D&D 5E WOTC Pregen Characters' Items Overpowered?

[Jaden Miller]

Hi, my family recently started a D&D 5e campaign, my dad being a "veteran", having played old editions of it in college with his friends. So sadly, he's not able to answer many questions about the current rules, so I thought I'd ask here.

We created characters, using some level 3 pregens provided on the official website, altering things as we liked (race, class specifics, etc.), and I feel like items that we're given are massively disproportionate to the stats on any other items in the manuals. For example, the halfling monk pregen has a shortsword with +5 attack and does 1d6+4 piercing damage. Is this taking into account ability score modifiers, proficiency bonuses, and etc. or what? If so, WOTC doesn't know how to do math. This seems disproportionate, because in the DM's guide, a "very rare" weapon would be one that had a measly +3 to attack and damage rolls. Not to mention that a shortsword, as described in the player's guide, should have no attack bonus and do only 1d6. Another example would be my dad's ranger, who's longbow has a ridiculous +7 attack, making a nat 2 attack roll be a minimum of a 14 once you add all his modifiers.

Any clarification on this would be much appreciated, since I couldn't find any anywhere else.

 

[Rune]

Those pregens have ability and proficiency (and fighting style) bonuses factored into their listed attacks already. Those items are not magical, nor should you be adding those bonuses again. Naturally, if you are tweaking the pregens, you might have to adjust those numbers accordingly (don't forget that the archer has +2 to hit with ranged weapons from the archery fighting style, which is why the pregen gets +7 total).

Also, welcome to EN World. Have some XP.

 

[NotActuallyTim]

Hi, my family recently started a D&D 5e campaign, my dad being a "veteran", having played old editions of it in college with his friends. So sadly, he's not able to answer many questions about the current rules, so I thought I'd ask here.

We created characters, using some level 3 pregens provided on the official website, altering things as we liked (race, class specifics, etc.), and I feel like items that we're given are massively disproportionate to the stats on any other items in the manuals. For example, the halfling monk pregen has a shortsword with +5 attack and does 1d6+4 piercing damage. Is this taking into account ability score modifiers, proficiency bonuses, and etc. or what? If so, WOTC doesn't know how to do math. This seems disproportionate, because in the DM's guide, a "very rare" weapon would be one that had a measly +3 to attack and damage rolls. Not to mention that a shortsword, as described in the player's guide, should have no attack bonus and do only 1d6. Another example would be my dad's ranger, who's longbow has a ridiculous +7 attack, making a nat 2 attack roll be a minimum of a 14 once you add all his modifiers.

Any clarification on this would be much appreciated, since I couldn't find any anywhere else.

Are you sure that's the weapons attack bonus, and not the characters precalculated attack bonus? If the number is the same as the STR or DEX modifier - Proficiency bonus, it's probably just the characters stats.

 

[Rune]

But check their math, too. Errors can slip in. For example, the monk in your original post should be doing 1d6+3 damage with that shortsword (assuming a Dex bonus of +3).

 

[The Crimson Binome]

For example, the halfling monk pregen has a shortsword with +5 attack and does 1d6+4 piercing damage. Is this taking into account ability score modifiers, proficiency bonuses, and etc. or what? If so, WOTC doesn't know how to do math.

Those numbers already account for ability score modifier and proficiency bonus.

That being said, it looks like there's a typo in one number or the other - the bonus on the attack roll should be equal to your Dexterity bonus + 2, but the bonus on the damage roll should only be equal to your Dexterity bonus. Either you have +5 to hit and +3 damage, or +6 to hit and +4 damage.

As for the ranger character, that +7 breaks down as +2 from proficiency and +2 from a ranger class feature (fighting style) and a +3 from Dexterity, but that's all you add. The total is +7, so you still need to roll a 7 or better to hit AC 14; keep in mind that ranged attacks also suffer a -2 penalty to hit if the target is behind cover, so that +7 is really more like a +5 unless the enemy is wide open.

 

[Jaden Miller]

Thanks everyone!

Rune/Saelorn: That's what confused us the most was that if the modifiers were already factored in, some were still wrong.

Now that's this is cleared up, I can go break the news to my family that our PCs are overpowered and must be nerfed, haha. Thanks again!