Finding and abusing game exploits is an important ability for pretty much anyone who plans to play a game for the long term.  I’m going to talk about some skills that can be applied in generic terms to just about any game out there, including Dungeons and Dragons.

Look for the infinite combo.  In other words, anything that adds a bonus but which doesn’t cost a resource, or which costs a resource which can be replenished.  In D&D the primary combat resource is actions.  There are only so many things that a character can do on his turn.  Once those actions are gone he has to end his turn.  Anything that allows more of the most crucial resource, or which bypasses that crucial resource can probably be abused.

Which brings us to the next point.  Identify the critical resource.  If you ask a newbie to D&D what the most important number on the character sheet is, a lot of them will look at one of two things, either hit points or damage.  The truth is that neither of these is really the critical resource when it comes to combat.  There are ways for each class to deal massive amounts of damage, and hit points only matter if you get hit.  How you play the game will overshadow both of these.  What then is the critical resource?  There are several, but the most important in my opinion would be the number actions a character can take and the character’s base ability scores.  Anything that modifies these resources is asking for trouble.

Now look for ways to modify the critical resource. Anything that adds to or takes away from the critical resource is powerful.  Potentially these things can be abused and badly.  In 3rd edition, for example, there were ways to raise base ability scores far beyond their intended levels.  This meant that characters could do ridiculous things far before they reached epic levels and after that it just got stupid.

Look for the rule-breakers and special circumstances.  A lot of D&D is about combat.  This means that taking a look at the areas of the game that “don’t have to do with combat” can often be the most devastating ways of breaking combat. One example from basic D&D would be the spell Phantasmal Force.  A basic second level spell that could quite literally end any encounter against any level of opponent in one round.  But a lot of people I played with didn’t figure it out until they saw me play a magic user, at which point the DM would ban the spell.  A lot of people would read the spell and see that it “never causes any real damage” and simply gloss it over, thinking it could only be used in marginal situations or for role-playing purposes.  Not realizing that if you put an army of orcs to sleep for 1d4 turns that you had won the fight.

Hope these tips help, and have fun breaking your game!

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