D&D 5E Positing New Weapon Properties

[Jago]

Hoy Hoy Folks,

So, before The Crash, one of my first topics was about the weaponry list and how they're probably the one aspect of 5E that I am less than impressed with. While a good selection of means with which to stab, cut, and bludgeon your enemies to their untimely deaths, I keep on feeling like there could be something ... more. Just, more. In some way.

So I'm considering additional Weapon Properties, and was wondering if anyone has done the same in their games. If so, please share some examples of tweaks and adjustments you've made (and I'm not talking "I renamed the Battleaxe to a Khopesh", since that doesn't mechanically change the item in any way), or any suggestions you've come up with yourself.

On my end, there's a few I've considered.

Dunno what you would call it, but maybe give the Flail the ability to just ignore a Shield's bonus AC: you're swinging and getting around that protection, making it a pretty handy 1-handed Blunt weapon.

Give certain heavy Weapons (like the Greataxe or the Maul, especially the Maul) a Crush or Daze property: instead of doing damage, if you hit you give the target the Incapacitated condition for 1 Round.

A Rapier that does slashing damage. There is no reason not to have this. Call it a broadsword, a side sword, just something. The Short Sword pairs with the Scimitar, the Rapier needs a Slashing pair.

Give the War Pick an Armor Piercing quality: A successful attack reduces the enemy's AC by 1 for 1 Round. Does not stack.

The Battleaxe gains a Bleed quality: Bonus Action to trigger when you hit an enemy to do your Modifier in damage at the start of the enemy's next round. Does not stack.

The Longsword gains a Guard quality: Bonus Action when you hit an enemy to give the enemy Disadvantage on attack rolls against you for 1 Round. Does not stack.

The Glaive and Halberd need something to differentiate them. I'm almost considering dropping the Glaive down to 1d8 and giving it the Finesse property, just ... something. They're the same weapon.

Oh, and the Blowgun becomes a Simple or Rogue Weapon, so the Class that would actually use it can actually use it.


Anyway, these are only very basic ideas and not at all refined, but I'm curious to see what the community has done to expand the weapon list to include some fun, flavorful options.

 

[Shiroiken]

The only weapon property I've made is Off Hand, which is applied to 1d4 Light Weapons

Off Hand: when you take the Attack Action and use a one handed melee weapon while holding this weapon in the other hand, you may make an Attack with this Weapon as a Bonus Action as per the Two Weapon Fighting rules.

This allows someone to use a Rapier & Dagger (a legitimate fighting style) without wasting part of the Two Weapon Fighting Feat. I also allows a lot of other styles (Battle Ax & Light Hammer, Flail & Club, whatever) that might be interesting. The other important aspect is that it keeps Two Weapon Fighting more viable at level 5, since you can deal 1d8 on your primary weapon twice (2d8+1d4, as opposed to 3d6).

 

[aco175]

I like several of these properties and I can see where they add more realism to the game, but I can see where they are another system that may slow play down. I can see where it may make players want to take one weapon over another. A +2 to hit if the opponent has a shield, or impose disadvantage if I hit him last round would be great.

Do you think these may be better listed as magic properties? I can see it being easier to handle if it was similar to the masterwork property in 3e. It is a minor ability, but it can make a weapon magical for determining what it can hit. It does not need a +1 to make it cool and you have something to give players without making their power scale too much.

 

[Jago]

I like several of these properties and I can see where they add more realism to the game, but I can see where they are another system that may slow play down. I can see where it may make players want to take one weapon over another. A +2 to hit if the opponent has a shield, or impose disadvantage if I hit him last round would be great.

Do you think these may be better listed as magic properties? I can see it being easier to handle if it was similar to the masterwork property in 3e. It is a minor ability, but it can make a weapon magical for determining what it can hit. It does not need a +1 to make it cool and you have something to give players without making their power scale too much.

That was also an idea I had. Maybe not magical, but like LoTR-style "Elven-Forged" and such, weapons that are just inherently ... well, better than their counterparts. Especially in low magical games, it can give interesting and fun mechanics for the Fighters and Barbarians to mess around with without affecting things like Bounded Accuracy and such.

Not a bad idea, mate.

 

[jaelis]

Hoy Hoy Folks,...

Most of the things you list seems too strong to me. Here's a few other ideas you could play with, inspired by previous versions of the game:

Extra crit - When you crit with this weapon, you do an extra die of damage. Might be good for things like axes and picks.

Tripping - If you try to shove an opponent prone while holding this weapon, you can apply your proficiency bonus to your Strength check even if you aren't proficient in Athletics. If the weapon has reach you can try to knock down an opponent within that reach. Good for flails and whips, and you could invent a hooked polearm like a billhook.

Knockback - If you try to shove an opponent away from you while holding this weapon, you can apply your proficiency bonus to your Strength check even if you aren't proficient in Athletics. Good for hammers and mauls. You could invent a hammer polearm like a lucern hammer and let it shove at reach.

Defensive - While you are wielding a defensive weapon, you can take a -1 penalty on all your attack rolls for one round, but gain a +1 bonus to AC for one round. Good for swords.

Multi-purpose - The weapon can deal two types of damage. You choose which type when you hit. Good for morningstars and flails (bludgeoning and piercing) or swords and halberds (slashing or piercing).

Reactive - If you ready an action to attack with this weapon, it does an extra die of damage. Good for spears and pikes.

I like Shiroken's Off Hand property too.

 

[Satyrn]

A lot of what you listed would be cool if they activated on a crit.

With some modification, of course. The war pick's armor piercing should probably reduce armor's AC by 2 until repaired.

The bleed damage could last several rounds (with healing stopping it early)

The daze would work just fine (although maybe without the crit damage)

The flail could disarm either a weapon or shield.

 

[Helldritch]

The only property I have added in my games is Elven.
With elven, your weapon now gains the finesse property without losing its original one.

An elven longsword in now has finesse and versatile properties. But costs twice the money.
Elven can not be combined with heavy weapons.

 

[Jago]

Most of the things you list seems too strong to me. Here's a few other ideas you could play with, inspired by previous versions of the game:

Extra crit - When you crit with this weapon, you do an extra die of damage. Might be good for things like axes and picks.

Tripping - If you try to shove an opponent prone while holding this weapon, you can apply your proficiency bonus to your Strength check even if you aren't proficient in Athletics. If the weapon has reach you can try to knock down an opponent within that reach. Good for flails and whips, and you could invent a hooked polearm like a billhook.

Knockback - If you try to shove an opponent away from you while holding this weapon, you can apply your proficiency bonus to your Strength check even if you aren't proficient in Athletics. Good for hammers and mauls. You could invent a hammer polearm like a lucern hammer and let it shove at reach.

Defensive - While you are wielding a defensive weapon, you can take a -1 penalty on all your attack rolls for one round, but gain a +1 bonus to AC for one round. Good for swords.

Multi-purpose - The weapon can deal two types of damage. You choose which type when you hit. Good for morningstars and flails (bludgeoning and piercing) or swords and halberds (slashing or piercing).

Reactive - If you ready an action to attack with this weapon, it does an extra die of damage. Good for spears and pikes.

I like Shiroken's Off Hand property too.

The Off Hand property is pretty great for the Rapier especially, and one I think is A+.

As for mine, I felt that the majority of them either giving up an Attack or needing your Bonus Action to activate (which there are many fun things to do with a Bonus Action) would help offset the power, although I can understand the hesitation.

Extra Crit I was trying to avoid a bit simply because that's a Half-Orc and Barbarian ability, so giving it to just anyone seemed a bit chincy. The same with expanding a critical threat range, since that's the Champion's ability.

Tripping and Knockback I like: Tripping basically allows for like Maneuver Rogues and Bards, very cool and flavorful.

Defensive appears to be a minor call to the Defender legendary weapon in the DMG, which is a +3 sword that can trade its +3 bonus between attack or AC. While I like the idea of basically allowing Combat Expertise for a weapon, with the way Bounded Accuracy works, I'm not entirely sure if this should be a basic ability: a +1 AC is actually quite a nice buff for someone who already has like a 16 or 18 in their attack stat and therefore can generally afford the -1 to hit. I like this ability, though, and I think a tweak in some way would help it. Maybe needing to use your Reaction to add the defense and therefore suffering the penalty the next time you attack?

Multi-Purpose is great and I'm honestly not sure why weapons lost it for 5E. My assumption is in the Developers trying to keep them simple so that way you can reflavor items easily ... I think.

Reactive sounds good, definitely helps with the lackluster damage of the Spear, although with Pikes it definitely makes Polearm Mastery very appealing with them, what with getting basically the equivalent of a crit on anything that enters your 10 ft. threat range.

A lot of what you listed would be cool if they activated on a crit.

With some modification, of course. The war pick's armor piercing should probably reduce armor's AC by 2 until repaired.

The bleed damage could last several rounds (with healing stopping it early)

The daze would work just fine (although maybe without the crit damage)

The flail could disarm either a weapon or shield.

I dunno about you mate, but I don't get Crits, lol. I get them so rarely that I've always had a thing against abilities that are "On a Critical". I remember we played a game where we used a Crit Deck, and in the 1st combat I crit fumbled and got hit with a penalty of "You suffer a -1 to all attack rolls until you confirm a critical."

Guess who was swinging 1 below his Paladin BAB for the rest of the game?


With that said, I do like the idea of a Critical expanding these abilities, like the extended bleed or the Pick doing more damage to AC. That's actually a very neat feature and gives a fun option for Champions to invest in, since they can trigger those more often on average.

The only property I have added in my games is Elven.
With elven, your weapon now gains the finesse property without losing its original one.

An elven longsword in now has finesse and versatile properties. But costs twice the money.
Elven can not be combined with heavy weapons.

As a Bard, Finesse and I are the best of Friends. This is actually a cool way to factor in some fun weapon ideas, and kudos on making sure Heavy Weapons cannot have it. Stops some Great Sword Sneak Attack fiddleyness from getting out of hand, though a Finesse Battleaxe or even hell, a Mace would be pretty cool.

 

[jaelis]

Extra Crit I was trying to avoid a bit simply because that's a Half-Orc and Barbarian ability, so giving it to just anyone seemed a bit chincy. The same with expanding a critical threat range, since that's the Champion's ability.

Yes, but I feel like crit fishing is a bit underwhelming in 5e so this would be OK. It would stack with barbarians and half-orcs, of course. But of mine this is probably my least favorite.

Multi-Purpose is great and I'm honestly not sure why weapons lost it for 5E. My assumption is in the Developers trying to keep them simple so that way you can reflavor items easily ... I think.

Certainly they wanted to keep it simple, it sounds like you want to spice things up a bit.

Reactive sounds good, definitely helps with the lackluster damage of the Spear, although with Pikes it definitely makes Polearm Mastery very appealing with them, what with getting basically the equivalent of a crit on anything that enters your 10 ft. threat range.

I wouldn't let it work with opportunity attacks, I think that would be too strong. Also doesn't really fit the flavor, a readied action is more like setting your spear vs a charge.

 

[Ed Laprade]

Hoy Hoy Folks,

A Rapier that does slashing damage. There is no reason not to have this. Call it a broadsword, a side sword, just something. The Short Sword pairs with the Scimitar, the Rapier needs a Slashing pair.

Rapiers, at least the ones you fight with rather than the really long, thin ones used in the sport of fencing, were always cut and thrust weapons. As they grew longer they were used more and more for thrusting, but you could still cut with them if the opportunity arose. This is just another example of the people at TSR/Wizards ignoring 40+ years of people telling them to fix their weapon stats.