What D&D cliches are you sick of?

[Kae'Yoss]

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.

Going in the opposite direction, another thing (not necessarily chliché) I hate: Changes in our culture have to carry over into D&D. Played Baldur's Gate? Baldur's Gate 2? I really hated how all the new portraits in BG2 had more piercings in the face than that poor guy in an iron maiden.

 

[Nightfall]

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.

Thanks Jeff and Gundark for the support. Yes the RPG genre is FILLED with cliches and stuff that seems annoying. But you get over and push on. Why? Cause this is a GAME folks and we are trying to have fun. (At least one hopes so!) Anyway so I'm sticking with #666. Cause so far it's held true for an edition and revision.

 

[Vahktang]

Adventurers being hired to deal with a monster menace.

Hey!
I like that one.

Ah well.
Maybe you and six buddies can be hired by a village of farmers to protect them from bandits instead.

More later,

Vahktang

 

[maddman75]

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.

I actually know of a game where that makes sense. It's a video game, but still it could be used in an RPG.

It was the MMORPG Asheron's Call. Your warrior types increased their armor by getting heavier and heavier pieces of armor. Breastplates, greaves, gloves, etc. Now wizards didn't have the high strength to wear that stuff, so they had spells to make a piece of clothing act like strong armor. But you'd be casting all day if you had to boost your shirt, pants, gloves, hat, etc. But buy yourself a hooded robe and you only had to cast it on one item! All the wizards wore robes, and it made sense for them to do so.

Most of my wizards don't wear robes. I mean that's like putting a big sign over your head that says "WIZARD HERE! BETTER KILL ME FIRST!"

 

[Kesh]

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.

Yeah. That's why I prefer to have most of my sorcerers/wizards dress in commoner's clothes, or leathers. Sometimes monk's clothing, for the ones that want to dress really simply.

 

[MarauderX]

Original D&D (1974) is the only true game. All the other editions are trite.

Amen, brother, preach it... but then again each class was a cliche...

 

[shadow]

I really hated how all the new portraits in BG2 had more piercings in the face than that poor guy in an iron maiden.

Preach on brother! I have a lot of problems with 3.Xe artwork. While technically very good, it often seems very weird and bizarre. Apparently all the adventurers started hanging out with the bondage and fetish crowd between 2e and 3e!

 

[Aust Diamondew]

Yeah. That's why I prefer to have most of my sorcerers/wizards dress in commoner's clothes, or leathers. Sometimes monk's clothing, for the ones that want to dress really simply.

Sorta the opposite of wizards in my campaign. They wear fancy clothing, nobles outfits. They usually end up looking overly uped dressed with a bunch of gaudy jewelry.

 

[Flyspeck23]

Sorta the opposite of wizards in my campaign. They wear fancy clothing, nobles outfits. They usually end up looking overly uped dressed with a bunch of gaudy jewelry.

That's a cliche too [At least in some systems/worlds.]

 

[shilsen]

Sorta the opposite of wizards in my campaign. They wear fancy clothing, nobles outfits. They usually end up looking overly uped dressed with a bunch of gaudy jewelry.

What about staves? Everybody knows a wizard's staff has a knob on the end.