D&D (2024) Rules that annoy you

[Shardstone]

Seems strange when they up and decided most everyone should be using a bonus action on their turn, when a much simpler solution would to have bonus actions be rare and limited use, so you're only doing one thing on a given turn.

Like, Second Wind once every other fight or so? That should be fine. Bonus action attacks, smites, cunning action, bonus action spells- it feels like these create a lot more decision paralysis to me.

And how Action + Bonus Action is any better than Bonus Action + Bonus Action is a bit puzzling.

Imo it should just be two actions each turn and they cant be repeats, So cast two spells but cannot be same spell.

 

[Maxperson]

Crawford said in an interview that rule exists to limit player choice on a turn due to option paralysis.

Excellent. That means that if it wasn't a balance issue, I can ditch it without worry.

 

[Maxperson]

But see, that doesn't make any sense (see? I can appreciate realism!). Why would the human language be the lingua franca of most D&D settings? What, did Dwarves and Elves never trade with one another until some human came along and said "yo man, it's easy to learn my language, just speak that at each other!".

Probably for the same reason that many people all over the world learn English. Humans are the United States of the D&D settings. Or at least that's the only real justification I can see.

 

[Maxperson]

Imo it should just be two actions each turn and they cant be repeats, So cast two spells but cannot be same spell.

I wouldn't do no repeats, with the exception of spells. I mean, that poor sad little fighter who just swung his sword at the ogre and can't do it again with his second action, just staring at the spellcaster lobbing two spells.

What I would do is say if you cast a spell, the second action has to be a spell that uses a lower spell slot. So if you cast a fireball with your first action, the second has to be 2nd level or lower. If your first spell is a cantrip, you blew it. Highest spell has to go first. Though I would make an exception for cantrips. Two cantrips seems fine.

 

[mamba]

But see, that doesn't make any sense (see? I can appreciate realism!). Why would the human language be the lingua franca of most D&D settings?

as you noticed there is no human language, unlike for other species. What is more likely, that humans never developed one or that they did and it spread far and wide and became common?

In the old settings (where we got this from), humans were the dominant / most populous race.

What, did Dwarves and Elves never trade with one another until some human came along and said "yo man, it's easy to learn my language, just speak that at each other!".

no, they spoke dwarven or elvish, why would they invent a language neither one spoke to talk to each other…

 

[mamba]

Unless of course, what you want is your players to use consumables more often...

they still can, it just still comes at a price, albeit a reduced one. What I definitely do not want is this being one more action everyone can take every round without sacrificing anything

 

[ColinChapman]

Static movement rates that are a holdover from wargaming:

Reynard the Nimble STR 10, DEX 16, CON 12 rogue? 30-ft. movement.
Maximus the powerful, strong and coordinated, mighty-thewed physical paragon STR 18, DEX 18, CON 18 fighter? 30-ft. movement.
Herbert the Unremarkable NPC with STR, DEX, and CON all at 10? 30-ft. movement.
Heironymous the wheezing bookish unfit STR 6, DEX 8, CON 7 wizard? Guess what? 30-ft. movement.

For a game that is so painfully laser-focused on the nitty gritty of highly specific movement rates, how many feet you trade to jump X, different ranges for each weapon, AoEs, etc. it can't seem to move past those old static rates where every member of every species moves at precisely the same rate.

I use zone-based combat for Theatre of the Mind simplicity, but I used a simple approach to convert all static rates into d20 modifiers (also modded by the highest of STR or DEX for sprints, or CON for longer runs). And in cases where cinematic movement matters (chases, races, escapes) you roll. Sure, being stronger, more agile, etc. will give you a significant edge, but if you roll low enough, and the other party high enough, the unexpected can happen, even if only for one round in several. And in-game, that's the moment you slipped, or some NPC pushed a food cart in front of you, etc. Way more exciting while offering a bit more verisimilitude too.

 

[CreamCloud0]

Why would everyone in the world, especially a pre-modern world, speak the same language even as a second language? That makes zero logical sense unless divine will or epic magic is a factor, and even then it's a questionable narrative at best, IMO.

Well with elves and gnomes and maybe a number of other especially long-lived and widespread species leading the initiative, fairly accessible unlimited range communication magic and a class of people who wander the globe and further professionally, i can quite easily see how that might occur, how it might be considered useful to have a universal tongue that got spread about, someone mentioned maybe it was the leftover language of an older empire, maybe it’s ‘elvish common’

 

[James Gasik]

no, they spoke dwarven or elvish, why would they invent a language neither one spoke to talk to each other…

That is somewhat the purpose of a trade language, which is my point. If Common is the default trade language of the setting, adopted so that disparate species can communicate with one another, then it should have been developed and adopted by the elder races before humans showed upon the scene.

You can't really say "well see, races didn't trade with one another in any real way until humans showed up, which is why everyone learned the human language and adopted it as the Common Tongue."

OTOH, if Common existed before Humans, why did they then adopt that as their language?

Some settings do have other Human tongues (like the Forgotten Realms with Thorass, Chondathan, and more, some of which are now effectively dead languages), but most have fallen by the wayside, replaced by Common. Still a bit weird that every other race clings to their native tongue while also learning Common and Humans just sort of...didn't.

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And yes, I understand the Doylist reasoning here, that it was done this way because Humans used to be the most populous and important race in settings, but even in settings where that isn't true, we're stuck with Humans only speaking Common and everyone else speaking Common with no Watsonian explanation.

 

[pukunui]

I wouldn’t mind everyone speaking common if it were intentionally treated as a developed worldwide language, it’s spoken everywhere but it’s everyone’s second language, and it’s inelegant to communicate in.

Common is human, where else do you think it is from, D&D’s Esperanto?

According to the 2024 PHB, Common originated in Sigil.