Fighter brainstorm

[James Gasik]

To put this into perspective, one of my favorite old school magic items (despite never actually getting one in all the decades I've played D&D) is the Rod of Lordly Might. This multi-functional item can be a mace +2, a +1 flametongue sword, a +4 battleaxe or lance.

Now in those days, this had meaning. You'd need a mace against some foes, and clay golems were infamously immune to attacks by anything but magical bludgeoning weapons. The battleaxe is likely superior to the sword (flaming just made the weapon have a variable plus against different kinds of foes), but most Fighters use swords. And the lance is just gravy.

But if you gave this to someone today, it would be a battleaxe 99% of the time. Because there's not much reason for it not to be.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

So if your greataxe wielding Fighter stumbles across a magic greatsword, you're just going to toss it aside because you only use one weapon: a greataxe?

nope... I would say it depends....

let me give you some examples...

kurt had no magic items but a rapir refluffed as 'elven longsword' he comes across a +1 maul... nope not taking a +1 str two handed weapon over his finesss 1 handed he has

Matt and Joe both have longswords and shields and we come across (in diffrent rooms) during a dungeon a +1 short sword and a +1 sheild... since having a magic weapon helps the party even if it lowers the damage die they decided to keep the items togather and Matt gets them so he can hurt things that need magic and is a bit extra protected... the next set of games we don't get any magic weapons but by level 5ish we come across a holy hammer... it doesn't have a plus but at will you can change from blut damage to radiant damage... that hammer sat unused until we gave it away... by higher level both had magic longswords (I think matt actually had a +3 one at the end)


my barbarian... this one is me as a player I started with a great axe, and game 2 or 3 we found a +2 spear... in this case the world had magic shops so I claimed it and traded it in later for a magic great axe


craftsman +1 short swords... so we had a DM who had a dozen "enemy" stats in a note book and would just reuse them with slight tweeks,,, since his rogue/stalker/assasin (depending on whn thos stats were used) had 1 short sword attached to his/her to hit, we found dozens of +1 short swords... we joked they were mass market craftsman short swords.... we DID have 1 melee character take one, other then that the rest of our melee characters just chose to wait for bigger weapons, and as such we had at least a dozen at one point while people didin't have magic weapons...


my current artificer uses a gun (that never needs reloading and is +2 thanks to an infusion) or my cantrip I call razor webbing (thorn whip refluff) or if close my shock web (lightning lure) but often just punch with my thunder punch (I have two weapon fighting so I can add damage with off hand so I have 3 full attacks)
I am the tank of the party (and thanks to my magical power armor that is fullplate+2 helm of awwarness made of adamantine... I do a pretty good job. We find magic weapons all the time. Since we don't often use weapons we mostly just collect them or give them away.



Have I played characters that NEED to switch, sure it happens, but not often, I mean even random drops of items you can pretty much find what you want.

 

[Sacrosanct]

To put this into perspective, one of my favorite old school magic items (despite never actually getting one in all the decades I've played D&D) is the Rod of Lordly Might. This multi-functional item can be a mace +2, a +1 flametongue sword, a +4 battleaxe or lance.

Now in those days, this had meaning. You'd need a mace against some foes, and clay golems were infamously immune to attacks by anything but magical bludgeoning weapons. The battleaxe is likely superior to the sword (flaming just made the weapon have a variable plus against different kinds of foes), but most Fighters use swords. And the lance is just gravy.

But if you gave this to someone today, it would be a battleaxe 99% of the time. Because there's not much reason for it not to be.

Sure there is. Monsters today still have resistances and immunities. And illustrates a value in the versatility that the fighter has that the cantrip casting wizard doesn't.

"I cast firebolt."
"Ok, the monster is resistant/immune to fire."
"Um...ok. well...."

"I attack with my axe."
"Ok, the monster is resistant/immune to slashing damage."
"Oh, so I break out my warhammer then."

 

[GMforPowergamers]

If you are choosing to only use one or two weapons as a counter argument to me using all cantrips as a comparison, then yeah, you're choosing to ignore the rules.

again wizards can swap out for any cantrip... fighters can swapp out for any weapon... EXCEPT a fighter can only deal damage with a weapon, cantrips you can do damage or clean things or send messages or grant a bonus or many other things...

 

[Sacrosanct]

again wizards can swap out for any cantrip...

No they can't. A wizard can't swap their cantrips out with others whenever they want, like a fighter can with weapons.

 

[Incenjucar]

Wizards get up to 5 cantrips plus all the other spells they carry. Admittedly it's technically possible to have just the worst spells for a given situation.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

To put this into perspective, one of my favorite old school magic items (despite never actually getting one in all the decades I've played D&D) is the Rod of Lordly Might. This multi-functional item can be a mace +2, a +1 flametongue sword, a +4 battleaxe or lance.

Now in those days, this had meaning. You'd need a mace against some foes, and clay golems were infamously immune to attacks by anything but magical bludgeoning weapons. The battleaxe is likely superior to the sword (flaming just made the weapon have a variable plus against different kinds of foes), but most Fighters use swords. And the lance is just gravy.

But if you gave this to someone today, it would be a battleaxe 99% of the time. Because there's not much reason for it not to be.

back in 2e that ROD was like the best...

 

[W'rkncacnter]

"I attack with my axe."
"Ok, the monster is resistant/immune to slashing damage."
"Oh, so I break out my warhammer then."

"The monster is also resistant/immune to bludgeoning damage."
"Wait, what?"
"It's 5e."
"Oh. Yeah. Dammit..."

 

[GMforPowergamers]

"I attack with my axe."
"Ok, the monster is resistant/immune to slashing damage."
"Oh, so I break out my warhammer then."

what monsters (you can approximate no need to do an exact count if you can get 2 examples and a ball park number) are immune to slashing damage?
(note not nonmagic damage, slashing of any magic or no)

 

[GMforPowergamers]

No they can't. A wizard can't swap their cantrips out with others whenever they want, like a fighter can with weapons.

Cantrip Formulas​

At 3rd level, you have scribed a set of arcane formulas in your spellbook that you can use to formulate a cantrip in your mind. Whenever you finish a long rest and consult those formulas in your spellbook, you can replace one wizard cantrip you know with another cantrip from the wizard spell list.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Wizards get up to 5 cantrips plus all the other spells they carry. Admittedly it's technically possible to have just the worst spells for a given situation.

it is not only possible but I have seen it happen... it's not super common but it happens.

 

[Sacrosanct]

"The monster is also resistant/immune to bludgeoning damage."
"Wait, what?"
"It's 5e."
"Oh. Yeah. Dammit..."

then you break out the spear. Or whatever.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Cantrip Formulas​

At 3rd level, you have scribed a set of arcane formulas in your spellbook that you can use to formulate a cantrip in your mind. Whenever you finish a long rest and consult those formulas in your spellbook, you can replace one wizard cantrip you know with another cantrip from the wizard spell list.

Switching after a long rest is very much not like switching on the fly.

"Oh, excuse me Mr. immune to fire monster, let me do a long rest and we'll attempt this battle again...."

 

[Zubatcarteira]

what monsters (you can approximate no need to do an exact count if you can get 2 examples and a ball park number) are immune to slashing damage?
(note not nonmagic damage, slashing of any magic or no)

Seems to be exactly 2, Black Puddings and Ochre Jellies (and their variations).

 

[W'rkncacnter]

then you break out the spear. Or whatever.

and then the exact same thing happens with piercing damage. because it's 5e, and there are incredibly few monsters with resistance/immunity to one weapon damage type and not both the others. that was my entire point.

 

[Sacrosanct]

and then the exact same thing happens with piercing damage. because it's 5e, and there are incredibly few monsters with resistance/immunity to one weapon damage type and not both the others. that was my entire point.

Not just immunities, but vulnerabilities as well. The skeleton comes to mind right away, but I'm sure there are many others. Normally use your longsword but come across a skeleton version of a monster? Break out the mace.

Edit a quick search on D&D Beyond gave me 24 monsters like this.

 

[Zubatcarteira]

Seems to be exactly 2, Black Puddings and Ochre Jellies (and their variations).

For the others, there seems to be one that's immune to bludgeoning, an artifact from Tasha's, Mighty Servant of Leuk-o.

None immune to piercing that I can find.

 

[Incenjucar]

Vulnerabilities are pretty rare, and are usually to energy types. The weapon switching scenario is going to be pretty rare overall outside of range/melee switching.

 

[Sacrosanct]

OK, if you're the type of person to do laugh emojis at people who disagree with you, then that's a one way ticket to the ignore list. For everyone's sake. I believe we had a conversation about that in the meta forums not long ago...

 

[Zubatcarteira]

For the others, there seems to be one that's immune to bludgeoning, an artifact from Tasha's, Mighty Servant of Leuk-o.

None immune to piercing that I can find.

For bludgeoning vulnerabilities, it's mostly skeletons, along with an Ice Mephit, a mirror Fey thing, and a stone cursed.

There's a baloon in Spelljammer that is weak to piercing, and Rakshasas as well if the attacker is good and has a magic weapon.

None to slashing in general, just the Jabberwock weak to Vorpal Sword slashing.