I've noticed a few things in our campaign that I'm going to attempt to change when I run my next campaign (Xraxus). Whenever I think of different changes that I feel need to be made I'll note it on this page. Of course the following items are my opinion and our individual DMs can take it or leave it.

Item #1: Rewards

First of all, it seems to me that we tend to reward people for doing things that they should do automatically instead of rewarding things that are truly worth rewarding. There should be two different kinds of rewards: plot awards and mechanical awards. 

If a character does something that furthers the plot, or makes a selfless decision that deserves a roleplaying award, they deserve what I'll call a plot award. A plot award consists of experience points. A standard plot award should be equal to approximately 50 XP per character level, that way it is enough that it'll be useful, but not so much that it'll over compensate the character for what they should do anyhow.

A mechanical award is when you reward a character for something that is done using game mechanics. If a character figures out a creative new way to use a skill, does something exceptionally dangerous that would certainly result in death, or just does something cool, that character would deserve a mechanical award. A mechanical award consists of hero points. A mechanical award should be 1-3 hero points. Most awards would only be one point, however a death-defying action would probably warrant a full three point award.

Item #2: Spotting Distance

One rule that we don't use, but I believe we should, is the "Spotting Distance" rule (see page 60 of the Dungeon Master's Guide). Since we don't use this rule it makes ranged weapons nearly useless since just about all of our combats start within charging distance.

I think it'll be easy to determine the spotting distance while preparing the combat and just use the prepared spotting distance as we begin a combat.  

Item #3: NPC Attitudes

Another rule we tend not to use is the NPC attitudes (see page 149 of the Dungeon Master's Guide). While the way we do it is less mechanical then the rule as it is written, it also diminishes the Diplomacy and Intimidate skills.

It shouldn't be too difficult to decide an NPC's initial attitude that way the character can influence an NPC's attitude.