Weapons and their uses

[Thrathgnar]

Hey everyone, I'm new to this forum and I look forward to participating in it ^_^ I've been playing for a few months now and I started DMing a group a while back, so I'm fairly new to the game but I've had a bit of experience in 5e and I have a pretty good understanding of the rules.

Right now I am building a barbarian named Thrathgnar. I rolled for his stats which came out great, posted below (I didn't even move them around, got lucky on these rolls.) Now looking ahead, I decided to make him go path of the beserker. The only thing I'm struggling with is weapon choice. It appears that a Greataxe would be the best for raw damage dealing, which is what I want, but for character design purposes I'd rather have him dual wield. What do you guys think about a dual wielding barbarian? Also what feats would be good to pick? My other question was just a side thing about Glaives, namely, what would be the use for them and what class? I love glaives as a concept but I don't see the advantages of them over other weapons. That goes for a lot of weapons on the chart in the PHB.

I'm just a newbie looking for help with DnD melee weapons, as I've only played a wizard before. Thanks!

Thrathgnar:
Str: 20 (+5)
Dex: 14 (+2)
Con: 18 (+4)
Int: 9 (-1)
Wis: 13 (+1)
Cha: 12 (+1)

[FadeAssassin]

Hey I don't have much to say about this but here's what I can say:

Unless it's for Roleplaying reasons, don't go with the Greataxe, it has lower average damage then the Greatsword due to math (granted not much but it can become noticeable when you begin to crit)

Duel-wielding is fine to me, but you have to realize you can't get a fighting style like fighters/Rangers/Pallies to helpso I would suggest taking the feat Dual Wielder, or dip into one of the above classes, or both.

As far as the Glaive goes, it's pretty much just interesting. It's not really commonly used and will get people's attention. But mostly that's it. Reach just lets you hit things at a bit of a larger range.

[Thrathgnar]

Hey I don't have much to say about this but here's what I can say:

Unless it's for Roleplaying reasons, don't go with the Greataxe, it has lower average damage then the Greatsword due to math (granted not much but it can become noticeable when you begin to crit)

Duel-wielding is fine to me, but you have to realize you can't get a fighting style like fighters/Rangers/Pallies to helpso I would suggest taking the feat Dual Wielder, or dip into one of the above classes, or both.

As far as the Glaive goes, it's pretty much just interesting. It's not really commonly used and will get people's attention. But mostly that's it. Reach just lets you hit things at a bit of a larger range.

Thanks for the reply! I was also considering dipping into fighter, maybe even as far as 3 levels for improved critical since i have savage attack from being a half orc. Its pretty complicated to me and I've been thinking about my options for a while.

Also, I didn't know that greataxes were better than greatswords, thanks for that bit of info :)

[FadeAssassin]

Also, I didn't know that greataxes were better than greatswords, thanks for that bit of info :)

Well it's actually the reverse. The axe has a 1d12 damage, the sword has 2d6. That gives the same max damge, but higher low damage (and thus average damage), on the greatsword

[bloodshed343]

Well it's actually the reverse. The axe has a 1d12 damage, the sword has 2d6. That gives the same max damge, but higher low damage (and thus average damage), on the greatsword

Great axes are best for Barbarians after level 10 or so, especially if they dip for expanded critical in champion, due to rolling a d12 on crits versus a d6.

Dual-wielding is fine. Barbarians are all about crit fishing so more attacks is good and advantage is good.

Also path of the berserker is pretty underwhelming. I would suggest bear totem instead.

[Thrathgnar]

Well it's actually the reverse. The axe has a 1d12 damage, the sword has 2d6. That gives the same max damge, but higher low damage (and thus average damage), on the greatsword

Sorry thats what I meant

[Thrathgnar]

Great axes are best for Barbarians after level 10 or so, especially if they dip for expanded critical in champion, due to rolling a d12 on crits versus a d6.

Dual-wielding is fine. Barbarians are all about crit fishing so more attacks is good and advantage is good.

Also path of the berserker is pretty underwhelming. I would suggest bear totem instead.

Beserker works really well with the character comcept I'm going for. And thanks for the input, I did some esearch and I forgot that dual wielding technically counts as bonus actions which I don't like.

I'm also making a glaive wielding battle master

[SharkForce]

yeah, greatsword is better normally (especially with the fighting style for great weapons) but for this specific proposed character (half-orc, barbarian, 3-level dip for champion fighter) you're going to want to use a greataxe later on. i don't know the math on exactly when, but assuming you go for 5 levels of barbarian before you go for 3 levels of fighter (getting your extra attack is a major milestone), you're going probably going to want it at least by level 8 (assuming you go that path).

with that said, while you'll do more damage with a greataxe once your crit-boosting kicks in enough, it isn't a *huge* difference. if you've got your heart set on a greatsword, or a glaive, or whatever else, go with that :)

i will add one thing though: don't knock two-weapon fighting just because it uses your bonus action. for a class like a barbarian, there's not a lot that's better for you to spend your bonus action on than dealing damage. *maybe* if you use a shield you could get more out of shoving with shield expert or something like that, but generally speaking damage is what you do... it's your raison d'être. and you don't generally benefit from saving it for something else.

and really, it's not like you're going to want to go into frenzy and get your bonus attack that way particularly often (no really, trust me, you don't want to do that... if you haven't yet, get familiar with the rules for exhaustion).

[Thrathgnar]

yeah, greatsword is better normally (especially with the fighting style for great weapons) but for this specific proposed character (half-orc, barbarian, 3-level dip for champion fighter) you're going to want to use a greataxe later on. i don't know the math on exactly when, but assuming you go for 5 levels of barbarian before you go for 3 levels of fighter (getting your extra attack is a major milestone), you're going probably going to want it at least by level 8 (assuming you go that path).

with that said, while you'll do more damage with a greataxe once your crit-boosting kicks in enough, it isn't a *huge* difference. if you've got your heart set on a greatsword, or a glaive, or whatever else, go with that :)

i will add one thing though: don't knock two-weapon fighting just because it uses your bonus action. for a class like a barbarian, there's not a lot that's better for you to spend your bonus action on than dealing damage. *maybe* if you use a shield you could get more out of shoving with shield expert or something like that, but generally speaking damage is what you do... it's your raison d'être. and you don't generally benefit from saving it for something else.

and really, it's not like you're going to want to go into frenzy and get your bonus attack that way particularly often (no really, trust me, you don't want to do that... if you haven't yet, get familiar with the rules for exhaustion).

Thanks for the info. You bring up good points, I have a lot to consider now between dual wielding or not and dipping or not. Now I have more information that'll help me make my decisions

[bloodshed343]

Thanks for the info. You bring up good points, I have a lot to consider now between dual wielding or not and dipping or not. Now I have more information that'll help me make my decisions

Dual wielding doubles your chance to crit. Or increases your crit chance by 33% if you have Extra Attack. For a 12th level barbarian (3 fighter 9 barbarian) the calculations look like this assuming a 60% chances to hit:

Dual-wielding without reckless attack:

.5 (1d8+5)+.1(4d8+5) x 3 = 21.15

With a greataxe we're looking at:

.5 (1d12+5) + .1 (4d12+5) x 2 = 17.7

If you use Reckless Attack, dual wielding is even better because you have an even higher chance to crit.

However, if you use great weapon master, the greataxe is much better, since you can use reckless attack to cancel out the accuracy penalties.

Frenzy is really not a good feature. You should never use it unless you know you'll be taking a long rest immediately after the battle. Exhaustion is killer. It actually wouldn't be at all unbalanced if it didn't have a cost at all. Talk to your DM about removing exhaustion if its a big part of the reason you're playing the path.