D&D 5E What is Over-Powered?

[pemerton]

I tend to use as a DM more NPCs than monsters. And the NPCs use to be in larger groups, and have less HP and higher armor.

Are you doing this ad hoc, or following the DMG guidelines for "defensive CR"?

 

[SirAntoine]

Limit polearm master to one attack of opportunity per round. Sharpshooter shouldn't eliminate any cover penalties. Change -5 to hit and +10 damage to -2 to hit and +4 to damage, and the same for great weapon fighter. Crossbow expert, maybe it's okay by itself, but you could give it a standard -2 penalty to hit.

 

[Diamabel]

Polearm master is already limited to one opportunity attack per round, by virtue of characters only having a single reaction per round...

 

[Diamabel]

Not even the armors were realistic: a chainmail is by no means a "light" armor that a bard or a rogue could use. It's heavier than S.H.I.T: over 30 kg the Hauberk alone. It was the very definition of heavy armor during most Middle Ages.

Not true. Maille armour is both reasonably light and flexible: nowhere near 30 kilos for a hauberk.

Here are some examples from the Wallace Collection- surviving historical pieces

A1 (Late C14th, short sleeved, 74cm long) - 4.5 Kg
A2 (2nd Q C15th, short sleeved, 71cm long) - 8.8 Kg
A3 (1st H C15th, long sleeved, 69cm long) - 9.0Kg
A4 (mid C15th, sleeveless, 71cm long) - 6Kg
A5 (mid C15th, sleeveless and incomplete, 72cm long) - 9.0Kg
A6 (late C15th, long sleeved, 71cm long) - 7.5Kg
A7 (C16th, long sleeved, 64cm long) - 8Kg

 

[Cernor]

Limit polearm master to one attack of opportunity per round. Sharpshooter shouldn't eliminate any cover penalties. Change -5 to hit and +10 damage to -2 to hit and +4 to damage, and the same for great weapon fighter. Crossbow expert, maybe it's okay by itself, but you could give it a standard -2 penalty to hit.

If Sharpshooter doesn't limit cover penalties, then neither should Spell Sniper. Which means that there's no way to circumvent cover, and then there are lots of angry players saying there needs to be a way for their characters to ignore cover because half-cover for shooting past allies can be a pain to deal with. And what's the fun of a -2/+4? If I'm going to take a penalty to hit, I want it to be a big penalty... With a big reward if it pays off.

 

[Erechel]

Over the chainmail, I'm maybe exaggerating a bit, but I have a hand made vest without sleeves nor waist, and weights around 7,5 kilos (I have purchased the steel wire by weight and hand crafted myself, so I'm possitive about it). The rings are standard size and isn't ribbeted. A friend of mine has crafted his own hauberk (half sleeves, waist piece attached), slightly wider rings than mine, again non ribbeted: near 25 kilos. We are average tall and size (I'm 1,78 m tall, and weight 76 kilos). And we are not counting the gambesson, nor reinforcements in the chest and stomach. So maybe I'm adding 3 to 5 kilos, but depending on the ribbets, reinforcements and gambesson, you are with about 30 kilos. The coif itself weights around 2 to 4 kilos, depending on its size. But it's alright, is heavy armor, and it's a full piece of armor. The european and arab knights used it to battle, and with a proper gambesson, a ribbeted chainmail can stop an arrow most times. There are a lot of recreationist stuff around. Go check and see. It was heavy armor

 

[Erechel]

It is flexible, though. About the soldiers, I'm following the GDM rules and PHB rules: you can give a standard NPC race traits: I pick the guard mainframe, and chose variant human: +1 to two stats, a feat and a skill. The feats I chose depend on the background (army, country, specialty) of the soldier, so to heavy infantry I picked Heavy Armor Master (DR 3 from non magical bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage, +1 strenght). My heavy soldiers have chainmail, 14 str, 12 dex, 13 con, 10 int, 12 wis, 10 char; shield and longsword. 18 AC, 11 HP, + 4 to hit, 6 damage. A lvl 4 sharpshooter using maximized damage, assuming 20 dex, has to roll a 16to hit. Lower dex, 17/18. When I calculated the CR, they had a value of 1, and the officers, 2-4 (depending on equipment and background).

 

[Diamabel]

Over the chainmail, I'm maybe exaggerating a bit, but I have a hand made vest without sleeves nor waist, and weights around 7,5 kilos (I have purchased the steel wire by weight and hand crafted myself, so I'm possitive about it). The rings are standard size and isn't ribbeted. A friend of mine has crafted his own hauberk (half sleeves, waist piece attached), slightly wider rings than mine, again non ribbeted: near 25 kilos. We are average tall and size (I'm 1,78 m tall, and weight 76 kilos). And we are not counting the gambesson, nor reinforcements in the chest and stomach. So maybe I'm adding 3 to 5 kilos, but depending on the ribbets, reinforcements and gambesson, you are with about 30 kilos. The coif itself weights around 2 to 4 kilos, depending on its size. But it's alright, is heavy armor, and it's a full piece of armor. The european and arab knights used it to battle, and with a proper gambesson, a ribbeted chainmail can stop an arrow most times. There are a lot of recreationist stuff around. Go check and see. It was heavy armor

Non riveted, or "butted" maille that you describe is not representative of actual medieval maille. The wire used to make such maille is heavier than historic examples- you are relying on the strength of the wire to hold the maille together, rather than having rings riveted closed(or a mix of solid punched or welded rings/riveted rings).

Not only have I provided you with the weight from examples of actual historic pieces of maille, I happen to own a modern recreation of maille- with a both a ring size and wire weight comparable to medieval examples. My Hauberk has elbow length sleeves comes down to my knees- I am 1.86m tall and 90 kilos.. and the hauberk weighs 6.3 kilos.

 

[pickin_grinnin]

Nothing is overpowered or underpowered in my campaigns. I don't use pre-written adventures or worlds designed by other people. No matter how powerful a character is, (s)he will always be challenged by the encounters, because I design them that way.

 

[SirAntoine]

If Sharpshooter doesn't limit cover penalties, then neither should Spell Sniper. Which means that there's no way to circumvent cover, and then there are lots of angry players saying there needs to be a way for their characters to ignore cover because half-cover for shooting past allies can be a pain to deal with. And what's the fun of a -2/+4? If I'm going to take a penalty to hit, I want it to be a big penalty... With a big reward if it pays off.

-2/+4 sounds good. The damage is hugh enough to be significant, like your strength went up by eight, and with only a -2 to hit, you should hit a lot more often with this attack.

Cover can be a problem, but seriously, things can get in the way.