Can Sharpshooter be used with a Net?

dnd4vr said:

It seems a bit sad you would switch to using a blowgun because it does 1 damage. How could you justify it doing 1000% more damage because of Sharpshooter? When you consider the net does no damage, does 1 measly little point really justify the feat boost ability?

I would rather try to work with my player to bring about the concept they want instead of worrying so much about the rules, but that is me.

If I had a rogue using a net to sneak attack with, the damage can be warranted by reasons I've already outlined, but if that doesn't work for your game, I hope you find something that does.

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I don't feel it would be against* a home game. I simply wanted to investigate how a net might be useful.

*Though, upon further review, I could possibly see a game balance ruling against it...

1) Rogue throws Net for sneak attack damage
2) Opponent is restrained and needs to take an action to attempt getting out
3) Bonus action to deft hands another net
4) start over at #1

hmm...

This just hit me as I was typing this, but perhaps a net and shield combo could be interesting.

1) Throw net
2) restrained opponenet
3) shield master bonus to knock the opponent prone
4) speed 0 opponent can't stand up

Johnny3D3D said:

I don't feel it would be against* a home game. I simply wanted to investigate how a net might be useful.

*Though, upon further review, I could possibly see a game balance ruling against it...

1) Rogue throws Net for sneak attack damage
2) Opponent is restrained and needs to take an action to attempt getting out
3) Bonus action to deft hands another net
4) start over at #1

hmm...

This just hit me as I was typing this, but perhaps a net and shield combo could be interesting.

1) Throw net
2) restrained opponenet
3) shield master bonus to knock the opponent prone
4) speed 0 opponent can't stand up

Click to expand...

Sure, I am certain someone could find abuses for it, which is why I said it would need more thought and play testing before implementing it. However, I think it could also led to some very interesting and unrealized character concepts which would function more closely to historical and story-based versions--such as the net/trident gladiator.

But also if you consider the way things already work, someone with a blowgun doing 1 damage could still theoretically add up to 10d6 sneak attack anyway. Add a paralytic poison and now a DC check is required for that, too. How things play out and are narrated would be a factor of course, but I think it would be worth looking into if someone wants to add it to their table.

Johnny3D3D said:

To some extent, it was a thought experiment I had to try to make a normally weak weapon do the most damage. Kensei didn't work with a net because of the special property, but that lead me to thinking about how a net might be useful.

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Crossbow Expert. Net in one hand, hand crossbow in the other. Action to toss the net onto an enemy within 5 feet (Crossbow Expert negates the Disadvantage), that frees up your net hand to load the crossbow so you can fire it as a bonus action, now with Advantage since the target is restrained. That’ll qualify you for Sneak Attack if you have any Rogue levels (it’s just too bad Rogues aren’t natively proficient with nets). If you don’t have Sneak Attack, the Advantage could just help balance out the drawback for Sharpshooter. And then you can throw out this little one-two punch from up to fifteen feet away.

Just make sure you carry a LOT of nets if you want to do this regularly.

I would have to come down saying RAW yes, Sharpshooter can add it's damage to the net. The only requirement for the sharpshooter feat is that it be a ranged weapon (no requirement for damage), and net is listed under the heading "Martial Ranged Weapons" in the PHB. There is nothing in the "special" rules for nets that forbids it.

I agree that it's probably not the intent, however.

No 5e rule that you can't add damage to something that does no damage?

S'mon said:

No 5e rule that you can't add damage to something that does no damage?

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There may be one, but I don't know of it. It certainly creates issues if no damage type is specified.

Sharpshooter says it adds 10 to the attack's damage, but the net attack does not inflict damage. There's nothing to add 10 to.

That said, the other benefits of Sharpshooter should work fine with a net, and in fact Sharpshooter appears to be the only way to attack with a net without disadvantage. (Since the net's range is 5/15, you will either have disadvantage for being at long range, or for attacking in melee with a ranged weapon.)

True, but you add 10 to the attack's damage, not the weapon's damage. A DM could rule it either way. When you consider it costs you an attack, it is hardly unreasonable. Other attack combinations cause much more damage.

Of course, a large issue is the idea of it being a ranged attack. It depends greatly on how the net is used. Historically it was used to try to restrain an opponent, but also laid on the ground to try to trip them. Since there is no "ranged melee" category, I would have preferred if the net was considered a melee weapon with reach 10'. This would avoid potential abuse of sneak attack (as a ranged weapon) with the net.

There's nothing that says it doesn't work, and if you really want to give up all of your attacks to make one attack that has less chance to hit and does less damage than using a real weapon, as a DM I'm certainly not going to stop you. I'm also not going to make combats easier on you just because you choose to make dumb maneuvers. There's plenty of ways to explain a net doing damage, and mechanically this is just a bad idea so if you're really into it, go for it.

The way I like to use a net is on a EK archer who has crossbow expert and sharpshooter. She has her familiar do a help to get advantage on the attack, throws a net, and if it hits follows up with a bonus action -5/+10 hand crossbow attack at advantage, then action surges for another two -5/+10 crossbow attacks at advantage. That's much more RAW (the 'familiar goes on your initiative' isn't technically RAW but is a common change to speed up combat), and much more effective. Leaving an enemy restrained and doing over 50 damage in the first round is not too shabby for a 5th level character.

Johnny3D3D said:

This just hit me as I was typing this, but perhaps a net and shield combo could be interesting.

1) Throw net
2) restrained opponenet
3) shield master bonus to knock the opponent prone
4) speed 0 opponent can't stand up

Click to expand...

Here's another example of "I'm not going to stop you from making your character weaker" - you're going to spend a feat and give up using a weapon in order to make a good ability less effective. If you skipped knocking the enemy prone, they'd be restrained by the net, which gives all of your allies advantage on attacks. When you knock them prone, you give your ranged allies disadvantage on attacks and give no benefits that restrained doesn't already give you.

Dausuul said:

That said, the other benefits of Sharpshooter should work fine with a net, and in fact Sharpshooter appears to be the only way to attack with a net without disadvantage. (Since the net's range is 5/15, you will either have disadvantage for being at long range, or for attacking in melee with a ranged weapon.)

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Actually there is another way - Crossbow Expert removes the disadvantage for attacking an enemy within 5'. A crossbow wielder who gets sharpshooter and crossbow expert is also a net expert by accident.

Dausuul said:

Sharpshooter says it adds 10 to the attack's damage, but the net attack does not inflict damage. There's nothing to add 10 to.

That said, the other benefits of Sharpshooter should work fine with a net, and in fact Sharpshooter appears to be the only way to attack with a net without disadvantage. (Since the net's range is 5/15, you will either have disadvantage for being at long range, or for attacking in melee with a ranged weapon.)

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0+10 = 10, not 0.