Rules that never made sense to you?

[Sithobi1]

Remember that being invisible also gives you Total Concealment, a 50% miss chance(unless you're using the spell Invisibility). IMO, it's more of a defensive ability for everyone except sneak-attackers.

 

[frankthedm]

Level Drain, now called "Energy Drain." If something is draining life energy away, it should drain Con, not levels.

Con is the body's health, everyone has a goodly amount of that, Levels are a person's essence, grown through life experiences. Not everyone has a lot of that. One or two level drains destroy normal folks, but even they could have their con fed on for at least a little while. Energy drains make more than enough sence, people just claim it doesn't because they don't like having their XP totals being quantifieable and thus attackable in game.

And worse, Vampires drain levels by simply "slamming" things. How much sense does that make?

It should be a claw attack, but then the vampire would not get STR 1.5 on the attack and the claws would only be 1d4+STR.

 

[KarinsDad]

Con is the body's health, everyone has a goodly amount of that, Levels are a person's essence, grown through life experiences. Not everyone has a lot of that. One or two level drains destroy normal folks, but even they could have their con fed on for at least a little while. Energy drains make more than enough sence, people just claim it doesn't because they don't like having their XP totals being quantifieable and thus attackable in game.

From my POV, this is not the issue at all.

The cumbersomeness of Energy Drain shouts that there really is no need for a Energy Drain concept as it is currently implemented at all in the game.

Penalties to ability scores, loss of spells, etc. could handle it without the mess of wholesale redesigning of character sheets.

It's one thing to change a few numbers on your sheet. It's another to mess around with half of the sheet. Sure, a given DM could rule that you go from your 4th level character sheet to your 2nd level character sheet, but then you still have to mess around with your 2nd level character sheet for items you have gained and lost since then, etc.

Logistically, this is just a pain in the butt to handle.


Energy Drain, like Turning, as a game mechanic is cumbersome to the point that they should have redesigned it for 3X.

One significantly better design for Energy Drain is to lose the XP without losing anything else (the concept of 24 hour short duration Negative Levels could still apply). Loss of XP would still require a long time to get to the next level. This would still be a serious penalty that most players would fear without having to fart around with wholesale character sheet redesign.

As designed, it's just a very poorly thought out game mechanic.

 

[Mage of Spellford]

Hi

One thing that always bugged me was if I'm stunned or
paralyzed and I'm surrounded by opponents they don't get an
AOA. Lotsa other things draw such an attack but not
standing there slack jawed and drooling

M

 

[Chupacabra]

One significantly better design for Energy Drain is to lose the XP without losing anything else (the concept of 24 hour short duration Negative Levels could still apply). Loss of XP would still require a long time to get to the next level. This would still be a serious penalty that most players would fear without having to fart around with wholesale character sheet redesign.

One problem with losing XP is that the loss of a fixed amount of XP hurt different levels differently. Losing 500 XP is a tragedy at level 2 but a mosquito bite at level 12.

But I do agree with you that as written Energy Drain is a total pain in the rear. You basically have to redraft your character sheet in mid-combat.

 

[Jack Simth]

I've always been mildly annoyed with the rules for thrown weapons vs. launched weapons when intereacting with such things as Enlarge Person.

If you fire an arrow from a bow, it does damage based on the Bow's size when it leaves your person (+sized you).

If you throw a dagger from your hand, it does damage based on the dagger's size when it leaves your person (normal sized you).

Seems internally inconsistent to me.

 

[KarinsDad]

One problem with losing XP is that the loss of a fixed amount of XP hurt different levels differently. Losing 500 XP is a tragedy at level 2 but a mosquito bite at level 12.

Who said anything about making the XP lose a fixed amount?

It could be the same XP loss as the current Energy Drain rule (not the best dynamic rule, but better than fixed).

 

[3d6]

Who said anything about making the XP lose a fixed amount?

It could be the same XP loss as the current Energy Drain rule (not the best dynamic rule, but better than fixed).

I think fixed XP drain would actually be better. The amount of damage a vampire deals with his slam attack doesn't go up with his opponent's level, why should his ability to damage XP?

 

[KarinsDad]

I think fixed XP drain would actually be better. The amount of damage a vampire deals with his slam attack doesn't go up with his opponent's level, why should his ability to damage XP?

By dynamic, it is not forced to be based on the level of the target.

It could be based on the number of hit dice of the undead times the number of hit points of damage. For example, 50 XP * undead hit dice * points of damage.

Critical attacks could be pretty harsh this way.

 

[two]

Hi

One thing that always bugged me was if I'm stunned or
paralyzed and I'm surrounded by opponents they don't get an
AOA. Lotsa other things draw such an attack but not
standing there slack jawed and drooling

M

Ha ha. Yes. This wins the award so far for internally inconsistent.

Being paralyzed is a better way to avoid AOO's than being distracted by shooting a crossbow... ha ha.