D&D 5E Great Weapon Master vs. Hex/Hunter's Mark

[ro]

Inspired by the recent Feats threads, I am working on my own list heavily inspired by the others. Two of the feats some consider too strong are Sharpshooter and Great Weapon Master with their -5/+10 features. To replace this feature, I have thought of something like this:

Great Weapon Master
- Increase your Strength score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- You learn the spell Hunter's Mark and can cast it without expending a spell slot. You regain this ability when you finish a short or long rest. If you already know Hunter's Mark, its damage and range are doubled and it no longer requires Concentration.

How do you think this mechanic compares to the stock Great Weapon Master feat, and how would you improve it?

 

[FrogReaver]

Flavor wise I hate it. I'd rather just see a small flat damage boost than what your recommending.

 

[mellored]

I agree with frogreaver.

Just have +1d6 damage to 2-handed weapons.
1d4 for sharp shooter.

 

[Immoralkickass]

No, just.... No.

 

[CapnZapp]

I agree with frogreaver.

Just have +1d6 damage to 2-handed weapons.
1d4 for sharp shooter.

Incidentally, I supplanted my revised GWM feat with an improved Savage Attack feat.

I replaced the -5/+10 mechanism with +1 Strength per forum wisdom (and renamed the feat into "Cleave"), and I replaced the reroll of Savage Attack with an extra roll.

In other words, I have a feat that gives you +2d6 damage (for a Greatsword, +1d12 for a Greataxe), limited to once per round.

As a comparison to mellored's suggestion "have +1d6 damage" above, I mean.

 

[CapnZapp]

PS. To address the thread topic: I came here thinking this would be a thread about which was best, GWM or the "marking" spells. Sorry - I don't have anything directly relevant to the OP's suggestion.

 

[clearstream]

Inspired by the recent Feats threads, I am working on my own list heavily inspired by the others. Two of the feats some consider too strong are Sharpshooter and Great Weapon Master with their -5/+10 features. To replace this feature, I have thought of something like this:

Great Weapon Master
- Increase your Strength score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- You learn the spell Hunter's Mark and can cast it without expending a spell slot. You regain this ability when you finish a short or long rest. If you already know Hunter's Mark, its damage and range are doubled and it no longer requires Concentration.

How do you think this mechanic compares to the stock Great Weapon Master feat, and how would you improve it?

I've really looked hard at feats and in my opinion nerfing Great Weapon Master isn't required. In fact, I'd call doing so punitive on melee (vs ranged and casting).

If you work through it, GWM is giving up a shield (+2 AC) and usually Defense style (+1 AC) to do high (but not the absolute most) damage in melee. This is for a fighter wielding the largest melee weapon in two-hands, toe-to-toe, full exposed to foe's attacks back. And they've invested a feat into it. It should be about the most damage you can do in melee!

If you take GWM power-attacks away, why not nerf Fly? Fireball? Lightning Bolt? Give martials a break, let them keep GWM.

 

[CapnZapp]

Give martials a break, let them keep GWM.

You're forgetting one thing - how it invalidates OTHER melee weapons than Greatweapons.

(Aside from the actual DPR discussions, I mean, which we certainly don't need to bring up again.)



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[Sadras]

You're forgetting one thing - how it invalidates OTHER melee weapons than Greatweapons.

Pretty much this!

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Inspired by the recent Feats threads, I am working on my own list heavily inspired by the others. Two of the feats some consider too strong are Sharpshooter and Great Weapon Master with their -5/+10 features. To replace this feature, I have thought of something like this:

This is not an uncommon opinion and intention.

Great Weapon Master
- Increase your Strength score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- You learn the spell Hunter's Mark and can cast it without expending a spell slot. You regain this ability when you finish a short or long rest. If you already know Hunter's Mark, its damage and range are doubled and it no longer requires Concentration.

How do you think this mechanic compares to the stock Great Weapon Master feat, and how would you improve it?[/QUOTE] I think that thematically it really doesn't fit: You're a martial expert training with a weapon. Why would you suddenly start casting spells?

Mechanically I think it is ugly. Simply adding a flat damage increase would be more elegant than starting to throw spell mechanics into the mix.
Removing the bonus action attack on a crit or kill is unnecessary I believe: that ability was not excessively powerful and it was interesting to use.

Lastly, nothing in your new Great Weapon Master feat is actually based around using Great Weapons.

I've really looked hard at feats and in my opinion nerfing Great Weapon Master isn't required. In fact, I'd call doing so punitive on melee (vs ranged and casting).

If you work through it, GWM is giving up a shield (+2 AC) and usually Defense style (+1 AC) to do high (but not the absolute most) damage in melee. This is for a fighter wielding the largest melee weapon in two-hands, toe-to-toe, full exposed to foe's attacks back. And they've invested a feat into it. It should be about the most damage you can do in melee!

If you take GWM power-attacks away, why not nerf Fly? Fireball? Lightning Bolt? Give martials a break, let them keep GWM.

Its probably worth pointing out that often, the Defense style is the one actually taken by GWF-users. It generally offers more for that sort of character than the minimal damage increase of the two-handed style.

Regarding your actual question, martial/spellcaster balance is an issue, but so is TWF/SnB/THF balance.