Dragonlance What do you think of the Kender?

[ECMO3]

Interestingly the Black Robes can use their Hit Dice to cause more damage with their spells, which I think it's cool

And with a Paladin those are d10s

 

[Faolyn]

6. Hoopak -- : The Hoopak is a disaster. First off it needs to be a racial weapon, second it is AWFUL mechanically. Two handed weapon that does a poor 1d6 damage (and 1d4 as a missile). It is not heavy so you can't use GWM with it and it is a melee weapon so you can't use Sharpshooter when you make a ranged attack. You might be able to get away with a Hoopak on a Wizard, Cleric or Rogue where the damage won't be so important, however since it is a martial proficiency only martials will be able to use it and they will be seriously nerfed compared to someone who could do 1d10 damage or 1d8 damage with a shield.

Small creatures have disad with heavy weapons. They could have given kender an ability to ignore that restriction, of course, but without that ability, making hoopaks into heavy weapons would have been detrimental to them.

Level up has slingstaffs, which can be used as either a staff or a sling (otherwise no special stats for the weapon), which means that Sharpshooter should be able to be used with it no prob.

 

[cbwjm]

Well, looking at the description posted in the OP, not a fan of taunt as a special ability. It's one of those things that I feel like people should be able to attempt without a special ability. I might ignore the kender and use the lightfoot halfling to represent them.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Kender rogue stares quizzically at a hoopak with no clue what it is

Yeah I’m a little bummed about that. I hope that they at least include the weapon in the book.

Tbh weapon proficiencies should be more freely available. I certainly plan on giving anyone raised by kender proficiency in the hoopak, even if I have to homebrew the damn thing into the game.

 

[humble minion]

6. Hoopak -- : The Hoopak is a disaster. First off it needs to be a racial weapon, second it is AWFUL mechanically. Two handed weapon that does a poor 1d6 damage (and 1d4 as a missile). It is not heavy so you can't use GWM with it and it is a melee weapon so you can't use Sharpshooter when you make a ranged attack. You might be able to get away with a Hoopak on a Wizard, Cleric or Rogue where the damage won't be so important, however since it is a martial proficiency only martials will be able to use it and they will be seriously nerfed compared to someone who could do 1d10 damage or 1d8 damage with a shield.

I agree with almost all of this, especially it being a martial weapon, but to paraphrase a previous Australian Prime Minister - any DM who doesn’t let a kender pc use Sharpshooter when using a hoopak as a ranged weapon is a bum.

 

[James Gasik]

Poison damage is the most common energy type, barring large numbers of NPC mages. Or at least most common pet enemy type.

Ok, I admit, I was going off of experience, not empirical data. I've personally taken damage of other types far more often than poison.

 

[Demetrios1453]

6. Hoopak -- : The Hoopak is a disaster. First off it needs to be a racial weapon, second it is AWFUL mechanically. Two handed weapon that does a poor 1d6 damage (and 1d4 as a missile). It is not heavy so you can't use GWM with it and it is a melee weapon so you can't use Sharpshooter when you make a ranged attack. You might be able to get away with a Hoopak on a Wizard, Cleric or Rogue where the damage won't be so important, however since it is a martial proficiency only martials will be able to use it and they will be seriously nerfed compared to someone who could do 1d10 damage or 1d8 damage with a shield.

From the text under "Special":
"You can use the hoopak as a martial ranged weapon"

So, when used that way, you can use Sharpshooter.

I do agree that it should be in the list for allowed rogue weapons though, and that's a quick houserule for my table.

 

[Shadowdweller00]

Ok, I admit, I was going off of experience, not empirical data. I've personally taken damage of other types far more often than poison.

What foes you face are kinda campaign / setting/ DM dependent. So your experience isn't necessarily invalid. Have been enemy listings released since last I counted anyway, so I might not even still be correct.

 

[Peter BOSCO'S]

Yeah HD should be a resource that can be used for lots cool stuff

It might be better if Hit Dice were a resource that were used only for cool stuff that tires people out. Otherwise we have to explain why their use is limited by your hit dice and if you spend them all you will need a long rest to get them back and two long rests to get them all back.

 

[Weiley31]

from an RP point of view, I despise them.

From a rules point of view, taunt could lead to some interesting builds...

Couldn't Taunt negate the Auto-Advantage on attack rolls against a Kender Barbarian using Reckless Attack, while still allowing the Kender Barbarian to have Auto-Advantage attacks against the opponent, who now doesn't have advantage?