The following rules are used in my own campaign(s). As with all modifications, use of these is up to the DM. Feel free to use or modify any of these rules to fit your campaign.
General
Rules
Races
Dwarves,
gnomes and halflings
of all types who choose a magic-using or clerical profession, automatically
lose all exceptional saving throw bonuses to magic attacks from rods, staves,
wands and spells, based on the character's constitution score. The reason
behind this change is, prior to Unearthed Arcana, magic-using classes were
unavailable to these races for player characters. Once the class restriction
was lifted, there was no longer any reason to treat fighters and thieves
of these races to such a beneficial saving throw bonus.
Wild
elves maintain their +2 to strength, but it
only applies to the base number, not to their exceptional strength rating.
If, however, the +2 bonus brings a wild elven fighter character up to 18,
they are entitled to an exceptional strength roll.
Deep
gnomes do not have the ability to summon
earth elementals. I consider this an incredible power, which should not
be in the hands of player character deep gnomes. Deep gnomes in my system
may also not use Blindness. If the lack of psionic ability for this race
is supposed to provide equity, it's a poor substitute for good balance.
Half
elves that mate with humans may have offspring,
and those will have their elven blood thinned even further, possibly to
the point of eliminating some racial bonuses. Similarly, a half elf that
mates with a full elf will have offspring with abilities closer to a full
elf, (i.e. 60% resistance to sleep and charm spells).
Half
orcs are granted the raise of a maximum Dexterity
and Wisdom of 16. Huzzah. Personally, I've had a good time playing half
orcs. The severe limitations set on them seemed unfair, so I put it to
a vote. This was the best compromise we came up with. They also get the
languages of their full blooded counterparts and can detect sloping grades.
Classes
Thieves have a 3% chance per level of finding
secret doors when actively searching for them. There is a maximum or 30%
on this ability, regardless of level. No chance is given a non-elven thief
to detect a secret door just by passing close to it. Any thief who unsuccessfully
disarms a trap may try the trap again if the trap has been set off and
the thief was in the vicinity to witness or experience the effect. Only
one extra try is allowed.
Assassins that gain the third level of experience,
he or she may attempt to find secret doors at his thief abilities level.
Druids
can only be a single class. They are the only
true neutral characters. In my campaign, this supercedes Unearthed Arcana
multi-class combinations.
Miscellaneous
Battle Stance. As an optional skill, consider
battle stance. The character may opt to sacrifice 2 or 4 points of dexterity
above 15, and gain a bonus to hit in melee combat. If a character only
has a dexterity score of 15 or less, the option is not available. Example:
if a character with dexterity of 17 wanted to, he could sacrifice 2 points
of dexterity (AC bonus) and gain a +1 to hit. The premise of the rule is
to stand more flat-footed and put your back into the attack, rather than
to move around trying to avoid your opponent's attack. This rule can be
well used in surprise attacks or attacks by multiple aggressors versus
a single opponent.
Monster
Alignment. Not all monsters are stuck with
the alignment given them in the monster manuals. Certainly a creature with
a high intelligence rating might have a different outlook than it's fellows.
Consider a lawful evil vampire, or a neutral good kobold. Or don't.
Experience
Point Bonuses. The player's handbook gives
characters with a 15 or higher in their prime stat a 10% bonus to earned
experience points. I find this completely illogical. Why should a thief
with a 16 dexterity gain experience faster that a thief with a 12 dexterity?
The thief with the lower score will have to work harder to accomplish things
that the quicker thief could do easily. In my campaign, characters with
a prime stat lower than 15 get the 10% bonus.
Washing Experience Points. I'm sure most of
you players have experienced this. Having the experience to advance a level,
but not the funds to train, or access to a training school. Your experience
points continue to accrue, but you cannot train. We used to use the "bunny
rule". Once you were 1 experience point short of going up 2 levels, you'd
train, come out of training, kill a "bunny", gain 1 experience point for
it, and train again. Our new way of handling this is to allow the character
to only gain experience points to the mid level of the next higher class
before the experience points wash away. This means that a 4th level fighter
could have up to 42,500 experience points (halfway between 5th and 6th
level) before no more experience points could be gained. The "bunnies"
are breathing much easier now...
Initiative. We use a straight, unmodified
d10 for initiative. Whether in melee, firing a bow, or casting a spell,
an initiative roll must be made. As long as the character is in either
a single or contiguous combat, he will retain the same initiative. Once
he moves to a new opponent, or battle ceases for a round, initiative will
be rerolled. By contiguous, I mean the combatant simply starts swinging
at another foe already in his melee, not moving to get to another.
Fumbles.
A player may only fumble if he rolls a natural 1 when performing an action
that requires a d20, or 00 when using percentile dice. On an attack, the
base THAC0 vs the opponent is used to judge whether it's a fumble or not.
The number required to hit must be at least 10 above the natural 1 to be
considered a fumble. A fumble table is then consulted.
Critical
Hits. Only on a natural 20 or natural 01 on
percentile, can a critical hit be made. The number required to hit must
be at least 10 below the natural 20 to be considered a critical hit. Multiples
of the character's damage are used for critical hits.
