D&D (2024) D&D 2024 Rules Oddities (Kibbles’ Collected Complaints)

[pukunui]

While some (many?) of the issues on the list may be resolvable with sage advice, something that needs actual errata is the Goliath’s Powerful Build feature, which grants advantage on saving throws to end the grappled condition.

This officially does nothing, since you have to make an ability check to end a grapple. The saving throw is to avoid being grappled in the first place.

So Powerful Build will need to be rewritten so it either affects ability checks to end the grapple or saves to avoid being grappled (or both).

 

[Divine2021]

Yea this sucks lol. Not buying this book.

 

[Nightfly]

if a Monk hits a creature near a spiked growth spell it can deal 32d4 (at level 5, scaling up to 48d4 by tier 4) by dragging that creature back and forth along the edge of it.

Woo hoo! 4e is back, baby!

Arise, 4vengers! Our time is nigh!

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

Goliath’s Powerful Build feature, which grants advantage on saving throws to end the grappled condition.

Of course they'd leave that text in as is... I think this bothers me more than the other shenanigans.

 

[Scribe]

On the one hand, hey, props to those who uncover these things, and enjoy those unintended edge cases while they last.

On the other, I'm just not here for this at all, and hate this kind of stuff to push out damage/mobility/features that are not intended when there is no inherent 'skill' in doing so.

 

[Oofta]

Eh. A lot of this seems like extreme rule lawyer exploits like the old peasant railgun that I'll just say no to. It's like the dual-wielding hand crossbow being able to reload because it doesn't technically say you need a free hand.

Guess I'll know better once I actually read the text, but most of these are simple fixes, if they actually need fixing.

 

[pukunui]

Roadkill Ragdoll. The Grappler feat now removes the half speed while grappling a creature, which leads to a lot of problematic interactions. Since initiating a grapple just requires hitting a creature (rather than winning a contested check), if a Monk hits a creature near a spiked growth spell it can deal 32d4 (at level 5, scaling up to 48d4 by tier 4) by dragging that creature back and forth along the edge of it. There’s other ways to break this, any character even without a speed boost can use it do 12d4. Flying, running up walls, or any other number of ways this can be used have this drag a creature extreme distances, often doing massive damage.

Spike Growth was already an annoying spell. This pushes it into bannable territory for me.

Eh. A lot of this seems like extreme rule lawyer exploits like the old peasant railgun that I'll just say no to. It's like the dual-wielding hand crossbow being able to reload because it doesn't technically say you need a free hand.

It's not that the rules don't say you need a free hand. They explicitly do say that you don't need a free hand (as per the new Crossbow Expert feat: "If you're holding [a crossbow], you can load a piece of ammunition into it even if you lack a free hand.").

Even the 2014 Crossbow Expert feat bothered me, but this just makes it worse. Being able to ignore the loading property of a crossbow and reload it without having a free hand ought to be mechanical changes you make to the crossbow itself, not just because you're really good at using a crossbow.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

@SlyFlourish
Please add Goliath powerful build, which presumably does nothing for grappling.

It neither works to resist the grapple, nor for the ability check to get out.

Also the condition grabbed does not mention how to escape. Which is weird as one animal in the appendix does state that a creature is grabbed and an escape DC, but not how to actually escape.

 

[pukunui]

@SlyFlourish
Please add Goliath powerful build, which presumably does nothing for grappling.

It neither works to resist the grapple, nor for the ability check to get out.

I mentioned this one a few posts up.

Also the condition grabbed does not mention how to escape. Which is weird as one animal in the appendix does state that a creature is grabbed and an escape DC, but not how to actually escape.

I presume this will be explained in the new MM, which won't be out for another 6 months!

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

Also the condition grabbed does not mention how to escape.

This one's funny. It doesn't mention it, because in the rules glossary, Grappled (condition) and Grappling are back-to-back, so it'd be repeat text when reading the book in order. But when they chose to only put it under one entry, they chose to not place the escape clause in the condition... though that is where it would make sense, and get referenced when needed (especially when it comes to stuff like DnDBeyond mouseovering over the condition)...