D&D (2024) Rules that annoy you

[rmcoen]

I love that you included the "other than the ones that are explicitly required to be" because if you attacked your party with 20 goblins all wielding blowguns (1 piercing damage) dipped in poison (whatever d6 of poison damage or a poison effect), every single attack that hit would need to be meat damage for it to make any kind of sense (the poison only affects the target on an injury).

People rarely account for these situations when boldly declaring what is and isn't meat points (it is all meat points, except when it strains our suspension of disbelief too much).

Actually, I recall just this thing coming up in a CHAMPIONS (HERO system) game. The character had a "Taser", defined as inflicting a single point of BODY, with a linked massive stunning attack "Only if the taser hits and inflicts damage". A single point of BODY damage pretty much never gets through anyone's innate armor value (Physical Defense), let alone any boosts they might have, making the linked attack really cheap. EXCEPT... the taser's single point had "Piercing" (bypass PD), and Piercing again (bypass the "Hardened" trait, which blocks "Piercing"), so that single point could get through!

10 Taser hits will kill pretty much any average person/creature (10 BODY) regardless of their armor ("Bricks" with huge BODY stats will still feel the stings), even if the massive stunning effect doesn't get them.

Likewise, your 20 goblins with blowguns... either they are real blowguns, in which case, 100%, they do NOTHING unless they hit meat... or they are Piercing x2 taser darts, and always inflict meat damage... and just a few will kill you from the sting? More likely, they should be "0 damage, but on a hit, deliver poison". Then the "meat-ness of Hit Points" is avoided.

 

[billd91]

Actually, I recall just this thing coming up in a CHAMPIONS (HERO system) game. The character had a "Taser", defined as inflicting a single point of BODY, with a linked massive stunning attack "Only if the taser hits and inflicts damage". A single point of BODY damage pretty much never gets through anyone's innate armor value (Physical Defense), let alone any boosts they might have, making the linked attack really cheap. EXCEPT... the taser's single point had "Piercing" (bypass PD), and Piercing again (bypass the "Hardened" trait, which blocks "Piercing"), so that single point could get through!

HAH! Sounds like the kind of player the Champions rulebook warned GMs about. If a limitation, such as the linkage on the stunning attack requiring the taser to do BODY damage, isn't actually limiting, it's not supposed to be worth any discount.

I LOVE telling players like that "No".
<end tangent>

 

[ECMO3]

Everyone's got their own pet peeves with respect to the D&D rules. Some people will find that theirs have been addressed in the 2024 revision, others will find that theirs have not. Looking through the various reviews, I came across two that still kinda irk me.

After a bit of playing these are the two that annoy me the most:

1. New Grapple and Shove: Took skills out of it completely and eliminated the dump strength+Athletics expertise that a lot of Rogues used to grapple and shove effectively. Now it is just much more bland.

2. Weapon Masteries: We are using them, all of my PCs have them and I just don't think they bring anything of thematic value to the game, while slowing down combat. Combat was just as fun without them .... and faster. Because weapon masteries work so much better when optimized they really cause a wider gulf between the optimizers and the people trying to build a fun PC idea.

EDIT - thought of 2 more:

3. The new Monk - 1d6 martial arts, replacing most d4 weapon damage with d6, a free bonus action attack, dexterity on unarmed strikes and unarmored defense is too much on a 1-level dip. Some of these features should have been delayed to later.

4. Ranger 13th, 17th and 20th level class features

 

[cbwjm]

For the monk, I actually feel it needed that d6 damage start, but then I also don't really worry about players dipping into other classss.

 

[James Gasik]

Actually, I recall just this thing coming up in a CHAMPIONS (HERO system) game. The character had a "Taser", defined as inflicting a single point of BODY, with a linked massive stunning attack "Only if the taser hits and inflicts damage". A single point of BODY damage pretty much never gets through anyone's innate armor value (Physical Defense), let alone any boosts they might have, making the linked attack really cheap. EXCEPT... the taser's single point had "Piercing" (bypass PD), and Piercing again (bypass the "Hardened" trait, which blocks "Piercing"), so that single point could get through!

10 Taser hits will kill pretty much any average person/creature (10 BODY) regardless of their armor ("Bricks" with huge BODY stats will still feel the stings), even if the massive stunning effect doesn't get them.

Likewise, your 20 goblins with blowguns... either they are real blowguns, in which case, 100%, they do NOTHING unless they hit meat... or they are Piercing x2 taser darts, and always inflict meat damage... and just a few will kill you from the sting? More likely, they should be "0 damage, but on a hit, deliver poison". Then the "meat-ness of Hit Points" is avoided.

Was that cheaper than "Attack Versus Limited Defense", or a cunning way to get around having to pay for AVLD?

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

I hate both critical successes and critical failures. Hate hate hate hate hate - you should not get hosed one roll out of 36! And fortunately they are not part of the rules! But I keep having referees who think they're Fun™ and house rule them in.

 

[I'm A Banana]

any given hit is not necassarily dealing meat damage, other than the ones that are explicitly required to be, but 50% health is when you're explicitly implied to have been starting to take meat damage if you haven't already.

that's my take on it anyway, but honeslty worrying if damage is meat or not is nothing that's ever concerned me at all.

As a fan of meaty HP who has long been told I'm Doing It Wrong, I've been a little surprised to see a more meaty HP take in general when I listen to other groups. Listening to some D&D podcasts and watching Vox Machina really reinforced that meat is a significant part of HP for more than just me. Characters get regularly brutalized, and then mostly pop back up again when they get some healing.

Not always. Not consistently. But it seems like it's a pretty common take out there in the world, overall.

 

[SkidAce]

HAH! Sounds like the kind of player the Champions rulebook warned GMs about. If a limitation, such as the linkage on the stunning attack requiring the taser to do BODY damage, isn't actually limiting, it's not supposed to be worth any discount.

I LOVE telling players like that "No".
<end tangent>

Same.

Ah the good old days....so many d6s. "Oh and we need to count knockback into that wall"

 

[jmartkdr2]

I hate both critical successes and critical failures. Hate hate hate hate hate - you should not get hosed one roll out of 36! And fortunately they are not part of the rules! But I keep having referees who think they're Fun™ and house rule them in.

It's extra annoying when the players tell the dm they don't find crit fails fun, but the dm disagrees an tells the players that they (the players) do find them fun.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Was that cheaper than "Attack Versus Limited Defense", or a cunning way to get around having to pay for AVLD?

I'm trying to figure out why not just do a taser as STUN-only in a HERO setting. It doesn't even cost extra.

As for terrible rules, anyone remember confirming crits?

Hurray! You lucked out a rolled a twenty! now watch as all the energy drains from the room as you follow that up with a two.