Dagger Tactics and Builds in D&D 2024 (5.5e)

Can this 1d4 damage dealing weapon be worth using in D&D 2024?

What’s so special about the dagger?

No weapon in 5.5e is necessarily the best. Rather, they tend to have different roles they perform. Some deal more damage, others have a bigger reach, some are for ranged combat and others let you wield another weapon.

Dagger properties

We can start by looking at what the dagger gives us in terms of properties:

• 1d4 piercing damage
• Simple weapon
• Finesse property
• Light property
• Thrown property (20/60 range)
• Nick mastery

Anyone can use a dagger

First off, the dagger can work as a weapon for basically any character. This is because it’s a simple weapon, so all classes have proficiency with it.

But most weapons use strength for attacks and many classes prefer building for dexterity. The dagger addresses this too by being a finesse weapon so you can use strength or dexterity for attacks with it. Only 6 weapons have the finesse property, and only 2 of these are simple weapons (the other one being the dart).

Daggers can be used for ranged and melee combat

Daggers are melee weapons so obviously work for melee attacks, but they also have the thrown property meaning they can be used at range too. Great if you need to switch between melee and ranged attacks.

Daggers can be used for dual wielding

Daggers have the light property allowing you to wield 2 light weapons and make an attack with the 2nd weapon using your bonus action. This means that while the damage is low, you can easily grab an additional attack. You can even do this at range using the thrown property.

It gets even better if you have the weapon mastery feature. With this, you can use nick mastery which lets you take that offhand attack without expending a bonus action. If you take the dual wielder feat, you can add another attack from dual wielding with the bonus action you just freed up from the nick mastery. That means a potential 2 extra attacks. These will be weaker as you don’t add your ability modifier to the damage here, unless you have the two weapon fighting style, but that’s still a decent damage boost.

Daggers can be easily concealed

It can be easily overlooked because there are no mechanics relating to this, but daggers are easy to conceal. There may be some times when obvious weaponry is inappropriate but a dagger can easily be snuck into these situations.

Dagger tactics and builds

For a dagger wielder, we probably want to be compensating for the relatively low damage by dual wielding. This will allow us more attacks, but we do have to build for this with the right class and feat options.

Knife in the dark rogue

Rogues are a really obvious option for daggers. For starters, they need finesse weapons to make their all important sneak attacks. On top of this, rogues only get one chance to land this sneak attack with their single attack. Daggers expand this by giving you an offhand attack or 2. With rogues, it matters less that the weapon damage here is lower because the majority of their damage comes from their sneak attack anyway.

For this build, we’re going to maximise chances to land a sneak while lurking at a reasonably safe distance. Here’s how it works:

• Dual wield daggers. You’ll be throwing these so you’ll want spares.
• Grab the nick weapon mastery property for your daggers.
• Make sure you have a high dexterity.
• You can sacrifice hiding for a 3rd attack at level 4 by taking the dual wielder feat.
• Alternatively, you can stick to 2 attacks and hide with your bonus action instead. If you want to enhance this you could even take the skulker feat.
• If you want longer range, you can take the bomber feat.

This build is a safer option for rogues as you’re going to primarily be throwing your daggers at range. You’ll need to attack enemies already next to an ally or against whom you have advantage so you can attempt a sneak attack though.

One way to gain advantage is to use your bonus action to take the hide action. If you do this at the end of your turn, you can be hidden for the next round, keeping you safer and ready for advantage on your first attack of the next turn.

Advantage rogue

While the previous rogue pushes for safety and volume of attacks, this rogue goes for the extra attack, but prioritises quality of attacks over volume or safety. To do this, we’ll need to engage in melee attacks which will also push us towards hit and run tactics which can interfere with attacking with our bonus action.

Here’s what you need:

• Dagger for your main attack
• Take the nick weapon mastery with your dagger for an additional attack with your offhand using your action
• Grab a shortsword for your offhand weapon
• Take vex weapon mastery through the shortsword. This will give you advantage on subsequent attacks

For this build, you’ll be using the dagger for nick so you have 2 attacks with your action. Your shortsword will give advantage on an attack making it easier for you to land your sneak attack.

You may not want to stay in melee range though so you’ll want to take the disengage bonus action. Alternatively, take the charger feat or even speedy. Charger will push your target out of melee range while speedy will give disadvantage on opportunity attacks and give you more movement speed. In fact, the faster this build, the better.

Technically with this build, you could swap the dagger for a scimitar. The problem with this build is you no longer have a ranged option that also has weapon mastery. There’s a good chance you may want to switch between this style and the previous one and you can manage that within these builds. Rogues are likely to want to go ranged at certain times if not most times but you become very limited here if you go with scimitar and shortsword mastery.

Martial thrower

For most martial classes like fighters, paladins and barbarians, you’re probably thinking you want the biggest damage dealers and close range weaponry. However, many of these classes lean into strength builds which means they’ll be poor with ranged weapons (which rely on dexterity). Barbarians rely on strength attacks for their rage boost and paladins can’t smite with ranged weapons but can with thrown weapons (you only have to hit with a melee weapon to use divine smite, it doesn’t say with a melee attack).

The dagger comes into this because it’s the only thrown weapon with the nick mastery so if you want another thrown attack and preserve your bonus action (or use your bonus action for another attack through the dual wielder feat) then you’ll need to use a dagger.

• Be a strength-based martial build. Usually, we’re looking at barbarians, fighters or paladins
• Take a dagger in your main hand and another light thrown weapon in the other (a handaxe is best)
• Grab weapon mastery in your 2 weapons of choice
• Fighters and paladins should take the two weapon fighting style for enhanced damage
• If you don’t have much use for your bonus action, you can also grab the dual wielder feat for an additional attack

With this build, you’ll be able to make 3-4 thrown or melee attacks per turn by level 5.

Nick monk

This one’s a little less conventional, especially as monks already have many attacks, but a monk can get an extra attack by dual wielding a pair of daggers. It also gives your monk a ranged weapon to use. It works like this:

• Dual wield 2 daggers (these count as monk weapons for the purposes of damage etc)
• At level 4 take the weapon master feat and take weapon mastery with daggers

With this build, by level 5, you’ll be able to make 3 attacks with your action and use your bonus action for flurry of blows for another 2 unarmed attacks (you can stow your daggers for this, but can also just use kicks, headbutts or some other part of your body). This means 5 attacks per turn.

You can take this build a little further with a 1/2 level dip in fighter. This will get you weapon mastery and a fighting style (take two weapon fighting) which will save you from taking the weapon master feat. If you go up to level 2, you’ll also get an action surge every rest meaning a turn with 8 attacks (assuming you take the attack action).

Are daggers worth using?

They certainly are as long as you build for them correctly. If you go around with a dagger and shield, you’re not going to get the most out of this discreet weapon. You might as well grab a longsword for that kind of build. However, if you want a dual wielder with a ranged option that can give you additional attacks, then daggers are an excellent option! Especially if you have access to weapon mastery.

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