Author Topic: Favorite badly-written rule  (Read 17414 times)

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Caelic

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Favorite badly-written rule
« on: April 10, 2009, 08:22:36 PM »
Let's be honest: not all of the writing in 3.5 was of the highest quality.  In fact, there are a lot of rules that are downright badly written.

My question, then: what's your favorite badly-written rule?  The one that can be misinterpreted in really horrible ways?

DISCLAIMER: This thread is for entertainment purposes only.  I really, really don't recommend deliberately twisting the rules in this fashion in an actual game.

That said, on to the rules-lawyering.

One of my favorites is Seelie Bond, from the Wild Soul prestige class.  This ability gives you certain benefits as long as the seelie critter you summoned is alive.  One of these is as follows:

Quote
At 2nd level, you gain immunity to magic and nonmagical sleep effects.

Now: pretty clearly, what they meant was "magical and nonmagical sleep effects."  In fact, it's glaringly obvious that they meant "magical and nonmagical sleep effects."

However, that's not what they wrote.  As it's written, a pretty good case could be made for the fact that you're immune to magic...ALL magic...and also to nonmagical sleep effects.

Tleilaxu_Ghola

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Re: Favorite badly-written rule
« Reply #1 on: April 10, 2009, 08:33:15 PM »
Not that anyone cares, but my favorite rule was the one that said the far realms were "outside of time".  Oh the abuses me and psly4mne made of that ...

InnaBinder

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Re: Favorite badly-written rule
« Reply #2 on: April 10, 2009, 09:03:33 PM »
Not that anyone cares, but my favorite rule was the one that said the far realms were "outside of time".  Oh the abuses me and psly4mne made of that ...
I'm guessing quite a few folks would listen intently to your citation of a favorite rule, T-G.  Welcome aboard, by the way.

I've always been a fan of the way that certain races, like Warforged, are 'immune to Fatigue.  Conditions that make X Exhausted make X Fatigued instead.'  Wait, they're immune to Fatigue, right?  So, RAW, they're immune to Exhaustion too, since Exhausted creates a condition to which they're immune.   :D
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PhaedrusXY

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Re: Favorite badly-written rule
« Reply #3 on: April 10, 2009, 09:04:42 PM »
Not that anyone cares, but my favorite rule was the one that said the far realms were "outside of time".  Oh the abuses me and psly4mne made of that ...
I'm guessing quite a few folks would listen intently to your citation of a favorite rule, T-G.  Welcome aboard, by the way.

I've always been a fan of the way that certain races, like Warforged, are 'immune to Fatigue.  Conditions that make X Exhausted make X Fatigued instead.'  Wait, they're immune to Fatigue, right?  So, RAW, they're immune to Exhaustion too, since Exhausted creates a condition to which they're immune.   :D
I think that is entirely intentional.
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[/spoiler]

Optimator

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Re: Favorite badly-written rule
« Reply #4 on: April 10, 2009, 09:07:48 PM »
I kinda like how characters and NPCs without 1 rank in Knowledge: Local cannot identify a human.

PhaedrusXY

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Re: Favorite badly-written rule
« Reply #5 on: April 10, 2009, 09:23:04 PM »
I kinda like how characters and NPCs without 1 rank in Knowledge: Local cannot identify a human.
:lol
[spoiler]
A couple of water benders, a dike, a flaming arrow, and a few barrels of blasting jelly?

Sounds like the makings of a gay porn film.
...thanks
[/spoiler]

Brainpiercing

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Re: Favorite badly-written rule
« Reply #6 on: April 10, 2009, 09:25:25 PM »
I kinda like how characters and NPCs without 1 rank in Knowledge: Local cannot identify a human.
I liked how average humans in Shadowrun couldn't recognise their own mother she were right in front of them in a crowd, or even just on the street at a very minor distance.

But I digress.

The spell Veil of Undeath, read entirely literally, makes you "immune to death".

Havok4

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Re: Favorite badly-written rule
« Reply #7 on: April 10, 2009, 09:35:17 PM »
One of my favorite is the Personal construct alternate class feature for the psion
Personal Construct

[spoiler]You have a favored astral construct form that you can summon at a moment's notice.
Level: 5th.
Replaces: The bonus feat at 5th level.
Prerequisite: You must know the astral construct power.
Benefit: You can create a specific astral construct that you have chosen as your favored as if you had the Quickened Power feat, by only sacrificing your psionic focus. This personal construct, once chosen, always has the same abilities and appearance every time you summon it. Each time you gain a level, you may change the abilities and appearance of your favored construct.[/spoiler]

Which I read for a long time as creating an astral construct for just expending psionic focus. No Power point expenditure at all. But that is obviously not its intent.

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Re: Favorite badly-written rule
« Reply #8 on: April 10, 2009, 10:19:26 PM »
The one for the spell that makes a large stone sphere that you can command to roll around.  If you don't command it, it "does not move".  It's like an immovable rod, but you can't make a STR check to shift it.  XD

I have the comic for the immovable rod somwhere....

[spoiler][/spoiler]

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Re: Favorite badly-written rule
« Reply #9 on: April 10, 2009, 11:01:52 PM »
Quicken Manifesting from Liberal Mortis. One ethereal Jaunt and any psionic power that extends onto the prime material plane can be used as a free action 1/round.

Thinblade

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Re: Favorite badly-written rule
« Reply #10 on: April 10, 2009, 11:04:08 PM »
I'm not sure I'd call it my favorite, but the badly-written rule I butt heads against most often has got to be the description of Eldritch Glaive. Good idea, but if they'd given just a bit more thought to writing it, they would have saved me so much trouble (can you PA it? Short haft? What about weapon focus, what do you focus in? And it gets more inane from there)

Though Hellfire Blast comes a close second just for the flame wars I've seen between the pro- and con-Strongheart Vest crowds.

Eldariel

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Re: Favorite badly-written rule
« Reply #11 on: April 11, 2009, 12:30:49 AM »
All the special True Dragon-rules and Dragonwrought Kobolds.

TheWordSlinger

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Re: Favorite badly-written rule
« Reply #12 on: April 11, 2009, 01:50:17 AM »
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woodenbandman

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Re: Favorite badly-written rule
« Reply #13 on: April 11, 2009, 01:55:55 AM »
The rule that states that when you're drowning you are reduced to 0 hp.

AfterCrescent

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Re: Favorite badly-written rule
« Reply #14 on: April 11, 2009, 01:58:24 AM »
I love the dragonwrought kobolds age category fluff/rule that was so horribly written, as well. :D
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woodenbandman

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Re: Favorite badly-written rule
« Reply #15 on: April 11, 2009, 02:05:33 AM »
oh oh oh and the rogue special ability bonus feat. "A rogue may gain a bonus feat." Bonus feats don't have to be qualified for. Do math.

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Re: Favorite badly-written rule
« Reply #16 on: April 11, 2009, 05:17:28 AM »
I like grappling, but I hate the rules for it.
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Re: Favorite badly-written rule
« Reply #17 on: April 11, 2009, 07:23:28 AM »
Steadfast Boots:
Quote
As long as you carry a two-handed weapon, you may treat hat weapon as if you had set it against a charge[...]
I'm currently AFB, so it would be welcome if someone could check the correctness of the quote. I know that's the general idea, though.

Anyway, aside from the potential double-wielding of TH weapons I asked about in the Simple Questions thread a while ago, notice how it says "carry", not "wield". "Carry" around a few hundred greatswords in a Bag of Holding, Portable Hole, or similar. Profit.
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The_Mad_Linguist

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Re: Favorite badly-written rule
« Reply #18 on: April 11, 2009, 09:11:34 AM »
Iron Heart Surge.  It's so broadly worded it's hilarious.
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Havok4

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Re: Favorite badly-written rule
« Reply #19 on: April 11, 2009, 12:42:51 PM »
If you are going to mention Iron Heart surge than the manipulate form ability of the Sarruhk definitely needs to be included in this thread, as it basically gives whoever has it infinite power, such as pun-pun.
[spoiler]At will, a sarrukh can modify the form of any Scaled One native to Toril, except for aquatic and undead creatures. With a successful touch attack, it can cause one alteration of its choice in the target creature's body. The target falls unconscious for 2d4 rounds due to the shock of changing form. A successful DC 22 Fortitude save negates both the change and the unconsciousness. Sarrukh are immune to this effect.
A sarrukh may use this ability to change a minor aspect of the target creature, such as the shape of its head or the color of its scales. It may also choose to make a much more significant alteration, such as converting limbs into tentacles, changing the overall body shape (snake to humanoid, for example), or adding or removing an appendage. Any ability score may be decreased to a minimum of 1 or increased to a maximum equal to the sarrukh's corresponding score. A sarrukh may also grant the target an extraordinary, supernatural, or spell-like ability or remove one from it.
The change bestowed takes effect immediately and is permanent. Furthermore, the alterations are automatically passed on to all the creature's offspring when it breeds with another of its unmodified kind.[/spoiler]