KISMET'S HOUSE RULES

      Just about every game I've heard of has house rules - changes and additions to the published rules.  It seems to be that the longer you go about gaming, the more house rules you end up implementing.  Some groups have copious additional rules, to the point that they use very little of the printed materials.  Other groups try to play exactly by the book, with very little extra.  My group falls somewhere in between - we've house ruled a good amount but only so much.  It can be difficult to anticipate how a change is going to affect the whole game, so I tend to think of house rules as experimental, at least at first.  Only with consistent good use do they become more concrete.

      Below are some of my long-standing and major house rules.  These are all rules that my players have agreed to play under and they are rules that have worked for my group across multiple campaigns.  Some of them have gone through a few alterations but for the most part, I try to keep things stable.  You are free to disagree with any or all of my house rules, just as I am free to disagree with the house rules of others.

Experience

      When 3rd edition came out, one of my biggest problems with it was that its experience chart allowed characters to level far too quickly for my taste.  A character would just be getting to use their new abilities when they'd be leveling up again.  It had the frenzied feel of a video game like Diablo - new powers and new loot are the driving reasons to play such games, so levels have to come quickly to keep players interested.   I wanted my game to build up at a slower pace so characters could get to really know the limits of a level before attaining a new one.  I also wanted to focus on more than the rush to get the next new power.  In order to slow things down, I implemented an experience chart based on a few of the charts from 2nd edition D&D.  This chart has been altered a little over the years but it has not changed much overall.

      In relation to this, I also decided to award experience for things other than combat.  I grant experience for good roleplaying - staying in character, acting according to one's character, developing character, and so on.  This experience is variable depending on the session. 

      I grant a fixed amount of experience for a small number of other things.  First, I give some experience for showing up to the game, hopefully on time, because I really enjoy being able to start with everyone present.  I know that we're all adults with many things to do and I want to show my appreciation to my players.  I also give experience to those who pitch in money for food and drink that the whole group can have during the session.  We tend to have long game sessions and people are bound to get hungry.  Some groups actually experience resentment related to food: sometimes a group will eat one person out of house and home, other times one person gets stuck with the bill, and yet other times folks suffer through sessions hungry while others eat in front of them.  I wanted none of that; a communal meal is a time for friendship.  So I give experience, usually a fixed amount but more for particularly extravagant means (which my players have provided).  Last but not least, I give experience to anyone willing to keep a detailed journal (dates, events, NPCs, etc.), because it's an invaluable resource for us all and while I'm running, I do not have time to do it myself.  For each category - showing up, food, and the journal - I give 50 xp times their character level.

Treasure

      I do not ever randomly generate treasure.  Ever.  I have been in games in which DMs rolled up ridiculous treasures and it always rubbed me the wrong way.  I want to make sure that the treasure makes sense for the creatures involved and the quickest way to do that is to decide treasure myself, based on the creature and situation at hand.  I use the CR of the encounter as a guide - tougher creatures can often result in greater compensation.  I do not always give treasure in coin; if a creature has no reason to carry objects, then I try to give values to tusks, eyes, pelts, and the like.

Maximum Healing

      I allow for maximum healing from all healing spells and potions - for both the player characters, and the NPCs. For items, the maximum healing is based on the lowest level possible to make such an item. For example, the cleric of the party at fifth level can heal 1d8+5 (or, for my purposes, 13) with a spell of cure light wounds, while a potion would only cure 1d8+1 (or, when it is used in my game, 9). This rule has not dampened combat or spoiled my group in any way, because they still get their asses heartily kicked and their enemies benefit from the maximized healing as well.

Spell DCs

      It never made sense to me that the burning hands of Elminster could have the same DC as a second level wizard's burning hands spell. Yet under the current rules, spell DCs are determined by the following elements only: 10 + the appropriate modifier + spell level. That means that the burning hands of a 20th level wizard is just as easy to resist as that of a 1st level wizard (unless they've raised their Intelligence, purchased a feat, or are using a magical item). I have implemented a new formula for spell DCs in order to account for the enhanced learning that comes with advanced levels: 10 + appropriate modifier + spell level + 1/2 caster level.  This is used for all spell DCs in our game.

Class Skills & Skill Points

      It always bothered me that non-weapon proficiencies in 2nd edition D&D seemed to matter so little; you didn't get many, and they didn't come up that often.  I started gaming in Vampire: the Masquerade, in which all characters had skills that were important.  3rd edition introduced a skill system to D&D that I liked a lot more - there were plenty of skills to choose from and the game was designed for skills to be used more often.  But the new system was not perfect in my eyes.  I did not understand why the game was so very stingy with class skills; it was as though the heavy combat classes could do very little else.  I also did not understand why so few skill points were granted to most classes.  I set out to fix those problems and when the 3.5 edition came out, I went along with the combining of certain skills.  The changes below are the solidified version of my alterations to the skill ssytem.

Skill Points Per Level

Alterations

      I gave all of the PC classes the skills of Spot and Listen, since I feel they would all be taught such things, if for different reasons. I also added and subtracted the following class skills:
Barbarian: +Balance
Bard: +Intimidate, +Use Rope, -Swim
Cleric: +Knowledge (all)
Paladin: +Intimidate
Sorcerer: +Bluff, +Diplomacy, -Knowledge (all), +Knowledge (arcana)

      I decided to play a bit with the domains, since most of them do not have skill-related bonuses (and, frankly, some of them have blah domain abilities). I went through the domains in the PHB and Forgotten Realms main book; have a look at the chart below to see those domains I enhanced.

The Paladin Class

      I have had two paladin player characters in my game and both players expressed dissatisfaction with the particulars of the paladin class.  There was very little for them to look forward to as their characters progressed and they didn't get much to begin with.  One of my players expressed interest in a nonstandard mount so I allowed him to call a hippogriff without the need for a feat.  But rather than simply handing out freebies on the fly, I decided to redo the paladin class to my satisfaction.  I made most of my changes before 3.5 edition was released but my group has expressed more approval for my paladin than the others they've seen.  My version can be found here.

Age Categories

      I had issues with the published age categories right out the gate, mostly because I envision things differently.  I have been running my game off the chart below pretty much from the beginning.  In a nutshell, dwarves reach new categories later, as do gnomes; elves are much longer lived.  Half-elves and halflings are only slightly longer lived and half-orcs have remained the same. 

Favored Class / Experience Penalties

      I have never used the favored class feature of 3X edition D&D.  I see the favored class mechanic as a form of racial stereotyping and its enforcement in the rules is something I find unnecessary.  If I want to associate a class with a race, I will do so without mechanics and without the possibility of limiting player characters even further than they already are.  In relation to this, I also have not docked experience from multiclassed characters with uneven levels.  My players don't tend to multiclass their characters very often in any case and I see no reason to cheat them out of their hard-earned experience for expressing interest in a different class. 

Leadership

      I have always had my own take on the Leadership feat and my players have enjoyed my elaborations.  Three of them have taken the feat for their characters and one plans to take it in the future, and although it makes extra work for me, I have enjoyed working with Leadership very much.  With that in mind, you can peruse my feelings about Leadership here.  You can examine how I have modified and implemented Leadership here.