D&D 5E Common mistakes I keep making

[robus]

For a while, I spent more talk talking about D&D than playing D&D. I am happy to report this has now changed

I’m about to pick up the DM hat again after a couple of years. I’m nervously excited.

 

[jgsugden]

Which spells require sight, and which do not. I started to make a list to track it as it came up a lot in recent campaigns.

PCs that have advantage on saving throws when they do not know there is something going on, such as when they're being scryed upon. There was a gnome that got robbed of his advantage far too many times because it did not occur to me for many sessions that he had advantage.

 

[R_J_K75]

I often forget to stop pouring myself whiskeys which makes the next morning a real challenge.

I often forget to pour myself whiskeys the next morning so its not a real challenge. There I fixed it for you.

 

[R_J_K75]

After DMing 1E through 5E I honestly forget which edition we're playing sometimes. The game unintentionally becomes a mix of every edition to one extent or another. Some of this is because of our tendency to give the rules a quick read through and then jump in and start playing so I'll confuse terminology or just flat out remember a different rule. Spells and conditions and feats are the things I have the hardest time remembering. I often don't remember how much some have changed in 5E or which ones have been removed or are new. I always tell myself Im going to re-read the the core books but I never get too far.

 

[overgeeked]

For the record, I really hate that particular zombie trait in 5E. I get what they were going for, but... if you're going to put zombies in a combat, you're usually going to put in a whole lot of zombies. They should be designed for the absolute minimum of bookkeeping and cognitive overhead. A saving throw with variable DC, possibly multiple times, is way too much mental effort to expend on the fate of a single zombie.

Absolutely. It should be something basic like a coin flip...11+/d20 and they survive. Or any dice you have. Evens, odds. High, low. Whatever. Don’t even need hit points. 4E minions with one hit kills. If you think you have too many zombies, double ’em. Then double ’em again.

 

[overgeeked]

Which spells require sight, and which do not. I started to make a list to track it as it came up a lot in recent campaigns.

Unless a spell specifically says it doesn’t require line of sight then it does. It’s detailed in the magic chapter. A Clear Path to the Target, PHB p204.

 

[Guest 7034872]

For the record, I really hate that particular zombie trait in 5E. I get what they were going for, but... if you're going to put zombies in a combat, you're usually going to put in a whole lot of zombies. They should be designed for the absolute minimum of bookkeeping and cognitive overhead. A saving throw with variable DC, possibly multiple times, is way too much mental effort to expend on the fate of a single zombie.

Professor Dungeon Master has a really nice video on just this sort of concern. He speaks about players' to hit and saving throw rolls, but I see no reason why this couldn't be used for monsters just as well:


I can testify to this: life gets a whole lot easier in combat when you only have to remember the three numbers, 5, 10, and 15. A lot easier.

 

[overgeeked]

Professor Dungeon Master has a really nice video on just this sort of concern. He speaks about players' to hit and saving throw rolls, but I see no reason why this couldn't be used for monsters just as well:


I can testify to this: life gets a whole lot easier in combat when you only have to remember the three numbers, 5, 10, and 15. A lot easier.

Shh. Don’t reveal the secrets.

And definitely don’t mention this video…where PDM reveals where he got that idea.

 

[R_J_K75]

Unless a spell specifically says it doesn’t require line of sight then it does. It’s detailed in the magic chapter. A Clear Path to the Target, PHB p204.

Area of effect spells don't necessarily though right?

 

[overgeeked]

Area of effect spells don't necessarily though right?

They do. You still have to put it somewhere, right? Aim it. The point of origin. Wherever you aim it, wherever the point of origin is, that's the target. The target doesn't have to be a person. The target can be a point in space. But you still have to have line of sight on your target.

"A CLEAR PATH TO THE TARGET
To target something, you must have a clear path to it, so it can't be behind total cover.

If you place an area of effect at a point that you can't see and an obstruction, such as a wall, is between you and that point, the point of origin comes into being on the near side of that obstruction." PHB, p204.