NaughtyDawg: Play - AD&D 3rd edition

A D & D - 3 e

[ House Rule Brainstorming ]

These are different game mechanics that we have been tossing around the idea of including as new House Rules. We aren't quite sure how they'll impact the game yet and they are listed here to generate some debate in how they might be weaved into the 3rd edition game system (if at all). Please feel free to offer your opinion on any of these.

If you'd like to discuss a new game mechanic or a way of altering an existing one, feel free to tell me about it and I'll add it to this list.

You can check out the current debates on the following Brainstorms at the AD&D Forum. Read what others have to say and give any opinions you might have! The more input the better.

Aim - To give an advantage to bow users who aim at their target for a certain number of rounds and receive some benefit to hit, etc. Jake had more ideas on the specifics of this.

Knockdown chance - To give larger characters the ability to knock down an opponent with the force of a sucessful blow. 2nd edition had a knockdown die for each weapon and a number necessary to knock down a creature of varying sizes. Getting up from a prone position requires one standard action. This sort of effect might only be useable by bludgeoning weapons. Thoughts?

Weapon Speed Initiative Modifers - Jake brought this up to add a little bit of realism to weapon combat. The idea is that smaller weapons are more swift and could add a modifier based on the weapons size vs. the character's size. Jake proposed a +2 bonus for each shift in size category smaller than your own and a -2 intiative penalty for a shift larger than your own. A character cannot wield a weapon 2 sizes larger than them according to the existing 3rd edition rules. My problem with it is that hands are considered "tiny" and a monk who nearly exclusively attacks with their hands would have a +4 initiative bonus in combat. It might work if unarmed attacks are considered "light (1 category shift)" as they are in the PH pg. 140 "Unarmed Strike Damage".

Casting Time Intiative Modifiers - This goes hand in hand with Weapon Speeds above. In essence, any spell would be assigned a casting time generally 1 point per spell level for the spell and that number would be the penalty assigned to a casters initiative. For example, a Wizard casting Fireball, a third level spell, would incur a -3 penalty to his initiative roll. The reason behind this is that higher level spells are more powerful and take longer to cast. 2nd edition spells had casting times.

Drawbacks & Additional Feats - Brought up by Jake to allow some way of attaining more Feats at the cost of some drawback(s) for your character. Still largely un-debated, we thought there should be some way for a character to get additional feats by limiting themselves in some way. There are so many feats out there and few chances to ever pick one up (especially for non-fighter classes). Perhaps altering the frequency of how characters get new feats might be another avenue to pursue.

Proxy Rewards - Each session, every player has 50 experience they can dole out to another player as they see fit. You cannot give it to yourself. Players may choose not to dole out their experience bonus to another player, but cannot save up these bonuses from session to session. (I saw this on a website for another gaming group and thought it was a cool idea to promote inter-character relations.)

Journal Reward - After each session, players may create a journal entry and get experience for it. I'm not sure about how much experience exaclty. We could either assign a fixed xp value based on each journal written or the more journal entries one writes, the more experience they get (a sliding scale). This helps relieve some of the burden I've been placing upon myself for keeping info and campaigns up to date. Perhaps we could even assign different journal subjects to choose from.

New Injury Rules - The problem with D&D is that the damage rules can be a bit abstract. Why not spice things up a bit? In most cases, the problem is that it adds needless complexity. Well, this idea adds needless roleplaying! Every time an injury is recieved, players can look at how much damage they have taken in a round in relation to their total hit points. Then they describe the injury(s). Each time this occurs they get 5 experience points unless the DM or the other players object. Objections can be based on anything. Furthermore, every time a player assigns themselves a penalty for an injury or combination, they get 50 experience points! All penalties will be considered removed once healing is done. The hope is that this results in much more dangerous sounding battles, with arrows either punching through shoulders or sticking into armor. I'm not sure if this system would prove to be unweildy. I saw it on a website and thought I'd put it up here for perusal.

Minimum Hit Points - Doesn't it suck when your character goes up a level and rolls a '1' for new hit points? To rectify that issue I propose the use of a modified variation of Fixed Hit Points Per Hit Die (DMG page 42, Table 2-23). In this system you have a minimum you can roll for each hit die. If you roll less than the minimum for your class, you are given the listed minimum.

Sorcerer, Wizard : d4 : 2 minimum
Bard, Rogue : d6 : 3 minimum
Cleric, Druid, Monk : d8 : 4 minimum
Fighter, Paladin, Ranger : d10 : 5 minimum
Barbarian : d12 : 6 minimum

Weapon Weights - I don't like the extremely unrealistic wieghts assigned to melee weapons in 3rd Edition. Besides the laughable physics involved, they really hamper a player when it comes to encumbrance. The weights given are based on a sample list of real world weapons:

Dagger or any halfling weapon - 1 lb.
Single handed weapon capable of finesse or any gauntlets - 2 lb.
Single handed weapon or halfspear - 3 lb.
Quarterstaff, Bastard Sword or Dwarven Axe - 4 lb.
Shortspear, Spiked Chain, medium double weapon, light lance - 5 lb.
Long spear, Greatsword, Great Axe or other large melee weapons - 6 lb.
Large double weapon or other large reach weapon (polearms) - 7 lb.
Heavy lance - 8 lb.
"Heavy" (1 size increase) versions of any weapon would double the above amounts.