Dungeons & Dragons has changed a great deal over the years. The creators of Dungeons & Dragons had no idea that it would be scrutinized in the way that it was, with every creative choice and rule picked apart by players who wanted to improve the mechanics of the game.
As time went on, some of those same players would end up on the creative staff of Dungeons & Dragons. This meant that some of the editions would be drastically different compared to their predecessors, with the jump from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons to the third edition representing the creation of an almost entirely new game.
The fans of Dungeons & Dragons are a ionate bunch when it comes to discussing the game and the changes that have been made to it. This means that some rule changes have been met with controversy from the fanbase, which has led to a backlash that has resulted in fewer people buying the game. This is what led to many of the radical changes in the fourth edition being rolled back in the fifth.
We are here today to determine which Dungeons & Dragons rules were changed for the better and which ones made the game worse - from the end of overspecialization to the removal of the rules that made monsters harder to defeat.
Here are the 10 Dungeons & Dragons Rules That Were Changed For The Better (And 10 That Became Way Worse).
Better: No More Super Specialization In Skills
One of the biggest issues with the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons was manipulating the skill system in order to make it almost impossible to fail at certain tasks. This was accomplished by min/maxing, which could be done as easily as having a single eighteen in the stat that granted a bonus to the skill and selecting a race that conferred a further +2 bonus to the stat (as well as potentially offering a bonus to the skill, like halflings with Move Silently) and then selecting a feat that further boosted the score.
The latest edition of Dungeons & Dragons replaced skill points with using the proficiency bonus, which increases at a much slower rate.
There are also fewer abilities and items that grant modifiers to skills. The changes to the skill system mean that players cannot abuse skills like Bluff and Diplomacy to try and escape the repercussions of their actions.
Worse: The Awesome Exotic Weapons Are Gone
The third edition of Dungeons & Dragons broke weapons down into different categories, such as simple (weapons that anyone could use, like a club), martial (weapons that required a degree of training, like a longsword), or exotic (weapons that required a lot of specialist training in order to be able to use effectively.)
The exotic weapons would require the player to spend a feat in order to be able to use them properly, but they offered some unique benefits that made them worthwhile, such as the reach of the spiked chain or the high critical modifier of a gnome hooked hammer. The exotic weapons were scrapped from the fifth edition and either totally removed or turned into standard weapons. This has meant that the basic weapon selection process is far less interesting than it was before.
Better: Equipment Packs Reduce The Micro-Managing Of Items
One of the most frustrating aspects of character creation in the older editions of Dungeons & Dragons was the equipment selection process. A brand new character was given a randomly determined amount of money, which they had to use to buy all of their weapons, armor, and gear, with the exception of a few freebies. Not only did this take a long time to resolve, due to players micro-managing their limited gold to purchase as much as they could, but it was also easy to forget a vital item (like a bedroll or ammunition).
The introduction of "packs" in the latest edition of Dungeons & Dragons has helped to speed up the process of selecting equipment. A brand new character now has to select from predetermined item sets, which include packs (like the Burglar's Pack or the Explorer's Pack), which contain all of the basic equipment that you would need on your adventure.
Worse: The Attunement Rules & Reduced Focus On Magic Items Makes Adventuring Less Fun
The best part of any Dungeons & Dragons game used to be the process of identifying magical items. The coins and gems you found were nice, but there were limits to what you could purchase, while magic items could increase your powers beyond what you could normally achieve.
The latest edition of Dungeons & Dragons continues the trend laid down by the fourth edition and has made magic items a less important part of the game.
You are also limited to attuning to three powerful magic items at once, which was an attempt to balance the game. The change of focus from magic items to increasing the number of abilities of each class possesses has made adventuring less enjoyable. This can be clearly seen in the official Dungeons & Dragons campaigns, where magic items are far rarer than they were in previous editions.
Better: Concentration Stops The Endless Spell Buffing
The limited spell selection of sorcerers and wizards used to have to be divvied up into different groups, with each player weighing the importance of battle spells, buffing spells, and utility spells. Spells that can confer bonuses to the party were very popular in older editions, with bull's strength, haste, and fly being some of the most widely-used.
The problem with buffing spells was that they could often make the party too powerful and the spellcasters had to dedicate a portion of their limited repertoire to them, which gave them fewer options in combat. The latest edition of Dungeons & Dragons has curbed buffing spells by requiring spellcasters to concentrate on them, which means that they can only have one in effect at any time. This means that the players can still benefit from the aid of magic, but they can't rely on several buffs to allow them to steamroll the enemy.
Worse: The Removal Of Negative Levels Has Made Deceased Creatures Less Of A Threat
The most fearsome attack that was available to the deceased in the older editions of Dungeons & Dragons was their ability to drain levels with a touch. Creatures like wights and vampires could temporarily remove your hard-earned levels with their physical attacks, which would severely weaken the character and would prevent spellcasters from using their most powerful spells.
The energy drain ability made facing certain kinds of deceased creatures in battle extremely scary. This ability has been replaced with a life drain ability that lowers the character's maximum hit points until they rest or use a spell, like greater restoration. The life drain ability is awful to be sure, but it pails in comparison to the energy drain ability. This change has made deceased creatures far less effective as enemies and the player has less to worry about when facing them.
Better: Charisma Is As Important As It Should Be
In the older editions of Dungeons & Dragons, the most useless stat was Charisma. There were only a few classes that used Charisma as a prerequisite (like the paladin) and almost no abilities were affected by a high Charisma score. The reason Charisma was ignored for so long was due to the focus on the adventuring and battling aspects of Dungeons & Dragons, which were always given more attention than the character building and roleplaying aspects of the game.
The combat focus of most Dungeons & Dragons games also meant that the physical stats were highly prized, as it wasn't possible to talk your way out of every situation.
One of the biggest changes in the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons was making Charisma more important to the game, as it was directly tied to the powers of certain classes (like the sorcerer) and affected some of the best skills in the game (like Bluff and Diplomacy).
Worse: Healing Word Has Made The Game Too Easy
The cure spells are often necessary for the survival of a party, as they can heal wounds inflicted by the enemy. The drawback of these spells was that they could only be used when touching someone, which meant that the healer would have to potentially put themselves in danger in order to jump into combat and save a wounded ally.
The fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons has added a spell called healing word, which doesn't heal as much as the cure wounds spell, but it can be cast at a range of sixty feet and casting it is classed as a bonus action, meaning that you can take another action that turn (but any other spell you cast has to be a cantrip.) The changes to the rules regarding dropping below zero hit points have meant that the healing word spell is far more effective than cure wounds. There is considerably less risk playing as a healer in the heat of battle than in previous editions, which in turn has made battles easier.
Better: THAC0 Is Gone For Good
A lot of the rules mentioned in this article have been argued for and against by the fans - all except this one. THAC0 is an acronym, which stands for "To Hit Armor Class Zero." In most editions of Dungeons & Dragons, an attack is resolved by a player rolling a D20 and adding the relative bonuses to the result, if this result is the same or higher than the enemy's Armor Class score, then it's a hit.
In Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, a character's THAC0 score determined the number they needed to hit an Armor Class score of zero. In of the rules, this meant that a THAC0 of sixteen meant that you could hit an Armor Class score of one by rolling a fifteen and an Armor Class score of minus one with a seventeen. The THAC0 rules meant that you had to work out what numbers you needed to hit every Armor Class score, which most players did with the aid of a chart, which some custom made character sheets had ready to be filled in.
Worse: The Multiclassing Nerf Has Given The Players Fewer Options
A Dungeons & Dragons character isn't limited to a single profession, which means that some of them are able to take on multiple classes at the same time. These characters gain the abilities of each class, with the setback that they advance in level at a slower rate than those who focus on a single role.
The recent edition of Dungeons & Dragons has made multiclassing a less attractive prospect, due to the fact that the stat point gain that was once given every few levels is now tied to leveling up in a single class.
This means that it's far less attractive to multiclass into two classes and maintain the same progression, as they will lose the benefit of either two free stat points or a feat.
