D&D 5E Homebrew feat - whip master

[auburn2]

So I have just been thinking about a homebrew feat for using a whip Indiana Jones style. I based this largely on polearm master which offers a reaction-reach attack and a bonus attack, this uses a non-damaging disarm/shove/grapple attack and you also must hit to do it (not merely attack to do it).

1. When you take the Attack action and attack with a whip and hit the target you can immediately use a bonus action to attempt to disarm the target, grapple the target or use a special form of shove against the target. Disarm and grapple are handled per the standard rules in the DMG and PHB. Shove is handled as a normal shove except the enemy is moved up to 5' towards the whip wielder instead of away. The whip wielder can alternatively attempt to shove the target prone.

2. When wielding a whip other creatures provoke an opportunity attack from you when they enter the reach you have with the whip.

What do you think? sucks, OP, just right? This could be combined with sentinel to give rogues and other dex characters a good melee control option. In terms of damage it is inferior to polearm master by quite a bit. A polearm master is going to do over twice as much DPR (1d4+S/D vs 1d10+1d4+2xS) with the gap widening with multiple attacks. This gives more control options though.

 

[Flamestrike]

So I have just been thinking about a homebrew feat for using a whip Indiana Jones style. I based this largely on polearm master which offers a reaction-reach attack and a bonus attack, this uses a non-damaging disarm/shove/grapple attack and you also must hit to do it (not merely attack to do it).

1. When you take the Attack action and attack with a whip and hit the target you can immediately use a bonus action to attempt to disarm the target, grapple the target or use a special form of shove against the target. Disarm and grapple are handled per the standard rules in the DMG and PHB. Shove is handled as a normal shove except the enemy is moved up to 5' towards the whip wielder instead of away. The whip wielder can alternatively attempt to shove the target prone.

2. When wielding a whip other creatures provoke an opportunity attack from you when they enter the reach you have with the whip.

What do you think? sucks, OP, just right? This could be combined with sentinel to give rogues and other dex characters a good melee control option. In terms of damage it is inferior to polearm master by quite a bit. A polearm master is going to do over twice as much DPR (1d4+S/D vs 1d10+1d4+2xS) with the gap widening with multiple attacks. This gives more control options though.

OP as heck.

You dont want finesse + reach weapons triggering easy reaction attacks, or else Rogues become the stickiest class in the game, as it doubles their damage output every round and creates a 10' zone around them of sneak attack death.

No Rogue would use anything else.

The first section can also be tidied up.

 

[DND_Reborn]

We just use the following whip rules, which you can replace your attack with:

in place of an attack.

As to your feat:

I would remove the second part as it is a bit powerful for some builds, and work on the wording for the first part. Personally, I am not a fan of getting to attack with the whip, dealing damage, and having a bonus action rider effect, which is why our rule allows the other options to replace an attack.

Either way, you might want to add the "shove" can push the target back as well as bring them 5' closer, as well as prone. Whips are often used to keep things away from you, after all.

 

[auburn2]

OP as heck.

You dont want finesse + reach weapons triggering easy reaction attacks, or else Rogues become the stickiest class in the game, as it doubles their damage output every round and creates a 10' zone around them of sneak attack death.

No Rogue would use anything else.

The first section can also be tidied up.

I don't get that, can you explain?

The reaction has to be taken with the enemy 10 feet away, you can't wait until he is 5' away to use it, so you can't typically get SA damage with the reaction. Rakish Audacity does not work unless the enemy is within 5 feet and to get an SA otherwise you would need an ally within 5 feet of the enemy or you would need to have advantage. To provide a 10' SA zone of death around the rogue you would need to surround the whip-wielding Rogue with 6 allies. Also Rogues would have to multiclass because they are not proficient with whips.

Now in a corridor or something you could position the rogue with 2 allies in front of him to provide a "zone of SA death" in one direction, but enemies would have three quarters cover because of the allies between the rogue and the target and the rogue would have a -5 to hit if you did that.

For a swashbuckler wielding a whip instead of a rapier would actually mean you could not get SA damage on a normal AOO (barring specific and rare circumstances) where you can get SA just about all the time with a rapier on an AOO currently.

Not saying you are wrong, I just do not understand the logic. If anything I think the feat increases reaction opportunities but wielding a whip at all reduces SA opportunities with reactions.

 

[Dausuul]

I agree with others that #2 is too strong.

#1 is too weak for a feat all by itself; maybe also allow a grapple attempt on a successful OA with the whip?

 

[CubicsRube]

I would remove #2 as others suggest.

For #1, I'd be tempted to put in an extra whips do "1d6 damage" as well as a "you are proficient with whips if you are not already" which makes it more tempting for builds other than just rogue.

I think it provides just the right amount of temptation to play a whip build (just cause they're fun). Heck, I'd play it.

 

[_Eternus_]

I know I'm late to this party, but Its important to note that in 5e the Phb states "You can make an opportunity attack when a hostile creature that you can see moves out of your reach." So #2 in the feat is already a core mechanic in the game. It's the reason whips deal 1d4 damage, they'd be too powerful otherwise with both reach, finesse, and the ability to dual wield.

Additionally battlemaster fighters get the ability to perform all the maneuvers listed in #1 as part of an attack, and the feat (Martial Adept) Grants 2 of them and a single superiority die to use them with. Otherwise there is nothing stopping a whip user from tripping, disarming, etc as an action in and of itself.

 

[Dausuul]

I know I'm late to this party, but Its important to note that in 5e the Phb states "You can make an opportunity attack when a hostile creature that you can see moves out of your reach." So #2 in the feat is already a core mechanic in the game.

#2 triggers when the creature enters your reach, not when it leaves your reach. Polearm Mastery has the same feature; but you can't Sneak Attack with polearms.

 

[_Eternus_]

#2 triggers when the creature enters your reach, not when it leaves your reach. Polearm Mastery has the same feature; but you can't Sneak Attack with polearms.

Oh wow I missed that. Yeah that's op af.

 

[_Eternus_]

Honestly as far as whips go what 5e really lacks isnt feats that are applicable to them, but rather more variety of the whips themselves. There are 7 blade, 9 hammer, 4 axe, 5 bow, and 4 polearm options, but only 1 whip option. Irl whips range from 3-10 feet on average with some special whips that exceed that. I'd like to see a Bullock whip in 5e, 2 handed, easily 15' reach. Or a snake whip that does 1d6 but has a str req and no finesse.