D&D 5E Ye Olde Two Handed Weapon Problem in Modern D&D

Zardnaar · Jul 6, 2019

Since around 2003 I think the D&D designers have dropped the ball with great weapons across multiple editions.

Put simply they deal to much damage relative to one handed weapons. Note I'm not disputing they shouldn't but I think a roughly 50% boost in damage (6.5 or 7 vs 4.5 for a d8 weapon). Of course you gave up using a shield.

IIRC 3.0 let you deal 50% more strength damage. Maybe they weren't quite good enough but this was mostly a boost of one or two damage. Crits also hurt a lot more.

3.5 however tweaked the power attack feat to -1/+2 to hit/damage. Pathfinder added +100% strength modifier. 4Es 1W/2W/3W etc benefits larger weapons a lot more. Not that we spent much time on 4E. 5E critical system also benefits them more but the great weapon master feat is the main offender.

I almost miss the old AD&D longsword as I only had to deal with that for 6 years, but we used weapon speeds so daggers, darts, shortswords etc also got used.

Says something where 3.0 may have done it best. Anyway am I off track here or have all the designers over the last 20 odd years dropped the ball.

Giltonio_Santos · Jul 6, 2019

In those days, they used to design weapons like they felt was right. Post-3e, I get the impression that weapons are designed for a function. Trap choices, no matter how organic they feel, should be avoided in the design of the game. If you want to be a damage dealer warrior, you shouldn't be wielding sword and shield, and two-handed weapons must be designed in a way that makes that clearly obvious for the casual player. I'm not saying that I agree with or support this decision, it's just what I get from that change.

Esker · Jul 6, 2019

It's not really 50% more though when you factor in ability mod. At +3, it's average 10 for a greatsword vs 7.5 for a one-handed longsword, etc., so 1/3 more before crits/fighting styles/feats, and the ratio goes down from there as you increase your stat (or get magic weapons).

Crits widen the gap a little bit, but it's a very tiny amount. Fighting styles narrow it, since dueling adds more than GWF. Of course, barbarians don't get a fighting style which makes two-handed weapons a relatively better option for them, but that seems fitting to me.

The big difference maker is the GWM feat, though you need to make certain other build choices for it to really have a big impact (or be a barbarian and use reckless attack constantly), and at that point you're really optimizing for doing damage at the expense of other things, so I'm not bothered by the fact that you're pushed to using a big weapon.