D&D (2024) What have you seen new players confused by/mistakes they make?

[Raith5]

The biggest one at my table is confusion between spell slots, known spells and prepared spells

 

[Branduil]

Hahahahah it's been almost 20 years and this is still hilariously relevant;

12 Up a Level, Down a Level - Giant in the Playground Games

"How much crap do we go through on a daily basis because no one at TSR looked up "level" in the thesaurus?"

While we're at it, D&D freely mixes the terms "Armor class," "Difficulty class," and "character class."

We don't even need to address the self-inflicted 5e wound of "Attack action" vs "attack roll," or the unintuitive reuse of the older term "Hit Dice" to mean "Healing Surge."

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

While we're at it, D&D freely mixes the terms "Armor class," "Difficulty class," and "character class."

We don't even need to address the self-inflicted 5e wound of "Attack action" vs "attack roll," or the unintuitive reuse of the older term "Hit Dice" to mean "Healing Surge."

Exactly. 5e is so proud of its ''natural language'', I wonder why they went with technical language in some spots.

Spell DC-> Spellpower
Non-spell DC -> Potency
Spell attack roll-> Magic accuracy
Weapon/melee/attack roll -> just x weapon roll
Ranged attacks/range weapons/thrown weapons ->just ranged weapon roll
Unarmed attacks -> they are still weapons
Armor Class -> just Armor
Hit Dice -> Recovery Dice
HP -> Endurance
Dying at 0 hp -> Wounded
Death Saving Throw -> Defeat rolls
Saving Throws ->Defenses: Might/Deftness/Vigor/Cunning/Willpower/Presence
Ability Modifiers -> Abilities: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution etc
Ability Score -> Endowments: Fortitude/Agility/Vitality/Mind/Acumen/Charm
Spell level -> Spell Circle
Spell slots (since your not slotting anything in them anymore) -> Magic Points

 

[Lojaan]

Who

Exactly. 5e is so proud of its ''natural language'', I wonder why they went with technical language in some spots.

Spell DC-> Spellpower
Non-spell DC -> Potency
Spell attack roll-> Magic accuracy
Weapon/melee/attack roll -> just x weapon roll
Ranged attacks/range weapons/thrown weapons ->just ranged weapon roll
Unarmed attacks -> they are still weapons
Armor Class -> just Armor
Hit Dice -> Recovery Dice
HP -> Endurance
Dying at 0 hp -> Wounded
Death Saving Throw -> Defeat rolls
Saving Throws ->Defenses: Might/Deftness/Vigor/Cunning/Willpower/Presence
Ability Modifiers -> Abilities: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution etc
Ability Score -> Endowments: Fortitude/Agility/Vitality/Mind/Acumen/Charm
Spell level -> Spell Circle
Spell slots (since your not slotting anything in them anymore) -> Magic Points

Whoa magic points vs spell slots makes SO MUCH SENSE

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Who

Whoa magic points vs spell slots makes SO MUCH SENSE

Exact:

As a 1st level Wizard, you have two Magic Points (MPs) of the 1st Circle.

All spells cost 1 MP of the Circle they are cast from.

Its just a switch of terminology, but it feels more organic to me.

 

[Reynard]

The most common I have seen is bonus actions. Some new players assume everyone gets one and they can do something as a bonus action. Others assume they can do as many bonus actions as they have available or want to use. Bonus actions are poorly named and must not be well explained because I see the same mistakes and confusion over and over.

If it were up to me, I would either use something like the PF2 action economy, or create action categories that are universal to all characters (complex, simple, whatever) and make specific abilities or spells those types of actions.

Oh, you get one fast/simple/immediate/whatever action per turn, and second wind is one of those. Easy peasy.

 

[tetrasodium]

The most common I have seen is bonus actions. Some new players assume everyone gets one and they can do something as a bonus action. Others assume they can do as many bonus actions as they have available or want to use. Bonus actions are poorly named and must not be well explained because I see the same mistakes and confusion over and over.

If it were up to me, I would either use something like the PF2 action economy, or create action categories that are universal to all characters (complex, simple, whatever) and make specific abilities or spells those types of actions.

Oh, you get one fast/simple/immediate/whatever action per turn, and second wind is one of those. Easy peasy.

Reactions suffer similar too I've seen players try to trigger reaction abilities on things like npcs speaking & all sorts of stuff. They play out like someone couldn't bear to do without provoke AoO conditions but couldn't undo the poison pill of OAs and just threw in a kludge of a trigger

 

[glass]

what is so confusing?

I can't speak for newbies (having been playing since the 80s), but I find it rather confusing that a Bonus Action is not a type of Action.

I always thought "circles" would be a cool name for spells.

Didn't Earthdawn use circles? Anyway, personally I am fond of "valance" as used in Tales of Wyre, but that may be a bit too...specific.

We don't even need to address the self-inflicted 5e wound of "Attack action" vs "attack roll," or the unintuitive reuse of the older term "Hit Dice" to mean "Healing Surge."

I agree with you both on overloading HD, and that neither the new use nor the original use being particularly intuitive, but HD absolutely does not mean "healing surge" (which, for completeness, was also a terrible and non-indicative name).

 

[R_J_K75]

It's called the Players Handbook for a reason...READ IT!! Most new players who make it through their first few games and decide they want to keep playing don't.

 

[Staffan]

Hahahahah it's been almost 20 years and this is still hilariously relevant;

12 Up a Level, Down a Level - Giant in the Playground Games

"How much crap do we go through on a daily basis because no one at TSR looked up "level" in the thesaurus?"

It's even worse. They did. I mean, you know Gary Gygax never met a thesaurus he didn't read. The 1e PHB has a section about the confusing terminology that reads: "It was initially contemplated to term character power as rank, spell complexity was to be termed power, and monster strength was to be termed as order. Thus, instead of a 9th level character encountering a 7th level monster on the 8th dungeon level and attacking it with a 4th level spell, the terminology would have been: A 9th rank character encountered a 7th order monster on the 8th (dungeon) level and attacked it with a 4th power spell. However, because of the existing usage, level is retained throughout with all four meanings, and is not as confusing as it may now seem."