Houserules
A Few House Rules.
1. You can cast up to 3rd level spells 1 handed. It takes 2 hands to cast 4th level+ spells. Remember that concerning having a weapon readied.
2. Coup de Grace works differently. No auto kill 'named characters'. It works as is on Mooks. Anyone with a name, including a PC, you just do max damage (Critical) with whatever weapon you are using. This will many times kill them anyway, however there is a chance they can survive. I like this better because its more cinematic to me that a bad guy (or player character has a chance to appear to be dead but live through it to come back another day. This way The DM cannot just kill a helpless character out of hand either. ;)
3. Character Death- I am not big on character death. It happens though. When it occurs, I will ask the player the question "Do you want to keep playing that character or roll up something new?"---If The character chooses to roll up something new, it ends there. If the player feels they really enjoy the character, I will allow the character to cling to deaths door and stabilize 1 point from death with the following penalty----in PM the Player and The DM will agree on a drawback appropriate to the method of death. Lose of vision in one eye, some hearing loss, a broken arm that needs to mend, a broken leg, ribs, severe scarring. Whatever is chosen will have game effects that have to modify the players character and can be a good opportunity for role playing.
4. The Magical Store Idea---I do not adhere to the magical wallmart idea. Rather only certain magic items will be available for sale in a given community. Alchemical items are far more readily available and I have a list of specialty herbs that can also be purchased at an Herbalist or a Druid's Dont expect for your character to be able to find that sword of sharpness of every character to have a bag of holding. Its highly unlikely. There will be times I ask the players to give me a wish list and I will make sure items are placed. But those times are fairly rare.