I'm Sick Of...(D&D tropes that you can do without)

[saskganesh]

People, Meatboy. Monsters eat people.

Monsters also eat each other.

People are pinkier and tastier. Leaner. Very Heart Healthy.

But many monsters will eat almost anything.

 

[innerdude]

D&D's version of "Vancian" magic for clerics and wizards. Sorcerers are barely tolerable.

I basically ban wizards and clerics for any campaign I GM. My players can play a sorcerer, a psion, or a house-ruled "cleric" class that's basically an amalgamation of a sorcerer and ardent with the Pathfinder channel energy feat attached.

And don't get me started on druids. In my experience, there's only two reasons a player chooses to play a druid:

1. They want to play a super-optimized, typically broken and overpowered character using spells and wild shape.
2. They just HAVE to have their cutesy-wutesy wolf/bear/panther animal companion because it's just so rad to have an animal companion.

Druids are one of those "literary" character tropes that seems like it should be cool in D&D, but generally ends up being annoying as all get out, or causes huge amounts of problems in gameplay.

 

[Croesus]

I'll add dual headed weapons to the enormous weapons. A double headed flail? WTF I would love to see some one try to use that without injuring themselves, let alone damaging an enemy at the same time.

In homage to the original spear of backbiting:

Dire Flail of Backbashing

This two handed weapon appears to be a normal large flail, though of exceptional quality. However, when first used in combat to strike an opponent, it sprouts an additional flail head which unerringly strikes the wielder in the back. Once the curse activates, the wielder cannot release the weapon until subjected to a remove curse spell cast by at least an 11th level caster.

 

[phoamslinger]

how about the inability to come up with a simple yet effective unarmed combat system as part of the core rules after what, five? six? editions, that doesn't cause games to grind to a halt as players and dms go and recheck just how did those rules work again.

 

[Terrance888]

He is evil. Why? FOR DE EVULZ.

Yeah, right.

Also: Dragonborn=Bahamut=GOODY GOOD GOOD. D:<. This must have come from 3.5 when you actually have to devote yourself as good to be reborn as dragonborn (afaik), but in 4.0 Dragonborn are just... civilized lizardmen (basically). Good, bad, nuetral; Bahamut, Tiamat, Io. Tossing a Dragonborn Fighter's dad at him as a Dragonborn Deathknight, see what happens (don't worry, going to build up to it.)

 

[Meatboy]

People, Meatboy. Monsters eat people.

Thats what I mean. Where do the deers live? Can farmers go out and plant crops without an armed escort? Either that or farmers are supplanted by factories of low level clerics spamming create food/water. In which case what mud spattered peasent will scream about 'violence enherent in the system?

 

[SeprenMaelstrom]

The arcane/divine magic divide. Magic is magic, everyone should be able to cast any spell. (Provided they learn how, which doesn't need to be simple! ) Just thinking about a cleric of a magic diety makes my head hurt! Why do they need to multiclass? Isn't their diety supposed to be giving them their spells? So why aren't they giving them Wizard spells when they're the diety of frikkin magic? And if the clerics can shoot lightning bolts, which at least some sould, then the wizards should be able to heal, at least to some extent.

The D20. Yeah, it'll never go away, but it should. It's just too swingy. (2D6, or even a D12 would be way better IMNSHO.)

I can draw a divide enough between the two, when you look at the context / flavour. There are different schools and sources of magic, and usually a person dedicates their life to learning how to perform in one or several paths. Magic invoked and manifested through different means, let's say.

Arcane aside, I'd look at Divine. Specifically the Cleric in this case. Helpfully, 4E renamed the divine magic Prayers to better define what kind of manifestation it is. These are magical powers, spells, properties, etc gained though channelling or invoking one's chosen god, learned through years of devotion to their teachings and their glory, etc. It seems to me more about brandishing the favour of your god than, say, manipulating the forces around you to do your bidding, like some Arcane magic does. A Wizard and a Cleric may both be able to harness fire as a weapon, but they come from different places and have different implications.

Now! My own pet peeves... I suppose 4E's treatment of dual wielding [for a class other than Ranger / Rogue] to be pretty off-putting. What seems like perhaps a great idea for both gameplay and character flavour is, at first anyway, punished to a degree. It requires some investment to neutralize the penalties [not to mention, no way to say use Dex instead of Str to determine how well you roll, for characters whose Str isn't going to be a priority].

 

[pogre]

Alignment

I agree with Drow too.

 

[amerigoV]

I agree on Alignment - its just never been done well. It seemed to me to start as a way to identify us vs. them. Then it grew into a weird system that no one could ever wrap their heads around (given people have argued over alignment for 30 years). To me, if you are going to register as both Lawful and Good via magic based on various spells the same as (say) an angle from "heaven", then you are not playing a character that is "Neutral with Lawful and Good Tenancies" that most people would play the alignment. Basically you are an extreme and every action and nonaction needs to fit into that bucket. But that is just an example.

The action economy has always been annoying. You need certain feats or classes to be allowed certain actions (two-weapon fighting is an example). The more you try to do, the higher the penalty to each action is an easier solution. If you are good at what you do, multiple actions should be available at a reasonable penalty*.

* 3.x's TWF is partly this, but the initial penalties are so punitive no one would try it even in desperation. A heavy feat tax later and you can only utilize it if you only move less than 5'. So you have this highly dexterous whirling dervish --- so long as you stand still.

Then need to make "luck" a resource that can be spend instead of it all being on the defensive side. All the "luck" is built into the escalating hit points. Pull some of that out and let the player allocate it. In a rough and simple 4e example, pull back on the hits points, give a few more Surges. The Surges are used for healing (as currently in the system) or to power Encounter or Daily powers (Daily being available more, but cost more to activate). If you want to be a glass cannon, go right ahead (put all your surges to offense).

 

[Ahnehnois]

Healing.