Murphy's Rules

[Anders]

Any rule that doesn't make sense is fair game. My favourite comes from the ol' 3rd Ed Mass Combat System. According to which two G.I.Joes on the back of a war elephant is the rough equivalent of three Sherman tanks or two Tiger tanks. Too bad the yanks didn't know that at Kasserine...

[Þorkell]

In d20 the longbow has the best range increment of all hand held ranged weapons. Meaning it can shot further than the most modern rifle.

[Kaldrin]

Originally Posted by Þorkell

In d20 the longbow has the best range increment of all hand held ranged weapons. Meaning it can shot further than the most modern rifle.

Yup... I managed to pick up a feat which eliminated range penalties... and my spot was unreal too, so I picked off an orc camp from 1100 yards out. That's not broken at all.

[khorboth]

In D&D 3.x, most giants have skin tougher than plate mail. Some of them much tougher than magical plate.

In D20, spot and listen are wiz based. As you age, you gain wiz so your vision and hearing actually get better.

in DND 3.x, killing a high level char by knocking him unconcious and slitting his throat with a dagger simply doesn't work. A str 10 char with a dagger would take nearly three minutes to kill a 20th level fighter if the fighter was completely helpless.

[Collective_Restraint]

Originally Posted by khorboth

in DND 3.x, killing a high level char by knocking him unconcious and slitting his throat with a dagger simply doesn't work. A str 10 char with a dagger would take nearly three minutes to kill a 20th level fighter if the fighter was completely helpless.

This is what made me switch from D&D to GURPS. I grew tired of those ?%?$ sick Hit Points. Is it that hard to make a system where high level fighters have very high combat skill so that they can parry all attacks and kill more easily (to keep the cinematic feel of the game) but not be able to walk in hot lava for a few rounds or muster a catapult's damage and still walk around ? Keep the cinematic feel but get rid of those ridiculous HPs.

[Collective_Restraint]

In Legionnaire (from FASA), I remember that an alien race had higher Hit Points (I don't remember what the stat was exactly, it's been a while) than other race. They had a +5 bonus on a 2d10 stat. Just for fun, me and my friends evaluated something. If the alien put the strongest High Tech helmet on it's head, he could get hit in the head with an anti-tank missile (TVLG missile) and still walk around and continue fighting. Sure, he would be badly damaged, but he would still be up and fighting. The legionnaire system was simply broken for armor ratings. Let's just say that in their future, as long as you where wearing heavy armor, you were almost invincible.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by khorboth

in DND 3.x, killing a high level char by knocking him unconcious and slitting his throat with a dagger simply doesn't work. A str 10 char with a dagger would take nearly three minutes to kill a 20th level fighter if the fighter was completely helpless.

I though the coup de grace rules were supposed to fix that? Have you heard of the amazing healing water bucket?

If your character is at -9 hp, he is in a bad state. But, not to worry! If you try to drown him, the first round he struggles (well, he probably doesn't...), the second he loses consciousness (again, he is already unconscious...) and the third he automatically goes to 0 hp!

I liked In Nomine. I made a character who could take as much damage as a small tank.

[khorboth]

Originally Posted by Asta Kask

I though the coup de grace rules were supposed to fix that?

Exactly the rule to which I'm referring. It's on PHB page 153-154 and it's worse than I remembered. It's a full round action which automatically hits and deliverers a crit. That's an average of 5 and a max of 8 points of damage with a dagger. Then the victim gets to make a fort save DC 10+damage. If a 20th level fighter has a base +12, fort of 20 for +5, he will absolutely never fail this save. You can't even crit fail a save anymore. So we go back to a wizard trying to cut his throat with a dagger. 200 HP (below average) will take... 42 rounds. That's over four minutes of stabbing a guy in the throat.

[khorboth]

In Nomine is also a great one. Every nonmagical weapon does 1d6 damage. doesn't matter if it's a fist or a shotgun.

Then there's the terminal velocity in DND 2nd ed. You could never take more than 10d6 falling damage. That meant that nearly any fighter over level 10 could survive any fall. Put on a necklace of adaptation to protect from the vacuum and dive down from orbit, and you'd be fine.

And... did anybody else notice that GURPS actually produced stats for Sword Chucks?

[Fade]

Originally Posted by khorboth

In Nomine is also a great one. Every nonmagical weapon does 1d6 damage. doesn't matter if it's a fist or a shotgun.

I feel compelled (curse this nitpicky nature!) to point out that this isn't true. Every nonmagical weapon usually has a Power rating (as well as its Accuracy rating), which adjusts the damage up or down accordingly. A punch does 1d6 - 3, while a shotgun does 1d6 + 3. It's not trying for GURPS levels of plausibility, but they don't do the same damage.

(In that example, in fact, it's impossible for them to do the same damage. Barring other modifiers, the most you can do with a standard punch is 3 Body hits of damage, while the least you could do with a successful shotgun blast would be 4.)