D&D 5E The Fiddly Bits (That Still Get My Newer Players)

[Ath-kethin]

The players in my first 5e group and I completely forgot about Inspiration all the time. But I met the players from my second group at a local AL game, and we decided to adopt the Inspiration system used by the guy who ran those local AL games.

In a nutshell: each PC gets one point of Inspiration per session. The expectation is that everyone will roleplay their character well, and making it an automatic thing meant we didn't forget about it. On occasion we would award a second point to a character mid-session (and I saw "we" because every time that happened it was due to a player being impressed and suggesting it), but making Inspiration a regular and automatic thing kept it from being forgotten.

 

[CydKnight]

Yes, Inspiration seems to always be forgotten in my campaigns as well.

Sometimes we just have trouble keeping track of multiple effects and what we can and can't do while under the influence of those effects. In the last session I actually had an NPC afflicted with 4 different effects at the same time which was interesting.

 

[jasper]

I'm running two 5th edition campaigns for two groups of players, each consisting largely of new players with one more experienced gamer. Each game has been lasting about 9 months, and there are a few rules that trip up both groups across the board, nearly every session. And while I know the rules, these are the ones that come up literally every session.

1) Inspiration - it's forgotten nearly every time, in every combat, in every situation. I've gotten tired of telling the players they can use it, so I just make a mental note to give each player a "freebie" at least once a session.

2) Concentration - "I can't cast Haste and Fly at the same time?" "I took damage, do I lose the spell?"

3) Bonus action spells - Wanting to cast spells that take an action and a second spell that takes a bonus action (neither are cantrips)

4) Spell Save DCs, Spell Attack Bonuses

5) Hit Dice - how do we use them? How many do we get back?

6) When can I use Sneak Attack?

7) What's my Passive Perception?

8) What are Saving Throws?

9) Arcane Recovery/Second Wind/Action Surge - these abilities are always forgotten

Does anyone else have similar problems?

1. Inspiriation. I have a foam blue I and wooden I. I give them out. They don’t use them tough cookies.
Wait 9 months. They should be knowing this stuff. But. I have DM Sheet. 7 rows by 8 columns. The columns are label Pc Name, Class/Level, HP, Spell DC, Passive Percept, Passive Invest, Note. I sign in my players pc before the start of the game.
Rant. After 9 months start making use the PHB. And if they don’t know their PC class abilities, they don’t play that class. I have players who have 3 pages of handwritten notes for their pc. Some of notes are copied straight from the phb.

 

[DEFCON 1]

When I had all the PCs select the full suite of normal personality traits (Traits, Ideals, Bonds and Flaws) during the very first 5E campaign I ran, we had a hard time using Inspiration because they either were just so wishy-washy we forgot about when they might come up, or there were just too many to keep track of.

For my last two campaigns I switched over to 7th Sea's Hubris system (or to put it in D&D terms, using just a single Flaw.) Every character has that one focused personality trait that is their fatal flaw... the thing that will be their undoing. They might be Greedy, they might be Rash, they might be Arrogant, they might be Hot-Headed, they might be Indecisive, and any other "sin" from like a list of 30 or so I borrowed from 7th Sea and added to.

This has done two wonderful things... one, it has grounded every character with a single primary negative roleplaying trait that is exceedingly easy to get into and play. The player knows how to play Extravagant, or Callous, or Trusting and make that the focus of their personality. The way their behave positively all circles around their one fatal hubris. And thus two, it is much easier for me to recognize when a player either could take or does take an action that is going to possibly result in bad things because they are playing their hubris. At that point I can either reward them with an Inspiration chip if they take the bad action on their own, or I can bribe them with the Inspiration chip to jump into the bad result with both feet so that they can take the chip and have it saved for next time.

And quite frankly it has worked like a charm. I now easily remember what everyone's Hubrises are because they actually play them as part of their roleplay (since having a negative trait is always easier and more fun to get into than a positive one), and they are all more willing to get themselves into trouble in order to gain Inspiration chips, which makes the story go in lots of wild and fun directions.

 

[mortwatcher]

How often do you play during those 9 months? With inspiration, I understand, it's such a fiddly mechanic that everyone forgets.
But if after 9 months of weekly play the players still do not know the basic information that can be found on the character sheet (passive perception, spell save DCs), or how concentration works, it would seem to me that they don't really care that much about playing in this system, and maybe finding something simpler/more engaging for your group might be a better solution.

 

[jayoungr]

1) Inspiration - it's forgotten nearly every time, in every combat, in every situation. I've gotten tired of telling the players they can use it, so I just make a mental note to give each player a "freebie" at least once a session.

I think this is a perfectly fine way of treating Inspiration. I hate the "Dance for us, and we'll give you a treat IF we're sufficiently impressed" aspect anyway.

 

[Blue]

1) Inspiration - it's forgotten nearly every time, in every combat, in every situation. I've gotten tired of telling the players they can use it, so I just make a mental note to give each player a "freebie" at least once a session.

I use poker chips I give out. Having something tangible reminds my players.

2) Concentration - "I can't cast Haste and Fly at the same time?" "I took damage, do I lose the spell?"

I haven't had problems with people remembering they can't do two Concentration spells. I have had people forgetting to make Concentration checks when they take damage, but that doesn't seem limited to new players. I try to remind them, btu I've got a lot on my mind when running a combat as well. A real problem.

3) Bonus action spells - Wanting to cast spells that take an action and a second spell that takes a bonus action (neither are cantrips)

Yeah, this isn't intuitively obvious and catches us often as well. Clerics with bonus action heals seem to be the worst offenders.

4) Spell Save DCs, Spell Attack Bonuses

Same amount of problems with these as with normal attack rolls. Some players have it, some don't.

Oh, and the same players that have these problems also seem to have issues calculating damage, saves, and skills.

"You forgot to add your proficiency to your bow attack."
... two second later ...
"You don't add your proficiency to your bow damage."

5) Hit Dice - how do we use them? How many do we get back?

6) When can I use Sneak Attack?

7) What's my Passive Perception?

8) What are Saving Throws?

9) Arcane Recovery/Second Wind/Action Surge - these abilities are always forgotten

These I don't see as much. Though as DM I have a list of passive perception so I don't have to ask.

Another one I see often thinking bonus actions are triggered when not using the action that triggers them. Most common is trying to do two weapon fighting bonus attack when not using the Attack action.

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

Some fiddly stuff that I have to look up just about every time they come up:

-The formula for how far/high a character can jump based on their strength
-The formula for carrying capacity (annoyingly the Roll20 character sheets will calculate current weight total but do not show the maximum)
-The formula for number of prepared spells
-The details of some of the lesser used conditions
-Some spells that break the typical patterns. For example, grease causes the save on the caster's turn if creatures are in it, but most other effects only trigger a save at the beginning of a creatures turn if they are in the area.

 

[Bacon Bits]

1) Inspiration - it's forgotten nearly every time, in every combat, in every situation. I've gotten tired of telling the players they can use it, so I just make a mental note to give each player a "freebie" at least once a session.

We never used it. We never pretended it was a rule in the first place. We even used to use Action Points in 3e at one point in time, and we still have never used this rule.

2) Concentration - "I can't cast Haste and Fly at the same time?" "I took damage, do I lose the spell?"

I'd say Concentration is done wrong at least once in every three sessions, and often goes unnoticed until well after the fact (if at all).

3) Bonus action spells - Wanting to cast spells that take an action and a second spell that takes a bonus action (neither are cantrips)

I was unavailable for the first three months my group played 5e. I mentioned the rule when the cleric tried to cast Bless followed by Holy Word, and everybody was like, "Wait, what? No wonder that seemed so good!" We really haven't missed it since.

4) Spell Save DCs, Spell Attack Bonuses

We all use digital character sheet apps, so this is not a problem as long as your app is correct.

5) Hit Dice - how do we use them? How many do we get back?

This rarely comes up, but end of the session Hit Dice are always fully restored because it's not worth the extra bookkeeping.

6) When can I use Sneak Attack?

No, but we have looked it up once or twice, especially when there's a Swashbuckler in the party.

7) What's my Passive Perception?

One player does this all the time, but he's the kind of player who simply doesn't remember rules at all.

8) What are Saving Throws?

No. Though roughly 1 in 10 saving throws are called for as a "check". Which makes it even more annoying when the "save" really is a check!

9) Arcane Recovery/Second Wind/Action Surge - these abilities are always forgotten

Second Wind is often forgotten. Action Surge never is, but it is often used at the wrong time. Arcane/Nature Recovery never is, but the player who generally plays these classes is usually on the ball.

Things we have routinely forgotten:

• Barbarian: Reckless attack, brutal critical
• Bard: Song of Rest
• Fighter: Second wind, indomitable
• Monk: Deflect missiles

Some of these are worse than others.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

For my part, I’d go with Bonus Actions. I’ve seen people try to cast a spell, then attack with their off-hand, cast a third level spell and then try to cast a bonus action spell, I’ve seen people try to take bonus actions after rolling to hit but before rolling for damage, and people try to take two bonus actions…the list just goes on and on.

For inspiration, I use fantasy-themed coins purchased from Campaign Coins to track inspiration. And if I see lots of people still holding inspiration and the clock is ticking down, I’ll outright tell them “this is probably our last encounter for the session, use them or lose them!”