Quote from Rathkryn >>

Quote from TheGnome5786 >>

To balance Goodberry just make it have a material component all the time. Like a berry or its equivalent to have something to cast the spell on. Now its up to the Dm to make them available of not.

 

To balance out Tiny Hut do the same. Make the material component a small model of a large tent or dome. Now the caster has to work ahead of time to make them and the number could be very limited.

No need to ban anything. Just put actual material components back into spells.

 

 

Tiny Hut requires a Sprig of Mistletoe. Tiny Hut requires a Small Bead. A Spell Pouch is assumed to have any spell component your available spells need.

But that does remind me of another DM's strange rule: The Sprig of Mistletoe was consumed by the Goodberry spell. He also wanted a survival type campaign. 

  Let me put it better.

DM's could quit hand waving components.

As for Goodberry you used to actually have the berries in order to make them magical. Now you just have to wave your "wand" and 10 appear in your hand.

Quote from TheGnome5786 >>

Quote from Rathkryn >>

Quote from TheGnome5786 >>

To balance Goodberry just make it have a material component all the time. Like a berry or its equivalent to have something to cast the spell on. Now its up to the Dm to make them available of not.

 

To balance out Tiny Hut do the same. Make the material component a small model of a large tent or dome. Now the caster has to work ahead of time to make them and the number could be very limited.

No need to ban anything. Just put actual material components back into spells.

 

 

Tiny Hut requires a Sprig of Mistletoe. Tiny Hut requires a Small Bead. A Spell Pouch is assumed to have any spell component your available spells need.

But that does remind me of another DM's strange rule: The Sprig of Mistletoe was consumed by the Goodberry spell. He also wanted a survival type campaign. 

  Let me put it better.

DM's could quit hand waving components.

As for Goodberry you used to actually have the berries in order to make them magical. Now you just have to wave your "wand" and 10 appear in your hand.

 Well, DMs all seem to have different rules both most allow you just use a component pouch or a focus for components not listed with a monetary value or even for those listed up to a certain value. One DM had a component (a pearl of some sort) that could be used for spells where it is not consumed or a powdered version as a consumable....so that is an example of his own rule but it wasn't really weird. As far as the component pouch or focus, a lot of players hate the shopping experience and wouldn't want to deal with purchasing bat guano or something mundane all the time.

Quote from AntonSirius >>

Quote from Foodgeek >>

As the OP, I'd love to hear some more/new strange DM rules. :)

 

That same Curse of Strahd DM tried to implement a Sanity system into the campaign, where our characters started with five times our WIS score in points and would go cuckoo banananpants if we reached zero

Reasonable enough, except that when something restored our Sanity, he was rolling a d4 or d6 to see how much we went up, and when we saw something scary or horrific, he was rolling d12s or even d20s to see how much we lost...

 Sounds like he really wanted to run a Call of Cthulhu game.

Quote from Kotath >>

Quote from Rathkryn >>

Quote from Kotath >>

Safe, but where in the spell description does it transform bedrolls into comfy inn beds? You need Magnificent Mansion to get actual comfort. 

 

The spell states:  The atmosphere inside the space is comfortable and dry, regardless of the weather outside. Meaning that no matter the weather outside the interior of the hut is comfortable. Where did you come up with the idea of beds being involved? And what makes you believe that bedrolls aren't comfortable? Not every adventurer is a spoiled noble who has never slept on anything other than feather beds. 

 

No, it says the atmosphere inside is comfortable and dry, i.e. sheltered from the weather. What makes me think bedrolls are not comfortable is the amount of time I have spent sleeping in them in the camping I did in my youth. The foam pads that came later with better technology were improvements, but no substitute for an actual bed. Now if you are trying to argue that there are inns with horrid beds, sure, I suppose, but then are you really arguing that those are worse than a bedroll directly on the ground?

 In a D&D world, people would be used to sleeping in bedrolls so they'd have much easier time sleeping in them than you would and a bed would probably be a mattress that was stuffed with straw on ropes, not a memory foam mattress on a box spring with fitted sheets.

Quote from Kotath >>

Quote from Rathkryn >>

 

The spell states:  The atmosphere inside the space is comfortable and dry, regardless of the weather outside. Meaning that no matter the weather outside the interior of the hut is comfortable. 

 

No, it says the atmosphere inside is comfortable and dry, i.e. sheltered from the weather.

lol. Hey thanks for clearing up what I posted by reposting it! But, don't worry, I get you're trying to argue a definition. Just because the cabin is cozy and warm/cool doesn't mean you're actually comfortable in it! a-ha! 

You didn't find sleeping bags comfortable. Ok. I'm not going to argue. I'm just going to ask questions. Since Comfortable is a requirement does that mean you do not get a long rest in a Modest or lower room? And what about races that don't sleep? Does an elf have to meditate on a comfortable mattress bed? Can elves simply find members of the Spanish Inquisition to deliver to them a Comfy Chair? And if it's the bed/chair that fulfills the Comfortable requirement, do they need to be inside a room or can they be outside even if the atmosphere isn't comfortable? These are the questions that I believe should be answered in a "strangest rules" thread. 

And, while I'm thinking about it, if a Tiny Hut is going to break a DM's campaign, how bad is Magnificent Mansion (which actually feeds the characters) going to break it? 

The year is 1973. A player who is still new to the game has created a spell to keep his party safe during one of the wild adventures that comprised the earliest days of the game. He just wants to be sure that no one gets wet.

Little did he know that 50 years later, his effort, twisted and warped over time by the telegraph-like game designers through editions that hadn't even been imagined yet, would invoke and create dozens of unending arguments, lol.

Another strange rule:

On Wyrlde, spells do damage according to two factors: the potency of the spell (in five degrees of complexity) and the level of the caster. Complexity determines the die used, level determines the number of dice used.

This makes even cantrips extremely effective at high levels, and eases the whole "how much does that spell do again?" look ups. Spells folks normally think of as "worthless" after 5th level suddenly become potent tools, and creating new spells is a lot easier because everyone already knows what the damage will be.

Quote from Kotath >>

Plus civilization has been around long enough and metallurgy advanced enough for springs to be invented so box springs may well exist in cities and larger towns, depending on campaign, especially if it is an Eberron inspired campaign. 

Box springs didn't get invented in out world until the 1850s. Even for Eberron, that's asking a lot

 i don't know what's so hard to accept about taking the 'gritty realism' rest variant and deciding to shortcut the 7-day burden. not my jam but not beyond reason. and, mechanisms aside, it's just not so entirely offensively implausible that sleeping in town might be more restful than sharing a magical dirt-floor bathysphere cuddle pile with your weird coworkers and the exotic aromas they curate like a microbe menagerie.

as for odd rules, my ancient 2e foray into dark sun fell apart over a rule that Aarakocra can't poop while flying. it was for the best.

Quote from Kotath >>

Quote from AntonSirius >>

Quote from Kotath >>

Plus civilization has been around long enough and metallurgy advanced enough for springs to be invented so box springs may well exist in cities and larger towns, depending on campaign, especially if it is an Eberron inspired campaign. 

 

Box springs didn't get invented in out world until the 1850s. Even for Eberron, that's asking a lot

 

While this is true, consider that is only about 2 and a half elven lifespans worth, AD. The average human lifespan in the actual 1800's was about 60, compared to 100 in 5e. Just the fact people are fully healed simply by getting a good night´s rest, usually including any diseases they might have, is a pretty massive change to how civilizations would develop.

The main reason for the in game world not having far surpassed our own in technology is arguably certain aspects of physics are simply..... different. Everything is on a magical/alchemical basis rather than physical/chemical. However, just as sufficiently high tech levels are indistinguishable from magic, magic is indistinguishable from sufficiently high tech levels. And comfy mattresses is not actually asking that much.

So your strange DM rule is that elven lifespans mean... what, that there's a version of tenser's floating disk that's as good as a box spring?

If magic is indistinguishable from better technology, why is tiny hut an inferior form of rest?

I'm lost at what point you're trying to make here

Quote from Kotath >>

And there is that all or nothing counter-argument, again. Swords are much simpler technology than mattresses or magical weather shelter domes (the latter of which we do not have at all at our current technological level), so does that mean one should be able to pick up the tiny hut and cut enemies with it?

I have absolutely no clue what you're trying to say here, and frankly I don't think you do either

Quote from Rathkryn >>

And, while I'm thinking about it, if a Tiny Hut is going to break a DM's campaign, how bad is Magnificent Mansion (which actually feeds the characters) going to break it? 

 Magnificent Mansion is a 7th level spell, same level as Teleport and Plane Shift. That is a fundamentally different campaign at that point, where you are demi-gods fighting other demi-gods. The type of DM that doesn't allow Tiny Hut to give a long rest isn't going to be playing to those levels anyway. The problem with Tiny Hut is that a lot of classes don't really come into their own until 5th level, so the best D&D is generally between level 5-10 but the existence of Tiny Hut rules out a lot of game-styles in that level range.

The type of DM that doesn't allow Tiny Hut to give a long rest isn't going to be playing to those levels anyway.

That was certainly true of the DM I was referring to. Almost nobody stayed around long enough to get to the higher levels. The ones that did were his obvious favorites, like the player whose cleric got to start with an extra 40 hit points. If I remember correctly, that character did start around level 5 so that totally was balanced and stuff. 

so the best D&D is generally between level 5-10

If that's the opinion of the group, why bother to ever level? Just create level 10 characters and enjoy "the best D&D"! That would also count as a "strange DM rule". 

Quote from Kotath >>

 Oh, what happens if you cast it underwater and there are fish or other water breathers the caster allows the spell to affect? Is the spell area filled with water? Air? Somehow both simultaneously? 

  Now THAT is a good question.

Off-hand I would say that it is comfortable according to the caster's definition. So a human underwater would create an air bubble, and a fishman above water would create a water bubble. However I could see where the magic makes it comfortable for every occupant which looks like, I don't know what. 

Morning all!

another strange rule:

nobody uses the word level in character when talking about someone else or themselves. They use on of the terms for Mastery. There are five degrees of Mastery: Novice (1-4), Yeoman / Doyen (4-8), Adept (9-12), Master (13-16), and Grand Master (17-20). This applies across the board, so is applicable to anything that is a “job”.

When going up in a degree of Mastery (say, 4th to 5th level), you have to go through a ritual under the eye of a teacher, sometimes the one who taught you, who is of a higher degree of Mastery than you. For this ritual, you need a set of six carved polyhedral items, usually ivory or jade, that vanish after you complete the Grand Master ritual. This is usually role played out as part of a downtime “montage” — and you can’t move up in levels until you do it.

Sounds reminiscent of OD&D rules where you needed to find and pay a trainer in order to level up.  Which honestly never made sense to me, since at some point someone must have figured out how to get better on their own simply because they were the first person to achieve that ability.

Quote from 6thLyranGuard >>

Sounds reminiscent of OD&D rules where you needed to find and pay a trainer in order to level up.  Which honestly never made sense to me, since at some point someone must have figured out how to get better on their own simply because they were the first person to achieve that ability.

 A wizard god did it.

As things that don't make sense about the class level system (or about 1e, or D&D in general), that one's pretty low down the list.

Quote from 6thLyranGuard >>

Sounds reminiscent of OD&D rules where you needed to find and pay a trainer in order to level up.  Which honestly never made sense to me, since at some point someone must have figured out how to get better on their own simply because they were the first person to achieve that ability.

 
That’s why it only happens at certain levels. My group’s love of the RP downtime stuff is why we are doing it, lol. 

The in game point is that those are the points where special class abilities come online, so the training is how you learn them. The abilities came from the Powers That Be, after all (like, Qetza taught folks how to get multiple attacks per round by demanding more skill and showing how best to get it, etc).

The Mastery concept flows through a lot of the subsystems. Growth is a major subtext in my games.

Quote from AEDorsay >>

 

nobody uses the word level in character when talking about someone else or themselves.

 Maybe it's just me, but I've never heard levels (character or spell) discussed in-game at all. If it's even acknowledged, pretty much any meta, level-up progression at my tables tends to be along the lines of, "Hey, look what I figured out/can do!" or "Holy crap, did you see how cool that was?" We usually don't even refer to spells by name, though exceptions are made if it's a Forgotten Realms campaign and the spell is named after someone.

On a related note about odd rules: my DM does not allow us to prepare the generic versions of spells. If you have Private Sanctum on your character sheet, he'll tell you to swap it with Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum. He owns all content and shares it with his players, so it's not an imposition. He just really likes having those lore references in his games.

Quote from AEDorsay >>

nobody uses the word level in character when talking about someone else or themselves. They use on of the terms for Mastery. There are five degrees of Mastery: Novice (1-4), Yeoman / Doyen (4-8), Adept (9-12), Master (13-16), and Grand Master (17-20). This applies across the board, so is applicable to anything that is a “job”.

I admit, I do kind of miss the old AD&D level titles, although considering how many of them got recycled as subclass or even class names, I understand why the originals aren't used in 5e

Quote from theologyofbagels >>

Quote from AEDorsay >>

 

nobody uses the word level in character when talking about someone else or themselves.

 Maybe it's just me, but I've never heard levels (character or spell) discussed in-game at all. If it's even acknowledged, pretty much any meta, level-up progression at my tables tends to be along the lines of, "Hey, look what I figured out/can do!" or "Holy crap, did you see how cool that was?" We usually don't even refer to spells by name, though exceptions are made if it's a Forgotten Realms campaign and the spell is named after someone.

On a related note about odd rules: my DM does not allow us to prepare the generic versions of spells. If you have Private Sanctum on your character sheet, he'll tell you to swap it with Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum. He owns all content and shares it with his players, so it's not an imposition. He just really likes having those lore references in his games.

 
I am so very glad to have that be a thing you don't have to deal with iit, lol.

It is a thing we often have had over the years in our group.  It actually became worse because the younger folks really took a shine to a lot of isekai anime stuff, where levels are treated as a normative thing, and so us old people (parents, grandparents, and aunts/uncles) are trying to break that habit, lol.

i've done that named spells thing before. For Wyrlde, named spells are "none", but the catch is that the players get to name their spells themselves. and then argue with NPCs over whose version of the same exact spell is better.

Wait, that sounds familiar...

But the lore is something that each of them have -- and there are named spells out there that players will find and be able to use, built into the lore of the game -- plus I will likely come up with lots more over the years we are playing.