Some of The Best House Rules in Pathfinder

We all know that every dungeon master has his or her unique style. Some DMs like to play epic music during fight scenes, and some like to keep player chatter to a minimum during combat. Some like to create spur-of-the-moment performances, and some like to read descriptions straight out of the book. And while all of us are playing with the same rule books, every dungeon master will have his or her unique tweaks to the game.

These are some of the best, general house rules that I've encountered in my time as a player.

Rule #1: Everyone Gets Max Hit Points. Everyone.

There is nothing more frustrating than playing a barbarian or a fighter and through the power of ill-luck winding up with fewer hit points than the evoker with consumption. While being turned into a glass cannon can lead to creative uses of resources and unique methods of compensation, that doesn't make it feel any better when your hard-hitting melee combatant concept has become a one-hit wonder in the wrong sort of way.

That's why one of the best house rules I've ever come across is that everyone gets max hit points according to their level. Everyone, at all times. Don't even bother rolling.

There is a catch, though...

This rule is a bit of a double-edged sword, though, because it means the monsters get the same deal. On the one hand, this means your party is going to be in for a challenge when they come into the dragon's cave, but on the other hand it also means that you won't end up with a weak final boss because the bugbear chieftan rolled minimum pips on all of his hit dice when the DM was putting the sheet together. You simply calculate your max, dust your hands off, and get back to adventuring!

Rule #2: Re-Roll 1's (And Sometimes 2's) During Character Gen

This might seem like a pity rule to some players, but those players have obviously never seen someone like me roll stats for a new character. Adventurers are supposed to be different from the common populace, and every now and again these characters should have a lower-than-average stat or two that makes their strengths seem all the more heroic.

But what do you do when you have a sheet that's a single 10, and all the rest are single digits?

Hell, even my charisma is an 11.

If you roll 4 dice and drop the lowest number you've got a half-way decent shot at creating a workable adventurer. If you allow players to re-roll 1's then you've made the minimum stat you can have a 6 (something I think we're all comfortable saying is a big enough hurdle to overcome). Again though, this is a rule that cuts both ways, since your DM should use the same creation rules for NPCs and villains.

Rule #3: Deathblow Narration

This one doesn't have any mechanical benefits, but it can get players more involved during combat. It's particularly useful for groups where combat is already a big slew of numbers, and you want to try to slowly inject RP into things. Dealing a deathblow to a monster is always reason for a little excitement, and getting players to ride that wave by describing how the rogue's dagger slid between the orc's ribs, or how the ranger sank her final shaft into the wizard's throat before he could cast another spell, is pretty easy to do.

Not only that but it makes player narration something special. If you're not part of a RP-heavy group that narrates every attack and defense in combat then handing the mic to the player when he or she drops a bad guy is a great way to put emphasis on what just happened.

If you have Cleaving Finish you only get a single narration.

Rule #4: Death Monologue

This is another way to keep RP going, and it often lets characters go out like the badasses they should be when, inevitably, someone dies.

The idea of the death monologue is that the party are the heroes on the big screen, and if they're going to go out they should get to say something as they cross over. Perhaps the paladin, upon finally being brought low, says something like, "No, that's all right, there's no need to carry me," implying that her soul is already being escorted to the after-world. The barbarian, upon being impaled on the blade of a black knight might spit blood in his helmeted face and growl, "Be seeing you real soon," before finally dying.

It also makes zombies creepy as hell when they mutter the same thing over and over.

Death monologues are ways for players to inject one last moment of awesome into a character before decisions have to be made by the party. For instance, the rogue might have been a brash, cocky, know-it-all, but when he died clutching the cleric's sleeve and begging for forgiveness with blood flecking his lips, that kind of visceral going-out might motivate the party to at least try to bring him back. There are questions, whose answers they might not know any other way, and the player will get the chance to see how being dead for a little while affects the character.

Do they fight harder to prove they're still worthy of heaven, or do they try to balance out their mis-deeds because even a few hours in hell is enough to light a fire under them?

Rule #5: Cure Spells Have A Minimum... If You Want It

We've all been in that situation; the chips are down, the party is bleeding, and it's likely that at least one party member is going to go down before the fight gets finished. The cleric chants, holds her holy symbol aloft, and presses her hand to the fighter's wound healing him... of less damage than the monster's strength modifier.

Saw that one coming.

There are certain things in Pathfinder you just shouldn't leave up to chance, and one of those is using a 4th level spell and hoping against hope that you don't roll a whole bunch of 1's. In order to take the chance out of this roll it may be a good idea to let healing spells (or harm spells used to give HP back to undead) automatically heal 5 points per d8 that would be rolled. You can still roll, if you think you can get more, but that guaranteed minimum is often a lot more helpful than the fickle finger of fate.

And as with all of the previous rules, this one applies to the villains as well as to the heroes.

What Makes A Good House Rule?

Most of the time house rules are meant to solve specific problems in specific groups. One DM may feel that halberds are reach weapons, so he gives them that property. Another may feel that reach weapons should be able to be used against adjacent enemies as a swift action. Some DMs will change initiative rules so there's only one roll per side, and others will make it so disabling traps is a multi-step process instead of a simple roll of the die.

House rules are often judged on a case-by-case basis, but the important thing to remember is that house rules need to be applied unilaterally, and regularly in order to work. And generally speaking house rules should take chance out of something, rather than put more chance into the game. There's already enough chance for a natural 1 to be the death of your character without making players roll more often.

Also if everyone at your table really disagrees with your house rule, it's a good idea to listen. You and your players both have to work together to tell a story, and for that it's important for players to feel like they're being challenged without feeling like they're being punished. Especially if you can't use the excuse of "look, that's what it says in the book."

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The Best (Non-Magical) Equipment For Your Pathfinder Party

Pathfinder is a game of gods and devils, magic and monsters, swords and sorcery. As characters begin fighting dragons, ancient liches, and powerful necromancers it's easy to get caught up in the spectacle of the epic. But take a moment and ask yourself how many times you've found your adventure stymied for want of something simple? Something really, really basic? Like a torch, some rope, a ball of twine, or a piece of chalk?

We're in the middle of the goddamn desert, and you didn't bring a canteen?

Every player has his or her list of equipment that is a necessity before setting out on an adventure, regardless of what level they're at. For those who don't want to scour the books for the most useful equipment that will often cost you less than a single gold piece, this list has some items you should really consider adding to your pack.

Pouches, Packs, and Utility Belts

Batman ain't got shit on this.

Have you ever been in the middle of a fight and realized you have the perfect item to turn the tide of battle, but it's buried in the bottom of your backpack? Sure it's just a move action to get it out of your pack, but doing provokes attacks of opportunity.

That's why it's a good idea to be careful with where you're keeping your equipment.

The bandolier (Ultimate Equipment) and the adventurer's sash (Seekers of Secrets) are both items that players should pay attention to. They both go across an adventurer's chest, and the former has eight pockets while the latter has six. Both items provide loops for weapon-like items, and pouches for flasks and vials. It is a move action to draw an item from either of them. So where's the benefit? Well if you're storing a wand or other weapon-like object (Core Rule Book 186) that's near to hand then you may draw it as if it were a weapon. That means no attack of opportunity for pulling out your wand. Which, under the right circumstances, is a handy thing to know. You still can't quick draw it, even with the feat, but you can draw it in all other respects as if it were a weapon.

For those who really want to get gear into their hands more quickly though it's a good idea to invest in either a wrist sheathe or a spring-loaded wrist sheathe (Adventurer's Armory). The former allows you to drop a dart, dagger, or wand into your hand with a move action, and the latter with a swift action. Neither action provokes an attack of opportunity, though cranking the spring-loaded sheathe back is a full-round action that does provoke.

Lastly, it's a good idea to invest in a weapon cord (Advanced Player's Guide). This two-foot length of rawhide goes around your wrist and lets you retrieve a dropped or disarmed weapon as a move action. Not as good as a lock gauntlet, but you can still drop the weapon in your hand and use something else (wand, drink a potion, etc.) without serious worry.

Light Sources

Because hell globes are hard to come by.

If you're fortunate enough to have a race with darkvision then you're going to be head-and-shoulders above fellow party members when you're eventually ambushed at night or have to skulk through a series of caves. If you're playing a human though (as so many players do) then it's a good idea to be able to see where you're going.

One of best backups you can have is a candle (Core Rule Book 158). A candle is considered a weightless item (so there's no reason not to carry half a dozen of them just to be safe), and as long as a character has some means to light it like flint and steel (Core Rule Book 158) or just a cantrip like prestidigitation, a candle can be the difference between wandering a maze in the dark and being able to at least see five feet in front of your face. A candle lamp doesn't provide any additional illumination, but it catches dripping wax and stops the candle from going out in a breeze.

For those adventurers who prefer traditional torches it's a good idea to invest in a shield sconce (Adventurer's Armory). This handy item is a metal frame that straps over a light, medium, or tower shield, and it holds a torch for you. A great item for armored tanks who want to lead the way into the darkness, but who don't have a free hand to hold a torch.

Alchemical Items

When it absolutely, positively has to be stuck in place, doused in acid, and set on fire.

I already created a pretty exhaustive list of great alchemical items in this post right here. That said, alchemical items can take out swarms, heal the party, light your way, stop your falls, let you bypass damage reduction, protect you from energy damage, and they can grant you concealment.

Seriously, I can't say enough good things about these items. A requirement for any adventurer who wants to be ready for anything.

Tools of The Trade

Because it's better to have and not need, than to need and not have...

No thief worth her salt would be caught dead without a few sets of lockpicks on her person... but you've probably noticed that's the only tool set that most adventurers bring with them on the road. You may also have noticed that, nine times out of ten, you always wish you'd brought something else with you.

Perhaps one of the best tools for an adventurer is a simple crowbar (Core Rule Book 155). This bar provides a +2 to all strength checks to force open doors and chests, and it can be used as an improvised melee weapon if necessary. The much more common grappling hook (Core Rule Book 155) is a great investment, along with at least 50 feet of rope (hemp or silk, both are useful). It's often a good idea to bring a shovel or a pick (because you're going to have to dig a latrine at some point, or camp is going to get gross). If a party is traveling overland or under the mountains a compass (Advanced Player's Guide) provides a +2 bonus on survival checks (above ground) or knowledge (dungeoneering) checks (below ground) for finding direction. Manacles (Core Rule Book 156) are much better than rope for trussing up foes that you need to bring back alive (or if you have adventurers who are particularly lawful, good, or both in your party).

Seriously though, getting out of manacles is a DC 30 escape artist or DC 26 strength check. 35 and 28 for masterwork manacles. Your bounty ain't going nowhere.

Miscellaneous Gear

What the hell is this even for?

Some items are just so random it makes you wonder who would ever use them. Then you find yourself in a situation wishing you'd parted with those five silver pieces because that piece of equipment would come in really damn handy.

Take chalk (Core Rule Book 158) for instance. It's a cheap, no-weight item but it can be used to mark where adventurers have gone in an underground passageway. Chalk powder, flour, and other dusts can be packaged into thrown weapons that will reveal invisible creatures in a square (Advanced Player's Guide).

Another helpful item is a flask of lamp oil (Core Rule Book 158). While used as splash weapons for several editions, these items can be used to coat enemies (or the ground) in burning pitch. It does take a full round action to affix a wick though, which is something that should be kept in mind by adventurers with pyromantic urges. For those who need heat but not fire the ideal item is a heatstone (Inner Sea World Guide). It will heat a 20-foot square area even in extreme cold, but it won't give away a location with light. Also, you can't cook with it or hurt anyone with it.

Lastly, for those who've been involved in a foot chase, it's a good idea to have at least one bag of caltrops (Core Rulebook 155) on hand. A single bag covers a 5 foot square and they have the potential to lame creatures who run over them. A lame creature is reduced to half movement, and the penalty remains until the damage is healed. While you might not use them often, caltrops are often great when paired with smokesticks so that those who find them do so without warning.

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The Best Alchemical Items For Your Pathfinder Party

Alchemical items are one of the most overlooked tools available to adventurers in Pathfinder. These unusual creations may seem quaint, even quirky, but they can be the difference between character death and snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.

Below is a list of some of the more useful items and groups of items that players will run into. In the descriptions you'll find the upsides, the downsides, and the appropriate levels to use these items at. Some of them are only good for starting parties, while others can be used all the way through epic level. It just depends on where your game is at.

Grenade Weapons

Athos, Porthos, and Inflammable

Everyone knows these items: alchemist fire, acid flasks, and holy water. Found on page 160 of the Core Rulebook they're the three musketeers of lower-level dirty tricks. Alchemist fire does 1d6 of fire damage to the main target, automatically setting it on fire and splashing out to do 1 point of fire damage to all adjacent squares. Acid also does 1d6 with splash to all adjacent squares, but no recurring damage. Holy water does 2d4 damage to an undead or evil creature, and can be poured out over incorporeal creatures which makes it a handy weapon at lower levels against ghosts and evil there-not-there enemies.

That said, none of these items are really much use past level 5, and most players dispense with them by level 3 or so. The reason is simple: not enough bang for the buck. They're great against swarms, who take double damage from grenade weapons, and they're a lovely touch attack against enemies with really high armor classes, but they take a move action to draw and a standard action to throw. Even Quick Draw can't solve this problem. As such players tend to stop carrying any of these except for emergency situations, or because they just plain forgot they had a grenade left over in the bottoms of their backpacks.

Smokesticks and Thunderstones

Ninja Vanish!

These two items are very undervalued for their strategic capabilities in a fight. Thunderstones have a range of 20 feet, a radius of 10 feet from the point of impact, and they require a DC 15 Fortitude save to avoid being deafened for an hour. That's a -4 to Initiative, a 20 percent miscast chance on spells, and a field day for rogues who only have to worry about keeping out of sight instead of being heard creeping up. This is a big boon, but the problem is that it comes with a relatively low save. A 15 is a terrifying proposition at lower levels, with even fighters and barbarians being at a 50/50 shot to avoid being deafened. As the threat levels increase and creatures get bigger, badder, and have Fortitude saves that would make PCs cry if they could see them, these stones may seem pretty useless. On the other hand, spellcasters are squishy at nearly any level, and the potential to lose spells makes one round spent to chuck a thunderstone seem like a pretty worthy endeavor when it could save you from a fireball or a flamestrike.

The thunderstone's companion, also found on page 160 of the Core Rulebook, is the humble smokestick. It creates a 10-foot cube of smoke as per the fog cloud spell, and unless the smoke is blown away by a strong wind (not common in dungeon settings) the cloud provides concealment. Said concealment works both ways sadly, but for those players who need to hide from archers, who need a distraction to make a stealth check, or who need a ninja-vanish for a retreat, smokesticks are a great way to Batman in or out of a fight.

Sticky Situations

Why am I dripping with goo?

Tanglefoot bags have become a phobia for several DMs, and for good reason. While players rarely use these items they are a great way to debuff a villain regardless of the thrower's class or combat capabilities. On a direct hit it requires a DC 15 Reflex save, or the creature is stuck to the floor. If the creature was flying the results on a failure mean that it crashes. Even if the target makes the save though, it's entangled for 2d4 rounds. That's half movement speed, -2 on attack rolls, -4 on Dexterity related checks, and a concentration check of 15+spell level any time it tries to cast a spell. While it doesn't work on anything bigger than Large size, a tanglefoot bag can be a huge pain in the butt for any enemy of the appropriate size.

Tanglefoot bags come in other flavors though! The tangleshot arrow (found in Elves of Golarion) is still a touch attack, but it has the ability to be drawn and fired like any other arrow complete with range (well, half the range anyway) and rate of fire. The trade off is that it's only a DC 10 Reflex save not to be stuck to the floor, and the concentration check is only DC 10+spell level. On the other hand, a barrage of these arrows can very quickly stick your enemies in their tracks. Also, for those who prefer the flavor of the friendly neighborhood web slinger, there's Spider Sac (found in the Advanced Race Guide). Spider Sac is, more or less, a 10 foot web-shooter that can be used when climbing, swinging through the air, falling, or it can be used as a lasso when a touch attack is made against an opponent. This leaves the opponent entangled, and at the end of your rope.

Weapon Blanches

Apply With Caution

Weapon blanch comes in a variety of shapes and styles. When applied to a blade it gives that blade the ability to overcome different kinds of damage reduction, or in the case of ghost salts the ability to hit incorporeal creatures. These items are typically considered useful until the players can start buying magic weapons, but it never hurts to keep blanch on hand for fighting creatures whose DR isn't going to be pierced by the weapon you've got.

An Ounce of Prevention, And A Pound of Cure

Because sometimes the cleric is the first to go down.

One of the most overlooked items that players can use are Antitoxins and Antiplague (the former in the Core Rulebook, the latter in the Advanced Player's Guide). These things give a +5 bonus to poison and disease saves respectively for an hour once ingested. They're great to keep on hand in case plague-born undead start reaching out from the streets for you, or in case an assassin with a trademarked poison has marked a party for death. They need to be used carefully, but a +5 bonus is nothing to sneeze at when it comes to staying healthy. Soothe Syrup (found in the Advanced Player's Guide as well) has a similar effect on sickened and nauseated characters. Lastly, for those who want to be prepared when battle breaks out, it's a good idea to take a draught of Troll Oil. This disgusting brew automatically stabilizes characters that have drunk it (for one hour), and it has a 50% chance to end any bleed effects.

Alchemical items can also fix you right up even if you don't take them before getting hurt. Bloodblock (from the Advanced Player's Guide) ends any bleed effect instantly, and provides a +5 bonus on Heal checks as if the person had used a healer's kit. Smelling Salts (from the Advanced Player's Guide) give players who are rendered unconscious or staggered by a spell effect a new save, and they automatically revive a dying character to consciousness. A handy trick if the fighter needs to drink a healing potion or the cleric needs to channel energy, but they're currently at negative hit points. For those who don't have access to magical healing, or for those occasions where the healer is dying, a dose of Troll Styptic (Seekers of Secrets) is a great field dressing. It automatically ends all bleeding effects and ongoing damage, granting the recipient 2d4 rounds of fast healing 2. It does require a Fortitude save of 15 to not be sickened while the dressing does its work, but being a troll is far from pleasant.

Miscellaneous Alchemical Items You Should Keep Around

Like a Canadian armory, you never know what you might need.

Sometimes it isn't worth stocking up on a certain alchemical item, but it's still nice to have in a pinch. Some of these include:
Ward Gel: Made for particular elements, this gel acts as protection from energy 5 up to 20 points of damage for one hour. Great for raiding dragons and frost giants alike!
Bachelor's Snuff: Golarion birth control, this snuff renders male humanoids sterile for 2-3 days or so.
Smoke Pellets: The original ninja-vanish, these items are great for quick distractions that confuse enemies and allow for fast escapes (or assaults).
Everburning Torch and Sunrods: With so many characters that can't see in the dark, don't you want to have a few of these handy?
Clear Ear: It provides a +2 alchemical bonus on Perception and Knowledge checks, but a -2 on Charisma. Cranky rogues anyone?
Barbarian Chew: Side effects may include ugly red teeth, and an extra round of Rage if a barbarian enters it in the next hour after chewing.

Carrying it All

One of the biggest downsides of alchemical items is that they tend to ride in a backpack, or buried at the bottom of a bag of holding. For those who want to have them close to hand, along with wands and other useful items, it's a good idea to check out the bandolier, the adventurer's sash, and other great items listed right here in my guide to non-magical equipment.

You know you want one.

Why Bother?

It's true that the bonuses and usefulness provided by alchemical items can easily be provided, or exceeded by, magic. That's why few players bother with alchemical items past level 5 or 7. However, alchemical bonuses are one more category of bonus to add to a player's array, and what's even better is that they can't be dismissed or dispelled. They're great backup weapons, and they get around all those nasty immunities and resistances that many creatures have. They're also great holdouts for well-prepared rogues and combat characters who need to have a trick or two up their sleeves to make an impact on the big bads.

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