D&D (2024) Rules that annoy you

[James Gasik]

You know, for an entire 2 year 5E campaign, I made the following rule changes:

• Everyone, including all npcs and monsters, got proficiency in all saves (so scaling remains smooth and someone's weak save doesn't become weaker and weaker).
• Passive Perception gets rolled into Wisdom saves/defenses.
• The Investigate skill takes Perception's active actions (like searching for someone or an active perception check).
• If an ability gives you Perception proficiency, it's Investigate proficiency instead.

Perception is just too much of a must have skill. It should be harder to sneak up on a high level person than a low level person, but plenty of classes don't get perception proficiency. I wanted all skills to be things you actively do, not passive things.

That's another thing that I need to add to my list, the way most high tier characters have two hopefully good saves, maybe three if feats are on the table, and then very likely two-three saves that are hot garbage, and theoretically, you can run into a save your character cannot make at all, even on a 20, which doesn't sound very much fun to me, especially when getting magical saving throw bonus items is no longer the norm!

 

[Xeviat]

I think this is for groups that use variant rest rules. Like if you decide your "gritty D&D" game has a long rest take a week, then 1/day abilities require you to go back and change them manually.

Plus, you never know, there could be shenanigans like hopping into a convenient fast time demiplane and completing a long rest in half an hour or what have you...

Hmmmmmmm... that works. But if you're using variant rules, you're already changing definitions. X/day just means "after a long rest". Heck, X/long rest is less clunky than "once you use X, you can't use X again until you finish a long rest".

 

[Xeviat]

That's another thing that I need to add to my list, the way most high tier characters have two hopefully good saves, maybe three if feats are on the table, and then very likely two-three saves that are hot garbage, and theoretically, you can run into a save your character cannot make at all, even on a 20, which doesn't sound very much fun to me, especially when getting magical saving throw bonus items is no longer the norm!

Proficiency plus -1 to +1 is still small compared to prof + 3 to 5, but it at least gives you some growth.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I changed the base DC to 10. 1) because that just feels more normal, and 2) since everyone got +2 to all (non-proficient) saves at level 1.

 

[James Gasik]

Hmmmmmmm... that works. But if you're using variant rules, you're already changing definitions. X/day just means "after a long rest". Heck, X/long rest is less clunky than "once you use X, you can't use X again until you finish a long rest".

I can't imagine what goes on in the heads of game designers. I do know that in the D&D Next Playtest, they were playing around with rest durations- one adventure had us fight some orcs, then take two week to travel to a distant city, and we didn't get a long rest, lol. So maybe x/rest was decided on before 8 hour short rests were?

 

[mellored]

That's another thing that I need to add to my list, the way most high tier characters have two hopefully good saves, maybe three if feats are on the table, and then very likely two-three saves that are hot garbage, and theoretically, you can run into a save your character cannot make at all, even on a 20, which doesn't sound very much fun to me, especially when getting magical saving throw bonus items is no longer the norm!

IMO: Everyone gets +1/2 proficiency to all saves. (+1 to +3).

Still leaves you with noticeable strengths and weaknesses, but the 8 Int barbarian might escape the Maze spell before the combat is over.

 

[James Gasik]

Let me add that I also hate the current six saves format. I mean, ok, most of these make sense- strong characters are harder to push around, agile characters can dodge attacks, things that affect your body use Con, great.

Int saves are head scratchers to me sometime, but what really takes the cake are Charisma saves.

If Charisma let you weasel out of thinks like charm or suggestion, that might make sense, but what in the heck does Charisma have to do with being banished from this plane of existence? It literally feels like Charisma is for saves that literally don't make sense for anything else!

 

[Krachek]

It’s not some rules that are annoying, it’s the whole game who is a none sense to reality!
Once that said, all annoying rules are just a little more none sense than all the rest.

 

[Undrave]

Oh oh oh, teacher, call me! I know this one. So the Clay Golem is a being from Jewish stories. At some point, it was supposed to be "only a cleric of X level or higher can heal a clay golem's damage", as in the damage that the clay golem has taken, but it got misread as only a cleric can heal the damage that a clay golem deals.

That's why we changed "Golems" to "Guardians" in Level Up.

And they keep this mistake because 'tradition' -_-

 

[Xeviat]

Why doesn't the Weapon Master feat give you Weapon Mastery?

Wait, it does, wow, I misread that.

 

[GobHag]

No, I'm drawing the line at the physiology of the human body. Even though there is magic and magical creatures as far as I'm concerned, the game has to be grounded in some things that are known in our real world. That's why there are rules for drowning, eating and drinking requirements, freezing to death, etc.

Well in my case I've always seen people be stabilized from death in less than 6 seconds