Actually doing what it said on the tin and considering the difference would have been nice. Rather than just presenting lists. What effect did the removal of guard dogs or the inclusion of sunrods have on the game?
Pretty much the only thing I have ever banned from my table is the sunrod.
I might think most double weapons are silly. I might think spiked chains are ridiculous. I might think that the gouge is both silly and borderline broken.
But the sunrod just pisses me off.
Magic glowsticks as assumed default equipment (they're even included in the Adventurer's Kit package) make torches and lanterns irrelevant. They're brighter, safer, weigh no more than a torch, and the fact that they cost ten times as much is relevant for about 5 minutes at first level.
They even make the light cantrip a bit pointless. Oh sure, wizard, you could light up 4 squares for us, but why don't we just toss a sunrod into the room and illuminate the whole thing?
Want to make a moody, dimly lit environment for a dramatic battle? Too bad, sunrod just lit it up like stadium lighting.
Cheap, readily available, magical, super bright, risk-free... if I lived in a D&D world, I'd love sunrods. As a DM, I loathe them.
