D&D (2024) 3 Months in - Weapon Mastery

[abirdcall]

Why would a divinitation wizard get a weapon mastery. But I bet each class will get a "martial subclass" at one point with weapon mastery incl. . Although it will make your game even slower, your problems with the feat are kinda pulling in different directions.

I don't think they will. Valor Bard and War Cleric didn't get it which I take as a firm design decision to keep it away from full casters. I could see a weapon focused Monk subclass getting it but only because they aren't full casters.

I also don't think they will be starved enough for ideas that they give up and start adding it onto the new subclasses because they haven't come up with anything else.

 

[Retros_x]

I don't think they will. Valor Bard and War Cleric didn't get it which I take as a firm design decision to keep it away from full casters. I could see a weapon focused Monk subclass getting it but only because they aren't full casters.

Fair point. I don't mind anyway, sounds fine to me to not give it to full casters. They have cantrips as source for light effects with low resource cost.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

agree 100%

but any class/sub-class feature that gives martial weapons or extra attack should give one weapon mastery slot.

I'd disagree. Weapon-using subclasses of full casters generally already get a superior Extra Attack than what the martials tend to get: - They can incorporate a cantrip (which scales with level, unlike a normal attack) into their attack routine.

If they want to do something special in combat, they can use one of the many cantrips with a rider effect, or just cast an actual spell.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I have a question for anyone who has been playing for a while.

I have not used 5e24 yet, but I am about to start a PbP game (well, continue, changing the character over from the old rules) and my character has weapon mastery in vex. Which provides advantage on subsequent attacks.

Has anyone seen how this plays out in practice? Specifically, the character has 2 attacks a round with the vex weapon, and almost always goes first with advantage (three levels in assassin, high dex, etc.) and is pretty good at dealing damage. In the prior version, he sometimes had advantage, but it seems like this weapon mastery would almost always result in advantage, every single attack, allowing other features (more damage from sneak, etc.) to come into play.

I know that 5e24 "upped" a lot of the power level, and I am happy that they are providing martials with some cool stuff, but it feels ... like a lot. Would like to know how vex works in practice.

I know that advantage is often overrated, but I am so used to the old 5e I am having trouble understanding how this will play out.

 

[Sulicius]

I have a question for anyone who has been playing for a while.

I have not used 5e24 yet, but I am about to start a PbP game (well, continue, changing the character over from the old rules) and my character has weapon mastery in vex. Which provides advantage on subsequent attacks.

Has anyone seen how this plays out in practice? Specifically, the character has 2 attacks a round with the vex weapon, and almost always goes first with advantage (three levels in assassin, high dex, etc.) and is pretty good at dealing damage. In the prior version, he sometimes had advantage, but it seems like this weapon mastery would almost always result in advantage, every single attack, allowing other features (more damage from sneak, etc.) to come into play.

I know that 5e24 "upped" a lot of the power level, and I am happy that they are providing martials with some cool stuff, but it feels ... like a lot. Would like to know how vex works in practice.

I know that advantage is often overrated, but I am so used to the old 5e I am having trouble understanding how this will play out.

Yeah, it’s strong, but…

You have to hit first, and then attack the same target to get the benefit. That reins in the power.

 

[Cadence]

The players that resolved combat quickly are still doing so, the ones that were slow before (on a side note, I'm really beginning to hate when people use the digital dice on DDB) are still slow. It adds a bit of flavor, so far it's been fine.

For whatever reasons, with one of my players there's at least a half a minute of hemming and hawing before that happens. Every. Single. Time.

For other players, if you have sneak attack damage or similar (flame tongue weapon for example), you have to roll that separately.

Are these the same players that were really slow with the character sheets and real dice too?

My only gripes are that there's not a toggle (that I've found) to put in that you're raging (for that extra damage) or for it being a second attack (for that lack of damage bonus).

I've found its really helped for when I need to click on something to be reminded of a rule instead of flipping around. The current online game is kind of making me wish all of my son's friends had tablets to run it through instead of character sheets and rule books.

To answer the actual OP.

Players are really liking it so far. The barbarian player REALLY likes the addition.

I have a question for anyone who has been playing for a while.

I have not used 5e24 yet, but I am about to start a PbP game (well, continue, changing the character over from the old rules) and my character has weapon mastery in vex. Which provides advantage on subsequent attacks.

Has anyone seen how this plays out in practice? Specifically, the character has 2 attacks a round with the vex weapon, and almost always goes first with advantage (three levels in assassin, high dex, etc.) and is pretty good at dealing damage. In the prior version, he sometimes had advantage, but it seems like this weapon mastery would almost always result in advantage, every single attack, allowing other features (more damage from sneak, etc.) to come into play.

I know that 5e24 "upped" a lot of the power level, and I am happy that they are providing martials with some cool stuff, but it feels ... like a lot. Would like to know how vex works in practice.

I know that advantage is often overrated, but I am so used to the old 5e I am having trouble understanding how this will play out.

Only a few sessions in, but my barbarian with two hand axes is really liking the Vex. So far it's been a lot of undead, so no really high AC's, so it is easy to get the advantage train rolling. Also have luck from my background and players who are good at trying to flank to help out too. Getting to add the damage from raging to two attacks in a round has felt nice.

It does feel like a lot -- but not nearly as much as getting essentially all the damage against me so far cut in half because of rage. (This might be the first barbarian I've ever played).

My only issue is that it is getting repetitive to pretty much always just do the same thing all the time. Looking forward to picking up another mastery in a level (with the feat) to get Cleave so that I'll want to use the great axe if there is a crowd of opponents.

I'm surprised I haven't seen more about damage on a miss being snuck in with Graze.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Yeah, it’s strong, but…

You have to hit first, and then attack the same target to get the benefit. That reins in the power.

Huh. You know, I wasn't thinking about the fact that you had to go after the same target. That is somewhat limiting, which is good for balance.

But given the bag o' hit points nature of D&D, it seems pretty pretty pretty good against a lot of the big fellas.

 

[Oofta]

Are these the same players that were really slow with the character sheets and real dice too?

They were slow with dice as well, now they're even slower.

My only gripes are that there's not a toggle (that I've found) to put in that you're raging (for that extra damage) or for it being a second attack (for that lack of damage bonus).

I just added a second weapon of the same type then customized it to rename and add the extra damage.

But having it (and a few other things) automated would be nice. Like a "reckless" toggle so I wouldn't have to do the right-click-check-advantage every single roll.

I've found its really helped for when I need to click on something to be reminded of a rule instead of flipping around. The current online game is kind of making me wish all of my son's friends had tablets to run it through instead of character sheets and rule books.

...

Overall I really like DDB. I like rolling physical dice myself

 

[Mort]

I'm surprised I haven't seen more about damage on a miss being snuck in with Graze.

Yeah, it's been quiet. And this is the EXACT same ability that, in 4e (renamed, but still), caused a huge amount of upheaval and promises of rage quitting.

 

[Mort]

They were slow with dice as well, now they're even slower.



I just added a second weapon of the same type then customized it to rename and add the extra damage.

View attachment 388836

But having it (and a few other things) automated would be nice. Like a "reckless" toggle so I wouldn't have to do the right-click-check-advantage every single roll.



Overall I really like DDB. I like rolling physical dice myself

DDB has been great for my online group - everyone's taken to it.

Of the 6 players 4 like to roll on DDB and 2 insist on physical dice, which I don't mind (Though, for one of the players I jokingly tease him he may want to switch to digital dice, his physical dice roll, statistically significantly, terribly!)