Fellowship of the Dice

I'm starting a new thread here so we can start collecting some house rules that people use both in table top games and in the PbP games here. Things that would be appropriate for this thread are new skills, feats, weapons, spells, monsters, advantages, disadvantages, traits, flaws, etc...

Also you may wish to post things that you do in your games that you think my help others run theirs. I'll kick us off with a house rule I'm considering using for my d20 fantasy games, based on an idea from the d20 Star Wars.


Aiming: A character may aim with a bow or crossbow at an enemy who is within 30ft in order to gain a bonus to strike that foe.

Game Mechanics: Aiming is a full round action. A character must be able to see its target and study it, via aiming with a crossbow or bow for 1 full round. On the characters next imediate action they may shoot at the target to gain a +2 bonus to hit on that attack only. Any additonal attacks are made as normal. This rule does not work with hurled or slung weapons.


Please post your ideas here. I know there are dozens of like threads on other forums, espically the Wizards of the Coast forums, so please don't just cut and paste other people's ideas unless you use them in your own games or think they really should be used here. Be sure to give the person credit.

Thank You!

Reach Weapon (Attack Adjacent Square Penalty)

The Player's Handbook specifies that you cannot use a reach weapon (such as longspear) on something that is in an adjacent square (next to you). However, here on the PbP Website, my games do give you a chance.

There is a -4 penalty to hit, and /possibly/ a penalty to damage if you hit in some cases, depending on the RP situation.

Tet

Here is the solution we managed for UMD checks for scrolls.

Step 1: Decipher Scroll if you didn't scribe it yourself.
Step 2: Make a UMD to activate the scroll emulating the proper class. DC as per UMD skill table (20+caster level)
Step 3: Make a UMD to emulate other requierments, stat score really is the only things that comes to mind. UMD - 15 for effective stat score.
Repeat step 3 as needed, alignment, race, credit card number.
Step 4: Check Caster Level. If character's CL is lower than the scroll's requirement (Spell Level * 2)-1 in most cases, then perform a CL check. d20+Lv vs DC 1+CL (So a DC2 for 1st level spell and DC18 for a 9th level spell). If you succeed, spell goes off. If you fail, Wis Check DC 5, if you fail again Mishap, if you suceed try again later.

Rolls of a 1 always fail for this process (at any point), and have the added bonus of delaying use of this scroll until 24 hours later.

Speaking of house rules:

The official ruling is that wizards and clerics can not use artificer-created scrolls, because they are neither arcane nor divine items. Keith Baker himself says that he uses a house rule overriding this.

Self Improvement
Through dedicated training or study, you have improved your physical or mental abilities.
Benefit: Raise one ability score permanently by +1.
Special: You can take this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

This was taken from the d20 Modern Setting, but fits for any d20 Game.

For d20 Systems: From D&D Players Handbook.

AID ANOTHER
In melee combat, you can help a friend attack or defend by distracting or interfering with an opponent. If you're in position to make a melee attack on an opponent that is engaging a friend in melee combat, you can attempt to aid your friend as a standard action. You make an attack roll against AC 10. If you succeed, your friend gains either a +2 bonus on his next attack roll against that opponent or a +2 bonus to AC against that opponent's next attack (your choice), as long as that attack comes before the beginning of your next turn. Multiple characters can aid the same friend, and similar bonuses stack.

You can also use this standard action to help a friend in other ways, such as when he is affected by a hypnotism spell or a sleep spell, or to assist another character's skill check (see page 65 PHB).

Aid Another (from Pg 65)
You can help another character achieve success on his or her skill check by making the same kind of skill check in a cooperative effort. If you roll a 10 or higher on your check, the character you arehelping gets a +2 bonus to his or her check, as per the rule for favorable conditions. (You can't take 10 on a skill check to aid another.) In many cases, a character's help won't be beneficial, or only a limited number of characters can help at once.

The DM limits cooperation as he or she sees fit for the given conditions. For instance, if Krusk has been badly wounded and is dying, Jozan can try a Heal check to keep him from losing more hit points. One other character can help Jozan. If the other character makes a Heal check against DC 10, then Jozan gets a +2 circumstance bonus on the Heal check he makes to help Krusk. The DM rules that two characters couldn't help Jozan at the same time because a third person would just get in the way.

In cases where the skill restricts who can achieve certain results (such as with Disable Device, Search, and Survival), you can't aid another to grant a bonus to a task that your character couldn't achieve alone. For instance, a character who doesn't have the trapfinding class feature can't use Search to help a rogue find a magic trap, since the helper couldn't attempt to find the magic trap on his own.

Fumbles and Critical Fumbles

I'm thinking of trying out a new fumble mechanic in my RL and PbP games. I haven't playtested this yet, but hope to in the near future. This alternate take on fumbles os for the d20 system.

If a character rolls a 1 on an attack roll, he immediately makes another attack roll at his highest attack bonus. If this second roll would hit the target, then the attack is considered a miss.

If the second attack roll fails, the attack is considered a fumble. The attack misses and something bad happens, like dropping/throwing your weapon, weapon gets stuck in a stationary object (like a nearby tree), and so on. Additionally, the character looses any other attacks he would have had this round.

If the second attack roll is also a 1, then the character suffers a critical fumble. Something really bad happens, such as a weapon breaking, hitting a friendly combatant, and such. Additionally, the character looses any other attacks he would have had this round and is considered flat-footed until his next initiative.

I know these rules need a little tweaking, but I think that this makes fumbles relatively perilous even at higher levels, where a simple Reflex save is no big deal, while not being that much more dangerous to lower level characters.

KG - This is what I do, actually. Check out SR for results.

I like this rule, I will be gin using it in all my games.

Death and Stabilization in the d20 System

As opposed to everyone having a universal death threshold of -10 HP (or WP), I was thinking it would be better to have a death threshold of -10 +/-(Con modifier). That way the guy with the Constitution of 18 isn't as frail as the average guy (Constitution 10) and the frail old guy (Constitution 4).

Keeping with this train of thought, I would also add or subtract a percentage equal to a character's Con modifier to his chance to stabilize each round.

Example:
A character with a Constitution of 14 (+2 modifier) has a 12% chance to stabilize each round, and is dead at -12 HP/WP. A character with a Constitution of 8 (-1 modifier) has a 9% chance to stabilize each round and dies at -9 HP/WP.