History YMMV / DungeonsAndDragonsFifthEdition

* UnderusedGameMechanic: Mounted combat, such as on horses or using vehicles, is something that has several dedicated class features, feats, and skills towards using, but as an actual mechanic, isn't all that used or developed. Very few modules have vehicles for the players to use, there aren't a lot of outright rules or mechanics for how to run them in combat, and mounted combat is hardly accounted for due to the nature of combat (players are rarely going to be fighting in a space to have mounted combat be viable). Most of the details around in basically treat it as just rolling skill checks, which doesn't really make having skills in any of them all that exciting or helpful.

** Hexblade Warlock is considered to be among the most broken subclasses released for this edition. Originally designed to [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap silence complaints that the Pact of the Blade was too weak]], [[GoneHorriblyRight it proceeded to take things way too far]], to the point that it is hated by some for being so broken that it renders all other Warlock patrons obsolete, and a good number of Dungeon Masters outright ban it. Between the Hexblade Warlock's ability to learn Smite spells (only Paladin by default gets them), access to more weapons and armor options, and Hexblade's Curse, a Hexblade Warlock becomes basically the best MagicKnight, and can outperform other Charisma casters with ease, especially if they take a dip into Paladin or Sorcerer. Very few classes can perform the same feats as it, and among Warlock subclasses, it basically reigns supreme in terms of offensive Warlock subclasses. Part of this is because the Warlock's spell system means that they can get a lot of raw power from getting spells back on a short rest, making it possible for them to cheese most encounters. And that's not even getting into its multiclass potential; a Hexblade Warlock with a level in Paladin can often overpower most things thrown at them due to the spell variety and sheer power the Hexblade abilities offer. The Hexblade didn't just change ''everything'' for Warlock, it flipped the entire meta on its head with the abuse cases caused by it multiclassing with Bard, Paladin, and Sorcerer, offering the latter two enormous benefits simply by letting them plug holes in their existing design without losing out on too much from a low-level dip.

*** The Archfey Warlock doesn't see much use, and is often viewed as one of the worst-designed subclasses from the base selection, due to the awkward abilities that simply stop working as the game goes on. The subclass focuses around using charms, illusions, and mind-effecting spells that are meant to focus on confusion, making it easier for the player to escape enemies, and manipulation effects. The issue is that after a certain point, enemies start getting ContractualBossImmunity to charms and/or fear, making the abilities completely useless when you would want it. To add insult to injury, their other abilities like Misty Escape can simply be covered by spells such as Misty Step while charm immunity can be easily compensated by other features (Elves for instance are resistant to charms; they get advantage on saving throws against them). So choosing an Archfey as their patron essentially gives the player abilities they almost never can use past a few levels, some of which the Warlock is already capable of doing through spells (and said spells can cover the "trickster" aspect better), and doesn't give enough supportive abilities that would offset the drawbacks, making playing as this subclass an active handicap in most situations.

** Wizards generally compete favorably against basically every caster in the game, since they come equipped with the best spell list in the game, the best spell-recovery mechanic in the game, access to incredibly powerful subclasses like the Order of Scribes that can vastly enhance their spellcasting potential without having to worry about many of the limitations rivals like the Sorcerer suffer from, and the ability to either circumvent or remove their few weaknesses with relative ease, like getting armor proficiencies from their race or the ability to cast healing spells from feats. It doesn't help that a couple of their theoretical vulnerabilities for a DM to exploit, like targeting their spellbooks or denying them the time and money necessary to copy down more spells and expand their spellcasting options, are considered unsportsmanlike and degenerate to the game overall for some admittedly good reasons.

** Hexblade Warlock is considered to be among the most broken subclasses released for this edition, to the point that it is hated by some for being so broken that it renders all other Warlock patrons obsolete, and a good number of Dungeon Masters outright ban it. Between the Hexblade Warlock's ability to learn Smite spells (only Paladin by default gets them), access to more weapons and armor options, and Hexblade's Curse, a Hexblade Warlock becomes basically the best MagicKnight, and can outperform other Charisma casters with ease, especially if they take a dip into Paladin or Sorcerer. Very few classes can perform the same feats as it, and among Warlock subclasses, it basically reigns supreme in terms of offensive Warlock subclasses. Part of this is because the Warlock's spell system means that they can get a lot of raw power from getting spells back on a short rest, making it possible for them to cheese most encounters. And that's not even getting into its multiclass potential; a Hexblade Warlock with a level in Paladin can often overpower most things thrown at them due to the spell variety and sheer power the Hexblade abilities offer. The Hexblade didn't just change ''everything'' for Warlock, it flipped the entire meta on its head with the abuse cases caused by it multiclassing with Bard, Paladin, and Sorcerer.

** Variant Human Fighter can fall under ComplacentGamingSyndrome, and it's something of a meme in the ''D&D'' community about how every Human Fighter is pretty simple and boring compared to other options, but Variant Human Fighter is so powerful and good that the meme does have an undercurrent of this to it. Since getting a feat at level one is very powerful, Variant Human Fighters are able to be a DiscOneNuke regardless of what subclass they pick since they can take powerful feats like Sentinel or Great Weapon Master, giving them amazing battlefield control despite their low level. Once they get their Fighting Styles, Variant Human Fighters become incredibly powerful, to the point that they have looped around to being seen as too powerful by some players.

*** War Domain is commonly seen as the worst Cleric subclass from the initial selection due to the overly balanced nature of its primary feature: War Priest. Mechanically, War Domain tries to make a Cleric more of a melee warrior, giving them martial weapons and heavy armor proficiency, and their Channel Divinity is focused around increase the chance to hit for themselves or an ally. However, as Clerics do not get extra attack, instead War Domain gives the Cleric the War Preist feature, which lets them use a bonus action to attack per Wisdom modifier per day. This means its main role as a martial cleric falls flat because its only going to, at most, have 5 extra attacks it can make on a day, when other martial classes will quickly get extra attack and be able to easily outperform a War Cleric. Even the Channel Divinity, which can allow for a Cleric to give themselves +10 to hit, isn't enough to offset it, as it means the Cleric can only use it to boost their attack up to three times a day. It isn't helped by its level 17 ability being they become resistant to non-magical physical damage, at a level where enemies will entirely be using magical weapons or not even use weapons. There also is the issue of it requiring a lot of min-maxing to play well, since a War Domain Cleric would need to have high Strength and Wisdom to really use its features well. Many players have noted it comes across as being intentionally weak to avoid being too similar to a Paladin, leading many to never play it because you can play a Paladin and get a similar, and better, play style, and other Cleric subclasses are just better.

*** On paper, the Evocation School is a reasonable option for Wizards that allows them to deal a decent chunk of damage safely. But in everything it does, the Sorcerer does better. 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. 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. Even then, limiting the extra damage to Evocation spells is more limiting than it sounds the higher up you get in level, since many AOE attack spells aren't Evocations. The kicker is the capstone, 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 a spammable Metamagic option with a low resource cost that can apply to ''any'' Sorcerer spell. At best, an Evoker Wizard can deal one instance of 69 cold damage with Cone of Cold; any casting after the first comes with crippling penalties.

** The Indomitable power, the Fighter's only class power that doesn't recharge on a short rest, is often derided for being weak; it's essentially a single saving throw re-roll per long rest. 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 [[PopularGameVariant often reworked]] 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.

** Chronurgy Wizard, which was introduced in ''Explorer's Guide to Wildemount'', may be a strong contender against even the Hexblade Warlock thanks to its sheer StoryBreakerPower, being by far the strongest subclass for the already-powerful Wizard class. The reasons for this are already laid out [[GameBreaker/DungeonsAndDragonsFifthEdition here]], but to summarize: Chronal Shift, Temporal Awareness, Arcane Abeyance, and Convergent Future are each capable of tearing ''5E'' a new one. Having access to Dunamancy Spells certainly doesn't hurt, since a few of them can be quite overpowered in the right hands.

*** The Necromancer Wizard is overwhelmingly seen as the worst Wizard subclass to play as. It is held back by 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 get little else out of it. Animate Dead is a 3rd-level spell, meaning you can't even use the main feature of the subclass right away, thus its earlier features are weak and not that helpful. All of the Arcane Tradition's abilities meanwhile offer next to no buffs to the undead you summon, and the Necromancer only gets two buff abilities at all, which don't even really play into the theme of casting necromancer spells, such as gaining effects from them like other Wizard subclasses get. This doesn't even include the roleplay side of things, where a Necromancer Wizard is highly likely to be treated as suspect, 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. 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. It also doesn't help that it is potentially unappealing from a table angle, as having to manage the players undead can slow down combat drastically. It took later materials like the ''Unearthed Arcana'' and ''Tasha's Cauldron of Everything'' giving the Wizard class more spells that synergize with Necromancers before it became genuinely viable, but even with those options it's still one of the weakest Wizard subclasses.

*** The Necromancer Wizard is held back by 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 get little else out of it. Also, Animate Dead is a 3rd-level 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 of the Arcane Tradition's abilities meanwhile offer next to no buffs to the undead you summon, and the Necromancer only gets 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, 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. 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. It took later materials like the ''Unearthed Arcana'' and ''Tasha's Cauldron of Everything'' giving the Wizard class more spells that synergize with Necromancers before it became genuinely viable, but even with those options it's still one of the weakest Wizard subclasses.

*** War Domain is commonly seen as the worst Cleric subclass from the initial selection. Design wise, it focuses more on martial combat than other Cleric subclasses, getting heavy armor to go along with it. However, the subclass is held back by its lack of Extra Attack, instead getting War Priest, which allows the Cleric to make a bonus action attack up to their Wisdom modifier. While on paper a strong skill for a starting option, this means a War Domain Cleric only ever gets to make it up to 5 times a day without going over the stat cap, and its only a Bonus Action, meaning you can't attack more than twice up to 5 times. This means it falls off extremely quickly, as despite the later abilities being generally good, it comes across as being under tuned to avoid being too similar to a Paladin. While the Bonus Action attack at least synergizes with being able to use a Channel Divinity to use Guided Strike for a +10 to hit, the limited usage of Channel Divinity and War Priest means you only could use said combo at most 3 times a day, when Paladins can use Smites more consistently and get better usage by comparison. It also encourages min-maxing, because you'd need to have high Strength, Constitution, and Wisdom to really get the most of the features.

** Trickery Domain Clerics are generally seen as the worst option for the class. Basically, the main draw of this Domain is that it revolves around deception, pranking people, and general trickery, all on top of making stealth more viable for yourself and/or your party. However, while this does make it a good option for stealth-focused modules, it does little to provide outright power or other types of utility since it's more focused on confusing the enemy than much else, and while your first Channel Divinity ability, Invoke Duplicity, can be potentially useful, it only creates an illusion of you and nothing else. The later abilities like Cloak of Shadows and Trickery-style Divine Strike are also not all that useful since one costs a Channel Divinity for mere self-invisibility 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, like Dispel Magic for example, but they don't help your Cleric fight any better. It's a fun idea in concept, but if you want to play a stealthy caster, it's better to just play something like a stealth-focused Bard or an Arcane Trickster Rogue.

** Chronurgy Wizard, which was introduced in ''Explorer's Guide to Wildemount'', may be a strong contender against even the Hexblade Warlock thanks to its sheer StroyBreakerPower, being by far the strongest subclass for the already-powerful Wizard class. The reasons for this are already laid out [[GameBreaker/DungeonsAndDragonsFifthEdition here]], but to summarize: Chronal Shift, Temporal Awareness, Arcane Abeyance, and Convergent Future are each capable of tearing ''5E'' a new one. Having access to Dunamancy Spells certainly doesn't hurt, since a few of them can be quite overpowered in the right hands.

*** While the subclass itself is decent, the Conjuration school suffers from Conjuration itself being split between summon spells and teleport spells, meaning any Conjurer who wants to focus on one or the other will find themselves in a serious drought for many levels (they don’t even get any abilities to directly buff summoned creatures until level ''14'').

** The Chronurgy Wizard introduced in ''Explorer's Guide to Wildemount'' may be a strong contender against the Hexblade Warlock, being by far the strongest subclass for an already-powerful Wizard chassis. ''Chronal Shift'' works like a Divination Wizard's ''Portent'' feature, and they also get ''Temporal Awareness'' (Wizard can add their Intelligence Mod. to their Initiative), two very powerful starter features. But none of it compares to the action economy-crushing ''Arcane Abeyance'' feature which uniquely allows Chronurgy Wizards to throw 5th Edition's Concentration feature in the bin and play like a spellcaster from 3.5E. ''Arcane Abeyance'' functionally allows the Wizard to become a walking Ring of Spell Storing vendor - suddenly, everyone in the party can get their own familiars, everybody can cast Shield on themselves, your hawk familiar can cast Fireball to perform magical drone strikes on faraway enemies, your party's Rogue can cast Invisibility on themselves and use their concentration to hold it while the party Fighter likewise does the same with Haste. Also worth pointing out that a magic mote created with this feature has a cast time of one action: instantly drop a Tiny Hut in the middle of a fight, or trap the BigBad in an inverted Magic Circle to trivialize the final showdown with him. This is a feature you can use every ''short'' rest so you can use it multiple times a day, even juggling multiple spell effects between long rests if you play as an elf (who only needs 4 hours of sleep, whereas many spells are active for 8 hours). To say nothing of ''Convergent Future'' which basically allows you to override the DM and become a full-fledged RealityWarper. Say you want to throw a boulder the size of a three-story house and the DM rules it is a DC 60 Strength check, well, your puny Wizard could use the feature to succeed at the check against all logic and throw the boulder like a Dragonball Z character, all for the low, low cost of a single level of exhaustion (which you can negate by using a simulacrum anyway).

** 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 caster, it's better to just play something like a stealth-focused Bard or an Arcane Trickster Rogue.

*** While the subclass itself is decent, the Conjuration school suffers from Conjuration itself being split between summon spells and teleport spells, meaning any conjurer who wants to focus on one or the other will find themselves in a serious drought for many levels (they don’t get any abilities to directly buff summoned creatures until level ''14'').

* AuthorsSavingThrow: [[AuthorsSavingThrow/DungeonsAndDragonsFifthEdition Has its own page.]]

*** The Archfey Warlock doesn't see much use, and is often viewed as one of the worst-designed subclasses from the base selection, due to the awkward abilities that simply stop working as the game goes on. The subclass focuses around using charms, illusions, and mind-effecting spells that are meant to focus on confusion, make it easier for the player to escape enemies, and manipulation effects. The issue is that after a certain point, enemies start getting ContractualBossImmunity to charms and/or fear, making the abilities completely useless when you would want it. To add insult to injury, their other abilities like Misty Escape can simply be covered by spells such as Misty Step while charm immunity can be easily compensated by other features (Elves for instance are resistant to charms; they get advantage on saving throws against them). So choosing an Archfey as their patron essentially gives the player abilities they almost never can use past a few levels, some of which the Warlock is already capable of doing through spells (and said spells can cover the "trickster" aspect better), and doesn't give enough supportive abilities that would offset the drawbacks, making playing as this subclass an active handicap in most situations.

*** The Banneret, a.k.a. the Purple Dragon Knight, is often seen as a bit of a dud in and of itself. The intent is a Fighter who can share their class features with the rest of the party, but the result is a lot of weak, finicky, slowly-recharging powers that generally fail to properly capture the ''4E'' Warlord flavor the subclass is trying to reach for, and stands in the way of letting the Fighter shine on its own by the absence of better ones.

* ItsTheSameSoItSucks: A common complaint leveled at ''5th Edition'', even by some fans who disliked ''4th Edition''. After the backlash of ''4E'', the writers of ''5E'' seem determined to go out of their way to return everything to the status quo, retconning even positively received changes in the last edition in order to maintain a more commonly viewed status quo. At one point, 1d4chan very aptly described it as "the Coca-Cola classic to 4e's New Coke."

** Rangers, without the optional class features and general buffs they get from ''Tasha's Cauldron of Everything'', are generally seen as the weakest ''Fifth 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. Beast Masters have it particularly bad, as the mechanics behind their animal companions outright suck.

** Rangers, without the optional class features and general buffs they get from ''Tasha's Cauldron of Everything'', are generally seen as the weakest ''Fifth 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. Beast Masters have it particularly bad, as the mechanics behind their animal companions outright suck.

** Rangers, without the alternate features and general buffs they get from ''Tasha's Cauldron of Everything'', are generally seen as the weakest ''Fifth 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. Beast Masters have it particularly bad, as the mechanics behind their animal companions outright suck.

** The Storm Herald Barbarian is a perfectly fine Primal Path with spectacular, unique abilities 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.

** 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 an orc as a Wizard or Artificer or any martial class as a kobold (except for Monk) was completely unviable. Later reprints of the orc in ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'' and ''[[WebVideo/CriticalRole Wildermount]]'' have removed their Intelligence 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.
** [[BirdPeople Kenku]], as far as playable races go, 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. ''Monsters of the Multiverse'' would eventually ax this aspect of the race almost entirely, which at least gives some players the option of not having to deal with the issue that the vanilla version has to deal with.
** 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 dwarves, they're a great choice for a "bruiser" class like a Fighter or a Barbarian thanks to Strength and Charisma bonuses, or because [[AwesomeDearBoy the player finds the idea of a playable dragon to be just inherently awesome]]. Also, dragonborn in the Forgotten Realms tend to be either Lawful Good warriors of Bahamut or Chaotic Evil cultists of Tiamat, giving them solid roleplay material to work with. Just as many people dislike dragonborn for being a race that [[MasterOfNone doesn't fit a niche]] -- dwarves and half-orcs are better bruisers, the 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, dragonborn don't naturally get darkvision (one of the few humanoid races that doesn't), and they tend to not show up very often; lizardfolk, kobolds, and half-dragons are more prevalent than dragonborn in the Forgotten Realms. While dragonborn have gotten more popular as time has passed, there's still the odd argument that pops up around whether dragonborn are a viable race (either for roleplay or combat), or if they should be "tweaked" in some way. The ''Fizban's Treasury of Dragons'' splatbook changing the dragonborn was seen as an AuthorsSavingThrow for the dragonborn race by changing a lot of things to address fan complaints about said race, but it hasn't completely gotten rid of the aforesaid arguing.
** Controversy arose with the 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 of the Coast 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 twenty dollar 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, and many players felt like Wizards of the Coast 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 ''Dungeons & Dragons'' community, the reaction from the ''Magic: The Gathering'' fanbase was far less contentious, with many happy to see the fan-favorite setting getting a dedicated RPG book.

** The idea that rolling a Nat 1 or 20 is an automatic fail or success on all dice rolls is a common assumption among people, but in truth it isn't the case, as it only applies to attack rolls and saves (something that has been true in all editions of the game). The assumption it applies to all roles can be chalked up to the nature of rolling either of them; if you roll a 1 on any roll, chances are unless you have crazy high modifiers that would boost the roll, a 1 is very likely a failure by how low the roll will be, while the opposite occurs for rolling a 20, since it means unless you have a large negative modifier to the dice roll, chances are you'll pass whatever you rolled.[[note]]In fact, rolling either doesn't automatically mean a success or failure. For example: if a character rolled a natural 1 on a stealth check, but they have a high stealth bonus, magical effects augmenting it, feats, and/or class features that boost the roll, a character can still succeed due to the sheer numerical bonus they have. On the other side, a character getting a natural 20 on a strength check while having a negative modifier, and the check is meant to be really high, can fail to do so.[[/note]] The ''[=OneD&D=]'' playtest briefly experimented with making this an official rule, but reverted the change within about a week.
** On a related note, it's commonly assumed that a Nat 1 means something bad has to happen to the person who rolled it. The rules don't outright say this though, instead saying the attack/roll fails. The negative connotation with rolling a 1 comes from the community house ruling 1's to negative effects, such as an attack causing the user to drop their weapon or accidentally hit an ally. Since this is such a commonly accepted aspect of the game, people tend to assume it always works that way.
** The Arcana proficiency is often treated by some as one's ability to sense/feel magic around them. In truth, Arcana is closer to just a History check, but for magic related stuff, such as perhaps rolling to know if a character would know spells like something they see, or perhaps the name of magical locations. The Detect Magic spell is supposed to be used to detect magical effects in an area. Some tables just house rule Arcana to have the ability to feel magical energy nearby because Detect Magic isn't considered good enough to be worth using.
** Clerics and Paladins are sometimes viewed and treated by newer players as the same thing, but in truth they operate differently from both a gameplay and class identity angle; Clerics are explicitly those who serve a god or divine-like being while Paladins are those who swear oaths or contracts to a cause or order of some kind. While many Paladins worship gods and some Clerics can serve orders through their god, both classes not only play differently, but both serve explicitly different roles from a story angle (Clerics are closer to war priests while Paladins are closer to knights and champions). The assumption mostly comes from both of the classes appearing similar to a newcomer, when in truth they are vastly different.

* CreatorsPet: The Wizard class gets accused of receiving favoritism from the developers by some. In almost every major update, the Wizard gets either a bunch of new spells, new items specific to them or gets a new subclass despite already having a ton. Most classes have between seven to nine subclasses; the wizard has ''thirteen'', the second-highest number behind the Cleric. And unlike the Cleric -- which has Domains that offer unique gameplay advantages, playstyles, and story potential -- the Wizard's Arcane Traditions mostly give small abilities while leaving the core mechanics the same. Said subclasses also tend to be overpowered, poorly designed (but still strong under the right circumstances), or both, and oftentimes are designed in such a way that it feels like an attempt to steal the features of other classes (especially Lore Mastery, which would've rendered Sorcerer irrelevant had it ever left Unearthed Arcana). When the Wizard is the only class in the game with multiple subclasses that can turn all damage they deal into nigh-irresistible [[NonElemental force damage]], on top of getting a new subclass in almost every new book or UA installment, there's certainly ''something'' there.

*** The Twilight Domain is a borderline MasterOfAll with how much it grants; it gives the ability to use every weapon and armor, solid pseudo-healing in the form of temporary HP, the power to give anyone advantage on initiative rolls (which all but guarantees that ally will go first in combat), exploration utility via stupidly powerful Darkvision (which they can share), a great list of extra spells that poaches debuffs from Bard and buffs from Paladin, and even mobility thanks to the power to just straight up fly. Other domains have to get by with one or two benefits on par with that, but Twilight gets a laundry list. The only thing Twilight Clerics are missing is raw damage potential, but their weapon proficiencies and standard Cleric spell list choices still makes a Twilight Cleric serviceable in this area.

** Oath of the Ancients is one of the more commonly picked subclasses for Paladins, in large part because of their ability gained at level 7, Aura of Warding, which gives any allies within 10 feet of the Oath of the Ancients Paladin resistance to all damage as long as that damage is from a spell. When combined with the aura that gives nearby allies a bonus to saving throws equal to their charisma modifier -- something that every Paladin gets, regardless of subclass -- these auras can 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 damage gets reduced by three-quarters instead! The other abilities the Ancients Paladin gets are also useful -- the Nature's Wrath version of Channel Divinity can cause a target to be restrained, Undying Sentinel means the Paladin can just shrug off going down to zero HP, and the Elder Champion capstone makes them regain HP at the start of every turn and causes Paladin spells which take one action to cast into one bonus action. Combine all of this together, and you have a character that's a huge defensive powerhouse, something that quite a few Dungeon Masters have outright banned from being used because of how powerful it is.

*** The Berserker Primal Path for Barbarians from the Player's Handbook almost never gets used. This is because of a poorly-designed first power called Frenzy, which offers an additional attack per round as a bonus action... at the cost of one level of Exhaustion once the Rage ends. Exhaustion is hard and slow to remove, stacks rapidly to impose awful 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 anything else to compliment it or mitigate the cost, has led many to complain it obviously pre-dates the existing Exhaustion rules and was never updated when they were changed.

** Assassin Rogues suffer from a bad case of CripplingOverspecialization. Since the subclass is designed around, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin assassination]], the first sublass feature gives Rogues advantage on creatures that haven't acted in combat and advantage on all attacks... for the first round of combat. It has an additional clause that treats any attack as if it were a critical provided you surprise your target, however, it's difficult to pull off depending on the DM and general campaign setting. Its 9th and 13th level features also fall into similar trappings as Infiltration Expertise effectively promotes solo play due to the in-game time commitment of the feature and need to maintain the façade lest all that go to waste from a party member failing a check, while Imposter is ''heavily'' dependent on an RP-focused story as it serves almost no purpose in combat-focused ones. Its capstone feature, Death Strike, at least offers immense damage in conjunction with Assassinate's guaranteed critical but it requires the target to fail a Constitution saving throw, which in the late game is dodgy at best to fail as enemy Constitution is generally high by that point.

*** On paper, the Evocation School is a reasonable option for Wizards that allows them to deal a decent chunk of damage safely. But everything it does, the Sorcerer does better. 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. 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. Even then, limiting the extra damage to Evocation spells is more limiting than it sounds the higher up you get in level, since many AOE attack spells aren't Evocations. The kicker is the capstone, 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 a spammable Metamagic option with a low resource cost that can apply to ''any'' Sorcerer spell. At best, an Evoker Wizard can deal one instance of 69 cold damage with Cone of Cold; any casting after the first comes with crippling penalties.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Much of the One [=DnD=] playtest material has been received well by fans. Some. . . has not.
** The changes to Druid Wild Shape are a huge sore spot for Druid fans. Instead of changing into any "beast" from the Monster Manual at a certain CR or lower, the Druid gets a template reflecting a rather generic "Beast of the Land," and can get "Beast of the Sea" and "Beast of the Air" templates at higher levels. Even players who agree Wild Shape was broken and badly needs fixing think the templates are generic, underwhelming, and underpowered.
** Warlocks getting changed to "half-casters" [[note]]i.e., getting the same spell progression as a Paladin or Ranger[[/note]]. While some note that ''technically'' it addresses the perennial Warlock player request for "more spell slots," removing the unusual mechanics from the Warlock class (spells recharge on a short rest, all spell slots are always maximum level) makes them worse casters. Not everyone agrees, [[https://youtu.be/I11LOEFj0A8 Treantmonk crunched the numbers]] and found Warlocks could actually be pretty close to full casters with the right selections.

*** The Arcane Archer from ''Xanathar's Guide to Everything'' is considered one of the worst designed Fighter subclasses, being incredibly weak and outdone by other subclasses. The subclass aims to be a MageMarksman who uses arrows that are connected to one of the schools of magic, and do different effects when they hit, ranging from Banishing Arrow using Abjuration magic to temporarily banish the target, or Bursting Arrow using Evocation to make the arrow explode and do area damage around the target. While a unique idea, the class is badly held back by only being able to use two shots per long rest, making it incredibly weak since a player would have to be constantly saving their shots for situations they need it, which are also held back because many rely on gimmicky effects such as poison damage, or relying on Intelligence saving throws, an area Fighters would likely not have as a high stat. Though the other abilities it gets aren't bad, such as making all arrows magical and being able to redirect missed arrows as a bonus action, the fact that the shots are so restrictive in use, and remain weak until nearly level 20, means an Arcane Archer lacks sustainability, and is often stuck just firing arrows without any uniqueness or gameplay strengths, and only gets one of two flavor cantrips that don't do damage, making it essentially a watered down Ranger gameplay wise, to the point that its better to just pick another class and model your build to be a magical marksman. Its not uncommon to see players "[[PopularGameVariant fix]]" the subclass by simply adjusting how many shots can be used, simply because getting even one more shot goes a long way to make it stronger.

** Warlocks getting changed to "half-casters" [[note]]i.e., getting the same spell progression as a Paladin or Ranger[[/note]]. While some note that ''technically'' it addresses the perennial Wsrlock player request for "more spell slots," removing the unusual mechanics from the Warlock class (spells recharge on a short rest, all spell slots are always maximum level) makes them worse casters. Not everyone agrees, Treantmonk crunched the numbers and found Warlocks could actually be pretty close to full casters with the right selections.