D&D 5E What are the "True Issues" with 5e?

[Hussar]

I have a summer tent and a 3 seasons tent. I've used old school canvas tents with no screens or bottoms. Heck, I've been tenting when a tornado touched down within a few miles. Twice. The D&D tent is made of canvas, not nylon. That means it's more like a 3 season tent.

But I stand by what I said. D&D isn't designed with the granularity were a few degrees will make a difference. If you need to survive freezing temperatures I'd expect characters to have winter gear, sleeping pad and blanket. They'll need either a tent or (depending on location) a survival check to build a snow shelter.

What winter gear? There’s none listed.

You keep ignoring the point though. Magic will always have this defined. Mundane never will. And this is why players will always default to magic solutions. They know what they’re getting.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

Oh absolutely. I can’t really blame WotC for trying to thread the needle here. They really are between a rock and a hard place.

As far as changes I’d like to see go. I know I lost this argument long ago.

They are supposed to appeal to the most people possible. You are going to lose a few folks who are 3 standard deviations out in either direction.

If not you lost the middle of the damn distribution.

All of that said, there would be nothing stopping them from having some add on modules that increase grit or do away with detail and abstract whatever a particular group wants.

…Like actual rules and not general statements. But I think their sustained success is not jusr chance and they did thread the needle.

Very interesting to see if the expected edition shift is as robust as usual…

 

[Gammadoodler]

This is really a thing? Im not trying to be funny or mocking but is this an issue that people are complaining about?

In a generic, "why is there equipment that doesn't have any mechanical purpose" kind of way..yeah.

More holistically, it's tied to poor support for noncombat activities, and folks' issues with using 5e encumbrance as a remedy to that poor support.

 

[R_J_K75]

In a generic, "why is there equipment that doesn't have any mechanical purpose" kind of way..yeah.

More holistically, it's tied to poor support for noncombat activities, and folks' issues with using 5e encumbrance as a remedy to that poor support.

I think thats one of the places 5E falls short, the tent is left to the DM to interpret

 

[M_Natas]

But that’s entirely the point. You SHOULD be able to know what the game presumes you can do with a shovel.

Or the cold rating of a tent.

We get told exactly how long a torch lasts and how much light it sheds despite those being wildly variable in real life. Do you have an issue with that?

I also wanted to bring up Torches.
Mundane Items interact with rules. That's why a Torches have a bright and dim light radius like light giving spells, because if you play one of the two races that don't have Darkvision, such thing could matter.

That's why water skins have a volume of water, because we have rules on how much water a character needs.

A tent doesn't have a description on stuff that interact with rules, because there a few to none rules RAW in the Core Books that would interact with a tent.

With the (mundane) item descriptions you can see, what rules are there and are supposed to matter.

 

[Maxperson]

What winter gear? There’s none listed.

That has struck me as an odd deficiency for quite a while now. I mean, I can buy common clothes, fine cloths, traveler's clothes, and even COSTUME clothes, but not winter/cold weather clothes. I'm guessing it was an oversight rather than anything deliberate.

 

[Fifth Element]

I don't appreciate the assumption that nobody cares about logistics, or is right to do so.

As per usual, the post you responded to made no such assumption.

 

[Vaalingrade]

What winter gear? There’s none listed.

You keep ignoring the point though. Magic will always have this defined. Mundane never will. And this is why players will always default to magic solutions. They know what they’re getting.

Didn't we have just a massive Classic Enworld Flamewar over whether or not outfits came with gloves and then realizing you just can't get gloves at all at one point?

 

[Hussar]

Didn't we have just a massive Classic Enworld Flamewar over whether or not outfits came with gloves and then realizing you just can't get gloves at all at one point?

Oh, goody, I missed that one. I knew sticking o a couple of threads at a time was healthy.

Again, I get the idea that 5e should have more mechanics for survival and equipment. Heck, I'd like it to have it. But, @Oofta is right that we are not going to get it. Getting those mechanics will never get past the 70% benchmark. Far too many people don't really care that much to agree to the change and there are more than enough who are very content with the status quo.

So, again, yeah, it's off to the DM's Guild if you want this. WotC and 5e are not ever going to be allowed to.

I mean, good grief, ten years and we don't even have decent rules for building a base/running a business. There's some ad-hoc stuff in Dragonhiest, but, other than that, if you want to run any sort of business in the game, you're pretty much on your own. The Xanathar down time rules kinda-sorta give some basis, but, it's REALLY basic.

I want to build a modest, two bedroom stone farmhouse for my character. How much does that cost and how long does it take? Ask your DM and get some sort of hand wavy answer and that's about it.

 

[Micah Sweet]

As per usual, the post you responded to made no such assumption.

I didn't respond to your post, so now you're making the assumption it seems.