RPG Review: Beyond Damage Dice
This review is going to be a shorter one, because the book I’m reviewing clocks in at only eleven pages. Written by James Haeck with additional design by Wolfgang Bauer, the book gives you options for what you can do in combat beyond dealing damage, categorized by the type of weapon you’re wielding.
A character must be wielding the weapon in question, and must be proficient in order to gain the benefit. Essentially, rather than make a standard attack, you can declare you are performing a particular maneuver instead. Some weapons share maneuvers with one another, but every weapon has at least one unique option. One example is Rebuff, a halberd maneuver. Instead of attacking, you can target up to two adjacent creatures. If you hit, you push them both up to 10 feet away.
Some abilities are reactions, such as the Longsword’s Lock Blades, which allows you to use a reaction when a creature attacks you to make an attack roll. If you do so, and your roll meets or beats their attack roll, it misses.
All of these different abilities are really great, with some very flavorful effects. If you crit with the great club’s Hurling Impact, which normally knocks the enemy back, you deal additional damage and actually break your club with the impact.
Ranged weapons are also featured, giving you a whole variety of ways to impact the combat from a distance.
The book also includes 8 brand new weapons meant for Kobold Press’s Midgard setting, but will work just fine in any D&D setting, and they each have their own maneuvers as well.
I really love this book, because it brings back a lot of the things I loved about 4th Edition D&D. By giving you options for changing the face of the battlefield by moving enemies around, knocking them down, causing disadvantage, and other effects, you can really add a ton of fun to your game.
You can pick up Beyond Damage Dice at DrivethruRPG (affiliate link).
Dice Monkey has a Patreon, where you can support further content on the site. We also have a Ko-Fi, where we are raising money for the cover of Pointman Hacker Thief 2nd Edition.
