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Half-orc Bard
2010-10-21, 07:39 PM
Well I've been reading forums for a while now, and I still don't know what these mean. Can anyone tell me?

mootoall
2010-10-21, 07:40 PM
www.d20srd.org and Rules as Written.

Urpriest
2010-10-21, 07:42 PM
The SRD is the System Reference Document, an online resource that contains a bunch of core rules (including the Player's Handbook, the Dungeon Master's Guide, the Monster Manual, plus some bonus stuff from the Expanded Psionics Handbook, Epic Level Handbook, Deities and Demigods, and Unearthed Arcana).

RAW means Read as Written, as opposed to RAI, or Read as Intended. Letter versus spirit of the law in short.

PopcornMage
2010-10-21, 07:42 PM
SRD=System Reference Document, the compiled version of the rules that has been released for general usage.

RAW=Rules as Written, which means taking the rules exactly as they are said, versus RAI, Rules as Intended, because sometimes they get things wrong.

Duke of URL
2010-10-21, 07:43 PM
System Reference Document - the publicly available version of the core 3.5 rules (minus character creation and certain "product identity"). See d20srd.org.

Rules As Written - rulings based on the letter of the rule text, which may differ from Rules As Intended (RAI) or house rules.

Edit: !@&$ing swordsages.

Half-orc Bard
2010-10-21, 07:45 PM
Thank you that clears a lot up I'll let this forum die now.

Urpriest
2010-10-21, 07:47 PM
Thank you that clears a lot up I'll let this forum die now.

:smalleek:I hope you mean thread, not forum:smalleek:

PopcornMage
2010-10-21, 07:52 PM
Nope forum, everybody we've got to migrate somewhere else.

See y'all at 4chan!

grarrrg
2010-10-21, 10:03 PM
Nope forum, everybody we've got to migrate somewhere else.

See y'all at 4chan!

*casts Summon Bugle*
*plays Taps*
*waves bye-bye*

zyborg
2010-10-21, 10:05 PM
No... don't let the forum die!

Cure Moderate Wounds!

Zhalath
2010-10-21, 10:10 PM
Thank you that clears a lot up I'll let this forum die now.

Sir, please do not cast Major Creation: Anti-Osmium at the forum.

Kerrin
2010-10-21, 10:24 PM
Cure Moderate Wounds!
Cure Moderator Wounds?

Psyren
2010-10-21, 10:47 PM
Cure Moderator Wounds?

Agh! That was so bad I made my fort save and still died.

@ OP: There is a wonderful sticky (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=124685) at the top of this forum with plenty of commonly used forum abbreviations in it, as well as other handy threads. (Seems odd that stickying a thread makes it less likely to be read though...)

Marnath
2010-10-21, 10:51 PM
I always thought it was Rules as Interpreted(by the DM). :smalleek:

Or, Rules as I bloody well say it works!
lol

Greenish
2010-10-21, 11:11 PM
I always thought it was Rules as Interpreted(by the DM). :smalleek:There's RAMS, Rules as make sense. :smallwink:

RAI is an elusive beast, since it's not always clear what the designers thought (or even if they thought at all).

Lord_Gareth
2010-10-21, 11:13 PM
Honestly, the only difference between Rules as Intended and Rules as Interpreted is the former is the phrase used by DMs that do not wish to be argued with.

Greenish
2010-10-21, 11:18 PM
Honestly, the only difference between Rules as Intended and Rules as Interpreted is the former is the phrase used by DMs that do not wish to be argued with.Hah, a good one! We all know DMs love nothing so dearly as arguing about rules interpretations with the players. :smallcool:

Marnath
2010-10-21, 11:21 PM
P: "..so by RAW, I should go up to 0 hp!"
D: " I don't care, you DROWNED!:smallfurious: You died."
P: " Technically death has no pena-"
D: " YOU. DIED. Get out your spare character sheet.:smallsigh:"

Greenish
2010-10-21, 11:25 PM
P: "..so by RAW, I should go up to 0 hp!"
D: " I don't care, you DROWNED!:smallfurious: You died."Well, healing by drowning has the minor hick-up that you're going to die in three rounds, and there is nothing (short of maybe a wish spell) that can stop it.

Marnath
2010-10-21, 11:27 PM
Well, healing by drowning has the minor hick-up that you're going to die in three rounds, and there is nothing (short of maybe a wish spell) that can stop it.

Thus the second part there. :smallwink:

Greenish
2010-10-21, 11:29 PM
Thus the second part there. :smallwink:Well, death has no penalties (except that your non-lethal damage exceeds your hp, so you're unconscious), but it doesn't actually say anywhere that drowning causes death.

Drakevarg
2010-10-21, 11:33 PM
Well, death has no penalties (except that your non-lethal damage exceeds your hp, so you're unconscious), but it doesn't actually say anywhere that drowning causes death.

Does sleep deprivation, startvation, or dehydration ever cause death?

Because from what I can tell the last two just result in a permenant coma.

Marnath
2010-10-21, 11:35 PM
Does sleep deprivation, startvation, or dehydration ever cause death?

I don't know about sleep, but I'm pretty sure starvation and dehydration have explicit "you die" type rules.

Lord_Gareth
2010-10-21, 11:47 PM
I don't know about sleep, but I'm pretty sure starvation and dehydration have explicit "you die" type rules.

Nope. You get to liiiiiive.

Since they don't define what constitutes eating or drinking either, a knife, a cup, and a wand of cure light wounds or ring of regeneration means you can eat yourself forever.

The Big Dice
2010-10-22, 05:05 AM
Since they don't define what constitutes eating or drinking either, a knife, a cup, and a wand of cure light wounds or ring of regeneration means you can eat yourself forever.
If they need to quantify what counts as eating for rules purposes, people need to take a famous piece of advice from William Shatner.

They don't quantify what counts as breathing and nor do they say that halflings can't fly.

Eloel
2010-10-22, 05:51 AM
Nope. You get to liiiiiive.

Since they don't define what constitutes eating or drinking either, a knife, a cup, and a wand of cure light wounds or ring of regeneration means you can eat yourself forever.
Ring of Regeneration (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/rings.htm#regeneration) is 90k gp

Ring of Sustenance (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/rings.htm#sustenance) is 2.5k gp

Everlasting Rations (http://www.imarvintpa.com/dndlive/items.php?ID=3671) + Everfull Mug (http://www.imarvintpa.com/dndlive/items.php?ID=2325) is 1.1k gp
Do you really want your DM hating you?

Kurald Galain
2010-10-22, 07:14 AM
There's RAMS, Rules as make sense. :smallwink:

And RATWOBS (rules as they will obviously become soon), as in "one of the developers has stated that the next errata will change this rule so-and-so".

And since we're so fond of RAW, how about COOKED? (Crazily Obscure Observation Kindling Exaggerated Damage)

Yora
2010-10-22, 07:56 AM
I wouldn't say we are fond of RAW.

RAW is quite often very stupid and uplayable. It's just that RAI is purely subjective and speculative, and there's no right RAI or wrong RAI. So when talking about rules, we unfortunately have to stick to RAW most of the time, since this is the only way we're actually talking about the same things.

Eloel
2010-10-22, 07:58 AM
RAI is an abbreviation of RAIWTTB, which in turn is an abbreviation of Rules As I Want Them To Be.
That is why RAW is commonly used.

lsfreak
2010-10-22, 04:10 PM
RAI is an abbreviation of RAIWTTB, which in turn is an abbreviation of Rules As I Want Them To Be.
That is why RAW is commonly used.

I wouldn't go that far. For example, it's perfectly clear that monks are not supposed to take the -4 nonproficiency penalty with their fists. The RAI of most things, like TWF with unarmed flurry of blows, isn't nearly as clear.

RAW is used because, with very few exceptions, it's the only way we can talk about the game. Going with RAI or rules as interpreted means we have very little common ground for even talking about the game, dispensing advice and having discussions, so the assumption is RAW and most, but not all, of its implications. Exceptions are things like monk proficiency, which is fairly clearly RAW, and infinite wealth at 5th level, which is fairly clearly ridiculous.

Mando Knight
2010-10-22, 04:44 PM
There's RAMS, Rules as make sense. :smallwink:

Yeah, but the RAMS rarely win anything, so I wouldn't bet on them. :smallwink::smalltongue:

...Except this season they're 3-3, so they've already beat the 09 season by a mile...

Lord_Gareth
2010-10-22, 04:46 PM
Ring of Regeneration (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/rings.htm#regeneration) is 90k gp

Ring of Sustenance (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/rings.htm#sustenance) is 2.5k gp

Everlasting Rations (http://www.imarvintpa.com/dndlive/items.php?ID=3671) + Everfull Mug (http://www.imarvintpa.com/dndlive/items.php?ID=2325) is 1.1k gp
Do you really want your DM hating you?

I want to play a cleric with the Hunger domain who is an NG Autovore!

averagejoe
2010-10-23, 03:33 PM
The Mod They Call Me: The OP's question has been thoroughly answered, and now the discussion seems to be on spammy side-topics. Thread locked.