The biggest factor there is probably the fact that my DM was an idiot, and probably did not actually know the rules for breath weapons. Just as when we tried playing a Ravenloft game, he didn’t read about how magic works differently, he just made it up as he went along, usually having spells have their opposite effect.
Any half competent GM would have roasted me in my fitted black tunic, to be sure.
The same GM, in a different campaign, let me force a black dragon to fill up a rain cloud with acid, then make it rain high powered acid all over Kendermore, thus damn near extinguishing that particular race. Then I belly landed it on a marching column of Draconians.
Sneak Attack increases the damage done by the weapon. You roll it all at one and add it up, then see whether it beats DR and so on. It’s not contingent on the blow actually dealing damage. Other precision damage effects work the same way.
Poison yes, but only if the poison works on injury.
Stories?
I was DMing a game in 1E days, running the Temple of Elemental Evil at the games club I went to then. The players had just entered the second level of the dungeon proper, and were exploring the SW corner. Greywrinke the third level Magic User wandered off from the party, found a secret door and went through it and opened the next door he came to.
Eight bugbears looked up and grabbed weapons. (He was not wearing any Temple symbols). He spoke.
"Hello lads! Boy have I god good news for you.
I run Greywrinkle’s Dating Agency, specialising in finding only the finest females for you …"
When we’d recovered, I decided that they’d let him get away and bring back some “friends” for the bugbears. Needless to say they were very angry when said friends turned out to be adventurers in armour. They were all, shortly, dead.
Well, there was one. I know because it happened to me in a convention game once. We’d bumped into a dragon, and the party scurried for cover, except for the doddering old wizard I was playing, who couldn’t get out of the blast area in time - but HAD cast Fire Shield. Appropriate element Fire Shield + Successful Save = surprisingly hale Wizard.
It was a skill in 2E’s HIGH LEVEL CAMPAIGNS book, for any Thief or Bard who’d made it to 11th level or better. (And, as per 2E’s COMPLETE BARD’S HANDBOOK, a Bard could even do it at 1st level by going the Jongleur route: a dedicated tumbler who eschews songs and musical instruments to focus on juggling while tightrope-walking can acrobatically dodge lightning bolts and breath weapons for no damage with a good enough saving throw.)
For that matter, the DM can modify or ignore rules as they see fit. I think it says so in the Dungeon Masters Guide. The whole point of the game is to have fun.
I DM’d a little. I would slap down “rules lawyers” if they got too uppity.
One example was a falling rock trap. Some buddy/chucklehead/player did the math and declared that he had the hit points to soak up the bowling ball sized rocks dropping from overhead, and further declared that, since he was effectively unkillable by this trap, there was no need to protect himself (ignore the trap, in other words). I declared that since he was making no effort to dodge or otherwise protect his noggin, these rocks automatically crit in dramatic fashion. I let him have a do-over.
Back in Jr. high, one of my friends had some mazes and towns that he drew up for us to go through. Derek was some kind of a warrior or something, I don’t remember his exact class.
GM: You walk into the shop and a small dwarf waves and says “Oh hello there!”
Derek: I shoot him with my crossbow!
GM: You kill the shopkeeper.
Word got out among the dwarves that someone shot one of their own and the eventually game devolved into Derek running around shooting all the shopkeepers and/or dwarves on sight.
The GM constantly shifting the floor under your feet isn’t a recipe for “fun”, for anyone other than the sadistic GM. The GM has the power to modify the rules, but it should be applied consistently, and with advance warning to the players - otherwise, you’re better off running a game for sock puppets.
I disagree. “modifying the rules, but apply them consistently” is just setting up a new set of rules to be gamed & lawyered. It doesn’t address the seminal problem, just transposes or delays it.
I much rather keep my players ignorant of the rules entirely whenever possible. No gaming a system you don’t know, and no bringing up page 128 §4 sub-clause 6 either. When that’s not possible, I fall back to rule number one: dice are there to make noise behind the DM screen. Then you say whatever you goddamn please and makes for a good story.
Well…the rules, the plot, what they might know, what they should know, anything which might actually help this clone survive, anything their counter-troubleshooter clone might be doing to take their spot, etc.
I’m afraid that’s information outside of your security clearance, Citizen. Please report to a Termination Booth for unseemly curiosity. Have a nice daycycle…or at least whatever you have left of it.
The seminal problem isn’t that some players like to be rules lawyers, it’s how the DM handles it.
It’s possible to be a rules lawyer and still be pragmatic enough to know that the rules are just guidelines and not binding, just as it’s possible to tell a good story that’s fun to play and remains within the rules. As long as the interpretations consistently adhere to an internal logic, there shouldn’t be an issue, and if there is then it may just be a case of incompatible players. It happens sometimes.
That said, anyone who blatantly disregards their characters safety by doing something incredibly stupid or blatantly metagames like the guy above with the falling rocks deserves whatever they get.
Very well, Jayja-Y. I’ll go to a Termination Booth as soon as I locate one that is operational… and accessible… and open late this daycycle… and after I finish my current task list… and after I see to my Computer-issued equipment, making certain that it is all in good condition for my next clone… oh yes, I have to return these bots to PLC, I’ll go put them in numerical order and guide them down…
Yes, in Paranoia stupid delaying tricks sometimes work.