D&D General When do you overrule RAW?

[Mort]

Why do you think that? It's pretty built-in to society in general and fan communities even moreso.


Yeah, exactly. In the very LEAST giving her back her re-roll! That's just MEAN otherwise!

He was in front of a live crowd of 12,000 cheering people. Hard to keep things straight there! He was likely just feeling the pressure to keep things moving and didn't want to double back.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I've been pretty hard on the ruling, but that's a HUGE reach.

Forgetting everything else, the player in question was his wife. I'm quite sure he would have done the same (asked for a reason, likely said no) with anyone else at the table.

Ah. You missed the context! The context of that comment wasn't about Mercer - it was about the "fan" community calling her a dummy for not knowing that would happen. THAT was what I said probably held misogyny - not Mercer's actions or the ruling.

 

[Mort]

Ah. You missed the context! The context of that comment wasn't about Mercer - it was about the "fan" community calling her a dummy for not knowing that would happen. THAT was what I said probably held misogyny - not Mercer's actions or the ruling.

Yeah, the fan community can be problematic. CRs is actually better than many, but they have their (bad) moments.

 

[overgeeked]

Why do you think that? It's pretty built-in to society in general and fan communities even moreso.

Ah. You missed the context! The context of that comment wasn't about Mercer - it was about the "fan" community calling her a dummy for not knowing that would happen. THAT was what I said probably held misogyny - not Mercer's actions or the ruling.

If you’re saying the fan community dragging Marisha is misogyny, then I 100% agree.

If you’re saying Matt making that call is misogyny, then I 100% disagree.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

If you’re saying the fan community dragging Marisha is misogyny, then I 100% agree.

If you’re saying Matt making that call is misogyny, then I 100% disagree.

Oh yeah, that line was never about Matt. I get where our disconnect happened now. I erased too much of the context before replying.

 

[Maxperson]

Okay, my character is a monster hunter and trained to stop Godzilla. People roughly their size just get affected the same as a side benefit.

Nope. There's no way anyone can train to knock over a 30 story high monster. It literally can't happen.

Edit: And the DM is supposed to just tell players no if something is impossible.

Yes, we can houserule anything we want. Some DMs do so in order to attack and diminish martial players. This is not news to anyone, or an answer to anything.

Sure, and the overwhelming majority of DMs don't do it in order to affect or diminish martial players in any way. It isn't about the classes. Like at all.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

Nope. There's no way anyone can train to knock over a 30 story high monster. It literally can't happen.

Rules say it happens all the time. And rules tell us how the world works.

While the thread is about overwriting RAW, trying to turn this game into some form of realistic just seems to require a complete rewrite, rather than going against a few rules.

 

[Maxperson]

Rules say it happens all the time. And rules tell us how the world works.

While the thread is about overwriting RAW, trying to turn this game into some form of realistic just seems to require a complete rewrite, rather than going against a few rules.

The game IS about realism. Every time you describe a forest, that's realism. The real world has forests. Every time a PC falls, that's realism. The real world has gravity. Every sword that is made of steel and has an edge is realism. The real world has swords. Every time your human breathes air, has a head, eyes, ears, nose, etc., that's realism.

Nobody is arguing to mirror the real world. Realism, though, is omnipresent in the game and you can't avoid it, no matter how hard you try.

And at this point you are being obstinate. The rules say the DM can change the rules. The rules tell the players to ask the DM what rules have changed. The rules tell the DM to just deny things that would be impossible.

You may not like the same level of realism my players and I enjoy, and that's okay. Find a game that caters to what you want. You don't get to tell me that I'm wrong, or targeting martials, or going against the rules. That's just inaccurate. And I'm sure you don't want to be deliberately inaccurate.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

Every time a PC falls, that's realism.

Yes, higher-level people can take a bellyflop off the tallest tower in the land, onto the cobblestones in the street far below, and walk away dusting themselves off. That's exactly what people think of when they think of realism.

 

[Dausuul]

I was watching the Critical Role special from Wembley, and there comes a moment where the party is fighting a kaiju-sized opponent and a character, Bo, tries to use a reaction attack from the sentinel feat to stop it moving after another party member. The attack is successful, but Mercer immediately overrules it, asking the player (his wife) “how do you do that?”, to which she had no real answer. Note that after missing on the initial attack she had spent her only reroll to try again, believing that immobilizing the monster was critical.

I agreed with his ruling - her comparatively tiny character somehow locking down a massive supernatural creature to whom she was insignificant would have made no sense in the story. But I know others would have very different feelings. So my question is: when do you feel justified overruling RAW?

I overrule RAW when I believe the result of applying it would be nonsensical. I try to be very sparing with this. In the situation described, I might rule as Mercer did, but only if I had been applying a general rule that the monster's size made it immune to any kind of damage or effect from the PCs. Otherwise... if you can kill Godzilla by repeatedly stabbing its toe with a dagger, why can't you immobilize Godzilla the same way?

(This is also one of those cases where you have to be careful about stealth nerfing martial classes by holding them to a different standard from the spellcasters. If I rule that you can't immobilize Godzilla with the Sentinel feat, I should not then turn around and allow rime's binding ice -- a 2nd-level spell -- to work.)

Finally, when I do overrule RAW, I take a look at whether a PC has expended resources or otherwise relied upon the rule working as written. If so, I allow them to change their action; so Bo would get the reroll back. But I imagine it isn't practical to apply such a "takeback" in a live play context.