Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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I mean...not all DW are dex. I stand by what I said.
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 double-bladed scimitar and two scimitars are poor choices for STR dual wielders and in no way overpowered.
So double-blade scimitar wasn't added in "Eberron: Forge of the Artificer". Or have I missed it? It would be nice with a mastery for it.
There are quite a bit of ideas of what would be fitting for the weapon, so something official would be nice. Not that you have to agree with it.
It was not.
pronouns: he/she/they
I don’t know about the dual blade but I for one would like to see more weapon masteries and weapons in general. Still waiting for different shields with masteries
What kind of masteries could you do with a shield? We already have Shield Master to provide mastery with a shield. There's not really anything else you can do with a shield. There's not really much in the way of different shields either. IRL you had regular infantry shields, cavalry shields, and that's about it. Bucklers were just for sport-fighting they weren't used in combat, all other differences in shields were just stylistic really. There's no fundamental difference between a large round shield, a large kite shield, or a large rectangular shield.
That’s true for the most part at least involving shields anyway and after some research and Baldur’s Gate, I’ve come to discover that many of the magic shields allow for much cooler things. So, maybe shield masteries isn’t what I was aiming for. Perhaps, more weapons and masteries themselves is betting wording. I would like to see some weapons that give defensive capabilities like shields such as sais or sword catchers that could possibly give a minor ac bump without said use of a shield. But a long range grapple or entangle with something such as the whip or morning star even a chain leaves a lot open for cool things to do and a larger variety of weapons but I would have to agree with whoever posted that the Nick mastery should be used for the dual scimitar as that would be pretty nice and save a feat, which is kinda what I believe the masteries all do.
A bonus action attack with it that does 1d4 damage.
Maybe it lets you provide the shield Ac bonus to adjacent allies.
A shield charge ability.
Two weapon wielders get 2 weapon masteries, give sword and board the same option.
That is the Protection or Inteception Fighting Style.
Please explain how one deals damage with a shield that still functions as a shield.
That is the Charger Feat if you want use movement to deal damage, if you want to charge to knock someone over that's covered by Shield Master.
Sword & Board can weapon-juggle to have two weapon masteries just as easily as two-weapon wielders, in fact they can juggle to get even more diversity of weapon masteries than two-weapon wielders have because two-weapon fighting is limited to Light weapons. Shield Master effectively adds 2 more weapon masteries enabling a sword & board character to access Topple / Push as a Bonus Action, then having 2 attacks with their main action to use any of Push, Sap, Slow, Topple, Vex with each of those attacks, and having a +2 bonus to their AC. In contrast a two-weapon user can only access: Slow, Vex, or Nick. They have no way to knock prone nor push enemies around.
I like that idea a lot and it makes sense that sword and board feels left out compared to other things. That’s what I’ve been trying to say. I love that archetype but mechanically it’s not as good as other combinations
I think the point is here that other masteries don’t require feats to be good but sword and board does. Each of the masteries feel like a mini feat of some sort and normally work very similarly to one feat or another. Such as push is basically the crusher feat. It would just be cool to have something for so popular an arch type without a feat or fighting style. I for one think the the protection fighting style could be cool as a mastery since you mostly need a shield to do it anyway. Then you could free up a fighting style to take something else and make it really cool. There’s just so many options and there could be more.
yup and slasher is just slow. A feat or some other ability being similar is not an argument that a weapon mastery should not exist. I mean look how nick works, it enhances the style so you can get 4 attacks at level 5. So why not the same with a shield and feats/fighting style that work with it, the mastery would play off of those do something on its own but also if you have the feat it would make it better.
Thinking about it, I may house rule it to remove its special rule and change it to Finesse with the Cleave weapon mastery. It loses the option for a Bonus Action attack but gains finesse and a free extra attack (not on the same target though) if you have Weapon Mastery. I am not sure if it is weaker, but it plugs into the 2024 system more cleanly IMO than the original does.
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My houserulings.
While I would love to see the same, I would not hold your breath. 5e did not have any sort of arms & armor splatbook over 10 years of content, and 2024 is pretty much doubling down on the same design priorities. To this end, I am not surprised they did not include DBS with Eberron this time around. They want a weapon/armor table that a newbie can look at without being overwhelmed. The most we can hope for is DDB support of a third party product that provides these options, aside from a handful of magic items that could provide some unique features.
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
This is true and also Weapon Masteries are for Weapons. Shields are improvised weapons at best. Even the Shield Bash from the Shield Master feat does not make it a weapon. There are specific magic items that are exceptions, for example, the Boomerang Shield, the Shield of the Cavalier, and Spiked Shield. Maybe, we will see a special magic shield that can be used as a weapon and has a weapon mastery property, but that is highly unlikely. It is the only way I would expect to see official support for Weapon Masteries on Shields. But, like you said, I would not hold your breath.
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My houserulings.
We’re still treating it as dual scimitars. It’s pretty niche still, but it works.
Do you mean that you house ruled the official weapon to be two scimitars and are using that?
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My houserulings.
It’s a double weapon with the Nick property. It would probably be less niche with Vex/Nick, which was the original thought, (combo attack, basically a Rapier/Scimitar combo weapon, mechanically) but being used by a Vengeance Paladin so the Channel Divinity covers Vex.
Okay, but it's never been a double weapon with the Nick property so saying that you "still" treat it as dual scimitars was odd. That's basically how it was treated in 3rd Edition, though, so it makes sense.
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My houserulings.
As for Double-Bladed Scimitar, I'd homebrew it simpler than Eberron. Either as Herschel says; treat it as 2x Scimitars. Or as a 1d10 slashing weapon with Two-handed and Finesse, and Weapon Mastery Sap. Basically a Rapier with forced Versatile and swapping Vex for Sap. That grants it the damage boost over the Rapier, but requiring two hands and have an arguably worse Weapon Mastery. It's worse for damage than TWF (no Fighting Style) using Nick, at least until Extra Attack 3x. However it doesn't hinder spell casting (as Two-handed is only applicable while attacking) and it's technically easier to only require one magic weapon than the two for TWF. If you made it 2d6 it would rival TWF (no FS) at Extra Attack 2x but then also be a Greatsword without the Heavy property and have Finesse, which I don't think is a good place.
The entire BA-attack built in, is the main reason people care about it, and honestly I think it should be normalized with the current weapon scheme. I wouldn't mind having it count as applicable for Polearm Master's list of weapons, alongside Spears and Quarterstaffs that do not have Heavy and Reach properties. That would have to be a weapon specific note.
@Agilemind: "Please explain how one deals damage with a shield that still functions as a shield." Are we talking rule technicality or practical application? If practical go look up "tell me how the grass tastes" on Youtube. Get a chuckle. As for rule technicality, just have the new weapon mastery explain you make an attack as if using an improvised weapon and that you are proficient with it, it deals 1d4 Bludgeoning damage. It shouldn't be hard to make function in DnD.
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As for giving Weapon Masteries to Sword'n'Board players, you still have a one-handed weapon that provides a Weapon Mastery. While I wouldn't particularly mind to see some minor Shield Weapon Masteries, it's not because that archetype lacks them. It's basically only Graze and Cleave they cannot get, and have no use for Nick.
If you were to give Shields Weapon Masteries, then Two-handed weapons would feel somewhat inferior for lacking Shield's +2 AC and having less options and amount of Weapon Masteries. TWF gets two weapon masteries because one of the masteries is likely going to be Nick to have similar damage output as Two-handed weapons, which they try to imitate, so in reality they only have 1 Weapon Mastery. Furthermore TWF can be great early but requires investment and your BA to scale properly to tier 3. TWF is mainly for Rogues who don't have Extra Attack (but need that Sneak Attack proc) and for on-hitters like Ranger with Hunter's Mark or gishes with CME or the occasional Barb. Can't we agree that Shield's +2 AC is pretty good already? Especially since it adds a Magic item slot to fill for a +3-5 AC item with no attunement?