Rules that never made sense to you?

[KarinsDad]

Another rule that I use that never made sense to me is "Always hit on a natural 20". There is nothing - no monster, no adventurer, no god - that cannot be hit on a natural 20 (barring a special exception rule to the contrary, obviously).

No problem. Play Rolemaster. Gods in that system could have high enough DB that a PC might only have one chance it 160,000 of hitting them.

 

[Storm Raven]

Except that is doesn't model the ability to do the tripping very well...as that's still a Str check.

Umm, no. Balance is a Dex based skill, and can be used untrained.

Another rule that I use that never made sense to me is "Always hit on a natural 20". There is nothing - no monster, no adventurer, no god - that cannot be hit on a natural 20 (barring a special exception rule to the contrary, obviously).

Can a Com 1 hit (and damage!) a Ftr 20 in uber-full plate and shield? Yup.

We use the "treat a natural 20 as a 30, and a natural 1 as a -10" variant.

 

[Nail]

Umm, no. Balance is a Dex based skill, and can be used untrained.

Of course. I've not claimed otherwise. Are you sure you're responding to the correct post?

 

[just__al]

-10 you're dead is even worse than -1 to -9 bleeding out. it seems to always come down to character A has < 10 hit points left and Monster B hits for 30+ damage, and there's nothing anyone can do to prevent it from hitting character A. Ever. Gets worse the higher level you are, because hit points don't seem to scale as fast as damage taken, and to hit scales much faster than AC. Add in the fact that you need lots of magic just to not fall too far behind..

To avoid this when I DM the following house rule is in effect.

If you are brought from Positive HP to below -9 you are not dead. You will die in exactly one round and you do not get a stabilization role or the like. Somebody else needs to intervien on your behalf.

Makes for a tense moment where everybody has to drop everything in combat and rush over to save the fallen ally. Even better when it's more than one person in that state from an area attack or something.

 

[KarinsDad]

To avoid this when I DM the following house rule is in effect.

If you are brought from Positive HP to below -9 you are not dead. You will die in exactly one round and you do not get a stabilization role or the like. Somebody else needs to intervien on your behalf.

Makes for a tense moment where everybody has to drop everything in combat and rush over to save the fallen ally. Even better when it's more than one person in that state from an area attack or something.

I had this house rule in my game for years. We are not using it in our current 20th level campaign with a different DM (he also does not typically allow resurrections either), but I find I like it that PCs can die with a single hit for a change. A major PC related NPC died in the very first combat and it made for a very tense and dramatic moment.

 

[Nail]

I had this house rule in my game for years.

I've never heard of this house rule. Interesting.....

 

[Deset Gled]

Another completely random (and slightly off topic) beef: Why are weapons listed before armor in the Equipment section, but after armor in the Magic Items section?

 

[werk]

Another completely random (and slightly off topic) beef: Why are weapons listed before armor in the Equipment section, but after armor in the Magic Items section?

So that new players don't forget to buy armor before they blow all their money on weapons and other gear.

They are then listed after armor in the DMG because the alphabet.

Makes sense to me!

(this has been an exercise in making things that don't make sense, make sense for no good reason at all)

 

[KarinsDad]

I've never heard of this house rule. Interesting.....

There are just too many random ways in which PCs can die where the DM had a relatively none challenging encounter suddenly become deadly or even a TPK. Simple example: during the fight, the PC Wizard moves towards the crates in order to get cover. However, that is where the Girallon is hiding and unbeknownst to the Wizard, he is now within 5 feet of the monster. It takes a 5 foot step out from hiding and with excellent to hit rolls, hits the Wizard 3 times and criticals him once.

It also emulates "intensive care" situations in real life where someone is technically dead, but is actually brought back.