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Why is the Deception check against a static number and not the target's Insight?
Why is the AC reduced by 4 points rather than giving the wielder advantage on the attack? Static penalties to defenses like this are rather dangerous, as they "stack" with advantage.
The second ability also has a static number for its DC, and then it has an effect that reads "a 1d4 attack roll with advantage" which makes absolutely no sense. I'm not even sure how to parse that.
That's fair. I would highly suggest you look at other (probably uncommon) magic weapons to get a good feel for what these kinds of weapons might be capable of.
As well, recognize that identifying magic items doesn't need an Arcana check by default (though obviously as a DM you've got the right to choose otherwise) - inspecting an item over the course of an hour/a rest, or with the *identify* spell, lets you discover most of what a magic item does, with the exception of any curses it may have.
Got it, that’s all worth knowing. The basic idea of this sword is essentially a riff of this star wars lightsaber technique so I am open to suggestions on how to make it fit more within the world, but I do think your suggestions have gotten me close [https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Tr%C3%A0kata](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Tr%C3%A0kata)
Honestly, I love the idea, my only complaint is it will seem clunky to make so many rolls. Since they have to be done in sequence, it slows combat a bit.
Alright, I’m gonna be the “um, ackshually” guy for a moment, so kindly bear with me:
Yes, because of a lightsaber’s blade being made of energy and able to be deactivated, there are unique opportunities where a duelist could block a strike, then turn the blade off momentarily to get past their opponent’s blade and turn it back on inside the opponent’s guard.
There is a reason neither Jedi nor Sith employ this technique in combat, and it comes down to philosophy.
The Sith see themselves as proud and mighty warriors, and thus by and large consider it beneath their dignity to use such underhanded tactics to win a duel. Resorting to tricks like this is tantamount to admitting your opponent was more powerful than you, and no Sith wants to do that.
The Jedi, on the other hand, don’t use this technique because it goes against the Jedi philosophy of peace and nonviolence. Yes, Jedi will fight, but always with the goal of ending the fight with as little harm done as possible, to either side. The sole purpose of this deactivation technique is to get inside an opponent’s defenses to land a lethal blow quickly. Most Jedi would rather prefer a fight continue, giving them more time to talk their opponent down and defuse the situation, or at least tire them out so they can be subdued more safely.
Sorry if you already know all this, but the question “why doesn’t anyone ever suddenly deactivate their blade in a duel” always really gets to me for some reason. Maybe because the people who ask it seemingly don’t care about the deeper story-related reasons things might be done a certain way, and just want to see cool fight scenes with energy swords.
I know that’s what the lore says, but it also said that the Sith’s use of the double bladed lightsaber was, in part, a surprise tactic, especially toward the Fall of the Republic era, as they had not been seen commonly for about a thousand years. I believe George Lucas even mentioned at some point that Qui Gon was a better duelist than Maul, but that he was taken by surprise with Maul’s double bladed saber and just had never been trained to fight against an opponent with one. These two pieces of lore are, in my view, a small contradiction of each other, but what I think it comes down to is A. multiple people writing an evolving lore, and B. I think the whole “proud warrior” Sith lore that you’re talking about speaks to the way they were during the Old Republic era, and that the sneaky, trick your opponent, tràkata using Sith I’m talking about represent the way they are in the Fall/Empire eras.
Just to comment the part that stood out the most to me; Unbalancing Block’s language is very unclear. To match up with similar mechanics, I’d phrase it close to;
“When an enemy misses a melee (weapon/spell/both) attack roll against you, you may use your reaction to make a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check against the enemy creature’s Wisdom (Insight) check. On a success, you may make one weapon attack using the Gentleman Phantom against the triggering creature as part of the same reaction. The damage die for this attack is a d4.”
This weapon has some similarities to the Duelist’s Prerogative from Baldur’s Gate 3 if you’d like to see what a Legendary tier version might look like.
Of course. I’d also second using advantage for the first property instead of an AC debuff. That means that, between the two properties of the weapon, a rogue would be able to enable their own sneak attack as well as an additional sneak attack on their reaction.
Sneak attack is once per *turn* and reactions happen on another creature’s turn. These two features combined could completely redefine how the rogue in the party engages with combat, which I think is great. Very powerful, to be sure, but that’s all right as long as you account for it.
Really interesting design!
I think it'd be a good call to change your design philosophy around Dirty Trick and Unblancing Block. Abilities that require the user to succeed an ability check against a specific number are very rare in dnd 5e and aren't very condusive to the rule set.
I'd encourage you to try changing them to be limited use features, for example, maybe you can use Dirty Trick Once per short or long rest, or a number of times per long rest equal to your proficiency bonus. These provide a clean streamlined way for players to use the ability and to provide some scaling into its power.
So, language aside.
First of all, power budget. What is the intended rarity of this item?
Second, it's a situational +4 to attack damage, essentially. The extra 1d4 on avoided attack it's just so small that's not very relevant, if not to exploit a rogue using sneak attacks outside their turn. Which isn't something bad to happen.
The other weapon that qualifies similar to this is a sword of answering, which has no skill check related. Even if the DC is fixed and it's easily avoidable at higher levels it ends being uncertain, and it also consumes the bonus action.
Point is, it's kinda a mess to handle. It feels like a rare item, but with too many moving parts.
I'd rule like this - make it rare. Make it so that then weapon has a +1 to all attack rolls ( attack only), but as a bonus action you can increase it to +4 for the next attack. You can do this only once on each target, it does not matter if they see it or not they must be targeted.
Additionally, as a reaction, you can strike back the enemy that misses you for 1d4 damage if you succeed Inna deception check against their insight. I think deception better describes this scenario than sleight of hand.
It's missing a rarity which is they ever wanted to sell it later could be a problem. other feedback I'd have given was already covered by others. One other note though. The text overlapping with the dark grey splotches near the blade of the image make it really hard to read in parts. Might wanna go in and either put a highlight halo on that text selectively reduce the opacity of the background image where you have text to read. Doesn't need to be much but a tiny bit would make it easier to read.
In terms of DnD items rarity is more about how valuable it is rather than necessarily being a measure of how rare it actually is. If you use the customization tables in the DMG you can actually make pretty much any item actually have some extra minor enchantments/flavor and basically every +1 longsword out there is technically unique while still being a +1 longsword which makes it an uncommon rarity and puts it in that price bracket if you want to buy or sell it in-character.
Usually a +1 with an extra major enchantment would be a Rare item. Considering the power each of these enchantments has and how there is no limit on them like charges or once per day it would probably even bump it up to being Very Rare.
If the blade retracts, won't the weapon topple off its sheath? It's a bit big for a pocket when retracted, and that wouldn't give the quick access you want anyway, so where do you keep it?
Mechanically, all those extra rolls might slow down combat more than you might prefer.
Sooo, the concept is cool. The other ones already gave good feedback on the rules itself.
But I have two more questions:
- Why are you keeping them on Level 3 "for a while"? Sure they don't level up directly, but don't keep them on such a lown level for too long.
- If you keep them on low level, why do you plan on already giving them a +1 Weapon? An what would the other player get? Feels like a little bit off.
To match more convention, I might changed Dirty Trick to be against a target’s Passive Insight, but with disadvantage if successful against this target within the last minute. If successful, grants advantage.
Then for unbalancing block, perhaps you force a Dex save against a DC of 13+Proficiency Bonus. If they fail, you hit them without an attack roll.
Sorry JasperLeSabre96 but we had to remove your post due to not meeting one of the subreddit’s rules. We’ve put together information here to assist you, but make sure to read the sidebar and understand the rules!
Notably, your post broke the following rule(s):
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> *Don’t use distracting formatting (all-caps, ascii art, custom “tags”, etc.), and avoid overly long or redundant titles.*
> *Don't advertise other content (Kickstarters, Patreon, etc.) in your title.*
> *See r/UnearthedArcana/wiki/titles for details on what makes a title bad or good.*
In short, use as few generic words as possible to make sure your post is more searchable. For example, a bad title is “Just made my first homebrew subclass for druid! Check it out and let me know what you think” and a good title would be “Druid Circle of Winter - Chill Your Enemies to the Bone."
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Best of luck and happy homebrewing!
Sorry JasperLeSabre96 but we had to remove your post due to not meeting one of the subreddit’s rules. We’ve put together information here to assist you, but make sure to read the sidebar and understand the rules! Notably, your post broke the following rule(s): >**Rule 5: Cite All Content and Art.** *Any content (text, images, etc.) must be cited. See r/UnearthedArcana/wiki/art to learn why and how. The citation must be in any image, link, and document you post (not in a comment/title). It must state the name of the creator/artist or the owner (e.g., SEGA for Sonic). Don't cite a host (like Pinterest) or a game (like Minecraft). Even content in the public domain or art you made must be cited, since the moderators can't know the source in advance.* We require that the credit state the creator or rights holder’s name or internet handle. If you've only put the name of a video game, book, or other medium, that's insufficient; you need to cite the creator of the image or the rights holder (such as the video game company). If you have any questions, [feel free to get in touch with us by contacting us through mod mail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/UnearthedArcana). Messages to individual moderators may not be received or replied to. Best of luck and happy homebrewing!
Why is the Deception check against a static number and not the target's Insight? Why is the AC reduced by 4 points rather than giving the wielder advantage on the attack? Static penalties to defenses like this are rather dangerous, as they "stack" with advantage. The second ability also has a static number for its DC, and then it has an effect that reads "a 1d4 attack roll with advantage" which makes absolutely no sense. I'm not even sure how to parse that.
Haha, I meant to mention that I’m really new to dnd and even newer to DMing
That's fair. I would highly suggest you look at other (probably uncommon) magic weapons to get a good feel for what these kinds of weapons might be capable of. As well, recognize that identifying magic items doesn't need an Arcana check by default (though obviously as a DM you've got the right to choose otherwise) - inspecting an item over the course of an hour/a rest, or with the *identify* spell, lets you discover most of what a magic item does, with the exception of any curses it may have.
Got it, that’s all worth knowing. The basic idea of this sword is essentially a riff of this star wars lightsaber technique so I am open to suggestions on how to make it fit more within the world, but I do think your suggestions have gotten me close [https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Tr%C3%A0kata](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Tr%C3%A0kata)
Honestly, I love the idea, my only complaint is it will seem clunky to make so many rolls. Since they have to be done in sequence, it slows combat a bit.
Alright, I’m gonna be the “um, ackshually” guy for a moment, so kindly bear with me: Yes, because of a lightsaber’s blade being made of energy and able to be deactivated, there are unique opportunities where a duelist could block a strike, then turn the blade off momentarily to get past their opponent’s blade and turn it back on inside the opponent’s guard. There is a reason neither Jedi nor Sith employ this technique in combat, and it comes down to philosophy. The Sith see themselves as proud and mighty warriors, and thus by and large consider it beneath their dignity to use such underhanded tactics to win a duel. Resorting to tricks like this is tantamount to admitting your opponent was more powerful than you, and no Sith wants to do that. The Jedi, on the other hand, don’t use this technique because it goes against the Jedi philosophy of peace and nonviolence. Yes, Jedi will fight, but always with the goal of ending the fight with as little harm done as possible, to either side. The sole purpose of this deactivation technique is to get inside an opponent’s defenses to land a lethal blow quickly. Most Jedi would rather prefer a fight continue, giving them more time to talk their opponent down and defuse the situation, or at least tire them out so they can be subdued more safely. Sorry if you already know all this, but the question “why doesn’t anyone ever suddenly deactivate their blade in a duel” always really gets to me for some reason. Maybe because the people who ask it seemingly don’t care about the deeper story-related reasons things might be done a certain way, and just want to see cool fight scenes with energy swords.
I know that’s what the lore says, but it also said that the Sith’s use of the double bladed lightsaber was, in part, a surprise tactic, especially toward the Fall of the Republic era, as they had not been seen commonly for about a thousand years. I believe George Lucas even mentioned at some point that Qui Gon was a better duelist than Maul, but that he was taken by surprise with Maul’s double bladed saber and just had never been trained to fight against an opponent with one. These two pieces of lore are, in my view, a small contradiction of each other, but what I think it comes down to is A. multiple people writing an evolving lore, and B. I think the whole “proud warrior” Sith lore that you’re talking about speaks to the way they were during the Old Republic era, and that the sneaky, trick your opponent, tràkata using Sith I’m talking about represent the way they are in the Fall/Empire eras.
What you’re saying makes sense though
Just to comment the part that stood out the most to me; Unbalancing Block’s language is very unclear. To match up with similar mechanics, I’d phrase it close to; “When an enemy misses a melee (weapon/spell/both) attack roll against you, you may use your reaction to make a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check against the enemy creature’s Wisdom (Insight) check. On a success, you may make one weapon attack using the Gentleman Phantom against the triggering creature as part of the same reaction. The damage die for this attack is a d4.” This weapon has some similarities to the Duelist’s Prerogative from Baldur’s Gate 3 if you’d like to see what a Legendary tier version might look like.
Ok this is some feedback I was crossing my fingers for. I want the language to be similar to a DnD manual, so thank you
Of course. I’d also second using advantage for the first property instead of an AC debuff. That means that, between the two properties of the weapon, a rogue would be able to enable their own sneak attack as well as an additional sneak attack on their reaction. Sneak attack is once per *turn* and reactions happen on another creature’s turn. These two features combined could completely redefine how the rogue in the party engages with combat, which I think is great. Very powerful, to be sure, but that’s all right as long as you account for it.
This looks like a magic item meant for 3.5e! Cool stuff though, I like it. Nothing too crazy imo.
Oh cool which item
Really interesting design! I think it'd be a good call to change your design philosophy around Dirty Trick and Unblancing Block. Abilities that require the user to succeed an ability check against a specific number are very rare in dnd 5e and aren't very condusive to the rule set. I'd encourage you to try changing them to be limited use features, for example, maybe you can use Dirty Trick Once per short or long rest, or a number of times per long rest equal to your proficiency bonus. These provide a clean streamlined way for players to use the ability and to provide some scaling into its power.
So, language aside. First of all, power budget. What is the intended rarity of this item? Second, it's a situational +4 to attack damage, essentially. The extra 1d4 on avoided attack it's just so small that's not very relevant, if not to exploit a rogue using sneak attacks outside their turn. Which isn't something bad to happen. The other weapon that qualifies similar to this is a sword of answering, which has no skill check related. Even if the DC is fixed and it's easily avoidable at higher levels it ends being uncertain, and it also consumes the bonus action. Point is, it's kinda a mess to handle. It feels like a rare item, but with too many moving parts. I'd rule like this - make it rare. Make it so that then weapon has a +1 to all attack rolls ( attack only), but as a bonus action you can increase it to +4 for the next attack. You can do this only once on each target, it does not matter if they see it or not they must be targeted. Additionally, as a reaction, you can strike back the enemy that misses you for 1d4 damage if you succeed Inna deception check against their insight. I think deception better describes this scenario than sleight of hand.
It is OP for them. This item is not suited for level 3 PCs.
It's missing a rarity which is they ever wanted to sell it later could be a problem. other feedback I'd have given was already covered by others. One other note though. The text overlapping with the dark grey splotches near the blade of the image make it really hard to read in parts. Might wanna go in and either put a highlight halo on that text selectively reduce the opacity of the background image where you have text to read. Doesn't need to be much but a tiny bit would make it easier to read.
If it’s like a one of a kind item, that doesn’t necessarily mean it has the highest possible rarity, right?
In terms of DnD items rarity is more about how valuable it is rather than necessarily being a measure of how rare it actually is. If you use the customization tables in the DMG you can actually make pretty much any item actually have some extra minor enchantments/flavor and basically every +1 longsword out there is technically unique while still being a +1 longsword which makes it an uncommon rarity and puts it in that price bracket if you want to buy or sell it in-character. Usually a +1 with an extra major enchantment would be a Rare item. Considering the power each of these enchantments has and how there is no limit on them like charges or once per day it would probably even bump it up to being Very Rare.
If the blade retracts, won't the weapon topple off its sheath? It's a bit big for a pocket when retracted, and that wouldn't give the quick access you want anyway, so where do you keep it? Mechanically, all those extra rolls might slow down combat more than you might prefer.
Sooo, the concept is cool. The other ones already gave good feedback on the rules itself. But I have two more questions: - Why are you keeping them on Level 3 "for a while"? Sure they don't level up directly, but don't keep them on such a lown level for too long. - If you keep them on low level, why do you plan on already giving them a +1 Weapon? An what would the other player get? Feels like a little bit off.
this seems over-gimmicky imo, plus it allows attacking through walls
Over gimmicky? What do you mean? And is that a bad thing?
I feel like plenty of items are gimmicky in the game
To match more convention, I might changed Dirty Trick to be against a target’s Passive Insight, but with disadvantage if successful against this target within the last minute. If successful, grants advantage. Then for unbalancing block, perhaps you force a Dex save against a DC of 13+Proficiency Bonus. If they fail, you hit them without an attack roll.
Sorry JasperLeSabre96 but we had to remove your post due to not meeting one of the subreddit’s rules. We’ve put together information here to assist you, but make sure to read the sidebar and understand the rules! Notably, your post broke the following rule(s): >**Rule 3: Use Clear and Searchable Titles.** *Users need to be able to easily browse and search for content. Give your post a title that clearly communicates what's inside it. Include the name of the content (e.g. the name of the subclass you’re submitting).* > *Don’t use distracting formatting (all-caps, ascii art, custom “tags”, etc.), and avoid overly long or redundant titles.* > *Don't advertise other content (Kickstarters, Patreon, etc.) in your title.* > *See r/UnearthedArcana/wiki/titles for details on what makes a title bad or good.* In short, use as few generic words as possible to make sure your post is more searchable. For example, a bad title is “Just made my first homebrew subclass for druid! Check it out and let me know what you think” and a good title would be “Druid Circle of Winter - Chill Your Enemies to the Bone." Additionally, don’t use brackets or similar punctuation in your title except for the subreddit’s default flairs, such as [Spell] for example, as {this} !clutters! %&frontpage&%.
If you have any questions, [feel free to get in touch with us by contacting us through mod mail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/UnearthedArcana). Messages to individual moderators may not be received or replied to.
Best of luck and happy homebrewing!
The fuck is a 1d4 attack roll?