Common rules errors

[Anabstercorian]

I'm pretty sure you CAN take 20 on crafting... It's just stupid, because you'll spend more money crafting the thing (20/3 times the market price) than it would take to buy it, and you'll take 20 times as long as you would normally.

 

[Negative Zero]

i agree with Anabstercorian, you most deffinitely can take 20 on a craft check. it just means that it takes you 20 times as long and costs 20 times as much. think of Mel Gibson in Partiot and his rocking chairs. he was clearly spending a great deal of time, patience and money on them. if he'd continued, at some point (had he been able to continue) he'd have made the best chair that he could have. damn those pesky wars.

~NegZ

 

[Seaver]

As far as the Craft thing it depends on what d20 game you are playing. D&D doesn't specify I don't believe, at least I can't find it right now one way or another. Star Wars states that it's a no can do, at least on Wizards' site. In d20 Modern it's situational. You can't unless it's Craft (writing), again according to the Wizards' site.


Anyway you can't take 20 if there is a penalty for failure. If you fail a Craft check by 5 or more you ruin half the materials used.

So basically if you're so good you can't fail by five or more even by rolling a one then you can take 20. Otherwise you are stuck taking 10.


But, to get back on track. I knew someone who's group completely misunderstood the Cure line of spells. For example they thought that Cure Light Wounds healed (1d8+1 points)/ caster level. Not 1d8, +1 additional point per caster level.

How they missed the (up to +5) I don't know.

 

[Sanackranib]

craft checks

You have to use common sence with this one. ie craft leatherworking - specificlly to craft say a mighty masterwork whip
whats to fail? your braid wasnt tight enough? at worst if you fail the roll you lose the time but the materials can be reused or should be allowed to be reused. especially in the case of 15+ ranks when you can take 10 and automatically succede. I realize that this doesnt apply to all crafts, so like I said you have to use common sence.

 

[Seaver]

Well not to nit pick, well okay yeah it is nit picking...

Anyway there's a lot more to making a sturdy whip than plaiting. A lot of cutting mainly and things can easily go wrong there.

But, yeah Craft is definately a case by case basis type of skill.

As far as common sense, unfortunately that seems to be something that many people are deficient in.

 

[S'mon]

My DM hates me because I don't make rules mistakes...

However, this did work against me one time. I got hit by a dissolving touch (high level psionic power) for 7d6 acid damage. It requires a melee touch to hit, and he rolled a natural 20. I told him that was a critical threat, and he duly rolled to confirm and did me 14d6 acid damage to a 7th level monk. I became goo.

But I shrugged, told him that's how the dice fell, and created a new character. C'est la vie.

Hi Matt - something's been bugging me - did I forget to apply Sneak Attack damage to the invisible wererat wizard/rogue's Melf's Acid Arrow attack on Xyzzy last Sunday?

 

[kengar]

Natural 20/1 - This isn't anything special with skill checks. By the rules as explicitly written, it applies only to attack rolls. [It's application to saving throws is a hot topic for debate.]

The only thing about Saves and Natural 1's or 20's we use is the possible damage to an item on a Natural 1 when attacked by things like Fireball.

 

[Destil]

It annoys me when someone says sunder a bow/wand/et cetera, since you can't sunder non-shields non-armor. You strike an object to damage thoes, which has all it's own rules.

Also, enhancement vs. enchantment bonus gets to me, but since I can't spell in the first place I let it slide.

 

[Darklone]

I can't believe how many groups think that prone characters lose their Dex bonus and are subject to sneak attacks.....

 

[Henry]

I know a player who I once had to repeatedly remind that people attacking monks with weapons did NOT trigger attacks against them from the Monk - that sentence from the end of the combat chapter in the PHB just blew his mind...

Our group now has few problems with Op-attacks, but it took me about three months to get one other guy REALLY good at adjudicating them, and from there between the two of us the rest of the group became familiar with them by the middle of 2001 or so...

Other obvious things:

-I still thought Rangers got endure elements as a first level spell until a week ago.

-A DM of mine once insisted that the rules state that Spellcasters are still disrupted if they are hit at ANY time before their action in a round. I had to prove it to him, to be sure that he wanted to use his version as a house rule or not...

Our group played that rapid shot took an attack action instead of full-round action for about three months before we caught on. My Halfling Fighter loved it while it lasted, though...