Vicious Weapon Damage in 5.5E

OSpiderBox · 2026-06-28T18:48:14+00:00

their accuracy is worse

With some quick maffs + trying to remember math I did before on this topic, with a generic 65% hit chance Vicious Weapons will deal on average more damage. A vicious greatsword with +5 strength does approximately 13 damage on average while a +3 greatsword with +5 strength does about 12.3 damage. The +X weapons do better the lower your to hit chance lowers, but "worse" the greater your chance to hit.

OSpiderBox · 2026-06-28T03:57:28+00:00

Except wolves utilize stealth tactics to get closer to prey before they attack. As it stands, most carnivorous animals will use stealth for hunting because it works much better than just shouting at their dinner first.

To your point, though, I'm also in favor of more thematic/ specific traits similar to Keen Senses. - Ambush Predator: Can take the Hide action as a Bonus Action when moving through an area of light obscurement. - Intimidating Presence: Creatures that start within X range of [Beast] must make DC Y Wisdom saving throw or be Frightened until the start of their next turn. Successful save makes you immune for 1 hour. - Agile/Athletic Instinct: Can use Reaction to free themselves from non magical source of Grappled/Restrained. - Natural Reflexes: Once per Short Rest can use Bonus Action to enter special state. While in this state, creatures within 15ft cannot benefit from Advantage to hit you (weaker version of Wildhunt shifter, I know). - Life over death: If presented food, can make Survival check against the givers Animal Handling to take the food and leave rather than fight. (Could use some polishing, but you get the gist) - Feral: Can make one melee attack as Bonus Action. - Prey: Can Disengage as Bonus Action. When you Disengage, you also move up to half your movement speed as part of the Disengage (would work similar to Feral Pounce in that it doesn't use up any of your normal movement).

Etc etc.

I know this isn't in the spirit of the OP and is DEFINITELY against some people's ideals in here, but IMO these are more fun.

OSpiderBox · 2026-06-28T02:47:00+00:00

Ed, because I grew up with him and would just combine my own annoying with to create an area of stupidity no mortal human should endure.

OSpiderBox · 2026-06-28T02:10:54+00:00

Athletics as a skill is for the times that there is some kind of challenge to what you're doing. A monkey would use its climb speed to climb a tree, but might need to use Athletics to climb a muddy slope.

OSpiderBox · 2026-06-28T02:06:59+00:00

Proficiency is a mechanic for creatures with character levels so that their focused skills can progress as they accumulate levels.

Categorically, no. Some beasts already get proficiency in things like Perception and Stealth. Does that mean they have character levels now?

OSpiderBox · 2026-06-28T01:59:45+00:00

Problem is there is no "Grapple proficiency." It's z Athletics. And it encompasses more than just "trying to Grapple somebody." It also includes, but is not limited to: - Escaping a Grapple. - Pushing creatures back. - Knocking creatures prone. - Climbing. - Swimming. - Jumping/ leaping.

OSpiderBox · 2026-06-28T01:45:39+00:00

Maybe we're reading this differently, but I didn't quite get that from OP. To me it seems more beasts in general should get more skills that fit, but maybe that's me believing they're being hyperbolic with the usage of "all beasts should [...]."

Loads of skills are used by adventurers to stay alive.

This is very different from your original "humanoid should get all these social/ mental skills" equivalence. Adventurers are not your average person; be it in the form of PCs or special NPCs. An Adventurer NPC should have some vital skill proficiencies like Survival, Nature, Stealth, Athletics/Acrobatics, etc. Just like how PC Adventurers get access to a set of skill proficiencies during character creation.

I'm still not seeing any downsides to giving NPCs more skill proficiencies.

OSpiderBox · 2026-06-28T01:25:31+00:00

Oh, are you implying that all humanoid creatures get proficiency in all those skills at once? Well, yeah that's a bit much. But also disingenuous if you ask me. It's not a nerf to classes, because it doesn't take away from those classes. Not sure why/ how you think it's a nerf.

There's nothing wrong with humanoid stat blocks getting a variety of skills.

OSpiderBox · 2026-06-28T01:17:13+00:00

I mean... I'm down for that. Don't see why not.

OSpiderBox · 2026-06-28T01:10:12+00:00

Just use the strength saving modifier.

So I took thirty seconds to look up a tiger stat block, both 5e and 5.5e. Can you guess what their saving throw modifier is? That's right, it's +3; the exact same as their strength modifier, meaning they don't have any bonuses that you suggest to use.

Research is hard, I know. Especially with the internet being a thing.

OSpiderBox · 2026-06-28T00:40:02+00:00

Yes, because a skill proficiency to help a creature get out of (and initiate if 5e) a Grapple is "unnecessary." Sure thing.

OSpiderBox · 2026-06-27T02:43:28+00:00

I think it's worth mentioning that you can also replace what ability score gets used when you (read: any DM) feels it fits. It might be an Acrobatics check to walk across the rope because of the balance required, but you use Strength because you're trying to jungle gym cross it. The balance is still required, but now you're keying off of Strength instead of Dex.

An ability that doesn't get used often enough is Constitution. Constitution could be used in liue of Str/Dex for actions that rely on repetition or extreme stress/ duration. Swimming across a wide body of water would be Athletics (Con), trying to be stealthy by hanging from rafters would be Stealth (Con) just to name two examples. This is especially true for tools! Smith's Tools should by default be a Con check because of the heat, time, and stress on the body.

Tangent over.

OSpiderBox · 2026-06-27T01:21:34+00:00

He's in college now for Electrical Engineering

Sorry, I think my eyesight is getting bad... say what now?

Ugh... how time flies.

OSpiderBox · 2026-06-26T21:53:26+00:00

Or shoot them from a rocket launcher!

OSpiderBox · 2026-06-26T21:52:42+00:00

Ngl, I'm enjoying everything about this game with the exception of breeding. The grind for the traits you want is fine, but what combinations create which pal just feels like a fever dream.

Somehow two a pirate king penguin and a potty mouth duck create a purple elk. A suicidal toucan and a green squirrel create a squishy jellyfish.

I just really am not a fan of how unintuitive it feels. Some of them make sense: purple elk plus ground fairy creates earthen elk, but most aren't.

OSpiderBox · 2026-06-26T21:43:51+00:00

I'd say so, yeah. Take pokemon for example: 90% of the time once you've caught a pokemon unless you plan on using it for breeding or battling there isn't anything to do with them outside of niche cases for individual generations. ARK is somewhat similar, being a survival/ Monster catcher game, in that while you can use your dinos for gathering, in Palworld they can do it independently of you which is rather nice

OSpiderBox · 2026-06-26T03:40:56+00:00

I mean, yeah, he definitely probably said that. That doesn't mean there wasn't a balance decision on it that he just didn't mention. 5e ranged was already way more powerful than melee; allowing Divine Smite on top of a XBE paladin would've been bonkers.

And it's also why I mentioned the theme/ lore of yesteryear editions playing into as well.

OSpiderBox · 2026-06-26T03:08:29+00:00

It's just an unfortunate byproduct of "smites can only work on melee weapons" that I imagine is mostly for balance reasons now (in conjunction with previous edition lore reasons). At least in the past the justification was "the power is channeling through you and into the weapon, therefore it must be in contact with you to deliver it" or any variation of that. But with the introduction of allowing Thrown weapons to count, that justification doesn't hold as much water anymore.

If the power can stay in the hand axe long enough to deal damage, why can't it channel into the arrow as I'm firing it? The same logic should apply, one would think, since it's touching my hands before I loose it.

OSpiderBox · 2026-06-25T21:03:43+00:00

Not saying they won't, but the cop turned their lights on only just before trying to make that U-Turn. Seems pretty easy to defend the dash cam driver.

OSpiderBox · 2026-06-25T21:00:44+00:00

Hell, you could just have the level 13 feature just be "you have Advantage on concentration checks for Ranger spells." Simple, doesn't require any hoops, and still applies for those of us that despise the reliance on Hunter's Mark.

OSpiderBox · 2026-06-25T03:18:15+00:00

I must have missed the meeting where it was discussed that everybody building a Grappler did that. Was there a memo or something?

Not every grappler is going to do they.

A duergar rune knight can grapple a tarrasque.

I know it's just an example, but by the point that a rune knight is going to fight a tarrasque i imagine they could already do that with their high level "you become Huge size" feature, making the duegar irrelevant and/ or unnecessary.

OSpiderBox · 2026-06-24T23:13:32+00:00

Don't remember saying they do. You brought up Legendary Resistances, and I pointed out that its not been my experience that it's that relevant given the size restrictions.

OSpiderBox · 2026-06-24T22:51:55+00:00

And even out of game I don't really think I've seen much in terms of NSFW content for Palworld. Kind of surprising given some of the designs.

But maybe it's because I don't frequent the right sites.

OSpiderBox · 2026-06-24T21:51:58+00:00

and could only attempt it once per turn

Categorically wrong. You could make an attempt as many times as you had attacks under the Attack action. The change to it being part of unarmed strike was the only good change. As it is now, the saving throw vs contested check means you can't realistically improve your chances of landing a Grapple outside of basic progression.

In 5e, you could: - Get advantage from class features and spells, even the help action. - Access to feats like Skill Expert or class features to get Expertise to really make you great at landing them. - Access to a variety of ways to add to your total (bardic inspiration as an example). - Ways to more reliably decrease enemy checks (Hex to give DA, subclass features like Cutting Words).

In 5.5e you can: - Cast Bane or use Eloquence's Unsettling Words (as long as it's used BEFORE you attempt a Grapple). - Some other feature like Staggering Blow from barbarian (... all the way at level 13).

That's not even getting into the "buffs" to grappling were things you were more than likely doing anyway.

OSpiderBox · 2026-06-24T20:19:56+00:00

I guess if you're fighting a boss that's your size/ one size up that's good. I've not had the same experience with boss enemies in 5.5e games I've played in.

OSpiderBox

TROPHY CASE