D&D (2024) Rules that annoy you

[Shardstone]

In my game, I'm making short rests 20 minutes or two wandering monster rolls in dangerous areas.

I replaced short rests with Second Winds. You can use a second wind at any time and it takes about a minute to catch your breath; if you use it in combat, you don't regain features and instead only roll hit dice. You have a number of Second Winds equal to your PB, and your last one always heals whatever HD you have left.

Long rests are done at Oases/Havens and take 24 hours (or less if you burn Supply).

So far in play, this set up has allowed for my to have some really fun adventuring days chaining together crazy set piece combats, mixing it up with fun exploration encounters and RP moments, and allowed my players the narrative freedom to embrace the more guerilla aspects of my D&D revamp.

Not everyone's taste but is the method that has worked for me.

 

[Voadam]

I've basically reverted to 4e's 5 minute rests, as they don't require a massive break in the action. OTOH, a lot of my game currently consists of "traveling to locations of interest- encounter- continue traveling- explore location of interest- more traveling- encounter" so not a lot of short rests are actually taken.

Same, I do the 5e DMG optional short short rests using 4e as my guideline and any time they reasonably have enough time for a breather they have a short rest opportunity.

All the games I play in have been standard 5e hour short rests though which is really tough to justify doing narratively in most situations.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Even aside the simulationist concerns, I really do not like bonus action potions. The game is already very easy and the characters have a ton of hit points. So being able to effectively buy as much extra HP than you want, that can be deployed at negligible action economy cost is not something I want.

 

[rmcoen]

5e doesn't let you smack people with a shield, either.

Like I get the game reason (you have to make people stop attacking at some point) but c'mon

Actually, I'll jump in on this one. You totally can, as a core rule, without a Feat. It's called "attacking with an Improved Weapon". You're not proficient (without Tavern Brawler or some other such), and it does 1d4 damage (a one-handed improvised weapon - probably bludgeoning, but you might try an edge-on attack for slashing?). Also, it's an attack as part of an Attack Action, not a Bonus Action. [DM call on whether you can off-hand / TWF it.]

Shield Master essentially makes you trained in a variation of this, if you do it with along an attack as a combo. [Of course, then I also quickly house rule that the Shield Master feat makes you proficient in this shield bash option.]

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

I replaced short rests with Second Winds.

That sounds cool!

I basically went with 'guys, Beyond's handling of short rest hitdice healing is stupid, we're just switching over to BG3 short rests'. So basically instant short rests, heal half your health, two per long rest (rest as a party, don't be difficult).

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I've been doing gritty rests, (eight hours for short, week for long) and it has worked really well.

 

[rmcoen]

I'm happy to handwave stuff "because magic". It's the rules that purport to be mundane yet are clearly magical / miraculous in nature that I find harder to handwave. I mean, even if we go back to 3.5e, where using a first aid kit to stabilize a dying comrade required you to use your full turn, that's still just 6 seconds! That's crazy fast even by today's standards never mind pseudo-medieval ones.

If healer's kits contained magic herbs that stopped people from dying in 6 seconds or less simply by having them crushed and sprinkled over a wound or applied whole to that wound or whatever, that would be one thing ... but as it is, I struggle to picture (and therefore describe) what the healer is actually doing within the fiction.

If your comrade has been slashed or stabbed and is now dying, maybe you're applying a poultice or bandage to the wound. But what if they got poisoned? What if they got electrocuted? What if they got melted by a black dragon's acid breath like Riverwind in Dragons of Autumn Twilight? There's no way his friends could have saved him in less than 6 seconds simply by expending a use of a healer's kit. He needed genuinely magical healing!

Maybe it requires a DM's judgment call kind of thing. Oh, you've been hacked down by an axe wielded by an orc? OK, your buddy can staunch the bleeding with a poultice / bandage. Oh, you've been stabbed by a wyvern's venomous tail? Your buddy can administer some antivenom. Oh, you've been reduced to a pile of quivering goo by Khinsath's acidic breath? You're gonna need magical healing and stat!

I made a host of herbalism / Medicine skill-based non-magical items for PC. Burnsoothe Ointment is great on burns (fire, acid, extreme cold); Woundbind Poultices help with long-term healing (i.e. spending Hit Dice during a rest) - particularly slashes; and Fireberry Smokes restore the illusion of energy and vigor (i.e. give Temp HP, not true healing, plus ignore 1 level of Exhaustion for a short time). Venomcleanse Tea is sovereign for (nonmagical) neutralizing poisons... but is only half as effective if drunk cold (i.e. during combat). The Ointment can be slathered on quickly, but the Poultice takes a full MINUTE to properly apply and wrap.

 

[rmcoen]

I mean, even if we go back to 3.5e, where using a first aid kit to stabilize a dying comrade required you to use your full turn, that's still just 6 seconds! That's crazy fast even by today's standards never mind pseudo-medieval ones.

Also, this made more sense back when the Combat Round was one minute, not 6 seconds. Talked about this in another thread -- many things made more sense on that time scale, and it also allowed for changes in environment (reinforcements, spreading fires, etc.).

 

[Shardstone]

I've been doing gritty rests, (eight hours for short, week for long) and it has worked really well.

Gritty rests are good too.

I find really just about any rest paradigm superior to the vanilla rest paradigm of 1 hour/8 hours. And this applies to both longer and shorter versions of both rest categories.

The 8 hours is one thing, but 1 hour short rest is probably the worst choice period. It's not long enough to make sense but just long enough to interrupt the flow of a good story. When you decrease it or extend it, it almost immediately begins to develop a real narrative purpose that just "one hour" doesn't allow.

 

[rmcoen]

What's even dumber is when a character drops and another player says I'll give them a healing potion. I'm not a doctor but I don't think its physically possible to swallow and drink while unconscious. I seem to recall a Sage Advice entry in Dragon Magazine where someone asked that question and Skip Williams, I believe it was, said that a character has to be conscious and able to drink to benefit from a healing potion.

BG3: Chuck a potion at them from across the room, works just as well!