PHB2: Melee Weapon Mastery - am I missing something?

The quick fix for this is to add a prerequisite of Greater Weapon Focus. This feat was intended, I believe, to bolster the fighter's ability to damage and even the playing field a bit with the wizards and clerics. Now, fighter is actually a valid choice for all 20 levels because there are that many good feat choices out there. With only the core books, the fighter runs out of decent feat choices. Still, I'm not sure it's a big deal if someone dips into fighter for 4 levels to get this feat. No one's tried yet in my campaign.
 

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jontherev said:
This feat was intended, I believe, to bolster the fighter's ability to damage and even the playing field a bit with the wizards and clerics.
I believe it was intended to give the fighter versatility by letting him apply his weapon-specific feats to a whole category of weapons, and got mangled somewhere along the way. This seems to support my conclusion.
 

It's an interesting feat -- and a very strong one.

In the context of the Warblade (the non-Fighter base class who qualifies), it's actually more restrictive than Weapon Focus / Weapon Specialization.

I allow it in my games. So far, only a cohort Fighter has taken it.

Cheers, -- N
 

But you know, the real trick is - take all five feats. That gives you a +4 bonus to attack and a +6 bonus to damage with your favored weapon.

That said, I think it should have a requirement of Fighter 8. And I prefer if these feats wouldn't exist at all, because I hate focusing and specializing on a weapon. It's more fun using all the cool combat maneuvers and the related feats, though I am afraid it is not as effective as extreme specialization...
 

Mustrum_Ridcully said:
That said, I think it should have a requirement of Fighter 8. And I prefer if these feats wouldn't exist at all, because I hate focusing and specializing on a weapon. It's more fun using all the cool combat maneuvers and the related feats, though I am afraid it is not as effective as extreme specialization...
I agree that MWM feat should have a higher Ftr prerequisite. That said, it doesn't break anything to allow it as is, so.....

Interestingly, our party's Ftr hasn't taken the Weapon Focus et al feat chain. He prefers - as Mustrun_Ridcully points out - the "cool combat manuevers" feats. This is even with the house rule that Ftr's get 1 bonus feat per level (rather than 1/2 lvls).

Cool combat manuevers are.....well....cool!
 

Mustrum_Ridcully said:
And I prefer if these feats wouldn't exist at all, because I hate focusing and specializing on a weapon.
For me, this is actually a factor in favor of the Weapon Mastery feats. Once a guy has Weapon Mastery (slashing), for example, he cares less if he's using a Greatsword or a Longsword -- he's still getting a bonus on attack and damage. When he uses his favored weapon the bonus gets better, but at least he won't cry tears of blood when that favorite weapon gets Sundered or rust monster'd.

He'll turn a stiff upper lip and say, "Aw hell, just gimmie anything sharp!" :)

Cheers, -- N
 

We changed the feat a bit:

Melee Weapon Mastery [General, Fighter]

Fighter Level 8, Weapon Focus, Weapon Spec

Benefit: When you select this feat, choose bludeoning, piercing, or slashing. You must have Wpn Focus and Wpn Spec with a melee weapon that deals this type of damage. You may now apply the effects of Wpn Focus and Wpn Spec to any weapon that has the damage type you selected.
 

dagger said:
We changed the feat a bit:

Melee Weapon Mastery [General, Fighter]

Fighter Level 8, Weapon Focus, Weapon Spec

Benefit: When you select this feat, choose bludeoning, piercing, or slashing. You must have Wpn Focus and Wpn Spec with a melee weapon that deals this type of damage. You may now apply the effects of Wpn Focus and Wpn Spec to any weapon that has the damage type you selected.
If this really is your feat (verbatim), then you should note that the bonus seems to apply to missile weapons as well. MWM (piercing) looks pretty good ... ;)

Cheers, -- N
 

MWM is way better than GWF and GWS with easirer requirements, so it seems silly at first glance. I believe that it was intentionally made toi bump up a fighter's damage dealing which is generally less potent than the barbarian. They couldn't fix the PHB feats, so they made better ones in the PHB II. It really isn't that broken considering a 20th level barbarian gets +4 to hit and +6 to damage (via mighty rage) with a two-handed weapon and a hp/saving throw boost without spending precious feats. A fighter with all of the specialization feats gets +4 to hit and +6 to damage. He's still behind the barbarian in hit points, saves, and mobility. Face it. The fighter needed some love, and PHB II gave it to him.
 

Shazman said:
MWM is way better than GWF and GWS with easirer requirements, so it seems silly at first glance. I believe that it was intentionally made toi bump up a fighter's damage dealing which is generally less potent than the barbarian. They couldn't fix the PHB feats, so they made better ones in the PHB II. It really isn't that broken considering a 20th level barbarian gets +4 to hit and +6 to damage (via mighty rage) with a two-handed weapon and a hp/saving throw boost without spending precious feats. A fighter with all of the specialization feats gets +4 to hit and +6 to damage. He's still behind the barbarian in hit points, saves, and mobility. Face it. The fighter needed some love, and PHB II gave it to him.

The problem is that the fighter 6/Barbarian 14 also gets the weapon mastery, when he already had Weapon Spec and Greater Rage. The feat as written scarcely improves single class fighters and just offers more bonuses to characters who were taking 4 levels of fighter and then multiclassing.
 

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