Does your character always use same weapon type?

[Temperjoke]

Just a curious thought, do you folks like to have your characters stick to one signature type of weapon whenever possible, or do you change out weapons on the regular? I mean, I understand when you get a magic weapon going with that instead of your preferred weapon, but outside of that, what do you guys prefer?

[mephnick]

In the past I preferred to play martial characters that were masters of various weapon styles..but 5e kind of made that pointless.

[DarkKnightJin]

My Cleric has swapped his Scythe (Halberd) for a Frost Brand Longsword recently.

My Eldritch Knight has mostly stuck to his Sword and Board style, but that's more because it's a Charge Blade in development by himself, so he needs to test it in the field to check what needs improving.

[ImproperJustice]

I want to say that I employ a variety of weapon styles bud the mechanics generally seem to work against that.

Although, I have seen two Monks, a Rogue, and a Champion that alternated close combat with bows and did pretty well for themselves.

[Crgaston]

My characters tend to have a short sword or scimitar, a bow or sling, few daggers and maybe a whip and will switch out as the situation dictates.

[mephnick]

I do still try to make real switch hitters. Not the lame cheap 5e DEX or CHA way, but the real STR/DEX way.

[BloodSnake'sCha]

Most of my martial characters have: one weapon on each leg, one on the back and a lot in the belt, armor straps and more.

My correct haxblade blade warlock change is weapon every fight.
Last fight we hired 6 fighters and used them as meat shields as I used a heavy crossbow.

[SleepIncarnate]

I like to have at least one melee and one ranged weapon on hand at all times. Sometimes throwing weapons as well.

Like the bard I'm playing right now just picked up a rapier for her melee weapon (we started with nothing as we were prisoners on a slaver ship, and ended up with simple weapons after we escaped), but sticks to a light crossbow as her main ranged weapon. She also has a habit of picking up a dagger from every fight she can. They could be used for throwing, and were her go to melee before the rapier, but are now mostly her version of the bag of silverware for when she gets the animate object spell later on.

For a pure blaster caster, I probably wouldn't bother with a weapon at all.

[JakOfAllTirades]

The Improved Pact Weapon invocation makes switching weapons easy and fun.

[Willie the Duck]

Whenever I can, I try to make my martial types as Str+Dex characters with defensive fighting style (if they get fighting styles), explicitly so that I can switch it up as I find different weapons (and armor, for that matter). Also because the rest of my gaming groups do not follow suit, so if we get the +X halberd, rapier, longbow, or hand crossbow they specialize in, I'll be fine with the random +X+1 tridents and short swords.

It is frustrating that the game rules make specializing a really optimal way of doing things (defensive fighting style is a clear winner, but Shield Master, PAM, SS, CE and GWM feats are such top-of-the-line feats that it is really tempting to dedicate oneself to sword and board, polearm, hand crossbow, bow, or two-hander fighting).

[Mortis_Elrod]

I tend to not pick up the weapon related feats because it discourages switching out weapons. All of my rangers and most of my monks have had multiple weapons they use on them at all times. Casters not so much but switching cantrips is about the same though my lizardfolk death cleric switches from bites, cantrips, and sickle.

Pact of the Blade should be switched out whenevr you want. Best weapon in the phb for this very reason, and its only beaten by improved pact weapon invocation.

[Helliquin]

My ranger/monk/rogue uses a long bow or a short sword and fists.

The Monk thing makes him a bit limited so doubt I’d use a magic weapon if it didn’t fit the guidelines.

[Jinxed_K]

My characters usually tend to stick with the same type of weapon throughout their adventuring careers, usually linked to their background. Makes for an easily identifiable quirk at the table and in the narrative. It also helped that I had a GM that was willing to work to fit some of these in.

For example...
A country boy who excelled at hunting mundane critters with a bow becomes a paladin after a holy vision. He prefers bows over swords/polearms. (GM also houseruled smites work on ranged and not melee for this character)
A Paladin who grew up in a mining/logging town before moving to the city. They prefer axes/hammers over swords and stood out when they were assembled with the other fighters/paladins in the city who were taught to use swords.
A monk who excelled in culinary arts in addition to martial arts was travelling to seek out unique and exotic ingredients not found in her homeland. She had a wok that counted as a monk weapon and also benefited from ki empowered strikes and regularly used as part of her martial arts attacks. (GM houserule, this character couldn't benefit from any other default monk weapons). It was pretty funny when they were hitting incorporeal enemies and overcoming damage resistance with a cooking utensil.

[Mr.Spastic]

The problem is that a lot of the mechanics of the classes push you to use one type of weapon. The biggest offender is fighting styles. Another really big offender is the fact that most magic weapons are swords. Flame Tongue, Frost Brand, Luck Blade, Dancing Blade, and Nine Lives Stealer to name a few. This encourages people to take the typical "Sword and Board" style of play. This isn't a super bad thing because one handed weapons still have a variety of fun options like war picks and whips.

In more specific cases many classes try to force those roles onto the characters. Monks tend to go with a quarter staff or spear because it provides the most damage. Kensei monks are locked into one handed weapons as their melee choices(but also have ranged choices so it is not the bad). Rangers are generally stigmatized as archers and several of their spells back that up. Fighters have the Arcane Archer subclass(which is horrible, if you want an arcane archer just pick an Eldritch Knight with archery). Barbarians have lent themselves to greataxes because of their brutal critical.

The other problem is with your stats. Most people don't have both a high strength and dexterity. The only thing that gets around this is Pact of the Blade Hexblade Warlocks with Improved Pact Weapon. Kensei Monks also skirt around this problem but because you have to pick specific weapons it tends to lock you into place.

In short, as others have said in more general terms, the game just tends to push you into singular combat roles and fighting styles.

[KorvinStarmast]

Just a curious thought, do you folks like to have your characters stick to one signature type of weapon whenever possible, or do you change out weapons on the regular? I mean, I understand when you get a magic weapon going with that instead of your preferred weapon, but outside of that, what do you guys prefer? I have a champion fighter with a cursed longsword. He gets disadvantage if he attacks with any other weapon. I have a deal with the DM to keep RPing this, that he loves his sword per the item description, until one of the other players grasps what is going on. So far, none of the clues have reached the "aha" moment for any of the other players. So, all I use is my long sword. My other characters tend to mix and match.

[Pex]

I'll stick with the same weapon until such a combat the type of damage matters.

[GlenSmash!]

My current Barb favors the Greatsword, but I constantly throw Javelins. It's better to make an attack that's not great than lose Rage.

I just picked up a Longbow so I'll have even more options in that regard.

[Laserlight]

Each of my characters has a default weapon for melee, and for ranged. That's not to say they don't have other options--my Tempest cleric's defaults are rapier and longbow, but she has also has a whip, short sword, and several daggers--but they don't use the backup weapons except in special circumstances.

[Corran]

No, I variate the weapon set up of my characters a lot, usually influenced by an image I will find on the internet which I think is cool. But my backup weapon is usually a dagger. And here there is a pattern. My good aligned characters carry 1 dagger, my neutral characters have 2 daggers, and my evil characters have 3 daggers.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

My Bard has one of them Oath Bows. Its supermagical once per day and then semi-standard if that makes sense.

The dagger and silvered rapier haven't been used in awhile but I did make an attempt at getting a poisoned dagger.

Mostly its the bow and some spell. There is variation there and I've even used Vicious Mockery a bit lately for my damage cantrip now that its a whopping 2D4 lol. The disadvantage is a big deal and we've had a couple enemies who we wanted to surrender so ridiculing them and letting the DM know their next attack would suck seemed appropriate.

[lunaticfringe]

My first rogue would swap his weapons around in combat quite a bit. Shortbow, shortsword, rapier, darts & daggers. It was fun but generally I just stick to 1 ranged option, 1 melee option.

[solidork]

My current character is a Fighter/Warlock that uses Shillelagh, so he's gotta use a club or a quarterstaff. I just found a Staff of Thunder and Lightning, so I don't anticipate upgrading anytime soon.

[Xihirli]

I’m currently running a Battlemaster Fighter. I wanted her to be deadly with any weapon she picked up, so she took the Defense Fighting Style.
The first magic weapon we found was a greatsword so she’s mostly been using that.

[Mad Max]

I like to run as a switch-hitter when I play martials. That typically means a greatsword and a longbow or crossbow. It's not exactly optimized, but it's fun to use, and was a bit better in pathfinder.

For me, the order of melee weapons in terms of personal preference is: Swords = Axes > Spears > Hammers, and for ranged weapons it's Bows > Slings > Crossbows > Javelins.

[GlenSmash!]

I like to run as a switch-hitter when I play martials. That typically means a greatsword and a longbow or crossbow. It's not exactly optimized, but it's fun to use, and was a bit better in pathfinder.

For me, the order of melee weapons in terms of personal preference is: Swords = Axes > Spears > Hammers, and for ranged weapons it's Bows > Slings > Crossbows > Javelins.

Greatsword/Longbow or Longsword/Longbow is my favorite kind of character.

[Sception]

Most of my characters stick to a default weapon despite carrying an entire arsenal. My last rogue/wizard carried a rapier, a short sword, a blackjack (homebrew finesse club), two scimitars, 2 or more daggers, a half dozen throwing stars (darts), a whip, a shortbow, and a quiver of arrows at all times, but over the entire campaign I think he only ever attacked with the rapier and maybe the short bow once or twice. My last sword & board conqueror carried a longsword, a mornings star, and a flail to have all three damage type options, plus a whip for when reach was relevant, and a few javelins for when melee was impossible. He actually switched between them a fair bit, until he picked up a magic longsword, after which the rest mostly went unused.