Key recommendations
- Use weapon mastery combos like Push and Slow to effectively control the battlefield.
- Take advantage of the synergies between weapon mastery options with a partner for maximum impact.
- Consider pairing weapon skills like Vex and Nick for solo hit-and-run tactics, or combo with cleave skills for more attacks.
Despite all the powerful magic that Dungeons & Dragons has to offer, some people enjoy the simplicity of hitting someone with a stick until they're down – or maybe hitting them with something sharper, like a blade , or shoot them with an arrow while they are at a safe distance.
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Dungeons & Dragons: Weapon Mastery, Explained
Unlock the true power of your chosen weapon in the D&D 2024 rules.
Regardless of your preferred weapon, the Player's Handbook 2024 has come with weapon mastery, which allows you to give special properties to your preferred weapon's attacks. While that's all well and good, it's difficult to know which ones work well together. If you and a friend want to do a nice combo of weapons together, there are some fun options to play with here.
While some combos can be done by a single character, most of them will require two people wielding the appropriate weapons. Thus, unless otherwise stated, assume that there are two characters involved in these combos.
5 Push and push slowly
Keep melee enemies at bay
Push Weapons |
Great club, pike, warhammer, heavy crossbow. |
---|---|
Slow weapons |
Club, Spear, Light Crossbow, Slingshot, Whip, Longbow, Musket. |
While you could theoretically do this alone by dual wielding, this combo will be better executed with teamwork. The Push weapon mastery will push your target ten feet/three meters away if you hit them (no saving throw required), which can put them quite far away from you if you use all of your movement otherwise afterwards.
Then let's say they get hit by an ally with an attack that causes Slow. In this case, they lose ten feet/three meters of movement for one turn, preventing them from potentially reaching any of your party members if everyone is smart about their positioning. If the enemy in question is formidable at melee attacks, you're essentially forcing them to waste a turn by running away or standing still.
While two Slow attacks won't stack, you can stack other things that decrease movement. The party's wizard can cast a frost ray to remove an additional ten feet/three meters of movement, for example.
4 Push and flip
Keep melee enemies at bay, part two
Push Weapons |
Great club, pike, warhammer, heavy crossbow. |
---|---|
Turn the guns over |
Staff, axe, spear, maul, trident. |
The idea here is similar and more effective, though not as guaranteed. Pushing the enemy will work the same way, but Topple will force the opponent to make a constitution saving throw, and if they fail, they will be knocked down prone.
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Hitting someone prone is especially useful on its own, as all melee attacks against it will have advantage, but the fun part here is that in order to get up, the prone creature will have to sacrifice half its movement for that turn .
Although ten feet/three meters will probably be less than half and the creature will still get up, their movement on their turn would be half their normal movement minus ten feet/three meters, which is significantly worse. If you stack something like Ray of Frost as I previously suggested, you can potentially cut off more than half of their movement, preventing them from getting up on their turn.
If you have a third buddy with Sap (a mastery that gives disadvantage to the target's next attack), you can stack him on melee enemies here. A melee enemy will probably have at least one ranged attack if they can't reach someone, but will probably have a lower chance to hit since that's not their target.
So if your party prevents the enemy from getting to someone and then someone else gives the enemy a disadvantage on attack, you could make the enemy's entire round worthless.
3 Vex and Nick
Great for rogues and fighters
Nick Weapons |
Dagger, light hammer, sickle, scimitar. |
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Vex weapons |
Hand axe, arrow, short bow, sword, short sword, rifle, hand crossbow, pistol. |
If you want to dual wield weapons, this combination of weapon mastery has you covered. If you hit and damage someone with a Vex weapon, your next attack will gain advantage. With Nick, when you make an attack with a light weapon as a bonus action, that attack will instead be a free action, saving your bonus action for something else.
With a character like a rogue, you can move in, attack, and give yourself a free attack that also has advantage (which will trigger a sneak attack if the first attack didn't use it) and still get your bonus action for the disengaged, all in one order. Perfect for hit and run.
Fighters, on the other hand, can simply take advantage of the two-weapon fighting style and make two attacks at level one, where both attacks use your skill score to deal damage without using a bonus action. Then, as you get more and more bonus attacks, you'll be able to perform even more hits at once. A rogue fighter multiclass would work well here as well.
2 Vex and Cleave
Juggle your weapons
Vex weapons |
Hand axe, arrow, short bow, sword, short sword, rifle, hand crossbow, pistol. |
---|---|
Cleave Weapons |
Great axe, halberd. |
This one is extremely situational and a little cheesy, but it works. As mentioned, Vex gives you advantage on your next attack, while Cleave allows your attack to hit a secondary target as long as they are adjacent to both you and the original target (you'll make a separate attack roll for the second target).
So if you already have Extra Attack, you can attack with one weapon and give yourself advantage on your second attack, which will trigger a third attack if it succeeds.
Cleave's extra attack won't give Vex the advantage, but the first one will, and hitting the first one is necessary for the second one to even be a possibility. The tricky part here is how you're going to trigger things, since all cleaving weapons are two-handed.
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In the written rules, whenever you execute an attack, you can equip or unequip a weapon, and you can also do one of these once per turn as a free interaction (plus, you can unequip after the attack). So you can pick up the Vex weapon for free, attack, unequip as part of the same attack, and then pick up the Cleave weapon as part of the second attack.
If the weapon also has the throwing condition, you can pick it up and throw it immediately, freeing up your hands to equip another weapon during your second attack as well. Casting is not required for this to work though.
Alternatively, you can replace a weapon with the Cleave property with a versatile weapon that has an effect you like, such as the warhammer for a Push or a trident for a Topple, which will also give advantage to your friends.
1 Flip and split
Stack flips for maximum efficiency
Turn the guns over |
Staff, axe, spear, maul, trident. |
---|---|
Cleave Weapons |
Great axe, halberd. |
While you can do the same weapon juggling combo I mentioned above, it will work better if you have multiple allies that can trigger Topple. The idea here is to knock down both prone enemies and get the advantage on your attacks, so not only will the advantage on the first make it easier to trigger the Cleave, but you can also have a better chance of hitting the second target.
Unless you're a multi-attack fighter (and probably using Action Surge), you won't be able to hit both targets prone to giving you advantage on both Cleave attack rolls (not to mention that Topple uses a saving throw, so enemies can, you know, pass the check). Thus, having allies to help you take down both enemies before you split them is easier to remember.