Uses for weapon bond

[poolio]

After a recent post brought to light the actual usefulness of the war clerics channel devinity, that being to boost the accuracy of spell attacks, such as up casting inflict wounds or the ever powerful contagion.

I was wondering if someone here could come up with a good use or two for the Eldritch knights weapon.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions ladies and gents :smallsmile:

And an early happy new year to my fellow rollers :smallwink:

[tkuremento]

Throwing weapon, so you can get it back as a bonus action for infinite throwing. I was trying to make a knife thrower build using it and rogue but gave up because I couldn't get sneak attack as often as I wanted.

[The Vanishing Hitchhiker]

Not sure if this is what you had in mind, but my plans for my current EK definitely involve rarely having to replace a thrown weapon. Wonder if I can work out a combo with my party warlock that involves me throwing a bound weapon and him casting Darkness on it (and me calling it back, if need be)?

Pinning someone somewhere precarious for an interrogation could be fun too, with them knowing you can reclaim your weapon without giving them a chance to retaliate...

Someday I'll ask my DM if we could pass messages by having people attach notes to one. Good thing a Glyph of Warding wouldn't survive the trip back if our scout got ambushed, or I might not risk it.

[DiceDiceBaby]

One of the fun builds I did before was use the base Fighter equipment in the PHB to give my character two Handaxes and two Tridents (ha, finally a use for Tridents as a martial weapon!) and yes, as tkuremento mentioned, that's basically a LOT of throwing. I used underrated STR-based throws, which were also really fun. If enemes picked up the weapon, or I missed, easy disarm. :smallsmile:

Also fun, if you have an Evil character with the Criminal or Charlatan background: Weapon Bond a really expensive martial weapon (like, say, a Greatsword, which you can get two of as Fighter), sell it off for a pittance (normally bought for 50 GP, sells for 25 in the market as per the rules, can be sold at a dubious 20 to 10 GP, too) to the nearest merchant, and poof it into your hand the next day. The DM will make sure that the merchants you scam get back at you in the long run, but short term gold is always nice. :smallsmile:

[tkuremento]

One of the fun builds I did before was use the base Fighter equipment in the PHB to give my character two Handaxes and two Tridents (ha, finally a use for Tridents as a martial weapon!) and yes, as tkuremento mentioned, that's basically a LOT of throwing. I used underrated STR-based throws, which were also really fun. If enemes picked up the weapon, or I missed, easy disarm. :smallsmile:

Also fun, if you have an Evil character with the Criminal or Charlatan background: Weapon Bond a really expensive martial weapon (like, say, a Greatsword, which you can get two of as Fighter), sell it off for a pittance (normally bought for 50 GP, sells for 25 in the market as per the rules, can be sold at a dubious 20 to 10 GP, too) to the nearest merchant, and poof it into your hand the next day. The DM will make sure that the merchants you scam get back at you in the long run, but short term gold is always nice. :smallsmile:

The only problem is you can only have so many weapons bound and I am pretty sure you can only call back a single bound weapon with the bonus action. So you won't be able to use all your extra attacks with it. That is why I was trying to make a Rogue knife thrower with it, you'd only need the one attack if you got sneak attack often enough.

[poolio]

I like the idea of throwing a weapon and having it reappear in your hand, only problem is the limited choice on weapons that can be thrown, and cantrips, even without full investment in intelligence, are usually the better ranged option.

[tkuremento]

I like the idea of throwing a weapon and having it reappear in your hand, only problem is the limited choice on weapons that can be thrown, and cantrips, even without full investment in intelligence, are usually the better ranged option.

It is more for flavour, and also it COULD be for certain things that trigger on weapon attack and not spell attack.

[poolio]

It is more for flavour, and also it COULD be for certain things that trigger on weapon attack and not spell attack.

Example? I'm genuinely curious, it's obvious things that I'm missing that made me want to start this thread :smalltongue:

[tkuremento]

Example? I'm genuinely curious, it's obvious things that I'm missing that made me want to start this thread :smalltongue:

Sneak attack doesn't work with spells, it works with weapons. Like really anything that triggers on weapon attacks and not spell attacks.

[poolio]

Sneak attack doesn't work with spells, it works with weapons. Like really anything that triggers on weapon attacks and not spell attacks.

I was aware that sneak attacks had to weapon attacks, but thanks for replying :smallsmile:

I'm wondering if maybe there's a spell or something I'm missing, that would be better, or only possible, with the ability to recall your weapon.

Nothing against multiclassing, I'm just really trying to find a use for this thing other then flavor lol

[tkuremento]

I was aware that sneak attacks had to weapon attacks, but thanks for replying :smallsmile:

I'm wondering if maybe there's a spell or something I'm missing, that would be better, or only possible, with the ability to recall your weapon.

Nothing against multiclassing, I'm just really trying to find a use for this thing other then flavor lol

Well if you have a DM that is hard on switching weapons and you have to drop them to then pull out a new one, well you could then bonus action to get that weapon back if needed. An example would be bow and longsword. You drop the longsword to pull out the bow but then no longer need it so you drop the bow and bonus action the sword back into your hand.

[dejarnjc]

I'm pretty sure the main use of weapon bond is so that a sword and board Eldritch Knight can drop his sword to cast a reaction spell (absorb elements or shield) and then use a bonus action to bring it back to his hand at the beginning of his turn to then begin wailing about with it.

[Tanarii]

Most important thing I've seen done with Weapon Bond (and with Pact of the Blade Boon) is appearing to be unarmed, but still having a huge effing Greatsword available when you need it.

Dungeonomics wrote up something once about how EKs make the perfect muscle working for a Bard-spy, between Weapon Bond and a few well chosen spells (like Mage Armor).

Edit: The Hitter, that's what multiplexer called the EK:
http://www.critical-hits.com/blog/2014/10/04/tailor-tinker-soldier-spy-the-bard-as-a-spy-cryptography-and-the-fantasy-espionage-team/

[Foxhound438]

Example? I'm genuinely curious, it's obvious things that I'm missing that made me want to start this thread :smalltongue:

sharpshooter with darts. nothing quite like 1d4+15 damage for lols. Literally strictly worst than crossbow expert, but it's more fun.

As far as a specific build to take advantage of it, something to the effect of EK 5 into rogue X seems good to me- normally since you can't draw 2 weapons in a turn, you can only throw once, but if your sequence is draw-> throw-> recall-> throw (or something to that effect) you can get 2 ranged sharpshooter attacks with a shield in hand for extra AC. Probably take swashbuckler as your rogue archetype so you can get away easier, as well as get easier sneak attack procs.

It's not optimal, but it's kind of fun in play to do more damage with a puny throwing knife than the other guy can do with a longsword.

[tkuremento]

sharpshooter with darts. nothing quite like 1d4+15 damage for lols. Literally strictly worst than crossbow expert, but it's more fun.

As far as a specific build to take advantage of it, something to the effect of EK 5 into rogue X seems good to me- normally since you can't draw 2 weapons in a turn, you can only throw once, but if your sequence is draw-> throw-> recall-> throw (or something to that effect) you can get 2 ranged sharpshooter attacks with a shield in hand for extra AC. Probably take swashbuckler as your rogue archetype so you can get away easier, as well as get easier sneak attack procs.

It's not optimal, but it's kind of fun in play to do more damage with a puny throwing knife than the other guy can do with a longsword.

Can you take a bonus action mid attack action? I know you can move between attacks but I didn't think you could take a bonus action between them. Plus then the next turn you have to recall your weapon to throw it once but can't recall it a second time on the same turn.

[LaserFace]

The EK in the group I run enjoys "selling" his nonmagical sword to people when he's feeling like a jerk. He gets maybe 5-10gp out of it, and a laugh at some poor sap's expense.

Little does he know I've written down all the names of the people he's conned.

[tkuremento]

The EK in the group I run enjoys "selling" his nonmagical sword to people when he's feeling like a jerk. He gets maybe 5-10gp out of it, and a laugh at some poor sap's expense.

Little does he know I've written down all the names of the people he's conned.

"And wouldn't you know, I went to all the villages in a 100 mile radius and the same guy conned them all. So I started a cult against him."

[Foxhound438]

Can you take a bonus action mid attack action? I know you can move between attacks but I didn't think you could take a bonus action between them. Plus then the next turn you have to recall your weapon to throw it once but can't recall it a second time on the same turn.

per sage advice, yes. taking the action allows you to do the attacks, but you don't have to make them right away. you can take the attack action, then use a bonus action that keys off of taking the attack action, then resolve your attacks, as in shield master.

Even if you couldn't, just change the sequence to throw-> draw-> throw-> recall.

And if your DM wants to be stupid about it you can just take crossbow master instead and be literally stronger.

[Afrodactyl]

I used a fighter/monk MC to make a Captain America ripoff once. My DM allowed me to bond my shield so that I could throw it and have it come back.

[Fishyninja]

Also fun, if you have an Evil character with the Criminal or Charlatan background: Weapon Bond a really expensive martial weapon (like, say, a Greatsword, which you can get two of as Fighter), sell it off for a pittance (normally bought for 50 GP, sells for 25 in the market as per the rules, can be sold at a dubious 20 to 10 GP, too) to the nearest merchant, and poof it into your hand the next day. The DM will make sure that the merchants you scam get back at you in the long run, but short term gold is always nice. :smallsmile:

I'm a Rogue in one of my games with a Tiefling LG EK.........PERSUADING TIME!

[poolio]

I'm pretty sure the main use of weapon bond is so that a sword and board Eldritch Knight can drop his sword to cast a reaction spell (absorb elements or shield) and then use a bonus action to bring it back to his hand at the beginning of his turn to then begin wailing about with it.

Guess i wasted the ASI on war caster then eh? :smalltongue:

[Tanarii]

Guess i wasted the ASI on war caster then eh? :smalltongue:No. Nothing says you can drop your weapon out of turn when you want to use a reaction. You could do it on your turn, but then you've closed off the ability to make a normal OA. And you might as well sheath it for your free object interaction in that case, since you don't have to blow a bonus action you were almost certainly going to use for War Magic, or possibly a Shield Master bonus action Shove.

[Spellbreaker26]

Guess i wasted the ASI on war caster then eh? :smalltongue:

War Caster is so much more than casting with sword-n-board. I'm not sure what concentration spells EK's get, but using spells as attacks of opportunity is a godsend.

[CursedRhubarb]

Get a huge weapon like a lance or polearms made of adamantine to bond with. Then when fighting creatures than can swallow, you charge them unarmed and leap into it's mouth. Once swallowed, summon your lance and make a shish-kabob. Then climb back out of the corpse and gain the title "The Regurgitated"

[poolio]

Get a huge weapon like a lance or polearms made of adamantine to bond with. Then when fighting creatures than can swallow, you charge them unarmed and leap into it's mouth. Once swallowed, summon your lance and make a shish-kabob. Then climb back out of the corpse and gain the title "The Regurgitated"

Haha well not exactly a "go to" kind of option, but definitely something to keep in the back pocket, thanks