What house rules do you use?

[Nick Schaefer]

theres a few caviet rules i have, such as if you play the Damphire race you get blood drinker as a bonus feat, however you start play with mild blood addiction
the other is you only get to take back your action if it makes the DM (me) facepalm.
my 3rd rule is if you describe your attacks (i go for the throat) (not called shot) you get a +1 to hit

[Brunzwick]

Man you guys have some nice house rules!

1.) GM crafted weapons- example Druid Quarterstaff of Earthquake, DMG- 1d12+1d12(nature DMG), atk- +5 (must be mended after each use).
2.) HP- max at lvl 1, normal rolls after
3.) XP- We like to level fast so we get full beastiary xp value for each monster unless it's >3 levels under our party level which we get 0 xp.
4.) GM intervention- sometimes we receive help in the way of unseen NPCs from our GM if we are having a difficult time taking down something.
5.) Feats- some prerequisites are overlooked if we have a good reason for wanting a particular feat =D
6.) Death- umm, more of a choice than fact. Sometimes we just go into a comma, other times we choose to let it die and roll something new. One level lower though.

[Hockey_Hippie]

Here are the House Rules we tend to use. Granted, there are a lot of them. Normally folks that tend to have issues with these rules tend to like a more high powered game. If that is the type of RPG experience you prefer, you probably won't like these.

4 Rules of Pathfinder and No List

1) If you commit to a game, we expect you to show up on time, regularly and stay to the end. There will be exceptions as everyone has a life, but that is what they should be....exceptions. Similarly, if your character levels, you should have him leveled, sent to and approved by the GM *prior* to the next game session.
2) We abhor powergaming. If you are one of those players that must have a pair of 18s and a pair of 8s in your build, we will not be a good match for you. Similarly, if your first thought for a character idea is a Half-Orc Barbarian with a 2 handed sword, power attack and vital strike, or Elf Monk/Rogue with all the lethal fixings this is also not the bunch for you. If you can deal with ability scores out of build between 10-17 after being equipped (this includes character race penalties/bonuses and your level bonus at 4^th but none above that) and don't automatically reach for the done to death overpowered race/class/weapon/feat combos, you'll probably work out. We build our characters from their backstories and personalities outwards, not from mechanics inwards. There should never be a case of you changing either of the former drastically to enhance the latter.
3) We abhor metagaming as much as powergaming. If you ain't there, you ain't there. Shut up. As well it isn't what you know, it's what your character knows. You may bend that first part if you have a newbie at the table. You can present him with options, but the decision should be theirs.
4) When making a character we expect a backstory of at least three pages, not including description and personality. The reason behind this is that twofold. First it give you a firmer grip on what kind of skills/feats etc you might select (see 2) and secondly it gives the GM possible plot hooks with which to hang on you at some point in the game. Again here, try not to be predictable and pedantic. The ‘X killed my family so I grew up bitter sworn to avenge them’ is so old and so overused it is the toothless crack whore of cliches. Being touched by a God or similarly over-powered being in pregame? Also a non-starter. Remember, you are a person first, an above average individual who will step in front of the enemy second. Also remember Occam’s Razor: The simplest explanation is often the correct one. You see a baseball in a living room, a broken window and a bunch of kids outside with baseball gloves and bats. Could some sniper tried to shoot someone through the window? Sure, but chances are, the baseball did it.

There will be some that say “3 pages?!?!?!?!?” This is not nearly as hard as it seems when you take time to put a bit of detail into your family or those you grew up around, your hometown and how your family fit into it. Writing out the key conversations in your life instead of just saying “Ted got into an argument with his Dad and left” not only fills lines, it helps you develop a voice for your character.


Below is the No List. Things in it are not allowed in our games:

No Paladins, fanatical Cavaliers (Regardless of folks say about 'not playing lawful stupid et al', we have yet to see a party with one or the other that doesn't eventually kill the game by either trying to force the party to live by a code they don't want to or by forcing the Pally/Cav to burn his ethics.)
No Gunslingers or guns of any type (Even your most basic single shot muskets are 400 years ahead of the European Dark Ages which by and large has traditionally been the culture and the time period high fantasy settings are drawn from.)
No Monks, Ninjas or Samurais (for campaigns based in Western European Fantasy Settings only)
No Prestige Classes (There are the three or four overpowered options everyone grabs and then there are the rest which are ignored.)
No Magus-Bladebound (Massive mechanical advantage in terms of cash that is offset by a flavour disadvantage that no GM in their right mind would play to the hilt lest they be branded a killer GM)
No Barbarian-Titan Maulers (Gnomes, Halflings and even Dwarves swinging weapons twice their height and incredibly unbalanced to boot just does not pass the physics smell test).
No Alchemist-Mind Chemists, Clerics-Cloistered (Creates a huge inner-party double standard for Knowledge Checks)
No Evil (This also means ‘good’ Necromancers and ‘good’ Assassins etc) (does this really need an explanation?)
No Chaotic Neutral (What the folks who want to wreak havoc at the table with no accountability take when they see there is No Evil allowed)
No Non-Base Races (In our experience folks that want one of the non-base races tend to select those that give them mechanical advantages offset by flavour disadvantages which again never get pushed to where they are a true disadvantage by the GM or Do you really think them villagers have never seen or heard of a Drow bandaging himself from head to toe and trying to pass himself off as a burn victim before? Drow lynchin' is big news, even in Hickville.)
No Non-Paizo material at all (though there may be a couple of minor exceptions among equipment)
No hero points (Just more numbers to keep track of in a game that already has its share.)

We encourage multi-classing however we highly discourage Class Splashing if you multi-class. Recommended: Up to a difference of 2 between primary and secondary class levels. Every four levels beyond 4th add one to the maximum level difference (IE at 9th you could be 6/3 at 12th you could be 8/4 etc)

We also use max HP at first level, roll the rest.

Dependent on GM, there may be other things added to this list for individual campaigns.

Aaaaand.....ducking now.

[DMMike]

This thread is chock-full of people who should be helping us make our own game. I should've posted it in the Fantasy general file, but I'm working on an unofficial Pen and Paper Games RPG in the Dungeons and Dragon file. Bring your house rules, and your critical thinking caps.

[Simetradon]

My house rules can be found here:
http://legacy-of-shadows.blogspot.com/