Dagger Master Feat

[Darrius_Adler]

This feat is an attempt to bring a little of the Invisible Blade into 5e and make daggers as a primary weapon more viable. What do you all think?

Dagger Master
Prerequisite: 13 Dex
You are a master of small blades and knowing where to strike to do the most damage.

• You deal 2d4 damage with daggers rather than the normal 1d4.
• You do not suffer disadvantage for long range dagger throws
• You gain a +1 to AC when fighting with a dagger in each hand

 

[jadrax]

This looks solid, and seems pretty balanced.

 

[was]

.You deal 2d4 damage with daggers rather than the normal 1d4.
.You do not suffer disadvantage for long range dagger throws
.You gain a +1 to AC when fighting with a dagger in each hand

...Given that the last two are adopted from existing feats, there's really not much of a problem there.
...I don't know about the first part of it. It appears that you are essentially trying to use a feat to double the normal weapon damage for the dagger. Adding the dexterity bonus to damage already does a great deal to improve the damage of twf. That's in addition to the second attack.
...It just seems a bit too much. Take a 5th level fighter with twf style and this feat. Now you are looking a 3 attacks per round at 2d4 base damage + dex. bonus on all three attacks. It seems a bit unbalanced.
...Maybe you could balance it by taking the fighter spec or feat benefit of adding the dex. bonus to both attacks. Or the reduction in cover benefits for ranged attacks.

 

[Jester David]

You deal 2d4 damage with daggers rather than the normal 1d4.

It's a big spike in damage. 2.5 points on average. That's better than the average of 1 from going to a 1d6. Really, 2d4 is better than 1d8.

You do not suffer disadvantage for long range dagger throws

A good idea. Changing the range might also work.

You gain a +1 to AC when fighting with a dagger in each hand

Overlaps a bit much with the existing two-weapon fighting feat, which will already be desirable if pairing daggers. A different bonus might be preferable.

 

[Darrius_Adler]

Ok, so what about upping the dagger damage to 1d6? Originally I had considered adding Int bonus to damage on daggers stacking with Str or Dex bonus (instead of increasing the damage dice) but someone else I mentioned it to thought it would be too much. With a 1d6 it makes daggers almost nothing more than a cosmetic change for a shortsword.

The Dual Weapon Fighting feat's best feature is useless to someone using daggers as they are light weapons. But recognizing that the +1 to AC feature is in that feat I restricted it to having daggers only as the weapon you can get the bonus with. Keeping it true for the fighting style/quasi give a little of the Invisible Blade Unfettered Defense.

 

[jadrax]

One idea I thought of was basically giving a d6 of Sneak Attack with the feat (which would stack with the Rogue feature), but that would make the feat a lot more complex.

TBH though, I am pretty sure an extra d4 Damage on dagger attacks is really going to break the system when you compare it to some of the other feats.

 

[jadrax]

Overlaps a bit much with the existing two-weapon fighting feat, which will already be desirable if pairing daggers. A different bonus might be preferable.

I must admit, my instinct would be to not let the bonuses stack.

 

[Quartz]

Why don't you just reskin the Sharpshooter feat for daggers?

 

[Inchoroi]

The power gamer in me really likes the idea of dealing 2d4+DEX each attack...

But the DM in me wants to shoot myself for liking it.

It is a bit OP. One thing that I'm missing, though, is the idea behind the Dagger Master. If you specialize in daggers, what kind of stuff do you do? What's your fluff behind the idea of it (a description is what I'm looking for, I guess would be appropriate).

For example, the Duelist feat lets you use your reaction to parry; its the classic fencing/sword-fighting fluff of turning a blade aside rather than just setting yourself to take the hit on the blade like you would with a larger weapon. For the Dagger Master, it seems that you would focus more on pinpoint accuracy than anything--you are the embodiment of finesse, constantly underestimated with your "puny little knives", until they find that you've ducked under their big sword to stick one of your daggers in their kidney.

So, here's my take on the Dagger Master feat:

Dagger Master
Prerequisite: 13 Dex
You are a master of small blades and knowing where to strike to do the most damage.
* You deal an additional die of damage when you successfully make a critical hit on a target, in addition to the normal critical benefits. You also add your dexterity modifier to your odd-hand attack with a dagger, if you did not do so already.
* You do not suffer disadvantage for long range dagger throws.
* If you successfully parry a melee attack, you can expend your reaction, and gain advantage on your next attack against that target, before the end of your next turn.

 

[Darrius_Adler]

The power gamer in me really likes the idea of dealing 2d4+DEX each attack...

But the DM in me wants to shoot myself for liking it.

It is a bit OP. One thing that I'm missing, though, is the idea behind the Dagger Master. If you specialize in daggers, what kind of stuff do you do? What's your fluff behind the idea of it (a description is what I'm looking for, I guess would be appropriate).

For example, the Duelist feat lets you use your reaction to parry; its the classic fencing/sword-fighting fluff of turning a blade aside rather than just setting yourself to take the hit on the blade like you would with a larger weapon. For the Dagger Master, it seems that you would focus more on pinpoint accuracy than anything--you are the embodiment of finesse, constantly underestimated with your "puny little knives", until they find that you've ducked under their big sword to stick one of your daggers in their kidney.

So, here's my take on the Dagger Master feat:

Dagger Master
Prerequisite: 13 Dex
You are a master of small blades and knowing where to strike to do the most damage.
* You deal an additional die of damage when you successfully make a critical hit on a target, in addition to the normal critical benefits. You also add your dexterity modifier to your odd-hand attack with a dagger, if you did not do so already.
* You do not suffer disadvantage for long range dagger throws.
* If you successfully parry a melee attack, you can expend your reaction, and gain advantage on your next attack against that target, before the end of your next turn.

Isn't the ability to parry attacks a Battlemaster feature or something from another feat?

Another potential I suppose in going with the inspiration of Invisible Blade to replace the first feature with the ability to inflict a bleeding wound, 1pt of damage per round until any magical healing or a medicine check is made. Restrict it to one bleeding wound per creature.

As to a reskin of Sharpshooter, far as I can tell you can already use Sharpshooter with Daggers making you more Master Thrower than Invisible Blade. The ranged ability for the feat I have was due to at the time being unable to think up another melee focused ability to use with the daggers.