D&D 5E When RAW goes too far

[Fenris-77]

Maybe a molten bread pudding. Or scalloped potatoes maybe? You can't run on jello, I speak from experience.

 

[R_J_K75]

Maybe a molten bread pudding. Or scalloped potatoes maybe? You can't run on jello, I speak from experience.

Ive seen drunk women wrestle in it at the bar in the confines of a baby pool, does that count?

 

[Fenris-77]

Ive seen drunk women wrestle in it at the bar in the confines of a baby pool, does that count?

I certainly counts for something! I'm just not sure what.

 

[Oofta]

So is the consistency/density similar to say molten jello?

There's not just one kind of lava though. Some of it is much more viscous than others.

But lava as seen in the movies? The runny/molten stuff? You could start running and then die as the heat and gases cook your lungs from the inside out I suppose.

 

[Nebulous]

5E got it right by starting things off with "the DM decides the outcome," rather than focusing on rolling dice for everything. It still throws my players for a loop when they go to do something, and when they roll dice I start describing the outcome before I even see the roll.

yeah, I have keep telling them, "describe what your character is doing. You don't need to roll dice for every - goddammit, Bob, I see you rolled a 19 Perception, but I want you to tell me what your character is looking at in the room!"

 

[seebs]

When a WotC designer has to explain how walls work in D&D!

I am reminded of the vehement argument I once saw on whether or not you could see through an invisible door, with one argument being that nothing says explicitly that you can see through it, so you don't see the door, but that doesn't mean you see anything BEHIND it.

 

[ad_hoc]

A rogue fighting a giant has a tough time finding an opening to get in their sneak attack.

A rogue fighting a giant with a frog familiar on their shoulder now has the giant falling over backwards leaving them wide open.

Familiars 'helping' in combat is stupid. It's a loophole where 'out of combat' help requires that the character be able to attempt the thing but 'combat' help doesn't specify that.

I nope out of that one unless the familiar can attack in the case of Pact of the Chain Warlocks.

 

[wingsandsword]

Lava is viscous and several times denser than human. I bet landing on it is much more survivable than concrete!

Well, you'd probably take less falling damage.

The matter of how much fire damage you'd take is another problem. You'd almost certainly be submerged in the lava after impact, and the damage from being immersed in lava is pretty harsh as I recall (hasn't come up in about 20 years or so, so I don't remember the specifics), it's certainly on the same scale as terminal-velocity falling damage, especially realizing it would take, at best, several rounds to climb or swim out of the lava.

If you had some SERIOUS fire resistance or outright fire immunity, then yeah, falling into lava would be preferable to hitting concrete, but either one is Very Bad.

 

[S'mon]

You'd almost certainly be submerged in the lava after impact

Not IRL - lava is several times denser than human, so you'd only make a shallow impression.

 

[the Jester]

If the game doesn't say you can do it, you can't, no matter how clever you think you are.
If the game says you can do it, you can.

Naw, dog, that's ridiculous. By that reasoning, since the rules never address pcs having kids, even in a generations-spanning campaign, you can never play your children when they're old enough to adventure. You can't control a kingdom. You can't establish a mine and run it for profit. You can't try to build a never-before-seen device. You can't even paint your house. Because there aren't rules for it.