Lawful Good Rules Lawyers

[Fauchard1520]

I write about the concept a little bit below this comic, but the TLDR PSA is this: L[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]awful good rules lawyer will actually argue for the monsters as well as the PCs. If you like to quote the rules at your GM / fellow players, it behooves you to argue against your own interests every once in a while. You damage your credibility when you only ever argue on your own behalf. Worse, you risk sliding into lawful evil rules lawyer territory, and nobody likes those guys.


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[Kobold Boots]

I have done this. It's one of the reasons why I've gravitated towards the DM chair. Too funny.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I had a player like this. Mind like a trap when it came to rules, whether it was for or against him.

I would posit, though, that a true rules lawyer doesn’t care about knowing the rules, but instead tries to bend them to their benefit. It’s the person that’s continually asking for a DM ruling on something that’s perfectly clear in the books. The person that argues that they should be able to drink a potion AND attack in a round.

 

[Fauchard1520]

I would posit, though, that a true rules lawyer doesn’t care about knowing the rules, but instead tries to bend them to their benefit.

Yeah man. That's the dude that I call the "lawful evil rules lawyer." I'm not a fan of that kind of play.

 

[jasper]

The Great Jasper places the envelope against his forehead.

A unicorn, honest used car salesman, and lawful good rules lawyer.

Tears open envelope

Name a rarity, a possibility, and impossibility.

 

[redrick]

I one of these in my first 5e group. They knew the rules front and back, and would always remind me of places where a monster should get advantage. They also knew the MM by heart, and would remind me of features that I had forgotten to apply. It could be a little irritating when they would launch into a lengthy "helpful lesson on how to use that class feature" with other players, but they were an asset to the group.

I know plenty of Lawful Good lawyers in real life who use their powers for good.

 

[Sunseeker]

When I have larger groups, I almost always assign the more knowledgable players the job of "Co-DM" to help remind me amid the chaos of all the rules. Some people have a mind for that stuff, some people don't. If someone knows the rules better than me and is willing to be helpful, I will more than gladly appreciate it.

 

[Fauchard1520]

When I have larger groups, I almost always assign the more knowledgable players the job of "Co-DM" to help remind me amid the chaos of all the rules.

We named ours "Justiciar of Rules." He gets bonus XP for the job, same as Madame Cartographer and our Lootsmeister.

 

[Lylandra]

My husband is one of these as well. He even adds up the damage dice of our DM and corrects him if he got the wrong sum (most times the correct value is higher...).

 

[JacktheRabbit]

The one problem with all of this is as a DM I occasionally fudge things on purpose. If a foe is fighting a less experienced player I may not invoke an ability that the foe has. Having a Rules Lawyer around pointing this out either makes me have to look like a fool for not using a foes abilities properly or in some way say the omission is intentional which might make it obvious I am going easy on someone.

The MM Rules Lawyer would hate sitting at my table. I constantly change major and minor abilities of monsters so that people who have memorized the MM do not instantly know what to expect. I have even changed major aspects of monsters the very first time a party meets them knowing it will make the encounter 5 times more difficult if players who have memorized the MM try to act based on that knowledge, though that is not entirely a Rules Lawyer thing.