As one usually does, was day dreaming about making a new character. My first idea was a scythe as a weapon. So I went to some Wikis and I can find sicles but no scythes. Are scythes not used as weapons https://1921681001.id/https://19216811.cam/? I also can't recall ever encountering someone wielding one? I think scythe is one of my favorite fantasy type weapons, especially if it has nectrotic elements and design.
Scythes, while better than nothing, are not practical weapons. They're designed for harvesting.
That's not to say it's bad or wrong to want to use one. But they aren't a standard phb weapon. Flails aren't exactly super practical either but made it in anyway.
If you're using a 1h scythe I'd use a sickle, if you're wanting a big 2h grim reaper style scythe I'd talk to your DM about maybe re-flavoring an existing simple or martial weapon if they're open to it. I'd be fine with letting you say, pick a reasonably close simple or martial weapon, changing the damage type to slashing, and letting you re-flavor that as a scythe close enough to the weapon you're copying in size. But some DMs may be more strict on that sort of thing so it's really between the two of you.
There are probably some scythe based magic weapon homebrews on the site here too but I'm working under the assumption this is a starting weapon you'd want and can't guarantee getting your pick of a magic weapon early in the game.
You could probably port the 4e scythe easily enough - they were heavy, simple, two-handed weapons dealing 2d4 damage.
However, they are not official 5e weapons, despite having existed in prior editions. I expect this was a removal someone made for “realism” purposes - scythes are functionally impossible to use as a melee weapon given the blade being on the wrong side for practical use and their poor balance. Still, this is a fantasy game and realism should not trump the popular fantasy image of a scythe-wielder, so they probably should include it as an option.
If you do care about realism, you could also do what real farmers did when they wanted to have a little uprising and saw the big blade as something potentially deadly - refashion it. Often this was to take the scythe blade off the scythe itself and fashion it into a makeshift sword or halberd - so you could use a longsword or a glaive and visualise it as having been made from a repurposed scythe blade.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond. Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ thisFAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
Flails aren't exactly super practical either but made it in anyway.
Flails are very practical, that’s why they were used IRL. The centrifugal force applied by the chain is a force multiplier, and it has the added benefit of being able to get around a shield. Plus, against an opponent in plate armor, the bludgeoning damage caused by a flail can crush a person in their armor where a sword would struggle to find a gap.
I do agree with you about reflavoring an existing weapon as a scythe however, probably a greataxe* or halberd.
*Now, you wanna talk about an impractical weapon, a Greataxe is impractical, that’s why nobody ever used one IRL.
Flails aren't exactly super practical either but made it in anyway.
Flails are very practical, that’s why they were used IRL. The centrifugal force applied by the chain is a force multiplier, and it has the added benefit of being able to get around a shield. Plus, against an opponent in plate armor, the bludgeoning damage caused by a flail can crush a person in their armor where a sword would struggle to find a gap.
I do agree with you about reflavoring an existing weapon as a scythe however, probably a greataxe* or halberd.
*Now, you wanna talk about an impractical weapon, a Greataxe is impractical, that’s why nobody ever used one IRL.
To be fair, despite many and more modern-culture references, short flails were rare and many experts and historians doubt if they ever really existed in a practical sense. The long polearm like peasant flail is a thing, though.
And if you put a Dane Axe as a example of a greataxe, it definitely existed and was used.
Flails aren't exactly super practical either but made it in anyway.
Flails are very practical, that’s why they were used IRL. The centrifugal force applied by the chain is a force multiplier, and it has the added benefit of being able to get around a shield. Plus, against an opponent in plate armor, the bludgeoning damage caused by a flail can crush a person in their armor where a sword would struggle to find a gap.
I do agree with you about reflavoring an existing weapon as a scythe however, probably a greataxe* or halberd.
*Now, you wanna talk about an impractical weapon, a Greataxe is impractical, that’s why nobody ever used one IRL.
To be fair, despite many and more modern-culture references, short flails were rare and many experts and historians doubt if they ever really existed in a practical sense. The long polearm like peasant flail is a thing, though.
And if you put a Dane Axe as a example of a greataxe, it definitely existed and was used.
Yes, a handful of peasants with long flails were the death of a knight in full plate. In that situation the knight would commonly surrender to be ransomed back to his family. And medium length, “versatile” flails did exist too. As to the IRL practical application of shorter flails, who knows? 🤷♂️
And I would personally slot the Dane Axe into D&D as a battleaxe since it could be used with either one hand or two. It was frequently paired with a shield after all. Any axe so heavy it requires two hands to wield, but is shorter than a Polearm is utterly impractical on the battlefield.
Or a greatsword or glaive or halberd depending on how big and silly you want your scythe to be. Seriously, this is the answer. You can change the name to scythe on your character sheet and go on your merry way. Don't homebrew when reskinning can achieve the same goal. Especially in a case like this where there are multiple options for you to reskin. 5e weapon types just aren't unique or complicated enough to need a new category for scythes.
A glaive is a reasonably accurate representation of a war scythe. As was already said, the agricultural scythe makes for a horrible weapon and is probably better being ignored.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
A scythe to me is not a reach weapon despite its sized, nor martial as it's a simple weapon we find in the hands of commoners so i'd reflavor greatclub to slashing
A scythe to me is not a reach weapon despite its sized, nor martial as it's a simple weapon we find in the hands of commoners so i'd reflavor greatclub to slashing
Simple Weapon
Scythe
2 sp
1d8 slashing
10 lb.
Two-handed
The war scythe was most definitely a reach weapon and polearms in general tended to be found in the hands of commoners because they were cheaper and easier to construct than swords, not because they were less effective.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
A scythe to me is not a reach weapon despite its sized, nor martial as it's a simple weapon we find in the hands of commoners so i'd reflavor greatclub to slashing
Simple Weapon
Scythe
2 sp
1d8 slashing
10 lb.
Two-handed
The war scythe was most definitely a reach weapon and polearms in general tended to be found in the hands of commoners because they were cheaper and easier to construct than swords, not because they were less effective.
However, your point is irrelevant since the OP is not asking about a war scythe - they’re completely different items. A regular scythe—what was actually asked about—is simply not a reach weapon. Because the blade is on the inside, to use it at reach you would have to overextend your body, get the heavy blade all the way to the other side of the person (so they’d now be inside of your defences to boot) and then pull toward you, which is going to have much less force behind it than thrusting (which allows you to put your body weight behind the attack).
It was already established that things like war scythes or the modified scythes used by rebellious farmers could be covered by halberds or glaives - Plaguescared was clearly trying to provide another stat block option for what OP actually asked for.
It was also already established that an agricultural scythe isn't a weapon to begin with, so statting one out as a simple weapon doesn't work. Peasants didn't use agricultural scythes as weapons, they did use war scythes.
It was also already established that an agricultural scythe isn't a weapon to begin with, so statting one out as a simple weapon doesn't work. Peasants didn't use agricultural scythes as weapons, they did use war scythes.
Thanks for repeating my first post back at me, albeit while leaving out the part where I explicitly mentioned that an agricultural scythe is a fantasy staple so there are legitimate reasons for including an agricultural scythe as a weapon in a fantasy game.
Technically, RAW a scythe would be an improvised weapon that does 1d4 slashing damage.
I don’t know about this - and I am not trying to be contrary and legitimately mean that as in I don’t actually know how I would rule under RAW if it came up (I’d use the 4e weapon stars in actual play, but that’s not RAW).
A weapon is only a 1d4 improvised weapon in RAW if it “bears no resemblance to a weapon”—even you noted it bears a bit of a resemblance to the (rather impractical in reality if built like its common fantasy depiction) Greataxe, enough that “big heavy blade with pointy bits at the end” could be said to “resemble” a Greataxe and thus be treated as a Greataxe under RAW. I think this is one of those cases where two different DMs could come to different conclusions under RAW and both would be correct.
Technically, RAW a scythe would be an improvised weapon that does 1d4 slashing damage.
I don’t know about this - and I am not trying to be flippant and legitimately mean that as in I don’t actually know how I would rule under RAW if it came up (I’d use the 4e weapon stars in actual play, but that’s not RAW).
A weapon is only a 1d4 improvised weapon in RAW if it “bears no resemblance to a weapon”—even you noted it bears a bit of a resemblance to the (rather impractical in reality if built like its common fantasy depiction) Greataxe, enough that “big heavy blade with pointy bits at the end” could be said to “resemble” a Greataxe and thus be treated as a Greataxe under RAW. I think this is one of those cases where two different DMs could come to different conclusions under RAW and both would be correct.
True, I was thinking an improvised weapon because, since it’s so unwieldy, you couldn’t add PB to the attack roll. Even if I let the thing do d8-d12 damage, it should still be “improvised.” At least that feels right to me.
Technically, RAW a scythe would be an improvised weapon that does 1d4 slashing damage.
I don’t know about this - and I am not trying to be flippant and legitimately mean that as in I don’t actually know how I would rule under RAW if it came up (I’d use the 4e weapon stars in actual play, but that’s not RAW).
A weapon is only a 1d4 improvised weapon in RAW if it “bears no resemblance to a weapon”—even you noted it bears a bit of a resemblance to the (rather impractical in reality if built like its common fantasy depiction) Greataxe, enough that “big heavy blade with pointy bits at the end” could be said to “resemble” a Greataxe and thus be treated as a Greataxe under RAW. I think this is one of those cases where two different DMs could come to different conclusions under RAW and both would be correct.
True, I was thinking an improvised weapon because, since it’s so unwieldy, you couldn’t add PB to the attack roll. Even if I let the thing do d8-d12 damage, it should still be “improvised.” At least that feels right to me.
It would still be an improvised weapon - “Often, an improvised weapon is similar to an actual weapon and can be treated as such. For example, a table leg is akin to a club.”
But I generally agree with the fact that it would feel icky to have an improvised weapon be treated as a fairly powerful martial weapon. I think it is permitted under RAW’s ability to use a weapon as the basis for calculating an improvised weapon’s stats, but it does not feel RAI to use a non-simple weapon for this purpose.
A Scythe is a a farm implement sometimes used as an improvised weapon for lack of anything better.
Special. Improvised: You do not add your Proficiency bonus to attacks made with this weapon unless you have proficiency with improvised weapons from some other source such as the Tavern Brawler feat.
As one usually does, was day dreaming about making a new character. My first idea was a scythe as a weapon. So I went to some Wikis and I can find sicles but no scythes. Are scythes not used as weapons https://1921681001.id/ https://19216811.cam/? I also can't recall ever encountering someone wielding one? I think scythe is one of my favorite fantasy type weapons, especially if it has nectrotic elements and design.
Scythes, while better than nothing, are not practical weapons. They're designed for harvesting.
That's not to say it's bad or wrong to want to use one. But they aren't a standard phb weapon. Flails aren't exactly super practical either but made it in anyway.
If you're using a 1h scythe I'd use a sickle, if you're wanting a big 2h grim reaper style scythe I'd talk to your DM about maybe re-flavoring an existing simple or martial weapon if they're open to it. I'd be fine with letting you say, pick a reasonably close simple or martial weapon, changing the damage type to slashing, and letting you re-flavor that as a scythe close enough to the weapon you're copying in size. But some DMs may be more strict on that sort of thing so it's really between the two of you.
There are probably some scythe based magic weapon homebrews on the site here too but I'm working under the assumption this is a starting weapon you'd want and can't guarantee getting your pick of a magic weapon early in the game.
You could probably port the 4e scythe easily enough - they were heavy, simple, two-handed weapons dealing 2d4 damage.
However, they are not official 5e weapons, despite having existed in prior editions. I expect this was a removal someone made for “realism” purposes - scythes are functionally impossible to use as a melee weapon given the blade being on the wrong side for practical use and their poor balance. Still, this is a fantasy game and realism should not trump the popular fantasy image of a scythe-wielder, so they probably should include it as an option.
If you do care about realism, you could also do what real farmers did when they wanted to have a little uprising and saw the big blade as something potentially deadly - refashion it. Often this was to take the scythe blade off the scythe itself and fashion it into a makeshift sword or halberd - so you could use a longsword or a glaive and visualise it as having been made from a repurposed scythe blade.
Just rename a Greataxe.
All the same properties and damage you'd expect.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
Flails are very practical, that’s why they were used IRL. The centrifugal force applied by the chain is a force multiplier, and it has the added benefit of being able to get around a shield. Plus, against an opponent in plate armor, the bludgeoning damage caused by a flail can crush a person in their armor where a sword would struggle to find a gap.
I do agree with you about reflavoring an existing weapon as a scythe however, probably a greataxe* or halberd.
*Now, you wanna talk about an impractical weapon, a Greataxe is impractical, that’s why nobody ever used one IRL.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
To be fair, despite many and more modern-culture references, short flails were rare and many experts and historians doubt if they ever really existed in a practical sense. The long polearm like peasant flail is a thing, though.
And if you put a Dane Axe as a example of a greataxe, it definitely existed and was used.
Yes, a handful of peasants with long flails were the death of a knight in full plate. In that situation the knight would commonly surrender to be ransomed back to his family. And medium length, “versatile” flails did exist too. As to the IRL practical application of shorter flails, who knows? 🤷♂️
And I would personally slot the Dane Axe into D&D as a battleaxe since it could be used with either one hand or two. It was frequently paired with a shield after all. Any axe so heavy it requires two hands to wield, but is shorter than a Polearm is utterly impractical on the battlefield.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
That said, there were War Scythes. But the design of those was much closer to your standard polearms than a traditional farming scythe.
This is a signature. It was a simple signature. But it has been upgraded.
Belolonandalogalo, Sunny | Draíocht, Kholias | Eggo Lass, 100 Dungeons
Talorin Tebedi, Vecna: Eve | Cherry, Stormwreck | Chipper, Strahd
We Are Modron
Get rickrolled here. Awesome music here. Track 48, 5/23/25, Immaculate Mary
Or a greatsword or glaive or halberd depending on how big and silly you want your scythe to be. Seriously, this is the answer. You can change the name to scythe on your character sheet and go on your merry way. Don't homebrew when reskinning can achieve the same goal. Especially in a case like this where there are multiple options for you to reskin. 5e weapon types just aren't unique or complicated enough to need a new category for scythes.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
A glaive is a reasonably accurate representation of a war scythe. As was already said, the agricultural scythe makes for a horrible weapon and is probably better being ignored.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
A scythe to me is not a reach weapon despite its sized, nor martial as it's a simple weapon we find in the hands of commoners so i'd reflavor greatclub to slashing
Simple Weapon
The war scythe was most definitely a reach weapon and polearms in general tended to be found in the hands of commoners because they were cheaper and easier to construct than swords, not because they were less effective.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
However, your point is irrelevant since the OP is not asking about a war scythe - they’re completely different items. A regular scythe—what was actually asked about—is simply not a reach weapon. Because the blade is on the inside, to use it at reach you would have to overextend your body, get the heavy blade all the way to the other side of the person (so they’d now be inside of your defences to boot) and then pull toward you, which is going to have much less force behind it than thrusting (which allows you to put your body weight behind the attack).
It was already established that things like war scythes or the modified scythes used by rebellious farmers could be covered by halberds or glaives - Plaguescared was clearly trying to provide another stat block option for what OP actually asked for.
It was also already established that an agricultural scythe isn't a weapon to begin with, so statting one out as a simple weapon doesn't work. Peasants didn't use agricultural scythes as weapons, they did use war scythes.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Thanks for repeating my first post back at me, albeit while leaving out the part where I explicitly mentioned that an agricultural scythe is a fantasy staple so there are legitimate reasons for including an agricultural scythe as a weapon in a fantasy game.
Technically, RAW a scythe would be an improvised weapon that does 1d4 slashing damage.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
I don’t know about this - and I am not trying to be contrary and legitimately mean that as in I don’t actually know how I would rule under RAW if it came up (I’d use the 4e weapon stars in actual play, but that’s not RAW).
A weapon is only a 1d4 improvised weapon in RAW if it “bears no resemblance to a weapon”—even you noted it bears a bit of a resemblance to the (rather impractical in reality if built like its common fantasy depiction) Greataxe, enough that “big heavy blade with pointy bits at the end” could be said to “resemble” a Greataxe and thus be treated as a Greataxe under RAW. I think this is one of those cases where two different DMs could come to different conclusions under RAW and both would be correct.
True, I was thinking an improvised weapon because, since it’s so unwieldy, you couldn’t add PB to the attack roll. Even if I let the thing do d8-d12 damage, it should still be “improvised.” At least that feels right to me.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
It would still be an improvised weapon - “Often, an improvised weapon is similar to an actual weapon and can be treated as such. For example, a table leg is akin to a club.”
But I generally agree with the fact that it would feel icky to have an improvised weapon be treated as a fairly powerful martial weapon. I think it is permitted under RAW’s ability to use a weapon as the basis for calculating an improvised weapon’s stats, but it does not feel RAI to use a non-simple weapon for this purpose.
In fact, the more I think about it, the more I think I would use these as stats for a Scythe:
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting