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What are your favorite rules misconceptions that you've encountered playing this game?
Here are a couple of mine:
I had a DM who was like, "Oh the Brace feature on a weapon means as a free action you can switch between a 5' reach and a 10' reach with a polearm."
And that same guy was a player in my campaign and was like "HEY! He can't do that! He's fatigued! That means that he can either move or attack, but not both!"
Point Blank Shot means I can attack at point blank range without provoking.
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Point Blank Shot means I can attack at point blank range without provoking.
The feat doesn't mention that? Where are you getting it?
You are especially accurate when making ranged attacks against close targets.
Benefit: You get a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls with ranged weapons at ranges of up to 30 feet.
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You can TWF with a 2H weapon and armor spikes.
...
What?
Too soon?
The feat doesn't mention that? Where are you getting it?
Best Rule Misconceptions
-Spell Combat lets you cast multiple spells per round by default.
-Spell Strike isn't meant to work with Spell Combat.
-Bards are terrible because they have to use both hands to hold an instrument and maintain their performance as a standard action each round.
-Bards need perform for the bard songs that actually matter.
-Rogues can only sneak attack once per round for balance.
-Wizards can just rest and re-prepare spells multiple times per day.
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@ArmouredMonk13 : I don’t know if you are a troll or if you haven’t read The Thread Title, but please don't start a flame war.
-Bards are terrible because they have to use both hands to hold an instrument and maintain their performance as a standard action each round.
That is a good one.
Edit:Some others:
- Bless gives a bonus to AC. I Think it took more than a year for my fellow players to learn that bless don't grant a bonus to AC.
- Knock is auto success. It took us a long time to notice it now requires caster level ckeck.
- immunity to critical hits and immunity to Precision-Based Damage/Sneak Attack are the same thing.
- being flat-footed is the same as losing your Dex bonus.
Not a misconceptions at our table, but still funny:
- Bards can't activate more than one performance in one round.
- cover / soft cover don’t apply to reach weapons.
- Versatile performance means you are actually performing.
Treantmonk had something fun to say on that topic:
Evil Guard: "You can't go through the gate!"
Bard: *Rolls in piano*
Evil Guard: "What are you doing!?"
Bard: Tinkles away on piano
Evil Guard: "Hmmmm...alright, I'm convinced - you can go through."
Also check out these 2 threads:
Frequently unknown rulesThings you might have missed
and
This summary by Howie23 is great .
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The most common rules misconception I have seen is that you cannot 5 foot step in darkness. Rather than the actual rule in which it is a DC10 Acrobatics check to move at full speed as if you pass the acrobatics check you are no longer hampered by the darkness (as you can now move at full speed) and if you fail you fall prone.
Blind
"Blind creatures must make a DC 10 Acrobatics skill check to move
faster than half speed. Creatures that fail this check fall prone."Darkness
"In areas of darkness, creatures without darkvision are effectively blinded. In addition to the obvious effects, a blinded creature has a 50% miss chance in combat (all opponents have total concealment), loses any Dexterity bonus to AC, takes a –2 penalty to AC, and takes a –4 penalty on Perception checks that rely on sight and most Strength- and Dexterity-based skill checks. Areas of darkness include an unlit dungeon chamber, most caverns, and outside on a cloudy, moonless night."
5 Foot Step
"You can move 5 feet in any round when you don't perform any other kind of movement. Taking this 5-foot step never provokes an attack of opportunity. You can't take more than one 5-foot step in a round, and you can't take a 5-foot step in the same round that you move any distance.
You can take a 5-foot step before, during, or after your other actions in the round.
You can only take a 5-foot-step if your movement isn't hampered by difficult terrain or darkness. Any creature with a speed of 5 feet or less can't take a 5-foot step, since moving even 5 feet requires a move action for such a slow creature.
You may not take a 5-foot step using a form of movement for which you do not have a listed speed."
Why you can't take a 5' step in darkness is smack in the middle of teh text you cited.
Making the Acrobatic check don't remove the simple fact that your movement is hampered by the darkness.Some other relevant rule you have omitted:
Table: Hampered Movement Condition Additional Movement Cost
Difficult terrain ×2
Obstacle* ×2
Poor visibility ×2
Impassable —
* May require a skill checkHampered Movement: Difficult terrain, obstacles, and poor visibility can hamper movement (see Table: Hampered Movement for details). When movement is hampered, each square moved into usually counts as two squares, effectively reducing the distance that a character can cover in a move.
Note how poor visibility is sufficient to hamper yuour movement and stopping you from taking a 5' step.
Rather than the actual rule in which it is a DC10 Acrobatics check to move at full speed as if you pass the acrobatics check you are no longer hampered by the darkness (as you can now move at full speed) and if you fail you fall prone.
That is a construct with have made with no basis. The acrobatic check allow you to move at full speed, but it don't remove the hampered movement.
The check has a specific effect: you can move a full speed without falling if you made it. Full stop. The rules don't say that it remove the condition.
If I ever play a Bard that doesn't trade out versatile performance I feel obligated to treat all skill uses as performance now... also tempted to make sure I don't speak common so that I only communicate and convince people through the power of music.
Also:
1. Full round casting time actually means a full round, not a full round action.
2. Disguise self lets you flawlessly disguise yourself however you want, even as other people... as opposed to just giving a +10 disguise check which means the 7 cha Wizard with 0 ranks in disguise is still screwed.
3. Detect Evil... no one I've ever met uses it correctly.
Big one for some of my older gamer pals.
Haste grants extra actions.
This issue comes up nearly every session since I started playing with them (about 4 weeks after 3rd edition launched).
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Attacks of Opportunity on entering a threatened area.
Total Defence is a full-round action. (It's a Standard.)
It's a full-round action to retrieve an item from a backpack. (It's a Move.)
If you throw an alchemist fire at a large creature, it takes an extra point of damage for each square inside the area effect.
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For a long time, my group thought that temporary negative levels from undead attacks never became permanent. We had read the negative level entry in the CRB but not the bestiary netry on energy drain. We thought you just kept saving every day until they went away.
For a very common misconception you see on the forums, the Adopted trait. So many people seem to think it can give you darkvision or a bonus feat or some such.
It seems pretty common to find people who don't know Heirloom Weapon has been errataed.
The idea that making magic items is supposed to be "tough" somehow, when it didn't even require a check in 3.0/3.5.
Point Blank Shot means I can attack at point blank range without provoking.The feat doesn't mention that? Where are you getting it?
You are especially accurate when making ranged attacks against close targets.
Benefit: You get a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls with ranged weapons at ranges of up to 30 feet.
I get this one at my table every now and again. The fact that "Point-Blank Shot" does not actually do anything for "point blank range" is missed by many who don't read full descriptions for feats.
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The goof I made was with the scatter rules for missed splash weapons. The Core Rulebook says, when you are figuring out how far away the miss is:
Then, count a number of squares in the indicated direction
equal to the range increment of the throw.
I took "range increment" to mean the number of squares in the range increment. So, an Alchemist's bomb that was just thrown 15ft, when it misses will scatter 20ft away. (That's the range increment of the bomb, after all!) It seemed very, very odd, but that was the rule (I thought), so that's what I did.
To be fair to me, in the Equipment chapter, they use the word "range increment" to mean exactly this-- the number of feet after which a weapon starts taking range penalties. We thought the scatter rules didn't make sense, but that seemed to be the RAW....
What the rules are really supposed to say is that the scatter distance is the number of range increments (rounding up). That made a whole lot more sense. Then, the Aclehmist's bomb that was just thrown 15ft, when it misses, scatters only one square.
This is actually a misconception I had two days ago that made me think I had some kind of epiphany.
Benefit: All variable, numeric effects of a spell modified by this feat are maximized. Saving throws and opposed rolls are not affected, nor are spells without random variables.
I had to ask a GM in one of my games whether or not an attack roll was specifically an opposed roll, as if every other roll involved in the spell gets treated as the highest figure, then technically spells with attack rolls like Mage's Sword or Arcane Cannon should be able to crit every round (or every other round when referring to AC).
Of course, he responded "Don't be that guy". Heheh :P
That plants can not be hit with critical hits / sneak attacks. Took us 4 years to catch that update from 3.5 to PF.
I used to think that Shield and Mage Armor stacked with mundane armor and shields. My folding plated wizard was protected.
I think its entertaining to read this thread and realize people commenting on common rules misconceptions don't actually understand the rules that they're commenting on.
Most are writing(rather than commenting on) the misconceptions, not commenting on the rules...
Do you have examples?
Rogues can only sneak attack once per round. Been screwed by that one before.
Haste grants extra actions. I have a player, and it seems like every session I have to explain to him that "No,you can't use haste to cast an extra spell."
We used to think that stairs counted as difficult terrain. Turns out that's only if they are unusually steep.
Can't run up stairs, which I'm fine with considering how much trouble I get into trying to do that in real life. You totally can charge up them though!
Wait, really?
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Wait, really?We used to think that stairs counted as difficult terrain. Turns out that's only if they are unusually steep.
Can't run up stairs, which I'm fine with considering how much trouble I get into trying to do that in real life. You totally can charge up them though!
Stairs
Stairs are the most common means of traveling up and down within a dungeon. A character can move up or down stairs as part of their movement without penalty, but they cannot run on them. Increase the DC of any Acrobatics skill check made on stairs by 4. Some stairs are particularly steep and are treated as difficult terrain.
Verbatim you can charge up or down the stairs, as a charge isn't a run action.
RL it is more difficult to charge going downslope than going upslope. Way easier to trip and fall ruinously.
Point Blank Shot means I can attack at point blank range without provoking.I get this one at my table every now and again. The fact that "Point-Blank Shot" does not actually do anything for "point blank range" is missed by many who don't read full descriptions for feats.
There might be some confusion with "Point Blank Master", too, which is the feat means you don't provoke using the ranged weapon in melee.
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Though Point Blank Master is in the APG and more likely to get overlooked because hey, shouldn't Point Blank Shot allow me to make shots at point blank? Why would a feat be called something if it doesn't let me do that?
Attacks of Opportunity on entering a threatened area.Actually I have a question on that... is it the misconception that you GET them upon that or DO you get them upon entering? Lol, I could swear you only get them upon exiting a threatened square...
Just trying to make sure I read that right
Also; one Im guilty of: That the Charge action makes it so that you DONT get aooed against
This thread is confusing because some people are giving examples of things that are in the rules that they didn't know and others are giving examples of things that aren't in the rules that they thought were in the rules.
Yes, you only get AoOs for leaving threatened squares.
Though Point Blank Master is in the APG and more likely to get overlooked because hey, shouldn't Point Blank Shot allow me to make shots at point blank? Why would a feat be called something if it doesn't let me do that?
I was guilty of that one for a long while >_<
Another big one in my group at the moment concerns which combat maneuvers can be used in place of any attack, leading to people saying things like "Monk is definitely awesome because they can replace any of their attacks with trips and disarms!" without realizing that anyone can do that.
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Heh. I always thought it meant "I want to play an evil character but my GM told me I couldn't play an evil character".there's a strong, well-documented misconception that "chaotic neutral" means "chaotic evil and crazy"
+1 Most of the time that's what it does mean.
+1 Most of the time that's what it does mean.Heh. I always thought it meant "I want to play an evil character but my GM told me I couldn't play an evil character".there's a strong, well-documented misconception that "chaotic neutral" means "chaotic evil and crazy"
I always liked playing it as disliking excessive responsibility and not giving a shit about other peoples' problems... it was a fun alignment.
Thinking Hexes are one use per day. An Evil character MUST be pure, unsubtle satanic evil. A character/creature can only have one primary natural weapon. The Half Elf Summoner favoured class bonus means you add an amount of Evolution Points equal to 1/4 of your Eidolon's current Evolution Points. Monks are one of the strongest classes in the game (Let's not get into this here, there are other threads for that). The only right way to play the game is by roleplaying, and that means you can't do anything remotely optimized. Some classes in the game are only used by powergaming min-maxing munchkins, and are incapable of being used for roleplay. A Cavalier dipping Cleric is min-maxing and powergaming. A Cleric MUST have a diety, simply having extreme devotion to a cause represented by a Domain is not enough. A Cleric MUST be a priest.
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Misconceptions:
A natural 1 always fails a skill check, and a natural 20 always succeeds on a skill check.
You can't take 20 on Perception checks to locate hidden things like traps.
You can't take 20 on Disable Device checks to open locks.
You can't take 10 on Perception checks and Stealth checks when not in combat.
3rd-level paladins are not immune to haunts (in fact, there are probably a LOT of misconceptions about the way haunts work).
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A Cleric MUST have a diety, simply having extreme devotion to a cause represented by a Domain is not enough.
To be fair, this is very campaign setting dependent. Some settings (like Golarion) this is true. I've got a homebrew world where "philosophy clerics" must still follow one of the preexisting philosophical orders of the world, rather like some real-world religions that don't actual have deities.
Rules-wise, however, you are correct in that it's not absolutely necessary.
I used to ban chaotic neutral because of players using it as an excuse to just do stupid nonsensical things all session. Party in a fight? I'll use my turn to draw dirty pictures on the wall, or sing a sea chanty, or anything else useless and "spontaneous." I'd allow evil alignments before CN for that reason.
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It was considerably harder in AD&D. The DMG advised sending the PCs on specific quests to obtain the materials needed.
The idea that making magic items is supposed to be "tough" somehow, when it didn't even require a check in 3.0/3.5.
True, but having magic items was a lot less expected in AD&D. You can find examples of pregenerated 13th level characters with a +1 weapon, +1 armor, and maybe a potion as their entire set of magic items.
It's actually still pretty tough if you're trying to craft without an Int-based crafter. Most casting classes have 2 skill points, and dumping Int can bring you down to 1 per level - makes keeping Spellcraft maxed a tough choice.
In our early days playing AD&D, we used to believe that levelling reset your XP to 0. Levelling took an awful long time.
I once had a GM say that Dimension Door didn't work while trying to teleport an unconscious ally b/c he wasn't awake and able to be a "willing target". It made a simple retreat into...a not so simple retreat...
I have one player who is apparently incapable of understanding Damage Reduction. I can't tell you how many times he has said a +1 weapon bypasses all damage reduction, including DR 5/-, instead of just DR/Magic.
Any rules regarding cover, soft cover, etc, especially in regards to ranged weapons. For some reason people tend to want to ignore those (b/c, you know, archers need to do more damage).
I've had several people be unaware you can take a 5ft step in the middle of a full attack.
Touch spells. Just everything about them. Sigh.
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The Half Elf Summoner favoured class bonus means you add an amount of Evolution Points equal to 1/4 of your Eidolon's current Evolution Points.
A variant of that I have seen on these boards:
"The half elf get 1/4 of a Evolution Point multiplied for his level at each level at which he take the alternate benefit."