They're cases of the same situation. What happens when a character wields a magic weapon they have not identified
What happens when a character wields a magic weapon they have not identified and that weapon is just a flat bonus? What happens when a character wields a magic weapon they have not identified and that weapon is a flat bonus and passive effect? What happens when a character wields a magic weapon they have not identified and that weapon has a magical bonus, effect, and requires attunement?
What happens when a character wields a magic weapon they have not identified and that weapon has a magical bonus, no activated effect, and requires attunement?
As much as I'd like to see each of those individually, with metadata to correctly cross link and reference the answers in a neatly modular way... I think it might just be clutter.
@ColinGross maybe, but it's the stack friendly way of doing it. Multiple questions are multiple questions.
othertwise you end up with the issue we have right now, which is the related question is not fully answered by the selected answer. Multiple cases that aren't answered.
@NautArch If I took out the individual cases and left it as the bare bones 'What happens when I attack with an unidentified magic weapon?' would it be a better question? Or at least a more stack friendly question?
If my question is "How do I attack an enemy?", an answer could address things like 1. what to roll to attack 2. how to calculate attack bonus 3. how to calculate damage - so it's reasonable that the question text could have them as subquestions and be ok
While it would be kosher to post all 3 as separate questions, it's not necessary
@MikeQ Technically, that's not so much a multi-part question as a multi-part answer.
Basically, if you can condense it into a single question, then that's probably okay for one question. In your case, it would just be "what happens if I attack with an unidentified magic weapon"?
@ColinGross I'm not saying he should condense it into one question. Just that if it's able to be condensed into one question, then it should be fine as one post.
@NautArch It is the question I started with in chat. However, I was hoping to direct the answer to cover specific points, rather than giving a generic answer that might not address some of the specific differences between the cases.
@NautArch Yes. That was the much simpler case. I had also assumed that would be the question.
I thought the additional cases were interesting in their interaction with that specific question. I can't think of a good rubric for when to condense vs expand a question in order to ensure the edge cases are covered.
@ColinGross I'm interested in your "does the character know? no." certainty. In my D&D I think characters definitely notice if the rapier they picked up seems to find its home 5% more often than their practice with a rapier would lead them to expect. I think either is a reasonable way to run fantasy, of course, but I wonder if I've missed something instructive.
Updated it, but just ended up pushing the enumerations into the answer.
@nitsua60 I would say the character does not know it's magical, but if you're using a tool day in and day out, you get a pretty good feel for what an effective or nice one is like.
A proficient character should definitely be able to recognize some quality to the weapon when using it.
Like those hammers with tuning forks in the handles.
@ColinGross this feels very home-ruley to me and not supported by the rules. It's not necessarily wrong for your table, but that assumption seems wrong for the stack (but I may be alone in that feeling.)
@ColinGross So is your general approach to identify magical items to players, but ask that they not utilize that knowledge? If so, is that D&D rule or just a table rule?
@ColinGross Those are all tablerules for the situation, but I'm asking what the actual rule (if there is one) for how to do it (and I think that's what @user76690 wanted to know, but I could be wrong on that.)
One of my players has asked if he can have his character use a whip blade (i.e., a sword that transforms into a whiplike chain to deal damage at a distance). See here for a picture. Based on my discussions with him, he would like to start with this weapon.
Whip Blade
Martial Melee Weapon
...
And maybe something else to balance being able to change reach at will (but action cost may be enough - it's equivalent to dropping one weapon and taking out another using it)
@NautArch As you pointed out, the 'prevent all metagaming' position can get in the way of fun, and of using game mechanics to help the players figure some things out.
One of the better question titles I have seen in a while ...
I was reading 4chan's description of the exalted. In it while describing Sidereal exalted, it mentions punching someone so hard that they turn into a duck (before saying it makes more sense in context). I know White Wolf publishing has stories or story-like descriptions in almost all of their bo...
My players managed to invent Stealth-Elf-Bombers: elfs in TDE happen to have a 'turn into their soul animal' spell and our player elf also has the (for elfs) common 'chameleon' spell... and they happen to have alchemical napalm... and half a liter of that can be carried by a falcon..
@Yuuki That's taking the iron's purpose to be the purpose of the superclass of heating elements. An iron has a much more specific purpose. Specific beats general, right?
Yeah and if I was fluent I might be able to pick out a bit of Swedish but I'm not fluent. Just picked up a few words from a Danish gaming friend of mine
Tabaxi Barbarian 14, Monk 4, Fighter 2 Point Buy 15,14,15,8,10,8 -> 15,16,15,8,10,9 Barb 14 levels Totem Barb, Eagle (bonus action dash) ASI +1 STR, +1 CON Feat Mobile Feat Grappler Level 14 Totem: Eagle (movement converted to fly, but you fall if you end your turn in the air) Monk: 4 levels Open Hand ASI STR+2 > Unarmored Movement > Slow Fall, reduces falling damage by 20 for Monk 4. As a Sky Suplexer, you'll be falling a lot. Fighter 2 Action Surge
Have a Wizard willing to cast Longstrider and Haste on you and find a Boots of Speed during your adventure
> 30 ft > +10 ft Mobile > +10ft Barb movement (level 5) > +10ft Monk movement (level 2) > +10ft Longstrider > 70 ft > x2 Tabaxi racial > x2 Haste > x2 Boots of Speed > 560 ft --- > Regular Action - Dash > Regular Movement > Bonus Action Dash from lv3 Totem Eagle, (or Monk for 1 ki if you want to opt for a different lv3 totem) > Extra Action from Haste - Dash > Extra Action from Action Surge - Dash > Dragging someone you're grappling costs double movement
@NautArch I didn't find that being mentioned as a problem. The exhibition on conservation and research mentioned that they had some problems initially with the climate system, but otherwise?
@Anaphory THe problem is that the conservation technique they use (PEG, or polyethylene glycol) is great for conserving wood. But when it interacts with iron, it creates an acid. And they couldn't get all the iron out of the ship before conservation.
So the wood is preserved, but the it's also being eaten by the byproduct of the conservation.
@Anaphory Yeah, I read that they did recently. Is that work finished? But the other issue is that over time underwater, the iron leached into the wood. But maybe not enough to create further problems. I haven't kept up with since school.
I also found a few quite nice random free museums in the city. Like, Etnografiska was more interesting than Volkenkunde in my current home town of Leiden (would probably have been even better if the special exhibition on cultural norms had still been on), the medieval one under the parliament, and the exhibition on paper in the East Asia museum.
@NautArch It sounded like it's finished, or about to be. Iron interacting with the wood didn't seem to be a huge topic.
@0xFFF1 At level 20, what kinds of enemies are you fighting that you can drag around the battle field like that?
@NautArch I was 11 when we saw the Wasa museum in Stockholm. (early 1970's) While it was neat and all that, I don't think I appreciated it as much then as I would now.
last time I came in here asking about switching to hexblade- and I guess in the end my DM allowed it :0
but anyway so my character dual-wields shortswords- and there's a bit in the Hex Warrior paragraph about being able to use Charisma for a weapon instead of dex or strength
Im guessing this would only go for 1 weapon though- and so for only 1 shortsword
> "Whenever you finish a long rest, you can touch one weapon that you are proficient with and that lacks the two-handed property. When you attack with that weapon, you can use your Charisma modifier"
the text p much says /you can touch one weapon and channel the thing into it- and also when/if you pick blade-pact later this effect will extend to your pact weapon
> "If you later gain the Pact of the Blade feature, this benefit extends to every pact weapon you conjure with that feature, no matter the weapon's type."
The Hexblade Warlock has me in a bind.
Hex Warrior explains:
...whenever you finish a long rest, you can touch one weapon that you are proficient with that lacks the two handed property. When you attack with that weapon use your charisma modifier...
Pact of the Blade says:
you can us...
If they're both light weapons, then you can attack with both, and get the Charisma modifier as damage on both. So boost your Charisma all the way and you get a pretty decent damage output.
Granted, it's giving a similar result as Eldritch blast's damage, but in melee
I was just wondering whether I should consider switching to a glaive or something (not really feeling the greataxe or greatsword) later on in case the off-hand starts rolling all the misses haha
I guess I was just wondering if it was cheatsy to add all these charisma bonuses
i've been looking at a whole bunch of guides for bladelocks and I guess I'd already made my peace with scraping some bits together- and then I found the hexblade patron and now everything seems too good haha
even though I guess technically just going straight eldritch blast-build would still be better? oh well
@Nanisnae The damage output is comparable for the most part. If you multiclass effectively, hexblade takes the cake (damage wise) but EB is more versatile and gives you attacks from range (so you're safer)
yeah, Im still gonna have to have my character save up for a breast plate now- (maybe a shield??) but at least I got Armor of Agathys and Mirror Image in their arsenal?
but generally hitting hard seems to require a lot of set-up
still it seems fun to need to play strategically vs uh- casting eldritch blast a lot from range
it could very well bite me in the butt at some point but at least it'll have been a fun mess on the way there XD
One of my players has asked if he can have his character use a whip blade (i.e., a sword that transforms into a whiplike chain to deal damage at a distance). See here for a picture. Based on my discussions with him, he would like to start with this weapon.
Whip Blade
Martial Melee Weapon
...
The Hexblade Warlock has me in a bind.
Hex Warrior explains:
...whenever you finish a long rest, you can touch one weapon that you are proficient with that lacks the two handed property. When you attack with that weapon use your charisma modifier...
Pact of the Blade says:
you can us...
