Prerequisite: Requires a Strength or Dexterity score of 13 or higher
This warrior has mastered to make a brutal strike with his melee weapons. When he swings his blade, their foe will tremble for the impact which is incoming.
Prerequisite: Strength or Dexterity score of 13 or higher.
- Increase your Strength or Dexterity score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- Once per round when you roll damage for a melee weapon attack, you can re-roll the weapon its damage dice and choose the higher result.
If the second weapon damage roll is equal or lower than the initial weapon damage roll, you add half the maximum value of the weapon a damage die to this roll. - Once per round on a critical hit on a melee weapon attack, you may re-roll the weapon damage dice (but may not add half max damage dice).
How much bonus weapon damage do I get if my re-rolled damaged doesn't surpass the initial roll?
- +6 for 1d12
- +5 for 1d10
- +4 for 1d8
- +3 for 1d6 or 2d6
- +2 for 1d4, 2d4 or 3d4
So for example you are fighting with a 1d8 weapon and you rolled 5 for damage. You choose to use the Savage Attacker re-roll and the second roll is a 3. This wille become 7 (=3+4) instead and will give you a +2 bonus damage.
Previous Versions
| Name | Date Modified | Views | Adds | Version | Actions |
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2/11/2019 10:42:55 PM
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84
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1
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1.0
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Coming Soon
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4/25/2019 12:22:08 PM
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1840
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4
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1.1
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Coming Soon
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7/20/2019 5:08:20 AM
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658
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3
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1.2
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Coming Soon
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Posted Jul 20, 2019Design philosophy
I want this feature to have a broad enough application so it can be interesting to many classes to pick up. I wanted it to become more on par with the top tier features, yet not as powerful as the main power houses like: Sharpshooter, Lucky, Great Weapon Master or Crossbow Expert.
I did create this home brewed version for a Half-Orc Barbarian who needed a reliable way to wield a Great-Axe before cross-classing into Fighter Champion for Crit-Fishing.
So I went with a part that is always contributing: the half ability increase, a part which gives you a meaningful choice to make, like a resource to manage: the ounce per round weapon damage re-roll and (possible) damage boost and lastly a more fluffy component: almost guaranteeing that at least one critical hit per turn will actually feel like a critical hit.
The goal of keeping the main feature restricted to ounce per round is so you will have the feeling that the feature has more of an impact and in more discrete instances. If you would, for example, change this feature to simply allow to re-roll all melee weapon damage dice, you wouldn't appreciate what the re-roll actually does.
I have added the damage boost, to avoid the frustrated feeling of deciding to re-roll and still have no impact on the actual flow of the game. Also your character doesn't really feel more Savage if your initial roll stands.
DnD is a story telling game, so each time you have an impact to change the outcome of the story, is great and it can create memorable moments.
I also disliked the fact that the original feature was only active on your turn. Which didn't feel appropriate for a Savage character. Also with my version, you can really bet on hitting a creature with an Attack of Opportunity (AoO) and keep the Savage Attacker re-roll in hand for maximum impact on that AoO. Yet the creature could decide to disengage and you don't get the AoO anyway.
I have the feeling that this feature now is appealing enough, not only for weapons with a big damage die, but also for other martial classes, who want to make sure that they keep putting out a decent amount of damage, without relying on damage spells.
If have done some mathematical analysis of the impact of this boosted re-roll for 2d6 and 1d12 weapons.
Here is the graphical representation:
For 2d6 the expected range was originally 4-10 with 83,33% and the median on 7.
Original Savage Attacker boosted the range to 6-11 with 86,81% and the median on 8. Delta's (=differences) +2 for the minimum, while the median and maximum by +1 and the average +1,37.
Improved Savage Attacker boosts the range to 7-11 with 80,40% and the median on 9,5 (because both 9 and 10 have about 18,8% change to turn up). Delta's +3 for minimum, +2,5 for median and +1 for maximum and the average +2,02.
For 1d12 the expected range was originally 2-11 with 83,33% and the median on 6,5. Yet this isn't really true since the distribution is perfectly even.
Original Savage Attacker boosted the range to 6-12 with 82,64% and the median on 11,5. Delta's +4 for minimum, +5 for median, +1 for maximum and average +1,99.
Improved Savage Attacker boosts the ranger to 6-13 with 82,64% and the median on 11,5. Delta's +4 for minimum, +5 for median, +2 for maximum and average +3,49.
Yet one has to consider that these results are only true if you re-roll any result, also already high results (7+) which can lead into 13+ results. In reality you might not want to use the re-roll on you first hit because you want to have the safety net for the second, third attack. Due to the more bell-curve nature of the 2d6 it would be more easy to obtain a boosted damage roll (if the boos was full +6 when the second damage <= initial roll).
So in the end I'm quite happy since I have found a way to reward bigger damage die weapons over the more reliable, multiple dice weapons.