Stupid things found in the core books

[knightsaline]

Ever find something really stupid in the core books that makes no sense whatsoever? I didn't find this one but...

barbarians and rage
according to my downloaded copy of the SRD, barbarians can
"use any feat he has except Combat Expertise, item creation feats, and metamagic feats"

why would a barbarian try and create items while raging? rages don't last that long. assuming a 20th level barb, a barbarian does not learn how to create items anyway. he may have craft as a class skill, but who in the nine hells or the infinite layers of the abyss ever sink precious skill ranks into Craft on their barbarian. my barbarians sink ranks into survival and jump. unless the barbarians try to sink ranks into Craft (scars), I don't think anyone is going to bother to sink ranks into craft.

post the stupidest things you have found in any SRD books

[Quietus]

Well, to be fair, this prevents them from raging then using the Craft skill to produce infinite quarterstaves, which they could then lob with their high strength score.

[Pauwel]

Which is another silly thing in and of itself.
The "Hugging your friends makes you go faster"-loophole is another thing I thought was really stupid.

[Ivius]

Anyone see the "Variant: No variant sidebars" sidebar in the DMG? I really hope that was a joke.

[knightsaline]

what about the ever popular quarterstaff railgun! just get 196 million commoners to ready an action to hand a quarterstaff to the next person in the line.

[Attilargh]

Diplomacy. Using only the Core rules, one can build a 4th-level character who can talk anyone into being his friend in a minute.

Ooh, the 5-foot metal coffin bomb! Get a metal box with a 5-by-5 feet square floor. Then get N people, and have all of them grapple each other inside the box. Seal the box, go somewhere safe, and tell the people to stop grappling.

The osmium - anti-osmium bomb! All you need is Major Creation, Eschew Materials and some knowledge of natural sciences, and you can blow up Earth!

The mount-unmount method of traveling around the world: To perform this trick, you need a few ranks in Ride. Use Ride to mount a horse as a free action. Use Ride to unmount the horse as a free action, but go to the other side of the animal. Mount the next horse. Et cetera ad nauseam (or at least until you run out of horses).

[Caelestion]

That mount-unmount thing is beyond ridiculous. Can you seriously expect people to legislate for player idiocy of that calibre?

[Eldmor]

The Samurai base class from Complete Warrior. I think that validates as stupid.

[knightsaline]

I agree with you about the CWar samurai. i mean the ability to fart a MW katana and MW short sword at 1st level is just wrong.

[The Glyphstone]

But CWar isn't core...

[The White Knight]

barbarians and rage
according to my downloaded copy of the SRD, barbarians cannot
"use any feat he has except Combat Expertise, item creation feats, and metamagic feats"

why would a barbarian try and create items while raging? rages don't last that long. assuming a 20th level barb, a barbarian does not learn how to create items anyway. he may have craft as a class skill, but who in the nine hells or the infinite layers of the abyss ever sink precious skill ranks into Craft on their barbarian. my barbarians sink ranks into survival and jump. unless the barbarians try to sink ranks into Craft (scars), I don't think anyone is going to bother to sink ranks into craft.

Actually, if you check that again carefully (unless it's a really terrible copy of the SRD), it reads "can use any feat he has except Combat Expertise, ...etc." Or so sayeth my PHB, which trumps any SRD.

EDIT: Nevermind, I now get the impression you knew this already and just misworded your OP. I appear to have misunderstood your initial point, being that specifying the Item Creation feats as an [unlikely] exception is absurd, since they are so very unlikely to be used under such circumstances. Or have I?

[brian c]

Actually, if you check that again carefully (unless it's a really terrible copy of the SRD), it reads "can use any feat he has except Combat Expertise, ...etc." Or so sayeth my PHB, which trumps any SRD.

EDIT: Nevermind, I now get the impression you knew this already and just misworded your OP. I appear to have misunderstood your initial point, being that specifying the Item Creation feats as an [unlikely] exception is absurd, since they are so very unlikely to be used under such circumstances. Or have I?

Yeah, I think the OP was a misquote and no one else even noticed it. The point is that it's absurd to ban Item Creation during a rage, because honestly
1) It generally takes much longer than the rage duration to craft something
2) How many Barbarians take Item Creation feats anyway?
3) Rage wouldn't help you at all (craft is an Int-based skill)

[thorgrim29]

Well, pegasi lay eggs, diplomacy is ridiculous, setting someone on fire is basically harmless after a few levels, why so many oozes?, when you prc a wizard or sorceror your familiar does'nt get better, the time it takes to forge an adamantine full plate, a lot of things actually.

[Morty]

when you prc a wizard or sorceror your familiar does'nt get better

Why should it? Former class' features don't improve when you go into PrC.

[Jasdoif]

Darkness doesn't actually create darkness. It creates shadowy illumination (and prevents brightening the area further). So you could literally cast Darkness in the middle of darkness and end up with more lighting.

Talk about a misnamed spell....

why would a barbarian try and create items while raging? rages don't last that long. assuming a 20th level barb, a barbarian does not learn how to create items anyway. he may have craft as a class skill, but who in the nine hells or the infinite layers of the abyss ever sink precious skill ranks into Craft on their barbarian. my barbarians sink ranks into survival and jump. unless the barbarians try to sink ranks into Craft (scars), I don't think anyone is going to bother to sink ranks into craft.

I do have a theory for this one. The spell rage behaves like a barbarian's range, and can last a bit longer then the caster concentrates.

I can see a scenario where one caster cast rage on another, then proceeds to concentrate for days while the other caster works on a magic item, taking advantage of the increased Con and hit points when the inevitable assassination happens.

And then the designers add a clause about "can't use item creation feats" to the barbarian's rage.

[mikeejimbo]

I thought you couldn't cast spells while raging, so why ban metamagic feats?

[Threeshades]

The mount-unmount method of traveling around the world: To perform this trick, you need a few ranks in Ride. Use Ride to mount a horse as a free action. Use Ride to unmount the horse as a free action, but go to the other side of the animal. Mount the next horse. Et cetera ad nauseam (or at least until you run out of horses).

I can already see the future of all D&D worlds: instead of roads there will be long rows of horses between the cities and messengers will be heavily trained in riding so they can travel halfway across a continent within 6 secons.

Same for the quarterstaff railgun. rows of millions of commoners next to the horserows to directly send small items from one town to the other.

[brian c]

I thought you couldn't cast spells while raging, so why ban metamagic feats?

Because if they didn't, them some munchkin would say

"hey, it doesn't say I can't use meta-magic feats, and since you need to be casting a spell to be using meta-magic feats, that means that I can cast spells while raging, but only if I use a meta-magic feat with them!"

though what that would accomplish, I don't know.

[Inyssius Tor]

One thing I think is really stupid? An empty 1-pint flask weighs 1.5 pounds, but a flask that contains a pint of oil weighs 1 pound.

EDIT: Hey, it gets more useful with feats like Energy Substitution, which doesn't raise spell levels.

[Draz74]

The way Monks technically aren't proficient in Unarmed Strikes.

[Ikkitosen]

The way Monks technically aren't proficient in Unarmed Strikes.

I thought creatures were always proficient with their own unarmed strikes..?

[Threeshades]

I thought creatures were always proficient with their own unarmed strikes..?

i thought so too. otherwise NO ONE is proficient with unarmed strikes or any natural weapons

[Draz74]

I thought creatures were always proficient with their own unarmed strikes..?

Nope. Most creatures are proficient with their Natural Weapons (and therefore Unarmed Strikes, if they are monks and therefore their unarmed strike counts as a natural weapon in some ways), as a function of their Type. But Humanoids are the exception.

The only creatures proficient in their own unarmed strikes are those whose classes say they are proficient in all simple weapons.

[OttotheBugbear]

Buy an iron pot, melt it down, sell the iron for profit.

But a 10' ladder, break it into two 10' poles, sell them for profit.

No creature ever survives winter in D&D, they all die of exposure due to the way damage is dealt.

[Corolinth]

The rules are written with the assumption that your DM is a person, not a computer, and will go upside your head for trying something stupid.

Item creation and metamagic feats are written into the rage description because you might have multiclassed.

[brian c]

Buy an iron pot, melt it down, sell the iron for profit.

But a 10' ladder, break it into two 10' poles, sell them for profit.

No creature ever survives winter in D&D, they all die of exposure due to the way damage is dealt.

The rules are written with the assumption that your DM is a person, not a computer, and will go upside your head for trying something stupid.

Exactly. Any DM that lets you pull off the ladder = two 10-ft poles trick needs to read rule 0, and get some brains.

Item creation and metamagic feats are written into the rage description because you might have multiclassed.

Yes, but the point is that item creation feats are mentioned, even though there's really no reason that you would craft an item while enraged (crunch-wise).

As I said before,

1) It generally takes much longer than the rage duration to craft something
2) How many Barbarians take Item Creation feats anyway?
3) Rage wouldn't help you at all (craft is an Int-based skill)

[Ikkitosen]

Nope. Most creatures are proficient with their Natural Weapons (and therefore Unarmed Strikes, if they are monks and therefore their unarmed strike counts as a natural weapon in some ways), as a function of their Type. But Humanoids are the exception.

The only creatures proficient in their own unarmed strikes are those whose classes say they are proficient in all simple weapons.

In fact yes, and only humanoids with classes aren't proficient - humanoids without classes are proficient in simple weapons. Silly.

[Caelestion]

The so-called fact that monks supposedly aren't proficient with the unarmed strike is a complete load of bilgewater. While there isn't much that can match up to the infinite-horses/travel-around-the-world-as-a-free-action rubbish, this one is pretty close.

[martyboy74]

Humans are not humanoids. In fact, they don't even have a type. Therefore, they do not need to eat, sleep, or drink, and are also immune to effects that only target certain types.

Thank you fictional powergaming webcomic characters!

[Caelestion]

What? They're Humanoid (Human).