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

[billd91]

3.0/3.5: BAB. I always thought it was a bit of a pain to calculate. And the whole getting less and less accurate is a pain too. I'll admit, I've been spoiled by 5E's Extra Attack, but still.

Apparently they came to the conclusion that doubling a warrior's damage output when they got more attacks is less of a big deal than Gygax did with his +1/2 attack rate increase from 1e (which the iterative attacks in 3e's BAB models surprisingly well).

Oh yeah Cross Skills suck. Pathfinder 1 did it the best and I would totally jack it as a house rule to use it in 3.0/3.5 if I was DMing it.

Same.

 

[kenada]

I think save vs death is cool, just as a luck mechanic. I think the names of the saves are evocative and communicate what the game is going to be about (your character will face the dangers of dragon breath, spells, petrification, and death). But this is one area where I would love to see a deep dive on how an OS mechanic affects/improves gameplay in a way that is not immediately obvious. I suppose it gives demi-humans an advantage to balance out level restrictions.

I’d just call for an “arbitrary justice roll” and decide whether I liked the results when I needed a “luck check”.

More seriously, one of the things I like about WWN is that it includes a luck save along with the usual three categories.

 

[Gradine]

Obviously racial level limits and racial class restrictions were major bummer in AD&D. AD&D-style dual-classing was also a miserable experience.

4e limiting out-of-combat casting to primarily rituals was also an issue for me; rituals in 4e were underbaked especially in the beginning of its life. In contrast, I love how 5e utilizes rituals.

Losing class abilities. Any edition, for any reason. Now, temporarily losing access to certain abilities can make a powerful narrative moment, but by RAW this tends to only happen to classes and only when they go against their alignment and/or deity, which is ugh.

Level drain is a common frustration that I share.

I still stand by EXP being my least favorite mechanic in all editions of D&D

 

[Amrûnril]

The Hexblade subclass: I really like the design approach of giving the Warlock what are effectively two subclass choices, a pact boon determining your general tools and skillset, and a patron representing the source of your power and granting some additional abilities to match that flavor. The Hexblade undermines this system by essentially using a patron option as a balance patch for a pact boon option. This leaves blade pact warlocks with any other patron as clearly inferior in their combat ability, and it makes the "balance improvements" available outside the play style they're trying to balance.

 

[Lanefan]

Oh, I forgot about those! I like the way they work mechanically, but I could do with better classes. I was creating some traps for an OSE adventure recently, and I’m like: what makes sense for reflexively avoiding a falling portcullis trap?

Simple: roll under some fraction of your Dex to avoid it.

 

[Gradine]

Oh yeah, while it's usually optional, any sort of "madness" rules gets a huge thumbs down from me

 

[payn]

Oh yeah, while it's usually optional, any sort of "madness" rules gets a huge thumbs down from me

Im ok if they are reasonable like many mind effecting conditions. The amnesia I mentioned earlier, isnt for 1 min, 1 hour, or even 1 day. No, it must be removed by a full restoration...

 

[Malmuria]

Oh yeah, while it's usually optional, any sort of "madness" rules gets a huge thumbs down from me

Because of the mechanics or the theme?

 

[Vaalingrade]

Oh yeah, while it's usually optional, any sort of "madness" rules gets a huge thumbs down from me

My 'favorite' are the ones that a) give you a permanent phobia from a random table so seeing a nightmare slime makes you afraid of needles forever, or b) trigger off occurrences that have no right to drive someone mad such as 'seeing a dead body', which means every open casket funeral should turn into a sea of terror as people suddenly develops a fear of buttons and water from seeing Grandma.

 

[payn]

My 'favorite' are the ones that a) give you a permanent phobia from a random table so seeing a nightmare slime makes you afraid of needles forever, or b) trigger off occurrences that have no right to drive someone mad such as 'seeing a dead body', which means every open casket funeral should turn into a sea of terror as people suddenly develops a fear of buttons and water from seeing Grandma.

Normally this would bug me, but magic usually trumps logic. Like I said, as long as there is a duration and not a perm effect I can deal with these things.