Figter battle master with thrown weapon master: Use your bonus action to quicktoss net. With elven accuracy you get three die rather than two for advatage. Use sharp shooter and blow them up. Add superiority die for damage if you want. You end up having +17 damage at level 6 w/ 20 dex. Average damage per round @ armour class 15 is like 80 something. Use action surge and your extra attack to burst and get and that damage
Take quick toss on a battlemaster w/ sharpshooter and elven accuracy(your net toss is now a bonus action and you now have three die rather two for advantage rolls). If your dex is maxed out, you do 80ish damage burst on average against ac of 15 @ level 6 if you use everything. use action surge, use your superioty die if you want more damage (one s dice applies to both attack and extra attack). I prefer to save superiorty die to get multiple attempts at restraining them. in two rounds fighting an ac of 19, i did 112 damage; not bad for a level 6. Had to use thown weapons, but had +17 damage on each hit with sharpshooter. On top of that i carry a shield and had an AC of 19
Take quick toss on a battlemaster w/ sharpshooter and elven accuracy(your net toss is now a bonus action and you now have three die rather two for advantage rolls). If your dex is maxed out, you do 80ish damage burst on average against ac of 15 @ level 6 if you use everything. use action surge, use your superioty die if you want more damage (one s dice applies to both attack and extra attack). I prefer to save superiorty die to get multiple attempts at restraining them. in two rounds fighting an ac of 19, i did 112 damage; not bad for a level 6. Had to use thown weapons, but had +17 damage on each hit with sharpshooter. On top of that i carry a shield and had an AC of 19
Out of curiosity, what damage type did your DM decide the net did?
Separately, one superiority die does not apply to multiple attacks from Extra Attack. That was your DM homebrewing you a buff that contradicts the RAW.
Net attacks don't have a damage rolls, at all. There is nothing to add a bonus to. Sneak Attack, Superiority Dice, Sharpshooter, Thrown weapon fighting - none of these add damage to a net attack.
Net attacks don't have a damage rolls, at all. There is nothing to add a bonus to. Sneak Attack, Superiority Dice, Sharpshooter, Thrown weapon fighting - none of these add damage to a net attack.
Oh, good, this again. Shall I bring up Hex?
We just had a thread on this. The PHB at no point clarifies how nets work. There is no RAW covering it. Your GM will need to houserule it, just as your GM already needs to houserule how Sneak Attack works with a Flame Tongue rapier.
Net attacks don't have a damage rolls, at all. There is nothing to add a bonus to. Sneak Attack, Superiority Dice, Sharpshooter, Thrown weapon fighting - none of these add damage to a net attack.
Oh, good, this again. Shall I bring up Hex?
We just had a thread on this. The PHB at no point clarifies how nets work. There is no RAW covering it. Your GM will need to houserule it, just as your GM already needs to houserule how Sneak Attack works with a Flame Tongue rapier.
By all means, bring up hex and how explicitly deals necrotic damage on a successful attack. It is not dependent on the attack itself dealing damage; the spell effect is counted separately. And it perfectly follows the rules for spells dealing damage, so even when used with a net you don't get to add your Dexterity modifier to the damage roll.
And we do know what the RAW is for a net. I'm not really sure how you think the PHB isn't clear because I've never been confused. Nets don't have a damage die, fixed value, or type. They lack all characteristics needed for identifying damage. Ergo, nets cannot deal damage.
Features like Sneak Attack and Superiority Dice cannot define damage because they expressly lack a damage type. Rather, they add on to another source of damage; amplifying it and dealing more of the same. In other words, they're wholly dependent on the weapon used for determining the type of damage dealt. For example, if a Battle Master Fighter throws a handaxe at an ochre jelly any Superiority Dice added to the damage roll will also be ignored by the ooze. Because, in this specific instance, the dice add extra slashing damage. But if they attacked with a maul, it would be extra bludgeoning damage.
And those extra dice don't matter without a damage type. You can roll 20d6 "-" damage all day long, but the game isn't going to know what to do with that information. That's not the fault of the designers. Everyone who cries about falling skies over this is just acting silly. A special weapon doesn't behave like every other weapon does. Color me surprised.
One, and this one is important, remind everyone to be civil and courteous with each other. You may disagree with someone, but that doesn't give you the right to be rude while doing so.
Two, I'd like to provide some information to hopefully help clarify things:
The [weapon]net[/weapon] doesn't deal 0 damage, it is listed with '-' for its damage in the Player's Handbook. However, due to the way forms within D&D Beyonds backend work, it is not possible to specify that in many areas. So for example, in its listing or in the character sheet it says "0 Bludgeoning". This is incorrect
Jeremy Crawford has stated has stated RAI a net can't deal extra damage because it's not dealing damage in the first place
The intent is that a net doesn't deal extra damage because it's not dealing damage in the first place.
So to summarise:
RAW - The net is the only weapon with a damage of -. The rules don't explicitly state if - means zero damage or no damage,
RAI - The net doesn't deal damage, thus cannot deal _extra_ damage.
It's not that we know, precisely, what "-" means; we don't. It could mean zero, and maybe it does. But we do know what it isn't. It's not a d4, d6, d8, d10, or d12. Nor does it deal acid, bludgeoning, cold, fire, force lightning, necrotic, piercing, poison, radiant, slashing, or thunder damage. We know this because no damage type is given; when literally every other weapon, even improvised weapons like acid (vial) and alchemist's fire (flask) does have a damage type.
It might seem counter-intuitive, but I'm eliminating the impossible and arriving at the only logical solution. The net cannot deal damage when used as intended. If you want to use it as an improvised weapon, that's another matter. But, by both RAI (thank you Davyd) and RAW, it just can't hurt the target. It lacks the necessary statistics. It leaves the target restrained; no more and no less.
I don't see or know of any way to improve a net. And at higher levels, it just becomes obsolete, IMO.
The rules state: When you use an action, bonus action, or reaction to attack with a net, you can make only one attack regardless of the number of attacks you can normally make.
So the trade-off with a net is using your action to throw the net, and not getting any additional attacks. As a 5th level fighter, I could attack twice, bonus action attack with my off hand OR just throw the net for 0 damage and a DC 10 restrain condition. At higher levels, this trade-off is just NOT worth it, IMO. The amount of damage I would be doing from those three attacks in a single round overcomes any advantage I might receive from the net. And at higher levels, DC 10 is just nothing to overcome.
Unfortunately, this is what happens in most situations when it comes down to it, sheer damage output will almost always overcome any kind of tactical/RP build. In the end, it's just never really worth it, IMO.
Figter battle master with thrown weapon master: Use your bonus action to quicktoss net. With elven accuracy you get three die rather than two for advatage. Use sharp shooter and blow them up. Add superiority die for damage if you want. You end up having +17 damage at level 6 w/ 20 dex. Average damage per round @ armour class 15 is like 80 something. Use action surge and your extra attack to burst and get and that damage
Take quick toss on a battlemaster w/ sharpshooter and elven accuracy(your net toss is now a bonus action and you now have three die rather two for advantage rolls). If your dex is maxed out, you do 80ish damage burst on average against ac of 15 @ level 6 if you use everything. use action surge, use your superioty die if you want more damage (one s dice applies to both attack and extra attack). I prefer to save superiorty die to get multiple attempts at restraining them. in two rounds fighting an ac of 19, i did 112 damage; not bad for a level 6. Had to use thown weapons, but had +17 damage on each hit with sharpshooter. On top of that i carry a shield and had an AC of 19
Out of curiosity, what damage type did your DM decide the net did?
Separately, one superiority die does not apply to multiple attacks from Extra Attack. That was your DM homebrewing you a buff that contradicts the RAW.
Net attacks don't have a damage rolls, at all. There is nothing to add a bonus to. Sneak Attack, Superiority Dice, Sharpshooter, Thrown weapon fighting - none of these add damage to a net attack.
Oh, good, this again. Shall I bring up Hex?
We just had a thread on this. The PHB at no point clarifies how nets work. There is no RAW covering it. Your GM will need to houserule it, just as your GM already needs to houserule how Sneak Attack works with a Flame Tongue rapier.
By all means, bring up hex and how explicitly deals necrotic damage on a successful attack. It is not dependent on the attack itself dealing damage; the spell effect is counted separately. And it perfectly follows the rules for spells dealing damage, so even when used with a net you don't get to add your Dexterity modifier to the damage roll.
And we do know what the RAW is for a net. I'm not really sure how you think the PHB isn't clear because I've never been confused. Nets don't have a damage die, fixed value, or type. They lack all characteristics needed for identifying damage. Ergo, nets cannot deal damage.
Features like Sneak Attack and Superiority Dice cannot define damage because they expressly lack a damage type. Rather, they add on to another source of damage; amplifying it and dealing more of the same. In other words, they're wholly dependent on the weapon used for determining the type of damage dealt. For example, if a Battle Master Fighter throws a handaxe at an ochre jelly any Superiority Dice added to the damage roll will also be ignored by the ooze. Because, in this specific instance, the dice add extra slashing damage. But if they attacked with a maul, it would be extra bludgeoning damage.
And those extra dice don't matter without a damage type. You can roll 20d6 "-" damage all day long, but the game isn't going to know what to do with that information. That's not the fault of the designers. Everyone who cries about falling skies over this is just acting silly. A special weapon doesn't behave like every other weapon does. Color me surprised.
I would like to do two things:
One, and this one is important, remind everyone to be civil and courteous with each other. You may disagree with someone, but that doesn't give you the right to be rude while doing so.
Two, I'd like to provide some information to hopefully help clarify things:
So to summarise:
RAW - The net is the only weapon with a damage of -. The rules don't explicitly state if - means zero damage or no damage,
RAI - The net doesn't deal damage, thus cannot deal _extra_ damage.
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It's not that we know, precisely, what "-" means; we don't. It could mean zero, and maybe it does. But we do know what it isn't. It's not a d4, d6, d8, d10, or d12. Nor does it deal acid, bludgeoning, cold, fire, force lightning, necrotic, piercing, poison, radiant, slashing, or thunder damage. We know this because no damage type is given; when literally every other weapon, even improvised weapons like acid (vial) and alchemist's fire (flask) does have a damage type.
It might seem counter-intuitive, but I'm eliminating the impossible and arriving at the only logical solution. The net cannot deal damage when used as intended. If you want to use it as an improvised weapon, that's another matter. But, by both RAI (thank you Davyd) and RAW, it just can't hurt the target. It lacks the necessary statistics. It leaves the target restrained; no more and no less.
I don't see or know of any way to improve a net. And at higher levels, it just becomes obsolete, IMO.
The rules state: When you use an action, bonus action, or reaction to attack with a net, you can make only one attack regardless of the number of attacks you can normally make.
So the trade-off with a net is using your action to throw the net, and not getting any additional attacks. As a 5th level fighter, I could attack twice, bonus action attack with my off hand OR just throw the net for 0 damage and a DC 10 restrain condition. At higher levels, this trade-off is just NOT worth it, IMO. The amount of damage I would be doing from those three attacks in a single round overcomes any advantage I might receive from the net. And at higher levels, DC 10 is just nothing to overcome.
Unfortunately, this is what happens in most situations when it comes down to it, sheer damage output will almost always overcome any kind of tactical/RP build. In the end, it's just never really worth it, IMO.