Monster Manuel
2023-05-04, 04:49 PM
The interaction between the two-weapon fighting capabilities that the Light weapon property provides is great, in theory and on paper, but it seems confusing and cumbersome in practice. It also results in some weird interactions with the Weapon Mastery properties that I'm trying wrap my head around.
The Light weapon property from the playtest:
When you take the Attack action on your turn and attack with a Light weapon, you can make one extra attack as a Bonus Action later on the same turn. That extra attack must be made with a different Light weapon
Doesn't explicitly mention hands, but otherwise pretty much in line with the current two-weapon fighting rules.
It gets weird once you bring the Nick Mastery Property into play. Here's the wording on the Nick mastery property:
When you make the extra attack of the Light property, you can make it as part of the Attack action, instead of as a Bonus Action.
So, which weapon drives the triggering of the property? Let's say a fighter is armed with a scimitar (light, Nick), and a handaxe (light, Vex). Based just on the properties, if they attack with the scimitar (a light weapon), they can use their bonus action to attack with the handaxe (another light weapon). If that fighter has the Nick mastery, then when they attack with the Nick-type scimitar they can make the bonus attack with the handaxe for free as part of the attack. This all tracks, I think. But what if he attacks with the handaxe, instead, which has the Vex mastery property? He can still make an extra attack as a bonus action, because they're both light weapons, but will he still be able to make the extra attack with the scimitar for free as part of that attack, instead of as a bonus action? The attack was made with a Vex weapon, so it's the Vex weapon mastery that would apply here. But he's ALSO attacking with the Scimitar, which has Nick, when he makes the extra attack based on the Light property, which is what triggers the Nick ability to make that attack as part of the triggering attack. Which was not made with a Nick weapon.
It's the kind of head-spinning circular logic that needs to get worked out during the playtest, because it takes a potentially great feature and makes it a bit of a mess.
TL:DR, In order to proc the free attack from the Nick Weapon mastery feature, is it the weapon used to make the initial attack that needs to have Nick, or the weapon used to make the extra attack that needs to have Nick? Or does it even matter?
Also, if Nick still triggers when made with the extra off-hand attack, it means that if a rogue has mastery in both Vex and Nick, they can attack with the Vex weapon and hit, granting advantage on their next attack roll before the end of their next turn, which could be the free attack with the Nick weapon, which then gets sneak attack, because Vex grants advantage. Yes?
The Light weapon property from the playtest:
When you take the Attack action on your turn and attack with a Light weapon, you can make one extra attack as a Bonus Action later on the same turn. That extra attack must be made with a different Light weapon
Doesn't explicitly mention hands, but otherwise pretty much in line with the current two-weapon fighting rules.
It gets weird once you bring the Nick Mastery Property into play. Here's the wording on the Nick mastery property:
When you make the extra attack of the Light property, you can make it as part of the Attack action, instead of as a Bonus Action.
So, which weapon drives the triggering of the property? Let's say a fighter is armed with a scimitar (light, Nick), and a handaxe (light, Vex). Based just on the properties, if they attack with the scimitar (a light weapon), they can use their bonus action to attack with the handaxe (another light weapon). If that fighter has the Nick mastery, then when they attack with the Nick-type scimitar they can make the bonus attack with the handaxe for free as part of the attack. This all tracks, I think. But what if he attacks with the handaxe, instead, which has the Vex mastery property? He can still make an extra attack as a bonus action, because they're both light weapons, but will he still be able to make the extra attack with the scimitar for free as part of that attack, instead of as a bonus action? The attack was made with a Vex weapon, so it's the Vex weapon mastery that would apply here. But he's ALSO attacking with the Scimitar, which has Nick, when he makes the extra attack based on the Light property, which is what triggers the Nick ability to make that attack as part of the triggering attack. Which was not made with a Nick weapon.
It's the kind of head-spinning circular logic that needs to get worked out during the playtest, because it takes a potentially great feature and makes it a bit of a mess.
TL:DR, In order to proc the free attack from the Nick Weapon mastery feature, is it the weapon used to make the initial attack that needs to have Nick, or the weapon used to make the extra attack that needs to have Nick? Or does it even matter?
Also, if Nick still triggers when made with the extra off-hand attack, it means that if a rogue has mastery in both Vex and Nick, they can attack with the Vex weapon and hit, granting advantage on their next attack roll before the end of their next turn, which could be the free attack with the Nick weapon, which then gets sneak attack, because Vex grants advantage. Yes?