D&D 5E (+)What Ubiquitous DnD Tropes Get It Totally Wrong?

[Doc_Klueless]

.... the facts that drow rhymes with crow... and it comes to mind easily.

Blasphemy! It rhymes with Bow!

 

[Richards]

I had always imagined the black drow skin color having something to do with Lolth and her ties to spiders. I could easily see Corellon Larethian choosing to curse drow into having black skin to better match the coloration of, say, black widow spiders. "So, you want to worship Lolth, do you? Fine: enjoy having spider-colored skin, drow!"

Johnathan

 

[Eltab]

Blasphemy! It rhymes with Bow!

... as in bow-and-arrow?

Heretics, both of you. "Drow" rhymes with "how".
As in, "Wow, they somehow don't kill each other despite every possible cultural inducement to try."

 

[Minigiant]

Dwarfs don't fight enough armored opponents to favor axes over swords.

Dwarf hating Orcs with axes and spears= Sensible
Orc and Goblin hating Dwarves with axes and hammers =Illogical

Dwarven enemies are lightly armored. The main benefits of an axe over a sword is breaking shields, bypassing shields, and converting hack to blunt force though armor.

No need for that much AP damage

 

[Lanefan]

... as in bow-and-arrow?

I suspect it meant bow as in what you do when meeting your king, or as in the front end of a boat.

Poor example, though, as bow can be pronounced both ways for different meanings.

Given that, however, one can legitimately say "drow" rhymes with "bow" and never be wrong.

 

[Charlaquin]

Blasphemy! It rhymes with Bow!

...Like the weapon, or the act of bending at the waist in supplication?

 

[Hussar]

How about "Whoosh" as in the sound of several people missing a joke.

And, yeah, @Lanefan, that's something that always bugs me. But, isn't it funny, you talk about using 18th century ships as okay, but, a printing press is too high tech?

For me, the problem becomes, if you have the technology to build an 18th century ship, you have a LOT of technological advances that don't exist in Medieval times. But, as was mentioned, most people just don't know or care. I'm in the same boat (ha) in that I know just enough that it bugs the heck out of me when I see an 18th century ship (complete with gun ports no less) in a book meant for D&D.

I have to admit, other than size, the ship the PC's get in the Saltmarsh adventures is actually pretty historically accurate. (Again, other than the fact that it's about twice the size that it should be - but, I blame AD&D's 10 foot scale and 5e's 5 foot scale for that - it's hard to have an encounter with PC's and a dozen or so baddies in an area that's only 40 feet long from fore to aft)

 

[Coroc]

The double bladed battle axe, was that ever even real historically? I don't ever recall seeing any examples. they were all single bladed. I'm not a historian on weapons by any means but this just seems a little unwieldy.

It is purely fiction and I am glad it is gone. Next please do replace studded leather with brigandine and leather with buff jacket or such. Also call the Two handed sword long sword, the long sword bastard sword and introduce an arming sword for the 1-handed version of a strength based sword.
And for balance reasons make quarterstaff 1d6 two handed only and ban use of it one handed especially wit ha shield (Think spear, and imagine you could get more out of that weapon by removing its sharp metal tip and make a quarterstaff out of it with things being like they are).
Also disallow any offhand weapon other than a dagger or maybe short sword or only eventually paired scimitars, the dual wield fighting styles do not have any historical meaning other than eventually someone showing of a bit. They also contradict, that in reality two weapons make you slower if you insist on attacking with both weapons alternating. The only widespread dual wielding historically occurred with rapier / dagger and there the dagger was largely used for parrying, with the occasional stab out of an opportunity.
When using two weapons you normally use one to attack and the other to defend, because else you would have to change combat stance each time you alternate between them.

 

[Coroc]

Examples of double-bitted battle axes made of stone apparently go back to like, 3400 B.C.

You mean axes with a symmetric blade? Or the 3e double headed axe. The latter I highly doubt ever existed.
What did exist historically was a double headed maces, the tetsubo sometimes having two weighted ends is a real thing in far east martial arts.

If in the stone ages they found something like two stone axe blades on one shaft then I bet it was rather a symbol of status or a cult. If such a thing was used as a weapon then its functioning would rather be like a tetsubo, than using the "bladed weapon - property" of this weapon

 

[Coroc]

Ok I add another trope: Your beloved greatswords only saw use in from the 16th century onwards.
(Knight swords (D&D Long swords)of 13th century were often designed like bastard swords, so you could use them one handed from horseback or with a shield or if injured and two handed for bigger effect.)

Also swords are far to dominant, apart from some periods they had not much military use.