@NautArch Well that's something I'm trying to gauge. I'm trying to tune the homebrew to identify outliers in terms of overall weapon power. A +4/-2 dagger can seem pretty fancy, but if you're better off with the (automatically determined to be of equivalent rarity) +1 dagger instead, then it begs an important question about whether the assumptions about that item's quality are valid.
Because in my homebrew, a +4/-2 Dagger and a +1 Dagger both rate as an "Uncommon Major Magic Item". If it's much better than that, then I should be rating it as Rare. If it's worse than that, I should be rating it as "Common".
@NautArch Definitely a valid point. I'm generally not too bothered by that kind of stuff because both in paper and in roll20, I just write down the aggregate modifiers, i.e. I'm not writing +7+4 to hit, 1d4+3-2 damage, I just write down +11 to hit, 1d4+1 damage.
A problem I see with the +X/-Y weapons is that they are making play even less exiting. Reliably hitting for a small amount of damage is more monotonous. Making hitting things with your stick less varied isn't making good use the design space for magic items.
@Xirema Yeah, i had that, too. But at that point in my character's life i knew it's stats and rarely referenced things. But I'd been using my +3 weapon for a long time before it became +3/+1. So it was just hard to keep track of it.
@Someone_Evil Well, I'm gauging a whole range of +-/+- weapons to see what stands out. The +10/-5 was the only one that immediately stood out, since -5/+10 is basically just GWM without the feat.
The Pact of the Chain warlock gets the following benefit:
Additionally, when you take the Attack action, you can forgo one of your own attacks to allow your familiar to make one attack with its reaction.
If I have 3 familiars running havoc from the Flock of Familiars spell (Lost Laboratory ...
@JohnP That doesn't translate well to those of us to whom basketball was something that happened on a different continent. (I had to google layup, but I still don't know what your point is)
@Someone_Evil "Something unreliable but flashy is more exciting than something that's more reliable but boring, even if they're both worth the same # of points"
they are both worth two points. Nobody cares about the layup because it's boring. Slam dunks are exciting. Players will prefer exciting damage over mundane even if it is the same amount. "I hit you with a stick repeatedly for 22 damage." or "I hit you with a stick that BURST INTO GLORIOUS FLAMES" for 22 damage.
I am, naturally, toying around with a few -1/+2 or -2/+4 weapons, but I think I would need to treat those as especially powerful. It's increasingly clear that in principle, +1hit < +1damage.
@JohnP That might be getting at a different problem/aspect. I'm talking about hitting every time for 5, or hitting half the time but for 10. The 10s are more exciting (and will mean less number tracking for the DM, which is nice)
@Xirema I personally think +X is better as +1dY, because rolling more dice is fun.
if you have multiple situational save bonuses do they stack if they all apply in 1 situation like if you have a +2 will save against charm and compulsion illusions and enchantments +2 will save against all mind affecting spells, and +2 will save bonus that applys to everything
@JohnP Behold, it is Mithrillini, the legendary war noodle. Crafted from enchanted flour, it has the durability of steel and the rigidity of boiled pasta. You have a +10 bonus to attack rolls and -5 to damage rolls made with this magic weapon.
Or if others feel like they are, then they can vote as such.
At the end of the day it's "the spellt alks about using my hands, do they need to be free for that?" WHich is why I asked, but they are different spells.
> Chaos Longsword: Martial Weapon, Melee, Major, Artifact Once during your turn, when you hit an enemy with this weapon, you may deal an additional 1d4 damage for each of the following damage types: Fire, Cold, Acid, Poison, Psychic, Force, Thunder, Lightning, Radiant, Necrotic
The Flaming Raging Poisoning Sword of Doom has nothing on this bad boy.
There was some discussion a few weeks ago about adding weapons that innately have the "Expanded critical range" of Champion Fighters or the "increased crit dice" of Barbarians, which mostly just resulted in observations that both of those features are pretty lamesauce in terms of overall power (although weapons with those properties could benefit an actual Barbarian a fair amount).
@MikeQ Well those at least have some added excitement. If your crits result in rolling 10 dice, you're probably more excited by that than just adding +2 to every hit, crit or not.
> On a hit, roll 1d20. The number of damage dice is equal to this number. Once the damage is resolved, physically destroy the dice.
Actually, now that I'm thinking about it....
> Rusting EdgeMelee Martial Weapon, Major, Legendary This weapon's damage dice is 4d8. Every time you make a hit with this weapon, roll a d20. On a 1, this weapon loses 1d8 from its damage dice. When it loses all these dice, the weapon disintegrates into rusted metal dust.
The Cubic Gate (DMG, p. 160) says:
The six sides of the cube are each keyed to a different plane of existence, one of which is the Material Plane. The other sides are linked to planes determined by the DM.
I'm the DM in this situation, and I've decided which planes the cube is linked to. Ho...
The other one I'm presently thinking about is the Shadow Blade spell, but as a template to apply to regular weapons.
> Shadow [Weapon]Melee Martial Weapon, Major, <rarity> This weapon deals Psychic damage instead of its normal damage type. When you attack with this weapon and you are in Dim Light or Darkness, your attack rolls are made with Advantage.
Not sure what the Rarity should be on such a weapon though.
I'm tempted to say Rare, but the problem is that the weapon is objectively worse than an actual Shadow Blade, itself a level 2 spell. So higher uptime + worse damage = what?
@JohnP how legal is this link that you are sharing? It seems to be uploaded by a private entity including issues as recent as 2007. IANAL but that seems fishy to me.
I'm not honestly sure even if it isn't legal, how much of an issue it is. Just wanted to see if you had any insight.
user15026
11:47 PM
@Rubiksmoose Archive.org is always a little tricky. It's Internet Archive and they basically say everything they have should be public domain or CC licensed to be there (or other licences that allow for redistribution) but I know there've been problems in the past with people uploading stuff to IA that they technically didn't have the rights for
user15026
(I know more about their internet archiving than their print etc. archiving, though)
In the Dungeons and Dragons 5e Monster Manual, the gnoll statblock lists their language as Gnoll. However, in Volo's Guide to Monsters, the section on gnolls indicates that they communicate with
howls, whines, gestures and a broken form of Abyssal. (emphasis mine)
Is there any other docume...
The Pact of the Chain warlock gets the following benefit:
Additionally, when you take the Attack action, you can forgo one of your own attacks to allow your familiar to make one attack with its reaction.
If I have 3 familiars running havoc from the Flock of Familiars spell (Lost Laboratory ...
The Cubic Gate (DMG, p. 160) says:
The six sides of the cube are each keyed to a different plane of existence, one of which is the Material Plane. The other sides are linked to planes determined by the DM.
I'm the DM in this situation, and I've decided which planes the cube is linked to. Ho...
In the Dungeons and Dragons 5e Monster Manual, the gnoll statblock lists their language as Gnoll. However, in Volo's Guide to Monsters, the section on gnolls indicates that they communicate with
howls, whines, gestures and a broken form of Abyssal. (emphasis mine)
Is there any other docume...
