"What do you mean I can't...?"

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Not too many that I've said people CAN'T do. We like to play with Action Points, and if something is a little hairy or a little outside of the rules, I usually adapt something on the fly and charge an AP for it.

So, say, an enlarged, enraged barbarian wants to pick up an enemy cleric and hurl him down a cliff? An AP and getting him pinned and sure. It's cool cinema, but there don't really seem to be any rules for body pressing somebody and chucking them.

In my Modern games, we created a few rules. People wanted to be able to move a reasonable distance and then fire, so I used the rules for Charge ... you can move double your movement in a straight line and make a ranged attack at the end, but you take a -2 to AC until your next action AND a -2 on the attack roll.

We also allow Charging Grapples ... (our catch phrase is "Charging Grapple ... sounds like TACKLE!") so we call it a tackle. Though I'm not sure if it is in the rules, we allow dropping a grapple to Prone with a successful grapple check. Always seemed odd to me that there were no rules for the On The Ground Scrap with two guys just scrabbling on the floor wailing on eachother.

We like to use Grapple alot, though, for some reason. Most real fights seem to end up that way.

--fje

 

[Kahuna Burger]

Hmmm... all I can think of is one incident where I kinda wish my DM had just said "you can't" instead of giving my a target number and letting me try (but not letting it work.)

Demony critter has [valuable NPC] dangling by its prehensile tail and [macguffin] arround it's neck. We need both, but demony critter has teleportation capabilities (also buddies that are thwacking us.) [DMPC] tells us that he can get one or the other away from her, and we have to decide which quickly. Being in deep denial of the group's level of railroading, we vote but also do our best to get both. While the rogue is climbing the thing's back and attempting to pick pocket/sunder [macguffin] I ask "can I shoot the tail?" The DM says, yeah, and gives me a modified AC (the creature's obscene AC plus a major size modifier on top of that). I'm playing a Deepwoods Sniper (3.0 game) and manage a critical. I think I was doing X5 criticals on a +5 mighty composite longbow back in the day of stacking arrow and bow enchantments. Some obscene damage (well over 50) to the tail which is dangling a humanoid. DM says the tail is "damaged" but it doesn't drop [valuable NPC]. The monk character leaps up and grabs on to [valuable NPC], more than doubling the weight being held by a criticaled tail. It's fine. Second party archer (arcane archer this time) shoots at the tail too, also manages a critical (less multipliers but more base damage again over 50 hp). Um, it's looking pretty damaged, but no drop.

Meanwhile [macguffin] has grown spikes on a pickpocket attempt and has an unsunderable chain (against a +4 daggar, I think) and of course demony thing telepors away with only [DMPC]'s action keeping [valuable NPC] with us.

I considered later asking if the DM actually had a damage total in mind for the TAIL where it would be damaged enough to no longer be supporting the full weight of a grappled humanoid and another clinging on, but never bothered... :\

 

[The Shaman]

1e.

Thief wanted to use Climb Walls to cross a cavern by hanging from the ceiling. I told him it was impossible.

That's the only GM call in twenty-seven years I wish I could take back. :\

 

[Peter Gibbons]

The one that springs to mind is Spring Attack. Move, attack, move.

"I get out my sword, run up to him and chop at him while I run past him!"

"No, you can't do that, you need Spring Attack."

I always thought that was stupid. You should at least be allowed to attempt the action.

You can. It's called a double-move, with a completely ineffectual sword-wave in the middle.

 

[Psychic Warrior]

The one that springs to mind is Spring Attack. Move, attack, move.

"I get out my sword, run up to him and chop at him while I run past him!"

"No, you can't do that, you need Spring Attack."

I always thought that was stupid. You should at least be allowed to attempt the action.

"It is a difficult enough thing to swing a sword in combat without severing an major limb and you want to do it while running? Uh..sure go ahead! -4 to your attack roll and I'll get out my Critical Fumbles Tables'

But I understand what you mean. I just look at it as Spring Attack giving the charater near superhuman reflexes and special trainign that allows them to do thing normal people just can't do. Don't worry though - Spring Attack is overrated, imo.

Never really had a Dm say i can't attempt something in 3E. happened a lot more in 1E & 2E but that was over 10 years ago now (more for 1E) so i really can't remember specifics.

 

[Kapalen]

Nobody's ever told me I couldn't do something, outside the mechanics anyway. Obviously I'm not aloud to make a freetrip attack or what not. One instance that comes to mind(I think I've posted it before): We were in a wooden fort, trapped in a room full of oil and orcs on the way. Naturally, we set the wall on fire and busted through. A friend of mine has jumped on a dragon before. Sorry I can't remember how they did it mechanically.

 

[Mouseferatu]

One that came up in my campaign was a player wanting to jump from a ledge above a monster onto that monster. Moreover, this wasn't one the same size as him. He literally wanted to leap onto a dragon. I had no idea how to handle that, so I just flatly ruled he couldn't.

Huh. See, to me, that's an obvious tactic.

Last time something similar happened, I just required a Jump check followed by an attack roll. The character succeeded, and was clinging to the dragon.

She would have gotten bonuses to hit the next round, except that I'm a big believer in the notion that if the players are going to use unorthodox tactics, so are the (intelligent) monsters. So the dragon, which was already making a flyby attack on the party, just spun in mid-air so that the character clinging to its back slammed full-force into one of the other party-members.

 

[Kapalen]

Do dragons have good enuff manuverability to spin around? Even so you chould've allowed a check(grapple/grab), fort save maybe, for the PC to keep holding on.

 

[fiddlerjones]

While 3.x doesn't provide rules for every situation, it provides a framework to <i>attempt</i> pretty much any given situation with a series of skill or ability checks. The only actions I will rule cannot be done are things specifically forbidden by the rules. For example, if you can't do it in a standard action and a move action, you can't do it in one round of combat, no matter how high you roll, but you can probably divide it over several rounds. I encourage DMs not to rule out anything that does not directly contradict the rules. Flavorful unorthodox tactics are fun.

 

[jmucchiello]

The one that springs to mind is Spring Attack. Move, attack, move.

Anyone can do this. It takes two rounds unless you have a special feat. In the first round you move and attack. On the next round you move. Easy.

"I want to attack the straps holding his armor on."

Try Sunder.

"I want to hook my foe with a grapnel."

I would treat this as a whip and say a successful trip attack hooks the target. Ranged grappling attacks (bolas, lassos, etc) are missing from the base rules.

"I want to be able to run up to my foe and tackle him."

Try Overrun or Bull Rush

"I want to attack my foe's {insert body part]

You can do this with every attack. Just don't expect attacking an arm to disable it or the head to cause extra damage because all damage is abstract. But you can always attack a specific body part.

One that came up in my campaign was a player wanting to jump from a ledge above a monster onto that monster. Moreover, this wasn't one the same size as him. He literally wanted to leap onto a dragon. I had no idea how to handle that, so I just flatly ruled he couldn't.

This sounds like a straight up grapple check. If you succeed, you hold on. If not, you slip off.

What most people forget is that you don't need the feats to bull rush, sunder, or grapple. The feats just remove the AoOs and make it more worthwhile.