D&D 5E Fighting Style for Melee Knife/Dagger Use

[Garthanos]

I based on the fighting style on concepts of martial arts with knife fighting, which is why there's the idea of doing even more with grappling.

One thing I think people often miss about grappling is that its almost always done in combination with an attack. And your idea caries that relatively elegantly.

 

[Undrave]

Since they're surprise weapon, make them better when you draw them as part of an attack.

Also, if you want to boost damage while grappling, I would suggest you up the damage to 2D4 instead, so on a crit you roll more dice.

 

[ad_hoc]

Here are 2 fighting styles from the recent UA

Thrown Weapon Fighting

You can draw a weapon that has the thrown property as part of the attack you make with the weapon. In addition, when you hit with a ranged attack using a thrown weapon, you gain a +1 bonus to the damage roll.

Unarmed Fighting

Your unarmed strikes can deal bludgeoning damage equal to 1d6 + your Strength modifier. If
you strike with two free hands, the d6 becomes a d8. When you successfully start a grapple, you can deal 1d4 bludgeoning damage to the grappled creature. Until the grapple ends, you can also deal this damage to the creature whenever you hit it with a melee attack.

The unarmed fighting is just like your feat only with higher damage.

One benefit of using daggers would be throwing them but your feat penalizes that.

You might want to look into combining and then tweaking the Thrown Weapon and Unarmed Fighting feats.

 

[Garthanos]

Since they're surprise weapon, make them better when you draw them as part of an attack.

That is cool in general for small things like darts/shuriken too. But then isnt it really the fast draw technique that is doing the boost to damage. Not a normal draw?

 

[Undrave]

That is cool in general for small things like darts/shuriken too. But then isnt it really the fast draw technique that is doing the boost to damage. Not a normal draw?

I was more thinking of my own Cobra Fang Style where you get advantage on attacks made with light weapons when you draw them as part of the attack.

 

[Charlaquin]

In 4e, melee rogues got +1 to hit with daggers, which was enough on its own to make them a competitive choice next to rapiers and short swords. I think a Fighting Style or Feat that emulated this would work very well in 5e. Make their advantage accuracy instead of damage.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

In 4e, melee rogues got +1 to hit with daggers, which was enough on its own to make them a competitive choice next to rapiers and short swords. I think a Fighting Style or Feat that emulated this would work very well in 5e. Make their advantage accuracy instead of damage.

I’d make it +2, just like Archery.

Archery didn’t need that big a boost, but daggers could use something that hefty.

 

[Coroc]

I have had several thieves use just a dagger and skip the shortsword and even the rapier. Most are halflings for thematic reasons though. They also tend to get a magical dagger that returns when thrown at some point.

I can see something with the small light weapons where you can an extra attack. Instead of the old speed factor penalizing the large weapons, you just reward the small ones. Does the two-weapon fighting already this though?

like your first paragraph, but not the extra attack thing. You can do sneak attack damage with a dagger also, so that combined with two weapon fighting is sufficient.

I rather see something else: Some feat which gives you advantage for attacks with daggers if you are grappled or if you grapple someone e.g.

 

[Quartz]

You can use Sharpshooter with thrown weapons, can't you? So throw those daggers!

 

[jgsugden]

As a DM, I don't let players 'suffer' for making a decision to use a weapon (or other option) that is less efficient, but character appropriate. If a rogue uses a dagger because it fits his character better than a rapier, I'll make sure that the difference between the dagger and rapier (in terms of damage) is closed or overcome.

For example, I might let them find a magic ring that does not require attunement that allows them to roll a d8 for damage with any piercing weapon, or they might find a poisonous sheath that allows them to deal an additional d6 poison whenever they hit on an attack made before the end of their next turn after drawing a dagger from the sheath.