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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 1146398" data-attributes="member: 2629">D&D is a game of rules. Rules are the laws of the game. Lawyers spend countless hours screwing around with laws. To keep lawyers from going too wild with their interpretations, some common sense rules have come into existence to help us determine how written rules should be interpreted. One of these rules is that you should look at the plain interpretation of the written rules for their meaning before looking elsewhere. Only if that clear meaning is absent should you begin to look for clarity through outside sources (such as supposition as to why a rule was put into place.) If the rule makers don't like how it is interpreted based upon a plain language interpretation, those rule makers can change the written rule.Alter self makes a statement regarding hit points. It is clear and concise. Polymorph includes alter self by reference unless polymorph overrides a portion of alter self. Supposition about why the rule might have been written aside, unless there is something in polymorph that overrides that statement regarding hit points in alter self, it stands by reference in polymorph. Wildshape references polymorph in the same way. So, unless wildshape makes a special rule about hit points, the same rule applies.Is D&D the proper setting for legal interpretation of laws? Yes and no. No, it isn't a place for rules lawyers to get uptight and argue minutia and destroy the enjoyable atmosphere of a game session. Yes, it is a proper place to use sound reasoning to figure out how you should play the game if questions arise. The problem is that those two things are very similar. The trick is knowing when to walk the slope and when to go with the flow.</blockquote>

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