Favorite Variant Rules

[EZ_Swipey]

1) Your first hit die is always maximum. ie a level 1 warrior always has 10 hp (plus con bonus) a rogue 6 hp (plus con) etc.

2) After any significant period of out-of-danger rest (between scenarios) all characters re-roll their HP. ie a level 6 rogue with 16 con would, at the start of each session, roll 6d6+12 to determine his HP that session. (or, 5d6+18, if using rule 1 above) Some weeks you just feel better than others.

3) The GM keeps track of player HP.

Got more?

[EZ_Boot Disk]

One of my DMs made it so that level 1 characters (NPCs and PCs alike) couldn't make critical hits. It was to prevent PCs from getting killed due to a lucky roll on the DM's part.

Then, though, we heard about the wonderful concept of fudging dice behind a DM screen, and the rule was abolished. :)

[Jhani Vandolay]

Always reroll 1's on HP rolls! Not to claim the status of a "real professional" in any one endeavor has been a small price to pay for the many benefits and pleasures of trespassing. ~Leo Lionni

[DarthEnder]

I believe the "first hit die is always max" is a standard rule in 3rd edition.

[EZ_Swipey]

Cool. I never got more than the 2nd edition PHB, So I wouldnt really know.

[EZ_Thanak Kalahed]

Usually the GM roll for your next lvl HP. Then he divided the XP you need to level by that number and give you HP one at the time when you get the appropriate amount of XP.

We use that to avoid aving people double up in size overnight when they go from lvl 1 to 2 Baron Thanak Kalahed
Assassin in the land of Morell Thule
Nightshade of the Ys server

[Jhani Vandolay]

Ooh, I also like when rolling curing spells, often the GM will do a secret roll, and offer that we can take ours, or his. It might suck, but it's nice to be able to take the chance when we roll badly.

[EZ_Prenn]

That's awesome Jhani. It's like divine intervention.
Put faith in your g0d (the GM assumes that role), and be saved. Or some crap. <u>Pren, Human Master</u> on The Tribunal Server
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[Krimzan]

Quote:
2) After any significant period of out-of-danger rest (between scenarios) all characters re-roll their HP. ie a level 6 rogue with 16 con would, at the start of each session, roll 6d6+12 to determine his HP that session. (or, 5d6+18, if using rule 1 above) Some weeks you just feel better than others.


I LOVE this rule!! I'm going to use this in my next campaign. I love the element of chance. Krimzan Anklestabber
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[EZ_Kataliya]

I never like the "fumble on a 1" idea. Sure I've smacked myself in the back of the head with my own nunchaku a time or two, but I've been training for 10+ years, and it doesn't happen THAT often. I can't believe that an experienced armsman in the workd of D&D (soembody who LIVES by their weapons) has that much of a chance to harm themselves inadvertantly.

(This rule was not applicable to clumsly level 1s and 2s. hehe)

My solution: If you roll a 1, instead of an automatic fumble, you get an additional save. Roll a 1 on this second save, you fumble. Levels 3-4 rolled 1d2 (er, flipped a coin). 5-10 rolled 1d4. And once we came up with this rule, I never ran any games with players above level 10, so figureing out a save for people above 10 never came up. /shrug

I always wanted to impliment some sort of "catastophic fumble" rule, but players didn't like the idea.

I dunno if these rules exist in print somewhere already. /shrug

[Caowyth]

1 is only a fumble in our campaign if a 1 would miss normally.

And you also have to remember that combat fumbles are under combat conditions. Practicing with nunchaku at home or the dojo isn't the same as fighting someone. You could accidentally bounce your weapon off of his weapon, or his armor, etc.

My favorite variant rule is the 1-3 always misses, and 18-20 always hits. It adds variety to combat and some risk against opponents that normally wouldn't worry you.

Cao

[EZ_kiyotee]

I think currently rolling a 1 or a 20 isn't an automatic critical hit or fumble. If I recall correctly (pardon me it's been a couple months since I've gamed... pity me) if you roll a 1 you then make another attack roll if that roll would have hit youjust miss, if the second roll would have missed you critically fumble. similar with crit hits. if you roll a 20 you roll again. if that would have hit you crit hit, if not you just hit regularly. __________________________________________________ __________
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[Jhani Vandolay]

In 2E I liked when some GMs would let clerics cast any wisdom-bonus spells on the fly. It's not as permissive as getting all spells on the fly, and it sort of makes sense.

Although, if a GM ever asks you if you'd like your wizards to cast on the fly too, just say no !!!

[EZ_Swipey]

Heres another variant rule, and rationale:

One big problem with D&amp;D is stats. Middling numbers are just not so good and extreme ones. Strength is the most blatant case of extremes making extreme differences. An 8 Strength is much the same as a 14. So, instead of having damage bonuses for high Str, here's an idea:
For each weapon to which the Str damage bionus currently applies, consider the damage done to be in tenths of the wielder's strength instead of straight HP. A short sword does 10-60% of the wielders str as damage, not 1 to 6 HP. A str 10 (human normal) wielder would would do the same as before, but a str 14 one would do 1.4 to 8.4 hp, and a str 18 one 1.8 to 10.8 hp. (round to the nearest hp)

[EZ_Arafain]

My favorite rule has to be the triple threat rule. Roll a 20 to crit, roll another 20 when confirming, and roll a third time. If the third roll beats the target's AC - instant kill, no save. Seen a level 6 monk kill a full health troll with this with one punch....we musta laughed for thirty minutes.

As to critical fumbles, our DM has an interesting rule. If you roll a 1 on an attack roll, you make a dex check (d20 + your current reflex save) with a DC of 15. If you make it, you simply miss that attack. If you fail your dex check, however, you 'stumble' and lose all your subsequent attacks for that round. If you roll a 1 on your dex check, you drop your weapon. He devised this rule to scale critical fumble seriousness with player level - his rationale being that higher-level characters would be more likely to recover from critical fumbles, thus a higher-level character has a better chance to ignore the fumble, thanks to his higher reflex save.

Rerolling 1s on HP rolls sound like a good idea also. -- Veteran Arafain Entreri, 60 Assassin
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[EZ_Telurinon]

My favorite Variant Rule:

GM "I don't care if WotC published it, you cannot play an Incantatrix in my campaign."

Replace Incantatrix with any of the other horribly unbalanced Prestige classes that have been introduced. Telurinon Aelvenborne, 52nd Rake of Black IsleMangore Orcsplitter, 39th Warrior of Black IsleDewin gan'Bran, 25th Wizard of black Isle
Skating away on the thin ice of a new day.

[EZ_Swipey]

That seems closely related to one of my variant rules, the one that really kept the players form being too abusive rules wise...

"If you can do it, so can the NPCs and monsters"

Lemme tell ya... The players stopped griping about not being able to just hire a vastly skilled assassin to kill this one annoying NPC and have him just be dead.

[EZ_Thanak Kalahed]

Quote: Although, if a GM ever asks you if you'd like your wizards to cast on the fly too, just say no !!!

We usually have all caster memorise their spells, but they are givent the option to use the "spell slot" to cast another instead but doubleing the casting time.

The reason we do this is to actually see the utility spell being use from time to time instead of the usuall... I'll take 2 magic missile, 1 sleep, 2 invisibility and fireball. Baron Thanak Kalahed
Assassin in the land of Morell Thule
Nightshade of the Ys server

[Jhani Vandolay]

Hehe. The reason I mentioned that is we had this one GM who was famous for luring people to their graves by offering to let player wizards do it, but only if npcs could do it to.. And he was much better at it than most full parties.

[Nenjin]

My fav was a list of secondary "skills" that my GM made up.
The roll either left you with a straight up benefit, or a benefit that reflected a penalty. So one was "+1 to hit/damage rolls with bladed weapons = to a short sword" or " +2 sv vs cold based attacks, -2 vs fire based attacks" or "+5 against fear checks, -5 on npc charisma reactions" things of that nature.

[Caowyth]

Nenjin-

Sounds like the background rolls from Arduin. They've got all sorts of +/- bonuses on em, and some other stuff too.

Cao

[Nenjin]

One of the best ones I had seen someone roll was Overpowering Body Odor. Was a nice - to NPC reactions, but the roleplaying of it was just hilarious =).