D&D General Things That Bug You

[Mind of tempest]

Funny thing, I'm more triggered by utility cantrips than attack ones.

An attack cantrip is just a weapon that cannot be reliably taken away from the character. This isn't really a big issue.

On the other hand, Light trivializes the need to carry torches, Mold Earth eliminates the need for shovels, Mending can fix pretty much anything, Mage Hands allows the caster to always open doors and touch things from a safe distance and so forth...

I feel like those utility cantrips causes more harm to the resource management game than the attack ones.

I get you too many utility cantrips render everyone else pointless. also, where did you get the cool icon?

 

[Reynard]

the table is only so imaginative and there are only so many things to do as a thief or a fighter you would get bored and end up dead sooner or later.

I guess that's true if the table is just doing the same thing over and over again, but that's hardly a requirement of the game. Even the official modules incorporate a lot of different kinds of challenges and scenarios.

 

[Minigiant]

Funny thing, I'm more triggered by utility cantrips than attack ones.

An attack cantrip is just a weapon that cannot be reliably taken away from the character. This isn't really a big issue.

On the other hand, Light trivializes the need to carry torches, Mold Earth eliminates the need for shovels, Mending can fix pretty much anything, Mage Hands allows the caster to always open doors and touch things from a safe distance and so forth...

I feel like those utility cantrips causes more harm to the resource management game than the attack ones.

Really the issue isn't the existence of utility cantrips but the amount. Characters get too many.

I have no problem with a wizard having unlimited torches from light. They are a stinking wizard. Light shouldn't concern them if they wanted to defeat the dark. The issue is that they get 3 cantrips at level 1 so it costs them almost nothing. However, stuff like light and mending are not worth a spell slot.

It would be cool if utility cantrips and attack cantrips didn't use the same "resource" so you could lower the amount of both until you reach the "arch" levels.

Then races with ultilty cantrips would be cooler and feel more special.

 

[Charlaquin]

STOP BEING YOUNG

See, this is the real reason I hang out on D&D forums. Makes me feel young despite being 30

 

[Charlaquin]

sounds like it would get boring quickly if other options existed.

It might. Depends what you want out of the game. I find the old-school style and the new-school style both very fun, in different ways. But either is not so good if you try to use it to emulate the other style.

 

[el-remmen]

See, this is the real reason I hang out on D&D forums. Makes me feel young despite being 30

When I started on the EN Boards I was not quite 30 and now I am not quite 50. You'll get here (if you're lucky).

 

[Charlaquin]

The reason why rogues and thieves (and clerics) became more martially proficient was the forced and protected roles. You get the LFG problems of MMOs at the table.

I don’t think LFG is necessarily a bad thing in a D&D context. Honestly I kind of prefer it. Makes party composition into a puzzle and makes class choice feel more meaningful. But it’s understandable why it’s gone out of fashion.

And if you rolled in order for stats....

Well, if nobody rolls stats sufficient for a needed role, you can always hire henchfolk. But yeah, ironically I prefer point buy in an old-school context where you need to fill particular roles and rolled stats in a new-school context where party composition doesn’t really matter.

 

[el-remmen]

Really the issue isn't the existence of utility cantrips but the amount. Characters get too many.

I have no problem with a wizard having unlimited torches from light. They are a stinking wizard. Light shouldn't concern them if they wanted to defeat the dark. The issue is that they get 3 cantrips at level 1 so it costs them almost nothing. However, stuff like light and mending are not worth a spell slot.

It would be cool if utility cantrips and attack cantrips didn't use the same "resource" so you could lower the amount of both until you reach the "arch" levels.

I liked how late 1E and then 2E handled it, just a spell called "Cantrip" that let you do common things within a framework established by the game (or easily modified for power level of setting) and that lasted an hour per level. So by the time you were 18th level archmage or whatever, for the vast majority of the day you could light or snuff candles and torches, open curtains from a distance, clean the dishes, do simple mending, etc. . . and that is what a really powerful wizard should be able to do in my book. Even by 8th level you'd be able to do all those simple things at-will for the length of a work day.

In 2E this took up a 1st level slot. But I wonder if it would work to just make it a class ability.

 

[el-remmen]

I don’t think LFG is necessarily a bad thing in a D&D context.

Can a youngun define "LFG" for me?

 

[Minigiant]

I don’t think LFG is necessarily a bad thing in a D&D context. Honestly I kind of prefer it. Makes party composition into a puzzle and makes class choice feel more meaningful. But it’s understandable why it’s gone out of fashion.

Well, if nobody rolls stats sufficient for a needed role, you can always hire henchfolk. But yeah, ironically I prefer point buy in an old-school context where you need to fill particular roles and rolled stats in a new-school context where party composition doesn’t really matter.

That was precisely the problem. It was a puzzle game but the pieces were random. If your group rolled 2 fighters and 2 thieves, you had no wizard or cleric and most settings lacked caster hirelings. So fighting, thievery, and magic was slowly handed to other classes.

This is why this system is/was popular in single player CRPGs. One player played the whole party and could reroll as many times they wished.