D&D 5E Is 5e the Least-Challenging Edition of D&D?

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Oofta]

That isn’t what a houserule is. The description of oil (you seem to have only read the description of a lantern) give numbers for how long oil stays flammable (my experience differs but oh well it’s a game) and how much damage lit oil does to a character. The fact it doesn’t explicitly cover applying it to a weapon doesn’t make doing so a houserule. A houserule would be if I decided that doing so makes all fo the damage from the attack deal fire damage instead of its normal damage.

There are rules for throwing the flask. There are rules for pouring it on the ground and lighting it. There are zero rules for applying it to a sword or how long it would last.

IIRC in 3.5 there was a sword you could do this with (which honestly I thought was a bit silly) but there is no rule for it in 5E. It's a house rule, and not one I've seen anyone actually use.

 

[Undrave]

Oh yeah, I think video game RPGs owe an INCREDIBLE amount to D&D and other TTRPGs. Both Western and Japanese, actually. D&D did it, they were inspired by it, new editions of D&D were in turn inspired by them, and onward the pop culture worm turns.

I'm not super worried about the provenance of an idea when it comes to whether or not I take some cues from it during my game, I just take it if I like it and it contributes to the fun!

As to Four Heroes of Light, no I did not play it, unfortunately. It looks cute though!

I'm just curious where this golf-bag concept came from in the original design of the game. It just doesn't fit the other fiction-inspired concepts in the game.

Four Heroes of Light has an interesting AP mechanic where you gain 1 per turn, up to a max of 5 to fuel your abilities and Spells. There's no MP to be had (no spell slot either) so as long as you got AP you can keep going , and you can defend for a turn to accumulate APs. It's a bit of a prototype of the Bravely Default system (same team even) in a way. The added twist is that cast a spell you need the physical book in your inventory, and that inventory only has room for 15 items. That includes all your armour, weapon and healing items. Each Spell thus takes up 1 spot.

Also there's a whole segment where you characters are cursed into animal forms until you eventually get an item that lets you turn back and forth into animals. I'm not sure how much it actually impacts your performance though

 

[doctorbadwolf]

There are rules for throwing the flask. There are rules for pouring it on the ground and lighting it. There are zero rules for applying it to a sword or how long it would last.

IIRC in 3.5 there was a sword you could do this with (which honestly I thought was a bit silly) but there is no rule for it in 5E. It's a house rule, and not one I've seen anyone actually use.

Yeah I’m not gonna go in circles on it. I disagree, and that’s the end of my interaction with you here.

 

[Undrave]

because reasons)

Classic DnD design

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Oofta]

Yeah I’m not gonna go in circles on it. I disagree, and that’s the end of my interaction with you here.

It's hardly the end of the world that it's a house rule - all that means is that there are no rules in the book on dousing your sword with lamp oil and lighting it on fire. EDIT: in 5E.

Feel free to point out where the rule is, but I wouldn't allow it in my campaign. It's a cool visual, but it's silly.

Spoiler

Oil usually comes in a clay flask that holds 1 pint. As an action, you can splash the oil in this flask onto a creature within 5 feet of you or throw it up to 20 feet, shattering it on impact. Make a ranged attack against a target creature or object, treating the oil as an improvised weapon. On a hit, the target is covered in oil. If the target takes any fire damage before the oil dries (after 1 minute), the target takes an additional 5 fire damage from the burning oil. You can also pour a flask of oil on the ground to cover a 5-foot-square area, provided that the surface is level. If lit, the oil burns for 2 rounds and deals 5 fire damage to any creature that enters the area or ends its turn in the area. A creature can take this damage only once per turn.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It's hardly the end of the world that it's a house rule - all that means is that there are no rules in the book on dousing your sword with lamp oil and lighting it on fire. EDIT: in 5E.

Feel free to point out where the rule is, but I wouldn't allow it in my campaign. It's a cool visual, but it's silly.

Spoiler

Oil usually comes in a clay flask that holds 1 pint. As an action, you can splash the oil in this flask onto a creature within 5 feet of you or throw it up to 20 feet, shattering it on impact. Make a ranged attack against a target creature or object, treating the oil as an improvised weapon. On a hit, the target is covered in oil. If the target takes any fire damage before the oil dries (after 1 minute), the target takes an additional 5 fire damage from the burning oil. You can also pour a flask of oil on the ground to cover a 5-foot-square area, provided that the surface is level. If lit, the oil burns for 2 rounds and deals 5 fire damage to any creature that enters the area or ends its turn in the area. A creature can take this damage only once per turn.

Bud. Bud. I said I’m done. Don’t make it weird.

 

[slobster]

I'm just curious where this golf-bag concept came from in the original design of the game. It just doesn't fit the other fiction-inspired concepts in the game.

Four Heroes of Light has an interesting AP mechanic where you gain 1 per turn, up to a max of 5 to fuel your abilities and Spells. There's no MP to be had (no spell slot either) so as long as you got AP you can keep going , and you can defend for a turn to accumulate APs. It's a bit of a prototype of the Bravely Default system (same team even) in a way. The added twist is that cast a spell you need the physical book in your inventory, and that inventory only has room for 15 items. That includes all your armour, weapon and healing items. Each Spell thus takes up 1 spot.

I played in a friend's custom system long ago that had a similar mechanic, where you got 3 AP refreshed every turn and could spend them on actions, but you could store AP between turns and it would cost like 6 or 7 AP for really big attacks. It was a very Final Fantasy inspired system actually, we even called the big attacks limit breaks! What can I say, we were really into FF7 at the time.

I should stop dating myself and contribute to the actual thread though...

As to your first comment about where the golf bag o' pointy bits came from, I THINK it was an emergent trope that came about when you took a whole bunch of different fantasy and horror monsters and mashed them up into a single setting. It's a common, pre-existing idea that "only silver can pierce the wolf's hide" or "Only fire can leave a lasting wound" on some baddie. But most stories that have that trope only have one big baddie to defeat, only one line of investigation about which kind of weapon will fell the big bad monster.

In D&D, where early DMs were all of a sudden throwing ALL of those monsters inspired by different stories and traditions into a single dungeon, they inherited their various different weaknesses, but now instead of just fighting one, you fought several over the course of a campaign (even the course of a single session). It was flavorful to keep their resistances and weaknesses, so those persisted.

For me and my group at least it's fun for players to recall "oh yeah this is a troll, we need to burn it to keep it down". It becomes kind of a meta-game where player knowledge reflects what could plausibly be character knowledge in a world where these kinds of resistances are common or at least known. Or sometimes the characters research it in-game, or hear tales about it from other grizzled adventurers, or discover it themselves through trial and error (and definitely not subtle GM orchestration).

So, AFAIK, it was something that emerged as a consequence of mashing a bunch of old monster traditions together into one setting where the PCs are expected to fight a bunch of them. Then it evolved into a trope in its own right because people found it interesting or resonant, while others find it silly and hopefully avoid it in their own games.

 

[Oofta]

Bud. Bud. I said I’m done. Don’t make it weird.

Well, I will agree that according to the rules if you put the sword on the ground (and leave it there), pour oil on it and set it on fire there will be a five foot puddle of burning oil with a sword in it.

Does that help?