wrote:Healing and death
Death occurs at -10 HP, and a character falls uncouncious at 0 thru -9.
Because of the rate of PbP and I want to keep it moving I do not require the 1 week rest for people who fall from 0 to -6, however anything past -6 does require a weeks bed rest and will leave some kind of maiming. Any reduction to negative hit points will leave scaring, but that scaring has no impact on the charcater other than a war story.
If magic is used and say a 1 is rolled you still automatically go to 1 HP
so magic will bring you to at least 1 HP.
Re: House Rules
A note about reading, writing, and languages.
Everyone who is classed (or in your case will be) can read and write their common tongue to some extent, the comaparison below is in grade level in our society.
Fighters - 4th grade level.
Rangers & Paladins - 6th grade level
Thieves - 8th grade level
Cleric & Druid - High school graduate
Magic-user & Illusionists - Some college (associate degree level)
For spoken languages you only know common and your racial tongue (in your cases simply common). Like in real life different regions have diffeent languages, but in general any civilized people speak the common trade tongue to some degree.
Your INT determines the number of languages you can learn, but you have to seek out someone to teach you those languages.
Everyone who is classed (or in your case will be) can read and write their common tongue to some extent, the comaparison below is in grade level in our society.
Fighters - 4th grade level.
Rangers & Paladins - 6th grade level
Thieves - 8th grade level
Cleric & Druid - High school graduate
Magic-user & Illusionists - Some college (associate degree level)
For spoken languages you only know common and your racial tongue (in your cases simply common). Like in real life different regions have diffeent languages, but in general any civilized people speak the common trade tongue to some degree.
Your INT determines the number of languages you can learn, but you have to seek out someone to teach you those languages.
Re: House Rules
Ranged weapons and strength bonus.
Normal ranged weapons do not get strength bonus to hit or damage. This includes thrown weapons like throwing and axe or dagger.
However special versions of these weapons can be made to include strentgh bonus to damage (but not to hit).
Because of the special weighting and balance put into the weapon design these special wepons can only be thrown. If used in melee they give a -2 to hit and no strength or dex bonus is applied to hit (but still applied to damage).
A special note for bows, only composite bows can be made this way and they become compound bows.
Each weapon must be specially made by a competent weapon smith.
The cost is base cost * 2 + 1 for every point of additional damage
so someone with 18 00% strength wanting a spear that will doadditonal damage throwing would pay 1 * 2+6 or 8 g.p.
someone with 17 strength wanting a composite short bow would pay 75 * 2+1 = 225
Base price may vary by item and location in the campaign world.
Normal ranged weapons do not get strength bonus to hit or damage. This includes thrown weapons like throwing and axe or dagger.
However special versions of these weapons can be made to include strentgh bonus to damage (but not to hit).
Because of the special weighting and balance put into the weapon design these special wepons can only be thrown. If used in melee they give a -2 to hit and no strength or dex bonus is applied to hit (but still applied to damage).
A special note for bows, only composite bows can be made this way and they become compound bows.
Each weapon must be specially made by a competent weapon smith.
The cost is base cost * 2 + 1 for every point of additional damage
so someone with 18 00% strength wanting a spear that will doadditonal damage throwing would pay 1 * 2+6 or 8 g.p.
someone with 17 strength wanting a composite short bow would pay 75 * 2+1 = 225
Base price may vary by item and location in the campaign world.
Re: House Rules
Crossbow damage - I adjust crossbow damage as follows
Light crossbow 2-7/2-7
Heavy crossbow 2-9/2-9
Polearm rules
If a polearm is 3 or more feet longer than the weapon wielded by the opponant, and the opponent is of the same general size or smaller than the polearm wielder, then the polearm wielder automatically wins init on round one.
In addition, if the polearm is a primarily thrusting weapon (pike, ranseur, spetum, partisan, millitary fork, lucern hammer, 7' + spears), then if the initial attack by the polearm wielder is successful, the opponent loses their attack in the first round. This represents the thrusting weapon keeping the enemy at bay on first contact.
Light crossbow 2-7/2-7
Heavy crossbow 2-9/2-9
Polearm rules
If a polearm is 3 or more feet longer than the weapon wielded by the opponant, and the opponent is of the same general size or smaller than the polearm wielder, then the polearm wielder automatically wins init on round one.
In addition, if the polearm is a primarily thrusting weapon (pike, ranseur, spetum, partisan, millitary fork, lucern hammer, 7' + spears), then if the initial attack by the polearm wielder is successful, the opponent loses their attack in the first round. This represents the thrusting weapon keeping the enemy at bay on first contact.