A D&D Test

[Nareau]

In another thread, Hypersmurf made some interesting contentions about some rules permutations. Not wanting to hijack that thread, I'm asking about them here:

It's the same as my contention that, strictly as written, someone suffering from Ray of Enfeeblement can't be killed by a Shadow... or that while a Ftr10 can use a Ring of Evasion in heavy armor, a Ftr9/Rog1 can't. I might not run those rules that way... but it's what they say.

Would you mind explaining?

And to open the thread up a bit: I'd love to come up with a "D&D rules test". Basically, put forth some more of these bizarre artifacts of the rules, and see if people can come up with a reasonable argument to support it.

Spider

 

[Hypersmurf]

Sure.

Ray of Enfeeblement states "The subject's Strength score cannot drop below 1."

The intention, in all likelihood, is "This penalty cannot reduce the subject's Strength score below 1." But that's not what it says; if you're hit by a RoE, you're the subject, and thus as long as the spell is in effect, your Strength score cannot drop below 1. Shadows kill people by reducing Str to 0; if your Str can't drop below 1, you can't be killed by a Shadow.

-----

The Ring of Evasion grants the Evasion ability. The text of the Evasion ability states that "Rogues and monks cannot use evasion in medium or heavy armor."

The text of Evasion is the wrong place for this; it should only appear in the description of the class feature, or, alternatively, the note in the Evasion ability should make it clear that this limitation only applies to Evasion granted by the Evasion class feature of Rogues and Monks.

But as written, if you are a Rogue, and you have a Ring of Evasion, then the text of the Evasion ability applies... and it states that Rogues can't use Evasion in heavy armor.

Someone with no Rogue or Monk levels is not restricted in this way.

-Hyp.

 

[Crothian]

RoE just became the besty defense against shadows. You hit everyone with one of those spells and then slaughter all the shadows!!

 

[IcyCool]

RoE just became the besty defense against shadows. You hit everyone with one of those spells and then slaughter all the shadows!!

With your mighty strength of 1.

 

[Mistwell]

My favorite example of rules wonkiness is the Prayer Beads: Karma Bead Only. Calculate the price...go ahead, give it a try

 

[Hypersmurf]

My favorite example of rules wonkiness is the Prayer Beads: Karma Bead Only. Calculate the price...go ahead, give it a try

You're obviously not a Power Gamer.

Prayer Beads: Healing Only are far cooler.

-Hyp.

 

[Crothian]

With your mighty strength of 1.

better then dying.

 

[Darkness]

Dead creatures can still take actions.

 

[Len]

Dead creatures can still take actions.

Ooh, good point.

Actually I have a feeling that may come in handy in our next fight.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Dead creatures can still take actions.

Yeah - that's a 3.5 change.

People used to think they could in 3E, but they were generally wrong.

-Hyp.