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

[Sunseeker]

If you've ever watched a classic swashbuckling film, you know the first thing you do after disarming someone is grab their weapon or kick it away.

Everyone can "pick up an object" or "draw a weapon" as a free action. If you have a free hand, grab your opponent's weapon right off the ground before your turn ends! Alternatively, kick their weapon across the room, make them have to run away from you to get it. You either get a free AoO AND they waste their turn traveling across the room and getting their weapon, or at worst: they waste their turn, assuming they take the disengage action.

 

[Flamestrike]

The optional rule for disarming (DMG p271) is as follows:

A creature can use a weapon attack to knock a weapon or another item from a target's grasp. The attacker makes an attack roll contested by the target's Strength (Athletics) check or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check. If the attacker wins the contest, the attack causes no damage or other ill effect, but the defender drops the item.The attacker has disadvantage on its attack roll if the target is holding the item with two or more hands. The target has advantage on its ability check if it is larger than the attacking creature, or disadvantage if it is smaller.

It doesn't specify where the dropped weapon lands, so it seems reasonable to assume that it lands in the same square as the owner.

However, it seems that picking up an object (such as a dropped weapon) can be part of a creatures movement during it's turn, which means that it can pick up the weapon before making an attack. End result? Disarming is pointless.

Is it correct that a creature could just pick up the weapon? Perhaps Disarm only works in conjunction with a second action on the part of the attacker: to grab the weapon, to kick it away, or to shove the creature away from the square where the weapon lands. Is that the intention of the writers, do you think? It seems convoluted. The whole rule section seems unfinished. Am I missing something?

Youre forgetting that the disarmer also has a free object interaction.

So after he disarms the creature, he can use it to (kick the weapon away) or (pick the weapon up).

 

[The Human Target]

Disarming in D&D is either utterly useless or cripplingly powerful based on how the weapon system works.

Following the guidelines people have outlined in this thread makes it cripplingly powerful.

Most weapon using creatures without their weapon are totally emasculated.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

Disarming in D&D is either utterly useless or cripplingly powerful based on how the weapon system works.

Following the guidelines people have outlined in this thread makes it cripplingly powerful.

Most weapon using creatures without their weapon are totally emasculated.

I'm not sure the situation is quite as extreme as you suggest it is - in part by the relative effectiveness of unarmed attacks and improvised weapons, and in part by the relative difficulty of getting a weapon-reliant creature that is far more powerful while armed to actually lose their grip on their weapon and not have the odds heavily in their favor to just take it back from you.

Can you show examples of opponents that would be "crippled" and/or "emasculated" by losing one of their weapons?

 

[SmokingSkull]

Honestly Disarm only works against beings that can hold weapons, a.k.a. anything humanoid with enough intelligence and capacity to use a weapon in the first place. Most monsters don't really have weapons besides natural ones, and short of cutting said appendages off you cannot disarm these. Plus unless you're a Fighter or some other martial with multiple attacks to play with the option doesn't seem too appealing considering other things you can do. However it does have its moments to shine, and thus can be useful but it really depends on the context of the situation. As for where the weapon drops the Interact with Object action can and will solve your problems RAW, however if you want a more cinematic approach that's on you/or the individual DM.

I used it only once in the campaign I'm playing, but the situation called for it. Our group was trying to get two groups of gnomes to make a peace treaty as they have been fighting each other for so long. The one leader of the community "agreed" to attend this negotiation, but ended up bringing a knife to stab the other leader. Thankfully one of our party members found out about this and told my character about it. Being that my character was a former Soldier and KNEW how to handle his weapons thus he proceeded to disarm said gnome immediately.

Not only did that work but we managed to smooth over the debacle and got the treaty signed when we brought the other and more reasonable co leader to the negotiation. All without hurting a single person, and all it took was some good ol' CQC to end it.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

When we use to play Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (1st edition), there was one combat result that did the same..."opponents weapon is knocked away". What we did was just use a backgammon die (I think it was), the "doubling die" (2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64)...that was how many feet the weapon went flying away. A d8 decided the direction (with 1 being behind the disarming character, 5 being behind the character that just got disarmed). Quick, simple and random. Just the way we like our Warhammer!

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[SmokingSkull]

For some reason the system double posted me even though I did not, deleted for system silliness and unnecessary repeating.

 

[Ristamar]

Youre forgetting that the disarmer also has a free object interaction.

So after he disarms the creature, he can use it to (kick the weapon away) or (pick the weapon up).

I'd don't think I'd normally allow someone to freely interact with an object in an opponent's square/area without, at the very least, some sort of opposed check.

 

[firstkyne]

Disarming should be an option when you reduce an enemy to 0 hit points.
You can choose to Leave him at 1 hit point and disarmed.
Otherwise it tend to be a gimmick show.

It sounds like you have had a bad experience with the rule? I quite like this idea. I think I will try it out. Thanks.

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[firstkyne]

It's an optional rule. If you think it's broken, either house-rule it (as the DM) or talk to your DM about it.

I house-rule it in my games (as the DM). I require a successful attack roll... and then an opposed Athletics/Acrobatics roll, with the suggested modifiers for size and two-handedness. In other words, it's a little bit harder then the single contested roll above. To counterbalance the increased difficulty, I usually create some cinematic reason why the opponent doesn't just pick up their weapon again. It gets knocked out a window or behind furniture, broken (if non-magical), scooped up by a PC, or some other circumstance.

I've found that by increasing the difficulty, but making the disarm meaningful, it has achieved the desired level of use at my table. The players will attempt a disarm every now and then (maybe once every session or two), but usually only against someone who is clearly getting a major advantage from their weapon..

I like this idea. Krachek, above, might be interested, too. Did you rule that a player or character could pick up the dropped Weapon as part of their movement? Or did sobbed so take up an action?

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