D&D 5E How would changing bows to Str-only change the game?

[The Crimson Binome]

Hmm... Rogues can throw finesse weapons and rangers have class features which add to damage.

Fair enough. I meant it would kill off bow-using rangers and rogues.

Damage is less important than the attack roll. I don't see any rangers opting into this system, and just accepting the penalty to hit. It's easy enough to shelf that character concept until the next campaign, which doesn't feature house rules to specifically penalize bow-using rangers.

 

[Yardiff]

SAD classes are still favored when rolling, because you're more likely to roll one good stat than two. Regardless of what you do to the stat gen method, it would be equally important to break clerics from their SADness.

All classes are MAD classes. People just accept being SAD because of the stat gen options their given.

 

[Yardiff]

Sorry back op topic.

I think the best way to go about this kind of change is to (as mentioned earlier) make Dex the to hit stat and Str the damage stat. This is why I say MAD.


Only my opinion of course, since Dex to damage never mad that much sense to me.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

All classes are MAD classes. People just accept being SAD because of the stat gen options their given.

I don't agree. The rogue is very close to a SAD class, as is any spellcasting cleric. They have secondary stats which are useful, but nothing that's more useful to them than Con is. A cleric with high Wisdom, average Con, and nothing else, is going to be just fine.

What I have noticed, though, is the opposite effect. If a player manages to roll multiple high stats, they're more likely to play something like a monk, since they have the opportunity.

 

[Gladius Legis]

DEX should still be used for the attack roll with ranged weapons. But STR for all weapon damage rolls, yes.

And crossbows shouldn't have an ability modifier to damage, period. Make a mechanical property to denote that, and then maybe up their damage die one size to compensate.

 

[toucanbuzz]

In old editions, if you had a negative STR modifier, your bow damage was penalized. You could go a couple ways:

1. Simply that. If your STR has a negative modifier, it affects bow damage, which is still DEX based. Means tracking more numbers, though, for a minimal amount of verisimilitude.

2. Introduce composite bows and allow bows into the game that require a minimum STR to use, and they can apply either the users STR or DEX bonus to damage. Gives STR-based characters a longer range weapon option.


I somewhat get DEX to damage in that while you're hitting, you're finding the "sweet spot" to maximize damage. Then again, if you think about the mechanics of a fantasy roleplay game too much, it'll hurt the head.

 

[Oofta]

Yeah, I've always thought it was odd that strength had nothing to do with using a bow. Nobody is going to do a lot of damage with a bow made for a 10 year old.

I allow strength based bows, and have considered limiting damage based on dexterity but limited to double the strength modifier. Then again, D&D has never been particularly realistic.

 

[guachi]

2. Introduce composite bows and allow bows into the game that require a minimum STR to use, and they can apply either the users STR or DEX bonus to damage. Gives STR-based characters a longer range weapon option.

So something like a reverse finesse property.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

I'm most familiar with 3e and you needed a specific bow based on your strength. No propelled ranged weapons added strength to damage: cross-bows, short bows and long bows. Throwing weapons added strength: daggers, axes etc... No matter what, you used Dex to target and strength for damage.

You could buy compound bows but they had a rating, +1 to +5, which was the maximum extra damage you could do based on your strength. So, if you strength was 16 and had a +2 compound bow, you could only add +2 damage(not +3). But if your Strength was only 13, the bow was unusable because the weight of the pull was too much for your skinny arms.

It made it tougher to play a ranged character but, in earlier editions, you could make up the damage with magic items (+5 damage). You still might be able to make up the damage because, in 5e, even if you change the damage stat to Strength, Damage in 5e is about stacking dice and not stacking modifiers(although, it still helps, modifiers don't get multiplied in a crit). And there's lots of ways to stack dice.

 

[cbwjm]

You'd have a lot of really buff looking elves.