D&D 5E What official material is considered problematic to the point where it is not balanced and presents a problem?

[Willie the Duck]

Oh, and to the OP question--
What everyone said. Also, and this is more wacky than overpowered-- quarterstaves. Especially one handed quarterstaves using polearm master feat to attack with both ends, possibly with Shillelagh as well. But even one handed quarterstaves in general. Add to that how the idea that it might be so wizards can hold quarterstaves and cast spells and it makes you questions whether you have the hands-free-for-spellcasting rules right or not. It just makes you want to grab the designers and say, "okay, I'm fine with something having turned out a little borked. I know how to house-rule. But just sit down and explain how you wanted this to work, and what you were thinking."

I think with the various tweets from the designers, we know what RAI is, but I would really love to know how that one ended up as screwy in the wording as it is.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I'm afraid you are going to have to go into more detail Tony.

I'm afraid you're mistaken. I am under no such obligation.

 

[nswanson27]

Buying or crafting magic items? Strongholds?

Where are the prices?

 

[jgsugden]

As I have played a lot of 5E and it has all worked, nothing from the core rules is a problem. Some of it is more powerful than other elements, but it all works. Balance will never be perfect, but they did a pretty darn good job. Even the most heavily panned elements are nowhere near as bad as people make them out to be if you just sit down and calculate how they really impact the game.

 

[Corpsetaker]

I'm afraid you're mistaken. I am under no such obligation.

I'm not mistaken about anything. Honestly I don't really care whether you explain yourself or not but your comment doesn't really answer the original post.

 

[Prism]

Where are the prices?

Set by the DM using the baselines given in the DMG (page 128-130)

 

[Tony Vargas]

I'm not mistaken about anything.

Highly unlikely. ;P

Honestly I don't really care whether you explain yourself or not but your comment doesn't really answer the original post.

It does.
Like I said, I'm sorry if you find it succinct to the point of being dismissive, but, IMHO, it's all that needs to be said.

You can find the 5e rules-as-written to be imbalanced, broken to the point of being 'problematic' all you want, just as you can find them an inadequate blueprint for world peace or an ineffective cancer treatment. They're equally true observations. They're just not terribly relevant to DMs using 5e as a starting point to run enjoyable games.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

Where are the prices?

With the DM - though there is some guidance for where one might start with such prices in the DMG.

Specifically: Costs to construct various types of strongholds, and the typical construction time of each, are on page 128; Recurring costs to maintain various types of these structural investments are on page 127; Costs for creation of magic items are on page 129 (though I believe there is an erratum that mentions items of a consumable nature being half the cost); Cost ranges for buying magical items, rather than creating them yourself, are on page 135 (and it is specifically mentioned there that consumable items should be half the price).

 

[Sacrosanct]

I'm afraid you're mistaken. I am under no such obligation.

Sure you are, or he'll claim he won another internet argument like he did the other day

 

[Zhern]

That's meta-gaming, though, by asking the players to make a different decision than their characters would make. Any mechanic which encourages meta-gaming as a solution is a broken mechanic for an RPG.

A better solution would be to just ban the spell outright, or skip the twenty minutes of solo play and hand the players a map. It sounds like this spell removes an interesting element of gameplay for some groups, but that's no different than a spell to create food and water which removes a different element of gameplay that another group might enjoy. It's kind of a thing that higher spell levels will let you ignore more and more inconveniences, starting with Light and ending with Teleport.

Instead of banning it, insert a few anti-magic zones that dispel the eye, or add in some creatures that can dispel (and when they do, it winks out of existence and the caster cannot figure out what happened without a difficult arcana check). Alternatively, have the eye malfunction without the caster being aware and have it scout areas that aren't real. Another option is to use lots of illusory terrain in your dungeon or add in teleporters that ping the first party member that enters all over (thereby doing the same to the eye) unless they are able to locate something to deactivate it (enough pinging that it could theoretically make the caster sick to their stomach, forcing them to roll concentration and very likely dropping the spell). Lots of different options, you just have to get creative.