D&D 5E (2024) This Feels Like 4E

[Reef]

I disagree. Draw cuts are cool. Doing a draw cut and immediately sheathing the weapon, while in the same motion doing another draw cut with another weapon in the opposite hand is even cooler. If repetitive attack patterns bother you, I can’t imagine how you would enjoy D&D combat at all, since it’s all just “I attack with [weapon]. I attack with [weapon] again.” Whether it’s the same weapon twice or two different weapons, it’s still going to be the same attack pattern round after round.

I can see that. And draw cuts are cool . I guess it’s just that draw cuts are cool at the start of the fight, but resheathing three weapons just so you can do three draw cuts every six seconds is what kills my disbelief.

I guess that’s what I think was intended by the draw rules…allowing cool stuff like draw cuts at the start of the fight. Not necessarily multiple times every round.

And I can see how you could say that the standard attack routine is just as robotic. But in my mind, maybe because it’s not specific as to what the attack is, that it feels more freeform? It’s an attack…but is it a slash, stabs, backhands, etc. The imagination has room to play. But that’s just a me thing, and I don’t expect everyone to agree.

 

[Neonchameleon]

depending how you imagine it.

Say you fighting several enemies as a group.
one is next to you and 2 are at your wizards face.

with 1st attack you might use warhammer to Push that opponent from you, so you avoid AoO then switch to great ax to cleave at the two at your wizards side.
then if one is still alive, you might want to action surge and maybe use Topple or Sap on one that is still standing to weaken their next turn and better protect your party members.

again, being weapon agnostic, clears some of this problem.

Ironically there's no need to come out smelling like gorgonzola if you want to do that as a martial character of reasonable level (and you can't do this before level 5 anyway). Level 9 fighters can use Push, Sap, or Slow on any attack so you take a Cleave or Topple weapon and Barbarians have Forceful blow to get free pushes and follow up. (And neither Monks nor Rogues juggle weapons).

 

[Charlaquin]

Ironically there's no need to come out smelling like gorgonzola if you want to do that as a martial character of reasonable level (and you can't do this before level 5 anyway). Level 9 fighters can use Push, Sap, or Slow on any attack so you take a Cleave or Topple weapon and Barbarians have Forceful blow to get free pushes and follow up. (And neither Monks nor Rogues juggle weapons).

Why wouldn’t a rogue be able to juggle weapons? Between the Nick mastery and the Dual Wielder feat, a rogue can make three different attacks with three different weapons in the same turn.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Why wouldn’t a rogue be able to juggle weapons? Between the Nick mastery and the Dual Wielder feat, a rogue can make three different attacks with three different weapons in the same turn.

Nope, only two. Nick only removes the bonus action cost from an off hand attack, it doesn’t let you make another one. You need to do something else with the bonus action it frees up.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Why wouldn’t a rogue be able to juggle weapons? Between the Nick mastery and the Dual Wielder feat, a rogue can make three different attacks with three different weapons in the same turn.

Why would they want to? Rogues are basically about Vex and Nick.

 

[Charlaquin]

Nope, only two. Nick only removes the bonus action cost from an off hand attack, it doesn’t let you make another one. You need to do something else with the bonus action it frees up.

Something else, like making the bonus action attack from Dual Wielder.

 

[Charlaquin]

Why would they want to? Rogues are basically about Vex and Nick.

Why would a rogue want to make three attacks in one turn…? Why wouldn’t they?

 

[Reef]

Why would a rogue want to make three attacks in one turn…? Why wouldn’t they?

They obviously would! But none of that requires any weapon juggling.

 

[Charlaquin]

Here’s the rogue sequence: have your shortsword drawn. Attack with it. Dual wielder allows you to draw or sheathe two weapons when you make an attack as part of the attack action, so sheathe your shortsword and draw your scimitar. Attack with the scimitar as part of the attack action using the Nick property (potentially with Advantage due to the shortsword’s Vex property). Once again, dual wielder allows you to draw or sheathe two weapons as part of the action, so sheathe your scimitar and draw your rapier. Attack with it using the bonus action attack from Dual Wielder. Since this is not the attack action you can’t draw or sheathe any weapons from this attack, so end your turn.

Next turn, attack with your scimitar, drawing it and sheathing your rapier as part of the action. Then attack with your shortsword using Nick, drawing it and sheathing your scimitar as part of the action. You have no more draw/sheathes left to get the rapier back out, but you can still use your bonus action attack from dual wielder to attack with the shortsword again, and you’ll start your next turn with your shortsword already drawn, so you can repeat from step one. Three attacks per turn, three opportunities to land a sneak attack. On alternating turns you either get a bit higher damage on one of the attacks with your rapier, or an extra chance to land Vex with your shortsword.

 

[Charlaquin]

They obviously would! But none of that requires any weapon juggling.

I guess, but juggling gets you an extra half a point of damage per round on average! Not a big loss if your DM doesn’t allow it, but no sense leaving it on the table if juggling is allowed.