What D&D cliches are you sick of?

[Celebrim]

a) So far the low level magic is really not game imbalancing.

The problem with the trope is not so much that magic is imbalancing (5e is presumably well balanced magic) but that no NPCs in the setting seem to be aware that magic exists, has never before dealt with a magic user, and knows less about the abilities of magic users (something that in their world exists) than modern people know about the abilities of zombies and vampires. It might be one thing if they had misperceptions about wizards, but so often I see campaigns were the DM assumes both that there is a magic shop in town but that no one has ever seen or heard of a spell being used before for a nefarious purpose.

Not a fan of monks or--to be honest druids either.

Coming clean, I removed barbarians, paladins, monks, druids, and rangers from my house rules. I replaced them with alternatives (fanatics, champions, shamans, and hunters), but the classes themselves I felt carried too much baggage and had to go. The alternatives are at least clean of unnecessary setting assumptions.

...but falling damage is BS.

I waffled back and forth between the exponentially increasing damage concept (which I used in 1e) and a more complex 'Russian Roulette' rule that kept falling potentially dangerous, but meant that on the average falling was no more dangerous than in traditional D&D. I went with the complex rule mainly for game balance reasons. The basic idea here is that the average damage is about 3.5/10' fallen, but it's not on a normal curve and the upper end is quite open ended. One way you could do that is with exploding d6's, but I don't like exploding dice particularly so I have a system where in a nut shell you roll d20's for fall damage but you divide the resulting damage by 1d6. If you throw that '1' for the divisor dice, falling is pretty darn lethal, averaging over 10 damage per 10' fallen. I don't in general feel the need for making falling more harsh than that as a matter of verisimilitude. So long as the range of possibilities includes the range of real world possibilities, I don't worry too much about the odds.

In general, this is explained/handwaved by magic as physics. You don't fall in my game because of gravity. Gravity per se doesn't exist. You fall because Earth spirits pull you to the ground. Likewise, one thing a physicist in the game world would observe is that kinetic energy would be linear with velocity, rather than exponentially increase with velocity - Gravesande's experiment would yield a completely different result. So there is no need for perfect consistency with real experience, because you are in a completely different world that only superficially resembles this world in casual observation (to the same extent that this world could be casually mistaken for a world that worked according to pre-modern understanding of physics).

 

[Zhaleskra]

The assumption that even in a world where magic is known about, that it's cheap, everyone has access to it, and the spellcasters want to cast it for you.

 

[rocket1969]

In general, this is explained/handwaved by magic as physics. You don't fall in my game because of gravity. Gravity per se doesn't exist. You fall because Earth spirits pull you to the ground. Likewise, one thing a physicist in the game world would observe is that kinetic energy would be linear with velocity, rather than exponentially increase with velocity - Gravesande's experiment would yield a completely different result. So there is no need for perfect consistency with real experience, because you are in a completely different world that only superficially resembles this world in casual observation (to the same extent that this world could be casually mistaken for a world that worked according to pre-modern understanding of physics).

Yeah--but that is in essence the problem i have with DnD. It isn't really an RPG "system"...it is a very particular set of rules that works within a very particular setting. It is DnD. And it is what it is..y'dig? Right now I'm working on a post apocalyptic world for 5E--with exactly the same base rule set--with world specific concepts--this it works for...a more modern one it is a much harder fit and don't get me started on attempting superhero rules with it...there are far easier systems out there for almost anything else that don't require as much handwaving.

I have run a HEAVILY modified pathfinder game for 3 years with no other races except humans and no classes beyond the basic four...it works very well--but pathfinder itself is far too world specific and 3.5 has too many rules--

--and I don't know if it's just me--but DnD has always seemed to attract the more--shall we say--detail oriented folk than other more free and generic systems. Havign said that--I'm having fun. So allons-y.

 

[Celebrim]

The assumption that even in a world where magic is known about, that it's cheap, everyone has access to it, and the spellcasters want to cast it for you.

I don't think that's a cliché of D&D generally.

Certainly it's the opposite of the way Gygax promotes handling NPC spellcasters. If you look at what Gygax suggests circa 1e that NPC's will attempt to extort from PC's before they are willing to cast a spell, it's pretty much ridiculous in the other direction. Gygax basically requires the PC's to promise their first born child or bring back the toenail of a red dragon, before NPC's will even agree to allow the PC's to pay the equivalent of a year's salary for casting a low level spell.

He may have experienced players arguing that NPCs would freely cast spells for the PCs, but his guidelines suggest squashing that to almost an unbelievable degree. If it is has departed from that assumption, I don't know when it did. Even in my own game, I'm still probably overcharging the PC's for low level spells on an economic cost basis alone. The opportunity cost of a spellcaster casting a single spell is fairly low, yet I have them charging rates amounting to multiples of the daily wage of a master craftsman.

 

[Zhaleskra]

I think I'm complaining about the idea that some people on message boards have that a peasant would get raised from the dead. Most likely not. On the other hand, the clergy might like casting "Cure Disease" spells to promote their religion. Perhaps I'm also blaming the concept of magic shops, which aren't always out of place, but again at least on message boards, some players take as "if it has a price, it can be bought, when I want it, with no trouble." Maybe this is because I prefer playing and running games that are "believable within their own rules".

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

...if it has a price, it can be bought, when I want it, with no trouble.

Yeah...those people need a refresher on economics, because that ain't true of ANYTHING. The last 2 parts there? Unrealistic to the nth degree.

 

[Derren]

Cliches that need to die (in my opinion):

Scottish, drunken dwarfs.
The "lets pretend to be medieval, renaissance settings with modern economy/production/food/etc."
Kitchen sink settings with knights next to barbarians, next to patricians, next to ancient egypts.
Pirates (pretty much their whole "romantic/cinematic" representation).
Light armor is as good as heavy armor
The lightly defended dungeons just a few days from civilization everyone knows about yet are still filled with treasure
Thieves guilds
The PCs being exempt from all laws except when they are an adventure hook and being allowed to carry everything and walk everywhere
Widely varying technological levels in order to conform to tropes (e.g. "No guns in the setting. But there are cannons because pirates need cannons. But they are magical cannons because I do not want gunpowder in the setting").
Pretty much all wildlife being aggressive towards humans because they are in the MM and the DM doesn't again, want to spawn some bandits out of nowhere

 

[Celebrim]

Cliches that need to die (in my opinion):

Scottish, drunken dwarfs.
The "lets pretend to be medieval, renaissance settings with modern economy/production/food/etc."
Kitchen sink settings with knights next to barbarians, next to patricians, next to ancient egypts.

If we could just get rid of the Forgotten Realms, we could take care of half of this at a stroke.

Pirates (pretty much their whole "romantic/cinematic" representation).

Ok, what do you have against pirates? Edward Teach? Stede Bonnet? Henry Morgan? Bartholomew Roberts? Edward Low? Calico Jack? Henry Every? Or for that matter John Paul Jones, Cheung Po Tsai, and Francis Drake.

I don't think you have to choose between no pirates and Captain Jack Sparrow. There are plenty of believable characters available of a piratical bent, and lets not forget that for most of human history, pirating was considered good business and backed officially by a great many nations of every sort.

Light armor is as good as heavy armor

On my list as well.

The lightly defended dungeons just a few days from civilization everyone knows about yet are still filled with treasure

Oh absolutely. Worse, lightly defended dungeons just a few hours from civilization that everyone knows about yet are still filled with treasure despite the fact that every shop keeper and city guard is higher level than the starting PC's to dissuade the PC's from trying to rob the shopkeepers instead of stocking up at Treasure Mart (aka, the Dungeon).

Thieves guilds

Not a fan of The Mafia? I admit that thieves guilds can be romanticized, but have you read Oliver Twist? Prince and the Pauper? Both have thieves guilds and neither is ultimately that romantic. I think it's possible to do criminal organizations well, and appropriate the 'guild' concept.

 

[Emirikol]

Cliches that need to die (in my opinion):
Scottish, drunken dwarfs.
Pretty much all wildlife being aggressive towards humans because they are in the MM and the DM doesn't again, want to spawn some bandits out of nowhere

This has to die in movies first Arent dwarfs a Norse legend?


As for wildlife, yep...it's a variant of bandit encounter just to fill time.


jh

 

[Zhaleskra]

Cliches that need to die (in my opinion):

Kitchen sink settings with knights next to barbarians, next to patricians, next to ancient egypts.
Pirates (pretty much their whole "romantic/cinematic" representation).

If we could just get rid of the Forgotten Realms, we could take care of half of this at a stroke.

You'd need to get rid of Planescape, Ravenloft, and Spelljammer too. I think that covers the kitchen sinks.