There’s a weird idea of edginess being cool in some games I’ve played in. I think we all agree why it’s bad.
Edginess for edginess’ sake is boring, ham-fisted, idiotic, painful.
There, that’s done. Let’s talk about keen weapons.
For those that don’t know, in older editions of D&D, the keen enchantment improved the critical range of a weapon – so generally it added a critical hit on a roll of 19, provided that roll would still be a hit on the enemy.
Some weapons, however, already had a critical on a 19. Some had them on an 18. Then the maths got interesting.
I played a character with a keen falchion once.
The falchion had a critical hit range of 18-20, so providing a roll of 18 plus modifiers would still hit, it was provoke a critical (ugh, remember when we had to roll again for those?!)
With the range doubled, that meant that a roll of 15 was enough to cause a critical hit – though with a base damage of 2d4, that was still only 4-16 damage.
Why do I bring this up, well I liked the idea, and even if the maths isn’t really compatible with 5e, I’d like to see how incompatible it is.
So this is another one to add to the next treasure hoard.
“You find an ancient, single-edged sword with an ornate design flowing down it’s blunted side. It’s as sharp as any razor, despite its obvious age. The grip and pommel are styled after a monstrous cat of some description. It is clearly designed to be used one-handed to slash at enemies.”
Add a Keen Falchion to your sheet, 2d4 damage, critical hit on a 15 as long as you still hit with that roll.
Hmmm, maybe we should limit it to crit on a 17…
jot jot ïota 