• NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.

What D&D cliches are you sick of?

By "swimming in gold" I mean, playing 1e D&D as written. I mean, typically, about 2/3rds of your xp came from gold, so, by 6th level or so, you had thousands and thousands of GP floating around. Note, in your own quote, a "ring of invisibility" is a minor magic item, something later editions would increase the value of dramatically. Three potions=1 ring of invisibility. :D

Raise Dead, AIR, was 5000 gp, so, that hasn't really changed at all.

I always found that list really amusing since it never, ever worked the other way. No one ever approached my cleric to cast a spell. Funny that. You'd think that a decent level spell caster could make a pretty comfortable living without lifting a finger, just casting a spell or two a day.
 

log in or register to remove this ad

I always found that list really amusing since it never, ever worked the other way. No one ever approached my cleric to cast a spell. Funny that. You'd think that a decent level spell caster could make a pretty comfortable living without lifting a finger, just casting a spell or two a day.

This did come up in games I played in, but generally only when you had a party that liked to do things like set up shop in town. It can be a great way to raise both wealth and political power. I've even been in groups where people essentially started a mafia style racket, where they'd unleash some Gnolls on a village, then come in later to offer their healing services.
 

You'd need to get rid of Planescape, Ravenloft, and Spelljammer too. I think that covers the kitchen sinks.

I don't know that would be a good idea. I think the kitchen sink exists in D&D and Pathfinder for good reason: it is very friendly to developing adventures. I've played in plenty of kitchen sink and non kitchen sink settings. They all have their strengths. But D&D really seems to work well with a bit of everything thrown in. What I think they could do is also offer up a line of more focused settings on top of places like Ravenloft, Forgotten Realms, etc. They sort of did that with Dark Sun. That is a pretty tight setting and also works well for adventures.

I love gritty historical stuff personally, but I also have come to realize I am very much in the minority. Over time I have had to adjust the way I develop campaigns to the fact that most players I meet do want a bit of kitchen sink and they don't really want a history lesson.
 

We all love D&D (we wouldn't be posting here if we didn't), but let's face it- there are some things about the game that we really don't like.

2. The prevalence of "raise dead spells": Any mid-to-high level cleric can raise the dead. Again, this makes sense from a game perspective, but this really puts a cramp in the internal consistency of most campaign worlds. Why should anyone fear death if they can just be raised later? Although the family of Joe Peasant couldn't afford to have him raised, kings and people in power have little to fear of death creating a powerful dynasty. Assassinations become much harder (since the person can just be raised as long as the body is intact).

In my campaigns, I don't allow players to be able to raise the dead. Death is permenant, only exceptions are through deities, which is rare.
 

Into the Woods

Remove ads

Top