I need to add another one:
* Class / race restrictions, level caps etc. I played a Drow Paladin in 4E and the character was awesome. Don't block my character ideas just because you as designer can't come up with a way to make it work. Some race / class combinations will always be mechanically weaker, but none should be banned outright. (Multiclass restrictions are a subcategory of this)
Also, I'd like to clarify some of my points:
* Damage resistance: It's ok if a superunique boss monster has some special defense that needs a specific weapon to crack. DMs can build that into a story. But if you go to another plane and EVERY monster has resistance to your attacks if you don't have some specific weapon, it's wrong.
* Half-Orc / Half-Elf: The problem here is that it's treated as it's own race, and that the Half-Human part is implicit. This creates all kinds of weirdness. There are so many more elegant ways to solve this. For example, if 5E has themes, "Elven blood" could be a theme to make a half-elf half-anything. (Why would only humans have all the interracial nookie fun?)
* Alignment spells: This is part of a more complex issue of everything that is wrong with alignment. At the very core it's because in D&D, you don't DO evil, you ARE evil. You're simply not expected to do anything that is not evil. Which kills a lot of the grey zone that many imteresting characters operate in.
And there is the idea that good and evil are objective and absolute. But my terrorist is your freedom fighter. Is it evil to Disintegrate a tyrant king? What if you only did it to crown yourself? What if he was a tyrant because otherwise that wall against the next orc invasion wouldn't have been built?
* Class / race restrictions, level caps etc. I played a Drow Paladin in 4E and the character was awesome. Don't block my character ideas just because you as designer can't come up with a way to make it work. Some race / class combinations will always be mechanically weaker, but none should be banned outright. (Multiclass restrictions are a subcategory of this)
Also, I'd like to clarify some of my points:
* Damage resistance: It's ok if a superunique boss monster has some special defense that needs a specific weapon to crack. DMs can build that into a story. But if you go to another plane and EVERY monster has resistance to your attacks if you don't have some specific weapon, it's wrong.
* Half-Orc / Half-Elf: The problem here is that it's treated as it's own race, and that the Half-Human part is implicit. This creates all kinds of weirdness. There are so many more elegant ways to solve this. For example, if 5E has themes, "Elven blood" could be a theme to make a half-elf half-anything. (Why would only humans have all the interracial nookie fun?)
* Alignment spells: This is part of a more complex issue of everything that is wrong with alignment. At the very core it's because in D&D, you don't DO evil, you ARE evil. You're simply not expected to do anything that is not evil. Which kills a lot of the grey zone that many imteresting characters operate in.
And there is the idea that good and evil are objective and absolute. But my terrorist is your freedom fighter. Is it evil to Disintegrate a tyrant king? What if you only did it to crown yourself? What if he was a tyrant because otherwise that wall against the next orc invasion wouldn't have been built?