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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next 5e homebrew weapons feats - review requested



Pyotrnator
2020-04-29, 11:30 PM
I'm GM-ing a 5e game in which I imposed a fair number of class and race restrictions at character creation to maintain the spirit of the setting (an import of Savage Worlds's Hellfrost setting into 5e) and the general desired campaign flavor.

I nonetheless want to give them some interesting options, so I decided to come up with some weapons feats to give some of the players more options. I'd like help tweaking, balancing, etc. these feats, as I've never done feat home-brew before. I want the feats to be of combat build-defining power, comparable to Great Weapon Master (GWM) or Polearm Master (PAM), but not notably more powerful than either. See spoilers below for first draft.

Three of the players decided upon their level 4 ASI / feat choice pretty much from the start, but the other two have yet to do so. As such, I'd still like to put some options in front of them. Class-wise, one of the two is a maul-wielding Battlemaster fighter, and the other is a battleaxe-and-shield Vengeance paladin.* For balance context, I expect this campaign to go to somewhere around level 12-15 at the highest, and multiclassing is disallowed.

For a bit of mechanical background, all characters are variant human, but, at character creation, I restricted Sharpshooter, PAM, and GWM to level 4 and up.

The following are my ideas for the two feats:


Feat Part 1
If an attack made with a maul misses by 5 or less, you may deal STR damage, as even a glancing blow with such a hefty weapon still harms one's foes.

Feat Part 2a
You may use your bonus action to attempt to trip an adjacent opponent to knock them prone, with DC = 8+STR+PROF, opposed by either STR or DEX. If an opponent is larger than you, it has advantage on the save. This bonus action can be taken before or after the attack action, or between separate attacks made as part of the attack action.

Part 2b
You may dedicate one of your attacks primarily to throwing an opponent off balance and impose disadvantage on their next save on this turn against being knocked prone by the bonus action granted in part 2a. Doing so imposes a -5 penalty to the attack.

Feat Part 3
This feat is mutually exclusive with Great Weapon Master.

Reasoning Overview
In addition to wanting this to be on par with GWM or PAM, I wanted to give the feat a neat use for one's bonus action. Also tied to the reasoning behind part 1 is that the player feels that he has terrible die rolls, so something that gives him partial hits would be quite handy in his perception.

Reasoning-Part 1
To determine the effectiveness of part 1, I set up a spreadsheet, and it looks like the expected damage of a given attack (averaged across the range of d20 rolls) becomes better than GWM at target AC greater than 12 + PROF (such that, GWM is better against AC less than 15 at PROF = 2, 16 at PROF = 3, etc. This Maul Mastery vs. GWM break-even target AC is independent of strength modifier or +X weapons). This Maul Mastery vs. GWM target AC break-even point can be adjusted by changing the miss threshold in part 1 (changing the miss threshold by 2 changes the Maul Mastery vs. GWM break-even AC by 1).

Reasoning-Part 2
I wanted to make the otherwise-similar weapons feel different from each other in a flavorful way, and using mauls to knock foes down felt very fitting. This is essentially the offensive portion of Shield Master, but with an additional option that I included to encourage the player to make at least one attack prior to the bonus action shove.

Reasoning-Part 3
I figured balance would be way, way harder and more complicated if this feat and GWM were both available to the same character.

Thoughts and Concerns
While I think that part 1 of this feat is reasonably well-balanced against the -5/+10 part of GWM and offers effective ways to tinker with the balance (aforementioned fiddling with the miss threshold, changing partial-hit damage from STR to 1d4 or 1d6, or things like that), I'm not as sure about how part 2 compares with the "kill an enemy to get a bonus action attack" part of GWM, and I don't know how to really quantify that. I'm not concerned about the complexity of this feat on the GM side, as the player is already in the habit of saying what his attack roll was (regardless of his assumptions about whether he missed or hit), and I trust him to remember to ask "does it miss by 5 or less?" until I'm in the habit of not needing him to ask.



Feat Part 1
Once per turn as part of an attack made using the attack action, you may attempt to weaken an opponent's defenses. Regardless of whether the associated attack hits or misses, the target must make a DEX saving throw, with a save DC = 8 + STR + PROF. You may impose disadvantage on the save by taking a -5 penalty to the associated attack. On failure, the target's AC is reduced by 2 for 1 hour. An opponent may only have their AC reduced in this fashion once at any given time.

Feat Part 2
As a bonus action, you may make an attack against an opponent whose AC has been reduced by part 1 of this feat as you seek the openings you made previously.

Reasoning Overview
The general theme for this feat is based on reading about how axes were used by Germanic peoples in warfare - in addition to hacking at one's enemies, they would be used to tug at one's enemies' shields to create openings for further attacks. As with the Maul Mastery, I wanted to to give some use for the bonus action, and, given that the player is a paladin, I wanted to make the bonus action an attack so that it'd behave more like PAM or GWM for Divine Smite purposes.

Reasoning-Part 1
This part of the feat was put together far more based on flavor than on intended balance, as I couldn't figure how to quantify it balance-wise. It's essentially equivalent to breaking an enemy's shield AC-wise, regardless of whether they actually have a shield. I made it a DEX save rather than a STR or CON save as I didn't want it to be nearly-useless against foes that would be powerful in the low magic setting, the vast majority of which would have high CON and high STR. Making it an AC adjustment ensures that additional book-keeping involved with this feat is entirely handled on the GM side, which I'm perfectly fine with.

Reasoning-Part 2
The bonus action attack is intended to not be universally available so as to distinguish its feel from that of the bonus action attack granted by PAM. The precise nature of the bonus action's restriction was made so as to synergize with the Vengeance Paladin's inherent preference to focus in on one enemy, rather than giving them an incentive to bounce around the battlefield slapping debuffs on everyone.

Thoughts and Concerns
I'm not sure how to evaluate how balanced part 1 of this feat is. I'm also worried that tying the bonus attack restriction in part 2 to the condition imposed by part 1 has the potential for the player to feel "this thing is worthless" every now and again when the foes have a string of good saving throws.

*The rest of the party consists of a rapier-using Mastermind rogue, a bow-using Samurai fighter, and a Sun Soul monk (flavored as a paladin of the very important god of the hearth).

Dragons_Ire
2020-05-01, 08:58 AM
They look fine to me. Perhaps a bit wordy, but I don't really see a way around that.

SpawnOfMorbo
2020-05-01, 01:53 PM
Bonus Action attack from battleaxe mastery should be base 1d4 or 1d6 damage to keep it in line with PAM and CE.

Segev
2020-05-01, 03:06 PM
They're probably...okay...but I think they're going to slow down play a fair bit with this many "how much did I miss by?" type effects.

I would suggest, for the maul, something like this:

Maul Mastery
Even glancing blows from your massive weapon can cause serious harm, and your mighty blows can knock foes off their feet.
When you attack with a maul and are not suffering Disadvantage, if you miss, you may make an attack as a bonus action against the same target that, if it hits, deals your Strength Modifier as bludgeoning damage.
When you attack with a maul with Disadvantage, if you miss, but the higher die would have hit, you still deal your Strength Modifiere in bludgeoning damage.
When you score a critical hit with a maul, the target must make a Strength saving throw against your total attack roll or become Prone.


For the axe, I know you want to simulate getting a shield out of the way, but 5e has generally tried to avoid bonuses and penalties to AC that come and go mid-combat. It doesn't always do this, but it tries. That said, in the spirit of what you described, I suggest the following:

Hooking Axe
You've trained to hook enemies shields, armor, and even limbs with your axe to pull them off balance and disrupt their defense, creating openings for yourself and others. When attacking with an axe, you may give up an attack to do one of the following:
Grant all attack rolls against the target advantage against the target of the attack until the start of your next turn.
Cause the target to provoke Opportunity Attacks.
If the target is carrying a shield, make an attack roll with your axe with a +2 bonus. If you hit, you deal no damage, but the target drops the shield on the ground in his space.[/list]

The first option lets you take advantage of your own opening on a second attack, should you have one. The second option not only enables your allies to spend their reactions to pile on, it also lets you spend your own reaction to make an opportuinty attack. This is also exploiting your own opening; you're effectively having to spend your Reaction to recover the attack you're giving up, but you're letting your allies get a free shot on him.

The third option is almost a ribbon, since it's so condition-specific, but expressly models what you were inspired by.

Against a normal foe who lacks a shield, if you've got Extra Attack, you would give up your first attack to grant Advantage on all attacks against him for the next round, and then, if you've got buddies on him with you, you would give up your second attack to force the target to provoke Opportunity Attacks. Then you and your buddies would all spend your reactions to take opportunity attacks against him, with advantage due to the first attack you gave up.