D&D 5E When RAW goes too far

[Oofta]

I could see where having a bird flapping in your face during a sword fight might prove distracting and give my opponent an example. I have a tough time seeing how a frog might distract a giant so your point stands.

Maybe they croak really loud? Or as @Fenris-77 suggests

Of course anyone who uses a familiar like that will likely have a familiar that croaks quite quickly. With higher level monsters I have a house rule that the monsters can just "cleave" and continue attacking.

 

[wingsandsword]

tl;dr:
Fall in lava, you die.

For the record, there's ONE documented case of someone falling into lava and surviving, from 2007. Even then, he was severely burned.

It WAS a special case that the lava in question was a rare type that's significantly cooler than most ("only" around 950F, unlike the roughly 1800F temperature of most lava).

This Volcano's Lava Is So Cold You Can Fall In And Survive

This Volcano's Lava Is So Cold You Can Fall In And Survive

www.iflscience.com

 

[clearstream]

Aren't improvised actions in the rules, so couldn't you, by RAW, improvise an action?

Say like improvising attacking with a lance or crossbow in each hand

 

[clearstream]

Earlier you said

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

But now you seem to say that the player can do anything they want to do, provided that they can describe it.

It's called role-playing. Pge 6 How to play section 2. «The player describes what they want to do.»

 

[dave2008]

It's called role-playing. Pge 6 How to play section 2. «The player describes what they want to do.»

SO are you saying everything is in the rules? Sorry, I just don't know what your trying to argue.

 

[Fenris-77]

Say like improvising attacking with a lance or crossbow in each hand

I have a hand crossbow mounted to each lance and Gnomes in my saddlebags to reload. You'd think everyone would have sorted that out by now. I don't know why people think that sounds so complicated.

 

[Oofta]

I have a hand crossbow mounted to each lance and Gnomes in my saddlebags to reload. You'd think everyone would have sorted that out by now. I don't know why people think that sounds so complicated.

I just forego the middle-man and hire these guys.

 

[GMMichael]

Fall in lava, you die.

Don't forget J.Crawford's preface, "in D&D." The next qualifier was "everyday things."

Regarding falling in lava, this means that lava might not behave like you expect it to, and that hit points probably determine how survivable it is. Scary video, though.

While a wall might be an "everyday thing," a dungeon wall is not. Nor is the dragon breath that R.Roberts mentioned. But I have to wonder: has R.Roberts ever been near a pyrotechnic blaze? You can feel the heat of those from several meters away. I wouldn't want to be anywhere near dragon breath, even if it's on the other side of a wall.

 

[Oofta]

Don't forget J.Crawford's preface, "in D&D." The next qualifier was "everyday things."

Regarding falling in lava, this means that lava might not behave like you expect it to, and that hit points probably determine how survivable it is. Scary video, though.

While a wall might be an "everyday thing," a dungeon wall is not. Nor is the dragon breath that R.Roberts mentioned. But I have to wonder: has R.Roberts ever been near a pyrotechnic blaze? You can feel the heat of those from several meters away. I wouldn't want to be anywhere near dragon breath, even if it's on the other side of a wall.

One of the weird things about D&D is that one person can be perfectly fine while someone a couple of feet away can be burned to ash. Fire doesn't work that way.

But it's easier so we accept it because it makes the game playable.

 

[Todd Roybark]

J Crawford, in some small part, has facilitated this type of thinking. Crawford’s Twitter ruling about a pane of ordinary glass interrupting Line of Effect for spells, is in some ways, a precursor to Romulan Phase Shifting Dragon Breath.

I wonder how much the genesis of an overly RAW based mental construction is just a general naïveté?

I remember a thread several months ago, where a poster at EN World, posited that since the Poison Rules did not specify smell and odor, then poison must all be odorless and tasteless.

My Wsdom: Insight check result was that the poster, was not trying to “game” the system, but just had no idea how toxins work in biology.

At the same time, I have read threads on another board, where an argument was being promulgated that the Inured to Undeath ability of Nercromancer Wizards, meant that if you shaped changed into a form with a greater HP maximum than the Wizard’s normal form, then by RAW, the Wizard kept the greater HP Maximum, for perpetuity, even once the Wizard returned to their normal form.

Now in that case I do think, the poster, was stretching rather far to justify it, for solely munchkin reasons. The Lizard Like Powergamer centers of the brain, are powerful forces

(I am also curious if D&D players from certain cultures that value Strict Construction in textual interpretations, are more likely to present arguments, like this)