Stone Weaponry

[Sparky McDibben]

Hey guys, I'm thinking of a very low-tech setting variant in my world, where the only martial weapons are actually made of stone instead of metal. I came up with this weapon trait:

"Fragile. This weapon can be easily damaged. After you score a critical hit, this weapon's damage die is reduced by one size (from d10 to d8, for example). If this would reduce the weapon below a d4, it is destroyed."

This would only be in play for a few levels (maybe only tier 1) until they could loot regular weapons. The whole point is to underline just how disadvantaged this region is in comparison to "base D&D."

What are your thoughts?

[Zhorn]

It's an idea.

Personal preference for equipment damage has been to just apply the mechanics used for Grey Oozes (MM, p243) and Rust Monsters (MM, p262).
If going to add an extra part to the game, building off existing mechanics first generally helps dodge over-complicating things.

[Corran]

You could make it happen on a critical miss, so that your players wont have mixed feelings about their critical hits.

[Haydensan]

You could make it happen on a critical miss, so that your players wont have mixed feelings about their critical hits.

I think this a much better idea.

The OP would completely rule out being an assasin and would make champion very unfavourable. Even advantage might be something you stray away from.

[BloodSnake'sCha]

I think damage thresholds are better option.

It feel bad to get a penalty for scoring a critical hit.

Make it after rolling damage equal to 3-4 times the dice size(only rolls) or after hitting a number of attacks equal the dice.

So after 12 hits with a d12 weapon you will have 10 hits of a d10, after that 8 hits of a d8, 6 hits of a d6 and 4 hits of a d4.

Make a 2d6 be 6 hits to become a d10.

That is my best idea.

Edit: make simple weapon have half the hp of a martial one.

[Nikushimi]

It wouldn't nullify the Assassin or the Champion at all.

Like the OP said, this would only be for the beginning area until they can loot actual weapons to showcase the difference in technology that there is. So you won't be stuck with stone weapons the entire game. You can still utilize the critical hits of those classes.

Personally, I actually like this idea of a weapon "cracking" and eventually breaking completely. Especially since it's a stone weapon.

The fact that it only "cracks" on a critical hit makes more sense than on a critical miss. Hell, I'd even argue to make it crack when both happen. Why? Because if you hit so hard with a stone weapon (critical hit) it's going to crack not only itself but what it hits as well. Same with if you miss so badly you mess up your hit and either hit something it shouldn't or hit wrong (critical miss) and thus end up damaging the weapon.

So, I say that this would be a fine house rule and it makes sense in a way.
----

Though another suggestion. Albeit, a more brutal one...sort of? Depending on how you view it I suppose.

Weapon Death Saving Throws

You heard me right. Give the stone weapons Death Saving throws.

Each time they score a Critical Hit or a Critical Miss either roll it secretly or have the player roll against a Base DC of 10. On a failure it cracks. On a success it is fine. Each "Crack" however increases the difficulty of the DC by 3.

The first crack makes the next DC 13.
The second crack makes the next DC a 16.
The third and final crack breaks the weapon, shattering it.

This gives the player a way to save their weapon if the DC is made, and will also allow them to continue using it if it does crack, at least for a while until they put it under too much stress and it cracks.

I like this method and the method the OP chose. Makes things interesting for stone weapons.

[Sparky McDibben]

It's an idea.

Personal preference for equipment damage has been to just apply the mechanics used for Grey Oozes (MM, p243) and Rust Monsters (MM, p262).
If going to add an extra part to the game, building off existing mechanics first generally helps dodge over-complicating things.


You could make it happen on a critical miss, so that your players wont have mixed feelings about their critical hits.


I think this a much better idea.

The OP would completely rule out being an assasin and would make champion very unfavourable. Even advantage might be something you stray away from.

Thanks for the input, y'all! So, the point of the design is to underline that things are bad in this part of the world. They're so bad that even when something good happens, it's only a brief respite. The reason behind that is for the PCs to be motivated to seek out better stuff and improve their position. To balance things out, stone weapons would be a helluva lot cheaper, so you could always go barter for a new one, or even build one yourself, if you forage for the right materials.

[Cikomyr]

Just scale everything forward.

It's an idea I had for a DnD adaptation of the Grim Dawn video game. Scrap metal weapons are standard weapons from the PhB. In your case, stone weapons are the standard.

Then you start to get more technologically advanced or industrially made real weapons, these are +1, +2 ****s. Add even +1d4 bleeding properties for perfectly honed weapons until they are blunted.

+3 weapons are truly masterwork steel product.

And voila. You can have your players experience living a low tech discovering high metalurgy.

[N810]

Here's some ideas from a darksuns campaign.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:UDC4NouB7jYJ:https://dmdave.com/dark-sun-equipment-currency-5e/+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

it's toward the middle of the page.