D&D 5E 5e Masterwork Weapons

[Guyanthalas]

TL;DR: Damage rolls of 1 become a 2.


I've added an NPC to one of my games that is basically the Ollivander of weapons. For a fee he spars with the PC and then can craft a weapon that "perfectly matches their fighting style". Making a different class of weapon was needed.


Magic item was right out for me, at least in the traditional +1 sense. That adjusts the power curve too much, and I'd like this to be a mid grade item that the players could buy for a decent price. I liked the idea of changing the minimum number because that increases the distribution without adjusting the high end. "To Hit" number didn't make sense because a 1 should still be a miss, and adjusting it would be practically meaningless. (You miss, but not as badly...?)


Brutal was a possibility, but class features have something like this and I didn't want to step on those toes. It also has a weird way with playing with low side dice that I don't care for (I was not a fan of it in 4e). The idea of not getting a 1 was appealing though, so I thought "what if 1's became 2's?". This way your minimum goes up, but its not so drastic as an entire +1 shift. While not having that big on an impact on damage, it does help some. It also has a nice mental effect of "at least its not a 1!", which is a bonus.


We aren't that far yet, so I don't have any field results to post. My plan is to also use these as a start if the players want to create their own magic items (it sort of accounts for the +1 that they get). As per usual I'm open to any suggestions or pitfalls I may have forgot about. Thanks for reading!


www.anydice.com Stats
Standard
+1 Weapon
Brutal 1 Weapon
New "Masterwork" Weapon

output 1d4
output 1d4+1
output d{2,3,4}
output d{2,2,3,4}


output 1d12
output 1d12+1
output d{2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12}
output d{2,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12}

 

[Blackwarder]

Good idea! I'll defiantly steal this for my games.

Warder

 

[epithet]

I use two main types of masterwork weapons. The first is, as you suggest, a "reroll 1" property. The second type expands the critical range by one, so a typical character would crit on a 19 or 20.

For masterwork armor, the options I use are removal of the stealth disadvantage for heavy or medium armor, rarely an expansion of the possible dex bonus by 1 for heavy or medium armor, or very rarely a straightforward +1 for light armor. I've also considered "insulated" metal armor that simply would not grant advantage to lightning damage attacks like shocking grasp.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I created items from a far off civilation in my games that are 'exotic' non magic. There is a short sword (for prop usage) that is meant to cleave that has a long handle and is 1d6 (as normal) but is Versitile (1d8) and when you roll a 1 on damage counts as max+1...

so this no magic sword in our bard/assassin hands does 1d6+4(dex) and if he rolls a 1 it isn't a 1, but a 7...(11 damage total) or if he two hands it her rolls 1d8+4 and if he rolls a 1 it is a 9 instead so 13 total...

we also have a sai that is a dagger that adds +1 to AC if you are prof in shields

 

[Quartz]

You could co-opt the Advantage mechanism by having the player roll two dice and take the better.