D&D (2024) What have you seen new players confused by/mistakes they make?

[CreamCloud0]

Exactly. 5e is so proud of its ''natural language'', I wonder why they went with technical language in some spots.

Spell DC-> Spellpower
Non-spell DC -> Potency
Spell attack roll-> Magic accuracy
Weapon/melee/attack roll -> just x weapon roll
Ranged attacks/range weapons/thrown weapons ->just ranged weapon roll
Unarmed attacks -> they are still weapons
Armor Class -> just Armor
Hit Dice -> Recovery Dice
HP -> Endurance
Dying at 0 hp -> Wounded
Death Saving Throw -> Defeat rolls
Saving Throws ->Defenses: Might/Deftness/Vigor/Cunning/Willpower/Presence
Ability Modifiers -> Abilities: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution etc
Ability Score -> Endowments: Fortitude/Agility/Vitality/Mind/Acumen/Charm
Spell level -> Spell Circle
Spell slots (since your not slotting anything in them anymore) -> Magic Points

Sorry but over half of these seem even more vague and open ended to interpretation to me than the terms you’re trying to ‘fix’

 

[James Gasik]

The most common I have seen is bonus actions. Some new players assume everyone gets one and they can do something as a bonus action. Others assume they can do as many bonus actions as they have available or want to use. Bonus actions are poorly named and must not be well explained because I see the same mistakes and confusion over and over.

If it were up to me, I would either use something like the PF2 action economy, or create action categories that are universal to all characters (complex, simple, whatever) and make specific abilities or spells those types of actions.

Oh, you get one fast/simple/immediate/whatever action per turn, and second wind is one of those. Easy peasy.

I'm still confused about what was wrong with Move, Minor, Standard.

 

[SkidAce]

I'm still confused about what was wrong with Move, Minor, Standard.

As I read their intention;

Bonus you may or may not have, i.e. listed as an ability, so it would be clear if you had a bonus action.

Minor action was an available action that you always had, and therefore you would look for something to do with it, slowing down the game.

The jury is out on the success of their philosophy.

 

[James Gasik]

As I read their intention;

Bonus you may or may not have, i.e. listed as an ability, so it would be clear if you had a bonus action.

Minor action was an available action that you always had, and therefore you would look for something to do with it, slowing down the game.

The jury is out on the success of their philosophy.

Well thanks for the explanation, but yeah, it does feel like it went from "find a use for your Minor action" to "find a Bonus action you can use".

 

[ART!]

Character level versus spell level. And spell slots.

 

[ART!]

Proficiency bonus. The phrase doesn't mean anything. Can we think of a better term for this? (I can't think of anything)

They could rejigger things a bit and go with "Tier Bonus"

 

[ART!]

While we're at it, D&D freely mixes the terms "Armor class," "Difficulty class," and "character class."

We don't even need to address the self-inflicted 5e wound of "Attack action" vs "attack roll," or the unintuitive reuse of the older term "Hit Dice" to mean "Healing Surge."

What does the "class" in these terms even mean? Just call Difficulty Class 'Difficulty" and be done with it.

 

[Zaukrie]

The biggest issue I've seen so far is the difference between Perception and Investigation. I have to constantly remind my players that Perception is basically scanning around to see if you notice something out of the ordinary or listing intently for sounds, while Investigation is more about walking around and picking up/moving objects to look in or under them. At least that's how I interpret the two, but I could also be wrong.

My long time players can't remember which is which......

 

[R_J_K75]

What does the "class" in these terms even mean? Just call Difficulty Class 'Difficulty" and be done with it.

Starting with 3E they added a lot of terms that people had to learn, which is understandable considering it was a new edition and they introduced many new game mechanics. When 4E and 5E came out, from what I remember, they changed quite a bit of the terms used for game mechanics that were mechanics from 3E. One example that comes to mind is attack of opportunity that was switched to opportunity attack in 4E. I never understood why they did this. From browsing the new playtest packets, I noticed some new terms as well, but ICR if they were actually new features of the game or not. Anyhow, I still find myself using terms from 3E and 4E while DMing 5E to the bewilderment of my players who've only played 5E.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Hahahahah it's been almost 20 years and this is still hilariously relevant;

12 Up a Level, Down a Level - Giant in the Playground Games

"How much crap do we go through on a daily basis because no one at TSR looked up "level" in the thesaurus?"

I came to say this is the #1 thing that confuses newbies... I have had to explain why 2nd level wizards can't cast 2nd level spells like 100times over the years.

Since this was already said I will add that there is a massive misunderstanding of what gold is... and what it is worth.

is 100gold like $100 in real life? or is each gp more like $25 so 100gp is more like $2,500