So was going through some old UA content and found some of the old weapon feats, in a guide on making feats.
Firstly we have not seen them come up again since but i liked the idea behind them so was wondering if we should work on the old ones to ensure they are good to use.
Blade Mastery
You master the shortsword, longsword, scimitar, rapier, and greatsword. You gain the following benefits when using any of them:
You gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls you make with the weapon.
On your turn, you can use your reaction to assume a parrying stance, provided you have the weapon in hand. Doing so grants you a +1 bonus to your AC until the start of your next turn or until your no longer holding the weapon.
When you make an opportunity attack with the weapon, you have advantage on the attack roll.
Fell Handed
You master the handaxe, battleaxe, greataxe, warhammer, and maul. You gain the following benefits when using any of them:
You gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls you make with the weapon.
Whenever you have advantage on a melee attack roll you make with the weapon and hit, you can knock the target prone if the lower of the two D20 rolls would also hit the target.
Whenever you have disadvantage on a melee attack roll you make with the weapon, the target takes bludgeoning damage equal to your Strength modifier (minimum of 0) if the attack misses but the higher of the two D20 rolls would have hit.
If you use the Help action to aid an ally’s melee attack while you’re wielding the weapon, you knock the target’s shield aside momentarily. In addition to the ally gaining advantage on the attack roll, the ally gains a +2 bonus to the roll if the target is using a shield.
Flail Mastery
The flail is a tricky weapon to use, but you have spent countless hours mastering it. You gain the following benefits:
You gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls you make with a flail.
As a bonus action on your turn, you can prepare yourself to extend your flail to sweep over targets' shields. Until the end of this turn, your attack rolls with a flail gain a +2 bonus against any target using a shield.
When you hit with an opportunity attack using a flail, the target must succeed on a Strength saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength modfiier) or be knocked prone.
Spear Mastery
Though the spear is a simple weapon to learn, it rewards you for the time you have taken to master it. You gain the following benefits:
You gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls you make with a spear.
When you use a spear, its damage die changes from a D6 to a D8, and from a D8 to a D10 when wielded with two hands. (This benefit has no effect if another feature has already improved the weapon’s die.)
You can set your spear to receive a charge. As a bonus action, choose a creature you can see that is at least 20 feet away from you. If that creatures moves within your spear’s reach on its next turn, you can make a melee attack against it with your spear as a reaction. If the attack hits, the target takes an extra 1D8 piercing damage, or an extra 1D10 piercing damage if you wield the spear with two hands. You can’t use this ability if the creature used the Disengage action before moving.
As a bonus action on your turn, you can increase the reach with a spear by 5 feet for the rest of your turn.
Also missing I would like to make some for the missing weapon options:
Simple Weapons
Club
Dagger
Greatclub
Javelin
Light Hammer
Mace
Sickle
Dart
Shortbow
Sling
Martial Weapons
Lance
Morningstar
Trident
War Pick
Whip
Blowgun
Longbow
Net
Modified UA Feats
Blade Mastery
You master the shortsword, longsword, scimitar, rapier, and greatsword. You gain the following benefits when using any of them:
On your turn, you can use your reaction to assume a parrying stance, provided you have the weapon in hand. Doing so grants you a +1 bonus to your AC until the start of your next turn or until your no longer holding the weapon.
When you make an opportunity attack with the weapon, you have advantage on the attack roll.
Fell Handed
You master the handaxe, battleaxe, greataxe, warhammer, and maul. You gain the following benefits when using any of them:
Whenever you have advantage on a melee attack roll you make with the weapon and hit, you can knock the target prone if the lower of the two D20 rolls would also hit the target.
Whenever you have disadvantage on a melee attack roll you make with the weapon, the target takes bludgeoning damage equal to your Strength modifier (minimum of 0) if the attack misses but the higher of the two D20 rolls would have hit.
If you use the Help action to aid an ally’s melee attack while you’re wielding the weapon, you knock the target’s shield aside momentarily. In addition to the ally gaining advantage on the attack roll, if your ally hits the target and the target is wielding a shield, the target has disadvantage in their next attack roll as they right themselves after your combined attack.
Flail Mastery
The flail is a tricky weapon to use, but you have spent countless hours mastering it. You gain the following benefits:
As an action on your turn, you can strike every opponent within reach. The attack against your first target has a -1 penalty to hit, each consecutive attack against each target gains an extra cumulative -1 to hit penalty based on how many targets you have already hit this turn. Once you have hit a target you cannot hit them again with this attack and once you miss a target the attack ends.
As a bonus action on your turn, you can prepare yourself to extend your flail to sweep over targets' shields. Until the end of this turn, your attack rolls with a flail gain a +2 bonus against any target using a shield.
When you hit with an opportunity attack using a flail, the target must succeed on a Strength saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength modfiier) or be knocked prone.
Spear Mastery
Though the spear is a simple weapon to learn, it rewards you for the time you have taken to master it. You gain the following benefits:
When you use a spear, its damage die changes from a D6 to a D8, and from a D8 to a D10 when wielded with two hands. (This benefit has no effect if another feature has already improved the weapon’s die.)
You can set your spear to receive a charge. As a bonus action, choose a creature you can see that is at least 20 feet away from you. If that creatures moves within your spear’s reach on its next turn, you can make a melee attack against it with your spear as a reaction. If the attack hits, the target takes an extra 1D8 piercing damage, or an extra 1D10 piercing damage if you wield the spear with two hands. You can’t use this ability if the creature used the Disengage action before moving.
As a bonus action on your turn, you can increase the reach with a spear by 5 feet for the rest of your turn.
New Feats
Summary: want to work on the old UA feats as well as make some new ones based on weapons not yet covered that people feel could be useful, I know not all weapons really need feats but some others may. I don't know if others have done similar things but if so maybe link in comments.
Once this is done, I will probably try and do something similar with the tool feats that were started in the same UA.
[EDITED: Removed Crossbows and Polearms as they currently have offical feats.]
There are already feats for some of the weapons listed above, which I'll list off below.
Crossbow Expert:
Thanks to extensive practice with the crossbow, you gain the following benefits:
You ignore the loading quality of crossbows with which you are proficient.
Being within 5 feet of a hostile creature doesn't impose disadvantage on your ranged attack rolls.
When you use the Attack action and attack with a one handed weapon, you can use a bonus action to attack with a hand crossbow you are holding.
Polearm Master
You can keep your enemies at bay with reach weapons. You gain the following benefits:
When you take the Attack action and attack with only a glaive, halberd, or quarterstaff, you can use a bonus action to make a melee attack with the opposite end of the weapon. This attack uses the same ability modifier as the primary weapon. The weapon’s damage die for this attack is a d4, and the attack deals bludgeoning damage.
While you are wielding a glaive, halberd, pike, or quarterstaff, other creatures provoke an opportunity attack from you when they enter the reach you have with that weapon.
But asides from those the rest of the list is surprisingly empty of weapon feats. In the homebrew section of feats there are some made (A couple for dagger, I think I saw one about a trident and net combo but can't remember) and I'd be up for helping flesh out some more for the other neglected weapons on the list.
Awesome well do you think the UA feats need tweaking is probably the first thing thats needed to be asked cause from that we then have a greater basis for making ones for thos weapons without them.
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Loex - A Lizardfolk Lvl 4/7/4 Hexblade Profane Blood Hunter/ Battlesmith Artificer/ Cleric of the Forge Arborea - A Warforged Lvl 5 Hexblade Warlock Archive - A Autognome Lvl 3 Old One Warlock ER15 - A Autognome Lvl 7 Binder Warlock
Fell Handed is the only one I'm iffy about. Mostly because of the help action against a shield. Flail Mastery gives you the user a +2 to attacks against a foe holding a shield for a bonus action on all your attacks while Fell just gives an ally a plus 2 on one attack. The advantage is already a benefit of the help action. Course the rest of Fell Handed I like, as it introduces a way to include advantage and disadvantage as more then two dice rolls.
I mean my biggest issue is they all give +1 bonus when using the weapon. Yet the current feats do not, I just feel if you wanted parity they maybe should be removed.
For Fell Handed maybe replace that shield effect with "If you use the Help action to aid an ally’s melee attack while you’re wielding the weapon, you use the targets distraction to pry away their defenses. In addition to the ally gaining advantage on the attack roll, if the ally hits it's target and they have a shield, the target must succed on a Strength saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength modfiier) or be disarmed as you pull away the shield from their grasp. - maybe find a way to add a reaction as an additional cost?
The current feats are definetly something to use as at least a basis of new ones, and I do agree there's not much of a point to give the plus 1 when the other feats didn't.
As for the shield, it's an interesting idea that I like. Disarming a shield from an enemy makes them easier to hit, but it adds more complexity to the whole scenario. Now you'd have to keep track if they have a -2 to their AC because of the lack of shield. Which should be easy but if there are multiple of the same enemy the DM would have to keep track of which has a shield and which doesn't on top of everything else.
Admittedly in contradicting myself you could argue polearms and crossbows do have advantages over standard melee weapons due to range, polearms interactions with the sentinel feat and the fact crossbows also gain the other ranged weapon feat sharpshooter.
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Loex - A Lizardfolk Lvl 4/7/4 Hexblade Profane Blood Hunter/ Battlesmith Artificer/ Cleric of the Forge Arborea - A Warforged Lvl 5 Hexblade Warlock Archive - A Autognome Lvl 3 Old One Warlock ER15 - A Autognome Lvl 7 Binder Warlock
Maybe instead of disarming the shield cause either the next attack for the target to have disadvantage on next attack as they rebalance themselves or force them to use a ready action? (basically miss next attack as they readjust their shield)
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Loex - A Lizardfolk Lvl 4/7/4 Hexblade Profane Blood Hunter/ Battlesmith Artificer/ Cleric of the Forge Arborea - A Warforged Lvl 5 Hexblade Warlock Archive - A Autognome Lvl 3 Old One Warlock ER15 - A Autognome Lvl 7 Binder Warlock
In the same way you could argue any of those two handed weapons benefit from great weapon master while the single weapons can either benefit from the duel weilding feat for two of them or shield master if they go sword and board.
true but the range on polearms and crossbows are maybe a thing to consider with the attack roll bonus ass a reason for keeping it. Though personally i still am not convinced it should be included.
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Loex - A Lizardfolk Lvl 4/7/4 Hexblade Profane Blood Hunter/ Battlesmith Artificer/ Cleric of the Forge Arborea - A Warforged Lvl 5 Hexblade Warlock Archive - A Autognome Lvl 3 Old One Warlock ER15 - A Autognome Lvl 7 Binder Warlock
I dont see a reason to. When you look at polearm master and crossbow master they both give an extra attack with those weapons as a bonus action. Shield master does the same thing. Instead of a plus 1 bonus I think they should have an extra attack or ability that can activate on a bonus action.
I did look at some of the reasons for the abilities chosen https://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/dnd/ua-feats-v1.pdf THis is one of the early UAs so Mike Mearls wrote alot for each as to why each ability was there. It just occured I forgot to add this to the post.
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Loex - A Lizardfolk Lvl 4/7/4 Hexblade Profane Blood Hunter/ Battlesmith Artificer/ Cleric of the Forge Arborea - A Warforged Lvl 5 Hexblade Warlock Archive - A Autognome Lvl 3 Old One Warlock ER15 - A Autognome Lvl 7 Binder Warlock
Ahh that's right. Perhsps then for now they're good as they are, and we focus on giving the other weapons extra abilities. Specifixally the Warhammer as even Mearls didn't like the feat.
Oh that's right. My bad. Then onwards to the list of untouched items! The lighthammer is the first that comes to mind. Its a light weapon with a d6 damage meaning it can be duel weilded with strength, and I think that should get something cool.
I think a good starting point is working out what the "fantasy" of some of these weapon are. When you hear the weapon how do you imagine it being used.
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Loex - A Lizardfolk Lvl 4/7/4 Hexblade Profane Blood Hunter/ Battlesmith Artificer/ Cleric of the Forge Arborea - A Warforged Lvl 5 Hexblade Warlock Archive - A Autognome Lvl 3 Old One Warlock ER15 - A Autognome Lvl 7 Binder Warlock
Hrm. I'm not sure with a hand axe, however the ides of light weapons as a whole came to me last night. Heavy Weapon Master lets you hit harder with pess accuracy, so what if a Light Weapon Master feat gave a bonus attack? Duel Weilding without duel weilding and giving a reason to use a short sword with a shield.
I had am idea for one using net and trident. Where you can use you main action to make a small attack with the trident but the DC for escaping the net is increased.
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Loex - A Lizardfolk Lvl 4/7/4 Hexblade Profane Blood Hunter/ Battlesmith Artificer/ Cleric of the Forge Arborea - A Warforged Lvl 5 Hexblade Warlock Archive - A Autognome Lvl 3 Old One Warlock ER15 - A Autognome Lvl 7 Binder Warlock
A thought for flail mastery (since we wanted to remove the +1 attack) guve it an attack where it can as an action sweep the flail around itself allowing it to hit every opponent in its range once the first attack has a -1 penalty to hit and every extra opponent you attack after the first adds an extra cumulative -1 to hit, once you miss a target the attack ends.
So say you hitting three foes, the first foe is -1 to hit then the second is -2 to hit then the third is - 3 to hit, etc etc.
So was going through some old UA content and found some of the old weapon feats, in a guide on making feats.
Firstly we have not seen them come up again since but i liked the idea behind them so was wondering if we should work on the old ones to ensure they are good to use.
Also missing I would like to make some for the missing weapon options:
Simple Weapons
Martial Weapons
Modified UA Feats
New Feats
Summary: want to work on the old UA feats as well as make some new ones based on weapons not yet covered that people feel could be useful, I know not all weapons really need feats but some others may. I don't know if others have done similar things but if so maybe link in comments.
Once this is done, I will probably try and do something similar with the tool feats that were started in the same UA.
[EDITED: Removed Crossbows and Polearms as they currently have offical feats.]
Loex - A Lizardfolk Lvl 4/7/4 Hexblade Profane Blood Hunter/ Battlesmith Artificer/ Cleric of the Forge
Arborea - A Warforged Lvl 5 Hexblade Warlock
Archive - A Autognome Lvl 3 Old One Warlock
ER15 - A Autognome Lvl 7 Binder Warlock
DM - "Malign Intelligence"
There are already feats for some of the weapons listed above, which I'll list off below.
Crossbow Expert:
Thanks to extensive practice with the crossbow, you gain the following benefits:
Polearm Master
You can keep your enemies at bay with reach weapons. You gain the following benefits:
But asides from those the rest of the list is surprisingly empty of weapon feats. In the homebrew section of feats there are some made (A couple for dagger, I think I saw one about a trident and net combo but can't remember) and I'd be up for helping flesh out some more for the other neglected weapons on the list.
Awesome well do you think the UA feats need tweaking is probably the first thing thats needed to be asked cause from that we then have a greater basis for making ones for thos weapons without them.
Loex - A Lizardfolk Lvl 4/7/4 Hexblade Profane Blood Hunter/ Battlesmith Artificer/ Cleric of the Forge
Arborea - A Warforged Lvl 5 Hexblade Warlock
Archive - A Autognome Lvl 3 Old One Warlock
ER15 - A Autognome Lvl 7 Binder Warlock
DM - "Malign Intelligence"
Fell Handed is the only one I'm iffy about. Mostly because of the help action against a shield. Flail Mastery gives you the user a +2 to attacks against a foe holding a shield for a bonus action on all your attacks while Fell just gives an ally a plus 2 on one attack. The advantage is already a benefit of the help action. Course the rest of Fell Handed I like, as it introduces a way to include advantage and disadvantage as more then two dice rolls.
I mean my biggest issue is they all give +1 bonus when using the weapon. Yet the current feats do not, I just feel if you wanted parity they maybe should be removed.
For Fell Handed maybe replace that shield effect with "If you use the Help action to aid an ally’s melee attack while you’re wielding the weapon, you use the targets distraction to pry away their defenses. In addition to the ally gaining advantage on the attack roll, if the ally hits it's target and they have a shield, the target must succed on a Strength saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength modfiier) or be disarmed as you pull away the shield from their grasp. - maybe find a way to add a reaction as an additional cost?
Loex - A Lizardfolk Lvl 4/7/4 Hexblade Profane Blood Hunter/ Battlesmith Artificer/ Cleric of the Forge
Arborea - A Warforged Lvl 5 Hexblade Warlock
Archive - A Autognome Lvl 3 Old One Warlock
ER15 - A Autognome Lvl 7 Binder Warlock
DM - "Malign Intelligence"
The current feats are definetly something to use as at least a basis of new ones, and I do agree there's not much of a point to give the plus 1 when the other feats didn't.
As for the shield, it's an interesting idea that I like. Disarming a shield from an enemy makes them easier to hit, but it adds more complexity to the whole scenario. Now you'd have to keep track if they have a -2 to their AC because of the lack of shield. Which should be easy but if there are multiple of the same enemy the DM would have to keep track of which has a shield and which doesn't on top of everything else.
Admittedly in contradicting myself you could argue polearms and crossbows do have advantages over standard melee weapons due to range, polearms interactions with the sentinel feat and the fact crossbows also gain the other ranged weapon feat sharpshooter.
Loex - A Lizardfolk Lvl 4/7/4 Hexblade Profane Blood Hunter/ Battlesmith Artificer/ Cleric of the Forge
Arborea - A Warforged Lvl 5 Hexblade Warlock
Archive - A Autognome Lvl 3 Old One Warlock
ER15 - A Autognome Lvl 7 Binder Warlock
DM - "Malign Intelligence"
Maybe instead of disarming the shield cause either the next attack for the target to have disadvantage on next attack as they rebalance themselves or force them to use a ready action? (basically miss next attack as they readjust their shield)
Loex - A Lizardfolk Lvl 4/7/4 Hexblade Profane Blood Hunter/ Battlesmith Artificer/ Cleric of the Forge
Arborea - A Warforged Lvl 5 Hexblade Warlock
Archive - A Autognome Lvl 3 Old One Warlock
ER15 - A Autognome Lvl 7 Binder Warlock
DM - "Malign Intelligence"
In the same way you could argue any of those two handed weapons benefit from great weapon master while the single weapons can either benefit from the duel weilding feat for two of them or shield master if they go sword and board.
true but the range on polearms and crossbows are maybe a thing to consider with the attack roll bonus ass a reason for keeping it. Though personally i still am not convinced it should be included.
Loex - A Lizardfolk Lvl 4/7/4 Hexblade Profane Blood Hunter/ Battlesmith Artificer/ Cleric of the Forge
Arborea - A Warforged Lvl 5 Hexblade Warlock
Archive - A Autognome Lvl 3 Old One Warlock
ER15 - A Autognome Lvl 7 Binder Warlock
DM - "Malign Intelligence"
I dont see a reason to. When you look at polearm master and crossbow master they both give an extra attack with those weapons as a bonus action. Shield master does the same thing. Instead of a plus 1 bonus I think they should have an extra attack or ability that can activate on a bonus action.
I did look at some of the reasons for the abilities chosen https://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/dnd/ua-feats-v1.pdf THis is one of the early UAs so Mike Mearls wrote alot for each as to why each ability was there. It just occured I forgot to add this to the post.
Loex - A Lizardfolk Lvl 4/7/4 Hexblade Profane Blood Hunter/ Battlesmith Artificer/ Cleric of the Forge
Arborea - A Warforged Lvl 5 Hexblade Warlock
Archive - A Autognome Lvl 3 Old One Warlock
ER15 - A Autognome Lvl 7 Binder Warlock
DM - "Malign Intelligence"
Ahh that's right. Perhsps then for now they're good as they are, and we focus on giving the other weapons extra abilities. Specifixally the Warhammer as even Mearls didn't like the feat.
Warhammer was turned into fell handed
Loex - A Lizardfolk Lvl 4/7/4 Hexblade Profane Blood Hunter/ Battlesmith Artificer/ Cleric of the Forge
Arborea - A Warforged Lvl 5 Hexblade Warlock
Archive - A Autognome Lvl 3 Old One Warlock
ER15 - A Autognome Lvl 7 Binder Warlock
DM - "Malign Intelligence"
Oh that's right. My bad. Then onwards to the list of untouched items! The lighthammer is the first that comes to mind. Its a light weapon with a d6 damage meaning it can be duel weilded with strength, and I think that should get something cool.
I think a good starting point is working out what the "fantasy" of some of these weapon are. When you hear the weapon how do you imagine it being used.
Loex - A Lizardfolk Lvl 4/7/4 Hexblade Profane Blood Hunter/ Battlesmith Artificer/ Cleric of the Forge
Arborea - A Warforged Lvl 5 Hexblade Warlock
Archive - A Autognome Lvl 3 Old One Warlock
ER15 - A Autognome Lvl 7 Binder Warlock
DM - "Malign Intelligence"
Hrm. I'm not sure with a hand axe, however the ides of light weapons as a whole came to me last night. Heavy Weapon Master lets you hit harder with pess accuracy, so what if a Light Weapon Master feat gave a bonus attack? Duel Weilding without duel weilding and giving a reason to use a short sword with a shield.
I had am idea for one using net and trident. Where you can use you main action to make a small attack with the trident but the DC for escaping the net is increased.
Loex - A Lizardfolk Lvl 4/7/4 Hexblade Profane Blood Hunter/ Battlesmith Artificer/ Cleric of the Forge
Arborea - A Warforged Lvl 5 Hexblade Warlock
Archive - A Autognome Lvl 3 Old One Warlock
ER15 - A Autognome Lvl 7 Binder Warlock
DM - "Malign Intelligence"
https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/feats/972-retiarius is a good one for trident/net combos.
A thought for flail mastery (since we wanted to remove the +1 attack) guve it an attack where it can as an action sweep the flail around itself allowing it to hit every opponent in its range once the first attack has a -1 penalty to hit and every extra opponent you attack after the first adds an extra cumulative -1 to hit, once you miss a target the attack ends.
So say you hitting three foes, the first foe is -1 to hit then the second is -2 to hit then the third is - 3 to hit, etc etc.
Loex - A Lizardfolk Lvl 4/7/4 Hexblade Profane Blood Hunter/ Battlesmith Artificer/ Cleric of the Forge
Arborea - A Warforged Lvl 5 Hexblade Warlock
Archive - A Autognome Lvl 3 Old One Warlock
ER15 - A Autognome Lvl 7 Binder Warlock
DM - "Malign Intelligence"