I recently started running an online campaign with some of my friends. One of them is new to D&D but has real world knowledge about using and maintaining a longbow and has already acquired beeswax for the string. In response I have created a custom rule for properly maintained weapons to either have an advantage when being used or be able to negate damage to itself on a nat 1 until they are next maintained.
Variations I have found online for bladed weapons involve sharpening and oiling the blade, maces depend on the material but usually just cleaned and oiled. I have been unable to find anything about quarterstaffs, which I am worried about as this player's husband is also playing and that has been his main weapon so far.
Does anyone have any knowledge about quarterstaff maintenance or suggestions I can use when the question inevitably comes up in my campaign?
Don’t get into it. D&D is a game, not a medieval combat simulator. The rules are designed and balanced around game playing more than realistic simulation. Pantagruel’s idea of making it an rp thing is about as far as you should go. Will you give spellcasters a bonus if they use fresh, artisanal guano for their fireballs?
In short, don’t give characters a mechanical bonus for player knowledge.
But, since it seems like you've already implemented the items, or at least that the players seem to want the rules implemented, here is a link I found that talks about maintaining wooden weapons. I would just assume the same for the quarterstaff.
"I am taking a small bat guano ball from my component pouch and a pinch of sulfur, mash them together, reach to the forces around me and gather warmth from the air as a ball of fire forms in my hands. Then, with a gesture, I point to the enemy and flames roar and fly through the air towards him"
The other one will say
"I'm going to cast Fireball, at 3rd level"
If someone likes being particular about things that interest them, assume they do it for their own enjoyment, not for extra benefit points.
But yeah, using some kind of resin mixture as varnish to protect the wood from moisture and regularly checking for splinters and changing wrappings (if it has those) seems like the way to go.
I recently started running an online campaign with some of my friends. One of them is new to D&D but has real world knowledge about using and maintaining a longbow and has already acquired beeswax for the string. In response I have created a custom rule for properly maintained weapons to either have an advantage when being used or be able to negate damage to itself on a nat 1 until they are next maintained.
Variations I have found online for bladed weapons involve sharpening and oiling the blade, maces depend on the material but usually just cleaned and oiled. I have been unable to find anything about quarterstaffs, which I am worried about as this player's husband is also playing and that has been his main weapon so far.
Does anyone have any knowledge about quarterstaff maintenance or suggestions I can use when the question inevitably comes up in my campaign?
Back in 1E I did something like this but it became too bloated. Today if I was homebrewing I would charge any where between 1 Gp to 25 Gp for weapon and armour upkeep per month.
But, since it seems like you've already implemented the items, or at least that the players seem to want the rules implemented, here is a link I found that talks about maintaining wooden weapons. I would just assume the same for the quarterstaff.
Technically a whetstone exists in D&D even though it grants absolutely no mechanical benefits whatsoever. Beeswax for rosining a bowstring would be the equivalent to a whetstone for sharpening blades. It can exist without “doing” anything.
When I saw the subject line, I would have bet $1000 that this would involve endless caviling over firearms. I'm so pleased to be wrong that I'm going to go a bit further than anyone else here.
The thing about quarterstaff maintenance is that a non-magical quarterstaff is a big dowel rod. You needn't do anything at all to maintain it. If it breaks, you go find a sapling, cut it down, and you have a new quarterstaff. That's what Robin Hood and Little John did all the time in the old stories and if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for D&D. If one wanted a fancy staff, one could lacquer it to keep the water out and put an iron cap on the bottom end, to keep it from getting chewed up by the ground while using the staff as an actual support while walking.
In terms of your house rules so many things give advantage that you are in part negating your players ability to gain benefits from other tactics, skills or feats. In addition this may seem like a fun thing to do now but it will quickly become a bit of extra housekeeping for you and your players. Especially this rule, which I don’t quite understand, about damage to weapons on a 1. It may be as they players progress to level 3-4 you want to quietly slip this house rule into the background as they gain more abilities and things that need to be tracked.
I will equate it to magic supplies for magic users, or the tracking of arrows or other ammunition. I make my players track these things levels 1-5 when money is tight and they need to make hard choices about what they buy/salvage between adventures. But as they progress then I won’t worry about tracking every arrow fired, or every time that a familiar is summoned, I won’t make them tell me they are buying 10 gold of incense and then roll to see if they find it, I will just let them mark off the 10 gold for that low level spell and focus on the higher level spell components.
As your players progress then you can follow this process. The other thing to note, giving advantage on every show with a bow effectively means your giving a fairly powerful magic item to a low level character. Are you going to maintain this rule when they start finding real magic items? Will your plus 1 bow now also have advantage of maintained properly? As a magic item it should already look after itself, you are going to have to scale your encounters up to account for the fact that your player will hit more often, and if he is rolling for advantage he is far less likely to roll a 1 and as you have said you are now struggling to find similar benefits for your other players. I would take this player aside, and explain you have thought about it and that his real world knowledge is great, but his character already knows all this, if he is telling you he is doing it then it’s just an extra bit of RP, but if he doesn’t tell you that’s fine as well because his character knows how to maintain their weapons anyway. In fact if he insists on it having an effect if he tells you he is doing it then switch it to, telling me simply makes your bow work, if your not telling me you are maintaining your bow then there is a chance in battle it will break or the string snap.
I use it, and I grant it for certain things including good RP. If you want, you could grant the player inspiration for RPing really well about their character's deep personal relationship with his/her longbow.
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Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I use it, and I grant it for certain things including good RP. If you want, you could grant the player inspiration for RPing really well about their character's deep personal relationship with his/her longbow.
Yeah, this is probably the only mechanical benefit that works within the game. Maintaining one's weapon shouldn't grant benefits any more than "I stab them with the point end" should...
I recently started running an online campaign with some of my friends. One of them is new to D&D but has real world knowledge about using and maintaining a longbow and has already acquired beeswax for the string. In response I have created a custom rule for properly maintained weapons to either have an advantage when being used or be able to negate damage to itself on a nat 1 until they are next maintained.
Variations I have found online for bladed weapons involve sharpening and oiling the blade, maces depend on the material but usually just cleaned and oiled. I have been unable to find anything about quarterstaffs, which I am worried about as this player's husband is also playing and that has been his main weapon so far.
Does anyone have any knowledge about quarterstaff maintenance or suggestions I can use when the question inevitably comes up in my campaign?
It sounds like you've already decided to provide a benefit for maintained weapons, so I'm not sure if recommending against it is of any use to you. I will say though that permanent advantage is a really strong benefit that will overshadow all the other ways to gain advantage, which may make things a little less interesting tactically. Likewise, your other benefit for not taking damage on a fumble - well, that's not actually a thing in the rules. A roll of a 1 is just a miss, there are no other downsides to it in the rules.
If my group was really wanting this mechanic, I might treat a maintained weapon as having an extra +1 to attack and damage. I think that reflects a weapon that works slightly better, but still allows for all other situational benefits and/or penalties to apply.
The benefit was going to be temporary, however an extra +1 to attack and damage would be a better idea.
Assuming that you're playing with relatively new players, there is something really cool for a newbie to say "I know something!" when they can't say that about other aspects of the game. Some people really know the rules, the spell lists. It's easy for a novice gamer to feel left out of that so there's a boost to saying "but I get this!" and bringing in their knowledge of how to maintain a bow. While it's assumed as part of the story of the game that characters know how to maintain their weapons, it's hard to turn around and take that away from a player when they are taking pride in their personal knowledge and it's relevance.
From a game mechanic point of view, the maintence of weapons is usually rolled into other things to balance out other mechanical considerations. Do you want a player to figure out that it's more wise to "maintain" a weapon every few rounds to get back to another advantage? Attacking with Advantage is a pretty big buff while a running +1 (aka 5% bonus) isn't quite as bad. But then again, you have to ask how often you want the archer to go "I take a turn to prep my bow string" mid fight. Maybe that's the kind of drama you want but there will be times where that 5% is worth the lost action.
The benefit was going to be temporary, however an extra +1 to attack and damage would be a better idea.
Assuming that you're playing with relatively new players, there is something really cool for a newbie to say "I know something!" when they can't say that about other aspects of the game. Some people really know the rules, the spell lists. It's easy for a novice gamer to feel left out of that so there's a boost to saying "but I get this!" and bringing in their knowledge of how to maintain a bow.
On the other hand, it can make the players who don't know a lot of stuff about medieval weraponry feel a bit left out. Basically giving the character a +1 weapon just because the player knows basic maintenance can feel unfair to the players who just wants to have a fun game.
Real World knowledge is of limited use in a fantasy game. A character who is quite likely to find themselves engulfed in flames isn't going to get much from that beeswax on their bowstring. Wooden bows don't do well in flames, and isn't wax on a string the basis of making candles? I gather that bows were often kept unstrung to keep them from breaking down. Will you require Strength checks every time they want to string their bow? That Dex based archer is going to be annoyed, especially if their dump stat was Str.
What's the bowstring made of? Braided unicorn hair? The hair of an elvish princess? Do Balrog guts make good bowstrings? Does Giant Bee wax work better?
Any benefit outside of roleplaying is not needed. Inspiration is probably over generous. The character is likely to ditch the bow and the wax as soon as they get a +1 bow anyway.
What's the bowstring made of? Braided unicorn hair? The hair of an elvish princess? Do Balrog guts make good bowstrings? Does Giant Bee wax work better?
There is the Giant's hair crossbow from Baldur's Gate that requires a strength of 15 to use. Could be fun to incorporate a magic weapon similar to that in D&D.
Thank you everyone for the input, this is my first time running a full campaign. I haven't implemented the bonus or mentioned it to the players so this was more something I was tossing around, but now I don't think I will.
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I recently started running an online campaign with some of my friends. One of them is new to D&D but has real world knowledge about using and maintaining a longbow and has already acquired beeswax for the string. In response I have created a custom rule for properly maintained weapons to either have an advantage when being used or be able to negate damage to itself on a nat 1 until they are next maintained.
Variations I have found online for bladed weapons involve sharpening and oiling the blade, maces depend on the material but usually just cleaned and oiled. I have been unable to find anything about quarterstaffs, which I am worried about as this player's husband is also playing and that has been his main weapon so far.
Does anyone have any knowledge about quarterstaff maintenance or suggestions I can use when the question inevitably comes up in my campaign?
I wouldn't do much more than grant roleplaying credit; it's assumed that weapon proficiency includes ordinary maintenance.
Don’t get into it. D&D is a game, not a medieval combat simulator. The rules are designed and balanced around game playing more than realistic simulation. Pantagruel’s idea of making it an rp thing is about as far as you should go.
Will you give spellcasters a bonus if they use fresh, artisanal guano for their fireballs?
In short, don’t give characters a mechanical bonus for player knowledge.
I agree with the others, it’s just assumed that every PC does that stuff as part of their rests.
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I agree with the others.
But, since it seems like you've already implemented the items, or at least that the players seem to want the rules implemented, here is a link I found that talks about maintaining wooden weapons. I would just assume the same for the quarterstaff.
https://www.seidoshop.com/blogs/the-seido-blog/42-bokken-and-other-wooden-weapons-maintenance
One person will say
"I am taking a small bat guano ball from my component pouch and a pinch of sulfur, mash them together, reach to the forces around me and gather warmth from the air as a ball of fire forms in my hands. Then, with a gesture, I point to the enemy and flames roar and fly through the air towards him"
The other one will say
"I'm going to cast Fireball, at 3rd level"
If someone likes being particular about things that interest them, assume they do it for their own enjoyment, not for extra benefit points.
But yeah, using some kind of resin mixture as varnish to protect the wood from moisture and regularly checking for splinters and changing wrappings (if it has those) seems like the way to go.
Back in 1E I did something like this but it became too bloated. Today if I was homebrewing I would charge any where between 1 Gp to 25 Gp for weapon and armour upkeep per month.
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Technically a whetstone exists in D&D even though it grants absolutely no mechanical benefits whatsoever. Beeswax for rosining a bowstring would be the equivalent to a whetstone for sharpening blades. It can exist without “doing” anything.
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I’m going to hop on the “it’s part of being proficient with the weapon” type thing here. After all, we don’t make adventurers pack extra socks, do we?
When I saw the subject line, I would have bet $1000 that this would involve endless caviling over firearms. I'm so pleased to be wrong that I'm going to go a bit further than anyone else here.
The thing about quarterstaff maintenance is that a non-magical quarterstaff is a big dowel rod. You needn't do anything at all to maintain it. If it breaks, you go find a sapling, cut it down, and you have a new quarterstaff. That's what Robin Hood and Little John did all the time in the old stories and if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for D&D. If one wanted a fancy staff, one could lacquer it to keep the water out and put an iron cap on the bottom end, to keep it from getting chewed up by the ground while using the staff as an actual support while walking.
In terms of your house rules so many things give advantage that you are in part negating your players ability to gain benefits from other tactics, skills or feats. In addition this may seem like a fun thing to do now but it will quickly become a bit of extra housekeeping for you and your players. Especially this rule, which I don’t quite understand, about damage to weapons on a 1. It may be as they players progress to level 3-4 you want to quietly slip this house rule into the background as they gain more abilities and things that need to be tracked.
I will equate it to magic supplies for magic users, or the tracking of arrows or other ammunition. I make my players track these things levels 1-5 when money is tight and they need to make hard choices about what they buy/salvage between adventures. But as they progress then I won’t worry about tracking every arrow fired, or every time that a familiar is summoned, I won’t make them tell me they are buying 10 gold of incense and then roll to see if they find it, I will just let them mark off the 10 gold for that low level spell and focus on the higher level spell components.
As your players progress then you can follow this process. The other thing to note, giving advantage on every show with a bow effectively means your giving a fairly powerful magic item to a low level character. Are you going to maintain this rule when they start finding real magic items? Will your plus 1 bow now also have advantage of maintained properly? As a magic item it should already look after itself, you are going to have to scale your encounters up to account for the fact that your player will hit more often, and if he is rolling for advantage he is far less likely to roll a 1 and as you have said you are now struggling to find similar benefits for your other players. I would take this player aside, and explain you have thought about it and that his real world knowledge is great, but his character already knows all this, if he is telling you he is doing it then it’s just an extra bit of RP, but if he doesn’t tell you that’s fine as well because his character knows how to maintain their weapons anyway. In fact if he insists on it having an effect if he tells you he is doing it then switch it to, telling me simply makes your bow work, if your not telling me you are maintaining your bow then there is a chance in battle it will break or the string snap.
Do you use Inspiration in your game?
I use it, and I grant it for certain things including good RP. If you want, you could grant the player inspiration for RPing really well about their character's deep personal relationship with his/her longbow.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Yeah, this is probably the only mechanical benefit that works within the game. Maintaining one's weapon shouldn't grant benefits any more than "I stab them with the point end" should...
It sounds like you've already decided to provide a benefit for maintained weapons, so I'm not sure if recommending against it is of any use to you. I will say though that permanent advantage is a really strong benefit that will overshadow all the other ways to gain advantage, which may make things a little less interesting tactically. Likewise, your other benefit for not taking damage on a fumble - well, that's not actually a thing in the rules. A roll of a 1 is just a miss, there are no other downsides to it in the rules.
If my group was really wanting this mechanic, I might treat a maintained weapon as having an extra +1 to attack and damage. I think that reflects a weapon that works slightly better, but still allows for all other situational benefits and/or penalties to apply.
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(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
The benefit was going to be temporary, however an extra +1 to attack and damage would be a better idea.
Assuming that you're playing with relatively new players, there is something really cool for a newbie to say "I know something!" when they can't say that about other aspects of the game. Some people really know the rules, the spell lists. It's easy for a novice gamer to feel left out of that so there's a boost to saying "but I get this!" and bringing in their knowledge of how to maintain a bow. While it's assumed as part of the story of the game that characters know how to maintain their weapons, it's hard to turn around and take that away from a player when they are taking pride in their personal knowledge and it's relevance.
From a game mechanic point of view, the maintence of weapons is usually rolled into other things to balance out other mechanical considerations. Do you want a player to figure out that it's more wise to "maintain" a weapon every few rounds to get back to another advantage? Attacking with Advantage is a pretty big buff while a running +1 (aka 5% bonus) isn't quite as bad. But then again, you have to ask how often you want the archer to go "I take a turn to prep my bow string" mid fight. Maybe that's the kind of drama you want but there will be times where that 5% is worth the lost action.
Just some things to muse on....
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On the other hand, it can make the players who don't know a lot of stuff about medieval weraponry feel a bit left out. Basically giving the character a +1 weapon just because the player knows basic maintenance can feel unfair to the players who just wants to have a fun game.
Real World knowledge is of limited use in a fantasy game. A character who is quite likely to find themselves engulfed in flames isn't going to get much from that beeswax on their bowstring. Wooden bows don't do well in flames, and isn't wax on a string the basis of making candles? I gather that bows were often kept unstrung to keep them from breaking down. Will you require Strength checks every time they want to string their bow? That Dex based archer is going to be annoyed, especially if their dump stat was Str.
What's the bowstring made of? Braided unicorn hair? The hair of an elvish princess? Do Balrog guts make good bowstrings? Does Giant Bee wax work better?
Any benefit outside of roleplaying is not needed. Inspiration is probably over generous. The character is likely to ditch the bow and the wax as soon as they get a +1 bow anyway.
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There is the Giant's hair crossbow from Baldur's Gate that requires a strength of 15 to use. Could be fun to incorporate a magic weapon similar to that in D&D.
Thank you everyone for the input, this is my first time running a full campaign. I haven't implemented the bonus or mentioned it to the players so this was more something I was tossing around, but now I don't think I will.