My Houserules

[Krushnak]

Here are some of the houserules i have come up with, tell me what you think of them and feel free to use some if you like them.

Skills:
Hide+ Move Silently= Stealth
Spot+Listen= Awareness
Jump+Climb+Swim= Athletics
Balance+ Tumble= Acrobatics
Heal 5+ ranks grants a +2 damage bonus to melee and ranged attacks within 30ft, can only be used on humans and near human creatures(eg. Ape-men but not snake-men) unless you also have know(nature) 5+ ranks in which case you apply the damage bonus to natural creatures aswell. Knowing how to heal the body also helps you to kill it.(optional: if you don’t already have 1 corruption point then the first use of this damage bonus gives you 1 point.)

Sorcery:
Effective scholar lvl for spell duration and effects is now calculated based off of MAB and CHA bonus. For every point of MAB you get 2 effective scholar lvls and for every point of CHA bonus you get 1 effective scholar lvls. Makes multiclassed scholars more effective with the spells they know while not taking away the power of a pure scholar.

Fate Points:
2 FP can also be used to auto succeed with a single attack, save or ability check or count as getting a 20 for the roll a single skill check, must be declared before the roll is attempted. Inturn the 2 FP can be used to force a single opponents attack,save or ability check to automatically fail. 1 FP may also be used to gain a re-roll or force a re-roll from an opponent of any attack,save,ability or skill check, however you may never re-roll a re-roll the second roll stands even if it is worse than the first , fate isnt always kind.

Feats:
Alertness= +2 to Awareness + Search
Acrobatic= +2 to Acrobatics + Escape Artist
Athletic= +2 to Athletics + Saves vs Exhaustion(both Fort and Con, stacks with endurance)
Stealthy= +2 to Stealth + Sleight of Hand

Marksmanship: prereq= farshot, wpn focus with a bow and spot 4 ranks . aslong as you are using a bow you have wpn focus in you ignore the penalties of 1 range increment per 4 ranks of spot you have. Each time you take wpn focus in a new bow this feat applies to that bow.

Combat Maneouvers:
Ranged Finesse: prereqs: precise shot.
aslong as you aren’t currently suffering any negative penalties to your attack roll(eg. Range, rapid shot, weather etc.) then if you beat your targets DV by is DR then you bypass it entirely.

 

[Clovenhoof]

As I said in the other thread, I am adopting the merged skills.
However I am calling Spot+Listen --> Perception. Perception will also be used for any other senses, like smell, tast, and touch.

Not going to adopt the Heal bonus to damage. It's like a free weapon specialization for anyone who has the Heal skill. Heal is a quite popular skill anyway and doesn't need to be made more attractive.
If at all, I'd grant a damage bonus of 1 per 5 ranks in Knowledge(Anatomy).

Feats:
Marksmanship looks a bit too complicated for my liking. Though the general idea isn't bad, and probably helps getting the archers closer to par.

Ranged Finesse: please clarify, are you just simplifying the rules for the Ranged Finesse feat, or are you removing the feat altogether, and use the regular Finesse rules for ranged attacks by default? That's what I'm considering.

 

[Spectator]

The athletics skill: I don't like the concept of sticking in SWIM with the skills, since swimming was actually a very rare skill in the old days. A hyrkanian desert dweller might be a great a great jumper and climber, but a swimmer, not likely.

Maybe if you want just make it a separate skill, but let it cost a trifle less.

 

[Malcadon]

Skills:
Hide+ Move Silently= Stealth
Spot+Listen= Awareness
Jump+Climb+Swim= Athletics
Balance+ Tumble= Acrobatics

I use the same type of skills, but Search is a part of Awareness. Another Skill I have is Act (Bluff + Diplomacy + Preform [act, comedy, oratory & Sing]). I like to brake Preform into Act, Dance, Instruments (precussion, string & wind). (note: Perform [Ritual] is a part of Knowledge [religion or arcana]) I do not like to use synergy bonus and skill booter feats (agile, alertness).

My players like such rules as it free up some skills points for some needed skills.

I still working on a Healing style and a style of summoning devine/angelic outsiders for a D&Dish game setting.

 

[Krushnak]

forgot to add the prereq for ranged finesse which is precise shot. and yeah its now a combat maneouver which anyone with precise shot can perform. it replaces the really crummy feat thats currently available.

i actually stole marksmanship from the d20 modern military book with a few changes and i think it is really needed for any serious archer. the maximum bonus you could get out of this is ignoring the penalties of up to range increment 6 with 20 ranks in spot which with ranged finesse as i have it, aslong as you arent moving or its not a windy day you could take the eye out of someone at around 720 ft with a bossonian long bow. but seeing as you'd have to be lvl 17 to do this it seems fair to me.

as for heal i havent actually introduced it into my game yet but im thinking of making it only apply when you would otherwise get a sneak attack(flanking, flat footed etc.)

as for athletics i have thought about this kind of thing and what ive come up with is that when you first put ranks in it you declare what they are for, either jump, climb or swim and for 2 extra points each you can attach the other 2 to the skill. example: you could spend 6 skill points and have 2 in athletics(all) or 6 in athletics(climb).

as for bluff and diplomacy ive always seen them as the same skill but being used in 2 different ways, not sure what i'd call a combined skill of the 2.

 

[Clovenhoof]

Swim: it's a valid point, so maybe you could handle it separately from Athetics, but either way it's hardly a game breaker.

Marksmanship: note that you have written "Spot", which you aren't using as a skill anymore.

Ranged Finesse: Precise Shot is spot on, very good point. I guess that's what I'm gonna do as well.

Then I have two new ideas, that require a bit more fiddling with the rules, but could be worth it especially with the merged skills.

2-for-1: this might work for skills like Swim, if you don't want to throw it in with Athletics -- declare it an "Open Skill", that you can learn at half the cost. So you get 1 rank for half a point, 2 ranks for one point etc. It's sort of the opposite of Cross-Class skills.

Specialization: you can specialize in one category of a skill. For example, Spot and Listen would be two categories of Perception. You can declare that you specialize in Spotting, which would give you, say, a +2 bonus on Spot checks.
Other games also use this concept, for instance Shadowrun or the LOTR RPG (decipher). The question is how you handle that skill then.
- in SR, when you pick a specialization at the beginning of the game, the basic value drops by one and the Spec rises by one. So if you have "Athletics 4" you could specialize in "Athletics 3 / Jump 5".
- in LOTR, you simply get a +2 bonus on the field you specialize in, and when you raise the basic skill, the specialized field rises with it.

This would be a total reworking of the D20 skill system, but if you're into that stuff, it could be worth it.

 

[rgrove0172]

This is all pretty interesting and Ill admit tempting but it does bring up the question - "why play d20?" It seems like you can carry this logic to almost any aspect of the game. Not to mention that with the new edition coming out, it may present still other options.

Our group has raked similar issues over the gaming table before and in the end, the sort of nostalgic feel of the system "as is" wins out most of the time.

 

[Clovenhoof]

Basically there are three reasons why you introduce houserules:

A) to make things more "realistic". That would be rules like Hit Zones, penalties for lost HP, fumbles, etc. - often going straight against the game designer's agenda, usually making things a lot more complicated, and effectively not realistic at all. As you may notice, I am not a friend (anymore) of such rules. If I were, I'd play RuleMonster and not Conan D20.
I have made one such rule, however: during a Sunder attempt, both weapons deal damage to each other, because you can't clash two blades and expect one to break without the other taking so much as a nick. That's basically it.

B) to make rules for actions that aren't covered by the RAW. These often come up on the fly during game sessions, and then are adopted as standard ruling.

C) to make existing procedures easier. The skill mergers fall into that category. With the positive side effect of freeing up skill points, so other previously neglected skills can be improved.

 

[Ichabod]

I think all of the proposed house rules I've thought of are to increase character diversity.

 

[Clovenhoof]

Good point, then make that a (D) ^_^

 

[Auggie]

Interesting. I might use some of these in my campaign.

 

[Clovenhoof]

Thread hijacking alert!

I am considering a house rule for bows, but I'm not sure how exactly:

A) The Hunting Bow is a Martial weapon.

or

B) ALL Bows are Martial weapons.

Why either? The category of a weapon should ne be how "common" the weapon is, but solely based on how difficult it is to use effectively.
"Simple weapons" are such that virtually anyone can use effectively.

If you have ever shot a traditional bow, you will know it is by no means "simple". It requires training. It requires a whole damn LOT of training if you want to hit anything.

Now I'm just not sure what should be so much more difficult about handling those regional bows. I am pretty sure that IRL someone who can use an Old English Longbow can also use a Hungarian Rider Bow.

Conversely:

All Crossbows and similar weapons should be SIMPLE Weapons -- you just need to point them at your target and pull the trigger. However, I'm not allowing Crossbows in my world, so this rule doesn't have to be changed for our campaign.

Input appreciated.

 

[Ichabod]

I don't see any point in making the hunting bow a martial weapon. It's lame enough as it is.

You lose flavor in changing the others to martial weapons, though at least it cuts into some of the absurdity of the barbarian versatility ability.

I'd just leave it alone as being too much effort for pretty much no gain.

 

[Spectator]

I tend to agree about bows being sorts of demanding, I would archery a difficult task for all bows, but once someone is proficient in Bows, the learning curve for other bows should be very fast and simple.

I'm not an archer, but I think if you can use a big heavy longbow or stupid huntig bow,thenyou should be able to use a big heavy stygian bow, likewise Shemite and Hyrkaninan horse bows would be relitively similar

SO make a feat req. for standing bows and mounted bows and call it a day.

 

[Clovenhoof]

Well, I'm definitely not going to introduce additional feat requirements for ranged weapons -- Ichabod is right in that ranged weapons aren't that powerful; no need to make it more difficult yet.

However, I can't see it being any effort: make a little asterisk next to the Hunting Bow entry and write "Martial" below.

Difference in the game? Scholars won't be able to use bows anymore. They can still use slings. Or they can use crossbows if you move these to Simple (which would be realistic). Scholars are required to have both hands free for casting the one way or the other. Anyway, all other classes have the Martial weapon proficiency so they won't notice.

It's more of a flavour change, really. A bow may be a simple construction, but it is not simple to use. That's it.

Myself, I am an archer and own one longbow and one recurve bow. I can shoot with both, but this particular recurve bow (Mamba) is more demanding than many other bows - if you don't have a good and clean technique, the arrow will go astray. Other recurve bows are more forgiving, though. The longbow is also pretty forgiving, but you must know the technique.

However: both bows are modern types with sight window for the arrows, cut to centre or past centre, and using such a bow is a LOT easier than a medieval-style bow without such a window. (I don't know the proper english term). Bows like that cannot be constructed without modern materials like fibreglass or carbon. What I'm trying to say is that I don't know how different medieval bow types compare.

 

[Spectator]

Funny thing:

Has anyone ever tried to use a sling in the REAL WORLD?

As a youngster, I had a sling and I had a target bow (just a curved piece of wood, not a sweet compound bow).

#1 The target bow, was not too hard to learn compared to sling.

Why are slings so easy to learn, in game terms?

In history, very few peoples were actually competent slingers. The noted slingers seem to have come from only a few select geographic locations: eg: the Balearic Islands were noted for their Slingers by the Romans.

 

[Clovenhoof]

You have a very good point there - a real sling (not a catapult) is pretty difficult to master. The Romans hired Balearic slingers rather than even trying to train their own.

On the other hand, since a sling is so easy to produce, any child can make one and practice for years. So you can assume at least the pastoral population will be more or less proficient with the sling, if the sling principle is known at all. Still, not all cultures put an emphasis into this weapon, and most may regard it just as a children's toy.

A sling bullet is no less dangerous than an arrow.
Also, in reality, a sling allows a higher rate of fire than a bow. This exactly contradicts the game rules, where you may fire up to five arrows per round but not more than one sling bullet (unless you have some kind of feat).

And what's more, while the actual range of the historical sling is somewhat unclear due to contradictory sources, it doesn't seem to have been inferior to a bow in any way.

So, on the one hand a sling looks "simple" because it is so easy to make, and on the other hand seems "exotic" because it is rather difficult to use. Actually, in the game it's classified as a martial weapon, indicating that it requires training but is not totally uncommon.

Anyway, if you want to make especially ranged weapons in general more realistic, you need to scrap and rewrite ALL the bow stats.
The amount of damage that an arrow does, provided it hits, depends on three things:

- speed of the arrow --> depends on draw weight (=strength rating) and grade of efficiency (recurves are more efficient than longbows)

- mass of the arrow --> needs to match the draw weight. A heavy-pull bow can crush a light arrow on the string (which is effectively an "empty shot" that can destroy the bow)

- shape of the arrowhead --> Some tear great wounds but are stopped dead by armour, others penetrate even metal armour (to a degree) but cause only punctual wounds.

I guess that got me going now, I may try and figure something out tonight.