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

[DnD_Dad]

...I don't where to start. There's a lot of butt-hurt in this post to a game that hasn't done anything but provide a baseline to play. You can drop any rule, weapon, item, standard, creature, mythos, magic system you want, and you are free to contribute to house rules with your fellow group to make it feel right. The game's spirit is of action, adventure, and having fun. If you don't like it, change it. WOTC isn't going to kick down your door for using a house rule. If things feel like they are overused then try to abolish them from your table or use a different way of approaching them. Just have fun, nothing is perfect.

 

[Nytmare]

...I don't where to start.

I think that the first thing we need to do is blame TV Tropes for aiding and abetting bastardization of the word "trope".

 

[Zireael]

I'll just say that splatbooks should die in a fire - they are an awful part of the D&D.

And I don't see anything wrong with TV Tropes.

 

[mkill]

And I don't see anything wrong with TV Tropes.

TV Tropes jumped the shark when they renamed the Staff Chick article... but that's a different topic.

Another D&D pet peeve: Randomness in character creation. No, I don't want to be stuck with a crappy PC that doesn't fit what I intended to build for a year of play. FU.

It gets even worse when someone defends it as "it encourages roleplaying!" No, it doesn't. Playing a crappy PC does not equal good roleplaying. All you say is that you haven't seen a well-played PC before, and just don't understand what you are talking about. That Intelligence 10 Wizard who can't get a spell out is an annoying drag on party ressources, that's all.

 

[wingsandsword]

I tried running an elf-orc halfbreed one time (using a completely crunch-legal half-elf with giant as my free language), only to be shot down because the books never said orcs and elves could procreate with eachother.

Well, in the normal D&D "fluff" tradition, pre-4e at least, they explicitly couldn't, as in were divinely forbidden by the circumstances of their very creation from ever procreating. Fluff materials (like the notorious Complete Book of Elves) went to lengths to say how while Orcs and Elves could both cross-breed with humans quite easily, under no circumstances could Elves and Orcs EVER crossbreed.

It goes back to how Orcs were created in the image of their patron deity Grummsh, and Elves in the image of their patron deity Corellon Larethian, and how those two Gods are ancient foes with a rivalry going back to before mortal races even existed (and how a duel between the two resulted in Grummsh only having one eye, because Corellon succeeded in destroying one of his eyes).

In a game set in a traditional D&D setting like Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk or Planescape, the DM would be well backed up by the fluff saying that couldn't happen. If the DM's had been longtime D&D players who had previously run those settings or knew them well but weren't running them at the time, they might have unconsciously carried that rule with them.

 

[Terrance888]

Exactly. I am currently taking steps (with player approval) to limit tropes we dislike and express those we like: Adventure, Intrigue, Cleverness over Dungeon Crawling, Rule Lawyers, and others.

 

[ComradeGnull]

Bizarre, Impractical Racial Weapons: Gnome pick, I'm looking at you. Worse though, the core races apparently used up all the semi-reasonable weapons, and the new guys on the block are left with a whip with a cheese grater/yo-yo glued to it to define their rich culture.

Obvious Feats: Pick two skills at random and give them a +2. Now come up with a clever name. There are at least thee of these in every splatbook. (My suggestion: Chastity Belt Remover: You gain +2 to Diplomacy and +2 to Open Locks/Disable Device)

Drow: Ye gods.

Angst-ridden Heroes: Classes/races/themes built around perpetual emo-ness for some ancient sleight. If I see one more orphan PC who seeks vengeance against the orcs/cult/lawn tractor that killed his entire family except him, I will be forced to become very cross. Actually, in a PbP I was in, a fellow player attempted to rile my half-orc by waxing angry/Morissey over the fact that orcs killed his parents. I said that my half-orc's grandfather died falling down a flight of stairs and shouted curses at every one I saw.

Apocalypse number 5: A new rules rev, a new 'crisis' to run rampant across the established campaign settings. Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms got this one the worst. My favorite was when the avatar of Bane genocided all assassins in the world because he was angry over the transition to 2nd ed. Someone already mentioned the repeated shoehorning of new classes/races into established settings, which is a symptom of this phenomenon. "Oh yeah, Tiefling were always here they just... didn't go out much. And did I forget to mention our thousand year old psionics academy?" Speaking of which...

D&D Psionics: Always clunky. Always bolted on as an afterthought. Other than Dark Sun, it has just never fit with any of the official settings properly in my mind. Thrill to dozens of your favorite Monster Manual races, inexplicably restated with psionic powers! Among wish lists for 5e one entry I've never seen is "make psionics a core feature".

 

[The Red King]

One of my pet peaves:

The color of the dragon tells you everything you need to know about the dragon.

Red dragon? Oh well he's Chaotic Evil and breathes fire. Gold? He's Lawful Good and he breathes fire and gas.

The all chromatic dragons are evil and all metallic dragons are good trope is just silly. You should figure out a dragon from research not the color of its scales.

I use alignment as a guide. Are most of the red dragons chaotic evil? Yup, but not all. Plus, there are a lot of colors that can be seen as "red". A maroon, or pink dragon..... is that a red dragon? Or something different? I like to have ofspring of 2 different dragons with new abilities and breath weapons.

Kick the door in, kill what's on the other side, take his stuff. That's a pretty heinous crime in civilized lands. Why not also rape the women and sell the kids into slavery...oh, that would be evil. But killing is okay. lol

I run an evil campain. My PC's do that for practice before going out and starting REAL evil.

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 agree with the magic, but hands off my D20!

 

[Zhaleskra]

I've said it before, though I'm not so sure whether it's an assumption of the game or an assumption of the players (though some artwork leads toward players): Class X always wears Y type of clothing.

Look, I know the robed wizard was popularized a long time ago, but the problem is going out with your robe and pointy hat just screams to the world at large "attack me first, I'm the wizard."

 

[The Red King]

Thats why I like to have a character attack the party in armor and shield that falls away revealing a nude wizard!

While they are reacting to that sight, the wizard starts throwing fireballs all over.