  We explore gauge actions for lattice QCD, which are constructed such that the
occurrence of small plaquette values is strongly suppressed. By choosing strong
bare gauge couplings we arrive at values for the physical lattice spacings of
O(0.1 fm). Such gauge actions tend to confine the Monte Carlo history to a
single topological sector. This topological stability facilitates the
collection of a large set of configurations in a specific sector, which is
profitable for numerical studies in the epsilon-regime. The suppression of
small plaquette values is also expected to be favourable for simulations with
dynamical quarks. We use a local Hybrid Monte Carlo algorithm to simulate such
actions, and we present numerical results for the static potential, the
physical scale, the topological stability and the kernel condition number of
the overlap Dirac operator. In addition we discuss the question of reflection
positivity for a class of such gauge actions.
