depends on who/what you are fighting. also there can be other opponents close by.
D&D 5E Can a Battlemaster pickup a disarmed weapon as part of his action?
depends on who/what you are fighting. also there can be other opponents close by.
Ahrimon
Bourbon and Dice
I don't know if I'd allow them to pick it up without spending a full action since I would interpret the weapon as being at the feet of the original weilder. So lvl 5+ battlemaster could do it with their 2nd attack. Characters should only have access to interact with things in their immediate area, or square if you are using squares, as a free action.
Chocolategravy
First Post
You can disarm with your bare hands or a dagger etc. which would mean that when it is dropped it is still only an arm's length away at most, so the dropped weapon should be in the immediate area as long as a reach with a reach weapon wasn't used.
Torgaard
Explorer
First, yes I'd allow anybody to pick it up, as per the rules noted in the original post (p.190 of the Player's Handbook, lower left corner, "Interacting with Objects Around You"). I don't have a problem with that. I guess I can imagine a scene where the character (again, anybody could do this, not just your Battlemaster) quickly steps over to the dropped weapon, briefly menaces their opponent with a whole "I'm-picking-this-up-but-I'm-totally-ready-to-hit-you-instead!" kind of a move - which would account for why there's not opportunity attack or anything like that. Because of course it's important to remember that combat isn't just a blow-for-blow exchange of one die roll to the next, it's 6 seconds of parry's, dodges, thrusts, footwork, maneuvering, etc. And in this case: a second or two of quickly bending down and snatching up a weapon.
Second, for many years I've included a Disarm mechanic in my games in some way or another. And I've always had a system for handling what happens when an opponent is disarmed. It spices things up, it's very fast, and quickly became second nature to pick up a d10 and d4 and roll away (see below). I guess I've seen a system or two like this before, but here it is if you're interested:
Direction the weapon flies - If I'm not using a map grid, I imagine the opponent is standing on one. I imagine a 3x3 grid, with the oppoenent standing in the middle square. I roll a d10 to determine which direction the weapon flies. 1 is the upper-left square, 5 is the square the target is standing in, 9 is the lower-right square. Reroll 10's.
123
4X6
789
Distance the weapon flies - I roll a d4 to determine how many squares (1 square = 5' of course) the weapon flies. Eg. roll a 2 and the weapon flies 10'.
It sometimes creates some fun scenarios where maybe it's a race between the opponent and the player to get where the weapon is. The best times are the occasions where the weapon flies to the square the player is occupying (or over it, or near it) and - just to make the player look a little more heroic or badass, which is always a good idea - you give the player a chance to catch the flying weapon with a dexterity check, etc. If a player catches the weapon, or the opponent is unable to reach it, I almost immediately make a morale check (or work in an Intimidation check from the player) by the way.
I'll modify the rules a bit if it's a heavy two-handed weapon (I typically disregard the d4 roll and just say it flops into the direction square), but you get the gist of it.
Second, for many years I've included a Disarm mechanic in my games in some way or another. And I've always had a system for handling what happens when an opponent is disarmed. It spices things up, it's very fast, and quickly became second nature to pick up a d10 and d4 and roll away (see below). I guess I've seen a system or two like this before, but here it is if you're interested:
Direction the weapon flies - If I'm not using a map grid, I imagine the opponent is standing on one. I imagine a 3x3 grid, with the oppoenent standing in the middle square. I roll a d10 to determine which direction the weapon flies. 1 is the upper-left square, 5 is the square the target is standing in, 9 is the lower-right square. Reroll 10's.
123
4X6
789
Distance the weapon flies - I roll a d4 to determine how many squares (1 square = 5' of course) the weapon flies. Eg. roll a 2 and the weapon flies 10'.
It sometimes creates some fun scenarios where maybe it's a race between the opponent and the player to get where the weapon is. The best times are the occasions where the weapon flies to the square the player is occupying (or over it, or near it) and - just to make the player look a little more heroic or badass, which is always a good idea - you give the player a chance to catch the flying weapon with a dexterity check, etc. If a player catches the weapon, or the opponent is unable to reach it, I almost immediately make a morale check (or work in an Intimidation check from the player) by the way.
I'll modify the rules a bit if it's a heavy two-handed weapon (I typically disregard the d4 roll and just say it flops into the direction square), but you get the gist of it.
This. So much this.
Tony Vargas
Legend
If you can't pick up the dropped weapon, presumably, your opponent will just do so, making the maneuver nearly useless (not quite, he's still not taking Reaction Attacks for a few seconds). While nearly, rather than completely, useless isn't terrible for a battlemaster maneuver, I think you should cut the archetype all the slack you possibly can - in the spirit of rulings not rules, of course...
The more discussions I see regarding Disarm, the more I'm convinced it was purposely omitted from the PHB as a standard combat option and remained vague as an optional rule in the DMG.
Since nothing is set in stone for Disarm beyond the basic "your opponent drops his weapon," a hard-coded tactic can't be exploited ad nauseam by the PCs or their humanoid enemies in a race to disarm each other and quickly end a fight in a rather boring fashion. And while some players may not be comfortable investing resources into a feature that relies heavily on DM adjudication, the 5e ruleset clearly has no qualms about placing the efficacy of a feature squarely in the hands of the DM (e.g. the Stealth/Hiding rules).
Since nothing is set in stone for Disarm beyond the basic "your opponent drops his weapon," a hard-coded tactic can't be exploited ad nauseam by the PCs or their humanoid enemies in a race to disarm each other and quickly end a fight in a rather boring fashion. And while some players may not be comfortable investing resources into a feature that relies heavily on DM adjudication, the 5e ruleset clearly has no qualms about placing the efficacy of a feature squarely in the hands of the DM (e.g. the Stealth/Hiding rules).
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Chocolategravy
First Post
Probably has a lot to do with people in the playtest taking Asmodeus's absurd rod away from him and clubbing him to death like a baby seal with it. Seems like fixing a paper cut with an amputation.
Possibly. Or it could be that in most combat situations, Disarm simply isn't a very fun mechanic.
For anything that relies on a weapon to be effective in combat, assuming the weapon can easily be taken away after it is dropped, Disarm is analogous to a Save or Die spell. Conversely, trying to codify all of the possible results and follow-up tactics to make it more balanced would likely net an unwieldy subsystem that bogs down the game.
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