3rd Edition D & D rules Trivia Quiz

Answer: Base Attack Bonus (BAB)

Base Attack Bonus is the raw ability that an attack made by a character will succeed. Suppose your character (with a BAB of 10) has to attack another creature with an Armour class of 20, then you have to roll 10 or more (on a 20 die) for your attack to succeed. Some concepts didn't change like roll of 1 being always a critical miss and roll of 20 always being a critical hit.

Answer: Intelligence

Higher Intelligence means that you get higher skill points. Skills include Pick-pocket, Concentration, Wilderness Lore, Disable Device, Diplomacy, Bluff etc. Some of these skills vary with different games. Another important aspect is you can allot points in any skill irrespective of your class. For e.g. a fighter may allot points to skills like Hide or Move Silently or even Lock Picking etc.

However there are class skills and cross-skills. What this means is that if I choose a class which normally doesn't use certain skills (like a fighter pick-pocketing), and then I have to invest more skill points to gain one level of that particular skill. Number of skill points required to progress in a cross-class skill is 2 while it is 1 for a class skill.

Answer: 0

The number of spells that a class can cast is determined by his casting ability score. It should be 10 + the level that you want to cast. The casting ability is Intelligence (for Wizards), Wisdom (for Rangers, Clerics, Paladins) and Charisma (Sorcerer, Bard). To simplify this, if I want to cast a ranger spell of level 4, then my wisdom score must be 14 (10 + 4).

Answer: Courage

Fortitude is based on your Constitution ability score - it determines your body's ability to resist poison, disease etc. Reflex is based on your Dexterity and determines how fast your reflexes are i.e. how fast can you dodge a fireball or a lightning bolt etc. Will is the ability to resist mind affecting spells like charm, dire charm, dominate etc and is based on your Wisdom score.

Answer: False

Not in 3rd edition D & D rules because the Thac0 (To hit Armour Class 0) system is redundant. The statement would have been true if you played Icewind Dale or Baldur's Gate (these games use 2nd edition Advanced D & D rules).

Answer: 20%

What favoured class means is that certain races have a natural liking to certain classes (like Half-Orcs prefer being a Barbarian). In 3rd edition D & D rules, you can choose any class (as you level up) with a few exceptions. That means you could be 1 Barbarian (1st level Barbarian)/ 1 Bard/ 1 Wizard/ 1 Cleric by the time you reach 4th level.

However each race has a favoured class (with the exception of humans and half-elves) and if you level up in a non-favoured class, then you get only 80% of the experience points (when you complete quests, kill monsters etc).

However Experience points penalties will only be incurred if your non-favoured class is not even or within one level of each other. In the above example, there wouldn't be any experience points penalty because all the levels are equal. Suppose another character (an Elf) is 10 Ranger/ 4 Thief, then he will incur an Experience point penalty if he levels up in any class other than a Wizard (Wizard is an Elf's favoured class).

Answer: Monster Mashing

Feats are basically special abilities gained by a particular class as they level up. You can choose the feats you want (depending on whether you meet the pre-requisites for gaining that feat). A feat may make you attack faster, deal more damage, cast spells without disruptions etc. Fighters and wizards gain feats at a faster rate.

Answer: Power

Basically all classes start with a base AC of 10. To this, bonuses like Armour, Dexterity, Shield, Dodge, Deflection, Natural, Size, Insight, Expertise (and certain feats) are added. Note that wearing heavy armour will restrict the bonuses that you get from Dexterity. Also note that if you have two items giving you a bonus in one of the items (like Armour), then only the highest bonus will be accounted for i.e. if you have a Full Plate Armour (AC +9) and a Bracers of Defense (AC +4), then you get only a bonus of 9, not 13.

Answer: Ranger

A Ranger also gets a Racial enemy after every 5 levels (In 2nd edition, they would get only one racial enemy at the character creation). Other than this, a Ranger is pretty useless class (poor old Strider wouldn't have been with this).

Answer: Dragon Halfling

Some of the new sub-races have pretty cool characteristics making them very strong and well suited for particular classes. Elves are sub-divided into Moon Elves, Wild Elves and Drow etc. These rules are modified slightly to suit the needs of various games.