D&D 5E Advice on Creating New Feat: Weapon Specialization

[hawkeyefan]

It's essentially two and a half fighting styles, as written. Or the equivalent of that.

It mimics dual wielding by allowing the bonus action attack, which will have full damage modifiers.

It matches the dueling style, which grants +2 to damage.

It grants half of the archery style, +1 instead of +2 to hit.

So yeah, that's too much, in my opinion.

I would say maybe design it with a choice of some kind in mind. Perhaps it allows some flexibility....like allowing the numerical bonus from your fighting style to be applied toward damage, rather than to hit, or toward AC rather than to damage, and so on. This would keep the numbers largely intact, but would allow a "master" to use them how he saw fit, deciding at the start of his turn. And I would also limit it to the specific weapon type, as well. The involvement of fighting styles would also limit the feat to the truly martial classes, as well.

The option I just described still might be too much, honestly....but I think it's more balanced than the one described in the OP.

 

[brehobit]

This is pretty similar to OP's ideas, but a bit more reasonable in terms of power, and a bit more color than static bonuses.

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You are a true weapon master. You have dedicated yourself and poured your heart and soul into mastering a specific type of weapon. This practice makes creates a consistency novices can only envy. Warriors who see your skill will be able to recognize you as the master you are.

• When you roll a natural "1" on an attack roll with the weapon, treat it as though an 18 were rolled.
• When you roll a "1" on a weapon damage die, treat it as though you rolled the maximum value on that die.
• When you get a critical with the weapon, do an extra d12 damage.
• If the weapon is a melee weapon, once per short rest you may use your reaction to turn a critical hit against you into a normal hit.
• If you have superiority dice, you get one extra die per long rest when using this weapon.
• You have a +2 bonus to intimidate if you use your weapon to threaten the being you are trying to intimidate.

The first one is roughly equivalent to a +1 to attack (more like a +.85)
The second and third one combined is roughly a +1.2 damage bonus, +1.5 for a Champion of level 3 or greater.
The forth and fifth are fairly useful when they are useful, but don't swing things a whole lot.
The 6th is basically color.

The 3rd disproportionately helps Champions. The 5th only helps battle masters. So this works best for fighters, but not by a wide margin. Also it's best for melee types, but not by a wide margin. These are both bits of color--fighters are the best weapon specialists.

 

[Flamestrike]

OK, so I know some of you will see that title and groan "Weapon Specialization, do you really need to go through that again?!" Well, I have always believed Specialization was an excellent way to differentiate a general "Expert Swordsman" (anyone with proficiency in a sword and a decent proficiency bonus, but who is really just as good with any weapon he picks up as he is with a sword) from a true "Blademaster," and I want to have the option for characters of that level of skill in my games with tangible game-mechanical effects, not just in-universe lip service, that mark the Specialist as someone who is truly, empirically better with their chosen weapon than with any other weapon, and better with their chosen weapon than non-Specialists are, but without going overboard and giving them an unfair advantage. So here is my initial draft idea for what I'll be using in my game:

Weapon Specialization
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You are a true weapon master. You have dedicated yourself and poured your heart and soul into mastering a specific type of weapon, making you faster, more accurate, and more deadly with it above all others. Warriors who see your skill will be able to recognize you as the master you are.

Choose one type of weapon, such as Longsword (but not "Sword.") When attacking with weapons of that type you gain the following benefits:

* You gain +1 bonus to hit and +2 bonus to damage with your chosen Specialized weapon.

* When you use the Attack action on your turn using your chosen Specialized weapon, you may use your Bonus Action to make a single extra attack with the same weapon.

You may only take this Feat once, and are never able to have Weapon Specialization with more than one type of weapon. Maintaining this level of skill requires constant dedicated practice with a single type of weapon and precludes equal dedication to multiple weapons.



OK, so here's my reasoning behind the benefits of this Feat: I based the mechanics mostly on fighting with a weapon in each hand and having the Dual Wielder Feat. Using a Bonus Action to make an extra attack with your Specialized weapon seemed reasonable to me since you can already use your Bonus Action to make an extra attack by using a second weapon in your off hand, or a Monk's martial arts, or the Polearm Master Feat. and I figured retaining your Ability Bonus to damage was fine because you are spending a Feat to gain this ability, after all, and the other benefits aren't that powerful or extensive compared to other Feats. I wanted to have a small bonus to hit and damage because, again, this is Weapon Specialization and +1 to hit/+2 to damage is traditional from 1E/2E AD&D. Finally, I didn't include any Class restrictions because I love the 5th Edition ideal that a Wizard with longsword proficiency is genuinely skilled with the weapon and able to hit with it just as well as a Fighter with longsword proficiency (just not as often,) so if you really want to have your High Elven Wizard be a Master of the Longsword, then why the Hell not?

I thought this Feat's package of benefits was a good tradeoff/variation on fighting with a weapon in each hand and the Dual Wield Feat. The only thing I'm iffy about is the bonuses to hit and damage... not the existence of the bonuses to hit and damage (I like that) but the amount. Is it too much? Too little? Should it be +1/+1, or maybe +2/+3?

What are your thoughts? How does this look as a Feat? What should I add, change, or delete? Or does it look good as is? Please, any advice would be most welcome. I thank you all in advance for your input.

I prefer:

+1 to hit and +1d6 to damage. Fighter level 6 prerequisite. Can swap the weapon by taking a month of downtime training in the new weapon (this last bit is vital to allow PCs to notbe locked into one weapon forever).

Changing the damage to a +1d6 instead of a fixed number gives champions a boost (the dice is doubled on a crit, fixed bonuses are not), and has some interplay with GWS as well.

 

[Saeviomagy]

If it's balanced to allow a feat with a character's best weapon, then it's balanced to allow it with all weapons.

In other words the only reason this is 'specialization' is because someone wants the flavour of saying "I only want this one weapon type". In which case, let them say that and don't add mechanics to enforce it.

Once you've done that, this is just another feat that inflates numbers. If there's one thing that's bad for the system's longevity it's more feats that inflate numbers.

 

[Henry]

As written in the first post, that feat is so good, my Wizards would take it!

Bonuses to hit in this system, remember, are rather uncommon things. I don't think any feat has a straight bonus to attack (i migh be forgetting one). Conditional bonuses to damage, yes, but something that gives as mentioned the equivalent of two and a half class features needs to be toned down a bit.