"Wait, that didn't work right" - the Dysfunctional Rules Collection

[noparlpf]

That's how ordinary combat works anyway. You cast and then back up. They follow you. You cast and then back up. They follow you. What's the point of doing this twice as quickly?

[supermonkeyjoe]

Creatures with the cold subtype don't take any extra damage from lava:

Lava Effects

Lava or magma deals 2d6 points of damage per round of exposure, except in the case of total immersion (such as when a character falls into the crater of an active volcano), which deals 20d6 points of damage per round.

Damage from magma continues for 1d3 rounds after exposure ceases, but this additional damage is only half of that dealt during actual contact (that is, 1d6 or 10d6 points per round).

An immunity or resistance to fire serves as an immunity to lava or magma. However, a creature immune to fire might still drown if completely immersed in lava.

nowhere does it say that the damage is Fire damage, RAW it's untyped damage that just so happens to be negated by a resistance or immunity to fire:p

[ThiefInTheNight]

That's how ordinary combat works anyway. You cast and then back up. They follow you. You cast and then back up. They follow you. What's the point of doing this twice as quickly?

The surprise round consists of a standard action or a move action, and a swift.

Casters only need a standard and a swift to cast two spells. They get both.

Warriors need a full-round-action to attack more than once. They don't get it.


Surprise rounds are inherently better for casters.

[Amphetryon]

The surprise round consists of a standard action or a move action, and a swift.

Casters only need a standard and a swift to cast two spells. They get both.

Warriors need a full-round-action to attack more than once. They don't get it.


Surprise rounds areEverything is inherently better for casters.

FTFY.

[Doug Lampert]

That's how ordinary combat works anyway. You cast and then back up. They follow you. You cast and then back up. They follow you. What's the point of doing this twice as quickly?

You forgot the part where the warrior attacks in there, of course he probably DOESN'T get to attack in a surprise round and he gets to attack in normal combat.

The rapid-shot based archer, one attack in a surprise round. The melee TWF rogue with 5 attacks a round, gets 0 or 1 attacks depending on whether you are in partial charge range or not.

In normal combat the wizard must either move away (provoking AoO AND then getting charged for another attack) or he shifts away and hope his foe isn't using a reach weapon and STILL gets full attacked.

[Starbuck_II]

Death, Less Frenzy:

The Frenzied Berserker's Deathless Frenzy ability prevents them from being disabled at 0 HP, dying at negative 1-9 HP, and even prevents them from being dead at -10 HP and lower. It does not however do anything at all to prevent unconsciousness from nonlethal damage. Such as that which you automatically take every round while in a Frenzy. And since you must be in a Frenzy to use Deathless Frenzy, this means you drop unconscious exactly the same as you would if you did not have this ability. If you use it with Rage, the dropout itself might kill you, without need for a simple follow up attack.

Rage never ends due to unconsciousness: unless you are playing Pathfinder. It only ends when you will it or duration ends.

[CTrees]

You forgot the part where the warrior attacks in there, of course he probably DOESN'T get to attack in a surprise round and he gets to attack in normal combat.

The rapid-shot based archer, one attack in a surprise round. The melee TWF rogue with 5 attacks a round, gets 0 or 1 attacks depending on whether you are in partial charge range or not.

In normal combat the wizard must either move away (provoking AoO AND then getting charged for another attack) or he shifts away and hope his foe isn't using a reach weapon and STILL gets full attacked.

It's worse. Archer gets one attack in surprise round, melee fighter gets one or zero, Wizard gets to cast quickened [something nasty], follow it up with Time Stop, toss out 1d4 [other nasty spells], then teleport away in the last round of TS. At lower levels, it's less extreme, but still true. Heck, level one - deaf, blind rat on a leash gives a surprise round; you likely aren't adjacent to a melee type even if you lose initiatives, you cast expeditious retreat and flee safely starting the next round

[Basket Burner]

What exactly is the purpose of this? Everybody gets an extra round...so what? It's as if you all get ordinary rounds anyway.
There are a few effects which function differently during a "surprise round", but aside from that, it would end up just like normal combat.

A caster doesn't need both a move action and a standard action to start setup. Just a standard action. A non-caster is stuck just moving forward (possibly provoking AoOs) and not getting the chance to attack, unless they have a good ranged attack, which, even then, is left as a standard attack. And then the caster, one spell up, gets to go again.

This is. If all of your opponents are casters, you're no worse off. If any of them are not, you get a free round on them. Without full attacks you have nothing to fear from non casters. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

As for moving away in normal combat, easy Tumble check, Swift/Immediate Teleports... not hard at all. Either way you're still not being full attacked. The point though is to get free rounds by doing virtually nothing in a way that doesn't really make sense but yet somehow still works.

[mykelyk]

If you are a pouncing barbarian you get a full attack with a partial charge. That means that a slowed barbarian can full attack enemy between 10-30 feet but can only make one attack against adjacent enemy.

[Basket Burner]

If you are a pouncing barbarian you get a full attack with a partial charge. That means that a slowed barbarian can full attack enemy between 10-30 feet but can only make one attack against adjacent enemy.

Pouncers can still do stuff, but anyone without Pounce? Screwed.

[Daftendirekt]

The Physical Power mantle in Complete Psionic grants the following ability: As a tree action, expend your psionic focus to gain a +2 to Str, Dex, or Con for 1 round.

So, what if you're not a tree?

[Jack_Simth]

The Physical Power mantle in Complete Psionic grants the following ability: As a tree action, expend your psionic focus to gain a +2 to Str, Dex, or Con for 1 round.

So, what if you're not a tree?

At least it doesn't do 1d6 daWizard/level.

[NNescio]

At least it doesn't do 1d6 daWizard/level.

Gets really hilarious in the case of crystal balls:

...The user may look into the ball, concentrate on any place or object, and cause the iWizard of the place or object to appear. A crystal ball may be used three times per day, for up to one turn per use. The more familiar the object or area, the clearer the iWizard.

Apple hijack!

I wonder if it can play music? gives a circumstance bonus to Perform and Concentration checks?

[Qwertystop]

Anything killed by negative levels becomes a Wight. Wight is a creature, not a template.

Therefore, if you kill a Great Wyrm Red Dragon with Negative Levels, it will rise as a Medium, distorted-human-shaped undead with very few attacks compared to the Dragon.

[Randomguy]

The diehard feat is useless: At negative hp, unless you have negative nonlethal damage, you're unconcious anyways.

[Mockingbird]

Warshapers can grow natural attacks.
It doesn't say how many.

[ericgrau]

At least it doesn't do 1d6 daWizard/level.

The actual moral is to never do anything without looking it over. You're usually better off doing nothing, as bad as that might be.

[Starbuck_II]

Warshapers can grow natural attacks.
It doesn't say how many.

I think that is on purpose: so you have many tentacles like Mindflayers or carrison crawlers you are "shaping" into.
It would hurt the class to limit the number. They already limit you by giving only +1 to # natural attack per move action.
Only Changelings/weres/Druids that get at will/hr long changing can do the move action to get that many.

[Heliomance]

I think that is on purpose: so you have many tentacles like Mindflayers or carrison crawlers you are "shaping" into.
It would hurt the class to limit the number. They already limit you by giving only +1 to # natural attack per move action.
Only Changelings/weres/Druids that get at will/hr long changing can do the move action to get that many.

People go into MoMF using other things than Wildshape or being a were?
Do you really think it's balanced to have a character spend an hour growing new appendages, and then attacking with 600 tentacles?

[Flickerdart]

The diehard feat is useless: At negative hp, unless you have negative nonlethal damage, you're unconcious anyways.

Actually, specific beats general, so you could argue that Diehard lets you act when between -1 and -9 regardless of how much nonlethal damage you have.

[sreservoir]

People go into MoMF using other things than Wildshape or being a were?
Do you really think it's balanced to have a character spend an hour growing new appendages, and then attacking with 600 tentacles?

it's only NI damage. minimum entry level for warshaper is 5, 6 if enetering with wild shape. there are worse things you can do to the world by level 5.

[tyckspoon]

People go into MoMF using other things than Wildshape or being a were?
Do you really think it's balanced to have a character spend an hour growing new appendages, and then attacking with 600 tentacles?

Being able to cast Polymorph does qualify you.. Wizard/Master Transmogrifist/Warshaper would be an interesting approach to a shapeshifting-focused character. Gets there later than the (Druid or Wildshape Ranger)/MoMF/Warshaper standard, but it does keep a lot more casting.. and Master Transmog's Infinite Variety is really neat and wildly open to abuse (heck, the actual example for it is hacking a Giant Octopus's huge mass of tentacle attacks onto a dragon. Or if you want to never die, grab a War Troll's regeneration and staple it onto something with high Fast Healing.)

[Tvtyrant]

Also it would work with Thrall of Jubilex, so you could make a rather interesting character which acts as a kind of mini-Druid with summoning, form changes and melee damage.

[noparlpf]

Oh hey, here's one I found the other day. Dragon Magazine #355 gives a Monk style for shifters, the Way of the Shackled Beast.

1st-level skill bonus: Jump
1st-level feat: Fear No Binds
2nd-level feat: Beast Strike
6th-level feat: Disruptive Strike
6th-level bonus ability: You may use your flurry of blows ability at the end of a successful charge. (Prerequisites: Jump 9 ranks, Two-Weapon Fighting)

Now, you can get these feats because Monk bonus feats don't require prerequisites. However, Beast Strike requires you to have a slam or claw attack for it to be worth anything, and not all shifters will have the shifting ability that grants a claw attack. Further, Disruptive Strike requires you to expend daily uses of Stunning Fist. Obviously if you're going to use this it's because you're tailoring your character to work with it, but you can't even take Stunning Fist until 12th level (it requires a +8 BaB, which as a Monk you get a level 11), so until then, Disruptive Strike is completely useless to you.

Edit: Oh yeah, and even though on page 77 it says "Disruptive Strike", on page 76 where it describes the feat it's actually called "Disrupting Strike".

[The Winter King]

Heres a nice one, put a creature in acid or lava. They die of drowning unless they can walk along the bottom because the Swim skill only works for water. Also, you can swim in frozen water(ice).

[zoobob9]

It might already be on here cuz I only looked through the first 3 pages, but...

You add your dex bonus to your AC
Some monsters with like 4 dex have negative bonuses
With armor lets say they have a 16 AC flatfooted
This means when they know whats going on, and ARENT flatfooted, they have 12 AC

My DM says in a past game he used this to piss off the rogue. Sneak attack never hit on these guys, while any other time it hit WITHOUT the extra d6's

[jindra34]

It might already be on here cuz I only looked through the first 3 pages, but...

You add your dex bonus to your AC
Some monsters with like 4 dex have negative bonuses
With armor lets say they have a 16 AC flatfooted
This means when they know whats going on, and ARENT flatfooted, they have 12 AC

My DM says in a past game he used this to piss off the rogue. Sneak attack never hit on these guys, while any other time it hit WITHOUT the extra d6's

Actually flat-footed only negates a Dex bonus to AC not a penalty.

[Basket Burner]

Speak up sonny!

The Listen DC to hear that people are talking is DC 0, however you have to beat the DC by 10 to understand what was being said.

That means that if an average person with no ranks and Wis 10 is addressed in a clear, strong voice by someone 10 feet away there is only a 50% chance they will understand what is being said and will have extreme difficulty carrying on a conversation with them. As the DC is 11, taking 10 is impossible, meaning that the typical conversation between two ordinary people sounds more like that of the elderly, who are LESS likely to have trouble being hard of hearing.

[noparlpf]

Likewise, you should be able to avoid any and all confrontations simply by using Diplomacy. Once you get a +15 modifier, 50% of the time you can change a target from hostile to indifferent. At +24, this works all the time, and you have a decent chance of getting a hostile foe to become friendly. At +34, anybody, even if they hate you, will become friendly if you just talk to them.
To do this quickly (one round rather than ten) requires a -10 penalty, but even so, with slight optimization one should be able to turn absolutely anybody into a friend in under six seconds. (Being able to speak extra languages helps. This requires either 80-90 skill points and Speak Language as a class skill, Permanancied Tongues, or just assuming (rightly) that just about everything can speak Common.)

[Vladislav]

Diplomacy optimization is not worth it. After doing this schtick once or twice, rest assured all your encounters are going to be with Golems and undead. Or mechanical traps. Or thousands of archers attacking in volley from large range before you get a chance to talk.