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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Meaningful damage types: weapons



BerzerkerUnit
2021-03-23, 11:19 PM
Many of the energy types have specific values: psychic/force- rarely resisted, thunder -seems- to do a better job damaging objects (mostly a 3.5 holdover in the Shatter spell). Fire and Acid stop regen, water elementals having a specific weakness to cold, etc.

But melee damage has, as far as I can tell, exactly 1 instance of mattering: Skeletons are vulnerable to bludgeoning.

I definitely don't want to go back to charts for how different damage types stack up against different armors. But now I look at the Slasher etc feats from Tasha's and I think maybe there's a solution in there for broad applicability.

Here we go:

All slashing weapons can reduce a target's speed 1/turn and impose disadvantage to attacks on a crit. This makes them a prime choice for tanks or martial controllers and immediately adds threat to claw attacks and a lot of skirmishing enemies allowing them to pin down a barbarian provided they want to go 4 to 1 on them (which is still a Barbarian doing their job).

All bludgeoning weapons can 5ft shove on a hit (so weird with a sling but sure) 1/turn and grant advantage to attacks against the target on a crit. Also a solid choice for tanks and martial controllers.

Piercer was the only place I felt the need for a deviation. While the damage bump from the reroll was nice, I felt it got in the way of Savage Attacker and GWFighting style (for Pikes). So here's the fix:

All piercing weapons reduce the healing a target receives by 1/2 until the beginning of your next turn and can roll one additional weapon die of damage on a crit. This goes to how punctures are more prone to infection, can damage soft tissues normally protected by the ribs, shoulder blades etc.

This makes it a good choice when fighting Regenerating foes or those backed up by a healer. It doesn't prevent the healing, but slows it down. It also adds threat and another level of tactics to healing since you'd want to time heals around hits with arrows or bites.

I think this is basically a straight martial buff that most casters would really struggle to benefit from. Any thoughts on broader implications or insight into the likelihood of this scaling far too harshly against the PC's would be appreciated.