D&D 5E DMs, what are the most baffling and/or pointless questions your players ask?

[Saeviomagy]

"What do I roll to attack?"

Same thing you rolled to attack for every attack in D&D for the last 8 years...

 

[pming]

Hiya!

"Should I do x?"

I have players who ask me for advice on what to do. I just answer by telling them that they can try anything they like, and it's up to them if they think they should or not.

I usually answer that one this way: "Yes".

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[ccs]

Now they are trained to always ask that question as the means to starting a skill check. Next time just answer, "Just tell me what you're doing and why. You don't need to ask."

Yeah, I'm years & years ahead of your advice. But thanks.

The players know the answer. They know the procedure. They've known it going on a decade. Nor are they doing this to annoy me.
And yet to this day they continue to ask.

Wich is what makes it the most pointless, baffling of questions....

 

[schnee]

Here's one:

The party encounters a door.
Player: "What sort of door-handle is it?"

I have been asked this question at least 10 times in the past year, and I have no idea why. It never seems to make the slightest difference in what they do.

Next time, I think I'll say, "an octopus," and see what happens.

Well, if it pushes or pulls, it makes a difference on how you handle the room. Whether you can spike it shut, or if the hinges are exposed. If your party does things like disabling doors.

Do they?

Also, why not just add one when you describe the door?

'Big wooden door, bands of brass, and a pull-ring on the right side'.

 

[Ednoc]

"Can I do this ?" "Can I do that ?"

Stop asking me that question. Just do what you want and then assume the consequences.

 

[transtemporal]

"How many HP do I have?"

I've never once had anyone ask that question in 25 years of playing DnD, until a couple of sessions ago.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

I think the most baffling comes from the people I've been playing with for a decade+.
"Can I make a (insert skill check)?"

When we were inexperienced gamers we would ask similar questions to our GM and his casual response was consistently, "If you think it will help." He primarily ran Call of Cthulhu for us so that reply made the situation vastly more ominous.

"Part of my character's backstory is that he was a big game hunter. Can I bring an elephant gun with me??"
"If you think it will help."

 

[CydKnight]

My group asks a few silly things but mostly they are the opposite and don't ask enough questions. They are mostly new players but we are on about our 12th session and I feel they should have a better idea of what to ask and why. I have addressed this with them more than a few times outside gameplay but they still want to run through closed doors without checking first. In the last session they ran from one battle into another room without checking straight into a boss battle. I even asked them "so you just want to run into that room without checking" to which I received a chorus of replies "YES!". You would think the Player Death from the prior week for doing the same thing would curb such enthusiasm.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

One of my players was playing a cleric of Erathis back in 4e. And he would always ask NPCs with any authority questions about systems of justice or government of the town they were in. Generally stuff I had never thought about. It kept me on my toes, he would just kept drilling into the subject, getting into extended debates with the NPC. I’m still not sure it wasn’t purposeful monkeywrenching.

 

[iserith]

"Can I do this ?" "Can I do that ?"

Stop asking me that question. Just do what you want and then assume the consequences.

Yes!