D&D General How I would have done Weapon Mastery

[Shardstone]

I would say it’s fairly accurate when you compare. 1E and 5E 1st level characters. But yes I did add a bit of flourish. Some spice, if you will. A bit of that ol’ razzle dazzle.

Jazz hands!

Dang, he's in more in touch then I thought...

But the only real difference is that instead of 1-2 hits to take down a 1E PC, you need 2-3 hits to take down a 5E PC, and 5E level 1 features amount to "push thing with weapon," or "+2 damage" (so they can maybe kill the goblin in one hit instead of two hits, just like 1e fighters).

 

[DarkCrisis]

Yes, it's very unfortunate that PCs are no longer born in a puddle of mud and their first act of life is to avoid drowning. Eventually, after enough bodies accumulate, one doesn't automatically land face down in the mud and lives long enough to get a name.

Yeah, I guess pizazz is a lot of fun.

Yeah I’ve never liked that either. There is a happy middle ground thanks to house rules.

Death at -3. Full 1st HP hit die. Stats influence saves (con bonus to Death/poison save etc) and so on.

In my current B/X game (with housrules) what’s killed the most PCs are Crit hits (which I asked them if they wanted to stop using crits and they said no) and instant death traps (beware of poison!).

It’s never fluffy v hardcore as some like to make it out to be. There is a grey area to play in

 

[Xeviat]

Masteries should be like known maneuvers.

I.E: You know mastery Vex and Nick;

you can apply Vex to any Finesse and Ranged weapon you are proficient.
you can apply Nick to any Light weapon you are proficient.

you can apply only one Mastery per attack even if you weapon could apply for more masteries you know.


Fighter of X level(maybe 9?) can apply 2 masteries per attack.
Fighter of Y level(17?) can apply 3 masteries per attack.

This would have been pretty cool

 

[Corinnguard]

I have wondered about pairing up 2024's weapon masteries with Level Up's combat traditions. I like the latter because you don't need a specific kind of weapon to actually make use of a particular maneuver. Plus, the combat traditions are considered to be the martial equivalent of spells.

 

[Shardstone]

So, I like Weapon Mastery a lot. I think with Custom Weapon Masteries, custom Weapon Properties, and Custom Fighting Styles, you can create a very robust weapon system that doesn't require very much overhead at all. Then, you can have once-per-long (or short) rest "techniques" that are the cool anime stuff some of us like worked in there; maybe a martial can memorize half their PB (rounded down).

I've been working on just this thing the last few weeks. So far I have 57 weapons, which includes 7 new weapon properties and 8 new weapon masteries (haven't gotten around to new Fighting Styles yet). A big inspiration for this was Elden RIng which, with its DLC, showed that it can actually be really cool to have a huge number of variable weapons, so long as you put in some elbow grease to make them each stand out.

In my upcoming Monday game, I'm going to have my players in my more noob group swap all their weapons for new ones (either mechanically or for actual different weapons) and they'll pick from some of my new 57 options. In other games, it's led to a fun evolution in combat.

I've never been a big fan of maneuvers unless they used a "You have a die every TURN, and you regain it at the start of your turn if you were missing it." Mainly because "Always On" martials are just more attractive to me then the alternative where you have a few Superiority Dice and regain them on a short rest. However, with new Weapon Masteries, and further expanding the weapon system out (how about new materials for weapons and cultural variant weapons?), I'm able to create the same effect as having a few dozen manuevers to draw from.

While this isn't anyone's taste, I think any homebrewer or designer is missing out if they aren't engaging with the robust new foundation that exists for weapon designs. It requires work to build some new ones but I really do think it's worth it.

 

[Minigiant]

Masteries should be like known maneuvers.

I.E: You know mastery Vex and Nick;

you can apply Vex to any Finesse and Ranged weapon you are proficient.
you can apply Nick to any Light weapon you are proficient.

you can apply only one Mastery per attack even if you weapon could apply for more masteries you know.


Fighter of X level(maybe 9?) can apply 2 masteries per attack.
Fighter of Y level(17?) can apply 3 masteries per attack.

Too generous.for each mastery.

1 mastery upgrading 10 weapons ironically buff casters.

 

[grimmgoose]

I may be in the minority, but I severely dislike the 2024 Weapon Masteries. All they do is add clutter for minor gain.

I would've basically gone back to 4E, granting once-per-Short-Rest (Encounter) powers that scale with Tier of Play. Meaning, you don't always have to keep track of which bad guys have been "Slowed" - when the Ranger wants to use the once-a-Short-Rest "Hamstring" ability that, as reaction, turns a moving creature's Speed to 0 - it's a big moment.

It's also something that could've easily been added upon in subsequent books.

I'm assuming WOTC is going to add more weapons as time goes on, but I would've preferred a system where if I pick a Longbow, I can choose between three "Powers":

• Hamstring
• Knockback Shot
• Double Shot (or whatever)

edit: also, the names WOTC landed on are atrocious. I cannot believe they landed on "Nick" and "Graze".

 

[Xeviat]

I may be in the minority, but I severely dislike the 2024 Weapon Masteries. All they do is add clutter for minor gain.

I would've basically gone back to 4E, granting once-per-Short-Rest (Encounter) powers that scale with Tier of Play. Meaning, you don't always have to keep track of which bad guys have been "Slowed" - when the Ranger wants to use the once-a-Short-Rest "Hamstring" ability that, as reaction, turns a moving creature's Speed to 0 - it's a big moment.

It's also something that could've easily been added upon in subsequent books.

I'm assuming WOTC is going to add more weapons as time goes on, but I would've preferred a system where if I pick a Longbow, I can choose between three "Powers":

• Hamstring
• Knockback Shot
• Double Shot (or whatever)

edit: also, the names WOTC landed on are atrocious. I cannot believe they landed on "Nick" and "Graze".

Having multiple options on each weapon would have been cool. Differentiating a generalist from a weapon specialist would be neat.

I suspect the masteries will feel smaller in high level play without there being high level maneuvers. That's where Level Up excels