Little Known Rules of D&D

[Infiniti2000]

Humans are quite capable of spending a day without food and drink (thirst fatigue wont really set in until day 2)

Reference, please? I'd especially like to see that reference with respect to someone wearing 50 pounds or so of gear and taking part in a series of combats or other strenuous activity.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

It's only a DC28 to track a fly over a tile floor. You can take a 20 on track rolls.

Why is the fly even leaving tracks?

Finding tracks (Survival) is one of those skill uses for which the time involved is left to the DM. Personally, if you're trying to track an insect, I'd find 10 minutes per check to be very reasonable. So, yeah, you could track an insect across a stone floor by Taking 20 ... if you have three-and-a-half hours to kill.

 

[Asmor]

Why is the fly even leaving tracks?

Finding tracks (Survival) is one of those skill uses for which the time involved is left to the DM. Personally, if you're trying to track an insect, I'd find 10 minutes per check to be very reasonable. So, yeah, you could track an insect across a stone floor by Taking 20 ... if you have three-and-a-half hours to kill.

per 5-foot square

 

[Tonguez]

Reference, please? I'd especially like to see that reference with respect to someone wearing 50 pounds or so of gear and taking part in a series of combats or other strenuous activity.

I haven't got references at hand but studies have been done to show that 24 hours without water will lead to short term memory loss and reduction in basic mathematics skills, some dizziness is also likely (is this enough to count as fatigue?). But these can be 'cured' with a single glass of water. It is after 24 hours that things like slurred speech and reduced motor function set in eventualling escalating to system breakdown

As Legildur stated the actual time it takes does depend on a lot of different factors including intial hydration, ambient temperature and humidity, fitness and sweat levels.

I agree that for most people wearing heavy armour and fighting dragons 24 hours is too long to go without water, but then the rule posted didn't specify those conditions and besides PCs are heroes and shouldn't suffer something as minor as a day without water!

 

[Aleolus]

Reference, please? I'd especially like to see that reference with respect to someone wearing 50 pounds or so of gear and taking part in a series of combats or other strenuous activity.

Actually, going by the rules in the DMG, you can go without water for 24 hours, plus a number of hours equal to your Con modifier. After that, you need to make Fort saves every hour or take damage.

 

[Felnar]

per 5-foot square

or per mile

To find tracks or to follow them for 1 mile requires a successful Survival check. You must make another Survival check every time the tracks become difficult to follow.

still takes forever tho

For finding tracks, you can retry a failed check after 1 hour (outdoors) or 10 minutes(indoors) of searching.

taking 20 to track indoors uses 20 fullround actions and 19 failed checks, for a total of 192 minutes

 

[Thurbane]

Humans can indeed go for extended periods without sleep, but they won't be performing at peak mental and physical performance.

 

[Teemu]

Spellcaster that prepare their spells (wizards, paladins, rangers, druids, clerics) can always use a higher level spell slot to prepare a lower level spell, even without the Heighten Spell metamagic feat. The spell acts as normal for its level though (i.e. a magic missile prepared in a third level slot without the Heighten Spell feat still counts as a 1st level spell). A spellcaster can do this even if he wouldn't normally be able to cast spells of that level because of a low ability score (i.e. a 10th level Paladin with a Wisdom score of 11 could prepare a 1st level spell in his 2nd level spell slot). Spontaneous casters (sorcerers and bards) do not get this luxury without the Heighten Spell feat.

The entries actually speak of "spellcasters". Only the examples use specific classes.

 

[Hypersmurf]

The entries actually speak of "spellcasters". Only the examples use specific classes.

I think his point is that the text regarding spell slots is found under the subheading of 'Preparing Wizard Spells'. There is a separate section under the Arcane Spells heading, with the subheading 'Sorcerers and Bards', which makes no mention of using higher-level spell slots.

One might argue that since Sorcerers have spell slots, the text outlining how characters can fill higher-level spell slots is globally applicable despite being in the Wizard section... but the appearance of similar text under Divine Spells - which would be redundant if the earlier text were globally applicable - argues otherwise.

-Hyp.

 

[Teemu]

I think his point is that the text regarding spell slots is found under the subheading of 'Preparing Wizard Spells'. There is a separate section under the Arcane Spells heading, with the subheading 'Sorcerers and Bards', which makes no mention of using higher-level spell slots.

One might argue that since Sorcerers have spell slots, the text outlining how characters can fill higher-level spell slots is globally applicable despite being in the Wizard section... but the appearance of similar text under Divine Spells - which would be redundant if the earlier text were globally applicable - argues otherwise.

-Hyp.

Also, by that logic, only wizards lose their prepared spells when they die. Divine spellcasters don't and neither do sorcerers or bards.