The House Rules
Special Rule #42
Also known as "The Adriel Rule" ...
1st Level Characters are hearbye IMMUNE to the effects of Critical Hits.
Money
Some questions have been raised regarding the money system. I'll be using the basic system we all know and love from the D&D books, with the thrice-blessed Gold Piece as the standard.
10 copper pieces to the silver piece
20 silver pieces to the gold piece
5 gold pieces to the platinum piece
I never liked electrum very much, so I'm not going to use it. My apologies to all you Xorn, and other electrum lovers.
Experience Points
Players do not have to keep track of xp's for each monster killed or treasure taken. Instead, I will give out experience points at various points in the game (usually after you've just killed the big monster, or have found a safe haven to hole-up in and rest). I will also give out xp's (or take them away) at any point in the game when characters or players do something particularly cool (or uncool). And, as before, characters who keep stuff for themselves will keep the xp's for themselves. Treasure or items found by the party will be divided up as the party sees fit - just let me know.
By now, most of you are familiar with how I give out spur-of-the-moment xp's: 25 to 200 xp's (occassionally higher for particularly cool stuff) MULTIPLIED by your level. For example, if I give you 100 xp's for something funny, and you're 5th level, you get 500 xp's total for it. Woo woo!! Thinking behind this is that those little xp's came in handy when you're 1st level, but become almost meaningless once you are higher. To continue encouraging and rewarding good role-playing, then, I've created this multiplier system.
Mult-classed characters, being at something of a disadvantage, can ADD their levels together for the purpose of determining how much xp's they get spur-of-the-moment.
As before, though, new abilities for new levels gained in the middle of the dungeon will NOT be automatically gained. HP's are ok, as are some skills, but others I will require you to get some training for first. Not always, but usually. It depends on the skill and the situation.
New! -- November 24th
Spell casters will gain 25 xp's per level of spell they cast during the course of the game. For example, a wizard or priest who casts a 4th level spell will recieve 100 xp's. Certain spells which are more time-consuming or have a more permanent effect (such as Find Familiar) will be worth more xp's ... I will make that call as we go.
New! -- June 18th
A word about Level Advancement -
When a player goes up a level, I usually give them the basic improvements & abilites for their new level - on the condition that they get training as soon as they return to town. Special abilities based on level CANNOT be gained - fighters can't learn new weapons of proficiancy, for example, and magic-users can't learn new spells.
Advancing in level requires both time & money - AND a trainer. A trainer can be anyone skilled in what you're trying to learn who is at least 4 levels higher than you. SOME skills/abilites can be learned solo - but this is the EXCEPTION, not the rule. Money is halved, but Time is doubled. Players wishing to study/train alone should check with me (and be prepared to justify it).
Once an appropriate trainer is found, the character must spend 100 Gold Pieces PER each level they advance. Time required is one week for each level they are advancing. For example, Bob the Grunt is going up from 1st level to 3rd - he has to pay 300 Gold (100 gp's to get to 2nd level, 200 gp's to get to 3rd), and it will take him about 2 weeks (advancing 2 levels). The money spent is for trainer's fees, rental of space, materials, any number of things ... and it gets higher with each level because it is more difficult to find someone that good.
In some special cases, Your DM might consider changing the amount of money you need to spend on training. This will be on a case-by-case basis.
THIEVES need only spend 50% of the fee required - unlike other classes, most of their training will take place on the streets.
Characters who qualify for a 10% bonus to xp's due to high ability scores can cut the time required for training/study by 25%. For example, Bob the Grunt happens to be exceptionally strong - instead of taking 14 days, he can do it in 11 (round fractions appropriately). Money remains unchanged (people don't punch the clock in D&D, "For 500 gold pieces, I will teach you how to properly kick ass with the Battle Axe ... however long it takes!").
Infravision and Ultravision
We've got a number of non-humans in the party, so I thought I'd write a little bit about an ability they all more or less have in common. Personally, I'm not a real big fan of scientific explanations in a FANTASY game. And I can't be bothered trying to figure out the exact differences between infra/ultra vision, you know? Elves, dwarves, and the others are MAGICAL creatures - their ability to see in the dark is MAGICAL in my game. Elves can see better outdoors than Dwarves, and Dwarves can see better underground than Elves (except for Dark Elves). Yes, heat shows up better than cold (living vs. the undead) in either case, but non-humans will still see those skreletons coming. More or less.
And, yes -- torches and lanterns will screw up night vision of any kind.
All non-humans in my game (except halflings) prefer the night to the day. They suffer no drawbacks during the day ... this is just a matter of preference.
All non-humans in my game must also sleep, though not as much as humans. Elves can "naturally" stay awake the longest, but dwarves are so damn tough and stubborn I'm going to consider them equal. Halflings require MORE sleep than normal humans, though.
Special Combat Rules
I don't perfectly recall the house rules we used to play for bow damage, so I'm going to try it like this --Short bow 1d6, 1d6 Long bow 1d8, 1d8 Light Xbow 1d10, 1d10 Heavy Xbow 1d12, 1d12You may add your Dex missile attack bonus to To-Hit rolls, NOT damage. To get your damage bonus on bow or xbow attacks, you need a specially customized bow. Your "average" weapon is not so crafted because an average archer would not be strong enough to pull it. Think of Odysseus' bow, which no-one but him could even string, let alone shoot.
Long and short bows may be fired twice a round by characters with a DEX of 15 or higher. Crossbows normally take one full round to reload, but characters with a STR or DEX of 15 or higher may fire every turn at a -1 penalty (first shot is at no penalty). A Heavy Crossbow requires a STR of 15 to fire every turn. Heavy Crossbows require TWO rounds to reload while mounted (so a high STR and DEX character may only fire every other round at -1 to hit, first shot is no penalty).
Two-weapon Fighting
Fighting with 2 weapons allows two attacks per turn (characters who already have 2 attacks with one of their weapons may have 3; fighting with 2 weapons cancels out any "3/2" attacks per round). Attacks are made with the following penealties: -2 with primary weapon & -4 with secondary weapon. Characters with a 16 DEX are at -1/-3. Characters with a 17 DEX are at -0/-2. Characters with an 18 DEX are at -0/-1.
Characters may choose two-weapon fighting as one of their proficiancies, but this can only be done with 2 weapons which the character already has proficiancy with. Therefore, proficiancy in 2 weapon fighting requires 3 proficiancy "slots." Proficiancy in two weapon fighting negates the above penalties. Characters may single-specialize in two-weapon fighting providing they first are specialized in both weapons.
Click here for the Magic Page!
