Dumberest D&D tropes and combinations (any edition)

[TanithT]

Huge, famous dungeons are an old school trope. They're huge. They repopulate easily, can never be cleared out and most importantly, most of those adventurers are dead, dead, dead.

The towns have no visible economy. The inhabitants spend all their time in the local tavern quaffing ale and offering adventurers gold to delve into dungeons with no visible ecology. The dungeons have no history, and they exist for no reason except to house an eclectic assortment of monsters that eat nothing but stray adventurers and poop nothing but treasure.

Worldbuilding and backstory or GTFO. "Dungeons" make no sense in the classic trope.

 

[FireLance]

The Lazy Warlord.

A dude whose only purpose in the party is to hit things with his sword and yell really loudly.

And that somehow makes the rogue hit harder, the fighter harder to kill, the mage more accurate with her magic and the Ranger able to fire arrows faster. =)

What? You don't have cheerleaders where you come from? (Drop the "cheer" and you even have a 4e class role. )

For me, the 1e dual-classing rules created some head-scratchers. IIRC, 1e dual-classing required a minimum of 15 in the prime attribute of the original class, and a minimum of 17 in the prime attribute of the second class. This means that a human fighter with Strength 14 and Intelligence 17 could not dual-class to wizard magic-user because he was not strong enough.

 

[Tallifer]

It can be done and has been done; it's a legit fighting style. I really hated running up against dual wielders in the SCA, since I was sword-and-board. Oh, the openings they can find. One of those buggers broke my arm that way.

Dual wielding giant hammers I'm less sure about. I've never seen it and there might be center of gravity and balance issues. But swords, absolutely no question. Two-swords aren't the most common thing to see in the SCA, fortunately for us sword-and-boarders, but you do definitely see them. And some of them are too bloody good.

That is fascinating. I never thought that it could be effective. Live and learn.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

My least favorite trope is the idea that a cleric or paladin of a non-Christian fantasy deity should be celibate. Um, why? You've got the wrong religion there, and it shouldn't be an automatic assumption.

Early christian priests weren't celibate. Heck, a lot of medieval christian priests weren't celibate! One of the (many) reasons for the Reformation movement.

 

[Tonguez]

My least favorite trope is the idea that a cleric or paladin of a non-Christian fantasy deity should be celibate. Um, why? You've got the wrong religion there, and it shouldn't be an automatic assumption.

Is that a trope? can't say I've ever seen celibacy 'played' in a game

 

[Zireael]

Half-red dragon half-blue dragon half-X .... Y. Possible by RAW. Made even worse if Y is dragon-related.

 

[Yora]

Even better is a half blue dragon red dragon.

 

[khantroll]

Even better is a half blue dragon red dragon.

Ah, the dreaded Maroon Dragon. Implausible? Maybe. Throws your players for a loop? Definitely.

The pink dragon is more ridiculous to me (half red half white). What's even worse is that it's actually dangerous.

Similiar to non-mammalian breasts: clubs made out of the genitals of dragons. Sounds stupid, is stupid, and comes up often enough to annoy me.

 

[DonAdam]

Hails of arrows from a single archer.

This made sense when combat rounds were 1 minute. No longer.

 

[Yora]

Ah, the dreaded Maroon Dragon. Implausible? Maybe. Throws your players for a loop? Definitely.

The pink dragon is more ridiculous to me (half red half white). What's even worse is that it's actually dangerous.

No, you misunderstood: Half blue, full red!