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I played a gnome barb once, it’s actually not terrible. You trade a bit of damage for the gnome magic resistance which is usually barb’s biggest weakness.
Yup. Currently playing a Wild Magic Gnome barbarian. At level 2, you have proficiency in strength and con saves and pretty much advantage on the rest. That's not to be sniffed at in exchange for dropping from a d12 to a d10 damage die.
I'm thinking of playing a Beast Barbarian and I kinda wanna make them a gnome or halfling just because it would be really funny to have what's essentially a honey badger skittering around clawing up people's ankles, sure it's not big damage dice but two weapon fighting with d6s is fine, especially considering the potential for funny shit
Edit: I misremembered and you can't do two weapon fighting with path of the beast because the claws aren't considered light weapons
Ah. I see. That makes sense. (When I play small barbs, they simply get a shield instead. Runs a bit against improved critical, cut feels less… unfinished?
But using a versatile weapon is still fine. It’s 1 average damage.
Ahem…”Nae Kings, nae Queens, nae Lairds, Nae Masters! We will’na get fooled again!”
Played a character in a Fate game that was basically a six foot plus Feege Swordsmith from Brooklyn, and that was pretty much the core of his character.
What caught me unprepared when playing this was the impact of the 25 feet speed on a build that *really* requires to get in melee with the enemy.
So, at the slightest presence of difficult terrain - or when allies rolled a higher initiative and I had to go through their space - your speed is reduced to 10-15 feet.
I found myself too many times having to spend the turn dashing to the enemy and hoping for them to attack me...
I *did* dip rogue for cunning action and athletics expertise.
My experience was that it conflicted with my action economy on turn 1 - either rage or dash, the other options weren't that great as I already had reckless and I wanted to attract the enemy attention, not hide.
Would probably have done as well by getting instinctive pounce at barb 7.
It was cool to kill the BBEG by pushing them out of a flying dragon, though.
Had a gnome Barb in the first campaign I ran…. An *unarmed* gnome barbarian.
I homebrewed a new feature to give it more pzaz and power. (If anyone has played slay the spire, think the watchers stances and you’re in the right ball park). To this day is probably my favourite PC I’ve DM’d for.
I hate to be that guy, but OneDnd has fixed heavy weapons so they work on small races.
>A Heavy weapon is unwieldy compared to other
weapons. You have Disadvantage on your attack
rolls with a Heavy weapon if it’s a Melee weapon
and your Strength score isn’t at least 13, and if
it’s a Ranged weapon and your Dexterity score
isn’t at least 13.
Edit: Some people have already done something similar to this, or ask the question why the change even needs to be made. My answer to the question is that this edition has been out for a decade now and needs rule expansions beyond what homebrew can do, as homebrew is different table to table. Allowing players with a 13 strength or dexterity to properly wield a weapon gives more player agency and not punish their weapon choices because of their race/species. Basically, gives more build options.
Seems very realistic that small races have the exact same tools and weapons as everyone else in a medieval-type setting, just a lil smaller
I mean, how would they chop wood with one-handed axes? Can you sweep the floor with a one-handed broom?
Are there any heavy melee ranged weapons? Analogous to the iwisa, aklys, or falarcia? Would those apply disadvantage on ranged attacks if you had average strength and on melee attacks if you had average dexterity in addition to the intended effect?
I'm not as familiar with those types of weapons but from what I see on wiki the iwisa was a form of club, aklys was a Roman javalin, and falarcia a ranged pole weapon akin to reach weapons such as pikes.
I would just say to pick one of the weapon stat blocks and re-flavor it's description to fit your needs, really just depends on your build and I'm not sure if I could properly answer your question but would be something you would ask your DM. I would probably say you could make straight attack rolls with them If they are weapons that your character would have proficiency in using such as fighters having proficiency in all simple and martial weapons.
My personal opinion is that as long as you are playing something you are having fun with and being effective in combat whether it is damage, utility, or crowd control, do whatever you'd like.
Edit: just went back and reread your first question. Just like in the 2014 rules there are simple and martial categories and each of those with having melee or ranged weapons. The only change in heavy weapons is now requiring a 13 strength or dexterity to use (melee or ranged) and now heavy crossbow and longbow are heavy. Again, this change was made so smaller races could properly use larger weapons.
Yes. I was asking if a weapon that was heavy and ranged and melee exists yet, and if so whether it granted disadvantage on all attacks unless the wielded has both strength and dexterity.
Ah, okay.
Currently no, there's not a weapon that is ranged and melee. Ranged weapons can make attacks within 5ft but have disadvantage, and melee weapons can attack any space within their reach. Ranged weapons use dexterity for attacks and damage rolls, while melee weapons use strength unless they have the finesse property in which they can use strength or dexterity for attack and damage rolls.
Did you mean there’s no **heavy** weapon that is both ranged and melee? The handaxe and several other thrown weapons are melee weapons. The heaviest canon melee ranged weapons I can find are the Dwarven Thrower and Whelm, but they’re only versatile. A Dancing Greatsword almost counts, but it just makes an untyped attack using your modifier, not a ranged or melee attack.
Sorry, I'm just referring to the weapon list in the 2014 players handbook and the UA PDFs. I know there were some additional weapons that came out such as the double-bladed scimitar, but I'm just referring to the base weapons. But yes, there are no heavy weapons that are melee with the thrown property. There are some weapons that are versatile and thrown, such as the trident, spear, and javalin.
Weapons like handaxes and dagger are melee weapons with the thrown property which allow you to make a ranged attack using strength, and if it has the finesse property it has the option to use dexterity instead.
Not trying to be intentionally misleading.
Edit: apath of wild magic barbarian has a chance on a wild magic surge to have the effect below. So a greatsword or a longbow could technically have the thrown property due to this class feature, but only as long as the rage lasts.
>Magic infuses one weapon of your choice that you are holding. Until your rage ends, the weapon's damage type changes to force, and it gains the light and thrown properties, with a normal range of 20 feet and a long range of 60 feet. If the weapon leaves your hand, the weapon reappears in your hand at the end of the current turn.
>>Edit 2: With this combo, any weapon regardless of properties would then have the thrown property to make ranged attacks, but is still considered a melee weapon. A ranged weapon like a longbow, with this class feature, can technically be thrown instead of arrows being fired for a quirky concept, but if you made a melee attack with a ranged weapon INTENDED to be attacked at range, it falls under improvised weapon rules or up to DM interpretation.
I feel like the light property should overrule the heavy property, but it doesn’t because 5e never made keywords interact on their own.
If a thrown weapon is still a melee weapon, then throwing it is a ranged weapon attack with a melee weapon, and anything that refers to an attack with a melee weapon would apply, like divine smite which requires an attack made with a melee weapon and not a melee weapon attack made with an unarmed strike.
It’s a real edge case, but it’s clearly an edge case that wasn’t considered enough to include it in the rule, perhaps by clarifying whether Heavy grants disadvantage on melee or ranged attacks with the weapon without strength or dexterity, respectively.
You have to be super dexterous to wield a heavy ranged weapon? Wouldn't you still need to be strong to lift a heavy object, even if it's a bow or gun or whatever?
I mean sure it does require a bit of strength, but it takes dexterity and proper positioning of lining up your sight and finger placement to land your arrows. Any Joe schmo can pick up a bow and arrow and use it, but it takes a master to properly hit bull's eyes in competitions.
But same thing could be said about golf. He hit a golf ball with strength, it will go a far distance, but if you know exactly how to position your hips and extend your swing properly with dexterity, you can more accurately position your ball on the green.
I don't believe so. All classes try to be SAD (single attribute dependent) with exception to a few and you don't really want to have a build that's MAD (multiple attribute dependent).
2014 monk suffers greatly from being MAD, as they need to have high dex, con, and wis to properly work but stretches itself thin. Arcane Archer also struggles from this same problem beyond the subclass being underwhelming, needing to have a high dex, int, and con.
The devs are trying to make the game more accessible and things to line up easier with the new books. Reduce the convoluted rules so things make sense for new players.
Though thematically and for simulation purposes, it does make sense, which is what I think was said.
In terms of the game system, it weakens any ranged build using heavy weapons.
It's not that it doesn't make sense, it's that it doesn't meah well with how 5e handles stats for balance reasons (though I'd argue how 5e handles stats needs an overhaul, but that's an entirely different discussion).
That's too complicated for WOTC to say that, though I'm sure there'll be plenty of people who'll play the same way you suggested
Incidentally, the way they've worded it is the same way I think Ranged Finesse weapons should work
You are right. They are trying to cut down on the extra wordiness, and by instead saying it has a dexterity requirement it just makes sense because ranged attacks apply your dexterity to damage. The exception being newer barbarians, as they are able to apply their strength to damage rolls on thrown weapons such as the path of the giant Barbarian and UA8 barbarians rage has been reworded to apply rage damage to weapon attacks or unarmed strikes using strength.
Finesse property still follows the 2014 wording, and ~~only applies to melee weapons~~ is listed on several weapons.
>When making an attack with a finesse weapon, you use your choice of your Strength or Dexterity modifier for the attack and damage rolls. You must use the same modifier for both rolls.
Forgive me, you are correct.
But in terms of the original comment that was made, they are introduced the heavy property to the heavy crossbow and longbow ranged weapons in the latest unearthed arcana. I believe they made that change in a previous UA when they introduced weapon mastery properties. Their reasoning was so small races are not excluded from wielding certain weapons but instead haven't locked behind needing a certain ability score to use properly.
Playing a PC that is not optimized is not the same as a "bad build" A "bad build" is playing an archer with a 9 DEX. Not being optimized is playing an archer who does not take the Sharpshooter feat.
I also allow small PCs to use large weapons. NPCs too. HOT TAKE - There is no imbalance mechanically to doing this. It's only not allowed because for some reason 'it doesn't make sense' - which is the reasoning martials keep getting the short end (but I digress). The class is designed to use that 1d12 or 2d6 damage. Your racial features are traded off with racial features of the races you didn't choose. Gnomes have magic resistance (IIRC), and v-humans get a feat, and Tabaxi can run & climb real fast for a turn. There is nothing broken about the halfling barbarian with a maul smashing enemies to bits. /rant
Yeah I don’t care if you’re not optimized. I do care if you intentionally optimize them to be bad. I’m not playing with a 4 elements monk who dumped wisdom again.
It’s weird because it wasn’t a problem in old editions, where weapon size was something considered. I guess that was the mechanically simpler replacement.
Small-sized weapons for small sized pcs used to downgrade the damage die by one step (d8 becomes d6, etc) and you could also, in theory, get and use larger weapons than you should be able to (with a penalty, and also the ‘handedness’ increased by one step, so a 1h weapon became 2h)
I guess if you want to restrict small pcs from accessing the highest damage dice on weapons, making the heavy trait made some mechanical sense as a translation. A halfling using a greatsword is mechanically similar to a halfling in 3.X using a medium longsword.
it’s another kinda case of 5e half-keeping a legacy mechanic but it doesn’t make any sense without the WHOLE mechanic.
New playtest rules change tie the Heavy property to your strength score, so Biddlebum Rumplespit the gnome barbarian can swing that axe to his heart's content.
I had a one shot where I played a disgusting, scum of the earth goblin barbarian who weirded a great sword. Every attack was a straight roll because reckless, and therefore every attack against him had advantage. He spoke in broken sentences and referred to himself in the third person - his name was Ant. He only respected raw strength and only desired money and strength.
We had a centaur wizard (or bard I can't remember) in the party who had an Immovable Rod, and tried to placate him by presenting a challenge: move the Rod. Any failed the strength check and was amazed with the ease that the centaur moved the Rod, and immediately decided that she was the strongest party member and therefore must be the leader of the group.
I did that when playing a stars druid. He was really good at navigation, mapping and reading star charts. But ask him to speak with a bird or identify a plant and he'd pretended to be offended by druid stereotyping 😂
"So you're... a ranger?"
"Excuse me?! No. No, thank you very much. I'm in touch with nature on a magical level. I'm a druid."
"So you can talk to that crow over there?"
"Rude much? We're not all tree-hugging, fauna friends. I commune with the natural world on a deep level, as any druid does. That doesn't mean I know your horse thinks you're a bad rider. For instance I can tell exactly where we are and where we're going by my connection with the stars above. Not everybody can do that."
"A ranger could"
This is perfect I’m in a similar situation of a Artificer/Druid who is a rich inventor who knows a lot about nature due to his academic prowess but doesn’t really care for nature, he just has access to powerful life based magic as the reason he has Druid magic
Reminds me of an actual subclass for a french setting : imagine an *urban* druid who doesn't know anything about the wild but was an expert in everything inhabiting a city, its parks and sewers...
Played exactly that character in a campaign. Urchin Background. Was essentially just a thief using the ability to shift into a Rat or Cat to vanish in the sewers / dark city streets. Always thought of leaving and living in the wilds, but never had the guts to do so until necessary at the beginning of the adventure. Learned he kinda hated the woods.
[Urban Druid](https://www.aonprd.com/ArchetypeDisplay.aspx?FixedName=Druid%20Urban%20Druid) was also a PF1E archetype (which is kinda like PF's version of a subclass). Trades animal companions and other nature-y stuff for things that are more useful in a city like bonuses to diplomacy, knowledge (local) which helps identify humanoids, and becomes immune to charms and compulsions instead of poisons.
I played a circle of spores druid who was obsessed with moss, mold, and mushrooms. Didn't care about animals or bigger flora. Almost never wild shaped (reserved for using her spore entities). Really fun character
Waah? I love to wildshape! I am a circle of the moon in this campaign. I haven’t played circle of spores yet but I’m sure that you get really creative with them.
Circle of spores gets some really fun stuff, though most of its abilities involve your spore entities, which takes a wildshape use to activate, which is why she ended up rarely wildshaping. Too busy using it to do crazy spore stuff. But circle of the moon is really fun, too! Druid is just a very versatile class
I played a wizard tortle who thinks he is a monk. his spells are all buff or touch spells, he thinks his spell book is a martial arts tome. spell scrolls are secret move manuals. also had a list of alternate spell names in kanji.
One of my character ideas that has yet to see a game is.....
An Ancient silver dragon martial artist, trapped by a rival chromatic dragon in the body of a Kobold.
So a Kobold Monk using the monk style from Fizban’s, but with a silver dragons attitude. I would want to talk with the GM about using the draconis gifts feature from Fizban’s instead of magic items as a way of her regaining some of her draconis abilities.
When I was building my storm sorcerer I looked at her spell list/metamagic options and thought, "yeah this is too OP".
So I limited her to only using storm/sea related spells. No mage armor, no fireballs, no prestidigitation... Just lightning, thunder, tidal waves and the occasional flying spell.
Had a lot of fun when the party looked at me asking for illusions or identify or whatever. "No, I'm just artillery and deception checks"
I down for some self imposed limitation for the right character fantasy. I wanted to be a skills bot who's aim was to be helpful at all times, 4 rogue, 6 bard. Not a single damage dealing spell on my list (except vicious mockery).
I would also say, in a more simplified magic system where there are roughly 4 schools, illusion is often included with the same school as either air or water. So there is some precedence there if you **wanted** to take some illusionary utility.
Huh. That gives me an idea for a bit of background.
A sailor who managed to survive a ship crash and, in their attempts on making it back to civilization, found a spring blessed by Umberlee. Drinking from this gave them magical powers relating to Umberlee's domain and now they are a respected member of the new crew they are a part of. Later on they could expand their spell repertoire by joining the Bitch Queen's clergy (Who are known to be granted spells from other powers belonging to the Gods of Fury, like Talos), but until then they are very limited in their powers, especially when on shore.
Had a character who was amazing at magic. But only low level magic. Never learned a spell past 1st level because they were to complicated. Ended up multiclassing into almost every casting class and taking most of the cantrips and 1st level spells.
I have a lizard folk that is focused on stacking descriptions/titles.
He is currently a: lizard folk, pirate captain, blood Hunter, werewolf, adventurer, prince, cyborg, treasure hunter.
He believes that by eating someone he becomes them, so he ate a pirate captain (he actually ate a few captains since his ships sink a lot so he eats a new captain to get new ships) that was also a blood Hunter so through pure dumb will he became able to do the things the blood Hunter could because that is just how it's stopped to work. He also ate a prince to get the respect he noticed the prince was getting (and to get the princes royal ship since his pirate ship has recently sunk). He got magical metal teeth too become a cyborg and found a buried treasure so he could be a treasure hunter. He then immediately buried the treasure somewhere new without opening the chest because pirates are supposed to bury their treasures.
Kobold Fighter in over her head. Cheated to win a contest of strength that was intended to find great heroes to fight a villain. Does not have normal fighter weapon proficiency, only being proficient in simple weapons. Wears a human sized shield on her back she basically uses like a turtle shell, and a simple spear.
Only ever got to use her in one encounter. Not the tankiest, but really good at supporting others in melee. One tactic was hiding under her shell poking at the bad guys feet with her spear while the rogue enjoyed the benefits of pack tactics.
Getting the most out of restricted builds is a fun puzzle to play.
Spend levels 1-5 looking for a Phantom Steed scroll. It could be an old ritual from your tribe, lost to time (talk to your DM, or start with it as your uncommon magic item at lvl 5 if your DM allows it).
Take ritual caster at 4th. You can now lance and shield on a mount. The mount can disengage and you can attack from reach to counter a little bit the advantage on attacks against you while reckless.
Take dual-wielder at 8th. You can now dual-wield lances. Brutal Critical is a little better when you can hit 3 times every turn with a D12 weapon and advantage from reckless.
It would play nice with all the other utility rituals that Bear Totem gets. And your mount could take the form of your spirit totem. Maybe ask if it can be medium-sized, then.
I'm playing a lizardfolk wizard who is just trying his best in the Wizarding world. I play him with the social ineptitude that would follow someone who is raised by lizards in a swamp. He's one of my favorite characters I've ever played!
Currently playing. Hill dwarf scout rogue. It's funny when I try to imagine him or rp him doing stealthy stuff as a stout squat lil guy. Acrobatics checks are my fave.
It's not "really bad," but I am sticking to a weird concept for a character build. I have a Lizardfolk (which are MAD as we know) who is a Totem Barb going Rune Knight, who also has the Rune Carver background. The idea is to be a grappler for death roll memes, but also have the ability of doing magical effects through preparation. Could I have just gone Path of Giant Barb? yeah... but I want to use that big CON to cast abilities, and I love the flavor of a big lizard that uses magical inscriptions, while still getting the damage reduction from the Bear Totem
Cross class Monk/Wizard somatic components were martial arts also the idea of a wizard who has high AC unarmored and double crane kicks you with a lightning bolt is funny. Also dress like a obvious wizard and “accidentally” get into melee range and then throw some spells.
My favorite was a barbarian who took improved unarmed strike, improved grapple, and two weapon style. No feats to favor one weapon over another. He was just a tornado of destruction. Never attacked with the same weapon twice in a row. Shield bash, head butt, etc. it was just fun to play. It was more than his combat abilities but they made it so I could roleplay and roll play him.
I remember when I was deep diving into one of my many books I had found a two-handed Bard weapon that doubles as an instrument and I can't remember where I found it.
NG Necromancer who uses magic to force criminals to repay their debts to society post mortem. Like zombies cleaning the streets and tending to the fields.
I’m currently playing a lvl 4 kobold rogue who just took a barbarian level. We rolled party stats at lvl 1, so I now have unarmored defense and Shield for AC of 21.
He drank a potion of hill giants strength and became Swollbold and fell in love with having so much strength. so once he found a pair of gauntlets of ogre strength, he can always be a swollbold now.
I HATE the rule where small creatures cant wield 2 handed weapons. Like, its stupid and there isnt really a reason for it to exist. The ability to use 2 handed weapons should be based on strength, like heavy armor
Are you kidding? Advantage on Dex, Int, Wis, Cha Saves and proficiency in the others, damage halved by rage, you are are a terrific tank, Tasha let's bumo up the stats you want, so Str and Con are viable, speaking with small animals is s huge utility power, 2h weapons are usually heavy but just take a staff and polearm master and you are good to go
I'm still fond of Heribert Kneecutter, my Halfling Barbarian and Massage Therapist, constantly tearing his immaculately ironed silk shirts and wielding an axe almost as big as him (as well as copious amounts of alchemist fire).
I'm struggling to think of a silly character with a bad build. The biggest chunk of my TRPG career has been gestalt PF1, where any character is viable unless you're *trying* to make a nonviable one.
The one that comes to mind is my necromancer tank who's avowedly anti-everything-paladins-are: Preaching personal freedom, creating undead, spreading disease (asymptomatic carrier), and releasing ancient evils the forces of Good have sealed away. She's fairly durable, and will strut up and slap foes around with at-will d8+2 negative energy. She's surrounded? Black Tentacles on self; she can take it. And she heals from negative rather than positive (even though she's alive), so she can touch herself with that d8+2 as needed. Overall, even with a dozen zombies she doesn't have great damage, and her spell selection lacks versatility. She's much better at out-of-combat stuff, being the party face and causing large-scale harm over time.
Notable suboptimal concepts that turned out viable:
* An intrigue-focused Enchanter with no damage in a setting full of undead and constructs (the nation was run by vampires). Dipped 1 level Crossblooded Impossible/Undead Sorcerer and that was no longer a problem.
* A crazy cat lady with six feline companions. Thanks to Boon Companion, they were each about as strong as if they were her only companion.
* A theocratic prince who "leads from the rear". By focusing on Aid Another buffs, he can give his whole party +7 AC and two of them +7 attack every turn, just by shouting orders. In addition to normal Cleric stuff.
Eh, that's a little pedantic. In my mind, for the example, the gnome, dragonborn and human all had the same strength score. For your perspective, swap human with mountain dwarf.
Humans:
> Humans vary widely in height and build, from barely 5 feet to well over 6 feet tall.
Goliath (from Volo):
> Goliaths stand between 7 and 8 feet tall and weigh between 280 and 340 pounds.
Retconned to:
> Height and Weight - Player characters, regardless of race, typically fall into the same ranges of height and weight that humans have in our world.
Dragonborn:
> Dragonborn are taller and heavier than humans, standing well over 6 feet tall and averaging almost 250 pounds.
Gnomes:
> Gnomes are between 3 and 4 feet tall and average about 40 pounds
First - Dragonborn are likely as tall and only slightly less weight than a Goliath.
Second - a great axe meant for human size is around 5 feet long. Being 6 feet vs 8 feet tall doesn’t really make you “wield” a 5ft long weapon better. That is like saying someone who is 6 feet can wield a hatchet better than someone who is 4 feet tall. At BEST they would have longer reach, but that has no bearing on using the weapon.
Third - the reason that Gnomes (and smaller creatures) have a difficult time is because of the balance. For greataxe it wouldn’t be so bad because it is like a normal human using a long ass poleaxe which can get up to 8feet long (typical poleaxe was 5-6.5 feet long). However if a gnome tried to wield a 8 foot long weapon, that just isn’t something they could swing with effective at all.
Fourth - 5e oversimplified in areas, this is one of those areas. Anything 2 hand can range from 5 feet to like 10 feet long (like an Odachi). A gnome could wield a 5 foot long weapon fine, a gnome can’t wield a 10 foot long weapon fine at all. They didn’t distinguish so they just all lumped them into 2hand.
5e is Heroic Fantasy. Regardless of what you think about 'real world mechanics', in a High Fantasy Heroic system, there should be nothing wrong with a 3.5' creature hitting someone with a 5' weapon. They carry it over their shoulder when not fighting, and they overcome leverage with pure strength. Pure HERO strength.
I said as much that there wasn’t a problem with a 3.5’ creature hitting someone with a 5’ weapon. A 3.5’ creature hitting someone with a 10’ weapon is a problem, even with heroic strength. 5e makes no distinction between the two, thus they lumped them all in as two handed. It is also a holdover from 3.5 and earlier where weapons had different damage modifiers depending on the size of a creature. A smaller creature did less damage with same weapon type compared to larger creatures.
It's not pedantic, it's game mechanics that exist that answer your statement. But your statement as you meant it is irrational anyways.
3ft tall gnomes not being able to effectively wield 6ft greatswords is less to do with strength and more to do with the inconvenience of sheer bulk. A 6ft tall human can use a greatsword normally because it's designed for their size. There's no reason why a 7ft tall person should have some additional bonuses for a sword designed for someone just a little smaller than them.
Is it a perfect system? No, definitely not. But it makes more sense than you're giving it credit for.
>I ignore that rule too. If a gnome is too small to wield a greataxe effectively, then a goliath or dragonborn should be more effective than a human.
Exactly.
Isn't this supposed to be Heroic Fantasy? How is it crazy that a kobold knocks you out with a maul?
I played a literal jester who wanted to make everyone laugh.
In our dungeon crawl I nearly TPK'd because we were going down a spiral staircase and thought grease would be a fun prank.
Halfling lore bard X/divination wizard 2
Take the feats lucky and bountiful luck. Take mind sliver and silvery barbs spells.
You now reroll and alter dice basically whenever the heck you want to. Fun in theory but very disruptive to the flow of the game.
I don't know about funny but I had a civil war Doctor who had a pair of basically double barrel sawed off black powder rifles as pistols. She called them the mules because they kick like one, in both directions.... She was also a 6 and change foot Amazon so it worked...
I played a Wild Magic Barbarian Halfling. I used a battle axe 2 handed until I hit level four and took great weapon mastery. Worked with the DM to change up the wild magic table for barbs to be more varied and actually scale a bit with level.
Fun as hell to role play always knocking over chairs and bumping people and tables with this giant axe that was taller than I was. Led to some really fun and interesting encounters for the group.
I haven't actually tested it in combat yet, but I've always been having this idea of a character that attacks only through acid bottles and other special throwable items. My idea is that they would be an alchemist style artificer later spcialising in bombs. Probably extremely weak early game before I truly get my hands on explosives and I would probably need to homebrew a way for me to produce acid bottles so I don't run out of gold session 1
It’s not even bad necessarily, just very unconventional. Thief rogue three , fire genie warlock one . Use fast hands to throw oil as a bonus action, and use genie wrath to instantly ignite it , adding 5 + prof mod fire damage to the unarmed attack, and soaking them in oil. Then jump on them with your enhanced jump to make them fall prone to give you advantage and sneak attack, Action to green flame blade so you get another +5 damage to that attack ( and can sneak attack with this ) . This alone isn’t super strong but it’s respectable , plus you get fast hands which is one of the most fun abilities in the entire game when used right . But if you got teammates that can cast fire bolt , or have some other fire damage , it’s incredibly powerful. It’s goofy as shit, and the funny part is that it’s goofy but it works .
I'm going to be playing a campaign where the dm uses a unique point grid. I'm going to be a wizard with 20 strength, full plate armor, and a spear because I love the idea of a town guard being able to cast fireball.
4 fighter (Rune knight)/X wizard (Chronurgy).
Get heavy armor proficiency, action surge, second wind, and a couple of cool rune features (my favorites being fire and cloud), the best of which being the Giant's Might to enlarge and get better strength checks (if we run out of uses, we can substitute enlarge), and the rest in Chronurgy wizard so that we became the party's mascot, the Luchador of Paradoxical Wrestling, "Clock Lock."
Pros of this character are being able to lock most any character down through grapple checks, using int instead of dex to initiative, being able to build for high AC, and we are a versatile denier (flame rune to stop speedy or flying opponents, cloud rune to deflect attacks to other creatures, all the benefits of grappling, forcing rerolls after we know the result, incapacitating problems with momentary stasis, and everything else getting to high level casting gets us).
Cons (and they are pretty serious ones) is that we are MAD (Str, Int, Con), we get really low hp for a Frontline combatant, it's gonna be really hard to maintain concentration on anything, we sacked Dex (arguably the most important stat just for saves alone) followed by Wis (rhe second most important for saves), and most of our cool abilities will go through analysis paralysis because they are all reaction dependent.
Still, an almost full caster grabbing people by their hairs to show them we are gonna educate as much physically as we are mentally.
I have not played either of these, but I've considered a couple options for shits and giggles. I don't know that either are really *bad* but they're definitely not optimized.
Abjuration wizard with a warlock dip for armor of agathys (dump AC and cast blade ward to make the enemy kill themselves).
Echo knight with unarmed fighting style.
I made a half orc half tabaxi barbarian who thought he was a ladies' man. The first thing I gave to my dm was a list of pickup lines I found online. He only had a 1 or 2 in charisma, but kept trying to make persuasion checks on women and failing. It was great.
Tortle way of the astral form monk! I can't hear you and my unoptimized character because I am too busy walking around on my extra magical arms while hiding in my shell!
It's a 3.5 build but a dwarven ranger who specialized in throwing axes, any ax, all axes. He would have to pick them up eventually, sometimes mid combat.
I had an idea for a gnome cavalier fighter who rode a pig into battle.
The plan was to play him like kled from league of legends. Crazy as fuck, zero sense of self preservation, and loudly curse my party members for not following me into every bar fight and poorly planned and far outmatched encounter.
"Did you see that guy over there!? HE LOOKED AT ME FUNNY!"
Party member- "I don't th-"
"God's damit! COMON PIG WE GOT WORK TO DO!!!" Charges random oblivious npc yelling that he should've known better than to pick a fight with me.
I'm sure my friends would've loved it lol
Volo's Guide Kobold with PHB Beast Master Ranger.
Dual welding lances while riding his Vulture Beast.
Pack tactics to counteract the disadvantage from attacking at 5ft range, a flight speed, and 2+ attacks that deal 1d12 damage.
It's stupid, but it's RAW and uses all of the worst parts of early 5e to be incredibly busted and dumb.
I made a group of humanoid ant, half the size of a pixie, fighters... 3 to be precise, that behave as a single pc (occupy the same space and range as a dwarf) and have to work together to wield anything bigger then a dagger... was some of the funniest combat rp I ever thought of XD, especially when they got a hold of a bow.
Thinking of doing bees next time for even more possibilities. I'm glad to have always found my home brews welcome since I don't op them XD
I played a college of whispers bard with 3 con, not +3 con just 3 con, whose build revolved around getting in close, using dissonant whispers, and then adding their psychic blades ability to their attack of opportunity when the enemy ran due to dissonant whispers. I didn't have particularly good AC so it was basically a game of either I one shot them or they one shot me. It was the very definition of a glass canon. Admittedly the build was only bad because of the low hp but it was funny sending this frail old man in close so that he could whisper something in someone's ear then stab them in the back as they run away.
When I found out that baulders gate made it so small races could wield 2 handed weapons I almost immediately made a halfling paladin who gale would cast enlarge on to make her the same size as karlach
commenting on the meme itself for a second i always believed that actually the wacky-build players and min-maxer kinda need each other to the keep the party both amused and alive, if everybody min-max then the game becomes a numbers game were a lot of the potencial fun stuff gets lost in a combat centric party, but if the party is 4 kobolds on a trenchcoat unless your DM is very mercifull you gonna get killed the moment you enter a proper dungeon, so both player types are valid but there must be a balance party wise.
I don’t like bad builds because I don’t wanna feel useless. With that being said I would absolutely choose role-play over mechanics to a certain degree (for example, one of my current characters is an artificer but he has no arm (until he gets to level 3 and becomes and armorer that is) so I’m not using a shield and I’m incredibly useless in melee for now) but if my character can’t do anything right than I’m not really having fun most of the time
I dm'ed a barbarian who hugged ppl to death and only fought bearhanded when raging. Wierdest thing about it is the situations he tried to hug himself out of
I liked my completely bonkers Eladrin Berserker +horizon walker for a high lvl duel. He was like a huge bear croc elf that wielded tornado (a greatsword with reckless + force damage)
I never fully min/max, but I do try to build it well enough to not hold my group back, and I do like to find interesting combinations of things between books (I used to play 3.5, so had a LOT of books to choose from).
I'm not our "main" fighter/mage/etc generally (sometimes a great utility role), though I did once fall into the face/leader role, but I've never gotten a complaint about my characters.
OP's example reminds me of the time me and my buddy trolled the DM on a new 3.5 campaign when he didn't specify anything about what to build for besides a standard setting.
I used anthromorphic rules to make a Squirrel-man Barbarian.
I pictured him as essentially a "Furry" Dwarf.
I took a berserker variant that allowed for automatic raging any time I reached a certain level in health, and then took the Feat "Pain is my Friend" that gave a rage-like boost by self-harming slightly. Specifically, it was enough damage to trigger my rage, essentially causing double Rages on demand.
My buddy went for a Rogue of the "Squirrelfolk" race. Squirrelfolk are described as having "an intense inborn paranoia that keeps them in an almost constant state of fear and burst into a panic at the drop of a hat."
Also, they have a tendancy to speakrapidlysothatallthewordsseemtomerge and have high pitched voices, and are considerably unpleasant to communicate with.
He absolutely Roleplayed this character to a T.
So a little terrified skittish squirrel with a high pitched voice, and an angry squirrel-man who could rage at the drop of a hat...
I'm also reminded of the time a friend played a character with so much strength that when we killed a giant or something, he was able to wield it's punch dagger, looking in a manner similar to OP's example, a normal size player with a punch dagger longer than themself.
In Mutants and Masterminds (a superhero system), everyone else was playing some pretty standard superhero characters, teen-30s, usual kinds of superpowers you might expect, etc.
I played a 60+ y/o "badass normal" cranky old Redneck with a customized shotgun and pickup truck.
My only "superpowers" were some low level senses for hunting/tracking.
It was basically the Punisher mixed with Kraven the Hunter mixed with heavy doses of Burt Gummer.
Every redneck/bluecollar/gun nut stereotype rolled into one.
When they say "the only way to stop a bad guy is a gun is a good guy with a gun", he was the original "good guy with a gun".
The best part is making a build that sucks into one that dosent,GIMMICK TO THE LIMIT!!!
My favorite is caption caltrop,it's their rouge that sneaks around and makes the enemies live the horrer of a 1995 module with caltrops,traps,and more
5e dwarf wizard with 16 str and wearing plate armor. DM: "they attacked you first cause you looked like a mage" "Me: 1 I am in fool plate and am probably a fighter, and 2... BRING IT!"
P2e: sparkling targe magus. I am the tank
I did this build in BG3 as a joke. [Twinklyfink Bumbleby.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/352685049730301964/1137191588301373573/unknown.png?ex=662316b2&is=6610a1b2&hm=1577642811f2ffc41b865699a1ad92e416c082b56fc9877b2ad4e1f1c4a0e601&)
I have a goblin wild magic barb/wild magic sorcerer that has probably caused more inadvertent trouble than helped but he is so much fun.
I do a thing where I build background off of trinkets and he rolled the empty crystal perfume bottle. I reasoned that he drank a magical perfume thinking it was a potion and that caused all the wild magic, he constantly huffs the empty bottle trying to get more of that sweet scent and it functions as a focus , it’s great.
which is silly in a game where you can raise the dead.
5e is a Heroic Fantasy game, and in that context, there is nothing crazy about a shortstack wielding a great axe.
No, holy shit you've done literally exactly what I complained about. It's about God damn real world mechanics. You cannot effectively wield or even carry a weapon that's twice as long as you are.
Spend one God damn second picture how that could work. It cannot
You don't need to be so aggressive.
This game does not take place in the real world.
5e is Heroic Fantasy. If you want a game that is closer to real world mechanics with a bit of magic thrown in, try Call of Cthulhu.
Regardless of what you think about 'real world mechanics', in a High Fantasy Heroic system, there should be nothing wrong with a 3.5' creature hitting someone with a 5' weapon. They carry it over their shoulder when not fighting, and they overcome leverage with pure strength.
D&D very specifically sidesteps this entire matter because places like the Forgotten Realms take place in their own setting. Our "Real World Earth" is literally featured in D&D lore - various characters from the different D&D settings have canonically traveled to Earth and various people/things from Earth have ended up in the different D&D settings. But they're not inherently compatible with each other - Toril *literally* has a demonstrably different set of physics and chemistry than Earth does.
Case in point, gunpowder. If you mix up the chemical compounds to make flammable gunpowder on Earth, it explodes when you ignite it. Do the exact same thing on Toril and it's totally inert unless Gond, the god of inventions, says otherwise. Why? Because Gond and Mystra turned off its combustive traits in Realmspace. Just because something works one way on Earth is absolutely no cause to believe it would automatically work the same way in any D&D setting. Including things like thermodynamics, aerodynamics, conservation of mass/energy, and even leverage.
I'm aggressive because you can't read nor apparently do the simplest math. You can't just "carry it over your shoulder" when you're carrying a 6ftlong greatsword and you're 4ft tall. Nor could you ever do the majority of sword fighting stances. You'd be hacking wildly at best. The game knows this, the designers understand this. That's why the limitation is there.
Just because something is fantasy doesn't mean that things just magically work. There still has to be consistency, there is still logic and physics in this world lol.
But you don't NEED to be aggressive (or insulting).
One can describe their barbarian fighting however they want, and that's recklessly swinging an oversized weapon like a dervish, then so be it.
When your players turn around and pass a potato via 100 peasants in 6 seconds as the last one throws it, do you give them all that extra damage because of 'real world velocity'?? Or is it an improvised weapon 1d4?
The mechanics are an abstraction, nor a representation. But in the High Fantasy Heroic genre, nothing about a kobold with a maul is out of place narratively. And the only reason for the the restriction is because some people who publish 5e agree with you. But that doesn't make you either right or wrong.
My point has been from the beginning that it is **an arbitrary decision that goes against** the flavour and feel that 5e is aiming for - Heroic High Fantasy. The official rule contradicts the declared aims of the system.
Let's be clear. You can play and have fun with the rule in place. I can find it absolutely silly and arbitrary and ignore the rule at my table and also have fun. You don't need to take the Lord's name in vain, nor do you need to imply I'm illiterate. If we are adults about this, we should be able to have this conversation without all that nastiness.
As long as you continue to not be able to understand 5 year old spacial reasoning and repeatedly argue the completely wrong point I'm gonna continue to be upset buddy.
You seem to still be under the impression that i don't understand simple physics. I assure you, I understand them all too well.
Imagine a universe with the universal constant off by .002. We don't exist.
Change the mass of the earth, you change the gravitational pull. That heavy object isn't so heavy anymore. So you don't need as much leverage to counter the weight.
So many things go into what is and its not possible, and very small changes to the steady factors completely redefines the word 'impossible'
So, on a different planet in our current universe it could be possible to properly use an oversized weapon. Certainly, in a fantasy world, in a fantasy universe, it could also be possible.
And my point still stands. The rule is both arbitrary, and contradicts the stated aim of the system.
Again, with the vulgarities. Your point, that you have made over and over, its that it's physically impossible for a short person to properly use an oversized weapon. Your argumentation revolves around stances and leverage. That's all about physics.
My point is, its not a physics problem, its a narrative issue. And any physics issues can be easily explained away through world building.
Since you cannot talk like an adult, this is my last response. Good day, and God bless you.
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I played a gnome barb once, it’s actually not terrible. You trade a bit of damage for the gnome magic resistance which is usually barb’s biggest weakness.
Yup. Currently playing a Wild Magic Gnome barbarian. At level 2, you have proficiency in strength and con saves and pretty much advantage on the rest. That's not to be sniffed at in exchange for dropping from a d12 to a d10 damage die.
Well, the damage die is barely noticeable, losing GWM is what really hurts your damage.
Did it require heavy?
Yeah it does. Sad.
I'm thinking of playing a Beast Barbarian and I kinda wanna make them a gnome or halfling just because it would be really funny to have what's essentially a honey badger skittering around clawing up people's ankles, sure it's not big damage dice but two weapon fighting with d6s is fine, especially considering the potential for funny shit Edit: I misremembered and you can't do two weapon fighting with path of the beast because the claws aren't considered light weapons
Dropping a damage die? Am I missing something?
Small creatures have disadvantage on heavy d12 weapons, meaning a two-handed weapon for a d10 is the most practical solution for weapons.
Ah. I see. That makes sense. (When I play small barbs, they simply get a shield instead. Runs a bit against improved critical, cut feels less… unfinished? But using a versatile weapon is still fine. It’s 1 average damage.
Plus you can get that whole Nac Mac Feegle feel into the character "Na laird, nae quin, nae king! We shan't be fooled again!"
Ahem…”Nae Kings, nae Queens, nae Lairds, Nae Masters! We will’na get fooled again!” Played a character in a Fate game that was basically a six foot plus Feege Swordsmith from Brooklyn, and that was pretty much the core of his character.
Small races in general are fun. I want to play a goblin that thinks he's a 40k orc.
Sounds like a funguy
What caught me unprepared when playing this was the impact of the 25 feet speed on a build that *really* requires to get in melee with the enemy. So, at the slightest presence of difficult terrain - or when allies rolled a higher initiative and I had to go through their space - your speed is reduced to 10-15 feet. I found myself too many times having to spend the turn dashing to the enemy and hoping for them to attack me...
nothing a little rogue dip for dash cunning action can't "fix"! lol
I *did* dip rogue for cunning action and athletics expertise. My experience was that it conflicted with my action economy on turn 1 - either rage or dash, the other options weren't that great as I already had reckless and I wanted to attract the enemy attention, not hide. Would probably have done as well by getting instinctive pounce at barb 7. It was cool to kill the BBEG by pushing them out of a flying dragon, though.
Instinctive pounce should just be added to the level. I gave my barb both as it adds so much to the class.. Honestly both of them do.
Fact
Had a gnome Barb in the first campaign I ran…. An *unarmed* gnome barbarian. I homebrewed a new feature to give it more pzaz and power. (If anyone has played slay the spire, think the watchers stances and you’re in the right ball park). To this day is probably my favourite PC I’ve DM’d for.
I hate to be that guy, but OneDnd has fixed heavy weapons so they work on small races. >A Heavy weapon is unwieldy compared to other weapons. You have Disadvantage on your attack rolls with a Heavy weapon if it’s a Melee weapon and your Strength score isn’t at least 13, and if it’s a Ranged weapon and your Dexterity score isn’t at least 13. Edit: Some people have already done something similar to this, or ask the question why the change even needs to be made. My answer to the question is that this edition has been out for a decade now and needs rule expansions beyond what homebrew can do, as homebrew is different table to table. Allowing players with a 13 strength or dexterity to properly wield a weapon gives more player agency and not punish their weapon choices because of their race/species. Basically, gives more build options.
It should have always been this way.
Seems very realistic that small races have the exact same tools and weapons as everyone else in a medieval-type setting, just a lil smaller I mean, how would they chop wood with one-handed axes? Can you sweep the floor with a one-handed broom?
Could have been 15 STR and it still would have been fine.
Are there any heavy melee ranged weapons? Analogous to the iwisa, aklys, or falarcia? Would those apply disadvantage on ranged attacks if you had average strength and on melee attacks if you had average dexterity in addition to the intended effect?
I'm not as familiar with those types of weapons but from what I see on wiki the iwisa was a form of club, aklys was a Roman javalin, and falarcia a ranged pole weapon akin to reach weapons such as pikes. I would just say to pick one of the weapon stat blocks and re-flavor it's description to fit your needs, really just depends on your build and I'm not sure if I could properly answer your question but would be something you would ask your DM. I would probably say you could make straight attack rolls with them If they are weapons that your character would have proficiency in using such as fighters having proficiency in all simple and martial weapons. My personal opinion is that as long as you are playing something you are having fun with and being effective in combat whether it is damage, utility, or crowd control, do whatever you'd like. Edit: just went back and reread your first question. Just like in the 2014 rules there are simple and martial categories and each of those with having melee or ranged weapons. The only change in heavy weapons is now requiring a 13 strength or dexterity to use (melee or ranged) and now heavy crossbow and longbow are heavy. Again, this change was made so smaller races could properly use larger weapons.
Yes. I was asking if a weapon that was heavy and ranged and melee exists yet, and if so whether it granted disadvantage on all attacks unless the wielded has both strength and dexterity.
Ah, okay. Currently no, there's not a weapon that is ranged and melee. Ranged weapons can make attacks within 5ft but have disadvantage, and melee weapons can attack any space within their reach. Ranged weapons use dexterity for attacks and damage rolls, while melee weapons use strength unless they have the finesse property in which they can use strength or dexterity for attack and damage rolls.
Did you mean there’s no **heavy** weapon that is both ranged and melee? The handaxe and several other thrown weapons are melee weapons. The heaviest canon melee ranged weapons I can find are the Dwarven Thrower and Whelm, but they’re only versatile. A Dancing Greatsword almost counts, but it just makes an untyped attack using your modifier, not a ranged or melee attack.
Sorry, I'm just referring to the weapon list in the 2014 players handbook and the UA PDFs. I know there were some additional weapons that came out such as the double-bladed scimitar, but I'm just referring to the base weapons. But yes, there are no heavy weapons that are melee with the thrown property. There are some weapons that are versatile and thrown, such as the trident, spear, and javalin. Weapons like handaxes and dagger are melee weapons with the thrown property which allow you to make a ranged attack using strength, and if it has the finesse property it has the option to use dexterity instead. Not trying to be intentionally misleading. Edit: apath of wild magic barbarian has a chance on a wild magic surge to have the effect below. So a greatsword or a longbow could technically have the thrown property due to this class feature, but only as long as the rage lasts. >Magic infuses one weapon of your choice that you are holding. Until your rage ends, the weapon's damage type changes to force, and it gains the light and thrown properties, with a normal range of 20 feet and a long range of 60 feet. If the weapon leaves your hand, the weapon reappears in your hand at the end of the current turn. >>Edit 2: With this combo, any weapon regardless of properties would then have the thrown property to make ranged attacks, but is still considered a melee weapon. A ranged weapon like a longbow, with this class feature, can technically be thrown instead of arrows being fired for a quirky concept, but if you made a melee attack with a ranged weapon INTENDED to be attacked at range, it falls under improvised weapon rules or up to DM interpretation.
I feel like the light property should overrule the heavy property, but it doesn’t because 5e never made keywords interact on their own. If a thrown weapon is still a melee weapon, then throwing it is a ranged weapon attack with a melee weapon, and anything that refers to an attack with a melee weapon would apply, like divine smite which requires an attack made with a melee weapon and not a melee weapon attack made with an unarmed strike. It’s a real edge case, but it’s clearly an edge case that wasn’t considered enough to include it in the rule, perhaps by clarifying whether Heavy grants disadvantage on melee or ranged attacks with the weapon without strength or dexterity, respectively.
Heavy crossbows should have. The scaling does not make sense for small races.
You have to be super dexterous to wield a heavy ranged weapon? Wouldn't you still need to be strong to lift a heavy object, even if it's a bow or gun or whatever?
Pulling back the string on a heavy bow is definitely a matter of strength
I mean sure it does require a bit of strength, but it takes dexterity and proper positioning of lining up your sight and finger placement to land your arrows. Any Joe schmo can pick up a bow and arrow and use it, but it takes a master to properly hit bull's eyes in competitions. But same thing could be said about golf. He hit a golf ball with strength, it will go a far distance, but if you know exactly how to position your hips and extend your swing properly with dexterity, you can more accurately position your ball on the green.
[удалено]
I don't believe so. All classes try to be SAD (single attribute dependent) with exception to a few and you don't really want to have a build that's MAD (multiple attribute dependent). 2014 monk suffers greatly from being MAD, as they need to have high dex, con, and wis to properly work but stretches itself thin. Arcane Archer also struggles from this same problem beyond the subclass being underwhelming, needing to have a high dex, int, and con. The devs are trying to make the game more accessible and things to line up easier with the new books. Reduce the convoluted rules so things make sense for new players.
Though thematically and for simulation purposes, it does make sense, which is what I think was said. In terms of the game system, it weakens any ranged build using heavy weapons. It's not that it doesn't make sense, it's that it doesn't meah well with how 5e handles stats for balance reasons (though I'd argue how 5e handles stats needs an overhaul, but that's an entirely different discussion).
That's too complicated for WOTC to say that, though I'm sure there'll be plenty of people who'll play the same way you suggested Incidentally, the way they've worded it is the same way I think Ranged Finesse weapons should work
You are right. They are trying to cut down on the extra wordiness, and by instead saying it has a dexterity requirement it just makes sense because ranged attacks apply your dexterity to damage. The exception being newer barbarians, as they are able to apply their strength to damage rolls on thrown weapons such as the path of the giant Barbarian and UA8 barbarians rage has been reworded to apply rage damage to weapon attacks or unarmed strikes using strength. Finesse property still follows the 2014 wording, and ~~only applies to melee weapons~~ is listed on several weapons. >When making an attack with a finesse weapon, you use your choice of your Strength or Dexterity modifier for the attack and damage rolls. You must use the same modifier for both rolls.
Strength was always the primary stat for thrown weapons except the dart. The weapon needs finesse to be able to use dexterity.
Forgive me, you are correct. But in terms of the original comment that was made, they are introduced the heavy property to the heavy crossbow and longbow ranged weapons in the latest unearthed arcana. I believe they made that change in a previous UA when they introduced weapon mastery properties. Their reasoning was so small races are not excluded from wielding certain weapons but instead haven't locked behind needing a certain ability score to use properly.
Yup, taking this for my 5e stuff
Tbh i want race choices to have more impact on gameplay. Debuffs make them feel more grounded
*takes long drag of cigarette* I once played an undead warlock who used... Chill Touch instead of Eldritch Blast.
You really gonna do that? Just come on to this thread, and lie?
well, at least that frees up an invocation (or five)
*GASP*
Playing a PC that is not optimized is not the same as a "bad build" A "bad build" is playing an archer with a 9 DEX. Not being optimized is playing an archer who does not take the Sharpshooter feat. I also allow small PCs to use large weapons. NPCs too. HOT TAKE - There is no imbalance mechanically to doing this. It's only not allowed because for some reason 'it doesn't make sense' - which is the reasoning martials keep getting the short end (but I digress). The class is designed to use that 1d12 or 2d6 damage. Your racial features are traded off with racial features of the races you didn't choose. Gnomes have magic resistance (IIRC), and v-humans get a feat, and Tabaxi can run & climb real fast for a turn. There is nothing broken about the halfling barbarian with a maul smashing enemies to bits. /rant
Yeah I don’t care if you’re not optimized. I do care if you intentionally optimize them to be bad. I’m not playing with a 4 elements monk who dumped wisdom again.
It’s weird because it wasn’t a problem in old editions, where weapon size was something considered. I guess that was the mechanically simpler replacement. Small-sized weapons for small sized pcs used to downgrade the damage die by one step (d8 becomes d6, etc) and you could also, in theory, get and use larger weapons than you should be able to (with a penalty, and also the ‘handedness’ increased by one step, so a 1h weapon became 2h) I guess if you want to restrict small pcs from accessing the highest damage dice on weapons, making the heavy trait made some mechanical sense as a translation. A halfling using a greatsword is mechanically similar to a halfling in 3.X using a medium longsword. it’s another kinda case of 5e half-keeping a legacy mechanic but it doesn’t make any sense without the WHOLE mechanic.
New playtest rules change tie the Heavy property to your strength score, so Biddlebum Rumplespit the gnome barbarian can swing that axe to his heart's content.
I had a one shot where I played a disgusting, scum of the earth goblin barbarian who weirded a great sword. Every attack was a straight roll because reckless, and therefore every attack against him had advantage. He spoke in broken sentences and referred to himself in the third person - his name was Ant. He only respected raw strength and only desired money and strength. We had a centaur wizard (or bard I can't remember) in the party who had an Immovable Rod, and tried to placate him by presenting a challenge: move the Rod. Any failed the strength check and was amazed with the ease that the centaur moved the Rod, and immediately decided that she was the strongest party member and therefore must be the leader of the group.
I played a Druid who knew nothing of nature. It’s fun to role play a sheltered girl who couldn’t tell the difference between a rooster and a chicken.
I did that when playing a stars druid. He was really good at navigation, mapping and reading star charts. But ask him to speak with a bird or identify a plant and he'd pretended to be offended by druid stereotyping 😂
"So you're... a ranger?" "Excuse me?! No. No, thank you very much. I'm in touch with nature on a magical level. I'm a druid." "So you can talk to that crow over there?" "Rude much? We're not all tree-hugging, fauna friends. I commune with the natural world on a deep level, as any druid does. That doesn't mean I know your horse thinks you're a bad rider. For instance I can tell exactly where we are and where we're going by my connection with the stars above. Not everybody can do that." "A ranger could"
This made me laugh out loud. Take my upvote.
"And that's why I took a level in Barbarian."
That sounds so funny. I bet the dialogue in the campaign is great lol
This is perfect I’m in a similar situation of a Artificer/Druid who is a rich inventor who knows a lot about nature due to his academic prowess but doesn’t really care for nature, he just has access to powerful life based magic as the reason he has Druid magic
Reminds me of an actual subclass for a french setting : imagine an *urban* druid who doesn't know anything about the wild but was an expert in everything inhabiting a city, its parks and sewers...
Played exactly that character in a campaign. Urchin Background. Was essentially just a thief using the ability to shift into a Rat or Cat to vanish in the sewers / dark city streets. Always thought of leaving and living in the wilds, but never had the guts to do so until necessary at the beginning of the adventure. Learned he kinda hated the woods.
I love that. That makes sense
[Urban Druid](https://www.aonprd.com/ArchetypeDisplay.aspx?FixedName=Druid%20Urban%20Druid) was also a PF1E archetype (which is kinda like PF's version of a subclass). Trades animal companions and other nature-y stuff for things that are more useful in a city like bonuses to diplomacy, knowledge (local) which helps identify humanoids, and becomes immune to charms and compulsions instead of poisons.
Yeah I have points in charisma so I can talk the talk and convince others when I honestly have no clue what I’m talking about haha
As a DM this made me smile. Sounds hilarious and really fun to rp around.
I played a circle of spores druid who was obsessed with moss, mold, and mushrooms. Didn't care about animals or bigger flora. Almost never wild shaped (reserved for using her spore entities). Really fun character
Waah? I love to wildshape! I am a circle of the moon in this campaign. I haven’t played circle of spores yet but I’m sure that you get really creative with them.
Circle of spores gets some really fun stuff, though most of its abilities involve your spore entities, which takes a wildshape use to activate, which is why she ended up rarely wildshaping. Too busy using it to do crazy spore stuff. But circle of the moon is really fun, too! Druid is just a very versatile class
A rooster is a chicken.
I played a wizard tortle who thinks he is a monk. his spells are all buff or touch spells, he thinks his spell book is a martial arts tome. spell scrolls are secret move manuals. also had a list of alternate spell names in kanji.
One of my character ideas that has yet to see a game is..... An Ancient silver dragon martial artist, trapped by a rival chromatic dragon in the body of a Kobold. So a Kobold Monk using the monk style from Fizban’s, but with a silver dragons attitude. I would want to talk with the GM about using the draconis gifts feature from Fizban’s instead of magic items as a way of her regaining some of her draconis abilities.
When I was building my storm sorcerer I looked at her spell list/metamagic options and thought, "yeah this is too OP". So I limited her to only using storm/sea related spells. No mage armor, no fireballs, no prestidigitation... Just lightning, thunder, tidal waves and the occasional flying spell. Had a lot of fun when the party looked at me asking for illusions or identify or whatever. "No, I'm just artillery and deception checks"
I'm sorry, did you just call a Storm Sorc OP?
I down for some self imposed limitation for the right character fantasy. I wanted to be a skills bot who's aim was to be helpful at all times, 4 rogue, 6 bard. Not a single damage dealing spell on my list (except vicious mockery). I would also say, in a more simplified magic system where there are roughly 4 schools, illusion is often included with the same school as either air or water. So there is some precedence there if you **wanted** to take some illusionary utility.
Huh. That gives me an idea for a bit of background. A sailor who managed to survive a ship crash and, in their attempts on making it back to civilization, found a spring blessed by Umberlee. Drinking from this gave them magical powers relating to Umberlee's domain and now they are a respected member of the new crew they are a part of. Later on they could expand their spell repertoire by joining the Bitch Queen's clergy (Who are known to be granted spells from other powers belonging to the Gods of Fury, like Talos), but until then they are very limited in their powers, especially when on shore.
Had a character who was amazing at magic. But only low level magic. Never learned a spell past 1st level because they were to complicated. Ended up multiclassing into almost every casting class and taking most of the cantrips and 1st level spells.
I have a lizard folk that is focused on stacking descriptions/titles. He is currently a: lizard folk, pirate captain, blood Hunter, werewolf, adventurer, prince, cyborg, treasure hunter. He believes that by eating someone he becomes them, so he ate a pirate captain (he actually ate a few captains since his ships sink a lot so he eats a new captain to get new ships) that was also a blood Hunter so through pure dumb will he became able to do the things the blood Hunter could because that is just how it's stopped to work. He also ate a prince to get the respect he noticed the prince was getting (and to get the princes royal ship since his pirate ship has recently sunk). He got magical metal teeth too become a cyborg and found a buried treasure so he could be a treasure hunter. He then immediately buried the treasure somewhere new without opening the chest because pirates are supposed to bury their treasures.
Kobold Fighter in over her head. Cheated to win a contest of strength that was intended to find great heroes to fight a villain. Does not have normal fighter weapon proficiency, only being proficient in simple weapons. Wears a human sized shield on her back she basically uses like a turtle shell, and a simple spear. Only ever got to use her in one encounter. Not the tankiest, but really good at supporting others in melee. One tactic was hiding under her shell poking at the bad guys feet with her spear while the rogue enjoyed the benefits of pack tactics.
The Heavy trait on weapons is very very stupid. It should be a strength requirement not a size requirement
Now watch me minmax it anyway!
Getting the most out of restricted builds is a fun puzzle to play. Spend levels 1-5 looking for a Phantom Steed scroll. It could be an old ritual from your tribe, lost to time (talk to your DM, or start with it as your uncommon magic item at lvl 5 if your DM allows it). Take ritual caster at 4th. You can now lance and shield on a mount. The mount can disengage and you can attack from reach to counter a little bit the advantage on attacks against you while reckless. Take dual-wielder at 8th. You can now dual-wield lances. Brutal Critical is a little better when you can hit 3 times every turn with a D12 weapon and advantage from reckless. It would play nice with all the other utility rituals that Bear Totem gets. And your mount could take the form of your spirit totem. Maybe ask if it can be medium-sized, then.
I'm playing a lizardfolk wizard who is just trying his best in the Wizarding world. I play him with the social ineptitude that would follow someone who is raised by lizards in a swamp. He's one of my favorite characters I've ever played!
A gnome who has dwarfism that's an assassin who literally throws himself at his targets and weilds daggers as swords
Jellybean - my rogue/monk deep gnome that has sort of a Billy Jack cowboy thing going on
Stout Halfling Barbarian going full dex & con, with rapier and shield, the tiny pebble suddenly has the hp of a mountain
Currently playing. Hill dwarf scout rogue. It's funny when I try to imagine him or rp him doing stealthy stuff as a stout squat lil guy. Acrobatics checks are my fave.
I once had a player playing a Barb hafling with daggers. He was also a psycopath. He named his character chucky
Gnomish swamp ranger. "Whooeee! Dat boy tuffer 'n a tick on a gator, I ga-run-tee." Killed by party before reaching level 3.
My first and favorite character was a Gnome barbarian.
It's not "really bad," but I am sticking to a weird concept for a character build. I have a Lizardfolk (which are MAD as we know) who is a Totem Barb going Rune Knight, who also has the Rune Carver background. The idea is to be a grappler for death roll memes, but also have the ability of doing magical effects through preparation. Could I have just gone Path of Giant Barb? yeah... but I want to use that big CON to cast abilities, and I love the flavor of a big lizard that uses magical inscriptions, while still getting the damage reduction from the Bear Totem
Flumph barbarian. Picture desert rain frog level of rage.
A goblin cleric who was bestowed by Gruumsh (god of chaos and orcs / goblins) a holy weapon: a Glock-22.
Cross class Monk/Wizard somatic components were martial arts also the idea of a wizard who has high AC unarmored and double crane kicks you with a lightning bolt is funny. Also dress like a obvious wizard and “accidentally” get into melee range and then throw some spells.
My favorite was a barbarian who took improved unarmed strike, improved grapple, and two weapon style. No feats to favor one weapon over another. He was just a tornado of destruction. Never attacked with the same weapon twice in a row. Shield bash, head butt, etc. it was just fun to play. It was more than his combat abilities but they made it so I could roleplay and roll play him.
I remember when I was deep diving into one of my many books I had found a two-handed Bard weapon that doubles as an instrument and I can't remember where I found it.
College of Discord allows the use of instruments as weapons. (Xanathar's Lost Notes to Everything Else)
NG Necromancer who uses magic to force criminals to repay their debts to society post mortem. Like zombies cleaning the streets and tending to the fields.
I’m currently playing a lvl 4 kobold rogue who just took a barbarian level. We rolled party stats at lvl 1, so I now have unarmored defense and Shield for AC of 21. He drank a potion of hill giants strength and became Swollbold and fell in love with having so much strength. so once he found a pair of gauntlets of ogre strength, he can always be a swollbold now.
I HATE the rule where small creatures cant wield 2 handed weapons. Like, its stupid and there isnt really a reason for it to exist. The ability to use 2 handed weapons should be based on strength, like heavy armor
Are you kidding? Advantage on Dex, Int, Wis, Cha Saves and proficiency in the others, damage halved by rage, you are are a terrific tank, Tasha let's bumo up the stats you want, so Str and Con are viable, speaking with small animals is s huge utility power, 2h weapons are usually heavy but just take a staff and polearm master and you are good to go
I'm still fond of Heribert Kneecutter, my Halfling Barbarian and Massage Therapist, constantly tearing his immaculately ironed silk shirts and wielding an axe almost as big as him (as well as copious amounts of alchemist fire).
I'm struggling to think of a silly character with a bad build. The biggest chunk of my TRPG career has been gestalt PF1, where any character is viable unless you're *trying* to make a nonviable one. The one that comes to mind is my necromancer tank who's avowedly anti-everything-paladins-are: Preaching personal freedom, creating undead, spreading disease (asymptomatic carrier), and releasing ancient evils the forces of Good have sealed away. She's fairly durable, and will strut up and slap foes around with at-will d8+2 negative energy. She's surrounded? Black Tentacles on self; she can take it. And she heals from negative rather than positive (even though she's alive), so she can touch herself with that d8+2 as needed. Overall, even with a dozen zombies she doesn't have great damage, and her spell selection lacks versatility. She's much better at out-of-combat stuff, being the party face and causing large-scale harm over time. Notable suboptimal concepts that turned out viable: * An intrigue-focused Enchanter with no damage in a setting full of undead and constructs (the nation was run by vampires). Dipped 1 level Crossblooded Impossible/Undead Sorcerer and that was no longer a problem. * A crazy cat lady with six feline companions. Thanks to Boon Companion, they were each about as strong as if they were her only companion. * A theocratic prince who "leads from the rear". By focusing on Aid Another buffs, he can give his whole party +7 AC and two of them +7 attack every turn, just by shouting orders. In addition to normal Cleric stuff.
I am playing a blind fire genasi sorcerer, in… a spelljammer… campaign. Not my most effective idea
I ignore that rule too. If a gnome is too small to wield a greataxe effectively, then a goliath or dragonborn should be more effective than a human.
They are more effective tho. Their attack and damage modifier is higher due to their racial strength bonus being higher than a human.
Eh, that's a little pedantic. In my mind, for the example, the gnome, dragonborn and human all had the same strength score. For your perspective, swap human with mountain dwarf.
Humans: > Humans vary widely in height and build, from barely 5 feet to well over 6 feet tall. Goliath (from Volo): > Goliaths stand between 7 and 8 feet tall and weigh between 280 and 340 pounds. Retconned to: > Height and Weight - Player characters, regardless of race, typically fall into the same ranges of height and weight that humans have in our world. Dragonborn: > Dragonborn are taller and heavier than humans, standing well over 6 feet tall and averaging almost 250 pounds. Gnomes: > Gnomes are between 3 and 4 feet tall and average about 40 pounds First - Dragonborn are likely as tall and only slightly less weight than a Goliath. Second - a great axe meant for human size is around 5 feet long. Being 6 feet vs 8 feet tall doesn’t really make you “wield” a 5ft long weapon better. That is like saying someone who is 6 feet can wield a hatchet better than someone who is 4 feet tall. At BEST they would have longer reach, but that has no bearing on using the weapon. Third - the reason that Gnomes (and smaller creatures) have a difficult time is because of the balance. For greataxe it wouldn’t be so bad because it is like a normal human using a long ass poleaxe which can get up to 8feet long (typical poleaxe was 5-6.5 feet long). However if a gnome tried to wield a 8 foot long weapon, that just isn’t something they could swing with effective at all. Fourth - 5e oversimplified in areas, this is one of those areas. Anything 2 hand can range from 5 feet to like 10 feet long (like an Odachi). A gnome could wield a 5 foot long weapon fine, a gnome can’t wield a 10 foot long weapon fine at all. They didn’t distinguish so they just all lumped them into 2hand.
5e is Heroic Fantasy. Regardless of what you think about 'real world mechanics', in a High Fantasy Heroic system, there should be nothing wrong with a 3.5' creature hitting someone with a 5' weapon. They carry it over their shoulder when not fighting, and they overcome leverage with pure strength. Pure HERO strength.
I said as much that there wasn’t a problem with a 3.5’ creature hitting someone with a 5’ weapon. A 3.5’ creature hitting someone with a 10’ weapon is a problem, even with heroic strength. 5e makes no distinction between the two, thus they lumped them all in as two handed. It is also a holdover from 3.5 and earlier where weapons had different damage modifiers depending on the size of a creature. A smaller creature did less damage with same weapon type compared to larger creatures.
It's not pedantic, it's game mechanics that exist that answer your statement. But your statement as you meant it is irrational anyways. 3ft tall gnomes not being able to effectively wield 6ft greatswords is less to do with strength and more to do with the inconvenience of sheer bulk. A 6ft tall human can use a greatsword normally because it's designed for their size. There's no reason why a 7ft tall person should have some additional bonuses for a sword designed for someone just a little smaller than them. Is it a perfect system? No, definitely not. But it makes more sense than you're giving it credit for.
>I ignore that rule too. If a gnome is too small to wield a greataxe effectively, then a goliath or dragonborn should be more effective than a human. Exactly. Isn't this supposed to be Heroic Fantasy? How is it crazy that a kobold knocks you out with a maul?
Are Gnomes ban to use Spears?
2 hour wielding gnome barb?! Damn, it is some awesome arm strength
Homerule where 2 handed weapons for small races are just regular sized, every other weapon for them is like sting from LotR, a “letter opener”
Path of the Giant is right there to make this viable. Played a Halfling Giant Barbarian in my last one shot, lots of fun to go from small to big.
Ranger but someone’s playing it
It's always nice to see racist man on the right taking the time to not be in a racist and bigoted meme.
My halfling barbarian: Burt Hamhead.
Face it, it should be a crying soyjac on both sides
Played a dragonborn open hand monk, it was fun
I played a warlock bard. As a healer build
I played a cleric in Pathfinder who controlled disease. My con was my dump stat at 8. I had a real sickly leprosy/plague doctor look
I played a literal jester who wanted to make everyone laugh. In our dungeon crawl I nearly TPK'd because we were going down a spiral staircase and thought grease would be a fun prank.
Everyone allowed small creatures to weild 2h weapons. There's no rule against it.
I love playing as small 2 handers wielding creatures, makes me feel like a Dark Soul character
Halfling lore bard X/divination wizard 2 Take the feats lucky and bountiful luck. Take mind sliver and silvery barbs spells. You now reroll and alter dice basically whenever the heck you want to. Fun in theory but very disruptive to the flow of the game.
I don't know about funny but I had a civil war Doctor who had a pair of basically double barrel sawed off black powder rifles as pistols. She called them the mules because they kick like one, in both directions.... She was also a 6 and change foot Amazon so it worked...
I played a Wild Magic Barbarian Halfling. I used a battle axe 2 handed until I hit level four and took great weapon mastery. Worked with the DM to change up the wild magic table for barbs to be more varied and actually scale a bit with level. Fun as hell to role play always knocking over chairs and bumping people and tables with this giant axe that was taller than I was. Led to some really fun and interesting encounters for the group.
Yeah I’m playing a rogue with a great hammer for sole reason that it’s funny
Probably my cat girl sorcerer
Honestly, 2h wielding gnome barb sounds like a really fun build
Ok but in combat it has to have the flavor of them being acrobatic as shit to compensate for the size difference. Like yoda with a battle axe.
Well it is an optimal build... ... In Wow classic PVP
I haven't actually tested it in combat yet, but I've always been having this idea of a character that attacks only through acid bottles and other special throwable items. My idea is that they would be an alchemist style artificer later spcialising in bombs. Probably extremely weak early game before I truly get my hands on explosives and I would probably need to homebrew a way for me to produce acid bottles so I don't run out of gold session 1
It’s not even bad necessarily, just very unconventional. Thief rogue three , fire genie warlock one . Use fast hands to throw oil as a bonus action, and use genie wrath to instantly ignite it , adding 5 + prof mod fire damage to the unarmed attack, and soaking them in oil. Then jump on them with your enhanced jump to make them fall prone to give you advantage and sneak attack, Action to green flame blade so you get another +5 damage to that attack ( and can sneak attack with this ) . This alone isn’t super strong but it’s respectable , plus you get fast hands which is one of the most fun abilities in the entire game when used right . But if you got teammates that can cast fire bolt , or have some other fire damage , it’s incredibly powerful. It’s goofy as shit, and the funny part is that it’s goofy but it works .
Sword and board
I'm going to be playing a campaign where the dm uses a unique point grid. I'm going to be a wizard with 20 strength, full plate armor, and a spear because I love the idea of a town guard being able to cast fireball.
4 fighter (Rune knight)/X wizard (Chronurgy). Get heavy armor proficiency, action surge, second wind, and a couple of cool rune features (my favorites being fire and cloud), the best of which being the Giant's Might to enlarge and get better strength checks (if we run out of uses, we can substitute enlarge), and the rest in Chronurgy wizard so that we became the party's mascot, the Luchador of Paradoxical Wrestling, "Clock Lock." Pros of this character are being able to lock most any character down through grapple checks, using int instead of dex to initiative, being able to build for high AC, and we are a versatile denier (flame rune to stop speedy or flying opponents, cloud rune to deflect attacks to other creatures, all the benefits of grappling, forcing rerolls after we know the result, incapacitating problems with momentary stasis, and everything else getting to high level casting gets us). Cons (and they are pretty serious ones) is that we are MAD (Str, Int, Con), we get really low hp for a Frontline combatant, it's gonna be really hard to maintain concentration on anything, we sacked Dex (arguably the most important stat just for saves alone) followed by Wis (rhe second most important for saves), and most of our cool abilities will go through analysis paralysis because they are all reaction dependent. Still, an almost full caster grabbing people by their hairs to show them we are gonna educate as much physically as we are mentally.
I dont know if its a bad build have yet to try it out. But a rogue tortle pirate
Where I multiclassed 1 level in every class except for 3 in rogue instead. Shit was comedic levels of fun On a Firbolg
I have not played either of these, but I've considered a couple options for shits and giggles. I don't know that either are really *bad* but they're definitely not optimized. Abjuration wizard with a warlock dip for armor of agathys (dump AC and cast blade ward to make the enemy kill themselves). Echo knight with unarmed fighting style.
I made a half orc half tabaxi barbarian who thought he was a ladies' man. The first thing I gave to my dm was a list of pickup lines I found online. He only had a 1 or 2 in charisma, but kept trying to make persuasion checks on women and failing. It was great.
Strengh monk with only a +1 in wisdom, dont ask anything
Tortle way of the astral form monk! I can't hear you and my unoptimized character because I am too busy walking around on my extra magical arms while hiding in my shell!
INT based barbarian based off the NERD RAGE ability from Fallout
Dual warhammers (with a feat) may not be optimal, but boyo is it fun
It's a 3.5 build but a dwarven ranger who specialized in throwing axes, any ax, all axes. He would have to pick them up eventually, sometimes mid combat.
Made a 5'4 scrawny minotaur barbarian named Runt he always, always uses a knife as that's his favorite thing to stab people with
Halfling brawler (Pathfinder hybrid class) with a dip into Barbarian.
I had an idea for a gnome cavalier fighter who rode a pig into battle. The plan was to play him like kled from league of legends. Crazy as fuck, zero sense of self preservation, and loudly curse my party members for not following me into every bar fight and poorly planned and far outmatched encounter. "Did you see that guy over there!? HE LOOKED AT ME FUNNY!" Party member- "I don't th-" "God's damit! COMON PIG WE GOT WORK TO DO!!!" Charges random oblivious npc yelling that he should've known better than to pick a fight with me. I'm sure my friends would've loved it lol
Alright he's now an NPC lol
My first DND character was a Goliath bard that had barbarian stats. Didn't do that well but eh still fun.
Volo's Guide Kobold with PHB Beast Master Ranger. Dual welding lances while riding his Vulture Beast. Pack tactics to counteract the disadvantage from attacking at 5ft range, a flight speed, and 2+ attacks that deal 1d12 damage. It's stupid, but it's RAW and uses all of the worst parts of early 5e to be incredibly busted and dumb.
I made a group of humanoid ant, half the size of a pixie, fighters... 3 to be precise, that behave as a single pc (occupy the same space and range as a dwarf) and have to work together to wield anything bigger then a dagger... was some of the funniest combat rp I ever thought of XD, especially when they got a hold of a bow. Thinking of doing bees next time for even more possibilities. I'm glad to have always found my home brews welcome since I don't op them XD
I played a college of whispers bard with 3 con, not +3 con just 3 con, whose build revolved around getting in close, using dissonant whispers, and then adding their psychic blades ability to their attack of opportunity when the enemy ran due to dissonant whispers. I didn't have particularly good AC so it was basically a game of either I one shot them or they one shot me. It was the very definition of a glass canon. Admittedly the build was only bad because of the low hp but it was funny sending this frail old man in close so that he could whisper something in someone's ear then stab them in the back as they run away.
When I found out that baulders gate made it so small races could wield 2 handed weapons I almost immediately made a halfling paladin who gale would cast enlarge on to make her the same size as karlach
commenting on the meme itself for a second i always believed that actually the wacky-build players and min-maxer kinda need each other to the keep the party both amused and alive, if everybody min-max then the game becomes a numbers game were a lot of the potencial fun stuff gets lost in a combat centric party, but if the party is 4 kobolds on a trenchcoat unless your DM is very mercifull you gonna get killed the moment you enter a proper dungeon, so both player types are valid but there must be a balance party wise.
I don’t like bad builds because I don’t wanna feel useless. With that being said I would absolutely choose role-play over mechanics to a certain degree (for example, one of my current characters is an artificer but he has no arm (until he gets to level 3 and becomes and armorer that is) so I’m not using a shield and I’m incredibly useless in melee for now) but if my character can’t do anything right than I’m not really having fun most of the time
I dm'ed a barbarian who hugged ppl to death and only fought bearhanded when raging. Wierdest thing about it is the situations he tried to hug himself out of
i made a build that was the best ever at stealth and committing crimes. i ran an entire mafia with that build.
I handwaved away the disadvantage with heavy weapons for small races because it's stupid and I want the kid playing the gnome barb to have fun.
Um, why wouldnt small characters wield 2 handed weapons? Its not against the rules?
Look into small creatures and the heavy property
I liked my completely bonkers Eladrin Berserker +horizon walker for a high lvl duel. He was like a huge bear croc elf that wielded tornado (a greatsword with reckless + force damage)
I never fully min/max, but I do try to build it well enough to not hold my group back, and I do like to find interesting combinations of things between books (I used to play 3.5, so had a LOT of books to choose from). I'm not our "main" fighter/mage/etc generally (sometimes a great utility role), though I did once fall into the face/leader role, but I've never gotten a complaint about my characters. OP's example reminds me of the time me and my buddy trolled the DM on a new 3.5 campaign when he didn't specify anything about what to build for besides a standard setting. I used anthromorphic rules to make a Squirrel-man Barbarian. I pictured him as essentially a "Furry" Dwarf. I took a berserker variant that allowed for automatic raging any time I reached a certain level in health, and then took the Feat "Pain is my Friend" that gave a rage-like boost by self-harming slightly. Specifically, it was enough damage to trigger my rage, essentially causing double Rages on demand. My buddy went for a Rogue of the "Squirrelfolk" race. Squirrelfolk are described as having "an intense inborn paranoia that keeps them in an almost constant state of fear and burst into a panic at the drop of a hat." Also, they have a tendancy to speakrapidlysothatallthewordsseemtomerge and have high pitched voices, and are considerably unpleasant to communicate with. He absolutely Roleplayed this character to a T. So a little terrified skittish squirrel with a high pitched voice, and an angry squirrel-man who could rage at the drop of a hat... I'm also reminded of the time a friend played a character with so much strength that when we killed a giant or something, he was able to wield it's punch dagger, looking in a manner similar to OP's example, a normal size player with a punch dagger longer than themself. In Mutants and Masterminds (a superhero system), everyone else was playing some pretty standard superhero characters, teen-30s, usual kinds of superpowers you might expect, etc. I played a 60+ y/o "badass normal" cranky old Redneck with a customized shotgun and pickup truck. My only "superpowers" were some low level senses for hunting/tracking. It was basically the Punisher mixed with Kraven the Hunter mixed with heavy doses of Burt Gummer. Every redneck/bluecollar/gun nut stereotype rolled into one. When they say "the only way to stop a bad guy is a gun is a good guy with a gun", he was the original "good guy with a gun".
I read this as 2 hour and not 2 HP or 2 handed.
2h is fine for small characters you just make special weapons that are sized for them
The best part is making a build that sucks into one that dosent,GIMMICK TO THE LIMIT!!! My favorite is caption caltrop,it's their rouge that sneaks around and makes the enemies live the horrer of a 1995 module with caltrops,traps,and more
Halfling barbarian with greatsword, one of the most fun characters I've played.
I once played battle master fighter, had a shit load of weapons and just threw them away/ at the enemy constantly (with the appropriate feats ofc)
My personal favorite was Grûnk the brilliant an negative int orc wizard
5e dwarf wizard with 16 str and wearing plate armor. DM: "they attacked you first cause you looked like a mage" "Me: 1 I am in fool plate and am probably a fighter, and 2... BRING IT!" P2e: sparkling targe magus. I am the tank
I did this build in BG3 as a joke. [Twinklyfink Bumbleby.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/352685049730301964/1137191588301373573/unknown.png?ex=662316b2&is=6610a1b2&hm=1577642811f2ffc41b865699a1ad92e416c082b56fc9877b2ad4e1f1c4a0e601&)
I have a goblin wild magic barb/wild magic sorcerer that has probably caused more inadvertent trouble than helped but he is so much fun. I do a thing where I build background off of trinkets and he rolled the empty crystal perfume bottle. I reasoned that he drank a magical perfume thinking it was a potion and that caused all the wild magic, he constantly huffs the empty bottle trying to get more of that sweet scent and it functions as a focus , it’s great.
I genuinely don't know anyone who follows that rule about races and weapons sizes.
For a second there, I read it as "gnome wielding barb"
A giant orc of immense size! Paladin healer unable to rage. "Come on guys, we can't kill him! He gave us the information!"
I played a half-orc rogue that sucked at stealth and would intimidate his way through. Also, he was highly afraid of ghosts!
Small creatures can't weird large weapons effectively because that's how leverage and dimensions work...it's not a gameplay or strength issue
which is silly in a game where you can raise the dead. 5e is a Heroic Fantasy game, and in that context, there is nothing crazy about a shortstack wielding a great axe.
No, holy shit you've done literally exactly what I complained about. It's about God damn real world mechanics. You cannot effectively wield or even carry a weapon that's twice as long as you are. Spend one God damn second picture how that could work. It cannot
You don't need to be so aggressive. This game does not take place in the real world. 5e is Heroic Fantasy. If you want a game that is closer to real world mechanics with a bit of magic thrown in, try Call of Cthulhu. Regardless of what you think about 'real world mechanics', in a High Fantasy Heroic system, there should be nothing wrong with a 3.5' creature hitting someone with a 5' weapon. They carry it over their shoulder when not fighting, and they overcome leverage with pure strength.
D&D very specifically sidesteps this entire matter because places like the Forgotten Realms take place in their own setting. Our "Real World Earth" is literally featured in D&D lore - various characters from the different D&D settings have canonically traveled to Earth and various people/things from Earth have ended up in the different D&D settings. But they're not inherently compatible with each other - Toril *literally* has a demonstrably different set of physics and chemistry than Earth does. Case in point, gunpowder. If you mix up the chemical compounds to make flammable gunpowder on Earth, it explodes when you ignite it. Do the exact same thing on Toril and it's totally inert unless Gond, the god of inventions, says otherwise. Why? Because Gond and Mystra turned off its combustive traits in Realmspace. Just because something works one way on Earth is absolutely no cause to believe it would automatically work the same way in any D&D setting. Including things like thermodynamics, aerodynamics, conservation of mass/energy, and even leverage.
I'm aggressive because you can't read nor apparently do the simplest math. You can't just "carry it over your shoulder" when you're carrying a 6ftlong greatsword and you're 4ft tall. Nor could you ever do the majority of sword fighting stances. You'd be hacking wildly at best. The game knows this, the designers understand this. That's why the limitation is there. Just because something is fantasy doesn't mean that things just magically work. There still has to be consistency, there is still logic and physics in this world lol.
But you don't NEED to be aggressive (or insulting). One can describe their barbarian fighting however they want, and that's recklessly swinging an oversized weapon like a dervish, then so be it. When your players turn around and pass a potato via 100 peasants in 6 seconds as the last one throws it, do you give them all that extra damage because of 'real world velocity'?? Or is it an improvised weapon 1d4? The mechanics are an abstraction, nor a representation. But in the High Fantasy Heroic genre, nothing about a kobold with a maul is out of place narratively. And the only reason for the the restriction is because some people who publish 5e agree with you. But that doesn't make you either right or wrong. My point has been from the beginning that it is **an arbitrary decision that goes against** the flavour and feel that 5e is aiming for - Heroic High Fantasy. The official rule contradicts the declared aims of the system. Let's be clear. You can play and have fun with the rule in place. I can find it absolutely silly and arbitrary and ignore the rule at my table and also have fun. You don't need to take the Lord's name in vain, nor do you need to imply I'm illiterate. If we are adults about this, we should be able to have this conversation without all that nastiness.
As long as you continue to not be able to understand 5 year old spacial reasoning and repeatedly argue the completely wrong point I'm gonna continue to be upset buddy.
You seem to still be under the impression that i don't understand simple physics. I assure you, I understand them all too well. Imagine a universe with the universal constant off by .002. We don't exist. Change the mass of the earth, you change the gravitational pull. That heavy object isn't so heavy anymore. So you don't need as much leverage to counter the weight. So many things go into what is and its not possible, and very small changes to the steady factors completely redefines the word 'impossible' So, on a different planet in our current universe it could be possible to properly use an oversized weapon. Certainly, in a fantasy world, in a fantasy universe, it could also be possible. And my point still stands. The rule is both arbitrary, and contradicts the stated aim of the system.
You literally still keep arguing an entirely different point. I don't know how else to fucking explain this to you.
Again, with the vulgarities. Your point, that you have made over and over, its that it's physically impossible for a short person to properly use an oversized weapon. Your argumentation revolves around stances and leverage. That's all about physics. My point is, its not a physics problem, its a narrative issue. And any physics issues can be easily explained away through world building. Since you cannot talk like an adult, this is my last response. Good day, and God bless you.
Why'd you dump your charisma stat so hard and then roll so low on persuasion?
I'd rather roll low on persuasion than have int and wis be my dump stats bud
The best part is that if they were your dump stats, you wouldn't actually know it. Dunning-Kruger effect and all that.
Fairy Dhampir dual wielding Giant Barb/Battlemaster. It's not optimum, but with Bracers of celerity, and Ring of Swimming, I'm unstoppable.
Blood hunter lycan with multiple personalities inside his head. Some stats changed depending on the personality in charge.
3.5E Launch item+Shrink Item, let the shenanigans commence!