Horwath
Legend
Right now we still have weapon(simple and martial) and armor(light, medium, heavy) categories.
Did they outlived their purpose? And can we just get rid of them?
Weapons are no brainer.
Just have all weapons on martial level(with some buff to non-finesse weapons) and have all be proficient in all weapons.
In the end we are talking about 1 point of damage difference mostly.
Just taking up space in class description.
And making some clumsy racial bonuses, that will be traded away in following books if not needed(Tasha 2.0).
Most of the "martial" power comes from class features as Extra attack(s), fighting styles, attack riders(sneak attack, smites, maneuvers, rage, etc...) and investments in strength or dexterity.
and the martial/simple weapon split is also mostly arbitrary with no logic at all:
Shortbow is simple yet longbow is martial? It's more or less the same weapon.
Same with crossbows.
Mace is simple and mornigstar is martial.
And how that the dagger is simple and shortsword is martial. You can throw the dagger but you cannot throw a shortsword. Should it not be more difficult to learn both stabbing and throwing than only stabbing?
Same with light hammer and warhammer or handaxe and battleaxe.
whole table looks as someone stuffed mouthful of weapon plates and sneezed them on a table.
Whole table needs to be cleared a little and made more standardized.
If we have finesse, light, reach and thrown properties, we should know how much they cost(cost is measured mostly in reduced damage die).
Now we see that each property costs more or less one step in damage die.
Versatile is next to useless so we will tack on versatile on and 1Handed weapon without finesse, light or thrown property.
Then we have:
Reach weapons are standardized and little buffed to 40/120ft range.
short/long bows, work fine now. Maybe buff the shortbow range to 100/400 for small races to get some love.
Crossbows should get Action loading time, more cost, more weight, maybe shorter range a little and higher damage dice:
Crossbow expert feat could reduce loading time to: Action->Bonus action and Bonus Action->Free.
Now, as for armor:
We already have good tool for armor to lose proficiency categories.
Min STR. Just expand on it and make it work for all armor.
Also return variable max dex for all armors. That way, more armors will be a desirable goal, depending on users dexterity.
Penalty for not having sufficient strength would be:
Half speed,
disadvantage on all attack rolls.
disadvantage on all str, dex and con checks and saves.
enemies automatically succeed on all saves vs. your spells.
cannot concentrate on spells.
preventing all spells could be too much of a penalty if suddenly you were str drained by some effect.
This leaves option of some utility spells or just "I misty step without my full plate".
Then you are free to cast spells again, but with -8 AC and maybe a stolen full plate.
Or, I'll crawl around the battlefield and just heal.
Did they outlived their purpose? And can we just get rid of them?
Weapons are no brainer.
Just have all weapons on martial level(with some buff to non-finesse weapons) and have all be proficient in all weapons.
In the end we are talking about 1 point of damage difference mostly.
Just taking up space in class description.
And making some clumsy racial bonuses, that will be traded away in following books if not needed(Tasha 2.0).
Most of the "martial" power comes from class features as Extra attack(s), fighting styles, attack riders(sneak attack, smites, maneuvers, rage, etc...) and investments in strength or dexterity.
and the martial/simple weapon split is also mostly arbitrary with no logic at all:
Shortbow is simple yet longbow is martial? It's more or less the same weapon.
Same with crossbows.
Mace is simple and mornigstar is martial.
And how that the dagger is simple and shortsword is martial. You can throw the dagger but you cannot throw a shortsword. Should it not be more difficult to learn both stabbing and throwing than only stabbing?
Same with light hammer and warhammer or handaxe and battleaxe.
whole table looks as someone stuffed mouthful of weapon plates and sneezed them on a table.
Whole table needs to be cleared a little and made more standardized.
If we have finesse, light, reach and thrown properties, we should know how much they cost(cost is measured mostly in reduced damage die).
Now we see that each property costs more or less one step in damage die.
Versatile is next to useless so we will tack on versatile on and 1Handed weapon without finesse, light or thrown property.
Then we have:
| DAMAGE | PROPERTIES | EXAMPLE |
| d10 | V(d12) | longsword, battleaxe, warhammer |
| d8 | V(d10), Reach | Spear |
| d8 | Finesse | rapier |
| d8 | Light | arming sword, handaxe |
| d8 | Thrown | Javelin |
| d6 | Finesse, Light | shortsword, scimitar |
| d6 | Finesse, Reach | whip |
| d6 | Finesse, Thrown | chakram |
| d6 | Light, Thrown | throwingaxe, light hammer |
| d4 | Finesse, Light, Reach | throwing knife |
| 2d8 | 2Handed, Heavy | Greatsword, maul, greataxe |
| 2d6 | 2Handed | claymore, waraxe, |
| 2d6 | 2Handed, Heavy, Reach | poleaxe, pike, halberd |
| d12 | 2Handed, Finesse | falchion |
| d12 | 2Handed, Reach | longspear |
| d10 | 2Handed, Finesse, Reach | spiked chain |
Reach weapons are standardized and little buffed to 40/120ft range.
short/long bows, work fine now. Maybe buff the shortbow range to 100/400 for small races to get some love.
Crossbows should get Action loading time, more cost, more weight, maybe shorter range a little and higher damage dice:
| NAME | DAMAGE | PROPERTIES | COST | WEIGHT |
| Light crossbow | 2d6 | 2Handed, Range 60/240, Loading; Action | 75 GP | 15lb |
| Heavy crossbow | 2d8 | 2Handed, Heavy, Range 80/320, Loading; Action | 100 GP | 20lb |
| Hand crossbow | 1d8 | Light, Range 40/120, Loading; Bonus action | 75 GP | 3lb |
Now, as for armor:
We already have good tool for armor to lose proficiency categories.
Min STR. Just expand on it and make it work for all armor.
Also return variable max dex for all armors. That way, more armors will be a desirable goal, depending on users dexterity.
| ARMOR | MIN STR | AC | MAX DEX | PENALTY |
| padded | 8 | 11 | 6 | |
| leather | 10 | 12 | 6 | |
| studded leather | 12 | 13 | 5 | |
| hide | 14 | 14 | 4 | |
| chainshirt | 14 | 15 | 3 | stealth |
| chain mail | 16 | 16 | 2 | stealth |
| half plate | 18 | 17 | 1 | stealth |
| full plate | 20 | 18 | 0 | stealth |
| Buckler/light shield | 10 | +1 | 5 | |
| shield | 14 | +2 | 3 | |
| heavy shield/tower | 18 | +3 | 1 | stealth, acrobatics, -5ft speed |
Penalty for not having sufficient strength would be:
Half speed,
disadvantage on all attack rolls.
disadvantage on all str, dex and con checks and saves.
enemies automatically succeed on all saves vs. your spells.
cannot concentrate on spells.
preventing all spells could be too much of a penalty if suddenly you were str drained by some effect.
This leaves option of some utility spells or just "I misty step without my full plate".
Then you are free to cast spells again, but with -8 AC and maybe a stolen full plate.
Or, I'll crawl around the battlefield and just heal.
