Weird happenings in a campaign

[Tokuhara]

Have you guys ever had a rule/houserul not make sense in a combat/skill/whatever situation, mostly where the DM had to improvise the fluff to match the mechanics' effects?

We once had a rogue, Bellic the Tallfellow Halfling Rogue, who jumped on a customized beholder's back. It uses its eye ray (Orb of Petrification, which worked like Orb of Fire, but petrified the target instead), rolled a natural 1 on its attack roll, hit itself, and failed its save and became a pile of rubble when its levitation failed it when it became a statue. Yes, the Beholder turned itself to stone... The fight was the DM being a jerk, trying to cause us a TPK, but instead, we (a group of 2nd level characters) were very happy

[Emperor Tippy]

Plenty of times. Usually from doing things that simply aren't covered by the rules.

[Dr.Epic]

Visit the temple to the deity of wine and drink from the clerics' private brewery.:smallwink:

[marcielle]

Does falling count? Cause I recently learned that despite there being an entry for falling damage, nowhere in the rules does it actually say you fall if you happen to be in midair without support. Gravity is a houserule.

[Slipperychicken]

Drowning can heal/stabilize you (brings you to 0hp, even if you're deep in the negatives). When you begin drowning, you can't stop, even if you get out of the water.

[hex0]

The rules for jumping are a bit strange. And in our games 1s and 20s worked for skills. Our group was escaping some town guards and our Halfling tried to jump through a church window, (it was in the main hall) that was ridiculously high...not having any clue how big the room was,...and he rolled a 20 of course. He jumped like 100 feet. it was off the chain. Literally

"Indy suddenly flies through air to the window at the top of the steeple. The guards run away screaming."

On the downside, when he was doing a jumping contest in the bar later (don't ask), he rolled a 1.

"Indy crouches down to jump and suddenly appears in the basement." :smallbiggrin:

[Safety Sword]

Have you guys ever had a rule/houserul not make sense in a combat/skill/whatever situation, mostly where the DM had to improvise the fluff to match the mechanics' effects?

We once had a rogue, Bellic the Tallfellow Halfling Rogue, who jumped on a customized beholder's back. It uses its eye ray (Orb of Petrification, which worked like Orb of Fire, but petrified the target instead), rolled a natural 1 on its attack roll, hit itself, and failed its save and became a pile of rubble when its levitation failed it when it became a statue. Yes, the Beholder turned itself to stone... The fight was the DM being a jerk, trying to cause us a TPK, but instead, we (a group of 2nd level characters) were very happy

This is really another thread about critical failures leading to silly situations.

I don't remember any rules that say "If I roll a 1 I hurt myself". Level 20 fighters with vorpal swords beware. :smalltongue:

[Tokuhara]

This is really another thread about critical failures leading to silly situations.

I don't remember any rules that say "If I roll a 1 I hurt myself". Level 20 fighters with vorpal swords beware. :smalltongue:

Our Houserule was that fumbles are you roll normally. If you roll a 1, you roll again. 1 or 20, you hit/crit (fail so hard you win, like tripping and poking out a Beholder's Antimagic Eye for instance). Anything else is just a fall on sword/Spell Backfires/arrow ricochets and hits you in the back.

[Safety Sword]

Our Houserule was that fumbles are you roll normally. If you roll a 1, you roll again. 1 or 20, you hit/crit (fail so hard you win, like tripping and poking out a Beholder's Antimagic Eye for instance). Anything else is just a fall on sword/Spell Backfires/arrow ricochets and hits you in the back.

Again, I cry for high BAB classes in your campaigns :smallfrown:

[Tokuhara]

Again, I cry for high BAB classes in your campaigns :smallfrown:

It rarely happens

[ko_sct]

It rarely happens

Really ? Cause statically it should become quite common as attacks become more numerous...

I've seen a good test to see if a critical fail houserule is good or bad on this forum.

Basically, you take two dozens first level warriors, and set them to training in front of a sparring dummies each.

If when you come back 10 min later, anyone is dead or horribly maimed, you know there's a problem whit the houserule.


As for bad interaction whit houserules, I can't really remember any time it has happen, mostly because when it come up, we just shake our head and the dm make a call that make sense.

[Safety Sword]

It rarely happens
I don't think I'm going to be able to convince you that having a higher BAB is a bad thing when you have critical fumbles in play.

It's also a disadvantage to classes that need the most help keeping pace at higher levels.

1 in 20 (you roll a 1 on your d20). A range of 18 numbers one the next roll hurt you... so you have an 4.5% (18 in 400) chance of hurting yourself.

And you have 5 attacks per round... ouch.

No thanks

[Tokuhara]

Never had a player get hurt by our fumble rule. We've had a failtacular critical, but no player being killed. Monsters have been hurt by it, but rarely has this come up in any campaign