Unbalanced item

[intregus]

Hey playgrounders!

I was wandering what a lightsaber would be mechanically if you didn't think about it being balanced.

In otherwords if a real lightsaber just dropped into the 5e world how strong would it actually be. How would you represent it being able to cut through normal weapons and armor what would its damage die be(if any) I'm assuming it deals radiant damage and that both mithral and adamantine are resistant to the lightsaber.

Any thoughts?

[UnintensifiedFa]

I would say it does similar damage to that of “flame blade” or other similar blade conjuring spells, so like 2d8 or 3d8 with the special clause that it requires a dex save to avoid against 8+ability score+prof bonus. Similar to a touch attack from 3.5.

[NNescio]

Sun Blade, longsword (rare), DMG-pp.205–206.

(What, not good enough? Tack on advantage on every attack then — that's how 3.Xe touch attacks usually get translated into 5e.)

[Nagog]

I'd have it as a versatile longsword with similar effects to the Siege Monster traits, where it's more effective at destroying objects than most other weapons. As for damage type, I'd say it's half radiant, half flame. Damage dice would be something like 2d4/2d6.

As for hitting against an unarmored target, I think it'd be better to simply add a bonus to hit that doesn't apply to damage (as if you want to actively use this without completely breaking your game, you want it to be viable for things like dual-wielding without killing something immediately with the first hit). Perhaps a +3 to hit? Still isn't auto-hit and isn't as exploitable as Advantage (Rogue being able to sneak-attack without effort no matter the subclass), but still a great bonus.

[LordEntrails]

Second the SunBlade.

How would you represent it being able to cut through normal weapons and armor

But they don't. Not like a hot knife through butter. Unless you mean super cold butter that takes time to cut with any knife. Just think of all the movies where the lightsabre bounces off of whatever it strikes. Sure, it damages it, but it just doesn't cut it in half. It takes time to do that (think of Ben and dufus (pre-Vadar) cutting through the bulkhead on the trade ship).

Sure, it can lop off heads, but that's just flair/fluff that any blade can do if you get a good enough hit and do enough damage. I guess you could add in Sword of Sharpness abilities, but... not sure such is needed.

[Nagog]

Second the SunBlade.

But they don't. Not like a hot knife through butter. Unless you mean super cold butter that takes time to cut with any knife. Just think of all the movies where the lightsabre bounces off of whatever it strikes. Sure, it damages it, but it just doesn't cut it in half. It takes time to do that (think of Ben and dufus (pre-Vadar) cutting through the bulkhead on the trade ship).

Sure, it can lop off heads, but that's just flair/fluff that any blade can do if you get a good enough hit and do enough damage. I guess you could add in Sword of Sharpness abilities, but... not sure such is needed.

Seconded. Perhaps give it the Nat 20 ability of a Vorpal sword? If we're going for the insane weapon power scaling of Star Wars, may as well go all the way

[Lille]

Seconded. Perhaps give it the Nat 20 ability of a Vorpal sword? If we're going for the insane weapon power scaling of Star Wars, may as well go all the way

Maybe just give it a decent chance to cause some sort of persistent injury, perhaps based off of the table in the DMG? Because if we're trying to make a lightsaber, it has to have some method of removing people's hands.

[Nagog]

Maybe just give it a decent chance to cause some sort of persistent injury, perhaps based off of the table in the DMG? Because if we're trying to make a lightsaber, it has to have some method of removing people's hands.

XD YES. Finally, a way to "Disarm" a monk!

[NNescio]

XD YES. Finally, a way to "Disarm" a monk!

Follow up by defeeting them.

[intregus]

Thanks for the responses!

My thought process was the DMG has rules for futuristic plasma rifles, that I'm pretty sure were created with damage die relative to the weapons in the PHB so I was thinking what would a "real" lightsaber look like with throwing balance and caution to the wind.

Anytime a lightsaber can't cut straight through anything in the SW universe it's due to materials that resist lightsaber or very very dense metals(like in ep1 with qui gon taking time to melt through the blast doors).
So mithral, adamantine and magic items would resist lightsabers but a lightsaber would cut a normal sword or shield in half.

I was thinking you don't make attack rolls but the enemy makes a sex save vs a static number like 15. On a success they take no damage on a crit fail they die and on a normal failure I'm not sure. Damage of some sort or loss of limb?

Not too sure.

[Trickery]

The Sunblade works, but you can make it more unique if you like. One thing that doesn't exist anywhere else in the game, that I know of, is opposed saves.

Have attack rolls made by the weapon go against the target's Dex save. To save time, have opponents make one saving throw when the first attack is made and use that as their AC against subsequent attacks. That means that you don't block the lightsaber but instead you must dodge it. Note that the Dodge action gives you advantage on Dex saves.

The lightsaber shouldn't do fire or radiant damage. It should do Force damage, obviously. Get it together, people.

[Sigreid]

Thanks for the responses!

My thought process was the DMG has rules for futuristic plasma rifles, that I'm pretty sure were created with damage die relative to the weapons in the PHB so I was thinking what would a "real" lightsaber look like with throwing balance and caution to the wind.

Anytime a lightsaber can't cut straight through anything in the SW universe it's due to materials that resist lightsaber or very very dense metals(like in ep1 with qui gon taking time to melt through the blast doors).
So mithral, adamantine and magic items would resist lightsabers but a lightsaber would cut a normal sword or shield in half.

I was thinking you don't make attack rolls but the enemy makes a sex save vs a static number like 15. On a success they take no damage on a crit fail they die and on a normal failure I'm not sure. Damage of some sort or loss of limb?

Not too sure.

I like to fail mu sex saves myself. Hehe