Hello everyone and welcome to the 4E DM Quiz.  The goal of this thread is to provide a list of common questions that can and will occur during gameplay.  While you are welcome to strut your stuff, the goal isn't to just write down all the right answers and be done, but to give your justifications for your answers (thats right, I'm asking you to show your work!), just as you would at a normal table if one of your players asked the dreaded question "Why?"

Of course the goal is to get 100% of the questions right, but if people can be honest about which answers they got wrong (when I include the answer sheet I will denote which answers I got wrong the first time around) that would greatly help me in making the final draft of this quiz.

> I should have put this in the thread title, but these questions are in regards to 4th Edition DnD <
> Below is a link to the Quiz in the 4e Rules Q n A <
community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758...

Instructions for the Quiz

Ideally I would like to ask players to take the quiz twice.  Once using nothing but the resources available in this thread and then go back and edit any of their answers after they have had a time to take a second look at rules and what not.  The goal of this is to reflect how you, as a DM, would answer the question at the table and then how you would answer it after you had some time to look over it (and hopefully how you would answer it after the first time it was asked at table).

For each question read all of the information provided and give a simple True or False followed by any justifications you have for that answer.  If the answer changed after you had time to review it, please skip a space and write what else you learned upon review of the question at hand.

Please use Spoiler tags for your list of answers.

Example:

Spoiler: Show  

Without further Ado:

The 4e DM Quiz

1) A player subjected to the Prone and Immobilized conditions at the same time is unable to stand up.

2) A player that does not move on their turn can command their Fey Beast Companion to move.
www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/di...

3) When you fall unconscious from being reduced below 0 hit points conditions such as ongoing damage, daze and stun fall off.

4) When you second wind using Armor of Dwarven Vigor you do not get the bonus to defenses.
www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/di...

5) You cannot Opportunity Attack and Immediate Interrupt as a response to the same action.

6) You cannot make an Immediate Interrupt and an Immediate Reaction to the same action.

7) If you roll a natural 20 on an attack roll and your total attack does not meet the enemy's defense the attack is a hit but not a critical hit.

8) A player who uses Moment of Glory is able to push the enemies they hit any number of squares up to and including 3.  If the player chooses they may push the targets 0 squares and suffer no penalty.
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9) A Sorcerer uses Flame Spiral while Weakened.  The initial damage of the Flame Spiral will be reduced by half but the automatic damage from the effect of Flame Spiral will not be reduced.
www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/di...

10)  A Warlord using Lamb to the Slaughter on a medium sized enemy placed directly behind a large enemy suffers a penalty for the target having cover.
www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/di...

11) A player can provide flanking for an ally while they are prone.

12) A player can proved flanking for an ally while they are restrained.

13) A player on the ground wishes to attack a flying enemy two squares directly above them and that player has a fly speed of 5.  The player is allowed to charge directly up at the enemy.

14) A player on the ground wishes to attack a flying enemy two squares directly above them wishes to make an athletics check as part of a charge to charge up.  The player is allowed to charge directly up at the enemy.

15) A tiny creature with Reach 0 must enter a player's square to attack it.

16)  A player receives an Inspiring Word from a level 9 Warlord.  If that player so chooses they may opt not to spend a healing surge but still regains the additional 2d6 hit points.
www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/di...

17) The Rattling keyword on weapons have no effect if the player weilding the weapon is not trained in intimidate.

18) You can downgrade a Standard Action to a Move Action, a Move action to a Minor Action or a Standard Action to two Minor Actions.

19) A creature marked by another player after it has been subject to a paladin's Ardent Vow cannot be remarked by that power unless the paladin resuses it on the target.
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20) A player with 5 temporary hit points is granted 10 temporary hit points.  The player has a total of 10 temporary hit points.

21) A Fighter with a Horned Helm charges a target and uses the power Trip Up.  The extra damage from Horned Helm cannot be applied to the Trip Up attack.
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22) A Fighter with a Horned Helm charges a target and uses Boots of the Mighty Charge to replace the melee basic attack at the end of the charge with Rain of Blows.  The extra damage from Horned Helm cannot be applied to any of the attacks from Rain of Blows.
www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/it...
www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/po...

23) A Pursuit Avenger with a Dex modifier of 4 uses Angelic Alacrity.  During that shift the player may make an athletics check to jump over an enemy without provoking an attack of opportunity.
www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/po...

24) A Monk stands in the square directly between a Large Ogre and a Sorcerer.  The Sorcerer is able to use Burning Spray on the air above the Monk's head hitting the Ogre but not the Monk.
www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/po...

25)  A Blackguard uses the power Majestic Halo.  The Blackguard is unable to mark players with Divine Sanction since the Blackguard does not have the ability Divine Challenge.
www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/po...

26) A Warlock uses Crown of Stars on his turn.  The Warlock has an extra minor action left is able to sustain the power on that same turn.
www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/po...

27) An enemy is Vulnerable 5 Fire and Vulnerable 10 All.  They are hit for 8 fire damage.  They take a total of 18 fire damage.

28) An enemy is insubstantial and vulnerable 5 fire.  They are hit for 8 fire damage.  They take a total of 9 fire damage.

29) A Rogue critically hits with a power and chooses to apply their sneak attack damage to that attack.  The damage is automatically maximized as part of the effect of the critical hit.

30) Players are limited to 1 Free Action attack and 1 Non-attack Free action per turn.

31) A player is taking ongoing 10 damage (Save Ends) and chooses to delay their turn.  The player takes 10 damage at the start of where their turn would normally be in initiative order but does not save against that effect until they have finished delaying and take the rest of their turn.

32) A Barbarian uses Brutal Slam to push a creature into a Stinking Cloud.  The creature is allowed to attempt a saving throw to avoid entering the area.  If it saves, it does not enter the cloud.
www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/po...
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33) A Ranger charges with an Avalanche Craghammer in their Mainhand and a Vanguard Craghammer in their offhand.  They can add the 1d10 extra damage from Avalanche Weapon and the 1d8 extra damage from Vanguard Weapon to the damage of their Melee Basic Attack.
www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/it...
www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/it...

34) A player with Superior Will starts their turn with the condition "Dazed and Immobilized (Save Ends)" on them.  The player attempts and succeeds a saving throw against the Dazed condition but is still immobilized.
www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/fe...

35) A Vampire uses the Attack Swarm of Shadows to make themselves invisible.  Creatures who wish to attack that player must make a Perception check vs the Vampire's Stealth check to determine what square the player is in before attacking.
www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/po...

36) A Ranger uses Twin Strike.  If both attacks are on the same target and the target dies from the first attack the ranger is able to choose another target for the second attack.
www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/po...

37) A Cloud of Darkness stands between an Eladrin player and where they would like to be.  That player is able to Fey Step through the Cloud but not into it.
www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/po...
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38) A Barbarian hit with an attack that Dazes (Save ends) can use Shrug it Off to grant himself a saving throw.
www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/po...

39) A player his hit by an attack that would cause them to lose a healing surge but they have no healing surgers remaining.  The player instead loses health equal to their healing surge value.

40) A creature adjacent to a Knight and subject to his defender aura is slid two squares away from the Knight.  When the creature leaves the square adjacent to the Knight that character can make an Opportunity Attack against that Creature.
www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/po...
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41) A Thief with Agile Opportunist is slid through two squares adjacent to a creature and into a square adjacent to a second creature (no longer adjacent to the first).  The Thief may make the Melee Basic Attack granted by that feat against the creature in the middle of the slide or against the creature at the end of the slide.
www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/fe...

42) Two players flank and invisible dazed enemy.  The players do not have combat advantage against that enemy.

43) A creature can choose itself as the target of a power that states "A creature within 5 squares of you."

44) A player can choose itself as the target of a power that states "An ally within 5 squares of you."

45) A creature can still provide allies with cover against ranged attacks even if it is prone, stunned, hidden or invisible.


46) A creature marked by a fighter is adjacent to it.  If the creature moves the fighter will be able to make an Opportunity Attack and stop its movement with Combat Superiority.  If the creature shifts the fighter will be able to make a melee basica attack with Combat Challenge but will not stop its movement.  A creature cannot provoke both an OA and a Combat challenge during the same move action.
www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/cl...

Bonus:
47) A Wizard casts Sleep on a creature which fails its first saving throw causing that creature to go unconscious.  A Ranger, who is adjacent to the target, uses Twin Strike on the creature, Action Points (takes an MBA from a Warlord's Bravura Presience) and Twin Strikes again.  Assuming all the ranger's attacks hit, what happens?
www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/po...
www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/cl...

A) Every attack the ranger made against the unconscious creature critically hits.  The creature remains unconscious.
B) Both sets of Twin Strikes the ranger made crtically hit, but the extra Melee Basic Attack granted by the Warlord does not critically hit.  The creature remains unconscious.
C) The first set of Twin Strikes critically hit, but the creature wakes up and the rest of the attacks d not critically hit.  The creature is awake.
D) The first hit from Twin Strike critically hits but the creature wakes up and the rest of the attacks do not critically hit.  The creature is awake.

Have fun everyone.  I will post the answers in 48 hours.  I look forward to the discussion.

Nov 28, 2012 -- 11:44AM, Centauri wrote:

What happens if a DM gets one of these wrong in-game, but the players go along with it?

What if a DM gets every one of these right in-game, but the players don't go along with it?

What if a DM takes in-game time to get these right and explain them, and doing so does not significantly alter the outcome of the encounter?

1) No worries then.  If the DM wants they can even completely change the rule to something else and leave it that way forever if you please.  They should, however, know what the actual rule is before they change it.

2) That's not really a rules issue but more of a group issue.  If you know the rules but your players do not and they are unruly about it you might want to have a chat with your players.  If they really think a certain rule is dumb see why and try to figure out what to do from there.

3) No worries then?  I mean, if you played with no rules at all and didn't change the outcome of the encounter (heroes rule baddies drool) and everyone had fun more power to you?  That really isn't the point of this at all. 

If there are no worries with the question I asked, then why should the DM know what the actual rule is before making a deliberate change?

So they can inform their players they changed the rules.  Without doing so can lead to some pretty big headaches for the players.  I have a couple of house rules that I didn't make explicitly clear that they are houserules and when my players started with a new DM they fought with that guy about the ruling.  Also, if you dont know what the rule is or why the rule is that way and you change it, it can cause a lot of problems down the line especially if you have any optimizers in your party.

They might know the rules, but have a different take on them, stemming from a slightly different interpretation of certain words. D&D's technical redefinition of concepts people think they understand is at the core of many of the above questions. Reasonable people can disagree, and sticking with the D&D definition can lead to corner cases that are too ridiculous to argue over.

That can be true in some cases, however in many cases the rules are fairly clear on what you are supposed to do, but people frequently misrule it anyway.  If any particular question is too ambigious I wouldn't mind removing it.  The goal, and one of the major reasons it is T or F, is to make it so that I get somewhat of  read of what the DM will rule at the table in these instances.

Perhaps not, but it's something to consider. People are on this board all the time asking about how to speed up their games. An unknown but probably not insignificant amount of game time gets spent on disputes that don't have a significant difference on the game. We've all been in games in which whether or not someone could receive or grant a +2 bonus got discussed for 5 minutes, and then when the roll is made the bonus or lack thereof turns out not to matter in the slightest. Some people even argue about meaningless bonuses after the roll has been made. Yes, obviously sometimes the bonuses matter, but the benefit of getting them right every time is easily outweighed by the amount of time it takes to get them right.

 

True but then again I'm not asking for a paragraph and nor should your players expect you to give a dissertation.  Generally one or maybe 2 sentences is all you need to make a ruling.  If your players are fighting with you about a ruling, or wasting time at table you have other problems at your table (ie. Your combative player).

Most D&D games could benefit from a lot more handwaving. People talk about how 4e is like a computer game, and they're right but not the way they think: it's in the way people try to add up every number and account for every little thing, like a computer does. We're not computers, and that's the whole point.

I don't undestand your point here.  You are saying that you should just skip the rules stuff that seems too complicated or too bothersome to keep track of and rule... in favor of players always?  in favor of the monsters?  In favor of fun (which is who knows what)?

While it's a neat quiz and all, I honestly would not be able to answer a lot of these from the top of my head. But that's why I keep my laptop with me at the table. it's what i use to store all my session information anyways. When something like this comes up and the answer escapes me, I can usually just look it up in a couple seconds.

edit: im also with centauri on the handwaving. if the mighty intarwebz can't figure it out in a couple seconds and it's stalling the game I usually just make a call, whether it's the rule or not and my players accept it.

That is exactly the point of the quiz.  Just try to answer how you would off the top of your head.  I got several of them wrong and several more I had to look up.  The whole point of this experiment is to find whether this is a reasonable set of rulings that can be asked of a group of DMs to know.

That's not really a rules problem.

 
Yeah, it really is a rules problem.  The player believes the "correct" rule is the one they have been playing with and rightfully so argues that they should be allowed / someone else should be allowed / the creature shouldn't be allowed to do something.  It has caused more than one issue and it is directly a rules problem.

Can it? I bet it usually wouldn't. And if it does, it's probably easily adjusted, so long as everyone recognizes it as a problem.

 

Sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it does.  It has caused more than one issue in games I've been in.  One of the big issues is that part about everyone recognizing it as a problem.  If we all just sort of agreed on how the fantasy adventure turned out we wouldn't need the DnD rules to guide us at all .

 The issue isn't always with the clarity of the rule, but with the clarity of the definitions of the terms. One of the questions has to do with standing while immobilized. The technically correct answer is clear - but only if one realizes how the game uses the term "immoblized," which is different from how most people use it outside of the game.

This is the part where I want to make sure we are all playing the same edition.  Immobilized is a pretty clearly defined game term with some clearly defined rules associated with it.  Yes, in common vernacular, someone who is immobilized can't be pushed but that isn't true in the game at all.

Any player can become combative if they are corrected, or ruled against, or confused. Whether or not any given player is or will become combative can be completely sidestepped by not concerning oneself with correctly following every rule edit: "and tending instead to follow player understandings of the rules."

If, at your table, you want to follow the rules as the players see it and not RAI or RAW or any mix thereof, then that is fine for you but I feel like thats a very hard position to take especially with older players who mix editions in their head and newer players who don't really know what they are doing.

Nov 28, 2012 -- 1:11PM, Matyr wrote:

In favor of fun (which is who knows what)?

It's that thing people have when they're not debating minor aspects of the rules.

You know a good way to not debate about it is to actually know what they are and have one person at the table responsible for ruling that way or some way close to it.  If only they would implement such a role at the table....

The answer is no. Don't sit down at a table with any expectation of even the most basic agreement over the rules, which means don't make a character that relies on loopholes and slippery interpretations in order just to function. Do sit down at a table with the intention of supporting the other players and the DM in what they want to do in the game, which means if they handle a rule in a slightly (or even significantly) different way than one would oneself, go with it for a session. Odds are good that it won't make any noticeable difference.

So you are saying players should sit down at tables and assume that not only does nobody else know the same ruleset of the game they are playing.  But that they can't be expected to know any rules and if they know any that you can't expect anyone at the table to know the same rules that you know?  You are saying that, if 6 people sit down at a table to play, it would be totally ok to have 6 different definitions of what immobilize means.  And you expect this to cause no problems because everyone should sit down with a love of going with the flow?

That sounds completely ridiculous to me.

Edit: I have noticed that this forum is more inclusive than the other forums I was working in.  I need to make sure that I state this is specifically 4e.  I thought that this forum was one of the subsections of 4e but it is not.