D&D 5E What rule(s) do you tend to ignore?

[Mort]

Either because you don't want to be bothered with it, don't like it, or for whatever reason, what rule (s) do you generally just ignore? And why?

2 I can think of off hand for my group:

I allow the shield master bonus attack at any time (only seen the feat once in many years and doing it this way caused no issues).

A bigger one : Short rests can be less than an hour, sometimes as short as 10 minutes. Influenced by the original playtest (of 5 minutes), and we just kept them around that long.

Thoughts?

 

[Raith5]

Concentration checks for damage - we never remembered in the first campaign and we have kept the tradition alive every since.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Either because you don't want to be bothered with it, don't like it, or for whatever reason, what rule (s) do you generally just ignore? And why?

2 I can think of off hand for my group:

I allow the shield master bonus attack at any time (only seen the feat once in many years and doing it this way caused no issues).

A bigger one : Short rests can be less than an hour, sometimes as short as 10 minutes. Influenced by the original playtest (of 5 minutes), and we just kept them around that long.

Thoughts?

Seems reasonable- although I play with the short rest is one day, long rest is one week.

The only rule at my table is that I don't tell the players how to pirate, and they don't tell me how to captain.

 

[Mort]

Concentration checks for damage - we never remembered in the first campaign and we have kept the tradition alive every since.

Wow that's a big one. So casters can't lose concentration unless they choose to?

 

[DEFCON 1]

All the standard ones I think. Spell components, "handedness" (which hands have which items and whether there's one free to use stuff, move stuff etc.), view distance (especially regarding the changes from bright light to dim light to darkness), encumbrance, skills only connecting to a single ability score, the set distribution of class features, and so forth.

Basically I disregard most of the important tropes of early AD&D dungeon crawling, and instead play it like a modern storytelling game. So handwaving all the fiddly bits and just getting to the story.

 

[MarkB]

Darkvision being equivalent to dim light. I never remember to apply the penalties for it, and only sometimes remember to consider the range limitation on a large map. Generally speaking I think "oh, you've got darkvision? Don't worry then, you can see just fine."

 

[Thunder Brother]

Encumbrance. During the Before Times (pre-coronavirus), when I was largely playing with pen-and-paper, I absolutely hated keeping track of it, and when DMing I largely handwaved it unless something exceptional came up.

I like that DnDBeyond basically automates it, but I would still prefer a simpler encumbrance system (inventory spaces and slots instead of weight, for example).

 

[Fanaelialae]

We also use shorter short rests.

The other one is cover from allies. We liked the rule in 4e, so we kept it for 5e. Basically, your allies only provide cover against you if they choose to. Normally, it's assumed that they maneuver to avoid blocking shots made by their allies.

 

[Steampunkette]

15 minute short rests. But long rests don't restore all your hit dice and it takes a week of R&R to do a full recovery for Exhaustion and full Hit Dice.

I also ignore the "Weave" 'cause it's just terrible. Magic loses it's flavor when it's all just one thing.

Encumbrance I don't -ignore- but it's just a massive hassle, so there's usually a bag of holding in an early treasure trove and that solves that issue. I'd rather have a slot/space system with object sizes and weights just taking up more slots.

 

[BookTenTiger]

Encumbrance, except when it comes to seeing if one character can lift or drag another.

What's in a character's hands.

I also have a rule of thumb to never correct a player on how far a character can move or to check their path... It just breaks momentum, and there's usually a way (cutting corners, etc) for a character to get to where they want to go.