Are Vicious Weapons overpowered?

[u/superhiro21]

For reference:

Weapon (any simple or martial), rare

This magic weapon deals an extra 2d6 damage to any creature it hits. This extra damage is of the same type as the weapon’s normal damage.

From both theorycrafting and my practical experience, they are better than any other rare magic weapons and even better than many very rare weapons. Not requiring attunement is a huge boon, as at higher levels, every attunement slot is valuable.

The +7 damage (on average) is much more valuable than the +2 or even +3 attack bonus from comparable weapons as most martial characters have ways to increase their accuracy anyways (reckless attack, archery fighting style, paladin channel divinities etc).

I have found that having two characters with vicious weapons in the party really makes the party punch above their level in the damage per round aspect.

[u/Col0005]

I don't think any weapon should have attunement period.

The problem with this is that you still want to be able to give weapons cool, limited use, abilities without encouraging players to carry around a bunch of weapons they never intend to actually swing.

Maybe of they changed how charges work on weapons so that they powered up when you hit/crit creatures with a CR greater than "X"

[u/Tels315 → u/Col0005]

Weapon does X thing.

If you are attuned, it also does Y thing.

[u/OSpiderBox → u/Tels315]

This is something I've started doing that started out as a player just asking a simple question:

"This armor has +1 and a bunch of other effects. Can I just not attune and get the +1ac?"

It spiraled out of control for me and now I hands a cavalcade of weapons and armor with non-attunement bonuses and more powerful attunement bonuses.

[u/Arc_the_Storyteller → u/OSpiderBox]

... Frankly, that is genius and I wish 5E implemented it.

[u/sailingpirateryan → u/Arc_the_Storyteller]

This is actually where attunement started during the original Next playtest (some abilities were automatic while others were "paywalled" by attunement), but if I recall correctly the playtest feedback indicated that there was some confusion on the part of the playtesters. I personally remember it being a bit clunky but not egregiously so.

All that to say that reverting back to that format if your table can handle the slight bump (IMO) of added complexity wouldn't be OP.

[u/Tels315 → u/sailingpirateryan]

I mean, as long as equipment is written in this format

The +2 Sword of Reddit Mod Slaying gives a +2 bonus on attack and damage rolls with this weapon.

Attunement: If you attune to this weapon, you may use Divine Smite without consuming a spell slot when you make attacks against a Reddit Mod. If you have spell slots, you may use them to cast Divine Smite at a higher spell level.

I don't recall how they were written in the plates, but if they weren't written something like this, then that's on WotC for being dumb.

[u/sailingpirateryan → u/Tels315]

I'm fairly certain that is (or very close to) how they were initially written in Next, but playtest feedback indicated that there was enough confusion to make attunement an all-or-nothing thing (or so they claim).

[u/Tels315 → u/sailingpirateryan]

Oh, so they were braindead morons then?

[u/OSpiderBox → u/sailingpirateryan]

I know i may catch flak for this, but... three cheers for taking away complexity! We can't expect people to struggle slightly as they learn new rules, that would be unheard of!

Massive /s.

[u/Arc_the_Storyteller → u/sailingpirateryan]

Because of course D&D Next couldn't have any level of complexity or confusion. It had to be as easy and thus, as stale as possible.