D&D (2024) Rules that annoy you

[Micah Sweet]

An unconscious person has the ability to swallow.

Not consistently, when needed, in six seconds or less. A medical practitioner upthread said as much.

 

[Micah Sweet]

And, as I learned from watching a youtube video on the subject, you can drink a potion that size in only 6 seconds. Just give it a swirl as you hoist it!

Science rules.

Was the person in the video unconscious?

 

[KYRON45]

Not consistently, when needed, in six seconds or less. A medical practitioner upthread said as much.

I would not play a game where "realism" stands side by side with gelatinous cubes and fire elementals. That sounds like a lot of arguing.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I would not play a game where "realism" stands side by side with gelatinous cubes and fire elementals. That sounds like a lot of arguing.

I would, to the degree it can be practically done (aome abstraction is of course necessary). Gelatinous cubes and fire elementals, as supernatural elements, have nothing to do with the mechanics of physical action in people. I really dislike the argument that, since the game has supernatural stuff, realism in any aspect is meaningless. They are orthogonal metrics.

 

[Xeviat]

Found another one. The summon spells wording of “30 + 10 for each Spell Level above 4th” type wording is requiring unnecessary subtraction. It should really be "X + Y for each spell level". Yes, this requires multiplication still, but the original way requires subtraction and multiplication and that trips up people who are bad at math. It's also extra words that are unnecessary.

 

[KYRON45]

I would, to the degree it can be practically done (aome abstraction is of course necessary). Gelatinous cubes and fire elementals, as supernatural elements, have nothing to do with the mechanics of physical action in people. I really dislike the argument that, since the game has supernatural stuff, realism in any aspect is meaningless. They are orthogonal metrics.

You dump the potion in the pcs mouth and then the potion takes effect. Does it need to enter the stomach? Small intestines? What is the absorption rate? Is the potion contraindicated for any other potions taken today? Is the pc allergic?
Should the potion be taken with food or on an empty stomach? Is the pc on any other medication? What are the off label uses for the potion? Does the potion work on all forms of damage? Can the potion be stored at room temperature? Does the potion need to be administered in sterile conditions? Shake before taking it? Should we notify the pcs primary physician after the potion is administered? Is the potion OTC or by prescription. Should we be on the lookout for potential side effects and if so, what are they?

It's a game....you need more hp and this potion gives them to you.

 

[Micah Sweet]

You dump the potion in the pcs mouth and then the potion takes effect. Does it need to enter the stomach? Small intestines? What is the absorption rate? Is the potion contraindicated for any other potions taken today? Is the pc allergic?
Should the potion be taken with food or on an empty stomach? Is the pc on any other medication? What are the off label uses for the potion? Does the potion work on all forms of damage? Can the potion be stored at room temperature? Does the potion need to be administered in sterile conditions? Shake before taking it? Should we notify the pcs primary physician after the potion is administered? Is the potion OTC or by prescription. Should we be on the lookout for potential side effects and if so, what are they?

It's a game....you need more hp and this potion gives them to you.

There is a limit to the level of detail you can really put in, sure. My limit is simply higher than yours.

 

[FrozenNorth]

No, this is completely backwards. Yes, two dice are less swingy than one (e.g. 2d6 vs d12) but this requires the range of results to remain roughly the same. This is not the case with the proficiency die. Range of results for d20+5 is 6-25, for d20+d10 it is 2-30.

No, it doesn’t. From a probability perspective, there are more options, but in the d20 + d10 version, the options will be more clustered around the average (16) than in d20 + 5 (where you have an equal chance of getting 6 or 25).

In D&D, what matters is beating a target number, not the absolute number you roll. So for a DC 10 check, you have a 20% chance to fail on a 1d20 + 5, compared to a 12% chance to fail on a 1d20 + 1d10.

You chance of success better reflects your proficiency.

It becomes really obvious if you think of even bigger dice. Like which you think is swingier d20+d100 or d20+50?

The reason why 1d20 + 1d100 is swingier than 1d20 + 50 is because the 1d100 is the swingiest single element in the equation.

 

[KYRON45]

There is a limit to the level of detail you can really put in, sure. My limit is simply higher than yours.

Well said.

 

[FrozenNorth]

That logic there fails. Healing word is healing magic, so it could have been meat damage that got healed.

It seems that you are arguing that because Healing Word restores consciousness to a PC that has been reduced to 0 hp, and Healing Word is healing magic, than the PC must have taken meat damage.

However, by this same reasoning, if I cast Healing Word on a character that has taken 2 hp of damage, healing word is still healing magic so any hit point damage is meat damage.

See, the problem is that you can't be dying from physical attacks without some pretty serious physical damage. If you are making death saves, you have serious damage and shouldn't be healing fully in one day without magic.

My point is that you don’t know if the damage is fatal until it kills you.

You’re assuming that each death save represents getting closer to death or closer to recovery. But you don’t have to make that assumption.

The game makes more sense if you assume that you don’t know whether a blow is fatal until you actually die from it. If you roll a 20 on the death save, guess the injury was less serious than it appeared. Same thing if you get healing halfway through. If you fail your death saves though, I guess the injury was more severe than it looked.

This second way of looking at things is more consistent with what the characters see as well. If I am fighting hobgoblins and the wizard goes down, my character has no way of knowing whether he just got his femoral artery severed or just got the wind knocked out of him.