I have a Dhampir player who uses their Bite as their primary weapons and I was thinking of homebrewing the following changes for when we update to 2024:
Tooth and Claw. You have claws and bite that you can use to make unarmed strikes, both count as separate light melee weapons with which you are proficient - they have the Nick mastery property. You add your Constitution modifier to the attack and damage rolls when you attack with your claws and/or bite. Your claws and bite deal 1d4 piercing damage on a hit. While you are missing half or more of your hit points, you have advantage on attack rolls you make with your claws and/or bite. When you use your bite and hit a creature that isn’t a Construct or an Undead, you can empower yourself in one of the following ways of your choice:
You regain hit points equal to the piercing damage dealt by the bite.
You gain a bonus to a single d20 check before your next short or long rest; the bonus equals the piercing damage dealt by the bite. You decide to do so immediately after rolling the d20. You can be Empowered by more than one Bite at once.
You can empower yourself with your bite a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
What do you think, and would you change the damage die to a d6 to match Wizard’s approach with all natural weapons in the last few books?
Just and FYI: 2024 does not include weapon masteries for unarmed strikes because the 2024 Grappler & Tavern Brawler essentially give them to you. So it is not expected for natural weapons from any species to gain mastery properties.
Also, personally, I think the Sap property makes way more sense for a vampire bite.
But also, why don't you ask them if they have a preference for which weapon mastery they'd like their bite to have? It is their character after all, not yours. If you think their bite doesn't do enough damage just raise the damage die to a 1d8 or let them deal 1d6 piercing + 1d6 necrotic damage. It's your game, make them as powerful as you want them to be, but then don't come complaining they are too powerful later.
*2024 contains no weapon masteries for natural weapons since natural weapons can generally be used as unarmed strikes for feats like Tavern Brawler and Grappler - unarmed strikes are generally defined as using any part of your body to make an attack - knee, foot, hand, head etc... - thus would generally include using horns or hooves or claws.
However, if you are going to rule that natural weapons are weapons and are not unarmed strikes, thus do not count for Tavern Brawler, Grappler, or monk class features that require unarmed strikes (e.g. flurry of blows), then it would makes sense to give them weapon mastery properties - but using said property would still require the character to have the Weapon Mastery class feature and spend one of the masteries on their natural weapons.
What I would do would depend on the situation,
If the player was a monk, I would make the Bite attack count as an unarmed strike and not give it any MW properties.
If the player was a fighter, barbarian, or ranger, I would give it the Sap property and give them a magic item that works like the Gauntlets of Flaming Fury but specifically empowers their Bite attack and no other weapons and change the damage type to something more thematic like necrotic or cold damage.
No other classes get WM does it doesn't matter.
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I have a Dhampir player who uses their Bite as their primary weapons and I was thinking of homebrewing the following changes for when we update to 2024:
Tooth and Claw. You have claws and bite that you can use to make unarmed strikes, both count as separate light melee weapons with which you are proficient - they have the Nick mastery property. You add your Constitution modifier to the attack and damage rolls when you attack with your claws and/or bite. Your claws and bite deal 1d4 piercing damage on a hit. While you are missing half or more of your hit points, you have advantage on attack rolls you make with your claws and/or bite. When you use your bite and hit a creature that isn’t a Construct or an Undead, you can empower yourself in one of the following ways of your choice:
You can empower yourself with your bite a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
What do you think, and would you change the damage die to a d6 to match Wizard’s approach with all natural weapons in the last few books?
Just and FYI: 2024 does not include weapon masteries for unarmed strikes because the 2024 Grappler & Tavern Brawler essentially give them to you. So it is not expected for natural weapons from any species to gain mastery properties.
Also, personally, I think the Sap property makes way more sense for a vampire bite.
But also, why don't you ask them if they have a preference for which weapon mastery they'd like their bite to have? It is their character after all, not yours. If you think their bite doesn't do enough damage just raise the damage die to a 1d8 or let them deal 1d6 piercing + 1d6 necrotic damage. It's your game, make them as powerful as you want them to be, but then don't come complaining they are too powerful later.
Dhampir’s Bite technically is not an unarmed strike, as the wording of that natural weapon.
But it is a weapon, which means that some class features that require a weapon could benefit.
I am attempting to give my player options. And yes I have been discussing it with them
*2024 contains no weapon masteries for natural weapons since natural weapons can generally be used as unarmed strikes for feats like Tavern Brawler and Grappler - unarmed strikes are generally defined as using any part of your body to make an attack - knee, foot, hand, head etc... - thus would generally include using horns or hooves or claws.
However, if you are going to rule that natural weapons are weapons and are not unarmed strikes, thus do not count for Tavern Brawler, Grappler, or monk class features that require unarmed strikes (e.g. flurry of blows), then it would makes sense to give them weapon mastery properties - but using said property would still require the character to have the Weapon Mastery class feature and spend one of the masteries on their natural weapons.
What I would do would depend on the situation,
If the player was a monk, I would make the Bite attack count as an unarmed strike and not give it any MW properties.
If the player was a fighter, barbarian, or ranger, I would give it the Sap property and give them a magic item that works like the Gauntlets of Flaming Fury but specifically empowers their Bite attack and no other weapons and change the damage type to something more thematic like necrotic or cold damage.
No other classes get WM does it doesn't matter.