My House Rules, Version 3.0

[Kelsey MacAilbert]

I like to modify my Pathfinder games a bit. In particular, I don't like how some of the feats give out things that I believe should be built into the combat system as basic options, and there are feats that I think should scale with level. I also like Monte Cook's idea of handing out more feats. There are also certain spells I don't like the PCs having access to for stylistic reasons. Fighters could use a bit more skills and skill points, and Rogues should have an optional alternative to Sneak Attack. Plus, there are some stylistic changes I want to make. Here is what I have, critiques, suggestions, and requests for explanations or justifications are appreciated.



Materiel from the Core Rulebook, Advanced Player's Guide, Ultimate Combat, and Ultimate Magic is allowed. Firearms are restricted to campaigns specifically intended for them.

From the third party supplement Psionics Unleashed, everything except the races is allowed.

The GM owns the following 3E/3.5 books. Materiel from these books is allowed or disallowed on a case by case basis, and may be tweaked if necessary.

Online materiel may or may not be allowed. The GM will make this decision prior to character creation. If the GM decides that it is allowed, materiel from Grit and Gunslingers and the Ardwright are allowed, and materiel from Maxximilius's Archetypes, Meepo's Archetypes, and SmiloDan's Classes is allowed by GM approval of the specific option in question.

If the GM allows something that proves to be unbalanced, the player may be asked to modify or replace the option in question.

The GM will provide a list of races that exist in her campaign setting prior to character creation. Some races, such as Gnomes and Halflings, are not available. Some new races are available, and some other races are modified. The list provided will explain all of this.

All classes except the fighter get an additional 2 skill points per level. This applies to archetypes that modify skill points.

Fighters get an additional 4 skill points per level. This applies to archetypes that modify skill points.

Spontaneous casters do not increase a spell's casting time when using metamagic.

Fighters add the following skills to their list of class skills: Acrobatics, Bluff, Diplomacy, Fly, Heal, Knowledge (Any), Linguistics, Perception, Perform, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Stealth, Use Magic Device

All characters gain one feat per level. This includes monsters.

Two Weapon Fighting and Vital Strike scale with level. This means you gain the improved version for free as soon as you meet the prerequisites.

All characters get Vital Strike for free.

All Characters get Combat Expertise, Power Attack, Weapon Finesse, Point-Blank Shot, and Precise Shot for free.

A Rogue or Ninja may trade her entire Sneak Attack progression for a bonus feat at 1st, 5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th level and a full base attack bonus. A Rogue or Ninja may trade half her Sneak Attack progression for a full base attack bonus. If she does this, she does not gain the Sneak Attack ability until 3rd level, when she gets 1d6 of Sneak Attack damage, and it improves by one die at 7th, 11th, 15th, and 19th level. A Rogue with the Master Strike ability and no Sneak Attack may use Master Strike whenever Sneak Attack would normally be able to be used.

Polearms with the trip feature or ability to grapple may be used to, with a trip or grapple attempt at a -2 penalty, pull rider from her mount, causing her to fall prone in a space next to her mount.

Scimitars, Quarterstaffs, Bo Staffs, and Longswords are finessable weapons.

A Spear (not a Longspear or Shortspear) may be used as a double weapon if desired, with the blunt end treated as a Quarterstaff.

You can shield bash with a buckler. It is treated as a light shield with a -1 damage penalty.

Traditional Katanas (those with the Ultimate Combat stats) have the Fragile special quality. Thicker, less brittle Katanas that use Greatsword, b*****d Sword, or Longsword stats (depending on the size of the individual sword) are available.

In Thyressa the gods are poorly understood by mortals, and people aren't even sure if god is the correct term for them. There also happen to be thousands of them. Polytheism is more common than monotheism, and religion is highly complicated. Character religion is handled by the player, not the GM, and the GM does not provide a deity list. There is a small list of major religions (so far, it has 1 religion), but players are free to make up their own religions and deities for their characters to adhere to. Characters from classes that can have any domain, such as Clerics, can choose whatever domains they want instead of working off of a list of domains by deity. It is permissible to be a Cleric, Oracle, or Inquisitor, or Paladin who is polytheistic.

Each paladin has a personalized code of conduct put together by the GM and player during character creation. The Core Rulebook code of conduct does not apply, this personalized code does. If it is violated, the paladin begins to fall from grace.

A paladin's fall from grace takes a long time, with the character losing paladin abilities for antipaladin abilities one by one as she descends further and further into unacceptable actions, until finally there is nothing left of her paladin abilities whatsoever. The GM decides when a paladin begins to fall, and the GM will not have a paladin begin falling without warning her about her actions so that she may avoid falling, unless she does something extremely evil, like genocide. Redemption works the opposite way, with antipaladin abilities being traded out for paladin abilities one by one as the paladin steadily ascends towards the path of good.

Alignment is not used. Here is an explanation of how this effects the game.

The atonement spell does not exist. Things that would require it are handled via RP.

Plane shifting spells are not available to mortals, only to outsiders. Plane shifting requires special techniques and components that require multiple adventures just to discover. The existence of planes and outsiders is known, but they are not well understood. They can be summoned and bound with the proper spells.

Any outsider of good bent is called an Angel, and any outsider of evil bent is called a Demon.

No time stop, wish, or miracle spells, including limited wish or minor miracle. Time Stop does not exist, and wishes and miracles are the domain of powerful outsiders, fey, and magic items.

Teleportation magic has a 90% chance of fatal mishaps. This does not apply to summoning or spell like abilities.

You may reroll a failed knowledge check if you come across a source of additional information such as a book or an overheard NPC comment.

There is no level or stat loss when being raised from the dead. However, it does cause mental stress. Roll a will save (DC 10 + character level + days dead). If you fail, you gain an insanity (3.5 Unearthed Arcana insanity, not Gamemastery Guide insanity). Insanities are not determined randomly. Instead, the GM talks with the player to see which insanity the player is most comfortable roleplaying, and gives the character that insanity. Characters who are raised from the dead have no memory of what happened to them after they died. The fate of the dead is unknown to mortals.

All medium armor uses the stats for either hide or breastplate, and all heavy armor uses full plate stats. Armors can still be made out of unusual materials (such as adamantine or mithril). The reason for this house rule is that there is no reason to wear medium armor that isn't a breastplate (unless you are a druid or first level character) or heavy armor that isn't full plate once you have the gold for it, and I dislike that, so I prefer for medium and heavy armor to have the same stats, with the differences being aesthetic. That way, you can wear chainmail instead of a breastplate or heavy lamellar instead of full plate without being less effective for it.

Traits are not used.

Ability scores are 25 point buy. Alternatively, you may roll 4d6, drop lowest die 6 times, then reroll the lowest result, in the presence of the GM.

When leveling up, you may either roll HP in the presence of the GM or just assume an average roll (which is half of the maximum dice roll, not a fraction).

Witches have a choice between summoning a familiar and forming an arcane bond. Witch familiars work the same as wizard familiars, as does the arcane bond feature. A witch writes spells in a grimoire, which functions like a wizard's spellbook but holds a great deal of ritual significance to the witch. A witch who loses a grimoire is treated as a witch in another Pathfinder game who has lost a familiar. A witch coven does not need to posses a hag. Bluff is on the list of witch class skills.

No communing with deities. I like my deities mysterious and ambiguous.

Clerics, Oracles, and Inquisitors can't lose their powers for becoming corrupt. That's a Druid/Paladin thing, and Paladins don't lose their powers, they just slowly accrue evil powers as replacements.

Ammunition, food, and water is not tracked unless scarcity is important to the adventure. Spell components are only tracked if they have a specific cost or scarcity is important to the adventure. If the GM decides to track resources, she will inform the players ahead of time so that they may prepare for this.

All characters are literate regardless of class except for those with the true primitive archetype.

Magic ratings are used. Arcane and divine magic ratings do not stack with each other.

Ultimate Combat called shots are allowed.  

[Epic Muffin Cannon]

90% chance of a fatal mishap? Please tell me that's a typo.  

[Kelsey MacAilbert]

Epic Muffin Cannon

90% chance of a fatal mishap? Please tell me that's a typo.

I prefer to have teleportation used rarely, if at all. It's a set of spells I just don't like having around.  

[Epic Muffin Cannon]

But it also derails a Monk's dimension door ability, completely wipes out an entire species (poor blink dog), makes cross-planar travel impossible, removes Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion as a spell worth using, and gives any Undead with the ability to teleport a potentially game-breaking advantage (because they're immune to death effects) when they move around all over the place.  

[Kelsey MacAilbert]

Epic Muffin Cannon

But it also derails a Monk's dimension door ability, completely wipes out an entire species (poor blink dog)

Spell like abilities get an exemption, and I consider both what the Monk does and what a blink dog does to be spell-like.

Quote:

makes cross-planar travel impossible

That was curtailed by a separate rule. The planes are poorly understood, and travelling to one is something that would be the focus of several adventures just to figure out how.

Quote:

removes Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion as a spell worth using

I don;t even know if Pathfinder has that spell

Quote:

and gives any Undead with the ability to teleport a potentially game-breaking advantage (because they're immune to death effects) when they move around all over the place.

Pathfinder has very few death effects, and reduced the number of undead invulnerabilities.  

[Epic Muffin Cannon]

It doesn't matter if the game has just one death effect spell, the point stands that the undead won't be killed by teleporting. And even in Pathfinder, there are easy ways of becoming one as a PC.  

[Kelsey MacAilbert]

Epic Muffin Cannon

It doesn't matter if the game has just one death effect spell, the point stands that the undead won't be killed by teleporting. And even in Pathfinder, there are easy ways of becoming one as a PC.

I just double checked the Bestiary, and the phrase death effect is not used. Undead are immune to anything that requires a fortitude save, but the effect in question is D% and results in disintegration, not something that requires a fortitude save. Unless it's inherent like a spell like ability or class feature that emulates a spell without actually casting it (like the Monk's dimension door), it's just as deadly to undead.

Yes, I am trying to discourage my players from ever casting the spells.