D&D 5E Is disarming broken in D&D 5e?

Makes EK's "cannot be disarmed" ability of value at least...

If you feel the DMG disarm variant is too random, give the target a passive floor that must be overcome before having to make an opposed roll.

If the target's passive STR(Athletics) or DEX(Acrobatics) score equals or exceeds the attack roll, the target automatically resists the disarm attempt. Add 5 to the target's passive score if it is larger than the attacker, subtract 5 if it smaller.

If the attack roll does exceed the modified STR(Athletics) and DEX(Acrobatics) passive scores, the target makes an opposed roll. If the target loses the opposed roll, the disarm is successful and the weapon drops to the ground.

Optional Drop Distance: A disarmed weapon lands X-1 feet away from the targeted creature, where X equals the difference between the attack roll and the greater value of the target's passive score and opposed roll.

I would argue that you would need to be in the enemies square to pick up the weapon. The rules say that the item is dropped literally at the feet of the enemy.

Thus provided you have enough movement you could use overrun to enter the square to pick it up. Here are a number of scenarios outlined by JSRULES on stack Exchange.

"DISARMING CREATURE (or others) recovers the item:

1) Creature has multiple attacks (notably a fighter) and after disarming, uses the next attack to shove or use the push attack maneuver (battle master perk) on the target creature to move it off the way and recover the item with remaining movement.

2) Following the same idea, disarm the creature. Then use the overrun bonus action (DMG p.272) to force yourself through the enemy's space and grab the item on the move.

3) Disarm the creature, grapple it with a second attack then move it away from it's spot for another creature to retrieve the disarmed weapon.

4) ANY other creature on its turn can attempt the last tactics to recover the item before it is the disarmed creature's turn.

5) DISARMED CREATURE recovers the item:

Simple, no one succeeded in retrieving the item the ways described earlier before its turn. Then he picks it back from the ground."

These are just a number of scenarios - there's plenty of scope here for interesting play. As a DM I would not allow a PC simply to pick up an item at the feet of a creature in another square without entering that square.

My experience with Disarms is this: they are quite pointless. It usually requires one guy to disarm the weapon, and another guy to knock it away. But most of the time, the enemy have enough movement to walk to the weapon, pick it up, and continue fighting us.. It might trigger an OA, but that's about it. If the weapon is not knocked away, the target would just use free action to pick it up and continue like nothing happened. I can already picture him going like 'Meh, no biggie', every time he gets disarmed. I mean, 5e is already weird in the sense that having a weapon does nothing to help your defenses unless you have the Parry ability.

I think when picking up a weapon within 5 ft of an enemy should trigger an Opportunity Attack. Bending down to pick up your weapon puts you in a very vulnerable stance, and it should be a cue for attack.

DISARMING OPTIONAL RULE VARIANT

A creature can use one of their weapon attacks to knock a weapon or object from a target's grasp. The attacker makes an attack roll contested by the target's Athletics check or Acrobatics check. If the attacker wins the contest, the attack causes no damage and the defender drops the item.

Modifiers
• The attacker has disadvantage if the target is holding the item with two or more hands.
• The target has advantage if it is larger than the attacking creature, or disadvantage if it is smaller.

Results
• For every 5 points higher than the defender's ability check, the attacker may send the item flying to land in a space 5 feet from the target.
• If the weapon object lands in the same space as the defender, either creature can use their Reaction to try to catch the object with an Acrobatics check (DC is 10+base damage die).
• If both parties try to catch the object, the higher successful roll wins.

Disarming is fun until it is done to players or a strength based rogue does it all the time. So it should actually be not too powerful by default.

I like the rule of disarming instead of knocking out when you drop someone to 0 hp. That is more or less in the spirit of the rules. Until you can't effectively defend yourself anymore, it is difficult to take away your weapon.

Why are you overcomplicating this? We had a discussion at our table that Disarm works like this:
Round1: Hero disarms Monster (action)
Round1: Hero picks up the weapon (move action)
Round1: Monster makes an opportunity attack (with fists probably so no big deal)
Round2: Monster unarmed, hero is holding Monster's weapon in left hand and starts attacking with his main weapon

Dead unarmed monster. What is it that we are not seeing here? We already talked that the Hero should be able to pick up the weapon from the Monster's square, so that might be illegal ruling but we think it should be houseruled like this, otherwise Disarm would be ineffective as Monster could just pick up his weapon in Round 2 (getting opportunity attack of course, and attacker has advantage because Monster is unarmed when the opportunity attack is made). Maybe rule a DEX check against Monster's CR or similar to "steal" the weapon from Monster's feet...?

I like the attackers interact with an object option. Kick away or pick it up with a free hand. A reason for the attacker to have a free hand. Now if we could get a good sunder rule. If the attacker has another attack, he could attack the now unattended object and possibly destroy it depending on the attack.

johniemi said:

Round1: Hero picks up the weapon (move action)

Click to expand...

There are no move actions in 5e.