Weapon Traits
In the world of weapons, quirks and charms are woven into the ordinary. Every blade, an individual tale, with traits that make them more than just tools.
Weapon Traits is a new mechanic that aims to add more variety to martial progression by giving players new and interesting choices to make about their weapons. A weapon that has traits is called an irregular weapon.
Each weapon trait falls into one of two categories; qualities and imperfections. Irregular weapons each have 1 quality and 1 imperfection. A quality represents a positive difference from standard behaviour, while an imperfection represents something negative.
Creating an Irregular Weapon
To create an irregular weapon, the Dungeon Master selects a weapon from the weapon list to act as the base. The irregular weapon will inherit all of the stats of it’s base weapon. To determine the traits of the irregular weapon, the DM rolls on both the Qualities and the Imperfections tables. When rolling for a trait you take the result from the column that corresponds with the type of base weapon that was chosen.
Traits
Weapon traits are listed below along with their descriptions. If a trait is exclusive to ranged or melee weapons it will say so in its description.
Qualities
| d8 | Melee | Ranged |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Snagging | Demolishing |
| 2 | Reliable | Reliable |
| 3 | Demolishing | Defiant |
| 4 | Distracting | Silent |
| 5 | Escaping | Piercing |
| 6 | Defiant | Snagging |
| 7 | Quick | Distracting |
| 8 | Harsh | Harsh |
Defiant. When attacking with a defiant weapon and the attack roll has disadvantage, if the attack hits it deals additional damage equal to your proficiency bonus.
Demolishing. Weapons with the demolishing trait deal double damage to structures.
Distracting. When an attack from a weapon with the distracting trait causes the target to roll a concentration saving throw it has disadvantage on the roll.
Escaping. (melee only) During your turn, if you hit a creature with a melee attack with a weapon that has the escaping trait, you don’t provoke opportunity attacks from that creature for the rest of the turn.
Harsh. When you score a critical hit with a harsh weapon you can choose add the ability modifier you normally add to the damage a second time.
Piercing. (ranged only) When making an attack against a creature that is benefitting from cover, you have +1 to the attack roll.
Quick. (melee only) When making an attack of opportunity with a quick weapon you have advantage on the attack roll.
Reliable. When attacking with a reliable weapon, you can chooses to replace a result of 1 on a single damage die with 2.
Silent. (ranged only) When you make an attack with a silent weapon while hidden, and miss, you remain hidden.
Snagging. A creature damaged by a weapon with the snagging property has its speed reduced by 5 feet until the end of its next turn. This effect cannot stack on a single creature within a single turn.
Imperfections
| d8 | Melee | Ranged |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Reckless | Whiplash |
| 2 | Slow | Mild |
| 3 | Faltering | Faltering |
| 4 | Whiplash | Lazy |
| 5 | Lazy | Low-Impact |
| 6 | Mild | Unsubtle |
| 7 | Scuffed | Scuffed |
| 8 | Awkward | Awkward |
Awkward. An awkward weapon takes a bonus action to draw and stow.
Faltering. If you miss an attack with a faltering weapon where the attack roll had advantage, you are unable to use your reaction until the start of your next turn.
Lazy. After attacking with a lazy weapon, all subsequent attacks with that weapon have a -1 on the attack roll until the end of your turn. If the attack was made outside of your turn, the effect ends at the end of your next turn.
Low-Impact. (ranged only) When attacking a target that is benefitting from cover with a low-impact weapon you subtract 1 from the attack roll.
Mild. If damage from a mild weapon causes a creature to make a concentration saving throw it has advantage on the roll.
Reckless. (melee only) When you miss an attack with a reckless melee weapon, if the attack roll was lower than the target’s armor class by 7 or more, the target of the attack will have advantage on its next melee attack roll against you until the end of its next turn.
Scuffed. When making a damage roll for an attack with a scuffed weapon, if a die rolls its highest number its result is reduced by 1. This can only apply to a single die per attack.
Slow. (melee only) When making an attack of opportunity with a slow weapon you have disadvantage on the attack roll.
Unsubtle. (ranged only) Weapons with the unsubtle property do not have advantage on attack rolls for attacks made while hidden.
Whiplash. After scoring a critical hit with a weapon with the whiplash property, your next attack with the weapon will not have your proficiency modifier applied to the attack roll.
Integrating Traits into your game
There are two main ways to integrate weapon traits into your game. The first is to allow players to start with irregular weapons, and the second is to have monsters carry irregular weapons that the player characters can then loot.
At Character Creation
Have your players determine their starting gear as normal. Any characters that use weapons regularly can pick a single weapon that they are starting with, they roll for traits on that weapon and then decide if they want to use the newly generated irregular weapon, or stick with the standard version.
If you are starting your adventure past level 1 and want to simulate the likelihood that characters would have already acquired multiple irregular weapons, the DM can pick out some weapons from the equipment weapons (or have the players pick some weapons they would like) and roll for traits on each of them and allow the player to start with some or all of them.
As Equipment for Monsters
At the start of an encounter, think about what you want the odds to be for the party’s opponents to be carrying any irregular weapons. Once you have decided on a rough figure you can simply roll some dice, subtract a number and the result, if it is greater than 0, is the number of irregular weapons being carried by the party’s enemies.
Below is a table showing the probability that an encounter will contain at least 1 irregular weapon based on the dice pool that is rolled and how much is subtracted.
| Dice Pool | -5 | -6 | -7 | -8 | -9 | -10 | -11 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| d6 | 16.67% | ||||||
| d8 | 37.5% | 25% | 12.5% | ||||
| d10 | 50% | 40% | 30% | 20% | 10% | ||
| d12 | 58.33% | 50% | 41.67% | 33.33% | 25% | 16.67% | 8.33% |
| 2d6 | 72.22% | 58.33% | 41.67% | 27.78% | 16.67% | 8.33% | 2.78% |
When rolling for the presence of irregular weapons, it may seem logical to assume that “higher tier” enemies are more likely to carry an irregular weapon than common grunts, however this is not necessarily the case. An irregular weapon is not inherently better than it’s base form, and in fact it’s very possible for these weapons to end up being overall weaker. For this reason, it’s entirely feasible that a simple CR 1/4 goblin is carrying a scimitar with the escaping and whiplash traits, while the CR 1 goblin boss carries no irregular weapons.
It is good practice to decide how to distribute irregular weapons between monsters after rolling the traits for all the traits have been rolled for, that way if you end up with a weapon with a quality and imperfection combination that makes the weapon stronger overall, you can give that one to the more powerful enemies.
INCLUDE AN EXAMPLE OF DOING THIS FOR AN ENCOUNTER
Credits
- Thumbnail Art - “Choose Your Weapon” by Olivier Bernard
- u/beardify for inspiring this system with his Extra Weapon Properties homebrew
- Personal friends for giving me ideas and editing notes