D&D 5E Dex-based greatsword?

[Fishing_Minigame]

Sneak Attack + Great Weapon Fighting = Bad.

but a ranger focusing on archery+ finess greatsword=fine...

ANyway I came back with a suggestion... have an elven smith working with mithril make a light weight finess greatsword...

If you go down this path you more or less obsolete strength.

Yeah, this is going to be a one-off thing for this particular character, and only because its a weird situation where its important to the character but they weren't built to take advantage of it. It would definitely be a magic weapon (without the +1) so I can require attunement. That way there's no casually lending it to the rogue...

I like the mithril idea. My other idea was that maybe it was made of some nifty wood that's only found in the heart of an elven forest.

 

[Celtavian]

It should be fine. I don't think it will lead to broken situations. 5E is very much a game that allows you to do odd things like a dex-based greatsword with little to no effect on the game. We started using a house rule where you can sneak attack with any weapon. I don't see a problem with it. Damage is in a very tight range in 5E. A small difference like allowing dex over strength shouldn't affect it. It's not like previous editions where Dex was so good that allowing it would make for an imbalanced character. Everything in 5E is capped and attacks can attack any ability score, there are a lot of dangerous attacks that target low strength characters. I think you're fine allowing it.

If you do, you may want to do a few modifications for stylistic purposes. I'd remove the heavy property from the Greatsword. Make it a finesse greatsword that is made for a dex-based character. This also prevents a dex-based character from using a feat like Great Weapon Mastery. I wouldn't do this for power gamer reasons. I'd do it because it doesn't make sense for a dex-based character to be able to hammer down hard with a heavy weapon.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Put me in the "make it special for this character" camp.

I like the idea of it being some kind of special weapon of Elven design. Mithril+magic allows the blade to be unnaturally light; but a blade that light requires substantial, dedicated training in order to use as effectively as a "normal" greatsword, so it's an "exotic" weapon proficiency that must be taught by a master. Even better would be if it has some minor-but-nifty abilities, such as:

- Absorption. This special greatsword was designed to be sympathetic to external magic fields. For someone proficient with, and attuned to, a specific blade of this kind, it is possible to invoke a ritual that captures part of the magic of a different weapon. No special properties can be transferred, as they cannot be worked into the blade, but if the owner finds a normal greatsword of a higher enhancement, she can spend an hour to conduct an arcane ritual that will transfer that enhancement bonus to this sword. The other greatsword is destroyed in the process, its strength exhausted to empower the mythril greatsword. The ritual will fail, causing no change, if the other weapon is not a greatsword, or if its enhancement bonus is equal to or lower than the current enhancement bonus of this weapon.
(With this property, the character no longer needs to worry about abandoning her old sword--but also can't just take any old +1 dagger or whatever and soup up her greatsword.)

- Glowing. (Everybody loves glowing/harmlessly flaming swords.) Perhaps it glows in the presence of particular enemies, or when near running water or a tree that was recently cut down or something.

- Singing. The potent underlying enchantment of this greatsword causes it to constantly produce small sounds as long as it is outside of its scabbard. When at rest, it hums quietly, and a soft tap to the blade produces a bell-like ring which seems to linger longer than it should. When swung in combat, snippets of airy, tuneless music can be heard; whether they are influenced by the current course of a given battle is hotly debated.

The first is meant as a quality-of-life kind of thing, just making things easier on your Ranger friend--making it perfectly reasonable that she'd keep one signature weapon for her whole career. The other two are just examples of neat purely-cosmetic quirks that seemed appropriate for a beautiful, magical, elven weapon.

 

[Delazar]

Does it have to be called "greatsword"? I would also go with the "elven blade" suggestion, but instead of making it a "two-handed" weapon, I'd just add "finesse" to the longsword. So you can use it with two hands (versatile) and use Dex with it.

 

[S'mon]

Start with this:

Elven Courtblade (Martial Melee): 1d10, Slashing, 8lbs, Two-Handed, Finesse.

Then tell any Rogues drooling to knock it off, they aren't proficient with it anyway.

This, but I'd allow a d12 for this character's special-snowflake sword, that distinguishes it from the standard d8 1-handed rapier.

 

[Xeviat]

It's only a problem for Rogues and sneak attack if they multi class and pick up great weapon fighting. Even then, that's only a +0.66 bonus per sneak attack die, which doesn't even add up to the accuracy boost gained by using twfing on a rogue.

Go for it. Personally, I like "1d10, finessable, two handed" over 1d12 and heavy, but that's more because I don't like the idea of heavy finessable weapons.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Does it have to be called "greatsword"? I would also go with the "elven blade" suggestion, but instead of making it a "two-handed" weapon, I'd just add "finesse" to the longsword. So you can use it with two hands (versatile) and use Dex with it.

I'm...pretty sure that if it could just be "longsword, with finesse" that would've come up by now. I suspect the greatsword was chosen for a reason.

I don't like the idea of heavy finessable weapons.

You raise a good point. Unless there's a good reason not to, I would say making the weapon Finesse should remove the Heavy property. Though, all things considered, "Heavy" is exclusively a negative trait (its only function is to inflict disadvantage on Small characters) so it's not like that's actually making it better-balanced

 

[Leatherhead]

Though, all things considered, "Heavy" is exclusively a negative trait (its only function is to inflict disadvantage on Small characters) so it's not like that's actually making it better-balanced

The "Heavy" tag is used for the Great Weapon Master Feat, specifically that -5/+10 bit that makes some people's eyes cross. But outside of that optional rule, it only serves to keep the small man down.

 

[fjw70]

Unless the player is asking for such a thing then I would just leave it alone. If they are asking for it then a custom magic item would be in order I think.

 

[Minigiant]

Magic weapon it.
Even better intelligent LN magic weapon it and make it hate thieves and assassins.

"You are okay. You're a ranger. Not a damn thief. I hates thieves. They fight without honor."