D&D 5E Dhampir Barbarian

Paul Farquhar · Feb 7, 2021

Hawk Diesel said:
Are you guys reading the full ability for the Dhampir's bite? They can only empower themselves like that a number of times per day equal to their proficiency bonus. So at most, 2-6 times per day (depending on level) they get to add that to an attack or ability roll.

Something is still broken, no matter how many times you break it.

But the always on advantage is worse. "Hey, Joe, hit me with your sword a few times will you?"

Paul Farquhar · Feb 7, 2021

NotAYakk said:
I suspect Dhampir might be reworded to "constitution instead", which makes this far less strong.

The easiest fix for the dhampir bite would be to flag it as a melee spell attack.

Leatherhead · Feb 7, 2021

Paul Farquhar said:
Something is still broken, no matter how many times you break it.

But the always on advantage is worse. "Hey, Joe, hit me with your sword a few times will you?"

Barbarians already have permanent advantage.

humble minion · Feb 7, 2021

The dhampir's bite is explicitly listed as a simple melee weapon. Doesn't that mean monks can use to perform martial arts attacks, and won't its damage increase with monk level?

The whole rule does seem a bit wonky and open to exploitation, especially empowering yourself on skills checks when you've got a bit of time and space to prepare, and are willing to go beat up some random farm animal or summoned creature to get yourself warmed up. Even if you're only doing 1d4 base with the bite, add a combat superiority dice from Commander's Strike and an inspiration dice from a Valor bard's combat inspiration, and THEN roll your ability check to pick the lock or persuade the prisoner into talking or whatever. Absolutely blows the roof off the bounded accuracy curve.

Paul Farquhar · Feb 7, 2021

Leatherhead said:
Barbarians already have permanent advantage.

I'm not thinking about barbarians in particular.

NotAYakk · Feb 7, 2021

humble minion said:
The dhampir's bite is explicitly listed as a simple melee weapon. Doesn't that mean monks can use to perform martial arts attacks, and won't its damage increase with monk level?

"I know teeth-fu"

Paul Farquhar · Feb 7, 2021

humble minion said:
The dhampir's bite is explicitly listed as a simple melee weapon. Doesn't that mean monks can use to perform martial arts attacks, and won't its damage increase with monk level?

Yes, although you can get around this with Dedicated Weapon.

humble minion said:
The whole rule does seem a bit wonky and open to exploitation,

It's open to exploitation either way around. Flagging it as a melee spell attack would have the fewest possible exploits.

Hawk Diesel · Feb 7, 2021

Paul Farquhar said:
Something is still broken, no matter how many times you break it.

But the always on advantage is worse. "Hey, Joe, hit me with your sword a few times will you?"

Huge disagree here. The number of times something can be performed absolutely matters when considering whether something is balanced. Unlimited fireball at 5th level is broken, but limiting to 2/day keeps it in line with other classes.

This empowerment is similar to bless, bardic inspiration, and numerous others ways to get bonuses to attack or ability checks. It's a bit higher than some of those other options, but it's also the only one that can't be granted to someone else. That plus given the few uses per day and it seems anything but broken.

As with the bit about advantage, that's not broken either. Any character build that would benefit would need to be one that is comfortable being on the front line and preferring Con to Str, or at least those scores being relatively equal. That means they are giving up a d8, d10, or d12 type weapon to gain situational advantage while vulnerable due to lower health. And the bite doesn't qualify for sneak attack, so it wouldn't even benefit the one class that might be most likely to try and take advantage of it.

The advantage granted by the Dhampir's bite is not broken. It's situational and a gimmick at best.

NotAYakk · Feb 7, 2021

No, I think

gain a bonus to the next ability check or attack roll you make; the bonus equals the damage dealt by the bite.

is broken 1/week. A +50 bonus to an ability check shouldn't happen in 5e period. Such a bonus exisiting fundsmentally devalues what an ability check can be permitted to do.

Getting +big takes work, but even +medium is broken.

Hawk Diesel · Feb 7, 2021

NotAYakk said:
No, I think

is broken 1/week. A +50 bonus to an ability check shouldn't happen in 5e period. Such a bonus exisiting fundsmentally devalues what an ability check can be permitted to do.

Getting +big takes work, but even +medium is broken.

First of all, how would one get a +50 bonus from 1d4 or 1d8 plus damage mod? If that is really a concern, then it's simple to reword the enhancement bonus to the base damage dealt. That means sneak attack, smite damage, ect wouldn't apply. I think this is probably the design intent anyways.

Also, the fact the the enhancement says it applies to the "next" ability check or attack roll is significant. It means that this bonus can't be banked until convenient.

Finally, I have a hard time understanding why a +50 bonus is that terrible. 5e has done away with those tables where a DC 50 jump check means you could jump to a new plane, or a DC 50 persuasion check would convince a god to give you their power. Ability checks are less defined and more in the preview of the DM. A DM can easily say that regardless of bonus, some things are just impossible. In such a circumstance there's no reason to even roll the check.

Are +50 bonuses problematic for 5e? Absolutely. But unlike 3e where it caused a lot of problems, I think 5e is better equipped to manage the occasional ridiculous bonus because of aspects such as natural language, more ambiguity regarding things like ability check DCs, and greater adjudication by the DM.