Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cap'n Kobold" data-source="post: 6864647" data-attributes="member: 6802951">It is the only Finesse, Reach weapon around. Its rather handy for a dex-based character to deal damage (since their dex bonus and potential sneak attack will go some way to make up for the slightly smaller dice) from behind the front line. It has the advantage of being able to apply effects like disarming and knocking prone, using a dex-based attack, without exposing yourself (since ranged attacks do not generally have that option).There are lots of basically slightly suboptimal weapons in the PHB. Is the intention to make a new feat for each of them, giving special rules to "rebalance" them all so those who want to use one for flavour reasons don't have to gimp their character to do so?Quite frankly, the whip is the only weapon that can do what it does. A character who wants to be able to do what the whip allows them to do isn't gimping themselves. And a player who isn't interested in its existing capabilities, but just its DPR, to whom the loss of those one or two points of damage is a dealbreaker isn't likely to worry about flavour that much.You are perfectly correct that wielding a whip as a weapon in the first place makes little sense, and trying to wield another whip in your other hand makes even less. But D&D allows some well-liked tropes even if they're not realistic. Both Indiana Jones and Zorro were famous characters who used whips as a part of their toolset, and occasionally as a backup weapon. If you want to do something and you think the fact that the presence of your shield would make it significantly easier in this circumstance, then by all means, ask your DM about that as well.The polearm feat might not make much sense in RL, but within the mechanics of the game it has a specific purpose: to allow something that wouldn't be allowed by the rules otherwise. (Making an off-hand attack with a two-handed weapon.) That is different from the DM deciding whether there is a handy projection over a pit and ruling that your whip gives you advantage in your check to get across.</blockquote>

Verification