D&D General What are your Pedantic Complaints about D&D?

[Laurefindel]

Falling damage in D&D is linear? I mean come on, I’ve done physics, you’ve done physics, we all know that gravity is quadratic! And then what, out of a sudden drag goes from 0% to 100% as an opposing force?

And what about mass, volume and surface? You’re telling me a feather has the same terminal velocity in atmosphere as an anvil? What good is feather fall then!

and while we’re at it, there is no such a thing as “terminal velocity”. Its an asymptote, you can never “reach” theoretical terminal velocity.

 

[Charlaquin]

The impossibility of "he and I move while staying together" in combat. Taking out the delay action just made some simple concepts impossible.

This is entirely possible with the Ready action.

 

[Hriston]

The rapier should be called the arming sword.

Also, elves should not have a natural lifespan. I interpret the number of years given as the time after which they are overcome with the sorrows of the world and seek the West (Feywild) by either leaving the world physically or, if they cannot, leaving their bodies behind.

 

[Celebrim]

They should call the shortsword an arming sword though.

A short sword is a very different class of weapon than an arming sword.

Short sword refers to a weapon look more like a Cinquedea or a Xiphos than an arming sword. Basically, any over large dagger primarily employed as a stabbing weapon and which has the advantage of being wieldy in very close quarters.

I'm not going to really get into the fact that there are several styles of sword that do not neatly fit into either the traditional short or long categories.

 

[Celebrim]

The rapier should be called the arming sword.

Oh no. Uh uh.

 

[drl2]

Armor class is dumb. "To hit" should be agility/range/etc-based, and different kinds of armor should resist certain amounts of damage by type. Yeah, you'd have to figure this out for every monster and every defensive item so it's not gonna happen, but I just like the idea of the AC mechanic being separated.

 

[Blue]

3. Studded Leather Armor. What do the studs even do?

The studs make catcalls at the elves (can't tell what gender they are, so whistle all) and flex. A lot.

Oh wait, wrong context.

 

[Celebrim]

Armor class is dumb. "To hit" should be agility/range/etc-based, and different kinds of armor should resist certain amounts of damage by type. Yeah, you'd have to figure this out for every monster and every defensive item so it's not gonna happen, but I just like the idea of the AC mechanic being separated.

I used to think this way as well, but the implementation to make that work is more complex than you might think. You think the hard part is working it out for every monster. That's the easy part. Basically this falls into a category of "game should be more realistic" where the cost of implementing that realism is actually high rather than low.

 

[Blue]

This is entirely possible with the Ready action.

Not unless one of the characters gives up all of their actions. Try you and a friend (or several) walking down a street while each doing something. It does not require that everybody but one give up all of their actions to walk in a line. See also: marching band. (Taking an action for CHR (Perform).)

 

[Blue]

Falling damage in D&D is linear? I mean come on, I’ve done physics, you’ve done physics, we all know that gravity is quadratic! And then what, out of a sudden drag goes from 0% to 100% as an opposing force?

Back in the time of one of the TSR-edition D&D editions they came out with this in Dragon magazine. It worked well from traps and such, but it made some general environmental hazards impossibly deadly.

If we're already accepted the game assumption that you can be hit several times by a battle axe, roasted by a dragon, and you're still fighting, then the realism of a 40' fall from failing a climb check on a cliff killing you was not in genre.