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.

 

[Incenjucar]

Yeah, I know. I don't want to fundamentally change the game or anything. I just want someone to create one adventure that didn't have any combat in it at all, and still managed to be fun. Just one.

For all the talk about the "three pillars" of gameplay, it can sure feel like it's all combat, all the time.

Pretty sure there were occasional non-combat adventures in Dungeon Magazine, they're just not terribly popular and it's hard to make a generic non-combat adventure that is also compelling for the whole party. A DM can do this pretty handily for their table if they're an agile storyteller, but it's so much harder to do that if you don't know who will actually be playing the adventure.

 

[CleverNickName]

Yeah, I know. I don't want to fundamentally change the game or anything. I just want someone to create one adventure that didn't have any combat in it at all, and still managed to be fun. Just one.

For all the talk about the "three pillars" of gameplay, it can sure feel like it's all combat, all the time.

Pretty sure there were occasional non-combat adventures in Dungeon Magazine, they're just not terribly popular and it's hard to make a generic non-combat adventure that is also compelling for the whole party. A DM can do this pretty handily for their table if they're an agile storyteller, but it's so much harder to do that if you don't know who will actually be playing the adventure.

Well, I think I know what I have to do.

I guess it's time for me to put together an ENWorld Writing Contest. Stay tuned for details.

 

[Azzy]

I have to ask: which older editions and what did they have that's lacking now with the fighters you're playing? What got lost?

For me....

BECMI had Weapon Mastery.

2e had all sorts of kits with that gave thematically tied non-weapon proficiencies and out-of-combat abilities. Additionally, both the Complete Fighter's Handbook and Player's Option: Combat & Tactics provided combat maneuvers.

3e/3.5e had Fighter-only feats and many combat maneuvers.

4e had martial exploits.

5e lost quite a bit.

 

[Remathilis]

Yeah, I know. I don't want to fundamentally change the game or anything. I just want someone to create one adventure that didn't have any combat in it at all, and still managed to be fun. Just one.

For all the talk about the "three pillars" of gameplay, it can sure feel like it's all combat, all the time.

I mean, WotC is trying with adventures like Witchlight and Golden Vault. They have a way to go to be successful, but it's not like they ever nailed down combat-intensive design either...

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

Except there's the problem pointed out in post740. It doesn't matter how cool or maybe useful a thing is if it requires the GM to assist you in making it work. With 5e so heavily stacked to ensure that almost anything shy of self destructive flailing no matter how brainless is almost guaranteed to claim victory it's hard to justify providing that too often as a GM. Dead doesn't require any GM assistance. Combat is already so mindless with tactical elements striped back to the point of boredom even without deliberately throwing a fight.

Sure, some DMs have fights that have no terrain or narrative impact, outside of a winner. But the 2024 DMG can be written to give better adventure and encounter design advice that suggests to allow PCs to use their battlefield control abilities.

At least I hope this overhaul provides better advice.

 

[Minigiant]

And that’s a good way to go, but even then there is a huge difference between “instead of an attack” and “in addition to an attack”.

In addition to an attack is very good. Like good enough they’ll want to rework shield master feat if they keep it, because knocking someone down first attack (giving up nothing) and making the others with advantage is very good.

But as the 3.5 Spike Chain user showed, I don't want knock down spamming to be optimal due to a player being able to knock down and deal full damage every turn.

 

[tetrasodium]

Sure, some DMs have fights that have no terrain or narrative impact, outside of a winner. But the 2024 DMG can be written to give better adventure and encounter design advice that suggests to allow PCs to use their battlefield control abilities.

At least I hope this overhaul provides better advice.

No, stop blaming gm's for system failings . 5e is designed to trivialize that by stripping away the subsystems needed for it to matter in the name of streamlining & simplicity.

 

[Lanefan]

This. The context the fighter exists in has changed so much.

Every class has a pretty strong contribution to combat even if they use up all of their limited resources. Off-turn actions are all over the place. Non-warriors keep getting better defenses and HP for some reason. Limitations to spellcasting keep getting removed. "Name Level" is no longer a thing. XP differences are no longer a thing. Percentile magic resistance and like 1/4 monsters having anti-caster psionic abilities are no longer a thing.

So maybe the better answer is to bring some of that back, and provide that context once again where the Fighter can hold its own.

 

[Lanefan]

Yeah, I know. I don't want to fundamentally change the game or anything. I just want someone to create one adventure that didn't have any combat in it at all, and still managed to be fun. Just one.

For all the talk about the "three pillars" of gameplay, it can sure feel like it's all combat, all the time.

Fair point.

Nearest I've come recently was one homebrew adventure where it was mostly exploration other than one pretty much unavoidable combat (if the PCs didn't go to it, sooner or later it would almost certainly come to them), and a couple of other combat encounters that would only happen if the PCs happened to go to the right (i.e. wrong) places before leaving the adventure; which when I ran it they didn't.

 

[Lanefan]

This would depend on phrasing. Currently, pushing is compounded. But if you have something like Lance of Lethargy, you can't reduce an enemies speed more than once. And an enemy whose speed has been reduced by one effect, can't have their speed reduced by a second effect, unless the reduction is larger.

They have actually built the game so that three people attacking with Ray of Frost can't lock an enemy in place. Which is probably good design, but it also limits the ability to do the same with these sort of abilities.

That's kinda poor design, actually.

I say this in part as I've been reading along here waiting for someone to post the idea of a weapon's Mastery ability being to stop the foe from moving at all (i.e. its move speed becomes 0) for a round, and if I didn't see it I was going to post it myself. Yet here you're saying that slowing effects like Lance of Lethargy can't even stack to produce a zero move speed.

And some things simply can't compound. You can't get more prone.

Well, yes you can, if for example each "extra" time you're made prone added another round to how long you have to stay down.

Thus, if you're made prone three times in one round, thats three rounds before you can even think about getting to your feet; three rounds during which the foes can tack on more prone-bestowing abilities that could, in the end, see you spend the rest of your (probably now very short) life lying on the ground.