D&D 5E (House Rules) All weapons do the same damage... Who has made this work?

[ezo]

but I've started to understand the appeal of d6-only or other variations over the past few years.

I've always liked the idea of d6 weapon damage, for 5E using the idea:

light weapon: d6-1 or d6 with disadvantage
normal weapons: d6
heavy weapon: d6+1 or d6 with advantage

The +/- 1 or adv/dis just depends on which is preferred, either would be fine I think.

 

[Mannahnin]

I've always liked the idea of d6 weapon damage, for 5E using the idea:

light weapon: d6-1 or d6 with disadvantage
normal weapons: d6
heavy weapon: d6+1 or d6 with advantage

The +/- 1 or adv/dis just depends on which is preferred, either would be fine I think.

I feel like d6 for all weapons is out of place in 5E because 5E has variable HD and spell damage dice.

If you were going that for weapons, I presume you'd scale down HD and spells as well? And maybe reduce Con bonuses to HP or remove them entirely, at least for monsters?

 

[ezo]

I feel like d6 for all weapons is out of place in 5E because 5E has variable HD and spell damage dice.

If you were going that for weapons, I presume you'd scale down HD and spells as well? And maybe reduce Con bonuses to HP or remove them entirely, at least for monsters?

Most definitely!

Both groups I play in are not fans of the HP bloat of 5E. We got rid of CON bonuses for each HD (instead you get them only once) for both PCs and creatures. This makes spells more powerful, but we've handled that in other ways than damage.

 

[ECMO3]

Also what happens if the DM just kills your mount? You're pretty screwed then, that 1d12 with reach is pretty bad when you get disadvantage on enemies that move within 5 feet and you can't use GWM or PAM feats.

If the DM kills your mount than that is an attack (or more) he wasted on killing your mount. Also because a Lance is not heavy this works with small PCs that can mount a medium creature. So they can use war dogs, or other PCs as a mount. If the DM kills your war dog, go climb on the human cleric's shoulders and use him as a mount before you make your next attack. Then get yourself another mount before your next fight.

The disadvantage is extremely easy to mitigate - you don't attack the enemies within 5 feet. Unless you are fighting a single enemy or fighting on an unusually large battlefield, the Lance's reach means you can usually reach a different enemy 10 feet away with just a bit of movement without even getting more than 5 feet away from the enemy close to you. If all enemies are within 5 feet (which is rare) you move 10 feet away from one of them before you attack. This is not a significant problem.

In the very worst-case scenario - you fall off of your mount, no one else is within range to mount, you are carrying a shield and the only enemy is right next to you, simply drop your lance and pull out a 1d8 weapon. You still have dueling, you still have a shield for AC. You are down a little bit on damage, but you are more than making up for that on the rounds you get 1d12 PLUS dueling PLUS reach PLUS a shield.

I have played this twice now. First with a Kender Paladin who played it exactly like above (and had a Dragonlance and Dragonnelle mount by the end of the game ). The second time with a Drow Fighter I am playing now who played it a little different until 11th level. She was not as focused on high damage and went with superior technique-menacing attack and no shield so she could use the Lance with 2 hands when unmounted and hold an enemy at 10 feet away with Frightened. She has since switched to the magic Greataxe I mentioned because well "magic".

 

[THEMNGMNT]

The problem is that the player is bored doing the same thing every round. I think the solution here isn't class-based damage. (Not that there's anything wrong with that. Right now I'm playing 13th Age!) Because "every weapon does the same damage" doesn't provide any additional variety. I think the solution is 1) weapon masteries from D&D2024, or 2) the combat traditions from Level Up: Advanced 5E. Both of those give the barbarian more variety round-to-round.

 

[NotAYakk]

My toy simplified 5e makes classes have weapon damage.

Simple, Thrown and Ranged weapons do d4 damage.

Wizards, Rogues and similar do d4 with everything.

Rogues get sneak attack, which adds cinditional d6s, and finesse, which adds 1d4 unconditional.

Rangers do d6 with one handed weapons, and can twin strike both twf and ranged/thrown weapons.

Paladins and Barbarians do d6 one handed/d10 two handed.

Fightres do d8 one handed/d12 two handed.

All attacks add level to damage, but level is small.

Barbarians get a growing Rage Die.

Scaling in T2 is done with unique mechanics instead of everyone gets extra attack:

Fighters get cleave and extra attack.
Barbarians get Mighty Blow
Paladins get Holy Sword and Smites.
Rogues get more SA dice.
Rangers get Whirlwind Attack (aoe) and Disruptive Strike.

Calibrating damage is not that hard so very different mechanics deal about the same.

...

Giving weapons some kind of property is fun. But it can easily lead to some strange results, like a rapier being the best barbarian weapon.

...

A less extreme variant is just replacing extra attack.

Monk: fold flurry into attack action, make it 1 extra attack. Give extra bonus action at 5.

Barbarian: Give an extra weapon damage die at 5, 9, 13 and 17. At 5 grant an unarmed or improvised attack for free. Replace rage damage bonus with rage die, scales from 1d4 to 1d12. Unarmed/improvised can replace weapon damage with rage die.

Fighter: keep extra attack at 5. Grant combat superiority at 5 (enemies in melee range get disadvantage they ignore fighter, fighter gets advantage).

Rogue: Swap uncanny dodge for disruptive strike (reaction to a hit, if it hits force a reroll and halve damage).

Paladin: Holy Sword at 5. Their blessed weapon does +2d8 radiant damage, and gets advantage on foes who have hurt an ally of theirs since end of their last turn. Smites get +1d8 damge at level 7, 13 and 19. Improved Smite is 4+2d8 on holy sword not +1d8. The blessed weapon cannot be removed from their possession while the Paladin is alive.

This makes the Barbarian fight half of the time by picking up stuff and smashing people with it. And every class feels different.

Except Ranger.