The first new weapons for D&D 5.5e; the pitchfork, weighted chain and bola.
For the first time ever, we have some new weapons to play with in 5.5e. Martials rejoice! D&D Beyond Drops (the perks from D&D Beyond’s subscription) has gifted 3 brand new weapons and they come with some interesting options for character builds.
I was intrigued by these new weapons so have dug into them to understand what new build options they open up and how good they are.
Pitchfork
Damage: 1d6 piercing
Properties: Bludgeoning, two-handed
Mastery: Push
The unique thing with this weapon is that it is the only simple weapon with reach. That means that you don’t need to get into reach of most enemies to attack with it. There aren’t a lot of builds that would benefit from a simple weapon with reach (most classes making plenty of attacks have access to martial weapons with higher damage reach).
However, there’s one exception; the monk. Monks aren’t too bothered about weapon damage as they can use their martial arts die for damage instead. But, they are limited to simple or light weapons for this. Until now, there were no reach weapons that met one of these criteria, but the pitchfork does. This means you can attack and move away without worrying about opportunity attacks or using patient defense to disengage.
It might be alright on a few other classes as a backup weapon. Maybe spellcasters who need something for when spellcasting isn’t possible and can attack out of reach of enemies. However, I don’t really see this being the weapon of choice for any classes other than monks.
Weighted chain
Damage: 1d8 bludgeoning
Properties: Finesse, heavy, reach, two-handed
Mastery: Graze
This is another reach weapon, but it isn’t light or simple so is not an option for a monk. However, it’s one of only 2 weapons with the reach and finesse properties. Unlike the whip though, it has better damage and it’s two-handed and heavy which opens up a couple of other options.
The damage is still less than most other two-handed reach weapons so we want this only for dexterity builds. It’s especially good on hit and run builds who can avoid using the disengage action to move away. That means the rogue can get a lot of joy out of this.
Essentially, you move into range (10ft away), make your attack, then move away. You still have your bonus action as probably didn’t need to disengage so you can dash, giving you much more movement away from the enemy.
This gets considerably better with polearm master as this qualifies with the reach and heavy properties. Instead of dashing, you can use a bonus action to make a follow up attacks which is excellent for a rogue that really needs to land a sneak attack and naturally only gets one attack.
Not only that, but you get much easier reaction attacks as creatures enter your reach. Because sneak attack is once per turn, you can gain sneak attack on that attack too (if other criteria work in your favour which would be tough, but if nothing else, it’s another attack).
It also qualifies for great weapon mastery which is a great feat for boosting attack damage.
The one problem here is that with the weighted chain being heavy, you do need to invest 13 in strength to avoid incurring disadvantage on attack rolls. That’s not a big problem for a rogue though.
The other strong option might be a ranger who tends to favour a dexterity build and now has a finesse and reach weapon with decent damage that lets them attack with dexterity.
Bola
Damage: 1 bludgeoning
Properties: Finesse, thrown (range 20/40)
Mastery: Topple
The bola’s a lot more niche (which is saying something considering the last 2 weapons are only really worth it on a couple of classes). However, the bola almost certainly won’t be your main weapon. Instead, what makes it unique is that it’s the only weapon that can topple using dexterity.
The low damage and low range means you’ll want a different weapon as your main weapon. However, this becomes useful if you need to bring flying creatures down to ground level and are a dexterity build. That’s because topple can cause the prone condition. Only the trident could do this, but was limited to strength attacks.
For this, I’d be looking at rangers and rogues and perhaps also a dexterity based fighter as a backup weapon for dealing with flight. It was literally last night that I was fighting flying creatures for whom this would have been perfect.
Yes, it’s quite niche, but it does have its place if you need utility through weaponry especially at just 2gp each.
We’re quite used to characters having spell lists primarily derived from their class with every class having a different list. One D&D attempted to reimagine this with 3 different spell lists divided into 3 types of magical sources; arcane, divine and primal. Rangers and druids would take their spells from the primal list, clerics and paladins from the divine and so on.
Summary
It’s nice to see martials get a little bit of love (as minimal as that may be) and it’s nice to have some new tactics we can try with brand new weapons. Each weapon has a use case and space in gameplay, even if each one is a little limited. I think that’s OK though.
It makes sense for longswords and greatswords to remain fairly default options. What is needed is some variety for some of the more weapon limited classes, and these weapons achieve that for the monk and the rogue in particular. I’m quite pleased with what they’ve produced and see these as some nice, niche options.
