House-Rules

These are special rules that the GM has put into to play, that can not be found in the Core Rulebook.

Hero Points (Formerly Known as Action Point)
When a player-character attempts and succeeds at an action that is deemed sufficiently heroic and/or epic, he/she will be awarded a hero point. These points may be used in exchange for certain rewards in the game. Some of the ways to earn hero points are as follows:

-Endangering oneself to protect an ally or innocent

-Successfully talking one's way out of a seemingly unavoidable fight

-Describing an interesting and thematic way to dispatch an enemy

-Performing a dramatic and daring action that shifts the battle in favor of the PCs

Spending hero points is as easy as returning the plastic bead to the GM. Some of the actions that can be taken by using a hero point:

- Acting once out of initiative order, in addition to one's normal actions for that round:

- Take an additional action on your turn

- Give a bonus of +2 to one d20 roll

Some actions require more than 1 hero point. The GM may decide that a certain action requires 2, or even 3 hero points to perform. These may include:

- Automatically stop bleeding to death.

- Automatically move from negative hit points to 1 hit point.

The possibilities are limited only by your imagination.

At any time a PC may only hold 3 hero points, but may only use them once in a round. For example, Mialee the elf wizard is at -2 hit points and bleeding to death. She uses 2 hero points to automatically stabilize. She can't use any more hero points that round. Meanwhile, Lidda the halfling rogue has 3 hero points, and she uses one to give her next attack roll a bonus of +2. Even though she has only used one, she cannot use any more hero points that round.

Shield Splintering
If you are carrying a shield and take damage, you can instead choose to negate the damage and splinter your shield. You will allow your shield to absorb the full force of the blow, therefore breaking it and rendering it useless. A shield splintered in this way is broken beyond repair.

The rules above are specific to mundane wooden shields. Shields made of metal or that have a magical enchantment can take more hits before being splintered.

Shields made of any metal other than mithral or adamantine can take 2 hits before splintering. Shields made of mithral can take 3, and shields made of adamantine can take 4. These numbers never reset unless the shield is repaired. For example, Ulfberht the human fighter has a shield made of mithral. He uses it to deflect the damage from an orc's battleaxe. His shield can now absorb 2 hits before splintering. Three months later, he still hasn't repaired his shield, so he still only can absorb 2 hits.

If you have a magical shield, it can absorb 1 more hit than a mundane shield made of the same material. This resets every day.