Ironheart
2019-07-03, 01:57 AM
This thread is twofold in purpose-- have you had players who liked to focus on destroying their opponents possessions during combat? I feel that it's really difficult to do, but has great benefits such as destroying your opponents weapon, greatly reducing their damage, or even reducing their AC, which in a system where even just one or two points of AC can mean a great deal.
Purpose 1: I want to see impressions of balance to choices that pursue this route, inclding some feats I'll introduce. What classes and spells employ this tactic the best?
Purpose 2: Would you change how objects are handled, statwise?
What makes this style of play difficult? Well, most things worth destroying has 19+ AC- Not to mention that typically, a savvy DM will impose disadvantage. It's a called shot, after all, and since the object is moving and not stationary like the AC in the DMG suggests. This can merit some form of cover, making the AC even higher.
Another consideration DM's should make is how battle relevant objects (armor, weapons, magic items) are hardened and tempered to avoid this very tactic. This could mean a variety of things, particularly that some weapons would have resistance or high damage thresholds to particular types of damage. There's no real tables or values assigned to these things, so there's a lot of ambiguity.
Furthermore, damage dealt to an object during combat is not damage dealt to a creature, meaning that it makes combats more difficult, as even successful hits on arms and armor are effective attacks spent not reducing a creature to 0 HP.
I have a couple of feats that my DM and I cooked up to give options for players to avoid these problems, which I'll present. I'll then share a couple of thoughts concerning durability.
Master Armorer
Prerequisite: Proficiency with Smith’s Tools
You have a clear understanding of armor, and how to take it from your opponents.
-Increase your Dexterity by 1, to a maximum of 20.
-When you make an attack on your turn with a light weapon, you can forgo dealing damage to instead make a contested Dexterity (Smith’s Tools) against the target’s Dexterity (Acrobatics) check. If you are wielding a war pick, you make a Strength (Smith’s Tools) check instead. On a success, you subtract 1d4 from the target’s AC until they take time to don their armor again.
After a success, you are unable to perform this maneuver against the same target until you complete a short rest.
-Having levels of exhaustion no longer imposes disadvantage on ability checks that use your proficiency with Smith’s Tools.
Arms Smasher
-With a bonus action, you brace yourself to deal concussive blows, breaking both armor and bones. Whenever you deal damage to a creature, you can forgo adding your ability modifier to your damage rolls. If you do, you deal 1 + your ability modifier damage to an object held or worn by the creature.
- Your damage rolls ignore damage thresholds.
-When you make a melee attack against an object held or worn by a creature, you can add +2 to the attack roll.
One idea to add importance to being trained and prepared with your armaments would be to have your proficiency bonus apply as a damage threshold for your weapons and armor, although the cases where a someone wouldn't be proficient in their armaments would typically be far and few in between.
I also don't particularly like how damage thresholds are written up as damage immunity up to a certain point. having a threshold of 5 damage feels weaker than simply having 5 damage reduced from damage rolls.
What approaches would you all take to define the options for this style of play? Would you change how object durability is handled?
Purpose 1: I want to see impressions of balance to choices that pursue this route, inclding some feats I'll introduce. What classes and spells employ this tactic the best?
Purpose 2: Would you change how objects are handled, statwise?
What makes this style of play difficult? Well, most things worth destroying has 19+ AC- Not to mention that typically, a savvy DM will impose disadvantage. It's a called shot, after all, and since the object is moving and not stationary like the AC in the DMG suggests. This can merit some form of cover, making the AC even higher.
Another consideration DM's should make is how battle relevant objects (armor, weapons, magic items) are hardened and tempered to avoid this very tactic. This could mean a variety of things, particularly that some weapons would have resistance or high damage thresholds to particular types of damage. There's no real tables or values assigned to these things, so there's a lot of ambiguity.
Furthermore, damage dealt to an object during combat is not damage dealt to a creature, meaning that it makes combats more difficult, as even successful hits on arms and armor are effective attacks spent not reducing a creature to 0 HP.
I have a couple of feats that my DM and I cooked up to give options for players to avoid these problems, which I'll present. I'll then share a couple of thoughts concerning durability.
Master Armorer
Prerequisite: Proficiency with Smith’s Tools
You have a clear understanding of armor, and how to take it from your opponents.
-Increase your Dexterity by 1, to a maximum of 20.
-When you make an attack on your turn with a light weapon, you can forgo dealing damage to instead make a contested Dexterity (Smith’s Tools) against the target’s Dexterity (Acrobatics) check. If you are wielding a war pick, you make a Strength (Smith’s Tools) check instead. On a success, you subtract 1d4 from the target’s AC until they take time to don their armor again.
After a success, you are unable to perform this maneuver against the same target until you complete a short rest.
-Having levels of exhaustion no longer imposes disadvantage on ability checks that use your proficiency with Smith’s Tools.
Arms Smasher
-With a bonus action, you brace yourself to deal concussive blows, breaking both armor and bones. Whenever you deal damage to a creature, you can forgo adding your ability modifier to your damage rolls. If you do, you deal 1 + your ability modifier damage to an object held or worn by the creature.
- Your damage rolls ignore damage thresholds.
-When you make a melee attack against an object held or worn by a creature, you can add +2 to the attack roll.
One idea to add importance to being trained and prepared with your armaments would be to have your proficiency bonus apply as a damage threshold for your weapons and armor, although the cases where a someone wouldn't be proficient in their armaments would typically be far and few in between.
I also don't particularly like how damage thresholds are written up as damage immunity up to a certain point. having a threshold of 5 damage feels weaker than simply having 5 damage reduced from damage rolls.
What approaches would you all take to define the options for this style of play? Would you change how object durability is handled?