D&D General D&D weapons vs reality

[Horwath]

And Staffs and spears are way underpowered vs reality. The reach a spear gives should put all swords at a severe disadvantage. Or give the wielder bonus armor to simulate the advantage of their reach.

problem is that Reach weapons were "simplified" from 3rd Ed. Why? because WotC thinks we are dumb, obviously. Hehe.

When you had 10ft reach and your opponent had only 5ft, you would get AoO before that opponent attacked you. with Combat reflexes feat, you could do it several time per round. It wasn't locked behind a feat by default.
Ofc, if we have that in 5E, then attacking within 5ft with a reach weapon should be at disadvantage by default.

 

[Charlaquin]

That is the 5e "clone" Mike Mearls is developing. Very intentional design, and I know that approach appeals to you whether or not the result does!

Interesting! A 5e clone made by the guy who lead the design on original 5e has a lot of potential, especially considering that D&D Next 5e was my favorite version of the system and every evolution since has been a mixed bag of improvements and… whatever the opposite of improvements is… Seeing a highly intentional take, from the creator of my favorite iteration of the system, sounds pretty appealing. On the other hand, there were some choices in the early playtest material that I was very glad public feedback changed direction on, and I know there are certain design philosophy principles Mearls and I disagree fairly strongly on. For example, I know he hates bonus actions and thinks they’re “hacky,” whereas every alternative I’ve seen him propose looks awful and “kludgy” to me.

I’m certainly curious though. Is there anywhere one can follow the development of this system?

 

[Micah Sweet]

And Staffs and spears are way underpowered vs reality. The reach a spear gives should put all swords at a severe disadvantage. Or give the wielder bonus armor to simulate the advantage of their reach.

Spears (and staffs to a smaller degree) rock in my compilation/homebrew equipment doc for A5e. Lots of cool tricks and respectable numbers.

 

[Micah Sweet]

That is the 5e "clone" Mike Mearls is developing. Very intentional design, and I know that approach appeals to you whether or not the result does!

Nice! Worth a look. Mearls just posted an article on Substack in support of simulation in RPGs, just he's on my happy list at the moment.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Interesting! A 5e clone made by the guy who lead the design on original 5e has a lot of potential, especially considering that D&D Next 5e was my favorite version of the system and every evolution since has been a mixed bag of improvements and… whatever the opposite of improvements is… Seeing a highly intentional take, from the creator of my favorite iteration of the system, sounds pretty appealing. On the other hand, there were some choices in the early playtest material that I was very glad public feedback changed direction on, and I know there are certain design philosophy principles Mearls and I disagree fairly strongly on. For example, I know he hates bonus actions and thinks they’re “hacky,” whereas every alternative I’ve seen him propose looks awful and “kludgy” to me.

I’m certainly curious though. Is there anywhere one can follow the development of this system?

I expect there will be stuff to steal for my voracious houserule doc in any event.

 

[Horwath]

Spears (and staffs to a smaller degree) rock in my compilation/homebrew equipment doc for A5e. Lots of cool tricks and respectable numbers.

having push mastery on all reach weapons and ability to make AoO(by default or by feat) would make lost of way to make them useful. losing 10ft of movement after AoO could mean not being able to get into melee reach. Then next turn you have that problem again.

 

[overgeeked]

It was nice to see someone stand up for the sling. It is absolutely maligned in D&D.

 

[dave2008]

You can sign up for his Patreon and even with the non-paid version (which I have) you get access to his design posts and playtest documents. They are even emailed to you.

Mike Mearls Games

 

[Chaltab]

It was nice to see someone stand up for the sling. It is absolutely maligned in D&D.

Seriously. The Ricochet weapon action in TOTV had me considering making a sling-based fighter but then I realized that 1d4 damage just wasn't worth it.