I am tempted to take this as an actual challenge. We shall see...
D&D 5E Quick weapons, how do they look?
I am tempted to take this as an actual challenge. We shall see...
UngeheuerLich
Legend
Use d8 instead of d10 for the bow. Being allowed to use str instead of dex is enough. Give it short bow range. That is more than anyone could ask for.
If he wanted to be a dwarven archer, why didn't he put his high stat in dex and be done with it? It sounds like he's asking you to help fix a character weakness he willingly took.
ccs
41st lv DM
I would not give him such a weapon. He intentionally made a non-dex character & is now wanting to negate that weakness.
But if you do give him a bow that uses str instead of dex? I absolutely wouldn't make it do more base damage than a standard long/short bow. Consider: He's already doing better with this bow than he should.
Story. The specific purpose of the character he is building right now is to get better at role-playing (yes, contentious topic, but he considers himself not-good-enough, and wants to do this to get better.) So he is building the character for story rather than mechanical strength. The only reason for the strength bow is that it is thematically appropriate for his Character, a novice smithy with low dexterity, but a wish for archery. So, in-game, he designed his own special bow to allow this, and I statted it out.
[MENTION=59057]UngeheuerLich[/MENTION] So, treat it more like an upgrade to the short bow, rather than a sideways change to the long bow? A possibility, I will try that one during play as well.
A really strong bow that does a bit more damage for a strong PC is one thing. I can understand that. The part I find odd about it allowing strength-based to-hit is this: What about it makes it more "inaccurate" in the hands of a dex-based PC?
What about instead making this a new fighting style? Or feat even. Though, with the latter, I'd probably add a few more thematic bennies/features to get its overall value up enough to match other feats.
What about instead making this a new fighting style? Or feat even. Though, with the latter, I'd probably add a few more thematic bennies/features to get its overall value up enough to match other feats.
Part of the reason I made it an upgrade in such a way is to add more flavor. The game is currently taking place in the early years of the world, and his Bow is the first of it's kind. In time, it may become the norm for the entire Dwarven race, and a strong but shaky bow, with different stats, is more interesting than "reskinned long bow with Dwarf runes on it". I forgot to mention that the world it is in is far from vanilla at this point, and is somewhat of a testing ground for any house rules I try out, this being one of them. I am mostly fishing for thoughts on changes in advance, in case I do decide it is noticeably better than what the other player has going for her.
You're the GM, but it sounds to me like his character would be more fun by just dealing with the dex penalties, but boosting the stat as he levels up. That would be a real sense of progression.
Or, as I'd probably have recommended the player do in the first place, don't dump your worst score into your intended combat stat -- not unless the act of roleplaying through that difficulty is part of the plan. Not all blacksmiths needs super high strength -- especially not "apprentice" smiths. And "low dexterity" doesn't have to mean the guy trips over everything and can't bring a spoon to his face either. He could have just set Dex at 12 or 13. But if the player is *really* intent of the roleplay of a strong and clumsy blacksmith who wants to fight with ranged weapons, it stands to reason they'd actually roleplay the downsides too.
To give the short story, it's a whole thing. He will have numerous downsides going against him, with low AC, less than 0 stealth capabilities, only two party members, and an as-yet-unnamed goal he will be aiming to achieve. He wasn't aiming for a character attempting to cope with his weaknesses, but instead a character smart enough to play to his strengths(but not smart enough to realize he should expand his horizons to have more strengths). I look forward to some interesting role play.
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