Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pickaxe" data-source="post: 2153630" data-attributes="member: 10812">How can someone be "out of touch" with something that's subjective? I agree that the spirit of the rules (which I believe is equivalent to what you are calling the common sense approach) is important, but I think you are missing two important points:1) Hypersmurf is indeed taking an approach that considers the spirit of the rules, not just the "letter of the law." His iconic example is Shillelagh, where he identifies two possible interpretations of the RAW, and then essentially asks which is the correct interpretation, presumably based on the spirit of the rules. He is only being "programmatic" in arguing that this rule should be consistently applied.2) Your own argument about dominate person and the polymorphed giant shows (at least to me) the failing of the common sense approach here. You are favoring the notion that type-changing effects should affect type-based spells, based on the spirit of the rules. I would argue that the spirit of the rules could just as easily support the opposite conclusion. Was the restriction of dominate person to affecting only humanoids meant to give shapeshifters the upper hand in this case, or was the change of type from polymorph type spells and powers meant as a way to terminate type-based spells? Is it really necessarily "common sense" that a dominated person can inadvertently break the domination by changing the form of his body (but not the nature of his mind)?In this case, we have a specific situation that allows for multiple interpretations by RAW. The common sense approach could be applied, but, as you note, it's subjective, and in this case (as opposed to the case with Shillelagh, or with Ray of Enfeeblement preventing death by shadow attack) I think different people will cleave to different interpretations. You could base your choice on what you think is the spirit of the rules concerning these spells and powers, or you could look to comparable situations where the RAW are more clear.--Axe</blockquote>

Verification