D&D 5E Homebrew Feat: Dueling Mastery

[Celtavian]

I've been analyzing the impact of Great Weapon Master and Sharpshooting on the fighting styles in 5E. From a min-max standpoint Sharpshooter, Crossbow Expert, and Great Weapon Master tend to push martial characters into using a heavy two-handed or versatile weapon or ranged weapon to maximize damage. Great Weapon Fighting as a style is a marginal upgrade to damage over taking Defensive Fighting and using a heavy two-handed or versatile weapon. The feats are what create an imbalance in the fighting styles.

I created a feat I believe creates relative equality amongst the styles from an average DPR standpoint when the feats are used.

Dueling Mastery: You are trained to deliver deadly strikes to vital areas.

When wielding a one-handed melee weapon in one-hand, you can strike a vital area on your opponent taking a -5 penalty to the attack roll. If you hit, the attack does +10 damage.

If you score a critical hit while wielding a one-handed melee weapon in one hand, you do an extra weapon die of damage.


I feel this feat will be attractive to multiple classes including melee rogues, two-weapon martials, dueling style martials, defensive martials using sword and shield, pact weapon warlocks, and generally fighters that use other fighting styles than heavy two-handed weapons or archery. It will close the damage gap that exists because of those two feats. It will allow players to create a two-weapon fighter or dueling style fighter without feeling as though they are doing vastly inferior damage to the two-handed fighter or archer. It might even make the Champion Archetype more attractive, though that is doubtful considering an extra weapon die of damage every eight to ten hits will not be meaningful to spiking damage.

 

[Paraxis]

I still haven't seen the great weapon and sharpshooter feats be all that useful the -5 to hit is a big penalty. But if you are wanting to balance the scales this seems like one way to do it. The other would be to just change the two feats in the PHB.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

So with 1 feat a PC can get the -5/+10 damage boost of a Great Weapon wielder AND get an extra die on crits AND get the benefit of a shield OR be able to do this with two 1-handed weapons if dual wielding? That seems munchkin'y to me.

 

[Celtavian]

It is munchkin'y because Great Weapon Master and Sharpshooter are munchkin'y at higher level with buffs, magic items, and bounded accuracy making AC less of a hindrance to their use. Great Weapon Master isn't much of a factor at low level save in the hands of a barbarian using Reckless. Sharpshooter comes on line almost from the beginning. The +2 bonus to attack from Archery Style combined with bless nearly mitigates the negatives of Sharpshooter as well as the ability to avoid penalties for any cover save full cover.

Bounded accuracy puts a premium on the ability to spike damage at higher level. This feat allows other fighting styles to spike damage in a similar fashion to two-handed weapon user or archer. Great Weapon Master provides a bonus attack after an enemy is dropped or a critical hit is scored which easily balances against an extra die of damage for a critical hit.

It makes the average DPR of each style about as follows:
1. Two-weapon Style and Crossbow Expert Archery
2. Archery
3. Great Weapon Fighting
4. Dueling
5. Defensive

There are other advantages to each style in combination with the feat and certain classes combinations that will keep them all attractive to the classes that can use them best.

 

[Quartz]

The Duellist fighting style gives me +2 damage every hit. Is this feat cumulative with the +2 damage or does it replace it? I'd suggest the latter.

I'm a little wary about the extra damage die when combined with the Champion fighter who has a 28% chance of a critical hit if she attacks with Advantage. And don't forget that the bonus attack from Great Weapon Master applies to 1-handed weapons too. I'd rather give the same bonus attack. This also means that a fighter with both this feat and the Shieldmaster feat has to choose.

 

[Quartz]

BTW you can be strict with the Sharpshooter feat and say that when you use Sharpshooter, you take a -5 to hit and that -5 replaces the +2 from the style. Ditto GWF.

 

[Celtavian]

BTW you can be strict with the Sharpshooter feat and say that when you use Sharpshooter, you take a -5 to hit and that -5 replaces the +2 from the style. Ditto GWF.

I see no reason to believe the penalty would replace the bonus. That would be a house rule.

 

[Quartz]

I see no reason to believe the penalty would replace the bonus. That would be a house rule.

Isn't there a guideline in 5E that the specific overrides the general?

 

[Warmaster Horus]

Isn't there a guideline in 5E that the specific overrides the general?

Aren't both the +2 Archer Fighting Style and the -5/+10 Sharpshooter Feat 'specific' rules? Does it state anywhere that you sacrifice one to get the other? Maybe the player should sacrifice their Dex and Proficiency bonus' instead, since they're 'general' rules?

Okay, sarcasm aside, remember that the player chose the Archery fighting style and the Sharpshooter feat. They forsook other options to do this. As a DM respect these choices and don't knee-jerk a nerf, but provide challenges that play against the advantage from time to time instead if you feel you want to.

 

[Quartz]

Okay, sarcasm aside, remember that the player chose the Archery fighting style and the Sharpshooter feat. They forsook other options to do this. As a DM respect these choices and don't knee-jerk a nerf, but provide challenges that play against the advantage from time to time instead if you feel you want to.

The Sharpshooter feat provides benefits even if you don't use the -5 to hit for +10 damage - you don't get Disadvantage at long range and you ignore half and three-quarters cover.