Level Up (A5E) Break spell maneuver

[PauloR]

I was thinking of allowing the Break Spell maneuver to be used with a thrown weapon within normal range. I think thrown weapons need some love, so I'm implementing some.changes to make them more appealing.

Would this change to the maneuver be too much? Let me know your opinion

 

[scaramouche]

Personally, I am less afraid of ranged weapons than others might be. So I think that change is absolutely fine. I'd be legitimately surprised if that change caused anything to blow up at your table.

 

[PauloR]

For context, my other impactful change I want to implement is to give thrown weapons advantage in opportunity attacks. If someone turns their tail and flee from you in melee, you just throw your handaxe at their back. That's probably a lot easier than trying to hack at him with that same axe before he gets too far.

 

[Tonguez]

I love both those ideas, anything to incentivize barbarians to dramatically throw axes at wizards is great in my fantasy

 

[Stalker0]

So the question is, can the person only attack, or "draw and attack" with the thrown weapon?

Ultimately this takes the maneuver from a "once a while kind of thing" to a "one I would expect to see in most spellcasting combats". Being able to hit a spellcaster that casts at 60 feet (which most thrown weapons can do at disadvantage) is effectively giving martials their own form of counter spell (with the added benefit that if they already have a concentration spell up, they have to make a save for that as well due to the damage).

So yeah....its a pretty big deal. How big a deal it is depends on how often you use spellcasting monsters and also how you feel about counterspell in general.

 

[PauloR]

Well, the way I envision the rule is, you need to have the weapon drawn, it's a reaction, you can't really draw and throw. That makes having a thrown weapon at hands handy (hmm, pun not fully intended).

Also, I was thinking of allowing the maneuver only at short range, not long range, so throwing at disadvantage would be out