D&D 5E Homebrewed Weapon help

[Chaosmancer]

So, I gave my Barbarian player a magic axe, and due to a variety of circumstances it has been decided that this axe is more magical than he figured out the first time.

The Axe is made of a multitude of interlocking pieces, and I figured it was created by some being that loved precision, beauty in patterns, and having what you need when you need it.

The original abilities were as follows:

You cannot roll a 1 on the damage die with this weapon, if you roll a 1, reroll.
This weapon crits on a 19-20

In the hands of a barbarian fond of his reckless attacking this has proved quite powerful and will probably remain the weapon's main form. However, he is about to discover that this is a modular weapon that can change into different magical weapon forms.

Every form will keep the reroll 1's on damage ability. This is what I have for the rest.


Sword 1d8 damage die (not versatile)
You can make 1 additional attack with this weapon when you make the attack action (For the barbarian this means that he'd get 3 attacks, in the hands of a level 20 fighter it would be 5 attacks a turn)

Glaive 1d10
This weapon is snake-like and has a 20 ft reach

Morningstar 1d8
Once per turn when you hit with this weapon, you can make an opposed strength roll against the target. If you succeed, push the target 10 ft away from you



Do these seem relatively balanced, as in each form being just about as powerful as the others? My instinct is that axe is going to be the players go to choice, the sword is white room the most powerful option, and the Glaive is on the weak side, but I'm not certain.

 

[Dualazi]

Depends, in a lot of cases. The morningstar form is actually the weakest by far in my opinion, since pushing enemies isn't always helpful, especially if you manage to push them into a more defensible position or let them move away without provoking OAs. It also is the only one that enemies can save against. Glaive form could get really hairy if the PC gets something that increases OA range, as he will control a gigantic amount of space. I'd definitely agree that sword is best though, if I were the PC even the improved crit wouldn't keep me from using sword non-stop, since the extra attack can also crit so it's still a higher than average crit weapon.

I would tone down sword. If the player is happy with using the axe as the go-to DPR option then the others should logically be more utility. Maybe the sword form could be defensive, and let you take the dodge action at the cost of one of your attacks. Attractive because you could still do a small amount of damage, and offers synergy with reckless attack for low-damage high-reliability options.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I thought about doing something like that with the sword, but he was asking to re-enchant the weapon (I've got a super high magic society going on) to give it Haste (on top of a few other things because restraint is a hard word for him) and this is my compromise with that, because I finally let him now out of game he hadn't fully explored his weapons' properties and that I could switch one ability out for something like haste. So the more defensive sword became a multi-attack weapon

I figure the switch from 1d12 to 1d8 is going to deter him (he loves his big damage dice) but I also like having two different attack modes that are comparable. While the other two have more utility.

Do you think switching the push to an automatic effect without a save would make the morningstar better or too powerful?

 

[Ancalagon]

Interesting.

To tone the sword down: The extra attack is a bonus action

To tone the morning star up: Make is a shove action - there can be a push back, or a push *down* ie you can knock down people.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Interesting.

To tone the sword down: The extra attack is a bonus action

To tone the morning star up: Make is a shove action - there can be a push back, or a push *down* ie you can knock down people.

I hadn't thought about making it a shove, I've been letting him play with the Fell Handed feat, so he's always knocking things prone anyways (usually uselessly with no effect, like when he used Reckless Attack to prone an enemy in a 1v1 fight... and the enemy just stood up from prone because it didn't matter.)

But I like the change

 

[Lanliss]

I hadn't thought about making it a shove, I've been letting him play with the Fell Handed feat, so he's always knocking things prone anyways (usually uselessly with no effect, like when he used Reckless Attack to prone an enemy in a 1v1 fight... and the enemy just stood up from prone because it didn't matter.)

But I like the change

I would make it both. You throw an enemy 15 feet, and they land prone. This would allow the Barb to knock an enemy out of movement range, and pull back just a tiny bit, forcing the enemy to waste a turn or dash. Think Sauron from the battle scene in Lord of the Rings if you have seen it, throwing hordes of men left and right with massive swings of his mace.

Glaive seems nice, and you might not ever see him lose Rage in a battle, since he can reach so far.

Sword, to me, has always meant versatility, so I would probably do something more in that direction. Maybe something like giving him 1d8 superiority die and a single maneuver of his choice, which he can only use in the Sword form. That said, yours seems balanced enough.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I forgot to ask, switching the weapon between forms.

My first thought is to make switching between forms a bonus action, that way he could potentially adapt to the battle, does that sound about right to people?

 

[Lanliss]

I forgot to ask, switching the weapon between forms.

My first thought is to make switching between forms a bonus action, that way he could potentially adapt to the battle, does that sound about right to people?

Sounds good to me. If it seems a bit broken that way, make it a full action, that way he can still adapt to the battle, but has to make more of a decision on if he should switch to a better weapon, or remain as he is to avoid losing out a round of damage.

 

[Lancelot]

Assuming the axe does a base 1d8 damage, the changes above seem to indicate that it does +0.5 damage (from the "cannot roll a 1" ability, which pushes average damage up from 4.5 to 5) and doubles the crit range. If you hit on a natural 11 or better, it is adding a +10% chance of an additional 5 average damage (total +0.5 damage). So, to summarize, it's a magic axe that does approximately +1 damage per hit.

By contrast, the sword is allowing you an extra attack. If you have an 18 Strength and the Dueling fighting style, that's 1d8+6 damage on a hit (average 10.5 damage). If you hit on a natural 11 or better, that's a magic sword that does approximately +5.25 damage (not counting crits) per round. So, the sword is vastly better than the axe, at any level. Whereas I'd probably take a regular +1 battleaxe over your "special" axe (for the attack bonus), I'd definitely take your "sword of haste" over nearly any other magical blade. Hell, I'd consider taking this sword over anything short of a vorpal blade. A built-in extra attack is nuts.

The glaive is meh. I'd take it if I had the Polearm Master feat, but that seems to be just begging for a cheese combo. Without polearm master, it's kind of naff. With Polearm Master, it's semi-broken... but why create a weapon that virtually demands the PC take a feat to get best advantage?

I actually like the morningstar the most, because it's a cool effect. It's more evocative than the axe (which, as noted above, is basically just a +1 damage weapon), it's far better balanced than the sword (which is insanely OP compared to the others), and it doesn't have a broken synergy with a single feat.

...

...and I've just noticed that you were planning on giving all of these weapon forms the same "re-roll 1's" ability. That makes the sword form even better. Basically, the axe is boring... the morning star is cool... the glaive is junk unless you have Polearm Master (especially given you can use shields with the other forms)... and the sword is broken. I'd never switch it out of sword form, given the choice.

 

[Dualazi]

Lancelot beat me to the punch, but the point to reiterate is that even if the extra attack costs a bonus action, it'll still be head and shoulders above the other options. 5e really likes martial characters to scale by number of attacks more than anything, and predictably anything that exacerbates that further is going to be dis-proportionally desirable. If the PC is dead set on haste and you're okay with that, then I would make that the default item-wide enchantment and let the axe keep the re-rolls and crit potential. Otherwise it's exactly as Lancelot says, anyone with trivial system knowledge will use sword exclusively.