Most humanoid races (elves, dwarves, humans, etc) only have their hands and feet to make unarmed strikes which do a whopping 1+STR mod. And this never increases. The races that have claws or other natural weapons got a “boost” to this as it kind of makes sense for something with claws to do more damage. But they are still just unarmed strikes like their non-clawed companions. They are not supposed to scale. If you want something more go monk or unarmed fighting style.
One of the main reasons natural weapons keep appearing is that people want to take monsterous races and turn them into a playable race.
Minotaur is a great example. If you want to play one, well, you are going to have to give them horns on their head, which are obviously weapons. But if you make them powerful, they are OP at low levels. If you don't, they are worthless at higher levels.
Unless, of course, you give them some sort of level scaling. Which a number of other racial abilities do, such as dragonborn breath weapons and most forms of natural spellcasting.
Proficiency bonus doesn't get added to weapon damage, though, and doing so would set weird precedents and confuse people….
Really, you think? I thought it was a brilliant solution.
It could be like, 1d4+level, but that's probably too good? Idk.
Part of the problem is that this is a power issue. People like monster races. The whole idea is that they are already designed to be powerful and people have to work hard to limit of the power. Then you go along and suddenly make it a very different build. This opens up a whole bunch of new possibilities, potentially making them over-powered. Suddenly the character can become focused on unarmed when the rest of it was based on ranged or magic, etc. not nice to have a Wizard that does as much damage as a fighter in melee.
Someone mentioned dragon breath. They built that into the power of the creature. More importantly, it makes a lot more sense. Claws do not get sharper as you level up. And if they were to get longer, that has limits. Fire breath is more magical so it is easier to imagine the breath becoming more powerful.
The idea of scaling up the natural weapon damage is not horrible, you should just do it on new creatures, not on existing ones.
And come up with some kind of reason why the claws or bite become more powerful. Which should have some kind of limit, unless you think a 20th level creature should have claws/teeth so large that they become comical.
Part of the problem is that this is a power issue. People like monster races. The whole idea is that they are already designed to be powerful and people have to work hard to limit of the power. Then you go along and suddenly make it a very different build. This opens up a whole bunch of new possibilities, potentially making them over-powered. Suddenly the character can become focused on unarmed when the rest of it was based on ranged or magic, etc. not nice to have a Wizard that does as much damage as a fighter in melee.
Someone mentioned dragon breath. They built that into the power of the creature. More importantly, it makes a lot more sense. Claws do not get sharper as you level up. And if they were to get longer, that has limits. Fire breath is more magical so it is easier to imagine the breath becoming more powerful.
The idea of scaling up the natural weapon damage is not horrible, you should just do it on new creatures, not on existing ones.
And come up with some kind of reason why the claws or bite become more powerful. Which should have some kind of limit, unless you think a 20th level creature should have claws/teeth so large that they become comical.
You make a good point -- these weapons need only be as good as weapons. Like, for weapon users. Fighters and such.
They're not, at all, but they could be I guess. If magic weapons are reimagined as, like, magic gems that can be placed onto weapons instead, then you can close the gap between "nonmagical, not eligible for spells that involve weapons, claws," and regular swords. But that's a pretty big rework!
Is this a homebrew thread now?
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A fair point.
Most humanoid races (elves, dwarves, humans, etc) only have their hands and feet to make unarmed strikes which do a whopping 1+STR mod. And this never increases. The races that have claws or other natural weapons got a “boost” to this as it kind of makes sense for something with claws to do more damage. But they are still just unarmed strikes like their non-clawed companions. They are not supposed to scale. If you want something more go monk or unarmed fighting style.
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
Really, you think? I thought it was a brilliant solution.
You could do (characterlevel/3)@rounddown
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
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Part of the problem is that this is a power issue. People like monster races. The whole idea is that they are already designed to be powerful and people have to work hard to limit of the power. Then you go along and suddenly make it a very different build. This opens up a whole bunch of new possibilities, potentially making them over-powered. Suddenly the character can become focused on unarmed when the rest of it was based on ranged or magic, etc. not nice to have a Wizard that does as much damage as a fighter in melee.
Someone mentioned dragon breath. They built that into the power of the creature. More importantly, it makes a lot more sense. Claws do not get sharper as you level up. And if they were to get longer, that has limits. Fire breath is more magical so it is easier to imagine the breath becoming more powerful.
The idea of scaling up the natural weapon damage is not horrible, you should just do it on new creatures, not on existing ones.
And come up with some kind of reason why the claws or bite become more powerful. Which should have some kind of limit, unless you think a 20th level creature should have claws/teeth so large that they become comical.
You make a good point -- these weapons need only be as good as weapons. Like, for weapon users. Fighters and such.
They're not, at all, but they could be I guess. If magic weapons are reimagined as, like, magic gems that can be placed onto weapons instead, then you can close the gap between "nonmagical, not eligible for spells that involve weapons, claws," and regular swords. But that's a pretty big rework!
Is this a homebrew thread now?