If I had a magic wand....

[Skrum]

- All feats are half-feats (i.e., they grant a +1 bonus to an ability score of your choice). Current half-feats remain so, but the ability bonus can now be added to any ability score.
- Great Weapon Master and Sharpshooter are removed from the game.
- Any character, when making an attack roll with a weapon or unarmed strike, may take a penalty on the roll equal to their proficiency bonus. If the attack hits, it deals additional damage equal to twice their proficiency bonus.
Edit: heavy weapons get 3x damage bonus instead of 2x
- Polearm Master may be used with any melee weapon, and Crossbow Expert may be used with any ranged weapon. The bonus action attack granted by each of these feats can be used proficiency bonus/short rest.


================


I know not the hottest of takes. But I really like look of it. I'm personally tired of feeling obligated to take 1 of 5 or so feats for the first several levels of a character's career.

[Talamare]

Feels like generic opinions with generic, yet sloppy, fixes.

[Skrum]

Feels like generic opinions with generic, yet sloppy, fixes.

Ouch?

Honestly though "generic" is a little what I'm going for. Another word for generic in this context is "balanced" - there aren't a few options that are head and shoulders better than anything else.

I want to be able to take Defensive Duelist at 4th and not feel like I'm making bad choices for narrative purposes. Or a fighter who can take Fey Touched.


Curious to know what you think is sloppy about it though. What's getting left out.

[Waterdeep Merch]

Two problems immediately strike me:

1.) Two-handed weapons are definitively terrible once you give all the advantages of GWM to everyone.
2.) Two-weapon fighting is completely redundant.

While I agree that things could be better balanced, this sort of blanket fast rules have the unintended consequence of removing variety from the game. Ideally, each method of combat should have it's own advantages and disadvantages that measure out to roughly equivalent overall but superior in it's given niche. I'd start by considering what each form of combat ought to be better than all else at, and go from there.

[EggKookoo]

...some son of a lich would die.

[Skrum]

Two problems immediately strike me:

1.) Two-handed weapons are definitively terrible once you give all the advantages of GWM to everyone.
2.) Two-weapon fighting is completely redundant.

While I agree that things could be better balanced, this sort of blanket fast rules have the unintended consequence of removing variety from the game. Ideally, each method of combat should have it's own advantages and disadvantages that measure out to roughly equivalent overall but superior in it's given niche. I'd start by considering what each form of combat ought to be better than all else at, and go from there.

1) is def true - maybe two handed weapons get 3x damage instead of 2x

2) this I'm not seeing. PAM and CBE are only useable a few times per short rest. TWF is usable every round.

Honestly the more I think about it the more TWF sounds pretty dang attractive. Duel Wielder is quite a bit more attractive as a half-feat, you gain half the bonus of a shield, and a +2 damage bump over PAM - and obviously, an unlimited number of bonus action attacks. And the "generic" GWM works to add damage to your off-hand attack. I think this is closer to fixing TWF than making it redundant.

[Waterdeep Merch]

2) this I'm not seeing. PAM and CBE are only useable a few times per short rest. TWF is usable every round.

At the beginning, that's 2 attacks per short rest with a weapon that will surpass the damage potential of a TWF'er unless the TWF'er has both Dual Wielder and the TWF style, in which case they can just barely match it. Except the PAM user can also have a shield and the Dueling fighting style, which means even in the best of circumstances, the TWF player is behind in raw numbers twice a short rest. Eventually six times a short rest, which might as well read "always".

And when they're out of uses, the sword 'n boarder is still closer than they probably should be in damage potential, especially once Extra Attack hits at 5. +2 flat damage turns to +4, and even with the GWM effect on every possible swing, this means a TWF-user will only shine past this level in drawn out encounter days against low AC targets.


My advice? Ditch Dueling as a Fighting Style, only allow the GWM effect on two-handed weapons, and let TWF add offhand attacks on each normal attack. This very intentionally makes great weapons the best in class for damage with TWF not far behind (and superior in consistency against high AC targets), while single weapons are relegated to a defensive style, period. If you really want to go wild, perhaps there could be a fourth style that takes advantage of using a single-handed weapon with an open hand.

If you still like the GWM effect being on all weapons, perhaps change the multiplier according to the weapon and how it's wielded? Light weapons get 1x, one handed non-light weapons get 2x, and great weapons 3x (as you suggested). Easy to remember and utilize, offers dynamic utility to your combat.

[Skrum]

- snip -

Yah I think there's a lot of wisdom in that - directionally, I like the TWF and THF >> in damage than SAB. I'd have to think about the exact values, but yah, I think that's a good move.

If those damage changes are made, I like the idea of making shield bashes part of the basic kit - something like "you can make shove attempts with your shield." The Shield Master feat would still have value in its bonus attack shove (and its other effects that are frankly better than the shove anyway), but giving defensively minded characters a little something besides +2 AC seems worthwhile.

[Waterdeep Merch]

Yah I think there's a lot of wisdom in that - directionally, I like the TWF and THF >> in damage than SAB. I'd have to think about the exact values, but yah, I think that's a good move.

If those damage changes are made, I like the idea of making shield bashes part of the basic kit - something like "you can make shove attempts with your shield." The Shield Master feat would still have value in its bonus attack shove (and its other effects that are frankly better than the shove anyway), but giving defensively minded characters a little something besides +2 AC seems worthwhile.

I'm all for tactical dynamism, and adding these things to the basic abilities of a weapon set can help reward players that want to switch their equipment according to what they're facing instead of marrying to a form. One of the things I don't like about the core combat styles is that you're pressed into mastering one and punished for branching out, requiring multiclassing and/or burning precious feats just to be competent at more than one thing. Removing that kind of specializing, or at least reducing it, while keeping each form tactically distinct would be my preference.

[kazaryu]

I know not the hottest of takes. But I really like look of it. I'm personally tired of feeling obligated to take 1 of 5 or so feats for the first several levels of a character's career.

then...don't feel obligated to take those feats. you're not. you can viably play a martial character without great weapon master (even using heavy weapons) or sharpshooter. and you can viably play a caster without taking warcaster/resiliant (con). that is, unless you exclusively play in high lethality game where optimization is neccesary. in which case...it doesn't matter what changes you make, there will still, always, be optimal choices that you're pressured to take. removing 1 choice, just means you're stuck with a different one

[Skrum]

then...don't feel obligated to take those feats. you're not. you can viably play a martial character without great weapon master (even using heavy weapons) or sharpshooter. and you can viably play a caster without taking warcaster/resiliant (con). that is, unless you exclusively play in high lethality game where optimization is neccesary. in which case...it doesn't matter what changes you make, there will still, always, be optimal choices that you're pressured to take. removing 1 choice, just means you're stuck with a different one

There's truth to that, for sure. But - I think the spread could be a lot narrower. The half-feat thing alone would be huge. I have several characters that don't have GWM or SS, and I'd call them pretty optimized. But Skill Expert is really common across ALL of my builds because it's a universal half-feat, and getting to the 18 in my main stat is very important. Expertise and an extra skill are really nice, but it's really about the +1 to a stat. I would love to be able to swap that for something less used, like Charger, Healer, Defensive Duelist, etc. But they aren't half feats and are thus distinctly worse.

Giving everyone "GWM and SS" further removes the pressure to auto-take those feats. Martial characters are supposed to be about damage. So they should be able to do damage. They don't natively do a ton of other stuff, so making damage a base part of their kit and not something they have to spend resources on is an improvement, and ultimately, should lead to more build choices.

[Ulsan Krow]

Half feat everything? That sounds like it can really cap the design space for feats to be honest.

[Skrum]

Half feat everything? That sounds like it can really cap the design space for feats to be honest.

In what way? Just make the feat do whatever you want it to do, and also include +1 to an ability score of your choice. Feats already compete with ASI's, so the comparison is there. And if every feat gets +1, then it's a wash in terms of comparing feats to other feats.