Fellowship of the Dice

As far as core goes, yeah, there is only one feat that messes with init.

There probably are others in suppliments but none that I know of off the top of my head.

The one thing I would actually like to see D&D got to is the health level system like L5R. It could be as basic as, 10% of your HP are gone, you are 10% as affective, etc

Yeah... that would please me, too... I hate HP-style systems for that.

On the other hand, as Vman pointed out, it's not so bad that I don't play them.

There is a Superior Initiative Feat, but its Epic Level I believe, its make you a speed demon, but one of its Pre Req is a high Dex to start with.

Oh, Stappling to a Chicken would clearly give you -3 Init, but +3 Perform (Jester) skill!

One thing that is mentioned is that any stuational mod can be applied to bascically anything you do in 3.5. It makes it very easy for a DM to take each sitution as it comes. Unlike in 2nd, with everything running off the same mechanic you can apply broad mods that effect all sort of things. Stuck in the mud -2 check to all dex and str related abilties (attack, ac, init, ref save, tumble skill, jump skill, etc) Just kissed by a Mime, -2 to all social interaction and self esteem issues (will save, diplomacy, disguise, perform (unless you are a mime then you get +2), etc)

Bitom wrote:Yeah... that would please me, too... I hate HP-style systems for that.

On the other hand, as Vman pointed out, it's not so bad that I don't play them.

Just wanted to add my $0.24...

The Star Wars system handles the Hit Point-style combat nicely, by giving a large buffer of Vitality Points, representing your character's ability to just barely escape certain doom, turning the blaster shot that would have caved in his chest into a singe on the outside of his bicep. However, once a character gets into Wound Points, he's a hurtin' unit, making Fort saves every time he takes Wound damage to remain conscious and having his attributes reduced even if he succeeds his Save. Critical hits deal damage directly to Wound Points, but do NOT have their damage values doubled.

This system of tracking HPs is introduced to the D&D game in the Unearthed Arcana book.

From WOTC website article, "Fighting Dirty"

House Rule Alert!: I have a variation of the feinting rules in my game, where a character performs the classic "throw sand in their eyes" technique. As a move action, a character can scoop up dirt, sand, or the like and then attempt the feint as normal. The character can do this only in the right sort of terrain (DM fiat here). If he succeeds at this feint, the target makes a DC 10 Reflex save or is blinded for 1 round. I also allow this tactic to work only once during a single combat -- I assume that no one would fall for it twice in a row and that any of the opponent's allies would get savvy to any further attempts.

After reading some forums on WOTC I found a nice arguement about the Ninja's Ki Dodge ability. As a result I'm going to use the houserule for this.

Ki Dodge lasts a for 1 round/2 levels of the ninja.

This really only applies to Toranoshi in the Mahasarpa game, but just in case someone else uses the Ninja Class (From Comp Adventure/Dragon Mag 315).

Maybe you guys should make an Encyclopedia for House Rules? It seems this thread has quite a few in it.

What about if you're a ninja RL like me?

TetNak wrote:What about if you're a ninja RL like me?

Then we paint you orange and you get stuck to a wall.

If you were a RL ninja we wouldn't know it, since you'd be all ninja like.