D&D (2024) 3 Months in - Weapon Mastery

[TaranTheWanderer]

Ok, spent an entire weekend doing an adventure with EK.

We were playing Prisoner 13 which is a heist game so not too many opportunities for fighting.

My review of my EK build is here.

Topple. It's great, especially paired with nick. If you can hit that initial trip, your next attacks are at advantage. It never worked consistently and that was with an 18 in the main stat but, when it did it was nice. Once I was 5th, getting the extra attack with a staff meant more chances to trip. This is a great ability for a fighter, I think.

Nick: it's weird. Mostly because I don't quite understand it. It's great having 3 attacks/round when dual wielding but it's worded weirdly. Do you have announce that you are using your bonus action to take the extra attack action before you use it? If so, then a rogue can't use it with the "aim" action. We just said it gives an extra attack for free. It seems a bit power creepish.

Push: I didn't get to use this much. My plan was to use Booming Blade and then push an enemy away. Then, if they want to engage again, they're forced to move and, therefore, activating booming blade. I used it for one attack and the guy died before I could see how well it would work. It's nice that there's no save.

 

[Zardnaar]

I feared they might be a problem, but in the games i GM'd so far the players hat tons of fun with it and it wasn't a big deal on my side.

The most common Mastery was Vex and Nick, but the players tried other like Topple, Cleave, Sap,.. to mostly good effect. I thought sap would be a drag since it can make most of the monsters impotent (especially on the fighter with all the multiple attacks), but it did wasn't a big deal in the end.

Only slow really sucks, I have not seen a usefull effect from this once.

Cloud of Daggers, whip, slasher feat.

 

[Zardnaar]

Ok, spent an entire weekend doing an adventure with EK.

We were playing Prisoner 13 which is a heist game so not too many opportunities for fighting.

My review of my EK build is here.

Topple. It's great, especially paired with nick. If you can hit that initial trip, your next attacks are at advantage. It never worked consistently and that was with an 18 in the main stat but, when it did it was nice. Once I was 5th, getting the extra attack with a staff meant more chances to trip. This is a great ability for a fighter, I think.

Nick: it's weird. Mostly because I don't quite understand it. It's great having 3 attacks/round when dual wielding but it's worded weirdly. Do you have announce that you are using your bonus action to take the extra attack action before you use it? If so, then a rogue can't use it with the "aim" action. We just said it gives an extra attack for free. It seems a bit power creepish.

Push: I didn't get to use this much. My plan was to use Booming Blade and then push an enemy away. Then, if they want to engage again, they're forced to move and, therefore, activating booming blade. I used it for one attack and the guy died before I could see how well it would work. It's nice that there's no save.

Our hypothetical build is EK, Shillagh, staff.

Guide origin, warcaster and fae touched for hex.

Topple is essentially the Battlemaster ability at will. I'm a fan of knocking prone woth melee characters.

Strength based probably use a maul.

 

[Zardnaar]

I have a question for anyone who has been playing for a while.

I have not used 5e24 yet, but I am about to start a PbP game (well, continue, changing the character over from the old rules) and my character has weapon mastery in vex. Which provides advantage on subsequent attacks.

Has anyone seen how this plays out in practice? Specifically, the character has 2 attacks a round with the vex weapon, and almost always goes first with advantage (three levels in assassin, high dex, etc.) and is pretty good at dealing damage. In the prior version, he sometimes had advantage, but it seems like this weapon mastery would almost always result in advantage, every single attack, allowing other features (more damage from sneak, etc.) to come into play.

I know that 5e24 "upped" a lot of the power level, and I am happy that they are providing martials with some cool stuff, but it feels ... like a lot. Would like to know how vex works in practice.

I know that advantage is often overrated, but I am so used to the old 5e I am having trouble understanding how this will play out.

One trick is to increase the first weapons attack. Eg bard dice, inspiration, precise strike battlemaster fighter, level 10 champion etc.

If it lands action surge and if it works advantage on the next 4 attacks or 6 (lvl 6 warrior, 11 fighter).

 

[ECMO3]

Here is how I would rate them in order based on play so far:

Nick:
IME the most effective is nick and it seems pretty straightforward in our group. Attack with a light weapon, nick with a nick weapon without using a bonus action. As long as you have other uses for a bonus action and don't mind using a light weapon for at least one attack it is pretty awesome. If you cheese the sword and board with light weapons it would be way OP. Grabbing nick through the feat or a 1-level dip on a Monk is the cat's meow.

Sap:
Giving an enemy disadvantage with no save is really good, it is even better on a high level fighter using it with a weapon that doesn't have it (topple+Sap or Cleave+Sap)

Cleave:
Third best is Cleave. This is especially good on a Warlock when combined with Pact of the Blade, Agonizing Green Flame Blade and running Hex. Also really good on a Paladin with Divine Smite.

Vex:
Vex works best on a Rogue with a Rapier or a Pistol. It is good for two weapon fighting with nick, but then you are usually using your Vex on your nick attack and losing it the next round.

Topple:
Topple is ok. It is situationally the best against flying enemies who plummet to the ground when you knock them prone, but against walking enemies it is outclassed by the four above it. One big disadvantage is the disadvantage it causes for ranged allies (pun intended).

Graze:
A little bit of damage, not enough to write home about.

Push:
Situationally useful when pushing an enemy matters. The reason it is better than Slow IMO is because how it can be a force multiplier for emanations and Frightened.

Slow:
Situationally useful in combats that start with a lot of separation. Most of my tables rarely see ranges good enough to get a lot of use out of it.

 

[ECMO3]

Has anyone seen how this plays out in practice? Specifically, the character has 2 attacks a round with the vex weapon, and almost always goes first with advantage (three levels in assassin, high dex, etc.) and is pretty good at dealing damage. In the prior version, he sometimes had advantage, but it seems like this weapon mastery would almost always result in advantage, every single attack, allowing other features (more damage from sneak, etc.) to come into play.

IF you are playing with a Rapier or two shortswords it will be advantage a lot. Not every attack because if you miss (with advantage) you won't have advantage on the next attack and you won't have it when you need to attack someone else.