diff --git a/docs/refguide.xml b/docs/refguide.xml
index 03f73b6df..6c2baa535 100644
--- a/docs/refguide.xml
+++ b/docs/refguide.xml
@@ -2500,9 +2500,8 @@ reasonable, though I only adjust this value as a last resort.</para>
 
 <para>The <option>--max-parallelism</option> option is sometimes set to one
 to prevent Nmap from sending more than one probe at a time to hosts.
-This can be useful in combination with <option>--scan-delay</option>
-(discussed later), although the latter usually serves the purpose well
-enough by itself.</para>
+The <option>--scan-delay</option> option, discussed later, is another
+way to do this.</para>
 
         </listitem>
       </varlistentry>
diff --git a/nmap.cc b/nmap.cc
index 532a282e6..69cff0c29 100644
--- a/nmap.cc
+++ b/nmap.cc
@@ -1339,9 +1339,8 @@ int nmap_main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
     if (o.scan_delay > o.maxTCPScanDelay()) o.setMaxTCPScanDelay(o.scan_delay);
     if (o.scan_delay > o.maxUDPScanDelay()) o.setMaxUDPScanDelay(o.scan_delay);
     if (o.scan_delay > o.maxSCTPScanDelay()) o.setMaxSCTPScanDelay(o.scan_delay);
-    o.max_parallelism = 1;
-    if(pre_max_parallelism != -1)
-      fatal("You can't use --max-parallelism with --scan-delay.");
+    if (pre_max_parallelism != -1 || o.min_parallelism != -1)
+      error("Warning: --min-parallelism and --max-parallelism are ignored with --scan-delay.");
   }
   if (pre_max_scan_delay != -1) {
     o.setMaxTCPScanDelay(pre_max_scan_delay);