D&D 5E Is Tasha's Broken?

[DND_Reborn]

It's like how wolves and dogs only have a bite attack. Yet I've had the sh-- scratched out of me by a dog, who supposedly lacks a claw attack.

All this shows is that the game designers are like "dogs tend to bite as their primary weapon" so didn't feel the need to stat up every possible way they could attack. A human can certainly bite someone, but we're not built to be as good at that sort of thing as a cat.

Apparently we're terrible at punching and kicking too, since we lack slam attacks...

Interesting point (and very true!).

I've been clawed by my dog as well (both of them, but one in particular the little scrapper). I think it is mostly about attack/weapon effectiveness. Although I believe for most dogs biting is a better weapon, it also puts the dog at more risk as they have to be extremely close to bite compared to scratching.

I can understand why the designers didn't want to list every attack possible for every creature, mostly because the system doesn't support the need to use any attack other than the most effective typically.

Unfortunately, the same is true for weapons in the PHB, most characters will use the most effective weapon they can afford or find, which leaves about 70% of weapons unused IME anyway.

And in truth, most people are terrible at punching and kicking, which is why we moved Unarmed Strike back to being a Simple Weapon. IMNSHO, sorcerers and wizards should not know (by default) how to use unarmed strikes.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

And in truth, most people are terrible at punching and kicking, which is why we moved Unarmed Strike back to being a Simple Weapon. IMNSHO, sorcerers and wizards should not know (by default) how to use unarmed strikes.

I implemented a house rule early in 5e (maybe game 1) that everyone is prof with a finesse weapon called 'unarmed' that can be slap, punch, kick, headbutt... but it did no dice of damage, just stat mod. To this day in my Curse of Strahd game I have added to every commoner a 'slap +2 to hit 1 bludgeoning damage' or 2+higher of dex/str mod for dex/str mod damage

 

[Horwath]

Biological fact: people are so varied that any 'average' is useless for measuring individuals.

"Men have more upper body strength" okay, but in how large of a sample size do we need before that evens out to that fact?

less than 10.

Edit: now saw that this was posted after "red" texts, so I will keep out of further discussion on this sub-topic in this thread.

 

[DND_Reborn]

I implemented a house rule early in 5e (maybe game 1) that everyone is prof with a finesse weapon called 'unarmed' that can be slap, punch, kick, headbutt... but it did no dice of damage, just stat mod. To this day in my Curse of Strahd game I have added to every commoner a 'slap +2 to hit 1 bludgeoning damage' or 2+higher of dex/str mod for dex/str mod damage

Interesting. We made Unarmed Strikes a light weapon, so you can use a light weapon and still do an unarmed strike when TWF.

Since yours is a finesse weapon, I assume you did that so it would key off from STR or DEX (as you wrote)?

I find that interesting. Other than finesse, how does this really differ from RAW? The current rule is everyone is proficient in unarmed strikes, so ever commoner is already +2 attack for 1 bludgeoning damage. If you had a commoner with a higher STR, you would just add the STR mod anyway.

Am I missing something?

 

[DND_Reborn]

less than 10

FYI, in case you missed the mod note, this line of discussion (STR/sex) has been closed.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Interesting. We made Unarmed Strikes a light weapon, so you can use a light weapon and still do an unarmed strike when TWF.

Since yours is a finesse weapon, I assume you did that so it would key off from STR or DEX (as you wrote)?

I find that interesting. Other than finesse, how does this really differ from RAW? The current rule is everyone is proficient in unarmed strikes, so ever commoner is already +2 attack for 1 bludgeoning damage. If you had a commoner with a higher STR, you would just add the STR mod anyway.

Am I missing something?

it was making it finesse... I am a big proponent that all attacks benefit more from speed and agility then muscle mass.

 

[Horwath]

FYI, in case you missed the mod note, this line of discussion (STR/sex) has been closed.

missed, it.

I had 2 more pages to read from that reply.

 

[DND_Reborn]

it was making it finesse... I am a big proponent that all attacks benefit more from speed and agility then muscle mass.

In some ways I agree. If DEX wasn't already too good, I would use DEX for attack rolls and STR for damage for pretty much everything.

It is an unfortunate bug of the ability system, since force = mass x acceleration, because developing muscular speed goes hand-in-hand with developing strength due to how fast-twitch muscle fibers work.

 

[DND_Reborn]

missed, it.

I had 2 more pages to read from that reply.

I figured that was the case and wanted to give you a head's up.

 

[Horwath]

it was making it finesse... I am a big proponent that all attacks benefit more from speed and agility then muscle mass.

that is kind of true.

but speed does come out of muscle mass.

But, many of use(me included) like the "dex" archetype, so game has the "finesse" part in it.

so in general dex weapons (should) deal less damage than STR ones. Or longsword/battle axe/warhammer should deal d10 damage.