D&D 3E/3.5 Worst 3.5 rule from core books?

[aboyd]

What is the worst rule? This could be something that slows the game and causes everyone to open their books. Or it could be some nuance that nobody ever gets.

For me, a stupid rule is that spells in a wizard's spellbook take up a page per level of the spell. There is also some rule about time needed to memorize the spells increasing with level, so that a high-level caster technically needs all day to re-memorize everything. I believe most people ignore this rule. I don't even know where it is.

The other rule that currently annoys me is as discussed on this forum -- that Quick Draw appears to allow flask-chuckers to get full BAB with multiple shots (the description says as much). However, it technically doesn't work because there is a move-action cost to retrieve an item. I thought Quick Draw was designed to remove the retrieval cost, but it turns out draw & retrieval are two different things. It's a nuance that adds realism but is mighty annoying to me.

What have you got? Lay it on me.

 

[Starbuck_II]

What is the worst rule? This could be something that slows the game and causes everyone to open their books. Or it could be some nuance that nobody ever gets.

For me, a stupid rule is that spells in a wizard's spellbook take up a page per level of the spell. There is also some rule about time needed to memorize the spells increasing with level, so that a high-level caster technically needs all day to re-memorize everything. I believe most people ignore this rule. I don't even know where it is.

The other rule that currently annoys me is as discussed on this forum -- that Quick Draw appears to allow flask-chuckers to get full BAB with multiple shots (the description says as much). However, it technically doesn't work because there is a move-action cost to retrieve an item. I thought Quick Draw was designed to remove the retrieval cost, but it turns out draw & retrieval are two different things. It's a nuance that adds realism but is mighty annoying to me.

What have you got? Lay it on me.

A Dying person (someone with -1 to -9 hps) is "restored" to 0 hps by drowning.
Since as sson as you drown you are brung to 0 hps. Not dropped but brung. So automatically be come 0.

That one was a weird rule.

 

[Derro]

Well Grapple is obviously problematic and I've often seen furrowed brows regarding some of its cousins like Over-running and even Bullrush.

One of the most broken rules in the game is the feat Natural Spell. Since wild shapes are often combat forms and the druid has plenty of combat spells I don't see why the two have to co-exist. There's more too it than that but I think it was poorly implemented and creates many of the problems that people have with druids. If anything it should have been a meta-magic feat.

I'm sure I've got more because I'm an obsessive-compulsive rules tinkerer but I'll let this thread build a bit more steam before I chime back in.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Good choices, especially the drawing bs. I let people treat anything remotely weapon-like as a weapon for drawing rules.

My biggest annoyance currently is the size limits on special combat maneuvers like trip and bull rush. Grapplin,g i can sort of understand. But really. If a medium human can somehow manage to actually get a bull rush mod high enough to bully the Tarrasque, clearly he's so superhuman-ly good at it he should be able to.

Another stupid rule: breaking magic items physically somehow breaks them "emotionally." Why the heck can snapping a wand in half make all the magic in it go bye-bye, but putting it back together can't bring it back? It makes sundering a self-defeating choice for the PCs, and makes any DM that tries to use it on them look like a RBDM. I'm considering allowing the magic to return to a repaired item 24 hours after being fixed, to make sundering fair and viable in combat, while still retaining its sting (losing access to that item the rest of that dungeon, or at least that day).

 

[Jack Simth]

What is the worst rule? This could be something that slows the game and causes everyone to open their books. Or it could be some nuance that nobody ever gets.

For me, a stupid rule is that spells in a wizard's spellbook take up a page per level of the spell.

... how is it stupid that a harder-to-learn, harder-to-prepare, harder-to-cast spell takes more pages to write down?

There is also some rule about time needed to memorize the spells increasing with level, so that a high-level caster technically needs all day to re-memorize everything. I believe most people ignore this rule. I don't even know where it is.

That's because it was removed somewhere between 1e and 3e. It doesn't exist anymore; it takes one hour for a Wizard to prepare spells - however, the Wizard must have at least 8 hours of rest beforehand to do so, and the Wizard has a "daily" allotment of spells (and so can't prepare spells twice in one day).

The other rule that currently annoys me is as discussed on this forum -- that Quick Draw appears to allow flask-chuckers to get full BAB with multiple shots (the description says as much). However, it technically doesn't work because there is a move-action cost to retrieve an item. I thought Quick Draw was designed to remove the retrieval cost, but it turns out draw & retrieval are two different things. It's a nuance that adds realism but is mighty annoying to me.

It mostly just means you need to get a bandoleer.

If it's any consolation, though, "prepare to throw a splash weapon" is listed as full-round action on the combat actions table, so it doesn't much matter how fast you can draw them - you can only throw one every other turn anyway.

Do note, though, that this is likely an editing error from 3.0 -> 3.5; the mention of a need for preparing to throw a splash weapon was removed from the splash weapon description in the transition.

What have you got? Lay it on me.

Grappling rules. For me, it'd have to be grappling rules that I'm least likely to remember, and need to look up every time.

 

[Runestar]

Considering that spellbooks are dirt cheap, and past a certain stage, encumbrance becomes negligible anyways due to bags of holding, I am fine with spells taking up tons of space, and having to lug multiple spellbooks around.

1) One of the most annoying rules was that applying metamagic feats to spells for a spontaneous spellcaster was a full-round action. Why? Because you can only use standard-action moves while being pinned, and attempting to apply silent spell spontaneously to your dimension door is a full-round action (and thus not allowed). Meanwhile, your wizard buddy is gloating as he casts his own pre-prepared silenced dim-door.

2) Favoured class restrictions. You are telling me that a dwarven rogue1/wiz3 gets a 20% xp penalty, but not some frankenstein build consisting of 1-2 lvs from 5-6 classes? If the idea was to avoid abusive multiclassing, then it failed horribly, since it just encouraged everyone to go human.

3) Rationalizing banning schools due to specialization. Don't get me wrong, mechanically, it is a great option, but to this day, I have yet to see anyone able to justify how it works in-game.

4) The assassin's "casts as a bard" spellcasting rule. Evidently, he must also sing to cast his spells. How tactical...

5) LA/ECL, or at least the way wotc handled it. It just made monster PCs far too weak for their lv. Shame. An astral deva or hound archon PC would have been fun.

6) Demons/fiends and their random summoning abilities. You would end up with extremely variable results. For example, depending on your luck, an ice devil could either fail miserably and end up with nothing, or luck out and end up with 8 extra bone devils!

More may come later...

 

[Drowbane]

Turn Undead.

 

[aboyd]

If it's any consolation, though, "prepare to throw a splash weapon" is listed as full-round action on the combat actions table, so it doesn't much matter how fast you can draw them - you can only throw one every other turn anyway.

True, there is a rule about splash weapons taking a full round to prepare. However, I believe we've had threads here on enworld about how that only applies to splash weapons that need preparation. For example, in the listing for oil on page 127, it says "use the rules for alchemist's fire, except that it takes a full-round action to prepare a flask with a fuse." That implies that alchemist's fire does not need the full round action to prepare. It would appear that acid flasks, smokesticks, holy water, tanglefoot bags, and thunderstones can all be thrown without preparation.

 

[Vegepygmy]

What have you got? Lay it on me.

You have to be a spellcaster to make items using Craft (alchemy).

Death by massive damage.

Special multiclass restrictions on monks and paladins.

No mechanical penalties for not sleeping.

Hand crossbows are "exotic" weapons.

 

[Ashtagon]

You forget spells when you cast them. Never really made sense to me.