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View Full Version : Your favorite rules-error you made?



Gamerlord
2010-01-08, 08:13 PM
Tell your story of a rules-error you made that actually was kind of nice.

In my very first D&D campaign, we didn't know you started out with max HP, and we all rolled for our HP(The sorcerer rolled a 1 :smallbiggrin: ),that campaign was tough, it was gritty, it was perhaps the best campaign I ever played in, we also didn't know how CR worked, how to deal out treasure, and some other stuff.

Saintjebus
2010-01-08, 08:18 PM
First time we used ToB, we didn't know that manuevers worked like spell levels. I was destroying things quite easily at level 8 with 8th level manuevers. That only lasted about a session or two. Then we reread the book and discovered our error. But those two sessions, I rocked! Though I still rocked afterwards.... though that had more to do with a wizard who like to enlarge me in every battle.

The Dark Fiddler
2010-01-08, 08:27 PM
First time we used ToB, we didn't know that manuevers worked like spell levels. I was destroying things quite easily at level 8 with 8th level manuevers. That only lasted about a session or two. Then we reread the book and discovered our error. But those two sessions, I rocked! Though I still rocked afterwards.... though that had more to do with a wizard who like to enlarge me in every battle.

My group did that too.

My favorite, though, is that you add Dex to damage to ranged attacks.

We've kept it as a houserule.

Critical
2010-01-08, 08:56 PM
First time we used ToB, we didn't know that manuevers worked like spell levels. I was destroying things quite easily at level 8 with 8th level manuevers. That only lasted about a session or two. Then we reread the book and discovered our error. But those two sessions, I rocked! Though I still rocked afterwards.... though that had more to do with a wizard who like to enlarge me in every battle.

Gee, not only me. Everyone was kind of shocked when I said that I get 2 extra from a maneuver when we were PvP'ing at level five xD :smallbiggrin:

Hat-Trick
2010-01-08, 09:02 PM
A group I play with occasionally doesn't seem to read the books at all. The DM has spell levels gained at their matching number. When I ran a game for one of the group he got pissed when I played it straight.

My favorite rule misread has to be when the formerly mentioned DM allowed me to learn spells as a Fighter. It was nifty.

Zeta Kai
2010-01-08, 09:04 PM
Is it sad that I already see TWO errors that occurred at my table? :smallredface:

I did the random-health-@-1st-level thing, & the Dex-to-ranged-damage thing. Ugh. I do like those variants, though.:smallbiggrin:

starwoof
2010-01-08, 09:12 PM
We thought that charge added +2 to damage as well as attack for about 8 years. Then we brought in a guest player who told us that we were doing it wrong. We still add +2 damage when we charge.:smallcool:

We also did grapple wrong for the longest time. Every round the grapplers would roll off and whoever won got to do one of the things on the grapple actions list... regardless of who's turn it was.

Eldrys
2010-01-08, 09:19 PM
We thought that charge added +2 to damage as well as attack for about 8 years. Then we brought in a guest player who told us that we were doing it wrong. We still add +2 damage when we charge.:smallcool:

Wait, you don't add two damage on a charge!?!?

Scoot
2010-01-08, 09:30 PM
DM gave me a +6 Battleaxe once. We were level one, it was from a gnoll.

He knows how to read stat-blocks now.

Alteran
2010-01-08, 09:39 PM
My group originally thought that you needed to roll higher than a DC or targeted defense to succeed, not just match it. We made this error with every single d20 roll, for about a year. We were finally corrected by a long-time player at a local Game Day. We were shocked and confounded. :smallredface: :smallbiggrin:

Zaydos
2010-01-08, 09:40 PM
First time I actually played 3.0 and I tested out a psion. Well I used the mind blast psychic attack mode on an Ogre Magi. Well the ogre magi failed its save and was stunned. We didn't know how stunned worked though and I went over and coup de grace'd it with a dagger twice till it died. We apparently didn't know how regeneration worked either.

Glyde
2010-01-08, 11:49 PM
Bonus damage dice working with crits.

I did a crit leading up to x5 damage (x2>x3>x5. We use a weird multiplier adding rule) with Death From Above. Fun stuff, that.

starwoof
2010-01-08, 11:51 PM
Wait, you don't add two damage on a charge!?!?

Apparently not!!! :smalleek:

Temotei
2010-01-09, 12:01 AM
Oh. I fail. :smallamused:

I've always thought Dexterity was added to ranged attacks for damage.

Lioness
2010-01-09, 12:14 AM
DM gave me a +6 Battleaxe once. We were level one, it was from a gnoll.

He knows how to read stat-blocks now.

:S

I did that last session...apparently I don't know how to read stuff either. The usual DM corrected me though.

BobVosh
2010-01-09, 12:22 AM
You know how all the charts have +X whenever you level? We had some amazing saves and BAB...I think our lowest saves were on the wizards reflex at like +36.

Poor monsters never had a chance.

pyrefiend
2010-01-09, 12:24 AM
We added base attack bonus to damage for quite some time.... theres more but I can't remember right now.

Mongoose87
2010-01-09, 12:25 AM
I used to have this Changeling Rogue with perpetually incorrect Attack Bonuses. One session, it was too high, the next it was too low. Of course, he never it anything, either way.

Koretsu
2010-01-09, 12:43 AM
Not really a rules error, but I remember in an epic game, I was playing a Sorcerer/Wild Mage with an emphasis on evocation magic augmented by metamagic feats. Thinking that this would be an epic game, and thus we were sure to encounter things resistant to magic, I decided to take the Energy Substitution: Sonic metamagic, thinking "That'll let me bypass resistance for just about everything!". First encounter in the game was against a BBEG who was meant to be a recurring villain - A death slaad. I won the initiative roll, cast Time Stop (Maximized with a metamagic rod), a Quickened Hightened Hold Monster, and unloaded a salvo of Delayed Blast Fireballs Sonicballs with some Delayed Quickened Magic Missiles thrown in for good measure. In one turn, I emptied my entire array of 7th, 8th, and 9th level spells... The Slaad took 100d6+25d4+25 damage with no saving throw (It failed the will save to Hold Monster), killing him far earlier than the GM intended...

It wasn't until a year later that I was building a campaign of my own and was thumbing through the monster manual that I found the entry for Death Slaads. They were immune to sonic damage. >.>

Xenogears
2010-01-09, 12:43 AM
The difference between CR increase and LA for templates. That was a pretty nifty Vampire Monk though. Didn't hurt that we also thought you could full attack on a charge. Nothing like 8+ negative levels per turn...

Kallisti
2010-01-09, 12:47 AM
First few times my friends and I played D&D we thought XP gain per encounter was XP gain per encounter per monster. Needless to say, we gained a lot of levels really quickly at first.

Dire Moose
2010-01-09, 01:04 AM
Oh. I fail. :smallamused:

I've always thought Dexterity was added to ranged attacks for damage.
To be fair, the "add Dex to damage" idea wouldn't be too unrealistic. Shooting someone in the face would do more damage than just grazing his shoulder.

Temotei
2010-01-09, 01:16 AM
To be fair, the "add Dex to damage" idea wouldn't be too unrealistic. Shooting someone in the face would do more damage than just grazing his shoulder.

Exactly my thoughts. I've never made a ranged-attacker though, so the rule never applied to me all too much. I've had backup ranged weapons, but never a character focused on it (except for that thrower, but they use Strength for damage).

Akal Saris
2010-01-09, 01:21 AM
In 2E, I didn't really know the difference between druid and cleric spells, so my cleric of Tyr pretty much cast Entangle and Animal Friendship nonstop.

Then a longtime player (and rules lawyer, the kind that consistently shot down the party's ideas) gave me a 2 page long hand-written list of every cleric spell that a cleric of Try could cast, and I was really upset that almost none of my favorite spells were on that list.

In 3.5, I consistently forget that favored enemy doesn't give +X to attacks and damage. The usefulness of my ranger tends to vary in direct proportion to my remembering that simple point.

Oh, and in the 4E games I ran, I mistakenly gave PCs an action point after every combat and any significant plot point, and you could use more than 1/combat. The PCs loved it, so now it's our house rule.

Sstoopidtallkid
2010-01-09, 01:30 AM
I assumed fractional BAB through multiple campaigns, until someone on here mentioned it as a possible useful variant for someone else. I have basically badgered every DM into allowing it since, because...really. That's how it should be. The fact that WotC doesn't think people can do simple math is no reason to keep me from doing simple math.

taltamir
2010-01-09, 01:30 AM
early game for DM and players... players were all straight (no PrCs, no cross class) basic classes (a rogue, a monk, a wizard, a cleric, and a fighter)... nothing special too... the wizard was blasting and had a knife; etc.

Most fights were easy though, especially when we fought a reoccuring "twin" group to us (basically a "balanced group")... problem is, they kept on escaping with a few loses (item of teleport), but we still looted so much magic items that we were way way way beyond our WBL. it became an arms race of the DM arming enemies with better magic items to even try to stop us, resulting in us getting even richer as a result... When we noticed that we were several times our WBL we came up with the idea of consumable buffs for the enemies then which made things a lot more sane. (aka, they all drink several potions before ambushing us; etc)

that game ended in a TPK because we had faced a single clay golem... It was level appropriate but we misinterpreted the magic immunity in several ways:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/golem.htm

Immunity to Magic (Ex)
Golems have immunity to most magical and supernatural effects, except when otherwise noted.

First, we didn't read that specifically for clay golems:

Immunity to Magic (Ex)
A clay golem is immune to any spell or spell-like ability that allows spell resistance. In addition, certain spells and effects function differently against the creature, as noted below.
so it was immune to ALL magic instead of only SR allowing magic... furthermore, we interpreted it as "it interacts with us as if our magic weapons were mundane, our magical armor mundane, and our magical protective items non existent, and our protective buffs non existent"

So, it ignored the wizards mage armor, the fighter's armor was a full plate, not a full plate +X, the sword just a sword not a sword +X... the only buff types that worked really were things like bulls strength.

It was a massacre...

rezplz
2010-01-09, 01:48 AM
I don't know how I managed it, but for a while I thought that it was a move action to use a wand.

I very much enjoyed being able to fireball twice per round (I like explosions okay? >_>), and there was one combat that I was only able to survive (and probably saved much of the group) by doing cure critical wounds on myself twice per round, while every round getting hit by a fireball. Even curing myself twice for every fireball I took, I was falling behind in HP after a bit though. But then the party was finally able to help me take down the enemy sorcerer that I was distracting all that time. It was also fun taunting that sorcerer after taking so many fireballs to the face.

drengnikrafe
2010-01-09, 01:49 AM
-I also add dex to ranged attacks. It makes more sense that way, to me.
-I once gave up Divination as my school of magic. It made the rest of the campaign marginally more difficult when I tried to figure things out. Or scry.
-I thought I could replace a move action with a swift action. Made for awesome casting rounds, sometimes. 3 spells per round, anyway. Fortunately, I was a blaster, so it was less overpowered than it could have been. Of course, that was only made possible because of Action Points being able to grant a feat for 1 minute, and the list of prereqs to Sudden Quicken spell that I didn't notice.

taltamir
2010-01-09, 01:52 AM
-I also add dex to ranged attacks. It makes more sense that way, to me.
-I once gave up Divination as my school of magic. It made the rest of the campaign marginally more difficult when I tried to figure things out. Or scry.
-Other stuff I'll remember later. (Sorry)

by the RAW, you are not allowed to ban divination... and if you specialize in divination you only need to ban 1 other school (while normally you need to ban 2)...

this is because, according to WOTC, divination is just not as good as any of the other schools.

Temotei
2010-01-09, 01:53 AM
I don't know how I managed it, but for a while I thought that it was a move action to use a wand.

I very much enjoyed being able to fireball twice per round (I like explosions okay? >_>), and there was one combat that I was only able to survive (and probably saved much of the group) by doing cure critical wounds on myself twice per round, while every round getting hit by a fireball. Even curing myself twice for every fireball I took, I was falling behind in HP after a bit though. But then the party was finally able to help me take down the enemy sorcerer that I was distracting all that time. It was also fun taunting that sorcerer after taking so many fireballs to the face.

Taunting is fun.

Alternatively, you could have gotten resist energy cast on you.

Or you could have tried counterspelling. Or silence. Or blindness/deafness.


by the RAW, you are not allowed to ban divination... and if you specialize in divination you only need to ban 1 other school (while normally you need to ban 2)...

this is because, according to WOTC, divination is just not as good as any of the other schools.

He knows. The thread is about making errors with the rules...:smallconfused:

taltamir
2010-01-09, 01:59 AM
He knows. The thread is about making errors with the rules...:smallconfused:

I got that... I just wanted to mention that WOTC thinks it is such a useless school to specialize in... when he clearly saw that the game got a lot harder without divination...

Temotei
2010-01-09, 02:01 AM
I got that... I just wanted to mention that WOTC thinks it is such a useless school to specialize in... when he clearly saw that the game got a lot harder without divination...

Yep. Divination is the plot-breaker, after all.

nyjastul69
2010-01-09, 02:13 AM
Misunderstanding what accumulated hit dice meant. It means 1 hd at 1st level, 2 at 2nd, 3 at 3rd... We were gods amongst mortal monsters. Hey, I was 13 and we were pulling ourselves up by our boot straps in a weird amalgamation of B/E and 1e. Talk about Monty Haul. YOWZER, yay us.

The first 2 sessions of 3e I played we misread the AoO rules. We thought moving into a threatened square provoked. Win init move up to the beastie and get whacked for it. It clearly seemed wrong. That's to say nothing about the fact that a beastie that hasn't acted yet in the round shoudn't even get an AoO.

Jarawara
2010-01-09, 02:24 AM
This one wasn't mine, it was somebody elses.

Plus, while it's still my personal favorite in terms of outlandishness, it wasn't exactly good for the game - which I guess means it would not be classified as 'favorite'. Still, I gotta commend them for finding a way to make it work anyway....

Edit: Ahhh... and I got ninja'd by nyjastul even as I typed this. Foiled again!
Ah well, I shall continue anyway:

In the PHB (1st edition) XP charts for each class, it defined each level as having X number of HD based on each level. The players of one particular group thought that was how many hit dice they got each time they went up a level.

So, fighter gets 1 d10 at 1st level. 2 *more* d10 at 2nd level. 3 *more* d10 at 3rd level.... by 9th level they had 45 d10 (plus their constitution bonus times 45).

However, that wasn't the only rules errors they made. For example, they missed the entire chapter on natural healing. The only rules on healing they ever found were from cure spells and potions.

And then the DM ruled that it would be total cheese for the players to prep spells and cast them in town, prep more, cast them in town, and so on. So spellcasting could only be done while "in-play", which of course meant "the next time they went to the dungeon".

Net result, hit points never got really out of hand, because the amount of healing they got never quite matched the amount of damage they took. To replenish their hit points after an adventure, they counted on getting another level and a bunch more HD. Sometimes they 'got ahead', and sometimes they 'fell behind', but it all seemed to average out in the end.

A 9th level fighter could have 250 hit points... or might have less than 30. They'd go on a light adventure so they could 'heal up', before taking on a big task again.


I still get a laugh out of that one, but more to the point, I'm still admire how they were able to play for years and it worked out just fine.