History YMMV / DungeonsAndDragons

* CreatorsPet: Kender are depicted as not just a good race, but ''the'' good race. They are presented as curious, playful ''[[CuteCrittersActChildlike children]]'' with [[WouldHurtAChild all the associated moral compunctions to those who harm them]]. It's said that only the AlwaysChaoticEvil races hate the kender while the "wisest" say that "the world would lose something precious if the kender were ever to leave it". This is the given description for a race that casually rifles through other people's stuff ([[TooDumbToLive often sabotaging their own allies by "borrowing" equipment]]), [[{{Hypocrite}} gets offended when people accuse them of being thieves]], and [[ConsummateLiar has a strange talent for lying]]. Yet the books say this behavior is supposed to be endearing. One problem with them is that novelists like kender because they add comic relief and the ability to instigate plot by doing something reckless. The other characters love or at least tolerate the kender because the writers say they do. Conversely, in a tabletop game, having [[{{Griefer}} a player who recklessly starts conflicts and/or steals from other players]] just creates friction, along with causing certain world-building issues -- how did this race survive more than one generation, given how much trouble they cause? The Creator's Pet issue is just the cherry on top, essentially telling players that if they object to these annoyances, they are bad people, therefore creating a shield for toxic players to misbehave while insisting they are only playing their characters "as intended". And the issue has unfortunately made its way to ''5E'' as of ''Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen''.

* CreatorsPet: Kender are depicted as not just a good race, but ''the'' good race. They are presented as curious, playful ''[[CuteCrittersActChildlike children]]'' with [[WouldHurtAChild all the associated moral compunctions to those who harm them]]. It's said that only the AlwaysChaoticEvil races hate the kender while the "wisest" say that "the world would lose something precious if the kender were ever to leave it". This is the given description for a race that casually rifles through other people's stuff ([[TooDumbToLive often sabotaging their own allies by "borrowing" equipment]]), [[{{Hypocrite}} gets offended when people accuse them of being thieves]], and [[ConsummateLiar has a strange talent for lying]]. Yet the books say this behavior is supposed to be endearing. One problem with them is that novelists like kender because they add comic relief and the ability to instigate plot by doing something reckless. The other characters love or at least tolerate the kender because the writers say they do. Conversely, in a tabletop game, having [[{{Griefer}} a player who recklessly starts conflicts and/or steals from other players]] just creates friction, along with causing certain world-building issues -- how did this race survive more than one generation, given how much trouble they cause? The Creator's Pet issue is just the cherry on top, essentially telling players that if they object to these annoyances, they are bad people, therefore creating a shield for toxic players to misbehave while insisting they are only playing their characters "as intended".

* TheScrappy: No race in the entire ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' franchise has inspired such sheer loathing among the playerbase as [[PluckyComicRelief kender]] from the ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' setting. Their negative reputation comes from their intrinsic attraction to {{griefer}}s. In theory, the kender are supposed to be childlike and innocent -- their racial [[PlanetOfHats hat]], being impulsive thieves, is supposed to be the result of a lack of understanding of boundaries and [[CuriousAsAMonkey limitless curiosity]] rather than greed or malice. In practice, kender attract the sorts of people who love stealing party members' stuff for the explicit purpose of disrupting the game and screwing with other players by badgering them with annoying questions while hiding behind "roleplaying" as an excuse, all with the material's implicit sanction. And while the kender are childlike and innocent, their players know ''exactly'' what they're doing. Many [=DMs=] take a dim view of anyone wanting to play a kender, and many players wish that the race as a whole would just ''go away''. It's widely thought that the reason the kender have never been released in playable form for ''Fifth Edition'' (despite allegedly being in playtesting at one time) is because the designers are wise enough to know it would be extremely negatively received. Tellingly, when an Unearthed Arcana was released on March 8th, 2022 with the kender being the new race on it, the reaction was universally negative for not only bringing them back, but attempting to retcon the CuriousAsAMonkey trait by stating that the universe itself -- through magic -- randomly puts magical items in their bags that they can roll for, then use, for several hours, which didn't do anything to improve their reputation since it comes across as a weak attempt to keep them still as innocent and goodly people by claiming they get mistaken for thieves.

* UnfortunateImplications: [[https://jamesmendezhodes.com/blog/2019/9/1/best-practices-for-religious-representation-part-i-check-for-traps James Mendez Hodes]] points out that the longstanding practice of calling a lich's SoulJar a "phylactery" implicitly connects liches to the "evil Jew" stereotype as, while theoretically "phylactery" would simply refer to an amulet used to guard something, it's historically been used specifically to refer to ''tefillin'', boxes containing verses of the Torah that are worn by certain Jewish groups during prayer.

* [[Memes/DungeonsAndDragons Memetic Mutation: So many they got their own page!]]

* PopularityPolynomial: Initially only popular among the small wargaming-enthusiast community, ''D&D'' quickly became a popular fad among young people of the late 1970s-early 1980s, owing partially to the general increase in popularity of HighFantasy around that time, before becoming mired in highly confused [[MoralGuardians religious controversies]] that sullied its reputation. Even after the moral panic died down and came to be understood as wrongheaded & silly, the game then developed a reputation as being something which only [[{{Nerd}} the very dorkiest of dorks]] would ever play, what with its complex rules, overly intricate worlds and characters, and association with antisocial shut-ins. ''D&D'' scooted along well enough for several decades despite that reputation, but things finally turned around in the 2010s, after the heavily-marketed, well-received release of 5th Edition, the debut of [[Podcast/TheAdventureZone several]] [[WebVideo/CriticalRole popular]] [[Podcast/DiceFunk podcasts]] devoted to playing the game, and a high-profile appearance in the megahit {{Creator/Netflix}} series ''Series/StrangerThings'', all of which introduced a new generation to the game, and allowed it to finally shed its reputation as a hobby for weird shut-ins in favor of being seen as an exciting and funny social activity.

* TheScrappy: No race in the entire ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' franchise has inspired such sheer loathing among the playerbase as [[PluckyComicRelief kender]] from the ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' setting. Their negative reputation comes from their intrinsic attraction to {{griefer}}s. In theory, the kender are supposed to be childlike and innocent -- their racial [[PlanetOfHats hat]], being impulsive thieves, is supposed to be the result of a lack of understanding of boundaries and [[CuriousAsAMonkey limitless curiosity]] rather than greed or malice. In practice, kender attract the sorts of people who love stealing party members' stuff for the explicit purpose of disrupting the game and screwing with other players by badgering them with annoying questions while hiding behind "roleplaying" as an excuse, all with the material's implicit sanction. And while the kender are childlike and innocent, their players know ''exactly'' what they're doing. Many [=DMs=] take a dim view of anyone wanting to play a kender, and many players wish that the race as a whole would just ''go away''. It's widely thought that the reason the kender have never been released in playable form for fifth edition (despite allegedly being in playtesting at one time) is because the designers are wise enough to know it would be extremely negatively received. Telling, when an Unearthed Arcana was released on March 8th, 2022 with the kender being the new race on it, the reaction was universally negative for not only bringing them back, but attempting to retcon the CuriousAsAMonkey trait by stating that the universe itself -- through magic -- randomly puts magical items in their bags that they can roll for, then use, for several hours, which didn't do anything to improve their reputation since it comes across as a weak attempt to keep them still as innocent and goodly people by claiming they get mistaken for thieves.

** The perspective issue becomes clearer when looking at the surrounding lore, however - Kurtulumak's trap had been set for other gods, making Garl's interference a case of HoistByHisOwnPetard. Since Kurtulumak spent his mortal life leading the enslavement of gnomes, and his listed holy symbol is a gnome skull, it comes off as relatively mild. The story of Callarduran Smoothhands and Ogrémoch, on the other hand, [[UnreliableNarrator depends on the truth of the tale]]. Ogrémoch has both a good-aligned counterpart and a set of fellow evil great elementals, all of whom appear to have come into being by other means. However, Smoothhand is also TrueNeutral, concerned with protecting and promoting his people before anything else, so the theft is hardly out of character.

* PopularWithFurries: ''Dungeons & Dragons'' has introduced a few Beast Men, Funny Animals, and generally monstrous races that furries have long became fans of.

* PopularWithFurries: ''Dungeons & Dragons'' has introduced a few {{Beast M|an}}en and monstrous races that furries have long became fans of.

** The perspective issue becomes clearer when looking at the surrounding lore, however - Kurtulumak's trap had been set for other gods, making Garl's interference a case of HoistByHisOwnPetard. Since Kurtulumak spent his mortal life leading the enslavement of gnomes, and his listed holy symbol is a gnome skull, it comes off as relatively mild. The story of Callarduran Smoothhands and Ogrémoch, on the other hand, [UnreliableNarrator depends on the truth of the tale]. Ogrémoch has both a good-aligned counterpart and a set of fellow evil great elementals, all of whom appear to have come into being by other means. However, Smoothhand is also TrueNeutral, concerned with protecting and promoting his people before anything else, so the theft is hardly out of character.

** Fans of other tabletop systems usually tend to be rather hostile to the [=DnD=] system, due to the system being by far the most well know, [[PopCulturalOsmosis to the point where most people think all TTRPGs are just DnD]]. This makes finding players for other systems hard, because most people just want to play [=DnD=].

** Controversy arose with the leak, and latter confirmation, of [[http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/guildmasters-guide-ravnica Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica]] as the first official non-Forgotten Realms setting source-book for Fifth Edition. Some dislike the fact that Wizards chose to go with a setting from TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering rather than one of the classic settings such as TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}, TabletopGame/DarkSun or TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}}, or even created a brand new one. To further complicate matters the book was revealed alongside a smaller 20$ PDF-only book focused on TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}, which was released with the admission that the material contained within was unable to be used in Adventurer's League and that it was still being developed. Combining that with reused art assets from previous editions caused many to feel like Wizards didn't respect their old settings and were forcing the players to pay for playtesting. Other players were happy to see a new setting, believing Ravnica would make for an interesting and unique experience, and that receiving a small Eberron source-book, especially with the promise that the full version would ''finally'' contain the finished Artificer, was a good deal. Notably, despite the broken base from the TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons community, the reaction from the Magic: The Gathering community was far less contentious, with many happy to see the fan-favorite setting getting a dedicated RPG book.

** Controversy arose with the leak, and latter confirmation, of [[http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/guildmasters-guide-ravnica Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica]] as the first official non-Forgotten Realms setting source-book for Fifth Edition. Some dislike the fact that Wizards chose to go with a setting from TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering rather than one of the classic settings such as TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}, TabletopGame/DarkSun or TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}}, or even created a brand new one. To further complicate matters the book was revealed alongside a smaller 20$ PDF-only book focused on TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}, which was released with the admission that the material contained within was unable to be used in Adventure League and that it was still being developed. Combining that with reused art assets from previous editions caused many to feel like Wizards didn't respect their old settings and were forcing the players to pay for playtesting. Other players were happy to see a new setting, believing Ravnica would make for an interesting and unique experience, and that receiving a small Eberron source-book, especially with the promise that the full version would ''finally'' contain the finished Artificer, was a good deal. Notably, despite the broken base from the TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons community, the reaction from the Magic: The Gathering community was far less contentious, with many happy to see the fan-favorite setting getting a dedicated RPG book.

** With [[http://wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4ll/20120109 a new edition announced]], you can bet your sweet bippy the edition wars would begin anew..Fans of 3E rejoiced over 5E, while fans of 4E cried "Ruined!" at the return of LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards. Interestingly, fans of 2E and before often seem to be supportive of 5E, praising its simplified mechanics and focus on rulings over rules.

* WoobieSpecies: The mongrelfolk are all hideous. While no two look alike, they all look like a [[MixAndMatchCritter bizarre combination of humanoid parts,]] such as having a troll's head, a hobgoblin's torso, a lizardfolk's legs and so on. Despite this, they are usually pretty nice (they're default alignment is LawfulNeutral,) yet most people are still afraid of them.

* WoobieSpecies: The mongrelfolk are all hideous. While no two look alike, they all look like a [[MixAndMatchCritter bizarre combination of humanoid parts,]] such as having a troll's head, a hobgoblin's torso, a lizardfolk's legs and so on. Despite this, they are usually pretty nice (they're default alignment is LawfulNeutral,) yet most people are still afraid of htem.

* TheScrappy: No race in the entire ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' franchise has inspired such sheer loathing among the playerbase as [[PluckyComicRelief kender]] from the ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' setting. Their negative reputation comes from their intrinsic attraction to {{griefer}}s. In theory, the kender are supposed to be childlike and innocent -- their racial [[PlanetOfHats hat]], being impulsive thieves, is supposed to be the result of a lack of understanding of boundaries and [[CuriousAsAMonkey limitless curiosity]] rather than greed or malice. In practice, kender attract the sorts of people who love stealing party members' stuff for the explicit purpose of disrupting the game and screwing with other players by badgering them with annoying questions while hiding behind "roleplaying" as an excuse, all with the material's implicit sanction. And while the kender are childlike and innocent, their players know ''exactly'' what they're doing. Many [=DMs=] take a dim view of anyone wanting to play a kender, and many players wish that the race as a whole would just ''go away''. It's widely thought that the reason the kender have never been released in playable form for fifth edition (despite allegedly being in playtesting at one time) is because the designers are wise enough to know it would be extremely negatively received. Telling, when an Unearthed Arcana was released on March 8th, 2022 with the kender being the new race on it, that the reaction was universally negative for not only bringing them back, but attempting to retcon the CuriousAsAMonkey trait by stating that the universe itself -- through magic -- randomly puts magical items in their bags that they can roll for, then use, for several hours, which didn't do anything to improve their reputation since it comes across as a weak attempt to keep them still as innocent and goodly people by claiming they get mistaken for thieves.

* TheScrappy: No race in the entire ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' franchise has inspired such sheer loathing among the playerbase as [[PluckyComicRelief kender]] from the ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' setting. Their negative reputation comes from their intrinsic attraction to {{griefer}}s. In theory, the kender are supposed to be childlike and innocent -- their racial [[PlanetOfHats hat]], being impulsive thieves, is supposed to be the result of a lack of understanding of boundaries and [[CuriousAsAMonkey limitless curiosity]] rather than greed or malice. In practice, kender attract the sorts of people who love stealing party members' stuff for the explicit purpose of disrupting the game and screwing with other players by badgering them with annoying questions while hiding behind "roleplaying" as an excuse, all with the material's implicit sanction. And while the kender are childlike and innocent, their players know ''exactly'' what they're doing. Many [=DMs=] take a dim view of anyone wanting to play a kender, and many players wish that the race as a whole would just ''go away''. It's widely thought that the reason the kender have never been released in playable form for fifth edition (despite allegedly being in playtesting at one time) is because the designers are wise enough to know it would be extremely negatively received. Telling, when an Unearthed Arcana was released on March 8th 2022 with the Kender being the new race on it, the reaction was universally negative for not only bringing them back, but attempting to retcon the CuriousAsAMonkey trait by stating that the universe itself (through magic) randomly puts magical items in their bags that they can roll for, then use, for several hours, which didn't do anything to improve their reputation since it comes across as a weak attempt to keep them still as innocent and goodly people by claiming they get mistaken for thieves.

* TheScrappy: No race in the entire ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' franchise has inspired such sheer loathing among the playerbase as [[PluckyComicRelief kender]] from the ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' setting. Their negative reputation comes from their intrinsic attraction to {{griefer}}s. In theory, the kender are supposed to be childlike and innocent -- their racial [[PlanetOfHats hat]], being impulsive thieves, is supposed to be the result of a lack of understanding of boundaries and [[CuriousAsAMonkey limitless curiosity]] rather than greed or malice. In practice, kender attract the sorts of people who love stealing party members' stuff for the explicit purpose of disrupting the game and screwing with other players by badgering them with annoying questions while hiding behind "roleplaying" as an excuse, all with the material's implicit sanction. And while the kender are childlike and innocent, their players know ''exactly'' what they're doing. Many [=DMs=] take a dim view of anyone wanting to play a kender, and many players wish that the race as a whole would just ''go away''. It's widely thought that the reason the kender have never been released in playable form for fifth edition (despite allegedly being in playtesting at one time) is because the designers are wise enough to know it would be extremely negatively received. Telling, when an Unearthed Arcana was released on March 8th 2022 with the Kender being the new race on it, the reaction was universally negative for not only bringing them back, but attempting to retcon the CuriousAsAMonkey trait by stating that the universe itself randomly puts magical items to them for several hours, which didn't do anything to improve their reputation.

* TheScrappy: No race in the entire ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' franchise has inspired such sheer loathing among the playerbase as [[PluckyComicRelief kender]] from the ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' setting. Their negative reputation comes from their intrinsic attraction to {{griefer}}s. In theory, the kender are supposed to be childlike and innocent -- their racial [[PlanetOfHats hat]], being impulsive thieves, is supposed to be the result of a lack of understanding of boundaries and [[CuriousAsAMonkey limitless curiosity]] rather than greed or malice. In practice, kender attract the sorts of people who love stealing party members' stuff for the explicit purpose of disrupting the game and screwing with other players by badgering them with annoying questions while hiding behind "roleplaying" as an excuse, all with the material's implicit sanction. And while the kender are childlike and innocent, their players know ''exactly'' what they're doing. Many [=DMs=] take a dim view of anyone wanting to play a kender, and many players wish that the race as a whole would just ''go away''. It's widely thought that the reason the kender have never been released in playable form for fifth edition(despite allegedly being in playtesting at one time) is because the designers are wise enough to know it would be extremely negatively received.

** Gnolls, which are basically [[FunnyAnimal humanoid]] [[HeinousHyena hyenas]], have their fair share of furry fans. They've had racial stats across all ''D&D'' editions except ''[[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsFifthEdition 5th Edition]]'' since they had been labeled as "too demonic" by the authors of ''Volo's Guide to Monsters''. This hasn't stopped certain fans from [[HouseRule homebrewing]] hyena races though.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' has introduced a few {{Beast M|an}}en and monstrous races that furries have long became fans of.

* ParanoiaFuel: So wait, most (if not all) of the stars are Eldritch Abominations that want to eat us? And some of them can create avatars of their powers called Star Spawn?

Specific editions:

* ValuesDissonance: The whole notion of AlwaysChaoticEvil has fallen out of favor in the decades since the game was started. For that reason, newer settings like TabletopGame/IronKingdoms and TabletopGame/{{Eberron}} are more likely to make the differences between races more cultural than biological, while older settings maintain more of the original flavor. The presence of Drizzt has retroactively shifted TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms in the cultural direction.

[[foldercontrol]]

!!From the original game
* [[Memes/DungeonsAndDragons Memetic Mutation]]

[[folder:1st-3rd Edition Classes]]

!!!Monk
* TierInducedScrappy: Monks need high scores in just about every ability to be effective. They need to stand still to use many of their class abilities with full effectiveness, but get lots of movement powers that emphasize mobility. And most of their powers are weaker than stuff that other people can easily pick up with cheap magic items or low-level spells anyway.

!!!Rogue
* TierInducedScrappy: Back in its days of being called the Thief. The 1st and 2nd Edition Thief was one of the worst combat classes without having magic to back it up, meaning they were basically used for their ([[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman somewhat situational]] and unreliable) thieving skills and dead weight otherwise. Not to mention spells or items like Find Traps, Invisibility, or a Chime of Opening could do a Thief's job without needing a character who was dead weight in a fight. The Thief-Acrobat was even worse, as it sacrificed training those skills in favor of things like polevaulting or long-jumping. After being rebranded as the Rogue, they got some major buffs (more consistent damage, more reliable and versatile skill use, access to useful subclasses) that they've largely maintained,

!!!Wizard / Magic-User / Mage
* CreatorsPet: While Wizards are a well-loved class straight from the very first iteration of D&D, they're turned into this whenever Monte Cook's around.
* GameBreaker: At high-level power play, a straight wizard played by a sufficiently CrazyPrepared player is considered to be the most powerful class in the game. While they're more fragile than clerics and druids and can't tank, the arcane-exclusive spells (like Teleport) make up for it.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:5th Edition Classes]]
!!!Barbarian
* BrokenBase: The Storm Herald is a perfectly fine Primal Path with spectacular, unique abilties that makes good use of the Barbarian's bonus action, which generally won't see much use after a Barbarian has started its rage. The main contention with Storm Herald is story consistency vs gameplay consistency. Unlike the Totem Warrior, which doesn't need to stick entirely to the Bear to be a game-breaker (It's allowed to take the Bear ability to resist all damage and then choose any other animal for future subclass specific features), the Storm Herald is married to the type of storm it chooses from the start, meaning that if it chose to ''start'' with the Sea Storm Aura, well, that's what it's sticking with for its Storm Soul and Raging Storm. It ''can'' change which Storm it's connected to every level, but it cannot mix-and-match like the Totem Warrior can. The contention here is if it ''should'' be allowed to mix-and-match for the sake of gameplay, or if it only makes sense that a Barbarian tied to a sandstorm would continue to gain powers linked to the sandstorm. Some [=DMs=] are willing to break the rules for the former, while others prefer the logic of the latter.
* ComplacentGamingSyndrome:
** Expect to hear "I would like to Rage" a lot if you're at a table with a barbarian in the party. Rage is pretty much the go-to move for barbarians, but they do it so well that there's really not much need to do anything else.
** The Totem Warrior, and specifically the Bear Totem, is unquestionably the most popular barbarian primal path, and for one reason: resistance versus all damage except psychic. In other words, if no enemy on the field possesses an attack with a fairly uncommon damage type, that Bear Totem barbarian enjoys effectively ''doubled HP'' when they Rage, rather than only versus weapon attacks. Also, as barbarians have advantage on Dexterity saving throws against nasty damage spells like the dreaded ''fireball'', they can quite easily get a ''cumulative'' chance to halve received damage again. It's commonly thought that the mass infusions of spells and monsters that deal psychic damage in ''Xanathar's Guide to Everything'' and ''Mordekainen's Tome of Foes'', respectively, are an attempt to "stealth nerf" it. Let's not forget that a ring of resistance can ''also'' fix that little psychic problem.
*** If it's not a Totem Warrior, the Barbarian is probably a Zealot. The Zealot is widely considered to be the second-best class behind the Totem Warrior, and it does a few things better than the Totem Warrior. The Zealot barbarian can be brought back from the dead without material components for revival spells, reroll failed saving throws, inspire the party with advantage rolls, and deals extra radiant or necrotic damage with each attack. Plus, the "Rage Beyond Death" ability means that the barbarian outright ''won't die'' if they hit zero HP, even if they fail three death saves, as long as they're raging. They're effectively the idea of "Man Literally Too Angry to Die" given form. The Totem Warrior still gets more useful abilities for out-of-combat roleplaying and is a better defensive powerhouse, even if the Zealot can deal more damage and be brought back to life more easily.
** Race wise, if the player is only using the base races for playing a Barbarian, expect it to be a Half-Orc. Half-Orc's gain a +2 in Strength and +1 in Constitution, the ability to get back up if reduced to zero HP, and the ability to add an additional weapon roll if they crit with a melee weapon. These all combined make a Half-Orc Barbarian hard to kill while giving them a high damage output potential, as with their starting modifiers, they can reach high Strength and Con modifiers with ease. Mountain Dwarves are a close second because of their +2 to Constitution and Strength, however they lack the extra combat bonuses' the Half-Orc gets, as they instead get resistance to poison and a history of stone-like skill instead. Outside of those two, the most common pick for a Barbarian is Goliath due to the race being tailor-made to be one.
* TierInducedScrappy:
** At the complete opposite end of the spectrum, ''no one'' plays the other primal path from the Player's Handbook, the Berserker. This is ''also'' because of a poorly-designed first power, namely, Frenzy, which offers an additional attack per round as a bonus action... at the cost of one level of Exhaustion once the Rage ends. And Exhaustion is hard and slow to remove, stacks rapidly to impose awful and overlapping penalties, and means that using the Path's power is almost never worth it. The rest of the Primal Path is much better, but such a bad starting power, combined with the lack of any others starting powers, has led many to complain it obviously pre-dates the existing Exhaustion rules and was never updated when they were changed.
** The battlerager from the ''Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide'' is also fairly weak, but it at least offers an extra attack per round without any real cost, even if its damage dice are low. Unfortunately, it forces the player to wear a single type of armor for most of their class benefits, and not a terribly powerful kind at that.

!!!Bard
* ComplacentGamingSyndrome:
** Most Bards end up going the route of College of Lore for the simple fact you can pick two spells from ''any'' class at level six, which allows Bards to use some of the best spells in the game such as Counterspell and not have to worry about it not synergizing with their stats since it counts as a Bard spell. You also gain three additional proficiencies choosing it, meaning you can have around ''eight'' skills to be good in before feats are thrown in. Cutting Words is also considered a decent use of your Bardic Inspirations since it can help reduce the chances of someone being hurt.
** If a group has a Bard, expect for that Bard to be a Half-Elf most of the time. This is because Half-Elves get a flat +2 to their Charisma modifiers and the ability to put a single point in any two stats, all while gaining two free skills, two starting languages, in addition to getting to pick a third, and advantage on being charmed, all of which doesn't even account for Backgrounds. This makes them the best race option since those extra two stat points can be put in the stat that they will need depending on their sub-class, which combined with the Bard's natural ability to help stop Charms and gain skills, allows them to practically be good at everything they need to be. To a lesser extent, Tiefling Bards are also common for also getting +2 to Charisma and a few free spells or a flying speed, but they are favored more if they are playing a solely magic-focused Bard.
* MinmaxersDelight: Level 3 College of Valor Bards are considered good to dip into because it gives you access to medium armor, shields, martial weapons, and Combat Inspiration, which can turn classes like Sorcerers and Warlocks into a better MagicKnight, without losing your stats focus on Charisma.

!!!Cleric
* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: Life Cleric in general is one of the most popular Clerics, largely because of the stigma attached to Clerics via classic video games and even some earlier editions as the 'healbot.' It also tends to get the most shilling. It's a perfectly good class, too, one of the few where everyone will agree it can function well for mid-combat healing.
* MinmaxersDelight: Life Cleric 1 is a popular dip for other healer classes. Proficiency with all armor and shields while keeping spell slot progression is already good enough, but the icing of the cake is the extra healing that is applied ''every time any spell of yours does any healing''. Any spell, not just any cleric spell. Since a paladin's ''aura of vitality'' heals every turn for one minute, that translates to 50 extra HP of healing. Worse yet, it ''quadruples'' the healing power of ''goodberry'', bringing a total of 40 HP of non-combat healing, which can be distributed among the party with surgical precision, for the cost of a 1st-level slot. Having a Druid X/Life Cleric 1 often means the party can enter every single fight fully healed.
* TierInducedScrappy: Trickery Domain Clerics are generally seen as the worst option for the class. The main draw of the Trickery Domain is that you basically are more focused on trickery and pranking people, as well as making stealth more viable for yourself and/or your party through your blessing. However, while this does make it a good option for stealth-focused modules, it does little to provide outright power or utility because it's more focused on confusing the enemy, and while Invoke Duplicity is useful, it only creates an illusion of you and nothing else. The later abilities like Cloak of Shadows and the Trickery Divine Strike also aren't all that useful since one just makes you invisible at the cost of using your Channel Divinity, while the other lets you deal poison damage on your melee attack, something many foes are resistant to and thus can NoSell. The spells you gain are solid such as Dispel Magic, but don't help your Cleric fight any better. It's a fun idea in concept, but if you want to play a stealthy magic character, it's better to just play something like a Bard or Arcane Trickster.

!!!Druid
* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: If you have a high-level game (or a game that promises to end at high-levels) and a group of people who understand the ins and outs of 5e, expect at least one in five groups to have a Circle of the Moon Druid. While Circle of the Land offers more versatility, Circle of Dreams has better healing, Circle of the Shepherd has incredibly useful buffs, and Circle of Spores gives a consistent means of causing constant damage, the Circle of the Moon is notorious as being NighInvulnerable. A lot of the base Druid's late-game abilities mesh far too well with the Moon Druid's last few abilities, including casting Wildshape at will, the ability to cast Druid spells while Wildshape is in effect, and the ability to Wildshape into any Beast of Challenge Rating 6 or lower. This doesn't sound devastating until one remembers that any damage incurred while Wildshaped doesn't carry over to the Druid's normal form. Starting at Circle of the Moon Druid Level 18, the Druid can transform into a Mammoth with 126 HP as a Bonus Action ''every round''. This means that enemies have to constantly rip into the Mammoth Moon Druid and ''hope'' they deal more than 126 damage in a single round of combat. They might be able set up a turn where they damage the Druid after bringing down the Wildshape, but this is excessively meta-gamey. And even if they do, all of that effort that's focused on the Druid is effort that isn't focused on anyone else, leaving the rest of the Druid's party to rain death on the enemies.

!!!Fighter
* ComplacentGamingSyndrome:
** While the class as a whole is quite versatile, the Fighting Styles it offers are not. Expect most Fighters to use either Dueling, Defense, or Two-Weapon Fighting if they are a melee-focused Fighter due to the fact that the three provide simple bonuses that are very useful throughout the player's lifespan. Archery only works well if the player decides to focus on being a ranged-attack Fighter, though it is probably the most powerful fighting style in the game if one does, while Great Weapon Fighting and Protection are seen as very weak and [[CripplingOverspecialization gimmicky and overspecialized]] choices, respectively, which are not useful long term for most characters (there are some exceptions). Furthermore, simply because none of the other Fighting Styles really complement one another, everyone who gets a ''second'' Style almost invariably picks Defense if they didn't take it at already.
** According to various sites, Human Fighter is the most common combination in Fifth Edition. This is likely on account of the BoringButPractical applications both have; humans gain +1 to all stats, and Fighters are a class that [[JackOfAllStats generally want to be good at most things without being the best in any of them]]. The additional features Fighters get early on helps create a strong character that can keep up with the party.
** One of the Fighter builds most recommended is a Variant Human that uses a reach weapon (such as a glaive) and takes the Sentinel, Polearm Master, and Great Weapon Master feats. Such a build can easily trap enemies where the enemy cannot attack them unless they also have a reach weapon, as Sentinel triggers an attack of opportunity when the enemy attempts to move closer that, if it hits, prevents any more movement. The Fighter can then pump out huge amounts of damage with the bonus from Great Weapon Master, the corresponding accuracy penalty being made up for by Polearm Master allowing them to make another attack as a bonus action. As a Variant Human can start at level 1 with a feat, this build can be completed as soon as level 8, with the most important parts (Polearm Master and Sentinel) obtained as quickly as level 4. What subclass to pick isn't considered a big deal, though the Cavalier subclass is often suggested because of the HoldTheLine nature of its abilities making it well suited for the build.
* ScrappyMechanic: The Indomitable power, the Fighter's only class power that doesn't recharge on a short rest, is often derided for being weak, as it's essentially a single saving throw re-roll. Worse, it tends to happen on levels where the fighter gets no other benefits. Often seen as a blatant attempt to skew things in the caster's favor in the caster-martial dynamic, it's popularly house-ruled to either recharge on a short rest or to work like the monster power of similar mechanics and let the fighter choose to succeed instead.
* TierInducedScrappy:
** In general, the Player's Handbook archetypes are seen as undertuned compared to those released in later sourcebooks. None of them grant extra skills, and only the Battle Master grants a tool proficiency, whereas every single other archetype, even the Banneret / Purple Dragon Knight, offers a few, and their support for the non-combat pillars of the game is very limited compared to what other archetypes offer. Furthermore, their combat abilities, while still somewhat unique, are often seen as victims of PowerCreep, whether it's the Champion's limited regeneration which several other classes have since gotten a strictly-better version of earlier in progression, the Battle Master's short-rest recharging maneuvers not being as powerful as advertised, or the Eldritch Knight's limited spell list, slow scaling, and lack of synergy between its spellcasting abilities and its fighter powers, even with the release of a few Eldritch Knight-friendly spells in the ''Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide''.
** Speaking of, the Banneret / Purple Dragon Knight is often seen as a bit of a dud in and of itself. The intent is a fighter who can share his class features with the rest of the party, the result is a lot of weak, finicky, slowly-recharging powers that generally fail to properly capture the "4e Warlord" flavor the subclass is reaching for and stand in the way of letting the fighter shine on his own by the absence of better ones.

!!!Monk
* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: If the Monk is a Shadow Monk, expect that Shadow Monk to take two levels in Rogue (sometimes more, but two is the most common due to taking the least amount of time and investment) if they don't already ''start'' in Rogue and move into Monk around level two or so. There are two major reasons why a Shadow Monk would want this. First, without Expertise, a Shadow Monk is honestly just a lesser Rogue; a Rogue will easily do their job of sneaking better 100% of the time and out-damage them to boot. It's more than likely they'll have a better starting AC, since any Rogue worth their salt will do everything possible to start with a Dex mod of 3-4, whereas a Monk would need that ''and'' a good Wis mod to bump up AC. Getting Expertise in Stealth and Perception makes the Shadow Monk comparable, if not better in some cases, than a Rogue in sneaking, even once Reliable Talent comes online for Rogues. (Largely as a result of Pass Without Trace, nigh-free invisibility, and teleportation allowing them to make up for a lack of consistency in their rolls.) The other reason is access to a free bonus action version of their favorite actions in battle and on a mission - dash, disengage, and hide. If there aren't any shadows nearby to teleport in, a Shadow Monk greatly appreciates the ability to still hide ''somewhere.''
* TierInducedScrappy: Way of the Four Elements is generally seen as the worst subclass in all of Fifth Edition. The goal of the Four Elements is to give players abilities that [[JackOfAllStats allow them to adapt to any situation, even if they aren't quite as good as dedicated classes]]. The problem is just how harshly this cuts into the Monk's natural resource pool. Unlike the Sorcerer, who only uses its Sorcery Points on the abilities it gets in its base class, the Monk has useful features that make use of its Ki both in its base form and in the various subclasses it uses. This isn't normally a problem for most Monk subclasses, where they tend to only need to use a few of the Ki-sapping features a subclass offers within a given situation, and usually at a relatively cheap cost. The Four Elements abilities ''all'' use Ki, and most of the beneficial ones utterly price-gouge the Monk. While four Ki points have the potential to kill someone instantly or do incredible damage as an Open Hand Monk, a Four Elements Monk only gets one use of Fireball. The most tragic aspect of this, however, is Water Whip. When first introduced, Water Whip was a bonus action attack a Monk could use before their own natural two attacks, did decent damage, pulled an enemy closer, and potentially knocked them prone, allowing the Monk to make full use of their hit-and-run playstyle. When the errata came around changing Water Whip's cost to a full action, the subclass lost any remaining luster; making Water Whip an action defeats the entire purpose of using it, since the Monk can't capitalize on the effects of the Whip itself, and 3d10 + Wisdom Mod is simply not that great for the cost of a full action. All of this makes the Way of the Four Elements Monk into [[MasterOfNone a class that can do anything but can't do any of it well, and is outdone in every area by another class or subclass]].

!!!Paladin
* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: Oath of the Ancients Paladins are one of the more commonly picked subclasses for Paladins, in large part of their level 7 Aura of Warding, which gives any allies within 10 feet of the Paladin ''resistance'' to all magic damage. When you combine this with the already existing aura that gives nearby allies a bonus to saves equal to your charisma modifier, it can absolutely trivialize some fights. Your party gets hit by the Fireball spell? Well, even if they fail the save, they still take half damage. Pass the save? That halved damage gets reduced even more! The other abilities it gets are also pretty useful as well, making it potentially the strongest Paladin subclass in terms of how good it is.
* TierInducedScrappy: Oath of Redemption Paladins don't see much use due to the very strict nature of their oaths; they're supposed to be all about RedemptionEqualsLife unless someone goes to the extreme and thus has to be killed. The idea behind them is that you try to redeem a person and prevent violence by convincing them to stand down and stop being violent. In practice, however, it's one of the most restrictive subclasses because it punishes you for fighting; if you chose to fight without trying to make your enemy suffer a HeelRealization, it's going to cost you your oath, and all your abilities are focused on preventing fights rather than assisting in them, which makes it useless when fighting many foes who are AlwaysChaoticEvil like Demons, Devils, and other monsters or evil-aligned beings. It also requires the rest of the party to let the Redemption Paladin do their redeeming thing without fighting, which then requires cooperation and goodwill from the actual players; this can get boring and frustrating for the players who want to fight without really caring about trying to prevent the fight. This means it's possible you may start to convince a foe to back down, only for your party to just kill them anyway. Even their level 20 ability is focused on making you get hit to be useful, and if you attack back, your ability ends instantly. It's essentially taking the idea of redeeming someone by being a BadassPacifist, which isn't applicable in every situation, both story-wise and gameplay-wise. The roleplay potential of the class is arguably the only reason it's picked; in the hands of a skilled player, it can make for an interesting character and has some amount of LoopholeAbuse, but gameplay-wise few people will want to use it.

!!!Ranger
* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** The ranger was generally seen as the weakest class in the game upon initial release, particularly its Beast Master sub-class. Two years later, the developers released a full rework of the class that was much better-received. While the developers did not outright replace it, and have said they do not intend to, making it an official option went a great way to fix the class. To coincide with this, later subclasses have been given better overall abilities and skills to help the base ranger class have more power to it, making it possible for a non-rework ranger to be strong in spite of the limits, and even better if it's a rework ranger.
** The alternative class features in Tasha's Cauldron replace a number of very situational or outright useless abilities of the ranger: rather than having chosen terrain types that the ranger can't get lost in and where they can forage more food in (Natural Explorer), they instead get Expertise in a skill, permanent increases in movement speed, and the ability to heal themselves of exhaustion over short rests instead of long rests (Deft Explorer). Instead of being able to expend a spell slot to know if any if a type of creature is within a mile of them but not the vital information of *where the creatures are* or how many of them there are (Primeval Awareness), they gain access to a number of thematic spells such as Beast Sense and Locate Creature and can cast them without spell slots once per long rest (Primal Awareness). Instead of being able to spend a minute making camouflage that helps hide them... as long as they don't, you know, **move** or do anything useful while hidden (Hide In Plain Sight), they can call upon the power of nature to outright make them invisible for short periods of time, and can do so during combat (Nature's Veil).
** The Beast Master subclass was given specific alternate features in Tasha's Cauldron that made it much stronger and less of a hassle to play. Rather than choosing a specific animal as a companion, (which players disliked due to how weak and fragile the available options were), a Beast Master can instead summon a primal beast in the form of an animal - either a Beast of the Earth (slightly tougher and can climb), a Beast of the Sky (slightly faster and can fly), or a Beast of the Sea (both tough and fast - but can only move around in water). A Primal Companion does what Beast Master players had wanted for years: scales and grows stronger as the Beast Master does. Additionally, it can be revived with a spell slot if it is killed: before, a Beast Master's pet could only be revived the same way a player character could, requiring expensive diamonds and a willing spellcaster who knows a spell to bring them back. Most parties weren't able or willing to shill out thousands of gold pieces worth of diamonds to bring back one player's pet.
* BrokenBase: The 5e development team released a special Unearthed Arcana revolving entirely around five levels of a completely-rebuilt ranger class. Opinions are divided between those who like the change, those who dislike it, but feel it's a good sign that the developers are listening to their feedback, and those who feel it is firm evidence that the game designers are just ''clueless'' when it comes to the ranger, fixated on mending things that aren't broken while ignoring the class's core problems.
* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: The few times you meet a DM who will ''absolutely'' require a player to use the PHB Ranger, expect the player to use the Hunter. While the Hunter still isn't nearly as good as most Paladins, Fighters, or Monks, it does have a few unique features that puts it head and shoulders over the other options, most notably an easy increase to total damage per round, multiple methods of melee AOE effects (which is something only the Ranger can claim without spells), and an ''incredible'' defensive ability that punishes a DM's attempts to bully the Ranger with concentrated strikes from a single enemy. The Horizon Walker and Beastmaster just can't keep up.
* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: As mentioned under AuthorsSavingThrow, Unearthed Arcana turned the Ranger into a LightningBruiser, as well as fixing the Beastmaster's animal companion. Many of these features were made offical class varients with the release of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything.
* TierInducedScrappy: Generally seen as the weakest 5th edition class. [[MasterOfNone There are very few things a ranger can do out of combat that other classes can't do, and probably do better]]. In combat, they rely heavily on a very limited selection of spells, and stack up unfavorably against both fighters and paladins. Out of combat, many of the class's core features are only useful against specific prey or on specific terrain. Beastmasters have it particularly bad, as the mechanics behind their animal companions ''suck''.

!!!Rogue
* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: Halfling Rogues are by far the most common race option for Rogues. Partially because of the flat +2 to Dexterity they get, but also the Halfing's "Halfling Nimbleness" feature allowing them to move through spaces occupied by creatures larger then you, which makes Halfings very deadly when they want to use sneak attacks since they can outright use their party members as essentially cover. Kenku and Tabxai are similarly among the most common picks due to their racial features and bonuses, but in terms of base races, Halfings are the top of the game for Rogues.

!!!Sorcerer
* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** The [[https://media.wizards.com/2019/dnd/downloads/UA-ClassFeatures.pdf Unearthed Arcana revisions]] released for the Sorcerer have been very well received due to giving the class some needed buffs. To clarify; the two largest changes they received were Spell Versatility[[note]]During a long rest, they can change a spell to a different one of the same level[[/note]] and three more ways to use their Sorcery Points[[note]]Give themselves advantage on a check, make a weapon magical, and give themselves temporary HP based on amount spent[[/note]]. Both of those additions have made the class more viable since they now can swap out useless spells for better ones, as well as use their Sorcery Points for more useful situations then simply attacking. While the class is still regarded as deeply flawed, it's considered a step in the right direction. However, Sorcerers did not keep Spell Versatility once ''Tasha's Cauldron to Everything'' came out with alternative class features, something that some Sorcerer fans have chosen to ignore and include anyway because of how much it fixes some of the core issues they have.
** On the topic of ''Tasha's Cauldron to Everything'', the Sorcerous Origins introduced in that expansion address one of the biggest complaints regarding the Sorcerer class: versatility. Both Clockwork Soul and Aberrant Mind come with ten spells (and, in Abberant Mind's case, a cantrip) that are added at the thresholds for each spell level up to 5th, like what Cleric Domains get. And, in a departure from any other features like this, ''the Sorcerer can '''retrain''' these spells, even outside the Sorcerer class''! The only caveats are the schools of magic, the level of the spell, and what classes the spells can be drawn from, but that's still a lot of variety to work with. Now Sorcerers, beings almost literally made of magic, can have more known spells than Bards. The features for each subclass are also incredibly diverse and unique, such as eliminating a creature's advantage to saving throws (something most mages groan about, given how every Fiend has magic resistance), creative body modifications, and a way to immediately end spell effects.
* ComplacentGamingSyndrome:
** It is usually advised that anyone who plans to play a Sorcerer should multiclass to one of the other Charisma-focused classes in order to bump up their strength, as the Sorcerer's limited abilities need help in order to offset their flaws. In particular, Warlock is often the go-to class because of the power they get from the class's abilities, including the ability to get spells back on a short rest. When combined with the Sorcerer's ability to convert spells into Sorcery Points, this essentially allows them to convert Warlock spells into Sorcery Points, then convert those Sorcery Points into Sorcerer spells, aiding them in getting around the fact that Sorcerers need a long rest to regain both resources (outside of their capstone ability, but this method will help them out more in the long run).
** Due to the very awkward limitations many of the subclasses they get, it's very common for players to use one of the Unearthed Arcana classes (Phoenix, Favored Soul, Storm), and homebrew elements of it to make it more viable for players, such as buffing the Phoenix Origin's Mantle Of Flames to have more uses.
** In terms of Metamagic, expect to see Sorcerers take Empowered, Subtle, and Quickened Spell. Empowered allows Sorcerers to be proper nukers that [[TierInducedScrappy make Evoker Wizards utterly obsolete]] while also being stacked with any other Metamagic option, Subtle is the one completely official way for a caster to use a spell without making visible use of their components (which ensures any fight between mages will end in the Sorcerer's favor, since ''they'' can Counterspell with impunity but their opponent can't since you need to see or hear a spell to counter it), and Quickened is often homebrewed to allow the Sorcerer to use two full spells. Even without homebrew, Quickened is amazing because it allows a Sorcerer to safely turtle-up with Dodge, cover more ground with Dash, cast a Cantrip, or all sorts of other useful options.
* TierInducedScrappy: The Wild Magic sub-class falls into AwesomeButImpractical. Whenever you cast a non-cantrip spell, you have to roll a d20. If you get a 1 on this d20 roll, you then have to roll a d100 for a Wild Magic Surge, which makes something happens at random. Some of the Wild Magic Surge effects are useful: recovering HP, regaining spell slots, casting buff spells like Mirror Image for free, or your next spell needing a Bonus Action instead of an Action. But you can also end up casting Fireball or Confusion centered on yourself, make yourself Frightened of the nearest enemy, or cause necrotic damage to everything around you (including your allies). While fun in theory, the amount of potential negative effects from a Wild Magic Surge makes the sub-class not worth using, as some of the Surges can easily lead to a TotalPartyKill in the wrong spot. Making this worse is that your most interesting ability -- being able to give yourself advantage -- makes you take a Wild Magic Surge roll as soon as you do it. So your one outright useful ability is probably going to be a detriment in the end. And all of this is in exchange for only slightly increasing your chances to cast spells and your damage; it's not enough to make the sub-class viable, considering all of the massive drawbacks.

!!!Warlock
* AuthorsSavingThrow: ''Tasha's Cauldron of Everything'' introduced a new Eldritch Invocation, Investment of the Chain Master, that addressed many of the complaints with Pact of the Chain. The Warlock's familiar only takes a bonus action to command to attack rather the Warlock's entire action, the damage it deals is considered magical (bypassing the resistance to non-magic piercing/bludgeoning/slashing damage that most enemies past early game have), any save that it forces an opponent to make -- such as a pseudodragon's poisoned stinger tail or quasit's scare ability -- use the Warlock's own spell save DC rather than the (low) DC that the familiar has by default, and the Warlock can use their reaction to grant their familiar resistance to damage when it's injured to help compensate for how fragile the familiar is.
* ComplacentGamingSyndrome:
** Before the release of the Hexblade, the Pact of the Tome was far-and-away the best pact option in the game. The Pact of the Blade was seen as gimmicky and limited in usefulness, requiring the use of many Invocations just to bring it up to par with the class's signature ''eldritch blast'' cantrip, while the Pact of the Chain [[CrutchCharacter quickly fell off in usefulness]] as the player progressed in level, since its unique familiar never improves or gains hitpoints as monsters grow more powerful, and the Magic Resistance most of the choices for it grant requires it to be in the area of effect for spells that will kill it through raw damage even if it makes its saving throws. Conversely, the Pact of the Tome offers enormous upgrades to the class's versatility, via not only several free cantrips, but has an invocation that lets a warlock learn every ritual spell they can find, hugely expanding the class's out-of-combat utility.
** The class is extremely customizable thanks to having two effective subclasses and the versatile and useful abilities offered by Invocations, but ''every'' warlock grabs the class's signature ''eldritch blast'' cantrip and the Agonizing Blast invocation that upgrades it to add the character's Charisma modifier to damage rolls. Indeed, the class is arguably designed around the assumption that most players will select both, and within their first few levels.
* MinmaxersDelight: As a front-loaded class, warlocks have access to many of these.
** Hexblades are an extremely powerful one-or-two-level dip due to their 1st level ability of substituting Charisma for Strength or Dexterity for the attack of any one weapon.
** The class's signature ''eldritch blast'' cantrip is a popular poach for other classes, since, unlike other cantrips, it offers additional attacks instead of additional damage dice, and the warlock has a number of potent and useful Invocations to upgrade it further.
** Paladins and sorcerers often dip a level or two into warlock to gain access to the class's regenerating "pact spell slots," since having a supply of spells that regenerates on a short rest fixes many of their design issues.
* TierInducedScrappy:
** The [[LivingWeapon Hexblade Patron]] is basically '''the''' way to play a [[MagicKnight Bladelock]], and trying with any other patron will see you [[CantCatchUp outclassed in basically every way]]. They get medium armor, a single-target hex buff, and Charisma to attacks and damage - fixing their issue of being a MAD class. And since they get this at first level, it ''also'' makes them a [[MinmaxersDelight popular 1 level dip for other Charisma gishes like the Bard or Paladin]]. Many would have preferred their abilities to be merged with the preexisting Pact of the Blade instead, and that's those who ''don't'' think they're just flat out overpowered.
** While Pact of the Blade is no longer here (because of said arguably-overpowered Hexblade), the Pact of the Chain's benefit, as explained above, is very weak and fragile, never improves or scales up, and making use of their best ability means making sure it's right inside the range of any Area of Effect spells an enemy wants to throw. Without the buffs it got from ''Tasha's Cauldron of Everything'', it's the weakest Pact option.
** On the opposite side, the Undying Warlock from the [=SCAG=]. All you get out of it is resistance to disease, an ability that makes it slightly harder for undead to attack you as long as you don't attack them first, a small collection of weak self-healing abilities and a greatly enhanced lifespan. Undeniably a cool pact from a thematic point of view, but mechanically it' just ''really'' mediocre. August 2020 saw a new Unearthed Arcana Patron called the Undead Patron, which has similar ideas and mechanics, but has better abilities and is considerably more powerful, making the Undying even less appealing, especially once said Patron became official in ''Van Richten's Guide To Ravenloft''.

!!!Wizard
* AuthorsSavingThrow: The spell ''Danse Macabre'' basically saved the Necromancer. Before Danse Macabre was released, the Necromancer had a huge issue with being useless starting around the mid-game; Grim Harvest is strictly inferior to every other ability that restored HP upon killing an enemy (and there are ''many'', including strictly better variants thereof, such as the Way of Long Death Monk's ''Touch of Death'' and the Grave Domain Cleric's ''Keeper of Souls''), resistance to Necrotic damage and immunity to HP reduction just wasn't worth ten levels in a class (especially considering an Aasimar is already resistant to Necrotic damage from the start), and the majority of Undead a party fights by the time they reach 14th level have high charisma saves, high intelligence, or both. Danse Macabre, however, took the core feature of the subclass and made it potent; before, ''Undead Thralls'' was practically worthless by mid-game, where a Zombie or Skeleton's +2 to hit is abysmal, but with Danse Macabre, a Necromancer suddenly had a team of powerful HP bags that could actually deal consistent and passable damage. Danse Macabre and Animate Dead even had interesting means of varying the Undead you got, so that you could use Animate Dead if you just wanted walking shields, and you could use Danse Macabre if you wanted to actually harm enemies.
* CreatorsPet: One accusation the class gets is that it's favored heavily by the developers to the point of absurdity compared to the other magic-focused classes. In almost every major update or playtest material, the wizard gets either a bunch of new spells, or gets a new subclass, despite already having a pretty good starting set of subclasses. To put into perspective how many subclasses they have, most classes have between seven or nine official subclasses as of 2021. The wizard has ''thirteen'', the second highest number of officially published subclasses after the Cleric, and unlike the Cleric which has domain's that offer unique gameplay advantages and play styles, the Wizard's all make minor adjustments with only one or two unique abilities. This seems to be because unlike the sorcerer, druid, and warlock, wizards are easy to make new abilities for since they are so basic in playstyle, but fans of the other classes are often vocal about their dislike of the favoritism. Part of the hate is ''also'' that said subclasses are often comically overpowered, janky or poorly designed, or both, and sorcerer fans in particular are extremely resentful of many poorly-received attempts to create a "metamagic wizard" in an edition where the sorcerer class is already seen as flawed and troubled and metamagic is one of their very small number of unique tricks. At the very least, when it's the only class in the game with ''multiple'' subclass options that can turn all damage they deal into nigh-irresistible [[NonElemental force damage]], there's ''something'' there.
* TierInducedScrappy:
** The Evoker, full stop. ''On paper,'' the School is a perfectly reasonable option for Wizards that allows them to deal a decent chunk of damage safely. So what's the problem? Everything it does, the Sorcerer does better. While the Sorcerer itself suffers from some degree of scrappy status, no one doubts the sheer power it can manifest with its Metamagic. Sculpt Spells is one feature the Evoker has over Sorcerers, but Careful Spell almost closes the gap, and any issues with aiming can usually be solved with ease, especially if the spell is a debuff, not straight damage, in which case Careful Spell is indistinguishable from Sculpt Spells. Potent Cantrip and Empowered Evocation both fall flat next to Draconic and Stone Sorcerers, not to mention other Origin options that give Sorcerers a flat Charisma modifier buff to damage, (additionally, by the time a Wizard gets Potent Cantrip, most mages won't need to use damage-dealing Cantrips if they ration their spells carefully) and even then, limiting the extra damage to Evocation spells is often more limiting than it sounds the higher up you get in level, where you get disgustingly powerful AOE spells like Incendiary Cloud...which aren't Evocation. The kicker is the capstone, though; Overchannel. Once again, ''on paper,'' this looks better than the Sorcerer's Empowered Spell. Two problems; one, Overchannel is obtained at level 14, ''11 levels'' after a Sorcerer could have taken Empowered Spell. Two, Empowered Spell is an easily spammable Metamagic option with a disgustingly low resource cost that can apply to ''any'' Sorcerer spell, including Meteor Swarm, Sunburst, Disintegrate, and Finger of Death. ''At best,'' an Evoker Wizard can deal one instance of 69 cold damage before suffering any penalties. 69 damage is nothing to sneeze at against a group of enemies, but it's tied to a spell (Cone of Cold) with a save most monsters have an abundance of at 14th level and a somewhat resisted damage type. Any casting after the first comes with crippling penalties that typically give you only one more shot with a high-level spell before it becomes unfeasible to cast again. All this together makes the Evoker Wizard the worst School in the game, its only potential competition being the Transmuter.
** Speaking of the Transmuter, it is a perfectly decent subclass held back entirely by the fact that the majority of its abilities are simply underwhelming or easily replicated by other classes, spells, and even subclasses, especially Conjuration. Minor Alchemy as a whole falls flat next to Minor Conjuration, and any halfway decent Bard or Rogue can set up a scam without the need for transmutation magic. The Transmuter's stone ''is'' useful to give its user Constitution proficiency without the need of a feat, and that's nothing to turn one's nose up at, except Conjurerers can just ''not make concentration saves'' at 10th level when using Conjuration spells, which on a whole are more reliable and more useful than Transmutation spells. Polymorphing for free sounds like a good deal, until you realize the Druid can do it too, could do it 8 levels ago, and can do it twice. The greatest thing that can be said about Transmuter is that it is not totally outdone by another class like Evoker is; Master Transmuter and the ability to swap energy resistances by using Transmutation spells are genuinely good abilities, but Master Transmuter is depressingly limited in what it can do versus what normal spells can ''already'' do. Generally, the consensus is that Transmuter needs some serious buffs, otherwise the only major reason to take it is to maintain one's youth...if you can get to 14th level.
** The Necromancer. On paper, the subclass seems fine; you get health back when you kill enemies, and get even more back if you used a Necromancer spell to do it. You also have an overall easier time summoning Undead thanks to reduced costs, and can buff the Undead that you summon. The issue is the limited nature of the ''Animate Dead'' spell; not only do you keep rolling dice to maintain control, but you have to cast the spell at higher levels to have it make more than one Undead at a time, and the only buff the Undead get is a basic buff you get from the class. Also, Animate Dead is a Level 3 spell, meaning it's gained a bit into the Wizard's lifespan, when enemies will most likely be able to kill those Undead pretty quickly. All the Wizard abilities the class gives offer no buffs to the Undead you summon, and the Wizard gets only two buff abilities at all. This doesn't even include the roleplay side of things, where a Necromancer Wizard is highly likely to be treated as suspect by other players, even if the character in question isn't Evil-aligned. While later spells help the class out, the core abilities of the Necromancer are simply too weak and don't scale with level. A Circle of the Shepherd Druid could do everything that a Necromancer Wizard could do but better, all without getting as many dirty looks and providing better buffs to summoned creatures and their allies. All of this makes the Necromancer one of the least useful options for a Wizard.
[[/folder]]


[[folder:Creatures]]
* AdaptationDisplacement: Compare how many series' portray Bahamut and Tiamat as dragons. Now look up [[https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Bahamut their]] [[https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Tiamat origins]].
* BrokenBase:
** Ability Penalties for races in 5e is considered majorly controversial. It only applies to two races that were released in a later sourcebook (strength penalty for kobolds and intelligence penalty for orcs), so many considered it completely out of place in this version of the game. Others complained that playing as an orcish Wizard or Artificer or any kobold melee class (except for monk) was completely unviable. Later reprints of the Orc in ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'' and ''[[WebVideo/CriticalRole Wildermount]]'' have removed their int penalty. Wizards of the Coast has apparently caught onto the criticisms, since they've removed ability score penalties altogether in the newer reprints of ''Volo's Guide to Monsters'' where they originally appeared.
** As far as playable races go, [[BirdPeople Kenku]] are one of the more polarizing ones released in a official work. This is because of their [[TheSpeechless inability to speak normally]], instead they mimic sounds in order to communicate. This has divided the community because of how one would play a Kenku, and the issues that can potentially arise with one in a party. Some feel that the Kenku are a fun and unique race due to this, citing that a good roleplay can find fun and unique ways to communicate with their party by associating phrases/sounds they hear to what they want to say or mean. Furthermore, the Kenku as a race are fairly strong, making them powerful in the right setup, especially as Rangers or Rogues. On the other hand, some feel they are too gimmicky and difficult to work with since having to basically find ways of communicating can make playing one just not enjoyable. There also is issues with Kenku being prime targets for a {{Griefer}} to play because of their copy sounds mean they can harass or be annoying to players with random words or noises, or taking things out of context just to annoy people. Due to this, Kenku are very difficult to discuss, and tend to be polarizing among the community.
** Dragonborn get this as a playable race. Many people love dragonborn because they're a ProudWarriorRace with a distinctly different theme to them than the dwarf, they're a great choice for a "bruiser" class like a fighter or a barbarian thanks to getting bonuses to Strength and Charisma, or because the player finds the idea of a playable dragon to be just inherently awesome. Also, dragonborn in the Forgotten Realms tend to be either LawfulGood warriors of Bahamut the Platinum Dragon or ChaoticEvil children of Tiamat, giving them some decent roleplay potential. Just as many people dislike dragonborn for being a race that [[MasterOfNone doesn't fit a niche]], since dwarves and half-orcs are better bruisers, the natural damage resistance that a dragonborn gets can also be done by tieflings, and their breath weapon isn't as good as a caster's spells. Also, while dragonborn breath weapons are good for crowd control and hitting groups of enemies, and a walking dragon is an intimidating sight in any realm, it's counterbalanced by the dragonborn not getting darkvision (one of the few humanoid races that doesn't), and they tend to not show up very often; lizardfolk or half-dragons show up more than dragonborn do. While dragonborn have gotten more popular as time has gone on, there's still the odd argument that pops up around whether they're a viable class (either for roleplay or combat), or if they should be "tweaked" in some way.

* DesignatedHero: Depending on the edition and perspective, the Gnomish pantheon can easily come across at this. Gnomes enjoy stories about how their gods got out of sticky situation using their wit and cleverness. From an outside perspective, these stories often seem like the gnomish gods are acting impulsive and careless, and their trickery often leads to more suffering down the line, just not for them. In particular, the story of Kurtulumak and Garl Glittergold, gods of kobolds and gnomes respectively. The story varies between Kobolds and Gnomes, but it always involves Garl trapping Kurtulumak in one of his own traps. Kobolds say this was a malicious act, while the gnomes say Garl just wanted to see if it would work. Either way, Kurtulumak comes across as the wronged party, while [[KarmaHoudini Garl gets away scot free]] There is also Callarduran Smoothhands, who is credited with ''turning the great elemental Ogrémoch evil by stealing its heart'', causing untold suffering from its rampages. Despite all of this, Gnomes are treated as one of the "good" races (in that they are a starting race) while Kobolds are treated as common enemies and playing one often gives more negatives than boons.
* EnsembleDarkhorse:
** Meepo the Kobold in 3rd Edition. This little lizard-dude, originally just a kill-it-for-stuff encounter in the adventure ''The Sunless Citadel'', was so popular that he made an appearance as an NPC in at least one other adventure, featured in a web-exclusive article in which he became a [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot half-dragon were-velociraptor]], and got whisked away to [[TabletopGame/D20Modern another dimension]] in which he obtained a magical pump-action shotgun. Truly, Meepo is the pinnacle of koboldian awesomesauce. He even makes a cameo in d20 modern.
** As far as races go, the [[MechanicalLifeforms Warforged]] from ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'' were '''very''' well received. The [[BeastMan Shifters]] were also well-liked, but not as much as the Warforged.\\
\\
These two races ([[AndZoidberg and Changelings]]) were put in as monsters in the first 4E Monster Manual, and Shifters were introduced as a playable race in the second 4e Player's Handbook. Warforged were made playable in any setting thanks to a free(!) Dragon article on Wizards' official site.
** The Flumphs. Originally unpopular, being seen as [[JokeCharacter flatulent jellyfish]] that [[AdventureFriendlyWorld aren't powerful enough to make a good fight]], or evil ''for'' the characters to want to fight, they've since become a popular representative for some of 1st edition's more whimsical and charming elements. Many gamers were happy when they brought them back in 5th edition, and given a write-up to make them fun adventuring props.
* FridgeHorror: The reproduction problems of faced by Lamias, Sphinxes, certain Templates, and quite a few other HalfHumanHybrid MixAndMatchCritters. Averted in the case of Driders who are created sterile.
* HilariousInHindsight: The complaints about 4th Edition playing like a video game certainly won't get any better when the corebooks have a playable race called the [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Dragonborn]].

* ValuesDissonance: The whole notion of AlwaysChaoticEvil has fallen out of favor in the decades since the game was started. For that reason, newer settings like TabletopGame/IronKingdoms and TabletopGame/{{Eberron}} are more likely to make the differences between races more cultural than biological, while older settings maintain more of the original flavor. The presence of Drizzt has retroactively shifted TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms in the cultural direction.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Gaming]]
* GameBreaker:
** Certain multiclass combos can be very cheesy due to synergistic mechanics. In 5th Edition, we have so-called "Coffeelocks". Sorcerer/Warlocks can use the Pact Magic feature to convert their spell slots into Sorcerer metamagic points, and then convert those points into Sorcerer spell slots. The trick here is that Warlock spell slots recharge after a ''short'' rest but created spell slots last until the next ''long'' rest. Ergo, you simply do not need to take a long rest. [[TheSleepless Ever.]] Taken further, if you're a Divine Soul Sorcerer you can take ''healing'' spells as well, effectively rendering Hit Dice to recover health obsolete.
* HilariousInHindsight: The complaints about 4e ripping off ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' got at least a bit funnier when [[VideoGame/{{Overwatch}} another Blizzard game]] was released that featured character roles that lined up pretty well with 4e's (Offense, Defense, Tank, and Support versus Striker, Controller, Defender, and Leader).
* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: Bards in 3e were designed to be the JackOfAllTrades, but ended up being an infamous case of MasterOfNone. 3.5 pulled them out of this, building them into DifficultButAwesome support casters and silver-tongued charmers. They [[TookALevelInBadass took another level in badass]] when 5e came out, where they enjoy an unparalleled versatility and are widely considered one of the best classes in the game.
* ScrappyMechanic: Factions in 5th edition, a system where players could be members of one of five ''Forgotten Realms''-based international organizations. This was rarely used outside of the official Adventurer's League games, since not all character concepts fit neatly into them and the Renown mechanic that influenced a player's standing in the faction was poorly designed and explained. Despite this, early adventure books ''expected'' players to have membership, providing plothooks for each of them. While this was fine in stories like ''Tyranny of Dragons'', where it made sense for the factions to be involved in events that shook their entire world, it was pretty ridiculous in ''Curse of Strahd'', which mostly takes place in an entirely separate world from the ''Forgotten Realms'', where the factions couldn't be expected to have any sort of influence. Since then, the adventures have toned this mechanic down heavily, and it now features only in adventures where the factions would be expected to appear anyway, such as ''Waterdeep: Dragon Heist''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Items]]
* AuthorsSavingThrow: Tools were generally regarded as useless aside from flavor (with the exception of Thieves Tools, which were used for lockpicking). With the release of ''Xanthar's Guide to Everything'', what comes in a tool kit are elaborated upon for creative players, and some examples of their use are given (like Cobblers being able to fit compartments into their teammates' shoes, or gaming sets can be used to determine the other character's personality).
* GoodBadBugs: Most rules exploits have been hilariously exploited with purpose built characters. These range from the "unintended but not game altering" to the countless much worse ones. Some examples:
** Because alcohol is a poison in the game's terms, an ability with the effect of "save against poison for bonuses" gets activated by booze.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Meta]]
* AdaptationDisplacement: In Japan, if you mention ''D&D'', most people will probably sooner think of the Capcom {{Beat Em Up}}s mentioned below than the original tabletop game or ''Roleplay/RecordOfLodossWar''.
* BrokenBase: Just watch any discussion between fans of Xth edition and fans of X+1th edition (or, sometimes, Xth and X.5th).
** Monte Cook, one of the designers for 3E and 5E. While he helped save D&D from death with 3E, there are some who loathe him for refusing to admit he ever made mistakes, and even more hated him after his signature CreatorsPet, [[GameBreaker Wizards]], were overpowered once more in the 5e playtest.
** After WOTC released a new set of core books called "Essentials", there is a heavy flame war between people who like "pre-E" D&D and those who like "post-E". The former group tends to call this new set "4.5", the latter gets positively enraged at seeing this number.
** With [[http://wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4ll/20120109 a new edition announced]], you can bet your sweet bippy the edition wars would begin anew..Fans of 3E rejoiced over 5E, while fans of 4E cried "Ruined!" at the return of LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards. Interestingly, fans of 2E and before often seem to be supportive of 5E, praising its simplified mechanics and focus on rulings over rules.
** The 3rd vs. 4th split also goes along with the rise of Pathfinder, which is a further refinement of the 3.5 ruleset and outsold the Dungeons and Dragons brand until 5E was released.
** There's a substantial and long-running fan divide between rolling dice for stats on character creation [[note]]there are multiple methods in and of itself: roll 4d6 six times, reroll any 1s and remove the lowest; as before but rolling ''seven'' times and then removing the lowest score; as before but the group rolls stats and bases their characters off the results; roll ''2''d6 then add 6; roll 3d8; roll 3d6 down the line and stick to the results; the list goes on[[/note]] or using the point buy system (every stat at 8, players get 27 points to freely distribute). Advocates of point buy argue their method offers players with a preset character concept in mind a chance to play what they want without forcing them into a mould decided by luck, and is also more balanced as players won't get exceptional rolls and dominate the party and players won't get bad rolls and [[CantCatchUp fall by the wayside]]. Fans of rolling cite the "ritual" aspect of making a character, that point buy lends itself to a degree of {{Munchkin}}ism and players creating "builds" rather than fleshed-out characters, and that rolling offers an element of improv to creating a character concept.
** Controversy arose with the leak, and latter confirmation, of [[http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/guildmasters-guide-ravnica Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica]] as the first official non-Forgotten Realms setting source-book for Fifth Edition. Some dislike the fact that Wizards chose to go with a setting from TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering rather than one of the classic settings such as TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}, TabletopGame/DarkSun or TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}}, or even created a brand new one. To further complicate matters the book was revealed alongside a smaller 20$ PDF-only book focused on TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}, which was released with the admission that the material contained within was unable to be used in Adventure League and that it was still being developed. Combining that with reused art assets from previous editions caused many to feel like Wizards didn't respect their old settings and were forcing the players to pay for playtesting. Other players were happy to see a new setting, believing Ravnica would make for an interesting and unique experience, and that receiving a small Eberron source-book, especially with the promise that the full version would ''finally'' contain the finished Artificer, was a good deal. Notably, despite the broken base from the TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons community, the reaction from the Magic: The Gathering community was far less contentious, with many happy to see the fan-favorite setting getting a dedicated RPG book.
** Counterspell became one of the most divisive spells in the history of ''D&D''. It does ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: if Counterspell is cast when another spellcaster casts a spell, the enemy spellcaster's spell fizzles out and doesn't work. On one hand, some find Counterspell to be a valuable tool that allows players and [=DMs=] to have some level of control over the battlefield, creating dramatic moments where someone may be about to use a game-changing spell only for it be stopped. On the other hand, some find Counterspell ruins any caster's plans if they don't have the ability to get around it, and it tends to cause encounters between classes that have the spell to turn into a back-and-forth counterfest. The divide is made bigger by the difference in views for [=DMs=] and players. For a Dungeon Master, Counterspell can cheapen a suspenseful moment if used incorrectly, or it can create a challenge that the DM has to plan around to keep encounters fun. For players, Counterspell either creates great moments where a player saves their party from death with a clutch Counterspell, or it turns the user into a dedicated Counterspell-bot even if they don't want to be. It's so divisive that many [=YouTube=] personalities that do ''D&D'' content probably have at least one video where they argue in favor or against Counterspell.
* CheeseStrategy: 3rd edition had "[[https://1d4chan.org/wiki/CoDzilla CoDzilla]]" (Cleric or Druid + Godzilla), in reference to the fact that those two classes had extremely powerful physical and magical abilities that allowed them to dominate the game.
* CompleteMonster: See [[Monster/DungeonsAndDragons here]].
* EveryoneIsSatanInHell: Hit hard by this during the Satanic scare in the 80s. Accusations that it promoted satanism, occultism and even suicide became commonplace, especially after the tragic suicide of James Dallas Egbert III, whose mother blamed D&D for her son's death. Many of the decisions made to present the game as less satanic (such as renaming devils and demons to Baatezu and Tanar'ri) were made in this period. It's calmed down since the end of the craze, and devils and demons are again names common in D&D sourcebooks.
* FandomRivalry:
** Some fans of weapon-using classes (I.E. Fighter, Ranger, Rogue, Barbarian, Paladin and Monk) don't get along with some fans of magic-using classes (I.E. Wizard, Sorcerer, Cleric, Bard, Druid and Warlock). [[TrollingCreator Mike Mearls and Monte Cook]] encourage this, with Mearls taking the side of the Martial classes and Cook taking the side of the Caster classes. Unfortunately, since Cook had a bit of an AuteurLicense compared to Mearls, this usually leads to Cook making any and all casters into [[GameBreaker Game Breaking]] [[CreatorsPet Creator's Pets]]. Fortunately for Martial fans (and fans of balance in general), Cook left the 5E design team, but not before they could fully remove his trademark of overpowered Wizards, which is still carried into the Unearthed Arcanas granting them even more broken subclass options.
** Among Caster classes, there is a slight rivalry between which is the best: Sorcerer, Warlock, or Wizard. Those who enjoy the sorcerer like the idea of the power from within as well as the ability to mold spells and special abilities on the fly, but this group is minimal among 5th Edition players due to how much of a TierInducedScrappy the Sorcerers became. Warlock fans stand by the concept that no one can accomplish grand things alone as well as the simplicity of the magic system compared to other classes. They're also not terrible at picking up a sword and fighting. Wizard fans enjoy the classic flavor and the concept of gaining power through hard work. Also, the fact that they can be seen as a GameBreaker in some circles certainly helps their reputation. That said, most non-Wizard players agree that the Wizard tends to be focused on more than others, and often times request updates/changes to the other classes first.
* FanonDiscontinuity: ''Every'' edition has inspired FanonDiscontinuity. There is still a very vocal 2nd Edition fanbase that despises the changes wrought in the transition to 3rd, and not a few 1st Edition holdouts who consider 2nd to be a bastardization, and a handful of hardcore grognards who think 1st Edition should never have supplanted "classic" D&D (called it 0E [Zero-E]). The 4th edition gets it the most, and most fans couldn't stand the new alignment system. [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks Players naturally gravitate towards the things that make them more comfortable]]. Of course, it's not like the books stop working when a new edition comes out, and any really cemented group is going to have lots of house rules anyway, so it's natural that players will remain players, even when they stop buying the new material.
* InformedWrongness: The creation of undead is regularly noted as evil, but it never really detailed what is wrong with creating a non-sentient being through the direction of energy — it just states that anything using negative energy is automatically evil. While some of this can be chalked up to InUniverse reasons, like the idea of violating a person's remains, the undead being brought back as evil, or that there are so many evil users of Undead that it colors the settings perception of them, there isn't a concrete gameplay reason why it is considered evil, but because of the stigma around them (both in and out of universe), Necromancers and other undead-focused classes are treated as wrong. It gets even worse when golems (which require the enslaving of a sapient being) ''never'' have their creation demonized.
* ItsTheSameSoItSucks: A complaint leveled at 5th edition, even by some fans who disliked 4th edition. After the backlash of 4e, 5e writers seem determined to go out of their way to return everything to the status quo, retconing even positively received changes in 4e in order to maintain a more commonly viewed status-quo.
* LGBTFanbase: 5th edition saw a surge in popularity for the entire game, which included a disproportionately large amount of LGBT fans. A possible reason is that the surge in popularity was caused by podcasts like ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'' and ''Podcast/TheAdventureZone'', both of which are very LGBT friendly. Tieflings in particular are popular among gay and UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}} fans.
* MagnificentBastard:
** The {{Demon Lord|sAndArchDevils}} Graz'zt is theorized to be an archdevil who carved out his own territory in the abyss and decided to reside there, and it is easy to see why. Graz'zt is stunningly intelligent for a demon, plotting and scheming against his fellow demon lords while seeking to take the title of Prince from Demogorgon, and is known for making deals with mortals, as well as being disturbingly charismatic to those he encounters. In one instance, Graz'zt even captured the goddess Waukeen and held her hostage in his nation of Zelatar, even using this to pervert part of her clergy to his own worship later. When he was summoned and imprisoned by the witch Iggwilv, Graz'zt seduced her, with the two having an intense love-hate relationship ever since.
** The Witch Queen Iggwilv once manipulated a group of adventurers, seducing her magical master with them, to bind a demon, steal all its forbidden knowledge and then abscond with magical items. Becoming a powerful witch and authority on demons, Iggwilv enslaved a powerful sorcerer to enhance her strength and even bound the aforementioned Graz'zt to her, resulting in a stormy love-hate relationship between the two. Even after being defeated, Iggwilv comes to prominence in ''TabletopGame/SavageTide'' when she helps the heroes defeat the Savage Tide and even the monstrous Prince of Demons Demogorgon, only to steal Demogorgon's own essence and use it to revive a kingdom for herself, becoming a new power to be reckoned with.
* ParanoiaFuel: So wait, most (if not all) of the stars are Eldritch Abominations that want to eat us? And some of them can create avatars of their powers called Star Spawn?
* PopularityPolynomial: Initially only popular among the small wargaming-enthusiast community, ''D&D'' quickly became a popular fad among young people of the late 1970s-early 1980s, owing partially to the general increase in popularity of HighFantasy around that time, before becoming mired in highly confused [[MoralGuardians religious controversies]] that sullied its reputation. Even after the moral panic died down and came to be understood as wrongheaded & silly, the game then developed a reputation as being something which only [[{{Nerd}} the very dorkiest of dorks]] would ever play, what with its complex rules, overly intricate worlds and characters, and association with antisocial shut-ins. ''D&D'' scooted along well enough for several decades despite that reputation, but things finally turned around in the 2010s, after the heavily-marketed, well-received release of 5th Edition, the debut of [[Podcast/TheAdventureZone several]] [[WebVideo/CriticalRole popular]] [[Podcast/DiceFunk podcasts]] devoted to playing the game, and a high-profile appearance in the megahit {{Creator/Netflix}} series ''Series/StrangerThings'', all of which introduced a new generation to the game, and allowed it to finally shed its reputation as a hobby for weird shut-ins in favor of being seen as an exciting and funny social activity.
* SpiritualLicensee: ''Film/{{Krull}}'' was allegedly going to be an official ''D&D'' movie, but lost the license partway through development. Gary Gygax denied this, however.
* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: It has happened for every edition change. Some might argue that 4E most of all, but veteran [=D&D=] players would point out that it only seems that way due to the much wider availability of the Internet. Interesting to note is that this is now happening WITHIN 4th Edition itself. Wizards has started to release errata/updates every few months, usually to stop overpowered exploits (although sometimes for other purposes too). Naturally, people have either declared it to be the best thing since sliced bread, or threatened to stop playing D&D. And with a new edition in the works, expect to see this ''yet again!''
* WhatMeasureIsANonBadass: 4th edition is very much geared towards heroic fantasy with the default assumption that the character is a badass, to the extent that it is mechanically difficult to create a character who is actually ''bad'' in an ability (as against 'average'). Likewise you can't really model an entirely green character who has picked up a sword for the first time as even a level 1 character can call upon fairly formidable powers -- at least, not without reading the "Unearthed Arcanas" that provide optional rules for "level 0 characters" and grittier play styles in ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}''.
[[/folder]]
----