D&D 5E Is disarming broken in D&D 5e?

[Cap'n Kobold]

It's a tactic so good you should always do it.

It's a fighter save or suck spell.

I think that you missed Patrick's point:
Actually pulling that off is going to be difficult. If you need three tries before you're successful, then that's three attacks worth of damage you just gave up to perform it. More if you're actually using the disarm-shove combination to stop him picking it back up.

 

[Ahglock]

Sounds to me like a great tactic to use on those nasty brutes. I don't have the Monster Manual in front of me, but does the Orc Chieftain have a good Strength (Athletics) bonus?

He doesn't. It's not bad, but I don't think a single enemy has athletics or acrobatics trained. I've added it to the odd monster here and there if I wanted it to be a tactic for the fight. But usually players have a relatively easy time pulling it off. But any d20 roll off can go hinky no matter how much better you are. D20 is a big variable.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

An orc chieftain gets disarmed, losing his 1d12 great axe.

He pulls out a 1d4 dagger.

...why did he go for his dagger, rather than the spear in his stat block? It'd be a 1 point drop in his damage per attack.

Also, a great axe is a two-handed weapon so we are talking about the disarming character having succeeded on disarming a foe that has a +4 Strength modifier while having disadvantage on their attempt. Same with the spear when held in two hands.

So to get this chieftain down to using a dagger, we have to disarm him of at least two - but probably more, since the chieftain likely has a few spears in order to enable throwing some if seen fit - weapons, while every action spent trying to remove the weapon to reduce the chieftain's damage that fails likely hasn't done anything to actually stop the chieftain from "the only thing he's really going to be doing anyway" the party in the meantime.

 

[S'mon]

For me it seems:
1. RAW makes disarm too easy vs a skilled opponent.
2. RAW makes picking something off the floor in the middle of a fight too easy.

My Primeval Thule GM gives an opportunity attack from enemies if you stoop to pick something up, or stand up from prone. That seems reasonable to me.

Conversely I'd suggest that without the Battlemaster maneuver you should have to beat foe's roll by 5 to disarm in the first place.

 

[firstkyne]

I have put some ideas for house rules in my original post. Would love to get feedback.

One thing in particular, Should disarm be a contest of Attack roll vs Attack roll (to represent that weapon skill is required to avoid being disarmed, which makes sense to me)?

At the moment, RAW, its weapon skill versus Dex (Acrobatics) or Strength (Athletics).

Being good at Acrobatics or Athletics doesn't actually mean you know one end of a weapon from the other, does it, really?

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

Being good at Acrobatics or Athletics doesn't actually mean you know one end of a weapon from the other, does it, really?

I think the use of Acrobatics or Athletics is more of an abstraction of the situations when it isn't necessarily weapon skill in play anymore - like when there is a tug-of-war over a weapon, or quickly snatching your weapon out of mid-air before your opponent does or before the weapon has been flung out of your immediate reach.

Of course, I don't see any problem with having the defense against disarming be an attack roll - except that the current language used in the game describing what an attack roll is doesn't already fit using one as a defense (but that's not a big deal because it doesn't already fit rolling against a skill check instead of AC, either).

 

[Azzy]

One thing in particular, Should disarm be a contest of Attack roll vs Attack roll (to represent that weapon skill is required to avoid being disarmed, which makes sense to me)?

Makes sense to me.

 

[Jediking]

Should disarm be a contest of Attack roll vs Attack roll (to represent that weapon skill is required to avoid being disarmed, which makes sense to me)?

At the moment, RAW, its weapon skill versus Dex (Acrobatics) or Strength (Athletics).

Being good at Acrobatics or Athletics doesn't actually mean you know one end of a weapon from the other, does it, really?

I see Disarm used quite a bit, but I let anyone choose to use the existing RAW rules OR to use Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) to keep a hold of it or Strength (Sleight of Hand) to try to disarm someone. Just a personal thing that let's a lesser-used skill be a bit more effective IMO, and people like to describe some cool flourish.

And if a Orc Chief has a d12 axe, it's a good idea to try and get rid of it. Or if a Wizard keeps casting bolts of fire at you, try and Grapple him. But the Orc Chief might have the same idea against your Sorcerer, so watch out.

 

[Toon]

Well as per the RAW of interacting with an object. A player can interact with one object on their turn without using an action. So as part of the same disarm action, an imaginative player can interact with the now interactive object. They can kick it in any direction, pick it up (or catch it) then use it or hand it to some one, or they could simply stand on it. Any number of things could be done to interact with the object, as part of the same action, or movement.
There is no need to write special rules, or homebrew this situation. It's all right there, for those with the imagination to do something about it.

 

[firstkyne]

Yeah, we discussed all that. The whole point was that the RAW don't allow the full breadth of rich possibilities that disarming offers in fiction or cinema. You can't specify that the weapon is driven into the inn ceiling and out of reach. Or flip it away into the lava pool. I was trying to work out how to allow the sorts of player options without causing imbalance. I'm hearing there, but since you like the rules as they are,
You won't be interested. Those of us with the imagination will pretend you read the whole thread.