D&D General What are your Pedantic Complaints about D&D?

jgsugden · Jul 16, 2019

Aebir-Toril said:
Because Ogres are Large, it just doesn't seem physically possible.

There is a lot of porn out there that can address your hypothesis.

SkidAce · Jul 16, 2019

Celebrim said:
People think psionics aren't magic.

Because it isn't.

drl2 · Jul 16, 2019

Celebrim said:
I used to think this way as well, but the implementation to make that work is more complex than you might think. You think the hard part is working it out for every monster. That's the easy part. Basically this falls into a category of "game should be more realistic" where the cost of implementing that realism is actually high rather than low.

I actually more or less agree

But I bounce back and forth these days between D&D and Mighty Protectors (which does it the "right" way) and it's one of the mechanics from the latter that I prefer over how D&D does it. MP, of course, doesn't have a ubiquitous Monster Manual, published official materials by the hundreds, and homebrews by the tens of thousands that it needs to maintain compatibility with.

Vael · Jul 16, 2019

Seramus said:
BELTS! Why are you wearing so many?!

Bucklepants are the height of fashion, I'll have you know. At least Hennett seems to think so.

Charlaquin · Jul 16, 2019

CleverNickName said:
Far and above, my biggest problem that I have...and I say this as a cis-het American dude...is the breast fetish.

Armor with breasts. Reptiles with breasts. Gargoyles with breasts. FRIGGIN WARFORGED WITH BREASTS?! Seriously, this needs to stop. Please. I'm begging you.

I agree with you about reptiles. But frankly, in a setting where women-at-arms are a common and open thing, armor with breasts makes as much sense as armor with dicks, which are a real historical thing. And gargoyles and warforged? I prefer the breastfeed variety of both, but they are both constructs presumably created by human men, so I wouldn’t put it past them.

Jer · Jul 16, 2019

Aebir-Toril said:
Why do 5e Undead not have vulnerability to Radiant damage? Sure, they're not immune or resistant to it, but why use Radiant at all if it's not any more effective than Force or Fire?

To screw with my kid's head. (Literally this weekend: "What do you mean wraiths aren't vulnerable to radiant damage? Check that again that has to be wrong." They've just been assuming that radiant damage was hitting the undead harder - until they met one with enough hp to make them suspicious. Good times...)

Aebir-Toril said:
How on Toril do Orcs cross-breed with Ogres? How? HoW? hOw? HOW?

Please don't ask this question - someone may post a diagram and then I'd need eye bleach. The warforged thing already has me needing brain bleach.

Psyzhran2357 · Jul 16, 2019

Charlaquin said:
Yeah, the blade on Yu’s sword looks pretty much like an Elmslie 4c+ or maybe ++ in silhouette. The prop looks like it has a MUCH thicker blade than a Medieval European backsword, and it certainly doesn’t have the appropriate fullers, but that doesn’t mean much since it is a prop, and I don’t know enough about Chinese swords to make a guess about whether it would handle like a medieval European backsword or not. But in D&D I’d absolutely put it in the same category (and Green Destiny in the Arming sword category).

Going off of pictures I found on the internet alone, that style of sword is called a niuweidao (ox-tailed sabre). It is intentionally blade-heavy with that distinctive flare at the tip of the blade, compared to the other common styles of Qing Dynasty sabres, the liuyedao (willow-leaf sabre) and the yanmaodao (goosequill sabre). The willow-leaf sabre has a moderate curve to it, as if you took a Weatern infantry sabre and put Chinese hilt furniture on it. Meanwhile the goosequill sabre is straight but single-edged. The willow-leaf and goosequill sabres were military weapons, while the ox-tailed sabre was a civilian weapon used primarily in martial arts. This company makes functional replicas, with inages for reference: https://www.dynastyforge.com/swords/chinese_arms/sabers/

Monayuris · Jul 16, 2019

aco175 said:
What do you mean, this is not a real thing. We can not have been doing this wrong for 30 years.

I actually never seen an actual rule that allows this... specifically to an unconscious character. Regardless, its one of my pedantic complaints. I'm just not convinced that pouring liquid down an unconscious person's throat is going to have the effect that one expects. I'd actually expect you'd have problems with liquid filling the lungs and drowning and stuff like that.

Seramus · Jul 16, 2019

Monayuris said:
I actually never seen an actual rule that allows this... specifically to an unconscious character. Regardless, its one of my pedantic complaints. I'm just not convinced that pouring liquid down an unconscious person's throat is going to have the effect that one expects. I'd actually expect you'd have problems with liquid filling the lungs and drowning and stuff like that.

Wait. How do potions work? You drink them, and the effects usually happen immediately... which is much faster than digestion or letting it enter the bloodstream. And do people puke after drinking the really foul ones? Or does the liquid just vanish?

“This potion grants you 5 rounds of haste, severe diarrhea, and intestinal cramping.”

Fenris-77 · Jul 16, 2019

Seramus said:
Wait. How do potions work? You drink them, and the effects usually happen immediately... which is much faster than digestion or letting it enter the bloodstream. And do people puke after drinking the really foul ones? Or does the liquid just vanish?

“This potion grants you 5 rounds of haste, severe diarrhea, and intestinal cramping.”

You forgot the oily discharge. No one ever mentions that part.

Keep in mind these are pedantic complaints, not actual problems. That said, I mentioned Rapiers earlier, and I'm really starting to think that's not a pedantic complaint for me.