Well... I think it's time to re-evaluate some of those rules. I've played a fair amount of D&D in my time, and I've read of and heard a lot of other peoples' stories as well. From the experiences of myself and others, I've identified a few rules that often get ignored (not all the time - very possibly not even in your games - but often). Now, I totally understand why these rules don't always get used: I've neglected many of them myself. But they were written for a reason, and I think they might benefit from a little extra love.
Encumbrance
In my home games and in many games I hear about, the weight of the stuff you are carrying sort of gets abstracted. Yeah, maybe you calculate it out every once in a while during down time, but meanwhile you're carrying around 150 pounds of gold coins, five +1 shortswords, and three suits of chainmail without breaking a sweat.
I've talked before about why food and drink are important, but I don't think I've really covered encumbrance. Encumbrance and hunger are ignored for very similar reasons: when people are playing D&D, they want escapism, they don't want to be bogged down with the minutiae of everyday life. They want to feel the thrill of battle, not the dull ache of hunger or a backpack that's a bit too heavy. Plus all that bookkeeping can be a real drag; I want to fight imaginary monsters using a series of numbers and calculations, not pack my luggage using a series of numbers and calculations!
Why You Should Give It Another Shot
Roleplaying games - heck, games in general - are meant to challenge you, to present you with choices and obstacles to overcome. The life of an adventurer is especially hard, and that is something that should come across in a roleplaying game. It can almost make it feel like you're, I don't know, playing a role or something.
Every roleplaying videogame forces you to manage your inventory somehow. Why not do it in your tabletop RPGs? Deciding which weapons to keep lugging around through the dungeon, dividing up the loot and leaving behind the less desirable treasures, figuring out how much of your inventory to shed before crossing that rope bridge - these are the grim calculations we all must make in the dank bowels of any given dungeon.
Not to mention all the magic and mundane items that are completely worthless if you don't pay attention to your encumbrance. Bag of Holding? Handy Haversack? Heck, even a couple expendable hirelings or a pack mule? They all exist because you can't carry a whole dragon's hoard on your back.
If you haven't been keeping track of encumbrance, and you start to, you'll be surprised at how little your character can actually carry. You'll start to get invested even more in your character, thinking about what she or he really needs, and deciding whether to save up for something that will help you in battle or something that will save you some weight.
My Improved Character Sheet for Pathfinder is full of stuff to help you out with this kind of thing. Below the inventory is a section for recording your light, medium, and heavy loads, plus a handy chart summarizing the encumbrance rules. The inventory itself is divided up into a number of sections with places for recording what kind of container you are using, and how much weight is in each container (you might have an extra sack of loot that you carry around the dungeon but drop before battle to get you under that light load limit). I know keeping track of your inventory is hard, and I want to make it easier for you so you will be more inclined to use the encumbrance rules.
Plate needs to be specially made for each wearer
You've killed the hobgoblin in full plate, now you can wear full plate too! Well, only if you are exactly the same size as the hobgoblin in all your measurements. Full plate has to be specially made for each wearer. Otherwise they won't be able to bend their arms and legs, which is a thing most people like being able to do, especially in battle.
To quote the description of full plate:
Each suit of full plate must be individually fitted to its owner by a master armorsmith, although a captured suit can be resized to fit a new owner at a cost of 200 to 800 (2d4 × 100) gold pieces.If you want full plate, you'll have to have it specially made by a master armourer. If you want to have a captured suit of full plate resized, same thing. Now, according to the Crafting rules, this process can take weeks; the armourer makes one craft check every week, multiplying each successful result by the Craft DC (10 + AC bonus of the item) and subtracting the result from the total cost of the item in silver pieces (15,000 sp for a new suit of full plate, 2000-8000 sp for resizing a captured suit).
Ugh, I have to do math just to wear some armour? No thanks.
Why You Should Give It Another Shot
Delayed gratification. Having to wait a while for your armour to be made makes you appreciate it more. Let's face it - by 3rd level, you can afford to buy nearly any non-magical item without a problem. Expense is no longer an obstacle. The obstacle now is time.
Plus it's realistic, and realism helps you become immersed in the world. If shopkeepers can't give you everything immediately, you become more aware of them and their work, rather than treating them like a vending machine. Heck, I would extend this 'armour doesn't automatically fit' rule to half-plate as well, with the cost of resizing half-plate modified to 2d4x50gp.
Animal companions aren't extensions of your character
The druid is probably the most overpowered class. They are primary spellcasters with loads of useful spells for combat and utility, plus they can hold their own in combat. To top it all off, they get an animal companion that basically doubles their combat presence. A scimitar-wielding spell-slinging druid and her pet bear can clear the room by themselves.
But if you're treating an animal companion like an extension of your character, you're doing it wrong. Animal companions are just animals, and they act accordingly. The animal is the druid's best friend, but it's still an animal. It won't automatically move in for a flank with the party rogue, it won't stop attacking one opponent and switch to another just to take some pressure off an ally, and it won't drag the unconscious wizard out of a fire. It won't do those things unless convinced to do so by its druid friend.
The text for the link special ability that all animal companions have states:
A druid can handle her animal companion as a free action, or push it as a move action, even if she doesn't have any ranks in the Handle Animal skill. The druid gains a +4 circumstance bonus on all wild empathy checks and Handle Animal checks made regarding an animal companion.Yes, a druid has to make Handle Animal checks to influence the decisions of their animal buddy. Plus, the actions that an animal companion can take (outside of regular animal stuff) are determined by the tricks it has learned, which is why animal companions get so many bonus tricks. So yes, your animal companion can flank with the party rogue if it has learned how to flank and if you have convinced it to do that instead of just leaping at the nearest enemy.
But isn't it easier to just act like the animal companion is an extension of the druid's character?
Why You Should Give It Another Shot
First of all, from a roleplaying perspective, it seems right that the animal companion acts more like the druid's friend than an extension of the druid's mind. This isn't a magical familiar. Druids are just really into nature, and sometimes that means hanging out with cool animals. They have a special bond, certainly, but not a magical or psychic bond. Besides, I think a druid would like the idea of their animal companion having free will.
From a game balance perspective, it's also nice to limit the power of druids a bit.
I've heard of GMs who will run the druid's animal companion for them, like a DMPC. This is a pretty cool idea, but as a GM I'm usually way too busy with all the other stuff to run an animal ally too. Instead, just let the druid player run the animal companion as usual, but remind them that it's not just an extension of their character, and nudge them whenever they start to forget that.
Fire burns
When a fireball goes off, it's probably going to do a lot of damage to the creatures in its area of effect. But it will also do damage anything flammable, like wooden bridges or treasure chests full of scrolls. And if anyone rolls a 1 on their save, their stuff is gonna get messed up too.
Here are a few of the relevant rules (with emphasis added):
Energy attacks deal half damage to most objects. Divide the damage by 2 before applying the object's hardness. Some energy types might be particularly effective against certain objects, subject to GM discretion. For example, fire might do full damage against parchment, cloth, and other objects that burn easily. Sonic might do full damage against glass and crystal objects.That seems like a lot of rules, and it's just easier not to think about it. Why not just do the damage to the creatures and get on with it? Who wants to risk losing valuable loot to an errant fireball, or figuring out what kind of flammable things are in the area?
A damaged object remains functional with the broken condition until the item's hit points are reduced to 0, at which point it is destroyed.
Damaged (but not destroyed) objects can be repaired with the Craft skill and a number of spells. (eg. make whole or mending)
Magical Items: Magic items always get saving throws. A magic item's Fortitude, Reflex, and Will save bonuses are equal to 2 + half its caster level. An attended magic item either makes saving throws as its owner or uses its own saving throw bonus, whichever is better.
Unattended Non-Magical Items: Non-magical, unattended items never make saving throws. They are considered to have failed their saving throws, so they are always fully affected by spells and other attacks that allow saving throws to resist or negate. An item attended by a character (being grasped, touched, or worn) makes saving throws as the character (that is, using the character's saving throw bonus).
Attended (Held/Wielded etc.) Items: Unless the descriptive text for a spell (or attack) specifies otherwise, all items carried or worn by a creature are assumed to survive a magical attack. If a creature rolls a natural 1 on its saving throw against the effect, however, an exposed item is harmed (if the attack can harm objects). Refer to Table: Items Affected by Magical Attacks to determine order in which items are affected. Determine which four objects carried or worn by the creature are most likely to be affected and roll randomly among them. The randomly determined item must make a saving throw against the attack form and take whatever damage the attack dealt. If the selected item is not carried or worn and is not magical, it does not get a saving throw. It simply is dealt the appropriate damage.
Why You Should Give It Another Shot
Hey man, fire burns. Heck, I would go further than the stated rules and use my GM judgement to say that creatures that fail their saves (not just those that roll natural 1s) get their exposed items damaged as well. And even though the descriptive text of the Gelatinous Cube's engulf attack doesn't specifically say that its victim's objects are also subject to the acid, I would say otherwise.
Why would I be so heartless and cruel as to expose the adventurers' precious items to potential destruction? Sometimes actions have consequences, and the toll of battle can be more powerfully felt when it is taken out on objects than just on easily-restored HP.
I'm all for spellcasting being more strategic, and the fear of potentially destroying loot with an ill-placed fireball changes the strategic calculations a bit. On the other hand, using fireballs to change the terrain of the battlefield is really fun: in one session I ran, the combat took place mostly on multiple levels of wooden platforms running over a chasm, and the fire spells being slung burnt down a number of them, often sending goblins tumbling down into the darkness but always changing the dynamics of the battlefield.
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Alright, time a little bit of site news. I've added a search bar to the blog, for your convenience. You might also have noticed the big Patreon button in the upper left corner, which means I don't have to take up precious blogpost space asking for your support.
And if you have any other rules that you think don't get used as much as they should, leave a comment and tell me about them.
-your encumbered d20 despot
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