Sunrod: This minor magic item sheds bright light to
a radius of 20 squares for 4 hours before burning out.
That's a big radius, plus you get 2 of them for only 4 gp? I found it humorous.
Anyways, my question to you guys..... is what did you UNEXPECTEDLY find that benefits you in the game?
(I'm not trying to start a thread about stumping DM's, finding loopholes, etc etc. This is solely meant to be for entertainment purposes.)
Dwarves don't have darkvision in 4E?
Darkvision in 4E is much different than 3.0/3.5 darkvision. It lets you negate penalties for total darkness with no range limit in 4E. So far there is only a single 4E PC race I know with darkvision, and that's drow. Most races that had darkvision in 3.5 now have low-light vision, which also works differently.
I will say that my own DM was also surprised at the range of the sunrod when we were working our way through some sewers two sessions ago.
Unexpected boons . . . let's see, bull rushing has proven to be a surprisingly effective method for getting rid of tough bad guys whenever there are large pits or chasms around. Usually it's not that good in my opinion, but if you can sheperd the bad guys enough . . .
Probably the happiest surprise for me was discovering that when you reduce an enemy to 0 HP you've only subdued him, unless you specifically declare you're killing him. Nice to see D&D finally not making PCs mass murderers by default.
Re: sunrod light range - check what I have to say here.
Probably the happiest surprise for me was discovering that when you reduce an enemy to 0 HP you've only subdued him, unless you specifically declare you're killing him. Nice to see D&D finally not making PCs mass murderers by default.
You mean in your campaign. By RAW, the enemy dies unless the attacker specifically declares that he is dealing nonlethal damage. So unless you houserule it, or the PCs declare that they are changing the "default", yes they are still mass murderers. Not that changing it is a bad thing, just saying.
However, I will say that I very much like the nonlethal damage rules. Very clean and straightforward, but still gets the job done.
You mean in your campaign. By RAW, the enemy dies unless the attacker specifically declares that he is dealing nonlethal damage. So unless you houserule it, or the PCs declare that they are changing the "default", yes they are still mass murderers. Not that changing it is a bad thing, just saying.
I thought it was the other way around - non-lethal is default - but I don't have my PHB here so I'll take your word for it. I may have just imported that from 7th Sea where non-lethal is the default.
You mean in your campaign. By RAW, the enemy dies unless the attacker specifically declares that he is dealing nonlethal damage.
I don't see the evidence for this in the rules.
Knocking Creatures Unconscious, PH p. 295
"When you reduce a creature to 0 hit points or fewer, you can choose to knock it unconscious rather than kill it."
I don't see the phrase "nonlethal damage" anywhere in 4th edition, and you can declare the creature unconscious when you reduce it to 0 hit points, even if you haven't said anything on the subject until that moment.
I suppose, though, that killing enemies is the assumed default, and that disagreement over whether or not killing is the default could lead to a problem if a player only informs the DM that he knocked a creature unconscious after the encounter is over.
I don't see the evidence for this in the rules.
Knocking Creatures Unconscious, PH p. 295
"When you reduce a creature to 0 hit points or fewer, you can choose to knock it unconscious rather than kill it."
I don't see the phrase "nonlethal damage" anywhere in 4th edition, and you can declare the creature unconscious when you reduce it to 0 hit points, even if you haven't said anything on the subject until that moment.
I suppose, though, that killing enemies is the assumed default, and that disagreement over whether or not killing is the default could lead to a problem if a player only informs the DM that he knocked a creature unconscious after the encounter is over.
Correct; technically, neither is 'default'. I recommend each group get together and decide what the standard option is if nobody says anything.
I don't see the evidence for this in the rules.
Knocking Creatures Unconscious, PH p. 295
"When you reduce a creature to 0 hit points or fewer, you can choose to knock it unconscious rather than kill it."
I don't see the phrase "nonlethal damage" anywhere in 4th edition, and you can declare the creature unconscious when you reduce it to 0 hit points, even if you haven't said anything on the subject until that moment.
I suppose, though, that killing enemies is the assumed default, and that disagreement over whether or not killing is the default could lead to a problem if a player only informs the DM that he knocked a creature unconscious after the encounter is over.
Read the entire page.
Monsters and characters controlled by the Dungeon Master usually die when they reach 0 hit points, unless you choose to knock them out (see “Knocking Creatures Unconscious”). You generally don’t need to stalk around the battlefield after a fight, making sure all your foes are dead.
Italicized for emphasis. And no it doesn't say "nonlethal damage" but if you're not killing it, well then its nonlethal. I did not mean for that to be confused with 3e's system of tracking lethal and nonlethal damage separately.
Again, none of this really matters, I was just pointing out that it's not the default. However since there's no special set of rules covering nonlethal damage, a PC can just say "I only knock creatures out unless I say otherwise."