House Rules

Intimidate
In appropriate situations where physical intimidation is being used, PCs may opt to use Strength as the primary ability modifier for the skill.

Expanded Skills to replace Craft, Profession, Perform.
Adapted from ENWorld poster Rel

The new skill list is shorter and has fewer skills covering broader areas. However, some skills that add a bit of flavor to the game were cut out. I'm speaking of Craft, Perform and Profession. This was an easy fix and it goes like this: At the start of the campaign, I ask each player two questions about their character. "What did you do to earn a living before becoming an adventurer?" and "What does your character do for enjoyment when not adventuring?" The answers to those questions become skills at which the PC is trained. We figure out an applicable ability modifier and we now have a skill bonus to that skill. Voila.

Now if I have an occassion where that PC's ability at Blacksmithing or Lute Playing or Woodcarving or Origami comes into play, I've already got a number to use. It also gives me a guide for things that the PC is interested in to mold plothooks around as well as a tool for introducing plot elements in a way that relate specifically to that PC. So I can, for example, have the PC with the Blacksmithing skill roll to notice that the weapon of the Hobgoblin Lieutenant bears a forge-mark from a neighboring kingdom. Was the weapon stolen or are the Hobgoblins being funded by an enemy nation?! That sort of thing.

Anyway, it costs the PC nothing and the player can invest as much or as little roleplaying in these skills as they like. It's pure bonus.

Powers (Heroic Acts)
Adapted from ENWorld poster Rel

If you want to do something that fits the general theme of what your character should be able to do then spend an Action Point and one of your Healing Surges (to represent the effort of doing something extraordinary) and you can do it, within reason.

''Example: If your Cleric of Moradin wants to call upon the god of the mountains to cause a section of the cave to crumble down and block the pursuing Drow, spend an Action Point and a Healing Surge and you can do it. If your Ranger wants to shoot away the supports on the rope bridge and send the Orcs tumbling to their doom, spend an Action Point and a Healing Surge and let fly! If your Fighter wants to call upon every ounce of his strength to lift the boulder off of the trapped child, spend an Action Point and a Healing Surge and you're a hero. If the Wizard wants to use his magic to animate a statue and have it attack on behalf of the party, Action Point and Healing Surge and he's in business.''

Healing
Adapted from ENWorld poster Rel, and submitted for DM approval

So you just fought the Dragon! Man he was TOUGH! Despite the Cleric's best efforts and spending every Healing Surge, the Dragon finally took down the Fighter. It was lucky that the Rogue and Warlock were able to finish off the Dragon while the Cleric helped the Fighter because he was down to his LAST Death Save! Phew! But 6 hours later the Fighter feels perfectly fine! Fresh as a daisy really! Not a scratch on him.

That may not bother you. I'm not saying it should bother you. But it bothers me. I like my games to be just a bit grittier than that. So I needed a way for PC's to occassionally take a wound that took them more than an Extended Rest to recover from. I don't want to slow the game to a crawl or take anybody completely out of the action for an extended time. Just want them to sometimes "feel that one in the morning" and not always be at 100%. So I came up with this:

''Sometimes a PC can sustain an injury that is more painful and and severe than usual. When this happens, the PC becomes Wounded.''

There are two possible ways for a PC to become Wounded:


 * A PC who fails a Death Save while at negative Hit Points becomes Wounded.


 * Certain monsters (mostly Elite and Solo monsters) or Traps may cause a PC to become Wounded on a Critical Hit.

While Wounded a PC suffers from the following effects:


 * They do not regain full hit points after an Extended Rest. A successful Heal check after an Extended Rest allows them to regain hit points as though they had spent a Healing Surge.


 * The PC is not as resiliant as normal and thus their healing surges only restore half (rounded down) of the normal hit points.

A character may attempt to recover from being Wounded after an Extended Rest by making a successful Endurance check. If the PC is under the care of a character Trained in the Heal skill, that roll may be substituted for the Endurance check. In addition it is possible for certain Rituals to give bonuses to this Endurance check or to heal the Wounded condition outright.

This would mean that a Wounded PC IS effected in Combat by way of not gaining as much benefit from healing effects. It also means that having a Cleric around helps quite a bit (thanks to the extra healing above and beyond the Surge value for Healing Word). Without a Cleric a PC has to spend (roughly) 8 Healing Surges to be at full health from zero. That's going to be the lion's share of Surges for even the strongest members of the party.

It makes a Wounded PC fragile and less able to recover from nastier wounds but doesn't take them out of the fight entirely. I think that's the feel that I'm after here.

Mechanically it requires no additional tracking that you weren't already doing anyway during combat. And it takes only a single roll to determine whether the PC has recovered after an Extended Rest.