My Favorite Illegal D&D Rule

#shorts

DnD Shorts, Dungeons and Dragons, XP to level 3 with Davvychappy, potentially a bit a Critical Role with dungeoneering, tabletop community next to tabletop RPG, dungeons and dragons, Fjord, Beau, Jester, Yasha, Caleb, Nott, 5th edition dragons, 3.5e, dungeon dudes, DM GM, dungeon master, game master tips sprinkle a bit of Caduceus, Mollymauk in the Mighty Nein. Matt Mercer.

[lukasfogel]

My favorite was potion miscibility. Drank 2 potions? Well, they could mix in your stomach and become permanent stat upgrades, a deadly bomb, or anything in-between! Just roll on this table.

[Dragowolf_Rising]

I use a pseudo-system shock that can knock you unconcious and give you a level of exhaustion.

[Drizztbc]

Older editions of D&D were a wild time. Fire ball explosions had to fill an area equal to the radius of its blast, so it could potentially cover a larger area then intended if you fire it into a tiny room. Also my favorite is lightning bolt could bounce off of walls, so a well aimed bolt could clear the whole floor of a dungeon as it bounces forever!

[the_almightyone]

If I ever run a really gritty campaign, I'll be sure to implement this rule

[Nikolai.Shintov]

I am just thinking of that one scene from heavy is dead where medic revives heavy but before he fully comes back his corpse explodes.

[famijher]

System Shock was actually a separate stat based on your Constitution. It was a percentage roll, and generally started at around 70% base as long as you had a bonus to Constitution. It really only existed in 1st and 2nd edition, mostly, in the times when the saves weren't so straightforward. No stat based saves, no Reflex, Fortitude and Willpower saves. Nope, at that point, there were saves versus like six catagories, and they had titles like "Petrification, Polymorph and Death, " "Magic, " "Breath Weapon, " Or "Poison." And some stats gave you a bonus to them, but every stat at the time had a chart for what bonuses (or minuses) you got from them depending on what you had.

[Gabriel-rjgn]

Me polymorphing the boss to one shot him

[drmadjdsadjadi]

New house rule: system shock applies every time you argue with the DM.

[timalice-]

I remember in 2e with most raise spells, even if you passed system shock and were raised successfully, you would lose a level and most likely a point in one of your stats. Back the. There was no way to get those points back outside of magic items. There were no stat increases as you leveled up

[cphtfluke]

I remember massive damage. If you took 50 points of damage or more from a SINGLE source, and it didn't outright kill you, you still had to make a DC 15 fort save, what's called a con save now. If you failed, you died, regardless of how many hit points you had left. This was back in 3.5 mind you. And to get that much damage from a single source would have required something like a fireball from a 9th level caster and a LOT of luck. That 50 point threshold is a LOT easier to hit these days, so that rule was removed.

[phntmthf]

Sustem Shock still exists as an optional rule in the 2014 DMG, but only applies to massive damage

[stevendavis]

My favorite rule is rerolling initiative. Makes the flow of combat more intense and it makes sense to me.

[jackwriter]

I didn't expect a _Dancing Dumbledore..._

[CowCommando]

There's still a version of this in 3.5 D&D. If you are permanently petrified and then unpetrified you had to make a Fortitude save or die from the trauma.

[Roxas_with_a_stick]

All is fun and games until the cleric with a low con score gets killed and the party only has one redirection spell scroll.

[blutarchmann]

"Ok [P1]'s revivify was a success. [P2], roll me a constitution save... and that's a nat 1, you immediately die again"

[davidgrubbe]

A small caveat we dealt with this was when resurrection system shock failed, you reincarnated instead.

The tables all agreed that the cost and efforts of resurrection didnt make sense just to die for coming back to life.

[shami]

“It was a different time.”
Truer words have yet to be spoken.

[barar]

System shock would be amazing for determining if the resurrection worked or if the resurected are now an undead

[DramakilzU]

I would caution against System Shock unless you intend to run a really gritty game. This ruling can quickly become unfun for players, especially at lower levels since it’s more likely to trigger. It can also more likely result in a TPK, as these debuffs can create a spiral effect of losing. You have been warned.