D&D 5E I hate rapiers. Do you?

MonkeezOnFire · Mar 8, 2017

I'm a little sick of them because they are the only option that fills it's niche. I'd prefer if there were more options like how we have the longsword, battleaxe and warhammer set for strength weapons. I could probably just add in a falchion that does d8 slashing damage with finesse and call it a day.

Ovarwa · Mar 8, 2017

Oh,

Yet more whining about America being a rapier culture!

Anyway,

Ken

aco175 · Mar 8, 2017

I have thought that finesse weapons should be capped at 1d6, but it has not been a problem in my game yet. The bard has one, but the thief has a dagger. I had also thought to have a staff finesse weapon that does 1d4/1d6 with 2 hands.

cbwjm · Mar 8, 2017

I'm fine with the rapier. In our group, only the halfling rogue uses one during those rare occasions where she is in melee. My bladesinger uses a shortsword, the difference between a d6 and a d8 isn't enough to bother me.

Salamandyr · Mar 8, 2017

I like rapiers and own several, but I too think they are too prominent in 5e.

This has less to do with rapiers of course than with the power a dexterity based character build has in the game.

hejtmane · Mar 8, 2017

The real issue everyone thinks that a rapier is this light thin sword from the Italian, french etc courts but like most swords from those time periods there were 100's of different rapiers including big mainly ones the size of a long sword. Even Kantas have come in different lengths in different centuries and sometimes by different Ryu's. Way to much stuff made by the media over the years on TV. People wonder why they have 100 of different weapons while they all came about to counter what an enemy did there is no one sword that works for all combat or weapon. Hell look at spears and the different length from 2 handed to 1 handed; they had special spear/javelins that you would through and the tips would bend after they stuck in the shield to force them to discard their shield or have to remove the spear/javelin.

Pikes are for cavalry charges and really worthless in a regular fight but in D&D they get wielded like a precision spear so what ever way too much angst over the rapier.

I do think the weapon table was the one main thing that under whlems me in 5e overall but it is what it is and what we have to deal with but there is nothing I really freak out about

Thurmas · Mar 8, 2017

Personally, I allow players to use a Rapier and a dagger for Two Weapon Fighting in my group, without the feat, but nothing larger then a dagger (1d4). Its really not much different then them using two short swords or scimitars, 2d6 vs 1d8+1d4. Themactically it makes sense. If they want to go beyond that, with say two battleaxes, they need the feat.

I just find it silly that in order to use a common fighting concept of a rapier and dagger, it requires a feat, which are optional rules anyway.

Ed Laprade · Mar 8, 2017

hejtmane said:
The real issue everyone thinks that a rapier is this light thin sword from the Italian, french etc courts but like most swords from those time periods there were 100's of different rapiers including big mainly ones the size of a long sword. Even Kantas have come in different lengths in different centuries and sometimes by different Ryu's. Way to much stuff made by the media over the years on TV. People wonder why they have 100 of different weapons while they all came about to counter what an enemy did there is no one sword that works for all combat or weapon. Hell look at spears and the different length from 2 handed to 1 handed; they had special spear/javelins that you would through and the tips would bend after they stuck in the shield to force them to discard their shield or have to remove the spear/javelin.

Pikes are for cavalry charges and really worthless in a regular fight but in D&D they get wielded like a precision spear so what ever way too much angst over the rapier.

I do think the weapon table was the one main thing that under whlems me in 5e overall but it is what it is and what we have to deal with but there is nothing I really freak out about

Absolutely! The rapier was originally called a cut and thrust weapon for a reason. That's how I envision them. (And since the idiots at WotC don't know what a Warhammer looks like, or what it can do, I feel fully justified in doing so.)

The Crimson Binome · Mar 8, 2017

hejtmane said:
The real issue everyone thinks that a rapier is this light thin sword from the Italian, french etc courts but like most swords from those time periods there were 100's of different rapiers including big mainly ones the size of a long sword.

Is there a picture of one in the book? I don't recall that part of the 5E PHB clearly, but of the games and editions which I do recall showing a rapier, it's always of the type that everyone thinks of. It would be terribly confusing if they included stats for the rapier, but then changed their description of the weapon to something else, even if that change was historically accurate.

It would be kind of like if they included a claymore that wasn't a two-handed sword (or a mine); it would just be unnecessarily confusing.

Krachek · Mar 8, 2017

Who is the Str 8 guy?

He can carry 8x15 = 120 pounds. Drag, lift or push 240 pounds. Compared to our modern standard, it is a solid and strong guy.

Is this enough to use effectively a medieval long bow? Sure. It need 130 around pounds of draw. Modern curved hunting bow ask 60 pounds of draw.

Is this enough to deal with a blade a lethal wound. Sure, if you can lift 240 pounds, putting your strength behind a dagger, it will reach the hart.

So the Str 8 guy can be a deadly opponent using a bow, a rapier or a dagger. If you have over the norm reflex and balance you become a nasty killer.

D&D 5E I hate rapiers. Do you?

Do you like the way 5e has handled rapiers?

Absolutely not! I hate, hate, hate the way 5e has handled rapiers.

I dislike 5e rapiers so much I have houseruled a nerf on them.

I like rapiers, and I eat paste.

I only participate in polls with leading questions.

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