Most frustrating quirk of 5E?

[Maxperson]

Druid's "no metal" being the single only morally-driven restriction in the whole game.

At-will Guidance.

The Paladin's "no evil" is only about morals. Most of the paladin's restrictions are.

 

[WaterRabbit]

My biggest frustration is the Inspiration mechanic. It's either forgotten by players or annoyingly sought after by power gamer types.
Also dislike backgrounds. I think they should be more general. Like "my character was a soldier and I fought goblins so my character should be able to speak goblin and get a bonus to track them." Or maybe your acolyte character has the ability to turn undead once per day?

When I used Inspiration as outlined in the PHB, I had the same issue you have. However, when I switched from individual Inspiration to group Inspiration, it gets used every session and by almost every player.

I took the idea from this board. After every long rest the Inspiration pool recharges. At any time a player can draw from the pool to influence an action their character takes. However they have to tie it to a character trait and each trait can only be used once (thus the pool is only 4 in size).

Because it is a group pool, someone almost always suggests using Inspiration when someone botches something badly.

 

[WaterRabbit]

In 3e, there was a (spell?) (prestige class feature?) to do just that. I do not remember where I saw it, though. -sigh-

3e didn't have the concentration mechanic. You could use a familiar to cast certain spells and also hold one at the ready.

 

[WaterRabbit]

You do realize that a good number of items on your list have existed in all versions of the game? Also most of this list is a complaint about 5e not being 1e/2e.

 

[WaterRabbit]

I can't answer for others, but for me it's because if you are one death save from dying, you shouldn't be able to run around 8 hours later like nothing ever happened without some serious magic healing involved. If you CAN just run around like nothing happened after only 8 hours of rest, then there was absolutely nothing that should have required even a single death save.

What I do is that if a character drops to 0 hp they get one level of exhaustion. That level can be removed during a short rest. However, for each failed death save they gain another level of exhaustion that can only be removed in the normal manner (i.e., one per long rest).

It tends to get rid of the jack in the box heal/die cycle.

 

[Blue]

I added one level of exhaustion for each time a PC dropped to zero HP. As it turned out, no PC every dropped to 0 HP more than once per long rest, and that's with long rests of one week. PCs routinely dropped to 0 HP, don't get me wrong.

...

I'd use it again, even if the actual effect in play was slight. I think the psychological effect is worth it even if it was never greater than level 1 exhaustion.

With a single level of exhaustion, and a full week of rest to remove it so it's sticking around, I'm absolutely boggled how the "actual effect in play was slight." That gives disadvantage on every ability check. 99% of non-combat mechanical interaction is ability (/skill) checks. This would have been devastating at any table I have played at or run, ruining the character for every pillar of play except combat for the entire adventure.

 

[5ekyu]

With a single level of exhaustion, and a full week of rest to remove it so it's sticking around, I'm absolutely boggled how the "actual effect in play was slight." That gives disadvantage on every ability check. 99% of non-combat mechanical interaction is ability (/skill) checks. This would have been devastating at any table I have played at or run, ruining the character for every pillar of play except combat for the entire adventure.

Also impacts initiative rolls too.

Best i can figure a lot of one-two combats and week long pauses. Even without exhaustion, the long rest classes only having a reset every week leads to a lot of enforced downtime - unless most encounters are cantrip-only easy.

 

[bedir than]

With a single level of exhaustion, and a full week of rest to remove it so it's sticking around, I'm absolutely boggled how the "actual effect in play was slight." That gives disadvantage on every ability check. 99% of non-combat mechanical interaction is ability (/skill) checks. This would have been devastating at any table I have played at or run, ruining the character for every pillar of play except combat for the entire adventure.

It didn't show a mechanical impact because players fear it, so they don't drop as often

 

[Yardiff]

Another thing I'm not a fan of in 5e is the fondling an magic item for an hour and you know all you need to know about that item. No identify spell needed. blah.

 

[5ekyu]

It didn't show a mechanical impact because players fear it, so they don't drop as often

So, prior to the rule, they were dropping to zero HP by choice? it was what they wanted to happen?