Possible 4E House Rules
4E has been out for a little bit, so here are the major rule changes that have occurred to me. I'm not sure which (if any) of these I'll adopt, but I'll make this post and my players can let me know if they want to adopt any.
1. 'Penalties for failed saves only trigger on saving throws made at the end of your turn. For purposes of "Failed Save" "First Failed Save" "Second Failed Save" or any similar mechanic, extra saves (such as from an item or power) are ignored completely.'
Example: A beholder hits Regdar with its petrifying ray. Jozan uses his sacred flame ability to give Regdar a saving throw, which Regdar fails. At the end of his turn, Regdar again fails his saving throw, which means that he triggers the "First Failed Save" penalty of becoming immobilized.
Why: Abilities which give extra saves can turn into penalties, such as hobgoblins falling asleep immediately or sacred flame getting Regdar petrified. This is non-intuitive and a potential trap for DMs and players.
2. 'If you did not move from your square on your turn, you may move 1 then make a basic melee attack as a standard action. Doing so ends your turn.'
Why: When only allowed a standard action (because of daze or having to stand up from prone), you may attack if you are 0 squares or 2+ squares away with a charge, but not when at exactly 1 square. Abilities which push several squares and knockdown are often optimal when they leave a target exactly 1 away. Again, non-intuitive and exploitable. If you could charge 1 square, though, there would be some odd exploits so making it not a charge.
3. Remove the existing minion rule, change to
'Minion Weakness
If a minion is hit for any damage, it dies. If a minion takes damage without being hit, it is not killed, but it becomes bloodied and dies the next time it takes any damage in any way.'
So, automatic damage (auras, ongoing, damage shields, etc) would bloody then kill minions, damage on miss abilities (like dailies, hammer rhythm, reaping strike, etc) would bloody then kill, etc.
Why: Because it feels unfair and unrealistic to players for their half damage or damage on miss abilities to never work on minions, while it feels cheap or too easy for automatic damage effects to kill them. Plus it allows minions to live in the "bloodied" design space with everyone else.
4. Daily Item Usage tracking
Replace the usual Daily power limitations on items with
'Using a daily item power prevents the use of any other magic item in that item slot until you take an extended rest.' and
'Using an encounter item power prevents the use of any other magic item in that slot until you take a short rest.'
Example: A level 4 character with a Frost weapon, Dwarven Plate, and a Cloak of Resistance can usually use 1 of their dailies, plus an additional 1 at each milestone. Under these rules, they could use all 3 of them, but they could not acquire additional dwarven suits of armor to swap into for extra healing surges.
Why: Mostly for player sanity. Preventing someone from carrying a dozen suits of dwarven armor in a bag to get extra surges is good, but making people track the powers is somewhat annoying and can lead to players favoring passive equipment bonuses rather than more interesting power uses.
5. Daze or stun can become "no fun", at least on important creatures:
PCs, Elite, and Solo creatures may remove a stun or daze effect at any time by spending an action point. If any of these creatures is dazed or stunned at the end of its turn after making any saves, it may choose to become Immune to the appropriate condition for the encounter in exchange for acquiring a vulnerability 5 (10 at paragon, 15 at epic) to any attack that carries the condition.
Example: Orcus is stunned for a round by Prismatic Spray and fails his save. He chooses to become Immune to stun, ending the condition, but gaining Vulnerability 15 to any attack that stuns. If he is hit by a Stunning Smite later in the encounter, he takes 15 additional damage but ignores the stun effect.
Why: Everyone is there to play the game - if you can't act, you're not really playing. If you can "stun lock" a solo, you're barely playing (and it's a lot easier at high levels than you might think). The vulnerability still rewards using those attack types so that it's not a pure nerf and more just a protection against boredom.
6. Power Exchange:
You may trade in one daily attack power for an encounter power of equal or lower level. You may trade in one encounter attack power for an at-will. You may still only know a power once, even if you have multiple powers of that level. You may freely revert this change whenever you level (such as when you want to trade in the daily for one of higher level).
Example: A level 9 elf rogue usually has 2 at-wills, 3 encounters of levels 1,3, and 7, and 3 dailies of levels 1, 5, and 9. He desperately wants a 3rd at-will so trades his level 1 encounter power to get it. He also doesn't like any of the 5th level rogue dailies, so trades it for a 2nd level 3 encounter power. He can't take the same power twice, however.
Why: Allows greater diversity of actions without requiring extended rests. It's more predictable power, so that's fine from a DM perspective, while providing comfort for a player. While the 3rd at-will might be considered to impinge on the human's territory, losing an encounter or daily to get it is a notable cost and it allows people to play a class that they feel uncomfortable with less than 3 at-wills without _having_ to be a human. And human wizards can get 4 at-wills, if they're really interested.
7. Milestones and extended rest:
'After an extended rest, you lose all action points.'
'After almost every encounter, you gain an action point. Particularly easy encounters or ones which burn little to no resources will not qualify as a milestone for this purpose.'
For daily item powers, treat the same as action points above (starting with 0 and gaining one per encounter) if rule #4 is not used.
Why: Mostly to reward doing more encounters and make taking an extended rest less rewarding and the first encounter less alpha strike capable. Assuming the group is doing at least three encounters a day it should work in their favor, though.