D&D 5E Odd things in the rules that bug you?

[Charlaquin]

(I know--D&D isn't historical medieval, but it was always supposed to be medieval fantasy)

Not really. D&D was classically much closer to Wild West fantasy with medieval trappings, and it has only gotten less and less medieval since.

 

[Charlaquin]

The whole "invisible but not hidden" deal is something I can’t quite wrap my head around.

Being invisible makes you unseen, but you also have to be unheard to be hidden. The hide action when you’re invisible is basically just being really quiet.

 

[Charlaquin]

Related to that... I'm not a fan of the 5-foot square as the baseline measuring system.
I feel as though it leads to weird dimensions for buildings, doors, and a variety of other things.

I would vastly prefer that a 1-yard (3 feet) square be used. In metric, that would be roughly 1 meter per square.

This!!

 

[Monayuris]

High-level saving throw math.

It is possible to be 20th level (an epic character) and have zero chance of succeeding on a saving throw against a level-appropriate creature.

 

[Shiroiken]

My personal quirks primarily focus on the weapons chart. Several weapons seem to serve no real purpose, and while I understand that some weapons were actually better than others, the worse weapons were normally cheaper. The trident being a more expensive, harder to use spear bugs the crap out of me!

My other irritation is the metric monetary system. 3E decided that it was too hard for people to do math, so they dumbed down the currency. In AD&D the metal coins were based (estimated) on the historic value comparison by weight, which gave us 10 cp per sp, and 20 sp per gp. I don't know if electrum and platinum were accurate, but it worked well enough. I could accept it if it were presented as based on purity and coin size, but in the trade goods section a gold bar is exactly the value of its cost in gp, indicating that coins are "pure."

The idea that nearly everyone can read and write.

...I should probably stop now.

This bugs me a bit too, but it's been around a long time. The problem is that unlike other games, D&D is designed to be generic fantasy, and they simply can't assume the literacy rate of a setting. Thule added a nice option for determining literacy which I've incorporated into my Greyhawk campaign.

Related to that... I'm not a fan of the 5-foot square as the baseline measuring system.
I feel as though it leads to weird dimensions for buildings, doors, and a variety of other things.

I would vastly prefer that a 1-yard (3 feet) square be used. In metric, that would be roughly 1 meter per square.

The 10 ft passage was a staple of the original game, as they used 10 ft (or 100 ft outdoors) as the standard grid size. However, spacing was much closer to 3 ft per human, as a front line typically consisted of 3 characters. I'm not certain, but I assume that's because that's what it was in miniature wargaming of the era. I do recall in 1E they had a required area to use certain weapons (e.g. a greatsword required at least 6 ft around you to swing properly) which impacted this. I think this is a far better system, as it also remove the "moving through other's space" situation, since you just can't do it.

 

[MNblockhead]

Reach.

A 26-foot tall Storm Giant with a (likely ~20-foot long) Great Sword only has a 10-foot reach.

 

[Don Durito]

The lack of metric system in the book? I get that the game is made by American designers, but at least give us the metric equivalent in parentheses or something! We live in Canada, so we are kinda used to use both system, so it is not that bad, but I still find it weird.

I live in Australia and we don't use Imperial. 5ft aren't too bad, we know what feet are. But weights of things are generally opaque.

 

[Li Shenron]

Barding weighs twice as much as the equivalent humanoid armor - regardless of the size of the creature it was made for.

I think the RAI is probably that it weights twice as much as the armor of the character who is normally riding the mount, but they forgot to explain.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

Three things. In no order...

(A) "Oh man, my leg is broken, my nose is broken, I have a punctured lung, and I REALLY need to get someone to pull this arrow out of my left eyeball. Sure is a good thing the inn is only an hours walk away, I only have 2hp left! A couple beers and a good nights rest and I'll be good to go by noon tomorrow!" (RE: "You had a Long Rest. POOF! You're all healed up full")

(B)"I am a Master of the Magical Arts! I require... the clawed foot of a crow, three drops of Beholder blood, a sprig of the rare Snow-Flower, and the eye of a newt!" ... ... "Uh, boss? Yeah, you're kinda old, but all the cool kids just use a 'Spell Component Pouch'. It's got everything you need, really. And you can get one on sale for only 20gp down at Bob n' Betties Apothecary, at least until Tuesday". (RE: "Component Pouch / Arcane Focus")

(C) The assumption that every PC WILL get to level 20...not MIGHT get to level 20, but WILL. Add in the assumption that doing so is "just normal, everyday gaming, no biggie" and it should only take a year at most (seems to be the general consensus IME on various 5e boards and talk). I absolutely LOATHE this attitude! I get the desire to "be cool and epic"...but, like Syndrome said: "Once everyone is Super...no one will be!". That's pretty much all versions of D&D after about a quarter of the way through 2e.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Khelon Testudo]

I didn't know this was going to be an edition war thread. Inevitable, really.