D&D General What rule do you hate most from any edition? (+ Thread)

[Maxperson]

Because the Bard gained levels more quickly up to a certain point. 5th or 6th level IIRC.

And still cast weaker spells. A 6th level bard has 3 1st and 1 2nd level spell. A specialist wizard surpasses that at 3rd level with 3 1st and 2 2nd level spells. To get to 6th level a bard needed 20k exp, while that 3rd level wizard who is better at being a wizard only needed 5k. 20k made that wizard 5th level with 5 1st, 3 2nd and 2 3rd level spells. The bard did have a few more hit points, though, with d6 vs. d4. Hit points don't make you a better wizard, though.

In short, both classed at 20k exp left the wizard with 6 more spells(more than double) and third level spells vs. the bard's 2nd level spell.

 

[Quartz]

To get to 6th level a bard needed 20k exp, while that 3rd level wizard who is better at being a wizard only needed 5k. 20k made that wizard 5th level

Thank you. That was it: the Bard was 6th level and the Wizard 5th which meant that a spell that both could cast was better cast by the Bard.

 

[Maxperson]

Thank you. That was it: the Bard was 6th level and the Wizard 5th which meant that a spell that both could cast was better cast by the Bard.

Seriously? You think that less than half the spells at far less power is better? I mean, 1 2nd level spell vs. 2 third levels spells isn't even close. Bard loses badly. 1 additional level didn't add much to the Bard's low level spells.

 

[Sepulchrave II]

• OD&D: Having to learn the rules before you could read them and understand them
• B/X: Waiting for the Companion rules to materialize
• BECMI: It was a much slicker look than B/X ... but not as classy. I was also past the Companion rules by the time they came out, and resented them.
• 1E: Thieves. I played soo many thieves, as I didn't qualify for anything else.
• 2E: Whut?
• 3E: Having to have at least nine different books open at any given time
• 4E: Whut?
• PF: Someone else's 3E houserules
• PF2: Whut?
• 5E: Dabbled a little but too old and jaded by now

 

[Vaalingrade]

• OD&D: Having to learn the rules before you could read them and understand them
• B/X: Waiting for the Companion rules to materialize
• BECMI: It was a much slicker look than B/X ... but not as classy. I was also past the Companion rules by the time they came out, and resented them.
• 1E: Thieves. I played soo many thieves, as I didn't qualify for anything else.
• 2E: Whut?
• 3E: Having to have at least nine different books open at any given time
• 4E: Whut?
• PF: Someone else's 3E houserules
• PF2: Whut?
• 5E: Dabbled a little but too old and jaded by now

I... don't think any of these are rules.

Except 5e's famous age limit of course.

 

[teitan]

Option rules not treated as optional rules are my least favorite rules. I hated it in 2e, hate it in 5e! In 2e it was NWPs, Specialist WIzards and Specialty Priests. They were optional rules that the company didn't use optionally but optimally. They were in everything and got so expansive that they undermined the niche of other classes which in a system like D&D, that leans heavy into the archetypes, it can hurt a players fun.

In 3.x era another example was the Prestige Classes, they were optional rules that were used optimally, to fill out sourcebooks and all of this is ok as long as the DM is able to play the rule 0 card. These weren't so difficult to deal with though as they generally added to the game or were easy to say no to.

In 5e it is the plethora of optional rules in the PHB, like Feats, certain races, variant humans etc that are optional rules that as the game has grown and developed that have become expected use instead of optional use and while WOTC hasn't encouraged their use like TSR did, the push from these things as optional to these things as standard has all but removed that decision from the DM's hands and created an expectation for how a DM is supposed to be and what he is expected to allow making for a sometimes ugly scene in the FLGS, home tables and social media. I don't see a lot of that here compared to Facebook. I am hoping that in the revision (I am holding off most 5e purchases until the revised books come out in 2024, so unless it is a must have for me, I don't intend on purchasing anything after the next CR book) they spell these things out and make them clearer that they are optional rules used at the DM's discretion. LIke in BIG RED LETTERS
Used pink to differentiate from Moderators. We went from an Edition put back in the hands of DM's to an edition of... confusion?

 

[cbwjm]

I didn't really like 4e's AEDU structure for some classes, I mean it worked fine mechanically, but I wanted my warriors to have techniques that they could use more than once a day or once per encounter. Like, why was I only able to menace a villain once per day?

 

[Sepulchrave II]

I... don't think any of these are rules.

True enough. I got carried away and lost my thread there for a minute.

I love 1E, but there are so many dumb rules I wouldn't know where to begin.

 

[teitan]

Bah! Just jot down relevant details. No one needs to know that the critter has +37 to Climb if that skill is not going to come into play. No one cares if the HP or saves or AC aren't strictly correct.

As for what I most hated from edition to edition?

1E - Tables.
2E - Bards being better wizards than wizards.
3E - The creeping addition of types. It went from KISS to bloat. Fortunately it was possible to keep them in check by classifying many as the same family (e.g. Holy, Sacred, Blessed, Good, Axiomatic, etc all = Divine) so they didn't stack.
4E - Didn't play but AEDU.
5E - That Fighters as written aren't actually better fighters than other fighting classes until 11th level unless you mandate that Action Surge is combat-only.

Overall: the creeping bloat of races with the concomitant encouragement of the menagerie.

How to keep 3.x from being bloaty... play 3.0

 

[teitan]

I think I saw all of 1 cavalier. The DMs I played with didn't go in for much in the UA.

When I first read of UA I saw it as this mythical book and lusted after it like the teenager I was. TSR kept some of that stuff in print after 2e came out so I finally got it in 1991 at a Waldenbooks and went home and devoured it. I learned from a OCR wood grain box and 1e PHB so this was like mana from heaven and I wanted to play these things that I had mythologized in my head so bad until... I realized the only one that was cool was the Thief-Acrobat. The Cavalier was lame and lamed up the Paladin, the Barbarian never leveled up. The spells were icing though.