Armor Piercing (5e Variant Rule)
Armor Piercing[edit]
Attacks with weapons or ammunition with the armor piercing property are quite effective against armor. Armor Piercing always overlaps with Armor Piercing of a lesser numerical value - for example, an Armor Piercing 2 weapon is also Armor Piercing 1, and as usual when effects of the same name overlap, the more powerful one applies. Armor Piercing X always counts as an effect of the same name with itself, so values on the weapon and ammunition overlap rather than stack.
Armor Piercing (1). +1 to hit against targets with natural armor or worn armor and an AC of 14 or better.
Armor Piercing (2). +2 to hit against targets with natural armor or worn armor and an AC of 16 or better.
Armor Piercing (3). +3 to hit against targets with natural armor or worn armor and an AC of 18 or better.
Because you generally do not know the AC of your target, express a hit roll with, say, an Armor Piercing 2 weapon to your target of, say, 18 as "18 to hit, Armor Piercing 2".
- Design Note
When designing weapons or ammunition, do not use the armor piercing property for attacks that would entirely ignore armor. Such a weapon would not use an attack roll at all: instead the target(s) would make some form of saving throw.
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