House rules for AD&D

Source books

Core Rules only. No UA, OA, Survival Guides, or other nonsense.
 

No Psionics, Bards must follow the requirements to level in Fighter and Thief first. We will be using the Weapon vs. Armor class tables, and by the book bean-counting encumbrance

- Stats are 4d6 drop lowest, arrange to taste.
   - if you don't like your stats, you must reroll a full set of 6 stats

- Worn Armor refers to armor on the body only. Gloves, Boots, Helmets and others must be worn separately.
- A shirt can only hold 100 gp weight. To carry any more you'll need to carry sacks, backpacks, belts etc.
- Riding a mount allows characters to fight as a cavalry class. Your mount does not gain secondary attacks for you.
- If you fire a ranged missile into a melee, you have an equal chance of hitting any engaged combatant
- Characters must drink an unknown potion entirely to determine its effects.

Phased Combat

I use phased combat where each side moves in order per phase. Combat rounds are 1 minute long and are broken up into 10 segments of 6-seconds each. The phases are:

Surprise

Initiative

Movement

Missile

Melee

Players have to declare their actions before initiative is rolled and combat phases are resolved.

Multiple Actions During Combat

If a player wishes to perform multiple actions, then every action is broken down into segments of 6-seconds and added up, to a total of 10.

For example, if a player wishes to move, drink a potion,sheathe one weapon and draw another, and attempt an attack, then first the segment of initiative is added to the distance moved (Movement rate x 1' foot per segment), then any number of segments for extra actions like drinking or switching weapons, then the weapon speed factor is totaled up. If the result is 10 or less, the player is successful in performing all actions. If it is less, the player cannot finish all actions.

Surprise

Every player will roll surprise for themselves.  Generally, characters will be surprised on a roll of 1 or 2 on d6. 

If there is a Ranger in the party, he will be surprised on a roll of 1, and any monster he is attempting to surprise will be surprised on 1-3 on d6.

Initiative

The party caller will roll initiative at the beginning of each round of combat, and the DM will roll for the monsters. The lowest die wins, and the die score indicates the segment of the round that the party acts on.

Movement Phase

The party that won initiative can move first, and the party that lost can follow. Movement rate x10' is the number of feet that a character can move in combat.

If a character is engaged in melee at the beginning of movement phase, they may choose to make a fighting withdrawal or a retreat. A fighting withdrawal disallows the use of an attack in that round. A retreat allows a character to flee at 10x his normal speed, but exposes them to rear attacks.

Missile Phase

This phase encompasses the firing of missile and thrown weapons, and of magic spells and magic item discharges.

Firing a missile weapon into an existing melee will result in a chance of hitting any combatant in that melee. The long length of the combat round presupposes much movement, positioning, feinting and striking, so it is not possible to accurately aim at an opponent in an engaged melee from an advantageous "angle" for very long.

It is not possible to fire a missile weapon when an opponent engages you in melee. If a character were to try, he would be struck by a melee attack and lose his missile attacks for the round.

If a spellcaster attempts to cast in melee, the casting time of the spell will be compared to the weapon speed factor of the melee combatant to determine who strikes first. If the spellcaster is struck before completing the spell, the spell is lost.

Melee Phase

Weapon Speed Factor is only used to determine first strike on simultaneous initiative. Melee combat is always resolved at the end of a combat round.