Seriously, guys? Those things that you consider so immediately obvious--well, to many folks they're not. To a lot of folks, it's minutiae. I sure can't take any of that for granted with most of my group.
Oh, I understand that people forget these things all the time. Our group often forgets them too. That's why we have people who remind us...nearly every round.
Obviously, it doesn't matter if people forget these things. They are having a great time and that's all that matters. All I was saying when I started this side discussion was that the difference in effectiveness between a party who remembers and keeps track of all these bonuses and one that doesn't is fairly dramatic. They are up against fairly easy monsters.
I've just been reminded so many times by so many people, since I play in Living Forgotten Realms and play with different people all the time. I'm used to showing up at a table with someone I've never met before or who just made a cleric for the first time ever. Since they don't know how proficient I am in the rules, I've had to listen to the description of Righteous Brand a good 10 times. Each time read out in an excited voice like a kid in a candy store who has discovered something no one else ever has. Something like, "So I hit with Righteous Brand. And this attack give you my Strength modifier to hit on all your melee attacks for a whole round! So, every time you roll an attack roll, you should add...umm..FOUR to it. That's awesome. Hey, I just realized. If you spend an action point and attack and second time, you'd get the bonus on that as well."
An awful lot like the cleric did in this podcast. Only, he promptly forgot about it the rest of the times he used the power.
I guess I just play often enough that I wish I could remind people of rules. I know that people I've reminded about rules in real life almost always have more fun as they realize there is more to their characters than they thought.
It's a lot like watching someone play Monopoly and having them forget to pay rent over half the time when they land on other people's property. Sure, you can still have fun playing like that when nobody notices, but if you are the player who realizes that you were supposed to be payed thousands of dollars that you missed out on because someone else wasn't following the rules, it can cause hurt feelings.