Most Amusing Rule Misinterpretation?

[Sir Whiskers]

The original (white box) monster charts were not very clear. When I rolled "spiders", I didn't realize it meant "giant spiders". So I just had tiny, normal size spiders drop from the ceiling or doorway and try to bite the adventurers.

Another GM couldn't figure out what "footpad" meant (IIRC, it was a low-level thief). So when he rolled that for a wandering monster, the party was attacked by little padded feet...

In my roommate's college campaign, the GM and I thought a portable hole made a real hole in something. I used it constantly as a passwall to bypass guards and the like.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Technically you can do this if it is your only movement for the round. You may take a 5 foot step before, during, or after any one of your multiple attacks. 3.0 PHB page 124 under Full Attack. So if the individual had not already moved before beginning the cleaving, then he is still entitled to a 5 foot step under the rules.

Absolutely!

Well, apart from the line in the feat description that states "The character cannot take a 5-foot step before making this extra attack."

But other than that, it's all good!

-Hyp.

 

[Kareyev]

When the number of monsters in a room had to match the room number. I'll never forget the 64 medusas imprisoned in the 10x10 room within the Keep on the Borderlands. That was our first encounter ever. Ah, to be so young again....

 

[Al'Kelhar]

Yeah, I fell for the old "each Hit Die = 1 hit point" trick in my first ever game of Basic D&D. I wondered why the red dragon (11 HD) got killed by the 1st level characters.

Not the most amusing, but perhaps the most irritiating example of rules misinterpretation I've come across is proposition that the caster level of a character with a prestige class that grants +1 level of spellcasting every two levels is the character's character level, not the character's spellcasting class level + 1/2 the PrC class level - unless otherwise is expressly stated. That is, for example, a 7th wizard/4th acolyte of the flesh has a caster level of 11th, even though it casts spells as a 9th level wizard. Go figure.

Cheers, Al'Kelhar

 

[Kelleris]

My first excursion into psionics (oh, I rue the day!) in 2e had me, as the DM, somehow interpreting psionic combat as a modified roll-off between player and DM.

As in, we each roll d20s furiously until we get a certain number a certain number of times. I actually had to rule that you could only roll one d20 at a time.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Anyone else allow their characters to "Partial Run, Partial Charge" in 3.0?

Sure... on the Surprise round, with a Readied action, while Hasted or Slowed...?

Interesting tidbit from the Munchkin card game.

Ooh... only played it once, but won both rounds. Lots of practice rules-lawyering definitely helps!

I'm looking forward to the next time I get to play...

One thing that was neat about it was that a low roll on a HD only penalised you for a single level rather than your characters entire gaming life ("Your fighter rolled a 1 again? Sucks to be you!")

Heh. Our current game, when we hit third level... the 14 Con Paladin had 18 hit points. The 14 Con Wizard had... 18 hit points.

-Hyp.

 

[D+1]

When we first began playing D&D, lo, these several decades ago, I can remember our characters in a bar fight that spilled into the streets of the city. One of the NPC's had a wand of Fireballs. I distinctly recall the DM reading it, and re-reading the description, particularly the dice of damage, and saying, "This CAN'T be right! It would kill EVERYTHING!" He immediately made up his own rules where only being at the exact center did the full damage, and each 5' ring further out did less damage.

Ah, those were the days.

 

[SSquirrel]

My first game of BD&D I played the wizard (cuz no one else wanted to) and the DM gave me 2 potions....Polymorph Self and Polymorph OTHER (!?) So when we got to the big bad guy, someone told me I shoudl drink that potion and turn him into something harmless. So I did and he became a fish...to flop on the beach and die. I believe I got most of the XP from that. Amazingly, 17 years later I'm still playing heh.

Round segments>3 rounds for a fireball is usual in Rolemaster. Course if you go faster you stand a better chance of Corruption points and dying and such...like turning the ground for 100' around to glass kinda horribly. heh.

Hit Points>Our new group ahd the DM pretending not to see and hear bad rolls, but we're talking about just using averages for things like that if you roll below. So 3 on a d4, 4 on a d6, etc.

Hagen

 

[Elephant]

Technically you can do this if it is your only movement for the round. You may take a 5 foot step before, during, or after any one of your multiple attacks. 3.0 PHB page 124 under Full Attack. So if the individual had not already moved before beginning the cleaving, then he is still entitled to a 5 foot step under the rules.

I ask you to consider two things:

3.0 Sword and Fist has two classes that grant a special ability, Supreme Cleave, which allows one to take a 5-foot step before taking the Cleave attack.

3.5 Cleave states specifically that "You cannot take a 5-foot step before making this extra attack. The extra attack is with the same weapon and at the same bonus as the attack that dropped the previous creature. You can use this ability once per round."
... and Great Cleave states that "This feat works like Cleave, except that there is no limit to the number of times you can use it per round."

With that in mind, does allowing a pre-cleave 5-foot step really make sense, regardless of what the 3.0 Cleave entry says?

 

[Kalanyr]

Well it does if you're playing 3E really, but not in 3.5e. The Supreme Cleave ability was in an optional supplement (not to mention S&F required a lot of errata so its not the best source).