Ways to cheat in D&D

[danzibr]

In a recent thread, someone asked about rerolling dice, and someone responded to do so when nobody's looking. I found humor in it, and I got to wondering... what other such responses could you do?

Q: How do I increase my Str?
A: Take an pencil, erase your current Str, and pencil in a new Str (even easier if you use an online character sheet).

Q: How do I add Dex modifier to melee damage?
A: Look at your Dex modifier, let's call it x, and write +x after your melee damage.

I imagine most of these will be silly/obvious, but I'm curious to see if anyone has anything clever.

Note: I do not promote cheating.

[dextercorvia]

Q: How do I cheat in D&D?

A: As usual, play a caster. Bards, Wizards, and Clerics with the Greed domain have a 1st level spell in the Spell Compendium to help do just that.

[Necroticplague]

Q: What's a good level 1 race?
A:Protean Generic Warrior 1. It's technically a level 1 character, even if its ECL is in the mid thirties.

[nyjastul69]

Read the module the DM is running. It worked for me, although it sucked the fun right out it. I've never been tempted to do so again.

[TrollCapAmerica]

I actually had a player cheat in the old White Wolf Street Fighter RPG.We played for about a solid year before I noticed as the PCs stats caught up to the guy that was spending his EXP on few moves but solid physical stats and fundamental techniques

I remembered what his starting stats were and simply did the EXP math and figured out that the sheer extent he was slipping in extra dots on his character sheet every few sessions

PC 1 had 50 some odd exp
PC 2 had about 60 [May have had a few more sessions compared to the other guy]
Cheater PC had 130

[dextercorvia]

Q: How can I make Vow of Poverty work for my character?

A: Ignore all the limitations on owning or using items.

[Bad Wolf]

Q: How can I get more spells known as a sorcerer?

[Elricaltovilla]

Q: How can I get more spells known as a sorcerer?

Buy a new book with spells in it. You now "know" those spells.

[Elkad]

This was in the days when a "d20" was numbered like a d10, twice (and d10s didn't exist). Some of the d20 had a tiny plus next to one set of numbers, but that isn't visible from the other side of the table. Others you colored the numbers with two different colors, but it quickly wore off. So rolling a D6 with your D20 was standard. 4,5,6 on the D6 meant you added 10 to the d20 roll.

The DM in one game I played did stat checks as "roll under your stat on a d20", possibly with a modifier.

I had a d6 that looked like all the rest of mine, but was numbered 1,2,3 twice. I used that for stat rolls, so I never got a result higher than 10, which meant I was never the guy failing his dex check at the pit edge.

[Abd al-Azrad]

- When building your character, assume you have feats you do not take. Why do you have +1 to hit? Weapon Focus, in which you never got a chance to invest.

- Write your attack and save bonuses including buffs you typically have active. Then forget that you have already included these bonuses, and add them again.

- At the table, assume you have had free actions to buff yourself, even if you did not explicitly say you were doing so to the DM. DMs so rarely fight you on moment-by-moment out-of-combat accounting of actions.

- Pre-roll all your attacks for a given melee round. And if you don't like them, pretend you were just rolling dice out of nervous habit, then roll when your turn comes up. ADDED BONUS: Wastes all your fellow players' time.

[gooddragon1]

In a recent thread, someone asked about rerolling dice, and someone responded to do so when nobody's looking. I found humor in it, and I got to wondering... what other such responses could you do?

Q: How do I increase my Str?
A: Take an pencil, erase your current Str, and pencil in a new Str (even easier if you use an online character sheet).

Q: How do I add Dex modifier to melee damage?
A: Look at your Dex modifier, let's call it x, and write +x after your melee damage.

I imagine most of these will be silly/obvious, but I'm curious to see if anyone has anything clever.

Note: I do not promote cheating.

Preface: I always promote cheating whenever possible as long as it's not in a game with other human players. If I can't cheat, it isn't fun.

How do I increase my Str?

Festering Anger+Mind Over Body (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicFeats.htm#mindOverBody)+Con score of 14 or higher.

Festering Anger is a disease from book of vile darkness that gives you +2 strength and -2 con (ability damage) per day. Wait a month for +60 strength (your mind over body ability will heal the ability damage).

[Alex12]

Preface: I always promote cheating whenever possible as long as it's not in a game with other human players. If I can't cheat, it isn't fun.

How do I increase my Str?

Festering Anger+Mind Over Body (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicFeats.htm#mindOverBody)+Con score of 14 or higher.

Festering Anger is a disease from book of vile darkness that gives you +2 strength and -2 con (ability damage) per day. Wait a month for +60 strength (your mind over body ability will heal the ability damage).

Or go Cancer Mage, also from BoVD. All the positives of Festering Anger, none of the negatives, and you can also get arbitrarily high AC with a different disease.

On-topic, spread your skill points around (this works better in PF because of how class skills work) and "accidentally" miscount and add a couple of extra ones

[137beth]

Can you cheat at D&D? (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?357981-Can-you-cheat-at-D-amp-D)
Or can you only rudisplork in the Orcus of secret house rules? (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?361669-Can-you-Rudisplork-at-D-amp-D-2-Sithsnape-and-the-Orcus-of-Secret-House-Rules)

Anyways, lying to the DM is usually a good start. Make sure you as a player have maxed Bluff.

[darksolitaire]

Q: How can I get more spells known as a sorcerer?

Get everything that increases your spellcraft. Once you hit +33 skill modifier, you'll know pretty much every spell everywhere.

[The Insanity]

Date the DM.

[gooddragon1]

Hmm, if you want your DM to hate psionics... neglect to mention that you can't spend power points above your manifester level on a single power.

Add your strength score instead of your strength modifier to damage and attack rolls.

Ignore level adjustment and racial hit dice when making level calculations for XP. Also treat your new fire giant "level 1" character as though he were medium size.

So that's... a "strength modifier" of 31+18 (normally it'd be 20+18 STR... but we'll gloss over that conviently) for 49 to attack and damage with a one handed, but you've got a two handed weapon so 75 on 2 1's with a greatsword.

I swear, this level of cheating almost reminds me of min max and his clones in the maze of many on goblinscomic. Trading in the ability to talk for +8 or something damage.

[ben-zayb]

Date the DM.

...while being in a relationship with someone else. Right?

[roko10]

Optimizing you character is cheating. At the same time, saying your character is good at X but is actually subpar thanks to little optimization is also cheating.

[geekintheground]

want a general, overall increase in effectiveness? assume all sources allowed and find houserules on the internet that help your character and assume those are in effect as well.

[danzibr]

Use dandwiki.

[Sacrieur]

Use dandwiki.

Hah! I love it.

[Dolour]

the infamous pun pun (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Pun-Pun_%283.5e_Optimized_Character_Build%29) build is one of the few things officially "banned" afaik.
other than that its more a kind of exploiting, rather than cheating...
or twisting of poorly worded rules, to whore your self a dozenth turning pool, any class feature that would logically conflict with your build, or whatever.

thats why houserules are a bless. :p
you cant really go without them, once you allow a certain number of splashbooks.

so, i cant think of any retarded cheating attempts really, but the ultimate answer to avoiding this kinda crap is:
A: BE the DM, KNOW the rules, and THROW STUFF at ppl tryig to fool you. :p
(random revenge encounters would be more fun, but that hits all your players, not just "that guy".)

[Inevitability]

As DM: use what I like to call 'Shrödinger's monsters'.

Say you have a critter that can either increase its AC or its saving throws each round. The PC's have no way of knowing what it is increasing. If it would fail a saving throw, assume it has increased saving throw bonuses. If it is hit, assume it has increased AC. The best part: its impossible to prove you are cheating.

[pwcsponson]

Use dandwiki.

Oh Jesus. My friends and I are pretty solid players, and we picked up a fairly new player recently. The other session we leveled up, and the new player is talking about how he "can't be hit and would love to see the DM try". I sneak a peek at his character sheet and there's just this +8 AC under the misc section. Which I ask about.

"Uh, how do you have a plus 8 in miscellaneous modifiers?"
"Oh yeah it's from a feat I just picked up, it lets me add my Str and/or Con Mod to my AC."
"Dude, what book is that from?"
"I dunno but it was on dandwiki"
"Yeah, that's not a legitimate source unless it states it's from the SRD."

----------------
As far as cheating goes, remember to conveniently forget that your buff (which is measured in rounds/lvl) lasts all encounter.
Use full power attack, but only take some of it off your BaB, you want to actually hit after all.
Write on your character sheet that your character does indeed have an armor of Energy Resistance 15 against all Energies, +18 AC, Light Fortification, and a few other abilities at level 2. Then argue with the DM because "that's what the character should have because of her fluff".*

*True story.

[No brains]

If your character uses a greatsword and you roll minimum damage, yell, "Snake eyes?" and pound the table so the dice jump to a different number. If the DM loves The Nightmare Before Christmas, this can be a legitimate house rule.

[With a box]

Bring a gun when you play
(Am I gone too far?)

[Elricaltovilla]

Assume that all bonuses are untyped and thus, stack.

[Fuglen]

If your character uses a greatsword and you roll minimum damage, yell, "Snake eyes?" and pound the table so the dice jump to a different number. If the DM loves The Nightmare Before Christmas, this can be a legitimate house rule.

I would love if one of my players tried to do that. :smalltongue: But that is mostly because it is a granite table weighing over 250kg

[atemu1234]

Bring a gun when you play
(Am I gone too far?)

No. Bazookas, on the other hand.

[Thurbane]

Ignore reqs for Feats and PrCs (without DM permission).

[DungeonUsurper]

Date the DM.

Hells, I married her!