Choosing Your Weapon in D&D 2024 (5.5e)

Helping you choose the right weapon for your build.

Weapon considerations

The first thing to think about is what factors affect your weapon choice. You’ll want to consider the following factors:

Weapon proficiencies

It’s crucial that you choose a weapon with which you have proficiency. Without this, your attacks rolls with that weapon will generally be poor. Each class has a list of weapons they’re proficient with and some other options can expand this like the valor bard, cleric’s protector divine order and the martial weapon training feat (though I’m yet to find a good use case for actually taking this feat).

Ability score specialisation

What ability score your character specialises isn’t is one of the most important factors in choosing a weapon. Most weapons will rely on either your strength or dexterity modifier for attack and damage rolls, this means you’ll want a weapon that fits with your best ability score.

Ranged weapons use dexterity and finesse weapons can use dexterity or strength. All other weapons (and unarmed strikes) will rely on your strength modifier.

A few classes and subclasses can rely on other ability scores. For example, warlocks with pact of the blade can use their charisma for weapon attacks with their pact weapon, bladesingers and battle smiths can use their intelligence and monks can use dexterity for unarmed strikes and monk weapons.

Some weapons also have ability score requirements like heavy weapons which require 13 strength or dexterity (depending on whether it’s a melee or ranged weapon) otherwise you have disadvantage with those weapon attacks.

Melee or ranged combat

Most classes will have a preference towards melee or ranged combat (though you should have at least one weapon for each). This may determine the weapons you choose.

Mastery property

Some classes have weapon mastery which grants a buff to your weapon attacks like pushing the target or knocking them prone. This can really alter your tactics in combat so you’ll want to choose a weapon mastery property that complements the tactics you use.

Weapon properties

Each weapon has a few different properties you’ll need to consider when choosing a weapon. For example, weapons with the loading property are no good for characters with the extra attack feature as they only let you make a single attack with your action (unless you take an appropriate feat). If you want to play a dual wielder, you’ll need to use light weapons and if you want to use strength for ranged attacks, you’ll need a weapon with the thrown property.

Build type

If you want to play it defensive, you may want a shield, this will limit you to one handed weapons. If you want more attacks through your bonus action and the nick mastery property, then you’ll need light weapons and so on. Your build will determine which weapons are appropriate for you.

Available hands

Hands can be occupied by all sorts of things like a spellcasting focus, a shield or another weapon. If you don’t have the hands available for a two handed weapon or dual wielding, then you will need to consider another weapon.

Feats

Some feats will provide benefits, but only for certain types of weapons. This is especially the case for fighting style feats, but feats like great weapon master, polearm master and bomber all only work with certain weapon types. You don’t want to be wasting feats that would make you more potent with a different type of weapon.

Different weapons for different occasions

I’ve already mentioned ensuring you have a melee and a ranged weapon, but you may want to expand this further. Sometimes you might want a push weapon, at others you may want to vex. Sometimes you might be grappling, so need a one handed weapon, at others you might have both hands available. It’s really easy to juggle weapons in D&D 5.5e so you might as well prepare different load outs for different situations.

Best weapons for different builds

Now you’re thinking about all the most important factors for choosing your weapon, we can look at which weapons work well for different builds. Check out the build you’re going for to see some good weapon suggestions and other advice.

Sword and shield

• Works best for: Melee builds that want to survive longer in combat.
• Benefits: Higher AC.
• Disadvantages: Lower attack damage from lack of two handed weapons or dual wielding. Limited ranged options.
• Relevant feats: Defensive duelist, shield master, war caster, dueling, interception, protection
• Good weapon options: Battleaxe, flail, longsword, morningstar, rapier (for a dexterity build), trident (for thrown attacks), Warhammer, war pick.
• Advice: Surviving is less exciting than high damage builds, but you’ll last longer and that can mean more damage in the long run. Just be aware of the hands needed to cast different spells. If you have the fighting style feature, I’d seriously consider the dueling feat for that damage boost.

Two handed melee

• Works best for: High damage, strength builds that don’t need the extra protection from a shield.
• Benefits: High damage without consuming your bonus action.
• Disadvantages: Hands are full using a weapon. This means no shield option for defence.
• Relevant feats: Great weapon master, polearm master, sentinel, great weapon fighting
• Good weapon options: Glaive, greataxe, greatsword, halberd, lance, maul and pike
• Advice: A greatsword and maul are your highest damage options here (2d6 averaging 7 per hit which is slightly better than a d12 at 6.5 damage per hit). Your choice primarily comes down to the damage type and the mastery property (graze or topple). You could also pick a greataxe for cleave. One great aspect about two handed weapons is some of them have the reach property, extending what you can hit. If you want a little less damage and more reach, go for a glaive, halberd, lance or pike. Reach weapons can pair really well with the sentinel feat allowing you to make opportunity attacks against creatures within 10ft of you, immobilise them and potentially wasting their turns.

Dual wielder

• Works best for: High damage builds that have the weapon mastery feature (for nick) and don’t need their bonus action for other things.
• Benefits: More damage, more opportunities to hit a target (especially useful for something like a rogue that will really want to land a sneak attack each turn and has just one attack to do so).
• Disadvantages: Bonus action is occupied with attacks, no option for a shield, requires feats and weapon mastery to be properly effective.
• Relevant feats: Dual wielder, two weapon fighting
• Good weapon options: Scimitar and shortsword for a melee build. If you want to dual wield and throw weapons (or can’t wield martial weapons) then a dagger, handaxe and light hammer are all good.
• Advice: If you have weapon mastery, grab a weapon with the nick property like a scimitar, dagger or light hammer. This will let you either preserve your bonus action while making offhand attacks, or allow an additional attack with your bonus action. Use another weapon with a different weapon mastery property to benefit from that. For example, for melee attacks, you might want a scimitar and a shortsword for nick and vex mastery and for thrown attacks, a dagger and handaxe are good. Just be aware for dexterity builds that you’ll want weapon loadouts with the finesse property. This leaves you with daggers, scimitars and shortswords.

Grappler

• Works best for: Grapple builds and monks
• Benefits: Able to easily grapple, hands are free for other things.
• Disadvantages: Generally lower damage and requires investment in feats to be effective.
• Relevant feats: Tavern brawler, grappler, unarmed fighting
• Good weapon options: None, just use your fists.
• Advice: Unarmed strikes typically deal just 1 damage (+ ability modifier) unless you’re a monk, dance bard or have a feat that improves that damage. Even then, feats will only get you to d6/d8 depending on whether you’re holding a shield. On top of that, martials are losing out on a weapon mastery option too. That’s not loads. You really need that grappler feat and unarmed fighting to make this build work. Tavern brawler is useful too. These will grant decent damage and the ability to grapple or push as part of your attacks. Grappling can be really effective, especially if you shove prone too and now your opponent is struggling to escape your clutches while being disadvantaged in attack.

Ranged weapons

• Works best for: Ranged martials and as a backup ranged option for when you can’t reach melee range.
• Benefits: Stay away from danger, attack far away targets.
• Disadvantages: Tends to be a little lower in damage, usually no shield option, martials shooting at the back aren’t protecting less resilient spellcasters.
• Relevant feats: Crossbow expert, gunner (2014 feat), sharpshooter and archery
• Good weapon options: Light crossbow and shortbow if you don’t have martial weapon proficiency. Heavy crossbow, longbow, musket and pistol if you do.
• Advice: If a weapon has the loading property, you’ll only be able to make one attack with your attack action. This is fine for classes with only 1 attack (like rogues) but is a problem for extra attack classes like fighters and rangers. You can take the gunner or crossbow expert feat to bypass this, but is only worth it for dedicated ranged builds (even if the damage on these types of weapons tends to be a bit better).

Thrown weapons

• Works best for: Melee builds that want some strength ranged attacks. mid-ranged combatants. Shield-wielders that want a ranged option. Ranged dual wielders
• Benefits: Can dual wield or make ranged attacks with a shield. Weapon juggling is fairly easy in 5.5e making a thrown build easier. Allows strength builds to use strength for their ranged attacks.
• Disadvantages: Thrown weapons have shorter range than ranged weapons. Need to buy multiple weapons to throw around. Tend to be lower damage than melee weapons.
• Relevant feats: Bomber, dual wielder, two weapon fighting
• Good weapon options: Dagger (for dexterity builds), handaxe, javelin (best thrown range), spear and trident
• Advice: Strength builds can use this as their backup when they can’t reach melee combat. It’s also handy as it works with a shield or dual wielding too so if you want more attacks than ranged weapons normally allow, you can dual wield thrown weapons instead. If you want longer range for your thrown weapons, grab the bomber feat. Rogues can benefit a lot here by dual wielding daggers. They can still benefit from sneak attack, can get multiple attacks through nick and their bonus action if they take the dual wielder feat and don’t need their bonus action to disengage if they were attacking in melee (though may still want it to hide).

Hit and run specialist

• Works best for: Characters that aren’t tough enough to stay on the frontlines, but do want to be making melee attacks.
• Benefits: Use high damage melee attacks while reducing melee attacks against you.
• Disadvantages: Requires high mobility, can be risky as you lurk on the fringes of melee.
• Relevant feats: Speedy
• Good weapon options: Greatclub, glaive, halberd, pike, warhammer and whip.
• Advice: There are a couple of builds that allow for hit and run tactics purely through your weapons (exclusive of feats or class features). This comes through 2 approaches; reach (avoid getting within reach of an enemy you attack) and push mastery (push the target with an attack so you’re out of reach then move away). This is generally best for builds that aren’t tough enough to endure melee combat, but that want to be making hard hitting melee attacks (like rogues, valor bards, battle smith artificers and bladelocks) or can just be good for moving around the battlefield without incurring opportunity attacks. The whip is the only finesse weapon in this list so a really good option for a rogue who can use it for sneak attacks. Most other characters will want to use harder hitting weapons, especially as warlocks with pact of the blade can use charisma for their pact blade attacks and something like a battle smith can use intelligence for their weapon attacks.

Lance and mount

• Works best for: Mounted combat when you also want to use a shield.
• Benefits: High damage, reach and can wield a shield.
• Disadvantages: Only works while riding a mount.
• Relevant feats: Mounted combatant
• Good weapon options: Lance obviously.
• Advice: Lances stack up well alongside other reach weapons without even needing to use a mount, but grab a mount and suddenly you become heavily armored and heavily armed with a weapon dealing 1d10 damage while also getting the benefits of a shield. Other weapons can be good here too, but I wanted to highlight a lance as a great option for this. With standard weapons, this is the only way to accomplish this. Grab mounted combatant for even better mounted combat. You’ll also need a mount. Find steed will do the trick here.

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Hopefully you’ve now managed to find a weapon for your build. There’s a surprising amount of build variety when it comes to weapons and I’m always keen to try different loadouts on my characters to see how they work out in combat. Are there combat use cases I’m missing above. Let me know in the comments and I can add them in.

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