Little Known Rules of D&D

[Tetsubo]

Explorer’s Outfit: This is a full set of clothes for someone who never knows what to expect. It includes sturdy boots, leather breeches or a skirt, a belt, a shirt (perhaps with a vest or jacket), gloves, and a cloak. Rather than a leather skirt, a leather overtunic may be worn over a cloth skirt. The clothes have plenty of pockets (especially the cloak). The outfit also includes any extra items you might need, such as a scarf or a wide-brimmed hat.

Can't tell you how many times that saved my butt.
Me: My character tries to push the door
DM: Your character is now stuck to the door
Me: I take my hand out of my glove that is stuck to the door
DM:

I used that trick back in 1979...

 

[LonePaladin]

If you're playing a divine spellcaster, check with your DM on this before picking an odd time to prepare your spells (like noon or sundown).

According to this:

A divine spellcaster chooses and prepares spells ahead of time, just as a wizard does. However, a divine spellcaster does not require a period of rest to prepare spells. Instead, the character chooses a particular part of the day to pray and receive spells. The time is usually associated with some daily event. If some event prevents a character from praying at the proper time, he must do so as soon as possible. If the character does not stop to pray for spells at the first opportunity, he must wait until the next day to prepare spells.

A divine spellcaster does not have to prepare all his spells at once. However, the character’s mind is considered fresh only during his or her first daily spell preparation, so a divine spellcaster cannot fill a slot that is empty because he or she has cast a spell or abandoned a previously prepared spell.

As with arcane spells, at the time of preparation any spells cast within the previous 8 hours count against the number of spells that can be prepared.

To sum up:
Let's say you've got twelve spell slots (the levels aren't important for this). You prepare your spells at noon. The party wakes up in the morning, and heads out to the dungeon. You've got your full selection of spells, not having needed to use any the day before.

At 10 am, the group enters the dungeon and has a couple encounters. In defeating the enemy and mending the group afterward, you use up six of your spells. You have no other significant encounters in the next two hours.

When noon arrives, you demand that the party stops so that you can pray. When you do so, however, you can't prepare spells in any of the slots you used two hours ago; all you can do is abandon the spells you still have to replace them with other spells.

At 4 pm, you have another set of encounters, requiring you to use up all the spells you have remaining.

At 6 pm, the spell slots you used earlier in the day become available again. Here is the tricky part you'll want to talk to your DM about. According to the description of a cleric's spells (in the class entry), the number of spells listed is a daily limit. Most DMs consider one 'day' to be from sunrise to sunrise. The second quote above states that spells previously cast can't be used in a second 'prayer session'.

By this interpretation, you have no spells at all until NOON the next day.

In my games, I allow divine spellcasters to make use of the rule that allows you to do a partial spell preparation, intentionally avoiding those spell slots that were used in the 8 hours prior; this way, when the 8-hour 'statute of limitations' ends, they can do another preparation session to refill those slots. Essentially, I count the 'day' part of 'spells per day' as beginning at the time the cleric normally does his prayers and spell-preparation.

Ignoring my ruling, let's make the above example worse; let's say you have nothing happen at 4 pm, and instead have more encounters the next morning at 10 am again. When noon rolls around, you can only prepare the spell slots that were unavailable the previous day, because the other six slots were recently used.

This means that any divine spellcasters, if you take an overly-strict interpretation of the rules, will almost always be at less-than-full ability on spells unless his preparation time is first thing in the morning, alongside the arcanists. One or two sessions of bad timing, and his spell selection is totally screwed until the group can take about two days off with no spellcasting on his part.

 

[Jhulae]

Very interesting and informative dissertation on divine casters having any time other than morning.

Yes, what you mostly say is true, but let's say the divine caster has five 3rd level spell slots.

One prays in the morning and has all five available. At 10 o'clock, the divine caster uses two of those slots up in a combat. She has three left at noon, and at 5 o'clock, she uses two more and nothing happens until morning. A total of four 3rd level spells used, with one hanging around until morning.

The caster who prays at noon has three slots with spells in the morning. At 10 o'clock, she casts two spells. At noon, she prays and gets back the two empty slots and still has the one spell she didn't cast. At 5 o'clock, she uses two more spells. A total of four spells used, same as the first caster. The one point she'll be in a bind is between 8 am and noon, when the morning pray-er has all spells back, and the noon pray-er only has one.

There is a difference, but it's not quite as bad as it seems.

However, the *real* issue comes in when both casters need to cast an 'hour per level' spell, like Longstrider. At that point, the noon caster has to prep an additional one for the next day, so, in essence, uses up two slots for the hour per level spell, while the morning caster just memorizes the one needed for the current day.

 

[LonePaladin]

The caster who prays at noon has three slots with spells in the morning. At 10 o'clock, she casts two spells. At noon, she prays and gets back the two empty slots and still has the one spell she didn't cast. At 5 o'clock, she uses two more spells. A total of four spells used, same as the first caster. The one point she'll be in a bind is between 8 am and noon, when the morning pray-er has all spells back, and the noon pray-er only has one.

There is a difference, but it's not quite as bad as it seems.

Actually, it is. The rule that applies to all spellcasters who use spell slots is this: when you prepare your spells or otherwise renew your spell slots, any that you have used within the past eight hours are unavailable.

This is meant to prevent spellcasters from waking up in the morning, dumping all of their spells (say, the cleric converting all his spells into healing), then simply re-preparing all those spells again. The problem lies in the timing issue. If you prep your spells in the morning, it's straightforward: anything you used during the night still counts as being used.

What they should've done was included a statement that these slots can be filled again once that 8-hour time passes. A little interpretation of the rules allows this — when you do your preparations, simply elect to ignore those slots at the time, and take a second preparation later in the day to fill them.

But, since it wasn't clearly spelled out to work this way, I've seen DMs who refuse this. (I don't tend to play spellcasters with these types.)

However, the *real* issue comes in when both casters need to cast an 'hour per level' spell, like Longstrider. At that point, the noon caster has to prep an additional one for the next day, so, in essence, uses up two slots for the hour per level spell, while the morning caster just memorizes the one needed for the current day.

That doesn't quite make sense. Are you looking for an all-day effect? If you are, and are high enough to make the spell last all day, it doesn't matter when you cast it. Preparing spells doesn't remove ones that are in effect at the time.

F'rinstance, your noontime druid casts longstrider in the morning, expecting to get about eight or nine hours out of it. (The exact time doesn't matter.) When noon comes around, he does his usual spell preparation; the slot that longstrider occupied is unavailable at that time, but the spell is still running.

 

[gnfnrf]

If you're playing a divine spellcaster, check with your DM on this before picking an odd time to prepare your spells (like noon or sundown).

In my games, I allow divine spellcasters to make use of the rule that allows you to do a partial spell preparation, intentionally avoiding those spell slots that were used in the 8 hours prior; this way, when the 8-hour 'statute of limitations' ends, they can do another preparation session to refill those slots. Essentially, I count the 'day' part of 'spells per day' as beginning at the time the cleric normally does his prayers and spell-preparation.

That is a very clever way to make use of what is otherwise a terrible rule (for PCs). But doesn't it inherently increase PC power on 'big days' in ways you might not want?

Consider a normal dawn preparing cleric. It's the last day of travel before the dungeon crawl. He's been having a wilderness encounter every few days, so is spell selection is full up. (he is also considerably above 8th level, to make the point the strongest).

Just before dawn, he casts several magic vestments and greater magic weapons, or other hour/level buffs. He then prays, leaving those slots alone. 8 hours after daybreak, he refills those slots, casts the spells again on different PCs, and the party descends into the dungeon, double-buffed. He can essentially get two days of hour/level buffing into one.

Now, theoretically, you can do this by casting before bed as well. But that requires you to be right next to your point of interest; this way gives you much more flexibility.

This means that any divine spellcasters, if you take an overly-strict interpretation of the rules, will almost always be at less-than-full ability on spells unless his preparation time is first thing in the morning, alongside the arcanists. One or two sessions of bad timing, and his spell selection is totally screwed until the group can take about two days off with no spellcasting on his part.

You say overly strict, I say exactly correct (as written). Correct, sadly, doesn't mean playable. In the last game where this came up (evening prep), for the first few sessions, the PC was completely ignoring the recent casting limit. When the DM noticed, the best we could think of was to say 'Pray in the evening for color, refresh spells in the morning like everyone else'.

--
gnfnrf

 

[Jhulae]

That doesn't quite make sense. Are you looking for an all-day effect? If you are, and are high enough to make the spell last all day, it doesn't matter when you cast it. Preparing spells doesn't remove ones that are in effect at the time.

F'rinstance, your noontime druid casts longstrider in the morning, expecting to get about eight or nine hours out of it. (The exact time doesn't matter.) When noon comes around, he does his usual spell preparation; the slot that longstrider occupied is unavailable at that time, but the spell is still running.

Right. And you completely missed my point.

Which is: you've used 1 slot (prayed for from yesterday) in the morning on Longstrider. You now have to prepare Longstrider (in a second slot) at noon for the next day. That's two spell slots dedicated to Longstrider, where as the morning caster just has to use one (prayed for and then cast in the morning).

 

[Dargon]

the club is also a Throwing Weapon

 

[Thurbane]

the club is also a Throwing Weapon

Funny you should say that...our 1st level party got a lot of mileage out of the fact that clubs are both free, and throwing weapons. Even my wizard started hurling hunks of wood once his spells ran out.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Not a little known rule, but a question on them.

Do multiple sources that all cause you to be treated as one size category larger or allow you to use things one size larger stack? 'Cause I know a guy who has a high-epic level Monk, and every feat he took, apparently, was designed to make his Unarmed Strike treated as one size category larger, so he does the unarmed damage of a colossal creature.

Not all effects stack. For example, you can't take Improved Natural Attack more than once, and Enlarge Person specifically states that "multiple magical effects that increase size do not stack". That being said, if your friend is playing in an Eberron campaign, a world of options opens up. At 6th lvl (Brb 2/Ftr 2/Rgr 1/Weretouched Master 1), a character with the Longtooth heritage can take Shifter Savagery (Races of Eberron p115) to increase the base damage of his bite attack by two size categories (this feat does not stack with other feats that improve the base damage of your bite attack), increase the base damage a further size category for his Weretouched I ability (Weretouched Master, Eberron Campaign Setting p86), and be enlarged for another size category, resulting in a grand total of four size categories extra worth of base damage, which improves his bite attack from a mere 1d6 to a whopping 4d6 damage at 6th level (+1/four levels, +1.5*Str modifier, since it's your only natural weapon... or, shudder, +0.5*Str modifier if you use your bite attack as a secondary attack next to your, say, greatsword). Nice.

Also, hi, I'm not a min-maxer. Honestly!

Also also, if your party caster doesn't know tongues, it's a good idea to hire a translator. If you hire one for the long run, this will only cost you 5 gp and 6sp per week (assuming the clerk demands hazard pay of "as much as double normal pay", DMG p105), which is a lot cheaper than buying scrolls

 

[sfedi]

All summoned creatures from the summon monster spells speak at least one language, usually common.

Where does it says so?