Thursday, December 17, 2015

Expanded and Exotic Weapons [Third Draft]



There are two important things to consider when revising homebrew:
  1. The difference between when a mechanic is bad and can be fixed, and when it's bad enough to have to take it behind a shed and do what must be done.

    and...
  2. When to keep it simple, and when it's appropriate to complicate it a little bit. 
The "trade in proficiencies" bit wasn't really working out for this homebrew. So, I nixed it, and mixed the format of this project around a little bit. 

The changelog can explain.

WHAT I CHANGED:
  • Expanded and Exotic Weapons is the new title, replacing the old "Exotic Weapons" and representing the two weapon lists available here,
  • Broke weapons into two lists, one intended to be an extension of the PHB's weapon list and proficiencies, the other of which requires feats to access. 
  • Removed Bladed Fan because that one just really wasn't working out. 
  • Added Repeating Crossbows because D&D cowboys. 
  • Added Sword Sheath because that's a fun thing to beat people with. 
  • Added Exotic Weapon powers which are once-per-short-rest abilities related to the weapon, intended to help make a feat worth it. 
  • Revised item descriptions, rebalanced weapon damage because you can't do that enough times. 
CONCERNS:
  • What's the power balance on the new Exotic Weapons and the weapon abilities? I think the power variation is fairly alright; I guarantee they're not going to be perfectly balanced, but as long as the spread is roughly even I'm alright with it. 
  • Do any expanded weapons invalidate any existing weapons? Keep in mind the differences in Simple and Martial weapon categories. 
WHAT I LEARNED:
  • Well, that thing I posted, above. 
  • 4e-style mechanics can work in 5e. Whoda thought. 


Also, I'm still figuring out how to generate a PDF with selectable text that Google will let me embed without breaking it. It's surprisingly tricky, but for now you can download a PDF with selectable text here. It won't look pretty previewed, but if you download it, it should run off a computer or device just fine.

A newer version of this option is available.

2 comments:

  1. I love the stuff you make, man. It's freaking awesome

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    Replies
    1. Thanks! Always appreciate feeling the love. =)

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