Sharpshooter Fix (and possibly GWM too)

[Gizmogidget]

I would like to know how to make the Sharpshooter feat, feel more like a sharpshooter. So if anyone has the PHB they know that Sharpshooter is a feat that allows you to ignore cover, and get a -5 penalty with +10 damage. I'm not overly concerned with how powerful it is, but shouldn't being a sharpshooter mean getting a plus to hit instead?

[DanyBallon]

I would like to know how to make the Sharpshooter feat, feel more like a sharpshooter. So if anyone has the PHB they know that Sharpshooter is a feat that allows you to ignore cover, and get a -5 penalty with +10 damage. I'm not overly concerned with how powerful it is, but shouldn't being a sharpshooter mean getting a plus to hit instead?

The bonus to hit is in the form of cover removal, which is equivalent to +2 (+5 in the case of 3/4 cover).

My only fix for the feat was to reduce the maximum lenght without disadvantage to twice the regular range, so someone with sharpshooter and a long bow can shoot up to 300ft without having a disadvantage, instead of 600ft with the unmodified sharpshooter feat.

[MadBear]

I was thinking about this the other day, and one thing the struck me was that the goals of sharpshooter should be:

- Accurate
- Represents hitting vital area

One idea I forsee is having sharpshooter have it's own set of actions. Where you'd use an action to take aim, and another action to fire. This would make the attack take time, but you'd get:

- a +10/15/20 to damage (some arbitrarily good damage bump)
- +5/10 attack bonus (or just the attack is made with advantage)
- Ignores cover bonus

By that I mean, a rogue with sharpshooter would only get it off once every other turn. But when it hit, it hit with umph.

Extra attack would allow you to speed the process up, so a fighter at level 5 could make a sharpshooter attack once per turn. a level 20 fighter could get it off twice per turn.

The idea is that you're trading off multiple hits for a single big punch of a hit that takes time.

Fluff wise, when I think sniper, I'm thinking about a person that takes their time to make their one shot count, I'm not thinking of someone shooting off a flurry of arrows.

Balance wise, the damage bump would have to be worth losing an attack over, but not so good as to make it the default attack in every scenario.

To me that means that it's damage should be better then any single attack could be, but have a lower ceiling then possibly hitting with 2 attacks.

[FinnS]

The only change I have made at my table for SS and GWM is change the flat -5/+10 to having it scale with your Prof bonus.
You simply get either your Prof bonus to hit OR double your Prof bonus on damage.
This way the damage isn't scaled too high in lower tier play and scales better for higher tier play.
Doubling the short range for disadvantage instead of max range seems quite fair to me as well. Obviously they would only be able to ignore 1/2 and 3/4 cover within that range as well.

[coredump]

The -5/+10 of SS indicates that you are good enough to go for the really hard shots that will do a lot more damage. Head shot, between armor, armpit, etc.

Other people aren't even good enough to try....

[djreynolds]

The only change I have made at my table for SS and GWM is change the flat -5/+10 to having it scale with your Prof bonus.
You simply get either your Prof bonus to hit OR double your Prof bonus on damage.
This way the damage isn't scaled too high in lower tier play and scales better for higher tier play.
Doubling the short range for disadvantage instead of max range seems quite fair to me as well. Obviously they would only be able to ignore 1/2 and 3/4 cover within that range as well.

This is how I handle damage/to hit and it works nicely, even making it easier at earlier levels.... at 1st level SS's -5 is huge

[DKing9114]

I would like to know how to make the Sharpshooter feat, feel more like a sharpshooter. So if anyone has the PHB they know that Sharpshooter is a feat that allows you to ignore cover, and get a -5 penalty with +10 damage. I'm not overly concerned with how powerful it is, but shouldn't being a sharpshooter mean getting a plus to hit instead?

Sharpshooter has three components-ignore half and 3/4 cover, do not take disadvantage for firing beyond "normal" range, and take -5/+10. I feel like the issue is that the first two components require circumstances that the DM may or may not provide, which is why the focus is on the last. Assuming the character uses/has proficiency in longbow, they don't take disadvantage within 150 feet (more than the size of most encounters/dungeon rooms) and if the DM doesn't have enemy npcs use cover, the cover negation doesn't come into play. As to the accuracy/damage tradeoff, the only replacements I can think of would be either allowing a bonus action to aim, granting to hit and/or damage bonuses on the next attack this turn, or allowing a few different "called shot" effects in exchange for a -5 to hit and possibly disadvantage as well (reduced movement next turn, impose disadvantage on the target's attack rolls next turn, improve crits in some way, disarm, etc.).

[Asmotherion]

Well, it's already doing it, considering it ignores 1/2 and 3/4 cover. The way I interpret his ability to deal more damage, it's like, he targets a specific, more lethat spot, like a headshot, which is why it's also easyer to miss. His ability to do so, also makes it kind of more accurate I guess.

If you really want to (I wouldn't) consider the reverce process, but with a +3 to hit and -6 to damage instead. Anything beyond +3 to hit breaks bounded accuracy a lot, and Archery already has some of the best possible to-hit ratio: Considering Archery FS, a +5 from Dex and +6 prof bonus it's already +13, wile most classes gain a maximum of +11 by themselves. Add to that the fact of stacking a magical +3 bow and magical +3 ammunition, which are usual for a high-level campain, it can make a total of +19 to hit. With an average score of 10-11, you get a total of 29-30 to your attack roll, wile the highest AC in the MM is 30. That means you practically get around 99% chance to hit everything in the book, and even against the highest ACs your chance is 50%, allowing to safelly abuse the Feat in question. Ofcource, magical amunition becomes mundane after use, but it's still a major balance issue, and allowing further buffing to your attack rolls would only break the balace totally.