We play D&D 3.5. Player characters have access to the Player’s Handbook. The rest of this page lists house rules and exceptions to the default rules.
- Skills: No cross-class penalty. Apply INT bonus retroactively. (Makes it easier to figure out what your skill rank total ought to be.)
- Multi-classing: No first level +2 bonus to saves. No XP penalty for multi-classing. (No more multi-classing into five classes or more in order to get awesome saves. No getting extra screwed for playing an elven druid who switched to cleric. Loosing highest spell levels is the only real penalty.)
- Grappling: Win opposed grapple check to do damage, move, or silence your opponent or to get out of the grapple. No other action is possible while grappling. (Grappling is easy, but all the little extras make it confusing.)
- Attacks of Opportunity: Attacks of opportunity may not use particular combat maneuvers like disarming, tripping, or sundering. (Gets rid of the terrible “umbrella of protection” – enlarged spiked chain wielding characters with Improved Trip.)
- Feats: Dodge provides +1 dodge bonus to AC against all opponents. (People keep forgetting Dodge.)
- Hitpoints: At the end of the encounter you take a minute or two to catch your breath and you’re back at full hit-points.
- Duration: Spells lasting a few rounds last for a single encounter. They never run out during a fight. This includes summoned creatures and similar effects. Spells lasting a few hours last for a single day. (Get rid of tracking time.)
- Flight: Forget about the movement details. (Too complicated.)
- XP: A simplified system.
- Scrolls: Once scribed, there is no longer a distinction between arcane and divine spells. If it is on your spell list, you can cast it.
- Scribing: Automatic spells on gaining a level are free. Copying a spell into your spell book from an existing book or scroll costs 50 gp per spell level and takes one day. Borrowing a spell book to copy a spell without offering a similar spell in return costs an additional 50 gp per spell level. Researching and scribing a new spell costs 100 gp per spell level and takes one week. Either way, scribing a spell requires a Spellcraft check DC 15 + spell level.
- Spellcasters: Zero level spells are not lost when cast. If a race has access to a certain number of cantrips per day, these cantrips will also be available at-will. Sorcerers of that race add these cantrips as known spells in addition to the number of cantrips they gain due to their class levels.
- Magic Items: No XP cost when creating them. All non-trivial magic items require interesting quests for material components.
- Familiar: Replacing a familiar is easy. Any sort of tiny creature can be bound if found and tamed on an adventure. The improved familiar feat is not required.
- Retraining: On even levels, you can swap a feat for another if you provide a good in-game explanation. On every level, you can move two skill points if you provide a good in-game explanation. On every level you can move one of the attribute points you gained at level 4, 8, or 12 around. You must still satisfy all the prerequisites for all your feats after the swap.
- Shields break: If you’re carrying a shield, you can have it shatter instead of suffering damage from an attack. (Shields Shall be Splintered unless you’re flat-footed.)
- Confusion: Roll 1d4: 1 – act normally, 2 – do nothing but babble incoherently, 3 – deal 1d8 points of damage + Str bonus to self with item in hand, 4 – attack nearest creature.
- d30: Once per session you can use a d30 instead of a d20.
Non-Standard Races
- Goblin: -2 Str, +2 Dex, -2 Cha, small (AC +1, Atk +1, hide +4, grapple -4), 30 ft., 60 ft. Darkvision, +4 racial bonus on Move Silently and Ride – Monster Manual
- Kobold: -4 Str, +2 Dex, -2 Con, small (AC +1, Atk +1, hide +4, grapple -4), 30 ft., 60 ft. Darkvision, +1 natural armor bonus, light sensitivity, automatic: Draconic, bonus: Common, Undercommon. – Monster Manual
- Deep Gnome: +2 Dex -2 Str, small (AC +1, Atk +1, hide +4, grapple -4), 20 ft., 60 ft. Darkvision, Stonecunning, +2 racial bonus to saving throws against spells and spell-like effects, +1 dodge bonus to AC, Weapon Familiarity (gnome hooked hammer), +1 DC to illusions cast by svirfneblin, resistance, daze, lullaby at-will if they have Cha 10 or better, +2 racial bonus on Hide checks (+4 underground), humanoid (gnome) – Player’s Guide to Faerûn p. 191, Lesser Deep Gnome
- Shadow Elf: +2 Dex -2 Con, medium, 30 ft., 60 ft. Darkvision, Weapon Proficiency (hand crossbow, rapier, and short sword), +2 racial bonus on Will saves against spells and spell-like effects, dancing lights, daze, and touch of fatigue at-will if they have Cha 10 or better, Light Blindness, humanoid (elf) – Player’s Guide to Faerûn p. 191, Lesser Drow
- Faun: +2 Dex, -2 Wis, medium, 30 ft., low-light vision, +2 DC when using a magic flute or set of pipes, +2 racial bonus on saving throws made to resist sound and dance related effects, +2 racial bonus on Hide, Move Silently, and Survival, and +4 racial bonus on Perform checks made while playing flutes or pipes, humanoid (fey) – Deities & Demigods p. 134
Long Term Play
- Name Level: Characters reaching level 9 must build a stronghold or be ready to retire their character when they reach level 10. (Ordinary adventures will take place in the level range from one to nine; higher level adventures may involve mass battles.)
- Charisma: There is no Leadership feat. Instead, players build an entourage using roleplay within the limits of their Charisma score. Players can take two characters on an adventure. The lower level character gets half a share of XP (with no bonus for being lower level). (Inspired by David Bowman’s Entourage Approach.)
- Character Death: New characters start on first level. Alternatively, players may choose to play an NPC who has reasonable cause to join the party. (Encourage friendships and experiment with a wide variety of levels.)
- Character Resurrection: Death and resurrection is part of the game. You start at the previous level with enough XP to get you half way back to the current one. If your level 4 character dies, you create a new level 3 character with 4500 XP. (“The character’s new XP total is midway between the minimum needed for his or her new level and the minimum needed for the next one.” – DMG p. 42)
- New Players: You start at the same level as the lowest regular player character. If the party has player characters ranging from level 3 to 6, new players create a new level 3 character with 3000 XP. (“A new player should create his first character at the beginning of the level where the lowest-level existing PC is.” – DMG p. 42)
- New Character: Use the same rule as for character death.
- Absent Players: Absent players ⇒ absent characters, no questions asked.
- Reputation: Players can gain and loose reputation regarding factions and powers (such as the Gods). Usually reputation changes by ±1 per deed. The reputation acts as a circumstance bonus for Diplomacy & Bluff checks or as a penalty for Sense Motive & Intimidate checks. For clerics, the reputation also indicates the highest spell level they can cast. In an emergency, this number also represents the percent chance of divine intervention if called upon. As your reputation increases, it gets harder and harder to gain more. Here are the effective limits of reputation based on your actions:
| Most significant deed | max gain | max total |
|---|
| Find, return, steal, destroy, or save items and property | 1 | 1 |
| Save lives, murder, rescue kidnapped victims, render services | 2 | 3 |
| Save or doom settlements, help or foil communities | 4 | 7 |
| Follow the calls of your deity, do their bidding | 8 | 15 |