Does It Matter if the Critical Role Cast Doesn’t Know the Rules of D&D?

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On the topic of misleading spell names, shout out to Chill Touch. It is a ranged spell that does necrotic damage

I loved how Mark Hulmes „taught” cast of BG3 in their session. Ask them to read the ability outloud, optionally correct and suggest action that would meet their expected goal. I would say thats a golden standard in teaching complicated stuff like spells to players.

"I got a 73, what does that do?" Matt: NOTHING. You dont roll for scry. "8 YEARS. 8 years people" Was a funny moment and one of the best of the episode. If you advertise yourself as a pro player channel people will be upset when you're not that. But they dont. They just have a good story and have fun and funny moments while they play.

" You don't roll for scry. " That acene always cracks me up in campaign 3.

I also think it's interesting comparing Critical Role to Dimension 20 in this regard. I do think the D20 cast are more focused on figuring their way creatively through battles where CR leans harder into the world and characters, but I also think people forget D20 is edited. They've explicitly said during some of their live shows that they cut out a bunch of counting dice, reading rules, and figuring out their turns. The players and DM are incredibly skilled performers, but edited play always feels effortless in comparison.

The "using your action to do a bonus action task" thing is something that we've always houseruled at my tables. I didn't realise it used to be an actual rule

I was terrified of playing a caster when I first started. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to keep up. Watching Marisha make "mistakes" and still be loved by her table gave me the confidence to try. The Paladin I played next is my favorite character to this day.

"D&D has some misleadingly named spells." glaring angrily at Chill Touch

I think the thing I like most about how Will Wheaton was during his time as a guest player: He accidentally tought most of the cast about failing forward.

I would say it's not necessarily a matter of them "not knowing their spells" as it is trying to apply Rule of Cool and look for creative ways to use spells in a few too many situations that get some people riled up.

Honestly? If I have to bend a rule to allow a player to create a cool/emotional/relevant scene, I would do that every single time. And I'm somewat strict and rule-lawyer-y as both a DM and a player.

I'm reminded of when Emily Axford joined the party for a bit and during a 4-sided dive they asked her how she was so good at playing her character. Emily basically said that she just read her spells and thought of using them in theatrical ways.

"trying to order a hotdog from a hardware store" me, as an Australian thinking there's nothing wrong with that

2 sessions ago, a player used Suggestion on a wraith. Buried in the text it says that creatures immune to Charm are unaffected, but he didn’t read that out to me. Another player then reminded us that damage ends the spell. I get that spell descriptions are long sometimes, but I can’t know every spell on the fly, and I don’t want to have to look it up every time

It always makes me sad when someone shares a story about something cool or fun that happened in their game, only for someone to respond with, “That couldn’t have happened because X is against the rules and Y only allows Z.” As Liam often quipped in campaign 1, “Your fun is wrong!” Congrats on the baby, Mike! That’s awesome to hear!!

I totally let "Find Traps" reveal the location of the trap as a house rule. It's a 2nd level spell that is instantaneous, and without a location it can be almost a complete waste. For example, in a large antechamber, knowing there's a pitfall trap or a glyph of warding within 120ft of you is virtually useless information. You now have something like 1000 squares to investigate. I have it work like Locate Object (also a 2nd level spell) and give the caster the general direction and distance to the trap, which usually narrows it down to a handful of tiles.

No spoilers because you’re behind on the current campaign, but gosh your points about RAW vs Rule of Cool and Critters hating change hit hard after the last couple of weeks. Also I think you’re making very good and reasonable arguments, and so much of it just boils down to the all-purpose rule of “don’t be a dick.”

I've played multiple spell casters in 5e. As you level up, there is so much to remember. It's really difficult to remember all spells and feats (druids in particular as they also have wildshapes as well). You'll always forget things and make mistakes. I'm not sure alot of the people who make these complaints have much experience playing spell casters.

I’ve been playing for 3 years now and I still feel like a new player. I’m constantly bugging my DM for clarification on how he interprets certain rules. I really don’t think it’s all that big of a deal when the CR cast gets a rule wrong, because there are so many rules that can easily be misinterpreted or forgotten.