House Rules

In the interest of improving games of Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition games, here are a few house rules that are based on the idea of improving the payer experience, founded on the concept that the game should be fun.

NEW BACKGROUND: "LIFE MAGIC" - optional player background.
 A character with this background can spend healing surges to alter the effects of powers. After rolling to hit with a power, or after initializing a power that does not require a hit, the surge is lost as a free action, and no hit points are regained. Instead, a power's effects are altered in one of the following ways:
• delayed for any number of turns.
• change the damage type to any other type, including untyped damage.
• withholding any damage, instead producing only the effects, usually as a delayed action in conjunction with a diplomacy, intimidate, or thievery check. As a "no-action" the player may inflict the damage, in case the skill-related result was not achieved.
• imbuing an item with a power that activates with a player-set trigger. The imbued power may not be used by the character again until it is expended from the object or is diffused by the player as a standard action.

Two healing surges may be lost as a free action to...
• amplify a power: the power will gain +5+half-level to hit, or +10+half-level damage, or +5 ongoing damage of the same type as the attack.
• inversion of damage: a damaging power can be turned into a healing power.

 RULES UPDATES: SKILLS
Skill: Intimidate
• The Intimidate skill may be used with a +5 bonus if none of the player characters has been killed, AND if at least one standard enemy has been killed OR if at least four minions have been killed.
• If the target of an Intimidate roll is a non-combatant or is friendly, on a successful check the target becomes compliant for one encounter, during which time it qualifies as an Ally; after the encounter ends or at the end of five minutes it becomes hostile. Then, the intimidator does not qualify as an Ally to the target until a successful Diplomacy check has been made against the target's will. The target gains a +10 circumstantial bonus to will if it was damaged by any of the intimidator's actions during the period of intimidation.
• A hostile creature that is immobilized or prone does not gain a bonus against intimidate checks for being hostile.

• For low-charisma characters, an Athletics check can be made to intimidate enemies, instead of the usual Intimidate check.

RITUAL SACRIFICES
• Rituals and alchemical items cost 1/5 of their listed codex price.
• Rituals may be cast during combat, and will take a number of rounds equal to half of the ritual's level, in which the caster is focused*. For rituals that normally take more than ten minutes to cast, a healing surge may be sacrificed as a free action to reduce the time cost in one-hour increments per healing surge sacrificed. The following may sacrifice surges: The caster; the caster's willing allies, and helpless enemies.
*"Focused"= the caster passes an appropriate DC for the ritual every round of casting. Each failure delays the ritual 1 round.

NATURAL 1 TO HIT
3. Attack rolls that result in a natural "1" require that the attacking character immediately rolls a D4. This does not count as any action. The result determines the outcome of the botched attack:
    1: No effect
    2: The attacker loses the next use of that attack
    3: The attack hits an ally within range. If no ally is within range, proceed to Result 4.
    4: Harm self with the attack in all its effects and relevant damage.

FEAT MUNCHKIN
A character that takes a multiclass feat that grants the character a use of the new class's at-will attack powers as encounter powers may alternatively use the following option: the character may replace one of his or her at-will powers with the new at-will power, and converts the traded at-will power to an encounter power. This can prevent most unnecessary "hybrid" character creation.

BOMBS AWAY
4E lacks a dropping attack physic: now it has one.
• In order to drop an object on a creature, use the following attack: use the character's highest ability modifier versus the target's reflex defense, including any applicable bonuses. If the attack misses, the target may shift one square away as a free action from its square as it leaps out of the way. If the target is still underneath the object (in such a case as the object occupying 3x3 squares, the target suffers half damage.
• Dropping an object is not quite precise, and making the attack suffers -1 for every increment of 10 squares past the first 10 cubes of altitude, so that, for example, at 100 cubes of altitude, the attack suffers -9 to hit.

ACTION!
• Action Points are handed out for every encounter, not just per milestone. At each milestone, the players gain a "Super Action Point" which may be spent at any time. These disappear after an extended rest.
• Action points may be used as a no-action to re-roll any single unsatisfactory dice roll.