Weapon dice scaling should be automatic and not item-based

I think that weapon dice scaling should be automatic and not item-reliant. As it currently stands, martial characters (barbarians, fighters, monks, paladins, and rangers) live and die by their higher-level weapons. Past the lowest of levels, if they do not have a level-appropriate weapon, they are completely screwed out of dealing level-appropriate damage.

While higher-level weapons are a sufficient patch for this, it seems like a flawed solution. It can be tampered with by the circumstances of the adventure and/or by the GM's oversight, and it does not feel especially heroic to be so utterly reliant on a higher-level weapon.

Weapon dice should instead scale by the character's level. Better weapons could still have their purpose, like improving attack bonuses and enabling cool auxiliary benefits, but nothing so core and math-necessary to a character as raw damage dice. This way, martial characters can feel more heroic, and they will feel less bad for resorting to a backup weapon, such as a weapon-wielding monk falling back on unarmed strikes.

Speaking of backup weapons, have you seen the 6th level Fighter feat, REVEALING STAB? ;D

Talk about a trap. Yes, just let go of your high level weapon so your friends can see the invisible goon (who then picks up your own weapon, pulls it out, and throws it aside or hits you with it).

A contact of mine wrote up an essay on exactly this: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vqJOjjqvMRHzaSfuomgszy7cl92Qn5AoUXRMeWC 6FGg/edit#

Yeah, for some reason Paizo seems to like the gear milling idea from Diablo. You even see it in their "Sci-Fi" fantasy setting (Starfinder). Meanwhile D&D is trying to move away gear milling and the over reliance in magical gear in general. And then we have 13th Age, another interpretation of d20, it's your class and level that determines your weapon's damage die.

I am so for this. Let magic weapons just have funky abilities.

I think that weapon dice scaling should be automatic and not item-reliant. As it currently stands, martial characters (barbarians, fighters, monks, paladins, and rangers) live and die by their higher-level weapons. Past the lowest of levels, if they do not have a level-appropriate weapon, they are completely screwed out of dealing level-appropriate damage.

While higher-level weapons are a sufficient patch for this, it seems like a flawed solution. It can be tampered with by the circumstances of the adventure and/or by the GM's oversight, and it does not feel especially heroic to be so utterly reliant on a higher-level weapon.

Weapon dice should instead scale by the character's level. Better weapons could still have their purpose, like improving attack bonuses and enabling cool auxiliary benefits, but nothing so core and math-necessary to a character as raw damage dice. This way, martial characters can feel more heroic, and they will feel less bad for resorting to a backup weapon, such as a weapon-wielding monk falling back on unarmed strikes.

Honestly, I'd prefer to go back to big static bonuses instead of rolling a handful of weapon dice. Not only is it super satisfying to have a +35 damage mod, but it also compensates for the fact that I always roll terribly on damage :P

I'm a bit annoyed that expert/master/legendary weapon proficiency doesn't apply anything to damage. I'd like it if, instead of magic weapon dice, you added your proficiency rank to damage. Adding essentially level to damage comes out about the same over twenty levels as adding 1-5 dice. I'd rather have magic weapons adding special effects, triggering weaknesses, overcoming resistance, etc. and have dealing more damage at higher levels to be mainly a factor of your skill with the weapon.

Improving attack bonuses still kinda keeps them more or less essential. If you want them to be more optional, an option could be to remove all numerical bonuses from magical weapons, so weapons can have other features, like detecting orcs.

I also agree that weapon damage dice should scale according to the proficiency levels. They could also simply make Rogue's Sneak Attack to use a better proficiency than his normal attacks, this would take care of the Sneak Attack bonus. Maybe give two ranks (so rogue goes from Trained to Master, and on higher levels to Legendary) when using Finesse weapons or something like that.

Definitely, martials should be awesome due to them being awesome not because they have a glowing sword.

It seems strange to me that damage from cantrips automatically scales but damage from weapons does not.

Either casters should have to pay for potency runes on their wands (or whatever) in order to heighten their cantrips, or non-casters should have their weapons (or even just their magic weapons) automatically heightened in potency as they advance in level.

Alternately, I saw someone suggest in another thread that additional damage dice be replaced with "plus proficiency modifier" to damage. That sounds like it would work nicely. (In fact, something similar does work nicely in Starfinder, where Weapon Specialization grants "plus level" to damage. Substituting proficiency modifier for raw level just adds more nuance to weapon proficiencies.)

I had an idea that might work a little, and it builds a bit on both the new proficiency system and the Resonance system:

You can only use the magic in a weapon at a level to which you are trained. This means that if you are only trained in a weapon, you could not use an expert level weapon's magic, because it doesn't "resonate" with you.

In fact, in the example in that paper, the Wizard would have been using what, to him, amounted to a sharpened metal bar. He would actually be operating at a penalty and using the BASE weapon damage for such a weapon and applying his strength penalty.

This would also highlight weapon specialization on the fighter. The fighter is a legendary swordsman and can use his legendary sword so well he could exterminate many threats without a thought. However, he would only be master with a mace and would therefore NOT benefit from the legendary mace he picked up. He could use a master level mace though.

i would like if they were based on the character more

that means you could easily be someone who uses things like darts and shurikens.
sure.. returning daggers a thing
but it has half the range. and its less cool imo.

I love my dart throwing alchemist
but i know at later levels hes gonna have a bad time

luckily the game doesn't actually control or specify any thrown items breaking or ammo breaking
well it doesn't even classify if darts/shurikens count as thrown in this version either..
but i guess later i'll have an enchanted returning dart.
sucks i have to have returning though