This has likely been covered a gazillion times already, but here is my current take:
1) Drop the current Weapon Master feat. It is just bad.
2) Make a feat called Weapon Mastery, that allows any Str or Dex based attack to apply the -5/+10 hit/damage modifiers. This means this one feat would work for melee, ranged, thrown, and unarmed strikes, while restricting it from any Battle Master Hexbkade Shillelagh workarounds, to put more damage in a martial's hands
3) Make the other half of Sharpshooter/GWM half-feats, and have them apply to more weapon types. An example: "Eye of the Needle: +1 to any stat, ignore the 50% and 75% cover attack roll penalties when using ranged or thrown weapons (and remove the penalty for attacking at long range?)."
Anyway, just today's thought. Or you can always go a more liberal route, making the -5/+10 option a general rule, applicable to anything making an attack roll (including spells), removing the need for it to be part of a feat.
I couldn't find a DnD forum on their page, so I figured this would be an alternate option, since DDB is newly acquired...
I'm with you on Weapon Master... but I'd actually rather it give an expertise in one weapon that you're already proficient in.
Merge the armour proficiency feats.
I'm with you on your 2nd point, 100%.
I'm not with your third point. I'd prefer the second half of each to be combined the way you suggest the first half of GWM/Sharpshooter are. The "crit-death extra attack on a close creature", "ignore cover", "ignore close range" bits all on the same feat instead of half feats... but that's just because I want my guys to feel ultra good at weapons, even if they can't do a ton of damage.
The issue with a generic "power attack," whether given through a feat or granted universally, is that a dual wielder would get more milage out of it since they make more attacks. Maybe not as bad of an imbalance as we have now, but if we're going to fix it, might as well fix it as best we can.
Through exhaustive spreadsheeting, the best equivalent I've found is -5/+2d6 for dual wielders. Three light attacks get ~+21 versus two heavies getting +20. It also gives them a bit of a boost when they crit, whereas GWM gets the extra attack.
For my own games, I made Light Weapon Master:
Before you make a melee attack with a light weapon that you are proficient with, you can choose to take a -5 penalty to the attack roll. If the attack hits, it deals an additional 2d6 damage.
You can draw or stow a light weapon as part of the attack you make with the weapon.
You can expertly conceal a number of light weapons on your person equal to your proficiency modifier. Ability checks to spot these weapons are made at disadvantage.
I think this route would be a lot less troublesome than retconning an existing feat.
edit - I should say my feat also assumes a different version of Dual Weapon Master that replaces the use of non-light weapons with the ability to make your TWF bonus attack as part of the attack action. Absent that change, you might want something a bit different that encompasses all one-handed weapons.
My option of heavy weapon mastery is that it's one of the few reasons to use Strength-based weapons or two-handed weapons, so anything that works on lighter weapons should be a lot worse (also, Sharpshooter needs a nerf). I'd probably change it to 'roll double weapon dice' and maybe adjust the hit penalty to -4.
I personally like treantmonk's idea of just making the -5/+10 attack be a thing all martials can do, the extra stipulation that it has to be a dex/str attack is also nice. For weaponmaster I was thinking instead of proficiency we essentially bring back weapon specialization or the like and make you literally a MASTER in those 4 weapons (that you're already proficient in).
A previous DM of mine had many rule changes for specifics of the game when he ran a mini-campaign for us, one of which was that for the sharpshooter feat, you can only have 1 of the benefits active. So you can do the -5/+10 but you can't ignore cover and can't ignore the long range disadvantage. One at a time only. That feels like a good change imo.
The issue with a generic "power attack," whether given through a feat or granted universally, is that a dual wielder would get more milage out of it since they make more attacks. Maybe not as bad of an imbalance as we have now, but if we're going to fix it, might as well fix it as best we can.
Through exhaustive spreadsheeting, the best equivalent I've found is -5/+2d6 for dual wielders. Three light attacks get ~+21 versus two heavies getting +20. It also gives them a bit of a boost when they crit, whereas GWM gets the extra attack.
For my own games, I made Light Weapon Master:
Before you make a melee attack with a light weapon that you are proficient with, you can choose to take a -5 penalty to the attack roll. If the attack hits, it deals an additional 2d6 damage.
You can draw or stow a light weapon as part of the attack you make with the weapon.
You can expertly conceal a number of light weapons on your person equal to your proficiency modifier. Ability checks to spot these weapons are made at disadvantage.
I think this route would be a lot less troublesome than retconning an existing feat.
edit - I should say my feat also assumes a different version of Dual Weapon Master that replaces the use of non-light weapons with the ability to make your TWF bonus attack as part of the attack action. Absent that change, you might want something a bit different that encompasses all one-handed weapons.
The extra attack already exists with a hand crossbow and the crossbow expert/sharpshooter combo.
I was thinking that "Weapon Mastery" could state that it could only be used during your attack action, so no bonus attacks or reactions would benefit from it, but I would also be good with dual workers getting some love, because after all, they are just getting an extra chance to hit...
The problem with two weapon fighting is that the offhand attacks don't scale with level, and the main weapon attacks do, which for a fighter makes TWF overpowered at level 1-4, about right at level 5-10, and weak at higher level. The whole idea of using a bonus action should probably be scrapped and replaced with something that scales properly with multiple attacks and doesn't compete for action economy.
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Good day to all.
This has likely been covered a gazillion times already, but here is my current take:
1) Drop the current Weapon Master feat. It is just bad.
2) Make a feat called Weapon Mastery, that allows any Str or Dex based attack to apply the -5/+10 hit/damage modifiers. This means this one feat would work for melee, ranged, thrown, and unarmed strikes, while restricting it from any Battle Master Hexbkade Shillelagh workarounds, to put more damage in a martial's hands
3) Make the other half of Sharpshooter/GWM half-feats, and have them apply to more weapon types. An example: "Eye of the Needle: +1 to any stat, ignore the 50% and 75% cover attack roll penalties when using ranged or thrown weapons (and remove the penalty for attacking at long range?)."
Anyway, just today's thought. Or you can always go a more liberal route, making the -5/+10 option a general rule, applicable to anything making an attack roll (including spells), removing the need for it to be part of a feat.
I couldn't find a DnD forum on their page, so I figured this would be an alternate option, since DDB is newly acquired...
Have a great day everyone!
I'm with you on Weapon Master... but I'd actually rather it give an expertise in one weapon that you're already proficient in.
Merge the armour proficiency feats.
I'm with you on your 2nd point, 100%.
I'm not with your third point. I'd prefer the second half of each to be combined the way you suggest the first half of GWM/Sharpshooter are. The "crit-death extra attack on a close creature", "ignore cover", "ignore close range" bits all on the same feat instead of half feats... but that's just because I want my guys to feel ultra good at weapons, even if they can't do a ton of damage.
The issue with a generic "power attack," whether given through a feat or granted universally, is that a dual wielder would get more milage out of it since they make more attacks. Maybe not as bad of an imbalance as we have now, but if we're going to fix it, might as well fix it as best we can.
Through exhaustive spreadsheeting, the best equivalent I've found is -5/+2d6 for dual wielders. Three light attacks get ~+21 versus two heavies getting +20. It also gives them a bit of a boost when they crit, whereas GWM gets the extra attack.
For my own games, I made Light Weapon Master:
I think this route would be a lot less troublesome than retconning an existing feat.
edit - I should say my feat also assumes a different version of Dual Weapon Master that replaces the use of non-light weapons with the ability to make your TWF bonus attack as part of the attack action. Absent that change, you might want something a bit different that encompasses all one-handed weapons.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(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
My option of heavy weapon mastery is that it's one of the few reasons to use Strength-based weapons or two-handed weapons, so anything that works on lighter weapons should be a lot worse (also, Sharpshooter needs a nerf). I'd probably change it to 'roll double weapon dice' and maybe adjust the hit penalty to -4.
I personally like treantmonk's idea of just making the -5/+10 attack be a thing all martials can do, the extra stipulation that it has to be a dex/str attack is also nice. For weaponmaster I was thinking instead of proficiency we essentially bring back weapon specialization or the like and make you literally a MASTER in those 4 weapons (that you're already proficient in).
A previous DM of mine had many rule changes for specifics of the game when he ran a mini-campaign for us, one of which was that for the sharpshooter feat, you can only have 1 of the benefits active. So you can do the -5/+10 but you can't ignore cover and can't ignore the long range disadvantage. One at a time only. That feels like a good change imo.
Er ek geng, þat er í þeim skóm er ek valda.
UwU
The extra attack already exists with a hand crossbow and the crossbow expert/sharpshooter combo.
I was thinking that "Weapon Mastery" could state that it could only be used during your attack action, so no bonus attacks or reactions would benefit from it, but I would also be good with dual workers getting some love, because after all, they are just getting an extra chance to hit...
The problem with two weapon fighting is that the offhand attacks don't scale with level, and the main weapon attacks do, which for a fighter makes TWF overpowered at level 1-4, about right at level 5-10, and weak at higher level. The whole idea of using a bonus action should probably be scrapped and replaced with something that scales properly with multiple attacks and doesn't compete for action economy.