House Rules and Rule Changes

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Rukellian
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House Rules and Rule Changes

#1 Post by Rukellian »

Here, I will be posting, when someone asks or a situation demands it, house rules or rule changes to the campaign. Know that house rules may be just rules taken from other editions to add to the OSRIC ruleset we are following. Rule changes will be harder to implement, seeing how I think the OSRIC ruleset is very fair.
Even a child that receives one bit of praise has the ability to excel in a single talent, and those who receive regular encouragement can feel confidence, achieve success, and become leading members of society. Because they don’t believe they are worthless, they don’t need to raise a fist and have vengeance against fate or the world at large… ~Inspector Lunge

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Rukellian
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Re: House Rules and Rule Changes

#2 Post by Rukellian »

As per request of a player, I have decided to implement these fair, and yet very fun fighting styles for our campaign.

A character who wears light or no armor can use light weapons as "finesse weapons"
ie: adding his dex missle bonus to his To Hit with light weapons.

A character who is a specialist can add his dex missle bonus to AC when parrying(fighting defensive ) with a light weapon.
(As a side note, when fighting defensively and the enemy misses by more than 10, the character gets a free single riposte attack against THAT target)
Even a child that receives one bit of praise has the ability to excel in a single talent, and those who receive regular encouragement can feel confidence, achieve success, and become leading members of society. Because they don’t believe they are worthless, they don’t need to raise a fist and have vengeance against fate or the world at large… ~Inspector Lunge

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Rukellian
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Re: House Rules and Rule Changes

#3 Post by Rukellian »

WEAPON FINESSE: some clarification on its usage

The weapon finesse abilities will not be restricted to just fighters. Other classes would be able to make use of it as well, DEX and equipment willing. Only those wearing leather armor or less gain benefits from weapon finesse, anything heavier and well... you won't be able to move as fast, simple. The same applies to weapon weights. You can move and attack faster with lighter weapons, so weapon finesse shines with light weapons. Heavier weapons like longswords and battle axes will not have weapon finesse applied to them, even when wearing the appropriate armor.
Even a child that receives one bit of praise has the ability to excel in a single talent, and those who receive regular encouragement can feel confidence, achieve success, and become leading members of society. Because they don’t believe they are worthless, they don’t need to raise a fist and have vengeance against fate or the world at large… ~Inspector Lunge

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Rukellian
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Re: House Rules and Rule Changes

#4 Post by Rukellian »

Humans during this campaign are allowed to multi-class in any combination of classes that they choose (all assuming that the requisite ability scores for each class are in place).

With the introduction of this house rule, the dual-class system for humans will be scrapped.


Here are some excerpts from OSRIC to cover some of the multi-class questions that may arise:

MULTI-CLASSING AND DUAL-CLASSING
The character class of a non-human represents talents and abilities that are somewhat more innate than those of humankind. Humans are more flexible and can generally become more skilled in any one class than non-humans, but lack the innate talents of the other races

There is a general rule, however, that a cleric/fighter may use edged weapons.

Some GMs limit elven and half-elven fighter/magic users and fighter/magic user/clerics in respect of the armour they may wear while casting spells. If this optional rule is in play, such a character may only cast arcane spells if unarmoured—unless they are wearing elfin chain. The character may still cast divine spells regard- less of the armour he or she is wearing. (This rule assumes that elfin chain is specially designed to allow fighter/magic users to wear it.) In regards to humans, this same effect will be in place, but good luck finding yourself elfin chain!

The Thief multi-class combinations, the thieving skills can only be performed while wearing leather armor or less.
Even a child that receives one bit of praise has the ability to excel in a single talent, and those who receive regular encouragement can feel confidence, achieve success, and become leading members of society. Because they don’t believe they are worthless, they don’t need to raise a fist and have vengeance against fate or the world at large… ~Inspector Lunge

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Re: House Rules and Rule Changes

#5 Post by Rukellian »

Dealing with open wounds and other injuries

When a character sustains and open wound, or a body part is fractured or crushed, first aid will need to be administered within 5 rounds of said injury. If an open wound is bandaged or if pressure is applied, the bleeding will stop. If it is not, then the character will lose 1 hitpoint every 3 rounds. Performing strenuous activities like lifting heavy objects or engaging in combat will reopen said wounds and will need to be treated again. If strenuous activity occurs and the wound is not treated, the character will lose 1 hitpoint per round of strenuous activity. All of the following may apply to fractured or crushed body parts as well.

Without the aid of magic, wounds will take 3 hours rest to start healing naturally. A full night's rest, or the equivalent of such (8 hours) will restore at least 1 hitpoint. Any constitution modifiers will add to this score after each full resting period.

Most of this information was based off of the Damage and Health section of my OSRIC guide. I applied my own numbers to this and situational conditions. Let me know if this sounds fair to everyone or if something doesn't make sense. Oh and just as reminder, remember the significance of magic if someone is tempted to use it. It is the stuff of miracles and demonic arts, even with the best of attentions, not everyone may readily accept its use.
Even a child that receives one bit of praise has the ability to excel in a single talent, and those who receive regular encouragement can feel confidence, achieve success, and become leading members of society. Because they don’t believe they are worthless, they don’t need to raise a fist and have vengeance against fate or the world at large… ~Inspector Lunge

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Re: House Rules and Rule Changes

#6 Post by Rukellian »

I will introduce a service in the game that you guys can frequently make use of if you wish, the Healer. The OSRIC version that I'm working with does not have a herbalist or healer for hire, so I borrowed the information on the healing proficiency from Purple Worm (2e rules) and used it as the core for this new person in the campaign. The healer can act as hireling that will provide medical services off and on the field of battle. Hiring a healer will cost an initial 50 gp per player taken care of. If you would like to hire a healer who knows herbalism as well, the initial cost would be raised to 60 gp per player. The healer will remain and accompany the adventuring group if promised a salary of 50 sp a week. Below, I listed the information specific to the healing proficiency. I realize that Whitsell has already asked for a medic to help start treating his wounds. I will allow him the chance to decline this service if he does not want to spend the gold.

Healing: A character proficient in healing knows how to use natural medicines and basic principles of first aid and doctoring. If the character tends another within one round of wounding (and makes a successful proficiency check), his ministrations restore 1d3 hit points (but no more hit points can be restored than were lost in the previous round). Only one healing attempt can be made on a character per day.

If a wounded character remains under the care of someone with healing proficiency, that character can recover lost hit points at the rate of 1 per day even when traveling or engaging in nonstrenuous activity. If the wounded character gets complete rest, he can recover 2 hit points per day while under such care. Only characters with both healing and herbalism proficiencies can help others recover at the rate of 3 hit points per day of rest. This care does not require a proficiency check, only the regular attention of the proficient character. Up to six patients can be cared for at any time.
Even a child that receives one bit of praise has the ability to excel in a single talent, and those who receive regular encouragement can feel confidence, achieve success, and become leading members of society. Because they don’t believe they are worthless, they don’t need to raise a fist and have vengeance against fate or the world at large… ~Inspector Lunge

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Re: House Rules and Rule Changes

#7 Post by Rukellian »

Fighting the Unskilled:

When the fighter is attacking creatures with less than a full hit die (i.e. less than 1d8 hit points), the fighter receives one attack for each of his or her levels of experience, e.g. a 4th-level fighter attacking goblins would receive 4 attacks per round.

A fighter exercising multiple attacks departs from the normal initiative procedure. The fighter will automatically attack first in the round.

Not so much a house rule, but an important rule from the game rules that needs reminding. Since the majority of the bandits are unskilled, having less than 1d8 hit points, fighters of a higher level fighting them will be allowed extra attacks. So a fourth level fighter will be able to attack up to 4 bandits at once during one combat round. Just as a friendly reminder ;)
NJWilliam wrote:

How does that work with a Fighter/Thief like Gustov who uses two daggers?
One extra attack as usual with the dagger, none, or double?
Here is how I worked it out.

Normally you would have an attack sequence like this, whilst using weapon specialization: 1/1 1/1, 2/1 1/1 (right hand left hand, right hand twice left hand once) In other words, because you dual wield and have weapon specialization, you have an attack pattern of 5/2.

While battling the unskilled, you are allowed additional attacks equal to the number of fighter levels you have. You're a fourth level fighter. So, we add 4 more attacks to each round, changing your attack pattern against level 0s to something like this: 3/1 3/1, 4/1 3/1 (13/2) ONLY when fighting level 0s, will this occur at level 4.
Even a child that receives one bit of praise has the ability to excel in a single talent, and those who receive regular encouragement can feel confidence, achieve success, and become leading members of society. Because they don’t believe they are worthless, they don’t need to raise a fist and have vengeance against fate or the world at large… ~Inspector Lunge

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Re: House Rules and Rule Changes

#8 Post by Rukellian »

Firing arrows into melee

The OSRIC rules state that when firing arrows into melee, the DM must roll to see whether it hits a friendly or not. I didn't like this rule. So I asked the group, and Zhym proposed the following:
Roll to hit the chosen target (i.e., no random determination of targets). If it's a "near miss" (e.g., by 4 or less on the to-hit roll), it may have hit a friendly. Roll a second d20, adding the attacker's missile attack bonus. If the second roll is 1-10 (modified), it hits a friendly. The DM can adjust the target role on the d20 as needed based on the number of hostiles vs. enemies. If it's one hostile surrounded by 6 enemies, maybe the DM says it hits a friendly on a 1-19.
We are sticking with this until further notice. Using this system, it increases the chances of a high level archer to hit his/her intended targets when firing into melee.
Even a child that receives one bit of praise has the ability to excel in a single talent, and those who receive regular encouragement can feel confidence, achieve success, and become leading members of society. Because they don’t believe they are worthless, they don’t need to raise a fist and have vengeance against fate or the world at large… ~Inspector Lunge

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