D&D 5E And the award for "Best Improvised Weapon" goes to....

Fauchard1520

Adventurer
At my own table, the award went to comic related. The clever monk thought to ask what manner of food was filling up the vampire's banquet table. The vamp got "steaked," and we lost our collective naughty word.

Can you do better? What is the best improvised weapon you've ever seen in play?
 

log in or register to remove this ad

MarkB

Legend
Nothing special comes to mind in D&D, but so many examples in Spycraft. There was one time we were dropped into a mission in rural India, and our local contact was a doctor who was going to lend us a spare ambulance as transport, and we needed to take out a nearby insurgent base's comms tower. We'd need a distraction in order to get in there unscathed.

So we wound up buying the ambulance, along with the several barrels of spare fuel he had for it, which were loaded into the back and topped off with a C4 charge. Then the wheelman set it on a course for the front gate, lights on and sirens blaring, and bailed out, while we got ready to go in the back.
 

Umbran

Mod Squad
Staff member
Supporter
Not many good examples come to mind from D&D. I suspect that's because in D&D, improvised weapons suck, so folks avoid using them.

Elsewhere, however?

Cans of Campbell's soup. It is astounding how much damage you can do with a thrown can of soup, when your character is strong enough to lift a medium-sized truck without breaking a sweat.
 
Last edited:

Maxperson

Morkus from Orkus
During 2e one of my characters unknowingly picked a fight with a vampire. Not having a real magic weapon at that time, I pulled out my one +3 arrow and tried to shove it(and therefore the wooden shaft) through his heart. I hit and he decided that the risk wasn't worth it and we both went our separate, relieved ways.
 


Bitbrain

Lost in Dark Sun
In my gameplay experience, the best improvised weapon is...

drumroll

Another PC.

My table has a house rule that if you throw someone at a target and hit, the thrown PC rolls the damage of their chosen weapon and also gets a bonus to damage based on the distance they “fell”.

So, if you were thrown 20 feet, hit, and decided to use your flame tongue greatsword, you deal 6d6 + your Strength modifier
 

In a submarine harbor, one of my players used a steam powered crane to grapple a giant crab. It was like playing a crane game, but bigger.

Also, one of my players dropped a large chandelier on top of a group of cultists, crushing them all in one go.
 

jgsugden

Legend
Just off relevant answer: I had a Mountain Dwarf Barbarian that had to break through a hatch. After a couple embarrassing strength rolls (with advantage no less), he climbed the 200 foot surface adjacent to it, pulled out his maul, and did a Thor dive straight into the hatch. The hatch took as much damage as the dwarf, and we were through.

On topic answer: A rogue snuck into a mountain cave to scout and proceeded to a.) Blow their stealth, b.) blow their perception, and c.) blow their initiative. The giant inside landed three high damage crits. Then, it carried the rogue out and threw the rogue as a boulder attack, which crit and took down a wounded PC, who proceeded to fall from their hiding spot (1 auto failed death save) and then roll a 1 on their death save at the start of the next turn. When the giant waged into battle, I had it pick up those two downed corpses and dual wield them.

Throwing the rogue was a way to let the PCs get their items back, and a way to potentially allow them to heal the rogue before it had three failed death saves (although they assumed the rogue was dead and never checked). Dual wielding the corpses was a way for me to reduce the damage the giant was going to deal to a suddenly underpowered group. It was horrific, though, to see in play. The rogue player doodled it all down and that ended up being on my binder cover for a while.
 

Azzy

ᚳᚣᚾᛖᚹᚢᛚᚠ
Cans of Campell's soup. It is astounding how much damage you can do with a thrown can of soup, when your character is strong enough to lift a medium-sized truck without breaking a sweat.
Soup for my family? 😉
 


Remove ads

Top