Variant Suggestions

[Spus]

Next Campaign is 2 months off, yes, but I'd figure I'd get opinions while this board still has a bit of traffic.

Now the next campaign is going to start from Level 1, and I'm not letting it being as a free power running wild as the last game. The basic starting terms will be clear:

-1st Level Start(A single orc being a challenge totally appeals to me.)
-Max Gold
-32 point buy

Most of the current mechanical house rules(Death, Spot/Listen, etc.) will carry over.

What I'm pondering for next game:

-Books I have rule will be more strictly enforced. No Snowflake Wardances.
This is(of what is applicable, excluding SRD things like Core/XPH/DM books like MMs)
Complete Warrior
Complete Adventurer
Complete Divine
Complete Arcane
Book of Exalted Deeds
Book of Vile Darkness
Player's Handbook II
Libris Mortis
Spell Compendium
Races of Stone
Races of the Wild
Races of Destiny
Oriental Adventures

-Weapon Groups for Profiencies and Feats.

-Divine Grace scaling. Divine Grace and all similiar abilities(Such as Dark Blessing for Blackguards) have a cap on how much of a save bonus they may grant. The cap is equal to your Paladin Class Level, with very few exceptions made for PrCs for it to stack.(Pal/Blackguard=OK, Pal/Eldritch Knight=No.)
Reasoning: Paladin is too RP heavy IMO to be abused as a dip class. This feature is the main reason why it's so appealing as so to Charisma based classes for dips.

-Divine Metamagic (& Similiar Abilities) Scaling. If you use Divine Metamagic, you may not use it to cast a spell higher that you couldn't metamagic normally. So a Lv9 Cleric could not Quicken Righteous Might. He could Quicken a 1st level spell, but nothing higher. This means no Persistent Divine Power either. This also applies to similiar things such as Metamagic Song, which Perun did use.
Reasoning: Valletta or Kannon didn't abuse it sure, but I'm just nipping it in the bud.

-RP Feat Qualifications(Such as Nymph's Kiss) must be completed during the campaign. Starting at level 1 does not really give you much freedom for background anyway.

-No Rods of Absorption. The campaign might not get high enough for them to be an issue, but none at all.


Any other suggestions? I'm tempted to throw some less popular choices a bone, like Sorcerer(and it's sister classes- Spirit Shaman/Favored Soul) and bad races like Half Elf and Half Orc a bone as well. Just to encourage diversity.

[drkultra]

I wholeheartedly agree with your rulings ^_^

for the less popular choices....

Hallf-Elf: give em the Human bonus skill point.
Half-Orc: Take away the -2 Cha, Half-Orcs would be actually playable.
Sorc: Where to start...you could give Wizard feats to the Sorc (1st level Eschew Materials, bonus Metamagic or Something else at 5, 10, 15, 20. and maybe tinker with its skill list)
Favored souls: Turning is a great adding for Favored Souls.
Spirit Shamans: Belive me, they are good as they are.

as a last thing, there is a house rule I use a lot because I consider it to make more sense.
Instead of Spot/Listen you have Perception.
Instead of Hide/Move Silently you have Stealth.

It reduces the spreading thin of the skill points for rogues and the like, and it makes this abilitites much easier to keep track of.

[demonlei]

My idea for Half-Orcs and Half-Elves would be that Half-Orcs get a bonus feat like humans do, and Half-Elves get bonus skill points like humans do, reflecting the benefits of their human half.

Just throwing that out there, I personally don't want to play either. Kroitz is human.

[Spus]

I actually think the -2 cha loss would be more appropriate than the -2 int loss.

Half Orcs, with thier ussually unfortunate birth stories(rape and pilliaging of small human villiages by orc warbands is the common cliche) would commonly be frowned upon by most of the world. Do like the Feat for Half-Orcs, Skill Points for Half-Elves though.

As for skill combining, I'm on the fence about that. If anything, combine the less common skills- Spot/Listen/Hide/Move Silently are appealing and come into play enough.

Disable Device+Open Lock= Disable Device makes sense.
Use Rope+ Sleight of Hand= Sleight of Hand
Handle Animal + Ride = Handle Animal

Combining Tumble + Balance(Into Acrobatics) makes sense as well, however Tumble is useful on it's own.

Wardragon wrote something for Sorcerers that I liked- I need to bug him about it.

Also considering just flat out allowing Sorcererous classes flat out full metamagic use.

[drkultra]

Flat out, Full Metamagic Use for Sorcerers is a real need. While it might not be entirely crippling to just stand in one place while throwing metamagiced spells, the real loss for the sorcerers is on quicken spell. Because the mid-high levels, Wizards are throwign 2 spells per turn, while Sorcerers are only throwin 1 spell per turn.

If you are ambivalent about allowing all metamagic as normal use, you can always just modify quicken so it works with Spontaneous casting, and let the rest be as they are. If not, there is a feat called Rapid Metamagic, which cant be taken until 9th-12th level or so, but it lets you use metamagic without a casting time increase. Unfortunetly is on Complete Mage, so its your call.

[wardragon]

I'm fully with you on the half-elf and half-orc houserules, and I can work with everything else. With the bonus skill points, I might actually play a half-elf. Regarding the classes, either my sorcerer (posted in Miscellaneous Articles, feel free to move it here) or Kult's bonus feats idea would be awesome.

[stabs]

I think a good houserule would be to let Elves freely gestalt as Wizards in a non-gestalt game. It makes them more elf-ly.

[Spus]

stabs said:

I think a good houserule would be to let Elves freely gestalt as Wizards in a non-gestalt game. It makes them more elf-ly.

Stabs, you are a goddamned genius.

I love you.

This houserule is the paragon of balance. If we don't use it, we suck. How did we go 65 sessions without this rule?