House rules!

[Dracos]

<_<

>_>

Requested House Rule:
No Automatic Fails on Saving Throws.

Effects are brutal enough and I'm unlucky and will get autofails all the time anyway :P

[Anastasia]

No.

In all seriousness, the autofail on 1 mechanic ensures that saving throws aren't automatic even with high saves. If you're nearly dying since you keep rolling ones, the problem is that your luck is shit, not that the rule needs changing. <_< I have sympathy for you!

[Anastasia]

Related to the above, are you guys interested in using an exploding dice variant instead of autofail/passes? It works like this:

If you roll a natural 20 on a check, you take the total and reroll the check. For example, a 1d20+8 check that comes up 28 is rerolled as 1d20+28. You keep going until you roll a non 20, it is possible to end up with a obscenely high number if you can get a few twenties back to back. Alternately, if you roll a natural 1, you subtract 20 from your original check and reroll it. For example, a total of 9 on the said 1d20+8 check would be rerolled as 1d20-14.

[Dracos]

I don't mind exploding dice varients, though I prefer a 5 or 10 as the modifier.

Reasoning:
Given that's often enough to put it right into auto fail for anything that shouldn't be an auto success for instance.  Most of the party only has one save above 10 as it is (adail the save king excepted).  With -10, you're pretty much just given one more chance to roll to beat the save.  With -20, well, take a saving throw of ten and 1d20-10 pretty much excludes you from making the follow up saving throw on anything but an exploding 20.  a below 1/400 chance of recovering from a bad saving throw is pretty much an auto fail with more rolling (Well, 1/40 or so assuming you already rolled a 1 actually, but still pretty ridiculously low).

  Taking kamvakua's example though using 10 and he would've followed that 1 roll with a 1d20+8 (versus 1d20-2).  Not terrible odds of making the save really (55 percent, versus 10 percent) and its his best save by far.  take his next save down and 1d20-2 with a flat 10 and it becomes 1d20-12 with a flat 20 (yeah, hope for an exploding 20 after that!).

Analyzing that example, 5 is probably too low (It'd be fine really for an average stat game, but nobody has a high save lower than ten as it stands)

Tl,dr: The exploding 20/-1 example in the DMG actually uses 10 as I recall.  I think the math is more viable at that number to be an exciting chance for survival rather than mocking.

On the high side, they almost never are relevant and given they're replacing auto-successes on 20, they're totally irrelevant other than just offering cool high numbers.  Maybe, Knight might be able to use them for power attack, but that'd be after he uses his psychic powers to defeat all the enemies anyway because he can see the future.

[Carthrat]

This sounds like pointless extra rolling to me. >_>

[Anastasia]

From the category of obscure house rule rulings, re succubus and suggestions:

The suggestion of a succubus to kiss it again after an energy drain is always considered a reasonable suggestion, even if you know it causes energy drain. A RAW reading might suggest otherwise, but. So don't make out with succubi and get energy drained to death.

[Carthrat]

* Carthrat eyes.

[Anastasia]

Someone asked.

[Anastasia]

New house rule.