Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Zardnaar Jan 12, 2008 16:02:59	I suspect most people use a variety of house rules. I'm not planning on updating to 4th as have to much $$$ spent on 3.5 sourcebooks and also I'm not ready to switch. I was very hapy to ditch 2nd ed for 3.0 as it was basically 20+ years old at that point and clunky. 3.5 for the main part works well except at higher levels with a few overpowered spells and abilities in the core books. I haven't finished it yet but I've mentioned in some other threads that I've houseruled my games so here they are. I'm a lazy designer and are a big fan of KISS(keep it simple stupid) and I've got a reasonable idea by now of what breaks a class or not. I would rather tweak a class than rebuild it form the ground up. Heres my house rules that I've used which are mostly aimed at defanging the 3 worst offenders classes balence wise (Cleric, Druid, Wizard) while bumping up various things I thought were weak in other classes. When I play Darksun I also use these rules. Races Half Orcs Half Orcs receive a + 4 modifier to their strength instead of +2. Half Elves Half Elves gain a extra skill point per level (as a human) Classes Barbarian Barbarians get 6 skill points per level. Bards Bards get 8 skill points a level and may add spot to their class skills. Druids Druids lose wild shape and gain the shape shift ability from the Players Handbook 2. If one doesn't have the PHB2 I recommend limiting wildshape to animal forms only and not include dire animals, legendary animals and dinosaurs as wildshape options. Fighters Fighters gain 4 skill points per level and have the following skill list. Balance, Bluff, Climb, Craft, Diplomacy, Escape Artist, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Jump, Profession, Ride, Sense Motive, Swim, Tumble, Use Rope. Monks Monks gain full BAB (As Fighter/Ranger/Paladin/Barbarian) Paladins Paladins gain a bonus fighter or divine feat at levels 4, 8,12,16 and 20. Ranger Rangers gain 8 skill points per level. Rogue Rogue gain 10 skill points per level. Sorcerer Sorcerers gain a bonus heritage or metamagic feat at level 1,5,10,15,and 20. In addition they receive 4 skill points per level and may add the following skills to their skill list. Diplomacy, Gather Information, Intimidate, Use Magic Device. Heritage feats are located in the Players Handbook 2 (infernal/celestial),Complete Arcane (Draconic) Complete Mage (Fiendish, Fey), Complete Psion (Illithid), Ban Hammer Feats The following feats are banned. Divine Metamagic (Complete Divine) Natural Spell (Players Handbook) Spells The following spells are banned. Polymorph Self Shapechange Prestige Classes The following prestige classes are banned Incantrix (Players Guide to Faerun/FRCS) Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil (Complete Arcane) Frenzied Berzerker (Complete Warrior) Errata Spells Divine Power: While this spell is in effect you cannot cast spells. Righteous Might: I use the WoTC errata on this one. Timestop: Spells cast during time stop cease functioning once the spell ends and basically fizzle with no effect on anybody else. Some examples Using the Druid for example which is one of the worst offenders using just the core rulebooks. The Druid is so good that most Druidic prestige classes are considered weak compared to straight Druid. Druid 20+natural spell is quite powerful. A min maxed core Druid would have dragonhide breastplate armor, a animated large wooden shield and be wildshaped into a Dire Tiger or maybe bear. The Druid would also be buffed up with spells like barkskin. Odds are his AC will be the highest in the party, and he will be able to outfight the fighting classes, cast spells in wildshaped form, have a spellbuffed dire animal companion probably wearing barding, and be able to summon up more dire animals using augment summoning. Even without min/maxing a Druid +natural spell is very powerful and can dominate play. Timestop is another broken as hell abusive spell. The problem is it stacks with itself. During timestop cast another one and you gain even more rounds. This trick is limited by the amount of timestops one knows or can cast. Makes quicken spell look kinda weak. In an epic game we played at lvl 21 the PC Sorcerer cast 17 spells in one round. Divine Power is just overpowered and is the main offender in overpowered Cleric builds and threads. Look ma I'm a fighter for a 4th level spell and if abused can be made to last 24 hours a day.
#2 brun01 Jan 12, 2008 16:22:13	half-orcs?
#3 Zardnaar Jan 12, 2008 16:42:47	half-orcs? PHB ones. I just copied and pasted from my USB drive.
#4 cnahumck Jan 12, 2008 18:15:52	What happened on your Athas that brought back Orcs?
#5 kalthandrix Jan 12, 2008 18:28:23	If this is just about playing the core D&D and not about Dark Sun, maybe this is the wrong forum for this.
#6 Zardnaar Jan 12, 2008 18:57:23	Sorry ignore the races part. More interested in Feedback on the classes as I'm trying to rebalence them. Modifications are used in DS as a fighter is a fighter regardless of world. I also use my varient fighter instead of gladiator.