In D&D, why would players choose to use lower-damage weapons, like a dagger or club?

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[@augmenautus]

Sometimes, you find a magic item that's a dagger or club. It's not what you would have purchased if you directly ordered from the magical blacksmith, but it was what was in the dragons hoard.

[@efxnews4776]

Why a rogue would invest in other types of weapons when daggers would serve the purpose to kill just as much as a magical hammer? What i mean is, whit the right skill a simple knife is a deadly weapon...

[@Neasel.]

@@efxnews4776 A weapon that could be deadlier if it was a rapier... But, yeah. Daggers can be thrown when wanted so there's a reason.

[@dmoogle2006]

Also, as a martial, replacing your 'skeleton stick' with a better skeleton stick allows you to bypass damage reduction when your enemy is immune to your main weapon's damage type(or resists it but not your other weapons). Also also, if you are not carrying a side arm you will on your next character when they die because they had to fight at a Noble Ball, where your giant great axe is *not* welcome.

[@Neasel.]

@@dmoogle2006 Actually literally just had the noble ball scenario. Where we ended up fighting an overpowered as fek dragon. Though none of the party actively uses any big weapons, it was mentioned that those wouldn't be allowed

[@mrosskne]

which you then immediately sell and turn into something useful.

[@andrewpeli9019]

A dagger is the only weapon with the thrown property, the agile property, and the light property. It makes daggers very versatile and allows you to make two ranged attacks at level 1. Clubs can be useful if you’re taking a prisoner.

[@zacharyharwell351]

Wait, how does it allow you to make two attacks? Unless this is an edition thing, there's no class in 5e that allows multiple attacks at level 1 (aside from maybe Monk; don't remember when they get flurry of blows)

[@badideagenerator2315]

​@@zacharyharwell351 you can attack as a bonus action if you have 1 light weapon in each hand and use your action to attack.

[@ЮрийМоскаленко-р4п]

yes, and you can only use bonus action attack to closerange, it's stated in rules @@badideagenerator2315

[@zacharyharwell351]

@badideagenerator2315 Aaaaah I forgot about that; no one in my usual group liked two weapon fighting enough to build for it so it pretty much never came up

[@Riusnailly]

you unable to do two ranged attak with daggers...

[@KageRyuu6]

To the whip and shield user, you were basically an Indian Urumi fighter, which is basically a flexible steel whip often paired with a shield for obvious reasons.

[@DarkMark-cf1ec]

1d4-1d6 of damage for a 10 feet reach sword? Or maybe like 3d4 but -1 to hit with the multi-bladed option?

[@Rairaichan]

My Oath of Ancients paladin had a rose motif on their shield and wielded a whip styled to look like a long thorny stem. They were also a performer and incorporated their whip-work into their dances.

[@avis199]

I have a player who uses a homebrew urumi as his main weapon on his rogue

[@Godzillawolf1]

One member of our Dragonlance campaign is a Fighter with the Tavern Brawler feat, which means Improvised Weapons and boosted unarmed strikes, which only has 1d4. Why does he use these a lot? Well, one reason is he just really likes punching people and grappling them. He's still looking forwards to using an enemy as an improvised weapon. And second, we realized I have a Driftglobe, which is a magic item. As such, if we come up against creatures with resistance or immunity to nonmagical damage, I can hand him my Driftglobe and let him bludgeon them to death with it. We also realized that Green Flame Blade, which he got due to being an Eldritch Knight works on Improvised Weapons, so he can light any improvised weapon on fire. Also, a vial of Holy Water would also count as a melee weapon. So now that I've made Holy Water, he could theoretically punch a zombie with flaming Holy Water. Actual hit won't do that much, but Holy Water for basically an improvised Smite...and come on, punching someone with a flaming vial of Holy Water is metal as heck.

[@UltimaDoombotMK1]

Ah, reminds me of the one shot where I threw an dead orc across the map and knocked another orc (and another PC, whoops) off a rock formation (we were defending a coastline from orc pirates)

[@justjoking5252]

Lmao that driftglobe damage ruling is hilarious to me. I almost want to run around headbutting people with dark vision goggles

[@Roanan.]

If he can light improvised weapons on fire, does that mean he can pick someone up and just make them spontaneously combust?

[@SamHoward-l9q]

@@Roanan. green flame blade doesn't burn the blade. so if he grabbed a halfing and sed them as a weapon they would shoot out fire. but would be fine outside being used as a bludgeoning.

[@DarkMark-cf1ec]

Wizard casts "shape stone" Creates a hollow boulder and inserts dozens of pillows, enters it Then nudges himself down the cliff to the orc base as hes using prestitigation, playing "Free bird"

[@mathmusicandlooks]

My wife’s character is an 11-year-old gnome rogue who grew up as a street urchin/thief/vigilante. Her primary weapon of choice is daggers. She recently came into possession of a unicorn horn, and paid a handsome sum to the temple of gods of forge/craft to have the unicorn horn fashioned into two magical daggers. The new daggers gradually get more powerful with her each time she levels up with them. They’re super dope.

[@DarkMark-cf1ec]

In some pathfinder game I played it has infinete "lesser restoration" on it, deals 1d10 or 12 damage but not a reach weapon. Remember, that shit is a spell component (or should be)

[@dalehammers4425]

This is how you DnD right.

[@cynicalnitro8416]

Sounds like something that should offer a speed buff, too.

[@Levyathyn]

There used to be a reason, back in 3e and earlier. Smaller, less damaging weapons have always had something interesting about them, and damage types are the last surviving remnant of those days that WotC cut out in favor of pure simplicity... but, it's easy enough to add back in, if anyone wants to. Things like enhanced critical chance or damage, interesting mechanics like reach, disarm or trip bonuses, armor piercing, and others, are pretty effective ways to add meaningful choice to weapon selection without throwing off game balance.

[@IRMentat]

Pretty much this. All else is people role playing in a game where the paid for adventures are meta games to hell and back to force the party into a similar mindset (else suffer enormous hardship).

[@RavenDai]

3.5e had different crit threat ranges and crit multipliers for different weapons. So thinks like daggers had a natural chance to crit on a 19-20. Class features or enchantments like keen weapon would usually double a crit threat range so something like a keen dagger would be criting on a 17-20 without something else making it even more insane. That said they only had a 2x crit multiplier compared to things like a pick or a scythe that got a 4x multiplier but only crit on a nat 20. Especially considering that rogues could sneak attack and reliably get crits (also might be wrong but I think sneak attack used to be on every attack not just one a round) it meant that you could crit about 20% of the time with all your sneak attack dice factored in which made a dagger with 2x one hell of a weapon back then.

[@Kuyomimi]

@@RavenDai Don't want to be that type of guy, but sneak attacks were a type of damage you couldn't double the amount of crit, so you double the damage of every other number you rolled+bonus but non sneak, still a hella lot of fun to crit as a rogue if you build for that PS: or you homebrewed that in your games and my comment is pointless, in that case sorry xD

[@MrMrtvozornik]

My favorite is definitely flail as being anti shield weapon. I homebrew in my games that flails straight up ignore +2 AC from shields, as you can't really block them with one. Sure it isn't as flashy as 1d10 or 1d12 damage, but when fighting a rabble of bandits that all have wooden shields on the front line +2 to hit means a lot.

[@DarkMark-cf1ec]

I like to usually change it into a ball n chain. Essentialy a chain whip that also ignores shields but ranged. Does'nt daze or stun targets tho, on a crit it grapples the enemy and deals extra damage.

[@martianwoodpecker]

I played a barbarian once who refused to use any ranged weapons, even if the target was otherwise out of reach. He thought fighting from a distance was cowardly. Not a direct comparison, but an example of putting limitations on your character to give them more personality.

[@LegendStormcrow]

That's why you fight with some kind of magic whip or a net. "Who said you could run, Runt!"

[@schwarzerritter5724]

My war domain cleric calling herself the Armoured Witch would use a sickle, because it is a witch's tool. The DM later added the option to attach a chain to give it the Martial and Reach property, so a strictly worse whip.

[@Loreweavver]

​@bastiat4855Attila laughs as his arrow kills the brute charging his horse on foot with a pointy metal thing.

[@LuckySketches]

Every barb after a certain level should be able to cast Earthbind once/short rest, bypassing the restriction on casting in rage. Or you know, like... Maybe there's an item that does that. Like a net gun. Or bolas. Bolas for barbs.

[@jamesespinosa690]

Way back when, when I actually played. My Barbarian would roll critical failures ALL THE TIME!! In our group we had a rule where you could drop your weapon on a critical failure instead of the normal penalty. So my Barbarian rationalised the situation and decided it was important to carry a small arsenal's worth of back up weapons. Even then, I would still end up unarmed and have to resort to grappling and striking for next to 0 damage.

[@sootsire2375]

Flavor for the character. Don't mattah if it's good, it's what my character would do.

[@Confused850]

Based

[@tylerkister4628]

So your sneaky rogue would use a great axe or a great sword seems pretty bad

[@9895_]

First Tiefling rogue, double daggers, damage was pretty horrible compared to what I could have had but made it feel good

[@Dcyingrphnz]

@@tylerkister4628 Its not that deep dude, its just for fun, DMs like me usually allow this stuff because its fun.

[@attemptedunkindness3632]

Me: "It's what my character would do." DM: "ITS A CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL FOR RECENTLY ORPHANED CHILDREN!!" Me: "That according to you has a 'Less than 20% likelihood' of being the base for the Doppelganger Assassins. That sounds like it's a dice roll away from being confirmed and I am a Drow, we find these kind of things out. I throw the torch at the pile of explosives, what happens next?" DM: **Visibly upset** "...You obviously hear the screams of children, several children... **Looks ever more upset** the children's voices seem to change into the fire into different people, species, and forms, flaming shapeshifting forms are pouring out into the streets on fire because you are a war criminal." Me: " _I fucking knew it_ "

[@HeLlBeAsT23]

My players were playing Curse of Strahd and found out there was a werewolf around. The first 2 bought silver dagger and sword. The third took all his silver and asked the blacksmith to melt it down so he could cover his club. He proceeded to beat anything that to close with it and we always played the metal bat SFX for extra immersion😂

[@DarkMark-cf1ec]

Another idea: give the monk Silver rings he finds in dungeons so his punches would work on the wolves. There used to be a pretty good 4th level spells that allowed you to craft in a 5ft cube, with any material as long as you knew how to make it by hand (proficiency). This cut the costs of silvered weapons or armor in the past. Even became an armory farm

[@ewfisher89]

I played a rogue (assassin) and he always kept multiple daggers on him. One time our party had to disarm for a formal state dinner with the king (who we were serving). My character turned in his shortsword, bow, and 2 daggers but kept a 3rd dagger. He used it as a throwing weapon to kill an assassin who was trying to kill the king.

[@Ghost11235813]

I was amazed the ability to throw daggers wasn't mentioned in the video. So useful and handy. Keep it hidden on you and with quick draw anyone nearby can take a hit in a moment's notice.

[@doragonsureia7288]

@@Ghost11235813 He said that daggers can be thrown 5:36

[@EeveetoUmbreon25]

Cant disarm a monk doe

[@Duothimir]

Always have another knife. There is no such thing as too many.

[@EeveetoUmbreon25]

Well i mean you can, and its extremely painful for the monk.

[@jettblade]

I had this idea for a Kobold Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer that was going to use a dagger as his main attack. It isn't going to be the best option but it is the funniest. The idea of a small Kobold stabbing someone with a Booming Blade dagger is hilarious.

[@RoninCatholic]

Plus, flavor. Small characters using daggers as short swords and short swords as longswords is the way of things if you don't want to make entire weapon charts for every possible size of character. In The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, Sting was explicitly a dagger (all visual adaptations up its size considerably).

[@mac_sour]

​@@RoninCatholicEh, it's more like a dirge, which is slightly longer than a dagger and maybe slightly shorter than an average short sword. think machete size

[@RoninCatholic]

@@mac_sour A "dirge" is a sad song, usually one mourning death. A _dirk_ is a dagger, and there's no "average" or even hard lines separating dagger and shortsword in real life. A typical falchion, cutlass, leaf blade, or gladius (the go-to weapons people would imagine when trying to visualize a "short sword") are all about the _same_ size as a typical machete, not larger. Sting in the books is explicitly a dagger, Sting in the movies is a full sized leaf blade (and thus, much larger than Sting was in the book).

[@robinthrush9672]

Two things: I did make Simon Belmont as a battlemaster fighter in a campaign. He liked to throw things as well as whip them and I customized a barbarian mini to look really close to his most famous design. I'm disappointed no answer was: "Because it's dull, you twit! It'll hurt more!"

[@travisbishop782]

That's only if you're using a spoon.

[@anonym3]

​@@travisbishop782shadiversity?

[@travisbishop782]

@@anonym3 Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

[@linkandshiek5522]

I had a character based on Trevor Belmont (and Jonathon Joestar) who was a paladin with the homebrew whip mastery feat

[@fatcoyote2]

I have a revamped weapon set, an while simple weapons are usually crappier, they serve other purposes. For example, sickles allow disarming and tripping attacks to have advantage, and they are automatic arcane focus' for Druids, Necromancer, and a couple of Clerics. Stuff like that adds flavor.

[@mountelbert4214]

Tangentially related, but in one of the games I played in my friend played a great old one warlock. Notably, the warlock had about the same sanity as the player, and he would run into battle with a silver frying pan. This actually got insane when he attached a bear trap to said pan

[@SamHoward-l9q]

@@mountelbert4214thats just evil

[@mountelbert4214]

@@SamHoward-l9q yep

[@johnyshadow]

@@mountelbert4214 I love the ability that lets Warlocks summon anything as their pact weapon, and be proficient with it. (Well, melee weapons anyway, but I think later books added more options for ranged.) Anyone fancy getting hit with a tentacle on a stick?

[@curtisholsinger6023]

Had a dagger-obsessed cleric once. Build actually made sense after a ton of feats, she could use max distance throws without disadvantage, fight close quarters, used a shield, move fast, and also had a necrotic burst instead of channeling that allowed her to steal hp. She became a tank that stole her hp back. I dont remember why i did all that, but she was a ton of fun to play.

[@starhalv2427]

DM gave my monk a +1 dagger. I could've used it for great effect, but I realised: I'm a Bloody Boxer!

[@ap_trial666]

If you still have the dagger just wrap it with cloth or something around your character's knuckles/forearms & use it like a katar. In a sense you're still punching but your character's target gonna take extra stab on each punch. But ask your DM first whether he/she would allow it or not.

[@loka7783]

@@ap_trial666 I am thinking for flavor you could use Dedicated Weapon feature in this manner and just say most of the attack is the punch but bypasses non-magic resistance with the dagger.

[@-o-dq7nd]

In Baldur's Gate 3 made a dragonborn monk. Found a +1 dagger.... Gave it to the thief.

[@phuzzychinn]

I had a Champion Fighter whose only "martial" weapon was a Shortsword. His backstory was he was a simple man from a farm who joined the town militia and got the most barebones training as a soldier when the local lord wanted to start raising an army. He primarily used a Spear and Light Crossbow since those were standard issue for the army, and he used a shortbow and Dagger since those were things he had back home before joining. Not once did I ever use his shortsword, since his first instinct is to grab his knife or the spear when a fight broke out. Also gave him the Tavern Brawler feat so he could punch people if needed.

[@Greywander87]

Slings are great for equipping large groups of commoners, but rather than clubs, quarterstaves are usually my go-to melee weapon for equipping commoners. They're still fairly cheap and can be used in two hands for significantly more damage than a club. Commoners generally won't have as high of stat bonuses, so the larger damage die ends up making a more significant different. Quarterstaves are also something that wouldn't be unusual to see someone carrying around (well, a weapons-grade staff maybe, but walking sticks are everywhere). You could probably model a cane as a club (a staff would be a stretch), and now I'm thinking about how I'd make some kind of distinguished gentleman who fights with his cane.

[@RaethFennec]

I've talked about this build before, but a Constitution-based Dhampir warlock. You'll start off just using Eldritch Blast or whatever like normal, but your best stat is definitely in Constitution, with Charisma as a backup only. 14 Dex for medium armor, easy 18 AC with a shield. You can use your Bite attack, which counts as a simple weapon thanks to Dhampir, to bite using your Constitution modifier for attack and damage rolls. At second level, be sure to take Improved Pact Weapon as one of your Eldritch Invocations. At third level you take Magic Weapon. Cast Magic Weapon on your own teeth, which count as a simple weapon and are thus eligible for use. Then immediately short rest and perform a ritual to make them your Pact Weapon. Using Pact of the Blade, dismiss your teeth to an extradimensional space. Yes, you heard me right. Re-summon them back and they now count as a weapon summoned by your Pact of the Blade, enabling Improved Pact Weapon. You now have +1 magic teeth that you can dismiss and summon at will, and can be used as an arcane focus for the purpose of casting your warlock spells. Want to bite even more? Take a single level of Monk for Martial Arts, and you can now bite as a Bonus Action. Then at level 5 in Warlock, take Thirsting Blade. As a bonus, biting a target while below half health gives you advantage on your attack roll, and proficiency bonus times per day, you can empower the bite to heal you for the damage dealt, which includes any magical buffs to the attack's damage. It might only be a 1d4 damage die, but imagine the scene when the disarmed, unarmored warlock with their staff taken away and locked in a jail cell, suddenly manifests shadow-wreathed fangs, casts Misty Step wih their TEETH, and unleashes a flurry of bite attacks on the poor, unsuspecting (he was probably evil, right?) guard. Bite-fu!

[@ianbraun271]

Magic weapon isn't available to warlocks though. Paladin, Wizard, Artificer, and a few Domains only. You'd have to have an ally cast it on you.

[@RaethFennec]

@@ianbraun271 Oh! Hey, you're right. I had misread the source I was using that the Hexblade got access to it. Apparently they only did in UA. Whoops! Yeah, I guess you'd have to have someone in your party cast it for you, or be a Human (Mark of Making). Shame it would lock you into a specific species, but it's worth it for the shenanigans, right?

[@DarkMark-cf1ec]

Magic grills, gangster warlock 💀 You need some pimp clothing now

[@elivcdxv1852]

​@@DarkMark-cf1ecpact of the bag

[@styxriverr5237]

I usually keep daggers and hand axes on my characters as utility items for you know firewood gathering and critter skinning/trophy taking, as well as back up just incase. One notable exception was a Artifcer of mine whom I stylized his firebolt cantrip as a "Magelock" and built it into the handaxe because magic shooting axegun sounds awesome. And it was. Incidentally it's one of the more popular variants of magelock now.

[@0Kasada]

Weight is an important factor in most games. Often you want a backup weapon, but you don't want it to be *heavy,* you don't want to sacrifice carry capacity for something you hope to not need to use. Behold, dagger / sling.

[@devoteeofmediocrity821]

I once used a whip before. I was playing a hobgoblin warlock who got forced into a pact with an angel. They hated each other. The whip was a chain that would magically appear attached to the manacle that symbolized his indentured servitude.

[@annasolovyeva1013]

I had a whip on my elladrin bard. Worked great to scare people, who confused winter elladrin with a drow

[@tylerepperson2319]

I think this was one of my favorite questions. We need more of these. We definitely need a part two

[@troperhghar9898]

My vampire hunter Orc had a couple normal weapons but also a mind flayer two handed rail cannon but because he wasn't smart enough to know how to use it Wrex swung it around as a great club with a Nat 20 flavored as accidently pulling the trigger

[@soggyapples1518]

I really like daggers for a couple reasons 1. I feel that most casters don’t worry too much about weapons given that there are a variety of both ranged and melee spells 2. In my mind (probably because of skyrim) a dagger is a commonly used weapon for citizens because of its small size so anyone who isn’t some kind of warrior has one

[@ved2360]

Knives were more commonly carried and its quality reflected what you could afford. This was just because knives were tools and eating utensils. That they could be used as weapons of self-defense was an afterthought. _Daggers_ are sidearms. And certain specialized daggers were sometimes carried by professional soldiers. A rondel commonly being used by soldiers used to fighting in armor. It looks too cumbersome to be a utility knife, so it really makes far more sense as a weapon of defense. Given that wizards are often depicted gathering material components for spells, it makes sense they'd also carry knives to harvest herbs or something, in addition to their other more mundane uses as work tools. You _are_ an adventurer that often lives on the road after all. A knife makes a lot of sense.

[@apollogarvan9446]

Daggers are also effective in occasions where magic couldn't be used for some reason.

[@OriginalSoulbourne]

In older editions daggers are also nice for infiltrators due to size making them easier to conceal. Slieght of Hand to smuggle it in even in hand a lot easier.

[@randus7053]

I think 3rd edition gave weapons trade-off's so for example I think daggers had a higher crit chance. 5th edition lost some of this in its simplification, however if you're the DM you can always do some homebrew.

[@sidecharacter7165]

Some weapons had higher Crit chance, others did more Crit multiplier, and some could do things like trip.

[@SchwhatNow]

Unfortunately even in 3rd edition daggers are still pretty garbage. It's been a problem of the standard game design for DnD for a long time and it's a hard problem to fix without rewriting a lot of other rules. Yes, in 3.5 a dagger was 1d4 damage with a 19-20 critical threat range and a x2 critical multiplier. However, the longsword was exactly the same stats with 1d8 damage instead so we are back to the issue of 'why use a dagger?'. 3.5 had other nuances to account for to be fair, and there were circumstances in which you could only use a small weapon such as when grappling or swallowed whole, but the dagger has been very niche and not much worth using except for flavor for a long time.

[@-o-dq7nd]

​@@SchwhatNowNot that terrible, also there were some prestige classes that would let you use daggers like the Knife Fighter.

[@SchwhatNow]

@@-o-dq7nd Sure but at that point you are utilizing an entire class to make up for the shortcomings of the default weapon stats. I don't really factor that into the argument of whether or not a weapon is good.

[@-o-dq7nd]

@@SchwhatNow no the factor is that's how flexible 3e is that you can make a weapon like a dagger good. Also if the dagger is magical or silver and you have a plain sword what are you going to use? The dagger. So yes it factors.

[@badzombies2003]

My Artificer has three weapons he uses for various purposes. His main weapon is his repeating shot light crossbow, though he plans to upgrade to a heavy crossbow once he learns how to use them. For his low damage weapons, he has his two melee weapons, his Bō staff and tanto (reskinned quarterstaff and dagger respectively). His Bō staff is mainly used for helping him perform advanced acrobatics, acting as an extra handhold and height booster, while including the secondary function of being his arcane firearm when he reaches lvl 5. His tanto on the other hand is more of a necessary item he always has for any situation, like when melee enemies get too close to him (he's probably dead anyways, but he goes down swinging, i guess), he can sneak it into places with weapon restrictions (his Bō staff can also be concealed, but it would most likely need a Cha check to convince guards that it's a walking stick), and it's just a good survival tool in general (makes sense, since he's proficient in survival). Plus, the tanto is also used on the holiday Whetstone's Promise, requiring participants to sharpen their blades as a reminder of when the demon lords and mortals fought for the safety of the world. Even though my character is CN, he still follows this holiday as a sign of respect towards the dwarves (one of the most prominent forces during those battles from hundreds of years ago) for taking him in after he lost his parents at a young age.

[@goldaer9582]

Just to note, a quarterstaff is not eligible for the arcane weapon. You can only use it on wands, staffs, and rods. I use it on a staff myself, so I can use it as melee weapon for cantrips like GFB.

[@badzombies2003]

@@goldaer9582 my dm would most likely allow it under rule of cool, but i do know that it's normally not eligible (even though it's just a stick, like a staff, which is a stick, and quarterstaff has staff in its name, plus arcane firearm works on rods, which are smooth, like a quarterstaff. The rules of this game make no sense sometimes.)

[@bdrive5663]

Once played a Minotaur Barbarian / battle master who only fought bare handed. No increased damage form feats or monk classes. He was based on classic 80s pro wrestlers and his damage came from using his rage+battle master maneuvers+and horn push to disable/maneuver enemies in advantageous positions for the party or throw them into objects or other hazards for extra damage

[@dj-chemicalz811]

I had a half-elf Thief named Piper who was basically just the grave robber from darkest dungeon. I chose to use a I think a scimitar for my actual melee weapon but in combat I would always open up with a VOLLEY of daggers. I had like between 6 to 8 so every combat would open up with me just throwing all of my daggers at the enemy and then running in to finish off any stragglers XD

[@knightpaladin9841]

No pick to the face 2/10

[@Nay-NayCh.]

Whip with grappling strike is my bread and butter in strahd rn. Also dm lets me use it to grapple larger enemies (dragons etc.) To make it a lot easier to mount , climb and hang on.

[@DarkMark-cf1ec]

Somewhere whips could also disarm an enemy but only grapple objects. Idk where I read it from

[@Rexir2]

I've thrown the idea of running a game where every player character starts with an extra feat, but had to start with only 5gp in equipment. With so little to work with, daggers are the only option for a melee finesse weapon and clubs are the most cost-efficient way to access two weapon fighting

[@dalehammers4425]

I'd trade a free feat to start with only 5 gold lol, in a heart beat.

[@jakob3044]

My friends and I have always played with 1 feat at level one. Feats are fun

[@johnyshadow]

@@jakob3044 Do variant humans get 2 feats at level 1?

[@jakob3044]

@@johnyshadow I seem to remember variant human is not allowed at our table, because that would be silly.

[@Spark25293]

Before the last post, I had no idea whips could have so much utility and I find that awesome.

[@Blar408]

A narrow corridor sounds great for a spear user. Kinda hard to dodge thrusts if you can't shift left or right, though that can be solved with ranged options, like arrows or magic. Or guns if allowed.

[@BelelEscabel]

Yep, only an issue if your party is completely braindead and doesn't let you be at the front of it all. It's literally the optimal situation to use a spear: to defend a narrow passage from a safe distance.

[@ranekeisenkralle8265]

Spear, halberd, you name it. Yes. and even a greatsword woud work in those confines - albeit necessitating half-swording it, rather than swinging it in an arc.

[@davidburnett5049]

Course if we are being realistic you might be able to force through with a shield and then get too close for the spear. I would like to a couple dudes try it

[@chang1865]

​@@ranekeisenkralle8265 There are a few text books from the 1600s written for using greatswords in tight spaces. They work really well.

[@jacobbissey9311]

@@davidburnett5049 Yeah, given my LARP experience, that's effectively how you handle pole-weapons, you get within their reach, usually by using an off-hand blocker like a shield to keep the head off you while you go up the shaft, and then get them with your main-hand weapon since there's little they can do to defend themselves until they can create space. This is especially true in corridor fights, but also rather more difficult to pull off due to spacing. In corridor fights spears largely reign supreme, especially poke-y ones (some pole weapons are designed to slash with big, sweeping movements and aren't great for just stabbing), and it really bugs me every time people try to say narrow spaces are a weakness of them because I have over a decade of first-hand experience that says otherwise. The best part of them in these situations is that not only are they great for keeping your enemies out of reach, but they also tend to be really good for stabbing enemies over the shoulders of allies (you know, the entire point behind the phalanx formation), so if you have a dude with a sword and board in front of you in the hallway, the enemy being unable to go around him means his shield is *way* more useful for protecting him, he can't get to you either, and he has two dudes trying to stab him while he can hardly do anything to either of them in return.

[@liathedoll]

4:43 got mental image of Barbara throwing Crossbow at a flying creature.. absolutely glorious

[@theworldstoryteller1197]

This has nothing to do with the current video except for the story that the rogue brought out a bunch of daggers. I just had an inspiration for a most useful magic item for rogues: a bandolier of daggers. This bandolier has five sheaths and each sheath will hold up to 6 daggers. The daggers can be magical, but the blade has to be at least 4 inches. To summon a dagger stored in the bandolier, the user has to take a quick action to concentrate on what dagger they want and it will appear in the sheath in which it was originally stored.

[@LegendStormcrow]

I have a knife obsessed monk in our games. He might just get this.

[@Jfk2Mr]

@@LegendStormcrow does that monk stop flow of time for maximum amount of knifes in the air?

[@LegendStormcrow]

@@Jfk2Mr He's level 2, so not yet.

[@DarkMark-cf1ec]

Would be cool If we could get different knives with minor enchantments, either to disable an enemy cause of their weakness or just damage type that works on some creature. Since they're smaller its easier to enchant.

[@thekenyonsquad5672]

4:40 this guy just spent over 2 minutes explaining that he uses a d6 ranged option instead of a d8 ranged option because it goes off of his higher stat and after he does the math, it reveals that it was the higher damage option. 10:30 if your DM wants you to track ammo, just make sure you can use woodcarver's tools. Xanathar's guide had a handy list of things you can do with tool proficiencies and included is using woodcarver's tools to craft arrows; 5 during a short rest or 20 during a long rest. this and the ability to retrieve half your arrows used after combat means you're incredibly unlikely to run out of arrows during combat. someone will probably ask "what if you can't find any wood?" to which I reply "what if you can't find the right size rocks?" 12:35 despite that not being how reach works (having reach doesn't have any negative consequences for attacking things right next to you), this is the best example here. a weapon's properties are far more important then the damage die it uses. a rapier would have done more damage, but comparing average damage (8.5 for whip, 10.5 for rapier) shows that it's not much of a damage decrease for the benefit of controlling more of the battlefield.

[@ryonalionthunder]

The 4:40 guy was such a dweeb. “Why would you use lower damage weapons?” “I actually use the highest damage!” “Then who asked you?”

[@Jessie_Helms]

Nimir Antonovich, my Eldritch Trickster Rogue (pathfinder 2e) almost exclusively used throwing knives (1d4 + strength) the whole time he was alive (RIP). But here’s the thing, with Strong Arm the 20 foot range turns into 30 foot range, already further than most humanoids can move with their Stride action. And with QuickDraw that means he can draw/throw, draw, then throw, for 3 actions. Oh he had a rapier (1d6 + strength, with Deadly D8 [add a d8 on crit]), but I ended up spec’ing heavily into thrown weapons. I got a Thrower’s Bandoleer which gave +1 to all thrown weapon attacks and made it so my Striking (double your damage dice) Rune made all my throwing knives deal 2d4 + strength. This meant my _minimum_ damage was 4 on a hit (+2 strength mod) at a 30 foot range with no penalties. Max damage on a crit was 20 as well. So while it Nimir’s max damage to a single target was a quarter what the fighter’s was, I could do it at range and consistently. 90 feet away, thanks to strong arm, was only a -4 penalty, and with throwing knives being finesse and agile the third attack only took a -8. So I Nimir had 2 knives out at the start of his turn he could, from 90 feet away, deal 6d4+6 with _at worst_ a +2 to hit (he had +14 to hit normally). This resulted in Nimir killing 2 ghosts and 1 shadow in a single round of combat, killing a skeletal giant and knocking out our possessed Fighter in a single round, and whittling a Griffin’s HP to just low enough for the fighter to close distance and kill it with his last remaining action. I’m gonna miss that idiot

[@travisbishop782]

That sounds awesome. How did Nimir die?

[@Jessie_Helms]

@@travisbishop782 so in the same fight where Nimir killed the skeletal giant and knocked out the possessed fighter. We were in the shadow realms pursuing his shadow. Nimir’s whole gimmick was “thrown weapons, chip damage, he’s Very Smart, and tank hits.” He had the highest AC (23 at level 5) and with Nimble Dodge he could, against 1 hit, have AC25. He also had the second highest HP (63). He also had Warding Sign which gave him as a reaction +2 to a spell save or +3 if it was a curse. So Nimir would trash talk and taunt baddies and frequently folks would attack him, curse him, whatever. The logic being 1) AC is better than HP in pathfinder given how crits work and 2) If the fighter goes unconscious we’re all fucked 3) If the healers go down _they’re_ fucked. Well, Nimir hadn’t been hit that whole combat _and_ he was the only martial left conscious, so he closed the gap on the shadow and tried to engage, dealing minimal (but notable, some) damage. He fighter gets brought up on single digits HP and the shadow is about to go. I know that if Maxwell goes down again we’re fucked- Kaz had 8 HP, Umi had like 10, and Maxwell had like 12. So he handed Maxwell the staff max had dropped when falling unconscious, stabbed the shadow, and screamed for its attention. It locked eyes with Maxwell and hit Nimir 3 times- each dealing 20+ damage. Nimir’s last words, right as he got ran through the chest, were, “That’s right mother fucker, hit me instead.” Went to dying 2 from a crit, failed a death save to dying 3, got hit by an AOE to 4. At that point I said, “Oh shit… guys… I have Diehard so I die at dying 5… I can’t be healed by a potion anymore.” In the shadow realm potions dealt 1 damage before healing, so it would have killed him on the way down. The healer, Umi, used her last action to try and stabilize Nimir. We all know it was going to be a higher DC and a worse consequence for failure, but at that point the DC for my recovery check was a flat 14, whereas for her it would normally be 2 on the die, we guessed either 7 or 12 with the raised difficulty. She rolled, and… _17 total_ The DC is normally 15… but it was 25 in the shadow realm _AND_ fails counted as crit fails where you take damage. And so Nimir died in Umi’s arms as she frantically tried to stop the bleeding. We had just enough time for his hands to still her shaking hands before both of theirs fell limp to his chest. Maxwell on his turn used a dragon scale he’d been given for dire situation and dealt about 3 more damage than was needed- remember, Nimir dealt about 5 to the shadow. So Nimir took 3 hits that otherwise would have downed the entire party, and got the shadow low enough for Maxwell’s power attack to deal lethal. He died exactly how he lived- doing everything in his power, even to his own detriment, to protect those closest to him. Oh, and like 2 sessions prior (1 or 2 days prior in-game) Nimir had a near death experience and talked _to Umi_ about how, ever since the end of the last campaign arc (Killing the final hag in a coven) he felt like he was living on stolen time. He’d already accepted his death, but it didn’t come because the party rallied around him. The fact Umi was the one holding him when he died- and in fact, in a way was the one who killed him- is so sad but beautiful to me.

[@travisbishop782]

@@Jessie_Helms then let us raise a cup of mead and toast Nimir, a badass that died protecting his friends.

[@greed94]

Like the Path of the Beast with claws, it's fun to rip and tear. Started out with a flail, but the visual image of that paired with natural weapons just didn't strike me as fun as going full beast.

[@bravalloy]

In D&D second edition, Baldur´s Gate is a great example, the high weapon´s speed of daggers helps you attack first ensuring you would hit any mage and disrupt him before all, or most, of the spells. I dont remember but one of the old D&D PC RPGs used to set the speed of cleric cure wounds spells equal to the spells level. So sometimes a cure critical wounds would take too long so you would cast a simpler cure moderate wounds instead.

[@Jfk2Mr]

My characters always come with some kind of knife, even if has access to much better weapon. It's not about damage, but utility - you won't skin a catch easily with a sword, good luck trying to cook with an axe or do small DIY with a spear. One time I didn't think about that and my GM made me regret that through doing camping where whole team had no survival related skills as well as no knifes and rope. Another reason is that knifes are decent as last resort weapons or to finish off enemies - after all, if your opponent is in grapple and wears armour, stabbing through joints and slits is much easier than pure wrestling.

[@anonymouse2675]

That`s one of the reasons I always take the Shape Water Cantrip on my Wizards. Shape Water lets you turn UP TO a five foot cube of water into any shape you want, then freeze it into ice. The ice lasts for one hour. Need a knife? How about a bunch of Javelins? Depending on the DM, even arrows or bolts. Maybe you need some other simple tool? Nothing fancy, and the Ice does break and will melt in an hour, but being able to basically 3D print disposable equipment, tools, and weapons on the fly can come in really handy.

[@avgoustinos_ms]

Amazing post! Thank you for the inspiration ripper and all who wrote their ideas!!!

[@donniejefferson9554]

I just started playing as an awakened otter. Fun fact about otters, they have tiny pockets on their wrists that they hide their favorite stones in. That's why my otter uses a sling and pulls the ammo out of his little pockets

[@RoninCatholic]

Mace/maul as a good melee choice for an otter too. Same reason; rocks for crushing shellfish and bivalves so you can get at the tasty meat inside.

[@darkranger116]

There is no greater enemy to the art of creativity and imagination, than the adherence to a meta.

[@kaseymathew1893]

Fun fact: whips aren't necessarily limited exclusively to ranged attacks. IRL, the handle can be used as a club/flail.

[@snowmanmanvideo]

Fun fact: a whip in DnD is reach, so it just gets +5 feet to its melee range and doesn't even make a ranged attack to begin with. You could always melee from melee. It's just the finesse halberd.

[@stevencowan37]

​@@snowmanmanvideo in 3.X it was a ranged weapon, don't know whether it was changed in 4e or if it waited for 5e, but that's probably where that remark came from

[@LordDrail]

A monk character I designed is using a whip for its designated monk weapon (thank you monk optional feature). Low strength but high dex so combat looks usually like 1) knock prone, 2) move into range, 3) unleash unarmed flurry.

[@brandonshelp4682]

If I (as DM) see a player equipped with great sword, great axe, maul, and a longbow, I'm going to ask exactly how the character keeps all of those massive weapons at the ready to swap out. The answer is usually "uhhhh" or "what".

[@RoninCatholic]

Mine is basically to show a picture of Link or another over the top warrior laden with adventuring gear. Or Piedmon, with his four back scabbards. "If you want it more realistic, I guess I can go with just a pollaxe and a longbow. I just think the maul and great labrys look cooler separate."

[@LevattWolfheart]

Why handwaiving away carry weight is a problem. Not only does he need to carry it, but someone needs to carry the loot out to make money, if you are actually doing the dungeons part of d&d

[@diggy5884]

I made a club build that was the party tank (as a dwarf cleric/wizard). I used magic to boost the damage greatly and deal light AoE or immense single target damage. Another character I made using a homebrew rogue variant wielded a magic dagger in the main hand as one ability they gain is being able to use a bonus action to add the off-hand's damage dice. So the character uses a dagger main-hand and an off-hand rapier

[@JuicyBlueWill]

The actual reason the Rogue wouldn't use a Rapier and dagger is that Rapiers aren't light therefore cannot be used for Two Weapon Fighting without a feat.

[@AlphaOmega1237]

Edit: Nevermind, just looked it up. It does say the main weapon has to be light. I can see why ignoring that became a popular house rule, though. It's dumb that you either have to use both light or jump up to not using a light in either hand once you have the feat. Having one light and one normal weapon makes more sense.

[@RoninCatholic]

@@AlphaOmega1237 Especially when you consider that the major fencing styles amount to "rapier and empty off-hand", "rapier and buckler", "rapier and cloak", and "rapier and main-gauche" with main-gauche being posh speak for a dagger in the off hand. Very rarely, the Italian school of "one rapier in each hand" because the closer reach of the dagger gives it a lot of defensive and counterattacking coverage a second rapier doesn't. You could also swap out the rapier for a smallsword (the weapon most people are thinking of when they hear "rapier"; a proper rapier is as long as a longsword and only barely less heavy), a saber (like a scimitar in D&D terms I think), or a shortsword.

[@Raghetiel]

Surprisingly, there are a lot of niche uses. Dagger is only thrown finesse weapon, and so, only option for dex-based thrower build. Club works with shileighla, while also being a light weapon, so giving opportunity for dual-weilding ranger wisdom-fighter

[@CyberShinobiX]

I know in pathfinder 1E there are a number of builds that boost the usefulness of daggers specifically. There is also a feat chain for drastically boosting the damage of improvised weapons so it gave me an excuse to make a character who beats people down by pelting them with empty bottles or smacking them around with an umbrella.

[@TheBottegaChannel]

I played a dragonborn ranger one time who was based on a traditional take of a shinobi and had his gear inspired by historical weapons that were from various worldly tribal cultures. His bow was a laminate short bow made from horn and wood like the ones found in North America, his hunter/ Killer boomerang ( tirtiary backup weapon) was modeled after the Aboriginal Aussie killer boomerangs that were made to dig, kill big game and to be used as combat weapons, and his twin back up weapons were his short swords were modeled after Ainu Makiri knives ( basically twin wakizashi used as machete/ combat) from Japan. Being a proud, dutiful and self sufficient character, his logic was pretty solid: " I'm a road warden and game warden employed by the kingdom, trained to be better then the best long hunters out there. My job is simple to that end. Arrest highwaymen and theives that harass citizens, and kill monsters that can't be negotiated with if they pose a threat to the local populus, livestock, flora and fauna. To that end, if I'm on a long hunt for monsters out in the wilderness, I will prioritize using nature and it's resources to assist me with my needs in my job. After all, I'd be a disgrace to my ancestors, teachers and regiment if I could'nt survive in the wild.".

[@toryunaminosaki1022]

i played a halfling rogue with thief background before. he was a burglar, not a murderer, so he used a club to knock people out rather than stab them to death. it's a role-play thing, in a role-playing game xD

[@davidsmith7752]

I had a Variant Human Battle Master who started with Crossbow Master and two hand crossbows. He'd use Pushing/Disarming attacks to influence the battlefield and Distracting Strike to set up harder targets for the Rogue or Champion Fighter. They really came into their own when the Druid got Spike Growth, as he would use Pushing Attack to cheesegrate enemies on the spiky terrain, which would then have to walk back through the spikes if they were melee-based.

[@jake120007]

another aspect of the javelin vs crossbow math is that the javelin uses strength for its attack roll as well so it will be hitting more frequently, side note, i have been known to take a whip and apply sneak attack while hiding behind my ally as a goblin

[@robertbloom4424]

I haven't played any of the newer editions, but one "optional rule" we always used was weapons speed, which acted as an initiative penalty, depending on the size, weight, and clumsiness of the weapon. Using a greatsword (big damage), for example was a lot slower than using a dagger. You had to roll to hit more often with a smaller, faster weapon, but the potential damage was higher if you hit successfully each time. We also played with called shots, so succeeding with a sneak/first attack on a called shot while wielding a fast weapon could be an instakill or instawound if it landed. In our groups, stealthy characters usually opted for smaller, faster weapons. Choosing between two-handed and shield for characters with bigger weapons was significant as well. The balance wasn't perfect, but as players we had to to really think about what we used and how we progressed.

[@deminumenera1758]

I once has a D&D3e druid that dual-wielded sickles simply for the asthetic. I also had an Orc Bard in Pathfinder who used the 'summon instrument' cantrip, then whacked people with what turned up.

[@sirbaronvoncountesq.526]

I had a character that used rubber duckies as a weapon, the catapult spell is no joke

[@Duothimir]

I have a character who is a barbarian, but not a Barbarian. He comes from a nomadic tribe in the northern tundra, has training both in combat and as a skald, and thus has mixed Fighter/Bard levels. He dresses in sensible armor and carries weapons to cover a variety of situations, with his light crossbow and spear actually being his most frequently used due to simple practicality. He has a healthy curiosity and appreciation for civilized culture and will happily share tales and songs from his own. also he's literally just Fafhrd but don't tell anyone

[@johndunn1625]

Last campaign I was in was a 1e pathfinder, one of the players specialized in double kukri rogue. The weapons mechanically do less damage than a lot of other blades he could have used, but he thought they were cool and still managed to find a way to deal a significant amount of damage to anyone who wasn't directly looking at him. I can't remember how exactly he built it, but there were a couple instances he was able to match the tank/main damage dealer of the party, who was a paladin with a couple levels in barbarian for plot reasons in pure combat ability in addition to his out of combat skills. Was pretty cool to see a short, wiry fellow hamstring a giant and finish it off the next turn before anyone else could get to it

[@NarocoSuper]

At my table, some weapons can do extra things that aren't just damaging an enemy. For example, a whip can double as a rope( though shorter than the standard rope), a dagger can double as a carving knife for woodworking tools, and slings can be used to slide down ropes like a zip line. They give slight boosts to rolls in those instances, and allow a weapon choice to really matter for reasons other than combat, and give characters more of a personality with HOW they use these weaker weapons

[@gentlehoovy5555]

The character I most recently built was a kenku battlerager barbarian with a couple levels in rogue. The whole character is supposed to be the red bird from angry birds, a red kenku who was raised by dwarves after his people were massacred by hogfolk. I picked a hoopak as a weapon for a couple reasons: thematically it's a giant sharpened slingshot, which fits perfectly, but it's also a ranged/melee finesse weapon with theoretically limitless ammunition due to my gigantic strength score, which i can fire at range effectively (also thanks to my strength score). The ranged rolls allow for sneak attack, while melee attacks allow me to deal the 1d6 of damage from the hoopak, 1d6 of damage from my spiky armour, and then extra sneak attack damage from the hoopak every turn anyway as I can recklessly attack to get the damage bonus. It's awesome.

[@NinjaThatLongboards]

My buddy played a campaign where one of the other PCs was a fighter with the tavern brawler feat who was formerly a professional wrestler. They didn't use any weapons, but they a bag they could summon simple objects from, so they would pull folding chairs out of it and make improvised weapon attacks then grapple the enemies. There was apparently no variation in play style so they did this every encounter, no matter how bad an idea it was, and were revivified often.

[@ugan2]

Concept I have for Hell's Vengeance AP for Pathfinder is a halfling rogue/assassin that uses daggers. Her backstory is her being trained by the church of Norgerber as a specialized slave for nobility where she was meant to be a guard and spy for her master. If another slave or potential rival to her master causes a problem, she was trained to take them out. She was trained as a house servant and thus knew how to cook both food and poisons. Daggers were easy to conceal on her person and easy to explain away if discovered.

[@nvfury13]

9:32 My first Ranger used a modified pole arm (it’s a hammer with a top spike and a hooked blade/spike as the “claw” of the hammer, the name escapes me) that had a shortened haft, making it four foot long all together, he used it: as a climbing tool, as a weapon, as a way to hook enemies up into the trees with him or off mounts. He carried a couple of short swords for close quarters in tight spaces.

[@rowdyriolu1]

I recently started playing an artificer who used tonfas as weapons (1d4 club). Not the strongest weapon I could have picked, or even the most optimal fighting style. But the whole group got hyped when he flew out of the sidelines and blasted a guy in the face with one. I'd say that's more than worth the tradeoff, especially in more roleplay-heavy groups like mine.

[@DoktorWieg]

Played a Tortle monk of the open hand with a custom background that my DM accepted : the background made it so that all improvised weapons counted as monk weapons with the caveat that they would break immediately on use... which was what I was aiming for as that Tortle monk was played like a medieval version of a WWE Superstar. Open hand techniques? More like wrestling moves. Knocked prone? He just powerbombed you or suplexed you. Push back? He clotheslined you. Stunning fist? Delivered haymaker with a cheesy stage line that made you go "Bhu?". The best part is that at one point in a cave system, they came across a forge of some sort with large, sturdy shovels. One of them became its dedicated monk weapon which was both hilarious to see a giant turtle bashing people's skulls in while spinning around a large shovel.

[@n0xure]

Daggers are good weapons - there's always someone in the party with off hand or two daggers. But there can be plenty of in-game situations where characters are forced to use sub-optimal weapons. A law forbid commoners to posses steel, lost their gear, have to escape prison, rust monster...

[@reverance_pavane]

One of the things from earlier editions of the game (since it was based on a tabletop wargame) was that weapons had a "frontage" - basically the size of the stand on which the figure was mounted. Which means that high damage die weapons needed more room to be wielded. For example, in OD&D a battle axe needs 4' of space on either side of the character to wield , whilst a great axe needed 6' of space on either side to wield (Greyhawk). Now think about that "standard" 10' wide dungeon corridor and the barbarian using it... IMG weapon size (damage/length) gives an advantage based on the tactical situation. Tools (knife/d2) always attack last. Sidearms (dagger/d4) attack first in close combat/grapple. Infantry weapons (short sword/d6) attack first in close terrain or if the user is in formation. Cavalry weapons (longsword/d8) are the default and attack first if no other weapon does. Chivalric weapons (bastard sword/d10) go last (since they must be swung with authority) but are better against armour. Great weapons (greatsword/d12) have reach which means they attack first if the person closes (remember a great sword user can always retreat to keep the range open. All weapons have special abilities too. For example swords have the ability that they are considered sidearms and do not encumber the character wearing one. Which is why swords are often a part of civilian dress to represent status, from the freeman's short sword, to the knight or nobles long sword. [Sumptuary laws do apply, of course.] On the other hand carrying an axe, mace or spear needs at least one hand to hold it.

[@shiroitaka5948]

On my bard 4/druid 2 character, I use 2 clubs that I cast shillelagh on for 2 1d8+4s. I use them with two-handed fighting to get a lot of damage in. Better than 2 shortswords.

[@Andrea-ne8sg]

I actually did make a character based a bit off of Trevor Belmont that uses a whip as one of her main weapons. I've always had a lot of fun with it and making a bit of homebrew to give the whip even more utility than it already does. She's probably one of my favorite characters to date with everything she can do.

[@letsplaysvonaja1714]

To be fair, whips have a pretty good reason to be used over higher damage weapons Namely that you have a reach of 10 feet for melee attacks

[@thomasmcknight4275]

I ran a 3.5 game with a bard variation / master thrower that was a jester. He used three small clubs as juggling pins and would throw the clubs at enemies during his routine. It was quite fun

[@TheMysticMage]

"Because you want to" Is the god-tier answer tbh.

[@toyhaunter8260]

An idea I had for clubs could be giving it options to mod it with whatever you can find. Damage dice stays the same but you might change your damage type and/or mechanics. For example, throw on something thorny and you might make it a bleeding weapon that has two parts. The first is an accumulation of damage that ticks each round, which leads to the second part. Each hit makes the target bleed out the damage faster until the accumulated bleed damage runs out or is bandaged/cured. Hit the target for 2 and 3 respectively, the target is now bleeding for 2 every turn until the accumulated 5 runs out or you hit again, adding 6 more damage and now they bleed for 3 per turn.

[@mactonight7820]

One of the things that interested me about the older editions, if you looked back at the BECMI line of D&D (the sister line of AD&D 1e/ the one with the iconic red cover), was a system introduced in the Master set called Weapon Mastery. It listed a chart for a lot of things: increased damage die, bonuses to hit against humanoids with either melee or ranged attacks, special effects, bonus AC on preferred target, and Despair (frightened). It made all weapons unique in a way when you look at the chart listing all the bonuses and special effects they had when you invested time into training with weapons.

[@jerrymajors8132]

I actually have all the BECMI rules downloaded onto my phone. I probably won't ever end up playing it, but it has some neat ideas! like race *as* class (for the non-humans) has inspired at least the idea of my own class-based rpg system, where there's "classes" for a general play style, and the "subclass" is also the character's race (divided into groups like Fae and Draconic and Goblin; so group Fae could have high elves in the caster class, wood elves in the martial class, and pixies in the horde class (basically the "power in numbers/cannon fodder" class)); and the whole "chalkboard" analogy for spellcasting inspired a character with a "magical dementia," where each of the prepared spells is tied to a memory, and that memory gets forgotten when it's "erased from the board" (regaining the memory when they prepare the spell again). it also doesn't have up-casting, which I personally find to just be an unnecessary bit of complication in 5e.

[@RobKinneySouthpaw]

A paladin in my game threw a second level smite into a brigand with a barspoon while he had his expensive glaive right there handy. It's about sending a message. He got inspiration.

[@splatninja9447]

Smack talk for me. Kind of like deadpool "youre about to be killed, by a Zamboni" but you know, monks.

[@bazookajoe6317]

I got an assassin using two knuckledusters because he had a backstory as a tavern brawler/boxer, knuckledusters are the lightest weapon in my groups setting and I liked the idea of a shadowy figure looming over a sleeping victim and just bashing his/her/its head in. Also being at your best while using your fists/fist weapons makes brawling in a tavern really fun and you cant disarm me unless you literally dis-arm me.

[@petervoros262]

Our party was investigating a witch causing problems near a small town where we stayed for a few days. Thanks to the shenanigans of our wizard and ranger, the locals were convinced that we were in league with the witch, so the day we decided to investigate the nearby forest, the locals, armed with pitchforks and other farming tools, surrounded us. We failed to convince them that we were the good guys, so they attacked. The only one sentence I was able to utter before combat broke out was "No weapons!" and then we proceeded to Bud Spencer & Terence Hill the mob, then hauled them off to the sheriff's office. Not only was it hilarious, it also made sure that we didn't accidentally kill anyone (since the GM was that kind of guy) before weakening them enough to deliver a knockout blow.

[@boingthegoat7764]

I helped one of my new Pathfinder 2E players make a character. He had a piece art, some ugly guy with a mace and a whip and an owl, and wanted a guy that was like that picture. Wound up with a Fighter with a Beastmaster dedication (he came in at level 2). Turned out to be an absolute slayer. The reach of the whip let him use attack of opportunity and trip a lot, if anything got close he could use the mace for for dessert. And spending an action to command his bird made for a sky-diving, eye-gouging (and daze inducing) good time.

[@justsomejerseydevilwithint4606]

That's an easy one; One of my friends is currently playing a half-orc artificer who is OBSESSED with Boomerangs. His favorite enchantment? Returning Weapon. Roleplay all the way.

[@do6631]

Favorite weapon is a yklwa. Love it because it is different and distinct. Comes in handy when you fall just short of range and want to throw something. Also a whip can be fun to have and can have uses outside of combat.

[@andano4055]

This was for a specific encounter an old DM of mine set up, but he had us fight an Oobleck sort of gelatinous cube. The stronger your attack, the less damage you dealt (like how if you smack Oobleck it goes solid) and the weaker your attack the more damage it dealt! With my incredibly short Tabaxi wizard I used mage hand to very lightly wiggle my dagger into it and was able to purposefully roll with disadvantage because of how horrendous it would be as an actual attack. I even got to keep the miniature cube as a pet after we defeated it and fed it pocket ham

[@Gh0stWh33l]

Ahh, this question. My favorite answer to it is Shillelagh. A Druid Cantrip, it makes the Club, Greatclub, or Quarterstaff into a d8 weapon that ises your Wisdom for To Hit and Damage. It can also be learned by Clerics, Warlocks, and Monks if you play your cards tight, and it has been the centerpiece of many a Gish build of mine, but I'll tell the tale of my favorite build with it: Dennis the Menace. Dennis was a Nature Cleric, barely just reaching Age of Majority, who was found, as a baby, and raised by a Half Orc Palidan and a ???(Probably Human) Druid. I was playing with Mostly Randoms, and decided to play the "Inexperienced Kid Adventurer" Angle up, and they took the bait, conflating my character with me. "I heard there were Undead, and I decided to come and smack em'!" The first combat, they sent little Dennis, with his Wooden Sword (Club) and Wooden Shield (Both gifts from his Mothers) out to get mauled by Undead. Dennis was a Nature Cleric. They get one free Druid Cantrip. It should be obvious what happened next. One Handled Combat later, Everyone save for the DM who knew what was coming gave me a look of "What unholy monster have you created?" I just hummed "Come and Get Your Love" as Dennis sauntered off towards the evil temple. I like Clubs and Quarterstaffs. They facilitate some of the best Gish Builds.

[@Tyxaar]

My favourite character of all time is this deranged winged Tiefling Assassin that specialises in hand crossbows, flavoured as mechanical crossbow gauntlets. Now these beauties have the unique quality of being a one-handed martial weapon. Cause they had the crossbow master feat, Ariskute the Hunter Demon was terrifying. Hand crossbows are often looked over as they are cumbersome mechanically, but can be beastly if wielded correctly, as they're and is one of the only two standard one-handed ranged weapons in the game. With the rogue's proficiency in them and how I took the crossbow master feat and could ignore the loading property, I easily racked up those d6s while staying out of reach in the air, basically having two arrow-fueled shortswords firing at enemies. What gets even more insane is a point in the campaign when they found a pair of magitech guns, and payed to have them modified into their crossbows. Now you essentially have a magic missile gatling gun in the sky raining down force arrows on your useless swordsman. Bonus of flavouring them as gauntlets/cuffs is that you can also be relatively sneaky about it, hiding them beneath long sleeves and the like while still armed. I desperately want to bring this character back for another campaign sometime soon.

[@FaisLittleWhiteRaven]

I used a sling on my Aarakocra Way of Mercy monk pretty much entirely because as far as I knew it was the only raged weapon she could use. Ended up kind of becoming her signature since having range was often more useful than her fighting on the ground until way later (burned up most of her Ki healing usually and my stats were terrible since I didn't get the system back then), and the low damage meant that the various DMs (it was something of a rotating volunteer gig) never really minded that she was unhittable most of the time so she got to use it. A lot. Eventually she got a Hill Giant's Belt and was able to start actually fighting in melee sometimes (plus actually use her talons and carry things) but by then apparently everyone really liked how iconic the sling was for her because not too long after they gave me a +2 Sling which er. It hit pretty much exactly as hard as the close up stuff with the belt did so. Yayyy more sling shooting for me XD My exasperation aside, I did really like the vibe it gave her

[@voodoohoover]

In the campaign I've been a part of for the last two years my character started with nothing, being revived in a burned down town a century after his death. The first weapon he picked up was a sickle and he just never put it down. My DM uses a homebrew rule for exploding dice, essentially a second form of crit on the damage dice. Because a sickle is a D4 it has a 25% chance of exploding each time I hit versus a 16.6 on a d6 or a 12.5 on a d8 ect. And explosion dice can also explode themselves, so you can chain together a few lucky dice rolls and outperform more conventional weapons that round. It's not the most common thing, but it helps to make smaller damage weapons a viable choice. I love that sickle so much.

[@Marxon1134]

I remember coming up with ideas for a strange npc with a cloak that was "unusually weighty looking" Turns out the cloak was full of about 60 daggers and each one was barbed to avoid being removed. Turns out leaving the knives in makes moving way more difficult. Also, scroll of heat metal.

[@Yesnaught]

"Tell me you're a no fun munchkin without telling me you're a no fun munchkin"

[@ExplosiveFloofBall]

Easiest answer is roleplay But also weapon damage type and weapon properties Whip for example is a finesse reach weapon Also weapon damage die make very little difference on average

[@ExplosiveFloofBall]

Something else to keep in mind is feats Crossbow expert can turn 2 hand crossbow attacks into 3 Which is a fairly large increase Especially with sharpshooter which adds more damage than just about any weapon can roll

[@justinthompson6364]

Exactly. When I saw this on Quora, all the answers were talking about roleplay and nobody mentioned the tangible gameplay elements. In 3.5e, simple, martial, and exotic weapons acted more like different tiers, with many sharing the same traits but the ones requiring rarer proficiencies dealing more damage, but not anymore. Lower damage weapons in 5e _always_ have some combination of traits that the higher damage weapons lack. This is especially big for monks who may be able to ignore the lower base damage. Particularly Kensei monks.

[@johntheherbalistg8756]

My sorc carried a staff, cuz duh, and a bandolier with 6 daggers. If he was out of spells, he started chucking daggers around. Never getting his precious hide within arm's reach of anything that smells remotely like a goblin. Hell no

[@sunbreakerqueenofbronze621]

One of my characters had two daggers and a mace. The mace was for combat, and one of the daggers was for cutting rope and skinning animals. The other dagger was a gift from the love of her life.

[@ChaosTicket]

I remember that in Old School Dungeons and Dragons editions and in Pathfinder that carrying around an assortment of gear would just be wise. Carry around a knife to cut ropes. Carry around a club because you can find or make one out of anything. Carry around a small slashing weapon like a sickle, so now you have all 3 damage types to cover basic enemy resistances. Skeletons are weak to Bludgeoning weapons, from resistance to other ones. Zombies are likewise weak to slashing, but resistant to Bludgeoning and Piercing weapons. Slings and bullets for them are free or cheap. In 3rd edition Dungeons and Dragons/Pathfinder a basic option would be to use one-handed weapons because you could use them with one-hand, and use them two-handed for stronger attacks. You couldn't really use two-handed weapons like Halberds one-handed. Thinking about equipment like this is just part of Roleplaying.

[@dorflumkin]

My cowboy gunslinger refuses to use any gun other than a revolver. Although it doesnt have the best damage, it's very relevant to his backstory. It's the gun his mom gave him :)

[@jeancanestri5572]

I have played a half-orc 'baseball player'.... he used stones (he called them balls) and a bat as weapon. He had both the Shillellagh spell and the Magic Stone spell. He dealt a great deal of damage with them. It was fun.

[@MightyBjorn]

This was a long time ago but I was playing a Paladin that was prestige classed as a Templar. I always carry at least 1 dagger or knife on my characters I create. During a huge battle, the kind of huge battles you see in movies, I singled out the leader of the attacking army. We battle back and forth for several rounds. I don't remember how many rounds but basically everything else stopped.After so long the sword fight basically turned into a wrestling match on which armored plated knight would wrestle the other armored plated knight to the ground. I managed to wrestle the enemy commander to the ground and pin him. By this point both my character and the enemy commander was tired, worn out, and wounded. I reached to my belt for my dagger and delivered a coup de grace with the dagger on his neck where there was no armor plating. Never under estimate the power of a dagger.

[@RocRolWriter]

One of my characters has three major priorities: 1⃣avoid combat altogether (so all weapons he has are easily concealed), 2⃣if combat cannot be avoided, keep the enemies from getting into melee range (proficiency with ranged/thrown weapons), and 3⃣if they survive long enough to get into melee range of him, keep them at a distance anyway (proficiency with a whip). If he has ANY weapons that don't have Reach or any ranged property, they would be his absolute last-resort backup weapons. Does this mean his damage output is really low? Don't know, don't care; left to his own devices, he's way more likely to be the guy who ends an encounter by escaping into a hidey-hole rather than by killing everything, so the dice don't matter much.

[@Robert_Paprika]

That last one with the whip reminded me of my Beastmaster in Pathfinder. Whip in one and, Flail in the other, battle poodle ready to tear anybody that tripped before me. Also had a raven just so he could shit on people's head when they fell.

[@v.slavov]

Free Mockery effect on every attack: "Imagine of I had a real weapon".

[@Inkubun]

Also, when I play fighters I like to take spears or any weapon with reach because it's really nice to be able to hide behind someone/thing tankier and poke the enemy without consequence.

[@Mr_GoR_]

Number 1 reason: flavor. I have a great old one Warlock that works at a carnival as a barker, but has picked up a few circus skills, including knife throwing, so he carries 4 daggers (throwing knives) hidden under his vest. Had an eldritch knight with Dex as their primary stat who used a whip for Booming Blade/Green Flame Blade. Like that guy in the video, 1 handed, reach, finesse. Hitting a creature with biking blade from 10 feet, then backing away, or a a reaction with war-caster 😘👌 Also, sling + crusher feat is great for kiting.