Weapon Mastery Ultimate Guide - D&D's 2024 Player's Handbook

[@Dice_and_Beans]

Note for slow: it stacks with the slasher feat. So a whip can stagger a foe and reduce speed by TWENTY feet. Crusher can also shove a foe back 5ft, making topple even more visual. And piercer can help the piercing weapons add more reliable damage when they attack, ontop of more brutal crits. (Yes im aware these feats are mid, but hey. They add more dynamic for weapon using characters)

[@gamemasters]

yeah, I've no issues with the weapon mastery elements.. BUT.. it does kindav have that "video game" vibe. BUT.. on the other hand.. I DO like that it ofers up a unique element to each weapon.

[@floofzykitty5072]

@Dice_and_Beans Or you can play a Warlock and do all of this at range. If you play a Daolock you also get Spike Growth to combo with your own pushing. You can take Frost Giant lineage goliath and slow enemies while doing extra cold damage with no saving throw.

[@The-Swift-Kobold]

Love the cut aways in this video. And also "you knocked the ##### out of an enemy" was great. I am really loving this Weapon mastery will add some spice for sure. I am excited to see if they will use it in the new Monster Manual (I am a forever DM) hahaha

[@gamemasters]

haha thanks, my humor is a bit dry but it's always fun when someone gets my attempt at it lol. I think one of the first things I'll end up doing to making my own homebrew list of weapon masteries for different weapons.. I mean.. a dagger, a hand crossbow, and a scimitar all having nick is fine.. except.. I think i'd change the hand crossbow to something else entirely. If my aim is off.. it's off. nicking my target and triggering a 2nd attack just isn't going to happen.

[@Zr0din]

Nice editing and videos. You video kept my attention.

[@gamemasters]

@@Zr0din that is good to hear! I try not to add extra "fluff" for sake of adding extra time to a video. I believe in giving exactly the information necessary (perhaps a little humourous quip or two here and there). Glad you enjoyed it! :)

[@BigFrakingSword]

Monsters certainly should have these weapon perks. In some cases, they should also be applied to natural attacks. An Adult Dragon's Tail attack for example could have Cleave, Push or Topple. This certainly would spice up monster encounters and I am curious to see if effects like these will find there way into the new Monster Manual.

[@gamemasters]

oooh! good call on the dragon's tail! I wonder if there is a weapon that could potentially have multiples.. (like the dragon's tail)

[@SophiaAphrodite]

TBH this can be incorporated if you use action oriented monsters without needing to rewrite like MCDM uses.

[@garethhamilton1252]

I must admit I am also warming to weapon mastery. However there is one thing that still grates with me that I’m certain to house rule if it is a change from the 2014 rules. As I understand it a character with multiple attacks can swap weapons from one attack to another to benefit from their different weapon mastery property’s. So for example a fighter with 3 attacks could attack with a battle axe, stow it, pull out their halberd from its handy extra-dimensional scabbard and make an attack, pack it away (maybe give it a quick clean and polish at the same time), and bring out their spear to make their third attack. To be fair this isn’t so much to so with the weapons mastery rules as it is the action economy allowed by the rules in general. If you can draw and stow weapons for free as part of an attack, that rule is changing in my games. I need some verisimilitude to my games.

[@gamemasters]

yeah.. as i mentioned in my video, it's going to be a challenge to rethink my mindset when I'm crafting up encounters. Keeping up with what all characters can do NOW is a challenge just to keep everything straight, adding this on top of that... I mean.. that's not a complaint really.. I'm just not fond of having to maintain a spreadsheet when creating even a basic fight.

[@DQuartermane]

I can understand the weapon stowing and such. We will need to see the final text on this of course. But in my head already I have had a few scenarios come to mind. 1. The fightwmer being bad ass can strike then stow as part of the attack acrion. Again because they are masters of their weapons I could see it. 2. During a fight the weapons are used the pulled from the ground or bodies within range. A bit of a stretch I admit but still an idea within reason. Just come coppers

[@TrixterTheFemboy]

Doesn't the Thrown property specifically state that the weapon can be drawn as part of the attack? If that's the norm for all weapons, why would it specify that? And if I'm wrong on this, the GM can of course rule using common sense that, no, you cannot hotswap heavy weapons in the middle of a flurry.

[@garethhamilton1252]

@@TrixterTheFemboy thrown weapons are also released from the hand as part of the attack, so that makes sense. If a player were to just drop their weapon on the ground it wouldn’t bother me so much, though what sane warrior would start throwing their weapons away mid fight? (I realise that PCs rarely fall in the category of sane🤪) It might not even become a issue at the table requiring a house rule. As I understand it fighters get to use multiple masteries with the same weapon, and then, once magic weapons are thrown into the mix, the PCs might want to keep using the magic property of that weapon rather than the weapon mastery of another weapon. Everything considered there are simple fixes for me as the DM. A strict enforcement of encumbrance might be all the incentive a player needs to keep things sensible.

[@kevoreilly6557]

Just make changing weapons a bonus action (or part of a move action) and ignore these min/maxing idiots (the 1 mile teleport is a clear example) It is disappointing Wizards design team can’t write rules

[@alfonsovallejo2665]

The thing about Cleave is, what is that attack roll part of? if you attack as part of your attack action, you could add the new GWM bonus dmg to the attack. Cleave is poorly worded, I thought WotC would make it more clear, but I suppose I overestimated it.

[@gamemasters]

it's fairly straight forward to me, with cleave, once you land a successful attack against a creature, you deal damage (minus your modifier) to a 2nd creature.

[@TheDeadmanstrolling]

What's the interaction between halberd with Sentinel feat and Cleave mastery, I wonder? If you hit two an enemy as part of an attack of opportunity and also his buddy, do they both lose all movement?

[@RIVERSRPGChannel]

I think it will slow down combat but make it more interesting for martial classes. I think they kinda went backwards to 3.5 for some of these things. I still prefer 3.5 and I’m still not supporting WotC either so I won’t buy their new edition

[@gamemasters]

yeah, i can't see myself delving too deep into this new edition. Not out of defiance but rather because.. I've already got enough books.

[@LynTheKnight]

Who cares if it takes longer when spellcasters have a whole page of spells that take the enter 5 minutes sometimes for them to think of what they wanna do meanwhile I go I swing twice and end my turn and maybe smite maybe rage maybe action surge

[@Iceblade269]

I want to see what longsword can pick. Giving different masteries based upon one handing or two handing it would really bring life into the weapon

[@gamemasters]

longsword gets Sap which causes the creature to have disadvantage if you hit it with a longsword (on it's next attack roll before the start of your next turn). I agree tho, different mastery based on one hand vs two hand would be cool. easy enough to home brew that I suppose..

[@Iceblade269]

@@gamemasters That’s depressing. There is no support for just using a versatile weapon and nothing else. Hell there isn’t even a fighting style for it, yet we got one for thrown weapons and unarmed attacks

[@gwiffin5111]

These sound cool, but its worrying that we dont yet know how the monster manual is getting buffed to compensate for these really good buffs, buffs that could get really oppressive when multiple martial characters start stacking mastery effects on the same target.

[@gamemasters]

I think that the way I'm going to approach it will be that the monsters (if using a weapon) will also benefit from the same weapon mastery "buffs". I'm kindav curious too to see, for example, what "buffs" would a creature get if it used "claws" or "bite" OR if that's going to be unique to each given stat block..

[@SophiaAphrodite]

Keep in mind Nick does still allow you a bonus attack if you choose based on their explanation

[@gamemasters]

Yup

[@bleutea2087]

love the video I was wonder what the mastery for a long bow would be

[@gamemasters]

according to the source that I have, a longbow's mastery would be Slow (reduces target's speed by 10 feet until start of your next turn).

[@bleutea2087]

@@gamemasters thank you so much I have a ranger pc that uses a longbow and wanted to add in the mastery system for them

[@snakept69]

Slow does make a full Longbow party the optimal Full Martial Party. Just attack each enemy once, Slow doesn't stack with itself but does stack with other PC's Slow so with 3 PC's thats a -30ft to all targets hit by all 3 PC's once. With 4 PC's you can easily just stop 2~3 enemies every turn. If Slow stacked a lvl 11 fighter could just shoot at you and there would be nothing you could do because your speed is just a permanent 0 to 10ft if they missed once.

[@gamemasters]

@@snakept69decent plan but not foolproof. I've seen lots of dice betray the entire party...

[@comraderaoul]

Nope, it doesn't stack. Reread the description: "If the creature is hit more than once by weapons that have this property, the Speed reduction doesn't exceed 10 feet." Note the plural "weapons."

[@Ciya93]

Great Video! A question. Which weapon Properties has the Scimita then? Properties: Finesse, Light

[@gamemasters]

aye, the scimitar has finesse and light

[@bigH101]

Some of these will for sure make placement on the map more tactical, which is needed. I am in favor of the weapon masteries. From my experience as a DM, it is the spell casters who take a long time on their turn not the martials. Thanks for the break down. Excellent job as usual.

[@gamemasters]

yeah, that's one thing I was considering as well.. how this will impact the use of maps and minis..

[@akbrowncoat5192]

Looks great. More variety and options. Can be no worse than waiting for someone to read a spell, etc. once people are used to their weapon options, the speed will pick up. Net gain for the game.

[@gamemasters]

yeah, I've seen a few claim this will slow combat down a bit.. I'm not seeing it. I DO see it the way you do, specifically for weapon mastery there is so few to "remember" that it'll be a fairly quick addon.

[@2DollarGargoyle]

We need a full list of weapons and what masteries they offer. I can't find a complete table that has everything I need anywhere, even if it's a frankenstein'd abomination of 2023 UA and 2024 teaser material

[@TeraHojim-y5y]

We got a list n dnd beyound a while sgoo to give our opinion.

[@hawkname1234]

I'm very interested to see how weapon masteries play in game.

[@gamemasters]

yeah.. I mean.. reading about it is one thing.. playing it in application.. that.. I want to see as well.

[@enterdreamverse]

thanks for talking a bit about it. Did they all explain it in the official video?

[@gamemasters]

They went over about 4 of them. My video covers all of them.

[@Voxridian]

7:29 Is there a reason that the Net and Longbow are missing from this list? I can understand if the 2024 edition omitted the Net as a weapon option and placed it somewhere else as an item, but the longbow seems way too much of a staple to remove

[@gamemasters]

I cannot speak to why Net was removed, however, longbow is nested under Martial Ranged Weapons and has the Slow property. It's possible that the longbow was on an extended chart and I just lacked the space on screen to show it in this video, but I can confirm that in the 2024 PHB it's there. Net is not. However, let's see what we can come up with for Net... it's listed under Adventuring Gear, weighs 3 pounds and costs 1 GP.. in the 2014 PHB, net was categorized as a Martial Ranged Weapon.. with properties of special and thrown. special was listed as large or small creatures hit by a net were restrained until freed. They could make a DC 10 STR check to break free or dishing 5 slashing damage to it could also free one caught in it. I really don't think that any of the existing mastery properties would apply, and net itself doesn't do any actual damage.. so.. I'd almost have to say that while we could consider it a weapon, it would likely have a grapple mastery property. The creature in the net, at that point, would have a speed of 0 and would have disadvantage on attack rolls (but it could attempt to cut itself out of the net). That's how I'd homebrew it anyways.

[@Voxridian]

@@gamemasters Thank you for clarifying! I believe the net, doing no damage, might have been removed since it really wasnt a weapon in the way that D&D portrays combat. I can see it being somewhere in the yet-to-be-released DMG. If it really was removed, in my games, I'd homebrew it more as a non-magical item sort of like how the Ball Bearings or Oil items are listed and operate. Something that you use an action to grant advantage on a grapple check against creatures large or smaller. I think that could see use far more than the 2014 Net ever did

[@gamemasters]

pretty much exactly what I'll be doing as well.

[@floofzykitty5072]

A lot of these weapon masteries are just things spellcasters can already do at an extremely minimal cost. A Dao genie Warlock has more battlefield control than two martials put together. It is crazy to me that people think weapon masteries will be "strong". It makes me think they have never seen a wizard shut down most of an encounter with Hypnotic Pattern/Sleet Storm, or a Warlock push an enemy 20 feet away with no size restriction, at range and while dealing a damage type that is practically unresisted for ZERO resource cost.

[@gamemasters]

@@floofzykitty5072 sure, except not everone wants to play as a caster. I'm not sure that I'm fully on board with this mechanic. I've been the DM that generally uses monsters right off the page, usually with very little adjustments, but it seems like with something like WM... that my monsters will need to have access to WM as well...

[@floofzykitty5072]

@@gamemasters But if everyone DID play a caster, they'd be able to output more control. If your encounters can't handle weapon masteries, then your encounters wouldn't be able to handle spellcasters. As I mentioned earlier, Push is just inferior to what a regular warlock not even making optimal choices can do. A caster at only 6th level has access to two 3rd level spell slots, so let's use Sleet Storm as an example. Sleet Storm has a range of 150 ft., a radius of 40 ft. (!!!EIGHTY!!! ft. diameter), counters ranged enemies because it's heavily obscured, it takes down flying enemies without hover, makes melee enemies useless until they use their action economy to get out and around the area and it also specifically counters other spellcaster enemies. On top of all this, it's difficult terrain which obviously has no saving throw attached to its' effect (vast majority of enemies in the MM are grounded), and the effect applies round after round for 1 minute. If a caster simply has Sleet Storm *prepared* there is no counterplay from the DM side other than you make every single encounter one where the PCs are completely surrounded, or every encounter has a mage that can cast Counterspell (though even with this, Sleet Storm easily outranges Counterspell). And then there's the fighter, who at 6th level can make two enemies go prone, and they have to be within 5 feet of the enemy to initiate the effect. While the fighter has just removed the action economy from two enemies by disabling and destroying one, the spellcaster has taken away the action economy of the entire rest of the encounter. How many weapon mastery equivalents has the caster dropped down with ONE action in just ONE round? Slow on every enemy, Topple on half the enemies in the area and Blinded while in the area. Realistically, most enemies wouldn't even know which way is the right way to get out of the Sleet Storm because they can't even see lol. Individual spells are so powerful they could count as features in and of themselves. The fact that they're tied to spell slots doesn't mean anything when martial features also have similar use restrictions, like Fighter getting a similar amount of uses of Action Surge.

[@gamemasters]

@@floofzykitty5072 great, it a party of all casters now. You step into an area, could be a dungeon, or perhaps an entire city or countryside ruled over by a powerful dragon that has an anti-magic field up. Only way to bring it down and restore magic is to kill the dragon. It resides 10 or so miles into that no magic area. Good luck.

[@gamemasters]

@@floofzykitty5072 how is, let's say, even 50 casters or 100 or a 1000 going to counteract an antimagic area that is generated by a dragon lair's regional effect? Consider too that there are several areas in Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Eberron, and other settings where there are large pockets of 'dead magic zones' in which zero magic works.. I'm not hating on casters, but it's just goofy to assume that every person out there will want to (or _should_ ) play as one.

[@floofzykitty5072]

@@gamemasters This argument doesn't really say anything because it boils down to "But if you take away all the class features of someone they're weak!" even though martials have just as many if not more "gotchas!" in 5e, like relying on magic weapons at any level where they'd be fighting a dragon. Creatures that resist or are immune to non-magical bludgeoning/piercing/slashing are so common in the Monster Manual, have you read it? If there's an anti-magic field up, how are the martials killing the forces of this ruling dragon with mundane items when creatures that are resistant/immune to non-magical physical damage are so common? Dragons aren't stupid, they're just prideful. They are intelligent creatures that are smarter than the average human, meaning they can negotiate, enlist the forces of other creatures and they also have massive wealth and power to back them up. Even if the dragon was so prideful it didn't want anyone helping it, elementals and golems are loyally bound to their master and only need to be created outside of an anti-magic field, they exist just fine inside of them. If powerful mages can have elementals and golems under their command, then for a dragon that has lived hundred or thousands of years it's child's play. So the dragon now reasonably has a force of elementals and golems patrolling that practically can't be hurt by martials with mundane weapons. Good luck.

[@elfbait3774]

I don't think you will need to change the way you design encounters at all. If, like me, you design encounters that make sense and not to present a certain effect or cinematic, they just take care of themselves. Weapon Mastery may give the party some extra options but at the same time, therei s nothing to say you cannot apply similar abilities to the attacks of skilled encounters - veteran soldiers, skilled brigands, cultists warriors, or orc bodyguard, etc. etc.

[@gamemasters]

perhaps.. it's the wm that grants an additional attack (just does more damage) or can cause the enemy to get knocked down, etc. It's that that I've got to keep in mind when creating an encounter.

[@danielalbert892]

Can you Critical Hit on a Graze attack?

[@gamemasters]

it does not specifically state that it can, but based on what it does say, I'd have to rule that no, it cannot be a critical hit.

[@TeraHojim-y5y]

Wait....u have to use an 'attack' or sction to do action surge?

[@gamemasters]

isn't action surge a fighter feat?

[@TeraHojim-y5y]

With cleave most of us homebrewed like NaddPod. First target takes damage until dead. Left over damage went to next target until its dead. So if u do 45 damage n each of 4 enemies have 15 hp u kill three . Graze is not a good idea. If u cant miss 100% it lower the stakes. Where is the excitement of rolling if u always do at least 2-5 damage. Negacting need too role dame die. To fix this roll damage die as normal but half the result. And nick gives classes with one attack 2 basically. It is a way overstep. They basically made dnd mtg now lmao. Soon we will see new mechanics every 3 montha coating 20-40 each time

[@gamemasters]

nah, it's closer to world of warcraft

[@esbenskovrasmussen9066]

The reason there is no rolling dice for graze miss is for game speed. Wanting people to always roll damge and then spend time adding and the dividing by 2 takes time. Going "dose a 14 hit no then take 4 damg" is effective. My biggest problem is topple its the coolest ability and perhaps one of the strongest but having to roll saving throw every attack seams a bit to much.

[@Hjortur95]

@@esbenskovrasmussen9066 no kidding! i mistakenly assumed these properties were once per turn because of how many saving throws they required

[@RottenRogerDM]

WHY IS no masking tape on your 1e DMG? Graze is hit on a miss. Which will lead to “Nat 1 always fail” fights.

[@gamemasters]

nah, no reason to put tape on it, i don't want to ruin it!

[@dungeondr]

Not a fan of how these slow the game, adding effects on top of attacks. I'd have liked something closer to catrips: e.g. all adjacent creatures of your choice make a dex save against your weapon dc or take it's weapon damage. Alternatives to attacking instead of attack +complexity.

[@gamemasters]

from a narrative standpoint, I can see the "flavor" this adds. I just think it's ultimately going to boil down to... the DM just needing to know the total amount of damage delt regardless of the extra flair.

[@f.a.santiago1053]

I am SO stripping many of the new 2024 mechanics and rules for other games. Just imagine using a modified version of the weapon masteries for use in ShadowDark.

[@gamemasters]

easily done.. I mean.. heh.. that's what I do with the 2014 version of 5e I strip elements of other game systems for my homebrew table's version of the game.

[@f.a.santiago1053]

@@gamemasters Like a true Game Master.

[@kevoreilly6557]

Welcome D&D 4.5 ….

[@gamemasters]

haha something like that

[@303cisco303]

This sounds like DC20. Did it come from another system?

[@gamemasters]

it didn't come from DC20, this version of weapon mastery was in their playtest from last year, long before dc20 started. It looks to me to be largely taken from d&d 4th edition. Take a look at this Paragon Feat: _Scimitar Dance Prerequisites: Str 15, Dex 17 Benefit: If you miss with a melee attack with a scimitar and you wouldn’t otherwise still deal damage on the miss, you deal damage to your original target equal to your Dexterity modifier. This damage receives no modifiers or other benefits you normally gain on weapon damage. _ that is A LOT like Graze, only it's specific to the scimitar in 4e. Given that those in 4e were feats and the ones depicted in 5.5 are features of the weapon itself, I can see where the origins and inspiration came from.

[@303cisco303]

@@gamemastersok nice to know. I’m glad there are wiseman like you out there.

[@saraphys5555]

I think my biggest problem, is that this is a (in my opinion) bad approach to "fixing" the problem... Currently playing in a 3.5 Epic Level game, and talking with the 3 "Fighters"/Martials in the group, and they are ALL built differently...because they all have taken different Feats to specialise in the different weapons that they use. One has a Warhammer that he's taken tons of Specialising Feats in, so that at this point, he's adding +20 just from feats to each of his 4 attacks... and then there's all the special properties that the weapon itself has, and its some 8-12d6's +20... plus any modifiers from the Leader or Bards or Cleric or Druid. Another has a Greataxe, that, along with the Warhulk PrC, he's basically adding his Strength score to every hit... now, he doesn't have as many attacks, but when he hits, he's doing generally over 100 points of damage...not including Crits. The last Martial has basically taken up the "Thor" trait, with a Hammer of Thunderbolts and everything... While he can hit, he doesn't hit like the others, because he took the Leader Feats so he could rally the Company, do extra damage to Giants and Undead, and move in Heavy Armour like being in Medium. The point is... By fixing these qualities to specific weapons, rather then making them "Feats" or "Descriptors" that a player can pick up so they can instead favour their preferred weapon, it feels like it further dulls the creativity of the players... granted, this could be the wrong take, we wont know till the game comes out. But since 5E, it seems like WotC is more focused on making a game thats easier to pick up and play... ...but not be a roleplaying game. You have to hack the game up to give it those roleplaying elements, and at that point... why are you playing that game? There are better designed games out there that already have roleplaying designed... from simple mechanics that focus on the Narrative, to Crunchy games with all the mechanics. OI! ...Do a Dragonbane video! :P

[@gamemasters]

(Do a Dragonbane video!) - I'll address this first; I've got three ready to roll out, just knocking out a could of "hot iron videos" first. I'm aiming for next week. Regarding these weapon mastery aspects.. You bring up a good point. Damage in 3rd edition got crazy due to feats, but it was simple enough for the DM to adjust for that either in terms of difficulty or in terms of balance. It's also true too that we don't 100% know the context in which these will be used, but.. to an extent we do since this is, more or less, "5.125E" so the basis of game play mechanics already exists. That said.. I can't help but feel that a healthy mix of feats and weapon mastery would have been the better way to go. I also looked over the list of weapons vs what their mastery "category" was and I'm still having a hard time understanding the justification as to why some of them have the ones they have.

[@-hunt-6225]

Graze is terrible! 🤣🗑️

[@gamemasters]

why is that?

[@zug-zug]

I am unsure about weapon mastery. One of the few criticisms I had for 4e was all of the effects every ability had made for extremely slow combat. Also, I feel like One D&D is getting SO MUCH power creep. Unless monsters are twice as dangerous the game is going to suffer.

[@talldarkstrangerpr]

This is why I tell people to wait for the three ruleboks to see what they have in store.

[@zug-zug]

@@talldarkstrangerpr Completely agree. I wish WotC would talk about it more. They've talked very little and the little they have hasn't made it seem monsters are improving much at all, other than a revised format. Very much looking forward to seeing the whole pie.

[@gamemasters]

yeah, I really don't like that we have to wait for all 3 rule books to come out. I've a BIG feeling that some of the official replies to our questions about rulings from the PHB will be, "when the DMG/MM comes out, it'll make sense".

[@talldarkstrangerpr]

@@gamemasters this is why I’d rather wait than jump into conclusions without all the necessary elements needed to make an informed opinion. But hey, those books won’t sell themselves, so WOTC needs to spread content, hype, and brand awareness far and wide. At the end of the day, people will homebrew, pick, choose, leave it for another game system or all of the above.

[@tjrooger1092]

Stolen from Pathfinder and it's going to slow down combat more. They should have gotten rid of short rests. Getting more than 1 combat per session is going to be even less likely.

[@gamemasters]

not sure how it's "stolen" from pathfinder.. I mean.. in PF, weapon mastery isn't tethered directly to the weapon at hand, it's instead tied to the fighter class and is considered a feature (feat). For example, Devastating Assault, while someone with a longsword can use it, it can also be used by a monk's unarmed strike, so again, it's not attached to a specific weapon whereas what D&D is doing _is_.