D&D 5E Rebalancing melee weapon damage.

[Horwath]

Situation is now that dexterity is kind of "do it all" stat.

Weapon damage does not help in this as "finesse" property does not "cost" anything. Or it is valued as "versatile", which is more or less worthless.
And this will give bump to str based melee characters.


So my suggestion is:

simple weapons: base damage 1d8,

martial weapons: base damage 1d10,


Light property: reduce damage die by 1 step,

Finesse property: reduce damage die by 1 step,

Thrown(30/120) property: reduce damage die by 1 step,

Reach1(+5ft): reduce damage die by 1 step,

Reach2(+10ft): reduce damage die by 2 steps,

Two-handed: increase damage die by 2 steps,

Heavy: increase damage die by 1 step,

Versatile: free for all 1Handed weapons that do not have light and/or finesse property.


damage die steps: 1d3,1d4,1d6,1d8,1d10,1d12,2d6,2d8.


Some rules for combining properties:

Heavy weapons must be Two-handed,
Light weapons cannot be Two-handed. And by the same definition cannot be Light. Doh!
Reach weapons cannot be Light,(do not care about any version of the whip),
Reach2 weapons must be Heavy and with that Two-handed,
Reach weapons cannot be Thrown,
Finesse weapons cannot be Heavy,


Some examples:

Greatsword/great-ax/Maul(martial, Twohanded,Heavy): 2d8,
Pike(martial, reach2 15ft, Twohanded, Heavy):1d12,
Pole-ax(martial, reach 10ft, Twonaded, Heavy): 2d6,
War-ax(martial, Twohanded): 2d6,
War longspear(martial, Twohanded, reach 10ft):1d12,

Longword/battle-ax/warhammer(martial, versatile 1d12): 1d10,
Rapier(martial, finesse): 1d8,
Short sword/scimitar(martial, finesse, light): 1d6,

Dagger(simple, finesse, light): 1d4
Throwing knife(simple, finesse, light, thrown 30/120): 1d3,
Spear(simple, reach 10ft, versatile 1d8): 1d6,
Longspear(simple, twohanded, reach 10ft): 1d10,
Mace(simple, versatile 1d10): 1d8,
Club(simple, light): 1d6,
Long knife(simple, finesse):1d6,
Javelin(simple, thrown 30/120, versatile 1d8): 1d6

 

[The Crimson Binome]

The Heavy property should not be worth anything, since it doesn't actually affect anyone. It doesn't give any sort of penalty to anyone who isn't small, and someone who is small is never going to use that weapon anyway.

If anything, making a melee weapon Heavy should reduce its damage die by one step, since now it qualifies for the feat bonus.

 

[Horwath]

The Heavy property should not be worth anything, since it doesn't actually affect anyone. It doesn't give any sort of penalty to anyone who isn't small, and someone who is small is never going to use that weapon anyway.

If anything, making a melee weapon Heavy should reduce its damage die by one step, since now it qualifies for the feat bonus.

Heavy is put as some kind of penalty for playing "small" character.

You need lighter weapon, that means smaller damage.

 

[Fanaelialae]

Seems to me like you could make a martial, two handed, finesse weapon which deals 1d12 damage. To me that seems like a significant boost to finesse weapon users (given that they currently cap out at 1d8).

Granted, Strength based characters can now dish out a whopping 2d8, but making finesse characters hit harder seems to run counter to your stated purpose. It bumps both Strength and Dexterity melee weapon users by 2 damage per attack.

 

[Sleepy Walker]

Why not change the finesse property to allow dex to be used as the damage bonus, but at a 50% reduction rounded down or something like a maximum of +3?

So a dex of 20 gives either a +2 damage bonus (50% of 5 damage rounded down) or a +3 damage bonus.

This would make dex equal to strength for lower modifiers, but ultimately fall behind a strength based build (especially for multiple attacks). Arguably the opposite could be done with strength, that an attack bonus using strength can only benefit somewhere between +2 or +3, regardless of how much strength the creature has. It would sure make things like giants make more sense on the battlefield and would leave a bit more room for those currently game breaking +2 and +3 weapons.



Otherwise I kinda like the change in the system. It does make heavy and two handed weapons significantly more deadly while not really touching the lower end, which I have to think about before coming to a solid conclusion. It could have significant repercussions when converting opponents to this system, especially giants which get 3x the dice rolls per attack or any creature with heavy weapons really. I mean, they would be more variable with their damage, which is a potential problem with the current 5e hitpoint system at lower levels.

 

[Satyrn]

By upping the damage on melee weapons, you're closing off the concept of martial characters fighting with magic from people with a tendency to optimise. All of the short range cantrips would be a lot less appealing to me, and so I'd never do something like taking Magic Initiate so my paladin of Thor can strut around with shocking grasp.

Is this intended by your change?

 

[Ristamar]

Why not change the finesse property to allow dex to be used as the damage bonus, but at a 50% reduction rounded down or something like a maximum of +3?

So a dex of 20 gives either a +2 damage bonus (50% of 5 damage rounded down) or a +3 damage bonus.

If I were to modify the Finesse property's rules for Dexterity-modifier damage, I'd likely only allow it to be applied once per turn per weapon hand (when applicable with TWF style). I'd likely also make a custom feat that allows a Finesse weapon wielder to apply their Dexterity modifier to all melee weapon attacks made with their primary hand. It would still be useful for many rogues, rangers, and dual wielders but much less appealing for fighters.

 

[dco]

Finesse property: reduce damage die by 1 step

Beyond that I would erase the greater weapon fighting style and change dueling to +2 one handed weapons and +3 for two handed weapons, this will fix the versatile property and the advantage of 2d6 for GWF.
I'm not sure about what to do with two weapon fighting.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

Reach weapons cannot be Thrown

Um... spears?

 

[Satyrn]

Um... spears?

I have a hard time picturing throwing spears as having any better reach than a wide sweeping blade. At least, at the level that D&D measures reach, where a dagger is the same reach as a sword.