The Best and Worst Rules of D&D

[kreynolds]

Best: Item Creation freedom (DM perspective)
Worst: Item Creation XP cost (Player _and_ DM perspective)

BTW, I've been away for while...what the heck does "pokemount" mean?

 

[diaglo]

BTW, I've been away for while...what the heck does "pokemount" mean?

the new paladin's ability to summon a mount. and dismiss him....much like a pikachu or other pokemon

 

[kreynolds]

Heh. That's some funny....uh, stuff.

 

[Allanon]

Best: Item Creation freedom (DM perspective)
Worst: Item Creation XP cost (Player _and_ DM perspective)

BTW, I've been away for while...what the heck does "pokemount" mean?

Pokemount, the new Paladin ability to summon and unsummon his mount at will.

EDIT: Too slow.

Best: Multiclassing, Item Creation, Templates

Worst: Prestige Classes & Feats (too many, too unbalancing).

 

[The Souljourner]

Best: AoO, d20 Mechanic, Combat as a whole
Worst: Craft Skill, Black Pudding, Multiclass XP penalty & paladin/monk multiclass restrictions.

-The Souljourner

 

[0-hr]

Best: Sunder. It makes DMing just that much more fun
Abyssal: AoO while standing up , considering (Improved) Trip.

Just to interject, you can't trip someone standing up from prone. The AoO is triggered before the event, so the person is still prone whent he AoO goes off. You get +4 to hit (melee into prone) but you can't trip someone who is already prone.

Anyway...

Best: I too like the ability to easily modify/advance creatures. The symetry of the core d20 mechanic (as it applies to skills, rolling to hit, saves, etc. etc.) is also very elegant.

Worst: Grappling! C'mon, it's not that hard of a concept. Could they have made it any more awkward?


Though really, if it counts, my favorite thing about D&D is the Open Game Licence

 

[Pax]

Best: Prestige Classes (much better than kits, IMO ... even if the nerf-stick has some of their names on it); templates; monsters-as-PC's (what's good for the goose is good for the gander); feats (even if some of them need a severe nerf-stick beating).

Worst: lack of thorough and effective playtesting (at Exodus, we've found - and fixed - more problems than WOTC has likely even LOOKEd at, yet); increasing lack of balance as levels increase; lack of consistency in rules between multiple products when addressing the same topic; Paladin/Monk multiclass restrictions (should be a setting issue, not a core rules provision).

 

[two]

Just to interject, you can't trip someone standing up from prone. The AoO is triggered before the event, so the person is still prone whent he AoO goes off. You get +4 to hit (melee into prone) but you can't trip someone who is already prone.

Anyway...

Best: I too like the ability to easily modify/advance creatures. The symetry of the core d20 mechanic (as it applies to skills, rolling to hit, saves, etc. etc.) is also very elegant.

Worst: Grappling! C'mon, it's not that hard of a concept. Could they have made it any more awkward?


Though really, if it counts, my favorite thing about D&D is the Open Game Licence

You must be thinking about "readied" actions or something.

If AOO's provoked by an action always happen "before the event" (let's ignore how something that has not happened yet triggers something that happens before the event that did not yet happen) then, for example, a spellcaster would never get a spell interrupted; somebody guzzling a potion would never have that potion-guzzling experience interrupted.

Because, the AOO happens before the spell is cast. The spell caster takes 30 HP's of damage. Ow. Then he casts the spell, no concentration check required because, well, he was hit before he started casting, get it?

Ditto the potion-guzzler. The AOO happened before he started drinking so there is no way the potion-guzzling is interrupted.

This is distinctly not how the rules work.

If "getting up from prone" provokes an AOO, an AOO is provoked during the activity, i.e. somebody starts to get up and get's hit. If he's "tripped" during the process of standing up, it's because, well, he's halfway up and knocked back down. You are not tripping somebody that is prone, just like you are not hitting somebody that is almost ready to start casting a spell. You are hitting somebody that is "getting up from prone" or "casting a spell". You can't trip somebody that's prone. The rules don't stop you from tripping somebody that is no longer prone, if not yet fully standing up (yet).

 

[TracerBullet42]

Worst: Deflect Arrows being automatic....

(And yes, I'm bitter about having a double crit nullified by that stupid feat...grr.)

 

[0-hr]

Umm, if the AoO is not before the event, how do you interrupt a spell or potion drinking? If someone leaves a threatened area and thus provokes an AoO, you can't hit them unless you attack before they actually leave your threatened area.

But hey, if you want to count people "half way stood up" as trippable, more power too you. Maybe my favorite thing about D&D should have been "Rule Zero".