D&D 5E Things that "need" errata

[Kobold Stew]

Given the latest Sage Advice and the thread it spawned, I would suggest errata are needed for the hand crossbow.

Either delete the light property from the hand crossbow on the weapon table, or remove the word "melee" from the description of the two weapon fighting rule (p. 195).

 

[GMforPowergamers]

It kills you. Thats how much damage it does.

If the character tried to use this tactic agains the Tarrasque it deals 18d10 damage. The Tarrasque is lucky enough and has a massive will to live to avoid the worst of the lavas effects. The lava never actually directly get it; maybe splashing the gargantuan creatures thick hide... well - until the Tarrasque is reduced to 0 Hp anyways.



In my games I dont need to do this. It's assumed that (barring magical protection) it kills you. Same as getting an axe swung at your neck by the headsman, having a sword rammed though your heart and so forth.



The critical hit from the frost giant didnt actually 'hit' you. It was an awesome blow that you only just managed to step out of the way from, using your experience, luck and vitality to avoid a blow that would have cut a lesser man in two.



The reason you are still at 100 percent effectiveness is because you are lucky, skilled and experienced enough to avoid getting hit by the meteors. When the artillery rains down dealing 100 points of damage, the 5 HP Redshirts around you get cut down by the explosions, while you (with your 200 hit points of plot immunity) emerge physcially (miraculously) unscathed.

If you stood there, covered your eyes and allowed a giant the size of a train carriage hit you with an axe weighing 100 kilos, you get cleaved in half and die.

Do you at least understand that is all house rules and not at all how the game is designed?

 

[Flamestrike]

That's one way to run things.

Thats how Hit Points work. They represent luck, your will to live, your experience, your vitality and your health. They dont represent the 'ability to take an axe to the face and keep going'.

'Hit point Damage' is not damage to your 'meat'. It's attrition of your luck, experience, vitality, stamina and will to live. It's your ability to actively (and instinctivly) avoid blows that wold kill a normal less-experienced person.

You declare that you 'just take the hit' then you are no longer actively trying to avoid the blow. You've turned off your plot immunity and hit points become meaningless.

I'm with you as long as the eventual ruling isn't in direct contradiction to RAW. Given your example of the right to bear arms, it drives me nuts when people ignore the part where the right of the people (RAW) is magically transformed into the right of the state (militia) because the militia is mentioned.

You miss my point. There is no such thing as 'RAW'. Rules (or for that matter, any text at all) does not exist as an objective 'thing in and of itself'. It has to be interpreted by a subjective mind, in orfer to be given any meaning.

I dont want to get too postmodern on yo here, but thats how it is.

So do clerics all get "Luck sight" as a bonus ability? Because when one needs to use cure wounds how do they know what level slot to use? I mean if there isn't always damage would it be fair for a dm to look at a fighter with 125pts of damage and have his npc say "you don't need healing the giant never hit you" since he still had 12hp left?

Huh? How on earth can a character (not the player mind you, but the character) know how many 'hit points' he has?

I mean, he may feel tired, be low on vitality, have some minor cuts and bruises starting to wear him down from all those 'narrow misses' or just need a moment to collect his thoughts (and expend HD).

I encourage my players not to use terms like 'hit points' when asking for healing, and instad to use stuff like 'Im pretty busted man, I could use some positive energy; I dont think I have it in me to defend properly if we get in another dust up' or similar.

It provides for a much more immersive game.

 

[SkidAce]

*Wheep Wheep WheeP*

HP discussion proximity alarm..thread derailment imminent.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Thats how Hit Points work. They represent luck, your will to live, your experience, your vitality and your health.



Huh? How on earth can a character (not the player mind you, but the character) know how many 'hit points' he has?

I mean, he may feel tired, be low on vitality, have some minor cuts and bruises starting to wear him down from all those 'narrow misses' or just need a moment to collect his thoughts (and expend HD).

I encourage my players not to use terms like 'hit points' when asking for healing, and instad to use stuff like 'Im pretty busted man, I could use some positive energy; I dont think I have it in me to defend properly if we get in another dust up' or similar.

It provides for a much more immersive game.

As a dm I tell players not to beat around the Bush there characters May have better ways to say it but at the table just say "I'm down x hp " if you want to say more in game great but just say the up first

 

[77IM]

Well this thread sure drifted. I actually find this lava discussion much more interesting.

If I were the DM and a PC jumped into lava and survived (taking 99 damage), I'd try to come up with a good reason for it. Maybe the lava is solidifying into a crust right where they landed. Maybe they landed on their shield (and I use my DM's discretion to destroy the shield, which can't repel firepower of that magnitude). Maybe some of the potions in their backpack explode, drenching the PC and protecting them momentarily from damage. Maybe a jet of volcanic gas bursts out of the lava right at that moment, strong enough to actually hold them somewhat away from the lava (but still scorching for 99 damage). Maybe they actually land on a rock outcropping right next to the lava.

Now a PC who dives head-first into the lava attempting to get as incinerated as possible gets what they want and just dies. If you want it in game terms, I rule that under the circumstances lava's effective damage increases to 2d4x1000. If following the rules creates a scenario that is too absurd, I change them. I'm just very liberal about what counts as "not too absurd," trying to err on the side of letting players get away with whatever shenanigans they are trying to pull.

 

[Flamestrike]

Do you at least understand that is all house rules and not at all how the game is designed?

Yes it is how the game is designed. Read the PHB:

Hit points represent a combination of physical and mental durability, the will to live, and luck. Creatures with more hit points are more difficult to kill.

Straight from the PHB. The 'damage' from the axe reduces your (physical and mental durability, the will to live, and luck).

Not your meat.

When the dice indicate a 'hit' with a 2 ton axe, the axe does damage to your hit points, not to your flesh. You're lucky enough, or have enough conviction, or enough desire to avoid the otherwise lethal attack and stay alive by avoiding a direct hit - although the near miss unsettles you, uses up one of your nine lives or drains your stamina in dodging/ parrying the attack at the last minute (you take damage to - and temporarily reduce - your mental durability, luck, will to live and vitality).

As you advance in level (particularly in a class that spends a lot of its time fighting in the front line) your will to live, mental durability, stamina and luck (your ability to summon the stamina needed to avoid getting cut, the will to keep going and not give up, and your luck to avoid killer blows etc) increases with your skill and experience.

Its not that you can get stabbed in the chest 20 times and survive; its that you're good enough, lucky enough, and skilled enough not to get stabbed in the chest 20 times in a situation where a lesser man would.

 

[Flamestrike]

As a dm I tell players not to beat around the Bush there characters May have better ways to say it but at the table just say "I'm down x hp " if you want to say more in game great but just say the up first

Look each to their own. Some dudes prefer zero roleplaying, shallow character backrounds (I'm an orphan with no family and no motivation to be a murder hobo) and strictly optimal choices from a game mechanic perspective, and have everything resolve via a roll of the dice:

Player: I search the door for traps. Rolls.
DM: The door is traped with a fireball. DC 20 to disarm.
Player: I disarm the trap. Rolls
DM: You succeed.

That playstyle annoys me personally. I prefer;

Player (of Borgo the Halfing Rogue): What does the door look like?.
DM: It looks similar to the other doors in the dungeon, although unlike the rest, it has a key hole.
Player: (in character). This looks suspicious fellas, stand back while I check it out. (other players describe where they are moving to and actions they take, such as crouching behind a shield).
Player: I visally inspect the door first; then I try and peer through the keyhole.
DM: (noting the trap is triggered by tampering with the lock) Ok -make me a perception check... with advantage... Great roll! OK Borgo, when you peer into the keyhole you notice soemthing that should not be there. A small counterweighted lever that seems to be attached to both the lock itself and the key.
Player: I want to investigate this lever. Is there a way I can open the door without setting it off?
DM: How do you intend on doing that?
Player: I get out my thieves tools and lay them on the ground next to me, telling the other characters to stand waay back... this door is trapped!
Player of Fighter named Bob: (in character) Never Borgo my good mate - I'll always be at your side! (Moves up to the Rogue, to use his shield as cover for Borgo to hide behind, shielding the halfling from any traps that may spring out). The DM, noting that Bobs character story involves his own fear of failing to protect of the weak, awards inspiration to Bob.
Player: Does my thieves tool kit contain something that I can hold the lever in place while I poke around in there to see whats going on?
DM: Yep - a pair of pliers and a long narrow probe.
Player: OK - i use the both of them to see if there is a way I can open the door without setting it off. (Rolls investigation; narrowly fails).
DM: You cant figure out a way to open it without setting it off, but you do notice that it appears to be linked to some kind of rune scrawled inside the door mechanism. You remember from your childhood that it seems to be Elvish for 'flaming explosion' or something of that nature.
Player: Crap. Ok Do I think I can disarm it?
DM: (noting the Rogue has expertise in thieves tools) Yep; youve disarmed worse in your time. How do you plan on disarming it...

And so forth.

I encourage my players to treat the world around them as a real and mysterious place, and reward creative thinking. Thats not everyone's cup of tea I know, so its really a question of personal preference.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Yes it is how the game is designed. Read the PHB:

Hit points represent a combination of physical and mental durability, the will to live, and luck. Creatures with more hit points are more difficult to kill.

Straight from the PHB. The 'damage' from the axe reduces your (physical and mental durability, the will to live, and luck).

Not your meat.

When the dice indicate a 'hit' with a 2 ton axe, the axe does damage to your hit points, not to your flesh. You're lucky enough, or have enough conviction, or enough desire to avoid the otherwise lethal attack and stay alive
ld.

So what...I use that rule and it says to me when I stand there and let the frost giant swing with a -15 power attack auto crit for 124 damage I survive if I have 125+hp

It also tells me if I jump after the power ring into the lava and take 20d6 damage (let's say 85) then climb out and take another 85 damage that if I have popup190hp to start I am Ok...

The luck and will to live don't leave me when I do something crazy and larger then life.... That is when I need that plot armor the most

 

[GMforPowergamers]

QUOTE
I encourage my players to treat the world around them as a real and mysterious place, and reward creative thinking. Thats not everyone's cup of tea I know, so its really a question of personal preference. [/QUOTE]

Me too I just let them be cool and not waste time on things... My game plays out much closer to your second example then your first...without auto killing pcs

Edit I do wonder how you handle players who don't know how to lick or disarm? "Um my character know as that stuff but I don't I just want to disarm the trap but I do t know how"