segment of sage advice I am Greg Chino
and I’m joined by a Jeremy Crawford hey
there how’s it going doing great we have
our tavern punch and we’re ready to talk
about weapons I feel like we should be
starting an adventure because we’re
meeting here in a tavern now exactly
what who’s our quest giver and this
punch is courtesy of our interview
guests and those of you listening will
be able to hear how exactly to make this
drink during the interview segment but
Jeremy and I are cheating and just going
right to the sips as we talk about how
to throw these mugs of tavern punch at
each other in discussion of weapons and
how they’re used in vivid ition that was
an amazing segue dude I’ve had like six
really good segues today that I just
want to like Pat myself yeah I’m just
gonna sit here in awe for a few moments
and the podcast will be silence s yeah
no that was really good I’m feeling it
so yeah weapons and improvised weapons
like the tankard you toss at somebody
exactly how does it work so weapons
there’s something every character cares
about in D&D even if you’re playing the
bookish wizard who you know would rather
write in there spell book than ever draw
a weapon even then at some point in a
campaign they’re probably gonna pick a
weapon up we’re gonna need to get that
dagger out and just do something yes and
a lot of our rules care about weapons
like you have references all over the
place to weapon attacks melee weapon
attacks ranged weapon attacks you have
if if you’re the DM and you look at a
monster snap-loc you’ll see you’ll see
the words over and over again this is a
melee weapon attack this is a ranged
weapon attack which again begs the
question well what the heck is a weapon
yeah how did we define this so weapon of
course has its natural meaning in
English and that meaning holds in D&D
which really means something you use to
clobber somebody else but our rules also
narrow it a little bit in the players
handbook we have our whole chapter on
equipment and a part of that chapter is
specifically about weapons complete with
illustrations of the you know many of
the different web
and types and there we clarify that
weapons in D&D so did the weapons that
the rules care about fall into two main
categories they are simple weapons and
martial weapons and then within those
categories they’re either melee weapons
or ranged weapons right the melee and
ranged one is is pretty self-explanatory
because there were we’re using natural
English a melee weapon is you know
weapon you use up close like that you
know that knife that you’re about to
thrust into that loud mouth in the bar
fight whereas a ranged weapon is
something like a longbow crossbow
anything that you’re using to hit a
target far away I love that you say
melee is normal English because I don’t
think anybody would know what melee is
without Dungeons and Dragons I know and
and it is thanks to me starting playing
D&D around the age of six that for me
melee is natural like when is your first
like five hundred words that’s right and
thanks to Gary Gygax I also at a very
young age learned the word milieu and
what the difference between a halberd
and they pick is yeah yes it was a very
kind of antiquarian English that I was
learning very early on I know friends
who pronounced it melee because they
learned when they were six and yes how
their brains learned it well and plus
most of us had never heard it said
anywhere right and in fact I think as a
kid I did say melee did you because you
know we had to guess how and plus we
didn’t have the internet back then I
mean we’re old enough we didn’t have you
know Google to Google how do you
pronounce this right and it wasn’t again
word that was said in any other context
except in in in Dungeons & Dragons here
so that’s awesome so so there’s the
range category there’s a melee character
category and then and again simple and
marshal those categories are a bit more
abstract more having to do with honestly
separating out some of the higher damage
weapons into the marshal category and
some of the lower damage weapons into
the simple category it was that really
the because I always assumed it was
you know weapons that you would need a
little bit more training or skill to be
able to use effectively exactly and and
you read my mind you’re on fire today
that there is also a narrative layer to
each of them and so essentially what we
did is we and this is what we often like
to do with our design is pair some kind
of narrative notion with also a
mechanical notion and so you are exactly
right marshal weapons tend to be ones
that people even in the real world
generally need some training to use that
their utmost effectiveness simple
weapons tend to be things like anybody
can just like it’s a club you know they
can pick it up and bash somebody with it
yeah but you’ll see if you look at the
two lists the highest damage weapons are
on the marshal list let’s go I didn’t
notice that before and so we did that
because it how it also breaks down is
our classes that are more about being
badasses with weapons in combat they
start off with access to those marshal
weapons whereas many of our classes like
the wizard for instance usually just
have proficiency with some simple
weapons so again we’re not only there
with our class design and how our class
design interacts with weapons we’re not
only telling a story like a typical
wizard doesn’t train with marshal
weapons the way a fighter would but what
it also means is that if the wizard you
know does want to wade into melee their
weapon options are not as good as the
fighters meaning they’re also going to
deal less damage within the fighter and
that is also a mechanical goal because
we want to make sure that the classes
that are all about weapon but in you
know with weapons that they are in fact
mathematically better at it that make
sense so again that’s a that is the
marriage there of narrative and and
mechanics now people will rightly point
out if they’re very familiar especially
with the monster side of the game then
in addition to simple and martial there
is actually a third type of weapon at
least when it comes to what the system
often treats as a weapon and that is
natural
now that is largely an invisible
category to the player side of the game
like when the players handbook refers to
weapons
it really is zeroing in on what that
book presents as weapons the dungeon
master because the dungeon master is
often controlling these creatures with
claws and horns and you know various
other protrusions that they might use to
Maul people have access to again natural
weapons although this is something that
player characters will occasionally
interact with if say they’re a druid and
they wild shape into a beast
or if they’re a ranger and have
befriended an animal who’s joined the
party essentially so again yeah there is
that other that other group they are not
the manufactured weapons that simple and
martial are but the system when it comes
to like making weapon attacks and
whatnot treats them as such now yet
there’s another thing I should point out
here because this often creates some
confusion people will wonder is my fist
considered by the system to be a natural
weapon the answer is no the game tends
to treat only things like claws horns as
natural weapons and if you’re ever
wondering you know does this piece of
this creatures Anatomy count as a
natural weapon or not our stat blocks
will tell you by having that piece of
the creatures Anatomy appear as one of
the creatures attacks in their stat
block so we show you right there this
thing is significant enough that it gets
its own action entry and it can be used
to make weapon attacks our sort of soft
fleshy fists us humanoids that we have
or you know our elbows or whatever it is
we’re using to make an unarmed strike
our system does not consider to be a
weapon in the same way but you can still
make weapon attacks with it and that
distinction often does not matter at all
this is one of those sometimes there are
distinctions in the rules we’re very
engaged
and we’ll notice them and rightly so
because sometimes the distinction really
does matter but at the same time this is
one of those ones where I would love it
if people most of the time would just
let it go
sing along with Elsa let it go because
most of the time it doesn’t matter and
like really about the only time it
matters is when something in the game
talks about like enchanting a weapon
silver ring a weapon where I was exactly
gonna point out was like yeah there it
does matter is wearing it’s it’s this
corner case of do you have the right
weapon needed to do damage to this
preacher type and and and usually it is
clear in the context that the game at
that point is talking about an object
yeah when you know it you know you’re
not you know one place for silver over
you’re exactly yeah and then and then
they immediately report to the emergency
room where you in the in the D&D
multiverse you know the nearest cleric
yeah as you were screaming with the hot
silver on your fists at least kill that
werewolf or at least get one good punch
in that’s right yeah so it that
distinction about unarmed strikes
usually only matters when the game is is
sort of fussing about do you have one of
these objects that the system thinks of
as a weapon that you know either is
gonna have magic put into it or or or
what have you and then and in the monk
class there’s a lot of which is the
class that you use under attack so the
fists as often as most of them – there’s
a lot of things in there that allow you
to deal damage to these creature types
that need magical weapons or silver
weapon exactly exactly the monk has some
workarounds built into the class where
they’re they’re unarmed strikes are
allowed to bypass different resistances
and immunities to non magical weapon
attacks out of curiosity was that
something that was discovered as you
were designing the monk class for fifth
edition or is that something that kind
of was like oh we’re gonna always want
to make sure that this is in there we
knew because of work on previous
editions that this is an issue really
for anyone in the game
who is attacking not with a spell and
not with a physical weapon because if
you’re attacking with a spell okay
you’re using magic and you can usually
find some way to damage a thing that
might have an unusual resistance or
immunity if you’re using weapons well
you can eventually get your hands on a
magic weapon which usually also helps
you bypass certain defensive
capabilities but we know in the past
that if you have a character is like
you’re not using either you’re using you
know your elbow or your shoulder or your
butt or whatever it is you’re using to
make your unarmed strike you’ve got to
have some way especially at higher level
to bypass some of those resistances and
immunities because you don’t want to
have a character who shows up and it’s
just like oh I can’t do anything in this
fight I’m one of the most skilled
fighters here I can do all types of
crazy things with back throws and things
like that but then open oh my can’t hit
it beam in yep yeah exactly and we’re
fine with that to be the experience at
low levels because part of the neat
character narrative built into D&D with
the leveling up mechanic is you’re meant
to actually have at low level some of
those experiences of oh no I have no way
of affecting this thing and then we
provide as you’re leveling up ways for
you to get the tool that will overcome
that past adversity so then the next
time you face it you really feel like
you’re getting more powerful because
like hey last time I met this demon I
couldn’t even hurt it this time I owned
it oh my gosh that’s such a great trope
not even just in D&D but just a whole
storytelling where you’re like you know
I’ve I’ve I’ve done the training montage
and now I can finally get when I need to
get that I couldn’t do at the beginning
of the movie in act 1 yeah but act 3
nailed it yeah yeah yeah exactly a
question I get sometimes is can a
creature that has natural weapons still
make an unarmed strike and the question
is yes any creature in in D&D can make
an unarmed strike and no matter what the
creature is if you’re making an unarmed
strike you use the unarmed strike rule
in the combat chapter of The Player’s
Handbook so even if you’re playing like
oh my god it’s the it’s the sentient
ball of horns that’s coming at me even
though it’s all whore
if for whatever reason the DM does not
want it to use its horn attack the DM
could still have it make an unarmed
strike which then means it just rolls
its you know attack roll adds its
strength bonus if it hits then it deals
exactly one damage plus its strength
modifier because that’s how all unarmed
strikes work in the game what’s the
advantage of doing that they normally
wouldn’t want to do it so the main
reason why players bring this up it’s
because of typically multi classing if
you have a like druid monks who will
wild shape into a critter and then want
to know can I do unarmed strikes when
I’m in this animal form even though it
has horns and and or some other kind of
natural weapon because you get the
bonuses by doing unarmed strikes exactly
as a monk and often often some of the
most wonderfully strange rules questions
we get are thanks to multi classic yeah
they multi classing and which is why we
it’s an optional part of the game where
we don’t expect all groups to use it
because there are many things like this
where the issue will never even come up
in your campaign unless someone is multi
classic right because the systems were
designed for the classes that’s discrete
and then if you start to mix and match
then it’s like well that’s where these
corner cases can just arrive exactly and
we wanted to design the system so that
the majority of players who we know
don’t multi class could basically sort
of enjoy the game and not worry about
any of this stuff and then the basically
the groups who are ready to sign on for
the extra complexity well then they will
have to deal with some of these corner
cases sometimes with the DM just making
a call because we don’t always provide
rules for every single corner case yeah
that’s better with a complex game like
that it’s kind of possible to do that
yeah yeah exactly
now there’s another area of weaponry
that people are often fascinated by and
it goes all the way back to the
beginning of this podcast and that is
well what happens when I throw the
tankard of ale at somebody I’m
improvised weapon exactly because it is
an object and I’m using
and I have weaponized this object in in
English that would be what we would call
a weapon so we have a rule for that
that’s the improvised weapon rule and
what the rule is basically that if it’s
something that was not designed to be
used a WEP as a weapon and doesn’t
resemble a weapon in any way you can
still attack with it but it doesn’t
count as a simple or a Marshall weapon
it essentially doesn’t have any of those
categories that a weapon would have
because it’s just it’s this it’s this
like only partially formed weapon that
you are now using you don’t have
proficiency with it unless you have one
of the few things in the game that does
give you proficiency with improvised
weapons so it means you don’t get to add
your proficiency bonus to your attack
role and no matter what it is it just as
a d4 damage and showing that you know a
weapon something that’s been crafted for
a battle is going to deal more damage
than the vase you just picked up off the
side table to smash into the person’s
head now that said we give DMS a lot of
Liberty within the improvised weapon
rule because one of the things we say is
DM if a person is using something that
is pretty darn close to an actual weapon
you know one of the simple and marshal
weapons on the weapon table in the
players handbook DM go ahead and just
let it count as that thing the example
we given the players handbook is someone
might in imagine again typical bar fight
smashes a table picks up the table leg
and clobber somebody with it table leg
especially if it’s made of heavy enough
wood functions like a colossus of a club
and so if and so I would encourage DMS
if the person wielding that table leg is
proficient with clubs just have that
table leg function fully like a club you
can imagine grant let’s say imagine an
unexpected fight like in a blacksmith’s
shop and you didn’t bring your weapons
and but there are no finished weapons in
the shop but there’s all those tools at
tongs tom as a hammer I as a DM would
readily allow the players to grab those
tools and have many of those tools
particularly because that kind of tool
usually has a lot of heft you know good
for swinging or you know otherwise
designed to be wielded in hand I would
allow them to function like the weapons
that they are most similar to and you
know if a person has an appropriate
proficiency allow them to apply the
proficiency and even let that thing deal
the amount of damage that that weapon
would deal I encourage teams to be
generous here and the main reason why an
aside from the fact that you know I
always love groups it’s just you know
have a great time follow your bliss be
generous have creative ways to have a
fight that makes sense
exactly and that’s it that’s the other
reason is it encourages creativity right
this kind of generosity at the table has
kind of it creates a virtuous cycle
where the more a DM says yes to these
sorts of shenanigans rather than the
game like sort of getting broken it’s
encouraging the players to think outside
of the box to create hilarious scenes
you know I think of a recent episode of
acquisitions incorporated I deemed where
this sort of cycle of saying yes led to
the group weaponizing one of the other
characters I’m using using him as a
weapon as a club yes as an improvised
weapon yeah and you know most groups you
want those kinds of crazy moves because
it gives everyone something to remember
something to laugh about
again it’s not gonna break your game no
it it gets again much more dicey when
you’re instead talking about spells and
other effects that do things permanently
or for a long period of time to an
object and that’s when you know again I
don’t please don’t silver your fists or
your friend we need to kill this
werewolf can you have this molten silver
poured all over your body I will use you
as a club to beat it to death yeah whoo
that is some extreme dungeons and drag
its created yes
so there’s a whole other dimension to
weapons and that is their properties
honestly you and I could talk a long
time about some of these properties and
when I say properties I mean when you
look at the table some of the weapons
will have over in the column called
property there’ll be a word that will
appear there like light finesse
ammunition throne versatile each of
these properties gives a weapon that has
one of them some special twist in how
you use that weapon one of the things to
keep in mind is unless an improvised
weapon is treated by the DM as
effectively one of the weapons on the
table the improvised weapon has none of
those properties this is even true for a
weapon that you used in an improvised
way for example you have a longbow and
you decide to hit somebody with the bow
itself in melee the moment it basically
its use goes from the use it was
designed for two improvised weapon use
them as it’s being used as improvised
weapon basically none of its properties
are implying it is now you just follow
the improvised weapon a roll and a
cranky DM might even give the bow a
chance to break because if anyone’s used
to bow although actually many bows the
ones I’ve used in real life are pretty
they have enough bend to them you would
have to hit pretty hard to have a break
it would probably be like a yeah the
string would probably be the more
vulnerable part of their boat yes the
actual bow itself yeah because you can
imagine like the string getting caught
yeah on the person you’re hitting like
oh no the what the ogre just walked away
with my longbow you know sort of hanging
from its neck so always under string
your bows before you somebody with it
important rule of thumb yeah exactly
some of these weapon properties it I
also get questions occasionally if
natural weapons have them the answer is
no a weapon in the game only has one of
the weapon properties in the player’s
hand books equipment chapter if the
rules explicitly say so what if it
druid wild shapes into a narwhal and
their horn is like a rapier so therefore
it would have the light property yes
so again yeah if the DM basically uses
that option in the improvised weapon
rule to essentially have something
treated like a weapon then that
improvised weapon now that it’s being
treated as a real weapon has all of that
weapons properties right that doesn’t is
not a thing that happens for each wild
shaped thing that happens you know it’s
right right it’s a call the DM makes
this comes up in particular when again
so much of it’s funny how many well
multi class I know well or multi
classing or druids it’s funny haha it’s
funny how how often many of these
questions do not arise from bling the
the classes that are all about weapon
use like the fighter instead know so
much of it arises from okay so I wild
shaped into X and I’m also a monk and
then I cants probably more for myself
yeah my wizard classes yeah so it I
wonder if that is like a employer
quality thing where like there are you
know the people who gravitate towards
playing martial characters they really
just want to you know bash something and
and have the fun of that and there’ll be
you know some some tactical finesse
needed with that but there is that type
of character that loves doing what
you’re saying I’ve liked having oh if I
pull in from these different sources
maybe I’m a way that I can bend you know
the rules and the realities that I can
get a little bit more effectiveness yeah
and and to one of the ones that comes up
a lot from those players who are are
swimming around in in the wild shaped
pool is alright I’ve turned into this
animal and I can tell looking at the
stat block that it’s melee attack uses
dexterity mmm does that attack that
natural weapon have the finesse property
and usually they want to know because in
this case they might be a druid who’s
also multi classed into rogue and
they’re hoping to sneak attack with
their natural weapon now I gave the
answer the answer is no your natural
weapon does not have the finesse
property
and it would only have it if the rule
said it did it’s also funny because the
finesse property I noticed more than any
other weapon property is misunderstood
because often people will either say
this explicitly or they will imply it
that the finesse property means using a
melee weapon with dexterity which is
actually false the finesse property
actually means you have the choice of
using strength or dexterity so finesse
weapon you can use strength with it
using Dex is not a flag for it’s a
finesse weapon right it doesn’t go both
ways like the definition doesn’t apply
in both directions yeah it’s just no
finesse means simply if a weapon has
this property you choose yeah and it’s
like the versatile in a way we’re like
yeah whatever is best for that situation
you can you can use it that way exactly
yeah it’s it’s not like we designed
finesse weapons to just be for dexterity
focused characters no there are there
are strength focus characters who also
have good reasons to use some finesse
weapons and and can use their strengths
with those weapons so and you know again
there are other places in the game where
people will see oh this class feature is
letting me make a melee attack with Dex
does this feature have the finesse
property and again no it does not thing
only a thing in the game only has one of
these properties if the rules say so and
then again asterisk read down that’s
also finesse does not mean using Dex to
attack in melee that’s that is only part
of what finesse means makes sense yeah
the some of the the other weapon
properties pretty self-explanatory
really the other thing that often comes
up about weapons is how do I get my
weapon into my hand it’s a really
fundamental question when battle breaks
out maybe you were in that bar you’re
deep in your cups
oh no combat just broke out and I don’t
have my weapon in hand how do I get it
there our rules are pretty generous
where on your turning calm
that everyone gets their move to get
their action and then they get what we
refer to as their free object
interaction meaning at some point during
your move or your action you can do
something with an object including
drawing your weapon so that does not
have to eat up your movement or your
action and you get to decide when it’s
happening like you might decide as
you’re moving you know you’re dashing
across the tavern you draw your sword
and then you attack with it or you draw
it the instant you make your attack and
you know like lightning swift motion we
give you the narrative flexibility to
decide this I love when players describe
that like we’re like where they’re with
over there charging in and drawing or
they draw first but where this gets
complicated I think is when people shift
between using a ranged weapon and then a
melee weapon the next round or hey I’m
gonna get my shield out for this round
because I’m anticipating the big bads
gonna want to be hitting me and a lot of
people have the ideas from previous
editions that that is not allowed so you
can do it the the key is the first
interaction is free the second one
gobbles up your action unless you have a
special feature like rogues do to get
around that well at least thieves do and
yes yeah but what often people forget is
the game does not tax you to to ever to
drop things so whenever I’m playing a
character who’s focused on weapon use oh
boy do I drop things a lot yeah and and
which you can imagine people would do in
combat like I need to quickly get this
thing out of my hand and get this other
thing into my head I’m not going to sit
here over the next six seconds carefully
putting the thing away to boom on the
ground yeah I get up later yeah exactly
yeah I’ll pick it up next time but when
you say the first one is free you mean
first one per round correct first one
per turn every time you have a turn you
get one of these free object
interactions used round but yeah yeah
yeah but yeah every time it’s like you
get it back you’ll appreciate this when
we were
are designing this rule because you know
it feels like centuries ago I did a lot
was well no no I’m not talking about
that design I mean way before that back
when I was in school I did a lot of
acting and I used to in our design
meetings refer to this free object
interaction as your character stage
business business yes because yeah
anyone has anyone who’s acted knows
about you know that little thing you do
that it it it is not your main activity
on stage when it’s your turn but it
still can be really important to the
flavor of your action yeah so going to
make a drink while you’re delivering a
speech or you know walking to the door
and putting away your coat while you’re
you know doing something in a dramatic
way yeah there’s there’s ways to
communicate through action on stage that
I think is a big part of what you’re
talking about here absolutely and that
the list in the combat chapter of things
you can use do with that free object
interaction some of it was motivated
basically from acting like things you
know things I and others on the team
know from experience you can do while
doing something else because you know
we’re not we’re not sort of single
purpose robots we’re you know I can only
do one thing at a time often there are
these little you know nested things we
can do especially in six seconds where
you know we often think that it is a
short amount of time but you know I mean
if I count out six seconds right now I
could do a lot of things I can flip this
table throw it at you and all time it is
often how furniture ends up being a big
improvised weapon category yes yeah oh
poor furniture I think I think of all
the furniture destroyed in the indie
games yes chandeliers alone but magic
rather that’s right yep yeah oh boy and
windows shattered all the property costs
you wonder if in some D&D worlds there
is you know you could have a guild where
their whole job is just cleaning up
after adventurers who are making messes
everywhere I love that
the cleanup crew yeah yeah so I mean we
haven’t really touched too much on the
weapon master the fighter being the one
who uses weapons probably the most out
of all of our classes and then yeah so
we have we have three classes in
particular that are really great with
weapons the fighter the Ranger and the
paladin they are the classes that have
the fighting style feature that allows
them to specialize in either weapon use
or some other form of you know
non-magical battle but of those three
the fighter is the true master the
fighter has access to so many open-ended
options fighters depending on how you
build your individual fighter could be
amazing
archers could be you know beasts in
melee you know one fighter could be you
know life and you know built like a
swimmer and the other one could be built
like a truck
there’s just amazing flexibility in that
class and then inside that amazingly
flexible class is the battle master
which is like you know flexibility
dialed up to 11 where you can do all of
these amazing maneuvers that really in a
way are often fabulous flourishes that
you add on to how you use your weapon
yeah they’re they’re actually that all
of those maneuvers are very fresh in my
mind
because recently an unearthed Arcana we
released some new maneuvers and we also
provided a more ways for non battle
masters to use them because it’s such a
rich pool of choice for characters that
really do want to focus on just being an
amazing warrior that we thought sort of
like spells you know many classes have
access to spells be nice to you know
sort of really release the restrictions
a little bit and give a few more people
access to this amazing resource it’s a
really good insight because there are a
lot of
just anecdotally I you know you see a
lot of spellcasters in DMV play right
now and I don’t think I’ve ever played
with anyone who has played a bladder
master as a fighter just you know and I
know there are ones out there that
really really enjoy that and so giving
that kind of really elegant piece of
design kind of it kind of incorporates a
lot of what feats were in previous
editions to the fighter I think it would
be great to be able to see a lot more
classes delve into them and we also know
from our survey data that of the fighter
subclasses the battle master pretty
consistently scores the highest when it
comes to satisfaction and I think begin
because people really dig all the tools
that that subclass gives because it
really embraces this fantasy of
mastering battle of weapon use of moving
people around really making the
battlefield yours yeah yeah and I want
more people to get that that fantasy
feeling yeah yeah any other weapon
things we can go over and oh wait you
and I can talk probably for another hour
about this so the others is you know I
would recommend people just give a close
read to the properties for your weapons
there are sometimes some goodie this
their you you might be missing like you
could be using a versatile weapon and
missing out on the fact that if you use
it with two hands you can actually deal
more damage you know that kind of thing
you have some you have some really good
flexibility I Oh actually another one I
cuz I often left pointing out sort of
urban legend rules one who don’t exist
yeah exactly you know so I’ve already
pointed out one this idea that finesse
means using dexterity with a melee
weapon that’s an urban legend rule
that’s not actually how what finesse is
the other one actually is the heavy
property I often will see people say
characters who are small can’t use heavy
weapons that that that’s what the heavy
property means
that’s not actually what the heavy
property means the heavily heavy
property doesn’t prevent you if you’re a
small character from using a heavy
weapon
it simply means you have disadvantage on
your attack roles if you do because it’s
too big for you or too unwieldy right
but you can still do it you know then
there there might be times where you
know maybe it’s a heavy magic weapon and
it’s it’s essentially the MacGuffin that
you need to wield and you’re the only
person there who can do it and you’re a
halfling or a gnome you can still do it
particularly because there are also ways
in the game to get advantage which will
then shut your disadvantage off so this
that’s another thing that is important
to remember is that there are many ways
in the game to get advantage and if you
have advantage and also disadvantage at
the same time they cancel each other out
meaning that gnome is now wielding that
heavy weapon just like it’s some other
weapon well then I would house rule that
you have double disadvantage well then
you’re just mean but that’s I mean
what’s interesting about that is also I
can hear the players who are saying well
it’s not optimal to do that so it’s the
same as preventing folks from making
that choice and it really isn’t right
and that that actually comes up
occasionally like you’ll also sometimes
hear hear somebody say at a D&D table
although I don’t hear it as much anymore
as I heard it in third and fourth
edition where someone might might
proclaim well my character can’t move
right now and and I as DM might inquire
well you’re not immobilized why can’t
you move well if I move I will trigger
it an opportunity attack and it’s like
well that doesn’t mean you can’t move
and so I understand often often people
will state I can’t do X in it’s
shorthand for it’s not optimal for me to
do X the reason why I often though like
to remind people that it is not actually
a prohibition it’s not because I’m being
a schoolmarm and want them to be correct
no it’s because I want them to remember
they have options again with my theme of
following your bliss do what school do
what’s fun remember just because you
might have
of some kind of you know hindrance in
doing something it could turn out in a
certain circumstance that accepting that
hindrance and doing it is actually
what’s going to get your character and
your group to the finish line whatever
the finish line is in the particular
scene you’re in yeah and so it’s like
it’s like just remember hindrance
doesn’t mean prevention you can still do
it and it could end up having a mighty
payoff if you do well that’s the fun of
the game – for me in some ways is just
making that mental calculus of like well
you know I want to do this action but it
has a risk associated with it but I want
to take that risk because that’s what
this character would do at this moment
or you know narrative Lee it makes sense
to try to save my faun hero even though
I know I’m gonna get bashed in the back
of the head by the ogre who’s you know
about to swing on me right you would do
that and it’s a really elegant way that
the rules say like well yes you can but
there’s X that could happen and you know
maybe it rolls a one alright and it
breaks its club and everything is great
after that yeah yeah you might survive
the whole thing and if you don’t you
have a great story to tell about your
TPK which is true of every experience my
10 D&D please do have a good story yeah
awesome
well thank you for giving us this
overview on weapons and some some
misconceptions but also hopefully
inspiring some folks to jump into
characters that use weapons a little bit
more and see that there’s a lot more
versatility not to steal the property
but you know there’s a lot of ways that
you can use them in ways that aren’t
just know bashing people oh man
absolutely awesome thanks Jeremy how
could people get in touch with you if
they have additional questions I am at
Jeremy e Crawford on Twitter awesome
well thanks a lot and we’ll get to
another sage advice one of these days
I’d look forward to it awesome thanks
bye everyone