D&D 5E Have you ever seen these weapons used regularly by PC's in a D&D 5e game?

[Tonguez]

You'd be surprised. A lot of people like Sinbad and the Arabian Nights. Scimitars have some popularity. And then there's the Drizzt crowd.

In 5e Druids can use Scimitars too, its the coolest weapon for the martial druid - but yeah all my Prince of Persia builds go Scimitar too

Glaives are the coolest Polearm

Great ax works better for Barbarians

slings are thematic

I’ve used a net but thats because we were a circus doing live trapping of giant hamsters

daggers should be d6 for dedicated knife fighters

 

[Imaculata]

My current barbarian character uses a Glaive and it's pretty great. Top tier damage and range too! Combine it with Polearm Mastery, and you can often make extra attacks against your enemies.

 

[jgsugden]

My preference is that they do away with specific weapons and replace it with a 'build a weapon' system where you'd select the abilities for the weapon you decide to wield and then use your creativity to describe the weapon. I have such a system when people want to use weapons that do not fit the predefined builds - and it works fine.

And, yes, you do need to make sure certain combination (heavy finesse weapons for example) can't be created casually, but that is not hard. I'd just rather PCs had moe opportunities to be inventive and distinctive.

 

[FrozenNorth]

I guess I should have expected greataxe to be used, even if the greatsword is strictly better. People love axes. Scimitars though? That's a pretty narrow niche "I need a finesse, light, slashing weapon"!

I boost their damage to be an alternative to yet another rapier and remove the light property.

 

[FrozenNorth]

daggers should be d6 for dedicated knife fighters

I’ve been considering a free fighter ability (or maybe also available as a half-feat) that boosts your damage with simple weapons by one die size. Adds some variety to fighter weapons.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

greataxe glaive and scimitar.

 

[James Gasik]

The main reason Glaive and Halberd are on the list is that they are completely redundant- I was curious if one was ignored in favor of the other, or if it was really about even. Which so far, it seems that it is about 50/50 whether one is used or another.

But I do feel bad for the Pike. I'm the only person I've seen IRL actually use one!

 

[CreamCloud0]

The root cause of this poll IMO is that mass simple/martial weapon proficiencies are handed out to far too many classes, meaning that you simply don’t have any reasons to use the lesser weapons as you probably already have access to something else that does the same job better. I think more classes need better curated weapon proficiency lists with 3-4 martial weapons and only half the simple weapons that are ‘right’ for them thematically.

 

[Quartz]

I think you need to consider the technology level of the campaign. In a Roman or Migration Period campaign you're not going to see greatswords because they're beyond the technology of the time, but greataxes are not. And you're not going to see full plate armour either, and because of that halberds and many other polearms are not going to be present. Pikes / sarissa are formation weapons and your average PC isn't going to be fighting in formation. Similarly the innovation of cavalry invites scimitars, their curved blades being better at slashing from horseback.

 

[James Gasik]

The root cause of this poll IMO is that mass simple/martial weapon proficiencies are handed out to far too many classes, meaning that you simply don’t have any reasons to use the lesser weapons as you probably already have access to something else that does the same job better. I think more classes need better curated weapon proficiency lists with 3-4 martial weapons and only half the simple weapons that are ‘right’ for them thematically.

Basically if you have any business being in melee combat, either you have a martial weapon lurking in your proficiency list, or you have access to something like shillelagh, that makes a subpar weapon more relevant.

Which does leave a few weapons laying around that exist because....it would be strange if they didn't, but nobody is really expected to use them.