Fun Stuff - A Pentagram on the Ceiling

As DM, I once had the party enter a room with a pentagram painted on the floor and a succubus contained within it.  The party, knowing the rules of pentagrams, entered the room assuming the succubus could not attack them as long as they did not cross the boundary of the circle around the pentagram.  Despite their careful movement, it attacked them and the party fought and killed the succubus.  Only after the battle, when the party was wondering why the pentagram did not contain the succubus, did they notice the larger pentagram painted on the ceiling above; which was the true container for the demon.

Flat footed and initiative order

3.5 Edition Rules:

Catching your opponent flat-footed is an advantage of high initiatives that is easy to overlook.  From page 137 of the Player's Handbook:  “At the start of a battle, before you have had a chance to act (specifically before your first regular turn in the initiative order), you are flat-footed.”

This gives characters the same bonus they would get when surprising an enemy.  This is especially valuable to rogues because it can allow them to apply sneak-attack damage to their attacks.

Dealing damage by a Halfling rogue

3.5 Edition Rules:

My Halfling rogue long envied the amount of damage her fellow party members could deliver to opponents.  Her small hand crossbow, while convenient and light-weight, delivers only a d3 of damage sans modifiers.  Though it gives her range and keeps her out of the thick of the battle, she rarely catches the enemy flat-footed and thus cannot apply her sneak-attack damage.  Recently, that all turned around when she acquired a ring of invisibility.  Being invisible, her enemies are denied their dexterity bonus to AC, thus making them vulnerable to sneak attack damage.  She also has taken the crossbow sniper feat which allows her to perform sneak attacks from 60' instead of just 30'. 

Bottom line:  being invisible is very good for ranged sneak-attacks from rogues.