Because it qualities for great weapon fighting fighting style and a special versatile weapon feats.
D&D (2024) Longsword finesse when used 2H
- Thread starter Bill Zebub
- Start date
Horwath
Legend
the worst style in the game and what versatile feat exactly?
To be honest I have not seen a lot of the handwringing about longswords in play.
The only characters I know who have proficiency and don't use them are generally Rogues. We have plenty of dex martials and ranged characters that use longswords for two reasons.
First and most commonly Gauntlets of Ogre power are pretty common (actually uncommon but you know what I am saying) and girdles of giant strength are not unheard of. At medium to high levels it is usually a dex-based martial that is sporting these things. Combine this with the fact that longswords are the most common magic item, especially powerful magic items, this makes them often a good choice.
Second if you roll stats straight up (i.e. roll strength, not roll something and assign it to strength) you can end up with a high enough strength score that using a longsword is more than viable, especially like noted above if it comes magic. for example if your Elven Ranger rolled a 14 strength, using that +1 longsword you found as your melee weapon is not a bad idea.
I find that many of the mechanics issues surrounding certain armor and weapons choices come from people using point buy and the idea of "dump stats". Rolling largely eliminates these problems (and causes others)
The only characters I know who have proficiency and don't use them are generally Rogues. We have plenty of dex martials and ranged characters that use longswords for two reasons.
First and most commonly Gauntlets of Ogre power are pretty common (actually uncommon but you know what I am saying) and girdles of giant strength are not unheard of. At medium to high levels it is usually a dex-based martial that is sporting these things. Combine this with the fact that longswords are the most common magic item, especially powerful magic items, this makes them often a good choice.
Second if you roll stats straight up (i.e. roll strength, not roll something and assign it to strength) you can end up with a high enough strength score that using a longsword is more than viable, especially like noted above if it comes magic. for example if your Elven Ranger rolled a 14 strength, using that +1 longsword you found as your melee weapon is not a bad idea.
I find that many of the mechanics issues surrounding certain armor and weapons choices come from people using point buy and the idea of "dump stats". Rolling largely eliminates these problems (and causes others)
Bill Zebub
“It’s probably Matt Mercer’s fault.”
I’m not sure that an old school stat generation method that isn’t even offered as an option in 5e (or is it buried somewhere that I’ve forgotten?) is the best basis for an argument that everything is fine as it is.
Clint_L
Legend
I'm not sure what they are getting at by "roll stats straight up."
Rolling for stats rather than using point buy is still the first recommended option in the PHB: "You generate your character’s six ability scores randomly. Roll four 6-sided dice and record the total of the highest three dice on a piece of scratch paper. Do this five more times, so that you have six numbers. If you want to save time or don’t like the idea of randomly determining ability scores, you can use the following scores instead: 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8."
But that still allows you to assign them. Just rolling once for each stat in order is super old school and if that is what they are getting at, that does seem like a Quixotic argument.
Bill Zebub
“It’s probably Matt Mercer’s fault.”
Yeah unless I read it wrong that’s what they are saying. “…roll strength, not roll something and assign it to strength.”
Clint_L
Legend
When I started playing, in 1979 (!) we just rolled the six stats, in order, using just 3 dice for each. Needless to say, it was pretty hit or miss, and you wound up throwing away a lot of characters because they just weren't viable for anything. We made a house rule that you had to have two rolls of 13 or higher or you got to re-roll. It still made classes like paladin basically impossible (min 17 in charisma!). Then the new DM's Guide came out and we started using the option where you got to roll six times for each stat and keep the best one. That was when I got my first character with an 18 - a ranger with 18/94 strength, which we were all in awe of (back then, rangers were a strength build, and the extra percentile was a thing you only did for strength, which meant that at level 1 he was +2/hit, +5/damage).
I did not say use the PHB method.
When I said "straight up" I meant you roll dice (using whatever method, there are a lot) and what you roll is your strength score. That is your strength score before bonuses. Pick up the dice and roll again. That is your dexterity score .....
Usually we use an alternate method with varying number of dice for every stat for this, so you usually get a good roll in the stat you want a good roll in, but it still prevents "assigning" a dump stat, your low stat(s) are random.
Last edited:
Similar Threads
