Anyone remember my OP hammer? Well I think I need to tone it down.

[Kwinza]

Hi all.

Some of you might remember that my DM let my Goliath Barb character use a large +1 thunder maul which deals 4d6 + 1d6 dmg.
Well, after a few more weeks of gaming I think its too OP. No one is complaining, in fact they find it funny, which is nice. But I want to be mindful to let other players shine too, and since my avg dmg is roughly double theirs, I feel the weapon needs a change.

I was thinking I'd propose something like this;

Name: Thunderous Fury
Weapon type: +1 Maul
Size: Medium
Dmg: 2d6 bludgeoning + 1d6 Thunder
Special Effects: While raging you gain +4 to strength, this bonus stacks with all other sources but can't exceed 30.
Special Attack: Thunderous Fury has 3 charges, you can expend 1 charge to use and action to slam then hammer into the ground in front of an enemy, dealing 3d6 thunder damage to all creatures in a 30 foot cone. Each creature effected by this damage must succeed a constitution save or get knocked back 10 feet and fall prone. Thunderous Fury regains 1d3 charges per day.

Character level is currently 8 so if you think that needs toning up or down, I'd love to hear some ideas?

[DrowPiratRobrts]

Hmm...I think I like the second version better. By that I mean that if I was a Barb and got a choice, I'd probably pick up the second one without thinking. In general I think that the way to avoid making other players jealous/allowing them to shine is to specialize in being good at one or two things that you do better than anyone. Most players will be okay with that. When you're better at many things than anyone else, problems are more likely to arise.

Let's compare, assuming you've listed what your DM's version of the hammer does fully.

Old Maul:

+1 Maul dealing 4d6+1d6 damage


New Maul:

+1 Maul dealing 2d6+1d6 damage
Effectively becomes a +3 Maul while raging in addition to boosting your Strength and Athletics checks/saves.
3 times/day 30 foot cone AoE for 3d6 with no save
3 times/day 30 foot cone AoE Knockback for 10 ft with a save


One of these Mauls is not like the other...As in the new Maul is vastly superior. You're giving up 2d6 damage per hit to get some insanely useful combat abilities. Also, the 2d6 you give up gets you access to a 30 ft CONE AoE that does 3d6 with no save. A 30 ft cone is massive. Maybe you meant a 15 ft cone to be in line with a Dragonborn's breath weapon? Either way, the area of this effect combined with the lack of a save for half or no damage means that this alone is worth giving up 2d6 on every normal hit through a regular adventuring day. You could quite easily use this to do 36d6 damage with three charges in one day (that's only a total of 12 enemies hit between three uses). Plus you get caster level CC. Plus it's a +3 hammer when raging. Plus...Plus...Plus...

I think this weapon would be really fun to play with, but if someone in my party had this I'd be yearning for the days when they were just doing more dpr than everyone and it was a funny, if not poetic, motif and running joke. The second hammer makes you really good at several things in combat (Single target damage, AoE damage, AoE CC, Strength saves, grappling, athletics, you get my point) while the first hammer makes you really really good at one specific thing in combat (Single target, at-will damage). Specialization is better.

[Kwinza]

Ok, clearly I am anti-good at weapon design.

But thank you for the input, what would you do to balance the hammer? Or just leave it as it is since you said, im only good at 1 thing, single target dmg?

[MaxWilson]

Hi all.

Some of you might remember that my DM let my Goliath Barb character use a large +1 thunder maul which deals 4d6 + 1d6 dmg.
Well, after a few more weeks of gaming I think its too OP. No one is complaining, in fact they find it funny, which is nice. But I want to be mindful to let other players shine too, and since my avg dmg is roughly double theirs, I feel the weapon needs a change.

I was thinking I'd propose something like this;

Name: Thunderous Fury
Weapon type: +1 Maul
Size: Medium
Dmg: 2d6 bludgeoning + 1d6 Thunder
Special Effects: While raging you gain +4 to strength, this bonus stacks with all other sources but can't exceed 30.
Special Attack: Thunderous Fury has 3 charges, you can expend 1 charge to use and action to slam then hammer into the ground in front of an enemy, dealing 3d6 thunder damage to all creatures in a 30 foot cone. Each creature effected by this damage must succeed a constitution save or get knocked back 10 feet and fall prone. Thunderous Fury regains 1d3 charges per day.

Character level is currently 8 so if you think that needs toning up or down, I'd love to hear some ideas?

If you want to tone it down, just reduce the damage from 4d6 + 1d6 to something less like 2d6 + 1d6. No need to give it extra features to compensate.

But if no one is complaining, I wouldn't worry too much about it yet. You're still just a melee bruiser, and if you go up against a flying target like a Peryton or a dragon, you're going to need help from other PCs to stay relevant (e.g. a Fly spell, or someone else to knock the flier out of the sky). Your niche right now is "I do lots of melee damage" and if the other players and the DM are fine with that, they probably don't consider that niche to be the whole of the game.

[DeTess]

How about a +2 maul, no bonus damage, that casts thunderwave 3-5 times per day?

[Throne12]

Hi all.

Some of you might remember that my DM let my Goliath Barb character use a large +1 thunder maul which deals 4d6 + 1d6 dmg.
Well, after a few more weeks of gaming I think its too OP. No one is complaining, in fact they find it funny, which is nice. But I want to be mindful to let other players shine too, and since my avg dmg is roughly double theirs, I feel the weapon needs a change.

I was thinking I'd propose something like this;

Name: Thunderous Fury
Weapon type: +1 Maul
Size: Medium
Dmg: 2d6 bludgeoning + 1d6 Thunder
Special Effects: While raging you gain +4 to strength, this bonus stacks with all other sources but can't exceed 30.
Special Attack: Thunderous Fury has 3 charges, you can expend 1 charge to use and action to slam then hammer into the ground in front of an enemy, dealing 3d6 thunder damage to all creatures in a 30 foot cone. Each creature effected by this damage must succeed a constitution save or get knocked back 10 feet and fall prone. Thunderous Fury regains 1d3 charges per day.

Character level is currently 8 so if you think that needs toning up or down, I'd love to hear some ideas?

Drop the aoe damage down to 2d6 Thunder damage. Give it a Str save if they fail they take full damage and pushed back. If they pass they take half damage and is not pushed. Get rid of the rage bonuses it feels to min/max shenanigans crap. Leave the +1 and call it a day.

[DrowPiratRobrts]

Ok, clearly I am anti-good at weapon design.

But thank you for the input, what would you do to balance the hammer? Or just leave it as it is since you said, im only good at 1 thing, single target dmg?

No problem, happy to try and help you think through everything. I personally don't see an issue with leaving it as is if everyone is enjoying it. Maybe ask everyone candidly if they like you doing tons of damage. My guess is that the players will say yes because they can rely on you to do what you do and do it really well.

For instance, the Goliath rogue in my party has had 20 Str and 18 Dex since level 1 because we rolled stats. We're all good with that because he's got +11 to Athletics and +10 to Stealth and +9 or so to Intimidation and Deception. He's really good at being the physical specimen who's really intimidating. We love the moments when he says: "Okay Athletics? With advantage? I rolled a 9. So...that's a 20." We all just grin with him and turn to our DM, daring him to tell us that Krawgg pulls the stunt off with anything less than the most excellent form. It's made for some pretty hilarious moments, including him running fast enough to go up a 15 ft wall by just running up it without using his hands (rolled a 31 to scale the wall, so I mean come on...that's the stuff of legends).

Tangents aside, your DM likely doesn't mind either since that's where the weapon came from and it seems to be made for you specifically.

IF they do mind then you might suggest either taking 1-2d6 off the damage as a straight nerf or to rebalance it by going down to 2d6+1d6 and 1 time per day you can slam the hammer on the ground dealing a 2d6 thunder to anyone within either a 10 ft radius, knocking them prone if they fail a DC 12 Dex/Str save. I haven't crunched any numbers on that, but it seems to me at first glance like a much better change to keep the hammer around the same level of potency.

[Deox]

How about a +2 maul, no bonus damage, that casts thunderwave 3-5 times per day?

Almost exactly where I was going with it:

Thunderous Fury, Rare (requires attunement, maul)
You gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. In addition, this magic weapon has 3 charges. While wielding it, you can use an action and expend 1 charge to release a wave of booming, thunderous force. Each creature in a 15-foot cube originating from you is affected by the Thunderwave spell.

The maul regains 1d3 expended charges daily at dawn.