NaughtyDawg: Play - AD&D 3rd edition

A D & D - 3 e

[ House Rules ]

     Often times the rules as they are set out in the rulebooks don't work for our particular gaming group. In that event we edit them or even create new rules to work how we want them to. Below are the House Rules for our 3rd edition AD&D campaign setting.

     Also, check out some new House Rules we've been thinking about including in the House Rule Brainstorming section.

Character Creation :
Please click here for complete character generation guidelines.

Ambidexterity :
A character who wishes to be ambidextrous MUST pick the feat up at creation.

Men-at-Arms Classes & Specialization :
All Men-at-Arms classes (fighters, barbarians, paladins, and rangers) may "specialize" in a single weapon. Fighters can "specialize" in any number of weapons. In addition, fighters are the only class that can "master" in a single weapon.

Improved Movement :
Add 5' for every +2 Dexterity mod to base movement. (i.e.: Base mvt. = 30', Dex mod = +3 : New Base Movement = 35' per round) Improved movement is restricted by the dex bonus allowable by the armor.

Combat Movement :
You may divide up movement in a combat round however you wish. Previously, you could only move before OR after an action in combat.

Movement and Multiple Attacks :
If you have more than one attack per round, you may move up to half your movement rate (base + dex / 2) and make all attacks instead of only 5'. (round fractions down) This does not apply towards the "Coup de Grace" ability during battle.

Using Arrows in Melee Combat :
Ever since LoTR came out and we saw Legolas thrust an arrow into an orc's chest, we wanted to make a way of doing this in D&D. An archer may now attack an opponent in melee using the arrow as a weapon. This counts as a standard melee attack. The attack roll is made at a -2 to hit (if you are proficient with bow) and the arrow does 1d4 points of piercing damage. You must roll higher than 50 + 10 per point of damage dealt on a percentile die to retrieve your arrow. Failure means the arrow is stuck or damaged in some way.

Combat Initiative :
Initiative is determined on an individual basis for each combat round.

Holding Initiative :
You may hold your initiative voluntarily until any initiative number. Once you act, your initiative for the remainder of that combat round is equal to that number. If intiative passes below zero and you do not act, you forfeit any action until the next combat round.

Scribe Scroll :
The monetary costs for creating scrolls has been greatly reduced to lessen the burden put on those who have this feat. Scrolls now cost a flat fee of 2 gold (for the exceptional paper/ink used in the process) plus 1 gold per each standard spell component in the spell plus any additional costs involved if an exceptional component is necessary (i.e.: a gem worth 1,000 gold) All XP costs remain unchanged.

    base 2 gp for the paper/ink
    + 1 gp per standard component
    + any exceptional component costs.

0-Level Spells :
We've decided to spruce up a caster's ability to use 0-level spells because the very nature of these "cantrips" is not considered unbalancing to gameplay. The normal allotment of 0-level spells per day has been increased from it's listed amount to :
2 times your level plus your ability stat modifer per day.
Furthermore, upon reaching a level where you can begin casting level 3 spells, you do not have to pre-assign 0-level spells even if your class normally requires you to do so. (i.e.: You can cast these spells "on the fly" as per a Sorcerer) At this point, you are considered to have enough understanding and experience with the fundamentals of magic to not have to memorize 0-level spells beforehand.

Metamagic Feats :
We decided the very nature of Metamagic feats, while useful, was not very practical given the increases to spell level they incur. Therefore we've designed a radical departure from how Metamagic feats are utilized. A Metamagic feat no longer increases the spell level of an affected spell. Instead, these feats affect a set number of spells chosen by the caster and have a number of uses per day. Determining how many Metamagic feats may be stacked is still determined as normal, although a spell's level does not increase.

Each time you gain a Metamagic feat, choose a number of spells you know equal to your ability stat modifer that this feat may affect. You may choose a Metamagic feat more than once to add to the number of spells affected by that feat.

Number of uses per day is a factor of your ability stat modifer, the Metamagic feat's tier (info coming soon), your caster level and is determined by:

# uses / day = Ability stat modifier ÷ by the feat's tier
+ 1 every 5^th caster level (round fractions down)
Purchasing Feats with Experience :
A feat may be purchased at the rate of one every even character level with the exception of those levels when you would get a feat normally. Allow me to elaborate. If you look at the chart below, you will see that a normal character gains a feat at level 1 and every 3rd character level thereafter. This chart also shows you what levels you are eligible to purchase a new feat. This system will allow characters to use earned experience to purchase feats on even numbered character levels, as long as you did not already gain a feat through normal progression that level. Bonus feats granted to you by class are not considered normal feat progression, so you can still purchase a feat in a level that you gained a bonus feat. You may not purchase more than 1 feat in any level, no matter how many experience points you are willing to spend. You cannot spend an amount of experience that would cause you to lose a character level. However, if you gained enough experience to gain a level, you could choose instead to spend those experience points rather than gain the level. The standard rules for picking up feats still applies. You MUST meet all of the prerequisites. You cannot pick up a feat that you do not meet all of the prereq’s for.

Level	Normal	Eligible for Purchase
1	Feat
2		Feat
3	Feat
4		Feat
5
6	Feat
7
8		Feat
9	Feat
10		Feat
11
12	Feat
13
14		Feat
15	Feat
16		Feat
17
18	Feat
19
20		Feat

The "Feat Tier Chart" breaks down the feats according to tier and an idea as to how they cascade. The experience cost per tier would break down something like this.

    Tier 1 - 500 experience points.
    Tier 2 - 1000 experience points.
    Tier 3 - 2000 experience points.

Increasing Ability Scores with Experience :
You may spend earned experience points to increase your ability scores. Here is how it works. You may spend a number of experience points equal to 500 x the new ability score to raise an ability to the next higher number. For example, if you wanted to raise a stat from 21 to 22, it would cost you 500 x 22 = 11,000. You can only do this one time in any given level and not during a level in which you gain an ability increase normally. In other words, every 4^th character level when you would normally gain a natural ability increase, you may not spend exp to raise another ability score at the same time. You would never be able to spend so much experience that you would lose a level, however if you gained enough experience to gain a level, you could instead choose to spend that experience on an ability increase. There would be no maximum as to how high you could take a particular ability.

Here is a quick look at how it might go using the formula above (New score x 500):

New Score	Experience Cost
11	5,500
12	6,000
13	6,500
14	7,000
15	7,500
16	8,000
17	8,500
18	9,000
19	9,500
20	10,000
21	10,500
22	11,000
23	11,500
24	12,000
25	12,500
26	13,000
27	13,500
28	14,000
29	14,500
30	15,000

DM Ruling Disputes :
If the DM makes a call or ruling that you believe is inacurate or wrong in one way or another, if it is not critical to your survival as a player character, please do not interrupt game play in order to dispute it. Make a note of it and bring it up on break. If your your dispute has justification, we will either proceed in the future in that manner, or the DM will bring the issue into open forum and we will all discuss it. Either way, we don't want to take too much time in debate, since we cannot play very late on Sundays and we inevitably never get started on time.

No-Show :
If you are unable to make it to a game session, your character will effectively go into a "pocket dimension". Your character will not die, be able to interact with anyone, gain experience, or be eligible for a portion of the loot for that session. When you return next session, your character will be released from the pocket dimension and you will be with the party wherever they are at that point in the campaign. No one will be allowed to play your character for you so please don't ask.