*links below, but here's a summary of the comments so far: - crit & high damage is too rare... - remove crit req, change damage req to d6, and/or expand crit range (19-20) - the piercing/slashing effects are too harsh (? sort of contradicts first point about how rarely these happen) - tie bludgeoning effects to user's size - these only help powerful weapons (yes, I mention that I have other ideas for weaker weapons!) 💥 Only Crits (affiliate): www.onlycrits.com/bobworldbuilder 💥 Features write-up: www.reddit.com/user/bobbness/comments/ukhc0y/damage_type_weapon_features/ ✅ PATREON: www.patreon.com/bobworldbuilder

@mella4376

2 жыл бұрын

Not necessarily a contradiction: something very unreliable that has massive consequences can make for extremely swingy variance, which isn't to everyone's taste

@Klijpo

2 жыл бұрын

It might be worth revisiting the old weapon based feats from the UA a few years back (that evolved into the Crusher, Piercer, and Slasher), but adding them to weapon as a default, rather than requiring a feat spend

@GunarBastos

2 жыл бұрын

Altough you clarified, the popular belief that "removing a limb" would include head. It is better for clarification to include that vitals organs/limbs/appendages cannot be removed this way.

@joemacleod-iredale2888

2 жыл бұрын

Applying these to D6 weapons will make the effect actually more likely on smaller weapons (1 in 6 on a d6, 1 in 8 on a d8) which makes no sense. Crits aren’t that rare so this will likely happen every fight or two and rewards martial characters who get a bit dull at higher levels. Should only apply if user has proficiency. Separate rules for missile weapons perhaps? I’d also suggest that only bludgeoning can do non lethal damage. Excited to hear the ideas for smaller weapons!

@codyanzil2286

2 жыл бұрын

In regard to effects to harsh, which is a contradiction for how rare they are. As a barbarian player, high damage and crits both to the monsters and players are not that rare because everything has advantage. XD. I can tell you even not as a barbarian, I've been crit a lot (3 times in one night once as a paladin) And as a barbarian oh boy... reckless attack becomes the worst possible idea against ANY monster that does slashing. Piercing damage exhaustion might be strong but losing limbs? Good bye movement speed. Goodbye greataxe. Goodbye bardy mcfly's flying speed because he just lost a wing. Because it's not just 1d12 to hack off a limb. It's a crit, so it's 2d12. so it's a higher chance to get a 8. Weapons like greatsword and maul might suffer from being 6's. But halberds, glaives, battleaxes, longswords and great axes are within the d10 range. Plus to on the monsters side. landing maybe an 8 or higher might seem less likely. But monsters tend to roll multiple damage dice. And not just like a frost giant who is rolling in with like 6d12 on a crit but smaller monsters like bug bears and half ogres also roll multiple damage dice when attacking and their cr is just 1. Monsters suffer dice in the fight they are in. Players suffer it the entire campaign. The bludgeoning and piercing penalties I feel aren't too too harsh. Bludgeoning can be scary in the moment; piercing can stack horribly but recoverable on rest. Slashing damage unless you have an artificer in the party or high level healing I feel is just too permanent in it's punishment. Just fruit for thought, obviously when it comes to homebrew you can always change, tweak, or do what feels right. If players like the idea go for it. ^^ Hope this was insightful at least. Keep on building bob, we all love your takes and videos.

I would change the restriction on creature size so it scales with your size. For piercing the creature needs to be at most 2 sizes bigger than you and for other 2 only at most 1 size bigger. Because if you're larger you naturally need larger and heavier weapon to be effective in combat

@HWHY

2 жыл бұрын

Good eye; truth scales.

@gabef9538

2 жыл бұрын

Use weapon size not character size. Let the party knock stalagmites on something very most biggest.

@BobWorldBuilder

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah this is a good move!

@TheWiseMountainGoat

2 жыл бұрын

Scaling by your size accounts for abilities and spells that change your size. A dwarf understandably may not cleave off a frost giant arm, but an enlarged rune knight could.

@Trelmoz

2 жыл бұрын

Yup. I was going to comment the exact same thing. Good thinkin'.

A quote from the Crusher feat added in Tasha's: "Once per turn, when you hit a creature with an attack that deals bludgeoning damage, you can move it 5 feet to an unoccupied space, provided the target is no more than one size larger than you." May be worth considering.

@zsDUGGZ

2 жыл бұрын

My problem with the weapon feat in Tasha's is the fact they are feats. I would love to see those mechanics to be baked into the core mechanics so you wouldn't be forced to be using one type of physical damage

@PlaneswalkerTARDIS

2 жыл бұрын

I think it could be added that all of the crit effects just become part of the core weapon rules

@pinguin4898

Жыл бұрын

this feat makes monks ridiculous dancers

@EricZakh

Жыл бұрын

@@zsDUGGZ Yeah. They should really be native to the weapons rather than be dependent on how many feats/ASI's your class gets.

@ocelotopus7070

Жыл бұрын

My idea was to let them stack. Players could get the feat (which there can be multiple options on getting feats depending on dm) and stack together the feats from Tasha's and these features of the weapons. Ie: if the player scored the requirement for Bob's rule and also had the crusher feat, then they could move the target 10 feet.

Battle Masters add a d8 to many of their attacks. They could get many of these effects with a dagger or other light weapons. If that is intended, cool. If not, it needs to be considered.

@BobWorldBuilder

2 жыл бұрын

A happy side effect!

@sylph4252

2 жыл бұрын

Whoa, that's cool. Seems fitting, but might require balancing to avoid stacking powerful effects

@sci7zo

2 жыл бұрын

if anyone would know how to use a dagger to wedge into an armor joint to puncture a lung, it would likely be a battlemaster or a rogue. So it makes sense but it definitely causes some power balance concerns. The Battlemaster is already one of the most viable martial options because of its flexibility. This would definitely dwarf other base fighter and barbarian classes. But I don't think it would stop players from picking them.

@devin5201

2 жыл бұрын

BM's whole deal is knowing how to fight better than anyone so it kinda makes sense, where it really gets wild is with Paladin and Bladelock since they can be throwing a billion d8's on a crit... well smite requires spell slots so ya know what, acceptable.

@hieronymusnervig8712

2 жыл бұрын

Battle master dice aren't weapon damage dice. If we include non-weapon damage dice, there's ton of classes & subclasses that can abuse this, such as higher level monks & ranges, paladins or warlocks smiting, valor & swords bards, etc. Edit: not even mentioning rogues on anything that triggers on a 6 lmao.

I hate to be the "Hur dur, steal from Pathfinder" guy, but I found that the critical specialization effects stuff made using different weapon types FEEL different. Everyone love crits and exploding dice, with lots of effects, it's why the crusher/slasher/piercer feats are so neat in 5e, they play with systems that aren't touched on in the base game.

@BobWorldBuilder

2 жыл бұрын

No worries haha, I do plan to read up on some pathfinder material before this is through!

@tielorstanger-lopez3888

2 жыл бұрын

@@BobWorldBuilder Pathfinder 2e's weapons are made with a different action economy in mind, but I think that both the weapon and armor specialization features may have a place in your weapons system.

@swaghauler8334

2 жыл бұрын

@@BobWorldBuilder Make sure you check out MYTHRAS from the Design Mechanism and Green Ronan's FANTASY AGE too. The Stunts in Fantasy Age and Special Maneuvers in Mythras are where I got a lot of my ideas from.

@Jasonwolf1495

2 жыл бұрын

See personally I think crits are a bit over hyped. Like its a rare but decent damage increase that's nice, but I don't think they need to have a ton of other base features. The dmg type feats are good because its an optional buff to your crits. What I'd really care to see is more special content not involving crits because they are inherently rare and there's no way to force them AFAIK. If there was a thing where you get to make yourself crit and it was a special kind of attack then sure.

@Salsmachev

2 жыл бұрын

@@Jasonwolf1495 How about this: regardless of if you crit, any hit where you roll x on the damage dice lets you do a special ability (it's more common so definitely not something like dismembering, but getting a free bullrush or trip is cool). Additionally, you can always choose to forego your damage roll in favour of just doing your special effect.

I love the idea of binding it to crits and high damage rolls. This is really cool for new players. 1. It's not needed in most cases. You don't have to explain it beforehand. 2. It makes crits more special. Everyone cheers when someone crits but it's actually just a little bit more damage. (Well for rogues a lot of damage, but even that is kinda boring) I love all the ideas. But what concerns me the most is the difference between how much the effect matters on a player vs how much it matter on an enemy. While I like the use of exhaustion. It is way worse for a player than for a normal enemy. For an enemy ability checks rarely matter except when contesting in a grapple check. I feel the same way about dismembering a limb.

@BobWorldBuilder

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks! And yeah I'm finding it tough to want to add cool/powerful things but still keep them reigned in so players don't get abused by them! I don't think the exhaustion one is that bad because one party membering having one or even two levels of exhaustion (which would be hard to get just from this feature) still isn't thaaaat bad. Dismembering is another story though

@thedungeonsquid8850

2 жыл бұрын

These abilities only happen like once every 200 attacks! Even with 10 players making 2 attacks that would be only like 1 time every other combat!Maybe instead of critting AND rolling 8 or higher, its just critting with a Martial weapon? (Yes whip gets the bonus and great club doesn't but whip needs love anyway and you wouldn't have to change 2d6 to 1d12). Or just critting with a d8 or higher weapon and change the 2d6 with 1d12.

@ms.aelanwyr.ilaicos

2 жыл бұрын

I'd be inclined to have these rules be available to PCs and "boss encounters". That way, it is a cool thing for your players to do somewhat regularly, but will only harm them when that would feel narratively appropriate anyway.

@mixmaxtorb

2 жыл бұрын

Monster abilities/features don’t have to be the same as PC features, so why shouldn’t their weapon features be different too?

Glad you're keeping everyone updated (and gathering feedback along the way, I bet) on the project! Really nice to see what you've come up with so far, I'm eager to see what the final product will be!

@BobWorldBuilder

2 жыл бұрын

Love the positivity! Thank you!

I think instead of having a defined maximum size as a restrictions, the effect should apply to "all creatures no more than X (I prefer 2) sizes larger than the attacker"

@iLitTheSun

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah but Rune Knight

@jerommeke_T

2 жыл бұрын

@@iLitTheSun well should a rune knight that is huge or even gargantuan not be able so shove around creatures with it's weapon?

@trevormerritt548

11 ай бұрын

Yeah this would make sense, especially since the wording for grappling is similar to this as well.

Love these ideas. I'd change the title of "Crushing" to "Overpower" since it shoves/knocks prones. I'd name the second part "Crushing" to call attention to the second effect. Since it sounds more like you're damaging the body/armor of a hostile creature, I think crushing should stun an unarmored hostile or reduce the AC of an armored hostile by 1. (Natural armored creatures could be DM's choice... Unless you have a preference)

@digitaljanus

2 жыл бұрын

You also avoid confusion with the Crusher feat, which has similar results but works differently. Or use another evocative synonym like "Batter" or "Smash".

@boywithgirlsname

2 жыл бұрын

@@digitaljanus Maybe call the whole optional weapon feature Smashing. The first effect could be Overpowering Smash and the second Battering Smash, eliminating any confusion with the Crusher feat.

@MrYago-xd7um

2 жыл бұрын

Or Clobber, for fantastic roleplaying affect.

What if the slashing feature added "bleeding" (1d4 per round) instead of removing a limb? I don't know if that's better or worse, but it might be simpler than figuring out the case-by-case ramifications of losing a limb.

@MrIcePho3nix

2 жыл бұрын

That was my thought too. Especially since Bob offhandedly mentioned that monsters could Impale players (optionally, I'm sure, but still), I think that straight up just chopping limbs off is maybe a bit much. A basic DoT like that isn't flashy, but I'm not sure how flashy it needs to be.

@swaghauler8334

2 жыл бұрын

That adds a LOT of extra book-keeping to the DM. I use the old Runequest Impale and Slash Special Effects. You roll Damage TWICE for a Slash and add Rolled Damage to Maximum Damage (because piercing weapons tend to penetrate deeper) for an Impale. The weapon is now embedded in the target and the wielder can either leave it there or make a STR Save to retrieve it (doing damage a THIRD time). The target then takes the weapon's damage every time they move or attack/act. The target also has DISADVANTAGE until they make a STR Save to remove the weapon from their body.

@purple-flowers

2 жыл бұрын

Additionally you could spend an action to staunch the wound to end the effect. It could add a significant risk/reward especially to barbarian/tanky type. Also maybe subsequent "bleedings" can increase the dice type, so like d4 to d6 etc. I imagine it's like Boromir fighting the uruk-hai in the woods

@cydeadhunter456

2 жыл бұрын

I also think that losing a limb from slashing damage is a bit much, especially since slashing weapons are so common in monster stat blocks.

@Axelovskji

2 жыл бұрын

also kinda treads on the vorpal sword territory, a bleed would be better

Honestly this pairs perfectly with the "upgrading your weapons" video. Combined, they allow the players to strategically choose when to degrade their weapons to save themselves from a nat 20 attack with these effects, and not just because it's more damage.

These are pretty nifty ideas, with a couple of caveats. I'm leery of changing the 2d6 to 1d12, as it effects averages and nerfs Great Weapon Fighting (style) with the greatsword and maul. In which case, change the Overpower feature to a 6 or higher on the damage dice (therefore mauls get 2 chances, and makes maces useful), and take away the Stun effect (which is maybe a bit too powerful, and crowds out one of the Monks key abilities). Stun only makes sense with a head hit, anyway. Lopping off a limb with slashing weapons is probably going too far, as it means PC's having their limbs amputated routinely, which won't be fun when they lose both their arms and a leg! Again, make it a 6 or higher so that sabres/scimitars and RAW greatswords can join in the fun. Instigate a Bleeding Effect: at the bottom of the round, the recipient takes 1hp of damage; the effect can stack with multiple instances. Extra paperwork but no different than tracking Exhaustion.

@jameswhitley4101

2 жыл бұрын

this may be too much, but what if instead of 1 hp of damage, they take the player's proficiency (or half) in damage?

@TroySpace

2 жыл бұрын

Limb loss isn't likely to be popular when orcs regularly hack off the limbs off of adventurers, either. Stunning-type effects from bludgeoning weapons aren't restricted to blows to the head: neck and shoulder, spine, groin, kidneys, diaphragm - hits to these will produce a stunning effect. Bludgeoning also dents and bends plate armour, restricting mobility and breathing. Bludgeoning weapons are far more likely to cripple limbs by breaking joints. So I'm okay with the gameplay effect. It also can be applied to falls, which are far too lenient in D&D. Minor but survivable wounds that degrade ability are more realistic in a fight than going from "peachy" at 1HP to unconscious with internal haemorrhaging at 0HP. It also means raging Barbarians aren't invulnerable slabs of meat either.

@Klijpo

2 жыл бұрын

@@TroySpace Degrading wounds might be more realistic, but they increase book-keeping exponentially and can create the 'death spiral' issue, where a few bad rolls lead inexorably to a TPK...

@TroySpace

2 жыл бұрын

@@Klijpo for every hit yes, if you treat each loss of HP as an actual injury, which I don't. If they only work off crits like in Bob's system and have a limited duration (eg, a one round duration or else taken care of in a short or long rest) then they add flavour and crunch. Though I think Stunned is way too powerful as well, so under Bob's request for suggestions I offered Restrained as a lesser effect. No DM wants their Big Bad warlord being slapped around by a halfling with a big stick and never getting to take actions. As for death spirals, the game is also full of creatures and effects that can cause a death spiral. Like Hypnotic Pattern, or monsters that can grapple. If you as DM think you're going to TPK the party, you can always tilt the odds or else flat out ask if the party if they want to retreat. Then you can arrange whatever obstacles or penalties you see fit and the players see as reasonable.

@PhobosDDeimos

2 жыл бұрын

A bleeding effect seems more appropriate, I'd say, leaning towards Dark Souls for inspiration.

Hi Bob! GENERAL THOUGHTS: I think the probability of a critical hit and X amount of damage is very, very slim and my main perspective is that this feature won't be activated enough times to make a significant difference in the average combat experience. If my math is correct (feel free to correct), on a d10 weapon (assuming the required amount of natural damage is 10) the chance for this feature activating is 0.5% (not enough brains to calculate d12 damage dice, etc.) The ideas themselves are cool, but I'd suggest that a saving throw be used which I know is something you explicitly said was one thing you liked... but maybe there's a reason as to why that's what's frequently used? For the damage dice limitation, my first instinct is to change it to Martial weapons only... but I look at the list of weapons and see that the spear is a simple weapon and it should definitely be a candidate for these new features... but it's also only a d6 damage die which you brought up. So I'm going to say that these features should apply to d6 weapons unless there's another way to categorize them. PUNCTURING: While I'd like exhaustion to be used more in mechanics, I think it's more appropriate for it be be incorporated more in the combat mechanics. For piercing weapons, I think it's better if the target gets grappled by the weapon when the feature hits. This I believe was the general problem with piercing weapons historically. Additionally, its like these new features for weapons can manipulate maneuverability in combat which is very important. The size limitation works with the exhaustion effect you're offering, but if its for grappling like I suggest, I would limit it to Large and smaller. For what weapons this applies to, I mentioned that I allowed d6 weapons because of this suggestion (grapple). I just remembered that scene from Avengers: Endgame where (spoilers) Thanos stabbed Iron Man with a shortsword (for a Medium creature) and Iron Man was just standing there, unable to move from the shock CRUSHING: I overall like this feature. As I said, controlling the placement of ypur opponents is very important; imagine knocking your opponent into an inescapable corner, or a pit of spikes. Size limitation works. DISMEMBERING: I love the idea of dismembering a creature but the downfall here, in my mind, is that there aren't really any rules for dismembering creatures in combat or what that entails for a PC if it happens to them. Specific rules would have to be in place for this to work. I also think Armor would come into play here has it doesn't make sense for anyone wearing armor to be dismembered so easily (yes, including leather and padded armor). This is where that damage limit made the most sense but also, the presence of any armor on the affected creature begs a strong counter argument. I include padded and leather armor in this situation by virtue of the way "armor" is detailed in general. Armor is always referred to as a set that you wear together (chain shirt would be the only exception). Leather armor could mean hardened leather greaves which you will have a hard time cutting through and an unarmored thigh is one of the hardest places to cut through because of the femur. Padded armor could be similarly styled where the pads are not limited to the chest even if thats the most obvious place armor would be on. The only time parts of armor are given clear distinction is in the Armorer Artificer subclass which can be a fair basis but that would meam revamping the armor system of the game as well. Overall, I just think this feature leaves too much room for interpretation, like the 5e Crafting Magic Items rules. CLEAVING: I strongly think this feature should be given to all damage types and not just slashing. It puts a sever emphasis on slashing weapons as the best type of weapon if these are the only features added (I assume not since you did mention 5 more that only Patreon has access to but for the sake of criticism). Also... wouldn't it be cool if that excess damage was transferred through bludgeoning as in, hitting an enemy so hard it flies into other enemies and they take the excess damage. Or a spear thrust so hard, it impales multiple enemies. That's all of my thoughts! Overall, great video and I'm excited to see where this project goes!

@BobWorldBuilder

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for the detailed comment! Can’t break it down now, but I’ll definitely be reviewing this as I make changes :)

@alexandersilberman7122

2 жыл бұрын

For the record, your math is incorrect: crits double damage dice, so the actual math works out to be nearly double at 0.95% (it's not perfectly double because you could roll a 10 on both). And, for the d12 weapon, the chance is about 2.19% ( (3*12*2-3*3)/(20*12*12) = 63/2880). Also, rules already exist for PCs with missing limbs: Lingering Injuries in the DMG.

@Salsmachev

2 жыл бұрын

I love the idea of puncturing as a free grapple, maybe with some kind of special follow-up attack against your now semi-helpless enemy. I strongly agree on the dismembering effect being too vague as well. And it would suck for the players in a potentially fun-ruining way. For cleave, maybe give the different weapons different ways of cleaving? So a slashing weapon that deals infinite damage would damage in a circle, a bludgeoning weapon would knock enemies into eachother in a line tangent to that circle, and a piercing weapon would stab outward in a line along a radius. You'd have to cap the number of attacks to make them balanced, though.

@lordjalor

2 жыл бұрын

@@alexandersilberman7122 Ohooo thank you for this. To be honest, I'm a new DM and have not fully explored the breath of the DMG so I will be looking into this. Thank you also for the math! I'm not the best at it. Although seeing your calculations, I still do think the chance of activating these features is too low.

@lordjalor

2 жыл бұрын

@@Salsmachev I think your idea of a special follow up attack would be a great Feat to come along with these new features! Sort of like Polearm Master but for different nonmagical damage types.

So two things. With the cleave rule I'd allow piercing weapons with reach to affect everyone in a line up to reach. So a glaive can go right through your target and pierce the second enemy I would also alter the Crushing rule to affect one size larger or else tie it to your Strength. The reason for that is that in theory a well placed blow to even a gigantic creature (say the knee) should be enough to at least knock it prone. The crit in this case is the well placed blow.

@BobWorldBuilder

2 жыл бұрын

Very nice, yeah someone else said longbows or heavy crossbow shots should also be able to cleave, so I think I'll make a similar ability that requires the enemies to be lined up. And keeping crushing tied to size makes sense too! Thanks!

Bob, what if instead of removing the damage thresholds for the effects you just add more effects? For each damage type you could have an effect if you roll above a 4, 6, 8, or 10. To keep it interesting you could have every effect from the lower damage thresholds go off on the same attack. So maybe for blunt weapons they could push target at a 6, reduce AC by 1 at 8, and cause the stun at 10. Maybe piercing could have the exhaustion at 8 and at 10 some impaling grapple move for automatic hits on subsequent attacks until the impaled creature beats a strength check. Slashing could have a bleed effect for 1d4 damage at the start of their turn for a number of rounds, a hamstring attack to half movement until regaining HP, and an attack to a creature's arms to give them disadvantage on attacks, the inability to use shields, and make them incapable of using two handed weapons until regaining HP. I also think changing axes to a chopping type of damage and giving them their own abilities focused on maximizing damage or causing vulnerability to physical damage.

About "Puncturing" property: why not change it that it causes level of exhaustion when there is "1" on a damage dice? I know, its a bit counterintuitive, but hear me out! Powerful weapons with big dices will likely do a hell of a damage already, but with this feature smaller weapons will have a chance to be useful as well. And also if someone with a big polearm or a heavy crossbow will roll so low on their critical damage, they won't be too sad and disappointed.

@slydoorkeeper4783

2 жыл бұрын

I could get behind a "redemption" mechanic for weapons when you roll low for damage. You could also create feats for those mechanics. Though I would recommend reworking the fighting style for great weapons.

@BobWorldBuilder

2 жыл бұрын

This is an interesting idea... I'll have to think about that one

@sylph4252

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah, I was just thinking that "win more" mechanics are fun only up to a limit. Extra damage on crits bypassing AC is fun, but it also having a chance to do more stuff is just overkill

@Galastan

2 жыл бұрын

This would be incredibly overpowered on daggers. A 1 in 4 chance to inflict exhaustion on a crit with a dagger would actually be insane. Combine it with something like Sickening Radiance on a caster buddy and it would probably be very easy for a dagger-wielding crit-fisher build to bring a creature to 6 points of exhaustion for the instant-kill.

@NoNoNah306

2 жыл бұрын

Depending on the maneuver that could be logical as well. The advantage of a shorter weapon is more control, so there's a logic to it being more likely to say disarm someone with a dagger than a greataxe. Maybe some wording required so it doesn't make the greatsword the best choice even more than it already is.

I love the idea of crit effects by damage type, as well as the simplicity in which you've implemented your ideas here... damage dice in excess of 8 (or 10) on a crit roll inflict the extra effect. However, I think some of your extra effects are too much. Exhaustion is significant, and with just one level, can become pretty debilitating. I like the crushing effect, knock down or knock back, but not the stun. Dismemberment is straight out the door. Remember, any rules that make critical hits more deadly actually work AGAINST the player characters. Typically, they have a lot more attack rolls coming at them. It (potentially) makes a fight with a Manticore less deadly than a fight with a Manticore's weight in goblins, which I dont think is the case. Cleaving is great though!

@BobWorldBuilder

2 жыл бұрын

This is a good explanation. It's a little funny because several folks are saying the requirements (crit and high damage) are too rare to happen very much at all, but you're absolutely right that the PCs are often hit with crits than they dish out. I'll think about that!

@swaghauler8334

2 жыл бұрын

I don't agree with Exhaustion either. In addition, I know many tables don't use that mechanic at all. I have the IMPALE (straight out of the Runequest rpg) instead for my piercing weapons. It does MAX Damage + Rolled Damage and leaves the weapon embedded in the target unless the wielder pulls it out (this can be done using a REACTION), inflicting a third damage roll! If the weapon is left impaling the target, that target suffers damage every time they move or attack until they remove it (with a STR Save). Slashing weapons get the Slash which is Rolled Damage + Rolled Damage (because slashes don't penetrate as deeply as Impales) and leaves the weapon embedded in the target. The same procedure for removing the weapon as above is used BUT a Slash doesn't go as deeply so the user has ADVANTAGE on their roll. The way I do my system is that there are MULTIPLE Special effects for each weapon (Disarm, Trip/Knockdown, Pin Weapon, Redirect Foe, Stun, Impale, Slash, Sunder Armor or Shield, etc...) and the WIELDER picks the effect that is the most useful to them at that moment!

@joemacleod-iredale2888

2 жыл бұрын

Goblins only hit with a D6+something so you’re in the clear there. You’d need a rule for sticking arms back on!

I've been trying to think about ways to make these damage types unique, thank you for this inspiration

@schizoproductions5612

2 жыл бұрын

My first idea was to make them line up with light medium and heavy armor, so matching up the right damage types to the armor type would give bonuses or penalties to hit, but that seemed specific and most monsters just have "natural armor"

@thestylemage2092

2 жыл бұрын

Have you heard of the feats designed for these damage types? You clearly haven't been thinking/researching a lot then...

Ezy. After you decide on a Monster you wish to put on the table give them 1 resistance and 1 weakness depending on the creature. Eg. Fleshy things can be resistant to bludge. While weak to piercing. Or armored foes week to Bludge. But resistant to slashing etc.

Hmm... I kinda think that you should really lower the damage requirement. The probability of a crit is already 1/20, and thus a d8 weapon with damage requirement of 8 would only use this cool feature once in 160 attacks, so like once in a campaign. I don't think that probabilities of less than 1/60 are worthwhile to even have, because the rule would come up so rarely that nobody would even remember it.

@slydoorkeeper4783

2 жыл бұрын

Same, this really only works with a very limited build like a high level champion fighter using any 1d8+ piercing weapon. But even then, good luck.

@BobWorldBuilder

2 жыл бұрын

I really like your explanation for lowering it. That's pretty much convinced me! Probably going to keep it high for dismembering though because some folks already seem very anxious about that one even though it's very rare!

@DaveyDAKFAE

2 жыл бұрын

@@BobWorldBuilder I feel similarly to Andrew- I think adding extras on crits may not be the right way to go about this at all. If it happens every crit, it's too powerful, and if it's less than that it's almost never going to be remembered and could make the crits when it doesn't happen feel disappointing. Have you considered giving damage-alternatives instead? Like a piercing weapon can on a hit choose to deal exhaustion instead of damage?

@DaveyDAKFAE

2 жыл бұрын

@@BobWorldBuilder That makes it an option players can tactically use and consider, a creative problem solving tool instead of a lottery ticket

@agilemind6241

2 жыл бұрын

@@DaveyDAKFAE They are far too powerful effects to be a "choose instead of damage" mechanic. But I agree on a crit isn't a good option either, in my campaigns these rules would hardly make a difference since we see on average one critical weapon hit per game session.

Would enemies get these abilities too? Because an enemy causing exhaustion or hacking off a player's limb sounds brutal, but them not getting it puts them at a disadvantage. Overall, though, I love these features, and I hope that the emphasis on Critical hits will give martials a bit more pizazz.

@boop783

2 жыл бұрын

I'm sure people will have it go both ways and that's a perfectly good solution. i think it is important to consider though, Monsters and Enemy NPCs aren't gonna be constantly involved in the story and not going to be part of every combat/puzzle/social encounter, so although enemies would be at a disadvantage for not getting the added effects, the added effects are gonna affect the player characters MORE than they'd affect enemies.

@swaghauler8334

2 жыл бұрын

Here's a little something to give your Fighters a kick. Allow them to perform a Special Effect [*with normal rolled damage] IF they roll 5 or more over what they needed to roll in order to hit the target. *I give the weapon's maximum damage in addition to an effect on a critical hit.

I think the condition "Crit + 8 on die" is a bit too specific. Crits are already kinda rare, but with the extra condition of "at least one 8" makes it even less propable. I actually did a new armor & weapons-system and used this to make the damage-types different: On a critical Hit: Bludgeoning: The target is dazzled and can take no reactions until the end of your next turn. Piercing: The impaled target makes its next Ability Check or Attack Roll with Disadvantage before the end of your next turn. Slashing: The target gains the effects as if hit by a weapon with the Open Wound feature. If you're interested I can send you the whole PDF :)

@Katilciker

2 жыл бұрын

I'd like to take a look if you don't mind:)

@raphaelmorasch4179

2 жыл бұрын

@@Katilciker I tried loading it up but apparently it didn't send my message. Any ideas?

@Katilciker

2 жыл бұрын

@@raphaelmorasch4179 no problem. Its the thought that counts. Thanks for trying!

@raphaelmorasch4179

2 жыл бұрын

@@Katilciker When I'm finished testing it (there are still some issues) I can post it on the DMs Guild and send you the title to search

@Katilciker

2 жыл бұрын

@@raphaelmorasch4179 sounds like a plan!

These are some pretty great ideas! Thanks for sharing them with us as always!

Loving the new ideas Bob! Keep them coming!

My big thing is I would maybe restrict the description to "weapons damage die" as otherwise, smites would probably activate the effects of d8 requisite weapons very frequently on the hit.

Here's my thoughts as a fellow avid homebrewer: General thoughts: All of these features should scale with size. So, if a rune knight uses their growth feature, or someone casts enlarge on a martial, they should be able to inflict these conditions on bigger creatures. I also like the simplicity of tying these effects to crits and high damage rolls, which makes them relatively uncommon but cool when they happen. However, since these effects can also happen to the players, I think we should move away from limb severing (I'll talk more about it when I get to slashing weapons). *Piercing:* I really don't like the idea of using exhaustion here. The first level isn't so bad, but once you get from 2 onward, it can drastically make a fight against a boss monster (or a particularly powerful humanoid) trivial. It can also be combined with a Sickening Radiance spell to stack exhaustion up really quickly if you're capable of applying relatively consistent advantage to yourself. I can see this getting out of control really quickly with a proper team composition. Instead, I would look to something like the Alchemist's Fire mechanic, by having constant, moderate damage happen unless that creature gets healed by a certain threshold or uses their action to use a Healer's Kit (maybe also with a medicine check) to tourniquet the wound (i.e.: *This powerful piercing weapon can impale creatures in battle. When you roll a critical hit on an attack with this weapon, and you roll an 8 or higher on at least one damage die, that creature begins to bleed, taking 1d6 necrotic damage at the start of each of its turns. A creature can end this damage by using its action to make a Wisdom (Medicine) check with a DC equal to the total damage of the attack that caused the bleeding, using a Healer's Kit, or being healed by a number of hit points equal to the damage that caused the bleeding. This type of attack has no effect on creatures that are formless, creatures that don't have blood, or creatures that are three sizes larger than you.* ) *Bludgeoning:* No real big rewrites for the bludgeoning feature, but I think we should keep (at the very least) greatswords using 2d6. The more even damage is how greatswords differentiate themselves from the more wild greataxes. Though, I can see mauls being 1d12. Also, would the 5-foot shove stack with the automatic 5-foot shove that you get from the Crusher feat? *Slashing:* Dismemberment is a horrible idea, in my opinion. Here's a scenario: The fighter is wielding a longsword against the most powerful human warrior in the land, and they rush in after rolling high on initiative and crit on their first attack, rolling a d10 on one of the damage dice. The fighter chooses to lop off the fighter's leg at the hip. Now, the big bad human boss character has a movement speed of 0, and is prone, thus giving him disadvantage on all attack rolls. What you've essentially done here is inflict four points of exhaustion in a single attack, and made what was once a challenging encounter into a cakewalk. Also, the shoe could very easily be on the other foot, and you could lop the arm off of a player character who wants to use heavy weapons, or the leg off of a character that generally just wants to move around, probably forcing them to retire their character in either case if they don't have access to a friend with 7th level spells. What I would do instead is have the creature call a shot onto either the arm, imposing disadvantage on attack rolls made with weapons that use that arm, or a leg, halving the creature's movement speed. These effects could be restored in the same way as Piercing's bleed debuff. (i.e.: *Laceration. This powerful slashing weapon can grievously wound creatures in battle. When you roll a critical hit on an attack with this weapon, and you roll a 10 or higher on at least one damage die, you can lacerate that creature's arm or leg. Arm: That creature has disadvantage on weapon attacks that utilize the arm you choose to lacerate. Leg: That creature's movement speed is halved. A creature can end this effect by using its action to make a Wisdom (Medicine) check with a DC equal to the total damage of the attack that caused the laceration, using a Healer's Kit, or being healed by a number of hit points equal to the damage that caused the laceration. This type of attack has no effect on creatures that are formless, or creatures that are two sizes larger than you.* ) All in all, though, I like the structure of what you've offered here so far.

@metashadow3924

2 жыл бұрын

I think you've made some nice improvements to the proposals in the video, I may use these, thanks!

@aiwaschawa5272

2 жыл бұрын

The slashing option is pretty fine tbh, the example you gave is possible, but it's *so rare* that it's not really worth calling out (1.9% using a longsword, so around once every 50 attacks) and about it happening on PCs, I think it's actually pretty cool, the dm would have to choose a limb that would not turn the character tottaly useless on porpuse, off course, but it brings in a lot of adventure hooks and whatnot, meanwhile the player could make some interesting scheme to compesate for the no limb thing (personal experience from when my fighter lost a arm and he made a thing to glue in a shield on the stub, it looked awesome) So yeah, defense finished

@thomaspetrucka9173

2 жыл бұрын

INCREDIBLY insightful

@shishkabobby

2 жыл бұрын

I completely agree that special effects should be based upon relative size. A 2:1 advantage in body weight is almost unsumoutable in wrestling/judo. I have seen very skilled small opponents beat unskilled larger opponents, but a 10 dan blackbelt that weighs 100 lbs is simply going to get thrown around the mat by a competent 200 lb brown belt in judo. (I will conceed that Hopkido or Jujitsu do make the size advantage less important - fighting 'dirty' with eye gouging and joint locks matters) Even so, silly cases of grappling giants into submission show just how broken the D&D 5e rules are.

I think for the puncture it should work if you roll a crit on the attack roll and a 6 or higher on the damage roll. What this does is it allows weapons like shortswords to apply exhaustion, while simultaneously allowing d8s and d10s to have a higher chance of exhaustion.

This is great! Can’t wait to see what you come up with next!

The dice problem could be solved by saying D6 and below cause this effect to medium size and below creatures. That way a short sword could puncture human/goblin sized creature but nothing size large

@BobWorldBuilder

2 жыл бұрын

This is a good way to handle it, and a few other folks are saying similar ideas. Probably going to go with something like this!

With the slashing feature, this seems like it's far too damaging if used on a player. If it happens at lower levels, then you could have a character who is missing an arm/leg (with all the issues) for several levels until players get Regeneration magic. And that would suck to have this characters you love (based around sword and board, or dual-wielding) who can't really keep up with the party. Maybe a DM could rule that if you put the arm back in place within x minutes, and pour a healing potion on it then that'd fix it, but you better hope they have a healing potion left!

@davidjennings2179

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah I thought this too - it has a much much longer term effect than the crushing or puncturing ones do. Whilst unlikely (something like 0.5%) the effects are, quite literally, crippling.

@maxinehowland8246

2 жыл бұрын

Maybe use Sovereign Glue as an adhesive to reattach limbs or parts lol

@ItsPhilH

2 жыл бұрын

Surely the solution here is to do something like reduce the afflicted creature's AC by 2 for a certain duration, as the slash cuts so deep the creature is unable to keep it's strength to properly guard itself. It rewards the crit and high damage roll with an additional benefit, but can still serve to help apply damage in a similar way the crushing feature knocks a creature down thus giving melee attacks advantage.

@AbramForest

Жыл бұрын

Agreed. Maybe add a "bleed" mechanic so that they lose hit points at the start of every turn rather than remove a limb. Although, Tasha's did include the prosthetic limbs so in the end, if these were more readily available to the players, what you're really doing is filling a Magic Item slot.

I love your videos dude, you’re so chill and you explain things very well, you helped me out a ton with my campaign

In the PC game Dauntless, they operate with 4 kinds of physical damage, 3 of which corresponds to Slashing, Piercing and Bludgeoning. "Part damage" is damage dealt by slashing weapons and are used to sever monster limbs and parts, both to debilitate it, and also farm more parts for crafting. "Wound damage" is dealt mostly piercing weapons, which makes certain parts of the monster vulnerable to other types of damage. "Stagger damage" is dealt by a lot of weapons, but the vast majority comes from bludgeoning weapons, and is used to stagger/daze/push/knock down monsters. These traits could probably be engineered to work on crits in D&D as well. Something like: "Severing - (only slashing): On a critical hit, deal a debilitating blow to the enemy, giving them a -2 penalty to checks until the wound is healed". Or: "Staggering - (only bludgeoning): On a critical hit, the target is dazed for 1 round unless they succeed on a strength or constitution save vs (whatever DC)." I think I'd do something like that, although it might happen too frequently. Needs testing =)

I'm loving this series. Can't wait to see the final product.

Sent it to my D&D bros so we can "balance check" in game. Hope it runs smoothly because I really love these rules.

@BobWorldBuilder

2 жыл бұрын

Awesome! If you use them, I'd appreciate it if you actually emailed me (bobworldbuilder@gmail.com) with "weapon playtest" in the subject!

i think a cool feature for Puncturing is that with melee weapons you could move them to anywhere within 5 feet of you as you jab into the monster and move them with force (3:53)

Great updates. Keep it going!

So, just a few thoughts. I would change the effects to scale with the attackers size, a huge creature should be able to puncture a gargantuan creature. I feel like the effects of the damage types could be balanced more maybe puncture can be impale and impose the restrained condition until the start of the creatures turn (might be too strong a modified grapple might be better?), I think the exhaustion would work a lot better for crushing, I'm not entirely sure what to do for slashing but dismemberment I think is way too strong it can seriously cripple enemies not only for an encounter but permanently.

@BobWorldBuilder

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for addressing each one! Yeah I'm starting to think that dismembering may be too far even with its current limitations...

I'm loving these! Why not just make it "when you roll a total of 8 or higher on your damage dice" rather than "when you roll higher than 8 on ar least one of your damage dice:?

@DapSchaf

2 жыл бұрын

Because rolling a total of 8 happens a lot more often than rolling an 8 or higher. Of course it could be converted to a roughly equal chance, but I like the feeling of a high number being another kind of crit inside of your crit.

@massconnect9329

2 жыл бұрын

That gets confusing. There are other modifiers to damage besides the raw face of the die. If you say "total" people may misunderstand that the probability of using this feature is meant to be exclusively derived from the dice only.

@Atown0921

2 жыл бұрын

@@massconnect9329 you could then change it to say "before modifiers" to make it more clear.

@Atown0921

2 жыл бұрын

@@DapSchaf if you were to say something about it being "before modifiers" a total of 8 would happen just as often. There are no weapons that do 2d8 or more damage. The only weapons that use 2 dice are weapons that are d6 or lower, thus an 8 total before modifiers is the same thing.

@BobWorldBuilder

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks! :) I wanted to emphasize that it's the number you roll not the number you add for for damage, but yeah maybe the current wording is too clunky

Two things spring to mind immediately. The enemy size category should be based on the size of the attacker. A Huge creature wielding a size-apropriate pike, would definitely be noticed ba a gargantuan worm. Cleaving should affect the nearest enemy within reach (to either side of the first), not skipping two enemies and strike a the third.

One fix to this could simply be giving martial classes the Slasher/Crusher and Piercer feats minus the ASI increases. Since it would simultaneously make weapon use more strategic, give martials a much needed bump to catch up to casters and it would make them more than "I just hit X with my sword." then boringly rinse & repeat each round afterward. Also, you can definitely cleave with piercing and bludgeoning. Just imagine you stab cleanly through one target only to then direct the blade (while it is in the now dead body) to another and create a corpse kebab. As for bludgeoning, that is simply hitting the first body so hard you tear through it allowing you to hit another nearby target.

@thestylemage2092

2 жыл бұрын

Or allow any Martial to pick one of those as a specialization...

@BigFrakingSword

2 жыл бұрын

@@thestylemage2092 I thought of that but then they are relegated back to a single weapon attack over and over for the most part. And as casters can do so many amazing things, I personally wouldn't mind giving them all three.

I love the idea of weapons having these other features, but just one thing is keeping them down. Each type of damage already has a feature in 5e that goes of you getting a crit. Slasher, Crusher, And Piercer. They aren’t the same at all, I am just worried about the stacking of these feats and the new weapon feats in the video. Especially Piercer since it lets you roll 1 additional die with a crit, making those exhaustions happen more often. I also love the idea of grievous wounds, but don’t think they should be limited to just slashing. This might make this feature less useful but it should be on a hit that reduces a targets max hp to half, and then they receive the wound from the attack.

@Tmanowns

2 жыл бұрын

Eh, I think martials are always super underpowered in TTRPGs. They are mostly limited to being useful in only combat, and as the game progresses, they become less and less useful. I think letting someone double down and become a powerhouse with a baseball bat is totally fine.

Hi Bob

@BobWorldBuilder

2 жыл бұрын

Hello!

Good video! I love the idea of taking exhaustion from piercing weapons. That's so friggin cinematic.

what you call "cleaving" .. a large cutting weapon affecting several adjacent enemies on a big swing .. that was called a "sweep" in The Fantasy Trip, first used 1977 in Melee. you have to choose to do a sweep, and you get to attack all of em at a penalty to hit. It does work well :)

Yooo!

I like the ideas! But to me I thought part of having the variety of weapons and traits was to have more reason to pick "useless" weapons. The first thing that came to mind, which also addressed the day problem, was to make it trigger on the highest roll, that way it triggers more often for smaller weapon fighters who might have more technique, and less often for the larger weapon fighters, who already have more power. Maybe a 1/6th (or 1/3rd if you consider both dice) chance to trigger exhaustion on crit is a bit much, but i think it balances out the fact that some weapons deal twice as much as others, personally.

This video made up my mind, I've loved your videos for a while and I feel guilty getting all this amazing content for free! Unsure of how Patreon works, but I'll look into it today

@BobWorldBuilder

2 жыл бұрын

I really appreciate your support! :)

you should have something like cleaving for ranged weapons, an arrow piercing through multiple enemies just sounds so cool

@BobWorldBuilder

2 жыл бұрын

That's a great point! (get it, point? okay bye)

PIERCING "EQUIVALENT" of CLEAVING If a creature is in a adjacent square behind the enemy (relative to the PC's attack position), any excess damage from felling the enemy may be applied to that creature. This attack would only be applied to weapons of sufficient length i.e. rapier, spear, etc. Somebody probably already recommended something just like this, but I didn't take the time to read all the comments. Keep up the great work, Bob!

I love these ideas, i cant wait for the complete system. I had an idea too for doing different types of damage with weapons you are proficient with (mainly both slashing and stabbing with swords, or having axes and hammers have a secondary damage type).

Cleaving could work for piercing and bludgeoning as well with some modifications. Skewer: on reducing a target to 0 hp you can use leftover damage to target another foe within a 10ft cone facing your first target, if the attack roll hits you can apply leftover damage to the new target while moving 5ft into your original targets space. Pulverize: on reducing a foe to 0 hp you can target another foe within 5ft of both you and your target and if your attack roll hits you can apply leftover damage to the new target and cause them to become prone. They have extra effect for both the action they represent and because their targeting is more difficult than cleaving.

Nice! All of these are rare and cool enough to create some really memorable moments at the table. :)

Really appreciate what you're trying to do. Here's a couple things to consider.... If you need to crit first, the odds of these things happening are 1 in 20 to start. Then that is multiplied by the odds of the damage dice. So, say, a flail would have a 1 in 160 of causing these, a polearm will have 1 in 67 (approximately) So you're creating powerful effects that will be super uncommon. You might not see these even once per session. The other thing is you're also incentivizing the weapons with the best feats attached (GWM, PAM) which already see a lot of use. What I want is a reason to use things that aren't already the most powerful.

@tjrooger1092

2 жыл бұрын

Also, philosophically, when I think Pierce damage, I think blood, not very tired. The Exhaustion effect works better for Bludgeon imo, like heavy weight boxers who stagger around a swing wildly, like "punch drunk". For Slash, losing limbs seems very heavy handed. What about lowering its AC? Hacking its armor open, or just hitting so hard that it loses Dex bonus..?

Very cool. My homebrew version of this I’ve never implemented was to grant piercing weapons damage rerolls on 1s. I also come up with a boost to fighting sword & board - you get to attempt to shove/knock prone as a bonus action. Sword & board is so iconic, I wanted to make it worth taking.

As for removing limbs, my homebrew Zombies use a system of limb removal. They have crazy high hp, but after a certain damage threshold, a player can choose a limb or head to remove. Head removes bite attack, arm removes one of their slam attacks, first leg reduces their speed in half, second leg means they have 5ft crawl and are always prone.

This is fantastic I’ve long wondered how to make better use of damage type

Subbed just because you keep mentioned a Doc with all these features and I don't want to miss it

I really love how puncture stacks with the piercer feat, not only does piercer give you more damage but it gives you another chance to impale your target when you crit. My only note is that there isn't a bludgeoning weapon in RAW that can actually trigger the stunning effect, you kinda get at that when you talk about the maul and greatsword but I think it's a good feature that but we also have to add a d10 or d12 weapon to make it possible

Bob I love what you and the community have come up with so far! I want to share with you the weapon system I’ve been building in my game because I think what you’ve got here would work even better with my system than 5e. (Pretty much the reason why I wanted to make a new game was to address the weapon/armor system which didn’t feel good when playing). Is there a way I can send you a section of my OneNote?

I love the extra level verisimilitude these damage type options offer. They are rare occurrences that can lead to tide turning, memorable moments.

love the ideas!

This reminds me of a feature I thought of for the heftier weapons that don't get many features, specifically Great club, Flail and Morningstar: CLOBBER: When you miss an attack role against a creature but role higher than the targets Dexterity Score, you make a damage role as if it were a hit, but only deal half the damage and without any special modifiers (smites, sneak attack, bonus damage, etc.).

Glad to see you worked out the special critical effects that I (and probably many others) suggested in the survey. Still very general based only on the damage type, but the damage die requirement affects different weapons differently, as you said. Suggestion for the 2d6 weapons - I don't like changing them in general to 1d12, because that removes some damage consistency. What about changing only critical hits for these weapons, making them roll 2d12 instead of 4d6 for damage (which means doubling the size of the dice instead of the number of dice)? This way they work very well with features in the video, but still have the consistent high damage in regular hits many players choose them for.

'Grim Hollow' has a list of weapons that have special properties. One such property is Hafted which polearms (such as spears, halberds, and other long handled weapon) have, when you make an attack with a weapon with the property you can use a Bonus Action to strike with the other side dealing 1d4 bludgeoning damage.

To add on to the many other suggestions for a bleeding form of the slashing damage type-- Being able to slash at an artery is such a badass concept for something like a fighter to be able to do, and would give martial classes so much more flavor to stand up with casters. 1d4 bleed damage a turn, as many other people have said, but I think it should last for a number of turns equal to your proficiency bonus, or until the creature gets healed, or uses an action to slow the bleeding. This would give it a more naturally scaling feeling with the inherent skill levels of a lower level martial class to a level 20 martial class. The damage wouldn't scale, but the over-time passive support would, which is a quirk that many martials lack.

I am using 3 of your systems to upgrade combat in my game and me and my freinds are having a blast thank you a lot for all of your work :)

I love this series of videos so much!!! P. i feel like the bloodied condition isn't used by a lot of dms and gouging out a hole in a target seems almost perfect for adding a bleed affect which could have the same feel without having to delve into exhaustion and could be more synergistic with other weapon designs in the future B. this is absolutely wonderful the only thing i would consider in addition would be something related to heavy armor as that is the point of hammers to a degree and could really differentiate them S. as a dm who is open with their players and has told them repeatedly that any rules they want to play by their monsters also get to play by this seems like something id only feel comfortable using in a boss encounter, imagining a bandit or a goblin chopping off the leg of one of my players would change the game drastically C. this was my favorite addition here, the fantasy of cleaving through an onslaught of monsters is one that can only really be had by a wizard casting fireball under current standards and you often find fighters and barbarians up in close combat either fully missing or extremely overkilling individual creatures

I feel like weapon damage types only affecting anything at all only on a crit and when you roll very high on the damage die is kinda silly. What makes a weapon is special is how it affects the enemy you're fighting, and this changes depending on what type of creature it is. So I think that the way to make weapons type matter with the material we have in 5e is by creating monsters that explore the potential of the weapons in the game. A good example of an official monster that does this is the Black Pudding that splits in half, forming 2 smaller black Puddings when hit by slashing damage.

Hey Bob, in case you see this an idea I had while watching was to vary the size of creatures things like puncturing, crushing and dismembering can affect be based on a damge scale. Maybe if a 6 or higher is rolled it can affect a small creature, an 8 or higher affects medium, and 10 or higher affects large (12 or higher hitting gargantuan seems powerful, but still means practically max damage on only the heaviest weapons can do this to purple worms and the like) I think this would add a lot of flavor to campaigns like Storm King's Thunder, giving the fighters and paladins a chance to grievously wound giants if they forgo a sword and board to make versatile or two handed attacks, potentially lopping off limbs and knocking their giant foes around. It also means you don't have to worry about a shortsword seriously harming anything bigger than a goblin beyond the basic damage and giving rogues and monks even more damage features over the typical "martial" classes

I really like the ideas for the different "standard" damage types, I usually lump them together into melee or ballistic damage anyway, I like this a lot more. I also like the idea of changing the damage dice from 2d6 to 1d12, especially for the future of this project. Maybe to counter the problem of the rolling certain numbers, you could say that the effect takes place if the total damage of a die is 8 or more. This might be a problem for smaller weapons and making it too common to happen, I'm not sure. Keep up the great work!

Great stuff. I'd definitely love to playtest these. One thing though... I'm not sure about the dismembering one. The other two are temporary and limited. Exhaustion goes away with a long rest or potion of vitality. Stunning only lasts one round. But cutting off a limb? That can't be so easily cured. I know there are spells like Regeneration--but that's some high level stuff. I don't have anything in mind right this moment to replace the idea, but I wanted to voice the concern. I think the cleaving idea should be an okay replacement in the meantime though, considering that was only for slashing weapons.

Here's some additional suggestions: 1 - long arms like a pikes or spears were mainly used to attack something from distance, pin it down or stop it from moving. So it might be good to rule that if you hit a crit that deals max damage from one of its damage die that a creature is either slowed or tripped or grappled (increased severity per damage die maxed) 2 - for the bludgeoning I have no qualms but you could put in that it applies if you hit either a D12 or 2D6 or maybe apply so that the enemy drops their shield or weapon? Idk 3 - slashing is to open up as much surface area for your enemy to bleed out and die so bleeding would be fine and turn the crit from toothed weapons (that normally have bleed) to reduce AC by 1 to 2(max)

One way to make them work for Glaives and Longswords would be to make it need a result of 8/10 from the results of two damage dice combined (e.g. a 5 and a 6) for those weapons.

One of the things about the crit effects, I wonder if it would be okay to say max roll on the damage die, at least for daggers. This gives a nice thematic trade off for the larger damage dice. If you want to use a bigger weapon, it'll be more difficult to poke into the vitals.

When you mentioned Battle Masters it reminded me, BMs have superiority dice which are d8's so if those are able to activate these abilities you've made the BM stronger... which I'm happy to accept because BM is my favorite Fighter and also knowing how to kick butt is kinda their whole deal, oh Paladin and Bladelock too.

The "Cleaving" trait could possibly be tied to the Heavy Weapon trait rather than a specific damage type. This way, it means the weapon is hefty enough that it can swing through enemies. I'd even consider allowing it to work on the Pike, as the idea of running one enemy through, and then stabbing an enemy behind them could be cool.

Ahhh the AD&D combat mechanic of different damage types having bonus and negative depending on armor type worn was very nice and I still implement personally

Here's a thought: steal how weapons are handled in Monster Hunter. Each weapon is basically it's own class with its own playstyle and features. Amellwind's Guide to Monster Hunting has a bunch of cool ideas. The best piece of design is that accomplishing things with your weapon attacks build up to a distinct ability or "finisher". This makes each attack decision feel more tactical because you want to do things to trigger that finisher faster. Here's how I designed a Rare Greatsword using this concept. It still does 2d6 per hit and is a +1 Greatsword: You're mastery of the greatsword has allowed you tap into power that rewards patience, and master a deftness only thought possible with lighter blades. Charge Slash: After you make an attack with this weapon you can use your bonus action to charge your great sword (3x max). You can make a charged attack in conjunction with any attack made with this Greatsword; when a charged attack is made all charges are expended and the attack is made at advantage. Furthermore, you can forgo the advantage to add another charge to the Charged attack. On a hit you add another d6 to the damage for each charge that is used. After you make a charge attack your movement is halved until the end of your next turn. Guard: As a reaction, you can add +2 to your AC against one attack that would hit you; you must be able to see the attacker/source of the damage. After using this ability you have disadvantage on your next roll.

These are all excellent ideas! I like that you're trying to work WITH battlemaster and not usurp it, which so many other people who don't want to play fighter but want to do fighter things try to do. I wasn't on board before this video, but I totally am now. Can't wait to see what you come up with next. Holding out hope every single individual weapon gets something 👌

Calls to mind an awesome system for damage type critical tables that I use. Found it on reddit and it adds loads of specific flavour and lasting effects from every damage type.

I think bludgeoning is perfect. I like the stun mechanic especially. For Piercing damage, I think an interesting alternative mechanic would be to have bleed damage. Once you crit with a Piercing weapon, the target takes 1dX (1 of your damage die for the weapon) damage at the start of their turn. At the end of their turn they can make a saving throw (8 + Proficiency bonus + STR/DEX mod). to end the effect. This would scale with the weapon, so a Dagger (1d4) < Spear (1d8/1d6) < Pike (1d10) < Lance (1d12)

Read many comments, I think if an effect is triggered by crit + rolling a number, it should vary based on size. "6s" for small, "8s" for medium, etc. D6 weapons only have a one in six chance of triggering even with a crit. Battle Master superiority dice counting seems fine, but sneak attack throws off the calculation. I would disallow Sneak Attack from triggering base effects, but maybe have their own. For instance, if Sneak Attak rolls generate greater than or equal "6s" than Con modifier, it triggers something.

Love the video and I'd like to share some ideas I've been tinkering around with: -to make the scimitar more distinctive, I'd have it be a +1 weapon against enemies using shields. This is because one of the benefits of the sharp curve in the scimitar is that it can curve around shields -I like your idea for crushing but personally, I would just say that with ANY bludgeoning damage(over 1), you have the option to either deal full damage or deal half damage (rounded up) and move the enemy the remaining half in feet back. So even monks can do it. It also only works on enemies up to one size larger than yourself so you can't just shove a tarrasque -lastly, and this might be a bit overpowered, I'd say that all of these features are only accessible to those with proficiencies in them. I think it's kinda weird that a wizard with good enough rolls can use a sword just as (if not more effectively) than a fighter.

I think a 1 in 160 chance is pretty low regardless of special critical effect. I also see the reasoning to limit it to certain higher-damage weapons; however to me, this is just making the stronger weapons even more strong. I was going to suggest "if you roll max damage on a die" but that actually favors lower-diced weapons. Perhaps just making it a set chance, crits are pretty rare, and not all weapons will have these abilities anyway, so a DM could decide if a dagger/whip/dart qualifies (to keep it balanced). I suggest it happen more often and be worded something like this: "When you score a critical hit with this weapon, roll an additional d4 of damage; if that d4 is a 4, this cool thing happens."

@BobWorldBuilder

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Yeah this video didn't go into the features I mentioned for weaker weapons, but I am thinking about changing up how it works

Hey Bob, you might be the first paytreon I join once this is all neatly compiled and documented. Unfortunatly I cant get a subscription but I would gladly do a one time payment for extra love for martial classes

I feel like Crushing is already kind of covered by the Crusher feat, and just the ability to push or shove as part of your attack. Also I don't quite follow the association between piercing and exhaustion. I would give Crushing the exhaustion feature as if you're getting concussed or the wind knocked out of you, or maybe a "sunder" effect that permanently lowers the target's AC (until they can get the damage fixed, assuming they survive). Change Puncture to causing the target to bleed out for something like 1d4+1 rounds and take an extra roll of the weapons damage on each of their turns. Or if you want it to be bursty, change impale to effectively give them sneak attack for a number of d6s equal to their proficiency bonus (not doubled by the crit). Dismembering is a bit strong. 5e already has this as an optional feature and it's not for every campaign. Maybe something like disadvantage on STR and DEX based rolls (attacks, skills, etc) or halve their speed until they finish a long rest. Also I would make the size requirements (if any) relative, not absolute. As in, not effective against creatures 2 size categories or more larger than you. While most PCs aren't larger than Medium, things like Enlarge and Rune Knights exist, and it just makes sense when these edge cases occur.

When it comes to dismembering limbs, I have a couple ideas based on the chosen limbs: *Arm/Hand:* The creature can no longer wield two-handed weapons or versatile weapons with two hands. If the main hand is dismembered, the creature has disadvantage on weapon attack rolls made with its remaining hand. If both hands or arms are dismembered, the creature can no longer wield weapons with his hands. Any natural weapons requiring its hands are lost as well. The creature may still make unarmed strikes using its feet, if possible. *Foot/Leg:* The creature can no longer take the Dash action while walking and their walking speed is halved. Quadrupedal creatures instead have their walking speed reduced by 10 feet for every 25 feet they have of walking speed. A quadrupedal creature that loses two of its four legs is effected as a bipedal creature that loses one leg. If the creature attempts to take the Disengage action, it must make a DC 15 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to do so. On a failure, the creature falls prone, its action is wasted, and immediately provokes attacks of opportunity from its space. If the creature has both legs or feet dismembered, it falls prone and cannot end the prone condition on itself until a foot or leg is restored. This applies if a quadrupedal creature only has one leg remaining. Creatures with more than four legs may have alternative penalties depending on how many legs are dismembered (DM's discretion). If the creature has a climbing speed, that is also halved. A creature also loses its swimming speed if it has one. *Wing:* The creature's flying speed is reduced to one-quarter its value, rounded down to the nearest 5-foot increment. If this would reduce its flying speed to 0, it instead loses its flying speed as well as its ability to hover, if applicable, and begins to fall if it was aloft. Otherwise, the creature can no longer take the Dash action while flying and must make a DC15 Strength (Athletics) check at the start of each of its turns to stay aloft as well as when it attempts to fly upwards for the first time on its turn. If it fails to stay aloft, the creature can't benefit from its flying speed for until the start of its next turn and begins to fall. If it fails trying to fly upwards, it can only fly horizontally and downward to land on the ground. A creature that loses both wings loses its flying speed and begins to fall if it were aloft. If the creature's wings were also its arms, it also is given any applicable penalties for having an arm dismembered. Probably way too complicated but I figured covering most of those circumstances outright would help. Hope these suggestions are helpful to ya Bob!

What would you recommend for parties that use different methods of rolling crit damage? i.e. I have my players roll their damage and then get automatic max damage for the 2nd dice.

Hey @Bob World Builder I have some bad news about Puncture. Starting at 3rd level the Kensei Monk is capable of making 2 ranged piercing attacks dealing 1d8 or 1 ranged piercing attack dealing1d12, both being the base damage roll of the weapon. They can also make reaction attacks more often, especially with the Sentinel feat. At 5th level that goes up to 4 attacks dealing 1d8 damage or 2 dealing 1d2 + 1 possible reaction attack. At 17th level a Kensei monk can make 4 piercing attacks dealing 1d14 base weapon damage each in a single round + reactions + better movement + can re-roll a single miss. But that's just Kensei Monk, right? Sort of. Starting at 11th level ALL Monks deal 1d8 base damage with their Monk Weapons including darts and daggers. So that's 4 ranged attacks that qualify for Puncture every round, and if they have advantage can mean 8 rolls every single round. And then we can account for haste to add 1 more attack action, so 2 attacks starting at level 5, bringing the total to 6 attack rolls every single round after 5th level while hasted. The Kensei still deals a base of 1d14 damage with each of these 6 attacks. All of these attacks are ranged. The Barbarian maxes at 3 dealing 1d12 with a Lance, or 3 with a bow + 1 more for Haste to bring it to 4 total. Now let's assume this doesn't apply to every single piercing weapon and you only give the feature to weapons with a base 1d8 damage. This means you're still looking at Kensei monks rolling 1d12 with a Spear 2 times per round, and dealing 1d12 base damage with the longbow 2 times per round, both starting at 5th level. And at 17th level those same weapons will be rolling 1d14. 3 with Haste at both levels. That's pretty crazy, honestly. I really don't think this does scale well with established official mechanics.

For greatswords and mauls I'd say they have their own fineprint rule of 'instead of an 8+ on the damage die, you must roll 4 or higher on BOTH damage die' (so a 6 and a 3 won't work, even though it'd be 9 damage)

Bleeding could be an interesting effect for both piercing and slashing weapons if you get the requisite for those effects but don't wish to do them(in the sense of, you could dismember the creature, but you choose to slash a gaping wound on its abdomen for instance). And it could work like this: If a creature is affected by bleed they will gain an amount of bleed points equal to the physical damage dealt by the attack that caused the bleeding. Every turn from then on the creature will lose 1 hit point and 1 bleed point until it no longer has hit points left or all bleed points are lost. Every 5 hit points lost through bleeding will cause the creature to gain 1 point of exhaustion. A bleeding creature can spend it's action every turn to stop the bleeding, preventing the damage dealt by it, and continuing to lose bleed points. (there could be some number changes maybe, but I think this is a pretty cool way of making bleed)

I know you haven't done the small weapons video, but a "mail breaker" weapon feature that grants a small attack bonus against creatures wearing armor would be an interesting dynamic to add to combat. Maybe the rogue switches to the mail breaker shiv to take down the enemy ranger and then uses the higher damage rapier for his direwolves.

These are really neat ideas, but I think it could be simplified even further I already use improvised minor effects on crit, but this could be a new way to do it succinctly When you crit a Large or smaller creature, apply the following effect BLUDGEONING: Knocked prone PIERCING: Halved movement speed next turn SLASHING: Partial severing of a limb (remove fingers/toes, slash the membrane of a wing, remove the stinger from a tail, etc)

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but if I recall correctly the DMG already has rules for dismemberment on the critical hit scale, where on a critical hit the attacker can roll to instill some sort of permanent damage, ranging from just a scar to dismemberment.

Hey Bob, I really like your content, and had some thoughts on these ideas. Now onto the critiques and suggestions: So, my first bit of input is regarding the damage requirement of these features. Rather than specify that a single die must have a result of X or higher on a critical hit (before applying damage modifiers), instead you could require that the TOTAL of the dice must be a certain value before any modifiers are added (including additional dice damage from things like Smite and Sneak Attack). For weapons with a maximum result of 4 this number could be 5, for weapons with a maximum result of 6 this number could be 7, for weapons with a maximum result of 8, this number could be 9, and for results that were that you had requiring a natural 10 or higher this number could be 11 or 12. By doing this, you don't need to change any of the existing weapon mechanics, such as changing a maul from 2d6 to 1d12. Yes, this does make it possible for smaller damage weapons to achieve SOME of these results, but it's still more likely for larger weapons. If you don't like the numbers I suggested, play around with it until it feels right. On the piercing caveat, I've never cared for features that reference a specific size (or similar) threshold, as I feel this doesn't account for effects that can alter the size (or similar feature) of the character. In this example, what happens if the character is also Gargantuan in size for some reason? They are now the SAME SIZE as the target, but cannot benefit from the added critical hit potential. Instead, I might suggest a caveat along the lines of: "This feature cannot affect targets that are more than one size category larger than the attacker." While this actually limits capitalizing on the extended crit option a bit more, it's a more subjective restriction. If that restriction feels too stringent, change it to two size categories. On the bludgeoning feature, I feel like it steps on the toes (a little bit) of the crusher feat. I actually liked the exhaustion mechanic you applied to piercing weapons better for bludgeoning, but that's personal taste. In order to step away from the shove mechanic, you might consider something like applying a condition, like Incapacitated or Poisoned to represent a short-term concussion. The Stunned option for your proposed result of 10 or higher ties right into this theme. And again, your caveat for the bludgeoning effects does not account for characters who may be have their size increased. Instead: "This feature cannot affect targets more than one size category larger than the attacker." Now on to slashing..... Dismemberment is REALLY STRONG. Probably too strong. Again, this is my opinion, but this could potentially affect a character, and getting your arm or leg chopped off is no joke! I would consider something a bit more mild, like 1d4 Bleed damage per round until the wound is healed or treated with a Healer's Kit or successful Medicine check. If you're dead set on including a dismemberment possibility, make the requirement more difficult. Using my first suggestion of basing these results on the total of the critical weapon damage dice, I wouldn't go lower than 12, and might aim at a 14, or even 16, or higher! Additionally, rather than employing a size restriction to your final caveat (the same static restriction, incidentally, that I've previously addressed), you could use the caveat: "For each size category the target is larger than the attacker, this number increases by 4. Conversely, for each size category smaller the target is than the attacker, decrease this number by 2." Again, I think dismemberment is just too strong, but I think this brings it more in balance. With all of the above optional features, I believe in stacking effects. If a slashing attack would cause a bleed effect on a moderate critical result, but dismember on a greater result, the dismemberment effect also causes the bleed effect. If a bludgeoning attack results in a total high enough to Stun, it also does the lesser effect (either your shove, or my Incapacitated/Poisoned effect). If the lesser effect would be redundant, then said lesser effect lasts for an additional round. And finally, Cleaving. I like the general improvement on this idea, but don't have the same imaginative restrictions I'm picking up from you. Yes, the PRIMARY damage of a weapon is the damage type listed, but piercing weapons can generally also slash and bludgeon. Daggers, short swords, and rapiers, for example, all have at least one edge along the length of the blade. And why couldn't a mace, war hammer, or maul be used to "cleave" through to other targets? The problem is the term "cleave". It's a misnomer here, as the term "cleave" implies that you have cut the target in two. Yikes! In that case, yeah, it only works for a limited assortment of weapons. Since the optional rule in the book is unspecific about the weapon damage type, and you are aiming to improve upon that optional rule, I think a better, more accurate and flexible term might be "Sweeping Strike" or just "Sweep". There are multiple ways to visualize this sort of mechanic. Rather than simply envisioning a large, sweeping motion, perhaps the "cleave" or "sweep" is the rogue slashing the first target throat, than spinning to bury their dagger in the next target, for example. Also, a single attack roll by a character (or monster) doesn't have to LITERALLY represent a single attack. In early editions of D&D, one combat round lasted ONE MINUTE. A single attack roll represented a lot of back-and-forth between combatants, and multiple attack attempts, some failures and some successes. While six seconds is considerably shorter than 60, there is no reason to assume that the rogues outrageous sneak attack damage from a single attack roll couldn't have been the result of rapidly stabbing their opponent five times in the back, or it could have represented kicking them in the back of the knee, grabbing their head, and slitting their throat. I know I seem awfully critical here, but I generally do LIKE your ideas here. :D I hope I wasn't coming off too harsh or anything. I just had my own thoughts on these ideas that I thought could offer a different perspective. Thanks!

What I've started doing is if you deal damage equal or greater to the value of the damage dice (6 or more with a d6 dmg wpn, etc) you deal some sort of critical effect, like amputate a hand or shatter bones, depending on the damage type.

Did this long ago and players loved it. Bare minimum, they start choosing targets less randomly and feel a reason not to highly specialize in a single weapon type. Even my least crunchy players love it.

I like the direction of these. I would suggest tieing the size of the creature that can be affected by one of these traits to the die size of the weapon. D4 can affect tiny and small, D6 includes medium, D8 includes large, etc. (treat 2D6 as D12 for this qualifier.) I would also say that instead of a roll of 8 or higher, you say "when one or more of your weapon's damage dice roll their maximum value". This way you get around changing die sizes on weapons and you streamline who can/cannot be affected. The chance to stun sounds more appropriate to getting impaled imo than for the bludgeoning trait and maybe a bleeding effect or disadvantage on CON saves as part of the effect. Maybe bludgeoning attacks could stagger a creature and give advantage on the next attack against it and prevent reactions until next turn. Dismemberment may be too much but maybe forcing weapons/items to be dropped and disadvantage on attack rolls for arms and halved speed and disadvantage on acrobatics/athletics checks for legs. Targeted wings no longer allow flight and tails can't be used in any actions and maybe impair balance (DEX penalty maybe?). Keep brainstorming! You have a good start!

To add onto cleaving I would also allow bow and crossbow shots to be able to keep going beyond the target if there is an enemy behind them that can be hit by the same attack roll

i love em. the idea is great