Would this be balanced?

[Alabenson]

I'm considering making a houserule which would increase Power Attack damage for certain one-handed exotic weapons to 1.5 * atk penalty for one handed use and 2 * atk penalty for two-handed use. My goal would to make Two Weapon Fighting and Sword & Board Fighting slightly more viable choices, and to spending an proficiency feat on the weapons listed to be less of a waste of a feat.

Some of the weapons that would be affected by this change are listed below;
Bastard Sword
Dwarven Waraxe
Maul
Great Scimitar
Dire Pick
Elven Thinblade
Warmace

[Darth Stabber]

I'm considering making a houserule which would increase Power Attack damage for certain one-handed exotic weapons to 1.5 * atk penalty for one handed use and 2 * atk penalty for two-handed use. My goal would to make Two Weapon Fighting and Sword & Board Fighting slightly more viable choices, and to spending an proficiency feat on the weapons listed to be less of a waste of a feat.

Some of the weapons that would be affected by this change are listed below;
Bastard Sword
Dwarven Waraxe
Maul
Great Scimitar
Dire Pick
Elven Thinblade
Warmace

Elven thinblade already has it's spots (being big and finessable).
dwarven waraxe kinda has a role because of the racial familiarity.
Bastard sword's "best of both worlds" feel also ensures it's usable in plenty of spots.

The rest could probably use the boost, but not as much as monk weapons need a boost (especially the sai/jitte, they have a cool flavorful role that they just can't deliver on), especially since their target audience (monks) never use them.

[limejuicepowder]

Balance discussions are entirely theoretical, and thus what is balanced for one group is unbalanced for another. Essentially, only you can know if something is good for your group.

With that said though, if you're talking about the wider game of DnD, balance comes down to this: basically, any boost you give to mundanes is not going to be unbalancing. They are just that far behind. With that in mind, and knowing that it's almost impossible to actually "balance" the game without massive system changes, I like to make houserules for mundanes that will at least make them more fun.

If I apply that standard, I give two thumbs up. It gives them more options with the weapons instead of just TH: greatsword, Trip: chain nonsense.

Along this same vein, I have in fact took it a step further: power attack applies the current two-handed, 2:1 rating to all 1-handed weapons (that are wielded in the main hand). Also, I've changed proficiency to 3 skill points instead of a feat.

[JaronK]

The Elven Thinblade, being a rapier type weapon, really doesn't make sense on this list. Is it unbalancing? Not really, as serious Power Attack charge types generally want reach weapons anyway. Just a bit... odd. Like, why is a Dwarven War Axe more damaging with Power Attack than, for example, a Greataxe?

JaronK

[Immabozo]

The Elven Thinblade, being a rapier type weapon, really doesn't make sense on this list. Is it unbalancing? Not really, as serious Power Attack charge types generally want reach weapons anyway. Just a bit... odd. Like, why is a Dwarven War Axe more damaging with Power Attack than, for example, a Greataxe?

JaronK

A Dwarven War Axe is gnarly stuff! 1 handed and deals almost as much damage as a great axe?!?! Scale it up to two handed and then one more for a large creature 2 handed, 1 more for giant-blooded (or strong arm bracers or monkey fist or whatever) and you are talking no insignificant amount of damage, 4 or 6 D8 if memory serves.

[Perseus]

Very rarely is anything that does HP damage considered unbalanced.

Sure you have your hulking hurler war hulk uber chargers but... Well even that is easy to shut down.

[Alabenson]

With that said though, if you're talking about the wider game of DnD, balance comes down to this: basically, any boost you give to mundanes is not going to be unbalancing. They are just that far behind. With that in mind, and knowing that it's almost impossible to actually "balance" the game without massive system changes, I like to make houserules for mundanes that will at least make them more fun.

If I apply that standard, I give two thumbs up. It gives them more options with the weapons instead of just TH: greatsword, Trip: chain nonsense.

This more or less follows my rationale for making the change; melee is sufficiently underpowered that creating a small boost to sub-optimal forms of melee combat isn't going to unbalance anything and would make certain builds more viable.
That said, I'm fairly certain that there's a game designer out there who thought that Planar Shepard was perfectly fine too, so I like to get a second opinion before I make changes like this in case I've missed something.


The Elven Thinblade, being a rapier type weapon, really doesn't make sense on this list. Is it unbalancing? Not really, as serious Power Attack charge types generally want reach weapons anyway. Just a bit... odd. Like, why is a Dwarven War Axe more damaging with Power Attack than, for example, a Greataxe?

JaronK

My rationale for putting the Elven Thinblade on the list was that it fits into the "let's take a one-handed Martial Weapon, increase the damage die and call it Exotic" group of Exotic weapons. The issue with these is that an extra +1 damage is not usually worth the expenditure of a feat.

As for the Dwarven War Axe, this change would give it equal PA damage to the Greataxe when being wielded two-handed, not greater.