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

[Ed_Laprade]

I've almost considered requiring those who can take the prestidigitation cantrip to take it. Sure, being able to throw acid in your opponents' faces at will is nice, but in the real world prestidigitation would be much more valued. After a long day of adventuring being able to clean yourself (or others), warm your (or others') food, cool drinks, make the food tastier. The impact on morale would be huge.

I always take prestidigitation when I can, for just those reasons!

 

[Minigiant]

I'd say the difference between too little and too much is personal preference. Then again, most everything posted on this forum is a matter of personal preference.

That's why I think there should have been more official variants.

This "Start with a complex rule then cut stuff out. Ask the DM to fix the inconsistencies we've created" game design is starting to bug me.

I originally thought 5e was going to a simple baseline with official plug in rules sprinkling in throughout the years. You see the first part but outside of races and class WOTC left the second part up to 3rd party. We can see where the variants are supposed to be via all the holes and silly rules. However WOTC filled few of them so that groups can go MOAR or LESS as they please.

 

[billd91]

You only have total control over that when you are a DM - and 5 out of 11 PHB classes may technically be a minority, but it is a sizeable one.

It's hard to call it a design feature when nearly half the classes break it.

Levels 1-2 don't go by quickly at every table, either - you might take a month or two in real world time before reaching level 3. Moreover, it isn't just the fighter:

Swords bards can't use many swords.
Arcane Tricksters are merely tricksters.
Shadow Monks only have a shadow.
Ancestral Guardian Barbarians have no ancestors - at least no useful ones.
Rangers and paladins get to console themselves with spells at 2, at least.

AL characters must start at level 1, also.

Never bothered me a bit. It's not that different from going to college where some majors need early decisions just to get the coursework in and others don't. You get a bit of time as a general, undeclared college student before you pick your final specialty.

 

[cbwjm]

Something that bugs me enough to ignore it is the way a focus works with regard to spellcasting. They can only be used for S components if the focus is also subbing in for M components. No M means no holding onto that wand, you need a free hand to cast that S component spell.

Yeah, that would help a ton. I'll say personally that if you know the rules well, planning on either a battlemaster or eldritch knight is boring as heck at levels 1 and 2 - particularly if the game isn't the sort to zip to level 3 in 1-2 sessions. I'd guess that if you're planning on champion it's fine as you aren't really getting any new options there.

I think the designers have realised this which is why they've added in the fighting styles that grant battlemaster dice or wizard cantrips. I've mentioned it before that I really wish that every class began their subclass at level 1.

 

[Minigiant]

I know it's not really the point of original discussion but the first level class thing...

..5e needed 0th levels.

Tier 1 isn't really tier 1. "Tier 1" is Tier 0 and Tier 1. It's all the way from "CLASS in training" and "novice CLASS". Same with "Tier 3". It's 2 tiers of power and fantasy jammed together as well.

I don't know if this counts as "a rule that bugs" me since the Tiers are not actually rules. However the rules were built around the tiers and some of 5e's rules that bug come from the design around them.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

Finesse Weapons: I understand the reasoning for why they work the way they work....but since they showed up in 3e they have eroded the need for some amount of STR for a melee combatant and made hight DEX combatants generally superior to high STR ones.

I'd have liked to have seen a system that combined STR and DEX for melee so that both were important, even if something so simple as DEX bonus to-hit and STR bonus to damage as a general rule much like high STR bows worked in 3e.

 

[Guest 6801328]

It never ceases to astonish me how bothered some people get when fantasy worlds don't mirror history.

Anyway, the thing in the rules that most bothers me is that when you spend Inspiration you get to roll with Advantage. It should be used to re-roll.

Based on the latest UA, and the mechanic (I forget where it is...in the monk I think) where the ability isn't consumed if it fails I suspect WotC is thinking about things like this.

 

[MNblockhead]

Because we should go back to the days of a couple dozen different types of pole arms?

YES! Pleeeeeeease!?

 

[ph0rk]

Never bothered me a bit. It's not that different from going to college where some majors need early decisions just to get the coursework in and others don't. You get a bit of time as a general, undeclared college student before you pick your final specialty.

That's not a good example - first semester CS students are only any good at CS in semester 1 because they programmed before college. The ones that didn't, aren't.

It isn't a necessary thematic or flavor difference or even a necessary mechanical difference - they simply failed to be consistent with class design.

 

[Guest 6801328]

Finesse Weapons: I understand the reasoning for why they work the way they work....but since they showed up in 3e they have eroded the need for some amount of STR for a melee combatant and made hight DEX combatants generally superior to high STR ones.

I'd have liked to have seen a system that combined STR and DEX for melee so that both were important, even if something so simple as DEX bonus to-hit and STR bonus to damage as a general rule much like high STR bows worked in 3e.

I agree. Just in general I wish all classes were a lot more MAD. But specifically regarding Str and Dex: in an ideal world any two values of Str and Dex that average N would be roughly equivalent in the general case, which (because higher scores "cost" more) would make, for example, two 14s preferable to an 18 and a 12, because it would save you points that can be invested elsewhere.