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.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

maybe Graze could be a feat?

+1 ASI
when you miss your attack roll and attack misses by 5 or less, you deal minimum damage.
you cannot trigger any effect that relies on you hitting the target, as in Smite, sneak attack, battlemaster maneuvers, cleave, etc...

Why do you have to spell out that effects that need you to hit a target don't work.
To trigger grace you need to miss... that is actually the opposite of hitting...

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

You're absolutely right. I was just hung up on the use of the word "dying" for being at 0 HP. It's pretty darn hard to get up just because someone yells at you when you're actually dying.

OTOH, it's easy to imagine that you only thought you were dying ("it hurts soooo much!") but the Warlord snapped you out of it when he yelled at you. Apparently, sometimes in D&D "dying", isn't really dying.

I mean, it's not. You aren't dying one second then operating with no penalty the next because someone slapped a bandaid on you with the Medicine skill. There's no death spiral. Wounds are just HP loss, there's no shoting a hand back on as a warlord because HP lost doesnt result in limb loss.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

Does 5E have mechanics for a cloak off-hand? They really should.

5e is all about "Use the rules for a shield and reskin it as a cloak".

 

[JiffyPopTart]

The trouble is, my brain keeps defaulting to "why bother with the attack roll at all" if the target is going to take damage no matter what. How is this different from automatically rolling damage every round and letting a roll of 1 be that "graze" result?

Take the logic your brain uses for Fireball (Some people get hit fully, some are only grazed, and others are completely unharmed) and make it work for getting hit by a hammer.

 

[CleverNickName]

Take the logic your brain uses for Fireball (Some people get hit fully, some are only grazed, and others are completely unharmed) and make it work for getting hit by a hammer.

But why? There's nothing wrong with the logic of my brain, and I'm already quite familiar with how hammers work. Unlearning logic in order to justify a new rule just isn't worth it to me.

Maybe I should start there? If I could understand the problem they are trying to solve by adding this mechanic, I might at least be able to see the Gamist point of view (since the Simulationist side is having none of it.) Why do we need so badly for hammers to deal damage when they miss?

 

[dave2008]

But why? There's nothing wrong with the logic of my brain, and I'm already quite familiar with how hammers work. Unlearning logic in order to justify a new rule just isn't worth it to me.

They don't deal damage, they remove hit points, if:

Damage = physical injury
Hit Points = a combination of physical and mental durability, the will to live, and luck*

Now, in game terms the word "damage" actually means the removal of hit points, it doesn't inherently mean physical injury.

*This is the definition in the 2014 PHB

Maybe I should start there? If I could understand the problem they are trying to solve by adding this mechanic, I might at least be able to see the Gamist point of view (since the Simulationist side is having none of it.) Why do we need so badly for hammers to deal damage when they miss?

If you want a gamist reasoning there are lots of possible options. Thought I still prefer that it is simulating the loss of luck which is a hard thing to simulate otherwise

 

[Zaukrie]

But why? There's nothing wrong with the logic of my brain, and I'm already quite familiar with how hammers work. Unlearning logic in order to justify a new rule just isn't worth it to me.

Maybe I should start there? If I could understand the problem they are trying to solve by adding this mechanic, I might at least be able to see the Gamist point of view (since the Simulationist side is having none of it.) Why do we need so badly for hammers to deal damage when they miss?

We don't need anything badly....and it is all of two weapons?

 

[CleverNickName]

They don't deal damage, they remove hit points, if:

Damage = physical injury
Hit Points = a combination of physical and mental durability, the will to live, and luck*

Now, in game terms the word "damage" actually means the removal of hit points, it doesn't inherently mean physical injury.

*This is the definition in the 2014 PHB

No argument here. The question I'm asking myself is, which problem(s) are the devs trying to fix by giving hammers the ability to remove hit points on a missed attack roll?

 

[Aldarc]

No argument here. The question I'm asking myself is, which problem(s) are the devs trying to fix by giving hammers the ability to remove hit points on a missed attack roll?

Odd. The question I'm asking myself is, why do you have such a massive hang-up about damage on a miss property for weapons? Believe it or not, character options aren't always about trying to fix problems. Sometimes it's simply about adding spice, variety, and flavor to play.

 

[Reef]

No argument here. The question I'm asking myself is, which problem(s) are the devs trying to fix by giving hammers the ability to remove hit points on a missed attack roll?

Well, I guess the question is, what problem are they trying to solve with any of the mastery abilities? My guess is they are trying to solve:

1) Weapons could be cooler with more differentiation
2) Warriors need something unique

The 'damage on miss' is just one of many ideas they obviously came up with. I doubt that at any point they sat around saying "Wouldn't it be cool if a Fighter could kill a dragon by missing him 120 times?".

I not deadset on having 'damage on a miss' being one of them. But I'm not opposed to it either. Setting a minimum damage to 1 (or Str at most) for two weapons (for a small number of classes) is not going to overbalance anything. And considering half the 'misses' in D&D actually are armor hits, it's not a huge leap logically for me.

Whether or not this stays as one of the Mastery perks, I'm still excited about the Mastery system as a whole, and look forward to seeing more details.