D&D 5E What (if anything) do you find "wrong" with 5E?

[tetrasodium]

Many many of the things already listed are high on my list but a few I've not see are:

• The removal of body slots. Attunement was a neat idea but it would be kind to say that attunement use/no is random at best leaving me as the GM to finish that and keep reminding players "no you can't use the +N weapon/armor or whatever from the DMG because yours is attune required". Body slots allowed me as a GM to provide more depth to magic items
  • Kind of a corollary but the removal of bonus types means that I can't limit the power of an item by using a bonus type easily obtained elsewhere like the +1/+2/+3 armor/shield/doodad of protection that all stack with only one actually needing attunement even though most if not all of them in the past were an enhancement bonus that limited their impact.
• The removal of Flat DR/flat resist & SR. These three collectively allowed monsters to survive more than an eyeblink against a big group. I could add flat DR & maybe even flat resist but I would need to rework every spell & ability to decide which were SR:Yes & which SR:No to add SR back. bolting on SR is not something that I can do without basically rewriting the entire game.
• The removal of (Sp) (Ex) & (Su) tags on abilities that covered how they interacted with things like antimagic & were subject to AoOs (or not). Someone at WotC removed them in the name of simplicity but it didn't take Wotc long to give players racial/class options that did things like grant advantasge on saves against magic effects & similar that would be covered by them.
• the dual competing long rest class/short rest class desires coupled with an unreasonable 6-8 encounter expectation thrown at the gm to simple solve is rage educing.
• I hate the virtual removal of tactical grid combat & having variant/optional DMG rules for it that seem to be written more to thwart making tactical grid combat a meaningful factor as anything but free buffs

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Whooo, great stuff here. Stuff I hadn't even realized were bugging me.

The whole skill system bugs me.

The whole feat system bugs me. And now thanks to this thread, I have realized that since it's ASI OR Feat (when allowed), only "best" feats will be used.

Encounter creation bugs me.

Scroll rules are hard to find and bug me.

 

[Smackpixi]

The 25 wasted pages in the DMG about planes. It’s both uselessly vague, and needlessly specific. And so much space about stuff that’s unclear how to employ…I mean if it informed using the MM monsters from those planes, but it doesn’t significantly enough..

The fecundity of player abilities and the futility of trying to track them all on the standard character sheet.

The lack of a couple pages in the PHB on maintaining a character sheet…I‘m floored they thought it was obvious.

Monsters in WotC monster books. Not a 5e rules problem. Nice pictures, nice flavor, not enough “one weird trick”. And no paragraph about how they fight. Like, for low level baddies, Goblins are nigh on perfect Monster design, kudos. Nimble Escape gives them so much to work with tactically, but how would an inexperienced DM know what to do with that at a glance? I get they don’t want to constrain creativity, but a couple sentences to give people a start is needed. I don’t think the ”bag of hit points” problem is as bad as people make it out to be, but at first glance it is. The monsters know what they’re doing guy for example has done a lot of heavy lifting for WoTC, made their boring interesting, but shouldn’t take third party to make MM guys interesting.

Weapon diversity and variety.

Passive Perception. I know I’m kind of alone on this Cause every time I mention People kinda blank stare me. But in published adventures the main use of it is for static stuff Like traps and doors. Which is design example for making your own adventures. For static stuff it’s open to meta gaming, hit 15 and notice much more, hit 20 and see virtually everything. And whether I prep prepared adventures or make my own I know in advance my party’s highest PP. So assigning a DC 15 to see the trap is pointless if I know Velvet Firecrow has a 16 PP. I get she may be distracted, and I get she may be trailing behind but those edge cases are rare. For the most part I know in advance what she can and can’t see...so DC aside, DM chooses the DC or approves it knowing the outcome. I don’t know in advance iif anyone in the party will be buffed, but DC and innate PP aside, if party made the effort to boost point persons PP high, rule of cool says I reward with they notice. Now it has value when baddies are trying to sneak by. Except that’s a contested role, i role the baddies stealth against their PP w/o their knowledge. Which is a game the DM plays alone, the other players at the table don’t even know it’s happening. And while that rewards party members for buffing their PP the game aspect of it is hidden from them so the drama is mine alone. Which is pointless For table fun. I don’t have any idea how to do it better, I just don’t think it really does all people think it does Very well.

 

[Smackpixi]

Don’t get me wrong Passive Perception is great for monsters…cause there’s drama in the sneak…10 + 2..eek, maybe? We’ll you’re lucky, he just got a Ninja Burger delivery 5 minutes ago and is scarfing down so was -5, you make it by. I just struggle with it for players.

 

[GreyLord]

Having a discussion with some players this evening and I wanted to ask the general community here:

What do you find "wrong" with 5E?

Now, "nothing" is a perfectly acceptable response if you are completely happy with 5E as it is.

But, if there is something (a class, features, mechanics, or whatever) that bothers you or you feel was not handled correctly, and you feel like sharing, please do.

Proficiency bonus for combat increases at the same rate for Warriors as it does for Wizards and Rogues.

Some subclasses just don't seem to match the class they are matched to.

No Bastard Swords. What used to be the longsword is a rapier, what used to be a Bastard Sword is a Long sword.

Limitations on DEX to AC.

That said...DEX is overpowered...shouldn't have it as an optional usage for bonus to hit and damage in combat.

Not all saves are even. Everyone has a weak save instead of being able to eventually be good at all saves (even if took a LONG time).

Where are my wild elves?

 

[Shiroiken]

Primarily it's the armor & weapons being terrible. Having a magic item on the standard equipment list bugs the crap out of me too.

I'm not a huge fan of 3E multiclassing, and most of the feats are garbage (GWM & PAM power level should be the norm). Since they're optional rules, they bother me less than the equipment.

 

[bedir than]

What do you find "wrong" with 5E?

The Folk Hero - heroes come from play, not level zero.

The Guild Artisan - why, oh why, is the only way you can be a crafter is by being part of a guild?

 

[Perun]

People already mentioned a decent number of things that I find annoy me (six saves, option to get primary ability to 20 way too soon, etc.), but what I primarily don't like is that the rulebooks are not readable. I used to read my 2e rulebooks all the time, and this continued to 3e as well. The fourth edition brought a stop to that, it was just like reading a technical manual, and while the look of the things changed with 5e, the feel didn't. This goes doubly so for the monster descriptions. AD&D 2e MM monster entries werebfantastic, IMO. All later-edition versions, not so much.

 

[Smackpixi]

Class being most everything. Race and background being tangental. Would like the character be more three input driven.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The game breaks down after level 14.

Characters can have too many abilities.

Monsters not interesting enough. Too many sacks of hp.