Play Your Next 5E D&D Game with the Break System from Octopath Traveler

Fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons has seen a boom in success like never before. So many people are playing and talking about 5E D&D and a robust community of homebrew and indie content has flooded the community with enough ways to tell and play so many types of stories with the system. Even when 5E D&D can’t accommodate a certain type of game or story there are a wealth of other systems to choose from. Much like the golden age of JRPGs this is the golden age of TTRPGs and as such I’ve had both on the brain lately.

JRPG to TTRPG

I’m a huge fan of classic and indie JRPGs alike and I’ve seen a resurgence of such games with many Playstation ports to Switch, and it’s got me thinking about ways to adapt JRPG mechanics into 5E D&D for more interesting twists on a favorite classic system. I’ve already explored adapting the boost system from Octopath Traveler into D&D and today I’m expanding on this direction with an idea for how to deal with weaknesses and vulnerabilities in 5E D&D.

As I’ve previously mentioned one of my favorite new JRPGs hearkening back to the classic days is Octopath Traveler. I recently received a PC copy from a friend for my birthday, which I’ll be able to stream on Twitch, and this triggered my inspiration for wanting to adapt some of my favorite elements into a multiplayer experience, possibly with friends around a table with dice.

Thinking about the game and what keeps luring me back into it nostalgia was a clear factor. Octopath Traveler does so many things right. From evocative music to intricate yet streamlined mechanics, a dual class system and more this game has enough aspects done near flawlessly and I just can’t get enough. But what really has me constantly coming back for more is the combat system. While JRPGs — especially the turn based variety — share many staples in commons with combat, Octopath Traveler twists things with a break system.

While awaiting the release of another game called Triangle Strategy by the same company I decided to share with you some thoughts on incorporating a key combat mechanic from Octopath Traveler into your 5E D&D games. Technically, I suppose there would be an easy way to incorporate this system into any RPG given enough homebrew adjustment but for our purposes we’ll stick to the 5E system for now.

Another part of what inspired this homebrew mechanic was a series of community posts by Bob World Builder on YouTube. Bob has talked for quite a while now about adjusting 5E D&D mechanics to make weapons more interesting.

Before I get ahead of myself I’ll explore the core mechanic I think would be great to introduce to 5E D&D — the break system from Octopath Traveler. The mechanic would change the way weaknesses are handled in 5E D&D.

Break System mechanic for 5E D&D

If a creature is weak to an enemy then the attack no longer would deal double damage. Instead, using a weapon or dealing a damage type the creature was weak against would tick a counter.

Any enemy creature the players face would have a score equal to one plus the creature’s challenge rating. For creatures lower than CR 1 the creature’s counter would equal 1.

Every time a creature is hit by a weapon or damage type it is weak against the Dungeon Master adds 1 to the creature’s counter. When the counter number equals the creature’s CR then the creature’s counter “breaks,” resetting to 0.

When the counter breaks the creature is stunned until the end of the round. If the creature to break the counter is last in the initiative order then the counter still resets and the creature is no longer stunned at the end of the round, which adds a layer of strategy to this mechanic.

While it might not be as realistic or simulate a more grounded narrative it adds a degree of fun and I personally like the strategy element introduced by the hard fast end of round rule.

Weaknesses & weapons

Now for the weakness bit. As I’m sure you know not many 5E D&D creatures possess multiple weaknesses. Therefore to make this mechanic more fun and engaging we need to add weaknesses to any creatures faced by the players. I personally like the idea of choosing three magical damage types the creature is weak against. The ten damage types I consider for this are acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, poison, psychic, radiant and thunder.

Furthermore I like the idea of adding one or two weapon properties on top of the three elemental weaknesses to help round out the list of weaknesses and to make weapon choice feel more special. There is a bit of redundancy to weapon properties and some are more conducive to being weaknesses with this system than others.

I’ve narrowed down the weapon properties for weaknesses to heavy, light, range, reach, versatile and silvered. Most weapons can fit into at least one of these categories. Only nets and bolas break this rule and those are usually used for restraining more than dealing damage anyway. To add a bit more flavor I would add flail to the mix of weapon properties, applying it to whips, flails and so forth and using this category as a weakness for shield users, as this is the purpose behind such weapons anyway. As for unarmed strikes I would treat these as light weapons due to the nature of finesse and the way they overcome defenses being similar.

Once you apply three elemental weaknesses and 1-2 physical weapon weaknesses you’re ready to employ the system. For bosses and bigger threats I would give their counters an extra 4-6 ticks before they break.

What do you think?

Do you like the idea of adapting Octopath Traveler’s break system to 5E D&D? What are some of your favorite JRPG mechanics or other ideas for adapting to 5E D&D? Whatever your thoughts we’d love for you to drop a comment here or connect with us on Facebook to share your take. If you found the post helpful please drop it a like and share. And be sure to let us know if you’d like to see more posts about adapting JRPG mechanics into your 5E D&D games!

*Featured image — Octopath Traveler[b] is a role-playing video game developed by Square Enix, in collaboration with Acquire. The game was released for the Nintendo Switch in July 2018, for Microsoft Windows in June 2019, for Stadia in April 2020, and for Xbox One in March 2021. The game has sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide by February 2021 and received “generally favorable” critical reception, with the most common point of praise going to the graphics and art style. A prequel, Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent, was released in 2020 in Japan.

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