I DM a campaign for a group of friends and I'm trying to add a racial trait to genasi in general (and possibly other races as I play with the worldbuilding side of things). The idea I have is that a genasi can take some damage in exchange for adding some of their own 'elemental' essence to a weapon (or fists for monks) for an attack. The problem I'm running into, as I'm new to the DM thing, is what die and how many to add to an attack roll depending on how much of their own life force a player decides to use.
What I've got so far is this:
"Your elemental nature is yours to command, but it comes at a price. At your choosing, you can infuse a weapon with the power of your element. The cost, however, is pulling from your own life force. You determine how much you are willing to siphon into the strike you are making (though the most you can take is 75% of your total HP) [fun DM twist: players roll percentile dice to see how much they use, max of 75%]." (Yes, I do have it in mind that a player can knock themselves unconscious by doing this.)
My initial thought was to essentially say that at 10% they gain an extra d6 whatever type of damage, 30% +2d6, 50% +3d6, etc, etc. My concern is that this can make an attack at lower levels very strong and at higher levels kind of weak. I could put restrictions by level, but my brain currently isn't coming up with an idea of how to do that and not make it ridiculously complex. Am I over thinking this and the percentage/number of die that I have in mind works? Or do any of you have idea/suggestions on how I could tweak this?
Let me know if this isn't in the right spot to post this. Looking forward to any responses!
I DM a campaign for a group of friends and I'm trying to add a racial trait to genasi in general (and possibly other races as I play with the worldbuilding side of things). The idea I have is that a genasi can take some damage in exchange for adding some of their own 'elemental' essence to a weapon (or fists for monks) for an attack. The problem I'm running into, as I'm new to the DM thing, is what die and how many to add to an attack roll depending on how much of their own life force a player decides to use.
What I've got so far is this:
"Your elemental nature is yours to command, but it comes at a price. At your choosing, you can infuse a weapon with the power of your element. The cost, however, is pulling from your own life force. You determine how much you are willing to siphon into the strike you are making (though the most you can take is 75% of your total HP) [fun DM twist: players roll percentile dice to see how much they use, max of 75%]." (Yes, I do have it in mind that a player can knock themselves unconscious by doing this.)
My initial thought was to essentially say that at 10% they gain an extra d6 whatever type of damage, 30% +2d6, 50% +3d6, etc, etc. My concern is that this can make an attack at lower levels very strong and at higher levels kind of weak. I could put restrictions by level, but my brain currently isn't coming up with an idea of how to do that and not make it ridiculously complex. Am I over thinking this and the percentage/number of die that I have in mind works? Or do any of you have idea/suggestions on how I could tweak this?
Let me know if this isn't in the right spot to post this. Looking forward to any responses!
Maybe just give them the spell absorb elements, limited to the specific element. Something like Proficiency Bonus times per day.
Oh, there's an idea. I think I'll play around with that a bit. Thank you!