What game mechanics when introduced were absolutely hated?

[Shades of Eternity]

There have been ideas that with regard to gameplay, were absolutely hated when introduced, but eventually were accepted and in some cases, often replaced ideas that had issues.

What were they?

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[TarionzCousin]

THAC0!

 

[Garthanos]

hit points
and
one attribute based actions
(I accept and rather like those)

 

[Garthanos]

I might even admit Vancian Casting if you twist my arm too.

 

[Stormonu]

1E
Non-weapon proficiencies
THAC0
bards
psionics

2E
Kits (which became the underpinnings for prestige classes, and now paths)
Story XP
the Blood War (and the creatures associated with them...)

3E
d20 thief skills instead of %
Hit dice past 10th level
AC goes up
removing racial level caps
metamagic feats (which help to thin the spell list and lead to capping spells at a fixed ability and not improving just because you got more levels in 4th & 5th)

4E
at-will Cantrips
Fighter "powers"/manuevers
tiers of play
non-Lawful good Paladins and the divorce of other classes from alignment

 

[Umbran]

Most of the rules changes found in White Wolf's Mage: The Awakening.

Like... a morality track in a game about wizards, that knocked you hard for using magic in a fight. And that could, if read strictly, have you turn into a pyromaniac for shoplifting a Chapstick. :7

I should note that these rules changes weren't really accepted. The game kinda bombed.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[aramis erak]

Not many mechanics hit my hate threshold...

but the sexually explicit elements of FATAL hit that threshold.

I think the "mechanic" that bugs me most is the non-mechanic - Palladium Books attitude that social skills have no place and there should be no social mechanics at all is probably the biggest that doesn't involve sexual issues...

Likewise, I'm not a fan of attributes with no mechanical impact. (See also early Palladium, where most atts under 16 only matter for OCC selection.)

 

[Sacrosanct]

THAC0 was not hated when it came out in 2e. Most of us were already using something very similar by then because it was easier than attack matrix tables, and freed up space on the character sheets to just have a single number. It first showed up in the 1e DMG at the back, so it was a natural progression. And it was an improvement over attack matrix by all but the most purist of grognards. Most of the hate towards 2e when it came out was the removal of assassins, half orcs, monks, and demons/devils. I don’t recall anyone getting upset about going to THAC0 from attack matrix.

No, it wasn’t hated until after 3e came out with ascending AC and fans of 3e looked back and liked ascending better now that they played D&D without THAC0 and got that experience.