The Dark Sun Weapon Breakage Rule - How do you feel about it?

[NMcCoy]

Think of it the other way around. A natural 1, rather than representing a miss, means that you swung in such a way that your weapon would break. You can either persist with your attack and break your weapon, or choose to divert the attack and miss to spare your weapon. Metal weapons are durable enough that they have a chance to survive situations that would certainly break lesser materials.

 

[fanboy2000]

I really like the rule. It's similar to the defiling rule. You can either accept the fact that you missed, or you can push it and hope for a better result. I suspect there are a lot of gamblers out there will make use of this.

 

[WanderingMonster]

I think the rule is great in terms of resource management. Sometimes *this hit* is more important than keeping a weapon. When you're talking about a Daliy or Encounter power, a re-roll is a very very tempting offer.

 

[Solvarn]

Totally awesome

It was pretty cool when the ranger in our Encounters group rolled a 1, rerolled, and broke his knife on in the monster, dropping it (by doing enough damage).

It provides flavor, I wish I could justify using it in a normal game but I can't.

Unlike the defiling rules..... <evil laughter>

 

[Sinless]

I like the rule for the most part, but I am probably going to allow a bit of randomness in.

When a player rolls a 1 he/she can either:
A) Make a save, failure = broken weapon (Metal needs not save)
-or-
B) Reroll to hit, weapon breaks automatically (Metal brakes on natural roll of 5 or less)

This way there is still a chance of ending up in a bad situation, but it is unlikely.

Note: My campaign is using almost no magic items, bonuses will be built as Psionic Boons so losing weapons is not that big of a deal.

 

[WanderingMonster]

I like the rule for the most part, but I am probably going to allow a bit of randomness in.

When a player rolls a 1 he/she can either:
A) Make a save, failure = broken weapon (Metal needs not save)
-or-
B) Reroll to hit, weapon breaks automatically (Metal brakes on natural roll of 5 or less)

This way there is still a chance of ending up in a bad situation, but it is unlikely.

Note: My campaign is using almost no magic items, bonuses will be built as Psionic Boons so losing weapons is not that big of a deal.

So the likely outcome of this is that unless you're using a metal weapon, players will usually take the re-roll. It's not so much adding randomness as it is changing player behavior.

 

[DracoSuave]

Overall, I am not a fan of this rule. I would probably do something more like

When you roll maximum damage on a weapon attack roll, your weapon breaks unless you choose to deal minimum damage to the enemy. For metal weapons, they get a save vs breakage with a +3 modifier and an additional +1 for each +1 of magical power.

Yeah, not rules text, but you get the idea.

So will come up more for many weapons, but will not be as great an effect, as a longsword will do 7 less damage per W in the power.

I do not like the way it is being done now, at all.

Players do not like to be punished for rolling well.

This punishes players for rolling well.

Consider punishing players for rolling poorly. At least then they don't feel that it's like it christmas, except it's not christmas, it's MUD DAY.

Also consider that if they keep with the same economy-model as 2nd edition, that metal weapons will cost considerably more than non-metal (read: normal) weapons. Non-metal (read: normal) weapons will be at the baseline cost (in ceramic, not gold, obviously), and so should not be penalized just because you decided to play in a desert.

 

[Scribble]

What is the benefit of having a metal weapon?

I like the weapon break rules, but it does seem like they need to have something to make the metal weapons "better" otherwise event if they break non-metal weapons still get to re-roll an auto miss- while metal weapons just miss...

Players do not like to be punished for rolling well.

This punishes players for rolling well.

Yeah... I wouldn't be happy at all with that rule. I mean that's not even a rule that makes a bad thing worse... That makes a good thing just suck.

 

[Bold or Stupid]

What is the benefit of having a metal weapon?

I like the weapon break rules, but it does seem like they need to have something to make the metal weapons "better" otherwise event if they break non-metal weapons still get to re-roll an auto miss- while metal weapons just miss...

Metal weapons get the reroll to but they only break if you roll 1-5 on the reroll.

 

[vagabundo]

I doubt my players will break the weapon to get a re-roll. I'll use the standard DS rules for a while before trying any house rules.


If I'm not satisfied I might use this tweak:

A) Accept the failure - nothing happens; they pull the attack and save the weapon.
B) Re-roll as normal - make a saving throw, failure breaks the weapon; metal weapons get a +6.