D&D General What term or rule really confused you, when you first started playing?

[Yora]

The first time a friend of mine played a cleric, he encountered some goblins and said, "I want to turn undead."

I responded, "The goblins aren't undead."

He said, "I don't care. I want to turn undead."

To which I responded, "But there are no undead for you to turn!"

"Huh? What are you talking about. I just want to turn undead."

This went on for another minute or two before we figured out that he thought turn undead allowed the cleric to turn into an undead creature.

The German manual for Baldur's Gate actually translated it to "become undead", and I was wondering if that's supposed to be something like undead leaving the party alone because they think the cleric or paladin is also an undead.

 

[Shiroiken]

Illusions. In 1E you had to actively disbelieve in the illusion, or it affected you like the real thing (at least in your mind). My first character was killed by my brother's illusionist, who used Phantasmal Force to create a duplicate of me. Once I was unconscious from my "wounds," he just walked over and slit my throat.

The inch symbols on spells. And that an inch was different (?) depending if you were in inside or outside. i.e. why did a fireball have a different diameter depending upon if you cast it inside or outside?

The spells part was the screw up. Spells never changed distance or size, but ranged weapons did. This wasn't made clear, with it mentioned only once in the DMG.

Minus fourth class is better than zeroth class.

This was where the original AC began to fail. If AC stopped at 1, everything would make sense. With negative AC, going downwards was just strange.

THAC0 the acronym. I can't remember whether I first came across it in the 2e PHB or whether it was in 1e (both of which I didn't play until after I started with BECMI), but either way it took a lot of digging to find out what it stood for.

It wasn't a question of terms that confounded me, the 6 repeated 20s on the attack tables made me go "Bwuh?"

1E had attack charts instead of THAC0, since it stopped being linear when you needed a 20. The purpose behind the multiple 20s was to make sure that while you could hit most things with a 20, at some point you were just out of your league. I believe 2E or 3E changed it to "20 always hits."

 

[R_J_K75]

Oh wait, the unarmed combat table in 2E confused the hell out of us and I don't think we ever made heads or tails of it. Also we didn't even understand what some of the moves were meant to be, like, what the hell is a "rabbit punch"? I asked adults and they didn't know. No internet to check and it wasn't in the dictionary nor could I find it in encyclopedias. Apparently it's punching someone in the back of the head? How the hell would we know that lol?

That table was awesome, we used it quite a bit. One specific time comes to mind. Think in the Doom of Daggerdale or one the Randal Morn trilogy adventures there's a tavern outside of Dagger Falls called the Rusty Nail. The PCs go in and find a bunch of Zhentilar in a pit fight. One of the PCs had a ring of invisibility, so while the other PC got in on the pit fighting, the one with the ring put a wager on the other player then turned invisible, stood on the outskirts of the fight and took pot shots every few rounds ensuring the PCs won. We used the unarmed combat table for that entire fight to some very hilarious results. Might have to dust that off next time I DM.

 

[R_J_K75]

Kits was one that I couldnt understand at first. My friend brought the 2e fighters handbook over and Id never seen any of the players books before. I was DMing at the time he asked if he could take a kit I said youre already a fighter why do you get another class. After a few minutes of him explaining it and then reading the entry I understood it. I miss kits, I wish theyd bring them back to 5E, hell of alot better than archetypes imo.

Illusions. In 1E you had to actively disbelieve in the illusion, or it affected you like the real thing (at least in your mind). My first character was killed by my brother's illusionist, who used Phantasmal Force to create a duplicate of me. Once I was unconscious from my "wounds," he just walked over and slit my throat.

Illusions were tough to adjudicate at times. Some were pretty straight forward but what always threw me for a curve was trying to run an encounter were 2 party members made their save but 3 didnt.

The ESP spell always gave me trouble too. You could read the targets surface thoughts?
DM: Player 1, what are you thinking?
Player 1: You're a real naughty word DM.

 

[Bacon Bits]

I definitely recall being confused about 1" vs 1'. I also remember being confused by how long a turn was and how long a round was supposed to be.

Infravision I remember making complete sense until the game actually started, and then it made no sense.

Why they were called "magic-user" and "fighter" instead of, well, anything else. And, yes, I know the motivation now. They're still awful names.

Grappling rules. And it wasn't until 3e that they made sense and not until 5e that I no longer needed to reference the book whenever they came up. Only took 'em 40 years!

I distinctly remember thinking, "What the heck is a 'saving throw' supposed to be? What is my character throwing?"

 

[ccs]

When I first encountered AD&D 22 years ago, I couldn't wrap my head around how you make attacks rolls.
I still don't know why inverted armor class even exists.

It's because our favorite game derives from miniature wargaming of the time.
In alot of minis games, the more protected the mini, the easier it is to roll your armour save. Often on a d6. You're trying to roll that # or higher.
A save of 6+ is terrible. A save of 3+? Much better.
You can see this in action even today by watching a current game of 40k or Age of Sigmar (and before that Warhammer Fantasy Battle) from GW.

For example:
No armor = no save
Shield OR Light armor = 6+
Shield + Light Armor OR Heavy Armor = 5+
Heavy Armor + shield = 4+
add in barding if the models mounted on an armored steed for another +1
add in magic/cover/range/special abilities (like Dex) for additional downward mods depending on the exact game/edition....
Looking familiar yet??
In D&D the better your armor & mods, the lower your AC.

Now there's also mods based on the strength of the attack. These push the save back up. So if I hit your Save 3+ model with a weapon that has a +2 str bonus, now you need a 5+ to avoid damage.
In D&D this is where the str/dex mods to hit + that really awfully explained "weapons vs armor" chart come into play.

 

[CleverNickName]

Armor Class going lower as it gets better.

Same here. THAC0 was the thing that really boggled my mind when I first started. I eventually got used to it, but I never liked it.

 

[RoughCoronet0]

Switching from 4e's AEDU powers system to 5e's spell slot magic system took me a while to grasp.

 

[R_J_K75]

5e's spell slot magic system took me a while to grasp.

Doesn't help that some of the spellcasting classes are different in how they prepare and cast spells. I had to read it a few times to pick up on some of the subtleties too. I really wish the spells were listed by school too as well as class instead of just in the spell description.