Bryan's Dungeons & Dragons Site

Category: Player Mechanics

new game mechanics that affect character creation and running

  • Weapon Specialization for Fighters

    March 2020

    Weapon specialization for fighters as described in Unearthed Arcana (UA) immediately struck me as unbalanced. We play tested the rule and vetoed it. As excited as my group was to get UA, a lot of the rules proved to be disappointing, especially the new classes.

    It was years later I learned that Gary Gygax published UA shortly after returning to Lake Geneva after his long stint in California. TSR was in serious financial trouble due to mis-management, and it appears (to me, anyway) that UA was banged out to generate badly needed revenue in short order. [I’m not criticizing EGG from a business viewpoint, as if I was in his shoes I expect I’d do the same. However, as a consumer, I’m less than happy.]

    So … within a month or so I developed the following weapon specialization system, which my group happily and successfully play tested and adopted.

    November 2008

    Weapon specialization is an ability available to fighters and some fighter sub-classes. The fighter uses a weapon proficiency slot to learn extra ability with one weapon, such as long sword, broad sword, mace, or bow. When using this weapon the fighter gains bonuses to-hit and damage, and may receive additional attacks per round.

    To specialize in a weapon, the fighter must use two weapon proficiency slots instead of the usual one. At 1st level a fighter has four weapon proficiency slots — if he chooses to specialize he may choose three weapons of proficiency, one of which is specialized. A fighter may specialize in only one type of weapon, regardless of level.

    Six levels after choosing to specialize in a weapon the fighter may choose to double specialize in that weapon. Another weapon proficiency slot must be used for this purpose. Six levels after that the fighter may again use a weapon proficiency slot to triple specialize, which gives the fighter the best specialization that can be obtained.

    As noted, specialization gives the fighter bonuses to-hit and damage, and may gain additional attacks per round. Although a fighter may choose to specialize in a weapon any time a new proficiency is earned due to level, the most benefits accrue if the specialization is chosen at 1st level. The following tables display the hit and damage bonuses and attacks per round if the fighter specializes at first level.

    Melee Weapons

    Specialization with a melee weapon immediately provides a bonus to-hit and damage. Three levels later, an additional attack every other round is added. The increase in the number of attacks is part of the specialization; it does not cost an additional proficiency slot.

    Note that if the specialized weapon may be thrown, no bonus is allotted to the weapon when thrown. The bonuses apply only to hand-held attacks.

    Melee Weapon Specialization Bonuses

    Specialization

    Level

    Hit/Damage Bonus

    Attacks/Round
    Single 1-3 +1/ +1 1
    Single 4+ +1/ +1 3/2
    Double 7-9 +2/+2 3/2
    Double 10+ +2/+2 2
    Triple 13-15 +3/+3 2
    Triple 16+ +3/+3 5/2

    Distance Weapons

    Specialization for distance weapons is slightly different. The bonus to-hit and damage changes by range, as indicated in the next table.

    Note: Similar to melee weapons, specialization in a thrown weapon such as handaxe provides no bonuses in melee.

    Distance Weapon Specialization Bonuses

    Hit/ Damage Bonus by Range

    Specialization

    Level

    Short

    Medium

    Long
    Single 1-3 +1/+1 — —
    Single 4+ +1/+1 +1/+1 —
    Double 7-9 +2/+2 +1/+1 —
    Double 10+ +2/+2 +2/+2 +1/+1
    Triple 13-15 +3/+3 +2/+2 +2/+2
    Triple 16+ +3/+3 +3/+3 +3/+3

    Distance Weapon Attacks per Round

    The number of attacks per round varies by weapon, although the system functions like melee weapons: specialization first provides a bonus to-hit and damage, and 3 levels later adds additional attacks.

    Attacks per Round

    Specialization

    Level

    1/2

    1

    2

    3
    Single 1-3 1/2 1 2 3
    Single 4+ 1 2 3 4
    Double 7-9 1 2 3 4
    Double 10+ 2 3 4 5
    Triple 13-15 2 3 4 5
    Triple 16+ 3 4 5 6

    If a fighter choose to specialize at a level after 1st level, the progression of abilities has the same span, e.g., double specialization can occur 6 levels after the decision to specialize. Please note that for melee weapons this negates the advantage of additional attacks per round.

    For instance, Sam Swordswinger chooses to specialize in the long sword at 4th level. He immediately gains and additional +1 to-hit and damage when using a long sword. Three levels later, at 7th level, he gains three attacks every two rounds — but he gets that for attaining 7th level regardless of specialization. In this example only at 16th level would he gain additional attacks per round not granted by level. So the best advantage is gained by specializing at 1st level.

    A similar progression occurs for missile weapons, e.g., if a fighter choose to specialize in throwing daggers at 7th level he cannot double specialize until 13th level.

    This page last updated: March 2020
    Copyright 2008-2020 Bryan Fazekas

  • Character Generation

    May 2007

    First, let’s review the character generation rules in the Dungeon Masters Guide (DMG) on page 11. These four methods are paraphrased here, along with a fifth one from Unearthed Arcana (UA, page 74):

    1. Roll 4d6, discarding the lowest, for each ability score. Arrange in the order desired.

    2. Roll 3d6 twelve times, keeping the best six rolls. Arrange in the order desired.

    3. Roll 3d6 six times for each ability score, retaining the best roll for attribute. Attributes are rolled in this order: Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, Charisma.

    4. Roll 3d6 six times, in the same order as Method #3. Do this 12 times and choose the set desired.

    5. Choose a class and roll a specified number of d6 for each attribute, retaining the best 3 for each attribute. The number of dice to roll for each attribute are listed on page 74 of UA.

    Please note that rolling 3d6 in order is NOT an AD&D character generation method — this is an OD&D method.

    In the Players Handbook (PH) on page 9 in the first paragraph, it is noted that player characters are exceptional and strongly recommends that player characters have at least two scores of 15 or higher.

    Over the years I’ve tried all 4 of the DMG methods and discovered that to achieve a character with at least two scores of at least 15, it normally took numerous tries. I ran numerical analysis using Microsoft Excel, and no method had a success rate on the first try higher than 50%.

    Rolling a specialized class such as paladin or monk was nigh to impossible. The basic rolling averages 10.5 points for each attribute, not the thing that heroes are made of!

    I developed the following 2 methods to simplify and shorten the character generation process.

    They player can choose either method, but must decide which before starting.

    Method I

    This method produces the best general characters on the first try, those who do not have tough attribute requirements to meet. For rolling a class that has tough requirements this one may not produce the desired results, so Method II should be used.

    1. Roll six attribute values, using this method: For each value roll 4d6, re-rolling 1’s, and then drop the lowest die. Example: four dice are rolled, producing 6, 1, 3, 2. The “1” is re-rolled, producing a 4. Since the “2” is the lowest value so it is dropped, and the sum of the remaining dice is 13.

    2. Choose a class.

    3. Arrange the values for the attributes Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma. The player may decide where to place the values to create the class desired.

    4. Choose a race and apply racial adjustments. No values above 18 can be achieved.

    5. The player may add three additional points where desired, e.g., all 3 points can be added to a single attribute or divided as desired. No values above 18 can be achieved.

    6. Roll for Comeliness: roll 3d6, re-rolling 1’s, and sum the result.

    Method II

    This method allows the player to create a character of the class desired, and is generally used for those with difficult requirements, e.g., monks, bards, etc. It does not produce the best attributes, but guarantees that the desired class will be created.

    1. Choose the character’s class.

    2. Roll six values — in order — for the attributes Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma, e.g., the first roll is Strength, second Intelligence, etc. Use the process described in Step 1 of Method I.

    3. Decide upon the desired race and apply racial adjustments. No values above 18 can be achieved.

    4. If any attributes are below the minimum for the class decided in Step 1, increase the attribute to the minimum.

    5. Roll for Comeliness: roll 3d6, re-rolling 1’s, and sum the result.

    This page last revised March 2020

    Copyright 2007-2020 Bryan Fazekas

  • Spell Memorization Time

    September 2006

    This page provides revised rules for spell memorization. If I recall correctly, I based this upon an article inDragon Magazine.

    Spell Memorization

    By the book, spells require 15 minutes per spell level to memorize, following a rest period. This is for all classes and sounds reasonable, as it typically takes a 1st level a mere 15 minutes to memorize their one spell.

    However, as the character rises in level, the time required grows at an ever increasing rate. A 9th level cleric takes 8.5 hours to re-memorize all spells. In game terms, this adds a full day to between when a party may leave a dungeon to recuperate and when they may re-enter the dungeon. Personally, that bogs the adventure down, especially in higher level campaigns, as teh following table demonstrates.

    Table #A5 – Cleric Memorization Times

    Level Hours
    1 0.25
    5 3.00
    9 8.50
    13 18.50

    An alternate is to enable high intelligence/wisdom to reduce the time required. The time per level decreases with increasing intelligence/wisdom to a minimum of 5 minutes per spell level for those with an intelligence/wisdom of 19 or higher. Spell casters cannot have an intelligence/wisdom less than 9 so 15 minutes is the maximum time required.

    Table A6 lists the times by Intelligence/Wisdom.

    Table #A6 — Spell Memorization Time

    Intelligence or Wisdom Time (minutes)
    9 15
    10 14
    11 13
    12 12
    13 11
    14 10
    15 9
    16 8
    17 7
    18 6
    19 5

    A cleric with a wisdom of 18 has greatly reduce memorization times.

    Table #A7 – Revised Cleric Memorization Times

    Level Hours
    1 0.10
    5 1.20
    9 3.40
    13 7.40

    This page last updated: March 2020
    Copyright 2020 Bryan Fazekas