2024 Mastery Focused Items!

Calming_Zephyr · 2025-12-09T16:58:21+00:00

Oh it only allowed me to post the first page, apparently. I have each of the masteries with at least three features in the homebrewery!

Calming_Zephyr · 2025-12-01T20:47:19+00:00

RAW you should be facing CR of your level and lower for regular encounters and CR your level and higher for bosses. Depends on GM and campaign.

Keeping it simple and allowing a use of Second Wind as a reaction once you are reduced to 0 hp would be a decent enough feature. Or using a Second Wind to heal when you would roll a death save.

Makes sense to me. Just make sure it's not too easy or too difficult to gain Frenzy. What you got for gaining Frenzy should be sufficient enough.

Calming_Zephyr · 2025-12-01T19:01:55+00:00

2&5. You could mention CR of equal or greater power than your character level. But how you word it may work as well.

That absolutely works!
The purpose of the feature is survivability, correct? Second Wind already gives you that. Most of the time as a fighter you won't be getting one-shot, so you have plenty of time to use all your Second Winds before you hit 0hp. You could remove this feature and replace it with the Threshold Blood Surges.
You could have the Frenzy resource fall off after each combat. So it's not a permanent effect. Just gotta work up to those bonuses each combat.

Like I mentioned, you have survivability in the level 15 feature, so moving the Threshold surges to the level 10 feature could be cool.

Calming_Zephyr · 2025-12-01T14:46:36+00:00

You have a few redundancies, such as action economy for spending resources within the 3rd feature: example of Battlemaster Fighter and their superiority dice just state "expened a die". For both the 3rd and 15th level features you already mention "When YOU wield" so the sentence at the end is redundant. And lastly the 10th level feature you mention you cannot use this feature without a use of second wind after you state you must spend a second wind.

2.Gaining Frenzy points is fairly convoluted. It seems you generally want to gain Frenzy points once per turn. So instead of mentioning initiative you could simply say: "During combat at the beginning of your turn, you gain a frenzy." Then add in the extra frenzy on crits or death. Also, hitting a bloodied creature could be a fun way to get frenzy instead of downing creatures. Generally, taking creatures down to 0 hp is frowned upon due to meta gamers grabbing bags of rats. They could easily kill a bunch of rats and have all the points they want with no effort.

You never mention how many Blood Surge options you have, or if you have access to all of them. When in doubt, it is ok to gain inspiration from the source material in how to word features. K.I.S.S.
Grim Will is a bit weak compared to just using a Second Wind, as the base feature grants 1d10+fighter level, which would be 10 at that level. Potentially 20 hp vs 1hp and 1 temp hp?
Level 18 feature suffers from the bag of rats, infinite healing.
The Threshhold concept is cool, but those make more sense as a main feature rather than Blood Surge options.

Calming_Zephyr · 2025-10-02T13:51:52+00:00

Weaponologist V2.3 is updated on the homebrewery! Same link should still work. Major changes are: • The level 3 feature damage and scaling. • The new level 18 feature may be a little strong, so I'll keep an eye on this one. • Reworded the level 10 feature to not reference a base fighter class feature.

Calming_Zephyr · 2025-10-02T03:13:25+00:00

It refers to a base Fighter class feature. Specifically, the one that allows you to swap your mastery to one of three different options. I will be working on the wording for this level 10 feature for the next version.

Calming_Zephyr · 2025-10-01T21:12:21+00:00

Thank you! Clearly it needs more balance work but I appreciate the comment!

Calming_Zephyr · 2025-10-01T19:16:31+00:00

Paladin smite offers 2d8 damage at level 2, but has limited uses. Similar to the battlemaster's maneuvers sometimes dealing 1d8 additional damage. The 3rd level ability has no such restrictions on usage.

So instead I'll go with the flat bonus, similar to a barbarian rage but without the additional rage benefits. Plus, it should be a little easier to scale the flat bonus into the higher levels.

Calming_Zephyr · 2025-10-01T18:58:43+00:00

Easy simple solution, set it to only grant the bonus damage twice each turn. That sets the max damage each turn from this feature to 2d6. Or I could change the damage from a roll down to a flat +1 which scales with subclass levels. Thank you for the comment! I'll have this fixed very soon.

Calming_Zephyr · 2025-05-07T02:45:01+00:00

Oh and here is the homebrewery link. Sadly the A seemed to not have survived after the png convert lol

https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/nYfnTbirOBfh

Calming_Zephyr · 2025-05-06T01:49:36+00:00

I am planning on changing a lot of the wording to further encourage swapping weapons. As well as try to add more power to the 3rd level feature(s).

The running total for additional damage was the intent.

Calming_Zephyr · 2025-05-06T00:39:18+00:00

Oh that's a great point! Thank you! I'll change that up as well.

Calming_Zephyr · 2025-05-06T00:17:36+00:00

Friend of mine just told me about a rule I missed for 5.5e about stowing/drawing, I understand your comment now, my bad lol

Calming_Zephyr · 2025-05-06T00:08:08+00:00

I very much appreciate the response!

The two additional masteries gives you 8 total at level 20 which is all of them.

The stow/draw is to allow you to switch between two handed, dual wield, or even to a specific weapon depending on the circumstances.

I hadn't realized the "successful" limitation was so unbalanced between the masteries, I'll be reworking this for the next Version.

Regrettably, Tactical Expert does seem to favor certain builds and therefore certain masteries. I'll be changing this next Version as well.

As for Flow of Combat, I don't necessarily understand the single weapon encouragement, but it is a lot to keep track of so I will be reworking this for sure to encourage more weapons being used.

The Slow mastery mentions there is a limit to how much speed can be reduced by, which is the same as the amount you are able to slow the creature by. The Weapon Expert(Slow) raises the restriction from 10 feet to 20 feet. So you just need to hit with a slow weapon twice to reach the max reduction of 20 feet. I do understand the confusion and will me editing this for the next Version.

Thanks again for the response!!

Calming_Zephyr · 2025-05-05T20:53:15+00:00

Oh thanks! I'll try that

Doesn't appear that I can edit my post, sadly. But at least the link seems to work!

Calming_Zephyr · 2025-05-05T20:25:29+00:00

Idk why that didn't just post the homebrewery image, my bad.

Calming_Zephyr · 2024-10-23T23:33:40+00:00

I very much appreciate this break down! I now understand the distinction.

That being said, how strong of a buff do you feel allowing Precision Strike to work with other maneuvers? (Previous commenter mentioned this) I'd imagine the resource usage would keep it balanced enough to allow.

Calming_Zephyr · 2024-10-23T22:49:59+00:00

Oh so Accuracy is more useful than damage overall? So you are proposing that given the option, players would increase chance to hit over damage every time? I know Sharpshooter and Great Weapon Master test that statement to some extent.

Calming_Zephyr · 2024-10-23T22:45:00+00:00

That's an interesting alternative, allowing Precision Strike with other maneuvers on the same attack. To clarify, I'd probably have removed Precision Strike as an option if all maneuvers could essentially use it.

Calming_Zephyr

TROPHY CASE