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Message: <blockquote data-quote="spinozajack" data-source="post: 6599899" data-attributes="member: 6794198">My suggestions:-Don't give away free feats. Other players will scream foul. -You can let him dual wield handaxes and reflavor them as battleaxes until he can get the Dual Wielder feat at level 4. -Single attacks don't refluff to two attacks in the narrative sense, so use the dual wielding rules instead of some fake super-axe houserule.-Make a custom weapon to be "heavy battle axe" which is identical to the regular battle axe but requires proficiency (use background to give this proficiency at first level), and it has the heavy property so it can be used with great weapon master feat. That is definitely in the jurisdiction of the DM and other players could then do it as well.-Or you could add a "double axe" weapon type which also requires custom proficiency but is both heavy and has an offhand attack built in. I'd keep it to 1d6, 1d6, maybe go ahead and give 1/2 ability mod to damage on both ends, why not. It's still weaker mechanically than a polearm for a barbarian. Then you can reflavor that as being two separate handaxes or battleaxes if you want. Keep the math and damage balanced to the base system for fairness. The dual wielder feat could bump the damage up to 1d8 and 1d8 so that it's balanced compared with dual wielding two battle axes.You can also just make the str mod bonus give 1/2 to each hand so that the off hand doesn't feel limp or "weak", and then if he multiclasses to fighter for the TWF fighting style it goes back up to full mod. That's fair, actually a slight penalty at level 5 because he'd have two main hand attacks by then so would lose out by 1/2 mod.The big penalty for barbarians is losing out on the great weapon master feat since they get advantage on all their attacks so the to hit penalty is less onerous. Dual wielding anything but a polearm is a trap choice mechanically for barbarians, which is why I think there should be a "heavy battle axe" proficiency, and maybe "heavy hand axe" too (though you'd need the dual wielder feat). That way he could take both proficiencies at first level as part of his background and still be able to dual wield and pick up great weapon master at level 4, which is when most non-human barbarians take it one would assume. The good thing about adding a custom weapon type for your campaign is that other PCs can then choose to take it if they want and think it's really sweet.I would add a "double axe" proficiency which is 1d6 but heavy and has 1/2 damage mod on both ends (unless the user has TWF style) explicitly in the item description. That would be perfectly balanced against a greatsword for damage and feat applicability. Plus it would be two-handed so you can use great weapon style on it too. And maybe take a second fighting style from a couple levels in ranger to add up the TWF on top. That would be rad.</blockquote>

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