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.

 

[Charlaquin]

I would feel better with damage on a miss as stamina loss if: 1) they had a system that prevented only "misses" from dropping a character to dying (unlikely as that is, I've seen 1% scenarios at my table enough to want to have a pre-planned answer)

Well, since hit points are abstract, this is still workable. Just, some of the “misses” did make contact; enough to wear the target down to the point of collapse.

and, 2) hit point loss and recovery was treated more like it were mostly stamina and luck rather than bodily injury by the game's magical healing system.

Yeah, that would definitely be nice.

 

[Charlaquin]

Change in popular media

The people of the older editions based their fantasy story warriors using Gimli, Wesley, and Conan as their warriors.

I see no reason those characters shouldn’t be able to wear an opponent down on an unsuccessful attack.

 

[Charlaquin]

Certainly. And that's one of the ways I think of hit point loss. It's a bruise, an ankle twist, or whatever.
I already narrate hit point loss by higher-level characters as them getting nicks, scratches, bruises and glancing blows, rather than straight misses, because otherwise things like poisoned blades, stings or bites don't really track right. Since I'm already narrating hits as glancing blows, turning misses into glancing hits just muddies the waters further. Which is why I'm leery of it. D&D characters get "hit" way too often as it is.

Note, according to the guidelines in 5e, that’s how damage should be described on a character at half HP or less. Above half HP, a character isn’t yet showing visible signs of injury; they’re just getting tired out.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Which is why I'm leery of it. D&D characters get "hit" way too often as it is.

Whereas I also have 20+ years of martial arts experience and I feel that D&D characters "whiff" far too often, and that blocking (one of the ways that your attacker misses is because you blocked) can actually hurt, so I have no problem with damage on a miss.

Of course, I also see no problem with two different mechanical functions representing essentially the same thing in the narrative. For example, I don't mind that an arrow that does 6 damage but fails to do more than knock you from 38 to 32 HP can be described as smacking off your pauldron, or one that is rolled as a miss and does 3 damage as smacking off your pauldron, or one that actually misses and does no damage as smacking off your pauldron. The first one just rattled you the most of the three. Did any of them hurt? Maybe all three (though probably not the last one). Honestly, it's all up to the player, IMO. D&D can allow for anything that anyone can imagine, so whoever is doing the narrating (DM or player, depending) can decide. Some descriptions are better than others, sure, but whatever people find fun is fine with me.

 

[tetrasodium]

You know, I sell dice. While I've had some funny-sided dice in stock as often as possible, those things are sadly difficult to source. Haven't had any in years. I mean, I guess I could buy them from your link, but then I'd have to charge like $4-$5 per die to make reasonable money, which seems like a rip-off to me. Distributors in my area never have any at wholesale.

I'm pretty sire that a d3 is part of the standard set of DCC set spanning D3, D5, D7, D14, D16, D24 and D30. IME most of the FLGS around here generally carry some DCC branded dice sets, I just went looking for an unbranded set.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I'm pretty sire that a d3 is part of the standard set of DCC set spanning D3, D5, D7, D14, D16, D24 and D30. IME most of the FLGS around here generally carry some DCC branded dice sets, I just went looking for an unbranded set.

I have those! It was the d9 that I haven't seen in long enough to have forgotten it exists!

 

[JohnSnow]

Whereas I also have 20+ years of martial arts experience and I feel that D&D characters "whiff" far too often, and that blocking (one of the ways that your attacker misses is because you blocked) can actually hurt, so I have no problem with damage on a miss.

Of course, I also see no problem with two different mechanical functions representing essentially the same thing in the narrative. For example, I don't mind that an arrow that does 6 damage but fails to do more than knock you from 38 to 32 HP can be described as smacking off your pauldron, or one that is rolled as a miss and does 3 damage as smacking off your pauldron, or one that actually misses and does no damage as smacking off your pauldron. The first one just rattled you the most of the three. Did any of them hurt? Maybe all three (though probably not the last one). Honestly, it's all up to the player, IMO. D&D can allow for anything that anyone can imagine, so whoever is doing the narrating (DM or player, depending) can decide. Some descriptions are better than others, sure, but whatever people find fun is fine with me.

So, I had abut 20 years of (mostly unarmed) martial arts (Kenpo, Boxing, Muay Thai, Tae Kwon Do, some other stuff) before I took up sword-fighting. And one of the absolute shocking realizations to me about the latter is that the style of fighting is very different.

When fighting with a sword (especially out of armor), you make damn sure you don't frakking get hit. So you make very different trade-offs in combat. Getting hit by one blow in 10 gets you not banged up a little, but dead, or at least at risk of it. Fantasy heroes could probably take way more blows than would be appropriate in reality, but I have no problem with hit points mostly turning hits into light scratches, near misses, and the like. To me, after a fight, your typical D&D party is banged up about like Indiana Jones. Give them a bucket of hot water, some bandages and a little whiskey or vodka and they're basically right as rain, because they were never that hurt.

"Bloodied" (which I too miss, by the way) would be like when Indy actually gets shot in the arm during the truck sequence (or knocked flat by the big mechanic during the airplane fight in the previous encounter, right before the propeller blades finish the guy off), or that scene in The Fugitive where Dr. Kimball stitches up the cut in his side. It woulda gotten to him if he hadn't treated it, but after a little first-aid, he's fine.

Note by my two Raiders of the Lost Ark examples that I tend to think that Indy recovered all his hit points between the flying wing fight sequence and when he takes off after the truck on horseback. I might also claim he used an action surge to recover a bunch of hit points right before doing the slide under the truck, but I don't think that's RAW possible for a character in 5e. But it probably should be.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

So, I had abut 20 years of (mostly unarmed) martial arts (Kenpo, Boxing, Muay Thai, Tae Kwon Do, some other stuff) before I took up sword-fighting. And one of the absolute shocking realizations to me about the latter is that the style of fighting is very different.

When fighting with a sword (especially out of armor), you make damn sure you don't frakking get hit. So you make very different trade-offs in combat. Getting hit by one blow in 10 gets you not banged up a little, but dead, or at least at risk of it. Fantasy heroes could probably take way more blows than would be appropriate in reality, but I have no problem with hit points mostly turning hits into light scratches, near misses, and the like. To me, after a fight, your typical D&D party is banged up about like Indiana Jones. Give them a bucket of hot water, some bandages and a little whiskey or vodka and they're basically right as rain, because they were never that hurt.

"Bloodied" (which I too miss, by the way) would be like when Indy actually gets shot in the arm during the truck sequence (or knocked flat by the big mechanic during the airplane fight in the previous encounter, right before the propeller blades finish the guy off), or that scene in The Fugitive where Dr. Kimball stitches up the cut in his side. It woulda gotten to him if he hadn't treated it, but after a little first-aid, he's fine.

Note by my two Raiders of the Lost Ark examples that I tend to think that Indy recovered all his hit points between the flying wing fight sequence and when he takes off after the truck on horseback. I might also claim he used an action surge to recover a bunch of hit points right before doing the slide under the truck, but I don't think that's RAW possible for a character in 5e. But it probably should be.

I get what you mean. I certainly wouldn't want to be hit by an axe (for example) no matter how much I could take it in the armour. And yes, D&D characters are like Indy, or John Wick, or Daredevil, or Sheriff Hood in the TV show Banshee (awesome fight choreography if you haven't seen it, you really should). They take a crazy licking and keep on ticking.

I guess I just roll a lot of misses (I'm a notoriously terrible roller). Much more than I'd be comfortable missing in real life. I'd definitely get myself killed if my luck was as bad in a real life-or-death situation.

 

[Minigiant]

D&D as a game has a lot more misses than you would expect an entire adventure day for one character than reality would assume. It's the mechanics. They don't match the description.

AC is to low and accuracy is too. So it's a bunch of randomness.

Like someone said earlier, the way You would defeat somebody of heavy armor or toughness with a greatsword or greatax is to knock them down and then attack them prone with the accuracy bonus to a weak spot. Whereas with a spear or rapier you would jab , feint, and wait for an opening to strike the same weak spot.

 

[billd91]

By that logic, every saving throw should be full or no damage, and the roll on the 8d6 determining how burned you got.

Not really the same logic. The hammer isn’t an area filled with flames.