D&D (2024) New One D&D Weapons Table Shows 'Mastery' Traits

The weapons table from the upcoming Unearthed Arcana playtest for One D&D has made its way onto the internet via Indestructoboy on Twitter, and reveals some new mechanics. The mastery traits include Nick, Slow, Puncture, Flex, Cleave, Topple, Graze, and Push. These traits are accessible by the warrior classes.

 

[EthanSental]

Stance comes from the idea of a miss being just that: a flat-out miss. To wit, an attack or shot that accomplishes nothing useful toward ending the combat.

When is a miss not a miss? When it does something useful.

It's the same flawed and IMO very poor logic that lurks behind the concept of "fail forward", where the intent is to turn what should be a flat-out failure into some sort of mitigated success. From where I stand, you can't have a mitigated success without first achieving the success threshold. Same goes for damage in combat: you can't do it until you achieve the "hit" threshold.

Thus, if you want there to be a range where damage dealt is minimal because the hit is marginal (an idea I can get behind in principle), that range should be the first few die pips above the to-hit threshold. So, if the AC is 15 you'd miss outright on 14 or less, do but 1-2 points damage on, say, 15-17, and normal damage on rolls above that.

I might have missed it if someone else said but damage on a miss feels like a participation ribbon or trophy in kids rec leagues. For me, if it makes it into the future revision, it’s something we probably won’t use, like the short rest mechanics that we tweaked.

 

[Zaukrie]

I might have missed it if someone else said but damage on a miss feels like a participation ribbon or trophy in kids rec leagues. For me, if it makes it into the future revision, it’s something we probably won’t use, like the short rest mechanics that we tweaked.

It's not a miss. You can't miss with a graze weapon. If you roll badly, you do a small amount of damage.

 

[EthanSental]

Thanks @Zaukrie, missed that part of the discussion

 

[Charlaquin]

I might have missed it if someone else said but damage on a miss feels like a participation ribbon or trophy in kids rec leagues. For me, if it makes it into the future revision, it’s something we probably won’t use, like the short rest mechanics that we tweaked.

Do you also feel this way about half damage on a failed save?

 

[Zaukrie]

Thanks @Zaukrie, missed that part of the discussion

I mean, you do miss your roll number, but the concept behind the weapon is that you don't totally miss.... That's the fiction. Not everyone will like that idea, clearly.

 

[Parmandur]

I mean, I still think it’ll be generally better for Fighters to have two Masteries that are both better than Flex than to have Flex and one other Mastery that’s better than Flex.

I have no doubt it will be a popular choice, maybe even the most popular choice. Simple options are always very popular. I still think mathematically it’ll be one of the weaker ones. That just won’t stop people from picking it, just like it doesn’t stop people from picking Champion for their fighter subclass.

I mean, the Champion is unambiguously the equal or superior to any other Fighter Subclass in mathematical output: indeed, it's the touchstone for the math on all additional Fighters (the WotC team uses one Subclass from each Class to use as a mathematical reference point when designing a new Subclass, and for Fighter that is Champion).

 

[CleverNickName]

It's not a miss. You can't miss with a graze weapon. If you roll badly, you do a small amount of damage.

But this is what rolling a 1 on your damage roll is supposed to emulate, right? The damage roll determines the amount of damage.

 

[Zaukrie]

But this is what rolling a 1 on your damage roll is supposed to emulate, right? The damage roll determines the amount of damage.

If you don't like the idea, that's fine. I'm explaining the idea.

 

[Incenjucar]

Your scenario is not one that exists as a thing that matters within the confines of 5e's rules. Without flat DR the only thing it results in is "someone else kills it on their turn or it dies next round"

DR is not relevant to this.

If a target has 12 hit points this round and you deal 11 hit points it is still alive and remains a potential threat requiring additional resources to finish off.

A creature with 1hp is as able to act as one with 100hp. It is a decidedly narrow case, but it comes up now and again.

 

[EthanSental]

Am i correct in that there are only 2 on the list that have the graze effect? Crossbow and greatsword? All I’m looking at is the 2 shared tweets of weapon lists so I haven’t looked online for any additional info that might explain things.

I’m still more on the idea like Clevernickname, I wouldn’t want to have fighter A roll an 18 and and hit then roll a crap 1 on the damage dice and do 3 damage, then fighter b rolls 15 and miss and do as much damage as the “hit” roll, even if the graze is a flat 1 or 2 damage. I didn’t play 4e so I don’t know what that edition used for its DoaM effect.

And to answer the question about half damage on a save, I’m fine with it since it’s been in the game since I started playing but like Fritz mentioned, as game ideas come more into the norm, I’ll probably adjust my thought on things but right now, I’ll leave that out of our game if the groups has the same thought.