One D&D’s New Weapon Table And Masteries Revealed
One of the big changes for One D&D will be the way that weapons work. Here’s a look at what that may look like in the new weapon table.
At the D&D Creator Summit, folks got a glimpse of changes in store for the upcoming 2024 PHB and the other associated books. Including a bit of hope for Fighters and other martial types. One of the upcoming changes is to the way weapons work.
As we learned, all weapons will come with a new option called a “Weapon Mastery” which is sort of like an extra ability that you can add on to any attack. It’s a neat concept, and from the look of things, it appears to take inspiration from things like the Bludgeoner, Slasher, and Piercer feats from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything.
The new weapon table was revealed via Indestructoboy on Twitter, take a look below.
One D&D’s New Weapon Table – Kinda Like Feats For All
New weapon tables from the future UA pic.twitter.com/Dp8C6JPqf5
— Taron "Indestructoboy" Pounds (@Indestructoboy) April 4, 2023
Here’s a closer look at the table. Part one:
And here’s part two, for those of you worried about where the whip went to:
As you can see, there’s a new column and in it lurk nine new abilities:
- Slow
- Nick
- Push
- Puncture
- Sap
- Flex
- Cleave
- Graze
- Topple
From the Creator Summit, we know that these abilities are unlocked by the Warrior class group. So only Warriors (which right now is the Fighter, Rogue, and Monk) can access them, though I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a way for Paladins or Rangers to get to them either, since they can take Warrior group features.
We also know how some of these work. Slow is obvious enough, reduces enemy speed. Puncture lets you gain advantage on the next attack against the target. Flex lets you do the weapon’s versatile damage with one hand, so Fighters no longer have to choose between 1d8 or 1d10 when sword and boarding it with a longsword. Cleave lets you deal damage to more than one target, Topple is a trip, Push does what it says on the tin, and Graze is a return from 4th Edition: deal some damage on a miss.
The only disappointing feature here is Nick, which lets you make an offhand attack without a bonus action, because that means WotC is going to go back to the old, bad ways of two weapon fighting.
As for sap, since it’s on weapons like the mace and flail, maybe it inflicts disadvantage on attacks, but we don’t know for sure about that one.
All these new weapon masteries await in One D&D. What do you think so far?
