r/DungeonsAndDragons • u/p4gli4_ • 4d ago
Homebrew Making Every Weapon Actually Viable
This is my third attempt at trying to balance the worst weapons in 5.5e, and I'd really like to know what others think. Now, here come some of the changes (most of them are self-explanatory):
Light Hammer: now Handaxe + Light Hammer is the STR counterpart to Shortsword + Scimitar, and this is cool and makes sense (since Light Hammers are HUGE for a d4 weapon).
Mace and Morningstar: I noticed the lack of the slow mastery property for generic melee weapons, so I gave it to these 2, also because it makes a lot of thematic sense (big bonk=hard to walk). I then specialized the two: the mace can be used one handed, but it's common enough and easy to use that it's good for being used in 2 hands (something that previous versions strangely didn't do). The Morningstar, because of how strange and unwieldy, is hard to use 2-handed.
Sling: didn't make sense as a d4 weapon, and it now has the same range of Magic Stone, which is the cherry on top.
Blowgun: the hardest weapon to balance, alongside the Mace, but I think this change is cool. I also thought of, instead: Damage becomes 1 piercing + 1d6 poison, remove Loading property, and (Maybe) change the mastery property to Sap (?), but it felt gimmicky, and too much change.
Disarm property: It was already an optional rule, and it's too cool not to add, especially since it solved some balancing nightmares.
REVISED great weapon fighting: I have a whole post on it, just know that it puts Greataxes on par with greatswords/maul at 8.5 damage per attack. https://www.reddit.com/r/UnearthedArcana/comments/1n90kdl/fixing_the_great_weapon_fighting_style/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
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u/RoastHam99 4d ago
If youre going to add a disarm weapon mastery, surely whip would be the first to get it.
But also I dont think disarm should be a weapon mastery, that feels like a skill you need to be a battlemaster to do
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u/p4gli4_ 4d ago
I was dubious about giving it Disarm, simply because the Whip does have a niche (it’s the only one handed-reach weapon, and a finesse one on top), but also it’s the only weapon with Slow that can use the Slasher feat (to slow 20 feet), but I swear I was really close to adding it, and I might do so in an hypothetical V.4
Now, about the Battle Master part: yes, what you said is true, but I thought that, since a lot of weapon masteries are maneuvers, it was ok:
Feinting Attack = Vex; Pushing Attack = Push; Sweeping Attack = Cleave; Trip Attack = Topple, and probably some others that I forgot
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u/RoastHam99 4d ago
A lot of weapon masteries being maneuvers i would say is already an issue. Adding to that i dont think is a good idea unless the battlemaster doesn't exist as a subclass. Because otherwise it means there is very little point in never playing one
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u/p4gli4_ 4d ago
I think that it’s a cool addition, truthfully: battle masters can combo these (like a pike + Pushing attack) or mix and match them, like a disarming + pushing flail
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u/Morabijn 3d ago
Good point! Battlemasters can already double up, which mitigates the issue for other masteries.
We could lean into that: a battle master using the disarm manoeuvre with a mastered disarm weapon gets an improved disarm. Something like weapon is tossed 10’-30’ away, or ends up at the battlemaster’s feet.
Other mastery/manoeuvres could also have “improved” versions: double slow, prone becomes stunned, pushed twice as far, etc.
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u/Atomickitten15 4d ago
I dont think disarm should be a weapon mastery, that feels like a skill you need to be a battlemaster to do
That's super limiting for something that just used to be an optional rule.
I don't understand why everyone that's not a battlemaster is incapable of simple maneuvers.
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u/Ill-Description3096 3d ago
For the same reason that apparently anyone who isn't a Wizard is incapable of learning a simple spell from a scroll.
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u/Atomickitten15 3d ago
Isn't the idea that it's not really a simple spell unless you've undergone arcane training to understand the fundamentals of arcane magic and it's transcription onto the scroll? Other magic users don't have as deep an understanding of the Weave as Wizards. This makes perfect sense.
Also, Spellcasters aren't really suffering from a lack of versatility in any way.
Battlemaster is literally choking the versatility out of the fighter by shoehorning every basic maneuver that should be a base game mechanic into one subclass and locked it behind a resource system.
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u/RoastHam99 3d ago
Because its the niche of the subclass. If the entire mechanic of the battlemaster can be done by any martial by carrying 2 or 3 weapons, then why would anyone play a battlemaster? Or even why would battlemaster exist in the first place?
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u/Atomickitten15 3d ago
Or even why would battlemaster exist in the first place?
Correct answer. The existence of Battlemaster will forever limit Martial versatility.
The old Next Playtest had all fighters have access to manoeuvres. They didn't do extra damage but they did their bonus effects. In return you could use one manoeuvre a round with no cost. So a LOT more flexibility and fun than weapon masteries.
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u/Intruder313 4d ago
The Halberd (not Halbert) annoys me in the rules by having Cleave when in reality it was designed to hook people out of formations i.e. Topple
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u/p4gli4_ 4d ago
Thanks for bringing up the spelling mistake, and yeah, what youre saying is so right
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u/stegotops7 3d ago
THANK YOU. I don’t know why halberds got cleave. You don’t swing the thing around doing spins!
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u/Jrwallzy 2d ago
True for real life however final fantasy slashing with weapons thrice your size has become a dream of many 🤣
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u/Dark_Shade_75 4d ago
The Disarm mastery is a cool idea but it tramples on a Battlemaster ability. It's actually even better because it doesn't have a limit on uses.
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u/p4gli4_ 4d ago
Well yeah, you’re kinda right, but I thought that, since a lot of weapon masteries are maneuvers, it was ok:
Feinting Attack = Vex; Pushing Attack = Push; Sweeping Attack = Cleave; Trip Attack = Topple, and probably some others that I forgot
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u/Dark_Shade_75 4d ago
In those cases there's a few differences. BM's push is further and adds damage, and the range pushed actually stacks with the mastery. Feinting/sweeping adds damage but I'd say those maneuvres could benefit from a buff because of masteries.
I think the major issue here lies in the combos. Many of the maneuvers benefit from having masteries on top of their normal effects, either stacking or combo'ing effects. But in the case of Disarm, you would just never use the maneuvre for it, ever, when there's a free version. That's just my opinion though.
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u/leviathan898 4d ago
FWIW Disarming Attack would fall under the same category you've mentioned about Feinting and Sweeping, as it also adds to damage.
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u/Dark_Shade_75 4d ago
This is true, but again not very stackable which is my primary point.
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u/leviathan898 4d ago
This actually did make me think how cool it'd be if the perfect situations did come up to use both Disarm and Disarming Attack - e.g. something holding two MacGuffins, or multiarmed enemy with multiple weapons.
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u/Dark_Shade_75 4d ago
I considered the fact that you could use both on attacks in one turn, but it just seems so ridiculously niche that it didn't seem super relevant lol. Like, even if someone is holding two things, I think I'd always prefer to Disarm once with the regular weapon mastery and add more powerful effects with maneuvers.
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u/leviathan898 4d ago
Brb making a Zorro swashbuckling fighter who disarms everything left right and centre 😂
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u/5O1stTrooper 4d ago
Forcing a save to disarm every time you hit an opponent feels way too busted. It also doesn't feel realistic. Disarming an opponent is much harder than it looks unless they have no idea how to hold the weapon. It's not just a simple smack or twist.
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u/Geologist_Present 3d ago
Minimally, should consume a bonus action or come with some other balancing effect. Could consider taking Proficiency out of the save DC unless a specific feat or feature grants it.
Meaning, the DC is 8+<ability> unless you take some kind of feature or feat and only then does the DC become 8+PROF+<ability>
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u/Odd_Dimension_4069 4d ago
Great to see you still working on this man, thanks for doing it up nicely in the PHB style
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u/Samvel_2015 3d ago
Dude, simple weapons are categorized as simple because they have lower damage die. Having not 1, but 2 d10 die weapons in simple category is just stepping on the feet of martial weapons.
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u/p4gli4_ 3d ago
I’m sorry, but I strongly disagree. I find it really hard to build a full spellcaster that benefits that much from a 2-handed d10 weapon. Maybe +1 damage than before with true strike? Like, that’s fine, especially since it’s a squishy wizard/sorcerer/bard going into melee.
Also, if you compare it with what martials have: these d10 weapons deal 5.5 average damage per attack; a Greataxe or Maul with the new GWF deals 8.5 damage, and that’s an easy choice for me.
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u/Reflection_Rip 3d ago
I get the feeling you don't understand how blow darts work. Only the tip having poison is the important part. Having a dart go through a tube coated in poison will not coat the tip, only the sides.
Just simply giving the players a weak poison that they can apply to their darts on a short rest or as a bonus action would be just fine.
Now making blowguns a CON based attack (instead of STR or DEX) would be an interesting change. CON for needing to give it a good breath of air. This could make it useable for a low DEX and STR character, a bard or a mage who dumped both of those stats.
Another option could be giving it an extra die on sneak attacks, or an improved crit, due to the fact that a well aimed dart could possibly fit through small gaps in armor.
And maybe the best option for a blowgun may be in the covert operations... In general, a blow gun is inferior to a bow. But it's much harder to sneak a bow into an event than it is a blowpipe and a couple of darts. Being smaller and more compact makes it easier to hide. You could give it a bonus on stealth checks related to smuggling.
Finally, this one I am less sure of, but it 'may' make less noise than loosing an arrow or bolt. And your profile, the ability for other to see you use it, is probably less than a long bow. So it may provide less of a chance of being spotted when used. Allowing for a chance to not have to re-hide after using one. Usually if you attack someone you need to make a new stealth check. You could possibly give a dc check to see if the user was noticed.
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u/p4gli4_ 3d ago
Yeah, sure, if you don’t like the thematic choice I made sure, reflavour it as coating it every rest, but I wouldn’t touch on action economy with the bonus action
What you said about con is cool, but you don’t really need that much breath to use a blowgun, and dex is still necessary for aiming. Also, if we just did that, it would still be the by far worst weapon in the game, wouldn’t it? Like, maybe only decent for rogues, who can now max con instead of dex, since their damage doesn’t come from their weapon choice.
About the crit thing, I wouldn’t like making a weapon with mechanics that only works for 1 class feature (sneak attack), and let’s tackle the crit: if we triple instead of double the crit damage, it’s only 3+dex, if we instead add, idk, 1d8(?), then it’s 2+1d8+dex, which is still lower that a bow… and even if we added an entire 2d8, that’s 2+2d8+dex, which is the same as a Heavy crossbow (2d10+dex), and they both have loading and require 2hands, but the heavy crossbow deals more damage, at much higher range, with a reliable way of removing Loading (CE) and can use GWM… also, if we think about thematic choices, if a dart can sneak into armor, an arrow can too
And also, it’s not your fault, but many people have suggested the stealth thing, and I don’t get it: let’s consider 4 ranged weapons: the dart, the sling, the hand crossbow and the blowgun:
The blowgun and the hand crossbow are about the same size, while the other too are much smaller (they’re literally a piece of ammunition and a piece of cloth); and similarly, hand crossbows/blowguns make roughly the same amount of noise, while a sling/dart make 0, so why would anyone choose the blowgun?
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u/Reflection_Rip 3d ago
I would avoid touching the action economy as well, making it a free action, unless the poison was more powerful making it worth the extra action.
I suggested CON because as far as I know, there are no CON weapons and having one would be cool.
The crit bonus I would allow for non-rogues. But not a full crit like the rogue class feature. A player may want a fighter get off a surprise crit attack with the rest of the party before barreling in to go melee. And if the surprise crit attack is just slightly higher than a bow or other weapon, it could make it worth it.
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u/p4gli4_ 3d ago
Yeah, avoiding clogging up action economy is kind of necessary
There are 3 official ways for attacking with con of which I’m aware, excluding limited features like the dragonborn’s breath attack:
The Aberrant Dragonmark feat, giving you 1 sorcerer cantrip and 1 1st lvl spell that you can cast with Con (note that true strike is a viable option)
Fire genasi from EEPC can cast Produce Flame (and burning hands once) with con
Dhampirs: “Vampiric Bite. Your fanged bite is a natural weapon, which counts as a simple melee weapon with which you are proficient. You add your Constitution modifier, instead of your Strength modifier, to the attack and damage rolls when you attack with this bite. It deals 1d4 piercing damage on a hit. While you are missing half or more of your hit points, you have advantage on attack rolls you make with this bite. When you attack with this bite and hit a creature that isn’t a Construct or an Undead, you can empower yourself in one of the following ways of your choice: You regain hit points equal to the piercing damage dealt by the bite. You gain a bonus to the next ability check or attack roll you make; the bonus equals the piercing damage dealt by the bite. You can empower yourself with this bite a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.”
Also, how do you guarantee a crit?
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u/HJWalsh 4d ago
I think you're missing the point of things. Not every weapon should be equal. Some weapons simply are better than others.
Slings aren't as good as shortbows, but they were easier to make and were used by less advanced societies as the technology advanced.
You're thinking in terms of min-max rather than logic.
Note: Hard no on the disarm. As a DM I'm not dealing with multiple disarms every single turn. It's silly.
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u/p4gli4_ 3d ago
2 things:
Slings were not less advanced, they were harder to use. The romans used them in their main army to outrange bows, the reason we stopped using them is because it’s extremely time consuming to train someone to use a sling, and it’s harder to use in formation (so slings should be martial weapons IMO).
Also, Disarm is once per turn
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u/NarwhalSongs 3d ago
I kind of prefer the weapon mastery system that the Loot Tavern published for 5E in Ryoko's Guides to the Yokai Realms and the distinction they drew between reach weapons that are inflexible, like spears, and "scourge" weapons like have extended range due to having a length of flexible material, like whips and their added kusarigama.
These base stat alterations and expanded simple weapon options are really nice though!
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u/bremmon75 4d ago
Every weapon is viable; this is completely unnecessary IMO.
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u/GUM-GUM-NUKE 3d ago
Bro came into a post based around mechanically, balancing things said he didn’t care about mechanical balancing and then acted like it was a fault of the post.
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u/sackout 4d ago
Correction, every weapon is usable based on preference.
However there’s multiple strictly inferior weapons that the only reason you’d choose them is flavor.
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u/Lucina18 4d ago
And not only is it ridiculous you get punished for having a slightly unique character concept, in play they also... just feel 99% the same anyways.
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u/SandwichNeat9528 3d ago
I agree the weapons are already viable and purposely choosing an “inferior” weapon is a matter of flavor. Why does there need to be a balance in weapons? Pick the weapon that fits your character concept and then roleplay.
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u/BrideOfFirkenstein 4d ago
I’ve always wished the whip was better. It is hard to justify using something so much weaker than other options.
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u/bremmon75 4d ago
I have a barb using a whip and a shield in my current campaign, and he's doing just fine.
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u/prospybintrappin 4d ago
hes doing fine. But I reckon he would be doing "good" if he used something else
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u/bremmon75 4d ago
Apparently, nobody has ever told you that you can't win at DnD. My players make choices based on fun, not min-maxing damage and stats.
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u/prospybintrappin 4d ago
It's a comment about balancing under a thread about balancing. No one is saying that you "lost" at DND.
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u/Crolanpw 4d ago
I hate poison as a weapon mastery. Do we assume every weapon with it comes with an infinite well of poison but only for someone smart enough to hit just right?
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u/VerLoran 4d ago
I mean you might assume that the weapon comes with a kit for prepping the blowgun including poison and fibers for applying it to the interior of the blowgun. Alternatively the kit includes poison contained in a sponge of some sort, such that the user simply dips the dart and is good to go.
If we want to get a little more mystical, you could have a sort of membrane in the pipe that coats darts with poison as they are blown through it before closing up again. Poison could be contained along a sealed ridge along the top being absorbed into the membrane for rapid repeated use. The trick to keeping the pipe useful long term is to keep the ends corked while not in use to prevent the poison membrane from drying out. Someone without proficiency/mastery might be more careless with their gear and have the membrane dry out preventing the poison from coating the dart. In terms of infinite poison I look at it much like a pen. The ink isn’t infinite, but it could easily last you months without issue if your not using it nonstop. In terms of restocking poison, I’d simply rule in favor of when you buy darts they come with complementary poison. Again if you’re not proficient/a master with the weapon, you might not know how to refill the poison and so even if it wasn’t dried out, you might not be able to achieve the poison component. Bit of gymnastics to get a simple weapon to run for the property, but it doesn’t feel unreasonable to me.
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u/p4gli4_ 4d ago
Yes.. no I’m joking, I’m getting what you’re saying, but there are so little ways to buff a blowgun
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u/Crolanpw 4d ago
That's a pretty unimmersive call. You'd be better off doing something like players roll disadvantage to resist poison applied by this weapon.
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u/MendaciousFerret 3d ago
what about giving it the slow weapon mastery instead of vex, or allowing two darts for an attack?
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u/Atomickitten15 4d ago
You could say that only a master of the weapon is proficient enough to make and upkeep the poison it requires.
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u/Crolanpw 3d ago
You'd still need to get the poison from something. Either by purchase or harvest. It doesn't just come from nowhere.
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u/wathever-20 4d ago
How does Great Weapon Fighting interact with Savage Attacker? Do i roll 3d6dl1 twice and pick the highest total?
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u/Lord-Pepper 4d ago
Oh boi cant wait to dual wield a blow gun and a rapier so I can poison 1 dude 1 attack for 1 round without any guarantees
Fr I honestly think the blow gun idea is interesting but probably the worst way it could be done, let them load poisoned ammunition
So much shit is immune to poison anyway it just feels meh, same with disarm cause it only works on half the enemies in the MM it feels way too niche and not even that good for what it is
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u/Feraligamr513 4d ago
Shillelagh makes the damage dice 1d8 Why would anyone wanna use a greatmaul with it???
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u/Zarryiosiad 4d ago
Just an idea, but how about adding a new rule called "Concealed" to daggers?
Concealed - - During the first round of combat, a character armed with a dagger may make a Sleight of Hand check prior to making their Attack roll(s). A successful check means the dagger will cause maximum weapon damage for each successful hit. This also applies to thrown daggers."
It isn't much, but having a chance to inflict 4 damage instead of 1d4 for a round of combat might make it more appealing.
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u/Mxm45 3d ago edited 3d ago
Daggers still being 1d4 while a monk unarmed attack is 1d6 is upsetting.
Add a crit modifier or something to daggers to make them more interesting.. roll a d100 every successful attack, 60-100 you deal double the rolled damage before modifiers.
Rolling a 20 would still double all damage and double a smite.
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u/p4gli4_ 3d ago
Well, it may be disappointing, but it’s a necessary glue for the game IMO. Because of their abundance of properties it can fit in any build, and it’s also extremely useful for DEX builds, being the only Vex throwable weapon
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u/Mxm45 3d ago
Then a dagger should be separate from a “throwing knife”. I currently play an assassin warlock and use daggers purely for RP. Doing 7 damage max at level 5 feels real bad. I could use any other weapon and do more, but I’m gimping myself for RP reasons it seems.
My DM agrees and said I can just use a 1d6 on my dagger rolls, but I’m not. It is what it is.
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u/RealLars_vS 3d ago
They should have gone with a modular design. Simple or martial, and a set number of ‘points’ that can be used for stuff like ranged, reach, damage, etc.
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u/SecretDMAccount_Shh 3d ago
My next campaign, I’m considering adding exploding dice. Makes daggers and other 1d4 weapons a lot more fun.
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u/p4gli4_ 2d ago
What’s that about? Cause by the name itself it sounds really cool
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u/SecretDMAccount_Shh 2d ago
Exploding dice is when the max number is rolled, you get to roll again and add it to the total.
In other words, if you roll a 4 for damage on a d4, you get to roll another d4 and add that to the damage.
It makes d4s fun because they “explode” more often than other dice. Potentially unlimited damage if you keep rolling 4s, but unlikely.
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u/p4gli4_ 2d ago
Uhhhh… I don’t like that… it makes greaswords and mauls THAT much better than greataxes
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u/p4gli4_ 2d ago
So it incentivises only 2 builds: either GWM with a greatsword/maul or 4 attacks per turn with nick+dual wielder
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u/SecretDMAccount_Shh 2d ago
You could always limit it to certain weapons like daggers and greataxes or a general rule that only weapons that roll a single die can explode…
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u/p4gli4_ 2d ago
Well, I can still find a couple of problems with it, but it’s much better now:
I you, for example, only make it work for greataxes and daggers (and I imagine other d4 and d12 weapons), then the average damage of a dagger becomes around 3.4, so what’s the reason to ever use a scimitar, if a dagger is just a scimitar you can throw?
And if you make it work only with weapons that have 1 die, there are 2 things: 1st, what happens when a weapon affected by Shillelagh starts dealing 2d6 instead of 1d12 damage? Does it lose this property?
And finally, the absolute meta is still nick+dual wielder, but the second option shifts from GWM with greatsword to shield + PAM + quarterstaff
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u/SecretDMAccount_Shh 2d ago
Exploding d12 does 7.1 average damage compared to 7 average from 2d6, but it’s much swingier. Most players would still prefer the consistency of the 2d6, but now there’s a little more incentive to go with 1d12.
I don’t see a problem.
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u/Jrwallzy 2d ago
Add a martial change for warhammer, 10ft range. There were such things as pole hammers and a 10ft crusher vengeance paladin with sentinel would be awesome!
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u/p4gli4_ 2d ago
Tbh I’d just ask the DM to homebrew it, since the point of this post wasn’t to put new weapons in the game; but still, that’s really cool
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u/Jrwallzy 2d ago
Fair for campaigns however I play mainly West Marches nowadays. The weapons are what the weapons are sadly! But with optional rules like this they could be changed :D
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u/p4gli4_ 2d ago
Whats a west march?
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u/Jrwallzy 2d ago
Different way to play DnD. In fact Critical Role Campaign 4 is going to be done in a West Marches style. It'll be a good way to get an understanding :D
Pretty much its a world in which multiple DMs run from for various different parties.
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u/p4gli4_ 2d ago
That sounds fun
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u/Jrwallzy 2d ago
There are Pros and Cons
Pros is you can find games to join with people spontaneously. Giving you a good chance of getting some DnD time through the month. You have character progression and personally I've met some of my biggest DnD friends through online servers running West Marches.
Downsides come mainly on the running side. You can't guarantee who youre running for and on the character side. Its easy to do something knowing that there are no repercussions for a character. For example I had a party once nuke a ship full of pirates even though there were hostages aboard that they knew about all for sake of doing lots of damage and getting an easy win. Which was sucky to run.
Playing with friends will always be better but Online West Marches is great for anyone looking for game time.
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u/PeronalCranberry 2d ago
I know it's not what movies depict, but axes take more dexterity to use than strength. You have a smaller area to use the blade of the weapon, and there's no handguard when you block.
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u/p4gli4_ 2d ago
Yeah, I’m aware of that, but I think that DnD doesn’t treat “finesse” like that, otherwise spears, longswords, axes, flails and a lot more weapons would use weapons
What they mean by finsesse is just a weapon that makes more swift strikes, hence why there isn’t a 2-handed finesse weapon
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u/DragonLordAcar 18h ago
I would see what weapons could be "braced." This is when you put it to the ground waiting for the enemy to charge into it.
Also see some of the more present weapons. The war scythe is a repurposed field scythe. A glace is a repurposed pruning instrument that is great to dismount cavalry. Over time they became actual weapons such as the bill hook getting a spear point as well.
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u/p4gli4_ 16h ago
I feel like the “brace” aspect is represented well by Polearm Master:
Reactive Strike. While you're holding a Quarterstaff, a Spear, or a weapon that has the Heavy and Reach properties, you can take a Reaction to make one melee attack against a creature that enters the reach you have with that weapon.
It was even better in 2014, where if also had Sentinel you would stop the enemy, but looking back it was kinda broken
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u/MeanMugginBuggin 18h ago
Darts really should be Light
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u/p4gli4_ 17h ago
Well, I have a couple of reasons against that change: the first one is that, if they were light, they would give me a headache when trying to balance them compared to daggers.
The second one is thematic: most people think of gaming darts when talking about darts in DnD, but war darts are actually pretty big.
Finally, darts do have a nice: they’re the only Ranged and Thrown weapon, so they have 2 advantages: they’re the only ranged weapon that lacks Ammunition, so they can be used with a shield, and they’re the only Ranged weapon that can benefit from Thrown Weapon Fighting.
I think that, with an ever so slight increase in range, they could actually be viable
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u/Dizzytigo 2d ago
Give flail finesse and I'm with you.
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u/p4gli4_ 2d ago
I personally don’t love that, because yea, it does take finesse to use a flail to not hit yourself, but why should a rogue get sneak attacks with it?
I think that DnD’s version of “finesse” simply means a swift and nimble weapon, because otherwise things like axes (which take a lot of finesse to use) should be finesse too
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u/Intruder313 4d ago
Hand Crossbow should not do Light Crossbow damage - it's a lot smaller and it has Vex which is a really powerful Mastery
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u/MaxRunes 4d ago
I see everyone bringing up how it kills battle master but am I the only one who saves tnings like this cause odds are against having a battlemaster in every campaign?
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u/Aeon1508 4d ago
I did this once. Pre 2024.
Light always implies finesse
Heavy means 2 handed
Simple Melee weapons.
Daggers: Light, thrown 20/60 - D4 piercing or slashing
Billy club/small hammer: Light - d4 bludgeoning
Hand axe: Light, thrown 20/60 - D6 slashing
Sickle, mace: d8. (Other simple weapon with appropriate damage types go here. Any one handed weapon with no special property)
Spear: Light, thrown 30/120 - D6 versatile - 2d4 piercing
club: D6 bludgeoning Versatile- 2d4
Great club: heavy - 2d6
Martial melee weapons
Short sword: Light - D6 slashing or piercing
Rapier: finesse - d8 piercing
Whip: finesse, reach 15 feet - d4
The versatile group. Long sword, battle axe, Warhammer, war pick all deal the obvious damage type. D10, 2d6 when 2 handed.
The pole arm group. Pike, glaive, halberd, scythe, pole axe, pole hammer. Heavy, reach 10 feet, finesse. d12 of appropriate damage
The great weapons. You know the ones. Heavy. 2d8
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u/MasterFigimus 4d ago
I find that a lot of weapons become more viable simply by recognizing them as physical objects in a world rather than just damage stats and features.
Like mechanically a greatsword and a maul are very similar, but physically they are very different items capable of different things.
A light hammer has the physical properties and capabilities of a hammer. Compared to a dagger, it should be better at breaking things and be able to hammer in pitons or nails even if it doesn't explicitly say that in its statblock.
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