The last sentence spoils the fun

[DaveMage]

Then there's the errata issue.

I nearly caused a cardiac arrest in one of my players when he found out the shapechange spell only allows you to change into something up to your caster level or lower, rather than (as printed in the first printing of the PHB 3.5) double your caster level in HD.

 

[Dagger75]

I have a player like this. NEVER reads the negatives about the spell or feat or what not.

 

[Corsair]

I almost managed to kill a balor with an earthquake. He failed the percentage roll to fall in a hole, failed his reflex save (rolled a 1!) and there was much rejoicing...


... until the DM read the spell description carefully and noted that creatures don't die until the end of the duration... which is 1 round. Meaning the balor just got to teleport out on his turn.

 

[Arnwyn]

It's rare, but I do have one player that does it more often than the others (and more often than he should).

I just tell him he loses the spell and does nothing for the round, and to "read the whole spell properly next time, idiot".

 

[TheAuldGrump]

I have seen this *so* many times. And in most cases, the Player isn't really trying to cheat or anything, it was just an honest mistake out of excitement, it seems.

Have you witnessed this phenominon?

Quasqueton

We call it 'Nortoning' after the person in our group who used to do it, in every single game he played! Bah! In his case it happened regularly enough that it definitely bordered on cheating.

The Auld Grump

 

[Aust Diamondew]

I've noticed players who stop reading half way through the paragraph or miss a couple important sentences sometimes I think it might be done on purpose.

 

[Mark]

Have you witnessed this phenominon?

Quasqueton

Regularly. Usually I just ask that they quickly choose another spell or do something else. If it happens twice in a game, I don't allow the spell to be "retracted" in favor of another, as I do on the first misread casting. It can be a lively part of a game when the caster begins a spell/ritual and only realizes it isn't appropriate as it manifests. Sometimes it simply does nothing (because of the dreaded last sentence) other than to attract the attention of the more intelligent enemies who might be prone to specifically target spellcasters. Lots of fun!

 

[John Morrow]

I have found it a universal truth among D&D mage/priest Players. They always fail to read the last sentence of the spell description. Spells seem to be worded like this:

Have you witnessed this phenominon?

Yes. And D&D and role-playing games aren't the only place where this problem happens. I used to play Cosmic Encounters with a group at work and quite a few of the cards were worded like that. One person who played with us would always miss the qualifying part, leading us to constantly say, "Read to the bottom of the card, Jimmy." So when we run into this problem in D&D, I refer to it as "Read to the bottom of the spell description."

 

[fafhrd]

I got a good laugh out of the one guy's assumption that he could cast True Strike and then run around all day with a +20 to whatever attack happened first. Since I pointed out the duration, I haven't seen him prep the spell. That's the case I remember, but it happens all the time. Same with the druid.

 

[Morrus]

I have an even worse problem of that sort - a player who reads the name of the spell, skims briefly through the description and then pretty much makes up how he thinks it would work. I really don't think he does it deliberately - he believes he's using the rules, but his bizarre versions of spells are always a lot better than the actual versions and never have negative aspects!

He actually goes one worse. He's a specialist diviner. Sometimes he want information, so he says "I'll divine it". I, naturally, ask him which spell he's casting, to which he replies "I'm a diviner, I'd just be able to do it wouldn't I? That's my speciality after all!"

The response to this is usually my players saying something like this: "A double headed tarrasque lich? I'll just kill it." To which I, naturally, ask them to roll initiative, make a few hit rolls - you know the drill. They, of course, reply "I'm a fighter, I'd just be able to do it wouldn't I? That's my speciality, after all!"

Needless to say, the diviner-playing player is unable to recongnise this satire for what it is...