D&D 5E What Rules do you see people mistake or misapply?

[Valdier]

Elven Trance. It does not reduce the amount of time required for the elf to complete a Long rest, it just changes the amount that must be spent fully resting/sleeping and increases the amount time spent in light activity.

I disagree with this one, regardless of a bad twitter ruling.

 

[Pathkeeper24601]

I don't know where the "PCs know where you are if you haven't taken the hide action even though you are invisible" comes from. Jeremy Crawford just clarified in a podcast that it's not true, nor is it the intent. There's a thread on it right here

If the invisible stalker is singing a bawdy tavern tune you probably know where it is. But sitting in the corner quietly? It's a DMs call, and normally will not be noticed.

Much of it is how the Invisible condition is worded. You are unseen and for the purposes of hiding you are treated as being heavily obscured and can be detected by noise or tracks it makes. It doesn't automatically assume you are hiding. Being heavily obscured allows you to hide/stealth as an action, but doesn't automatically make you hidden either. So you need to make a separate action to hide when you turn invisible to not be noticed in combat. When not in combat it is not usually an issue to include the hide/stealth roll as part of turning invisible.

 

[Oofta]

Much of it is how the Invisible condition is worded. You are unseen and for the purposes of hiding you are treated as being heavily obscured and can be detected by noise or tracks it makes. It doesn't automatically assume you are hiding. Being heavily obscured allows you to hide/stealth as an action, but doesn't automatically make you hidden either. So you need to make a separate action to hide when you turn invisible to not be noticed in combat. When not in combat it is not usually an issue to include the hide/stealth roll as part of turning invisible.

I don't want to sidetrack this thread. I'll just say that it never says anywhere that you are automatically detected if you have not taken the hide action. Crawford confirmed in the podcast that that is the rule and the intent.

If you want to discuss further feel free to go over this thread.

 

[Pathkeeper24601]

I disagree with this one, regardless of a bad twitter ruling.

Don't know about the bad twitter ruling, but the Sage Advice article indicates that Trance is not intended to reduce a long rest. The article does indicate that he doesn't really think allowing it shorten it would break the game, making at least RAI. I think the part that is RAW is that sleep is only a part of a Long Rest and not equivalent to a Long Rest.

Additionally, a Short rest is a period of time that is at 1 hour or more and does not automatically end just because the hour is up. A rest of 7 hours is still just a single short rest if it is fully interrupted before becoming a Long Rest.

 

[Pathkeeper24601]

I don't want to sidetrack this thread. I'll just say that it never says anywhere that you are automatically detected if you have not taken the hide action. Crawford confirmed in the podcast that that is the rule and the intent.

If you want to discuss further feel free to go over this thread.

Looking back on some of your previous posts on this, I would say "might" is not a full contradiction. It is true that the rules doesn't say that you are automatically detected, just as it doesn't say you aren't automatically undetected. It just tells you how you may become hidden/undetected if you currently aren't. I would fully expect the DM to consider the situation and make a ruling. The way it is written, I would consider knowing to be the default condition that could be modified by specific situation. For example, I would probably grant that the Mislead spell has a greater chance of the caster not be noticed than just casting Invisibility.

 

[Valdier]

Don't know about the bad twitter ruling, but the Sage Advice article indicates that Trance is not intended to reduce a long rest. The article does indicate that he doesn't really think allowing it shorten it would break the game, making at least RAI. I think the part that is RAW is that sleep is only a part of a Long Rest and not equivalent to a Long Rest.

Additionally, a Short rest is a period of time that is at 1 hour or more and does not automatically end just because the hour is up. A rest of 7 hours is still just a single short rest if it is fully interrupted before becoming a Long Rest.

As you can only benefit from one long rest per day, it truly doesn't matter for game balance purposes whether it's 1, 4, 8 or 16 hours. A rest is only gonna happen when the DM allows it to, so denying a racial benefit that is purely for RP, for no practical purpose is simply arbitrary.

That said, run it how you want, but the ruling is not RAW, it's sage advice, therefore it doesn't really qualify for this thread imo.

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[The Crimson Binome]

As you can only benefit from one long rest per day, it truly doesn't matter for game balance purposes whether it's 1, 4, 8 or 16 hours. A rest is only gonna happen when the DM allows it to, so denying a racial benefit that is purely for RP, for no practical purpose is simply arbitrary.

The DM does not arbitrarily allow a rest to happen. How long you have to rest is a judgment call by the DM, and it's entirely possible that the DM will make an honest determination that you have four hours to rest but not eight. Some DMs may even use dice to figure it out, if they are uncertain.

 

[Valdier]

The DM does not arbitrarily allow a rest to happen. How long you have to rest is a judgment call by the DM, and it's entirely possible that the DM will make an honest determination that you have four hours to rest but not eight. Some DMs may even use dice to figure it out, if they are uncertain.

Are you aware of what arbitrary means? Literally means random OR personal whim. Like a judgement call by your DM, or randomly with dice. Exactly like I said and exactly what it means:

ar·bi·trar·y
adjective
based on random choice or personal whim, rather than any reason or system.

of power or a ruling body) unrestrained and autocratic in the use of authority.

 

[MNblockhead]

I probably missed it, but in the post so far, I didn't see something that I and my players still struggle with.

That is spell-casting needs a clear line of sight and a pane of glass will prevent most spells from affecting a target, because you can't target someone behind a pane of glass, because that person is under full cover, even though you can see them.

There are lengthy threads that discuss this in detail, but this is something DMs should go over with players of spell casters. A Wizard should know this and it would be pretty petty to let a player waste spell slots because he or she didn't understand how spell targeting work. It just isn't that obvious to most players.

Also, I hope you type up your final list and share it. It would be nice to have something like this that I can tweak and hand out to players.

 

[neogod22]

Damage resistance: If you have resistance to a certain type of damage, you take half damage. No need to roll a save, you can't drop it any further unless it's a save for no damage (i.e. evasion) you can't drop from half to 1/4th.

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