Post Your House Rules Here

[Moniker]

Not really a house rule of sorts, but I do not use goblinoid creatures (Orcs, Kobolds, Goblins, etc...) or any sort of 'disposable' evil-type humanoids for foes whatsoever. The main threat to mankind is well, mankind itself.

I have been known to use Ogres sometimes, but are called Fomorian and are tied to the Pictish culture in the northern country of Guarhoth http://deismaar.pbwiki.com/Guarhoth

[Elflord274]

allowing players to use kobolds or other goblinoid creatures sorta weird and hard to manage along with large creatures like centaurs

[Ishmayl-Retired]

Okay, we've got enough stuff here to get some things posted on the Wiki; how exactly would you guys recommend I do the organizing for it?  We have some rules here that are pretty good numbers-based rules, and then we have some that are definitely theme-based (for specific settings and such).

[Túrin]

A thematic ordering will be a mess. I'd say put them all together and organize alphabetically, either by contributor name or by the name of the rule (latter means you'll have to make up names for houserules).

Túrin

[Ishmayl-Retired]

I think alphabetizing by name is a good enough idea for me, unless someone else thinks otherwise (and thus wants to contribute in said way ;) )

[Ishmayl-Retired]

Here's what we have so far.
 
Please offer any suggestions you may have for improving the page, and also, keep the rules coming.

[Stargate525]

A thematic ordering will be a mess. I'd say put them all together and organize alphabetically, either by contributor name or by the name of the rule (latter means you'll have to make up names for houserules).

Túrin

I don't know. I'd personally like to see it organized by what it affects (skills, feats, races, etc.)


I've got another one; A dragon's breath weapon is an extraordinary ability. It can be done without magic, so why don't they do it that way?

[Higgs Boson]

I like to give the players an extra feat spot at level one for a Heritage feat.

[Ishmayl-Retired]

Ooh, what's a heritage feat?

[Hibou]

I think they're in Complete Arcane or Complete Mage or something... you take them based on certain creature types (Fey, Demon, Dragon, etc.) and get some special abilities.

[Sarandosil]

You want us to directly edit the Wiki if we want to add more houserules/clean up the ones we have?

Warcraft 2 rawks.

[Ishmayl-Retired]

Shouldn't be a problem if you personally edit it

[the_taken]

Zombie Behavior

The MM doesn't explain how zombies behave, so I wrote rules for it.

Zombies can only see 60ft around them, but they have Darkvision, and they can see thru supernatural Darkness effects. Regardless of the original living creature's abilities, a zombie has a listen and spot modifier of +0.
Cerebral functions of zombies: Nothing. Zombies do not think, they react. They can't learn new reactions, being thoughtless. There are three possible behaviors patterns a zombie may exhibit, depending on how the zombie was created and whether it's controlled or not.

Animated and Controlled: Zombies can only follow simple commands based on their ability to recognize other things. Zombies recognize:

Their controller*Other zombies*Other undead*Other things that move

Everything else is either and impassible obstacle (trees, doors, walls and curtains), or bypassable obstacle (short walls, furniture). They often fail to notice some objects and trip over them, such as corpses and bear traps.

Animated and Uncontrolled: Zombies have two states when uncontrolled: Active and Passive.

Passive zombies simply lay on the ground, barely attentive. They pass as corpse, gaining a +10 to disguise checks (net +5 modifier to disguise checks). A DC 5 Move Silently check allows anything to go unnoticed around Passive zombies. Failure means a Zombie becomes Active. Passive Zombies automatically fail spot checks, while a disturbed zombie becomes Active immediately.
Active zombies move or stand about randomly. If they detect movement, they pursue it at their fastest speed. When within 5ft of a source of interest, they can determine whether it is a living entity or not. Non-living entities are left alone, though the zombie will follow it for some time before becoming bored. A bored zombie will wander off and forget it's target of interest. Packs of zombies form by having each zombie take turns attracting each other's attention.
Living creatures within 5ft of a zombie are attacked, and become the priority interest for the zombie. A zombie will constantly follow a living creature it detects for as long as it can keep it within 60ft. A zombie that has lost sight of a living creature will move to the place it had last seen the living creature.
A zombie that has not had anything of interest for a day will fall to the ground and become Passive.

Graveborn Zombies: These zombies behave in a similar fashion to uncontrolled zombies in the Active state, but they ignore other Graveborn Haunters from the same graveyard, and move about the graveyard in a spiral pattern. They also ignore anything out side their graveyard and never leave it.
Like all Graveborn Haunters, Graveborn Zombies are only active at night, where near sunrise they return to their graves. A destroyed zombie of this kind melts away, and returns the next night fully formed, to haunt again.

[Bill Volk]

That reminds me of a couple more house rules of mine:


Lemures have an Intelligence of 3.

Zombies and other mindless undead are neutral, though spells that create them still have the evil descriptor.