D&D General What rule do you hate most from any edition? (+ Thread)

[Rabulias]

While we're on early strength rules, the way strength and only strength had a d% if you had an 18 and only if you had an 18. A lot of space wasted on a special rule for 1/216 of characters.

Fewer than that even; Exceptional Strength was only for Fighters, Paladins, and Rangers with an 18 Strength.

 

[David Howery]

1e/2e: level draining

several people say they hate this rule, but I tell ya, there was nothing to put the fear of Gawd (i.e., the DM) into players like encountering a level drainer...

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Making so many downtime activities not involve any variability that could lend to rolling dice.

Related: including perfectly good framework for skill challenges and only using it for a couple downtime activities. (Best example is the Crime activity as written in Xanathar’s)

But also…not using that to give variability to crafting or training…

Multiple rolls, more successes means less time and money spent, or potentially better than planned-for results. I have never had a player who preferred to not roll for stuff like this.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Welcome to caster-centric design, where yes, this literally can be true, depending on what that spellcaster has prepared.

I don’t even agree that this is true, or at least it is extremely rare and never happens before rather high levels. But also the entire CharOp mindset that underpins the idea of it is distasteful to me.

It's clunky, mechanistic, requires inordinate amounts of houseruling and system mastery, purports to model reality well but in fact does so very poorly, and takes forever to play?

I also have an old mower with a funky throttle and a choke that needs constant tweaking. Must be something about my personality.

I can sort of relate, though not directly.

I like well designed complexity. I hate keurigs and barely tolerate basic coffee makers. Both have value only for convenience locations where the coffee doesn’t really matter.

French Press is about the simplest I go for, and I’d prefer a balanced syphon brewer.

But 3.5 is like…a late 90’s ford pickup.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Ramsey is 3rd level with Skill Focus (Profession: Chef), max ranks and an Int of 13. If he takes 10, he automatically succeeds at challenging tasks; with a sous chef and a team of line cooks using aid another, he can automatically succeed at DC25 tasks.

Even Jacques Pepin is only 8th level.

That was my revelation. Once I noticed that, 3e suddenly made sense.

 

[Yora]

Grappling in 3rd edition was really awful.

One of the things that is so complicated you don't remember it unless you use it several times, while also being too complicated to try looking it up during the game to use it.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

For 3E: A rules reference to a rules reference to a rules reference...each of which might be quite involved and would lead to the discovery of elaborate sub-systems.

One PC had a shadow sidekick, which I think was a PRC feature, but getting all the rules for it required extensive cross-referening, and I don't think we ever quite figured it out!

And then there was grappling...

Ah, the old Polymorph see Alter Self see whatever chain of references that I’d always get annoyed at every time I had to look at those rules.

 

[Ath'kethin]

This goes for any edition, but rolling for HP at level up.

Word.

I do Max HP for PCs both for leveling and healing. About the only thing that sucks more than rolling a 1 for hit points is rolling a 1 on a cure whatever spell.

 

[infinityman]

It's hard to "hate" rules, I generally don't dislike them either, because they are guidelines.

 

[MatthewJHanson]

Fewer than that even; Exceptional Strength was only for Fighters, Paladins, and Rangers with an 18 Strength.

That's right. I forgot about that part. So that's probably 1 in 1,000 characters.