Little Known Rules of D&D

[eamon]

Reading reincarnate sounds to me like it's removing racial adjustments to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution. That's what the context suggests. Now, if you'd have suggested that a reincarnated creature doesn't lose his old racial (Ex, Su) abilities but still gains those of the new form, I would still think that's probably not how the spell is best read, but that's less obvious from the immediate context, since the spell only speaks of gaining the new form's abilities and (unless I'm missing something?) never says a word about the old forms racial abilities.
Does an Ex-Drow retain his Spell Resistance when reincarnated?
The spell opens other questions too - since you retain your class levels or HD (losing "just" one), when you turn into a form with racial HD, do you gain those? Do you instead lose more class levels to compensate? Do you simply become that race without racial HD? What's the CR (and LA) of such a form? Even two races with LA 0 and no racial HD can be problematic if combined - say a Grey elf reincarnated as an Orc or Dwarf.

This is relevant to the question at hand, since it means that reincarnate requires DM-adjudication anyhow, which means that further details like whether you need to remove mental ability modifiers don't really make that problem much bigger - though I still think that as written you really should retain (and thus not remove) the original race's adjustments to the mental ability scores.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

They're right there! In the preceding sentence.

No, they're not. The previous sentence simply makes an observation. One which the next sentence follows through on, by the instruction to apply the modifiers in the table to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution.

The sentence is completely sensible in isolation.

See, that's a nice trick. I didn't say the "sentence" doesn't make sense. I said the spell (fly) doesn't make sense if you don't read the sentences as completely interdependent. And then I contrasted that with reincarnate, in which the spell makes perfect sense if you simply follow the instructions within, among those being to strip away racial adjustments. All of them.

It also makes perfect sense if you only strip away Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution racial modifiers. But that's not what the spell says to do.

 

[eamon]

No, they're not. The previous sentence simply makes an observation. One which the next sentence follows through on, by the instruction to apply the modifiers in the table to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution.

Why would you assume that the observation and the instructions aren't related? The instructions to apply only the physical ability modifiers of the new race just reinforce the message: they're talking about physical ability modifiers - just like they do just before and after the sentence.

 

[HellHound]

here's an interesting rule. according to the wotc website anyone after your init in the first round of combat is considered flat footed. http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20040302a

This is a little-known rule?

In my experience, this is how almost all fights begin - whoever goes first has the advantage of the enemies being flat-footed for the first round. That's why rogues take improved initiative.

Could I request that we split out all the rules DEBATES from this thread into new threads?

 

[Jeff Wilder]

Why would you assume that the observation and the instructions aren't related?

I don't make that assumption; they might be intended that way. I've simply said that it's not what the text says, and it's not necessary to read them as interdependent for the spell to make sense and to work perfectly well. Accordingly, the literal RAW are to strip away all racial modifiers.

 

[Elethiomel]

I made a thread for the discussion on Reincarnate, so you can move there if you want to:
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?p=3811061

 

[Raven Crowking]

This is a little-known rule?

In my experience, this is how almost all fights begin - whoever goes first has the advantage of the enemies being flat-footed for the first round. That's why rogues take improved initiative.

Yup.

 

[glass]

This is a little-known rule?

In my experience, this is how almost all fights begin - whoever goes first has the advantage of the enemies being flat-footed for the first round. That's why rogues take improved initiative.

I think the little known bit is that you are still flat-footed in the first proper round even if you acted in the surprise round. However, I don't think this is 'little known' so much as 'wrong'.


glass.

 

[robberbaron]

Knowledge (dungeoneering) is not a class skill for Rogues
.

Why would a rogue want to know what's in dungeons? If he's smart he'll know not to go anywhere near one.

 

[irdeggman]

PHB pg 141

A 1st level Rogue cannot draw a one handed weapon or ready/loose a shield as part of a move action.

(Now doesn't that seem odd... )

Technically it is a part of a "regular move" and not a "move action" - many people seem to likewise confuse that rule.

If you have a base attack bonus of +1 or higher, you may draw a weapon as a free action combined with a regular move. If you have the Two-Weapon Fighting feat, you can draw two light or one-handed weapons in the time it would normally take you to draw one.