D&D 5E Bug Reporting Thread

[Jeff Carlsen]

An attack with a weapon you are not proficient with has disadvantage in addition to not having your proficiency bonus. Probably unintentional.

 

[Atomo]

An attack with a weapon you are not proficient with has disadvantage in addition to not having your proficiency bonus. Probably unintentional.

It seems very intentional for me. Why you suppose the other way?

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

It seems very intentional for me. Why you suppose the other way?

Because proficiency is now a unifying mechanic for expressing skill in something. If you have it, you get a bonus. Otherwise you just get your ability modifier. I'm assuming that this one exception to that rule was an oversight because it's no longer necessary.

 

[Atomo]

Because proficiency is now a unifying mechanic for expressing skill in something. If you have it, you get a bonus. Otherwise you just get your ability modifier. I'm assuming that this one exception to that rule was an oversight because it's no longer necessary.

I understand your point and agree with it to some point. But I suspect the intention here is "if you are not proficient with a weapon, you are really bad with it". Not just non-proficient, but really bad.

 

[Peter Lee]

A new packet came out, with no fixes for either the big obvious things (like half-elves) or the little easy things (like "cantrip transmutation" on shillelagh). @Peter Lee, are you still following this thread?

Yup, still here. I was concentrating on survey feedback these last few weeks - 1000's of comments - so a lot of these bugs haven't been dealt with yet.

 

[Mistwell]

Because proficiency is now a unifying mechanic for expressing skill in something. If you have it, you get a bonus. Otherwise you just get your ability modifier. I'm assuming that this one exception to that rule was an oversight because it's no longer necessary.

Nope, it's gotta be intentional. Otherwise, we're talking about a difference of +1 to +2 at low levels. You want the mage wielding a bastard sword with only an extremely minor difference having spent nothing at all to get it? I don't, nor does it make sense. You need training in many weapons to be able to use them well.

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

Nope, it's gotta be intentional. Otherwise, we're talking about a difference of +1 to +2 at low levels. You want the mage wielding a bastard sword with only an extremely minor difference having spent nothing at all to get it? I don't, nor does it make sense. You need training in many weapons to be able to use them well.

The same could be said for many skills. Everywhere else in the system, +0 means you have no skill beyond what your ability scores can achieve. A mage wielding a bastard sword is no different than a Fighter using Arcana. At low levels, the primary difference between the two characters is their relative ability scores.

 

[Mistwell]

The same could be said for many skills. Everywhere else in the system, +0 means you have no skill beyond what your ability scores can achieve. A mage wielding a bastard sword is no different than a Fighter using Arcana. At low levels, the primary difference between the two characters is their relative ability scores.

And I think the entire weight of history of D&D, all our combined experiences, tell us pretty universally that "ability to use any weapon without penalty" is a more useful thing than "being able to make an untrained skill check without penalty".

Anyway, I don't think this is a bug or an accident. Being untrained in an advanced type of weapon has always imposed some sort of penalty beyond simply "you don't get a relatively small bonus", and it's being done with this edition as well.

 

[tuxgeo]

Something that I think is a bug in the final packet, though others may not:

The "Spare the Dying" cantrip is listed as being of the "Necromancy" school, despite the obvious facts that (1) it only works on the living, and (2) it allows the living target to regain hit points, which it has in common with "Cure Wounds" (Evocation) and "Mass Cure Wounds" (Conjuration).

What, the developers couldn't make up their minds about which school the Healing spells belongs to?

Oh, and "Lesser Restoration" is of the "Abjuration" school? Dangit, those Clerics are all over the school-yard in this packet, aren't they?