One of the beautiful things about Pathfinder 2e is that it doesn’t require a lot of homebrew to get it up and running. For the most part, if you can think of something you’d like to do, the rule is in the books somewhere. Still, it’s not uncommon for groups to come up with their own house rules, and my tables are no different. I’ve developed my own list over the past few years, aiming to make play smoother and set table expectations early. Or, once, misreading a rule and then deciding I liked my interpretation better.
Medicine: Treat Wounds
Per RAW, you have to call out your DC for treating wounds ahead of time. The first time I saw this rule, I thought that you’d get the best possible result based on your training, and I played that way for quite a few levels before I got corrected by a player. I decided to stick with the rule, though.
- It cuts out the in-the-moment hemming and hawing over which DC to go for
- It still rewards investing in the skill since you can’t get a DC you didn’t train for.
- It offers more bang for the buck, meaning players are more willing to use it.
Hero Points
I love Hero Points and want to see them used. I also hate remembering to give them out. RAW, you’re supposed to give them out when players do something heroic, but this has always annoyed me as a metric. I’ve found it leads to people who play support getting ignored (even though they’re playing a big part in those big hits for front-liners) and some players hamming it up in hopes of getting rewarded. Also, I’m busy GMing the game, keeping a dozen random things in my head at one time, all while keeping a poker face in place. I don’t want to keep a subprocess open dedicated to “Are the players being good enough?”
So, instead, I put Hero Points on a timer. Every hour, every player gets one. I don’t even bother watching the clock: the players do that. This takes something off of my plate at no cost to the players.
Recall Knowledge
One of the few places where Pathfinder 2e is vague is what information Recall Knowledge gives players. Post Remaster, this has been clarified, allowing the player to ask a question but not receive a numerical value, which was already a house rule for most people.
Except for me.
This may be my “Ears of the City” trauma speaking, but I don’t enjoy Q&A mechanics in most games (MOTW being one of the few I enjoy). I also play with experienced players who just want a chance to not metagame, knowing that the thing they’re looking at is immune to fire. So, I toss the AON entry at them and move on.
It’s a lot of information, so if a player is new, I point out the most important parts of the entry to them or if I know the players haven’t seen this creature before.
Yes, it’s a huge reward for one roll, but that encourages players to use Recall Knowledge. They’re less likely to bother if they have to blow three actions to get all the information. This way, it’s sensible to do in the first round, along with buffs and positioning.
Secret Rolls
Speaking of Recall Knowledge, let’s talk about secret rolls.
I know I should do more of these; I just can’t be bothered. To do them, I have to ask someone for their bonus and roll for them (so not very secret) or have their bonuses in front of me (when my screen real estate is already at a premium). Then, I have to keep my admittedly terrible poker face in place while telling them the result. It’s not a huge amount of extra work, but running a game is about managing all the little things that can eat up your attention and energy, and this one isn’t worth it.
Besides, I have good players who love to lean into a bad result. Did they get a Nat 1? They’ll insist that thing is true until proven otherwise. It’s fun to watch them play out the result rather than try to figure out if what I told them was true or not.
Activating Auras
Sometimes, a house rule comes less for ease and more because the GM keeps screwing up. Many creatures in PF2 have auras, and many of those auras are considered to be ‘always on.’ Except… I never remember they had them until combat started, and many times, several players have charged in and acted.
So, my players know that I only activate them on the creature’s turn, sometimes blowing one of their actions if I feel like the players could use some help (I almost always regret this since the players are generally fine). Yes, I could use the aura feature in my VTT, but I hate having a bunch of blobs all over my screen when I don’t need them.
Automatic Bonus Progression
This is less a house rule and more something you can expect in any game I run. This alternate rule is my ride-or-die. With it, I can stop worrying about whether players are getting enough treasure to buy their base runes.
- RAW, it’s suggested that I should be adjusting treasure, but I’ve never bothered with that. As long as they’re limited by level, the power creep of having a bit more gold doesn’t seem to come up.
- I also don’t adjust for spellcasters. I know some people do this, but so far, it hasn’t been an issue in any of my campaigns.
- Because of ABP, property and striking rules are useless, so players convert those directly to cash.
Monthly games
I’ve written before about my love of monthly games, but they do come with some house rules of their own. Specifically, I assume that players rest between sessions, no matter what we end up on. Due to the time between games, it’s easy to forget where we left off or accidentally hit ‘rest’ on a sheet.’ Also, time is more precious with a monthly game, so you don’t want to waste ten minutes trying to figure out if we need to regain spells or hit points.
Rolling is in the open, using the VTT’s dice roller
Yes, even mine.
I don’t care if players can see the bonuses.
No, you can’t set up a camera to point at your shiny number rocks, so you can avoid using a digital roller.
You don’t even know what ‘pseudorandom’ means.
What the hell is wrong with you?
There’s often a Lodge nearby
As I’ve said before, I’m a fan of the GMPC. As a result, I’ll often hand-wave that there’s a Pathfinder Lodge nearby with NPCs ready to hire. I even use the Iconics since they come with sheets and fun backstories! They WILL take their share of the loot, and after their initial sheet, the players are responsible for running them and gearing them up, as well as deciding how to level them up.
And that’s it!
While I run mostly RAW, I fully believe in tweaking the rules that make my life easier or work better for my table. These are tweaked for a table of players with high system mastery and are good at keeping OOC knowledge out of in-character choices. They may not work for a table of players who can’t help but use the knowledge they shouldn’t have,
Katie Plays Games 