Optional Rules for Companion

[Loba]

We have a house rule about wounds. AFAIK the standard rule only implies one wound, when your wound threshhold is hit. In our campain all PC's and NPC's get a wound for each full wound threshhold reached. In example: Your Wound threshhold is 9 and you are hit by a 30 damage hit. That would result in three wounds. Ouchie!

We also use this rule. And sometimes the PC Archer (Tiffarra) manages to get a frightening 50+ hit in giving someone with a 10 WT 5 wounds. Truly frightening. But then - makes sense and makes combat against armies something PCs will want to avoid. I'm definitely a fan of the Multiple Wound rule. I think it was that way in ED1 however ED4 seems to imply (but not state directly) 1 wound limit per hit (as you mentioned).

[Lys]

Wow, that's too harsh, to the point of boring combat. Only people with high initiatives ever get to move. It also means no chance for escape for archers and casters who get into melee.

That's not how it worked out in actual play, because in my experience characters very rarely actually want to disengage. In fact, we were like a dozen battles into the game with me playing a Swordmaster before i even noticed we were using that rule. It probably helped that our casters basically never got into melee, they stayed behind the frontliners and we made sure to protect them. As for enemy casters, i do imagine they may have wanted to disengage from melee if any of them had lived long enough to try.

We have a house rule about wounds. AFAIK the standard rule only implies one wound, when your wound threshhold is hit. In our campain all PC's and NPC's get a wound for each full wound threshhold reached. In example: Your Wound threshhold is 9 and you are hit by a 30 damage hit. That would result in three wounds. Ouchie!

The standard rule does imply one wound, but it's so vaguely written that many groups interpret it as taking one wound for every multiple of your wound threshold in damage. In fact that's how my group read it, and they'll continue to read it that way when we start playing again because i have no intention of telling them otherwise. Taking multiple wounds just makes more sense to me as a result of taking massive damage, so even though it's not how it's intended i think works out much better.

[Mataxes]

One thing to keep in mind with regard to multiple Wounds per test:

It blunts a couple of creature powers and higher-Circle talents that explicitly allow that option.

[PiXeL01]

Something from the Stacking thread:

Allow a caster to cast a spell the same round he completes he weaves the last required thread.
A variant is: Allow a caster to cast a spell the same round the pattern is completed if an addition success is rolled on the final Thread Weaving test.

[Lys]

Oh hey something i'd like to see optional rules for: Helmets! Historically speaking they're the most important piece of kit for a soldier after their weapon. The English Assize of Arms of 1181 required that all freemen worth less than 10 marks, "...must have a gambeson, an iron cap and a lance." That was the bare minimum requirement to be worth something in the field of battle. (Note: Lances and spears are the same thing in the 12th century.) ED3 had decent rules for helmets but they were dependent upon the now removed Armour Defeating Hits, so ED4 just treats helmets like a fluff item. It would be nice to have some optional rule to make helmets and helms as important as they were in real life.

[etherial]

Something from the Stacking thread:

Allow a caster to cast a spell the same round he completes he weaves the last required thread.
A variant is: Allow a caster to cast a spell the same round the pattern is completed if an addition success is rolled on the final Thread Weaving test.

In previous editions, I'd allow them to do it if they got an Excellent Success and that worked well. So maybe they can spend 2 Successes on a Thread Weaving roll to cast immediately.

[Dougansf]

Something from the Stacking thread:

Allow a caster to cast a spell the same round he completes he weaves the last required thread.
A variant is: Allow a caster to cast a spell the same round the pattern is completed if an addition success is rolled on the final Thread Weaving test.

In previous editions, I'd allow them to do it if they got an Excellent Success and that worked well. So maybe they can spend 2 Successes on a Thread Weaving roll to cast immediately.

Agreed. 2 Extra successes sounds right.

Also, I allow my players to weave extra threads on the fly, if they get extra successes on their TW test. Having both of these options would make it an important decision on a roll with 2 Extra Successes. Cast now, or cast improved spell next round.

[Lys]

One thing to keep in mind with regard to multiple Wounds per test: It blunts a couple of creature powers and higher-Circle talents that explicitly allow that option.

After checking the ED4 GMG there do not appear to be any such creature powers, nor do there seem to be any such high-Circle talents in the ED3 Player's Companion. In all honesty i don't recall ever seeing any power of any kind which gives more wounds based on how many multiples of the wound threshold the damage roll meets. The closest are powers which cause automatic wounds, but those are arguably even nastier if damage can cause multiple wounds, since it makes it easier to take out an enemy through sheer weight of wound penalties.

[CPFCPF]

We have a house rule about wounds. AFAIK the standard rule only implies one wound, when your wound threshhold is hit. In our campain all PC's and NPC's get a wound for each full wound threshhold reached. In example: Your Wound threshhold is 9 and you are hit by a 30 damage hit. That would result in three wounds. Ouchie!
The standard rule does imply one wound, but it's so vaguely written that many groups interpret it as taking one wound for every multiple of your wound threshold in damage. In fact that's how my group read it, and they'll continue to read it that way when we start playing again because i have no intention of telling them otherwise. Taking multiple wounds just makes more sense to me as a result of taking massive damage, so even though it's not how it's intended i think works out much better.

Well, I'm a german player and the german rulebook states the one wound rule clearly. Maybe the english version is more vague, I don't know.

[CPFCPF]

One thing to keep in mind with regard to multiple Wounds per test:

It blunts a couple of creature powers and higher-Circle talents that explicitly allow that option.

Do you have an example? Because every power i know of so far is adding wounds. For example skin shift: You get the wounds per success and additional wounds for the damage. That still works fine.