D&D (2024) New One D&D Weapons Table Shows 'Mastery' Traits

The weapons table from the upcoming Unearthed Arcana playtest for One D&D has made its way onto the internet via Indestructoboy on Twitter, and reveals some new mechanics. The mastery traits include Nick, Slow, Puncture, Flex, Cleave, Topple, Graze, and Push. These traits are accessible by the warrior classes.

 

[Vaalingrade]

This is going nowhere. Let's just agree to seethe quietly about each other off thread.

 

[darjr]

This is going nowhere. Let's just agree to seethe quietly about each other off thread.

Actually I think it’s been very informative.

I do appreciate you engaging this far. I’ll leave it.

 

[Vaalingrade]

So anyway, there have to be better names than Nick, Flex and Topple. I initially thought they were short for the purposes of easily reading the table, but then Puncture were declared.

Push is the pushing Mastery, so why isn't Topple Trip? And wasn't Flex Flexible in previous versions?

 

[Minigiant]

This comes off as extremely elitist.

It's not elitist.

Games come with difficulty setting for a reason.

If you don't design a game for beginner, moderately experienced, very experienced, and hardcore players, it won't have the elements those types of players desire.

At some point, we as a community have to come to grips with the fact that D&D is Fifty years old and now has a diverse fan base.

 

[darjr]

It's not elitist.

Games come with difficulty setting for a reason.

If you don't design a game for beginner, moderately experienced, very experienced, and hardcore players, it won't have the elements those types of players desire.

At some point, we as a community have to come to grips with the fact that D&D is Fifty years old and now has a diverse fan base.

I agree with your last bit. Things for a diverse fan base, I think, can look like a “beer and pretzels game” but I think it’s nature allowed it to be different things for more people.

A complaint I often hear when asking DMs to run tier 4 slots is the complexity over whelms them and if the rest of the game was more complex that issue would be worse and start at lower levels. I’m guessing that it’s not the kind of complexity your looking for though.

Dealing or running tier 4 takes an experienced DM and I think experience in more than just 5e helps a ton.

Dealing with the moment to moment play where PCs can bend reality or go toe to toe in a hostile debate about undead with Szas Tam.

AND then there comes the fighting.

 

[Remathilis]

The question is what 5e is good design for.

IMHO, 5e is great design for beginners, children and beer and pretzels players. But it is too light or loose in some places and hard coded in others for experienced, narrative, or simulationist players.

Then find something better. There are plenty of crunchier systems from the lightly toasted Level Up to the deep-fried Pathfinder. The only issue that ever comes up is that the latter don't have brand recognition, which is only useful if your recruiting new players anyway.

 

[Incenjucar]

"Go play something else" is not terribly productive when the preference can 100% be achieved with the game if designers allowed it.

 

[Minigiant]

Then find something better. There are plenty of crunchier systems from the lightly toasted Level Up to the deep-fried Pathfinder. The only issue that ever comes up is that the latter don't have brand recognition, which is only useful if your recruiting new players anyway.

Designing a game only for beginners and casuals feels like bad business that relies on being a fad or viral.

 

[tetrasodium]

I agree with your last bit. Things for a diverse fan base, I think, can look like a “beer and pretzels game” but I think it’s nature allowed it to be different things for more people.

A complaint I often hear when asking DMs to run tier 4 slots is the complexity over whelms them and if the rest of the game was more complex that issue would be worse and start at lower levels. I’m guessing that it’s not the kind of complexity your looking for though.

Dealing or running tier 4 takes an experienced DM and I think experience in more than just 5e helps a ton.

Dealing with the moment to moment play where PCs can bend reality or go toe to toe in a hostile debate about undead with Szas Tam.

AND then there comes the fighting.

The critical part of that bolded but is that 5e went too far with dialing back risk while chasing after simplicity at all costs. It's easy to simplify a crunchier game for a newbie, you give them a simple pregen & help them grow with new abilities & such over the campaign instead of rewriting the entire system to cater to a state they were in for a session or two. The two together result in little room for any of those "different things" because it's a much higher bar to go the other way with homebrew & magic items even before considering that the system doesn't provide room for those additions.

 

[darjr]

The critical part of that bolded but is that 5e went too far with dialing back risk while chasing after simplicity at all costs. It's easy to simplify a crunchier game for a newbie, you give them a simple pregen & help them grow with new abilities & such over the campaign instead of rewriting the entire system to cater to a state they were in for a session or two. The two together result in little room for any of those "different things" because it's a much higher bar to go the other way with homebrew & magic items even before considering that the system doesn't provide room for those additions.

I dint think so. Or don’t agree. The number one issue for any RPG is getting DMs, then getting players.

OSR games are flush with DMs, I believe because most of them are on the simpler end of the scale, both in rules and content.

5e doesn’t have enough DMs as it is.