D&D 5E Rules We Have Been Doing Wrong This Whole Time

[Charlaquin]

It is not stated in the description of Magic Missiles, but in the section for Damage Rolls on page 196 in the PHB.
"If a spell or other effect deals damage to more than one target at the same time, roll the damage once for all of them". I believe it was Sage Advice that clarified it.

But Magic missile can also do damage to only one target.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

I admit when I started playing, I got darkvision wrong as well, mostly because everyone else I was playing with did. Then I started running 5e, and my first adventure was Sunless Citadel, a tier 1 adventure with tons of DC 15 and 20 Perception checks. The players all had darkvision, and were planning to not use any light in the adventure.

On a whim, I looked up darkvision, realized how it worked, noted the disadvantage on Perception, and it didn't take long before someone started using dancing lights, much to the Rogue's annoyance.

So not seeing this thread initially, I made a redundant one and led with my previously flawed interpretation of darkvision!

Light sources are still a good thing…

 

[Warpiglet-7]

Yeah, that stuff really irritates me because a lot of times those same folks are the ones to complain about this or that is broken/a bad rule/whatever.

My first reaction to that was well that sucks

 

[Peter BOSCO'S]

But Magic missile can also do damage to only one target.

Are you suggesting that if you target all your missiles at one target you should be able to roll damage for each missile, but if you target missiles at multiple targets then you have to use one damage roll? This seems like an unnecessary complication but it would be an even more literal reading of RAW.

 

[Charlaquin]

Are you suggesting that if you target all your missiles at one target you should be able to roll damage for each missile, but if you target missiles at multiple targets then you have to use one damage roll? This seems like an unnecessary complication but it would be an even more literal reading of RAW.

Personally, I rule that you always roll each missile die separately. But, it does seem like the RAW could be interpreted as you describe here.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Anyone who lives within the rules suffers from a lack of imagination.

And anyone who lets a written remonstration carry more importance than a played enjoyment suffers from a desire to exalt consistency over pleasure and deserves neither.

Oh please. You'll find you get no experience from slaying straw golems.

 

[CleverNickName]

I learned not too long ago that I've been doing group Stealth checks "wrong" for years.

How I've been doing it: everyone makes a Stealth check, and I take the lowest result. The assumption being that the group is only as stealthy as its least-stealthy member.

How the rules say to do it: everyone makes a Stealth check and I'm supposed to take the average (I think?) or something like that. The assumption being that monks and rogues can exude so much stealth that it suppresses the noise and sheen of nearby suits of armor. Somehow.

Anyway, I like my way better.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Oh please. You'll find you get no experience from slaying straw golems.

D&D had become immeasurably better since I have been forced to stop taking the rules so seriously. So I shall let you answer this question for yourself- who is the happier gamer, the one who has braved the storm of all that was thrown at them and triumphed whilst sailing on the great and unknown seas, or the one who has stayed securely on the shore hemmed in by the tide of rules and merely existed?

Take your straw golems and Kobayashi Marus and stuff them where your censorious sun doesn’t shine; I will exult in the triumph of being not a number nor a cog in the machine, but a free person!

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I learned not too long ago that I've been doing group Stealth checks "wrong" for years.

How I've been doing it: everyone makes a Stealth check, and I take the lowest result. The assumption being that the group is only as stealthy as its least-stealthy member.

How the rules say to do it: everyone makes a Stealth check and I'm supposed to take the average (I think?) or something like that. The assumption being that monks and rogues can exude so much stealth that it suppresses the noise and sheen of nearby suits of armor. Somehow.

Anyway, I like my way better.

Neither of those are how you do it, not that it matters (you can do it however you like).

Group checks, though, would be that whatever the dc happens to be, if half the party makes the dc, then they make the group check. If more than half the party fails, then the group check is failed.

You don't have to use group checks for stealth, though, unless you want to. (It's usually only worth doing as a group check for a "general" stealth check (such as across a fairly large area) not for more specific us-vs-them.

(I'm tired, I don't know if I made that make any sense.)

 

[Helldritch]

Really???
When I ask for a stealth check for a whole group, the worst at will roll with advantage (possibly negating disadvantage for armor as one is helping that character to be stealthy). If that character succeed, everyone get it. If that character fails, everyone fails.

Where is the rule on group stealth check?

Edit: Found it. God I was doing it wrong and yet....