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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 8833017" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/ceuvAlJ.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /><a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/345339/Choose-Your-Weapon" target="_blank">Drive-Thru RPG Link.</a>There’s quite a bit of weapons in 5th Edition, but in practical play most gamers stick to a few, with some being suboptimal choices clearly outclassed by others. The authors of Choose Your Weapon sought to remake how weapons work by tying them directly to a character’s martial skill. Dispensing with simple and martial weapon proficiencies, their damage is tied to a new mechanic known as an heroic damage die determined mainly by class. This damage die can be further altered by weapon properties, and unlike properties of the core rules the ones here are reflective more of a character’s particular fighting style rather than an innate quality of the weapon itself.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/AUV349E.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The Heroic Damage Die is determined by the class a PC selects at 1st level, ranging from 1d6 for primary spellcasters to 1d12 for the Fighter and Barbarian. Paladins and Rangers have a d10, and Bards and Rogues a d8. Monks are a special case, for they have an heroic damage die of d6 but they can use the die of their Martial Arts class feature for monk weapons if it’s a higher value. The heroic damage die can be further altered in a number of ways up or down the damage die ladder in a process known as steps. Generally speaking, qualities which can be advantageous to a weapon reduce its damage by 1 or 2 steps, but ones which impose some kind of hindrance can raise it by 1 or 2 steps. A PC’s innate heroic damage die increases by 1 step if they multiclass into a class with a higher value, and subclass features that can grant martial weapon proficiency can also improve it by 1 step (up to a maximum of d10 unless it’s already better). Races which grant martial weapon proficiencies don’t alter this, and Blade Pact Warlocks and Bladesinger Wizards use a d10 for their signature weapon but d6 for all others. In the Bladesinger’s case the final base damage should be d8 or less. There is a problem with the above graphic in that it is missing the d10 value, although the sample text more or less confirms that it’s nestled between the d8 and 1d12/2d6 steps:Already we can find several interesting impacts on the base system: for one, this makes non-monk unarmed strikes a lot more potent, for even with negative ladder steps a Barbarian or Fighter can deal 1d8 or d10 damage with their bare fists, and even a quarterstaff can deal a mighty 1d12 or 2d6 damage in the hands of a Paladin or Ranger with the versatile property applied. As for the monk, they get the short end of the stick in that they won’t be dealing a lot of damage; I’ll get into it further, but with how Choose Your Weapon works they’ll be dealing 1d4 damage base at low levels unless they opt to go for two-handers, which don’t qualify as monk weapons. As for light and one-handed weapons? That’s going to be a measly 1 until their Martial Arts die grows to 1d8 and 1d10 at 11th and 17th levels. They aren’t going to be batting at the same level as even Rangers and Blade Pact Warlocks. It feels wrong for me that Fighters and Paladins can punch better than Monks, so I would apply a personal rule where Monk Weapons use a d10 for their Heroic Damage Die.As for multiclassing, Choose Your Weapon makes starting out as a martial class a better option, particularly for gish builds. As such things were heavily encouraged in basic D&D with armor proficiency, those Fighter/Wizard builds have all the more reason to take their 1st level in Fighter with Choose Your Weapon. An unarmed character or one who wishes to be a monk would do better in taking their first level in Barbarian, Fighter, or a martial subclass such as Valor Bard.When players or DMs make a new weapon under these rules, it is known as a Template. They are character-specific means of wielding a weapon: for example, a mighty-thewed barbarian may wield a greatsword with wild, powerful blows and even throw it a respectable distance. They may deal 1d16/2d8 damage to reflect their inaccurate yet deadly fighting style: a base damage of 1d12/2d6, modified by two-handed for 0 steps, heavy +2 steps, and thrown 30/120 feet -1 step. Meanwhile a Pact of the Blade Warlock may use their innate magical abilities to fight with more precise strikes and keep their opponents at a distance. They may technically have the same weapon but deal 1d8 damage: a base damage of 1d10, modified by two-handed 0 steps, and with the reach property -1 step. PCs create new personal templates as they wield or acquire different weapons in play, and for DMs which desire added verisimilitude can use an optional training rule. In this case, PCs are treated as untrained with new weapons and have disadvantage on attack rolls until they spend downtime becoming proficient with them as per rules in the Dungeon Master’s Guide or Xanathar’s.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/OXt3jPu.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Properties for weapons both new and existing are outlined, along with how they may alter steps on the die ladder. One-handed weapons reduce damage by 1 step, and two-handed weapons leave it unaltered. Ranged and thrown weapons don’t alter the damage die at the lowest levels (ammunition 30/120 feet, thrown 20/60 feet), although higher ranges can reduce the die by 1 or 2 steps and in the case of ammunition weapons they cannot be one-handed. Heavy weapons are altered in this system: instead of being wielded only by Medium and larger races, they impose disadvantage on attack rolls but increase the damage die by 2 steps and can only be applied to two-handed weapons. One-handed weapons with the Versatile property increase the damage die by 1 step when wielded in 2 hands, which given that one-handed imposes a 1 step penalty this more or less negates it. The lance property (which works like a lance but without reach by default) adds 2 steps, putting it up there with Heavy. As for the double property, it is -2 steps and both ends of the weapon are used to attack: it is a two-handed weapon by default, but for two-weapon fighting both ends are created as 2 one-handed light weapons. For those with the Dual Wielder feat, an attack made with an action or reaction deals -1 step and an attack made with a bonus action -2 steps. In regards to 2-weapon fighting, a reading of this sounds like the weapon could have a total of -4 steps (-2 by default, -2 for turning the two-handed weapon into one-handed light weapons), which can be really punishing. Even a d12/2d6 PC will be reduced to 1 on the damage die ladder this way. As for Reach (-1 step), it is the same as in the PHB save with the caveat that Small or Tiny PCs can’t apply it unless they also apply the Heavy property, which has the effect of making gnomes and halflings rather inaccurate with whips.For very big monsters, there are Oversized and Massive properties, wielded by creatures 1 or 2 size categories larger than the PC. Oversized is like the heavy property but none of the upsides, while massive cannot be wielded at all. Neither property can be chosen for weapons at character creation.We also get a new sub-system for Entangling weapons, which don’t damage but restrain a target and use their own properties instead. Generally speaking, the only real properties are range and have their own prerequisites: melee the weapon cannot have the finesse, lance, or versatile properties, ammunition 30/120 feet requires the weapon to have the loading property, thrown 5/15 feet must be a one-handed weapon without the finesse property, and thrown 10/30 feet is only for two-handed weapons. In each case a target is restrained on a successful hit, and can only be used on Large or smaller creatures that aren’t formless (Oversized and Massive can be used against Huge creatures). A weapon can have the Dual property where it can deal damage instead of entangling at -1 step with its own properties, but in such a case both versions are built with properties as close as possible. The barbed property deals damage to a restrained target equal to the heroic damage die -2 steps at the beginning of each of their turns.Characters going for pure damage have the ability to really crank up values. A weapon with the Heavy and Lance properties can go up a whopping 4 steps, but as the damage die ladder tops out at 1d20/2d10 it is redundant to have more than 2 or 3 steps for martially-inclined PCs. As for ranged weapons, the only property that can increase damage is Loading, and only by 1 step which is perhaps for the best given how useful ranged attacks are in comparison to melee.We also get a table of Standard Weapon Templates showing how virtually every PHB weapon (plus a few new ones) can be built in this system. The notable additions include various polearms sized for Medium and Small characters, while weapons that would ordinarily be Heavy in the PHB such as greatswords and mauls lack this property. Generally speaking, the d12 and d10 classes do overall more damage with non-two handed weapons which would be Simple, but more or less the same values for martial properties. The d6 classes do less across the board, and in cases where it’s -2 steps (mostly in the case of one-handed weapons with the light property) deal a measly 1 damage!To showcase how this system can be used to make entirely new weapons, we have stats for a <a href="https://www.dndbeyond.com/equipment/yklwa" target="_blank">yklwa,</a> a one-handed weapon with the 20/60 thrown weapon for a total of -1 step. We also see the return of the two-bladed sword, listed as a Double Sword which is a two-handed melee weapon with the Double property.I did spot a few errors: the whip has the one-handed and reach properties which would reduce it by 2 steps, but in the table only reduces by 1 step. The shortbow, light crossbow, and heavy crossbow list ammunition at 90/350 when the latter category should be 340. As for the Double Sword it lists -2 steps, although given the problems I saw in that property above there isn’t an easy way to put it in a table.Special Cases cover clarifications to the rest of the rules in using this new system. For one, natural weapons from a race’s innate features that don’t have special effects use the Choose Your Weapon rules, with some general guidelines like determining whether it’s one-handed or two based on how many hands are free when the attack is made. For weapons acquired through class features or a racial ability with secondary effects (like secondary damage from forced movement), the damage die of the default ability is used. For monks, any weapon that doesn’t have the two-handed, heavy, and oversized properties counts as a monk weapon, and uses the higher value of either their Martial Arts or Heroic Damage Die when making attacks with monk weapons.Enemies explains that in most cases the Choose Your Weapon rules shouldn’t apply to NPCs and monsters. Not only does it heft a lot more work on the Dungeon Master, the damage output of enemies are often already balanced with their default features. But for DMs who wish to make their stat blocks from scratch, the book gives six sample roles and their appropriate damage die: for example, Controllers focus less on direct damage and so have a d6, while Brutes tend to be physical melee types at d10. The Skirmisher has the highest at d12, being glass cannons that strike fast and hard.Overall Thoughts: From a broad perspective, Choose Your Weapon applies a net increase to non-monk martial classes and frees up characters to reflavor weapons as they desire without being forced into suboptimal choices (“but I really like flails!”). On the other hand, it has several side effects as a result of implementation, like all but requiring spellcasters to make use of cantrips or heavier weapons to deal respectable damage. For example, Clerics are now on par with Sorcerers and Wizards when wielding longswords (1d4 damage), and two-weapon fighting Rogues need to rely even more on poison and Sneak Attack for damage (1d8 -2 steps for light and one-handed weapon properties is 1d4). Due to this, the book’s reception among gaming tables will differ depending on what classes are being used by players: martial characters, particularly pure martials like the Barbarian and Fighter will love it, as will some gish builds like the Valor Bard, Bladesinger Wizard, and Pact of the Blade Warlock. But Monks, Rogues, and War Domain Clerics may not be as fond of the damage die drops for their one-handed and non-loading ranged weapons.</blockquote>

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