D&D 5E Making simple weapons interesting for martial characters

[Satyrn]

Given that it costs a feat it might be okay in terms of balance, but I'd keep an eye on it.

That feat cost requires that a simple weapon be better than any martial weapon in that character's hands, otherwise it is a rather pointless feat.

It's a rather boring feat, though. I would rather see it give some other more interesting effect than the doubled range and finesse bits. As you say, that short bow effect is odd, and I think finesse shouldn't apply to every weapon, either. Besides, those are just mechanical changes, and that's what I find boring. Upping the damage die should be enough for that part of the feat.

So I'd suggest adding some other option, like maybe a way to deceive your opponent because your "inferior" weapon isn't. Sonething along those lines.

 

[Fanaelialae]

That feat cost requires that a simple weapon be better than any martial weapon in that character's hands, otherwise it is a rather pointless feat.

I have to say I disagree.

It would be a pointless feat to an optimizer. However, I don't think that there's inherently anything wrong with a feat that grants breadth rather than depth. It simply appeals to a different play style.

A feat that merely brought simple weapons on par with martial weapons could appeal to the right player in the right campaign. For example, they might have a old veteran who walks with a stick. When seeing an important enemy official, the other PCs are stripped of their weapons while the veteran feigns weakness and pulls a Gandalf, allowing him to keep his staff. He's now just as effective as if he had his trusty longsword by his side, thanks to this hypothetical feat.

 

[Satyrn]

A feat that merely brought simple weapons on par with martial weapons could appeal to the right player in the right campaign.

I guess so. I'd rather just let that player reskin his martial weapons into the appearance of whatever simple weapons he wanted, or something like that. Because I just don't see "now simple weapons are as good as martial weapons" to add a sufficient breadth of options for a feat. Not for a "casual" gamer, certainly not for anyone even vaguely approaching powergamer.

And though I didn't word it that way at the start of my post, I think I wound up implying that a feat that offered breadth of options would be fine with me. My suggested changes were intended to make the simple weapons equal to martial weapons and then provide some interesting benefits, or as you put it, breadth of options.

And really, I prefer feats that open up breadth of options, so I should retract my comment you disagreed with. I disagree with it, too.

 

[Tinker-TDC]

I'd just say if you're proficient in all martial weapons increase the die-size of simple weapons by 1. It seems to work well overall, the only thing is keep throwing weapons 1d6 max.

The general rule is Str ranged weapons don't beat 1d6 and Dex melee weapons don't beat 1d8.

 

[DEFCON 1]

This feat makes simple weapons better than martial weapons in many cases.

Longsword - 1d8 / Versatile (1d10)
Spear - 1d8 / Finesse, Thrown (range 40/120), Versatile (1d10)

Heavy Crossbow - 1d10 / range (100/400) / heavy, loading, two-handed
Light Crossbow - 1d10 / range (160/640) / loading, two-handed

Greatclub - 1d10 / finesse, two-handed
Maul - 2d6 / Heavy, two-handed

You also end up with the counter-intuitive scenario where the shortbow ends up with a slightly greater range than a longbow.

Given that it costs a feat it might be okay in terms of balance, but I'd keep an eye on it.

Yeah, I never bothered going that deep into the weeds when I created it, knowing full well that if anyone was going to take it in either of my CoS campaigns, it'd probably have been the paladin who had the Mace of Disruption. It is too good a weapon for him to not use for all the undead, but for the encounters without undead he was gimped a bit. This feat was to give him an option to get better with it, but thus far he hasn't taken it anyway.

 

[Roadkill101]

I prefer to eliminate the simple/martial divide for damage purposes. Instead how a weapon is used determines the damage, one handed (or hurled) use does a d6 and two handed (or launched) a d8, where classes falling under a martial archetype bump up to the next higher die for damage.

I find this allows for choice of weapon to be more of a fluff decision without any worries over mechanical optimization.