Line #54 YMMV/DungeonsAndDragonsFifthEdition


1	* BrokenBase:
2	** 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 as 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.
3	** The Wild Magic Sorcerer Bloodline divides opinion in 5e no less than any other edition. Fans love the wild and wooly chaotic weirdness that can result from the class's signature Wild Magic Surge, and argue that the chart is much less punishing than previous editions, with more straight-up beneficial effects and fewer punishing ones. Critics complain that said chart still has centering a ''Fireball'' on yourself on it, with even the positive effects being too random or weird to feel justified playing it over safer options or, at worst, are purpose-built to enable stupid chaos-gremlin {{Griefing}}: great for making viewers laugh at the rest of the players' misery on a stream but agonizing for said players at the actual table. There's also criticism of the mechanics surrounding it, which require some extra effort by the DM to trigger.
4	** 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.
5	** 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.
6	** [[BirdPeople Kenku]], as far as playable races go, are one of the more polarizing ones released in an 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 roleplayer 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 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.
7	** 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 don'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 has gotten more popular as time has passed, there's still the odd argument that pops up around whether dragonborn is 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.
8	** 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 sourcebook, 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.
9	* ComeForTheGameStayForTheMods: Fifth Edition was a very popular edition in its own right, but what helped it ''really'' cement its NewbieBoom as much as the proliferation of online streaming was the robust ecosystem of third party and homebrew content that could reskin or even radically alter the game without breaking it. Between the relative simplicity of its ruleset making it a very friendly laboratory for houserules and alternate kinds of game and the thriving marketplace for OGL content, Wizards had a ton of extra content to their system without spending a dime on developing it themselves; the game even had its distinctive printing style used for a lot of homebrew projects.[[note]]Many prior editions also had a lot of third party content, but none of them enjoyed 5e's appeal to new players or the advantages of the digital age.[[/note]] This is part of why Wizards and Hasbro's attempts to crack down on the OGL and homebrew content with the next iteration of the system generated so much antipathy and resistance: for many players, vanilla Fifth Edition was something they'd never actually experienced.
10	* CommonKnowledge: Due to ''Fifth Edition'' bringing in many new players to the genre, there are a lot of common misconceptions about the game. For specifics:
11	** 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; it only applies to attack rolls and saves (something that has been true in all editions of the game), not ability score/skill checks. In general, a player who rolls that low or that high ''is'' likely to fail or succeed, respectively, but it isn't a sure thing.[[note]] 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 ''One D&D'' playtest briefly experimented with making this an official rule, but reverted the change within about a week.
12	** 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. Previous editions would include additional negative results on a natural one or "critical fumble," such as an attack causing the user to drop their weapon or accidentally hit an ally, as an optional rule, and despite well-documented distorting effects on the game as a whole it was popular, frequently being houseruled into Fifth Edition by veterans. Since this houserule is so common, people tend to assume it always works that way.
13	** Some often treat the Arcana proficiency 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 and ''Identify'' to ID specific spells and magical effects on a person or object.
14	** 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 prior editions, where Paladins ''did'' explicitly serve individual gods, and from their superficial similarities (both classes tend to use weapons, shields, and heavier-than-light armor and Paladins still use holy symbols as spellcasting foci).
15	* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome/DungeonsAndDragonsFifthEdition Has its own page.]]
16	* 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 installment, there's certainly ''something'' there.
17	* GameBreaker: [[GameBreaker/DungeonsAndDragonsFifthEdition Has its own page.]]
18	* HighTierScrappy:
19	** If a Barbarian takes the Path of the Totem Warrior, it's going to be for the Bear Totem's first ability, which grants resistance to all damage except psychic while raging. In other words, if no enemy on the field can deal psychic damage -- which, considering how uncommon psychic damage was early on in the game's lifespan, they probably won't -- the Bear Totem Barbarian effectively has double HP when they rage. And since Barbarians already have the highest natural health pools in the game, this will give the Barbarian around [[WebAnimation/JoCat a googolplex of hit points]]. Also, Barbarians have advantage on Dexterity saving throws against damage spells like ''Fireball'' and ''Disintegrate'', so they get a cumulative chance to cut the damage they take even further. It's commonly thought that the mass infusions of psychic spells in ''Xanathar's Guide to Everything'' and monsters that deal psychic damage in ''Mordekainen's Tome of Foes'' were an attempt to "stealth nerf" the Bear Totem's ability. And that's just the starting ability; Totem Warrior Barbarians can take different primal paths for each one of their abilities, which can also give them the ability to fly for a short time, gain terrific eyesight up to a mile (which helps with Perception), and gain proficiency with some skill checks. With all that being said, a Bear Totem Barbarian is considered NighInvulnerable not because of any spells or builds, but because they simply have so much HP while raging that taking them down is a tall order.
20	** Cleric:
21	*** The Peace Domain is busted with how much support power it gives. It can heal better than Life Clerics can at low levels (and still keep pace at higher levels), and it can teleport allies, letting you redirect attacks aimed at the SquishyWizard right at the StoneWall. But those pale in comparison to Emboldening Bond, which is granted at level 1 and replicates the bonus to all rolls granted by the Bless spell (which is one of the best buffs in the game). What's more, Emboldening Bond doesn't require Concentration like Bless does, meaning that the Peace Cleric can have the Bond and a Concentration spell going at the same time (including Bless, which it stacks with). The Peace Cleric 2 ability, Balm of Peace, is no slouch either; you can move up to your speed without provoking opportunity attacks. And when you move within 5 feet of any other creature during this action, you can heal a respectable 2d6 + Wisdom modifier amount of HP to them, letting you get yourself out of trouble while helping your allies at the same time. While the Peace Cleric can't do much in terms of direct damage, their ability to keep everyone else alive long enough to deal damage for them is second to none.
22	*** 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 that refreshes ''each round'' (effectively giving the entire party ablative hitpoints), the power to give anyone advantage on initiative rolls, 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 make a Twilight Cleric serviceable in this area.
23	** Circle of the Moon Druids are widely despised for the DiscOneNuke status of the subclass. Their ability to Wild Shape into more powerful forms early on and even heal themselves while Wild Shaped turns them into unstoppable juggernauts at early levels that can easily out-DPS almost everyone else. Their damage starts to even out at mid levels and harshly drops off at high levels, but because damage in their Wild Shape form doesn't carry over to their true form, they remain incredibly durable throughout their career. What's worse, most campaigns stop before players reach a high enough level for Moon Druids to fully taper off in damage. The only saving grace is that this means most campaigns also stop before Moon Druids gain the ability to cast spells while Wild Shaped, something that turns them right back into unstoppable juggernauts.
24	** 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 1 can be 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.
25	** 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 the 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.
26	** Divine Soul Sorcerers are widely considered one of the strongest healer/support subclasses released, due to the powerful tools Sorcerers can use to augment their class's powers. For example: Divine Soul Sorcerers can use Metamagic to use single target heals like Cure Wounds on two targets through Twinned Spell, or Subtle Spell to get around Counterspell enemies. They get access to spells from the Cleric spell list, meaning they significantly boost the number of spells they get, allow for powerful support and healing spells they normally couldn't get, and even get one free spell from a list that corresponds to their alignment (such as good granting Cure Wounds and neutral granting Protection from Evil and Good). All of these factors make Divine Soul Sorcerers very powerful, to the point they have often been seen as the replacement for traditional Cleric healers, which some outright hate or even ban due to being too strong.
27	** 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. [[note]]Bards and Sorcerers heavily benefit from Agonizing Blast and Eldritch Blast, as the ''one'' consistent weakness Bards are considered to have is that it takes until Magical Secrets for them to have anything approaching a consistent damage option, making them entirely self-sufficient outside of rare moments where magic is suppressed or the characters encounter an enemy immune to force damage, and Sorcerers have far more freedom to branch into support spells to plug up their weakness in versatility with Eldritch Blast available. ''Both'' become nigh-unstoppable when the Hexblade confers upon them easy access to medium armor ''and'' lets them attack consistently if cornered in melee with Hex Warrior and Greenflame and/or Booming Blade. Paladins, meanwhile, are ''supposed'' to face a difficult decision between being unmatched support buffers and casters with Aura of Protection and a sufficiently high charisma modifier or becoming the best burst-damage dealers in the game with high strength and their smite spells; Hex Warrior just lets the Paladin be ''both,'' allowing them to get away with a relatively low strength score for the sake of heavy armor and then just pump everything into charisma for support ''and'' offense, making them virtually unstoppable on the battlefield.[[/note]]
28	** The Pact of the Tome is easily the strongest Warlock Pact Boon by a huge margin. It offers a very strong initial benefit, letting the warlock cherry-pick cantrips from everyone else's spell lists to shore up their own utility (especially since they're still warlocks and already enjoy one of the best damage cantrips in the game and multiple unique class features to enhance it), and has incredibly strong invocations backing it up, including the ability to massively expand the warlock's out of combat versatility and remove some of the downsides of their limited spell slots through letting them learn ''any ritual spell in the game''. This is just core; ''Tasha's'' made them even stronger with extra benefits like a free once-per-day ''Death Ward'' like effect that the entire party can share as another invocation, or being able to freely cast ''Sending'' on a whole list of people without spending spell slots.
29	** The Wizard class generally competes favorably against almost every other 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.
30	** Chronurgy Wizard, which was introduced in ''Explorer's Guide to Wildemount'', may be a strong contender against the Peace Domain Cleric and 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.
31	* 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. 1d6chan very aptly describes it as "the Coca-Cola classic to 4e's New Coke."
32	* LGBTFanbase: Fifth Edition saw a surge in popularity for the entire game, which included a disproportionately large amount of LGBT fans. A possible reason for the surge is shows like ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'' and ''Podcast/TheAdventureZone'', both of which used Fifth Edition rules and are very LGBT-friendly. Fans themselves will often point out that ''D&D'' is the perfect game for the FamilyOfChoice trope, which appeals a lot to those who feel like outcasts from the rest of the world.
33	* LowTierLetdown:
34	** Barbarians:
35	*** 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 complement 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. Note that the big argument here is whether it's the power that's poorly designed or the Exhaustion mechanic it utilizes.
36	*** The Battlerager Barbarian 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.
37	** Cleric:
38	*** 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. War Domain is designed around being the martial focused option for Clerics, but due to the class itself not getting extra attack, the War Priest feature, which lets them use a bonus action to attack per Wisdom modifier per day, is meant to be the crux of the subclass. War Priest generally falls flat as a feature though because its only going to, at most, give the Cleric five extra attacks a day, when dedicated martial classes get extra attack and out pace it. Even the Channel Divinity, which can allow for a Cleric to give themselves a +10 bonus 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, and instead play a Paladin. Typically, people going for a 'magical warrior' (or 'gish') build will instead favor one of the melee-focused Bard Colleges, the Spores Druid, or the Bladesinger Wizard, if not the obvious choice of Hexblade Warlock, all of whom get either a more reliable secondary attack or have access to melee cantrips like Primal Savagery or Shocking Grasp that steadily increase in power over time. Even the ''Nature'' Domain is valued over the War Domain for melee Clerics, given their access to Primal Savagery and Shillelagh.
39	*** Trickery Domain Clerics often are viewed as a neat idea, but a contender for the worst Cleric subclass. Thematically, it is designed around illusions, trickery, and stealth, all things that are unique for a Cleric to focus on, but it does little to provide outright power or other types of utility since it's more focused on out of combat things, while their 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 or immune to and can NoSell. The spells you gain are solid options for a Cleric, like Dispel Magic, but they don't help your Cleric in combat, doesn't offer enough to make the subclass feel like it really works with the Clerics general playstyle. It only truly shines in stealth focused settings or out of combat, which plenty of other classes can do instead like the Arcane Trickster Rogue or College of Whispers Bard.
40	** Fighter:
41	*** 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. Designed to be a MageMarksman who uses arrows that are connected to one of the schools of magic, and do different effects when they hit, the subclass is badly held back by the limited application of the arrows, which only can be used twice per long rest. The arrows themselves also are gimmicky in nature, such as one dealing poison damage and reducing the targets movement by a measly ten feet, or one that causes one turn of blindness. They also tend to rely on Intelligence saving throws, an area Fighters would likely not have as a high stat, and the other features, while neat, don't provide enough power to offset the limited shots once both have been used. Combined with how the damage from the arrows don't increase till nearly level 20, the lack of any magic besides two flavor non-damaging Cantrips, and the existence of other Fighter subclasses that have MagicKnight playstyles, it leaves Arcane Archer feeling like it actively handicaps the player. Its not uncommon to see players "[[PopularGameVariant fix]]" the subclass by simply adjusting how many shots can be used, simply because getting one more shot goes a long way to make it stronger.
42	*** The Banneret, a.k.a. the Purple Dragon Knight, from the ''Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide'' 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.
43	** Monks -- ever since Rangers got some support through a smattering of alternative class features -- have ended up competing for the role of "weakest class in the edition" among much of the playerbase. Their biggest issue is that, even after having the number of stats they need to invest in pared down compared to previous editions, they're still a heavily multi-stat-dependent brawler class that can't really reach their full potential without them; although they [[MagikarpPower get better at higher levels as their martial arts dice power up and they unlock ever more potent uses for their qi]], and they can even border on DiscOneNuke if the player [[AwesomeButImpractical rolls well enough on their stats to get multiple 16s or 18s to start with]], Monks trade ''very'' badly compared to all the equipment-dependent classes like Dex-based Fighters or Rogues in a point-buy game or if the table's stat-generation system fails them. They also lack the sturdiness of their fellow stat-dependent brawler class, the Barbarians, who at least have the ability to strap on medium armor and d12 hit dice to fall back on if their stats aren't up to snuff; the only thing a Monk in that scenario has going for them is the ability to spend qi to Dodge as a bonus action instead of actually leveraging their many extra attacks. The following subclasses only makes the class look worse:
44	*** Way of the Four Elements is generally seen as one of the the worst subclasses in all of ''Fifth Edition''. The goal is to give abilities that [[JackOfAllStats allow them to adapt to any situation, even if they aren't as good as dedicated classes]]. The problem is just how harshly this cuts into the Monk's 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 Points both in its base form and in the various subclasses it uses. This isn't normally a problem for most Monk subclasses, but Four Elements abilities ''all'' use Ki, and most of them utterly price-gouge the Monk. While four Ki points have the potential to kill someone instantly as an Open Hand Monk, a Four Elements Monk only gets one use of Fireball. The most tragic aspect of this 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 good use of their hit-and-run playstyle. When the errata came around changing Water Whip's cost to a full action, the subclass lost its 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 modifier is simply not that good 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]].
45	*** Sun Soul Monk is somehow even ''worse'' than Four Elements. It has all of the same problems that Way of the Four Elements does, but Sun Soul doesn't even let you choose what non-spells you'll be casting. At 3rd level, they can shoot [[KamehameHadoken ki lasers]], but a shortbow is just as good (especially with the changes in ''Tasha's Cauldron of Everything'' making weapon use even better for Monks), their 6th level ability imitates Burning Hands which is one of the worst blasting spells in the game, their 11th level ability lets them shoot an exploding ki blast that's basically worse than the Four Elements Monk's Fireball in almost every way (notably by targeting the infamously strong Con Save instead of the more vulnerable Dex Save, and by not even dealing half damage if the target resists the effect), and their capstone at 17th level is a comically weak CounterAttack.
46	** 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 in or 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 [[CripplingOverspecialization are only useful against specific prey or on specific terrain]]. It's telling when a Rogue ''subclass'' (Scout) is considered to do a better job at being a Ranger than the actual Ranger[[labelnote:Explanation]]The ''very first feature'' the Scout Rogue get flat expertise in Nature and Survival, a simple, easy, and hardly game-breaking improvement over the Ranger having to choose one to three of nine types of terrain, which is useless in dungeons and cities, which Rangers ''can't'' choose[[/labelnote]]
47	*** Beast Masters have it particularly bad, as the mechanics behind their animal companions outright suck. Thankfully, a revision to the subclass gave them a much more viable animal companion that actually scales throughout the game and does not require the ranger to give up their own attacks.
48	*** Hunters are this to some extent compared to the newer Ranger subclasses introduced. They're not as bad as the vanilla Beast Master, but can feel like a bit of a MasterOfNone with no clearly defined identity, and a number of their choices of power are clearly better than others.
49	** Rogue:
50	*** Assassin Rogues suffer from a bad case of CripplingOverspecialization. Since the subclass is designed around, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin assassination]], the first subclass 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 how a DM handles surprise rules and the 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.
51	*** Mastermind Rogues are in a similar boat with Assassin Rogues, in that they do what they do well but are pigeonholed by the type of campaign they're in and are stuck with some abilities that seem good on paper but face challenges or are replicated by better classes and subclasses in reality. Beyond a Mastermind Rogue ''already'' being outclassed by literally any Bard in what they're trying to do[[note]]Charisma isn't a dump statistic for Rogues necessarily, but Rogues aren't given as much of a reason to buff it as Bards are and are encouraged to max out their dexterity first. Additionally, most Bard subclasses already have abilities structurally similar to what a Mastermind Rogue can do while having the overall Bard class to support charisma builds. This especially holds true for Glamour and Eloquence Bards, as the former has a better, ''party-wide'' combat buff, while the latter is seen as not just a GameBreaker in its own right but gets several abilities to support socialization beyond even the basic Bard chassis.[[/note]], half of their features are just seen as downright weak or wonky. Outside of being masters of socialization, the Mastermind Rogue's claim to fame is Master of Tactics, which grants the use of the Help action as a ranged bonus action out to 30 feet. The issue with this is that the class you'd ''want'' to confer help to '''is''' the Rogue, as they get the most mileage out of advantage from their sneak attack mechanic. In most cases, a Rogue would rather hide so their ranged attacks get advantage or disengage so they can weave in and out of melee range with foes with impunity. This has some merit in exploration, but most situations in exploration aren't incredibly time sensitive that you'd need a bonus action to grant aid and are even less likely to put the party in a situation where the Rogue would want to aid someone else while being outside of touch range with that person. In fact, ''in'' those situations, the Rogue, the character who is supposed to specialize in skills, would likely already be the person expected to handle the given situation. Misdirection is seen as just plain bad, because the situations where it would apply are easily avoided by an enemy strafing slightly to avoid the reaction in the first place, and because it's gained at ''13th level,'' when a Rune Knight Fighter could do the same thing but absolutely better and at range with no caveats starting as early as '''3rd level.''' Mastermind Rogues also notably lack any meaningful buff to their own combat capabilities, which makes them unpopular choices due to the fact this forces them into a standard ranged build or forces them to rely on having melee teammates to support a melee build, both of which can face issues depending on a given battlefield. Soulknife Rogues are typically seen as better Masterminds given their better abilities for similar situations and more expanded options.
52	** The Wild Magic Sorcerer subclass falls into AwesomeButImpractical. Whenever you cast a non-cantrip spell, you may 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 -- leaves you open to a Wild Magic Surge roll as soon as you do it. So your one outright useful ability is potentially going to be a detriment in the end. All of these drawbacks, in exchange for only slightly increasing your chances to cast spells and your damage, are not enough to make the sub-class viable. And to top it all off, you only have to roll for a Wild Magic Surge ''if the DM asks you to''. Depending on their whims and whether they remember a surge is possible, the bulk of this subclass' features may come into play constantly, very rarely, or anywhere in between.
53	** Warlock:
54	*** 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 is based around using charms, illusions, and mind-effecting spells and features, which are meant to help the player focus on subterfuge, making it easier for them 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.
55	*** The Great Old One Warlock is arguably somehow even worse. The ability to speak telepathically to any creature is certainly not bad, if situational, but it's all downhill from there. Their Entropic Shield can impose disadvantage on an enemy attack once per short rest, '''only''' if the enemy is attacking the warlock, and then, '''only''' if that attack misses, the warlock gets to have advantage on one attack roll (which they can't really do much with besides just landing one Eldritch Blast beam). This feature is tremendously worse than the 1st level spell Silvery Barbs. They then gain resistance to psychic damage and the ability to reflect psychic damage onto the attacker - but psychic damage is fairly rare, so unless you are fighting Mind Flayers a lot, this ability will come up once in a blue moon. Their capstone ability is "Create Thrall", which sounds cool, but all it does in practice is give the warlock a bonus to social interactions with the affected creature (which warlocks don't really need that much, being a Charisma-based class anyway) and the ability to speak with it telepathically from anywhere. The result is a pile of features that are either [[SituationalSword far too situational to matter]] or far too weak to be worth wasting a subclass on. If you want to be a spooky warlock of an EldritchAbomination, just reflavor the Fathomless.
56	*** The Undying Warlock from the ''Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide''. All you get out of it is a halfway alright spell list, 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's just ''really'' mediocre to the point of being useless, especially when the later released Undead patron basically does the thematic element better on top of better gameplay strengths.
57	*** The Pact of the Chain's primary benefit, a selection of special familiars, is very weak and fragile, never improves or scales up, and making use of their best ability, sharing their Magic Resistance with their master while within ten feet of them, means making sure they're right inside the range of any [=AoE=] spells an enemy wants to throw. Without the buffs it got from ''Tasha's Cauldron of Everything'', it's the weakest of the Pact Boon options; even with them it's still the weakest core option simply because the others all got buffed too.
58	** Wizard[[note]]This one might be really YMMV here, as even a suboptimal Wizard will still be a [[RealityWarper Wizard]]. These subclasses are merely "really good" rather than low tier.[[/note]]:
59	*** While the subclass itself is pretty 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'').
60	*** 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 Necromancy 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 player's 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, to the point that the ''One D&D'' playtest didn't include it, and it is speculated it is going to be dropped completely.
61	*** The Transmuter Wizard has the majority of their abilities end up as underwhelming or replicated by other Arcane Traditions like Conjuration. Minor Alchemy 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, except Conjurers no longer need to make any Concentration saves at 10th level when casting Conjuration spells. Polymorphing for free sounds like a good deal, until you realize the Druid could do that with Wild Shape, and do it eight levels earlier than a Transmuter. Finally, Master Transmuter is depressingly limited in what it can do versus what normal spells can already do. The only major reason to take it is to maintain one's youth... but that's an ability you only get at 14th level, which is about where the AbsurdlyHighLevelCap really starts to kick in. The consensus is that the Transmuter needs some serious buffs to be viable; as it stands, it's one of the least useful Wizard subclasses in all of ''Fifth Edition''.
62	* PopularGameVariant: There's such a plethora of house rules that it would take a dedicated page just to list them all. All that can be said for now is that it has led to tales from players and [=DMs=] alike, and even the famous ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'' show.
63	* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap:
64	** Unearthed Arcana turned the Ranger into a LightningBruiser, as well as fixing the Beast Master's animal companion. And to the joy of Ranger fans, many of these features were made official class variants with the release of ''Tasha's Cauldron of Everything''.
65	** The Conjuration Wizard is a bit of an odd duck. Its ''features'' were actually quite strong, but it was let down in practice by the overall low availability and inadequacy of the summoning options for the first half of the edition's lifespan. Later sourcebooks introducing more powerful and/or versatile combat summons gave it a significant increase in effectiveness.
66	* ScrappyMechanic:
67	** The Exhaustion mechanic is widely hated for how quickly it becomes debilitating and [[CycleOfHurting how difficult it is to be rid of it once it starts accumulating]]. Exhaustion levels are cumulative and go from disadvantage on all ability score checks (painful, but not debilitating), to halved Speed (debilitating), to disadvantage on all other d20 tests (debilitating bordering on crippling for classes like the Rogue that rely on Advantage), to a [[MaximumHPReduction halved HP maximum]] (crippling), to a speed of 0, to dead when Exhaustion hits six levels. It's notoriously difficult to remove too, with only a full long rest with adequate nutrition (capped at once every 24 hours to prevent the infamous "two hour workday" adventure mentality) or a fairly high-level spell with a costly and non-renewable material component (''greater restoration'') stripping one level at a time. Intended as UnexpectedlyRealisticGameplay for characters in punishing survival situations like hostile climates, hypothermia, overwork, inadequate food, going without sleep, and/or other needs-based hardships, it was heavily restricted beyond that in the core books, save for a failure condition on the ''Tenser's transformation'' spell and the Berserker subclass's Frenzy ability (which is widely considered to have made the latter borderline unplayable). For most of the game's lifespan there was exactly one spell (''Sickening radiance'') that could inflict it on a hostile creature. But eventually, when monsters were added who could outright inflict Exhaustion on PC in the twilight years of the game (one of them a CR 2 creature!), players began to realize en-masse just how poorly designed and inflexible the rules were when used for anything ''but'' the punishing survival situations they were intended for. Tellingly, Exhaustion was reworked several times in the ''One D&D'' playtest.
68	** The Indomitable feature, the Fighter's only class feature that cannot be recharged on a short rest, is often derided for being weak; it's essentially a single saving throw re-roll per long rest, with no bonus of any kind if it was a difficult but high-stakes save. Worse, it shows up on a level 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 similar Legendary Resistance ability and let the Fighter choose to succeed instead.
69	** Factions in ''Fifth 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 poorly explained. Despite this, early adventure books expected players to have a membership, providing plot hooks for each of them. This was fine in the ''TabletopGame/TyrannyOfDragons'' campaign, where it made sense for the factions to be involved with TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt in play; part of that campaign is a political balancing act for maximum benefit. But it was pretty ridiculous in ''TabletopGame/CurseOfStrahd'', which mostly takes place in Barovia, an entirely separate ''plane of existence'' from the Forgotten Realms controlled by a vampire lord 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 ''TabletopGame/WaterdeepDragonHeist''. Even then, it's commonly house-ruled to be more straightforward or even outright ignored.
70	* ThatOneDisadvantage:
71	** Some subclasses from the initial launch are often disliked because they impose negative effects on the player for using some part of their powers. For example, the Berserker primal path for Barbarians is hated for the Frenzy ability, allowing a Barbarian to use a Bonus Action to attack again, at the cost of a level of Exhaustion, while the Wild Magic Sorcerer is hated for the Wild Magic Surge, which lets the DM roll on a table of random effects when the player uses specific parts of their subclass, but only when the DM remembers and even if they've been reduced since previous editions, said table still has many negative effects like centering a ''Fireball'' on yourself. In a somewhat telling move, almost every subclass released after the edition's launch did away with negative effects of this kind.
72	** The Underdark subraces (like Drow or Duergar) are not very popular in terms of gameplay usage due to the Sunlight Sensitivity racial feature, which imposes disadvantage on Perception checks, and attack rolls, if in sunlight. Considering how most modules have sunlight in them, unless one happens to be playing somewhere like the Underdark, very few players want to deal with being handicapped at all times by something they can't counter, especially considering their other racial features may not be enough to justify the downsides. Even the very popular drow didn't get used very often because of it, and it too was eventually removed for the ''Monsters of the Multiverse'' mass rework of all playable races/lineages.
73	* ThatOneRule: Many of these examples, dubbed "Rules As Written", or RAW, are often ignored by the community to avoid players abusing them, since they can often be incredibly broken if exploited, but anyone unfamiliar with some of the rules can expect a headache trying to deal with them. For more specific examples:
74	** Infamously, there are many rules for this edition that seemed to not be made with awareness of other mechanics or rules, creating weird edge cases thanks to bizarre interactions. For example, Lycanthropes are immune to non-magical weapons that aren't silvered, but as written, this only applies to damage from weapons, which means that, according to the rules, they take bludgeoning damage from falls normally when pushed off the cliff, since someone shoving them is taking the Attack action but not actually making an attack and the ground doesn't count as a "non-magical weapon that isn't silver."[[labelnote:However...]]WordOfGod says [[https://twitter.com/ChrisPerkinsDnD/status/793670349946621952 it only applies to attacks]][[/labelnote]].
75	** As written, making a character specializing in thrown weapons was basically impossible for the vast majority of the game's lifespan because there were no mechanics to differentiate weapons designed to be thrown from any others besides the Thrown property. At ''best'' a Fighter with the Two Weapon Fighting feat could draw two weapons at once once per turn and burn their Action Surge drawing two more; fighters get three attacks by level 10 and a lot of throwing weapons are also Light, meaning off-hand attacks were subtly encouraged. Ultimately, a Fighting Style was released to patch these issues (and it ''does'' also pack a nice damage boost), but it still requires players to expend a resource most characters only get one of just to make this specialization functional at the level the other Styles (or at least [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome the good ones]]) start at. Even worse, until the release of the Path of the Giant Barbarian subclass, there was no way to use thrown weapons efficiently past 6th level, which begins to expect the player to get and use magic weapons. Unless the player had a ''really'' kind DM who was willing to homebrew some kind of magical weapon akin to the old ''returning'' property, it would be incredibly difficult to find enough throwable magic items that thrown fighting styles would stay sustainable throughout an entire encounter - more likely, the player will have one magic dagger or throwing axe and then be stuck using nonmagical thrown weapons against creatures with resistance to nonmagical damage. This utterly stymied the potential of thrown weapons and made ranged builds just downright better, since a character only needs a single magical bow to do consistent magical damage with every otherwise-normal arrow it fires (although the game still kept including magical ammunition regardless).
76	** One of the more infamous examples was that, as written, someone using a ranged weapon to attack someone hiding in some form of obscuring cloud like effect would not be at disadvantage, because the ranged attacker would be gaining disadvantage from not being able to see the target, but also gaining advantage because the target can't see them, making it a normal roll. Many outright ignore this because it is blatantly meta-gaming from someone who actively attempts to use said rule in combat.
77	** Ranged attacks being at disadvantage against prone targets. The idea is that someone being shot at can throw themselves flat defensively and crawl, as is done to throw off ranged fire in real life, but in practice a lot of prone targets are that way because they've been ''smashed'' prone in a fight and this just arbitrarily makes it harder for allies to follow up and shoot them.[[note]]In fairness, in real life, you'd basically never shoot into a melee that contains friendly targets either, but while previous editions had some rules to simulate this, fifth edition bowed to the reality that players did everything in their power to circumvent or ignore these penalties and accepted ranged attacks against engaged melee targets as AcceptableBreaksFromReality, with at most the target getting cover if you're shooting through someone to get to them.[[/note]]
78	** The mechanics of spellcasting aren't ''that'' big an issue... unless you're a MagicKnight with two weapons or a shield. A character always needs a free hand or to be physically holding the object in question to manipulate their focus or components every time they cast a spell with a material component; this is trivial for most of the arcane full casters who only bother with one-handed weapons if at all (and half the time their weapon ''is'' their focus anyway), but if anyone else isn't using a two-handed weapon (letting go with one hand to manipulate something on your person is free the first time each round) they'll have to drop or sheathe it first, since shields take an action to strip off. Half the reason for War Caster's popularity is simply ''not having to deal with these rules'' and being able to use the weapon already in your hand as a spellcasting focus.
79	** The Challenge Rating system is ''intended'' to help the DM balance encounters, but is infamous for how bad it is at doing so. What qualifies for what rating can feel really random and silly. An infamous example being that an Intellect Devourer is considered a CR 2 creature, something ''nobody'' would ever agree makes sense because while they ''are'' relatively fragile and have only modest attack potential, these creatures' special ability to steal players' brains makes them incredibly dangerous even at higher levels of play. The ''Monster Manual'' even describes cases where CR can be misleading, specifically calling out the rakshasa as a creature whose immunity to all spells below a certain level makes it ''really'' dangerous for parties in theoretical parity with it and encourages the GM to use their brains rather than "just" the CR on the page. CR has always been more of an art than a science, but 5e's bounded accuracy makes it more obvious than ever.
80	* UnderusedGameMechanic:
81	** 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 the concept basically treat it as just rolling skill checks, which doesn't really make having skills in any of them all that exciting or helpful. It doesn't help that without certain dedicated class and subclass combinations, like the Drakewarden Ranger, there are no real mechanics for obtaining any mount better than a warhorse. What this means in practical terms is that beyond fourth level, a player is entirely at the mercy of their [=DM=] allowing and accounting for the potential of the player to mount creatures like wyverns or mammoths, because ''past'' 4th level, not even the Mounted Combatant feat, which can redirect attacks made on a mount to instead hit the rider, will save a warhorse from the bevy of [=AoE=] spells flying around like Lightning Bolt or Hunger of Hadar.
82	** Backgrounds featured special abilities to grant a player social or practical benefits, usually either for interacting with others of a similar background or for being able to find and fit in at places relevant to the background in question. For instance, the Acolyte's background feature let a character room freely at temples or churches of their faith and gain access to religious resources, while the Noble's allowed them to invoke their privileges to get audiences in high society, and the Sage's let them know where in the world they could travel to try to gain access to rare pieces of information. Unfortunately, because they were a new feature rather than a redux of features from previous editions, and because they didn't have rolls or mechanics attached to them and instead required creativity on the part of both the player and the GM to actually use, they tended to be ignored by many groups, and later sourcebooks, including ''Strixhaven'', ''Dragonlance'', ''Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants'', and the ''Book of Many Things'' replaced them with a free feat instead, something the ''One D&D'' playtest seems set to follow in the footsteps of.
83	* UnexpectedCharacter:
84	** Grungs, an obscure race of cannibalistic toad-men originally native to ''TabletopGame/{{Greyhawk}}'', made a surprise appearance in the sourcebook "Volo's Guide to Monsters"... although, ironically, they were now an InNameOnly interpretation of themselves, having gone from drab, swamp-dwelling toad-men largely interchangeable with bullywugs to vibrantly colored tropics-dwelling poison dart-frogfolk, with a FantasticCasteSystem.
85	** Moonstone dragons, a dragon heavily associated with the Land of Faerie and which had previously only appeared in the 2nd Monstrous Compendium Appendix Annual for ''TabletopGame/AdvancedDungeonsAndDragons2ndEdition'', returned to 5e in ''Fizban's Treasury of Dragons'', much more faithful to their old lore than the grung had been.
86	* WinBackTheCrowd: 5th Edition quickly took back the crown of the most famous and iconic tabletop RPG after 4th Edition had been outshone by 3.5E derivative ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}''.

Context YMMV / DungeonsAndDragonsFifthEdition