Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
Sign in- Marketplace
Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
Sign in
Medium armor doesn't have a strength requirement. But full warlock + armor of shadows works well too especially if you can get more than 15 dex or just go into good con and use all the nice temp hp options or the fey teleport away disappear options. Warlock has a lot of ways to make a melee character work.
On further reflection, I can not accept the Rules As Written declaration that a conjured great sword can only be wielded by someone with a Strength of 13+. Normal weapons are composed of steel, iron or adamantine. The conjured weapon is composed of the raw radiant, necrotic or psychic energy of the universe and its form is solely dependent on the innate power of my mind and will. When I let the conjured weapon fall from my grasp, its form dissipates and the encompassed energy rejoins the cosmic balance. When a normal weapon is dropped to the ground, its form does not dissipate into raw energy. A normal weapon has a Strength limitation while a conjured weapon does NOT.
The material of the conjured weapon is not specified. It deals Radiant, Necrotic, or the normal damage for the weapon. Changing the damage type in 5e can sometimes represent a weapon sheathed in a different energy type. In any case, a massless object isn't to damage anything so whatever it's made of, it weighs the same, and has the same attribute requirements, as a typical material weapon.
Pact of the Blade doesn't bypass attribute requirements. True Strike doesn't bypass attribute requirements. If clubs or quarterstaffs had an attribute requirement, Shillelagh wouldn't bypass them. Nothing bypasses attribute requirements on Armor or Weapons unless an effect explicitly says it does.
As far as changing the rules so you can have access to every weapon, regardless of your Strength, make that argument with your DM. With me, it wouldn't fly. If you want a Greatsword, invest in Strength. If you don't want to invest in Strength, use a Longsword (1d10 versus 2d6 is only difference of 1.5 average damage). If you want to invest in Weapon Master (to get one weapon mastery), that may affect your decision.
Also, note that conjured weapons have to melee weapons, but bonding to a magic weapon can use melee or ranged (this may or may not be intentional). Bonding to a Heavy ranged weapon will still require you to have a 13+ Dexterity, but that probably isn't a problem for you.
How to add Tooltips.
My houserulings.
Sometimes logic takes a back seat. Take for example, the gladius vs the rapier. Gladius is kind of the classic mental image we get of a shortsword (d6), while the rapier does d8 damage. IRL, a rapier just has more reach, but arguably would do less damage because it's narrower. A gladius would put a bigger hole in someone at very close range, while the rapier would put a smaller hole, from farther away. Logically, the gladius would do more damage but that's not what the rules say.
with GeijerFeyLock's example, he says the weapon is some sort of power. It's not. It's still a sword, and relies on mass as much as any other sword does. It also does not dissipate when dropped. It dissipates when it's too far away from it's owner for more than a minute. You can 100% drop it on the ground and leave it there. It simply does not work the way his mind says it works.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
The conjured weapon can do RADIANT, NECROTIC or PSYCHIC damage or it can do normal, mundane damage. My character is not bonding with a physical object but rather with a form of FOCUSED ENERGY that dissipates back into the cosmos when the combat encounter is done.
My character IS not going to invest in Strength; this is D&D 5.5, it is definitely NOT D&D 4.0 where a low Strength score can improve over time. It is nice that some of you folks can tell the difference between the gladius of the Roman legions and the rapier of the Renaissance. Are you also aware of the difference in fighting styles when using a gladius as opposed to using a rapier with perhaps a main gauche?
By carefully reading what the 2024 PHB says about when and how the conjured weapon disappears: the conjured weapon requires a certain amount of Concentration. My Concentration is broken when my character becomes Incapacitated, when my character loses Consciousness or when my character dies. When my Concentration is broken, my bond with the conjured weapon is broken and the conjured weapon fades away. This is in line with other conjuration spell effects: when the caster dies or is rendered unconscious, the conjured monster fades away.
That is not Concentration. If conjured weapons required Concentration, it would require a save or disappear if you take damage.
How to add Tooltips.
My houserulings.
you can lead a horse to water mate, but you cannot force it to drink.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
Not so fast....
when you fall Unconscious,
1) you become Incapacitated,
2) you become Prone,
3) you drop whatever you are holding (such as a weapon),
4) you lose Concentration.
Check the Rules Glossary in the back of the 2024 PHB.
What part of you do not need concentration for your pact weapon are you failing to comprehend? You 100% made that part up.
Here's the text of pact of the blade:
Pact of the Blade
As a Bonus Action, you can conjure a pact weapon in your hand—a Simple or Martial Melee weapon of your choice with which you bond—or create a bond with a magic weapon you touch; you can’t bond with a magic weapon if someone else is attuned to it or another Warlock is bonded with it. Until the bond ends, you have proficiency with the weapon, and you can use it as a Spellcasting Focus.
Whenever you attack with the bonded weapon, you can use your Charisma modifier for the attack and damage rolls instead of using Strength or Dexterity; and you can cause the weapon to deal Necrotic, Psychic, or Radiant damage or its normal damage type.
Your bond with the weapon ends if you use this feature’s Bonus Action again, if the weapon is more than 5 feet away from you for 1 minute or more, or if you die. A conjured weapon disappears when the bond ends.
using ctrl+f , you cannot find the word concentrate nor concentration in the text. It does not exist. You do not need to concentrate on your pact weapon. Don't be snarky, sarcastic, and rude with people when you do not understand the rule.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
I missed this gem.
Are you also aware of the difference in fighting styles when using a rapier/main gauche as opposed to using a gladius with perhaps a scutum?
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
I just noticed this. So, weapons conjured by Pact of the Blade are not conjured monsters. Conjured monsters are generally created by Conjurations spells and those have an indicator if they require concentration. The Conjure <Entity> spells (ie, Conjure Animals) do require have that indicator.
Everything that requires concentration explicitly says that requires concentration. Mage Hand does not. Spiritual Weapon does. You can cast Mage Armor before going to sleep (you are Unconscious while asleep) and Mage Armor won't end until the spell duration is up.
Pact of the Blade does not state that it requires concentration so you can get knocked out (as long as you don't die), go to sleep, or whatever and, as long as you remain close to it, your Pact Weapon remains your Pact Weapon. You can sheath it, or stuff it in a backpack if it fits, but extradimensional spaces like a Portable Hole or a Bag of Holding will end your
attunementbond if the Pact Weapon is inside without you for more than a minute. If you take damage and don't die while using a Pact Weapon, you do not have to make a saving throw to maintain concentration.I hope this helps.
How to add Tooltips.
My houserulings.
Even bags of holding I'd say are possible. How far away it is is in the DM judgment call range, the opening of the bag of holding being within 5 feet or whatever might be considered for the item to be within that distance.
Wait, I missed that detail somewhere. Portable Holes/Bag of Holding ends attunement?
No. Poor choice of words. I will edit the post.
They are extradimensional spaces so the Pact Weapon is not within 5 feet of you. I don't think it's a big deal either way, but technically, the bond (not attunement) ends after 1 minute.
How to add Tooltips.
My houserulings.
As soon as it clears the entrance, it's on another plane. I don't think it would break anything to rule otherwise and you could potentially circumvent it if you had a fob or something extending out of the extradimensional space or occasionally stuck a hand in.
On the other hand, since it is on another plane, any effect that would detect the pact weapon and not the bag of holding or similar item would not detect the weapon on another plane. There was a Detect Weaponry spell in 3e and could return in a later book or as magic item; it could be an interesting addition for Eberron as a Mark of Warding or Mark of Detection ability. If you rule that it is still within 5 feet of you, you should also rule that such an effect detects the weapon.
How to add Tooltips.
My houserulings.
Scutum (Roman rectangular shield) with the gladius (Roman short sword designed for deep stabbing attacks), standard armament for the Roman soldier. Are you familiar with the pilum (relatively high-tech Roman javelin designed to render an opponent's shield useless)?
Renaissance era rapier (designed for deep stabbing attacks) and the main gauche (left hand parrying dagger designed to catch and trap an opponent's weapon so that your rapier can slide past the opponent's defenses).
The gladius had more in common with the large American knives like the Bowie, the Ka-Bar and the original bayonet design for the M1 Garand.
One of the occasionally inane parts of D&D is that roughly 5000 years of body armor development and weapon development are usually squished down into six or seven pages of text which means that that there are weapons and body armor that are out of sync with each other. Where did I get the 5000 year figure? In 3500 B.C., studded leather and the gladius was about the best that was available, while in 1300 A.D., the standard was half plate armor and a four foot long sword, and in 1500 A.D., body armor was out, in favor of the rapier and the main gauche.
Addendum: what the game calls a "short sword" is probably NOT the Roman gladius. In the Middle Ages, a noble man would have two (2) swords, a four foot 'long sword' for the battle field and a two foot 'short sword' for formal appearances at the royal court. All of the various sword types (Great Sword, Two Handed Sword, Bastard Sword, Hand and a Half Sword, Claymore, Tulwar, Saber, Khopesh and so on) are the result of a wild mixture of cultures and historical periods.
Yeah its in another dimension, but there is a permanent door to it at your hip. It is a closed door, but it is there. How that translates to distance is a DM call. And I can see a call either way for how detect spells work with that.
Pact of the Blade says that my warlock character forms a "mystic bond" with my conjured weapon. If I am only able to Concentrate on one magical effect at a time, how much mental effort does that "mystic bond" take?
Again, the Rules Glossary says that
When you are Unconscious,
1) You are Incapacitated,
2) You are Prone,
3) You drop whatever you are holding,
When you are Incapacitated,
your Concentration is BROKEN (No Constitution save, No save of any kind, It is BROKEN). Is "mystic bond" superior to Concentration? If so, then I would appreciate a ruling in a future Sage Advice article.
May I quote you on this matter if my DM objects?