D&D 5E (2014) Odd things in the rules that bug you?

[ccs]

that might be, but @Delazar idea has merit.

It would cut down on number of weapons as we would not need simple/martial split.

And when you look at those weapons, and how some weapons are placed, you see that the whole idea is pretty stupid;

shortbow is simple, yet longbow is martial weapon? It's the same weapon!

Reality disagrees with you

 

[tetrasodium]

that might be, but @Delazar idea has merit.

No it doesn't. Very early editions (1e? chainmail?) functioned like that with a damage die based on what was effectively your class, it was changed as the game was improved with added complexities that allowed greater story development & deeper character development than could be contained within a one shot experimental game. The reason so many of those weapons you note are stupid is because in the endless quest to simplify things at any cost they removed all of the subjective elements that made them viscerally different on a mechanical level

 

[Horwath]

Reality disagrees with you

oh, please...
how is shorbow different from longbow?

Only difference can be in draw strength(and that is irrelevant in 5E) and that has nothing with amount of training or in a way that a weapon is used.

If they put ALL crossbows simple and ALL bows martial, it would be more believable.

 

[Oofta]

A history degree with a focus in medieval Europe shows that medieval people worked longer and much harder than most of people in the modern West do. Certainly some people work ridiculously long hours today but that is because of modern connectivity they can be "working" while doing something else.

The idea that planting and harvest times are slow is not exactly true either. The off season was (and still is for modern agriculturalists) a time to catch up on things that weren't done during those busy times (fence repair/maintenance, building & tool repair/maintenance, slaughtering animals, preparing foods for storage, etc.). There isn't the same sense of urgency for a lot of those tasks as there is for planting and harvesting, but there are a bunch of things that need to get done.

The "medieval period" spans centuries and even if we're only counting Europe dozens of countries with hundreds of regions. So to make one declaration about the thousands of different time periods, locations and regions seems a bit far fetched. Also not worth arguing about. But there is another thing that bugs me ...

Outside of Eberron, magic has little or no impact on people's daily lives. I get that it doesn't really directly impact the adventuring life, but the idea that a moderately well trained wizard can create a ball of fire from nothing while most people don't even have a ritual to keep their food fresh a little longer is odd. Even when it's a "high magic" world like FR, almost every caster still focuses on combat related magic. It's like if the only people in the modern world that had technology were the armed forces. While soldiers drive tanks, everyone else is still riding around on horses.

We don't need a book dedicated to this kind of stuff, but maybe a section here and there? Options and thoughts of how it might affect a campaign? Ideas on how to protect that keep from other magic users and flying creatures? Anything at all really.

 

[Rikka66]

Did not take long for this to go from "odd aspects of the rules that bug you" to just "things about the rules you don't like".

The entire mess with melee attacks vs melee weapon attacks and such comes to mind, personally.

 

[Minigiant]

No it doesn't. Very early editions (1e? chainmail?) functioned like that with a damage die based on what was effectively your class, it was changed as the game was improved with added complexities that allowed greater story development & deeper character development than could be contained within a one shot experimental game. The reason so many of those weapons you note are stupid is because in the endless quest to simplify things at any cost they removed all of the subjective elements that made them viscerally different on a mechanical level

Indeed

Many of the weird rules of 5e come from attempting to simplify the edition for new comers and going a smidge too far.

Weapons and armor were abstracted down to a level a tier too much. It could have been okay if there were official variants

 

[Dioltach]

Elves live in forests. Obviously the perfect place for their entire race to learn to fight with longswords and longbows. Dwarves live in tunnels, and prefer to swing large axes instead of focusing on short stabby weapons. Halflings are smaller and weaker than most races, so of course they specialise in throwing stuff instead of ranged weapons that rely less on strength.

 

[Minigiant]

Did not take long for this to go from "odd aspects of the rules that bug you" to just "things about the rules you don't like".

It's a thin liiiiiiiiiiiiiine between bug and hate.

 

[Oofta]

Indeed

Many of the weird rules of 5e come from attempting to simplify the edition for new comers and going a smidge too far.

Weapons and armor were abstracted down to a level a tier too much. It could have been okay if there were official variants

Because we should go back to the days of a couple dozen different types of pole arms?

 

[Minigiant]

Because we should go back to the days of a couple dozen different types of pole arms?

There's a huge gap between 2 identical polearms and 27 mechanically different polearms.

That kinda stuff bugs me.