Blademaster

By dava100, in Game Mechanics

Blademaster

Tier: 3

Prerequisite: Weapon Skill 30, Weapon Training (any melee)

Aptitudes: Weapon Skill, Finesse

The Acolyte’s mastery of bladed weapons and their martial

disciplines has no peer. When attacking with any bladed weapon,

including chainswords, axes, and power swords, he can re-roll one

missed attack per Round.


Apart from the talent being called blade master why are blunt weapons excluded? I would like to see the name of the talent changed to 'Weapon Master' and melee concussion weapons included in the effect. This will help increase the variety of weapons characters use, otherwise everyone just runs about with sword type weapons as re-roll is a powerful talent and a must have when available.

I agree. It should be "Melee Weapon Type" (chose one) Master. ;)

I agree. It should be "Melee Weapon Type" (chose one) Master. ;)

I would be fine if it was a choice between weapon types instead of covering everything with a single purchase of the talent.

Are there any weapons that would be hard to classify into blade or blunt? What would you assign flexible weapons to or would that be another weapon type?

Edited by dava100

I don't have much experience with high-level DH play, but it seems to me that "blunt" weapons like the power fist far outstrip the power sword in raw damage potential. There's a whole slew of Offence-based talents that encourage the use of Unwieldy, high-damage weapons (Hammer Blow, Unrelenting Assault, etc) -- are these strong enough on their own to compete with Blademaster and other Finesse close combat talents, or do they need a "weapon master" type talent to match up well against blades.

With that said, I find it very strange that an eviscerator benefits from the Blademaster reroll while the much more precise power maul has no such talent available.

I don't have much experience with high-level DH play, but it seems to me that "blunt" weapons like the power fist far outstrip the power sword in raw damage potential. There's a whole slew of Offence-based talents that encourage the use of Unwieldy, high-damage weapons (Hammer Blow, Unrelenting Assault, etc) -- are these strong enough on their own to compete with Blademaster and other Finesse close combat talents, or do they need a "weapon master" type talent to match up well against blades.

Those talents can also be used for bladed weapons though. If we want to make some talents work on blunt weapons only fine, but at the moment I think blunt weapons users are short changed on things like Blademaster and mono weapons.

Doesn't mono specifically state it works on blunt weapons too? It did in DH1e.

Doesn't mono specifically state it works on blunt weapons too? It did in DH1e.

I stand by my opinion though that blade master should change to include blunt weapons.

Edited by dava100

Yeah I see no reason for the specificity of the talent when there's not much mechanical difference between blades and blunt weapons.

I would say it would even be better to make it "Weapon Master", where you have to chose 1 specific melee weapon (e.g. knife or sword or club) and you may buy the talent multiple times.

I would say it would even be better to make it "Weapon Master", where you have to chose 1 specific melee weapon (e.g. knife or sword or club) and you may buy the talent multiple times.

If it was changed as per your spin on the idea would it warrant also changing the talent to a tier 2 so it would be a cheaper as you are getting less bang for your buck?

If it was up to me, T2 sounds good.

Weapon Specialization was a sh*tty feat in D&D and it's a sh*tty talent now. Change it to weapon master and have it apply to everything so you can buy it once and be done with it.

Change it to weapon master and have it apply to everything so you can buy it once and be done with it.

This would be my preference because it keeps things simple.

Edited by dava100

Change it to weapon master and have it apply to everything so you can buy it once and be done with it.

This would be my preference because it keeps things simple.

I played a fighter with Weapon Specialization in D&D 3.5, and I did not like the feat either. Nothing ruins the excitement of finding a magic sword in a dragon's treasure trove like realizing all your dwarven waraxe specialization feats won't work with it.

One universal Weapon Master feat sounds good to me.

I am guessing that this exists to make swordsmen competitive at levels at which power fists and so forth start showing up.

I am guessing that this exists to make swordsmen competitive at levels at which power fists and so forth start showing up.

The Eviscerator is up there with the powerfist for damage potential so I don't buy that.

I think that it should cover any weapon type.

I also think that it should only work on one handed weapons that are not "unwieldy".

I think that it should cover any weapon type.

I also think that it should only work on one handed weapons that are not "unwieldy".

Edited by dava100

I think that it should cover any weapon type.

I also think that it should only work on one handed weapons that are not "unwieldy".

Any particular reason you want to exclude unwieldy weapons which will exclude most if not all two handers?

I have no particular desire to nerf two handed weapons.

Looking at the talent again, I cannot help but think that "blademaster" is a relic from the old combat system where one attack could only result in one hit. In this new combat system you can reroll a failed lightning attack for multiple hits. I wonder how this plays out, someone may have tried it out in Only War?

Edited by Alox

What really grinds my gears is that Lightning Claws don't benefit from this, despite the fact that they were specifically designed to be wielded in pairs. Personally I think that Blademaster should encompass all melee weapons. Gunslinger encompasses all pistols, so why does this Talent discriminate?

I would consider Lightning claws a "blade" type weapon btw

Oh yeah, I forgot to add: Why in the blue hell are chainaxes and power axes two-handed weapons now? That's wiggity wack, yo!

Oh yeah, I forgot to add: Why in the blue hell are chainaxes and power axes two-handed weapons now? That's wiggity wack, yo!

I noticed this just yesterday. Given the listed weight of the chainaxe, I'm not surprised it can only be used two-handed -- you have to be a seriously strong person to use a 13kg axe in one hand!

With that said, the newfound two-handedness of these weapons makes them much less appealing choices for arming a PC. It's hard to imagine using a chainaxe when I could use an eviscerator instead. In the case of power weapons, the Omnissian Axe provides a considerably stronger punch than the power axe.

For the sake of encouraging weapon variety, I wish they'd change the power & chain axes back to one-handed weapons. The eviscerator and Omnissian axe fill the two-handed weapon niche nicely, and with those two weapons available there's really no reason to use the weaker axes. I like having a meaningful choice between the hitting power of an axe and the parrying ability of a sword, and with the chain/power axes relegated to the two-weapon slot there's few alternatives to the swords as one-handed weapons.

EDIT: For sanity's sake, I'd reduce the weight of the chainaxe to something that could realistically be used one-handed by a human. 9kg seems like a good number to me -- that's about 20lbs, still a lot, but this is a fantasy game after all :D

Edited by Covered in Weasels

Power axes have it bad enough already because their Unbalanced nature means that they can't be used to Lightning Attack, and Blademaster doesn't let them negate dual-wielding penalties like they do with chainswords. Is it just me or is this game biased towards swords?

Some people might restrict the Omnissian Axe to only Mechanicus characters, but a Thunder Hammer still easily fits the two-handed role. Speaking of which! Why use a regular Hammer when you could be using a Great Weapon?

Power axes have it bad enough already because their Unbalanced nature means that they can't be used to Lightning Attack, and Blademaster doesn't let them negate dual-wielding penalties like they do with chainswords. Is it just me or is this game biased towards swords?

Some people might restrict the Omnissian Axe to only Mechanicus characters, but a Thunder Hammer still easily fits the two-handed role. Speaking of which! Why use a regular Hammer when you could be using a Great Weapon?

Very heavily biased towards swords. I'll start a new thread for this right now since it's a very important topic.