Whip 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 whip?

To be clear, I don’t consider the whip to be something super powerful or better than other weapons. Longswords are still excellent for a sword and shield build, greatswords still make excellent damage dealers and daggers will give rogues more attacks to attempt a sneak attack. But whips do have a really interesting set of skills. Here’s what you get from them:

• 1d4 slashing damage
• Martial weapon
• Finesse property
• Reach property
• Slow mastery

Not many weapons have the reach property. Your only other options are a glaive and a pike. Both of which have the heavy property. Uniquely, the whip has both reach and the finesse property making it the only reach weapon for a dexterity build (and therefore, something like a rogue).

Reach happens to be great for hit and run tactics, being able to hit further and managing more opportunity attacks.

If you happen to be going for a hit and run build, then slow happens to be a great option too as it makes it harder for enemies to chase you down. It’s this unique combination of attributes that will form the basis of how we can be utilising the whip.

Whip tactics and builds

First off, we need to let go of the idea that this build is going to be going for maximum damage. It won’t. But it can cause enemies some problems.

Whip trip rogue

Our first build is going to be a rogue. Rogues don’t need to worry too much about the damage of their weapons because sneak attack will do most of that for you. Whips are finesse weapons so rogues are proficient with them and they work with sneak attack. Rogues also happen to love hit and run tactics so we don’t need to take the speedy feat or use disengage as a bonus action leaving it spare for more movement through dash or maybe even the hide action.

With this build were going to attempt to completely immobilise enemies. We do this with the following:

• The whip’s slow mastery reduces movement speed by 10ft automatically on a hit
• Take the slasher feat (which works with the slashing damage of a whip) at level 4 for an additional 10ft move speed reduction that automatically applies on a hit
• Finally, at level 5, you’ll gain cunning strike which includes the trip option. Use this on your sneak attack to knock the target prone (on a failed dexterity save)

Many creatures have a 30ft move speed and require using half their movement speed to stand up. By reducing their speed by 20ft using the whip and slasher effects (which stack because they’re from different effects) you now have an enemy that can probably, barely move. Already it’s easy for you to move close to attack, stay out of reach and move away with little chance of them catching you.

Trip finishes this off though because standing up from being prone requires half your movement speed. For a creature with a 30ft speed, this means expending 15ft of movement which they won’t have, leaving them stuck prone, immobile, and vulnerable to melee attacks from allies.

Whip and frost eldritch knight

The eldritch knight will work on a similar premise. But it’s less hit and run and more about disabling one foe or at least keeping enemies from reaching spellcasting allies.

Here’s what you need:

• Whip to impose slow (-10ft movement speed)
• Slasher feat at level 4 (another -10ft movement speed)
• Ray of frost for another -10ft movement speed. From level 7, you can replace an attack with a cantrip casting allowing you to both make a whip attack and use ray of frost in the same turn

Once you hit level 11, you’ll have a 3rd attack, allowing you to slow down more targets. However, you’ll only be able to slow by 10ft per additional target as slasher only works once per turn. If you use action surge, you will get another casting of ray of frost which could get you another target slowed by 20ft.

There may be an option to switch between additional weapons (maybe ones that give higher damage), but this may depend on your build. If you have a shield, you’ll already need to swap between your whip and an arcane focus. If you’re not using a shield, you may have a bit more flexibility to weapon swap here. You could even use a weapon with topple mastery to knock a creature prone and keep them down.

Whip and frost valor bard

The Valor bard works in kind of the same way as the eldritch knight but with more focus on hit and run tactics and less on being the spearhead of an attack.

• You’ll need to make sure you gain weapon mastery for this build as bards don’t get this as standard. This either means grabbing the weapon master feat, or taking a 1 level multiclass dip in a class that does have weapon mastery
• Whip to cause -10ft movement speed
• Slasher feat at level 4 for another -10ft movement speed
• Ray of frost, which you can cast using one of your attacks for another -10ft movement speed

Like with the eldritch knight, you can effectively stop a creature in their tracks with this build, so long as both attacks hit. There are no savings throws here either so this works on nasty boss creatures with legendary resistance too.

Whip barbarian tank

Barbarians make great tanks and ideally, you often want attacks focused against them rather than less resilient characters. The challenge is forcing the DM to do this, but a whip build can help here. This is how it works:

• Whip for -10ft movement speed
• Slasher feat at level 4 for another -10ft movement speed
• If you go with a world tree barbarian, you can teleport another enemy to within 5ft of you and make their movement speed 0 so now you’ve made 2 enemies stuck fighting you
• Use brutal strike at level 9 to either push your opponent away once they’re too immobile to do anything, or reduce their speed by a further 15ft if you need to immobilise them even more. Just make sure you use strength for the attack roll

Bonus points for Frost Goliath

If you want to lean harder into the whip’s slow mechanics, you can go with a Frost Goliath which can reduce movement speed a few times per long rest when hitting with an attack.

Is the whip worth using?

Yeah, I think so. It’s not a classic damage dealer, and you can’t just put it on a character like you can a greatsword and expect it to be effective. Instead, you need to build around it and use tactics that support its benefits.

But, with the right build and tactics, a whip wielder can be a strong option for controlling enemies and keeping them in the places you want them, including being stuck prone on the floor.

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