D&D 5E Clarification of weapon damage/critical weapon damage for 53

[Kevin Blair]

I am looking for a little clarity to settle a weeks long dispute in my group.

1st- Sword of Sharpness states that it adds 1w damage on critical hit. My interpretation of this for a greatsword of sharpness- 2d6 base becomes 6d6 on critical. COrrect?

2nd- Brutal Critical/Savage critical would be same as above weapon listing. Greatsword 2d6 base + brutal critical 1st tier become 6d6 on critical hit?

 

[Yunru]

Here's the two side by side so the subtle differences can be spotted:
Savage Attacks. When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit.
Brutal Critical. Beginning at 9th level, you can roll one additional weapon damage die when determining the extra damage for a critical hit with a melee attack.
This increases to two additional dice at 13th level and three additional dice at 17th level.

With the first you roll one of the dice in 1[W], so 1dX for 1dX, but also for 2dX or even YdX.
With the second you roll an additional 1[W], so 1dX for 1dX, but 2dX for 2dX, and YdX for YdX.

Which does Sword of Sharpness match? (Because the DMG's Sword of Sharpness is nothing like that.)

 

[jaelis]

Which does Sword of Sharpness match? (Because the DMG's Sword of Sharpness is nothing like that.)

Neither, SoS says

When you attack a creature with this weapon and roll a 20 on the attack roll, that target takes an extra 4d6 slashing damage.  

This is separate from and additional to the regular critical hit damage, since it says it is extra.

Regarding Brutal Critical and Savage Attacks, these are useful tweets
http://www.sageadvice.eu/2015/12/28...atsword-do-you-get-to-reroll-only-1d6-or-2d6/
http://www.sageadvice.eu/2016/02/28...tical-differ-between-greataxe-and-greatsword/

For both of these, you would just get +1d6 extra with a greatsword.

 

[pdegan2814]

(Great)Sword Of Sharpness - normal damage: 2d6+STR, crit damage: 4d6+STR from "Greatsword", plus an additional 4d6 from "of Sharpness", as I read it.

Brutal Critical lets you add additional dice on top of the extra dice you're already getting from a crit. But it's a single die(per Brutal Critical tier), no matter how many dice the weapon normally rolls. So Brutal Critical scales better with the Greataxe than the Greatsword.

So, if you're a Level 9 Barbarian and you crit with a Greatsword of Sharpness, it'd be 4d6 for the sword, another 4d6 for the Sharpness trait, plus 1d6 for the Brutal Critical, plus STR mod, plus rage damage if applicable.

 

[Kevin Blair]

The sword of sharpness portion of the question was due to an incorrect version of the Sword of Sharpness due to a google search instead of getting the correct one out of the DMG. Apologies!