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What makes Great Weapon Master and Sharpshooter so good?
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7438340" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>I agree with this. It's the same reason I didn't like the design of Power Attack in 3E.</p><p></p><p>It's a purely mechanical oddity of D&D that it has both an attack roll and a damage roll. (Contrast, say, HARP or Burning Wheel which have only a single roll; or Rolemaster as an intermediate case because there is a crit roll but the crit table is determined by attack success.)</p><p></p><p>Hence these "penalty to hit, bonus to damage" feats are purely playing games within the mathematical space that that rules oddity gives rise to. They don't have any distinctive correlation to the fiction. (A feat that gave a flat bonus to damage, or a flat bonus to hit, would have the same fictional correlation.)</p><p></p><p>And the maths is a potential trap for new players while allowing others to exploit it.</p><p></p><p>I don't agree with this. I think there is a group of campaigns - or, rather, a type of play experience - that these feats are serving. They allow new/inexperienced players to have the experience of finding a way to get an attack buff, or advantage, or whatever, and then doing lots of damage. For someone who experiences that as a moment of lucky, or clever, play - but who hasn't routinised it in the way the mathematically proficient player has - the feat has given something to their game. It's the fighter-player's equivalent of the first time someone realised, in their AD&D game, that Transmute Rock to Mud could be used on the ceiling rather than the floor.</p><p></p><p>I'm not saying this is a reason the feats are well-designed - I'm neutral on that point, and I can see that they're poorly designed for your purposes. I'm just saying that this is a valuable play experience that I think these feats are providing.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7438340, member: 42582"] I agree with this. It's the same reason I didn't like the design of Power Attack in 3E. It's a purely mechanical oddity of D&D that it has both an attack roll and a damage roll. (Contrast, say, HARP or Burning Wheel which have only a single roll; or Rolemaster as an intermediate case because there is a crit roll but the crit table is determined by attack success.) Hence these "penalty to hit, bonus to damage" feats are purely playing games within the mathematical space that that rules oddity gives rise to. They don't have any distinctive correlation to the fiction. (A feat that gave a flat bonus to damage, or a flat bonus to hit, would have the same fictional correlation.) And the maths is a potential trap for new players while allowing others to exploit it. I don't agree with this. I think there is a group of campaigns - or, rather, a type of play experience - that these feats are serving. They allow new/inexperienced players to have the experience of finding a way to get an attack buff, or advantage, or whatever, and then doing lots of damage. For someone who experiences that as a moment of lucky, or clever, play - but who hasn't routinised it in the way the mathematically proficient player has - the feat has given something to their game. It's the fighter-player's equivalent of the first time someone realised, in their AD&D game, that Transmute Rock to Mud could be used on the ceiling rather than the floor. I'm not saying this is a reason the feats are well-designed - I'm neutral on that point, and I can see that they're poorly designed for your purposes. I'm just saying that this is a valuable play experience that I think these feats are providing. [/QUOTE]
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What makes Great Weapon Master and Sharpshooter so good?
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