What D&D cliches are you sick of?

[gordonknox]

Two rangers not allowed to work in the same party together.

 

[Darkness]

I have to ask - what practical difference would that make? You would simply exchange an abundance of gold for an abundance of silver (assuming you'd still use the recommended treasure allotment, just changed over to silver). I assume it is solely a flavour issue.

Exactly, mate.

 

[Gundark]

That is definitely a huge cliche that I hate - Every rule change is a disaster that ruins the game.

Another is people complaining that the latest edition is only for munchkiny power-gamers while older editions were perfect, or maybe not perfect, but had their charms that made them superior. People still don't realize that munchkinism is in the hands of the DM.

Dude this is sooooo true, especially lately with 3.5

 

[Orius]

One of the main problems of most D&D pantheons is that they seem so contrived. All the gods of the pantheons deal with adventuring and kicking-butt. We have war gods, death gods, fire gods, and nature gods for druids, but we usually don't have gods of fertility, or gods of the home which existed in many classical myths.
Any others?

But what kind of domains are you going to give to gods of the hearth/home besides alignment domains? Maybe Protection? Throw in the Realms domains and you can add Family. There's really not much to choose from. And it's not likely to be a choice picked my many PCs anyway, since most such priests aren't likely to adventure. I mean really, how many classical myths revolve around Hestia? Hearth gods are boring.

Fertility gods are a little easier to work with. Plant and Earth are good domains for a fertility god, since the worship of fertility gods often is connected with agriculture. If you're using the Realms domains, Charm and possibly Time would be viable domains for a fertility god.

 

[Orius]

Actually the magic angle amuses me most.

Consider magic -- here is the vast, all-encompassing power, yet 80% of the spells are for combat. And there is almost no magic devouted to increasing crops, making childbirth easier, and the like.

I think most commoners would fear wizards

That's probably because the types of spells adventuring wizards and clerics are going to use are more popular. How many clerics in the party are going to pray for an ease labor pains or whatever spell? Besides, the player's fellow players would probably say something like this: "What are you, mental? Prep a cure light wounds!" Hell, that would probably be the first spell the cleric would swap out.

And besides, how many companies are going to publish a book with a selection of spells like that? Who'd buy it?

I know it's not very logical, but really a sort of meta-game issue.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Dude this is sooooo true, especially lately with 3.5

If you go back to when 2E came out and read some of the letters in Dragon Magazine back then, you'd notice a lot of the same whining about 2E as you heard with 3E and 3.5.

I'm guessing we could save some of the posts from when 3.5 and 3.0 came out and just reprint them when 4E comes out in 3-5 years.

 

[Cbas10]

Well, this seems to be a topic of three different topics: bad cliches, bad aspects of the game, and bad aspects of how people run games. I'll chime in with a couple of each.

---cliches:
two-weapon drow [or insert other evil race] who now hate their origins
random monsters at night
tavern meetings with employers
dungeon complexes full of traps and living quarters
the concept of "adventurers"

---annoying aspects of the game itself:
the common "merchant's tongue"
the lack of any character with a focus on skills (unless you want to be a rogue or a bard)
the term "Market Value" instead of something like "Base Construction Cost"

---annoying aspects of games I've been in:
Clerics: don't they have more to do than to wait around for "adventurers" to stumble in needing healing. Evidently they also stockpile precious gems for near-endless uses of healing, restoring, raising, etc
Magic items: Ye Olde Magick Shoppe (I better not rant...)
Pawning items found in ruins and stuff: why are there always buyers for some of the most expensive and off-the-wall crap?

 

[Vaxalon]

.... How many clerics in the party are going to pray for an ease labor pains or whatever spell? ....

That's why I always leave city-based NPC casters with lots of open slots when I write them up. Anyone who isn't expecting a situation like combat, where action is needed IMMEDIATELY, will keep his options open. Prepping spells is for people who are in stressful situations.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

53) Old gamers trying to recapture lost youth by constantly droning on about how great some older, crappier edition of the game was.

I second that. And third. In fact, I 10d% that.

Really, If I hear something like "Edition X sucks because you can now do Y" only one more time, I get nostalgical on that guy.


The chlichés I find annoying:
Halflings that are portrayed like annoying little bastards. Never mind their tendency to be thieves (as long as they aren't made into cleptomaniacs), but after the 10th or so DM who tries to get his players committing genocid on the poor halflings, it really gets irritating

Charisma with females directly translates into size of breasts.

Evil = Psychotic Mass Murderer. This is the case in many evil PC's I've seen over time. OK, I played some of those as well, but some people don't seem to realize that there are other ways to play an evil character, preferring to start slaughtering whole cities (or trying to anyway).

 

[Wormwood]

A cliché I'm really, really sick of: Robes on wizards.

I like that the WotC art department is trying to break out of that boooring 1970's bong-art mindset, but I'm still dying to see the 'Practical Yet Stylish Vest of the Archwizard' in the DMG.