One hand heavy weapons?

[Harrysonford]

Is there any feat or anything that lets you hold Great swords, Great axes etc with one hand so you can hold a shield in the other?

[JNAProductions]

Is there any feat or anything that lets you hold Great swords, Great axes etc with one hand so you can hold a shield in the other?

Nope. And for good reason too.

[stoutstien]

No but they're really should be at least a few one handed heavy weapons

[X3r4ph]

If you make a homebrew feat for this, let's call it Monkey Grip, it means you increase damage by an average of 2 since your weapon goes from 1d8 to 1d12. Ish. That is kinda like the Dueling fighting style. Or it means you get +2 AC from your shield... which is much more potent. Very quickly Monkey Grip becomes a feat tax for all strength based warriors.

And we haven't even touched upon the Great Weapon Master shenanigans it opens up for. But hey. In my game that feat is nerfed.

I would not allow it. Mostly because it would become a feat tax and it would screw over TWF... which sucks already.

[stoutstien]

Mace-1d8 B.
Properties: heavy

Usable with portions of feats but not all of them.

[Twizzly513]

No because then you could dual wield if you also got the dual wielder feat. Dual wielding either of those weapons is ridiculously overpowered and then you benefit from great weapon fighting, two-weapon fighting, great weapon master, the normal dual wielder stuff... You're supposed to sacrifice defense for offense or vice versa.

[Naanomi]

I could imagine a subclass (of fighter or Barbarian) that might allow something like this

[intregus]

I made a feat like that.

Mighty Strength
Prerequisite: Strength 17
Increase your Strength score by 1 to a maximum of 20.
When you wield a weapon with the two-handed property in one hand and no other weapons it loses the two-handed and heavy properties.


I also made a Barb subclass based off the Diablo 2 Barb thats better

Arreat Warrior Path

Bonus Proficiencies
Starting at 3rd level, you become proficient in heavy armor and your barbarian class features work while wearing heavy armor.

War Cry
Starting at 3rd level, you are able to channel your rage into a primal War Cry that terrifies your foes and bolsters your allies. You learn two war cries of your choice, which are detailed under "War Cries" below. You can use a number of war cries per short rest equal to your Constitution modifier (minimum once).
You learn one additional war cry of your choice at 6th, 10th and 14th level.
Saving Throws. Some of your war cries require your target to make a saving throw to resist the war cry's effects. The saving throw DC is calculated as follows:

War Cry save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Con modifier


Boon of the Ancients
The blood of your ancestry gives you strength beyond that of normal men. Beginning at 6th level when you adopt this path you choose a boon from one of the Ancient barbarian chieftains.
Boon of Bul-Kathos- You may treat all heavy and two-handed weapons as one handed weapons.(you cannot use the Great Weapon Fighter feat while dual wielding).
Boon of Korlic- Whenever you wield a weapon with the two-handed or versatile property with both hands you may add an extra 1d6 of the weapons base damage type to your damage rolls
Boon of Talic- While wielding a shield bludgeoning piercing and slashing damage from non magical weapons is reduced by 2
Boon of Madawc- Weapons with the thrown property have their base weapon damage increased by 1 die step (d4 to d6, d6 to d8, d8 to d10, d10 to d12) and have their range increased from 20/60 to 30/70

Leap
At 6th level the distance you can jump is tripled.

Weapon Mastery
Beginning at level 14, you are able to use your chosen weapons of war more effectively. You can choose between the Dueling, Great Weapon, or Two Weapon Fighting Styles (see page 72 of the PH).

War Cries
Primal Howl- When raging, as an action you may erupt with a powerful yell, casting doubt into your enemies. Each creature in a 30 foot radius must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or drop whatever it is holding and become frightened for 1 minute.

While frightened by this ability, a creature must take the Dash action and move away from you by the safest available route on each of its turns, unless there is nowhere to move. If the creature ends its turn in a location where it doesn't have line of sight to you, the creature can make a Wisdom saving throw. On a successful save, the effect ends for that creature.

Fearless Taunt- As a bonus action you may taunt your enemies, boiling their blood and drawing their ire and causing them to wish to engage you in melee combat. Enemies that don’t attack you have disadvantage while all melee and ranged attacks against you have advantage. You may end the taunt at any time on your turn.

Lead Through Strength- Your own bravery encourages and inspires your allies to fight on against great pain and danger. As a bonus action can you inspire all allies within a 30 foot radius from you, granting each of them 10 temporary Hit Points. A creature can't gain temporary hit points from this ability again until it finishes a short or long rest.

Battle Orders- As a member of a warrior tribe, you have learned to provide inspiration to those around you and give insight in the heat of battle. As a bonus action you can direct your allies in battle, giving all allies that can see and hear advantage on one attack roll until the start of your next turn.

Shout- You let out a warning to those around you of impending danger. As a reaction whenever the DM calls for a saving throw, you may use your reaction to give all allies that can hear you advantage on one saving throw until the beginning of your next turn.

Grim Ward- You present your enemies with a totem you have made from the corpse of an enemy, causing them to reconsider their course of action, afraid to be the first to meet their death at your hand. As a bonus action you challenge your foes with a grim talisman causing all enemies within a 30 foot radius that can see you to make a Wisdom saving throw or have their speed reduced to 0 until the start of your next turn.

Battle Cry- In the height of your rage you let out an unsettling roar. When raging and when your current Hit Points are equal to or less than half of your Max Hit Points, you may use a bonus action to let out a Battle Cry. Each adjacent enemy must make a Wisdom saving throw or be stunned until the end of their next turn.

Whirlwind- When whipped up into a frenzied rage, you become a whirling mass of muscle and weapon, cutting through your enemies in moments. When raging, as an action you attack your foes with vicious fury. Your movement this round is not prevented by enemy creatures of large or smaller size and you ignore the effects of difficult terrain. You make 1 melee attack roll and compare it against the dexterity save of each enemy that you move through or move adjacent to at any time during your turn. On a successful save the creature takes half damage. On a failed save they take full damage.

[Battlebooze]

I think there should be a few heavy one handed weapons, but not a feat to wield two handed weapons with one hand.


Not that the small races don't get punished enough as it is, mind you. So I really don't care.

[suplee215]

even without dual wielding you can gain the benefit of GWM (yes, feats are optional, now show me the game where feats are not allowed) with a one handed weapon allows a shield (shield master combined with GWM is scary), dueling fighting style and other abuses.

[Laurefindel]

even without dual wielding you can gain the benefit of GWM (yes, feats are optional, now show me the game where feats are not allowed) with a one handed weapon allows a shield (shield master combined with GWM is scary), dueling fighting style and other abuses.

Yeah, I'd be afraid of dueling+GWM+magic shield+SM too.

[Arkhios]

Allowing one handed heavy weapons would be the level of power creep I hope WotC never goes to.

[Dudewithknives]

Allowing one handed heavy weapons would be the level of power creep I hope WotC never goes to.

They won't, that would be almost exclusively a martial power boost, so they wouldn't care enough.

I mean just look at all the new weapons, fighting styles, weapon based feats, and feats that are martial class specific, that they made official... oh wait.

[Easy_Lee]

Allowing players to use GWM with a one-handed weapon? Wouldn't that be basically the same as sharpshooter + crossbow expert with a hand crossbow? A fighter doing this would still be less powerful than a GWM bear barbarian, so I don't see a problem.

[Arkhios]

They won't, that would be almost exclusively a martial power boost, so they wouldn't care enough.

I mean just look at all the new weapons, fighting styles, weapon based feats, and feats that are martial class specific, that they made official... oh wait.

I'm not sure whether you'd want it to happen or not.

I really don't, and here's why: every single guide and/or suggestion out there already assumes that should someone wish to make a martial (melee) character and, provided they have the proficiency, they should, without second thoughts, take a heavy two-handed weapon and GWM as soon as possible (or, alternatively, PAM, but that's another issue), as if there was no other choice. Allowing - or creating - one-handed heavy weapons would make GWM even more mandatory feat, if possible, for just about everyone, except for rogues.

[suplee215]

Allowing players to use GWM with a one-handed weapon? Wouldn't that be basically the same as sharpshooter + crossbow expert with a hand crossbow? A fighter doing this would still be less powerful than a GWM bear barbarian, so I don't see a problem.

Hand Crossbow requires a free hand to load it so you do not get to use a shield and their is no dueling for it plus there is no way to use Shield Master to knock them down and then use sharpshooter with advantage when they are down.

[Easy_Lee]

Hand Crossbow requires a free hand to load it so you do not get to use a shield and their is no dueling for it plus there is no way to use Shield Master to knock them down and then use sharpshooter with advantage when they are down.

Crossbow is at range where you don't need the extra AC, and if you use your bonus action to shove the target prone then that's one less attack.

[Laurefindel]

Crossbow is at range where you don't need the extra AC, and if you use your bonus action to shove the target prone then that's one less attack.

Yeah, some have pointed out that Sharpshooter + crossbow mastery was a powerful combo from the get go, but otherwise the three melee styles (TWF, 2-H and sword&board) are more or less equivalent. (TWF struggles with bonus action economy but in terms of damage it's not far off from what I understand)

It is based on the fact that the three combat styles (TWF, 2-H, dueling) as well as the three "combat style feats" (Dual Wielder, GWM and Shield Master) are mutually exclusive. Granting the heavy quality to a 1-handed weapon throws that out the window.

[suplee215]

Crossbow is at range where you don't need the extra AC, and if you use your bonus action to shove the target prone then that's one less attack.

Give up 1 attack for 2-4 attacks with advantage with GWM. worth it.

[Willie the Duck]

As a DM who is not afraid of making, "and you know what I mean" kind of rulings, I could see granting a feat which allowed you to treat a heavy 2H weapon as a 1H weapon... but only if you were specifically cut off from any kind of rules insanity that incurred. So you could get your 2d6 damage 1H weapon, but no you couldn't be doing shield master tripping and then GWM -5/+10, or whatever you could do with 1H halberds and PAM or whatnot.

[Easy_Lee]

Yeah, some have pointed out that Sharpshooter + crossbow mastery was a powerful combo from the get go, but otherwise the three melee styles (TWF, 2-H and sword&board) are more or less equivalent. (TWF struggles with bonus action economy but in terms of damage it's not far off from what I understand)

It is based on the fact that the three combat styles (TWF, 2-H, dueling) as well as the three "combat style feats" (Dual Wielder, GWM and Shield Master) are mutually exclusive. Granting the heavy quality to a 1-handed weapon throws that out the window.

GWM already throws it out the window. GWM is far ahead of the other two in terms of damage, particularly when combined with polearm mastery. Crossbow Expert + Sharpshooter is similarly far ahead. Shield Mastery + Dueling does significantly less damage but adds defensive capabilities, can work well with the party, and is still ahead of TWF for damage.

TWF + GWM with heavy one-handed weapons would enable TWF to catch up to GWM + PM a bit, though it would then fall behind GWM + Shield Master for overall usefulness.

[Joe the Rat]

On Monkey Grips: Dual wielding, damage/ac balance, Yet Another Feat tax.
Now something I've seen before is the idea of a Versatile+ feat - using the two-handed damage of a versatile weapon. This is less troublesome, but not the droid you are looking for.

Barring homebrews, has anybody had to adjudicate someone swinging a two-handed weapon one-handed? That might give you a start point. I'm guessing we'd have some mix of

Not Possible
At Disadvantage
No Proficiency
No stat bonus to damage
Reduced damage die

A feat could remove some, but not all of the drawbacks.
My first blush would be to offer a feat that lets you Versatile a two-handed weapon - you can use it one-handed as a 1d8 or 1 die smaller (whichever is lower) weapon. Another option (possibly in the same feat) might be to allow you to ignore the Heavy property of melee weapons - letting the halfling mauler work at full efficiency, at the cost of... er, not being able to take a -5 to hit for +10 to damage. This might be a decent workaround for Kensei Glaive wielders.


One Handed Heavy: Y'all know Heavy.. sorry, heavy is not just about weight, right? Yeah, heavy weapons are on the higher end of the masses, but they are not exclusive.
It's a misnomer, like concentration*. Heavy means "can't be used effectively by Small creatures," and "activates a feat feature for melee weapons," with "limits attack stat-swapping class features" as an addendum. It's more like "bulky" or "great" - something to reflect a weird weapon balance, or that it takes a certain amount of body mass, armspan, or floor clearance to use effectively (I'd use Large as a descriptor, but that will confound with creature size and upscaled weapons).

A one-handed Heavy would be something that an adult human could wield effectively one-handed, but someone in the 3 foot tall and 30-50 pound range would be at Disadvantage, and two hands wouldn't help the little guy (unless you make that a special trait). The Lance is probably closest to qualifying for this - the idea being the overall length being difficult to balance given the shorter reach and stature of a gnome or halfling - one or two handed.


Concentration isn't standing stock still making weird faces like you're trying to exorcise a demon or work through the excessive amount of mashed potatoes you ate last week. It's keeping an active feed of attention and energy to a spell. It's more like humming, or balancing something on your head. I've had to explain to casters repeatedly that they can do pretty much anything they want, other than cast another "concentration" spell. Personally, I'd have called it a "channel" spell - you are maintaining an active channel

[KorvinStarmast]

Allowing one handed heavy weapons would be the level of power creep I hope WotC never goes to. I see it as added complexity without added value. Agree with you here.

[Lombra]

If you don't want GWM to apply to one handed heavy weapons simply rewrite GWM including that the weapon must be wielded with two hands in order to get the benefits of it.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Without GWM coming into play, there are two possible outcomes: weapon-and-shield (about +2 damage compared to normal), or dual wielding (about +2 damage/weapon above what Dual Wielder allows). That's about an ASI's worth; +2 damage instead of +1 attack/+1 dmg. Probably fine. Make it a feat with some ribbon ability and note that it can't be used with the fighting style or GWM and you're good to go.

And the feat plus GWM doesn't seem THAT bad either. It gives more sword-and-board an opportunity to get their -5/+10 in, and it means you're NOT getting an extra attack or two in with Polearm Master.

It's really only when you add Shield Master or Dual Wielder that things start getting scary. But even then... That's a huge investment. A bonus action for potential Advantage? Barbarian 2 gets that guaranteed. And TWF both needs the help at the upper range, AND is competing with the added AoO potential if Polearm Master.

As for feat tax... no more than any other weapon-specific feat. All shield users will want Shield Master. All archers will want Sharpshooter. So no real loss there.

So... I think it's a fair feat and, as usual, people are panicking unduly about change?