Every D&D weapon mastery from the 2024 Player’s Handbook, ranked

The new one Dungeons & Dragons 2024 Player’s Handbook Features a new type of ability available to martial characters: Weapon Mastery. This ability is available to the Barbarian, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, and Rogue classes At first leveland gives the classes additional ways to use their weapons. This gives martial characters a bit more utility on the battlefield, ideally helping to balance their power with spellcasters, as well as encouraging them to try out different weapons.

Each weapon type in the game has one of eight Weapon Mastery moves tied to itAll of which can be used each round when characters take the attack action. From slowing enemies down to knocking them over to making future attacks more likely to hit, these new powers can be quite powerful. But players looking to create a martial character may be wondering which of the weapon mastery moves is the most powerful or offers the most utility.

8

Doubles suffers from one requirement that no other mastery move has

A strong power, but held back by a saving throw

Taple is a tragic weapon mastery, providing one of the more powerful effects, but also being The only move that requires a saving throw. Every other weapon mastery either relies on an attack hitting to take effect or happens regardless of the player’s luck, but this one alone requires both its initial attack to land and for the creature to hit to fail a Constitution saving throw. This alone puts Tapple at the bottom of the scale for weapon mastery moves.

Which is a shame, because Tapple’s effect is quite useful. It allows Characters use a quarterstaff, battleaxe, lance, maul or trident to knock an enemy prone with their weapon attack. The rules specify that prone creatures have reduced movement and melee attacks against them within five feet have advantage, all of which are very useful.

But of course, there is always a chance that enemies only succeed on the saving throw and are completely unaffected. The fact that the move requires a Constitution save is another nail in the coffin, since Many monsters have high save bonuses for Constitution. The bottom line is that, unlike every other mastery move, Tapple has a high risk of failure, making it the riskiest to use and the most likely to fall flat.

7

Clive has some restrictions that can make it difficult to pull off

Clive sounds much better than it is at first glance. Players using a greataxe or halberd can use it to essentially attack two creatures at onceBut there are a number of restrictions that make actually attacking multiple creatures with this quite situational. This is largely due to how the move requires the player and their targets to be positioned.

Cleve says that when players hit a creature and there is another hostile creature within 5 feet of both the player and the first creature, that player can also take an attack roll against that creature. On a hit, the second creature takes damage from the weapon’s damage dice, But not from the player’s damage modifier. It is worth noting that effects of spells like Hunter’s sign Or Elemental weapon Still apply to the second hit, but even so, the second creature takes a little less damage than the first.

But the times when players will be within five feet of two enemies who are also within five feet of each other are rarer than one would think, and some players may end up putting themselves in an extremely dangerous position just to take advantage of this. besides that, Clive suffers from only being usable once per roundUnlike most other masters. In general, the potential damage falls below other options.

6

Gray is a strong fail-safe, but underwhelming at higher levels

This move starts out strong, but is quickly outdone

Gray is basically a mastery that ensures that player attacks will always do at least a little bit of damage. It stands out from the other masters in this It is not actively used, but rather as an effect when players miss. It applies to attacks made with glaives and greatswords, and when a player misses an attack against a creature, the creature still takes damage equal to the player’s damage modifier, usually their strength.

At early levels, when enemies have less health and martial characters only have one attack, this is a great way to ensure that attack is never completely wasted. But against enemies with tons of health, getting to deal four or five points of damage on a miss doesn’t make much of a difference. Players will notice that Graze becomes less and less effective as they level up, unlike some of the other masteries that improve as martials get more attacks per round.

Gray is also held back by the fact that it cannot stack with any sort of damage buffs. The rules specifically state that Graxe’s damage can only come from the player’s ability modifier, so weapon poisons or spell buffs will not enhance it. Still, it’s a nice security blanket at early points in the game, and some players may like to have assurance that their attacks will always deal at least some damage.

5

Nick is amazing for certain builds, but can be misleading to players

One class specifically benefits from this move more than others

Nick is a weapon mastery specific to dual-wielding builds, though it will be more useful in some cases than others. It applies to a range of light weapons: the dagger, light hammer, sickle and scimitarand can be used with them when they are wild in a character’s off hand. The effect is quite simple: instead of making an off-hand attack as a bonus action, players with this mastery can do it as part of their initial attack, getting two hits for the cost of one and retaining the bonus action for another. use

This is especially good for Rugs, who already have an excellent use every turn for their bonus action in the form of archery. This way, they can still make two attacks each turn while also dashing, hiding or disengaging. Where this falls short is when classes like the Fighter try to use it, especially in conjunction with the Dual Wielder feat. It’s a common feat two-weapon fighters will seek out, since it lets them use non-light weapons in their off-hand, but Nick is only available on four specific light weapons.

Other than that, fighters and other martial classes don’t have a lot of consistent uses for their bonus action. There’s Second Wind and Storm, but both are limited to a number of uses per day, and it’s not so good for those classes to keep access to their bonus action, as they won’t always have something to spend it on. On. Nick is still great for characters who have something else to use their bonus action on, But beyond that, it may be less useful than players think going in.

4

Sap is a good defensive move for players to protect their party

While not always the best move, it can be a lifesaver

SAP is more defensive than the other weapon mastery options, Inflicting damage on an enemy’s next attack. Tanky characters may find it useful in keeping both themselves and their allies out of harm’s way, and sap is available on a wide range of weapons. Spears, flails, longswords, morningstars and war picks can all be used to sap enemies, meaning a wide range of builds can use this ability.

Sap’s disadvantage only applies until the start of the character’s next turn, but it can be applied to multiple enemies in a turn, and is useful for the entire party rather than just the martial being attacked. As far as defensive moves go, this is one of the best options to keep enemy attacks at bay. Although in Dungeons & DragonsOffense is almost always the better way to go.

Sap has very little to bring it down except in comparison to some of the other weapon masteries. The three after it here are all better at maximizing player damage to enemies, and It could even be argued that some other masteries are better defensive options. While giving enemies disadvantage on attack rolls is good, it won’t help against creatures that force saving throws instead. SAP is an excellent option, but not always the best.

3

Vex provides an easy way to improve hit chances

A straightforward but powerful move for any build

Vex is comparable to Sap in that it affects hit chances, only this mastery is offensive rather than defensive. It allows martial characters to give themselves advantage on attack rolls against enemiesSomething that is very useful for a wide range of builds, from long-range snipers to melee bruisers. It’s nice, then, that VEX is available on so many weapons: the handaxe, dart, shortbow, rapier, blowgun, hand crossbow and pistol in the 2024 Player’s Handbook.

Get advantage in DND is something that basically every character will try to do, and the only downside to Vex is that there are many ways to gain advantage outside of it. But that doesn’t change the fact that hitting an enemy with an attack is probably one of the easiest ways to gain an advantage against them, and The Way how vex can stack makes it one of the most powerful options for players to grab. The way it works is when players hit an enemy with an attack, their next attack against the same enemy has advantage until the end of their next turn.

This means that rogues can hide, hit an enemy with Sneak Attack, gain advantage, and then have the advantage in the next round to get Sneak Attack again. Even better, fighters with three attacks can chain vex against an enemy to keep gaining advantage, since There is no limit on how many times it can work per turn. This is the best mastery for improving damage in the long run, just because of how much more likely it makes every attack to hit.

2

Slow provides an excellent debuff to use on enemy creatures

Turning speed into your greatest weapon

No matter how much damage an enemy does, they still have to be in a safe range to hit player characters. This makes speed an incredibly important component during combat, and moves that can change speed quite powerfully. Slow does just that, decreasing a target’s speed by 10 feet When they are hit by an attack.

Slow applies to the widest range of weapons of all mastery movesIncluding the club, javelin, light crossbow, sling, whip, longbow, and musket in the 2024 PHB. It is powerful because it can be applied to multiple creatures in the same turn and affects all forms of speed, not just walking speed. Slowing an enemy down can stop them from reaching an ally or force them to use their action to dash instead of attack.

It doesn’t do extra damage, but it makes for great defense, and Can be used to stay in range for a player’s own attacks and avoid those of enemies. The only downsides are that it cannot be applied to the same creature more than once per round, thus not reducing a creature’s speed to zero. And it doesn’t help if the enemy is already where they want to be.

1

Push is great for maneuverability and battlefield control

Knocking enemies around can be better than damaging them

Push is by far the greatest weapon masteryFor a number of reasons. It only applies to four weapons: the great club, pike, warhammer, and heavy crossbow, but the last two are among the best. It weaponizes movement speed and positioning in much the same way as slow, only to a greater extent, physically moving creatures around the field.

When players using Push hit an enemy with a weapon attack, That enemy is knocked back 10 feet. There is no saving throw, and no limit on the number of times Push can be used per turn, nor on the number of times it can affect the same creature per turn. The only restrictions are that it cannot affect large or larger creatures, and only pushes the creatures directly back in a line from where the player attacks. And the restrictions do almost nothing to hamper the power of this move.

Need to get an enemy out of an ally’s range? Push them back 10 feet. Is a creature standing near a cliff or a drop? Push them away. Need to slow down an enemy but don’t have a weapon with that mastery? Push the enemy away, forcing them to use extra movement to cover the gap. This move offers the most utility to martial charactersand feels like it’s the closest to balancing their abilities with those of spellcasters. Players should try it once they start using the 2024 Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook And see for yourself just how powerful it is.