The fail a save on a 1 item is hurt controversy!

[Darkness]

Just for the records, disintegrate is 'A thin green ray' that 'springs from your pointing finger, causing the creature OR object it strikes to glow and vanish'.

In this case, it is pretty clear the equipment stays, since the first creature it touches is the poor soul you are trying to disintegrate. It is less clear for cone of disintegration. I'd go by the rules and let the items survive (the munchkin in me is sometimes uncontrollable ) if they were attended at the time.

So if you're wearing full plate, you should be immune to disintegration - since it will probably hit the object (i.e., the full plate) first. Or something.

 

[smetzger]

The rules are pretty clear on this matter. The plate mail will only be destroyed if a 1 was rolled.

If you want sympathy or a rules change try the House Rules forum.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

The fireball bugs me a lot though. I just can't imagine a wizard reading a scroll while in a fireball get through it with the scroll held before him, unscathed.

That is only a problem if you assume that damaging AoE spells instantaneously fill the entire volume.

If you instead assume that, say, the Fireball creates globs of dangerous fire that shoot out from the center while there are fleeting safe zones that can be ducked into, then the mechanics of savings throws, Evasion, and Hit Points become almost comprehensible.

Presumably the wizard holding the scroll instinctively pulled his arm near his chest. The fact that fire did not hit the wizard square in the chest is obvious because the wizard is not dead like the unlikely farmhand standing nearby.

The rules for dishing out damage from an AoE spell are really just a quick and dirty procedure that err on the side of practicality. More realism is likely to be less fun in this case.

 

[Darkness]

The rules are pretty clear on this matter. The plate mail will only be destroyed if a 1 was rolled.

I know, LOL.

If you want sympathy or a rules change try the House Rules forum.

Was that directed at me or JLXC?

 

[Wormwood]

Since 3e relies on PC wealth to Balance characters (for good or ill), you should consider the effects of reducing a 20th level character to 1st level wealth on a single roll of a die.

Likewise, a villain would probably have an approriate amount of his EL worth of treasure on his person. Should the choice to use Fireball instead of Harm result in no treasure for this encounter?

 

[hong]

I just never thought of after the person is DEAD...

You are thinking too hard about the game.

Stop thinking.


Hong "posting without thought" Ooi

 

[JLXC]

Thanks Hong!

 

[Darkness]

Hong "posting without thought" Ooi

Of course - all of the most prolific posters must have mastered the zen style of posting. I knew that Crothian does it - and now I know that hong does it, too.

The jury is still out on kreynolds and Wicht, though...

 

[Berk]

magic isn't realistic

*scoffs at the idea that magick isn't real*

 

[Plane Sailing]

JXLC - if it makes you feel any better, when I read the DMG rules about only 1 magic item possibly being affected, and that only if a 1 is rolled for a saving throw, I said "stuff that for a game of soldiers!".

It seemed a stupid rule to me and was thrown out forthwith. Item saving throws were certainly a staple of 1e, although it only came into effect there if you failed your save (at least in our games).

I have some simple house rules that I use now which make much more sense to me - if you are interested I'll post them over on the house rules board for you to pick apart. Basically it amounts to forcing items to make "massive damage" saving throws if more than a certain amount of damage is taken. Some things are especially vulnerable to some energy types and have a lower threshold, while possibly being invulnerable to another.

Apart from anything else it means that you could fail a save vs Burning Hands with a 1 and take 6 points damage (but all your equipment is OK), and you could make your save against an ancient red dragon and take 120 damage and see all your equipment melted around you.

Cheers