I started thinking about this topic when I watched this video with Todd Kenreck and Jim Davis of WebDM - what is the least intuitive part of D&D? I agree wholeheartedly with them that it's the spell casting system, but I pin the blame on one specific part - spell slots.
Full disclosure, my background in roleplaying is mostly in the Savage Worlds system. I came at it backwards from most people - playing an alternative system first, then backing my way into what is normally the gateway system, D&D 5E. So this may just be my bias talking.
In Savage Worlds, every spell (called a "Power") has a Power Point cost attached. As a caster, you get X Power Points and every spell costs Y amount. You can also "boost" powers by spending extra Power Points. Take the humble Bolt power. Want to cast 3 Bolts - one each at three different foes? Spend three Power Points instead of the usual 1. Want to really hurt that big boss? Spend an extra Power Point to roll an extra d6 on your damage. Simple and intuitive. Want more Power Points? When you Advance (Level Up), take the Power Points edge for an extra five points. Simple!
In D&D it works like this - you have X number of spell slots of level 1, Y slots of Level 2, and Z slots of level 3. You can cast a level 1 spell as many times as you have level 1 slots, or you can Upcast it to level 2 or 3 - for most spells, this gives you a bonus. You can not use a Level 1 slot to cast a Level 2 spell, no matter how many slots you have left. It gets clunky to keep track of, especially if you multiclass between casters and non-casters, or casters and "half-casters." There are tables. Oh lord, so many tables.
It just feels awkward and more like bookkeeping than high adventure. Here you are, a brilliant wizard, a sorcerer touched by the divine, or a thrall to Great Cthulhu himself - but you can only cast Fireball twice before you have to take a nap. On the other hand, you can spam infinite numbers of cantrips without even breaking a sweat.
I raised this in the comments of the video above and another commenter helpfully informed me that in the DM's handbook, there are alternate rules for using Power Points. Brilliant! So I looked them up online.
Oh.
Oh dear.
Wizards of the Coast - they've never met a problem they couldn't solve or make worse with a table.
I'm sure someone spent some playtesting time tweaking the formulas here, and there's a reason that Spell Points go up by odd intervals, but can you imagine trying to run a game this way with a brand new player? If you've tried this, please tell me in the comments below. Did your player faint when you showed them the tables? Or was this their jam?
I recognize previous editions of D&D were nowhere near as intuitive as 5E. On the other hand, D&D has come so far, but hasn't quite clinched the deal. I could go on - why is it, no matter what character generation I use, I seem to always end up with vestigial odd numbers in Ability Scores? Why do all characters of the same class and archetype advance the same way? I'll probably come back to this well in future posts.
Again, I like 5E and I'm enjoying the heck out of my current campaign, but there's some room for improvement, that might require Wizards to make another radical revision in future editions. In the meantime, I'll keep rolling dice and scratching my head.
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