D&D Players, What line did you miss in the PHB that totally broke your game?

[@kaylaa2204]

1:00 ok THIS is a good GM “No I didn’t make a mistake, the people of the world literally didn’t know this until now, and revealing this secret was a declaration of war” I love this, screw the rules, if it’s fun, do it.

[@Kalenz1234]

That's really just a problem with how 5e oversimplifies things. It used to be much harder to remove the werewolf curse. (The remove curse spell was part of it). But instead of writing a whole page of how to do it they just write one sentence.

[@dragonstryk7280]

Now, this is would have been somewhat more limited in my worlds, for a particular reason unique to my DMing. Essentially, about 90% of the world is just NPC classes, and low-level ones at that. Once you get out of the NPCs, most from there are either levels 1-3, or considerably older. Generally speaking, unless they're a particularly important NPC for me, they're level 5 or less unless other noted in the setting. I did this as a counter to when I played and DMs seemed to nearly being crapping out higher level NPCs, sort of rendering us useless, and having the party go "Why don't they just send (X) guy who can could clean this up in five minutes?" I also learned that this could be incredibly fun to play with, as it added an interesting variant play: As the PCs become some of the most powerful people in the world, variously higher powers start reacting to their power. Some would become more adversarial, seeing the PCs as essentially walking WMDs that could level armies if they decided to, while others went hard on recruitment... seeing the PCs as essentially walking WMDs that could level armies if they decided to. Our party's Paladin questioned it at one point going, "Wait, why are they worried about me?" My response, "You guys just fought your way through a small army of goblinoids, including bugbears, on your way to defeat a powerful red dragon. None of you died, and in fact, none of you even have any scars. You're in full health, and now backed by a dragon's hoard. Believe it or not, the lords here have exactly ZERO people who could have done that, let alone come out of it without any casualties. They're a bit worried about you lot as a point, because if at any point you went dark, they don't have an answer."

[@kaylaa2204]

@@Kalenz1234 oh I know I’m a big fan of the older editions In AD&D it kinda worked that way. It was cure disease from a high level priest for the first three days, it was actually remove curse after that period, but that could fail and if that did, then it was a whole month long ritual. Not just a thing you could do to a lycanthrope midcombat. But I wouldn’t call how this GM did it a problem because they managed to make something that sounds like it was really fun, which is the whole point of playing this game, innit?

[@Starfloofle]

@@dragonstryk7280 I do the same!!!! It's 6, for me, but once you reach 6 most people hit a wall that they just cannot seem to get past. The strongest people somehow found a way to break that wall and get to 7, but even among the absolute strongest of THEM, ~11 is the absolute strongest you will find any non-BBEG-tier NPCs, like the national court wizard or the headmaster of one of the magic colleges that help people train that power to reach that wall (and try to understand WHY some people can break that wall but not others) I love how much it makes the players really feel like they are actors on the stage of history by being truly exceptional through the circumstances they've endured.

[@kaylaa2204]

@@dragonstryk7280 you see something like this in old modules that Gygax wrote. You’d have a few and when the question of “why doesn’t this guy just do this?” The explanation was often that these would have much better opportunities than what low level characters are doing, and would often ask for shares of the treasure and magic items in order to be hired if the players tried to. The highest level characters were often nobility back then and the rules supported literally becoming nobility at higher level. Keep on the Borderlands had that, the tavern occasionally had this 3rd level Dwarf sitting down in it and you could hire him but he asked for shares. So you could make it easier but it meant less treasure for your party because this dwarf had to be paid to care. The highest levels in that module were the people in charge of the city or the captain of the watch because they had to be powerful to protect the city. And I think they were only like level 8? 12 maybe? But that was high level back then. Also what you’re doing is kinda what old school play assumed came with higher level. Because what happens when you get higher level in D&D? You get more money, you help more people, you eliminate greater and greater threats until it’s almost superhuman. You absolutely gain status from all of that.

[@EliasMorals]

mine was how HP went up with CON increases. I was like WAY behind in HP Total until i noticed it

[@wall6587]

I thought it only applied once, my face when my mage at lvl 7 was completely made of butter 😢

[@Kalenz1234]

@@wall6587 A lvl 7 mage is still butter. Maybe cold butter instead of hot ;)

[@wall6587]

@Kalenz1234 yeah, but I had like +3 constitution, so I was missing 18 health points, that would be very useful to know in some fights haha

[@SchwererGustavThe800mm]

That 'Action Surge' refreshes after a short rest... Not the end of your turn. 😐

[@hologaster]

I can see how this can break any DnD game.

[@kotzpenner]

finally, balanced fighters

[@SpathiCaptainFwiffo]

This but I thought it was only long rest

[@josephdiscavage2709]

I had the opposite issue, I thought it refreshed after a long rest lol

[@issackaiser]

​@@josephdiscavage2709 That is my issue. Fuck, i could've done 5 action surge instead 2!

[@jojothehamster]

Your AC is basically a skill check for the enemy. Skill checks are meets it beats it so to me it makes perfect sense how 18 AC gets hit with an 18 attack roll

[@Kalenz1234]

Yap. By his logic a DC of 12 means you'd have to roll 13 or higher. Just making things unnecessarily more complicated by having to add a 1 to every dice check.

[@tobiasbayer4866]

That when you have a component pouch you can just assume that you have access to any material component without a gold costs at any time. When we were really new to the game we just kinda assumed the pouch was only a requirement for storing them, like a seperate inventory sheet, and that you still had to find them somewhere and had to keep track of them. Needless to say it made everything reeeeeeeally tedious until someone realised.

[@klikkolee]

almost any component -- if a spell specifies that the component is consumed, you also can't use the pouch for it. The wording is not very good in the 2014 rules, but it's an official ruling in the Sage Advice Compendium, and it was made explicit in the 2024 rules.

[@MorinehtarTheBlue]

​@@klikkoleeConsumable components isn't the problem. It's the spells that are limited by having a specific cost in GP. Very few components are not consumed by casting and that bit of misinterpretation would make the pouch useless. By the same token allowing it to ignore the GP cost for components would be OP.

[@klikkolee]

@@MorinehtarTheBlue "Very few components are not consumed" a quick scroll through the wizard spell list indicates otherwise. A consumed component is about as uncommon as a gold-cost component I'm not missing the point. I know what their original misinterpretation was and I'm glad they realized the pouch has an actual mechanic. But "any material component without a gold costs at any time" is not quite correct, and both for them and for readers, I wanted to set the record straight. A material pouch doesn't let you use Protection from Evil and Good several times per long rest -- you need to go back to town eventually. It's pretty obvious why a mundane 25gp item shouldn't give you a free 300gp gilded skull, but it would still be overpowered if it were an infinite font of rope for Snare or beads for Globe of Invulnerability

[@scrapbotcommander]

@@klikkolee Funnily enough, the 2024 version seems to have changed it so consumed components from the core spells always come with a gold price. A flask of holy water for Protection from Evil and Good now has to cost 25+ GP. And Globe of Invulnerability's new description removed the bit about the bead being shattered, so now we actually _do_ get to cast it infinitely with a component pouch! Weird. Edit: Snare consuming 25ft of rope is obviously unchanged, because it's from Xanathar's and not the PHB so it didn't get a rework. But I just found it interesting that they made those changes to the PHB spells. Though, you could also argue the rope is a gold component, since rope is worth 1 GP. Or you could argue the spell costs 5 silver if you think 1GP of rope gets you 50ft, since despite listing a price the PHB fails to tell you _how long_ the rope you get for that price is, lol

[@MorinehtarTheBlue]

@@scrapbotcommander This is pretty much it. The specific description of a spell component pouch simply states a "specific cost". I was completely wrong about material components being consumed because I'm used to such things being specified when they don't. It's old school thinking and I believe I just assumed. That's certainly my fault. And in the case of Holy Water and Protection from Evil and Good that's ironically a hidden cost. Holy Water is listed in the PHB under Adventuring Gear for the 25 GP price. So it does have a specific cost but the 2014 fails to note that.

[@shawnwolf5961]

On @3:30 this actually depends. The DM can rule something half quarter, 3/4 cover, or total cover. And total cover does specify that you can still be hit by AOE damage.

[@k.w.pillsbury4070]

I didn’t know that Paladins had a Proper Spell List until I played BG3. I was using all my slots only for smite and never picked up a single spell for anything other that the Subclass Specific ones.

[@flazzorb]

That's actually not that bad, aside from lacking utility spells.

[@k.w.pillsbury4070]

@ There were way too many times where “zone of truth” would’ve came in handy and I just didn’t know I could have it.

[@pcalix17]

Splitting EXP. Early in DMing, I used to sum up all the experience from a battle and add it to each player. Players quickly grew overpowered and the campaign pacing would be immediately broken. This also defeated the purpose of everything but combat which made the players incredibly powerful very quickly. I have since moved onto Milestone progression where, after a certain number of tough encounters or core moments, the players would level up.

[@mal2ksc]

I used XP right to the end of the campaign because milestones only work when everyone in the party is at the same level to start with, and we rotated characters in and out way too much for that. Lower level characters _should_ advance faster than higher level characters from the same amount of XP. For example, the party starts with three characters at levels 5, 3, and 3, all just at the beginning of that level. The 3rd level characters will be 5th level characters before the 5th level character is even halfway through to 6th.

[@DragonKnightJin]

The Moonbeam thing was never a problem for any table I played at. *However* during a one-shot, I played a Druid that was meant to be supporty. Upcast Moonbeam to level 3, got STUPIDLY lucky with damage rolls so that the lowest damage roll the entire fight was 20. The Fighter and Barbarian gave up trying to attack the enemies personally and just began grappling enemies and yeeting them into "The Microwave™" as it got called. That whole 2-parter one-shot was insanely fun, and I definitely want to play a Druid in a long-term campaign sometime.

[@rayhatesu]

Honestly, having played Druid in a shorter campaign, it can be quite fun. That said, the spell that earned me both a slow clap and an F you from the DM was Spike Growth. We'd just entered a dungeon and I stealthed to the entrance of a room we'd not yet entered. It was apparently full of skeletons. However! The door was 10ft wide and on a corner of the room. Being the clever mf that I am, I decided to quietly cast Spike Growth such that the edge/corner of its area or effect was the entrance to the door. Once I finished, I loudly and deliberately snapped my fingers to get the skeletons' collective attention. There was no initiative roll, I just personally erased a group of ~8 skeletons since none could cross the magical thorn patch without dying a second time, and none were wise enough to stop and wait out the spell.

[@DragonKnightJin]

@@rayhatesu Oh, I had the same thing with Spike Growth. As in, cast it once and wound up doing a total of 600+ damage to all the creatures moving through it to get to us. Because they were all melee range combatants. I'm well aware that with those 2 spells, a Druid can go from "Support" to "DPS" without meaning to.

[@Electric_Wizard]

That guy with crowbar issue; I wish my players would use their mundane equipment more. Ball bearings, caltrop, hooded or bullseye lanterns... So much useful stuff never gets used. Even ropes or plain old pieces of paper can have creative uses in games.

[@Yet_AGOTI]

I had an artificer specifically made for this. I even carried fabric, wood, metal, and spices to make tents and improve food, and make other necessities. You can pretty much improvise any cantrip with the right adventuring gear item or material and tool.

[@windyface9383]

thunderwave centered on the caster is a common enough misconception, my DM also had it until I've corrected him on it, SEVERAL times.

[@taurvanath]

It targets the caster though.😊

[@windyface9383]

@@taurvanath it does not. Phb page 204, the point of origin of a cubic area of effect is on a face of the cube, not inside of it.

[@crassiewassie8354]

Oh god When I first started playing dnd I was told that whenever a creature’s AC is broken the creature then had to make a dex save to represent dodging the attack. This made all combat much longer while also killing tension because players had so many chances to get away from consequences

[@Groundlord]

I believe that's why most systems have it in their rules that there's a time limit to removing the lycanthropy curse (at least, using the standard methods).

[@KingTaltia]

That last one reminds me of a specific thing, not DnD related, but related to the story none-the-less. My close friend and I were playing his favorite RPG of all time, as I'd not played it before. I had spoken up once or twice thinking "man, there's a lot of walking back to old locations in this game", "Yeah" he said "They didn't add fast travel until the sequel." Fast Forward to the final boss, actually skip that, the SECOND PHASE of the final boss, and as we'd been struggling for A WHILE he took a restroom break. While I waited, I realized in combat the Pause menu lets you flip through tutorials, always a good thing to read, you never know what you'll learn. Fast forward to him returning. "Um, (buddy)?", "Yeaaaaah?" he replied confused by the inflection of my voice. "You know how we've been complaining about not having fast travel the entire game?" "... ...There's fast travel?" "Yeah....(Opens tutorial), it's on the select button." Suffice to say we're gonna remember that for every later playthrough of that game. I hate the moment of "Realizes something VITALLY IMPORTANT the MOMENT IT STOPS BEING RELEVANT."

[@EdKolis]

I've heard of saving healing potions for the final boss but never fast travel! 😂

[@KingTaltia]

@@EdKolis Right!? I felt like such an idiot. XD

[@yoshitotem]

Funnily enough, what the wild magic player did is actually a house rule that DM used for my wild magic sorcerer, though it sounds like he got it wrong. Normally, Wild Magic Surges only ever occur on Nat 1 in RAW, but the aforementioned house rule adds an interesting twist; Whenever the Wild Magic roll is made, if a surge fails to occur, the number or range of numbers needed to trigger the surge increases by 1. So not getting a surge on the first roll means a 1 or 2 on the next roll will trigger it. Not getting the surge on the second roll means a 1, 2, or 3 will trigger it, and so on until a wild magic surge happens. When the wild magic surge does eventually happen, the trigger number range resets back to just 1. I believe thats the issue the poster had, he forgot he was supposed to reset it on a surge, meaning that even if he triggered a wild magic surge, the trigger range would just keep increasing until any number would trigger it, and such a thing would make a wild magic sorcerer borderline unplayable with all the chaos that would bring. As fun as chaos is, there is such a thing as too much chaos.

[@Klaital1]

That would just be tedious book keeping, and that is not the ability you use to actually get 99% of your wild magic surges, which come from the Tides of Chaos feature that automatically gives you a surge every time you cast a spell if you have used the ability.

[@AssumedPseudonym]

One I have corrected *several* groups about (in both PF1 and D&D 3.5) is that a nat 20 or nat 1 on a skill check do not mean automatically succeeding or failing. That only applies to attack rolls and saves. It’s not a *missed* line in the book so much as an incorrectly *assumed* line in it.

[@DystruktoBoi1]

It still makes games super fun to roleplay out a critically failed persuasion roll and getting the absolute worst outcome lol

[@shawnwolf5961]

@@DystruktoBoi1 Not when you build specifically to have a +14 in your persuasion, plus you can't roll below a 10--but some 5% chance to fail something you are literally god-tier in fucks it. That is just asinine bullshit and I flat do not run it that way, period. Imagine an engineer having a 5% chance to "critically fail" in his design and killing millions of people because his building collapsed. That's not how being an expert in something works.

[@EdKolis]

Imagine a world where everything you do has a 5% chance to succeed spectacularly, and also a 5% chance to fail spectacularly. The chaos gods are pleased...

[@shawnwolf5961]

@@EdKolis Yeaaaah. Yeah that's fair

[@Klaital1]

And in 5e, it doesn't apply to saves either, only on attack rolls.

[@GodofChaos45]

Werewolf story is genius. Good for the DM going with it.

[@MorinehtarTheBlue]

Only for the DM rolling with it. Curse's have a number of issues where they aren't exactly 100% mechanically sound. This is usually a problem for the utility of the Remove Curse spell. In the case of lycanthropy some homebrew like a quest is often applied.

[@meisunebernadetta9868]

I didn't know proficiency meant you added your proficiency bonus to your attack rolls. I optimized my characters SO MUCH around that subsconscious feeling of hitting little that the moment i started adding it i was suddenly unstoppable

[@kaylaa2204]

7:45 honestly? Would make a good house rule for wild magic to compound like that.

[@skyraider996]

Like the post said. Dimension 20 does it in their Unsleeping City campaign. Each passed wild magic resulted in increased chance. Some like "the wild magic is building in you, itching to be release."

[@kaylaa2204]

@ if I ever get back to running 5e and someone plays wild magic sorcerer, I might just try it

[@shawnwolf5961]

I actually allow my wild magic sorcs to run it that way if they want to. Been homebrewing that for years.

[@_Crunchy]

So a rule that I believe everyone knows it that the DM gets the final say on what goes regardless of what the rules say. So the werewolf/ remove curse thing is fine really, but it seems very obvious that the intent of the spell is that it's being cast on someone/thing willing to have it cast upon them or that is unable to resist and it is a touch spell too. It would be very fair to ask for a Dex save or attack roll to get that touch in, or have the caster roll a spellcasting ability check vs the DC the of curse or something (off my head, DC12 for contracting werewolf curse I think?). If a player slung that on me with a big ol "the rules say this DM" grin on their face, I'd congratulate them on their clever thinking, point out that's obviously not the intent, and pick one of my above options to resolve it then give them the result they wanted when they easily make that check anyway.

[@StateBlaze1989]

Love me some kobold back tactics. My urd kobold artillerist pretty much had advantage on any attack thanks to half the party being Frontline melee. Fly out of range, target whatever melee partners are fighting, and suddenly I have up to 12 attacks at advantage (17th level, twin force ballista, 10 tiny items hit with Animate Object).

[@vederianl9723]

The Animated Objects don't have Pack Tactics.

[@EdKolis]

Wouldn't you have a pretty decent chance of hitting your allies if they're in melee with your target?

[@vederianl9723]

@@EdKolis Not in 5th Edition. If someone is between you and your target they provide cover and you get a negative to your attack. There's an optional rule that sometimes you whomever is providing cover. If your ally isn't in the way there are no negatives. In fact in this case Pack Tactics gives a bonus. Also rogues get to apply sneak attack damage to anyone in melee with an ally. At range.

[@alphons1456o]

Not DnD but pathfinder 2e. One enemy we were fighting had an ability that gave it temporary HP whenever it dealt damage, and none of us could deal enough damage to break the temp HP. It kept getting temp hp until it had like 40 points. We wondered if thsi was supposed to be a thing, so we paused the game to check the rules. WE learned then that the points weren't meant to stack, just to only take the higher of either the current HP or the new roll for temp HP

[@Knightfall8]

funny about the crowbar player, that he finally figured out what pre-3rd edition dungeon crawlers had been doing for decades before PCs started having thousands of class features and special powers. Crowbars rock lol

[@maledictionwolf]

I hate to be that guy, but there's a lot of errors in the text on this video, like, it seems like there's some kind of error in almost every other line! I don't usually comment on stuff like this, people make mistakes transcribing things, but when the errors are constant throughout the video and I haven't really seen them before, I feel like i have to point it out so y'all know about it. I know checking every second of a video isn't really realistic and stuff sometimes slips through and this looks like one of those times. It's an easy fix for future videos, since this is reading posts so you can just copy paste the text rather than relying on audio transcription (these errors all look like audio transcription issues either from auto-generated captions or someone who isn't familiar with D&D).

[@johncameron1935]

You know? I think I really like that interpretation of area of effect spells and larger creatures. It might be broken, but it's also so awesome that I might allow it anyway.

[@jordanbates2470]

First time I tried to run a home brewed game with Pathfinder 2e I didn’t realize characters could only use attacks of opportunity if a feat or stat block gave it to them. This resulted in a TPK when I gave the Minotaur attacks of opportunity he didn’t actually have.

[@floofzykitty5072]

Tbf it is one of those "must have" feats for martials in PF2e, so 99% of martial characters will get it when they can (and you can take more feats in PF2e). It can be easy to forget that not everyone can do it when most PCs can and a bunch of monsters can use it too.

[@ZyvenZ]

2:02 another broken moonbeam interaction: I initially thought it dealt damage both when it was moved into an enemy and when an enemy started its turn in the beam, essentially dealing double damage 6:49 and this tripped me up going from 3.5 to 5e, as 5ft steps are a thing in 3.5 to avoid attacks of opportunity.

[@DieDieNacho]

We had two of three players in our first campaign, add their proficiency bonus to their AC. They believed being proficient in armor allowed you to add your proficiency rather than being able to use the armor without any downsides. This was realized and corrected nearly halfway through the campaign (level 7).

[@daniellins4114]

I was playing a sorcerer and how the rules for converting spell slots into sorcery points and vice versa work is that you turn a slot of a certain level into the same number or points, but if you wanna do the opposite route, you pay a cost of 1:2 or 1:3 of point per slot depending on how high the level of the slot is. My problem was that the point to slot exchange was detailed on this big chart but the rule of slot to point was this tiny line in the bottom text, so I was basically getting way more spell slots per day than I should have, in the first half of our campaign

[@boianko]

Imo sorcerers should have been written to automatically use the Spell Points variant rule. Not only does it make the whole conversion process seamless, but it fits with the idea of them casting spells more flexibly.

[@GrahamRocks]

I spent *seven months* as my Bard, before realizing that *DM* Inspiration and Bardic Inspiration weren't the same thing...

[@shahiemsantos]

I didn't understand monster damage and read 7(2d6+3) so I did pemdas lol so I rolled 14d6+21

[@Cuiasodo]

10:37 "Perception checks are made at disadvantage if you have dark vision without a light source, instead of being made flat" That...sounds like it should be flipped. Like, you have disadvantage in the dark WITHOUT dark vision and having it makes the check a standard, flat roll.

[@Flipercat]

If you're in bright light or have darkvision and are in dim light, you make the check flat. If you are in dim light or you are in darkness and have darkvision, you make the check with disadvantage. If you don't have darkvision and are in darkness RAW you are considered blinded. RAI I'd say you are considered blinded from effects that come out of darkness, whether or not you are in said darkness (2014 PHB page 183)

[@GlawiousAldredMarci]

DM missed twinn spell only working on single target spells... Twinn ligtningbolt steamrolled everyone, including the party's tank! XD

[@shannonbest6263]

Context: I first played 1st Edition AD&D when I was in Middle School, and I TPK'd the party on accident with my lvl3 Wizard and his Level 9 Lightning Staff. The only thing wrong there was my Gameshow Host Dad, always doling out the OP weapons. Fast Forward to 2018 when I start 5th edition, I stick with Martials, mostly Monks or Monk/Rogue, as I was too scared to become a spellcaster. 2023, we start a new campaign, starting level 6, and I think I'm ready for a Spellcaster again. Phantom Rogue and Hexblade Warlock. Everyone was a Rogue of some variant, and our DM couldn't create hard enough fights Because I missed the part where Sneak Attack is only done with a Melee WEAPON, Not Spell. Not helped was Crunchy Crits, Nat20 means Max Damage Plus a roll of the dice. So my Crit Eldritch Blasts were doing 10+12+1d10+2d6+5, completely annihilating whatever fodder the DM threw at us. That campaign is still going, just on a Hiatus. After about 8 sessions, I was researching stuff for Optimization and profusely apologized for my error. We're all still learning.

[@nullvoid4193]

I didn't know that for attack roles, you added your prof bonus. I was wondering why everyone else was hitting more consistently, when my monk had good stats. I was only rolling with a +4. I was *supposed* to have a +7.

[@oliviabolivia913]

Didn't realize sneak attack was only on weapon attacks, so my cleric/rogue was using guiding bolt with sneak attack

[@spartanhawk7637]

I somehow missed that Fireball affects the caster as well as any other creatures. On the plus side, I got a cool heroic sacrifice play out of it.

[@TheDuelManiacs]

I missed how Action Surge was only once per short or long rest. And I was the DM. Whoops!

[@jypsridic]

back in 2001 when I played my first ever dnd game our table severely misunderstood how wizards work and we thought that they could cast every spell they knew once for every spell slot they had. We should have realized the issue when we noticed that all 4 of us were playing wizards at level 1.

[@l_ndonmusic]

I once thought that prepared spellcasters prepared a level of spells equal to their spellcasting ability modifier plus level For example, a 5th level Druid with a 20 in Wisdom I thought had 10 “spell-points” and could, for example, prepare Plant Growth (3), Flame Blade (2), Call Lightning (3), Cure Wounds (1), and Healing Word (1), since those added up to 10 “points” When I realized my error, I was incredibly apologetic because I had basically nerfed their character like tenfold

[@WarChallenger]

7:11 Honestly, probably how it should be for monks in some scenarios. Sometimes they really do just feel like glorified fighters in group battles.

[@kaylaa2204]

3:00 Not that bad, the game won’t break like this, and this is actually what the rule started as. As early as AD&D’s Unearthed Arcana supplement, you saw the suggestion of giving average per starting HP, but many who play old school today still go the core rule of rolling for it. Low HP? deal with it until the next level. And still some house rule max HP at level 1 in AD&D It won’t break your game, you just might be abit squishy. And when you get to the next level, you’ll be bumped up and probably be fine. It’s level 1 you’re all squishy anyway.

[@AndrusPr8]

At first we thought saves were rolls you made to save against any form of harm, including attacks. Then we realized AC was a thing. The game became duller after that because until then we would come up with weird stuff to get to use our best stats. Death to AC >:(

[@pigeonkitt]

my dnd character was true polymorphed into a new form in his backstory and i completely missed that true polymorphed creatures can’t use any gear. luckily my dm is cool and allowed it

[@bearcat1868]

Damage threshold during my first time DMing in 5e. There was a lot of ship-to-ship combat, I thought the ships only took damage from the amount of the attack that exceeded the threshold (e.g. threshold of 15, damage roll for the attack totaled 22, so the ship took 7 damage). Disabling the enemy ship was tsking *forever* and the PCs hadn't leveled enough yet to trivialize the lost damage, so I started looking up the rule again as we were playing. Turns out, the thing with a damage threshold takes the full damage as long as it's over the threshold, and nothing* if it's under that amount (*barring some special circumstances, like lighting the ship on fire). We still finished out that particular fight with the damage reduction threshold in place to avoid devaluing their previous efforts, then used the actual rules for those kinds of battles moving forward. Combat flowed much better after that.

[@nealenthenerd399]

Reason I read all 3 of the core books front to back. (Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, and Monster Manual.)

[@boianko]

Mine is pretty specific. I didn't realize Green Flame Blade required an action to use, and thus wouldn't work with Extra Attack. The party ranger had it as a racial spell from being an Elf and quickly became a combat monster combined with me misreading rules on crits (I thought the doubled bonuses and dice) so with her favored enemy damage she was regularly dishing out over 100 damage per round at level 10. Ultimately it didn't impact the quality of the game too much since the player didn't necessarily try to abuse this in combat, but it led to some insane moments of the ranger completely demolishing hordes of abberations DOOM-slayer style.

[@Electric_Wizard]

I ran a 1 shot and a friend played rogue. They didn't understand how the Hide mechanic worked, thinking they could use Cunning Action and just say "I hide" at the end of each turn. I said, "Where do you hide?" and there was a back and forth for said "OK, so where do you hide?" several more times when they before they looked up how the Hide action works and realised they'd been playing rogues wrong in their own campaign... Or, rather, that one of their players who also happened to be in the one shot was also playing Rogues wrong in the campaign my friend happened to run. (I wasn't involved in that campaign). Seconds later that friend joined the voice call and said "Joe," (I don't remember their real name) "I just found out we've been doing rogue's wrong..." So not only did I ruin my friend's build in the 1-shot, I ruined some other guy's character in a long running campaign. I joined flthat campaign shortly after, and that guy dropped out after a month, so I think I ruined the game for them...

[@EdKolis]

I hide in the, uhh, bag of holding!

[@Electric_Wizard]

@@EdKolis From what I gather they were previously using it to get Sneak Attack every turn, even when there wasn't an ally within 5 feet

[@StateBlaze1989]

My ex-group didn't understand the mechanics of the spell Daylight and thought it was basically a miniature sun. Come time, our party found itself in a town taken over by a small colony of vampires, and initiative is rolled because my character refused to be drained by one. Our cleric/druid casts Daylight, and the fight is as good as over. It devolved into about 4 turns of party meandering because every enemy was burning alive as they tried to fight us. I didn't learn until a few months later that the DM just didn't care for that campaign and wanted to rush it to its end, so I guess that explains why he didn't have the vampires just instantly run from the bright as fuck ball of light turning them all to ash.

[@roguebarbarian9133]

The updated 2024 rules have actually made daylight have the effect of sunlight, so you guys were just ahead of your time.

[@MorinehtarTheBlue]

Our DM used this spell for vampire hunters in a game where the PCs were the vampires. Unfortunately when he had them cast it we all realized the truth. It was just a bright light and thus useless for the combat he had planned.

[@boianko]

I mean the spell is called DAYLIGHT, so it makes perfect sense to assume that is what it does. It honestly makes no sense that it works the way it does with the number of creatures that are affected by direct sunlight and pretty much no other spells that can create it.

[@MorinehtarTheBlue]

@boianko There is sunbeam and sunburst but they're there higher level spells and don't quite work in the same way. And yeah daylight as a name definitely creates an expectation that isn't met.

[@vincentlefur4490]

i had the same problem with Thunder wave! Couldn't use it for 4 sessions before another DM pointed it out because as a tempest cleric in heavy armor i'm always inside the melee 😂

[@MoblinMan]

My first dm thought if you went zero you roll all the death saving throws at once. It wasn’t till I was like that doesn’t make sense when looking at the stabilize action I corrected him but already 2 of are players died in previous sessions😅

[@megalith-x7493]

Nearly 3 years ago, as a first-time player of D&D 5e (playing a Circle of the Moon Druid, courtesy of a hilariously awful misconception about what I could and could not Wild Shape into), I'd been under the impression that I had to learn spells from another source before I could use them (sort of like how I assume the Wizard's Spellbook works - wouldn't know, never played one). It took me (an 8ft-tall Goliath) getting knocked flat on my ass in my first fight before realising that I could have circumvented most, if not all, of the self-inflicted grief that tavern barfight caused if I had just taken at least Shillelagh and Produce Flame (and, maybe, Thorn Whip?). My DM was wondering why I hadn't cast even a cantrip in that fight. Now we both know why.

[@tuojiangoman3228]

I thought damage increased by level, so my Tabaxi rogue would deal 3d8 off a rapier. Why was I still useless? I forgot ability modifiers, so none of my attacks would hit.

[@justinblachek6603]

I actually knew about the dark vision needing a light source in order for it to work better. But I never told my DM that because hey it helps me out

[@EdKolis]

Hi, I'm your DM... Lol, just kidding!

[@karotconcarne3325]

Not something I was surprised by, because I knew the dude was WRONG, but my DM ruled that since the Drow examples had different stats, that if I played a male drow, I would get a -2 cha, and not a +2 cha on my 3.5 character. And that only by his grace he would let me keep +2 cha, while the rest of the party got cool magic item stuff and whatnot, and I got nothing else... and I was supposed to be extremally grateful. Needless to say I was pissed off.

[@FilthyAnimal893]

mine was that it took more than a few combats for us to realize my cleric couldn't just cast spirit guardians then cast sanctuary, and be an invincible damage powerhouse. We interpreted sanctuary at first that i needed to make an attack action to break it, instead of simply any passive effect at all that harms an enemy.

[@FilthyAnimal893]

another one was playing sorcerer and taking more than a couple one-shots to realize that different metamagics had different sorcery point costs, and they werent all just 1 SP each. I'm sure you could guess why i though twinned spell and quickened outplayed any other option by a mile. They still kinda do, but there's still debate on how quickened spell interacts with multiple leveled spells in a turn where there are multiple actions or reactions available, such as under the effects of haste. Also realizing that there were rules limiting slot-spells casts per turn made my 1 SP cost, quickened spell, multiple level spells per turn sorcerer change from a min-maxers wet dream to a very average build.

[@the1stpyr]

So Priest and Monk in my country are the same word pastor its also shepperd. And the dog is called a german shepperd So my first character was a LITERAL German priest with a sheep mascot that fougth with a shepperds cane and used it as a Bo

[@n8-j722]

My Party Members didn't understand Attunement Slots. They thought, "Only 3 Magic Items." I had been playing some odd years less than them, and had 9 or so Magic Items on my character (+1 Weapon, +1 Armor, Cap of Water Breathing, Ring of Swimming, Orb of Time, Orb of Direction, Rope of Climbing, Cloak of Billowing, Bag of Holding, etc) It took years to have them even begin to understand. DM kept trying to help and explain, but they just didn't fully get it.

[@dargondarkfire]

A DM of a campain i was in didn't know that xp is given for essentially everything players do, not just combat so when he told us we get no xp after i ended an encounter peacefully, i showed him the rules for xp and he gave that look that said 'how do i fix this?'

[@firestormingfox4169]

3:53 -The thunderwave cube originates _from you_ -A cubes origin is one of its sides -You can designate the origin on any "gridline/intersecting gridlines" immediately adjacent to your character (d&d is three dimensional, so this can include directly above or below your character) and then choose which direction the cube forms from its origin. Meaning you can use thunderwave to achieve either commonly interpreted result. ~Sage advice supports this; and you don't damage yourself if you are included in the spells area (damage and knockback are tied to the same effect, you can't push yourself away from yourself, so you don't damage yourself either.)

[@tigermix83]

Had a buddy play a cleric, who up until nearly lvl20 thought casting spells meant you had to expend that number of spell slots vs the required level or higher. Which would be crazy if he also didn't think that by level 20 he'd only have 9 slots in total. Another mistake that was on my part was failing to notice the cooldown for Divine Intervention if the deity does intervene...

[@EdKolis]

What, like if you want to cast a level 9 spell then you have to use all nine level 9 spell slots? To be fair, level 9 spells can be world changing...

[@tigermix83]

@@EdKolis You are about as baffled as we were. Example: he wouldve thought that to cast a level 9 spell you would have to spend 9 slots TOTAL. Not just simply a level 9 spell slot

[@MorinehtarTheBlue]

DMG for Bag of Tricks before an errata didn't specify when the animals summoned would disappear. We kidnapped the mayor (vampire campaign, long story) and I left a bsboon behind on a lark. The town though he was polymorphed and just left this baboon in office (DM with a sense of humour). A ruling on the Bag of Tricks probably would gave been better. But I remained under the impression that this was just how Bag of Tricks worked until somebody told me about the errata. Through common sense should have told me otherwise too. I just failed to think it through.

[@gable3D]

If you are not strong enough, you loose 5 feet of movement while using heavy armor...

[@brynnpower]

I'm in a 3.5 campaign where we had a massive 8 PC combat (we each control 2 PCs) against a bunch of imps and lower level fiends, who all had damage reduction 5 negated by silver or good weapons. None of us had silver or good weapons, and I was playing a melee warlock and a wiz/cleric multiclass. None of us had no idea that spells and spell-like abilities bypass damage reduction. It didn't matter for my wiz/cleric because I only had fire spells prepared (all had fire immunity), but it would've made my eldritch blasts kill those dang enemies quicker.

[@harley_kb577]

In our first campaign we had a fiend Warlock and we didn’t know that temp HP couldn’t stack so at some point he ran around the battlefield with like 30+ temp HP from killing a bunch of small enemies and that was all at lvl 3…

[@evanberry4872]

its been over a decade since i last played but, in one of the one shots my DM ran i played a wizard who ended up in combat with a giant frog, i ran out of spells before i could run away and the frog used its tongue to drag me back into melee range where i ended up being grappled, unable to cast spells or do anything my DM kept having the frog do things that would prevent it from killing me while waiting for me to figure something out until they got tired and just told me i should just 'use punching/wrestling proficiency that everyone has automatically'...they missed the next line on that page of the PHB...'except for wizards', again, everyone has punching/wrestling automatically Except For Wizards...needless to say they stopped torturing me and just killed my wizard so we could move on.

[@EdKolis]

I wonder, if you're another class and decide to multiclass to wizard, do you forget how to punch and wrestle? What if you're a commoner and decide to become a wizard?

[@tazman2253]

when I first started I tried playing a monk in 3.5, I asked the DM when leveling up the first time if the speed increase the monk got was added to the speed. I guess he misunderstood and he said yes. So by the time we were level 4 I had a monk with a 100ft base speed. When he asked that s when we discovered that I was wrong.

[@robertheinrich2994]

9:55 fly speed and walk speed. that's a probem: think, you fly 60 feet and then you land. of course in the system mentioned, you are now too far ahead. so trying to walk in that turn will now catapult you back 30 ft and they you are stuck. I guess, I understand why it is "walk 30 ft and then just fly 30ft instead of 60ft... but still. the other way round, you are in a world of pain.

[@Flipercat]

If, like in your example, you fly 60 ft then you just can't walk because you used up 60 ft of movement, you don't get catapulted. This happens even if you fly 30 ft, 35, or any other number (assuming the standard 30 ft move speed

[@toadofsteel]

The first DM I played with ignored the 10 minute rule regarding casting as a ritual, but only allowed rituals out of combat. I actually kind of like that, since it keeps the flow of the game running.

[@totallyseriousgamer]

Not the PHB but homebrew subclass in my first campaign. I misread the DnD beyond sheet and thought I had passive truesight. Learned I didn't later but DM is cool about it because I'm not one of those players that goes "but I have dark vision" every time darkness is even mentioned so I just added it to my sheet permanently.

[@totallyseriousgamer]

To add some context to this, it very quickly turned into a high level campaign and truesight complimented my characters themes of insight and truth really well. Now, being a bow paladin, probably had some pity calculated in, but I never built my character to be the best combatant anyway. I'm always a fan of having lots of utility especially in a game where combat is only half of the equation

[@TheMightyBattleSquid]

7:10 no joke, I thought this was how it worked until I decided to play a monk myself because every monk I had ever seen played did that maneuver at least once and the DMs of those games never called them on it.

[@philipcharpentier-havill801]

so this happened in "Anima: Beyond fantasy" and in a extra book (book of Ki) and not the core book (equivalent to the PHB of DnD) So there is this optional rule called unification of Ki which allows us to use Ki points of any stat to pay for Ki related costs rather than specific Stat Ki (6 out of the 8 stats a character has will Have some Ki related stats (base accumulation and Ki points) Agility, Dexterity, Strength, Constitution, Power and Willpower while the 2 that don't are Intelligence and Perception) Now while most Ki related abilities don't really care what Stat of Ki is paid for them (usually referred to as "generic Ki") Ki Techniques on the other hand are very strict on the matter, you accumulate each individual stat needed for the technique and only when all the stats in question have accumulated enough can the technique be unleashed by paying the cost of each different stats of Ki, these techniques can range from simply striking harder with your weapon engulfed in flames to raising a shield to increasing your initiative to Throwing Kamehameha waves. My play group Misread the unification of Ki extra rule and though we also added up the accumulation l when in reality it's only for the Ki points, which while still helpful as we can use all out Ki point and not effectively Half of them to use techniques it's still a big dampener and while as a play group we agreed to keep using it as we have as it allows most of the "fighter classes" to at least learn one technique, I, as a DM, am very strict when it comes to players creating techniques under the rule of "Can I bring this in a game run by someone who runs Rules as written and use it effectively?" TLDR: Found out an extra rule was not as lenient as previously though and while still used in the "incorrect manner" for my play group, I do apply the extra rule of "don't abuse it".

[@christopherwilliamsA]

Love me some Anima. Unification of Ki was one of the best things to happen to martial characters in that game. I had a similar misunderstanding with some of the psychic power advantages, namely around Amplify Sustained its relationship with Level of Maintenance. We had been wondering why the Warrior-Mentalist was so overpowered in combat: turns out he had been treating his powers as if the were one degree higher than his ACTIVATION level (which benefits from a die roll) instead of just one degree higher than his base Psychic Potential. 🤔

[@Paulo.Castro98]

not exactly the ideia of the video BUT in one of my first tables I was playing as an warlock and since english is not my first language I learned using an unofficial translated book. When I get the invocation I understand that "arcane armor as free use" was the shield spell because both was translated to similar words and that was OP so I get it. I never played warlock anymore since my DM corrected me...

[@intrepid_tank1547]

In the movement section of the phb is unclear, it sums up to 'The DM can run it as only using one type of speed per turn, subtract movement you made from another speed you have, or you can use all speed types to the number on the sheet on your turn.'

[@intrepid_tank1547]

Then there's jumping, you can running long jump up to 3 times your strength score, and it consumes your movement that turn or the DM can make you roll to succeed

[@Skeleton_Archer]

We had a guy early on that said Bardic inspiration worked for all party members that could hear it continuously hahaha I looked it up and had to bear the bad news

[@jettblade]

Don't think this counts but my understanding of the RoleMaster system is completely wrong because the GM homebrewed so much that it was a completely different system and also completely broken. So RM has a percentage based turn order, basically every action had a percentage usage and you use that to determine what you do ie basic attacking costs 60%, casting an instant spell is 15%, or casting a channeled spell costs 90%. Well the GM didn't use any of that but used a flat penalty on if you moved or not. His ruling was any distance past 1/4 of base speed had a -10 to all actions but if you cast a spell you couldn't move more than 10ft. So battles got really messy trying to figure out how to do stuff with as little penalties as possible. The biggest problems were spells and abilities that gave you more action percentage. His ruling was they gave you another full turn at the end of the round. This was absolutely broken. Basically everyone was grabbing a feat that gave them some kind of action percentage boost just so you can have an extra turn. He also disregarded the huge negative impact of this one evil feat to where you got 50 levels in a spell list for not free but you actually gained points to get other feats. He basically turned something crippling and actively harmful into something actually harmed you character for not taking. The absolutely worst thing he neglected was how he gave out exp. He used the ruling where you only get exp if you do stuff in combat. This absolutely broke the game in the worst way. There was always a huge power difference and with the way he scaled things it got really bad. I had this bad night where I was knocked out of two combats before my turn and fell so far behind that it got to the point I could bring in a brand new character 3 levels higher. We had one character at level 15, two at level 13, 2 at level 12, and there I was barely level 8. It was miserable because the average enemies were too strong for me but too weak or average for the rest of the group. It wasn't until someone else ran RM using the actual rules that I realized how bad that GM was and how important it is to read/understand the rules.

[@nabra97]

In ICRPG, I was sure for a while that the only thing mentioned about the money was the fact that a vehicle chunk cost 1000 units, which was extremely random. Turned out, they do have a frame of reference for money, it's just in a completely different part of the book. I still don't really understand how the healing works though. I just do "manual effort for improvised healing, instrument effort for medpack", which I know is overpowered, but I run for two people and they are at disadvantage already

[@TheRealEvab]

Hey, I've just started enjoying your videos recently. I noticed today's captions were of a lower quality than usual; lots of mistakes I hadn't noticed in other videos. Just letting you know in case something changed.

[@fergusofdalibor4264]

I loved this topic btw

[@wolfskinchanger]

I, as a first time DM, attempted to run a one-shot of my own design for level eight PCs; in designing this adventure, I had severely underestimated what level eight PCs are capable of, so my attempt at balancing the combat accordingly fell flat within half a round of the first fight, in ways that made it plain they could've probably done the same even at level 5. I wasn't trying for a TPK, but I was hoping to present a bit more of a challenge than that. I was complimented on my storytelling, though, so that was nice.

[@Kekadoodle]

0:25 Powerwolf intensifies

[@Isru709]

We thought that attack rolls were a check and rage,added advantage to rolls So our barbarian stacked the 2 advantages until we realized that attacks roll and ability cheks were 2 separated things In counterpart we didn't know the spell casting rules so my wizard was attacking without proficiency bonus

[@issackaiser]

I had assumed that versatile meant i can use a pair of longsword in a single move. I went through 3, one shot campaigns without ever finding out that it's not until i see someone mentioning about picking up dual wield feat to wield two non light sword. Either some of the DM didn't know and went along or some of them was aware but used rules of cool. Regardless, by the time i finally figured that out, my fighter has already leveled up that i could pick up the feat anyway. We just settled it as my character being so obsessed with longsword that he see any sword as longsword.

[@Klaital1]

I have also seen lot of people do that Thunderwave confusion.

[@erikzorger3311]

It may be me but the movement didn't sound right. If your walk is 30' and fly is 60' then if you walk 30' you used your full movement. You wouldn't be able to then fly another 30'. I could see dividing it up though. If you walk 15' which is half your movement then you could fly 30' which is half your flight which makes a full movement.

[@cameronwillis4482]

yeah, i'm pretty sure it's proportional. if you walk 15' then you've used half your movement so you could use the other half to fly 30 more feet

[@someaccount5200]

It is proportional subtraction If you can walk 20 feet and fly 50 and you walk 10 feet, you subtract half of your fly distance to make up for using half your walking distance, meaning you can then fly 25 feet after

[@Flipercat]

Nope, the way it's described in the video is correct "Using different speeds If you have more than one speed, such as your walking speed and a flying speed, you can switch back and forth between your speeds during your move. Whenever you switch, subtract the distance you've already moved from the new speed. The result determines how much farther you can move. If the result is 0 or less, you can’t use the new speed during the current move. For example, if you have a speed of 30 and a flying speed of 60 because a wizard cast the fly spell on you, you could fly 20 feet, then walk 10 feet, and then leap into the air to fly 30 feet more." Source: 2014 PHB, page 190

[@sukkaesooopspoun9466]

my table had only the faintest idea of the rules of dnd, no amount of healing can be made to my soul after my first campaign had people performing ability score improvements at every level up and spare the dying literally being a free resurrection spell because we didn’t know that 0hp and dead are completely separate (more than 75% of my bosses ended with an interrogation because of this and i didn’t want to disappoint my players). oh and don’t forget making an opposing dexterity roll against any and all attacks because we didn’t learn about ac until like the very end of my campaign.

[@Sacul_resol]

Mine was how short and long rest work. I thought the short rest was one whole day and the long rest was a week

[@shelbykutil9743]

I play a wild magic sorcerer, and I ask my dm if we could scale the rolls with each spell in the way that was mentioned. She said yeah, especially since I multiclassed as sorcerer, so I only have one level of it and don’t have a lot of sorcerer spells. So basically is so that eventually I have a better chance of getting to roll on the wild surge table!

[@morgantaylor84]

10:41 I can see why that DM's players think that because that makes no bloody sense. Why would seeing something be HARDER with Dark Vision than without? Apparently RAW Dark Vision makes it harder for you to perceive things, which is why you roll with disadvantage, in unlit areas than if you don't have it where you're rolling flat (once) lol

[@GigAnonymous]

That's because it's NOT RAW. For 5e at least, you have three lights level: bright, dim, and darkness. Without any modifier, in bright light you roll flat, in dim light you roll with disadvantage, and in darkness you are BLINDED and therefore DO NOT ROLL AT ALL - it's an automatic FAIL. With darkvision, dim light is considered bright, and darkness is considered dim. So a character with darkvision will roll flat for bright and dim light, and will roll at a disadvantage in darkness. It's written *right there* in the 5e PHB! Chapter 8, The Environment, Vision and Light

[@PatriciaCross]

In my teens, playing 1st/2nd Ed for the first time. Had a few years experience with Ninja Turtle (Palladium Games), so not a total noob. ...but I thought Turn Underdead was for Clerics to turn into an undead. I even ran a one-shot dungeon run during finals that way.

[@EdKolis]

Every time I see PHB I think of a pointy haired boss. Darn you Scott Adams! Darn you to heck!

[@EdKolis]

My ex girlfriend's brother had a weird idea about how THAC0 worked, or maybe I misunderstood because I didn't know either. From what I could tell, in 1e you will roll against an opponent's AC to try and hit them, but if their AC is less than 1 that is impossible (remember lower AC was better so you wanted to roll low). Thus, THAC0 was used in that circumstance as a way to confirm a hit when you rolled a 1 but the opponent's AC was less than that. Naturally this would lead to almost every attack missing against creatures with such low AC, but having dealt with AC 2 imps in Nethack, it seemed reasonable. Thankfully we were interrupted before actually getting anywhere in the game because that would be some long, drawn out battles! And now I know that THAC0 is just a convoluted way to say your attack modifier...

[@kirby1781]

Not a misread but the main campaign I am in derailed session ONE because someone (who at the time was meant to be the secret BBEG) was meant to be "kidnapped". The thing is they gave us a Bugbear DMPC and the DM forgot about their Long Reach ability. Cue a party member bringing it up, the Bugbear saving the NPC, and the DM deciding to rewrite the plot. Edit - We found out either after session or mid-session that the NPC was meant to be kidnapped. We only found out after the current BBEG was introduced (around 3 or 4 months later I think?) that meant to be kidnapped NPC was the original BBEG. Ironically said NPC got killed by the current BBEG.

[@aceplante]

10:00 uh, is it not percentage based? if you walk 30 feet, thats ALL your movement (100%) and you cant then fly another 30

[@A_Shadow420]

Not being able to use two leveled spells in a turn ruined metamagic quickened spell for me

[@lulospawn]

Brian I need to hear you make a John Mulaney impression

[@Thebringeroftartlets]

The players handbook

[@kaylaa2204]

6:15 Was this 2e? I’m not familiar enough but this isn’t how 1e which I’m more familiar with does it. I always have to check 1e actually because it’s like a whole fucking chart to guess. 100 + 2/HP is definitely easier. But 1e took into account powers considered exceptional. So it might have like 10 hp but have some ability making it terrifying so should grant more. That was the logic. But damn you really need to reference that chart if your monster isn’t from the books. Maybe it wasn’t a chart maybe it was just a paragraph. Something like that.

[@blazeesq2000]

I will be a record on repeat. Rulings not rules. If randomness is involved it is. Handle it.

[@Icefire-0123]

They need to reword thunderwave its so misleading

[@MorinehtarTheBlue]

Yeah it's that sweeps out from you. Unfortunately the description of what a cube shaped spell is lives in the opening spellcasting section. If more players read that they'd probably understand the spell a bit better. As it is this is all too common a mistake. I actually had to explain this to one of my DMs. It also seems to have inspired the Thunderclap spell in Xanathar's. Which does it with more reasonable damage, range and no push effect.